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THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ISLAM 



THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ISLAM 

NEW EDITION 

PREPARED BY A NUMBER OF 
LEADING ORIENTALISTS 

EDITED BY AN EDITORIAL COMMITTEE CONSISTING OF 

H. A. R. GIBB, J. H. KRAMERS, E. LEVI-PROVENCAL, J. SCHACHT 

ASSISTED BY S. M. STERN AS SECRETARY GENERAL (pp. 1-320) 

B. LEWIS, Ch. PELLAT and J. SCHACHT 

ASSISTED BY C. DUMONT AND R. M. SAVORY AS EDITORIAL SECRETARIES 
(pp. 321-1359) 



UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF 
THE INTERNATIONAL UNION OF ACADEMIES 



VOLUME I 
A-B 

PHOTOMECHANICAL REPRINT 




LEIDEN 

E. J. BRILL 

1986 



EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

Former and present members: A. Abel, C. C. Berg, F. Gabrieli, E. GarcIa G6mez, H. A. R. Gibb, the late 

J. H. Kramers, the late E. Levi- Provencal, [G. Levi della Vida], B. Lewis, [the late E. Littmann], H. Masse, 

G. C. Miles, H. S. Nyberg, R. Paret, Ch. Pellat, J. Pedersen, [the late N. W. Posthumus], J. Schacht, 

F. C. Wieder 

Former and present associated members: H. H. Abdul Wahab, the late A. Adnan Adivar, Husain Djajadi- 

ningrat, A. A. A. Fyzee, M. Fuad KoprOlO, Ibrahim Madkour, Khalil Mardam Bey, Naji al-Asil, 

Muhammad Shafi, Hasan Taghizade, E. Tyan 

Former ana present honorary members: G. Levi della Vida; the late E. Littmann 



On THE COMPLETION OF THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE NEW EDITION OF THE 

Encyclopaedia of Islam, the Editorial Committee pays homage to the 

memory of J. H. KRAMERS and E. LEVI-PROVENCAL, members of the 

Executive and of the Editorial Committees, deceased in 1951 and 

in 1956 respectively. 



1st edition i960 
reprinted 1967 

reprinted 1979 



ISBN 90 04 081 14 3 

Copyright i960 by E. J. Brill, Leiden, Netherlands 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or translated 

in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm or any other means without 

written permission from the Editors 

PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS 



AUTHORS OF ARTICLES IN THIS VOLUME 

Names in square brackets in this list are those of authors of articles reprinted or revised from the first 
edition of this Encyclopaedia or from the Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam. 

An asterisk after the name of the author denotes those articles reprinted from the first edition which have 
been brought up to date by the Editorial Committee; where an article has been revised by a second author his 
name appears within square brackets at the end of the article after the name of the original author. 

M. Abdul Hai, University of Dacca. 

H. H. Abdul Wahab, Tunis. 

A. Abel, University of Brussels. 

A. Adam, Institut des Hautes-Etudes Marocaines, 

Rabat. 
the late A. Adnan Adivar, Istanbul. 

F. R. Allchin, University of Cambridge. 
R. Anhegger, Istanbul. 
W. 'Arafat, University of London. 
R. R. Arat, University of Istanbul. 
A. J. Arberry, University of Cambridge. 
[C. van Arendonk, Leiden]. 

E. Ashtor, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 
J. Aubin, Institut Francais, Teheran. 

G. Awad, Baghdad. 

D. Ayalon, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 
Fr. Babinger, University of Munich. 

F. Bajraktarevic, University of Belgrade. 
J. M. S. Baljon Jr., Blankenham, Netherlands. - 
[W. Barthold, Leningrad]. 
[H. Basset, Rabat]. 
[R. Basset, Algiers]. 

A. Bausani, Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples. 
M. Cavid Baysun, University of Istanbul. 
L. BaziN, Ecole des Langues orientates, Paris. 
A. S. Bazmee Ansari, Karachi. 
S. de Beaurecueil, Cairo. 
[C. H. Becker, Berlin]. 

C. F. Beckingham, University of Manchester. 
A. F. L. Beeston, University of Oxford. 
[A. Bel, Tlemcen]. 
N. Beldiceanu, Paris. 
[M. Ben Cheneb, Algiers]. 
A. Bennigsen, Paris. 

C. C. Berg, University of Leiden. 
S. van den Bergh, London. 
J. Berque, College de France, Paris. 
W. Bjorkman, Uppsala. 
R. Blachere, University of Paris. 
[J. F. Blumhardt, London], 
[Tj. de Boer, Amsterdam]. 

D. J. Boilot, Cairo. 

S. A. Bonebakker, University of Leiden. 
C. E. Bosworth, University of St. Andrews. 
G.-H. Bousquet, University of Algiers. 
the late H. Bowen, University of London. 
J. A. Boyle, University of Manchester. 
H. W. Brands, Fulda. 
W. Braune, Free University of Berlin. 
[C. Brockelmann, Halle]. 
R. Brunschvig, University of Paris. 
[F. Buhl, Copenhagen]. 
J. Burton-Page, University of London. 
A. Cafero&lu, University of Istanbul. 
Cl. Cahen, University of Paris. 
M. Canard, University of Algiers. 
R. Capot-Rey, University of Algiers. 
[B. Carra de Vaux, Paris]. 
M me H. Carrere d'Encausse, Paris. 



W. Cask'el, University of Cologne. 
~ Cerulli, Rome. 

Chailley, Bamako. 
Chafik Chehata, University of Cairo. 

L. M. Clauson, London. 

S. Colin, Ecole des Langues Orientates, Paris. 

Colombe, Ecole des Langues Orientates, Paris. 
C. S. Coon, University of Pennsylvania. 
Ph. de Cosse-Brissac, Paris. 

J. Coulson, University of London. 
. Cour, Constantine]. 

A. C. Creswell, American University, Cairo. 

Cruz Hernandez, University of Salamanca. 

H. Dani, University of Dacca. 

David-Weill, Ecole du Louvre, Paris. 

Collin Davies, University of Oxford. 

Decei, University of Istanbul. 

Deny, Ecole des Langues Orientates, Paris. 

Despois, University of Paris. 

Dietrich, University of Gottingen. 

Djurdjev, University of Sarajevo. 

Dresch, University of Paris. 

E. Dubler, University of Zurich. 

W. Duda, University of Vienna. 

M. Dunlop, University of Cambridge. 

A. Duri, University of Baghdad. 
Saleh A. El-Ali, University of Baghdad. 

Elfenbein, London. 

Elgood, El-Obeid, Sudan. 

Elisseeff, Institut Francais, Damascus. 

Emerit, University of Algiers. 

Enamul Haq, Bengali Academy, Dacca. 

Ettinghausen, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington. 

G. Farmer, Glasgow. 

Faublee, ficole des Langues orientates, Paris. 

Fekete, University of Budapest. 

Fleisch, Universite St.-Joseph, Beirut. 

N. Frye, Harvard University. 

W. Fuck, University of Halle. 

A. A. Fyzee, University of Jammu and Kashmir, 

Gabrieli, University of Rome. 

Galand, Ecole des Langues orientates, Paris. 
oe P. Galand-Pernet. Paris. 

Garcia G6mez, University of Madrid. 

Gardet, Paris. 

L. Geddes. American University, Cairo. 

Ghirshman, Institut Francais, Teheran. 

A. Ghul, University of St. Andrews. 
A. R. Gibb, Harvard University. 

Giese, Breslau]. 

Glazer, Washington. 

W. Glidden, Washington. 



Glue 



c, Cincii 



D. Goitein, University of Pennsylvania. 
Tayyib Gokbilgin, University of Istanbul. 
Goldziher, Budapest]. 
L. Gottschalk, University of Vienna. 
Graf, University of Cologne. 
Grohmann, University of Cairo. 



A. Guillaume, University of London. 

Mohammad Habib, Muslim University, Aligarh. 

G. Lankester Harding, Amman. 

[A. Haffner, Vienna]. 

P. Hardy, University of London. 

J. B. Harrison, School of Oriental and African 

Studies, London. 
[R. Hartmann, Deutsche Akademie, Berlin]. 
W. Hartner, University of Frankfurt. 
L. P. Harvey, Oxford. 
R. L. Headley, Dhahran. 
[J. Hell, Erlangen]. 
[B. Heller, Budapest]. 
[E. Herzfeld, Chicago]. 
U. Heyd, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 
R. L. Hill, University of Durham. 
S. Hillelson, London. 
Hilmy Ahmad, University of Cairo. 
M. G. S. Hodgson, University of Chicago. 
W. Hoenerbach, University of California, Los 

Angeles. 
P. M. Holt, University of London. 
[E. Honigmann, Brussels]. 
[P. Horn, Strasbourg). 
[J. Horovitz, Frankfurt]. 

F. Hours, Beirut. 

[M. Th. Hootsma, Utrecht]. 

I.'Hrbek, Oriental Institute, Prague. 

[Cl. Huart, Paris]. 

A. Huici Miranda, Valencia. 

A. J. W. Huisman, Leiden. 

G. W. B. Hontingford, University of London. 
H. R. Idris, University of Algiers. 

Haul Inalcik, University of Ankara. 

Sh. Inayatollah, University of the Panjab, Lahore. 

[W. Irvine]. 

Fahir tz, University of Istanbul. 

the late A. Jeffery, Columbia University, New York. 

J. Jomier, Cairo. 

J. M. B. Jones, School of Oriental and African 

Studies, London. 
[Th. W. Juynboll, Utrecht]. 
E. Z. Karal, University of Ankara. 
Irfan Kawar, University of California, Los Angeles. 
the late R. A. Kern, University of Leiden. 
M. Khalafallah, University of Alexandria. 
W. A. S. Khalidi, American University, Beirut. 
H. Kindermann, University of Cologne. 
H. J. Kissling, University of Munich. 
M. J. Kister, Haifa. 
L. Kopf, Jerusalem. 
M. Fuad Koprulu, Ankara. 
[T. Kowalski, Cracow]. 
J. Kraemer, University of Erlangen. 
R. F. Kreutel, Vienna. 
Kasim Kofrevi, Ankara. 
E. KOhnel, Free University of Berlin. 

E. Koran, Istanbul. 

F. Kussmaul, Stuttgart. 

Miss A. K. S. Lambton, University of London. 

C. J. Lamm, Oregrund, Sweden. 
[H. Lammens, Beirut]. 

J. M. Landau, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 

D. M. Lang, University of London. 
H. Laoust, College de France, Paris. 

J. D. Latham, University of Manchester. 

J. Lecerf, Ecole des Langues orientales, Paris. 

M me Ch. Le Oeur, Paris. 

R. Le Tourneau, University of Aix-Marseilles. 

the late E. Levi-Provencal, University of Paris. 

R. Levy, University of Cambridge. 

T. Lf.wicki, University of Cracow. 



B. Lewin, University of Gothenburg. 

B. Lewis, University of London. 
G. L. Lewis, University of Oxford. 
I. M. Lewis, Hargeisa, Somaliland. 

the late E. Littmann, University of Tubingen. 

L. Lockhart, University of Cambridge. 

O. Lofgren, University of Uppsala. 

Sh. T. Lokhandwalla, University of Edinburgh. 

F. Lokkegaard, University of Copenhagen. 
S. H. Longrigg, London. 

[M. Longworth Dames, Guildford]. 

H. Louis, University of Munich. 

R. J. McCarthy, Al-Hikma University, Baghdad. 

[D. B. Macdonald, Hartford, Conn.] 

D. N. Mackenzie, School of Oriental and African 

Studies, London. 
A. J. Mango, London. 
S. E. Mann, University of London. 
R. Mantran, University of Tunis. 
S. Maqbul Ahmad, Muslim University, Aligarh. 

G. Marcais, University of Algiers. 
Ph. Marcais, University of Algiers. 

the late W. Marcais, College de France, Paris. 

[D. S. Margoliouth, Oxford]. 

M" E. Marin, New York. 

H. Masse, Ecole des Langues orientales, Paris. 

L. Massignon, College de France, Paris. 

C. D. Matthews, Dhahran. 

F. Meier, University of Basle. 
M me I. Melikoff, Paris. 

V. Melkonian, Basra. 

V. L. Menage, School of Oriental and African Studies, 
London. 

G. Meredith-Owens, British Museum, London. 
[M. Meyerhof, Cairo]. 

G. C. Miles, New York. 

J. M. Millas, University of Barcelona. 

V. Minorsky, University of London. 

[E. Mittwoch, London]. 

[J. H. Mordtmann, Berlin]. 

G. Morgenstierne, University of Oslo. 

S. Moscati, University of Rome. 

[A. de Motylinski, Constantine]. 

H. C. Mueller, Dhahran. 

W. E. Mulligan, Dhahran. 

the late S. F. Nadel, Australian National University, 

Canberra. 
Albert N. Nader, Beirut. 

ity of Teheran. 



[C. , 



. Nal 



ne]. 



M lle M. Nallino, University of Rome. 

B. Nikitine, Paris. 

K. A. Nizami, Muslim University, Aligarh. 

M. Nizamuddin, Osmania University, Hyderabad. 

J. Noorduyn, Oegstgeest, Netherlands. 

S. Nurul Hasan, Muslim University, Aligarh. 

H. S. Nyberg, University of Uppsala. 

[C. A. van Ophuyzen, Leiden]. 

S. d'Otton Loyewski, Paris. 

R. Paret, University of Tubingen. 

V. J. Parry, School of Oriental and African Studies, 
London. 

J. D. Pearson, School of Oriental and African Stu- 
dies, London. 

J. Pedersen, University of Copenhagen. 

Ch. Pellat, University of Paris. 

H. Peres, University of Algiers. 

K. Petracek, University of Prague. 

A. J. Piekaar, The Hague. 

R. Pinder-Wilson, British Museum, London. 

S. Pines, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 

M. Plessner, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 



W. Popper, University of California, Berkeley. 

J. Prins, University of Utrecht. 

O. Pritsak, University of Hamburg. 

M ue Ch. Quelquejay, Paris. 

C. Rabin, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 

F. Rahman, McGill University, Montreal. 
[H. Reckendorf, Freiburg i. Br.]. 
H. A. Reed, Moorestown, N. J., U.S.A. 

G. Rentz, Dhahran. 
[N. Rhodokanakis, Graz.]. 
R. Ricard, University of Paris. 
J. Rikabi, University of Damascus 
H. Ritter, University of Frankfurt. 
J. Robson, University of Manchester. 
M. Rodinson, Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris. 

F. Rosenthal, Yale University. 
the late E. Rossi, University of Rome. 
R. Rubinacci, Istituto Universitario Orientale, 

Naples. 
[J. Ruska, Heidelberg]. 

A. J. Rustum, University of Beirut. 
J. Rypka, University of Prague. 

Ch. Samaran, Institut des Hautes Etudes, Tunis. 

T. Sarnelli, Rome. 

R. M. Savory, School of Oriental and African Studies, 

London. 
[A. Schaade, Hamburg]. 
J. Schacht, Columbia University, New York. 
[J. Schleifer]. 
[M. Schmitz]. 

Bedi N. Sehsuvaroglu, University of Istanbul. 
[M. Seligsohn]. 
[C. F. Seybold, Tubingen]. 

Muhammed Shafi, University of the Panjab, Lahore. 
Stanford J. Shaw, Harvard University. 

G. E. Shayyal, University of Alexandria. 
H. K. Sherwani, Hyderabad, India. 

D. Sinor, University of Cambridge. 
Miss Margaret Smith, London. 

W. Cantweu. Smith, McGill University, Montreal. 

H. T. Sorley, Salisbury, S. Rhodesia. 

D. Sourdel, Paris. 

M me J. Sourdel-Thomine, Ecole des Hautes Etudes, 

Paris. 
T. G. P. Spear, University of Cambridge. 

B. Spuler, University of Hamburg. 
S. M. Stern, University of Oxford. 
[M. Streck, Jena]. 



G. Strenziok, University of Cologne. 

Faruk Sumer, University of Ankara. 

[K. SOssheim, Munich]. 

[H. Suter, Zurich]. 

Fr. Taeschner, University of Munster. 

A. H. Tanpinar, University of Istanbul. 

A. N. Tarlan, University of Istanbul. 

H. Terrasse, University of Algiers. 

A. Tietze, University of California, Los Angeles. 

H. R. Tinker, University of London. 

Z. V. Togan, University of Istanbul. 

L. Torres Balbas, University of Madrid. 

J. S. Trimingham, University of Glasgow. 

A. S. Tritton, University of London. 

R. Tschudi, University of Basle. 

E. Tyan, Faculty of Law, Beirut. 

E. Ullendorf, University of Manchester. 
I. H. Uzuncarsili, University of Istanbul. 
G. Vajda, Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris. 

M me L. Veccia Vaglieri, Istituto Universitario 

Orientale, Naples. 
J. Vernet, University of Barcelona. 

F. SI Vidal, Dhahran. 

F. Vire, Digne. 
[K. Vollers, Jena]. 

G. E. Von Grunebaum, University of California, Los 

P. Voorhoeve, Leiden. 
E. Wagner, Gottingen. 
J. Walker, British Museum, London. 
J. Walsh, University of Edinburgh. 
R. Walzer, University of Oxford. 
W. Montgomery Watt, University of Edinburgh. 
H. Wehr, University of Erlangen. 
the late G. Weil, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 
[A. J. Wensinck, Leiden]. 
G. E. Wheeler, London. 
C. E. J. Whitting, London. 
[E. Wiedemann, Erlangen]. 
G. Wiet, College de France, Paris. 
,D. N. Wilber, Princeton, N.J., U.S.A. 
H. von Wissmann, University of Tubingen. 
Yar Muhammad Khan, University of Sind, Hyder- 
abad, Pakistan. 
[G. Yver, Algiers]. 

M. A. Zaki Badawi, University of Malaya. 
the late Zaky M. Hassan, Cairo. 
[K. V. Zettersteen, Uppsala]. 



ABBREVIATED TITLES 
OF SOME OF THE MOST OFTEN QUOTED WORKS 



Abu'1-Fida', Takwim = Takwim al-Buldan, ed. 

J.-T. Reinaud and M. de Slane, Paris 1840 
Abu'1-Fida', Takwim, tr. = Giographie d' Aboulfida, 

traduite de I'arabe en francais; vol. 1, II, 

1 by Reinaud, Paris 1848; vol. II, 2 by St. 

Guyard, 1883 
Aghani 1 or a or s = Abu'l-Faradj al-Isfahanl, al- 

Aghdni; 'BOlak 1285; "Cairo 1323; "Cairo 1345- 
Aghdni, Tables = Tables alphabitiques du Kildb 

al-aghdni. redigees par I. Guidi, Leiden 1900 
Aghani, Brunnow = The XXIst vol. of the Kitdb 

al-Aghdnl, cd. R. E. Brunnow, Leiden 1883 
'All Djawad = Mamdlik-i 'Othmaniyyenin ta'rikh 

wa djughrdfiyd lughdti, Istanbul 1313-17/1895-9. 
al-Anbari, Nuzha = Nuzhat al-Alibba* ji Tabakdt 

al-Udabd', Cairo 1294 
c Awfi, Lubdb = Lubdb al-Albdb, ed. E. G. Browne, 

London-Leiden 1903-1906 
Babinger = F. Babinger, Die Geschichtsschreiber der 

Osmanen und ihre Werke, 1st ed., Leiden 1927 
BaghdadI, Fark = al-Fark bayn al-Firak, ed. Mu- 
hammad Badr, Cairo 1328/1910 
Baladhuri, Futuh = Futuh al-Buldan, ed. M. J. de 

Goeje, Leiden 1866 
Baladhuri, Ansdb = Ansdb al-Ashraf, iv, v. ed. M. 

Schlossinger and S. D. F. Goitein, Jerusalem 

1936-38 
Barkan, Kanunlar = Omer Lutfi Barkan, XV ve 

XVI inci Asirlarda Osmanh Imparatorlu^unda 

Zirat Ehonominin Hukuki ve Mali Esaslan, I. 

Kanunlar, Istanbul 1943 
Barthold, Turkestan = W. Barthold, Turkestan down 

to the Mongol invasion, London 1928 (GMS, 

N.S. V) 
Barthold, Turkestan' = the same, 2nd edition, 

London 1958 
Blachere, Litt. = R. Blachere, Histoire de la Littt- 

Brockelmann, I, II = C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der 

Arabischen Literatur, zweite den Supplement- 

bandcn angepasste Auflage, Leiden 1943-49 
Brockelmann, S I, II, III = G. d. A. L., Erster 

(Zweiter, Dritter) Supplementband, Leiden 

1937-42 
Browne, i = E. G. Browne, A Literary History of 

Persia, from the earliest times until Firdawsi, 

London 1902 
Browne, ii = A Literary History of Persia, from 

Firdawsi to Sa'di, London 1908 
Browne, iii = A History of Persian Literature under 

Tartar Dominion, Cambridge 1920 
Browne, iv = A History of Persian Literature in 

Modem Times, Cambridge 1924 
Caetani, Annali = L. Caetani, Annali dell'Islam, 

Milano 1905-26 
Chauvin, Bibliographic — V. Chauvin, Bibliographic 

des ouvrages arabes et relatifs aux A robes, Lille 

1892 
pabbl = Bughyat al-Multamis fi Ta'rikh Ridfal AM 

al-Andalus, ed. F. Codera y J. Ribera, Madrid 

1885 (BAH III) 
Damlrl = Haydt al-Hayawan (quoted according to 

titles of articles) 



ed. E. G. 



Dawlatshah = Tadhkirat al-Shu'-ar 

Browne, London-Leiden 1901 
DhahabI, Huffdz = al-Dhahabi, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, 

4 vols., Hyderabad 1315 H. 
Djuwaynl = Ta'rikh-i Diihdn-eushd. ed. Muhammad 

Kazwinl, Leiden 1906-37 (GMS XVI) 
Djuwaynl-Boyle = The History of the World- 
conqueror, by 'Ata-Malik Djuwaynl, trans. J. A. 

Boyle, 2 vols., Manchester 1958 
Dozy, Notices — R. Dozy, Notices sur quelques 

manuscrits arabes, Leiden 1847-51 
Dozy, Recherches s = Recherches sur I'histoire et la 

littirature de I'Espagne pendant le moyen-dge, 

third edition, Paris and Leiden 1881 
Dozy, Suppl. = R. Dozy, Supplement aux diction- 

naires arabes, Leiden 1881 (anastatic reprint 

Leiden-Paris 1929) 
Fagnan, Extraits = E. Fagnan, Extraits inidits re- 
latifs au Maghreb, Alger 1924 
Farhang = Razmara and Nawtash, Farhang-i 

Qiughrafiya-yi Iran, Tehran 1949-1953 
Fihrist = Ibn al-Nadim, K. al-Fihrist, ed. G. Fliigel, 

Leipzig 1871-72 
Firishta = Muhammad Kasim Firishta, Gulshan-i 

Ibrdhimi, lith. Bombay 1832 
Gesch. des Qor. = Th. Noldeke, Geschichte des Qorans, 

new edition by F. Schwally, G. Bergstrasser and 

O. Pretzl, 3 vols., Leipzig 1909-38 
Gibb, Ottoman Poetry = E. J. W. Gibb, A History 

of Ottoman Poetry, London 1900-09 
Gibb-Bowen = H. A. R. Gibb and Harold Bowen, 

Islamic Society and the West, London 1950-1957 
Goldziher, Muh. St. = I. Goldziher, Muhammeda- 

nische Studien, 2 vols., Halle 1888-90 
Goldziher, Vorlesungen = I. Goldziher, Vorlesungen 

iiber den Islam, Heidelberg 1910 
Goldziher, Vorlesungen 2 = 2nded., Heidelberg 1925 
Goldziher, Dogme — Le dogme et la loi de Vislam, 

Hadidji Khalifa. Djihan-numa = Istanbul 1145/1732 
ijadidjl Khalifa = Kashf al-Zuniin, ed. S. Yaltkaya 

and Kilisli Rifat Bilge, Istanbul 1941-43 
Hadidji Khalifa, ed. Fliigel = K. al-Z-, Leipzig 

1835-58 
Hamd Allah Mustawfi, Nuzha = Nuzhat al-Kulub, 

ed. G. le Strange, Leiden 1913-19 (GMS XXIII) 
Hamdani = Sifat Djazirat al- l Arab, ed. D. H. Miiller, 

Leiden 1884-91 
Hammer-Purgstall GOR = J. von Hammer(-Purg- 

stall), Geschichte des Osmanischen Seiches, Pest 

1828-35 
Hammer-Purgstall GOR ' = the same, 2nd ed. Pest 

1840 
Hammer-Purgstall, Histoire = the same, trans, by 

J. J. Hellert, 18 vols., Bellizard [etc.], Paris 

[etc.], 1835-43 
Hammer-Purgstall, Staatsverfassung = J. von Ham- 
mer, Des Osmanischen Reichs Staatsverfassung 

und Staatsverwaltung, 2 vols., Vienna 1815 
Houtsma, Recueil — M. Th. Houtsma, Recueil des 

textes relatifs a I'histoire des Seldjoucides, Leiden 

1886-1902 



ABBREVIATED TITLES OF SOME OF THE MOST OFTEN QUOTED WORKS 



Uudud al-'Alam = The Regions of the World, transla- 
ted by V. Minorsky, London 1937 (GMS, N.S. XI) 

Ibn al-Abbar = K. Takmilat al-$ila, ed. F. Co- 
dera, Madrid 1887-89 (BHA V-VI) 

Ibn al-Athlr = K. al-Kdmil, ed. C. J. Tornberg, 
Leiden 1851-76 

Ibn al-Athlr, trad. Fagnan = Annates du Maghreb et 
de I'Espagne, tr. E. Fagnan, Algiers 1901 

Ibn Bashkuwal=ii:. al-Sila fi Akhbdr AHmmat al- 
Andalus, ed. F. Cod'era, Madrid 1883 (BHA II) 

Ibn Battuta = Voyages d'Ibn Batouta. Arabic text, 
ed. and Fr. tr. by C. Defremery and B. R. 
Sanguinetti, 4 vols., Paris 1853-58 

Ibn al-Faklh = Mukhtasar K. al-Bulddn, ed. M. J. 
De Goeje, Leiden 1886 (BGA V) 

Ibn Hawkal = K. $urat al-Ard, ed. J. H. Kramers, 
Leiden 1938-39 (BGA II, 2nd edition) 

Ibn Hisham = Sira, ed. F. Wustenfeld, Gottingen 

Ibn 'Idhari = K. al-Baydn al-Mughrib, ed. G. S. 

Colin and E. Levi-Provencal, Leiden 1948-51; 

vol. iii, ed. E. Levi-Provencal, Paris 1930 
Ibn al- c Imad, Shadhardt = Shadhardt al-Dhahab fi 

Akhbdr man dhahab, Cairo 1350-51 (quoted 

according to years of obituaries) 
Ibn Khaldun, <Ibar = K. al-'-Ibar wa-Diwdn al- 

Mubtada' wa-l-Khabar etc., Bulak 1284 
Ibn Khaldun, Mukaddima <= Proligomines d'Ebn 

Khaldoun, ed. E. Quatremere, Paris 1858-68 

(Notices et Extraits XVI-XVIII) 
(bn Khaldun-Rosenthal = The Muqaddimah, trans. 

from the Arabic by Franz Rosenthal, 3 vols., 

London 1958 
Ibn Khaldun-de Slane = Les proligomenes d'Ibn 

Khaldoun, traduits en francais et commentes 

par M. de Slane, Paris 1863-68 (anastatic reprint 

1934-38) 
Ibn Khallikan = Wafaydt al-A'ydn wa-Anbd* Abnd' 

al Zamdn, ed. F. Wustenfeld, Gottingen 1835-50 

(quoted after the numbers of biographies) 
Ibn Khallikan, Bulak = the same, ed. Bulak 1275 
Ibn Khallikan-de Slane = Kitdb Wafaydt al-A'-ydn, 

trans, by Baron MacGuckin de Slane, 4 vols. 

Paris 1842-1871 
Ibn Khurradadhbih = al-Masalik wa 'l-Mamdlik, ed. 

M. J. De Goeje, Leiden 1889 (BGA VI) 
Ibn Kutayba, al-Shi l r = Ibn Kutayba, Kitdb al- 

Shi'r wa'I-Shu'ard, ed. De Goeje, Leiden 1900 
Ibn Rusta = al-AHdk al-Nafisa, ed. M. J. De Goejf 

Leiden 1892 (BGA VII) 
Ibn Rusta-Wiet = Les Atours pricieux, traduction 

de Gaston Wiet, Cairo 1955 
Ibn Sa'd = al-Jabakdt al-kubrd, ed. H. Sachau and 

others, Leiden 1905-40 
Ibn TaghrlbirdI = al-Nudfum al-Zdhira fi Muluk 

Misr wa-l-Kdhira, ed. W. Popper, Berkeley- 
Leiden 1908-1936 
Ibn Taghribirdi, Cairo = the same, ed. Cairo 1348 ff. 
IdrisI, Maghrib = Description de I'Afrique et de 

I'Espagne, ed. R. Dozy and M. J. De Goeje, Leiden 

1866 
Idrisl-Jaubert = Geographic d'Edrisi, trad, de l'arabe 

en francais par P. Amedee Jaubert, 2 vols, 

Paris 1836-40 
I?t,akhrl = al-Masalik wa 'l-Mamdlik, ed. M. J. De 

Goeje, Leiden 1870 (BGA I) (and reprint 1927) 
Juynboll, Handbuch = Th. W. Juynboll, Handbuch 

des Isldmischen Gesetzes, Leiden 1910 
Kh w andamlr = Pabib al-Siyar, Tehran 1271 
Kutubl, Fawdt = Ibn Shakir al-Kutubl, Fawdt al- 

Wafaydt, Bulak 1299 



LA = Lisdn al-'-Arab 

Lane = E. W. Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon, 

London 1863-93 (reprint New York 1955-6) 
Lane-Poole, Cat. = S. Lane-Poole, Catalogue of 

Oriental Coins in the British Museum, 1877-90 
Lavoix, Cat. = H. Lavoix, Catalogue dts Monnaies 

Musulmanes de la Bibliothique Nationale, Paris 

1887-96 
Le Strange = G. Le Strange, The Lands of the 

Eastern Caliphate, 2nd ed., Cambridge 1930 
Le Strange, Baghdad, = G. Le Strange, Baghdad 

during the Abbasid Caliphate, Oxford 1924. 
Le Strange, Palestine = G. Le Strange, Palestine 

under the Moslems, London 1890 
Levi- Provencal, Hist.Esp. Mus. = E. Levi-Provencal, 

Histoire de I'Espagne musulmane, nouv. ed., 

Leiden-Paris 1950-53, 3 vols. 
Levi-Provencal, Chorfa = E. Levi-Provencal, Les 

Historiens des Chorfa, Paris 1922 
Makkari, Analectes = Nafh al-Tib fi Ghusn al- 

A ndalus al-Ratib (A nalectes sur V histoire et la litte- 

rature des Arabes de I'Espagne), Leiden 1855-61 
Makkari, Bulak = the same, ed. Bulak 1279/1862 
Maspero-Wiet, Materiaux = J . Maspero et G. Wiet, 

MaUriaux pour servir d la Geographie de I'Egypte, 

Le Caire 1914 (MIFAO XXXVI) 
Mas'udi, Murudi = Murudj. al-Dhahab, ed. C. Barbier 

de Meynard et Pavet de Courteille, Paris 1861-77 
Mas'udI, Tanbih = K. al-Tanbih wa-l-Ishrdf, ed. 

M. J. De Goeje, Leiden 1894 (BGA VIII) 
Mayer, Architects — L. A. Mayer, Islamic Architects 

and their Works, Geneva 1956 
Mayer, Astrolabists = L. A. Mayer, Islamic A strolabists 

and their Works, Geneva 1958 
Mayer, Metalworkers — L. A. Mayer, Islamic Metal- 
workers and their Works, Geneva 1959 
Mayer, Woodcarvers = L. A. Mayer, Islamic Wood- 
carvers and their Works, Geneva 1958 
Mez, Renaissance = A. Mez, Die Renaissance des 

Islams, Heidelberg 1922 
Mez, Renaissance, Eng. tr. = The Renaissance of 

Islam, translated into English by Salahuddin 

Khuda Bukhsh and D. S. Margoliouth, London 

1937 
Mez, Renaissance, Spanish trans. = El Renacimiento 

del Islam, translated into Spanish by S. Vila, 

Madrid-Granada 1936. 
MIrkh"and = Rawdat al-$afd, Bombay 1266/1849 
Mukaddasi = Ahsan al-Takdsim fi Ma'rifat al-Akd- 

lim, ed. M. J. De Goeje, Leiden 1877 (BGA III) 
Munadjdjim Bashl = $ahd*if al Akhbdr, Istanbul 

NaJlino, Scritti = C. A. Nallino, Raccolta di Scritti 

editi e inediti, Roma 1939-48 
Zubayri, Nasab = Mus'ab al-Zubayri, NasabKuraysh, 

ed. E. Levi-Proven?al, Cairo 1953 
'■Othmdnll Muellifleri = Bursall Mehmed Tahir, 'Oth- 

mdnli Muellifleri, Istanbul 1333 
Pakahn = Mehmet Zeki Pakalin, Osmanh Tarih 

Deyimleri ve Terimleri Sdzliigii, 3 vols., Istanbul 

1946 ff. 
Pauly-Wissowa = Realenzyklopaedie des klassischen 

Altertums 
Pearson = J. D. Pearson, Index Islamicus, Cam- 
bridge 1958 
Pons Boigues = Ensayo bio-bibliogrdfico sobre los 

historiadores y gedgrafos ardbigo-espanoles, 

Madrid 1898 
Sam'anI = al-Sam'anl, al-Ansdb, ed. in facsimile by 

D. S. Margoliouth, Leiden 1912 (GMS XX) 
Santillana, Istituzioni = D. Santillana, Istituzioni di 

diritto musulmano mahchita, Roma 1926-38 



ABBREVIATED TITLES OF SOME OF THE MOST OFTEN QUOTED WORKS 



Sarkis = Sarkls, Mu^dfam al-matbu c dt al-'arabiyya, 
Cairo 1346/1928 

Schwarz, Iran = P. Schwarz, Iran im Mittelatter 
nach den arabischen Geographen, Leipzig 1896- 

Shahrastanl = al-Milal wa 'l-Nihal, ed. W. Cureton, 
London 1846 

Sidjill-i 'Othmdni = Mehmed Thiireyya, SidjiU-i 
t Othmdnl, Istanbul 1308-1316 

Snouck Hurgronje, Verspr. Geschr. = C. Snouck 
Hurgronje, Verspreide Geschriften, Bonn-Leipzig- 
Leiden 1923-27 

Sources inidiies = Comte Henry de Castries, Les 
Sources inedites de I'Histoire du Maroc, Premiere 
Serie, Paris [etc.] 1905 — , Deuxieme Serie, Paris 

Spuler, Horde = B. Spuler, Die Goldene Horde, 

Leipzig 1943 
Spuler, Iran = B. Spuler, Iran in fruh-islamischer 

Zeit, Wiesbaden 1952 
Spuler, Mongolen * = B. Spuler, Die Mongolen in 

Iran, 2nd ed., Berlin 1955 
Storey = C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: a bio- 
bibliographical survey, London 1927- 
Survey of Persian Art = ed. by A. U. Pope, Oxford 

1938 
Suter = H. Suter, Die Mathematiker und A stronomen 

der Araber und ihre Werkc, Leipzig 1900 
Suyfltl, Bughya = Bughyat al-Wu'dt, Cairo 1326 
TA = Muljammad Murtada b. Mubammad al-Zabidi, 

TdM al- c Arus 
Tabari = TaMkh al-Rusul wa 'l-Muluk, ed. M. J. De 

Goeje and others, Leiden 1879-1901 
Taeschner, Wegenetx — FranzTaeschner, Die Verkehrs- 



lage und das Wegenetx Anatoliens im Wandel der 

Zeiten, Gotha 1926 
Ta'rikh Baghdad = al-Khatib al-Baghdadl, Ta'rtkh 

Baghdad, 14 vols., Cairo 1349/1931. 
Ta'rikh Dimashk = Ibn 'Asakir, Ta'riAA Dimashk, 

7 vols., Damascus 1329-51/1911-31 
Ta'rikh-i Guzlda = Hamd Allah Mustawfl al-Kaz- 

wlnl, Ta'rikh-i Guzida, ed. in facsimile by E. G. 

Browne, Leiden-London 1910 
Tha c alibl, Yatlma = Yatlmat al-Dahr fi Mahasin 

AM al- l Asr, Damascus 1304 
Tomaschek = W. Tomaschek, Zur historischen Topo- 
graphic von Kleinasien im Mittelatter, Vienna 

1891. 
Weil, Chalifen = G. Weil, Geschichte der Chalifen, 

Mannheim-Stuttgart 1846-82 
Wensinck, Handbook = A. J. Wensinck, A Hand- 
book of Early Muhammadan Tradition, Leiden 

1927 
Ya'kubl = TaMkJi, ed. M. Th. Houtsma, Leiden 1883 
Ya'kubi, Bulddn = ed. M. J. De Goeje, Leiden 1892 

(BGA VII) 
Ya c kubl-Wiet =» W*«M. Les Pays, trad, par Gaston 

Wiet, Cairo 1937 
Yakut = Mu<-diam al-Bulddn, ed. F. Wustenfeld, 

Leipzig 1866-73 (anastatic reprint 1924) 
Yakut, Udaba> = Irshdd al-Arlb ild Ma<ri/at al- 

Adib, ed. D. S. Margoliouth, Leiden 1907-31 

(GMS VI) 
Zambaur = E. de Zambaur, Manuel de ginialogie 

et de chronologic pour I'histoire de I'Islam, 

Hanover 1927 (anastatic reprint Bad Pyrmont 

1955) 
Zinkeisen = J. Zinkeisen, Geschichte des osmanischen 

Reiches in Europa, Gotha 1840-83 



ABBREVIATIONS FOR PERIODICALS ETC. 



Abh. G. W. Gotl. = Abhandlungen der GeseUschaft der 

Wissenschaften zu GSttingen. 
Abh. K. M. = Abhandlungen fiir die Kunde des 

Morgenlandes. 
Abh. Pr. Ak. W. = Abhandlungen der preussischen 

Akademie der Wissenschaften. 
Afr. Fr. = Bulletin du Comitt de I'Afrique francaise. 
AIEO Alger = Annates de I'Institut d'Etudes Orien- 
tates de I'UniversiU d' Alger. 
AIUON = Annali dell' Istituto Universitario Orien- 
tate di Napoli. 
Am. Wien = Anzeiger der [kaiserlichen] Akademie der 

Wissenschaften, Wien. Philosophisch-historische 

Klasse. 
AO = Acta Orientalia. 
ArO = Archiv Orientdlni. 
ARW = Archiv fur Religionswissenschaft. 
ASI — Archaeological Survey of India. 
ASI, NIS = ditto, New Imperial Series. 
ASI, AR = ditto, Annual Reports. 
AODTCFD = Ankara Vniversitesi DU ve Tarih- 

Cografya FakUltesi Dergisi. 
BAH = Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana. 
BASOR = Bulletin of the American Schools of 

Oriental Research. 
Belleten = Belleten (of Turk Tarih Kurumu) 
BFac. Ar. = Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts of the 

Egyptian University. 
B£t. Or. = Bulletin d' Etudes Orientates de I'Institut 

Francais de Damas. 
BGA = Bibliotheca geographorum arabicorum. 
BIE = Bulletin de I'Institut d'&gypte. 
BIFAO = Bulletin de I'Institut Francais d'Archiologie 

Orientate du Caire. 
BR AH — Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia 

de Espana. 
BSE — Bol'shaya Sovetshaya Entsihlopediya (Large 

Soviet Encyclopaedia) ist ed. 
BSE' = the same, 2nd ed. 

BSL[P] = Bulletin de la Sociiti de Linguistique de Paris. 
BSO[A]S = Bulletin of the School of Oriental [and 

African] Studies. 
BTLV = Bijdragen tot de Tool-, Land- en Volken- 

kunde [van NederUtndsch-Indie]. 
BZ = Byzantinische Zeitschrift. 
COC — Cahiers de I'Orient contemporain. 
CT = Cahiers de Tunisie. 
EI 1 = Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1" edition. 
EIM = Epigraphia Indo-Moslemica. 
ERE = Encyclopaedia of Religions and Ethics. 
GGA = Gbttinger Gelehrte Anzeigen. 
GMS = Gibb Memorial Series. 
Gr. I. Ph. = Grundriss der Iranischen Philologie. 
I A = Isldm Ansiklopedisi. 
IBLA = Revue de I'Institut des Belles Lettres Arabes, 

IC = Islamic Culture. 

IFD = Ilahiyat FakiUtesi Dergisi. 

IHQ = Indian Historical Quarterly. 

IQ = The Islamic Quarterly. 

Isl. = Der Islam. 

J A — Journal Asiatique. 

J Afr. S = Journal of the African Society. 

JAOS = Journal of the American Oriental Society. 



JAnthr. I = Journal of the Anthropological Institute. 
JBBRAS = Journal of the Bombay Branch of the 

Royal Asiatic Society. 
JE = Jewish Encyclopaedia. 
JESHO = Journal of the Economic and Social 

History of the Orient. 
J[R]Num. S. = Journal of the [Royal] Numismatic 

JNES = Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 

JPak. H. S. = Journal of the Pakistan Historical 

JPHS = Journal of the Punjab Historical Society. 
JQR — Jewish Quarterly Review. 
JRAS = Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 
J[R]ASB — Journal and Proceedings of the [Royal] 

Asiatic Society of Bengal. 
JRGeog. S. = Journal of the Royal Geographical 

JSFO — Journal de la Sociiti Finno-ougrienne. 

JSS = Journal of Semitic Studies. 

KCA = KOrSsi Csoma Archivum. 

KS = Keleti Szemle (Oriental Review). 

KSIE = Kratkie Soobshfeniya Instituta £tnografiy 

(Short communications of the Institute of 

Ethnography). 
LE = Literaturnayt± £ntsiklopedi£a (Literary Ency- 
clopaedia). 
MDOG = Mitteillungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesell- 

schaft. 
MDPV = Mitteilungen und Nachrichten des Deutschen 

Paldstina- Vereins. 
ME A = Middle Eastern Affairs. 
ME J = Middle East Journal. 
MFOB = Milanges de la Faculti Orientate de 

I'UniversiU St. Joseph de Beyrouth. 
MGMN = Mitteilungen zur Geschichte der Medizin 

und Naturwissenschaften. 
MGWJ = Monatsschrift fiir dieGeschichte und Wissen- 

schaft des Judentums. 
MI DEO = Milanges de I'Institut Dominicain d' Etudes 

Orientates du Caire. 
MIE = Mimoires de I'Institut d'Egypte. 
MIFAO = Mimoires publiis par les membres de I'In- 
stitut Francais d'Archiologie Orientate du Caire. 
MMAF = Mimoires de la Mission Archiologique 

Francaise au Caire. 
MMIA = Madiallat al-Madima' al-Hlmi al-<Arabi, 

Damascus. 
MO = Le Monde oriental. 

MOG = Mitteilungen zur osmanischen Geschichte. 
MSE = Malaga Sovetskaya £nisihlopediya (Small 

Soviet Encyclopaedia). 
MSFO = Mimoires de la Sociiti Finno-ougrienne. 
MSL[P] = Mimoires de la Sociiti Linguistique de Paris. 
MSOS Afr. = Mitteilungen des Seminars fur Orien- 

talische Sprachen, Afrikanische Studien. 
MSOS As. — Mitteilungen des Seminars fiir Orien- 

talische Sprachen, Westasiatische Studien. 
MTM = Milli Tetebbu'-ler Medimu'asi. 
MW = The Muslim World. 
NC = Numismatic Chronicle. 
NGWGott. = Nachrichten von der GeseUschaft der 

Wissenschaften zu Gbttingen. 
OC = Oriens Christianus. 



ABBREVIATIONS 



OLZ — Orientalistische Literaturzeitung. 

OM = Oriente Moderno. 

PEFQS = Palestine Exploration Fund. Quarterly 

Statement. 
Pet. Mitt. = Petermanns Mitteilungen. 
QDAP = Quarterly Statement of the Department of 

Antiquities of Palestine. 
RAfr. = Revue Africaine. 

RCEA = Ripertoire chronologique d'Epigraphie arabe. 
RE J = Revue des Etudes Juives. 
Rend. Lin. = Rendiconti delta Reale Accademia dei 

Lincei, Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filolo- 

REI = Revue des Etudes Islamiques. 

RHR = Revue de I'Histoire des Religions. 

RIM A = Revue de I'Institut des Manuscrits Arabes. 

RMM = Revue du Monde Musulman. 

RO = Rocznih Orientalistyczny. 

ROC = Revue de VOrient Chretien. 

ROL = Revue de VOrient Latin. 

RSO = Rivista degli studi orientali. 

RT = Revue Tunisienne. 

SBAk. Heid. = Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Aka- 
demie der Wissenschaften. 

SBAk. Wien — Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der 
Wissenschaften zu Wien. 

SBBayr. Ak. = Sitzungsberichte der Bayrischen Aka- 
demie der Wissenschaften. 

SBPMS Erlg. = Sitzungsberichte der Physikalisch- 
medizinischen Sozietdt in Erlangen. 

SBPr. Ak. W. = Sitzungsberichte der preussischen 
Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. 

SE — Sovetskaya Etnografiya (Soviet Ethnography). 



SO = Sovetskoe Vostokovedenie (Soviet Orientalism). 
Stud. I si. = Studia Islamica. 

S.Ya. = Sovetskoe Yazikoznanie (Soviet Linguistics). 
TBG = Tijdschrift van het Bataviaasch Oenootschap 

van Kunsten en Wetenschappen. 
TD — Tarih Dergisi. 
TIE = Trudl instituta Etnografiy (Works of the 

Institute of Ethnography). 
TM = Turkiyat Mecmuast. 
TOEM = Ta'rikh-i "Othmdni (Turk Ta'rikhi) En- 

diumeni medimu'asl. 
Verh. Ak. A mst. = V erhandelingen der Koninhlijhe 

Akademie van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam. 
Versl. Med. Ak. A mst. = Verslagen en M ededeelingen 

der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen te 

A msterdam. 
VI = Voprosl Istoriy (Historical Problems). 
WI = Die Welt des Islams. 
WIn.s. = ibid., new series. 
Wiss. Verbff. DOG = Wissenschaftliche Verbffent- 

lichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft. 
WZKM = Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des 

Morgenlandes. 
ZA = Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie. 
ZATW = Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissen- 

schaft. 
ZDMG = Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen 

Gesellschaft. 
ZDPV = Zeitschrift des Deutschen Paldstinavereins. 
ZGErdk. Birl. = Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fur Erd- 

kunde in Berlin. 
ZS = Zeitschrift fur Semitistik. 



LIST OF TRANSLITERATIONS 

SYSTEM OF TRANSLITERATION OF ARABIC CHARACTERS: 

Long Vowels Diphthongs 



1 


j S 


t 
aitiai; 


1 > 


z 


V-J5 


if 


L? ' 5 


i — 


aw 


V 


b 




U~ 


s 


<5 


k 


J 


<v — 


. ay 


o 


1 




lA 


sh 


J 


i 


^ = ' 






v^ 


Jh 




LK= 


? 


r 


m 




4- 


iyy (final form I) 


z 


di 




O^ 


<j 


o 


n 


SAoe* Foweis 






z 


t> 




-b 


t 




h 


^_ a 


S- 


uww (final form 0) 


z 


kh 




Jp 


* 


j 


w 


_L_ u 






o 


d 




e 


c 


o? 


y 


— i 






3 


Oil 




e 


gh 













» a; at (construct state) 

Jl (article), al- and >1- (even before the a 



PERSIAN, TURKISH AND URDU ADDITIONS TO THE ARABIC ALPHABET: 



yj or u3 g (sometimes 8 in Turkish) 



Additional vowels: 

a) Turkish: e, I, o, 6, ti. Diacritical signs proper to Arabic are, in principle, not used in words of Turkish 

etymology. 
6) Urdu: «, 6. 

For modern Turkish, the official orthography adopted by the Turkish Republic in 1928 is used. 
The following letters may be noted : 

c = dj g = gh j=zh k = k and k t = t and { 

c = i h = h, h and kh 5 = sh s = s, s and th z = z, z, d and dh 



SYSTEM OF TRANSLITERATION OF CYRILLIC CHARACTERS: 
ee Kk np 4> f m she 



ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA 

i», 'Ababda, 1. 6 read limit. 

2 b , read Aba? a. 

3, Abarkubadh. Bibliography, add: G. C. Miles, Abarqubddh, A new Umayyad Mint, in American 

Numism. Soc. Museum Notes IV, 1952, 115-120. 
7 b , 1. 4 from below, for shahi-sewen read shah-seven. 

8 b , 'Abbas I, add to the bibliography: Nasr Allah Falsafl, Zindagdnl-yi Shah 'Abbds-i Awwal, Tehran 
1953 — ; Miguel Asin Palacios, Comentario de Don Garcia de Silva y Figueroa de la embajada 
que de parte del Roy de Espana don Felippe III hizo al Rey Xa Abas de Persia, Madrid 1928; 
N. D. Miklucho-Maclay, K voprosu nalagovoy politike v Irane pri Shakhe Abbase I . . ., in 
Sovetskoe Vostokovedenie, vi (1949), 348-55; E. Kiihnel, Han 'Alam und die Diplomat: Bez. 
zw. Gahdngir und Schah 'Abbas, in ZDMG xcvi (1942), 171-86. 
, 1. 18, for 'Abbas Hilmi I read 'Abbas I. 
1. 56, read A. H. 467 al-Muktadl. 
1. 29, lor 68/686-8 read 68/687-8. 

1. 26, jor by al-Zubayr read by 'Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr. 

'Abd Allah b. al-Husayn, Bibliography, add: M. Khadduri, Fertile Crescent Unity, in R. N. 
Frye, ed., The Near East and the Great Powers, Cambridge (Mass.) 1951, 137-177. 
, 1. 66, lor Abu Hamara read Abu Himara. 
add: 'Abd al-'Az!z b. 'Abd al-Rahman Ibn Abi 'Amir [see 'Amirids]. 
add: 'Abd al-'Aziz b. Abi Dulaf [see Dulafids]. 

'Abd al-'Aziz b. Marwan, Bibliography, add: U. Rizzitano, 'Abd al-'Aziz b. Marwdn, governatore 
umayyade d'Egitto, in Rend. Lin., series iii, vol. ii, fasc. 5-6, 1947, 341-347. 
1- 59. for 30 March read 30 May. 
I. 50, 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Dihlawi, read Shah. 
60, add 'Abd al-Eialil Abu 'l-Mahasin [see al-dihistanI]. 
add 'Abd al-Ghaffar b. 'Abd al-Karim [see al-kazwIni]. 
add 'Abd al-Ghaffar al-Akhras [see al-akhras]. 

'Abd al-Hakk b. Sayf al-DIn, Bibliography, add: Kh. A. Nizaml, Haydt Shaykh 'Abd al-Haty 
Muhaddith Dihlawi, Dihli 1953. 
6i a , 1. 46, after born Febr. 1852 add at Istanbul. 
6i b , 1. 30, for in 1937 read on 12 April 1937 at Istanbul. 
6i b , 1. 42, for Yadigar-i Harp read Yadgar-i Harb. 
63", 1. 7, for Wasif read Wasif. 

63°, 'Abd al-HamId II, 1. 2, for 5th of 30 read 8th of 40. 
63 b , 1. 10 from below, for former read later. 
64*, 1. 42, for amedji read ameddji. 
64 b , 1. 42, for 1894 read 1889. 
65, Bibliography, last line, for 1343 read 1943. 
71, add 'Abd al-Karim b. 'Adjarrad [see ibn 'adjarrad]. 
72 b , 1. 30, for Pa'inda read Payanda. 

75 b , 1. 15, after son of 'Abd al-'Aziz [q.v.] add born 30 May 1868. 
76, add 'Abd al-Malik b. Hisham [see ibn hisham]. 
78, add 'Abd al-Malik b. Zuhr [see ibn zuhr]. 
80, add 'Abd al-RahIm b. 'AlI [see al-kadI al-fadil], 

'Abd al-RahIm b. Muhammad [see ibn nubata]. 
91, add 'Abd al-Salam b. Ahmad [see ibn ghanimI. 
91", in Bibliography, for Kumushakhanawi read Gumiish-khanewl. 
97", 'AbdI Effendi, 1. 4, for 1764 read 1774. 
I02 b , 1. 24, art. Abraha, for 640-650 A.D. read 540-550 A.D.. 
103*, 1. 20, after idem, le Musion, 1953, 339-42, add idem, La persecution des chritiens himyarites au 

sixieme siecle, Istanbul 1956. 
io5 b , 1. 42, for al-kafar al-Misri read al-frufr al-Misri. 
108, Abu 'l-'Ayna'. Bibliography: add Djahiz, Hayawdn*, index; 'AskalanI, Lisdn al-mizdn, v, 344-46; 

$afadi, Himydn, 265; Ch. Pellat, in RSO, 1952, 66. 
109', 1. 8, from below, for 1136/1273 read 1136/1724. 
I09 a , 1. 4, from below, for 1 133/1729 read 1004/1596. 
iog», 1. 3, from below, lor 'Uthman III read 'Uthman II. 
in", 1. 66, for Nahar*" read Nahar" 1 . 
117", 1. 27, for al-Kahtani read al-Kahtani. 
H7 b , 1. 15, read Akbar ndma, iii. 
n8 b , 1. 30, after Nadjaf 1353, add and Cairo 1368/1949. 

1. 63, for 'Hamah read Hamah. 
H9«, 1. 40, for Takwln read Takwim. 



ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA XV 

P. 123, Abu IJanIfa. F. Rosenthal points out that the name of the grandfather (Zwt> or Zwtrh) corresponds 
to the Aramaic word for "small"; Abu Hanifa was therefore probably of local, Aramaean descent. 
P. 125, Abu IJatim YOsuf b. Muhammad. [See rustumids]. 
P. I26», 1. 36, for al-Makdisi read al-Mukaddasi. 

P. I4i b , 1. 72, ]or ("the man with green spectacles") read ("the man with blue spectacles"). 
P. 142, Abu Naddara. Bibliography: add Ibrahim 'Abduh, Abu Naddara, Cairo 1953. 
P. I43», 1. 9, Abu Nuwis, for (d. 198/873) read (d. 198/813). 
P. 143", 1. 35, tor al-Khatlb read al-KhasIb. 
P. I44 b , Abu Nuwas, add to bibliography: E. Wagner, Der Oberlieferung des Abu Nuwds-Diwdn, Wiesbaden 

1958. 
P. 146", 1. 1, for ba read ba. 
P. I47 b , Abu Sa c id b. Abi 'l-Khayr, add to bibliography: Muhammad b. Munawwar . . . MaykhanI, Asrdr 

fi 'l-tawhid fi Makdmdt al-Shayhh Abi Sa'id, ed. Dhablh Allah Safa, Tehran 1332 S./1954. 
P. 163, Abu Yazid al-BistamI. Bibliography: add H. Ritter, Die Ausspriiche des Bayezid Bisfdmi, in: 

Westbstliche Abhandlungen Rudolf Tschudi . . . uberreicht, Wiesbaden 1954, 231-43. 
P. 182*, 1. 10, for zaman read zaman. 
P. 183*, 1. 9, for Brouquiere read Brocquiere. 
P. 184', Adana, add to bibliography : see also map of Adana in Nazim Tarhan and Aziz Arsan, Tarihte Adana, 

Adana ca. 1954, new ed. "Turistik Adana" ca. 1957. 
P. i87», 1. 48 read 1748, fasc. Ill, 95 f. 
P. i87», 'Adhab al-Kabr, add to the bibliography: Ibn Kayyim al-Djawziyya, al-Risdla al-Kabriyya fi 

•l-Radd c ald Munkiri c Adhdb al-Kabr, in Madimii'at Sitt Rasa'il, Cairo and Kadiyan, n.d. 
P. 188, Adhan. Bibliography : add Wensinck, Mohammed en de Joden te Medina, 127 ff. (French transl. in 

RAfr., 1954, 96 ff.). 
P. igo>, 1. 5, for 1728 read 1729-30. 

P. 194', Adhari, add to Bibliography: Przeglad Orientalistyczny 1956/1 (17), 86 ff. 
P. 199", Adiyaman, 1. 2, for Husnumansur read Hisnimansur. 
P. 20i», 1. 41, for 365/972 read 365/976. 
P. 207", al-'Abidjabi, 1. 5, for 97/"5 "ad 97/716. 

P. 209*, 1. 68, add The seat of an administrative tribunal is therefore often called ddr aW-adl. 
P. 2ii b , 1. 5, for 338/944 read 338/949. 

P. 214*, 1. 48, add On the MustaHni of Ibn Biklarish, see Renaud, in Hesp., 1930, 135 ff. 
P. 2i4», 1. 23, add On the Tafrwim al-Adwiya of al- c Ala e i, see Renaud, in Hesp., 1933, 69 ff. 
P. 215", 1. 15 for Bahra' read Bahra\ 

1. 65 for Shananshan read Shahanshah. 
P. 224, Afghanistan, (ii) ethnography. Bibliography: add Iwamura Sh. and H. F. Schurman, Notes on 
Mongolian Groups in Afghanistan, Silver Jubilee volume of Zinbun-kagahu-Kenkyusho, Kyoto Univ. 
1954, 480-515 (includes linguistic texts). 
P. 225, Afghanistan, (iv) Religion. Bibliography: add W. Jackson and L. H. Gray, in ERE, s.v. 
Afghanistan, i, 158, 160; N. Slousch, Les Juifs en Afghanistan, RMM, 1908, 502 ff.; M. Akram, 
Bibliographic analytique de l'Afghanistan, i, Paris 1947. 
P. 228*, 1. 7, from below, for Ghazna read Kabul. 
P. 228 b , 1. 9, from below, for 1003/1621 read 1003/1595. 

P. 234*, AflakI, at end, change full stop to comma and add by Tahsin Yazici, 2 vols., 1953-5. 
P. 244*, 1. 34, for Persians read Akkoyunlus. 

P. 244", Afyun Kara Hisar, add after line 50: Kara Hisar formerly owed some of its importance to being 
a junction of the caravan routes between Izmir and the commercial centres in the interior (Ankara, 
Kayseri, Tolot, etc.) on the one hand, and between Constantinople, or rather Scutari (Uskiidar), 
and Syria on the other: see F. Taeschner, Das anatolische Wegenetz nach osmanischen Quellen, i, 
Leipzig 1924, esp. 127; more recently it has become an important railway junction on the Izmir- 
Kasaba and Anatolian systems. 
249", 1. 49, read Djabriyya. 
250*, 1. 21, add Ibrahim Shabbuh, in Revue de I'Institut des Manuscrits Arabes, 1956, 339 ff. 

1. 30, read 148/765. 
257", 1. 29, read of the brother of £ Ad. 
267", Ahmad I, 1. 4, for 22 January read 22 December. 
268», Ahmad II, 1. 4, for Rashld read Rashid. 
268 b , Bibliography, 1. 1, for Rashld read Rashid. 
268 b , Ahmad III, 1. 4, for 21 August read 23 August. 
268 b , 1. 35, for Kopriilii read Kopriilii-zade. 
277 b , Ahmad b. Hanbal, add to bibliography: H. Laoust, Les premieres professions de foi hanbalites, in 

Mdlanges Massignon, iii/1957, 7-36. 
279*, 1- 29, for as a magistrate in the Native Courts read as a kadi in the Shari'a Courts. 
287 b , 1. 32, read in 1891, and his memoirs appeared under the title. 
3o6 b , 1. 32 and 33 from below, read the early Middle Ages. 

311, heading, for Ak Kirman read Ak Kirman-Ak Koyunlu. 

312, heading, for Ak Kirman- read Ak Koyunlu-. 
312*, Bibliography, for Inane read Yinanc. 

3I2», A? Koyunlu, add to bibliography: J. Aubin, Notes sur quelques documents AqQoyunlu, in Milanges 

Massignon, i/1956, 123-47. 
313*, Aif Shehr, add to Bibliography: Ibrahim Hakki Konyali, Aksehir, Istanbul; Rifki Melul Meric, 

Aksehir Tiirbe ve Kitdbeleri, TM, v, Istanbul. 



XVI ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA 

P. 317", 1. 8, after M. Roychoudhuri, The Din-i-Ilahi, Calcutta 1941, add 2nd edition, Calcutta 1952 (with 

different pagination and additional appendix "C" to Chapter V). 
P. 321', 1. 50, add tr. and annotated by Camara Lamine, Conakry 1950. 
P. 332", 1. 5, Ajojund-ZAda, delete the words in his early days 
P. 3326, 1. „ f. ; reai i j n AIUON, N.S., i (Scritti in onore di Luigi Bonelli). 
P. 332", 1. 17 f., read The Hague, 1958. 

Aisund-Zada, Bibliography: add M. F. Achundov (= Akhund-zade), Pis'ma Kemalud-dovli, 

Baku 1959 (in Azeri) ; M. Rafili, Mirza Fatali Akhundov, Moscow 1959 (in Russian) ; K. Tarverdieva, 

Abovjan i Achundov, Yerevan 1958 (in Armenian). See also F. Gasymzade, XIX isr Azerbajdlan 

edebijjaty tarichi, Baku 1956 (in Azeri), 260-371; G. Gusejnov, Iz istoriy obshtestvennoy i filosofskoy 

misli v Azerbaydiane XIX veka*, Baku 1958, 162-295. 
P- 337". •• r 8, add [see durOz]. 
P. 355», add c Alaw1, Ba [see bA c alawI]. 
P. 358", add Albania [see arnawut]. 
P. 367*, 1. 55, read vanished, the future. 
P. 368*, c AlI b. AbI Talib, Bibliography, add c Abd al-Fattah <Abd al-Maksfld, al-Imdm 'AH b. Abi Talib, 

Cairo 1946-53. 
P. 374 b , 1. 9-10, read spoken in the heart of the Oran region. 

1. 11-12, delete except region. 

P- 375 b , 1- 4°. ™ad biliteral. 

1. 42, read Djidjellians (elsewhere ash, ah). 
P. 376", 1. 16-17, read Only Old Tenes. 

1. 20, read everywhere (except in Miliaria and Blida). 

1. 23, read Cherchell, Miliana, Medea. 
P- 377". 1- 2I , n<ut vowels in open syllables. 

1. 60, read Oran and in the Chelif region. 
P. 378 1 , 1. 50, read of the Oued Souf. 

P. 379". 1. 49, add G. Kampffmeyer, Sudalgerische Studien, Berlin 1905. 
P. 380*, 1. 60, read Ghllan. 
P. 380", 1. 23, read 651/768, 1963. 
P. 381*, 1. 9, read J A, 1869, 6th ser., xiv. 
P. 388 b , 1. 8, from below, read 869-83. 

P. 392", add c AlI al-HadI [see al- c AskarI, Abu 'l-Hasan]. 
P. 400", c Ali Werdi Khan, Bibliography: add Kalikinkar Datta, Alivardi and his times, Calcutta 1939, 

(contains an exhaustive bibliography). 
P. 404, Aljamia. Circumstances beyond the control of the Editorial Committee have made it necessary 

for the text and the bibliography to appear as independent contributions by two different 

P. 425", 1. 14, from below, for 1836-39 read 1836-99. 

P. 426", Alwar, read Alwar. 

P. 430", AmAn, Bibliography: add E. Tyan, Institutions du droit public musulman, i, Paris 1954, 426 ff.; 
P. S. Leicht and G. Astuti, La posizione giuridica delle colonie di mercanti occidentali nel Vicino 
Orienle e nell' Africa del Nord nel medio evo, in Mim. de I' Acad. Intern, de Droit Campari, iii/3, 
Rome 1953, 133-146; M. Hamidullah, Extraterritorial Capitulations in favour of Muslims in 
classical times, in Islamic Research Association Miscellany, i, 1948, 47-60; A. Abel, L'itranger dans 
I'Islam classique, in L'itranger (Recueils de la Societe Jean Bodin, ix), 1957, 331-351. 

P- 433", '• 5°, a ^d For a confirmation of the term menokad in an inscription at Leptis Magna, see G. Levi 
Delia Vida, in Africa Italiana, vi, 1935, 4-6; J. Friedrich, PhSnizisch-punische Grammatih, 
93 § 211. 

P. 437*, 1. 16, Amin, for econimic read economic. 

P. 446", add al- c Amiri [see muhammad b. yusuf, al-'amiri]. 

P. 497*, 1. 8, add J. D. Latham, Towards a Study of Andalusian Immigration and its place in Tunisian 
History, in Les Cahiers de Tunisie, 19-20, 1957, 203-252. 

P. 506 1 , Andjuman (India and Pakistan), Bibliography, add Sayyid Hashiml Ta'rikh-i Pandjdb Sdla-e- 
Andiuman-i Tarakfti-i Urdu, Karachi 1953. 

P. 5ii», 11. 8-9 from the bottom, delete in October. 

1. 10 from the bottom, for June 1919 read September 1919. 

P. 511", add al-Ankubarda, also al-Ankaburda, name of Lombardy in Arabic geographical works, (ed.). 

P- 539", !• 43, PjazIrat al- c Arab, for The boundary general way. read The boundary between 

Saudi Arabia and Kuwayt and the boundaries of their neutral zone were agreed upon between 
Britain and the then Sultan of Nadjd (later King of Saudia Arabia) in the convention of al- c Ukayr 
of 1922 but were not demarcated on the ground. 

P. 548", 1. 49, add Recently discovered inscriptions indicate that the hypothesis set forth in this article 
with respect to the starting point of the "Sabaean era" is untenable, and that certain changes 
should be made in the chronology for Southern Arabia; see G. Ryckmans in Musion, lxvi (1953); 
J. Ryckmans in Musion, lxvi (1953); idem, La persicution des chritiens himyarites au sixieme siecle, 
Istanbul rg56. 

P. 554 b , 1. 28, PjazIrat al^Arab, for In the latter part two years of rule, readln the latter 

part of his reign he devoted most of his attention to his East African possessions, but their inde- 
pendence under a younger line of his descendants was recognised in 1277/1861 by an arbitration 
award of Lord Canning, Viceroy of India. The only Ibadi Imam elected during the century, 'Azzan 



ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA 



b. Kays, failed to win recognition by the British and was killed in battle in 1287/1871 after two 
years of rule. 

1. 15, Pjazirat al- c Arab, for but in sides, read though the Sultan did not relinquish 

his claim to sovereign rights over the whole of 'Uman. Thus in 1955, when the Imam, Ghalib b. 
c Ali, sought independent membership of the Arab League, the Sultan held this to be an infringe- 
ment of the terms of the Treaty of al-Sib and advanced into the interior of c Uman. 
PjazIrat al- c Arab, Bibliography: add Eric Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, Uni- 
versity of Miami Press, i960; idem, Bibliography on Yemen with notes on Mocha, University of 
Miami Press, i960. 
1. 15, read A. C. Woolner. 
8, read 5th ed., Cairo 1950. 

\rabiyya, add to Bibliography: G. V. Cereteli, Arabskie dialektl Sredney Aziy, Vol. \, Bukharskiy 
.rabskiy dialekt, Tiflis 1956. 
25, atfer A. Worsley, Sudanese Grammar, London 1925, vi-80 pp. in 8 vo., add now superseded 
by J. Spencer Trimingham, Sudan Colloquial Arabic, Oxford 1946. 

<, for Sudan Arabic, English-Arabic Vocabulary, read Sudan Arabic Texts. 

6o8 b , ArbOna, Bibliography: add J. Lacam, Vestiges de I'occupation arabe en Narbonnaise, in Cahiers 
archMogiques, viii, 93-115 (discovery, notably, of a mihrab). 

609b, 11. 1-3 from below: delete the passage in brackets and what follows. 

624% Architecture, Bibliography: add R. W. Hamilton, The Structural History of the Aqsa Mosque 
London 1949; O. Grabar, The Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, in ArsOrientalis, 1959, 33-62. 
add I. Krackovskij, Vtoraya zapiska AbA-Dulafa v geografiieskom slovare yakuta (Azerbaydian, 
Armeniya, Iran), Izbrannye Soiinenija, Moscow- Leningrad 1955, 280-292 (The second notice on 
Abu Dulaf in the Geog. Diet, of Yakut (Adharbaydjan, Armenia, Iran), Selected works); N. D. 
Mikluxo-Maklaj, GeografiCeskoye sotinenye XIII v. na persidskom jazlke (novly istolnik po istoriCeskoy 
gcografiy Azerbaydiana i Armeniy), Uienye Zapiski Instituta Vostokovyedeniya, IX, 1954 (A geo- 
graphical work of the 13th century in Persian: a new source for the historical geography of Adhar- 
baydjan and Armenia, Learned Memoirs of the Institute of Orientalism). 
1. 36, ArslanlI, for [see Ghurush] read [see sikka]. 

Artukids, add to bibliography: Ali Sevim, Anuk ogullarm Beyliklerintn ilk devri, Thesis Ankara 
1958. 

1. 2, for Ibn Kaysan read Ibn Kaysan. 
1. 4, for al-Talkani read al-Talkani. 
1. 13, for Al-Dahhan read Ibn al-Dahhan. 
1. 15, for al-Sakkat read Ibn al-Sakkat. 
1. 29, for al-Kalawisi read al-Kalawisi. 
1. 19, for the symbol | o for the'quiescen 
for Arzu Khan, read Arzu, Khan. 

c Asabiyya, add to bibliography: H. Ritter, Irrational Solidarity groups, in Oriens i/i (1948), 1-44. 
for Asfar b. ShIrawayhi, read Asfar b. ShIrawayhi. 

1. 13, read of the son of his maternal uncle. 

I. 34, Ashab al-UkhdOd, for (of Hinnom) read (Vale of Hinnom). 
'Ashura', Bibliography, add G. Vajda, JeAne musulman et jedne 
Annual, 12-13, r 938, 367-85. 

II. 13-15, Asiya, for caused her stone, read caused a big rock to be cast upon her; but 

as God took her soul to himself, the rock fell on a lifeless body. 
1. 21 and 22 from below, read Itil (Atil [q.v.]). 
1. 8, read Russians. 

, Atabak (Atabeg), add at the end of the art. : The atabeg al-'asdkir under the Ayyubids and the first 

Maniluks had restricted functions ; he was the commander of the army during the minority of the 

prince, but in contrast with the atabeg under the Saldjukids he was not the tutor of the young 

prince; a relative or a special freedman was appointed as tutor. 
, 1. 59, Atbara, for 8 June 1898, read 8 April 1898 (see Sir G. Arthur, Life of Lord Kitchener, London 

1920, i, 226; Cromer, Modern Egypt, London 1908, ii, 102). 
, 1. 8, read al-Subh. 
, 1. 56. read: HadidjI Khalifa. 
, add Auspicious and Inauspicious [see sa'd]. 

1. 34, read Khitat. 
, 1. 15, for i, 387, read i, 408. 
, 1. 1, insert and at least specialised applications to before the history of science. 

1. 41, read and the famous, widely read De inventoribus rerum. 
, 1. 44, 'Awamir, after no claim to be a range of their own, insert Ibn Rakkad's position as 

paramount shaykh of the nomadic elements of the central group has been disputed since 1947 by 

Salim Ibn Hamm, also of Al Badr. 

1. 34, lor 1319/1903 read 1319/1901-2. 
, 1. 34, tor 1938 read 1896-7. 
, 1. 11, read 748-760/1348-1360. 
, add Ayyubid Art [see Supplement]. 
, 1. 12, read 1202/1787. 

1. 56, read Ray. 
, 1. 25, read 'Azlzl [see karaCelebi-zade]. 



e symbol | for the'quiescent'. 



n Hebrew Union College 



XVIII ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA 

P. 827", 1. 34. read Tushadd. 

P. 828", 1. ii, read Khatir. 

P. 849", 1. 43, /or son-in-law read son. 

P. 850*, BAd-i HawA, 1. 4, after income delete full stop and add (cf. the Tayydrdt m 

Tu^I, BSOAS, x, 1940, 76i s 774)- 
P. 855", 1. 7, from the bottom, read Chadjdju. 
P. 856*, 1. 42, read Fawd'id al-Fu'dd'. 

1. 44, read Bdkiydt. 

1. 57, read Tawdli*. 
P. 856", 1. 6, read Patiyall (in Etah District). 

1. 13, read Abban. 

1. 17, lor Djalal al-DIn, read Djalal Khan. 
P. 857*, 1. 10, read Ma'dthir-i. 

1. 23, read Akbari. 
P. 86o», 1. 18, read his uncle Hammad. 
P. 9o8 b , Baghdad, add to Bibliography: M. Canard, Hamddnides, i, 1 

eleventh century Bagdad = Materials and notes, in Arabica, vi 
P. 913", 1- 61, read Tara Bal. 
P. 914*, 1. 24, read Ma'dthir-i. 

1. 26, read c AlI. 

1. 30, read Kamradj, A'zam al-Harb. 

1. 42, read Mir'dt-i. 
P- 923*, for BanI?at al-BAdiya [see malik hifni nAsif], read bAhithat al-bAdiya [see malik hifnI nAsif]. 
P. 927\ read Bahr Adriyas. 
P. 952», 1. 13, lor Raja, read Radja. 

1. 14, read diwdn; and read Na'ib. 

1. 23, read BarelwI. 

1. 32, read Guns. 
P- 953 b . 1. 57, read Ghat. 

1. 59, read Ramadan. 
P. 954 b , 1- 8, delete the bracket. 

1. 13, read Mir'dt. 
P- 957*, 1. 34, read Muhammad. 

1. 70, read Shukoh. 
P. 957", 1. 10, Muhammad (Ahmad) Akhtar should not be in italics. 

1. 14, read al-Hukumat. 

1. 66, for ' Prophet, read Prophet. 
P. 958", 1. 5, read Sa c ud. 

1. 39, read al-hudjra min. 

1. 40, read al-Hidjra. 

1. 41, read al-Madina al-Munawwara. 
P. 978', 11. 31-32 to be placed after 1. 24. 

P. 983*, 1. 17, delete A. Schaade and read (G. E. Von Grunebaum). 
P. 990", Balban, read [see dihl! sultanate]. 
P. ioi6 b , add between lines 23 and 24: In Spanish, albanecar means a certain' triangular set of beams in the 

frame of a roof. 
P. I020», 1. 1, read Makhluf. 
P. 1023*, 1. 6, from below, read A 'lam. 
P. 1037*, 1. 13, add Fatdwd-i Jahandari of Zia-u'din Barani, introd. by Muhammad Hablb and Engl, transl. 

by Afsar Begum, in Medieval India Quarterly, iii/i and 2, Aligarh 1957, 1-87. 
P. 1037*, BaranI, add to Bibliography: P. Hardy, Historians of Medieval India, London i960, 20-39. 
P. 1053, heading, read BarkyAruk. 
P. 1053*, 1. 7, for Abu '1-Hasim read Abu '1-Kasim. 
P. 1069", article BArud (India), for Barani read Bernier. 
P. n65 b , 1. 70, Benares, for formed read forced. 
P. 1179*, Berbers, section IV, 2nd para., after H. Lhote, Touaregs du Hoggar, 221 ff.; , add idem, Comment 

campent les Touaregs, Paris 1947. 
P. 1187*, Berbers, section VI, add to Bibliography: J. Besancenot, Bijoux arabes et berberes du Maroc, 

Casablanca 1959; Delegation g£neiale du gouvernement en Algene, Collections ethnographiques, 

Album I, Touareg Ahaggar, Paris 1959. 
P. 1192*, 1. 44, Bhakkar, lor Kubadja read Kabaca. 
P. 1 196", 1. 68, BhopAl, lor Jsanah-i read Fasanah-i. 
P. 1202", 1. 10, lor Bombay read Mysore. 

1. 11, lor 350 miles south read 250 miles south-east. 

1. 45, for SivadjI read ShivadjI. 

1. 71, lor Marat'has read Marathas. 
P. 1203", 11. 25, 32, 35, 42, for 'All read C A1I. 
P. 1204*, 1. 19, for Anda read Anda. 
P. 1214", BihzAd, add to Bibliography Muhammad Mustafa, Suwar min madrasat Bihzad fi 'l-madjmu c dt 

al-fanniya bi 'l-Kdhira, Baden-Baden, 1959 (also published in German as Persische Miniaturen 

Werhe der Behzad-Schule aus Sammlungen in Kairo). 



ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA XIX 

'. I234 b , BiREfii'K, add to Bibliography: J.-B. Chabot, Un ipisode inidit de I'histoire des Croisades (Le siige 

de Birta, 114s), in Acadimie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, Comptes Rendus 1917, Paris 1917, 77-84. 
. 12380, 1. 58, al-BirzAlI, for al-Munadjdjima read al-Munadjdjid. 
. 1241", Bishr b. AbI KhAzim, add to Bibliography: G. Von Griinebaum, Bishr b. Abi Kharim: Collection 

of Fragments, in JRAS 1939, 533-67- 
. 1242*, 1. 59, Bishr b. QsiyA£h al-MarIsI, for Mdkdlat read Makdldt. 
. 1248* 1. 31, BistAm b. Says, for Rabib read IJablb. 

1. 32, BistAm b. Rays, for Sabd'ik read Sabd'ik. 

1. 34, BistAm b. Kays, for Mulalif read Mutalif. 

1. 40, BistAm b. Kays, for 1-000 read 1-100. 

1. 44, BistAm b. Kays, for al-Hayawdn read al-Ifayawan. 
'. 1257", after title Bonneval insert title Bookkeeping [see muhAsaba]. 



AARON [see harOn] 

AB [see ta'rIiot] 

'ABA' [see kisa'] 

'ABABDA (sg. 'AbbadI), an Arabic-speaking 
tribe of Bedja [q.v.] origin in Upper Egypt with 
branches in the northern Sudan. The northern limis 
of their territory in Egypt is the desert road leading 
from Kena to Kusayr, and their nomad sections roam 
the desert to the east of Luxor and Aswan. The ori- 
ginal 'Ababda stock is most truly represented by 
the nomads but there are also sedentary sections 
who have intermarried with the fallahin and adopted 
much of their way of life. On the Red Sea coast 
there is a small clan of fisher-folk, the Kiraydjab, 
who by some are not recognized as true 'Ababda. 

Like the rest of the Bedja the 'Ababda claim Arab 
descent, and the genealogical table of 'Abbad, their 
eponymous ancestor, begins with Zubayr b. al- 
'Awwam, a famous companion of the Prophet. 
Some of the tribesman living in the Sudan believe 
that they are descended from Salman, an Arab of 
the Banu Hilal. Though doubtlessly fictitious in 
respect of the tribe as a whole this claim to Arab 
descent yet embodies a genuine memory of the pro- 
cess by which Djuhayna and Rabi'a Arabs acquired 
an ascendancy in the Sudan through marriages with 
the daughters of Bedja chiefs, amongst whom des- 
cent was originally reckoned in the female line. 
This process which according to Ibn Khaldun led 
to the passing of the Nubian kingdom into the "hands 
of the Djuhayna must also have taken place in the 
case of the Bedja. 

The Ababda have been affected by Arab influence 
more strongly than those Bedja who still retain 
their Hamitic tongue, so much so that in the Sudan 
;hey are not easily distinguished from the Sudan 
Arabs of the Dia'livvln group. They may in fact 
be held to occupy an intermediate position between 
the Bedja proper and the fully arabicized elements 
who have become integrated in the Sudan Arabs. 
In their physical characteristics, nevertheless, the 
'Ababda together with the Tigre-speaking Ban! 
'Amir bear a closer resemblance to the proto-Egyp- 
tian inhabitants of the Nile valley than the other 
Bedja. The Arabic spoken by the 'Ababda is quite 
distinct from that of the fallahin, and the word 
lists collected by H. A. Winckler contain an appre- 
ciable number of Bedja words. 

In their material culture and their customs the 
'Ababda agree more closely with the Bedja proper 
than with the Arabs. Certain wide-spread customs 
which they share with the Sudan Arabs, such as 
the infibulation of girls and the ceremonial respect 
of in-law-relations, are of Hamitic origin. The 

Encyclopaedia of Islam 



'Ababda use the typically Bedja style of hairdressing 
(dirwa) which has given rise to the nickname Fuzzy- 
wuzzy, though this custom now tends to die out. 
Their tents of palm-matting are quite unlike the 
Arab "houses of hair". Their marriages, like those 
of the Bedja proper, are matrilocal but their women 
do not enjoy the freedom which is allowed to their 
sisters of the Bishariyyln. The 'Ababda moreover 
share with the Bedja, but not the Arabs, certain 
taboos connected with milk: only men may do the 
milking, for which only gourds and wicker vessels 
may be used, and no man may drink of the milk 
he has drawn until someone else has drunk. 

The influence of Islam, which nominally is the 
religion of all the 'Ababda, has made a marked im- 
pression only on the more sophisticated elements; 
in the life of the majority religion, as distinct from 
traditional beliefs and superstitions, plays no im- 
portant part. They venerate shaykh Abu '1-Hasan 
al-Shadhili as their patron saint, and his tomb in 
the Atbai desert is a place of pilgrimage at which 
sacrifices are offered. It is also common to dedicate 
the milk of a beast to al-Shadhili, and the milk of 
such animals is always milked into separate wicker 
vessels. When slaying an animal a piece of the victim's 
right ear is reserved for al-Shadhili or some other 
well-known saint and hung on the tent-pole. The 
celebration of the 'id ai-kabir at the tomb of al- 
Shadhill is the most important religious event of 
the year. Sacrifices are also offered at the tomb 
of the eponymous ancestor 'Abbad near Edfii, and 
there is a cult of a female saint (fakira) who lived 
some fifty years ago and was famous for gifts of 
divination. The 'Ababda like the Bishariyyln believe 
that an animal sacrificed at the tomb of a wall 
turns into a gazelle or ibex, and that such animals 
are protected by the wait. They also observe certain 
taboos about birds and will not eat the flesh of the 
sandgrouse or the desert-partridge, and both 'Ababda 
and Bishariyyln are particularly afraid of killing 
the bearded vulture (Gypactus barbatus). 

The most important section of the Egyptian 
'Ababda, of whom there are some 14,000, are the 
'Ashshabab, who are divided into a number of 
clans. Their paramount shaykhs are descended from 
one Diabran who flourished towards the end of 
the 18th century, and beyond whom there is no 
reliable historical tradition. The largest and best 
known sections in the Sudan are the Fukara and the 
Milaykab who, according to tradition, were brought 
to their present habitat by the Fundi kings of 
Sennar in order to protect the caravan routes be- 
tween Egypt and the Sudan. A small contingent 
of 'Ababda, characterized by Cailliaud as the worst 



'ABABDA — ABAN i 



soldiers in the army, were employed as irregulars 
by Isma'U Pasha during the invasion of the Sudan. 
During the 19th century the c Ab5bda are often 
mentioned by travellers as guides and camel men 
between Korosko and Abu Hamad, and their chiefs 
of theKhalifa family held posts of distinction under 
the Egyptian government. Husayn Khalifa was 
mudlr of Berber at the time of the Mahdist rebellion, 
and 'Ababda irregulars shared in the fighting against 
the Darwishes. Apart from traditions about wars 
with neighbouring tribes there are no data for their 
early history. 

Bibliography: H. A. MacMichael, History of 
the Arabs in the Sudan, Cambridge 1922; C. G. 
Seligman, Races of Africa, London 1930; G. W. 
Murray, Sons of Ishmael, London 1935; H. A. 
Winckler, Agyptische Volkskunde, Stuttgart 1936 
(full bibliography). (S. Hillelson) 

ABAD originally means time in an absolute sense 
and is synonymous with dahr[q.v.; see also ZamAn]. 
When under the influence of Greek philosophy the 
problem of the eternity of the world (see kidam) 
was discussed in Islam, abad (or abadiyya) became 
a technical term corresponding to the Greek term 
dtqjBapToi;, incorruptible, eternal a parte post, in 
opposition to azal (or azaliyya) corresponding to 
the Greek term <4txvt)t6i;, ungenerated, eternal a 
parte ante. (Ibn Rushd — cf. ed. Bouyges, index — 
uses azaliyya for "incorruptible"]. [For azal see 
kid am.] As to the problem concerned, viz. if the 
world is incorruptible, the philosophers of Islam 
subscribed to the Aristotelian maxim that azal and 
abad imply each other, that what has a beginning 
must have an end and what has no beginning cannot 
have an end. According to this theory time, move- 
ment and the world in general are eternal in both 
senses. Among the theologians who all believe 
in the temporal creation of the world, only Abu 
'1-Hudhayl, one of the earlier MuHazilites, admitted 
the Aristotelian maxim mentioned. (He applied the 
theory "that what has a first term must have a 
last one" even to God's knowledge and power, 
saying that God having arrived at the final term 
of His power, would not be able any more to create 

dead mosquito. See al-Khayyat, al-Intisdr, ed. Ny- 
berg, 8ff.; Ibn Hazm, iv, 192-3). The theologians 
opposed the Aristotelian dictum by the argument 
that if the world were without a beginning, at the 
present moment an infinite past would have been 
traversed, which is impossible [cf. kidam]; in the 
future, however, there is no such impossibility, since 
in the future no infinite will ever be traversed. Be- 
sides, the series of integers needs a first term but 
no final one, and a man may have eternal remorse, 
although his remorse must have a beginning (al- 
MakdisI, al-Bad' wa-l-Ta'rikh, ed. Huart, i, 125, 
cf. ii, 133). They concluded therefore that there is 
no rational proof either for the incorruptibility of 
the world or its opposite. According to the Kur'an, 
xxxix, 67, on the Day of Judgment "the whole 
earth shall be His handful and the heavens will 
be rolled up in His right ha'nd". It became the ortho- 
dox view that the annihilation of the whole world 
(including the destruction of heaven and hell, which, 
however, will not happen, as is known by revelation) 
is possible, HdHz, considered as something in God's 
power (al-Baghdadi, Fark, 319). This world (dunyd) 
will be destroyed, but not heaven and hell. 

Bibliography: The problem is treated in ex- 
tenso by al-Ghazzali in ch. ii of his Tahdfut al- 
Faldsi/a, ed. Bouyges, 80 ff. ; cf . Ibn Rushd, Ta- 



hdfut al-Tahdfut, ed. Bouyges, 118 ff., tr. by S. 
van den Bergh, 69 ff . (with notes) ; cf . also S. 
Pines, Beitr&ge zur islamischen Atomenlehre, 15, 
note 1. (S. van den Bergh) 

ABADAH, a small town in Persia, on the 
eastern (winter) road from Shiraz to Isfahan. By 
the present-day highway Abadah lies at 280 km. 
from Shiraz, at 204 km. from Isfahan, and by a 
road branching off eastwards (via Abarkfih) at 100 
km. from Yazd. In the present-day administration 
(1952) Abadah is the northernmost district (shah- 
ristdn) of the province (astdn) of Fars. The popu- 
lation is chiefly engaged in agriculture and trade 
(opium, castor-oil, sesame-oil). Iklid (possibly *kilid 
"key [to Fars]") is another small town belonging 
to Abadah. The whole district counts 223 villages 
with 82,000 inhabitants. In history it is chiefly 
mentioned in the 14th century. The town must 
be distinguished from several homonymous villages 
in Fars (Abada-yi Tashk in the NMz district, etc.). 
Bibliography: Le Strange, 297; Mas'ud- 
Geyhan, Qiugrdfiyd-yi mufassal, 1311, ii, 223; 
Farhang-i dfugrd/iydH-yi Iran, vii, 1330/1951, p. 2. 

(V. Minorsky) 
AbAdAN [see abbAdAn] 
ABADITES [see ibAdiyya] 
ABAKA [see ilkhAns] 
ABAN [see ta'rIkh] 

ABAN b. <ABD al-HAMID al-LAhikI (i.e. son of 
LSljik b. 'Ufayr), also known as al-Rakashi, because 
his family (originally from Fasa) were clients of the 
Banu Rakash, Arabic poet, died about 200/815-6. 
He was a court poet of the Barmakids and wrote 
panegyrics in their praise and the praise of Harun 
al-Rashid. He also defended in some verses the 
c Abbasids against the pretensions of the 'Alids. In 
the usual manner of the epoch he engaged in vigo- 
rous exchanges of lampoons with his fellow poets 
(among them Abu Nuwas). His enemies accused 
him, without justification, it seems, of Manicheism 
(see G. Vajda, in RSO, 1937, 207 f.). His most impor- 
tant achievement was the versification in couplets 
(muzdawidi, q.v.) of the popular stories of Indian 
and Persian origin: Kalila wa-Dimna [q.v.; samples 
in al-Sflll], Bilawhar wa-Yudasf [q.v.], Sindbdd [q.v.] 
Mazdak [q.v.] and the romanced stories of Ardashlr 
and of Anushirwan. He wrote also original poems 
in muzdawidi; sucn as a poem on cosmology and 
logic (Dhdt al-Hulal) and one on fasting (sample 
in al-SulI). Many members of his family, his son 
Hamdan for instance, were also known as poets. 
Bibliography: Sull, al-Awrdk, ed. Heyworth 
Dunne, Section on Poets, 1-73 (pp. 1-12 being 
a collection of passages about Aban by the edi- 
tor); al-Aghdni l , xx, 73-8; Djahshiyarl, al-Wu- 
zard', 259; al-Khatib, Ta'rikh Baghdad, vii, 44; 
Fihrist, 119, 163; I. Goldziher, Muh. Studien, i, 198 ; 
ii. 101; A. Krimsky, Aban al-Lahiki (in Russian), 
Moscow 1913; Brockelmann, S i, 238-9; K. A. 
Fariq, in JRAS, 1952, 46-59. (S. M. Stern) 
ABAN b. 'UXHMAN b. 'AffAn, governor, son 
of the third caliph. His mother was called Umm 
'Amr bint Djundab b. 'Amr al-Dawsiyya. Aban 
accompanied 'A'isha at the battle of the Camel in 
Djumada I 36/Nov. 656; on the battle terminating 
otherwise than was expected, he was one of the first 
to run away. On the whole, he does not seem to 
have been of any political importance. The caliph 
c Abd al-Malik b. Marwan appointed him as governor 
of Madlna. He occupied this position for seven years; 
he was then dismissed and his place was taken by 
Hisham b. Isma'il. Aban owes his celebrity not so 



'UTHMAN — ABASKON 



much to his activity as an official in the service of the 
Umayyads as to his wonderful knowledge of Islamic 
traditions. The Kudb al-Maghazi, sometimes ascribed 
to him, is, however, according to Yakut (Irshdd, i, 
36) and al-TiisI (Fihris, 7) of Aban b. c Uthman b. 
Yahya (see J. Horovitz, in OLZ, 1914, 183). 

Aban was struck with apoplexy and died a year 
later at Madlna in 105/723-4 according to report, 
at any rate during the reign of Yazld b. 'Abl al- 
Malik. 

Bibliography: Ibn Sa<d, v, 112 ff.; Nawawl, 
125 ff. (K. V. Zettersteen) 

ABANCS (variants: Abinus, Abunus, Abnus and 
Abnus), ebony. The word is derived from the Greek 
tbenos, which passed to the Aramean (abnusd) and 
from there to Arabic, Persian, Turkish etc. Although 
ebony had been already known in the old days in 
the East, where it was imported from India and 
Ethiopia, it was very little used at the early times 
of Islam, on account of its rarity and the scanty 
demand for artistic goods. Absolute faith must 
not be given to the story according to which, when 
the Mosque of the Rock was being built at Jerusalem 
under the Umayyad caliph 'Abd al-Malik, the vene- 
rable rock was enclosed with a palisade of ebony. 
It is certain that this wood had been already used 
under the caliphs together with ivory in the manu- 
facture of chess-men [see Shatrandj] and dice, in 
mosaics of the sort very often used later with great 
skill on furniture, doors, latice work and wainscots 
[see KhashabI. 

As a medicine, ebony was known to the Muslims 
as early as the ninth century from the translations 
of Dioscorides and Galen. It was considered to be 
a useful astringent for phylactenous inflammation 
and chronic catarrh of the eyes; it was also taken 
internally in the form of a powder for the bowels 
and stomach, and was dusted over burns. According 
to Dioscorides, Abyssinian ebony was generally con- 
sidered to be more efficacious than Indian. To the 
former were ascribed the properties which at the 
present time are only found in the wood of the 
Diospyros and the Maba kinds of the East Indies, 
of Indonesia, of Madagascar, and of Mauritius, i.e. 
an intense black colour and a fineness of grain that 
almost makes it impossible to distinguish the fibre. 
The African species of ebony which the Arabs prefer, 
are nowadays rightly held in little estimation. In 
particular the ebony tree of Abyssinia {shadjar ba- 
banus), is according to A. E. Brehm (Reisesk. aus 
Nordostafrika), more of a brush than a tree. Its 
wood, though not of an excellent quality, can be 
used, but if left unused, dries and rots. 

Bibliography: Abu Mansur Muwaffak, al- 

Abniya (Seligmann), 31 ; Ibn al-Baytar, Bulak 1291, 

8; transl. Leclerc, Notices et Extraits, xxiii/i, 16; 

Kazwlnl (Wiistenfeld), i. 247. (J. Hell) 

ABARKtJBADH. one of the sub-districts (tassudi) 

of c I*rak, according to the Sasanid division adopted 

by the Arabs, belonging to the district (P. astdn, 

A. kUra) Khusra Shadh Bahman (the district of 

the Tigris) and comprising a tract of land along the 

western frontier of Khuzistan, between Wasit and 

Basra. The name is derived from the Sasanid king 

Kawadh (Kubadh) I. The first part of the name is 

probably Abar (P. abar or abr "cloud" is often seen 

at the beginning of place-names) and not Abaz or 

Abadh as the Arab geographers have it. Some Arab 

authors give Abarkubadh as the name of the district 

in which Arradjan is situated, but that seems to 

spring from a mistake. 



Bibliography: Ibn Khurradadhbih, 7; Ku- 
dama, al-Kharddj, (de Goeje), 235; Yakut, i, 90; 
Baladhurl, Fut*h, 344; Ibn Sa'd, vii/13; Tabari, 
i, 2386, ii, 1 123; Th. Noldeke, Getch. d. Perstr u. 
Araber z. Zeit d. Sasaniden, 146, n. 2 ; M. Streck, 
Babylonien n.d. Arab. Geogr., i, 15, 19. 

(M. Streck) 
ABAR^OH, a small town belonging to Yazd 
and lying on the road from Shlraz to Yazd (at 39 
farsakhs from the former and at 28 fars. from the 
latter) and also connected by a road with Abadah 
[q.v.]. It lies in a plain, and according to Mustawfl, 
Nuzha, 121, its name ("on a mountain") refers to 
its earlier site. In 443/1051 Tughrllbeg gave Yazd 
and Abarkuh to the Kakuyid Faramarz (Ibn al- 
Athlr, ix, 384) as a compensation for the loss of 
Isfahan. His successors continued to rule these towns 
as atdbeks. In the 8th/i4th century Abarkuh is 
frequently mentioned in the history of the Mu- 
zaffarids. The oldest of the numerous ruins of Abar- 
kuh is the mausoleum built in 448/1056 by FIruzan, 
a descendant of the well-known condottiere of the 
4th/ioth century, FTriizan of Ashkawar (in Gllan). 
The so-called mausoleum of Ta'Qs al-Haramayn was 
built (or rebuilt) in 718/1318 by a descendant (in 
the fifth generation) of a Madid al-Dunyi wa-l-DIn 
Tadj al-Ma^H Abu Bakr Muhammad (a Muzaffarid). 
Bibliography: Le Strange, 284, 294, 297; 
P. Schwarz, Iran, i, 17; A. Godard, in Athdr-i 
Iran, 1936, 47-72; Mahmud Kutbl, History of 
the Muzaffarids, in GMS, xiv, see Index in xiv/2; 
Kasim GhanI, Ta'rikh-i <Asr-i Hdfiz, i, 1321/1942, 
index. (V. Minorsky) 

ABARSHAHR. the more ancient name of 
N i sh a p u r [q.v.], was the capital of one of the four 
quarters of the province of Khurasan. Its name in 
Persian, according to the Muslim geographers, is 
said to mean "Cloud-city", but Marquart's etymo- 
„ togy {ErdnSahr, 74), the "district of the 'Aroxpvot*' 
(comparing Armenian Apar assart) is more reliable. 
It was sometimes given the honorific title of Irin- 
Shahr "City of Iran". Its mint-signature on Sassa- 
nian coins is Apr, AprS or AprSs, forms which con- 
tinue to appear on the dirhams of Arab-Sassanian 
type struck by the Muslim conquerers (from 54/673-4 
to 69/688-9). Under the Umayyads its Arabic name 
appears on the Post-Reform dirhams from 91/709-10 
to 97/715-6. The names of the Umayyad governors 
Ziyad b. AM Sufyan and his sons 'Ubayd Allah 
and Salm as well as c Abd Allah b. Khazim all figure 
on the coins of Abarshahr. The later mint activities 
of the place continued under the name of Nisabur. 
Bibliography: Le Strange, 383; J. Mar- 
quart, ErdnSahr, Berlin 1901 (Abh. G. W. Gdtt, 
N.S., III/ii),66,68,74; J. Markwart, A Catalogue 
of the Provincial Capitals of Eranshahr, Rome 
1931 (Analecta Orientalia, iii), 52-3; J. Walker, 
A Catalogue of the Arab-Sassanian Coins, London 
1941, p. ci-cii, cvi, 36, 72, 74, 87-8; E. Herzfeld, 
in Transactions of the Intern. Congress of Numis- 
matists, 1936, 423, 426. (J. Walker) 
ABASKCN (or AbaskOn), a harbour in the 
south-eastern covner of the Caspian. It is de- 
scribed as a dependency of pjurdjan/Gurgan (Yakut, 
i, 55: 3 days' distance from Pjurdjan; i, 91: 24 
farsakhs). It might be located near the estuary of 
the Gurgan river (at Khodja-Nefes ?). Al-Istakhrl, 
214 (Ibn Hawkal, 273) calls Abaskun the greatest 
of the (Caspian) harbours. The Caspian itself was 
sometimes called Bahr Abaskun. 

Abaskun possibly corresponds to Ptolemy's 
Ecoxavaa in Hyrcania (Gurgan). Several times Abas- 



ABASKON — 'ABBAD 



kun was raided by Rus pirates (some time between 
250-70/864-84, and in 297/909, see Ibn Isfandiyar, 
Ta'rikh-i Tabari$tdn, ed. A. Eghbal, 266 [E. G. 
Browne's transl., 199], cf. also Mas'fldi, ii. 18; circa 
300/912). In 617/1220 the Kh»arizm-shah C A15 al- 
Din, tracked by the Mongols, sought refuge on 
"one of the islands of Abaskun", (see al-Djuwayni, 
ii, 115), and died there. According to Ibn al-Athir, 
xii, 242, he possessed in Ab-sukun (sic) a castle 
surrounded by water. The islands of Abaskun ap- 
parently correspond to the Ashur-ada group of 
islands and spits of land, divided from the Gurgan 
estuary by a strait. 

Bibliography: B. Dorn, Caspia, Vber die Ein- 
fdlle der alien Russen in Tabaristan, 1875, see 
index; Barthold, Istoriya orosheniya Turkestana, 
1914, 33- ( v - Minorsky) 

ABAZA, Turkish name for the Abazes (see ab- 
khaz), given as a surname to many persons in Otto- 
man history who descended from those people. 

1) Abaza pasha, taken prisoner at the defeat of 
the rebel Djanbulad, whose treasurer he was, was 
brought before Murad Pasha and had his life spared 
only through the intercession of Khalll, agha of 
the Janissaries, who, having become Itapuddn-pasha, 
gave him the command of a galley, and conferred 
upon him the government of Mar'ash when he was 
promoted to the dignity of grand vizier. Later he 
became governor of Erzerum and planned to destroy 
the Janissaries; those in his province lodged a com- 
plaint against him; he was deposed, but refused to 
obey the orders of the Porte (1032/1623); he levied 
taxes and raised troops on the pretext of avenging 
the death of the sultan c Uthman II, marched upon 
Ankara and Slwas, and took Brusa, but did not 
succeed in seizing the citadel. In 1033/1624, the 
grand vizier Hafiz Pasha defeated him in a battle 
near Kaysariyya, at the bridge across the Kara-su, 
owing to the defection of Tayyar pasha and the 
Turkomans. Abaza took refuge at Erzerum, of which 
he succeeded in having himself made governor on 
condition that he should admit a guard of Janissaries 
into the fortress. In 1036/1727, suspecting that the 
expedition against Akhiska was in reality directed 
against himself, he massacred a great number of 
the Janissaries belonging to the army. His old master 
Khalll besieged Erzerum in vain and was obliged 
to retreat because of the snow (1037/1627). In the 
following year, the Bosnian Khusrew Pasha, having 
been made grand vizier, again besieged him and 
forced him to capitulate after a fortnight's siege; 
the rebel was granted his pardon and the govern- 
ment of Bosnia. There he again persecuted his 
enemies, the Janissaries, was deposed and went to 
Belgrade, where on a hill to the south of the town 
he erected Abaza K'oshki. Then he was sent to 
Widdin and commanded the troops who invaded 
Poland (1633). Being honored with the confidence 
of Murad IV, he accompanied him to Adrianople 
when preparations were made for a new campaign 
against Poland; but his success excited envy; reports 
against him cleverly disseminated, estranged the 
sultan, who had him executed (29 Safar 1044/24 
August 1634). 

Bibliography: Hammer- Purgstall, iv, 569, 
582; v, 26, 83, 173 H; 189 ff.; Mustafa Efendi, 
NatdHdj, al-Wuku'-at, ii, 48, 82; Ewliya Efendi, 
Travels, i, 119 ff. 

2) Abaza Hasan had been given the command 
of the Turkomans of Asia Minor as a recom- 
pense for his capture of the rebel Haydar-eghlu. 
Having been dismissed for no reason, he revolted 



in his turn, held the country between Gerende and 
Bolu, defeated the old bandit Katirdji-oghlu who 
had been sent to fight against him, and submitted 
on condition that he should have the title of voivode 
of the Turkomans; later as the result of complaints 
lodged against him, he was imprisoned in the Seven 
Towers and was only released by the elevation of 
Behayi to the position of Shaykh al-Islam (1062/ 
1652); his friend conferred on him the sandjak of 
Okhri. When Ipshlr Pasha, who was also one of 
the Abaza nation, was made grand vizier by Mu- 
hammad IV, he sent for him. At his execution he 
remained faithful to him, returned to Asia Minor 
with the remainder of his troops and regained the 
office of voivode of the Turkomans (1065/1655). He 
settled at Aleppo and committed such ravages in 
Syria that the Dlwan wanted to have him banished 
from the empire ; the grand vizier, Sulayman Pasha, 
however, confirmed him in his position of governor 
and entrusted the defenses of the Dardanelles to 
him. In 1066/1656 he was sent to Diyar Bakr as 
governor. Two years later he rebelled, put himself 
at the head of a considerable army under the pretext 
of demanding the dismissal of Muhammad Kopriilu, 
at that time grand vizier, and threatened Brusa. 
In the neighborhood of Ilghin he completely defeated 
Murtada Pasha, who had been sent against him 
(15 Rabi c I 1069/11 Dec. 1658); but he fell into a 
trap which had been set for him, left 'Aynjab for 
Aleppo to make terms for his submission and was 
treacherously assassinated there. 

Bibliography : Hammer-Purgstall, v, 481, 
560 ff., 563, 575, 634; yi, 35 ff., 51 ff. 
3) Abaza Muhammad pasha was the beylerbey of 
Mar'ash when, during the campaign against the 
Russians (1183/1769), he was ordered to act in con- 
cert with the khan of the Crimea. He commanded 
the fortress of Bender and received the third tugh 
in recompense for the part he had taken in raising 
the siege of Choczim. Having been entrusted with 
the defense of this place and seeing himself abandoned 
by the Ottoman troops, he fled and was commis- 
sioned to defend Moldavia, which he failed to accom- 
plish. At the battle of Kaghul (1 Aug. 1770), he 
commanded the right wing; after the defeat of the 
Turks he feed to Ismail. Having been made governor 
of Silistria, he was dismissed after he had squandered 
the money given to him for the purpose of raising 
troops, and was exiled to Kustendil. At the time 
of the conquest of the Crimea and the flight of 
Selim-Giray he refused to land the few troops he 
was bringing up and returned to Sinope; he was 
decapitated (1185/1771). 

Bibliography: Hammer-Purgstall, viii, 341, 

348, 369, 387; Wasif Efendi, in Pre'cis historique 

de la guerre des Turcs contre les Russes, by P. A. 

Caussin de Perceval, 23, 31, 37 ff., 59, 103, m, 

148, 167. (Cl. Huart) 

c ABBAD b. MUHAMMAD [see 'abbadids] 

c ABBAD b. SULAYMAN al-SaymarI (or al- 

DaymarI), one of the Mu'tazila of Basra, 

died c. 250/864. He was a pupil of Hisham b. c Amr 

al-Fuwati (jl.c. 210/825), like his father criticizing 

the main tendency of the school of Basra (that of 

Abu '1-Hudhayl), and being in his turn criticized 

by Abu '1-Hudhayl's successors, al-Djubba^ and Abu 

Hashim. Our knowledge of his distinctive views 

comes mainly from al-Ash c ari's Makdldt. 

He emphasized the difference between God and 
man, admitting that God might be called a "thing" 
in the sense that He was "other" (I.e., 519). In parti- 
cular he insisted that God is eternal, and that what 



He eternally is must be independent 
mundane things. Thus God is not eternally "hearing" 
and "seeing", since that involves objects heard and 
seen (ib. 173, 493); He is not "before all things" 
(ib. 196, 519); no accident (such as an apparently 
supernatural event) can afford a proof of God, in 
view of its*transient character (ib. 225). In this 
way he came to distinguish between God's "active 
attributes" (sifdt al-fiH) and His eternal attributes 
(ib. 179, 186, 495-500), being perhaps the first to 
work out this distinction which was later adopted 
by orthodox theologians. 

He went to extremes in insisting that God does 
nothing that is evil in any respect, even denying 
that God made unbelief vile (kabih; ib. 227-8, 537-9), 
and maintaining that His punishment of the wicked 
in Hell is not evil. His political views (ib. 454, 458-9, 
467) seem to aim at a reconciliation of various con- 
temporary political groups, but the point has not 
been adequately studied. 

Bibliography: al-Ash c ari, Makdldt al-Is- 
lamiyyin, see index; al-Khavvat. al-Intisdr, 90-1, 
203; al-Baghdadi, al-Fark, 147-8, 261-2; Ibn al- 
MurtadS, al-Mu'-tazila, ed. Arnold, 44; al-Shah- 
rastani, 51; A. S. Tritton, Muslim Theology, 11 5-9; 
Montgomery Watt, Free Will and Predestination 
in early Islam, 81-4. (W. Montgomery Watt) 
'ASSAD b. ZIYAD b. AbI Sufyan, Abu Harb, 
Umayyad general. Mu c awiya appointed him 
governor of Sidjistan, where he stayed seven years; 
in the course of his expeditions to the East, he con- 
quered Kandahar. In 61/680-1 he was dismissed by 
Yazid b. Mu c awiya who appointed in his place his 
brother Salm b. Ziyad to be governor of Sidjistan and 
Khurasan. In 64/684, he joined in the battle of Mardj 
Rahit [q.v.], at the head of a contingent formed by 
his own gens. Afterwards he wished to retire to 
Dumat al-Djandal, but he was obliged to combat a 
lieutenant of al-Mukhtar b. Abi c Ubayd [q.v.]. The 
date of his death is unknown. 

Bibliography: Baladhuri, Futuh, 365, 397, 
434; id., Ansdb, v, 136, 267-8; Tabari, ii, 191 f.; 
Ibn Kutayba, al-Ma c drif, 177; al-Aghdni 1 , xvii, 
53 f. (K. V. Zettersteen) 

C ABBADAN (Abadan) stands on the south-west 
side of the island of the same name, on the left bank 
of the Shatt al- c Arab. It is believed to have been 
founded by a holy man named c Abbad in the 8th 
or gth century A.D. (the people of Basra used 
to add the termination "an" to a proper name in 
order to change it into a place name). In those days 
'Abbadan was on the sea coast, but with the gra- 
dual extension of the delta of the Shatt al- c Arab, 
it is now over 30 miles from the head of the Persian 
Gulf. In the early 'Abbasid period c Abbadan was 
a center of ascetics living in ribdf (L. Massignon, 
Essai, 135; Abu '1-Atahiya, Diwdn, 218). 

'Abbadan is described in the Ifudud al- l Alam, 
139 (cf. also 392) as "a flourishing and prosperous 
borough on the sea coast. All the 'Abbadanl mats 

come from there, and therefrom comes the 

salt for Basra and Wasit." Three and a half centuries 
later, when Ibn Battuta visited c AbbSdan, it was 
no more than a large village; it stood on a salty, 
uncultivated plain. In later times the inhabitants 
eliminated the salt from the soil bordering the river 
and planted the palm-groves which are now such 
a feature of both banks of the Shatt al-'Arab and 
of those of the Bahmashlr river on the north-east 
side of c Abbadan island. c Abbadan, however, re- 
mained a village until it was chosen, in 1909, as the 
site of the refinery of the Anglo-Persian Oil Co. 



Since that time, it has increased enormously in size; 
in 1951 its population was nearly 200,000 and the 
refinery had become the largest in the world. 

About 1935 RidS Shah, in pursuance of his policy 
of Persianizing Arabic names, changed c Abbad5n into 
Abadan. 

Bibliography: Nasir-i- Khusraw. Safar-ndma, 
ed. Schefer, 89; Le Strange, 48 f.; L. Lockhart, 
Khuzistan Past and Present, in Asiatic Review, 
Oct. 1948; Abadan Refinery, in Review of Middle 
East Oil Petroleum Times, London, June 1948. 

(L. Lockhart) 
al- c ABBAdI, Abu <Asim Muh. b. Ahmad b. 
Muh. b. c Abd Allah b. 'Abbad, often called al- 
Kadl al-Harawi, a well-known Shafi'ite jurisconsult. 
He was born in 375/985 in Harat, studied there and 
in Nisabflr, and undertook extensive journeys on 
which he met numerous scholars. He finally became 
kadi of Harat and died there in 458/1066. He was 
notorious for his dark and difficult style of expression. 
Of his works, which al-Subkl enumerates, there have 
survived the Tabakdt al-ShdfiHyyin (used by al- 
Asnawl) in several manuscripts, and the A dab al- 
Kadd } in the commentary which his disciple Abu 
Sa c d (or Sa c id) b. Abi Ahmad b. Abi Yusuf al- 
Harawi (d. about 500) wrote under the title al- 
Ishrdf c ald Ghawdmid al-Ifukumdt (Subkl, iv, 31). 
His son Abu 1-Hasan is the author of a K. al-Rakm. 
Bibliography: Subki, Tabakdt, iii, 42 (with 
extracts from his works and a discussion of his 
style); Ibn Khallikan, no. 558; F.- Wiistenfeld, 
SchdfiHten, no. 408; Brockelmann, i, 484; S i, 669. 

(J. Schacht) 
'ABBADIDS (Ban© c Abbad), dynasty of Arab 
race which reigned for most of the 5th/nth century 
over the S.-W. of al-Andalus, with its capital at 
Seville [cf. ishbilya]. 

It was at the moment of the disintegration of 
the Caliphate of Cordova and of the political dis- 
memberment of the country by the petty kings 
known as the taifas (muluk al-(awdHf) that the kadi 
of Seville, Abu '1-Kasim Muhammad b. <Abbad, 
succeeded in being proclaimed ruler in 414/1013. The 
son of a celebrated Spanish-Muslim jurist of Lakhmid 
origin, Isma'il b. £ Abbad, he began, on first seizing 
power, by recognizing the suzerainty of the Ham- 
mudid king Yahya b. c Ali, but soon threw off this 
wholly nominal mark of subordination. There is 
relatively little information on the details of his 
reign, which was mostly occupied in settling by force 
of arms his disputes with the Djahwarids [q.v.] of 
Cordova and the lesser baronies in southern Andalu- 
sia. He died in 433/1042. 

His son, Abu c Amr c Abbad b. Muhammad suc- 
ceeded, in a reign of nearly thirty years (433-460/ 
1042-69), in enlarging the territory of the princi- 
pality of Seville to a considerable size by posing 
as the champion of the Andalusian Arabs against 
the Spanish Berbers, whose numbers, already large 
in the Iberian peninsula in the 10th century, had 
greatly increased since the period of the c Amirid 
dictators. 

On succeeding his father, the new king of Seville, 
then 26 years of age, took the princely title of hd- 
diib, following the custom of the time, but a little 
later adopted the honorific lakab of al-Mu c tadid 
bi c llah, by which he is generally known. Gifted 
with real political qualities, it was not long before 
he showed his true character, that of an authori- 
tarian ruler, as ambitious as he was cruel, and with 
few scruples in the choice of means to achieve his 
ends. Immediately after his accession he conti- 



nued the struggle opened by his father against the 
minor Berber dynasty of Carmona [cf. ijarmuna], 
Muh. b. 'Abd Allah al-Birzall and the latter's son 
and successor Ishak. At the same time al-Mu'tadid 
was preoccupied in extending his kingdom to the 
west, between Seville and the Atlantic Ocean. With 
this end in view he attacked and defeated succes- 
sively Ibn Tayfflr, lord (?a&»6) of Mertola, and Muh. 
b. Yahya al-Yahsubl, lord of Niebla [cf. labla], 
who, notwithstanding his Arab descent, had un- 
blushingly allied himself with Berber chiefs. In face 
of the success of the king of Seville, the other muluk 
al-tawd'if, distrustful of him, formed against him 
a kind of league, which was joined by the princes 
of Badajoz [cf. batalyaws], Algeciras [cf. al- 
Pjazira al-khadra'], Granada [cf. gharnata] and 
Malaga [cf. malaka]. War broke out soon afterwards 
between the 'Abbadid of Seville and the Aftasid 
[q.v.] al-Muzaffar of Badajoz; it was prolonged over 
many years, in spite of the efforts at mediation of 
the Djahwarid prince of Cordova, which bore fruit 
only in 443/1051. In the interval, while continuing 
to harass the frontiers of the kingdom of Badajoz, 
al-Mu'tadid did not remain inactive; he defeated, 
one after the other, Muh. b. Ayyub al-Bakri, lord 
of Huelva [cf. walba] and of Saltes [cf. shaltIsh] 
(whose son was the celebrated geographer), the Banu 
Muzayn, lords of Silves [cf. shilb], and Muh. b. 
Sa c id b. Harun, lord of Santa Maria de Algarve 
[cf. shantamariyat al-gharb] and annexed their 
principalities. In order to justify these annexations 
al-Mu'tadid employed a somewhat clumsy strata- 
gem: he claimed to have found the caliph Hisham 
II, who had died in obscurity some years earlier, 
and to be devoting himself tirelessly to restoring 
to him his former empire, entirely submissive and 
pacified. In order to protect themselves against the 
assaults of the king of Seville, the majority of the 
minor Berber chiefs in the mountains in the south 
of Andalusia acquiesced in this theatrical pretence, 
and paid homage both to the 'Abbadid and to the 
Commander of the Faithful; miraculously restored 
to light to serve the interests of al-Mu'tadid but at 
the same time carefully kept in seclusion by him. 
But their efforts were in vain. One day the 'Abbadid 
invited all these minor Berber princes and their 
attendants together to his palace at Seville and 
suffocated them to death in a bath-house whose 
openings he has walled up; by this means he appror- 
priated Arcos [cf. arkush], seat of the principality 
of the Banu Khizrun, Moron [cf. mawrur], ruled 
by the Banu Dammar, and Ronda [cf. runda], 
capital of the Banu Ifran (445/1053). 

This action was enough to unloose the fury of 
the most powerful Berber prince in Spain, Badls 
b. Habbus the ZIrid [q.v.] at Granada, who alone 
seemed capable of standing up to al-Mu'tadid. 
When the war began, however, the latter found 
fortune still smiling on him and soon afterwards 
seized Algeciras from the Hammudid prince al- 
Kasim b. Hammud. He then tried to capture Cor- 
dova, and for this purpose despatched an expedition 
under the command of his son Isma'il; but Isma'il 
sought to profit from the occasion to rebel and to 
create a kingdom of his own, with Algeciras as his 
capital. This venturesome project cost him his life. It 
also opened the political career of al-Mu'tadid's other 
son, Muhammad al-Mu'tamid, who was to succeed 
him on his death. On his father's orders, Muhammad 
set out with an army to give support to the Arabs 
of Malaga, who had revolted against the tyrannical 
rule of the Berber despot of Granada, Badls. But 



Badls routed the army of Seville, and the prince, 
in sad plight, threw himself into Ronda, whence 
he solicited and obtained his father's pardon. Al- 
Mu'tadid had long since discarded the fable of the 
pseudo-Hisham, which he no longer needed; he was 
by far the most redoubtable and most feared of the 
Spanish sovereigns; he had had no enemies but the 
Berbers, Muslims like himself, but far further re- 
moved from his Spanish-Arab social ideals than his 
Christian neighbours of the north. In other places, 
he might have been given the title of Berberohtonos. 

When the powerful sovereign of Seville died in 
461/1069, his son, Muhammad b. 'Abb ad, 
better known by his honorific lakab of al-Mu'- 
tamid [q.v.], took possession of his greatly enlarged 
kingdom, which now embraced most of the S.W. 
part of the Iberian peninsula. 

Already in the second year of his reign, al-Mu'- 
tamid was able, despite the ambitions of the king 
of Toledo, al-Ma'mun [q.v.], to annex to his kingdom 
the principality of Cordova, formerly ruled by the 
Djahwarid princes. The young prince 'AbbSd was 
appointed governor of the former capital of the 
Umayyads. But on the instigation of the king of 
Toledo, an adventurer, named Ibn 'Ukkasha, suc- 
ceeded in seizing Cordova by surprise in 468/1075, 
and put the young 'Abbadid prince and his general 
Muh. b. Martin to death. Al-Ma'mun took possession 
of the city, where he died six months later. Al- 
Mu'tamid, wounded both in his paternal affections 
and his royal pride, endeavoured for three years 
in vain to reconquer Cordova. He gained his object 
only in 471/1078; Ibn 'Ukkasha was put to death, 
and all that part of the kingdom of Toledo lying 
between the Guadalquivir and the Guadiana was 
conquered by the armies of Seville. Yet at the same 
time it needed all the skill of the vizier Ibn 'Ammar 
[q.v.] to bring an expedition of Alfonso VI of 
Castille against Seville to a peaceful conclusion, in 
return for the payment of a double tribute. 

This was, in fact, the moment when, thanks to 
the tenacious vigour of the Christian princes in 
seeking to profit from the sanguinary conflicts waged 
against one another by the Muslim muluk al-tawd'if, 
the reconquista — which had been arrested for a 
time and had even receded under the last Umayyads 
and the first 'Amirid dictators — resumed its advance 
towards the south of the peninsula. Notwithstanding 
their successes, blazoned by the Muslim chroniclers, 
it must not be forgotten that from the middle of 
the eleventh century many Spanish Muslim dynasties 
were reduced to trying to gain, by means of heavy 
tributes, the temporary neutrality of their Christian 
neighbours. Shortly before the resounding capture 
of Toledo by Alfonso VI, in 478/1085, al-Mu'tamid 
began to find himself enmeshed in serious diffi- 
culties. On the imprudent advice of Ibn 'Ammar, 
he attempted, after the annexation of Cordova, to 
annex further the principality of Murcia [cf. mur- 
siya], then governed by a ruler of Arab origin, 
Muh. b. Ahmad Ibn Tahir. In 471/1078, Ibn 'Ammar 
paid a visit to the count of Barcelona, Ramon 
Berenguer II, and asked for his assistance in con- 
quering Murcia in return for the sum of 10,000 
dinars, as surety for the payment of which a son 
of al-Mu'tamid, al-Rashld, would serve as hostage. 
After a series of agitated comings and goings, which 
ended in the payment to the count of Barcelona 
of a sum thrice as large, Ibn 'Ammar resumed his 
project of conquering Murcia, and soon realised it, 
thanks to the assistance of the lord of the castle of 
Bildj (now Vilches), Ibn Rashik. It was not long, 



'ABBADIDS - 

however, before Ibn 'Ammar in Murcia made him- 
self intolerable to his sovereign. Betrayed by Ibn 
Rashik, he was forced to flee from Murcia, and 
sought refuge successively at Leon, Saragossa and 
Lerida. On returning to Saragossa he endeavoured 
to assist its prince, al-Mu'tamin b. Hud [cf. hOoios], 
in his expedition against Segura [cf. shakura], but 
was captured and handed over to al-Mu'tamid, who, 
notwithstanding the ties of friendship which had 
for so long bound them together, killed him with 

In the meantime Alfonso VI began to disclose 
openly his designs on Toledo, which he had begun 
to invest since 473/1080. Two years later, having 
sent a deputation to collect the annual tribute 
which al-Mu'tamid was paying to him, he learned 
that its members had been molested and that the 
Jewish treasurer Ibn Shalib. who had accompanied 
it, had been put to death because of his refusal to 
accept money of low standard. Thereupon he made 
an incursion into the kingdom of Seville, raided the 
flourishing townships of the Aljarafe [cf. al-sharaf], 
struck across the district of Sidona [cf. shadOna] as 
far as Tarifa [cf. tarif, bjazirat], where he pro- 
nounced a celebrated phrase in which he boasted 
of having trodden the furthest bounds of Spain. 

The capture of Toledo by Alfonso VI was a 
heavy blow to Islam in Spain. The king of Castille 
at once demanded of al-Mu'tamid the return of his 
possessions which had formerly been part of the 
kingdom, of the Dhu '1-Nunids, i.e. part of the 
present provinces of Ciudad Real and Cuenca. 
Throughout Muslim Spain his ever-increasing de- 
mands caused a particularly difficult situation. In 
spite of their unwillingness, the princes of Spain, 
with al-Mu c tamid at their head, were compelled to 
implore the aid of the Almoravid sultan, Yusuf b. 
Tashufln (see al-MurabitOn), who had recently 
seized the whole of Morocco in an irresistible ad- 
vance. It was decided to send him an embassy com- 
posed of the vizier Abu Bakr b. Zaydun and of the 
kadis of Badajoz, Cordova and Granada. The nego- 
tiations were successfully concluded, though not 
without difficulty; Yusuf b. Tashufln finally crossed 
the Straits of Gibraltar, and inflicted on the Christian 
troops, on 22 Radjab 479/23 October 1086, the 
bloody defeat of al-Zallaka [q.v.], not far from Bada- 
joz. It need here only be briefly recalled that Yusuf 
b. Tashufln, compelled to return to Africa, was 
unable to gain from his victory all the advantages 
for which the Spanish Muslim princes had hoped, 
while they, owing to the decisive influence exerted 
by the Spanish-Muslim faklhs on the Almoravid, 
rapidly lost all prestige in his eyes. After his with- 
drawal the Christian troops began again to harass the 
Muslim possessions, to such effect that al-Mu c tamid 
had this time to present himself in person before 
Yusuf b. Tashufln in Morocco, to ask him to recross 
the Straits with his troops. Yusuf agreed to his 
request and disembarked at Algeciras in the following 
spring (480/1088). He set out to besiege the fortress 
of Aledo (Ar. al!t), without success, but under 
the stimulus of popular sentiment and the counsels 
of the faklhs concluded that it would be of greater 
advantage to him to pursue the djihdi in Spain 
on his own account. From that time, he set himself 
to dethrone and dispossess the princes who had 
solicited his intervention, and it was not long before 
he was carrying his arms into the kingdom of Seville 
in order to take possession of it. An army commanded 
by the general Sir b. AM Bakr by the end of 1090 
seized Tarifa, then Cordova (where a son of al- 



Mu'tamid, Fath al-Ma'mun, was killed), Carmona, 
and finally Seville, which was taken in spite of a 
heroic sortie by al-Mu'tamid. The vanquished prince, 
made prisoner by the Almoravid, was at first sent 
with his wives and children to Tangier, then to 
Meknes, and after several months to Aghmat, not 
far from Marrakush. He passed a miserable existence 
there for some years, and died there in 487/1095, 
aged fifty-five years. With him, in these lamentable 
circumstances, ended the dynasty of the 'Abbadids, 
which may be regarded, notwithstanding the ex- 
cesses and cruelty of its princes, as the most brilliant 
of the dynasties of the taifas and indubitably that 
under which the arts and letters shone most brightly 
in Muslim Spain of the eleventh century: 

Bibliography: Ibn Bassam, al-Dhakhira, iv; 
'Abd Allah b. Buluggin, al-Tibydn; Ibn al-Abbar, 
al-Hulla al-Siydrd > (ed. Dozy, Notices etc.); 'Abd 
al- Wahid al-Marrakushl, al-Mu'-diib; Ibn al-Kha- 
tlb, al-Ihd(a; idem, A'mdl al-AHdm; Ibn 'Idhari 
al-Baydn al-Mughrib, iii; al-Fath b. Khakan, 
Kald'id al-Hkydn and Ma(mah al-Anfus; Ibn Khal- 
dun, al-'Ibar, iv and Histoire des Berberes, trad, 
de Slane, ii; al-HuUd al-Mawshiyya; Ibn Abl Zar', 
Rawd al-Kirtds; Makkari, Analectes Most of the ex- 
tracts of these authors concerning the 'Abbadids 
have been put together by R. Dozy, Scriptorum 
arabum loci de Abbadidis, Leiden 1846. R. Dozy, 
Histoire des Musulmans d'Espagne', Leiden 1932, 
vol. iii; A. Gonzalez Palencia, Historia de Espana 
musulmana*, Barcelona 1929, 73 ff.; E. Levi- 
Provencal, Inscriptions arabes d'Espagne, Leiden- 
Paris 193 1 ; A. Prieto Vives, Los reyes de taifas, 
Madrid 1926 (especially coinage); E. Levi-Pro- 
vencal, Esp. mus., vol. iv. 

(E. L£vi-Provencal) 
'ABBAS I, styled the Great, king of Persia 
of the Safawl dynasty, second son and successor 
of Muhammad Khudabanda. was born on 1 Rama- 
dan 978/27 January 1571, and died in Mazandaran 
on 24 Djumada I 1038/19 January 1629, after a 
reign of 42 solar (43 lunar) years. In 980/1572-3 
he remained at Harat when his father moved to 
Shiraz. In 984/1576-7 Isma'Il II put to death the 
lata (tutor) of 'Abbas, and appointed C A1I Kuli 
Khan Shamlu governor of Harat with orders to 
execute 'Abbas himself. C A1I Kuli procrastinated, 
and, when the death of Isma'Il II (985/1577-8) ren- 
dered the order null and avoid, was made himself 
lata to 'Abbas by Muhammad Khudabanda. Three 
years later 'All Kuli read the khufba at Harat in 
the name of 'Abbas, but, when threatened by the 
royal army, he re-affirmed his allegiance to Mu- 
hammad Khudabanda at Ghurlyan. Shortly after- 
wards his protege 'Abbas fell into the hands of his 
rival Murshid Kuli Khan Ustadjlu, governor of 
Turbat, and in 995/1587 the latter marched on 
Kazwln. Muhammad Khudabanda was deposed, and 
'Abbas became Shah at the age of 16, with Murshid 
Kuli as his waktt-i diwdn-i c dli. 

'Abbas, faced with the twofold task of enforcing 
his authority over the Klzllbash amirs, and of check- 
ing the encroachment on Persian territory of the 
Ottomans in the West and the Uzbegs in the East, 
at once created from the ranks of Georgian prisoners 
converted from Christianity a cavalry corps of 
ghuldmdn-i khdssa-yi sharifa, paid direct from the 
royal treasury. With their aid, and by a successful 
appeal to the loyalty of the shdhi-sewen [q.v.], he 
crushed a revolt of amirs, and followed this by rid- 
ding himself of the now too-powerful Murshid Kuli. 
The importance of the ghuldms gradually increased. 



--'ABBAS B. 'ABD al-MUTTALIB 



The appointment of Allahwardl Khan t 
of Fars elevated a ghuldm to equality of status with 
the Kfzilbash amirs, and eventually ghuldms filled 
some 20% of the high administrative posts. 'Abbas 
systematically pacified the provinces of 'Irak-i 
'Adjam, Fars, Kirman and Luristan. The local 
rulers of Gllan and Mazandaran were subjugated. 
In order to avoid fighting on two fronts, 'Abbas 
signed in Constantinople in 998/1589-90 a peace 
treaty most unfavourable to Persia. The regions of 
Adharbaydjan, Karabagh, Gandja, Karadjadagh, 
with Georgia and parts of Luristan and Kurdistan, 
were to remain in Ottoman hands, and a interdict 
was placed on the ShI'ite objurgation of the early 
Caliphs. 

'Abbas entrusted to Allahwardl Khan the re- 
organisation of the army on the lines suggested by 
Robert Sherley, an English adventurer then at the 
Persian Court. A new corps of 12,000 musketeers 
(tufangd), for the most part mounted, was recruited 
locally from the peasantry; the strength of the 
ghuldms'was raised to 10,000 by further recruitment 
from the Georgian converts; 3000 more were se- 
lected as muldzimdn or personal bodyguard to the 
Shah; and a corps of artillery, comprising 12,000 
men and 500 guns, was also recruited from the 
ghuldms, cannon being cast under the supervision 
of Sherley. 'Abbas thus had a standing army of 

After the death of the Shaybanids 'Abd Allah 
b. Iskandar [q.v.] and 'Abd al-Mu'min, dynastic 
rivalries distracted the Uzbegs, and 'Abbas was able 
to inflict on them a severe defeat at Harat (1007/ 
1598-9), and to recover Mashhad and Harat after 
ten years of Uzbeg occupation. In a attempt to 
stabilise the North-East frontier, 'Abbas installed 
at Balkh, Marw and Astarabad Uzbeg chiefs sub- 
servient to himself. But BakI Muhammad, the new 
khan of Transoxania, re-occupied Balkh (1009/ 
1600-1), and though 'Abbas led a force of 50,000 
men against him, he was outmanoeuvred and forced 
to retreat (ion/1602-3), losing large numbers of 
men through sickness, and abandoning most of his 
new artillery. At this point hostilities in the East 
were suspended, but in the West 'Abbas invaded 
Adharbaydjan in 1012/1603-4, and occupied Nakh- 
ciwan and Eriwan. The Ottomans under Cighala- 
zada suffered a signal defeat at Sis near Tabriz 
(1014/1605-6), with the loss of 20,000 men. Gandja 
and Tiflis were taken by the Safawids. Internal 
disorders in Turkey contributed to the haphazard 
conduct of the war against Persia. Successive Tur- 
kish invasions of Adharbaydjan were hampered by 
the Persian policy of devastating the regions of 
Cukhiir Sa'd and Nakhciwan and evacuating the 
inhabitants. Peace was eventually concluded at 
Sarab in 1027/1617-8, but was broken by 'Abbas 
in 1033/1623-4, when he took Baghdad and Diyar 
Bakr from the Ottomans. 

In other directions too 'Abbas expanded Safawid 
territory. Bahrayn was annexed in 1010/1601-2, 
Shu-wan was reconquered in 1016/1607-8. With 
British aid, the island of Hurmuz was taken from 
the Portuguese in 1 030/1 620-1, but a long series 
of bitter wars in Georgia failed to result in permanent 
annexation, and 'Abbas was finally forced to re- 
cognize the Georgian prince Taymuraz. Military 
necessity was often the pretext for the transference 
of large bodies of people to other regions. Some 20,000 
Armenians from the Erzerum region were enrolled 
in the ghuldms: a further 3000 families were moved 
from Djulfa to Isfahan: the Karamanlu tribe of 



Karabagh was moved to Fars in 1023/1614-5: and 
the influx of Georgians from Kakhetia — 130,000 
prisoners were taken in the expedition of 1025/ 
1616-7 alone — was a major factor in achieving that 
admixture of races and creeds by which 'Abbas 
planned to offset the power of the Klztlbash. 

Diplomatic contacts with European countries and 
with India were numerous during 'Abbas's reign, 
but all his efforts to create a European alliance 
against the Ottomans failed. Though careful to keep 
on good terms with the Mughal Emperors Akbar 
and Djahangir, he always regarded Kandahar, seized 
by Akbar in 999/1 590-1, as Persian territory, and 
in 1031/1621-2 he re-occupied the city. 'Abbas main- 
tained friendly relations with the princes of Mus- 
covy and the Tatar khans of the Crimea. Foreign 
monastic orders, like the Carmelites, the Augusti- 
nians and the Capuchin Friars, were accorded per- 
mission to operate without hindrance. In 1007/ 
1598-9 Sir Anthony Sherley, brother of Robert, was 
dispatched to Europe accompanied by a Persian 
envoy, Husayn 'All Beg Bayat, and visited Prague, 
Venice, Rome, Valladolid and Lisbon. Return em- 
bassies were sent by the Spaniards, the Portuguese 
and the English. The latter's envoy, Sir Dodmore 
Cotton, was the first accredited English ambassador 
to the Persian Court. 

'Abbas improved communications by the construc- 
tion of roads (notably t^le coast road through Ma- 
zandaran), bridges and caravanserais. He enriched 
Isfahan, which became his new capital in 1006/1597-8, 
with mosques, palaces and gardens: but he also 
built palaces at Kazwin, and at Ashraf and Fara- 
habad on the Caspian, where he spent an increasing 
amount of time in his later years. He explored the 
possibility of diverting some of the head-waters 
of the Karun into the basin of the Zayanda-ROd. 
Although endowed with great qualities, 'Abbas 
could be ruthless, and his family fell victims to his 
desire for security. His father, Muhammad Khu- 
dabanda, and two brothers, Abu Talib and Tah- 
masp, were blinded and incarcerated at Alamflt; 
a son, Muhammad Bakir MIrza, was executed on 
a charge of treason in 1022/1613, and another, 
Imam Kull, was made heir-apparent in 1030/1620 
during an illness of 'Abbas, but was blinded on the 
latter's recovery. Throughout his reign, 'Abbas at- 
tached great importance to maintaining the pir u- 
murshid relationship with his subjects: hence he 
made frequent visits to the ShI'ite shrines at Ardabll, 
Mashhad, where he repaired the damage caused by 
the Uzbegs, and, after their capture from the Otto- 
mans, to those at Karbala 5 and Nadjaf. 

Bibliography: Iskandar Munshl, Tdrikh-i 
c Alam-Ard-yi 'Abbdsi, Teheran 1897; A true re- 
port of Sir Anthony Sherley 's journey, London 
1600; Garcias di Silva y Figueroa, De rebus Persa- 
rum Epistola, Antwerp 1620; Ambassade en Perse, 
transl. de Vicqfort, Paris 1667; Pietro della Valle, 
Voyages, Paris 1745; Sir John Malcolm, History 
of Persia, London 1815, i, 555 ff.; Chardin, Voy- 
ages du Chevalier Chardin, ed. Langles, Paris 
1811; The three brothers, London 1825; W. Parry, 
A new and large discourse, London 1601 ; CI. Huart, 
Histoire de Bagdad, 55 ff.; Browne, iv, 99 ft.; 
L. L. Bellan, Chah Abbas I, Paris 1932; V. Mi- 
norsky, Tadhkirat al-Muluk, London 1943. 

(R. M. Savory) 
'ABBAS II and III [see safawids] 
al-'ABBAS b. 'ABD al-MUTTALIB, with the 
kunya Abu '1-Fadl, half-brother of Muham- 
mad's father, his mother being Nutayla bint 



C ABD al-MUTTALIB - 



Djanab of al-Namir. The 'Abbasid dynasty took its 
name from him, being descended from his son c Abd 
Allah. Consequently there was a tendency for histo- 
rians under the 'Abbasids to glorify him, and in 
his case it is particularly difficult to distinguish 
fact from fiction. He was a merchant and financier, 
more prosperous than his half-brother Abu Talib, 
who, in return for the extinction of a debt, surren- 
dered to him the office of providing pilgrims to 
Mecca with water (sikdya) and perhaps also with 
food {rifdda). Though he owned a garden in al- 
Ta'if, he was not so wealthy as the leading men of 
the clans of c Abd Shams and Makhzum. There is 
no clear evidence of any rapprochement between 
him and Muhammad until 7/629 when he gave in 
marriage to Muhammad Maymuna, the uterine 
sister of his wife, Umm al-Fadl Lubaba. Stories 
purporting to show that prior to this he supported 
Muhammad are suspect. Thus he is said to have 
acted as protector of Muhammad at the Assembly 
of 'Akaba, and, while it is conceivable that he pro- 
tected him during his last year or two in Mecca, 
there is no evidence that the clan of Hashim revoked 
Abu Lahab's refusal to give protection. Al-'Abbas 
fought against the Muslims at Badr, was taken 
prisoner and then released, though whether with 
or without a ransom is disputed. He joined Mu- 
hammad as he was marching on Mecca in 8/630, 
but his conversion was less influential than that of 
Abu Sufyan. Muhammad welcomed him, and after 
the submission of Mecca confirmed in his family 
the inherited office of the sikdya. He is said to have 
acted bravely at Hunayn, and by his stentorian 
shout to have turned the tide of battle. He settled 
at Medina. Though one of those who contributed 
to the finances of the expedition to Tabuk, he pos- 
sibly did not campaign in Syria, as is sometimes 
said. He was not on good terms with 'Umar, but 
made a gift of his house for 'Umar's -extension of 
the mosque in Medina. Muhammad is said to have 
given him an annuity from the produce of Khavbar. 
and 'Umar, in revising the pension roll, made him 
the equal of the men of Badr; but he was never 
given any administrative post. He died about 32/ 
653 aged about 88. 

Bibliography : Ibn Hisham; WakidI, ed. Well- 
hausen; Tabari — see indexes; Ibn Sa'd, iv/i, 
1-22; Ya'kubi, ii., 47; Ibn Hadjar, al-Isdba, ii, 
668-71; Ibn al-Athir, Usd al-Ghdba, iii, 109-12; 
Goldziher, Muh. Stud., ii, 108-9; Th. Noldeke, 
in ZDMG, 1898, 21-7; Caetani, Annali, i, 517-8, 
ii, 120-1, etc.; MO, 1934, 17-58. 

(W. Montgomery Watt) 
'ABBAS b. ABI 'l-FUTCH Yahya b. TamIm 

B. MU C 1ZZ B. BADlS AL-SlNHAQlI, AL-AFpAL RuKN AL- 

DIn Abu 'l-Fapl, Fatimid vizier, a descendant 
of the ZIrids [q.v.] of North Africa. He seems to 
have been born shortly before 509/1 115, for in that 
year he was still a nursling. His father was then 
in prison and was banished in 509 to Alexandria, 
whither his wife Bullara and the little 'Abbas ac- 
companied him. After Abu '1-Futuh's death his 
widow married Ibn Sallar [see al- c Adil ibn Sallar], 
commandant of Alexandria and al-Buhayra, one of 
the most powerful generals of the Fatimid empire. 
When, in 544/1149-50, the caliph al-Zafir appointed 
Ibn Masai to the position of vizier, which had for 
some time been vacant, Ibn Sallar revolted, marched 
on Cairo at the head of his troops and forced the 
caliph to invest him with the vizierate. It was during 
these troubles that 'Abbas appeared for the first 
time on the political scene. He took the side of his 



step-father and was entrusted by him with the 
pursuit of Ibn Masai who had taken to flight. Ibn 
Masai fell, and on 23 Dhu '1-Ka'da 544/24 March 
1 1 50, Ibn Sallar made his entry into Cairo. During 
the following years 'Abbas lived at the court of 
Cairo and his son, Nasir al-DIn Nasr, became a 
favourite of the caliph. In the beginning of 548/ 
spring 1153, 'Abbas was made commander of the 
garrison of 'Askalan, the last place the Fatimids 
still possessed in Syria. Before reaching Syria, how- 
ever, at Bilbays, he decided — rumour had it, at 
the instigation of Usama b. Munkidh (the various 
historians who mention Usama's role evidently 
follow one common source, cf. Cahen, 19, note 2) — 
to assassinate his step-father and seize the vizierate. 
Nasr, 'Abbas's son, returned secretly to Cairo, ob- 
tained the consent of the caliph, who idolized him, 
and assassinated Ibn Sallar, 6 Muharram 548/3 April 
1153. 'Abbas returned as fast as he could and took 
possession of the vizierate, whilst 'Askalan fell into 
the hands of the Franks, 27 Djumada I 548/20 
August 1153. 'Abbas did not enjoy the position he 
had won for long. According to Usama (who was 
an intimate companion of Nasr and took part in 
the events which he relates) 'Abbas and his son Nasr 
were deeply suspicious of each other, 'Abbas think- 
ing that the caliph was urging Nasr to assassinate 
him. Usama claims to have acted as a conciliator 
between father and son, who resolved together to 
kill the caliph. Nasr lured the caliph to his house 
and assassinated him on the last day of Muharram 
549/16 April 1 154. Thereupon 'Abbas charged the 
nearest male relations of the caliph with the crime. 
They were put to death and the minor son of al- 
Zafir was placed upon the throne under the name of 
al-Fa 5 iz bi-Nasr Allah. These proceedings stirred up 
the court and the population; a message was sent 
toTala'i'b. Ruzzik [q.v.], governor of Usyut. 'Abbas, 
together with Nasr, fled before him to Syria, but 
the Franks, warned by the enemies of 'Abbas, sur- 
prised them near al-Muwaylih and 'Abbas was killed, 
23 Rabi' I 549/7 June 1154. Nasr was captured and 
delivered into the hands of the Fatimid government 
and executed, Rabi' II 550/June-July 1155. (The 
text of the sidjill announcing his arrival in Cairo 
is preserved in MS Brit. Mus., Suppl. 1140, fol. 
67v.). 

Bibliography: Usama b. Munkidh, al-lHibar, 
ed. Derenbourg, 5-6, 13-22, 69; Ibn Abl Tayy, see 
Cahen; Ibn Zafir, see Wustenfeld and Cahen; Ibn 
al-Muyassar, ed. Masse, 89-90, 92-5; Ibn al-Athir, 
xi, 93-4, 122, 125-8; Abu Shama, Kitdb al-Raw- 
datayn, Cairo 1287-8, i, 97 ff.; Ibn Khaldun. al- 
c Ibar, iv, 74 ff.; Abu '1-Fida 5 , iii, 29-30; Ibn Tagh- 
ribirdi, vol. iii; Ibn Khallikan, nos. 496, 522; 
Makrizi, al-Khitat, ii, 30; F. Wustenfeld, Gesch. der 
Fatimiden-Chalifen, 314 ff.; Lane- Poole, History of 
Egypt, 174; H. Derenbourg, Ousdma ibn Moun- 
kidh, i, 220 ff., 238-58. For the criticism of the 
sources of the historians see CI. Cahen, Quelques 
chroniques anciens relatives aux derniers Fatimides, 
BIFAO, 1937-8, 19, note 2. Poems concerning 
the affair of 'Abbas are quoted in 'Imad al-DIn, 
Kharidat al-Kasr, Egyptian poets (Cairo 1951), i, 
119. 190. (C. H. Becker— S. M. Stern) 

al-'ABBAS b. AL-Atf NAF, Abu 'l-Fadl, ama- 
tory poet of 'Irak, died, it seems, after 193/808. 
His family belonged to the Arab clan of Hanlfa, from 
the district of Basra, but had emigrated to Khu- 
rasan. It seems, however, that the father of al- 
'Abbas returned to Basra, where he is said to have 
died in 150/767 (al-Khatlb al-Baghdadi, 133). Al- 



>'ABBAS b. al-AHNAF 



'Abbas was born about 133/750. He grew up in 
Baghdad (this must be the meaning of the passage 
of Ibn Kutayba, 525, and of the words of al-Suli 
quoted by al-Khatlb, 128, or of those of al-Akhfash 
repeated in Aghdni ', viii, 353). We do not know 
anything about his adolescence or his studies. He 
must have started writing poetry very early, as 
Bashshar b. Burd (d. 167/783) speaks of his beginnings 
and calls him fata, or ghuldm (Aghdni', v, 210 
and al-Khatlb, 130). The only details we know about 
his career show him as a favourite of the caliph H5- 
run al-Rashid, who employed him, however, not as 
a panegyrist, but rather as one to amuse him in 
his hours of leasure (see e.g. Aghdni ', viii, 355 ft., 
and al-Khatlb. 131). It seems certain that the poet 
accompanied the caliph in his campaigns in Khu- 
rasan and Armenia, but, overcome by nostalgia, 
received his permission to return to Baghdad (A- 
ghdni ', viii, 372). Al-'Abbas was also connected 
with the high officials of the Barmakid family, es- 
pecially with Yahya b. Dja'far (Aghdni", v, 168, 241). 
One can assume that his verses were highly enjoyed 
by certain ladies of the caliph's harem, e.g. by 
Umm Dja'far, who made him presents (Aghdni* 
viii, 369). The favour shown to al-'Abbas by the 
men in power seems to have given him an influential 
position: a nephew of his, Ibrahim al-$uli (d. 243/ 
857), himself a poet, was "secretary" of the Chan- 
cery (see on him al-Mas'udl, Muritdj, vii, 237-45 
and al-Khatlb, 129; it is to be noted that through 
him al-'Abbas was the great-uncle of the famous 
Abu Bakr al-$ull [q.v.]). Almost nothing has come 
down to us about the literary contacts of al-'Abbas. 
He seems to have been on bad terms with Muslim 
b. al-Walid (al-Khatlb, 128) and the Mu'tazilite 
Abu '1-Hudhayl al-'Allaf (Aghdni, v, 354). Various 
dates are given for his death: 188/803 according 
to Aghdni, V, 254, repeated by al-Khatlb, 133; or 
192/807, idem 133 and Yakut, IV, 283; or after 
193/808, according to one of his friends who is 
said to have met him in Baghdad after the death 
of al-Rashid, which occurred in that year (al-Kha- 
tlb, 133 and Ibn Khallikan). Al-'Abbas would have 
been at that time about 60 years old. He is said to 
have died while on pilgrimage and to have been 
buried in Basra (al-Khatlb, 132-3 and al-Mas'udl, 
vii, 247). 

The work of al-'Abbas was collected after his 
death by Zunbur, and subsequently, in the form of 
extracts, by Abu Bakr al-Suli (Fihrist, 163, 151); 
al-Suli wrote also a biography of the poet (ib. 
151), which was extensively used by Abu '1-Faradj 
al-Isfahanl in the article in the Aghdni. We have 
no information about the versions that circulated 
in Khurasan during the lifetime of 'Ubayd Allah 
b. Tahir (d. 300/912; cf. Aghdni, viii, 353). One 
cannot exclude the hypothesis that verses by un- 
known authors were wrongly included in these 
versions; cf. the detail quoted by al-Marzubanl, 
292. At any rate Yakut, iv, 284 points out that 
the manuscripts of his time were divergent. The 
work of al-'Abbas is preserved only in two manu- 
scripts of the selection made by al-§ull ; on a third 
one, now lost ( ?), was based the unsatisfactory 
edition, Istanbul 1298/1880 (reproduced in Cairo- 
Baghdad 1367/1947; cf. A. Khusraji, Diwdn d'al- 
< Abbds b. al-Ahnaf, thesis submitted to the Faculty 
of Letters, Paris, in 1953). The existing collection 
consists of pieces that are generally short and some 
of which are perhaps only fragments of longer 

Al-'Abbas, as all his Muslim biographers have 



noted, cultivated only one genre, the ghazal [q.v.], i.e. 
erotico-elegiac poetry (cf. e.g. Ibn Kutayba, 525; 
Fihrist, 132; Aghdni', viii, 352). In their present 
state, the pieces that are available confirm this fact 
Al- 'Abbas appears in them as a follower of the poets 
of al-Hidjaz, namely c Umar b. Abi Rabi'a and es- 
pecially Djamll, al-Ahwas and al-'ArdjI, in whose 
work the tendencies of the school began to take a 
fixed form. In his poems there reappears not only 
the psychological scheme of the submissive lover, 
but also the fictitious personages of the rakib and 
wdshi. The woman whom he extols is presented in 
a stylised manner, so that we are unable to say if 
the poet is merely combining cliches or starting 
from a real experience. Not all the poems, 
however, are expressions of ideal love; we find 
(Diwdn, Istanbul, 148-50), the description of an 
orgy with singing girls. On the whole, however, the 
poetry of al-'Abbas stands in contrast to that of 
Abu Nuwas [q.v.], which is permeated with the 
carnal cult of the beloved. The art of al-'Abbas 
is highly conventional and his inspiration is mono- 
tonous. On the other hand, his style avoids the use 
of gimcrack rhetoric and his language, simple and 
fluent without being vulgar, is akin to that of Abu 

The vogue enjoyed by the poetry of al-'Abbas 
from the very first cannot be explained solely by 
some hellenistic influence or by respect for an old 
Arab tradition. The society in which the poet lived 
must also be taken into consideration. Chiming with 
the dilettantism of al-Rashid and the taste of the 
women of the court, the poems of al-'Abbas were 
ready-made material for composers and singers, 
like Ibrahim al-Mawsill (cf. Aghdni', vi, 182, viii, 
361, 354-6). Nevertheless the favour shown to them 
by men of letters like al-Djahiz, Ibn Kutayba. or 
al-Mas'udl, by a music-lover like the caliph al- 
Wathik, by a bel esprit like Abu Bakr al-Suli, or 
finally by a rigorist like Salama b. 'Asim (cf. Ibn 
Kutayba, al-Shi'v, 525ft., and especially Aghdni', 
viii, 354 ff.), shows that these poetical productions 
could be enjoyed by a public of greatly varying 

It is difficult to define the importance of al-'Abbas 
b. al-Aljnaf in the history of Arabic poetry. If Muslim 
Spain really appreciated this oriental poet (cf. Ibn 
Hazm, Tawk al-Ifamdma (Bercher), 285; Peres, La 
poesie andalouse en arabe classique au Xle siicle, 
54, 411), one might see in him one of the poets who 
influenced the erotic-elegiac poetry so highly valued 
in that country. In this case, his role in the develop- 
ment of the genre would be of the greatest impor- 
tance. Recently, oriental critics like F. Rifa'I and 
Bahbltl have tried to discover what in the work of 
al-'Abbas retains a lasting value. In two penetrating 
studies, Hell and Torrey placed the poet in his milieu 
and noted his influence in Arabic literature. 

Bibliography: Ibn Kutayba, Shi c r (de Goeje), 
525-7; Mas'udi, Muru&i, vii, 145-8; al-Aghani', 
passim, viii, 352-72 ; MarzubanI, al-Muwashshah, 
290-3; Fihrist, 132, 151, 163; al-Khatlb al-Baghdadl 
Ta'rikh Baghdad, xii, 127-33; Yakut, Irshdd, iy, 
233-4; Ibn Khallikan, no. 319 (after al-Khatlb 
and al-Mas'udl); F. Rifa'I, <Asr aX-Ma'mun, ii, 
393-9; Bahbiti, Ta'rikh al-Shi'r al-<Arabi, Cairo 
1950, 401-6; J. Hell, Al-'Abbds i. al-Ahnaf der 
Minnesanger am Hofe Harun al-Raiids, Islamica, 
1926, 271-307; C. C. Torrey, The history of al- 
« Abbas b. al-Ahnaf and his fortunate verses, JAOS, 
1894, 43-70; Brockelmann, I, 74, S I, 114. 

(R. Blach£re) 



al-'ABBAS b. 'AMR al-GHANAWI - 

al-'ABBAS b. 'AMR al-GHANAWI, famous 
general and governor of the 'Abbasid caliphs at the 
end of the third century/c. 900. In 286/899 ne fought 
against the Arab tribes in 'Irak. In 287/900 he was 
appointed by the caliph al-Mu'tadid governor of Ya- 
mama and Baljrayn, with orders to fight against the 
Karmatian chief of Bahrayn, Abu Sa'Id al- Djannabl. 
He left Basra with an army of regular soldiers, volun- 
teers from Basra and beduin auxiliaries, was left in 
the lurch in the first battle by the beduins andt he 
volunteers and next day, after a bloody battle, he 
was taken prisoner together with about 700 men 
(end of Radjab 287/July 900). The prisoners were 
executed, but al-'Abbas was spared by the Karma- 
tian, who charged him with a message to the caliph, 
in which he set forth the dangers and the uselessness 
of a new campaign against him. One can find in 
M. J. de Goeje's Memoire sur les Carmathes de Bah- 
rain, 37-41, an account of the battle and its conse- 
quences, after al-Tabari, as well as the anecdote, 
told among others by al-Tanukhi {al-Faradi ba'd 
ul-Shidda, Cairo 1903, i, 110-1), concerning the libe- 
ration of al-'Abbas, a matter of astonishment to 
contemporaries as well as his the historians. Al-'Ab- 
bas was one of the generals who in 289/901-2 aban- 
doned the commander-in-chief, Badr, at the insti- 
gation of the new caliph al-MuktafJ. According to 
Ibn al-Athir he was governor of Kumm and KSshan 
in 296/908-9. He accompanied the army of Mu'nis 
that defended Egypt, in 303-3/914-5, from a Fatimid 
attack (Ibn Taghribirdi, Cairo, iii, 186). At the end 
of his life, we find him as military and civil governor 
of DiySr Mudar, residing in al-Rakka, where he died 
in 305/917. He came, no doubt, from that district, 
and gave his name to a Kasr al-'Abbas, situated 
between Nisibis and Sindjar (Yakut, iv, 114). 

There does not seem to be sufficient reason to 
assume, as has been done in the first ed. of this 
Encyclopaedia, that there was at the same epoch 
another al-'Abbas b. 'Amr, different from ours. 
Bibliography: Tabari, ii, 2193, 2196-7, 2210; 
'Arlb, ed. de Goeje, 69 ; Miskawayhi, ed. Amedroz, 
i, 56; Ibn al-Athir, vii, 344-5, 358; Mas'udI, Mu- 
rudj, viii, 193-4; id., al-Tanbih, 393 f., trad. Carra 
de Vaux, 499-500; Ibn Taghribirdi, Cairo, ii, 122, 
186; Ibn Khallikan. no. 745, transl. de Slane, i, 
427, iii, 417, iv, 331 ; Ibn al-'Imad, Shadharat, 
ii, 194-5; C. Lang, MuHadid als Prim und Regent, 
ZDMG, 1887, 270-1. (M. Canard) 

'ABBAS b. FIRNAS b. WardCs, Abu 'l-Kasim, 
Andalusi scholar and poet, belonging to the 
entourage of the Hispano-Umayyad amirs al-Hakam 
I, 'Abd al-Rahman II and MuhammadI, in the 3rd/gth 
century. No biographical data about him are avail- 
able, and we only know that he was an Umayyad 
mawla of Berber origin, that he came from the kura 
of Takurunna, i.e. the district of Ronda, and that 
he died in 274/887. His strong personality is now 
fully manifest, thanks to the newly found volume 
of Ibn Hayyan's al-Muktabis concerning the 
Andalusi amirate, where a long passage is devoted 
to him and a great number of his verses are quoted. 
'Abbas b. Firnas, who managed, thanks to his pana- 
gyrics, to keep his position at the court of Cordova 
during three successive reigns, is chiefly represented 
as a uian ef curious and inventive mind. He is 
said to have made a journey to 'Irak and to have 
brought back to Spain the Sindhind. He was the 
only one in Cordova to be able to explain the con- 
tents of al-Khalll b. Ahmad's treatise on metrics. 
To him is attributed the invention of the fabrication 
of crystal. He constructed, and offered to his masters, 



a clock (mankana) and an armillary sphere (dhat 
al-halak). He was even a distant precursor of aviation, 
thinking out a sheath furnished with feathers and 
mobile wings; had the courage to put it on, to jump 
from the top of a precipice and to hover in the air 
for a few seconds before falling — escaping death by 
a miracle. He was occasionally accused of iandak.a, 
but without success. 

Bibliography: Ibn Hayyan, al-Muktabis, i 
(in press), fol. 130-2 and passim; Dabbl, Bughya, 
no. 1247; Makkarl, Analectes, ii, 254; A. Gonzalez 
Palencia, Moros y Christianos en EspaHa medieval, 
Madrid 1945, 30 f. ; E. Levi-Provencal, La civili- 
tation arabe en Espagne, 76 f.; idem, Esp. mus., 
i, 274. (E. L£vi-Provencal) 

al-'ABBAS b. al-BUSAYN al-ShIrazI, Abu 
'l-Fapl, vizier. At the death of al-Muhallabl in 
352/963, al-'Abbas, head of the Dlwan of Expenses, 
was charged by the Buyid Mu'izz al-Dawla with 
the functions of a vizier, together with another 
secretary, Ibn Fasandjas, but without succeeding 
to the title. After the death of Mu'izz al-Dawla in 
356/967, he was appointed vizier by the son and 
successor of Mu'izz al-Dawla, Bakfctiyar. He suc- 
ceeded in suppressing the rebellion of another son 
of Mu'izz al-Dawla. Owing to the enmity of the 
chamberlain Subuktakin, the financial difficulties, 
and the intrigues of Ibn Fasandjas who hoped to 
extract money from al-'Abbas, he was deposed in 
359/969-70 and put into the hands of his rival. The 
latter, however, was not more successful in his of- 
fice and al-'Abbas managed to recover his freedom 
in 360/971, to be re-appointed as vizier and to eli- 
minate definitely Ibn Fasandjas. His extortion of 
money, to pay the troops, made him again the butt 
of hatred, especially that of Bakhtiyar's omnipotent 
majordomo, Ibn Bakiyya. In 362/973 he was arrested 
owing the machinations of Ibn Bakiyya, and the 
latter was appointed vizier. Al-'Abbas was confined 
in the house of an 'Alid in Kufa and died soon after- 
wards, probably from poison. 

Al-'Abbas possessed a palace in Baghdad, called 
Khakan, which was destroyed by order of Bakh- 
tiyar. On this palace, the festivals held in it, and 
the other buildings of al-'Abbas, see al-Hnsrl, 
Dhayl Zahr al-Addb, Cairo 1353, 275 f. 

Bibliography: Miskawayh, ii, 121, 198ft., 
310 f.; Tanukhi, Nishwdr al-Muhddara, i, 215; 
Ibn al-Athir, viii, 405 f. (M. Canard) 

al-'ABBAS b. al-MA'MON, pretender to 
the throne under al-Mu'tasim. His father, the ca- 
liph al-Ma'mun, appointed him in 2 13/828-9 a governor 
of al-Djazira and the neighbouring frontier district, 
and he then showed great bravery in fighting the 
Byzantines. On the death of al-Ma'mun in 218/833, 
his brother, Abu Ishak Muhammad al-Mu'tasim 
bi-'llah, by choice of the deceased, ascended the 
throne of the 'Abbasids. The army which al-Ma'- 
mun had collected against the Greeks, however, 
proclaimed al-'Abbas caliph, although he himself was 
not in the least disposed to comply with the wishes 
of his troops and took the oath of fealty to his uncle. 
After that, he went back to his army and succeeded 
in appeasing its discontent. Then the caliph, in order 
to strengthen his position, took many measures of 
precaution; he had the fortress of Tuwana (Tyana) 
raz&l, stopped the war against the Byzantines and 
disbanded the army. Later, having organized some 
Turkish regiments as his guard, he loaded them with 
honours to an extent wbich disaffected the Arab 
troops, who had shown themselves sufficiently ill- 
disposed ever since the death of al-Ma'mun. 'Udjayf 



l-MA'MUN — al-'ABBAS b 



b. 'Anbasa, an Arab general in the service of al- 
Mu'tasim utilized this discontent for the purpose of 
organizing a conspiracy, the object of which was 
to assassinate the caliph and to put al-'Abbas on the 
throne. The latter allowed himself to be persuaded; 
but the plot was discovered, and the conspirators 
paid for their attempt with their lives. Al- 'Abbas 
died in prison at Manbidj in 223/838. 

Bibliography: Ya'kubi; Tabari; Mas'udi, 
Murudi, indexes; al-A ghdni, Tables; Fragm. 
Hist. Arab. (De Goeje-and de Jong), passim; 
Ibn al-Athir, Index; E. Marin, Abu Ja'far Mu- 
hammad b. Jarir al-Tabari's The Reign of al-Mu- 
to'sim, New Haven 1951, index. 

(K. V. Zettersteen) 
al-'ABBAS b. MIRDAS b. AbI 'Amir b. Haritha 
b. 'Abd Kays, of Sulaym, Arabian poet of the 
mukhadramin. A sayyid in his tribe by noble des- 
cent on both sides, he won renown as a warrior as 
well as a poet; although he did not come up to the 
fame of his stepmother, the celebrated al-Khansa'. 
his poetical achievements surpassed those of his 
brothers and his sister all of whom displayed literary 
gifts and two of whom lived to compose elegies on 
his death. Impelled, so the story goes, by two dream 
experiences or epiphanies in which his family idol, 
Dimar (not pimad, cf. TA, iii, 353) announced its 
own downfall and the rise of the true prophet, 
al-'Abbas went to Medina to embrace Islam. Mu- 
hammad, who was at the time preparing for the 
conquest of Mecca, arranged for al-'Abbas to meet 
him with his tribesmen at al-Kudayd. Al-'Abbas 
returned to the Banu Sulaym and burned his idol 
while his wife, Habiba, returned to her people in 
indignation over her husband's conversion. Al- 
'Abbas kept his word and joined in the fath Mahha 
(8/630) with some 900 fully armed warriors. He was 
among the mu'allafa kulubuhum, those influential 
men whose loyalty Muhammad endeavored to secure 
by lavish gifts, but demurred when on the distri- 
bution of the booty taken from the Hawazin at 
the battle of Hunayn (630) his present turned out 
substantially smaller than that of other leaders. 
As a result of a kasida of protest Muhammad satis- 
fied al-'Abbas by increasing his share. After the 
fath he withdrew to the territory of the Sulaym. 
He lived into the reign of 'Umar before whom he 
is reported to have appeared in a quarrel with an- 
other poet. Ibn Sa c d reports that he settled near 
Basra, often coming into town where the Basrians 
would take traditions from him. His son Djulhuma, 
too, appears as a transmitter of hadith from the 
Prophet. His offspring settled in and near Basra. 
Al-'Abbas's poetical fame would seem to be due 
as much to his colourful personality as to the actual 
merits of his verse. His mukadjat with his fellow- 
tribesman Khufaf b. Nadba, his poem upon his bur- 
ning pimar and accepting Islam, his protest against 
the Prophet's inadequate donation, and finally a 
kasida {Asma ( iyydt, XXXVIII; cf. introduction, 12) 
originating in connection with a successful raid into 
the Yaman are perhaps the best-known of his poems, 
which it seems were never collected into a diwdn. 
The available material gives evidence of a certain 
forcefulness but does not betray unusual talents. 
Some of his lines are interesting because of dialectical 
peculiarities, others because of the manner in which 
they reflect his experience of Islam. 

Bibliography: Aghdni 1 , xiii, 64-72; Ibn 
Kutayba, Shi'r, 467-70; Ibn Sa'd, iv/2, 15-17; 
Hamdsa of Abu Tammam, pp. 61-63 (ascription 
doubtful), 214-6, 512-3; Ibn Hisham, Sira, index; 



Khizdna, index ; Tabari, index ; C. Rabin, A ncient 
West Arabian, London 1951, index. 

(G. E. von Grunebaum) 
al-'ABBAS b. MUHAMMAD B. 'AlI b. 'Abd 
Allah, brother of the caliphs Abu l-'Abbas al-Saffahi 
and Abu Dja'far al-Mansur. 'Abbas helped to retake 
Malatya in 139/756, and three years later was ap- 
pointed by al-Mansur as governor of al-DjazIra and 
the neighbouring frontier district. He was dismissed 
in 155/772, but his name continues to figure frequently 
in the history of the following years, however little 
important his political part may have been. He es- 
pecially and often distinguished himself in the wars 
against the Byzantines. In 159/775-6 he was put 
at the head of the troops which the caliph al-Mahdi 
mustered for an expedition against Asia Minor, and 
it was with great success that he acquitted himself 
of the charge committed to him. He died in 186/802. 
Bibliography: Tabari, iii, 121; Baladhuri, 
Futuh, 184; Ya'kubi, ii, 461 ff.; Ibn al-Athir, v, 
372 ff.; Mas'udi, Murudi, vi, 266; ix, 64 t; Fragm. 
Hist. Arab, (de Goeje and de Jong), 225, 227, 265, 
275, 284; Abu '1-Mahasin (Juynboll andMatthes), 
i, see index; al-A ghdni, Tables; S. Moscati, in 
Orientalia, 1945, 309-10. (K. V. Zettersteen) 
'ABBAS b. NA$IH al-Thakafi, Andalusi poet 
of the 3rd/gth century. He stayed for a long time 
in Egypt, Hidjaz and 'Irak, acquiring a broad culture. 
A confidant of the amir al-Hakam I, who appointed 
him as kadi of his native Algeciras, he soon made 
a name for himself both as a philologist and a jurist. 
The Muktabis of Ibn Hayyan has preserved 
numerous specimens of his poetry. He died at the 
end of the reign of 'Abd al-Rahman II, circa 238/852. 
Bibliography: Ibn Hayyan, al-Muktabis, i 
(in press), fol. 129 f.; Ibn al-Faradi, Td'rikh, 
no. 879; Makkari, Nafh, index. 

(E. Levi-Provencal) 
al-'ABBAS b. al-WAL1D, Umayyad general, 
son of the caliph al-Walid I. Al-'AbbSs owes his 
celebrity principally to the energetic part he took 
in the continual struggles of the Umayyads with 
the Byzantines. Concerning the details, the Arabic 
and Byzantine sources do not always agree. In the 
early part of the reign of al-Walid I, he and his uncle 
Maslama b. c Abd al-Malik, took Tuwana, the most 
important fortress of Cappadocia. The Muslims had 
begun to be discouraged and 'Abbas had to display 
the greatest energy to succeed in stopping the fugi- 
tives and renewing the battle. The Greeks were 
forced to retire into the town, which was immedi- 
ately invested and had to surrender after a long siege. 
Arab historians give Pjumada II 88/May 707 as 
the date of the fall of the fortress, but the Byzantines 
put it two years later. For the following period, 
the Arabic chronicles mention many military ex- 
peditions undertaken by the two Umayyad generals, 
sometimes jointly, sometimes by one of them in- 
dependently of the other. The most remarkable 
events were the taking of Sebastopol in Cilicia by 
'Abbas, and of Amasia in Pontus by Maslama, in 
93/712. In the following year, fAbbas seized Antioch 
in Pisidia. He continued to support Maslama faith- 
fully in subsequent battles. When, after the death 
of 'Umar II in 101/720, Yazld b. al-Muhallab, the 
governor of 'Irak, fomented a dangerous insur- 
rection, 'Abbas was sent against him, first alone, 
then he and Maslama together. Yazld was killed, 
in a battle against the caliph's troops in 102/720, 
and peace was soon restored. In the reign of Walld 
II, he first was intelligent and loyal enough to 
oppose the plot of his brother Yazld, whom he 



--'ABBAS b. al-WALID — ABBAS 'MlRZA 



warned, together with the other Marwanids, not to 
loose by their revolts the fitna, which would prove 
fatal to the dynasty. But at the end he had to give 
in to violence and join the coup d'etat of 126/744. 
Later he was thrown into prison by the last Umayyad 
caliph, Marwan II. He died in prison in Harran, 
in an epidemic, in 132/750. 

Bibliography: Tabari, ii, 1191ft.; Ya'Ifubi, 

ii, 350 ff.; Baladhuri, Futuh, 170, 189, 369; G. 

Weil, Gesch. d. Chalifen, i, 510 ff.; A. Miiller, Der 

Islam im Morgen- und Abendland, i, 415 f.; W. 

Brooks, in Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1898, 182; 

J. Wellhausen, Die Kampfe der Araber mit den 

Romdern, NGWOStt, 1901, 436 f.; F. Gabrieli, in 

RSO, 1934, 19-20, 22. 

(K. V. Zettersteen — F. Gabrieli) 

'ABBAS EFENDI [see baha'Is] 

'ABBAS HILMl I, viceroy of Egypt, born 
in 1813, son of Ahmad Tusun (1793-1816) and grand- 
son of Muhammad 'All [q.v.]. He succeeded to his 
uncle Ibrahim, who died 10 Nov. 1848. From his very 
accession he showed great hostility to foreigners. 
The reforms undertaken during the preceding period 
he chose to consider as dangerous and blameworthy 
innovations that were best abandoned. Most of the 
schools opened by Muhammad 'Ali were closed, as 
well as the factories, workshops and sanitary i 
stitutions ; he even gave orders to destroy the works 
of the Delta dam. Many foreign, especially French, 
officials were dismissed. The result was, from the 
beginning of his reign, the decline of French in- 
fluence; on the other hand, he drew nearer to Great 
Britain. Great Britain offered him its support in 
the conflict with the Ottoman government about 
the application in Egypt of the tanzimdt [q.v.]. In 
■exchange for this support, Great Britain obtained 
on 18 July 185 1 the authorisation to construct the 
railway between Alexandria and Cairo. The opening 
of this line, which was planned to be extended to 
Suez, was meant to counteract the French project 

Distrustful, brutal, hard, and sometimes cruel, 
by nature, 'Abbas quickly became unpopular. It 
must be noted, however, that at least in the first 
years of his reign, his aversion to the reforms in- 
spired by the West, helped, by a considerable de- 
crease of the expenses, to relieve the poorest classes 
of the population. They were granted some remis- 
sion of taxes and had less to suffer from corvee and 
conscription. Moreover, certain western and Egypt- 
ian historians haye tried to explain the reactionary 
and xenophobe policy of 'Abbas by an ardent pa- 
triotism, which, allegedly, induced him to limit by 
all means the foreign influence of the consequences 
of which he was afraid; Sammarco, however, has 
refuted this assertion. 

'Abbas, impelled by his mistrustful character to 
live in isolation, retired to his palace in Benha. 
He was strangled there by two of his servants, on 
13 July 1854, in circumstances which were never 
■wholly cleared up. He was succeeded by his uncle 
Muh. Sa'id [q.v.]. 

Bibliography: Precis de Vhistoire de VEgypte 
par divers historiens et archiologues, vol. iv: Les 
regnes de 'Abbas, de Sa'id et d'IsmaHl (1848-1879), 
by A. Sammarco, Cairo 1935, 1-17; G. Hanotaux, 
Histoire de la nation egyptienne, vol. vi, Paris 1936; 
J. Heyworth-Dunne, Introduction to the History of 
Education in Modern Egypt, London [1939], 285- 
312 and index. (M. Colombe) 

'ABBAS HILMl II, khedive of Egypt, bom 
in Alexandria, 14 July 1874, died in Geneva 20 



Dec. 1944. He studied in the Theresianum in Vienna 
together with his brother Muh. C A1I (b. 9 Nov. 1875) 
and succeeded to his father, Muh. Tawfik [q.v.], 
on 8 Jan. 1892. He soon came into conflict with the 
diplomatic agents and consuls general of England 
in Cairo, first Sir Evelyn Baring (Lord Cromer), 
and then Lord Kitchener [see misr]. 

When in August 1914 the world war broke out, 
c Abb5s Hilml was in Istanbul, where he had arrived 
in the summer. Having been wounded on 25 July 
in an attempt on his life, he remained in the Ottoman 
capital for treatment. From there he addressed to 
the Egyptians and Sudanese, on Turkey entering 
the war on the side of the Central Powers, an appeal 
to fight against the occupiers of his country. On 
the same day the state of siege was declared in 
Cairo. A month later, on 18 Dec, the British Govern- 
ment decided to put Egypt under their protectorate ; 
on 19 Dec, the khedive was deposed and replaced 
by prince Husayn Kamil, the eldest of the princes 
of the family of Muh. 'All. 

During the war, 'Abbas Hilml, kept in the back- 
ground by the Young Turks, lived first in Istanbul 
and then in Vienna, whence he made several jour- 
neys to Switzerland. He spent in that country the 
last part of his life. In 1922, when Egypt became 
a sovereign and independent state (British declaration 
of 28 Febr. 1922), and the sultan Fu'ad [q.v.], 
successor of Husayn Kamil, who died in 1917, took 
the title of king (15 March 1922), the ex-khedive 
was declared to have lost all his rights to the throne 
(this measure was not applied to "his direct and 
legitimate masculine descendants"; royal rescript 
of 13.4.1922, Official Journal of Egypt of 15.4, no. 
38, extraordinary). His property was liquidated and 
he was forbidden to enter Egypt. Nevertheless, 
'Abbas Hilml had for some time many partisans 
in Egypt and it was only in May 1931 that he re- 
nounced "all pretension to the throne". 

The ex-khedive had two sons, Muh. 'Abd al- 
Mun'im and Mu&. 'Abd al-Kadir. The first (b. 20 
Febr. 1899) was appointed, on the abdication of 
king Faruk (26 July 1952) as a member of the re- 
gency council, and became, on Oct. 1952, sole regent 
of the kingdom until the proclamation of the Re- 
public in June 1953. 

Bibliography: Lord Cromer, Modern Egypt, 
London 1908; idem, Abbas II, London 1915; G. 
Hanotaux, Histoire de la nation igyptienne, vol. 
vii; Hasan Chafik, Statut juridique international 
de VEgypte, Paris 1928 ; Mohamed Seif Alia Rouchdi, 
UH&rediti du tr6ne en Egypte contemporaine, Paris 
1943; Abbas Hilmi II, A few words on the Anglo- 
Egyptian settlement, London 1929. (M. Colombe) 
'ABBAS MlRZA, son of Fath 'All Shah, 
born in Dhu '1-Hidjdja 1203/Sept. 1789, in the small 
town of Nawa, died on 10 Djumada II 1249/25 
Oct. 1833. Although not the eldest son, he was made 
heir to the throne because his mother also belonged 
to the Kadjar family. Europeans who knew him 
were unanimous in their praise of his bravery, gene- 
rosity and other excellent qualities. R. G. Watson 
(History of Persia, 128-9) describes him as "the 
noblest of the Kajar race". He was passionately 
devoted to the military art, and, with the aid of, 
successively, Russian, French, and British officers 
and men, introduced European tactics and disci- 
pline amongst his troops in Adharbaydjan, of which 
province he was Governor-General for many years. 
Despite his military reforms, he failed in his cam- 
paigns against the Russians, but he was successful 
in the war against Turkey in 1821-3. 



C ABBAS MlRZA — 'ABBASABAD 



He died at Mashhad during his father's lifetime; 
on Fath 'All Shah's death in the following year 
(1834), 'Abbas MIrza's son Muhammad succeeded 
to the throne. 

Bibliography: Muhammad Hasan Khan, 
Mafia 1 al-Shams, Teheran 1301, Suppl., 5; , Rida 
Xuli Khan, Rawdat al-Safd-yi Ndsiri, ix, 342; J. 
Morier, A second journey through Persian, Armenia 
and Asia Minor, London 1818, 185-6, 211-20; 
Maurice de Kotzpbue, Voyage en Perse, Paris 1819, 
131 ff.; A. Dupre, Voyage en Perse, Paris 1819, 
ii, 235; P. A. Jaubert, Voyage en Armenie et en 
Perse, Paris 1821, i5i-72;/Jf-4S, 1834, 322; ZDMG, 
1848,401:1866,294. (L. Lockhart) 

'ABBASA, daughter of the caliph al-Mahdi, 
sister of the caliphs Harun al-Rashld and al-Hadl; 
it is to her that the locality Suwaykat al-'Abbasa 
owes its name. She had three husbands in succession, 
who all predeceased her; this inspired Abu Nuwas 
to write some satirical verses, in which he recom- 
manded the caliph, should he want to have a traitor 
killed, to marry him to 'Abbasa. Her name is con- 
nected with the fall of the Barmakids through the 
amorous intrigue with Dja'far b. Yahya al-Barmaki, 
with which she is credited. According to al-Tabari, 
Harun could not deprive himself of the society of 
either his sister or Dja'far, so that, in order to have 
them both with him at the same time, he made 
them contract a purely formal marriage. They, 
however, were not contented with the form alone; 
and when Harun learned that they had children, 
and was convinced that the reports in circulation 
about them were true, he caused Dja'far to be exe- 
cuted. — Some earlier historians than al-Tabari do not 
mention this fact; especially it must be noticed that 
the commentaries on the verses of Abu Nuwas 
give the names of 'Abbasa's husbands without men- 
tioning that of Dja'far. Further, al-Tabari, like the 
other chroniclers who repeat this story, only men- 
tions it as one of the events which were reported 
to have caused Dja'far's execution. Later chroniclers 
amplify the love-story of Dja'far and 'Abbasa more 
and more, until Ibn Khaldun calls its truth in 
question, even if on grounds which are not very 
conclusive for us. If one detail, found in the Persian 
Tabari, must be believed, 'Abbasa was already 
forty years old when her relations with Dja'far be- 
gan. It is quite certain that her second husband 
died eleven years before Dja'far, and these figures 
put all ideas of a youthful romance out of the 
question. We may then reasonably look upon this 
anecdote as the product of popular imagination, to 
give a poetic aura to the fall of this favorite minister. 
This is the more likely in that pagan Arab stories 
contain a remarkably similar episode of the mar- 
riage of the minister of a king with the latter's 
sister (see djadhIma al-abrash) ;■ it was very easy 
to transfer to Dja'far the motif of this story. 
What the greater number of authorities 'report 
on the subject of 'Abbasa is reported by some 
about two other fictitious sisters of Harun, May- 
muna and Fakhita! The older authorities say 
nothing about what happened to 'Abbasa. after 
the death of Dja'far; it is only the later writers 
who have woven mysterious horrors about her end. 
The love of 'Abbasa and Dja'far has frequently 
appealed to the imagination of European as well 
as Arabian authors: in 1753 a French romance ap- 
peared, and again more recently, in 1904 (Aime 
Giron and Albert Tozza, Les nuits de Bagdad). 
Bibliography: Abu Nuwas, Diwdn, ed. Is- 
kandar Asaf, 174; Yakut, iii, 200; Muslim b. al- 



Walid, Diwdn, 213, 304; al-Aghdni 1 , xx, 32; Ibn 

Kutayba, al-Ma c drif, 193; Tabari, iii, 676; Persian 

recension of the same, transl. Zotenberg, iv, 464 ; 

Mas'udI, Murudj, vi, 338; Fragmenta historicorum 

arab., ed. de Goeje and de Jong, i, 307; pseudo- 

Ibn Kutayba, al-Imdma, ii, 330; Ibn Badrun, ed. 

Dozy, 229; Ibn Taghribirdi, i, 465, 481; Ibn Khal- 

likan, no. 129; Ibn Abl Hadjala, Diwdn al-Sabdba 

(on the margin of Tazyin al-Aswdk), i, 54; Itlldi, 

I'-ldm al-Nds, 87 ; Alf Layla wa-Layla, ed. Habicht, 

vii, 259; G. Weil, Gesch. d. Chalifen, ii, 137; A. 

Miiller, Der Islam im Morgen- und Abendland, i, 

480; Chauvin, Bibliogr., v, 168. (J. Horovitz) 

'ABBASA, town in Egypt, the name of which 

derives from that of 'Abbasa, daughter of Ahmad 

b. Tulun. The princess had pitched her camp on 

its place and it was there that she said good-bye 

to Katr al-Nada, daughter of Khumarawayh, who 

was going to marry the caliph al-Mu'tadid. Around 

this casual encampment buildings were raised and 

Kasr 'Abbasa, the "palace of 'Abbasa", became the 

township of 'Abbasa. It was at that time the last 

town on the road to Syria, situated as it was at the 

entrance of the Wadi Tumllat, that narrow strip 

of vegetation that reaches to the East as far as the 

Bitter Seas, and was called in the Middle Ages 

Wadi al-Sadir and even WadI*'Abbasa. 

The town was, therefore, destined to play a military 
role and, in effect, it was a rallying point for troops 
during the last period of the Tulunids and again 
under the Mamluks. A customs-house was established 
to collect duty on goods imported from Syria; it 
is mentioned in connection with certain adjustments 
of rates ordered by the sultan Barkuk. 

The Fatimids did not often leave their capital, 
but nevertheless, according to al-MakdisI, 'Abbasa 
had smarter houses than Fustat, with protruding 
balconies. It was embellished especially by the Ay- 
yubid al-Malik al-Kamil, who paid the town long 
visits. He had gardens laid out and pavilions built. 
The ruler came to hunt and to fish, and couriers 
on dromedaries brought him from Cairo the political 
and administrative news. 

'Abbasa kept until the end of the Mamluk period 
its role as a meeting-place for hunts, and even Ka 5 - 
itbay used to visit it from time to time. The town 
had long since lost its strategic importance owing 
to the foundation of Salihiyya about 35 miles to 
the North-East, and later that of Zahiriyya, in the 
immediate neighbourhood of 'Abbasa. 

The district was inhabited by beduin Arabs, 
who nomadized in the Wadi Tumllat, and whose 
chief, according to some authorities, resided in 
'Abbasa. Nevertheless, 'Abbasa is no longer men- 
tioned in the Ottoman period and its name does 
not appear in al-Djabarti's chronicle. It was from 
Salihiyya that the troops of Bonaparte watched the 
desert road. 'Abbasa is today an unimportant town- 
ship, between Abu Hammad and Tall al-Kabir. 
Bibliography: In addition to the authors 
quoted in J. Maspero and G. Wiet, Matiriaux, 
MIFAO, xxxvi, 1245, see al-Makrizi, ed. MIFAO, 
xlvi and xlix, index; Makdisi, 196; Kindi, 247; 
Ibn Taghribirdi, Cairo, iii, 109-11, 135, 138, 139, 
148; viii, 141; x, 170-1,232; Ibn Iyas, ed. Kahle 
and Mustafa, iii, 65, 123, 188; transl. Wiet, ii, 
74, 143, 214; Zaky Mohamed Hassan, Les Tulunides 
147, 149, 179. (G. Wiet) 

'ABBASABAD, name of numerous places in 
Persia. The best-known is a fortified borough 
lying by the Cashme-yi-gaz on the Khurasan road, 
between Sabzawar (circa 75 miles) and Shahrud 



'ABBASABAD — 'ABBASIDS 



(circa 68 miles), where Shah 'Abbas I [q.v.] settled 
a colony of some hundred families of Georgians. 
In 1934 there remained only one old woman who re- 
membered Georgian. Another 'Abbasabad was built 
by Prince 'Abbas MIrza [q.v.'] on the left bank of 
the Araxes (near Nakhcuwan). Together with its 
tfU-de-pont on the right bank, it was ceded to Russia 
by the treaty of 1828. (V. Minorsky) 

'ABBASl [see sikka] 

'ABBASIDS (Banu 'l-'Abbas), the dynasty of 
the Caliphs from 132/750 to 656/1258. The dynasty 
takes its name from its ancestor, al-'Abbas b. 'Abd 
al-Muttalib b. Hashim, the uncle of the Prophet. 

The story of the origins and nature of the move- 
ment that overthrew the Umayyad Caliphate and 
established the 'Abbasid dynasty in its place was 
for long known only in the much-revised version 
put about when the dynasty had already attained 
power, and, with it, respectability. A more critical 
version was proposed by G. van Vloten (De opkomst 
der Abbasiden in Chorasan, Leiden 1890, and Re- 
cherches sur la domination arabe, U chiitisme el les 
croyances messianiques sous U calif at des Omayyades, 
Amsterdam 1894), and developed by J. Wellhausen 
(in the final chapter of his Das Arabische Reich 
und sein Sturz, Berlin 1902; English transl., Calcutta 
1927). His findings, with some modifications, have 
been confirmed by subsequent research, and more 
especially by the new information that has come to 
light in recent years on the early history of the 
Shi'a sects, notably in the Firak al-SM'-a of al-Naw- 
bakhtl (ed. H. Ritter, Istanbul 1931)- They were 
to a remarkable degree anticipated by Ibn Khaldun 
in his history. 

The 'Abbasid party that won power from the 
Umayyads was known as Hashimiyya. According 
to the later chronicles, this name referred to Hashim, 
the common ancestor of al-'Abbas, c Ali and the Pro- 
phet, and it has been taken as asserting a claim to 
the succession based on kinship with the Prophet. 
In fact the name was of a quite different signifi- 
cance, and reveals very clearly the true origins of 
the 'Abbasid party. During the Umayyad period 
the large number of Shi'ite and pro-Shl'ite sects and 
parties that flourished in different parts of the 
Empire, but especially in Southern 'Irak, may be 
broadly divided into two main groups. One of them 
followed the pretenders of the line of Fatima, and 
was, generally speaking, moderate, differing from 
the dominant faith chiefly by its support, on legi- 
timist grounds, for the political claims of the house 
of C A1I. The other first appeared in the revolt of al- 
Mukhtar, who rose in 66/685 in the name of Mu- 
hammad, a son of 'AH by a HanafI woman. For the 
next sixty or seventy years the claims of Muhammad 
b. al-Hanafiyya and his successors were advanced 
by a series of sects of a more extreme character, 
deriving their main support from the resentful and 
imperfectly Islamised mawdli and embodying in their 
teachings many ideas brought by these converts 
from their previous religions.' After the death of 
Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya in 81/700-1, his fol- 
lowers split into three main groups, one of which 
followed his son Abu Hashim 'Abd Allah [q.v.], and 
was known after him as Hashimiyya. On the death 
of Abu Hashim without issue in 98/716, his followers 
again split into several groups, one of which main- 
tained that Abu Hashim had bequeathed the Ima- 
mate to Muhammad b. £ A1I b. 'Abd Allah b. al- 
'Abbas, just before he died in the house of Muham- 
mad b. 'All's father in Palestine. This group conti- 
nued to be known as Hashimiyya, and also as Ra- 



wandiyya (cf. S. Moscati, II testament*} di Abu Haiim> 
RSO 1952, 28 ff.). It may be noted in passing that 
the doctrine that the Imamate can be bequeathed 
or transferred by the Imam to another person is 
by no means infrequent in early ShI'ism (see B. 
Lewis, The origins of IsmdHlism, Cambridge 1940, 
25 ff. and 44 ff.). 

Whether or not the story of the bequest of Abu 
Hashim is, as has been suggested, fictitious, the 
main fact remains clear: that Muhammad b. 'Al! 
took over the claims of Abu Hashim, and, with 
them, the sect and propaganda organisation of the 
Hashimiyya, which he then proceeded to transform 
into the instrument of the 'Abbasid party. He seems 
to have lost little time in using it. The accounts 
given by the historians of the first 'Abbasid missions 
are incomplete and in part contradictory. Broadly, 
they indicate that intensive propaganda began from 
about 100/718. From headquarters in Kufa, the 
Hashimiyya sent emissaries to Khurasan, one of 
whom, Khidash, won considerable success, but was 
executed in 118/736 after prematurely showing his 
hand. The moderate ShI'a, whose support Muham- 
mad b. 'Ali was still seeking, were alienated by the 
extreme doctrines taught by Khidash. and after 
his death Muhammad deemed it advisable to disa- 
vow him and place his own organisation in Khurasan 
under the control of the Shi'ite chief missionary, 
Sulayman b. Kathir [q.v.]. A period of inactivity 
followed, during which Muhammad died in 125/743. 
His son Ibrahim [q.v.] succeeded to his claims and 
was accepted by the followers in Khurasan, including 
Sulayman b. Kathir. With Ibrahim a new phase of 
activity began. In 128/745-6 Ibrahim sent his 
mawld Abu Muslim [q.v.] as his personal represen- 
tative to Khurasan. The sources differ on the origin 
of Abu Muslim, but agree that he was a Persian, and 
a freedman of Ibrahim. The use of the kunya was 
at that time a privilege rarely enjoyed by non-Arabs, 
and its employment by Persian emissaries of the 
'Abbasids like Abu Muslim, his lieutenant Abu 
Djahm, and his rival Abu Salama al-Khallal is not 
without significance. Considered in the light of the 
statements in some sources that Abu Muslim claimed 
or was granted membership of the 'Abbasid house, 
it may well be an example of the practice, common 
among the extreme ShI'a, of granting to favoured 
supporters adoptive membership of the house of 
the Prophet, and thus, incidentally as it were, of 
the Arab nation. A modified form of this method 
of adoption later became part of the dynastic policy 
of the 'Abbasid caliphs (see abna 1 ). 

Abu Muslim's mission to Khurasan achieved a 
rapid and resounding success. While his main appeal 
was to the Persian mawdli, he also found important 
support among the Yemenite Arabs, and is said 
to have won over many of the Zoroastrian and 
Buddhist dihkdns, some of whom were now convert- 
ed to Islam for the first time. Opinions differ as 
to the nature of Abu Muslim's teachings. Two 
things are clear however — that he was a loyal agent 
of the Hashimiyya, and that they were a part of 
the extremist wing of the Shi'a. It seems likely 
therefore that the doctrines he taught were of the 
kind current among the extreme Shi'a — probably 
including elements of Iranian origin, and thus the 
more acceptable to those whom he addressed. The 
hoisting of the black flags, later accepted as the 
emblem of the house of 'Abbas, had at this stage 
a messianic significance. Black flags were among 
the signs and portents listed in the eschatological 
prophecies current at the time, and had been used 



as emblems of religious revolt by earlier rebels against 
the Umayyads. Their use by Abu Muslim was thus 
an appeal to messianic expectations. His activities 
aroused some opposition among the more moderate 
Arab ShI'a, led by Sulayman b. Kathlr, but a tactical 
withdrawal of Abu Muslim from Khurasan was suf- 
ficient to demonstrate that no effective movement 
was possible without him and his policies, and led 
to his return as undisputed leader of the mission. 
By Ramadan 129/May-June 747 he was ready to 
show his hand. The time and the place were aus- 
picious. The moderate ShI'a and the Khawaridj, the 
two most important opposition movements against 
the Umayyads, had both shot their bolt — the 
former in the risings of 122/740 and 126/744, the 
latter in the rebellion of 127/745. These served the 
double purpose of weakening the Umayyad regime 
and, by their failure, eliminating possible rivals to 
the Hashiml succession. 'Irak, the main centre of 
previous anti-Umayyad movements, was exhausted, 
and was moreover subject to special Umayyad sur- 
veillance. In concentrating their attention on Khu- 
rasan, the 'Abbasids were breaking new grounds. 
Their choice was good. An active and warlike Persian 
population, imbued with the religious and military 
traditions of the frontier, was deeply resentful of 
the inequalities imposed by Umayyad rule. The 
Arab army and settlers, half Persianized by long 
residence, were sharply divided among themselves, 
and even during the triumphal progress of Abu 
Muslim diverted their own energies and those of 
the Umayyad governor, Nasr b. Sayyar [q.v.], to 
Arab inter-tribal strife. Soon Abu Muslim was able 
to take Marw, and then, ably seconded by his 
general Kahtaba [q.v.], an Arab of the tribe of 
Tayy, seized all Khurasan from the crumbling 
Umayyad power. From Khurasan the 'Abbasid forces 
advanced to Rayy and then, after defeating a relie- 
ving Umayyad army from Kirman, captured Ni- 
hawand. The way was now open to 'Ir^k. In 132/749 
the 'Abbasid army crossed the Euphrates some 30 
or 40 miles north of Kufa, and engaged and defeated 
another Umayyad army led by Ibn Hubayra [q.v.]. 
Kahtaba feli on the field of battle, but his son, al- 
Hasan b. Kahtaba, took command, and following 
up the victory, took possession of the city of Kufa. 
Ibrahim al-Imam had fallen into the hands of the 
Caliph Marwan in 130/748, and died shortly after. It 
was therefore his brother, Abu 'l-'Abbas [q.v.] who 
was hailed as Caliph by the Hashimi troops in Kufa 
in 132/749, with the title al-Saffah. The accession 
of the first 'Abbasid Caliph was accompanied by 
the first breach with the revolutionaries, when the 
missionary Abu Salama [q.v.] was put to death in 
obscure circumstances, allegedly for attempting 
to bring about the replacement of the 'Abbasids 
by the 'Alids. Abu Muslim undertook his removal, 
perhaps in return for 'Abbasid acquiescence in the 
death of Sulayman b. Kathlr. Meanwhile another 
'Abbasid army, led by Abu 'Awn, advanced from 
Nihawand towards Mesopotamia. In 131/749, in 
the neighbourhood of Shahrazur, cast of the Lesser 
Zab river, he inflicted a crushing defeat on an 
Umayyad army led by 'Abd Allah, the son of the 
caliph Marwan. Marwan now himself took the field, 
and marched across the Tigris towards the Greater 
Zab river, to engage the army of Abu 'Awn. The 
latter had meanwhile handed over his command to 
'Abd Allah, the uncle of al-Saffah, who had arrived 
from Kufa with considerable reinforcements. The 
battle of the Greater Zab, in 132/750, sealed the 
'ate of the Umayyad Caliphate. The defeated Mar- 



wan fled to Syria, where he tried in vain to organize 
further resistance. The victorious 'Abbasid troops 
advanced through Harran, the residence of Marwan, 
into Syria, occupied Damascus, and then pursued 
Marwan into Egypt, where he was killed and his 
head sent to al-Saffah in Kufa. The authority o 
the new 'Abbasid caliph was now established all 
over the Middle East. 

Much has been written about the historical sig- 
nificance of the 'Abbasid revolution, which histo- 
rians have rightly seen to be something more than 
a mere change of dynasty. Many nineteenth century 
orientalists, unduly influenced by the racial theories 
of Gobineau and others, saw in the struggle a con- 
flict between the Aryanism of Iran and the Semitism 
of Arabia, ending in a victory for the Persians over 
the Arabs, the destruction of what Wellhausen called 
the "Arab Kingdom" of the Umayyads, and the es- 
tablishment of a new Iranian Empire under a cloak 
of Persianized Islam. There is at first sight much 
to support this view: the undoubted role of the Per- 
sians in the revolution itself, the prominent place 
of Persian ministers and courtiers in the new regime, 
the strong Persian elements in 'Abbasid government 
and culture. It is not surprising to*find some state- 
ments to the same effect in the Arabic sources (Cf. 
al-Mas'Odl, Murudj, viii, 292 ; al-Djahiz,- al-Baydn 
wa 'l-Tabyin, iii, 181 and 206; etc.). More recent 
writers have however made important modifications 
in the theories both of Persian victory and of Arab 
defeat. Shi'ism, for long regarded as an expression 
of the "Iranian national consciousness", was of 
Arab origin, and had its main centre among the 
mixed Arab, Aramaean and Persian population of 
southern 'Irak. It was taken to Persia by Arabs, 
and remained strongest in areas of Arab settlement 
like Kumm. The revolt of Abu Muslim was directed 
against Umayyad and Syrian rather than Arab rule 
as such, and won the support of many Arabs, es- 
pecially among the Yemenites. There were many 
Arabs even among its leaders, including the redoubt- 
able general Kahtaba. Though racial antagonisms 
no doubt played their part in the movement, and 
though Persians were prominent among the victors, 
they nevertheless served an Arab dynasty, and, as 
the fate of Abu Muslim, Abu Salama and the Bar- 
makids shows, received short shrift if they fell foul 
of their masters. Many high offices under the state 
were at first reserved to Arabs, Arabic was still 
the sole official language, Arabian land remained 
fiscally privileged, and the doctrine of Arab supe- 
riority remained strong enough, on the one hand, 
to induce Persians to provide themselves with fa- 
bricated Arab pedigrees, on the other to provoke 
the nationalist reaction of the Shu'ubivva [q.v.]. 
What the Arabs had lost was the exclusive right to 
the fruits of power. Persians as well as Arabs came 
to the 'Abbasid court, and the favour of the ruler, 
often expressed in the form of "adoption" into the 
Royal household, rather than pure Arab descent, 
came to be the passport to power and prestige. If 
a term must be set to the Arab Kingdom, it must 
be sought in the gradual cessation of the allowances 
and pensions formerly paid as of right to the Arab 
warriors and their families, and in the rise to power 
of the Turkish guards from the time of al-Mu'tasim. 

The real significance of the 'Abbasid victory must 
be sought in the facts of the change that followed 
it, rather than in dubiously documented hypotheses 
on the movement that produced it. The first and 
most obvious change was the transfer of the centre 
of gravity from Syria to 'Irak, the traditional centre 



of the great cosmopolitan Empires of the ancient 
Middle East, and of the civilisation to which Toynbee 
has given the name "Syriac". The first 'Abbasid 
caliph al-Saffah set up his capital in the small 
town of Hashimiyya, which he built on the east bank 
of the Euphrates near Kufa. Later he transferred 
the capital to al-Anbar. It was his brother and 
successor, al-Mansur, in many ways the real founder 
of the 'Abbasid Caliphate, who established the per- 
manent capital of the Empire in a new city on the 
west bank of the Tigris, near the ruins of Ctesiphon 
and at the intersection of several trade-routes. Its 
official name was Madinat al-Salam, but it is usually 
known by the name of the small town that previously 
occupied the site — Baghdad. 

From this city or its neighbourhood the 'Abbasid 
dynasty first ruled, and later reigned, as heads of 
the greater part of the Islamic world for five centuries. 
The period of their sovereignty, covering the great 
epoch of classical Islamic civilisation, may be con- 
veniently considered in two parts. The first, from 
132/750 to 334/945, saw the gradual decline of the 
authority of the caliphs and the rise of military 
leaders ruling through their troops. During the 
second, from ca. 334/945 to 656/1258, the caliphs, 
with one exception, retained a purely nominal suze- 
rainty, while real power, even in Baghdad itself, 
was exercised by dynasties of secular sovereigns. 

The main events of these two periods will be treated 
under the names of the various caliphs, dynasties, 
places, etc. Here only the broad outline of events 
will be given, and an attempt made to describe the 
main characteristics of each period. 

1. 132/750—334/945 

The 'Abbasid Caliphate in the days following its 
establishment must have seemed very insecure to 
contemporary eyes. Rebels rose against it on every 
side and for a long time every new caliph had to 
face risings in and around even the metropolitan 
province of 'Irak. In Syria, Arab supporters of the 
deposed Umayyads gave trouble, and found en- 
couragement in the growing legend of the SufyanI, 
a messianic figure of the house of Umayya who com- 
peted with the 'Alid pretenders for the support of 
the discontented. The 'Alids themselves, temporarily 
disorganised by the frustration of their hopes, and 
kept under close surveillance, were for a time in 
eclipse, but soon reappeared as the most dangerous 
and determined opponents of 'Abbasid rule. Even 
the Khawaridj remained an active, if minor, op- 
position force. Nor were the ostensible supporters 
of the dynasty wholly reliable. In the prevailing 
atmosphere of mistrust, only members of the 'Ab- 
basid family were appointed to the highest positions 
—but when Abu 'l-'Abb5s al-Saffah died and his 
brother Abu Dja'far succeeded as Caliph with the 
title al-Mansur, their uncle, 'Abd Allah b. 'All, 
commanding the troops and raiders on the Byzan- 
tine frontier, revolted and proclaimed himself 
caliph, and this serious threat was averted thanks 
in the main to Abu Muslim. There remained the 
problem of Abu Muslim himself and the Hashimiyya. 
The 'Abbasids, like others before and after them 
who had come to power on the crest of a revolution- 
ary movement, soon found themselves faced with 
a conflict between the tenets and objectives of the 
movement on the one hand and the needs of govern- 
ment and Empire on the other. The 'Abbasids chose 
continuity and orthodoxy, and had to face the angry 
disappointment of some of their followers. Abu 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



Salama had already been destroyed. Abu Muslim 
himself was put to death as soon as al-Mansur 
felt strong enough to dispense with his uncomfort- 
able presence. These steps, and the suppression 
of the more consistent wing of the Rawandiyya 
[?.».], alienated the extremist following of the 
'Abbasids, some of whom found an outlet in a series 
of religio-political revolts in Iran, while others later 
joined the ranks of the Isma'Ws, the extremist 
wing of the Fatimid Shi'a that grew up in the course 
of the 2nd/8th and 3rd,'oth centuries. At the same time, 
however, the changes reassured the orthodox, thus 
helping al-Mansur to meet the dangers of rebellion 
and foreign war, and during his long and brilliant 
reign, to lay the foundations of 'Abbasid govern- 
ment. In this task, and especially in the elaboration 
of the centralised administrative structure, al- 
Mansur was ably seconded by a family that was to 
play a vital role during the first half century of 
'Abbasid rule. The Barmakids [q.v.] are usually de- 
scribed as Persians, but they were of a very different 
kind from the Khurasanian rebels who followed 
Abu Muslim. Their religion before conversion to 
Islam was neither Zoroastrianism nor any of its 
heresies, but Buddhism, and they belonged to the 
aristocratic, landowning priesthood of the Central 
Asian city of Balkh, an ancient capital whose im- 
perial and commercial traditions provided a fund 
of experience to the ruling class of its citizens. It 
was after the foundation of Baghdad that Khalid 
al-Barmaki appeared as the righthand man of al- 
Mansur, and thereafter he and his descendants 
developed and directed the administration of the 
Empire, until the dramatic and still unexplained 
fall of the Barmakids from power under Harun 
al-Rashld in 187/803. With the transfer of the 
centre of the Empire to the East, the destruction 
of the Arab aristocratic monopoly of high office, and 
the firm establishment in power of the Barmakids, 
Persian influences became stronger and stronger. 
Sasanid Persian models were followed in the court 
and the government, and Persians began to play 
an increasingly important part in both political and 
cultural life. This process of Persianisation continued 
during the reigns of al-Mahdl and al-Hadi; the 
prejudice against the employment of mawdli in high 
places gradually disappeared. To replace the wea- 
kening bond of Arab nationality the caliphs laid 
increased stress on Islamic orthodoxy and confor- 
mity, trying to weld their cosmopolitan Empire 
into a unity based on a common faith and a common 
way of life. Al-Mansur's renunciation of the hetero- 
dox origins of the 'Abbasid movement was followed 
under his successors by a deliberate policy of wooing 
the orthodox theologians and makers of opinion, 
and laying a greater stress on the religious element 
in the nature of the authority exercised by the 
caliphs. This policy, when contrasted with the 
dissolute lives led by many of the caliphs and their 
courtiers, often led to charges of hypocrisy, but was 
in the main successful in achieving its object. Mecca 
and Medina were rebuilt, the pilgrimage from 'Irak 
organised on a regular basis, and orthodoxy rein- 
forced by an inquisitorial persecution of the various 
heretical movements and of Manichaeism, which 
at this time became prominent, under the name of 
Zandaka, as a revolutionary movement of the poorer 
classes (see zindIij). For a time an attempt was 
made to impose the Mu'tazili doctrine, which, if 
H. S. Nyberg's attractive hypothesis is correct (see 
EI 1 al-mu'tazila), was an official 'Abbasid at- 
tempt at a compromise with the Shi'a. From the 



time of al-Mutawakkil this attempt was abandoned, 
and thereafter the 'AbbSsids adhered, formally at 
least, to the most rigid orthodoxy. 

The reign of Harun al-Rashid is generally 
regarded as the apogee of 'Abbasid power, but it is 
at this time that the first portents of decline are 
seen. In Persia, the series of religious revolts that 
had followed, the martyrdom of Abu Muslim became 
ever more threatening, and challenged 'Abbasid 
authority in the Caspian provinces as well as in 
Khurasan. In the west, 'Abbasid authority disap- 
peared almost completely. Spain had rejected the 
'Abbasids and become independent under an Umay- 
yad prince as far back as 138/756. After the death 
of Yazld b. Hatim, the last effective 'Abbasid gover- 
nor of North Africa, in. 170/787, independent dynas- 
ties arose, first in Morocco and then in Tunisia, and 
the authority of Baghdad was never again asserted 
west of Egypt. The Aghlabids of Tunisia, exercising 
hereditary and independent rule under the nominal 
suzerainty of the caliph, set the pattern for a whole 
series of subsequent local hereditary governorships, 
whose encroachments eventually reduced the ef- 
fective sovereignty of the Caliphate to central and 
southern 'Irak. Another danger-sign showed the 
weakness of the defences of the Empire. By 'Ab- 
basid times the frontiers of Islam were more or less 
stabilised. The only foreign wars of any importance 
were with the Byzantines, and even these seem 
to have been of more show than effect. The in- 
conclusive campaigns of Harun were the last major 
offensives launched against Byzantium by the Cali- 
phate. Thereafter Islam was on the defensive. By- 
zantine armies sought out weak points in Syria 
and Mesopotamia, while Khazar invaders entered 
Islamic territory in the Caucasus and Armenia. 
Perhaps the most serious factor of weakness was the 
obscure internal convulsion that culminated in the 
degradation of the Barmakids and the assumption 
by Harun of the reins of power in his own not too 
competent hands. This step seems to have shaken 
the alliance with the Persian aristocratic wing of 
the movement that had brought them to power, 
which the early 'Abbasids had maintained long after 
shedding the more extremist elements. After Harun's 
death, smouldering conflicts burst into civil war 
between his sons al- Amin and al-Ma'mun. Al- 
Amln's strength lay mainly in the capital and in 'Irak, 
al-Ma'mun's in Persia, and the civil war has been 
interpreted as a national conflict between Arabs 
and Persians, ending in a victory for the latter. 
The same objections can be raised to this explana- 
tion as to the corresponding theory concerning the 
'Abbasid revolution itself. The civil war was more 
probably a continuation of the social struggles of 
the immediately preceding period, complicated by 
a regional rather than national conflict between 
Persia and 'Irak. Al-Ma'mun, relying on eastern 
support, for a while projected the transfer of the 
capital from Baghdad to Marw, but some time after 
his victory wisely decided to return to the Imperial 
city. Thereafter Persian aristocratic and regional 
aspirations found an outlet in local dynasties. In 
205/820 Tahir, the Persian general of al-Ma'mun, 
made himself virtually independent in Khurasan, 
and founded a dynasty. His example was followed 
by others, who, while for the most part still re- 
cognizing the suzerainty of the caliphs, deprived 
them of all effective authority in most of Persia. 
While the power of the caliphs in the provinces 
was gradually being reduced to the granting of 
the de facto rulers, their 



authority even in 'Irak itself was dwindling. A 
spendthrift court and a inflated bureaucracy pro- 
duced chronic financial disorder, aggravated by the 
loss of provincial revenues and, subsequently, by 
the exhaustion or loss to invaders of gold and silver 
mines. The caliphs found a remedy in the farming 
out of state revenues, eventually with the local 
governors as tax-farmers. These farmer-governors- 
soon became the real rulers of the Empire, the more 
so when tax-farms and governorships were held by 
army commanders, who alone had the force to 
impose obedience. From the time of a 1-M u'tasim 
and a 1 - W a th i k, the caliphs became the puppets of 
their own generals, who were often able to appoint 
and depose them at will. Al-Mu'tasim is usually 
credited with the introduction of the practice of 
using Turks from Central Asia as soldiers and officers, 
and from his time the dominant military caste be- 
came mainly Turkish. In 221/836 he built a new 
residence at Samarra, some 60 miles north of Bagh- 
dad. Samarra remained the Imperial residence until 
279/892, when al-Mu'tamid returned to Baghdad. 
Its foundation illustrates the growing gulf between 
the caliph and his praetorians on the one hand 
and the people of Baghdad on the other. Its art 
and architecture illustrate the emergence of a new 
ruling caste with different tastes and traditions. 
Under al-Wathik the power of the Turks con- 
tinued to grow. A serious attempt to reassert the 
supremacy of the Caliphate was made by his 
successor al-Mutawakkil, who tried to break 
the power of the Turkish guards and to rally 
support against them among the theologians and 
the civil population, whose orthodox fanaticism he 
sought to placate by renouncing and suppressing 
the Mu'tazili doctrines of his predecessors and 
enforcing the regulations against the Christians and 
Jews. The attempt ended in failure. The murder 
of al-Mutawakkil in 247/861 was followed by a 
period of anarchy. During an interval of nine years 
four caliphs succeeded one another, but all were 
helpless in the hands of the Turkish guards, whose 
control of the court and the capital grew firmer, 
while the provinces relapsed into anarchy or, at 
best, autonomy. In Southern 'Irak a revolt broke 
out among the negro slaves, known as Zand] [}.».], 
who worked on the salt marshes near Basra. This 
rapidly developed into a major threat to the Empire. 
The Zandj leader, who displayed brilliant general- 
ship, defeated several imperial armies, and was 
able to establish effective control over much of 
Southern 'Irak and South West Persia. The lines 
linking Baghdad with Basra, and 
with the Persian Gulf and the trade route 
to the East, were cut, and by 264/877 Zandj parties 
were raiding within 17 miles of Baghdad itself. But 
meanwhile a period of greater stability had begun 
in the capital. The caliph a 1-M u ' t a m i d, who suc- 
ceeded in 256/870, was not a very effective ruler, but 
his brother a 1 - M u w a f f a k soon became the real 
master of the capital, and during the twenty years 
of his rule did much to restore the failing strength 
of the house of 'Abbas. His first task was to restore 
order and stability in Baghdad itself, then to tackle 
the problems presented by the Zandj and by the 
encroachments of provincial leaders, especially the 
Saffarids in Persia and the Tulunids in Egypt and 
Syria. By 269/882 he had expelled the Zandj from 
all their conquests, and in 270/883 finally crushed 
them. Though failing to destroy the Saffarids and 
Tulunids, he did succeed in checking their ambitions, 
and facilitated the task of his successors. On the 



death of al-Muwaffak in 278/891, he was succeeded 
as real ruler by his son a 1-M u ' t a d i d, who became 
caliph on the death of al-Mu'tamid in the following 
year. Al-Mu'tadid and his successor al-Muktafl 
were both able and energetic rulers. In Persia and 
Egypt the authority of the Caliphate was for a time 
reasserted, leaving the government free to deal with 
the menace of Shi'ism, now active again in a militant 
and extreme form. After the rise of the 'Abbasids 
and the consequent disappearance of the Hanafi 
line of pretenders, it was the Fatimid line of Imams 
who commanded the support of most of the Shi'a. 
After the death of Dja'far al-Sadik in 148/765, 
these split into two groups, one of which, known 
as Isma'Ili, inherited many of the functions, doctrines 
and followers of the vanished Hanafiyya. The trans- 
formation of the Caliphate in the 8th and 9th cen- 
turies from an agrarian, military state to a cosmo- 
politan Empire with an intensive commercial and 
industrial life, the growth of large cities and the 
concentration of capital and labour, subjected the 
loose social structure of the Empire to grave strain, 
and engendered widespread discontent. The rapid 
growth of the intellectual life of Islam, and the clash 
of cultures and ideas resulting from outside in- 
fluence and internal development, again helped to 
prepare the way for the spread of heretical move- 
ments which, in a theocratic society, were the only 
possible expression of moral or material dissent from 
the existing order. The endemic disorders and up- 
heavals of the late 9th and early 10th centuries 
brought these strains to breaking point, and the 
caliphs were called upon to deal with a series of 
challenges ranging in form from the revolutionary 
violence of the Karmatians [q.v.] in Bahrayn, Syria- 
Mesopotamia and Southern Arabia, to the more 
subtle and ultimately more effective criticism of 
peaceful moralists and mystics in Baghdad itself. 
Al-Mu'tadid died after a defeat at the hand of the 
Karmatians, but his successor al-Muktafi managed 
to crush the Karmatian revolt in Syria and Meso- 
potamia, and, at the time of his death in 295/908, 
was leading a successful counter-attack against the 
Byzantines, who had sought to exploit the anarchy 
of the Muslim Empire. The Shi'ite danger was 
however far from ended. After a brief struggle for 
power, al-Muktafi was succeeded by his brother a 1- 
M u k t a d i r, still a boy of 13. During his minority, 
and the long and ineffective reign that followed it, 
the destructive tendencies halted by the regent al- 
Muwaffak and his two successors reappeared. The 
Karmatians resumed their activities, and from their 
bases in Bahrayn threatened the life-lines of the 
Caliphate, while in the west another wing of the 
Isma'ili movement established a Fatimid anti-Cali- 
phate in Tunisia. In North Syria the beduin Ham- 
danid dynasty established itself, while in Persia 
another Shi'ite family, the Buyids, began to build 
a new dynasty that soon threatened even 'Irak. 
In the capital, growing disorder and confusion cul- 
minated in the death of the caliph, while fighting 
his general Mu'nis. Under his successors a 1 - K a h i r 
and a 1 - R 5 d I, the decay of the authority of the 
Caliphate was completed. The event that is usually 
taken to symbolise this process was the grant to 
the governor of 'Irak, Ibn Ra'ik, of the title amir 
al-umard'— Commander of Commanders. This title, 
apparently intended to assert the primacy of the 
military commander of Baghdad over his colleagues 
elsewhere, served at the same time to give formal 
recognition to the existence of a supreme temporal 
authority, exercising effective political and mili- 



tary power, and leaving the caliph only as formal 
head of the state and the faith and representative 
of the religious unity of Islam. In 344/945 came the 
ultimate degradation, when the BOyid Amir MuHzz 
al-Dawla entered Baghdad, and the title of amir 
al-umard*, and with it the effective control of the 
city of the caliphs, passed into the hands of a 
ShI'ite dynast. 

Almost two centuries had passed between the en- 
thronement of al-Saffah and the arrival of Mu'izz 
al-Dawla. Though most of the period still awaits 
adequate investigation, certain broad lines of deve- 
lopment can be discerned. In government, the early 
'Abbasid caliphs continued along the lines of the 
late Umayyads, with far less break in continuity 
than was at one time believed. Certain changes, 
begun under the preceding dynasty, continued at 
an accelerated pace. From an Arab super-shaykh 
governing by the intermittent consent of the Arab 
aristocracy, the caliph became an autocrat, claiming 
a divine origin for his authority, resting it on his 
armed forces, and exercising it through a vast and 
growing bureaucratic organisation. Stronger in this 
respect than the Umayyads, the 'Abbasids were 
nevertheless weaker than the old oriental despots, 
in that they lacked the support of an established 
feudal caste and a priestly hierarchy, and were them- 
selves theoretically subject to the Holy Law, of the 
authority of which their office was the supreme em- 
bodiment. With the transfer of the capital to the 
East and the entry of increasing numbers of Persians 
into the service of the caliphs, Persian influences 
grew in the court and the administration, which 
was organised in a series of diwdns [q.v.] or ministries, 
under the supreme control of the wazir [q.v.]. Pro- 
vincial government was carried on jointly by the 
amir [q.v.] (Governor) and l amil [q.v.] (financial 
administrator), under the general surveillance of 
the capital, exercised through the agents of the 
sahib al-barid (Director of Posts and Intelligence) 
(see barId). In the army the Arab element gradually 
lost its importance, and the pensions formerly paid 
to Arabs were discontinued except for serving sol- 
diers. The core of the early 'Abbasid army consisted 
of the Khurasanis, a term that is to be understood 
in a regional rather than national sense, and covering 
both Arabs and Persians from Khurasan. In time 
these gave way to the Turkish slave troops, who 
from the time of al-Mu'tasim onwards became the 
main element in the army and, in consequence, the 
main source of political authority for the various 
amirs and commanders whose power replaced that 
of the caliphs. 

The 'Abbasids came to power through a religious 
movement, and sought in religion the basis of unity 
and authority in the Empire they ruled. While broad- 
ly successful in this purpose, they had throughout 
to contend with a series of religious opposition move- 
ments, and with the mistrust or reserve of the more 
conscientious elements among the SunnI religious 

The political breakdown of the 9th and 10th 
centuries, resulting in the fragmentation of power 
in the Empire as a whole and the decline and even- 
tual collapse of authority in the capital, had no 
immediate ill-effects on the economic and cultural 
life of the Caliphate. The 'Abbasid accession had been 
followed by a great economic revival, based on the 
exploitation of the resources of the Empire through 
industry and trade, and the development of a vast 
network of trade relations both within the Empire 
and with the world outside. These changes brought 



important social consequences. The Arab warrior 
caste was deposed, and replaced by a ruling class 
of landowners and bureaucrats, professional soldiers 
and literati, merchants and men of learning. The 
Islamic town was transformed from a garrison city 
to a market and exchange, and in time to the centre 
of a flourishing and diversified urban culture. The 
literature, art, theology, philosophy and science of 
the period is examined elsewhere (in individual 
articles). Here it need only be remarked that this 
was the classic age of Islam, when a new, rich and 
original civilisation, born of the confluence of many 
races and traditions, came to maturity. 

2- 334/945—656/1258 

During the long period from the Buyid occupation 
of Baghdad to the conquest of the city by the Mon- 
gols, the Caliphate became a purely titular insti- 
tution, representing the headship of SunnI Islam, 
and acting as legitimating authority for the nume- 
rous secular rulers who exercised effective sovereignty, 
both in the provinces and in the capital. The caliphs 
themselves, except for a brief revival towards the 
end, were at the mercy of the secular rulers, who 
appointed and deposed them at will, and only one 
of them, al-Najir, has left any mark on history. 
The appointment of Ibn Ra'ik as amir al-umard' 
was the first of a long series, and marked the formal 
recognition of the office of secular sovereign. The 
main history of the period will be found in the 
articles on the various dynasties that held it. 

In the second quarter of the 10th century a number 
of princes of the Shi'ite Persian house of Buya (or 
Buwayh), originating in the highlands of Daylam, 
extended their rule over most of western Persia, 
and forced the caliphs to grant them legal recog- 
nition. In 334/945 the Buyid prince Mu'izz al-Dawla 
entered Baghdad, and wrung from the caliph al- 
Mustakfi the title of amir al-umard'. For over a 
century the caliphs were compelled to submit to 
the final humiliation of accepting these Shi'ite mayors 
of the palace as absolute masters. Despite their 
ShI'ism, the Buyids made no attempt to install an 
c Alid caliph— the twelfth Imam of the Ithna-'asharl 
ShI'a had disappeared some 70 years earlier — but 
gave outward homage to the 'Abbasids, retaining 
them as an orthodox cover for their own power and 
an instrument of their policy in the SunnI world. 
It was from the extremist ShI'a that the real threat 
to the 'Abbasids came. In 356/969 the Isma'IlI 
Fatimids from Tunisia conquered Egypt, and were 
soon able to extend their power into Syria and 
Arabia. For the first time a powerful independent 
dynasty ruled in the Middle East that did not re- 
cognize even the titular authority of the 'Abbasids, 
but on the contrary founded a Caliphate of their 
own, challenging the 'Abbasids for the headship of 
the whole Islamic world. The political and military 
power of the Fatimids was supported by an elaborate 
religious organisation, commanding a multitude of 
agents, propagandists and sympathisers in the 'Ab- 
basid dominions, and also by a skilful economic 
policy aimed at diverting the Eastern trade from 
the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, and thus at the 
same time strengthening Egypt and weakening 'Irak. 
(See B. Lewis, The Fatimids and the Route to India, 
Istanbul Iktisat Fak. Mecm., 1950, 355-60). It is 
indeed arguable that the diversion of Shi'ite energies 
due to the predominance of the Buyids in the East 
was one of the factors that saved the 'Abbasid Cali- 
phate from extinction, at this time (see H. A. R. 



Gibb, The Caliphate and the Arab- States, in History 
of the Crusades, Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, vol. i.). 

In time the Buyid Empire broke up into a number 
of smaller states, under Buyid and other rulers, while 
in Persia the power of a new dynasty, the Seldjuks, 
was steadily growing. By the middle of the nth 
century Buyid power was at an end, and a Turkish 
general called al-BasasIri was able to occupy Bagh- 
dad and proclaim the khufba in the name of the 
Fatimid caliph. This brief episode was the high 
water mark of Fatimid power. In 447/1055 the 
Seldjuk Tughrll-beg entered Baghdad, and had 
himself proclaimed as Sultan. This title is often 
attributed by the chroniclers to earlier rulers who 
exercised a sovereignty not greatly different from 
that of the Seldjuks. The Seldjuk sultans of Baghdad 
appear however to be the first to have used the title 
officially and inscribed it on their coins. In effect 
the Seldjuk Great Sultanate, which lasted about a 
century, was the logical development of the office 
of amir al-umard', and the title has remained in 
use ever since for the holder of supreme secular power. 
The Seldjuks brought several important changes. 
Unlike their predecessors they were Turks and Sun- 
nls, and with their advent the power of the Turks, 
that had been growing intermittently since the time 
of al-Mu'tasim, was finally established. By now the 
Turks in the Middle East were no longer all slave 
or freed soldiers, imported from Central Asia; whole 
clans of free, nomadic Turks began to migrate west- 
wards, playing an increasingly important role and 
in time changing the ethnic configuration of the 
Middle East. The replacement of a ShI'I by a Sunni 
ruler increased the prestige though not the power 
of the caliphs, as did also the extension of the rule 
of the central government, and therefore of the 
nominal sovereignty of the caliphs, over many 
hitherto independent lands. The period of the Sel- 
djuks, and of the Seldjukid and Atabeg dynasties 
that followed the break-up of the Great Sultanate, 
brought two major changes. One was the regulari- 
sation of the economic and social changes that had 
been taking place in the preceding period, and the 
elaboration of a new social and fiscal order of quasi- 
feudal character ; the other was the campaign against 
the Shi'ite menace, both on the political and mili- 
tary level through the suppression of Shi'ite dynasties 
and movements, and on the intellectual level through 
the creation of a network of madrasas [?.».] to serve 
as centres for the formulation and defence of Sunni 
orthodoxy against the Shi'ite propagandists. Both 
changes encountered a vigorous reaction in the form 
of the Assassins (see nizarIs), an active and ener- 
getic revolutionary movement that rose from the 
ruins of the Fatimid daHva and offered a bitter and 
sustained challenge to Seldjuk rule and SunnI or- 
thodoxy. The Assassins ultimately failed, and there- 
after ShI'ism was never again a major political fac- 
tor until the rise of the Safawids. 

After the break-up of the Great Sultanate, 'Irak 
fell under the domination of a local dynasty of Sel- 
djuk princes, the last of whom was Tughrll \\ 
(573-59o/ii77-ii94). The collapse of his power and 
the absence of any alternative enabled the 'Abbasid 
caliph a 1 - N a s i r to make a final attempt to restore 
the lost authority of the Caliphate. The moment 
was favourable — of the two major dynasties of the 
Middle East, the Ayyubids in Egypt and Syria were 
preoccupied with the struggle against the Crusaders, 
the KWrizm-shah in the East with his wars 
against other Turkish dynasties and then against the 
Mongols. In this power vacuum, al-Na$ir attempted 



to create a kind of State of the Church for the Cali- 
phate in Baghdad and 'Irak, and to buttress his 
authority by seeking popular support through the 
futuwwa [q.v.] organisations and making adroit use 
of pro-'Alid sentiment. It was however only the 
diversion of their energies to meet the Mongol 
threat in the East that saved him from destruction 
by the Kh»arizm-shahs. Al-Nasir's successors were 
weak and incompetent, and when the Mongol general 
Hulaku, having already conquered Persia, appeared 
before Baghdad in 656/1358, the last caliph al-Mus- 
t a l s i m was unable to offer any serious resistance. 
The Mongol conquest of Baghdad and the des- 
truction of the Caliphate are usually described as 
a major catastrophe in the history of Islam. Cer- 
tainly they mark the end of an epoch — not only in 
the outward forms of government and sovereignty, 
but in Islamic civilisation itself, which after the 
transformation wrought by the great wave of Tatar 
invasion flows in new channels, different from those 
of the preceding centuries. But the immediate moral 
effects of the destruction of the Caliphate have been 
overrated. The Caliphate had long ceased to exist as 
an effective institution, and the Mongols did little 
more than lay the ghost of something that was al- 
ready dead. To the real organs of temporal power 
the Mongol invasions made little difference, the only 
change being that the Sultanate now began to ac- 
quire de jure recognition, and sultans began to arro- 
gate to themselves titles and prerogatives formerly 
reserved to the caliphs. 



The 'Abbasid Cal 



s op Egypt 



The establishment by Baybars of an 'Abbasid 
shadow-Caliphate in Cairo in 659/1261 has been 
explained by R. Hartniann as follows: the disappea- 
rance of the Caliphate in Baghdad created a political 
vacuum, affecting not so much the theologians as 
the secular rulers, who still felt the need for a legi- 
timating authority. Abu Numayy, the Sharif of 
Mecca, gave formal recognition to the Hafsid ruler 
of Tunisia Abu c Abd Allah, who had assumed the 
title of caliph, with the regnal name of al-Mustansir, 
in 650/1253. This assumption, made before the fall 
of Baghdad, was not in the Sunni juristic sense of 
the word caliph, but in that of North Africa, con- 



ditioned by Almohad claims and practices. It ac- 
quired a new value from Abu Numayy's recognition, 
confirmed by Mamluk action in sending a report 
on the victory of <Ayn Djalut to Abu <Abd Allah 
and addressing him as amir al-mutminin — Com- 
mander of the Faithful. Baybars, stronger than his 
predecessor, preferred not to give this recognition 
to a powerful and possibly dangerous neighbour, 
and instead solved the problems of legitimacy and 
continuity by installing an 'Abbasid refugee as 
caliph in Cairo, with the same regnal name of al- 
Mustansir. 

For the next two and a half centuries a, line of 
'Abbasids succeeded one another as nominal caliphs 
under the rule of the Mamluk Sultans in Cairo. Ex- 
cept for a brief interval in 815/1412, when the caliph 
al-Musta c In became a stop-gap ruler for six months 
in the course of a feud between rival claimants to 
the Sultanate, the caliphs in Cairo were completely 
helpless and powerless, being in effect little more 
than minor court pensioners with purely ceremonial 
duties to perforin on the accession of a new sultan. 
Attempts by the Mamluk sultans to use their l Ab- 
basid proteges as a means of gaining recognition 
in other Muslim countries met with some limited 
success, notably in India and in the Ottoman Empire 
where Bayezid I applied to the Cairo caliph in 1394 
for a diploma granting him the title of sultan. But 
the Ottoman view of the Cairo Caliphate is perhaps 
best expressed by the 15th-century historian Yazldjt- 
oghlu 'AH, who in describing the role of the patriarch 
at the Byzantine court calls him "the caliph of the 
Christians"— a comparison that is far nearer the 
truth than the more common one between the 
caliph and the Pope (cf. P. Wittek, in BSOS, 1952, 
649 f-). 

In 1517 the last caliph al-Mutawakkil was deposed 
by Sellm I, the Ottoman conquerer of Syria and 
-Egypt, and the 'Abbasid shadow-Caliphate abolished. 
A story that al-Mutawakkil transferred his title to 
Sellm, and through him, to the Ottoman house, was 
first published by Mouradgea d'Ohsson in 1788 
{Tableau girUral de I'Empire Ottoman, i, 269-70), 
and thereafter won wide acceptance. Barthold how- 
ever showed this story to be completely without 
foundation, and it is now generally rejected by 
scholars [see khalifa]. 



. Abu n- c Abbas al-Saffah . . . . ; 

136 al-Mansur . . . ; 

158 al-Mahdt. . . .; 

169 al-HSdl . . . . : 

.... Hariin al-Rashld . . . ; 

al-Am!n . . . . ! 

al-Ma'mun. . .1 

218 al-Mu £ tasim . . I 

227 al-Wathik ... I 

232 al-Mutawakkil I 

247 al-Muntasir . . ! 

248 al-Musta'in . . I 

252 al-Mu c tazz. . .1 

255 al-Muhtadl. . . f 

256 al-Mu c tamid . . i 

279 al-Mu'tadid . . I 

289 al-Muktafi . . . < 

295 al-Muktadir . . < 

320 al-Kahir . . . . < 



322 al-RSdi .... 934 

329- al-Muttakl. . .940 

333 al-Mustakfl . . 944 

334 al-Mutl* .... 946 

363 al-Ta'i' .... 974 

381 al-Kadir .... 991 

422 al-Ka'im. . . 1031 

467 al-Muktafi. . 1075 

487 al-Mustazhir . 1094 

512 al-Mustarshid 1118 

529 al-Rashid . . 1135 

530 al-Muktafl. . 1136 

555 al-Mustandjid 1160 

566 al-Mustadi» . 1170 

575 al-Nasir . . . 1180 

622 al-?ahir . . . 1225 

623 al-Mustansir. 1226 

640-656 al-MustaSim 1242-1258 



ABLE OF THE C ABBASID CALIP} 

'Abbas b. 'Abd al-Muttalib 
'Abd Allah 



5. al-Rashid 
1 



3. al-Mahdl 
1 



9. al-Wa&ik 
14. al-Muhtadl 



17. al-Muktafl 

I 
22. al-Mustakfi 



10. al-Mutawakkil 



. al-Muntasir 13. al-Mu'tazz 15. al-Mu'tamid al-Muwaffak 
Ibn al-Mu'tazz 16. al-Mu'tadid 



18. al-Muktadir 
! . 



idi 21. al-Muttaki 

I 

25. al-Kadir 

26. al-IJa J im 
Muhammad Dhakhirat al-DIn 

27. al-Muktadi 
28. al-Mustazhir 
"— i 



!3. al-Muti c 
! 4 . al-Ta'i' 



29. al-Mustarshid 

I 

30. al-Rashid 



31. al-Muktafl 

32. al-Mustandjid 

33. al-Mustadi' 

I 

34. al-Nasir 

35- al-?ahir 
I . 



36. al-Mustan$ir 

37. al-Musta^im 



(after Khalll Edhem, Duwel-i islamiye, 





al-Mustazhir 




al-Mustarshid 


I 
itakfl I 


al-Muktafi 


al-Rashid Abii Baki 

1 

'All 

1 

al-Hasan 

2. al-Hakim 


al-Mustandjid 

1 

al-MustadT 

al-Nasir 

al-?3hir 






Ahmad 3. al-Mus 


al-Mus tansir 1. al-Mustansir 
(caliph 


4.al-Wathikl sal . H l kimU ' 


6. al-Mu c ta(Jid I 
7. al-Mutawakkil I 




I. al-Mu'tasim 9. al-Wathik II 




10. al-Musta'm 11. al-Mu'tadid II 

1 

[5. al-Mutawakkil II 

1 

16. al-Mustamsik 


12. al-Mustakfi II 


13. al-Ka'im 14. al-Mustandjid 



17. al-Mutawakkil III 



'ABBASID ART 



'abbasid c 



A.D. 



il-Mustansir billah Abu '1-Kasim Ahmad 

il-Hakim bi-Amr Allah Abii l-'AbbSs Ahmad 1261 

il-Mustakfi billah Abu '1-Rabi< Sulayman 1302 

il-Wathik bUlah Abii Ishak Ibrahim 1340 

il-Hakim bi-Amr Allah Abu 'l-'Abbas Ahmad 1341 

il-Mu'tadid billah Abu '1-Fath Abii Bakr 1352 

il-Mutawakkil <ala 'Hah Abii <Abd Allah Muhammad 1362 

il-Mu'tasim (al-Musta<sim) billah Abu Yahya Zakariyya 5 1377 

al-Mutawakkil c ala''llah (second time) 1377 

il-Wathik billah 'Urnar 1383 

d-Mu c tasim billah (second time) 1386 

il-Mutawakkil <ala 'llah (third time) 1389 

d-Mustaln billah Abu '1-Fadl al- e Abbas 1406 

il-Mu'tadid billah Abu '1-Fath Dawfld 1414 

il-Mustakfl billah Abu '1-Rabi< Sulayman 1441 

al-Ka'im bi-Amr Allah Abii 1-Baka 3 Hamza 145 1 

il-Mustandjid billah Abu '1-Mahasin Yiisuf .£455 

il-Mutawakkil c ala 'Hah Abu 'l-<Izz c Abd al- c Aziz 1479 

U-Mustamsik billah Abu '1-Sabr Ya'kub 1497 

il-Mutawakkil <ala 'llah Muhammad 1508-9 

d-Mustamsik billah (second time; as representative of his son al-Mutawakkil) 1516-17 



The sources for the history of the 'Abbasid Cali- 
phate are too numerous for anything more than 
a general statement to be possible. A fuller dis- 
cussion of the literature will be found in J. Sauvaget, 
Introduction a I'histoire du monde musulman, Paris 
1943, 126 ff., and of the historians in D. S. Mar- 
goliouth, Lectures on Arabic Historians, Calcutta 
1930 (cf. ta'rikh). The first group to be considered 
are the chroniclers. While a large proportion of these 
have been published, especially for the earlier 
period, surprisingly little use has been made of them, 
and most of the 'Abbasid period still awaits its 
monographers. Still less attention has been paid to 
the adab literature, perhaps the best expression of 
the outlook and attitude of the secular literate 
•classes who administered the Empire, and a fruit- 
ful source of historical information. Travel and 
geography, poetry, theology and law all have an 
important contribution to make to historical know- 
ledge, and except for the first two, have been little 
used. To the vast Muslim literature may be added 
the smaller but still valuable literatures of the Chris- 
tians and Jews, in Arabic, Syriac, Hebrew, and some 
other languages. Finally, there remains archeology. 
A useful summary and bibliography of archeological 
work will be found in the above-mentioned book 
of Sauvaget. 

No general history of the c Abb5sids has been pro- 
duced for many years, and the reader must still 
have recourse to early and out-of-date works like 
G. Weil, Geschichle der Chalifen 5 vols., Mannheim- 
Stuttgart 1846-62; idem, Geschichle der islamischen 
Volker, Stuttgart 1866 (abridged English translation 
by S. Khuda Bukhsh, Calcutta 1914); A. Miiller, Der 
Islam im Morgen- und Abendland, 2 vols. Berlini885- 
7 ; W. Muir, The Caliphate, its Rise Decline and Fall, 
revised by T. H. Weir, Edinburgh 1915 and 1924. 
More recent but more summary treatments are given 
by P. K. Hitti, History of the Arabs, London 1937 
and later editions; C. Brockelmann, Geschichle der 
islamischen Vdlker und Stouten, Munich-Berlin 1939 
{English and French translations); Gaudefroy- 
Demombynes and Platonov, Le monde musulman 
et byzantin jusqu'aux Croisades, Paris 1931; Ch. 
Diehl and G. Marcais, Le monde oriental de 395 a 
1081, Paris 1936. Many interesting and provocative 
ideas on the nature of the 'Abbasid state and society 



will be found in A. J. Toynbee, A study of history, 
London 1934 ff. 

Only the accession and the first few reigns have 
been monographed in any detail. On the 'Abbasid 
revolution Van Vloten and Wellhausen are mentioned 
in the article. Th. Noldeke's OrienUUische Skizzen 
Berlin 1892 (English translation by J. S. Black, 
London 1892), includes studies on al-Mansur, the 
Zandj rising, and the Saffarids. The most valuable 
work to date on the early 'Abbasid period will be 
found in the studies of F. Gabrieli (al-Amin, al- 
Ma'mun) and S. Moscati (Abii Muslim, al-Mahdi, 
al-Hadi), which, with other monographs, will be 
found listed under the appropriate articles. For two 
studies by S. Moscati on particular problems con- 
nected with the 'Abbasid victory see II "Tradimento" 
di Wdsit, Museon 1951, 177-86, and Le massacre 
des Umayy\ides, ArO 1951, 88-115. Reference may 
also be made to Nabia Abbott, Two queens of Baghdad, 
Chicago 1937, dealing with the mother and wife 
of Harun al-Rashld and giving a description of some 
aspects of court life, and A. F. Rifa'i, 'Asr al- 
Ma'miin, Cairo 1927. The period from 892 to 946 
has been studied in great detail by H. Bowen, The 
life and times of '■AH ibn 'Isd, Cambridge 1928. 
This must now be supplemented by an important 
additional source — the Akhbdr al-Radi wa l-Muttakl 
of al-SulI (ed. J. H. Dunne, Cairo 1935; annotated 
French translation by M. Canard, 2 vols. Algiers 
1946-50). Two important works of a more general 
character deal with the middle period: A. Mez, Die 
Renaissance des Islams, Heidelberg 1922 (English 
translation by S. Khuda Bukhsh and D. S. Margo- 
liouth, London 1938), and c Abd al- c Az!z al-Duri, 
Studies on the economic life of Mesopotamia in the 
10th century, (in Arabic), Baghdad 1948. Reference 
may also be made to general works in Arabic by 
Ahmad Amin, C A. C A. Durl, Hasan Ibrahim Hasan 
and others. 

On the Cairo Caliphate see R. Hartmann, Zur 
Vorgeschichte des 'Abbasidischen Schein-Chaliphates 
von Cairo, Abhandlungen der deutschen Akademie 
der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Phil.-hist. Kl. 1947, 
nr. 9, Berlin 1950, and Annemarie Schimmel, Kali) 
und Kadi im spatmittelalterlichen Agypten, WI, 1943, 
3-27. (B. Lewis) 

'ABBASID ART [see samarra] 



l-ABBASIYYA — <ABD 



al-ABBASIYYA, old town of Ifrlkiya 
(Tunisia), three miles to the S.E. of al-Kayrawan. 
It was also known by the name of Kasr al-Aghaliba 
and al-Kasr al-Kadlm. It was built by Ibrahim b. 
al-Aghlab, the founder of the Aghlabid dynasty, in 
184/800, the same year in which he was appointed 
amir of Ifrlkiya, after the revolt of some leaders of 
the Arab djund. He gave his foundation the name al- 
'Abbasiyya in honour of the 'Abbasids, his masters. 
The town contained baths, inns, siiks and a Friday- 
mosque with a minaret of cylindrical form, built 
of bricks and adorned by small columns arranged in 
seven storeys. After the example of the great 
mosque of Kayrawan, a maksura of carved wood, 
adjoining the mihrdb, was reserved to the amir and 
high dignitaries. The town had several gates, the 
following being the most important: Bab al-Rahma 
(of Mercy), Bab al-Hadid (of Iron), Bab Ghalbfin 
(attributed to al-Aghlab b. <Abd Allah b. al-Aghlab, 
relative and minister of Ziyadat Allah I) and Bab 
al-Rih (of Wind)— all these in the east; and Bab 
al-Sa c ada (of Happiness), to the west. In the middle 
of the town there was a large square called al-Maydan 
(Hippodrome), where the parades and reviews fard) 
of the troops took place. Not far away was the palace 
of al-Rusafa, recalling by its name those of Damas- 
cus and Baghdad. It was in this palace that Ibrahim 
I received the ambassadors of Charlemagne who 
came to ask for the relics of St. Cyprian and delivered 
the gifts destined for the caliph Harun al-Rashld. 
It was also there that the truce (hudna) of ten years 
and the exchange of prisoners was arranged with 
the envoys of Constantine, patrician of Sicily (189/ 
805). Many other embassies also of the Franks, By- 
zantines and Andalusians, were received there by 
subsequent Aghlabid rulers. From its foundation, 
al-'Abbasiyya had a mint (dqr al-darb) where gold 
dinars and silver dirhams, bearing the town's name, 
were coined. An official factory of textiles (firdz) 
produced the robes of honour (khiPa) and the stan- 
dards. Under the successors of Ibrahim I, al- c Ab- 
basiyya was provided with monuments of public 
and private utility. Abu Ibrahim Ahmad built a 
large reservoir (sahridj or fashiyya) of which impor- 
tant remains have been preserved. The basin had 
an abundant supply of water, which was carried to 
Kayrawan in the summer, when the cisterns of the 
capital were exhausted. — The town of Rakkada, 
founded in 264/877 by Ibrahim II, some miles further 
to the south, replaced al- c Abbasiyya as residence. 
Al-'Abbasiyya sank to the level of a township, in- 
habited by mawdli and tradesmen, but continued 
to exist in a modest way until the Hilalian in- 
vasion (middle of the 5th/nth century) when it 
disappeared for good. A cursory excavation, in 1923, 
of the hill (tell) where al- c Abbasiyya was situated, 
brought to light many potsherds belonging to the 
Aghlabid period. This white pottery with large black, 
green and blue decoration was no doubt inspired by 
oriental models coming from 'Irak (Samarra, Rakka) 
and Egypt (Fustat). It is worth mentioning that al- 
'Abbasiyya was the birth-place of several scholars, 
notably of Abu 'l- c Arab [q.v.] Mulj. b. Ahmad b. 
Tamlm, first historian of al-Kayrawan (d. 333/945). 
Bibliography: Baladhuri, Futuh, 234; Bakri, 
al-Masdlik (de Slane), 24; Idrisi (de Goeje, Des- 
criptio al Magribi), 65-7; Ibn 'Idhari, al-Bayan 
al-Mughrib, Leiden 1948, I, 84; Desvergers, Hist 
de VAfr. et de la Sicilie (transl. of Ibn Khaldun), 
Paris 1841, 86-8; G. Marcais, Manuel de I' Art 
Musulman, Paris 1926, I, 40. 

(H. H. Abdul-Wahab) 



al-'ABBASIYYA [see tubna] 

<ABD is the ordinary word for "slave" in Arabic 
of all periods (the usual plural in this sense is '■abld, 
although the Kur'an has Hbad: xxiv, 32), more 
particularly for "male slave", "female slave" being 
ama (pi. *«ta>). Both words are of old Semitic stock; 
Biblical Hebrew uses them in the same meaning. 
Classical Arabic also expresses the idea of "slave", 
in the singular of both genders and in the collective, 
by the generic term rakifr, which however is not 
found in the Kur'an. On the other hand, the Kur'an 
frequently uses the term rakaba, literally "neck, 
nape of the neck", and, still more frequently, the 
periphrasis ma malakat aymdnukum (-hum), "that 
which your (their) right hands possess". The c abd?" 
mamluk"" of xvi, 75 is to be regarded in the light 
of this formula: it should properly be rendered "a 
slave, who is (himself) a piece of property". Hence, no 
doubt, the development in the classical language of 
mamluk as a noun meaning "slave" (later also "ex- 
slave"). In the course of the history of Arabic, as of 
other languages, various vicissitudes have been under- 
gone by euphemisms literally denoting "boy, girl" or 
"manservant, maidservant" : fata (fern, fatal), which 
is Kur'anic, ghulam for "male slave", djariya for 
"female slave", both very common, wasif particularly 
for men (the fern, wasif a is also found), and khddim 
particularly for women (also, at an early date, for 
"eunuch"), Both these last have in some countries 
finally come to mean "negro, negress". Another term 
sometimes used for "slave" is asif ^properly "captive". 

The abstract "slavery" is expressed by rikk or 
by a derivative of t abd, such as l ubudiyya. The 
"master" is sayyid; he may also be referred to as 
"patron" (mawld) or, in legal parlance, "owner" 
(mdlik). The opposite of slave, "free man or woman". 



r (fen 



ra). 



Turkish has, as equivalents for "slave", kul or 
kdle, as well as loan-words from Persian: bende, 
and from Arabic: esir (asir), gulam (ghulam) for the 
masculine, cariye (djariya) and halaylk (khaldHk, 
properly "creatures") for the feminine. Besides banda, 
Persian has ghulam for the masculine and keniz 



r the f. 



. Before Islam 



Slavery was practised in pre-Islamic Arabia, as 
in the remainder of the ancient and early mediaeval 
world. But it must be admitted that the sparse and 
controversial data available to us for the pre- 
Islamic period are insufficient to provide reliable 
answers to most of the problems presented by the 
institution. It may be allowed that, immediately 
before the Hijra, the great majority of slaves in 
western Arabia, a plentiful commodity at Mecca, 
by whose sale merchants grew rich ( c Abd Allah b. 
Djud'an [q.v.]; cf. Lammens, La Mecque. . . ., Beirut 
1924, passim), were coloured people of Ethiopian 
origin (Habasha). Some of them must have formed 
the nucleus of the Ahdbish, the Meccan militia 
(Lammens, J A, 1916 = V Arabic occidentals avant 
Vhigire, Beirut, 1928, pp. 237-293). Bilal, the first 
muezzin of Islam, was one such slave. There were 
some white slaves of foreign race, far less 
who were no doubt brought by Arab c 
(slave-dealers as far back as the Bible story of 
Joseph), or were the product of beduin captures 
(legend of the Persian Salman Pak). Finally, there 
are no objective grounds for denying the existence 
of Arab slaves, although the ransoming of captives 
among nomad tribes was a matter of common prac- 



tice. We have the example of the Kalbite Zayd b. 
Haritha, who became the adopted son of Muhammad: 
a valuable example, even if it has been touched up 
in the manner of Tradition (see the decision attri- 
buted to 'Umar, infra, as plausible evidence pointing 
the same way). We have, however, nothing conclusive 
on the existence of enslavement for debt or the sale 
of children by their families: the late and rare ac- 
counts of such occurrences (Aghdni*, iii, 97; xix, 
4) show them to be abnormal. 

It would moreover be unwise to stretch the scanty 
information we have on the condition of slaves in 
the Hi'djaz before Islam, to fit every locality and every 
social division. Nomads and sedentaries, in parti- 
cular, may have shown evidence of quite a different 
attitude, even in those days: we shall come to the 
modern period later. The abiding scorn of slave an- 
cestry, even if only on the mother's side, the satire 
aimed at the man who marries a captive girl (G. 
Jacob, Altarab.Beduinenleben, Berlin 1897, pp. 137-8, 
213; Bichr Fares, L'honneur chez Us Arabes avant 
V Islam, Paris 1932, p. 71) are perhaps characteristic 
of beduin mentality, rather than indicative of the 
general outlook of town-dwellers. The biography in 
literary form of the renowned warrior-poet 'Antara, 
son of a beduin and an Ethiopian slave-girl, who has 
to perform dazzling feats of arms before his father 
will consent to legitimize him, is a ronton a thise 
(Lammens, Le berceau de Vlslam, Rome 1914, p. 
299) against disinheriting the children of such unions, 
indeed against keeping them in slavery: proof that 
the question had some immediacy and demanded 
a liberal answer, at any rate in some quarters. 

It is probable that the usual practice of the pre- 
Islamic Arabs was influenced by an ancient Semitic 
distinction between two classes of slave, never per- 
haps reduced to a strict legal principle (I. Mendel- 
sohn, Slavery in the Ancient Near East, New York, 
1949, pp. 57-8) and never ratified by Muslim law, 
but which has left traces here and there in the code 
of behaviour of Islamicized lands: in contrast with 
the purchased slave {'abd* mamluka""), the slave born 
in his master's house ('abd* kinn in ; a term later applied 
to the slave over whom one has full and complete 
rights of ownership) was, in the ordinary course of 
events, unlikely to be sold or otherwise disposed of 
by the master (LA, xvii, 227-8; Djurdjani, Ta c ri- 
fdt, kinn). We are on firmer ground — because the 
practice is expressly condemned in the Ku'ran, xxiv, 
33 — in accepting it as fact that in pre-Islamic times 
female slaves were prostituted for the benefit of their 
masters, again in accordance with a Near Eastern 
custom of great antiquity (Mendelsohn, op.cit. p. 54). 

2. The Kor'an. The Religious Ethic 

a. — Islam, like its two parent monotheisms, Ju- 
daism and Christianity, has never preached the 
abolition of slavery as a doctrine, but it has followed 
their example (though in a very different fashion) 
in endeavouring to moderate the institution and 
mitigate its legal and moral aspects (for the part 
played in this by Christianity, see M. Bloch, in 
Annales, 1947, and Imbert, in Milanges F. de 
Visscher, Brussels, 1949, vol. i). Spiritually, the 
slave has the same value as the free man, and the 
same eternity is in store for his soul; in this earthly 
life, failing emancipation, there remains the fact 
of his inferior status, to which he must piously resign 
himself. 

The I£ur'an regards this discrimination between 
human beings as in accordance with the divinely- 



established order of things (xvi, 71, 75; xxx, 28). 
But over and over again, from beginning to end of 
the Preaching, it makes the emancipation of slaves 
a meritorious act: a work of charity (ii, 177; xc, 
13), to which the legal alms may be devoted (ix, 
60), or a deed of expiation for certain felonies (un- 
intentional homicide: iv, 92, where "a believing 
slave" is specified; perjury: v, 89; lviii, 3); con- 
sent must be readily given to contractual emanci- 
pation (xxiv, 33). The unemancipated slave is 
mentioned among those who should be treated 
"kindly" (ihsdn° n , iv, 36). Furthermore, his dignity 
as a human being is shown in certain ordinances 
relating to the sexual side of social relationships. 
We have already mentioned the ban on the prosti- 
tution of female slaves (xxiv, 33); nobody may 
lawfully enjoy them except their master (xxiii, 6; 
xxxiii, 5o;lxx, 30) or their husband, for legal mar- 
riage is open to slaves, male and female. Masters 
have the moral duty to marry off their "virtuous" 
slaves of both sexes (xxiv, 32); if need be it is 
even permissible for Muslim slaves to marry free 
Muslims (ii, 221 ;iv, 25). The slave-woman who, ob- 
taining her master's consent, which is essential, mar- 
ries a free man, is entitled to "a reasonable dowry" 
from her husband. She is obliged to remain faithful 
to him; but if she commits adultery her slave status 
re-emerges in the curious provision that she is liable 
to only one-half of the punishment reserved for the 
free married woman (iv, 25). Finally, the Kur'an 
protects the slave's life, to some extent, by the law 
of retaliation, but the formula "the free for the free, 
the slave for the slave" (ii, 178) shows clearly how 
in penal matters the principle of inequality is main- 

Bibliography: R. Roberts, Das Familien, 

Sklaven Recht im Qordn, Leipzig 1908, 41-47; 

Social Laws of the Qordn, London 1925, 53 ff. 

b. — The more or less official Muslim ethic, expressed 
in the hadiths, follows the line of Kur'anic teaching; 
it even iays perceptible stress on the humanitarian 
tendencies of the latter in the question with which 
we are dealing. Al-Ghazali, in the Ihyd', ed. 1346 
A.H., ii, 195-7 (hukuk al-mamluk) (transl. G.-H. 
Bousquet, AIEO 1952, 423-7) had only to string 
together a number of well-known hadiths to produce 
what amounts to a lecture on ethics for slave-owners, 
illustrated by examples. 

Tradition delights in asserting that the slave's 
lot was among the latest preoccupations of the Pro- 
phet. It has quite a large store of sayings and anec- 
dotes, attributed to the Prophet or to his Compa- 
nions, enjoining real kindness towards this inferior 
social class. "Do not forget that they are your 
brothers"; at any rate when they are Muslims, 
as some texts specify. — "God has given you the 
right of ownership over them; He could have given 
them the right of ownership over you". — "God 
has more power over you than you have over them". 
Thus the master is recommended not to show con- 
tempt for his slave; not to say "my slave" but 
"my boy, my servant" (v. supra), to share his food 
with him, to provide him with clothing similar to 
his own, to set him no more than moderate work, 
not to punish him excessively if he does wrong, 
to forgive him "seventy times a day", and finally 
to sell him to another master if they cannot get 
on well together. 

Manumission is commended as a happy solution 
in many cases and is suggested as a way for the 
master to make amends for excessive chastisement of 
his slave. It is recommended, in the same category 



as alms-giving, at the time of an eclipse, and is 
included among the various possible ways of expi- 
ating a voluntary breaking of the fast of Ramadan 
(the Kur'an prescribes no more than "the feeding of 
a poor man": Ii, 184). A twofold reward in heaven 
is promised to the man who educates his slavegirl, 
frees her and marries her. A famous hadlth affirms: 
"The man who frees a Muslim (v. 1. 'a believer') 
slave, God will free from hell, limb for limb". 

It is the duty of the slave, for his part, to give 
loyal service. He is "the shepherd of his master's 
wealth" and will be asked for an account of it in 
the next world. His reward in paradise will be two- 
fold if, in addition to performing the usual religious 
obligations, he has the especial merit of having given 
good advice to his master. 

If the Kur'an and Tradition show a certain 
tavouritism towards such slaves as are Muslims, 
another direction is shown in hadiths forbidding the 
keeping of male Arabs in slavery; they invoke a 
decision to this effect said to have been given by 
the caliph c Umar, in favour of disposing of instances 
of slavery against the payment of a ransom, where 
these were the result of "pre-Islamic practices" (see 
especially Ibn Sallam, K. al-Amwdl, pp. 133-4). 
Bibliography: Wensinck, Handbook, s.v. 

3. FlIfH 

Under the heading of fikh properly so-called, we 
shall have recourse to the main provisions agreed 
on by the great Sunni schools. Thereafter we shall 
note very briefly some typical solutions adopted by 
Imami Shi'ism. 

a. — Apart from the occasionally operative distinct- 
ion between Muslim and non-Muslim slaves, Muslim 
law recognizes only one category of slaves, regardless 
of their ethnic origin or the source of their condition. 
The institution is kept going by only two lawful 
means: birth in slavery or capture in war, and even 
of these the latter is not applicable to Muslims, since 
though they may remain enslaved they cannot be 
reduced to slavery. Legally therefore, the only Mus- 
lim slaves are those born into both categories or who 
were already slaves at the time of their conversion 
to Islam. Their number tends to diminish both 
through emancipation, particularly recommended 
in such cases, and through the following provision: 
whereas the usual principle of Muslim law is that 
the child assumes at birth his mother's status, free 
or slave, an exception, of all the more importance in 
view of its wide application, is made in favour of 
the child born of a free man and a female slave be- 
longing to him; such a child is regarded as free-born 
(otherwise he would be his father's slave). What 
this amounts to is that slavery could scarcely con- 
tinue to exist in Islam without the constantly renewed 
contribution of peripheral or external elements, 
either directly captured in war or imported commer- 
cially, under the fiction of the Holy War, from for- 
eign territory (ddr al-harb). 

It is pleasing to see that in the eyes of Muslim 
jurists slavery is an exceptional condition: "The 
basic principle is liberty" (al-afl huwa 'l-hurriyya). 
Consequently, for the majority of them, the pre- 
sumption is in favour of freedom ; on the whole they 
have come down on the side of regarding as free 
the foundling (lakit) whose origin remains unknown. 
But it may fairly be stated that, despite the strict- 
ness professed by certain doctors of the law, the 
filth has never evolved an adequately clear system 



of sanctions to suppress the kidnapping or sale of 
free persons, Muslim or non-Muslim. Still less do 
we see any positive denunciation of the practice 
of castrating young slaves, although it was con- 
demned in principle. 

b. — On the juridico-religious level, the slave has a 
kind of composite quality, partaking of the nature 
both of thing and of person. Considered as a thing, 
he is subject to the right of ownership — indeed it 
is in this that the strict definition of slavery lies — 
exercised by a man or woman, and he may be the 
object of all the legal operations proceeding from 
this position: sale, gift, hire, inheritance and so 
on. In this respect he is "a mere commodity" (sil c a 
min al-sila'). In the various classes of property 
distinguished by the fikh, he generally ranks with 
the animals and his lot is like theirs: the new-born 
slave, for instance, is the "fruit" (ghalla) of his 
mother, like the young of cattle, and belongs to her 
master; in the theoretical treatises on public law, 
the muhtasib is given the duty of ensuring that mas- 
ters treat their slaves and their animals properly. 
The slave may (as among the Romans and in Christ- 
ian Europe) belong to two or more owners at the 
same time: he is then said to be "held in common" 
(mushtarak) ; such joint ownership gives rise to some 
extremely complex legal positions, which provide 
abundant material for the casuistry of the doctors. 
Again, it should be noted that the law lays down 
the amount of the reward which may be claimed 
by the one who restores a runaway slave (dbik) 

Yet the slave, even from the point of view of the 
right of ownership, of which he is the object, is not 
always treated exactly like other property. Malikl law, 
for example, allows, in towns where it is the custom- 
ary usage, an automatic guarantee of three days, 
at the expense of the seller of the slave, against 
any "faults" ( c uyub) in the latter (one year in the 
case of madness or leprosy). The fact that a master 
may legally have sexual relations with his female 
slaves gives rise to a system of regulating these 
relations, which has repercussions elsewhere on his 
exercise of the right of ownership : thus a distinction 
is sometimes drawn between costly female slaves, 
intended for cohabitation, and ordinary female 
slaves (e.g. Mudawwana, vi, 192 seqq., concerning 
a clause of non-guarantee in sale), between female 
slaves within and outside the prohibited degrees of 
relationship to the interested party (e.g. in the 
matter of the loan of consummation, kard, except 
among the Hanafls, who forbid it with all living 
things). Further, the regard for kinship has an even 
more striking effect. It is forbidden to separate a slave 
mother and her young child, up to about the age 
of seven, by their becoming the property of different 
different masters (a hadlth runs: "Whoever separates 
a mother from her child, God will separate him from 
his dear ones on the Day of Resurrection"), under 
pain of nullity of the legal transaction; the Hanafls, 
more reluctant to impose legal sanctions, brand 
as "objectionable" the separating of a slave, not 
yet arrived at puberty, from any close blood-relative 
within the prohibited degrees, whether the latter is 
of age or not. Emancipation follows automatically, 
except in the ?5hiri school, when a slave becomes 
the property of a very close relative: according to the 
Shafi'is, only in the ascending and descending lines: 
the Malikis add brothers and sisters too, while the 
Hanafls extend the rule to all relatives within the 
prohibited degrees. Religious affiliation is also taken 
into account, inasmuch as non-Muslims cannot 



keep Muslim slaves; they must either free them or 
dispose of them to Muslim masters. 

If the master fails to meet his moral obligation 
of providing for the physical maintenance (nafaka) 
of his slave, the law requires in the last resort that 
the latter be sold, a solution also enjoined, except 
by the Hanafls, in the case of animals. The Malikis 
hold that emancipation is compulsory (cf. Exodus, 
xxi, 26-7) when the master carries his ill-treatment 
of his slave to the point of mutilation or disfigure- 
ment. Later, when we come to deal with personal 
rights, we shall meet with other instances of curtail- 
ment of the absolute right of ownership, as of other 
features of penal law. 

c. — On the personal rights of the slave, that is, on 
his juridico-religious competence, it is interesting to 
see whether the classical jurists have ever attempted 
a general theory that would bring out the principles 
underlying the solutions scattered under the various 
headings of fikh. One such attempt is to be found 
in the works of the Hanafi al-Pazdawi (d. 482/1089), 
commented on and imitated in the later treatises on 
usul al-fikh ; the basic ideas, Hanafi of course, are as 
follows {Usui, ed. Istanbul 1307 A.H., pp. 1401-1426): 
slave-status is incompatible with "patrimonial 
ownership" (malikiyyat al-mdl), whence it follows 
for example, that the slave cannot take a concubine, 
but is compatible with "non-patrimonial ownership" 
(malikiyyat ghayr al-mdl), whence it follows, for 
example, that the slave may marry. His status does 
not debar the slave from administering property 
and laying claim to the "possession" (yad) of it, 
but is incompatible with the full exercise of the 
higher legal faculties of the human being: his dhimma 
(abstract financial responsibility) and his hill (free- 
dom of action in sexual matters) are reduced, and 
all wildydt (public or private offices of authority) 
are forbidden to him. More recent works, of the type 
of the Ashbdh wa-Nazd'ir by the Shafi'ite Suyiitl 
and the Hanafite Ibn Nudjaym, merely give dry 
and rather disjointed lists of the manifold rules 
about what slaves may and may not do. 
d. — The Muslim slave has a religious status (Hbdddt) 
theoretically identical with that of his free coreli- 
gionists (the contrary opinion is exceptional; e.g. 
in one solitary MalikI, cf. Ibn Farhun, DibdaJ, 
1329 268); but some derogations were more or 
less inevitable on cenain points. Most authori- 
ties hold that his dependence on a master absolves 
him from the strict necessity of performing such 
pious acts as involve freedom of movement : the Fri- 
day prayer, pilgrimage, the Holy War. Another 
consequence of this dependence is that the master 
is responsible for the annual payment of his "alms 
at the breaking of the fast" (zakdt al-fifr). The Muslim 
slave-woman is not under as strict an obligation to 
"hide her nakedness" (satr al- l awra) at the ritual 
prayer as the free woman. The slave is not forbidden 
to act as leader (imam) of congregational prayer, 
although the Hanafls disapprove of the practice, 
and some other authorities do not permit him to 
become a salaried imam, or at any rate they prefer 
a free man to hold the office, if one is available 
of the required competence. The question of his 
acting as imam at the midday prayer on Fridays 
and the two canonical festivals is more debatable, 
especially if this office is regarded as an emanation 
from the public authority; even within the various 
schools there is disagreement about whether or not 
it is allowable. On. the whole, however, the affirm- 
ative answer seems to have prevailed, except among 
the Hanbalis. The slave is no more qualified to 



hold a position of religious magistrature (judgeship, 
hisba) than an official position of secular authority; 
he is nevertheless acceptable as a subordinate officer 
in the revenue department. 

e. — In matters of law in the strict sense (mu'-dmaldt) , 
the slave's incompetence to act (hadjr) is assumed in 
principle, but is not absolute. If he is a Muslim, the 
fikh confirms and expressly states his competence to 
contract a marriage, as clearly laid down in the Kur'an 
(v. supra) ; but the master's consent is required both 
for male and female slaves (according to the Ma- 
likis, the male slave of full age may marry of his 
own accord, but the master then has the right either 
to ratify the marriage or to terminate it by repu- 
diation) and it is the master who acts as "guardian 
for matrimonial purposes" (wali) of his female slaves. 
The master can even marry off by "compulsion", 
(djabr ) a male slave, not yet of age, or a female slave 
(the father of a family has a similar right over his 
children); the schools of Abu Hanifa and Malik 
concede him the same power over a male slave of 
full age. The Hanbalis alone, on the other hand, hold 
that the slave may insist on his master's marrying 
him off. Notwithstanding reservations and restrictions 
based on the words of the Kur'an, and in spite of 
the customary requirement of "compatability" 
(kafd'd) between the parties, the jurists admit and 
lay down rules for marriage between Muslims of 
whom one is a slave and the other free. We have 
convincing evidence that, in the course of the cen- 
turies, such unequal marriages occurred (to the 
advantage to the slave, male or female, concerned) 
more often than one might think. A slave wife, on 
being emancipated, has the right to opt for divorce 
if her husband is a slave and, according to the 
Hanafls, even if he is free. 

A Muslim cannot be the husband or wife of his 
or her slave (nor even, some would add, of the slave 
belonging to his or her son) ; there is an absolute in- 
compatibility, for the same persons, between connu- 
bium and ownership. In contradistinction to the other 
rites, the Hanafls permit a Muslim, even a free Muslim, 
to marry a Jewish or Christian slave-girl. The slave 
is entitled to a maximum of two wives, except in 
the MalikI view, which grants him four, just like 
a free man. The Malikis are also alone in conceding 
that a slave-wife has the right to share in her hus- 
band's nights on equal terms with a free co-wife; 
the other jurists allow her only one night in three. 
The obligation, which is generally recognized as 
incumbent on a slave-husband, to maintain his wife, 
gives rise to various solutions if he is not legitimately 
possessed of adequate means. 

Although the majority of authorities deny that 
the male slave of full age can contract a valid marri- 
age of his own free will, yet all agree that he has 
the husband's usual right of repudiation (taldk) as 
he thinks fit. But in accordance with the general 
tendency to reduce by one-half, in the case of the 
slave, all figures prescribed for free men, he may only 
take back his wife after one single formula of repu- 
diation, instead of the two which the Koran (ii, 
229) lays down as a maximum. Consequently a 
twofold repudiation on his part has the same decisive 
result as a threefold repudiation by a free man; 
the Hanafls alone, who in the matter of repudiation 
have more consideration for the woman than for 
the man, apply this reduction if it is the wife who 
is a slave, whether or not her husband is a free man. 
The Hanafls also set themselves apart from the other 
schools in not permitting the married male slave to 
use the device of "cursing" (li'dn), instituted by the 



Kur'an (xxiv, 6-9) to the advantage of the husband 
who may accuse his wife of adultery with no legal 

The "legal period of withdrawal" (Hdda) which 
must be observed by widows or repudiated woman 
(i£ur 3 5n, ii, 228, -234; lxv, 4) is also halved when 
the woman in question is a slave: 1) two months 
and five days for a widow, instead of four months 
and ten days; 2) two menstrual or intermenstrual 
periods (depending on the school) instead of three 
(one could hardly say one-and-a-half) for the repu- 
diated woman who is usually regular, except that 
the Zahiris keep the figure at three; 3) one month 
and a half for the repudiated woman who is not 
usually regular, except according to the Malikis, 
who oddly enough, as Averroes remarks (Biddya, 
ed. 1935, ii, 93; tr. Lai'meche, 233-4), here hold 
to the figure of three. 

f. — Far more important in practice, on account of 
its wide application and great bearing on social 
life, is the system of legal concubinage. In fikh 
as in the Kur'an, extramarital cohabitation is per- 
missible only between a man and his own female 
slave; he is forbidden to cohabit with a slave be- 
longing to his wife, even with the latter's consent 
(contrary to the Biblical custom), but indulgence 
is shown if he has relations with a slave belonging 
to his son. Co-owners of a female slave may not 
cohabit with her, nor may a sole owner cohabit with 
a married female slave. When the concubine {surriy- 
ya) has a child by her master, she enjoys the title 
of umm walad [q.v.\ and an improved status in that 
she cannot be sold and becomes free on her master's 
death (compare the Code of Hammurabi, para. 170; 
but for the fluctuations in old Islamic practice see 
J. Schacht, in E.I. > s.v., and The Origins of 
Muhammadan Jurisprudence, Oxford, 1950, 264-6); 
that child and any others she may subsequently 
have are born free. There is no limit to the number 
of concubines as there is to the number of wives, 
but almost all the authorities teach that there are 
the same bars to cohabitation as to marriage : natural 
or acquired kinship, two sisters together, the woman's 
professing a heathen religion. 

With the especial aim of avoiding confusion over 
parentage, in the absence of any initial ceremony 
or Hdda, the jurists have prescribed a temporary ban 
on sexual relations, in the case of a slave-woman, for 
"verification of non-pregnancy" or istibrd', when for 
any reason she becomes the property of a new master 
or changes her status (emancipation, marriage). 
If she is pregnant, this ban lasts till her confinement, 
as with the Hdda ; if not, its duration is one menstrual 
period. If she is not yet regular in her periods or 
has ceased to be regular, the authorities differ: one 
month or three months is the usual rule. Malikis 
and Hanbalis make the seller of the slave-woman 
share in the responsibility of the istibra'; the former 
entrust her (muwdda'a) to the supervision of a 
third person. There is considerable difference of 
opinion on points of detail in the numerous cases 
where the istibra' would appear to be no longer obli- 
gatory, as serving no purpose; to avoid it, recourse 
is had to certain devices of procedure, particularly 
by the Hanafi devotees of "circumventions of the 
law" (hiyal) (well-known anecdote of Harun al- 
Rashid and the kadi Abu Yusuf, which has found its 
way into the Arabian Nights). 

The children born of legal concubinage are legi- 
timate and, in the matter of succession to their 
father's estate, are on the same footing as children 
born in wedlock. But it is harder to establish legally 



the paternity of a master, with all its legal and social 
consequences, than that of a husband; besides, the 
old 'Iraki jurists were loth to declare it officially if 
there was no expression of willingness on the part 
of the master concerned. The Hanafis too stand 
apart from the other schools in not fathering a child 
on the master unless the latter acknowledges it, 
and in permitting him to disown it if there is a legal 
presumption in favour of his paternity inasmuch 
as the concubine is already umm walad. In the other 
schools, the master of an unmarried female slave 
is legally regarded as the father of her child, not 
only if he acknowledges it as his own but also if 
he makes an implicit admission of having had re- 
lations with her, as is obviously the case if she is 
already umm walad. It is open to him to deny pater- 
nity only if cohabitation was manifestly impossible 
within the — very wide — officially recognized limits 
of the term of pregnancy, or if he takes an oath 
that he put his concubine in istibrd' at least six 
months before the date of the birth, and that he 
has not cohabited with her since. The ascription of 
paternity becomes complicated in such abnormal 
situations as when two co-owners of a slave cohabit 
with her during the same intermenstrual period, 
or when two entitled parties in succession have had 
relations with her without istibra'; recourse is then 
had to the ruling of the "physiognomists" {kd'if 
pi. kdfa), an ancient Arabian expedient difficult of 
application at certain times. Failing this, the child 
is left to choose for himself at puberty. Here again 
the Hanafis stand alone in refusing to ratify this 
archaic institution ; they prefer, if the decision proves 
to be rationally impossible, to set up a kind of two- 
fold paternity. 

g. — Most authorities deny the slave-woman the 
right of custody (haddna) over her children to which 
the free woman is entitled, nor do they permit the male 
slave to be a "guardian for matrimonial purposes" 
(wall). The Shafi'i and Hanafi schools (who have 
not ratified the partial tolerance of Abu Hanifa) 
refuse to allow the slave to act as executor of a will 
[wasi). The testimony (shahada) of a slave is not 
admissible in court, except among the Hanbalis, 
and even they do not accept it in connection with 
the most serious punishable offences. His affirmation 
(ikrdr) is generally accepted in matters affecting his 
person (apart from restrictions imposed by certain 
authorities) but not in matters of property. 

h. — All the schools agree that the master can do 
as he likes with property in the possession of his 
slave and is at liberty to take it away from him. 
In the eyes of third parties, the ordinary slave has 
no patrimony of his own: his business activities, 
which are severely restricted, are on behalf of his 
master, who alone is financially competent to act. 
Nevertheless the Malikis take up the remarkable 
position (for an interesting justification see 'Abd 
al-Wahhab, Ishrdf, i, 270) of recognizing the slave's 
"ownership" (milk) of his peculium, whose source 
is mainly from gifts or bequests which it is permis- 
sible for him to accept on his own account, although 
the ownership here is precarious and may not be 
disposed of without consent. Two important conse- 
quences of this doctrine are that, according to the 
Malikis, the slave may lawfully have concubines 
without giving rise to any theoretical difficulties, 
and that on gaining his freedom he may keep his 
peculium, unless his master has formally announced 
his wish to retain it. 

Finally, apropos of patrimony, there is quite a 
common practice, known from remote Semitic anti- 



quity and from the Classical world, which provides 
the slave with a real, though not unrestricted, legal 
competency: it consists in the master's putting his 
slave in charge of a business or of certain specified 
business dealings, entrusting him with a capital sum 
where necessary. The slave is then said to be "au- 
thorized" (ma'dhan or ma'dhan lah). The effects of 
this "authorization" (idhn), which may nevertheless 
be revoked, are conceived in more or less generous 
terms by different jurists. The recipient always in 
fact becomes relatively independent, so as to be 
able to deal quite finely with third parties. The autho- 
rities are well-nigh unanimous in not making the 
master responsible for the debts of his "authorized" 
slave; the Hanafis, followed with some hesitation 
by the Hanballs, allow them to be recovered on the 
"physical person" (rakaba) of the slave debtor, if 
the capital at his disposal is inadequate; in other 
words he may be sold to pay them. On the other 
hand, the Malikis and Shafils recognize his "ab- 
stract responsibility" (dhimma); the "obligation to 
pay" (dayn) they leave standing to the account of 
those creditors whom the assets are insufficient to 
satisfy, while deferring the "exaction of payment" 
(mufdlaba, "Haftung") till such time as the slave 
is emancipated. 

i. — It is in connection with punishments ( l ukubdt) 
that the hybrid and indeterminate character of the 
legal nature of the slave, who is simultaneously a 
thing and a person of inferior status, breaks through 
the complicated web of solutions presented by the 
fifth. Here is a curious example, of an unusual kind 
but mentioned as clearly showing this ambivalence: 
the "legal compensation" (diya) for the foetus aborted 
by a free woman is a young slave of either sex, tech- 
nically known as ghurra, whereas the compensation 
for victims duly born is reckoned in camels or money. 

To what extent is the law of retaliation (kisds) 
applied to slaves, on the basis of I£ur 3 an, ii, 178 
(v. supra) ? In a case of intentional homicide it works 
against the slave, whether the victim be bond or 
free (if he is free, it is no doubt not precisely the idea 
of retaliation which underlies the punishment); 
but the schools object to putting a free man to death 
for killing a slave, with the noteworthy exception 
of the Hanafis (and also of that illustrious, albeit 
somewhat dissident, Hanball, Ibn Taymiyya; cf. 
Laoust, Essai, 418, 438), and even they exempt 
the man who kills his own slave or one belonging 
to his son. The Malikis are almost alone in con- 
ferring on the victim's next-of-kin the ownership 
of the guilty slave (again with a great many reser- 
vations), to do with him as he pleases: he may put 
him to death, keep him in slavery or set him free. 
This may be a survival of an archaic solution, else- 
where replaced by the simple choice, as in the case 
of free men, between retaliation and compensation 
according to the tariff. In cases of deliberate wound- 
ing the Shafi'is apply retaliation between the same 
persons as in cases of homicide; Malikis and Hanba- 
Hs insist on equality of status, slave or free, between 
the guilty party and his victim; the Hanafis forego 
retaliation altogether. 

What of the monetary compensation, according 
as the slave is guilty of or is the victim of bloodshed ? 
— 1) Slave victim: The compensation goes to the 
master. The diya is the responsibility of the guilty 
person alone, except that the Shafi'Is are undecided 
whether or not to bring in the "group jointly respon- 
sible for the bloodwit" ( c dkila), which is the Hanafi 
rule in cases of homicide only. This diya is not 
fixed, as for the free man, but is calculated, in the 



event of death, on the market value (klma) of the 
victim; the Hanafis alone set an upper limit to it, 
namely the diya of a free man less a token reduction 
of ten dirhams. If there is only wounding, of a type 
specified in the tariff laid down by the Law for. a 
free man, the majority of authorities hold that the 
market value of the injured slave should be reduced 
by the amount of the difference between the figure 
shown in the legal scale for an identical wound and 
the maximum compensation for a free man. The 
Malikis and some Hanballs teach, though with cer- 
tain reservations, that the sum paid should exactly 
equal the depreciation in the market value of the slave. 

2) Slave guilty: The majority of authorities give 
the master the choice between surrendering the cul- 
prit (daf-, noxalis deditio) and paying the appro- 
priate diya. But the Shafi'is, followed by several 
Hanballs, regard the diya as incumbent on the 
"physical person" (rakaba) of the slave in question, 
whom his master will therefore sell, and hand over 
the price received in exchange for him, up to the 
amount of the diya, unless he prefers to pay the 
sum due without selling him. 

The slave guilty of theft and the Muslim slave 
guilty of apostasy are punished in the same way 
as free men: by cutting off the hand in the former 
case, by death in the latter, when the necessary 
conditions for these punishments are fulfilled. 

Fornication (zind) committed by a slave of either 
sex does not legally involve the death penalty, in 
consequence of the Kur'anic ordinance (t>. supra) and 
because neither male nor female slaves are held 
capable of acquiring the particular legal condition 
of a muhsan(a) spouse, which the fikh restricts to 
free persons who have consummated marriage and 
which it regards as necessary before a death-sentence 
can be imposed for a sexual offence. As laid down 
in the Rur'an, the punishment is half of that decreed 
(xxiv, 2) for the free person who is not muhsan(a) ; 
viz. fifty lashes instead of one hundred, to which 
some authorities would add the further penalty of 
banishment. It should be noted that Hanafis and 
Hanbalis refuse to regard as muttsan the spouse of 
anybody who is not muhsan: so, according to them, 
the husband or wife of a slaw cannot be executed 
for adultery. As part of the general tendency to 
mitigate the punishment for sexual offences involving 
slaves, certain cases of unlawful cohabitation with 
a female slave (e.g. by a co-owner or the master's 
father) are not looked upon as zina. 

Finally, the slave who is guilty of a "false charge 
of fornication" (kadhf) against a free person is liable, 
here again, to half the penalty decreed by the 
Kur'an (xxiv, 4) against the slanderer who is free; 
viz. forty lashes instead of eighty. But the slave who 
is the victim of such a slander has no right at all 
to any such satisfaction, since the Law, which to 
a certain extent protects the person of the slave, 
does not go so far as to regard him or her as a man 
or woman of honour. 

The vast field of the "arbitrary punishments" 
(ta'azir), left to the judge's discretion, almost com- 
pletely defies investigation through the study of 
written sources. We are conscious of our inability 
to make a sufficiently close study of how, in matters 
of punishment, the slave's position really compares, 
throughout history, with that of the free man, in 
the eyes of the judicial authorities of Islam. 

j. — The emancipation ( l «A, 'ataka, i'tdk) of the 
slave is a work of piety ; it is a unilateral act on the 
part of the master, consisting in an explicit or implicit 
declaration; in the former case it is not necessary 



i. In principle, emancipation cannot 
be revoked, nor may the beneficiary refuse it. If, 
however, instead of being immediate, it is to take 
effect at some fixed future date or subject to certain 
conditions, all authorities but the Malikls permit 
the slave to be sold in the meantime. This destroys 
the effect of the emancipation (except, some say, 
if the slave is then re-acquired by his former owner). 
The children of a female slave, born or unborn, as 
a rule become free on her emancipation. The partial 
enfranchisement of a slave by his sole master is 
equivalent to his total enfranchisement (Abu Hanlfa 
formulates a reservation, but is not followed by his 
disciples). The question is more involved when the 
slave is held in joint ownership and one of the owners 
enfranchises him insofar as his own share is concerned ; 
if this owner is well-to-do, the enfranchisement 
is total and he will compensate his fellow-owners 
for the value of their shares. If the emancipator 
is not wealthy enough for this, the slave remains 
"partial" (muba"ad), except according to the Hana- 
fis, who free him and allow the other owners to re- 
cover their share out of the income from his work 
(si'-dya). There is another point on which the Hanafis 
reject the solution readily accepted by the other 
schools: they do not permit recourse to the drawing 
of lots (kur'-a) to determine which of several slaves 
is to be enfranchised when circumstances make it 
necessary to choose ; their rejection of this procedure 
dictates certain of their rulings. 

A grant of enfranchisement with effect from the 
master's death, a desirable practice for the Faithful 
and one for which they have often shown partiality, 
is known as tadbir, from the expression l an dubur'" 
minni, "after me" (this is the view of the Malikls, 
who inlist on a formula containing a word from the 
root dbr). The Shafi'Is also apply the term to an 
enfranchisement to take effect from a date after 
the master's death, which for the other schools 
would count as no more than a revocable testa- 
mentary disposition. Tadbir itself is in principle ir- 
revocable, in the eyes of all the authorities, but here 
too the Shafi'is and Hanbalis allow it to be made 
void by the sale of the mudabbar slave. The Hanafis 
permit this only if the tadbir is limited (mukayyad) 
by a condition connected with the emancipator's 
death. It is permissible for a master to cohabit with 
his mudabbara slave; and her children, except in 
the dominant Shafi'i view, follow the condition of 
their mother. On the master's death, the mudabbar, 
being regarded as part of his estate, is subject to 
the rule of the disposable third and on this rule 
depends the manner of his effective liberation, which 
is different for each school. Except according to 
the Hanafis, he remains in slavery if the debts of 
the deceased cannot be settled without selling him. 

Contractual enfranchisement is of great doctrinal 
and practical importance. It is recommended by 
the Kur'an (xxiv, 33: the interpretation of the 
text as implying a strict obligation has not generally 
prevailed). It consists in the master's granting the 
slave his freedom in return for the payment of sums 
of money agreed between them. Some call this 
conditional enfranchisement, according to others 
it is ransom by the slave of his own person: a diver- 
gence which entails solutions differing in detail. 
The transaction is known in the Kur'an as kitdb, 
the verbal noun of the third form. In the classical 
language, no doubt to distinguish this from kitdb = 
"letter, book", it has been replaced by its morpho- 
logical equivalent muhdtaba or by kitdba. 

Although the payments are usually spaced out 



(munadidjama) and the majority of jurists regard 
settlement by instalments as essential to the con- 
tract, the Hanafis accept one single and immediate 
payment; the Malikls are satisfied with one instal- 
ment, while Shafi'Is and Hanbalis insist on a mini- 
mum of two. The sums to be paid are of course de- 
ducted from the peculium of the slave, who is ipso 
facto "authorized" to engage in business; the granting 
of kitdba to a female slave who has no honest source 
of income is frowned upon. The mukdtab is set free 
only when his payments are completed (on some 
archaic divergences, see Schacht, Origins, 279-80). 
But the master is forbidden to sell him in the mean- 
time, except by the Hanbalis, who nevertheless 
hold the purchaser to the terms of the contract of 
enfranchisement. The Malikls give the master a 
limited right to dispose in advance of the total of 
the sums which the mukdtab undertakes to pay (they 
are known as kitdba, like the contracts itself). Con- 
cubinage with a "contractually emancipated female 
slave" is unlawful. A grant of mukdtaba may be 
superimposed on one of tadbir, to the same person's 
advantage. When the mukdtab reaches the end of 
his payments, a "rebate" (««') is usually accorded 
to him, in compliance with the Kur'anic text: fixed 
or discretionary, obligatory or merely recommended, 
according to the different authorities. 

k. — Once he has gained his liberty, the freedman 
('atih, mu'tah) immediately enjoys the same full 
legal capacity as the freeborn. But both he and his 
male descendants in perpetuity remain attached to 
the emancipator (muHik), and to his or her family, 
by a bond of "clientship" or wold', a term equally 
denoting the converse side of the relationship: "pa- 
tronage". "Patron" and "client" are both referred 
to as mawld (pi. mawdli) in relation to each other; 
if necessary they are differentiated by means of 
epithets: "higher" (al-aHa) for the former and "lo- 
wer" (al-asfal) for the latter. The Hanafis alone main- 
tain, besides this waW which originates in slavery, 
a legal institution known as waW al-muwdldt between 
free men, which is outside the scope of the present 
discussion. 

A saying, applied with slight variations in the 
different schools, runs: "Patronage belongs to the 
emancipator" (al-wald* li-man a l tah); it cannot be 
made over to a third party by any negotiation or 
shift at the moment of emancipation. The fikh, 
moreover, which insists on assimilating patronage to 
natural kinship (hadlth: dl-waW luhma ka-luftmat al- 
nasab), has succeeded in making it inalienable and 
untransferable, whereas cases of sale were not un- 
known before and even under Islam (cf. Ahmad 
Amln, Fadfr al-Islam, i, no; Schacht, Origins, 
173). Nevertheless, on the strength of the peculiar 
concept of "attraction of patronage" (diarr al-waW), 
this right may be transferred in certain cases; for 
example, from the immediate emancipator to the 
one who emancipated him, or from the emancipator 
of the mother to the subsequent emancipator of 
the father, subject to certain conditions. Malikls 
and Hanbalis sanction, not without much wavering, 
and under very different final forms, an ancient 
type of enfranchisement without patronage, known 
as Htk al-sdHba in reference to the pre-Islamic custom, 
condemned indeed in the Kur'an (v, 103), which 
consisted in turning loose in complete freedom one 
particular she-camel of the herd, protected by taboos. 

The patron and his "agnates" (<asaba), or those 
of the patroness, stand in the position of agnates, 
except according to the Zahiris, to the emancipated 
slave who has no natural agnates, particularly in 



n with tutelage for purposes of matrimony 
and with joint responsibility in penal matters. In 
return, the property of the emancipated slave or 
of his or her descendants in the male line who die 
leaving neither priority heirs nor agnates, reverts 
to the patron or patroness or to their agnatic heirs, 
in accordance with a system of devolution (by suc- 
cessive generations among the kin; maxim: al- 
waW li-l-kubr) more archaic than in usual cases 
of succession (see R. Brunschvig, in Revue Historique 
de Droit, 1950). A woman is absolutely excluded 
from this "inheritance of patronage" (mirdth al- 
waW) : she can be patron only of her own freedmen 
or the freedmen of the latter; her sons inherit the 
patronage, while they are not counted among her 
agnates for purposes of joint responsibility in penal 
matters, a particularly conservative institution. One 
ancient isolated opinion notwithstanding, the jurists 
have not granted the freedman the right to inherit 
the property of the patron who dies without heirs. 
Bibliography: Apart from references in the 
text, all the collections of hadith and treatises 
on fikh, not forgetting the works on ikhtilaf. 
Studies in European languages: Weckwarth, Der 
Sklave im Muham. Recht, Berlin 1909, mentioned 
for the sake of completeness; Abd Elwahed, 
Contributions a une theorie sociologique de I'escla- 
vage, Paris 1931, is more important, but biassed. 
For the three main Sunnl schools only, see first 
of all: D. Santillana, Istituzioni, i 2 , 141-160; 
Juynboll, Handleiding ', 232-40, Bergstrasser- 
Schacht, Grundziige, 38-42 ; and, for penal law, L. 
Bercher, Les delits et les peines de droit commun pre- 
vus par leCoran, Tunis 1926, passim. On the Malik! 
view of paternity in legal concubinage, Lapanne- 
Joinville, in Revue Marocaine de Droit, 1952. 
1. — The strictly juridical statute of slavery among 
the Imami Shi'ites, for which one may refer to the 
classic work of al-Hilll, ShardV al-Isldm (tr. Querry, 
2 vols., Paris 1871-2) is indicative of attitudes some- 
times considerably removed from the great Sunnl 
principles. Among the solutions it offers we shall 
confine ourselves to the following, as being parti- 
cularly revealing of some interesting legal or social 
viewpoints. 

The child born in wedlock does not follow the 
status of his mother, bond or free, but failing any 
stipulation to the contrars', is born free if either of 
his parents is free. If both are slaves but not of the 
same master, he belongs jointly to the masters of 
both parents. The master of a female slave may 
grant a third party the "use" of her, for purposes 
of work or sexual relations. There is a great deal 
of controversy about the permissibility of manumit- 
ting a non-Muslim slave; on the other hand it is 
recommended that the Muslim slave should be 
freed after seven years' service (compare with 
Exodus, xxi, 2; Deut., xv, 12). Manumission is of 
right, according to most authorities, when the 
slave is mutilated by the master, as the Malikis 
hold, or if he is smitten with blindness, leprosy or 
paralysis in the course of his slavery. The concu- 
bine who has borne a child is not automatically freed 
on her master's death unless her child is still alive; 
her value is then deducted from this child's share 
of the inheritance. Enfranchisement with effect from 
a master's death may be revoked, just like a legacy; 
it does not prevent sale of the slave, which is tanta- 
mount to a revocation. Contractual enfranchisemen} 
is of two kinds: "conditional", which leaves in total 
slavery the slave who defaults in his debts, as among 
the Sunnis; "unconditional", which gives the slave 



his freedom in proportion to the amount he pays. 

In penal law, there is no retaliation on the freeman 
for the murder of a slave. The wall of a freeman 
killed by a slave can, as in MalikI law, claim the 
possession of the guilty slave. The diya of the slave- 
may not exceed (whereas the Hanafls say: amount 
to) that of a free person of the same sex. 

Some of these provisions show an independent 
development of doctrine, while others clearly echo 
ancient solutions which the Sunnis as a whole have 
not retained (see two examples in J. Schacht, Origins y 
265, 279). 

The Practice of Slavery 
A) In the Middle Ages 

Throughout the whole of Islamic history, down 
to the 19th century, slavery has always been an 
institution tenacious of life and deeply rooted in 
custom. The Turks, who were to come to the relief 
of the Arabs in the victorious struggle against Christi- 
anity, seem to have practised it but little in their 
primitive nomadic state (Ucok, in Revue Historique 
de Droit franfais, 1952, 423): after providing for 
so long their unwilling quota, through kidnapping 
or purchase, to the slave class of the Muslim world, 
they became themselves supporters of the institution 
in an ever-increasing degree, as they adopted Islam 
and the sedentary way of life. 

The wars of conquest, which, after the fulgurous 
expansion of Islam in the first century of the hidjra, 
continued throughout the Middle Ages to further 
its spread in one direction or another despite set- 
backs elsewhere, provided the conquerors with an 
almost ceaseless stream of prisoners of both sexes, 
many of whom remained in slavery. Even in those 
places where the frontiers of the ddr al-Isldm were, for 
the time being, established, armed raids into enemy 
country, organized by the central power or individual 
groups, continued to put into practice the principle 
of the "Holy War", when no official truce or mo- 
mentary alliance happened to be in force; and these 
raids brought back captives. Piracy in the Mediter- 
ranean, coupled with the privateering war from which 
it was often barely distinguishable, both augmented 
by grim razzias against the Christian seaboard, con- 
tributed to the supply of slaves to the adjacent Mus- 
lim lands, to an extent which varied at different 
periods but was always considerable. 

Mediterranean Christendom, from Spain to By- 
zantium, paid this aggressive Islam in its own coin, 
by land and by sea. A curious chapter in the economic 
and social history of these Christian countries is 
afforded by the periodic influxes to their territory 
of "Moors" or "Saracens", reduced to slavery, then 
closely watched, employed as labourers, sometimes 
escaping or being ransomed but usually blending, 
little by little, into the local population, after their 
slow conversion to Christianity (see Ch. Verlinden's 
detailed study, in L'Esclavage dans le monde iberique 
medieval, in Anuario Historia Derecho Espanol, 1934; 
idem, on Catalonia, in Annates du Midi, 1950, and 
his useful bibliography, for various countries, in 

Studi G. Luzzatto, Milan, 1949, while awaiting 

his book on L'Esclavage dans VEurope Medievale; 
due to appear in 1954; interesting documentation 
on one particular society is to be found in A. Gonzalez 
Palencia, Los Mozdrabes de Toledo en los siglos XII 
y XIII, Madrid 1930, prel. vol., 242-6; on the quasi- 
ritual invitation of Muslim captives to the Emperor 
of Constantinople's banquet, in the 10th century, 
see M. Canard, in Vasiliev, Byzance et les Arabes, 
vol. ii, part 2, Brussels 1950, 387-8). 



It sometimes happened, admittedly on a restricted 
scale, that Muslims made slaves of other Muslims. 
This was the case, for example, when members of 
fanatical sects regarded the rest of mankind as beyond 
the pale of Islam and consequently did not scruple 
to attack them and, if they spared their lives, to 
keep them in captivity. There was an exceptional 
instance in 1077, when thousands of women of a 
revolted Berber tribe were publicly sold in Cairo. 
What happened more frequently, on the borders of 
Muslim states, was that official or private razzias 
against populations still largely pagan carried off 
indiscriminately human beings, particularly children, 
who might belong to Islam. With the spread of 
Islam in negro Africa and the intensification of 
Moroccan pressure in this direction, beginning in 
the last centuries of the Middle Ages, the question 
of the legality of subsequent sales had to be put 
to some great jurists; they answered circumspectly, 
giving the dealers the benefit of the doubt as to 
the origin of individuals offered for sale (in 15th 
century, al-WansharisI, Mi'ydr, vol. ix, 171-2, 
tr. Archives Marocaines, xiii, 426-8; towards 1600, 
Ahmad Baba of Timbuktu, quoted in P. Zeys, Escla- 
vage et guerre sainte, Paris 1900). 

The import of slaves by peaceful means tended, 
from an early date, to compete with the forcible 
method. Slaves were included in the well-known 
ba£t [q.v.] (Latin pactum!) or annual Nubian tribute, 
unquestionably a continuation of an ancient tradi- 
tion, which was furnished to Egypt well-nigh regu- 
larly for many hundreds of years. But, in the ordinary 
course of events, it was trade that brought a plentiful 
flow of slaves from outside into the markets of 
the ddr al-Isldm. The slavers' caravans went into 
the heart of Africa or of Asia to acquire their human 
merchandise, bought or stolen; on the Dark Conti- 
nent, the slaving propensities and internal struggles 
of the natives facilitated the business of the dealers. 
Not only Negroes and Ethiopians, Berbers and Turks 
were the objects of this international trade; there 
were in addition, chiefly in the early Middle Ages, 
various European elements, above all, the "Slavs", 
whose name has given rise to our term "slave" 
and has also been extended in Arabic (Sakdliba) 
to cover other ethnic groups of central or eastern 
Europe, their geographical neighbours. The traffic 
-was carried on by sea as well as by land; the Red 
Sea has never ceased to provide a way from Africa 
to Arabia; the Mediterranean, with its appendage 
the Black Sea, offers a route, that has always been 
frequented, from Christian or pagan Europe to the 
Muslim world. Certain ports seem to have had a 
bigger share than others, at various times, in the 
reception of this merchandise: Almeria in Muslim 
Spain, Farama and later Alexandria in Egypt. 
Darband (Bab al-A bwdb), on the shores of the Caspian, 
•was from quite an early date a very busy frontier- 
market for slaves, as were Bukhara and Samarkand 
in the interior. 

From the middle of the 8th century, the Venetians, 
to the great indignation of the Papacy, began then- 
career as purveyors of slaves — sometimes Christian — 
to the Islamic lands. In the 9th and 10th centuries, 
Jewish merchants played an important part in the 
traffic of "Slavs" across central and western Europe 
(including a celebrated eunuch-"factory" at Verdun) 
and their distribution throughout Islam (the famous 
passage from Ibn Khurradadhbih on the Radhaniyya 
is reproduced and translated by Hadj-Sadok, in Bibli- 
othique arabe-francaise, vi, Algiers 1949, 20-3). At a 
later date, the Mamluks of Egypt, with the consent 



of the Byzantine emperor, imported new slaves, to 
serve or to replace them, from the Genoese or Venetian 
trading-posts of the Crimea or the Sea of Azov. 

Even within the Muslim world, there were consi- 
derable movements of slaves, of every racial origin, 
in the Middle Ages; tribute sent to the caliphs by 
provincial governors and vassal amirs, or commercial 
traffic. We do not know all the details of the or- 
ganization of this traffic, but we are acquainted with 
certain aspects of it. Every big town had its public 
slavemarket, which in some countries was called 
the "place of display" (ma'rid). The one at Samarra, 
in the 9th century, is described as being a vast 
quadrilateral, with internal alleys and onestorey 
houses, containing rooms and shops (al-Ya'kubl, 
Bulddn, 260 = tr. Wiet, Cairo 1937, 52). The slave- 
merchant, who was known as "importer" (dialldb) 
or "cattle-dealer" (nakhkhds), inspired at the same 
time contempt for his occupation and envy for his 
wealth: he used in fact to draw huge profits, often 
through clever faking of his merchandise, if he did 
not actually hoodwink the unsophisticated customer 
in a quite outrageous fashion. Some remarkable 
details in this connection are to be found from 
the pen of the eastern Christian doctor Ibn Butlan, 
towards the middle of the nth century (see Mez, 
Renaissance, 156-7) and in the writings of the con- 
scientious Muslim al-Sakatiof Malaga, towards 1 100 
(Manuel de Ifisba, ed. Colin and Levi-Provencal, 
Paris 1931, 47-58). 

I do not consider that it would serve any useful 
purpose here to quote selling-prices, particularly if 
the prices in question are exceptional. Such figures 
have no real meaning unless subjected' to criticism 
and compared with the commercial value of other 
commodities — a study which has yet to be made and 
the materials for which, it seems, could be assem- 
bled with no great difficulty. But it is already clear 
and well-known that there were differences in the 
same market as between the various categories of 
slave, according to their place of origin, their sex, 
age, physical condition and abilities; these diffe- 
rences seem vast in the case of choice items, parti- 
cularly females: young, handsome, talented. As a 
rule, whites were worth more than blacks; the as- 
cending order of value among them, in nth-century 
Spain, was: Berbers, Catalans, Galicians. At Alexan- 
dria, in the 15th century, Tartars and Circassians 
were prized above Greeks, Serbs and Albanians. 
An elementary and traditional kind of comparative 
psycho-physiology decides the typical qualities and 
defects assigned, in popular lore, to representatives 
of the various races and, in consequence, the func- 
tions for which they are considered best suited. Ber- 
ber women, for instance, are esteemed for housework, 
sexual relations and childbearing; negresses are 
thought to be docile ("one would say they born 
for slavery"), robust and excellent wet-nurses; Greek 
women may be trusted to look after precious things; 
Armenian and Indian women do not take kindly 
to slavery and are difficult to manage. 

Almost all female slaves are destined for domestic 
occupations, to which may be added, when they 
are physically attractive, the gratification of the 
master's pleasures. Herein indeed lies the commonest 
motive — lawful in Muslim eyes — for their purchase. 
Those of them who show an aptitude for study may 
be given a thorough musical or even literary edu- 
cation, by the slave-dealer or a rich master, and 
beguile by their attainments the leisure hours of high 
society (the slave-girl musician is called fyayna). 



Some again are found here and there given over to 
prostitution, despite the Kur'anic prohibition. 

Male slaves have a wider range of duties, from the 
beginning of their captivity. A great number form 
the personal bodyguards or the enormous slave-mili- 
tias, black or white, frequently in rivalry, which 
speedily reinforce or replace the Arab, Berber and 
Iranian fighting-men. This military function was the 
chief reason for the Egyptian and North African 
recruitment of slaves in the land of the negroes and 
for the introduction into 'Irak, by the caliphs of 
Baghdad, of Turkish slaves, employed in the same 
way by the Samanids of Bukhara (details on their 
formation and career in Nizam al-Mulk, Siydset- 
nama, ed. tr. Schefer, Paris 1891-3, 95/139 f.). 
But certainly the most remarkable regime in this 
respect, remarkable both for the extent of the phe- 
nomenon and for the great ethnic variety of white 
warrior-slaves involved in it, must have been that 
of the Mamluks [?.».]. 

Other male slaves have domestic duties — some- 
times of a questionable nature — in the homes of 
people of moderate means, as well as in those of the 
great. Among them were the eunuchs who, chiefly 
on the model of Byzantium, filled the palaces of 
the caliphs, the amirs and all the nobles, at first 
as guardians of the harim. They are rarely referred 
to by their specific appellation of "castrate" {khafi) 
or "eunuch" (tawdsk'"); they are more usually des- 
ignated by a neutral term: "servant" (khadim), or, 
as a mark of high honour, "master" in the sense of 
"teacher" (ustddh; see Canard, Histoire d'ar-Rddi, 
Algiers 1946, 210), which also indicates the function 
performed by some of them. In the early Middle 
Ages, the proportion of "Slavs" among the eunuchs 
imported and then re-exported by Muslim Spain 
was so high that $ilflabi (var. silflabi) was often used 
there in the sense of "eunuch" (Dozy, Suppl., i, 
663). In the 9th century, the illustrious writer al- 
PJahiz states that the majority of white eunuchs in 
'Irak were "Slavs", and in the course of the remarkable 
essay which he devotes to the effects of castration on 
men, he asserts that in these "Slavs", as opposed to 
the blacks, the operation encourages the development 
of all the natural aptitudes (al-fiayawdn, Cairo 1938, 
i, 106 seqq., tr. Asin Palacios in Isis, 1930, 42-54). For 
the following century, interesting details are to be 
found in the work of the geographer Makdisi, on 
the categories of eunuchs and the processes of cas- 
tration (re-ed. Pellat, Algiers 1950, 56-9; see also 
Ibn Hawkal, i, no). Whereas the blacks were usually 
submitted to a complete and barbarous amputation, 
"level with the abdomen", as the later expression 
ran, the whites, who were operated on with a little 
more care, retained the ability to perform coitus 
(this distinction is also vouched for in modern times) ; 
some of them took concubines or even wives, as the 
Hanafi school allowed. 

Outside the house, many slaves served as assistants 
in business, or carried on business themselves, in 
accordance with their legal position, with a conside- 
rable measure of independence. Others cultivated 
their masters' fields. Examples are found of monu- 
mental building-works carried out by slave-labour, 
especially by prisoners-of-war in government ser- 
vice. But it must be emphasized that mediaeval 
Islam seems scarcely to have known the system of 
large-scale rural exploitation based on an immense 
and anonymous slave labour-force. One big attempt 
along these lines, carried out by the c Abb5sids in 
order to revivify the lands of 'Irafc, the centre of their 
empire, ended, during the second half of the 9th 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



D 33 

century, in the prolonged and terrible revolt of the 
Zandj [q.v.] slaves, who had been imported from 
the eastern coast of Africa to bring the swamps of 
Lower Mesopotamia under cultivation. 

The vast majority of slaves therefore escaped the 
system of collective forced labour, which condemns 
a man to one of the most distressful of all existences. 
This does not mean that they were one and all 
contented with their lot; the number of runaways, 
which seems very high at certain periods, would 
indicate the reverse. But setting aside the suffering 
caused by the slave traffic (all the more if castration 
was performed), and taking into account the general 
harshness of the times, the condition of the majority 
of slaves with their Muslim masters was tolerable 
and not too much at variance with the quite liberal 
regulations which the official morality and law had 
striven to establish. Despite the obvious points of 
inferiority, it was even known for them to attain 
happy and enviable positions, in material prosperity 
and influence, especially in rich and highly-placed 
families and, even more, in the immediate entourage 
of the sovereign. They had, in addition, the prospect 
of liberation, which it was not always overbold to 
hope for. 

This liberation, in the case of prisoners-of-war 
or victims of razzias by land or sea, might result 
from negotiations between the powers concerned: 
an exchange of captives or restoration in return for 
a ransom. History is full of such negotiations, some- 
times futile, sometimes crowned with success, be- 
tween Christian and Muslim states. Many were the 
captives ransomed, in both directions, thanks to 
collections of an official nature, but also more and 
more by ordinary individuals. In the latter case, 
Jews often played a useftil Dart as go-betweens; 
in Spain they were sometimes referred to as "al- 
faqueques" (Ar. fakhdh, "liberator"). Further, great 
Catholic religious Orders, organized for the most 
part since the end of the 12th century and the be- 
ginning of the 13th, devoted themselves to succouring 
and ransoming their co-religionists who were cap- 
tives in Muslim countries: in discharging this duty, 
Trinitarians and Mercedarians were to have a long 
and fruitful career, which their eulogists, ancient and 
modern, have regrettably deemed it necessary to em- 
bellish still further by means of exaggerated figures. 

Also worthy of consideration, for their number 
and for their effects on Muslim society, were the 
compulsory manumissions, under the conditions 
imposed by the Law, of concubines who had borne 
children, as well as the voluntary manumissions of 
slaves of both sexes, especially Muslims, by their 
Muslim masters. Thus apostasy was rendered at- 
tractive for Christians; though not, as a rule, im- 
posed on them, it was insistently suggested. We 
have already said that enfranchisement is an act 
of piety, widely practised; it is frequently the result 
of a vow or oath (conditional oath, expiation for a 
violated oath). The beneficiary ranks unreservedly 
as a free man or woman ; the bond of clientship which 
continues to exist, and whose existence is felt, pre- 
sents not so much a slight moral derogation as an 
inestimable advantage in the reality of a highly 
compact social structure. From 'Abbasid times on- 
ward, more than one freedman rose very high in- 
deed in the military and political hierarchy, even 
to the most exalted ranks to which a free Muslim 
might attain. Their very names, which they conti- 
nued to bear, betraying to the world their former 
servitude and even their irremediable condition as 
eunuchs (some of them commanded armies), were 



no obstacle to such a rise. In the 4th/ioth century, 
such men as Mu'nis in Baghdad and the negro Kafur in 
Egypt afford a remarkable illustration of the system. 
A number of Muslim dynasties, in Spain as well 
as in Egypt and the heart of Asia, have an avowedly 
servile origin. A Turkish "slave" dynasty reigned at 
Dihll in the 13th century [see dihl! sultanate). The 
"mamluk" sultans of Cairo actually made such an 
origin a condition of coming to power, through a 
recognized cursus. honorum (see G. Wiet, in Hanotaux, 
Histoire de la Nation Egyptienne, vol. iv, 1937, 393-5 ; 
D. Ayalon,L' Esclavage du Mamelouk, Jerusalem 1951, 
and mamlOks). As for maternal ancestry, reigning 
sovereigns almost everywhere, including the 'Abbasid 
caliphs, were commonly sons of slave concubines, of 
widely varying provenance. 

It is therefore easy to imagine the importance of 
slavery in that mingling of populations to which 
Muslim institutions have been so favourable. The 
number of new slaves introduced into the great 
cities in certain years could be reckoned in thou- 
sands ; the slave element formed a considerable part 
of the urban population and had a marked tendency 
to blend with it, not only through enfranchisement 
but also through sexual intermixing, which was 
commonplace. Crossbreeding with blacks may have 
had ethnological consequences, which it is not within 
our competence to analyse. The slave-trade was of 
prime importance in economic life; the taxes im- 
posed on it were a source of profit to the authorities. 
Although slave-labour was for the most part em- 
ployed in household duties and was not generally 
applied to productive work, yet the military function 
of large numbers of male slaves was one of the salient 
features of this civilization, and had repercussions 
on the foreign and domestic policies of many mediae- 
val states (see M. Canard, on a treaty between Byzan- 
tium and Egypt in the 13th century, in Melanges 
Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Cairo 1935-45, 197 S-)- 

Bibliography : In addition to references in 
the text: Le Strange, 184, 429, 437, 459, 487; 
Mez, Renaissance, 152-62; Heyd, Histoire du com- 
merce du Levant au moyen dge, Leipzig 1885-6, 
ii. 555-63 and passim; Schnaube, Handelsgeschichte 

der roman. Vblker Munich-Berlin 1906, 22-3, 

102, 272 and passim; Ch. Verlinden, L'Esclavage 
dans I'Espagne musulmane, Anuario de Historia 
del Derecho espanol, 1935, 361-424 ; Levi-Provencal, 
L'Espagne Musulmane au Xe siecle, Paris 1932, 
29, 191-3; idem, Histoire de I'Espagne musulmane, 
vol. iii; R. Brunschvig, La Berberie orientate sous 
Us Ha/sides, i, 450-1, 454-8. 

B) In the Modern Period 

The practice of slavery among the Muslims seems 
to have undergone no radical changes during the 
modern period, down to the last century. The main 
sources and the mediaeval routes of the slave-trade 
were modified only to a limited extent by the 
disappearance of Islam from Spain and on the 
other hand its expansion or consolidation in the 
Balkans, India and Indonesia. Far more considerable 
must have been the effect of the position adopted 
by European Christendom; having almost entirely 
suppressed slavery on its own ground, it must have 
ceased to contribute to the commercial supply of 
white human merchandise long before it adopted the 
worldwide policy of abolitionism, whose effects are 
still perceptible in our own days. Christendom never- 
theless busied itself with supplying its American 
colonies with African negroes, thrown into cruel 



bondage. Among these unfortunates, Muslims seem 
to have been particularly numerous in Brazil, where 
from 1807 to 1835 they fomented the great slave 
revolts, rigorously quelled, which shook Bahia 
(on their cultural influence and their disappearance, 
sec R. Ricard and R. Bastide, in Hesperis for 1950 
and 1952 respectively). In the Mediterranean, where 
the corsairs and "Barbary" pirates continued their 
ravages, perhaps to an even greater extent, after the 
establishment of Ottoman supremacy (see 0. Eck, See- 
rauberei im Mittelmeer, Munich-Berlin 1940), the bor- 
dering Christian powers retaliated almost down to 
the end of the 18th century, as they had done pre- 
viously, by numerous captures. In this work the 
Knights of Malta took an active part: during the 
first half of the century, they sold to the French 
navy the men it needed as rowers on the galleys. 
More than ten thousand Muslim slaves attempted 
a revolt on the island in 1749; Bonaparte liberated 
the two thousand Barbary slaves whom he found 
there in 1798 (see Godeschot and Emerit, in R.Afr., 
1952, 105-13)- 

On the lot of Christian captives or slaves in the 
hands of the Barbary corsairs, there is abundant 
European documentation; perhaps even too abun- 
dant, in view of its not being always of good quality. 
If Cervantes' captivity at Algiers is a matter of 
certainty and had a felicitous result on his work, 
that of St. Vincent de Paul at Tunis is scarcely plau- 
sible. The information provided in what might be 
termed the classic accounts of the subject, such as 
those of Friar Haedo or Father Dan (17th century, 
the heyday of the corsairs), must be carefully checked 
against other data, preferably derived, where possible, 
from consular archives (for all aspects of slavery at 
Algiers, see the solid study by H. D. de Gramont, 
in Revue Historique, 1884-5, to be supplemented by 
Venture de Paradis, ed. Fagnan, Algiers 1898, and 
Lespes, Alger, Paris 1930, ii, chaps. 3-5; for Tu- 






of t 



by J. Pignon in R.T., 1930; 
cent publication, Garcia Navarro, Redenciones de 
cautivos en Africa, ed. Vazquez Pajaro, Madrid 1946). 
It is important to distinguish particularly between 
slaves held to ransom, who were rich and well- 
treated, and the slave workers, whose widely-varying 
destinies might hold in store for them a bitter life 
in the galleys, or wretched toil in the countryside, 
or an often much easier life in or just outside the 
city. Barbary at that time abounded in "matamores" 
(Ar. matmura: "silo") and "bagnios" (Ital. bagno: 
"bath") in which the slaves were penned. The At- 
lantic itself was scoured by the Moroccan corsairs, 
from their base at Rabat-Sale (see Penz, Les capti/s 
francais du Maroc au XVIIe siecle, Rabat 1944). 
As in the Middle Ages, the liberationist religious 
Orders and the Jews took an active part in procuring 
releases by ransom. Renegades attained high positions 
in the fleet or in the army. But at the beginning 
of the 19th century, after a slow decline that was 
hastened by increased pressure on the part of the 
European powers, the number of Christian captives 
was considerably diminished. At the time of the 
French conquest in 1830, Algiers had no more than 
1 22, as against several thousands two centuries earlier. 
North Africa remained an outlet for the traffic in 
negroes, on the other hand, right down to the French 
occupation. In this traffic Morocco played a pre- 
ponderant part, especially at that period in the 
second half of the 17th century, when the sultan 
Mulay Isma'il raised a veritable army of negroes 
and half-breeds ('abid al-Bukhdri, in consequence 



of the oath they took on this collection of "authen- 
tic" traditions; see H. Terrasse, Histoire du Maroc, 
ii, Casablanca 1950, 256-7). Black slaves of both 
sexes continued to be imported into Morocco until 
well into the 20th century, with some pretence at 
secrecy since the open traffic from Timbuktu and 
public sale (the fairs of SidI Ahmad u-Musa on the 
southern borders; at Fez and Rabat the special mar- 
ket was called birka, as in Tunisia) had become im- 
possible. It should be pointed out how much their 
presence colours the family and social life of the 
cities (see R. Le Tourneau, Fis avant le Protectorat, 
Casablanca 1949, 200-3, with references; and, under 
the Protectorate, J. and J. Tharaud, Fez ou les 
bourgeois de I'Islam, Paris 1930, 17-43). 

Towards 1810, a competent observer, Dr Louis 
Frank, made a special study of the importation 
of slaves at Tunis {L'Univers Pittoresque, Tunis, 
115 seqq.) as he had done in Egypt ten years pre- 
viously under Bonaparte (his Memoire sur U commerce 
des nigres au Kaire, Paris 1802). The general or- 
ganization of the traffic, the focus of which was 
public sales, recorded in writing, was much the same 
in both places, with the difference that whereas 
Cairo was supplied solely by big caravans (two annual, 
one from Sennar and one from Darfur — see also 
J. S. Trimingham, Islam in the Sudan, Oxford 1949, 
passim — , and one biennial, from Bornu or Fezzan), 
Tunis used to receive some isolated consignments, 
apart from one big caravan every year from Fezzan 
or beyond (see also J. Despois, Geographic humaine 
du Fezzan, Paris 1946, 35-7, with references): an 
annual total of some three thousand for Cairo and 
one thousand for Tunis. In the latter city the male 

or chief eunuch of the bey, while the negresses had 
"a forewoman to rule and protect them." In Egypt, 
the mortality of these negroes was high; in Tunis, 
according to Dr. Frank, their infants survived only 
if they were of mixed blood (on the blacks in present- 
day Tunisia, see Zawadowski, in En terre d'Islam, 
1942). In the time of Muhammad c Ali, towards 
1835, the Egyptian army used to make up its strength 
by yearly razzias from bases in Darfur and Kor- 
dofan; it would enrol the sturdiest of the captives 
and hand the rest over to the inhabitants of those 
provinces and to the dealers, some of whom were 
themselves black converts to Islam (see T. F. Buxton, 
De la traite des esclaves en Afrique, French tr., 
Paris 1840, 70-5)- 

The moral and social condition of slaves in an 
urban environment, in the 19th century, seems to 
have been fairly uniform in such diverse cities as 
Tunis, Cairo and Mecca (a great centre for the traffic 
on the occasion of the annual pilgrimage). White 
slaves had become rare since the beginning of the 
century; they were expensive and in little demand 
except by exalted personages or rich Turks; white 
female slaves were preferably Caucasians, famed for 
their beauty. Arabia could muster a small number 
of Indonesians. The bulk of the slaves were black, 



but ii 



the e 



Ethiopians, who were paler and more highly prized, 
and negroes in the strict sense. Eunuchs were im- 
ported already castrated; in Mecca, the majority 
of them were in the service of the mosques. All 
the European writers lay stress on the good treat- 
ment these blacks customarily received at the hands 
of their town-dwelling masters, in contrast to the 
dreadful conditions of their capture and subsequent 
transportation under the lash of the Arab or Arabi- 
cized slavers. They readily adopted Islam and be- 



'D 35 

came deeply attached to it (some even thanked God 
for having led them to the true Faith through their 
captivity: Doughty, ArabiaDeser ta', i, 554-5), though 
their new faith did not prevent them from performing 
their traditional songs and dances, or even their 
African rites of exorcism (the zar[q.v.]; see Triming- 
ham, op.cit., 174-7; similar facts in Barbary). They 
formed, one may say, part of the family and, especially 
as concubines, the slave-girls came to be of one blood 
with it. Enfranchisements were usual, but it was not 
unknown for a concubine who had borne a child to 
seek from her master a denial of paternity, since 
there were more advantages for her in remaining a 
slave than in marrying and running the risk of re- 
pudiation (see especially Lane, Manners arid Customs, 
London 1895, 147, 168, 194-7; Burckhardt, Voyages 
en Arabic, French tr., Paris 1835, i, 251-2; Snouck 
Hurgronje, Mekka, ii (The Hague 1889), 11-24, 132-6). 
It is therefore not surprising that, round about i860, 
the Swiss Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, 
who knew Tunisian society, laid great stress on the 
customary mildness of urban servitude among the 
Muslims, as compared with the methods of American 
slave-holders. 

At the end of the 18th century, Mouradgea d'Ohs- 
son, to whom we owe so much of our information 
on the structure of the Ottoman empire, declared: 
"There is perhaps no nation where the captives, 
the slaves, the very toilers in the galleys are better 
provided for or treated with more kindness than 
among the Mohammedans" {Tableau general de 
I'empire othoman, iv/i, 381). 

Under the sultans of Constantinople, slavery 
perpetuated the mediaeval traditions of the Islamic 
peoples: it furnished domestics, concubines, officials 
and soldiers. For the use of private persons, for ex- 
ample, the slave-dealers (esirciler), who were under 
the supervision of a kdhya, had at their disposal 
a public building in the capital, not far from which 
lived the expert matrons who acted as go-betweens 
if the purchasers so desired. Every slave, after passing 
the frontier, had a document of civic status bearing 
his name, which remained as a title-deed in the 
hands of his successive owners. People of quality, who 
imitated the court on a reduced scale, had harims 
of close on a hundred slave-women. The sultan's 
harim numbered several hundred, classified in a 
strict hierarchy of five ranks, only the two highest 
of which (those of kadtn, "lady" and, below them, 
of gedikli, "privileged"), were attached to the person 
of the sovereign. Some of the women of the highest 
rank were former slaves whom the sultan had freed 
and subsequently married informally. Although for 
many years none of the sultan's wives had been 
freeborn, these former slaves had no difficulty in 
wielding very great influence at court. Besides this 
female element, there lived at the seraglio numerous 

kish also uses in this sense the Arabic khddim > 
hadlm). The black eunuchs, under the "agha of the 
girls" (Hzlar agasf), vied with the white eunuchs, 
under the "agha of the gate" (kapi agasi) for pre- 
cedence and power; in the upshot it was the former 
who carried the day. Finally we must note the 
importance in all public services, civil and military, 
of slaves of various origins, "slaves of the gate" 
(kaplkullarl), who, often converted to Islam of their 
own accord and enfranchised, attained the most 
desirable posts. From the 15th century, when the 
number of white slaves brought in by war and pur- 
chase had dwindled, almost down to the middle 
of the 17th century, there functioned the system, 



contrary to the Sacred Law, of devsirme [see dew- 
shirme], or forced enrolment of young Christians of 
the empire, mainly from the Balkans, as slaves of the 
government. These involuntary yet devoted servants 
of the Porte used to receive a training suited to their 
abilities; the most gifted would enter the palace or 
the higher administration ; the rest were turned over 
to the navy or various military corps, including the 
Janissaries, whose brilliant reputation was due to 
them (see M. d'Ohssbn, op. cit., vi and vii, and 
H. A. R. Gibb and H. Bowen's solid and well- 
documented Islamic Society and the West, i/i, Oxford 
1950, 42-4, 56-60, 73-82, 329-33). 

Further east, in modern Persia, it is essentially 
in the domestic form that slavery has been practised. 
There one meets with the general characteristics 
already noted: usually good treatment, integration 
in the family, ease of enfranchisement, with some 
modifications belonging to Imami Shi'ite law 
(v. supra). Seventeenth-century European travellers 
were struck by the high number of eunuchs and the 
power they had, both at the Safawid court and in 
the houses of the great; according to Chardin (Voy- 
ages en Perse, Amsterdam 171 1, ii, 283-5) there 
were some 3,000 of them in the service of the sove- 
reign, while the nobles and even rich private citizens 
had staffs of eunuchs. They were given the considerate 
appellation of "tutor, master" (khpdia, equivalent to 
ustddh which we have met above). Their purchase price 
was extremely high; the majority were white and 
came mostly from the Malabar coast of India. In 
the first half of the 19th century, under the Kadjars, 
white slaves became few and soon disappeared al- 
together, except for the pretty Caucasian girls who 
continued to enter the harims; but, contrary to the 
most widespread Muslim practice, their children 
could not succeed to the throne, which was reserved 
for sons whose mothers were of royal blood. The 
numbers of the black slaves had increased; they 
were either Ethiopians who had crossed Arabia, or 
Zandj of east Africa, who came by way of Zanzibar, 
Mascat and Bushire (on this traffic, in Arab hands, 
see R. Coupland, The Exploitation of East Africa, 
London 1939, 136-46, with references), to draw 
custom to the market of Shlraz. The high mortality 
which overtook these coloured men in Persia preven- 
ted their forming an important element in the po- 
pulation (see Polak, Persien, Leipzig 1865, i, 248-61, 
661 ; E. Aubin, La Perse d'aujourd'hui, Paris 1908, 148). 

The Persians, in the course of their armed con- 
flicts with the Sunni inhabitants of Turkestan, were 
sometimes reduced to slavery, as being heretics. 
In the middle of the 19th century, it was still possible 
for so many thousands of them, prisoners of war, 
to be sold at once in the market at Bukhara that 
prices slumped. Some of them in this same town, 
having won their masters' regard and being en- 
franchised, rose to every official position of honour. 
Others, however, less well endowed, went from there 
to swell the number of the slaves on whose shoulders 
fell the greater portion of the agricultural work 
in the khanate of Khiwa (see A. Vambery, Travels 
in Central Asia, London 1864, 192-3, 331, 371). 

Among the relatively rare examples of an essential 
agricultural task performed by a compact slave 
labour-force, we may cite that of the region of Zan- 
zibar itself, where, in the 19th century, there was 
kept a body of blacks gathered from almost as far 
as the great lakes and destined in the mass for ex- 
port. The harsh life of toil in the sugar- or clove- 
plantations, run by Arab or Indian planters, all 
along the coast, was quite devoid of the 



of urban servitude. The lot of thousands of slaves 
employed in pearl-fishing in the Persian Gulf also 
seems to have been a very harsh one over a long 

Much less burdensome, certainly, but wildly dis- 
criminatory, is the slavery which still obtains today 
in the desert : in the Sahara on the one hand, in Arabia 
on the other, for the benefit of the nomad tribes. 
Tuareg society, divided into three rigid castes, used 
to keep on the lowest level, beneath the nobles and 
their vassals, the slave-groups [akli, pi. ikldn), en- 
franchised or not, almost all of them black, who were 
utilized by the dominant clans either as tillers of the 
soil or as servants to men and beasts. Among the 
beduin of the Arabian peninsula and its fringes (see 
especially A. Jaussen, Coutumes des Arabes au pays 
de Moab, Paris 1908, 26, 60-1, 125-6; A. Musil, The 
Manners and Customs of the Rwala Bedouins, New 
York 1928, 276-8), black slaves may intermarry 
and acquire property, but however intimate they 
may be with the master and his family, however 
great the advantages custom permits them to enjoy, 
they are never regarded as equals, even after en- 
franchisement : they are l abid, and c abid they remain ; 
and marriage with the sons or daughters of them is 
considered a come-down, by the lowliest of whites. 
Bibliography: To the references in the text 

may be added R. Levy, An Introduction to the 

Sociology of Islam, i, 117-27. 

Abolition 

Although Islam, in teaching and in actuality, has 
favoured the emancipation of slaves, it was only 
under an overwhelming foreign influence that it 
began, about a hundred years ago, an evolution in 
doctrine and in practice towards the total suppression 
of slavery, its abolition in law and custom. This 
evolution, which has continued, is in some regions 
still incomplete. Here we have one of the most typical 
examples of the transformation that the Muslim 
world has undergone, through European pressure 
or example, from the mid-igth century down to 
our own day. 

The European powers concerned were themselves, 
to some extent, novices in this field: they had long 
favoured the traffic and maintained slavery in their 
colonies. One of them, Russia, had maintained serf- 
dom on her own soil. The French "philosophers" 
of the 18th century, beginning with Montesquieu, 
had condemned the very principle of slavery: its 
short-lived suppression under the First Republic 
was unfortunately a check. But, from 1806 onward, 
Britain took the lead in the movement for the 
suppression of the slave-trade and then of slavery 
itself. She may be accused of having more than once 
let her maritime and colonial interests dictate her 
interventionary zeal or, on other occasions, the mild- 
ness of her actions. Yet, when all is said, she stands 
out as a great pioneer of abolition over the whole 
surface of the earth, including the lands of Islam. 

The diplomatic history of the 19th century, since 
1814-15, is dotted with treaties and other inter- 
national agreements aimed at banning the traffic 
in negroes, by sea and across the continent of Africa, 
in increasingly precise terms. The suppression of 
slavery as such is mentioned only towards the end 
of the century, and then timidly. But measures in 
this direction had already been adopted in several 
portions of the Muslim world, particularly those 
under the authority of European states. Britain, 
having emancipated the slaves in her colonies by 



the famous Bill of 28 Aug. 1833, made in 1843 the 
first general decision to abolish slavery in India 
(completed by a series of other Acts down to 1862). 
France completely abolished slavery in all her over- 
sea territories, including Algeria, by a decree of the 
Second Republic on 27 April 1848; the Netherlands 
did the same for their Indonesian possessions by the 
laws of 1854-59, with effect from 1 Jan. i860 (3 
years before their colonies in the West Indies) ; and 
Russia for her Central Asian dependencies on 12 
June (O.S.) 1873, before even having completed the 
conquest of Turkestan. 

Parallel with this direct and radical action by 
the Powers, the Muslim states which, while remaining 
independent, were most subject to Western pressure 
and had most contacts with European civilization, 
were slowly and cautiously embarking on restrictive 
measures. As early as 1830, the Ottoman sultan had 
enfranchised en bloc those white slaves of Christian 
origin who remained true to their religion, while 
expressly keeping the Muslims in slavery (G. Young, 
Corps de droit ottoman, ii, Oxford 1905, 171-2). To 
Tunisia belongs the honour of having been the first 
to promulgate a general edict of emancipation for 
black slaves (ipso facto, of Muslim slaves: there were 
practically no white slaves in the Regency). By a 
decree of 23 Jan. 1846, the same year in which he 
was to make his sensational journey to France, the 
bey Ahmad ordered that letters of enfranchisement 
should be granted to every slave who so wished, and 
that every instance of slavery of which the religious 
magistrates might be apprised should be referred 
to him. The preamble to this decision, which was 
approved by the two highest dignitaries of the Hanafi 
and MalikI rites in the country, is worth dwelling 
on : in it, slavery is declared to be lawful in principle 
but regrettable in its consequences. Of the three 
considerations particularized, two are of a religious 
nature, the third political (maslaha siydsiyya): the 
initial enslaving of the people concerned comes under 
suspicion of illegality by reason of the present-day 
expansion of Islam in their countries; masters no 
longer comply with the rules of good treatment 
which regulate their rights and shelter them from 
wrong-doing. It is therefore befitting to avoid the 
risk of seeing unhappy slaves seeking the protection 
of foreign authorities (M. Bompard, Legislation de 
la Tunisie, 398; Arabic text in SanusI, Madimu'dt 
al-Kawdnln al-Tunusiyya, fasc. 1, p. 4). 

Thirty years later, in the treaty concluded with 
England on 19 July 1875, the bey Muhammad al- 
Sadik undertook not only to see that the decree 
of 1846 was given full effect, but also to do everything 
in his power to suppress slavery and punish any in- 
fraction. Under the "French protectorate, various 
Tunisian ministerial circulars (1887-91) and the 
bey's decree of 28 May 1890 completed the formal 
prohibition of slavery in the Regency and the organ- 
ization of the freeing of black slaves on the judicial 
and administrative planes (M. Bompard, op. cit., 472 ; 
P. Zeys, Code annoti de la Tunisie, i, 384-6). 

At Istanbul, the first imperial firmans against 
the slave-trade date from the period of the Tan- 
fimdt, under c Abd al-Madjid, and especially from 
the years of close understanding with France and 
Great Britain: Oct. 1854 for the whites, Feb. 1857 
for the blacks (a religiously-inspired reservation 
exempted the Hidjaz from the reform). How little 
effect these documents had at first in preventing the 
import of blacks, is apparent from the multiplicity 
of decisions of the same sort, the circulars and in- 
structions which continued to repeat one another, 



ID 37 

in terms ever more insistent and explicit, till round 
about 1900. The agreement entered upon with Great 
Britain in 1880 but not applied till 1889, followed 
by Turkey's adhesion to the general Act of the 
Brussels Conference of 1890, constituted an important 
double step towards the suppression of the traffic, 
already much reduced by abolitionist action in Africa 
and the Red Sea: till then "more or less clandestine", 
it was to assume thenceforth "the nature of smuggling 
and was treated as such" (G. Young, op. cit., 172- 
206). Moreover, foreign consuls secured from the 
Ottoman authorities the enfranchisement of slaves 
who sought refuge with them. The Constitution of 
1876, guaranteeing the personal liberty of all subjects 
of the empire remained a dead letter until it was 
put in force by the Young Turks in 1908. At this 
time there were only a very few slaves, all of them 
domestic, in the capital and those provinces under 
the effective control of the central power (cf. Dr. 
Millant, L'esclavage en Turquie, Paris 1912). 

Egypt was nominally included in the Ottoman 
territories within the scope of the oldest firman 
forbidding the traffic in negroes. Indeed it needed 
to be, for this traffic had expanded just at the mo- 
ment when the Egyptians installed themselves in 
the heart of the Sudan. Pashas subordinate to the 
Porte organized some anti-slaving expeditions in 
the south; the results were but mediocre (cf. J. 
Cooper, Un continent perdu, Fr. tr. Paris 1876, 25-8). 
Under the khedive Isma'il, a mission of this type 
entrusted to Sir Samuel Baker (1869-73) was 
equally disappointing (S. Baker, Ismailia, London 
1874, Fr. tr. Paris 1875), whereas after 1874 the fight 
against slavery was intensified, hand in hand with 
the Egyptian expansion, under Colonel Charles 
George Gordon and his European colleagues (cf. 
P. Crabites, Gordon, the Sudan and Slavery, London 
1933; H. Deherain, in Hanotaux, Histoire de la 
nation igyptienne, vi, 481-552). At this period, the 
khedive, under the terms of his agreement with 
England of 4 Aug. 1877, was formally banning all 
trade in negroes and then opening enfranchisement 
offices in the various provinces. But it was only to- 
wards the end of the century, under the English 
de facto protectorate, that the most energetic mea- 
sures were taken: since 1895, any infringement of 
the freedom of the individual has been* classed as 
a crime in Egypt, while since 1898 the slave-trade, 
with the defeat of the Mahdist movement which 
had revived it in the Sudan, has been no more than 
an infrequent and clandestine phenomenon. 

It was again the British who attacked, with no- 
table persistence, one of the most productive sources 
of Muslim slavery: that of east Africa. The traffic 
there, by land and sea, had assumed terrifying pro- 
portions since Sa'id, the Imam of Mascat, had suc- 
ceeded in gaining a foothold on the coast of Africa, 
at the beginning of the 19th century. The stages 
through which English diplomatic activity passed 
are symptomatic: in 1822, after ten years of par- 
leying, Sa'id consented merely to forbid his subjects 
to export slaves outside the maritime lane joining 
Africa to Oman; in 1845, he prohibited the ex- 
port of slaves from Africa to Arabia and beyond, 
while all the time insisting on the lawfulness of the 
import of slaves and of the slave-traffic within 
African territory. His son Barghash, sultan of Zan- 
zibar, was to go further, in consequence of Sir 
Bartle Frere's famous mission to him: by the treaty 
of 5 June 1873 he prohibited the maritime traffic 
and the public slave-markets; then, in 1876, he de- 
clared the traffic by land illegal (see R. Coupland, 



East Africa and its Invaders, Oxford 1938; idem. 
The Exploitation of East Africa, London 1939); if 
this did not stop it immediately, it was at any rate 
a considerable embarrassment for the trade. Next, 
under the British protectorate, a decree of the sultan 
in 1897 granted their freedom to any slaves who 
should ask for it, and forbade the courts to con- 
cede the claims of slave-owners. On 6 July 1909, 
a final decree abolished the status of slave in its 
entirety. The same thing had happened two years 
before in British East Africa (now Kenya), against 
an indemnity to be paid to the owners (the matter 
was settled in 1916). 

It is safe to say that, towards the end of the 19th 
century and the beginning of the 20th, the export 
of negroes was at a very low ebb. We may add that 
Persia, one of the receiving countries, had also pu- 
blicly renounced this trade in her 1882 treaty with 
England, and her newly-created National Assembly 
adopted in Oct. 1907 a "fundamental law" in favour 
of individual freedom (E. Aubin, La Perse d'aujourd'- 
hui, Paris 1908, 210); if slavery was not suppressed 
by these measures, it did suffer a severe blow. In 
Africa itself, the greater part of the vast zone where- 
in the Muslim slaver held sway, extending from 
the Atlantic to Wadai, east of Lake Chad, was con- 
quered piecemeal and occupied by France; this has 
been followed by the almost complete disappearance 
of the slave-trade from this immense area and slavery 
has been abolished almost everywhere within it. 
Italy, the latest comer of the colonial powers, con- 
ducted an identical policy in the territories she ad- 
ministered in the east (Somaliland, Eritrea) and north 
(Tripolitania, Cyrenaica) of the continent. But the 
last independent state in Africa, Ethiopia, still 
governed by a Christian dynasty, remained (despite 
the negus's edicts against the traffic) a notable 
stronghold of the slavers, facing the Sudan and 
Arabia and exporting whenever possible; in the 
provinces, islamization and the intensification of the 
slave trade often went hand in hand (Trimingham, 
Islam in Ethiopia, Oxford 1952, 203-4 and passim). 
During the 1914-18 war, the relinquishment of Fezzan 
by the Italians, who had just taken it from the Turks, 
and its occupation by the Sanusls, allowed the traffic 
to resume much of its activity: a slavemarket was 
held every week at Murzuk (Petragnani, in V Italia 
in Oricntc, Feb. 1921, tr. in L'Afrique francaise, 
April 1922). 

At the end of the first world war, when the victors 
had visions of organizing the peace and of securing, 
in accordance with their Convention of St. Germain 
of 10 Sept. 1919, "the complete suppression of sla- 
very in all its forms", long experience gave them 
advance informatipn on the problems that were 
bound to be raised by a task of this nature; on the 
successes that might be hoped for and the resistance 
that might be expected in Muslim lands. The sup- 
pression of the traffic, which had become for the 
most part clandestine, was a troublesome affair, 
demanding the use of powerful forces and involving, 
by sea, the risk of provoking legal conflict between 
nations (France and Great Britain, 1905, in the 
Indian Ocean). Yet making an end of the trade does 
not mean putting a stop to slavery or to the trans- 
fer of slaves from one owner to another. As for official 
abolition, it is not always easy to secure under a 
protectorate; nor is it always equivalent in practice 
to positive and immediate suppression. 

The fact is that, if slavery is such a firmly-rooted 
institution in certain Islamic countries, it is due 
far more to social conservatism than to a collective 



economic need. We established above that the part 
played by slave-labour in those lands is rarely essen- 
tial for productive work. This explains why an 
abolitionist policy, so long as it is not applied too 
high-handedly, provokes no serious disturbance there, 
nor any violent reaction. The prevailing wish in 
the minds of slave-owners is to enjoy the comfort 
afforded by having a large domestic staff, kept 
under strict control; from which, moreover, lawful 
concubines may be recruited. They have on their 
side not only the tacit consent of the majority of 
their slaves but also an extensive public opinion 
and the religious tradition of Islam. The domestic 
slave is in his master's power 'through fear and 
respect, through self-interest, through affection. We 
must bear in mind that he is generally well- treated ; 
we may reflect that he lives in a family atmosphere, 
without thought for the morrow. To the slave- 
woman, concubinage offers, besides various advant- 
ages for herself and her children, the chance of an 
ascent in the social scale, of which an untimely 
emancipation would rob her. Even when freed, the 
slave is often likely to remain close to his master. 
If he has procured his freedom against the latter's 
wishes, or if he has been snatched from the claws of 
the slaver, he is woefully without resources in a 
hostile environment, unless he benefits by the special 
measures which governments ought to take — and 
which they have occasionally taken — with a view 
to his social readjustment. 

The fact, brought out in the Kur'an, that slavery 
is in principle lawful, satisfies religious scruples. 
Total abolition might even seem a reprehensible 
innovation, contrary to the letter' of the holy Book 
and the exemplary practice of the first Muslims. 
Nevertheless, contact with the realities of the 
modern world and its ideology began to bring about 
a discernible evolution in the thought of many 
educated Muslims before the end of the 19th cen- 
tury. They may be fond of emphasizing that Islam 
has, on the whole, bestowed an exceptionally fa- 
vourable lot on the victims of slavery. Yet they are 
ready to see that this institution, which is linked to 
one particular economic and social stage, has had 
its day. The reformer Sayyid Ahmad Khan in India, 
goes so far as to maintain, in a special work, Ibfdl-i 
Ghuldmi, which appeared in 1893, translated into 
Arabic in 1895, that the Kur'an (xlii, 4) forbade the 
making of new slaves (Baljon, The Reforms . . . of Sir 
Sayyid Ahmad Khan. Leiden 1949, 28-29). Without 
going so far, his illustrious compatriot Ameer Ali 
{The Spirit of Islam, London, 1st ed. 1893; ed. 1935, 
262) includes slavery among the prelslamic practices 
which Islam only tolerated through temporary necess- 
ity, while virtually abolishing them : man-made laws 
were later to complete the abrogation of it, which 
could not have been done formerly by a sudden 
and total emancipation (cf. the Egyptian Ahmed 
Chafik, on much the same lines: L'esclavage au point 
de vue musulman, Cairo 1891, 2nd ed. 1938). This 
thesis gradually found its way, to a varying extent, 
into the circle of the 'ulama (for the school of Mu- 
hammad 'Abduh, see Tafsir al-Mandr, xi, 288 ff.), 
already open to the older arguments of the Tunisian 
muftis, which were more restrained and more legalis- 
tic. But obviously it could not gain the support of 
the Wahhabls of Arabia, those uncompromising 
restorers of the sunna of the Prophet; up to the 
present day they have vigorously maintained their 
downright antagonism towards abolition. 

The League of Nations, from the very outset of 
its work, displayed an active interest in all problems 



relating to slavery. This interest was notably ex- 
pressed in the adoption of the international Geneva 
Convention of 25 Sept. 1926, in which the legal 
definition of slavery is formulated ("status or con- 
dition of a person over whom any or all of the powers 
attaching to the right of ownership are exercised", 
which squares with the concepts of Muslim law) 
and the signatories pledge themselves "to bring about, 
progressively and as soon as possible, the complete 
abolition of slavery". One by one, almost all the 
States concerned adhered to this Convention, but 
not Saudi Arabia or the Yaman. From then on, a 
consultative committee of experts worked indefati- 
gably, gathering official returns (some of which, fur- 
nished mainly by the British and Italian govern- 
ments, are highly instructive) and publishing co- 
pious reports. Legal measures multiplied, indepen- 
dently of this international organization as well as 
under its aegis. Abolition came as a matter of course 
in the new Turkish Republic, which repudiated every 
trace of Muslim law, as in the Levant territories 
severed from the old Ottoman empire and directly 
administered by France or Great Britain. In Egypt, 
the 1923 Constitution confirmed the guarantee of 
individual liberty. One after another, Afghanistan 
(1923, 1931), 'Irak (1924), Kalat (1926), Persia [Iran] 
and Transjordan (1929) suppressed the legal status 
of slave. Bahrayn followed suit in 1937. 

In Africa, an order of 1922, coupled with penal 
sanctions in 1930, abolished slavery in Tanganyika 
(the former German East Africa) under British man- 
date; the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan took steps, as 
far-sighted as they were vigorous, to put an end by 
degrees to the vestiges of the traffic and to assist 
the freed slaves. In Northern Nigeria, under British 
administration, abolition, which began in 1907 and 
suffered a momentary check towards 1933 from a 
new offensive on the part of the trade, was accom- 
plished by an order of 1936. In Morocco, a circular 
from the French Protectorate administration in 1922 
suppressed public siave-dealing and granted their 
freedom to all who should ask for it. The pacifi- 
cation of the Sahara frontiers of Morocco by the 
French army, round about 1930, made it possible 
to put an end to what remained of the traffic in 
negroes. The Italians reoccupied Fezzan in 1929 and 
secured respect once more for abolition. Finally, 
Ethiopia showed evidence of good will: edicts of 
1923, 1924 and 1931 forbade the capture of free 
persons or the disposal of slaves, while ordering many 
of them to be freed. A move was made to carry out 

from August 1932. The undertaking was immense 
and difficult. The Italians hurried things up by their 
armed intervention; they abolished slavery in Ethio- 
pia by a decree of 12 April 1936. 

The sole remaining resort of slavery was Arabia 
(outside the British colony of Aden). But it must 
be noted that, even in Arabia, European and parti- 
cularly British persistence with the local authorities 
was not without effect. King Ibn Sa'ud, master of 
the Hidjaz and Nadjd, had abolished the customs-duty 
formerly levied on the import of slaves by the sharif 
Husayn; in 1927 he officially confirmed to the British 
legation at Djidda a general right to manumit all 
slaves who claimed their freedom (there were some 
150 of them between 1930 and 1935). Great Britain 
renounced this right the day following the promul- 
gation in Saudi Arabia of the regulation on slavery 
of 2 Oct. 1936, which forbade the import of slaves 
by sea (the reason being that the religious law pro- 
hibits the capture or purchase of subjects of coun- 



tries to which one is bound by treaty ; but this same 
regulation declares servile status to be lawful and 
organizes it according to the strict letter of Muslim 
law; see Nallino, Scritti, i, 43, 124-5 and Appendice). 
In Feb. 1934, the Imam of the Yaman entered upon 
an undertaking with Great Britain to prohibit the 
entry of slaves coming from Africa. From the sul- 
tans and shaykhs of the southern coast (Eastern 
Aden Protectorate) and the Persian Gulf, Britain 
obtained similar decisions, reinforcing any made 
previously. A further step forward was taken in 
March 1935, when the sultan of Lahidj forbade all 
sale of slaves. In 1938, two sultans of the Hadramaut 
and the shaykh of Kuwayt declared all traffic in 
slaves to be illegal, and authorised slaves to claim 
their liberty (v. H. Ingrams, Arabia and the Isles, 
London 1942, 349-50; and U. N. Economic and 
Social Council, Official Records, Sept. 1951, 644). 

Under cover of the second World War (1939-45) 
there seems to have been some retrogression, with 
a small-scale resumption of the trade, particularly 
in certain Ethiopian provinces. At the time of 
writing, it is usually acknowledged that there is 
practically no transport of slaves any longer from 
Africa to Arabia. Nevertheless the legal status of 
slave persists in the peninsula. It is evidently the 
example of the neighbouring independent states of 
Saudi Arabia and the Yaman that prevents Britain 
from increasing her pressure on the states under 
her control with a view to total abolition. Other 
considerations, no doubt, keep France from having 
slavery abolished by law in Morocco, where there 
are in any case only mild survivals in the cities or 
the southern oases (see, for the bend of the Dra, 
Dj. Jacques-Meunie, in Hesperis 1947, 410-2); in- 
sistence to a final solution does not come from the 
class of 'ulamd (for the present-day legal aspect, see 
Gazette des Tribunaux du Maroc, 1944, 5-7; and Revue 
Marocaine de Droit, 1952, 154-6; 183-5). In the Sahara, 
the French administration which as early as 1916 
deprived the Tuareg of their agricultural slaves, took 
their house slaves away from them in 1946 (R. 
Capot-Rey, Le Sahara francais, Paris 1953, 288-9). 
The United Kingdom of Libya (a former Italian 
possession), in its constitution of Oct. 1951, laid down 
as a principle the personal liberty of its subjects. 

The United Nations Organization (U.N.O.), the 
moral heir of the League of Nations, has resumed 
the study of slavery and has condemned it, in no 
uncertain terms, in its "Universal Declaration of 
Human Rights", voted by the General Assembly 
on 10 Dec. 1948 (though not ratified by every State): 
"Art. 4. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude. 
Slavery and the slave trade are prohibited in 
all their forms". An ad hoc Committee on Slavery, 
under the Economic and Social Council, is proceeding 
with enquiries by means of questionnaires addressed 
to governments and recognized associations (Saudi 
Arabia and the Yaman, both members of U.N.O., 
have not replied) and is proposing concerted solutions. 
Its Report of 4 May 1951 (ref. E./1988) advocates 
making a start by abolishing the legal status of 
slave and demands that every State concerned 
should assist emancipated slaves to fashion a new 
life for themselves. As yet no resolution has been 
passed by the United Nations, who are divided on 
this point as on so many others and are far more 
preoccupied with the serious forms of servitude 
which continue to exist, or have come into existence 
in the world of today, than with the last vestiges 
of Muslim slavery, which are doubtless bound to 
disappear quietly in the reasonably near future. 



.-'ABBAS 



Bibliography: In addition. to the references 
in the text: J. H. Harris, A Century of Emanci- 
pation, London 1933; H. H. Wilson, in American 
Journal of International Law, 1950, 505-26; United 
Nations, The Suppression of Slavery, New York, 
July 1951 (19th century documents, and League 
of Nations bibliography). It is also essential to 
consult the Transaction of the Anti-Slavery So- 
ciety, the publications of the League of Nations 
(Official Journal and Reports, these latter classi- 
fied in the above-mentioned U.N. pamphlet) and 
of U.N. (Reports of the Committee on Slavery, and 
Official Records of the Economic and Social Council ; 
cf. United Nations Bulletin, 15 April 1950 and 15 
May 1951). (R. Brunschvig) 

'ABD ALLAH B. al-'ABBAS (frequently Ibn 
'Abbas, without the article), Abu l-'Abbas, called 
al-IJibr 'the doctor' or al-Bahr 'the sea', because 
of his doctrine,is considered one of the greatest 
scholars, if not the greatest, of the first 
generation of Muslims. He was the father of 
Kur'anic exegesis; at a time when it was necessary 
to bring the Kur'an into accord with the new 
demands of a society which had undergone a pro- 
found transformation, he appears to have been 
extremely skilful in accomplishing this task. 

He was born three years before the hidjra, when 
the Hashimite family was living shut up in 'the 
Ravine' (al-Shi'b); and, as his mother had become 
a Muslim before the hidjra, he also 
as a Muslim. 

From his youth he showed a stroi 
towards accurate scholarly research, in so far as 
such a conception was possible at that time. We 
know indeed that the idea soon occurred to him 
to gather information concerning the Prophet by 
questioning his Companions. While still young, he 
became a master, around whom thronged people 
desirous to learn. Proud of his knowledge, which 
was not based only on memory, but also on a large 
collection of written notes, he gave public lectures, 
or rather classes, keeping to a sort of programme, 
according to the days of the week, on different sub- 
jects: interpretation of the Kur'an, judicial questions, 
Muhammad's expeditions, pre-islamic history, an- 
cient poetry. It is because of his. habit of quoting 
lines in support of his explanations of phrases or 
words of the Kur'an that ancient Arabic poetry 
acquired, for Muslim scholars, its acknowledged im- 
portance. His competence having been recognized, 
he was asked for fatwds (especially famous is his 
authorization of mut c a marriage, which he later had 
to vindicate). The Kur'anic explanations of Ibn 
'Abbas were soon brought together in special col- 
lections, of which the isndds go back to one of his 
immediate pupils (Fihrist, 33); his fatwds were also 
collected; today there exist numerous manuscripts 
and several editions of a tafsir or tafsirs which are 
attributed to him (whether rightly or wrongly cannot 
be said, as no study of this material has yet been 
made (Goldziher, Richtungen, 76; cf. also Brockel- 
mann, i, 190, S i, 331). 

The importance of the role played by Ibn 'Abbas 
in the political and military events of his time 
should not be exaggerated, as his Muslim biographers 
have tended to do, influenced by the fact that he was 
the grandfather of the 'Abbasids. He followed the 
Muslim armies in several campaigns: into Egypt 
(between 18 and 21 H.), into Ifrikiya (27 H.), into 
Djurdjan and Tabaristan (30 H.), and, much 
later (49 H.), he accompanied Yazld on his expedi- 
tion against Constantinople (with 'Abd Allah b. 



'Umar b. al-Khattab). At the battles of the Camel 
(36 H.) and of Siffin (37 H.), he commanded a wing 
of 'All's troops. For want of resounding exploits 
and important offices to record, Ibn 'Abbas is pre- 
sented to us later, by his biographers, as a coun- 
sellor whom the caliphs 'Umar and 'Uthman valued 
highly, and as a counsellor too — unfortunately litte 
heeded — of 'All and his son al-Husayn. The truth 
is that Ibn 'Abbas did not enter political life until 
after 'All came to power, and took an active part 
in it for only three or four years at the most. A single 
official mission had been, in fact, entrusted to him 
by 'Uthman, that of conducting the pilgrimage to 
Mecca the year the caliph was besieged in his house 
at Medina. It was for this reason that Ibn 'Abbas 
was not in the capital at the time of the assassination 
of 'Uthman. When he returned some days later, he 
paid homage to 'All. From that time he was charged 
with important missions and, after the occupa- 
tion of Basra (36 H.), appointed governor of that 
town. He was one of the signatories of the conven- 
tion of Siffin (37 H.), which handed over to two ar- 
bitrators the task of settling the quarrel between 
'Ali and Mu'awiya, and in a discussion with the 
Harurites (see harura 5 ) he pleaded in support of 
the legal validity of that arbitration. But the re- 
lations between Ibn 'Abbas and the caliph suddenly 
became strained, with the result that Ibn 'Abbas 
withdrew to Mecca, abandoning his seat of govern- 
ment, and that 'Ali no longer regarded him as his 
representative at Basra. The sources assign different 
dates to this defection of Ibn 'Abbas: 38, 39, 40, 
but there is good reason to believe that it took place 
in 38 H. (it is possible to follow the movements 
of Ibn 'Abbas during that year, and in the succeeding 
years he no longer appears in the foreground). The 
traditions which assert that Ibn 'Abbas was con- 
sistently faithful until the death of the caliph are 
not worthy of credence. What were the reasons for 
the defection? Some Arabic sources say that Ibn 
'Abbas took offence because 'Ali reproached him 
for defalcations which he was alleged to have com- 
mitted as governor; but the true motive of his 
relinquishment of office, which coincided with that 
of many other supporters of 'All, has to be related 
to other much more important events of the period : 
the massacre of the Kharidjites at al-Nahrawan, 
which Ibn 'Abbas, 'according to certain men', had 
stigmatised, and the false position of 'Ali, who 
maintained his claim to be caliph when, according 
to the verdict of the arbitrators, he was no longer 
recognized as such by the majority of Muslims. 

Later, Ibn 'Abbas took a step which one might 
be tempted to judge severely, were it not that the 
precise circumstances are completely unknown: he 
carried off the provincial funds of Basra, probably 
when he returned to the town some time after his 
defection. Was this seizure criminal? When one 
observes that this act did not diminish the esteem 
in which Ibn 'Abbas was held by the Muslim com- 
munity, one may suppose that there were some fairly 
valid motives to justify it. Similarly, the events 
in which Ibn 'Abbas was involved immediately after 
the death of 'All are far from clear. Al-Hasan ap- 
pointed him general of his troops, but Ibn 'Abbas 
established contact with Mu'awiya: whether on his 
own initiative or at the invitation of al-Hasan is 
obscure; perhaps it was he who successfully brought 
about the agreement between the two claimants to 
the Caliphate; he maintained that, as a reward for 
his good offices, Mu'awiya had recognized his right 
to appropriate the money which he had seized (part 



'ABD ALLAH B. 'ABD al-KADIR 



of the treasury of Basra). All these machinations of 
Ibn 'Abbas seemed to certain rdwi's imcompatible 
with the dignity of such a personage; and so they 
transferred them, obviously wrongly, to his brother, 
'Ubayd Allah. During the long reign of Mu'awiya, 
Ibn 'Abbas lived in the Hidjaz; he went fairly fre- 
quently to the Damascus court, mainly, it seems, 
to defend the interests of the Hashimites, which 
were also his own. 

The troubled events of the years which followed 
the deaths of the first and second Umayyads brought 
Ibn 'Abbas once again, perhaps against his will, 
on to the political scene. Although the information 
which we possess is fragmentary, it can be deduced 
from it that c Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr, having raised 
the standard of revolt at Mecca, became violently 
incensed with Ibn 'Abbas who, with the son of c Ali 
Ibn al-Hanafiyya, refused to recognise him as caliph. 
Both were banished from Mecca; in 64, the year of 
the siege of the town, they returned, but they 
persisted in their opposition to Ibn al-Zubayr, with 
unfortunate results: they were imprisoned. Al- 
Mukhtar, informed of their dangerous situation, sent 
from Kufa a large troop of horse, which delivered 
them by a surprise attack. It was thanks to Ibn 
'Abbas that on that occasion bloodshed was avoided 
in the holy city. Under the protection of this troop, 
the liberated men went to Mina, then to al-TS'if, 
where Ibn 'Abbas died some time later (68/686-8). 
The verdicts which Caetani and Lammens have 
given on Ibn 'Abbas are in contrast to the respect 
which Muslims of all periods have shown him. But. 
Caetani's arguments can easily be disproved by fair 
and careful criticism (it is specially important not 
to confuse accounts from Muslim biblical history 
with the hadiths concerning the Prophet), and grave 
doubts can be cast on the resemblance to the original 
of the portrait sketched by Lammens. 

Bibliography : Biographies by Arab authors 
(numerous, but often repeat the same information, 
and mainly concerned with Ibn 'Abbas's scholarly 
activity): Ibn Sa'd, ii/2, 119-23, 125; iv/2, 4; 
v, 74-5, 216-7, 231 and Index; Baladhuri. An- 
sdb, ms. Paris, f° 8 . 7i4r-73iv; 448V-451V; 723; 
Kashshi, Ma'rifat Akhbdr al-Ridfdl, Bombay n.d. 
36-42; Ibn al-Athir, Usd, Cairo 1280-6, iii, 192-5; 
Sibt ibn al-DjawzI, Mir'at al-Zamdn, ms. Paris 
Ar. 6131, f°". 187V-190V; Dhahabi, Ma'rifat al- 
Kurra?, ms. Paris Anc. F. 742 = Cat. 2084, f°". 
5V-6; Ibn Hadjar, Isaba, Calcutta 1856-93, ii, 
802-13, no. 9149; id., Tahdhtb al-Tahdhib, Hyde- 
rabad 1325-7, v, no. 474: Hadjdji Khalifa, ii, 
332-3, 335, 361 (no. 3267), 377 (no. 3389), 348 
(no. 3175), 456 (no. 3706); iv, 363 (no. 8789); 
vi, 425 (no. 14179); on I. 'A. as for or against 
writing; i, 79; iii, 144. 

Information about I. 'A. as politician and warrior 
in all the chroniclers and historians who have 
dealt with the earliest Islamic history. E.g. Nasr 
b. MuzShim al-Minkari, Wak'-at Siffin, pub. 'Abd 
al-Salam Muh. Harun, Cairo 1365, index; Tabari 
i, 3038, (cf. 3011, 3045 etc.), 3092, 3145, 3162, 
(cf. 3229-30), 3181, 3273, 3289, 3354, 3358-9, 
3367, 3368, 337o, 3413, 3430, 3431, 3449, 3453-6; 
ii, 2, 86, 176, 222, 273-5; and index; Ibn al-Athir, 
iv, 9, 105-6, and index; information also in the 
books of adab; e.g. Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi, <Ikd, ii, 
295-7, 301, 323-4 and index in Mohammed Shafi, 
Analytical indices to the K. al-Hqd, Calcutta 1935-7 ; 
Mas'udI, Murudj, iv, 228-30, 229-303, 330, 327, 
353-4, 382, 390, 392, 410, 451; v, 8 sqq., 19, 



73, 177-9, 184-5, 187-8, 



106-113, 121-5, 129-31, 1 
231-3 and index. 

Other references in Caetani, Chronographia is- 
lamica, 68 a.H., par. 28. 

Modern authors: A. Sprenger, Das Leben und die 
Lehre ties Mohammed, Berlin, 1869, i, XVII; iii, 
CVI et seq.; J. Wellhausen, Das arabische Reich, 
Berlin 1902, 69-70; id., Reste arabischen Heiden- 
thums, Berlin 1887-97, 12 et seq.; Caetani, Annali, 
Indices ; vols ix and x passim ; particularly i, Intr. 
par. 24-5 and 38 a.H., par. 219-27; H. Lammens, 
Atudes sur le rigne du Calife Omayade Mo'-awia 
1", index; I. Goldziher, Richtungen der islamischen 
Koranauslegung, Leiden 1920, 65-81 and index; 
L. Veccia Vaglieri, II confliUo c Ali-Mu<dwiya e la 
secessione khdrigita riesaminati alia luce di fonti 
abddite, in Annali 1st. Univ. Or. Napoli, N.S. iv, 
passim, especially 75-6. (L. Veccia Vaglieri) 
'ABD ALLAH b. 'ABD al-$ADIR (Malay pro- 
nunciation Abdullah bin Abdulkadir), surnamed 
Munshi 5 , i.e. teacher of languages, was "the greatest 
innovator in Malay letters" (R. O. Winstedt, A 
history of Malay literature, JMBRAS, 1940, ch. xii). 
He was born in 1796 in Malacca, where his grand- 
father, the son of Shaykh 'Abd al-Kadir, who came 
originally from Yaman, had settled. At an early 
age, 'Abd Allah received lessons in Malay from his 
father, who is said to have been an expert Malay 
scholar, and endeavoured to make himself fully 
master of this language by reading Malay writings 
and by associating with educated Malays. As he 
learned foreign languages and continually came into 
contact with Europeans, as for instance, Farquhar, 
Raffles, and the missionaries Milne, Morrison and 
Thomson, his culture increased regularly. 

Shortly after the founding of Singapore (1819), 
he established himself in that town and earned his 
living in many different ways. He acted as an inter- 
preter, gave lessons in Malay, wrote letters, and 
assisted the American missionaries North, Keasberry 
and others in translating mission books and school 

In 1838 was published at Singapore under the title 
Bahwa ini Kesah PH-layar-an Abdullah, ben Abdul- 
kadir, Munshi, deri Singapura ka-Kalantan, a de- 
scription of a journey to the Malay States on the 
east coast of the Peninsula of Malacca, giving most 
important information concerning them. This book 
inaugurated a new and free Malay prose style; its 
author may be considered a pioneer of the literary 
movement which, continued by authors of the 20th 
century, ultimately led to the development of Malay 
into the national language of Indonesia. 

'Abd Allah's principal work is the Hikayat Ab- 
dullah, his Memoirs, in which inter alia he mentions 
politically important personages, such as Farquhar 
and Raffles (whose secretary he was), and emphasizes 
the advantages of a European administration over 
an Indian one, even though he at the same time 
sharply criticizes the administrative measures of 
the English and Dutch. The work was finished in 
1843 and lithographed with a few additions in 1849. 
Some copies of this first edition have an English 
dedication to Governor Butterworth, in which the 
work is called a "humble attempt to revive Malay 
literature". In his Memoirs 'Abd Allah mentions 
several works written by him. Among these is a 
poem describing a fire in Singapore, in which the 
author lost all his possessions. It was entitled ShaHr 
Singapura dimakan api and printed in Malay as 
well as in Latin characters (1843). The Mss. described 
in the catalogues under this title do not contain this 



'ABD ALLAH B. 'ABD al-KADIR — C ABD ALLAH E 



poem, but a similar one, entitled ShaHr Kampong 
Gelam terbakar, published after a fire in 1847. 

The periodical Cermin Mata contains some con- 
tributions by c Abd Allah. He died in 1854 during a 
pilgrimage to Mecca, shortly after his arrival in 
that city. The notes of his voyage as far as Djidda 
were published in Cermin Mata. 

Besides these original works 'Abd Allah translated 
the Tamil redaction of PanCatantra (a collection of 
Indian fables) into Malay under the title of Hihayai 
Pandja Tanderan, and edited the Malay Chronicles 
(Sidjarah Melayu). 

Bibliography: R. O. Winstedt's work cited 
above; Pelayaran ka-Kelantan, 1st ed. Singapore 
1838 (Arab. char, and romanized side by side); 
2nd ed., ibid. 1852 (lith.); reprinted in Maleisch 
Leesboek, 4de stukje, by J. Pijnappel, Leiden 1855 
(2nd ed. 1871); ed. H. C. Klinkert, Leiden 1889 
(together with Pelayaran ka-Djudah; with notes) 
and romanized by R. Brons Middel, Leiden 1893; 
Malay Literature Series 2 (in 2 vols.), Singapore 
1907, 1909 (roman. ed. and ed. in Arab char.) 
and reprints; translations: French by E. Dulaurier, 
Paris 1850 (with notes); Dutch by J. J. de Hol- 
lander (de Oids 1851, abridged) ; Javanese, Batavia 
1883; English by A. E. Coope, Singapore 1949 
(with notes); ShaHr Singapura terbakar: P. Favre, 
L'incendie de Singapour, in Melanges Or., Publ. 
Ec. Langues Or. Viv., 1883 (transcribed in Malay 
char, from the romanized text printed in 1843); 
ShaHr Kampong Gelam terkakar, 1st ed. lith. on 
a scroll of paper, Singapore 1847; romanized in 
a collection of Malay poems, often printed (3rd 
ed. Singapore 1887); Hikayat Abdullah, 1st ed. 
Singapore 1849 (autogr.); 2nd ed. for the R. As. 
Soc, Singapore 1880; ed. H. C. Klinkert, Leiden 
1882 (with a fasc. of notes) ; ed. W. G. Shellabear, 
Malay Literature Series 4 (2 vols.), Singapore 1907, 
1908 (rom. and Arab, ed.); English trans, by J. T. 
Thomson, London 1874; by W. G. Shellabear, 
Singapore 1918; Dutch (abridged) by G. Niemann 
(TNI, 1854); cf. C. Hooykaas, Over Maleise Lite- 
ratuur 2nd ed., 1947, 101 ff.; Kissah pelayaran 
Abdullah dart Singapura sampai ka-Mekah, all 
editions incomplete (Cermin Mata, Singapore 1858 ; 
Batavia 1866; Klinkert's edition, romanized " 
BP, 1911, 1920); copy of the complete MS. 
Leiden Univ. Libr. (MS. Klinkert 63); Dutch 
trans, by Klinkert, BTLV 1867; Hikayat Pan- 
djatanderan, finished 1835; 1st ed. lith. Singapore, 
n.d.; 2nd ed. Singapore 1868; ed. H. N. v. d. Tuuk, 
Maleisch Leesboek, VI (with notes), Leiden 1866, 
1875, 1881; romanized ed. by C. A. van Ophuysen, 
Leiden 1913; Dutch trans, by H. C. Klinkert, 
Zaltbommel 1871; Javanese, Batavia 1878; Se- 
djarah Melayu, Singapore n.d. (after 1831); muti- 
lated re-edition by H. C. Klinkert, Leiden 1884; the 
Singapore edition is also the basis of Dulaurier's 
and Shellabear's editions; Hikayat Dunia, n.d. 
(History of Asia and Africa); Hikayat pada menya- 
tahan pirihal Dunia, Singapore 1856 (geography). 

(C. A. van Ophuysen — P. Voorhoeve) 
'ABD ALLAH B. 'ABD al-MALIK b. Marwan, 
son of the caliph 'Abd al-Malik b. Marwan [q.v.], 
was born about the year 60/680-1, perhaps some- 
what earlier, as he is said to have been 27 years 
old in the year 85/704. He grew up in Damascus 
and accompanied his father in several campaigns, 
We first meet him as an independent general in the 
year 81/700-1, in one of the usual razzias against 
the Eastern Romans. Then in the year 82/70 
he was sent with Muhammad b. Marwan to help 



al-Hadjdjadj against al-Ash'ath and played a part 
in the negotiations of Dayr al-Diamadjim. There- 
upon he again led expeditions against the Eastern 
Romans, and in the year 84/703-4 conquered al- 
Massisa, which he converted into a military camp. 
After the death of his uncle 'Abd al-'Aziz b. Marwan, 
he was appointed governor of Egypt in the year 
85/704. On n Djumada II he made his entry into 
Fustat. He was to wipe out all traces of 'Abd al-'Aziz, 
and therefore changed all the officials. His adminis- 
tration left a bad record in the tradition, because he 
accepted bribes and embezzled public moneys. The 
only really important achievement of his rule was 
the introduction of the Arab language into the 
diwdns of the capital. His administration gave of- 
fence in Damascus; in the year 88/706-7 he made 
there a passing visit, and in 90/708-9 he was defi- 
nitely recalled. He departed to Syria with many 
presents, but they were taken from him in the pro- 
vince of al-Urdunn by order of the caliph. Thereupon 
he disappeared from the political arena. Only al- 
Ya'kubl has the information that he was executed 
when the 'Abbasids come to power. He is said to 
have been crucified by al-Saffah in the year 132/- 
749-50 in al-HIra. 

Bibliography: Ibn Taghribirdi, i, 232 ff.; 
Makrizi, Khifat, i, 98, 302 ; F. Wustenfeld, Die Statt- 
halter von Agypten, i, 38 ff. ; Tabari, ii, 1047, 1073 
ff.; 1 127, 1 165; Ibn al-Athir, iv, 377 ff., 398, 409; 
Wellhauscn, in NGWGdtt., 1901, facs. 4, p. 20; 
Ya'kubi, ii, 414, 466; Papyri Schott-Reinhardt, i, 
15 f., 28 f. (C. H. Becker) 

'ABD ALLAH b. 'ABD al-MUTTALIB of B. 
Hashim of Kuraysh, father of the prophet 
Muhammad. The earliest and most reliable sources 
give little information about him. His mother was 
Fatima bint 'Amr of B. Makhzum. Al-Kalbl places 
his birth in the 24th year of the reign of Anushirwan 
(554). but he is usually said to have been twenty- 
five when he died ( ? 570). According to a well- 
known story, picturesque but probably with little 
factual basis, 'Abd al-Muttalib vowed that, if he 
had ten sons who reached maturity, he would sa- 
crifice one; he attained this and selected 'Abd Allah 
by lot, but eventually sacrificed 100 camels instead. 
His marriage to Amina bint Wah'i has been much 
embellished in legend. It may have marked an 
alliance between 'Abd al-Muttalib and Amina's clan, 
B. Zuhra, as he himself married a woman of this 
clan at the same time. During a trading expedition 
'Abd Allah fell ill and died at Medina among the clan 
of his father's mother, B. 'AdI b. al-Nadjdjar, being 
buried in Dar al-Nabigha. His death took place either 
shortly before Muhammad's birth or a few months 
after; the word "orphan" in K. xciii, 6, doubtless 
refers to Muhammad's early loss of his parents. 
Bibliography: Ibn Hisham, 97-102; Ibn Sa'd, 
i/i, 53-61 ; Tabari, i, 967, 979-80, 1074-81 ; Caetani, 
Annali, i, 65-7, 118-20. (W. Montgomery-Watt) 
'ABD ALLAH B. ABl ISHAtf al-Ha P ramI, 
grammarian and Kur'an-reader from Basra, 
died in 1 17/735-6. His "exceptional" (shddhdha) 
reading continued the tradition of Ibn 'Abbas and, 
in turn, influenced the readings of 'Is5 b. c Umar 
al-Thakafl and of Abu 'Amr b. al-'Ala 5 . It seems 
now established that he was the earliest of the real 
Arab gra-nmarians (cf. Ibrahim Mustafa, Actes du 
XXI Courses des Orient., 278-9). He is said to have 
extended the use of inductive reasoning (kiyds) and 
the detail is handed down that in case of doubt 
he opted for the accusative (nasb). Nothing else is 
known about him beyond the facts that, being of 



C ABD ALLAH b. 'ABI ISHAK — C ABD ALLAH b. BULUGGlN 



43 



non-Arabic origin himself, he felt some hostility 
towards the Arabs, and that he was the object of 
a stinging riposte by al-Farazdak, whose mistakes 
he had pointed out. 

Bibliography: The fundamental passage of 
al-Djumahl, Tabakdt, ed. Hell, 6-8 is partly repro- 
duced by Ibn Kutayba, Shi c r, 25 ; Zubaydl, T^akdt, 
ed. Krenkow in RSO, 1919, 117; Sirafi, Akhbdr al- 
Nahwiyyin, ed. Krenkow, 25-28; Anbari, Nuzha, 
22-5; Ibn al-Djazari, Kurrd', no. 1747; Suyuti, 
Muzhir, ii, 247; G. Fliigel, Gramm. Schulen, 29; 
cf. also Fihrist, 9, 30, 41, 42; Aghdni 1 , xi, 106. 

(Ch. Pellat) 
'ABD ALLAH b. AHMAD [see sa'dids]. 
<ABD ALLAH b. AHMAD b. HANBAL [see 

AHMAD B. HANBAL]. 

'ABD ALLAH b. 'ALl, uncle of the caliphs Abu 
l-'Abbas al-Saffah and Abu Dja'far al-Mansur. 'Abd 
Allah was one of the most active participants in the 
struggle of the 'Abbasids against the last Umayyad 
caliph, Marwan II. He was commander-in-chief in 
the decisive battle at the Greater Zab, where Marwan 
lost his crown, and when the latter took to flight, 
'Abd Allah pursued him, quickly captured Damascus 
and marched on to Palestine, whence he had the 
fugitive caliph pursued to Egypt. He was even more 
implacable than his brother Da'ud b. c Ali in waging 
war on the members of the Umayyad house, and 
shrank from no method to exterminate them 
root and branch. During his stay in Palestine, he 
had about eighty of them murdered at one time. 
Such cruelties naturally caused ill-will against the 
new ruler, and a dangerous rebellion in Syria broke 
out under the leadership of Abu Muhammad, a 
descendant of Mu'awiya I, and Abu '1-Ward b. al- 
Kawthar, the governor of Kinnasrin. The rebels at 
first inflicted a defeat on the 'Abbasid troops, but 
were beaten by 'Abd Allah in 132/750 at Mardj al- 
Akhram. As governor of Syria, 'Abd Allah later 
threatened the safety of the new dynasty. After 
the death of al-Saffah he made claims to the Cali- 
phate, which he could base on his important services 
in the war against the Umayyads, and on the pro- 
mise he claimed to have received from al-Saffah. 
Moreover he had at his disposal a considerable army, 
which in reality he was to lead against the Byzan- 
tines. When he learned that the powerful governor 
of Khurasan, Abu Muslim, had declared for the 
caliph al-Mansur and was marching against him, he 
is said to have killed 17,000 Khurasanians in his 
army, because he feared they would never fight 
against Abu Muslim, and with his remaining troops 
proceeded against the latter. He was, however, in 
Pjumada II 137/Nov. 754 defeated at Nisibis and 
had to flee to his brother Sulayman, the governor 
of Basra. After a couple of years, the latter was 
dismissed, and 'Abd Allah was arrested by order of 
the caliph al-Mansur. He remained some seven years 
in prison, then in the year 147/764 he was taken into 
a house that had been purposely undermined; it 
fell down on him and buried him under the ruins. 
At his death he is said to have been 52 years old. 
Bibliography: Dinawarl, al-Akhbdr al-Tiwdl 
(Guirgass); Ya'kObl; Baiadhurl, Futvh; Tabari; 
Mas'udi, Muriidi, indexes ; A ghdnl, Tables; Fragm. 
Hist. Arab, (de Goeje and de Jong), passim ; J. Well- 
hausen, Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz, Berlin 
1902, 341-5; L. Caetani, Chronographica Islamica, 
Rome 1912, under the relevant years; L. Cactani- 
G. Gabricli, Onomasticon Arabicum, Rome 1915, 
731; L. Caetani, Chronologia generate del bacino 



mediterraneo, Rome 1923, under the relevant years; 
S. Moscati, Le massacre des V may y odes, in Archiv 
Orientdlni, 1950, 88-115. 

(K. V. Zettersteen — S. Moscati) 
'ABD ALLAH b. 'AMIR, governor of Basra, was 
born in Mecca in 4/626. He belonged to the Kuray- 
shite clan of c Abd Shams and was a maternal cousin 
of the caliph 'Uthman. In 29/649-50 he was appointed 
by 'Uthman to the governorship of Basra, in suc- 
cession to Abu Musa al-Ash'arl, and immediately 
took the field in Fars, completing the conquest of 
that province by the capture of Istakhr, Darabdjird 
and DjQr (FIruzabad). In 30-31/651 he advanced 
into Khurasan, defeated the Ephthalites, and occu- 
pied the whole province up to Marw, Balkh and 
(in 32/635) Harat. After making the Pilgrimage, 
during which he distinguished himself by lavish 
munificence to the Meccans and Ansar, he returned 
to Basra, leaving the government of Khurasan in 
the hands of deputies. In 35/656 he attempted in vain 
to support 'Uthman, and subsequently assisted 
'A'isha, Talha a nd al-Zubayr in organizing the re- 
sistance to 'AH at Basra. After their defeat in the 
Battle of the Camel he took refuge with a man of 
the Banu Hurkus and made his way to Damascus, 
where he joined Mu'awiya. In 41/661 he was one 
of Mu'awiya's delegates to treat with al-Hasan b. 
'All, and at the end of the same year he was re- 
appointed to the governorship of Basra. In 42-43/ 
662-4 his lieutenants reconquered Khurasan and 
Sidjistan, which had been lost to the Arabs during 
the civil war, and an expedition was sent into Sind. 
But his lenience towards the tribesmen appeared too 
dangerous to Mu'awiya, who replaced him in 44/ 
664 by a more energetic governor; thereafter Ibn 
'Amir appears to have lived in retirement until his 
death at Mecca in 59/680, or in 57 or 58. 

'Abd Allah b. 'Amir was celebrated not only for 
his military abilities, but also for his generosity and 
other personal qualities and especially for his nu- 
merous public works. Among these were the con- 
struction of two canals at Basra and the canal of 
Ubulla, plantations in al-Nihadj and Karyatayn, and 
improved water supplies for the pilgrims at 'Arafa. 
Bibliography: Tabari, index; Ibn Sa'd, v, 
30-5; Ya'kubl, ii, 191-5, etc.; id., Bulddn, in- 
dex; Baladhuri, Futuh, 51, 315 ff.; id., Ansdb, 
v, index; Muh. b. Hablb, al-Muhabbar, 150; 
Aghdni, index; Ta'rikh-i Sistdn, 79ft., 90-1; Ibn 
al-Athlr, Usd, iii, 191-2; Caetani, Annali, vii; 
Chronographia, 629-30; B. Spuler, Iran in friih- 
islamischer Zeit, Wiesbaden 1952, 17 ff. ; J. Walker, 
Catalogue of the Arab-Sassanian Coins (in the 
B.M.), London 1941, index. (H. A. R. Gibb) 
'ABD ALLAH B. BULUGGlN B. BadIs b. HabOs 
b. ZlRl, third and last ruler of the kingdom 
of Granada, of the SinhadjI Berber family of the 
Banu Zirl [see zIrIds of Spain]. Bom in 447/1056, 
he was appointed at the death of his father Bulug- 
gin Sayf al-Dawla, in 456/1064, as the presumptive 
heir of his grandfather Badis b. Habus. He succeeded 
him on the throne of Granada, while his brother 
Tamim al-Mu'izz became independent ruler of Ma- 
laga. His reign consisted of a long series of troubles 
inside his kingdom, of armed conflicts with his 
Muslim neighbours, and of compromises with Al- 
fonso VI, king of Castille. At the time of the Al- 
moravid intervention in Spain he took part in the 
battles of al-Zallaka [q.v.] and Aledo, but his nego- 
tiation with the Christian king soon cost him his 
throne. He was besieged in his capital in 483/1090 
by Yusuf b. Tashufin, was dethroned and sent into 



C ABD ALLAH B. BULUGGlN — 'ABD ALLAH b. DJUD'AN 



forced residence in Aghmat, in Southern Morocco, 
where he ended his days. 

.It was during his exile in Morocco that c Abd 
Allah composed his "Memoirs", the almost com- 
plete text of which was found by the author of the 
present article in successive fragments, at inter- 
vals of several years, in the library of the Djami' 
al-Karawiyyin in Fes. This autobiography, called 
al-Tibyan 'an al-hdditha al-kdHna bi-dawlat Bant 
Zirl fi Gharndta, is the most considerable and the 
least deformed document on the history of Spain 
in the second half of the nth century. In spite of 
the long digressions in which the author tries to 
justify his political position in face of the dangers 
menacing his kingdom, these "Memoirs" give a very 
detailed chronicle of all the events that led in 478/ 
1085 to the taking of Toledo by Alfonso VI, and, in 
the next year, to the arrival of the Almoravids in the 
Peninsula. At the same time it is a psychological 
document of the first order, that mirrors, much 
better than the chronicles of the Andalusi (awdHf, 
the state of social and political decomposition in 
which Muslim Spain was found at the end of the 
nth century, and the progress made by that time 
by the efforts of the Reconquista. The account of 
the events prior to the reign of the author is also 
new and important. The "Memoirs" of 'Abd Allah 
must be considered as the guiding thread that allows 
us to find our bearings through the maze of the history 
of Muslim Spain at the moment it was about to fall 
into the power of the North African dynasties. 

Several fragments of the Tibydn were published, 
with an annotated translation by the author of this 
article, in And., 1935, 233-344; 1936, 29-145; 1941. 
231-93. The whole of the Arabic text, now recovered, 
will be published soon. A Spanish translation, by 
E. Levi-Provencal and E. Garcia G6mez (Las 
"Memorias" de 'Abd Allah, Mtimo rey ziri de Granada) 
is due to be published in 1953. 

Bibliography: The biographical articles about 
c Abd Allah by Ibn 'Idhari and Ibn al-Khatlb 
have been reproduced in And., 1936, 124-7; see 
also Ibn al-Khatlb, A'mdl al-AHdm (Levi-Pro- 
vencal), 268-70; Nubahi, al-Markaba al-'Ulyd 
(Levi-Provencal), 93-4; R. Menendez Pidal, La 
EspaHa del Cid ', Madrid 1947, indices ; idem, 
Leyendo las "Memorias" del rey ziri 'Abd Allah, 
And. 1944, 1-8; E. Levi-Provencal, Esp. Mus., iv. 

(E. Levi-Provencal) 
C ABD ALLAH b. DJA'FAR B. AbI TAlib, 
nephew of the caliph 'All. 'Abd Allah's 
father had gone over to Islam very early, and took 
part in the emigration of the first believers to Abys- 
sinia, where, according to the common belief, c Abd 
Allah was born. On his mother's side he was a brother 
of Muhammad b. AbI Bakr; the mother's name was 
Asma' bint c Umays al-Khath'amiyya. After some 
years the father returned to Medina taking his son 
with him. 'Abd Allah became known chiefly on 
account of his great generosity, and received the 
honorific surname of Bahr al-Diad, "the Ocean of 
Generosity". He appears to have played no very im- 
portant part in politics, although his name crops up 
from time to time in history during 'All's time and 
that following. When Mu'awiya tried to throw sus- 
picion on Kays b. Sa c d, the valiant governor of Egypt, 
to damage him in 'All's eyes, 'Abd Allah advised the 
removal of Kays; 'All allowed himself to be persuaded 
and took the fateful step of replacing him by Mu- 
hammad b. AbI Bakr, who in a very short time 
brought the whole of Egypt into the greatest con- 
fusion. This took place in the year 36/656-7. When in 



the year 60/680, after Yazid's accession, the Shi'ites 
of Kufa summoned Husayn b. 'All to proceed to that 
city to have himself proclaimed caliph, c Abd Allah 
amongst others endeavoured to dissuade him from 
this dangerous enterprise, but without success. The 
date of 'Abd Allah's death is generally given as 
80 or 85, but 87 and 90 are also recorded. 

Bibliography: Tabari, i, 3243 ff.; ii, ^ff.; 
iii, 2339 ff.; Ibn al-Athlr, iii, 224 ff.; Nawawl, 
337 ff. ; Ya'kubi, ii, 67, 200, 331 ; Mas'udI, Murudj, 
iv, 181, 271 f., 313. 329. 434; v, 19, 148, 38311-; 
Lammens, £tudes sur le rigne du calif e omaiyade 
Mo'dwia I", in MFOB, index. * 

(K. V. Zettersteen) 
'ABD ALLAH B. DJAHSH. of Banu Asad b. 
Khuzavma. a confederate (halif) of Banu 
Urn ay y a of Kuraysh. His mother was Umayma 
bint 'Abd al-Muttalib, Muhammad's aunt. An early 
Muslim along with his brothers, 'Ubayd Allah and 
Abu Ahmad, he took part with the former in the 
migration to Abyssinia. 'Ubayd Allah became a 
Christian and died there, but 'Abd Allah returned 
to Mecca and was the most prominent of a group of 
confederates, including his sister Zaynab [q.v.], who 
all migrated to Medina. He led the much-criticized 
raid to Nakhla where Muslims first shed Meccan 
blood, and fought at Badr. At his death at Uhud 
he was between 40 and 50. 

Bibliography: Ibn Sa'd, iii/i, 62-4; Ibn al- 
Athlr, Usd, iii, 131; Ibn Hadjar, Isdba, s.v. 

(W. Montgomery Watt) 
'ABD ALLAH b. DJUD'AN, Kuray shite 
notable of the clan of Taym b. Murra, at the end 
of the 6th c. A.D. He acquired such wealth from 
the caravan and slave trade that he possessed one 
of the largest fortunes in Mecca (Ps.-Djahiz, Mahdsin 
(van Vloten), 165; Ibn Rusta, 215; Mas'udI, Murud±, 
vi, 153 ff.; Lammens, La Mecque d la veille de VHe- 
gire, index). He surrounded himself with unusual 
luxury (being nick-named hast 'l-dhahab, because he 
used to drink from a golden cup), and was the owner 
of the two singing-girls called "Locusts of 'Ad" 
(Diarddatd 'Ad) whom he offered to Umayya b. Abi 
'1-Salt. In giving magnificent banquets, he showed 
a generosity that became proverbial (Aghani 1 , viii, 
4; Tha'alibi, Thimdr, 487, in connection with the 
expression: djifan Ibn Dpid'dn). Thus he won the 
favour of the poets, but also drew on himself some 
invectives (al-Djahiz, Payawdn', i, 364; ii, 93). His 
prestige enabled him to play a certain role in po- 
litics {Aghani, xix, 76), and he seems to have been 
the promoter of the Meccan confederacy known as 
hilt al-fudul (Ibn Hisham, 85; Ya'kubl, ii, 16; 
Lammens, op. cit., 54 ff.). 

Already before the 3rd/9th c, his unusual wealth, 
and the wish of the Meccans to explain it other- 
wise than by the slave trade, gave rise to his identi- 
fication with the hero of a Yamanite legend, dis- 
coverer of the tomb of Shaddad b. 'Amr [q.v.] 
(Wahb b. Munabbih, Ttdjdn, 65 ff.). Thus he is 
represented as a su'luk banished by his clan, wan- 
dering in the desert and enriched by a treasure of 
precious stones and gold which he finds in an old 
tomb (al-Hamdanl, Iklil, viii, 183 sqq. ; al-DamM, s.v. 
Thu'bdn; al-Djahiz, Baydn, ed. Sandubl i, 31). Ac- 
cording to an isolated and no doubt apocryphal 
tradition, he is buried in a place in Yaman called 
Birk al-Ghumad (Yakut, i, 589). 

Bibliography : Add to the references quoted 
in the art.: Ta'bari, i, 1187, 1330; MakdisI, al-Bad* 
wa-l-Ta'rikh, ed. Huart, iv, 128, v, 103; Tha- 
'alibi, Thimdr, 539; Aghani », viii, 2-6; Ibn Durayd, 



'ABM ALLAH b. DJUD c AN — 'ABD ALLAH b. HILAL 



al-Ishtikdk, 88 ; Yakut, iv, 62 1 ; Mas'udl, al-Tanbih, 
210-1, 291 (trans. Carra de Vaux, 282-4, 381); 
Shibli, Akdm aX-Murdjdn, Cairo 1326, 141 ; Caussin 
de Perceval, Essai, i, 300-51, passim; Barbier de 
Meynard, Surnoms el sobriquets (= J A, 1907), 
66; O. Rescher, Qaljubi's Nawddir, Stuttgart 1920, 
no. 101. (Ch. Pellat) 

C ABD ALLAH b. HAMDAN [see Hamdanids]. 
'ABD ALLAH b. HAMMAM al-Saluli, Arab 
poet of the ist/7th century (he is said to have 
died after 96/715), who played a political role under 
the Umayyads. He was attached from 60/680 to 
Yazid b. Mu'awiya, condoled with him upon the 
death of his father and congratulated him at his 
accession. He persuaded Yazid to proclaim his. son 
Mu'awiya as heir presumptive and later he was the 
first to greet al-Walid b. 'Abd al-Malik with the 
name of caliph (86/705). During the reign of 'Abd 
al-Malik (65-86/685-705), the only information we 
have about his activity shows him to have had 
relations with the Shi'ite agitator al-Mukhtar [q.v.] 
and his entourage, as well as with the anticaliph 
<Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr [q.v.]. To the latter he ad- 
dressed a poem criticising the conduct of Mus'ab 
[q.v.], who was in effect temporarily deposed soon 
afterwards by al-Zubayr (67/686-7). 

Bibliography: Baladhuri, Ansdb, v, index; 
Djumahi, Tabakdt, (Hell) 135-6; pjahiz, ffayatran ", 
index; idem, Baydn (Sandubi), ii, 66, 67; Ibn 
Kutayba,SAt'r (de Goeje), 412-3; Ibn c Abd Rabbih, 
'Ikd, Cairo 1940, iii, 254 (= iv, 173 = v, 136), 
306; vii, 140-1; Abu Tammam, ffamdsa (Freytag), 
507; Tabari, ii, 636-42 and passim; Mubarrad, 
Kdmil, 34, 309; Mas'udl, Murudi, v, 126, 153-5; 
Aghdni 1 , xiv, 120-1, 170; C. A. Nallino, Scritti, 
vi, 154 (French transl. 236); H. Lammens, Le 
calif at de Yaztd I", MFOB, v 1 , no, 120; idem, 
Etudes sur le siicle des Omayyades, Beyrouth, 1930, 
141, 158, 166. (Ch. Pellat) 

C ABD ALLAH b. HAMZA [see al-Mansur 
Bi'llah]. 

'ABD ALLAH b. HAN£ALA b. AbI 'Amir al- 
AnsarI, one of the leaders of the revolution 
that broke out in Medina against the caliph Yazid I. 
Posthumous son of a Companion killed at Uhud and 
surnamed Ghasil al-Mala'ika, 'Abd Allah is also known 
as Ibn al-Ghasil. In 62/682 he took part in the depu- 
tation sent to Damascus by the governor of Medina, 
'Uthman b. Muhammad, to bring about a reconcili- 
ation between the malcontents of Medina and the 
Umayyads. Yazid showed special consideration for 
the envoys, but they, nevertheless, spoke ill of the 
caliph and described him as unfit for the caliphate. 
Ibn al-Ghasil made himself prominent by his attacks 
and when the Ansar openly revolted soon afterwards, 
it was he whom they choose as their chief, while 'Abd 
Allah b. Muti' [q.v.] took the leadership of the city's 
Kurayshites. After the Umayyads of Medina had 
been driven out, the caliph was compelled to punish 
the rebels by force of arms. About the end of 63/683 
he sent troops under the command of Muslim b. 'Ukba, 
who occupied favourable positions on the Harra, 
to the east of Medina, and after waiting three days, 
engaged the Medinese in a bloody battle which ended 
with the complete defeat of the rebels (Dhu'l-Hididia 
63/Aug. 683). 'Abd Allah showed remarkable bravery 
in the battle, but finally fell under the blows of 
the Syrians. His head was cut off and brought to 
Muslim, and the two soldiers who killed him received, 
it is said, high rewards from the caliph. 

Bibliography: Baladhuri, Ansdb, v, 154; Ibn 
Sa'd, Tabakdt, v, 46 ff.; Tabari, ii, 412 ft.; Ibn 



al-A&ir, iv, 45, 87 ft.; Ibn Hadjar, Isdba, no. 
4637; Aghdni 1 , i, 12; A. Miiller, Der Islam im 
Morgen- und Abendland, i, 365 ff.; J. Wellhausen, 
Das arab. Reich, 16 ff.; H. Lammens, Le calif at 
de Yazid Ier, 231 ff. (= MFOB, v, 211 ff.). 

(K. V. Zettersteen-Ch. Pellat) 
'ABD ALLAH b. al-HASAN b. al-Hasan, chief 
of the 'A 1 i d s. 'Abd Allah was treated with great 
favour by the caliphs of the Umayyad dynasty, and 
when he visited the first 'Abbasid caliph Abu 
•l-'Abbas al-Saffah at Anbar, the latter received 
him with great distinction. Thence he returned to 
Medina, where he soon fell under the suspicion of 
the successor of al-Saffah, al-Mansur. Yet 'Abd Al- 
lah owed his misfortune not so much to himself as 
to his two sons Muhammad and Ibrahim. Al-Mansur 
began to suspect them in 136/754, when he led the 
pilgrimage to Mecca and they did not appear with 
the other Hashimites to salute him, but his suspicions 
fell more especially on Muhammad. After his accession 
al-Mansur tried to sound the Hashimites as to Mu- 
hammad's real opinions, but they spoke only good 
of him and endeavoured to excuse his absence. Only 
al-Hasan b. Zayd advised the caliph to beware of this 
dangerous 'Alid. In order to remove all doubts, al- 
Mansur ordered 'Ukba b. Salm to get into 'Abd 
Allah's confidence by means of presents and forged 
letters from Khurasan, the recognised centre of 'Alid 
propaganda. At first 'Abd Allah was very cautious 
but finally fell into the trap, and when 'Ukba asked 
him for an answer for his supposed companions in 
Khurasan, he did indeed refuse to give one in writing, 
but asked him to inform them by word of mouth 
that he greeted them and that his two sons would rise 
in revolt in the near future. When 'Ukba had in this 
manner convinced himself of the rebellious intentions 
of the 'Alids, he at once informed the caliph, and 
when the latter in the year 140/758 again made a pil- 
grimage, he invited 'Abd Allah to come to him, and 
asked him if he could really count on his fidelity. 
'Abd Allah assured him of his honorable sentiments, 
but when 'Ukba suddenly appeared, he understood 
that he had been betrayed and took refuge in en- 
treaties. Al-Mansur, however, had him arrested. 'Abd 
Allah's relatives shared his fate, but the caliph was 
not able to seize his two sons. When he again came 
to Medina in the year 144/762 after making another 
pilgrimage, he took the prisoners back with him to 
al-'Irak, and soon afterwards 'Abd Allah died there 
in prison at the age of 75. According to current 
report, he was murdered by al-Mansur's orders. 
Bibliography: Tabari, ii, 1338 ft.; iii, 143 ff-; 
Ibn al-Athir, 172 ft.; Weil, Gesch. d. Chalifen, ii, 
40 ff. (K. V. Zettersteen) 

'ABD ALLAH b. HILAL al-HimyarI al-KufI, 
a magician of Kufa, contemporary of al-Hadjdjadj, 
with whom he was in relations after the building 
of the palace in Wasit (Yakut, iv, 885; cf. also an 
adventure with a concubine of the caliph, Ibn Ha- 
djar, Lisdn al-Mizdn, iii, 372-3). Aghdni ', i, 167 
quotes verses by 'Umar b. Abi Rabi'a that bear 
witness to a connection between the poet and the 
magician. He abtained his powers from a magic ring 
given to him by Satan to thank him for having 
defended him from children who were insulting him. 
He was also thought to receive his inspiration 
from Iblis, because he was descended from Iblis in 
the maternal line; hence his nicknames of sadik 
Iblis, sdhib Iblis, khatan Iblis or sibt Iblis (al-Djabiz, 
al-ffayawdn', i, 190; al-Bayhaki, al-Mahdsin, 109; 
al-Tha'alibi, Thimdr, 57); he is clearly described as 
makhdum by al-Djahiz, al-ffayawdn ', vi, 198 (cf. 



'ABD ALLAH B. HILAL — 'ABD ALLAH b. ISKANDAR 



WZKM, vii (1893), 235-6). The Fikrist, 310 (repro- 
duced in al-Shibll, Akdm al-Murdidn, 101-2) men- 
tions him among those that follow al-farika al- 
makmuda; on the other hand he is considered as the 
master of al-Halladj, accused of practising diabolic 
magic (L. Massignon, HaUddj, 792). Al-Djawbari 
declares that he had read his books of magic (ZDMG, 
xx, (1866), 487; the passage is missing in the Cairo ed. 
of al-Mukktdr fi Kaskf al-Asrar) and refers to Fakhr 
al-DIn al-RazI, al-Sirr al-Maktum. (Ch. Pellat) 

C ABD ALLAH b . al-HUSAYN, AmlrofTrans- 
jordan (Shark al-Urdunn), afterwards king of 
Hashimite Jordan (al-Mamlaka al-Urdunniyya al- 
Hashimiyya), second son of the Sharif al-Husayn 
b. 'All [q.v.] king of Hidjaz. Born in Mecca, in 1882, 
he studied in Istanbul. After the revolution of 1908, 
he represented for some time the Hidjaz in the Otto- 
man parliament. Just before the first world war he 
joined the Arab Union, an association founded in 
Cairo by the Syrian Muhammad Rashld Rida [q.v.]. In 
April 1914 he had interviews in Egypt with Lord 
Kitchener and Ronald Storrs and thus took part in 
the negotiations that led to the proclamation of 
"Arab Revolt" announced by his father in Mecca, 
9 Sha'ban 1334/10 June 1916. During the hostilities 
he played only a minor role. On 8 March 1920 an 
'"Iraki .Congress", which met in Damascus, pro- 
claimed him "constitutional king of 'Irak". But 
he never took possession of the throne, which 
was given by the English, in June 1921, to his brother 
Faysal, who had been expelled from Damascus by 
the French troops of General Gouraud (24-27 July 
1920). In March 1921 'Abd Allah met in Jerusalem 
W. Churchill, then colonial secretary. It was during 
that interview that it was orally agreed to create in 
Transjordan, separated from the rest of Palestine 
placed under British mandate, a "national Arab 
government" headed by c Abd Allah (28 March). On 
28 August 1923 this government was recognized by 
the High Commissioner for Palestine. Its relations 
with Great Britain were fixed by a treaty signed 
in Jerusalem 20 February 1928 (modified by the 
agreements of 2 June 1934 and 9 July 1941). 

In 1946 Great Britain recognized Transjordan "as 
a completely independent state" (treaty of 22 March 
1946, modified by the treaty of 15 March 1948). 
c Abd Allah was crowned as king in 'Amman, 25 
May 1946, and Transjordan, constituted a kingdom, 
took the name of "Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan". 
After the war in Palestine (15 May 1948-3 April 
1949), 'Abd Allah annexed the territories occupied 
by the Arab Legion to the west of the Jordan (April- 
May 1950). He was assassinated in Jerusalem on 20 
July 1951. 

In the last years of his life, he visited successively 
Turkey (Jan. 1947), Iran (July-August 1949) and 
Spain (Sept. 1949). His journeys were followed by 
the signature of treaties of friendship with these 
countries (Turkey, n Jan. 1947; Iran, 16 Nov. 1949; 
Spain, 7 Oct. 1950). On the other hand he tried to 
overcome the hostility of the Arab League to his 
projects of territorial expansion. He died, however, 
without accomplishing the great ideal of his reign: 
grouping round his throne the Arab lands of Syria 
(project of Greater Syria). 

He was the author of memoirs, only the first 
part of which has been published. 

Bibliograpky. c Abd Allah b. al-Husayn, 

Mudkakkarati, 1945 (English transl., Philip P. 

Graves, Memoirs of King Abdullah of Transjordan, 

London 1950). Reference should be made especially 

to OM 1923-51 and Cakiers del'Or.Cont., 1944-51. 



See also T. E. Lawrence, Seven pillars of wisdom, 
London 1935; idem, Revolt in Ike desert, London 
1927; C. S. Jarvis, Arab command', 1943; R. 
Storrs, Orientations, London 1943; J. Bagot Glubb, 
Tke story of tke Arab Legion, London 1948; Et- 
tore Rossi, Documenti sull'origine e gli sviluppi 
delta questione arabe (1875-1904), Rome 1944. On 
the project of Greater Syria, see Transjordan 
Wkite Book, 'Amman 1947, and Li voild la 
Grande Syrie, published by the review al-Dunya, 
Damascus 1947. (M. Colombe) 

'ABD ALLAH b. IBAp [see Ibadiyya]. 
'ABD ALLAH b. IBRAHIM [see aghlabids]. 
'ABD ALLAH b. ISKANDAR, a Shay ban id 
[q.v.], the greatest prince of this dynasty, born in 
940/1533-4 (the dragon year 1532-3 is given, probably 
more accurately, as the year of the cycle) at Afa- 
rinkent in Miyankal (an island between the two 
arms of the Zarafshan). The father (Iskandar Khan), 
grandfather (Djani Beg) and great-grandfather 
(Kh'adia Muhammad, son of Abu '1-Khayr[j.u.]) of 
this ruler of genius are all described as very ordinary, 
almost stupid men. Djani Beg (d. 935/1528-9) had 
at the distribution of 918/1512-3 received Karmina 
and Miyankal; Iskandar was at the time of his son's 
birth lord of Afarinkent; later, probably after the 
death of one of his brothers, he emigrated to Kar- 
mina. There 'Abd Allah first proved his ability as 
a ruler in 958/1551; the country had been attacked 
by Nawruz Ahmed Khan of Tashkend and 'Abd 
al-Latif Khan of Samarkand; Iskandar had fled across 
the Amu; 'Abd Allah assumed his father's duties 
and successfully repulsed the attack. In the following 
years 'Abd Allah tried to extend his possessions 
westward in the direction of Bukhara and south- 
eastward in the direction of Karshi and Shahr-i 
Sabz, at first without permanent success; in 963/ 
1555-6 he was even obliged to evacuate the lands 
inherited by his father and flee to Maymana. In 
the same year (Dhu 'l-Ka'da/September-.October 
1556) there died his powerful enemy Nawruz Ahmed 
Khan, khan of the Ozbegs and lord of Tashkend 
since 959/1552. 'Abd Allah immediately reasserted 
his supremacy in Karmina and Shahr-i Sabz, and 
in Radjab 964/May 1557 conquered Bukhara, from 
that time his capital. There he had his uncle Pir 
Muhammad declared as deposed and his weak- 
minded father proclaimed in Sha'ban 968/April- 
May 1 561 khan of all the Ozbegs, in order to rule 
himself in the latter's name. Only in 991/1583, after 
the death of his father (1 Djumada II/22 June), did 
he accept the vacant throne. After severe fighting 
against insubordinate supporters of the ruling house 
he subjugated Balkh in 98 1/1 573-4, Samarkand in 
Rabi' II 986/June 1578, Tashkend and the remaining 
country north of the Syr in 990/1582-3, and Far- 
ghana in 991/1583. In addition to these conquests, 
'Abd Allah also made a raid in the first half 
of the year 990/spring 1582 into the steppes as 
far as Ulugh Tagh. In the year 996/1587-8 a stub- 
born insurrection was suppressed in Tashkend, and 
the enemy again pursued far into the steppes. In the 
south-east Badakhshan was conquered, in the west 
Khurasan, Gilan and Kh"arizm, the last-named first 
in 1002/1593-4 and then, after an insurrection, re- 
conquered in 1004/1595-6. An expedition to East 
Turkistan resulted only in the laying waste of the 
provinces of Kashghar and Yarkand. 'Abd Allah's 
last years were darkened by a quarrel with his 
only son 'Abd al-Mu'min, v.ho ruled in Balkh from 
the end of 990/autumn 1582 in the name of his 
father. As 'Abd Allah had been the real ruler under 



'ABD ALLAH B. ISKANDAR — 'ABD ALLAH b. KHAZIM 



Iskandar, in the same way c Abd al-Mu'min wanted 
to occupy the same position in relation to his now 
aging father. 'Abd Allah would, however, not hear 
of any diminution of his power, and only the media- 
tion of the clergy prevented an open breach between 
father and son, and compelled 'Abd al-Mu'min to 
yield. On hearing of the strained relations between 
father and son, the nomads had penetrated into the 
region of Tashkend and had defeated between Tash- 
kend and Samarkand an army sent against them. 
At the beginning of a punitive expedition against 
this enemy 'Abd Allah was overtaken by death in 
Samarkand (end of the "hen year", 1006/beginning 
of 1598). 

'Abd al-Mu'min was murdered only six months 
later by his subjects. The conquests in Khurasan 
and Kh w arizm were lost, and in the Ozbegs' own coun- 
try the power fell into the hands of another dynasty. 
Of greater permanence were' the results of 'Abd 
Allah's activity in internal affairs; the administration, 
especially the coinage system, was remodelled by 
him, many public- works (bridges, caravanseras, 
wells, etc.) were completed. Even at the present 
day popular folklore ascribes all such monuments 
either to Timur or to 'Abd Allah. 

Bibliography: The life of this ruler up to 
the year 996/1587-8 is described in detail by his 
eulogist Hafiz Tanlsh: Sharaf-ndma-yi Shdhi 
(Persian), usually called 'Abd Alldh-ndma. Much 
information (especially about the last few years) 
is given by c Abd Allah's Persian contemporary 
Iskandar Munshi' in Ta'rikh-i 'Alam Ard-yi 'Ab- 
bdsi (biography of Shah 'Abbas I, Teheran 1897). 
Extracts from both works are in Welyaminow- 
Zernow, Izslyedowaniya o kasimowskikh tsaryahh 
i tsarewidakh, ii (in the Trudi wostol. old. imper. 
arkheol. obshl., x.; German transl. Leipzig 1867), 
and before that in his Moneti bukharshiya i 
khiwskiya. See also my extracts from the little 
known Bahr al-Asrdr by Mahmud b. Wali in the 
Zapiski wostol. otd. imper. rusk, arkheol. obshi., 
xv. On the Bahr al-Asrdr comp. Ethe, India 
Office Cat., No. 575. The information given by 
Vambery, Gesch. Bochara's, and by Howorth, 
Hist. 0/ the Mongols, ii. div. 2, who follows him, 
is to be accepted with great caution. 



(W. 



-D) 



'ABD ALLAH b. ISMA'lL, 'Alawid [q.v.] 
sultan of Morocco, whose first reign started 4 
Sjja'ban 1141/5 March 1729, while his last ended 
with his death 27 Safar 1171/10 Nov. 1757. 

This sovereign was in fact deposed several times, 
five times according to the Arabic historians, and 
as often recalled to power. For the good order 
established in Morocco under Mawlay Isma'il [q.v.] 
was at that time but a memory. When 'Abd Allah 
assumed power, two of his brothers, Ahmad al- 
Dhahabi and 'Abd al-Malik, had been fighting for 
it for two years, and had roused, by their mutual 
bids and their weakness, violent antagonism between 
the black army of their father, the 'abid al-Bukhdri, 
and the gish [diaysh, q.v.] tribe of Odaya and the 
Berbers of the Middle and Central Atlas. When it 
is added that the sons of Mawlay Isma'il were 
numerous and that several of them aspired to power, 
and that, on the other hand, 'Abd Allah showed 
himself from the beginning to be capricious and cruel, 
then it is plain why Morocco was at this time the 
scene of constant disorders. 

Raised to power by the 'abid, who had been won 
over by his mother, 'Abd Allah immediately stirred 
up against himself the city of Fez, whose resistance 



only after a siege of six months. He 
then tried to pacify his kingdom, but in consequence 
of a disastrous campaign in the Central Atlas, ex- 
cited the enmity of the 'abid and had to flee, on 29 
Sept. 1734, to the Wadi Nun, to his mother's tribe. 
Replaced by his brother 'All al-A'radj, he was re- 
called in 1736, but was again expelled a few months 
later by the 'abid. He took refuge with the Berber 
Ait Idrasan and was replaced successively by two 
of his brothers, Muh. b. al-'Arabiyya and al-Mustadi'. 
Recalled in 1740, he fought against al-Mustadi' and 
his ally, the pasha of Tangier, Ahmad al-RIfl, when 
another son of Isma'il, Zayn al-'Abidin, was elevated 
to the throne by the c abid. 'Abd Allah found new 
supporters among the Berbers, with whose help he 
regained power in the same year. He then suceeeded 
in defeating al-Mustadi and al-RIfi and made an 
effort to pacify Morocco. New revolts, however, fol- 
lowed each other without interruption and the sultan 
constantly changed his allies, relying sometimes on 
the 'abid, sometimes on the Cdaya, sometimes on the 
Berbers. He was deposed yet again (1748) in favour 
of his son Muhammed governor of Marrakush. His 
son, however, remained loyal and assured the reign 
of 'Abd Allah until his death, but in the midst of 
continual disorders. 'Abd Allah resided partly in 
Meknes, and partly in a country house near Fez, 
Dar Dbibagh. 

Bibliography : ZayyanI, Le Maroc de 631 a- 
1812 (Houdas), Paris 1886, 35-67; trad. Houdas, 
64-127; AkensOs, al-Dxaysh al-'Aramram, lith, 
Fes 1336/1918, reproducing al-Zayyani; Nasiri 
Salawi, al-Istiksd', iv, Cairo 1312/1894, 59-91 ; 
trad. E. Fumey, AM, ix, 1916, 171-270; L. de 
Chenier, Recherches historiques sur Us Maures et 
histoire de I'Empire de Maroc, iii, Paris 1787, 
430-65; H. Terrasse, Histoire du Maroc, ii, Casa- 
blanca 1950, 282-6. (R. le Tourneau) 
'ABD ALLAH b. KHAZIM al-SulamI, governor 
of Khurasan. On the first expedition of 'Abd Allah 
b. 'Amir [q.v.] into Khurasan in 31/651-2, Ibn 
Khazim commanded the advance-guard which occu- 
pied Sarakhs. According to some accounts, he put 
down a rebellion led by Karin in 33/653-4 and was 
rewarded with the governorship of the province, 
but this is probably an anticipation of the events 
of 42/662. During Ibn 'Amir's second governorship 
of Basra (41/661), Kays b. al-Haytham al-Sulaml 
was appointed to Khurasan, and 'Abd Allah b. 
Khazim and 'Abd al-Rahman b. Samura were des- 
patched to recover Balkh and Sidjistan. When 
Kays showed himself unable to deal with an Eph- 
thalite revolt which broke out in the following year, 
Ibn 'Amir replaced him as governor by 'Abd Allah 
b. Khazim, who remained in Khurasan until recalled 
by Ziyad in 45/665. 

Ibn Khazim returned to Khurasan with the army 
of Salm b. Ziyad (61-2/680-2), and when the latter 
withdrew after the death of Yazld I Ibn Khazim 
persuaded him to nominate him as governor of the 
province (64/684). Having gained possession of Marw 
after defeating its Tamimite governor, he then at- 
tacked, with the aid of Tamfm, the Bakrite governors 
of Marw al-Rudh and Harat, and overcame them 
after a long struggle. The victory was followed by 
repeated risings of the Tamlm against Ibn Khazim, 
now nominally governor on behalf of Ibn al-Zubayr. 
In 72/692 he received, but indignantly rejected, an 
offer by 'Abd al-Malik to confirm him as governor 
for seven years; the offer was then made to and ac- 
cepted by his deputy in Marw, the Tamimite Bukayr 
b. Wishah, who overtook and killed him (probably 



'ABD A1.LA.H b. KHAZIM — 'ABD ALLAH B. MU'AWIYA 



in 73/692-3) as he was attempting to join his son 
Musa in the stronghold which he had previously 
prepared at Tirmidh. The career of lbn Khazim was 
-afterwards embellished with saga-like accretions, 
which make it difficult to establish many details 
-with precision. 

Bibliography: Tabari, index (tr. Zotenberg, 
iv, 63-5, 113-4); BalSdhuri, 356 ff., 409, 413 ft-; 
Ya'kubl, ii, 258, 322-4; id. Bulddn, 279, 296-9; 
Muh. b. Habib, al-Muhabbar, 221-2, 308; NakdHd 
Diarir wa-l-Farazdah, index; al-Kali, Dhayl al- 
Amdli, 32; Wellhausen, Arab. Reich, 258-62; 
Caetani, Annali, vii, 275 ft., 493 ff.; viii, 3-8; 
Barthold, Turkestan', 184; Marquart, £rdnSahr, 
Berlin 1901, 69, 135; J. Walker, Catalogue of the 
Arab-Sassanian Coins {in the B.M.), London 1941, 
index; R. Ghirshman, Les Chionites-Hephtalites, 
99-101; other reff. in Caetani, Chronographia, 
853. (H. A. R. Gibb) 

<ABD ALLAH b. MAS'CD [see ibn mas'&d]. 
<ABD ALLAH B. MAYMCN, client of the family 
of al-Haritt? b. 'Abd Allah b. Abi Rabi c a al-Makh- 
zumi (Ibn al-Zubayr's governor in Basra, cf . al-Tabari, 
index), known in the Twelver Shi'ite literature as 
a transmitter of traditions from Dja'far al- 
Sadik (al-KulIni, Ibn Babuya, al-Tusi, passim, cf. 
Ivanow, Alleged Founder, n -60; see also the Shi'ite 
books of rididl- al-Kashshi, Ma'ri/at Akhbdr al- 
Rididl, 160; al-Nadjashi, al-Rididl, 148; al-Tusi, 
Fihrist, 197; he appears also in Sunni books of rididl: 
al-Dhahabi, Mizdn al-IHiddl, ii, 81, who quotes the 
earlier Sunni authorities; Ibn Hadjar, Tahdhib 
al-Tahdhib, vi, 149). Since Dja'far al-Sadik died 
in 148/765, c Abd Allah belongs to the middle and 
the second half of the 2nd/8th century. His father 
Maymun al-Kaddab ("sharpener of arrows" — so al- 
Nadjashi — rather than "oculist") is also mentioned 
in the Twelver sources as a companion of Dja'far's 
father, Muh. al-Bakir. Ismail! sources, too, speak 
of Maymun and c Abd Allah as companions of al- 
Bakir and Dja'far al-Sadik (cf. Lewis, Origins, 65-7). 
The anti-Isma'fll writers, from the beginning of the 
4th/ioth century on, have a long and colourful tale to 
tell of 'Abd Allah as the founder of Isma'ilism. 
The source of all these accounts is that of Ibn Rizam 
(beg. of the 4th/ioth century), quoted in the Fihrist, 
186. According to this story, Maymun al-^addah, a 
Bardesanian (hence in later sources "son of Daysan" ; 
the name of the "father" seems to owe its existence 
to the alleged adherence of Maymun to Ibn Daysan, 
Bardesanes) was an extremist, follower of Abu '1- 
Khattab [?.«.], and founded the sect called May- 
muniyya. His son 'Abd Allah claimed to be a prophet, 
supported his claims by conjuring tricks and, driven 
by the ambition of securing worldly power, founded 
a movement, instituting seven grades of beliefs that 
-culminated in shameless atheism and libertinism. 
He pretended to work on behalf of Muh. b. Isma'Il, 
as expected Mahdi. 'Abd Allah came from Kuradj 
al-'Abbas near Ahwaz, but transferred his head- 
quarters first to c Askar Mukram, then to Basra, 
and finally to Salamiya in Syria, where he .remained 
in hiding until his death. His lifetime is put by Ibn 
Rizam, anachronistically, in the middle of the 3rd/ 
■9th century. His successors stayed in Salamiya, 
until 'Ubayd Allah al-Mahdl [?.«.] claimed to be 
a descendant of Muh. b. Isma'Il, and fled to Ifrikiya 
-to found there the Fatimid dynasty. This story of 
Ibn Rizam proved a great success, was copied by 
all the subsequent anti-Isma'IH writers (the chief 
of them being Akhu Muhsin — preserved in excerpts 
■by al-Nuwayri and al-MakrlzI — and Ibn Shaddad, 



who gives Maymun the kunya Abu Shakir, cf. Ibn 
al-Athlr, viii, 21, presumably in order to identify 
him with the zindik Abu Shakir, for whom see al- 
Khayyat, al-Intisdr, 40, 142; Fihrist, 337 and the 
Twelver legends quoted by Ivanow, Alleged Founder, 
91 ff. and G. Vajda, RSO, 1937, 192, 196, 224), 
and became, with certain additions and variations 
(cf. Lewis, Origins, 54-63) the standard account of 
Sunni authors about the rise of Isma'ilism. This 
is not the place to discuss in detail the vexed and 
apparently insoluble problem of the antecedents of 
the Fatimids (see fatimids and also isma'iliyya) 
yet it must be pointed out that the view that the 
Fatimids descended from Maymun al-fCaddah seems 
to have been entertained not only by Ibn Rizam, 
a great enemy of Isma'ilism, but also by certain 
sections of the Isma'Il! movement itself, and the 
Imam al-Mu'izz had to polemize against some of 
his followers who considered him as a descendant 
of Maymun (see the letter of al-Mu'izz quoted by 
'Imad al-DIn Idris and printed by Ivanow in the 
J. of the Bombay Branch of the RAS, 1940, 74-6, 
and, confirming and completing that piece of in- 
formation, a passage in al-Nu'man's al-Mad±dlis wa 
'l-Musdyardt, MS of SOAS, London, 25434, fol. 76 
ff., to be published by the author of this article). 
W. Ivanow (The rise of the Fatimids, Bombay 1942, 
see especially 127-56; The Alleged Founder of Ismai- 
lism, Bombay 1946) denies the truth of any con- 
nection between Isma'ilism and Maymun and 'Abd 
Allah, or their descendants, considering the whole 
story as freely invented by their enemies — although 
it is difficult to see why they have picked out just 
Maymun and c Abd Allah for the role and how 
early Isma'ill circles could come to accept them, 
merely on the authority of scandal invented by their 
enemies, as the ancestors of the leaders to whom 
they paid allegiance. B. Lewis, The origins of Ismai- 
lism, Cambridge 1940 (see especially 49-73), admits, 
on the whole, the historicity of the role of Maymun 
and c Abd AUah as leaders of the extremist movement 
out of which grew Isma'ilism. The evidence is as 
yet not sufficient for a definite solution of this 
problem, and it would seem possible that the basis 
for the story about Maymun and c Abd Allah is to 
be sought in the role that some descendants of 'Abd 
Allah b. Maymun may have played in the Isma'ill 
movement in its beginnings about 260/873, and that 
the story was spun out of this knowledge of the con- 
nection of some "Kaddahids" with Isma'ilism. 
(S. M. Stern) 
'ABD ALLAH b. MU'AWIYA, c Alid rebel. After 
the death of Abu Hashim, a grandson of C A1I, claims 
were laid to the Imamate from several quarters. 
Some asserted that Abu Hashim had formally trans- 
ferred his right to the dignity of Imam to the 'Ab- 
basid Muhammad b. C A1I. Others said that he had 
spoken in favor of c Abd Allah b. c Amr al-Kindl 
and wanted to proclaim him Imam. As he, however, 
did not come up to the expectations of his followers, 
they turned from him and declared 'Abd Allah b. 
Mu'awiya, a great-grandson of 'All's brother Dja- 
'far, to be the rightful Imam. The latter asserted 
that both the godhead and the prophetic office were 
united in his person, because the spirit of God had 
been transferred from the one to the other and had 
finally come to him. In accordance with this his 
followers believed in metempsychosis and denied the 
resurrection. In Muharram 127/Oct. 744, 'Abd Allah 
revolted in Kufa where he was joined by many fol- 
lowers, especially from amongst the Zaydites [q.v.]. 
The latter captured the citadel and expelled the 



<ABD ALLAH b. MU'AWIYA — C ABD ALLAH B. MUHAMMAD al-TA c A'ISHI 



49 



prefect. In a short time, however, <Abd Allah b. 
■Umar b. c Abd al-'Aziz, the governor of c Irak, put 
an end to his manoeuvres. When it came to fighting, 
the ever unreliable Kufans deserted; only the Zay- 
dites fought bravely and continued the battle till 
c Abd Allah was granted an unimpeded retreat. From 
Kufa he proceeded at first to MadS'in and then to 
al-Djibal. His power was in no way broken. From 
Kufa and from other places numbers of people flocked 
to him and he soon succeeded in winning over several 
important strongholds in Persia. After residing for 
some time in Isfahan, he went to Istakhr. Owing 
to the temporary weakness of the government in 
Persia, as a result of the disorders in c Irak and Khu- 
rasan, he had no difficulty in extending his rule over 
a great part of al-Djibal, Ahwaz, Fars and Karman. 
The Kharidiites. who had fought against Marwan 
II on the Tigris, withdrew into c Abd Allah's domain 
and other opponents of the caliph also joined him, 
including some 'Abbasids. In the end, however, he was 
unable to maintain his power. c Amir b. Dubara, one 
of Marwan's generals, who had been entrusted with 
the pursuit of the Kharidiites. led an army into c Abd 
Allah's domains and brought his rule to a sudden 
end. In the year 129/746-7, c Abd Allah was defeated 
at Marw al-Shadhan and forced to flee to Khurasan, 
where Abu Muslim, the celebrated general of the 
'Abbasids, had him executed. After his death, some of 
his followers, called al-Djanahiyya [q.v.], maintained 
that he was still alive and would return ; on the other 
hand, others, the so-called Harithites, believed that 
his spirit was reincarnated in Ishak b. Zayd b. al- 
Harith al-Ansari. 

Bibliography: Tabarl, ii, 1879 ff-; Ibn al- 
Athir, v, 246 ff.; Mas'udI, Murudi, vi, 41 ff., 67 
ff., 109; ShahrastanI, 112-3 (transl. Haarbriicker, 
i, 170) ; Aghdni, Index ; G. Weil, Gesch. d. Chalifen; 
Wellhausen, Das arab. Retch, 239 ft.; id., Die 
rel.-pol. Oppositionsparteien, in Abh. G. W. Gdtt. 
v/2, 98 f. ; Caetani and Gabrieli, Onomasticon, ii, 
853. (K. V. Zettersteen*) 

C ABD ALLAH b. MUHAMMAD, Sharif of Mecca 



[se 



KA]. 



C ABD ALLAH B. MUHAMMAD B. c Abd al- 
RaiimAn al-MarwanI, seventh Umayyad Amir 
of Cordova. He succeeded his brother al-Mundhir 
on the latter's death before Bobastro, centre of 'Umar 
b. Hafsun's rebellion, on 15 Safar 275/29 June 888. 
The circumstances of al-Mundhir's death arouse the 
suspicion that the new sovereign was not quite in- 
nocent of it. At his accession, c Abd Allah, born in 
229/844, was forty-four years old. His reign, which 
lasted for a quarter of a century, until his death on 
1 Rabl c I 300/16 Oct. 912, was described in detail 
by the chronicler Ibn Hayyan, in that part of his 
Muktabis which has been preserved in an Oxford 
manuscript, long since known and utilized, and 
published in a somewhat faulty edition by M. M. 
Antuna, Paris 1937. 

His biographers present a flattering portrait of 
the Amir c Abd Allah and omit to mention his cruelty 
and his lack of scruples. They extol his sobriety, 
his piety and his Islamic culture. It may be granted 
to him as an undoubted merit that he maintained, in 
a difficult period, the Hispano-Umayyad dynasty 
and contrived to counter a multitude of internal 
dangers, notably the Andalusian revolt fomented by 
the muwallads and the particularist tendences of the 
Arab gentry of Seville and Elvira. For further details 

Encyclopaedia of Islam 



Bibliography: Levi-Provencal, Esp. mus.,.i, 

329 (list of Arabic sources, note i)-396; Dozy, 

Hist. Mus. Esp 2 , ii, 21-93. 

(E. Levi-Provencal) 

C ABD ALLAH b. MUHAMMAD al-TA'A'ISHI 
(his name is invariably pronounced as c Ab_dullahi), 
the successor of Muhammad Ahmad [q.v.], the Suda- 
nese Mahdi. He belonged to the Awlad Umm Surra, 
a clan of the Djubarat section of the Ta'a'isha, a 
tribe of cattle-breeding Arabs (Bakkara) in Darfur. 
His great-grandfather is said to have been a Tunisian 
Sharif who married a woman of the tribe. His father 
Muhammad b. c Ali Karrar bore the nickname of 
Tor Shayn (Ugly Bull). Religious pretensions were 
hereditary in the family, and both father and son 
were fakis of repute. Zubayr Rahma, the famous 
merchant-adventurer and conquerer of Darfur, re- 
lates that c Abdullahi narrowly escaped execution at 
his hands, when taken prisoner during the Darfur 
fighting in 1873, and that even then he was in search 
of the Expected Mahdi. Tor Shayn died among the 
Djim'a tribe in Kordofan and, according to the le- 
gend, he enjoined on his son to seek out Muhammad 
Ahmad the future Mahdi. 'Abdullahi adhered to 
him in the Diazlra before he had manifested himself, 
and was the first to believe in his mission. He was 
his closest adviser during the years of propaganda 
and fighting (1881-85), and his gifts of leadership 
largely contributed to the successes which culmi- 
nated in the fall of Khartum (26 Jan. 1885). In an 
epistle, dated 17 Rabl c I 1300/26 Jan. 1883, the 
Mahdi nominated him as his khalifa with the title 
of al-Siddlk, and as amir of the Mahdist army. On 
the Mahdi's death at Omdurman (22 June 1885) 
c Abdullahi assumed control of the new Mahdist state. 
A convinced believer in the Mahdi's mission and him- 
self claiming supernatural gifts, he rigorously up- 
held the religious ordinances of the Mahdiyya, with- 
out neglecting the temporal aim of establishing his 
personal and absolute rule. With this end in view 
he deprived the Mahdi's blood-relations (the Ash- 
raf) of all influence and successfully crushed the 
opposition of powerful tribal chiefs and of rival 
religious pretenders. Not himself a military leader, 
c Abdullahi was served by a number of capable 
amirs who, in the first year of his reign, captured 
the last posts still held by the Egyptian garrisons. 
His governor of the eastern province, the redoutable 
c Uthman Digna [q.v.] fought numerous actions with 
varying success against the Anglo-Egyptian forces 
based on Suakin. Between 1887 and 1889 there was 
intermittent warfare with the Abyssinians (sack of 
Gondar by the Mahdists in 1887; battle of Kallabat 
9 March 1889 when an Abyssinian victory was turned 
into rout by the death in battle of King John). 
In the execution of his policy c Abdullahi relied 
largely on the Bakkara tribesmen of Kordofan and 
Darfur, whom he brought to the Central Sudan where 
they incurred much unpopularity as a privileged 
and predatory class. c Abdullahi's most trusted as- 
sociate was his brother Ya'kub and he seems to 
have intended his eldest son c Uthman Shaykh al- 
Din to be his successor. 

The first serious reverse of his reign was the defeat 
at Toshkl (3 Aug. 1889) of the Mahdist army under 
c Abd al-Rahman al-Nadjumi which attempted the 
invasion of Egypt with quite inadequate forces. 
The country over which 'Abdullahi still ruled with 
absolute power was now devastated by incessant 
warfare and by the terrible famine of 1889. The end 
came when the British government, then in virtual 
control of Egypt, decided on the re-conquest of the 



5o 



'ADD ALLAH B. MUHAMMAD AL-TA'A'ISHl — <ABD ALLAH B. RAWAHA 



Sudan. The occupation of Dongola (1896) by Anglo- 
Egyptian iorces was followed by their advance to 
Oindurman and the decisive defeat of the Mahdist 
army (2 Sept. 1898). 'Abdullahi fled to KordofSn 
where he maintained himself with a considerable 
body of followers for another year. In the final 
battle of Umm Dubaykarat (24 Nov. 1899) he met 
death with courage and dignity. 

The Mahdi and his successor professed to re-live 
the life of the Prophet and of early Islam, and 'Ab- 
dullahi's epistles, in which he exhorted the Sultan 
of Turkey, the Khedive of Egypt, and Queen Vic- 
toria to embrace the Mahdist faith, vividly display 
the anachronistic spirit of the Mahdiyya. Ruthless 
towards external enemies and suspected rivals, and 
governing without regard for the material welfare 
of his country, 'Abdullahi yet remained true to his 
fanatical faith and to the primitive code of a Bakkari 
Arab. In contrast to European writers who stress 
the cruel and barbaric character of his reign, Su- 
danese tradition credits him with the virtues of 
simplicity in his private life, generosity as a host, 
and bravery as a fighter. From his numerous house- 
hold of legal wives and concubines he had 21 sons 
and 11 daughters, not counting those who died in 

Bibliography: F. R. Wingate, Mahdiism in 
the Egyptian Sudan, London, 1891; J. Ohrwalder, 
Ten years captivity in the Mahdi's camp, tr. F. R. 
Wingate, London 1892, many ed.; R. Slatin, Fire 
and sword in the Sudan tr. F. R. Wingate, London 
1896, often reprinted; Naum Shoucair, (Na'um 
Shukayr), Td'rikh al-Suddn, Cairo 1903 (many 
original documents); J. A. Reid, Some notes on 
the Khalifa Abdullahi, Sudan Notes and Records, 
1938, 207 ff. (based on oral tradition) ; A. B. 
Theobald, The Mahdiyya, London 195 1. See also 
the bibliography under muhammad ahmad and 
Sudan (Eastern). Archives of 'Abdullahi's reign 
consisting of more than 50,000 documents are 
preserved in Khartum. (S. Hillelson) 

C ABD ALLAH B. al-MU^AFFA' [see Ibn al- 
Mukaffa']. 

<ABD ALLAH b. MOSA b. Nusayr, eldest son 
of Musa b. Nusayr [q.v.'] the conqueror of the Maghrib 
and Spain. When his father left for Spain, he was 
charged with the administration of Ifrikiya (93/711). 
When Musa, denounced to the caliph al-Walid by 
Tarik, left for the East, whence he never returned, 
he again left 'Abd Allah as his lieutenant. Involved 
in his family's disgrace by the caliph Sulaymin, 
who saw not without disquiet Ifrikiya governed by 
one son of Musa ('Abd Allah), Spain by a second 
('Abd al-'Aziz) and the Maghrib by a third ('Abd 
al-Malik), he was deposed in 96/714-5 and replaced 
by Muh. b. Yazid, who assumed his office in 97/715. 
It is uncertain what happened to him; he is said 
to have been accused of having instigated the 
murder of Yazid b. Abu Muslim and to have been 
executed in 102/720 by Bishr b. Safwan, on the 
orders of the caliph Yazid b. 'Abd al-Malik. 

Bibliography: Ibn 'Idhari, i, index; ^aia 
.Jhurl, Futuh, 231; Ibn Taghribirdi (Juynboll- 
Matthes), i, 261; Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam, Futuh 
Ifrikiya (Gateau), Alger 1947, index. 

(R. Basset) 



liph Yazid I in Medina. When he saw the 
' n of Yazid the Umayyad goven 
increasing opposition, Ibn Mut 



proposed to leave Medina, but 'Abd Allah b. 'Umar 
[q.v.] advised him to remain, and he gave in to Ibn 
'Umar's arguments. When the inhabitants of Medina 
revolted against the new caliph, he became the leader 
of the Kurayshite elements in the city and took 
part in the battle of the Harra in Dhu 'l-Hidjdja 
63/August 683. Escaping from the general rout, he 
took refuge in Mecca with the anti-caliph 'Abd 
Allah b. Zubayr, who appointed him in Rama- 
dan 65/April 685 governor of Kufa. Shortly after- 
wards he was attacked by the Shi'ite adventurer 
al-Mukhtar b. AM 'Ubayd [q.v.]. Abandoned, be- 
sieged in his palace and probably betrayed by his 
own general Ibrahim b. al-Ashtar, he relinquished 
his post, withdrew to Basra, and then joined Ibn 
al-Zubayr in Mecca. There he joined Ibn al-Zubayr's 
forces and was killed together with him in 73/692. 
Bibliography: Baladhuri, Ansdb, v, index; 
Ibn Sa'd, Tabakal, v, 48, 106 if.; Tabari, ii, 232 
ff.; Ibn al-Athir, iv, 14 ff.; G. Weil, Gesch. d. 
Chal., index: H. Lammens, Le calif at de Yazid 
Ier, 214 ff. (= MFOB, v, 212 ff.); Caetani-Gabrieli. 
Onomasticon, ii, 922. 

(K. V. Zettersteen— Ch. Pellat) 
'ABD ALLAH b. RAWAHA, a Khazradjite, be- 
longing to the most esteemed clan of the Banu 
'1-Harith. At the second 'Akaba assembly in March 
622, 'Abd Allah was one of the 12 trustworthy men, 
whom the already converted Medinians, conform- 
ably to the Prophet's wish, had chosen. When 
Muhammad had emigrated to Medina, 'Abd Allah 
proved himself to be one of the most energetic and 
upright champions of his cause. Muhammad appears 
to have thought a great deal of him, and often en- 
trusted him with honorable missions. After the battle 
of Badr in the year 2/623, in which the Muslims 
were victorious, 'Abd Allah together with Zayd b. 
Haritha hastened to Medina to bring the tidings 
of victory. During the so-called "second campaign 
of Badr", in Dhu'l-Ka'da 4/Apr. 626, 'Abd 
Allah remained behind in Medina as lieutenant- 
governor. When in 5/627, at the commencement of the 
siege of Medina, the fidelity of the Banu Kurayza, 
his allies, was suspected, the Prophet sent 'Abd 
ith three other influential Medinians 



find o 



s of h 



allies 



Khaybar had been conquered in the year 7/628 and 
its territory divided, Muhammad appointed 'Abd 
Allah as appraiser of its yield. On sending out the 
Mu'ta expedition in the year 8/629, 'Abd Allah was 
appointed by the Prophet as second in succession 
to the commander of the army, and when both his 
superiors had fallen, he sought and met his death 
as they had done fighting for the Faith. 

Besides his military talents 'Abd Allah possessed 
other qualities which made him valuable to his 
master; he was one of the few pre-Islamic men 
who could write, and was for that reason, together 
with other faithful followers, chosen as secretary by 
the Prophet. Muhammad appears to have esteemed 
him very highly, more especially on account of his 
poetical gifts. In the Aghdni it is expressly stated 
that the Prophet considered his poems equal to 
those of his "court" poets Hassan b. Thabit and Ka'b 
b. Malik. It is characteristic of 'Abd Allah's "literary 
tendency" that he attacked the Kuraysh more espe- 
cially for their unbelief, whilst the two other poets 
always reproached them with their impious deeds. 
Only about 50 verses of his have been preserved and 
they are for the most part to be found in Ibn Hisham. 
Bibliography: Ibn Sa'd, iii/2, 79 ff.; Ibn 

Hisham, i, 457, 675; Tabari, i, 1460, i6ioff.; cd- 



C ABD ALLAH b. RAWAHA — C ABD ALLAH b. SA'D 



Aghdni', xi, 80; xv, 29; G. Weil, Gesch. Mohammed 

der Prophet, 350; Rahatullah Khan, Von Einfluss 

des Qur'an auf der arab. Dichtung; eine Unter- 

suchung ... Abdullah b. Rawaha, Leipzig 1938. 

(A. Schaade) 

'ABD ALLAH b. SABA', reputed founder of 

the ShI'a. Also called Ibn al-Sawda', Ibn Harb, 

Ibn Wahb. "Saba"' appears also as Saba'; the name 

of the associated sect appears as Saba'iyya, Saba'iy- 

ya, or, corrupted, as Sabayiyya, Sababiyya. 

In the Sunni account he was a Yamanite Jew con- 
verted to Islam, who about the time of c Ali first 
introduced the ideas ascribed to the more extreme 
wing of the Shi'a [ghuldt, q.v.]. Especially attributed 
to him is the exaltation of c Ali himself: that c Ali 
stood to Muhammad as divinely appointed heir, as 
Joshua did to Moses (the wisdya doctrine) ; that C A1I 
was not dead, but would return to bring righteous- 
ness upon earth (the radfa); that 'AH was divine, 
exalted to the clouds, and the thunder was his voice. 
To Ibn Saba"s conspiratorial cunning was ascribed 
by Sunnls after al-Tabari the first breach in a perfect 
harmony among the Sahdba (cf. al-MakrizI, Khitat. 
ii, 334). He is said to have roused the Egyptians 
against 'Uthman on the ground of 'All's special rights ; 
and the bloodshed between 'All and Talha and 
Zubayr is then ascribed to these same murderers 
of 'Uthman under the name of Saba'iyya. 

For the Shi'a he sometimes figured as type of 
the extremist, the ghdli, being so cursed by Dja'far 
(Kashshi, Ma^rijat Akhbdr al-Ridfal, 70). Ibn Saba' 
became the subject of traditions used by both in 
attacking and in defending the extremer Shi'a. 
'All is said to have had him or his followers burned 
for declaring him ('Ali) God. An Isma'Ili source 
cites the incident in Ibn Saba"s favour, claiming 
that he suffered only in appearance (cf. al-Makdisi, 
Bad' al-Khalk, ed. Huart, v, 181; and the Haft 
Bdb-i Bdbd Sayyid-nd, ed. Ivanow, in Two early 
Ismaili treatises, Bombay, 1933, 15). 

It is not clear what historical person or persons 
lay behind this figure. Al-Tabari's source, Sayf b. 
'Umar, is the chief authority for his political activity 
against 'Uthman. Al-Dhahabi notes a general con- 
demnation of Sayf as a traditionist (quoted by 
Friedlander, ZA, 1909, 297), a condemnation sup- 
ported on other grounds by Wellhausen {Skizzen 
und Vorarbeiten, vi, 6); and surer sources seem to 
exclude Ibn Saba' from any major role there. Fried- 
lander suggests that Ibn Saba"s chief role was not 
to proclaim 'All's divinity, but to deny 'All's death, 
teaching that he died only in appearance (docetism), 
and would in the end come again from the clouds 
(messianism) — perhaps with the background of a 
Yamanite Judaism related to that of the Falashas 
of Ethiopia. Caetani would make Ibn Saba' in origin 
a purely political supporter of 'All, around whom 
later generations imagined a religious conspiracy like 
that of the 'Abbasids. Massignon considers the Saba'- 
iyya of al-Mukhtar's time as one of the 'ayniyya 
sects (Massignon, Salman Pdk, Paris 1934, 37, 40). 
Already in the earliest sources available contra- 
dictory teachings are ascribed to Ibn Saba' and the 
Saba'iyya (cf. Khushavsh al-Nasa'i [d. 253], re- 
ported in al-Malatl, 118, 120). We may suppose that 
personally Ibn Saba', perhaps together with a se- 
parate Ibn al-Sawda', was a supporter of 'All, who 
denied 'All's death. He was probably not a Jew 
(Levi Delia Vida, RSO, 1912, 495)- He was either 
founder or hero of one or more sects called Saba'iyya, 
which exalted 'All's religious position. 



Bibliography : Tabarl, ii, 2941 ff. and passim; 
Nawbakhtl, Firak al-Shi c a, ed. Ritter, 19 f.; Ma- 
latl, Kitdb al-Tanbih wa-'l-Radd, ed. Dedering, 
14 f. ; Ash'arl, Makdldt al-Isldmiyyin, ed. Ritter, 
15; Baghdad!, al-Fark, 223 ft., trans. Halkin, s.v. 
Sababiyya; Shahrastani, 132 ff.; I. Friedlander, 
'Abd Allah ibn Saba', ZA, 1909, 296 ff., 1910, 1-46; 
L. Caetani, Annali, viii, 42 ff. and passim. 

(M. G. S. Hodgson) 
'ABDALLAHb.SA'D, Muslim statesman and 
general. Abu Yahya 'Abd Allah b. Sa'd b. Abi 
Sarh al-'Amiri belonged to the clan of 'Amir b. 
Lu'ayy of Kuraysh and was as foster brother of the 
subsequent caliph 'Uthman a chief partisan of the 
Umayyads. He was less a soldier than a financier. 
The judgements of historians on his character vary 
greatly. His name is connected in many ways with 
the beginnings of Islam. First he is mentioned as 
one of Muhammad's scribes: he is supposed to have 
arbitrarily altered the revelation, or at least he 
boasted of doing so after his apostasy from Islam, 
and thereby incurred the hatred of the Prophet. For 
this reason the latter desired to have him executed 
after the capture of Mecca, but 'Uthman obtained, 
though with difficulty, the Prophet's pardon. This 
story afterwards became very famous. 'Abd Allah 
later on showed himself grateful to 'Uthman for his 
rescue by agitating for the latter's election as caliph. 
He was one of the Hidjra-Companions who took part 
in the conquest of Egypt under 'Amr b. al-'Asi 
[q.v.] and appears to have governed Upper Egypt 
independently under 'Umar, after the latter's quarrel 
with 'Amr. It is impossible exactly to fix the date 
when he was appointed governor of the whole of 
Egypt; according to Ibn Taghribirdi, as early as 
the year 25/645-6, and therefore before the revolt 
of Alexandria under Manuel. As he was not able 
to suppresss this rising, 'Amr was recalled, who, 
however, immediately after his victory had to restore 
the government to 'Abd Allah. 'Uthman desired to 
confirm 'Abd Allah as financial prefect and to 
appoint 'Amr as military governor, but the latter 
declined. 'Abd Allah now succeeded in considerably 
increasing the state revenues of Egypt, much to the 
satisfaction of the caliph. Although his principal 
aim was the administration of the finances, he also 
became renowned as a general. 'Abd Allah regulated 
the relations between the Muslims and the Nubians 
and supported Mu'awiya's expedition against Cyprus. 
He himself undertook several expeditions against 
Roman Africa, the first probably in the year 25/ 
645-6, the most important and most successful 
certainly in the year 27/647-8. He subjected the 
territory of Carthage to Islam. His most important 
military performance, however was the naval battle 
of Dhat al-Sawari, comparable in significance to the 
battle of the Yarmuk [q.v.], in which the Roman fleet 
was completely destroyed. This battle took place in 
the year 34/655, although different dates are given in 
some sources. Soon afterwards the agitations against 
'Uthman began in many parts of the empire. 'Abd 
Allah appears as the principal champion of the 
regime represented by the caliph. He endeavoured 
to warn the caliph and even left Egypt in order 
to support him. His lieutenant al-Sa'ib b. Hisftam 
was expelled by the Egyptian revolutionary party 
under Muhammad b. Hudhayfa and c Abd Allah 
himself was prevented from returning to Egypt. On 
the frontier 'Abd Allah learned of the murder of 
the caliph, and fled to Mu'awiya. Shortly before the 
latter's march to Siffin, he died in Askalon or 
Ramla (in 36 or 37/656-8). His supposed participation 



'ABD ALLAH b. SA'D — <ABD ALLAH b. TAHIR 



in the battle of Siffin and his late death in the year 
57/676-7 belong to the numberless myths connected 
with the battle of Siffin. 

Bibliography: Ibn SaM, vii/2, 190; Kindl, 
Wuldt (Guest), 10-17; Ibn Taghribirdi, i, 88-93 
(Cairo, i, 65-92); Maljrizi, Khi\a\, i, 299; Tabari, 
i, 1639 ff.; 2593, 2785, 2813 ft., 2817 ff., 2826, 
2867 ff., 2980 ff., 3057; Ibn al-Athir, h, 189 f., 443; 
iii, 67 ff., 90 ff., 118 ff., 220, 238, 295; id., Usd, iii, 
173; Ya'fcubi, ii, 60, 191; Baladhuri, 226; Ibn 
Hisham, 818 ff.; Nawawl, 345 f f . ; A. Miiller, Der 
Islam im Morgen- und Abendland, i, 268 ff.; S. 
Lane- Poole, History of Egypt, 20 ff.; A. Butler, 
Arab conquest of Egypt, 465 ff.; G. Wiet, L'Egypte 
arabe, Paris 1937, 27-32; Wellhausen, in N. G. W. 
G6tt., 1901, facs. 4, P- 6 f., 13. (C. H. Becker*) 
'ABDALLAHb. SALAM, a Jew of Medina, 
belonging to the Banu Kaynuka' and originally 
called al-Husayn (on the name Salam, see Ibn Khatlb 
al-Dahsha, Tuhfa, ed. Mann, 69). Muhammad gave 
him the name of 'Abd Allah when he embraced Islam. 
This conversion is said to have taken place immedia- 
tely after Muhammad's arrival at Medina, or, ac- 
cording to others, when Muhammad was still in 
Mecca. Another account which makes him accept 
Islam in the year 8/629-30 is worthy of more cre- 
dence — though Muslim critics think it badly ac- 
credited — for his name is sought in vain in the 
battles which Muhammad had to wage in Medina. 
The few unimportant mentions in the Maghdzi may 
well have been inserted in order to remove the glaring 
contradiction with the generally accepted tradition. 
He was with 'Umar in Diabiya and Jerusalem, and 
under 'Uthman took the latter's side against the 
rebels, whom he in vain endeavoured to dissuade 
from murdering the caliph. After 'Uthman's death 
he did not do homage to 'All and implored him not 
to march to 'Irak against 'A'isha; legend brings him 
into relation with Mu'awiya also. He died in 43/663-4. 
In Muslim tradition he has become the typical 
representative of that group of Jewish scribes which 
honored the truth, admitting that Muhammad was 
the Prophet predicted in the Torah, and protecting 
him from the intrigues of their co-religionists. The 
questions which <Abd Allah is made to ask Mu- 
hammad and which only a prophet could answer, 
the contents of the hadlths which the works on 
tradition ascribe to him, and the story of Bulukya 
which Tha'labI puts into his mouth, mostly have their 
origin in Jewish sources; if they do not really come 
from <Abd Allah himself, they certainly come from 
Jewish renegade circles. While his contemporaries 
often reproached him with his Jewish origin, later 
on traditions were circulated, in which Muhammad 
assures him of entry into Paradise, or in which 
the Prophet and celebrated Companions give him 
high praise. Certain verses of the Km-' 311 are also 
said to refer to him. The "questions" which he 
put to Muhammad were subsequently enlarged to 
whole books, and in the same manner several other 
works were foisted on him, which are partly based 
on what is related by him in Hadlth. As well as his 
sons Muhammad and Yusuf, Abu Hurayra and Anas 
b. Malik also handed down his traditions. Tabari 
took more especially Biblical narratives from him 
into his Chronicle. 

Bibliography: Ibn Hisham, 353, 395; W5- 
kidl, Maghdzi, ed. Wellhausen, 164, 215; Tabari, 
index; id., Persian recension, transl. Zotenberg, 
i, 348; Bukhari, Anbiyd bab 1; Ahmad b. Hanbal, 
iii, 108, 272; v, 450; Ibn al-Athir, Usd, iii, 176; 
Ibn Hadjar, Isdba, ii, 780;, Diyarbakri, TaMkh 



al-Khamis, Cairo 1302, i, 392; HalabI, Insdn al- 
c Uyun, ii, 146; Nawawi, 347; Ibn Taghribirdi, i, 
141; Ibn al-Wardl, Kharida, Cairo 1303, 118 ff.; 
Kitdb MasdHl Sidi <Abd Allah, Cairo 1326 (?); 
Ibn Badrun, 174 ff.; Wolff, Muh. Eschatologie, 
69 (Arab. p. 39); Noldeke-Schwally, Gesch. d. 
Qordns, i, 160; M. Steinschneider, Pol. und apolog. 
Lit., noff.; Hirschfeld, in JQR, 1898, 109 ff.; 
J. Mann, ibid., 1921, 127; J. Horovitz, in ZDMG, 
1901, 524 ff.; J. Barth, in Festschrift Berliner (1903), 
p. 36; Caetani, Annali, i, 413; Wensinck, in AO 
1923, 192-8; G. F. Pijper, Boek der duizend vragen, 
Leiden, 1924; BEO, 1931, 147 ( c Abd Allah as wall 
in Hamah) ; Brockelmann, I, 209. (J. Horovitz) 
<ABD ALLAH b. TAHIR, born 182/798, died 
230/844, was a poet, general, statesman, con- 
fidant of caliphs and, as governor of Khurasan, 
almost an independent sovereign. His father, Tahir 
b. al-Husayn, had founded the powerful Tahirid [q.v.] 
dynasty which ruled over a territory extending 
from al-Rayy to the Indian frontier, with its capital 
at Naysabur. 

In 206/821-2 the caliph al-Ma'mun appointed c Abd 
Allah b. Tahir governor of the region between al- 
Rakka and Egypt and at the same time he was placed 
in command of the caliph's troops in the campaign 
against Nasr b. Shabath, a former partisan of al-Amln, 
who was endeavoring to gain control of Mesopotamia. 
After subduing Nasr c Abd Allah went in 21 1/826-7 to 
Egypt, where for ten years refugees from Spain had 
been further weakening an already weak state, and 
he swiftly captured the leaders and restored order. 
While he was at DInawar, in al-Djibal, busy raising 
troops to quell a revolt of Babak the Khurramite, 
his brother, Talha, died and in 214/829-30 he was 
appointed by al-Ma'mun to succeed Talha as gover- 
nor of Khurasan. He proved to be an exceedingly 
wise ruler, establishing a stable government in his 
domains, protecting the poor against abuses by the 
upper classes and bringing education to the masses; 
no boy, however poor, was denied the means to 
acquire knowledge. As a result of litigations in 
Naysabur he ordered an investigation into the use 
of water for irrigation, and the Book of Canals, 
which was the outcome of this, established legal rules 
for water utilization which served as a guide for 
several centuries (cf. A. Schmidt, Islamica, 1930, 128). 
During the caliphate of al-MuHasim, c Abd Allah 
subdued the revolt of the <Alid pretender, Muham- 
mad b. al-Kasim, in 219/834-5; and in 224/838-9 
in Tabaristan, which was under his jurisdiction as 
governor of Khurasan, he quelled the far more 
alarming revolt of its isbahbad, al-Maziyar [q.v.], in- 
cited to rebel by al-Afshln. 

GardizI relates that al-Mu c tasim so hated <Abd 
Allah b. Tahir for a personal criticism that l Abd 
Allah had expressed about him that when he became 
caliph he attempted to poison <Abd Allah by sending 
him a slave girl with a gift of poisoned cloth, but 
the attempt failed because the slave girl fell in love 
with <Abd Allah and revealed the plot. However that 
may be, l Abd Allah seems to have enjoyed the 
caliph's esteem. His most implacable enemy, al- 
Afshin, during his own heresy trial, testified bitterly 
to the high regard the caliph had for him, and al- 
Mu'tasim himself referred to <Abd Allah as one of 
the four great men (curiously enough, all of them 
Tahirids) of his brother's reign and regretted that 
he had not been able to foster any men of the same 
noble calibre. 

Like all Tahirid rulers, c Abd Allah was enormously 
wealthy; his magnificent palace in Baghdad enjoyed 



'ABD ALLAH B. TAHIR — 'ABD ALLAH B. C UMAR B 



53 



the royal right of sanctuary and served as a residence 
for the governor of the city, which remained under 
Tahirid domination for a long time (Le Strange, 
Baghdad, 119). 

He was a man of wide culture with a deep love 
and respect for learning ; in the controversy regarding 
the relative merits of Arabic vs. Persian culture, 
which engaged the keenest minds of that day, 'Abd 
Allah strongly supported all things Arabic. In his 
own right he was an accomplished musician and 
a poet of note, as well as a sympathetic patron of 
the poet Abu Tammam, the compiler of the Ijamasa, 
who sang his praises in many poems. 

At the age of 48 'Abd Allah b. Tahir died as a 
result of quinsy after an illness of three days, on 
Mon. 11 RabI' I, 230/Nov. 26, 844, according to 
most Arab historians (but Nov. 26 was Wed.) and, 
in true dynastic fashion, he was succeeded by his 
son, Tahir. At the time of his death the taxes from 
the provinces under his control amounted to 



millioi 



dirhan 



bibliography: Tabarl, iii, 1044 ff.; Ibn al- 
Athlr, vi, 256 ff,, vii, 9 ff.; Ibn Khallikan. trans, 
de Slane, ii, 49; Ibn TaghrlbirdI, ed. Juynboll, i, 
600 ff.; Ya'kflbl, ii 555 ff.; Gardlzi, Zayn al-Akh- 
bdr, 5-9; al-Khatib. Ta'rikh Baghdad, ix, No. 5114; 
Weil, Chalifen, ii, 201 ff.; Barthold, Turkestan*, 
208 ff.; Abu Tammam, Hamdsa, ed. Freytag, 2. 
Further bibliography in Caetani and Gabrieli, 
Onomasticon Arabicum, ii, 973. (E. Marin) 
'ABD ALLAH B. XHAWR [see abu fudayk]. 
'ABD ALLAH b. UBAYY b. Salul (Salul being 
Ubayy's mother), chief of Ba 5 1-Hubla (also known 
as Salim), a section of the clan of 'Awf of the Khaz- 
radj, and one of the leading men of Medina. 
Prior to the hidjra he had led some of the Khazradi 
in the first day of the Fidjar at Medina, but did 
not take part in the second day of the Fidjar nor 
the battle of Bu'ath since he had quarreled with 
another leader, c Amr b. al-Nu'man of BaySda, over 
the latter's unjust killing of Jewish hostages, perhaps 
because he realized the need for justice within a 
community and feared 'Ami's ambition. But for 
the coming of Muhammad he might have been 
"king" of Medina, as the sources suggest. When all 
but a small minority of the Medinans accepted Islam, 
Ibn Ubayy followed the majority, but he was never 
a whole-hearted Muslim. In 2/624 when Muhammad 
attacked Banu Kaynuka', Ibn Ubayy pleaded for 
them since they had been in league with him in 
pre-Islamic times; he probably urged their im- 
portance as a fighting unit in view of the expected 
Meccan onslaught. In the consultations before Uhud 
(3/625) he supported the policy originally favoured 
by Muhammad of remaining in the strongholds. 
When Muhammad decided to go to meet the enemy, 
Ibn Ubayy disapproved, and eventually with 300 
followers retired to the strongholds. This move may 
have stopped the Meccans from attacking Medina 
itself after the battle, but it showed cowardice and 
lack of belief in God and the Prophet (cf. Kur'an, 
iii, 166-8 [160-2]). Up to this point Ibn Ubayy had 
done little but criticize Muhammad verbally, but 
for the next two years he also intrigued against him. 
He tried to persuade Banu al-Nadir not to evacuate 
their homes at Muhammad's command, even pro- 
mising military support. On the expedition to Mu- 
raysl c he used the occasion of a quarrel between 
Emigrants and Ansar to try to undermine Muham- 
mad's position and make men think of expelling 
him; and immediately afterwards he was active in 
spreading scandal about 'A>isha. Muhammad called 



a meeting and asked to be allowed to punish him 
(without incurring a feud). There was high feeling 
between the Aws and the Khazradj, but it was clear 
that Ibn Ubayy had little backing. His reputation 
of being leader of the Hypocrites (mundfikun) or 
Muslim opponents of Muhammad is based on these 
incidents. After this year there is no record of his 
actively opposing Muhammad or intriguing against 
him. He took part in the expedition of Hudaybiya, 
but stayed away from that to Tabuk, doubtless 
because of ill health, since he died shortly afterwards 
(9/631). He was probably not involved in the in- 
trigues connected with the "mosque of dissension" 
(masdiid al-dirdr), since Muhammad himself con- 
ducted his funeral. Throughout his dealings with 
Ibn Ubayy Muhammad showed great restraint. 

Ibn Ubayy had a son c Abd Allah b. 'Abd Allah 
and several daughters who became good Muslims. 
Bibliography: Ibn Hisham, 411-3, 546, 558, 
591, 653, 726, 734, 927; Tabari, index; Wellhausen, 
Muhammed in Medina, Berlin 1882, index; idem. 
Shizzen und Vorarbeiten, Berlin 1889, iv. 50-62; 
Ibn Sa c d, iii/2, 90, viii, 279; F. Buhl, Das Leben 
Muhammeds, 207, 253, etc.; Caetani, Annali, i, 
418, 548, 602, etc.; Samhudi, Wafa' al-Wafd\ 
Cairo 1908, i, 142; Ibn al-Athlr, i, 506 ff. 

(W. Montgomery Watt) 
'ABD ALLAH b. <UMAR b. 'ABD AL-'AZtZ, 
son of the caliph 'Umar II. In the year 126/744 'Abd 
Allah was appointed governor of 'Irak by Yazld 
III, but in a short time aroused the discontent of 
the Syrian chiefs in that place, who felt that they 
were unfavorably treated by the new governor com- 
pared with the inhabitants of 'Irak. After the ac- 
cession of Marwan II, 'Abd Allah b. Mu'awiya 
[q.v.], a descendant of 'All's brother Dja'far, rebelled 
in Kufa in Muharram 127/Oct. 744, but was expelled 
by c Abd Allah b. 'Umar, whereupon he transferred 
his propaganda to other parts. When Marwan trans- 
ferred to al-Nadr b. Sa'Id al-Harashl the governorship 
of 'Irak, c Abd Allah energetically refused to leave 
his post. Al-Nadr appeared at Kufa, whilst 'Abd 
Allah remained in Hira and hostilities broke out 
between them. Soon after, however, a common 
enemy appeared in the person of the Kharidiite 
chief al-Dahhak b. Kays, and then the two adver- 
saries had to come to terms and even to join forces. 
In Radjab 127/April-May 745 they were defeated by 
al-Pahhak and 'Abd Allah withdrew to Wasit, whilst 
the victor captured Kufa. Then the old enmity 
between the two governors again broke out, but for 
a second time al-Pahhak put an end to their quarrels. 
After a siege lasting several months 'Abd Allah was 
obliged to make peace with al-Dahhak. Subsequently 
Marwan had c Abd Allah arrested. According to the 
usual account, he died of plague in the prison of 
Harran in the year 132/749-50. 

Bibliography : Tabarl, ii, 1854 ff.; Ibn al-Athir, 
v. 228 ff. ; G. Vfeil,Gesch. d. Chalifen; J. Wellhausen, 
Das arab. Reich, 239 ff.; Caetani and Gabrieli, 
Onomasticon, ii, 982. (K. V. Zettersteen) 
'ABD ALLAH b. 'UMAR b. al-KHATTAB, 
one of the most prominent personalities of the first 
generation of Muslims, and of the authorities most 
frequently quoted for Traditions. He derived his 
reputation not only from being a son of the Caliph, 
but also because his high moral qualities compelled 
the admiration of his contemporaries. At a time 
when the Muslims were being carried by their pas- 
sions into civil war, Ibn 'Umar was able to maintain 
himself aloof from the conflict; furthermore, he fol- 
lowed the precepts of Islam with such scrupulous 



l-KHATJAB — 'ABD ALLAH b 



obedience that he became a pattern for future gene- 
rations, to such a degree that information was col- 
lected as to how he dressed, how he cut and dyed 
his beard, etc. The biographies of him are full of 
anecdotes and charming touches which serve to 
illustrative his native wit, his deep piety, his gentle- 
ness, modesty, propriety and continence, his deter- 
mination to detach himself from all that he loved 
most. Some of these stories may have been invented, 
but his nobility of soul is incontestable. As a trans- 
mitter of Tradition, he has been regarded as the 
most scrupulous in neither adding to nor omitting 
anything from the hadiths narrated by him. The 
Caliphate was offered to him three times: immediate- 
ly after the death of 'Uthman (35/655); during the 
negotiations of the two arbiters appointed at Siffin 
to resolve the dispute between 'All and Mu'awiya 
(37-8/657-8); and after the death of Yazid I (64/683). 
On each occasion he refused, because he would have 
desired his election to be unanimous and wished to 
avoid bloodshed in securing it. Whether or not this 
was due to narrowmindedness (as Lammens has 
suggested), it is undeniable that Ibn 'Umar was 
lacking in energy, and his own father recognized 
this defect in him. 

The following are the events recorded on the life 
of Ibn 'Umar. Born before the hid±ra, at an unspeci- 
fied date, he embraced Islam with his father and 
emigrated to Medina some time before him. The 
Prophet sent him back on account of his age when 
he presented himself to fight at Badr and at Uhud, 
but accepted him at the siege of Medina known as 
the Battle of the Moat, when he was about fifteen 
years old (this served as a precedent later in ana- 
logous cases). Afterwards he took part in the dis- 
astrous expedition to Mu'ta (7), in the conquest 
of Mecca (8), in the wars against the false prophets 
Musaylima and Tulayha (12), in the Egyptian cam- 
paign (18-21), in the battle of Nihawand (21), in 
the expedition of the year 30 to Djurdjan and Ta- 
baristan, and in Yazid's expedition against Con- 
stantinople (49). In political affairs, he appears for 
the first time as adviser to the Council appointed by 
the dying 'Umar to choose from among its o 
members the future Caliph; he had, however, 
right of voting and was not eligible. At the elections 
of the other Caliphs who came to power during h 
lifetime he conformed to the will of the majority 
of the Muslims, and if he refused to pay homage 
to 'All it was because he was waiting for the comi 
nity to reach agreement on his election. As agreement 
was not reached and civil war broke out, he remained 
neutral. If later he refused to recognize Yazid ; 
heir-presumptive — he obviously disapproved of the 
innovation introduced by Mu'awiya into the settle- 
ment of the succession — he showed no hesitation in 
paying homage to him after the death of his father. 
Ibn 'Umar held no important office in the admini- 
stration of the empire, except a few missions. Per- 
haps he deliberately held aloof, devoting himself 
to religious practices. It is related that he would not 
accept the office of kadi, fearing that he might not 
be able to interpret the divine law correctly. 

Ibn 'Umar died of septicaemia in 73/693, well 
over eighty years of age, as the result of a wound in 
the foot inflicted by one of the soldiers of al-Hadj- 
djadj with the lower end of his lance, in the throng 
of pilgrims returning from 'Arafat. When al-Hadj- 
djadj visited him during his illness and asked if he 
knew the man who had wounded him, so that 
could be punished, Ibn 'Umar reproached him for 
allowing his men to carry arms in the holy places 



and for having been, in this way, the cause of his 
injury. This reproach probably gave rise to the story 
found in certain of the later sources, that al-Hadj- 
djadj commissioned an assassin to wound Ibn 'Umar 
with the poisoned tip of a lance. 

Bibliography: Longer biographies: Ibn Sa'd, 
iv/i, 105-38; iii/i, 214; iii/2, 42; iv/i, 49, 62, 
and index; Ibn Khallikan, Bulak 1275, i, 349-50; 
Cairo 1367/1948, no. 297 (missing in other editions) ; 
Abu Nu'aym, flilyat al-Awliyd', i, 292-314; Sibt 
b. al-Djawzi, ms. Paris Ar. 6131, foil. 227r-229v; 
Ibn al-Athir, Usd, Cairo 1285-7, ii, 227-31; Ibn 
Hadjar, Isdba, Calcutta 1856-93, 840-7. Historical 
sources: Mus'ab al-Zubayri, Nasab Kuraysh (ed. 
Levi-Provencal), 350-1; Tabari, index; Mas'udI, 
Murudi, iv, 396, 398, 400, 402 ; v, 43, 284-6, and 
index; Ibn al-Athir, iv, 230, 295-6, and index; 
Caetani, Annali, 20 A.H., paras. 236, 238 (9-10), 
264 no. 6; 23 A.H., para. 147 no. 6 and indexes; 
38 A.H., pp. 21, 23, 27, 38, 39, 45, 57; J. Perier, 
Vie d'al-Hadidiadi ibn Yousouf, Paris 1904, 41, 
5^-4. Many other references given in Caetani, 
Chronographia, 73 A.H., para. 30. 

(L. Veccia Vaglieri) 
'ABD ALLAH b. WAHB al-RasibI, Kharidjite 
leader, a tdbiH of the Badjlla tribe, noted for his 
bravery and piety and surnamed dhu 'l-thafindt, 
"the man with the callosities", on account of the 
callosities on his forehead etc. resulting from his 
many prostrations. He fought under Sa'd b. Abl 
Wakkas in 'Irak and under 'Ali at Siffin, but broke 
with him over the decision to arbitrate and joined 
the dissidents at Harura'. Shortly before their final 
departure from Kufa in Shawwal 37/March 658, the 
Kharidjites elected 'Abd Allah as their commander 
{amir, not khalifa, as usually stated), and he was 
killed in the ensuing battle at Nahrawan, 9 Safar 
38/17 July 658. 

Bibliography: Tabari, i, 3363-6, 3376-81; Mu- 
barrad, Kdmil, 527, 558 ff. ; Dinawari, ed. Guirgass 
and Rosen, 215-24; Baladhuri, Ansdb, in Levi della 
Vida, RSO, 1913, 427-507; Barradi, K. al-Djawdhir, 
Cairo 1302; R. Briinnow, Die Charidschiten, 18 ff.; 
J. Wellhausen, Religios-pol. Oppositionsparteien, 
17 ff. ; Caetani, Annali, A. H. 38 passim (additional 
reff. in para. 267) ; L. Veccia Vaglieri, II Conflitto 
<Ali-Mu'dwiya, in Ann. dell'lst. Univ. Orient, di 
Napoli, 1952, 58 ff. (H. A. R. Gibb) 

'ABD ALLAH b. YASlN [see al-Murabitun]. 
'ABD ALLAH b. al-ZUBAYR, anti-Caliph, 
son of al-Zubayr b. al-'Awwam [?.«.], of the 'Abd 
al-'Uzza clan of Kuraysh, and Asma' [q.v.], daughter 
of Abu Bakr and sister of 'A'isha. He was born at 
Medina twenty months after the hidjra (c. Dh u 
'1-Ka'da 2/May 624), and killed in battle against 
the Syrian troops under al-Hadjdjadj, 17 Djumada 
I or II,. 73/4 Oct. or 3 Nov., 692. Some sources (Ibn 
Kutayba, Ma'drif, 116; Ibn Habib, Muhabbar, 275; 
etc.) state that he was the first child born to the 
Muhadjirln at Medina. The close kinship which linked 
him to the family of the Prophet on both sides was 
a factor which contributed to building up his repu- 
tation, both as against the Umayyads and also (it 
would seem) against the 'Alids. 

He is reported to have been present, though still 
a boy, with his father at the battle of the Yarmuk 
(Radjab 15/Aug. 636), and accompanied him when 
he joined the forces of 'Amr b. al-'As in Egypt 
(19/640). He took part in the expedition of 'Abd 
Allah b. Sa'd b. Abl Sarh in 26-7/647 against the 
Byzantines in Ifrikiya and is said to have killed the 
exarch Gregory with his own hand. On returning 



'ABD ALLAH al-GHALIB 



55 



to Medina to announce the news of the victory, he 
is credited with an eloquent description of this ex- 
ploit (Aghdni, vi, 59, on which most of the later 
narratives depend). He accompanied Sa'id b. al- 
'As in his campaigns in northern Persia (29-30/650), 
and was subsequently nominated by 'Uthman to be 
one of the commission charged with the official re- 
cension of the Kur'an (Gesch. des Qorans, ii, 47-55). 
After the assassination of 'Uthman he accompanied 
his father and 'A'isha to Basra and commanded 
the infantry in the battle of the Camel (10 Dj. 
II, 36/4 Dec. 656); after the battle he returned with 
'A'isha to Medina, and took no further part in the 
civil war, except to attend the Arbitration at Dumat 
al-Djandal (or rather Adhruh), where he is said to 
have advised 'Abd Allah b. 'Umar to bribe 'Amr 
b. al-'As (Nasr b. Muzahim, Wapat Siffm, Cairo 
1365, 623). 

During the reign of Mu'awiya I, 'Abd Allah, who 
had inherited a considerable fortune from his father, 
remained in the background, biding his time, but 
refused to take the oath to Yazid as heir-presump- 
tive. On Mu'Swiya's death (60/680), he, together 
with Husayn b. 'All [q.v.], again refused to swear alle- 
giance to Yazid, and to escape the threats of Marwan 
they fled to Mecca, where they remained unmolested. 
When, however, after the expedition of Husayn and 
his death at Karbaia', Ibn al-Zubayr began secretly 
to enrol adherents, a small force was sent from Medina 
under the command of his brother 'Amr to arrest 
him. 'Amr was defeated and taken prisoner, beaten 
and incarcerated in a cell until he died, and his body 
was exposed on a gibbet (61/681). 'Abd Allah now 
publicly declared Yazid deposed, and his example 
was followed by the Ansar at Medina, who elected 
'Abd Allah b. Hanzala [q.v.], known as Ibn al- 
Ghasll (Ibn Sa'd, v, 46-9) as their chief. Yazid, 
realizing that he had temporized too long, despatched 
a Syrian army under Muslim b. 'Ukba, which de- 
feated the Medinians in the battle of the Harra (27 
Dhu '1-Hidjdja 63/27 Aug., 683) and proceeded (not- 
withstanding Muslim's death) to besiege 'Abd Allah 
b. al-Zubayr in Mecca (26 Muh. 64/24 Sept. 683). 
Sixty-four days later, on receiving the news of Ya- 
zid's death, the Syrian forces desisted, and the com- 
mander, Husayn b. Numayr, tried to persuade Ibn 
al-Zubayr to accompany them back to Syria, but 
he determined to stay in Mecca. 

The ensuing confusion in Syria and the outbreak 
of civil war gave Ibn al-Zubayr his chance. He pro- 
claimed himself amir al-mu'minin, and the oppo- 
nents of the Umayyads in Syria, Egypt, southern 
Arabia and Kufa recognized him as Caliph. But his 
authority remained almost wholly nominal. The 
victory of Marwan I [q.v.] at Mardj Rahit (end of 
64/July 684) and the revolt ofMukhtar [q.v.] at Kufa 
fifteen months later, placed his supporters in Syria, 
Egypt and 'Irak on the defensive; and although al- 
Muhallab's support of Mus'ab b. al-Zubayr at Basra 
and subsequent victory over Mukhtar (67/687) re- 
stored a Zubayrid government in 'Irak, Mus'ab was 
to all intents an independent ruler. At the same time, 
the Bakrite Kharidjites, who had separated from 
Ibn al-Zubayr after the death of Yazid and had 
established themselves in eastern Nadjd under the 
command of Nadjda, occupied the province of 
Bahrayn (i.e. al-Hasa), and in 68/687-8 seized al- 
Yaman and Hadramawt, followed next year by the 
occupation of Ta'if, thus completely isolating him 
in the Hidjaz. At the Pilgrimage of 68/688 no fewer 
than four different leaders presided over their se- 
parate groups of partisans: Ibn al-Zubayr, a Kha- 



ridjite, an Umayyad, and Muhammad b. al-Hana- 
fiyya. Finally, after the Umayyad reoccupation of 
'Irak, 72/691, 'Abd al-Malik despatched al-Hadj- 
djadj to deal with Mecca. The siege began on 1 Dh u 
'1-Ka'da 72/25 March, 692, and lasted for more than 
six months, during which the city and the Ka'ba 
were under bombardment. When at length his 
supporters gave way, and even his own sons surren- 
dered to al-Hadjdjadj, 'Abd Allah, urged on by his 
mother, returned to the field of battle and was 
slain. His body was placed on a gibbet on the spot 
where his brother 'Amr had been exposed, and some 
time later was given back by orders of 'Abd al- 
Malik to his mother, who buried it in the house of 
Safiyya at Medina. 

'Abd Allah is the principal representative in history 
of the second generation of the noble Muslim families 
of Mecca, who resented the capture of the Caliphate 
by the Umayyad house and the gulf of power which 
this had created between the clan of 'Abd Shams and 
the other Meccan clans. This resentment is still 
clearly visible as a groundtheme in the numerous 
anecdotes on his relations with Mu'awiya (see Bibl. 
under Baladhuri), in spite of their later elaboration 
and of Muslim idealization of this challenger of 
Umayyad rule, which has transformed a brave, but 
fundamentally self-seeking and self-indulgent man, 
into a model of piety (see especially IJilya al-Aw- 
liyd>, i, 329-337). On the other hand, many sources 
portray him as avaricious, jealous, and ill-natured, 
and reproach him particularly for his harsh conduct 
towards his brother, Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya, 
and 'Abd Allah b. 'Abbas. 

Bibliography: Tabarl, index; Baladhuri, 
Ansdb, iv B , 16-60; v, 188-204, 355-79 and passim; 
Anonyme arab. Chronik, ed. Ahlwardt, 34 ff. ; also 
in Levi della Vida, II Calico Mu'awiya I, Roma 
1938, index; Aghdni, indexes; Muh. b. Habib, al- 
Muhabbar, 24, 481, etc.; Ibn Hazm, Diamharat 
Ansdb aW-Arab, 113; Kutubi, Fawat, no. 184 (efl. 
Cairo 1951, i, 445-50); Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam, Futuh 
Ifrifriya, ed. and tr. Gateau, Algiers 1942, 38-47; 
Wiistenfeld, Chron. d. Stadt Mekka, iv, 129 ft.; 
H. Lammens, Califat de Yazid I, Beirut 1921, 
182-269; id., Avinement des Marwanides, Beirut 
1927, passim; J. Wellhausen, Arab. Reich, 89-124; 
id., Rel.-pol. Oppositionsparteien, 27-38, 72-87; 
Caetani, Chronographia, A.H. 73, para. 14, 32 
(pp. 862-3, 866-8). (H. A. R. Gibb) 

'ABD ALLAH DJEWDET [see djewdet]. 
'ABD ALLAH al-GHALIB bi'llah Abu Muham- 
mad, Sa'did sultan, son of one of the founders 
of the dynasty, Mahammad al-Shaykh al-Mahdl. He 
was born Ramadan 933/June 1527 and, designated as 
heir presumptive, was recognized as sultan on his 
father's death, assassinated by his Turkish guards- 
men 29 Dhu'l-Hidjdja 964/23 Oct. 1557. His reign 
lasted till his death, due to a crisis of asthma, 28 
Ramadan 981/21 Jan. 1574. 

His reign as a whole was peaceful. Yet the sultan 
showed himself uneasy in expectation of an eventual 
intervention of the Turks, who had killed his father, 
immediately afterwards invaded the North of Mo- 
rocco, whence they had been repulsed, and who 
offered asylum to three of his brothers: al-Ma'mun, 
'Abd al-Malik and Ahmad. Thus he sought an alliance 
with the Spanish. These preoccupations formed the 
background to the cession of the Penon de Velez 
(1564), the taking of Shafshawan (1567) and the 
embarrassed attitude of the sultan at the time of the 
revolt of the Moriscos (1568-71). He had relations 
with other European powers also. He negotiated 



56 



C ABD ALLAH al-GHALIB - 



with Antoine de Bourbon, king of Navarre, and 
was prepared to cede to him al-Kasr al-Saghir in 
exchange for 500 soldiers, and entered into commer- 
cial relations with England. He tried to conquer 
the fortress of Mazagan, which was in the hands of 
the Portuguese, dispatching against it a numerous 
army under the command of his son Muhammad, 
his heir. The siege lasted from 4 March to 30 April 
1562 and ended with the failure of the Sa c did troops, 
who suffered heavy losses. 

In internal affairs he consolidated the work of 
his father, without meeting any serious opposition. 
He seemed to have feared especially the members 
of his family; he had his brother al-Ma'mun assas- 
sinated in Tlemcen and put to death his nephew 
Muh. b. c Abd al-Kadir, whose popularity roused 
his ill-will (975/1567-8). He also seems to have 
suspected some of the religious leaders: he impri- 
soned, or put to death, several members of the 
Yusufiyya order and had crucified in Marrakush 
the fakih Abu £ Abd Allah Muh. al-AndalusI, accused 
of heresy (15 Dhu'l-Hidjdia 980/19 April 1573). He 
constructed several important buildings in Marra- 
kush, such as the Ibn Yusuf madrasa. Diego de 
Torres also attributes to him the establishment of the 
malldh of Marrakush in its present location. He also 
built a fortress to protect the harbour of Agadir. 
Bibliography. Ibn al-*£adl, Durrat al-Hididl 
(Allouche), II, 342-3 (no. 951); Djannabi, al- 
Bahr al-Zakhkhdr, transl. in Fagnan, Extraits in- 
edits relatifs au Maghreb, Alger 1924, 345-8; Chro- 
nique anonyme sa'dienne (G.-S. Colin), Rabat 1934, 
30-40, transl. Fagnan, Extraits, 383-93; Ifrani 
(Eloufrani), Nuzhat al-Hddi (Houdas), 45-47, 
transl. Houdas, 82-101; al-Nasiri al-Salawi, al- 
Istiksd', Cairo 1312/1894, iii, 17-26, transl. by 
Ahmad al-Nasiri al-Salawi, AM, xxxiv, 61-91; 
Diego de Torres, Histoire des Cherifs (Fr. transl.), 
Paris 1667, 219-26; Marmol, L'Afrique (Fr. transl.), 
Paris 1667, i, 482-5; Sources inedites de V histoire 
du Maroc, lire serie, France, i, 170-338; An- 
gleterre, i, 23-122; A. Cour, L'etablissement des 
Cherifs au Maroc, Paris 1904, 130-40; H. Terrasse, 
Histoire du Maroc, ii, Casablanca 1950, 179-83. 

(R. LE TOURNEAU) 

<ABD ALLAH PASHA Muhsin-Zade Celebi, 
Ottoman statesman and general, son of 
Muhsin Celebi, descended from a family of mer- 
chants at Aleppo. He started his career in 1115/ 
1703 in the financial administration with the post 
of supervisor (emin) of the Mint (darb-khdne), the 
defterddr of which was his brother, Mehmed Efendl. 
He became son-in-law (ddmdd) of the Grand- Vizier 
Corlulu 'All Pasha (1707-10) and enjoyed the fa- 
vour of the court. On the revolt of Kaytas Beg, 
he was sent to Egypt in 1126/1714, succeeded in 
subduing the rebel and sent his head to the Porte. 
Between 1715 and 1737 he filled several adminis- 
trative and military posts: defterddr in Morea, 
governor (muhdfiz) of Lepanto (Aynabakhti), chief 
of the kapuajl with the rank of a Pasha, head of 
the imperial chancery (nishandU), agha of the Janis- 
saries, Beylerbey of Vidin, of Rumeli and of Bosnia. 
He was commander (ser-'asker) at Bender, in Bess- 
arabia, when Russia invaded the Crimea (1736) and 
Austria threatened to intervene on the Danube. 
Negotiations at Niemirov (Poland) led to no results. 
Appointed by Sultan Mahmud I (1730-54) as Grand- 
Vizier (6 Rabi c II, 1150/August 3rd, 1737), £ Abd 
Allah Pasha directed the war operations, without 
achieving the results hoped for by the court. Re- 
called to Istanbul after four months, he had to hand 



over the seal of office to the new Grand- Vizier Yegen 
Pasha (Dec. 19th, 1737). He continued to fill posts 
as commander of fortresses and governor of provinces 
and died in Rabi c ii, 1162/spring 1749 m Trikala, 
Thessaly, at the age of 90 years. His son Mehmed 
Pasha Muhsin-Zade signed the peace of Kiictik 
Kaynardje (1174)- 

Bibliography: Hammer-Purgstall, iv, 330, 
340; Sidjill-i 'Othmdni, iii, 379; N. Jorga, Gesch. 
des osm. Retches, iii, 430, 434. (E. Rossi) 

C ABD ALLAH SARI [see sari <abd allah 

EFENDI]. 

<ABD AL- c AZlZ (AbdUlaziz), the thirty-second 
Ottoman sultan. Born on 9 Feb. 1830, the third 
son of sultan Mahmud II [q.v.\ he succeded his 
brother c Abd al-Madjid [q.v.], 20 June 1861. His 
reign was marked by revolts and insurrections in 
the Balkan provinces (Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia, 
Herzegovina and Bulgaria) and in Crete, which 
brought about the intervention of the great powers. 
From 1870 onwards, the influence of Russia, sup- 
planting that of France and England, preponderated 
in Istanbul, and General Ignatief, the Russian 
ambassador, often imposed his views on the grand 
vizier Mahmud Nadim Pasha. Russia also made 
efforts to stir up the discontent of the subjects of 
the Porte: Slavs, Albanians, and even Arabs and 
Egyptians. 

In spite of internal crises, the policy of reforms, 
called tanzimdt [q.v.], was not abandoned. The 
administration of the provinces was reorganized 
(law of wildyets modeled on French law, 1867) and 
some attempts were made to reform the institution 
of the wakfs (1867). On French advice, a council of 
justice (shurd-yi dewlet), composed of Muslims and 
Christians, and a council of justice (diwan-i ahkdm-i 
l a<Uiyye) were set up (1868). Public education was 
reorganized after the French model and a lycee was 
opened in Galata-saray. It was open to all Ottoman 
subjects and instruction was given in French by 
French teachers (1868). A university (ddr ul-funun) 
was established. At the same time, the army, and 
especially the navy, were reorganized. Foreigners 
acquired the right to possess immovable property 
(1867). Other attempts at economic reforms remained 
fruitless: in 1877, the deficit of the budget reached 
112 millions. The government, judging itself unable 
to face its obligations, followed the advice of the 
Russian ambassador, reduced by half the payment 
of interest on the debt and had to declare itself 
bankrupt. The deplorable state of the national 
economy, the financial crisis, the revolts and insur- 
rections in the Balkan provinces, made it particularly 
difficult to apply the reforms, with which the great 
powers were dissatisfied, while the Old Turks con- 
sidered them incompatible with religion and the 
Young Turks insufficient. This resulted in general 
discontent against the sultan, who was deposed on 
30 March 1876 and committed suicide a few days 
later. 

Bibliography: Mahmud Dieladdin. Mir'dt-i 
Hakikat, Istanbul 1326; Ibnulemin Mahmut Kemal, 
Osmanli devrinde son sadralazanUar, i, Istanbul 
1940; idem. Hatira-i Atif, TOEM, xv, 40; idem, 
Sultan Abdulazize dair,TOEM, xv, 177; Abdurrah- 
man Seref, Sultan Abdulaziz'in vefati intihar mi 
katil mi, TOEM, xiv, 341; Ismail Hakki Uzun- 
carsilioglu, Sultan Abdulaziz vak'asina dair vak'a 
niivis Lutfi Efendinin Mr rislesi, Bell, vii 2 , 349; 
Ahmed Sa'ib, Wak'-a-yi Sultan "Abd ul- c Aziz, 
Cairo 1326; MiUiger (Osman Seyfi Bey), La 
Turquie sous le rigne d'Abd ul-Aziz, Paris 1868; 



A. D. Mordtmann, Stambul und das moderne 

Tilrkentum, Leipzig 1877-8; Ahmed Midhat, Vss-i 

Inkildb, Istanbul 1295; Ahmet Bedevi Kuran, 

Inkilap Tarihimiz ve Ittihad ve Terakki, Istanbul 

1948, 22-32; A. de Castov, Musulmans et Chritiens 

de Mohamed le Prophete au Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz 

Khan, Istanbul 1874; The Memoirs of Ismail 

Kemal Bey, ed. Sommerville Story, London 1920; 

E. Engelhardt, La Turquie et le Tanzimat, Paris 

1882-4 (Turkish transl., Istanbul 1898); M. B. C. 

Collas, La Turquie en 1864, Paris 1864; A. Ubicini, 

Etat present de VEmpire ottoman, Paris 1876. 

(E. Z. Karal) 

C ABD al-'AZIZ b. al-HAPJPJ IBRAHIM al- 

JhamInI al-IsdjanI, celebrated Ibadi scholar, 

b. c. 1130/1717-8, probably at Wardjlan (Ouargla), 

d. Radjab 1223/August 1808, at Banu Isdjan (Beni 

Isguen) in the Mzab, where, at the age of about 

forty, he had begun his studies under the shaykh 

Abu Zakariyya' Yahya b. Salih, of Djarba. c Abd 

al- c Aziz is held by the Ibadls to-day to be one of 

the greatest scholars who ever lived in the Mzab, 

where he has left the reputation of a man of fervent 

piety, remarkable sagacity, great imperturbability, 

perfect self-control, and astonishing assiduity. 

He devoted himself to the composition of a dozen 
works on theology and jurisprudence. His most 
important work is K. al-Nil wa-Shifd* al- c AlU, 
autographed at Cairo 1 305/1887-8. This treatise, 
conceived on the plan of the Mukhtasar of Khaltt. 
but less concise in style, is a complete exposition 
of Ibadi legislation, put together from the most 
authoritative works of Ibadi scholarship in c Uman, 
12iabal Nafiisa, Djarba and the Mzab, all of which 
can be identified without difficulty. It was on this 
work that E. Zeys drew for his studies on this 
subject. The other works of c Abd al- c AzIz are the 
following: Takmilat al-Nil, published at Tunis some 
25 years ago; al-Ward al-bassdm fi Riyad al-Ahkdm, 
a precis of jurisprudence devoted chiefly to questions 
of judgment; Ma c dlim al-Din, a reasoned exposition 
of the Ibadi creed, along with refutation of the 
arguments put forward by the defenders of the 
other sects (unpublished) ; Mukhtasar al-Misbdh min 
K. Abi Mas'ala waH-Alwdh, on questions of inherit- 
ance; Hkd al-Qiawdhir, a summary of Kanatir al- 
Khayrdt of al-Djaytall, on worship and religion in 
general (unpublished) ; Mukhtasar IJuk&k al-Azwddf, 
on the rights and duties of husband and wife (un- 
published) ; Tddj. al-Manzum min Durar al-Minhddj 
al-MaHum, abridgement of a voluminous 'Umani 
work of jurisprudence (unpublished); Ta'dzum al- 
Mawdjayn (or DhuH-Nurayn) '■aid Mardj al-Bahrayn 
(unpublished); al-Asrdr al-Niirdniyya, on prayer 
and the accompanying rites (autographed in Egypt 
1 306/1888-9); al-Niir, on the principal dogmas of 
the Faith (autographed in Egypt 1306/1888-9); 
Mukhtasar Hawdshi al-Tartib, resume of several 
Ibadi works on hadith. 

Bibliography : E. Zeys, Legislation mozabite, 
son origine, ses sources, son present, son avenir, 
Paris 1886; idem, Le mariage et sa dissolution dans 
la Ugislation mozabite, in Rev. alg. de leg. et de 
jurisp., Algiers 1887-8; M. Morand, Introduction 
d V etude du droit musulman algerien, Algiers 192 1; 
Atfayyish, Risdla fi ba c d tawdrikh ahl Wddi Mizdb, 
1326/1908, 47-48; S. Smogorzewski, l AbdaX- l Azlz, 
ses icrits et ses sources (unpublished). 

(A. DE MOTYLINSKI-T. LEWICKl) 

<ABD al-<AZ1Z B. al-HADJDJADjI b. c Abd 
al-Malik, Umayyad general. He was a faithful 
partisan of his cousin Yazid III and one of his 



57 



Already in al-Walid IPs 
reign he helped Yazid, who headed the malcontents, 
to enlist troops against the caliph. When they had 
succeeded in getting together an army in Damascus, 
<Abd al-'Aziz received the supreme command and 
marched against al-Walid. Yazid's brother 'Abbas, 
who was about to go to the caliph's assistance, was 
attacked and forced to pay homage to Yazid. 
Shortly afterwards c Abd al-'Aziz stormed the castle 
of Bakhra', whither al-Walid had withdrawn, and 
put the caliph to death. This was in the year 126/744. 
Yazid was now proclaimed caliph; the inhabitants 
of Hims (Emesa), however, stoutly refused to do 
homage to the usurper and marched against Damas- 
cus. Yazid sent two army divisions against them, 
and while the rebels were engaged with one division, 
c Abd al-'Aziz advanced with the other and decided 
the combat, whereupon the rising was suppressed. 
In the same year Yazid died after settling the 
succession on his brother Ibrahim and after him on 
<Abd al-'Aziz. The inhabitants of Hims, however, 
again refused to do homage to the new ruler, who 
for that matter was hardly recognized outside the 
capital. On Ibrahim's orders c Abd al-'Aziz therefore 
began to lay siege to the town, but withdrew when 
Marwan b. Muh., then governor of Armenia and 
Adharbaydjan, advanced against him. Hims opened 
its gates to Marwan, the followers of the late caliph 
were defeated in Safar 127/Nov. 744 at c Ayn al- 
Djarr, and Marwan had himself proclaimed caliph 
in Damascus. As soon as he had entered the town, 
c Abd al-'Aziz b. al-Hadjdjadj was murdered bv 
clients of al-Walid II. 

Bibliography: Tabari, ii, 17948-; Ibn al- 

Athir, v, 215 ff.; G. Weil, Gesch. d. ChaUfen, i, 

669 ff.; see also al-walid b. yazid. 

(K, V. Zettersteen) 

C ABD al-AZIZ B. AL-JJASAN, sultan of 
Morocco from 1894 to 1908. He was born, according 
to Weisgerber, on 24 Feb. 1878, according to Doutt6 
and Saint-Rene Taillandier 18 Rabl< I 1298/18 Feb. 
1881, of the sultan Mawlay al-Hasan and Lalla 
Rukayya, of Circassian origin. When his father died 
on a campaign, 9 June 1894, c Abd al-'Aziz was 
proclaimed sultan in Rabat, thanks to the hddjib 
Ahmad b. Musa, called Ba Ahmad, who had been 
in charge of his education, and received as reward 
the title of Grand-Vizier. <Abd al- c Aziz left the 
management of affairs in the hands of Ahmad until 
his death on 13 May 1900. During this period 
Morocco continued to live more or less in its tradi- 
tional way. 

After the death of his mentor, 'Abd al- c AzIz fell 
under the influence of a small group of Europeans, 
including Sir Harry McLean, instructor of the 
Sherifian infantry, who encouraged the natural 
taste of the ruler for modernism, so that very soon 
the Sherifian palaces housed photographic cameras, 
billiards, etc. All this shocked the conservative 
feelings of the Moroccans and cost money. Moreover, 
in Sept. 1901, 'Abd al- c AzIz contemplated an 
equitable reform of taxes, tartib, in order to abolish 
the privileges and immunities of the existing system. 
In consequence, an agitator {riigi), called Djilall b. 
Idrls al-Zarhunl al-Yusufi, nicknamed BO Hmara 
(Abu Hamara), rose in the district of Taza, gave 
himself out as a brother of the sultan and quickly 
became master of the region to the east of Fez 
(1902), threatening the capital itself in 1903. 

On the other hand, the European powers exerted 
a strong pressure upon the Sherifian government, 
to protect the Europeans established in Morocco, 



C ABD AL-'AZIZ B 



repress frontier incidents (region of Figuig), and 
obtain a guarantee for the considerable sums lent 
to the sultan by various European groups. These 
pressures, marked by various incidents, such as the 
visit of the German Emperor William II to Tangier 
(31 March 1905), led to the conference of Algeciras. 
The Act of Algeciras (7 April 1906), interpreted as 
an admission of surrender to the demands of the 
European powers, made c Abd al- c Aziz even more 
unpopular in Morocco. Anarchy and discontent 
increased equally, and the sultan was unable to 
bring about any improvement. One of his brothers, 
Mawlay 'Abd al-Hafiz, was proclaimed sultan in 
Marrakush on 16 August 1907, immediately after 
the disembarkation of French troops in Casablanca. 
'Abd al-'Aziz tried to resist by organizing an 
expedition to Marrakush in July 1908. His army 
broke up and was defeated by the troops of his 
brother on 19 August at Bu Adjiba on the Wadi 
Tassa'ut. 'Abd al- c AzIz took refuge in Casablanca 
and there abdicated on 21 August 1908. After a 
short stay in France, he established himself in 
Tangier, where he lived, without mixing in politics, 
until his death, 10 June 1943. 

Bibliography : Ibn Zaydan ( c Abd al-Rahman), 
al-Durar al-Fdkhira, Rabat 1937, m-7; E. Aubin, 
Le Maroc d'aujourd'hui, Paris 1904; G. Veyre, 
Au Maroc, dans I'intimite du sultan, Paris 1905; 
Cte. Conrad de Buisseret, A la cour de Fez, Bruxelles 
1907; W. B. Harris, Morocco that was, Edinburgh 
1921; G. Saint-Rene Taillandier, Les origines du 
Maroc francais, ricit d'une mission (1901-1906), 
Paris 1930; A. G. P. Martin, Le Maroc et VEurope, 
Paris 1928; F. Weisgerber, Casablanca et les 
Chaouia en 1900, Casablanca 1935; idem, Au 
seul du Maroc moderne, Rabat 1947; H. Terrasse, 
Histoire du Maroc, ii, Casablanca 1950. 

(R. Le Tourneau) 
'ABD al-'AZIZ b. MARWAN, son of the 
caliph Marwan I and father of c Umar b. 'Abd al- 
'Aziz. 'Abd al-'Aziz was appointed governor of 
Egypt by his father, and the appointment was con- 
firmed by 'Abd al-Malik, when he ascended the 
throne. During his twenty years' sojourn in Egypt, 
'Abd al-'Aziz proved himself a capable governor, who 
really had the welfare of his province at heart. When 
in the year 69/689, 'Abd al-Malik, after the assasi- 
nation of his rebellious lieutenant 'Amr b. Sa'id, 
intended to have the latter's relatives executed as 
well, 'Abd al-'Aziz interceded for them and persuaded 
the incensed caliph to spare their lives. Towards the 
end of his life 'Abd al-'Aziz suffered from the ill 
will of his brother 'Abd al-Malik. Marwan had 
nominated him to succeed 'Abd al-Malik, but the 
latter wished to secure the throne for his two sons, 
al-Walid and Sulayman, and therefore cherished the 
project of removing his brother from his governorship 
and excluding him from the succession to the 
throne, when in the year 85/754 news suddenly 
reached Damascus that 'Abd al-'Aziz was dead. 
Bibliography: Baladhurl, Ansdb, v, 183-5; 
Ibn Sa'd, v, 175; Tabari, ii, 576 ff.; Ibn al-Athlr, 
iv, 156 ff.; Ya 'kubi, ii, 306 ff.; G. Weil, Gesch. d. 
Chalifen, i, 349 ff. ; A. Miiller, Der Islam im Morgen- 
und Abendland, i, 383 ft. ; H. Lammens, Etudes 
sur U siicle des Omayyades, 310-1; Caetani and 
Gabrieli, Onomasticon, ii, 171. 

(K. V. Zettersteen) 

'ABD AL-'AZlZ B. MUHAMMAD B. Ibrahim 

al-SinhaujI al-FishtalI, Moroccan writer, b. 

956/1549, d. at Marrakush 1031/1621-2, was head 

of the chancery (wazir al-kalam al-a'ld) and official 



historiographer (mutawalli ta'rikh al-dawla) of 
the Sa'did sultan Ahmad al-Mansur al-Dhahabi 
[q.v.]. Of his literary and historical works, which 
were considerable, there survive only lengthy quo- 
tations, especially by the chronicler al-Ifrani [q.v.] 
in his Nuzhat al-Hddi. Al-Fishtali, who was a 
contemporary and friend of al-Makkari [q.v.], the 
author of Nafh al-Tib, composed annals or the 
Sa'did dynasty down to his own times,' under the 
title of Mandhil al-Safd' fi akhbdr al-Muluk al- 
Shurafd'. He was the author also of many panegyrical 
poems, more particularly mawludiyydt [q.v.]. The 
verses used for the epigraphic decoration of the palace 
of al-Badi' at Marrakush were of his composition. 
Bibliography: Ibn al-Kadl, Durrat al-Hidjdl 
(ed. Allouche), Rabat 1936, no. 1056; IfranI, 
Nuzhat al-Hddi (ed. Houdas), 164/267 ff.; Makkari, 
Bulak, iii, 8 ff.; KhafadjI, Rayhdnat al-Alibbd\ 
Cairo 1294, 180; Kadiri, Nashr al-Mathdnl, Fez, 
i, 140-2; Levi-Provencal, Hist. Chorfa, 92-97; 
Brockelmann, S II, 680-1. 

(E. Levi-Provencal) 
'ABD AL-'AZlZ B. MUSA b. NU$AYR, first 
governor of al-Andalus, after the departure to 
the East of his father Musa b. Nusayr, the famous 
conqueror of the Iberian peninsula, in 95/714. Musa, 
on leaving, gave him instructions to pursue the 
Muslim advance and to pacify the regions which 
had come under Muslim control. According to 
certain traditions, it was under his government that 
part of what is now Portugal, including the towns 
of Evora, Santarem and Coimbra, and the sub- 
pyrenean regions from Pamplona to Narbonne were 
conquered. He himself took Malaga and Elvira, and 
then subdued the land of Murcia, concluding with 
a Gothic lord, Theodemir (who gave his name to 
the district, Tudmir [q.v.]) a treaty, the more or 
less authentic text of which has survived. 

'Abd al-'Aziz married the widow of the last Visi- 
gothic king Roderic, Egil6n, who is said to have 
adopted Islam and taken the name of Umm 'Asim. 
This princess gained so much influence over the 
governor that he soon became suspect to his com- 
patriots and was accused of abusing his power. He 
was assassinated in Seville, where he had fixed his 
residence, by a certain Ziyad b. 'Udhra al-Balawi, 
at the beginning of Radjab 97/March 718, and was 
succeeded by his maternal cousin, Ayyub b. Habib 
al-Lakhmi. 

Bibliography: Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. 
Mus., i, 30-34 and references cited ibid., i, 8, n. 1. 

(E. Levi-Provencal) 

'ABD al-'AZIZ AL SA'OD [see Sa'Odids]. 

'ABD al-'AZIZ B. AL-WALlD, son of the 

caliph al-Walid I. In 91/709-10, he took part in 

the campaign against the Byzantines, under the 

orders of his uncle, Maslama b. 'Abd al-Malik, and 

during the following years, he also participated in 

the battles against the same enemies. In 96/714-5, 

al-Walid, whose designated successor was Sulayman 

b. 'Abd al-Malik, tried to exclude Sulayman from 

the succession in favour of his son 'Abd al-'Aziz, 

but his attempt failed. After the death of Sulayman 

at Dabik, 99/717, c Abd al-'Aziz wanted to claim the 

crown, but learning that 'Umar II b. 'Abd al-'Aziz 

had been proclaimed as caliph, he betook himself 

to him and paid him homage. He died in 1 10/728-9. 

Bibliography: Tabari, ii, I2i7ff.; Ibn al- 

Athir, iv 439 ff.; Ya'kubi, ii, 435 ff.; G. Weil, 

Gesch. d. Chalifen, i, 511 ff.; A. Miiller, Der Islam 

im M or gen- und Abendland, i, 436;Caetani-Gabrieli, 

Onomasticon, ii, 986. (K. V. Zettersteen' 



C ABD A 



UZ EFENDI — 'ABD al-DJABBAR b. AHMAD 



59 



ABD AL-'AZiZ EFENDI Kara Ce 
Kara Celebizade]. 

shah 'ABD AL-'AZiZ AL-DIHLAWl, the eldest 
son of Shah Wall Allah al-Dihlawi [q.v.], a noted 
Indian theologian and author of several religious 
works in Arabic and Persian, was born at Delhi in 
1159/1746 (hence his chronogrammatic name Ghulam 
Hallm) and died there in 1239/1824. He studied 
mainly with his father, after whose death in 1176/ 
1762 he soon began to teach as the head of the 
Madrasa Rahimiyya, founded by his grandfather. 
As a teacher, preacher and writer, he exercised a 
considerable influence on the religious thought of 
his time. His chief works are as follows. In Arabic: 
(1) Sirr al-Shahddatayn (Dihli 1261), in which he 
sets forth the ingenious view that the Prophet 
vicariously acquired the merit and distinction of 
shahdda or martyrdom through the tragic death of 
his grandson, Husayn son of 'All. One of his pupils, 
Salamat Allah wrote a commentary on it in Persian 
(Lucknow 1882). (2) 'Aziz al-Iktibds fi FaddHl 
Akhydr al-Nds, a collection of traditions on the 
virtues of the first four Caliphs (Dihli 1 322/1904, 
with Persian and Urdu translations). (3) Mizdn al- 
'■AkdHd, a concise statement of the Muslim creed 
with the author's own commentary on it (Dihli 1321 
A. H.). In Persian: (4) Tuhfa ithnd-'Ashariyya 
(edited by Muhammad Sadik 'Ali Ridawi, Lucknow 
1295 A. H.), in which he refutes the ShI'ite doctrines 
and thus continues the controversial work of his 
father, Izdlat al-Khafd* 'an Khildfat al-Khulafd>. It 
has also been translated into Urdu. (5) 'Udjdla 
Nd/i c a (Dihli 1312, 1348 A. H.), an introduction 
to the science of Hadith. (6) Bustdn al-Mukadditkin 
(Dihli 1898), a bibliography of Hadith literature, 
giving descriptions of books together with brief 
biographies of their authors. (7) Fatdwd (in 2 parts, 
Dihli 1 341 A. H.), a, collection of opinions and 
forma) decisions on questions of law and doctrine. 
There is also an Urdu translation of part I by 
M. Nawwab 'All and 'Abd al-Djalll (Haydarabad 
Deccan 1313; also Cawnpore). (8) Fath al-'Aziz, 
commonly known as Tafsir 'Azizi, a commentary 
in Persian on Suras i and ii, and sections 29 and 
30 of the Kur'an. Sections 29 and 30 were both 
printed at Calcutta; the former bears the date 
1248 A. H., while that of the other is not traceable. 
There are several other prints. Urdu translations 
of all the various parts have been published. (9) 
Malfuzdt Shad 'Abd al'Aziz, the obiter dicta of the 
author, originally collected in Persian in 1233 A. H. 
and later translated into Urdu by 'Azmat Ilahi in 
1315/1897 and lithographed at Meerut. 

Bibliography: Siddlk Hasan Khan, Ithdf al- 
Nubald', 296; Muhammad b. Yahya al-Tirhuti, 
al-Ydni' al-Qiani fi Asdnid al-Skaykk 'Abd al- 
Ghani, lithographed on the margin of Kashf 
al-Astdr 'an Ridjal Ma'dni al-Athdr (Deoband 
1349 A. H.), 73-5; Rahman 'Ali, Tadhkira 
'Ulamd* Hind (Lucknow 1914), 122; Rahim 
Bakhsh, Haydt Wali (in Urdu), Dihli 1319 A. H., 
338-42; idem., Haydt 'Azizi; Storey, Persian 
Literature, i, 24; Zubaid Ahmad, The contri- 
bution of India to Arabic literature, Jullundur, 
1946, Index; Bashlr al-Din, Tadhkira 'Aziziyya, 
Meerut 1934. (Sh. Inayatullah) 

'ABD al-BAHA 5 [see BahaIs]. 
'ABD al-DJABBAR b. 'ABD al RAHMAN 
al-Azdi, governor of Khurasan. In 130/747-8 
and 133/750-1 he was a supporter of the 'Abbasids 
in their conflict with the Umayyads, and was 
appointed to command the shurfa during the cali- 



phates of al-Saffah and al-Mansur. The latter sent 
him to Khurasan as governor in 140/757-8. On 
arrival in the province, he began a violent perse- 
cution against the local aristocracy, whom he 
accused of partiality for the 'Alids; but it seems 
that his measures affected also some of the partisans 
of the 'Abbasids (as is stated in the Persian version 
of al-Tabari). This was apparently the reason why 
the caliph came to suspect him of rebellion. A 
cunning exchange of letters, which followed, only 
confirmed these suspicions, and eventually in 
141/758-9 al-Mansur sent an army against him under 
the command of his son al-Mahdl. On the approach 
of the troops the population of Marw al-Rudh rose 
and delivered up 'Abd al-Djabbar, who was brought 
before al-Mansur, tortured, and put to death, 
probably at the beginning of 142/759-60. 

Bibliography: Ya'kubl, index; Tabarl, index; 
Chronique de Tabari (Persian), tr. H. Zotenberg, 
iv, 378-80; S. Moscati, La rivolta di 'Abd al-Cabbar, 
in Rend. Line., 1947, 613-5. (S. Moscati) 

'ABD al-DJABBAR b. AQMAD b. 'Abd al- 
Djabbar al-HamadhanI al-AsadabadI, Abu '1- 
Hasan, Mu'tazilite theologian, in law a follower of 
the Shafi'i school. Born about 325, he lived in 
Baghdad, until called to Rayy, in 3&7/978, by the 
sahib Ibn 'Abbad, a staunch supporter of the 
Mu'tazila. He was subsequently appointed chief 
kadi of the province; hence he is usually referred 
to in later Mu'tazili literature as kadi al-kuddt. 
(For some anecdotes on his relations with Ibn 
'Abbad see Yakflt, Irshad, ii, 312, 314). On the 
death of Ibn 'Abbad, he was deposed and arrested 
by the ruler, Fakhr al-Dawla. because of a slighting 
remark made by him about his deceased benefactor 
(Irshad, i, 70-1, ii, 335). No details seem to be 
available about his later life, and we do not seem 
to know, for instance, whether he was re-instated 
in his office. He died in 415/1025. 

His main dogmatic work is the enormous al- 
Mughni, of which the greater part has been pre- 
served (in San'a, see: Fihris Kutub al-Khizdna al- 
Mutawakkiliyya, 103-4; some volumes in Cairo, 
brought from San'a, see: Kh. Y. NamI, a.l-Ba'tka 
al-Misriyya li-Taswir al-Makk(u(dt al-'Arabiyya; 
Cairo 1952, 15). Another important handbook of 
his dogmatics, al-Muhi( bi'l-Taklif, was compiled 
by his pupil Ibn Mattawayh [q.v.]. Several volumes 
in San'a, Fihris, 102 (vol. i, Berlin 5149; Tay- 
muriyya, 'Aka'id 357; fragments in Leningrad, see 
A. Borisov, Les manuscrits mu'tazilites de la Biblio- 
thique publique de Leningrad, Bibliografiya Vostoka, 
1935, 63-95). His monograph on prophecy (Tathbil 
DaldHl Nubuwwat Sayyidind Muhammad, Shehid 
'AH Pasha 1575, cf. H. Ritter, Isl., 1929, 42) contains 
also important discussions of the views of other 
schools, especially those of the Shi'a. Another 
important dogmatic treatise seems to be his Shark 
al-Usul al-Khamsa (Vat. 1028). For other writings 
that have come down to us, cf. Brockelmann. It is 
not only from his own works, however, that his 
system can be reconstructed. All the writings of 
the latter Mu'tazila — including the Zaydl writers 
on dogmatics; as a matter of fact, his own books, 
too, have been preserved mainly by the Zaydls of 
Yaman — are full of reports on his opinions. He was 
the chief figure in the last phase of Mu'tazilism, but 
his teaching has not yet been studied. 

Bibliography : Abu Sa'id al-Bayhakl, Shark 
'Uyun al-MasdHl, MS Leiden, Landberg 215, 
fol. 123' — 125", whence Ibn al-Murtada, (al- 
Mu'tazila, Arnold), 66 ff. ; al-Khatlb al-Baghdadl. 



<ABD al-DJABBAR b. AHMAD — <ABD al-HAKK b, SAYF a 



Ta'rikh Baghdad, xi, 113 ff.; al-Subkl, Tabakdt, 

77-8, 235, x, 95; I. Goldziher, Isl., 1912, 214; 
M. Horten, Die plilosophischen Systeme, 457-62; 
A. S. Tritton, Muslim Theology, 191-3. — c Abd 
al-Djabbar's Tabakdt al-Mu c tazila was the main 
source of Abu Sa'id al-Bayhakl's important 
historical account of the Mu'tazila in the intro- 
duction of his Shark 'Uyun al-MasdHl. Al-Bay- 
haki's account was taken over, in a slightly 
abbreviated form, by Ibn al-Murtada (ed. Th. 
W. Arnold). (S. M. Stern) 

C ABD al-FATTAH FCMANl, Persian histo- 
rian, lived probably in the i6th-i7th centuries. 
Entering into government service in Fuman, the 
old capital of Gilan (Ch. Schefer, Christ, pers., ii, 93) 
he was appointed controller of accounts by the 
vizier of the place, Behzad-beg, about 1018 or 
1019/1609-10. After serving under several other 
vizers, he was taken to 'Irak by c Adil Shah. He 
wrote in Persian Ta'rikk-i Gildn, a history of Gilan 
from 923/1517 to 1038/1628. This book, published 
by B. Dorn (with a resume in his introduction), 
completes the histories of Zahlr al-DIn [q.v.] and 
c Ali b. Shams al-Din [q.v.]. 

Bibliography: 'Abdu'l-Fattdk Fumeny's Ge- 
schichte von Gildn (vol. iii of B. Dorn, Muhamm. 
Quellen zur Geschichte d. siidl. Kiistenldnder des 
Kaspischen Meeres). (Cl. Huart — H. Masse) 
<ABD al-GHANI b. Isma'Il al-NabulusI, a 
mystic, theologian, poet, traveller, and 
voluminous writer on a variety of subjects, born 
in Damascus 5 Dhu '1-Hidjdja 1050/19 March 1641, 
and the leading figure in the religious and literary 
life of Syria in his time. His family, traditionally 
Shafi'I (though his father had changed to the 
Hanafi rite), had long been settled in Damascus 
and MuhibbI describes his great-grandfather as 
"shaykh maskdHkh al-Shdm" (Khuldsa. ii, 433). He 
early showed an interest in mysticism, joining the 
Kadiri and Nakshbandi tarikas, and as a young 
man shut himself up in his house for seven years, 
studying the works of Ibn al-'Arabi, Ibn Sab'in and 
c Afif al-Din al-Tilimsanl, and bringing on himself by 
his unconventionnal behaviour charges of anti- 
nomianism. An early work, a badiHyya in praise 
of the Prophet, was of such virtuosity that his 
authorship was doubted, until he vindicated himself 
by writing a commentary on it. In 1075/1664 he 
made his first journey to Istanbul, and in 1100/1688 
he visited the Bika* and Lebanon, in 1101/1689 
Jerusalem and Hebron, in 1 105/1693 Egypt and 
Hidjaz, and in 1112/1700 Tripoli, and wrote accounts 
of all these travels except the first. His works 
number (including short treatises) from 200 to 250. 
His pupils were innumerable, the most important 
probably being Mustafa al-Bakri (q.v.]. He died in 
Damascus on 24 Sha'ban 1143/5 March 1731. 

His works fall into three main categories: sufi, 
poetry, travels. His sufi writings are mostly in the 
form of commentaries on the works of Ibn al-'Arabi, 
al-Djill, Ibn al-Farid and others. In these commen- 
taries he does not merely paraphrase and epitomize, 
but develops the thought in the tradition of the 
great commentators by original, if sometimes far- 
fetched, interpretation, which, as it is not exclusively 
mystical, is an important source for his religious and 
theological thought in general. In several of his 
commentaries c Abd al-Ghani represents a conver- 
gence of two trends of mystical thought, the Andalu- 
sian-Maghribl trend (Abu Madyan, Ibn Mashish, 
Shushtari, Sanusi) and the Perso-Anatolian trend 



(Awhad al-Din Nuri, Mahmud Uskudari, Muhammad 
Birgall). He wrote also on the orders to which he 
belonged, as well as on the Mawlawl order. In his 
original writings he seems to be dominated by the 
concept of wakdat al-wudjud; of these original works 
the most important is the first volume of his great 
diwan. 

The Diwan al-dawdwin, which contains the main 
body of his poetical output, comprises, as well as 
the first volume on mysticism (published Cairo 1302 
etc.), three other volumes, all unpublished, con- 
taining eulogies of the Prophet, general eulogies 
and correspondence, and love-poems respectively. 
This by no means represents the whole of his poetical 
output, many of his other works also being written 
in verse form, and his interest in poetry is reflected 
in his commentary on the poems of Ibn Hani' al- 
Andalusi. During his lifetime and after he had a 
great reputation as a poet (see Amir Haydar, Le 
Liban (ed. Rustum) i, 8 ff., 22 ff., and for his use 
of the muwashshah, Hartmann, MuwaSSak, 6). 

In his narratives of his travels (see above) it was 
not c Abd al-Ghani's intention to present a description 
of topographical or architectural detail. They are 
rather records of his own mystical experiences; but 
at the same time they throw a considerable amount 
of light on the religious and cultural life of the age. 
They are important also because they served as 
models for later travellers, such as the Damascene 
Mustafa al-Bakri and the Egyptian As'ad al- 
Lukayml. In addition, he wrote works, some of 
them vast and encyclopaedic, on tafsir, hadith, 
kalam, fikh, interpretation of dreams (a mine of 
information on the spiritualism and superstitions of 
his age), agriculture, the lawfulness of tobacco, and 
many other subjects. 

Bibliography: Muradl, Silk al-durar, ii, 30-8; 
Djabartl, 'AdidHb al-Athdr, i, 154-7; Mustafa al- 
Bakri, al-Fath al-iariyy fi... al-shaykh <Abd 
al-Ghani (Ms. in the writer's possession); Ibn 
al-'Arabi, Fusus al-hikam, ed. 'Afifi (Cairo, 1946), 
i, 23; A. S. Khalidi, Rihla ild diydr al-Shdm 
(Jaffa, 1946); 'Abboud, Ruwwdd al-nahda al- 
haditha (Bairut, 1952), 34 ff . ; R. A. Nicholson, 
Studies in Islamic mysticism (Cambridge, 1921) 
143 ff.; L. Massignon, La Passion de al-Hallaj, 
passim. (W. A. S. Khalidi) 

C ABD al-HAKK ABC MUHAMMAD [see MarI- 

C ABD al-HAKK b. SAYF AL-DiN al-DihlawI 
al-Bukhari, Abu 1-Madjd, with the takhallus Hakki, 
Indian author in Arabic and Persian, born 
Muharram 958/Jan. 1551, died 2 Rabi c II 1052/ 
30 June 1642. He spent some time in Fathpur, 
studying with Faydi and MIrza Nizam al-Din 
Aljmad, but fell out with them (cf. Bada'uni, iii, 
113, 115 ff.; al-Makdtib wa 1-RasdHl, on marg. of 
Akhbdr al-Akhydr, Delhi, 1332, 160; c Abd al-Hakk's 
book on the writers of Delhi, cf. below, p. 20; 
Haft Iklim, s. v. Dihli). He left for the Hidjaz in 
996 (Adhkdr-i Abrdr, Urdu transl. of Ghawjhl's 
Gulzdr-i Abrdr, Agra 1326, 559), studying for several 
years with the famous scholars there (of whom he 
gave an account in his Zdd al-Muttakin). On his 
return, he taught for half a century in Delhi. He 
won the favour of Djahangir (who praises him in 
the Tuzuk-i Djahdngiri, Aligarh 1864, 28a) and 
Shahdjahan. 'Ubayd Allah KbTeshgl, Mukhtasar 
Ma'dridi al-Wilaya, Panjab Univ. Libr. MS. fol. 258 
v., quotes a risdla by c Abd al-Hakk against the 
"ecstatic phrases" (shafhiyydt) of Ahmad Kabull 
{Mudjaddid-i alf-i thdni, d. 1034), but ultimately 



<ABD al-HAKK B. SAYF AL-DlN — <ABD AL-HAKK HAMID 



the controversy was settled peacefully (Siddik 
Hasan Khan, Tiksdr Qjuyud al-Ahrdr, Bhopal 1298, 
185). The tomb of £ Abd al-Hakk is in the Hawd-i 
Shams! in Delhi. An inscription on the wall of the 
kubba gives a sketch of his life; it is quoted fully 
in Ghulam <Ali Azad, Ma'dthir al-Kirdm, Agra 1328, 
201; Akhbdr al-Akhydr, 6; W. Beale, Miftdh al- 
Tawdrikh, Cawnpur 1867, 246; Bashir al-Din 
Ahmad, Wdki c dt-i Hukumat-i Dihli, Agra 1919, iii, 
305. According to the Wdki'dt, <Abd al-Hakk's 
descendants in Dehli were still celebrating every 
year his c urs at the tomb. 

In his TaHlf Kalb al-Alif bi-Kitdbati Fihrist al- 
Tawdlif, appended to his treatise on the writers 
and poets of Delhi (cf. the Urdu periodical Tdrikh, 
Haydarabad-Deccan, vol. i, part 3-4), c Abd al- 
Hakk gives a list of his forty-nine works in Arabic 
and Persian. The following are the most important 
of his works: a Diwdn (cf. Subh-i Gulshan, Bhopal 
1295, 141); Lamahdt al-Tankih, Arabic commentary 
on al-Tibrizi's Mishkdt al-Masdbih; Ashi"at al- 
Lama'-At, a fuller, Persian, commentary on the 
Mishkdt, Lucknow 1277; Akhbdr al-Akhydr, lives 
of saints, mostly Indian ; Zubdat al-Athdr, biography 
of <Abd al-Kadir al-Djilani; Miftdh al-Futuh, 
Persian translation, with commentary, of al- 
Dillanl's Futuh al-Ghayb; Dhikr al-Muluk, a sketch 
of Indian history from the Ghurids to Akbar; 
Diadhb al-Kulub, a history of Medina, based mainly 
on al-Samhudl; Madaridx al-Nubuwwa, a biography 
of the, Prophet (Urdu transl.: Mandhidj al-Nubuwwa, 
Lucknow 1277). His main contribution is his share 
of the; popularization of the stud;- of Hadith in India. 
Bibliography: Autobiograpii> in Akhbdr 
al-Akhydr and another in the treatise on tne 
writers of Delhi; Tabakat-i Akbari (Engl. Transl.), 
Calcutta 1936, 692; c Abd al-Hamid, Bddshdh- 
ndma, i, 341; M. Salib, <-Amal-i Sdlih, iii, 384; 
Ithdf al-Nubald', Cawnpur 1289, 303;' Tiksdr, 112; 
Athdr al-Sanddid, Cawnpur 1904, 65 ; Cat. Peshawar 
Libr., 48, 173, 203 ff., 277; Brockelmann, ii, 549, 
S. i, 778, 277, 603; Storey, 194 ff., 181, 214, 427, 
441 ; Zubaid Ahmad, The contribution of India to 
Arabic literature, index. (Mohammad Shafi) 

<ABD al -HAKK HAMID (AbdOlhak HAmit), 
Turkish poet, born 2 Febr. 1852. He belonged to 
an old family of scholars which came from Izmir, 
but resided for some time in Egypt before returning 
to Istanbul in the second half of the 18th century. 
His grandfather, £ Abd al-Hakk Molla, was chief 
court physician, and a great favourite during that 
later period of Mabmud IPs reign which began in 
1826 and brought renewal to the Empire. He had 
a great part in the opening of the new School of 
Medicine, wrote occasional poetry and left a diary 
{Tar ikh-i Liwd?) describing the Sultan's sojourn in 
1828 (during the Russian war) in the barracks of 
Rami, supervising the training of the new army. 
(His two brothers were also authors). Hamid's 
father, Khavrullah Efendi, was one of the best 
historians of his day. He also wrote a journal of his 
visit to Paris (unpublished to this day) and was 
the author of the first Turkish play, Hikdye-yi 
Ibrahim Pasha. 

Hamid grew up in this cultured environment; 
the childhood reminiscences of his mother, a Cir- 
cassian slave girl, added to this intellectual back- 
ground a fairy tale touch and Hamid's work was 
to remain to the end marked by this dual influence. 
He began his studies in one of the newly founded 
state schools and continued them in Paris, where 
he went together with his father when he was eleven 



years old. Back in Istanbul, and later in Teheran, 
where his father was ambassador, he took private 
lessons, especially in Arabic and Persian. Among 
his tutors it was Tahsin Efendi who made the 
deepest impression on him. It was his influence 
that made Hamid's early works (among them a 
narrative in verse, Ghardm) interesting records of 
the first clash between Western science and philo- 
sophy and Muslim faith. 

After his father's death Hamid went back to 
Istanbul and entered the Civil Service; in 1876 
he was appointed second secretary to the embassy 
in Paris. He had married in 1871, in Edirne, Fatma 
Khanlm. of the well-known Pirizade family. In 
Paris he met the ex-Prime Minister Midhat 
Pasha. Letters and works written in that period 
testify to the intellectual crisis he was then going 
through. On his return he was appointed consul 
in Poti (Russia), then in Golos (Greece), finally in 
Bombay. On his way back in 1885 his wife died; 
her death affected deeply Hamid and his poetry. 
In 1885 he was appointed first secretary in London, 
then minister in The Hague, returning as secretary, 
then counsellor, to the London embassy. In 1908 
Hamid, then ambassador in Brussels, became a 
member of the Senate, and acted, during the first 
world war, as a deputy president. When the Senate 
was dissolved, he went to Vienna, returning towards 
the end of the war of independence. He was elected 
to the National Assembly in 1928. He died in 1937 
and was given a national funeral. 

His works before going to Europe (1873-6): 
Mddjerd-yi "-Ashk, Sabr u Thebdt, I Hi Kiz, Dukhter-i 
Hindu, Nazife. Between his journey to Europe and 
his wife's death (1876-85): Nesteren, Tdrik yahut 
Endulus Fdtihi, Sahrd, Tezer, Eshber. 1885-1908: 
Makber, Olu, Hadjle, Bunlar o dur, Diwdneliklerim 
yahut Belie, Bir Sefilenin Hasb-i Hdli. 1908-23: 
Zeyneb — written 1887, Baladan bir ses, Ilkhdn, 
Liberti, Wdlidem, Turkhan, Ilhdm-i Wafan, Mektuplar 
I, II, Abdulldh-i Saghir, Finten— 1887, Jayiflar 
Getidi, Yddigar-i Harp, Ibn-i Musd — 1881, Yabanaji 
dostlar, Arziler, Ifahbe (Bir Sefilenin Hasb-i Hdli), 
Khdkdn. Hep weya Hie — first collection of poems, 
the play Diiinun ii c Ashk and some letters, as well 
as the last play, Kdnuninin Widjdan Azabi, remained 
unpublished; the memoirs that have appeared in 
various newspapers have not come out in book form. 

Hamid's first drama, Mddjerd'yi 'Ashk, is a 
youthful attempt which contains already the 
romantic elements to be developed later on by 
him. Sabr ii Thebdt and Icli Kiz are of local inspi- 
ration, full of comedy and rich in elements of folklore. 
Influenced also by his relative Ahmed Wefik Pasha 
[?.«.], it was from the school of ShinasI [q.v.] that 
his personality received its first strong stamp. 
Hamid belongs to the second generation of inno- 
vators, the first being that of ShinasI. Too young 
to join the Young Turks around Namik Kemal 
[q.v.], he was strongly influenced by the literature 
of that movement. But although Hamid followed 
Namik Kemal in his search of the ideal man, his real 
function may be seen in his achievement of a new 
Turkish poetry. In a short poem inserted in his play 
Dukhter-i Hindu, Hamid changed the long estab- 
lished rhyme scheme, abandoned the conventional 
poetic themes and images and enlarged the horizon 
of his poetry by bringing it into direct contact 
with life. In the collections of poems Belde and 
Sahrd, partly written in Paris, this revolution is 
even deeper. In his third collectibn of poems Bunlar 
o dur he already appears as master of a new and better 



<ABD al-HAKK HAMID — l ABD al-HAMID I 



literary form and while sometimes still hesitating, 
finally strikes a happy harmony between thought 
and language. His works reflect his joy in redis- 
covering nature, to which he no doubt owes the 
pantheistic strain of his poetry. 

Nowhere, however, can Hamid's personality be 
so clearly perceived as in the poems written on 
his wife's death : Makber, Olii, Hadjle. Obsession 
with death, already present in Ghardm. is here still 
more persistent and the problems of human destiny 
are treated with genuine anguish. The influence of 
a society which had lost the purity of its peaceful 
faith in Islam and looked with apprehension at the 
changing world, and the literary influence of Ziya 
pasha's two poems Terkib-i Bend and Terdji c -i 
Bend which Hamid had read in his youth with 
great admiration, contributed to strengthen this 
feeling of anguish. Makber is doubtlessly Hamid's 
masterpiece. Fatma's image seems never to have 
been absent from his mind and it is significant 
that his second wife Nelly, whom he married in 
England, resembled greatly his dead wife. Hamid's 
poems written in this second period show affinities 
of thought, if not of vision, with those of V. Hugo, 
especially with such pieces as Dieu and La Fin 
de Satan. In the poetry written after his appoint- 
ment to London, there is less philosophical searching, 
but the inspiration is of a clearer perfection. For 
example, his poem "On passing through Hyde 
Park" is one of the best ever written in Turkish 
on the subject of nature and freedom. However, 
c Abd al-Hamid's prohibition of the publishing of 
his poems in the Istanbul newspapers put an end 
to this third period of his literary career. 

In his preface to Dukhter-i Hindu Hamid exposed 
his preference for the romantic and exotic drama; 
from then onwards, in all his plays, even in plays 
such as Eshber, Nesteren or Tezer that seem by their 
very subject to be nearer to the French classical 
theatre, he remained faithful to this conception. 
A despair born of political reasons and of the reali- 
zation that his plays would never see the stage, make 
these pieces overloaded with speculation, while the 
dramatic situation is either absent or lost under 
the wealth of incident. Though a play like Finlen 
pretends to be a picture of English life, though 
the dialogues of Ruhlar and Taylflar Gelidi are 
dealing with the problem of man's destiny, most 
of the plays are historical. They deal with ancient 
India, Greece {Eshber), Mesopotamia (Sarddnapdl), 
Turkish history in Central Asia, history of Andalusia. 
Eshber, supposed to be influenced by Racine's 
Alexandre and by Comeille, is an apology of pacifism 
and patriotism, while Tdrik is the expression of 
Namik Kemal's ideology. A peculiar feature of 
these plays is Hamid's endeavour to assign to 
woman her place in life. In Zeyneb, in Ibn-i Musd, 
sequel of Tdrik and in Finlen, Hamid appears as 
a follower of Shakespeare. 

Hamid has deeply influenced Turkish poetry. The 
generations both of Therwet-i Fiinun and Fedjr-i 
Ali were under the impact of Hamid, and followed 
the creative and revolutionary lead which he had 
given in language and form. He not only employed 
new metres unknown in Turkish poetry up to his day, 
but also quantitative verse. He even tried a sort of 
blank verse. In his drama he came nearer to spoken 
language. As, however, his works written after 
1885 were not published at the time, he had little 
share in the developments that took place after- 
wards. His real influence, starting in 1885, can be 
said to have stopped already in 1905. 



Bibliography: P. Horn, Geschickte der Tur- 
kischen Moderne, 34 ff.; Gibb, Ottoman poetry, i, 
133-5, iv, p. VII; Riza Tewfik, 'Abdiilhakk Hamid. 
we Miilahafdt-i Felsefiyesi, Istanbul 1918; Turk 
Yurdu Medjmu'-asi, ii, no. 13, Istanbul 1933; 
UlkU Mecmuasi, ix, no. 51, Ankara 1937 (both 
special numbers about the poet); Sabri Esad 
Siyavusgil, in I A, s.v. Abdulhak HSmid; Mehmed 
Kaplan, "Garam" daki ictimat ve felsefi fikirler, 
1st. Univ. Edebiyat Fak. Turk dill ve edebiyati 
dergisi, 1946, 246-60; idem, Tabiat karsisinda 
Abdulhak Hamid, ibid., 1949, 333-49; 1951, 
167-87; Ahmed Hamdi Tanpinar, XIX. asir 
Turk edebiyati tarihi, Istanbul 1949, 278-466. 
(A. Hamdi Tanpinar) 
C ABD AL-JJAMlD I (AbdOlhamid), Ottoman 
Sultan, born 5 Radjab 1137/20 March 1725, suc- 
ceeded his brother Mustafa 8 Dhu 1-Ka c da 1187/ 
21 January 1774. 

<Abd al-Hamld succeeded to the throne during 
a war with Russia, in which financial difficulties, 
rebellions in various provinces, and the weariness 
aroused by ill success made the cessation of hostilities 
an absolute necessity for Turkey. At the same time 
Russia also had been placed by the Pugacev revolt 
in a position to welcome peace. The new Sultan, 
however, was unwilling to end the war without 
some kind of victory, and the Porte accordingly 
refused to accept the Russian proposals for peace 
talks; hostilities were reopened, and the Turkish 
army was defeated at Kozludja. The rout spread 
to the headquarters at Shumla of the Grand Vizier 
Muhsin-zade Mehmed Pasha, who was forced to sue 
for peace from the Russian commander Rumjancev. 
The treaty by which the war was terminated, 
and which was dictated by the Russians, was signed 
on 12 Djumada I, 1188/21 July 1774 at Kucuk 
Kaynardje [q.v.] and is known by the name of that 
town. By its terms the Crimea was to become an 
independent state ; and Russia obtained the fortresses 
on the coast of the Sea of Azof (Azak), the lands 
of Lesser and Greater Kabartay, the area between 
the rivers Dniepr and Bug, freedom of navigation 
in the Black Sea, and the right to pass merchant 
ships through the Straits. Its most dangerous feature 
for Turkey was the wording of some of the clauses 
in such a way as to lead Russia to claim the right to 
protect Turkish subjects belonging to the Orthodox 
church; in return, however, Russia recognized a 
somewhat vaguely stated claim by the Sultan, as 
khalifa, to religious authority over all Muslims. 
After this treaty Austria too took advantage of the 
weakness of Turkey and annexed Bukovina, hitherto 
part of the principality of Moldavia (1775). 

In 1774 war broke out also between Turkey and 
Persia, following a Persian invasion of Kurdistan. 
Ottoman forces were despatched to Baghdad in 
1175, with the object of putting an end to the rule 
of the Mamliiks, but the Porte was forced to recognize 
their administration, and in the following year 
Basra fell to the Persians. In 1779 it was evacuated 
in consequence of internal disturbances in Persia, 
and reoccupied by the mamluk Sulayman Agha, 
who was then granted the three pashallks of al- 
l Ir5k (1180). 

The peace of Kucuk Kaynardje proved to be no 
more than an armistice between Turkey and Russia. 
Catherine II continued to aim at the annexation of 
the Crimea, whereas the Porte was trying to bring 
the principality back to its former status. For this 
reason the Crimea became an area of conflict and 
of Russian intervention under various forms; and 



'ABD AL-HAMlD I 



63 



in addition, the clauses concerning the Straits and 
the Orthodox Christians in Turkey were subjects 
of contention between the two countries. Although 
it seemed at one time that war was imminent over 
the Crimean question, the terms relating to the 
Crimea in the treaty of Kucuk Kaynardje were 
interpreted and reaffirmed by a Convention, in 
which France acted as mediator, signed at Istanbul 
in the pavilion of Aynali-Kawak on 10 March 1779. 

Nevertheless, Catherine II, after forming an 
alliance against Turkey with Joseph II (who had 
succeeded Maria Theresa on the throne of Austria), 
stirred up a revolt in the Crimea against the Khan 
Shahin Giray, and on this pretext sent an army to 
the Crimea and annexed it to Russia. 'Abd al-Hamld 
I, though deeply mortified by this action, could not, 
being aware of the weakness of his empire, envisage 
going to war. When, however, the 'Czarina began 
to form far-reaching schemes for the setting up of 
a Greek state with her grandson Constantine 
PavloviC at its head, the Porte could no longer 
tolerate the menacing demonstrations against 
Turkey provoked by her and her ally Joseph II. 

In spite of the Sultan's love of peace, war was 
declared against Russia and Austria by the Grand 
Vizier Kodja Yusuf Pasha (1787), when a request 
for the return of the Crimea was rejected, and 
Sweden subsequently joined in on the side of Turkey. 
An attack by the Turkish fleet in the direction of 
Kilburun was unsuccessful, and the Russians laid 
siege to the fortress of Ocakov. The Turkish army, 
however, attached mote importance to the Austrian 
campaign and after twice defeating, at Vidin and 
Slatin, the Austrian armies which had taken the 
offensive along the Danube, invaded the Banat. On 
the other hand, the Turkish fleet failed in its attempt 
to relieve Ocakov, and after a long resistance the 
fortress fell and its population was put to the sword. 
'Abd al-Hamid, whose health was already under- 
mined by the worries of the war, died of a stroke 
on reading the news, 11 Radjab 1203/7 April 1789. 

Although c Abd al-Hamld I, who succeeded to 
the throne at an advanced age after spending most 
of his life in the seclusion of the palace, cannot 
be considered an energetic and successful sovereign, 
he is noted for his zeal, humanity, and benevolence. 
He gave wide powers, for that time, to his Grand 
Viziers and left them free in their conduct of affairs, 
and he endeavoured to strengthen the central 
government against rebel forces within the empire; 
e.g. he sent a punitive expedition under Djeza'irli 
Hasan Pasha against Zahir al- c Umar, who had 
acquired great influence in Syria, and against the 
rebellious Mamluk beys in Egypt. It may be observed 
that whereas during his reign the Porte followed a 
special policy towards Caucasia by trying to civilize 
the Circassian tribes and to attach them to Turkey 
and, in order to further this object, developed 
Sogudjuk and Anapa, the Russians, in opposition 
to this policy, supported the Georgians. 

The most important of the Grand Viziers of 
'Abd al-Hamld I was Khalil Hamid Pasha, who 
was a supporter of reforms and, in order to put 
them into effect, tried to dethrone the old Sultan 
and to put the young prince Selim (afterwards 
Selim III) in his place. During the tenure of office 
of this enlightened Grand Vizier, who paid for his 
attempt with his life, the corps of Cannonneers, 
Bombardiers and Miners were reorganized. 

The opening of the Imperial Naval Engineering 
School (Muhandiskhdne-yi bahri-yi humayun), for 
the education of trained officers, and the reopening 



of Ibrahim Muteferrika's [q.v.] printing house, which 
had been allowed to fall into disuse, are among the 
achievements of 'Abd al-Hamld I. He also founded 
the Beylerbeyi and Mirgun mosques on the Bosporus, 
as well as a number of benefactions such as libraries, 
schools, soup-kitchens, and fountains. 

Bibliography: Wasif, Ta'rikh, ii, Istanbul 

1219; 'Asim, TaMhh, i, Istanbul n.d.; Djew- 

det, Ta'rikh, ii-iv, Istanbul 1309; Ahmed ResmI, 

Khulasat al-IHibdr, Istanbul 1307; Mehmed 

Sadik, Wak'a-i Ifamidiyye, Istanbul 1289; 

Aywansarayl Husayn, Hadikat al-djawdmi', ii, 

Istanbul 1281; Ismail Hakki Uzuncarsili, HaXil 

Hamid Pasa, Turkiyat Mec, 1936; Hammer, 

Histoire de I'Empire ottoman, Fr. tr., xvi, Paris 

1839, and other histories of the Ottoman Empire; 

A. Sorel, La question d'Orient, Paris 1878; Baron 

de Tott, Memoires, Amsterdam 1785; G. Noran- 

dounghian, Recueil d'actes internationaux de 

I'Empire ottoman, iv, Paris 1897-1903; S. H. 

Longrigg, Four centuries of modern Iraq, Oxford 

1925, 180-96; T. W. Arnold, The Caliphate, 

Oxford 1924, 165-6. (M. Cavid Baysun) 

'ABD AL-tIAMlD II (GhazI) (AbdOlhamid), 

36th Ottoman sultan, fifth child of thirty of 

'Abd al-Madjid (Abdulmecid) [q.v.], bom Wednesday, 

21 September 1842. He is traditionally represented 

as a reserved child, easily offended, and, in spite 

of his keen intelligence, not given to study. It is 

said that, after a stormy youth, he led a thrifty 

family life, which earned him the undeserved 

nickname 'Pinti Hamid', Hamid the Skinflint, taken 

from a comedy by Kassab. He early showed a great 

liking for the company of devout persons (Pertew- 

niyal, a distortion of Pertew-nihal, wdlde sultan of 

'Abd al-'Aziz) and for mystics, soothsayers, and 

wonder-workers (the shaykh 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sur 

of Sayda, prototype of the astrologer Abu-'l-Huda, 

who later exerted so great an influence on C A.). 

On 1 September 1876 he succeeded his brother 

Murad V, who had been deposed, with the support 

of the Young Turks, whose leader, the celebrated 

Midhat (Mithat) Pasha [q.v.], was a former grand 

vizier of Sultan 'Abd al-'Aziz. The Porte was then 

engaged in victorious war with Milan, prince of 

Serbia, and Nicholas I of Montenegro. To put a 

stop to the intervention of the powers, 'A., in 

agreement with Midhat, initiated an international 

conference at Istanbul, and on the very day of its 

opening (23 December 1876) a khaii-i humayun 

promulgated the first Constitution or Mnun-i 

(kanunu) esdsl, a 'fundamental Law' instituting a 

two-Chamber parliamentary system. This Parliament, 

summoned to meet on 17 March 1877, and presided 

over by the famous Ahmed Wefik Pasha [q.v.], was 

prorogued sine die on 13 February 1878 (actually for 

a period of thirty years). 

In the course of his reign Turkey had to wage 
two wars, one with Russia (1877-8), the other with 
Greece (18 April-5 June 1897); finally the inextri- 
cable Macedonian imbroglio, in which the most 
varied races were bitterly engaged, led to inter- 
ventions by the Concert of Europe which precipitated 
the Young Turk revolution. On 5 July 1908 the 
vice-major (kol-aghasi) Niyazi Bey took to the 
mountains at Resna and seized Monastir. On the 
23rd, the major (bin-bashi) Enwer Bey, former 
military attache in Berlin, rose in revolt at Salonika. 
The sultan gave way, and the Constituent Assembly, 
which had never disappeared from the official 
Year-book (sal-name), was simply revived on 24 July 
(which was later kept as a national holiday). After 



C ABD al-HAMID II 



the coup de force carried out by the 
and by troops roused to fanaticism, on 13 April 
1909, the 3rd army corps of Macedonia, commanded 
by Marshal Mahmud Shewket, which had for that 
occasion become an "investing" or "marching" 
army (hareket ordusu), brought back the fugitive 
Young Turks and the Constitution to Istanbul (24 
April). 

c Abd al-Hamid was deposed by a decision (kardr- 
ndme) of the two Chambers, meeting as a National 
Assembly on 28 April 1909, based on a fatwa of the 
same day, a document in which appeared in particular 
the strange imputation that he had "forbidden and 
burnt the books of the religious Law". The brother of 
*Abd al-Hamid, Muhanutiad (Mehmet) Reshad, 
succeeded him as Muhammad V. 

c Abd al-Hamid was exiled to Salonika. When the 
Balkan war broke out, in 1912, he was moved to 
the palace of Beylerbeyi (on the Bosphorus). He 
died there of pneumonia, on Sunday, 10 February 
1918, at the age of 75, and was buried in the turbe 
of his grandfather, Mahmud II. 

The two salient points of Abd al-Hamld's political 
system were absolutism and Panislamism. 

1) Absolutism (istibdad). — Although their power 
was unlimited, c Abd al-Hamld's predecessors inter- 
fered relatively little in the affairs of government. 
They usually left it to their plenipotentiary repre- 
sentative, the grand vizier (Sadr a'sam), who was 
regarded as their wekil-i mutlak (a term which has 
sometimes been translated as 'vicar absolute'). The 
government was "the (Sublime) Porte" of the grand 
vizier. c Abd al-Hamid wished to create an instrument 
of domination carrying even closer personal control, 
and he gave great importance to "the Palace" or 
"the Court". In Turkish, this was termed the 
Mabey{i)n, an Arabic term which means literally 
"that (which is) between (the private apartments 
and the Porte)". It was a separate building (within 
the precincts of Yildlz), and contained the offices 
of the chamberlains (mdbeyndii) and of the rappor- 
teurs or referendaries (dmedji or dmedl). Hence the 
power of the first secretary of the Mdbeyn (of the 
sultan, in actual fact) — Tahsin Pasha, for instance — 
or of a second secretary such as 'Izzet 'Abed, a 
Syrian who was the object of public execration. 
The palace of YUdlz, usually shortened to Yildlz 
[q.v.], with its harem and its administrative depart- 
ments, became a sort of town with several thousand 
residents — a town half shrouded in secrecy, which 
long haunted and terrified people's imaginations, 
often without Cause. 

This system, carried on at a time when there 
existed a strong revolutionary ferment, was not 
calculated to discourage conspiracies, and it was 
only by miraculous good fortune that c Abd al-Hamid 
escaped an Armenian bomb in 1905. This only 
intensified the fear and suspicion which dominated 
all his life. He encouraged informing and espionage, 
which developed into an incredibly complicated 
network. The name khafiyye, which means literally 
"secret (police)" finally came to include the whole 
range of informers and spies, from the highest social 
levels to the lowest. Written denunciations were 
known as diurnal, from an expression borrowed for- 
merly from Muhammad c Ali of Egypt, and which 
meant originally "daily administrative report". 

The severity of the censorship reached a degree 
of ineptitude that seems incredible, but is proved 
by authentic documents. The censor struck out words 
like wafan, "fatherland", because it was a conception 
that implied rivalry to dynasty and religion, and 



other words, such as liberty, explosion, bomb, 
regicide, murder, plot, etc. 

2) Panislamism. — c Abd al-Hamid had a deep sense 
of the importance of his role (which was, however, 
debatable) of khalifa, by virtue of which he was 
protector of the religion of Islam (art. 3 of the 
Constitution of 1876). He greatly esteemed Djamal 
al-dln al-Afghani [q.v.], who had held out to him the 
bright prospect of bringing the Shi'ites themselves 
back into the bosom of Sunnism. This sterile and 
even dangerous policy was largely based on the 
illusion that he could count on the loyalty of the 
Arabs, his spoilt children. 

Strangely enough, the Turcologist Arminius 
Vambery, a Hungarian Jew who was on terms of 
friendship with 'Abd al-Hamid, encouraged him in 
these tendencies. They had one useful result at 
least, in that they prompted c Abd al-Hamid to 
build the Hidjaz railway to the holy places of Islam. 
This undertaking, which had also strategic value 
because of the frequent troubles in the Yaman, and 
of which c Abd al-Hamid was justly proud, was 
paid for by collections made exclusively among 
Muslims, and by the revenue from the "Hidjaz- 
stamp". The railway was begun on 1 September 1900, 
on the 25th anniversary of the Sultan's accession. 
It was also the indirect cause of the Anglo-Turkish 
dispute over Taba and the Gulf of c Akaba, in which 
England appeared for the first time (1906) as the 
official defender of Egyptian interests. The line 
reached Medina in 1908. 

Another manifestation of Panislamism was less 
successful. This was the sending to Japan of the 
screw training ship Ertogrul, a wooden vessel that 
went down within sight of the Japanese coast 
(25 September 1890). 

The European press and caricaturists accused 
c Abd al-Hamid of blind fanaticism, and branded 
him with the name of 'Red Sultan' because of the 
role attributed to him in the suppression of revolts 
or of bloody conflicts in Macedonia and Crete, and 
especially Armenia (risings in 1894 and 1895, raid 
on the Ottoman Bank in 1896). The least that can 
be said, indeed, is that he did little or nothing to 
prevent horrible massacres (just as he did nothing 
to prevent extortion). On the other hand, the 
atrocities had begun before his time, and did not 
stop after his disappearance. The Turkish population, 
fanaticized for these occasions, was not the only 
one to take part. There were also other Muslims: 
the Circassian immigrants from the Caucasus, and 
the Kurds. 

It would be unjust to judge c Abd al-Hamid, who 
has so often been accused of obscurantism, without 
giving him credit for all the institutions established 
during his reign. 

Physically, c Abd al-Hamid had regular features, 
an aquiline nose and lightcoloured eyes, but as he 
grew older his appearance became that of a bent 
and hunted old man. He had a loud, deep voice, 
and knew how to be agreeable. In his dress he was 
quiet, very simple, and distinguished. He was a man 
of contrasts. Very approachable, unlike most of the 
Ottoman sultans, he was given to sudden fits of 
anger, which were, however, quickly suppressed. 
Authoritarian to the point of despotism, very 
intelligent, and possessed of an excellent memory, 
he had an exceptional capacity for work, and liked 
to deal with all affairs himself — a paralysing trait 
in the head of a State. 

Bibliography: Works, in alphabetical order 

of authors, which, without being general histories 



<ABD AL-HAMlD II — <ABD AL-HAMlD 



of Turkey, are devoted entirely or in part to 
c Abd al-Hamld. (No sultan has elicited in Europe 
so many studies, for the most part tendentious). 
<Abd til-Rahman Sheref and Ahmed Refik, 
Sultan 'A. thdniye daHr (deposing; burial), Istanbul 
1918; 'All Haydar Midhat Bey, Midhat-Pacha, sa 
vie, son oeuvre (chap, v), Paris 1908 (Turkish 
version, Cairo 1322/1906); idem, Hatlralarlm 
1872-1946, Istanbul 1946, 194-216; c Ali Nouri, 
Vnter dem Scepter des Sultan, Berlin 1908; Ali 
Vahbi Bey, Pensies et souvenirs de V ex-sultan 
C A., Paris, n.d.; P. Anmeghian, Pour le jubiU 
du Sultan, Brussels 1900; B. Bareilles, Les Tuns, 
Paris 1917, chap, viii; V. Berard, La politique 
du Sultan, Paris 1897; H. Borotra, Lettres orien- 
tates, Paris 1893, 74-86, 90-2; Bresnitz von 
Sydatoff, C A. und die Ckristenvervolgungen in der 
Turkei, Berlin 1896; G. Charmes, L'avenir de la 
Turquie.-Le Panislamisme, Paris 1883 (a remark- 
able and objective study) ; Damad Mahmud Pacha, 
Lettre au sultan A., Paris 1900; idem, Protes- 
tation . . ., n. p., n. d. ; (Turkish text, Cairo) ; 
Anna Bownan [Blacke] Dodd, In the Palace of 
the Sultan, New York 1903; G. Dorys (pseudonym), 
A. intime (7th ed.) Paris, 1907; the same work in 
Engl, transl. (N. Y. 1901), and in Germ. (Munich 
1902) ; E. Fazy, Les Turcs d'aujourd'hui ou le grand 
Karagheuz, Paris 1898, 217-61 (Turkish transl. 
by Djemil Zekl and Refik Newzat, Paris 1898); 
P. Fesch, Consple aux demiers jours d'A., Paris 
1907; P. Fremont, A. et son rigne, Paris 1895; 
E. Freville, Deux audience impiriales . . ., Reims 
1903; A. Fua, A. et M our ad V, masque de fer, 
Paris 1909; G. Gaulis, La mine d'un empire. A., 
ses amis et ses peuples, Paris 1913; R. Gillon, 
Vers Stamboul, suivi d'une annexe sur le regime 
hamidien et la Turquie constitutionnelle, Courtrai 
1908; G. des Godins de Souhesnes, Au pays des 
Osmanlis, Paris 1894, chap, xiv: Flagorneries ; 
J. Grand-Carteret, Une Turquie nouvelle pour les 
Turcs — La Turquie en images, Paris 1908 (repro- 
ductions of caricatures) ; C. Hecquard, La Turquie 
sous A., Brussels 1901; Hidayette, A. revolution- 
naire..., Zurich 1896; P. Imbert, La renovation 
de I'Empire Ottoman . . ., Paris 1909 (Turkish 
transl. by Hasan Ferhat-Angel, Istanbul, 1329/ 
1913; Ismail Kemal Bey, The memoirs of..., ed. 
t>y Sommerville Story, London 1920; Kamil Pasha, 
Khatlrat... 1st., 1329/1913; Kamil Pashanln A'-yan 
ReHsi SaHd Pashaya Djewdblari, 1st. 1328/1912; 
A. H. Kober, Zwischen Donau und Bosporus, 
Frankfurt/M. ; de Keratry, Mourad V, Paris 1878 
<a good, objective work); K. Kiintzer, A. und 
die Reformen. . ., Dresden 1897; E. Le Jeune and 
Diran Bey, Comment on sauve un empire ou S. M. 
le sultan ghazi A. khan II, Paris 1895; A. de 
Lusignan, The twelve years' reign of A..., London 
1889; MacColl (Malcolm), Le sultan et les grandes 
Puissances, transl. from Engl., Paris 1890; F. 
MacCullagh, The fall of A., London 1910; Mehmet 
Memduh Pasha, Taswir-i Ahwdl, Tenwir-i Istihbdl, 
Izmir 1328/1912; ibid., KhalHer idjldslar, 1st. 
1329/1913, 133-78; Melek Hanoum, A.'s 
daughter, the tragedy of an Ottoman princess, 
London 191 3; Muhammad Abu '1-Huda Efendi, 
Hadha Diwdn... (Poems in Arabic, in honour 
of A.), Cairo 1897; Mustafa Refik, Ein kleines 
Sundenregister A.'s. Dem jungtiirkischen Komite 
in Genf zugeeignet, Geneva 1899; N. Nicolaides, 
S. M. Imp. A. khan II, sultan, reformateur et 
riorganisateur , Brussels 1907; ibid., S. M. I. A. 
Khan II, I'Empire ott. et les puissances balkaniques, 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



Brussels 1908; ibid., Lettre ouverte a S.M. I. le 
Sultan A. khan II, Rome 1908; Sultana Nitisha, 
My harem life, an intimate autobiography of the 
sultan's favourite, London 1939; 'Othman Nurl 
'Ergin', A.-i Thdni we Dewr-i Saltaneti, 1st., 
1327/1911; O.P., Mourad V, vrai kalife, sultan 
Ugitime a A. II, usurpateur. Leare d S.M. I'Emp. 
d'Allemagne, Paris 1898; E. Pears, Life of A., 
London 1917; ibid., Forty years in Consple., 
1873-1915, London 1916; L. Radet and H. Lebrun, 
Rifutation des accusations dirigees contre le sultan 
A. II, Paris 1882; P. de Regla (P. A. Desjardin), 
La Turquie officielle, Paris 1881 ; ibid., Au pays 
de Vespionnage. Les Sultans Mourad V a A. II, 
Paris, n.d.; A. Renouard, Chez les Turcs en 1881, 
Paris 1881, chap, xiii; G. Rizas, Les mysteres de 
Yildiz ou A.,sa vie politique a intime, Consple. 1909 
(copies textually from G. Dorys, P. de Regla, etc.); 
G. Roy, A., le sultan rouge, Paris 1936 (biographical 
novel) ; G. Sabungi and L. Bari, Jehan Aftab, 'the 
sun of the world', A.'s last love, Detroit 1923; Sa'id 
Pashanln Khatlratl, 1st. 1328/1912; SaHd Pashanln 
Kamil Pasha Khafiratina Djewdblari : Sharki 
Rumeli, Mlslr ve Ermeni Meselelerl, 1st. 1327/1911 ; 
H. de Schwiter, 3 Sultans, d' Abdul Azis & A., Paris 
1900; B. Stern, A. II, seine Familie und sein 
Hofstadt, Budapest 1901; idem, Der Sultan und 
seine Politik, Leipzig 1900; idem, Jungtiirken und 
Verschwdrer . . ., Leipzig 1901 ; Tahsln Pasha, 
A. ve Ylldlz hatlraiarl, 1st., 1931; Yousouf Fehmi 
or J. Fehmi, Les coulisses hamidiennes devoilees 
par un Jeune Turc, 1904; Z. Ziya Sakir, Ikinci 
Sultan Hamid, 1st. 1343. 

On the grand viziers of C A., see Ibnulemin 
Mahmut Kemal Inal, Osmanll devrinde son 
sadrazamlar, 1st. 1340-50. 

The numerous articles in periodicals are not 
given. (J. Deny) 

C ABD al HAMlD B. Ya^ya b. Sa c d, the 
founder of Arabic epistolary style, mawld 
of the Kurashl clan of c Amir b. Lu'ayy. He was 
probably a native of al-Anbar, and is said to have 
been a travelling pedagogue before he was employed 
in the Umayyad secretariat under Hisham's chief 
secretary, the mawld Salim; he was then attached 
to MarwSn b. Muhammad, whom he continued to 
serve as chief secretary after Marwan's accession to 
the Caliphate. He refused to desert his master in 
misfortune and is generally said to have shared 
his fate at Buslr on 26 Dhu 'l-Hidjdja 132/5 August 
750. According to another account he took refuge 
in the house of his disciple Ibn al-Mukaffa c , but was 
traced and seized. His descendants continued to live 
in Egypt under the name of Banu '1-Muhadjir and 
furnished secretaries to Ahmad b. Tulun. 

The surviving compositions of c Abd al-Hamid, 
comprising six formal rasdHl and a few chancery 
pieces and private letters, exhibit a remarkable 
divergence of styles. His most elaborate risala, a 
long epistle addressed to Marwan's son and heir 
c Abd Allah, with advice on personal conduct, 
ceremonial, and the conduct of war, is composed 
in a language and style based on the idioms, rhythms, 
and vivid metaphors of Arabic poetry and rhetoric, 
but elaborated by the addition of often lengthy 
sequences of qualifying clauses. Since the same style 
appears in most of his other official rasdHl, it can 
only be conjectured (in the absence of earlier secre- 
tarial documents) that this feature — unusual in both 
earlier and later Arabic style — is to be traced to 
Greek influences in the Umayyad s 



<ABD al-HAMID — <ABD al-KADIR 



His most famous risala, on the other hand, that 
addressed to the Secretaries (kuttdb), setting forth 
the dignity of their office and their responsabilities, 
is fluent, simple and straightforward. A comparison 
of its contents with the writings of Ibn al-Mukaffa c 
and later quotations from Persian works shows clearly 
that it is inspired by the tradition of the Sasanid 
secretariat, and largely reproduces with an Islamic 
gloss the maxims of the Iranian dibhers (see A. 
Christensen, L'Iran sous Us Sassanides 1 , Copenhagen, 
1944, 132 ff.). Also of Persian inspiration, and quite 
distinct from the traditional Arabic presentation 
of the subject, is his risala describing the incidents 
of a hunt, evidently written for the entertainment 
of the court. A large proportion of the maxims ad- 
dressed to the prince in the first risala mentioned 
above are also derived from Sasanid court ceremonial 
and usages, although the military instructions are 
more probably influenced by Greek tactics, either 
through literary channels or from actual experience 

It would appear, therefore, that both views 

expressed by later Arabic critics in regard to <Abd 

al-Hamid are justified, in spite of their apparent 

incompatibility. On the one hand is the statement 

(e.g. al- c Askari, Dlwdn al-Ma'dni, ii, 89) that " c Abd 

al-Hamid extracted from the Persian tongue the 

modes of secretarial composition which he illustrated, 

and transposed them into the Arabic tongue". On 

the other hand there is the description of him 

(e.g. Ibn <Abd Rabbih, aW-Ikd al-Farid, ii, 169 

(1321) = iv, 165 (1944/1363) as having been "the 

first to open up the buds of rhetoric, to smooth 

out its ways, and to loosen poetry from its bonds". 

He was also a master of pithy epigram, several 

examples of which are recorded in the adab works. 

Bibliography: Djahshiyari, Wnzara' (Mzik), 

68-83 (Cairo 1938, 45-54); Istakhri, 145; Ibn 

Khallikan, no. 378 (trad, de Slane, ii, 173-5); 

Diamharat RasdHl al-'Arab, ed. A. Z. Safwat, 

Cairo 1937, ii, 433-8, 473-556 (edition of the 

rasdHl from the MS. of Aljmad b. Abi Tahir 

Tayfur) ; M. Kurd <Ali, RasdHl al-Bulaghd*, Cairo 

1946, 173-226; idem, in MM1A, ix, 513-31, 

557-600 (= Umard al-Baydn, Cairo 1937, i, 38-98); 

Taha Husayn, Min Hadith al-Shi'r wa 'l-Nathr', 

Cairo 1948, 34-52; Brockelmann, S I, 105. 

(H. A. R. Gibb) 
<ABD AL-tfAMlD LAHAWRl, Indo-Persian 
historian, died 1065/1654-5, author of the Pddshdh- 
ndma, an official history of the Indian sultan Shah 
Djahan. The work is composed of three parts, each 
containing the history of one decade. Only the first 
two parts, comprising the years 1037-1057, were 
written by c Abd al-Hamid; the last part was 
arranged by his pupil Muhammad Warith. Parts I 
and II were published in the Bibliotheca Indica, 
1866-72. 

Bibliography: Elliot and Dowson, History 0/ 
India, vii, 3 ff. ; Storey, ii, fasc. 3, 574-7. 
'ABD al-HAYY, Abu 'l-Hasanat Muhammad, 
the son of Mawlawi 'Abd al-Halim, an Indian 
theologian of the Hanafl school, associated with 
the famous seminary of Farangi Mahall, Lucknow, 
was born at Banda in Bundelkhand in 1264/1848. 
He studied with his father and another scholar till 
the age of seventeen, when he began to assist his 
father as a teacher. He twice made the pilgrimage 
to Mecca, where he met the Mufti Ahmad b. Zayni 
Dahlan [q.v.], from whom he obtained idjaza for 
a large number of works. He wrote glosses and 



in the Indian niadrasas, besides numerous works 
chiefly on religious and legal topics, mentioned by 
himself in his al-Ndfi c al-Kablr and in his introduction 
to his edition of al-Shaybani's recension of the 
Muwatta' (Delhi 1297, 27-9). As a work of general 
interest and utility, special mention is due to his 
al-FawdHd al-Bahiyya fi Tarddjim al-Hana/iyya 
(Delhi 1293; Cairo 1324), which is an abridgement, 
with additional biographical notices, of Mahmud b. 
Sulayman al-Kaffawi's KatdHb AHam al-Akhydr. 
He was a distinguished and influential teacher, 
whose lectures were attended by a large number 
of students, who achieved prominence as teachers, 
and scholars in their own turn. One of his pupils, 
Mawlawi Haflz Allah wrote his biography under the 
title of Kanz al-Barakat. He died at Lucknow in 
1304/1886. 

Bibliography: Raljman 'AH, Tadhkirat c Ula- 
md? Hind (in Persian, Lucknow 1894 and 1914), 
1 14-7; Zubaid Ahmad, The Contribution 0/ India 
to Arabic Literature (Jullundur 1946), 114, 186; 
Sarkis, Dictionnaire de bibliographic Arabe (Cairo 
1928), col. 1595-7; Brockelmann, S II, 857-78 
(where works nos. 18 and 19 are wrongly ascribed 
to the subject of this article). 

(Sh. Inayatullah) 
C ABD al KADIR b. £HAYBl al-Hafiz al- 
MaraghI, the greatest of the Persian writers 
on music. Born at Maragha, about the middle 
of the 8th/i4th century, he had become one of 
the minstrels of al-Husayn, the Djala'irid Sultan 
of c Irak, about 781/1379. Under the next Sultan, 
Ahmad, he was appointed the chief court minstrel, 
a post which he held until Timur captured Baghdad 
in 795/1393, when he was transported to Samarkand, 
the capital of the conqueror. In 801/1399 we find 
him at Tabriz in the service of Timur's wayward 
son Miranshah, for whose erratic conduct his "boon 
companions" were blamed. Timur acted swiftly with 
the sword, but 'Abd al-Kadir, being forewarned, 
escaped to Sultan Ahmad at Baghdad, although he 
once more fell into Timur's hands when the latter 
re-entered Baghdad in 803/1401. Taken back to 
Samarkand, he became one, of the four brilliant men 
who shed lustre on the court of Shahrukh. In 824/ 
1421, having written a music treatise for the Turkish 
Sultan Murad II, he set out for the Ottoman court 
to present it in person in 826/1423. Later he returned 
to Samarkand, dying at Harat in 838/March 1435. 
Of the fame of c Abd al-Kadir in his day, and s ; nce, 
there can be little doubt. Mu c in al-DIn-i Isfizari, the 
author of the Rawdat al-Qxanndt, eulogizes him foi 
his threefold talents as musician, poet, and painter, 
but it was more especially for his skill in music that 
he was called "the glory of the past age". In addition 
to being a deft performer on the lute ( c h<2») and a 
prolific composer (tasniji), he excelled as a music 
theorist. His most important treatise on music is 
the Didmi* al-Alhdn ("Encyclopaedia of Music"), 
autographs of which are preserved at the Bodleian 
Library and the Nuru 'OthmSniyya Library, Istanbul. 
The first of these, written in 808/1405 for his son 
Nur al-Din 'Abd al-Rahman, was revised by the 
author in 816/1413. The second, dated 818/1415, 
carries a dedication to Sultan Shahrukh. Several 
abridgments of this work by the author also exist, 
notably a shorter one, an autograph, without title, 
dated 821/1421, which is at the 3odleian. It was 
written, evidently, for Baysunghur. A longer version 
in the same library, called the Makdsid al-Alhdn 
("Purports of Music"), written about 834-7/1421-3, 
was dedicated to the Turkish Sultan Murad II, 



'ABD al-KADIR — C ABD al-KADIR b. MUHYI ' 



-DIN 



67 



according to the Leiden copy. A third treatise on 
music, the Kanz al-Tuhaf ("Treasury of Music") 
which contained the author's notated compositions, 
has not survived. His last work, the Shark al-Adwdr 
("Commentary on the [Kitdb al-] Adwdr" [of SafI al- 
Dln]), is to be found in the Nuru 'Othmaniyya 
Library. At Leiden there is a short Kitdb al-Adwdr 
in Turkish bearing his name. These works are of 
great importance in the history of Persian, Arabian, 
and Turkish music. Although only a few of his 
musical compositions have survived in the Diami 1 . 
many have been handed down viva voce in a form 
known in Turkish as the k'dr. 

A son, 'Abd al-'AzIz, who is thought to have 
settled at the Ottoman court after 1435, was the 
author of a music treatise, the Nakawat al-Adwdr 
("The Select of the Modes"), dedicated to the 
Turkish Sultan Muhammad II (d. 886/1481), whilst 
a grandson, Mahmud, who lived under Bayazid II 
(d. 918/1512), compiled a Makdsid al-Adwdr ("Pur- 
ports of the Modes"), both mss. being at the Nuru 
'Othmaniyya Library. 

Bibliography: Kh'andamir, iii, 3, 212: 

Dawlatshah, see index; Sharaf al-Din Yazdl, 

Zalar-ndma, i, 619; English version of the same 

History of Timur-Bec (1723), i, 439. 537-8; 

Munadidjim-bashi, iii, 57; Belin, Notice sur Mir 

Ali-Chir Nevdi, in J A, 1861, i, 283-4; Barbier de 

Meynard, Chronique Persane d'Hirdt, J A, 1862, ii, 

275-6; Browne, iii, 191, 384; Ra'uf Yekta, La mu- 

sique turque (Lavignac, Encyclopidie de la musique, 

pp. 2977-9); Ethe and Sachau, Catalogue of 

Persian . . . MSS. in the Bodleian Library, pp. 

1057-63; Catalogus codicum orientalium Bibl. Acad. 

Lugduno Bataviae, 1851-77, ii, 302-5; Nuru 

'Othmaniyya kutubkhdna defteri, Istanbul, Nos. 

3644, 3646, 3649, 3651; J. B. N. Land, Ton- 

schriftversuche und Melodieproben aus dem muham- 

medanischen Mittelalter (Vierteljahrsschrift fiir 

Musikwissenschaft, ii, 1886); Farmer, History of 

Arabian Music, 1929, 198-200. (H. G. Farmer) 

'ABD al-$ADIR b. MUHYI al-DIN al-HasanI, 

the Amir Abd el-Kader, descended from a 

family which originated in the Rif and had settled 

among the Hashim, was born in 1223/1808 at the 

guetna of the Wadi al-Hammam, some twenty 

kilometres west of Mascara. Studies at Arzew, then 

at Oran, marriage, and a pilgrimage to Mecca in 

1244/1828-9 were the most outstanding events in a 

youth that was devoted to the reading of sacred 

books and to physical exercises, under the direction 

of his father, who, by his piety and charity, had 

acquired a great influence. 

The indecision shown by the French after the 
capture of Algiers (5 July 1830) in the organization 
of their conquest favoured Muljyl al-Din in Orania, 
and he took the initiative in the strunggle against the 
Christians, but soon yielded first place to his son, 
who was proclaimed sultan of the Arabs on 5 Radjab 
1248/22 November 1832 by the Hashim, the Banu 
'Amir, and the Gharaba. In spite of the opposition 
of certain elements of the population and the failure 
of his supporters before Oran and Mostaganem 
(1833), 'Abd al-Kadir's action prevented the paci- 
fication of the country. This- state of affairs prompted 
General Desmichels to treat with his adversary 
(4 and 26 February 1834). Thus officially recognized 
the new Amir of the Faithful extended his authority 
to the gates of Algiers (April 1835), but his claims 
provoked the renewal of hostilities. First Clauzel 
and then Bugeaud avenged the defeat on the Macta 
(28 June) by burning Mascara (6 December), occupy- 



ing Tlemcen (13 January 1836), and winning a great 
victory on the Wadi Sikkak (6 July); but these 
successes were fruitless. Three times abandoned by 
his troops, 'Abd al-Kadir immediately regrouped 
them. The position of the French remained precarious, 
with their towns invested, their columns ceaselessly 
harassed, and their allies receiving heavy punish- 
ment. The desire to be secured against attacks in 
the west while, an expedition against Constantine 
was being carried out led Louis-Philippe's govern- 
ment to negotiate. By the signature of the treaty 
of the Tafna (30 May 1837) Bugeaud repeated, in 
a worse form, the mistake made by Desmichels. 
Though the French kept Oran, Arzew, Mostaganem, 
Blida, and Kolea, the Amir obtained the whole 
province of Oran, part of that of Algiers, as well as 
the whole bayllk of Titteri. 

From June 1837 to November 1839 'Abd al- 
Kadir used the cessation of hostilities to organize the 
territories that had been handed over to him. 
After establishing his capital at Tagdempt, he 
travelled about his new state, imposing chiefs, by 
force if necessary, on all the tribes between Morocco 
in the west and Kabylia in the east, and gaining 
recognition for his domination as far as the Sahara. 

In the course of these journeys 'Abd al-Kadir, 
taking advantage of the faulty wording of the 
Treaty of the Tafna, had gone beyond the boun- 
daries that had been assigned to him; Marshal 
Valee therefore submitted to him a draft of an 
additional treaty which accurately indicated, and 
reduced, the territories over which France recognized 
his rights, but he refused to ratify it. The 'Iron 
Gates' expedition, in the course of which the Duke 
of Orleans linked Constantine to Algiers, provided 
the Amir with a pretext for restarting the war. On 
20 November 1839 his forces invaded the Mitldja, 
sacking farms and massacring settlers. Algiers was 
threatened. The occupation of Miliana, then of 
Medea (May-June 1840) by the French did not ease 
their difficulties, for the supplying of their garrisons 
made necessary the movement of convoys which 
were exposed to continual attack. 

The nomination of Bugeaud as governor-general 
(29 December 1840) changed the course of events; 
he realized that Algeria would never be pacified 
until the power of 'Abd al-Kadir was crushed and 
until the tactics of 'active columns' took the place 
of 'limited occupation'. Between 1841 and 1843 he 
seized the towns of Tagdempt, Mascara, Boghar, 
Taza, Saida, Tlemcen, Sebdou and Nedroma, and 
sent out expeditions with instructions to capture 
his enemy and destroy his supporters. The capture 
of the smala (16 May 1843), the travelling capital 
of the Amir, was a serious blow to him. The tribes 
submitted to France. Hunted and weakened, 'Abd al- 
Kadir took refuge at the end of the year on the borders 
of Morocco, to obtain shelter, to recruit soldiers, and 
to compromise French relations with that empire. 

His hopes were not deceived. The occupation of 
Lalla Maghnia by la Moriciere stirred up a conflict, 
but the bombarding of Tangier and Mogador (6 and 
15 August 1844) and the victory of the Isly (14 
August) compelled the Sultan Mawlay 'Abd al- 
Rahman to refuse his guest any support and to 
declare him an outlaw. 'Abd al-Kadir appeared 
again in Algeria in 1846 to take the lead in. the 
insurrections which were breaking out on all sides. 
His first successes (Sidi-Brahim, 23 September) 
seemed to promise final triumph for his cause. No 
less than eighteen columns were needed to stem 
the revolt and to throw the Amir back into Morocco 



<ABD al-KADIR b. MUHYI 'l-DIN — 'ABD al-KADIR DIHLAWI 



(July 1846), where he was now the object of the 
hostility of the Sultan, who feared in him a dangerous 
rival. Attacked by the tribes, and pursued by the 
Sharif ian troops, 'Abd al-Kadir crossed the Algerian 
frontier again. Finding all lines of escape towards 
the south closed to him, he gave himself up to the 
Due d'Aumale on 23 December 1847. 

In spite of the promise to him that he would be 
transported to Acre or to Alexandria, 'Abd al-Kadir 
was, with his suite, interned successively at Toulon, 
at Pau, and then at Amboise. Released by the 
Prince- President Louis-Napoleon on 16 October 
1852, the former leader of Algeria in revolt now 
received a pension from the France of which he had 
become the loyal subject, and went to live in retire- 
ment first at Brusa (1853) and then at Damascus 
(1855). It was in this town that he proved in a very 
special way the sincerity of his loyalty, by delivering 
the French consul and saving several thousand persons 
when the Druses tried to massacre the Christian popu- 
lation (July i860). He died there in the night of 25 
to 26 May 1883, having passed his time during his exile 
in meditation, the practice of his faith, and charity. 
Bibliography: Paul Azzn,L'Emir Abd el-Kader, 
Paris 1925; in appendix, list of manuscript and 
printed sources used by the author. Bibliographic 
militaire des ouvrages .... relatifs a I'Algirie, a la 
Tunisie et au Maroc, Paris 1930, vol. i, 126-219, 
vol. ii, 300-6; M. Emerit and H. Peres, Le 
texte arabe du traiti de la Tafna, in RAfr. 1950; 
M. Emerit, L'Algirie a Vipoque d'Abd el-Kader, 
Paris 195 1 (Collection de documents inedits sur 
l'histoire de l'Algerie, 2nd Series, vol. iv); La 
crise syrienne et I'expansion iconomique franfaise 
en i860, in Rev. Hist., 1952; W. Blunt, The Desert 
Hawk, London 1947. — Works of 'Abd al-Kadir: 
Nuzhat al-Khatir fi Karid al-Amir c Abd al-Kadir, 
a collection of poetry (Cairo, n.d.) ; see H. Peres, 
Les poesies d'Abd el-Kader composies en Algerie et 
en France (Cinquantenaire de la Faculte des Lettres 
d'Alger, 1932, 357-412); Dhikrd al-'Akil wa 
Tanbih al-Ghdfil (Beyrouth n.d.), translated by 
Gustave Dupat under the title of Rappel d Vintel- 
ligent, avis d I' indifferent (Paris 1858); Wishdh 
al-KatdHb (army regulations for 'A's regular 
troops), trans, by V. Rosetty in Le spectateur 
militaire, 15 Febr. 1844, repub. by L. Patomi, 
Algiers 1890. (Ph. de Cosse-Brissac) 

'ABD al-UADIR BADA'CNl [see bada'unI]. 
'ABD al-SADIR b. 'Umar al-BAGHDADI, a 
well-known philologist, born in Baghdad in 
1030/1621 and died in Cairo in 1093/1682. His 
early education began in Baghdad, which from 
941/1534 had been the scene of a fierce struggle 
between the Safawids and the 'Uthmanlis. When in 
1048/1638 it was retaken by the Turks, under the 
personal direction of Murad IV, 'Abd al-Kadir left 
for Damascus. He had by that time acquired a 
thorough acquaintance with Arabic, Persian and 
Turkish. He studied Arabic in Damascus with Muh. 
b. Kamal al-Dln al-Husayni, the nakib of Syria, 
and with Muh. b. Yahya al-Fara'idl. In 1050/1640 
he went to Cairo and studied, in al-Azhar, the 
religious and foreign sciences, particulary with al- 
KhafadjI and Yasin al-Himsi. Due to his extensive 
reading, even al-KhafadjI used to consult him 
about difficult questions. On the death of al-KhafadjI 
in 1069/1659, 'Abd al-Kadir acquired the greater 
part of his shavkh's library, and developed it 
further. It is said to have contained a thousand 
diwdns of the pure Arabs (al- c Arab al-'Ariba), 
enriched by various scholars with their scholia. 



His library was unique for those times, cf. 
Khizdna, i, 2. In Dhu '1-Ka'da 1077 he visited 
Istanbul, but returned to Cairo after less than four 
months, in 1078. In the same year, he made the 
acquaintance of Ibrahim Pasha Katkhuda, governor 
of Egypt, who treated him with great respect and 
made him his associate and boon-companion. Some 
years later, when Katkhuda was deposed from the 
governorship and returned home through Syria 
(reaching Damascus in 1085), c Abd al-Kadir 
accompanied him and sojourned in Adrianople. He 
made the acquaintance of the learned grand-vizier 
of Turkey, Ahmad Pasha al-Fadil Kopriilii-zade, 
and dedicated to him his masterly gloss on Ibn 
Hisham's Sharh Bdnat Su'-id. Al-Muhibbi, son of 
an old friend of 'Abd al-Kadir, who saw him in 
Adrianople, records that he enjoyed, in this period, 
the highest regard and respect of the important 
personages of Turkey. But after a while he was 
attacked by a disease, and as a cure could not be 
affected by the physicians, he left for Cairo in disgust, 
though he came back later. This time he caught a 
disease of the eye and almost lost his sight. He 
returned to Cairo and died there shortly after. 

He knew by heart the Makdmdt of al-Hariri, many 
Arabic diwdns and numerous Persian and Turkish 
verses. He had a fine critical sense and a profound 
knowledge of Arabic philology, Arabic poetry, the 
history of the Arabs and Persians, Arabic proverbs 
and anecdotes. 

He wrote a number of useful books. Among these 
are: 1) The Khizanat al-Adab wa Lubb Lubdb Lisdn 
al- c Arab (Cairo, 1299/1882, 1347/1928-9 [publication 
stopped in 1353 after shdhid 331]), a com- 
mentary on the- 957 shawdhid quoted by al-Radl 
al-Astarabadi (d. 686/1287) in his Sharh on Ibn al- 
Hadjib's Kdfiya. It was begun in Cairo in 1073/1663 
and finished there in 1079/1668 (after a brief inter- 
ruption due to his visit to Istanbul) and dedicated 
to Muljammad IV (1058-99/1648-87). It seems 
originally to have been divided into eight volumes 
(see al-Muhibbi). 2) A commentary on the shawdhid 
cited in al-Radi's Sharh of Ibn Hadjib's Shdfiya. To 
this he appended a Sharh of the shawdhid of the 
Sharh of al-Djarabardi on the Shdfiya. 3) Gloss on 
Ibn Hisham's Sharh Bdnat Su'dd (MS in Rampur 
I- 583)- 4) Sharh al-Maksurat al-Duraydiyya. 
5) Lughat-i Shdh-ndma, edited by C. Salemann, 
St. Petersburg 1895. 6) Sharh al-Tuhfa al-Shd- 
hidiyya bi 'l-Lugha al- c Arabiyya. For these and 
other works and for their existing MSS. see 
Brockelmann, S ii, 397, and the preface to the 
Khizdna, ed. of 1347. 

Bibliography: Abu 'Alawi Muh. b. Abi Bakr 
b. Ahmad Djamal al-Din al-Shilli al-Hadrami, c Ikd 
al-Djawdhir (Rampur I, 641, No. 173, p. 445); al- 
Muhibbl, Khuldsat al-Athar, ii, 451-4; I. Guidi, 
Sui poeti citati nell'opera Khizanat al-adab, in the 
Atti Acad. Lincei, 1887; 'Abd al-'AzIz MaymanI, 
Iklid al-Khizdna (index of titles of works occuring 
in the Khizanat al-Adab), Lahore 1927; list of the 
shawdhid, arranged alphabetically, according to 
initial letters (also of 'Ayni) compiled after 1299 
A.H., (my MS. acquired at Mecca); SamI Bey, 
Kdmus al-AHdm, iv, 3083; Brockelmann, II, 286, 
S II, 397. (Mohammad Shapi) 

'ABD al-KADIR DIHLAWl, Indian theo- 
logian, the third son of Shah Wall Allah Dihlawi 
[?.».], bom at Dilhi (Dehll) in 1167/1753-4. He is 
chiefly remembered for his Urdu translation of the 
Kur'an, accompanied by explanatory notes. Its title 
Mudih-i Kur'an ("Interpretation of the Kur'an") 



<ABD al-KADIR DIHLAWI — 'ABD al-KADIR al-DJILANI 



is the chronogram for 1 205/1 790-1, the date of the 
completion of the work. It was published at Houghly 
in 1245/1829; other editions, Lucknow 1263/1847 
and Bombay 1270/1853-4. Since then, it has been 
repeatedly lithographed interlineally along with the 
Arabic text. It is generally regarded as more faithful 
than the one prepared by his brother Shah Rafi c 
al-DIn. He died in 1228/1813. 

Bibliography: Garcin de Tassy, Hist, de la 
litt. Hindouie et Hindoustanie, 2nd ed., Paris 1870, 
i, 76 f f . ; idem, Chrestomathie hindoustanie ; Journal 
des Savants, 1873, 435-43! Suppl. Catalogue of 
Hindustani Books . . . Brit. Museum, London 1909, 
215-22 ; R. B. Saksena, A History of Urdu Literature, 
Allahabad 1940, 253-4; Siddlq Hasan Khan, 
Iksir fi Usui al-Tafsir, Cawnpore 1290, 106. 
(Sh. Inayatullah) 
'ABD AL-&ADIR al-DJIlAnI (or al-DjIlI), 
MuuyI al-DIn Abu Moh. b. AbI SAlih DjengI Dost, 
Hanbalite theologian, preacher and Sufi, 
who gave his name to the order of the Kadiriyya 
[q.v.]; b. 470/1077-8, d. 561/1166. The authors of 
the monographs about him considered him to be 
the greatest saint of Islam and their accounts of 
his life and activity were written out of edifying 
and missionary, rather than historical interest. 
Their writings have, therefore, little to contribute 
to a historical account of his life and only a small 
proportion of their data can be considered reliable. 
Apart from Abu '1-Mah5sin (al-Nudium al-Zdhira, 
ed. Juynboll, i, 698), who names as the birth-place 
of 'Abd al-Kadir Dill, a village between Baghdad 
and Wasit, all authorities are unanimous in stating 
that he was a Persian from Nayf (Nif) in Dylan, 
south of the Caspian Sea. The Persian name of his 
father not only supports this statement, but at the 
same time contradicts the common assertion that 
he was descended in the paternal line directly from 
al-Hasan, the grandson of the Prophet. Baghdad, 
where he came to study at the age of eighteen, 
remained the scene of his activities up to his death. 
Apart from numerous other teachers, he studied 
philology under al-Tibrizi (d. 502/1109), Hanbalite 
law under Abu '1-Wafa' b. al-'Akil, who had come 
over from the Mu'tazila to the rjanbalite madhhab 
(d. 513/1121), and under the kadi Abu Sa'd al- 
Mubarak al-Mukharrimi, hadith under Abu Muh. 
Dja'far al-Sarradj, author of the Masdri* al-<Ushskak 
(d. 500/1106). It was Abu '1-Khayr Hammad al- 
Dabbas (d. 523/1 131) who introduced him to sufism. 
This "syrup (dt'fts)-monger", who apparently never 
wrote any book, seems to have been in his time a 
highly appreciated master of sufism, whose ascetic 
piety and the strict discipline which he exercised 
over his novices are celebrated also by Ibn al-Athir 
(x, 472). The khirka, the sufi robe, was bestowed 
upon him, as the sign of the end of his noviciate, 
by al-Mukharrimi. He was fifty years old when he 
first appeared (521/1127) in public as a preacher. His 
fame as preacher and teacher seems to have spread 
quickly. Six years after his first appearance, the 
school of his old teacher al-Mukharrimi was given 
into his charge and was enlarged with financial aid 
from the rich and free labour from the poor. Here 
he was active as mufti, teacher of Kur'an-exegesis, 
hadith and fikh, and especially as a far-famed 
preacher. His reputation attracted numerous pupils 
from all parts of the Islamic world, and his persuasive 
discourses are said to have converted to Islam many 
Jews and Christians. The financial support which 
he received from his admirers enabled him, by making 
him independent, to exercise criticism that was 



heeded even at the court of the caliph, and to help 
the poor. His school was continued, with the help 
of pious endowments, by 'Abd al-Wahhab, one of 
his numerous sons, and by his descendants [see 
kAdirivva]. 

'Abd al-Kadir lived at a time when sufism was 
triumphant and expanding. In the century preceding 
him a conflict, tlfat had existed long before, assumed 
an acute form and became the concern of every 
individual. The consciousness of the individual as 
well as the whole of society was torn by the breach 
between secularism, religiously indifferent or religious 
only in a conventional way, on the one hand, and 
an intellectualist religion, at odds over theological 
doctrine, on the other. Innumerable are the com- 
plaints in literary works that express despair in face 
of the vanity of the "world", but also the emptiness 
of the legalistic religion, "dead knowledge handed 
down by dead people" (Abu Yazld al-Bistami). In 
such a situation sufism, as the embodiment of 
emotional religion, became in the generations prece- 
ding 'Abd al-Kadir, a wide-spread movement. The 
historical process pushed one problem into the 
foreground: how to reconcile the ascetic and mystic 
elements with religious law. Ibn 'Akll [q.v.], 'Abd 
al-Kadir 's teacher, met sufism, as befitted the 
zealous Hanbalite convert, with a definite no. The 
same attitude was later taken again and again by 
strict Hanbalites. This was not, however, the only 
possible way for them. Al-Ansari al-Harawi [q.v.] (d. 
481/1088), who conducted disputations in the strictest 
accordance with the school of Ahmad b. Hanbal (which 
he extolled with the motto madhhab Ahmad ahmad 
madhhab), wrote sufi books appealing to the emotions, 
and Ibn al-Djawzi [q.v.], who made violent attacks 
on the orgiastic piety of the sufi meetings, himself 
held, according to the testimony of Ibn Diubavr. 
meetings that are paradigmatic for sufi cult practice. 

This is the period in which 'Abd al-Kadir was 
active. He appears as a teacher of theology in his 
al-Qhunya li-Talibi Tarik al-Hakk (Cairo 1304). 
Starting with an exposition of the ethical and social 
duties of a Sunni Muslim, it sets forth in the form 
of a Hanbalite handbook the knowledge necessary 
for the believer, including a short expos6 of the 
seventy-three sects, and ends with an account of 
the particular way of sufism. Extreme Hanbalites 
have criticised the special duties taken upon them- 
selves by the sufis. According to Ibn Taymiyya, 
the particular litanies for certain days, taken over 
in the Qhunya from Makki's Kut al-Kulub, are 
reprehensible if they assume the character of a 
legal duty. Conflicts with the religious law, however, 
such as Ibn al-Djawzi, in his Talbis Iblis, finds among 
contemporary sufis, do not occur in the writings of 
'Abd al-Kadir. The unquestioning submission to the 
message of Muhammad, as it is set forth in the 
Kur'an and the sunna, excludes on the part of the 
sufi any claim to inspired revelation. The fulfilment 
of works of supererogation assumes the prior fulfil- 
ment of the demands of divine law. Ecstatic practices, 
though not forbidden, are allowed only with certain 
restrictions. Ascetism is limited by the duties towards 
family and society. The perfect sufi lives in his 
divine Lord, has a knowledge of the mystery of God, 
and yet this saint, even if he reaches the highest 
rank, that of a badal or a ghawth, cannot reach the 
grade of the prophets, not to speak of surpassing it, 
as some sufis were teaching. In the personality of 
'Abd al-Kadir the sufi is not at variance with the 
Hanbalite. 

This appears also in his sermons contained in the 



<ABD al-KADIR al-DJILAM — C ABD al-KADIR al-KURASHI 



collections al-Fath al-Rabbdni (62 sermons; Cairo 
1302) and Futuh al-Ghayb (78 sermons; on the 
margin of al-Shattanawfi) 'Abd al-Kadir often 
directs the attention of his audience to the perfect 
saint. Yet both the contents and the style show that 
the sermons were not addressed to exclusive sufi 
circles. The plain manner, avoiding sufi terminology, 
and the often very simple moral admonishment 
suggest that they were delivered before a large 
audience. Before men, who experience the power 
of fate as a permanent threat, he sets the ideal figure 
of man: the saint, who has overcome his accidental 
self and reached his essential being, conquering the 
fear of fate and death, because he participates in 
Him who orders fate and death. Sufism as taught by 
the Hanbalite 'Abd al-Kadir consists in fighting, in 
a djihdd greater than the holy war fought with weap- 
ons, against self-will; in thus conquering the hidden 
shirk, i.e. the idolatry of self and, in general, of 
creaturely things; in recognizing in all good and 
evil the will of God and living, in submission to His 
will, according to His law. 

Al-Shattanawfi" s work on 'Abd al-Kadir, Bahdjat 
al-Asrdr, from which several other writers derived 
their information, was written just over a hundred 
years after 'Abd al-Kadir's death. His account, 
rejected as untrustworthy already by al-Dhahabi 
(JRAS, 1907, 267 ft.), presents him as the supreme 
saint. He is not described according to the ideal of 
the saint conceived by 'Abd al-Kadir himself. He is 
not a man who serves as a symbol for cosmic resigna- 
tion, whose example can be followed by resigning this 
and the next world, by accepting in both of them 
the lot given by God. The figure of 'Abd al-Kadir 
as a saint, as it is drawn by al-Shattanawfi, is the 
outcome of a piety which relinquished the hope of 
being able to put the ideal into practice. 

According to the legend, 'Abd al-Kadir himself, 
by the sentence which remained closely associated 
with his name: "My foot is on the neck of every 
saint of God", laid claim to the highest rank and 
obtained the consent of all the saints of the epoch. 
A poem ascribed to him, al-Kasida al-Qhawthiyya, 
speaks, in a style that is very different from 
that of his authentic writings, of his mystery 
that has the power to extinguish fire, raise the 
dead, crush mountains, dry up seas, and of the 
exaltedness of his position. In the 'Abd al-Kadir 
of legend, the inconceivable, incomprehensible majes- 
ty of God has become manifest. From his earliest 
childhood, when he marked the beginning of the fast 
by refusing the breast of his mother, his life is a chain 
of miracles. His appearance, his knowledge and his 
power are all miraculous. He punishes distant sinners 
and assists the oppressed in a miraculous manner, 
walks upon water and moves 'hrough air. Nothing is 
impossible for him. Angels and djinns, "people of 
the hidden world", and even Muhammad himself, 
appear at his meeting and express their appreciation. 
When Ibn al-DjawzI recommends his hearers to 
confine themselves to the study of the religious 
sources and the literature dealing with them, but 
to read also edifying books, he does so because he 
realizes the danger of legalistic intellectualism. The 
sober Hanbalite, who "fought with passion against 
passion", had, however, in mind the biographies of 
the pious and exemplary people of the past. The 
literature about 'Abd al-Kadir does not describe a 
man who can be an example to other men. The 
subject of their description is the concrete presence 
of the Divine with its inconceivable and miraculous 
quality. In a situation in which it seemed that the 



claims of religion could not be complied with, the 
saint was experienced as the presentiality of that 
which was unattainable to human effort. The saint 
does not make demands, but bestows grace for men 
who worship the inconceivable. In this capacity, 
'Abd al-Kadir became one of the best known media- 
tors in Islam. His tomb, over which sultan Sulayman 
had a beautiful turba built in 941/1535, has remained 
to the present day one of the most frequented sanc- 
tuaries of Islam in Baghdad. 

Bibliography: The collection of legends by 

al-Shattanawfi was used among others by Muh. 

b. Yahya al-Tadafi, Kald'id al-Djawdhir, Cairo 

1331. Other works by 'Abd al-Kadir and on him, 

Brockelmann, I, 560, S I, 777. Carra de Vaux, 

Gazali, Paris 1902 -(European bibliography); D. S. 

Margoliouth, Contributions to the biography of ( Abd 

al-Kadir (after al-Dhahabi), JRAS, 1907, 267-310; 

W. Braune, Die Futuh al-daib des l Abd al-Qddir, 

Berlin 1933; G. W. J. Drewes and Poerbatjaraka, 

De mirakelen van A bdoelkadir Djaelani, Bandoeng 

1938: Futuh al-Ghayb, English transl. by Aftab 

ud-Din Ahmad (with uncritical introduction), 

Lahore, n. d. (W. Braune) 

'ABD al-KADIR b. «AlT b. YOsuf al-FASI, 

the most famous representative of the Moroccan 

family of the Fasiyyun, b. in al-Kasr al-Kablr 1077/ 

1599, d. 1091/1680. He was the head of the zdwiya 

of the Shadhiliyya in al-Kasr al-Kablr. He wrote a 

fahrasa and some books on hadith, but he is best 

known as one of the main representatives of Moroccan 

sufism at the beginning of the 17th century. His 

descendants form today a very numerous and 

important branch of the religious and' scholarly 

aristocracy of Fez (the inhabitants of the town being 

called, in order to avoid a confusion with the family 

of the Fasiyyun, ahl Fas). 

Bibliography : E. Levi-Provencal, Hist.Chorfa, 
264-5 (with references). (E. Levi-Provencal) 
'ABD alKAdIR at KURA£Hl. MuhvI al- 
Din 'Abd al-Kadir b. Muhammad b. Muhammad 
b. Nasr Allah b. Salim b. Abi 'l-Wafa j , Egyptian 
professor of Hanafite jurisprudence and biographer, 
born Sha'ban 696/May-;June 1297, died 7 RabI' I 
775/27 August 1373. 

He is best known for his collection of alphabetically 
arranged brief biographies of Hanafites, al-Qiawdhir 
al-Mudiyya fi Tabakat al-Ifanafiyya (Haydarabad 
1332/1913-4), a valuable reference work, generally 
considered to be the first to deal with its particular 
subject. Written in a country in which the Hanafite 
school was weakly represented, and in a period just 
preceding its renaissance, the work has little firsthand 
information but preserves much material, especially 
from Persian local histories. 

In addition, 'Abd al-Kadir wrote a biography of 
Abu Hanlfa (al-Bustdn fi Mandkib Imdmind al- 
Nu'mdn, used in Djaw. i, p. 26 ff.) and a collection 
of biographies of persons who died between 696/1297 
and 760/1359. His other publications (most complete 
lists in Ibn Kutlubugha ed. Fliigel, p. 28, and Ibn 
Tulun) belong to the ordinary run of juridical 
textbooks, commentaries, and indexes. 

Bibliography : Brockelmann, II, 96 f., S II, 89. 
Additional biographies in Ibn Hadjar, Inbd', anno 
775; Ibn Tulun, Ghuraf (ms.Shelud 'All 1924, 
fols. I4ib-i42a); Ibn al-'Imad, Shadhardt, vi, 238. 
References to his life and activities in D[aw., for 
instance: i, 21, 93 f., 292, 304, 323, 346, 353, 367; 
ii, 121, 127, 187, 204, 229 f., 428, 431 f., 440, 
444, 445 f. (F. Rosenthal) 



'ABD al-KARIM BUKHARl - 

'ABD al-KARIM BUKHARl, a Persian 
historian, wrote in 1233/1818 a short summary 
of the geographical relations of Central Asiatic 
countries (Afghanistan, Bukhara, Khlwa, Khokand, 
Tibet and Kashmir), and of historical events in 
those countries from 1160 (accession of Ahmad Shah 
Durrani) down to his own times. 'Abd al-Karim 
had already left his native country in 1222/1807-8 
and accompanied an embassy to Constantinople; he 
remained there till his death, which took place after 
1246/1830, and wrote his book for the master of 
ceremonies 'Arif Bey. The only manuscript was 
obtained by Ch. Schefer from 'Arif Bey's estate and 
published in the PELOV (the text was printed in 
Bulak, 1290/1873-4, the French translation in Paris' 
in 1876). The Histoire de I'Asie Centrale is a most 
important authority for the recent history of Central 
Asia, especially for Bukhara, Khlwa and Khokand. 
(W. Barthold) 

'ABD al-KARIM, Kutb al-DIn b. IbrahIm 
al-DJILI. a Muslim mystic, descendant of the 
famous sufi 'Abd al-Kadir al-Djilani, was born in 
767/1365 and died about 832/1428. Little is known 
of his life, as the biographical works do not mention 
him. According to some of his own statements in 
al-Insdn al-Kdmil, he lived from 796/1393 until 
805/1402-3 in Zabid in Yaman together with his 
shaykh Sharaf al-DIn Isma'il al-Djabartl. In 790/ 
1387 he was in India. He wrote about thirty books 
and treatises, of which al-Insdn al-Kdmil ft Ma'rifat 
al-Awdkhir wa 'l-Awd'il is the best known (several 
editions printed in Cairo). An analysis of its contents 
has been given by R. A. Nicholson : The Perfect Man 
(Studies in Islamic Mysticism, Cambridge 1921, 
Ch. ii). Al-I)jlll is an adherent of the well-known 
pantheistic mystic Ibn c ArabI, to whose Futiihdt he 
wrote a commentary and whose doctrines hedeveloped 
and modified. According to his ontological doctrine 
exposed in his al-Insdn al-Kdmil and his Mardtib al- 
Wudjud, nothing really exists but the Divine Essence 
with its creative (hakki) and creaturely (khalkl) 
modes of being. Absolute Being develops in a scale 
{mardtib) of individualisations or "descents" (ta- 
nazzuldt). The most important of these are the 
following: <amd, the simple hidden pure Essence 
before its manifestation (tadjalli); ahadiyya, the 
first descent from the darkness of c Amd to the 
light of the manifestation, the first manifestation 
of Pure Essence (dhdt) exclusive of Divine attributes, 
qualities or relations; wdhidiyya, the manifestation 
of the Essence with the attributes and qualities and 
their effects under the aspect of unity. It is plurality 
in unity. On this scale there is no distinction between 
the attributes, they are identical with each other 
and with the One. Opposites coincide — Mercy and 
Vengeance are the same. Ildhiyya is higher than the 
above-mentioned manifestations. It comprehends 
both Being and Non-being in all degrees, the "places 
of manifestation and the manifested" (al-ma?dhir wa 
'l-zdhir), i.e. the Creator and the Creature (al-hakk wa 
'l-khalk). At the same time it is the principle of order 
for the whole series of individualisations and main- 
tains each of them in its proper place. AH opposites 
exhibit their relativity in the greatest possible 
perfection, they do not coincide any longer. Rahmd- 
niyya manifests the creative attributes (al-sifdt 
al-kkalkiyya) exclusively, whereas ildhiyya com- 
prehends both the creative and the creaturely. The 
first Mercy (rahma) of God was His bringing the 
Universe into existence from Himself. God is the 
substance (hayuld) of the Universe. The Universe is 
like ice, and God is the water of which the ice is 



'ABD al-KARIM KASHMIRI 71 

made. Rububiyya comprehends those attributes that 
require an object and are shared by man, as knowing, 
hearing, seeing. The differentiation of the phenomena 
of the Universe is caused by their mutual relations 
to the respective divine attribute through which God 
manifests Himself. In his al-Insdn al-Kdmil al-DjIH 
deals with most of the cosmic, metaphysical, religious 
and psychological notions current in his time. He 
establishes their place in his system and explains 
their relations to the respective divine attribute. In 
doing so he has succeeded in giving many new, 
unexpected and highly interesting interpretations 
of well-known theologoumena. Thus he builds a 
phantasmal cosmology which differs widely from 
orthodox views: e.g. Adam ate the forbidden fruit 
because his soul manifested a certain aspect of 
Lordship (rububiyya), for it is not in the nature 
of Lordship to submit to a prohibition; for the 
people in Hell God creates a natural pleasure of 
which their bodies become enamoured; Hell at last 
will be extinguished and replaced by a tree named 
Diirdjlr; Iblls will return to the presence and grace 
of God; all infidels worship God according to the 
necessity of their essential natures and all will be 
saved, etc. Al-DjiU's doctrine of the Perfect Man 
{al-Insdn al-Kdmil), the Logos, is almost the same 
as that of Ibn 'Arab! (cf. H. S. Nyberg, Kleinere 
Schriften des Ibn al-'-Arabi, Leiden 1919, 104). He 
is Muhammad the Prophet who may, however, 
assume the form of any holy man. So al-Djili met 
him in 796 in Zabid in the form of his shaykh. He 
is a copy of God, who becomes visible in him, and 
at the same time, he is a copy of the Universe, which 
is brought into existence from him. His whole being 
is sensible of a pervasive delight and contemplates 
the emanation of all that exists from himself, etc. 
Al-Djili had many auditions and visions. He talked 
with angels and cosmic beings. When in 800 he 
stayed in Zabid, he met all the prophets and saints; 
he wandered through Heaven and Hell, in which 
he met Plato. In the Mardtib al-Wud±ud forty 
degrees of Being are enumerated, the first being 
al-dhdt al-ildhiyya or al-ghayb al-mu(lak, the last 
al-insdn. The other books and treatises of al-Djili 
have not yet been studied by European scholars. 
They are listed in Brockelmann, II, 264-5, S II, 
283-4- (H. Ritter) 

'ABD al-KARIM KASHMIRI b. 'Akibat 
Mahmud b. BulakI b. Muh. RipA, Indo- Persian 
historian. From autobiographical references in his 
Baydn-i Waki 1 we learn that he was living in Dihli 
at the time of its sack by Nadir Shah (1151/1739), 
and entered the service of Nadir as a mutasaddi. He 
accompanied Nadir on his march from Dihli to 
Kazwin, reaching Kazwin in 1154/1741. From there 
he travelled to Mecca and returned to India by 
sea in 1156/1743- He died in 1 198/1784. 

He is the author of a history of his own times 
from Nadir Shah's invasion of India to 1 198/1784 
(the India Office copy, Ethe 566, comes down to 
1 199/1785), including an account of his own travels, 
entitled Baydn-i Wdki c . He gives much information 
obtained from Nadir's courtiers, including 'Alawi 
Khan, the hakim bdshi, or based on personal obser- 
vation, and is not afraid to criticise Nadir. The text 
has not been printed so far; a condensed translation 
was published by F. Gladwin, The Memoirs of Khoja 
Abdulkurreem, Calcutta 1788, 1812, London '1793; 
abridged version of this by L. Langles, Voyages de 
I'Inde d la Mecque, Paris 1797. To the MSS enume- 
rated by Storey can be added: The Panjab 
Public Library Cat. (Persian), Lahore 1942, p. 5i» 



<ABD AL-KARlM KASHMIRI — C ABD al-KAYS 



copied 1230/1815; Panjab Univ. Library Shayranl 
MS (1185/1771); MS in the possession of the writer 
(1214/1800, from a copy made in 1 193/1779). 

Bibliography: Elliot and Dowson, History of 

India, viii, 124-39; Ch. Rieu, Cat. of Pers. MSS 

(Brit. Mus.), 382; Storey, ii/2, 326-7; L. Lockhart, 

Nadir Shah, London 1938, 301. 

(Mohammad Shafi) 

<ABD AL-KARlM MUNgHl.or more fully MunshI 
MawlawI Muh. <Abd al-KarIm c AlawI, Indo- 
Persian historian of the middle of the 19th cen- 
tury. He may have lived in Lucknow {Ta'rikh-i Pan- 
di&b, 2, Muhdraba 21) or Cawnpur (Muhdraba, 3). He 
was fond of studying history, and during his retire- 
ment rendered from Arabic into Persian al-Suyuti, 
Ta'rikh al-Khulafd? , and Ta'rikh Misr, and prepared 
an abridged version of Ibn Khallikan in Persian. 
He also translated astronomical and geographical 
works from English into Persian and Urdu, as well 
as story-books, the whole of the Arabian Nights, a 
history of Bengal etc. In Beale, Oriental Biogr. Die, 
Calcutta 1881, 4, it is said that the MunshI had 
"died about thirty years ago", which places the date 
of his death not much later than the end of 1851 
(he is spoken of as alive in the Muhdraba (preface) 
in 1848 and Sept. 1851). Of his Persian works, the 
following three, on contemporary history, have been 
lithographed. He is praised for his careful and 
objective writing of history and his simple, vivid 
and clear narrative. 

(i) Muhdraba-yi Kabul wa-Kandahdr, lith. Lucknow 
1264/1848 and Cawnpur 1267/1851, describes the 
Afghan War down to General Pollock's expedition 
(Sept.-Oct. 1842). The author had prepared a rough 
draft of the history of the Kabul and Kandahar 
expedition at the time, but in 1 263/1847 he made 
suitable additions and emendations in his work 
after studying the Akbar-ndma, a Mathnawl poem 
in the style of the Skdh-ndma and quoted passages 
from it on occasions. This fairly long poem (com- 
prising 8632 bayts in all) which is called gafar 
Ndma in its Daftar 1, Section 5 (madh-i Shdh-i 
(Hamdidh), was finished in 2 daftars, in 1260/1844 
by MunshI Kasim Djan ("Mirza Kdsim Beg muta- 
watfin balda-yi Shah Djihdndbdd" in one of the three 
Panjab University Mss., which was transcribed in 
Agra, in 1847). The poet had himself taken part in 
the expedition (for details see the Muhdraba, 4, based 
on the Khdtima of the Akbar-Ndma, Daftar 1). 

Kasim's Akbar-Ndma (for MSS. other than those 
noted above and for the Agra ed. of 1272 see Storey, 
ii/2, 402) is not to be confounded, as has been done 
by Ivanow (Descript. Cat. of the Pers. Mss. in the 
Curzon collection, 12, no. 22) with Hamld Kashmiri's 
Akbar-Ndma (Kabul, 1320 shamsl), a similar work 
in theme and metre and date (it also was finished 
in 1260). 

The Curzon collection of the A.S.B. (see Ivanow's 
Cat. mentioned above) has a ms. of the Muhdraba. 

(ii) Ta'rikh Pandidb Tuhfat?* li-l-A hbdb (or Tuhfa-yi 
Ahbdb) lith. Matba c MuhammadI (prob. Lucknow), 
1265/1849, deals with the Anglo-Sikh Wars. It is 
divided into two hamla's, the first relating to the 
first Sikh War (1845-6) and the second to the second 
Sikh War (1848-9), written in order to show that 
the English had won the wars (Preface). 

It is based on the statement of English officers 
and the accounts published in contemporary Urdu 
newspapers, duly checked. The work contains some 
curious documents such as a statement of the 
revenues of the Pandjab in the Sikh period, texts 
of Anglo-Sikh treaties and texts 



British public announcements in the Pandjab at 
the time, inscriptions on the Sikh guns etc. 

(iii) Ta'rikh-i Ahmad (or Ta'rikh Ahmadshdhi), 
lith. Lucknow 1266/1850 (for the mss. of the work 
see Storey ii/2, 403). Having completed the history 
of Shudja' al-Mulk Durrani (see ii above) who left 
Ludhiana and with the help of the British Govern- 
ment regained the throne of his ancestors in 1255/ 
1 84 1, the author decided to write a complete history 
of the Durranls. Till 1212/1797 (about the middle 
of the reign of Zaman Shah) he based it on the 
Husaynshdhi or the Td'rihh Husayni (see Rieu, 
Cat. Pers. Mss. Br. Mus., iii, 904b) by Imam 
al-DIn who had lived for a long time in Afghanistan. 
A very brief history of the subsequent period up to 
the fall of the dynasty he based on the information 
received from well-informed, trustworthy and 
truthful visitors of his from Kabul, Kandahar and 
vicinity (Ahmadshdhi, 3, 51). After stating the 
genealogy of the Abdalis he gives the history of 
Ahmad Shah and his successors. In the last quarter 
of the work is given an account of the chief amirs 
of Zaman Shah, a geographical note on the Pandjab 
and the stages of the route Kabul-Kandahar-Harat- 
Cisht (with a list of the tombs of the Cishti saints), 
and a chapter on Turkistan and its ruler Narbuta 
Bey. The last event mentioned is the death of 
Shudja 1 al-Mulk and the recall of the British troops 
from Afghanistan, to which is appended a list of the 
17 sons of Pa'inda Khan. 

This work and the Muhdraba are among the 
sources of the Sirddj al-Tawdrikh (Kabul 1337), a 
history of Afghanistan compiled under the orders 
of the Amir Habib Allah Khan. 

An Urdu version of the Ta'rikh Ahmad by Mir 
Warith 'All Sayfi and entitled Waki c dt-i Durrani was 
lith. in Cawnpur. 1292/1875. 

E. Edwards, Cat. of the Persian Printed Books in 
the British Mus., London 1922, 21, ascribes to him: 
A dictionary of Anglo-Persian homogeneous words etc., 
Bombay 1889. 

Bibliography: Storey, ii/2, 402-4, ii/3, 673; 

O. Mann, Quellenstudien zur Geschichte des Ahmed 

Sdh Durrdni, in ZDMG, 1898, 106 ff.; Fr. transl. 

of the chapter on Turkistan in Ch. Schefer, 

Histoire de I'Asie Centrale par Mir Abdoul Kerim 

Boukhary, Paris 1876, 280 ff. 

(Mohammad Shafi) 

'ABD al-KAYS (rarely <Abd Kays), i.e. "Servant 
of (the god) Kays", old Arabian tribe in East 
Arabia. The nisba is <Abdi and 'Abkasl. 

c Abd al-Kays belongs to a group of tribes once 
settled in the modern province of al-'Arid, whence it 
advanced to the North- West as far as present-day 
Sudayr and to the South-East as far as al-Khardj. This 
group was later, in the genealogy of the Northern 
Arabs, given the name of Rabi'a [?.».]. Already in 
the 5 th century parts of this group detached them- 
selves and started to nomadize partly within, partly 
beyond the arch of the Tuwayk. To the latter belonged 
'Abd al-Kays, which in the 6th century penetrated 
into the two great oasis districts of Eastern Arabia,, 
namely al-Bahrayn inland, and aJ-Katlf on the 
coast. The oasis of al-Bahrayn (known since the 
10th century as al-Ahsa 3 , and only since the 19th 
as al-Hasa [q.v.]) is plentifully watered by wells and 
natural and artificial streams, the greatest of which 
is called ( c Ayn) Muhallim. The district reached in 
the north as far as c Aynayn (= al- c Uyun), badly- 
sanded already in the 12th century, and in the 
south as far as the village of al-Kathib, which 
survived till the Middle Ages. The capital was 



Hadjar, with its citadel al-Mushakkar. Another 
fortified place was Djuwatha. The oasis district 
on the coast reached from Safwa (a name that does 
not occur before the Middle Ages) in the north to 
Zahran in the south, its capital being Zara near 
Katif. 

c Abd al-Kays was divided into two groups, Shann 
and Lukayz. Lukayz comprised the tribes of Nukra, 
al-DIl, c Idjl and Muharib b. c Amr. The last three 
were distinguished by the denomination al- c Umiir 
from their "brothers" the Anmar. These latter 
consisted of the tribes of c Amir b. al-Harith (with 
the sub-tribes of Banu Murra and Banu Malik) and 
Djadhima b. c Awf (in which the branches c Abd 
Shams, Hiyay and c Amr confederated, under the 
name Baradjim, against the stronger HSritha). 

The Muharib lived in the villages of the oasis of 
al-Bahrayn. Hadjar itself was inhabited by a mixed 
population, not bound by tribal ties. The same was 
probably the case in Zara and other towns of the 
coastal oasis, where there existed also a considerable 
population of non-Arabic origin (Persians, Indians, 
Jews, Mandaeans), and it can be assumed that this 
was the case in Hadjar as well, though to a smaller 
extent. Katif was inhabited by the Djadhima b. 
c Awf and Zahran by the Nukra. In regard to land- 
ownership, we know only that in Sulasil, in the 
East Arabian Djawf (around Dara = al-Dar = c Ayn 
Dar) a certain 'Amir was the owner, rabb, of the 
oasis. In the summer, the northern c Abd al-Kays: 
Shann. 'Amir b. al-Harith and al- c Umur used to 
nomadize together inland around Wad! Faruk, while 
the Nukra grazed between Zahran and the district 
of Baynuna, S.-E. from Katar (where also the last 
village of the tribe, Lu'ba, is to be looked for). 

Emigration from the over-populated oases started 
at an early date, directed partly towards the other 
coastal lands of Arabia, 'Uman (fractions of Nukra 
and DI1, 'Awaka, "brothers" of the 'Umur and 
Anmar, etc.), and partly towards the Persian coast. 

When <Abd al-Kays penetrated into Eastern 
Arabia, they are said to have found there remnants 
of Iyad, who were at that time migrating towards 
'Irak. Later, they had as their northern neighbours 
those of the Kays b. Tha'laba (of Bakr-Rabi'a) who 
had left their dwellings in 'Arid and were grazing 
along the line Thadj — Kazima — Faldj = al-Batin. The 
enemies of c Abd al-Kays were the Sa c d, a group 
of Tamim, who roamed on both sides of the Dahn5 J 
as far as Wadi Faruk and Wadi al-Sahba. 

The oases of the coast were from the time of 
Shapur II (310-79) under direct Persian rule. The 
country inland belonged at the beginning of the 
6th century to the kingdom of Kinda, while after 
its fall about 530 a lateral line of that dynasty 
reigned in Hadjar. After its extinction, al-Bahrayn 
was conquered, no doubt with the consent of the 
Persians, by the Lakhmids of al-Hira. Under al- 
Nu'man III (579-601) the resistance of the Shann 
and Lukayz was broken by plundering expeditions. 
After the fall of the Lakhmids the land was ruled 
by a Persian ispahbadh residing in Mushakkar and 
assisted by an Arabian person of trust. The cordial 
reception given by the governors and later also by 
the 'Abd al-Kays to Muhammad's envoys and 
letters can be probably explained by the fact that 
the two governors had lost the support of the home 
country owing to the strife over the succession to 
the throne that broke out in Persia in 628. During 
the ridda part of the c Abd al-Kays, under al-DiSrud 
(of the Haritha — Djadhima) remained faithful to 
Medina, while others, led by the chief of Kays b. 



C ABD AL-KAYS 73 

Tha'laba, proclaimed a Lakhmid as their ruler. The 
Muslims were besieged in Djuwatha, but held out. 
After the arrival of reinforcements, made available 
by the victory over Musaylima, they took the 
initiative and attacked (12/633). It was not before 
the autumn of 634 that the Persian garrison of Zara 
was forced to surrender. 

With the Muslim conquest starts a new movement 
of emigration. Labu c (an older tribe than Shann and 
Lukayz) took part in a expedition across the Gulf 
against Fars and settled mainly in Tawwadj. The 
emigration was directed mainly towards Basra; 
in Kufa, the c Abd al-Kays were not so strongly 
represented. With the troops of Kufa they reached 
Mosul, with those of Basra Khurasan, where their 
strength in 715 was four thousand men. The c Abd 
al-Kays took no prominent part in the politics of 
the newly conquered provinces. They more often, 
with a few exceptions, adapted themselves to local 
conditions, were c Alid in c Alid Kufa, and participated 
in Basra and Khurasan in the feuds between the 
tribes. In Basra, Harim b. Hayyan, one of the 
earliest pietists of Islam and a forerunner of al- 
Hasan al-Basrl, belonged to this tribe. 

In their native country the c Abd al-Kays tried to 
withstand, but without success, the Kharidjite 
movement of Nadjda, centered in the Yamama 
(67/686-7). At the same time, the tribal distribution 
there begins to change. Of the tribes of c Abd al-Kays 
only Djadhima b. <Awf and Muharib remained in 
their old sites — Muharib occupying also the harbour 
of 'Ukayr, and 'Amr b. al-Harith remaining in 
Zahran and on one of the smaller islands of Baljrayn 
(Sitra ?). The rest of their territory was occupied by 
the Sa^l — Tamim, who penetrated into Bahrayn 
itself and built there the village of al-Ahsa'. Azd 
from c Um5n established themselves on the coast, 
probably at the same time as in Basra, i.e. about 
60/680. Some of them settled, together with c Abd 
al-Kays, in the oasis of Tu'am = Tawam/Tuwaym 
in Sudayr. 

In the IXth century an oasis principality was 
set up in East Arabia. An Azdite ruled in Zara, one 
Ibn Mismar of the Djadhima b. c Awf in Katif, the 
Banu Hafs, also belonging to <Abd al-Kays, in Safwa. 
Bahrayn was divided into the principalities of 
Hadjar and Djuwatha under al-'Ayyash al-Muharibl 
and al- c Uryan (of the Banu Malik), respectively. In 
the years 249-54/863-8 an c Alid, or pseudo-'Alid, 
rebelled in Bahrayn. He tried his luck first in Hadjar, 
then in al-Ahsa J among the Sa c d. Finally he with- 
drew into the desert and collected an army consisting 
of Tamim and of tribes which had newly immigrated 
from the west. It cost al- c Uryan much trouble, with 
help of the other chiefs of <Abd al-Kays, to expel 
the rebel, who soon afterwards started the great 
rising of the Zandj [q.v.] slaves in Basra. 

The immigrants just mentioned and beduins who 
infiltrated afterwards, as well as good families from 
Katif, became in the next generation the supporters 
of the Karmatian missionary Abu Sa'id al-Djan- 
nabi. The revolution broke out in 268/899. Katif 
fell first, Zara was burned, and finally Hadjar too 
was taken, notwithstanding the Caliph's inter- 
vention. Al-Afcsa' became the capital of the East- 
Arabian state of the Karmatians [q.v.]. This was 
overthrown in 469/1076-7 by the 'Uvunids [q.v.] 
i.e. the Al Ibrahim, belonging to the Banu Murra 
of al- c Uyun. The new dynasty soon showed signs of 
decline, interrupted only by a short period of 
recovery at the end of the 12th century. About 
1245 this last dynasty of the <Abd al-Kays collapsed. 



74 



'ABD AL-KAYS — C ABD AL-MADJlD I 



The attempt of the 'UyQnid 'All b. Mukarrab to 
revive the ancient glory of the tribe by his poems 
miscarried, partly because the old Arabian world 
had long since become petrified, partly because also 
the oases of East Arabia were permeated by new 
immigrants. 

Before the c Abd al-Kays accepted Islam, the 
tribe seems to have been overwhelmingly Christian. 
Only a few names bear witness to its original pagan 
religion : 'Amr al-Af kal from Shann, c Abd Shams, c Abd 
'Amr ( ?). The office of the" afkal (from Babylonian 
apkallu, "priest") was taken over, as in other tribes, 
from the early Arabian town civilisation. Tradition, 
ignorant of this fact, made of 'Amr al-Afkal a 
representative of hybris. 

The genealogy of the c Abd al-Kays is, compared 
with that of other tribes, remarkably incomplete, to 
judge by Ibn al-Kalbl's Mukhtasar (Table A of 
Wustenfeld contains many, Ibn Hazm's Qiamhara 
some errors, the latter not only in the printed text, 
but also in the good MSS of Rampore and Bankipore). 
Firstly, many units, known from other sources, are 
missing; secondly, the position of the "Companions", 
or the members of the embassy of the tribe to the 
Prophet, varies up to five generations, and an 
officer of the caliph al-Mansur is put higher than 
some of them. 

Similar uncertainty exists concerning the poets 
of the tribe, viz. al-Muthakkib and al-Mumazzak 
of Nukra, Yazld and Suwayd b. al-Khadhdhak of 
Shann. Yazld (according to others al-Mumazzak) 
described, as an onlooker, his own burial; this is 
something new. Al-Salatan, the poet from Basra, 
a contemporary of Djarlr, belongs to Shann; Ziyad 
al-A'djam, who lived in Persia, was a mawld of 
the 'Amir b. al-Harith. 

Al-Muthakkib uses several Persian loan-words, 
not current otherwise, and some difficult expressions, 
but they are not peculiarly dialectal. At any rate, 
the dialect of the 'Abd al-Kays must not be iden- 
tified with that of al-Bahrayn (here used, as generally 
in later times, as the name of the province), con- 
sidered by the Arab philologists as an inferior one. 
Striking are the three forms for the personal and 
tribal name Dil, Dul, Du'il, "weasel", among the 
*Abd al-Kays, Bakr and Kinana. 

Bibliography : The geographers, e.g. Yakut, 
iii, 411; Hamdani, 136 «.; Mas'Qdi, Tanbih, 
392 f . ; F. Wustenfeld, Wohnsilze und Wanderungen 
der arab. Stamme, 74-6 ; idem, Bahrein und Jemama, 
1-13. The historians, e.g. Ibn Sa'd, i/2, 54; v, 
406 ff.; vii/i, 60 ff., 95; Tabari, ii, 1291; Th. 
Noldeke, Oeschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit 
der Sasaniden, 53, 57, 67; J. Wellhausen, Die 
religios-polit. Oppositionsparteien, 29 ft., 58; idem, 
Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz, 44 f., 130, 
248 ff., 258, 266; J. M. de Goeje, La fin de V empire 
des Carmathes du Bahrain, J A, 1895, 1-30; von 
Oppenheim, Die Beduinen, iii (ed. by W. Caskel), 
15-9. 130 ff.; Ibn Durayd, Ishtikdk, 196-202 
(Wustenfeld) (using, among others, Mada'ini's 
Ashrdf 'Abd al-Kays). For the poets, AsmaHyydt, 
no. 50; Mufaddaliyydt, nos. 28, 76-81, Appendix 
no. 4; WZKM, 1904, iff.; Ibn Kutayba, Shi'r, 
233 ff., 257 ff.; AghdnP, v, 314, xiv, 98 ff. ; c Ali b. 
Mukarrab, Diwan, Bombay 1310. (W. Caskel) 
'ABD al-LATIF al-BASHDAdI, Muwaffak 
al-DIn Abu Muhammad b. YOsuf, also called Ibn 
al-Labbad, a versatile scholar and scientist, 
born at Baghdad in 557/1162-3, died there in 629/ 
1231-2. In Baghdad he studied grammar, law, 
tradition etc. (giving in his autobiography a vivid 



picture of contemporary methods of study) and was 
persuaded by a MaghribI wandering scholar to 
devote himself to philosophy, mainly according to 
the system of Ibn Sina, and to natural science and 
alchemy. In 585/1189-90 he went to Mosul (where 
he studied the works of al-Suhrawardl al-Maktul, 
but found them inept), next year to Damascus, then 
to the camp of Saladin outside 'Akka (587/1 191), 
where he met Baha' al-DIn b. Shaddad and 'Imad al- 
DIn al-Isfahanl, and acquired the patronage of al- 
Kadi al-Fadil, and then to Cairo. Here he made 
the acquaintance of Musa b. Maymun and a certain 
Abu '1-Kasim al-Shari'I, who introduced him to the 
works of al-FSrabi, Alexander of Aphrodisias and 
Themistius, which turned him away from Ibn Sina 
and alchemy. In 588/1192 he met Saladin in Jeru- 
salem, then went to Damascus, whence he returned 
to Cairo. After some years he went to Jerusalem and 
then, in 604/1207-8, again to Damascus. Some time 
later he went via Aleppo to Erzindjan, to the court 
of 'Ala' al-DIn Da'ud. When the SaldjQkid Kayku- 
badh conquered Erzindjan, 'Abd al-Latif, after a 
journey to Erzerum, returned from Erzindjan to 
Aleppo via Kamakh, Diwrigi and Malatiya (626/1228- 
9), and soon afterwards returned to his native 
Baghdad where he died. 

His numerous writings covered almost the whole 
domain of the knowledge of those days. Of those 
extant, al-Ifdda wa'l-lHibar, a short description of 
Egypt, was widely known in Europe and was trans- 
lated into Latin, German, and French ; cf. S. de Sacy, 
Relation de I'Egypte par Abd al-Latif, Paris 1810; 
the others are on philology, tradition, medicine, 
mathematics and philosophy. (For his work on 
metaphysics cf. P. Kraus, in BIE, 1941, 277.) His 
account of the Mongol invasion was taken over by 
al-Dhahabl (cf. J. de Somogyi, Isl., 1937, 106 ff.) 
His notes are quoted by Ibn Abl Usaybi'a for 
information on personalities in Baghdad (cf. index). 
Bibliography: Ibn Abl Usaybi'a, ii, 201-13 
(based on his autobiography); Kutubl, Fawdt, 
ii, 9 ff. ; Dhahabl, Ta'rikh al-Isldm, MS Oxford, 
i, 654, fol. 16-7; L. Leclerc, Hist, de la midecine 
arabe, ii, 182; Brockelmann, i, 632, Si, 880. 
(S. M. Stern) 
C ABD al-LATIF SASTAMUNILl [see latIfI]. 
'ABD al-MADJID I (Abdulmecid), Ottoman 
sultan, son of Mahmud II and his second kadin 
Bezm-i 'Alem (a remarkable woman), born on Friday, 
14 (not 11) Sha'ban 1238/25 April 1823. He succeeded 
his father, whose reforms he was to continue, on 19 
(not 25) Rabi' II 1 255/1 July 1839, a few days after 
the defeat of NIzIb (24 June) inflicted on the Turks 
by Ibrahim Pasha [q.v.]. The concert of the powers, 
which included, for the first time, Turkey, but not 
France, saved, however, the Ottoman Empire 
(Convention of London, 15 July 1840). 

The most important events of his reign were the 
proclamation of the hhat\-i sherif, or khatf-i hiimdyun, 
of Gulkhane (26 Sha'ban 1255/3 Nov. 1839) and 
the Crimean war, which began in 1853 and was ended 
by arbitration in the Treaty of Paris (30 March 1856). 
For the proclamation see tanzimat, gulkhAne, 
khatt-i humayOn, 'uthmanlis, for the Crimean 
war 'uthmanlis and, in general, the handbooks on 
history. It is worth mentioning here that the famous 
defence of Silistria, on the Bulgarian Danube (19 May- 
23 June 1854) was the subject of a famous poem 
by Namik Kemal [q.v.]. 

There was also a whole series of troubles, insurrec- 
tions and massacres: in Kurdistan (1847), in the 
Danubian principalities (1848), in Bosnia (1850-51), 



'ABD al-MADJID I — 'ABD al-MALIK ABl 'AMIR 



in Montenegro (1852-3), in the Lebanon (1849), in 
Djidda, in the Lebanon and in Syria (i860), not to 
speak of Bulgaria and Albania. 

Apart from his legislative work, c Abd al-Madjid 
was the author of important reforms, in regard to 
ths administration (in the eydlets or wildyets, "pro- 
vinces"), the army (law of 6 Sept. 1843; see redIf), 
education (i'dddi, "military preparatory" schools, 
1845; rushdiyye, "higher primary" schools for boys 
and girls, 1847; ddr ul-ma'-arif , 1849; mekteb-i 
l othmdni, "Ecole ottomane" in Paris 1855), and 
the coinage (money of good alloy, carefully coined, 
especially the pieces called medjidiyye, of 20 piastres; 
issued from 1844). To him is due the building of 
hospitals and other edifices, such as the palace of 
Dolma Baghce 1853), the restoration of the Aya 
Sofiya mosque by Fossati (20 July 1849), the first 
depositary for the state archives, Khazine-yi Ewrah 
(1845), the first theatre (French Theatre or "Crystal 
Palace", by Giustiniani), the first sal-name, or 
"imperial year-book" (1847). 

It was from his reign onwards that the imperial 
princes (shdh-zade) bore the simple title of efendi. 
c Abd al-Madjid was the first sultan to speak a 
Western language (French). He was a subtle and 
polished person, lightly built, but of weak health 
undermined by the abuses of drink and harem. He 
was a spendthrift. Capricious, but courageous, he 
gained universal respect by his refusal to hand over 
to the Austrians, in 1849, Kossuth and the other 
Hungarian political refugees. "The annals of Turkey 
have as yet no record of a sovereign more humane, 
of such gentle manners, animated by such civilizing 
tendencies; his mild and attractive features revealed 
a generous soul" (Mgr. Louis Petit — (pseudonym: 
Kutchuk Efendi), Catholic bishop of Athens, Les 
Contemporains, no. 333, Maison de la Bonne Presse, 
1899)- 

He died young, on 17 Dhu '1-Hidjdja 1277/25 June 
1861, in the middle of the financial crisis of the 
country. He was buried in a modest turbe near the 
mosque of Sultan SelJm. 

For three out of the ten Grand-Viziers of his 
reign, see rashId pasha, 'AlI pasha, khusraw pasha. 
The foreign diplomat who played during the 
reigh of this sultan the most important role in 
Istanbul was Stratford Canning (Lord Stratford de 
Redcliffe). 

Bibliography: Turkish historians; Luifl 
Efendi, Ahmed Rasim, KSmil Pasha (TaMkh-i 
Siydsi), l Atd Ta'rikhi (ii, 198 ff.); Western 
historians: Iorga, Lavallee, de la Jonquiere. — 
Ahmed Refik, Turkiyede Multediiler Mes'elesi, 
Istanbul 1926 (the Hungarian refugees); A. de 
Caston, Constantinople en 1869, 306; Debidour, 
Hist, diplomatique de I'Europa, 1891 (index to 
vol. i); idem, La question d'Oriem. Mahmoud, 
Mehemet Alt, Abd ul-Medjid, in Lavisse and 
Rambaud, Hist. Gen., x, 924-46 (with references) ; 
Destrilhes, Confidences sur la Turquie, 1855; 
E. Enault, Constantinople et la Turquie, 1855, 
431-45; de Flers, Vers I'Orient, 383; G. Fossati, 
Aya Sofia as recently restored, London- Paris 1852; 
Halil Ganem, Les sultans ottomans, 1902, ii, 
218-53; E. Hollander, La Turquie devant Vopinion 
publique, 1858; Lettres du marechal de Mottke sur 
I'Orient, 2nd ed., Paris, 371; Osman Nuri Ergin, 
Tiirkiye maarif tarihi, 1940, ii; idem, Istanbul 
sehreninleri, 1927, 49-80; E. Tarin and H. Lapeyrre, 
Sultan Abdul Medjid, 1857; Ed. Thouvenel, 
Constantinople sous Abdul- Medjid, Revue des Deux 
Mondes, 1 Jan. 1840; A. Ubicini, La Turquie 



75 

actuelle, 1855, 102-30; Ulug Igdemir, Kuleli vak'asf 

hakklnda bir arastlrma, Ankara 1937; Youssouf 

Razi, Souvenirs de Leila Hanoum sur le harem 

imperial, Paris 1925, 33-46. — See also nos. 71, 1061 

and 1727 of Enver Koray's historical bibliography, 

Ankara 1952. — For the constitutional edicts of 

'Abd al-Madjid, see J A, 1933, 357-9 and references 

in the notes; also the extensive articles in the 

Turkish encyclopaedias: IA, Inonu Ansiklopedisi, 

Istanbul Ansiklopedisi. — For the Jews of Turkey, 

see M. Franco, Essai sur Vhist. des Israilites de 

I'Emp. Ott., 1897, 143-60; Jewish Encyclopaedia, 

s.v. Abd ul-Mejid. (J. Deny) 

'ABD al-MAD-JID II (Abdulmecit), last 

Ottoman caliph, son of 'Abd al-'Aziz [q.v.]. He 

was elected caliph by the Great National Assembly, 

18 Nov. 1922, and succeeded, in this quality only, 

his cousin Muhammad VI, who, after the abolition 

of the sultanate (1 Nov. 1922) took refuge on board 

a British warship and left Istanbul. During some 

months, all the opponents of the regime established in 

Ankara by Mustafa Kemal rallied round the caliph, 

who had, in reality, no power at all. Mustafa Kemal 

put an end to these intrigues by proclaiming the 

republic, 29 Oct. 1923. A little more than four 

months afterwards, 3 March 1924, the Great National 

Assembly resolved upon the abolition of the caliphate. 

The next day 'Abd al-Madjid left Istanbul. He died 

in Paris, 23 August 1944. 

Bibliography : Discours du Ghazi Moustafa 
Kemal, president de la Republique turque, Leipzig 
1927; COC, 1944-5. 105- 

'ABD al-MALIK B. Muhammad b. ABl 'AMIR 
al-Ma'afirI Abu Marwan al-Muzaffar, son 
and successor of the famous "major domo" 
(hddiib) al-Mansur [q.v.] under the reign of the 
Umayyad caliph of al-Andalus Hisham II al-Mu 5 ay- 
yad bi'llah. He was the real sovereign of Muslim 
Spain after the death of his father in Medinaceli 
(Madlnat Salim) in 392/1002. 

'Abd al-Malik, second son of al-Mansur, was born 
in 364/975 ; his mother, an umm walad called al- 
Dhalfa 3 , survived him several years. Even before 
succeeding his father he gained experience as general 
in several campaigns, both in the North of Spain, 
against the Christians, and in Morocco. He was 
appointed by his father as a kind of viceroy of 
Morocco in 388/998, and took up his residence in 
Fez, but was recalled to Cordova the next year. 
On the career of 'Abd al-Malik as sovereign we are 
informed in sufficient detail by the newly discovered 
Hispano-Arabic chronicles. One gets the impression 
that 'Abd al-Malik b. Abi 'Amir, without having 
the genius of his father, was not lacking in certain 
statesmanlike qualities. At any rate, the seven years 
during which he held power are represented as the 
last favourable period of the history of al-Andalus 
before the fall of the Umayyad calipahate of the West. 
The "majordomo", remaining faithful to the line 
followed by al-Mansur, continued his policy of 
harassing the Christian enemy beyond the frontier 
zones (thughur). For this purpose he undertook year 
after year an expedition to one or the other of the 
marches of al-Andalus. In 393/1003 he directed his 
army towards the Hispanic March (bildd al-Ifrandf), 
ravaged the surroundings of Barcelona and laid 
waste thirty-five fortresses of the enemy. In 394/1004, 
he attacked the territory of the count of Castille, 
Sancho Garcia, who asked for an armistice and 
in the following year helped 'Abd al-Malik in his 
campaign against Galicia and Asturias. In the 
summer of 396/1006, 'Abd al-Malik started an 



'ABD al-MALIK ABl 'AMIR — 'ABD al-MALIK b. MARWAN 



offensive against the Frankish county of Ribagorza. 
His most famous expedition, however, was that of 
the following year, aimed against the fortress of 
Clunia, which was taken and destroyed. This victory 
gained for the 'Amirid hddfib the honorific title of 
al-Muzaffar. In 398/1007 he had again to take up 
arms against Sancho Garcia and Castille, and yet 
again in the following year. While he was preparing 
to set out against Castille, he succumbed to a disease 
of the chest, near Cordova, on the Guadimellato 
(Wadl Armilat), 16 Safar 399/20 Oct. 1008. 

During the seven years of his rule, 'Abd al-Malik 
al-Muzaffar preserved for the State of Cordova its 
strong administrative structure, by favouring the 
Slavonic dignitaries (sakdliba) against the Arab 
aristocracy. Nevertheless, several attemps were made 
on his person. There are reasons to assume that his 
brother, c Abd al-Rahman Sanchuelo, who succeeded 
him, was not without his share in the unexpected 
and premature death of the second 'Amirid. 

[See also 'amirids and umayyads op Spain]. 
Bibliography: Ibn Bassam, Dhakhira. iv (ed. 

in preparation) ; Ibn 'Idharl, Baydn, iii, 3-37(transl. 

in Dozy, Histoire des Musulmans d'Espagne 1 , iii, 

185-214); Ibn al-Khatib. A"-mal al-AHdm, 97-104; 

E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. mus., ii, 273 (bibliogr. 

references in note 1), 290 ff. 

(E. Levi-Provencal) 

C ABD al-MALIK B. KATAN al-FihrI, gover- 
nor of al-Andalus. He succeeded in this office 
c Abd al-Rahman b. 'Abd Allah al-Ghafikl [q.v.], 
when the latter was killed during his expedition into 
Gaul, 114/732. He had to surrender his office, in 
116/734, to 'Ukba b. al-Hadjdjadj al-Saluli, but 
resumed it in 123/740. Belonging to the Medinese 
party, he evinced a rather unfavourable attitude 
towards the caliph of Damascus. Almost at once, 
however, he was confronted with grave difficulties 
caused by the Berbers who revolted in the Iberian 
peninsula and soon afterwards menaced Cordova. 
In face of this danger, and in view of the insufficiency 
of his own military resources, c Abd al-Malik had to 
appeal, whether he liked it or not, for the services 
of a group of Arabs belonging to various diunds 
[q.v.] of Syria, who were besieged in the North- 
African fortress of Ceuta, and gave them permission 
to cross the Straits under the command of their 
chief Baldi [q.v.]. Thanks to this reinforcement and 
to three successive defeats which they inflicted 
upon the rebellious Berbers, he suceeded in allaying 
the danger that menaced him. The Syrian troops, 
however, confident in their strength, had no difficulty 
in removing 'Abd al-Malik b. Katan and put in his 
place as wait of al-Andalus their own general Baldi, 
at the beginning of Dhu '1-Ka'da 123/Sept. 741. One 
of the first actions of the new governor was to order 
the execution of his predecessor, who was then a 

Bibliography : E. Levi- Provencal, Hist. Esp. 
mus., i, 41, 43-7. (E. Levi-Provencal) 

C ABD al-MALIK B. MARWAN, fifth Caliph of 
the Umayyad line, reigned 65-86/685-705. According 
to general report he was bom in the year 26/646-7, 
the son of Marwan b. al-Hafcam [q.v.], his mother 
being 'A'isha bint Mu'awiya b. al-Mughlra. As a 
boy of ten he was an eye-witness of the storming 
of 'Uthman's house, and. at the age of sixteen 
Mu'awiya appointed him to command the Madinian 
troops against the Byzantines. He remained at 
Medina until the outbreak of the rebellion against 
Yazld I (62-3/682-3). When the Umayyads were 
expelled by the rebels, he left the town with his 



father, but on meeting the Syrian army under 
•Muslim b. 'Ukba he returned with him, after giving 
Muslim information concerning the town and its 
defences. This was followed by the battle of the 
Harra and the total defeat of the Madinians (27 Dh u 
'1-Hidjdja 63/27 Aug. 683). After the assassination of 
his father (Ramadan 65/April-May 685), 'Abd al- 
Malik was recognized as Caliph by the partisans of 
the Umayyads, but he was faced with serious 
difficulties. Although the battle of Mardi Rahit had 
reaffirmed Umayyad control of Syria, and Egypt 
had been recovered and was strongly held by his. 
brother 'Abd al-'AzIz [q.v.], Zufar b. Harith held 
out in the north at Kirkisiyya, with the support 
of the Kays, until 71/690-1, and the Byzantines, 
were giving much trouble on the frontiers, even 
reoccupying Antioch in 68/688, as well as giving aid 
to the Mardaites within Syria itself. In Mecca, 'Abd 
Allah b. al-Zubayr [q.v.] had been proclaimed Caliph, 
and was at least nominally recognized in most prov- 
inces of the empire. Nevertheless, 'Abd al-Malik 
showed himself equal to the task, and within a few 
years succeeded in restoring the unity of the Arabs 
under Syrian leadership. 

At first, however, 'Irak and the East had to be 
abandoned. The governor, 'Ubayd Allah b. Ziyad, 
driven out by the tribesmen after the death of Yazld, 
was unable, in spite of his success in defeating an 
attack by Kufan forces in Mesopotamia (Ramadan 
65/May 685), to reoccupy Kufa and Basra. Kufa 
was shortly afterwards seized by the Shl'ite leader 
Mukhtar [q.v.], whose partisans, after an indecisive 
engagement with the Syrians (Dhu '1-Hidjdja 66/July 
686), totally defeated 'Ubayd Allah on the Khazir 
river in the following month under the command 
of Ibrahim b. al-Ashtar. For the next five years 
'Irak remained under the rule of Mus'ab b. al- 
Zubayr, whose general al-Muhallab b. Abl Sufra, 
with the troops of Basra, defeated Mukhtar's forces 
at Harflra in Ramadan 67/April 687 and reoccupied 
Kufa. In order to free his hands for dealing with 
Irak, 'Abd al-Malik in 69/689 made a ten years' truce 
with the Greek Emperor, by which, in return for 
an annual tribute, the latter removed the Mardaites 
from Syria into Greek territory. Immediately after- 
wards 'Abd al-Malik set out from Damascus against 
Mus'ab, but was obliged to return in order to deal 
with a revolt in the capital led by his kinsman 'Amr 
b. Said al-Ashdak [q.v.]. 'Amr fortified himself in the 
residence, but on the Caliph's arrival he capitulated 
on promise of life and liberty. Nevertheless, 'Abd 
al-Malik was unable to trust him, and soon after- 
wards had him seized and executed him, according 
to the general statement, with his own hand. In the 
following year (70/690) the campaign against Mus'ab 
was renewed, but both armies faced one another in 
Mesopotamia without result. In the third year, 
'Abd al-Malik opened his campaign by besieging 
Zufar in Kirkisiyya for some months. After its 
capture he reoccupied Upper Mesopotamia, and 
reinforced by the Kays marched into 'Irak. At 
Dayr al-Djathallk, near Maskin, Mus'ab and Ibn 
al-Ashtar were defeated and slain (Djumada I or 
II, 72/Oct.-Nov., 691). Al-Muhallab with the troops 
of Basra was engaged in the struggle with the 
Kharidjites, and most of the 'Irakis were weary of 
the conflict, which had brought them little but 
hardships and loss. Immediately after the Caliph's 
entry into Kufa, where he received the homage of 
the province, a force of 2000 Syrians was despatched 
under al-Hadjdjadi to deal with Ibn al-Zubayr at 
Mecca. After a halt at Ta'if, al-Hadjdjadj laid siege 



'ABD al-MALIK B. MARWAN — C ABD al-MALIK b. SALIH 



77 



to Mecca on i Dhu '1-Ka'da 72/25 March 692; it 
was a little more than six months before Ibn al- 
Zubayr was killed on the field and the city surren- 
dered (17 Di- I or II, 73/4 Oct. or 3 Nov., 692). 
Al-Hadjdjadj was rewarded with the governorship 
of the Hidjaz. 

The recovery of 'Irak involved 'Abd al-Malik in 
the necessity of organizing immediate measures 
against the Kharidiites. After an initial failure, the 
combined forces of Kufa and Basra defeated the 
Nadjdiyya of Yamama at Mushahhar in 73/692-3, 
but the more dangerous and fanatical Azarika in 
Persia set a tougher problem. Even under the 
command of al-Muhallab, the war-weary mukdtila 
showed little stomach for this task until in 75'694 
'Abd al-Malik transferred al-Hadjdjadj to the 
government of Kufa. With his ruthless and energetic 
backing al-Muhallab was able to hunt down the 
Azarika in a three-years' campaign.' In the meantime 
a fresh Kharidiite rising broke out among the 
Rabl'a tribesmen in Mesopotamia, who, under the 
leadership of Shabib, swept down on the territories 
of Kufa and seized Mada'in (76-7/695-6). When the 
mukdtila of Kufa, recalled from Persia, proved 
unable to prevent Shabib from investing their city, 
al-Hadjdjadj obtained the services of 4000 Syrian 
troops, who, after driving off the attackers and 
killing Shabib (end of 77/beg. of 697) went on 
to break up the Arab section of the Azarika in 
Tabaristan. Following on an outbreak of disorder in 
Khurasan in the same year (78/697), c Abd al-Malik 
added this province also to the government of al- 
Hadjdjadj, who appointed al-Muhallab to govern it 
as his deputy. Al-Muhallab reopened shortly after- 
wards the campaigns towards Central Asia, but few 
positive gains are recorded before his death in 
82/701-2, when he was succeeded by his son Yazld. 
At the same time 'Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad b. 
al-Ash'ath, who had been appointed to Sidjistan, 
was engaged in Afghanistan with the troops of Kufa 
and Basra. Enraged by the criticisms directed 
against them by the plebeian viceroy, Ibn al-Ash'ath 
and the ashrdf revolted (81/700-1) and marched 
back into 'Irak. The small body of Syrian troops 
and their supporters were unable to withstand the 
united forces of the province, and for a time the 
situation was critical; but with the aid of reinforce- 
ments from Syria the rebels were defeated at Dayr 
al-Djamadjim (Dj. II, 82/July 701) and again routed 
at Maskin on the Dudjayl (Sha'ban 82/Oct. 701), 
and the remnants were pursued into Sidjistan and 
Khurasan, where they were dispersed by Yazld b. 
al-Muhallab (83/702). In the same year al-Hadjdjadj 
"built a new garrison city for the Syrian troops at 
Wasit. This episode proved to be a turning-point in 
the history of the Umayyad Caliphate and the Arab 
empire. Henceforward a permanent Syrian army of 
occupation garrisoned 'Irak, and the mukdtila of 
Kufa and Basra were never again called out on a 
war footing. For twelve years more the heavy hand 
of al-Hadjdjadj maintained order and security, and 
laid the foundations of future economic prosperity 
in 'Irak, but at the cost of much bitter resentment 
amongst the tribesmen, especially in Kufa. 

The war with the Byzantines was renewed in 
73/692, in consequence of the Emperor's refusal to 
accept the new Muslim gold currency struck by 
*Abd al-Malik. Despite some initial successes in then- 
raids into Anatolia and Armenia, the Syrian troops, 
•commanded by the Caliph's brother Muhammad, 
gained little territory, but prepared the way for 
the expeditions of the next reign. In North Africa, 



however, the mukdtila of Egypt, under Hassan b. 
al-Nu'man, after regaining the southern part of 
Ifrlkiya, advanced on Carthage with naval support 
(78/679). A reinforcing Greek fleet was defeated, 
Carthage occupied, and a secure base established 
at Kayrawan for further conquests. 

In the midst of these preoccupations with internal 
conflicts and external wars, 'Abd al-Malik found 
time to develop the administrative efficiency of his 
empire. The answer to the disintegrating tendencies 
of tribalism was centralization, and various reforms 
were put in hand to this end. The most important 
was the substitution of Arabic for Greek and 
Persian in the financial bureaux; this was a first 
step towards the reorganization and unification of 
the diverse tax-systems in the provinces, and 
also a step towards a more definitely Muslim admin- 
istration. This appears even more clearly in the 
decision to issue an Islamic gold coinage, replacing 
the Byzantine denarius with its image of the Emperor 
by a Muslim dinar with Kur'anic texts. Despite 
the hostility which later tradition displayed towards 
the Umayyads and al-Hadjdjadj in particular, it 
cannot be doubted that already the influence of 
Islam was strongly felt in this, the first generation of 
Muslim rulers who had been brought up from child- 
hood in the Muslim faith. Another, and even more 
far-reaching reform was the re-edition of the 'Uth- 
manic text of the Kur'an with vowel-punctuation, 
a measure generally attributed to al-Hadjdjadj, but 
which enraged the pietists of Kufa who held to the 
"reading" of Ibn Mas'fld. 'Abd al-Malik was also the 
builder of the Kubbat al-Sakhra [q.v.] at Jerusalem. 
The last years of his reign were on the whole 
years of prosperity and peaceful consolidation, but 
for his anxiety over the succession. Marwan had 
appointed as successor to 'Abd al-Malik his brother 
'Abd al-'Aziz, but 'Abd al-Malik wished to exclude 
him in favour of his own sons al-Walld and Sulayman. 
A split was avoided just in time, by the death of 
'Abd al-'Aziz in Egypt in Dj. I, 86/May 705, only 
five months before the death of 'Abd al-Malik 
(Shawwal 86/Oct. 705). He was succeeded by his 
eldest son al-Walld [q.v.]. 

Bibliography: General histories of Tabari, 
Baladhuri, Ya'kubi, Mas'udi, Ibn al-Athir, etc.; 
Ibn Sa'd, v, 165-75; A ghdni, index; Ibn Kutayba, 
<-Uyun al-Akhbdr, index; the general histories of 
the Caliphate (see also umayyads); J. Walker, 
Catalogue of the Arab-Sassanian Coins (in the B.M.), 
and other catalogues of Umayyad coins; Caetani, 
Chronographia, A. H. 86, para. 31 (pp. 1040-1). 

(H. A. R. GtBB) 
'ABD al-MALIK b. N©*I [see Samanids]. 
'ABD al-MALIK B. §ALIH b. AlI, cousin of 
the caliphs Abu 'l-'Abbas al-Saffah and Abu Djaf ar 
al-Mansur. In the reign of Harun al-Rashid 'Abd 
al-Malik led several campaigns against the Byzan- 
tines, in 174/790-1, in 181/797-8, and according to 
some authorities also in 175/791-2, although other 
sources assert that in this year the forces were 
commanded not by 'Abd al-Malik but by his son 
'Abd al-Rahman. He was also for some time governor 
of Medina and held the same office in Egypt. At 
length, however, he could not escape the Caliph's 
suspicion; in 187/803 he was, for no adequate reason, 
thrown into prison and remained there until al- 
Rashld's death in 183/809. The new Caliph, al-Amln, 
restored him to liberty and appointed him in 196/ 
811-2 governor of Syria and Upper Mesopotamia. 
'Abd al-Malik set out at once for al-Rakka, but fell 
ill and died in that town shortly afterwards (the year 



78 



<ABD al-MALIK B. SALIH — C ABD al-MU'MIN 



of his death, 196/81 1-2, is confirmed by al-Mas'Qdl, 
Tanbih 348; but the same author, MurOdj, iv, 437, 
gives 197, while Ibn Khallikan indicates 193 (trans, 
de Slane, i. 316) and even 199 (ibid., iii, 665, 667). 
Some years later the caliph al-Ma'mun ordered his 
tomb to be destroyed, it is said, because c Abd al- 
Malik had sworn, during the civil war between 
al-Amln and al-Ma'mun, never to pay homage to 
the latter. 

Bibliography: Tabari, iii, 610 ff ; Ibn al-AUjir, 
vi, 64 ff; Ya'kiibl, ii, 496 ff.; Mas'udl, Muru&i, 
iv, 302-5, 356, 419 ff., 437 ff-; Baladhurt, Futuh, 
132, 153, 170, 185; Brooks, Byzantines and Arabs 
in the Time of the early Abbasids, The English 
Historical Review, xv, 728 ff, xvi, 84 ff.; Wasiyyat 
c Abd al-Malik li'bnihi kabl wafdtih, ed. L. Cheikho, 
in Machriq, xxv, 738-45. (K. V. Zettersteen) 
<ABD al-MU'MIN B. 'Ali b. c AlwI b. Ya'lA 
al-KCmI Abu Muhammad, successor of the Mahdl 
Ibn Tumart [q.v.] in the leadership of the reformist 
movement of tawhid, known as the Almohad move- 
ment (see al-muwahijidun), and founder of the 
Mu'minid dynasty, which in the West, in the 
6th/i2th century, took the place of the kingdoms 
of Ifrikiya and of the Almoravid dynasty of Morocco 
and of Spain, with its capital at Marrakush [q.v.]. 
The history of the origins of the Almohad move- 
ment and of the reign of c Abd al-Mu'min has been 
illuminated and in large measure reinterpreted since 
the present author had the good fortune to find, 
in a miscellaneous collection in the Escurial library, 
some extracts from an anonymous Kitab al-Ansdb 
devoted to the principal protagonists of the religious 
and political system set up by Ibn Tumart, and 
especially the extremely lively and certainly authen- 
tic 'Memoirs' of a companion of the Mahdl and of 
his successor, Abu Bakr b. c Ali al-SinhadjI, called 
al-Baydhak (E. Levi-Provencal, Documents inidUs 
d'histoire almohade, Paris 1928). This extremely 
important find was followed by the discovery of a 
volume of the Nazm al-Djumdn by Ibn al-Kattan 
on the beginnings of the movement (published in 
part by E. Levi-Provencal, Six fragments inidits 
d'une chronique du debut des Almohades, in Melanges 
Rene Basset, Paris 1925, ii, 335-93), and also of a 
collection of official letters from c Abd al-Mu'min 
and his immediate successors (E. Levi-Provencal, 
Trente-sept lettres officielles almohades, Rabat 1941; 
Un recueil de lettres officielles almohades, analysis 
and historical commentary, Paris 1941k It has thus 
become possible, without having to rely only on 
later Arabic historians, to attempt a detailed critical 
account of this period which covered a large part 
of the 6th/i2th century and coincided with an 
unprecedented revolution in the history of the 
Islamic West — an account which, however, still 

The circumstances of the meeting of Ibn Tumart 
and of his disciple <Abd al-Mu'min might have been 
regarded as legendary were they not confirmed by 
al-Baydhak, who was a witness. c Abd al-Mu'min, 
a humble student, of the Arabicized Berber tribe 
of the Kumya, of the ethnic group of the Zanata, 
settled in the north of what is now the province of 
Oran, not far from Nedroma, made no attempt to 
claim, as did his master, an Arab and even Prophetic 
ancestry until very much later. Still a young man — 
the year of his birth has not been ascertained — he 
had, with his uncle Ya'lu, left his native village of 
Tagra to visit the East, or possibly Ifrikiya only, 
in order to complete his studies there. But this pere- 
grination for the purpose of talab al-Hlm was to take 



him no further than Bougie (Bidjaya). It was in a 
suburb of that town, Mallala, that Ibn Tumart, the 
'faklh of the Sfls', as he was then called, who was on 
his way back to Morocco, encountered the man who 
was to be his successor. He persuaded him to join 
the small group of disciples who accompanied him, 
and taught him his "unitarian" doctrine, during the 
few months that he remained at Bougie. This 
meeting probably took place in the course of the 
year 5"/i"7. 

From this time onwards and until the death of 
the Mahdl in 524/1130, c Abd al-Mu'min plays an 
extremely active part at the side of his master, 
who attached him by adoption to his own tribe, 
the Hargha, and gave him a place in his "Council 
of Ten". He took part in all the expeditions, had 
a say in the deliberations of the Almohad general 
staff, and found a far-seeing protector in the person 
of the most active member of the movement, Abu 
Hafs 'Umar al-Hintatl [q.v.]. It was the latter who, at 
the death of Ibn Tumart, imposed on the Berber 
hillsmen of Tlnmallal acceptance of the choice made 
by the Mahdl of his own successor. Three whole years 
were, however, to elapse before c Abd al-Mu'min 
was proclaimed. He then received from all his new 
subjects the bay l a of allegiance, but had at the 
same time to face an uncertain political situation. 
Events were to reveal his outstanding qualities as 
a statesman, as a general, and as chief of a coalition 
which was still, in spite of appearances, heteroge- 
neous. His first task was, leaving aside all other 
business, to break down the Almoravid structure, 
whose foundations were already undermined. Fortune 
favoured him to a degree beyond his. highest hopes. 

The career of c Abd al-Mu'min as a sovereign began 
on the day of his proclamation, in 527/1133, and 
continued until his death in 558/1163. Here we shall 
merely summarise its principal stages. 

The first stage was to secure for the Almohads the 
whole of Morocco. The conquest proved long and 
difficult. c Abd al-Mu'min first of all attacked the 
Sus and the Dra (WadI Dar'a [q.v.]), then the line of 
Almoravid fortresses which in the North encircled the 
Grand Atlas, preventing access to the plains and to 
the capital, Marrakush. Then he swung towards the 
northeast, took the fortified towns of Damnat and 
Day, and step by step secured possession of the middle 
Atlas and of the oases of the Tafilalt during the years 
534-35/1140-41. Then the Almohad columns de- 
bouched into northern Morocco, and, from their base 
in the mountain massif of the Djebala, occupied the 
fortresses in the region of Taza. Thence, they went on 
to win over to the movement the sub-Mediterranean 
tribes of the WadI Law, and of Badis, Nakfir, Melilla, 
and the North-Oranian region; to his own village of 
Tagra, c Abd al-Mu'min returned as a conqueror. 

From this moment, c Abd al-Mu'min, at the head 
of considerable forces, felt himself strong enough to 
abandon the guerrilla operations in hilly country 
which had hitherto been his tactics, and to confront 
the Almoravids in the plain. The carrying out of 
this intention was made all the easier for him by 
the death of the Almoravid amir, 'All b. Yusuf 
b. Tashufin, which took place in 537/1134, leaving a 
tottering throne to his son Tashufin, and open rivalry 
between the Lamtuna and Massufa chiefs in regard 
to the succession to the amirate. Another untoward 
circumstance for the Almoravids was the tragic death 
of one of their most devoted and skilful generals, the 
Catalan Reverter (al-Ruburtayr), leader of their 
Christian militia, who was killed in an engagement 
with the Almohads, in 539/1145, in eastern Morocco. 



'ABD al-MU'MIN 



Finally, the adhesion of the Zanata to the tawhid 
further inclined the balance in favour of the rebel 
movement. The armies of c Abd al-Mu'min and of 
Tashufin b. 'All met before Tlemcen, and the Almo- 
ravid was forced to fall back on Oran, but he died as 
a result of a fall from his horse in the same year, 539. 
Now the road to Fez was open : first Oujda (Wadjda) 
and then Guercif (Adjarslf) were taken, and the capital 
of north Morocco fell after a siege of nine months 
in 540/1146, followed by MiknSsa (Meknes) and Sate. 

This series of victories was quickly followed up 
by the capture of Marrakush. The Almoravid capital 
made some attempt to resist the attackers, but was 
soon forced to capitulate, in spite of the heroic 
defence made by the garrison of the ka$aba (Shawwal 
541/April 1 147), and there was great slaughter of 
the Almoravids, among the dead being the young 
prince Ishak b. C A1I b. Yusuf. Henceforward the 
Mu'minid dynasty had the capital of its choice. The 
Almoravid palace was selected as his personal resi- 
dence by 'Abd al-Mu 5 min, who gave orders for the 
erection in its vicinity of the monumental Mosque 
of the Booksellers (Diami 1 al-Kutubiyyin) , whose 
imposing minaret still towers above Marrakush today. 

The final destruction of Almoravid power made 
it possible for c Abd al-Mu'min to organise his new 
empire, using as a basis the political system of the 
Almohad community, but broadened and adapted 
to his purpose. He carried out a new scrutiny of 
his supporters, thousands of whom, judged to be 
of doubtful loyalty or lacking in religious fervour, 
were put to the sword. Then it seemed to him that 
the time had come to extend his conquests beyond 
the boundaries of the Almoravid possessions in the 
Maghrib, and he prepared to annex Ifrikiya. 

Ifrikiya was in any case an easy prey at that 
moment. The Sinhadjian dynasties of Bidjaya and 
Kayrawan were thoroughly undermined, and the 
wave of beduin incursions was swamping the whole 
country, while the Normans, led by Roger II, king 
of Sicily, were gaining a foothold in the principal 
ports of Ifrikiya. An Almohad expedition against 
Ifrikiya could therefore be regarded as all the more 
justified, in that it could claim to be a djihdd against 
the infidel. c Abd al-Mu'min concentrated his troops 
at Sale, in 546/1151, then, in the course of an 
irresistible thrust towards the east, took possession 
one after another of Algiers, Bougie and of Kal'at 
Bani Hammad, and utterly routed near Setif the 
nomadic Arabs, formerly in the service of the 
Hammadids of Bougie ; after which he did not scorn 
to accept their services, and for the time being 
refrained from advancing any further towards Tunisia. 

Ifrikiya properly so called was not conquered 
until eight yea,rs later. 'Abd al-Mu'min, leaving as 
his lieutenant in the Maghrib Abu Hafs 'Umar al- 
Hintatl, arrived before Tunis, after a journey of six 
months, in Djumada II 554/June 1159- Having taken 
♦he town, he went on towards al-Mahdiyya and 
attacked this fortified town, which was in the hands 
of Roger II of Sicily, with powerful forces; the town 
fell in Muharram 555/January 1160. In the course 
of this campaign he also secured possession of Susa, 
Kayrawan, Sfax, Gafsa, Gabes, and Tripoli. Then 
the ruler returned to Marrakush, whence he left for 
Spain in 556/1161. 

The establishment of the Almohads in the Iberian 
peninsula had begun in 539/1145, immediately after 
the capture of Tlemcen. In the next year the Almo- 
ravid admiral lbn Maymun, who had gone over to 
c Abd al-Mu'min, contributed his part by taking 
Cadiz. In 541/1157 an Almohad army took succes- 



sively the fortified towns of Jerez, Niebla, Silves, 
Beja, Badajoz, Mertola, and finally Seville. In 
549/1154 Granada was surrendered to the new 
masters of the country by its Almoravid governor. 
In 552/1157 Almeria was recaptured from the 
Christians, who had seized it, and whose designs on 
al-Andalus became ever more obvious. It was in 
these circumstances that 'Abd al-Mu'min decided 
to cross the Straits himself, and established his 
head-quarters at Gibraltar (Djabal Tarik, after- 
wards Djabal al-Fath), whose reconstruction he had 
ordered in the previous year. He remained there for 
two months of winter, and sent out his columns 
towards Jaen, where the mercenaries of lbn Marda- 
nlsh [q.v.] had engaged in raiding. 

'Abd al-Mu'min returned to Morocco at the 
beginning of 558/1162. He proceeded to concentrate 
his troops in the huge enceinte built opposite Sal*, 
the Ribdf al-Fath, now Rabat, with a view to another 
expedition to the Iberian peninsula. But he had to 
take to his bed, and, after a long and painful illness, 
died in the month of Djumada II 558/May 1163. 
(All the historians agree as to the month and the 
year, but not as to the actual day). His remains 
were taken from Sal* to TInmallal and buried 
near the tomb of the Mahdl lbn Tumart. 

In all probability, it was at the time of the capture 
of Marrakush that 'Abd al-Mu'min had allowed his 
entourage to confer on him the exalted title of 
amir al-mu'minin, whereas the Almoravids had 
used only the title amir al-muslimin, recognising the 
spiritual suzerainty of the 'Abbasid caliphate of 
the East. Also, breaking with the Almoravid tra- 
dition, which itself had been inspired by the Hispano- 
Umayyad organisation, he set up an administrative 
system which took into account the political needs 
of his great empire, as" well as his desire not to give 
offence to his entourage of Berbers, "Almohads 
from the very beginning". Many regulations that 
formed part of this system are still in existence in 
the organisation of the makhzen [q.v.] of modern 
Morocco. But he had also to turn to Andalusian 
experts for his chancellery, mostly to men who had 
formerly been secretaries at the Almoravid court. 
He cleverly secured his succession in the direct line, 
and in 549/1154 had his eldest son Muhammad nomi- 
nated as heir presumptive. In 551/1156 he appointed 
his other sons to governorships of the principal towns 
of his empire, posting with each one, as mentors, 
men of the highest rank in the Almohad hierarchy. 

Various estimates have been given of 'Abd al- 
Mu'min, who was in no way marked out for the 
brilliant career that he made for himself. If, at the 
beginning and during the years that followed the 
death of lbn Tumart, he seems to have been some- 
what timid and to have allowed himself to be led 
by his principal collaborator Abu Hafs 'Umar IntI, 
it appears that he later manifested in increasing 
measure not only strategic but also political qualities, 
handling tactfully his susceptible entourage of 
Almohad Berbers, winning the good will of the 
Arabs of Ifrikiya after subjugating them, and 
carrying out with great intelligence and energy, 
and also cruelty, his role as head of a State and 
guardian of the doctrine of the Mahdi, to whom he 
owed his own fortune and that of his dynasty. 

See also the arts, abu #afs c umar al-hintatI, 

Bibliography: In addition to the basic texts 
cited at the beginning of this article, the career 
of 'Abd al-Mu'min is traced, though with many 
errors in chronology, by 'Abd al- Wahid al-Marra- 



'ABD al-MU'MIN — Mirza C ABD al-RAHIM KHAN 



kushl, Mu l d±ib, ed. Dozy; Ibn Abl Zar', Rawd 
al-kir(ds, ed. Tornberg and ed. of Fez; al-Hulal 
al-Mawshiya, ed. Allouche, Ibn al-Athlr, xi index ; 
Ibn al-Khatib, A c mal al-A c lam; Ibn Khaldun. 
Hist, des Berbires, text, i, transl., ii; Zarkashi, 
Ta'rikh al-Dawlatayn, Tunis 1289; Ibn Khallikan. 
[Wafaydt al-a'-yan, I, 390-1]. See also G. Marcais, 
La Berberie musulmane et VOrient au Moyen Age, 
Paris 1946, 262-4; H. Terrasse, Histoire du Maroc, 
Casablanca 1949, i, 282-316; C. A. Julien, Histoire 
de VAfrique du Nord de la conq\lte arabe A 1830, 
Paris 1952, 93-112; Levi-Provencal, Notes d'histoire 
almohade, Hesp., 1930, 49-90; ibid., Islam d'Oc- 
cident, Paris, 1948, i, 257-80; A. Huici, La historia 
y la leyenda en los origenes del imperio almohade 
And., 339 if. (E. Levi-Provencal) 

'ABD al-MUTTALIB B. HASHIM, paternal 
grandfather of Muhammad. Passing through 
Medina on trading journeys to Syria, Hashim b. 
'Abd Manaf married Salma bint 'Amr of the clan 
of c Adi b. al-Nadjdjar of the Khazradj, by whom 
he had two children, c Abd al-Muttalib (or Shayba) 
and Rukayya. The mother and her son remained 
in her house in Medina, this apparently being the 
practice of her family in accordance with a matrilineal 
kinship system. Some time after Hashim's death his 
brother al-Muttalib tried to strengthen his deteri- 
orating position in Mecca by bringing his gifted 
nephew from Medina to help him. The common 
explanation that the youth was called 'Abd al- 
Muttalib because he was mistaken for the slave of 
■al-Muttalib is not acceptable; the name has probably 
a religious significance. Arabic sources give the 
impression that 'Abd al-Muttalib was the leading 
man in Mecca (sayyid Kuraysh), whereas sc 
Western scholars have tried to show that he < 
insignificant. It seems more probable that he ' 
a leader of a political group within Kuraysh which 
had developed out of the alliance of the Mutayyabun 
<B. 'Abd Manaf, B. Asad, B. Zuhra, B. Taym, B 
Harith b. Fihr) by the secession of B. Nawfal b. c Abd 
Manaf and B. c Abd Shams b. 'Abd Manaf. It 
significant that c Abd al-Muttalib is said to have 
had disputes with Nawfal and with the grandson 
of c Abd Shams. Moreover it is doubtless as leader 
of this group that he negotiated with the leader 
of an Abyssinian army invading Mecca, perhaps 
hoping thereby to obtain some advantage < 
Meccan rivals. He also appears to have beei 
alliance with tribes from the neighbourhood of 
Mecca, Khuza'a. Kinana and Thakif, and to 1 
owned a well at al-Ta'if. The basis of his prosperity 
was trade, especially with Syria and the Yemen, 
coupled with the sikdya and rifada (the privilege of 
supplying pilgrims to Mecca with water and food), 
which he had inherited from Hashim. He is credited 
with having dug several wells, notably that of 
Zamzam at the Rata. Fatima bint 'Amr (of B. 
Makhzum) was mother of most of his children, 
including 'Abd Allah [q.v.] (Muhammad's father) and 
Abu Talib; he had other wives from B. Zuhra of 
Kuraysh, al-Namir, 'Amir b. Sa'sa'a and Khuza'a, 
mothers respectively of Hamza, al-'Abbas, al-Harith 
and Abu Lahab. On the death of Muhammad's mother 
he took the boy of six to his own house. While the 
■stories about 'Abd al-Muttalib have been subject to 
tendentious shaping, there may be more fact underly- 
ing them than scepticalWestern scholars haveallowed. 
Bibliography: Ibn Hisham, 33-5, 71, 9i" 6 > 
107-14; Ibn Sa'd, i/i, 46-58, 74-5; Tabari, i, 
937-45, 980-1, 1073-83, etc.; Caussin de Perceval, 
Essai sur Vhistoire des Arabes avant Vislamisme, 



i, 259-90; ZDMG, vii, 30-5; Caetani, Annali, 

rn-20; F. Buhl, Das Leben Muhammeds, 113-6; 

Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at Mecca, index. 
(W. Montgomery Watt) 

Mirza C ABD al RAHlM KHAN, Khan-i KhanAn, 
general, statesman and scholar, was born in 
Lahore, 14 Safar 964/16 Dec. 1556, the son of Akbar's 
first wakil, Bayram Khan [q.v.]. He belonged to the 
Baharlu, a branch of the Kara Koyunlu Turkmens, 
and his mother was a daughter of Djamal Khan 
Mewati, whose elder daughter the emperor Humayun 
had married. When he was four his father was 
murdered and he was thereafter brought up by 
Akbar himself, who gave him an excellent education 
and training, and from whom he received the title 
of Mirza Khan. In 1572 he accompanied Akbar to 
Gudjrat and then had assigned to him, under the 
tutelage of Sayyid Ahmad of Baraha, the district of 
Patah, within which his .father had been murdered. 

In Djumada I 981/Aug. 1573 he accompanied 
Akbar on his historic forced march to Gudjrat and 
he shared the command of the centre in the battle 
of Sarnal which destroyed the power of the rebel 
Mirzas. In 1576 he was appointed governor of 
Gudjrat, Wazir Khan Harawi being entrusted with 
the actual administration of the province. He was 
deputed in the same year to the MewSr expedition 
and assisted in the conquest of Gogunda and Kum- 
bhalmer in 1578. As a mark of great confidence the 
emperor appointed him, in 1581, mir c ard, an office 
which was previously held by seven officers jointly. 
He was also given the djagir of Ranthambore and 
ordered to pacify the area. In 1582 he was appointed 
atalik to Akbar's son Sallm, then a boy of thirteen. 
In 1583 he was deputed to suppress the revolt of 
Muzaffar Shah Gudjratl, which he broke by defeating 
Muzaffar against heavy odds in Muharram 992/Jan. 
1584, at the two battles of Sarkhedj and Nadot. In 
recognition of his victories he was given the title of 
Khan-i Khanan and raised to what was till then the 
highest mansab, of 5,000. He remained in command 
of Gudjrat, pursued Muzaffar into Kathiawar, and 
subjugated Nawanagar. In 1585, during his tem- 
porary absence at the court, Muzaffar again raised 
the banner of revolt. He quickly returned to Gudjrat 
and pacified the province. In the following year, 
when the system of joint governors was instituted, 
Kulidj Khan was associated with him in the govern- 
ment of the province. In 1587 he was permitted to 
return to the court while retaining nominally the 
governorship. In 1589, Gudjrat was taken from him 
and given to Mirza 'Aziz Kuka, the brother of his 
wife, Mah Banu. 

In the same year he was appointed to the highest 
office at the court, that of wakil, and given Djawnpur 
as d±aglr. In that year he presented to the emperor 
his Persian translation of Bibur-ndma, entitled 
Waki c dt-iBaburi. In 1 590-1 his d±ag%r was transferred 
against his wishes from Djawnpur to Multan and 
Bhakkar and he was appointed to command the 
army sent to conquer Kandahar and to annex 
Thatta, then held by Mirza Djani Beg Tarkhan. 
'Abd al-Rahim decided, according to Abu '1-Fadl, 
to proceed against Thatta in preference to Kandahar 
in the hope of getting more booty. Consequently 
the command of the Kandahar expedition was 
entrusted to Akbar's son Daniyal. In 1000/1591-2 
the conquest of Thatta was completed. Mirza Djani 
Beg married one of his daughters to 'Abd al-Rahim's 
son, Shah Nawaz Khan (Iridj), and came to the 
court along with 'Abd al-Rahim. 

In 1593 he was appointed to assist the prince 



MirzA <ABD al-RAHIM KHAN — <ABD al-RAHMAN 



81 



Daniyal who was given the command of an expedition 
to the Deccan, but on his advice the expedition was 
cancelled. Two years later, when the conquest of the 
Deccan was entrusted to another of Akbar's sons, 
Murad, c Abd al-Rahim was given Bhilsa as djdgir 
and ordered to assist the prince. From this time his 
services were directed to the Deccan, except for 
short breaches, for nearly thirty years. In con- 
sequence of his delay, he was received discourteously 
by Murad and did not take an active part in the 
campaign except when he defeated a largely out- 
numbering force under Suhayl Khan of Bidjapur 
in an important battle fought in 1597. His relations 
with the prince remained strained and in 1598 he 
was recalled from the Deccan. 

On the death of Murad, Daniyal was appointed 
to the Deccan in 1599; c Abd al-Rahim was ordered 
to join him and besiege Ahmadnagar, which was 
being heroically defended by Cand Bibl. After the 
fall of Ahmadnagar Daniyal was appointed to its 
government and was married to Djani Begum, c Abd 
al-Rahim's daughter. In 1601 <Abd al-Rahim was 
ordered to repair to Ahmadnagar and pacify the 
territory and in the following year the command 
of Berar, Pathri and Telingana was made over to him. 

When Salim ascended the throne with the title 
of Djahangir, c Abd al-Rahim was in the Deccan. He 
was confirmed in his post and the emperor especially 
sent Mukarrab Khan to reassure him. When Malik 
'Anbar, the commander of the Nizam Shahl dynasty 
of Ahmadnagar, made a bold bid to recover the 
territory lost to the Mughals, c Abd al-Rahim 
promised the emperor quick victory provided he 
received adequate assistance. A strong army under 
the command of Djahangir's son Parwiz was des- 
patched to assist him, but largely as a result of 
lack of cooperation among the generals, c Abd al- 
Rahlm was compelled to conclude a dishonourable 
treaty with Malik 'Anbar in 1610. He was recalled 
to the court in disgrace and accused of mismanage- 
ment and treachery. He was soon forgiven and in the 
following year received KalpI and Kannawdj as 
Hdgir with the responsability of suppressing revolts 
in those districts. 

Since, however, Mughal fortunes in the Deccan 
did not improve, c Abd al-Rahim was again appointed 
to the Deccan in 1021/1612, but could do little more 
than retrieve the situation, until in 1616 Parwiz was 
replaced by the prince Khurram (later §hah Djahan) 
who was sent with a large force. Malik 'Anbar was 
defeated and concluded in 1617 a treaty restoring 
the Mughal conquests, but again attacked Mughal 
territory in 1620 and was again defeated by Shah 
Djahan. In 1622 Shah Djahan was recalled from the 
Deccan along with c Abd al-Rahim and asked to 
command the army against the Persians who had 
conquered Kandahar. Shah Djahan refused to obey 
the summons and revolted. 'Abd al-Rahim joined 
him but was arrested for communicating with 
Mahabat Khan, the commander of the Imperial 
forces, and subsequently released on the latter's 
insistence to negotiate terms of peace. When he 
reached the Imperial army, his communication with 
the rebel forces was cut off and although he agreed 
to join the Imperial side, he was placed under 
surveillance. 

In 1625 Djahangir called him to the court, restored 
his title and honours and gave him one lac of rupees 
as a gift. After the emperor was released from the 
captivity of Mahabat Khan, who had rebelled, c Abd 
al-Rahim asked for the command of the expedition 
against the rebel general, and towards the close of 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



1626 was ordered to make preparations for the 
expedition and was assigned most of the dj,dgirs 
formerly held by Mahabat Khan. Before the pre- 
parations were completed, he fell ill at Lahore, and 
died on arrival at Delhi in 1036/1627, at the age of 71. 
His tomb still stands near that of the shaykh Nizam 
al-DIn Awliya. He survived his four sons, Mirza 
Iridj entitled Shah Nawaz Khan, who rose to be a 
commander of 5,000 and died in 1619; Mirza Darab 
entitled Darab Khan, also a distinguished commander 
who was made governor of Bengal by Shah Djahan 
during his rebellion, fell into the hands of Mahabat 
Khan and was executed in 1625-6 ; Mirza Rahman-dad 
(d. 1619); and Mirza Amr Allah who died young. 

Mirza 'Abd al-Rahim was a distinguished scholar 
and poet, and was proficient in Arabic, Persian, 
Turk! and Hindi. Under the pseudonym Rahlm he 
composed poetry in all four languages. He is especi- 
ally famous for his Hindi poetry which is saturated 
with the emotions of bhakti. He was a great patron 
of arts and letters, and the Ma'dthir-i Rahimi 
contains a long list of poets who enjoyed his 
patronage. His munificence and generosity were 
proverbial and anecdotes of his liberality are 
numerous. Though frequently accused of treachery 
and corruption, he possessed a better grasp of the 
problems of the Deccan than any other Mugjjal 

In his religious views he was professedly a Sunnl. 
Though religious leaders like $haykh Ahmad Sarhindl 
and shaykh c Abd al-Hakk Dihlawl counted him 
among the orthodox, his religious outlook remained 
mystical and liberal. The belief that he was suspected 
of practising takiyya and of secretly following 
Shi'ite tenets is not supported by contemporary 
evidence. 

Bibliography: Abu 'i-Fadl, Akbar-n^mA, m; 
Nizam al-Din Ahmad, Jabakat-i Akbari, H^esp. 
375-91; Tusuk-i Diahdngiri, transl. Roger* and 
Beveridge; Mu'tamad Khan, Ikbdl-nana?yl ■£&• 
hdngiri, esp. 287-8; c Abd al-Bakl NihflwandJ, 
Ma'atiir-i Rahimi; Firishta, Gulshani Ibfikimi; 
Abu Turab Wall, Ta'rikh-i Gudirdt, Calcutta 1909; 
Muhammad Ma'sum, Ta'rlkh-i Sindjt, Bombay 
1938, 250-7; Insha-yi Abu'l-Fafl, 1262, i, nos. 9, 
10, ii (first half);. Maktubdt-i Imdm-i Rabbdnl, 
Lucknow 1913, i, nos. 23, 67, 69, 191, 214, ii, 
nos. 8, 62, 66, 67; c Abd al-Hakk Dihlawl, Mo&wfi'a- 
yi Kitdb al-Makdtib, Delhi 1332, nos. 12, 14, 18, 
19, 22; Shah NawSz Khan, Ma>dt&r al-Umard', 
i. 693-713; A'in-i Akbari, transl. Blochmann, 
Calcutta 1927, i, notes 354-61; D«va Prasada 
Munsif, Khan KUn-nama (in Hindi); Maya 
Sankara Yadjnlka, Rahim Ratndvali (in Hindi). 

(Nurul Hasan) 
C ABD al RAHMAN, the name of the Marwanid 
prince who restored the Umayyad dynasty in al- 
Andalus, and of four of his successors. 

1. c Abd al-RahmAn I, called al-Dak^U, 'the Im- 
migrant', was the son of Mu'awiya b. Hisjjam [q.v.]. 
When his relatives were being hunted down by the 
'Abbasids, e Abd al-Rahman, still a youth— he was 
bom in 113/731 — contrived to escape secretly to 
Palestine, whence, accompanied by his freedman 
Badr, he made his way first to Egypt, and then to 
Ifrikiya. At Kayrawan, the hostile attitude of the 
governor, c Abd al-Rahman b. Hablb, drove him 
to seek refuge in the Maghrib. He stayed for some 
time in the region of Tahart ; subsequently he sought 
hospitality first from the Berber tribe of the 
Miknasa, and then from the Nafza tribe, on the 
Moroccan shore of the Mediterranean, taking ad- 



82 



C ABD al-RAHMAN 



vantage of his family connections — his mother 
having been a captive woman from that very tribe. 
But the Berbers did not look with favour on the 
political schemes of the young Syrian emigre, who 
with tbe help of his mawla, decided to try his luck 
in Spain. 

'Abd al-Rahman b. Mu'awiya managed most 
cleverly, and with keen political sense, to turn to 
account the bitter rivalries which at that time 
grouped the Arab Kaysite party and Yamanite party 
in the Iberian peninsula in opposed camps. We 
succeeded similarly in enlisting the support of the 
numerous Umayyad clients who had come to Spain 
with Baldj b. Bishr [q.v.], and who formed there a 
local cadre of Syrian djunds dominating a large part 
of the south of Andalusia. The ground having been 
well prepared by Badr, c Abd al-Rahman entered 
the peninsula: he disembarked at Almunecar (al- 
Munakkab) on i Rabi' I 138/14 August 755, and 
at once put forward his claim to the sovereign power. 
The governor of al-Andalus, Yusuf b. c Abd al- 
Rahman al-Fihrl, soon had to take up arms against 
him. 'Abd al-Rahman, whose forces were continually 
increasing, made his entry into Seville in Shawwal 
138/March 756, defeated Yusuf al-Fihrl in the 
outskirts of Cordova on the to Dhu '1-Hidjdja following 
(15 May), and entered the capital, where he was 
proclaimed amir of al-Andalus. 

The founder of the Umayyad amirate of Cordova 
was to reign for more than thirty-three years. He 
spent the greater part of them in consolidating his 
position in the capital itself. The news of his success 
spread in the East, and soon a stream of dependents 
or supporters of the Umayyads was flowing into 
Spain to help with the restoration in the West of 
the dynasty that in the East had fallen from power. 
It was not long before the amir of Cordova was 
forced to confront a multitude of political problems. 
He had first of all to subdue finally the former wall 
Yusuf al-Fihrl, who had collected round him a 
certain number of malcontents and tried to retake 
Cordova; but he was defeated in 141/758 and in the 
next year was killed near Toledo. Meanwhile, just 
as in the time of the former governors, embers of 
revolt were smouldering in almost every part of the 
new kingdom; unrest was stirred up not only by 
the neo-Muslim Spaniards and by the Berbers of the 
mountainous regions, but also by the mutual hostility 
of the Arab clans. 'Abd al-Rahman I thus had to 
stamp out rebellion at many different point: for 
example, in 146/763, the rising of the Arab chief 
al-'Ala> b. Mughith al-Djudhaml, and, in 152/769, 
that of the Berber Shakya in the Santaver district 
(Shantabariyya), now the province of Cuenca. 
Later, a certain number of the Arab chiefs on the 
eastern side of the Peninsula formed a coalition, and 
asked for help from Charlemagne. The latter himself 
crossed the Pyrenees at the head of a Frankish army 
and laid siege to Saragossa in 162/778; but a 
sudden recall to the Rhineland compelled him to 
raise the siege. On the way back his army was 
attacked in the narrow valley of Roncesvalley by 
bands of Basques (Bashkunish) and was decimated 
(episode of Roland, Duke of Brittany). 'Abd al- 
Rahman in his turn laid siege to Saragossa, and 
gained possession of it for a time. But he was forced 
to give up the idea of recapturing other towns that 
had fallen into the hands of the Christians. Thus 
it was that Gerona (Djarunda) came under Frankish 
control in 169/785. 

Three years later, on 25 Rabi' II 172/30 September 
788, 'Abd al-Rahman I died at Cordova before 



reaching his sixtieth year. The State of Cordova was 
doubtless still very insecure; but at least he had 
provided it with an administrative and military 
organisation similar, on a lesser scale, to that of the 
former caliphate of Damascus, and which was to 
last as long as the Marwanids of al-Andalus remained 
faithful to the 'Syrian tradition'. In any case, the 
success of the 'Immigrant' made a deep impression 
in the East, and the 'Abbasid caliph Abu Dja'far 
al-Mansur gave him the name sakr Kuraysh, 'Hawk 
of Kuraysh', as a tribute to his courage and his 
spirit of enterprise. 

Bibliography: E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. 
mus., I, 91-138. The essential Arabic source for 
the career of 'Abd al-Rahman I is the anonymous 
compilation entitled Akhbdr Madimu'-a [q.v.], 
46-120. For the other sources and the bibl., see 
Hist. Esp. mus., I, 91, n. 1. 

2. 'Abd al-Rahman II b. al-Hakam b. Hisham b. 
'Abd al-Rahman b. Mu'awiya, great-grandson of 
the above, succeeded his father al-Hakam I on 
25 Dhu 'l-Hidjdja 206/21 May 822. He was born 
at Toledo in 176/792 and was chosen as heir presump- 
tive by his father. The recent discovery of that 
part of the Muktabis of Ibn Hayyan which deals 
with the reigns of al-Hakam I and c Abd al-Rahman 
II has made it possible for the present writer to 
offer a rather different picture of the latter sovereign 
and of the kingdom of al-Andalus during his period 
from that which Dozy based on the documentation 
available in his time. It now appears that the reign, 
of 'Abd al-Rahman II, which covered a third of a 
century, was much more prosperous and brilliant 
than was thought hitherto; in the history of Anda- 
lusian civilisation it represented a decisive turning- 
point, when for the first time there penetrated to 
Cordova manners and a way of life directly borrowed 
from Baghdad and from the 'Abbasid civilisation 
which firmly set their stamp on the aristocracy 
(khassa) of Muslim Spain, and led to a continuous 
ebbing of the Syro-Umayyad tradition in the 
Marwanid kingdom. 

At the beginning of the reign of 'Abd al-Rahman II 
some disturbances, which came about as a reaction 
against the iron rule with which al-Hakam 1 had 
governed al-Andalus, were easily put down; grad- 
ually the Levante territories (Shark al-Andalus) were 
brought completely under the crown, and a new 
town, Murcia was founded in 216/831 to replace 
the former chief town, Ello. A revolt on a considerable 
scale broke out at Toledo; it was finally put down, 

same time the ruler of Cordova took up afresh the 
struggle against the Christians along the frontiers 
of al-Andalus, and nearly every year personally led 
or sent summer expeditions (sdHfa) against the 
Asturio-Leonese kingdom. He also had to deal with 
the revolt of the Berber Mahmud b. 'Abd al-Djabbar 
in the region of Merida and with the minor 
aggressive outbursts of the muwallad Banu Kasi 
family [q.v.] of Aragon, while at the same time 
waging war, at regular intervals, against the Basque 
kingdom of Pamplona and the Hispanic Marches 
(now Catalonia), which then formed part of the 
empire of the Franks (lfrandj; q.v.). 

Two important political events also took place 
during the reign of 'Abd al-Rahman II. The first, 
following upon a recrudescence of nationalist propa- 
ganda, was the tenacious revolt of the Mozarab 
Christians [q.v.] of Toledo and Cordova, fomented 
by certain fanatics. Arabic historiography makes 
no mention of this revolt, ai 



C ABD al-RAHMAN 



83 



can only be obtained from a few contemporary Latin 
sources. Not without reluctance, the government 
of Cordova had to deal severely with a large number 
of Mozarabs, priests and lay persons, men and 
women, who were guilty of having reviled the 
religion of the Prophet. At this time there was a 
disturbing outbreak of voluntary martyrdom, which 
was brought to an end by a Council held at Cordova 
and presided over by the Metropolitan of Seville 
(mafrdn) in 238/862. Seven years later the priest 
Eulogus, who had been the leading spirit of this 
movement and was. trying to reanimate it, was 
arrested and beheaded, by the orders of amir 
Muhammad I. 

Far more serious was the raid of the Norsemen, 
in 230/844, on Muslim Spain. The flotillas of Norsemen 
(Urdumaniyyun), usually called Madjus [q.v.] by the 
Chroniclers, first made their appearance at Lisbon, 
then came up the Guadalquivir from its mouth and 
sacked Seville and all the surrounding country. The 
counter-stroke was not delayed, and after a bloody 
battle Seville was recaptured from the pirates at 
the end of Safar 230/14 November 844. To meet 
this unexpected menace and to forestall any new 
attack the navy was reinforced. 

<Abd al- Rahman II instituted friendly relations 
with three little independent kingdoms of western 
Barbary: the Rus tumid kingdom of Tahart, the 
Salihid kingdom of Nakur, and the Midrarid kingdom 
of Sidjilmassa, but made no advances to the Aghla- 
bids of Ifrikiya, who were partisans of the c Abba- 
sids and had just conquered Sicily. From his reign 
too dates the opening of diplomatic relations 
between Cordova and Byzantium. An embassy from 
the emperor Theophilus arrived in Spain in 225/840 
to demand the restitution of Crete, which had been 
occupied by the Andalusian adventurer Abu Hafs 
'Umar al-Ballutl [q.v.]. The reply was in the negative, 
but a Cordovan deputation, of which the poet al- 
Ghazal [q.v.] was a member, went to Constantinople 
at this time. 

c Abd al-Rahman II was to become particularly 
renowned as an organiser and builder, and as a 
patron of letters and the arts. He reorganised the 
administration of his kingdom on the lines of the 
'Abbasid system, ordered the construction at 
Cordova of several works of public utility, and on 
two occasions undertook the extension of the great 
mosque in his capital, in 218/833 and 234/848. His 
court soon became most brilliant, from the time 
when the musician and singer Ziryab [q.v.], who 
came to Cordova in 207/822, won acceptance at 
Cordova for the refined usages of the Baghdad 
civilisation. Several poets won fame in the entourage 
of the amir of Cordova: for example, al-'Abbas ibn 
Firnas [q.v.], al-Ghazal, mentioned above, and 
Ibrahim ibn Sulayman al-Shaml. During his reign 
the Malikite school of Cordova developed greatly, 
and several fakihs acquired a reputation in juridical 
science, in particular the Berber Yahya [q.v.] al^ 
LaythI, whose dictates c Abd al-Rahman II followed in 
his choice of kadis. The end of the amir's life was 
darkened by palace intrigues, instigated by his 
fata Nasr and by his concubine Tarub. He died at 
Cordova on 3 RabI' II 238/22 September 852, after 
a reign that, taken as a whole, can be called glorious, 
and which should henceforward be assigned the 
position which it deserves in the history of Umayyad 

Bibliography: E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. 
mus., I, 193-278 (sources and bibliography ibid., 



193, 



1). 



3. <Abd al-Rahman III b. Muh. b. <Abd Allah, 
the greatest of the Hispano-Umayyad rulers and 
first caliph of al-Andalus. 

The successor of the amir c Abd Allah was only 
twenty-three at the time of his accession; in spite 
of his youth he had been chosen by his grandfather 
as heir presumptive because of his high qualities. 
The choice was fully justified. Indeed, no reign in 
the annals of Hispanic Islam was more brilliant or 
more glorious. Its great length — a whole half century, 
from 300/912 to 350/961 — ensured for the policies of 
c Abd al-Rahman III the benefits of an unusual 
degree of continuity, and made it possible for him 
to subdue one after another all the centres of 
disaffection in al-Andalus. 

The reign of c Abd al-Rahman III can be divided 
into two principal periods: first a period of internal 
pacification, the result of which was the achievement 
of political unity in the kingdom of Cordova, a 
unity which had been gravely threatened in the 
reign of amir c Abd Allah [q.v.] ; then a longer period, 
mainly distinguished by activity in external policy: 
an offensive against Christian Spain, and a struggle 
with the Fatimid empire for influence in North 

As soon as he came to the throne, c Abd al-Rahman 
III mustered all his resources to put an end to the 
revolt in southern Andalusia, and to neutralise once 
and for all the aggressive power of the principal 
instigator of this revolt, 'Umar b. Hafsun [q.v.]. 
Until 305/917 he unceasingly harassed the Andalusian 
rebels and attacked the Arab aristocrats of Seville, 
Carmona, and Elvira, who were forced to submit. 
After the death of Ibn Hafsun, his sons quickly gave 
up the struggle. Their head-quarters at Bobastro 
[q.v.] were taken by storm in 315/928. Five years 
later the last centre of resistance, Toledo, fell in its 



At the same time the ruler of Cordova took care 
not to allow himself to be outflanked by sporadic 
outbursts of aggression by his Christian neighbours. 
He stopped the advance of the king of Asturio-Leon, 
Ordofio III, in 308/920, and seized a series of strong- 
holds along the strategic line of the Duero, Osma, 
San Esteban de Gormaz, and Clunia, particularly 
after his victory at Juncaria (Valdejunquera). Four 
years later the victorious operations known as the 
Pamplona campaign put him in a position to sack 
the Basque capital, the seat of Sancho Garces I, 
and to secure his land frontiers for several years. 
But he was to find a powerful opponent in the new 
king of Leon, Ramiro II, who, shortly after his 
accession, took the offensive against Islam and, 
after a series of encounters in which he was beaten, 
succeeded in inflicting on the ruler of Cordova, in 
327/939, the very serious defeat at the "moat" of 
Simancas (sometimes wrongly called the battle of 
Alhandega). 

Ten years had already passed since c Abd al- 
Rahman III, after the taking of Bobastro, and as 
a retort to the designs of the Fatimids on his realm, 
had adopted the exalted title amir al-mu'minin, and 
the honorific appellation al-Nasir li-DIn Allah. 
He was now to pursue in North Africa a policy of 
attraction and to combat, particularly in Morocco, 
the influence of the new masters of Ifrikiya. In 
order to secure from bases of operations on African 
soil, he occupied certain presidios, Ceuta in particular, 
which was taken in 319/931. On this battle of 
influences, which was to continue until ' the end 
of the tenth century, see the ai 



84 



C ABD al-RAHMAN — C ABD al-RAHMAN b. HISHAM 



After the Simancas disaster, c Abd al-Rahman III 
quickly succeeded in restoring the situation, especially 
as his enemy Ramiro II died in 339/951 and his 
sons Ordofio III and Sancho quarreled over the 
succession. Al-Nasir took full advantage of the civil 
wars which at that time steeped the kingsdoms of 
Leon and Pamplona in blood (for fuller details see 
the art. Umayyads). 

'Abd al-Rahman III died at Cordova on 22 
Ramadan 350/15 October 961, at the height of his 
fame and power. During the latter part of his reign 
he had lived in the style of a veritable potentate, 
and had transferred his residence to his royal 
establishment of Madinat al-Zahra' [q.v.], at the 
gates of Cordova, which he made into a town by 
itself. Of the kingdom of al-Andalus, which under 
his predecessors had ever been an object of contention 
shaken by civil war, the rivalries of the Arab clans, 
and the clash of ethnic groups in opposition to each 
other, he had contrived to make a pacified, pros- 
perous, and immensely rich State. From that time 
Cordova was a Muslim metropolis, a rival to 
Kayrawan and to the great cities of the East. It far 
surpassed the other capitals of Western Europe, and 
enjoyed in the Mediterranean world a reputation 
and a prestige comparable to that of Constantinople. 
Bibliography: E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. 

mus., II, 1-164 (Arab, sources and bibl., ibid., 1, 

4. 'Abd al-RaijmAn IV b. Muh. b. c Abd al-Malik 
b. 'Abd al- Rahman, grandson of 'Abd al-Rahman 
al-Nasir, Umayyad caliph of al-Andalus, who took 
at the beginning of his short reign the honorific 
title of al-Murtada. This personage, who, at the 
time of the fitna of Cordova, had retired to Valencia, 
was proclaimed at the end of 408/1018, after the 
assassination of 'All b. Hammud [q.v.] by a number of 
supporters collected together by the lord of Almeria, 
the Sclavonian fold KhayrSn. Al-Murtada, before 
trying to retake Cordova and to instal himself there, 
laid siege to Granada, where the Sinhadja of Zawl b. 
ZIri [q.v.] were in command, and suffered a serious 
defeat. Betrayed, and abandoned by his own men, 
he took refuge at Guadix (Wadi Ash), where he was 
before long assassinated. 

Bibliography: E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. 
mus., II, 328-30. 

5. c Abd al-RapmAn V b. Hisham b. c Abd al- 
Djabbar, one of the last Umayyad caliphs of al- 
Andalus, was proclaimed on the 16 Ramadan 414/ 
2 December 1023 at Cordova, and took the honorific 
title of al-Mustazhir bi'llah. He had barely attained 
his majority, and showed remarkable literary gifts. 
He surrounded himself with counsellors chosen from 
among the aristocracy of the capital, men such as 
the great writer 'All b. Harm, but was able to 
remain in power for only forty-seven days. The 
Cordovan mob deposed him in the course of a riot, 
and replaced him by Muhammad III al-Mustakfl, 
on 3 Dhu 'HCa'da of the same year/17 January 1024. 
The first act of his successor was to put 'Abd al- 
Rahman al-Mustazhir to death. 

Bibliography: E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. 
mus. II, 334-5. (E- Levi-Provencal) 

«ABD al-RAQMAN b. Mujhammad b. ABl 
'AMIR, nicknamed Sanchuelo (Shandjwilo), the 
"little Saucho" (as he was by his mother a grandson 
of Sancho Garces II Abarca, Basque king of Pamp- 
lona), son of the famous" majordomo" al-Mansur 
[q.v.] b. Abl 'Amir. He suceeded his elder brother 
'Abd al-Malik [q.v.] al-Muzaffar on his death, 16 
Safar 399/20 Oct. 1008, with the consent of the titular 



caliph, the Umayyad Hisham II al-Mu 5 ayyad bi'llah. 
Indifferently gifted, vain, debauched, 'Abd al- 
Rahman Sanchuelo, from the moment that he 
assumed power in Cordova, made one mistake after 
the other and alienated public opinion. He started 
by obtaining from Hisham II his designation as 
presumtive heir of the crown. The text of the 
document of investiture, dated Rabi' I 399/Nov. 
1008, has been preserved. The designation was very 
badly received by the people of Cordova, who were 
already exasperated by the pro-Berber feelings of 
the 'Amirid hddiib. While 'Abd al-Rahman mis- 
guidedly decided to go, in the middle of winter, 
on an expedition against the kingdom of Leon, an 
opposition party was formed in Cordova. They 
elevated to the throne the Umayyad Muhammad 
b. Hisham b. 'Abd al-Djabbar, whose first care 
was to order the sack of the residence of the 'Amirids, 
al-Madina al-Zahira [q.v.]. The reaction of 'Abd 
al-Rahman to this news was half-hearted. He turned 
back in the direction of Cordova, but during his 
return journey he was abandoned by his troops and 
arrested, not far from the capital, by emissaries of 
the Umayyad pretender, who put him to death, 
3 Radjab 399/3 March 1009. 
[See also 'amirids and Umayyads of Spain]. 

Bibliography: E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. 

mus., ii, 291-304. E. Levi-Provencal) 

'ABD al RAHMAN b. 'ALl [see ibn al-dayba']. 

'ABD al-RAJHMAn b. 'AWF, originally called 

'Abd 'Amr or 'Abd al-Ka'ba, the most prominent 

early Muslim convert from B. Zuhra of IjCuraysh. 

He took part in the Hidjra to Abyssinia and in that 

to Medina, and fought at Badr and the other main 

battles. He commanded a force of 700 men sent by 

Muhammad in Sha'ban 6/December 627 to Dumat 

al-Diandal; the Christian chief, al-Asbagh (or al- 

Asya') al-Kalbl, became a Muslim and made a 

treaty, and 'Abd al-Rahman married his daughter 

Tumadir (but cf. Caetani, Annali, i, 700). By his 

shrewdness and skill as a merchant he made an 

enormous fortune. Politically he was a friend of 

Abu Bakr and later of 'A'isha. On 'Umar's death, 

as one of the Shura or council of six who had to 

choose the new caliph, he played a leading part in 

the appointment of 'Uthman. He died about 31/652 

aged 75. According to Tradition he was one of the 

ten whom Muhammad had assured of Paradise. 

Bibliography: Ibn Sa'd, iii/i, 87-97 ; Tabari, 

index; Ibn al-Athir, Usd al-Ghdba, iii, 313-7; Ibn 

Hadjar, Isaba, ii, 997-1001; A. Sprenger, Das 

Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad, i, 428-30. 

(M. Th. Houtsma — W. Montgomery Watt) 
'ABD al-RAHMAN b. HlgHAM, 'Alawid 
[q.v.] sultan of Morocco, born in 1204/1789-90. 
Proclaimed in Fez, 15 Rabi' 1 1238/30 Nov. 1822, 
he succeeded his uncle Mawlay Sulayman [q.v.] who 
had appointed him as his heir. Recognized without 
great difficulties, the new sovereign had nevertheless 
to repress during his reign several revolts of the 
tribes. Among these were the revolts of Zemmur, 
in 1240/1824-5, in 1259/1843, in 1269/1852 and in 
1274-5/1857-8, the revolt of Banu Zarwal in 1241/ 
1825, that of ShidySma in i243'i827-8, that of 'Amir 
and Za'i'ir in 1265/1849 and that of Banu Musa in 
1269/1853. The two most serious revolts were, 
however, that of Shrarda in 1244/1828 and that of 
the geysh of Wadaya in 1247-8/1831-2. The sultan 
besieged Faz al-Djadld, where the rebels had fortified 
themselves, and after taking the city, dismissed 
them and scattered them near Marrakush, at Rabat 
and at al-'Ara'ish (Larache). 



'ABD al-RAHMAN b. HISHAM — 'ABD al-RAHMAN b. MARWAN 



85 



The relations of Mawlay 'Abd al-Rahman with 
the European nations were marked by a series of 
failures that made him abandon his earlier plans of 
aggression and expansion. The blockade of Tangier 
by the English in 1828 and the bombardment of 
al-'Ara'ish (Larache), Arzila and Tittawln under- 
taken by the Austrians in 1829 as reprisals for the 
seizure of merchant ships, made an end to an 
attempted reconstruction of a corsair navy, while 
the military successes of France in Algeria forced 
the sultan to renounce all intervention in the territory 
of the late regency. He tried in 1830-2 to extend 
his influence to the East of his empire by appointing 
khalifas in Tlemcen, Miliana and Medea, but had 
to recall, or disavow, them, because of their troubles 
and the protest of the French government. From 
1832 to 1834 he lent c Abd al-Kadir, leader of the 
holy war, his moral and material support and 
allowed himself to be involved in a conflict with 
France when his ally took refuge in Morocco in 
order to continue the struggle. The reverses which 
he suffered: battle of Isly (14 August 1844), bombard- 
ment of Tangier and Mogador (6 and 15 August), 
obliged c Abd al-Rahman to outlaw the Amir (treaty 
of Tangier, 26 Oct. 1844). In 1847 he decided to 
expel him from the country, thus compelling him 
to give himself up to the French. Several incidents, 
due to the fanaticism of his subjects, such as the 
murder of the Spanish consular agent Darmon 
(1843), that of the Frenchman Paul Rey (1855) and 
pillage of the brig "Courraud Rose" (1851), embar- 
rassed his relations with the foreign powers, but 
generally he gave in before threats or force (bom- 
bardment of Sale, 1851). 

During his reign, Portugal (1823), England (1824, 
1827), Sardinia (1825), Spain (1825), France (1825, 
1844), Austria (1830), the kingdom of Naples (1834), 
the United States of America (1836), Sweden and 
Danemark (1844), renewed, or completed, their 
commercial treaties with Morocco. 

A pious ruler and a good administrator, Mawlay 
c Abd al-Rahman had many monuments built or 
restored: in Fez (Mosque of Mawlay Idris), Meknes, 
Sale (minaret of the Great Mosque, fortifications), 
Tangier (harbour), Safi, Mazagan.Marrakush (mosque 
of Bfl Hassan, Kannariyya, al-Wusta, and the plan- 
tation of the Agdal), etc. He died in Meknes, 29 
Muharram 1276/28 August 1859. 

Bibliography: al-Nasirl al-Salawi, al-Istiksd', 
Cairo 1312, iv, 172-210, trad. E. Fumey, AM, 
1907, 105-209; Ibn Zaydan, Ta'rikh Miknds, 
Rabat 1933, i, 205-231, iv, 81-359; Freiherr von 
Augustin, Marohho, Pest 1845; L. Godard, De- 
scription et histoire du Maroc, Paris i860, ii, 585-629 ; 
J. Caille, Le dernier exploit des corsaires du Bou 
Regreg, Hesp., 1950, 429-37; Les relations de la 
France et du Maroc sous la dtuxihne ripublique, 
Actes du congris historique de centenaire de la 
revolution de 1848, 397-408 ; La France et le Maroc 
en 1849, Hesp., 1946, 123-55; Au lendemain de 
la bataille de Vlsly, Hesp., 1948, 383-401 ; Charles 
Jagerschmidt, charge" d'affaires de France au Maroc 
(1820-1894), Paris 1952; Ph. de Cosse-Brissac, Les 
rapports de la France et du Maroc pendant la 
conqueHe de I'Algirie (1830-1847), Paris 1931. 
(Ph. de Coss£ Brissac) 
C ABD al-RAQMAN b. KHALID b. al-WalId 
al-MakhzOmI, the only surviving son of the famous 
Arab general. At the age of eighteen he commanded 
a squadron at the battle of the Yarmuk. Mu'awiya 
subsequently appointed him governor of Hims and 
he commanded several of the later Syrian expeditions 



into Anatolia. During the civil war, after successfully 
opposing an 'Iraki expedition into the Djazlra, he 
joined Mu'awiya at Siffln and was made standard- 
bearer. According to the received tradition, Mu'awiya, 
fearing that 'Abd al-Rahman might be a rival of 
Yazld for the succession to the Caliphate, had him 
poisoned in 46/666 by his Christian physician Ibn 
Uthal, who was himself killed shortly afterwards by 
one of his victim's relatives. H. Lammens (see Bibl.) 
has disputed the reliability of this tradition (trans- 
mitted from 'Iraki sources) and ascribed its origin 
to incidents connected with an outbreak of anti- 
Christian violence at Hims. 

Bibliography: Baladhurl, Ansdb, in G. Levi 
della Vida, // Califfo Mu'dwiya I, Rome 1938, 
nos. 269, 281; Tabarl, i, 2093, 2913; ii, 82-3; 
Ya'kubl. ii, 265; DInawari 164, 183, 197; Nasr 
ibn Muzahim, Wak'at $iffin, Cairo 1365, index; 
Aghdni, xv, 13; Tahmb ta'rikh Ibn 'Asdkir, 
v, Damascus 1333, 80; H. Lammens, Etudes 
sur le rigne de Mo l dwia I", Paris 1908, 3-15, 
218 f. (H. A. R. Gibb) 

'ABD al-RAHMAN b. MARWAN b. YOnus, 
called Ibn al-I2>illI*I ("son of the Galician"), famous 
chief of insurgents in the West of al-Andalus 
in the second half of the 3rd/gth century. He belonged 
to a family of neo-Muslims (tnuwaUadun), originating 
from the North of Portugal and established in 
Merida. Although his father had been governor of 
this town on behalf of the sovereigns of Cordova, 
'Abd al-Rahman revolted against the Umayyad 
Amir Muhammad I in 254/868. The Amir besieged 
him and forced him, after the capitulation of the 
city, to reside in Cordova. He remained in the 
capital until 261/875, when he returned to the region 
of Merida and threw off his allegiance to the Umay- 
yads. He fortified himself in the castle of Alange 
(Hisn al-Hanash), but was again forced to surrender 
by the Amir Muhammad I, who assigned to him 
as residence Badajoz. It was not long before Ibn 
al-Djilllkl again raised the standard of revolt, 
supported by the muwallad lord of Porto (Burtukal), 
Sa'dun al-Surunbakl, and by Alfonso III, king of 
Asturias and Leon. The insurgents laid an ambush 
for the loyalist general Hashim b. 'Abd al-'AzIz, in 
the region of the Serra de Estrella, captured him 
and delivered him into the hand of the Christian 
king, who released him only against a high ransom. 
Fearing, justly, a violent reaction from the govern- 
ment in Cordova, Ibn al-Djilllkl took refuge with 
Alfonso III. After staying for eight years in 
Christian territory, he returned in 271/884 to Badajoz 
and reached a tacit agreement with Cordova. This 
allowed him to rule over a veritable principality 
extending over the valley of the Guadiana and 
the south of what is now Portugal. Under the 
reigns of the Amirs al-Mundhk and 'Abd Allah, 
'Abd al-Rahman practically had a free hand and 
ruled over his territory as an independent prince, 
until his death in 276/889. He was succeeded by his 
son Marwan who only survived him by two months, 
and after him by a grandson 'Abd Allah b. Muham- 
mad b. 'Abd al-Rahman, who died in 311/923 and 
was followed by a son, 'Abd al-Raljman. This 
great-grandson of Ibn al-Djilllkl was finally com- 
pelled to submit to 'Abd al-Rahman III in 318/930. 
Bibliography: Ibn Hayyan, Muktabis, chron- 
icle of the reign of the Emir Mull. I; F. Codera, 
Los Benimeru&n en Merida y Badajot, Estud-os 
crit. de hist. dr. esp., ix, 48 ff. ; E. Levi-Provencal, 
Hist. Esp. mus., i, 255 «., 386; ii, 24-5. 

(E. LAvi-Provbncal) 



86 



'ABD al-RAHMAN b. MUHAMMAD — <ABD al-RAHMAN al-SUFI 



C ABD al-RAHMAN b. MUHAMMAD b. al- 

Ash'ath [see ibn al-ash'athI. 

C ABD al-RAHMAN b. RUSTUM [see rustu- 

<ABD al-RAHMAN b. SAMURA b. HabIb 
b. 'Abd Shams b. c Abd Manaf b. Kusayy, Arab 
general. The name 'Abd al-Rabman was given 
bim by Muhammad on his conversion in place of 
his former name c Abd al-Ka'ba. His first command 
was in Sidjistan in succession to al-Rabi' b. Ziyad 
in the latter years of the caliphate of 'Uthmin, 
when he conquered Zarandj and Zamln-i Dawar 
and made a treaty with the ruler of Kirman. He 
withdrew after the death of 'Uthman; according 
to Chinese sources, PSroz, the son of Yazdigird III, 
then attempted to establish himself in Sidjistan 
(Chavannes, Documents sur Us Tou-kiue occidentaux, 
275. 279)- c Abd al-Rahman b. Samura was, along 
with 'Abd Allah b. 'Amir, one of the envoys of 
Mu'awiya to al-Hasan b. 'All [?.».]. Ibn c Amir, 
reappointed governor of Basra and the East, des- 
patched c Abd al-Rahman and c Abd Allah b. Khazim 
in 42/662 to restore Arab rule in eastern Khurasan 
and Sidjistan. In 43/663 c Abd al-Rahman reoccupied 
Sidjistan and captured Kabul after a siege of several 
months. He then led an expedition to al-Rukhkhadj 
(Arachosia) and Zabulistan (region of Ghazna), and 
again attacked and captured Kabul, which had 
rebelled, probably in 45/665. Mu'awiya subsequently 
made him directly subordinate to the Caliph, but 
shortly after the appointment of Ziyad as governor 
of Basra he was replaced. He brought back with 
him a body of captives from Kabul, who built a 
mosque for him in his kasr at Basra in the architec- 
tural style of Kabul. He died in 50/670 in Basra, where 
his descendants formed a powerful and influential 
clan during the next century. 

Bibliography: Baladhuri, Futuh, 360, 394, 

396, 397; Ibn Sa'd, vii, 2, 100-1; Tabart, i, 2831; 

ii, 3; iii, 22; Ya'fcubl, Bulddn, 280, 281-2, 296 

(tr. Wiet, 89-91, 117); Ta'rikh-i Sistdn, Tihran 

1314, 82-9 (legendary expansion); Caetani, Annali, 

vii, 278; Chronographia, 313-549 passim; J. 

Marquart, Erdnshahr, Berlin 1901, 37, 199, 255; 

idem, in FestschriftE duard Sachau, Berlin 1915, 

267-70. (H. A. R. Gibb) 

C ABD AL-RAHMAN b. 'Abd al-Kadir al-FAsI, 

Moroccan scholar, b. at Fez 1040/1631, d. in 

the same town 1096/1685. He was the pupil of his 

father, c Abd al-Kadir b. 'AH [q.v.] and of numerous 

other masters. He became a famous polygraph, 

celebrated by all his biographers for the breadth and 

the variety of his knowledge. He is said to have 

compiled more than 170 works on Malikite fikh, 

medicine, astronomy and history. But it is especially 

as a lawyer that he is an authority, and his main 

works are his great collection on the "customs" 

of Fez, al-'Amal al-Fdsi, and a commentary on 

al-Shi/d' by the famous kadi 'Iyad, entitled Miftah 

al-Shita*. He is also the author of a long didactic 

poem in radios, al-Uknum Ii Mabddi 1 al-'Uldm. 

Bibliography: E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Chorfa 

266-9 (with references); Brockelmann, ii, 612, 

S ii, 694. (E. Levi-Provencal) 

'ABD al-RAHMAN b. HabIb b. AbI 'Ubayda 

(or c Abda) al-FIHRI, great-grandson of the famous 

tab* 1 'Ukba b. Nafi', independent governor of 

Ifrlkiya at the end of the Umayyad caliphate. His 

father, HabIb, had sent expeditions against the Sus, 

Morocco and Sicily, in which 'Abd al-Rahman, 

still a youth, took an active part. He was one of the 

i of the bloody defeat inflicted by the 



Berbers upon the regular Arab troops in 123/741, 
in which his father and the governor, Kulthum b. 
'Iyad, lost their lives. He crossed over to Spain, but 
fearing for his life, returned in 127/745 to Ifrifciya, 
where he revolted against the actual governor, 
Hanzala b. Safwan al-Kalbl, who two years later 
saw no other choice but to yield the power to him. 
'Abd al-Rahman, on becoming master of al- 
Kayrawan, had to suppress several rebellions and 
undertook several large expeditions, notably against 
Sicily and Sardinia, in 135/752. His seizure of power 
was the less contested as it coincided with the fall 
of the Umayyad caliphate of Syria. It seems that 
at the beginning he acknowledged the 'Abbasid 
allegiance, but shortly afterwards repudiated it, on 
the receipt of an insulting message from the caliph 
al-Mansur. No doubt at al-Mansur's instigation, two 
of the brothers of c Abd al-Rahman decided upon 
his ruin; he was assassinated by one of them, Ilyas b. 
HabIb, who took possession of al-Kayrawan 137/755). 
HabIb, son of c Abd al-Rahman, with the help of 
another uncle of his, 'Imran b. HabIb, governor of 
Tunis, soon afterwards attacked the usurper and, 
in turn, made himself master of Ifrikiya. 

Another c Abd al-Rahman b. HabIb al-Fihrl, 
a contemporary of the preceding, who was called, to 
distinguish him from the former, by the surname 
of al-Siklabl, was a propagandist of the 'Abbasids in 
Spain. Pursued by the Umayyad amir 'Abd al- 
Rahman I, he was assassinated near Valencia in 
162/778-9. 

Bibliography: Ibn 'Idhari, Baydn, i, 56, 
60 ff., 67 f., transl. Fagnan, 62 ff., 73 ff. ; Humaydi, 
Djazwat al-Muktabis (Tandji), Cairo 1953, no. 
594; Dabbi, no. 1006; Ibn al-Athir, v, 235 ff., 
transl. Fagnan (Annates du Maghrib et de I'Es- 
pagne), 74-81; Nuwayri, History of Africa (Caspar 
Remiro), Granada 1919, 38-40; Ibn Khaldun. 
'Ibar, i, 218 f.; G. Marcais, Berberie musulmane, 
45; Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. mus., i, 47, 97, 
121-2. (E. Levi-Provencal) 

'ABD al-RAHMAN b. 'Abd Allah al- 
GHAFIgl, governor of al-Andalus. He 
succeeded Muhammad b.. 'Abd Allah al-Ashdja'I in 
this office at the end of in or at the beginning of 
112/730, and retained it until his death in 114/732. 
'Abd al-Rahman, who had already governed Spain 
provisionally for about two months in 102/721, was 
a tdbi 1 reputed for his piety. He is chiefly famous 
for the incursion into Gaul that cost him his life. 
His expedition, which was carefully prepared, had 
for its object the basilica of St. Martin at Tours. He 
collected a numerous army, and from Pamplona 
marched through the pass of Roncesvalles on 
Bordeaux, which he devastated, Duke Eudes of 
Aquitania being powerless to oppose his advance. 
He then advanced towards the Loire, but was 
checked in his progress by the Duke of the Franks, 
Charles Martel, who engaged him about 20 km. to 
the north-east of Poitiers and inflicted on him a 
severe defeat. The battle is known as the "battle 
of Poitiers" in Frankish historiography, while the 
Arabs call it baldf al-shuhadd', "causeway of the 
martyrs of the faith". The Muslim survivors retreated 
in disorder towards Narbonne, leaving behind on 
the battlefield many dead, including 'Abd al- 
Rabman. The date of this memorable encounter can 
be fixed at the end of Oct. 732/Ramadan 114. 
Bibliography: E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. 
mus., i, 40, 59-62. (E. Levi-Provencal) 

'ABD al-RAHMAN b. HJmar al-$UFI, abu 
'l-Husavn, eminent astronomer, born at Rayy 



'ABD al-RAHMAN al-SUFI — e ABD al-RAHMAN KHAN 



14 Muharram 291/8 Dec. 903, died -15 Muharram 
376/25 May 986. In 337/948-9 he was in Isfahan, in 
attendance on the vizier Abu '1-Fadl b. al-'Amld, in 
349/960-1 at the court of 'Adud al-Dawla, no doubt 
in the same town. He was the court astronomer of 
this ruler, who boasted of three of his teachers: in 
grammar al-Farisi, in the knowledge of astronomical 
tables Ibn al-A c lam, and in the knowledge of the 
constellations c Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (Ibn al-Kiftl; 
cf. also Yakut, I r shad, iii, 10). His best known work 
is a description of the fixed stars (Suwar al-Kawdkib 
al-Thdbita, quoted also by different titles), which he 
wrote about 355/965 and dedicated to 'Adud al- 
Dawla. The book described the constellations both 
according to the system of the astronomers (after 
Ptolemy) and the Arabic tradition of the antvd' 
]cf. Naw'). The work was illustrated by drawings, 
which the author, according to his own declaration, 
preserved by al-BIruni (see H. Suter, Beitrdge zur 
Geschichte der Mathematik bei den Gr-.echen und 
Arabern, Erlangen 1922, 86), traced from a celestial 
globe. He also saw, however, as he says in his 
introduction, an illustrated work on the constellations 
by 'Utarid b. Muhammad. The earliest extant MS, 
in the Bodleian Library, was copied and illustrated 
by the author's son, in 400/1009-10. There are many 
other manuscripts, illustrated in the styles of the 
various epochs. (See J. Upton, Metropolitan Museum 
Studies, 1933, 189-99; K. Holter, Die Islamischen 
Minialurhandschriften vor 1350, Zentralbl. f. Biblio- 
thekswesen, 1937, 2-5, cf. Ars Islamica, 1940, 10). 
The text and translation of the introduction was 
published by Caussin de Perceval, Notices et Extraits, 
xii, 236 ff.; a full translation by H.C. F.C.Schjellerup, 
Description its itoiles fixes par Abd al-Rahman 
al-Sufi, St. Petersburg 1874. The Arabic text was 
published, mainly after the Paris MS (being the 
copy of Ulugh Beg), in Hyderabad 1953, under the 
editorship of M. Nizamuddin. His other extant 
works are a handbook of astronomy and astrology 
and a treatise on the use of the astrolabe. A silver 
globe made by al-Sufi for 'Adud al-Dawla was 
preserved in the library of the Fatimid palace in 
Cairo (Ibn al-Kiftl, 440). —For an Urdjuza on the 
fixed stars, attributed to a son of his, cf. Brockel- 
mann, S i, 863; it was published at the end of the 
Hyderabad edition of the Suwar. 

Bibliography: Fihrist, 284; Ibn al-Rifil, 226; 
BIrunI, al-Athdr al-Bakiya (Sachau), 336, 358 (Engl, 
transl., 335, 358) ; M. Steinschneider, ZDMG, 1870, 
348-50; Suter, 62, cf. Nachtrage, in Abh. zurGesch. 
d.math. Wissensch., 1902, 166; Hauber, Isl. 1918, 
48-54; Brockelmann, I, 253, S I, 398. 

(S. M. Stern) 
'ABD al-RAHMAN KHAN (c. 1844-1901), 
Amir of Afghanistan, was the son of Afdal 
Khan, the eldest surviving son of Dost Muhammad 
Khan, the founder of the Barakzay dynasty in 
Afghanistan. In 1853 he proceeded to Afghan 
Turkistan where his father was serving as governor 
of Balkh. Despite his youth he took part in a series 
of operations which extended Dost Muhammad's 
power over Kataghan, Badakhshan, and Derwaz. 
Before his death in 1863 Dost Muhammad had 
nominated a younger son, Shir 'AH, as his successor 
to the exclusion of his two elder brothers, Afdal 
laan and A'zam Khan. Shir 'All's succession was 
therefore the signal for five years of fratricidal 
warfare in which at the early age of nineteen c Abd 
al-Rahman became involved. After temporary 
successes his father, Afdal Khan, was defeated and 
imprisoned, whereupon 'Abd al-Rahman fled to 



BukhSra. In 1866, taking advantage of Shir 'All's 
absence at Kandahar, 'Abd al-Rahman, with the 
help of Raflk Khan, a general who had deserted Shir 
'All, seized Kabul. The defeat of Sher 'All's forces 
at Saydabad led to the fall of GhaznI. Afdal Khan was 
now proclaimed Amir and coins were struck in his 
name. Sher 'All was once more defeated at Kilat-i 
Ghilzay in 1867 and driven from Kandahar. In the 
same year Afdal Khan died and 'Abd al-Rahman, 
who had hoped to be accepted as Amir, found it 
expedient to support the claims of his uncle A'zam 
Khan. Their combined forces were defeated by Shir 
'All and his son Ya'kub ]£han at Zana-Khan, near 
GhaznI, as a result of which 'Abd al-Rahman 
became a homeless wanderer, first in Wazlristan and 
later in Persia. From Mashhad he crossed the 
Kara-Kum desert to Khlwa and Samarkand. At 
Tashkent he was received by General Kaufmann, 
the Russian governor-general. His request for 
assistance against Shir 'All was refused but he was 
granted an allowance and permitted to reside at 
Samarkand, where he remained for eleven years 
until the defeat of Shir 'All by the British in the 
Second Afghan War of 1878-80. The flight and 
death of Shir 'AH, the failure of his successor Ya'kub 
Khan to control his unruly tribesmen, and the 
assassination of Cavagnari the British Resident 
necessitated the removal of Ya'kub Khan to India. 
This left the Afghan throne vacant. 

Because of Russian expansion towards the Oxus 
it was decided to build up a strong, friendly, and 
united Afghanistan to serve as a buffer state to the 
British dominions in India. In July 1880, 'Abd 
al-Rahman Khan, the most powerful candidate in 
the field, was informed that the British were prepared 
to recognize him as Amir of Kabul, provided he 
acknowledged their right to control his foreign 
affairs. He was also assured that the British would 
aid him in repelling unprovoked aggression on his 
dominions. These terms were accepted by 'Abd al- 
Rahman at the conference of Zimma, 31 July- 
1 August 1880 (Foreign Office 65, 1104: Papers 
printed for the use of the Cabinet). Three years 
later this promise was renewed by the Marquis of 
Ripon who bestowed on the Amir an annual subsidy 
of twelve lakhs of rupees to be devoted to the 
payment of his troops and the protection of his 
north-western frontiers. The British were now 
pledged to defend a buffer state of unknown limits. 
Hence the most important event in the reigu of 
'Abd al-Rahman was the delimitation and demar- 
cation where possible of the boundaries of Afghanistan 
By 1886, although the Pandjdih incident [q.v.] of the 
previous year had brought Britain and Russia to 
the verge of war, an Anglo-Russian Boundary 
Commission had demarcated the northern frontier 
of Afghanistan from Dhu'l-Fikar to the meridian 
6f Dukci, within forty miles of the Oxus. The 
process of demarcation was completed in 1888. The 
final boundary dispute with Russia was settled by 
the Pamir Agreement of 1895 which defined the 
Afghan boundary between Lake Victoria and the 
Tagdumbash. 

Although pro-British in so far as Russian expansion 
was concerned, 'Abd al- Rahman's desire to annex 
the territories of the Pa (nan tribes of the Indian 
frontier was not calculated to improve Anglo- 
Afghan relations. The tension was somewhat eased 
by the Durand Agreement of 1893 which delimited 
a boundary on the Indo-Afghan frontier across 
which neither the Amir nor the Government of 
India was to interfere in any way. Afghan intrigues 



C ABD al-RAHMAN KHAN — C ABD al-RAZZAK al-KASHAnI 



on the Indian side of this frontier still continued 
and were partly responsible for the Indian frontier 
conflagration of 1897. In fact, Afghan intrigues 
were the chief cause of unrest on the Indian frontier 
from 1890 onwards. 

The greatest service rendered by e Abd al-Rahman 
to his country was the suppression of internal 
rebellion. The powerful Ghilzay tribesmen were 
crushed in 1886; the rebellion of Ishak, son of 
A^jfe K6M. *as suppressed in 1888; and finally, 
afte*- severe fighting, the turbulent Hazaras of 
cental Afghanistan were forced to acknowledge his 
authority. In 1896 the territories of the non-Muslim 
Wbei of Kafiristan to the west of Citral were 
annexed and the Kafirs converted to Islam. c Abd 
al-Rahm5n Khan died in 1901 and was succeeded 
by his son Hablb Allah Khan. 

Bibliography: Parliamentary Papers, Central 
Asia, 1884-5; 1887; 1888; J. A. Gray, My Residence 
at the Court of the Ameer, 1895; S. Wheeler, The 
Ameer Abdur Rahman, 1895; Sultan Mahomed 
Khan, Life of Abdur Rahman, 2 vols. 1900, vol. i 
being a translation of <Abd al-Rahman's auto- 
biography; C. C. Davies, The problem of the 
North-West Frontier, 1890-1908, 1932; W. K. 
Fraser-Tytler, Afghanistan, 1950; M. Longworth 
Dames, in EI 1 , s.v. (C. Collin Davies) 

*ABD al-RASHID b. <Abd al-GhafOr al-Hu- 
saynIal-Madanial-TATTAWI, Persian lexico- 
grapher, born in Tatta, but a Sayyid by descent; 
died after 1069/1658. His principal work is a Persian 
dictionary, usually called Farhang-i Rashidi, or 
Rashidi Fdrsi, the first critical dictionary, which 
Was compiled in 1064/1683-4 and published in 1875 
in the Bibliotheca Indica. Splieth revised the preface 
(Mukaddama): Grammaticae Persicae praecepta ac 
regulae (Halle 1846). <Abd al-Rashld dedicated an 
Arabic-Persian dictionary, Muntakhab al-Lughdt, or 
«asiW{«4raM(i046/i636-7),toSh5hdjahan(editions: 
Calcutta 1808, 1816, 1836; Lucknow 1835, 1869; 
Bombay 1279/1862). 

Bibliography: Blochmann, in JRAS Bengal, 
xxxvil, 20sqq.; Rieu, Cat. of Pers. MSS., 501, 
510; Pertsch, Vert. d. pers. Handschr. Berlin, 
nos. 198-200. (M. Th. Houtsma) 

<ABD al-RA'OF b. «Al! al-DjAw! al-FansOrI 
al-SINKILI, religious teacher, b. c. 1G20 at 
Singkel, north of Fansur (west coast of Sumatra), d. 
after 1 693, and buried at the mouth of the Acheh river. 
He studied for nineteen years in Arabia, was initiated 
into the Shattariyya (arika by Ahmad al-Kushashi 
and his successor Ibrahim al-Kuranl, and returned 
about 1661 to Acheh, whence this (arlka was propa- 
gated by his pupils throughout Indonesia, especially 
in Java. Directions for "recitation" (dhikr), as 
practised by this order, form, the most important 
subject of his writings, the majority of which are 
in Malay, but a few in Arabic — some with a Malay 
rendering after each phrase. The subject is dealt 
with most fully in his 'Umdat al-Muhtddjin ild Suluk 
Maslak al-Mufridln which has as introduction a 
summary of dogma on the same lines as al-SanusI's 
Umni al-Bardhin. He took as a theoretical basis for 
his mysticism the doctrine of the seven grades and 
of man as the image of God, which he set out in 
such works as Kifdyat al-Muhtddjin, DakdHk al- 
#»r*/ and Baydn Tadjalli. In this he remained 
within the bounds of orthodoxy; he rejected the 
extreme mysticism which flourished in Acheh at 
the beginning of the 17th century, but at the same 
time did not associate himself with the violent 
polemics of al-Ranlrl [q.v.]. ( Abd al-Ra'flf 



translated the Kur'an into Malay with a concise 
commentary taken from various Arabic exegetical 
works (al-Tardjumdn al-Mustafid) and wrote a Malay 
handbook of Shafi'ite fikh which deals only with 
the mu'dmaldt and is plainly intended as a supple- 
ment to al-Raniri's al-Sirdt al-Mustakim which 
contains only the Hbdddt. His translations from 
the Arabic are so literal that they are unintelligible 
without a knowledge of that language, and moreover 
not without mistakes. It is not altogether certain 
whether he was the translator of al-MawdH? al- 
Badi'a, which is a translation into Malay of a popular 
Arabic collection of 32 hadith kudsi and eighteen 
other admonitions. There are some other works 
ascribed to him, such as the mystical eschatological 
Malay poem Shair ma'rifat, which are certainly not 
by his hand. After his death, as Teungku di- Kuala, 
c Abd al-Ra'uf enjoyed such veneration that he 
was even accorded the honour of having been the 
bearer of Islam to Acheh. 

Bibliography : C. Snouck Hurgronje, The 
Achehnese, ii, 14 ff. ; D. A. Rinkes, Abdoerraoef van 
Singkel, 1909; P. Voorhoeve, in TBG, 1952, 87 ff. 
(edition of Baydn Tadjalli and another Malay 
treatise with a list of c Abd al-Ra'flf's writings); 
cf. also BTLV, 1951, 368.— Works of c Abd al- 
Ra'flf: Mir'dt al-Tulldb (on fifth), the preface 
edited by S. Keyser in BTLV, 1863, 211 ff.; 
extracts ed. by A. Meursinge, in Handboek, 1844; 
Tardjumdn al-Mustafid, Istanbul 1302 (2 vols.); 
al-MawdH? al-Badi'a in Qjam 1 Djawdmi* al- 
Musannafdt, Bulak, n.d.; 4th or 5th imp., Mecca 
1310. (P. Voorhoeve) 

<ABD AL-RAZZAS Kamal al-dIn b. Abu 
•l-Ghana'im al-KASHAnI (or KAshanI or KashI or 
KAsanI), celebrated Sufi author, died according to 
HadjdjI Khalifa (ed. Fliigel, iv, 427), in 730/1329- 
HadjdjI Khalifa, however, confusing him with the 
historian of the same name, the author of the Matla' 
al-Sa c dain, says in another place (ii, 175) that he 
died in 887/1482 and, besides, gives his name 
as Kamal al-Din Abu 'l-Ghana'im c Abd al-Razzak 
b. Djamal al-Dln al-Kashl al-Samarkandl. Little 
is known of <Abd al-Razzak's life; according to 
Pjaml (Nafahdt al-Uns, quoted by St. Guyard), 
he was a pupil of Nur al-DIn c Abd al-Samad and 
a contemporary of Rukn al-DIn C A15' al-Dawla, 
with whom he carried on a somewhat acrimonious 
controversy, and who died in 736/1336. The 
immediate cause of this correspondence was a 
conversation which c Abd al-Razzak had with a 
certain amir Ikbal SIstanI, a pupil of c Ala' al- 
Dawla's, on the road to Sultanlya on the vexed 
question of the orthodoxy of Ibn 'Arabl. Diami 
then gives a long letter which c Abd al-Razzak 
wrote to 'Ala' al-Dawla on this question, in which 
he says that he has just read 'Ala' al-Dawla's 
book, the l Urwa. As this work was written in 721/ 
1321, the date 730/1329 given as that of his 
death must be assumed as the correct one. We 
have then to place <Abd al-Razzak in the Djibai 
province (Kashan) under the IlkhJns of Persia, and 
especially in the reign of Abu Sa'id (716—36/ 
1316—35). 

He was the author of a large number of works, 
several of which have been published. So far back 
as 1828, Tholuck used his LafdHf al-IHdm in Die 
speculative Trinitdtslehre des spsteren Orients (13 — 22, 
28 et seq..) and translated some passages, but without 
knowledge of the author. In 1845 Sprenger published 
at Calcutta the first half of his Istildhat al-Sufiya, or 
Dictionary of the technical terms of the Sufies. An 



C ABD al-RAZZAK al-KASHANI 



89 



analysis of the second part had been given by 
Hammer-Purgstall, in the Jahrbiicher der Literatur 
(lxxxii, 68 ff.). This book also was used by 
Tholuck, and cited under the author's name 
(loc. cit. 7, ii, 18, 26, 73). It is of special interest 
because in the preface he states that it was written 
after he had finished his commentary on the 
Mandzil al-SdHrin of al-Harawi in order to explain 
the Sufi technical terms which occur but are 
inadequately explained in that work, and also in 
his commentary on the Fufiis al-Ifiham of Ibn 
•Arab! (Cairo 1309) and in his Ta'wildt al-Kur'dn. 
According to HadjdjI Khalifa (ii, 175) the Ta'wildt 
of 'Abd al-Razzak extend to Sura xxxviii only, yet 
Berlin MS. no. 872 covers the entire Kur'an, but 
apparently in abstract. Risdla ft'l-hada? wa'l-kadar, 
treatise on predestination and free will, first trans- 
lated into French, (J A, 1873; revised edition 1875), 
then the text published by St. Guyard (1879); 
it will be dealt with in detail below. The treatise 
seems to have excited attention, for HadjdjI Khalifa 
(iii, 429) gives three answers to it by Ibn Kamal 
Pasha, Tashkuprii-zade and Ball Khalifa SufiyahwI. 
A commentary on the TaHya poem of Ibn al-Farid 
(Cairo 1310). His works as yet unpublished are: 
Risdlat al-Sarmadiyya, on the idea of an eternal 
Being; Risdlat al-Kumayliyya, on the traditional 
answer by C A1I to the question of Kumayl b. Ziyad 
fi'l-ftakika (comp. the Berlin MS. no. 3462; HadjdjI 
Khalifa iv, 38; J A 14, 83); a commentary on the 
Mawdki' al-Nudjum of Ibn ArabI and Tadhhirat al- 
Sdhibiya. HadjdjI Khalifa (v, 587) adds Misbdh 
al-Hiddya. For MSS. reference will suffice to Brockel- 
mann, ii, 203, 204; S ii, 280-1; theGothacat.no. 
76, 2, and Palmer's Trinity College Cat. 116. 

It will already be tolerably clear what c Abd 
al-Razzak's interests and positions were. He was 
a Sufi of the school of Ibn c Arabi, the great the- 
osophist of the Western Arabic type, though with 
touches of independence, and he gave much labor 
to defence and exposition of his master. In the 
three great divisions of Muslim theologians, the 
upholders of tradition (nakl), of reason ('««), and 
of the unveiling of the mystic (kashf), he took his 
place with the third. It may be significant that his 
name never indicates to what legal school he adhered. 
Like many mystics, he may have regarded such 
matters as beneath notice, or he may, like Ibn 
c ArabI, have been a belated Zahirite in law, as he 
was evidently a Batinite in theology. The last is 
plain through the title itself of his exposition of the 
Kur'an, ta'wil, not tafsir, and is shown in detail in 
his Iffildhat and his treatise on kadar. In the last 
we have the normal combination of the Aristo- 
telian universe, the Neo-Platonic metaphysics and 
theology and the Kur'anic mythology of Muham- 
mad. These all appear, too, in Ibn c ArabI, but 
perhaps c Abd al-Razzak is more anxious to keep 
the last element prominent, and to proclaim thus 
his essential orthodoxy. Certainty, he strives to 
avoid the absolute merging of the individual, and 
the consequent fatalism of Ibn c ArabI and to lay a 
possible basis for individual responsibility, for free- 
dom and rewards and punishments hereafter. His 
method in this is as follows. In order to bring 
out clearly the forces leading to any event and 
the close interweaving of all causes and effects to 
make up the great organism of the universe, he 
begins with a description of the universe on the 
Sufi scheme. It is the Neo-Platonic chain. Above 
is God, the One, the Alone; from him proceeds, 
by a dynamic emanation, the Universal Reason 



(al-'ahl al-awwal), called also the Primary or 
Universal Spirit (al-ruh al-awwal) and the Highest 
Knowledge (al-Hlm aj-aHd). This is a spiritual 
substance and the first of the properties which 
the divine essence implies. From it two other 
substances are produced, one spiritual (r&ttdniyya) 
which is the substance of the world of the Uni- 
versal Reason, considered as apart from God and 
inhabited by particular intelligences, somewhat 
as fractions of the Universal Reason, which are 
the angels of revealed religion; the other is psy- 
chical, being the Universal Soul (nafs). Finally 
come the material elements with their natural 
forces and laws. In the Universal Reason are the 
types of all things, as universals, and this Reason, 
with its types, is known directly by God. God's 
omnipotence (hdhiriyya) is manifested through these 
angels or Intelligences, and their world is there- 
fore called the World of Power ('dlatn al-kudra). 
But they also, in their perfection, repair the im- 
perfections of other beings. Their world again, 
therefore, is called the World of Repairing ('atom 
al-diabarut). Some, however, take the other sense 
of the root djabar and render it, the World of 
Constraint, because they constrain other beings to- 
wards perfection. This world is also called the 
Mother of the Book (umm al-kitdb; Kur'an, xiii, 
39, xliii, 4), from it comes all knowledge of divine 
mysteries, it is above all fetters of time and change. 
The world of the Universal Soul, on the other hand, 
called the World of Ruling { c dlam al-malakut), is a 
step nearer the particular, material world. The types 
which exist in the Universal Reason become in it 
general conceptions, and these are further specialized, 
determined, limited, brought near to what we know, 
by being engraved on the individual reasonable 
souls, which are the souls of the heavenly bodies, 
corresponding to the angelic Intelligences, the 
fractions of the Universal Reason. This world, 
from its likeness to the human imagination, is 
called the Imagination of the World (khaydl al- 
c dlam) and the Nearer Heaven (al-samd* al-dunyd). 
From it issue all beings in order to appear in 
the World of Sense ( l dlam al-shahdda), it moves 
and directs everything, measuring out matter and 
assigning causes. The heavenly bodies, then, have 
reasonable souls just like our own, these are the 
imaginative faculties of the particular reasonable 
souls, into which the Universal Soul divides. On 
their changes all change in this world below 1 de- 
pends (comp. al-Ghazall's scheme, in JAOS, 1899, 
116 ff.). 

Further, this constitution of the universe corres- 
ponds to man's body, macrocosm to microcosm. 
Just as the brain is the seat of man's ruling spirit, 
so the Universal Spirit or Reason is seated in the 
throne ('arsh) above the sphere of the fixed stars. 
The fourth heaven, the sphere of the sun, which 
vivifies all, is the seat of the Universal Soul, in 
man this is the heart, wherein is his particular, 
reasonable soul. So the fourth sphere is like the 
breast, and the sun like the physical heart. The 
individual soul of the sun corresponds to the animal 
spirit in the heart, which is the source of human life. 

Next, as to the place of predestination in this 
scheme, for that there are three words, kadd', 
kadar and Hndya. Kadi'' means the existence of 
the universal types of all things in the world of 
the Universal Reason. Kadar is the arrival in 
the world of the Universal Soul of the types of 
existing things, after being individualized in order 
to be adapted to matter, these are joined to their 



90 



<ABD al-RAZZAK al-KASHANI — <ABD al-RAZZAK al-SAMARKANDI 



causes, produced by them, and appear at their 
fixed times. 'Inaya is, broadly, Providence and 
covers both of the above, just as they contain 
everything that is actual. It is the divine know- 
ledge, embracing everything as it is, universally 
and absolutely. It is not in any place, for God's 
knowledge, in His essence, is nothing else than 
the presence of His essence before His essence, 
which is essentially one and goes with all the 
qualities which inhere in Him. Further, while 
the essence (hakika) of kadd? is part of the Hndya 
of God, its entelechy {kamal) is in the world of 
the Universal Reason. The Universal Soul is some- 
times called the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al- 
tnahfuz), for on it are preserved unalterable all the 
general conceptions which are on their way to the 
individual heavenly souls. 

It is the world, then, of kadar, of the Soul, which 
sets everything in motion. This is by the yearning 
of the reasonable souls of the heavenly bodies 
towards their spiritual source, the Universal Reason. 
They try to assimilate themselves to this, to uni- 
versalize themselves. Step by step, they mount up, 
and with each advance they receive a new outpouring 
from that source, drawing them on further. With 
each movement, there flows from them an influence 
upon matter according as it is adapted to receive 
it, and thus there is a series of changes in the 
material world, corresponding to those in the world 
of the Soul. These changes may be either absolute 
of creation and destruction, or, between those 
extremes, simply of condition. The duration of 
existence constitues the Kur 3 anic adjal, and all these 
are fixed by kadar. 

Finally, this exegesis of Kur'an, lii, i — 6 will 
show how c Abd al-Razzak applied Scripture. "By 
the Mount and by a Book Inscribed in a Parch- 
ment Outspread, and by the Frequented House, 
and by the Raised Roof, and by the Flowing 
Sea!" The Frequented House is the Spirit of the 
fourth sphere, that of the sun. Therefore Jesus, 
the Spirit of God, has been placed there, whose 
miracle is the raising of the dead. The Mount is 
the 'arsh, the seat of the Universal Reason. The 
Book Inscribed is kadd', which is in that Reason: 
and the Parchment Outspread is the Reason itself. 
The Raised Roof is the nearest heaven, where are 
the individual celestial souls; it is mentioned im- 
mediately after the Frequented House, because from 
this heaven the forms descend on the earth, 
and from the Frequented House comes the breath 
of the Spirit, by the combination of which the 
creation of animated beings is achieved. The Flowing 
Sea is the sea of primary matter which spreads 
everywhere and is filled with forms. 

How, then, is such a scheme related to pre- 
destination and free will? It is highly complicated, 
consisting of- a remote first cause and an infinity 
of intermingling and crossing, nearer, secondary 
causes. It is possible to look at these last only, 
and so to assign absolute creative and deciding 
power to our own wills. Or to look only at the 
first cause and become fatalists. We must preserve 
the balance and hold by both. The complete cause 
of anything into which human will can enter must 
have as an element in it, among so many others, 
free will. It sets all the others in movement. Under 
this conception, though never clearly stated, is 
evidently implied that man has in him an element 
of the divine deciding power. If there is freedom 
in the divine nature, there must be also in its emana- 
tions. For Ibn 'ArabI the oneness of the divine 



nature over against the creation had overcome 
everything. c Abd al-Razzak lays stress on the multi- 
tudinous interweaving causes of the world, its 
constantly developing processes, to show that in 
life, purpose and will there must be multiplicity. 
The divine is spread down through the sub-lunar 
things, it does not simply rule from above. Again, 
amongst the many causes working in the world and 
upon men are the restraints and influences of religion, 
the promises and threatenings of the prophets. These 
we should permit to have their effects upon us as 
parts of the whole scheme, the process of trai- 
ning under which we are. But, again, why should 
training be necessary? Why are there good and 
bad ? Here, again, is an implication, once pretty 
clearly expressed. Matter is of very differing na- 
ture, grosser and finer, It can receive only a 
corresponding soul, therefore souls also vary. 
Character and disposition is a combination of 
both, and it is for the soul to overcome its ma- 
terial body and itself rise. This evidently is the 
fundamental thought, but c Abd al-Razzak does 
not give much space to it. Rather, he uses the 
old theological catch. This must be the best pos- 
sible creation, otherwise God would have created 
a better. Further, if all things were equal, there 
could be neither order nor organization. This 
would also be hard on those less perfect things 
thus ruled out of existence. All things should 
have a chance; it is for them to use it. God knows 
their differences and will allow for them. The most 
and the greatest sins are from ignorance, and God 
will so treat them. In the life to come the same 
thing is to go on. Some will attain felicity, others, 
because they might have done better, must undergo 
purification by punishment, but that will not be 
eternal. Here, perhaps, c Abd al-Razzak is most 
unsatisfactory. He passes over into the normal 
Muslim conception although it is not at all clear 
that his system can permit individuality apart from 
matter. Freed souls, we should expect, would either 
return into the unity, or else be sent forth again 
to another material life. Like so many in Muslim 
theology and philosophy, this tractate was adapted 
to an audience, and was not perfectly ingenuous. 
Yet behind its caution of statement the real system 
is tolerably plain. It is nearer orthodoxy than that 
of Ibn 'Arabi, but not as near as this eschatology 
would suggest. 

Bibliography: St. Guyard, in Journ. As., 

7th ser., i, 125 ff., which is the main source; 

Brockelmann, ii, 203 — 2 (treating him as two 

different persons), S ii, 280-1. 

(D. B. Macdonald) 

C ABD AL-RAZZAg Kamal al-DIn b. Pjalal 
al-DIn IshA* al-SAMARKANDI, Persian his- 
torian, author of the well-known MafUi'-i Sa'dayn 
wa-Madima'-i Bahrayn, born in Harat Sha'ban 
816/Nov. 1413, died there Djumada II 887/July- 
August 1482. His father was imam and kadi of the 
camp (hadrat) of Shahrukh and read out books and 
expounded various problems (masdHl) to him 
(Mafia 1 , ii, 704, 870, cf. 706). He received the usual 
type of education, and one of his teachers was his 
elder brother £ Abd al-Kahhar. He also attended 
when his father read the two Sahihs to Shams 
al-DIn Muh. al-Djazarl (d. 833/1429) (ibid., ii, 631- 
1294) and received an idjdza. After the death of 
his father, he used to attend the court of Shahrukh 
with his elder brothers, but when in 841/1437-8 he 
dedicated his Shark on al-Risdla aV-Adudiyya to 
the king and presented it to him, he was taken into 



ABD AL-RAZZAtf al-SAMARKANDI — C ABD al-SALAM b. MASHlSH 



service and allowed to attend the court regularly. 
Two years later, he was examined by the 'ulamd' 
at the court, and granted a salary and provisions 
(marsum wa-'alu/a) (ibid., ii, 704, 731 f.). 

In Ramadan 845/Jan. 1441 <Abd al-Razzak was 
sent to India as ambassador and returned in 
Ramadan 848/Dec. 1444. (For his mission and the 
result obtained see Mafia 1 , ii, 783; T. W. Arnold, 
The Caliphate, Oxford 1924, 113). He was similarly 
sent to Gilan in 850/1446. He was ordered to make 
ready for a mission to Egypt in the same year, 
but due to the death of Shahrukh this was cancelled. 
In the period following the death of that king he 
served his successors Mirza c Abd al-Latif, Mirza 
<Abd Allah and Mirza Abu'l-Rasim Babur, with some 
as sadr, with others as ndHb and khdss ; see ibid., ii, 
1440. Under the last-named prince, who included 
him among his confidants, he enjoyed many favours 
(ibid., ii, n 19). In 856/1452 he was in Yazd with 
Mirza Babur, when the Mirza interviewed Sharaf 
al-DIn c Ali Yazdi, and in 856/1452 he was with the 
same prince when he besieged Samarkand, in which 
city c Abd al-Razzak had many friends and old 
acquaintances (Mafia 1 , ii, 1041, 1078). In 866/1462 
he was sent to Asfuzar for fixing taxes (bunica 
bastan). Soon after, under Sultan Abu Sa'id, on 
3 Djumada I 867/24 Jan. 1463 the vizier Kh'adja 
Rutb al-DIn T5 J us SimnanI appointed him shaykh 
(governor) of the khdnkdh of Shahrukh (Matla', ii, 
1270), which post he held till his death. 

The Mafia' describes,, with a brief mention of the 
birth (704/1304-5) and accession (716/1316-7) of the 
Ilkhan Abu Sa c id, the events of the years 717- 
875/1317-1471, in chronological order. Up to the 
year 830/1426-7 use is principally made of the 
Zubdat al-Tawarikh of Hafiz-i Abru [q.v.], which is 
at times quoted literally. The famous account of 
the embassy to China in 823-5/1420-2, is also taken 
from the Zubda. For the period from 830 to 875/ 
1426-71 c Abd al-Razzak's work is one of the most 
important original sources of information. Cf. the 
takriz of <Abd al-Wasi* al-Nizami (for him see 
Ifabib al-Siyar, iii, 3, 328) in Mafia', ii, 1440, which 
refers to his indebtedness to Hafiz-i Abru for the 
earlier period and his impartial narrative relating 
to the period in which he himself lived. An edition 
of vol. ii was published piecemeal in the Oriental 
College Magazine, Lahore Nov. 1933 onwards, and 
later a separate edition was published in two parts 
(Lahore 1360/1941 and 1368/1949). Mss. of the 
work are to be found in nearly all the larger European 
collections but they are now rare in the East. The 
Panjab University Library has an autograph copy 
of vol. ii, acquired recently. It was completed by 
the author on 17 RabI' I, 875/13 Sept. 1470, the 
correction of the copy being completed by him on 
the 18th Sha'ban 88s/23rd Oct. 1480. E. Quatremere 
gives extracts from the work in the Notices et extraits, 
xiv, part 1; as also H. M. EUiot in his History of 
India, iv, 89-126, and others (for whom see Storey). 

From the Mafia' (ii, 190) we learn that <Abd al- 
Razzak also wrote a work on the history of Harat 
and its districts (bulQkdt). In some places in the 
Mafia' (e.g. ii, 951, 1208) he also quotes his own 

Bibliography: Storey, ii, 293-8; W. Barthold, 

Turkestan*, 56; Kh w andamlr, Bombay 1857, 

iii/3, 335. (W. Barthold-Mohammad Shafi) 

'ABO al-SALAM b. MASHlSH al-HasanI. 

Practically nothing is known of this personage, who 

has become one of the "poles" (hufi), [q.v.]) of popular 

mysticism in Morocco. The only fairly certain fact 



is that he died in 625/1227-8 by a 
hermitage on the Djabal al-'Alam, in the territory 
of the Banu c Arus, to the south-east of Tetuan. He 
is said to have fallen victim to a man of the region, 
Muhammad b. Abl Tawadjln al-Kutami, belonging 
to riasr Kutama, who had rebelled against the 
decaying Almohad power and was attempting to 
pass himself off as a prophet, and who assassinated 
the saint because the latter's prestige was an 
obstacle to his ambitions. c Abd al-Salam was buried 
at the top of the mountain, at the foot of an 
oak, and seems to have been for a long time the 
object of a purely local cult; Ibn Khaldun does not 
mention him, nor for that matter the revolt of his 
murderer. 

Besides this account of his death, which seems 
to be reasonably probable although reported by 
much later authors, little more is known of the 
saint than his genealogy, which, through several 
ancestors with typically Berber names, attaches him 
to the house of the Prophet. He is said to have been 
born in the neighbourhood of the Djabal al- c Alam, 
into the tribe of the Banu c Arus, and to have gone 
"in pursuit of learning" to the East at the age of 
sixteen; then, on his return, to have followed at 
Bidjaya (Bougie) the instruction of the famous 
Andalusian mystic Abu Madyan [q.v.], and to have 
come back finally to stay in his native country, 
where he lived an edifying life as an ascetic in his 
mountain hermitage. 

His teaching is scarcely better known, in spite 
of the elaborations which it acquired in Moroccan 
mysticism. "Perform the obligations of the Law and 
avoid sin", he is said to have advised a disciple who 
had asked him for a rule of life, "keep your heart 
aloof from every temporal attachment, accept what 
God sends you, and put above all else the love of 
God" (Ibn 'Ayad, K. al-Mafdkhir, 106). It is related 
also that he had as a disciple Abu '1-Hasan 'All 
al-Shadhili [q.v.], who came to him for his initiation 
into mysticism. 

Only from the 15th century, it seems, at the time 
when the marabout movement connected with al- 
Shadhill became active in Morocco, did the fame of 
c Abd al-Salam extend beyond the limits of his tribe 
into the whole northern part of Morocco. He was 
then regarded as the "pole" of the West, as c Abd 
al-tCadir al-Gilanl was regarded as the "pole" of the 
East. A pilgrimage was organized around his tomb 
in the three days following the mawlid nabawl. A 
colourful description of it, applying to the last 
years of the 19th century, will be found in Le 
Maroc inconnu of A. Moulieras. 

Bibliography: Afcmad al-Kumushakhanawi 
al-Nakshabandl, Qiami' Usui al-Awliyd? , tr. in 
Graulle, Dawhat al-Nddhir, AM, XIX, 296-8; 
Sha'ranl, al-Tabakdt al-Kubrd, Cairo 1299, ii, 6; 
Nasirl, Istiksd', Cairo 1312, i, 210 (tr. IsmaelHamet, 
A M, xxxii, 254-5 ; Ibn <Ayad, al-Mafdkhir al-'Aliyya 
Ii l-Ma'dthir al-Shadhiliyya, Cairo 1323, 106; A. 
Moulieras, Le Maroc inconnu, Paris 1899, ii, 159-79; 
M. Xicluna, Quelques Ugendes relatives a Moulay 
'Abd as-Saldm ben Mechich, AM, iii, 119-33; 
A. Fischer, Der grosse marokkanische Heilige 
'Abdesselam ben MeSH, ZDMG, 1917, 209-22; 
E. Michaux-Bellaire, Conferences, AM, xxvii, 52-4 
et 64-5; E. Westermarck, Ritual and Belief in 
Morocco, ii, 600; Asln Palacios, Sadilies y alum- 
brados, (I), And., 1945, 9-11; G. S. Colin, Chresto- 
mathie marocaine, 226; Brockelmann, S I, 787. 
I (R. Le Tournkau) 



'ABD al-SAMAD al-PALIMBANI — <ABD al-WADIDS 



'ABD al-SAMAD b. 'Abd Allah al-PALIM- 
BAnI, i.e. of Palembang in Sumatra, was a pupil 
of Muhammad al-Samman (d. 1 190/1776), the 
founder of the Sammaniyya order (cf. Brockelmann, 
S II, 535 and Nachtr.). He is known chiefly as 
translator of al-Ghazall's Lubdb Ihyd* l Ulum al-Dln 
into Malay, under the title of Sayr al-Sdlikin ild 
Hbddat Rabb al- l Alamin. It was begun in 1193 and 
finished at Ta'if in 1203. The translation is very 
free, shortened in some places, enlarged elsewhere 
by numerous additions, the sources of which are 
enumerated in book iii, bab 10. Here we find also 
an interesting list of sufi literature recommended 
by the author to three stages of pupils in Sufism. 
Most of the works in this list are in Arabic, but 
some in Malay. It seems that c Abd al-Samad lived 
mostly in Arabia. One of his earlier writings, Zuhrat 
al-Murid fi Baydn Kalimat al-Tawhid, is a Malay 
treatise on mantik and usul al-din, based on notes 
which he took during a lecture given at Mecca by 
Ahmad al-Damanhuri (Brockelmann, II, 371) in 1178. 
His Hiddyat al-Sdlikin fi Suluk Maslak al-Muttakin 
is a Malay adaptation of al-Ghazall's Biddyat al- 
Hiddya, finished at Mecca, 5 Muh. 1192. In Arabic 
he compiled a collection of awrdd entitled 'Urwat 
al-Wuthkd wa-Silsilat uli'l-Ittikd, a rdtib, and a 
treatise entitled Nasihat al-Muslimln. This last work 
contains fervent admonitions to holy war against 
infidels. It inspired the author of the Achehnese 
poem Hihayat prang sabi, of which various redactions 
were circulated in Acheh during the war against 
the Dutch in the last quarter of the 19th and the 
beginning of the 20th century. 

Bibliography: Ph. S. van Ronkel, VBG 57, 

383, 400, 429; id., Suppl. Cat. Arab. Mss. Batavia, 

139, 216; R. O. Winstedt, A history of Malay 

literature (JMBRAS 17, III), 103; H. T. Damste, 

Hikajat prang sabi, in BTLV 84, 545 ff. ; for the 

Sammaniyya: C. Snouck Hurgronje, The Achehnese, 

ii, 216 ff. Two of 'Abd al-Samad's works have 

been frequently printed: Sayr al-Sdlikin, Mecca 

1306 (lith.), 1309 etc.; Hiddyat al-Sdlikin, Mecca 

1287 (lith.), Bombay 1311, etc. On two works of 

dubious authorship see TBG 85, no. The tract 

Anis al-Muttakin by 'Abd al-Samad b. Faklh 

Husayn b. Faklh Muhammad is not the work 

of an Indonesian author, though on the title-page 

of the lithographed edition the epithet al-Palimbanl 

is added to the author's name; its attribution to 

a Zaydl author (Brockelmann, S II, 966) is 

equally false. (P. Voorhoeve) 

'ABD al-WADIDS (BanO 'Abd al-Wad, or 

Zayyanids, Banu Zayyan), a Berber dynasty 

which, from the first half of the 7th/i3th century 

to the middle of the ioth/i6th century had its 

capital at Tlemcen (Tilimsan, [q.v.]) and extended 

its power, against frequent opposition, over the 

central Maghrib (from the frontiers of the present 

Morocco to the meridian of Bougie). 

According to the concepts recorded by Ibn 
Khaldiin, the Banu 'Abd al-Wad were Zanata "of 
the second race". Like the Banu Marin, B. Tudjln, 
B. Rashid and B. Mzab, they belonged to the 
great Zanata family of the Banu Wasln. Living as 
nomads, like their neighbours and relatives, the B. 
Marin and B. Tudjln, they once occupied a more 
extensive territory, reaching to the vicinity of the 
Awras. In consequence of the Hilali invasion 
(5th/nth century) these Zanata nomads, driven 
eastwards, were forced to abandon their territory 
to the Arab nomads and to emigrate to the high 
plateaux of what is now the province of Oran. The 



conquest of the country by the Almohads, at the 
beginning of the 6th/i2th century, made the fortune 
of the Banu 'Abd al-Wad. They proved themselves 
loyal and useful allies of the caliphs of Marrakush, 
especially at the time when the terrible ravages of 
the Almoravid Banu Ghaniva brought destruction 
upon Ifrlkiya and the central Maghrib (581-600/ 
1185-1203). The assistance which they gave to the 
Almohad forces earned its reward. Tlemcen, success- 
fully defended, profited by the ruin of the neigh- 
bouring centres and by the emigrations that were 
depopulating them. In 633/1235 the chief of the Banu 
'Abd al-Wad, Yaghmurasan (or better: Yagham- 
rasan) b. Zayyan, inherited from his brother the 
command over all the branches of the family. This 
dignity, ratified by the consent of the tribes, was 
confirmed by a diploma of investiture issued by 
the Almohad caliph al-Rashid. 

Yaghmurasan, the shaykh of an imposing nomad 
group, who used to lead his tribesmen and their 
flocks periodically from the desert to the plains of 
the province of Oran and who could speak only 
the Berber dialect of the Zanata, became the seden- 
tary sovereign of a powerful state. He had moreover 
the qualities of a founder of empire: energy, the 
ability needed to hold his associates together around 
him, political insight, a taste for grandeur and the 
generous gesture. During a reign that lasted not 
less than 48 years (633-81/1236-83), he already 
encountered the dangers that never ceased to 
menace the kingdom of Tlemcen. These arose on 
the one hand from the legacy of the clan's former 
life and the rivalries that set Berber against Berber, 
and on the other hand from the consequences of 
the new situation in which the 'Abd al-Wadids 
found themselves. True to his duty as a vassal, he 
supported the last Almohad caliphs against the 
Marinids, who had become the masters of Fez. The 
fall of the Almohads in 646/1248 left him face to face 
with the Marinids. Between the Marinids and the 
'Abd al-Wadids there was a long tradition of con- 
flict; it was singularly widened by the establishment 
of the two kindred kingdons, neighbours and all 
the more ardently rivals. 

These are the main themes which dictated the 
course of the external history of the 'Abd al-Wadids. 
Yaghmurasan foresaw their development and on 
his death-bed, so the story goes, he traced for his 
son 'Uthman the conduct he should adopt with 
regard to the other powers: a strictly defensive 
attitude as against Marlnid Maghrib; attempts at 
expansion at the expense of the Hafsid kingdom 
of Tunis, as occasion should offer. In addition to 
this political testament, his successors could derive 
lessons from the activities of Yaghmurasan himself: 
his firmness in the face of the Zanata, his relatives 
in the central Maghrib, namely Maghrawa and Banu 
Tudjln; in Spain, the triple alliance which he con- 
cluded with the sultan of Granada and the Christian 
king of Castille, in order to thwart the action of 
the Marinids, their common enemy, both in North 
Africa and in the Peninsula. 

The struggle of Fez against Tlemcen, the attack 
on the 'Abd al-Wadid kingdom— the first objective 
of their expansion in North Africa — by their western 
neighbours, the Marinids, is the principal motif of 
this history and could serve to mark its stages. 
The first noteworthy episode was, under 'UftrnJn, 
the son of Yaghmurasan, the long siege of Tlemcen 
by the Marlnid sultan Abu Ya'kub al-Mansflr, who 
isolated it during eight years (698-706/1298-1306) 
by a rigorous blockade and began to build the 



encampment-town of al-Mansura (see abO zayyAn I). 
This time, Tlemcen did not fall. After expanding 
eastwards under Abu Hammu I [?.».], the 'Abd 
al-Wadids were again attacked by the Marinid Abu 
'1-Hasan (see abO tAshufIn I), and on 30 Ramadan 
737/2 May 1337 Tlemcen was taken by storm. After 
ten years of Moroccan domination, Tlemcen was 
delivered from the foreign yoke in 749/1348 by the 
two brothers Abu Sa c Id and Abu Thabit, but 
in 753/1352 was again conquered by the Marinid 
Abu 'Inan, and was not regained by the 'Abd al- 
Wadids until 760/1359. 

These two Moroccan interregnums caused a break 
in the history of the 'Abd al-Wadids which was to 
show itself in all fields of action. Under Abu 
Hammu II (760-91/1359-89 [q.v.]), the kingdom 
regained a relative freedom of movement, but at- 
tempts at expansion in the direction of the Hafsid 



C ABD al-WADIDS 93 

kingdom were frustrated (the expedition of 767/1366 
against Bougie ended in disaster) and Marinid in- 
vasion remained as a periodical threat. The struggle 
with the Marinids had also taken on a new char- 
acter, for various reasons : firstly, because of the role 
played by the Ma'kil Arabs of TSfilalt and the valley 
of the Muluya (WadI Malwiyya), who supported 
Tlemcen against Fez; secondly, through the policy 
of the Marinids, whose aim was less to annex 
Tlemcen than to support an 'Abd al-Wadid pretender 
and so to reduce, the kingdom to a vassal state; 
thirdly, owing to the incapacity of the sultans of 
Tlemcen to defend their capital, and its temporary 
abandonment by the sovereign to seek refuge with 
his nomad allies. 

This is, in its main lines, the history of the 'Abd 
al-Wadids during the second half of the 8th/i4th 
century. For the further hundred and fifty years 



Abu Yahya Yaghamrasan b. Zayyan 

(633-81/1236-83) 
Abu Sa'Id 'UJhman I b. Yaghamrasan 

(681-703/1282-1303) 
Abu Zayyan I Mufc. b. 'Uthman 

(703-7/1303-8) 
Abu Hammu I Musa b. 'Uthman 

707-18/1308-18) 
Abu Tashufin I 'Abd al-Rahman b. Musa 

(718-37/1318-1337) 

First Marinid interregnum 



Abfl Sa'Id 'Uthman II b. 'Abd al-Rahman b. 
Yahya b. Yaghamrasan — reigning togetherwith 
his brother Abu Thabit (749"53/i348-52) 

Second Marinid interregnum 

Abu Hammu II Musa b. Abl Ya'kub Yusuf b. 'Abd 

al-Rahman b. Yahya b. Yaghamrasan 

(760-91/1359-89) 
Abu Tashufin II 'Abd al-Rahman b. Musa 

(791-6/1388-93) 
Abu Thabit II Yusuf b. 'Abd al-Rahman 

(796/1393) 
Abu'l-Hadjdjadj Yusuf b. Musa (796-7/1 393-4) 
Abu Zayyan II Muh. b. Musa (797-802/1394-9) 



F THE 'ABD AL-WADIDS 

Abu Muh. 'Abd Allah I b. Musa 

(802-4/1399-1401) 
Abu 'Abd Allah Muh. 1 b. Musa (804-13/1401-11) 
'Abd al-Rahman b. Muh. (813-4/1411) 
Sa'Id b. Musa (814/14") 
Abu Malik 'Abd al-Wahid b. Musa 

(814-27/1411-23) 
Abu 'Abd Allah Muh. II b. 'Abd al-Rahman 

(827-31/1423-7, 833-4/1429-30) 
Abu'l-'Abbas Ahmad b. Musa (834-66/1430-61) 
Abu 'Abd Allah Muh. Ill al-Mutawakkil b. Muh. 

b. Yusuf (866-73/1461-68) 
Abu Tashufin III b. Muh. al-Mutawakkil (873/1468) 
Abu 'Abd Allah Muh. IV al-Thabitl b. Muh. al- 
Mutawakkil (873-910/1468-1504) 
Abu 'Abd Allah Muh. V al-Thabitl b. Muh. IV 

(910-2 3/1504-17) 
Abii Hammu III Musa b. Muh. Ill 

(923-34/1517-27) 
Abu Muh. 'Abd Allah II b. Muh. Ill 

(934-47/1527-40) 
Abu 'Abd Allah Muh. VI b. 'Abd Allah 

(947/1540) 
Abu Zayyan III Ahmad b. 'Abd Allah 

(947-50/1540-3, 95i-7/i544-5o) 
al-Hasan b. 'Abd Allah (957/1550) 



during which the dynasty continued to exist they 
never again became masters of their own fate. It 
is true that they had nothing more to fear from 
Morocco, where the weak Wattasids had succeeded to 
the Marinids; but the hegemony passed to Tunis. 
The last two great Hafsids, Abu Faris (827/1424) 
and 'Uthman (871/1466), harking back to the 
tradition of the first rulers of the dynasty, led 
victorious expeditions against Tlemcen and imposed 
in their turn vassal sovereigns of their own choice 
on the 'Abd al-Wadid kingdom. 

The incurable weakness of this kingdom, its 
internal quarrels and the cupidity of the foreigners 
made of the last phase of its history — i.e. the first 
half of the ioth/i6th century— an epoch of sub- 
mission and decadence. Tlemcen passed successively 
under the suzerainty of the Spaniards (who had 
become masters of Oran in 915/1509), then under 
that of the Turks of Algiers in 923/1517, again from 
the Spaniards to the Turks, finally under the 
suzerainty of the Sa'did sovereigns of Marrakush, 
from whom it was seized by the Turks in 957/i55o. 



There can be no doubt that, compared with the 
kingdom of their Marinid kinsmen, that of the 
'Abd al-Wadids appears less rich in men, fertile land 
and cities, and in every respect less well furnished. 
Thus it was unable to undertake great military 
enterprises in North Africa or in Spain. Its geograph- 
ical position exposed it to the attacks of its 
covetous neighbours to the east and to the west. 
The place taken by the Arabs, notably by the 
great Hil&U tribes of the Banu 'Amir and Suwayd, 
who had invaded the plains of the district of Oran, 
imposed upon it a ruinous collaboration with these 
nomads. The Arabs, providing troops that could 
easily be mobilized, and acting as collectors of 
taxes and repaid in this service, took part in the 
dynastic crises and always profited by them. The 
liberation from the Moroccan yoke was due to them. 
The greater part of the 'Abd al-Wadid territory 
passed into their hands, in the form of iktd's, 
beneficiary estates. 

In spite of these precarious conditions of existence, 
and in spite of their slighter resources,, which did 



<ABD al-WADIDS — ABDAL 



not allow the rulers of Tlemcen to live a life as 

sumptuous, or to erect buildings as important, as 

those of the kings of Fez, the c Abd al-Wadids seem 

to have cut a figure as sovereigns earlier than the 

Marlnids. From the very reign of Yaghmurasan, 

the administrative personnel appears to be more 

complete and their duties to be better defined than 

among their western neighbours. At first, the 

sovereign recruited his viziers among the members 

of his own family. Under the fourth ruler, Abu 

Hammu I, who according to Ibn Khaldun (Berberes, 

ii, 142; transl. Hi, 384) transformed the kingdom 

from its patriarchal ways and imposed on it the 

etiquette of a real court, the vizierate was entrusted 

to Andalusians; and the same system continued 

under the fifth sultan. The Marlnid interregnum 

gave rise to a new system: the vi 

relative of the prince, becomes, as a 

der of the army and a viceroy, who is tempted to 

a j use the authority granted to him. In regard to 

the hddjtb (great chamberlain), it is noteworthy 

that while in Fez this dignitary is often a familiar 

of the prince, of humble origin and an inglorious 

past, in Tlemcen he is chosen for his knowledge of 

law and his financial capacity. After the Marinid 

interregnum, the title of (iddiib vanished almost 

completely. No less markedly than in the military 

and economic fields, the Moroccan occupation of the 

middle of the 8th/i4th century represents a collapse 

in the development of the c Abd al-Wadid state. 

Bibliography: Ibn Khaldun, '■Ibar vii, 72-149 

= Hist, des Berbires, ed. de Slane, ii, 109-224, 

transl. de Slane, iii, 340-495; Yahya b. Khaldun, 

Bughyat al-Ruwwdd ft Dhikr al-Muluk mitt Bant 

<Abd al-Wdd, ed. and transl. A. Bel (Hist. desBeni 

<Abd al-Wdd), Algiers 1903-1913; TanasI, Nazm 

al-Durr wa'l- c Ikydn ft Baydn Sharaf Bant Zayydn, 

partial transl. by J. J. L. Barges (Hist, des Beni 

Zeian, rots de Tlemcen), Paris 1852 ; Ibn Maryam, 

El-Bostan, Biographies des Saints et Savants de 

Tlemcen, ed. M. Ben Cheneb, Algiers 1908; 

transl. I. Provenzali, Algiers 1910; Leo Africanus, 

Description de I'Afrique, ed. Ch. Schefer, iii, 

Paris 1898; <Abd al-Basit b. Khalil, ed. and 

transl. R. Brunschvig (Deux recits de voyage 

inedits en Afrique du Nord au XV^me siicle), 

Paris 1936; J. J. L. Barges, Complement a I'Hist. 

des Beni Zeian, Paris 1887; idem, Tlemcen, 

ancienne capitate du royaume de ce nom, Paris 

1859; Brosselard, Inscriptions arabes de Tlemcen, 

RAfr., 1859-62; idem, Me'moire e'pigraphique et 

historique sur les tombeaux des Emirs Beni Zeiyan, 

J A, 1876; W. Marcais, Musie de Tlemcen (Musees 

de I'Algirie et de la Tunisie), Paris 1906 ; G. Marcais, 

Les Arabes en Berbirie, Paris 191 3; idem, Le 

Makhzen des Beni l Abd al-Wdd, Bull, de la sociiU 

de geographic et d'archeologie d'Oran, 1940; W. and 

G. Marcais, Les monuments arabes de Tlemcen, 

Paris 1903; G. Marcais, Tlemcen (Les villes d'art 

celibres), Paris 1950; Zambaur, 77-8. — Owing to 

the close connection between the history of the 

l Abd al-Wadids and that of the neighbouring 

dynasties, the chroniclers of these dynasties (cf. 

the bibliographies under marinids and hafsids) 

have frequent references to the c Abd al-Wadids. — 

Cf. also tilimsAn. (G. Marcais) 

<ABD al-WAHHAB b. c Abd al-Rahman b. 

Rustum [see rustumids]. 

<ABD AL-WAtfID B. c AlI al-TamImI al-MAR- 
RAKUSHl, Abu Muhammad, Maghribi chron- 
icler from the beginning of the 13th century, b. 
Marrakush 7 Rabl< II 581/8 July 1185. We have no 



information about his life except for a few auto- 
biographical data that allow us to some degree to 
piece together his career. He left, at an early age, 
his native town for Fez, where he made his studies, 
but returned several times to the Almohad capital 
before going to Spain. He stayed in Seville in 605/ 
1208-9 and stopped for two years in Cordova. After 
a short visit to Marrakush he established himself 
at Seville, whose Almohad governor took him into 
his service. At the end of 613/1217, he undertook 
a journey to the East, going to Ifrikiya and then 
to Egypt. It seems that he remained in the East 
till the end of his life ; according to his own testimony, 
he was in 617/1220 in Upper Egypt, three years 
later in Mecca. It was in 621/1224 that he compiled, 
probably in Baghdad, his al-Mu l diib fi Talkhis 
Akhbdr al-Maghrib, published by R. Dozy (Leiden 
1847, 2nd ed. 1881) under the title The History of the 
Almohads (French transl. by E. Fagnan, Algiers 1893). 

The MW-djib gives an often interesting precis of 
the history of the Muslim West up to the epoch of 
the Mu'minid dynasty. The author treats this 
dynasty at greater length, more often relying on his 
personal memories than on the official Almohad 
historiography. For the earlier period, he seems to 
have had at his disposition certain works of the 
Andalusian chronicler and traditionist al-Humaydl. 
The value of the book of <Abd al- Wahid is enhanced 
by its rich material concerning literary history, espe- 
cially of the century of the muluk al-(awdHf in Spain. 
Bibliography: Pons Boigues, Ensayo biobiblio- 

grdfico, 413; Brockelmann, I, 392, S I, 555. 

(E. L£vi-Provencal) 

C ABD al-WAHID AL-RAfiHlD [see al-Muwah- 

HIDUN]. 

C ABD al-WASI 1 DJABALl b. c Abd al-Djami', 
Persian poet, one of the panegyrists of the 
Seldjuk sultan Sandjar. He came from the province 
of Ghardjistan, lived for some time in Harat, then 
went to Ghazna to enter the service of the sultan 
Bahrain Shah, son of Mas'ud, of the Ghaznawid 
dynasty. Four years afterwards he took the occasion 
of sultan Sandjar's coming to Ghazna — to assist 
Bahrain Shah, his maternal cousin— to address to 
him a panegyric. During the last fourteen years of 
his life he lived at Sandjar's court and is said to 
have died in 555/1160. He excelled in Arabic and 
Persian poetry according to c Awfi, who quotes, in 
this connection, two mulamma's. His diwdn (MSS 
Bodleian, and Brit. Mus. Or. 3320) is mainly com- 
posed of kasidas, often very difficult. The edition, 
Lahore 1862, is in need of revision. 

Bibliography: Dawlat Shah, Tadhkirat al- 

Shu'ara 3 (Browne), 73-6; 'Awfl, Lubdb (Browne), 

ii, 104-10; Rida Kuli Khan, Madima' al-Fusahd', 

i, 185-92 ; J. Hammer-Purgstall, Gesch. d. schdnen 

Redekunste Persiens, 101; H. Ethe, in Grundr. d. 

iran. Philol., ii, 261. (Cl. Huart-H. MassS) 

ABDAL (A.; plur. of badal, "substitute"), one 

of the degrees in the sufi hierarchical order of 

saints, who, unknown by the masses (rididl al- 

ghayb [cf. ghayb]), participate by means of their 

powerful influence in the preservation of the order 

of the universe. The different accounts in the sufi 

literature show no agreement as to the details of 

this hierarchy. There is also great difference of 

opinion as to the number of the abddl: 40, e.g. Ibn 

Hanbal, Musnad, i, 112, cf. v, 322; Hudjwiri, 

Kashf al-Mahdiub (Zhukowsky), 269, (transl. 

Nicholson, 214), 300 (al-Makkl, Kut al-Kulab, ii, 79) ; 

7 (Ibn 'Arabi, Futuhdt, ii, 9). According to the 

most generally accepted opinion, the abddl take the 



ABDAL - 

fifth place in the hierarchy of the saints which 
descends from the great K u(b [q.v.]. They are preceded 
after the Kutb by: 2) both assistants of the latter 
[al-imdmdn) ; 3) the five "stakes" or "pillars" 
(al-awtdd [q.v.] or al- c umud; 4) the seven "incom- 
parables" (al-afrad). After the abddl in the fifth 
degree come: 6) the seventy "pre-eminents" (al- 
nudiabd'); 7) the 300 "chiefs" {al-nukabd') ; 8) the 
"troops" {al-'asd'ib), 500 in number; 9) the "wise", 
or the "isolated" (al-hukamd' or al-mufradun), of 
an unlimited number; 10) al-radiabiyyun. Each of 
these ten classes is located in a particular region 
and assigned a particular sphere of action. The 
vacancies which occur in each of the classes are 
filled by the promotion to that class of a member 
of the class immediately below it. The abddl (also 
called al-rukabd 3 , "the guardians") have their 
residence in Syria. To their merit and intercession 
are due the necessary rains, victory over the enemy, 
and the averting of general calamities. — A single 
individual of the Abddl is called badal; badil, 
however, which grammatically corresponds to 
another plural (W«W), is the usual form in the 
singular. In Persian and in Turkish the plural 
abddl is often used as a singular. 

Bibliography: G. Fliigel, in ZDMG, xx, 
38-9 (where the older sources are indicated); 
Vollers, ibid., xliii, 114 ft. (after Munawl); Hasan 
al-'AdawI, al-Nafahdt al-Shddhaliyya, ii, 99 ff. 
(where is to be found the most frequently accepted 
division of the classes); A. von Kremer, Gesch. d. 
herrsch. Ideen, 172 ff. ; Barges, Vie du ce'libre mara- 
bout Cidi Abou-Midien, Paris 1884, Introduction; 
Blochet, Etudes sur I'esoterisme musulman, in J A , 
1902, i, 529 ff. II, 49 ff.; Concordance de la tradition 
musulmane, s.v. ; L. Massignon, Passiond'al-Halladj, 
754; idem, Essai, 112 ff. (I. Goldziher') 

In various orders of derwishes in the Ottoman 
Empire the name abddl, as well as budaW (plur. of 
badil) was used for the derwishes, e.g. among the 
Khalwatiyya . (cf. for instance Yusuf b. Ya'kub, 
Mendkib-i Sherif we-Tarikat-ndme-yi Pirdn we- 
Meshdyikh-i Tarikat-i c Aliyye-yi Khalwetiyye, Istan- 
bul 1290/1873, 34, where it is expressly stated that 
Shaykh Siinbiil Sinan used to address his derwishes 
as abddl). When the esteem enjoyed by the derwish 
orders declined, the word abddl, and budaW, used 
as singulars assumed in Turkish a pejorative meaning : 
"fool". The derivation of budala* from a Turkish 
word but, "plump body" (K. Lokotsch, Etymologisches 
Wdrterbuch der europaischen Worter orientalischen Ur- 
sprungs, Heidelberg 1927, 28) is mistaken. BudaW 
occurs, in the same acceptation, also in Bulgarian, 
Serbian and Rumanian. (H. J. Kissling) 

ABDALl, the former name of the Afghan tribe 
now known as the Durrani; they belong to the 
SarbanI branch of the Afghans. According to their 
own tradition, they derived their name from Abdal 
(or Awdal) b. Tarln b. Sharkhabfln b. Kays; Abdal 
was so called because he was in the service of an 
abddl or saint named Kh^adja Abu Ahmad of the 
Cishtiyya order. The Abdalis for long inhabited 
the province of Kandahar, but early in the reign 
of Shah 'Abbas I, pressure from the Ghalzay tribe 
caused them to move to the province of Harat. 
Shah 'Abbas made Sado, of the* Popalzay clan, 
head of the tribe, with the title Mir-i Afdghina. 
Though loyal to Shah 'Abbas, they emulated the 
Ghalzays a century later and made themselves 
virtually independent. Nadir Shah [q.v.] later 
subdued the Abdalis, but treated them with leniency 
and enrolled many in his army. Amongst these 



- 'ABDAN 95 

Abdalis was Ahmad Khan, the second son of Muham- 
mad Zaman Khan Sadozay. The Abdalis served 
Nadir well, and he rewarded them by restoring 
them to ' their former territory of Kandahar. On 
Nadir's assassination in 1747, Ahmad Khan had 
himself crowned in Kandahar. Either as the result 
of a dream or because of the influence of a fakir 
named Sabar Shah, Ahmad Shah took the title of 
Durr-i Durrani ("The Pearl of Pearls"), and the 
tribe has since that time been known as the Durrani. 
The two principal clans were the Popalzay and the- 
Barakzay; the present royal family of Afghanistan 
belongs to the latter. (For the history of the Durrani 
tribe see durrAni and Afghanistan). 

Bibliography : M. Elphinstone, Caubul, London 

1842, ii, 95; <Abd al-Karlm, Ta'rikh-i Ahmad, 

Kanpur 1292/1875, 3-4; Muhammad Hayat 

Khan, tfaydt-i Afghani (English trans, entitled 

Afghanistan, 57); Muhammad Mahdl Kawkabt 

AstarabadI, Ta'rikh-i Nddiri, Bombay, 4-6; 

B. Dorn, History of the Afghans, ii, 42 ; L. Lockhart, 

Nadir Shah, London 1938, 3, 4, 16, 29, 31-4, 

52-4, 113-4, 120, 201 ; K. Fraser-Tytler, Afghanistan 

8, 62. (L. Lockhart) 

'ABDALl, plural 'Abadil, 'Abadila and, in the 

Turfat al-Ashdb, 'Abdiliyyun with i, is now most 

commonly used as a collective name for the 

inhabitants of Lahdj in S. Arabia. Ahmad 

Fadl believes this usage to date from the time 

when SJiaykh Fadl b. 'AH b. Salah b. Sallam b. 

'AH al-Sallami al-'Abdall, made Lahdj independent 

of the Zaydi Imam (1145/1732-3) and founded the 

dynasty by which it has since been ruled (see lahdj). 

According to the Turfat al-Ashdb (7th/i3th cent.) 

the original clan Of the 'Abadil are descended from 

Khawlan b. 'Amr b. Alhaf b. Kuda'a; al-Khazradil 

mentions them in southern Yaman {Pearl Strings, 

v, 217) and Landberg concluded from local enquiries 

that they still lived in their former territories. In 

the time of Fadl b. 'All at least, they belonged to 

the Yafi'I confederacy; the Al Sallam, his own 

branch, were represented at Khanfar, in Yafi'I 

territory, and at Mukha. Ahmad Fadl states that 

the majority of the inhabitants of the state were 

then Asabih, descended through Asbah b. 'Amr 

from Himyar al-Asghar; they had been there in 

al-Hamdanl's time; the rest belonged to various 

Kahtan tribes, 'Adjalim, Djahafil, Yafi', 'Akarib, 

Hawashib and 'Amira. The capital of the state, al- 

Hawta, now has a very mixed population including 

representatives of many tribes of S. W. Arabia as 

well as people of African descent. (There is also a 

branch of the Banu Marwan called 'Abadil, living 

on the Sa'udi side of the southern border of 'Aslr; 

see Philby, Arabian Highlands), 

Bibliography: Al-Malik al-Ashraf 'Umar b. 
Yusuf, Turfat al-Ashdb, Damascus 1369; F. M. 
Hunter and C. W. H. Sealy, An account of the 
Arab tribes in the vicinity of Aden; C. Landberg, 
Etudes sur les dialectes de V Arable meridionale; 
Ahmad Fadl b. 'All Muhsin al-'Abdall, Hadiyyat 
al-Zamdn, Cairo 1351, giving copious quotations. 

(C. F. Beckingham) 
'ABDAN, according to the account of Ibn Rizam 
(see Fihrist, 187) and Akhu Muhsin (quoted in al- 
Nuwayri's chapter on the Karmatians and in an abbre- 
viated form in al-Makrizi, Itti l dz al-Hunafd' (Bunz), 
103 ff.), also going back, no doubt, to lbn Rizam, was 
brother-in-law and lieutenant of Hamdan 
Karma t [q.v.], leader of the Karmatians [q.v.] of 
southern 'Irak. When the Isma'ili headquarters in 
Salamiya changed their policy, 'Abdan fell away 



<ABDAN — 'ABDl 



from their allegiance, but was killed, in 286/899, at 
the instigation of Zikrawayh, the leader of the 
loyalists. The account of the evidently well informed 
Akhu Muhsin — Ibn Rizam is confirmed by Ibn 
Hawkal (Kramers), 295. The party of 'Abdan 
survived in southern 'Irak for some years. It seems 
that F&timid orthodoxy rehabilitated 'Abdan's 
memory. He is mentioned by the author of the 
Dastur al-Munadidiimln (M. J. de Goeje, Mimoire 
sur les Carmathes, 204) as "one of the most famous 
helpers of the second hidden Imam". He was made 
into an author; his nephew, c Isa b. Musa, is said 
to have concocted books in the name of 'Abdan 
(Akhu Muhsin, in al-Nuwayri, and al-MakrizI, 
Itti'dif, 130). At any rate, the Fihrist, 189, knows 
numerous books attributed to 'Abdan. B. Lewis, 
The Origins of IsmdHlism, 68, states that several 
works by c Abdan are claimed to be in the possession 
of Syrian Isma'IU circles; cf. also W. Iv^uiow, A 
Guide to Ismaili Literature, 31. [See also sarmatians]. 
(S. M. Stern) 
al- c ABDARI (i.e. descendant of <Abd al-Dar b. 
Kusayy, of the tribe of Kuraysh), Muhammad b. 
Muhammad b. <AlI b. Ahmad b. Sa'ud Abu 
Muhammad, author of a book of travels 
bearing the title of al-Rihla al-Maghribiyya. He was 
staying with the Haha, near Mogador, when he 
started on his journey on 25 Dhu 1-Ka c da 688/n Dec. 
1289. The dates of his birth and death are not 
known: all biographical data are lacking, although 
he was always held in esteem as the learned author 
of the Rihla. Ibn al-Kadl (Qiadhwat al-Iktibds, lith. 
Fez, 199; Durrat at-ffidjdl, i, 124) and al-Makkari, 
Analectes, 789, 866) know of him only from his work. 
That he had sufl affinities is shown by his interest 
in the cult of saints ; he himself tells that he received 
the sufl khirka from the shaykh Abu Muhammad 
<Abd Allah b. Yusuf al-AndalusI in Tunis (MS. 
Algiers, fol. 154b). In politics he seems to have 
been a partisan of the Marinids as against the 
c Abd al-Wadids. It was due, probably, to this 
•circumstance that he was unable, on his return, 
to publish his book in Tlemcen. 

On his journey he received instruction from the 
following: Sharaf al-DIn al-Dimyatl (al-Dhahabl. 
Tadhkira, iv, 278), the famous traditionist Ibn 
Daklk al-'Id (al-Suyutl, &usn al-Muhadara, i, 143), 
Zayn al-DIn b. al-Munayyir (Ibn Farbfln, al-Dibddj, 
205; Aljmad Baba, Nayl, 191), \Abd Allah b. Harun 
al-Tal al-Kurtubl in Tunis, Abu Zayd c Abd al- 
Rahman b. al-Asadl in Kayrawan, Abu '1-Hasan 
< A1I b. Ahmad al-Karafl and others. His son Muham- 
mad (see ibn al-hAdjpj) and Abu'l-Kasim b. 
Ridwan are mentioned as his pupils. He writes 
approvingly of some, such as al-Dabbagh (author 
of Ma'dHm al-Imdn), while others are treated with 
devastating criticism (e.g. Abu <Abd Allah b. c Abd 
al-Sayyid of Tripolis). 

The importance of his book does not lie in its 
geographical details. Though he thinks it proper 
to criticize — with scant justification — some state- 
ments of al-Bakri, he is not a geographer and his 
summary descriptions of various sights — where he 
usually follows other geographers — are of no great 
value. His rhetorical descriptions have no more 
than literary interest, putting him in the line of 
similar Rihlas (e.g. that of al-Balawi, who travelled 
737-41/1336-40). Al-'Abdari's main concern is with 
the state of Muslim scholarship and instruction. 
His notes are important contributions to the history 
of the scholars of the Maghrib. He shared the custo- 
mary passion for idfdzas, and gives details of the 



authorities from whom he obtained, both for himself 
and his son, such certificates of study.- Thus his 
Rihla turns into, a specimen of the rich literature 
about teachers and books (bamtimadj,, fahrasa), 
from which we gain an insight into the range of 
works usually studied, classical, post-classical, and 
contemporary. In Kur'an-reading and grammar the 
late works of the Andalusians are preferred, in 
poetry most interest is shown in the famous post- 
classical product of North Africa. Among the longer 
poetical pieces quoted are al-Kasida al-Shakrdfisiyya, 
by Abu Muhammad c Abd Allah al-Kurashl (d. 466/ 
1073), in praise of the Prophet, and a takhmls of 
the Munfaridja. He quotes also some of his own 
poems; for instance one to his son, containing moral 
advice, another addressed to the Sultan Salah al-DIn 
Yusuf b. Ayyub, praying him to deliver the lands 
of Islam from the Christian yoke. 

The influence of the Rihla (a MS of which was 
copied as late as 1883) can be traced in the geo- 
graphical and historical literature of the Maghrib 
from the 14th to the 18th cent. For instance, Ibn 
Battuta's description of the Pharos of Alexandria 
(i, 29-30) is derived from it; other travellers, e.g. 
al-Balawi, and also biographers like Ahmad Baba 
and Ibn al-Kadi used it extensively. Finally, its moral 
purpose, to lay bare the material and spiritual short- 
comings of contemporary Ifrikiya and Middle Maghrib, 
makes the Rihla a document of considerable interest. 
Bibliography: Brockelmann, I, 634, S I, 883 
(add MSS Algiers 1017; Fez, Karawiyyln 1297); 
Afcmad Baba, Nayl, marg. of Ibn Farijun, Dibddj, 
68; TA, iii, 379; B. Vincent, in JA, 1845, 404-8; 
M. Cherbonneau, in JA, 1854, 144-76; R. Dozy, 
Cat. Lugd. Bat., iii, 137; M. Reinaud, Giographie 
d'Aboulfdda, i, xxxvi; Motylinski, in Bull. Soc. 
de Giogr. d' Alger, 1900, 71-7; W. Wright, in 
Introd. of Ibn Djubayr, Rihla, 1907, 16-7; E. Rossi, 
La Cron. di Ibn Galbun, 12; W. Hoenerbach, Das 
Norda/rikanische Itinerar des 'Abdari, Leipzig 1940. 

(Muh. Ben Cheneb-W. Hoenerbach) 
al-'ABDARI ABC <ABD ALLAH Muhammad 
b. Muhammad b. Muhammad b. al-hAdj&z al-FasI 
[see ibn al-hadjpj]. 
ABDAST [see wupu'l. 

'ABDl, Ottoman historian. Among the 
Ottoman historians who bore the makhlas 'Abdl 
(cf. Babinger, 432 f.), the secretary (kdtib) of Yusuf 
Agha, chief of the eunuchs, is worthy of mention. 
He was an eye-witness of the magnificent festivities 
organized in Adrianople in June and July 1675 
on the occasion of the circumcision of the crown- 
prince Mustafa, son of Muhammad (Me^med) IV, 
and of the marriage of the princess Khadidje with 
the second vizier Mustafa Pasha (cf. Hammer- 
Purgstall, vi, 307 ff. and 313 ff.), and in which his 
master took a prominent part. A different account 
is given in a more concise anonymous description of 
the same circumcision festival, mostly bearing the 
title Medima'-i Sur-i Humayun (MS Vienna, 1072, 
of which a part has been lost since Hammer- 
Purgstall's time but of which the greater part is still 
preserved; Hammer's translation, vi, 704, replaces 
the lost section; Hamburg, cod. or. 269 contains 
only the list of the presents). Also diverging from 
'AbdI's account is that of an anonymous author 
in Paris, suppl. turc, 880, bound together with the 
translation of the jeune de langues Etienne Roboly. 
Of 'Abdi's book there are MSS in Paris, suppl. turc 
501 (incomplete) and 1045 (the best MS), in the 
private collection of R. Tschudi, Basle, and in 
Istanbul, Millet Kiitubkhanesi, 277 (414). 



c ABDl — ABDJAD 



97 



Bibliography: Babinger, 217 f.; J. H. Mordt- 
mann, in Isl., 1925, 364. (Fr. Babinger) 

<ABDl EFENDI, Ottoman historian. The 
only information about his life is that he worked 
under the sultans Mahmud I and Mustafa III, i.e. 
about 1730-64. His history, called either simply 
'Abdi Ta y rikhi, or Ta'rikh-i Sulfdn Mahmud Khan, 
deals mainly with the antecedents of Patrona 
Khalil's rebellion and with the revolution itself 
(1730-1) and is one of the main contemporary 
sources for this event. MSS are to be found in 
Istanbul, Es'ad Efendi, 2153 and Millet Kutubkha- 
nesi 409- 

Bibliography: F. R. Unat, 1730 Patrona 
ihtilali hakkmda bir eser Abdi tarihi, Ankara 1943; 
Osmanh Miiellefleri, iii, 106; Indnii Ansiklopedisi, 
i, 31; Ahmed Refik, Ldle dewri, Istanbul 1331, 
116, 125, 140; Rdmiz Tedhkiresi, MS Millet 
Kutubkhanesi 762, 185 ; Se/inet iil-Ru'asd', 83 ff., 
90 ff.— For the MSS cf. Istanbul Kutuphaneleri 
Tarih-Cografya Yazmalan Kataloilart, I: Turkfe 
Tarih Yazmalan, 2nd fasc, Istanbul 1944, 103 f. 

(Fr. Babinger) 
c ABDl PASHA, Ottoman historian. <Abd 
al-Rahman 'Abdi Pasha came from Anadolu Hisart 
on the Bosporus, was educated in the Seray, and 
finally attained the post of imperial privy secretary 
(sirr k l dtibi). In Muharram 1080/June 1669 he was 
promoted to the office of nishdndji with the rank 
of a vizier, and later was appointed kdHm-makdm 
of the capital. In April 1679 he became governor 
of Bosnia, next year again nishdndfi, in March a 
so-called vizier of the cupola, in August 1684 
governor of Basra (cf. Hammer-Purgstall, vi, 379). 
Deposed in 1686, he was in the next year appointed 
governor of Egypt. In 1688 he was governor of 
Rumelia, next year governor of Crete, where he 
died in Radjab 1103/March 1692. 'Abdi Pasha is 
usually described, though whether correctly is open 
to some doubt, as the first officially appointed 
historiographer (wekdV-niiwis); cf. Ismail Hakki 
Uzuncarsih, Osmanli devletinin merkez ve bahriye 
teskilatt, Ankara 1948, 64-8. At any rate he was 
the author of a history of the Ottoman empire, 
which starts with the beginning of the reign of 
Muljammad (Mehmed) IV, 1058/1648 and ends 
with 3 Ramadan 1093/5 Oct. 1682. The book, 
usually called Ta'rikh-i WehdV (HadjdjI Khalifa, 
ed. Fliigel, no. 14523), but also Wak'a-ndmeyi 'Abdi 
Pasha, was dedicated to the sultan Mehmed IV. 
For the MSS cf. Babinger; additional MSS in 
Istanbul, Baghdad Koshku, 217, Khaled Ef., 615 
(cf. Isl., 1942, 207), and Istanbul Kutuphaneleri 
Tarih-Coirafya Yazmalan Kataloilart, xi: Turkfe 
Tarih Yazmalan, 2nd fasc, Ankara 1944, m f. 
A partial French translation, by Etienne Roboly, 
is preserved in Paris, suppl. turc, 867 (Blochet, 
Cat., ii, 78). 

Bibliography: Babinger, 227 f. (with further 
references); Indnii Ansiklopedisi, i, 30; Hammer- 
Purgstall, iii, 558 f. (Fr. Babinger) 
ABDJAD (or Abadjad or Abu Djad), the 
first of the eight mnemotechnical terms 
into which the twenty-eight consonants of the 
Arabic alphabet were divided. In the East, the 
whole series of these voces memoriales is ordered 
and, in general, vocalized as follows: 'abdiad hawwaz 
huttiy kalaman sa'fas karashat thakhadh dazagh. In 
the West (North Africa and the Iberian peninsula) 
groups no. 5, 6 and 8 were differently arranged; 
the complete list was as follows: 'abadjid hawaz tn 
hu(iy ,n kalamn 1 * sa'fad 1 ' kurisat thakhudh zaghsh 1 *. 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



The first six groups of the Oriental series preserve 
faithfully the order of the "Phoenician" alphabet. 
The last two, supplementary, groups consisted of 
the consonants peculiar to Arabic, called, for this 
reason, rawddif, "mounted on the hind-quarters". 

From a practical point of view, this arrangement 
of the alphabet has only one point of interest, 
namely that the Arabs (like the Greeks) gave each 
letter a numerical value, according to its position. 
The twenty-eight characters are thus divided into 
three successive series of nine each: units (1 to 9), 
tens (10 to 90), hundreds (100 to 900), and "thous- 
and". Naturally, the numerical value corresponding 
to each of the letters that belong to groups no. 5, 
6 and 8 differs in the Oriental and the Occidental 
systems. 

The use of the Arabic characters as numerals has 
always been limited and exceptional; the ciphers 
proper (cf. hisab) have taken their place. Never- 
theless, they are used in the following cases: (i) on 
astrolabes; (ii) in chronograms, usually versified 
(epigraphic or otherwise), formed according to 
the system called al-diummal (see hisab and 
TA'Rlraj). (iii) in various divinatory procedures and 
in composing certain talismans (type of bdwh = 2.4 
6.8. see buduh). Even in our own days the tdlibs 
of North Africa use the numerical value of the 
letters for certain magical operations, according to 
the system called aykash (1.10.100.1000); a specialist 
in this technique is called in the vernacular yakkdsh ; 
(iv) in the pagination, according to the modern 
convention, of prefaces and tables of contents, 
where we would use the Roman letters. 

This "abecedarian" order of the Arabic letters 
does not actually correspond to anything, whether 
from the point of view of phonetics or of graphical 
representation. To be sure, it is very old. For the 
first twenty-two letters, it appears already in a 
tablet discovered at Ra's Shamra which gives the 
list of the cuneiform signs that constitute the 
alphabet of the people of Ugarit in the 14th century 
B.C. (Ch. Virolleaud, L'abicidaire de Ras Shamra, 
GLECS, 1950, 57). Its Canaanite origin, at least, is 
therefore certain; but moreover, the order was 
kept in the Hebrew and Aramean alphabet, and 
was, no doubt, taken over by the Arabs together 
with the latter. Yet the Arabs, having no knowledge 
of the other Semitic languages and moreover full 
of prejudices arising from their strong self-con- 
sciousness and their national pride, sought other 
explanations for the mnemotechnic words abdfad 
etc., handed down by tradition and incomprehensible 
to them. All that they had to say on this head, 
however interesting, is but a fable. According to 
one version, six kings of Madyan arranged the 
Arabic letters after their own names; according to 
another tradition, the first six groups are the names 
of six demons; a third tradition explains them as 
the names of the days of the week. Sylvestre de 
Sacy has noted the fact that in these traditions 
only the first six words are used, and that, e.g., 
Friday is not called thakhadh, but c uruba; yet it is 
not admissible to base on such vague traditions 
the conclusion that the Arabic alphabet had origin- 
ally only twenty-two letters (J. A. Sylvestre de 
Sacy, Grammaire arabe', ii, par. 9). In fact, even 
among the Arabs there were some more enlightened 
grammarians, such as al-Mubarrad and al-Sirafl, 
who, not satisfied with the legendary explanations 
of abdiad, straightforwardly declared that these 
mnemotechnic words were of foreign origin. 

There is, however, one noteworthy detail among 



these fabulous indications. One of the six kings of 
Madyan had the supremacy over the others 
(ra'isuhum) ; this was Kalaman, whose name is 
perhaps somehow connected with the Latin 
elementum. 

For the other arrangement of the alphabet which 
exists alongside this "abecedarian" order and which 
is the one currently employed, see iiurCp al-hidja'. 
It may be added that in North Africa the adjective 
budjddi is still alive, with the acceptation of "begin- 
ner, tiro, green", literally, "one still at the abeced- 
arian stage" (cf. the Persian-Turkish abdj_ad-kh w an, 
English abecedarian, German Abcschiiler). 

Bibliography: Lane, Lex. s.v. abdjad; TA, 
s.v. bdjd; Fihrist, 4-5; Cantor, Vorl. iiber Gesch. 
d. Math.', i, 709; Th. Noldeke, Die semitischen 
Buchstabennnamen, in Beitr&ge zur semit. Sprach- 
wiss., 1904, 124; H. Bauer, Wie ist die Rcihenfalgc 
der Buchstaben im Alphabet zustande gekommen, 
ZDMG, 1913, 501; G. S. Colin, De Vorigine grecque 
des "chiffres de Fis" et de nos "chiffres arabes", 
J A, 1933, 193; J. Fevrier, Histoire de I'ecriture, 
1948, 222; D. Diringer, The Alphabet, 1948; 
M. G. de Slane, Us Prolegomines d'Ibn Khaldoun, 
i, 241-53; E. Westermarck, Ritual and Belief in 
Morocco, i, 144; E. Doutte, Magie et religion 
dans I'Afrique du Nord, 172-95. 

(G. Weil-[G. S. Colin]) 
ABECHE [see abeshr]. 
ABEL [see hAbIl]. 

ABENCERAGES [see al-sarradj, banO]. 
ABENRAGEL [see ibn abi >l-ridjal]. 
ABE&HR (Abeche), capital of the Sultanate of 
Wada'i, Territory of the Tchad, French Equatorial 
Africa, 14 north, lat. and 21 east, long., to the 
south of Wara, the old capital. Founded in 1850, 
chief town of a region and a district of 125,000 
inhabitants (119 Europeans). Important center of 
transit between the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and 
the Tchad ; many djallaba merchants from Omdurman 
have installed themselves in the town. Center of 
trade in cattle, meat (freezing installations planned) 
and karakul sheep, bred in the neighbouring sheep- 
walk of Abugudam. A Franco-Arabic medersa was 
opened in 1951, the master of which belongs to 
the Tldjanl order, like all the Wada'is. The town, 
built in a vast dry plain, dominated by isolated 
mountains, comprises five big villages and a Euro- 
pean township. 

Bibliography: Lt. J. Ferrandi, Abeche, capitate 

des Ouadai (Publ. Comite de I'Afr. franc.), 1913; 

see also wada'i. (J. Dresch) 

ABHA, capital of the Saudi Arabian province 

of «AsIr [q.v.] situated in Wadi Abha (c. 18° 13' n. 

lat. and 42 30' E. long.) at an elevation of c. 2200 

meters. Perhaps 10,000 people, almost all Shafi'Is, 

live in its several villages now growing together but 

retaining distinctive names. One of the largest is 

Manazir, sometimes given as the ancient name of 

the place; al-Hamdani (i, 118) fails to mention 

Manazir but names Abha as a location of the tribe 

called *Asir. BanI Mughayd, dominant in modern 

Abha, belong to 'Aslr. 

Other communities are al-Kara, perhaps the 
largest; Mukabil, joined to the main group by a 
stone bridge across Wadi Abha; Na'man and al- 
Rubu c ; al-Najab, where the principal mosque is 
located; al-Khasha'; and al-Miftaha. The focal point 
of town life is a large open square, where a Tuesday 
market is held, with the adjacent stone fortress of 
of Shada, the center of provincial administration. 
Most of the houses have mud walls with multiple 



eaves of flat stone as protection against water 
erosion. Annual rainfall of c. 30 centimeters, aug- 
mented by irrigation from numerous wells, supports 
grains, fruits, and vegetables grown in terraced 
plots. Turkish forts crown the prominences ringing 
the town; two have been repaired and are used by 
the Sa'udi army: Dhira, 125 meters above the 
town to the SSE, and Shamsan to the north. Motor 
routes connect Abha with Mecca, about 840 kilo- 
meters to the north via Bisha, and Zahran and 
Nadjran to the south and south-east; there is only- 
animal transport for the steep descent to the Red 
Sea ports of al-Kunfudha and Djizan. 

Little is known of Abha's history until WahhabI 
doctrine swept across the mountains about 1215/1800. 
The subsequent Turco-Egyptian campaigns brought 
an army including several Europeans to Manazir, 
which was occupied for about one month in 1250/1834 
(Tamisier mentions a nearby village of "Apha"). 
Al 'Ayid, the shaykhly clan of BanI Mughayd, there- 
after ruled from Abha, later receiving the blessing 
of the resurgent Wahhabis under Faysal b. Turkl. 
In 1287/1871 when the Turks were engaged in reoc- 
cupying the Yaman, Muhammad b. c Ayid attacked 
them in the lowlands but they soon overwhelmed 
him, occupied Abha, and put him to death. The 
town became the center of a kada in the Yaman 
wilayet and remained Turkish until after the 1918 
armistice, except for several months in 1328-9/1910-1 
when the Idrlsis [q.v.] of Sabya wrested it from 
Sulayman Shafik, the Turkish governor. A relief 
expedition led by Sharif Husayn of Mecca arrived 
in Djumada II 1329/June 1911 to find Abh5 once 
more in Sulayman's hands. 

After the Turkish withdrawal, Al 'Ayid again 
became sole rulers, but were promptly challenged, 
first by Muhammad al-ldrisl, then by the Sa'udls, 
whose two campaigns (one in 1339/1921 and another 
in 1340-1/1922 led by Faysal b. c Abd al- c Aziz) broke 
their power. Abha has since been the seat of a 
Sa'udl governor, increased in importance by the 
Sa'udl acquisition of Idrisi territory in 1345/1926. 
The force commanded by Sa'ud b. *Abd al-'Aziz in 
the Yaman War of 1355/1934 was based on Abha. 
Two years later Philby found the place still suffering 
from the ravages of its former insecurity, but under 
peaceful rule prosperity is returning. 

For bibliography see c asIr. (H. C Mueller) 
ABHAR (in ffudud al-'Alam: Awhar), a small 
town owing its importance to the fact that it lies 
half-way between Kazwln (86 km) and Zandjan 
(88 km.) and that from it a road branched off 
southwards to DInawar. It was conquered in 24/645 
by Bara' b. c Azib, governor of Rayy. Between 
386/996 and 409/ 1029 it formed the fief of a Musaf irid 
[q.v.] prince. The stronghold of Sar-djahan (in Rdhat 
al-sudur: Sar-cahan), lying some 25 km. N.W. of 
Abhar near a pass leading into Tarom [q.v.] played 
an important r61e under the Saldjukids. 

Bibliography: Le Strange, 221 ; Schwarz, Iran, 
726-8; Minorsky, Studies in Caucasian history, 
1952, 165. (V. Minorsky) 

al-ABHARI, Athir al-DIn Mufaddal b. 'Umar, 
philosophical writer, about whose life nothing is 
known; d. in 663/1264 (according to Barhebraeus in 
1262). He was the author of two works on scholastic 
philosophy, which were much in use and often com- 
mented: (i) Hiddyat al-Hikma in three parts, a. Logic 
[al-man(ik), b. Physics {al-tabiHyydt), c. theology 
\al-ilahiyydt). The best known commentary is that 
by Mir Husayn al-Maybudl, written in 880/1475). 
(ii) al-Isdghudji, an adaptation of the Isagoge of 



l-ABHARI — ABIWARD 



Porphyry (cf. pOrfIriyus). Of the commentaries, 
that by Shams al-Din Ahmad al-Fanari (d. 834/1470) 
has been printed in Istanbul; for other commentaries 
and glosses, see Brockelmann. 

Bibliography: Brockelmann, I, 608, S I, 

839 ff.; C. F. Seybold, I si., 112 ff. 

(C. Brockelmann) 

ABlB [see ta'rIkh]. 

c ABlD [see c abd and makhzan]. 

'ABIDb. al-ABRAS. pre-Islamic Arab poet, 
of the tribe of Asad. Very little is known of his life, 
which must have lain in the first half of the 6th 
century A.D. The probably legendary story that 
his death was caused by al-Mundhir III, king of 
HIra, would fix as a terminus ante quern the date 
of the king's death, 554. The literary tournament 
with Im™' al-Kays, attested by the historico- 
literary tradition and by verses in the diwdn of 
c AMd, shows that the two poets were contemporaries; 
their joust would have to be placed between 530 
and 550. About 530 — so Lyall assumes — the Band 
Asad revolted against the supremacy of the kings of 
Kinda and killed king Hudjr, father of Imru' al- 
ways; hence the enmity and the rivalry between 
the two poets. 

The diwdn of 'Abid (edited and translated together 
with that of c Amir b. al-Tufayl by Ch. Lyall, Leiden 
1913, GMS xxi) contains thirty more or less complete 
kasidas and seventeen fragments. The very distinct 
archaism in the structure and the language of the 
diwdn is a strong argument for its authenticity. The 
dominant tone is one of melancholic and sententious 
austerity, as well as of a proud dignity which finds 
in individual and tribal fakhr the expression that 
becomes it best. 

The sentiment of love appears in a very restrained 
and already strongly stylized form, so that the 
nasib is more often devoted to the collective regret 
for a dispersed group than for an individual woman 
(e.g. kasida i, ix, xv, etc.). It is perhaps this melan- 
cholic contemplation of life's flight and of its 
fleetingness, so often expressed with original accents 
in the poetry of 'Abid, that gave rise to the legend 
that places him amongst the mu'ammarun [q.v.]. 
He seems to have died, according to Grunebaum's 
view (Orientalia, 1939, 343, 345), rather young, 
perhaps even before his fiftieth year. The sententious 
mind of 'Abid is expressed not only in his nostalgia 
for the past, but also in his praise of himself and 
of his tribe (iv, vii, xxii, xxiv etc.) and in his virulent 
polemics against Imru 1 al-Kays and other, unknown, 
poets. The allusions to his poetical talent are 
especially noteworthy (x and xxiii): they show that 
he had a clear conscience of his inspiration and his 
artistic technique. The old Arab critics admired his 
descriptions of storms and desert tempests, but the 
modem reader appreciates most among all the 
poems of his diwdn his descriptions of animals, 
such as the famous scene of an eagle chasing a. fox 
(i) and that of the fish in the sea (xxiii). In these 
poems and in other celebrated tableaux, 'Abid 
appears as one of the most powerful poets of the 
didhiliyya. 

Bibliography: Ibn Kutayba, Shi'r, 143-5; 

Aghdni, xix, 84-7; A. Fischer, Ein angeblicher 

Vers des 'Abid b. al-Abras, MIFAO, 1935, 361-75; 

F. Gabrieli, La poesia di 'Abid ibn al-Abras, Rend. 

Acad. Italia, sc. mor., 1940, 240-51; Brockelmann, 

I, 17, S I, 54. (F. Gabrieli) 

'ABID b. SHARYA [see 'ubayd b. sharya]. 

ABI& [see 'abd]. 

ABISH [see SALCHURIDS]. 



ABlWARD, 01 BAward, a town and district 
on the northern slopes of the mountains of Khurasan 
in an area now belonging to the autonomous Turko- 
man republic which forms part of the U.S.S.R. The 
whole oasis region including Nasa [q.v.], Ablward 
etc. (known by the Turkish name of Atdk "foothills") 
played a great part in ancient times as the first line 
of defence of Khurasan against the nomads. 

In the Arsacid period this region was in the 
ancestral country of the dynasty. Isidore of Charax, 
par. 13 (at the beginning of the Christian era) 
mentions between IIap9uT)vr) (with the town of 
Nasa) and MapYionrf) (= Marw) the district of 
'ArtaoapxTOcfj with the town of 'ATtauapxTodj, 
cf. Pliny, vi, 46: Apaortene, and Justin, xli, 5: 
mons (Z)apaortenon with the inaccessible town of 
Dara (= Kalat?) built by Arsak. 

Under the Sasanians the country remained broken 
up into little principalities. Ibn Khurradadhbih, 39, 
has preserved the names of the kings: of Sarakhs: 
Zddoya; of Nasa: Abrdz ( ?), and of Ablward: 
B.hm.na (B. hmiya H « ♦ { ... 1 ) which is perhaps 
connected with the name of Mahana, Mayhana (in 
the district of Khawaran to the east of Ablward). 

Under Ma'mun, c Abd Allah b. Tahir built the 
rabdf of Kufan, 6 farsakhs west of Ablward. 

Perhaps even before the great migration of the 
Ghuzz [q.v.] the district had been occupied by the 
Khaladj Turks; cf. the Qiahdn-numd of Muh. b. 
Nadjlb Bakran (written in 1200). Other Turkoman 
tribes later succeeded the Khaladj. 

In the I2th-i4th centuries Ablward passed into 
the hands of the Djun Ghurb&nl princes, of Mongol 
origin [cf. tus]. In the time of 'Abbas I Atak was 
outside the zone of Persian influence. Under NSdir 
who belonged to this region, Atak became the 
starting point for his remarkable career. At that 
time the river of Tefen (the Hari-riid) was regarded 
as the eastern boundary of the cultivated lands of 
Ablward (muntahd-yi ma'mura-yi sarhadddt-i Abi- 
warddt; cf. Ta'rikh-i Nddiri, under 1142 A. H. [The 
same source mentions among the dependencies of 
Ablward (?): Yangi-kal'a, Kal'a-yi Baghwada, 
Zaghcand (?) etc.]). After the disappearance of 
NSdir from the scene, the semi-independent khans 
of Kalat [q.v.] exercised a certain influence in the 
district down to 1885, when, after the delimitation 
of the Russo-Persian frontier, Atak with its Turko- 
mans w'as incorporated in Russian territory. The 
resulting return of security to northern Khurasan 
enabled the Persians to develop agriculture on the 
upper courses of the rivers running into At5k. The 
irrigation of the latter region has suffered conside- 
rably as the result. 

Antiquities. The ruins of the old town (Kuhna- 
Ablward) are situated about 5 miles W. of the station 
of Kahka (Kahkaha) on the Transcaspian railway 
and cover an area of 14,000 square yards. The 
central tell is 60 feet high and 700 feet round. About 
2 miles N. E. of Kuhna-Abiward is the little hill 
of Namazgah and to the north of it the site of some 
ancient town surmounted by a pish-fdk ("gateway") 
45 feet high. Another important site is that of Kuhna- 
Kahkaha, a fortress rebuilt by Timur in 784/1382 
(Za1ar-ndma, i, 343). The whole region is very rich 
in tells (kurghdn): 14 miles S. of Kahkaha are the 
ruins of Khiwa-abad which was settled by NSdir 
with prisoners liberated after the taking of Khlwa: 
11 miles S.E. of the station of Arttk are the ruins of 
a town called Coghondur (after the mazdr of a holy 
man which dates from the 13th century). Several 



ABlWARD — ABKHAZ 



of these sites must go back to the Arsacid period 
(Isidore of Charax mentions for example a town of 
'PayaO etc.) and some are even prehistoric; cf. 
R. Pumpelly, Explorations in Turkestan, Washington 
1905, excavations at Anau. 

Bibliography: Tomaschek, Zur hist. Topo- 
graphic von Persien, i, in SBAk Wien, vol. cii; idem, 
in . Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. A pauarktike and Dara; 
E. Quatremere, Hist, des Mongols de la Perse, i, 
182, and note 48; Th. Noldeke, in ZDMO, xxxiii, 
147; J. Marquart, ibid., xlix, 628, xlviii, 403, 407; 
A. W. Komarow, in Peterm. Mitt., 1889, vii, 
158-63; Barthold, Istoriko-geogr. oierk Irana, St. 
Petersburg 1903, 60-2, 70; idem, Turkestan, index; 
idem, K istorii orosheniya Turkestana, St. Peters- 
burg 1914, 41-3; Le Strange, 394; A. A. Semenow 
and others, Drevnosti Abiverdskago rayona ("The 
antiquities of the region of Abiward"), in Acta 
Universitatis Asiae Mediae, ser. ii, Orientalia, 
fasc. 3, Tashkent 1931 (expedition of 1928). 

(V. Minorsky) 
AL-ABlWARDl, Abu 5 l-Muzaffar Muhammad 
b. Ahmad, Arab poet and genealogist, a 
descendant of 'Anbasa b. Abl Suf yan (of the Umayyad 
lineage of the younger Mu'awiya). He was born in 
Abiward (Khurasan), or more exactly in the village 
of Kawfan (not Kukan) near Abiward (he is therefore 
sometimes called al-Kawfanl), and died from poison 
in Isfahan in 507/1113 (not 557/1161-2). His philolo- 
gical and historico-genealogical works, notably a 
history of Abiward and a book on the different and 
identical names of the Arab tribes, are lost; but 
al-Kaysaranl extensively used the latter work. Of 
his diwdn, the three most important sections: al- 
Nadidiyydt, al- c Irdkiyydt (mostly on the caliphs 
al-Muktadi, al-Mustazhir and their viziers) and 
al-Wadidiyydt are preserved in several MSS. A diwdn, 
arranged, according to the alphabetical order of the 
rhymes, was published in the Lebanon in 1317, 
but many poems by al-Ghazzi have been errone- 
ously included; a choice of less important poems: 
Mukatta c dt al-Abiwardi al-Umawi, was published in 
Cairo, 1277/1860-1. 

Bibliography : Yakut, i, in ; idem, Irshdd, vi, 
342-58; Subkl, Tabakdt, iv, 62; SuyutI, Bughya, 
16; Ibn Khallikan, no. 646 ; Abu'1-Fida', Mukhtasar 
vii, 380; Ibn al-DjawzI, Muntazam, ix, 176-7; 
KiftI, Akhbdr al-Muhammadin min al-Shu c ard : >, 
MS Paris, iov-i2r; Brockelmann, I, 253, S I, 447; 
a critical study of the poet and his work by Ali 
Al Tahir, La Poisie arabe sous les Seldjoukides 
(Sorbonne thesis, 1953). 

(C. Brockelmann-[Ch. Pellat]) 
ABKAYK (properly bukayk), a town and oil 
field in al-Hasa Province, Saudi Arabia. The name 
is taken from that of the shallow water sources 
(naba c ) of Bukayk in the sands some 15 miles north 
of the present town. The names Bukayk and al- 
Bakka (similar water sources not far to the north) 
appear to be associated with meanings of the 
Arabic root bakka relating to water rather than 
bugs. The Bedouins know the location of the town 
as Aba 'l-Ki'dan, "the place of the young male 
camels". 

Surrounded by the heavy dunes of al-Bayda', 
Abkayk (49 40' E. long., 25 55' N. lat.) is about 
halfway between al-Zahran and al-Hufhuf on the main 
road connecting inner Arabia with the Persian Gulf 
ports of al-Dammam and Ra's Tannura, and is also 
on the Saudi Government Railroad (al-Dammam- 
al-Riyad). Prior to the discovery of oil in the Abkayk 
field by California Arabian Standard Oil Company 



(now Arabian American Oil Company) in 1359/1940, 
no settlement existed there. In 1372/1952 the 
population was approximately 15,000, including 
1,310 Americans. 

The American geologist Max Steineke was pri- 
marily responsible for finding oil in this wilderness of 
dunes. The oil field is about 32 miles long, averages 
5 miles in width, and for a time was the most 
productive field in the world. In 1370/1951 daily 
production reached about 600,000 barrels (90,000 
tons) from only 61 wells. (W. E. Mulligan) 

ABKHAZ. 1. For all practical purposes the term 
Abkhdz or Afkhdz, in early Muslim sources covers 
Georgia and Georgians (properly Diurzdn, q.v.). 
The reason (cf. below under 2.) is that a dynasty 
issued from Abkhazia ruled in Georgia at the time 
of the early 'Abbasids. A distinction between the 
Abkhazian dynasty and the Georgian rulers on the 
upper Kur is made by al-Mas c udI, ii, 65, 74. The 
people properly called Abkhdz is possibly referred to 
only in the tradition represented by Ibn Rusta, 139: 
f-y), read * jcjl Awghaz, see Marquart, Streifziige, 
164-76, and Hudud al-'Alam, 456. Characteristically, 
Ibn Rusta places this people at the end of the 
Khazar dominions. 

2. Abkhaz, a smaller people of Western 
Caucasia on the Black Sea, which called itself 
Aps-wad. It occupies the area between the main 
range and the sea, between the river Psow (north 
of Gagri) and the mouth of the Ingur in the south. 
Since the 17th century (and possibly much earlier) 
a portion of the tribe has crossed the main ridge and 
settled on the southern tributaries of the Kuban. 

The Abkhaz are mentioned in ancient times as 
Abasgoi (by Arrian) or Abasgi (by Pliny), cf. Con- 
tarini (A.D. 1475): Avocasia, in older Russian: Obezi, 
in Turkish: Abaza. According to Procopius (5th 
cent. A.D.) they were under the sovereignty of the 
Lazes [q.v.], and in those days slaves (eunuchs) were 
brought to Constantinople from Abkhazia. Subju- 
gated by Justinian, Abkhazia was converted to 
Christianity. According to the Georgian Annals 
(Brosset, Histoire de la Georgie, i, 237-43), the Arab 
general Murwan-Ifru ("Murwan the Deaf") having 
occupied the passes of Darial and Darband, invaded 
Abkhazia (whither the Georgian kings, Mir and Arcil, 
had fled), and ruined Tskhum (Sukhum). Dysentery 
and floods, combined with the attacks of the Georgians 
and the Abkhazians, caused great losses to his army 
and made him retreat. The chronology of the Annals 
is very uncertain. The name Murwan- Kru seems to 
refer to the Umayyad Muhammad b. Marwan, or 
to his son Marwan b. Muhammad, i.e. to the early 
part of the 8th century, cf. al-Baladhurl, 205, 207-9. 
Towards A.D. 800 the Abkhaz won their independence 
with the help of the Khazars: the prince (erist'avi) 
Leon II, of the local dynasty issued from Ancabad, 
married to a Khazar princess, assumed the title of 
king, and transferred his capital to Kutaysi. Under 
the governor of Tiflis, Ishak b. Isma'Il (c. 830-53), 
the Abkhaz are said to have paid tribute to the 
Arabs. The most prosperous period of the Abkhaz 
kingdom was between 850 and 950; their kings 
ruled over Abkhazia, Mingrelia (Egrisi), Imeretia and 
Kartlia, and also interfered in Armenian affairs. Since 
that period Georgian has remained the language of 
the educated classes in Abkhazia. In 978 the Georgian 
Bagratid Bagrat III, son of the Abkhazian princess 
Gurandukht, occupied the Abkhazian throne and 
by 1010 united all the Georgian lands. As his first 
were based on the hereditary rights of 



his mother, and as even in his later title the rank 
of "king of Abkhazia" occupied the first place, the 
Muslims continued to call the Georgian kingdom 
Abkhazian (down to the 13th century, and occasio- 
nally even later). 

About the year 1325 the house of Sharvashidze 
(in Russian: Shervashidze, alleged to be descended 
from the dynasty of the Shirwan-shahs, [q.v.]) was 
enfeoffed with Abkhazia; towards the middle of the 
15th century (under king Bagrat VI) the Shar- 
vashidze were confirmed as erisfavi of the country. 
According to a letter from the emperor of Trebizond 
in the year 1459, the princes of Abkhaz disposed 
of an army of 30,000 men. 

After the settlement of the Ottomans on the east 
coast of the Black Sea, the Abkhaz came under the 
influence of Turkey and Islam, although Christianity 
was but slowly supplanted. According to the 
Dominican John of Lucca, even in his time (1637) 
the Abkhaz passed as Christians, although the 
Christian usages were no longer observed. Since the 
separation from Georgia the country had been under 
its own Catholicos (mentioned as early as the 13th 
century) in Pitzund. Up to the present day the 
ruins of eight large and about 100 small churches, 
including chapels, are said to exist in Abkhazia. The 
house of Sharvashidze did not embrace Islam until 
the second half of the 18th century, when Prince- 
Leon recognized Turkish sovereignty. On this 
account, he was given the fort of Sukhum, which 
had already been besieged by the Abkhaz about 
1725-8. The country was divided politically into three 
parts: 1) Abkhazia proper, on the coast from Gagri 
to the Galidzga under the said Sharvashidze; 2) the 
highlands of Tzebelda (without any centralized 
government) ; 3) the country of Samurzakan on the 
coast extending from the Galidzga to the Ingur 
(ruled by a branch of the house of Sharvashidze, 
subsequently united with Mingrelia). 

After the incorporation of Georgia by Russia in 
1801, the Abkhaz had also to enter into relation 
with this new powerful neighbour. The first attempt 
was made in 1803 by Prince Kelesh-beg, but was 
abandoned soon afterwards. After the assassination 
of this prince in 1808, his son Sefer-beg came into 
closer touch with Russia and claimed her help 
against his brother, the parricide Arslan-beg. In 
1810 Sukhum was taken by the Russians. Sefer-beg, 
who had become converted to Christianity and 
assumed the name of George, was installed as 
prince, but from that time on Sukhum was occupied 
by a Russian garrison. The two sons of Sefer-beg, 
Demetrius (1821) and Michael (1822, after poisoning 
his elder brother) had to be put in power by the 
Russian armed force. Their rule was limited to the 
neighbourhood of Sukhum, whose garrison could 
communicate with headquarters only by sea. By 
the incorporation of the whole coast-line from 
Anapa to Poti (Treaty of Adrianople in 1829) 
Russia's position was naturally strengthened, but 
even in 1835 only the north-western part of the 
country, the district of Bzbib, is said to have been 
in the possession of Prince Michael. The other parts 
had remained under the rule of his Muslim uncles. 
Later on, with the help of Russia, Michael succeeded 
in establishing his power almost as an absolute 
ruler, but he too, in spite of his Christian faith, had 
surrounded himself with Turks. 

After the final subjugation of Western Caucasia 
by the Russians (1864) the dominion of the House 
of Sharvashidze, like that of the other native princes, 
came to an end; in November 1864 Prince Michael 



had to renounce his rights and leave the country. 
Abkhazia was incorporated into the Russian empire 
as a special province (otdyel) of Sukhum and divided 
into three districts (okrug) — Pitzund, Ocemciri and 
Tzebelda. In 1866 an attempt made by the new 
governor to collect information concerning the 
economic conditions of the Abkhaz, for the purpose 
of taxation, led to a revolt, and, subsequently, to 
a considerable emigration of the Abkhaz to Turkey. 
In the thirties of the 19th century the population 
of Abkhazia was estimated at about 90,000, and the 
number of all Abkhaz (i.e. including those living in 
the north outside Abkhazia) at 128,000 souls. After 
1866, the population of Abkhazia was reduced to c. 
65,000. The almost depopulated district of Tzebelda 
ceased to be a district and was placed under a special 
"Settlement Curator" (popelitel naseleniya). Later 
the whole of Abkhazia under the name of district 
(okrug) of Sukhum-Kale (Sukhum-Kal'a) formed a 
part of the government of Kutais. The population 
again decreased through emigration, especially after 
the Abkhaz took part in the rebellion of the mountain 
tribes caused by the landing of Turkish troops (1877) ; 
in 1881 the number of Abkhaz was estimated at 
only 20,000. No statistics on the Abkhazians in 
Turkey are available. 

Soviet Abkhazia. The Soviet power was pro- 
claimed for a short time in 1918, and finally in 1921. 
In April 1930 Abkhazia, as an autonomous republic 
(A.S.S.R.), became part of the Georgian republic 
(S.S.R.) and its special constitution was confirmed 
in 1937. The Abkhazian A.S.S.R. has a population 
of 303,000, but in this number the Abkhazians are 
but a minority. In 1939 the total number of the 
Abkhazians in the Soviet Union (i.e. apparently 
including the northern colonies in Cerkesia) was 
59,000. The capital (Sukhum) has 44,000 inhabitants. 
The territory of the republic has acquired great 
importance for subtropical cultures. Its water power 
has been considerably exploited (in 1935, 45 electrical 
stations). 

Since the time when an Abkhaz alphabet was 
invented by the eminent specialist in Caucasian 
languages General Baron P. K. Uslar (in 1864), 
and when a book on Biblical history was compiled 
by a priest and two officers of Abkhaz nationality, 
Abkhazian letters have had a considerable develop- 
ment. In 1910 the founder of the new literature, 
Dimitri Gulia (born in 1874), published a book of 
popular poems. He has been followed by writers 
in prose (G. D. Gulia, Papaskiri), poets (Kogonia 
1903-29), L. Kvitsinia) etc. Abkhazian folklore has 
been collected and schoolbooks written (C'oc'ua etc.). 
The Abkhaz "polysynthetic" language belongs to 
the same type as the Cerkes language. It has two basic 
vowels as against 65 consonants in the northern (Bzlb) 
dialect, and 57 in the southern (Abiu). The latter 
has been adopted as the literary language. It is now 
written in the Georgian alphabet suitably completed. 
Bibliography: M. F. Brosset, Hist, de la 
Giorgie; J. Marquart, Osteuropaische und ostasia- 
tische Streifzuge, Leipzig 1903. Russian standard 
work (up to 1826): N. Dubrovin, History of the 
war and of the Russian rule in Caucasia, St. Peters- 
burg 1871; cf. also an anonymous but competent 
review of Dubrovin in the Sbornik swed. kaw- 
kazskikh gortsakh, 6th part, Tiflis 1872; P. Zubow, 
Kartina kawkazshago kraya, St. Petersburg 1834-5 ; 
A. Dirr, Einfiihrung in das Studium der Kaukas. 
Sprachen, 1940; G. Deeters, Der abchasische 
Sprachbau, in NGW Gdtt., 1931, iii/2, 289-303. 
In Russian: N. Y. Marr, Abkhazskiy slovar, and 



ABKHAZ — ABRAHA 



the recent works by Serdiu&enko and Tobil' on 
northern Abkhazian dialects (1947-9). 

(W. Barthold-[V. Minorsky]) 
c ABLA, sweetheart of 'Antara [q.v.]. 
AL-ABLAK, castle of Samaw'al [q.v.]. 
ABLUTION [see ghusl, tayammum, wupu']. 
al-ABNA 1 , "the sons", a denomination applied 
to the following: 

(I) The descendants of Sa'd b. Zayd Manat b. 
Tamlm, with the exception of his two sons Ka'b 
and 'Arar. This tribe inhabited the sandy desert 
of al-Dahna J . (Cf. F. Wiistenfeld, Register zu den 
geneal. Tabellen der arab. Stdmme). 

(II) The descendants born in Yaman of the 
Persian immigrants. For the circumstances of the 
Persian intervention in Yaman under Khusraw 
Anushirwan (531-79) and the reign of Sayf b. Dhl 
Yazan, as told by the Arabic authors, cf. sayf b. 
roil yazan. After the withdrawal of the foreign 
troops Sayf was murdered and the country again 
subjugated by the Ethiopians, so that the Persian 
general Wahriz had to return. The power of the 
Ethiopians was this time definitely broken and 
Yaman turned into a vassal state of Persia. At the 
time of the Prophet the Persian governor Badham 
(Badhan) was, together with his people, converted 
to Islam and acknowledged the suzerainty of 
Muhammad. Later, however, troubles broke out in 
Yaman which led to complete anarchy; it was 
only under the reign of Abu Bakr that order was 
restored. (Cf. also al-yaman). 

Bibliography: Th. Noldeke, Oesck. d. Perser 
u. Araber zur Zeit der Sassaniden, 220 ff.; M. J. 
de Goeje, in the Glossary to Tabari, s .v. 

(K. V. Zettersteen*) 

(III) Abnd 7 al-dawla, a term applied in the early 
centuries of the 'Abbasid caliphate to the members 
of the 'Abbasid house, and by extension to the 
KhurasanI and other mawdli who entered its service 
and became adoptive members of it. They survived 
as a privileged and influential group until the 
3rd/gth century, after which they were eclipsed by 
the growing power of the Turkish and other troops. 

Bibliography: Djahiz, Fadd'il al-Atrdk, pas- 
sim; J. Wellhausen, Das Arab.' Reich, 347 f. (Engl, 
tr., 556 f.); A. Mez, Renaissance d. Islams, 151 
(Engl, tr., 155 I)- 

(IV) Abnd' al-Atrdk, a term sometimes used in 
the Mamluk sultanate to designate the Egyptian 
or Syrian-born descendants of the Mamluks, as an 
alternative to the more common awldd al-nds [q.v.]. 

(V) Abnd-yi sipdhiydn, a term sometimes employed 
in formal Ottoman usage in place of the more 
common sipdhi oghlanlarl — the first of the six 
regiments (bdluk) of cavalry of the Ottoman standing 
army. They were classed as "Slaves of the Gate" 
(kapi kulu). 

Bibliography: H. A. R. Gibb and H. Bowen, 
Islamic Society and the West, i/i, 69 ff., 326 ff.; 
Ismail Hakkl UzuncarsIH, Osmanli Devleti teskila- 
tlndan Kapi Kulu Ocaklari, 1944, ", 138 «• 

(B. Lewis) 
ABRAHA, a Christian king of South 
Arabia in the middle of the sixth century A. D. 
In Islamic literature his fame is due to the tradition 
that he led a Yamani expedition against Mecca 
(referred to in the Kur'an, cv) in the year of Muham- 
mad's birth, c. 570 A.D. The details of Abraha's 
life given by Muslim historians are largely stories 
of folk-lore origin which have been attached arbi- 
trarily to the name of a famous personage. For 



information we must turn to Procopius 
and the Himyaritic inscriptions. According to 
Procopius, Hellestheaios king of Abyssinia (Vsijh 
of the inscription Istanbul 7608 bis) invaded South 
Arabia a few years before 531 A.D., killed its king, 
appointed a puppet-ruler named Esimiphaios (smyp c 
of the inscriptions), and retired to Abyssinia ; subse- 
quently, Abyssinian deserters who had remained 
in South Arabia revolted against Esimiphaios and 
set on the throne Abraha, originally the slave of 
a Byzantine merchant of Adulis; two expeditions 
sent by Hellestheaios against the rebels were 
unsuccessful, and Abraha retained the throne; 
Justinian's attempts to incite Abraha to attack 
Persia were in vain, for he merely marched a little 
way northward and then retired; so long as Helles- 
theaios was alive, Abraha refused to pay tribute 
to Abyssinia, but agreed to do so to Hellestheaios' 
successor. Our main epigraphic source is Abraha's 
long inscription on the Ma'rib dam {Corpus inscr. 
sem., iv, 541). This records the quelling of an 
insurrection supported by a son of the dethroned 
Esimiphaios in the year 657 of the Sabaean era 
(between 640-650 A.D.) ; repairs effected to the dam 
later in the same year; the reception of embassies 
from Abyssinia, Byzantium, Persia, Hlra and Harith b. 
Djabalat the phylarch of Arabia ; and the completion 
of repairs to the dam in the following year. A further 
text (Ryckmans 506, see le Museon, 1953, 275-84) 
discovered at Murayghan, east of the upper Wadi 
Tathlitti, records a defeat inflicted by Abraha on the 
North Arabian tribe Ma'add in 662 of the Sabaean era. 
The Ma'rib text begins, "By the power and favour 
and mercy of God and His Messiah and the Holy 
Spirit (rh qds)". It is perhaps significant of a sec- 
tarian distinction that Esimiphaios, who was no 
doubt a Monophysite like his Abyssinian patron, 
uses a different formula, "In the name of God and 
His Son Christ victorious and the Holy Spirit (mnfs 
qds)"; possibly Abraha had Nestorian leanings. The 
titulature adopted by Abraha is identical with that 
of his immediate predecessors, "King of Saba 1 and 
Dhu-Raydin and Hadramawt and Yamanat and 
their Arabs in the plateau and lowland", but in 
the Ma'rib text he calls himself in addition Hly 
mlkn 'g'zyn. The word c zly is not found elsewhere, 
and no satisfactory explanation of the phrase has 
yet been given. Conti-Rossini's rendering "the 
valiant king, of the (tribe) 'Ag'azi" is syntactically 
improbable; and Glaser's "viceroy of the Abyssinian 
king'.' is incompatible with the passage later in the 
inscription where Abraha receives an Abyssinian 
embassy on the same footing as those of Byzantium 
and Persia. J. Ryckmans' proposed reading Hly 
mlkn "the king's highness" is worth consideration. 
From here onwards reliable sources are silent, and 
we have only the probably legendary story in the 
Islamic sources, which attributes the motive of the 
Meccan expedition to Abraha's jealousy of the 
Meccan sanctuary and a futile attempt to substitute 
his church at San'a as the place of pilgrimage for 
all Arabia. If Abraha really made such an expedition 
(the Kur'an does not name its leader), a more 
likely explanation of his aims is that the rapproche- 
ment with Abyssinia under Hellestheaios' successor 
caused Abraha to adopt a more aggressive policy 
towards Persia, and the expedition was the first 
move of a projected attack on the Persian dominions. 
However, it proved a failure, and only provoked the 
Persians to their invasion under Wahriz a few years 
later, which finally destroyed the ancient South 
Arabian kingdom. The Martyrium Arethae asserts 



ABRAHA — ABO 'ABD ALLAH al-SHI'I 



103 



that Abraha was placed on the throne by the Abys- 
sinian king Elesbaas (usually identified with Pro- 
copius' Hellestheaios) immediately after the death 
of Dhu Nuwas. Other ecclesiastical sources, such as 
the Leges Homeritarum attributed to Gregentius 
bishop of Zafar, give similar accounts. This version 
of events, which conflicts fundamentally with both 
Procopius and the inscriptions, must be regarded as 
unhistorical and due either to a confusion of names 
or to a falsification for polemical reasons. 

Bibliography: Tabari, i, 930-45; Ibn Hisham, 
i, 28-41; Agkani, xvi, 72; Labid, xlii, i9;Kays b. 
al- Khatim (Kowalski), xiv, 15 ;Caussin de Perceval, 
Essai sur I'histoire des Arabes avant I'Islamisme, 
i, 138-145; Th. Noldeke, Gesch. d. Perser u. Araber 
zur Zeit d. Sassaniden, 200-5; Procopius, De bello 
persico, i, 20; E. Glaser, Mitt. d. vorderas. Gesch., 
1897, 360-488; J. Ryckmans, V institution mo- 
narchique en Arabic meridionale avant I'Islam, 
239-45, 320-5; idem, le Muse'on, 1953, 339-42:0. 
Conti-Rossini, Storia d'Etiopia, 186-95; A. F. L. 
Beeston, Notes on the Mureighan inscription, 
BSOAS, xvi, pt. 2.— Cf. also, for a feature of 
the legend, abu righal. (A. F. L. Beeston) 
ABRAHAM [see Ibrahim al-khalIl]. 
'ABS [see ghatafan]. 
al AB£HlHl [see al-ibshIhI]. 
ABC [see kunya]. 
ABU 'l-'ABBAS al-SAFFAH, 'Abd Allah b. 



first 



. The s 



Saffah means "the bloodthirsty" or "the generous". 
With the other members of the 'Abbasid family, he 
took refuge in Kufa in Safar i32/Sept.-Oct. 749, 
shortly after the occupation of the town by al-Hasan 
b. Kahtaba and was proclaimed as caliph in the 
great mosque on 12 RabI' II/28 November, on 
which occasion he pronounced a famous speech. 

The first task of Abu 'l-'Abbaswas the total defeat 
of the Umayyads. The 'Abbasid troops, under the 
command of his uncle 'Abd Allah b. C A1I, achieved 
a complete victory on the Upper Zab (Djumada II 
132/Jan. 750) and flung themselves into the pursuit 
of Marwan II through Mesopotamia, Syria and 
Palestine. When Marwan was killed in Egypt 
(Dhu '1-Hidjdja 132/August 750), the main campaign 
could be considered as ended. The isolated resistance 
of Ibn Hubayra [q.v.] in Wasit was soon overcome 
by treachery, while the revolts that broke out in 
Mesopotamia and Syria were bloodily repressed. 
The conquerors abandoned themselves to violent 
acts of revenge, of which the first in importance 
was the episode on Nahr Abi Futrus [q.v.]. Here 
'Abd Allah b. 'All, having killed about eighty 
Umayyad chiefs, laid tables over their bodies, 
which he afterwards threw to the dogs to eat. 
Similar scenes occurred in al-Kufa, al- Basra and in 
the Hidjaz. Furthermore, the tombs of the Umayyad 
caliphs were violated. Similarly, the discontent of 
the c Alids, who, after having supported the cause 
of the revolt, saw themselves deprived of its fruits, 
was suppressed in blood: in 1 33/750-1, the governor 
of Khurasan, Abu Muslim, put down a rising on 
behalf of the 'Alids in Bukhara. 

In this way, soon after the accession of the 'Ab- 
basids to the caliphate, the principal squrces of 
opposition, namely the Umayyad and the 'Alid ex- 
enemies, were eliminated. The 'Abbasids, however, 
wanted to go even further, to the elimination of 
their own political and military chiefs who had 
gained too great an authority, or who were, rightly 



or wrongly, suspected of insubordination. With the 
complicity of Abu Muslim, Abu Salama [q.v.] and 
Sulayman b. Kathir [q.v.] were suppressed. Afterwards 
it was the turn of Abu Muslim; the first attempt 
against him, in connection with the rebellion of 
Ziyad b. Salih in Transoxania (135/752-3) was 
unsuccessful; the second, immediately after the 
the death of Abu'l-'Abbas, was carried out success- 
fully by his successor, al-Mansur [q.v.]. 

Abu'l-'Abbas died in al-Anbar, to which town 
he had transferred his residence, in Dhu'l-Hididia 
136/June 754. It is difficult to pass a judgment on 
his personality, as we do not exactly know what 
was his personal share in the events of his short 
caliphate. What is certain is that during his reign 
the 'Abbasid movement not only passed from the 
revolutionary to the legal phase, but also consoli- 
dated itself, and the first signs appeared of that 
political and economic power which were confirmed 
by the caliphate of al-Mansur. 

Bibliography: DInawarl, al-Akhbar al-Jiwal 
(Guirgass), Ya'kubi, Tabari, Mas'fldi, Murudj, 
indexes; A ghdni. Tables ; Th. Noldeke, Orientalischt 
Skizzen, 1 18-21; J. Wellhausen, Das arabische 
Reich, 338-52. For the surname al-Saffah: H. F. 
Amedroz, On the Meaning of the Laqab "al-Saffah", 
JRAS, 1907, 660-3. On Ibn Hurayra: S. Moscati, 
II "tradimento" di Wdsit, Museon, 1951, 177-86. 
On the massacre of the Umayyads: idem, Le mas- 
sacre des Umayyades, ArO, 1950, 88-115. On Abu 
Muslim: idem, Studi su Abu Muslim, I-II, Rend. 
Lin, 1949, 323-35, 474-95; 1950, 89-105, and 
abO Muslim. (S. Moscati) 

ABC 'ABD ALLAH YA'tfCB B. Da'Od, vizier. 
Belonging to a philo-'Alid family, he participated, 
together with his brother 'All, in the revolt of Ibrahim 
and Muhammad b. 'Abd Allah against the caliph al- 
Mansur in 145/762-3. Imprisoned for this, he was 
pardoned by the next caliph al-Mahdl in 159/775-6 
and succeeded in gaining his favour, it is said, by 
revealing the plan of escape of another partisan of 
the 'Alids. Having become a confidant and counsellor 
of the caliph, he was appointed vizier in 163/779-80 
in place of Abu 'Ubayd Allah, and used his power in 
favour of his 'Alid friends. This policy was the main 
reason for the suspicion, following upon some court 
rumours, entertained against him by al-Mahdl. The 
story goes that the caliph put him on trial by 
handing over to his charge an 'Alid with the order 
to kill him secretly; but he let him escape. When this 
was discovered, he was deposed and thrown into 
prison, from which he was released only by Harun 
al-Rashld. Completely blind by now, his only wish 
was to be sent to Mecca, where he died, probably 
in 186/802. His policy was perhaps the expression 
of an attempt at reconciling the 'Abbasids and the 
'Alids; if so, he himself was at the same time the 
symbol and the victim of the precarious nature of 
such an attempt. 

Bibliography: Tabari, Index; Diahshivari. 

al-Wuzard wa 'l-Kuttab, Cairo 1938, 1 14-122; Ibn 

Khallikan, no. 840; Ibn al-Tiktaka, al-Fakhri 

(Derenbourg), 250-5, 257; S. Moscati, in Orientalia, 

1946, 164-7. (S. Moscati) 

ABC 'ABD ALLAH al-SHI'I, al-Husayn b. 

Ahmad b. Muh. b. Zakariyya', sometimes also 

called al-Muhtasib (he had allegedly been a muhtasib, 

market overseer, in 'Irak), the founder of Fatimid 

rule in North Africa. A native of San'a', he 

joined the Isma'ili movement in 'Irak and was sent 

to Yaman, where he spent his apprenticeship with 

Mansur al-Yaman (Ibn Hawshab), head of the 



104 



ABO 'ABD ALLAH al-SHI'I — ABU 'l-'ALIYA al-RIYAhI 



Isma'Ili mission in that country. On the pilgrimage 
of 279/892 he met in Mecca some Kutama pilgrims 
and accompanied them back to their native country, 
which they reached on 14 Rabi' I 280/3 June 893. He 
first established himself in Ikdjan near Satif. In 
face of the opposition directed against him by a 
confederacy of Kutama clans, Abu 'Abd Allah 
transferred his headquarters to Tazrut, where he 
steadily strengthened his position, captivated Mlla 
and was able to withstand the attacks of two expe- 
ditions sent against him by the Aghlabid government 
(289/902 and 290/903). On the occasion of a temporary 
setback, his headquarters were moved back to 
Ikdjan, which remained his base for subsequent 
operations. In 289/902 the imam al-Mahdl 'Ubayd 
Allah [q.v.] fled from Syria, attempted to join Abu 
'Abd Allah, but had to take refuge in Sidjilmassa, 
where he was imprisoned. Abu 'Abd Allah's brother 
Abu'l-'Abbas Muhammad, who had accompanied 
the imam, fell into the hands of the Aghlabids. Abu 
'Abd Allah then took Satif, Tubna (293/906) and 
Billizma (same year), was victorious in the battle 
of Dar Mallul, conquered Tldjis, Baghaya, defeated 
the Aghlabid army near Dar Madyan, and seized 
Kastiliya and Kafsa (296/909). When he took al-Urbus 
(Laribus), the key of Ifrikiya (23 Djumada II, 296/ 
19 March 909), the Aghlabid amir Ziyadat Allah fled 
from Rakkada. Abu c Abd Allah entered the Aghlabid 
capital on 1 Radjab 296/25 March 909. Leaving his 
brother Abu'l-'Abbas as his lieutenant, Abu 'Abd 
Allah led an expedition against Sidjilmassa and 
liberated the imam, who triumphantly entered Rak- 
kada on 20 Rabi' II 297/6 Jan. 910, and conferred 
high honours on Abu c Abd Allah and Abu'l-'Abbas. 
The ruler and his powerful servants, however, soon 
fell foul fo each other and both brothers were 
murdered on 1 Dhu'l-Hidjdja 298/31 July 911. 

Bibliography: The main authority, and 
almost the unique source for the later historians, 
is al-Kadi al-Nu'man, Iftitah al-Da c wa (MSS 
preserved among the Bohras). Written in 346/ 
957-8, this book mainly consists of a very detailed 
account of Abu 'Abd Allah's activities. It is 
quoted in al-MakrlzI, al-Mukaffa, transl. E. Fagnan, 
Centenario Michele Amari, i, 35 ff. ; an extensive 
precis in 'Imad al-Din Idris, i Uyun al-Akhbdr, 
first half of vol. v. Ibn al-Rakik, in his lost history 
of Ifrikiya, followed the account of al-Nu'man 
(see the quotation in al-Nuwayri, beg. of section 
on the Fatimids; cf. J. A. Silvestre de Sacy, 
Expose" de la religion des Druzes, i, p. cccciii). On 
Ibn al-Rakik was based the relevant chapter in 
Ibn Shaddad's history of al-Kayrawan, known from 
the excerpts in Ibn al-Athir, viii, 23 ff., al-Nuwayri, 
al-MakrizI, al-Mukaffd, transl. Fagnan, 47-53, 
67-78. In this way, al-Nu'man's narrative entered 
into the main stream of Islamic general history. 
(Cf. also Ibn Hamadu (Vonderheyden), 7; Ibn 
Khaldun, Hist. desBerb., ii, 509 f.; Makrizi, Khifaf, 
i. 349-50, ii, 10 ff.; Ibn Kballikan, no. 171).— The 
account of 'Arib (printed in the editions of Ibn 
'Idharl, al-Bayan al-Mughrib : Dozy, i, 1 29 ff ., LeVi- 
Provencal and Colin, i, 134 ff.) is independant of 
al-Nu'man; Ibn 'Idharl (ed. Dozy, i, 118 ff., ed. 
Levi- Provencal and Colin, i, 124 ff.) copies Abu 
Marw5n al-Warrak, 6th/nth century (who ulti- 
mately depends upon al-Nu'man), and c Arib. — Of 
modern accounts — all of them antiquated by the 
recovery of the Iftitah— that by F. Wiistenfeld, 
Gesch. d. Fotimiden-Chalifen, Gottingen 1881, 
8 ff., can be recommended. For the phases of 
Abu 'Abd Allah's career where it touches that 



of the imam, cf. W. Ivanow, Rise of the Fatimids, 
index, and al-mahdI 'ubayd Allah. 

(S. M. Stern) 
ABC 'l-'ALA' al-MA'ARRI [see al-ma'arri]. 
ABC (bo) 'All tfALANDAR (Shaykh) Sharaf 
al-DIn PanIpatI, one of the most venerated of 
Indian saints, is believed to have died in 724/1324. 
There is little authentic information about his life 
and none of the surviving contemporary works even 
mention him by name. The earliest reference to him 
is in c Afif's Ta'rikh-i Firuz-Shdhi (written in 800/ 
1396), wherein Sultan Ghiyath al-Din Tughluk's 
visit to him is recorded. According to the accounts 
of his life written in the nth/i7th century, he was 
a native of Panipat, to which place his father, 
Salar Fakhr al-Din, had come from 'Irak. Trained 
as a theologian, he ultimately renounced scholas- 
ticism, threw away his books in the river, and became 
a Kalandar. In the ecstasy of divine love, he gave 
up observing the commandments of God and the 
Prophetic Traditions, though he subjected himself 
to great self-mortification. He is supposed to have 
been a spiritual descendant of Kutb al-DIn Bakhtivar 
[q.v.] ; however, it is doubtful if he belonged to any 
organized sufi order. Numerous legends regarding 
his life, miracles and death have grown, and it is 
difficult even to say whether the tomb at Panipat 
or at Kama! is his, though the former is more famous. 
The works attributed to him include letters on 
divine love addressed to Ikhtiyar al-Din (Sulayman 
Coll., Aligarh Univ.) ; Hikam-ndma (As. Soc. Bengal, 
Ivanow. 1 196), which is definitely apocryphal; and 
two mathnawis: Kaldm-i Kalandar (Meerut) and 
Mathnawi Bit 'Alt Shah Kalandar (Lucknow 1891). 
Bibliography: Ahhbar al-Akhydr; Gulzdr-i 
Abrdr (As. Soc. Bengal, Ivanow 259, ff. 32-3); 
Subh-i Sddik (A. S. Coll., Aligarh Univ., iii f. 411a) ; 
Siyar al-Akfdb; Mir'dt al-Asrdr (B. M. Or. 216, 
f. 386a); Ma'dridi al-Wildya (Nizami's MS., 
Aligarh Univ., 230-5) ; Sharaf al-Madjdlis (Sulay- 
man Coll., Aligarh Univ.); Punjab Dist. Gazetteer, 
Karnal 1918, 76, 210-1, 223-4; Proc. As. Soc. 
Bengal, 1870, 125; 1873, 97- (Nurul Hasan) 
ABC <ALl al-SAlI [see al-ijalI]. 
ABC c ALl MUHAMMAD b. ILYAS [see 
ilyAsids]. 

ABU'l-'ALIYA Rufay* b. Mihran al-RIYAhI, 
a liberated slave of the Banu Riyah, belonging to 
the first generation of tdbi'un residing in Basra; d. 
90/708-9 or 96/714. A commentary on the Kur'an 
is attributed to him (HadjdjI Khalifa (Fliigel), ii, 
352), but he is mainly known as a traditionist 
and a transmitter of the Kur'an. Having 
collected in al-Basra and in Medina hadith transmitted 
particularly by 'Umar and Ubayy b< Ka'b-, he was 
considered thrustworthy {thika) and contributed to 
the training of Katada, Da'ud b. Aba Hind, 'Asim 
al-Ahwal and other traditionists of renown. His 
name figures frequently in the "chains" of trans- 
mission of hadith admitted into the great collections. 
In the same way, data put under his name are 
admitted by al-Tabari, Tafsir, passim, e.g. i, 228; 
cf. al-Baydawi, Anwar al-Tanzil (Fleischer), i, 12". 
He transmitted his system of "reading" {kird'a) to 
al-A'mash and to the readers of Basra Abu 'Amr b. 
al- c Ala> [q.v.] and Shu'ayb b. al-Habhab al-AzdS 
(d. 130/747). He played no political role and took 
no part in the conflict between 'All and his partisans 
and the Umayyads. 

Bibliography: Ibn Sa'd, vii, 81-5; Ibn 
Kutayba, Ma l arif, Cairo 1353/1934, 200; Tabari, 
i, 108-25; Abu Nu'aym, Hilya, Cairo 1351-6, ii, 



ABU 'l-'ALIYA al-RIYAHI — ABU 'AMR B 



105 



217-24; Ibn 'Asakir, Ta'rikh, Damascus 1332, 
v, 323-6; Nawawl, Tahdhib al-Asmd' (Wiistenfeld), 
738-9; 'UthmanI, Tabakdt al-Fukakd 3 , MS Paris 
2093, 43V; Ibn al-Athir, Usd, ii, 186-7, Ibn al- 
Djazari, Kurrd', no. 1272; A. Sprenger, Leben des 
Mohammed, iii, evil, cxvr. (R. Blach£re) 

ABC C AMR Zabban b. al-'ALA>, a celebrated 
'reader' of the Kur' an, regarded as the founder 
of the grammatical school of Basra, died c. 154/770. 
This scholar seems to have claimed a genealogy 
connecting him with the Arab tribe of Mazin of 
the confederation of Tamim; see Ibn Khallikan and 
the other biographers, including Ibn al-Djazari, who, 
however, in one isolated statement, links him with 
Hanlfa. His name, Zabban, has never been fully 
confirmed, and is only given in preference to a score 
of others. He is believed to have been born c. 70/689 
at the latest, either at Mecca, according to the 
generally accepted view, including that of Ibn al- 
Djazarl, i, 292 (citing a disciple of Abu 'Amr, the 
'reader' 'Abd al-Warith, d. 180/796), or at Kazarun, 
in southern Persia, according to an isolated piece of 
evidence in the works of Ibn al-Diazari. i, 289. If 
the former is correct, he must have passed his 
childhood in Hidjaz before going to 'Irak; if the 
latter, the opposite would be the case. The only 
sstablished fact is that Abu 'Amr accompanied his 
father when the latter, harassed by al-Hadjdjadj's 
police, fled from 'Irak to seek refuge in southern 
Arabia; see Ibn al-Djazari, i, 289 (there appear to 
be lacunae in the text), and Ibn Khallikan. i, 386 
ad fin. (Ibn al-Anbarl, 32, merely says that Abu 
'Amr had to flee from al-Hadjdjadj, without giving 
any details). According to his own recollections, 
Abu 'Amr was then a little more than twenty 
(which gives some force to the statements which 
put his year of birth at 70/689) ; see Ibn Khallikan, 
i, 387. It seems permissible to assume, from the 
passage of Ibn al-Djazari, I, 289", that this journey 
gave him the opportunity of pursuing further his 
'readings' of the Ku'ran at Mecca and Medina, 
studies which he would appear to have continued 
on his return to 'Irak. It is difficult, however, to 
reconcile this assertion with the statement of Ibn 
Khallikan. i, 387, that Abu 'Amr and his father 
returned immediately to 'Irak upon the death of 
al-Hadjdjadj, in 95/714- However that may be, 
when Abu 'Amr had settled in 'Irak, it appears 
that he rarely left Basra again. If it is indeed he 
who is praised in a line of al-Farazdak (d. 1 14/732-3) 
(see al-Suyuti, Bughya, 367), he was already before 
that date a celebrity of some standing in his city 
of adoption: cf. the flattering comment on him 
attributed to al-Hasan al-Basri (d. 110/728) and 
handed on by -Ibn al-Diazari. 291. Nevertheless, 
there is no evidence that reveals anything about his 
relations with the Umayyad authorities. On the 
other hand, when the 'Abbasids came to power, 
his celebrity seems to have won him recognition 
even in governmental circles, since he is said to have 
had dealings with the uncle of the caliph al-Saffah, 
Sulayman (Ibn Khallikan, i, 387), and with the 
uncle of the caliph al-Mahdi, Yazid (see Fihrist, 50"), 
as well as with the governor of Syria, 'Abd al-Wahhab. 
It was on his return from a visit to the last-named 
that he died and was buried at Kufa, c. 154/770 
(or 155/771 or 157/773); see Ibn al-Djazarl, 293 (Ibn 
Khallikan gives also 159/775). 

Abu 'Amr seems to have left no written works, 
and when Ibn al-Nadlm, 41, states that he saw 
manuscripts of this master, at al-Hadltha, in the 
4th/ioth century, and when this same author adds, 



88, that a K. al-Nawddir was handed down in the 
version left by him, he must have been referring 
to writings taken down from his oral teaching by 
his disciples. 

Abu 'Amr belongs to the generation of scholars 
for whom the study of Arabic was dependent on 
that of the Ku'ran. It is thus an arbitrary distinction 
if one tries to separate in him the 'reader' of the 
Koran from the grammarian and the 'transmitter* 
of poetry. 

During his stay in Hidjaz, Abu 'Amr initiated 
himself into the system of 'reading' in process of 
formation at Mecca and Medina, following the 
teaching of Abu 'l-'Aliya [q.v.] and Ibn Kathlr in 
particular. In 'Irak he studied the system of Ibn 
Abl Ishak al-Hadraml and of others (at Basra), and 
that of 'Asim (at Kufa). A list of his masters is 
given by Ibn al-Djazari, 289; cf. also al-Suyuti, 
Muzhir, ii, 398, and Fihrist, 39. He built up a system 
of his own in which the Mecca and Medina influences 
predominate ; a complete table of the origins of this 
system has been drawn up by C. Pellat, Milieu 
basrien, 77 f . The 'reading' of Abu 'Amr, at Basra, 
displaced all others previously existing in the town, 
and especially that of al-Hasan al-Basri: see Pellat, 
op. cit., 76; it is said to have been recommended by 
the 'reader' of Kufa, Shu'ba (d. 193/808): see Ibn 
al-Djazari, 292 ; it was taught by disciples who later 
became famous, such as Yunus b. Habib, al-Asma'I, 
and a large number of others: see the list ibid., 289. 
In the 4th/ioth century, when the reforms of Ibn 
al-Mudjahid were introduced, this system took its 
place among the canonical 'Seven readings'. At the 
time of Ibn al-Djazari (d. 833/1429) it was the 
accepted system in Yaman, in Hidjaz, and in Syria, 
a province where it had finally ousted that of Ibn 
'Amir in the 5th/nth century : see Ibn al-Djazari, 292. 
This system of 'reading' was the subject of a treatise 
by Ibn al-Mudjahid, see Fihrist, 31 18 . Nevertheless, 
writings of the same order had been composed before 
that period : see the list, ibid., 28. Another summary is 
also known, entitled al-Jiafar al-Misrl ft kird'at Abi 
c Amr b. al-'Ald' al-Basri, by 'Umar b. al-Kasim 
al-Nashshar (d. 900/1495), which is preserved in 
Berlin: see Ahlwardt, no. 639. We have, too, an 
opuscule based on the oral tradition, on the ortho- 
graphy of the Koran: see 0. Rescher, in WZKM, 1912, 
94 (this opuscule is in a miscellaneous collection, in 
Aya Sofia, no. 4814). The influence of Abu 'Amr 
was of the first importance for the development of 
grammatical and lexicographical studies at Basra. 
It is less easy to follow, however, than the influence 
of his system of 'reading'. Among his disciples, the 
following names are worthy of note: Yunus b, Habib, 
al-Asma'I (see al-Suyuti, Muzhir, ii, 323, 329; Fihrist, 
42; Ibn al-Anbarl, 30), Abu 'Ubayda (see Ibn Khal- 
likan, 387), Khalaf al-Ahmar (see al-Suyuti, ii, 278, 
403), and the future founder of the School of Kufa, 
al-Ru'asi (see id., ii, 400). It is possible that already 
then, under his stimulus, the method of seeking 
information from the Beduins, in matters concerning 
grammar and lexicography, was developed at Basra, 
(see the anecdote recorded by id., ii, 278 and 304). 

By his disciples, and especially by Abu 'Ubayda 
and by such a scholar as al-Djahiz, Abu 'Amr was 
regarded as 'the most learned man in things pertaining 
to the Arabs, and combining with the accuracy of 
his auricular transmission the veracity of his state- 
ments' (see al-Djahiz, Baydn, i, 255, 256; cf. Aba 
'1-Tayyib, who expresses a similar view in Muzhir, 
ii, 399). And yet this point raises a very delicate 
problem. This scholar seems, indeed, like a number 



- ABU 'l-ASWAD al-DU'ALI 



of his contemporaries, to have been an enthusiastic 
collector of archaic poetry and of accounts of the 
'Days of the Arabs'; cf. Blachere, Histoire de 
la litterature arabe, Paris, 1952, i, 101 f. According 
to an account taken from Abu c Ubayda by al- 
Djahiz, Baydn, i, 256 (repeated in a somewhat 
changed form by Ibn al-Djazari, 290, Ibn Khallikan. 
i, 386, and al-Kutubi, i, 164), 'the books which Abu 
'Amr.had written by taking the words down from 
such Arabs as were worthy to serve as informers 
filled a room in his dwelling. Later on, having 
devoted himself to 'reading' (of the Ku'ran), he burnt 
these books'. This piece of evidence, which we have 
no means of checking, does not say that Abu 'Aim 
destroyed the collections of poetry made by himself, 
as has been too often asserted. Actually, the main 
point to keep in mind is that after this destruction — 
if it took place — Abu 'Ami continued nevertheless 
to communicate orally the documentation which 
he had accumulated in his memory. There are many 
anecdotes which show his knowledge of ancient 
poetry; see for example, al-Djahiz, Baydn, i, 256, 
ii, 121; al-Sirafi, 30; Ibn al-Anbari, 31, 34. It is 
known that on one occasion he did not hesitate to 
forge a line; see al-Suyuti, Muzhir, ii,.4i5. This fact, 
which he himself admitted, in no way detracted 
from his acknowledged authority as a 'transmitter' 
(rdwt). His place among Arab lexicographers seems 
to have been very important, since he is said to 
have been, in this sphere, the master of al-Khalil [q.v.] ; 



e ibid., 
Abu <J 



, 398, i 



5 lexicographical authority, ibid., ii, 
, 360. The authors of adab and the 
anthologists often quote, too, his judgements on 
the poets; see for example, ibid., ii, 479, 484, 486. 
It is no exaggeration to say that the figure of 
Abu c Amr b. al-'Ala 3 dominates the intellectual 
activity of the centre of Basra at the period when 
the generation of scholars was growing up — men 
such as al-Khalil, al-Asma'I, Abu <Ubayda— who 
were to become the masters of the philological and 
grammatical school of that town. 

Bibliography: Djahiz, Baydn (Sandubi), Cairo 
I35i> i, 255-6 and passim ; SIrafI, A khbdr al-Nah- 
wiyyln al-Basriyyin (Krenkow), and again in Ibn 
al-Anbari, Nuzhat al-Alibbd } , 29-38; Fihrist, 35, 
39, 88, and passim, used by Fliigel, Die gram- 
matischen Schulen, 32 ff . ; Ibn Khallikan, 478 ; and 
again in al-Yafi% Mir'at al-Djanan, i, 325 f.; 
Kutubl, Fawdt, i, 164; Ibn al-Djazari, Ghayat al- 
Nihdya ( Bergs trasser), Cairo 1933, i, 288-92 and 
passim; Suyuti, Bughyat al-Wu'dt, 367, and Muzhir 
(Badjawi), Cairo 1942, ii, 398 f. and passim; C. 
Pellat, he milieu basrien dans la formation de Gdhiz, 
Paris 1953, 76-8; Brockelmann, I, 99, S I, 158. 

(R. Blachere) 
ABU 'l-'ARAB Muhammad b. TamIm b. Tammam 
al-Tam1mI, Malikite fakih, traditionist, his- 
torian and poet from Kayrawan. Offspring of a 
great Arab family (his great-grandfather was 
governor of Tunis, seized Kayrawan in 183/799 and 
ended his life in prison in Baghdad), Abu'l-'Arab, 
born in Kayrawan between 250/864 and 260/873, 
devoted himself to study under various masters, 
trained, in his turn, several pupils (notably Ibn Abi 
Zayd al-KayrawSnl), took part in the revolt of 
Abu Yazld against the Fatimids, was put in prison 
and died in 333/945. Of the works on fikh, hadith 
and history attributed to him, only the Tabakdt 
'Ulamd' Ifrikiya, a collection of anecdotical bio- 
graphies of the scholars of Kayrawan and Tunis, 
seems to have been preserved (ed. and transl. by 



M. Ben Cheneb, Classes des savants de I'Ifriqiya, 
Algiers 1915-20). 

Bibliography: Dhahabi. Tadhkira, iii, 105; 

Ibn Farhun, Dibddi, 233; Ibn NadjI, Ma'dlim 

iii, 42 ; Ibn Khayr, Fahrasa (BAH, ix), 297, 301 ; 

H.H. <Abd al-Wahhab, al-Muntakhab al-Madrasi*, 

Cairo 1944, 37-8. (Ch. Pellat) 

ABC 'ARlSH, a town in <AsIr, about 20 

miles from Djizan. Philby describes it as kite-shaped, 

nearly a mile across, consisting mainly of brushwood 

huts ('ard'ish) and adjoining extensive ruins. The 

population (about 12,000) grows millet and sesame. 

The merchants are mostly of Hadrami origin. 

First settled by a shaykh (7th/i3th century), it 
prospered under the Zaydl Imams who captured it 
in 1036/1627. In the next century the local ashrdf 
became independent. They temporarily submitted 
to the Wahhabis (1217/1802-3) and later to the 
Egyptians. When the latter abandoned Hudayda 
(1256/1840) Sharif Husayn occupied the Tihama, was 
made Pasha and threatened c Adan. Britain protested 
and the Turks drove him back to c AsIr. The power 
of the ashrdf, weakened by civil war and the attacks 
of Muhammad b. c A 5 id, disappeared when the Turks 
reoccupied c AsIr; Philby could find no trace of 
them. Abu c Arish has since belonged in turn to the 
Turks, the IdrisI and Ibn Sa'ud. 

Bibliography: Descriptions: C. Niebuhr, 

Beschreibung von Arabien, 267; Tamisier, Voyage 

en Arabie, i, 383-91; H. St. J. Philby, Arabian 

Highlands, History: Tamisier, op. cit., i, 365- 

74; Philby, op. cit.; A. S. Tritton, Rise of the 

Imams of Sanaa,; H. F. Jacob, Kings of Arabia, 

51-4; Muhammad b. 'All al-Shawkanl, al-Badr 

al-tdli', Cairo 1348, i, 240, ii, 6-8; 'Uthman b. 

Bishr al-Nadjdi al-Hanball, '■Unwdn al-MaaJd, 

Mecca 1349, '. '44-5, 211. (C. F. Beckingham) 

ABC c ARCBA, al-Husayn b. AbI Ma'shar 

Muhammad b. Mawdud al-SulamI al-HarrAnI, 

hadith scholar of Harran (b. ca. 222/837, d. 

318/930-1). 

Practically nothing is known about his life, except 
the names of his authorities and his students, some 
of them very famous personalities. He is said to 
have been judge or mufti of Harran. One source 
(Ibn c Asakir apud al-Dhahabl) states that he was 
a partisan of the Umayyads. 

According to the Fihrist, 230, Abu 'Aruba wrote 
only one work, a collection of traditions which were 
transmitted by his authorities. This work seems to 
be identical with the Tabakdt which are mentioned 
as a work of Abu c Aruba by al-Dhahabi. An excerpt 
from the Tabakdt, which deals with the men around 
Muhammad and their traditions, is preserved in 
Damascus (cf. Yusuf al- c Ishsh, Fihris Makhtuldt 
Ddr al-Kutub al-gdhiriyya, Damascus 1947, 169). 
AbO c Aruba is also quoted as the author of a history 
of Harran (or collection of biographies of scholars 
of the Djazira) and a Kitdb al-AwdHl. 

Bibliography: Brockelmann, II, 663; Fihrist, 
322; Sam'anI, Ansdb, fol. 161a and passim; Yakut, 
ii, 232, and passim; Ibn al- c Adim, Bughya (ms. 
Topkapusaray, Ahmet III, 2925, iv, fols. 178b- 
179a); Dhahabi, Nubald* (ms. Topkapusaray, 
Ahmet III, 2910, ix, 545-7); idem, Ta'rikh al- 
Isldm, anno 318; Ibn al- c Im5d, Shadhardt, ii, 
279; F. Rosenthal, A history of Muslim histori- 
ography, Leiden 1952, 310, 389, 393. 

(F. Rosenthal) 
ABU 'L-ASWAD al-DU'ALI (or, according to 
West-Arabic pronunciation al-Dili, nomen relativum 
from al-Du'il b. Bakr, a clan of the Banu Kinana), 



ABU 'l-ASWAD al-DU'ALI — ABU 'l-'ATAHIYA 



a partisan of 'All. His name (Zalim b. ( Amr) 
and genealogy are uncertain; his mother belonged 
to the clan 'Abd al-Dar b. Kusayy of Kuraysh. He 
was probably born some years before the Hidjra. 
In the caliphate of 'Umar he went to Basra. He 
lived first among his own tribe, then among the 
Banu Hudhayl, and for some time also among the 
Banu Kushayr, the kinsmen of his favourite wife; 
but his ShI'ite propensities as well as his obstinacy 
and avarice made him disagreeable to his neighbours. 
It is doubtful whether he held any office under 
'Umar and 'Uthman. In 'All's caliphate he rose to 
prominence. He is said to have taken part in the 
unsuccessful negotiations with 'A'isha and in the 
ensuing "Battle of the Camel", and also fought at 
Siffln for 'All. He was employed at Basra either as 
kadi or as secretary to the governor 'Abd Allah b. 
'Abbas, and is even said to have held a military 
command in the wars against the Khawaridi. When 
'All's star was setting, and according to al-Mada J ini, 
'Abd Allah b. 'Abbas planned to leave Basra, taking 
with him the treasury, Abu '1-Aswad tried to stop 
him and reported the matter to 'All, who appointed 
him governor. This post he held, if at all, only for 
a short time. When 'Ali was murdered, he made in 
a poem (no. 59 in Reseller's numbering) the Umayyads 
responsible for it. But his sentiments were of no 
consequence, as there was no large ShI'a element 
in Basra (Aghdni 1 , xi, 121). He did not realize that 
he had lost all influence. He had reason to complain 
about Mu'awiya's representative 'Abd Allah b. 
'Amir, with whom he had formerly been on good 
terms (Poems nos. 23, 46), and also tried in vain 
to gain the favour of the viceroy Ziyad b. Abih. 
Relations between them had been strained already 
in the caliphate of 'All, when Ziyad was in charge of 
the revenue-office (Aghdni 1 , xi, 1 19). He lamented the 
death of al-Husayn in 61/680 (no. 61) and cried for 
vengeance (no. 62). The last event mentioned in his 
poems is his complaint to the "Prince ol the Faithful" 
Ibn al-Zubayr about his representative at Basra in 
c. 67/686 (Ibn Sa'd, v, 19). He died, according to 
al-Mada'inl, at Basra during the great plague in 
69/688. 

A collection of his poems, made by al-Sukkari, is 
extant, but has been published only in part. They 
are poor in language and style and artistically and 
historically insignificant; most of them deal with 
petty incidents of everyday life ; some of the poems 
are apparently forged. This applies also to the widely 
circulated allegation — invented most probably by 
some philologist of the Basra school — that is was 
Abu'l-Aswad who laid down for the first time the 
rules of Arabic grammar and invented the vocal- 
isation of the Kur'an. 

Bibliography: Brockelmann, I, 37, S I, 72; 
0. Rescher, Abriss, i, 131-3; Th. Noldeke, in 
ZDMG, 1864, 232-40; 0. Rescher, in WZKM, 
1913. 375-97; Ibn Sa'd, vii, 1, 70; Ibn Kutayba, 
Shi'-r, 457; Ma'drif, 222; Aghdni 1 , xi, 105-124; 
al-Slrafl, Akhbdr, 13-22; J. W. Fuck, Arabiya,6. 

(J. W. FOck) 
ABC 'ATA' al-SINDI, Aflah (or Marzuk) b. 
Yasar, Arabic poet. He owes his surname of 
al-Sindi to the fact that his father came from Sind; 
he himself was born in Kufa and lived there as a 
client of the Banu Asad. He fought for the declining 
Umayyad dynasty with pen and sword, praising 
them and casting scorn on their adversaries. It is 
true, however, that when the 'Abbasids obtained 
power, he tried to insinuate himself into the favour 
of the new rulers by singing their praises. But the 



iron character of al-Saffah was but little sensible to 
such fawning, and under the reign of his successor, 
al-Mansur, the poet was even obliged to keep himself 
hidden. Only after al-Mansur's death in 158/774 did 
he again make his appearance. He died, no doubt, 
shortly afterwards, but the exact date is not known. 
Abu 'Ata* was considered a good poet — his elegy 
on Ibn Hubayra [q.v.] being especially famous — 
although he pronounced Arabic badly and even 
stammered, so that he was obliged to have his 
poetry recited by others. 

Bibliography: Ibn Kutayba, Shi'r, 482-4; 
Abu Tamilian, Hamdsa, i, 372 ft.; Aghdni 1 , xvi, 
81-7; Marzubanl, Mu^djam, 380; al-Bakri, Simf 
al-La'dli (Maimani), 802; al-Kutubl, Fawdt, Cairo 
1283, i, 937; collection of fragments by Baloch 
Nabi Bakhsh Khan, IC, 1949, 137 f. 

(A. SCHAADE*) 

ABU 'l-'ATAHIYA, poetic nickname ("father 
of craziness") of AbO Ishak Isma'Il b. al-Kasim b. 
Suwayd b. KaysAn, Arabic poet, born in Kufa 
(or 'Ayn al-Tamr) 130/748 and died 210/825 or 
211/826. His family had been mawdli of the 'Anaza 
tribe for two or three generations, and were engaged 
in menial occupations; his father was a cupper, and 
the poet himself as a youth sold earthenware in the 
streets. His outlook on life was embittered by a 
sense of social inferiority; in his later verse he gave 
vent to his hatred of the governing class and the 
wealthy ; and he was notorious for covetousness and 
meanness to the end of his life. But like Bashshar 
b. Burd, he had a natural gift for poetry, and hoped 
to find in this the door to a larger life. On account 
of his poverty he had not the time to attend lectures 
on philology and the poetry of the ancients, and 
to this we must attribute the freshness and uncon- 
ventionality of his style. As a young man he asso- 
ciated with the profligate circle of poets grouped 
around Waliba b. al-Hubab, and gained a reputation 
with his ghazals and wine-songs; later critics have 
condemned these productions as poor and effeminate 
(Ibn Kutayba, SAi'r, 497), and only fragments of 
them have survived. Like most of the spontaneous 
poets, he showed a preference for simple language 
and short metres, and first rose to fame by a panegyric 
on al-Mahdi which, in spite of these unconventional 
characteristics, gained the caliph's favour. He made 
himself notorious in Baghdad by his ghazals in 
praise of 'Utba, a slave-girl of al-Mahdl's cousin 
Rayta, who hoped to gain the caliph's notice but 
had no intention of throwing herself away on a 
penniless nobody. He held the caliph responsible 
for his failure to win 'Utba, and some indiscrete 
verses gained him a flogging and banishment to 
Kufa. When al-Mahdi died, he took his revenge in 
some verses which could be read ambiguously. 

Back in Baghdad his fulsome praise of al-Hadl 
annoyed the latter's successor Hariin al-Rashld, who 
sent him to prison along with his friend Ibrahim 
al-Mawsill. Restored to favour, he charmed Hariin 
with his love-lyrics, but suddenly renounced the 
ghazal and devoted himself to ascetic poetry (c. 178). 
Hariin at first took umbrage at his conversion and 
imprisoned him, but was reconciled later at the 
instances of al-Fadl b. RabI', and in part also no 
doubt because of his popularity with the masses. It 
may be suspected that al-Fadl's patronage was 
connected with his intrigue, in association with the 
queen Zubayda, against the Barmakids, and that 
Abu 'l-'Atahiya's new "ascetic" productions con- 
veniently served their purposes. However that may 
be, Abu'l-'Atahiya maintained henceforward a vast 



ABU 'l- c ATAHIYA — ABO AYYUB al-ANSARI 



output of sermons in verse, long and short, painting 
the horrors of all-levelling Death, and directed 
especially against the rich and the powerful, not 
excluding the caliph himself. So profitable was it 
that when Abu Nuwas also began to produce 
zuhdiyydt Abu'l-'Atahiya warned him not to trespass 
on the field to which he had established a prescriptive 
right {Akhbdr AH Nuwds, Cairo 1924, 70). Some, 
later critics questioned, not without cause, the 
sincerity of his conversion, notably the real ascetic 
Abu'l-'Ala 3 al-Ma c arri, who referred to him as "that 
astute fellow" (Ibn Fadl Allah, Masdlik al-Absdr, 
xv, MS Brit. Mus. 575, fol. 136). 

A more frequent accusation brought against 
Abu'l-'Atahiya is that of heresy, which was a 
favourite weapon at the time; and it was suggested 
by Goldziher that one reason for his imprisonments 
may be sought in the occasionally unorthodox tone 
of some of his poems. Having no theological education 
he seems to have been influenced by the modified 
legacy of Manichaean beliefs still current in 'Irak, 
which accounted for the disorders of this world by 
the existence of two primary substances, good and 
evil, though Abu'l-'Atahiya held that both were 
the creation of Allah. In certain of his verses also, 
such as "If you would see the noblest of mankind 
look for a king in the guise of a pauper", there may 
be suggestions of a concealed attachment to Musa 
al-Kazim and the cause of the Shi'ite imams, still 
Strong in Kufa. 

His astonishing success as a poet was due to the 
simplicity, spontaneity, and artlessness of his 
language, which contrasted with the laboured 
artificiality of some of his contemporaries, and 
expressed the feelings of the people in verse that 
they could understand. He was fortunate also, by 
his friendship with Ibrahim al-Mawsill, to have 
many of his poems set to music by the foremost 
musician of the day. He and his younger contem- 
porary Aban b. c Abd al-Hamld [q.v.] were the first 
to use tnuzdawidj (couplet) rhyming verse, and he 
was the first, according to al-Ma'arri (al-Fusul 
wa'l-Ghaydt, i, 131), to invent the metre muddri'. 
He also used a metre consisting of eight long sylla- 
bles. Owing to his enormous output his entire diwdn 
was never collected. The zuhdiyydt were put together 
by the Spanish scholar Ibn c Abd al-Barr (d. 463/1071). 
Bibliography: Ibn Khallikan, no. 91; al- 
AghdnP, iii, 126-83 (', iv, 1-112); see also Guidi's 
Tables for other references; Ta'rikh Bagjsddd, vi, 
250-60; Goldziher, Trans. IX Congress of Orien- 
talists, 113 ff.; G. Vajda, in RSO, 1937, 215 ft., 
225 ff.; Brockelmann, I, 76; S I, 119. Partial 
editions of the diwdn were published in Bairut 
1887, 1909; see also Madimu'-a, ed. F. E. Bustani, 
Bairut 1927; Zuhdiyydt, trans. O. Rescher, 
Stuttgart 1928. (A. Guillaume) 

ABU 'l-A'WAR c Amr b. Sufyan al-SULAMI 
general in the service of Mu'awiya. He belonged 
to the powerful tribe of Sulaym (hence "al-Sulaml") ; 
his mother was a Christian and his father had fought 
at Uhud in the ranks of the Kuraysh. The son, who 
does not seem to have belonged to the closest circle 
of the Prophet, went, probably with the army 
commanded by Yazid b. Abl Sufyan, to Syria. In 
the battle of the Yarmuk he was in charge of a 
detachment, and from that time he followed faith- 
fully the fortunes of the Umayyads. He thus exposed 
himself to the execration of 'All, especially after 
he had taken part in the battle of Siffin. He assisted 
c Amr b. al-'Asi in conquering Egypt for Mu'awiya 
and was in command of various military expeditions 



by sea. In addition, he showed also diplomatic and 
administrative abilities. At Siffin, he took part in 
the negotiations with c Ali and prepared the preli- 
minary draft for the conference of Adhruh. He was 
also commissioned to count the falldhs of Palestine 
for a new distribution of taxes. Mu'awiya had in 
mind to appoint him in Egypt to the post of 'Amr 
b. al-'Asi, who had been guilty of showing a too 
independent attitude ; but this plan came to nothing, 
and he was appointed to the governorship of the 
province of al-Urdunn. On the ground of his services 
the Arabic annalists counted him among the main 
lieutenants of Mu'awiya, those who constituted his 
shi c a or bi(dna. He disappeared from the political 
scene before the end of Mu c 5wiya's reign. 

Bibliography: Ibn Sa c d, iii/2, 106; Ibn Rusta, 
213; Tabari, index; Mas'udi, Murudj, iv, 351; 
Michael the Syrian (Chabot), ii, 442, 445, 450; 
Bayhaki, Mahdsin, 149; Ibn al-Athlr, Usd, v, 138; 
Ibn Hadjar, Isdba, iv, 14; H. Lammens, Etudes 
sur le rigne de Mo'-dwia, 42 ff. (H. Lammens *) 
ABC 'AWN c Abd al-Malik b. YazId al-Khura- 
sani, general in the service of the 'Abbasids. After 
the outbreak of the rebellion in Khurasan. 25 Ramadan 
129/9 June 747, Abu 'Awn several times took part 
in the war against the Umayyads. At first he accom- 
panied the 'Abbasid general Kahtaba b. Shablb; 
then he was sent by the latter to Shahrazur, where 
on 20 Dhu'l-Hidjdja 131/10 August 749, in con- 
junction with Malik b. Tarif, he defeated 'Uttjman 
b. Sufyan. While Abu 'Awn remained in the vicinity 
of Mosul, the Umayyad caliph Marwan II marched 
against him. Under the supreme command of 'Abd 
Allah b. 'All, Abu 'Awn took part in the battle by 
the Greater Zab (n Djumada II 132/25 January 
750), in the pursuit of Marwan, and in the capture 
of Damascus. When 'Abd Allah remained behind 
in Palestine, he sent Salih b. 'All together with Abu 
'Awn and a few others to continue the pursuit to 
Egypt, and it was there that the caliph, after a 
fresh defeat, was tracked down and killed in the 
same year. Abu 'Awn remained in Egypt till further 
orders as governor. In 159/775-6 he was appointed 
governor of Khurasan by al-Mahdl, but deposed in 
the following year. 

Bibliography: Ya'kubl, Tabari, Mas'udI, 

Murudi, Indexes; WeUhausen, Das arabische Reich 

und sein Sturz, Berlin 1902, 341-3; L. Caetani, 

Chronographia Islamica, Roma 1912, under the 

relevant years. (K. V. Zettersteen *) 

ABU 'l-'AYNA' Muhammed b. al-Kasim b. 

Khallad b. Yasir b. Sulaiman al-HashimI, an 

Arabian litterateur and poet. He was born about 

the year 190/805 in al-Ahwaz (his family came from 

al-Yamama) and grew up in Basra, where he received 

instruction from the most famous philologists, Abu 

'Ubaida, al-Asma'I, Abu Zayd al-Ansari and others. 

He was renowned amongst his contemporaries not 

only for his linguistic attainments, but also for his 

quickness at repartee. Ibn Abl Tahir collected 

anecdotes concerning him in a special work entitled 

Akhbdr Abi 'l-'Aynd', many of which are to be 

found in the al-Aghdni. The book itself as well 

as the collection of his poems have not been 

preserved. He became blind at the age of 40, later 

on he emigrated to Bagdad, but returned to Basra 

again and died there in the year 281 or 183/896. 

Bibliography: Fihrist, 115; Ibn Khallikan, 

no. 615. (C. Brockelmann) 

ABC AYYCB Khalid b. Zayd b. Kulayb al- 

NadjdjarI al-ANSArI, generally known by his 

kunya, companion of the Prophet. It was in the 



ABO AYYOB al-ANSARI — ABO BAKR 



house of Abu Ayyub that the Prophet stayed on 
his emigration to Medina, before his own mosque 
and house were built. He took part in all the 
Prophet's expeditions, was present at all the battles 
of early Islam and served under the command of 
'Amr b. al-'Asi during the conquest of Egypt. Later 
on he was appointed by C A1I to the governorship of 
Medina, but was obliged to rejoin C AH in 'Irak when 
Busr b. Abi Artat approched the town with an 
army of 3000 men put at his disposal by 'Amr b. 
al- c Asi. In 'Irak Abu Ayyub al-Ansari took part in 
the battles fought there by C A1I. During the reign 
of Mu'awiya, he took part in the invasion of Cyprus 
and the expedition against Constantinople led by 
Yazid b. Mu'awiya. During the siege of the Byzantine 
capital Abu Ayyub died of dysentery, in the year 
52/672 (the years 50, 51 and 55 are also given as 
the date of his death). At his own request, he was 
buried under the walls of Constantinople. 

150 hadiths are attributed to Abu Ayyub, but 
only a small number of them (thirteen altogether) 
have been admitted as authentic by al-Bukhari 
and Muslim. 

Bibliography: DhahabI, Tadirid Asma> al- 
Sahdba, Haydarabad 1315, i, 161, ii, 161; Bala- 
dhuri, FutHh, 5, 154; Ibn Sa c d, iii/2, 49-50 ; Tabari, 
iii, 23-4; Ibn c Abd al-Hakam, Futufr Misr (Torrey), 
index; Diyarbakrl, Ta'rikh al-Khamls, Cairo 1283, 
ii, 294; Ibn c Abd al-Barr, Isti'ab, Haydarabad 
1318, i, 156, ii, 638; Ibn Hadjar, Tahdhib, Hay- 
darabad 1325-7, iii, 90; idem, Isdba, Cairo 1325, 
ii, 89; Khazradji, Khuldsa. Cairo 1322, 86; Ibn 
al-Kaysarani, Diam 1 , Haydarabad 1323, 118; Ibn 
al-Athir, Usd dl-Ghaba, ii, 88, v, 143; Ibn Taghri- 
birdi, Nudj,um, Leiden 1855, i, 22, 34, 151, 158-60; 
Nawawi, Tahdhib al-Asmd y Gottingen 1842-7, 652; 
Suyuti, ffusn al-Muhddara, Cairo 1322, i, 112; 
Abu 'l- c Arab, Tabakat 'Ulanta' Ifrikiya, ed. and 
transl. Ben Cheneb, Algiers 1920; 21/66 and note 2 ; 
M. Canard, in J A, 192, 67 if. 

(E. L£vi-Provencal) 
The tomb of Abu Ayyub is mentioned for the 
first time by Ibn I£utayba, al-Ma'-arif, 140 (ed. 
Cairo 1934, 119); according to al-Tabari, iii, 2324, 
Ibn al-Athir, iii, 381, Ibn al-Djawzi and al-I£azwini, 
408, the Byzantines respected it and made pilgrimage 
to it in time of drought to pray there for rain {istisba'). 
The — probably legendary — discovery of the tomb 
by Ak Shams al-Din [q.v.] during the siege of the 
city by Muhammad II can be compared to the 
finding of the Holy Lance by the Crusaders during 
the siege of Antioch. The Turkish legend is fully 
reproduced in Leunclavius, Historiae musulmanae, 
Frankfurt 1591, 38 ff. and in the careful monograph 
by Hadjdji c Abd Allah, al-Athdr al-Ma&idiyya fi 
'l-Mand&b al-Khalidiyya. See also A. M. Schneider, 
in Oriens x 1 95 1, 113 ft.; P. Wittek, A ywansary, in 
Annates de I'hist. de phil. et d'hist. orientates et 
slaves, Bruxelles 1951, 505 ff. (esp. 513 ff.). 

(J. H. MORDTMANN*) 

A mosque was built on the spot by Muhammad II 
in 863/1458; it was enlarged by Etmekdji-zade 
Ahmad Pasha in 1000/1591; two new minarets, 
each with two galleries, were added in 1136/1273. 
It was in this mosque that the sultan Mahmud II 
deposited the relics of the Prophet discovered in the 
treasury of the Saray (the imprint of the foot). The 
grand-vizier Sinan Pasha (d. 1133/1729), Mah Firuz 
Khadldja (mother of the sultan c Uthm5n III), the 
grand-vizier Semiz 'All Pasha, GurdjI Muhammad 
Pasha, Lala Mustafa Pasha (the conqueror of 



Cyprus) and a number of other important persons 
are buried in the turba or in the immediate vicinity 
of its court-yard. The mosque is situated outside 
the Byzantine walls, and an important suburb 
(Eyyiib [see Istanbul]) grew up round it. The 
mosque was the object of special veneration and 
it was forbidden for non-Muslims to enter it. Accor- 
ding to a rather late custom (cf. Isl., 1931, 184 ff. 
and mawlawiyya) it was in this mosque that the 
sultan, on his accession, was girded with the sword 
of his ancestors by the Celebi Efendi, the head of 
the Mawlawi order who came especially from I£onya 
to carry out the ceremony. 

Bibliography: Hafiz Husayn b. Hadjdil 
Isma'il, IJadikat al-Dxawdmi', Istanbul .1281, i, 
243, cf. Hammer- Purgstall, xviii, 57; CI. Huart, 
Konia, 206; F. W. Hasluck, Christianity and 
Islam under the Sultans, Oxford 1929, ii, 604 ff. 

(Cl. Huart*) 
ABO BAKR, the first caliph, 
i. Name, family, and early life. — Abu Bakr was 
probably born shortly after 570 as he is said to have 
been three years younger than Muhammad. His 
father was Abu Suhafa ( c Uthman) b. 'Amir of the 
clan of Taym of the tribe of Kuraysh., and he is 
therefore sometimes known as Ibn Abi Kuhafa. His 
mother was Umm al-Khayr (Salma) bint Sakhr of 
the same clan. The names c Abd Allah and <Atik 
('freed slave') are attributed to him as well as Abu 
Bakr, but the relation of these names to one another 
and their original significance is not clear. Muhammad 
seems to have made a play on the name 'Atlk and 
to have said that he was 'freed from Hell'. He was 
later known as al-Siddik, the truthful, the upright, 
or the t one who counts true ; the last meaning is 
supported by the tradition that he alone immediately 
believed Muhammad's story of his night-journey 
(isrd>, q.v.). 

In the course of his life he had four wives. (1) Kut- 
ayla bint c Abd al- c Uzza of the Meccan clan of 'Amir, 
who bore him <Abd Allah and Asma' (who married 
al-Zubayr b. al- c Awwam); (2) Umm Ruman bint 
'Amir of the tribe of Kyiana, who bore him c Abd al- 
Rahman (originally c Abd al-Ka c ba or c Abd al-'Uzza) 
and 'A'isha; (3) Asma' bint 'Umays of the tribe of 
Khath'am, who bore him Muhammad; (4) Habiba 
bint Kharidja, of the Medinan clan of al-Harith b. 
al-Khazradj, wno bore him Umm Kulthum posthu- 
mously. The last two marriages were made late in 
his life and were doubtless political; Asma 1 bint 
'Umays was the widow of Dja'far b. Abi Talib (who 
was killed in 8/629). The first two marriages were 
probably concurrent, since c Abd al-Rahman was 
the eldest son, but only Umm Ruman accompanied 
Abu Bakr to Medina. 

Little is known about Abu Bakr's life before his 
conversion. He was a merchant {tddiir) worth 
40,000 dirhams, indicating (according to H. Lam- 
mens, La Mecque d la Veille de I'Hegire, Beirut 1924, 
226-8) that his business was comparatively unim- 
portant. He is not mentioned as having travelled 
to Syria or elsewhere, but he was an expert in the 
genealogies of the Arab tribes. 

ii. From his conversion to the death of Muham- 
mad. — Abu Bakr was possibly a friend of Muhammad 
before the latter's call to be a prophet and his own 
conversion. According to some traditions he was 
the first male Muslim after Muhammad (Ibn Sa'd, 
iii/ 1, 121; al-Tabari, i. 1165-7); but this may simply 
be a reflection of his later preeminence, since the 
same claim is made for C A1I and Zayd b. Haritha. 



Similarly the statement that Abu Bakr was respon- 
sible for the conversion of c Uthman b. 'Affan, 
al-Zubayr, <Abd al-Rahman b. <Awf, Sa'd b. AM 
Wakkas and Taujah b. 'Ubayd Allah is suspicious 
because these five and C AH constitued the shura or 
council to elect a successor to c Umar. What is 
certain is that for some time before the Hidjra, Abu 
Bakr was the foremost member of the Muslim 
community after Muhammad. 

He remained in Mecca when many Muslims emi- 
grated to Abyssinia. This is an obscure affair. It 
has been suggested that the emigrants objected to 
the policy of the group among the Muslims led by 
Abu Bakr. The traditional view, however, was 
that the emigrants went to avoid persecution; and 
it may be that Abu Bakr's clan of Taym, like others 
belonging to the group known as Hilf al-Fudul, 
did not persecute its members. It seems, however, 
that it also lacked the will or the power to defend 
them, for it allowed Abu Bakr and his fellow 
clansman Talha to be bound together by a man of 
the Meccan clan of Asad; and at a later date Abu 
Bakr left Mecca and only returned on receiving the 
protection (djiwdr) of Ibn al-Dughunna, the chief 
of a nomadic group in alliance with Kuraysh. The 
slaves bought and set free by Abu Bakr, notably 
c Amir b. Fuhayra and Bilal, suffered bodily violence. 
The purchase of slaves who professed Islam, though 
showing Abu Bakr's devotion to the cause, does 
not completely account for the reduction of his 
wealth to 5,000 dirhams at the Hidjra, and economic 
pressure by the leading merchants of Mecca is to 
be suspected. 

Muhammad chose him to accompany himself on 
his migration to Medina, an event to which reference 
is made in Kur'an ix, 40. His family, that is, presum- 
ably Umm Ruman, 'A'isha, Asma' and perhaps 
c Abd Allah, foUowed soon afterwards. Abu Kuhafa, 
however, remained in Mecca, and Abu Bakr's son 
<Abd al- Rahman actually fought against the Muslims 
at Badr and Uhud, but was converted to Islam 
before the conquest of Mecca. In Medina Abu Bakr 
found a house in the district of al-Sunh. His special 
position in the community was marked by Muham- 
mad's marriage to his daughter c A 5 isha. He was a 
participant in all the expeditions led by Muhammad 
in person, and was constantly at his side, ready to 
help with advice and information. In critical 
moments he was steady as a rock and did not lose 
heart. There seems to have been a remarkable degree 
of harmony between leader and follower. When 
others (including c Umar who was inseparable from 
Abu Bakr) questioned Muhammad's decisions to. 
make peace at al-Hudaybiya and to abandon the siege 
of al-Ta'if, Abu Bakr gave immediate and whole- 
hearted support. He was the first to know the true 
objective of the expedition which conquered Mecca 
in 8/630. In other words, he was Muhammad's chief 
adviser. He did not have any separate military 
command, except of a small party detached from 
a larger expedition in 6/627 and of a minor expedition 
against the tribe of Hawazin in 7/628. In 8/629 he 
served with 'Umar under the command of Abu 
'Ubaydah, probably in order to smooth over political 
difficulties. By his being appointed to conduct the 
pilgrimage of A. H. 9 and to lead public prayers in 
Medina during Muhammad's last illness, and by 
other signs of respect, he was marked as successor. 

iii. His caliphate, 11/632-13/634. — The day of 
Muhammad's death (13 Rabl c I, 11/8 June, 632) 
was a critical one for the young Islamic state. The 
Ansar set about appointing a leader from their own 



number, but were persuaded by 'Umar and others to 
accept AbQ Bakr. He took the title of Khalifat Rasul 
Allah, 'deputy or successor of the messenger of God', 
and after a short time moved to a house in the 
centre of Medina. 

His caliphate of a little over two years was largely 
occupied in dealing with the ridda or 'apostasy'. This 
phenomenon, as the name given. by Arabic historians 
indicates, was regarded by them as primarily a 
religious movement; but recent European scholars, 
especially J. Wellhausen (Skiizen und Vorarbeiten, 
vi, Berlin, 1899, 7-37) and L. Caetani {Annali, ii, 
549-831) have argued that it was essentially political. 
More probably it was both. Medina had become the 
centre of a social and political system, of which 
religion was an integral part; consequently it was 
inevitable that any reaction against this system 
should have a religious aspect. There were six main 
centres of this reaction. In four of these, the leader 
had a religious character and is often called a 'false 
prophet': al-Aswad al- c AnsI in the Yemen, Musay- 
lima among the tribe of Hanlfa in the Yamama, 
Tulayha in the tribes of Asad and Ghatafan, and 
the prophetess Sadjah in the tribe of Tamlm. The 
form of the ridda in each centre varied according to 
local circumstances; it involved the refusal to send 
taxes to Medina and to obey the agents sent out 
by Medina. In the Yemen the ridda began before 
Muhammad's death, and when Abu Bakr came to 
power al-Aswad had been replaced by Kays b. 
(Hubayra b. c Abd Yaghuth) al-Makshuh. In other 
places there had presumably existed for some time 
a movement against the rule of Medina, but it 
became open revolt only after Muhammad's death. 
During the absence of the main Muslim army in 
Syria under Usama b. Zayd, some neighbouring 
tribes tried to surprise Medina, but were eventually 
defeated at Dhu '1-Kassa. After the return of the 
Syrian expedition, a large army commanded by 
Khalid b. al-Walld was sent against the rebels. First 
Tulayha was defeated in a battle at Buzakha, and 
the area restored to its allegiance to Islam. Soon 
afterwards, Tamlm abandoned Sadjah and sub- 
mitted to Abu Bakr. The most important battle 
of the ridda was the battle of the Yamama at 
'Akraba' (about Rabl c I, 12/May 633), known as 
'the garden of death' on account of the great 
slaughter on both sides. Here Musaylima, the most 
serious opponent of the Muslims, was defeated and 
killed, and central Arabia brought under their 
control. Subordinate commanders were entrusted 
with subsidiary operations in al-Bahrayn and 
<Uman (with Mahra), while IQialid pacified the 
Yamama before moving towards 'Irak- The ridda 
in the Yemen and Hadramawt was defeated by 
another commander, al-Muhadjir b. Abi Umayya. 
In dealing with captured leaders Abu Bakr showed 
great clemency, and many became active supporters 
of the cause of Islam. The traditional view was 
that the ridda had been quelled before the end of 
n A.H. (March 633); but Caetani has shown that 
the events require a much longer time, and that 
it may have continued into 13/634. 

The size of Muhammad's expeditions along the 
road to Syria shows that he had realized the urgency 
of expansion if peace was to be maintained among 
the Arab tribes. Abu Bakr was aware of this strategic 
principle. In the first days of his caliphate, despite 
the threats of rebellion in Arabia, he persisted with 
Muhammad's plan of sending a large army under 
Usama towards Syria. Again, once the danger from 
Musaylima in central Arabia was removed, no time 



ABO BAKR — ABU 'l-BARAKAT 



was lost in despatching Khalid towards 'Irak. Thus 
was set on foot under Abu Bakr's direction the great 
'conquest of the lands'. The traditional account 
of the conquests and their chronology has been 
radically revised by European scholars' critique of 
the sources (Wellhausen, op. cit., 37-"3; De Goeje, 
Me'moire sur la Conqutte de la Syrie*, Leiden, 1900; 
N. A. Miednikoff, Palestina, St. Petersburg, 1897-1907 
[in Russian]; Caetani, Annali, ii, iii). By the t 
of Abu Bakr's death the position would seem to 
be as follows. Khalid, joining a force of B. Bakr b 
Wa'U under al-Muthanna b. Haritha, had advanced 
plundering into 'Irak and threatened al-Hira, which 
paid 60,000 dirhams to be left alone. While al- 
Muthanna remained on this sector, Khalid carried 
out a celebrated march to Damascus and linked up 
with three Muslim columns which, under Yazid b. 
Abi Sufyan, ShurahbU b. Hasana and <Amr b. al- 
<As, had been operating with success in Palestine, 
but were now retiring before a superior Byzantine 
army. The united Muslim forces defeated the enemy 
at al-Adjnadayn (probably a corruption of al-Djan- 
nabatayn) between Jerusalem and Gaza at the end 
of Djumada I (July 634). Thus the expansion into 
the Persian empire was initiated by Abu Bakr, 
but he still laid most emphasis on Syria. At what 
stage the decision was made, not merely to rai 
these lands, but to conquer them, is not clear. 

Abu Bakr died on 22 Djumada II, 13/23 August 
634, and was buried beside Muhammad. The great 
simplicity of his life, with its rejection of all wealth, 
pomp and pretension, became in later times a legend, 
though there is doubtless a kernel of truth. The 
assertion that he began the 'collection of the Kur'an' 
is now usually held to be mistaken in view of the 
general ascription of this to 'Urnar. 

Bibliography : In addition to works cited in 
the article: Ibn Hisham, passim; Wakidi (tr. 
J. Wellhausen, Berlin, 1882), passim: Ibn Sa'd, 
iii/i, 119-152, 202; Tabari, i, 1816-2144 (his cali- 
phate); Baladhuri, Futuh, 96, 98, 102, 450; 
Mas'udI, Murudj, iv, 173-90; Ibn Hadjar, Isdba, 
ii, 828-35, 839; Ibn al-Athlr, Usd al-Ghdba, iii, 
205-24; N. Abbott, Aishah the beloved of Moham 
med, Chicago, 1942, see index; W. Montgomery 
Watt, Muhammad at Mecca, Oxford, 1953, see 
index; C. Becker, The Expansion of the Saracens, 
Cambridge Medieval History, (1912), ii, 329-11 
(= Islamstudien, Leipzig 1924, i, 66-82). 

(W. Montgomery Watt) 
ABO BAKR B. 'ABD ALLAH [see ibn abi 

ABO BAKR B. AHMAD [see ibn KApi shuhba]. 

ABO BAKR B. <ALl [see ibn hidjdja]. 

ABO BAKR B. SA'D b.ZENGI [see salghOrids]. 

ABO BAKR al-BAYTAR [see ibn al-mundhJR]- 

ABO BAKR al-KHALLAL [see al-hiallal]. 

ABO BAKR AL-KflWARIZMl [see al -kh-arizmI]. 

ABO BAKR A (the man of the pulley), the usual 
designation of a Companion of the Prophet 
called Nufay' b. Masruh, an Abyssinian, formerly 
slave of the Thakafites of al-Ta'if. During the siege 
of that town by Muhammad (8/630) he joined the 
Muslims by letting himself down by a pulley and 
was emancipated by the Prophet. He stayed after- 
wards in Yaman and participated in the foundation 
of Basra where he settled and died in 51 or 52/671-2. 
Having been whipped by 'Umar because he had 
testified against al-Mughira b. Shu'ba [q.v.] on a 
charge of adultery, Abu Bakra played no part in 
politics and held aloof (iHazala) during the Battle 
of the Camel. He confined himself to cultivating the 



estates given him by 'Umar and transmitting 
hadtth, in which he is regarded as trustworthy by 
the authorities. 

His biographers give him as his mother Sumayya, 
so that he is considered as the brother, on the 
mother's side, of Ziyad b. Abihi, with whom, 
however, he quarreled when Ziyad joined the party 
of Mu'awiya. Abu Bakra left numerous descendants, 
among them seven sons: «Abd Allah, 'Ubayd Allah. 
<Abd al-Rahman, £ Abd al-'Aziz, Muslim, Rawwad, 
Yazid and 'Utba, who had a part in the transmission 
of hadith. Enriched by the exploitation of the 
public baths and favoured by Ziyad, they gained a 
place among the bourgoisie, and even the aristocracy, 
of Basra, and forged themselves an Arab genealogy, 
claiming that Abu Bakra was the son of al-Harith 
b. Kalada, the "physician of the Arabs". Al-Mahdl, 
on ascending the throne, did not recognize this gene- 
alogy and forced the descendants of Abu Bakra to 
return to the status of mawdli of the Prophet (Ibn 
al-Tiktaka, al-Fakhri (Derenbourg), 245 ; al-MakdisI, 
al-Bad? (Huart), vi, 94-5 ; I. Goldziher, Muh. Stud., 
i, 137 ff.). A descendant of the family was the kadi 
Abu Bakra Bakkar b. Kutayba (182-270/798-884; see 
Ibn Khallikan, no. 115). 

Bibliography: Ibn Kutayba, Ma'arif, 
Cairo 1353, 125-6; Ibn Sa'd, vii/i, 8-9, 138-9; 
Baladhuri, Futuh, 343 ff.; Tabari, i, 2529 ff., iii, 
477 ff.; Ibn al-Faklh, 188; Aghdni 1 , ii, 48; vii, 
141; xi, 100; xiv, 69; Nawawi, Tahdhib, 378-9, 
677-8; Ibn al-Athlr, Usd, i, 38, 151; ii, 215; Ibn 
Hadjar, Isdba, no. 8794; Yakut, i, 638-644, 
passim. (M. Th. Houtsma-[Ch. Pellat]) 

ABU "L-BARAKAT Hibat Allah b. Malka 
al-BaghdadI al-BaladI, philosopher and phys- 
ician, called Awhad al-Zaman, 'unique of his time', 
was born at Balad, near Mosul, about 470/1077 at 
the latest. Jewish by birth, he had for his master 
Abu'l-Hasan Sa'id b. Hibat Allah, and became a 
famous physician, serving in this quality the caliphs 
of Baghdad— where he resided — and the Seldjuk 
sultans. The anecdotes related by the biographers 
reveal his often difficult relations with his various 
patrons and their courts. At an advanced age he 
was converted to Islam. This decision was taken by 
him, according to the different rumours reported by 
his biographers, out of wounded pride or out of 
fear (because of the death of the wife of sultan 
Mahmud who had been attended by him; or because, 
taken prisoner during a battle in which the army 
of the caliph al-Mustarshid was defeated by sultan 
Mas'ud, his life was threatened). Having become 
blind at the end of his life, he died in Baghdad, 
it seems after 560/1164-5. Rival of the Christian 
physician Ibn al-Tilmldh, he had as his disciple and 
friend Ishak, the son of Abraham b. Ezra, who 
composed on him a panegyric in Hebrew. 

The main work of Abu'l-Barakat is the Kitdb 
al-Mu l tabar, dealing with logic, naturalia (including 
psychology) and metaphysics (published in three 
volumes by Serefettin Yaltkaya, Hyderabad 1358/ 
1939). A detailed commentary on Ecclesiastes, 
composed in Arabic, is of considerable philosophical 
interest; it is almost entirely unpublished. Among 
the smaller treatises ascribed to Abu'l-Barakat is to 
be noted the Risdla fi Sabab Zuhiir al-Kawdkib 
Layl" wa-KhafdHhd Nahdr" (cf. Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, 
i, 280), transl. by E. Wiedemann (in Eders Jahrbuch 
fur Photographic, 1909, 49-54). Under a slightly 
different title: Ru'ya 'l-Kawdkib bi'l-Layl Id bi'l- 
Nahdr, it passes for a work of Ibn Sina (cf. G. C. 
Anawati, Essai de Bibliographic avicennienne, no. 162). 



ABU 'l-BARAKAT 



In al-Mu c tabar, modelled in great part on the 
Shifd* of Ibn SIna, Abu'l-Barakat sometimes takes 
over theses from that book, quoting them literally, 
but at the same time attacks others that are among 
the most essential. In his opposition to Ibn SIna he 
is often at one, in the field of physics, with the 
tradition that bore in Islamic lands the name of 
Platonic, and which was that followed by Abu 
Bakr al-RazI. His psychology is, in some respects, 
related more than that of the Sftt/d 5 , or more mani- 
festly so to that of the Neoplatonists. 

Abu'l-Barakat's method of philosophizing does 
not, however, lend itself easily to recourse to the 
authority of tradition. This is shown by the very 
title of the- Kitab al-Mu c tabar, which in the usage 
of Abu '1-Barakat means something like: "The book 
about what has been established by personal re- 
flection". As a matter of fact, this method is 
distinguished in the first instance by the appeal 
to self-evident truths, the certainties a priori, 
which nullify the theses a posteriori of the ruling 
philosophy of the period. Abu '1-Barakat refuses to 
make a difference between the certainties of reason, 
admitted as valid by the Peripatetics, and those 
depending on the estimative faculty (wahm), 
dismissed by them. 

It is mainly this method that leads Abu '1-Barakat 
to assert, against the partisans of the Aristotelian 
theory of space, the existence of a tridimensional 
space. With John Philoponus he refutes the proposi- 
tion denying the possibility of movement in the void. 
Having demonstrated the fallacy of the peripatetic 
arguments to the contrary, he proves the infinity 
of space by the impossibility for man to conceive 
a limited space. 

Similarly, it is the appeal to the a priori knowledge 
of the human mind that allows Abu '1-Barakat to 
clarify the problem of time — the true solution of 
which, according to him, depends upon metaphysics 
rather than upon physics. In effect, he shows that 
the apperception of time, of being, and of self, is 
anterior in the soul to any other apperception the 
soul might have, and that the nature of being and 
that of time are closely linked. According to his 
definition, time is the measure of being (not, as the 
peripatetics held, that of movement). He does not 
admit the diversity of the various levels of time, the 
gradations of zamdn, dahr, sarmad assumed by Ibn 
SIna and other philosophers. In his opinion, time 
characterizes the being of the Creator as well as 
that of created things. 

He identifies prime matter with the body con- 
sidered merely from the point of view of corporality, 
apart from any other characteristic; corporality 
being an extension susceptible of being measured. 
Among the four elements, earth alone is, in his view, 
constituted of corpuscles, indivisible because of 
their solidity. 

Dealing with the movement of projectiles, Abu 
'1-Barakat accepts, though with modifications, the 
theory of Ibn SIna — ultimately, as it seems, inspired 
by John Philoponus — according to which the cause 
of this movement is a 'violent inclination', that is 
to say a force (called later by certain Latin schoolmen 
impetus) imparted by the projecting body to the 
projectile. He explains the acceleration in the fall 
of heavy objects by the fact that the principle of 
natural inclination (mayl tabiH, a current philo- 
sophical term), contained in them, furnishes them 
with successive inclinations. The text of the Mu'tabar 
treating of this doctrine is the first one, as far as 
is known at present, where one finds implied this 



fundamental law of modern dynamics: a constant 
force gives rise to an accelerated movement. 

It is especially the psychological doctrine of Abu 
'1-Barakat that shows in the most palpable way the 
role given in his philosophy to recourse to what is 
self-evident. As a matter of fact, this doctrine has 
as its starting point the consciousness that man has 
of himself, i.e. of his soul. This consciousness bears 
the stamp of certainty and is anterior to any other 
knowledge; it would be there even without the 
perception of the sensible things.Ibn SIna had already 
availed himself of this a priori datum, which he 
had great difficulty in integrating with his psychology 
— which bears the stamp of Peripaticism — while Abu 
'1-Barakat is led by it towards other psychological 
verities, equally guaranteed and authenticated by 
their self-evident character. For instance, the valid 
consciousness that man has of being one — the same 
when he sees and hears, thinks, remembers or 
desires, or accomplishes any other psychical act — 
is sufficient in the view of Abu '1-Barakat to refute 
the various theories postulating a multiplicity of 
the faculties of the soul. Another example: the 
certainty that one has of perceiving, in the act of 
seeing, the very object that one sees, and at the place 
where it really is — and not an image, that according 
to certain hypotheses is situated inside the brain — 
this certainty proves by itself the truth of the 
impressions that it guarantees. We have, then, a 
psychology that consists, partly, of a system of self- 
evident truths, and is dominated up to a certain 
point by the notion of consciousness or apperception 
\shu c ur, a term used in a similar sense by Ibn SIna). 
It denies the distinction established by the Aris- 
totelian doctrine between intellect and soul. In fact, 
according to Abu '1-Barakat, it is the soul that 
accomplishes the so-called acts of intellection — a 
concept which he criticises. Similarly, he denies the 
existence of the active intellect postulated by the 
peripatetics. 

Platonic or Plotinian influences — which are, to 
be sure, in harmony with the personal intuitions of 
Abu '1-Barakat — appear perhaps in the definition 
of the soul as an incorporeal substance acting in 
and by the body. Immateriality is taken by Abu 
'1-Barakat in a very strict sense, which was not 
current at all; so for instance in the theory of 
memory. The human souls are caused, in the view 
of Abu '1-Barakat, by the stellar ones, and return, 
after death, to their causes. 

The knowledge of God, cause of causes, comes at 
the end of. the knowledge of existing things and 
that of being perceived by an a priori knowledge, 
which divides being into necessary and contingent. 
On the other hand, the wisdom manifested in the 
order of nature proves the existence of a Creator. 
Last not least there are ways of direct commu- 
nication between God and men. Abu '1-Barakat, 
following in this point the Avicennian tradition, 
does not admit the proof for the existence of God 
based on movement. 

He holds that the essential attributes of God, 
such as knowledge, power and wisdom, belong to 
His essence in the same way as having three angles 
equal to two right angles belongs to the essence of 
a triangle. 

In his view God may have manifold knowledge, 
also about particulars. In order to refute arguments 
to the contrary, he refers to his psychological 
doctrine, where he proves that the forms of the 
things perceived, stored up in the human soul, are 
immaterial, like the entity that has perceived them. 



ABU 'l-BARAKAT — ABU 'l-DARDA' 



In this way divine knowledge appears as being up 
to a point analogous to human knowledge. 

Rejecting the theory of emanation held by the 
philosophers, Abu '1-Barakat thinks that things 
have been created by a succession of divine volitions, 
either pre-eternal or coming, into being in time. 
The first of these volitions, an attribute of the 
divine essence, created the first thing in existence, 
viz. according to religious terminology, the highest 
of the angels. 

The personalism of the conception of God in Abu 
'1-Barakat sometimes relates it to the doctrines of 
the kaldm. Nevertheless, this does not necessarily 
justify the conclusion that the kaldm has influenced 
his thought. 

So far as the problem of the eternity of the world 
is concerned, Abu '1-Barakat, having confronted the 
theses of those who affirm it and those that deny 
it, does not explicitly state his own conclusions, but 
hints that one who has understood his expose of 
the question will not fail to find the correct answer. 
It seems, in summing up the discussion, that the 
true solution is, in the view of Abu'l-Barakat, 
that which asserts the eternity of the world. 

Abu '1-Barakat whose authority was invoked by 
a Jewish scholar of 'Irak, Samuel b. 'Eli, in his 
polemic against Maimonides, had as his partisans 
amongst the Muslims 'Ala 5 al-Dawla Faramurz b. 
'All, prince of Yazd, who defended him and his 
doctrines in a work bearing the title Muhdiat al- 
Tawhld and in a dispute he had with 'Umar al- 
Khavvam (see al-Bayhakl, Tatimma, no-i). The 
influence of Abu '1-Barakat over a personage of 
the first order, Fakhr al-DIn al-Razi, seems to 
have been decisive. It is manifest especially in al- 
Mabahith al-Mashrikiyya, a capital work of Fakhr 
al-Din, and was of great historical importance. In 
fact, the observation of the ShI'ite Muh. b. Sulayman 
al-Tanakabuni, a Persian author of the 19th cent., 
who says, in substance, that the tradition of Ibn 
SIna had almost succumbed under the attacks of 
Abu '1-Barakal and Fakhr al-DIn, before being 
re-established by Nasir al-DIn al-TusI (Kisas al- 
'Ulamd', lith. 1304, 278), refers to a crisis in Muslim 
philosophical speculation, a crisis originated by Abu 
'1-Barakat, the memory of which remained alive 
among the Iranian students of Ibn SIna. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Kiftl (Lippert), 343-6; 
Ibn AM Usaybi'a (Muller), i, 278-80; BayhakI, 
Tatimmat Siwdn al-Ifikma (ShafI'), 150-3; S. 
Poznanski, in Zeitschrift fiir hebraische BibUo- 
graphie, 1913, 33-6 (edition of some pages of the 
Commentary on Ecciesiastes) ; Serefettin, in- 
complete Turkish translation of the Ildhiyydt of 
al-Mu c tabar, with introduction, Istanbul 1932; 
study of Sulayman al-NadwI on Abu '1-Barakat, 
at the end of vol. iii of the ed. of al-Mu c tabar, 
230-52; S. Pines, Beitrdge zur islamischen Atomen- 
lehre, Berlin 1936, 82-3; idem, Etudes sur Awhad 
al-Zamdn Abu'l-Barakdt al-Baghd&dt, in RE J, 
ciii, 1938, 4-64; civ, 1938, 1-33; idem, Nouvelles 
Etudes sur Abu'l-Barakdt al-Baghdddt, will appear 
in REJ, 1953. (S. Pines) 

ABC BAYHAS al-Haysam b. Djabir, Khari- 
djite, of theBanuSa'db.Dubay'a. In order to escape 
from the persecution of al-Hadjdjadi, he fled to 
Medina, but was arrested by the governor, 'UUiman b. 
Hayyan, and cruelly executed (94/713)- He gave his 
name to the Bayhasiyya, one of the Kharidiite sects, 
who occupied an intermediate position between the 
strict Azrakls and the milder Sufris and Ibadls. The 
Bayhasls, though admitting that Muslims of different 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



opinion from their own were unbelievers, considered 
it permissible to live amongst them, to intermarry 
with them and to inherit from them. Their tenets 
again diverged, so that they branched off into 

Bibliography: Mubarrad, Kdmil, 604, 615; 
Baladhuri (Ahlwardt, Anonyme Arab. Chronik), 
83; Mas'udI, Murudi, v, 230; Ash'arl, Makdldt, 
113 ff., 95; Baghdad!, Fark, 87 f.; Ibn Hazm, 
Fisal, iv, 190; Shahrastani, Milal, 93 f. 

(M. Th. Houtsma*) 
ABC BILAL [see mirdas b. udayya]. 
ABC BURDA [see al-ash'arI]. 
ABC DAHBAL AL-EJUMAtfl, Wahb b. Zam'a, 
Kuray shite poet of Mecca, who started to 
compose poetry before 40/660 and died after 96/715. 
He is included among the erotic poets of the Hidjaz 
by his poems devoted to three women: 'Amra, of 
a noble Meccan family, a Syrian woman who led him 
into a breach with his family, and especially 'Atlka, 
daughter of Mu'awiya, whom he first saw during 
a pilgrimage. His verses, soon becoming famous, 
attracted the attention of the princess, whom he 
followed to Damascus, but the caliph, though 
recognizing the chaste character of Abu Dahbal's 
relations with his daughter, took umbrage and 
sent the poet away. 

Abu Dahbal is not, however, an exclusively erotic 
poet, as an important part of his work is devoted to 
panegyrics on Ibn al-Azrak, governor of al-Djanad 
in Yaman, appointed by 'Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr, 
and 'Umara b. 'Amr, governor of Hadramawt. The 
incident with Mu'awiya seems to have turned him 
away from the Umayyads and made him a partisan 
of the anti-caliph; the Aghdni even quotes some 
verses alluding to the murder of al-Husayn b. 'All. 
Bibliography: Brockelmann, S I, 80 and the 
references given there; to the fundamental article 
in the Aghdni 1 , vi, 154-70 should be added al- 
Marzubanl, al-Muwashshah, 70, 189; idem, Mu'diam 
117, 342; Nallino, Scritti, vi, 55; O. Rescher, 
Abriss, i, 144-5; and especially the sources quoted 
by F. Krenkow, JRAS, 1910, 1017-75, who has 
collected the verses of the poet. (Ch. Pellat) 
ABC PAMPAM, the hero of a collection of 
anecdotes, cited already in the 10th century. All 
kinds of foolish remarks are attributed to him, and 
more particularly comical decisions on questions of 
law, similar to those later attributed to Karakush. 
This Abu Damdam is probably identical with the 
devotee who, before or during the lifetime of Mu- 
hammad, offered up his good name in place of the 
poortax to the servants of God; for this express 
sacrifice of the respect of his fellowmen may easily 
be interpreted as a permission or invitation to expose 
the devotee as the typical figure of foolishness. To 
one bearer of the same name there is ascribed an 
extraordinary knowledge of the ancient poetry, but 
there is no means of deciding whether this is the 
same personage. 

Bibliography: Ibn Kutayba, Adab al-Katib 

(Grunert), 3-4; idem, Shi'r, 3 f.; Fihrist, 313; Ibn 

'Abd Rabbih, c Ikd. Cairo 1302, iii, 445; Ibn al- 

Athlr, Usd, v, 232; Ibn Hadjar, Isdba, iv, 204; M. 

Hartmann, in Zeitschr. d. Vereins f. Volkskunde, 

v; J. Horovitz, Spuren griechischer Mimen, 31, 

note. (J. Horovitz) 

ABU 'l-DARDA' al-AnsarI al-KhazraeiI. His 

name and genealogy are given as 'Uwaymir b. Zayd 

b. Kays b. 'A'isha b. Umayya b. Malik b. 'AdI b. 

Ka'b b. al-Khazradj b. al-Harith of the Balharith 

family of the Khazradi. Some sources give his name 



H4 ABU 'l-DARDA' - 

as c Amir instead of 'Uwaymir, and for his father's 
name instead of Zayd we find variously 'Amir, 
'Abd AUah, Malik or Tha'laba, while some give him 
the nisba al-Rahanl. He was a younger contempo- 
rary of Muhammad who is generally listed among 
the Companions {Saftdba) though some sources raise 
doubts as to the legitimacy of this. He did not 
become a Muslim till after the battle of Badr and 
it is noted that he was the last of his family to 
become a convert to Islam. Some list him among 
those present at Uhud. When Muhammad established 
"brotherhoods" between the Emigrants and the 
people of Medina he was the "brother" chosen for 
Salman al-FarisI. A certain number of traditions are 
reported on his authority and are given in the 
Dhakhd'ir al-Mawdrih, iii, 158-62. The Sufis claimed 
him as one of the ahl al-fuffa [q.v.], quoting a number 
of sayings of an ascetic or pietistic character from 
him, which is probably the reason why in the 
biographical dictionnaries he is called a zdhid and 
one to whom Him was given. These sources also 
say that he became known as the sage (bakim) of 
the early Muslim community. He is reported as 
having said that before Islam he was a merchant, 
but after his conversion found that business life 
interfered with strict attention to cult duties (Hbdda) 
so he gave up business. His great reputation, however, 
was as an authority on the ICur'an. He is listed as 
one of the few who collected (dfama'a) revelations 
during the Prophet's lifetime, and a small number 
of variant readings from him is recorded in the 
kird'dt books. During his stay in Damascus, where 
he was sent to serve as a kadi, he made it a practice 
to gather to the mosque groups to whom he taught 
the Kur'an, thus becoming the true father of the 
Damascus School later headed by Ibn 'Amir [q.v.]. 
He died at Damascus in 32/652, or thereabouts, his 
tomb and that of his wife Umm al-Darda' being 
shown there near one of the gates. 

Bibliography: Ibn Habib, Muhabbar, 75, 

286, 397; Ibn ICutayba, Ma'drif, 137; Ibn Hisham, 

345; Ibn Durayd, Ishtikdk, 268; Nawawi, Tahdhib, 

713; Ibn al-Athlr, Usd, iv, 158; v, 185; Ibn al- 

Pjazari, Ghaya, No. 2480; Ibn 'Abd al-Barr, 

Isti'db, ii, No. 2908; Ibn Hadjar, Isdba, iv, no, 

in; idem, Lisdn al-Mizdn, vi, 375; idem, Tahdhib 

al-Tahdhib, viii, 175-7; Ibn al-'Imad, Shadhardt, 

i, 39; Fihrist, 27; al-Dhahabl, Tadhkirat al-Ifuffdz, 

i, 23, 24; al-Khazradji, Khuldsa, 254; 'Abd al- 

Ghanl al-NSbulusI, Dhakhd'ir, iii, 158-62; Caetani, 

Annali, Index s.v. (A. Jeffery) 

ABC DA'CD al-SIDJISTAnI, SulaymAn b. 

al-Ash'ath, a traditionist; born in 202/817. He 

travelled widely in pursuit of his studies and gained 

a high reputation for his knowledge and piety. 

Eventually he settled at Basra, which is no doubt 

why some wrongly held that the nisba Sidjistanl 

comes from a village near Basra called Sidjistan (or 

Sidjistana), and not from the province of that name. 

He died in Shawwal 275/Febr. 889. 

Abu Da'ud's principal work is his Kitdb al-Sunan, 
which is one of the six canonical books of Tradition 
accepted by Sunnis. He is said to have submitted 
it to Ahmad b. Hanbal who gave it his approval. 
Ibn Dasa says Abu Da'ud declared that he collected 
this work of 4800 traditions from a mass of 500,000, 
and that it contains sound traditions, those which 
seem to be so, and those which are nearly so. He 
also said, "I have made clear the traditions in this 
book of mine which contain great weakness, and 
those about which I have said nothing are good 
(sdlih), some being sounder than others". This refers 



to the notes which he often adds to his traditions to 
express his opinion on the value to be attributed 
to them. Muslim has an introduction to his Sahih 
in which he discusses some general questions of 
criticism; but Abu Da'ud is the first to give such 
detailed notes, paving the way for the more systema- 
tic criticism of individual traditions given by his 
pupil al-Tirmidhl in his collection. Abu Da'ud quotes 
men not found in the two $ahihs, his principle being 
that transmitters are counted trustworthy provided 
there is no formal proof to discount them. His 
work which has the generic title of Sunan, dealing 
mainly with matters ordained, or allowed, or for- 
bidden by law, received high praise. For example, 
Abu Sa c Id b. al-A'rabl said that anyone who knew 
nothing but the Kur'an and this book would have 
sufficient knowledge; and Muhammad b. Makhlad 
said that the traditionists accepted it without 
question just as they accepted the Kur'an. But one 
is surprised to find that, although many men in the 
fourth century praised it highly, no mention of it is 
made in the Fihrist. Indeed, Abu Da'ud is merely 
mentioned there as the father of his son. People of 
later times have expressed some criticisms. Al- 
Mundhiri, for example, who produced a summary 
of it, called al-Mudjtabd, criticized some of the 
traditions not supplied with notes, and Ibn al- 
Djawziyya added further criticisms. But while faults 
have been found with the work, it still holds an 
honoured place. The Sunan was transmitted through 
several lines, some versions being said to contain 
material not found in others. Al-Lu'luTs version 
is the one which has gained most favour. A number 
of editions of the Sunan have been printed in the 
East (see Brockelmann). A small collection of 
mursal traditions by Abu Da'ud, entitled Kitdb 
al-Mardsil, was published in Cairo in 1310/1892. 
Bibliography: Brockelmann, I, 168 f., S I, 
266 f.; Ibn Khallikan, no. 271; Ibn al-Salah, 
'Ulum al-Vadith, Aleppo, 1350/1931, 38-41; Ibn 
Hadjar, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, iv, 169-73; Nawawi, 
Tahdhib al-Asmd' (Wustenfeld), 708-12; HadjdjI 
Khalifa, no. 7263 ; Goldziher, Muh. Stud., ii, 250 f., 
255 f.; W. Marcais, in J A, 1900, 330, 502 f. ; 
J. Robson, in MW, 1951, 167 f.; idem, in BSOS, 
1952. 579 fi- (J- Robson) 

ABC DHARR al-GhifarI, a Companion of 
Muhammad. His name is commonly given as 
Djundub b. Djunada, but other names are also- 
mentioned. He is said to have worshipped one God 
before his conversion. When news of Muhammad 
reached him he sent his brother to Mecca to make 
enquiries, and being dissatisfied with his report, 
he went himself. One story says he met Muhammad 
with Abu Bakr at the Ka'ba, another that 'Ali took 
him secretly to Muhammad. He immediately be- 
lieved, and is surprisingly claimed to have been the 
fifth (even the fourth) believer. He was sent home, 
where he stayed till he went to Medina after the 
battle of the Ditch (5/627). Later he lived in Syria 
till he was recalled by 'Uthman because of a com- 
plaint against him by Mu'Swiya. He retired, or was 
sent, to al-Rabadha. where he died in 32/652-3, or 31. 
He was noted for humility and asceticism, in which 
respect he is said to have resembled Jesus. He was 
very religious and eager for knowledge, and is said 
to have matched Ibn Mas'Qd in religious learning. 
He is credited with 281 traditions, of which al- 
Bukhari and Muslim rendered 31 between them. 
Bibliography: Ibn Kutayba, Ma'drif (Wusten- 
feld), 130; Ya'kubl, ii, 138; al-Mas'udl, Murudj, 
iv, 268-74; Ibn 'Abd al-Barr, Isti'db, Haydarabad 



ABO DHARR — ABO DU'AD al-IYADI 



1336, 82 f., 645 f.; Ibn al-Athlr, Usd, v, 186-8; 
Nawawi, Tahdhib al-Asmd 1 (Wustenteld), 714 f.; 
al-Dhahabl, Tadhkirat al-Huffdf, i, 171.; Ibn 
Hadjar, If aba, Cairo 1 358/1939, iv, 63 ff.; Tahdhib 
al-Tahdhib, xii, 90 f.; Wensinck, Handbook, 7 
(add Ibn SaM, Il/ii, 112); A. Sprenger, Das Leben 
und die Lehre des Mohammad, i, 4j4 ff. 

(J. Robson) 
ABC DHU'AYB al-HUCHALI, Khuwaylid 
b. Khalio, Arabian poet, a younger contem- 
orary of the Prophet. The legend presents him 
journeying to visit Muhammad but reaching Medina 
the very morning after his death. There is some 
justification for the assumption that Abu Dhu'ayb 
migrated to Egypt under 'Umar. From there he 
joined Ibn Abl Sarh's campaign into Ifrikiya (26/647). 
He died on his way to Medina where he accompanied 
c Abd Allah b. al-Zubsfyr who had been charged by 
Ibn Abl Sarh with informing the caliph 'Uthman 
of the successes won by his armies (probably in 
28/649). The only other known incident of his 
biography is contained in the report — probably 
factually correct but possibly spun out of the 
opening lines of Poem i — that in Egypt he lost 
within one year five sons to the plague. 

Recognized by the Arab critics as the foremost 
poet of his tribe, a judgement to which the modern 
reader will readily subscribe, Abu Dhu'ayb excels 
the bards of the djahiliyya by the stringent com- 
position of his kasida's. In the care he devoted 
to the structure of his odes he continued a trend 
already traceable in the work of Sa'ida b. Dju'ayya, 
an older Hudhall poet, whose rdwi Abu Dhu'ayb 
was. Both poets share the description of wild honey 
and its gatherer along with a certain delight in the 
intimate and accurate description of the bees as 
well as the procedure of the collector — a motif which 
is not really popular with other Hudhall poets. A 
peculiar treatment of the massing of a cloud formation 
and the subsequent downpour is also characteristic 
of Sa'ida and his rdwi. In Abu Dhu'ayb's love poetry 
an adumbration of what came to develop into the 
style of the Medinese school is clearly noticeable. 
Another feature that seems to anticipate future 
developments is the manner in which Abu Dhu'ayb 
tends to elaborate the nasib into a complete ode 
(cf. nos. II and XI, where the other themes are, as 
it were, enveloped by the nasib). Like his master 
Sa'ida, Abu Dhu'ayb is fond of, and excels in 
descriptions of weapons and of hunting-scenes, but 
is weak in depicting horses (as already noted by al- 
AsmaS). Almost half of his preserved verse belongs 
to elegies in which the gentle melancholy of his 
obsession with the instability of fate provides an 
appropriate emotional background. His masterpiece, 
the elegy on the death of his sons (poem I), shows a 
unity of mood and thought — the theme of the 
inevitability of doom is stated and connected with 
the occasion of the marthiya, then illustrated in 
three gripping scenes, to be concisely restated in the 
last line — which is unsurpassed in ancient poetry. 
Bibliography : Brockelmann, I, 36-7, S I, 71; 
Ibn Kutayba, Sft»V, 413-6; Yakut, Irshdd, iv, 
185-8; Aghdni, vi, 58-69; J. Hell, Der Diwan des 
Abu Du'aib, Hanover 1926; E. Braiinlich, Abu 
Du'aib-Studien, in Isl., 1929. 1-23; the same, 
Versuch einer literargeschichtlichen Betrachtungs- 
weise altarabischer Poesien, ibid., 1937, 201-69. 
(G. E. von Grunebaum) 
ABC DJAHL, properly Abu '1-Hakam <Amr b. 
Hisham b. al-MoghIra of the Banii Makhzum of 
Kuraysh, also named Ibn al-Hanzaliyya after his 



mother, Asma' bint Mukharriba. He was bom about 
570 or a little after; he and Muhammad were youths 
together at a feast in the house of c Abd Allah b. 
Djud'an, while his mother became a Muslim and 
lived until after 13/635. A few years before the 
Hidjra Abu Djahl seems to have succeeded al-Walld 
b. al-Mughlra as leader of Makhzum and also of the 
group of clans associated with Makhzum. He was 
less inclined to compromise with Muhammad than 
was al-Walld, as his position in Meccan affairs was 
more endangered by Muhammad than that of the 
older man. He was perhaps largely responsible for 
the boycott of Hashim and al-Muttalib, and the 
ending of the boycott was a defeat for his policy. 
He won an important success, however, when he 
and <Ukba b. Abl Mu'ayt, soon after Abu Talib 
died and was succeeded by Abu Lahab as chief of 
Hashim, persuaded the latter to cease giving pro- 
tection to Muhammad. Just before the Hidjra he 
seems to have tried to have Muhammad killed, and 
to make revenge impossible there was to be a man 
from each clan involved. Owing to his hostility to 
Muhammad during the latter years of the Meccan 
period many acts of persecution of Muslims are 
attributed to him, though probably not all really 
happened (cf. K. xvii, 62, xliv, 43, xcvi, 6 and 
commentators). He and his brother al-HSrith b. 
Hisham persuaded their uterine brother c Ayyash 
b. Abl Rabi'a to return from Medina and kept 
him (perhaps forcibly) in Mecca. Abu Djahl's in- 
fluence was based on his commercial and financial 
strength. The expedition of Hamza to SU al-Bahr 
in 1/623 came near a large caravan directed by Abu 
Djahl. In 2/624 when Mecca was informed that Abu 
Sufyan's caravan from Syria was threatened by the 
Muslims, Abu Djahl led the force of about 1000 men 
which went to save it, and perished in the battle 
of Badr [?.».]. Abu Djahl sought battle with the 
Muslims even after the caravan was known to be 
safe, perhaps in the hope of gaining military glory, 
since Abu Sufyan, when available, had the privilege 
of commanding. After Abu Djahl's death the leading 
men in the group of clans associated with Makhzum 
were SafwSn b. Umayya (Djumah), Suhayl b. 'Amr 
( c Amir) and eventually Abu Djahl's son 'Ikrima. 
Bibliography: Ibn Hisham, Wakidi, Tabari— 
see indexes; Ibn Sa c d, iii/i, 194, iii/2, 55, viii, 
193, 220; Ya'kubl, ii, 27; Caetani, Annali, i, 
2945. 309, 478, 491, etc.; Montgomery Watt, 
Muhammad at Mecca, by index; AzrakI, Wiisten- 
feld, 455, 469. (W. Montgomery Watt) 

ABC DU'AD al-IYADI, Djuwayra, Djuway- 
riyya or Haritha b. al-Hadjdjadj (or again 
Hanzala b. al-SharkI, which was more probably, 
however, the name of Abu '1-Tamahan al-IJayni, see 
Shi'r, 229), pre-Islamic poetof al-HIra, contempo- 
rary of al-Mundhir b. M3> al-Sama* (about 506-554 
A.D.), who put him in the charge of his horses. The ex- 
pression didr** ka-djar* Abi Du'dd, which appears in 
a line of Rays b. Zuhayr and has become proverbial, 
gave rise to several traditions showing Abu Du'ad 
as the "protege" of a noble and generous dfdr, who 
is either al-Mundhir, al-Harith b. Hammam or Ka'b 

As a poet, AbQ Du J ad is famous for his description 
of horses, and in this genre some critics consider 
him superior to Tufayl al-Ghanawi and al-Nabigha 
al-Dja'di. Nevertheless, the lexicographers have not 
collected his poems systematically, as the ydid not 
collect those of c Adi b. Zayd, because his language 
was not "nadjdi" and he did not follow the poetical 
tradition. Moreover, al-Asma'I accuses Khalaf al- 



ABO DU'AD al-IYAdI — ABO DULAMA 



Ahmar of having attributed to Abu Du'ad forty 
kasidas composed by himself (al-Marzubanl, Mu- 
washshah, 252). 

Bibliography: Brockelmann, S I, 58 ; Caussin 
de Perceval, Essai sur I'Histoire des Arabes, ii, 
1 10-3, putting together the traditions; the 
fundamental article is that of the Aghdnl 1 , xv, 
95-9; see also Ibn Rutayba, Shi'r, 120-3; Maydanl, 
Amthdl, Cairo 1352, i, 49, 170 (in reference to 
djar ka-djdr A.D. and and al-nadhir al- c uryan); 
Marzubanl, Muwashshah, 73-4, 88 ; idem, Mu l djam, 
115; Ibn Durayd, Ishtikdk, 104; Ya £ kubi, i, 
259-306; W. Ahlwardt, Sammlungen, i, 8-9; O. 
Rescher, Abriss, i, 80-1,; Nallino, Scritti vi, 36, who 
classes him among the Christian poets, although 
Cheikho, Nasrdniyya, does not mention him. A 
number of verses are to be found in Ahlwardt, 
op. cit. i, 27-8, 68-70; Buhturi, Ifamdsa, 87 
(Cheikho); Djahiz, Hayawdn*, index; as well as 
in the works of philologists and lexicographers. 
Collection of fragments by G. E. von Griinebaum, 
Abu Dn'dd al-Iyddt: Collection of fragments, 
WZKM, 1948, 1952. (Ch. Pellat) 

ABC DULAF, MlS c AR B. MUHALHIL AL-KHAZRADjI 

al-Yanbu c 1, an Arab poet, traveller and 
mineralogist. The earliest date in his biography 
is his appearance in Bukhara towards the end of 
the reign of Nasr b. Ahmad (d. in 331/943)- His 
travels in Persia hint at the years 331-341/943-952. 
Abu Djalar Muhammad b. Ahmad, whom Abu 
Dulaf mentions as his patron in SIstan (read : 'Ahmad 
b. Muhammad), ruled 331-52/942-63. The author of 
the Fihrist (completed in 377/987) refers to him as 
djawwdla "globe-trotter" and as his personal 
acquaintance. Al-Tha c alibi in his Yatimat al-Dahr, 
Damascus, iii, 176-94, associates him with the 
circle of al-Sahib Ismail b. 'Abbad (326-85/938-95), 
probably during the later period of al-Sahib's life. 
As transmitters of the verses of Abu Dulaf, al- 
Tha'alibi mentions chiefly the natives of Hamadhan, 
and among them Bad!' al-Zaman (d. 398/1007). The 
long kasida on the slang of the rogues (Banu Sdsdn) , 
which enchanted the Sahib, was written in imitation 
of the poem of 'Ukayl al- c UkbarI who belonged to 
the same literary circle of Rayy (Yatima, ii, 285-8). 
Abu Dulaf himself supplied the commentary on the 
difficult expressions. 

The two patrons, to whom Abu Dulaf dedicated 
his two geographical risdlas, and who introduced into 
them their own remarks, are still unknown. The 
first risdla describes Abu Dulaf's journey in the 
company of the envoys of the Turkish king Kalln 
b. Shakhlr, who were returning from Bukhara to 
Sandabil. Marquart, Streifziige, 88-90, identified 
Sandabil with Kan-cou, the capital of the Western 
Uyghur king. On the way there, Abu Dulaf quotes 
in utter disorder the names of the Turkish tribes 
which he pretends to have visited. From Sandabil 
he suddenly goes over to Kila (Kra in Malaya), and 
then, in a desultory way, refers to various places in 
India, to emerge finally in SIstan. Grigoriev, Marquart 
and von Miik recognized the spurious character of 
the journey (except for the direct road Bukhara- 
Sandabil, and SIstan). Later (1945) Marquart thought 
that the genuine Abu Dulaf might be discovered in 
the quotations found in al-Fikrist. The analysis of 
the Mashhad text shows that both the risdlas are 
equally genuine, as far as the authorship goes, and 
therefore the fake must be attributed to Abu Dulaf 
himself. The quotations in Fihrist, though differing 
from the first risdla, have no better claim to veracity. 
On the contrary, the second risdla, describing Abu 



Dulaf's journey in more easily controllable regions 
(western and northern Persia, Armenia) gives a clear 
itinerary and contains a number of interesting details 
which can be verified. 

Bibliography: F. Wiistenfeld, Des Abu Dolef 
Misar Bericht iiber die turkischen Harden, in 
Zeitschr. f. vergl. Erdkunde, 1842 (text according 
to Kazwlnl); C. Schlozer, Abu Dulaf Misaris . . . 
de itinere suo asiatico commentarius, Berlin 1845 
(text according to Yakut) ; V. Grigoriev, Ob arab. 
puteshestvennike . . . Abu Dulaf, in Zurnal Min. 
Narod. prosv., 1872, 1-45; Marquart, Streifziige, 
1903, 74-95; id., Das Reich Zabul, in FeslSchrift 
E. Sachau, 1915, 271-2; A. von Rohr-Sauer, Des 
Abu Dulaf Bericht iiber seine Reise nach Turkestan, 
China und Indien, Bonn 1939, (translates the 
text of the Mashhad MS. discovered by A. Z. 
Validi-Togan; H. von Miik, in his review of 
this work, OLZ, 1942, 240-2, has pointed out the 
leniency of Rohr-Sauer's conclusions); V. Mi- 
norsky, La deuxi&me risala d'Abu Dulaf, in Oriens, 
1952, 23-7; id., Abu Dulaf's travels in Iran (being 
printed in Cairo, 1954) — gives the Mashhad text 
of the second risdla with a detailed commentary. 

(V. MlNORSKY) 

ABC DULAMA Zand b. al-Djawn, a black slave, 
client of the Banu Asad in Kufa. He is already 
mentioned in the history of the last Umapyad 
caliph, but appears as a "poet" only under the 
'Abbasids and plays the part of a court jester in 
the palace of al-Saffah and especially in those of 
al-Mansur and al-Mahdl. His poem on the death of 
Abu Muslim ( 137/754-5) is said to have been the 
first of his works to make him a name. Examples 
of his poetry show him to have been a clever, witty 
versificator, who readily seizes upon low expressions 
and displays all sorts of filth with cynical joy; but 
he does not despise the most insipidly fulsome praise 
when this form of mendicancy promises some reward. 
He laughs at the praise of the crowd and his spiteful 
tongue is feared by all. It is true he did not spare 
himself and still less his near relatives; he would 
even occasionally revenge himself for the coarse 
jokes which the magnates played on him when one 
of his patrons was pleased to ridicule another through 
him. He also enjoyed the jester's liberty of being 
above the Islamic laws and could make them the 
butt of his insolent mockery. He has given proverbial 
fame to his mule, which possessed all possible defects 
and to which he dedicated a witty katjida. 

Abu Dulama embodied a popular type of crude 
and unrestrained comicality; hence the historicity 
of some of the anecdotes that are told both of him 
and of Abu Nuwas is somewhat doubtful. 

Statements as to the date of his death vary: 
according to some he died in 160/776-7, according 
to others in 170/786-7; the first of these dates being 
the more likely. 

Bibliography: Ibn Kutayba, Shi ( r, 487ft.; 
Aghani 1 , ix, 120-40; xv, 85 ; Ibn Khallikan, no. 243; 
Hariri, MakdmaV, 518 (Makama 40); Sharishi, 
Sharh Ma^dmdt al-JJariri, ii, 236 ft.; BayhakI, 
Mahdsin, Schwally, 645; TaMkh Baghdad, viii, 
488-93 ; Nuwayri, Nihdyat al-A rab, iv, 37-48 ; Yaf ii, 
Mir'dt, i, 341-5 ; R. Basset, in Revue des traditions 
populaires, xvi % 87; Brockelmann, I, 72; S I, in; 
O. Rescher, Abriss, i, 303-7; A. F. Rifal, ( Asr 
al-Ma'miin, ii, 300-16; Mohammed Ben Cheneb, 
Abii Doldma, Poite bouffon de la cour des premiers 
caUphes abbassides (containing an edition and 
partial translation of the collected poems and 
fragments), Alger 1922. (J. Horovitz) 



ABU 'l-DUNYA — ABU 'l-FADL 'ALLAMi 



ABU 'l-DUNYA Abu 'l-Hasan 'Ali b. 'Uthman 
b. al-Khattab (or 'Uthman b. al-Kh.), one of 
those to whom preternatural longevity has been 
ascribed {mu'ammarun, q.v.); he is also called 
al-Mu'ammar al-Maghribl or al-Ashadjdj al-Mu- 
'ammar. He is said to have been born about 
600 A.D. and to have died in 316/928,327/938-9 
or even 476/1083-4. Of the tribe of Hamdan, 
he drank in his youth from the source of life in the 
presence of al-Khadir [q.v.], then joined 'All b. AM 
Talib, with whom he fought at Siffin and from whom 
he received the name of Abu '1-Dunya, after his horse 
had made a scar on his face (al-Ashadjdj = the 
scarred one). After the death of the caliph, he went 
to Tangier. He returned at the beginning of the 
4th/ioth century, to fulfil the pilgrimage and to 
relate traditions which he claimed to have heard 
from the mouth of 'All. The information about him 
goes back to the 4th century (see Ibn Babawayh, 
Ikmdl, 297-303, cf. I. Goldziher, Abhandlungen, ii, 
Ixviii, n. 4; al-Dhahabl, Mizdn al-IHiddl, ii, 647; Ibn 
Hadjar, Lisdn al-Mizdn, iv, 134-40, 191-2) and one 
may think that this is no more than the tale of a 
vulgar impostor. Nevertheless al-Djahiz, Tarbi 1 
(Pellat), para 146, mentions an Ashadjdj b. 'Amr 
(read al-Mu'ammar?) alongside al-Sufyani [q.v.] 
and al-Asfar al-Kahtanl, and, according to the 
prophecies of Daniel "one with a scar", sometimes 
identified with 'Umar b. c Abd al-'AzIz (Ibn If utayba, 
Ma l drif, Cairo 1353, 158; G. van Vloten, Recherches, 
55-6, 79 and references), will fill the world with 
justice. It is therefore possible that a group of 
Sunnis put, as early as the 3rd century, their hope 
in an Ashadjdj, especially as the Shi'ite Ibn Babawayh 
uses the word mukhdlifund, "our adversaries", to 
describe those who deny the existence of the kd'im, 
but believe in the longevity of Abu '1-Dunya. 

(Ch. Pellat) 

ABU 'l-FAPL [see ibn al-'amId]. 

ABU 'l-FAPL (Fazl) 'ALLAMi (Shaykh), 
author, liberal thinker, and informal secretary of 
theemperor Akbar, was the younger brother of the 
poet Faydi [q.v.], and the second son of Shaykh 
Mubarak Nagawri (d. 1593), one of the most 
distinguished scholars of his age in India, and the 
author of a commentary on the Kur'an, Manba l -i 
NafdHs al-'Uyun. He was born on 6 Muharram 
958/14 Jan. 1551 at Agra, where his father had 
settled, in 1543, as a teacher. Abu'1-Fadl was a 
pupil of his father, and owed his profound scholar- 
ship and liberality of outlook largely to the training 
given him by the latter. By his fifteenth year he 
had studied religious sciences, Greek thought and 
mysticism; but formal education did not satisfy the 
yearnings of his soul, nor did the orthodox faith 
bring him spiritual solace. While teaching in his 
father's school, he spent his time in extensive 
reading, deep meditation and frequent discussions 
of religious questions. 

Abu '1-Fadl was presented at the court by his 
brother, Faydi, in 1574. He soon gained high favour 
with Akbar by his scholarly criticism of the narrow- 
mindedness of the 'ulamd' in the religious discussions 
which were started in the 'Ibddat Khdna in 1575. 
He helped in freeing the Emperor from the domina- 
tion of the 'ulamd', and was instrumental in bringing 
about their ultimate political downfall by the 
promulgation, in 1579, of the decree [maftdar), 
drafted by him in collaboration with his father, 
which invested Akbar with the authority of deciding 
points of difference between the theologians. 

A firm believer in God, whom he regarded as 



transcendental and the Creator, Abu '1-Fadl con- 
sidered that there could be no relationship between 
man and God except that of servitude ('abdullahi) 
on the part of the former. Servitude required sin- 
cerity, suppression of the ego (nafs) and devotion 
to Him, resignation to His will, and faith in His 
Mercifulness. Though he regarded formal worship 
as mere hypocrisy, he believed that there were many 
ways of serving the Lord, but only divine blessing 
could reveal the Truth. "In the main", he wrote, 
"every sect may be placed in one of two categories— 
either, it is in possession of the Truth, in which case 
one should seek direction from it; or, it is in the 
wrong, in which it is an object of pity and deserving 
of sympathy, not of reproach" (Akbar Ndma, ii, 
660). His faith in being at "peace with all" (sultt- 
i-kull) involved not only toleration of all religions 
but also love for all human beings. 

In political affairs, Abu '1-Fadl sought to emphasise 
the divine character of Akbar's kingship. Royalty, 
he claimed, was light emanating from God (farr-i- 
izadi), communicated to kings without the inter- 
mediate assistance of any one. Though the existence 
of kings was necessary at all times, it was only after 
many ages that there appeared, by divine blessing, 
a monarch who could not only rule effectively, but 
could also guide the world spiritually. Since Akbar 
could ensure the material as well as the spiritual 
well-being of his subjects, he could be truly regarded 
as the "Perfect Man" (insdn-i-kdmil). It was the 
duty of all to give Akbar complete loyalty and to 
seek his spiritual guidance by becoming his disciples. 
The chosen among the disciples would be those who 
attained the "four degrees of devotion" (chahdr 
martaba-i-ikhldf), i.e. preparedness to place at 
Akbar's disposal their property, life, honour and 
faith. 

Though Abu'l-Fadl's religio-political views 
earned for him the enmity of the 'ulamd', the 
policy of religious toleration which he helped Akbar 
in evolving, the non-denominational yet spiritual 
character of obedience to the Emperor which he 
advocated, his justification, on ethical grounds, of 
every imperial action, and his persistent efforts to 
inculcate, especially among the nobles, a sense of 
mystical loyalty to Akbar, contributed greatly to 
the political consolidation of the Mughal Empire. 

In spite of Abu'l-Fadl's immense influence over 
Akbar and the numerous duties which he performed 
at Court (especially in drafting letters to nobles and 
foreign potentates), his progress in the official 
hierarchy was slow. It was only in 1585 that he 
was promoted to the mansab of 1000, which was 
doubled in 1592. Six years later it was raised to 
2500. Except when he was associated, for a short 
time in 1586, with Shah Kull Khan Mahram in the 
joint-government of Delhi, Abu'1-Fadl never held 
any office until 1599, when he was posted to the 
Deccan, at the instance of hostile elements at the 
Court. He distinguished himself there as an able 
administrator and military commander. In recog- 
nition of his services, he was promoted, in 1600, to 
the rank of 4000, and two years later, to that of 
5000. The same year he was hastily summoned to 
the Court when Akbar's son Sallm (afterwards the 
Emperor njahanglr) rebelled. On his way back, he 
was waylaid and assassinated by Radja BIr Singh 
Deva, the disaffected BundSla chieftain of Orchha, 
on 4 RabI' I 1011/22 Aug. 1602. His head was 
severed and sent to Sallm, at whose instance the 
crime had been committed, while the body was 
buried at Antari (near Gwalior). The news came as 



ABU 'l-FAPL 'ALLAmI — ABU 'l-FIDA 



a great shock to Akbar, who mourned the loss 
deeply and never forgave Sallm for instigating the 
murder. Abu'1-Fadl was survived by his son, £ Abd 
al-Rahman Aftfal Khan (d. 1613), who rose to be 
governor of Bihar. 

Abu'l-Fadl's principal title to fame as an author 
rests upon his monumental work, Akbar Nama, a 
history of Akbar (down to the 46th regnal year) and 
of his ancestors, compiled in three daftars (first two 
daftars published in Bibl. Ind. 3 vols.). The third 
daftar, AHn-i-Akbari (Bibl. Ind., 3 vols.), dealing 
with Imperial regulations and containing detailed 
information on Indian geography, administration 
and social and religious life, was the first work of 
its kind in India. Abu'l-Fadl's compositions, 
characterised by an individual literary style, served 
as a model for many generations, though none was 
able to imitate him successfully. His numerous 
works include a Persian translation of the Bible; 
'Iydr-i-Ddnish (a recension of Anwar -i-Suhayli); 
prefaces to Tdrikh-i-Alfi (unfortunately lost), to 
the Persian translation of Mahdbhdrata, and to many 
other works; and a Munddidt (ed. by Rizvi, Medieval 
India Quarterly, Aligarh, I/iii). His letters, prefaces 
and other compositions were compiled by his nephew 
under the title Inshd-i-Abu 'l-Fadl (3 vols.). Another 
collection of his private letters is entitled Ruk'dt-i- 
Abu 'l-Fadl. 

Bibliography: Autobiographical accounts: 
AHn-i-Akbari, iii (at end); Inshd-i-Abu 'l-Fadl, in. 
Biographies: Ma'dthir al-Umard y {Bibl. Ind.), ii, 
608-22 ; Elliot and Dowson, vi, 1 ff. ; Blochmau, 
Introduction to his translation of AHn-i-Akbari; 
Storey, ii/3, 541-51 (ietailed references 



(Nui 



l Has 



other singers, such as Ma'bad and Ibn Suraydj, and 
ABU 'l-FAPL 'IYAp [see 'iyadI. 
ABU 'l-FARAEJ [see babbagha 3 ; ibn al- 

PJAWZl; IBN AL-'lBRl; IBN AL-NADlM]. 

ABU 'L-FARAfiJ al I$BAHANl (or al- 

ISFAHANl), C ALl B. AL-HUSAYN B. MUH. B. AHMAD 

al-KurashI, Arab historian, litterateur and 
poet. He was born in 284/897 in Isfahan (whence 
his nisba) in Persia, but was of pure Arab race, a 
descendant of Kuraysh, or, to be more exact, of the 
Marwanid branch of the Umayyads. In spite of this, 
he was a Shi'ite. He studied in Baghdad, where he 
passed the greater part of his life, protected by the 
Buyids, especially by the vizier al-Muhallabi. He 
found also a warm welcome in Aleppo at the court 
of the Hamdanid prince Sayf al-Dawla. He died in 
Baghdad on 14 Dhu'l-Hidjdja 356/20 Nov. 967. His 
main book, on which he worked according to his 
own testimony for fifty years, is the Kitdb al-Aghdni 
("Book of Songs"). In it the author collected the 
songs that had been chosen, by order of the caliph 
Harun al-Rashid, by the famous musicians Ibrahim 
al-Mawsili, Isma'il b. Djami* and Fulayh b. al- c Awra 5 , 
and later revised by Ishak b. Ibrahim al-Mawsili; 
he added songs by other singers such as Ma'bad and 
Ibn Suraydj and by caliphs and their descendants; 
for each song he indicated its melody. This is, how- 
ever, but the least part of his work, as Abu'l-Faradj 
added rich information about the poets who were 
the authors of the songs, giving an account of 
their life and quoting many of their verses, as 
well as about the composers of the melodies. 
Furthermore, he gives many details about the 
ancient Arab tribes, their ayydm, their social life, 
the court life of the Umayyads, society at the time 
of the 'Abbasid caliphs, especially of Harun al- 
Rashld, the milieu of musicians and singers. In one 



word, in the Aghdni we pass in review the whole 
of Arabic civilization from the didhiliyya down to the 
end of the 3rd/gth century. The author even does 
us another service: following the method of the 
Arab writers, he quotes long passages from earlier 
writers, whose works have not come down to us. 
His book is thus a source also for the development 
of Arabic style. 

The first edition of the Aghdni was published 
in Bulak 1285/1868-9 in twenty volumes, to which 
should be added a twenty-first volume published 
by R. Brunnow {The twenty-first volume of the 
Kitdb al-Aghdni, Leiden 1888). For a lacuna see 
J. Wellhausen, ZDMG, 1896, 145-51. Tables by 
I. Guidi (Leiden 1895-1900). A second edition, being 
a reproduction of the Bulak ed., together with the 
twenty-first volume and the Tables of Guidi, Cairo, 
1323/1905-6. Cf. also Muh. Mahmud al-Shinklti, 
Tashih, Cairo 1334/1916). A third and much supe- 
rior edition was started in Cairo in 1927. 

Another work of Abu'l-Faradj that has come 
down to us is Makdtil al-fdlibiyyin wa-Akhbaruhum, 
a historical work composed in 313/923. It contains 
biographies of the descendants of Abu Talib (from 
Dja'far b. Abl Talib to the seventy who died under 
the reign of al-Muktadir, 295-320/908-32) who in some 
way lost their lives for political reasons, including 
those who died in prison or in hiding. This book 
was published in lithography, Teheran 1307 and in 
print, Nadjaf 1353. The Bombay edition (1311) on 
the margin of Fakhr al-DIn al-Nadjafi, Muntakhab 
fi 'l-Mardthi wa 'l-Khutab, contains the first half only. 
Among those books that are lost should be men- 
tioned books on genealogy and a Kitdb Ayydm 
aW-Arab, where 1700 "days" were mentioned. 
Abu'l-Faradj also edited the diwdns of Abu Tammam, 
al-Buhturi and Abu Nuwas. 

Bibliography: Ibn KhallikSn, no. 351; Yakut, 
Irshdd, v, 149-68 ; al-Khatib al- Baghdad!, Ta'rikh 
Baghdad, xi, 398-400; Brockelmann, i, 146, S i, 
225-6. A good biography, quoting his poetry and 
containing information about the Aghdni, in 
Aghdni', preface, i, 15-37 (the information about 
the Muhadhdhab is to be corrected). For MSS of 
the Aghdni see H. Ritter, in Oriens, 1949, 276 ff.; 
for miniatures illustrating it, D. S. Rice, in 
Burlington Magazine, 1953, 128 ff. 

(M. Nallino) 
ABU 'l-FATIJ [see ibn al- c amId; ibn al-furat; 
al-muzaffar]. 

ABU 'l-FIDA, Isma'Il b. (al-Afdal) <AlI b. 
(al-Muzaffar) Mahmud b. (al-Mansur) Muhammad 
b. TaijI al-DIn c Umar b. Shahanshah b. AyyOb, 
al-Malik al-Mu'ayyad c Imad al-DIn, Syrian 
prince, historian, and geographer, of the 
family of the AyyObids [q.v.], born in Damascus, 
Djum. :, 672/Nov. 1273. At the age of 12, in the 
company of his father and his cousin al-Mu?affar 
Mahmud II, prince of Hamah, he was present at 
the siege and capture of Markab (Margat) (684/1285). 
He took part also in the later campaigns against the 
Crusaders. On the suppression of the Ayyubid 
principality of Hamah in 698/1299, he remained in 
the service of its Mamluk governors, at the same 
time ingratiating himself with the Mamluk sultan 
al-Malik al-Nasir [q.v.] Muhammad b. IJala'un. 
After several vain attempts to obtain the government 
of Hamah, he was finally appointed on 18 Djum. i, 
710/14 Oct. 1310, at the instance of the "king of the 
Arabs", Muhanna, shaykh of Al Fadl. In 712/1312 
his government was converted to a life principality, 
but two years later he, with the other governors, 



ABU 'l-FIDA. — ABO FIRAS 



was made directly subordinate to the governor of 
Damascus, Tankiz, with whom his relations were 
for a time strained. In the following years he 
strengthened his position by lavish patronage and 
generosity, especially on the occasion of his visits 
to Egypt. In 719/1319-20 he accompanied sultan 
Muhammad on pilgrimage to Mecca, and on their 
return to Cairo he was publicly invested with the 
insignia of the sultanate and the title of al-Malik 
al-Mu'ayyad (17 Muh. 720/28 Febr. 1320), and given 
precedence over all governors in Syria. He continued 
to enjoy the great reputation which he had acquired 
as patron and man of letters, as well as the friend- 
ship of the sultan, until his death at Hamah on 23 
Muh. 732/27 Oct. 1331. With the support of Tankiz, 
his son al-Afdal Muhammad was nominated as his 
successor, and was also granted the insignia of the 
sultanate. (For his grave, cf. ZDMG, lxii, 657-60; 
lxiii, 329-33, 853 U.;Bull. d'Etudes Orient., 1931, 149)- 

The Arabic biographical notices furnish several 
specimens of his poetical productions, which included 
a versification of the juristic work al-Hawi of al- 
Mawardi [q.v.]. Of various other writings on religious 
and literary subjects almost all have perished. His 
reputation rests on two works, both largely compila- 
tions, but rearranged and supplemented by himself. 
The Mukhtasar ta'rikh al-bashar, a universal history 
covering the pre-Islamic period and Islamic history 
down to 729/1329, is in its earlier part based mainly 
on Ibn al-Athir. Its contemporary popularity is 
shown by the continuations to it written by Ibn 
al-Wardi [q.v.], Ibn Habib al-Dimashkl, and Ibn 
al-Shihna al-Halabi [q.v.]. It was a major source of 
eighteenth-century orientalism, through the editions 
of J. Gagnier, De vita . . . Mohammedis (Oxford 1723) 
and J. J. Reiske-J. G. Chr. Adler, Annates Moslemici 
(Leipzig 1754 and Copenhagen 1789-94). The com- 
plete text was first published in Istanbul (2 vols., 
1286/1869-70). 

The Takwln al-Bulddn, a descriptive geography 
supplemented by physical and mathematical data 
in tabular form (derived mainly from the Arabic 
translation of Ptolemy, the tenth-century K. al- 
a(wdl, al-BIruni and Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribl [qq.v.], 
their divergences being noted) and completed in 
721/1321, largely replaced all earlier geographical 
works. It is extensively quoted by al-Kalkashandl 
[q.v.], and several later abridgements were made, 
including one in Turkish by Muh. b. 'All Sipahlzade 
(d. 997/1589). Individual sections were edited and 
translated by European scholars from the seven- 
teenth century (John Greaves, London 1650; 
J. B. Koehler, Leipzig 1766; etc.). The entire work 
was edited by J. T. Reinaud and MacGuckin de 
Slane (Paris 1840) and translated by Reinaud (Paris 
1848) and Stanislas Guyard (Paris 1883), the first 
volume of the translation consisting of a classic 
survey entitled Introduction generate d la geographic 
des Orientaux. The judgments of scholars on Abu 
'1-Fida's geography have differed widely, from "a 
rather poor compilation of earlier sources" (J. H. 
Kramers, in Legacy of Islam, Oxford 1931, 91; cf. 
C. E. Dubler, Abu Hamid el Granadino, Madrid 1953, 
182) to G. Sarton (see Bibl.), for whom Abu'1-Fida 
is "the greatest geographer of his age". See also the 

art. DJUGHRAFIYA. 

Bibliography: Autobiography (extracted from 
the History), trans, de Slane, in Recueil des 
Historiens des Croisades, Orientaux i, 166-186 
(see also Appendice 744-5i); DhahabI, Ta'rikh 
al-Islam, Suppl, Leiden MS. 765; Kutubl, 
Fawdt (Cairo 1951), i, 7o; Ibn Hadjar, al-Durar 



al-kamina, Hyderabad 1348, i, 371-3; Subki, 
Tabakat al-ShdfiHyya, vi, 84-5; Ibn Taghribirdi, 
Cairo, ix, 16, 23, 24, 39, 58-62, 74, 93. 100, 292-4 
(largely reproduced in MakrizI, Suluk, i, Cairo 
1941, 87, 89, 90, 137, 142, 166, 196, 202, 238); 
idem, Les Biographies du Manhal Sdfi (G. Wiet, 
Cairo 1932) no. 432; F. Wiistenfeld, Geschichts- 
schreiber der Araber, 1881, 161-6; Brockelmann, 
II, 44-46; S II 44; M. Hartmann, Das MuwaUah, 
Weimar 1896, 10; Carra de Vaux, Les Penseurs 
de VI slam, Paris, i, 139-46; G. Sarton, Introduction 
to the History of Science, iii, Baltimore 1947, 200, 
308, 793-9; A. Ates in Oriens, 1952, 44. 

(H. A. R. Gibb) 
ABC FIRAS al-HamdanI, poetic cognomen of 
al-Harith b. Abi 'l-'Ala 1 Sa'Id b. Hamdan al- 
TaghlibI, Arab poet, born in 320/932, probably in 
'Irak. Sa'id, himself a poet, was killed by his nephew 
Nasir al-Dawla Hasan on attempting to occupy 
Mawsil in 323/935, The mother of Abu Firas, a 
Greek umm walad, moved with her son to Aleppo 
after its occupation by the poet's cousin Sayf al-Dawla 
in 333/944. and there he was trained under the eye 
of Sayf al-Dawla, who also married his sister. In 
336/947-8 he was appointed to the governorship of 
Manbidj (and later also of Harran ) , where, in spite 
of his youth, he distinguished himself in the conflicts 
with the. Nizari tribes of Diyar Mudar and the 
Syrian desert. He also frequently accompanied Sayf 
al-Dawla in his Byzantine expeditions, and was 
captured in 348/951 but succeeded in escaping from 
imprisonment at Kharshana by leaping on horseback 
into the Euphrates. In 351/962 he was again captured 
at Manbidj during the Greek operations preliminary 
to the siege of Aleppo, and taken to Constantinople 
where he remained, in spite of his entreaties to 
Sayf al-Dawla, until the general exchange of prisoners 
in 355/966. He was then appointed governor of Hims 
and in the year after Sayf al-Dawla's death attempted 
to revolt against his son and successor (and his 
own nephew) Abu'l-Ma'ali, but was defeated, cap- 
tured and killed by the latter's general Karghawayh, 
2 Djumada i, 357/4 April 968. 

The reputation of Abu Firas owes much to his 
personal qualities. Handsome in person, of noble 
family, brave, generous, and extolled by his con- 
temporaries as "excelling in every virtue" (though 
also egoistic and rashly ambitious), he lived up to 
the Arab ideal of chivalry which he expressed in 
his poetry. This is probably the thought which 
underlies the often-quoted phrase of Ibn 'Abbad: 
"Poetry began with a king (sc. Imru 1 al-Kays) and 
ended with a king (sc. Abu Firas)". His earlier 
output is composed of kasidas of the classical type, 
devoted to praise of his family's nobility and warlike 
deeds (notably a rd'iyya of 225 lines recounting 
the history of the Hamdanid house) or to self-praise, 
and shorter lyrical pieces on amatory or friendship 
themes of the 'Iraki type. The former are remarkable 
for their sincerity, directness, and natural vigour, 
in contrast to the metaphorical elaboration of his 
chief rival at the court of Sayf al-Dawla, al-Muta- 
nabbi; the latter are elegant trifles, formal and 
unoriginal. Noteworthy also are his outspokenly 
vShi'ite odes, satirizing the 'Abbasids. But it is more 
especially on the poems of his captivity, the Rumiyydt, 
that his fame rests. In these he gives expression in 
affecting and eloquent terms to the captive's year- 
ning for home and friends, mingled with not a 
little self-praise, reproach to Sayf al-Dawla for the 
delay in ransoming him, and bitter complaints at 
being neglected. 



ABO FIRAS — ABU 'l-GHAZI BAHADUR KHAN 



His diwdn was edited with a commentary (largely 
from the poet himself) shortly after his death by 
his tutor and friend, the grammarian Ibn Khalawayh 
(d. 370/980). The manuscripts present, however, so 
many variations in text and arrangement that 
other recensions must also have been circulated, 
including probably that of al-Babbagha (d. 398/1008: 
see Tanukhi, Bibl.). All the earlier defective editions 
(Bayrut 1873, I 9°o» I 9 I °) are superseded by the 
critical edition of S. Dahhan (3 vols., Bayrut 1944), 
with full bibliography. 

Bibliography : Tanukhi, Nishwar al-Muhddara, 
i, London 1921, 1 10-2 : Tha'alibi. Yatima, i, 22-62 
(Cairo i, 27-71); also ed. and translated with an 
introd. by R. Dvorak, Abu Firds, ein arab. 
Dichter und Held, Leiden 1895; Ibn Khallikan, 
no. 146; Brockelmann i, 88; S i, 142-4, M. Canard, 
Say/ al-Daula (recueil de textes), Alger-Paris 1934, 
index ; idem, Hist, de la Dynastie des Hamddnides, 
i, Alger 1951, 379, 395 f., 596 ff.. 669 f., 763, 772, 
796, 810, 824; H. Ritter, in Oriens 1948, 377-85- 

(H. A. R. Gibb) 
ABC FUDAYK c Abd Allah b. Jhawr, a Kha- 
ridjite agitator, of the Banu Kays b. Tha'laba. 
Originally associated with Nafi c b. al-Azrak [q.v.], 
he left him to join Nadjda b. c Amir [q.v.], whom 
he did not hesitate to murder, because of certain 
differences of opinion that arose between them. 
After this murder he gained control over Bahrayn 
(72/691) and succeeded in withstanding the attack 
of an army from Basra sent against him by c Abd 
al-Malik. Shortly afterwards (73/693) a second 
expedition, consisting of 10.000 men from Basra and 
commanded by 'Umar b. 'Ubayd Allah b. Ma'mar 
succeeded in defeating and killing him. 

Bibliography: 'Adjdadj, no. 11; Mubarrad, 
Kamil, 662; Baladhuri. Ansdb, v, 346, xi 
(= Anonyme arab. Chronik, ed. Ahlwardt), 143 ff.; 
Tabari, ii, 829, 852 ft.; Ash c ari, Makdlat, 101; 
ShahrastanI, (on margin of Ibn Hazm, Fisal), i, 
162-167; R- Briinnow, Die Charidschiten, 47 ff-; 
J. Wellhausen, Die religiSs-politischen Oppositions- 
parUien, 32. See also khawaridj. 

(M. Th. Houtsma*) 
ABU FUTRUS [see nahr abI futrus]. 
ABU 'l-FUTUH HASAN [see makka]. 
ABU 'l-FUTUH al-RAzI, Persian com- 
mentator of the Kur'an. He lived between 
480/1087 and 525/1131, fixed by conjecture. Among 
his disciples are the famous Shi'te theologians Ibn 
Shahrasub and Ibn Babuya [q.v.], who describes him 
as a scholar, preacher, commentator of the Kur'an and 
a pious man. According to al-Shushtarl (Madjalis 
al-Mu'minin) he was a contemporary of al-Zamakh- 
sharl, whom he quoted as his master — which would 
explain the Mu'tazilism of his commentary. Muh. 
Kazwlnl has proved that his commentary could 
not date from before 510/1116. He claimed that he 
was a descendant of the Companion N5fi c b. Budayl. 
His Rawd al-Djindn wa-Rawh al-D±andn (Teheran 
1905, in two volumes; 1937, in three volumes) is one 
of the earliest — if not the earliest — of the Shi'ite 
commantaries composed in Persian. In his intro- 
duction he declared that he gave preference to this 
language because those who knew Arabic were in 
the minority. The commentary, preceded by an 
introduction concerning the exegesis of the Kur'an, 
deals with grammar, rhetoric, juridical and religious 
commands and the traditions about the origin of 
the verses. The influence of al-Tabari's Tafsir can 
be perceived; the Shi'ite tendency is less pronounced 
than in the later Persian commentaries. — In ad- 



dition to the commentary he is said to be the author 
of a commentary on the Shihdb al-Akhbdr of Muh. 
b. Salama al-Kuda c i (Brockelmann, i, 343). 

Bibliography: Storey, section i, no. 6; H. 
Massi, in Melanges W. Marcais, Paris 1950, 243 ff. 

(H. Mass£) 
ABU GHANIM Bishr b. Ghanim al-KHURA- 
SANl, eminent Ibadi lawyer of the end of the 
2nd/8th and the beginning of the 3rd/9th century, 
a native of Khurasan. On his way to the Rustamid 
imam c Abd al-Wahhab (168-208/784-823) at Tahart, 
to offer him his book al-Mudawwana, he stayed with 
the Ibadi shaykh, Abu Hafs 'Amrus b. Fath, of 
Pjabal Nafusa, who rendered a service to Ibadi 
literature by conserving in the Maghrib a copy of 
the work. 

The Mudawwana of Abu Ghanim is the oldest 
Ibadi treatise on general jurisprudence, according 
to the teaching of Abu 'Ubayda Muslim al-Tamimi 
(d. under al-Mansur, 136-58/754-75; cf. ibadiyya) 
as transmitted by his disciples. The manuscript of 
the Mudawwana, copied by 'Amrus b. Fath, was 
composed of twelve parts; the titles are given in 
the catalogue of Ibadi books compiled by Abu 
'1-Kasim al-Barradi (8th/i4th century). The book 
has become very rare; according to information 
received from S. Smogorzewski, a unique manuscript 
was in the possession of an Ibadi shaykh in Guerrara 
(Mzab). Al-Barradi's catalogue also quotes another 
law book by Abu Ghanim. 

Bibliography: Shammakhi, al-Siyar, Cairo 
1301, 228; Salimi, al-Lam c a, in a collection of 
six Ibadi works published in Algiers 1326, 184, 
197-8; A. de Motylinski, in Bull. Corr. afr., 1885, 
18, nos. 12 and 14. (T. Lewicki) 

ABU 'L-fiHAZt BAHADUR KHAN, ruler of 
Khiwa and Caghatay historian, born probably 
on 16 Rabl c i, 1012/24 Aug., 1603, son of 'Arab 
Muhammad Khan, of the Ozbeg dynasty of the 
Shaybanids [q.v.], and of a princess of the same 
family. He spent his youth in Urgan6 (at that time 
largely depopulated owing to the change of course 
of the Oxus), at the court of his father, who 
was khan of this place.. In 1029/1619 he was 
appointed to be his father's lieutenant in Kath, 
but when his father was killed soon afterwards 
in a rebellion of two of his other sons, had to take 
refuge at Samarkand with Imam-kuli Khan. After 
long fighting he, together with his brother Isfandiyar, 
succeeded in ousting the rebellious brothers, with 
the aid of some Turkmen tribes. In 1033/1623 he 
became lieutenant of his brother in Urganc, but 
quarrelled with him, in connection with Turkmen 
tribal feuds, in 1036/1626 and had to flee to Tash- 
kent, where he lived for two years at the Kazakh 
court. After another attempt to seize the throne in 
Khiwa. he spent ten years (from 1039/1629) as an 
exile at the court of the Safawids, mostly at Isfahan. 
Here he widened his knowledge of the past of his 
people, acquired at the Kazakh court, by the study 
of Persian sources. By the evidence of his translation, 
he knew Persian and Arabic well. After his flight 
from Persia he perfected his knowledge at the 
Kalmuk court, by collecting Mongol traditions. 

It was only after the death of Isfandiyar (1052/ 
1642) that Abu '1-GhazI became (in 1054/1644-5) 
khan of Khiwa. As khan, he maintained diplomatic 
relations with all his neighbours, including Russia, 
interrupted by repeated wars. Expeditions against 
the Turkmens in 1054/1644, 1056/1646, 1058/1648, 
1062/165 1 and 1064/1653, led finally to the sub- 
mission of some of these tribes in Kara-Kum and 



ABU 'l-GHAZI BAHADUR KHAN — ABO HAFS <UMAR al-HINTAtI 

Manghishlak. He was engaged also against the 
Kalmuks in 1059/1649, 1064/1653 and 1067/1656, 
and against Bukhara in 1066/1655 and 1073/1662. 
Occasionally he allowed Russian caravans passing 
through his territory to be plundered, but had, in 
the interests of his own trade if for no other reasons, 
to pay compensation. For the rest, he endeavoured 
to further the welfare of his country and to promote 
scholarship. The military gifts which he ascribes to 
himself were, according to less partial sources, 
rather modest. He died in 1074/1663, shortly after 
he had abdicated in favour of his son. 

Of his works we possess: 1) Shediere-i Tera- 
kime, composed in 1070/1659, mainly derived from 
Rashidal-DIn and the Oghuznama, but with addi- 
tions of independent value. The Caghatay text was 
published in facsimile by the Turk Dil Kurumu, 
Ankara 1937; there is a Russian translation by 
A. Tumanski, 'Ashkabad 1892. 2) Shadiarat al-Atrak 
(Shediere-i Tiirk), which he left unfinished at his 
death ; the part from 1054/1644 was finished by his son 
Abu '1-Muzaffar Anusha Muhammad Bahadur in 
1076/1665. This work contains the history of the 
Shavbanids from the middle of the 15th century, 
and is the main source for the dynasty up to 1074/ 
1663, though written mostly "from memory", 
without direct use of sources, and widely defective 
for the earlier periods as well as in its chronology. 
The introduction, containing traditions about 
Cinghiz Khan and his immediate successors, is 
almost wholly legendary. Nevertheless, as the work 
became known in Europe at an early date, it re- 
mained for some time the main authority for the 
history of the Mongols. Two Swedes captured in 
the battle of Poltava (1709), Tabbert von Strahlen- 
berg and Schenstrom, became acquainted with it 
in Siberia and, with the help of a Russian inter- 
pretation by an imam, prepared a German transla- 
tion, on which is based the French edition of v. 
Bentinck, Histoire genealogique des Tartars, Leiden 
1726. This was soon followed by a Russian and in 
1780 by an English edition. The German original of 
1716-7 was published by Messerschmid, Gottingen 
1780, as Geschlechtsbuch der mungalisch-mogulischen 
Chanen. Finally Ch. M. v. Frahn published a Latin 
translation, Kazan 1825. A critical use of the text 
was only made possible by the publication of the 
Caghatay text, with a French translation, by J. J. P. 
Baron Desmaisons, Histoire des Mogols et des Tatars, 
1871-4, but this work in turn requires revision in the 
light of more recent studies. 

Bibliography: Desmaisons, ii, 312ft.; A. 

Strindberg, Notice sur le MS. de la premiere 

traduction de la chronique d'Abulghasi-Behader, 

Stockholm 1889; I. N. Berezin, Biblioteka vostol- 

nykh istorikov, iii (the Russian trans, by G. Sa- 

blukov), 1852; Ahmed Zeki Velidi Togan, I A, iv, 

79-83. (B. Spuler) 

ABC UAF$ c UMARB.BJAMl',IbadI scholar, 
probably a native of the Djabal Nafusa, mentioned 
in al-Shammakhl's K. al-Siyar (Cairo 1301, 561-2), 
in a short note that gives no chronological infor- 
mation, but from which it may be deduced that he 
lived at the end of the 8th/i4th or the beginning of 
the 9th/i5th century. 

He translated into Arabic the old l Akida of the 
Ibadls of the Maghrib, originally composed in Berber. 
This translation was in use, at the time of al-Sham- 
makhi (d. 928/i52i-2h in the island of Djarba and 
in the other IbadI communities of the Maghrib, 
excepting the Djabal Nafusa. It is still the catechism 
of the Ibadis of the Mzab and of Djarba. The 'Akida 



of Abu Hafs was the subject of n 
taries: by al-Shammakhl (circulating in MSS); by 
Abu Sulayman Da'ud b. Ibrahim al-Thalati of 
Djarba (d. 967/1559-60) (see Exiga dit Kayser, 
Description et histoire de Vile de Djerba, Tunis 1884, 
9-10 text, 9-10 transl.); and finally those by 'Umar 
b. Ramadan al-Thalati (i2th/i8th century), auto- 
graphed or printed after the ' Akida, in the editions 
of Algeria (e.g. Constantine 1323) or Cairo. 

The '■Akida of Abu Hafs was published and 
translated, with notes taken from the IbadI com- 
mentaries, by A. de Motylinski, V c Aqida des 
Abadhites, Recueil Mim. et Textes XIV Congrts des 
Orientalistes, Algiers 1905, 505-45. 

(A. de Motylinski — T. Lewicki) 
ABC HAFS 'UMAR b. Shu'ayb al-BALLCTI, 
native of Pedroche (Bitrawdj) in the Fahs al-Ballut, 
a district to the north of Cordova, founder of a 
minor dynasty which ruled over the island of 
Crete (Ikritish [q.v.]) between 212/827 and 350/961, 
when his descendant c Abd al- c Aziz b. Shu'ayb was 
dethroned and the island recaptured by the general 
and future Byzantine emperor. Nicephorus Phocas. 
After the celebrated revolt of the Suburb which 
broke out in Cordova in 202/818 and was harshly 
suppressed by the amir Hakam I (cf. umayyads of 
spain), a group of Andalusians, several thousand 
in number, who had been expelled from the capital, 
decided to emigrate and try their luck in the 
Mediterranean. They succeeded in gaining a foothold 
in Egypt and occupied Alexandria for a few years. 
Besieged by the governor, c Abd Allah b. Tahir, they 
had to capitulate in 212/827 and then decided to 
attempt a landing in Crete. Under the leadership of 
their chief, Abu Hafs al-Balluti, they captured the 
island, which thus passed under Muslim domination. 
There is little information about the chronology of 
the dynasty founded by al-Balluti and the history 
of the island during that period. All that is known, 
thanks to Byzantine historians, who call Abu Hafs 
Apocapso or Apochapsa, is that all attempts by 
the Byzantines to recapture Crete were in vain. It 
was also in vain that in 225/840 the emperor Theo- 
philus addressed himself to 'Abd al-Rahman II [q.v.] 
to ask for the restitution of the island. During its 
Muslim occupation, Crete maintained economic and 
cultural relations with al-Andalus, and its capital, 
al-Khandak (modern Candia), was quite a brilliant 
intellectual centre. 

Bibliography: Ibn Khaldun. c Ibar, iv, 211; 
Kind! (GMS XIX), 158-184; M. Gaspar Remiro, 
Cordobeses musulmanes en Alejandria y Creta, 
Homenaje Codera, Saragosa 1904, 217-33; A. A. 
Vasiliev, Byzance et les Arabes, i (Fr. edition by 
Gregoire and Canard), Bruxelles 1935, 49 ff.; Zam- 
baur, nos. 48, 70 ; A. Freixas, Espana en los historia- 
dores bizantinos, Cuadernos deHist. de Esp., Buenos 
Aires, xi, 1949, 21-2; Levi- Provencal, Hist. Esp. 
Mas., i, 169-73, ii, 145-6. (E. Levi- Provencal) 
ABC HAFS 'UMAR b. Yahya al-HINTATI 
(an Arabic relative adjective formed from the name 
of a Berber tribe of the Anti-Atlas in Morocco, the 
Hintata), or, according to the more current Berber 
form, Inti, the chief companion of the Almohade 
Mahdi, Ibn Tumart [q.v.], and the most active 
supporter of the dynasty of the Mu'minids (see 'abd 
al-mu'min). It was his own grandson, the amir Abu 
Zakariya' Yahya b. 'Abd al- Wahid who, in 634/1236- 
37, renounced his allegiance to the Mu'minids in 
Ifrikiya and founded, with himself and his de- 
scendants as rulers, the dynasty of the Hafsids 
[q.v.], which was to be called after this their ancestor. 



ABO HAFS <UMAR al-HINTATI — ABO HAMMO II 



Abu Hafs Inti — on whom the "Memoirs" of al- 
Baydhak [q.v.] are the most detailed source, whose 
information is most likely to be authentic — bore, in 
common with all his fellow-tribesmen before the 
activity of the Almohade Mahdl, a Berber name, 
which appears to have been Faskat u-Mzal. Ibn 
Tumart himself, after he had persuaded him to 
■support his cause, gave him the name of Abu Hafs 
'Umar, in memory of the famous companion and 
lieutenant of the Prophet. Their first meeting, after 
the Mahdi's return to his native mountains, can 
be placed in the year 514/1120-21; Abu Hafs, at 
this time, was apparently about 30 years old. From 
that time on, he was to make a remarkable career 
for himself, showing an extremely developed political 
sense, a more and more marked ascendant over the 
first Almohade caliph, his own "creature", and 
enjoying the respect of all those who benefited under 
the new regime, from the highest to the lowest; in 
short, he was the "eminence grise" of the Almohade 
system which owed to him, more than any other 
the fact that it did not fall to pieces at the outset. 
Until his death at a ripe age, in 571/1 175-76, this 
intrepid Berber, victorious general, valued counsellor 
and venerated shaykh, appeared continually in the 
forefront of the historical scene of the Maghrib, al- 
Andalus and Ifrikiya. For details of his long political 
and military activities, see the articles al-muwah- 



ii id 






Bibliography: E. Levi-Provencal, Documents 
inedits d'histoire almohade, Paris 1928, index; Un 
recueil de lettres officielles almohades, Paris 1942, 
index; Ibn al Kattan, in Melanges R. Basut, Paris 
1925, », 335-393, and an unpublished manuscript 
on the history of the Almohades (Nazm al djutndn) ; 
c Abd al-Wahid al-Marrakushi al-Mu'-djib, ed. Dozy 
and transl. Fagnan, index; the chronicles of the 
post-Almohade period (Occident: al-Ifulal al- 
mawshiyya, Ibn 'Idhari's Bayan, Ibn Khaldun's 
c Ibar, Rawd al-Kirtds, Ta'rikh al-dawlatayn, etc.; 
Orient: Ibn al-Athir, Nuwayri), etc.— The best 
general account of Abu Hafs Inti, up to now, 
is that given by R. Brunschvig, La Berberie 
occidentale sous les flafsides, I, Paris 1940, 13-16. 
His career will be treated in detail in a forthcoming 
work (in Spanish) by A. Huici Miranda on the 
Almohades and the dynasty of the Mu'minids in 
North Africa and in Spain. 

(E. Levi-Provencal) 
ABC IjAMID al-CHARNATI, Muhammad b. 
'Abd al-Rahman (variant al-Rahim) b. Sulayman 
al-MAzini al-KaysT, Andalusian traveller and 
collector of 'adjd'ib [q.v.] at the beginning of the 
6th/i2th century, the perfect type of the Occidental 
rahh&la, drawn by the desire of talab al-Hlm and 
the spirit of adventure to the farthest limits of the 
lands of Islam. There is little biographical information 
about him and the main dates of his adventurous 
life are given by himself in his works. He was born 
in Granada in 473/1080, no doubt studied in his 
native city, and perhaps stayed some time in Ucl£s 
(Uklish); when he was about thirty years old he 
left his native country, never to return. First he 
spent some years in Ifrikiya, then embarked in 
511/1117-8 for Alexandria, stayed first in that town 
and later in Cairo, until 515/1123. After a stop at 
Damascus, he went to Baghdad, where he spent 
four years. In 524/1130 he was in Abhar in Persia 
and subsequently near the mouth of the Volga. He 
went, much later, to Hungary, staying there for 
three years, until 548/1153. He then travelled 
through the lands of the Sakaliba (Eastern Europe), 



and reached Kh'arizm : from there he went, via 
Bukhara, Marw, Nishapur, Rayy, Isfahan and al- 
Basra, to Arabia, to perform the pilgrimage. In 
550/1155 he settled in Baghdad, but left six years 
later for Mosul. He then went to Syria, and after 
staying in Aleppo, established himself at Damascus, 
where he died in 565/1169-70. 

It was in Baghdad, and then in Mosul, that Abu 
Hamid al-Gharnati composed the two works that 
made him famous. In Baghdad he wrote for the 
well-known vizier Yahya b. Hubayra his al-Mu'-rib 
an ba'd '■AdjaHb al-Maghrib; in Mosul, on the 
demand of his protector and Maecenas, Abu Hafs 
al-Ardabill (cf. Brockelmann, S i, 783-4), his Tuh/at 
al-Albdb (or al-Ahbab) wa-Nukhbat al-A'djab, which 
was abundantly cited by Muslim authors in the 
West as well as in the East. These two books, which 
are extant in numerous MSS, are full, not only of in- 
teresting information and exact records, but also of 
legendary or marvellous accounts. They have formed 
the object of elaborate monographs, with edition of 
the text and annotated translation; the Tuhfa was 
published by G. Ferrand in J A, 1925, 1-148, 195-303; 
the Mu'-rib by C. E. Dubler, with a Spanish trans- 
lation and a hypercritical study (Abu fldmid el 
Grenadino y su relacidn de viaje par tierras eurasidticas, 
Madrid 1953). A translation of the description of 
Rome contained in the Tuhfa was published, from 
a Palermo MS, in the same city, by C. Crispo 
Moncada in 1900. 

Bibliography: Makkari, Analectes, i, 617-8; 
Hadjdji Khalifa, ii, 222, iv, 189-90; Pons Boigues, 
Ensayo bio-bibliogrdfico, 229-31 ; Brockelmann, 
S I, 877-8. (E. Levi-Provencal) 

ABC UAMMU I Musa b. Abi Sa'id <Uthman 
b. Yaghmurasan, fourth king of the c Abd al-Wadid 
dynasty. Proclaimed on 21 Shawwal 707/15 April 
1308, he had first to repair the damage caused by the 
siege of Tlemcen by the Marlnids; he then prepared 
the defence of his capital against external attacks 
and fortified it in the expectation of a new siege. 
In the exterior, he restored his authority over the 
Banu Tudjin and the Maghrawa and pushed as far as 
Bidjaya (Bougie) and Constantine, while in the 
west he hindered the Marlnids from advancing beyond 
Wadjda (Oujda). Preoccupied by the upkeep of a 
strong army, he could give little thought to the 
material and intellectual situation of his subjects. 
He showed extreme harshness even towards his 
son Abu Tashufin, who had him murdered on 22 
Djumada I 718/22 July 1318 and was proclaimed 



Bibliography: see c abd al-wadids. (A. Bel) 
ABC flAMMC II Musi b. Abi Ya'kub YOsuf 
b. <Abd al-Rahman b. Yahya b. Yaghmurasan, 
king of the c Abd al-Wadid dynasty. Born is Spain 
in 723/1323-4, he was brought up at the court of 
Tlemcen. After the victory of the Marinid army 
over his uncles Abu Sa'id and Abu Thabit, in 
Djumada I 753/June 1352, he had to take refuge 
with the Hafsid court of Tunis. When the relations 
between the Hafsids and Marinids deteriorated, he 
was put at the head of an army and reconquered 
Tlemcen, where he was proclaimed as king on Rabi* I 
760/9 February 1359. In 772/1370 the capital again 
fell under the rule of the Marinids, who, however, 
evacuated it in 774/1372. Abu Hammu, returning 
to his dominions, had to face several revolts 
and especially the hostility of his son Abu Tashufin 
II [q.v.], who attacked Tlemcen at the head of a 
Marinid army in .791 ; Abu Hammu was killed in 
the battle, on 1 Dhu'l-Hidjdja 791/21 Nov. 1389. 



ABO HAMMO II — ABO HANIFA ai-NU'MAN 



Abu Hammu had a highly cultivated mind and 
sought the society of scholars and poets; he himself 
composed a treatise on political ethics. His secretary, 
intimate friend and historian, was Yahya b. Khaldun, 
who was assassinated in Ramadan 780/Dec. 1379, 
at the instigation of Abu Tashufin. 

Bibliography: see c abd al-wadJds. 

(A. Bel) 

ABU HAMZA [see al-mukhtar b. c awf]. 

ABU HANlFA ai-NU'MAN b. Thabit, theo- 
logian and religious lawyer, the eponym of 
the school of the Hanafis [q.v.]. He died in 150/767 
at the age of 70, and was therefore born about the 
year 80/699. His grandfather Zuta is said to have 
been brought as a slave from Kabul to Kufa, and 
set free by a member of the Arabian tribe of Taym- 
Allah b. Tha'laba; he and his descendants became 
thus clients {mawld) of this tribe, and Abu Hanifa 
is occasionally called al-Taymi. Very little is known 
of his life, except that he lived in Kufa as a manu- 
facturer and merchant of a kind of silk material 
(khazz). It is certain that he attended the lecture 
meetings of Hammad b. Abi Sulayman (d. 120) who 
taught religious law in Kufa, and, perhaps on the 
occasion of a hadjdj, those of <Ata> b. Abi Rabah 
(d. 114 or 115) in Mecca. The long lists, given by 
his later biographers, of authorities from whom he 
is supposed to have „heard" traditions, are to be 
treated with caution. After the death of Hammad, 
Abu Hanifa became the foremost authority on 
questions of religious law in Kufa and the main 
representative of the Kufian school of law. He 
collected a great number of private disciples to 
whom he taught his doctrine, but he was never a 
kadi. He died in prison in Baghdad, where he lies 
buried; a dome was built over his tomb in 459/1066. 
The quarter around the mausoleum is still called 
al-A c zamiyya, al-Imam al-A'zam being Abu Hanifa's 
customary epithet. 

The biographical legend will have it that the 
c Abbasid caliph al-Mansur called him to the newly 
founded capital, wanted to appoint him as a kadi 
there, and imprisoned him because of his steady 
refusal. A variant makes already the Umayyad 
governor Yazld b. 'Umar b. Hubayra, under Marwan 
II, offer him the post of k&4i in Kufa and flog him 
in order to make him accept it, but again without 
success. These and similar stories are meant to 
explain the end of Abu Hanifa in prison, and the 
fact, surprising to later generations, that the master 
should not have been a kadi. The truth is probably 
that he compromised himself by unguarded remarks 
at the time of the rising of the 'Alids al-Nafs al- 
Zakiyya and his brother Ibrahim, in 145, was trans- 
ported to Baghdad and imprisoned there (al-Khatlb 
al-Baghdadl, xiii, 329). 

Abu Hanifa did not himself compose any works 
on religious law, but discussed his opinions with and 
dictated them to his disciples. Some of the works 
of these last are therefore the main sources for Abu 
Hanifa's doctrine, particularly the Ikhtildf Abi 
Hanifa wa'bn Abi Layla and the al-Radd 'aid Siyar 
al-Awz&H by Abu Yusuf, and the al-lfudjadi and the 
version of Malik's Muwa((a> by al-Shaybanl. (The 
formal isndd al-Shaybanl— Abu Yusuf— Abu Hanifa, 
that occurs in many works of al-Shaybanl, designating 
as it does merely the general relationship of pupil 
and master, is of no value in this connection). For 
the doctrine that Abu Hanifa himself had received 
from Hammad, the main sources are the al-Athar 
of Abu Yusuf and the al-Athar of al-Shaybani. The 
comparison of Abu Hanifa's successors with his 



predecessors enables us to assess his achievement in 
developing Muhammadan legal thought and doctrine. 
Abu Hanifa's legal thought is in general much 
superior to that of his contemporary Ibn Abi Layla 
(d. 148), the kadi of Kufa in his time. With respect 
to him and to contemporary legal reasoning in Kufa 
in general, Abu Hanifa seems to have played the 
role of a theoretical systematizer who achieved a 
considerable progress in technical legal thought. Not 
being a kadi, he was less restricted than Ibn AM 
Layla by considerations of practice; at the same 
time, he was less firmly guided by the administration 
of justice. Abu Hanifa's doctrine is as a rule syste- 
matically consistent. There is so much new, explicit 
legal thought embodied in it, that an appreciable 
part of it was found defective and was rejected by 
his disciples. His legal thought is not only more 
broadly based and more thoroughly applied than 
that of his older contemporaries, but technically 
more highly developed, more circumspect, and more 
refined. A high degree of reasoning, often somewhat 
ruthless and unbalanced, with little regard for the 
practice, is typical of Abu Hanifa's legal thought 
as a whole. Abu Hanifa used his personal judgment 
(ra'y) and conclusions by analogy (kiyds) to the 
extent customary in the schools of religious law in 
his time; and as little as the representatives of the 
other schools, the Medinese for example,, was he 
inclined to abandon the traditional doctrine for the 
sake of "isolated" traditions from the Prophet, 
traditions related by single individuals in any one 
generation, such as began to become current in 
Islamic religious science during the lifetime of Abu 
Hanifa, in the first half of the second century A. H. 
When this last kind of tradition, two generations 
later, thanks mainly to the work of al-Shafi% had 
gained official recognition, Abu Hanifa for adventi- 
tious reasons was made the scapegoat for the resist- 
ance to the "traditions of the Prophet" and, parallel 
to this, for the exercise of personal judgment in the 
ancient schools of law, and many sayings shocking 
to the later taste were attributed to him. Al-Khatlb 
al-Baghdadi (d. 463/1071) made himself the mouth- 
piece of this hostile tendency. The legal devices 
(hiyal) which Abu Hanifa had developed in the 
normal course of his technical legal reasoning, were 
criticized too, but they became later one of his 
special titles to fame (cf. Schacht, in Isl., 1926, 
221 ff.). 

As a theologian, too, Abu Hanifa has exercised a 
considerable influence. He is the eponym of a 
popular tradition of dogmatic theology that lays 
particular stress on the ideas of the community of 
the Muslims, of its unifying principle, the sunna, of 
the majority of the faithful who follow the middle 
of the road and avoid extremes, and that relies on 
scriptural rather than on rational proofs. This 
tradition is represented by the al-'Alim waH- 
Muta'allim (wrongly attributed to Abu Hanifa) and 
by the Fifth al-Absa(, which both originated in the 
circle of Abu Hanifa's disciples, and later by the 
works of Hanafi theologians, including the creed 
of al-Tahaw! (d. 321/933) and the catechism of Abu 
'1-Layth al-Samarkandl (d. 383/993) which has always 
been very popular in Malaya and Indonesia, in 
territory which in matters of religious law is solidly 
Shafi'I. This dogmatic tradition arose out of the 
popular background of the theological movement 
of the Murdji'a [q.v.], to which Abu Hanifa himself 
belonged. The only authentic document by Abu 
Hanifa which we possess is, in fact, his letter to 
'Uthman al-Battl, in which he defends his murdji'ite 



ABO HANlFA al-NU'MAN — ABO HASHIM 



al-Absa(, in Cairo 1368/1949). Another title that was 
ascribed to Abu Hanifa is the Fikh al-Akbar. 
Wensinck has shown that the so-called Fikh al- 
Akbar I alone is relevant. This exists only embedded 
in a commentary wrongly attributed to al-Maturidl 
(printed as no. 1 in Madimu'at Shuruh al-Fikh 
al-Akbar, Hyderabad 1321). The text itself consists 
of ten articles of faith outlining the orthodox position 
as opposed to the Kharidjis, the Kadaris, the 
Shi'ites, and the Djahmis [see these articles]. 
Propositions directed against the Murdji'a as well 
as against the Mu'tazila [q.v.] are lacking. This 
means that the author was a Murdji'ite who lived 
before the rise of the Mu'tazila. All but one of the 
theses of the Fikh al-Akbar I occur also in the Fikh 
al-Absat, which consists of statements of Abu 
Hanifa on questions of theology in answer to 
questions put to him by his disciple Abu Mutl c al- 
Balkhl (d. 183/799). The contents of the Fikh 
al-Akbar I are therefore authentic opinions of Abu 
Hanifa, though nothing goes to show that he actually 
composed the short text. But the so-called Fikh 
al-Akbar II and the Wasiyyat Abi Hanifa are not 
by Abu Hanifa. The authenticity of a number of 
other short texts attributed to Abu Hanifa has not 
yet been investigated and is at least doubtful; the 
Wasiyya addressed to his disciple Yusuf b. Khalid 
al-Sumtl al-Basri represents Iranian courtiers' ethics 
and cannot be imagined as a work of a specialist in 
Islamic religious law. 

The later enemies of Abu Hanifa, in order to 
discredit him, taxed him not only with extravagant 
opinions derived from the principles of the Murdji J a, 
but with all kinds of heretical doctrines that he 
could not possibly have held. For example, they 
ascribed to him the doctrine that hell was not 
eternal — a doctrine of the Djahmis, against whom 
Abu Hanifa ranged himself explicitly in the Fikh 
al-Akbar, or the opinion that it was lawful to revolt 
against a government — a doctrine which goes 
straight against Abu Hanlfa's own tenets as expres- 
sed in the aW-Alim wa'l-Muta c allim; he even was called 
a Murdji'ite who believed in the sword, a contradictio 
in adjecto. (This is perhaps deduced from his attitude 
at the time of the revolt of al-Nafs al-Zakiyya). 

Among his descendants, his son Hammad and his 
grandson Isma'Il, kadi in Basra and in Rakka 
(d. 212/827), distinguished themselves in religious 
law. Among his more important pupils were: Zufar 
b. al-Hudhayl (d. 158/775); Dawud al-Tal (d. 165/ 
781-2); Abu Yflsuf [q.v.]; Abu Mutl c al-Balkhl (see 
above) ; Al-ShaybanI [q.v.] ; Asadb. 'Amr (d. 190/806) ; 
Hasan b. Ziyad al-Lu'lul (d. 204/819-20). Among 
the traditionists, <Abd Allah b. al- Mubarak (d. 
181/797) esteemed him highly. 

Under the growing pressure of traditions his 
followers, starting with Yusuf, the son of Abu 
Yusuf, collected the traditions from the Prophet 
that Abu Hanifa had used in his legal reasoning. 
With the growth of spurious information, typical 
of a certain aspect of Muhammadan law, the number 
of these traditions grew, too, until Abu '1-Mu'ayyad 
Muhammad b. MahmOd al-Kh w arizmI (d. 655/1257) 
collected fifteen different versions into one work 
(Qiami* Masanld Abi Ifanifa, Hyderabad 1332). We 
are still able to distinguish and to compare the 
several versions, but none of them is an authentic 
work of Abu Hanifa. 

Bibliography: Ash'ari, Makdldt, 138 f.; Fih- 

rist, 201 ; al-Khatib al-Baghdadl, Ta'rikh Baghdad, 



xiii, 323-454; Abu 'l-Mu J ayyad al-Muwaffak b. 
Ahmad al-Makkl, and Muh. b. Muh. al-Kardarl, 
Manakib al-Imam al-AHam, Hyderabad 1321; 
Ibn Khallikan, not 736 (tr. de Slane, iii, 555 ff.) ; 
DhahabI, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, i, 158 ff.; Ahmad 
Amln, Duha 'l-Islam, ii, 176 ff.; Muhammad Abu 
Zahra, Aba Ifanifa, 2nd ed., Cairo 1947; I- Oold- 
ziher, g&hiriUn, 3, 12 ff.; A. J. Wensinck, Muslim 
Creed, index; H. S. Sibay, in I A, iv, 20 ff.; J. 
Schacht, Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence, 
index; Brockelmann, I, 176 f.; S, I, 284 ff. (con- 
tains several mistakes). (J. Schacht) 
ABC HANIFA al-DINAWARI [see al-dIna- 

WARI]. 

ABU 'L-flASAN c AlI, tenth ruler of the 
dynasty of the Marlnids of Fez, was 34 years 
old when, in 731/1331, he succeeded his father, Abu 
Sa'Id 'Uthman. Of a strong constitution, he seems 
also to have possessed the energy and the wide 
outlook of a great prince. Numerous public buildings 
show his piety and his magnificence. His reign saw 
not only the zenith of the dynasty and its greatest 
territorial expansion, but also the beginning of its 
decline. In Spain, he took Gibraltar from the 
Christians (1333), but after a success at sea, he 
suffered a disastrous defeat at the Rio Salado, near 
Tarifa, which put an end to the holy war for the 
Marinids (1340). In Barbary, the took up again the 
expansionist policy of the great Almohades; he 
besieged Tlemcen, rebuilt the town-camp of al- 
Mansura and, after three years, at last took the 
capital of the c Abd al-Wadids. In conquered 
Tlemcen, he received the congratulations of the 
Mamluk sultan of Egypt and of the king of the 
Sudan. In support of his ally, the Hafsid of Tunis, 
he marched on Ifrikiya ; but, after a period of success, 
he was crushingly defeated near al-Kayrawan 
(Kairouan) by a coalition of the nomad Arabs (1348). 
He left Tunis by sea, his fleet sank; he managed to 
disembark at Algiers and tried to recover his king- 
dom, which his son Abu c Inan had seized. He died 
in 752/1352. Abu c In5n had him buried at Chella 
(Sh&lla [,.«,.]). 

Bibliography: Ibn Khaldun, Hist, des Ber- 
bires, ed. de Slane, ii, 373-426; transl. iv, 211-92; 
Ibn al-Ahmar, Rawdat al-nisrin, ed. and transl. 
Bouali and G. Marcais, 20-2, 75-9; Ibn Marzuk, 
Musnad, ed. and transl. E. Levi- Provencal, in 
Hesp., 1925, 1-81; H. Terrasse, Hist, du Maroc, 
ii, 51-62; G. Marcais, Les Arabes en Berbirie du 
XI' au XIV siicle, passim; H. Basset and E. Levi- 
Provencal, Chella, extract from Hesp., 1922. 

(G. Marcais) 
ABC HASHIM <Abd Allah, ShlMte leader, 
son of Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya, whom he 
succeeded as head of the smaller branch of the 
shi'a [see kaysani yya]. The only information we have 
about him concerns his death and his testament in 
favour of the c Abbasids. Old historical and heresio- 
graphical sources relate that Abu Hashim went, 
with a group of ShI'ites, to the court of Sulayman b. 
c Abd al-Malik, who, afraid of his intelligence and 
authority, had him poisoned during his return 
journey. Feeling his approaching death, Abu Hashim 
made a detour to Humayma, not far from the 
residence of the c Abbasids, where he died after 
bequeathing his rights to the Imamate to Muhammad 
b. C AU [q.v.]. This tradition has been generally taken 
as an invention of the philo-'Abbasid party. Never- 
theless, stripped of incongruences and superstruc- 
tures, it may well contain a kernel of truth, especially 
as, in effect, immediately after the death of Abu 



ABO HASHIM — ABU 'l-HAWL 



125 



Hashim the 'Abbasids came out of the shadows 
and the 'Iraki shi'a went into action in obedience 
to their orders. [Cf. also 'abbasids]. 

Bibliography: Ibn Sa c d, v, 240-1; Ibn 
Kutayba, Ma'arif (Wiistenfeld), in; Baladhhuri, 
Ansdb, MS Paris Schefer A. 247, 685r-6v, 745v; 
Ya'kubi, Tabari, indexes; Nawbakhtl, Firak al- 
Shi'a (Ritter), 29-30; Ash'ari, Makdlat (Ritter), 
i, 21; Baghdad!, Fark, 28, 242; Shahrastani, 15, 
112 ; S. Moscati, II testamento di Abu HdSim, RSO, 
1952, 28-46. (S. Moscati) 

ABC HASHIM, sharif of Mecca [see makka]. 
ABC HASHIM, Mu'tazili theologian [see al- 

DJUBBA'I]. 

ABC HATIM Ya c ¥Ob b. LabId (or LabIb or 
HabIb) AL-MALZCZl al-NadjIsI, Ibadi imam 
in the Maghrib. The orthodox Arab historians re- 
present him as a mere leader of Berber rebels. His 
role, however, was more defined, as he was given 
by the Ibadis of Tripolitania the title of imam al-difa'- 
("imam of defence"). According to the chronicle 
of Abu Zakariyya 1 al-Wardjlani, this revolt took 
place in Radjab i45/Sept.-Oct. 762, only one year 
after the death of Abu '1-KhaHab. According to 
al-Shammakhi, al-Siyar, Cairo 1301, 134, Abu 
Hatim's, government began in (1)54 A. H. It is, 
however, possible that this is a mistake for 145. 

Little is known about the first years of Abu 
Hatim's imamate; he captured Tripoli, massacring 
many of his enemies, and made the city his capital. 
According to Abu Zakariyya' he was in contact 
with the future founder of the imamate of Tahart, 
<Abd al-Rahman b. Rustum, who was at this time 
entrenched in the mountain of Suf Adjadj. In 
154/771 Abu Hatim took part in a general rising of 
the Berbers against the 'Abbasid governor of 
Ifrikiya, c Umar b. Hafs, caUed Hazarmard. With 
his troops he took part in the siege of Tubna, in the 
Zab. Another detachment of Abu Hatim's army 
had been for eight months investing al-Kayrawan, 
which was taken in the beginning of 155/771-2. 
Soon after the capture of al-Kayrawan, an c Abbasid 
army from Egypt appeared on the eastern frontier 
of Tripolitania. Abu Hatim left Tripoli and defeated 
this army in a battle, which is said by the Ibadi 
chroniclers, probably erroneously, to have taken 
place near Maghmadas (Macomades Syrtis in anti- 
quity, Marsa Zafran of the modern maps). Shortly 
after, however, another 'Abbasid army commanded 
by Yazld b. Hatim al-Azdl advanced from Cairo 
towards Tripoli. Abu Hatim collected the Ibadi 
Berber tribes of Tripolitania: Nafusa, Hawwara, 
Parlsa, etc. and went out to meet the enemy. The 
battle took place on 27 Rabi c I 155/7 March 772, to 
the west of a place called Djanbi (Abu Zakariyya') 
or Djanduba (al-Shammakhi), to the east of Djabal 
Nafusa. The Ibadi army was cut to pieces, and Abu 
Hatim with 30,000 of his men are said to have 
been left on the battlefield. 

Bibliography: Abu Zakariyya', al-Sira wa- 

Akhbdr al-AHmma (MS of the coll. of S. Smogor- 

zewski), fol. I4r-i6r; E. Masqueray, Chronique 

d'Abou Zakaria, Algiers 1878, 41-9; Shammakhl, 

Siyar, Cairo 1301, 138-8; Baladhuri, Futuh, 232-3; 

Ibn Khaldun. Hist, des Berb., i, 221-3, 379-85; 

Idrisi, Descriptio al-Magribi (de Goeje), 83-4; 

H. Fournel, Les Berbires, 370-80; R. Basset, in 

J A, 1899 ii, 115-20. 

(A. DE MOTYLINSKI T. LEWICKl) 

ABC HATIM AL-RAZl, Ahmad b. Hamdan, 
early Isma'IU author and missionary (daH) of 
Rayy. Born in the district of Bashawuy near Rayy 



and well versed in Hadlth and Arabic poetry, he 
was chosen by Ghivath. dd'i of Rayy, as his lieutenant, 
Ghivath was succeeded by Abu Dja'far, whom, 
however, Abu Hatim contrived to oust, thus be- 
coming himself the leader of the da'wa in Rayy. It 
is reported that he succeeded in converting Ahmad 
b. 'All, governor of Rayy (304-11/916-24). After the 
occupation of Rayy by the Samanid troops' (311/ 
923-4) Abu Hatim went to Daylam to make common 
cause with the c Alids there. His activities seem to 
have been at first supported by Mardawidj [q.v.]. 
When Mardawidj later turned against the Isma'Ilis, 
Abu Hatim fled to Muflih (who became governor 
of Adharbaydjan in 319/931)- There he seems to 
have died, according to Ibn Hadjar, in 322/933-4, 
the date being, if not quite certain, approximately 

Of his works the most famous is the al-Zina, a 
dictionary of theological terms, which is dominated 
by his philological interests, while Isma'IU tenets 
are only discreetly alluded to. (For a short description 
of the book cf. A. H. al-Hamdani, Actes XXIe Congris 
des Orientalistes, 291-4). In a lost book, al-Islah, he 
attacked the philosophical system of al-Nasafl [q.v.], 
as expounded in al-Nasafl's al-Mahsul. When this 
controversy has been better explored and Abu 
Hatim's A'-lam al-Nubuwwa fully published, it is 
hoped that more light will be shed on his own 
opinions. (P. Kraus has published an important 
section of A'-lam al-Nubuwwa, recording the dis- 
putation between Abu Hatim and the philosopher 
Abu Bakr al-RazI). 

Bibliography: Nizam al-Mulk, Siyasat-Ndma, 
Schefer, 186 (ed. Khalkhali, 157); Makrizi, IUi'az 
(Bunz), 130; Fihrist, 188, 189; Baghdad!, al-Far^, 
267 ; Ibn Hadjar, Lisan al-Mizan, i, 164 ; W. Ivanow, 
A guide to Ismaili lit., 32; Idem, Studies in early 
Persian Ismailism, 115 ff.; P. Kraus, in Orientalia, 
1936, 38 ff.; idem, RasaHl Falsafiyya li Abi Bakr 
al-Rdzi, i, 291 ff. (S. M. Stern) 

ABC HATIM al-SIEJISTAnI, Sahl b. Muh. 
al-BiushamI, Arabic philologist of Basra, d. 
Radjab 255/869. His nisba is related to Sidjistan, a 
village in the district of Basra (Yakut, iii, 44). He 
was a disciple of Abu Zayd al-Ansarl, Abu 'Ubayda 
Ma'mar b. al-Muthanna, al-Asma'I, etc. Among his 
disciples are mentioned Ibn Durayd and al-Mubarrad. 
As a grammarian he was of no great reputation, his 
specific field being the works of the ancient poets, 
their vocabulary and prosody. Of his works the 
bibliographers mention thirty-seven titles (enume- 
rated by A. Haffner, Drei arabische Quellenwerke 
iiber die Addad, Beirut 1913, 160-2). The following 
works have come down to us: (1) al- Addad, ed. by 
Haffner, op. cit. 163-209; (2) al-Nakhl, ed. by B. 
Lagumina in Atti . . . Lincei, Scienze morali, Ser. 4, 
8, 5-41; (3) al-Tadhkir wa l-Ta>nith, MS Taymur, cf. 
MMIA, 1923, 340; (4) al-Mu'ammarun, ed. by 
I. Goldziher, Abh. z. arab. Philologie, ii, Leiden 1899. 
Bibliography: Fihrist, 58-9; Azhari, Tahdhib 
al-Lugha, ed. K. V. Zettersteen in MO, 1920, 22; 
Zubaydl, Jabakat, ed. F. Krenkow in RSO, 
1919-20, 127, no. 35; Anbari, Nuzha, 251-4; 
Yakut, al-Irshad, iv, 258; Ibn KhalMkan, no. 266; 
Y5fi% Mir'at al-Diandn, Haydarabad 1337-8, ii, 
156; Ibn Hadjar, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, Haydarabad 
1326, ii, 257; SuyutI, Bughya, 265; Brockelmann, 
I, 107, S I, 157. (B. Lewin) 

ABU 'l-HAWL (Hol), "father of terror", the 
Arabic name for the sphinx of Djlza (Gizeh). Some 
authors simply call it al-sanam, "the idol", but the 
name Abu '1-Hawl is already attested for the Fatimid 



ABU VHAWL — ABO HAYYAN al-TAWHIDI 



period. At that time the Coptic name Belhtt (Belhib), 
or as al-Kuda<I (quoted by al-MakrlzI) has it: 
Belhuba (Belhawba), was also still known. The Arabic 
Abu '1-Hawl is most probably a popular etymology 
based on the Coptic designation; the initial B 
probably represents the Coptic article, which has 
been transformed in Arabic, as often happened, into 
AbQ. In the old tradition the name Abu '1-Hawl was 
applied only to the head of the lionbodied sphinx, 
as the body was covered by sand in the Middle Ages 
and was disengaged only in 1817. Modem Arabic 
authors use the word for "sphinx" in general, not 
only for the sphinx in the vicinity of the pyramids. 
The Arabs, who had no knowledge of ancient 
Egyptian civilization, regarded with superstitious 
awe the head which reached high above the sand of 
the desert in majestic dimensions. It was considered 
to be a talisman preventing the encroachment of the 
sand on the valley of the Nile ; the same magical effect 
was ascribed by others to the pyramids. Another, 
female, colossal statue — to judge by the descriptions 
probably a statue of Isis with the child Horus — which 
lay on the other shore of the Nile in Fustat, was 
considered to be the beloved of Abu '1-Hawl. She 
had her back to the river, as Abu '1-Hawl had his 
to the desert, and was thought to be a talisman 
against the flooding of Fustat by high water. This 
statue was destroyed in 711/1311 by treasure- 
hunters and its stones were used in the building 
of a mosque. According to another tradition Abu 
'1-Hawl was the effigy of the legendary Ushmum, 
to whom the Sabians used to sacrifice white cocks 
and incense. 

The Arabic accounts have but little to contribute 
to the history of the monument. According to al- 
Makdisi the face was apparently no longer intact in 
375/985, although later accounts praise its beauty 
and the harmony of its features, whose reddish 
colour is frequently mentioned. About 780/1378 a 
fanatical shaykh caused further damage to the statue. 
Bibliography: MakrizI, Khifat, i, 122 f.; ed. 
Wiet, ii, 155 ff. (with notes); Ibn Dukmak, iv, 
21 f.; MakdisI, 210; Yakut, iv, 966; S. de Sacy, 
Relation de I'Egypte, 180; C A1I Mubarak, al-Khifat 
al-Djadida, xvi, 44 ff. ; E. Reitmeyer, Beschreibung 
Agyptens im MMeUtlter, 98-102; K. Baedeker, 
Agypten', 124 f. (C. H. Becker) 

ABU 'l-HAYEJA al-HamdanI [see hamdanids]. 
ABU tf AYYAN AthIr al-DIn Muhammad b. 
Yusuf AL-GHARNATl, the most distinguished 
Arab grammarian of the first half of the 14th 
century, was born in Granada, Shawwal 654/Nov. 
1256, and died in Cairo, Safar 745/July 1344, where, 
after 10 years of productive study and travel through- 
out the entire Arab world, he had served as a pro- 
fessor of the Kur'anic disciplines in the Tuhini 
mosque. This creative scholar is purported to have 
written 65 works, many of them multi-volumed, on 
Arabic and other languages (notably Turkish, 
Ethiopic, and Persian), Kur'anic studies, traditions, 
jurisprudence, history, biography, and poetry. 
Of the 15 extant works the most important ; 
Manhadi al-Salik, a commentary of the Alfiyya of 
Ibn Malik (ed. Sidney Glazer, New Haven 1947 
includes, besides text, a complete bio-bibliography 
of Abu Hayyan and a historical sketch of native 
Arabic grammar); al-Idrak li-Lisdn al-Atrdk, the 
most ancient grammar of Turkish available (ed. 
A. Caferoglu, Istanbul 1931; cf. also J A, 1892, 
326-35); al-Bahr al-Muhit, an extensive commentary 
on the Kur'an (cf. Gesch. des Qor., iii, 243 and 
Brockelmann, S ii, 136). 



Abu Hayyan's greatness as a grammarian was due 
not only to his mastery of the linguistic data and 
control of his predecessors' efforts (he knew Slba- 
wayhi's Kitdb by heart, for he accorded it an 
authority in grammar equal to that of hadith in 
religion), but to his remarkably modern approach 
to descriptive and comparative grammar (cf. S. 
Glazer, in JAOS, 1942), as shown both by his 
willingness to illuminate an Arabic grammatical 
concept through quotations from other languages 
and by following such operational principles as "One 
must base rules of Arabic on frequency of occurrence" 
and "Analogous formations that contradict genuine 
data found in good speech are not to be permitted". 
This unusual spirit of objectivity and respect for 
facts have made of the Manhadi al-Salik a work 
of great distinction. Besides elucidating and correc- 
ting Ibn Malik's brilliant if occasionally erroneous 
compression of the totality of Arabic grammar into 
1000 verses of poetry, the Manhadi presents a 
miniature bibliography of grammatical science and 
a panorama of thought on some of its most difficult 
problems on which the opinions of hundreds of 
grammarians, Kur'an readers, and lexicographers 
are cited. It was consigned to obscurity by the 
more elementary works on the same subject written 
by his pupils Ibn c Akil and Ibn Hisham. 

Bibliography: Makkarl, Analectes, i, 823-62; 
Kutubl, Fawdt, ii, 282, 352-6; Ibn Hadjar al- 
'Askalanl, al-Durar al-Kdmina, Hyderabad 1350/ 
'93'. ' v . 303-8; SuyutI, Bughyat al-Wu c dt, 121-2; 
ZarkashI, Ta'rikh al-Dawlatayn, Tunis 1289/1872, 
63; Brockelmann, II, 109, S II, 136; I. Goldziher, 
Die Zdhiriten, Leipzig 1884, 188 ff. 

(S. Glazer) 
ABC tf AYYAN AL-TAWtflDl, <AlI b. Muh. b. 
al-'Abbas (probably called al-Tawhldi after the 
sort of dates called tawhid), man of letters and 
philosopher of the 4th/ioth century. The place 
of his birth is given either as NIshapur, Shlraz, 
Wasit or Baghdad; its date must be placed between 
310-20/922-32. He studied in Baghdad, grammar 
under al-Sirafl and al-Rummanl, ShSfi'ite law under 
Abu Hamid al-Marw al-Rudhl and Abu Bakr al- 
ghashi; and also frequented sufi masters. He 
supported himself by acting as a professional scribe. 
It is said, in a somewhat doubtful passage (see al- 
Subkl, al-Safadl, al-Dhahabl, Ibn Hadjar) that he 
was, owing to heretical opinions, persecuted by the 
vizier al-Muhallabl (d. 352/963). He was in Mecca 
m 353/964 {al-Imta', ii, 79; Basd'ir, MS Cambridge, 
fol. 167V) and in Rayy in 358/971 (Yakut, Irshdd, 
ii, 292; at the court of Abu '1-Fadl b. al-'Amid?, 
d. 360/970). From his al-Mukdbasdt, 156, we know 
that in 361/971 he attended lectures of the philo- 
sopher Yahya b. c AdI in Baghdad. He tried his luck 
with the vizier Abu '1-Fath b. al- c Amid in Rayy 
(d. 366/976), to whom he addressed an elaborate 
epistle; to judge from his hostile sentiments towards 
the vizier, he did not achieve much. From 367/977 
he was employed by Ibn 'Abbad as an amanuensis. 
In this case, too, he was anything but a success, 
owing, no doubt, mainly to his own difficult character 
and sense of superiority (he for example refused to 
"waste his time" in copying the bulky collection of 
his master's epistles), and was finally given his 
dismissal. He felt himself badly treated and avenged 
himself by a pamphlet containing brilliant carica- 
tures of both Abu '1-Fath b. al- c Amid and Ibn 
'Abbad (Dhamm— or MathcUib or AMdak—al- 
Wazirayn; considerable extracts in Yakut, i, 281, 
ii, 44 ff., 282 ft., 317 ff.; v, 359 ff., 392 ff., 406 f.). 



ABO HAYYAN al-TAWHIDI — ABU 'l-HUDHAYL al- c ALLAF 



It was in the period between 350-65/961-75 that he 
composed his anthology of adab, entitled BasdHr 
al-Kudama*, also called al-BasdHr wa'l-Dhakh&Hr, 
etc.) in ten volumes (vols, i-v in Fatih (Istanbul), 
3295-9 ; i-ii in Cambridge 134, in Djar Allah (Istanbul) 
and in Manchester 767; unidentified volumes in the 
c Umumiyya (Istanbul, Rampur i, 330, Ambrosiana 
(?)). It was probably in Rayy that he addressed 
to Miskawayh the questions which the latter ans- 
wered in his al-Hawamtl wa'l-Shawdmil. After his 
return to Baghdad, at the end of 370/980, he was 
recommended by Zayd b. Rifa'a and Abu '1-Wafa 5 
al-Buzdjani, the mathematician, to Ibn Sa'dan 
(also called, after his function as an inspector of 
the army, al-'Arid — cf. al-Rudhrawari, Dhayl 
Tadi&rib al-Umam, 9; hence the confusion in Ibn 
al-Kiftl and in modern authors). For him he started 
his book on Friendship, which was finished, however, 
only thirty years later. He frequented regularly at 
this epoch (lectures attended in 371/981, al-Mukd- 
basdt, 246, 286) the man who exercised the greatest 
influence on him, namely Abu Sulayman al-Mantikl 
[q.v.], who was his main oracle, especially on philo- 
sophical matters, but also on every other conceivable 
subject. Ibn Sa'dan was appointed by Samsam al- 
Dawla as his vizier in 373/983. Abu Hayyan remained 
an assiduous courtier of the vizier, attending his 
evening receptions where he had to answer the 
vizier's questions on the most varied topics of 
philology, literature, philosophy, court- and literary 
gossip. (He very. often reproduces the views of Abu 
Sulayman — who lived in retirement and did not 
attend the court — on the matter in question). At 
the request of Abu '1-Waf5' the mathematician, he 
compiled for his perusal a record of thirty-seven of 
these sessions, under the title of al-Imtd'- wa'l- 
Mu'anasa (ed. A. Amin and A. al-Zayn, Cairo 
1939-44). In 375/985-6 Ibn Sa'dan fell and was 
executed, and Abu Hayyan apparently remained 
without a patron. (He wrote for Abu '1-Kasim al- 
Mudlidji, vizier in Shiraz for Samsam al-Dawla in 382- 
3/992-3, al-Muhadarat wa'l-Mundzardt; quotations in 
Yakut, i, 15, iii, 87, v, 382, 405, vi, 466). Of the later 
period of his life we know very little; he evidently 
lived in poverty. It was in these later years that 
he compiled his al-Mukdbasdt (Bombay 1306, Cairo 
1929 — both very faulty editions), a collection of 
106 conversations on various philosophical subjects. 
The chief speaker is again Abu Sulayman, but there 
appear all the other members of the Baghdad 
philosophical circle. Al-Mukabasat and al-Imtd' 
wa'l-Mu'dnasa are mines of information about 
contemporary intellectual life and they should prove 
invaluable for a reconstruction of the doctrines of 
the Baghdad philosophers. — Towards the end of 
his life Abu Hayyan burned his books, alleging as 
reason the neglect in which he had to live for twenty 
years. In the preface to his treatise on Friendship 
(al-Saddka wa 'l-5*aik, printed together with a short 
treatise on the use of science, Istanbul 1301), which 
he finished in 400/1009, he makes similar complaints. 
A guide book to the cemetery of Shiraz (Shadd al- 
Izar '■an Ifatt al-Awzar, 17) claims that the tomb of 
Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi (whom it calls, however, 
Ahmad i>. 'Abbas) was to be seen in Shiraz and 
gives as the date of his death 414/1023. 

Abu Hayyan was a master of Arabic style. He 
was a great admirer of al-Djahi?., in whose praise 
he wrote a special treatise, Takriz al-Diahiz (quoted 
by Yakut, i, 124, iii, 86, vi, 58, 69; Ibn Abi '1-Hadid, 
Shark Nahdi al-Baldgha, iii, 282 f.), and his wish to 
imitate the style of the great prose-writer is evident 



His talent is most apparent in the passages, frequent 
in his books, where he characterizes people. As for 
his beliefs, he does not seem to have had any original 
system. He was obviously impressed by Abu Sulay- 
man's Neo-platonic system, which the latter shared 
with most of the other contemporary Baghdad 
philosophers. Like the other members of the circle, 
Abu Hayyan also showed an interest in Sufism, but 
not enough to make him a regular Sufi. His al- 
Ishdrdt al-Jldhiyya (ed. «A. Badawl, Cairo 1951) 
"consists of prayers and homilies and only occasional 
references to Sufi technicalities". "Abu Hayyan was 
coupled with Ibn al-Rawandl and al-Ma'arrl as 
one of the zindiks of Islam {JRAS, 1905, 80) but 
his extant works scarcely justify this assertion" 
(D. S. Margoliouth, in EI 1 , s.v.). 

Bibliography: Yakut, Irshdd, v, 380 ff.; Ibn 
Khallikan, no. 707; Subkl, iv, 2; Safadi, Wdfi, in, 
JRAS, 1905, 80 ff.; Dhahabi, Milan, iii, 353; Ibn 
Hadjar, Lisdn, iv, 369; Suyutf. Bugkya, 348; 
Brockelmann, i, 283, S i, 435; Muhammad b. c Abd 
al-Wahhab KazwinI, Sharh-i IfdU Abu Sulayman 
Manfiki Sidjistdni, Chalon-sur-Saone, 1933, 32 ff. 
(also in Bist Makdla, Tehran 1935); 'Abd al- 
Razzak Muhyi '1-DIn, Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi 
(in Arabic), Cairo 1949; I. Keilani, Abu Ifayydn 
al-Tawhidi (in French), Beyrouth 1950. — Abii 
Hayyan's little treatise on writing, ed. F. Rosen- 
thal, Ars Islamica, 1948, iff.; three epistles 
(Risdlat al-Imdma — quoted by Ibn al-'Arabi, 
Musdmardt, ii, 77, Ibn Abi 'l-Hadld, Shark Nahd£ 
al-Baldgha, ii, 592 ff., etc., and containing a 
message purporting to be addressed by Abu 
Bakr to 'All, but which, it has been suspected,, 
was invented by Abu Hayyan himself; R. al- 
tfaydt, from a philosophical point of view; and 
the above mentioned treatise on writing) have- 
been edited by I. Keilani, Thaldth Rasd'il, Damas- 
cus 1952. An extract from al-Zulfa, al-Rudhra- 
warl, 75. (S. M. Stern) 

ABU 'L-HUDHAYL al-'ALLAF, Muhammad b. 
al-Hudhayl B. 'Ubayd Allah b. Makhul, with 
the nisba of al-'Abdi (being a mawld of 'Abd 
al-Kays), the first speculative theologian of 
the Mu'tazila. He was born in Basra, where he 
lived in the quarter of the 'alldfiin, or foragers 
(whence his surname); the date of his birth is 
uncertain: 135/752-3 or 134/751-2 or even 131/748-9. 
In 203/818-9 he settled in Baghdad and died, at a 
great age, in 226/840-1, or according to another 
tradition, in the reign of al-Wathik (227-32/842-7), 
or, on the authority of others, in 235/849-50, under 
al-Mutawakkil. He was indirectly a disciple of 
Wasil b. c Ata J , through the intermediary of one of 
Wasil's companions, 'Uthman al-TawIl. Like WasuV 
he was lettered; his profound knowledge of poetry 
was especially celebrated. Some hadiths also are 
quoted under his name. 

The theology which he inherited from the school 
of Wasil was still rudimentary. Essentially polemical,, 
it opposed — in a rather unsystematic fashion, it 
seems — the anthropomorphism of popular Islam 
and of the traditionists, the doctrine of determinism 
favoured for political reasons by the Umayyads, 
and the divinization of 'All preached by the extreme 
Shi'ites. While continuing this polemic, Abu '1- 
Hudhayl was the first to engage in the speculative 
struggles of the epoch, a task for which he was 
exceptionally well equipped by his philosophical mind, 
his sagacity and his eloquence. He became the apolo- 
gist of Islam against other religions and against the 
great currents of thought of the preceding epoch- 



128 



ABU 'l-HUDHAYL al-'ALLAF 



the dualists, represented by the Zoroastrians, the I 
Manichaeans and other Gnostics; the philosophers 
of Greek inspiration, the dahriyya, mainly represented 
by the champions of the natural sciences; finally 
against the increasingly numerous Muslims who 
were influenced by these foreign ideas: crypto- 
Manichaean poets like Salih b. c Abd al-Kuddus, 
the theologians of the "modern" type who had 
adopted certain gnostic and philosophical doctrines, 
etc. It seems that it was only at a mature age that 
he made himself acquainted with philosophy. On 
the occasion of his pilgrimage (the date of which 
is unknown) he met in Mecca the ShI'ite theologian 
Hisham b. al-Hakam and disputed with him con- 
cerning his anthropomorphist doctrines, which show 
a gnostic influence; and it was only then that he 
began to study the books of the dahriyya. Later 
historians observe certain similarities between his 
doctrine of the divine attributes and the philosophy 
of Pseudo-Empedocles, forged by the Neo-Platonists 
and natural scientists of late antiquity, in effect 
his philosophical sources must have been of such a 
kind, which are represented in general by medieval 
Aristotelianism. These philosophers attracted, as 
well as repelled, him; while combatting them, he 
adopted their methods and their manner of looking 
at problems. Naive as a thinker, and having no 
scholastic tradition, he approached speculative 
problems with a daring which did not even recoil 
irom the absurd. Hence all the prematurity and 
the lack of balance which characterize his theology, 
but also the freshness of his attempts. He was the 
first to set many of the fundamental problems at 
which the whole of the later Mu'tazila was to labour. 
The unity, the spirituality and the transcendence 
of God are carried in the theology of Abu '1-Hudhayl 
to the highest degree of abstraction. God is 
he does not resemble his creatures in any respect; 
he is not a body (against Hisham b. al-Hakam); 
has no figure (hay'a), form (sura) or limit. God is 
knowing with a knowledge, is powerful with a power, 
alive with a life, eternal with an eternality, seeing 
with a faculty of sight, etc. (against the Shi'ites 
who asserted that God is knowledge, etc.), but this 
knowledge, power, etc. are identical with himself 
(against popular theology which regarded the divine 
attributes as entities added to essence) : provisional 
formulas of compromise which did not satisfy later 
generations. God is omnipresent in the sense that 
he directs everything and his direction is exercised 
in every place. God is invisible in the other world; 
the believers will see him with their hearts. The 
knowledge of God is unlimited, as to what concerns 
his knowledge of himself; as for his knowledge of 
the world, it is circumscribed by the limits of his 
creation, which forms a limited totality (if it were 
not limited, it would not be totality). The same 
applies to the divine power. Abu '1-Hudhayl strove 
to reconcile the Kur'anic doctrine of creation ex 
nihilo with the Aristotelian cosmology, according 
to which the world, set in motion by God, is eternal, 
movement being co-eternal with the prime mover 
himself. While accepting movement as the principle 
of the universal process, he declared it to be created 
in the Kur'anic sense; in consequence, movement 
also will reach its end and will cease. This end is 
placed by him in the other world, after the last 
day: movement having ceased, paradise and hell 
will come to a standstill and their inhabitants will 
Tje fixed in a state of immobility, the blessed enjoying 
for eternity the highest pleasures and the damned 
enduring the most cruel torments. This bizarre 



doctrine, which, according to tradition, he himself 
revoked, is unanimously rejected by all the Muslim 
theologians, Mu'tazilites or not; nor have its grave 
consequences for the doctrine of God's omniscience 
and omnipotence escaped them. In regard to theo- 
dicy, Abu '1-Hudhayl taught that God has the 
power to do evil and injustice, but he does not do 
it, because of his goodness and wisdom. God admits 
the evil actions of man, but he is not their author. 
Man has the power to commit them, he is responsible 
for them, and responsible even for the involuntary 
consequences resulting from his actions (theory of 
tawallud, first developed by Abu '1-Hudhayl). The 
responsible being is man in his entirety, his rult 
together with his visible body. It was Abu '1-Hudhayl 
who introduced into Mu'tazilite speculation the 
concept of the accidents (a'rdd) of bodies, and 
that of the atom, which he called diawhar. These 
concepts, which originally had a purely physical 
relevance, were made by him to serve as the basis for 
theology proper, cosmology, anthropology and ethics. 
This is his most original innovation, as well as the 
most heavy with consequences; -it was this which 
gave to Mu'tazili theology its mechanical character. 
Life, soul, spirit, the five senses, are accidents and. 
therefore not enduring; even spirit (ruh) will not 
endure. Human actions can be divided into two 
phases, both of them movements: the first is the 
approach ("I shall do"), the second the accomplished 
action ("I have done"). Man having free will, the 
first movement can be suspended in the second 
phase, so that the action remains unaccomplished; 
it is only the accomplished action which counts. 
Divine activity is interpreted in the light ot the 
doctrine of accidents: the whole process of the 
world consists in an incessant creation of accidents, 
which descend into the bodies. Some accidents, 
however, are not be found in a place or in a body; 
e.g. time and divine will (irada). The latter is 
identical with the eternal creating word kun; it is 
distinct from its object (al-murad) and also from 
the divine order (amr), which man can either obey 
or disobey (while the effect of the creating word 
kun is absolute: kun fa-yakunu, Kur'an ii, in, etc.). 
Those who are not acquainted with the Kur'anic 
revelation, but have nevertheless accomplished 
laudable acts prescribed by the Kur'an, have 
obeyed God without having the intention to do so 
(theory of (d'a la yurddu'llahu biha, otherwise 
attributed to the Kharidjites). The Kur'an is an 
accident created by God; being written, recited or 
committed to memory, it is at the same time in 
various places. — In the question of the manzila 
bayn al-manzilatayn Abu '1-Hudhayl took up a 
position which was in conformity with the political 
situation of his time: he did not reject any of the 
combatants round 'All, yet preferred 'All to 'Uthman. 
He enjoyed the favour of al-Ma 3 mun, who often 
invited him to the court for theological disputes. — 
All the writings of Abu '1-Hudhayl are lost. 

During his long life, Abu '1-Hudhayl had an 
enormous influence on the development of theology 
and he collected round him a large number of 
disciples of different generations. The best known 
amongst them is al-Nazzam, though he quarrelled 
with his master because of his destructive theories 
concerning the atom; Abu '1-Hudhayl condemned 
him and composed several treatises against him. 
Among his disciples are named Yabya b. Bishr 
al-Arradjani, al-Shahham, and others. His school 
continued to exist for a long time; even al-Djubbal 
still avowed his indebtedness to Abu 'l-HudhayPs 



ABU 'l-HUDHAYL al- c ALLAF — ABO c INAN FARIS 



theology, in spite of the numerous points on which 
he differed from him. — Unfortunately, the theology 
of Abu '1-Hudhayl was exposed to the malevolence 
of a renegade from Mu'tazilism, the famous Ibn 
al-Rawandi, who, in his Fadifrat al-Mu c tazila grossly 
misrepresented it, by submitting it to an often too 
cheap criticism; this caricature has been faithfully 
reproduced by al-Baghdadi in his Fark and often 
recurs in the resumes of the MuHazila. It is only 
with the help of al-Intisar, by al-Khayyat, the 
severe critic of Ibn al-Rawandi, that we are able to 
unmask the latter's procedure and gain an exact 
idea of the true motives of Abu '1-Hudhayl's specu- 
lation. Al-Ash c ari, in his Makdldt, reproduced his 
theses with admirable impartiality, after the school 
tradition of the MuHazila. Al-ShahrastanI based his 
expose on the later Mu'tazilite tradition, especially, 
it seems, on al-Ka<bI. 

Bibliography : al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Ta'rikh 
Baghdad, Hi, 366-70; Mas'udi, MurudJ, index; Ibn 
Khallikan, no. 617; Ibn al-Murtada (T. W. 
Arnold, The MuHazila), index; Ibn Kutayba, 
Ta'wil Mukhtalaf al-Hadlth, Cairo 1326, 53-5; 
Khayyat, Intisar (Nyberg), index; Ash'ari, 
Makdldt (Ritter), index; Baghdad!, Fark, index; 
Ibn Hazm, Fisal, ii, 193, 487, iv, 83 ff., 192 ff., 
etc.; Mutahhar al-MakdisI, al-Bad" wa 'l-Ta'rikh 
(Huart), index of transl.; Shahrastani, 34-7; S5 c id 
al-Andalusi, Tabakdt al-Umam (Cheikho), 21 f.; 
Makrizi, Khi\a\, ii, 346; S. Pines, Beitr&ge zur 
islamischen Atomlehre, Berlin 1936; A. S. Tritton, 
Muslim Theology, London 1947; L. Gardet and 
M. M. Anawati, Introduction a la thiologie musul- 
mane, Paris 1948; A. N. Nadir, Falsafat al-Mu'ta- 
zila, Alexandria 1950-1. (H. S. Nyberg) 

ABC HURAYRA al-Dawsi al-YamAnI, Com- 
panion of Muhammad. His name c Abd Shams 
was changed to c Abd Allah or c Abd al-Rahman 
when he became a Muslim, but numerous other 
names have also been mentioned. He was called 
Abu Hurayra because, when he herded his people's 
goats, he kept a kitten to play with. When he came 
to Medina the Prophet was on the expedition to 
Khaybar (7/629). Accepting Islam, he associated 
closely with Muhammad on whose charity he 
depended, and was one of the poor men called ahl 
al-suffa [q.v.]. He was devoted to his mother whom 
he persuaded to become a Muslim. c Umar appointed 
him governor of Bahrayn, but deposed him and 
confiscated a large sum of money in his possession. 
When c Umar later invited him to resume the post, 
he refused. Marwan is said to have appointed Abu 
Hurayra his deputy when he was absent from 
Medina, but another version says Mu'awiya gave 
him this appointment. Abu Hurayra had a reputation 
both for his piety and his fondness for jesting. He is 
said to have died in 57, 58, or 59; but if it is true that 
he prayed at c A'isha's funeral in 58, the date must 
be 58/678, or 59. He was 78 years old. 

Although he became a Muslim less than four 
years before Muljammad's death, Abu Hurayra is 
noted as a prolific narrator of traditions from the 
Prophet, the number of which is estimated at 3500. 
Ahmad b. Hanbal's Musnad contains 213 pages of 
his traditions (ii, 228-541). 800 or more men are 
credited with transmitting' traditions from him. 
There is a story, given in slightly different forms, 
in which he explains why he transmitted more 
traditions than others. He says that while others 
were occupied with their business, he stayed with 
Muhammad and so heard more than they. When 
he complained that he forgot what he heard, Muham- 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



mad told him to spread out his cloak while he was 
speaking and draw it round himself when he had 
finished. Abu Hurayra did so, and thereafter forgot 
nothing he heard the Prophet say. He had to defend 
himself against suspicions regarding his traditions; 
but whether this is genuine, or has merely been 
invented for the purpose of overcoming the suspicions 
of people at a later period, it is impossible to prove. 
The traditions attributed to him contain much 
material which cannot be genuine; but Sprenger is 
scarcely justified in calling him a pious humbug 
of the first water, as the traditions traced to him 
are not necessarily his. He may be little more than 
a convenient authority to whom inventions of a 
later period have been attributed. Abu Hurayra 
presumably did tell many stories about Muhammad, 
but the authentic ones may be only a small amount 
of the huge number of traditions traced to him. Many 
of his traditions appear in the Sahihs of al-Bukhari 
and Muslim. 

Bibliography: Ibn Kutayba, Ma'-arif, 141 f.; 
c Uyun, i, 53; DawlabI, al-Kund wa 'l-Asmd', 
Hydarabad 1322-3, i, 61; Ibn c Abd al-Barr, 
Isti'-ab, Hydarabad 1336, 697 f.; Ibn al-Athir, 
Usd, v, 315-7; Nawawi, Tahdhib al-Asmd', ed. 
Wustenfeld, 760 f.; DhahabI, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, 
i, 31-5; Ibn Hadjar, Isaba, Cairo 1358/1939, iv, 
200-8; Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, xii, 262-7; Wensinck, 
Handbook, 7 f . ; A. Sprenger, Das Leben und die 
Lehre des Muhammad, iii, p. lxxxiii-lxxxx v ; 
D. S. Margoliouth, Mohammed, 352 f . ; ZDMG, 1895, 
487 f. The sahifa attributed to Hammam b. 
Munabbih, containing traditions from his teacher 
Abu Hurayra, was published by M. Hamidullah, 
MMIA, 1953, 96 ff. (J. Robson) 

ABC tfUSAYN (BanO AbI Husayn) Sicilian 
dynasty [see kalbids]. 

ABC c INAN FARIS, eleventh sovereign of 
the Marinid [q.v.] dynasty of Fez, born in 729/ 
1329, had himself proclaimed at Tlemcen in 749/1349, 
when his father, Abu '1-Hasan 'All, after being 
defeated at Kayrawan, was returning as a fugitive 
to Morocco. Ibn al-Ahmar describes him as very 
tall, with a fair skin (his mother was a Christian 
slave), and says that he had a long beard. A fearless 
horseman, he was also widely versed in literature 
and the law. Like his father, he was a prince with 
a passion for building, and completed several of the 
foundations that his father had begun, in particular 
medersas at Fez, Meknes, and Algiers. The BO 
'Inaniyya at Fez is the most monumental of these 
MaghribI colleges. 

Having gained the throne by usurpation, Abu 
c In5n went on to assume the caliphian title amir 
al-mu'minin, which his father had not borne. He 
made it his aim to rebuild his father's empire in 
Barbary and fairly quickly succeeded in doing so, 
but only for a few years. He seized Tlemcen from 
the c Abd al-Wadids (1352); and, the same year, took 
possession of Bougie. In 757/1357 he occupied Con- 
stantine and had himself proclaimed at Tunis; but, 
abandoned by his Arab auxiliaries, the Dawawida 
of the Constantine region, he was compelled to 
return to Fez. Not long afterwards he fell ill (759/1358) 
and was strangled by his vizier al-Fududl, who 
had the son of his victim proclaimed, and thus 
inaugurated the series of palace revolutions and 
the long decadence of the Marinids. 

Bibliography: Ibn Khaldun, Hist, des Ber- 
bires, ed. de Slane, ii, 423-42, transl. iv, 287-319; 
Ibn al-Ahmar, Rawdat al-Nisrin, ed. and transl. 
Bouali and G. Marcais, 23-5, 79-84; H. Terrasse, 



ABO C INAN FARIS — ABO KABlR al-HUDHALI 



Hist, du Maroc. ii, 62-6; M. van Berchem, Titres 
califiens d'Occident, in J A, 1907, i, 245-535; 
G. Marcais, Manuel d'art musulman, (1927), ii, 
494 sqq., 517 sqq. (G. Marcais) 

ABC 'ISA al-ISFAHAnI, Jewish pretender 
to the title of the Messiah under the Umayyad c Abd 
al-Malik b. Marwan, or according to others under 
Marwan II. The most noteworthy of his doctrines 
was his acknowledgment of the validity — for the 
non-Jews — of Islam and Christianity. He was killed 
in a battle against the Muslims; the sect, called 
c Isawiyya, survived into the 10th century A. D. 
Bibliography: Blrunl, al-Athar al-Bahiya, 
15; Ibn Hazm, Fisal, i, 114-5; Shahrastanl, 168; 
Makrizi, KMM, »» 478-9 (= S. de Sacy, Ckrest. 
arabe 1 , i, 116); H. Gratz, Gesck. d. jtid. Volkes 1 , 
v, 173 and note 17 (by A. Harkavy) ; Encyclopaedia 
Judaica, s.v. Abu Issa. (S. M. Stern) 

ABC 'ISA Muhammad b. HarOn al-WARRA$, 
a Mu'tazilite at first, became one of the arch- 
heretics in Islam; his friend and pupil, Ibn al- 
Rawandl [q.v.], went through the same metamorpho- 
sis. The date of Abu 'Isa's death is given by al- 
Mas'udl (vii, 236) as 247/861; if it is true, however, 
that Ibn al-Rawandl died about the end of the 
3rd/gth century (see Kraus, 379), this date would 
seem to be too early. The issue would be decided 
if one could be sure that the paragraph in al-Shah- 
rastani, 198, where the date 271 occurs, still con- 
tinues the quotation from Abu c Isa. 

Abu *Isa was accused of Manichean sympathies. 
Al-Murtada's defence, al-Shafi, 13, to the effect that 
his books al-Mashriki and al-Nawh l ala al-BahdHm 
were spuriously attributed to him by the Manicheans, 
deserves, of course, no credit. On the other hand 
it is not very likely that he was a formal adherent 
of Manicheism; most probably he was an "indepen- 
dent thinker" (L. Massignon). Interesting quotations, 
showing his method in criticising current religious 
beliefs, and taken from his al-Gharib al-Mashriki — 
such is the full title also in Fihrist, 177, and al-Tusi, 
99; a "stranger from the East" was evidently 
introduced as the exponent of heterodox views — 
are to be found in Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi, al-Imta c 
wa 'l-Mu'anasa, iii, 192. 

His main work was a book on religions and sects, 
al-Makaldt, which served as an important source 
for writers such as al-Ash c ari (Makaldt al-Isldmiyyin, 
33, 34 — Shl'a; cf. also index, 37), al-Mas e udI 
(Murudx, v, 473 ff.— Zaydiyya), al-Baghdadl (Fark, 
49, 51), al-BIrunl (al-Athar al-Bahiya, 277, 284— 
Jewish sects, Samaritans), Abu '1-Ma c all (Baydn al- 
Adydn (Eghbal), 10 — religion of the pagan Arabs; 
as the editor points out, 54 ff., similar passages are 
to be found in Ibn Abi '1-Hadid, Shark Nahdj al- 
Balagha, i, 39, iv, 437; Ibn Abi '1-Hadld quotes 
Abu 'Isa in other passages also), al-Shahrastanl. 
(141, 143— Shi'a; 192— Mazdak; 188— Mani). Abu 
'Isa's Mu'tazill adversaries insinuated that he was 
too eager to reproduce in his book the arguments 
of the Manicheans. 

Abu c Isa wrote books favourable to the ShI'a 
(al-Imama; al-Sakifa, quoted by al-Mufld, cf. 
Eghbal, Khandan-i Nawbakhti, 86)— hence the 
partiality* of Shi'ite authors for him. 

His critical examination of the three branches 
of Christianity (Orthodox, Jacobite, Nestorian) 
survives in the refutation by Yahya b. «Adi (cf. 
A. Perier, Yahya ben l Adi, 67, 150 ff.; L. Massignon, 
Textes inidits conccrnant I'hist. de la mystique, 182-5 ; 
A. Abel, Abu 'Isd al-Warrdq, Brussel 1949). 



Bibliography: Khayyat, Intisar (Nyberg), 
97, 149, 150, 152, 155, and note, 205; Mas'udI, 
Murudx, vi, 57, vii, 236; Fihrist, 338; TusI, 
Fihrist, 58, 72, 99; Nadjdjashi, Ridjal, 47, 263; 
Th. M. Houtsma, in YVZKM, 1891, 231; H.Ritter, 
in Isl., 1929, 35 f.; A. Eghbal, Khdnddn-i Naw- 
bakhti, Teheran 1933, 84 ft.; P. Kraus, in RSO, 
1934, 374; G. Vajda, in RSO, 1937, 196-7; J. 
Schacht, in Studia Islamica, i, 1953, 41-2. 

(S. M. Stern) 
ABC ISIjAK AL-ILBlRl, IbrahIm b. Mas'Od b. 
Sa'Id al-TupjIbI, Andalusian jurist and poet, 
native, as shown by his nisba, of Ilblra (Elvira), 
which in the century of the muluk al-tawaHf lost 
its position to the neighbouring Granada. Little is 
known of his life. Born in the last years of the 
4th/ioth century, he was, during the reign of the 
ZIrid king of Granada, Badis b. Habus, secretary 
of the kd4i C A1I b. Muh. b. Tawba and at the same 
time was occupied in teaching. In his poems he 
protusted against the increasing influence of the 
Jews in the kingdom of Granada and especially 
against the functions, too important in his eyes, 
entrested to the famous vizier Samuel ha-Nagid 
Ibn NagrSUa, and to his son Joseph, who succeeded 
him in this office in 448/1056-7. It was no doubt 
at the latter's instigation that Badis assigned to 
the fakih a forced residence in the rabita of al- 
c Ukab, in the Sierra de Elvira. Abu Ishak, however, 
did not give way, and the celebrated political poem, 
to which he owes most of his reputation, was, if 
not the determining cause, at least one of the factors 
which brought about the well-known pogrom in 
Granada, on 9 Safar 459/30 Dec. 1066, during which 
Joseph b. Nagrella and 3000 of his correligionists 
were murdered. Abu Ishak al-Ilbiri died shortly 
afterwards, at the end of the same year of 459/1067. 
In addition to his fulminating poem, to which 
attention was long ago drawn by Dozy, Abu Ishak 
left a collection of poems, which are in the majority 
of ascetic inspiration and which he apparently 
composed at an advanced age. This diwdn, of which 
a MS has been preserved in the Escorial (no. 404), 
has been published by the author of this article, 
with an introduction. It is very characteristic of 
the limited poetical faculties of an Andalusian fakih 
of medium culture, who rises to eloquence only 
when expressing his intolerant fanaticism. 

Bibliography: Dabbl, no. 520; Ibn al-Abbar, 
Takmila (Algiers), no. 352; Ibn al-Khatib, Ihdfa, 
article reproduced by R. Dozy, Rech.', i, 282-94 
and App. xxvi (Poime d'Abou Ishak d' Elvira 
contre les Juifs de Grenade); idem, Hist. Mus. Esp. 1 , 
iii, 70-3; E. Garcia G6mez, Un alfaqui espanol: 
Abii Ishaq de Elvira, Madrid-Granada, 1944; 
Brockelmann, S I, 479-80. 

(E. GarcIa G6mez) 
ABC ISHAS [see al-sabi 5 and al-shIraz!]. 
ABC KABlR al-HUDHALI, an early Arab 
poet, after Abu Dhu'ayb the second greatest poet 
of the tribe of Hudhayl. He belonged to the Banu 
Sa'd, or, according to some, to the Banu Djurayb. 
His real name was c Amir (or c Uwaymir) b. al-Hulays 
(also without the article), according to other state- 
ments, c Amir b. Djamra, but he was always known 
by his kunya. According to some commentators 
(cf . e.g. al-TibrizI on the Hamdsa), Abu Kabir married 
the mother of the famous Ta'abbata Sharr™ and as 
the stepson was displeased at this union Abu Kabir 
is said to have been advised by the mother of Ta'ab- 
bata Sharr*" to kill him at the first opportunity, 
but failed on account of the latter's bravery. This 



ABO KABIR al-HUDHALI — ABO KALlDjAR 



story can hardly be true but is rather an attempt 
to explain the well known lines of Abu Kablr in the 
Hamasa in which he describes a companion in arms, 
an ideal hero in terms of the Arab conception. More- 
over, in some versions the roles are interchanged (cf. 
Ibn Kutayba, al-Shfr, 422): Ta'abbata Sharr" 11 mar- 
ried Abu Kabir's mother and so on. The story that 
represents Ta'abbata Sharr*" as the constant com- 
panion of our poet deserves equally little credence 
because his tribe was continually at feud with the 
Fahmis. He flourished in the second half of the 
6th and the beginning of the 7th century, so that 
biographers like c Izz al-DIn b. al-Athir (Usd al-Qhaba, 
Cairo 1280, vi, 272) and Ibn Hadjar al- c Askalani 
(al-Isaba, Cairo 1325, vii, 162) number him among 
the sahdba. 

From the content of his poems he is, however, 
decidedly to be classed as a diahili. His diwan, 
edited and translated for the first time by F. Bajrak- 
terevic, consists of only four long kafidas and 19 
short fragments mostly wrongly attributed to him, 
but is in many ways very interesting and valuable; 
all the kafidas are composed in the same metre 
(kdmil) and begin in the same way, as was pointed 
out particularly by Ibn Kutayba (al-Shi'r, 420). 
What is specially striking also in his poems is the 
complete absence of any description of the camel. 
Arab critics frequently rank Abu Kabir very highly 
as a poet. Al-Ma c arri, it is true, accuses him of 
narrowness of range but singles out some of his 
verses as particularly fine, while c Awf b. Muhallim 
(in Yakut, Irshad, vi, 97) goes so far as to call him 
the greatest poet of Hudhayl. 

Bibliography: Diwan al-Hudhaliyyin, Cairo 
1948, ii, 88-115; Hamasa (Freytag), i, 36 ff. ; Ibn 
Kutayba, Shi<r, 420-5; Abu 'l-'Ala' al-Ma c arri, 
Risalat al-Ghufran, Cairo 1321, 100-1 (Engl, 
transl. by Nicholson, in JRAS, 1900, 708-9); 
SuyutI, Shark Shawdhid al-Mughni, Cairo 1322, 
81-3;' c Abd al-Kadir al-Baghdadi, Khizdnat al- 
Adab, Bulak 1277, iii, 466-73, iv, 165-7, 420-1; 
c Aynl, al-Makasid al-Nahwiyya (on margin of 
Khizdnat al-Adab), iii, 54-7, 361-4, 558-60; Is- 
kandar Agha Abkarius, Rawdat al-Adab fi Tabakdt 
Shu'ara* al-'Arab, Beyruth 1858, 192-6; Muham- 
mad Bakir, Djami'- al-Shawdhid, Kumm 1308, 
67-8, 167, 278-9; Muhammad c Abd al-Kadir al- 
FasI, Takmil al-Maram bi-Sharfi Shaieahid Ibn 
Hishdm, Fez 1310, i8 8 , 24 1 "'; F. Bajraktarevic, 
La Ldmiyya d'Abu Kabir al-Hudali, publiie avec 
le commentaire d'as-Sukkari, traduite et annotie, 
J A, 1923, 59-115; idem, Le Diwan d'Abu Kabir 
al-Hudali, publii avec le commentaire d'as-Sukkari, 
traduit et annoti, J A, 1927, 5-94; Brockelmann, 
S, i, 43- (Fehim Bajraktarevic) 

ABC KALAMMAS [see kalammas]. 
ABC BALAMCN means originally a certain 

stone, a bird, and a mollusc. The origin of 
the word is not certain; the unanimous statement 
of the Arab philologists that Abu Kalamun is a 
Byzantine product would indicate the derivation 
of the word from Greek. In the K. al-Tabassur bi 
'l-tidjdra (MMIA, 1932, 337; Arabica, 1954, 158, 
162), Abu Kalamun is listed as a precious Byzantine 
textile. According to H. L. Fleischer (De Glossis 
Habichtianis, Leipzig 1836, 106), followed by Dozy 
(Suppl., i, 6, 85), it is derived from u7roxaXa|xov, 
supposed to mean "striped cloth". S. de Sacy 
proposed to derive the word from ya.\xa.\Ki(i>\, 
"chameleon", proverbial for its changing colours 
(Chrest. arabe, iii, trad. 268). But neither the diction- 



aries nor Djahiz nor Damirl know of Abu Kalamun 
as a name for the chameleon (though, according 
to the Burhdn-i kdfi', the word has this meaning in 
Persian). The proverb: "more changeable than Abu 
Kalamun", or: "than Abu Barakish" (e.g. Freytag, 
Proverbia, i, 409; HamadhanI, Makdmdt, Beyrouth 
1924, 86; Ibn Hazm, Tawk, 69, cf. And., 1950, 
353), could refer to the chameleon or to a bird of 
changing colours which is also called Abu Barakish 
(cf. Kazwlni, ed. Wustenfeld, I, 406). Further, 
according to MukaddasI, 240-1 (ed. and transl. Pellat, 
53 and no. 143), Abu Kalamun denotes a mollusc 
(pinna), the byssus or "beard" of which is used in 
the manufacture of a sheeny cloth, which is also 
known as suf al-bahr (cf. Dozy, Suppl., s.v.). P. 
Kraus, Jdbir ibn Hayydn, ii, 1 10) refers to the use 
of )(a|xaiX£o>v as a term for the philosophers' stone 
in ancient alchemy (cf. Lippmann, Entstehung . . . 
Alchemic, i, 298). This usage explains why Diabir 
gave one of his books, in which he treats of the 
various colours of the seven metals (ad[sdd), the 
title Kitdb Abi Kalamun (P. Kraus, op. cit., i, 24; 
cf. Ruska, in Isl., 1925, 102 n.). 

Bibliography : In addition to the references 
given in the text: Istakhri, 42; G. Jacob, Studien 
in arab. Geog., ii, 61 ; and the references given by 
P. Kraus, Jdbir ibn Hayyan, ii, 109, no. 4. 

(A. J. W. Huisman) 
ABC KALB [see sikka]. 

ABC KALlDjAR al-Marzuban b. Sultan al- 
Dawla, a prince of the Buwa yhid [q.v.] dynasty, 
born in al-Basra in Shawwal 399/May-June 1009. 
When in 412/1021 Musharrif al-Dawla's Daylamite 
troops murdered his wazir at al-Ahwaz and declared 
for his brother Sultan al-Dawla [q.v.], the latter, 
whom Musharrif had supplanted as ruler of al-'Irak 
in the previous year, took heart and sent them his 
son Abu Kalldjar, though then only a boy of twelve, 
to take over the city in his name. In the following 
year Musharrif and Sultan made peace, Musharrif 
retaining al- c Irak and Sultan regaining Fars and 
Khuzistan; but in Shawwal 415/Decernber 1023- 
January 1024 Sul(5n died, on which the control 
of those provinces was for the next two years 
disputed between Abu Kalldjar (who was even then 
no more than sixteen) and another of his uncles 
Abu '1-Fawaris, the ruler of Kir man. Abu Kalidjar 
emerged victorious from this struggle, but then 
failed in an attempt to dislodge Abu '1-Fawaris also 
from Kirman; so that when they made peace in 
418/1027 he was obliged to pay Abu '1-Fawaris a 
yearly tribute of 20,000 dinars. 

Meanwhile these preoccupations had prevented 
Abu Kalldjar from accepting the invitation of 
the Baghdad garrison to replace yet a third uncle, 
Pjalal al-Dawla [q.v.], as Amir al-Umara', on the 
latter's failure to appear in the capital after the 
death, in Rabl c II 416/June 1025, of Musharrif al- 
Dawla. Abu Kalidjar was nevertheless acknowledged 
in the khutba at Baghdad for some eighteen months 
(from Shawwal 416/Dec. 1025 to Djumada I 418/ 
June-July 1027); in 417/1026 he was likewise 
acknowledged in the khu(ba at al-Kufa; and in the 
following year he was able to send his wazir, Ibn 
Babshadh, to assert his authority over the Euphrates 
marshes, though the only result of this move was 
a rebellion of their inhabitants against the wazir's 
extortions. In 419/1028 Abu Kalidjar added both 
al-Basra and Kirman to the area under his control, 
the former by a timely intervention in a conflict 
between the Daylamites and Turks of Djalal's 
garrison, and the latter by the death of Abu 



ABO KALlDjAR — ABO KAMIL SHUDjA* 



1-Fawaris. In 420/1027 however, on his seizing Wasit, 
Djalal retaliated by sacking al-Ahwaz; and when in 
Rabi' I 421/April 1030 they met in a three-day 
battle, Abu Kalldjar was severely defeated. Djalal 
then retook Wasit and the marshes, and for a time 
his troops also reoccupied al-Basra; but this was 
soon recovered by those of Abu Kalldjar; and in 
Shawwal/October of the same year he in turn 
defeated Djalal at al-Madhar. 

During the next five years Djalal was repeatedly 
forced to leave Baghdad owing to the insubordination 
of his Turkish mercenaries; and on two such occas- 
ions — in 423/1032 and 428/1037 — his name was 
replaced in the khutba of the capital at their instance 
by that of Abu Kalldjar. On the second of these 
occasions Abu Kalldjar despatched a force to help 
the chief Turkish commander, which took and held 
Wasit for a few months. During most of 424/1033, 
on the other hand, al-Basra was occupied by Djalal's 
forces and his name pronounced instead of Abu 
Kalidjar's in the khutba there. But these mutual 
aggressions proving of no advantage to either, in 
428/1037, after Djalal's recovery of Wasit, uncle 
und nephew concluded a formal peace, swearing to 
molest each other no more. 

In 431/1039 Abu Kalldjar joined in suppressing 
his tributary governor of al-Basra with Ibn Mukram 
of c Um5n, whom the governor had annoyed; and 
later in the same year and again in 433/1041-2 was 
obliged to send troops to c Uman itself to suppress 
disorders consequent on Ibn Mukram's death. In the 
latter year Abu Kalidjar's intervention in a quarrel 
between the sons of the Kakawayhid (Kakoyid) 'Ala 5 
al-Dawla was fruitless; but in 434/1042-3 his forces 
repulsed the first Saldjukid attack on Kirman. Then 
in Sha'ban 435/March 1044 Djalal died; and though 
the Baghdad garrison first offered its allegiance to 
his son al-Malik al- c Aziz [q.v.], Abu Kalldjar prevailed 
on them with the offer of an ample accession gratuity 
to withdraw it in his favour. In Safar 436/September 
1044, accordingly, he was acknowledged in the 
khutba not only in Baghdad itself but also in the 
Hulwan district, the Euphrates territory and Diyar 
Bakr, and thus became sole Buwayhid sovereign, 
receiving from the caliph the lakab Muhyl al-DIn. 

During his ensuing four years' reign Abu Kalldjar 
was chiefly concerned to preserve his power against 
Saldjukid encroachment. This had already caused 
him to begin walling his capital, Shiraz, for the first 
time, and in 437/1045-6 only the outbreak of disease 
among his horses prevented him from challenging 
a Saldjukid advance into the south-western Djibal. 
Two years later, however, he decided instead to 
ally himself with the Saldjukids; and, Tughrul [q.v.] 
proving amenable, an alliance was sealed by 
Tughrul's marriage with Abu Kalidjar's daughter 
and the marriage of Abu Kalidjar's second son to 
Tughrul's niece. This alliance preserved his dominions 
in the west from further Saldjukid attacks; but in 
440/1048, a Saldjukid force again invaded Kirman, 
where, instead of being opposed, it was joined by 
Abu Kalidjar's governor. He therefore set out to 
vindicate his authority in person, but suddenly died 
before reaching his destination (Djumada I 440/ 
Octobr 1048). 

Abu Kalldjar left at least nine sons, the eldest 
of whom, entitled al-Malik al-Rahim [q.v.], succeeded 
him as Amir al-Umara J , the last of the dynasty to 
rule in Baghdad and al- c Irak, and the second of 
whom, Fulad-Sutun, succeeded him as ruler of Fars 
until murdered by a rebel in 454/1062. 

In 429, while in Shiraz, Abu Kalldjar, in common 



with many of his Daylamite troops, was converted 
to Isma'ilism by the Fatimid ddH al-Mu'ayyad 
fi '1-Din [q.v.]. Some four years later, in order to 
maintain good relations with the 'Abbasid al-Ka'im 
he was obliged to banish the ddH from his dominions; 
but it would appear from the account of these events 
in the latter's Sira (ed. Kamil Husayn, Cairo 1949, 77) 
that he remained personally devoted to the Fatimid 
cause. A reference to Abu Kalidjar's dealings with 
al-Mu'ayyad is made also by Ibn al-Balkhi in his 
Fars-ndma. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Athlr, index; Ibn al- 
Djawzi, al-Muntazam, vii, 17, 21, 30, 37, 56, 69, 
72-3, 119, 128, 136, 139; Sibt Ibn al-Djawzi, Mir'dt 
al-Zamdn (MS Paris 1506) fols.: 2V, 47V, 78V ; 
Hamd Allah Mustawfi, Ta'rikh-i Guzida 92 ; Ibn 
Khaldun, iv, 472 f.; Mir Kh»and, Rawdat al-Safd 
(extract published by Wilken as Mirchonds Ge- 
schichte der Sultane aus dem Geschlechte Bujeh, 
Berlin 1835. 45-57); Kh'and Amir, Habib al- 
Siyar (extract published by Ranking as A History 
of the Minor Dynasties of Persia, 1910, 118-20); 
H. Bowen, The Last Buwayhids, JRAS, 1929, 226 f. 

(Harold Bowen) 
ABC KAMIL SHIJDJA' b. Aslam b. Muh. 
b. Shudja' al-Hasib al-MisrI, next to Muh. b. MOsa 
al-Kh'arizmi [q.v.] the oldest Islamic algebraist 
of whose writings we still possess some remains; they 
entitle us to place him among the greatest mathe- 
maticians of the Islamic Middle Ages (for the 
development of Islamic algebra see al-djabr wa 'l- 
mukabala). Through Leonard of Pisa and his 
followers he exercised considerable influence on the 
development of algebra in Europe and no less great 
was the impact of his geometrical writings (algebraic 
treatment of geometrical problems) on Western 
geometry. No details of his life are known; all we 
can say is that he lived after al-Kh w arizmi (d. about 
850 A.D.) and before C AU b. Ahmad al- c Imrani 
(d. 344/955-6) who wrote a commentary on his 
Algebra. 

The Fihrist, 281, lists a number of books on 
astrological and mathematical subjects as well as 
on other topics such as the flight of birds etc. Two 
of these titles: Kitab fi 'l-D±am l wa 'l-Tafrik, "On 
augmenting and diminishing" (the Fihrist attributes 
a work bearing the same title to al-Kh w arizmI) an d 
K. al-Khatd'ayn. "On the two errors", have been 
the objects of elaborate discussions ever since F. 
Woepcke (J A, 1863, 514) tried to identify al-Djam 1 
wa 'l-Tafrik with the Latin augmentum et diminutio 
occurring in the Liber augmenti et diminutions, ed. 
Libri, in Histoire des sciences mathimatiques en Italic, 
Paris 1838, 253-97, 2nd ed., 1865, 304-69; cf. H. 
Suter, in Bibl. Math., 1902, 350-4, and J. Ruska, 
Zur dltesten arab. Algebra und Rechenkunst, in 
SBAK. Heid., 1917/2, 14-23. 

None of the works mentioned in the Fihrist has 
survived in Arabic. A work preserved in Arabic is 
al-TaraHf (MS Leiden, 1001, fol. 50v- 5 8v), transl. 
and commented by H. Suter, Das Buch der Selten- 
heiten der Rechenkunst von Abu Kamil al-Misri, 
Bibl. Math., 1910-1, 100-20. It deals with the integral 
solutions of indeterminate equations ("Diophantine 
analysis" according to modern usage; it may be 
well to state that this term is historically incorrect: 
Diophantus, 3rd cent. A.D., whom we have to 
regard, at least as far as the Greek world is concerned, 
as the founder of indeterminate analysis, is interested 
only in rational, not exclusively integral, solutions 
of his problems). Of al-Tard'if there exists a Hebrew 
version (Munich 225, 4) by Mordekhai Finzi of Mantua 



ABO KAMIL SHUDJA' — ABU Y-KHASlB 



(c. 1460) who translated also Abu Kamil's trea- 
tises on algebra (Munich 225, 3). As assumed by 
G. Sacerdote, II trattato del pentagono e del decagono 
di Abu Kimil, in Festschrift Sieinschneider, Leipzig 
1896, 169-94, and proved by Suter, Die Abhandlung 
des Abu Kdmil Shogd* b. Aslam "uber das Fiinfeck 
und Zehneck", Bibl. Math. 1909-10, 15-42, these 
translations were made not from Arabic or Latin, 
but from Spanish. According to Suter, it is probable 
that the Paris MS 7377 A, no. 6, is a Latin version 
of al-TaraHf. (The same MS contains Latin versions 
of Abu Kamil's algebra and of his treatises on the 
pentagon and decagon). — Indeterminate equations 
with integral solutions appear in India fully developed 
about 1 150 in Bhaskara's Vijaganita (cf. Colebrooke, 
Algebra with arithmetic and mensuration, London 
1817, 233-5), but the problem is referred to already 
by Aryabhata (b. 476), who even anticipates for its 
solution the method of continued fractions, to which 
Bhaskara applies the term ku((aka "dispersion" (cf. 
M. Cantor, Gesch. d. Math.', i, 588 ff.) Abu Kamil's 
procedure is less systematic and therefore inferior 
to the Indian. He finds his solutions mainly by way 
of trial, yet shows considerable skill in overcoming 
the difficulties involved. It is hard to decide whether 
or not he knew the kuiiaka method. However that 
may be, it is certain that the anonymous author of 
a commentary on al-TaraHf, of which the Leiden 
MS contains a fragment (fol. 101-2), was familiar with 
it, because he clearly refers to the proof of a method 
of finding integral solutions that can hardly have 
been different from the ku((aka method. 

The connection between Abu Kamil and the 
Indians is shown by a curious detail: they resort 
to the same, or at least similar, varieties of birds 
as examples in their problems. In Europe, we meet 
with indeterminate equations in Leonard of Pisa's 
Liber abaci (1202; Scritti, ed. Boncompagni, Roma 
1857-62, i) — again with reference to birds. The 
first appearance in Europe of this problem seems 
to be marked by a MS composed about 1000 A.D. 
in the monastery of Reichenau. Later European 
algebraists, in particular the German "Cossists" 
(Adam Riese, etc.) usually substitute men, women, 
or virgins for the birds, and therefore the term 
"regula virginum" (or "r. potatorum", "r. coeci" 
or "r. coeti") was adopted by them to denote this 
kind of problem (cf. Bibl. Math., 1905, 112). 

Abu Kamil's "Algebra" is known only in Latin 
(MS Paris 7377 A, fol. 71V-93V) and Hebrew (Paris 
1029, 7 and Munich 225, 5) translations. The two 
MSS of the Arabic original noted by Brockelmann 
have not yet been examined. It is above all upon 
this work that his fame rested. It was commented 
by al-Istakhri and al- c lmranl, but both commentaries 
are lost. L. C. Karpinski's elaborate study: The 
Algebra of Abu Kamil Shoja'- ben Aslam, Bibl. Math., 
191 1-2, 40-55, is based on the Latin Paris MS. For 
the historical background of the work, see also 
O. Neugebauer, Zur geometrischen Algebra, Quellen 
und Studien z. Gesch. d. Math., B (Studien), 1936, 
245-59, and S. Gandz, The Mishnat ha-Middot and 
the Geometry of Muh. b. Musa al-Khowarizmi, ibid., 
A (Quellen), 1932, in particular 37, 68, 83. In the 
definition of djazr (radix, root), mil (census, capital) 
and 'adad mufrad (numerus, absolute number) Abu 
Kamil closely follows al-Kh w arizmi. but in many 
respects he goes far beyond his predecessor. Thus 
he effects the addition and subtraction of square 
roots involving irrationalities only, by means of the 
relations corresponding to our modern formula 
1/a + Vb = Va + b + l/aab. E.g., to subtract 



the square root of 8 from the sq.r. of 18, he gives the 
rule: "Subtract 24 from 26, and 2 remains. The root 
of this is the root of 8 subtracted from the root of 18". 
The same example is found in al-KaradjI's ([q.v.]; 
d.c. 1029) treatise on algebra al-Fakhri (see F. 
Woepcke, Extrait du Fakhri, Paris 1853, 57-9), 
while Leonard of Pisa (Scritti, i, 363-5), in demon- 
strating the same method, uses the numbers 18 
and 32. The analogous treatment of cube roots, as 
dealt with by al-KaradjI, is not yet found in Abu 
Kamil. 

The treatise "On the pentagon and decagon", 
Latin version, MS Paris A, German transl. by Suter, 
cf. above; Hebrew version, Munich 225, 3, Italian 
transl. by Sacerdote, cf. above. All problems occur- 
ring in this treatise are solved in a clear and simple 
mode by applying algebraic methods to geometry. 
Throughout his treatise, Abu Kamil chooses special 
values — in most cases the value 10 — for the given 
quantity, instead of denoting it by a letter or even 
equalling it to 1. In this respect, he has not freed 
himself from the method of al- Kh'arizmi ; but in 
his way of handling the problem he is far superior 
to his predecessor, and his work definitely marks 
an important progress. Sacerdote has shown that 
Leonard of Pisa knew this treatise and made extensive 
use of it in his Practica geometriae (Scritti, ii). 

Bibliography: Suter, 43; Brockelmann, S I, 
390; M. Steinschneider, Hebraische Vbersetzungen, 
584-8. (W. Hartner) 

ABU 'l-SASIM, the name of a canting parasite, 
whom Muhammed b. Ahmed Abu '1-Mutahhar al- 
Azdl depicts in his tfikdyat Abi 'l-Kdsim al-Baghdadi 
as a Baghdad type. The book was probably written 
in the first half of the fifth century and purports to 
relate faithfully a day in the life of its hero. Abu 
'1-K5sim by means of his pious eloquence gets a 
hearing in a society of people at a banquet, rails at 
the guests and the host and shows his linguistic 
skill in a detailed comparison of the advantages of 
Baghdad and Isfahan. As the numerous courses of 
the repast are served, they are accompanied by his 
glib remarks. When the wine goes to his head he 
becomes importunate and vulgar, till finally, being 
forced to drink still more deeply, he falls asleep; 
when the intoxication is over he again plays the 
devout believer. Into this framework the author, 
led on by his philological inclinations, has inter- 
woven so much of his extensive knowledge of the 
adab literature and of the terminology of the different 
trades and also of pornographic poetry — he quotes 
many verses of Ibn al-Hadidjadj — that the realism 
of the description as well as the unity of the tale 
suffer considerably. 

Bibliography: Abu '1-Mutahhar al-Azdl, ffi- 
kdyat Abi 'l-Kdsim, ed. A. Mez, Heidelberg 1902; 
J. M. de Goeje, in GGA, 1902, 723 ff-; C. Brockel- 
mann, in Literarisches Centralblait, 1902, 1568 ff. 

(J. Horovitz) 
ABU 'L-&ASIM [see al-zahrawI]. 
ABU 'L-^ASIM BABUR [see timurids]. 
ABU L-KHASlB, a canal to the south of Basra 
(called after a client of the caliph al-Mansur), the 
most important among the canals that in the Middle 
Ages flowed from the west into the main channel 
of the Tigris, the Didja al-'Awra 5 of Arabic authors, 
i.e. the modern Shat{ al- c Arab. Its bed still exists. 
It was on its bank that the Zand] rebels built in the 
3rd/gth century the great fortress of al-Mukhtara. 
Bibliography: Le Strange, 471.; M. Streck, 
Babylonien nach den arab. Geogr., Leiden 1900, i, 42. 
(M. Streck) 



134 



ABU 



l-KHATTAB al-ASADI — ABO 'l-KHATTAR 



ABU 'l-KHATTAB Muhammad b. Ab! Zaynab 

Mtklas al-Adjda* al-ASADI, Muslim heresiarch. 
According to al-Kashshi, his father was Miklas b. 
Abi '1-Khattab, and he himself used the kunyas Abu 
Ismail and Abu '1-Zubyan. He was a Kufan and a 
mawld of the tribe of Asad. In the Nusayri writings 
he is also called al- Kahili. He was one of the chief 
daHs of the Imam Dja'far al-Sadik, but fell into 
error and taught false doctrines, as a result of which 
he was repudiated and denounced by the Imam. 
Seventy of his followers, assembled in the mosque 
of Kufa, were attacked by order of the governor 
«Isa b. Musa, and after a bitter struggle, were killed. 
Abu '1-Khattab himself Was arrested and brought 
before 'Isa b. Musa, who had him executed and 
crucified at Dar al-Rizk, on the Euphrates, to- 
gether with a number of his followers. Their heads 
were sent to the Caliph al-Mansur and impaled by 
the gate of Baghdad for three days. The date of these 
events is not precisely known, but a conversation 
recorded by al-Kashshi as having taken place in 
138/755 appears to refer to the recent extermination 
of Abu 'l-I<haUab and his followers (fa'nkafa'at 
dthdruhum wa-faniyat ddjdluhum: al-Kashshi 191; 
cf. Lewis, 33; Ivanow, however (p. 117) interprets 
this tradition as referring to the repudiation of Abu 
'1-Khattab by Dja'far, and places his death in about 
145/762). According to the Nusayris, who still 
revere Abu '1-Khattab, 'he manifested the daSva' 
at Dar al-Rizk on 10 or 11 Muharram, and both 
this and the day of his 'appointment' by Dja c far 
al-Sadik (11 Dhu '1-Hidjdja) are sacred anniversaries. 
He seems to have played a role of some importance 
in the early development of extremist ShI'ite 
doctrine, and is named by the Central Asian Isma c ffi 
book Umm al-Kitdb (Isl., 1936, pts. 1 and 2; cf. 
W. Ivanow, REI, 1932, 428-9), as well as by a number 
of SunnI and Ithna-'ashari sources, as a founder of 
the Isma'Ili faith. He is however condemned in 
later Isma'ill writings of the Fatimid period, in 
much the same terms as in the books of the Ithna- 
'ashariyya. For a discussion of his doctrines see 
khattAbiyya. 

Bibliography : The best accounts of the life 
and death of Abu'l-KhaUab are to be found in 
Ithna-'asharl works, especially Kashshl, Ma'rifat 
al-Rididl, Bombay, 1317, 187 ff.; Nawbakhtl, 
Firak, 37 and 58 ff. An Isma'ill account will be 
found in the Kadi Nu'man's Da'd'im al- Islam 
(A. A. Fyzee) vol. i, Cairo, 1951, 62 ff. There are 
also some interesting references in the Nusayri 
work Ma&mu' al-A c ydd, ed. R. Strothmann, in 
Isl., 1946, 6, 8, 10, 148, 159, 202. For general 
discussions see Henry Corbin, £tude priliminaire 
pour le 'Livre riunissant les deux sagesses' de 
Ndsir-e Khosraw. Tehran 1953, 14 ff. ; W. Ivanow, 
The Alleged Founder of Ismailism, Bombay 1946, 
113 ff.; B. Lewis, The Origins of Ismd'Uism, 
Cambridge 1940, 32 ft.; Muhammad Kazwini, in 
Djuwayni, iii, 344 ff. (B. Lewis) 

ABU 'l-KHATTAB al-KALWAQHANI [see 
al-kalwadhAni]. 

ABU 'l-KHATTAB c Abd al-A«lA b. al-Samh 
al-MA'AFIRI al-HimyarI al-YamanI, the first 
imam elected by the Ibadis of the Maghrib. 
He was one of the five missionaries (hamalat al-Hlm, 
"carriers of science") sent to the Maghrib by Abu 
c Ubayda al-Tamlml of Basra, the spiritual head of 
the sect, in order to preach there the Ibadi creed 
[cf. ibadiyya]. These missionaries received from 
Abu c Ubayda the order to establish an imamate 
amongst the Ibadiyya of Tripolitania, with Abu 



'1-Khattab as imam. The activities of the hamalat 
al-Hlm were crowned with success. In 140/757-8 
the Ibadi notables of Tripolitania, in a council held 
in Sayyad, near Tripoli, elected Abu '1-Khattab 
as imam. The Ibadi Berber tribes, Hawwara, Nafusa 
etc., commanded by the new imam, conquered with 
the slogan Id hukm ilia li'lldh wa-ld \d l a Hid \a l at 
Abi 'l-Khattdb, the whole of Tripolitania, including 
Tripoli, which became the residence of their chief. 
In Safar 141/Juni-July 758 the army of Abu '1- 
Khattab took al-Kayrawan, capital of Ifrikiya, at 
that time in the possession of the Sufris of the 
Berber tribe of Warfadjdjuma. <Abd al-Rahman b. 
Rustam, the future founder oi the Ibadi imamate 
of Tahart, was appointed governor of the town. 
The outcome of Abu 'l-KhatUb's conquests was the 
creation of an Ibadi state comprising the whole of 
Ifrikiya, viz. Tripolitania, Tunisia and the eastern 
part of Algeria. It even seems that Abu '1-Khattab 
had a certain influence over the Sufris of Sidjilmassa. 
In Dhu '1-Hidjdja 141/April 759, Muhammad b. 
al-Ash'ath al-Khuza'I, 'Abbasid governor of Egypt, 
sent to Ifrikiya an army commanded by al-'Awwam 
b. c Abd al- c Aziz al-Badjall, to reconquer the province. 
The army was defeated by the Ibadis in the region 
of Surt, near the eastern boundaries of Abu '1- 
KhaUab's possessions. Another 'Abbasid army, led 
by Abu '1-Ahwas 'Umar b. al-Ahwas al-'ldjll, was 
defeated at Maghmadas (Macomades Syrtis, modern 
Marsa Zafran). In the meantime, Ibn al-Ash'ath 
received orders to march himself against the Berbers 
and to assume the government of Ifrikiya. On 
receiving this news, Abu '1-Khattab set out with a 
considerable army. Deceived, however, by a stratagem 
of Ibn al-Ash c ath, who pretended to return to the 
east, he allowed his troops to disband. When Ibn 
al-Ash'ath shortly afterwards reached the neigh- 
bourhood of Tripoli, the imam hastily assembled 
the nearest tribes to check his advance. The battle 
took place at Tawurgha (on the coast, a few days' 
journey to the east of Tripoli) in Safar 144/May-June 
761. It was very bloody: Abu '1-Khattab with 
twelve or fourteen thousand of his followers were 
killed. In Djumada I/August, Ibn al-Ash c ath reoc- 
cupied al-Kayrawan. v 

Bibliography: Abu Zakariyya', al-Sira wa- 
Akhbar al-AHmma (MS coll. S. Smogorzewski), 
fol. i v , 6'-i3 T ; E. Masqueray, Chronique d'Abou 
Zakaria, Algiers 1878, 18-38; Shammakhl, Siyar, 
Cairo 1301, 124-32; Bakri (de Slane, Descript. de 
I'Afr. sept. *), 7, 28, 149, transl. de Slane, 22, 63, 
285-6; Ibn Khaldun, Hist, des Berb., i, 220, 373-5; 
H. Fournel, Les Berbers, i, 351, 355-60. 

(A. DE MOTVLINSKI-T. LEWICKl) 

ABU 'l-KHATTAR al-HusAm b. DirAr al- 
KalbI, governor of al-Andalus, who arrived 
in that country from Ifrikiya in 125/743, to replace 
the wall Tha'laba b. Salama al-'Amill. He carried 
out a liberal policy, and skilfully removed from 
Cordova the representatives of the Syrian diunds, 
who had come to Spain under the leadership of 
Baldj b. Bishr [q.v.]. On the advice of Count Ardabast 
(ArtObas), son of the Visigothic prince Witiza, he 
settled these Hundis on fiefs, requiring from them 
in return that they should respond to mobilization 
appeals that might be made to them. It was in this 
way that the Syrian system of the diunds came 
to be introduced into al-Andalus. The representatives 
of the dfund of Damascus were installed in the 
Elvira district, those of the diund of the Jordan in 
the district of Rayyo (Archidona and Malaga), 
those of the djund of Palestine in the district 01 



ABU 'l-KHATTAR — ABU 'l-KHAYR al-ISHBILI 



135 



Sidona, those of the diund of Hims (Emesa) in the 
districts of Seville and Niebla, those of the diund 
of Kinnasrin in the district of Jaen, and those of 
the diund of Egypt in the Algarve and in the region 
of Murcia (Tudmlr). A little later Abu '1-Khattar 
entered into conflict with a powerful chief of the 
diund of Kinnasrin, al-Sumayl [q.v.] b. Hatim al- 
Kilabl, who mustered troops and defeated the 
governor in Radjab 127/April 745 on the Guadalete. 
In vain did Abu '1-Khattar afterwards attempt to 
regain his office ; it was seized by the Djudhamite chief 
Thawaba b. Salama, who himself died the next year. 
Bibliography: E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. 
mus., i, 48-50. (E. Levi-Provencal) 

ABU 'l-KHAYR, ruler of the Ozbegs [see 
Uzbeks] and founder of the power of this nation, 
descendant of Shayban, Djufi's youngest son [see 
shaybanids], born in the year of the dragon (1412; 
as the year of the hidjra 816/1413-4 is erroneously 
given). At first he is said to have been in the service 
of another descendant of Shayban, Djamaduk Khan. 
The latter met his death in a revolt; Abu '1-Khayr 
was taken prisoner, but was released and shortly 
after proclaimed khan in the territory of Tura 
(Siberia) at the age of 17 (year of the ape-1428; as 
year of the hidjra 833/1429-30 is given). After a 
victory won over another khan of the family of 
Djufii the greater part of Kipiak submitted to him. 
In 834/1430-1 he conquered Kh"arizm with its 
capital Urgandj, which was plundered, but soon 
afterwards he gave it back. According to his bio- 
graphers, Abu '1-Khayr later vanquished two more 
princes, Mahmud Khan and Ahmad Khan, conquered 
the city of Urdu-Bazar, and seized (though for a 
short time only) the "throne of Sayin Khan", i.e. that 
of Batu. Shortly before the death of Sultan Shahrukh 
(850/1447) Abu '1-Khayr established himself firmly 
through the subjugation of the fortresses of Sighnak 
(at present the ruins of Sunak-Kurghan), Arkuk, 
Suzak, Ak-Kurghan and Uzkand ou the Sir Darya — 
the most significant event in his reign for the further 
history of the Ozbegs. Sighnak seems to have been 
his' capital from that time. South of this region no 
durable conquests were made under Abu '1-Khayr: 
even the neighbouring town of YasI (now Turkistan) 
remained in the power of the Tlmurids. Marauding 
expeditions were frequently undertaken, even as 
far afield as Bukhara and Samarkand. Abu '1-Khayr 
appeared with greater forces in 855/1451-2 as an 
ally of the prince AbO Sa'id against the then ruler 
of Samarkand c Abd Allah; with his aid <Abd Allah 
was defeated and killed and Abu Sa c Id was installed 
as ruler in Samarkand; Rabi'a Sultan Begum, 
daughter of Ulugh Beg, was given in marriage to 
Abu '1-Khayr. A second attempt to interfere in the 
disputes of the Tlmurids fell out less happily; 
Muhammad DjukI, favored by Abu '1-Khayr against 
Abu Sa'Id, was forced in 865/1460-1 after some 
successes to raise the siege of Samarkand at the 
approach of his enemy, to quit the country ravaged 
by Abu '1-Khayr's auxiliary troops (under Burke 
Sultan) and in 868/1463 — having, it seems, received 
no assistance from Abu '1-Khayr — to surrender to 
his adversary. Shortly before, probably about 861/ 
1456-7 (Abu '1-Khayr 's grandson, Mahmud, born 
in 858/1454, is said to have been then three years 
old), Abu '1-Khayr's power received a severe blow 
from the Kalmak (Kalmucks); beaten in the open 
field, he had to flee to Sighnak and let the enemy 
ravage the whole country up to the Sir. About 
870/1465-6 there appears to have taken place among 
the Ozbegs that split, through which the proper 



inhabitants of the steppes, since called Kazak, 
separated from the other portion of the nation. The 
year of the rat (1468; erroneously identified with 
874/1469-70) is given as the year of Abu '1-Khayr's 
death ; the power founded by him was after a short 
interruption restored and extended by his grandson 
Muhammad Shaybani. 

Bibliography: Abu '1-Khayr's biography was 

written towards 950/1543-4 by Mas c ud b. 'Uthman 

al-Kuhistani (Ta>rikh-i Abu 'l-Khayr Khdni; the 

statements in Howorth, Hist, of the Mongols, ii, 

687, are correct only so far as concerns the MS. 

of the British Museum, but not the work itself; 

cf. Rieu, Cat. of Pers. MSS., i, 102 ; the Leningrad 

MSS, including that of the University Library 

or. 852, used here, have also the beginning of the 

biography). Mas'ud was also able to utilize the 

oral narratives of Abu '1-Khayr's son Suyiinifi 

Khan (d. 931/1525), who seems to have drawn 

his information from written sources, as for 

example the Mafia' al-Sa'dayn of <Abd al-Razzak 

al-Samarkandl. Information about Abu '1-Khayr 

is also to be found in the historical works 

on his grandson Shaybani and his successors, 

especially in the Tawarikh-i Nusrat Ndma (cf. 

Rieu, Cat. of Turkish MSS., 276 ff.) and the 

writings dependent on it. (W. Barthold) 

ABU 'l-KHAYR al-ISHBILI, surnamed al- 

SHADjDiAR, "the arboriculturist", author of a 

book on agriculture, was a native of Seville 

(Ishbiliya). Neither the date of his birth or that 

of his death are known, and one can only say that 

as he is quoted by Ibn al-'Awwam [q.v.], who lived 

in the second half of the 6th/i2th century, he must 

have belonged to an earlier period. He was probably 

the contemporary of the botanist-physicians and 

"gardeners" of the 5th/nth century, such as Ibn 

Wafid al-Lakhmi, Ibn Bassal, Ibn Hadjdjadj al- 

" Ishbill and al-Tighnari. His K. al-Filaha is preserved 

in MSS in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, in 

the Zaytuna mosque in Tunis and some private 

libraries in North Africa. 

The following are the main contents of Abu 
'1-Khayr's book, (i) General considerations on 
planting (ghardsa): favourable months; influence of 
the moon; the time needed for plants to grow and 
to yield fruit ; age of trees ; damage (weather, animals, 
fire, water); special treatment of olive-trees, vines, 
fig-trees, palm-trees, (ii) Plantations proper: trees, 
bushes, grain, seeds; layering, pruning, grafting; 
fruit and vegetable conserves; growing of vegetables; 
aromatic plants, flowers; flax and cotton; banana 
and sugar-cane, (iii) Animals: of the back- yard, 
especially pigeons; bees and wild animals; harmful 
animals (reptiles, rodents and insects), (iv) Finally 
two pages on the tadidrib al- l am, i.e. meteorological 
or astrological prognostications. 

Abu '1-Khayr appeals to his personal experience and 
observations in the gardens, parks, fields, vineyards 
and forests of the Aljarafe (al-Sharaf, district of Se- 
ville). His literary documentation consists in quoting, 
no doubt at second hand, the K. al-Nabdt of Abu 
Hanlfa al-DInawari (which had been expounded 
in 60 vols, by Ibn Ukht Ghanim— cf. Makkari, 
Analectes, ii, 270), Aristotle, Anatolius, "Kastus" 
(Cassianus Bassus Scholasticus), Philemo — through 
adaptations of the Geoponica and through the al- 
Filaha al-Nabafiyya of Ibn Wahshiyya [q.v.]. [For 
this agronomical literature see filaha.] On the 
whole, the book is an empirical work of technical 
science, but, like the agronomical literature in 
general, is not without its popular and superstitious 



I 3 6 



ABU 'l-KHAYR al-ISHBILI — ABO LAHAB 



side, and formulas for amulets and descriptions 
of talismans are given. 

Bibliography: The K. al-Fildha published in 
Fez 1357-8 is falsely attributed to Abu '1-Khavr. 
An edition with annotated French translation is in 
preparation by the author of this article. Some 
paragraphs were published by A. Cherbonneau 
and H. Peres, K. al-Fildha ou Livre de la Culture, 
in Bibl. Arabe-Francaise, v, Algiers 1946. See also 
<A. Abu '1-Nasr, in MMIA, 1953, 557; J.-J. 
Clement-Mullet, intr. to Livre de V 'Agriculture 
d'Ibn al-Awam, Paris 1864, i, 78; C. E. Dubler, 
in And., 1941, 137; E. Garcia G6mez, in And., 
1945, 132-4, 137-9; E. Levi- Provencal, Hist. Esp. 
mus., iii, 241; J. M. Millas Vallicrosa, in And., 
1943, 287; 1948, 351-2; idem, in Tamuda, Tetuan 
1953, 48; H. Peres, La poesie andalouse en arabe 
classique, Paris 1937, 197; idem, Bull, des Etudes 
Arabes. Algiers 1946, 130-2; Introduction to K. 
al-Fildha ou Livre de la Culture, d'Abu'l-Khavr 
ach-Chadjdjar al-Ichbili, Algiers 1946, 7-11. 

(H. Peres) 
ABC KHIRASH Khuwaylid b. Murra al- 
HudhalI. mukhadram Arab poet, who was con- 
verted to Islam and died under the caliphate of 
'Umar, from the bite of a snake while he was drawing 
water for Yamanite pilgrims (who were then required 
by the caliph to pay his diya). Abu Khirash is 
counted among the pre-Islamic warriors who could 
run faster then horses, sharing this distinction with 
his nine brothers Abu Diundab. 'Urwa, al-Abahh, 
al-Aswad, Abu '1-Aswad, 'Aim, Zuhayr, Diannad 
and Sufyan, who also were poets of rank. 

Bibliography: The diwdn of Abu Khirash 
was published by J. Hell, Neue Hudailiten-Diwane, 
ii, Leipzig 1933. Biographical notes and verses in 
Pjahiz, Hayawdn*, iv, 267, 351; Ibn Kutayba, 
Shi'r, 417-8; Abu Tammam, Hamasa (Freytag), 
365, 37o; Aghdni 1 , xxi, 54-70; Ibn Hadjar, Isaba, 
no. 2345; Baghdad!, Khizana. Cairo 1347, i, 400, 
'Askari, Diwdn al-Ma'-ani, i, 131, ii, 72; Nallino, 
Scritti, vi = Letteratura, 46 (French transl. 77). 

(Ch. Pellat) 
ABC $UBAYS, a sacred hill on the eastern 
edge of Mecca. Rising abruptly from the valley 
floor, it overlooks the Great Mosque a few hundred 
meters away. The Ka c ba corner containing the 
Black Stone points towards the hill, at the foot of 
which is al-Safa, the southern end of al-Mas c a. 
Buildings now hem the hill in on nearly every side. 
Muslim tradition holds that this was the first 
mountain created by God. Adam and other ancients 
are sometimes said to be buried there. The hill's 
older name was al-Amln, given because the Black 
Stone was kept safe there during Noah's Flood. 
Various stories explain the origin of the name Abu 
Kubays (Yakut, s.v.); al-Azraki, 477-8, inclines 
towards the version identifying Abu Kubays as a 
man of Iyad, the first to build on the hiU. Djabal 
Abu Kubays and al-Ahmar on the western side of 
the valley were together called al-Akhshaban (the 
Two Rough Ones); a hadtth says that Mecca will 
last as long as these two. According to popular 
tradition, the Prophet was standing on Abu Kubays 
when the moon was rent in twain (Kur., liv, 1). The 
Ka'ba was destroyed in 64/683-4 by shots from a 
mandjanik fixed on Abu Kubays, and in medieval 
times a castle crowned the hill; no fortifications 
now remain there. The first zdwiya of the SanusI 
order was built on Abu Kubays c. 1252-3/1837, 



and in Snouck Hurgronje's time a large Nakshbandi 
establishment also stood on the slopes (Mekka, 
ii, 285). 

For bibliography, see makka. (G. Rentz) 

ABC $URRA Theodore, Melkite Bishop of 
Harran, said to be the first Christian writer of 
importance to produce works in the Arabic 
language. He was born at Edessa c. 740 and must 
have died c. 820. He refers to himself in his writings 
as a disciple of John of Damascus (d. 749), but 
though he studied as a youth in the monastery of 
St. Saba in Palestine, he can hardly have been a 
student under the Damascene. Like that of John, 
however, his name is associated with the early 
stages of Christian apologetics against Islam, and 
with that Christian learning which played so large 
a part in moulding the development of Islamic 
theology. He wrote in his native Syriac, in Greek and 
in Arabic. His writings are for the most part polemical 
in nature, which may be explained by the fact that 
in his days the city of Harran was a centre of vigorous 
intellectual life in which pagans and Manichees, Jews, 
Muslims and Christians of orthodox and of non- 
orthodox persuasion all shared. In his extant 
treatises he defends his orthodox faith against the 
teachings of all these opposing traditions. His Greek 
tractates have been edited in Migne, Pair. Gr., xcvii, 
and the Arabic by Constantine Bacha, Oeuvres 
arabes de Theodore Aboucara, Iveque de Haran, 
Beyrouth, n.d., though there is some doubt as to 
the authenticity of certain tractates included in 
each of these collections (see Peeters, in Acta 
BolUmdiana, 1930, 94, and H. Beck, in Orientalia 
Christiana analecta, 1937, 40-3). 

Bibliography: Michael Syrus, Chronique, iii, 
29-34; C. Bacha, in Mach., 1903, 633-6; G. Graf, 
Gesch. d. christl. arab. Lit., ii, 7-26; id., Die arabi- 
schen Schriften des Theodor Abu Qurra, Paderborn 
1910. His part in the Muslim controversy is 
discussed in A. Palmieri, Die Polemik des Islam, 
18 f.; G. Guterbock, Der Islam im Licht der 
byzantinischen Polemik, 1912, 15 ff.; I. Kratsch- 
kovsky, in Khristianskij Vostok, 1916, 301-9; 
A. Guillaume, in the Centenary Suppl. to JRAS, 
1924, 233-44; C. H. Becker, Islamstudien, i, 434 ff.; 
W. Eichner, in Isl., 1936, 136 ff. (A. Jeffery) 
ABC LAHAB, son of c Abd al-Muttalib and 
I.ubna bint HSdjir (of Khuza'a), and half-brother 
of Muhammad's father. His name was c Abd 
al-'Uzza and his kunya Abu c Utba; Abu Lahab 
(literally "father of the flame") was a nickname 
given by his father on account of his beauty. At 
one time, doubtless before Muhammad's prea;hing 
had roused opposition, he was friendly with his 
nephew, for his sons 'Utba and c Utayba were married 
(or perhaps only betrothed) to Muhammad's daugh- 
ters Rukayya and Umm Kulthum respectively. 
During the boycott of Hashim and al-Muttalib by 
the other clans Abu Lahab dissociated himself from 
Hashim, probably because through his wife, a 
daughter of Harb b. Umayya, he was connected with 
c Abd Shams. On the death of Abu Talib, shortly after 
the end of the boycott, Abu Lahab became head 
of the clan and at first promised to protect Mu- 
hammad, presumably for the sake of the honour of 
the clan. He withdrew his protection, however, when 
Abu Pjahl and <Ukba b. AM Mu'ayt managed to 
convince him that Muhammad had spoken disrespect- 
fully of deceased ancestors like c Abd al-Muttalib 
and said they were destined for Hell. This loss of 
protection probably led to Muhammad's attempt 
to settle in al-Ta'if ; when it proved vain, Muhammad, 



ABO LAHAB — ABO MADYAN 



before entering Mecca again, had to obtain the 
djiwar of the head of another clan. This hostile 
conduct was doubtless the occasion of Sura 
which, with a play on the name, consigns A 
Lahab and his wife to the flames of Hell. He died 
shortly after the battle of Badr to which he is : 
to have sent in his place a man who owed him 
money. There is a long story about his reactioi 
the news of this defeat. His sons 'Utba and Mu c attib 
became Muslims in 8/630, and 'Utba's grandson, 
al-Fadl b. al- 'Abbas, was known as a poet (Aghani, 

Bibliography: Ibn Hisham, 69, 231-3, 244, 
430, 461; Ibn Sa'd, i/i, 57, iv/i, 41-2; Wakidi, ed. 
Wellhausen, 42, 351; Tabari, index; Caetani, 
Annali, i, 308-9, 496; A. Fischer, in Ber. it. d. 
Verh. d. Sachs. Ak. Wiss., Bd. 89, Heft 2. 

(W. Montgomery Watt) 
ABU'l-LAYIH al-SAMAR&ANDI, Nasr b. 
Muh. b. Ahmad b. IbrahIm, known as Imam al- 
Hudd, a Hanafi theologian and jurisconsult of the 
4th/ioth century. The date of his death is variously 
given as between 373/983-4 and 393/1002-3. He 
must not be confused with his slightly older con- 
temporary al-Ijafiz al-Samarkandi, whose name was 
also Abu '1-Layth Nasr. The oldest known bio- 
graphical source, c Abd al-Kadir (d. 775/1373), 
attributes to this latter person some of the main 
works that generally go under the name of the 
Imam al-Huda, but this seems to be a mistake. 
Abu '1-Layth was a very successful author in 
several fields of the Islamic sciences, and his books 
have become popular from Morocco to Indonesia. 
His main works are: (1) a Tafsir, printed Cairo 
1310/1892-3; this was translated into old Ottoman 
Turkish by Ibn 'Arabshah (d. 854/1450-1), and Ibn 
'Arabshah's work was expanded by Abu '1-Fadl 
Mflsa al-Izniqi, a contemporary, under the title 
An/as al-Djawahir; manuscripts of these Turkish 
editions are among the oldest dated Ottoman 
Turkish manuscripts; (2) Khizanat al-Fikh, a hand- 
book of Hanafl law; (3) Mukhtalif al-Riwdya, on 
the divergent doctrines of the ancient Hanafi 
authorities, in three editions; (4) al-Mukaddima fi 
'l-Saldt, on the duty of ritual prayer, with many 
commentaries; (5) Tanbih al-Ghafilin and (6) Bustdn 
aW-Arifin, both on ethics and piety, often printed; 
(7) an c Akida, in the form of question and answer 
(ed. A. W. T. Juynboll, BTLV 1881, 215 ff., 267 ff.), 
with a commentary by Muhammad b. c Umar al- 
Nawawl (d. after 1305/1888), under the title Kafr 
al-Ghayth (Brockelmann, S II, 814; C. H. Becker, 
Isl. 1911, 23), often printed, also Malay and Javanese 
interlinear translations. This c Akida is authentic 
(against Juynboll, 1. c, and F. Kern, ZA 1912, 
170) and represents a popular, Hanafi current of 
theological thought (Schacht, in Studia Islamica, i). 
Bibliography: <Abd al-Kadir al-Kurashl, al- 
Djawahir al-MudVa, Hyderabad 1332, ii, 196, 
264 f . ; G. Fliigel, Die Krone der Lebensbeschrei- 
bungen, Leipzig 1862, 58 f., 152 f.; Muhammad 
c Abd al-Hayy al-Laknawi, al-FawaHd al-Bahiyya, 
Cairo 1324, 220; Brockelmann I, 210 f.; S I, 
347 f. (nos. 6 and 7 refer to the same work). 

(J. Schacht) 
ABU 'l-MA c AlI Muhammad b. 'Ubayd AllAh, 
Persian writer. His sixth ancestor was Husayn 
al-Asghar, traditionist and son of the Imam Zayn 
al- c Abidin. His family lived for a long time in 
Balkh. He was a contemporary of Nasir-i Khus- 
raw, whom he may have known and about whom 
he gives us the earliest information available. 



From two passages of his only work Ch. Schefer 
assumed that he was at the court of the Ghaznawid 
sultan Mas c fld III when he composed his Bayan 
al-Adydn, dated 485/1092, the earliest known work 
on religions in the Persian language. The first two 
chapters are devoted to religions before Islam and 
to some heresies; the third and fourth to the ex- 
position of the Sunnite and ShI'ite doctrines and to 
the Islamic sects (especially Isma'ilism); the fifth 
chapter, dealing with the extremists (which may, 
therefore, have been of importance) is lost. He 
mentions his main sources. His work has not the 
bulk of the Tabsirat al- c Awamm of Sharif Murtada 
(second half of 12th century), but it commends 
itself by its clear precision and by the sober vigour 
of its style. It is among the best of the rare prose 
works in Persian from the Ghaznawid period. 
Editions by Ch. Schefer (Chrestomathie persane, i, 
131-71) and Abbas Iqbal, Teheran 1312/1934 (detailed 
genealogy of Abu '1-Ma c ali in the introduction); 
transl. H. Masse, RHR, 1926, 17-75. (H. Masse) 
ABU 'l -MA'ALl <ABD al-MALIK [see al- 

DjUWAYNl]. 

ABC MADYAN, Shu'ayb b. al-Husayn al- 
AndalusI, famous Andalusian mystic, born about 
520/1126 at Cantillana, a little town about 20 miles 
NNE of Seville. Sprung from a very modest family, 
he learnt the trade of weaver, but, impelled by an 
irresistible taste for knowledge, he learnt the Ku'ran 
and, as soon as he was able, went to N. Africa to 
complete his education. At Fez he was the disciple 
of renowned masters, who owed, however, their 
fame less to their theological learning than to 
their piety and their ascetic lives — men such as 
Abu Ya'azza al-Hazmirl, c Ali b. Hirzihim, and al- 
Dakkak. This last invested him with the khirka, 
the robe which bore witness to his vocation of 
sufi; but his real initiator into the theories of 
mysticism seems to have been Abii Ya'azza. With 
the permission of this master, he left for the Orient. 
There he succeeded in absorbing the tradition of 
al-Ghazali and of the great mystics. At Mecca he 
may have encountered the famous c Abd al-Kadir 
al-GIlanl (d. 561/1166). He returned to the Maghrib, 
and settled at Bidjaya (Bougie), where he became 
known for his teaching and his exemplary life. His 
fame reached the ears of the Mu'minid ruler Abu 
Yusuf Ya c kub al-Mansur, who summoned him to 
the court at Marrakush, no doubt apprehensive 
about such religious prestige outside the Almohad 
sect. When within sight of Tilimsan (Tlemcen) Abu 
Madyan was taken ill and died (594/1197). Following 
his expressed wish he was buried at al- c Ubb5d, a 
village on the outskirts of Tlemcen, which was 
apparently already frequented by ascetics, but 
which, as his burial-place, was to become especially 
venerable. 

The place which he occupies amongst the most 
important figures in western Islam is not due, 
strictly speaking, to his writings; at least, his only 
surviving writings are "a few mystical poems, a 
wasiyya (testament), and an '■akida (creed)" (A. Bel). 
It is because of the memory of him handed down 
by his disciples, and the maxims attributed to him, 
that he bas been considered worthy to be regarded 
as a kutb (pole), a ghawth (supreme succour), and a 
wall (friend of God). The maxims proclaim the 
excellence of the ascetic life, of renunciation of 
this world's goods, of humility, and of absolute 
confidence in God. He used to say: "Action accom- 
panied by pride profits no man ; idleness accompanied 
by humility harms no man. He who renounces 



ABO MADYAN — ABU 'l-MAHASIN al-FASI 



calculation and choice lives a better life". He often 
repeated this line: "Say: Allah! and abandon all 
that is material or has to do with the material, if 
thou desirest to attain the true goal". Actually there 
is nothing original in his conception of sufism, but 
the success of his doctrine and its long-continued 
influence can be explained by its conciliation of 
various tendencies and by the type of society which 
received it. "His great merit and his great success 
lie in his having realised, in a way that his hearers 
could understand, a happy synthesis of the influences 
which he had undergone. With him the moderate 
sufism that Ghazali had already, a century earlier, 
incorporated in Muslim orthodoxy, principally for 
the use of a privileged elite, is now adapted to the 
mentality of the North African believer, whether 
man of the people or literate . . . Abu Madyan . . . 
gave once and for all the keynote for North African 
mysticism" (R. Brunschvig). 

The books of hagiography attribute miracles to 
him, and Tlemcen, where he died, adopted him as 
patron. His tomb, which became the centre of a fine 
architectural complex (mosque of al- c Ubbad 737/1339, 
madrasa 747/i347j little palace, hammdm) mainly 
built by the Marinid sultan of Fez Abu '1-Hasan, 
ruler of Tlemcen, is still a place of pilgrimage for the 
country people of the province of Oran and eastern 
Morocco. 

Bibliography: Ibn Maryam, al-Bustdn (Ben 
Cheneb), Algiers 1326/1908; transl. Provenzali, 
Algiers 1910, 115 ff. ; Ghubrinl. '■Unwan al-Dirava 
(Ben Cheneb), Algiers 1910; Ibn Khaldun (Yahya), 
Hist, des B. <Abd al-Wdd, transl. A. Bel, Algiers 
1904, i, 80-3; Ahmad Baba, Nayl al-Ibtihddj., 
Fez 1917, io7-ii2;J. J.J. Barges, Vie du cilebre 
maraboutCidi Abou Medien, Paris 1884; Brosselard, 
Les inscriptions arabes de Tlemcen, in RAfr., 1859; 
A. Bel, La religion musulmane en Berbirie, i, Paris 
1938; id., Sidi Bou Medyan el son rnattre Ed- 
Daqqdq, in Melanges R. Basset, Paris 1923, i, 
31-68; R. Brunschvig, La Berbirie orientate sous 
les Hafsides, ii, Paris 1947, 317-9; M. Asin Palacios, 
El mistico murciano Abenarabi, Madrid 1925, 32. 

(G. Marcais) 
ABU 'L-MAtfASIN DjamAl al-DIn YOsuf B. 
TAGHRlBIRDl, Arabic historian, bom at 
Cairo, probably in 812/1409-10 (exact date doubtful). 
His father was a mamluk from Asia Minor (Rum) 
bought and promoted by Sultan al-Z5hir Barkuk; 
under Sultan al-Nasir Faradj he became commander 
in chief of the Egyptian armies (amir habir, atdbak) 
in 810/1407, and in 813 viceroy (na'ib al-salfana) of 
Damascus, where he died early in 815/1412. The 
boy Yusuf was brought up by his sister, wife of the 
chief kadi Muhammad b. al- c AdIm al-Hanafl and 
then of the chief kadi «Abd al-Rahman al-Bulklni 
al-Shafi c i (d. 824). He studied under many noted 
scholars the usual learned disciplines, and also music, 
Turkish and Persian. At the same time he had 
entrance to the Mamluk court, became proficient in 
military exercises, and was granted a fief {ik(d<). 
He made the pilgrimage to Mecca in 826/1423, in 
849/1445 (as a bdshd in the hadjdi escort), and again 
in 863/1459. In 836/1432 he took an active part in 
the Syrian campaign of Sultan Barsbay, with whom 
he was on intimate terms (as he was with later 
sultans), and turned to the writing of history after 
he had heard al-'Ayni's works read to that sultan. 
His first important work was al-Manhal al-Sdfi 
wa 'l-Mustawfi ba'd al-Wdfi, biographies of the 
sultans and important amirs and scholars from 
650/1248 to 855/1451, but with some additions as 



late as 862/1458; an annotated resume was published 
by G. Wiet in MIE, 1932, 1-480. 

Next came al-Nudium al-Zahira fi Muluk Misr 
wa 'l-Kdhira, a history of Egypt from 20/641 to his 
own times, and continuing also the biographical 
series of the Manhal. It was written, he says, for 
himself and his friends, especially Sultan Djafcmak's 
son Muhammad, and at first went only to the end 
of Djakmak's reign, Mubarram 857/Jan. 1453. Later 
he continued it to 872/1467 (see below). Editions: 
Abu 'l-Mahasin ibn Tagri Bardii Annates, from 
20/641 to 365/976, ed. Juynboll and Matthes, 2 vols., 
Leiden 1855-61; Abu 'l-Mahdsin ibn Taghrt Birdt's 
Annals, fiom 366/977 to 566/1171 and from 746/ 
1345 to 872/14 7, ed. W. Popper {Univ. of California 
Publ. in Semitic Philology, ii, iii part I, v, vi, xii) 
Benceley 1909-29; al-Nudium al-Zahira, from 20/641 
to 799/1397, Cairo i348/ig29ff. (Dar al-Kutub al- 
Misriyya, al-Kism al-Adabl). 

The death of al-Makrlzi in 845 and of al- c Ayni 
in 855 left Abu 'l-Mahasin as Egypt's principal 
historian, and he wrote Hawddith al-Duhur fi Mada 
'l-Ayydm wa 'l-Shuhur, chronicles from 845/1441 to 
12 Muharram 874/July 16, 1469, to continue al- 
Makrlzi's al-Suluk li-Ma'-rifat Duwal al- Muluk. 
Simultaneously he continued his own Nudjum, but 
omitted from it much of the Hawddith's fuller 
material regarding persons and economic and 
political conditions. Edition: Extracts from Abu 
'l-Mahdsin ibn Taghri Birdi's Chronicle Hawddith 
al-Duhur, ed. Popper {Univ. Cal. Pub. in Semitic 
Phil., viii), 1930-42 (contains all passages npt 
represented in Nudjum, vol. vii). 

Two other extensive historical works, not men- 
tioned by him or his biographers, are ascribed to 
him: Nuzhat al-Ra'y for 678-747/1279-1346, and al- 
Bahr al-Zdkhir fi Him al-Awwal wa 'l-Akhir, for 
32-71/652-90. 

He wrote also several condensations or extracts 
from his main works: al-Dalil al-Shdfi <ala 'l-Manhal 
al-Sdfi; Kitab al-Wuzard' ; al-Bish.dra fi Takmilat 
al-Ishdra (supplement to al-Dhahabi's Ishdra); al- 
Kawdkib al-Bdhira; Mansha> al-Latdfa fi Dhikr man 
Waliya'l-Khildfa; and Mawrid al-Lafdfa fi man 
WaHya'l-Saltana wa'l-Khildfa, ed. with Latin trans- 
lation by J. E. Carlyle, Cambridge 1798. 

His works other than on history were: Tahdrif 
Awlad al- c Arab fi 'l-Asmd' al-Turkiyya; al-Amthal 
al-SdHra; Hilyat al-Sifdt fi 'l-Asmd' wa'l-Sind'dt 
(anthology of poetry, history and literature); al- 
Sukkar al-Kddih wa'l-Htr al-Fd'ih (a poem of 
mystic content) ; and a short treatise on vocal music. 
He left the manuscripts of his works to the tomb- 
mosque which he had built for himself. He died on 
5 Dhu'l-Hididja, 874/5 June 1470. 

Bibliography: Ahmad al-Mardjl (the author's 

pupil and copyist of the Manhal), in Nudj&m, 

Cairo, i, Introd., p. 9; Sakhawl, Daw', x, 305-8; 

Ibn al- c Imad, Shadhardt, ix, 317; Ibn lyis, BaddH* 

(Kahle and Mustafa), iii, (5c), 43; Weil, Chalifen, 

iv, pp. xvii-xxi; v, pp. vii-xiv; E. Amar, in Mi- 

langes H. Derenbourg, 1909, 245-54; G. Wiet, in 

BIE, 1930, 89-105; Brockelmann, II, 41, S II, 

39; F. Wustenfeld, Die Geschichtsschreiber der 

Araber, no. 490; Hadjdji Khalifa (Fliigel), index, 

no. 4301; Babinger, 61. (W. Popper) 

ABU VMAtfASIN Yusuf b. Muhammad b. 

Yusuf al-FAsI, Moroccan scholar, and Sufi 

shaykh of repute, born in 938/1530-31, the ancestor 

of the Fasiyyun (vernacular Fasiyyin) family, which, 

since the 16th century, has provided the town of 

Fas with a long succession of scholars and jurists. 



ABU 'l-MAHASIN al-FASI — ABU MA'SHAR al-BALKHI 



Abu'l-Mahasin al-Fasi himself belonged to the 
Fihrite branch of the Banu '1-Djadd, which, about 
880/1475, had emigrated from Malaga, in Spain, to 
Morocco. He was born at al-Kasr al-Kablr (or, in 
the Spanish form, Alcazarquivir), where his grand- 
father Yflsuf had settled after a stay of seven years 
at Fas (this is how he came to acquire the appel- 
lative al-Fasi, which remained that of all his des- 
cendants). But it was to the capital of North Morocco 
that Abu'l-Mahasin al-Fasi went to study, and 
there he finally settled, from 988/1580 onwards. He 
soon acquired there an exceptional reputation for 
learning and piety, and founded a zdwiya which 
has been much frequented ever since. In 986/1578, 
he took part in the famous battle of Wadi* 1-Makhazin 
against the Portuguese (see sa'dids). He died on 
18 Rabl c I 1013/14 August 1604. Among his most 
famous descendants should be mentioned his son 
Muhammad al- c ArabI al-Fasi, author of a monograph 
on Abu '1-Mahasin, the Mir'dt al-Mahdsin (lith. at 
Fez in 1324), his grandson 'Abd al-Kadir b. All 
[q.v.], and the son of the latter, 'Abd al-Rahman 
[q.v.]. A genealogical table of the Fasiyyun family 
will be found in Hist. Chorfa, 242. 

Bibliography: E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Chorfa, 
240-41, and the numerous references mentioned 
ibid., 240, n. 4, among which may be cited here 
only Ifrani, Safwat man Intashar, Fez, n. d., 27; 
Kadiri, Nashr al-Matha™, Fez 13 10, i, 89; Mu- 
hibbi, Khuldsat al-Athar, Cairo 1284, iv, 507; 
kattani, Salwat al-An/as, Fez 1316, ii, 306 ff.; 
M. Bencheneb, £'ude sur Us personnages mentionnls 
dans I'idjdza du cheikh Abd el-Qddir el-Fdsy, Actes 
XVI' Cong. Int. Or., iv, Paris 1908, § 19 bis. 
(E. Levi-Provencal) 
ABC MANSUR IlyAs al-NAFCsI, governor 
of Diabal Nafusa and Tripolitania, on behalf 
of the Rustamid imam of Tahart, Abu'l-Yakzan 
Muhammad b. Aflah (d. 281/894-5). He came from 
Tindemira, a village in the Djabal Nafusa, but the 
exact dates of his birth and death are unknown. 
His province comprised the whole of Tripolitania, 
excepting the town of Tripoli which belonged to 
the Aghlabids. He had immediately to engage in 
conflict with the Berber Ibadi tribe of Zawagha, 
who occupied the coast between Tripoli and Dierba. 
The tribe, which sought to free itself from depen- 
dence on the Nafusa and had adopted the dissident 
doctrines of Khalaf b. al-Samh, revolted against Abu 
Mansur under the leadership of the son of Khalaf, 
who had taken refuge with them. Abu Mansur, 
attacked by the Zawagha, defeated them with severe 
losses; their leader fortified himself on the island of 
Djerba, but his followers were bribed and delivered 
him up to Abu Mansur. 

According to Ibn al-Rakik, quoted by al-Sham- 

makhi, when in 266/879-80 the invader Abu 'l-'Abbas 

Ahmad b. TQhin defeated the Aghlabid governor of 

Tripoli, Muhammad b. Kurhub, and besieged the city 

for forty three days, the inhabitants called Abu Mansur 

to their help. He arrived with twelve thousand men, 

attacked Ibn Tiilun outside the city and routed him. 

Bibliography: E. Masqueray, Chroniqued'Abou 

Zakaria, Algiers 1878, 188-94; Dardjlnl, Jabakat 

al-Mashd'ikh (MS) ; SJjammakhl, Siyar, Cairo 1301, 

224-5 ; A. de Motylinski, Le Djebtl Nefousa, Paris 

1899, 91, n. 3; R. Basset, Lts sanctuaires du 

Djebtl Nefousa, J A, 1899, 432- .(T. Lewicki) 

ABC MANSCR [see al-tha'alibI]. 

ABC MA'SHAR J2ia<far b. Muhammad b. 

c Uhar al-BALKHI, astrologer, usually known 



in western Europe as Albumasar, was born at Balkh 
in eastern Khurasan, studied at Baghdad, and was 
a contemporary of the famous philosopher al-Kindl 
(first half of 3rd/gth century); after studying the 
Islamic traditions, he devoted himself particu- 
larly to the study of astronomy and astrology, and 
it is to the latter that he owes his celebrity. He 
benefited fully from the very flourishing state of astro- 
nomical studies in Baghdad, but had a decided 
preference for astrology. In any case, in his various 
astrological works it is possible to pick out the 
astronomical principles and laws that he derived 
from contemporary scholars. He died at Wasit, 
almost a centenarian, in 272/886. 

In the works of Abu Ma'shar can be observed the 
influences exerted at that time on Arab learning by 
cultural currents from Persia (in the Pahlawi tongue), 
and, more indirectly, from India. But Abu Ma'shar 
not only benefited from the learning of his contemp- 
oraries; even in his own time he was reputed to be 
a plagiarist. The author of the Fihrist, on the autho- 
rity of Ibn al-Muktafl, tells us that Abu Ma'shar 
plagiarized various authors, particularly the works 
of Sind b. 'All, and these accusations are corroborated 
by modem criticism. 

Among his numerous works may be cited: 

(1) a collection of astronomical tables (*M/), 
unfortunately lost, in which the movements of the 
planets were calculated for the meridian of Gangdiz 
(or Gangdez in Pahlawi), and in agreement with the 
Indian theory of millenary cycles (hazdrat). 

(2) al-Madkhal al-Kabir (The great introduction 
to Astrology), a treatise divided into eight books and 
still unpublished in Arabic, twice translated into 
Latin, first in 11 30 by Johannes Hispalensis, then, 
in 1 150, by Hermannus Secundus or the German. 
This work was to have a great influence in Christian 
Europe; the Latin manuscripts of it are numerous, 
and Hermann's translation was printed at Augsburg 
quite early, in 1489, under the title Introductorium 
in asironomiam Albumasaris Abalachii octo continens 
libros partialis ; it was also printed in Venice in 1495 
and again in 1506. It is important to note that this 
corpus of astrology contains an exposition of the 
theory of tides, and it can be said that medieval 
Europe learned the laws of the ebb and flow of the 

\ sea from it. There are in this theory, side by side with 
true observations, some completely fantastic expla- 
nations. The moon is made to influence also the 
winds, rainfall, and the whole sublunary world. 

(3) Ahkdm TahdwU Sinl al-Mawdlid, translated 
by Johannes Hispalensis under -the title De magnis 
coniunctionibus et annorum revolutionibus ac eorum 
profectionibus octo continens tractatus, printed at 
Augsburg in 1489, and at Venice in 1515. The Arabic 
text is found in Escurial ms. 917 (Brockelmann, I, 
221, is wrong in supposing that this is a ms. of the 
preceding work), and also in ms. 2588 of the Bibl. 
Nat. of Paris. Nallino believed that the translation 
of De magnis coniunctionibus . . . was from an Arabic 
original, Daldldi al-Ashkhas al-'Ulwiyya ('Indic- 
azioni date dalle persone superiori dagli astri'), and 
Suter denied any connection between the De magnis 
coniunctionibus and the Kitab al-Kirandt which is 
also attributed to Albumasar; but, as J. Vernet 
points out in a recent article, there is a large measure 
of correspondence between the two works. 

(4) al-Nukat, a sort of summary of the previous 
treatise, translated by Johannes Hispalensis under 
the title Flores astrologiae: the Arabic text is in 
Escurial ms. 918, 1, and 938, 5, and also in folios 
1-29 of ms. 2588 of the Bibl. Nat., Paris. The Latin 



140 



ABC MA'SHAR al-BALKHI — ABO MOHAMMAD B. BARAKA 



translation was printed at Augsburg in 1488, at 
Venice in 1488, 1485, and 1506. 

(5) al-Uluf fi Buyut al-Hbdddt was, judging by 
the quotations from it in later authors, a study on 
the temples built in the world in each millenary. 

(6) Mawalid al-Rididl wa'l-Nisd', a treatise on the 
horoscopes of men and women, divided into twelve 
chapters, and preserved in ms. Berlin no. 5881. 

Some other works are also attributed to Abu 
Ma'shar, but their authenticity cannot be proved; 
in any case, they do not involve a different view of 
the scientific character of our author, which is 
almost exclusively astrological. 

Bibliography: Brockelmann, I, 221, S I, 394; 

H. Suter, Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der 

Araber, 28, Nachtr., 162; Ibn al-Kifti, Ta'rikh 

al-Hukamd 3 (Lippert), 152; J. Lippert, Abu 

MaHhars Kitdb al-uluf, WZKM, 1895, 351-8; 

M. Steinschneider, Die europdischen Obersetzungen, 

35-8; P. Duhem, Le systime du monde, ii, 369-860; 

C. Nallino, Scritti, iv, 331-2; G. Sarton, Introd. 

to the Hist, of Science, i, 568; J. Vernet, Problemas 

bibliogrdficos en torno a Albutnasar, Barcelona 

1952. (J. M. MillAs) 

ABC MA'SHAR NaqiIh b. c Abd al-Rahman 

al-SINDI al-MadanI, a slave from the Yaman, 

possibly of Indian parentage, who purchased his 

freedom and lived in Medina. He was considered a 

rather "weak" hadith scholar, but he is deservedly 

famous as the author of a Kitab al-Maghazi. 

Numerous fragments of it have been preserved by 

al-Wakidi and Ibn Sa c d. Among his authorities he 

mentions N5fi c , the mawld of Ibn c Umar, Muhammad 

b. Ka c b al-I£urazi, and other scholars of Medina. 

In the year 160/776-7, he left Medina and remained 

in Baghdad until his death in Ramadan (?) 170/787. 

There he enjoyed the favor of several members of 

the court of the 'Abbasid caliphs. Al-Tabari has 

taken from him information on Biblical history 

and on Muhammad's life and especially chronological 

statements, the latter going down to the very year 

of his death. 

Bibliography: Brockelmann, S I, 207; 
Bukhari, Ta'rikh, Haydarabad 1360, 114; Ibn 
Hibban, Madjruhin (ms. Aya Sofiya 496, fol. 234) ; 
Ibn c Adi, Du c afd> ms. Topkapu Saray, Ahmet III, 
2943, iii, fols. i83b-i85a); al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, 
Ta'rikh Baghdad, xiii, Cairo 1349/1931, 457-62; 
Ibn Hadjar, Tahdhib, x, Haydarabad 1325-7, 
419-22; Dhahabi, Nubala? (ms. Topkapu Saray, 
Ahmet iii, 2910, vi, fols. i88b-i9oa); id., 
Ta'rikh al-Isldm, under the kunyas of the obitua- 
ries of the 17th (abaka; Ibn Rutayba, Ma'drif 
(Wiistenfeld), 253; Ya'kubi, ii, 523; Yakut, 
Mu l djam, iii, 166; id., Mushtarik, 256; J. Horovitz, 
in IC, 1928, 495-8. 

(J. Horovitz-F. Rosenthal) 
ABC MIDFA C [see sikka]. 
ABC MIHDJAN c Abd Allah (or Malik or 
<Amr) b. HabIb, Arab poet of the Thaklf tribe, 
counted as one of the mukhaiframun. After taking 
part in the defence of al-Ta 5 if against Muhammad, 
when he wounded with an arrow a son of Abu Bakr 
(in 8/630), he was converted in 9/631-2 and fought 
at al-Kadisiyya. The story goes that, in order to 
take part in this battle, he escaped first from his 
escort (for 'Umar had banished him to Hadawda, 
see Goldziher, Abhandl., i), then managed to obtain 
provisional liberty, thanks to the wife of Sa c d b. 
Abl Wakkas; Sa c d had imprisoned him for drunken- 
ness, but the poet's conduct in the battle — which 
has been somewhat embroidered by the historians — 



won for him the general's pardon. It is possible 
that Abu Mihdjan also took part in the battle of 
Vologesias (Ullays). In 16/637 he was again exiled by 
'Umar to N5si c , and died shortly afterwards; it is 
said that his tomb was to be seen on the frontier of 
Adharbaydjan or of Djurdjan. 

The fragments of his poetry that have been 
preserved show no originality, but his reputation 
as a poet is upheld mainly by his bacchanalian 
songs (the famous line: 'When I die, bury me at 
the foot of a vine ..." is attributed to him); and a 
group of poems in which he openly challenges the 
Ku'ran's prohibition of wine must be taken seriously. 
It was this attitude that led to his being banished 
several times by c Umar. 

This poet should not be confused with his namesake 
Abu Mihdjan Nusayb b. Rabah, on whom see nusayb. 
Bibliography: The diwdn of Abu Mihdjan 
has been edited by C. Landberg, Primeurs arabes, 
i, Leiden 1886 (another ed., Cairo n. d., with a 
commentary by al- c Askari), and by Abel, Leiden 
1887 (with a biography and a Latin translation). 
Accounts of him are to be found in Djumahl, 
Tabakdt (Cairo), 105-6; Ibn tfutayba, SAtV, 251-3; 
Mas'udi, Muriidi, iv, 213-19; Aghdni 1 , xi, 137-43, 
xxi, 210-24; Ibn Hadjar, Isdba, iv, no. 1017; 
Baghdadi, Khizdna (Bulak), iii, 550-6; Caetani, 
Annali, v, 224 sqq.; Brockelmann, I, 40, S I, 70; 
O. Rescher, Abriss, i, 105-7; Nallino, Scritti, vi, 46. 

(N. Rhodokanakis-Ch. Pellat) 
ABC MIKHNAF LOT B. Yahya b. Sa'Id b. 
Mijojnaf al-Azdi, one of the earliest Arabic 
traditionists and historians, d. 157/774. He 
is credited in the Fihrist with 32 monographs on 
diverse episodes of Arab history, relating mainly to 
'Irak, much of the contents of which is preserved 
in the chronicles of al-Baladhun and al-Tabari. The 
separate works which have come down to us under 
his name are later pseudographs. His great-grand- 
father Mikhnaf was the leader of the 'Iraki Azd on 
the side of 'All (for him see Ibn Sa'd, vi, 22 and Nasr 
b. Muzahim, Wak'-at Siffin (Cairo 1365), index); on 
the whole, however, Abu Mikhnaf presents an 'Iraki 
or Kufan, rather than purely Shi'ite, point of view 
in his historical narratives. As a traditionist he is 
regarded as weak and unreliable. 

Bibliography: Fihrist 93; TfisI, List, no. 575; 
Kutubi, Fawdt, ii, 175 (ed. Cairo 195 1, no. 360); 
Brockelmann, I, 65; S I, 101-2; Storey, ii, 229; 
J. Wellhausen, Ar. Reich, pref. m-v (brief char- 
acterization of his materials and method); F. 
Wiistenfeld, Der Tod Husains und die Rache 
(AGGW, 1883); Bartold in Zapiski Vostoch. otd. 
imper. arkheol. obshch., xvii, 147 ff. ; R. E. Brunnow, 
Die Charidschiten, Leiden 1884. 

(H. A. R. Gibb) 
ABC MUHAMMAD <Abd Allah b. Muhammad 
b. BARAKA al-'UmanI, commonly called Ibn 
Baraka, Ibadite author from the township of 
Bahla in c Uman. The precise dates of his life are not 
known, but an 'Umani Ibadite writer, Ibn Mudad, 
regards him as a disciple and partisan of the imam 
Said b. c Abd Allah b. Mahbub, killed in 328/939-40. 
He himself played a considerable part in the political 
life of 'Uman and composed several historical and 
juridical works, of which only the following are 
extant: 1. al-Djami'; on the principles of law; 
2. al-Muwdzana, on the condition of 'Uman at the 
time of the imam al-Salt b. Malik, and dealing also 
with certain points of principle and their juridical 
solutions; 3. al-Sira, somewhat similar to the 
preceding work; 4. Madh al-'Ilm, in praise of 



ABU MUHAMMAD B. BARAKA — ABU NADDARA 



knowledge and those who pursue it; 5. al-Takyid; 
6. al-Ta'druf; 7. al-Sharh U-D£dmi< Ibn Dja'far, 
doubtless a commentary on al-Dj.dmi c , a work by 
Abu Djabir Muljammad b. Dja'far al-AzkawI of 
<Uman, dealing with the application of legal 
principles. 

Bibliography: Saliml, Tuhfat aUA'ydn ft 

Sirat Ahl 'Umdn, i, Cairo 1332, 153, 166, 167; 

idem, al-Lam'a (in a collection of six IbadI works 

published in Algeria, 1326), 210-1; al-Siyar al- 

'Umdniyya, ms. Lwow, foil. iSs'-igS' and 

271*; E. Masqueray, Chronique d'Abou Zakaria, 

Algiers 1878, 139, n.: A. de Motylinski, BibUo- 

graphie du Mzab, in Bull, de Corr. Air., Algiers 

1885, 19, nos. 19 and 20. (T. Lewicki) 

ABC MUHAMMAD SALIR b. Yansaran b. 

GhafiyyAn al-Dukkali al-MadjirI, famous 

Moroccan saint of the 6th-7th century A. H., 

patron of the town of Asfi [q.v.], the present-day 

Safi. Born about 550/1155, his principal master was 

the famous Abu Madyan [q.v.] al-Ghawth. patron 

of Tilimsan (Tlemcen). He went on pilgrimage to 

Mecca and is believed to have stayed in Alexandria 

twenty years to follow the teaching of the sufl 

c Abd al-Razzak al-PjazulI, who was of Moroccan 

origin. After his return to Morocco he became the 

propagandist among his fellow-countrymen of the 

hadidi and talab al-Hlm in the East, and retired to 

the ribdf of Asfi, where he died on 25 Dhu '1-Hidjdja 

631/22 September 1234. A monograph on him, 

entitled al-Minhddi al-Wadih ft Tahkik Karamat AH 

Muhammad Salih, was written by his great-grandson 

Ahmad b. Ibrahim b. Ahmad b. AM Muh. Salih. 

Bibliography: Ibn Farhun, Dibddj., Cairo 

1329, 132; Badisi, Maksad, tr. G. S. Colin, in AM, 

1926, 92, 195 (n. 295); KattanI, Salwat al-Anfds, 

Fez 1316, ii, 43-44; Levi-Provencal, Fragments 

historiques sur les Berberes au Moyen Age, Rabat 

1934, 77-8; idem, Hist. Chorfa, 221 and n. 3. 

(E. Levi-Provencal) 
ABC MUSA [see al-ash c arI]. 
ABC MUSLIM, leader of the revolutionary 
'Abbasid movement in Khurasan. He was of 
obscure antecedents, probably a slave of Persian 
origin, in the service of the Banu c Idjl in Kufa. 
Here he made contact with the sAt c a and in 119/737 
he is found amongst the followers of the ghali 
al-Mughlra b. Sa'Id. In 124/741-2, the Khurasanian 
nukaba? of the c Abbasids, proceeding to Mecca, 
found him in prison. They liberated him and took 
him to the Imam Ibrahim b. Muhammad. After 
instructing him, the Imam sent him in 128/745-6 to 
Khurasan with the mission of directing the movement 
of insurrection in that province. 

On arrival in Khurasan and after overcoming the 
initial hostility of the local chiefs of the movement 
(especially Sulayman b. Kathlr), Abu Muslim 
managed with dexterity and energy to reap the 
fruits of the long c Abbasid propaganda. On 1 
Shawwal 129/15 June 747 the black banners of the 
insurgents were publicly raised. Profiting by the 
internal discords of the Umayyad army, Abu 
Muslim gained support among the Yamanites, and 
succeeded in taking Marw in Rabi' II or Djumada I 
130/December 747 or January 748. From there his 
generals operated in all the surrounding regions; one 
of them, Kahtaba b. Shabib [q.v.], took up the 
pursuit of the Umayyad forces towards the west, 
which was to end in the fall of the dynasty. 

After the proclamation of al-Saffah as caliph, 
Abu Muslim remained as governor in Khurasan, 
■ensuring, on the one hand, internal security (sup- 



141 

pression of the ShI'ite revolt in Bukhara, 133/750-1), 
and extending, on the other hand, the Islamic 
conquest towards the east (expedition of Abu 
Da'ud, the same year). His relations, however, 
with the new dynasty, which in great part owed to 
him its success, became increasingly strained. It 
does not seem that there was, on his part, an actual 
design of revolt, nor do the assertions of some 
heresiographers, followed by modern scholars, that 
he was carrying on an extremist religious pro- 
paganda, seem to correspond to the truth. His 
great prestige and power, however, were enough in 
themselves to alarm the 'Abbasids. The accession 
of al-Mansur in 136/753-4 marks the beginning of 
the crisis. After making use of Abu Muslim against 
his uncle c Abd Allah b. C A1I [q.v.], he invited him 
to present himself at court. Abu Muslim, after long 
hesitation, suspecting, but not fully crediting, what 
was waiting for him, decided to do as he was bid, 
and was treacherously killed. His memory remained 
alive in the Eastern provinces, and, starting with 
the movement of al-Mukanna c [q.v.], gave rise, 
during many years, to political and religious agita- 
tion. 

Bibliography: DInawarl, al-Akhbar al-Tiwdl 
(Guirgass), Ya'kubl, Tabari, indexes; Aghdni, 
Tables; G. van Vloten, De Opkomst der Abbasiden 
in Chorasan, Leiden 1890, 70-131; J. Wellhausen, 
Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz, 323-52; 
R. N. Frye, The Role of Abu Muslim in the 'Abbasid 
Revolt, MW, 1947, 28 : 32; S. Moscati, Studi su 
Abu Muslim, I-III, Rend. Line., 1949, 323-35, 
474-95; 1950, 89-105. (S. Moscati) 

ABU 'l-MU'IHIR al-Salt b. KhamIs al- 
BAHLAWl al- c UmanI, IbadI historian and 
lawyer, native of Bahla 3 in c Uman. His exact dates 
are not known; but he is counted among the IbadI 
scholars of the second half of the 3rd/9th century. 
He left valuable literary materials, especially in the 
field of history, and also took an active part in the 
political life of his time, being a zealous partisan 
of the imam al-Salt b. Malik, deposed in 273/886-7. 
Among his works, the following are worthy of 
note: (1) al-Ahdath wa 'l-$ifat, devoted to events 
in "Uman at the time of al-Salt b. Malik, and to 
the circumstances of his deposition; (2) al-Bayan 
wa 'l-Burhan, on the principle of the institution of 
the Imamate in connection with the affair of al-Salt ; 
(3) al-Sira, containing information about the im- 
portant figures of the earliest period of Ibadism. — 
MSS of these three books were in the possession of 
S. Smogorzewski. (4) Tafsir al-khams mi'at Aya, 
commentary on five hundred verses dealing with 
forbidden and permitted things. 

Bibliography: Saliml, Tuhfat al-A'-yan ft 
Sirat AM 'Umdn, 1332, i, 65-6, 153 ; idem, al-Lam'a 
(in a collection of six IbadI works, published in 
Algeria, 1326), 219; E. Masqueray, Chronique 
d'Abou Zakaria, Algiers 1878, 139, note; al-Siyar 
al 'Umdniyya, MS Lwow University, fol. 3r-i6v, 
i7r-25r, 37r-47v, n5v-i2or, 268r, 27ov; A. de 
Motylinski, Bibliographic du Mzab, Bull, de Corr. 
Afr., 1885, 20, no. 27; S. Smogorzewski, Materiaux 
pour servir d la bio-bibUographie ibadite (unpub- 



(T. I 



ki) 



ABC NADDARA, Ya'sub b. Rafa'Il Sanu c 
(also James Sanua), prolific Jewish Egyptian 
journalist and playwright (1839-1912). He 
indirectly influenced the c UrabI Revolt by teaching, 
lecturing, writing and performing short satirical 
plays and first starting the publication of Abu 
Nad4dra Zarkd 3 ("the man with green spectacles"), 



ABO NAWARA — ABO NU'AYM al-ISFAHAnI 



an anonymous lithographic sheet, enlivened by 



he had criticized the Khedive and his counsellors, 
he had to leave Egypt in 1878; but he continued to 
publish his newspaper in Paris intermittently, in 
Arabic and French, and smuggled it into Egypt 
under various names. Copies also reached North 
Africa, Syria und India. Besides Abu Naddara 
himself, many characters drawn from Egyptian life 
appeared in his newspapers, notably the greedy 
shaykh al-hara (the Khedive Isma'il), officials, 
merchants, brokers, beggars, etc. They expressed 
their views in conversation form, letters, short plays, 
and minutes of meetings. He also contributed articles 
to various French newspapers. Besides his plays 
— of which he claims to have written over 30 (one 
preserved in Arabic) — he published a few stories and 
pamphlets, of little literary value. His political- 
journalistic activity in his exile had two phases. 
In the first, until 1882, he attacked the Khedives 
Isma'U and Tawflk, and encouraged the National 
Party and its supporters. In the second phase, after 
the failure of the c UrabI Revolt and the exile of its 
leaders, he inveighed against the British and their 
Egyptian supporters; called on France and Turkey 
to oust the British; proposed Prince Hallm, son 
of Muhammad 'All, for the throne of Egypt; and 
campaigned, albeit perfunctorily, for the betterment 
of the lot of the fallahln. All in all, he was the 
creator of the satirical newspaper and the modern 
satirical play in Arabic. 

Bibliography. Brockelmann, S III, 265-6; 
Yusuf Ilyan Sarkls, Mu'diam al-Matbu'at al- 
'Arabiyya, 349-50; F. Tarra zI > Ta'rikh al-Sihdfa 
al-'-Arabiyya, ii, 238, 247, 283, 284, 354; iii, 8-9; 
id., Arabic periodicals fascicle, 1933, 162-3, 372-7, 
398-9; Ibrahim 'Abduh, Tafawwur al-Sihdfa al- 
Misriyya, 1945, 107, 235, 236; J. Heyworth-Dunne, 
Society and politics in modern Egyptian literature, in 
Middle East Journal, July 1948, 309-10; I. Kra- 
chkovskij, in Vostoh, 1924, 165-8 ; Aim6 Vingtrinier, 
Abou Naddara a Constantinople, 1897; J. M. 
Landau, Abu Naddara, an Egyptian Jewish 
Nationalist, in Journal of Jewish Studies, 1952, 
30-44. (J. M. Landau) 

ABU'l-NAEJM al-Fapl (al-Mufapdal) b. 
Kudama al-'IDJLI. Arab poet of the ist/7-8th 
century (d. after 105/724). Although he composed 
several (tasidas, he owes his celebrity to his verses in 
radjaz in which he treats of beduin subjects (descript- 
ions of camels, horses, ounces, etc.), and eulogizes 
the Umayyads c Abd al-Malik, Hisham, <Abd al- 
Malik b. Bishr, and the governor al-Hadidjadj. The 
critics, who include him among the four best rudidjaz 
(with his fellow-tribesman al-Aghlab and the two 
Tamimites of al-Basra, al-'Adjdjadi and his son 
Ru'ba), rank him highest for description, and praise 
his facility for improvisation. His rivalry with al- 
'Adjdjadi (Mudar against Rabi'a) is famous, and 
the biographers describe a grotesque scene in which, 
at the Mirbad, Abu 'l-Nadjni mounted on a he-camel 
puts to flight his rival and his she-camel, and recites 
the well-known line: 'I and every poet of the human 
race [have demons to inspire us]: his is female and 
mine male'. Nevertheless it was Ru'ba who gave 
the name Umm al-radjaz to a long ardiuza which 
Abu '1-Nadjm recited to Hisham, whose wrath was 
aroused by an ill-chosen word; he was soon received 
back into favour, however, and received from Hisham 
an endowment in the Sawad of al-Kufa. 

Bibliography: Brockelmann, S 1, 90; Rescher, 
Abriss, i, 223; Nallino, Scritti, vi, 98. A bio- 



graphical account and some verses are to be 
found in Ibn Sallam, Jabakat (Hell), 148, 149-50; 
Ibn Kutayba, S«V, 381-6; Aghani 1 , ix, 77-83; 
Baghdad!, Khi™**, >. 103, ii, 340-53; MM I A, 
1928, collects together the biographical data 
(385-94), and publishes the Umm al-radiaz (472-9). 
A lamiyya has been published by Maymani, al- 
Tara'if al-adabiyya, Cairo 1937, 55-71, and 
there are scattered verses in a number of works, 
particularly al-Djahiz, Bayan and tfayawan', in 
the indexes; Asmal, Fuhula, ZDMG 1911, 499, 503, 
511, 515; Abu Tammam, Hamasa (Freytag), 45, 
144, 514, 755; Marzubani, Mu c diam, 310; 'Askarl, 
Diwan al-Ma'-ani, i, 113, 279. (Ch. Pellat) 
ABC NA$R [see al-fArab!]. 
ABC NU'AYM al-I$FAHAnI, Ahmad b. c Abd 
Allah b. Ishak b. Musa b. Mihran al-Shafi c I, 
born in Isfahan in Radjab 336/Jan.-Feb. 948 (Ibn 
Khallikan: or 334, Yakut, Buldan, i, 298, 330), d. 
Monday 21 Muharram (Ibn Khallikan: or Safar; 
Yakut: Monday 20 Muharram ; Dhahabi, Subkl: 
20 Muharram) 430/23 Oct. 1038, an authority on 
filfh and tasawwuf. His grandfather Muh. b. Yusuf 
was a well known ascetic, the first of his kin to 
accept Islam (Ibn Khallikan). Abu Nu'aym mentions 
him as his forerunner in Ifilyat al-A-wHya? (i, 4). 
His father who also was a scholar (Yakut, Buldan, iv, 
344) had him taught by important teachers, such 
as Dja'far al-Khuldl and al-Asamm, from his sixth 
year. From 356/967 he travelled and studied in 'Irak, 
Hidjaz and Khurasan, and for 14 years he was 
reckoned as one of the best fta<2»W>-authorities. This 
is stated by his contemporary al-Khatlb al-Baghdadl 
who quotes him (Ta'rikh Baghdad, xii, 407, 412) and 
by al-Dhahabl and al-Subkl, but neither al-Khatlb 
nor Yakut include him in their biographies of 
learned men. The number of those who transmitted 
hadifh from him is said to be about eighty. Al- 
Sulaml, his older contemporary, quotes one hadith 
on his authority with one intermediary (Tabakdt al- 
Sufiyyah sub Abu 'l-'Abbas b. c Ata'). Al-Khatib, 
according to al-Subkl one of his nearest pupils, 
criticises him for treating idfaza's lightly, but is in 
this contradicted by al-Dhahabl. 278. The strife 
between Hanbalites and Shafi'ites caused sharp 
criticism of him by his fellow townsman Abu c Abd 
Allah b. Mandah (cf. Brockelmann, S i, 281) and 
led to bodily attacks on him. He was even expelled 
from the mosque of Isfahan, which saved his life 
as, according to tradition, Subuktigin, when he 
conquered the town, massacred the people assembled 
in the mosque at the Friday-service ; this is reckoned 
one of his haramat. Al-NabhanI (cf. Brockelmann, 
S II, 763 f.) relates that the mosque fell down 
twice and crushed the crowd because A. N. had 
cursed it. Abu Nu'aym's work Ifilyat al-Awliyd' 
wa-Tabakat al-Asfiyd' (Cairo I35i/i932-i357/i938) 
was finished in 422/1031 (see x, 408). It was written 
to strengthen what he regarded as the true sflfism 
(i, 4). After a general description of sufism he 
mentions the different etymologies of the word, 
above all its derivations from suf, on which he 
had written a book Labs al-Suf, stressing its 
connotation of humility (i, 20, 23). The rest con- 
sists in accounts of and sayings by 649 pious 
people (nussdk) reckoned as suns, beginning with 
the four "righteous caliphs" — an evidence of the 
interpenetration of sufism and orthodoxy. Every 
section begins with "the shayhh (Abu Nu'aym) 
said". It differs from al-Sulami's Tabakdt, which 
gives only sayings with few or no anecdotes. It is 
told that he brought the work personally to Nisabur 



ABO NU'AYM al-ISFAHANI — ABO NUWAS 



145 



where he sold it for 400 dinars. Extracts from it 
are used "in Ibn al-DjawzI, $afwat al-Safwa. 

His second large work, Dhikr Akhbdr Isbahdn 

(ed. S. Dedering, Leiden 1931) contains biographies 

of people who had connexions with Isfahan, mainly 

scholars, after a short history and topography of 

the town. On this topic he had several forerunners 

(cf. Dedering ii, p. vm-x). Besides these works he 

wrote several smaller books on the proofs of prophecy, 

the medicine of the prophet, the excellence of 

Muhammad's first followers, with extracts from 

al-Bukharl and Muslim etc. He died in Isfahan and his 

tomb is said by Yakut (i, 298) to be in Murdbab. 

Bibliography : Brockelmann, S 1, 616 f; Yakut, 

index; Ibn Khallikan, Cairo, no. 32; Phahabl, 

Tadhkirat al-Uuffaz, Haydarabad 1334, iii, 275-79! 

Subkl, Tabakdt al-§hafiHyyah, Cairo 1324, 7-91 

Sha'ranl, al-Tabakdt al-Kubrd, Cairo 1315, i, 56; 

Ibn al- c Imad, Shadjyirat, iii, 245 ; NabhanI, Didmi' 

Kardmdt al-Awliyd 1 , Cairo 1329, i, 293. 

(J. Pedersen) 
ABC NU'AYM al-Fapl b. Dukayn al-MULA'I, 
hadith scholar and historical informant (b. 130/748, 
d. 29 Sha'ban 219/8 Sept. 834). 

He was a client of the family of Muhammad's 
Companion Talha. He lived in al-Kufa and made 
occasional visits to Baghdad, where he was once 
received by al-Ma'mfln. Dukayn's actual name is 
said to have been c Amr. A son of Abu Nu'aym, 
c Abd al-Rahman (perhaps the author of the Kur'an 
commentary, referred to in Fihrist, 34), and a 
grandson, Ahmad b. MItham, are mentioned. 

Abu Nu'aym is considered a very reliable trans- 
mitter of traditions. He is also highly praised for 
the courageous way in which he stood up for the 
uncreatedness of the Kur'an against Mu c tazila 
inquisitors. On the other hand, he was suspected 
of being a Shi'ite. He admitted his secret veneration 
for 'All, though he wanted it understood that he 
was moderate in his attitude. He moved in c Alid 
circles, and appears quite often as a transmitter of 
information about Talibids and 'Alids (cf., for 
instance, Ibn Sa c d, iii, 160; iv/i, 23 ff., 30; v, 66 ff., 
236-8; Abu '1-Faradj al-Isfahanl, Makdtil al-Jdli- 
biyyin, Cairo 1368/1949, 46). He was acceptable to 
and respected by both ShI'ites and 'Abbasids. When 
he died, a descendant of Abu Talib prayed for him 
first. Then, the c Abb3sid governor of al-Kufa, a 
fifth cousin of the reigning caliph al-Mu'tasim, 
insisted upon repeating the ceremony. 

Of Abu Nu'aym's work nothing has come to 
light so far, except the frequent references of the 
historians to him. He appears as a transmitter mainly 
of biographical data but also of some general histo- 
rical information. He himself probably never pub- 
lished any historical work. Fihrist, 227, credits him 
with two works concerned with ritualistic and legal 
problems, a Kitab al-Mandsik and a Kittib al- 
MasdHl fi H-Fikh. 

Bibliography: Ibn Sa'd, vi, 279 f., and 
passim; Baladhurt, Ansdb (Goitein), v, index; 
Bukhari, Ta'rikh, Haydarabad 1316, iv/i, 118; 
Ibn Kutayba, Ma'drif, 121, 262; Tabari, index; 
Ibn Hibban, Thikdt, ms. Topkapu Saray, Ahmet 
III, 2995, fol. 292b; Aghdni 1 , xiv, 11; Fihrist, 
227; al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Ta'rikh Baghdad, 
Cairo 1349/1931, xii, 346-57; 'Abd al-Ghanl al- 
Pjamma'lli, Kamdl, in MSOS As., 1904, 189-93; 
Dhahabi, Ifuffdz (Wiistenfeld), i, 82; id., Nubald', 
ms. Topkapu Saray, Ahmet III, 2910, vii, fols. 
I74a-i78a; Ibn Hadjar, Tahdhib, Haydarabad 
1325-7, viii, 270-6. (Fr. Rosenthal) 



ABC NUMAYY I and II, sharlfs of Mecca 
[see MAKKA]. 
• ABC NUWAS al-Hasan b. HAhi' al-HakamI, 

the most famous Arabic poet of the 'Abbasid 
period. He was born in al-Ahwaz between 130/747 
and 145/762 and died in Baghdad between 198/813. 
and 200/815 (so also Hamza al-Isbahani, MS Fatih, 
3773, fol. 6r). As his diwdn contains a marthiya- 
on al-Amin (d. 198/873), earlier dates are impro- 
bable. His father belonged to the army of the last 
Umayyad, Marwan II, and was a mawld of al- 
Djarrah b. c Abd Allah al-Hakaml, who came from 
the South Arabian tribe of Sa'd b. c AshIra; hence 
the nisba of Abu Nuwas and his dislike of the 
Northern Arabs. His mother Gullaban (= Gulban) 

While still very young, Abu Nuwas came to- 
Basra, and later to Kufa. His first master was the 
poet Waliba b. al-Hubab, who is said to have been 
in erotic relationship with him. After Waliba's death 
(cf. the marthiya, Diwdn, Cairo 1898, 132), he 
became the pupil of the poet and rdwi Khalaf al- 
Ahmar. He acquired a knowledge of the Kur'an 
and hadith also, and studied under the grammarians 
Abu 'Ubayda, Abu Zayd, etc. He is also said to have 
spent, according to the old custom, some time 
among the beduins in order to improve his linguistic 
knowledge. 

His education finished, Abu Nuwas came to 
Baghdad, to gain the favour of the caliph with 
panegyrics. He found, however, little favour at the 
court, but was better received by the Barmakids. 
After the fall of the Barmakids he had to flee to 
Egypt, where he composed panegyrics on the head 
of the diwdn al-kharddi, al-Khatib b. <Abd al-Hamld. 
Soon, however, he was able to return to his beloved 
Baghdad, where he now spent, as a boon companion 
of al-Amin, the most brilliant years of his life. 
Nevertheless, even al-Amin once prohibited him 
from wine drinking and even imprisoned him on 
that account. 

There are different reports about his death. 
According to one tradition he died in prison, to 
which he had been sent on account of a blasphemous 
verse, according to another in the house of a woman 
tavern-keeper, according to a third in the house 
of the learned Shi'ite family of the Al Nawbakht. 
He was linked to this family, especially to Isma'Il 
b. Abi Sahl al-Nawbakhtl, by close friendship, 
though this did not prevent him from composing 
some wounding lampoons on Ismail {Diwdn, 171 f.). 
The assertion, therefore, that he was murdered by 
the Nawbakhtis is probably mere slander, especi- 
ally as this family interested itself even later in the 
collection of Abu Nuwas' poems and Hamza al- 
Isbahanl made use of information derived from them 
(cf. MS Fatih 3773. fol. 3v). 

The Arab literary critics themselves regarded 
Abu Nuwas as the representative of the modern 
school of poets, the muhdathun. "What Imra'al-Kays 
was for the ancients, that is Abu Nuwas for the 
moderns" (Fatih 3773, fol. 7r). At most, only 
Bashshar b. Burd could possibly compete with him. 
Although in his panegyrics Abu Nuwas still uses 
in general the classical form (cf. e.g. Diwdn, 77, 
the panegyric known as manhuka, addressed to al- 
Fadl b. al-Rabi c , to which Ibn Djinnl devoted an 
extensive commentary), otherwise the old forms, 
especially that of the nasib, serve as a butt for his 
ridicule. Once he begins abruptly: "I do not weep 
because the dwelling-place has become an inhospi- 
table desert" (Fatih 3775, fol. I2r); instead of the 



144 

former dwelling-place of the beloved he weeps for 
the taverns that have disappeared and bewails the 
boon-companions dispersed far and wide (cf. also 
the poem translated by H. Ritter, Orientalia i, 
Istanbul 1932). 

Abu Nuwas is at his best in his songs on wine 
and pederasty. He is not only able to sing in ever 
fresh accents the delights of both, but also depicts 
with humorous realism his adventures in this field. 
Nor does he avoid self-irony, as when he describes 
the thrashing which he received at the hands of 
youths whom he had made drunk in order to amuse 
himself with them (cf. e.g. Fatih 3775, fol 21). 
Equally ironical are the dirges which he composed 
about his own body, wasted by illness (Diwdn, 131 f.). 
Abu Nuwas confesses his sins with remarkable frank- 
ness and often also invites his fellow-men to repent 
likewise. He calls upon those who reproach him 
to leave him alone as their blame only incites him 
all the more; nor does he intend to mend his ways 
until the grave. He boasts of having omitted nothing 
that displeases God, except polytheism (Diwdn, 
281), and ridicules all the institutions of Islam. His 
verses against Islam do not spring however, from 
any intellectual principle, but from his love of 
pleasure, to which the commandments of Islam were 
a hindrance. Finally, he too sets his hopes in God's 
forgiveness and considers himself too unimportant 
for God to take notice of his deeds (Fatih 3775, 
fol. 16). His ascetic poems do not serve to prove 
that he repented in old age; they could have been 

due to special impulses. Otherwise, too, there are 
frequent contradictions in the diwdn; they ought 
not to be taken as proofs of a change of mind or of 
dishonesty, as Abu Nuwas was more interested in 
the witty formulation of his ideas than in the 
content of the idea itself. 

Poems about love of women are rare in comparison 
•with those on love of boys. It is said that only once 
Abu Nuwas fell in love with a girl, a slave called 
Djanan. It is true that Hamza al-Isbahani denies this 
emphatically and enumerates a long list of women 
with whom Abu Nuwas was allegedly in love (Fatih 
3774, fol. 76 v); but these are only names taken 
from the poems and are perhaps even fictitious. 

The diwdn of Abu Nuwas contains, for the first 
time in Arabic literature, a special chapter containing 
hunting-poems. They mostly describe hounds, falcons 
and horses, but also various kinds of game, and are 
remarkable for the richness of their vocabulary. Abu 
Nuwas had models for this genre in the descript- 
ions of animals in the old beduin poetry, but he 
seems to have made it into an independent genre. 
Later on it was further developed by Ibn al-Mu c tazz. 

The language of Abu Nuwas, though he uses some 
contemporary vernacular expressions, is on the 
whole correct. The mistakes which he makes were 
already usual among his predecessors (cf. J. Fuck, 
Arabiya, 51 if.). In certain groups of his poems 
Persian words occur very frequently (e.g. in dasht-i 
biydbdn, Fatih 3775, fol. 29, a whole iddfat-coa- 
struction). Altogether, Persian civilization plays a 
considerable role in his poetry (cf. Gabrieli, OM, 
1953, 283). We often find him referring to the 
heroes of Persian history, but as the old Arabs are 
also mentioned, this has certainly no special signifi- 
cance, and Abu Nuwas can hardly be called a poet 
of the shu'iibiyya. His work only reflects the cultural 
background of the 'Abbasid epoch, in which the 
influence of the Iranian element gradually increased. 

In the imagination of the Arabic world the figure 



ABO NUWAS — ABO RIGHAL 



of Abu Nuwas is intimately connected with that of 
Harun al-Rashld, who personifies in his turn the 
the glory of the caliphate. Thus he entered the 
Arabian Nights and still today he is a favourite 
figure of popular stories, where he most often plays 
the role of a court jester. (Cf. A. Schaade, Zur 
Herkunft der Urform einiger Abu Nuwas Geschichten 
in 1001 Nacht, ZDMG, 1934, 259 ff.; idem, Weiteres 
zu Abu Nuwas in 1001 Nacht, ZDMG, 1936, 602 ff.; 
W. H. Ingrams, Abu Nuwas in Life and in Legend, 
London 1933, cf. Schaade in OLZ, 1935, 525-7.) 

Abu Nuwas did not himself make a collection of 
his poems. Thus, on the one hand much has been 
lost — more especially his poems written in Egypt 
remained unknown in c Irak (cf. Fatih 3773, fol. 4r) ; 
on the other hand, many poems, especially on wine 
and pederasty, were falsely attributed to him. His 
diwdn is extant in several recensions, of which the 
two most important are due to al-Suli and Hamza 
al-Isbahani (for the latter, see E. Mittwoch, in 
MSOS, 1909, 156 ff.). While al-Suli aimed at excluding 
all spurious poems and arranged the poems, within 
the separate chapters, in strict alphabetical order, 
Hamza shows a less critical sense, as one could 
never know if a suspect poem as not after all genuine. 
Thus his collection is about three times as large as 
that of al-Suli, and contains about 1500 poems with 
13,000 lines. Moreover, he adds to many verses 
akhbdr, which are missing in al-Suli, and to some 
chapters adds a commentary. He also incorporated 
in his collection the so called "Risdla of the Syrian 
on the sarikdt of Abu Nuwas", addressed to him 
by Muhalhil b. Yamut. Ahlwardt's edition of the 
wine-songs follows the recension of al-Suli, while the 
printed edition of Cairo 1898 is based on that of 
Hamza. Today we have for both recensions better 
MSS — especially in Istanbul — than those that were 
available at the time of these editions. 

Bibliography : Editions: W. Ahlwardt, Diwdn 
d. Abu Nuwas, i, Die Weinlieder, Greifswald 1861; 
lithogr. Cairo 1277; printed Beyruth 1301; ed. 
Iskandar Asaf, Cairo 1898, 1905; ed. Mahmfid 
Kamil Farid, Cairo 1932; ed. al-Nabahani, Cairo 
1322-3; ed. A. C A. al-Ghazzall, Cairo 1953; 
Hadikat al-Inds fi Shi'r Abi Nuwas, Bombay 
1312; Mansur c Abd al-Muta c alI, al-Fukdha wa 
'l-Vtinds fi Mudiun Abi Nuwas, Cairo 1316. 
Translation: A. von Kremer, Diwan des Abu 
Nowds, des grdssten lyrischen Dichters der Araber, 
Vienna 1855. Biographical sources: Ibn I£utayba, 
Shi'-r, 501-52; Ibn al-Mu'tazz, Tabakat al-Shu c ard> 
al-Mufrdathin (G.M.S.), 87-99; Marzubanl, Mu- 
washshah, Cairo 1294, 263-89 ; Ibn al-Anbarl, Nuzha, 
96-103; al-Khatib al-Baghdadl, Ta^rikh Baghdad, 
vii, 436-49; Ibn Khallikan, no. 169. Modern 
authors: Brockelmann, I, 74-6, S I, 114-8, 940, 
III, 1193; idem, in EI 1 ; H. Ritter, in IA; Ibn 
Manzur, Akhbdr Abi Nuwas, Ta'rikhuh, Nawddiruh, 
Shi'ruh, Mudjunuh, Cairo 1924; Abu 'l- £ Abb5s 
Mustafa 'Ammar, Abu Nuwas, Haydtuh wa- 
Shi'ruh, Cairo n.d. ; 'Umar Farrukh. Abu Nuwas, 
ShdHr Harun al-Rashid wa-Muhammad al-Amin, 
i, Dirdsa wa-nakd, Beirut 1932; c Abd al-Rahman 
Sidki, Abu Nuwas, Cairo 1942; V. Rosen, Ob Abu 
Nuwas i ego poesii, in Pamiati Akademika V. R. 
Rozena, Moscow-Leningrad 1947, 57-71 ; F. Gabrieli, 
AbH Nuwds, Poeta Abbaside, OM, 1953, 279-96. 

(Ewald Wagner) 

ABC RIGHAL. mythical person, about 

whom two entirely different traditions can easily be 

distinguished. According to the first, he was a 

Thakafite of Ta'if who guided Abraha [q.v.] on his 



ABO RIGHAL — ABO SA C ID B. ABI 'l-KHAYR 



145 



way to Mecca. He died in al-Mughammas [q.v.] and 
was buried there. It was the custom to stone his 
tomb. (For a similar custom cf. al-djamra.) The 
story is sometimes told with the object of slandering 
the Thakafites. The earliest mention would be a 
verse of Hassan b. Thabit (ed. Hirschfeld, lxii, 1), 
if it is not an anti-Thakafite falsification. The early 
date of the custom of stoning Abu RighaTs tomb 
is proved by a vers of Djarlr: "If al-Farazdak dies, 
stone him as you stone the tomb of Abu Righal". 
According to the second tradition, found in its 
simplest form in al-Tabari and Ahmad b. Hanbal, 
Abu Righal was the only survivor of Thamud [q.v.]. 
At the time of the disaster of Thamud he was staying 
in Mecca and was saved by the sanctity of the place; 
he died, however, as soon as he left Mecca. His 
story was told by the Prophet as he was passing 
al-Hidjr with his army. In the earliest form, this 
version knows of no connection of Abu Righal with 
Jhakif, but this feature was later introduced, possibly 
under the influence of the first story. In one of the 
stories in al-Aghani he is even said to have been a 
king of Ta'if and ancestor of Jhakif. On the other 
hand, authors like al-Djahiz, Ibn Kutayba and al- 
Mas'udl quote a version which is evidently meant 
as a defence of the Thakafites: it was they who 
killed Abu Righal, a cruel and injust person. — Later 
authors still further confuse the two traditions. 
Al-Diyarbakri gives as the name of Abu Righal 
Zayd b. Mukhallif. 

Bibliography: Djumahi, Tabakat, 69; Ibn 

Hisham, i, 32; Ibn Kutayba, Ma'arif, 44; Pjahiz, 

}}ayawan, Cairo 1906, vi, 47; Tabari, i, 250-1, 

937; Mas'udI, Murudj., iii, 159-61, 261; Azraki 

(Wiistenfeld), 93, 362; Aghdni, xiv, 74-6, xv, 131; 

Tha'labi, Kisas, Cairo 1347, 50, 308; Yakut, ii, 

793, iii, 816, iv, 583; Ibn al-Athir, i, 66, 321; 

Diyarbakri, Khamis. Cairo 1283, 188; Kazwini 

(Wiistenfeld), ii, 73! TA and LA, s. v. r-gh-l. 

(S. A. Bonebakker) 

ABU 'l-SACJ DIwdad (DSwdadh) b. DIwdast, 

founder of the Sadjid dynasty, descended 

from a noble Iranian family of Ushrusana related to 

its ruler, the Afshin [q.v.] Haydar (Khaydhar) b. 

Ka'us, under whose command he served in the 

expedition against Babak (221-2/836-7). In 224/839 

he led an expedition against the Afshin's rebellious 

deputy Mankadjur in Adharbaydjan. In 242/856 or 

244/858 (see al-Tabari, iii, 1436) he was appointed 

by the caliph al-Mutawakkil to the command of 

the Mecca Road, which he held until the outbreak 

of the conflict between al-Musta c in and al-Mu c tazz 

in 251/865. He joined the former in Baghdad with 

his troop of 700 horsemen, and was sent to strengthen 

the defences of al-Mada J in and to engage Turkish 

raiding forces to the south-east. After the restoration 

of peace he was engaged first to collect the taxes in 

the Euphrates districts of the Sawad, and was later 

reappointed to the Mecca Road and the government 

of Kufa, where his deputy succeeded by a ruse in 

seizing the c Alid Abu Ahmad Muhammad b. Dja'far, 

•who had revolted there. He was subsequently (it is 

said) appointed to the Khurasan Road, and in 

254/868 was posted to Aleppo as the deputy of 

Salih b. Wasif in the government of northern Syria 

and the 'Awasim, but was driven out one or two 

years later by Ahmad b. c Isa b. Shaykh. In 261/ 

874-5 he was appointed to Ah waz ; shortly afterwards 

his troops were defeated by the Zindj [q.v.], and 

Ahwaz was sacked. In the following year, on the 

■eve of the decisive conflict between al-Muwaffak 

and Ya'kub b. Layth al-Saffar, he joined the latter 

Encyclopaedia of Islam 



and thus shared in his defeat and was deprived of 
his own estates. He died in 266/879-80 in Pjundl- 
sabiir, while returning from the Saffarid camp to 
Baghdad. 

Abu 'l-SSdj appears in history as the type of 
leader of a small band of irregular cavalry (ashdb 
Abi 'l-Sadj), who stood in a rather loose relation 
with the central government at SSmarra, and was 
assigned to various tasks on the frontiers for which 
a mobile force was required. His son Muhammad 
al-Afshln, who had remained in the service of al- 
Muwaffak, was posted to the Mecca Road in the 
year of his father's death and succeeded to the 
command of his troops. For the further history of 
the family see sAdjids. 

Bibliography: Tabari iii, index; Ibn al-Athir, 
vii, 55, 100-4, 113. 118, 127 (read Mudar for Misr), 
190, 200-2, 231, 253, 260; Ibn al- c Adim, Ta'rikh 
ffalab (Dahhan), i, 74; Defremery, M&moire sur la 
famille des Sadjides, J A 1847 (Mai), 409-413. 

(H. A. R. Gibb) 
ABC SAFYAN was according to popular legend 
a pre-Islamic king of al-Bara in Djabal al- 
Zawiya, north of ancient Apamea and west of 
Ma'arrat al-Nu c man. The ruins of al-Bara are the 
most considerable in the whole region. The period 
in which the city, called in Syriac Kafra dhe-Barta, 
was at the hight of its prosperity was the 5th-7th 
century A. D. Under the rule of Islam it continued 
to prosper for a considerable time, and it included 
also a Jewish colony. During the Crusades it became 
a center of conflict. It was probably at that period 
that a Muslim fortress was built to the north of the 
town, today called Kal c at Abu Safyan. (For al-Bara 
see Ibn Khurradadhbih, 76; Ya'kubi, 324; Yakut, 
i, 465 ; Littmann (see Bibl.) ; M. van Berchem, Voyage 
en Syrie; i, 196-200; R. Dussand, Topogr. hist, de la 
Syrie, 181 and index.) — According to the legend the 
fortress was built in pre-Islamic times, and in it 
ruled a Jewish king, called Abu Safyan. c Abd al- 
Rahman, son of Abu Bakr, fell in love with Luhayfa, 
the daughter of Abu Safyan, and was staying in the 
castle when his father summoned him to embrace 
Islam. Both c Abd al-Rahman and Luhayfa were 
converted and fled. Abu Safyan pursued them and 
in the battle that followed there appeared the warriors 
of Islam, more particularly c Umar and Khalid b. 
al-Walid, who had been summoned to give aid by 
the angel Gabriel. Abu Safyan was killed by 'Umai 
and the whole country came under the dominion of 
the Muslims. 

Bibliography: E. Littmann, Semitic Inscript- 
ions, 191, 193 ff. (E. Littmann) 
ABC SA c lD, the Ilkhan [see Iliojans]. 
ABC SA'lD al-Aflah b. <Abd al-Wahhab 
[see rustumids]. 

ABC SA'lD Fadl Allah b. ABI 'l-KHAYR, 
Persian mystic, born 1 Muharram 357/7 December 
967 in Mayhana (Mehana, Mehna), the present-day 
Me'ana in Khurasan, between Ablward and Sarakhs; 
died there 4 Sha'ban 440/12 January 1049. His 
biography was written by his descendant Muh. b. 
Abi Rawh Lutf Allah b. Abi Sa c id b. Abi Tahir b. 
Abi Sa c id b. Abi 'l-Khayr under the title halat u- 
Sukhundn-i Shaykh Abi SaHd b. Abi 'l-Khayr, ed. 
V. Zhukowski, St. Petersburg 1899 (a manuscript, 
under the title Cihil Mak&m, Aya Sofya 4792, 29 
and 4819, 4, Turkish translation Istanbul Univ. 
Libr., Ytldlz 958), and, much more fully, by the 
cousin of the foregoing, Muhammad b. al-Munawwar 
b. Abi Sa c Id under the title Asrar al-Tawhid ft 
Makamat al-Shaykh Abi Sa'id, ed. V. Zhukowski, 



i 4 6 



ABO SA'ID b. ABI VKHAYR 



St. Petersburg 1899, after two defective manu- 
scripts; reprint Teheran 1313 H. Sh., new ed., 
Teheran 1332 H. Sh. (quoted as AT). (Manuscripts 
also Skutari, Hudal, Tas. 238; Istanbul, Shehld C A1I 
Pasha 1416.) This work was the source used in the 
Tadhkirat al-Awliyd' of 'Attar and the Nafahat al- 
Uns of Djaml. The father of Abu Sa c id was a druggist 
known as Babu Bu '1-Khayr. He took the boy with 
him occasionally to the sacred performances of 
dances (sama 1 ) which the sufis of the town gave 
by turns in their houses. Abu Sa'Id received his 
first instruction in mystical devotion from Abu 
'1-K5sim Bishr-i Yasin (d. 380/990), who had a 
poetic streak in him and is the author of the majority 
of the verses which Abu Sa'Id later quoted in his 
sermons. As a young man Abu Sa'Id studied Shafi'ite 
law in Marw under Abu 'Abd Allah al-Husrl and 
Abu Bakr al-Kaffal (d. 417; al-Subkl, Tabakdt, iii, 
198-200). Among his fellow-students was Abu 
Muhammad al-Djuwaynl (d. 438; al-Subki, iii, 
208-19), tne father of Imam al-Haramayn. Then 
he studied exegesis of the Kur'an, dogmatics and 
Hadlth in Sarakhs under Abu 'All Zahir (d. 389; 
al-Subkl, ii, 223), who succeeded in rooting out 
Mu'tazilism from Sarakhs. 

In Sarakhs the crazy saint Lukman al-SarakhsI 
introduced him to the sufl Abu '1-Fadl Muh. b. Hasan 
al-SarakhsI. It was he who induced Abu Sa'Id to 
abandon the study of learned subjects and to devote 
himself entirely to sufism and became his pir whom 
he consulted in all difficulties: moreover after Abu 
'1-Hasan's death Abu Sa'Id was in the habit of 
visiting his grave in Sarakhs when dejection (kabd) 
overtook him. He had, at the injunction of Abu 
'1-Fadl, the khirka bestowed upon him by the 
celebrated sufl al-Sulami. After the death of Abu 
'1-Fadl he went through Nasa to Amul and spent 
some time with Abu 'l-'Abbas al-Kassab, who 
likewise bestowed the khirka upon him. Upon his 
return to Mayhana — the exact chronology of this 
period is by no means easy to establish — he gave 
himself up with extreme zeal to severe ascetic and 
mystic exercises. He spent his time partly in total 

stayed in neighbouring monasteries, in particular the 
so-called ribdt-i kuhan. Here he was sometimes 
observed by his father in the midst of extraordinary 
practices of self-castigation. He went beyond the 
prescribed measures in his religious ablutions, 
washed the doors and walls of his cell, never reclined, 
ate nothing whatever during the day, at night only 
a morsel of bread, spoke to people only when it 
was unavoidable, and shut himself off during the 
performance of dhikr by padding his ears so as to 
be undisturbed. At times he could not bear so much 
as the sight of his fellow-men and would disappear 
for months in the mountains or the neighbouring 
desert. 

This period of forming himself through asceticism 
with the object of subduing the sensual soul (nafs) 
and breaking asunder all bonds with the world, as 
well as of following up an ideal model of the Prophet 
in the minutest detail, is said to have lasted up to 
the fortieth year of his life. Already at this time 
the social motive of sufism, the "service of the 
poor" (khidmat-i darwishdn) begins to assume 
importance for him. He begged for the poor, swept 
mosques, cleaned washing-places, and so on. This 
"service of the poor", conceived principally for self- 
abasement at first, came ever more to the fore in the 
course of his life. "The shortest way to God", he put 
it once, "lies in bestowing comfort upon the soul of 



a Muslim" {rdhati bd dil-i musulmdni rasdndan) 
(AT, 242). This mode of life is exhibited in its 
fully-developed form at the period of his one year's 
residence in the capital of Khurasan, Nlshapur, 
where he stayed in the monastery of Abu 'AH 
TarsusI in the quarter of 'Adanikuban. There young 
men flocked to him: he preached before large 
audiences and displayed himself as a kind of spiritual 
guide (sidk ma c al-IJakk, rifk ma* al-khalk). At this 
juncture the gift of thought-reading (firdsat), 
peculiar to him and esteemed a miracle (kardmat) 
by his followers, stood him in good stead: it revealed 
to him the most intimate impulses of the hearts even 
of his enemies, disarmed his adversaries and con- 
verted many of them into followers instead. He 
liked to arrange lavish, even extravagant enter- 
tainments for his followers, culminating in sacred 
dance music (sama 1 ). During these, dancing and 
crying out (na'ra zadan) were, as was customary, 
the order of the day. In the throes of ecstasy gowns 
were thrown off, torn up, and distributed around. 
To finance these luxurious occasions, at which as 
much as a thousand dinars is supposed to have been 
spent in a day, and which moved 'Awfl to remark 
that in later years Abu Sa'Id lived hardly as an 
ascetic but rather as a sultan (Barthold, Turkestan, 
311), he did not hesitate to incur debts; these were 
the cause of frequent embarrassment to his household 
manager Hasan-i Mu'addib. Some wealthy devotee, 
however, was always found, who, often at the last 
moment, provided the requisite money. Sometimes 
he sent Hasan to followers, even to opponents, with 
whom he stayed, in order to raise money in an 
almost barefaced manner. The money was imme- 
diately spent, as it was regarded as a principle to 
possess no assured property (ma'iam) and to accu- 
mulate nothing. His way of living caused offence 
the Karramite Abu Bakr Muh. b. Ishak b. Mih- 
mashadh made common cause with the Hanafite 
kadi Sa'id b. Muhammad al-Ustuwa'I (d. 432; on 
both see 'Utbl-ManinI, ii, 309 ff., Persian translation 
by DjurfadkanI, Teheran 1272, 427 ff.; W. Barthold, 
Turkestan, 289-90, 31 1 ; on the latter Ibn Abi '1-Wafa', 
al-Diawdhir al-Mudi'a, no. 685, and al-Sam'anl, 
Ansdb, under al-Ustuwa 3 !) and laid information 
about Abu Sa'id before sultan Mahmud b. Subuktigln, 
who ordered an enquiry, perhaps in conjunction with 
a universal heresy hunt carried out by the aforemen- 
tioned Karramite governor Abu Bakr (Barthold, 
Turkestan, 290). However, Abu Sa'Id contrived to- 
disarm both through his skill in thought-reading, 
with the result that they abandoned the prosecution. 
The indictments were, that the shaykh recited on 
the pulpit verses in place of the Kur'an and Hadlth, 
that he gave too luxurious feasts and that he had made 
the young people dance. The great al-Kushayri, who 
encountered Abu Sa'Id in Nlshapur, took exception 
to the excessively liberal way of life of the shaykh 
and to his dance music. The contrast between the 
characters of the two men is illustrated by an apt 
anecdote: al-Kushayri had repudiated a derwish 
and banished him from the town. Abu Sa'id showed 
him at a banquet how by very much gentler methods 
a derwish may be sent travelling (Nicholson, 35-6). 
A strong kindliness of nature and an affection for 
his fellow-men were conspicuous characteristics of 
Abu Sa'Id. He was no preacher of repentance; 
seldom, if ever, did he refer in his sermons to the 
verses of the Kur'an threatening the torments of 
Hell. Numerous stories were related of how by 
means of his firdsa he saw through the intimate 
thoughts of sinners and opponents and thoroughly 



ABO SA C ID B. ABI 'l-KHAYR — ABO SA C ID B. TIMOR 



147 



abashed them. The guiding motif of his life is said 
to have been the kadith: Sil man kata'ak wa-a'(i 
man haramak wa'ghfir man zalamak (AT, 311). The 
celebrated sufl Ibn Bakuya (d. 442/1050) reproached 
him for allowing young people to sit together with 
old and for treating them just as he did the old, 
for allowing them to dance and for giving back the 
cast-off khirka to its owner, whereas it should by 
being cast off have become common property. Abu 
Sa'id contrived to give plausible reasons for these 
innovations (AT, 170-1). Ibn Hazm brands him as 
an unbeliever, since he wore now wool, now silk, 
sometimes prayed a thousand rak c as a day, some- 
times not at all (Fisal, iv, 188). At all events social 
work played a very much greater role in the second 
period of his life than individual mystic experience: 
and from this point of view he is comparable (in 
spite of substantial differences) with Abu Ishak 
al-Kazarunl [q.v.]. However he once gave tongue to 
a pronouncement similar to al-Halladj's Ana 'l-ffakk. 
In the course of a sermon he was overcome by a 
state of inner excitement and called out Laysa /»' 
l-dfubbati ilia 'lldh, "There is none other than God 
in this robe". So saying he ran his forefinger through 
the gown. It was divided and the portion with the 
hole made by his finger preserved. 

In Nishapur he also met the philosopher Ibn 
SIna and is supposed to have held lengthy conver- 
sations with him. A correspondence between the two 
is preserved. Abu Sa c id asked the philosopher what 
was the way to God according to his experience, 
and received a reply (printed by H. Ethe, SBBayr. 
Ak., 1878, 52 ff.; Ibn SIna, al-Nadjat, Cairo 1331, 
12-5 ; Ibn Abl'Usaybi'a.ii, 9-10; sil- ( Amili,al-Kashkal, 
Cairo 1318, 264-5)- At the end of his stay in Nishapur 
he wished to accompany his son Abu Tahir on the 
pilgrimage, but was restrained from this in Kharakan 
by the celebrated sufl Abu '1-Hasan KharakSnl. He 
then went to Bistam where he visited the grave of 
Abu Yazld, and to Damghan, eventually reaching 
Rayy before returning with his son. He spent the 
rest of his life in his home town of Mayhana. 

Abu Sa'id is supposedly the author of a great 
number of quatrains. (On editions cf. Nicholson, 
48, note; also editions Bombay 1294 and Lahore 
1934.) However it has been expressly stated that 
he composed only one verse and one quatrain 
(Nicholson, 4). The quatrains may not then be 
attributable to him. One of them, with which he 
is supposed to have cured his Kur'an-teacher Abu 
Salih of an illness (AT, 229) and which opens with 
the word hawra was made the subject of a commentary 
by c Abd Allah b. Mahmud al-Shashi under the title 
Risdla-yi IjawraHyya (AT, 322-5). 

Abu Sa'id left a numerous family, who tended his 
grave for more than a hundred years and were held 
in great respect in Mayhana. His eldest son Abu 
Tahir Sa'id (d. 480) continued the "service of the 
poor" and thereby involved himself in debts which 
were paid by Nizam al-Mulk. He was an uncultured 
individual, however, who left school before he was 
ten years old and knew by heart only the 48th sura 
of the Kur'an, and did not have the personality to 
found an order after his father's death (as did the 
son of Djamal al-DIn RumI, Sultan Walad), although 
Abu Sa'id did leave behind a kind of statute for an 
order (Nicholson, 46). The tradition was however 
broken by political events. Abu Sa'id lived to see 
the entry of the Saldjuks into Khurasan. They 
occupied Mayhana, and Abu Sa'id was on friendly 
relations with Tughrtl and Caghrl Beg. Sultan 
Mas'ud laid siege to the town and captured it 



shortly before his decisive defeat at Dandanakan in 
the year 431/1040. During the devastation of 
Khurasan by the Ghuzz in the year 548/1153 the 
place was absolutely laid waste, no fewer than 115 
members of Abu Sa'ld's family being tortured and 
put to death. A follower of Abu Sa'id, Dust Bu 
Sa'd Dada, whom the skaykh had sent to Ghazna 
not long before his death to have the Sultan discharge 
his accumulated debts, found Abu Sa'id dead, went 
to Baghdad on his return, and founded a daughter 
monastery there. At the time of Ibn al-Munawwar 
his family held the position of skaykh al-shuyukh in 
Baghdad, but nothing is known of the subsequent 
destiny of this offshoot (AT, 294-300). 

Bibliography: Besides the sources quoted in 

the article: Subki, al-Jabakat al-Kubra, iii, 10; 

R. A. Nicholson, Studies in Islamic Mysticism, 

Cambridge 1921, 1-76. (H. Ritter) 

ABC SA'ID al-DJANNAbI [see al-djannabi]. 

ABO SA'ID b. Muhammad b. MIranshah b. 
TlMCR, Timurid sultan. In 853/1449. at the age 
of twenty-five, Abu Sa'id, taking advantage of the 
desperate situation of Ulugh Beg, at whose court he 
lived, tried his fortune in Transoxiana. A siege 
of Samarkand (1449), then a rising at Bukhara 
(May 1450) both ended in failure. Not long after- 
wards he seized Yasl (Turkistan), and held it against 
the troops of 'Abd Allah b. Ibrahim Sultan b. 
ghahrukh. In Djumada I 855/June 1451 he drove 
the latter out of Samarkand with the help of the 
Ozbeg khan Abu '1-Khavr. In spring 858/1454 Abu 
Sa'id crossed the Oxus and took Balkh. Abu '1-Kasim 
Babur, ruler of Khurasan, invaded Transoxiana and 
laid siege to Samarkand (Oct.-Nov.), where resistance 
was organized by the famous Nakshbandl skaykh 
'Ubayd Allah Ahrar, who is said to have restrained 
Abu Sa'id from deserting his capital. Peace was 
made, Abu Sa'id keeping the right bank of the 
Oxus. The relations of the two princes remained 
cordial until the death of Babur (RabI' II 861/ 
March 1457). 

Abu Sa'id then tried to take Harat, where Ibrahim 
b. 'A1S> al-Dawla b. Baysunghur had succeeded in 
having himself proclaimed. The siege (July-August 
1457), marked by the execution of Gawhar Shad, 
who was accused of intelligence with Ibrahim, was 
raised without result. Defeated by the Kara Koyunlu 
Djahanshah, Ibrahim sought an alliance with Abu 
Sa'id (beginning of 862/ winter 1457-8), and a defen- 
sive treaty was concluded. At the end of June 1458 
Djahanshah occupied Harat. Abu Sa'id, who had 
stationed his army on the Murghab to watch the 
course of events, took advantage of Diahanshah's 
difficulties to get possession of the town peacefully 
(Nov. 1458), and thus became master of Khurasan, 
which he had always coveted. In Djumada I 863/ 
March 1459 the three Timurid princes 'Ala' al-Dawla, 
Ibrahim b. 'Ala' al-Dawla, and Sultan Sandjar were 
defeated at Sarakhs. 

The year 1459 was spent in mopping up Khurasan. 
In 1460 Abu Sa'id occupied Mazandaran; in his 
rear the amir Khalll came from SIstan and laid 
siege to Harat (summer 1460); and when calm had 
been restored in SIstan (autumn 1460), Abu Sa'id 
had to deal with a revolt in Transoxiana (winter 
1460). Sultan Husayn took advantage of this to 
reoccupy Mazandaran and besiege Harat (Sept. 1461), 
but Mazandaran was retaken by Abu Sa'id in the 
same year. 

Abu Sa'ld's power extended theoretically over 
Transoxiana, Turkistan (to the confines of Kashghar 
and of the Dasht-i Kipcak), Kabulistan and Zabu- 



I 4 8 



ABO SA'ID B. TIMOR — ABO SAKHR al-HUDHALI 



listan, Khurasan and Mazandaran. In fact, he was 
powerless to prevent the Ozbeg raids to the south 
of the Sir Darya. In 1454-5 the Timurid Uways b. 
Muhammad b. Baykara had risen at Otrar with the 
support of Abu'l-Khayr Ozbeg, and had inflicted a 
crushing defeat on Abu Sa c id. In 865/1461 Muhammad 
Pjuki b. <Abd al-Latif b. Ulugh Beg, after devastating 
Transoxiana, took refuge at Shahrukhiyya (Tash- 
kent). Abu Sa'id besieged this stronghold for ten 
months (Nov. 1462-Sept. 1463). Each year the 
Ozbegs made raids into Transoxiana. In 868/1464 
Sultan Husayn, who had sought refuge in Kh w arizm. 
ravaged with impunity Khurasan from Abiward 
and Mashhad as far as Tun. 

Abu Sa'Id was more fortunate in the north-east, 
and succeeded in averting the Mongol threat to his 
frontiers. During his reign in Samarkand he had 
repulsed two attacks by the Mongol khan Esen 
Bugha. In 1456 he recognized Yflnus, the elder 
brother of Esen Bugha, and on several occasions gave 
him help in establishing himself in the western part 
of Moghulistan. In 868/1464 Yunus once again sought 
refuge with Abu Sa c Id, who. lent him troops. 

Real though the personal qualities of Abu Said 
were, they have been exaggerated, and his reign 
revealed no very impressive trends. Among the 
Turkish aristocracy of his entourage, pre-eminence 
passed to the Arghun clan, which had supported 
Abu Said from the beginning, and whose chiefs 
received offices and favours. Like his predecessors, 
Abu Sa c Id frequently adopted the practice of settling 
fiefs (soyurghai) on his sons (Mazandaran on Sultan 
Mahmud, Farghana on 'Umar Shaykh, etc.), on 
local potentates (Sistan), and on important digni- 
taries, whether they were Turks or Tadjiks, lay or 
religious. Barthold has brought out the important 
role played, under Abu Said, by Kh'adja Ahrar 
[q.v.\ who held undisputed authority in Samarkand, 
and was head of the clergy in Transoxiana. The 
great expedition to the west in 1468 was not 
decided on without the favourable advice of the 
shaykh. of whom Abu Said proclaimed himself a 

Another characteristic trait of fifteenth-century 
Iran was his interest in agriculture. Abu Said seems 
to have taken a personal interest in it; and he 
instituted many measures to help the peasants. In 
860/1465, at the request of Kh'adia Ahrar, he 
ordered that in no case should more than a third 
of the kharadi be levied before the harvest; the 
kharddi was normally to be paid in three instalments. 
At Samarkand, Bukhara, and Harat the tamghd 
was abolished or reduced. In 870/1466, after a cold 
spring, Abu Sa c id waived the tax on fruit trees. He 
had constructed the famous dam of Gulistan (near 
Mashhad) in order to irrigate khdssa lands. Among 
the men of ability who held the office of vizier the 
most remarkable, Kutb al-DIn Tawus SimnanI, was 
a specialist in agricultural matters; he had the 
Djuy-i Sultani dug, north of Harat. 

Little is known of how the nomadic elements of 
the population fared. In 870/1465-6 Abu Said 
settled in Khurasan 15,000 nomad families which 
had fled from the territories of the Kara Koyunlu. 
On the whole the Timurid empire remained poor in 
nomads by comparison with its neighbours in the 
west, which explains the inadequacy of its military 

The Campaign of 1468. Abu Said, hoping 
to regain from the Turkmens the territory lost after 
the death of Shahrukh, went to the help of the 
Kara Koyunlu Hasan 'All b. Pjahanshah, against 



the Ak Koyunlu, the traditional allies of the Tlmu- 
rids. Governors were nominated for the principal 
towns to be conquered. But the empire of Abu Said 
was in a state of relative peace, and the expedition, 
hastily conceived, was ill prepared in the military 
sense. Abu Sa c Id set out with the cavalry without 
waiting for the thousands of carts requisitioned in 
Khurasan and Mazandaran for the army's baggage. 
The Khurasanian infantry, in the rearguard, was 
attacked by deserters. When the news of the death 
of Abu Sa'Id reached Harat the troops raised in 
'Hindustan' (i.e. Afghanistan) were not yet organized. 
Notwithstanding this lack of preparation Abu Sa c id 
made the mistake, when caught by the winter, of 
penetrating too deeply into Adharbaydjan. He was 
cut off and captured near Mughan by Uzun Hasan. 
A few days later the Timurid Yadgar Muhammad, a 
dependent of Uzun Hasan, had him executed (Feb. 
1469) to avenge the death of his grandmother 
Gawhar Shad. 

Bibliography: Sources. The Matla c al- 
Sa'dayn of c Abd al-Razzak Samarkand! is the 
main source (ed. M. Shafl 1 , Lahore 1941-9). 
Supplement with : Rawdat al-Safd'; Habib al-Siyar; 
MuHzz al-Ansdb; Bdbur-ndma, ed. and transl. 
Beveridge; and Isfizari, Rawdat al-Qianndt fi 
Ta'rikh Harat (cf. Barbier de Meynard, J A, 
1862/11). 'Mongol' policy: Tdrikh-i Rashidi, ed. 
Elias, transl. E. D. Ross. Biographies: Sayf 
al-Din Hadji, Athdr al-Wuzard* (ms.) ; Kh'andamir, 
Dastur al-Wuzara', ed. Teheran 1317; and the 
Nakshbandl collections, Kashifl, Rashahdt c Ayn 
al-Haydt, two ed., Tashkent and Lucknow; Abl- 
wardi, Rawdat al-Sdlikin (ms.), etc. Documents: 
see the collections of t'nsp 5 mss. (especially B. N. 
Paris, Suppl. Pers. 1815); A. N. Kurat, Topkapt 
Sarayt Muzesi arsivindeki . . . yarhk ve bitikler, 
Istanbul 1940 (one letter) ; cf. also Feridun Bey, 



Mutt 



a'dt. 



Studies. In the absence of monographs on the 
period, works dealing with questions or periods 
bordering on it must be used. See particularly 
V. V. Barthold. Ulug Beg i iego vremja, 1918 
(Germ, transl. by Hinz, Ulug Beg und seine Zeit, 
1935), and Mir Alt Shir i politileskaja zizn' (transl. 
Hinz, Herat unter Husain Baiqara); the articles 
(by Yakubovskij, Molcanov, Belenitskij, etc.) in 
the two collections Rodonatal'nih uzbehshoj litera- 
tury, Tashkent 1940, and Ali Shir Navoj Sbornik, 
Tashkent 1946; Belenitskij, K istorii feodal'nago 
zemlevladenija Srednej Azii pri Timuridakh, in 
Istorik-Marksist, 1941/4; the works of I. P. Petru- 
shevskij; W. Hinz, Irans Aufstieg zum National- 
stoat, 1936. On the Russian embassy to Harat in 
1464 cf. ZVO, i, 30 sqq. See also Browne, iii; 
Grousset, Empire des Steppes. Bouvat, Essai sur 
la civilisation timouride, J A, 1926, and V Empire 
mongol (2e phase), Paris 1927, may be disregarded. 

(J. Aubin) 
ABC $AKHR al-HUDHALI, 'Abd Allah b. 
Salama, Arab poet of the second half of the 
ist/7th century. He belonged to the tribe of Sahm, 
a branch of the Hudhayl of the Hidjaz, and embraced 
the Marwanid cause; imprisoned by the anti-caliph 
c Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr, he regained his liberty 
when the latter died, and, according to his own 
account, took part in the capture of Mecca in 72/692. 
He celebrated in his verse the caliph c Abd al-Malik, 
as well as his brother, c Abd al- c Aziz; see Aghani 1 , 
xxi, 144. Above all he praised the amir Abu 
Khalid c Abd al-'Aziz of the Asid clan, whose brother, 
Umayya, had been governor of al-Basra from 71/690 



ABU SAKHR al-HUDHALI — ABU 'l-SARAYA al-SHAYBANI 



until 73/end of 692; see al-Tabari, index; on the 
favour in which this family was held by the Caliph, 
see Ibn <Abd Rabbih, Hkd, Cairo 1359, viii, 55. 
Some twenty poems and fragments by Abu 
Sakhr are known, which were included by al- 
Sukkari in his diwdn of Hudhayl. A number are 
kasidas of the classic type; others are erotic-elegiac 
compositions recalling those of c Umar b. Abi Rabi'a. 
Bibliography: Aghdni 1 , xxi, 144-54; J- Well- 
hausen, Letzter Teil der Lieder der Hudkailiten, 
Berlin 1884, i, Arabic text, nos. 250-269; al- 
Buhturi, Hamasa, no. 1009; Kudama b. Dja'far, 
Nakd al-Shi'r, 13, 44-5. (R. Blachere) 

ABC SALAMA Hafs b. SulaymAn al-KHAL- 
iAL, vizier. A freed slave from Kufa, he was sent in 
127/744-5 to Khurasan with ample powers, as one of 
the chief 'Abbasid emissaries. He took part in the 
armed insurrection which put an end to the Umayyad 
dynasty, and was appointed governor of Kufa. At 
the culminating point of the revolution he inclined 
towards the 'Alids and seems to have attempted to 
set up an 'Alid caliphate. In this, one can perhaps 
see a consequence of the deliberate ambiguity about 
the rights of the "house of the Prophet", put into 
circulation by the revolutionary propaganda. Al- 
Saffah, however, was chosen as caliph and Abu 
Salama gave him his allegiance (132/749). The 
caliph appointed Abu Salama vizier, without, 
however, losing his suspicions, and in the same year 
planned to remove him. Fearing that this might 
irritate Abu Muslim, the powerful governor of 
Khurasan, who was Abu Salama's companion in the 
da<~wa and might have been acting in agreement 
with him, he sent his brother Abu Dja'far (al- 
Mansur) to consult Abu Muslim. Abu Muslim made 
no difficulties; on the contrary, he himself sent a 
hired assassin to kill Abu Salama. The crime was 
subsequently attributed to the Kharidjites. Abu 
Salama is described as an educated and capable man, 
and his services in the 'Abbasid cause are indispu- 
table. Nevertheless, the fears of the caliph concerning 
him seem, by the common witness of the sources, 
to have been justified. 

Bibliography: Dinawarl, al-Akhbdr al-Tiwdl 
(Guirgass), Ya'kubl, Tabarl, Mas'udi, Murudj, 
indexes; Ibn Khallikan, no. 200; Ibn al-Tiktaka, 
Fakhri (Derenbourg), 205-10; S. Moscati, in Rend. 
Line., 1949, 324-31. (S. Moscati) 

ABU'l-SALT UMAYYA b. <Abd al-'Aziz b. 
Abi 'l-Salt al-AndalusI was born in 460/1067 in 
Denia (Daniya), in the Levante, and studied under 
the kadi al-Wakfcashl from whom he inherited his en- 
cyclopaedic knowledge. About 489/1096 we find him 
in Alexandria and Cairo, where he continued to 
pursue his studies. In consequence of an unsuccessful 
attempt to refloat a sunken ship, he was imprisoned 
by the vizier al-Afdal. Exiled from Egypt, he went 
(in 505/1111-2) to al-Mahdiyya, where he was well 
received by the Zirid amirs Yahya b. Tamlm, and 
his son C A1I b. Yahya, and he remained in al-Mah- 
diyya, an honoured and respected figure, until his 
death on 1 Muharram 529/1134 (other dates are 
also mentioned). 

The following may be mentioned of his numerous 
works, (i) Takwim al-Dhihn. a short treatise on 
Aristotelian logic, edited and translated into Spanish 
by A. Gonzalez Palencia, Madrid 1915 (with bio- 
graphical introduction), (ii) Risala fi 'W-Amal bi 'I- 
Asfurlab, on the use of the astrolabe; a short analysis 
with a list of the chapters, in Millas, Assaig. (iii) Ans- 
wers to scientific questions (masaHl) concerning 
different problems of physics, cosmography and 



mathematics; short summary ibidem, (iv) A sum- 
mary of astronomy, composed for the Egyptian 
vizier al-Afdal, which, according to the judgment 
of his contemporaries, was a manual without edu- 
cational value and useless for teachers, (v) Al- 
Adwiya al-Mufrada, on simples, was translated into 
Latin by the famous physican Arnaldo de Vilanova 
and into Hebrew by Yehuda Natan. (vi) Al-Rasd'il 
al-Misriyya, dedicated to Abu '1-T5hir Yahya b. 
Tamlm, and giving vivid information about the 
affairs and the customs of Egypt; ed. by c Abd al- 
Salam Harun, Nawddir al-Makhtu(dt, Cairo, (vii) Risala 
fi 'l-Miisiki; the Arabic original is lost, but an anony- 
mous Hebrew translation is preserved in Paris, Bibl. 
Nat., Hebrew MS no. 1036. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Kifti, 80; Ibn Abi 
Usaybi'a, ii,' 52 ff.; Yakut, Irshdd, ii, 361; Ibn 
Khallikan, 101; Makkari, Analectes, i, 530 ff. ii, 
218-9; Brockelmann, I, 641, S I, 889; Suter, 115; 
M. Steinschneider, Die Hebrdische Obersetzungen, 
735, 885; L. Leclerc, Midicine arabe, ii, 74-5; 
J. M. Millas Vallicrosa, Assaig d'Historia de les 
idees fisiques i matematiques a la Catalunya 
medieval, i, 75-81; G. Sarton, Introduction to the 
Hist, of Science, i, 230. (J. M. MillAs) 

Abu'1-Salt also wrote for al-Hasan, son of 'All b. 
Yahya, a historical work, viz. a continuation of 
the History of Ifrikiya by Ibn al-Raklk, bringing 
it down to 517/1123. Extracts are to be found in 
Ibn 'Idhari, al-Bayan al-Mughrib, i, 274 ff., 292 ff., 
al-Tidjanl, Rihla, Tunis 1927, 51 ff. (= J A, 1852/ii, 
131), 90 (= ibidem, 176), 237 (= JA, 1853, 
375 ff-), and Ibn al-Khatlb (Centenario di Michele 
Amari, i, 455-9). (S. M. Stern) 

ABU 'l-SARAYA al-HAMDANI [see ham- 

ABU'L-SARAYA al-SarI b. Mansur al- 
SHAYBANl, Shi'ite rebel. Said to have been a 
donkey-driver, and afterwards a bandit, he entered 
the service of Yazid b. Mazyad al-Shaybani in 
Armenia, and was engaged against the Khurramiyya 
[q.v.]. Later he commanded Yazld's vanguard against 
Harthama in the civil war between al-Amln and 
al-Ma'mun, but subsequently changed sides and 
joined Harthama. Obtaining permission to go on 
pilgrimage to Mecca, he openly revolted, and after 
defeating the troops sent against him went to 
al-Rakka. Here he met the c Alid Muhammad b. 
Ibrahim b. Tabataba [q.v.], whom he persuaded to 
go to Kufa, and himself joined him there on 10 
DjumadS II 199/26 Jan. 815. Three weeks later he 
defeated the army sent by al-Hasan b. Sahl to put 
down the revolt at Kufa, and on the following day 
(1 Radjab/15 Feb.) Ibn Tabataba died. The SunnI 
sources accuse Abu '1-Saraya of poisoning him, but 
the accusation is not borne out by the ShI'i tradition. 
Another 'Alid, Muhammad b. Muh. b. Zayd, was 
chosen as Imam, but the effective power remained 
in the hands of Abu '1-Saraya. He had dirhams 
coined in Kufa (ZDMG, 1868, 707) and sent detach- 
ments to take Wasit, Basra, al-Ahwaz, Mecca, etc. 

When he next marched on Baghdad, al-Hasan b. 
Sahl appealed to Harthama, then on his way back 
to Khurasan. Harthama at once turned back, 
defeated Abu '1-Saraya at Kasr Ibn Hubayra 
(Shawwal/May-June), and besieged him in Kufa. 
Since the Kufans refused to support him, Abu '1- 
Saraya fled with 800 horsemen (16 Muharram 
200/26 Aug. 815), made for Susa, but was there 
defeated and himself wounded by the forces of the 
governor of Khuzistan, al-Hasan b. C A1I al-Ma'muni, 
and his followers dispersed. He tried to reach his 



150 



ABU 'l-SARAYA al-SHAYBANI — ABO SHUDJA' 



home at Ra's al-'Ayn, but was overtaken at Djalula 
by Hammad al-Kundaghush, who captured him 
and handed him over to al-Hasan b. Sahl at Nah- 
rawan. Al-Hasan had him beheaded (10 Rabi c I 
200/18 Oct. 815) and his body was hung at the 
bridge of Baghdad. 

Bibliography: Tabari, iii, 976 ff.; Ibn al- 
Athlr, vi, 212 ff., 217 ff.; Abu '1-Faradj, Mahatil 
al-Talibiyyln, Teheran 1307, 178-93; F. Gabrieli, 
al-Ma'mUn e gli l Alidi, Leipzig 1929, 10-23; for 
the activities of his representative in Basra cf. 
Ch. Pellat, Milieu Basrien, Paris 1953, 198-9. 

(H. A. R. Gibb) 
ABC SHAMA ShihAb al-DIn Abu 'l-Kasim <Abd 
al-RahmAn b. Isma'Il al-MaijdisI, Arab histo- 
rian, bom in Damascus on 23 Rabi c II 599/10 Jan. 
1263. All his life was spent in Damascus except when 
he stayed for one year in Egypt for the purpose of 
study, and visited Jerusalem for fourteen days, and 
al-Hidjaz, twice, on pilgrimage. He obtained a 
professorship in Damascus, in the madrasas al- 
Rukniyya and al-Ashrafiyya, only five years before 
his death on 19 Ramadan 665/13 June 1268. Like 
most scholars of his time he had a varied education, 
on a SunnI basis, and his works, consequently, dealt 
with several subjects, but his reputation rests on his 
historical writings. 

His main works are: 1) K. al-Rawdatayn fi Akhbdr 
al-Dawlatayn, a history of Nur al-DIn and Salab 
al-Din (printed in Cairo, 1288, 1292; extracts, with 
French translation by Barbier de Meynard, in 
Recueil des historiens des croisades, Hist. Or., iv, v, 
Paris 1898, 1906; German translation — careless and 
incomplete — by E. P. Goergens, entitled Buck der 
beiden Garten, 1879). It derives from first-hand 
authorities and preserves, in parts, the important 
-works al-Barh al-Shdmi by c Imad al-Din al-Katib, 
Stra<Sa/a<taM>»nbyIbnAbITayyand a great num- 
ber of RasaHl by al-Kadi al-Fa<Jil. The events are dealt 
with chronologically and the narratives are supported 
by documents mainly from al-Fadil and al- c Imad. 
In this book he names his sources when quoting, 
and keeps to their wording, except for al-'ImSd. 
2) A I- Dhavl l ala 'l-Rawdatayn, a continuation fo the 
preceding. In the first part of this book Abu Shama 
draws mainly on the Mir'at al-Zamdn of Sibt Ibn 
al-Djawzi. In the later part he himself as an eyewit- 
ness is the main source. This book is more of a 
biographical than historical work, especially in the 
econd part, and is less important than K. al-Raw- 
datayn. (Printed in Cairo, 1947, with the title: Tara- 
djim Ridjal al-Karnayn al-Sddis wa 'l-Sdbi'; extracts 
with French translation in the Recueil des historiens 
des croisades.) 3) Ta'rikh Dimashk (in two versions), 
a summary of the vast work of Ibn c Asakir with 
the same title (Ahlwardt, Verz. arab. Hs. Berlin, 
no. 9782). 4) commentary on the Kasida al-Shdtibivva 
(printed in Cairo). 5) A commentary on the seven 
poems of his teacher c Alam al-DIn al-Sakhawi 
(d. 643/1245) in praise of the Prophet, is extant in 
manuscript (Paris, 3141, 1). 

All of his other works, dealing with various 
subjects, are lost, and some biographers say that 
they were destroyed by fire along with his library. 
Bibliography: Kutubi, Fawdt, i, 252; Suyflti, 
Tabahat al-H-uffaz, xix, 10; Dhahabi, Tadhhirat 
al-Huffaz, Haydarabad, iv, 251; Makrlzi, KhiW, 
i, 46; Orientalia, ed. Juynboll, ii, 253; Brockel- 
mann, I, 386, S I, 550. (Hilmy Ahmad) 

ABU l SHAMAKMAK Abu Muhammad Mar- 
wan b. Muh. Arabic poet of the early c Abb5sid 
period, was bom in Basra in the quarter of the 



Banfi Sa'd as a mawld of the Banu Umayya. No 
date is given for his birth. His lahab would seem to 
allude to his big nose and big mouth. He must have 
migrated to Baghdad some considerable time before 
the accession of Hariin al-Rashid (170/786). Ibn 
al-Mu c tazz, Tabahat al-Shu'ara al-Muhdathin (A. 
Eghbal), 55, puts his death in or about 180/796. 
Like other poets of his time Abu '1-Shamakmak is 
credited with undertaking an occasional public duty. 
He appears to have served as transmitter of the 
kharddi of Madinat Sabur to the caliph. On the 
whole, however, he made his precarious living by 
means of eulogies and lampoons. A number of 
anecdotes illustrate his position on the margin of 
the contemporary world of letters. Ibn c Abd Rabbih, 
al-'-Ihd al-Farid, Cairo i353/'935. iv, 255, lists Abu 
'1-Shamakmak among the "luckless wits." His 
originality, which was most effective in parody and 
to which the introduction to Arabic poetry of the 
talking cat that deserts its impoverished owner may 
be owed, went unrewarded and constant frustration 
induced frequent descents into unmitigated vulgarity. 
Bibliography: A collection of his fragments 
with a critical introduction and a biography was 
published by G. E. von Grunebaum, Orientalia, 
1953, 262-83. (G- E. von Grunebaum) 

ABU 'l-SHAWS. [see c annAzids]. 
ABU'l£HIS Muhammad (b. c Abd AllAh) b. 
RazIn al KhuzA'I, Arab poet, died about 200/915. 
Like his relative Di'bil [q.v.], he lived at the court 
of Harun al-Rashid for whom he wrote panegyrics, 
and afterwards dirges. He then went to al-Rakka 
and obtained the favours of the amir c Ukba b. al- 
Ash'ath,. remaining his boon-companion and court 
poet until 196/81 1. — To judge by the rare fragments 
of his work that have been preserved, Abu '1-Shis 
does not appear as an orginal poet in his panegyrics, 
hunting poems and wine songs, though these poems 
were valued by his contemporaries, notably by Abu 
Nuwas, who did not hesitate to plagiarize him. The 
elegies on the infirmities of old age which he 
composed at the end of his life, when he became 
blind, are of greater value as they as they express 
real feeling. Similarly, when he makes fun of himself 
or mocks at the poets who imitate the poetry of the 
desert (e.g. Ibn Kutayba, Shi'r, 536, concerning the 
ghurdb al-bayn), he is not lacking in humour. 

Bibliography: Fragments of Abu 'l-Shls's 
poetry and isolated verses are to be found in a 
number of books: Ibn Kutayba, Shi'r, 535-9; 
Aghani 1 , v, 36, xv, 108-13; Djahiz, Hayawdn 1 , 
iii, 518, iv, 345, v, 184; Ps.-Djahiz, Mahasin (van 
Vloten), 68; Ibn al-Mu'tazz, Tabahat, 26-33; 
Bayhaki, Mahasin, 358; Tabari, iii, 763; 
Ibn al-Athir, vi, 135; Djahshiyari, Wuzard , t 
96v; al-Khatlb, Ta'rikh Baghdad, v, 401-2; Safadi, 
Nakt al-Himyan, 257-8; Ibn Khallikan, iv, 232; 
Kutubi, Fawdt, ii, 281 ff.; 'Askari, Diwdn al- 
Ma'dni, Cairo 1352, i, 255, ii, 123, 198-9, 252; 
see also O. Rescher, Abriss, ii, 28-9; Brockelmann, 
I, 83, S I, 133. (A. Schaade-Ch. Pellat) 

ABC SHUEJA' Ahmad b. Hasan (or Husayn) 
b. Ahmad, a famous Shafi'i jurisconsult. His 
family came from Isfahan, his father was born in 
'Abbadan. He himself was born in 434/1042-3 in 
Basra, and there taught ShSfi'I law for more than 
40 years; he was alive in 500/1106-7, but the date 
of his death is not known. At some time, he was 
a kadi. He is the author of a short compendium of 
Shafi'I law, called al-Qhaya fi 'l-Ikhtisdr, or al- 
Muhhtasar, or al-Takrib. This became the starting- 
point of one of the great literary traditions of the 



ABO SHUDjA 5 — ABO SULAYMAN al-MANTIKI 



Shafi'i school and acquired, from the 7th/i3th to 
the I3th/igth century, a considerable number of 
commentaries and glosses, many of which have 
been printed. Editio princeps of the text, with 
(unreliable) translation, by S. Keyser, Pricis de 
jurisprudence musulmane, Leiden 1859; translation 
of the text by G.-H. Bousquet, Abregi de la loi 
musulmane, separately printed from the Revue 
Algirienne 1935; edition and (faulty) translation of 
the commentary of Ibn Kasim al-GhazzI (d. 918/1512), 
with the title Folk al-Karib, by L. W. C. van den 
Berg, Leiden 1895 (some corrections to the trans- 
lation in Bousquet, Kitdb et-Tanbih, Bibliotheque 
de la Faculte de Droit de l'Universite d'Alger, II, 
XI, XIII, XV, Algiers 1949-52); partial translation 
of the gloss of Ibrahim al-Badjuri (d. 1277/1861), 
with reprint of the corresponding chapters of the 
text, by E. Sachau, Muhammedanisches Recht, 
Berlin 1897. 

Bibliography: Yakut iii, 598 f.; Tadj al-Din 
al-Subkl, Tabahat al-ShdfiHyya, Cairo 1324. iv, 38; 
Juynboll, Handleiding, 374 f.; Brockelmann I, 
492 f.; S I, 676 f. (J. Schacht) 

ABC SHUEJA' MUHAMMAD B. al-JJUSAYN 
[see al-rudhrawarI]. 

ABC SUFYAN b. Harb b. Umayya, of the 
clan of c Abd Shams of Kuraysh, prominent Meccan 
merchant and financier (to be distinguished from 
Muhammad's cousin, Abu Sufyan b. al-Harith b. 
<Abd al-Muttalib). His name was Sakhr, and his 
kunya is sometimes given as Abu Hanzala. c Abd 
Shams had been at one time a member of the political 
group known as the Mutayyabun (which included 
the clan of Hashim), but about Muhammad's time 
had moved away from this group and in some 
matters cooperated with the rival group, Makhzum, 
Djumah, Sahm, etc. As head of c Abd Shams Abu 
Sufyan joined in opposing Muhammad in the years 
before the hidjra, but his opposition was not so 
violent as that of Abu Djahl. On several occasions 
he led caravans in person, notably in 2/624 when a 
caravan of 1000 camels returning from Syria under 
his command was threatened by Muhammad. In 
answer to his requests for help the Meccans sent 
out about 1000 men under Abu Djahl. By skilful 
and vigorous leadership Abu Sufyan eluded the 
Muslims; but Abu Djahl was eager to fight, and 
brought upon the Meccans the disaster of Badr. 
Of Abu Sufyan's sons Hanzala was killed and 
'Amr taken prisoner but subsequently released, 
while his wife Hind lost her father c Utba. Abu 
Sufyan was apparently in charge of the preparations 
to avenge Badr, and commanded the large army 
sent to Medina in 3/625, probably as a hereditary 
privilege, the hiyada. He realized that the result of 
the ensuing battle of Uhud was not satisfactory for 
Kuraysh, but was prevented from attacking the 
main settlement of Medina by SafwSn b. Umayya 
(of Djumah), possibly out of jealousy. Abu Sufyan 
also organized the great confederacy which besieged 
Medina in 5/627. When this proved a fiasco, he 
perhaps lost heart; at least resistance in Mecca to 
Muhammad came to be directed by the leaders of 
the rival group, Safwan b. Umayya, Suhayl b. 'Amr 
and 'Ikrima b. Abl Djahl. Abu Sufyan is not menti- 
oned in connection with the peace of al-Hudaybiya. 
When in 8/630 allies of Kuraysh openly broke the 
peace, AbQ Sufyan went to Medina to negotiate. 
What happened is not clear, but he possibly came 
to some understanding with Muhammad. Muham- 
mad's marriage to his daughter, Umm Habiba, may 
have softened his heart, even though she had been 



some fifteen years in- Abyssinia as a Muslim. Cer- 
tainly, when Muhammad marched on Mecca soon 
after, Abu Sufyan, along with Hakim b. Hizam, came 
out and submitted to him (apparently now becoming 
a Muslim), and those who took refuge with Abu 
Sufyan were guaranteed security. Thus he did much 
to bring about the surrender of Mecca peacefully. 
He took part in the battle of Hunayn and the siege 
of al-Ta'if, where he is said to have lost an eye; 
like the other Meccans he would be well aware that 
Hawazin and Thaklf were as hostile to Mecca as to 
Muhammad. In the distribution of the spoils he and 
Hakim seem to have received a specially large gift 
in recognition of their services. On the submission 
of al-Ta'if, Abu Sufyan, who had business and 
family connections there, helped to destroy the 
idol of al-LSt. He was appointed governor of Nadjran 
and perhaps also of the Hidjaz, but whether by 
Muhammad or Abu Bakr is disputed. If it is true 
that he was in Mecca at Muhammad's death and 
spoke against Abu Bakr, he cannot have been 
governor of Nadjran then; but the alleged speech, 
like many other statements about Abu Sufyan, 
may be anti-Umayyad propaganda. He was present 
at the battle of the Yarmuk, but may have done 
little more than exhort the younger men, as he was 
about 70. He is said to have died about 32/653 aged 
about 88. Of his sons, Yazid died as a Muslim 
general in Palestine about 18/639, and Mu'awiya 
was the first Umayyad caliph. 

Bibliography: Ibn Hisham, WakidI, Ibn Sa'd, 
Tabari — see indexes; Ibn Hadjar, Isdba, ii, 477-80; 
Ibn al-Athlr, Usd, iii, 12-3, v, 316; Caetani, 
Annali, i, ii(l). (W. Montgomery Watt) 

ABC SULAYMAN Muhammad b. Tahir b . 
Bahram al-SidjistanI al-MANTIKI. philoso- 
pher, b. about 300/912, d. about 375/985. He was 
a pupil of Matta b. Yunus (d. 328/939) and Yahya 
b. £ Adi (d. 364/974), and lived in Baghdad (he was 
patronized by c Adud al-Dawla, to whom he dedicated 
some of his treatises), occupying an eminent place 
among the philosophers of the capital. His system, 
like that of most of the other members of his envi- 
ronment, had a strong Neo-platonic colouring. For 
the content of his teaching we are mainly indebted 
to Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidl [q.v.], whose works, 
especially al-Mukabasat and al-Imta < wa 'l-Mu'dnasa, 
are filled with reports of Abu Sulayman's utterances 
on philosophical as well as many other topics, 
usually expressed in a rather involved and obscure 
style. A few of Abu Sulayman's shorter treatises 
have survived in MS. Of his history of Greek and 
Islamic philosophers, Siwdn al-Hikma, only an 
abbreviation is extant in several MSS (cf. M. Plessner, 
in Islamica, 1931, 534-8; add Brit. Mus. Or. 9033; 
cancel Bodl. Marsh 539; Leiden 133 contains an 
even shorter version by al-Ghadanfar al-Tibrizi). 
'The Siwdn al-IJikma was one of the sources of al- 
Shahrastanl, al-Milal wa 'l-Nihal, for the description 
of the old Greek philosophers (cf. P. Kraus, in BIE, 
1937, 207 = IC, 1938, 146). Various other authors 
also quote Abu Sulayman for information con- 
cerning the history of philosophy: Ibn al-Nadim 
(who was a disciple of his), Fihrist, 241, 243, 248; 
Ibn Matran, see P. Kraus, Jdbir ibn Hayyan, i, 
p. lxiii; Ibn Abl Usaybi'a, i, 9, 15, 57, 104, 186-7. 
Bibliography : Fihrist, 264, 316; Abu Shudja', 
Dhayl Tadjarib al-Umam (Amedroz-Margoliouth), 
75-7; BayhakI, Tatimmat Siwan al-Hikma (M. 
Shafi), 74-5; Yakut, Irshdd, ii, 89, iii, 100, v, 
360, 398 (after Abu Hayyan); S5 c id al-AndalusI, 
81; Ibn al-Kifti, 282-3; Ibn AM ' Usaybi'a, i, 



ABO SULAYMAN al-MANTIKI — ABO TALIB 



321-2; Brockelmann, I, 236, S I, 377; Muhammad 
b. c Abd al-Wahhab Kazwini, Sharh-i Ifdl-i Abu 
Sulayman Mantiki Sid£istdni (Publ. de la Societe 
des Etudes Iraniennes, no. 5), Chalons-sur-Saone 
1933 = Bist Makdla, Teheran 1934, 94 ff. 

(S. M. Stern) 
ABU *L-SU C UD Muhammad b. Muhyi 'l-DIn 
Muh:. B. al-'Imad Mustafa al- c Imadi, known as 
Khodia Celebi (Hoca Celebi), famous commentator 
of the Kur'an, Hanafi scholar and Shaykh al- 
Islam, bom 17 Safar 896/30 December 1490, died 
5 Djumada I 982/23 August 1574. His father, a 
native of Iskillb (Iskilip, west of Amasia) had been 
a notable scholar and sufi. Abu '1-Su'ud began his 
career as a teacher, being eventually promoted to 
one of the "Eight Madrasas" of Sultan Muhammad II. 
In 939/1533 he was appointed kd4i, first in Brusa 
(Bursa), then in Istanbul; in 944/1537 he became 
kd#i '■asker of Rumelia, and in 952/1545 Sultan 
Sulayman I. made him Grand Mufti or Shaykh al- 
Islam. He kept this post for the rest of his life, under 
Sulayman and his successor Sallm II. Abu 'l-Su'ud 
was bound to Sulayman by real friendship, and 
though he could not quite maintain his exclusive 
influence under Sallm, this Sultan too held him in 
high esteem. The one reproach that is made against 
him is his scheming and his eagerness for the intimacy 
of the great. To Sulayman, he justified the killing 
of Yazidls, and to Salim, the attack on Cyprus, 
breach of a treaty of peace with Venice. He w 
buried in the Abu Ayyub quarter of Istanbul, where 
his tomb still exists. When the news of his death 
reached the Holy Cities, funeral prayers for 
absent person were said for him. Several of his 
disciples held important positions under Sallm I 
Murad III, and Muhammad III. 

As Shaykh al- Islam, Abu 'l-Su'ud succeeded i 
bringing the kdnun, the administrative law of the 
Ottoman Empire, into agreement with the shari'a, 
the sacred law of Islam. Supported by Sulayman, 
he completed and consolidated a development which 
had already started under Muhammad II. He 
formulated, consciously and in sweeping terms, the 
principle that the competence of the k&4is derives 
from their appointment by the Sultan, and that 
they are therefore bound to follow his directives in 
applying the shari c a. Already as kail 'asker he had 
begun, on the orders of the Sultan, to revise the 
land law of the European provinces and to apply 
to it the principles of the shari'a. (On the effects 
of this revision, see P. Lemerle and P. Wittek, i 
Archives d'Histoire du droit oriental, 1948, 466 ff.) 
His fatwds, of which a number still exist in 
original, were brought together in several se 
official and private collections. In keeping with his 
general aim, Abu '1-Su c ud took account of " 
practice in authorising the wakf of movables and in 
particular of money, the giving and taking of 
remuneration for teaching and other religious duties, 
(on these two questions, he became involved 
polemics), in allowing the Karagoz play, and 
refraining, in the end, from giving a fatwd against tl 
use of coffee. Whilst he appreciated orthodox Sufism, 
he did not hesitate to authorise the execution c' 
extremist sufis. 

In his spare time, Abu '1-Su'ud composed 
commentary on the Kur'an, drawn mainly from 
al-Baydawi and al-Zamakhshari, with the title 
Irshdd al- c Akl al-Salim; it became popular in 1 
Ottoman Empire and beyond its frontiers, found 
several commentators and was printed a number 
of times. Among his other, smaller works, a book 



of prayers drawn from traditions and meant to be 
learned by heart (Du'd-ndma, or R. ft '1-AdHya al- 
MaHhura), may be mentioned. He also wrote some 
poetry in Arabic, Persian and Turkish. 

Bibliography: 'All Efendi Manuk (d. 992/ 
1584), al-Hkd al-Manzum, Cairo 1310 (on the 
margin of Ibn Khallikan, Wafaydt ii), 282 ft.; 
c Ata1, Dhayl-i ShakdHk, Istanbul 1268, 183 ft.; 
Pecewl, Tdrikh, i, Istanbul 1281, 52 ft.; Ibn al- 
c Imad, Shadhardt al-Dhahab, viii, 398 ff.; Brockel- 
mann, II, 579 f.; S II, 651; M. Hartmann, in Isl., 
1918, 313 ff. (on the publication of Sulayman's 
Kdnun-ndma-yi Diadid. containing fatwds of Abu 
'l-Su'ud, and of Abu '1-Su c ud's Ma'ruddt, another 
collection of his/ato<is, in MTM, I 1-2); P. Horster, 
Zur Anwendung des Islamischen Rechts im 16. 
Jahrhundert, Stuttgart 1935 (re-edition and 
translation of the Ma'rudat) ; Gibb, Ottoman- 
Poetry, iii, 116; Omer Lutfi Barkan, XV. ve 
XVI. asirlarda Osmanli imparatorlugunda zirai 
ekonominin hukukt ve mdlt esaslar, Istanbul 1945 ; 
M. Cavid Baysun, in I A, iv, 92 ft.; M. Tayyib 
Okie, in Ankara Vniversitesi Ildhiyat Fakiiltesi 
Dergisi, i, 48 ff. ; Yusuf Ziya Yorukan, ibid. 137 ff. ; 
Okie, ibid, ii, 219 ff. (J. Schacht) 

ABC TAHIR Sulayman al KARMATl [see 

AL-DJANNABi]. 

ABC TAHIR TARSCSl (TartusI, TusI) 
Muhammad b. Hasan b. c AlI b. Musa, a person 
otherwise unknown, said to be the author of 
several novels in prose, prolix in style and of great 
length, a confused mixture of Arab and Persian 
legendary traditions, written in Persian and after- 
wards translated into Turkish. These include Kah- 
ramdn-ndma (about Kahraman, a hero from the 
epoch of Hushang, semi-mythical king of Iran), 
Kirdn-i ffabashi (the story of a hero from the 
time of the Kayanid king Kay Kubad), Ddrdb- 
ndma (history of Darius and Alexander). 

Bibliography: Firdawsi, Livre des rois, ed. 

and transl. of J. Mohl, i, preface 74 ff-; H. Ethe, 

in Grundr. d. iran. Philol., ii, 318; E. Blochet, 

Cat. mss. persans Bibl. Nat. Paris, nos. 1201-2; 

idem, Cat. mss. turcs, anc. fonds, nos. 335-7; 

Ch. Rieu, Cat. Turkish MSS Brit. Mus., 219 ft. 
(H. Masse) 

ABC TA&A [see sikka]. 

ABC TALIB, son of c Abd al-Muttalib b. Hashim 
and Fatima bint 'Arar (of Makhzum), and full 
brother of Muhammad's father. His own 
name was c Abd Manaf . He is said to have inherited the 
offices of sikdya and rifada (providing water and 
food for pilgrims) from his father, but at the Hilf 
al-Fudul and war of the Fidjar his brother al-Zubayr 
seems to have been the leading man of Hashim. He 
fell into debt, and to meet this surrendered the 
sikdya and rifada to al- c Abbas. Nevertheless he 
seems to have remained chief of the clan of Hashim, 
and their quarter of the town was called the shi'b of 
Abu T5ub. When c Abd al-Muttalib died, he looked 
after Muhammad, and is said to have taken him 
on trading journeys to Syria. He continued to 
protect Muhammad when he came forward as 
prophet, even when most of the other clans of 
Kuraysh boycotted Hashim and al-Muttalib; there 
were presumably also economic reasons for the 
boycott. He died shortly after the end of the boycott, 
about 619, and was probably succeeded as chief 
by his brother Abu Lahab. Of his sons by Fatima 
bint Asad b. Hashim, C AU (who is said to have 
been brought up by Muhammad) and Dja'far 
became Muslims, while T5"b fought against Muham- 



ABO TALIB — ABO TAMMAM 



mad at Badr. He himself, though protecting 
Muhammad, clearly did not become a Muslim; 
but the point was much discussed and varying 
traditions circulated, in connection with the theo- 
logical question of the fate of those who lived before 
Muhammad's mission. 

Bibliography: Ibn Hisham, 114-7, 167-77; 
Ibn Sa'd, i/i, 75-9, 134-5, 139-41; Tabari, i, 
1123-6, 1173-85, 1198-9; Ibn Hadjar, Isdba, iv, 
211-9; Th. Noldeke, in ZDMG, 1898, 27-8; Gold- 
ziher, Muh. Studien, ii, 107; Caetani, Annali, i, 
158, 298, 307, etc.; F. Buhl, Das Leben Muham- 
mads, 1 1 5-8; Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at 
Mecca, index. (W. Montgomery Watt) 

ABC TALIB KALlM [see kalIm]. 
ABC TALIB Muhammad b. <AlI al-Harithi 
al-MAKKI, d. in Baghdad in 386/998, m u h a d d i th 
and mystic, head of the dogmatic madhhab of 
the Salimiyya [q.v.] in Basra. His chief work is 
the K ut al-Kuliib, Cairo 1310, whole pages of which 
were copied by al-Ghazall in his Ihyd' '■XJlum al-Din. 
Bibliography: Brockelmann, I, 200, S I, 359-66; 
Sayyid Murtaija, Ithdf, Cairo, ii, 67, 69 and 
passim ; Sha'rawi, LafdHf, Cairo, ii, 28 ; Ibn c Abbad 
al-Rundi, al-RasdHl al-Kubrd, lith. Fez 1320, 149, 
200-1; L. Massignon, Essai sur les origines du 
lexique technique de la mystique musulmane, 2nd 
ed., index and reff. cited. (L. Massignon) 

ABC TALIB KHAN (1752-1806), the son of 
Hadjdji Muhammad Beg, of Turkish descent, was 
born at Lucknow. His early years were spent in 
Murshidabad at the court of Muzaffar Djang. With 
the accession of Asaf al-Dawla (1775) he returned 
to Oudh and was appointed '■amalddr of Itawah 
and other districts. He also served as a revenue 
official under Colonel Hannay who farmed the 
country of Sarwar. He was later employed by 
Nathaniel Middleton, the English Resident, and 
was connected with Richard Johnson in the manage- 
ment of the confiscated djagirs of the Begams of 
Oudh. He remained in Oudh until 1796. In February 
1799 he sailed from Calcutta to Europe where he 
visited England, France, Turkey, and other coun- 
tries, returning to India in August 1803. An account 
of his travels, the Masir-i Tdlibi fi Bildd-i Ifrandji 
was published in 181 2 and translated into English 
by C. Stewart (1814) and into French by Ch. Malo 
(1819). He also wrote the Lubb al-Siyar wa-Diahdn- 
numd and the Khuldsat al-Afkdr. His Tafzih al- 
Ghdfilin, a history of Oudh under Asaf al-Dawla, 
is an important source for the careers of Haydar 
Beg and the various English residents, and contains 
a spirited defence of Hannay's revenue administra- 
tion (English trans, by W. Hoey, 1888). He published 
also the first edition of the diwdn of Hafiz, Calcutta 
1791. 

Bibliography: Elliot and Dowson, History 
of India, viii, 298 ff. ; Rieu, Cat. of Persian Mss., 
i, 378 ff. (C. Collin Davies) 

ABC TAMMAM HabIb b. Aws, Arabic poet 
and anthologist. According to his son Tammam 
he was born in the year 188/804; according to an 
account deriving from himself, in the year 190/806 
(Akhbdr, 272-3) and in the town of Djasim between 
Damascus and Tiberias. He died according to his 
son in 231/845, according to others 2 Muharram 
232/29 Aug. 846 (ibid.). His father was a Christian 
by name Thadhus (Thaddeus, Theodosius?) who 
kept a wine-shop in Damascus. The son altered the 
name of his father to Aws (Akhbdr, 246) and invented 
for himself a pedigree connecting him with the tribe 
of Tayyi 5 . He was mocked on the score of this false 



pedigree in satirical verses (Akhbdr, 235-8); later, 
however, the pedigree appears to have found ac- 
ceptance, and Abu Tammam is therefore frequently 
referred to as "the Tayyite" r "the great Tayyite". 
He spent his youth as a weaver's assistant in Damas- 
cus (Ibn 'Asakir, iv, 19). Subsequently he went to- 
Egypt where at first he earned his living by selling 
water in the Great Mosque, but he also found 
opportunity to study Arabic poetry and its rules. 
The exact chronology of his life is difficult to recon- 
struct, at all events until the happenings mentioned 
in his poetry and the biography of the men eulogised 
by him are accurately established. According to one 
tradition he composed his first panegyrics in Damas- 
cus for Muh. b. al-Djahm, brother of the poet 'Alt 
b. al-Djahm (al-Muwashshah, 324). This, however, can 
hardly be correct, as this personage was only in 225 
appointed governor of Damascus by al-Mu c tasim 
(Khalil Mardam Bek, in the preface to the Diwdn 
of c Ali b. al-Djahm, 4). According to the poet's own 
account (Akhbdr, 121), he composed his first poem 
in Egypt for the tax-collector 'Ayyash b. Lahi'a 
(al-Badi% 181). He was, however, disappointed Dy 
him and repaid him, as often in similar circum- 
stances, with lampoons (cf. al-BadI% 174 ff.). Al- 
Kindl (Governors and Judges of Egypt, ed. Guest, 
181, 183, 186, 187) quotes some verses of Abu 
Tammam referring to events in Egypt in the years 
21 1-4. From Egypt Abu Tammam returned to 
Syria. At this time are to be placed, apparently, the 
encomia and lampoons on Abu '1-Mughitti Musa b. 
Ibrahim al-Rafiki. When al-Ma'mOn returned from 
his campaign against the Byzantines (215-8), Abu 
Tammam, clad in the bedouin attire beloved by him 
all his life, offered him a kasida, which however was 
not to the caliph's taste, since he took exception 
to the fact that a bedouin should compose urban 
poetry (Abu Hilal al- c Askari, Diwdn al-Ma'dni, ii, 
120). At this time the young Buhturi perhaps came 
into contact with him in Hims (Akhbdr, 66, cf. 105). 
Abu Tammam first rose to fame and became 
generally known under al-Mu'tasim. On the de- 
struction of Amorium in the year 223/838 (cf. 
'ammuriyya) the Mu'tazilite chief kadi Ahmad b. 
Abi Du'ad [q.v.] sent him before the caliph in 
Samarra. The caliph recalled the harsh voice of 
the poet, which he had heard in Masisa, and granted 
Abu Tammam an audience only after making sure 
that he had with him a rdwi, or reciter, with a 
pleasant voice (Akhbdr, 143-4). Then began Abu 
Tammam's career as the most celebrated panegyrist 
of his time. In addition to the caliph he eulogised in 
his kasidas the highest dignitaries of his epoch. One 
of these was Ibn AM Du'ad, whom, however, he 
offended temporarily through a poem in which the 
South Arabs (to whom the tribe of Tayyi' belonged) 
were greatly extolled to the disadvantage of the 
North Arabs (from which the chief kadi claimed 
descent). An apologetic kasida had to be addressed 
to the patron before his reinstatement was effected 
(Akhbdr, 147 ft.). Other personalities eulogised by 
him were, for example, the general Abu Said Muh. 
b. Yusuf al-Marwazi, who had distinguished himself 
in the war against Byzantium and in the operations 
against the Khurramite Babak, and his son Yusuf, 
killed by the Armenians in 237 while governor of 
Armenia; Abu Dulaf al-Kasim al- c Idjli, d. 225; 
Ishak b. Ibrahim al-Mus c abI, police chief (sahib al- 
djisr) of Baghdad from 207 to 235. Hasan b. Wahb, 
secretary to the wazlr Muh. b. c Abd al-Malik al- 
Zayyat was a particular admirer of Abu Tammam. 
■ - - - also travelled several times to visit 



ABO TAMMAM 



provincial governors, for example the governor of 
Djabal, Muh. b. al-Haytham (Akhbar, 188 f.), Khalid 
b. Yazid b. Mazyad al-Shaybanl, governor of Armenia 
under al-Wathik, d. 230 (Akhbar, 188 ff.) and others. 
His journey to c Abd Allah b. Tahir in NlshapOr 
is the most celebrated. c Abd Allah did not come up 
to his expectations in rewarding him, and the cold 
•climate did not suit the poet, so that he quickly 
retraced his steps. He was held up by snow in 
Hamadhan. and made good use of his time in com- 
piling with the aid of the library of Abu '1-Wafa 
b. Salama the most celebrated of his anthologies, 
the flamdsa. Some two years before his death, 
Hasan b. Wahb found him the postmastership of 
Mosul. The philosopher al-Kindi is supposed to have 
predicted an early death for him as the result of 
-over-exertion of his intellectual faculties, shiddat 
al-fikr (Ibn Khallikan, apparently after al-Suli, 
where, however, the appropriate passage is lacking, 
cf. Akhbar, 231-2). It was in Mosul that Abu Tammam 
■died. Abu Nahshalb. Humayd al-Tusi, brother of the 
Muhammad who fell in 214 in the campaign against 
Babak, had erected over his grave a dome, visited 
by Ibn Khallikan. Abu Tammam was dark, tall, 
■dressed in bedouin fashion, spoke extremely pure 
Arabic, having at the same time a most unattractive 
voice and suffering from a slight impediment of 
speech; he accordingly had his poetry recited by 
his rami Salih (Akhbar, 210). 

Abu Tammam's kasidas treat of important 
historical events, such as the conquest of Amorium, 
the campaign against Babak and his execution 
(223/837-8), the execution of Afshin (226/840), whom 
he himself had previously eulogised, and many 
others. In certain particulars the kasidas supplement 
the historians (cf. al-Tabari's The reign of al-MuHasim, 
transl. and annot. by E. Marin, New Haven 195 1, 
index, and M. Canard, Les allusions d la guerre 
■byzantine chez les poetes Abu Tammam et Buhturi, 
in A. A. Vassiliev, Byzance et les Arabes, I, La 
■dynastie d' Amorium, Bruxelles 1935, 397-403). 

Even in Abu Tammam's lifetime opinions were 
divided upon the aesthetic merit of his poetry. The 
poet Di'bil, held in awe by reason of his sharp 
tongue, asserted that one third of his poetry was 
plagiarized, one third bad, one third good (Akhbar, 
244). His pupil al-Buhturl, who held him in the 
greatest respect, thought Abu Tammam's best 

than his own bad verse (Akhbar, 67). The poet 'All 
b. al-Djahm (d. 249; Akhbar, 61-2) was a friend and 
admirer of Abu Tammam. From him originates the 
account of Abu Tammam's first entry into the 
poets' hall (kubbat al-shu'-ard') in the mosque of 
Baghdad (Ta'rikh Baghdad, viii, 249, after al-Mu'afa 
b. Zakariyya'; Diwdn '■All b. al-Djahm, intr., 6-7). 
Long after the poet's death writings were penne/d 
both in praise of him and against him; in these 
works his literary "thefts" also were discussed. Abu 
l- c Abbas Ahmad b. 'Ubayd Allah al-Kutrabulli 
wrote against him (al-Muwazana, 56), in his favour 
Abu Bakr Muhammad al-Suli, whose Akhbar Abi 
Tammam is at once the oldest and the most circum- 
stantial source for the life of the poet. To his defenders 
must be added in addition al-Marzuki (d. 421) who 
wrote a Kitab al-Intisar min galamat Abi Tammam 
(cf. Oriens, 1949, 268). The kadi Abu '1-Hasan c Ali 
al-Djurdjani (d. 366/976-7) in his Wasdta bayn al- 
Mutanabbi wa Khusumih, Sayda 1331, 58 ff., and 
al-Amidi (d. 381) in his Muwazana bayn al-Ta'iyyayn 
AH Tammam wa 'l-Buhturi, Istanbul 1287 (Turkish 
transl. by Mehmed Weled, Istanbul 1311) weigh 



up his merits and demerits. Al-Marzubani (d. 384) 
in al-Muwashshah, Cairo 1343, 303, 329, brings into 
prominence rather his weak points. Al-Sharif al- 
Murtada in his al-Shihab fi 'l-Shayb wa 'l-Shabab, 
Istanbul 1302, defends the poet against al-Amidl's 
strictures. The modern reader will follow the 
judgement of the old critics. Abu Tammam's 
kasidas contain, side by side with brilliant conceits 
which have established the poet's fame, much that 
is unpleasant. He has a penchant not only for 
queer words but also for artificial, frequently 
tortuous, sentence construction, the understanding 
of which much exercised the Arabic commentators. 
Unhappy personifications of abstract ideas, affected, 
far-fetched and unconvincing metaphors harass the 
reader often for many verses at a stretch till he 
stumbles on an excellent poetical figure. Added to 
this is an unfortunate tendency towards paronomasia 
and subtly-reasoned antithesis, to which he all too 
frequently sacrifices the clarity and attractiveness 
of the phrase (cf. c Abd al-Kahir al-Djurdjani, Asrar 
al-Balagha, ed. Ritter, 15). The Diwdn was collected 
by al-Suli (alphabetically), by c Ali b. Hamza al- 
Isfahani (under subjects), also handed on by al- 
Sukkarl (Oriens, 1949, 268) and others. Unsatis- 
factory editions Cairo 1299, Beyrut 1889, 1905, 
1923, 1934. Index by Margoliouth in JRAS, 1905, 
763-82. No edition exists as yet of the numerous com- 
taries, absolutely indispensable for the under- 
standing of his poetry, by al-Suli, al-Marzuki, 
al-Tibrizi, Ibn al-Mustawfl (Akhbar, intr. 8; H. Ritter, 
Philologika, xiii, in Oriens, 1949, 266-9; HadjdjI 
Khalifa, under Diwdn Abi Tammam, and Ismail 
Pasha, Idah al-Maknun fi 'l-Dhayl l ala Kashf al- 
Zunun, i, Istanbul 1945, 422). [The commentary of 
al-Tibrizi is in course of publication in Cairo; vol. i, 
1952.] 

Abu Tammam collected in addition several 
anthologies of poetry. The best known is a collection 
of fragments (mukat(a c dt) by less known poets, 
which he made during his involuntary halt in 
Hamadhan, the Hamdsa. Edited with the commen- 
tary of al-Tibrizi by G. Freytag, Hamasae Carmina 
cum Tebrisii scholiis, Bonn 1828, Latin transl. 
1847-51, reprinted with all the errors Bulak 1284, 
Cairo 1938. On the numerous commentaries see 
Brockelmann, i, 134 ff.; H. Ritter, Philologika, iii, 
in Oriens, 1949, 246-61 ; Hadidji Khalifa, s.v. liamdsa, 
and Isma'il Pasha, Iddh al-Maknun, i, 422. Of the 
other anthologies there are preserved in manuscript 
the tfamdsa al-Sughra or al-Wahshiyyat (see Oriens, 
1949, 261-2), not to be identified with any of the 
Ikhtiydrdt mentioned by al-Amidi; and Ikhtiyar 
al-Shu<ard> al-Fuhul in Mashhad (see MMIA, xxiv, 
274). We know only the names of the remainder: 
al-Ikhtiydrat min Shi c r al-Shu c ara> wa Madh al- 
Khulafd' wa Akhdh DjawaHzihim (Fihrist, 165, 
Ma'-ahid al-Tansis, 18); al-Ikhtiydrat min Ash'fir 
al-KabaHl (Fihrist) = al-lkhtiyar al-KabaHH al- 
Akbar and al-Ikhtiydr al-KabaHH (Muwazana, 23); 
Ikhtiyar al-Mukatta c dt, beginning with ghazal (ib.) ; 
al-lkhtiyar min Ash'-ar al-Muhdathin (ib.}. Also the 
NakaHd Djarir wa H-Akhtal, ed. Salhani, Beyrout 
1922, derives from him. 

Bibliography: Abu Bakr Muh. b. Yahya 
al-Suli, Akhbar Abi Tammam, ed. Khalll Mahmud 
c Asakir, Muh. 'Abduh c Azzam, Nazlr al-Islam 
al-Hindi, Cairo 1937; Nazir al-Islam, Die Ahbar 
uber Abu Tammam von as-Suli, Diss. Breslau 1940; 
Aghdni, xv, 100-8; al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Ta'rikh 
Baghdad, viii, 248-63; Ibn c As5kir, al-TaMkh 
al-Kabir (Badran), iv, 18-26; Ibn al-Anbarl 



ABO TAMMAM — ABO 'UBAYD al-BAKRI 



155 



Nuzha, 213-6; Ibn Nubata, Sard al-<Uyun, Cairo, 

Matb. M. 'All Subayh, 205-10; al'Abbasi, Ma'aftid 

al-Tanfif, Cairo, 18-20; Ibn Khallikan, no. 146; 

Yusuf al-Badi'i, Hibat al-Ayydm fima yaW-allak 

bi-Abi Tammdm, Cairo 1934; c Abd al-Kadir al- 

Eaghdadl, Khizdnat al-Adab, 1347, i, 322-3; 

Brockelmann, I, 12, 83-5, S I, 39-40, 134-7, 940, 

III, ii94;0. Rescher, Abriss, Stuttgart 1933, ii, 

103-81. (H. Ritter) 

ABC TAfiHUFlN I, c Abd al-Rahman b. AbI 

Hammu, fifth sovereign of the <Abd al- 

Wadid dynasty. Proclaimed 23 Diumada I 718/ 

23 July 1318 after the murder of his father Abu 

Hammu I, he exiled to Spain all those of his relatives 

who could claim the throne and thus freed his hands 

to lay siege to Constantine and Bidjaya (Bougie) 

and to make an attempt at extending his kingdom 

towards the east. The Hafsids, however, allied 

themselves with the Marinids and the Marinid 

sultan Abu '1-Hasan seized Abu Tashufin's dominions 

and besieged Tlemcen in 735/1335- Two years later 

the capital was taken by assault and the king was 

killed in battle. 

Bibliography: see c abd al-wadids. 

(A. Bel*) 
ABC TASHUFlN II B. AbI Hammu Musa, 
sovereign of the c Abd al-Wadid dynasty. 
Born in Rabi c I 752/April-May 1351, he passed his 
youth in Nedroma. After the flight of Abu Hammu 
II to Tunis, the Marinid sultan Abu. c Inan sent him 
to Fez; he returned to Tlemcen only in 760/1359. 
In spite of his father's concessions to him, his 
impatience to acceed to the throne drove him to 
attempts to get rid of Abu Hammu. But Abu Hammu, 
put into prison in Oran, escaped; and when sent 
on pilgrimage, returned triumphantly to Tlemcen. 
Finally Abu Tashufin took command of a Marinid 
army which defeated Abu Hammu and enabled him 
to accede to the throne in Dhu '1-Hidjdja 791/Nov. 
1389. He remained faithful to his obligations as a 
vassal of the Marinids and died on 17 Radjab 795/ 
29 May 1393- 

Bibliography: see c abd al-wadids. 

(A. Bel») 
ABU 'L-TAYYIB [see al-mufappal]. 
ABC TAYYIB [see al-mutanabbI, al-tabarI]. 
ABC 1HAWR Ibrahim b. Khalid b. Abi 
'l-Yaman al-Kalbi, prominent jurisconsult and 
founder of a school of religious law, died in Baghdad 
in Safar 240/July 854. Living in 'Irak one generation 
after al-Shafi'I, Abu Thawr seems to have been influ- 
enced by al-Shafi'I's methodological insistence on the 
authority of the hadlth of tMe Prophet, without, 
however, renouncing the use of ra'y [q.v.], as had 
been customary in the ancient schools of law. The 
later biographers represented this as a conversion 
on the part of Abu Thawr from the ra'y of the 
ancient 'Irakians to the school of al-Shafi'i, and he 
is, indeed, often counted among the adherents of 
the Shafi'ite school. But his opinions, which often 
diverge from Shafi'ite doctrine, are not regarded 
as variants (wudjilh) of the doctrine of the school, 
nor does he, indeed, enjoy a particularly high 
reputation as a traditionist. Some cautious praise 
of him as a jurisconsult is attributed to his older 
contemporary, Ahmad b. Hanbal. A limited number 
of Abu Thawr's opinions on religious law are quoted 
in the works on ikhtildf [q.v.], particularly in the 
two fragments of al-Tabari's Ikhtildf al-Fukahd' (ed. 
Kern, Cairo 1902, and Schacht, Leiden 1933). The 
school of Abu Thawr was still widely represented 



in the 4th/ioth century, particularly in Armenia and 
Adharbaydjan. 

Bibliography: Fihrist i, an; ii, 91; al- 
Khatlb al-Baghdadl, Ta'rikh Baghdad, vi, 65 ff.; 
Subkl, Tabakdt al-ShdfiSyya, i, 227 ff.; Ibn Hadjar 
al-'Askalanl, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, i, 118 f.; Ibn 
al- c Imad, £hadhardt, ii, 93 f.; Juynboll, Handlei- 
ding, 369, 371. (J. Schacht) 

ABC TURAB, nickname of c AlI b. AbI Talib 
[q.v.]. 

ABC c UBAYD al-BAKRI, Abd Allah b. <Abd 
al- c AzIz b. Muh. b. Ayyub, was, with al-Sharlf 
al-Idrisi [q.v.], the greatest geographer of the 
Muslim West, and one of the most characteristic 
representatives of Arab Andalusian erudition in the 
5th/nth century. 

Although little is known about the details of the 
life of Abu 'Ubayd al-Bakri, it is possible to describe 
the various aspects of his scientific activity, all of 
which seems to have taken place in his own country; 
in fact, he appears never to have travelled in the 
East, or even North Africa, which he nevertheless 
described so minutely. According to the information 
which has come down to us, the principal facts of 
his biography amount to the following: his father, 
c Izz al-Dawla c Abd al-'AzU al-Bakri, was the only 
sovereign (or else the second, after his own father 
Abu Mus'ab Muh. b. Ayyub) of the diminutive 
principality of Huelva (Walba [q.v.]) and Saltes 
(Shaltlsh [q.v.]), founded in 403/1012, at the time 
of the fall of the Marwanid caliphate of Cordova, 
on the Atlantic coast of the south of the Iberian 
peninsula, not far west of Niebla (Labia). In 443/1051, 
c Izz al-Dawla, under the political pressure exerted 
against him by al-Mu'tadid b. c Abbad [see 
'abbadids], was forced to give up his principality 
to the king of Seville, who annexed it to his posses- 
sions. Abu 'Ubayd, the exact date of whose birth 
is unknown, must at this time have been at least 
thirty. He accompanied his father to Cordova, 
which was chosen by him for his new place of 
residence, under the more or less effective protection 
of its ruler Abu 'l-Walld Muh. b. Djahwar [cf. 
Pjahwarids]. These, anyway, are the particulars 
given by Ibn Hayyan (al-Matin, in Ibn Bassam, 
al-Dhakhira, ii, reprod. by Ibn 'Idharl, al-Baydn, 
iii, 240-2, and Dozy, Abbad., i, 252-3), and which 
there is no reason to doubt, but another source 
(append, to al-Baydn, iii, 299) asserts that Abu 
'Ubayd and his father, who died about 456/1064, 
withdrew to Seville itself, which is not improbable. 
However that may be, Abu 'Ubayd very quickly 
became known as a distinguished writer. He was 
the pupil of the chronicler Abu Marwan b. Hayyan 
and of other masters of repute, and moved in 
provincial court circles, especially that of the Banu 
Sumadih of Almeria. When he later witnessed the 
military and political intervention of the Almor- 
avids in Spain, and the successive depositions of 
the muluk al-(awdHf, he had already written most 
of the numerous works for the preparation of which 
he had collected innumerable notes. He settled at 
Cordova, which had been restored by the sultan 
Yusuf b. Tashufin to the position of capital of al- 
Andalus: and there he died, full of years, in Shawwal 
487/Oct.-Nov. 1094 (496 according to al-Dabbl, who 
attributes to him the title of dhu 'l-wizdratayn). 

Abu 'Ubayd al-Bakri, to judge by the variety of 
his works, appears as a perfect type of mushdrik, 
having acquired an extensive knowledge of widely 
different branches of learning. He was principally 
a geographer, but also at the same time a theologian, 



156 



ABO C UBAVD al-BAKRI 



philologist, and botanist. He even cultivated the 
art of poetry, since certain of his biographers have 
reproduced some of his bacchic verses, and he has 
been given the reputation of a confirmed drinker. 
He has also been depicted as a bibliophile, who 
preserved his valuable manuscripts in envelopes of 
fine fabric. 

In the religious sphere, Ibn Bashkuwal attributes 
to him, without giving the title, a work on the 
'signs of the prophetic mission' of the Messenger 
of God (ft a'-ldm nubuwwat nabiyyind). As a philo- 
logist, Ibn Khayr (Fahrasa, BAH, ix-x, 325, 326, 
343, 344), attributes to him four works: (1) a criticism 
of Abu C AU al-Sali [q.v.], al-Tanbih 'aid Awhdm Abi 
l Ali ft Kitab al-Nawddir, ed. A. Salhani, 4 vol., Cairo 
1344/1926; cf. Brockelmann, S I, 202; (2) a commen- 
tary on the Amdli of the same, Simt al-La'dli fi 
Sharh al- Amdli, ed. c Abd al-'Aziz Maymanl, Cairo 
1354/1936; cf. Brockelmann, loc. cit.; (3) a commen- 
tary on the verses quoted in al-Gharib al-Musannaf 
6i Abu c Ubayd al-Kasim b. Sallam, entitled Silat 
al-Mafsul; (4) a commentary on the collection of 
proverbs by the same Abu 'Ubayd b. Sallam, entitled 
Fast al-Makdl ft Shark Kitab al-Amthdl (MSS at 
Istanbul; cf. MO, vii, 123; Z D M G, 1910; 
Brockelmann, S I, 166 f. n.). Lastly we may mention 
another work, semi-historical, semi-philological, 
which seems to be lost: al-Mu'ialaf wa 'l-Mukhialaf 
on the names of the Arab tribes. 

The botanical work of Abu c Ubayd al-Bakri, 
Kitdb al-Nabdt, also indicated by Ibn Khayr, 
Fahrasa, 377, seems not to have been found yet in 
MS. It has its place, in any case, in the series of 
Andalusian treatises on descriptive botany, made 
up of alphabetically-arranged items, and it served 
as a direct source for the muhtasib and naturalist 
of the 6th/i2th century Ibn 'Abdiin [q.v.] al-Ishbili, 
for the composition of his 'Umdat al-Jabib fi Sharh 
al-A'-shdb (cf. M. Asin Palacios, Glosario de voces 
romances registradas por un botdnico andnimo hispano- 
musulmdn, Madrid-Granada 1943, xxvn and n. 1). 
This botanical treatise, which Ibn Abi Usaybi'a 
described in a few lines (cf. M. Meyerhof, Esquisse 
d'histoire cU la pharmacologic et botanique chez Us 
Musulmans d'Espagne, in al-And., 1935, 14; the 
same, Un glossaire de matihre midicale de Malmonide, 
in Mim. Inst. d'£gypte, xli, 1940, xxvn), mainly 
concentrated, as did that of Ibn c Abdun, on 
peninsula of al-Andalus; it was made use of not 
only by the latter, but also by the naturalists al- 
Ghafiki and Ibn al-Baytar. 

Abu c Ubayd al-Bakri's geographical work, on 
which his renown in the Arab world was mainly 
based, consists of two books of unequal length 
and importance; Mu'djam ma ista'-diam and al- 
Masdlik wa 'l-Mamdlik. The Mu'djam, which was 
published by F. Wiistenfeld in an autographed edition 
(Das geographische WtSrterbuch, Gottingen, 1876-7; 
4 vols, Cairo 1945-51), is a list of toponyms, mostly 
referring to the Diazlrat al-'Arab, which occui 
the poetry of the djahUiyya and the literature of 
the hadith and the spelling of which had given 
to discussions. This list is preceded by an interesting 
introduction on the geographical setting of anc:' 
Arabia and the respective habitats of the n 
important tribes. 

As for the al-Masdlik, the main work of al-Bakri, 
we have so far only part of it, in the form of extensive 
fragments, not all of which have yet been published. 
Of the introductory volume, which deals with general 
geography and the Muslim and non-Muslim peoples 
(MS at Paris, B. N., 5905), the greater part is still 



unpublished (fragment on the Russians and Slavs 
published at St. Petersburg in 1878 by A. Kunik 
and V. Rosen, Izvestiya al-Bekri i drugikh avtorov 
Rusi i Slavyanakh, i; cf. also A. Seippel, Rerum 
Normannicorum Fontes Arabici, Oslo 1896-1928). But 
the portion which is undoubtedly the most im- 
portant, that dealing with the Muslim West, has 
long been known, as far as Africa is concerned, 
through the edition and French translation (both 
today very outdated) of MacGuckin de Slane 
(Description de VAfrique septentrionale, Arabic text, 
Algiers 1857; 2nd ed., Algiers 1910; Fr. tr., JA, 
1857-8, 2nd ed., Algiers 1910). Before that, in 1831, 
an abridged translation had been published in Paris 
by Quatremere (Not. et extraits, xii). The author of this 
article has published some unpublished parts of 
al-Masdlik relating to al-Andalus, and identified 
the quotations included in the historico-geographical 
compilation entitled al-Rawd al-MiHdr by Ibn <Abd 
al-Mun c im al-Himyari al-Sabti (La Pininsule Mrique 
au Moyen-Age, Leyden 1938, 245-52; cf. also La 
'Description de I'Espagne' of Ahmad al-Razi, in 
And., 1953, 100-4), using a MS in the library of 
the Djami' al-IJarawiyyin at Fez, in which is to- 
be found the most extensive fragment that we yet 
possess on the description of the Iberian Peninsula. 

Following the usual practice of geographers of 
his own time and preceding centuries, Abu c Ubayd 
al-Bakri aimed first and foremost at giving his work, 
as its title, descriptions of 'itineraries and kingdoms', 
indicates, the form of a roadbook, including an 
estimate of distances between each town or staging- 
post. A dry list of names might have been the result, 
interesting enough, but only a bare outline, if the 
author had not set upon it his personal stamp and 
made a discriminating choice among the mass of 
particulars which he had contrived to collect. These 
particulars are not only geographical; they concern 
to a considerable extent political and social history 
and even ethnography, and this is what gives to the 
Masdlik of al-Bakri, at least as far as the West is 
concerned, their inestimable value. His was an 
inquiring and methodical mind, and he thus drew 
some historical sketches that have never since been 
equalled: his accounts of the Idrlsids or the Almor- 
avids, for example, still constitute the most reliable 
basis of our documentation on the first of these 
dynasties and on the origins of the second. Most 
of his descriptions of towns are remarkably precise; 
his toponymic material for the Maghrib, Ifrikiya, 
and the bildd al-Suddn is of a fulness no less worthy 
of interest. 

It goes without saying that, when writing his 
valuable description of North Africa, Abu e Ubayd 
had at his disposal, in his residence at Cordova or 
Seville, not only the verbal information afforded 
him by people coming from Ifrikiya or the Maghrib 
but also the work of other authors who had dealt 
with the same regions. The basic source, which he 
actually mentions several times in his work, was 
in fact al-Masdlik wa'l-Mamdlik by Muh. b. Yiisuf 
al-Warrak, on the geography of Ifrikiya. This man 
(see al-warrak and R. Brunschvig in Mdlanges 
Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Cairo 1935-45, 151-52), who 
lived for a long time in al-Kayrawan before going 
to settle at Cordova in the reign of the caliph al- 
Hakam II and at his invitation, thus enabled al- 
Bakri, who used his work (which now appears to 
be lost) to furnish us with information that goes 
back to the 10th century, and on which the geogra- 
pher could draw at will. Moreover, he doubtless had 
at his disposal documents of the Cordovan archives 



ABO C UBAYD al-BAKRI — ABO C UBAYD ALLAH 



157 



<for example on the heretical sect of the Barghawata 
[q.v.]). On the other hand, the fact that he makes 
no allusion to the intervention of the Almoravids in 
Spain confirms the indication that al-Bakri finished 
his al-Masdlik in 460/1068, i.e. eighteen years before 
the battle of al-Zallaka. 

Another source, not less important than al- 
Warrak's book, was the geographical work of one 
of Abu 'Ubayd's own masters, Ahmad b. c Umar al- 
'Udhri, a native of Dalias (Daldya, hence his ma'rifa 
Ibn al-Dalal), who died at Almeria in 478/1085 
(cf. Pen. iber., xxiv, n. 2.). This work, which was 
entitled Nifdm al-Mardidn, and was later to be 
used as a source by al-Kazwinl also, gave much 
space to the 'adid'ib [q.v.], which were not omitted 
likewise by al-Bakri himself. Finally, a further 
source should be mentioned, of uncertain provenience 
but which may conceivably be simply another of 
Abu 'Ubayd's own works: the Madpnu^ al-Muftarafr, 
from which, in their turn, Ibn c Idhari and al-Mak- 
kari were later to make borrowings. 

For his documentation on Christian Spain and 
the rest of Europe, it may be noted finally that 
Abu c Ubayd quotes — doubtless, however, through 
the intermediary of al- c Udhri, since al-Kazwird also 
refers to him by the same indirect means — a Jew 
of Tortosa, Ibrahim b. Ya'kub al Isralli al-Turtushl, 
who lived at the beginning of the 4th/ioth century, 
but whose work (perhaps written in Hebrew, then 
translated into Arabic or Latin ?) appears to be lost. 
The parts of al-Bakri's Masdlik that have been 
preserved amply merit a complete critical edition 
and systematic study. A study of the author's 
language has also yet to be undertaken; al-Bakri is, 
together with the authors of hisba treatises such 
as Ibn c AbdQn al-Ishbill, Ibn <Abd al-Ra'uf, and 
al-Sakatl of Malaga, and authors of treatises on 
husbandry, the Andalusian writer whose vocabulary 
contains the greatest number of Hispanicisms. 
From the point of view of the economic position of 
the West in the 10th and nth centuries (data on 
metrology, the cost of living, commercial relationships 
and trade in commodities and luxury articles), his 
work, even in its fragmentary form, provides a mass 
of information which would give scope for the 
drawing up of analytical lists and maps, as does the 
Nuzhat al-Mushtdk of al-Sharif al-ldrisl, that other 
masterpiece, of a somewhat later date, on the 
historical geography of the Islamic world in the 
middle ages. 

Bibliography : Biographical accounts of al- 
Bakrl, all short and with little details: Ibu Bash- 
kuwal, Sila, n. 628; Dabbl, Bughya, n. 930; Ibn 
al-Abbar, al-lfulla al-Siyard* (in Dozy, Correc- 
tions ..., Leyden 1883, 118-23); al-Fath t>. Khakan, 
KaldHd al-'Ikydn, 218; Ibn Sa<Id, Mughrib, i, 
Cairo 1953, 347-8; Ibn Bassam, Dhakhira. ii 
(account reproduced by the preceding); Suyutl, 
Bughya, 285 ; Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, ii, 52 ; Makkari, 
Nafh (Analectes), ii, 125. See also Pons Boigues, 
Ensayo, n. 125; J. Alemany Bolufer, La geografia 
de la Peninsula iberica en los escritores drabes, 
Granada 1921, 45-6; R. Blachere, Extraits des 
principaux geographes arabes, Paris 1932, 183, 
255 (with a very dubious appreciation on the 
documentary value and style of al-Bakri); Levi- 
Provencal, La peninsule ibirique au Moyen Age, 
Leyden 1938, xxi-xxiv; Brockelmann, I, 476, 
S I, 875-6. The accounts by Reinaud, Intr. d la 
Giogr. d'Aboulfeda, ciii, and by M. G. de Slane in 
the preface to his incomplete edition, are today 
very much out-of-date. Finally, for the materials 



relating to eastern Europe in the works of al-Bakri, 
via his borrowings from Ibrahim al-Turtushl, see 
C. E. Dubler, Abu ff amid al-Granadino y su relacidn 
de viaje por tierras eurasidticas, Madrid 1953, 161-2. 

(E. L£vi-Provencal) 
ABC <UBAYD AL-&ASIM b. SALLAM (the 
nisba varies between al-BaghdadI, al-Khurasani 
and al-AnsarI), grammarian, Kur'anic scholar 
and lawyer, was bom at Harat about 154/770, 
his father, of Byzantine descent, being a mawld of 
the tribe of Azd. He studied first in his native town, 
and in his early twenties (about 179/795) went to 
Kufa, Basra and Baghdad where he completed his 
studies in grammar, kira'ai, hadith and fikh. In 
none of these fields did he adhere to one school or 
group, but chose a middle position in an eclectic way. 
Returning home he became tutor in two influential 
families in Khurasan, and in the year 192/807 was 
appointed %&4i of Tarsus in Cilicia by its governor 
Thabit b. Nasr b. Malik. Abu c Ubayd remained in 
office until 210/825 and after some travelling settled 
for the next ten years in Baghdad, where c Abd 
Allah b. Tahir became his generous patron. In the 
year 219/834 he performed the pilgrimage and 
afterwards stayed on at Mecca to die there in 
224/838 and to be buried in the house of Dja'far 
b. Abi Talib. 

Twenty titles of Abu 'Ubayd's books are mentio- 
ned in the Fihrist, several of which have survived 
in MS. His three main works deal with the gharib, 
the difficult linguistic passages, especially in the 
Kur'an and the hadith, and are entitled Gharib al- 
Musannaf, Gharib al-Kur'dn and Gharib al-IJadith 
respectively. Gharib al-Musannaf, the first great 
dictionary of the Arabic language, is said to consist 
of 1000 chapters, 1200 shawdhid and 17,990 words; 
c Abd Allah b. Tahir granted the author a pension 
as a sign of recognition for it. This and all his other 
works are based on the previous research of other 
scholars, but Abu 'Ubayd in using them wrote the 
standard works on these subjects, which superseded 
his forerunners and were used and frequently 
quoted by all the later authors. — Only al-A mwdl, 
Cairo 1353, has been preserved of his works on 
fikh, and of his works on adab his al Amthdl. 

Bibliography : Fihrist, 71-2; al-Khatlb, Ta'rikh 
Baghdad, xii, 403-16; Anbari, Nuiha, 188-98; 
Yakut, Irshad, vi, 162-6; G. Flugel, Die gram- 
matischen Schulen der Araber, 86; M. J. de Goeje, 
in ZDMG, 1864, 781-814; Brockelmann, I, 106, 
S I, 166; H. L. Gottschalk, in Isl., 1936, 245-89; 
A. Spitaler, in Documenta Islamica lnedita, Berlin 
1952, 1-24 (partial edition of FaddHl al-Kur^dn). 

(H. L. Gottschalk) 
ABC C UBAYD ALLAH Mu'awiya b. c Ubayd 
Allah b. Yasar al-Ash c ari, vizier. Appointed 
by the caliph al-Mansur to the retinue of his son 
al-Mahdi, he was made vizier on al-Mahdl's accession 
(158/775). He held the office probably up to 163/ 
779-80, but already in 161/777-8 the accusation of 
heresy brought against his son Muhammad, which led 
to the latter's execution, compromised his position. 
The enmity of the powerful chamberlain al-Rabi c 
b. Da'ud consummated his downfall. Removed from 
the vizierate and replaced by Ya'kub b. Da 3 ud, he 
was nevertheless left in the charge of the diwdn aU 
rasd'il until 167/783-4; he died in 170/786-7. 

According to the unanimous witness of the 
sources, he was a man of the first rank, competent 
and honest. Ibn al-Tiktaka gives an account of his 
organizing and administrative achievements, cul- 
minating in the reform of the kharddi, substituting 



ABO 'UBAYD ALLAH — ABO C UBAYDA al-DJARRAH 



for land tax in the Saw&d of ai-'Irak a proportional 
tax on the produce, payable in nature; he is also 
stated to be the author of a book on this subject. 
Bibliography: Yalcubi, Tabarl, indexes; 
Diahshiyari,Wu*ara 5 (Cairoi938),i02-ii8;j4£Aartt, 
Tables; Ibn toallikan, xi, 88; Ibn al-Tiktaka, 
Fakhri (Derenbourg), 246-50; S. Moscati, in Orien- 
talia, 1946, 162-4. (S. Moscati) 

ABC 'UBAYDA Ma'mar b. al-Muthanna, 
Arabic philologist, born 110/728 in Basra, d. 
209/824-5 (other dates also in Ta'rikh Baghdad and 
later works). He was born a mawld of the Kurayshjte 
clan of Taym, in the family of c Ubayd Allah Ma'mar 
(cf. Ibn Hazm, Qiamharat Ansdb al-'-Arab, Cairo 1948, 
130); his father or grandfather came originally from 
Badjarwan (near al-Rakka in Mesopotamia, less 
probably the village of the same name in Shirwan) 
and was said, on dubious authority, to have been 
Jewish. He studied under the leading philologists 
of the school of Basra, Abu 'Amr b. al-'Ala 3 and 
Yunus b. Hablb, and composed a number of treatises 
on points of grammar and philology, none of which 
have been preserved. Breaking away, however, from 
the narrow philological interests of his teachers, 
AbQ c Ubayda took as his field of study everything 
that had been transmitted on the history and 
culture of the Arabs. Applying to these scattered 
oral materials the systematic methods employed 
in the philological schools, of collecting and grouping 
together items of the same or similar kinds, he 
composed some dozens of treatises on points of 
Arab and early Islamic history and tribal traditions, 
which served as the starting point and supplied most 
of the data for all future studies relating to pre- 
Islamic Arabia. His materials were arranged under 
general heads and these again by sub-categories, as, 
for example, in the K Mb al-Khavl. on famous Arab 
horses, still preserved (ed. Hyderabad 1358). 
Similarly, materials relating to the tribes were most 
frequently arranged under the categories of "virtues" 
(mandkib) and "vices" (mathalib); by the latter he 
gave much offence to the tribal pride of the Arabs, 
the more so because they provided ammunition 
for the anti-Arab polemics of the Persian shu'ubiyya 
[q.v.]. Moreover, as a convinced Kharidiite (cf. with 
Ibn Khallikan, Djahiz, Baydn, Cairo 1932, i, 273-4; 
Ash'arl, Makdldt, i, 120), he had no respect for the 
contemporary Arab sharifs, especially the Muhal- 
labids, and publicly exposed their pretensions. For 
both these reasons he was accused by the opponents 
of the shu'ubiyya of being a bitter calumniator of 
the Arabs (kdna aghra 'l-nds bi-mashdtim al-nds: 
Ibn Kutayba, Kitdb al-'-Arab, in Rasd'il al-Bulaghd' », 
Cairo 1946, 346), but there is little evidence to 
identify him, as Goldziher and Ahmad Amln have 
done, with the Persian shu ( ubiyya — rather, indeed, 
the contrary (cf. Mas'udI, Tanbih, 243). The accuracy 
of his scholarship was warmly defended in learned 
circles (cf. Djahiz, loc. cit. and Ta'rikh Baghdad, 
xiii, 257), and even his critics were compelled to 
recognize the depth and many-sidedness of his 
learning and to utilize his works. Only on the 
more technical field of Arabic poetry was he held 
to be inferior to his rival al-Asma'i [q.v.], 
although it was currently said "The seekers of 
knowledge, when they attend the instruction of 
al-Asma'I buy dung in the market of pearls, but 
when they attend Abu c Ubayda's they buy pearls 
in the dung-market", in allusion to the latter's 
unclean habits and poor delivery. His abilities as 
an editor and glossator of poetry have, however, 
left a monument in his compilation of the tmkd'id 



of Djarlr and al'Farazdak, transmitted through 
Muh. b. 'Jiablb and al-Sukkari (ed. A. A. Bevan, 
Leiden 1905-12). Almost the whole of his life was 
spent in Basra, except for one or two short visits to 
Baghdad. He was notoriously unwilling to allow the 
circulation of his books, and an amusing story is 
told of the stratagem of students in Baghdad to 
obtain copies of them {Ta'rikh Baghdad, xii, 108). 
Among the more famous of his pupils were Abu 
'Ubayd al-Kasim b. Sallam, Abu Hatim (ibn) al- 
Sidjistanl, 'Umar b. Shabba, and the poet Abu 
Nuwas. 

In addition to his compilations of historical 
traditions and literary materials, Abu 'Ubayda 
composed several philological works on the Kur'an 
and the Hadlth. His Qharib al-Va&Uh seems to have 
been the earliest work of its kind; it was a short 
book and contained no isndds (Ibn Durustawayh in 
Ta'rikh Baghdad, xii, 405). More important was 
Mad±dz al-Kur'dn, the first known work on tafsir 
(madidz meaning in this case "interpretation" or 
"paraphrase"), consisting of brief notes on the 
meaning of selected words and phrases in the order 
of the suras. This work, which was transmitted by 
his pupil 'AH b. al-Mughlra al-Athram, survives in 
two MSS (edition in preparation in Cairo). Abu 
'Ubayda also contributed philological notes to Ibn 
Hisham for his redaction of the Sira by Ibn Ishak. 
Bibliography: Fihrist, 53-4; Ta'rikh Baghdad, 
no. 7210 (xiii, 252-8); Ibn Khallikan. no. 702; 
Yakut, Irshdd, vii, 164-70; Aghdni, Tables; many 
other casual references in Arabic works; I. Gold- 
ziher, Muh. Stud, i, 194 sqq. (but see H. A.R. Gibb, 
in Studia Orientalia Ioanni Pedersen dicata, 
Copenhagen 1953, 105 ff.); Brockelmann, I, 103, 
S I, 162; F. Krenkow, in Kitdb al-Khayl, 174-9; 
E. Mittwoch, Proelia Arabum paganorum, Berlin 
1899; A. Amln, Duha 'l-Isldm, ii, 304-5; Taha 
al-Hadjirl, al-Riwdya wa 'l-Nakd HndaAbi'Ubayda, 
Alexandria 195 1. (H. A. R. Gibb) 

ABC 'UBAYDA 'Amir b. 'Abd Allah b. 
al-DJARRAIJ, of the family of Balharith, of the 
Kurashite tribe of Fihr, one of the early Meccan 
converts to Islam, and one of the ten Believers to 
whom Paradise was promised (see al-'Ashara al- 
Mubashshara). He took part in the emigration to 
Abyssinia, and is said to have been distinguished 
for courage and unselfishness and to have been 
given the title of amin by Muhammad for that 
reason. He was 41 years of age at the battle of 
Badr, and took part in the later campaigns, distin- 
guishing himself at Uhud, and as the commander of 
several expeditions. He was later sent to Nadjran 
to instruct the Yamanite converts, but returned to 
Medina before the death of Muhammad and together 
with 'Umar b. al-Khattab played a decisive part in 
the election of Abu Bakr as Muhammad's khalifa. 
After 'Umar's accession to the Caliphate (13/634) Abu 
'Ubayda was despatched to Syria to join the cam- 
paigns against the Byzantine forces, and some time 
later, probably in the year 15/636, was given the 
supreme command there. After the victory on the 
Yarmuk in that year, Abu 'Ubayda completed the 
conquest of northern Syria (Hims, Aleppo, Antioch). 
In 17/638 the caliph himself visited the headquarters 
of the Syrian army at Djabiya, to regulate the 
administration of Syria and to give Abu 'Ubayda 
the support of his authority. Tradition asserts that 
'Umar intended to nominate Abu 'Ubayda as his 
eventual successor, and when a serious epidemic 
broke out in Syria in 18/639 he summoned Abu 
'Ubayda to Medina. Abu 'Ubayda, however, refused 



ABO HJBAYDA al-DJARRAH — ABO YA c KOB al-KHURAYMI 



I5» 



to leave Syria and himself fell a victim to the plague. 
He was 58 years of age, and left no descendants. 
He was clearly a man whose personality impressed 
his contemporaries, but he is presented by later 
tradition in a rather colourless fashion. 

Bibliography : Ibn Sa'd, iii/i, 297-301; vii/2, 
iii-2;Tabari,index;Nasa6,4io,445;AbuNu c aym, 
Hilyat al-Awliyd?, i, 100-2; Ibn al-Athlr, Usdal- 
Ghdba, iii, 84, v, 249; Caetani, Annali, i, ii, passim; 
idem, Chronographia, A. H. 18, para. 32; C. H. 
Becker, in Camb. Med. Hist., ii, 1913, 341-6 ( = 
Islamstud., i, 81-7); H. Lammens, Le "triumvirat" 
AboiiBekr. 'Omar et Abou 'Obaida, MFOB, 1910, 
113 ff. (exaggerated, but contains many references 
to traditions in later sources). 

(H. A. R. Gibb) 
ABC <UBAYDA AL-TAMlMl [see ibadiyya]. 
ABU 'l-WAFA 5 al-BCZADJAnI, Muhammad 
b. Muij. b. Yahya b. IsmA'Il b. al-'Abbas, one of 
the greatest Arab mathematicians, very 
probably of Persian origin, bom in Buzadjan in 
Kuhistan, 1 Ramadan 328/10 June 1940. His first 
teachers in mathematics were his uncles Abu 'Amr 
al-Mughazili and Abu c Abd Allah Muhammad b. 
•Anbasa, the former having in his turn studied 
geometry under Abu Yahya al-MarwazI (or al- 
Mawardi) and Abu 'l-'Ala 5 b. Karnib. In the year 
348/959 Abu '1-Wafa 5 emigrated to 'Irak, and lived 
in Baghdad until his death, which took place there 
in Radjab 388/July 998; according to Ibn al-Athir 
and Ibn Khallikan, who follows him, in 387/997- It 
was Abu 'l-Wafa 5 who introduced, in 370/980-1, 
Abu Hayyan al-Tawl>IdI to the vizier Ibn Sa c d5n, 
and for whom Abu Hayyan wrote his al-Imtd 1 wa'l- 
Mu'dnasa. 

Of his mathematical and astronomical works the 
following are extant: 1. An arithmetic book, entitled 
Fimd yahtddf ilayh al-Kuttdb wa'l-'Ummdl min 
Him al-Hisdb, identical with the al-Mandzil fi'l- 
Hisdb mentioned by Ibn al-Kiftl; Woepke published 
in J A, 1855, 246 ff. the titles of the "stations" and 
of the chapters of the book. — 2. Al-Kdmil, probably 
identical with the Almadjist mentioned by Ibn al- 
Kiftl; certain parts of it have been translated by 
Carra de Vaux, JA, 1892, 408-71. — 3. Al-Handasa 
(in Arabic and Persian), probably the same as the 
Persian Book of the geometrical constructions of the 
Paris Library, reviewed by Woepke, JA, 1855, 
218-56, 309-59; the latter is of the opinion that this 
book was not written by Abu '1-Wafa' himself, but 
by one of his pupils summing up his lectures. (See 
also H. Suter, in A bh. z. Gesch. der Naturwiss. u. d. Med., 
Erlangen 1922, 94 ff.) — Nothing unfortunately has 
remained of his commentaries to Euclid, Diophan- 
tus and al-Kh w arizmI. nor of his astronomical 
tables called al-Wddih; but the tables called al- 
Zidf al-Shdmil, in Florence, Paris and London, of 
an unknown author, are very likely an adaptation 
from Abu '1-Wafa's tables. 

The chief merit of Abu 'l-Wafa' consists in the 
further development of trigonometry; it is to him 
that we owe, in spherical trigonometry, for the right- 
angled triangle, the substitution, for the perfect 
quadrilateral with the proposition of Menelaus, of 
the so called "rule of the four magnitudes" (sine 
a : sine c = sine A : 1), and the tangent theorem 
(tan. a : tan. A = sine b : 1) ; from these formulae he 
further infers : cos. c = cos. a. cos. b. For the oblique- 
angled spherical triangle he probably first esta- 
blished the sine proposition (cf. Carra de Vaux, loc. 
cit., 408-40). We are also indebted to hiin for the 
method of calculation of the sine of 30', the result 



of which agrees up to 8 decimals with its real value 
(Woepke, in J A, i860, 296 ff.). His geometrical 
constructions, which are partly based on Indian 
models, are also of great interest (Woepke, JA, 1855, 
218-56). On the other hand, the merit of introducing 
tangents, cotangents, secants and cosecants into- 
trigonometry does not belong to him, as these 
functions were already known by Habash al-Hasib. 
Neither was he the discoverer of the variation of the 
moon, as asserted by L. A. Sedillot in 1836. (A 
passionate dispute followed between Sedillot and 
Chasles on the one side and Biot, Munk and Bertrand 
on the other, until Carra de Vaux, JA, 1892, 440-71, 
elucidated the truth of the matter.) 

Bibliographic: Fihrist, 266, 283; Ibn al- 
Kiftl, 287; Ibn al-Athir, ix, 97; Ibn Khallikan,. 
no. 681 (transl. de Slane, iii, 320); Abu '1-Faradj 
(SalhanI), 315; Cantor, Vorlesungen iiber Gesch. d. 
Mathematik 2 , i, 698 ff. ; A. v. Braunmuhl, Vor- 
lesungen iiber Gesch. d. Trigon. Leipzig 1900, i, 
54»-; Suter. 71, Nachtr. 166; idem, Abh. zur 
Gesch. d. mathem. Wissensch., vi, 39; Nallino,. 
Scritti, v, 272, 275, 336-7; Brockelmann, I, 255, 
S I, 400; Sarton, Introduction, i, 666-7. 

(H. Suter*) 
ABC YA C AZZA (or Ya'za) Yalannur b.. 
Maynun, sprung from a sub-Atlantic Berber tribe 
(Dukkala, Hazmira or Haskura), famous Moroccan 
saint of the 6th/i2th century. After living for a 
time at Fez, where his zdwiya in the al-BUda quarter 
(a dialect form of al-Bulayda) is still frequented, he 
settled in a village of the Middle Atlas, half-way 
between Rabat and Kasabat Tadla, Taghya, which 
is today a small administrative centre bearing the 
name of the saint, as pronounced now in that 
region: Mulay Bu c azza. He is said to have been the 
disciple of the patron saint of Azammur Abu Shu- 
c ayb Ayyub b. Said al-Sinhadji (in the vernacular 
Mulay Bush c ib), and himself to have had as pupil 
the famous Abu Madyan [q.v.] al-Ghawth. He died 
of plague on 1 Shawwal 572/2 April 1177 in his- 
hermitage at Taghya, where he led an ascetic life, 
among adepts of his sufl doctrine. His funerary 
zdwiya is the object of an annual pilgrimage 
(mawsim): it was built and decorated at the end of 
the 17th century by the order of the 'Alawi sultan 
of Morocco, Mawlay Isma'il. 

Apart from a long notice on him by al-Tadili in 
his al-Tashawwuf ild Ridjdl al-Tasawwuf, Abu 
Ya c azza was the subject of a monograph, entitled 
al-Mu c zd fi Mandkib AH Ya'zd, by a Moroccan 
sufl author, Ahmad b. Abi '1-Kasim al-Sawma c i, 
who died in 1013/1604. See also E. Levi-Provencal, 
Fragments historiques sur les Berberes au Moyen Age, 
Rabat 1934, 77. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Kadi, Qiadhwat al- 

Iktibds, Fas 1309, 354J Muh al- c ArabI al-Fasi, 

Mir'dt al-Mahdsin, Fas 1324, 199; YusI, Muha- 

dardt, Fas 1317, 117; Kattani, Salwat al-Anfds, 

Fas 1316, i, 172-175; Leo Africanus, Description 

de VAfrique (Schefer), ii, 30; L. Massignon, Le 

Maroc dans les premieres annies du XVI* siicle, 

Algiers 1906, 37; E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Chorfa, 

239-40. (E. Levi-Provencal) 

ABC YA'&CB al-KJJURAYMI, Ishak b. 

Hassan b. KuhI, Arab poet, died probably 

under the caliphate of al-Ma'mun, about 206/821. 

The scion of a noble family of Sogdiana, which he 

sometimes mentions with 'pride (Yakut, v, 363), 

al-Khuraymi (the form al-Khuzaymi is erroneous) 

derived his nisba from his being a mawld, not directly 

of Khuraym al-Na c im, as most of his biographers 



ABO YA'KOB al-KHURAYMI — ABO YA'KOB YOSUF 



have it, but of his descendants, viz. Khuraym b. 
'Amir and his son 'Uthman (see Ibn 'Asakir, Ta'rikh, 
ii, 434-7; v, 126-8). He seems to have lived in Meso- 
potamia, Syria, al-Basra, where he frequented 
dissolute poets such as Hammad 'Adjrad, MutI' b. 
Iyas etc. (Aghdni 1 , v, 170, xiii, 82), and finally in 
Baghdad. In Baghdad he was connected with the 
entourage of al-Rashld (Aghdni 1 , xii, 21-2) and 
especially with the Barmakids Yahya (al-Khatlb, 
Ta'rikh Baghdad, vi, 326), al-Fadl (al-Djahshiyari, 
<U-Wuzard>, isor) and Dja'far {Aghdni 1 , xii, 21-2), 
as well as with their secretaries al-Hasan b. Bahbah 
al-Balkhl and Muhammad b. Mansur b. Ziyad (Ibn 
al-Djarrah, 103; al-Diahshiyari. n8r, i7or). During 
the conflict between al-Amin and al-Ma'mun, he took 
the part of the former (al-Mas'udl, Murudj, vi, 462-3) 
and composed during the siege of Baghdad a long 
%asida (al-Tabarl, iii, 873-80) in which he described 
the destruction of the city and besought al-Ma'mun 
to put an end to the fratricidal war. 

The work of al-Khurayml, known even in the 
Maghrib (cf. al-Husri, Zahr (Z. Mubarak), iv, 201; 
Ibn Sharaf, Intikdd (Pellat), Algiers 1953, index) 
was no doubt more important than would appear 
from the kasida quoted ' above and from verses 
scattered in books of history and adab. Though he 
composed some satires, some of which were sung by 
'Allawayh (Ibn al-Djarrah, 105; Aghdni, x, 120-35), 
al-Khuravml is in the foremost place an author of 
panegyrics (the choice of their object being dictated 
by self-interest) and of dirges on persons with whom 
he was connected, especially Muhammad b. Mansur 
b. Ziyad and the members of Khuraym's family (Ibn 
'Asakir, loc. cit.). At the end of his life, the loss of 
his second eye (he had been one-eyed before and is 
sometimes called al-A c war) inspired him to moving 
verses (al-Djahiz, Hayawdn 3 , iii, 113, vii, 131-2; 
Aghdni, xv, 109; al-Safadl, Nakt al-Himydn, 71). 

The critics admit al-Khuraymi's talent and state 
that his poetry was especially enjoyed by the 
secretaries of the bureaux — no doubt because of 
his non-Arab origin; though he does not seem to 
have played a role among the Shu'ubls. 

Bibliography: In addition to reff. in the 
article: Djahij, Sayan (Sandubl),i, 105 and passim; 
idem, Bukhala? (Hadjiri), 328 f.; Ibn Kutayba, 
ShPr. 542-6; idem, c Uyun, i, 229, ii, 129; Ibn 
al-Djarrah, al-Waralfa, Cairo 1953, index; Ibn 
al-Mu'tazz, Tabakdt, 138-9; Ibn c Abd Rabbih, 
< Ikd, Cairo 1940, viii, 146; Fihrist, index; 'Askari, 
Diwdn al-Ma'dni, i, 74, 279, ii, 175, 197; idem, 
Sind'atayn, 345 ; Tha'alibi, Khdss al-Khdss, Tunis 
1293. 97; Rifa% c Asr al-Ma'mun, iii, 286-94; A. 
Amln, puha 'l-Isldm, i, 64-5 ; O. Rescher, Abriss, 
ii, 37-8; Brockelmann, I, 111-2. (Ch. Pellat) 

ABC YA'KCB IStfAK B. AjjCMAD AL-SIDJZl, 

Isma'Ili da'I and one of the sect's most important 
authors. According to Rashid al-DIn (Didmi c al- 
Tawdrikh, MS Brit. Mus., Add. 7628, fol. 277r), 
"after that time" — viz. the execution of al-Nasafl 
in Bukhara, 331/942 — "Ishak-i Sidjzi, nicknamed 
Khavshafudi. fell into the hands of the amir Khalaf 
b. Ishak (sic MS, read Ahmad) Sidjzi". (Khalaf b. 
Ahmad, of the "second" Saffarid dynasty, ruled 
349-99.) This probably implies that Abu Ya'kub 
was killed by the amir Khalaf. (According to W. 
Ivanow, Studies in Early Persian Ismailism, 119, 
note i, his book al-Iftikh&r must be dated, by 
internal evidence — not, however, specified — after 
360/971.) At any rate, the usual statement that 
Ya'kub was executed in 331 in Bukhara together 
with al-Nasafi, turns out to " 



nickname Khavshafudi for Abu Ya'kub — read 
conjecturally, as there are no points in the MSS; it 
is probably the word for 'cotton-seed', cf. Dozy, i, 
417 — occurs also in al-Busti's refutation of Isma'Ilism, 
MS Ambrosiana, coll. Griffini 41, to be analysed by 
the present writer.) 

Of the many surviving books of Abu Ya'kub, the 
principal one of which seems to be al-Iftikhar, only 
one, the Kashf al-Mahdiub, has been published (by 
H. Corbin, Teheran 1949), not in the Arabic original, 
which is lost, but according to a Persian version. A 
close study of Abu Ya'kub's works is absolutely 
necessary, as he is our main authority for the 
doctrines of the philosophical wing of Isma'Ilism 
in the 4th/ioth century. It seems that the system 
expounded by Abu Ya'kub was on the whole based 
on that of al-Nasafi [q.v.], who seems to have been 
the one who introduced Neoplatonic philosophy into 
Isma'Ilism about 300 A.H. (Abu Ya'kub composed 
a book, unfortunately lost, in defence of al-Nasafi's 
main work, al-Mahsul, against the attacks of Abu 
Hatim al-RazI.) However, while the system of al- 
Nasafi can only be reconstructed, from sparse 
quotations, in its main lines, the preserved books 
of Abu Ya'kub allow us to study the system, in 
the form exposed by him, in all desirable detail. 
Bibliography: Baghdad!, Fark, 267; Birunl, 
Hind, 32 ; W. Ivanow, A Guide to Ismaili Literature, 
33-5; idem, Studies in Early Persian Ismailism, 
index.— It is doubtful if Abu Ya'kub al-Sidjzi is 
the same person as Abu Ya'kub, ddH of Rayy 
about the middle of the 4th/ioth century, men- 
tioned in Fihrist, 189, 190. (S. M. Stern) 
ABC YA'KCB YCSUF b. 'Abd al-Mu'min, 
second ruler of the Mu'minid [q.v.] (Almohad) 
dynasty, reigned 558-80/1163-84. He succeeded to 
the throne by a coup d'etat, in spite of the official 
proclamation of his elder brother Muhammad as 
crown-prince in 549/1154. It is true that Muhammad 
ruled for about two months, a fact that has been 
passed over in silence by almost all the historians 
of the dynasty; but the powerful vizier 'Umar b. 
'Abd al-Mu 3 min, alleging that his father, four days 
before his death, had ordered the name of the heir- 
presumptive to be suppressed in the khufba, and that 
he had declared to himself ('Umar) on his death-bed 
that he wished Yusuf to succeed him, summoned 
Yusuf in all haste from Seville, where he had resided 
as governor for the last six years, and had him 
proclaimed by the shaykhs and the army, in Ribat 
al-Fath (Rabat), as the new caliph. 

The accession of Yusuf was by no means received 
with unanimous approval. His brother 'All, governor 
of Fez, who went to bury his father in Tinmallal, 
protested against this arbitrary nomination, but 
died mysteriously on his return from the Atlas. Two 
other brothers, 'Abd Allah, governor of Bidjaya, 
who died shortly afterwards by poison, and 'Uthman, 
governor of Cordova, also refused to recognize him. 
Thus Yusuf did not dare to take the caliphal title of 
amir al-mu'minin, but confined himself for five 
years to the title of amir al-muslimin. 

Establishing himself in Marrakush, after dismis- 
sing the enormous army concentrated by his father 
in Rabat, Yusuf had to suppress a revolt that broke 
out among the Ghumara, between Ceuta and 
AJcazarquivir, while the sayyids 'Umar and 'Uthman 
were leading a vigorous campaign in al-Andalus 
against Ibn Mardanish [q.v.] and his Christian 
mercenaries. Invading his territory, they defeated 
his army in 560/1165, ten miles outside Murcia. The 



ABO YA'KCtB YOSUF 



city resisted, however, and preserved its indepen- 
dence for another five years. 

When the hostile sayyids had submitted or had 
been eliminated, Ibn Mardanlsh had been defeated 
and the revolt of the Ghumara had been suppressed, 
Yusuf assumed in 563/1168 the caliphal title. Yet 
at the very moment that his proclamation was 
celebrated, the warlike little state of Portugal 
caused him grave concern. Giraldo sem Pavor, the 
famous captain of Afonso Henriques, captured the 
towns of Evora, Tnijillo, Caceres, Montanchez, 
Serpa and Juromenha, and laid siege, together with 
his king, to Badajoz, which could be saved only 
by the the intervention of Ferdinand II of Leon, 
the ally of the Almohads. 

The problem of Ibn Mardanlsh in the Levante 
resolved itself almost spontaneously. Ibn Hamushku, 
lieutenant and father-in-law of Ibn Mardanlsh, 
quarrelled with him and submitted to the Almohads. 
Yusuf then mobilized all his forces and crossed the 
Straits. Murcia was regularly besieged, Yusuf con- 
ducting the operations from his headquarters in 
Cordova. The city could not be taken, but the troops 
of Ibn Mardanlsh deserted him one after the other 
and his cruelty lost him his last partisans. He died 
of chagrin, seeing the whole of his work undone 
(567/1172). His eldest son Hilal and all his brothers 
soon joined the doctrine of the tawfiid and submitted 
to Yusuf, who received them well and admitted 
them into his council. 

When the latter came to Seville, they suggested 
to Yusuf to lay siege to Huete (Wabdha), which 
had been recently repopulated by Christians and 
had become a menace to Cuenca and the frontier 
of the Levante. Yusuf left Seville, took Vilches and 
Alcaraz, and marching through the plain of Albacete, 
reached Huete in July. The siege at once revealed the 
caliph's lack of energy and the hesitant and un- 
warlike spirit of his troops, who failed completely. 
It seemed that the besieged, who withstood courage- 
ously the Almohad attacks, would have to surrender 
owing to lack of water, but violent summer storms 
filled their cisterns and threw the enemy's camp 
into disorder. Owing to lack of food and the 
approach of the Castilian army, the Almohads lifted 
the siege and returned, via Cuenca, Jativa, Elche and 
Orihuela, to Murcia; there the army was disbanded. 

Yusuf rested in Seville during the winter of 568/ 
1 172-3. But the count Jimeno "the hunchback" 
{al-abdab), who, with the men of Avila, had caused 
severe damage in the valley of the Guadalquivir, 
penetrated, in Shaman 568/April 1173, into the 
region of Ecija and took enormous booty. The 
troops that had come back from Huete were collected 
again, and the indefatigable Abu Hafs c Umar IntI 
[q.v.], together with the two brothers of the caliph, 
Yahya and Isma'il, overtook the count near Caracuel, 
defeated and killed him. Subsequently, Badajoz was 
furnished with supplies and the whole left bank of 
the Tagus ravaged, from Talavera to Toledo; in 
consequence, Afonso Henriques, on behalf of Portugal, 
and the count Nuflo de Lara, on behalf of Castile, 
were compelled to ask for and to sign an armistice 
for five years. The winter of 569/1 173-4 was spent 
in resettling and fortifying Beja, in the Algarve, which 
had been mined and evacuated two years before. 

Later, Yusuf celebrated with splendour his 
marriage with a daughter of Ibn Mardanlsh, and 
•during the whole year of 570/1175 did not leave 
Seville. This second stay of Yusuf in al-Andalus had 
already lasted almost five years when he suddenly 
left for Marrakush. 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



At this time a severe epidemic was raging over the 
whole empire. Yusuf lost several of his brothers and 
he himself remained ill for a long time while Alfonso 
VIII was besieging Cuenca and, after nine months, 
in October 1177, forced this famous fortress to 
surrender. The garrisons of Cordova and Seville 
tried to relieve it by a diversionary move towards 
Talavera and Toleda, but with no practical results. 

After the loss of Cuenca, Yusuf, who had recovered 
his health, consulted with his brothers, the governors 
of Cordova and Seville, on ways and means to cut 
short the ever-increasing agressiveness of the 
Christians. The armistice with Portugal had expired 
and the crown-prince, Sancho, earned his spurs by 
invading the valley of the lower Guadalquivir, 
attacking Triana, then Niebla and the whole of the 
Algarve. Beja had again to be evacuated. 

Yusuf found no other way to withstand these 
attacks but to transport to Morocco and al-Andalus 
the Arabs of Ifrlkiya, but seeing that they were 
becoming more and more turbulent, under the 
leadership of C AU, a descendant of the Banu '1-Rand, 
lords of IJafsa [q.v.] (Gafsa), who had revolted there, 
he took the field to stifle that dangerous centre of 
dissidence and to force the Arabs to join the holy 
war in Spain. He left Marrakush for Ifrlkiya, and 
after a siege of three months took Kafsa, in the 
winter of 576/1180-1. C A1I, surnamed al-Tawil, 
capitulated and the Riyah pretended to submit. 
Only a small section of them, however, followed 
Yusuf; the greater part remained in Ifrikiya, ready 
to support any attempt at revolt against the Almoh- 
ads, and to lend assistance to Karakush [q.v.] and 
the Banu Ghaniva [q.v.]. 

In the meantime, in the Iberian peninsula, an 
advance of Alfonso VIII towards Ecija and the 
taking of Santafila, near Lora del Rio, coincided 
with a Portuguese invasion towards San Lucar la 
Mayor, Aznalfarche and Niebla, and with the 
revolt in the Anti-Atlas of the Banu Wawazgit, who 
occupied the silver mine of Zadjundar. The caliph 
had to go in person to subdue the rebels, while Ibn 
Wanudin led a razzia against Talavera. Finally 
Yusuf, after undertaking the extension of Marrakush 
to the southward and enlarging the walls during the 
summer of 579/1183 — an enterprise continued later 
by his son, Ya'kub, by the building of the imperial 
quarter of al-§aliha — decided, in spite of the dis- 
couraging example of Huete, to engage all his forces 
in a campaign designed to put a brake to the 
audacity of the Portuguese. 

The preparations for the expedition and the 
concentration of the troops were very ample, but 
also took a long time. In May, Castille and Leon 
had concluded the peace of Fresno-Lavandera and 
engaged themselves to fight together against the 
Muslims — Ferdinand on his part renouncing his old 
alliance with the Almohads. Three months later, 
Yusuf started collecting his troops. On 16 Rabi c I 
580/27 June 1 184, he appeared before Santarem 
(Shantarln). The Portuguese had had about ten 
months to prepare the defence of the fortress, 
almost impregnable without a long siege. It cost 
the Almohads much trouble to take the suburb near 
the river, and at the end of a week's useless efforts 
and tenacious resistance, the approach of Ferdinand 
II with his Leonese spread terror in the Almohad 
army which, in panic, re-crossed the river. The 
caliph was mortally wounded when raising camp 
and died near Evora, on the road to Seville, on 
18 Rabi' II 580/29 July 1184. 

Abu Ya'kub Yusuf was considered as the most 



ABO YA'KOB YOSUF — ABO YAZlD al-BISTAMI 



gifted of the Almohad caliphs. The son of a MasmudI 
woman — the daughter of the kadi Ibn 'Imran — and 
bom in the heart of the Atlas, in Tinmallal, he was 
instructed in Marrakush in the doctrine of the 
tawhii. Nevertheless, in spite of his Maghribi birth 
and education, his long stay in Seville, where he 
arrived at the age of seventeen years, made of him 
an Andalusian litterateur as refined as one of the • 
muliik al-fawd'if. Surrounded by famous philos- 
ophers, physicians and poets, he perfected his 
literary knowledge and developed his artistic taste. 
Seduced by the charm of Seville, he gave it back 
the title of capital of al-Andalus, which had been 
taken away by his father at the end of his reign, 
and endowed it with numerous monuments and 
public works. He took pleasure in taking part 
in the scientific meetings adorned by men like Ibn 
Tufayl, Ibn Rushd and Ibn Zuhr, who, encouraged 
by him, produced their most celebrated works. 

At the same time, thanks to the terror with which 
his father had imposed his authority, this friend of 
scholarship was able to enjoy an absolute power 
in the Maghrib. Ifrikiya was still under his control 
and the dangerous enclave of Ibn Mardanlsh in 
Murcia disappeared. Yet in spite of appearances, the 
ceaseless war against the Christians in al-Andalus 
made manifest his incapacity as a military leader, 
the low morale of his enormous armies and the 
inefficiency of his commissariat. The small Christian 
states of the Peninsula, though divided by internal 
quarrels, could, in spite of their lack of men and 
resources, inflict on him the severest reverses. His 
urgent desire to pursue the djihdd did not suffice to 
check the Christians' drive, and led to his death 
before the Portuguese castle of Santarem. 

Bibliography: Ibn 'Idhari, al-Baydn al- 
Mughrib, iv, transl. Huici, Tetuan 1953, 1-84; 
Marrakushl, Mu'-dj.ib (Dozy), 169 if. ; Ibn Khaldun, 
'Ibar, i, 318 ff.; Ibn AM Zar', Rawd al-Ifirfds, 
Fez, 130 ff.; al-Hulal al-Mawshiyya (Allouche), 
131, transl. Huici, 188; R. Dozy, Recherches 3 , i, 
167, ii, 443-80; Primera Crdnica General (R. 
Menendez Pidal), i, 675; E. Levi- Provencal, 
Documents inidits d'histoire almohade, 126-214; 
da Silva Tarouca, Crdnicas dos sete printeiros rets 
de Portugal, i, 99 ft. (A. Huici Miranda) 

ABU l-YA&ZAN MUHAMMAD B. al-AFLAU 

[see RUSTAMIDES]. 

ABO YA%A b. al-FARRA' [see ibn al-farra>]. 

ABO YAZlD (BayazId) Tayfur b . <Isa b. 
SurOshan al-BISTAmI, one of the most 
celebrated Islamic mystics. With the ex- 
ception of short periods, during which he was obliged 






his 1 



> the 



hostility of orthodox theologians, he spent his life 
in Bistam in the province of Rumis. There he died 
in 261/874 or 264/877-8. The Ilkhanid Uldjaytu Mu- 
hammad Khudabanda is reputed to have had a 
dome erected over his grave in the year 713/1313- He 
wrote nothing, but some five hundred of his sayings 
have been handed down. In part they are extremely 
daring and imply a state of mind in which the 
mystic has an experience of himself as of one merged 
with the deity and turned into God ( l ayn al-dj.am ( ). 
They were collected and handed down by his circle 
and people who visited him, in the first place by 
his disciple and attendant Abu Musa (I) 'Isa b. 
Adam, son of his elder brother Adam. From him 
the celebrated sufi of Baghdad, al-Djunayd, received 
sayings of this nature in Persian and translated 
them into Arabic {Nur, 108, 109, 122). The chief 
traditionist from Abu Musa is his son Musa b. 



'Isa, known as '"Ammi", from whom the tradition 
was handed down by "the lesser TayfQr" b. 'Isa, 
whose place in the family genealogy is not quite 
clear, and by other traditionists. Among the visitors 
who recorded sayings of Abu Yazid must be named 
in the first place Abu Musa (II) al-Dablli, of Dabll 
in Armenia {Nur, 55) and Abu Ishak Ibrahim al- 
Harawl, known as Istanba (Satanba), a pupil of 
Ibrahim b. Adham (Iftlya, x, 43-4) and the cele- 
brated Sufi Ahmad b. Khidroya who visited him on 
the pilgrimage. Abu Yazid was a friend of Dhu '1- 
Nun al-Misri. Djunayd wrote a commentary on his 
utterances, portions of which are preserved in al- 
Luma* of al-Sarradj. The most circumstantial source 
on Abu Yazid's life and sayings is the Kitdb al-Nur 
ft Kalimdt Abi Yazid Jay fur, by Abu '1-Fadl Muh. b. 
'All b. Ahmad b. al-Husayn b. Sahl al-Sahlagl al- 
Bistaml, born 389/998-9, died 476/984 (not quite 
satisfactory edition by 'Abd al-Rahman Badawi.SAa- 
(ahdt al-Sufiyya, i, Cairo 1949). Amongst al-Sahlagl's 
authorities the most important are: Abu 'Abd Allah 
Muh. b. 'Abd Allah al-ShlrazI Ibn Baboya, the cele- 
brated biographer of al-Halladj, died 442/1050, whom 
al-Sahlagi met in the year 419 or 416 {Nur, 138) and 
Shaykh al- Masha'ikh Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad b. 
'All al-Dastani (Hudjwlri, Kashf al-Mahd±ub, ch. xii). 
The al-Kasd ild Allah of the pseudo- Djunayd contains 
a legendary embellishment of Abu Yazid's "Journey 
to Heaven" (R. A. Nicholson, An early Arabic 
version of the MiHdj of Abu Yazid al-Bistdmi, in 
Islamica, 1926, 402-15). 

Abu Yazid's teacher in sufism was a mystic who 
was ignorant of Arabic, by name Abu 'AH al-Sindi, 
whom he had to teach the Kur'an verses necessary 
for prayer, but who in return introduced him to the 
the Unio Mystica. It is not impossible that 
Indian influences may have affected Abu Yazid 
through him. Abu Yazid was, in contrast ior 
instance with the later sufis Abu Ishak al-Kazarunl 
and Abu Sa'Id b. Abi '1-Khayr, a wholly introvert 
sufi. He did not exercise, as they did, a social activity 
{khidmat al-fukard'), yet was ready to save humanity, 
by vicarious suffering, from hell. He even finds 
words to criticize the infernal punishment meted 
out to the damned, who are, after all, but a handful 
of dust. The "numinous" sense is extremely highly 
developed in him, together with a sense of horror 
and awe before the Deity, in whose presence he 
always felt himself an unbeliever, just about to lay 
aside the girdle of the magians {zunndr). His pas- 
sionate aspiration is aimed at absolutely freeing 
himself through systematic work upon himself ("I 
was the smith of my own self": hadddd nafui), of 
all obstacles separating him from God (hudiub), with 
the object of "attaining to Him". He describes this 
process in extremely interesting autobiographical 
sayings with partly grandiose images. The "world" 
(dunyd), "flight from the world" (zuhd), "worship 
of God" (Hbdddt), miracles (kardmdt), dhikr, even the 
mystic stages (makdmdt) are for him no more than 
so many barriers holding him from God. When he 
has finally shed his "I" in fand* "as snakes their 
skin" and reached the desired stage, his changed 
self-consciousness is expressed in those famous 
hybrid utterances (shatahdt) which so scandalized 
and shocked his contemporaries: "SubhdnV. Ma 
a<-zama sha'ni" — "Glory be to me! How great is 
My majesty!" ; "Thy obedience to me is greater than 
my obedience to Thee"; "I am the throne and the 
footstool"; "I am the Well-preserved Tablet"; "I 



1 Ka'b 



Dund n 



and S( 



meditation he made flights into the supersensible 



ABO YAZID ai-BISTAMI — ABO YAZlD Ai-NUKKARl 



163 



world; these earned him the censure that he claimed 
to have experienced a mi'rddi in the same way as 
the Prophet. He was in the course of them decorated 
by God with His Singleness (wahddniyya) and 
clothed with His "I-ness" (ananiyya), but shrank 
from showing himself in that state to men; or 
flew with the wings of everlastingness (daymumiyya) 
through the air of "no-quality" (la-kayfiyya) to the 
ground of eternity (azaliyya) and saw the tree of 
"one-ness" (ahadiyya), to realise that "all that was 
illusion" or that it "was himself" who was all that, 
etc. In such utterances he appears to have reached 
the ultimate problem of all mysticism. A later legend 
makes him solve with ease conundrums put to him 
in a Christian monastery, thus effecting the wholesale 
conversion of the monastery to Islam. 

Bibliography: Sarradj, Luma 1 , ed. Nicholson, 
380-93 and indexes; SulamI, Jabakdt al-Sufiyya, 
Cairo 1953, 67-74; Ansari Harawl, Jabakdt 
al-Sufiyya, MS Nafidh Pasha 425, 38a-4ib; 
Djaml, Nafahdt al-Uns, ed. Nassau Lees, 62 ff.; 
Abu Nu'aym, Hilyat al-Awliyd 3 , x, 33-42 ; Kushayrl, 
Risdla, Cairo 1318, 16-7; Hudjwlri, Kashf al- 
Mahdjub, ch. xi, no. 12; 'Abd al-Rahman Badawi, 
Skafahat al-Sufiyya, i, Abu Yazid al-Bis(dmi, Cairo 
1949 — contains the Kitdb al-Nur of Sahlagi, the 
relevant excerpts from Sibt b. al-DiawzI's Mir'dt 
al-Zaman, Nafahdt al-Uns, the Jabakdt of al- 
Sulaml and the legendary story about the monks. 
(This last is treated by A. J. Arberry, A Bisfdmi 
legend, JRAS 1938, 89-91. It also exists in Turkish, 
MS Eyyub Mihrshah Sultan, 202 and 443; Fatih 
5334; in Arabic, Fatih 5381.) ROzbihan Bakli, 
Sharh al-Sha(hiyydt, MS Shehid 'AH Pasha 1342, 
i4b-26b; Ibn al-Djawzi, Talbis Iblis, 3648.; 
'Attar, Tadhkirat al-Awliyd', ed. Nicholson, 
134 ff.; Ibn Khallikan, Bulak 1275, i, 339/ 
Nur Allah Shushtari, Madidlis al-Mu'minin, 
m. 6; Kh'ansari, Rawdat al-Qianndt, 338-41; 
R. A. Nicholson, in JRAS, 1906, 325 ff.; L. 
Massignon, Essai . . . mystique musulmane, Paris 
1922, 243-56. Picture of his tomb in SanI' 
al-Dawla Mufo. Hasan Khan, Mafia' al-Shams, 
Teheran 1301, i, 69-70; E. Diez, Die Kunst der 
islamischen V&lker, Berlin 1917, 69. 

(H. Ritter) 
ABC YAZlD Makhlad b. Kaydad al-NUK- 
KARl, Kharidjite leader (belonging to the 
Ibadi al-Nukkar [q.v.]), who by his revolt shook the 
Fatimid realm in North Africa to its foundations. 
His father, a Zanata Berber merchant from Takyus 
(or Tuzar) in the district of Kastiliya, bought in 
Tadmakat a slave girl called Sabika, who bore him 
Abu Yazid about 270/883 (apparently in the Sudan). 
Abu Yazid studied the Ibadi madhhab and became 
a schoolmaster in Tahart. At the time of the victory 
of Abu 'Abd Allah al-Shi'i he moved to Takyus 
and started, in 316/928, his anti-government pro- 
paganda. After a first arrest, when he was, however, 
immediately released, he went to the AwrSs mountain 
among the Hawwara clan of the Banii Kamlan, 
among whom he gained a large following (they 
remained to the end his staunchest supporters) ; the 
Nukkari imam Abu 'Ammar al-A'ma ceded to him 
the leadership. Abu Yazid was arrested in Tuzar, 
but Abu 'Ammar broke into the prison and liberated 
him. He spent a year in the district of Sumata, after 
which he returned to the Awras. 

In 332/943 he started his revolt. He took Tabissa 
and Marmadjanna (where he received as a present 
his favourite riding donkey, whence his surname 
sdhib al-himdr), al-Urbus (Laribus; 15 Dhu '1-Hidjdja 



332), Badja (13 Muharram 333), and entered al- 
Kayrawan on 23 Safar, executing the Fatimid 
commander Khalll b. Ishak and the kddi of the 
city. The Sunnls of al-Kayrawan were at first not 
unsympathetic to one who, though a heretic himself, 
liberated them from Fatimid rule (for the attitude 
of the MalikI fukahd> cf. Abu Bakr al-Malikl, Riyd4 
al-Nufus, analyzed by H. R. Idris, in REI, 1936, 
80-7; Abu 'l- < Arab, ed. Ben Cheneb (Classes des 
Savants de I'Ifriqiya), introd., viii f., xvi); but the 
exactions of the Berbers alienated them more and 
more. On the other hand the stricter sectarians 
became not a little dissatisfied when they saw their 
leader abandon his former simple habits, wear 
silken garments and mount a thoroughbred horse. 
Leaving his son Fadl and Abu 'Ammar in al 
Kayrawan, Abu Yazid engaged and defeated, on 

12 RabI' I, the Fatimid general Maysur (whom ha 
killed) and approached al-Mahdiyya. After an attempt 
to take the city by storm (3 Djumada II), during 
which he reached the musalld (according to a cele- 
brated Fatimid legend, it had been foretold by al- 
Mahdi that a future, very dangerous, rebel would 
reach that musalld, but would not get farther), he 
laid siege to it. After repeated attempts throughout 
Djumada II, Radjab and Shawwal to storm the city, 
and after counterattacks by the besieged in Dhu '1- 
Ka'da 333 and Safar 334, Abu Yazid withdrew to 
al-Kayrawan. He made repentance for his luxury 
and returned to his former simple life; and so the 
Berbers again flocked to his standard. Heavy 
fighting went on round Tunis (which changed hands 
several times) and Badja; in Rabl c II Ayyub, a son 
of Abu Yazid, was seriously defeated by the Fatimid 
general al- Hasan b. 'All but soon took his revenge. 
Al- Hasan retired to the Kutama country, and 
established himself firmly (taking TIdjis and Baghaya) 
in the rear of Abu Yazid. On 6 Djumada II Abu 
Yazid laid siege to Susa. Al-Ka'im died on 13 
Shawwal, and a small cavalry detachment sent out 
from al-Mahdiyya by his successor, al-Mansur, 
succeeded in routing Abu Yazid before Siisa (21 
Shawwal), so that he hastily returned to al-Kayrawan. 
In the meantime, the populace of al- Kayrawan had 
risen against Abu 'Ammar and now excluded Abfl 
Yazid from the city. Al-Mansur entered al-Kayrawan 
on 23 Shawwal; after several futile attacks on the 
Fatimid army entrenched in the city (Dhu '1-Ka'da 
334, Muharram 335) and after a heavy battle on 

13 Muharram, Abu Yazid withdrew towards the 
west. Al- Hasan b. 'All moved against some of the 
remaining garrisons of Abu Yazid (such as that in 
Badja) and joined the army of al-Mansur. The fleet 
of the Umayyad admiral Ibn Rumahis, which was 
on its way to Ifrikiya, turned back on the news of 
Abu Yazld's rout. (For the embassies of Abu Yazid 
to 'Abd al-Rahman III, cf. also Ibn 'Idhari, ii, 
228 ff.; E. Levi- Pro ven?al, Hist. Esp. mus., ii, 103-4.) 

Abu Yazid fled westwards, al-Mansur close on his 
heels. Al-Mansur left al-Kayrawan on 26 RabI' I, 
reached (via Sablba and Marmadjanna) Baghaya, 
and from there pursued Abu Yazid to Billizma, 
Tubna and Biskra (which he reached on 5 Djumada I). 
From there he returned to Tubna, defeated Abil 
Yazid near Makkara (12 Djumada I) and entered 
al-MasIla. Abu Yazid fled to Djabal Salat; when 
al-Mansur searching for him in vain in that wild 
country, went westwards to the Sinhadja country, 
Abu Yazid, in the rear of al-Mansur, besieged al- 
Masila. Al-Mansur returned and entered al-MasIla 
on 5 Radjab, on which Abu Yazid took refuge in 
the mountains of 'Akar and Kiyana. Leaving al- 



I6 4 



ABO YAZlD al-NUKKARI — ABO YOSUF 



MasIIa on 10 Sha'ban, al-Mansur defeated Abu 
Yazld in a heavy battle; in Ramadan, he again 
defeated Abu Yazld, who retired to the fortress of 
Kiyana (overlooking what was later to be Kal'at 
BanI Hammad). On 2 Shawwal al-Mansur besieged 
the fortress, which was entered on 22 Muharram 
336; at night, the last remaining warriors carried 
Abu Yazid and Abu 'Arnmar from the citadel. Abu 
■Ammiir was killed, while Abu Yazid had a fall and 
was captured. The curious conversation that passed 
between al-Mansur and his captive has been recorded. 
Abu Yazid died of his wounds in 27 Muharram/ 
19 August 947. His body, stuffed with straw, was 
exposed to the insults of the mob in al-Mahdiyya. 
Fadl, the son of Abu Yazld, gave some further 
trouble in the Awras and the district of Kafsa, till 
he was defeated and killed in Dhu '1-Ka c da 336. 
Other sons of Abu Yazid found a shelter at the 
court of the Umayyads in Cordova. 

Bibliography: The main source is a con- 
temporary Fatimid chronicle of which the sub- 
stance has been preserved in Idris 'Imad al-DIn, 
'Uyun al-Akhbdr, second half of vol. v. The same 
chronicle was used by Ibn al-Rakik in his lost 
history of Ifrlkiya. The whole account of Ibn 
Hammadii (Vanderheyden), 18 ff., is no doubt 
taken from Ibn al-Rakik. Ibn Shaddad, in his 
lost history of al-Kayrawan, also no doubt copied 
Ibn al-Rakik, while Ibn al-Athir's account, 
315 ff., still easily recognizable as an abstract of 
the Fatimid chronicle, evidently goes back to Ibn 
Shaddad. The passages in Tidjani, Rihla, Tunis 
1927, 17, 18-9, 20-1, 233-5 (transl. in J A, 1852, 
96 ff., 101 ff., 106 ff., 1953, 363 «■) are taken 
from Ibn al-Rakik.— Further references: Abu 
Zakariyya* (Chronique d'Abou Zakaria, transl. 
Masqueray), Algiers 1879, 226 ff.; Ibn 'Idhari, 
al-Baydn al-Mughrib (Colin and Levi-Provencal), 
i, 316 (quotes Ibn Hammadii — 6th/i2th century, 
not identical with the Ibn Hammadii quoted 
above — Ibn Sa c dun and Ibn al-Rakik); MakrizI, 
Itti'dz (Bunz), while mainly deriving from Ibn 
al-Aflilr, has some additional notes (55. 56-7).— Cf. 
also G. Marcais, La Berberie et I'Orient, 147-53; 
R. Le Tourneau, La rivolU d'Abi-Yazid, Cahiers 
de Tunisie, 1953. 103-125. (S. M. Stern) 

ABC YCSUF Ya c kub b. Ibrahim al-AnsarI 
al-KufI, a prominent religious lawyer, on< 
the founders of the Hanafi [q.v.~\ school of law. Abu 
YQsuf was of pure Arab extraction; his ancesf 
Sa'd b. Habta, was a youth in Medina in the ti 
of the Prophet. (For details of his genealogy, 
al-Khatlb al-Baghdadi, xiv, 243) His date of birth, 
reckoned backwards from the date of his death, 
rather arbitrarily given as 113. According to a 
anecdote, the several versions of which are mutually 
contradictory, he was a poor boy, was helped by 
his teacher Abu Hanifa [q.v.] who recognized his 
worth, and achieved success beyond every expecta- 
tion. All we know is that he studied religious law 
and traditions in Kiifa and in Medina, under Abu 
Hanifa, Malik b. Anas, al-Layth b. Sa c d and others 
(a reasonably complete and authentic list of h:' 
teachers is given by al-Khatlb al-Baghdadi, xiv, 242 
and lived in Kiifa until he was appointed kadi i 
Baghdad; he held this office until his death in 
182/798. He is reported to have visited Basra in 
176 and in 180. It is not certain whether he was 
appointed by al-Mahdi, al-Hadi, or Harun al-Rashid. 
According to a story which al-Tanukhl (d. 384) 
heard from his father (Nishwdr al-Muhddara, 123 
Abu Yusuf was able to assure on a point of religious 



law an officer who rewarded him generously and 
later had occasion to recommend him to the caliph 
Harun. As he succeeded in giving a satisfactory 
opinion to the caliph too, the caliph drew him 
near to his person and finally appointed him kadi. 
This version has a certain inner probability, but 
cannot for that reason alone be regarded as authentic. 
It is certain, however, that by his practical sense 
he soon became friendly with, and even made 
himself indispensable to, Harun al-Rashid. By 
exaggerating this achievement, both his friends and 
his detractors made him into the prototype of the 
unprincipled lawyer who would find an easy way 
out of any legal difficulty for his clients and for 
himself. The existence of his Kitdb al-ffiyal and 
the misunderstandings of the serious legal purpose 
underlying it, could not fail to reinforce that 
misconception. (Cf. Schacht, in Isl., 1926, 217.) 
Al-Rashid conferred upon him the title of Grand 
Cadi or kadi 'l-kuddt for the first time in Islam. This 
was then merely an honorific title given to the 
kadi of the capital, but the caliph not only consulted 
Abu Yusuf on the administration of Muhammadan 
justice, on financial policy, and on similar questions, 
but on the appointment of other kadis in the empire. 

His son Yiisuf became a kadi during the lifetime 
of his father, as his substitute for the western side 
of Baghdad; he died in 192. His most prominent 
disciple was al-Shaybani [q.v.]. 

The literary output of Abu Yusuf must have been 
considerable. The Fihrist mentions a list of titles of 
works which, with one exception, have not survived. 
The exception is the Kitdb al-Kharddi, a treatise on 
public finance, taxation, criminal justice, and 
kindred subjects, which Abu Yusuf wrote at the 
request of Harun al-Rashid (editio princeps of the 
Arabic text, Bulak 1302 ; French transl. by E. Fagnan, 
Paris 1921). Three further works which are un- 
doubtedly genuine, though they do not appear in the 
ancient bibliography of Abu Yusuf, have been 
preserved: the Kitdb al-Athdr, a collection of the 
Kufian traditions that Abu Yusuf transmitted 
(Cairo 1355), the Kitdb Ikhtildf Abi Hanifa wa-Ibn 
Abi Layld, a comparison of the opinions of the two 
authorities of Kiifa mentioned in the title (Cairo 
1357; also in al-Shafi% Kitdb al-Umm, vii, 87-150), 
and the Kitdb al-Radd c ald Siyar al-AwzdH, a 
reasoned refutation, with broad systematic develop- 
ments, of the opinions of the Syrian scholar al-Awza 1 ! 
on the law of war (Cairo, n.d.; also in al-Shafi% ibid., 
303-36). The Fihrist mentions at least two titles of the 
same comparative and polemical kind: the Kitdb 
Ikhtildf al-Amsar and the Kitdb al-Radd l ald MdUk 
b. Anas. Finally, extracts from Abu Yusuf's Kitdb 
al-Hiyal (Book of legal devices) were incorporated 
by his disciple al-Shaybani in his Kitdb al-Makharidi 
fi 'l-Ifiyal (ed. Schacht, Leipzig 1930). Several 
statements on principles and methods in his polemical 
treatises (e.g. Kitdb al-Radd l ald Siyar al-Awzd% 
par. 5) show Abu Yusuf's interest in legal theory 
(cf . Fihrist, 203 17 ), but, contrary to what is sometimes 
affirmed, he did not write special works on the 

The doctrine of Abu Yusuf, on the whole, presup- 
poses the doctrine of Abu Hanifa, whom he regarded 
as his master. The points on which Abu Yiisuf 
diverged from him are therefore more relevant for 
appreciating Abu Yusuf's own legal thought than 
those on which both are in agreement. The most 
prominent peculiarity of Abu Yusuf's doctrine is 
that he is more dependent on traditions than his 
master, because there were more authoritative 



ABO YOSUF — ABO YOSUF YA'tfOB al-MANSCR 



traditions from the Prophet in existence in his time. 
Secondly, the doctrine of Abu Yusuf often represents 
a reaction against Abu Hanlfa's somewhat unre- 
strained reasoning; but Abu YQsuf was by no means 
consistent, and in a certain number of cases he 
abandoned, by diverging from Abu Hanlfa, the 
sounder or more highly developed doctrine. Thirdly, 
we can discern in Abu Yusuf's legal thought certain 
favourite processes of reasoning, such as the reductio 
ad absurdum, and a habit of rather acrimonious 
polemics. Finally, a remarkable feature of Abu 
Yusuf's doctrine is the frequency with which he 
changed his opinions, not always for the better. 
Sometimes the contemporary sources state directly, 
and in other cases it is probable, that Abu Yusuf's 
experience as a judge caused him to change his 
opinion. Abu Yusuf represents the beginning of the 
process by which the ancient school of the 'Irakians 
of Kufa was replaced by that of the followers of 
Abu Hanifa. 

Bibliography: Fihrist, 203; al-Khatlb al- 

Baghdadi, Ta'rikh Baghdad, xiv, 242 ft.; Ibn 

Khallikan, no. 834 (trans, de Slane, iv, 272 ff.) ; 

al-Y5fi'I, Mir'dt al-Qian&n, i, 382 ff. ; Ibn Kathlr, 

al-Biddya wa 'l-Nihaya, x, 180 ff.; Ahmad Amin, 

Duha 'l-Isldm, ii, 198 ff.; Muhammad Zahid al- 

Kawthari, tfusn al-Takddi, Cairo 1948; K. Kufrali, 

in I A, iv, 59 f.; J. Schaclit, The Origins of Muham- 

madan jurisprudence, Oxford 1950; Brockelmann, 

I, 177, S I, 288. (J. Schacht) 

ABC YCSUF YA'&CB b. Yusuf b. 'Abd al- 

Mu'min al-MAN$CR, third ruler of the Mu'- 

minid [q.v.] (Almohad) dynasty reigned 580-95/ 

1184-99. On the death of Abu Ya'ljub Yusuf before 

Santarem on 18 Rabi' II 580/29 July 1184, Abu Yusuf 

Ya'kub, bringing back the body of his father, reached 

Seville, where he was proclaimed on 1 Djumada 1/10 

August. He hastened to Marrakush, took the title 

of amir al-mu'minin, issued several severe financial 

edicts and demanded from his subjects the strictest 

orthodoxy. He attempted for some time to administer 

justice himself at- public audiences and satisfied his 

passion for construction by endowing his empire 

with important buildings. Finding the Almoravid 

Dar al-Hadjar, where his father and grandfather had 

lived, too cramped, he built the suburb of al-Saliha, 

in order to take up his own residence there. But 

scarcely had he begun this enterprise when he 

received news of the landing of the Almoravid Banu 

Ghaniya [q.v.] in Bidjaya (Bougie). 

As soon as the news of the disaster of Santarem 
reached Majorca, the Banu Ghaniya, rejecting the 
Almohad offers for submission and encouraged by 
the partisans of the Hammadids in Bidjaya, fitted 
out a squadron which took Bidjaya on 19 Safar 
581/22 May 1 185. 'All b. Ghaniya, profiting from 
the disorganization caused by the capture of Bidjaya, 
also took Algiers, Miliana, Ashlr and Ral'at Ban! 
Hammad. The reaction of Abu Yusuf Ya'kub was 
instantaneous. An army, assisted by the naval 
squadron of Ceuta, recaptured in the spring of 
582/1186 Algiers, Bidjaya and the other places that 
had passed into the possession of the Almoravids, 
and marched against 'AH b. Ghaniya. then besieging 
Constantine. The Almoravid leader, abandoning the 
siege, retired hastily towards the Djarld. There he 
took Tuzar and Rafsa (Gafsa) and made an alliance 
with Karakush [q.v.] in Tripoli. Thus only Tunis 
and al-Mahdiyya remained in the hands of the 
Almohads in Ifrlkiya. Abu Yusuf Ya'kub, in these 
circumstances, decided to lead a great expedition to 
the east. He marched to Tunis and from there sent 



against the rebels and their allies a strong force, 
which was, however, defeated on 15 Rabi' II 583/ 
24 June 1 187 in the plain of 'Umra, near Rafsa. The 
Almohad caliph took his revenge for this reverse 
three months later, at al-Hamma (9 Sha'ban/14 Oct.). 
The whole south of Ifrlkiya was again subjected to 
Almohad domination and the sovereign returned to 
the west, reaching Tlemcen. Soon, however, the 
troubles broke out again in Ifrlkiya, in spite of the 
death of of Ali b. Ghaniya. which occured shortly 
afterwards. Yahya b. Ghaniya, brother of 'Ali, was 
able to sustain, with uncommon energy and ability, 
the struggle against the Almohad empire for almost 
another half-century, causing it grave anxieties. 

On the other hand, it was time for Abu Yusuf to 
turn his attention to the Iberian Peninsula, which 
he had left five years before, and to check the 
attacks of the Portuguese and the Castilians. While 
the Mu'minid ruler was making his preparations, 
Sancho I, with the help of strong Crusader con- 
tingents on their way to Palestine, laid siege to 
Silves (Shilb), on the south coast. After a siege of 
three months, the place was taken on 20 Radjab 
585/3 Sept. 1 189. At the same time, the king of 
Castille had taken the field against the Almohad 
possessions and attacked Magacela, Reina, Alcala 
de Guadaira and Calasparra. In 586/1190 Abu 
Yusuf Ya'kub took the counter-offensive. He 
imposed an armistice on the Castillians and Leonese, 
and then attacked the Portuguese fortresses of 
Torres Novas and Tomar, to the north of Santarem, 
while another army besieged Silves. Torres Novas, 
unable to resist, had to capitulate, but Tomar, 
defended by the Templars, resisted and the garrison 
made vigorous sallies. Lack of food and an epidemic 
that broke out in the Almohad camp forced the 
caliph to raise the siege of both Tomar and Silves. 

Next year, the caliph again led an expedition in 
the same direction. After storming several fortresses 
to the south of the Tagus, such as Alcacer do Sol, 
Palmella and Almada, he captured Silves by surprise 
on 25 Djumada II 587/10 July 1191. 

In 589/1193, Abu Yusuf Ya'kub, who had super- 
vised personally the works undertaken in Rabat, 
ordered the construction of the fortress of Hisn al- 
Faradj (Aznalfarache) neai Seville, on the highest 
and narrowest part of the Ajarafe (al-Sharaf); it 
was thereafter celebrated by the poets in a great 
quantity of verses. Shortly afterwards, however, 
he had to organize a new expedition against 
Christian Spain, as the armistice signed in 1190 
had expired and Alfonso VIII boldly attacked the 
region of Seville. Abu Yusuf had again to cross the 
Straits and make for Seville, whence he departed, 
without loss of time, via Cordova, for the col of 
Muradal, to meet the army of Alfonso VIII. On 
8 Sha'ban 591/18 July 1195, took place the famous 
battle of Alarcos (al-Arak [q.v.]), where the Castilians 
were severely defeated. The Almohads captured five 
strongholds situated in the region of the Campo de 
Calatrava. On his return to Seville, the sovereign 
took, to mark his victory, the honorific title of al- 
Mansur bi'llah. 

Next spring, Ya'kub al-Mansur, eager to exploit 
his victory, took Montanchez, Trujillo and Santa 
Cruz and devastated, in the valley of the Tagus, 
the region of Talavera. He pushed even as far as 
the vega of Toledo and laid waste its vineyards and 
orchards. Another expedition next year led him 
without success as far as Madrid, (which was defended 
by Diego Lopez de Haro), Alcala de Henares and 
Guadalajara. 



ABO YOSUF YA'KOB al-MANSOR — ABO ZAKARIYYA' al-DJANAWUNI 



On his return to Marrakush, worn out by illness, 
he appointed his son Muhammad as his heir and 
retired from public life, to spend his time in devo- 
tional exercises and pious works, such as the foun- 
dation of a magnificent hospital and distributions 
of alms. He obliged the Jews to wear a special sign 
to distinguish them from the Muslims. During the 
last days of his life he was assailed by remorse for 
having ordered the execution of some of his nearest 
relations. He assembled in his palace in al-Saliha the 
Almohad shaykhs and the members of his family and 
informed them of his last wishes. It seems that the 
date of his death can be fixed with certainty on 
aa Rabi c I 595/23 Jan. 1199. 

The reign of Ya'kub al-Mansur marks the apogee 
of the Almohad empire. His energetic character, the 
care and rigorousness with which he supervised the 
administration of his dominions and his personal 
courage made it possible for him to defeat all his 
enemies, in Ifrikiya as well as in Spain, to raise the 
moral of his armies and to pass into the memory of 
posterity surrounded by an aureole of legend. His 
magnificent constructions in the imperial suburb of 
al-Saliha and the mosque of the Booksellers (di&mi 1 
al-Kutubiyyln) in Marrakush with its splendid 
minaret, the Giralda of Seville and the ensemble of 
the mosque of Hassan in Rabat show that he was 
the glorious continuator of the monumental work 
undertaken by his father and grandfather. His 
riches, the splendour of his court, his desire to be 
surrounded by scholars, his success in the holy war, 
have blinded his admirers and prevented them from 
observing the germs of decomposition hidden behind 
such a brilliant facade. In al-Andalus, in spite of 
his success in Portugal and Castille, he could hardly 
contain the Christian drive, while in Ifrikiya the 
Arabo-Majorcan revolt, stifled but always reviving, 
opened in the flank of the empire the deep wound 
which soon drained it of all force and energy. When 
the vigour and the skill of Ya'kub al-Mansur were 
no longer at the helm of the Almohad ship of state, 
it was inevitable that it should run upon the rocks 
and sink, during the reign of his successors, children 
or youths, who were, for most of the time, to show 
a total lack of ability. 

Bibliography: Trente-sept Uttres officielles 
almohades, ed. E. Levi- Provencal, 27 ff.; idem, 
Un recueil de Uttres officielle almohades, index; Ibn 
'Idhari, al-Bayan al-Mughrib, iv, transl. Huici, 
Tetuan 1953, 85 ff.; Marrakushl, Mu'diib (Dozy), 
189 ff.; Ibn Khaldun, 'Jbar, i, 189 ff.; Ibn Abi 
Zar«, Rawd al-!fir(ds, Fez, 137; Ibn al-Athlr, xii, 
74, 75 ; Ibn Khallikan, no. 800; Ibn l Abd al-Mun c im 
al-Himyari, al-Raw4 al-Mi'(dr (Levi-Provencal), 
18 ; Zarkashl, TaMkh al-Dawlaiayn, transl. Fagnan, 
17; Makkarl, Analectes, ii, 289, 90; Primera 
Crdnica General (R. Menendez Pidal), i, 678; 
Chronique des rois de Castille (Cirot), 41, app. xi; 
A. Bel, Les Benou Ghaniya, 38 ff . ; da Suva 
Tarouca, Cronicas dos sete reis de Portugal, i, 151; 
SaM Zaghlul «Abd al-Hamld, Ya'kub al-Mansur, 
unpubl. thesis, Paris 1952. 

(A. Huici Miranda) 
ABC £ABl (commonly written Abu Dhabi), a 
town (54- 22* E. long., 24 29' N. lat.) and shaykh- 
dom on the Trucial Coast of Arabia. The population 
of the town, the only settlement of any size in the 
shaykhdom, is several thousand. The most prominent 
structure is the ruler's fortresslike palace. 

The town is said to have been founded about 
1174-5/1761 by BanI Yas [q.v.], a tribe then ranging 
in the interior of al-Zafra [q.v.]. No evidence points 



to any earlier settlement on the site, which lies on 
the seaward side of a triangular island separated 
from the mainland by a narrow ford (al-Makta c ). 
The island is relatively secure from attacks by land 
and has a partially protected harbour for small 
craft, but the supply of drinking water is poor. 

The chiefs of BanI Yas continued to reside in 
the interior until the accession of Shakhbut b. 
Dhiyab of Al Bu Falah, the ruling'clan, about 1209- 
10/1795. About 1214-5/1800 the Wahhabls of Nadjd 
first appeared along the coast, but they developed 
close ties with the Kawasim and the people of 
al-Burayml rather than with Abu Zabl. Ban! Yas 
do not appear to have come under WahhabI in- 
fluence until the accession of Khalifa b. Shakhbut 
in 1248/1833. 

Shakhbut signed the General Treaty of Peace 
sponsored by the British in 1235/1820 following the 
British expedition against Ra's al-Khayma [q.v.]. In 
1251/1835 Abu Zabl adhered to the first Maritime 
Truce, from which the Trucial Coast takes its name 
[cf. baijr faris]. An Exclusive Agreement in 1309/ 
1892 gave Great Britain special rights in Abu Zabi, 
which like the other Trucial States is considered to 
be independent while under British protection. In 
1357/1939 the Shaykh of Abu Zabl granted an oil 
concession for 75 years which is operated by 
Petroleum Development (Trucial Coast) Ltd., an 
Iraq Petroleum Company associate; in 1372/1952 
oil had not yet been found. Offshore drilling rights 
are held by other interests. 

Zayid b. Khalifa (d. 1326/1908) during his reign 
of 53 years made Abu Zabl the leading power on 
the Trucial Coast, but during the successive reigns 
of his four sons Abu Zabi was surpassed in impor- 
tance by al-Sharika [q.v.] and Dubayy [q.v.], which 
developed more rapidly their relations with the 
modern world. The present ruler (1952) of Abu Zabl 
is Shakhbut b. Sultan (ace. 1346-7/1928), a grandson 
of Zayid. 

Abu Zabl is by far the largest of the Trucial 
States, though most of its boundaries in the interior 
remain undefined. It claims a common land boundary 
with Katar in the vicinity of al- c Udayd [q.v.] and 
extensive territory in al-Zafra, where members of 
BanI Yas still reside in some of the tiny villages of 
al-Djiwa'. Several villages of al-Burayml belong to 
Al Bu Falah. BanI Yas are settled on some of the 
islands in the Gulf between the Trucial Coast and 
Katar, and they visit others while engaged in 
pearling, fishing, and gathering firewood. Al Bu 
Falah are on friendly terms with many of the 
beduins of the hinterland, though in recent years 
the once firm connections with the Manasir [q.v.] 
have grown weaker. (G. Rentz) 

ABtJ ZAKARIYYA 5 al DJANAWUNI, Yaijya 
b. al-Khayr, IbadI scholar from the Djabal 
Nafusa. He was a native of Idjnawun (modem 
Djennaouen, near Djado, in the eastern part of the 
Djabal Nafusa; cf. J. Despois, Le Djebel Nefousa, 
Paris 1935, 213 and passim). Al-Shammakhl mentions 
him amongst the personages of the 6th/ 12th 
century. He was the grandson of another IbadI 
scholar from the Djabal Nafusa, Abu '1-Khayr 
TOzIn al-Djanawuni, contemporary of the shaykh. 
Abu '1-Khayr Tflzln al-Zawaghl. As the latter lived 
under the reign of the ZIrid al-Mu'izz b. Badls 
(406-54/1016-62; see al-Shammakhl, al-Siyar, 335-9), 
Abu Zakariyya' can probably be assigned to the 
first half of the 6th/i2th century. He studied under 
the shaykh Abu '1-Rabl c Sulayman b. Abi Harun 
in the mosque of Ibnayn (Djabal Nafusa) and became 



ABO ZAKARIYYA' al-DJANAWUNI — ABO ZAYYAN II 



167 



famous in Ibadi literature by the breadth of his 
learning and by his works, mainly on jurisprudence. 
Al-BarradI quotes in his catalogue of Ibadi books, 
written shortly after 775/1373-4, a work by Abu 
Zakariyya 3 , without giving its title. According to 
him the work contained seven parts, on fasting, 
marriage and divorce, testaments, salaries, judg- 
ments, preemption and security. The K. al-Sawm, 
on fasting, has been autographed in Cairo, 1310, 
and the K. al-Nikdh, about marriage and divorce, 
has been published in Egypt, with a marginal gloss 
by Muhammad Abu Sitta al-Kasbl; the other parts 
■are unpublished. Abu Zakariyya 3 write also al-Lam? 
(or al-Wap), printed in Cairo (with a marginal gloss 
by Muhammad Abu Sitta al-rCasbl) in 1305. It 
deals with dogmatics (1-116) and ritual law: ablut- 
tions, purification, prayer, alms, pilgrimage, etc. 



<" 



92). 



bibliography : Shammakhi, Siyar, Cairo 1301, 
535-7; A. de Motylinski, Bibliographic du Mzab, 
Bull, de Corr. Afr., 1885, 22; idem Le Djebel 
Nefousa, Paris 1899, 89, n. 1; R. Basset, Les 
sanctuaires du Djebel Nefousa, J A, 1899/ii, 98. 

(A. DE MOTYLINSKI-T. LEWICKl) 

ABO ZAKARIYYA 1 al-WARDJLAnI, Yahya 
b. AbI Bakr, historian of the Ibadis of the 
Maghrib. The Ibadi chroniclers al-DardjInl (7th/ 
13th century) and al-Shammakhi (d. 928/1522) who 
took the chronicle of Abu Zakariyya 3 as the basis 
for their own works, give but scanty details about 
him and do not indicate the date either of his 
birth or of his death. From al-Dardiini it is known 
at least that he was a native of Wardjlan (Ouargla) 
and that he studied in the Wadi Righ (Oued Righ) 
under the Ibadi shaykh Abu '1-Rabl c Sulayman b. 
Ikhlaf al-Mazatl (d. 471/1078-9). Thus the chronicle 
of Abu Zakariyya 3 must have been written at the 
end of the 5th/ nth or the beginning of the 6th/ 12th 
century. According to an Ibadi tradition of Wardjlan, 
Abu Zakariyya 3 died and was buried in that place, 
or perhaps in the neighbouring oasis of Sadrata. 
The chronicle of Abu Zakariyya 3 , al-Sira wa- 
Akhbdr al-AHmma, is the oldest document con- 
cerning the history of the Ibadis in the Maghrib 
written by a member of the sect. It contains impor- 
tant information on the introduction and the 
•development of the Ibadi doctrine in the Maghrib, 
the history of the Rustamids, their fall, the struggle 
•of the Ibadis against the Fatimids, as well as on 
the lives of the famous shaykhs of the community 
up to the time of the author. The work, not yet 
published, consists of two parts; the not very 
numerous manuscripts are generally modern; those 
especially of the second part are rare and very 
faulty. The most important part has been translated 
by E. Masqueray (Chronique d'Abou Zakaria, 
Algiers 1878) in a rather mediocre way, after a very 
bad manuscript. A table of contents has been given 
by A. de Motylinski. 

According to al-Barradl's catalogue of Ibadi 
•works (8th/i4th century) Abu Zakariyya 3 was also 
the author of letters and decisions on dogmatic 
theology. 

Bibliography : Shammakhi, Siyar, Cairo 1301, 
427-8 and passim; Dardjlni, Jabakdt al-MashaHkh 
(in MS); Kutubi, Fawdt, Cairo 1283, ii, 400 ff.; 
A. de Motylinski, Bibliographic du Mzab, Bull, de 
Coor. Afr., 1885, 27, 36-8, 39, 42; R. Basset, Les 
sanctuaires du Djebel Nefousa, J A, 1899/i, 424-5. 
An edition and new translation of the chronicle 
of A. Z. by Dalet and R. Le Tourneau is in 
preparation. (A. de Motylinski-T. Lewicki) 



ABO ZAKARIYYA 3 b. KJJALDON [see ibn 

KHALDUN]. 

ABC ZAYD, legendary hero of the Banu 
Hilal. In the cycle of romances relating to the Banu 
Hilal he is represented as the son of Rizk, ruler of 
the Bilad al-Sarw, and Khadra 3 . daughter of the 
sharif of Mecca. He was black-skinned and his 
original name was Barakat. After various adventures 
in Arabia Abu Zayd goes with his people to the 
Maghrib; there he is treacherously murdered by the 
other chief figure in the romances, Diyab (or 
Dhi 3 ab), but is avenged in turn by the killing of 
Diyab. No documentary evidence has yet been found 
to determine whether Abu Zayd was a historical 
personage. — For details and bibliography, see hilal. 

ABO ZAYD AL-AN$ARl, Sa'Id b. Aws, Arab 
grammarian and lexicographer of the school 
of Basra. He belonged to the Medina tribe of 
Khazradj. A pupil of Abu 'Amr b. al-'Ala 3 [q.v.], 
he was one of the few Basrians who went to Kufa, 
where he collected, from al-Mufaddal al-Dabbl [q.v.] 
the greater part of the poetic material which he 
used in his K. al-Nawadir. He was invited by al- 
Mahdl to come to Baghdad and died in 214 or 
215/830-1. A contemporary of Abu 'Ubayda and 
al-Asma% he was considered superior to them in 
grammar, but of his numerous treatises only two 
have survived: K. al-Mafar, a collection of Arabic 
expressions concerning rain (ed. R. Gottheil, JAOS, 
xvi, 282-312; ed. L. Cheikho, Mash., 1905) and 
al-Nawadir fi'l-Lugha, a collection of rare poems 
and phrases. This work was handed down by his 
pupils Abu Hatim al-Sidjistanl and Abu '1-Hasan 
al-Akhfash; it has been published by S. Shartunl, 
Beirut 1894. 'All b. Hamza al-Basri wrote al-Tanbih 
'aid Aghldf Abi Zayd fi Nawddirih (cf. al-Baghdadl, 
Khizdna, iv, 39; Th. Noldeke, in ZDMG, 1895, 
318 ff.; H. L. Fleischer, KUinere Schriften, iii, 
471 ff.). 

Bibliography: Ibn Kutayba, Ma'drif, 270; 

AnbSrl, Nuzha, 173-9; Zubaydl, Jabahdt (Kren- 

kow), in RSO, 1919, 141; Slrafl, Akhbdr al- 

Nahwiyyin (Krenkow), 52-7; Ibn Khallik&n, no. 

262; G. Fliigel, Die gram. Schulen, 70 ff.; Brockel- 

mann, S I, 162. (C. Brockelmann *) 

ABO ZAYD [see al-balkhI]. 

ABO ZAYD [see al-harIrI], 

ABO ZAYYAN I Muhammad b. AbI Sa'Id 
'Uthman b. YaghmurAsan, third sovereign of 
the c Abd al-Wadid dynasty. Proclaimed in 
Tlemcen on 2 Dhu '1-Ka c da 703/6 June 1304, he 
succeeded in having the siege of his capital by the 
Marlnid troops raised. He then chastised the tribes 
in the eastern part of his kingdom who had supported 
the enemy; the Tudjln Berbers were forced to submit 
and pay tribute, the Arab tribes were severely 
treated and driven back into the desert. On his 
''return to Tlemcen, he devoted himself to repairing 
the damage caused by the siege, but died shortly 
afterwards, on 21 Shawwal 707/14 April 1308. 
Bibliography: see 'abd al-wAdids. 

(A. Cour *) 

ABC ZAYYAN II Muhammad b. AbI Hammu ii, 
sovereign of the c Abd al-Wadid dynasty. 
During the lifetime of his father he was governor 
of Algiers and tried in vain, on his father's death, 
to seize power. He took refuge with the Marinid 
sultan Abu 'l- c Abbas Ahmad, who led an expedition 
against Tlemcen and made it possible for Abu 
Zayyan to be proclaimed in Muharram 796/Nov.-Dec. 
1393. He remained a faithful vassal of the Marlnids. 
A patron of men of letters and poets, he was assas- 



ABO ZAYYAN II — ABUKLEA 



sinated in 801/1398 after being driven from the 
throne by his brother Abu Muhammad 'Abd Allah. 
Bibliography: see c abd al-wadids.. 

(A. Cour *) 
ABC ZAYYAN III Ahmad b. AbI Muhammad 
c Abd Allah, second last 'Abd al-Wadid 
ruler of Tlemcen. Thanks to the support of the 
Turks of Algiers he seized the power and was proclai- 
med in 947/1540. The Spaniards of Oran who sup- 
ported his brother Abu c Abd Allah Muhammad 
undertook an expedition against Tlemcen, which 
failed (949/1543). After a second, victorious expe- 
dition, the Spaniards made it possible for Abu <Abd 
Allah Muhammad to seize the power (30 Dhu '1-Ka'da 
949/7 March 1543), but he was soon driven out by 
his own subjects, who restored Abu Zayyan to the 
throne. He declared himself a vassal of the Turks 
and reigned until his death in 957/1550. 

Bibliography : Marmol Caravajal, Description 
Ginerale de VAfrique (Fr. transl. by Perrot 
d'Ablancourt), Paris 1667, ii, 345 ff.; Haedo, 
Epitome de los reyes de Argel, Fr. transl. by 
Grammont, in RAfr., xxiv, 231 ff.; Fey, Hist. 
d'Oran, 85 f.; Sander- Rang and Denis, Fondation 
de la regence d' Alger, Paris 1873; Barges, Compli- 
ment de I'Histoire des Beni Zeiyan, 449 ff. ; Ruff, 
Domination espagnole a Oran sous le gouvernement 
du comte d'Alcaudete, Paris 1900, 90 ff.; Cour, 
L'Etablissement des dynasties des Chirijs au Maroc, 
Paris 1900, 84 f. (A. Cour *) 

ABC ZAYYAN [see marInids]. 
ABC ZIYA TEWFlK BEY [see tewfIk bey]. 
ABU'AM [see tafIlalt]. 
ABUBACER [see ibn tufayl]. 
ABCKlR, or BuiflR, small town on the Mediter- 
ranean coast, 15 m. east of Alexandria, on the 
railway which links this town with Rosetta (Rashid). 
The earliest Arab geographer to describe the position 
of Abukir was al-Idris!. But before him Arab texts 
on Ancient Egypt refer to the building of a light- 
house: and European travellers certainly mention, 
on this route, towers intended to serve as landmarks. 
Eutychius tells of the passage to Abukir of the 
relieving fleet which had been summoned from Tarsus 
to protect Egypt against the Fatimids. All Pasha 
Mubarak, according to a source that has not been 
traced, relates that European pirates raided Abukir 
on 27 Sha'ban 764/1 1 June 1363, and carried off 
about sixty inhabitants, who were put up for sale 
at Sidon. It was the period of Bonaparte's expedition 
that made Abukir famous, by Nelson's naval victory 
on 1 August 1798 and the extermination of the 
Turkish army on 25 July 1799. At Abukir, on 8 March 
1801, disembarked the English army which was to 
end the French occupation; and, finally, Abukir was 
again an English operational base in March 1807. 
There was an excellent anchorage and good shelter 
at Abukir at that time, but the village itself was 
miserable. 

Amelineau erroneously believed that he had found 
the name Abukir in the Jacobite Synaxary; the 
reference there is to a church in Old Cairo, dedicated 
to Apa Kyros. 

Etienne Combe has studied at length the problem 
of the Alexandria-Rosetta route, as well as of the 
lakes along the coast, and has provided a rich 
bibliography of Arab writers and European travellers. 
In this work will be found the various transcriptions 
of the name of the locality, and the monotonous 
description of a somewhat difficult journey, a sandy 
region had to be crossed, uncultivated and unin- 



habited, with only a few palm-trees here and there 
to enliven the prospect. The three lakes, from west 
to east, bore the names Maryut, Abukir, and Atku. 
The only account of the lake of Abukir which is at 
all detailed in the Subh of al-Kalkashandi, but he 
refers to the prosperity of the region as a thing 
of the past. Some few birds lived on the shores 
of the lake, whose waters teemed with fish. The 
mullet (buri) which was caught there formed part 
of the food supply of Alexandria. On the banks were 
some large salinas, whose product was exported to 

A strong causeway, often reinforced, separated the 
lake of Abukir from Lake Maryut; the Mahmudiyya 
canal and the railway from Cairo to Alexandria were 
built along this. Since 1887 the lake of Abukir has 
been drained and the land cultivated. 

Bibliography: Ibn <Abd al-Hakam (Torrey), 
40; Eutychius, ii, 81; Makrizi, Khitat, MIFAO, 
xlvi, 82; Synaxaire, Patrologia orientalis, iii, 404; 
Amelineau, Geographie, 6, 579, 581 ; U. Monneret de 
Villard, in Bulletin de la soctete de giographie 
d'Egypte, xiii, 74, 76; E. Combe, Alexandrie musul- 
mane, Bulletin de la sociite de geographie d'Egypte, 
xv, 201, 238; xvi, 111-71, 269-92; Deherain, 
L'Egypte turque, Hist, de la nation egyptienne, v, 
275, 277, 281-285, 433, 440, 445, 518-519, pi. xi; 
Durand-Viel, Les campagnes navales de Mohammed 
Aly, i, 49, 63, 65, pi. x, xi, xiii, xix. 
Other places of no importance in Egypt have the 

Worthy of mention, however, is the gorge of the 
Bukir (Bukiran— Bukirat), in the Djabal al-Tayr 
(Mountains of the Birds), in Middle Egypt, north 
of Minya. The Arab authors associate a curious 
legend with this locality. The mountain was, on a 
given day each year, the meetingplace of the birds 
called bukir. They put their heads into a cleft in 
the mountain, which closed on one of them: that 
bird remained suspended and died there. 

Bibliography: J. Maspero and Wiet, Materi- 
aux pour servir a la giographie de VEgypte, MIFAO, 
xxxvi, 64-66. (G. Wiet) 

ABUKLEA, misspelling for Abu Tulayh, so 
called after the talh tree [Acacia seyal), the name 
of a well-centre on the road through the Bayuda 
desert which, avoiding the Nile bend of Abu Hamad, 
leads from Korti (Kurti) south of Dongola to al- 
Metamma, a distance of 192 miles. The place is 
famous as the scene of a battle fought on 17 Jan. 
1885 between the darwish forces of Muhammad 
Ahmad [q.v.] and a "desert column" of some 1800 
British troops who were advancing from Korti to 
the relief of Khartum where the Egyptian garrison 
and General Charles Gordon were besieged by the 
Mahdists. The British under Sir Herbert Stewart 
found a large body of the Mahdi's best troops (some 
3000 Bakkara and 5000 Dja'Hyyin) in possession 
of the wells. Advancing in square formation they 
were fiercely' attacked, and after desperate hand-to- 
hand fighting the Mahdists withdrew leaving about 
1000 dead behind. The British casualties were 74 
dead and 94 wounded. The way was now open to 
al-Metamma where the British forces were joined 
by four river steamers which Gordon had despatched 
from Khartum. A fatal delay of a few days enabled 
the Mahdists to take Khartum by storm (26 Jan.), 
and the relieving force was obliged to retrace its 
steps without achieving its object. 

Bibliography: N. Shoucair (Shukayr), Ta'rikh 
al-Suddn, Cairo 1903; H. E. Colville, History of 
the Soudan Campaign, London 1889 (the official 



ABUKLEA — ADA' 



military account) ; A. B. Theobald, The Mahdiya, 
London 1951; B. M. Allen, Gordon and the Sudan, 
London 1931. (S. Hillelson) 

ABULCASIS [see al-zahrawI]. 
ABUMERON [see ibn zuhr]. 
al- c ABCR [see nudjum]. 
ABCfiHAHR [see bushahr]. 
ABUSHRA [see c alI shir nawaI]. 
ABCSlR [see busIr]. 

al-ABWA 3 , a place on the road from Mecca to 
Medina, 23 miles from al-Djuhfa in the territory of 
Banu Damra of Kinana. According to some autho- 
rities the name really belonged to a mountain situated 
there. Muhammad's mother, Amina, is commonly 
said to have died there while returning from Medina 
to Mecca, and to be buried there ; but she is sometimes 
said to be buried in Mecca (Tabarl, i, 9 8o). The first 
expedition from Medina in which Muhammad him- 
self took part was to al-Abwa' and Waddan nearby. 
It is said that at al-Abwa', as the Meccans marched 
against Medina in 3/625, some proposed to dig up 
Amina's body, but the majority opposed this. 

Bibliography: Ibn Hisham, 107, 415; Ibn 
Sa c d, 1/1, 73-4, ii/1,3; Tabarl, 1266-70; Wakidi, 
ed. Wellhausen, 103; Yakut, i, 100; Caetani, 
Annali, i, 157, 461; A. Sprenger, Die alte Geogra- 
phic Arabiens, 155 (cf. Burckhardt, Travels in 
Arabia, ii, 112 f.). (W. Montgomery Watt) 
ABWAB [see darband]. 

ABYAN (or Ibyan, cf. Yakut, i, no; Nash wan, 
i, 208; C. Landberg, Etudes, ii, 1803), 1) district 
(mikhldf) in Yaman in the Wadi Bana, comprising 
several castles and the seaport of 'Adan [q.v.], hence 
the full name 'Adan Abyan; 2) small place, now 
abandoned, ca. 18 km. NE of c Adan on the coast, 
birthplace of the poet Abu Bakr b. al-Adib al- c Idi 
(d. 725/1325); 3) persons in the genealogical tradition: 
(a) Abyan b. Zuhayr b. al-Qjawth b. Ayman b. al- 
Hamaysa c , (b) (Dhu) Abyan (Ibyan) b. Yakdum b. 
al-Sawwar b. c Abd Shams, (c) Abyan b. c Adn5n (and 
his brother c Adan), Tabarl, i, mi: eponymi of 1) 
and 2). For epigraphical material cf. G. Ryckmans, 
Les noms propres sud-simitiques, i, 36b, 51a, 325a. 
Bibliography: HamdanI, St/a, transl. Forrer, 
42, note 4 (with copious references); c Abdali, 
Hadiyyat al-Zaman fi Akhbdr Muluk LaMi wa- 
c Adan, 1351, 19 f.; Abu Makhrama, Ta'rikh 
Thaghr '■Adan, i, 4 and passim. (O. Lofgren) 
ABYSSINIA [see al-h abash]. 
ACADEMY [see madjma c c ilmI]. 
ACHEH [see atjeh]. 
ACHIR [see ashIr]. 
ACRE [see <akka]. 

'AD, an ancient tribe, frequently mentioned 
in the IJur'an. Its history is related only in sporadic 
allusions. It was a mighty nation that lived imme- 
diately after the time of Noah, and became haughty 
on account of its great prosperity (vji, 69; xli, 15). 
The edifices of the 'Adites are spoken of in xxvi, 
128 f. ; cf. in lxxxix, 6-7 the expression: " e Ad, Iram 
of the pillars" [see iram dhat al-'imad]. According 
to xlvi, 21, the 'Adites inhabited al-Ahkaf [q.v.], 
the sand dunes. The prophet sent to them, their 
"brother" Hud [q.v.], was treated by them just as 
Muhammad was later treated by the Meccans, and 
on account of that they were, with the exception 
of Hud and a few pious men, swept away by a 
violent storm (vii, 65 ff.; xl, 58; xli, 16; liv, 19; 
lxix, 6). Finally, in xi, 52, there is mention of a 
drought from which they suffered. From these 
indications the later legends of the kisas al-anbiya' 



It cannot be shown with certainty what more 
ancient traditions are at the base of the IJur'anic 
story. The old poets knew e Ad as an ancient nation 
that had perished (e.g. Tarafa, i, 8; al-Mufad- 
daliyyat, viii, 40; Ibn Hisham, i, 468; cf. Zuhayr, 
xx, 12 and lukman); hence the expression: "since 
the time of e Ad", tfamdsa (Freytag), 195, 341. 
Their kings are mentioned in the Diwan of the 
Hudhaylites, lxxx, 6, and their prudence in that of 
Nabigha, xxv, 4. The mention of the c Adite Ahmar 
by Zuhayr, Mu'allaka, verse 32, and in the Diwan 
of the Hudhaylites, p. 31, merits consideration, as 
the Muslim legend connects (IJudar) al- Ahmar 
with Thamud [q.v.]. 

Whether there really existed, and where, a nation 
called c Ad, is still an unanswered question. The 
genealogies of the Arabs relating to the c Adites are 
naturally valueless, just as is their locating of that 
people in the large and uninhabitable sandy desert 
between c Um5n and Hadramawt. The identification 
of Iram with Aram, adopted by the Arabs and 
several modern scholars, is not at all likely. Of the 
latter, Loth has identified c Ad with the wellknown 
tribe of Iyad; on the other hand Sprenger sought for 
c Ad in the Oadites, who according to Ptolemy lived 
in N.-W. Arabia; this recalls the well of Iram in 
Hisma (al-Hamdani, Sifa, 126; A. Sprenger, Die alte 
Geogr. Arabiens, § 207; A. Musil, Arabia Petraea, 
ii/2, 128). The excavation of the second-century 
Nabataean temple at Djabal Ramm, about twenty- 
five miles due east of c Akaba, brought to light 
Nabataean inscriptions giving the name of the 
place as Vm; Savignac, very plausibly, connected 
this with Iram. Cf. H. W. Glidden, in BASOR, 
no. 73, 1939, 13 ff.; Ramm would also be identical 
with al-Hamdanl's Iram and Ptolemy's Aramaua. 
But Wellhausen pointed out that instead of the 
expression "since the time of c Ad" the expression 
min al- c dd also occurs; therefore he supposed that 
originally c Ad was a common noun ("the ancient 
time"; adj. '■ddi, "very ancient") and that the 
mythical nation arose from a misinterpretation of 
that expression. 

Bibliography: Tabarl, i, 231ft.; HamdanI, 

Sifa, 80; A. Sprenger, Das Leben und die Lehre 

des Mohammad, i, 505-18; idem, Die alte Geogr. 

Arabiens, § 199; Caussin de Perceval, Essai sur 

I'histoire des Arabes avant I'islamisme, i, 259; 

E. Blochet, Le Culte d' Aphrodite- Anahita chez les 

arabes du paganisme, 1902, 27 ft.; O. Loth, in 

ZDMG, 1881, 622 ff. J. Wellhausen, in GGA, 1902, 

596 idem, Wakidi, 24; J. Horovitz, Koranische 

Vntersuschungen, Berlin-Leipzig 1926, 125 f. ; Dia- 

wad C A1I, Td>rikh al-'Arab kabl al-Isldm, Bagdad 

1951, 230-7. For c Adi, "giant", see e.g. Aghdni, 

ii, 182; Ibn Kutayba, SA*' c r, 217; glossary to 

Mubarrad, Kamil (Wright), 297. (F. Buhl ») 

ADA 5 (a.), lit. «payment», « accomplishments, a 

technical term used in the fikh to designate the 

accomplishment of a religious duty in the time 

prescribed by the law, in opposition to hada', which 

designates the belated accomplishment of a religious 

duty (of course when the delay is permitted). A 

distinction is also drawn between a perfect and an 

imperfect accomplishment (al-ada* al-kamil and 

al-add' al-ndkis). — In the reading of the Ror'an add* 

means the traditional pronunciation of the letters, 

synonymous with kird'a [q.v.]. 



'ADA (a.) custom, customary law. 
{i) General, (ii) North Africa, (iii) India, (iv) Indonesia. 

i. — General. The realities of social life have 
never exactly reflected the shari'a [q.v.], or shar', the 
ideal Muslim Law corresponding to God's will. This 
is true not only in regard to the ritual provisions of 
this Law, but also and even more so in regard to its 
juridical aspects. It is not, of course, the modem 
reforms of Muslim law in various countries that are 
envisaged here, but the survival of pre- Islamic custom 
fdda or c urf [q.v.]). The words <dda and <urf have the 
same meaning, but the usage varies from region to 
region (e.g. the first is used in Indonesia, the second 
in North Africa, and in East Africa one says dastur). 
In addition, the Muslim rulers have often issued 
administrative regulations on matters of law, called, 
e.g. in Persia l urf, in Turkey kdnun [q.v.] (for the 
meaning of this word in North Africa, see below ii), 
sometimes also siydsa [q.v.]. Also the innumerable 
regulations made by rulers, establishing various 
taxes contrary to the Law {maks [q.v.]), must be 
recalled here. 

What is, then, the exact role of custom in Muslim 



a) There is first of all the case where the fikh 
itself expressly refers to customary usage, e.g. to 
determine what is to be understood by equivalent 
dowry, or by ordinary standards of nourishment 
(e.g. for the zakdt al-fifr), etc. Some lawyers even 
felt justified in advancing the view, following the 
principle according to which everything that is not 
forbidden is permissible, that the Muslim Law could 
admit customary law in every case in which the 
*urf was not contrary to the shar'; in fact, however, 
custom has not been admitted as one of the sources 
(usul) of the law [cf. usul]. 

b) A juridico-sociological analysis of social reality 
allows us to make the following distinctions. 

r) In the most classically Muslim countries it 
can be observed that alongside the religious juris- 
diction there exists an administrative ("political" 
= siydsa) jurisdiction, varying in forms and names, 
which need not be treated here, e.g. in matters 
concerning penal law, obligations and contracts; in 
it customary law or the regulations (kdniin) of the 
princes are applied to a greater or lesser extent. So 
for example in Turkey marriage, from the 17th 
century onwards, had to be concluded obligatorily, 
from the penal point of view, before the authorities. 

2) Sometimes even the religious courts 'are com- 
pelled to sanction local usage, either because, 
thanks to a juridical artifice (hila [q.v.]) the act, 
though contrary to the spirit of the Law, has been 
put into a legally unchallengable form (e.g. in the 
matter of usury, or the conditional repudiation in 
favour of the wife in Java, and especially the use 
of the wakf, in North Africa and elsewhere, to 
disinherit women); er even without that expedient 
— which is even more characteristic; thus in Java 
the pre-Islamic marriage arrangement is considered 
as a sarikat (i.e. shirka), a contract of commercial 
partnership between the husband and wife. On the 
island of Great Comore, there exists a kind of wakf, 
the magnahuli, in favour of women only, the validity 
of which is well recognized. (For the < amal in North 
Africa, see below, ii.) 

3) There exist religious courts administering 
the Law, but, except in case of litigation, the popu- 
lation ignores them and follows local custom. This 
is the case, among others, in the Awras (cf. below, 
ii), to a large extent; in the same way, the religious 



courts were competent in matter 
Java up to 1938, but the population did not follow 
the Ifur'an in this field; also the persistence of the 
Leh Dukagini among the Muslims of North Albania 
can be quoted in this connection. 

4) The clearest case of the persistence of a custo- 
mary law is that where there is no religious juris- 
diction at all, but only that of the customary courts, 
and these apply customary law. It is, however, 
essential to realize that this custom can be more 
or less islamized (see below, ii, concerning the Ber- 
bers). One point, especially, can be taken more or 
less for granted: viz. that there is no Muslim country 
where the marriage formalities, which are, to be sure, 
very simple, are not performed according to Muslim 

It can be said that in general it is among populations 
which are still imperfectly islamized (in the objective 
meaning of the word, as those in question may 
have a very fervent faith) that the predominance 
of customary law and the absence of religious courts 
can be observed. There is, however, at least one very 
remarkable exception: until recent times, the region 
of Menangkabau (Central Sumatra) was strongly 
attached to its matriarchal customs, which were 
quite contrary to Islam, and yet Islamic learning 
was very widely spread in that region. The same 
matriarchate can be observed also e.g. among the 
Tuaregs of the Hoggar, who are, it is true, rather 
lukewarm Muslims. In the Laccadive islands, in- 
heritance follows the female line. Thus the effective 
manifestations of the survival of custom among the 
Muslim community are innumerable. 

As regards the future, something on the following 
lines may be said. If, on the one hand, the control 
of Muslim Law over practice is on the decline — total 
abolition in Turkey and in the countries under 
Soviet rule, reforms in Egypt, India etc. — on the 
other hand the Law is almost everywhere gaining 
ground at the expense of custom. Custom is thus 
on the way of slow disappearance, partly due to 
the influence of European colonization and European 
civilization. Custom is being Islamized, because the 
means of communication are improving and religious 
courts are installed in place of the old customary 
jurisdictions. As a matter of fact, almost every- 
where the European colonizers believed that the 
law of the local Muslims was essentially the theo- 
retical religious law. 

In the following sections more detailed descriptions 
are given of the role of customary law in three 
representative areas of the Islamic world. 

Bibliography: Historical: I. Goldziher, Die 
Zahiriten, Leipzig 1884, 204 ff. ; Snouck Hurgronje, 
Verspr. Geschr., index, sv. c Ada, Adatrecht; 
Juynboll, Handleiding, 49 ff.; J. Schacht, in Isl., 
1932, 209 ff.; idem, Esquisse d'une kistoire du droit 
musulman, Paris 1953, 70 ff.; J. Ribera Tarrag6, 
Origines del Justicia de Aragdn, Saragosa 1897. 
General: G.-H. Bousquet, Du Droit Musulman et 
de son application effective dans le monde, Algiers 
1949; C. K. Meek, Land, Law and Custom in the 
Colonies 1 , Oxford 1949. (G.-H. Bousquet) 

Bibliography for regions not separately treated: 
Western Sudan: Coutumier juridique de I'Afri- 
que Occidentale Francaise, 3 vols., Paris 1939 ff.; 
R. Doublier, La proprieti fonciere en Afrique 
Occidentale Francaise, Saint-Louis 1952. Anglo- 
Egyptian Sudan: J. S. Trimingham, Islam in 
the Sudan, Oxford 1949, 9, n f, 26, r22, 184 f. 
Erythrea and Somaliland: C. Conti Rossini, 
Principi di diritto consuetudinario deW Eritrea, 



Rome 1916; E. Cerulli, in RSO, vii, 861 ff., x, 32 ff. ; 
idem, in Bolletino delta Societa Africana d' Italia, 
1919. Northern Arabia and Bedouins: 
Farik al-Muzhir Al Fir'awn, al-Kada> al-'AshdHrl, 
Baghdad 1941; E. Graf, Das Rechtswesen der 
heutigen Beduinen, Walldorf-Hessen 1952 (with 
bibliography); L. Haefeli, Die Beduinen von 
Beerseba, Lucerne 1938; A. Jaussen, Coutumes 
des Arabes au Pays de Moab, Paris 1908; A. 
Kennett, Bedouin Justice, Cambridge 1925; 
G. W. Murray, Sons of Ishmael, London 1935; 
A. Musil, The Manners and Customs of the Rwala 
Bedouins, New York 1928, 426 ff. South Arabia : 
The Master of Belhaven (A. Hamilton), The 
Kingdom of Melchior, London 1949, 154 f., 170; 
E. Rossi, in RSO, 1948, iff.; R. B. Serjeant, 
in BSOAS, xiii, 589 ff- and in JRAS, 1951, 33 «•, 
156 ff.; B. S. Thomas, in JRAS, 1931, 978 ff.; 
idem, Arabia Felix, 1932, 57, 82.. 86 f. Syria and 
Lebanon: A. Latron, La vie rurale en Syrie el 
au Liban, Beyrouth 1936, chap. 3. Ottoman 
Empire: see kanOn-name. Persia: Voyages du 
Chevalier Chardin en Perse, nouv. ed., Amsterdam 
1735, "i. 4°5'» E. Scott Waring, A Tour to Sheeraz, 
Bombay 1804, 73 ff-; Sir J. Malcolm, The History 
of Persia, London 1815, ii, 438 ff. Albania: 
M. Hasluck, The Unwritten Law of the Albanian 
Mountains, London 1954. 

ii. — North Africa. This region, where Berber 
dialects were spoken before the coming of the Arabs, 
has since been profoundly Arabicized and Islamized. 

a) As regards the Arabic-speaking regions, no 
study has yet been made, with a few exceptions, of 
what elements among the customs of the population 
go back to the pre-Islamic period and are Berber 
survivals. On the other hand, it can be observed 
that, especially in Morocco, the kadis sometimes 
apply solutions which are contrary to the prevailing 
MalikI view and which may possibly — though this has 
scarcely yet been envisaged as an object of study 
from this point of view — represent Berber survivals; 
this is the c amal (especially c amal Fdsi [q.v.]). 

b) As regards the Berber-speaking regions: 

1) From a purely theoretical point of view, there 
are districts where, officially, the Berber customs 
have remained legally applicable, namely Greater 
Kabylia in Algeria and the very important zones of 
Berber customary law in Morocco, where the situation 
existing before the French conquest was made 
permanent by the dahir (zahlr) of 16 May 1930. 
This measure roused at the time violent polemics; 
these are, however, completely forgotten today, 
since, by the dahir of 8 April 1934, penal justice is 
no longer governed by customary law, but is unified 
througout the whole of Morocco; the civil courts of 
customary law have been reorganized, with two 
courts of appeal. In Kabylia, it is the iuge de paix 
who administers the customary law with right of 
appeal to the court of the arrondissement. In all 
these cases, the matters involved are those of 
personal statrs and the law of succession. 

2) The social reality is, however, much more 
complex, (a) In Tunisia, in the few remaining 
isolated Berber-speaking communities, there are 
scarcely more than memories of the ancient custo- 
mary law. (b) In Algeria, more than a quarter of the 
population speaks Berber. In Greater Kabylia, 
where the social organization of each village has 
remained very strong, the djama'a continues illegally 
to settle many conflicts; it applies the local kdnuns, 
i.e. rates of fines, some of which, renewed, are 
nowadays compiled in French (no longer in Arabic). 



In Berber-speaking Lesser Kabylia and in the AwrSs 
(where the French have installed kd4is), the quasi- 
official Berber justice continues to operate on a 
fairly large scale, (c) It is in Morocco (where more 
than 40"/,, of the population is Berber-speaking) 
that Berber law is most extensively applied, and 
there the real customary sphere tends much more to 
encroach upon the official sphere. 

One cannot make a simple contrast between 
customary law and Muslim law, because the former 
has been influenced, to a greater or lesser degree, 
by the latter. In Morocco, for instance, customary 
law has remained purest in the central regions; it 
is less pure in the Northern Middle-Atlas; it is 
strongly Islamized in the south. In Greater Kabylia, 
it has been influenced by the official French reforms. 
The inhabitants of the Mzab, on the other hand, 
have a legal system that has been very greatly 
influenced by the heretical IbadI religious law. It 
would be wholly premature to assert that there once 
existed a common stock of Berber legal institutions. 
My impression is that this was not the case (just 
as the Berber-speaking populations do not belong 
to one and the same race). To be sure, some character- 
istic institutions recur in the whole of North Africa 
(collective storehouses from Tunisia to Morocco, but 
not in Kabylia; inferior marriage, mashrut, in the 
region of Guraya in Algeria; amazzal among the 
Zemmur in Morocco), but they are not found every- 
where among the Berber-speaking population. On 
the other hand, the condition of women is essentially 
variable among the Berbers; it is very low, for 
example, among the Kabyles, very high indeed 
among the Tuareg, with all the intermediate stages 
between these two extremes. It is true that the 
collective oath jas a method of proof is very widely 
spread and, from the point of view 1 
women are in general disinherited. It se 
preferable to suspend judgement about the e: 
of a primitive Berber custom. 

Everything relating to Berber public law, which 
was in force in Morocco until the French conquest, 
is but a memory. In penal law, the custom of the 
diya, i.e. blood-money (in its Berber form and not 
according to the rules of the fikh) survives quasi- 
officially in several Berber-speaking regions (as 
well as among the Arabic-speaking population of 
North- Africa). The Berber civil institutions that 
survive in Algeria and in Morocco are being increas- 
ingly influenced by factors foreign to customary law 
(such as Islam or modern civilization). 

Bibliography: North Africa in general: 
G.-H. Bousquet, in. Hesp., 1952, 508 ff. (biblio- 
graphy) ; G. Marcy, Le problime du droit coutumier 
berbire, in I~a France M editerraneenne et Africaine, 
'939. 7 ff. [to be reprinted in Revue Algerienne, 
Tunisienne et Marocaine de jurisprudence]; E. 
Ubach and E. Rackow, Sitte und Recht in Nord- 
afrika, Stuttgart 1923 (Fr. transl., Rabat 1924). 
Morocco: J. Berque, Contribution d I'ltude des 
controls nord-afrlcains, Algiers 1936; J. Lafond, 
Les sources du droit coutumier dans le Sous, Agadir 
1948; G. Marcy, Le droit coutumier zemmour, 
Paris 1949. Algeria: Hanoteau and Letourneux, 
La Kabylie et les coutumes kabyles', ii-iii, Paris 
1893; G.-H. Bousquet, Justice Francaise et Cou- 
tumes Kabiles, Algiers 1950; M. Morand, Le siatui 
de la femme kabyle, REI, 1930, 171 ff. ; L. Milliot, 
Les institutions kabyles, REI, 1932, 127 ff.; L. 
Milliot (with A. Giacobetti), Recueil de deliberations . 
des djemd'a du Mzdb, REI, 1930, 171 ff.; Laure 
Bousquet-Lafevre, La femme Kabyle, Algiers 1939. 



Tunisia: Demeerseman and Bousquet, La garde 
des enfants (liadhdna) dans la famiUe tunisienne, 
RAfr., 1940, 36 ff.; G.-H. Bousquet, Note sur les 
survivences du droit coutumier berbire en Tunisie, 
Hesp., 1953, 248 f. (G.-H. Bousquet) 

iii. — India. With the establishment of British 
rule in India, procedural and, to a large extent, 
substantive Muslim law gave place to the English legal 
system, and, on the grounds of equity, justice and 
good conscience, customs were invested with legal 
validity. Thus encouraged, many customary practices 
came to light. Most of these customs — inconsistent 
and sometimes directly contrary to the sharf-a — have 
from time to time been deprived of their legal value 
by fresh legislation. The most far reaching of such 
legislation was the Shariat Act of 1937. Nevertheless, 
in spite of this law, custom still prevails among people, 
who respect its traditional force and who, moreover, 
would not think of bringing matters involving such 
questions before a court of law. Even to-day, there- 
fore, we find custom playing a prominent part in 
the social life of some of the communities. 

Before the Shariat Act of 1937, however, amongst 
those indigenous Muslim communities which were 
converts from Hinduism, Hindu law found a partial 
survival in customs and usages. These communities 
are the Khodjas [q.v.) the Memons [q.v.] of Kaoch, 
the Halai Memons of Porebunder, the Molesalam 
Grasias of Broach in Western India, the Moplas 
[cf. mapilla] in Madras, and certain Muslim elements 
in Kashmir, the Pandjab and Sind. 

The Khodjas, Memons and SunnI Bohras had 
retained the Hindu law of agnatic intestate succes- 
sion, excluding the female from inheritance. It does 
, not seem however that any of these communities had 
ever wholly adopted the Hindu law of joint family. 
In Southern India, Moplas, who are the remnants 
of a matriarchal form of society, were governed by 
the marumakkatyam law (inheritance by the children 
of the sister). So a Muslim, who by custom was 
folowing this law, could make a valid gift of property 
to the Tawzihi, which is a corporate unit consisting 
of the mother and all her children and descendents 
in the female line (Chakkra Kannan vs. Kunhi Poker, 
(1916) 39 Madras 317). 

In the Pandjab and U.P. some of the Muslim 
communities excluded the female from inheritance. 
In Karamat Ali vs. Sadat Ali (1933) Lucknow 228, 
it was held that the Islamic law of inheritance was 
modified by the custom of the place of its application. 
In the same case the court enforced the custom of 
stribant, according to which the sons of each wife 
were regarded as one group and each group was 
awarded an equal share in the inheritance. A custom, 
similar in effect, called chundawand entitles the 
group to its allotted portion until the extinction of 
its last member (D. F. Mulla, Principles of Afaho- 
medan law, 4). 

In testamentary succession, Muslim law restricts 
the power of the testator to one third and excludes 
any heir from benefitting under the will unless with 
the consent of the other heirs. The Khodjas and 
Memons, however, could under the customary 
practices leave their whole property to whom- 
soever they wished. After the Cutchi Memon Act of 
1938, the Memons were bound by the Muslim law 
in respect of testate succession. Testamentary 
customs at variance with the Muslim law have also 
been noticed in some parts of the Pandjab (Rahim 
Baksh vs. Umaf Din, (1915) P.R. 9). The retention 
of the Hindu law of inheritance by some of the com- 
munities prevents the making of gifts to non-agnates. 



Adoption is not recognised by Islamic law, but 
in some parts of the Pandjab and Sind where it is 
supported by custom it has prevailed over this 
prohibition. In U.P., also, the custom of adoption 
has been upheld and the Oudh Estates Act of 1869 
permitted a Muslim talufrdar to adopt a son. In 
other provinces, where some of the communities 
have retained the Hindu law of inheritance and 
succession, the courts have refused to accept the 
plea that the retention of Hindu law of inheritance 
implies, at the same time, the retention of the 
Hindu law of adoption. So when, in provinces where 
the custom has no legal force, a child is adopted — 
the practice being for wealthy families to adopt 
children from poor families — he cannot expect to 
receive an inheritance from the adopting parents 
under Islamic law, and gifts of property are made to 
him during their lifetime. The Khodjas. of course, 
need not resort to this expedient but do so by will. 

The Muslim law of pre-emption (shuf c a) is more 
or less applied in the light of customary practices. 
The Madras courts refused to apply it on the grounds 
of it being opposed to justice, equity and good 
conscience. In U.P., Bihar, Assam and Gudjarat it 
was recognised by the courts that the right to pre- 
emption exists not only between Muslims, but also 
between a Muslim and a Hindu, and between Hindus 
if the custom so warrants. 

In the law of marriage, custom usually tends to 
make divorce and polygamy difficult. In some 
marriage contracts the husband delegates to the 
wife the right to divorce (faldk al-tafwid) which she 
can use if any of the conditions mentioned in the 
marriage contract is broken; the marriage contract 
generally includes the right of the wife to use her 
powers of divorce if the husband should remarry. 
Another common device is to name an enormous 
dower sum (mahr), of which only a token amount 
(m» c adfrffaJ = prompt dower) is paid at the time of 
marriage, the remainder — the deferred dower 
{mu'adfdial) — becoming payable when the wife is 
divorced or widowed. When both these conditions 
are combined within a marriage contract, they 
serve as a potent weapon in the hands of the wife. 

In contrast to this in some parts of Southern 
India a large sum of money must be paid to the 
bridegroom by the bride's people, and in this the 
influence of Hindu custom is to be seen. It has often 
brought financial ruin to the family or compelled 
its daughters to remain unmarried. 

The 'idda, the waiting period of a divorced or 
widowed woman laid down by the Islamic law, was 
in one of the cases in the Pandjab held to be outside 
the requirements of the customary law of certain 
Muslim communities (Bhagwat Singh vs. Santi 50. 
I.C 654). 

Though taking of interest is prohibited by Islamic 
law, it is a practice of long standing among most 
Indian Muslims, and in particular among the trading 
communities, and would seem to have gained legality. 

Most of such customs which were contrary to 
Muslim law have been deprived of their legal validity 
by the Shariat Act of 1937. The force of the custom 
is almost wholly excluded from most matters of 
Muslim family law. But the Act excepted from its 
scope the devolution of agricultural lands which, it 
would appear, still devolve according to custom. 

The Act does not summarily abolish customs 
pertaining to adoption, wills and legacies. But it 
lays down that if a Muslim who has reached majority 
makes a declaration to the effect that he and his 
descendents wish to be governed by Muslim law in the 



matters stated above, Muslim law would be applicable 

In addition, there exist in India communities 
which are neither completely Muslim nor Hindu, 
retaining some elements of both religions. Such is 
the sect of Satpanthis and Plrpanthis [qq.v.] (the 
"followers of truth" and the "followers of PIr") in 
Gudjarat, Kaich and Khandesh. They claim to belong 
to the Hindu caste of Mathia Kunbis and follow 
the Atherva-veda; yet they observe the fast of 
Ramadan and other Muslim practices and bury 
their dead with both Muslim and other ceremonies. 
Other such communities are the Nyitas in Malwa, 
the Kanchandas in Sind, the Husayni Brahmans 
in U.P. the Bhagwanis or Satyadharmas in Bengal 
and the Chauhars in the Pandjab. (See Census of 
India, 1931, i, 380 ff.). 

With the partition of India, it may be assumed 
that henceforth customs will cease to have any 
legal sanction in Pakistan, though the same may 
not be said with certainty about India. However, 
whether or not custom is granted any legal sanction, 
it would not be possible to eradicate its deep rooted 
influences for generations to come. 

Bibliography : Sir George Rankin, Custom and 
the Muslim India, in Transactions of the Grotius 
Society, xx v ; S. Roy, Customs and Customary Law 
in British India, Calcutta 1911; Hamid Ali, 
Custom and Law in Anglo-Muslim Jurisprudence, 
Calcutta 1938 (mainly on the Memons) ; L. Moore, 
Malabar Law and Custom, Madras 1905; R.V. 
Russel and Hira Lai, Tribes and Castes of the 
Central Provinces, London 1916; R. E. Enthoven, 
Tribes and Castes of Bombay, Bombay 1920; 
Punjab Customary Law, 24 vols., Calcutta-Lahore, 
1881-1911 ; W. H. Rattigan, A Digest of Civil Law 
for the Punjab, ith ed., London-Lahore 1909; 
H. A. Rose, A Compendium of the Punjab Customary 
Law, Lahore 191 1 ; C. L. Tupper, Punjab Customary 
Law, Calcutta 1881; Customs in the Trans-border 
Territories of the North-West Frontier Provinces, in 
JASB, 1904, pt. 3, extra number, 1 ff.; H. H. 
Risley, Indian Census Report of 1901; Census of 
India 1931, i; A. A. A. Fyzee, Outlines of Muham- 
madan Law, Oxford 1949. 

(Shamoon T. Lokhandwalla) 
iv. — Indonesia. 1. The word, in the iormadat, 
has been adopted, not only in Malay but also in 
many other languages of the Indian archipelago. It 
comprises all things Indonesian that are custom, 
usage, practice. 

1. Adat thus includes also the juridical customs of 
a country or region. The scholars who studied the 
juridical parts of the general adat in Indonesia used 
the now well known word "adat law" (Adatrecht), 
and not the wider term "customary law", because at 
least among the Muslim population of Indonesia, not 
all the juridical customs in force were "customary" 
by origin. 

Some rules concerning marriage and divorce and 
law of inheritance are due to the impact of the 
shari'a on the Muslim Indonesian world. From the 
skari'a the Indonesians also took the institution of 
"pious foundations" (wakf). In some regions the 
influence of the shari'a on general rules of the law 
of relationship is visible. But otherwise some regional 
rule or institution was originally not unwritten law 
but due to a princely edict or order (viz. the older 
pesuara of the Balinese princes). Moreover in some 
regions one may find that parts of the law in the 
closed legal communities (desa, subak) are formulated 
in written local regulations (awig-awig desa in Bali). 



173 



The famous ta'WA-Jatafc-institution of Java — see §4 — 
is still often called by Javanese the djandji dalem, 
that is "the royal promise", because according to 
their tradition it was a seventeenth century king 
(susukunan) of Mataram, who gave this order to his 
subjects in that way. 

So far the situation in Muslim Indonesia is mutatis 
mutandis the same as in the older arid central 
countries of Islam. For, notwithstanding the totali- 
tarian pretention of the shari'a to be the formulation 
of God's eternal will, which is followed by every 
Muslim in any country, time or circumstances, only 
some chapters of the fikh system were actually 
enforced. 

2. The particular situation in Muslim Indonesia, 
however, is that an incessant discussion is going 
on about the worth of adat law and about the 
relation of adat law and the shari'a. 

Moreover those departments of juridical life which 
have been entirely Islamized in other countries: 
viz. law of matrimony, law of relationship, law of 
inheritance — are not the unchallenged domain of 
shari'a in Muslim Indonesia, as will be shown below. 
Before the second world war the more radical 
adherents of the nationalist parties argued that the 
pluriform adat law in the 18 juridical regions of the 
East Indies was an obstacle to the unification and 
modernization of the country. Their ideal became: 
one pan-Indonesian state, one (official) language 
and one law. They rejected the shari'a as well as 
adat law. Notwithstanding their anti-western attitude 
they believed — and partly still do — that western law 
should be introduced entirely. The former Dutch 
government often had (for its Indonesian subjects) 
considered the possibilities of westernization of private 
law but projects of codes were never carried out. 
Even unification of the adat law in force proved to 
be a troublesome experiment. Notwithstanding that, 
elements of western law began, rather long ago, to 
penetrate into Indonesian life as a consequence of 
modern enterprise, modern traffic and commerce. 
For several separate objects statute laws were made 
in order to meet modern needs, and this process is 
still going on. But this is adaptation of new rules 
where they are wanted. The main point is that adat 
law is still in force in all sections of Indonesian 
juridical life. Even now only the European group 
and the Chinese are subjected to western private 
law (Dutch codification). 

3. Apart from the arguments of radical adherents 
to western law, there is a dispute about the mutual 
relations between adat law and sharpa. In the 
remarkable country of Minangkabau (Western 
Sumatra, so-called Padang Highlands) this discussion 
has been going on for at least 150 years. The rather 
highly civilized and thoroughly Muslim people of 
Minangkabau still preserve, in defiance of the 
shari'a, their matrilineal system of relationship. 
This means that husband and wife do not form one 
family but belong to separate clans or sub-clans. The 
heirs to the man's estate are not his children but his 
sisters'children. His wife's brother or her maternal 
uncle has the highest authority over her children and 
not their father. The matrimonial bond is very loose. 
Even the mart-ship is only a formality — real authority 
belongs only to the matrilineal family-chiefs. 

For several generations two parties have existed 
in Minangkabau: the shari'a party and the adat 
party. Both groups have modernized their organi- 
zation and activities. In 1952 a large congress was 
held where all notable persons of the upland districts 
of Minangkabau, both 'ulamd' and non-religious 



174 



SADA — ADA KAL C E 



persons, a<ia/-functionaries and politicians tried to 
find a way out, that is to say a conciliation between 
both juridical complexes (on this occasion in the 
section of the law of inheritance) but without success. 
The view-point of the above-mentioned Minangkabau 
'■ulama', notwithstanding their concessions to adat 
law, was thoroughly traditional (orthodox). 

4. There is however one outstanding problem that 
was already before the war — to quote a Javanese poli- 
tician — "an inexhaustible source of disputes". This 
is the position of the woman, especially in Javanese 
life. From a social point of view the position of the 
Javanese woman is fairly high. But her position as 
a wife is extremely unsafe. The peculiar situation 
as far as this point is concerned is that in Java (and 
in Minangkabau) more than 50°/o of all marriages 
are dissolved by the husband's act of repudiation. 
Of course the shari'a gives the husband that right 
everywhere. It is remarkable however that in the 
Muslim regions where a patrilineal system of relation- 
ship is in force the matrimonial bond is strong, 
because the husband has to pay a considerable 
bride-price. In Java the so-called "tuku" (remnant 
of a bride-price) is only a combination of cheap pres- 
ents, and even the mahr of the shari ( a often remains 
unpaid. The socio-familial system in Java is bilateral. 

Since a score of years a strong current has set in 
against polygyny. Not in the first place against 
simultaneous polygyny (which is not so frequent: 
± 2°/o) but mainly against "successive" poly- 
gyny: the habit of the man (who can marry quite 
"cheaply") to exchange his wife for a younger one. 
The ta'lik-taldk-institution is not effective against 
this most serious social evil. This to'Hft-regulation 
is as follows: Immediately after contracting his 
marriage the husband has to declare to his wife's 
wall and the witnesses that, if he leaves his wife for 
a certain time without providing for her and without 
sending her tidings, if he severely illtreats her or 
commits another unseemly act — then his wife is free, 
if she likes to do so, to complain before the Muslim 
authority concerned. If there is evidence of her 
husband's failing in these respects the authority 
states one (aldfr to have taken place. 

The republic has improved the (officially edited) 
forms for the to'ft£-statements and given them by 
means of tiradf-paying the character of an eventual 
khuV-. And a bill is being prepared which is an 
interesting combination of elements of western law, 
Muslim religious law and adat law, although the 
prospects of its enactment are doubtful. 

This bill has the following salient points : (a) child- 
marriages (not frequent in Indonesia) are for- 
bidden; (b) each marriage is to be registered in a 
registrar's office in accordance with the European 
continental system; (c) the future married couple 
have to give each other certificates as to their health 
(influence of "eugenics"?); (d) the mutual rights 
and duties of husband and wife are circumscribed 
partly (mutatis mutandis) in the words of the Dutch 
code, partly in the terminology of the shari'a, espe- 
cially the duties of the "polygamous" husband; 
(e) As to polygyny in general: 1. polygyny is to be 
allowed only in the interest of society; 2. no man 
can take a second or third wife (etc.) without the 
consent of the wife (wives) he already has; 3. he 
requires a medical certificate stating that his health 
allows "polygamy"; 4. he must prove himself to 
possess the financial means to entertain more than 
one household; 5. the polygamisi in spe must 
promise to be "righteous" in his conduct. Otherwise 
the judge is given a considerable power to dissolve 



marriages in well-defined cases, again partly derived 
from articles of the Dutch code, partly from regional 
rules of adat law and the usual to'KA-formulas. 
Whether, however, in the intention of the bill, a 
Muslim husband can still repudiate his wife depends 
on the ultimate legislative elaboration of the bill. 

5. There are of course other points in the incessant 
disputes. As was already mentioned in § 3 above, 
there is the question of succession-law. Notwith- 
standing the fact that in Java Muslim courts exist 
(since centuries) which deal with all suits concerning 
Indonesian Muslim estates, it is well-known that 
in reality the Javanese, as well as the Sundanese 
and Madurese — outside the court — followed in case 
of partition of estates the lines of adat law. For this 
reason suits of this kind belong since 1937 to the 
competence of the common "secular" judge. There 
is still Muslim propaganda against this "colonial" 

Bibliography: C. van Vollenhoven, Het Adat- 
recht van Nederlandsch-Indie, Leiden 1918-32; 
Adatrechtbundel, i-xliv, The Hague i9ioff.; 
Pandecten van het Adatrecht, i-x, Amsterdam- 
Bandoeng 1914-36; Dictionnaire de termes de droit 
coutumier indonisien, Amsterdam 1934; Literatuur- 
Hjst voor het adatrecht van Indonesie', The Hague 
1927; I,. Adam, Methods and Forms of Investigating 
and Recording Native Customary Law in the 
Netherlands East Indies before the war, Leiden 
1948; G.-H. Bousquet, in REI, 1938, 225 ft.; 
B. ter Haar, Adat Law in Indonesia, transl. E. A. 
Hoebel and A. A. Schiller, 2nd ed., New York 
1952; J. Prins, Adat en Islamietische Plichtenleer 
in Indonesie, The Hague 1948; idem, A dot law and 
Muslim Religious Law in modern Indonesia, WI, 
1951; idem, Random de oude strijdvraag van 
Minangkabau, Indonesie, vii ; Soepomo, Kedudukan, 
hukum adat di kemundianhari, 1947; Hazairin, 
Hukum Islam dan masjarakat, 1950; idem, Hukum 
baru di Indonesia, 1951 (?); idem, Pergolakan, 
1952 (?)• (J. Prins) 

ADA KAL'E, island in the Danube in Rumania, 
inhabited by Turks, 4 kms above the Iron Gates 
and »/« km below Orsova; 800 by 200 m. In the 
15 th century the Ottoman Turks occupied the 
strategic points of the river in this region, but the 
island is mentioned for the first time only in 1691, 
when the vizier Dursun Meljmed Pasha conquered 
the "little island in the straits of Irshowa (Orsova)" 
which was then occupied by 400 soldiers and called 
Shans addsi, i.e. "entrenchment island", from 
German Schanz (Silihdar FlndlklUl Mefcmed Agha, 
Ta>rikh, Istanbul 1928, ii, 540). In 1716 the first 
durable fortifications were built by the muhdfiz of 
the Iron Gates, Cerkes Mehmed Pasha (Mehmed 
Rashld, Ta'rikh, Istanbul 1153, ii, 153). After 
occupation by the Austrians, it was retaken by C A1I 
Pasha, called serddr-i ekrem, in 1738; it is on this 
occasion that the name Ada Kal'esi appears for the 
first time (cf. Mehmed Subhi, Ta>rikh-i Wekd'F, 
Istanbul 1198, 131, 134). It depended from the wdli 
of Vidin. The last struggles round Ada Kal c e took 
place in 1788, when during the expedition of the 
sadr a'pam Kodja Yusuf Pasha against the army 
of Laudon, the last time when Ottoman troops 
appeared in the Banat, the island played the role 
of a river base. Yusuf Pasha built a large bridge 
between Orsova and Tekye (Tekija) and reinforced the 
"fortress of the Great Island (Ada-i Keblr Kal'esi)". 
(The expedition is described in detail by an anonymous 
writer in Sefer-ndme-yi Serddr-i Ekrem Yusuf Pasha, 
MS Istanbul, Univ. Kitapsarayl, T.Y. 3254; another 



ADA IJAI/E — ADAB 



175 



1 of the writer). During the 
revolt of the Serbians, the island became an im- 
portant stronghold of the Empire. The Dayt, who 
surrendered in Belgrade, were executed in Ada Kal'e 
by the muhdfiz Redjeb Agha in 1809 (Ahmed Pjewdet, 
TaMkh, Istanbul 1309, ix, 126, 128). Somewhat 
later Redjeb Agha himself, following the example 
of the a'ydn in the Balkans, rebelled, but was 
executed. His brothers, Adem, Bekir and Salih, 
who occupied the fortress of Feth Islam (Kladovo), 
had to retire to the island. Well Pasha, son of 'All 
Tepedelenli, who had been charged with the paci- 
fication of Serbia, granted them pardon, on which 
they surrendered the island. After 1867, when the 
Turkish garrisons evacuated Serbia, Ada Kal'e 
remained without direct communication with the 
capital. At the Congress of Berlin (1878) the island 
was forgotten, and so remained an isolated possession 
of the Ottoman Empire, administered by a ndhiye 
mudurii. Its inhabitants elected deputies to the 
Turkish parliament. By the treaty of Trianon (1920), 
it was incorporated, with the Banat, into Rumania; 
but this was recognized by Turkey only by the 
treaty of Lausanne (1923). 

At the present day, the island has 640 Turkish 
inhabitants. There are schools for the Muslim 
population. The fortifications, in red brick and 
stones, with their basements and cisterns, are 
noteworthy, as well as the mosque built by Sellm 
III, with a ziydret-gdh of Miskin Baba, a derwish 
who came in the 18th century from Turkestan and 
died on the island. 

Bibliography: Ali Ahmed, Insula Adakaleh, 

Turnu-Severin 1938; I. Kunos, Turkische Volks- 

marchen aus Adakale, Leipzig-New York 1907 

(Turkish transl. after the Hungarian ed., by 

Neemi Seren, Istanbul 1946; the Hungarian 

edition, Budapest 1906); id., Ungarische Revue, 

1908, 88-100, 423-33; Hammer-Purgstall 2 , iv, 

346 ff. ; N. Iorga, Gesch. Osm. Reiches, iv, 230, 

244, 342, 438; v, 77, 83; K. Dapontes, E<p7)(jtEp£8E<; 

Aaxixe?, ed. C. Erbiceanu, in Cronicarii greet 

carii au scris despre Romdni in epoca fanariotd, 

Bukarest 1888, s.s. 1738; Dionisie Eclesiarhul, 

Chronograful Jarii Romdnesti dela 1769 pdnd la 

1815, in Papiu Ilarianu, Tesauru de monumente 

islorice pentru Romdnia, Bukarest 1863, ii, 178. 

(Aurel Decei) 

ADA PAzARf, flourishing town in the province 

of Kodja-eli, Turkey, situated at 40 47' N., 30 23' 

E., in the fertile plain known as Akowa on the lower 

course of the Sakarya river. Originally it lay between 

two arms of this river (hence the earlier name Ada, 

"Island"), but now lies between the Sakarya and 

the Carkh suyu. It was occupied by the Turks under 

Orkhan and is mentioned for the first time in a 

t»a*/-foundation which goes back to him (T. Gok- 

bilgin, XV. ve XVI. astrlarda Edirne ve Pasa livasi, 

Istanbul 1952, 161). In 1795 it appears, with the 

modern name of Adapazarl, as the seat of a nd'ib. 

In 1852-3 it was raised to the rank of a town, and 

about 1890 had 24,500 inhabitants, according to 

V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, iv, Paris 1899, 372 ff. 

By the census of 1950 the population had risen to 

36,210. It is a trading centre for local produce, 

especially tobacco, vegetables and fruit. There are 

no Islamic monuments of importance. 

Bibliography: Ch. Texier, Descr. de I'Asie 
Mineure, i, Paris 1839, 52 ff.; J- B. Tavcrnier, 
The Six Voyages, Londen 1677-78, i, 3; Abu 
Bakr Faydi, Khuldsa-yi Ahwal al-Bulddn . . ., 
Istanbul Univ. Lib., Fotokopiler 28,312 f.; A. 



Refik, Istanbul Hayatt 1100-1200, 1st. 1931, 189; 
Talia Balcloglu, Adapazarl, 1st. 1952; Talat 
Tarkan, Adapazarl ilcesi,lst., n.d.; Serif Kayabo- 
gazt, Izmit-Sapanca-Adapazart vadisi, 1st. 1929; 
Turk (InGnii) Ansiklopedisi, s.v. (R. Anheooer) 
ADAB (a.). The history of this word reflects, 
parallel to and even better than the history of the 
words Him and din, the evolution of Arab culture 
from its pre-Islamic origins to our own day. In its 
oldest sense, it may be regarded as synonym of 
sunna, with the sense of "habit, hereditary norm 
of conduct, custom" derived from ancestors and 
other persons who are looked up to as models (as, 
in the religious sense, was the sunna of the Prophet 
for his community). The etymology of the word 
put forward by Vollers and Nallino agrees with 
this earliest meaning: both considered that the 
plural dddb was formed from da'b ("custom, habit"), 
and that the singular adab was subsequently derived 
from this plural. (Indigenous lexicographers connect 
it with the root 'db, meaning "marvellous thing", 
or "preparation, feast"). In any case, the oldest 
meaning of the word is that already given: it implies 
a habit, a practical norm of conduct, with the 
double connotation of being praiseworthy and being 
inherited from one's ancestors. 

The evolution of this primitive sense accentuated, 
on the one hand, its ethical and practical content: 
adab came to mean "high quality of soul, good 
upbringing, urbanity and courtesy", in this accep- 
tation corresponding to the refining of bedouin ethics 
and customs as a result of Islam (cf. Wensinck, 
Handbook, s. v. adab) and contact with foreign 
cultures during the first two centuries A.H. Thus, 
at the beginning of the 'Abbasid epoch, adab in 
this sense was the equivalent of the Latin urba- 
nitas, the civility, courtesy, refinement of the cities 
in contrast to beduin uncouthness. (In this sense, 
the lexicons use the word zarf, courtesy and elegance, 
to explain adab.) The word kept this ethical and 
social meaning during the whole period of medieval 
Muslim civilization. So, for example, adab, etiquette, 
of eating, drinking, dressing [cf. ta'Am, sharab, 
libas]; adab, etiquette, of the boon companion (cf. 
the treatise j4<2<j6 al-Nadim by Kushadjim andNADlin) ; 
from another sphere : adab, etiquette, of disputation : 
cf . several treatises entitled Adab al-Bahth and baiith ; 
etiquette of study (cf. books on Adab al-Dars, Adab 
al-'Alim wa'l-Muta c allim, and tadris). 

However, from the first century of the hidjra, 
adab, in addition to this ethical and social meaning, 
acquired an intellectual meaning, which was at 
first connected with the first meaning, but then 
became increasingly differentiated from it. Adab 
came to imply the sum of knowledge which makes 
a man courteous and "urbane", profane culture 
(as distinct from Him, learning, or rather, religious 
learning, Ku'ran, hadith and fikh) based in the 
first place on poetry, the art of oratory, the historical 
and tribal traditions of the ancient Arabs, and also 
on the corresponding sciences: rhetoric, grammar, 
lexicography, metrics. Consequently this humanistic 
concept of adab was at first strictly national: the 
perfect adib, in the Umayyad period, was the man 
who excelled in knowledge of the ancient poets, in 
the ayydm al-'Arab, in the poetical, historical and 
antiquarian sphere of Arab culture. But contact 
with foreign cultures widened the content of adab, 
or Arab humanitas, into humanitas without quali- 
fication; it now included a knowledge of those 
sections of non-Arab (Indian, Iranian, Hellenistic) 
literature (i.e. gnomic and technical literature) with 



which Arab Muslim civilization became familiar 
from the early Abbasid period onwards. The adib 
of the 3rd/9th century, of which al-Djahiz was the 
most perfect example, was therefore not only 
cultivated in Arabic poetry and prose, in maxims 
and proverbs, in the genealogy and tradition of the 
didhiliyya and of the Arabs at a time when they were 
hardly yet Islamized, but broadened out his range 
of interest to include the Iranian world with all its 
epic, gnomic, and narrative tradition, the Indian 
world with its fables, and the Greek world with its 
practical philosophy, and especially its ethics and 
economics. It was thus that in the 3rd/9th century 
there came into being the great literature of adab, 
with its varied and pleasing erudition, which is 
not pure scholarship although it often also touches 
on, and handles scientific subjects, but which is 
centred above all on man, his qualities and his 
passions, the environment in which he lives, and the 
material and spiritual culture created by him. 
Within this domain al-Djahiz and his followers 
(Abu IJayyan al-Tawhidl, al-Tanukhi, etc.) turned 
to account and extended the heritage bequeathed 
to Muslim society in the previous century by the 
Iranian genius Ibn al-Mukaffa', who can be described 
as the true creator of this enlarged conception of 
adab, with his versions of foreign historical and 
literary works (Khuddy-ndmak and Kalila wa-Dimna) 
and his original ethical and didactic tracts (al-Adab 
al-Kabir and al-Saghir (though the authenticity of 
the latter is very questionable). The literature of 
adab is the very backbone of high 'Abbasid culture. 
The richness and complexity of this concept of 
adab, as humanity or culture, was on the other hand 
reduced, already in the 'Abbasid epoch, to a narrower 
acceptation. From its meaning of the "necessary 
general culture" expected of any man of superior 
education, it took on the specific meaning of "the 
knowledge necessary for given offices and social 
functions". Thus one could speak of an adab al-kdtib 
or culture specially required for holding the office 
of secretary (such is the title of a treatise by Ibn 
Kutayba [cf. also katib]); or of the adab or adab 
of viziers, in the sense of the sum of special knowledge 
and experience proper to this office. [For the adab 
of the kadi, cf. also kadi]. On the other hand, the 
concept adab ended by losing the wide humanistic 
acceptation that it had had during the golden age 
of the caliphate and became restricted to a narrower, 
and more rhetorical sphere of "belles-lettres": 
poetry, artistic prose, paremiography, and anecdotal 
writing. This was the kind of adab at which al-IJarirl 
was an adept, with his verbal virtuosity and his 
entirely formal and purist interests. From humanitas, 
adab had become merely the literature of the academy, 
and remained so throughout the long decadence of 
Arabic letters and spirit right up to the time of the 
modern renaissance. 

In the modern age adab, and even more so its 
plural adab, are synonyms of literature in the most 
specific sense of the word. Ta'rikh al-Adab al- 
'Arabiyya is the history of Arabic literature; 
kulliyyat al-adab is the faculty of arts of letters in 
the universities organized in the European manner. 
But beyond the limits of technical nomenclature, 
the conscious usage of certain writers (e.g. Taha 
Husayn) tends to give back to the word something 
of its former elasticity and amplitude. 

Bibliography: Nallino, Scritti, vi, 2-17. For 
books on various species of etiquette, cf. also 
Brockelmann, iii, index s.v. adab, adab; rjadjdjl 
Khalifa, s.v. adab and adab. (F. Gabrieli) 



'ADAD [see hisab]. 

ADAL, one of the Muslim states in East 
Africa that played an important part in the wars 
between Islam and Abyssinian Christendom. Al- 
Makrlzi (al-Ilmdm bi-Akhbar man bi-Ard al-Habasha 
min Muluk al-Isldm, Cairo 1895, 5) enumerates the 
following seven Islamic states in Southern and 
Eastern Abyssinia, which he designates as mamdlik 
bildd Zayla 1 : Awfat (the common form is Ifat), 
Dawaro, Arayabnl (Arabayni, Arababni), Hadya, 
Sharkha, Ball, Dara. From Abyssinian chronicles, 
other states are known which stood on the same 
footing as the above, one of them being Adal. — Adal 
('Adal) is the farthest east of those states, and is 
approximately identical with the present "C6te fran- 
Qaise des Somalis". The inhabitants are partly Somali, 
partly 'Afar (Danakil [see dankali]). It is mentioned 
for the first time in the wars between the Abyssinian 
king 'Amda Seyon (1314-44) and the Muslims. In 
the march of 'Amda Seyon upon Zayla' (1332), the 
king of Adal, who attempted to bar his passage, 
was vanquished and killed. The rulers of Adal have 
the title of amir, later on also the title of imam, in 
the Arabic texts, but of negus, "king", in the 
Ethiopic chronicles. In the 15th century Adal was 
part of Ifat (Awfat [q.v.]); in the 15th century the 
amir of Adal ruled over Ifat and had his capital 
at Dakar to the east of Harar. Under the kings 
Zar'a Ya'kob (1434-68) and Ba'eda Maryam (1468-78) 
negotiations took place between the Abyssinians 
and Adal; afterwards there was fighting between 
them with changing fortune. Adal frequently served 
also for the Muslims from districts further to the 
west as a refuge from the Abyssinians, who, however , 
often followed them thither. The Muslim writers 
(al-MakrizI and 'Arabfakih, Futuh al-Habasha) do 
not mention Adal — unless it is meant by 'Adal 
al-Umara' (al-MakrizI, loc. cit., 2) — but refer only 
to the sultanate of Zayla' in that region. Further, 
the king of Adal, Mehmad son of Arwe Badlay 
(Perruchon, Chroniques de Zar>a Yd'eqdb et de 
Ba'eda Mdrydm, 131), belonged to the family of 
the sultans of Zayla'; he was a grandson of the 
celebrated Sa'd al-DIn, after whom the dynasty 
and the land were called (Barr Sa'd al-Din). The 
latter reigned 1386-1415 ; he fell in 1415 in the battle 
with King Yeshak of Abyssinia (1414-29). "Adal" 
and "empire of Zayla'" are often synonymous, and 
their histories are closely connected with each other 
[cf. zaylaI. With regard to the 16th century see 
also ahmad gran. In the later history of those 
countries, the wars with the Muslim Somali and 
'Afar are thrust into the background by those with 
the Galla, who since 1540 warred with the Christians 
and Muslims of Abyssinia. Adal is still mentioned 
a few times in the chronicles. Even in the 19th 
century, before England, France and Italy took 
possession of the Abyssinian littorals, King Sahla- 
Sellase of Shoa called himself also "King of Adal". 
Bibliography: E. Cerulli, Documenti Arabi 
per la Storia dell'Etiopia, Mem. Lin., 1931, fasc. 
ii; idem L'Etiopia del secolo XV in nuovi documenti 
storici, Rivista Africa Italiana, 1933, 80-98; idem, 
Studi Etiopici I : La lingua e la storia di Harar, Rome 
J 936, 15-6; idem, II Sultanato dello Scioa nel secolo 
XIII secondo un nuovo documento storico, Rassegna 
di Studi Etiopici, 1941, 28-9; J. S. Trimingham, 
Islam in Ethiopia, London 1952. 
'ADALA [see 'adl]. (E. Littmann*) 

ADALYA [see antalya]. 

ADAM, the father of mankind (Abu'l-Bashar). 
In the Kur'an it is related that when God had 



created what is on the earth and in the heavens 
he said to the angels: "I am about to place a sub- 
stitute (khalifa) on earth", and they said: "Wilt 
thou place thereon one who will do evil therein and 
shed blood, whereas we celebrate thy praise and 
' sanctify thee?" Then God taught Adam the names 
of all things, and as the angels did not know the names 
Adam taught them these (ii, 28-32 Fl.). Thereafter 
God ordered the angels to prostrate themselves 
before Adam, and this they did with the exception 
of Iblls who in his haughtiness said that he was of 
higher rank, since he was created of fire, whereas 
Adam was created of clay (ii, 33; vii, 12 f.; xv, 26-36; 
xvii, 64; xviii, 49; xx, 116), cf. xv, 27 "we created 
man of dried clay, of black shaped mud". Iblls was 
expelled from the garden (vii, 12; xvii, 66), in which 
Adam and his wife were placed to live pleasantly 
there, but with the order not to come near to "this 
tree" (ii, 35; vii, 19, cf. xx, 116 f.). Next follows the 
fall of man. "And Satan (al-shay(dn) caused them to 
slip from it (the garden) and had them removed 
from the state wherein they were" (ii, 36). He 
whispered to them in order to reveal, to them their 
nakedness, and said that the tree was forbidden to 
them lest they should become angels and live eter- 
nally. So they ate of the tree and saw their naked- 
ness and they sewed the leaves of the garden to 
cover them (vii, 20; xx, 120 f.). Then God sent 
them down on earth to live there as enemies, but 
when Adam asked for forgiveness, God promised 
him guidance (ii, 36-37; vii, 24-26; xx, 122-123). It 
is said that God had a covenant with Adam at first, 
but Adam forgot it (xx, 115), and God said "Have I 
not had a covenant with you, sons of Adam, that 
you will not serve Satan" (xxxvi, 60, cf. v, 172). 
Adam was chosen by God, as later Nuh and the 
families of Ibrahim and c Imran (iii, 23). Like Adam 
only c Isa was created in a special way (iii, 59). 

The non-Biblical elements in this account are to 
be found in Jewish, in some cases in Christian 
tradition. God's conversation with the angels before 
Adam's creation and Adam's superiority because 
of his knowledge about the names is known from 
Beres/tit Rabba, xvii, 4; Bemidbar Rabba, xix, 3; 
Pesikta, ed. S. Buber, 34a; Vita Adami (Kautzsch, 
Pseudepigrapken, 513). The 7rpoax\iv>)ais of the 
angels before Adam is not commanded by God in 
Jewish writings. The angels wanted to honour him 
as God, but were prevented from doing so as God 
made Adam sleep (Bereshit Rabba 8, 10; Pirke R. 
Eliezer, 19). On the other hand Athanasius (Quaestio 
X ad Antiochum) refers to the idea (which he rejects) 
that Satan fell because he refused to 7ipoaxuv?jaai 
before Adam. In Vita Adami, I.e., whose origin is 
incertain, the angel Michael prostrated himself to 
Adam and called upon the other angels to do so, 
and it is understood, but not said, that God approved 
of it. In the Christian Syriac Cave of Treasures (ed. 
Bezold, 14 f.) God gave Adam power over all beings, 
and the angels worshipped him except the jealous 
devil who then was turned out from the heavens. 
God's covenant with Adam is mentioned Sanhedrin, 
38b; Augustin, De civttate dei, xvi. 27, and Adam's 
remorse 'Erubin, 18b; '■Aboda Zara, 8a; Vita Adami, 
512- 

In post-Kur'anic tradition the kisas about Adam 
were growing, and these also reflect to a great 
extent Jewish and Christian influence. They are 
mainly found in &ji«A-collections, in ftijaj-collect- 
ions, in the works of general history, and in the 
commentaries to the Kur'an. 

As a preparation for the creation of Adam it is 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



related that God sent Gabriel and after him Michael 
to the earth to take a handful of clay {tin), but the 
earth refused to give it for that purpose, then the 
angel of death was sent and took by force red, 
white and black clay; this is why men have different 
colours. Adam got his name because he was taken 
from the surface, adim, of the earth. The clay was 
kneaded and worked on until it became sticky, then 
slimy, stinking and at last a body of dry clay 
(salsjl). Some authors tell that Iblls went into his 
mouth and emerged from his anus and vice versa; 
then the spirit was blown into him by God and 
went into his brain, from where it went into his 
eyes, his nose and further through the whole body, 
whereafter the body became flesh, blood, bone, 
veins and sinews. According to a tradition ascribed 
to the prophet the dust for the head was taken from 
the Ka'ba, for breast and back from Jerusalem, 
thighs from Yaman etc. (al-Tabart, i, 87 ft.; idem, 
Tafsir, i, 159; al-Mas'udl, Murudj, 1, 51-3; al-Kisal, 
23-7; al-Tha'labl, 17). In Jewish tradition the clay 
for Adam's body was taken from the place of the 
temple or from the whole world, in different colours, 
and Adam was first shaped as a lifeless body {golem) 
(Tar gum Yerushalmi, to Gen. ii, 7; Sanhedrin, 38a; 
Pirke R. Eliezer, c. n); a similar Christian tradition 
is found with Cyprian and Augustine. The beauty 
and the length of the body of Adam are mentioned 
in Muslim tradition (al-Tha'labl, 22, cf. Kur'an, 
xcv, 4) as well as in Jewish (Bereshit Rabba, viii, 1 ; 
xii, 6; Sanhedrin, 38b) and Christian (Cave of Trea- 
sures, ed. Bezold, p. 12) literature. 

The Jewish literature follows the tale of the Bible, 
in which the serpent seduces man. In Vita Adami 
(Kautzsch) 521, Satan speaks through the mouth 
of the serpent, and this is Christian tradition (Cave 
of Tr., 22, Augustine, De civitate Dei, xiv, n, Bar 
Hebraeus, Ta'rikh Mukhtasar al-Duwal, 7). Whereas 
the Kur'an speaks only of Satan as the seducer, the 
Muslim tradition also introduces the serpent. The 
serpent speaks by order of Iblls (al-Tabari, Tafsir, 
viii, 107), or Iblls is carried into the garden by the 
serpent in its mouth or its belly (al-Tabari, 104-6). 
In the Kisas of al-Kisa% (36-9) and al-Tha'labl, (20) 
the peacock (fd'us) appears. Iblls tries to enter the 
garden in order to seduce Adam, but God prevents 
him. Then he meets the peacock, the chief of the 
animals in the garden, whom he tells that all creatures 
shall die, but that he can show where the tree of 
eternity is. The peacock tells this to the serpent, the 
serpent goes to Iblls, who rushes into its mouth and 
thus comes into the garden and speaks through the 
serpent to Adam and Eve, and Eve eats of the tree. 
The forbidden fruit is in Jewish tradition mainly 
mentioned as grape or fig or wheat (Berakot, 40a, 
Bereshit Rabba, xv, 7), the same and other opinions 
are found in Christian and Muslim tradition (al- 
Tabari, Tafsir, i, 183 ft. and other commentaries 
to Kur'an, ii, 35; al-ThaHabi, 19). [For Eve see 

?AWWi.] 

As Adam was ordered to "go down" (habafa) to 
the earth paradise was thought to be in heaven. 
Al-Tabari says (i, 121) that the tradition that Adam 
was placed in India (al-Hind) has been refuted 
neither by Muslim, Christian nor Jewish scholars. 
The most common tradition is that he alighted in 
Ceylon (Sarandib), Eve in Djidda, Iblls in Baysan 
(or Maysan or Ubulla), the serpent in Isfahan (or 
the desert). Later Adam and Eve met in Muzdalifa 
and c Arafa (al-Tabari, i, 121; al-Mas c udI, i, 60; 
al-Ya c kubI, i, 3; al-ThaHab!, 21 f.). This is to be 
understood in connexion with the idea that Adam, 



who according to a tradition founded the Jewish 
festivals ('Aboda Zara, 8a), accomplished the hadidj 
ceremonies, the black stone being sent to him from 
heaven, whereafter he built the Ka c ba (al-Tabarl, i, 
122; al-Ya'kubl, i, 3; al-Tha'labi, 23). He also 
learned," with Eve, the use of fire, agriculture and 
handicraft, according to a tradition of Jewish origin 
(Hamza al-Isfahanl (Gottwald), 84, Berlin 1340, 57; 
al-Tabarl, i, 123, 126 f f . ; al-Tha'labl, 23-5). According 
to al-Tha c labI he even coined dirkams and dinars, 
as they are necessary for normal life. In continuation 
of the namegiving it is said that Adam learned all 
nouns and greetings and religious formulas (al- 
Tabarl, i, 93 ff.; al-Ya'kubl, 3). The presupposition 
is that Adam spoke Aramaic (Sanhedrin, 38b; 
Barhebraeus, Chron. Syr., 5). Al-HalabI (al-Sira 
al Halabiyya, Cairo 1329, i, 20) says that Adam 
spoke. Arabic in Paradise, but on the earth he spoke 
suryaniyya, and he wrote the 12 known kinds of 
writing, al-Kisal (28) that he spoke 700 languages, 
of which the best was Arabic. He also wrote books 
(al-DInawarl, 8). 

When Adam and Eve were united they begot 
children, first Kabil and Habll [q.v.], each with a 
twin-sister. Adam married them each to the brother's 
twin-sister, therefore Kabil was jealous and killed 
Habil. Shith [q.v.], who was born without a sister, 
was the favourite of Adam and his spiritual heir 
(wast). Adam begot many other children, one 
of whom was named 'Abd al-Harith; al-Tha'labi says 
that Eve bore a boy and a girl twenty times and 
that the number of Adam's offspring was 40,000 
before he died. Al-Halabi mentions five gods of the 
Arabs who were sons of Adam ; Iblis made images 
of them and these were worshipped by later gener- 
ations (al-Tabari, i, 149 ff., 160 ff. ; al-Mas'udi, i, 
62 f.; al-Ya'kubi, 4f.; al-Tha'labi, 27; al-Halabi, 
Sira, i, 12). 

God rubbed the back of Adam, and all his offspring 
appeared to him, amongst them David. When Adam 
heard that David should live only a short time he 
gave him 40 (50 or 70) years of his own life-time, so 
that he did not reach the 1,000 years that were 
destined for him (al-Tabari, i, 156 f.; Ibn Sa c d, i/i, 
7f.; al-Tha c labI. 26). The same occurs in Jewish 
tradition (Bemidbar Rabba, xvi, 12 ; Yalkut Shim'oni, 
§ 41; Pirke R. Eliezer, c. 19), and a related idea is 
the Christian tradition that everything was created 
at the same moment (Barhebraeus, Ta'rikh Muhhlasar 
al-Duwal, 7). 

Adam was created on Friday, the 6th of NIsan, 
year 1. On the same day he was expelled, and he 
died on a Friday at the same date of the month (al- 
Tabarl, i, 155 ff-; al-Mas c udi, i, 60, 69; al-Ya'kubl, 
i, 4). He was buried, with Eve, in a cave, maghdral 
al-kunilz; at the foot of Abu Kubays near Mecca 
(al-Tabarl, i, 163; al-Ya<kubI, 4). Al-Tha<labi, 30, 
relates that after the flood he was brought to 
Jerusalem, following a Christian tradition that he 
was taken from the ark to Golgotha, the centre of 
the earth [Cave of Treasures, 38-42, 84, 112, 148), 
where the "chapel of Adam" is situated in the 
church of the holy sepulchre (see W. H. Roscher, 
Der Omphalosgedanke, Leipzig 1918; E. Wifstrand, 
Konstantin's Kirche am heiligen Grabe, Goteborg 
1952, 30 ff.). 

Adam was not only the first of men, but also the 
first of prophets, and so his position became influ- 
enced by the Muslim way of thinking. Just as 
Jesus was the second Adam in Christianity, a con- 
nexion was established in Islam between Adam 
and Muhammad, with Adam as the first, Muhammad 



as the last apostle (rasul). In the Sab'iyya system 
Adam is the first of the 7 ndtik's, and some say 
there were men and ndtik's existing before him. 
Seth was his waft. They distinguish between Adam 
al-kulli. "all-Adam", identical with the intelligence 
( ( akl), from whom the emanation began, and Adam 
al-diuzH, the first one in the period of veiling. It 
is this ideal Adam before whom the angels prostrated 
themselves because he was godly, God's spirit being 
in him. This is sometimes designated as an incar- 
nation (hulul), which was continued by trans- 
migration (tandsukh). This deified ideal man was 
identified with "the perfect man" of Hellenism, 
and the same was by al-Halladj named ndsut. As 
Muhammad became the centre of mankind, an idea 
especially emphasized in sufism, it became his 
essence (hakika) or his "light" (nur) that manifested 
itself in Adam. All creatures were created for the 
sake of Muhammad, and Adam and his offspring 
were created of his light (al-Mas c udI, i, 56; al-Sira 
al-Halabiyya, 23; al-Tha c labi, 16). 

Bibliography: Kisat, Kisas al-A nbiya', 
Leiden 1923; Tha'labi, al-'Ard'is, Cairo 1325; 
Wensinck, Handbook, s.v. Adam; Baghdad!, Firak, 
Cairo 1328/1910, 280, 332; R. A. Nicholson, 
TheMathnawi of Jalal ud-DinRumi, viii, Index II; 
B. Lewis, The Origins of Ismd'ilism, Cambridge 
1940, 48; R. Strothmann, Gnosis-Texte der Ismai- 
liten, Gottingen 1943, 9, 19 f., 47, 100 f., 117, 
129, 162 f.; ZDMG, xv, 31 f.; xxiv, 284 ff.; xxv, 
59 ff-; RHR, v, 373-9; T. Andrae, Die Person 
Muhammeds, Stockholm 1917, 313 ft.; L. Mas- 
signon, Al-Hallaj, Paris 1922, index, s.v.; R. A. 
Nicholson, Studies in Islamic Mysticism, Cambridge 
1921, index, s.v.; Derourdemanche, La legende 
d'Adam, RHR, 1882; M. Grunbaum, Neue Bei- 
trdge zur semitischen Sagenkunde, Leiden 1893, 
54-79; L. Ginzberg, The legends of the Jews, 
Philadelphia 1909, i, 47-102; H. Speyer, Die 
Biblischen Erzdhlungen im Qoran, GrSfenhainichen 
1931, 41-83. (J. Pedersen) 

'ADAM (A.) is a translation of the Aristotelian 
term o"r£pY)m<; (privatio) and means the absence 
of existence or being. A definition of the word is 
found in Aristotle, Metaphysics, v, 22 and is taken 
over by the Arabic Aristotelians. On the whole in 
Aristotelian philosophy two meanings of the word 
must be distinguished: (1) absolute non-existence, 
that is absolute nothingness, (2) relative non- 
existence, namely (a) the absence of a quality in 
matter, (b) the pure potentiality of matter. Since 
the absence ot a quality contains, .according to 
Aristotle, potentially its opposite, it has as poten- 
tiality a certain positive character. The Aristotelian 
theory of becoming is based entirely on this concept 
of privation. There is no absolute becoming, all 
becoming is the actualization of a relative non- 
existent or potential. 

However, for Aristotle, even pure nothingness 
seems to have a certain being, for, according to him, 
by being something it is. But it is the Stoics who 
have discussed most acutely the problem of the 
existence of the non-existent and it is the reper- 
cussion of their discussions and their terminology 
which is found in Islam among the theologians. In 
particular the Mu'tazilites held that the non-existent 
is a thing {shay''), an entity (dhdt) and something 
positive (thdbit). According to them, before the 
existence of the world God knew the entities which 
He was going to create and what He knew had,, since 
He knew it, a certain reality. Creating the world 
He gave those entities the accident of existence. 



Among the philosophers al-Farabl and Ibn SIn§ 
regard, like the Mu'tazilites, existence as an accident, 
whereas for Ibn Rushd, as for the Ash'arites, 

Bibliography: The theory of 'adam as 
professed by the Mu'tazilites is found in the 
works dealing with that sect (e.g. Ibn Hazm, 
Fifal, v, 45); a good discussion is found in Shah- 
rastani, Nikdyat al-I^ddm (Guillaume), 150 ff. 
For a general discussion of the problem I refer 
to S. van den Bergh, transl. of Ibn Rushd's 
Tahd/ut al-Tahd/ut, ch. i and ii; see also S. Pines, 
Beitrdge zur islamischen AtomenUhre, 116 f. 

(S. van den Bergh) 
ADAMAWA, the name — deriving from the local 
leader of the Fulani djihdd in 1809 (see para. 5 
below)— given to a region in the hinterland 
of West Africa, and used: 

(a) of an area never precisely defined in geo- 
graphical terms but including the conquests of 
this djihdd and the resulting sphere of Fulani influence 
in the region, extending from Marua in the north 
to well beyond Ngaundere in the south and from 
Rei Buba in the east to west of Yola, — approximately 
from n° to 6° N. and 12° to 14 E. With the European 
occupation of this part of Africa early in the present 
century, the smaller and more closely populated 
western part came under the British administration 
of Nigeria, — the eastern section became part of the 
German Kameruns, which, after the German defeat 
in the 1914-18 war, were mandated to Great Britain 
and France by the League of Nations; 

(b) of a Province, area according to 193 1 census 
281, 778 sq. miles— known until 1927 as the Yola 
Province— in Northern Nigeria, containing that part 
of (a) west of the original Anglo-German international 
boundary, plus those areas of the former German 
Kameruns mandated to Great Britain. These consist 
of a small area north of the river Benue, and a larger 
area to the south of it. The Adamawa Province also 
includes the Amirate of Muri in its south west corner 
and some tribal areas, not covered by the old name 
Adamawa. It lies south of the Bornu Province and 
east of the Bauchi Province of Nigeria. 

2. Geography. The main features of Adamawa 
are the river Benue— the principal tributary of the 
river Niger and an international water-way which 
is navigable by steamers at the height of the wet 
season (August to October), and by large canoes and 
barges at all times,— running across its centre from 
east to west; the Mandara Mountains, over 3,000 
feet, running north and south, north of the river 
Benue; and an extensive crescent-shaped massif, — 
over 5,000 feet at its higher western end, — curving 
from east to west, south of the river Benue. 

3. Transport and Trade. The river Benue is 
itself extensively used for transport; the main 
caravan routes and modern motor roads run from 
south to north through the region. In earlier days, 
slaves and some ivory were the main exports; 
nowadays ground nuts and hides have replaced 
these, though there are numerous other items, 
including cotton, gum, sesame, etc. Imports consist 
of manufactured articles, especially cotton goods. 

4. Economy. The region is not industrialised, 
and contains no large towns. It is self-contained so 
far as the necessities of life are concerned. Its 
population is mainly agricultural and pastoral. Its 
capital wealth consists in the numerous herds of 
cattle, sheep and goats. 

5. Ethnography, (a) The population of the 
region comprises the Fulani (see article fulbe), both 



DAMAWA 179 

nomad and settled, and numerous pagan tribes. It 
is not possible to give figures with any accuracy for 
the indefinite region described in para. 1 (a) above. 
At the census of 1931, the salient figures for the 
Adamawa Province of Nigeria (para. 1 (b) above) 
were as follows: Fulani 150,936; Hausa [q.v.] 21,560; 
Kanuri [q.v.] 10,495; other tribes 467,138; these plus 
some minor groups gave a total population of 
1,024,755- 

The figures for the main pagan tribes were then: 
Bachama 19,703; Chamba 51,224*; Hona 6,604; 
Bata 23,003; Hiji 6,284; Kilba 22,799; Lala 9,733; 
Longuda 11,809; Mambilla 19,348; Mumuye 79,272; 
Vere 10,866; Wurkun 23,472; Marghi 151,223*. 
[Starred figures include members of the tribe outside 
the Provincial boundary, but inside the old "Ada- 

(b) Languages. Fulani (Fuffulde, see under fulbe) 
is the major language of the region, and the nearest 
approach to a lingua franca in it. Many of the pagan 
tribes now use it as such, though they have their own 
tongues, some of which are interconnected in 
varying degrees (e.g. Bura and Marghi with Kilba 
more remotely akin). Hausa is not much spoken 
outside the towns, and in them mostly by the 
trading elements. English and French are spoken 
only by those educated in the more advanced 
schools in the west and east of the region respectively. 

6. History. Prior to the Fulani diihdd, we have 
only orally transmitted tribal traditions. Most of 
the major tribes north of the river Benue do not 
claim to be indigenous and have traditions of 
immigration from the north and/or east. It seems 
clear that this was formerly the general direction 
of tribal movement, owing to the increasing desic- 
cation of the Saharan areas further north, and a 
consequent thrust of those tribes least able to 
survive southwards to the tsetse ridden coast. The 
Fulani must have entered Adamawa centuries before 
the djihdd. Local pagan tradition speaks (i; of an 
offshoot from the main Fulani trek (round the 
north and west African coasts, subsequently entering 
the West African hinterland from the direction of 
Senegambia), which entered Bornu and thence 
Adamawa from the north, having crossed the 
central Sahara by the westerly caravan route via 
Murzuk and Bilma), and (ii) of these Fulani arriving 
cattleless, having lost their herds en route, and then 
of their obtaining cattle from the local pagans. With 
the djihdd we cone to firm historical ground. When 
Usmanu bi Foduye [see 'uthman b. fOdI] started a 
djihdd in the Sokoto area in circa 1804, his reputation 
spread, and he was joined by a certain Modibbo 
(Fulani for mu'allim) Adama. This Modibbo Adama 
was born near Gurin, east of the Vere hills on the west 
bank of the Faro tributary and just south of the 
river Benue, had studied in Bornu as a youth under a 
certain Modibbo Kiari thereafter returning to a village 
called Weltunde in the Benue region. In 1806, 
Usmanu gave M. Adama a flag and a few warriors 
with instructions to return to his own country and 
to start the djihdd there. In 1809 Modibbo. Adama 
began a djihdd from Gurin, thus embarking on a 
career of conquest and slave raiding amongst the 
local pagan tribes. Speaking generally, the Fulani 
horsemen achieved success except where the pagans 
could avail themselves of mountainous features 
unsuitable for mounted men. In such areas, many 
pagan tribes, such as the Hiji, Marghi and Kilba 
north of the Benue and the Mambilla, Chamba and 
others south of it, maintained actual or virtual 
independence until the European occupation. 



In 1838, Modibbo Adama transferred his bead- 
quarters from Gurin (now only a tiny village, but still 
hallowed for its associations), to the nearby Ribadu, 
in 1839 to Joboliwo a little to the west, and, finally, 
in 1841, he founded Yola still more to the west (in 
Fulani the name means a raised area in a marsh), 
where he died in 1848. All these places are just south 
of the Benue river, and it is obvious that the intention 
was to control the river crossings. Details of the 
dynasty founded by Modibbo Adama are given below. 
The Fulani conquests, often amounting to little more 
than raids, were never closely organised except near 
to the capital. The administrative system was one 
of fiefs, feudal in character, the lesser chiefs owing 
allegiance to the lamido (Fulani = amir, plur: 
lamibe), and rendering tribute. But the tendency 
was centrifugal, and these fief holders (Fulani = 



of magnitude. After an initial period of raid and 
counter raid, the German Kameruns were taken 
by an Anglo-French expeditionary force, which 
captured Garua on 10.6.15, and Ngaundere 28.6.15. 
The German mountain fortress of Mora surrendered 
18.2.16. 

Bibliography: S. J. Hogben, The Muham- 
madan Emirates of Northern Nigeria, Oxford 1930. 
(Books listed as reference sources in sections 
4» 5. 7 of its Appendix — pp. 200-1 — are not 
given again here.) E. W. Bovill, Caravans of the Old 
Sahara, Oxford 1933; Brooke, Census of Nigeria 
1931, Vol. ii, London 1933; C. E..J. Whitting, 

The Literature ....of Nigeria, JRAS, 1943; 

Infahu'l Maisuri (Whitting). London 1951; Nigerian 
Government publications since 1900. 

(C. E. J. Whitting) 



The AhIrs of Yola 

I 

(1) Modibbo Adama 1809-48 



r 



~T~ 



T" 



"T - 



-| 



(2) Lauwal 1848-72 Hamidu (3) Sanda 1872-90 (4) Zubayru 1890-1901 (5) Bobbo Ahmadu 1901-9 

I I I 

Ahmadu (6) Iya 1909-10 (7) Muhammadu Abba 1910-2/ 

I I 

(8) Muhammadu Bello 1924-8 (9) Mustafa 1928-46 

I I 

(10) Ahmadu 1947 (11) Aliyu Mustafa 1953 



lamdo plur: lambe) often achieved virtual though 
not nominal independence, in proportion to the 
distance ot their fief from the capital. Good examples 
of this tendency were found in Madagaii and Rei 
Buba in the north and east of the region respectively. 
Adamawa as a name for the region seems to have 
become current in the Modibbo's lifetime, for it 
was in use in Bornu when Clapperton was there in 
1823-4. 

7. Religion. Islam is the religion of the Fulani 
and many pagans have been converted and are in 
process of conversion to it, though adherents of the 
animistic cults are still numerous. Christian missions 
now operate in the region. Of these the most im- 
portant numerically are the Church of the Brethren 
(American) in the Bura-Marghi tribal areas north ot 
the river Benue, and the Sudan United (Danish) 
amongst the riverain Bachama tribe, west of Yola. 
In the 1931 census, of the total population of 
1,024,755 for Adamawa Province, 674,516 were 
recorded as Muslim, 348,791 as animist, 1,425 as 
Protestant. It is certain that the next census will 
show considerable decrease of animists, a large 
increase ol Muslims and some increase of Christians. 

8. Miscellaneous. The first recorded European 
explorer was Dr. Barth in 185 1. The French 
Lieut. Mizon visited the region in 1891-3. The 
Niger Company traded from hulks in the river 
Benue for several years before the actual military 
occupation of Yola by British forces on 2nd 
September 1901, when Yola Town was spiritedly 
defended with the help of deserters from Rabeh's 
forces (see under Bomu) armed with modem rifles, 
and two cannon presented to the then Lamido by 
Lieut. Mizon, contrary to agreements negotiated 
by him. The German forces occupied Garua in 
March 1902, and the Anglo-German international 
boundary was delimited by a commission in April 
1903. During the world war of 1914-8 the region 
was the scene of military operations on a 
considerable scale, involving transport difficulties 



C ADAN (Aden) (i) town, (ii) British crown colony, 
(iii) British protectorate in S.W. Arabia. 

(1) Town and seaport on the South coast of 
Arabia, in British possession since 1839, with a 
mixed population of ca 35,000. c Adan (cf. akkad. 
edinu "steppe"), more precisely c Adan Abyan (by 
way of distinction from c Adan La'a, and al- c Adan 
in a verse of Ufnun al-Taghlibl; cf. Yakut, iii, 622 f., 
Kay, 232, AM, ii, 17, 284), or thaghr 'Adan from its 
being strongly fortified, is the Athene of Pliny, ' A6^v>) 
of Philostorgius, 'EuSatfxtov'Apapia of the Periplus, 
'Apapta 4(x7t6piov of Ptolemy (cf. Pauly-Wissowa, 
Suppl., iii, 6), and most probably the 'eden of Ez., 
xxvii, 23 (see recently v. Wissmann-Hofner, Beitrage 
*o6 (88), where also the triple L,^ ot CIH 5S<>, 
which may, however, be a fake, is quoted). For 
other names of the place see al-Makdisi, 30, IM, no 
(= Lofgren, Arab. Texte, i, 29). 

The peninsula of <Adan is an extinct volcano, 
nowadays called Shamshan (vulg. Shamsham), in 
earlier time al- c Urr "the mountain" ( c Urr c Adan); 
it is 177? feet (ca. 550 m.) high. On the east side is 
a gap in the range opposite to the island of SIra: 
here is the main part of the town, and the habitations 
reach the sea. c Adan was once an island: the low 
and narrow isthmus is still nearly covered at high 
spring tide. This disadvantage was removed by 
means of a bridge, al-Maksir, built by the Persians 
(cf. "Khor Maksar" west of the isthmus). Beside 
the main volcano there are several minor heights, 
e.g. Djabal Sira, IJukkat, Marshak (with a large 
light-house) and Dj. Hadtd (west of the isthmus). 
The old harbour was on the east side, in connexion 
with the town; a mole (shasna) was constructed to 
protect it against the SE wind (azyab). The excellent 
harbour to which c Adan now owes its importance is 
the large and well protected bay between the 
peninsula of c Adan and that of "Little Aden", with 
the mountains Muzalkam "Sugarloaf Peak" and 
Ihsan "Ass's Ears". Bandar Tawayih (Tawwahl), 



as the modern port is called, extends along the 
NW shore (for details see Red Sea and Aden pilot 
135). The habit of constructing dams and cisterns, 
typical of old Sabean culture, has left traces in the 
c Adan territory. There are remnants of some fifty 
reservoirs scattered over the peninsula. According 
to IM they were built by Persians from SIraf. They 
are attested by Salt in 1809 and by Haines, the 
future conqueror of 'Aden, in 1835, to be in a tolerable 
state; but from 1839 on they were neglected, and 
much of their stonework was carried away until 
1856, when the restoration of those inside the 
crater was begun. There are thirteen tanks holding 
nearly two millions litres of water, but the scanty 
and irregular rainfalls seldom fill them completely. 
There are numerous wells within the crater and in 
the west part of the peninsula (cf. IM, 131 ff.), but 
they cannot supply the need of drinking water, 
being for the most part brackish. In the Middle 
Ages al-Hayk (= al-Hiswa of to-day?) was "the 
watering-place (manhal) of 'Adan" (al-Hamdani, 53). 
In 1867 the British government got the permission 
of the sultan of Lahdj [q.v.] to build an aqueduct 
from the village of Shaykh 'Uthman. Later on 
condensers were installed. 

Legend usually ascribes the foundation of 'Adan 
to Shaddad b. c Ad [q.v.], who is said to have caused 
the famous tunnel to be cut through the mountain 
range and to have used the place as a prison. We 
are told the same of the TubbaH and the Pharaohs 
of Egypt, whence the name al-Habs or Habs Fir'awn. 
According to old tradition (e.g. al-Tabari, i, 144) 
Sabil, having killed his brother Habll [q.v.], fled 
with his sister from India to 'Adan, where he was 
visited by Iblis on Dj. Sira and taught the use of 
musical instruments. His grave is shown to-day 
above the Main Pass gate. The "abandoned well" 
(WV mu'attala, Ifur., xxii, 44) and Iram Dhat al- 
<Imdd [q.v.) (Kur., lxxxix, 6) are located in or near 
'Adan. The tradition of a fire coming from Yaman 
or 'Adan (Sira) and portending the day of judgement, 
ascribed in IJadith to Muhammad, may be some 
sort of reminiscence of volcanic activity. IM makes 
Hanuman, the Indian ape-god who has a temple in 
'Adan, fetch the wife of Ramacandra along a subway 
back to Udjdjayni from Sira, where she had been 
brought by a demon (Ravana). 

Population. According to al-Hamdani (53, 124) 
the Arabs of 'Adan were divided into three factions: 
Marab, Humahim (var. Pjamadjim, IM) and Mallah 
(cf. Yakut, iii, 622; BGA, iii, 102, iv, 206). The great 
number of Hindus and Somalis indicates a constant 
immigration by sea., IM 117 ff., has details on early 
migrations from Madagascar (Ifumr) via Mogadisho 
and Kilwa, and of Persians from SIraf and Kays 
(KIsh). Cf. Ferrand, Le K'ouen-Louen etc.(JA, 1919); 
Goitein, in BSOAS, 1954, 247 ff. ; idem, in Speculum, 
1954, 181 ff. A considerable number of the Jews of 
'Adan (abont whom see Encyclopaedia Judaica, s.v. 
Aden) were in recent years evacuated into Israel. 

The early history of 'Adan is very imperfectly 
known. From the Periplus (ca 50 A.D.) we learn 
that the place had been destroyed recently by KAICAP 
(probably an error for IAICAP = Ilisharah Yahdib, 
cf. v. Wissmann-Hdfner, Beilrdge 88), but in the time 
of Constantine the "Emporium Romanum" had recov- 
ered its old splendour; a church was built by the 
bishop Theophilus ca. 342. Later on 'Adan lost its 
importance in favour of the Red Sea ports of Ahwab 
and Ghulafika. The Persians (from 575 on) favoured 
culture in Yaman, building cisterns and bathhouses, 
and installing tanneries. After Badhan, the last 



Sasanid governor, had submitted 1 
'Adan was visited in 10/631 by 'All, who preached 
from its minbar. A mosque built by 'Umar b. 'Abd 
al-'AzIz was restored by Husayn b. Salama, the 
vizier of Banu Ziyad (204-429/819-1037). In 454/1062 
'AH b. Muhammad al-Sulayijl, dd'i of the Fatimids 
of Egypt, conquered 'Adan and presented it to 
Hurra Sayyida at her marriage with his son al- 
Mukarram in 461/1069. Banfl Ma'n, since 410/1019 
in possession of 'Adan after the Ziyadids, were left 
in charge of the place until 476/1083, when they 
rebelled and were replaced by two brothers of the 
Hamdanid family of al-Karam (Mukarram) b. Yam, 
the founders of the Zuray'id [q.v.] dynasty. 'Abbas 
took up his residence in the fort of Ta'kar, con- 
trolling the isthmus gate, while Mas'ud held the 
castle of Khadra' and superintended the sea trade. 
Later on the town was united in the hands of Muh. 
b. Saba' (534-48/1139-53) and his son 'Imran 
(-560/1165). The kharadj of 'Adan by this time is 
given as 100,000 dinars a year. In 569/1173 Turan 
Shah, the brother of Saladin, conquered Yaman by 
means of Turkish mercenaries (Ghuzz). The periods 
of Ayyubid (-625/1228), Rasulid (-858/1454) and 
Tahirid (-923/1517) dominion were a golden time 
for the trade of 'Adan. A new tax, collected by 
galleys (shawdni), was introduced by the Ayyubids. 

The discovery of the sea-route to India and the 
rise of the Ottoman power mark the beginning of 
decline in the trade of 'Adan. The Portuguese 
admiral Albuquerque attacked the town on Easter 
Eve 151 3 with twenty ships, but did not succeed in 
taking it. In 1538 a Turkish armada on its way to 
India outwitted the defenders, and the Turks 
dominated Yaman for nearly hundred years. 'Adan 
was lost to the Zaydi imams of San 'a' in 1568 and 
in 1630 the Turks left it finally. In 1735 'Adan 
passed into the hands of the 'Abdall sultan of 
Lahdj, whose descendant Muhsin was forced to 
cede it to the English expedition under Captain 
Haines, which had been sent to get an indemnity 
for the plundering of a British ship. In view of the 
sultan's treacherous attitude the place was taken 
by storm on the 20th January 1839. Of the pros- 
perous town visited by Marco Polo in 1276, with 
80,000 inhabitants and 360 (!) mosques, there was 
now left a miserable village of 600 persons living 
in huts. Since then the development of 'Adan has 
progressed rapidly, especially after the opening of 
the Suez canal in 1869, and this "Arabian Gibraltar" 
is now a mercantile centre of great and increasing 
importance. 

Buildings. A wall was built by the Zuray'ids for 
the protection of trade, and houses of stone increased 
in number. After the depart of Turan Shah his 
viceroy in 'Adan 'Uttiman al-Zandjfli (Zandjabill) 
built a larger wall, with six gates, and a custom- 
house. Other secular buildings of Tughtekln b. 
Ayyub, his son Isma'Il, the Rasulid 'AH al-Mudjahid, 
and the Tahirid 'Abd al-Wahhab are recorded, AM, 
10 ff. Of the "handsome baths, lined with marble 
and jasper, and covered with a dome", which were 
seen in 1708 by de Merveille (Playfair, from La 
Roque), nothing is left. Among the mosques of 
'Adan the most celebrated is that of Abu Bakr al- 
'Aydarus [q.v.], the patron of the town, whose ziydra 
is held on 15 RabI' II. Other masdjids are mentioned 
by Hunter (175 f.) and in AM. 

Bibliography: F. M. Hunter, An account of 

the British settlement of Aden, London 1877; 

F. Apelt, Aden. Eine kolonialgeographische u. 

kolonialpolitische Studie, Diss. Leipzig, 1929; 



- ADANA 



HamdanI, passim (Forrer's transl. 41s.); Yakut 
ill, 631; MakdisI, 30, et pass.; IdrisI (tr. Jaubert), 
i, 51; Kazwlnl (Wustenfeld), ii, 67; Abu '1-Fida', 
Takwim, transl. ii/i, 126; Ibn BattQta, ii, 177-9; 
Ibn al-Mudjawir (Ldfgren), i, 106-48 (= IM); 
Aba Makhrama, Ta'HMt Ihaghr 'Adan (= AM), 
in: O. LSfgren, Arabische Texte xur Kenntnis der 
Stadt Aden im MittelaUer, Uppsala 1936-50; 
Ahmad Fadl b. Mubsin al-'AbdaU, Hadiyyat aU 
Zaman fi Ahhbar Muluk Lah& wa- l Aian, Cairo 
1351/1932; R- L. Playfair, A history of Arabia 
Felix, Bombay 1859; H. C. Kay, Yaman, its 
early mediaeval history, London 1892; H. von 
Maltzan, Reise nach Sttdarabien, 1873; H. F - Jacob, 
Kings of Arabia, London 1923; H. lngrams, 
Arabia and the isles, London 1942; A. Grohmann, 
Siidarabien als Wirtschaftsgebiet, Wienna-Brunn 
1922-33; H. v. Wissmann and M. Homer, Beitrdge 
xur histor. Geographic des vorislam. Siidarabien, Wies- 
baden 1953. Map: Aden Protectorate 1930 (Geogr. 
Section, Gen. Staff, no. 3892; scale: 1 : 253.440). 
(ii) British territory (since 1937 crown colony) 
in SW Arabia, including 'Adan town, peninsula and 
isthmus, Shaykh 'Uthman town with surrounding 
district, "Little Aden" peninsula, and Perim island. 
Area: ca. 80 square miles. Population: ca. 45 ,000. 
(iii) British protectorate, divided into a 
Western and an Eastern half, with c Adan and 
Mukalla as centres, (a) The W. Aden Protectorate 
(ca. 40,000 sq. miles) comprises the "Nine Cantons", 
viz. (from W to E) Subayhl, 'Amirl (capital: Pali 1 ), 
'Alawl, Hawshabl (cap. Musaymir), c AbdalI (cap. 
Lahdj), c AkrabI, Upper and Lower Yafi% Fadll 
(cap. Shukra), Upper and Lower 'Awlalfl (cap. 
Ahwar), in addition to the 'Awdhall and Bayhani 
districts [see articles on each of them], (b) The 
E. Aden Protectorate (70-80,000 sq. miles) comprises 
the Hadramawt states (Ku<ayti and Kathlri) [see 
Bapramawt], the WahidI [q.v.] sultanates of Balhaf 
and Bir <A1I, the shaykhdoms of 'Irka [q.v.] and 
Hawra [q.v.], and the Mahrl sultanate of Kishn 
[q.v.] and Sukutra [q.v.]. Population: ca. 600,000. 
Bibliography: D. lngrams, A survey of social 
and economic conditions in the Aden protectorate, 
Asmara 1949. (O. L6pcren) 

ADANA (in Arabic script Adhana, Adana, 
Adana, in later times Atana), (i) city in southern 
Anatolia, (ii) Ottoman wildyet. 

(i) Adana, situated at 37° N, 35°i8 E, in the 
northern part of the plain of Cilicia (Cukurowa), on 
the right (western) bank of the Seyban river (the 
ancient Sarus), in Ottoman times the capital of the 
wildyet of Adana, since 1935 of the wildyet of Seyhan 
(see (ii) below) ; flourishing trading centre; population 
(1950) : 117,799- 

History. The changing fortunes of the city have 
been largely dominated by its geographical situation 
at the foot of the Taurus passes. Lying at the inter- 
section of the opposing spheres of interest of the 
Anatolian empires pushing southwards over the 
Taurus and the Syrian empires expanding towards 
the north, whose balance of forces or common 
weakness allowed the establishment of minor 
dynasties from time to time (Rubenids, Ramadanids), 
it found security only in an empire which embraced 
both Anatolia and Syria, as before the Arab conquest, 
and later under the Ottomans. Adana is an ancient 
settlement, which seems to have flourished at the time 
of the Lydian kings, was resettled by Pompey after 
its destruction by war, and under the East Roman 
empire was an important commercial centre which 
competed with Tarsus (cf. Pauly-Wissowa, i, 844). 



Adana was occupied by the Arabs in the middle 
of the 7th century, but frequently changed masters 
in their struggle with the Byzantines. Depopulated 
by the constant frontier wars, it was rebuilt by 
Harun al-Rashld and his successors and became a 
bastion in the chain of fortresses of the "Syrian 
marches" {thughUr al-Shdm). In 875 it was tem- 
porarily taken by Basil I, and again in Byzantine 
possession in 944-6, but recaptured by the Arabs 
after a siege in 964. In 1025 Cilicia was again 
occupied by the Byzantines, who could not however 
hold it permanently; nor apparently were the 
victorious Seldjuks (1071) able at first to establish 
themselves in the province (cf. J. Laurent, Byzance 
et les Turcs ...jusqu'en 1081, Paris 1913, n). At 
any rate, in 1082 Adana again belonged to the 
Byzantines, but was taken by Sulayman b. Kut- 
lumlsi in 1083 (J. B. Chabot, Chronique ie Michel 
le Syrien, Paris 1905, 179). After its occupation by 
the Crusaders in 1097, it belonged at first to the 
principality of Antioch, but in 1104 was detached 
by Alexis I and came under Byzantine administration. 
In 1 132 it belonged to Leon of Little Armenia, in 
1 1 37 became Byzantine, in n 38 was occupied by 
the Rum Seldjuk Mas'ud, in 1151 (at the latest) again 
Armenian, 1158 Byzantine, finally in 1 172-3 incor- 
porated by the Rubenid Mlech in his Armenian 
state, in which it remained for a long time, although 
exposed to repeated Muslim attacks. Baybars, after 
his victory at Antioch in 1266 appeared before 
Adana; the Mamluks also sacked the town in 1275 
and 1304, and attacked it in 1355. It remained, 
however, in Armenian hands (except for 1341-4, 
when it fell by ihneritance to Guy de Lusignan). 
In 1359 it was occupied by the Mamluks, and became 
the capital of a niyaba. In 1378 the governor was the 
Turkmen Yuregir-oghlu Ramadan, who, acknow- 
ledging the suzerainty of the Mamluks, extended 
his dominions and founded the buffer-state of the 
Ramadan-oghlu [q.v.]. He and his successors followed 
sometimes a pro-, sometimes an anti-Mamluk 
policy, securing for Adana a relatively quiet time. 
The inner conflicts and the invasion of the Dh u '1- 
Kadirid Shansuwar in 1467 do not seem to have 
disturbed the city. In 1489-9 the Ottomans endeav- 
oured unsuccessfully to detach Adana from the 
Mamluks. In 1516, Sellm I, during his Egyptian 
expedition, occupied it, but left the Ramadan-oghlu 
in possession, now as Ottoman vassals. In 1606 it 
came temporarily under the rule of the insurgent 
PJanbuUt-oghlu and in 1608 it was constituted a 
regular province [eydlet) under a governor (wdli) 
appointed by the Sultan. In the Turco-Egyptian 
war of 1832, Adana became the headquarters of the 
Egyptian army under Ibrahim Pasha, was ceded to 
Muhammad C AU Pasha by the treaty of Kutahya 
(6 April 1833), but restored to the Porte by the 
London Convention (6 July 1840). It was then made 
part of the province of Halab, but in 1867 became 
again the capital of the new wildyet of Adana. In 
Dec. 1918 it was occupied by French troops, but 
was returned to Turkey in 1922 under the terms 
of the Turco-French treaty of Ankara (20 Oct. 1921). 
Commerce. Its favourable situation, as a bridge- 
head on the great Anatolian-Arabian road (cf. Fr. 
Taeschner, Anat. Wegenetx, Leipzig 1934, index), 
and the fertility of its surroundings, always enabled 
Adana to recover, in spite of its changing political 
fortunes. Nevertheless until the period of the 
Ramadan-oghlu it seems to have been less important 
than Tarsus. In the 10th century, according to al- 
Istakhrl and Ibn Hawkal, Adana was defended by 



a wall with eight gates and a fortress on the opposite 
bank (the last remnants of which were demolished 
in 1836); according to al-ldrisl (1150) it had a 
flourishing trade; W. von Ollenburg (1211) says 
that it was well populated but not rich. In the town, 
already famous for its cotton, the Venetians had 
privileges (Heyd, Hist, du Commerce, index, cf. 
Laurent, 11). Abu '1-Fida' described it as flourishing, 
B. de la Brouquiere (1437) as a busy emporium. Its 
progress in the period of the Ramad&n-oghlu, under 
Ottoman suzerainty, is reflected in the accounts of 
travellers (cf. e.g. Badr al-Din al-GhazzI (1530), MS 
Kopriilu 1390; Kutb al-DIn al-Makkl (1557), Tarik 
Semineri dergisi, i/2, 4 ff.; P. Belon, Les observations, 
etc., Antwerp 1533). Mehmed c Ashik, Mendzir al- 
'Awdlim (MS Nuru 'Othmaniyye 3032, 215) and 
Hadjdji Khalifa, Diih&n-numd (Istanbul 1145. 601), 
depend on the Arabic geographers and do not add 
anything new. The anonymous al-Mendzil wa 'I- 
Tarik ild Bayt Allah (MS Inkilap Kitabhanesi, M.C., 
K boy, 113, fol. 8v) mentions the excellence of its 
markets and of its products, likewise Ewliya Celebi, 
Seydhat-name (Istanbul 1935, iii, 37, ix, 333 ff.), 
according to whom Adana had 8700 houses built 
of clay (this might be slightly exaggerated in his 
usual manner). With the general retrogression of 
the Ottoman empire, however, a decline set in which 
lasted till the middle of the 19th century; one of 
the main causes was the insecurity which began 
immediately outside its gates. Nevertheless, the 
cotton trade continued, and in the 18th century 
there seem to have existed extensive commercial 
relations with merchants from Kayseri (cf. P. Lucas 
<I766) ; C. Niebuhr (travelled 1766), Reisebeschreibung, 
Hamburg 1837, and others quoted by Ritter). 

At the beginning of the 19th century, Adana had 
still a larger population than Tarsus (according to 
J. M. Kinneir, Voyage dans I'Asie Mineure, Paris 
1818), while two decades later, in 1836, it is described 
as smaller than Tarsus (J. Rusegger, Reise in Griechen- 
land . . . und sudOstl. Kleinasien, Stuttgart 1841, 
524 ff.). There was now but little trade, as is remarked 
in a report of the British consul Neale (cited Ritter, 
see Bibl.). On the attempt made during the Egyptian 
occupation more especially to revive cotton product- 
ion, but without much success, see W. F. Ainsworth, 
A Personal Narrative, i, London 1880. An account 
of the corporation of the oil factories is given by 
V. Langlois, Voyage dans la Cilicie, Paris 1861. The 
city began to prosper again in the second half of the 
19th century, due to the growing European demand 
for cotton and the efforts for improvement (e.g. road 
to Mersin) especially of the wall Khalil Pasha. 
According to J. Davies, Life in Turkey (London 
1879, 4 8 H-)> as a result of these efforts, the land 
was well cultivated, the town relatively clean and 
active, and the number of inhabitants varying 
between twenty to thirty-five thousand (the difference 
being due to the migration of part of the population 
to the mountains during the hot summer and to 
the great number of migrating labourers). V. Quinet, 
ii, 35 ff., gives : 30,000 permanent inhabitants 
(13,000 Muslims, 12,575 Armenians) and 12,000- 
15,000 migrating labourers. In 1870 a municipal 
administration was established, with a mayor. Its 
communications were improved by the opening of 
the railway to Mersin in 1886, and the piercing of 
the Taurus tunnels during the first world war. The 
occupation and the subsequent exodus of the 
Armenians and Greeks, who had gained importance 
by their position in trade during the 19th century, 
brought about a crisis. Under the Turkish Republic 



*A 183 

there set in a period of rapid progress (72,577 
inhabitants in 1927, 117,799 in 1950). Since 1935 
Adana has been the capital of the province of Seyhan. 
Population. Christianity was established in 
Adana from an early date, and it was an episcopal 
see. Since the government of the Armenian Rubenids 
the Armenians had greatly outnumbered the Greeks 
and the Armenian church acquired a preponderant 
position. Its Christian population, already affected 
by the constant Muslim attacks, steadily decreased 
after the Mamluk conquest and under the Ottomans 
(see the reports of travellers, and data in Ritter and 
Alishan). During the 19th century the Christian 
population increased, but the victory of the Turks 
in 1922 brought about their total expulsion. Little 
is known of the Jews of Adana (cf. A. Galante, 
Histoire des Juifs d'Anatolie, Istanbul 1939, ii, 304). 
Arab elements penetrated into Cilicia with the armies 
from the 8th century, but could scarcely maintain 
themselves in Adana itself when Turkish nomads 
had already gained a firm foothold in the neigh- 
bourhood. Adana is described by P. Belon (1548) as 
lying on the linguistic frontier between Arabic and 
Turkish. Thereafter the Arab elements in the 
population were almost wholly displaced, and this 
situation could not be changed by the brief Egyptian 
occupation in the 19th century. 

Culture. Adana has not played in the past, nor 
does it play at present, an important cultural role. 
It has an interesting museum, founded in 1924 in 
the madrasa of Dja'far Pasha. The main monuments 
are due to the Ramadan-oghlu: Eski or Yagh Pjami'i, 
with a monumental gateway (inscription from 1553) 
and madrasa in the E. and S. sides of the court, 
domed iwdn with finely sculptured ornament; the 
mosque itself is of uncertain date (before 1500). Ulu 
Djami c , built by Ramadan-oghlu Khalil. 1507-41, 
and enlarged by his grandson Mustafa, 948/1541 
(for a legend relating to its construction, cf. Baki 
T. Arik, Adana Fethinin destani, Istanbul 1943, 
47 ff.), mosque, madrasa, tiirbe and ders-khane, 
enclosed by high wall; emphasis on eastern facade 
with main entrance. The groundplan, various 
details, coloured ornamentation and minaret indicate 
the influence of Syrian models; Seldjuk tradition 
is particularly apparent in the dragons at the base 
of the dome; richly elaborated mihrdb; Ottorr.^n 
tiles of the finest quality; these various stylL ic 
elements are united into a convincing whole. Tiiroc 
with graves decorated with tiles of the Ramadan- 
oghlus Khalil, PIri and Mustafa. Of the many 
foundations of tbe dynasty the following are wholly 
or partly preserved: the so-called Waklf Serayl, 
residence of the dynasty since 1495 ; Selamlk Dayresl, 
today Tuz-khanl. Also noteworthy are the Carshi 
HammamI, the bedestdn (frequently mentioned by 
travellers, but rebuilt in the middle of the 19th 
century, and Aghdja Mesdjid, of 1409-10, the oldest 
mosque in the town, with carved door. 

Bibliography: No special monograph exists. 
Scattered references, in addition to works cited in 
the article, in the following: I A and Turk (formerly 
Indnu) Ansiklopedisi, s.v.; R. A. Chesney, The 
Expedition for the Survey etc., i, London 1850; 
Ebu Bekr Fewdl, Khuldsa-yi Ahwdl al-Buldan fi 
Memdlik-i DewUt-i Al-i^Othmdn, (1st. Univ. Kiitub- 
hanesi, Fotokopiler no. 28, p. 90); V. Cuinet, La 
Turquie d'Asie, ii, 3-40; Ch. Texier, Asie Mineure, 
731; E. Rectus, Nouv. giogr. univ., ix, 656; Sami 
Bey Frasheri, KamOs iil-A c ldm, i, 290 f.; W. M. 
Ramsay, The Historical Geography of Asia Minor, 
iv, London 1890; Le Strange, 131; E. Reitmeyer, 



i8 4 



ADANA — APDAD 



Die Stddtegriindungen der Araber, Leipzig 1912; 

M. Canard, Histoire de la Dynastie des H'amdanides, 

Algiers 195 1; E. Honigmann, Die Ostgrenze des 

Byzantinischen Retches von 363 bis 1071, Brussels 

1935; I. H. Uzuncarsili, Anadolu Beylikleri, 

Ankara 1937; Mehmed Nuzhet, Ramazanogullari, 

TOEM, i, 167 ff.; Hammer- Purgstall, x, index; 

L. Alishan, Sissouan ou I'Armino-CiHcie, Venice 

1879; C. Ritter, Vergleichende Erdkunde des 

Halbinsellandes Kleinasien, Berlin 1859 ; Sulndme-yi 

Wildyet-i Adana, no 9, 1308, and 10, 1312; Naci 

Akverdi, Adana Cutnhuriyetten ewel ve sonra, 

Ankara; M. Oppenheim, Inschriften aus Syrien, 

Mesopotamien und Kleinasien, Leipzig 1913; 

K. Otto-Dom, Islamische Denkmdler Kilikitns, 

Jahrb. f. Kleinasiatische Forsch., 1952, 118 ff. 

(R. Anhegger) 

(ii) The older name of the wildyet embracing in 

general the Cilician plain (Cukurowa) — now called 

Seyhan — with the capital of the same name. The 

old Ottoman eydlet of Adana (see HadjdjI Khalifa. 

Diihdn-numd. 601) comprised in addition to Adana 

only the two sandfaks of Sis and Tarsus; the later 

wildyet of Adana (since 1867) the sandiaks of Adana, 

I eel (Silifke), Khozan (Sis), Djebel-i Bereket (Yarput) ; 

the present wildyet of Seyhan (17,256 km 2 , 509,600 

inhabitants, 1950 Genel niifus sayinn, Ankara 1950), 

which more or less corresponds to the earlier sandjak 

of Adana, has the following kadds: Adana, Bagie, 

Ceyhan, Dortyol, Feke, Kadirli, Karaisalt, Kozan, 

Osmaniye, Saimbeyli. The most important activity 

in the Cukurowa is cotton-cultivation, which today 

gives the impression of a monoculture. 

(Fr. Taeschner) 
ADAT [see nahw]. 
'ADAT, ADAT LAW [see <ada]. 
al-'APAYM CApEM), an eastern tributary of 
the Tigris (Didjla, [q.v.]). It is formed of the 
junction of several rivers which have their sources 
in the range east of and parallel to the Djabal 
Hamrin and which in their course from N.E. to S.W. 
break through deeply cut ravines. The most impor- 
tant of these rivers are: the river of Kirkuk, viz. 
the Khasa (Kaza, Kissa) -cay (on some maps it 
figures also under the name of Kara-su), which rises 
from several sources north of Kirkuk; further the 
river of Ta'uk (Dakuka [q.v.]), viz. the Ta'iik-su (or 
-cay), the most important of all, which joins the 
KhSsa-cav southwest of Ta'uk; and the Ak-su, also 
called the river of Tuz-Khurmatli. The latter comes 
from the Sedjirme-dagh and falls below the place 
Tuz-Khurmatli into the river of Ta'uk. From this 
junction onwards the river is called al-'Adaym, or 
Shatt al- c Adaym; it forces its way through the 
Pjabal Hamrin, flows in a southerly direction 
across the Babylonian plain and falls below 34° N 
44°2o' E into the Tigris. On their courses south of 
Taza Khurmatli (below Kirkuk) down to the 
junction with the Ak-su, the northern, and then 
the united northern and middle source rivers, 
meander through extensive swamps. When the 
snow melts, the 'Adaym is connected through a 
dried up river-bed north-east of the Djabal Hamrin 
with the Narin-cay (on some maps also Narit-su), 
a tributary of the Diyala. The inhabitants are able 
to establish such a communication, when necessary, 
also south-west of the Djabal Hamrin, by utilizing 
the generally dried-up Nahr Radhan, which is 
connected with a tributary of the Diyala (at present 
it is said to be used for irrigation and does not reach 
the Diyala). (The ruins of the dam were first described 
by J. Ross, Joum. Roy. Geogr. Soc, 1840, 121 ff. ; then 



by J- F. Jones, Bombay Records, Memoir xliii, 1857, 
123; see also E. Herzfeld, Geschichte der Stadt 
Samarra, Hamburg 1948, 76 ff.) When the channel 
of the Nahr Radhan is opened, the water flows 
into the Diyala and the lower c Adaym is almost 
entirely dried up. Towards its estuary the 'Adaym 
is very scantily supplied with water in the hot 
season; according to travellers' statements, it is 
often for some month entirely dried up in its lower 

The name c Adaym occurs for the first time in 
the Mardsid al-It(ild c (8th/i4th century), 379, as al- 
'Azim or al- c Uzayyim; cf. Nahr al-A c zam in Mustawfl 
(ca. 1340). For the identification of the c Adaym with 
the Turnat of the cuneiform inscriptions and the 
Tomadotus (Tomas) of the classical writers, see 
F. Hommel, Grundriss der Geogr. und Gesch. des 
alten Orients 1 , Munich 1904, 5, 293 ff. ; Pauly-Wissowa, 
s.v. Tomadotus; for Radanu (= Nahr Radhan) in 
the cuneiform inscriptions, which may have at one 
time denoted also the lower c Adaym, see Streck, in 
ZA, 1900, 275 and Hommel, 293 ff. It is questionable 
wheter we may also identify the Gyndes of Herodotus 
with the c Adaym; cf. Billerbeck, 72 ff.; Pauly- 
Wissowa, s.v. Gyndes. 

Bibliography: Ritter, Erdkunde, ix, 522ft., 

537 ff.; A. Billerbeck, Mitteilungen d. Vorderas. 

Ges., 1898, 65 ff., 83; G. Hoffmann, Auszitge aus 

syr. Akten persischen Martyrer, 1880, 253, 275. 
(M. Streck*) 

APDAD (a.) (plur. of didd = "a word that has 
two contrary meanings"), words which, according 
to the definition of Arab philologists, have two 
meanings that are opposite to each other, 
e.g. the verb bd'a which may mean "to sell" and 
also "to buy" (= ishtard); even the word didd itself 
belongs to the same category of words, for in such 
an expression as Id didd" lahu it has not the meaning 
of "opposite", but that of "equal". The adddd, from 
their point of view, belong as a particular class to 
the homonyms (al-mushtarik [q.v.]), except that the 
latter class comprises two words that have the same 
sound but two different meanings (ma'naydn 
mukMalifdn), while in the adddd the two meanings 
are directly opposite to each other. The Arabs 
treated of this lexical question with the passion and 
accuracy which they applied to all the other domains 
of their language, and they devoted to it either 
special chapters of general works (e.g. al-Suyuti, 
al-Muzhir, Bulak, i, 186-93; Ibn SIda, al-Mukhassas, 
xiii, 258-66), or separate monographs. The latter were 
enumerated for the first time by M. Th. Redslob, 
Die arabischen Wdrter mit entgegengesUzter Bedeutung, 
Gottingen 1873, 7-9 (the name of al-Djahiz, however, 
is to be cancelled). While some of these works are 
known from citations, books called Kitdb al- Adddd 
by the following authors are preserved, and in part 
published: 1) Kutrub (d. 206/821), ed. H. Kofler, 
Islamica, 1932; 2) al-Asma'I (d. 216/831), ed. A. 
Haffner, Drei arabische Quellenwerke fiber die Adddd, 
Beirut 1913, 45-61; 3) Abu c Ubayd (d. 223/837), 
see Brockelmann, S I, 167; 4) Abu Hatim al-Sidjistanl 
(d. ca. 250/864), ed. Haffner, ibid., 71-157; 5) Ibn 
al-Sikkit (d. 243/857), ed. Haffner, ibid., 163-209; 
6) Abu Bakr b. al-Anbari (d. 327/939), ed. M. Th. 
Houtsma, Leiden 1881; also Cairo 1325; 7) Abu '1- 
Tayyib al-Halabi (d. 381/991), see Brockelmann, 
S I, 190; 8) al-Saghanl (d. 650/1252), ed. Haffner, 



ibid. 2 



1-48. 



The opinion which has long been maintained that 
Arabic, contrary to all the other Semitic languages, 
very large number of such adddd is no 



longer tenable. If all that is false and all that does 
not belong here are cut out of the list, there remains 
also in Arabic only a small residue. Hence al-Mubar- 
rad (MS Leiden 437, p. 180) and Ibn Durustawayh 
(quoted by al-Suyfltl, al-Muzkir, i, 191) went so far 
as to deny entirely the existence of the a4ddd in 
Arabic. Ibn al-Anbari enumerates in his book more 
than 400 such aQdad; but in spite of the fullness of 
the work such words as ankara, wald, etc. are missing. 
Redslob has already pointed out that a considerable 
part of this must be eliminated, as the authors 
either extend too far the concept of the adddd, or 
artificially accumulate as much matter as possible: 
1. First of all it must be noted that most of the 
words quoted were known to or currently used by 
the Arabs only in one meaning, and the contrary 
meaning can be evidenced only by scanty and 
sometimes even contested citations. If it were not 
so, many misunderstandings would arise in everyday 
life, while Ibn al-Anbari in his introduction (p. 1) 
denies any ambiguity. 2. It is absolutely false to 
consider the words not only in themselves, but also 
in their syntactical construction in the sentence, 
and to establish a didd when, through various con- 
structions or interpretations of the sentence, two 
contrary meanings are possible (Ibn al-Anbari, loc. 
cit., 167-8). 3. Particles like in, min, an, aw, ma, hal, 
must be struck out from the list of addad. Such 
arguments as that in means "if" and "not", that 
is to say, can both indicate the possibility of a thing 
and negate it, are feeble. Equally trivial are the 
considerations that verbal forms (kdna or yakunu) 
indicate different tenses, or that proper names 
{Ishdk, Ayyub, Ya'kab) may also have secondary 
meanings. 4. Forms which only in certain circum- 
stances may have a meaning contrary to their 
usual one could be enumerated in large numbers. 
Here belong words such as fat's, goblet, and also 
its contents, nafinu, we, I ; further all the fdHl forms 
which are also passive (e.g. wdmik, khdHf) and the 
faHl forms that are also active (e.g. amin); the 
elatives which may be formed from participles of 
the first and augmented roots; the verbs that 
sometimes also in the first form have a causative 
meaning (e.g. zdla) etc.; but none of these cases 
represent any real addad. 5. Equally to be excluded 
are words which in certain cases are used ironically 
(ihtizd*> n ot tahakkum") e.g. yd c dkil ("intelligent 
one!") for a fool, or euphemistically (tafd'ul), as 
yd sdlim ("healthy one!") for a sick person. The 
use of both tropes is at the will of the speaker. 
6. The highest degree of arbitrariness and artifice 
was finally attained by the grammarians who count 
among the addad words like taf-a (in the meaning 
of "waterpipe" and "hill"), on the grounds that 
water flows downwards and the hill rises upwards. — 
Most of the examples given by Ibn al-Anbari fall 
under one or other of the points just quoted and 
therefore ought not to be considered as addad; only 
a small residue remains. 

The Arabs themselves already sought for ex- 
planations for these phenomena, but only one de- 
serves consideration in so far at least as in the 
interpretation it leads back to the root, whence 
both meanings have branched out (Ibn al-Anbari, 
loc. cit., 5 ; al-Muzhir, i, 193 ff.). The other expla- 
nations account only for the actually occurring 
meanings, and either regard all the adddd as meanings 
borrowed by the roots from one another (Ibn al- 
Anbari, loc. cit., 7; al-Muzhir, i, 194), or attempt, 
often clumsily, to harmonize the meanings; for 
instance, the Arabs explain ba l 4 in its meaning 



iD 185 

"whole" by arguing that the whole thing is only 
a part of something else (Ibn al-Anbari, 6). 

C. Abel, Uber den Gegensinn der Vrworte, Leipzig 
1884 (reprinted in his Sprachwissenschaftlichen 
Abhandlungen, Leipzig 1885) made an attempt to 
find a general explanation, starting from a single 
point of view, for the linguistic phenomenon of the 
"enantiosemia" as a whole. According to him the 
words used by primitive men were not expressions 
for certain unambiguous concepts, but described 
rather the mutual relation between two opposites; 
e.g. the concept of "strong" could only be under- 
stood by a comparison with "weak", and the two 
sides of the opposition was only gradually distin- 
guished by phonetic changes. The theory of Abel 
was not accepted by linguists, but found recognition 
among the psychoanalysts. 

R. Gordis, Words of mutually opposed meaning, 
Am. J. Semit. Lang., 1938, 270-80, also endeavours 
to find an explanation that should be valid for 
all adddd. Starting from modern anthropological 
theories, he connects the a4dad with taboo and 
mana and concludes that "by and large, words of 
contradictory meaning endure in the speech of 
mankind only as survivals from primitive ways of 
thought . 

Against such theories, the prevailing opinion in 
general linguistics is that the enantiosemia cannot 
be explained from a unique principle. Words have 
from their origin a fixed meaning; in the case of 
each didd, therefore, one of the meanings must be 
considered as original, the other as secondary. The 
task of linguistics is to trace out in each case the 
gradual change of meaning, although it is immediately 
evident that the facts cannot be established for 
each 4idd. As a matter of fact, the Arab philologists 
already admitted in principle this doctrine: al-asl 
li-ma'-nan wdhid'". That their works, in spite of the 
richness of their materials, make so slight a contri- 
bution to the solution of the problem is due, among 
other reasons, to the fact that for them the expla- 
nation of the adddd was not so much a scientific 
task as a purely practical one. To the Arabs it was 
of prime importance to give as complete an index as 
possible of all the words destined for daily and 
literary use, which have contrary meanings; they are 
therefore often guided simply by exterior conso- 
nance; thus for instance they put among the addad 
the word mudi, 1. "perishing" root wdy, 2. "vig- 
orous", "strong", root My. 

F. Giese, in Untersuchungen uber die Adddd auf 
Grund von Sullen aus altarabischen Dichtern, Berlin 
1894, explained, for most of the a4ddd which he 
found in old poetry, how they passed to the 
opposite meaning, by arranging them under various 
semasiological categories: 1. Metonymy, when one 
meaning of the word is to be explained as being a 
causal or temporal consequence of another meaning: 
e.g. na c a, to lift a burden with difficulty, to carry 
it away; ndhil, he who goes to the water, the 
thirsty one ; he who returns from the water, having 
his thirst quenched. 2. Concatenation of concepts 
of various kinds; for instance bayn, separation and 
union (according to whether one is separated alone 
from a group or in union with another), or djalal 
"to be rolled", hence "heavy , but also "to be 
rolled and whirled up", hence "insignificant", 
"light". 3. Contraction of concept, either by refining 
or coarsening it, as for instance ramma "to be 
marrow-like, strong", and "to be marrowless, 
feeble". 4. For the words of emotion and odour 
the neutral original meaning "to be excited" is to 



1 86 



ADDAD — 'ADHAB al-KABR 



be supposed, no matter whether it is applied in a 
good or bad sense; thus for instance rd'a "to be 
afraid" and "to be pleased"; (ariba "to be sad" 
and "to be joyful"; radid, khafa, "to hope" and 
"to fear"; dhafar, banna, a "good smell" and a 
"bad smell". To this class belong also the verbs of 
conjecture in their double meaning of "to know" 
and "not to know", e.g. zanna, hasiba, khdla. 
5. Cultural influence has often caused the later 
differentiation of words originally meaning the same 
thing in bd c a, shard, "to sell" and "to buy", originally 
"to exchange". 6. Denominatives, especially in the 
2nd and 4th forms, originally meant: "to undertake 
an action with the object in question", and therefore 
may be applied both positively and negatively; e.g. 
farra'a, "to rise", "to sink" (cf. Hebrew shlrlsh, 
sikkll. — Besides this the lack of compound-forming 
prepositions in Arabic makes much ambiguity 
possible (cf. al-Suyuti, 189: wald = akbala, "to 
turn oneself to" and = adbara, "to turn oneself 
from"; sami'a, "to hear", and "to give ear" in 
the sense of "to answer"), and there are many 
voces ambiguae or communis generis which admit a 
double interpretation, e.g. amam, properly "aim" = 
a thing of little or of great importance; ma'tam, 
"a gathering place of women", either on sad or on 
joyous occasions; zawdi, "husband", "wife". Finally 
the many dialectical adddd are of importance. Arab 
philologists already quoted such examples; sudfa 
"darkness" in the dialect of the Tamlmites, "light" 
in that of the Kaysites; watjuiba, "to sit" (= Hebrew 
ydshabh) in the Himyarite dialect, "to spring up" 
generally in Arabic; further samid, bar', etc. (cf. 
C. Landberg, La langue arabe et ses dialectes, Leiden 
1905, 64 ff.). 

The phenomenon of the enantiosema can be 
observed in all Semitic languages. Hence the mono- 
graph of E. Landau, Die gegensinnigen Wdrter im 
Alt- und Neuhebrdischen, Berlin 1896, was of interest 
also for the understanding of the Arabic adddd. The 
most comprehensive and most critical examination 
of the subject is by Th. Noldeke, Wdrter mit Gegen- 
sinn (Adddd), Neue Beitrdge zur semitischen Sprach- 
■wissenschaft, Strassburg 1910, 67-108. 177 adddd of 
literary Arabic are examined and explained either 
etymologically or semasiologically (by pointing out 
similar changes of meaning), taking into consideration 
the corresponding roots in the Arabic dialects, in 
Hebrew and Aramaic, and in the languages of 
Abyssinia. Though Noldeke classifies a large number 
of the changes into certain semasiological categories, 
he deliberately abstains from seeking a fixed principle 
or order and states explicitly that "in semasiology 
fixed and general laws are even less manifest than 
in phonetics" and that "the variegated reality of 
human speech resists all attempts to force it into 
formulas". 

As is implied in the preceding argument, enanti- 
osema are to be found in all languages. Jacob Grimm, 
Kleinere Aufsdtze, vii, 367, had already drawn 
attention to this; interesting examples are to be 
found in K. Nyrop, Das Leben der Wdrter (transl. 
R. Vogt). Special attention is drawn to the obser- 
vations of J. Wackernagel (which might otherwise 
be overlooked) in a passage of his VorUsungen 
tiber Syntax', Basel 1928, ii, 235. (G. Weil) 

ADEN [see <adan]. 

ADFC (Edfu), provincial capital in Upper 
Egypt, on the west bank of the Nile, the ancient 
Apollinopolis Magna of Greek times, the Arabic 
name of which is a transcription of the Coptic 
name, Atbo. 



At the beginning of the Muslim administration 
the town was incorporated in the kira of Aswan. 
It was on the caravan route from Cairo to the 
south, but Ibn Bat(uta is the only medieval traveller 
who refers to it, as being a day and a night's journey 
south of Armant. The temple of Adfu is merely 
mentioned by al-Dimashkl, but without any 
description, for it must have been buried in sand. 
Indeed, Granger's reference to it, in 1730, is the 
first allusion to it by a European: he saw there 
'the remains of a temple which one could not enter, 
and it was full of earth and rubbish'. We must 
wait for Vivant Denon to obtain a less rudimentary 
account; on him the temple made a tremendous 
impression. In the year 700/1300 some brickworkers 
brought to light the statue of a woman seated on a 
throne, on which were hieroglyphic inscriptions. 

The district of Adfu seems to have been very 
fertile, and particularly rich in palm-trees. Its 
dates were made into cakes, after first being pounded. 
In the Mamluk period its annual revenue was 
17,000 dinars from an area of 24,762 fadddns. Al- 
Adfuwi is full of praise for the good qualities of the 
people of Adfu, whom he describes as generous, 
discreet, sincere, welcoming to strangers, and 
charitable. 

No events memorable in history seem to have 
taken place in the town. 

Bibliography: MakrizI, KhiW, MIFAO, 
xlix, 125 (with bibliog.); Yakut, i, 168-9; Ibn 
Dukmak, v, 29; £gypte de Murtadi, re-ed. Wiet, 
introd., n 3-4; Carre, Voyageurs francais en 
£gypte, i, 65, 89, 134. (G. Wiet) 

APflA 5 [See c lD AL-ADHA 5 ]. 

'ADHAB (a.), "torment, suffering, affliction", 
inflicted by God or a human ruler, and in so far 
as it expresses not only absolute power but 
also love of justice, also "punishment, chastise- 
ment ('ukuba)". The divine judgments, which are 
often mentioned in the ljur'an, strike the individual 
as well as whole nations in the life of this world 
as well as in the life to come. It is mainly 
unbelief, doubt of the divine mission of the pro- 
phets and apostles, rebellion against God, that 
are punished in this manner [see 'ad, fir'awh, 
lut, nuh, thamud, and others].- With regard to 
the punishments in the life to come, which begin 
already in the grave, see c adhab al-ijabr, djahah- 

For legal punishments, see 'ukubat. 

(Th. W. Juynboll) 

'ABBAS AL-gABR, the punishment in the 
tomb, also called punishment in barzakh [q.v.]. 
The idea is based on the conception that the dead 
had a continued and conscious existence of a kind 
in their grave. So arose the doctrine of the two 
judgements, one which involves punishment or 
bliss in the grave and a subsequent judgement 
on the Day of Resurrection [for which see al- 
ijiyama]. There are various ideas of what happens 
between death and resurrection. 

1. The grave is a garden of paradise or a pit of 
hell; angels of mercy come for the souls of believers 
and angels of punishment for the infidels. The souls 
of believers are birds in the trees of paradise and 
will be united with their bodies at the resurrection; 
martyrs are already in paradise. 

2. The dead are tortured by the weeping of the 
mourners, especially the wicked, hearing the steps 
of the mourners as they leave; the believer finds 
his grave spacious, 70 cubits by 70, while the 
unbeliever is crushed by his grave till his ribs inter 



'ADHAB al-SABR _ ADHAN 



i87 



lock. The grave asks the dead man about his religion 
and the believer's good works answer for him. A 
sinner may be tormented by a snake of fire which 
bites him till the day, of judgement. 

3. Two angels, Munkar and Naklr, black with blue 
eyes, make the dead man sit up and ask him about 
his religion. The believer answers with the "steadfast 
word" (Kur'Sn, xiv, 26) and is shown the place in 
hell from which he is delivered and the place reserved 
for him in paradise; there upon he is left alone till the 
Day of Resurrection. The unbeliever cannot answer, 
so the angels beat him with iron whips which cause 
flames, and the blows are heard by all creation 
except men and djinn. It is a less reliable doctrine 
that punishment is of the spirit only. There are 
elaborate arguments to prove that those whose 
bodies are left impaled and those who were eaten by 
wild beasts suffer from it. The punishment lasts as 
long as it will please Allah, according to some 
authorities till the Day of Resurrection, except on 
Fridays. It may be eased as long as a branch planted 
on the grave is green. The angels draw the souls 
out of the bodies; those of believers come out 
easily while those of unbelievers have to be dragged 
out causing severe pain. Variations in detail are 
many. The questioning of believers lasts seven 
days, that of unbelievers forty; or unbelievers are 
not questioned and the angels proceed at once to 
punishment: martyrs, infants and those who have 
performed certain acts of supererogation are not 
questioned. 

In some sources a distinction is made between the 
punishment and the pressure (daghfa) in the tomb, 
the righteous faithful being exempt from the former, 
Viot from the latter, whereas the infidels and the 
sinners suffer punishment as well as pressure. The 
prophet's daughter, Fatima, and some others escape 
being crushed. 

The punishment in the tomb is not plainly 
mentioned in the IJur'an. Allusions to the idea may 
be found in several passages, e.g. Rur'an, xlvii, 26: 
"But how when the angels, causing them to die, 
shall smite them on their faces and backs" ; vi, 92 : 
"But couldst thou see, when the ungodly are in the 
floods of death, and angels reach forth their hands, 
saying, Yield up your souls: this day shall ye be 
recompensed with a humiliating punishment"; viii, 
49: "And if thou wert to see when the angels take 
the life of the unbelievers; they smite their faces 
and their backs, and taste ye the torture of burning" 
<cf. further ix, 100; xxiii, 20; lii, 46). 

The punishment of the tomb is very frequently 
mentioned in Tradition (see Bibliography), often, 
however, without the mention of angels. In the latter 
group of traditions it is simply said that the dead 
are punished in their tombs, or why, e.g. on account 
of special sins they have committed. 

The names of Munkar and Naklr do not appear 
in the Rur'an, and once only in canonical Tradition 
<al-TirmidhI, Qian&Hz, bdb 70). Apparently these 
names do not belong to the old stock of traditions. 
Moreover, in some traditions one anonymous angel 
only is mentioned as the angel who interrogates and 
punishes the dead (Muslim, Imdn, trad. 163; Abu 
Da'ud, Sunna, bdb 39b; Ahmad b. Hanbal, iii, 
233. 346; iv, 150; al-Tay&lisI, no. 753). So there seem 
to be four stages in the traditions regarding this 
subject: the first without any angel being mentioned, 
the second mentioning "the" angel, the third two 
angels, the fourth being acquainted with the names 
Munkar and Naklr. 

This state of things is reflected in the development 



of the creed. The Fikh Akbar I, which may date 
from the middle of the 2nd/8th century, gives only 
a short reference to the punishment of the tomb 
(art. 10). The Wofiyyat Abi Hanifa, which may 
represent the orthodox views of the middle of the 
3rd/9th century, mentions both the punishment and 
the interrogation by Munkar and Naklr. The Fikh 
Akbar II, which may represent the new orthodoxy 
of the middle of the 4th/ioth century A.D., is still 
more elaborate (art. 23): "The interrogation of the 
dead in the tomb by Munkar and Naklr is a reality, 
and the reunion of the body with the spirit in the 
tomb is a reality. The pressure and the punishment in 
the tomb are a reality that will take place in the case 
of all the infidels, and a reality that may take place 
in the case of some sinners belonging to the faithful". 
In the later creeds and works on dogmatics the 
punishment and the interrogation in the tomb by 
Munkar and Naklr are treated in a similar way. 

The KhawSridj, some Mu'tazills and some of the 
extreme ShI'a do not believe in punishment in the 
grave. Some Mu'tazills explained Munkar as the 
muttering of the unbeliever as he stumbles in his 
reply and Naklr as the violence done to him. Others 
said that Munkar and Naklr were not individuals 
but two classes of angels because men were dying 
every minute in all parts of the world and two 
individuals could not be everywhere at once. 
Another rationalisation was that the two were 
personifications of a man's good and evil deeds, 
promising him bliss or misery. 

The Karramiyya [q.v.] taught the identity ot 
Munkar and Naklr with the two guardian angels who 
accompany man ( c Abd al-^ahir al-Baghdadl, Usui 
al-Din, Istanbul 1928, p. 246). Al-Ghazzall holds 
that all eschatological ideas are a reality that takes 
place in the malakut. 

The origin of the names Munkar and Naklr is 

uncertain; the meaning "disliked" seems doubtful. 

The idea of the examination and the punishment 

of the dead in their tombs is found among other 

peoples also. The details to be found in Jewish 

sources (hibbut hak-keber) are strikingly parallel to 

the Muslim ones; the idea is, however, rather late 

among the Jews and apparently belongs to the 

post-Islamic period. (See J. C. G. Bodenschatz, 

Kirchliche Verfassung dvr heutigen Juden, Erlangen 

1748, ii, 95 f.; Jewish Enc., s.v. Hibbut ha-ffeber.) 

Bibliography: The passages from hadith in 

Wensinck, Handbook, s.v. Grave(s); further 

E. Sell, The Faith of Islam, London 1880, 145; 

Mouradgea d'Ohsson, Tableau de V Empire othoman, 

Paris 1787, i, 46; Wensinck, The Muslim Creed, 

Cambridge 1932, general index, s.v. Punishment, 

and Munkar and Naklr; commentary on the 

Wasiyyat Abl Hanifa, rlaydarabad 1321, 22; 

Tahawl, Baydn al-Sunna wa 'l-Djamd'a, rlalab 

1344, 9; Abu rjafs 'Umar al-Nasafl, 'Akd'id, 

Istanbul 1313, with the commentary of TaftazanI, 

132 ff.; Ghazzall, Ihya>, Cairo 1302, iv, 431 ff.; 

id., al-Durra al-Fdkhira (Gautier), 23 ft.; Ibn 

Radjab al-HanbaU, Ahwdl al-Kubir fl Ahwal 

Ahlihd ila 'l-Nushur, Mecca 1357; Kitdb Ahwdl 

al-Ifiydma (M. Wolff), 40 f.; R. Eklund, Life 

between Death and Resurrection according to Islam, 

Uppsala 1941. 

(A. J. Wensinck-A. S. Tritton) 
ADHAN, "announcement", a technical term for 
the call to the divine service of Friday and the 
five daily saldts [see salat]. 

According to Muslim tradition, the Prophet, soon 
after his arrival at Madlna (1 or 2 years after the 



adhAn — AdharbaydjAn 



Hidjra), deliberated with his companions on the best 
manner of announcing to the faithful the hour of 
prayer. Some proposed that every time a fire should 
be kindled, a horn should be belown or ndkils 
(i.e. a long piece of wood clapped with another piece 
of wood; with such a ndkils the Christians in the East 
used at that time to announce the hour of prayer) 
should be used. But one Muslim, c Abd Allah b. Zayd, 
related that he saw in a dream somebody who from 
the roof of the mosque called the Muslims to prayer. 
c Umar recommended that manner of announcing 
the saldt, and as all agreed to it, this adhdn was 
introduced by order of the Prophet. From that 
jime the believers were convoked by Bilal, and up 
to our days the adhdn is called out at the time of 
the saldt. 

Becker (Isl., 1912, 386 ft.) finds the historical 
model of the adhdn in Christian Worship, Mittwoch 
(Abh. Pr. Ak.W., 1913, Phil.-hist. Qasse.No. 2, 22 ff.), 
perhaps less convincingly, in Jewish liturgy. 

The adhdn of the orthodox Muslim consists of 
seven formulas, of which the sixth is a repetition of 
the first: 

1. Allah* akbar: "Allah is most great". 

2. Ashhadu an Id ildh' ilia 'lldh: "I testify that 
there is no god besides Allah". « 

3. Ashhadu anna Muhammad"* rasul AUdh: "I 
testify that Muhammed is the apostle of Allah". 

4. Hayya l ala 'l-saldt: "Come to prayer"! 

5. Hayya c ala 'l-faldh: "Come to salvation"! 

6. Allah* akbar: "Allah is most great". 

7. La ildh' ilia 'lldh: "The is no god besides Allah". 
The first formula is repeated four (by the Malikites 

two) times one after the other, the other formulas 
are repeated twice each, except the last words: Id 
ildh" ilia 'lldh, which are pronounced only once. The 
2nd and 3rd formulas after being pronounced twice 
are repeated a third time in a louder voice. This 
repetition (tard±i l ) is generally considered as re- 
commended by the law, only the Hanafites forbid 
it. At the morning prayer (saldt al-subh) the words 
al-saldt khayr min al-nawm ("prayer is better than 
sleep") are added in the adhdn. This formula, also 
pronounced two times and called tathwib (repetition), 
is inserted between the 5 th and 6th formulas, but the 
Hanafites pronounce it at the end. 

The adhdn of the ShI'ites differs from that of the 
Sunnites in that the former has an eighth formula 
(inserted between the fifth and the sixth): Jfayya 
'aid khayr al-'amal, "Come to the best work"! These 
words have at all times been the shibboleth of the 
ShI'ites; when called from the minarets in an or- 
thodox country, the inhabitants knew that the 
government had become Shi'ite (cf. Snouck Hur- 
gronje, Mekka, i, 63 ; S. de Sacy, Chrestomathie arabe 
i, text, p. 60; transl., p. 169). The ShI'ites pronounce 
also the final formula two times. 

The Muslims who hear the adhdn must repeat 
its formulas, but instead of the fourth and fifth, 
they recite: la hawV wa-ld kuwwaV Hid bi-'lldh, 
"there is no strength nor power but in Allah", and 
instead of the tathwib formula in the morning adhdn, 
they say: sadakta wa-bararta, "thou hast spoken 
truthfully and rightly". 

The adhdn is followed by formulas of glorification 
which are recommended and precisely determined 
by the law. They are omitted only after the call 
to the maghrib saldt, because the space of time.i n 
which this prayer must be said, is very short. 

There is no fixed melody for the adhdn. Every 
adhdn may be modulated at will with any known 
tune, provided that the right pronunciation of the 



words is not impaired by it. Cf. Snouck Hurgronje, 
Mekka, ii, 87: "In Mecca one hears different airs 
at the same time. Like the recitation of the Rur'an, 
the singing of the adhdn is in Mekka a highly de- 
veloped art". Only among the Hanbalites there 
are doctors who do not allow any melody for the 
adhdn, and the Wahhabis follow this doctrine. The 
Ibadls, too, do not sing the adhdn. [For the melody 
of the adhdn see also china.] 

Every Muslim who, alone or with others, recites 
the above-mentioned saldts at home or in the field 
should pronounce the adhdn in a loud voice as is 
recommended by the law (cf. Snouck Hurgrunje, 
Mekkanische Sprichwdrter und Redensarten, 87 = 
Verspr. Geschr. v, 83). At mosques, a mu'adhdhin 
[?.».] is often appointed to perform the adhdn. 

The call to the other public saldts, e.g. those of 
the two feasts, those at sun and moon eclipses, etc., 
has only one formula: al-saldt djdmi'at^', "come 
to the public prayer"! This formula is said to have 
been current already in the time of the Prophet. 
Cf. I. Goldziher, in ZDMG, 1895, 315. 

Important information on the modifications of 
the adhdn formulas introduced at various times and 
in various places from the beginning of Islam is 
to be found in MakrizI, KhiM, ii, 269 f. 

Owing to the profession of faith frequently oc- 
curring in the adhdn, the Muslims pronounce it in 
the right ear of a child shortly after its birth (cf. 
Lane, Arab. Society in the Middle Ages, 186; 
Snouck Hurgronje, Mekka, ii, 138) as well as in the 
ear of people supposed to be possessed of djinn 
(evil spirits). 

The saldt in the mosque is immediately preceded 
by a second call, the ikdma [q.v.], which contains 
the same formulas as the adhdn. 

Bibliography: Wensinck, Handbook, s.v. 
Adhan; Bukhari, Sahih, French translation by 
O. Houdas and W. Marcais, i, 141 f.; Juynboll, 
Handleiding, 65 f. ; Mouradgea d'Ohsson, Tableau 
giniraX de I' Empire othoman, i, I75«-; I- Guidi, 
Sommario del diritto malechita di HalU Ibn Ishdq, 
i, 50 ff . ; H. Laoust, Le precis de droit d'Ibn 
Quddma, 18 f. ; A. Querry, Droit musulman, i, 66 ff. 

(Th.W. Juynboll •) 
AEOJAR [see ta'rI™]. 

AEHARBAYEJAN (AZARBAYEJAN) (i) pro- 
vince of Persia; (ii) Soviet Socialist Repu- 
blic. 

(i) The great province of Persia, called in 
Middle Persian Aturpatakan, older new-Persian 
Adharbadhagan, Adharbayagan, at present Azar- 
baydjan, Greek 'ATpoita-r^vi), Byzantine Greek 
'ASpaPiydtviiiv, Armenian Atrapatakan, Syriac 
Adhorbayghan. The province was called after the 
general Atropates ("protected by fire"), who at the 
time of Alexander's invasion proclaimed his inde- 
pendence (328 B.C.) and thus preserved his kingdom 
(Media Minor, Strabo, xi, 13, 1) in the north-western 
corner of later Persia (cf. Ibn al-Mukaffa', in Yakut, 
i, 172, and al-Makdisi, 375: Adharbadh b. BIwarasf). 
The dynasty of Atropates flourished under the 
Arshakids and married into the royal house. The 
last scion of the house, Gaius Julius Artawazd, died 
in Rome in A.D. 38, when the kingdom was already 
incorporated by the Arshakids. (For the ancient 
history cf. Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. Atropatene.) Under 
the Sasanians Adharbavdian was ruled by a mariubdn 
and towards the end of the period belonged to the 
family of Farrukh-Hormizd, (see Marquart, Eran- 
Sahr, 108-14). The capital of Adharbaydjan was at 
Shlz (or Ganzak), which corresponds to the ruins 




O . 50 tp o K.M. 
9 , Sp IOQMIl.ES 



ADHARBAYDJAN 



AdharbaydjAn 



of Laylan (south-east of Lake Urmiya). It possessed 
a famous firetemple which the Sasanian kings visited 
on their accession. Later the fire was removed to 
the less accessible Arshakid castle of BiOapfxal;, 
0T)Papjials (now Takht-i Sulayman). 

The Arab conquest of Adharbaydjan is variously 
recorded under the years 18-22/639-43. In the days 
of 'Umar, Hudhayfa b. al-Yaman is said to have 
conquered Adharbaydjan coming from Nihawand; 
other expeditions came from Sbahrazur. Hudhayfa 
made a treaty with the mariubdn whose capital 
was in Ardabil. He agreed to pay 800,000 dirhams 
and the Arabs promised not to enslave anyone, to 
respect the fire- temples and the ceremonies held in 
them, and to protect the population against the 
Kurds (nomads) of Balasagan, Sabalan and Shat- 
rtdhan. 

The population of Adharbaydjan (of Iranian 
origin) spoke a multitude of dialects (al-Makdisi, 
375: 70 languages near Ardabil). Arab chieftains 
settled in various districts: Rawwad al-Azdl in the 
region of Tabriz; Balth al-Rabi c a in Marand; Murr b. 
•Ali al-Rudayni south of Lake Urmiya, etc. They 
were gradually absorbed by the native population 
and towards the middle of the 4th/ioth century 
the Rawwadids were considered as Kurds. (See in 
detail Sayyid A. Kasrawi, Pddshdhdn-i gum-ndm, 
i-iii, Teheran 1928-9.) 

After the revolt of Babak [q.v.], the grip of the 
caliphate on Adharbaydjan weakened. The last 
energetic governors of the province (276-317/889-929) 
were the Sadjids [q.v.] who themselves ended in 
revolt. After their fall native dynasties sprang up 
in Adharbaydjan. After the Kharidjite Daysam 
(half Arab and half Kurd), Adharbaydjan was 
occupied by the Daylamite Marzuban b. Muhammad, 
of the bdfini creed (see musafirids). The Daylamites 
were succeeded by the Kurdish Rawwadids [q.v.] 
(373-463/983-1070). 

In the beginning of the 5th/nth century the 
Ghuzz hordes, first in smaller parties, and then in 
considerable numbers, under the Seldjukids occupied 
Adjiarbaydjan. In consequence, the Iranian popu- 
lation of Adharbaydjan and the adjacent parts of 
Transcaucasia became Turkophone. In 531/1136 
Adharbaydjan fell to the lot of the atdbeh Ildigiz 
[q.v.] (better *Eldiguz) whose descendants ruled, in 
competition with the Ahmadills [q.v.], till the short- 
lived invasion of the Kh'arizm-shah Djalal al-DIn 
(622-8/1225-31) at whose heels came the Mongols. 
With the arrival of the Il-khan Hulagu (654/1256) 
Adharbaydjan became the centre of a great empire 
extending from the Oxus to Syria. The residence 
of the Mongols was first in Maragha [q.v.] and then 
in Tabriz [q.v.] which became a great centre of trade 
and cultural life. After the Mongols and their suc- 
cessors the Djala'irs [q.v.], Adharbaydjan was 
occupied by the Turkmens returning from the west 
(the Kara Koyunlu [q.v.] and Ak Koyunlu [q.v.]) 
whose capital was in Tabriz (780-908/1378-1502). 

After 907/1502 Adharbaydjan became the chief 
bulwark and rallying ground of the Safawids, them- 
selves natives of Ardabil and originally speaking 
the local Iranian dialect. In the meantime, between 
1514 and 1603, the Ottomans frequently occupied 
Tabriz and other parts of the province. The Persian 
control was restored by Shah 'Abbas but during the 
Afghan invasion (1135-42/1722-8) the Ottomans 
recaptured Adharbaydjan and other western 
provinces of Persia, until Nadir Shah expelled them. 

In the beginning of the reign of Karim Khan 
Zand the Afghan Azad Khan revolted in Adhar- 



baydjan and later the Dumbuli Kurds of Khov and 
other tribal chiefs lorded it over various parts of 
Adharbaydjan. 

With the advent of the Kadjars Adharbaydjan 
became the traditional residence of the heirs-apparent. 
In the north the final frontier with Russia (along the 
Araxes) was established in 1828 (treaty of Turkman- 
cay). The western frontier with Turkey was delimi- 
tated only in 1914, and under Rida Shah Persia 
ceded to Turkey a small area north of the Ararat. 

After 1905 the representatives of Adharbaydjan 
took a lively part in the Persian revolution. On 
3 April 1908 Russian troops arrived in Adharbay- 
djan, by agreement with Great Britain, to protect the 
foreign colonies in Tabriz, but then prolonged then- 
stay under various pretexts, and in 1914-7 warred 
with the Turks with varying fortune. They evacuated 
Adharbaydjan after the Russian revolution (1917), 
and on 8 June the Turks arrived and installed in 
Tabriz a Turcophile government. About this time 
there appeared the first traces of Adharbaydjan! 
self-consciousness. The Persian control was restored 
by the future Rida Shah on 5 September 1921. 
After the events of 1941 (see Iran) the Soviet 
forces occupied the northern provinces, including 
Adharbaydjan. Under cover of the occupation, 
there developed a movement for the autonomy of 
Adharbaydjan within the limits of the Persian 
state. The Russians evacuated Adharbaydjan by 
the beginning of May 1946 (instead of March 1946, 
as first agreed) and this delay led to a great discussion 
in the United Nations and to the first official split 
among the Allies. After the evacuation, the Premier 
Kawam recognised the provincial autonomy ot 
Adharbaydjan in an agreement signed on 13 June 
1946, by which the rights of local self-government 
with the use of the local Turkish dialect were guaran- 
teed. However, on 4 November, Persian troops 
moved into Adharbaydjan and the status quo ante 
was restored. 

Geography. The list of towns and districts of 
Adharbaydjan in Ibn Khurradadhbih, 119, is 
important for the composition of the province 
(kura) soon after the conquest, and possibly even 
under the Sasanians: 1. Maragha; 2. Miyanadj; 
3. Ardabil ; 4. Sisar ( = Senna) ; 5. Barza ( = Sakkiz ?) ; 
6. Sabur-khast; 7. Tabriz; 8. Marand; 9. Khoy; 
10. Kulsara; n. Mufcan; 12. Barzand; 13. Djanza 
(Ganzak); 14. Djabarwan; 15. Niriz; 16. Urmiya; 
17. Saunas; 18. Shiz; 19. Rustak a!-Salak; 20. Rustak 
Sind-baya (•Sind-paye); 21. al-Badhdh; 22. Urm; 
23. Balwan-Karadj (= Karadja-dagh ?) ; 24. Rustak 
Sarah (Sarab); 25. Daskiyawar (?); 26. Rustak 
May-pahradj. Of these nos. 4, 5, 6, 13, 14, 15, 18, 

19 and 26 lie to the south of Lake Urmiya (in the 
direction of Daynawar); nos. 7, 8, 9, 16 and 17 in 
the north-western corner; nos. 1, 2, 3, 10, n, 12, 21, 
22, 23 and 24 east of the meridian of Tabriz. Nos. 

20 and 25 cannot be located. The frontier in the 
south was no. 26: "the watch of Media" (possibly 
the present day Sunkur [q.v.] ; in the east, it passed 
between Miyana and Zandjan [q.v.]; in the N.E. 
Ibn Khurradadhbih, 121, names Warthan (now 
Altan on the south bank of the Araxes) as "the 
end of the 'atrial of Adharbaydjan". Thus the 
territory of the province closely corresponded to 
its present extent, but as Adharbaydjan was usually 
governed jointly with the neighbouring Armenia 
and Arran (see al-Makdisi, 374: iklim al-rihdb 
comprising the three provinces), administrative 
frontiers were subject to temporary changes, espe- 
cially in later times. In al-Makdisi, 374, Khov. 



AdharbaydjAn — ADHARGON 



Urmiya and even DSkharrakan (south of Tabriz) are 
reckoned to Armenia. According to Yakut (13th 
century) Adharbaydjan extended down to Bardha'a 
(Parthav). In Nuzhat al-Kulub (730/1340), 89, 
Nakhicewan and Ordflbad, on the left bank of the 
Araxes, are mentioned under Adharbaydjan. 

Very characteristic for Adharbaydjan are the 
high peaks rising in various parts of the territory, 
with ranges of mountains connecting them: Mt. 
Sawalan west of Ardabll (15,792 feet), Mt. Sahand, 
south of Tabriz (12,000 feet), the Lesser Ararat 
(12,840 feet) south of which runs the long range 
which forms the frontier with Turkey and 'Irak, 
and which in its southern part is studded with high 
peaks. The central parts of Adharbaydjan consist both 
of considerable plains (Tabriz, Marand, Khov. Salmas) 
and of high plateaux burrowed by deep gorges. 

The territory of Adharbaydjan belongs to the 
basins of the Caspian, of Lake Urmiya and of the 
Tigris. Towards the Caspian flow: (i) the tributaries 
of the Safid Rud having their sources on the south- 
eastern face of Mt. Sahand, and (ii) the southern 
tributaries of the Araxes (the river of Ardabll, 
Kara-su; the rivers of Karadja-dagh ; the river of 
Khov and the river of Maku, Zangi-cay). The 
internal Lake Urmiya [q.v.] drains an area of 52,500 
sq. km (the rivers of Maragha, Sufi-cay etc.; the 
river of Tabriz, AdjI-cay; the numerous rivers of 
Salmas and Urmiya; the important rivers of the 
Kurdish districts, Djaghatu, Tatawu, Gadir). The 
Lesser Zab rises on the Persian side of the frontier 
range and, through the gap of Alan, emerges into 
the plains of Northern 'Irak to join the Tigris. 

The population of Adharbayadjan lives chiefly in 
villages. The largest towns are Tabriz (280,000 
inhabitants), Ardabil (63,000), Urmiya, Khov 
(49,000), Maragha (35,000). The semi-nomads are 
found on the Mughan steppe (the Turkish Shah- 
sewan [q.v.]) and in the Kurdish districts along the 
Turkish frontier and south of Lake Urmiya. The 
population in its great majority speaks the local 
dialect of "Adharbaydjan Turkish" (see AdharI). 
The characteristic features of the latter are Persian 
intonations and disregard of the vocalic harmony, 
reflecting the non-Turkish origin of the Turkicised 
population. The remains of the old Iranian (ddhari) 
dialects are found in small groups in Karadja-dagh, 
near Sahand, near Pjulfa, etc. Persian is the official 
language learnt at school. Armenians and Assyrians 
("Aysor") are found in the districts to the west of 
Lake Urmiya. Kurdish is spoken along the western 
frontier and in the southern districts, to the west 

Bibliography: J. Marquart, ErdnSahr, 1901, 
108-14; P. Schwarz, Iran im MittelalUr, viii, 
1932-4, 959-1600 (a most detailed digest of Arab 
geographers); Le Strange, 159 ff.; V. Minorsky, 
Roman and Byzantine campaigns in Atropatene, 
BSOAS, 1944, 245-65 (cf. E. Honigraann, in 
Byzantion, 1944-5, 389-93). For the list of Arab 
governors cf. R. Vasmer, Chronologie der arabischen 
Statthalter von Armenien, etc. (750-887), Vienna 
1931. Ritter, Erdkunde, ix, 763-1048; Khanikoff 
and Kiepert, Map of Aderbaijan, in Z. f. allgetn. 
Erd., 1862; J. de Morgan, Mission scientifique, 
i, 290-358; Farhang-i Diughrd/ivd'i-vi Iran, iv, 
1951, (lists of villages, maps); A. Monaco, 
L'Azerbeigian persiano, Soc. geogr. italiana, 1928. 
See also ardabIl, barzand, ganza, khoy, mara- 
gha, MARAND, MUKAN, NIRlZ, SALMAS, Sa'UDJ- 

bulak (Mahabad), shIz, sIsar, sulduz, Tabriz, 

URMIYA, USJINU. (V. MlNORSKY) 



(ii) Azerbaydjan, Soviet Socialist Republic 
(Az. SSR) in the eastern part of Transcaucasia,, 
between the south-eastern branches of the Caucasus, 
the Caspian coast and the Araxes (which separates- 
it from the Persian province of the same name). In. 
the north-east it borders on the Daghestan Auton- 
omous republic (part of the Russian Socialist 
Federal Soviet Republic, RSFSR). In the north- 
west it borders on the Georgian S.S. Republic (along 
the Alazan) and in the west on the Armenian S.S. 
Republic (along the line running east of Lake 
Sewan = Gokce). In the south-west the autonomous, 
republic (ASSR) of Nakhcewan, locked within the 
Armenian territories, is part of the Azerbaijani 
republic, whereas the highlands of Kara-bakh (with 
a considerable Armenian population) form art 
autonomous territory (oblast) within Azerbaydjan. 

Historically the territory of the republic cor- 
responds to the Albania of the classical authors. 
(Strabo, xi, 4; Ptolemy, v, 11), or in Armenian 
Alvan-k c , and in Arabic Arran [q.v.]. The part of 
the republic lying north of the Kur (Kura) formed 
the kingdom of Sharwan (later Shirwan [q.v.]). 

After the collapse of the Imperial Russian army 
Baku was protectively occupied by the Allies 
(General Dunsterville, 17 August-14 Sept. 1918) on 
behalf of Russia. The Turkish troops under Nurt 
Pasha occupied Baku on 15 Sept. 1918 and reor- 
ganized the former province under the name of 
Azarbaydjan — as it was explained, in view of the 
similarity of its Turkish-speaking population with 
the Turkish-speaking population of the Persian 
province of Adharbaydjan. When after the Mudros 
armistice the Allies reoccupied Baku (17 Oct. 1918), 
General Thomson (28 Dec. 1918) recognized the 
existing Azarbaydjan government of the Musdwdt 
party as the only local authority. After the evacu- 
ation of the Allies, the Soviet regime was proclaimed 
in Baku on 28 April 1920, without armed opposition, 
and Azerbaydjan became one of the three republics 
of the federated Transcaucasia. In 1936 the fede- 
ration came to an end and on the 5 Dec. 1936 
Azerbaydjan was admitted into the U.S.S.R. as 
one of the sixteen constituent republics of the Union. 

The present-day republic possesses an area of 
87,700 sq. km. and a population of 3.2 million, of 
which 28°' live in towns. Local Turks are in a 
majority of 3/5, whereas the Armeninas form i2°/» 
of the population, and Russians io°/ . The capital 
of the republic, Baku [q.v.], counts 809,000 inhabit- 
ants, Gandja [q.v.] (formerly Elizavetpol and Kiro- 
vabad) 99,000. Other large towns are Shamakhl, 
Kuba, Saliyan, Nukhi, Mingecawr, etc. 

Bibliography: Bolshaye Sovittskaye Entsik., 

1951 ; Chambers's Encyc, 1950; L. C. Dunsterville, 

The Adventures of Dunsterforce, London 1920. 
(V. Minorsky) 

AEHARGON (P., "flame-coloured" ; Arabic 
Adharyun), a plant about 2-3 feet high with 
finger-long elongated leaves, of a red-yellow colour, 
and malodorous blossoms with a black kernel. The 
identification of this plant is not yet well established: 
in Greek xepa i^apiov occurs synonymously with 
senecio vulgaris, the common groundsel (B. Lang- 
kavel, Botanik der spatern Griechen, 1866, 74; I. Low, 
Aramdische Pflanzennamen, 1879, 47). The descrip- 
tions of the Arabian authors leave a choice between 
the dark yellow buphthalmos, for which Clement- 
Mullet decided, and the calendula officinalis, mari- 
gold, which indeed unites the characteristic features 
of shape, hue and smell and which formerly was 
officinal. In Arab medicine adharyun passed for a 



I 9 3 



ADHARGON — ADHARI 



cordial, an antidote, etc. The plant played in 
popular belief a greater part than in medicine: it 
was believed that its odour alone was sufficient to 
cause or to facilitate delivery as well as to drive 
away flies, rats and lizards. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Baytar, Didmi c , Bulak 
1291, i, 16; Ibn al- c Awwam, Faldha, transl. 
Clement-Mullet, Paris 1866, i, 269; KazwinI 
(Wiistenfeld) i, 271; L. Leclerc, in Notices et 
extraits des manuscrits, xxiii, 38; Meyerhof and 
Sobhy, The abridged version of "the Book of Simple 
Drugs" etc., i, 146 ff. (J. Hell) 

ADHARI (AZERl), a Turkish dialect, 
(i) Language, (ii) literature. 

The word Adhari, which means "pertaining to 
Adharbaydjan", has been used to denote various 
ethnic groups from the 10th century onward. It 
was applied to the Adharbaydjan Republic founded 
in the Caucasus in 1918, and is extended in the 
present day to cover not only the Soviet Republic 
of Adharbaydjan and Persian Adharbaydjan but 
also the Turkish populations of Khurasan, Astarabad, 
Hamadan and other parts of Persia, Daghestin and 
Georgia. 

Adhari Turkish has long maintained its identity 
as a literary language. According to the latest 
morphological classification of the Turkish dialects 
(Radloff, Samoilovich), it forms the "Southern 
Turkish" group, along with the Turkish of Anatolia, 
Turkmenistan, the Balkan peninsula and the 
Crimean littoral. Although the last word on the 
subject has not yet been said, the dialects of spoken 
Adhari seem to fall into the following main groups: 
<i) Baku-Shirwan; (ii) Gandja-Karabagh; (iii) Tabriz; 
(iv) Urmiya. 

The chief phonetic and morphological characte- 
ristics of Adhari are summarized below (the forms 
in brackets are those of the Turkish of Turkey). 

a. Vowels: 

There are two e-sounds an open [e] and a closed 
[e] (here shown as e). The former represents the 
sound of fathp, in Arabic and Persian borrowings: 
Jeget (fakat), veten (vatan). So too in conjunction 
with 'ayn (which medially is heard as a pause): 
etir (itir), eli (AH), me'den (maden), ye'ni (yani), 
me'sux (mdsuk). 

Closed e occurs in initial syllables where other 
dialects of the group have t: enis (inis), endir- (indir-), 
ekia (ikiz), elm (ilim), etibar (itibar). It is also heard 
in the diphthong in eyn (ayn), eyni (ayni). 

Initial t has become i in modern Adhari: irax 
{Irak), ill X (Ulk), ilan (yUan). 

av, ev of other dialects and Arabic au, appear 
as oy, 6y, ou, 6 or 6: pilo (pilav), dousan, dbsan 
(tavsan), odan (avdan), sdymek (sevmek), 6y (ev) 
46ylet (devlet), ddsurmek (devsirmek), tox (tavuk), 
coher (cevher). 



The sound of k is rare in Adhhari. Initially it is 
replaced by g, medially and finally by x> except 
in foreign borrowings, where medial h becomes g 
or y- When doubled, it is pronounced kg: gaya 
(kayo), gardas (kardes), baxmax (bakmak), hegiget 
(hakikat), egide (akide), afU (akU), tefvim (takvim), 
bakgal (bakkal), sakga (sakka). 

Palatal k replaces palatal g at the beginnings of 
words: k6(- (g6(-), kdlge (gdlge). In the Adhari of 
Gandja and Persia, medial and final k is pronounced 
like the ch of German ich: bdyuh (buyiik), (ehmeh 
{(ekmek). 



Initial y disappears: il (yil), ttz (ytiz). 

Initial t and d interchange, with no apparent rule: 
tut (dut), tiismek (diismek), dartmax (tartmak). In 
foreign words, final t is lost after x ° r s . but is 
preserved when followed by a vowel: vax (vakit), 
evdes (abdest), dos (dost), but vaxtim, evdeste, dosta. 

Initial b is almost always changed to m under the 
influence of a following n: men (ben), minmek 
(binmek), muncux (boncuk). Exceptions: buynuz 
(boynuz), bende. 

n survives in some dialects: donuz (domuz), mana 
(bana). In others it is dropped, nasalizing the 
preceding vowel: mda (bana), kdul (gonul), gdziia 
(gSztine). In the dialects of Baku and Persia it 
becomes w, particularly in the genitive, dative and 
accusative cases of the possessive forms of nouns: 
eviiwun (evinin), eviiwe, evuwi. 

r disappears from some words in the various 
dialects, with no definite rule, and in the Adhari of 
Persia is regularly dropped from the 2nd person 
singular and plural and the 3rd person plural of 
verbal forms: see under Verbs, below, dirjdir loses 
its r, becoming di/di. 

I is commonly dropped from degiX: ddyii, dey, 
deyi. In some words it replaces r: hancallhencel 
(hancar), incil (incir), zerel (zarar). 

c. Vowel Harmony is generally observed in 
Adhari, except in the dialects of Baku, Nukha and 
Persia, where we find velar suffixes added to palatal 
stems — 6lmax> yiyacax, gedax, bildlyl — and rounded 
vowels in suffixes: aton, babon, aldux, geldux- 

d. Morphology: 

The chief morphological peculiarities are these: 

(1) The accusative suffix of all vowel-stems except 
su is -nijni: arabanl, dereni. Consonant-stems are 
treated as in the Turkish of Turkey: ayacl, demiri. 

(2) The suffix which denotes a regular occupation 
or forms a noun of agent is -(ij-ct: demirci, arabaci, 
alverci, yaztcl. (3) kimi or kimin is always used in 
place of gibi, and ten or cen/can in place of kadar or 
dek: indiyeten, indiyecen, ay^anuxcan, diinenecen. 
(4) The interrogative mi generally comes after the 
verbal suffixes: Sydedimi (evde midir), geleremmi 
(gelir miyim), yorgunsanmt (yorgun musun), gelmi- 
semi (gelmis miyim). (5) In the conjugation of the 
verb, k and x are vsei instead of z in the 1st person 
plural: gelmirik (gelmiyoruz) ; almarix, (almaylz), 
varajix or varacix (varacaglz), sata bilmerik (sata- 
maytz). (6) With personal names, instead of the plural 
suffix, gil is used, which means "house" in Cuwash: 
Ahmetgil (Ahmet'ler), Memmetgil (Mehmet'ler), Hesen- 
gil (Hasan'lar). 

Verbs: 

Adhari has no necessitative mood; instead, it 
uses gerek with the optative: gerek alam, gerek 
satam, gerek isdiyesen (istemelisin). 

The suffix of the 2nd person of the imperative 
is an invariable ginen, found only in Adhari: 
gelginen, atginen. 

The suffix of the present I tense is -»>': gelirem, 
gelirsen/gelisen, gelir, geliriklgeluruxjgelurux, gelirsizj 
gelisiiz, gelillerlgeUile. The negative suffix is -mirl-mir: 
gelmirem, gelmirsen/gelmisen, gelmir . . . gelmillerjgel- 
mille. The impotential form is: gelemmirem, gelem- 
mirsen/gelemmisen, gelemmir . . . gelemmiUerjgelem- 
mille. 

The present II or aorist tense is formed with 
-erj-ar: geleremlgeUem, gelerse. The negative: geU 
meremlgelmenem, gelmezsenlgelmesen, gelmez, gelmerik/ 
gelmerux, gelmezsi^iz\gelmesuz, gelmezler/gelmezle. The 
impotential: gelemmerem, gelemmezsenjgelemesen etc. 
The idea of inability is also expressed by the use of 



the auxiliary verb bilmemek: gele bilmirem, gele 
bilmirsen etc. 

The optative: olam/olum, olasan, ola, alax, 
olasintz/olasiz, olalar/olala. Negative: almiyamlal- 
miyem, almiyasanlalmiyesen, almtya/almiye, almiyah/ 
aimiyax, almiyasinizla.lmiyesinizlalmiyesiz,almiyalar 
almiyeler. 

The dubitative: almisam, almissanlalmisan, alipl 
aHf/alitdt, almiflxlalmifux, almtssMz/almisUzlalmi- 
suz, aHplajaUflarjalttdUar. 

Participle and gerundives: The participle in 
widest use is in -enl-an: gelen, satan. Adhari is badly 
off for gerundives. In place of -ken and -rek it makes 
use of -endel-anda: gelendt (gelirken). The participle 
in -dt'x is not used in the absolute form but only 
with case-endings. 

Bibliography: For an extensive bibliography 
of works published up to 1933, see A. Caferoglu, 
Sarkta ve garpta Azeri lehfesi Utkikleri, Azerbaycan 
Yurt Bilgisi, iii, Istanbul 1933-4. The main 
scientific studies are: J. Zenker, Allgemeine 
Grammatik der Tiirkisch-tatarischen Sprachen, 
Leipzig 1848; K. Foy, Azerbaj&anische Studien 
mit einer Charakteristik des Sudturkischen, MSOS 
1903, 126-93, 1904, 197-265; H. Ritter, Azer- 
beidschanische Texte zur nordpersischen Volkskunde, 
Isl., 1921, 181-212, 1939, 234-68; A. Djaferoglu, 
75 Azafbaj&anische Lieder "Bajaty" in der Mundart 
von Gdnga nebst einer sprachlichen Erkldrung, 
Breslau 1930; S. Tallphanbeyli, Karabag-lstanbul 
sivelerinin savtiyat cihetinden mukayesesi, Azer- 
baycan Yurt Bilgisi, iii; M. A. Shiraliev, Izsledovanie 
narechiy azerbaydjanskovo yazika, Moscow 1947; 
H. Seraja Szapszat, Proben der Volksliteratur der 
Tiirken aus dem persischen Azerbaidschan, Cracow 
1935; Muharrem Ergin, Kadi Burhaneddin divani 
iizerinde bir gramer denemesi, Turk Dili ve EdebiyaU 
Dergisi, iv, Istanbul 1951, 287-327; T. Kowalski, 
Sir Aurel Stein's Sprachaufzeichnungen in Aptaliu- 
Dicdekt aus Siidpersien, Cracow 1937; K. Dmitriev 
and O. Chatskaya, Quatrains populaires de I'Azer- 
baidjan, J A, 1928, 228-6,1; Djeyhoun bey Hadji- 
beyli, Le dialecte et le folklore du Karabagh, J A, 
1933, 31-144- See also M. F. Koprulu's article 
Azeri in I A. 

If we set aside the Kitdb-i Dede Korkud [q.v.], 
■whose composition is ascribed to the nth century, 
although the text was probably not fixed before 
the 14th, the first great name in Adhari Turkish 
literature is that of Shaykh c Izz al-DIn Asfarayinl, 
3. renowned 13th-century poet who wrote under the 
maMas of Hasan-oghlu or Pur Hasan. 

Two poets of the 14th century who played an 
important part in the development of Adhari lite- 
rature were Kadi Burhan al-DIn [q.v.] and Neslml. 
Neslml [q.v.], who sometimes used the makJUas of 
Hiiseynl, was a contemporary of Timttr. A master 
of Arabic and Persian, as well as of Adhari, he 
used his poetic gift to propagate the Hurufi doctrine. 
His simple and attractive diction made him the 
most popular poet of his time. The mediaeval 
period of Adhari literature is regarded as closing 
■with him, but the themes and lyricism of his poetry 
had their influence on the development of the new 

The simple Turkish style introduced by Neslml 
was raised to its greatest heights by Hablbl, Shah 
Ismail the Saf awl and Fudull. Hablbl, poet, lyricist 
and scholar, who for a while enjoyed the patronage 
of Shah Ismail Safawi, constitutes a stage between 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



VRI 193 

Neslml, Shah Ismail and Fudull. The language oif 
his matchless sufl love-poems differs but little 
from that of his predecessors, whereas his contem- 
porary Shah Ismail [q.v.] ("Khatat", 1485-1524) 
made a literary vehicle of the real Adhari Turkish 
of the people. This departure from the classical 
literary language has been explained as due simply 
to Shah Ismail's desire to find a large audience for 
his political and religious views. At all events he 
opened a new period in Adhari literature, both by 
his endeavour to escape from the Perso-Arabic 
vocabulary used by Fudull [q.v.], and by his own. 
remarkable creative powers. The course taken by 
writers after him was towards the language and 
literature of the people. 

In this new development, which continued through 
the 17th and 18th centuries, an important part was 
played by the political, social and cultural movements 
then afoot in Adharbaydjan. Classical literature 
began to develop side by side with the literature 
of the people, in the semi-independent khanates 
then coming into existence. Among the products of 
this folk-literature were romantic poems such as 
Kdr-oghtu, 'Ashik Qharib, Shah Ismd'il and Asli 
we-Kerem. This genre, known as 'dshikh ('dshik) 
literature, made great advances in Adharbaydjan 
and formed a bridge between the classical literary 
language and the local dialects. 

The progress made by folk-literature had its effect 
on the development of the classical literature, as is 
particularly evident in the language of the 17th- 
and 18th-century poets Meslhl, Sa'ib TabrizI [q.v.], 
Kawsl, Agha Mesih Shirwanl, Nishat, WidadI and 
Waklf. Of these, Kawsl and Meslhl are especially 
noteworthy for their poetic power. Above all, the 
creative writers WidadI and Waklf (18th century), 
who were steeped in the 'dshikh literature, secured 
a large public for their poems among the broad 
mass of the people. WidadI, a prolific lyric poet, 
greatly enriched Adhari literature. His contemporary, 
Molla Panah Waklf (1717-97) is considered the 
founder of the modern school. He chose his themes 
from life and appears in his poems as an historian 
and a realist. The simplicity, sincerity and melo- 
diousness of his sweet songs in praise of his beloved 
and other beauties, replete with the lyricism of the 
people, have won him a great and abiding fame 
among the Adharis. In the same category is Dhakir 
(1774-1857), the greatest master of 19th-century 
comic poetry in Adhari. The foremost stylist of 
Adhari literature, he exposed in biting lampoons 
the injustices and shortcomings of the age. 

After Waklf a new stage begins. Adhari literature 
underwent a virtual revolution, acquiring a number 
of new genres, thanks to the mature genius of 
Akhund-zade [q.v.]. For the first time we find 
historical works, drama and prose-writings. c Abbas- 
Kull Agha Kudsl (Bakikhanlt: 1794-1847), poet, 
scholar and lover of learning, is noted for his lyrical 
and satirical works. The literary coteries founded 
by Mirza Shefl' "Wazeh", NebatI and Natawan 
Khanim (1837-97) on the one hand, and in Karabagh 
and Shamakhl on the other, and continued by such 
poets as Sayyid c AzIm, c AsI, Newres, Kudsl, Safa 
and Salik, contributed by their rivalries to the 
enrichment of Adhari literature. Seyyid c AzIm 
(1835-88), who was recognized as a master of the 
ghazal and the kasida, joined Ekindji, the progressive 
newspaper founded in 1875 by Hasan Bek Zerdabi 
(1841-1907) and devoted his poetic powers to 
castigating the fanaticism of the people. 

The end of the 19th century may be described as 



194 



ADHARI - 



the period of the development of the Adhari press. 
The appearance of Ekindji, the first Adhari news- 
paper, was followed by that of several others: Diyd 
and Diyd-i Ifafkas, at Tiflls (1879- 1884); KeshkiU 
(1883-91), Shark-l Rus (1903-05), all of which served 
as rallying-points for progressive men of letters. 
The tempo of this development quickened remark- 
ably after the Russian revolution of 1905, conditions 
becoming then more favourable, and new topics, 
ideas and figures began to appear. A stream of new 
periodicals arose: tfaydt, Irshdd, Terakkl, Kaspiy, 
A Ilk Sdz. Their publishers were Ahmed Agha-oghlu, 
'All Bey Hiiseyn-zade, 'All Merdan Topcl-bashl and 
Mehmed Emiu ResOl-zade, nationalists and modern- 
ists with a knowledge of Ottoman, Russian and 
Persian literary and political life. Thanks to their 
labours and those of men like them, the common 
people became accustomed to the new cultural 
movement. The protagonist in the struggle was 
Alekper Sabir (d. 191 1), the unequalled master of 
Adhari satire, who used all the powerful resources 
of his pen to flay reaction, fanaticism and ignorance. 
Support came to him from the famous poet Djelll 
Mamet Kull-zade, editor of the progressive and 
democratic revue Molla Nasr al-Din, and from 
'Abbas SIhhat (1874-1918). 

Mehmed Had! and rjiiseyn Djawid were influenced 
by the literature of Turkey, imitating Namlk Kemal, 
Fikret and Hamid, and the poet Ahmed Djewad 
also showed the influence of the Turkish national 
literary movement. Nedjef Bey Wezlrli and c Abd 
iil-Rahlm Bey Hakwerdi maintained a constant flow 
of dramatic works, while Magoma and members of 
the rJadjIbeyH family composed operettas and 
operas for the Adhari theatre, laying the foundations 
of a national music. 

The chief figures of the latest period, from the 
fall of the independent Republic of Adharbaydjan to 
the present day, are Djelll Mamet Kull-zade, Akwerdi, 
<Abd Allah Sha'ik, Dja'far Djabbarll, and, of the 
younger generation, the poets Suleyman Riistem, 
$amed Wurgun, Rafl'beyli Nigar, MIrwarl Dilbazl. 
Bibliography: The most important studies 
of Adhari literary history are listed in I A, s.v. 
Azert (M. F. Koprulu). Other notable works are: 
B. Qobanzade, Azert edebiyattntn yeni devri, 
Baku 1930; M. AH Nazim, Azerbaydjanskaya 
khudojestvennaya literatura, Trudi Azerbay- 
djanskovo filial'a, xxx, Baku, 1936); Muhtasar 
Azerbaycan edebiyatt tarihi, Baku 1943; Antologiya 
azerbaydjanskoy poezii, Moscow 1930; B. Nikitin, 
La literature des Musulmans en U.R.S.S., REI, 
1934, cahier iii; M. E. Resulzade, Qagdas Azer- 
baycan edebiyatt, Ankara 1950; A. Vahap Yurt- 
sever, Sdbir'in Azerbaycan edebiyatmdaki yeri, 
Ankara 1951. (A. Cafero6lu) 

'ADHRA* [see nudjum]. 

ADHRI'AT, the Edrei of the Bible, to-day 
Der'a, chief town of Hawran, 106 km. south 
of Damascus. Situated on the borderline between a 
basaltic region and the desert, the town, formerly 
renowned for its wine and oil, was always a great 
market for cereals and an important centre of trade 
routes. Before the Assyrian conquest (732 B.C.) the 
kingdoms of Damascus and Israel contended for it; 
some scholars have identified it with the Aduri of 
the Amarna tablets. The capital of Batanea, Adraa 
was taken by Antiochus III in 218 B.C.; then 
occupied by the Nabateans; next it came under 
Roman domination, and from 106 onwards was 
incorporated in Provincia Arabia. In the Christian 
era, Adraa became the seat of a bishopric of Arabia. 



In 613 or 614 the Persians, in the course of their 
victorious campaign against the Byzantines, sacked 
the town and destroyed the olive-groves of the 
region (al-Tabarl, i, 1005, 1007). On the eve of 
the hidjra, Adhri'at was the centre of an important 
Jewish colony; the tribe of Nadir, driven out of 
Medina by Muhammad, took refuge there with 
their co-religionists. During the caliphate of Abu 
Bakr the inhabitants submitted to the Muslims, 
and acclaimed 'Umar when he passed through the 
region. It is stated that Mu'awiya II b. Yazld was 
born there. At the time of the Karmajian rebellion, 
293/906, the population was massacred. 

We find the place, called 'City of Bernard d'E- 
tampes', in the works of the chroniclers of the 
Crusades, in 1119 and 1147 in particular. During 
the Mamlflk and Ottoman epoch Adhri'at, capital 
of Bathaniyya, formed part of the province of 
Damascus and was one of the stages of the Pilgrim- 
age. The building of the railway linking Damascus, 
'Amman, and Medina made it an important station, 
a junction for Busra and Hayfa; it was occupied by 
the British on 28 September 1918. 

At the present day Der'a is an important railway 
centre, the southern road from Damascus to Baghdad 
passes through it, and it is a Syrian frontier post 
on the Jordan border. 

Bibliography: Baladhuri, Futuh, 126, 139; 
Yakut, i, 175 sq. ; G. Le Strange, Palestine under 
the Moslems, 383; Baudrillart, Diet. Hist, et 
Giogr. ecclisiastiques, s.v. Adraa; Schumacher, 
Across the Jordan, 121 f.; R. Dussaud, Topo- 
graphic hist, de la Syrie, 325 ft.; H. Lammens, 
Le siicle des Omeyyades, 169; R. Grousset, Hist, 
des Croisades, i, 547, ii, 215; J. Cantineau, Les 
Parlers du #or£«. For the inscriptions cf. Syria, 
Princ. Exp., i, 10; ii/A, 307; iii/A, 281 ff.; iv/D, 
64 ff. (F. Buhl-N. Elisseeff) 

ADHRUH (cf. ASpoa), more rarely Udhruh, a 
place between Ma'an and Petra, a magnificent 
Roman camp (the surviving monuments are described 
by Briinnow and Domaszewski), supplied by a 
gushing spring. This place, situated in pre-Islamic 
times in the Djudham country, was visited by the 
Kurayshite caravans. It submitted to Muhammad 
on payment of tribute during the expedition to- 
Tabuk (9/631); the treaty of capitulation handed 
down by our authorities is probably authentic. 
Mu'awiya is said to have received there the homage 
of al-yasan, the son of 'All. According to some 
Arab geographers Adhruh was the chief town of 
the district of al-Sharat, in the province of al-Balka'. 
It is not mentioned since the time of the crusaders, 
who nevertheless possessed in that region Ahmant, 
Vaux Moyse (= Wadi Mflsa), etc. 

Adhruh became famous in Islamic history on 
account of the conference which took place there 
after the battle of Siffin, in order to reach a decision 
in the conflict between 'AH and Mu'awiya (see 'al! 

Bibliography: Istakhri, 58; MakdisI, 54, 155; 
Ya'kubi, Bulddn, 326; HamdanI, 129; Bakri 
(Wustenfeld), 83; Yakut, i, 184 f.; Briinnow and 
Domaszewski, Die Provincia Arabia, i, 443 ff.; 
Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, 35, 39, 
384.— The statement in Hudud al-'Alam, 150, 
that the place was inhabited by Kharidjites, is 
due to a confusion between al-Sharat and al- 
shurat (= Kharidjites). 

(H. Lammens-L. Veccia Vaglieri) 
al-ADHWA', broken plural of dhu, denoting the 
kings and lords of Yaman whose names are- 



hl-ADHWA' — 'ADI B. MUSAFIR 



193 



formed with Dhu. The most famous are the Matha- 
mina, the eight princes (kayl [q.v.]) of Himyar [q.v.] 
who had the right of investiture at the election of 
the king. Their names are: Dhu Djadan, Dhu 
Hazfar, Dhu KhaM, Dhu Mukar (Makar), Dhu 
Sahar, Dhu Sirwah, Dhu Jhu'luban (Tha'laban), 
Dhu 'Uthkulan. Al-Hamdani, Wil, viii (ed. N.A. 
Faris), 159 includes Dhu Murathid, who is included 
also in the verses cited by Nashwan, i, 263, where 
Dhu Sahar is omitted. 

Bibliography: Lane, 985a; HamdanI, Siid- 

arab. MuStabih, ed. Lofgren, 48-54 (where also the 

derivation adhwdHyya "title or dignity of al- 

Adhwd"', cf. O. Lofgren, Ein Hamddnl-Fund, 

Uppsala 1935, 31); Nashwan, §hams al- c Ulum, ed. 

Zettersteen, i, 263, ed. 'Azimuddln Ahiuad, GMS 

xxiv, 16, 39, 48; M. Hartmann, Die arabische Frage, 

319 ff. (O. Lofgren) 

'ADl B. HATIM b. c Abd AllAh b. Sa c d al-Ta'I, 

Abu TarIf, Companion of the Prophet, and 

subsequently a follower of 'All. Son of the celebrated 

poet Hatim al-Tal [q.v.'], and, like him, a Christian, 

he had inherited the command of his tribe from 

his father, but when threatened with the loss of it 

he became converted to Islam, in 9 or 10/630-1, and 

collected the taxes of Tayyi 5 and Asad. After the 

death of the. Prophet he remained faithful to Islam, 

and prevented his tribe from apostatizing during 

the ridda. Later on he took part in the conquest 

of 'Irak, and received from 'Uthman a grant of land, 

al-Rawha>, on the Nahr 'Isa (cf. Le Strange, Lands, 

index) not far from the future Baghdad. However, 

he kept aloof from 'Uthman, and it can be inferred 

from al-Tabari (i, 3164) that he had some connection 

with his assassins. He fought under 'All in the 

Battle of the Camel (36/656), where he lost an eye. 

During the negotiations which preceded Siffln he 

was one of the delegates sent by 'Ali to Mu'awiya; 

then, as standard-bearer, he took part in the battle, 

in which his three sons were killed. Afterwards he 

lived at Kufa, where he did not renounce his 'Alid 

sentiments, and offered effective protection to 

members of his tribe who were persecuted by the 

powerful governor of 'Irak, Ziyad b. Abi Sufyan. 

He died in 68/687-88. 

Bibliography: Ibn Hisham, i, 948 sqq., 965; 
Tabari, index; Baladhuri, Futuh, 274; idem, 
Ansdb ( = O. Pinto and G. Levi della Vida, II 
Califfo Mu'awiya I, index) ; Ibn Kutayba, Ma'drif, 
Cairo 1353/1934, 136; idem, Shi'r, index; Abu 
Hatim al-Sidjistanl, K . al-Mu'ammarin (Goldziher, 
Abhandlungen, ii, index) ; Nawawi, Tahdhib, 415-17 ; 
Ibn al-Athlr, Usd al-Qhdba, iii, 392 ft.; lbnHadjar, 
Isdba, no. 4575; Yakut, s.v. Djusiya; Wustenfeld, 
Gen. Tabellen, index. (A. Schaade *) 

'ADl B. MUSAFIR al-HakkarI, Shaykh 'AdI, 
Sufi leader. He was an Arab of Kuraysh, an 
Umayyad, born at Bayt Far near Baalbek; he met 
'Akil al-ManbidJI, Hamrnad al-Dabbas, 'Abd al- 
Kahir al-Suhrawardl, 'Abd al-Kadir al-Djili, • Abu 
•1-Wafa al-Hulwanl and Abu Muhammad al-Shanbaki. 
He travelled far, spending much time in the wilder- 
ness till he settled in Laylash (Lalesh) near Mosul 
apparently before 505/nn, made for himself a 
convent there and started an order called the 'Ada- 
wiyya. His rule was so severe that many sufl leaders 
were unable to follow it; it is said that he was the 
first to train novices. His 'akida is quite orthodox 
and contains nothing unusual; he was opposed to 
the Mu'tazila and to all innovations; as a sufl he 
was like al-Ghazzali. Ibn Taymiyya calls him a pious 
follower of the sunna, equates him with al-Shafi'i 



as a true believer and with c Abd al-Kadir al-Djili 
as a sufl; he adds that he experienced ecstasies and 
that there was some extravagance in him which 
increased under his successors. He died in 557/1162 
or two years earlier or a year later. The sayings and 
poems ascribed to him might have been uttered by 
any sufl. The poem quoted by Layard can hardly 
be genuine. 

According to a Christian legend, told by a monk 
Ramisho', he was a Kurd; his father tended the 
flocks of a monastery and he himself became its 
business manager. Taking advantage of the absence 
of the abbot and some of the monks, he massacred 
those who remained and seized the building. Three 
years later he was summoned to Maragha and put 
to death there in 619/1221; but in 682/1283 the 
building was restored to his descendants. 

As Shaykh 'AdI had no children, the headship of 
the order passed to the offspring of his brother 
Sakhr. Another version is that 'AdI adopted the son 
of a servant, Hasan al-Bawwab, and his descendants 
provided the heads who were treated with unusual 
respect, parents being proud to lend their daughters 
to them. The order was confined mainly to the 
Kurds though it had a convent in the Karafa at 
Cairo. The members looked towards 'AdI (i.e. 
towards his grave) when they prayed and made 
him their treasure on which they relied in the 
hereafter; such devotion was not known in any 
other order. It is said that the extravagant views 
did not develop at once; only later did the sect 
give up the Muslim prayers and believe that 'AdI 
was eating bread and onions with God and was 
the provider for his people. One chief of the order, 
Hasan b. 'AdI, wept while listening to a sermon 
whereupon the Kurds nearly killed the too eloquent 
preacher. The order was strong enough to attract 
the attention of authority; this Hasan was put to 
death in 644/1246 by Badr al-Din Lu'lu 5 of Mosul 
though the Kurds believe that he is not dead. Six 
years later Lu'lu' dug up the bones of Shaykh 'AdI 
and burnt them. In 655/1257 Sharaf al-Din Muham- 
mad b. 'AdI was called to the help of 'Izz al-Din Kay 
Khusraw of Malatya along with another Kurd, 
Ahmad b. Bilas. Another descendant fled to Egypt 
with his Mongol wife in 675/1276 and yet another 
fled to Syria where he was killed in 680/1281. Early 
in the 8th/i4th century one of the family kept almost 
royal state in Bayt Far; another, Amlran, served 
the government in Syria, then retired to Mizza and 
was venerated by the Kurds who made offerings 
to him. As they planned rebellion, Amiran was put 
in gaol (at his own wish, al-Durar al-Kdmina, i, 414) 
and all was quiet, though the Kurds bowed down 
in front of the tower in which he was confined. 
A lawyer stirred up the orthodox in 8i7/i4i4,so 
they destroyed the tomb and burnt the bones of 
the Shaykh in the presence of the remnant of his 
followers who are here called Suhbatiyya. Later the 
tomb was rebuilt. 

For the relation between the historical Shaykh 
'AdI and his rdle in the religion of the Yazidls, 
cf. YAZlDl. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Attnr, xi, 190 (year 557); 
Ibn Khallikan, no. 426; al-Shatannawfi, Bahdjat 
al-Asrdr, 150; Ibn Taymiyya, Madimu'at al- 
Rasd'il, 1905, i, 273; Kutubl, Fawdt, i, 158; Ibn 
Kathir, xii, 243; Makrizi, KhiM, ", 435; id., al- 
Sulilk, year 817; Tadifi, Kald'id al-Djawdhir, 
1303, 107; Hadjdji Khalifa, iv, 243; Yakut, iv, 
374; 'Abd al-Hayy, Shadhardt al- Dhahab. iv, 179, 
v, 229; Bar Hebracus, Syriac Chronicle (Bedjan), 



<ADl b. MUSAFIR 



.-'ADID li-DIN ALLAH 



498 (= Eccl. Chron., i, 726), Arabic Chron., 466; 
F. Nau, in ROC, 1914, 105; 1915. 142; W. Ahl- 
wardt Verzeichnis, index; A. H. Layard, Nineveh 
and its remains, i, 293 ff.; id., Discoveries in the 
ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, 79 ff.; G. P. Badger, 
Nestorians and their rituals, i, 113 ff.; R. Frank, 
Scheich 'Adi (Turk. Bibl. 14), Berlin 191 1; Th. 
Menzel, in H. Grothe, Meine Vorderasiensexpe- 
dition, Leipzig 191 1, i, 109 ft.; A. Taymur, al- 
Yazidiyya wa-Mansha' Nihlatihim, Cairo 1347/ 
1928; c Abd al-Razzak, 'Abadat al-Shayfdn, Sidon 
1931; M. Guidi, in RSO, 1932, 408 ff.; Lescot, 
Enquete sur Us Yezides, Beirut 1938. 

(A. S. Tritton) 
<ADl b. al-RI&A', Abu Du'ad <Ad1 b. Zayd b. 
Malik b. 'Adi b. al-Rika c al-'AmilI, Arab poet 
of Syria, who was, in Damascus, the panegyrist of 
the Umayyads, especially of al-Walid b. <Abd al- 
Malik (86-96/705-15), in the presence of whom he 
fought a poetical contest with pjarir; he was also 
the butt of attacks by al-Ra 5 !. <AdI was celebrated 
for the grace of his nasib (see especially al-Mubarrad, 
al-Kamil, 85, concerning Umm al-IJasim) and for 
the care with which he composed his poems. His 
poems were known in Spain at an early date (BAH, 
ix, 397). He lived at least into the caliphate of 
Sulayman b. <Abd al-Malik (96-9/115-7). 

Bibliography: Djumahl, Tabakdt (Hell), 
144-5; Biahiz, Ifayawan*, iii, 64, iv, 336, v, 441; 
Ibn Rutayba, Shi'r, 391-4; Aghani 1 , viii, 179-83; 
Ibn Durayd, Ishtikdk, 225; MarzubanI, Mu'dfam, 
253; Maymani, al-JaraHf al-adabiyya, 81-97 (three 
poems) ; AmidI, Mu'talif, 116; Nuwayri, Nihdya, iv, 
246-50; Brockelmann, S I, 96; Nallino, Scritti, vj, 
161-2 (Fr. transl., 248). (Ch. Pellat) 

<ADl B. ZAYD, Arab Christian poet of al- 
Hira, of the second half of the 6th century. His life 
was spent partly at the Sasanid court at Ctesiphon 
(al-Mada'in), where he was secretary for Arab affairs 
to Chosroes Parwlz, and partly at the Lakhmid 
court at al-Hira, where he was a courtier and coun- 
cillor of al-Nu c man III, whom he had helped to the 
throne. This last, however, as a result of the 
intrigues of his enemies, later had him incarcerated, 
and finally put to death in prison (about 600 A.D.). 
<AdI is one of the most curious figures in pre-Islamic 
Arab history and poetry. With Nabigha al-Ohubyani 
and al-A'sha he represents the type of courtly and 
urbane poet familiar with a higher level of culture 
and civilization than those of the desert. Arab 
historico-literary tradition accordingly regards him 
as being on the fringe of the main stream of the 
poetry of the didhiliyya, because of his "un-Nadjdi" 
language, although the subjects with which he 
dealt and the form which he gave them had a long 
and profound influence on the development of 
Arab poetry in the Muslim epoch. 

As 'Adi's dlwan has been lost, only fragments of 
his work are known to us (collected in an incomplete 
fashion and without any critical sense by L. Cheikho, 
Shu < ara > al-Nasrdniyya, 439-74, to which should 
be added fragments in al-Djatiiz, al-Hayawdn, iv, 
65-6, al-MakdisI, al-Bad' wa 'l-Ta'rikh, i, 151, Ibn 
Kutayba, aZ-SA»V, n 2-3, and various quotations in 
the Hamasa of al-Buhturi). Among these verse 
those describing Biblical episodes (the creation an 
man's first sin) are of interest for the history < 
religion and culture: they, together with other 
evidence, confirm that the poet was a Christian 
(Hbadi). But the main themes of his poetry s< 
to have been, on the one hand, praise of wine, ■< 
on the other, meditation on the decay of human 



passions and effort, rendered vain by the inexorable 
passage of time. Of the former category a few 
sparse but significant examples have been preserved ; 
we know that they were appreciated and imitated 
by Walld b. Yazld and, later, by Abu Nuwas. On 
the second theme, which was probably inspired by 
the poet's own misfortunes, we possess numerous 
fragments which are interesting not only for their 
pious and ascetic Stimmung (a curious contrast 
with the hedonism of the bacchic poetry), but for 
the reflections on and evocation of Oriental (Arabo- 
Iranian) history which are to be found there, exem- 
plifying the vanity and feebleness of man. Instances 
of this are the famous fragment on al-Nu'man I and 
the castle of Khawarnak {Aghani*, ii, 138-9 and else- 
where), another on Hatra (al-Buhturi, al-Hamdsa 
(Cheikho), 198), and one in Ibn Rutayba, 112-3, on 
Djadhlma al-Abrash and al-Zabba 3 , which almost looks 
like a ballad. From all these relics, amounting to 
rather less than 400 lines, we receive the impression of 
a brilliant artistic personality, who contrived to give 
Arabic poetic form to the old themes of Semitic 
pessimism, and, at the same time, in contrast to 
the Biblical author of Ecclesiastes, to accompany 
them with a positive appreciation of some of the 
good things of life. 

Bibliography: Ibn IJutayba, SA»V, 111-7; 

Aghani*, ii, 97-154; J- Horovitz, Adi ibn Zaid, 

the Poet of al-Hira, IC, 1930, 31-69; F. Gabrieli, Adi 

ibn Zaid, il poeta di al-Hira, Rend. Lin., 1948, 

81-96; Th. Noldeke, Gesch. d. Perser u. Araber z. 

Zeit der Sassaniden, 312 ft.; G. Rothstein, Die 

Dynastic der Lahmiden in al-Htr<*, Berlin 1899, 

109 ff. (F. Gabrieli) 

al- c APID Li-DlN ALLAH, the eleventh and 

last Fatimid caliph of Egypt. His name was 

AbO Muhammad 'Abd Allah b. YOsuf, and was 

the grandson of the caliph al-Hafiz; his father had 

been killed by the vizier 'Abbas b. Abi '1-Futuh on 

the very day of the enthronement of the caliph 

al-Fa J iz. Al-'Adid succeeded this latter, his cousin, 

a sickly child who died at the age of eleven and 

a half. He himself came to the throne on 17 

Radjab 555/23 July 1160, and was chosen by the 

all-powerful minister al-Salih TalaV [q.v.], who had 

been governing Egypt for more than six years, 

because of his tender age. Al-'Adid was, in fact, 

born on 20 Muharram 546/9 May 1151. 

The history of this child-caliph's reign is thus in 
no way one of personal action on his part. The 
Arab writers seem uncertain, and intermittently 
attribute to him stray impulses of revolt, which 
had little success. We shall cite them, although 
admitting that in general the caliph looked on 
helplessly at a shattering series of tragic incidents 
of which he himself was finally to be the victim. 
Clearly an important factor eludes us, as we have 
little information about the role of the secret cama- 
rilla of the Palace, whose intermittent influence is 
hinted at. We cannot but observe the personal 
ambition of the protagonists, who lived dangerously 
and were preoccupied with increasing their personal 
prestige, if only with a view to saving their skins. 
The death- throes of the Fatimid regime are a sorry 
spectacle. 

.The better to ensure the docility of the young 
caliph, TalaV made him his son-in-law, which 
however did not save TalaV from being assassinated, 
the end that he had always feared, on 19 Ramadan 
556/n September 1161. To be sure, the caliph was 
not liberated by this murder, to which he was 
possibly privy, for he found himself compelled to 



,- c ApiD li-DIN ALLAH - 



197 



confer the vizierate on Ruzzik [g.v.], the son of the 
dead man. Ruzzik had no intention of giving up 
any of his prerogatives, and the caliph established 
relations with a prefect of Upper Egypt, Shawar 
[g.v.], in order to invite him to rid him of Ruzzik. 
Shawar recruited troops and took the offensive; 
he succeeded in taking Cairo and assuming power 
in Rabl c I 558/February 1163. The caliph quickly 
perceived that he had made a blunder, as the new 
minister continued, like his predecessors, to seclude 
his master. Shawar was soon betrayed by one of 
his own officers, Dirgham [g.v.], who took his place 
in Ramadan 558/August 1163. There were indeed 
grounds for the sad reflection of a contemporary 
writer, 'Umara, who observed that in those times 
"any man who had received the confidence of his 
brother betrayed him". Then followed the crucial 
event which was to bring about the fall of the 
dynasty. Shawar had succeeded in making his 
escape; he took refuge at the court of the Zangid 
prince of Aleppo, Nur al-DIn, and asked his help 
to regain power. The prince of Aleppo did not 
hesitate, being fired with the idea of re-establishing 
Sunnism in Egypt and reconstituting Islamic unity. 
The expeditionary force was commanded by Shirkuh 
[q.v.], "a man full of audacity to whom fear was 
unknown", who took with him Salah al-DIn, the 
future founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Dirgham was 
beaten in the open country and killed, and Shawar 
became vizier again in Ramadan 559/ August 1164. 

Difficulties arose in connection with Shirkuh, 
but it does indeed seem that he was not to blame 
for them. Shawar had demanded help from Sunnls 
against the ShI'ites whose chief minister he was; 
the next time his treachery was much more serious, 
for he asked for the intervention of Amalric I to 
drive the forces of Shirkuh out of Egypt. The 
temporary results of this are well known: Shirkuh 
capitulated at Bilbays and went back to Syria, the 
Franks occupied Cairo for a short time, and Shawar 
had Fustat set on fire, being unable to defend it. 
For the vizier had become alarmed and was trying 
to negotiate the withdrawal of the Frankish troops. 
The caliph, who still had absolutely no authority, 
had now for his part decided to appeal to Nur al-DIn, 
thus signing the warrant for his imminent fall. 

This was the third invasion by Shirkuh. It was 
decisive; he had Shawar assassinated on 17 Rabl c I 
564/18 January 1169, and seized the viziership, 
which he held for only two months, for he died on 
22 Djumada II/23 March. His nephew, Salah al-DIn, 
succeeded yet him. 

Salah al-DIn energetically repressed the internal 
disorders, and did not hesitate to accept the chal- 
lenge of street fighting in the capital itself, in the 
course of which the remnants of the Fatimid army, 
the Sudanese and Armenian forces, were exter- 
minated. Then, one fine day, the name of the 
'Abbasid caliph of Baghdad was proclaimed in Cairo, 
in an atmosphere of complete indifference. A 
theologian of Persian origin, al-Khabushanl, carried 
this out, and three years later Salah al-DIn rewarded 
him by opening a college for him. The dedicatory 
inscription has been preserved; it celebrates the 
importance of Shafi'ism, "characterized by a solid 
doctrinal foundation, unified by the method of 
al-Ash'ari, against vain reasoners and other in- 
novators". Perhaps the caliph <Adid never knew of 
his misfortune; he died a few days after the •Abbasid 
proclamation, on 10 Muharram 567/13 September 
1 171. He was not yet twenty-one. 

Thus c Adid was far from being a caliph on the 



scale of some of his predecessors. Nonetheless, we 
posses some interesting information about his 
personal appearance, for he received a Frankish 
embassy led by Shawar. The Franks were taken, in 
the royal palace, to a vast hall divided into two by 
a great curtain of silk and gold, "with a pattern of 
beasts, birds, and persons". Shawar prostrated 
himself three times before this hanging, the third 
time in an attitude of most humble adoration. 
Suddenly the great tapestry was raised and the 
caliph appeared, seated on a throne of gold, encrusted 
with precious stones. His face was veiled, and the 
removal of the glove of his right hand was an 
elaborate performance. The ambassadors were told 
that "the caliph was a youth whose beard was 
just beginning to appear, and that he was dark- 
skinned and very plump". 

Bibliography: Ibn Khallikan. i, 338; MakrizI, 
KKtat, Bulak, i, 357; Ibn Taghribirdl, Nudjiim, 
Cairo, v, 334 ft.; H. Derenbourg, Oumara du 
Yemen; Schlumberger, Campagnes du roi Amaury 
Ier; G. Wiet, Inscr. du mausolie de ShdfiH, 
BIE, xv, 169-171; idem, Pricis de Vhistoire 
d'£gyple, ii, 196-198; idem Hist, de la nation 
igyptienne, iv, 289-302. (G. Wiet) 

ADIGHE [see tamers]. 

al- c ADIL, title of two Ayyubid princes: 
1. al-Malik al- c Adil Abu Bakr Muhammad b. 
Ayyub, with the honorific title of Sayf al-DIn 
("Sword of the Faith", called by the Crusaders 
Saphadin), the brother, assistant, and spiritual heir 
of Saladin (Salah al-DIn, [q.v.]). He was born in 
Muharram 540/June-July 1145, or according to 
other accounts in 538/1 143-4, in Damascus or in 
Baalbek, thus being six or eight years younger 
than his celebrated brother. 

Al-'Adil accompanied Saladin to Egypt in the 
third and final expedition of Shirkuh (564/1169). 
His first important appointment was to the govern- 
ment of Egypt during Saladin's frequent absences 
in Syria after the death of Nur al-DIn in 569/1174. 
In this position he proved himself an able and 
loyal administrator, and apart from sending rein- 
forcements and supplies, when called upon, for 
Saladin's army, he enjoyed full and independent 
powers in both external and internal affairs, being 
"the real Sultan of Egypt" ( c Imad al-DIn, in al- 
Bark al-Shami, v, fol. n7r). After the capture of 
Aleppo in 579/1183, Saladin at first gave it to his 
son al-Zahir GhazI, but a few months later, on 
al- c Adil's own request, transferred it to him with 
full powers of government (diploma in 'Imad al-DIn, 
ibid., 124-6, dated Sha'ban 579), and appointed his 
nephew TakI al-DIn 'Umar to Egypt, as regent for 
al-Afdal [q.v.]. Although al-Zahir loyally submitted 
to his father's decision, his disappointment on this 
occasion probably contributed to his later strained 
relations with al- c Adil. Three years later, however, 
in 582/1186, again on al-'Adil's suggestion, a'-Zahir 
was reinstated in Aleppo, and al-'Adil himself 
reappointed to Egypt, this time as regent for 
Saladin's son al-'AzIz 'Uthman. He remained in 
this post through the campaigns of 583-4/1 187-8 
and the ensuing Crusade, himself taking part in 
the conquest of southern Palestine and Karak, and 
sending ships, men, and supplies in support of 
Saladin's attempt to raise the siege of c Akka (585-7/ 
1 189-91). During the subsequent operations in 
Palestine he played a particularly important part 
in the negotiations with Richard Coeur-de-Lion, 
with whom he formed such friendly relations that 
it was even proposed that he should marry Richard's 



198 



,-<ADIL — al-'ADIL b 



sister Joan, and that they should rule jointly over 
Palestine. In the following year (588/1192), in 
consequence of the disorders resulting from TakI 
al-DIn's unauthorized campaigns in the Diazlra and 
Diyar Bakr, al-'Adil was transferred to the govern- 
ment of these provinces (at the same time retaining 
Karak and Balka'). Behind these frequent changes 
there may perhaps be discerned a consistent policy 
applied by Saladin. Of all his brothers, the one in 
whom he had the most complete confidence, and 
on whose advice he relied in all contingencies, was 
al- c Adil. It was therefore natural that al- c Adil 
should be placed in command of that province 
which, in the changing conjunctions of events, was 
for the time being the most vital for maintaining 
the unity and strength of Saladin's possessions. 

On Saladin's death in 589/1193, al-'Adil's first 
task was, in fact, to defeat an attempt by <Izz 
al-Dln, atabeg of Mosul, to reoccupy the Djazlra. 
Having secured his own province, he next intervened 
as mediator in the rivalries between Saladin's sons 
al- c Az!z of Egypt and al-Afdal of Damascus. Though 
at first he supported al-Afdal, the latter's incapacity 
became so manifest that he finally joined al-'AzIz 
to drive out al-Afdal and himself took over the 
government of Damascus as the viceroy of al-'AzIz 
(592/1196). He was thus on the spot and ready to 
deal energetically with the Crusaders of 1197. On the 
death of al-'AzIz (595/1198) the Egyptian troops 
split into two factions, one supporting al-Afdal, the 
other al-'Adil. Al-'Adil was besieged in Damascus 
until relieved by his Mesopotamian troops under 
his son al-Kamil, when he pursued al-Afdal into 
Egypt, defeated him, and was proclaimed Sultan of 
Egypt and Syria (596/1200). His claim was challenged 
by al-Zahir, who again besieged Damascus, but al- 
c Adil succeeded in forcing his withdrawal and 
pursued him to Aleppo, where al-Zahir was finally 
compelled to recognize his suzerainty (598/1202). 
In 604/1207 his Sultanate was formally confirmed 
by the Caliph, and thereafter he distributed his own 
provinces between his sons: al-Kamil in Egypt, al- 
Mu'azzam in Damascus, al-Awhad and al-Ashraf in 
the Djazlra and Diyar Bakr, himself moving from 
place to place as circumstances required. 

So far as can be judged, the cornerstones of al- 
'Adil's policy were to hold Saladin's empire together, 
in face of the ever-present possibility of fresh Crusades 
from overseas, and at the same time to serve 
interests of the Ayyubid house. Although the major 
governments were placed in the hands of his sons, 
it cannot be denied that they were the most capable 
to administer them, but he maintained at Aleppo 
the only one of Saladin's sons who showed any 
capacity and even guaranteed the succession of his 
infant son (who was also his own nephew), besides 
maintaining the governments of the collateral 
branches at Hims and Hamah. His personal prestige 
was unrivalled, and he employed it to strengthen 
the moral and material welfare of his subjects, by 
patronizing religion and learning, fostering agri- 
culture and commerce, and maintaining peace. He 
followed Saladin's policy of negotiating commercial 
treaties with the Italian states, with the double 
object of increasing his own military resources and 
discouraging them from supporting freSh Crusades. 
With the local Crusader states he ensured peace by 
a series of truces which covered almost the entire 
period of his reign, at the same time strengthening 
his defences against the danger which materialized 
with the arrival of the Fifth Crusade in 614/12 17. 
Leaving the bulk of his forces on guard in Egypt, 



he moved into Syria ro assist al-Mu c azzam to screen 
the approaches to Jerusalem and Damascus, and 
while organizing reinforcements for the defence of 
Damietta fell ill and died at 'Alikln, outside Damas- 
cus, on 7 Djumada I, 615-31 August 1218. 

Bibliography: Abu Shama, K. al-Rawdatayn, 

Cairo 1287, passim ; Dhayl al-Rawdatayn, Cairo 

1 366/1947, 1 1 1-3; Ibn Khallikan, no. 665; Sibt b. 

al-Djawzi, Mir'dt al-Zamdn (facs. Jewett), 390-2; 

Ibn TaghribirdI, Nudium, vol. vi, passim; 

Makrizi, Suluk, i, Cairo 1934, 58-194; Kamal al-DIn 

b. al- c AdIm, Histoire d'Alep (trans. Blochet, Paris 

1900), 82-158; G. Wiet, L'£gypte ardbe, Paris 

1937, 318-347; general histories of the Third 

Crusade ; and see also a yyObids and salah al-dIn. 

2. al-Malik al-'Adil 11 Abu Bakr Sayf al-DIn, 

son of al-Malik al-Kamil [q.v.] and grandson of the 

preceding, b. 617/1221. He succeeded al-Kamil in 

the government of Egypf (635/1238) but was 

dethroned by his elder brother al-Salih Ayyub [q.v.] 

in 637/1240 and died in 'prison at Cairo on 12 

Shawwal 645/9 Feb., 1248. See ayyObids. 

Bibliography: Ibn Khallikan, no. 666; Sibt 
b. al-Djawzi, 466-485; Ibn TaghribirdI, Nudium, 
vi, 303 ff.; Makrizi, Sultk, i, 223-341. 

(H. A. R. Gibb) 
al-'ADIL b. al-SALAR, Abu 'l-Hasan <AlI, 
Fatimid vizier. He was the son of an Artukid 
officer, who entered the service of the Farimids 
.after the taking of Jerusalem by the Egyptians, in 
491/1098. He married the widow of a Zirid prince 
who had died in exile at Alexandria. 

He first appears in history as governor of Alexan- 
dria, at the beginning of the reign of the Fatimid 
caliph al-Zafir. We learn that he assembled troops, 
marched on Cairo, and, on 7 Sha'ban 544/10 December 
1 149, installed himself in the vizier's house, which 
had been abandoned by his predecessor, Ibn Masai, 
an old man, who was killed in Upper Egypt on 
19 Shawwal/19 February 1150. In spite of his 
repugnance, the caliph al-Zafir was forced to accept 
him as vizier, with the title of al-Malik al- c Adil. 
He tried, however, to foment a plot against his 
minister, but the latter got wind of it and took 
his revenge in a bloodthirsty way by wiping out 
the corps of pages. Before long he himself was to 
fall victim to a stepson, 'Abbas b. Abi '1-Futuh 
[q.v.], who assigned to his own son, Nasr, the task 
of assassinating Ibn al-Salar, on 6 Muharram 548/3 
April 1 153. Nasr carried out the crime with his own 
hand, and by carrier pigeon informed his father 
'Abbas, who had just taken command of the garrison 
of Ascalon. 'Abbas hastened back to Cairo to assume 
the office of vizier. 

An important. point about the political career of 
Ibn al-Salar is that he was the first to consider the 
possibility of an entente with the prince of Aleppo, 
Nflr al-DIn, for making common cause against the 
Franks. It was doubtless premature; Nur al-DIn had 
his own personal designs on Damascus, which the 
Crusaders had besieged some years previously. As 
proof of his good will, Ibn Salar had, in 546/1 151, 
sent the Egyptian fleets against the ports of Jaffa, 
Sidon, Beirut, and Tripoli, where great damage 
was caused. The expedition was also a reprisal 
against the Franks, who had sacked Farama the 
previous year. 

Bibliography: Ibn Muyassar, 89-92; Ibn 
TaghribirdI, Nudium, Cairo, v, 288-299; Usdma, 
transl. Derenbourg, index; G. Wiet, Pricis de 
I'histoire d'tgypte, ii, 193-194; idem, Hist, de la 
nation tgyptienne, iv, 278-284. (G. Wiet) 



'ADILA KHATON — ADIYAMAN 



199 



<ADILA KHATCN, daughter of Ahmad Pasha, 
wife of Sulayman Pasha MizrSkll ("Abu Layla"), 
Ottoman governor of Baghdad. During the lifetime 
of her husband she took part in the government of the 
province, holding audiences where the petitions were 
presented to her through the intermediary of an 
eunuch. She had also a mosque and a caravanseray 
built, bearing her name. When on the death of 
Sulayman (1175/1761) power was about to slip from 
her hands, she stirred up against his successor, C AU 
Pasha, first the Janissaries, then five of the principal 
Mamluks, and succeeded in having 'Umar. Pasha, 
her brother in law, appointed as governor in the 
place of c Ali (1764). It is not known when and 
whe^e she died. 

Bibliography: C. Niebuhr, Reisebeschreibung 
nach Arabien, Fr. transl. ii, 215, 258 ff . ; CI. Huart, 
Histoire de Bagdad dans les temps modernes, 153 f.; 
S. H. Longrigg, Four centuries of Modern Iraq, 
Oxford 1925, 165, 169, 173-4, 179- 

(Cl. Huart*) 
'ADIL- SHAHS, designation of the Muslim 
dynasty which ruled over Bidjapur, one of the 
succession kingdoms to the BahmanI kingdom of 
the Dekkan. The independent history of Bidjapur 
extends from 895/1489 to 1097/1686 when the 
kingdom was conquered and absorbed by the Mughal 
empire. The founder of the dynasty, Yusuf c Adil 
Khan, was a slave in the service of Mahmud Gawan, 
the famous BahmanI minister. After rising to the 
position of master of the horse at the BahmanI 
court, Yusuf was appointed to the provincial 
governorship of Dawlatabad. He took an active 
part in the intrigues and civil strife which marked 
the declining years of the BahmanI kingdom and, 
according to the historian Firishta, caused the 
khufba to be read in his own name in 895/1489. The 
Muslim historians of the dynasty claim a royal 
lineage for Yusuf c Adil Khan, asserting that he 
was a son of the Ottoman Turkish sultan Murad II 
and was saved by his mother from death at the 
hands of the succeeding Ottoman sultan, his elder 
brother Muhammad II, by being entrusted to a 
merchant of Sawa, Kh'adja 'Imad al-Din, who 
educated him. Eventually he found his way to India 
to take service under Mahmud Gawan. There is no 
independent evidence corroborating the testimony 
of historians partial to the 'Adil-Shah dynasty. That 
his background was Persian is generally accepted 
however. Yusuf 'Adil-Shah introduced Shi'a doc- 
trines, being the first Muslim ruler in India to do 
so. During his reign, 895/1489-916/1510, spent in 
almost continual warfare against rival Muslim 
Dekkan princes and the Hindu rulers of Vijayanagar, 
the Portuguese made their appearance off the shores 
of India, taking possession of the port of Goa. The 
successors of Yiisuf c Adil-Shah reigned as follows: 
Isma'H b. Yusuf 916/1510-941/1534 

Mallu b. Isma'H 941/1534-941/1535 

Ibrahim I b. Isma'H 94i/i535"965/i557 
'All I b. Ibrahim 965/i557-g87/i579 
Ibrahim II b. 

Tahmasp b. Ibrahim 987/1579-1035/1626 
Muhammad b. 

Ibrahim 1035/1626-1066/1656 

C A1I II b. 

Muhammad 1066/1656-1083/1672 

Sikandar b. 'All 1083/1672-1097/1686 

Until the beginning of the nth/i7th century and 

the advent of the Mughal threat from the north, 

the political history of Bidjapur is filled by con- 



tinuous warfare with the neighbouring Muslim 
states of the Dekkan, Bidar, Ahmadnagar, Golkonda 
and the Hindu empire of Vijayanagar. However, in 
972/1564 the four Muslim principalities combined 
against Vijayanagar and at Talikot decisively 
defeated its forces and sacked the capital. The 
power and prosperity of Bidjapur reached its 
zenith under Ibrahim II though it was never free 
from turbulence among the nobles. 

Bidjapur escaped the direct attentions of the 
Mughals until the reign of Shah Djahan, attempting 
indeed to acquire territory from Ahmadnagar which 
was disintegrating under the onslaught of the 
Mughals. Bidjapur and the latter clashed and in 
1046/1636 the Mughals invaded Bidjapur and forced 
a peace at which Bidjapur acknowledged Mughal 
suzerainty. For the next twenty years the kingdom 
enjoyed peace. In 1068/1656 when Muhammad 
<Adil-Shah died, Shah Djahan objected to the 
succession of C AH c Adil-Shah II, invoking his claims 
as suzerain, and ordered Awrangzlb to invade the 
kingdom. Operations were stopped, however, at the 
news of Shah Djahan's illness and Bidjapur survived 
only to face further danger from the Mahratta chief 
Slwadji who in 1069-70/1659 destroyed a Bidjapur 
army and its leader Afdal Khan in an ambush. 
Thenceforth Bidjapur was rarely free from Mahratta 
depredations. With the accession of a minor, Sikandar 
c Adil-Shah, the kingdom was progressively bereft 
by Mughal and Mahratta of its provinces until in 
1097/1686, after a siege of more than a year, the 
capital itself was taken by Awrangzlb and the 
remnants of the kingdom absorbed into the Mughal 
empire. Sikandar died in captivity in mi/1700. 

The c Adil-Sh3hs were great builders and made 
their capital at Bidjapur \q.v.] one of the most 
magnificent monuments to the architectural genius 
of Islam in India. They were also great patrons of 
literature and the important historian Firishta 
wrote under the patronage of Ibrahim c Adil-Shah II. 
Bibliography : C. A. Storey, Persian Literature, 
ii, 742 ff.; Henry Cousens, Bijapur and its Archi- 
tectural Remains, Archaeological Survey of India, 
Vol. xxxvii, Bombay 1916, 1-18; Cambridge 
History of India, iii (Turks and Afghans), Chs. xvi 
and xvii; iv (The Moghul Period), Ch. ix; Cam- 
bridge 1928 and 1937; Sir Jadunath Sarkar, 
History of Aurangzib, Calcutta 1912-1924, Vol. iv, 
Chs. xxxviii-xlv; Muhammad Kasim Hindu 
Shah (Firishta), Gulshan-i IbraHmi (Tarikh-i 
Firishta), ed. Briggs, Bombay 1831, ii, 1-179. 

(P. Hardy) 
ADIYAMAN, formerly called Hisn MansOr, or 
Hisn-i Mansiir (modern spelling Hiisniimansur), 
according to Cuinet also called Korkiin, a small 
town in S.E. Anatolia, capital of the kadd of the 
same name in the sandjak, now wildyet, of Malatiya 
(formerly it belonged to the wildyet of Ma'murat 
ul-'AzIz), 37 45' N, 38° 15' E. The numbers of the 
inhabitants given in the past vary: according to 
EI 1 , 10,000, mainly Armenians; according to SamI, 
25,000, of which only 1255 Christians; according to 
'Ali Djewad in one passage 1150, in another more 
than 25,000 of which more than a half were Kurds; 
according to Cuinet 2,000 (in the whole kadd of 
Hisn-i Mansiir: 42,134). The number in 1945 was 
10,192. 

The name Hisn Mansiir derives from the Umayyad 
amir Mansiir b. Dja'wana, who was killed in 141/758 
on the orders of the 'Abbasid al-Mansur. Later, 
Harun al-Rashld had the place fortified and gave 
it a garrison. Thus Hisn Mansiir, or Adiyaman, 



became the heir of the ancient town of the neigh- 
bourhood, Perre, whose site is still marked by 
aqueducts and rock graves. Subsequently, Hisn 
Mansur is rarely mentioned! in the 6th/i2th century 
it belonged to the Ar(ukids. 

Bibliography: Baladhurl, Futuh, 192; Yakut, 
ii, 278; Hadjdji Khalifa, Diihdn-numd, 601; 
Ewliya Celebi, Siydhat-ndme, iii, 169; SamI, 
ffamOs ul-AHdm, iii, 1962; 'All Djewad, Ta'rikh 
rve-Diughrafya Lughatl, 6, 331 ; C. Ritter, Erdkunde, 
x, 885; Humann and Puchstein, Reisen in 
Kleinasien und Nordsyrien, 139 f.; Le Strange, 
123; idem, Palestine under the Muslims, 454. 

(F. Taeschner) 
'Ad, ivory. 

1. From early times there was a demand for 
ivory in the civilizations of the Near East. The 
Assyrians excelled in the carving of ivory and 
excavations at Nimrud and elsewhere have revealed 
masterpieces seldom surpassed. In the eastern 
Mediterranean area a tradition of ivory carving 
persisted and surviving examples have been attri- 
buted to the great centres of Antioch and Alexandria 
during the later centuries of Roman rule. There 
is no evidence that the workshops of Syria were 
producing ivories in the century before Islam; but 
in Egypt the tradition persisted into the Islamic 

Probably the main source of ivory in the Islamic 
period was East Africa, the greatest ivory producing 
area during the Middle Ages. It is unlikely that 
India exported ivory in any quantity to the Near 
East or Europe as it scarcely produced enough for 
its own needs (W. Heyd, Histoire du commerce du 
Levant au Moyen-Age, Leipzig 1886, ii, 629-30). 
Surviving Islamic ivories seem to be of elephant 
tusk. Walrus ivory was used for the handles of daggers 
(see R. Ettinghausen, The Unicorn, Washington 
1950, 120 ff.) and there are examples of bone carvings 
from Egypt. 

The size and shape of the elephant tusk limits its 
use to relatively small objects or to elements in 
large scale decoration. In the Islamic period objects 
made entirely of ivory include caskets of both 
rectangular and cylindrical form, combs, oliphants 
or hunting horns and chess pieces. Techniques of 
decoration were carving in relief or painting on the 
surface with coloured stains including gilding; 
intarsia in which shaped ivory plaques either carved 
or painted were countersunk in a wooden surface; 
incrustation in which sheets of ivory were cut to 
the required shape and stuck to the wooden surface; 
and incised decoration usually consisting of dots 
and concentric circles sometimes filled with coloured 
pigments. Finally, ivories sculpted in the round are 
extremely rare. 

2. It would be strange if ivory had not been in use 
in the early Islamic period. But so far excavations 
at sites of the Umayyad and 'Abbasid period have 
revealed no objects of ivory. There are very few 
ivories attributable to the Sasanid period in Persia 
and perhaps the lack of a tradition accounts for 
this absence of ivory carvings in Mesopotamia and 
Persia. The cylindrical box with conical cover in 
the treasury of St. Gereon, Cologne, was made, 
according to the inscription, in Aden for a governor 
of Yaman probably about 136/753; but its technique 
and style belong rather to Egypt (RCEA, no. 41, ill. 
in Cott, pi. 79a). In Egypt Coptic craftsmen kept 
alive an earlier tradition. Large rectangular panels 
with both intarsia and incrusted decoration have 
been variously described as panels of a tdbat (coffin) 



and as book covers; the former is more probable. 
Pieces have been found in Egypt, and from their 
style were made by Coptic craftsmen in the 9th and 
10th centuries. (For examples in the Arab Museum, 
Cairo, see ZakI Muhammad Hasan, Islamic Art in 
Egypt (in Arabic), i, Cairo 1935, pi. 35 ; in the Kaiser 
Friedrich Museum, Berlin, ibid. pi. 34 and F. Sarfe, 
Islamic Bookbinding, London 1923, pi. i and fig. 1 
where it is described as a Kur'an cover; and in the 
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, M.S. 
Dimand, A Handbook of Muhammadan art 2 . New 
York 1947, fig. 69.) 

Bone and ivory carved panels have been found 
in the ruined mounds of Fustat and are associated 
stylistically with the wood carvings of the Fatimid 
period. These are cut in low relief and depict scenes 
of the chase, isolated animals and human figures 
set against a background of scrollwork. They were 
probably either panels of caskets or insets to larger 
wooden panels and can be dated to the nth-i2th 
century. (Examples in the Arab Museum, in Zaki 
Muhammad Hasan, Kunuz al-Fd(imiyyin, Cairo 
1937, pi. 56; in the Victoria and Albert Museum, 
in M. Longhurst, Catalogue of carvings in ivory, i, 
London 1927, pi. xxviii; in the Metr. Mus., in Dimand, 
op. cit., fig. 70. For examples of carved woodwork, 
see E. Pauty, Les bois sculpUs jusqu'a Vepoque 
ayyoubite (Cat. gin. du Musee arabe du Caire), Cairo 
1931.) Caskets of ivory both rectangular and round 
are mentioned by al-Makrizi, Khitat. i, 414, in an 
eye-witness account of the treasures of the caliph 
al-Mustansir. 

Apart from these, it is impossible at present to 
attribute others with any certainty to Fatimid 
Egypt. A group which has the strongest claim is 
represented by the beautiful panels carved in ajoure 
in the Bargello Museum, Florence, which are perhaps 
related in style and subject matter to the famous 
carved wood panels from the mdristdn of Kala'un 
now in the Arab Museum. In composition and 
workmanship they far surpass the Fustat fragments. 
(Well illustrated in Meisterwerke Muhammadanischer 
Kunst, Berlin 1910, iii, pi. 253. There is another 
example in the Louvre, see G. Migeon, Manuel 
d'Art Musulman % , Paris 1927, fig. 148. For the 
mdristdn panels, see Pauty, op. cit., pis. xlvi-lviii.) 
Another group which has been ascribed to the 
Fatimid period comprises ivory oliphants or hunting 
horns and caskets. Their style is distinct and 
characterized by relief cutting in two planes; the 
decoration consists of interlaced circles each con- 
taining an animal or bird and, in the caskets, human 
figures too. Similar treatment of the decoration 
occurs in the repertoire of Fatimid ornament as well 
as in that of Muslim Spain. An attribution to Sicily 
or South Italy whose Norman rulers are known to 
have employed Muslim craftsmen should also be 
considered, for there are a number of oliphants of 
apparent western manufacture which reproduce in 
a general way the decoration of the oriental ones. 
If the latter were in fact made in Egypt it is at 
least possible that they were made for export to the 
West. (See O. von Falke, Elfenbeinhdrner, 511-7, 
who attributes six horns and a fragmentary piece 
in the Metropolitan Museum to this group; also 
four caskets, seven plaques (in the V. and A. Museum) 
and an ivory box (in the Metr. Museum).) 

As has already been mentioned the technique 
of incrustation was practised in Egypt. A casket 
of wood with ivory incrustations in the Cappella 
Palatina, Palermo, has been attributed to Egypt 
since it is connected in style and technique with a 



fragmentary wood panel incrusted with ivory found 
at Edfu and now in the Arab Museum. Its date 
would appear to be the end of the 12 th and begin- 
ning of the 13th century. (See Monneret de Villard, 
La Casetta, pis. i-v; for the Edfu panel, pi. xxvi.) 

While the technique of incrustation was being 
adopted by the Muslim craftsmen, the Copts 
maintained, the more ancient tradition of intarsia 
decoration. Both techniques were used in the doors 
of the Church of the Virgin in the Dayr al-Suryani 
(in Wadi al-Natrun), which were made in the first 
half of the 10th century (see Monneret de Villard, 
pis. xxi-xxv). But incrustation was rarely used in 
later times and was confined to small objects. 
Intarsia, on the other hand, was frequently used in 
the Ayyubid and Mamluk period for the decoration 
of large surfaces. The famous minbar made in 
Aleppo by order of Nur al-DIn in n 68-9 A.D. and 
sent to the Masdjid al-Aksa in Jerusalem, is the 
first of a series of works in which panels of ivory 
or bone, either plain or carved, were inserted into 
a wooden ground so as to form geometric patterns, 
stars or polygons. Intarsia decoration is found in 
kursis, minbars and dikkas of the Mamluk period. 
The contrast between wood and ivory serves to 
emphasise the abstract pattern and the effect is 
heightened when the ivory panels are carved with 
arabesque or inscriptions. After the fall of the 
Mamluks the technique was adopted in Turkey where 
there are fine examples of mosque furniture with 
intarsia decoration dating from the 17th century. 
(The minbar in al-Aksa is illustrated in M. van 
Berchem, CIA , Syrie du Nord, Jerusalem, iii, no. 277 
(p. 393 ff., pis. 29-30). Mamluk examples in L. 
Hautcoeur and G. Wiet, Les Mosquees du Caire, 
Paris 1932, ii, pis. 172-3, and Turkish examples in 
E. Kiihnel, Meistetwerke der ArchUologischen Museen 
in Istanbul, iii, Berlin-Leipzig 1938, pi. 19.) 

3. A group of ivories which has given rise to much 
discussion consists of caskets, combs and crosiers 
with painted and gilded decoration. Many of these 
found their way to the treasuries of European 
churches in the Middle Ages where the caskets were 
used as reliquaries or pyxes and the combs for 
liturgical purposes. P. B. Cott's Siculo-Arabic 
Ivories, which can claim to be almost complete, 
illustrates some ninety pieces in which the painted 
decoration is still visible. All have certain common 
stylistic and technical features. In many pieces all 
trace of the original colour has disappeared and the 
well preserved state of the famous casket of Wiirz- 
burg is exceptional. Generally patterns are outlined 
in black and filled in with a palette which includes 
red, blue and green, and gold applied in both 
liquid and leaf form. Many pieces are inscribed 
around the rim of the cover in Arabic, either Kufic 
or Naskh script. Most of these inscriptions contain 
benedictory phrases addressed to the owner and, 
more rarely, verses from a love poem which suggests 
that these were intended as bridal caskets to contain 
jewels and trinkets. There are examples, too, of 
Arabic letters used merely for decorative effect and 
without meaning. Unfortunately no surviving 
inscription contains a date, or the name of either 
maker or owner. If it is generally agreed that the 
painted ivories can be assigned to the 12th and 13th 
centuries, opinions differ regarding the place of 
origin and unless a piece comes to light with a 
revealing inscription or a reference in some con- 
temporary source is discovered there can be no 
final answer to this question. In the circumstances 
style and iconography are the only evidence. 



On stylistic grounds they have been variously 
attributed to Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt, 
Spain and Sicily. It is true that the decoration of 
the so-called mindH ware of Persia dating from the 
second half of the 12th to the 13th century has a 
superficial resemblance to that of the painted 
ivories, in the rather Sparse arrangement of the 
decoration and in the figural -representations, 
especially the horsed rider. Attenuated versions of 
the motives found in the decorative arts of Syria 
occur on the ivories. The decoration of one distinctive 
group of painted ivories contains star interfacings 
and geometric ornaments so similar to those found 
in the art of Granada during the Nasrid period that 
their attribution to a Granada workshop during 
the 14th and 15th centuries seems certain. (Fer- 
randis, nos. 89-103. Ferrandis accepts the Sicilian 
origin for the remainder but suggests that three 
of these were "imitations" made in Spain, viz. nos. 9 
and 65 in Cott and a casket in the parish church 
of Fitero, Navarre, not mentioned by Cott: Fer- 
randis, no. 21.) Apart, however, from this small 
and somewhat isolated group, the closest parallels 
are to be found in the art of Fatimid Egypt: in 
the fragments of pottery from Fustat, wood carvings, 
notably the mdristdn panels, and the greatest sur- 
viving monument of Fatimid painting, the ceiling 
of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo. Kiihnel (cf. 
Bibliography), however, argues for their Sicilian (and, 
in some pieces, Spanish) origin. In this connection, 
a casket found at Carri6n de los Condes in Palencia 
and now in the Museo Arqueol6gico, Madrid (Fer- 
randis, no. 9) is important. This is a rectangular box, 
the flat cover of which is inscribed on intarsia with 
a dedication to al-Mu c izz, the last Fatimid to rule 
from Ifrikiya, and the interesting information that 
it was made in al-Mansuriyya, the Fatimid capital 
near al-Kayrawan. The maker's name is unfort- 
unately almost entirely obliterated except for the 
nisba al- Khurasan!. The casket can therefore be 
dated between 341/952 and 365/972. The sides are 
decorated with a border of scroll-work painted in 
green and red. Although the drawing is cursory and 
the style dissimilar to that of the group under 
discussion, it suggests that the technique of painting 
on ivory was already known and practised in the 
Maghrib in the third quarter of the 10th century 
and was presumably introduced from Egypt. 

But the fact remains that these painted ivories 
give the impression of a style not entirely in accord 
with the canons of Islamic art. The sparse treatment 
of the decoration and the frequent carelessness of 
the drawing are in marked contrast with the careful 
presentation of decoration and precise drawing to 
which we are accustomed in Islamic art. Indeed, 
were it not for the Arabic inscriptions, there might 
well be doubt in assigning them to the Islamic 
world at all. For this reason it seems likely that they 
originated in an area on the fringe of the Islamic 
world which was open both to oriental and occidental 
influences. The fact that certain caskets contain 
Christian figures, that there are two crosiers with 
painted decoration identical to that of the caskets, 
and that painted ivories are found exclusively in 
the countries of Europe suggests that they were, at 
least, made for the Western market. (Christian 
figures occur on nos. 38, 39, 42, 44, 80 in Cott; for 
crosiers see Cott, nos. 148, 149. The Arabic inscription 
on the "Granadan" casket in the Instituto de 
Valencia de Don Juan states that it was made to 
contain the consecrated Host (Cott, no. 138). It is 
usually agreed that the combs were for liturgical 



use.) Probably there was more than one centre 
where painted ivories were produced, and the 
poorer examples were copies of finer prototypes. But 
until we possess a documented piece, there can be 
no certain solution of the problem. 

4. By far the most remarkable of the mediaeval 
Islamic ivories are the carved ivories made in 
Muslim Spain and among them are masterpieces 
which rival the Byzantine and Western ivories. 
Fortunately there are enough documented pieces to 
make it possible to trace their history over a period 
of little less than a century. Unlike most of the 
ivories which have been discussed so far, they 
were produced under royal patronage and include 
some made for presentation to royal personages. 
During the first half of the period, the centre of 
production was in Cordova and then moved to 
Madlnat al-Zahra 5 ; thus they belong to the declining 
years of the Caliphate of Cordova. The earliest of 
the Hispano-Arabic ivories were probably made in 
Cordova and are characterized by the exclusive use 
of plant ornament (see Ferrandis, nos. 1-3). In the 
earliest surviving products of the new workshop at 
Madlnat al-Zahra' the decoration of one consists of 
paired birds and animals amid flowering plant 
scrolls and that of another includes paired dancers 
(see Ferrandis, nos. 4-6). The artists of both these 
groups were evidently familiar with the carved 
marble panels in the Great Mosque of Cordova and 
the marble revetments found at Madlnat al-Zahra 5 . 
Another group consists of pieces made in the Madinat 
al-Zahra 5 workshop by an artist who signs himself 
Khalaf (Ferrandis, nos. 7-10). His masterpiece is the 
circular box belonging to the Hispanic Society in 
New York. His style is quite distinctive; birds, 
animals and figures are conspicuously absent and 
the flowers and leaves which are deeply cut are 
rendered with exuberance and a close attention to 
detail. 

But undoubtedly the greatest achievement is 
the series of ivories with scenes with figures and 
animals which, indeed, must be numbered among 
the most precious examples of Hispano-Arabic art; 
for not only are they of first-rate artistic quality 
but as social documents the scenes of court life and 
of chase which they depict give us a rare picture 
of the refinements of Andalusian civilisation. The 
three finest examples (Ferrandis, nos. 13-4, 19) are 
the two cylindrical boxes in the Louvre and the 
Victoria and Albert Museum, the first dedicated 
to al-Mughira, brother of al-Hakam !I and dated 
357/968, and the second dedicated to Ziyad b. 
Aflab and dated 359/970, and the casket in the 
Cathedral of Pamplona, dedicated to a son of al- 
Mansur and dated 399/1008. The last is the latest 
dated surviving piece from the Cordovan workshop. 
With these are associated some five other pieces 
(Ferrandis, nos. 15-6, 20-2). Scenes are enclosed in 
lobed circles, polygons or arcades. The plant deco- 
ration is subordinated to the animals and human 
figures which are proportionally large; the sym- 
metrical arrangement of these does not preclude 
naturalistic effect. Scenes include the prince with 
attendant servants and musicians, huntsmen with 
falcons or at grips with their quarry and men 
performing rustic tasks such as gathering the date 
harvest, animals struggling with their prey; and in 
one case an elephant is depicted. None of these 
pieces is signed except the Pamplona casket which 
bears the name of more than one artist. 

After the fall of the Caliphate of Cordova, the 
workers founded a new establishment in Cuenca 



where they were given an asylum by the Dh u 
'1-Niinids, rulers of Toledo. The earliest surviving 
product (Ferrandis, no. 25) is dated 417/1026 and 
signed with the maker's name Muhammad b. Zayyan. 
From this it is clear that the workshop was already 
established before Isma'il al-Zafir won the kingdom 
of Toledo in 427/1036. The last documented piece 
(no. 26) bears a dedicatory inscription to Husam 
al-Dawla son of Yahy5al-Ma 5 mun and governor of 
Cuenca and is dated 441/1049. It is also signed with 
the maker's name 'Abd al- Rahman b. Zayyan and 
shows that the workshop was in the hand of a single 
family. The Cuenca ivories lack the vitality and 
invention of the Cordovan ivories. Cordovan motives 
recur but their presentation is monotonous. Animals 
and scenes are not enclosed by the lobed circles and 
polygons but are arranged in horizontal or vertical 
registers in which they are often -repeated in identical 

After the middle of the nth century it seems 
that the Christian kingdoms of the North took the 
lead in ivory carving, although their products show 
the influence of Andalusian techniques. Yet the 
tradition of ivory carving was not entirely lost in 
Muslim Spain, for among the surviving examples of 
the decorative arts of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada 
are sword and dagger handles which incorporate 
carved ivory with floral and geometric designs and 
inscriptions resembling those of the Alhambra stucco 
revetments. (The most important pieces are illus- 
trated in L. Torres Balbas, Arte Almohade — Arte 
Nazari — Arte Mudejar {Ars Hispaniae iv), figs. 
256B and C, and 257; also a bow with ivory in- 
crustations, fig. 255, and the staff of Cardinal 
Cisneros, said to be the sceptre of the Nasrid kings, 
fig. 246. For two other sword handles see Migeon, 
op cit., fig. 161. Also attributed to Granada are 
the "eared" daggers with carved ivory plaques in 
the handles and "ears" of the pommel (see Torres 
Balbas, op. cit., figs. 256D and B).) 

5. Besides ivory carving, Cordova had acquired a 
preeminence in ivory incrustation which was to 
survive the fall of the Umayyads. Muslim historians 
and travellers describe and praise the minbar made 
by order of al-Hakam II for the Great Mosque. But 
neither this nor the minbar made some years later 
for the mosque at Fez by order of Hisham II have 
survived though from the descriptions both were 
evidently formed of wooden panels with ivory 
incrustations. One of* the earliest surviving MaghribI 
minbars with this kind of decoration is the mag- 
nificent example in the Kutubiyya of Marrakush. 
According to the inscription (see J. Sauvaget, in 
Hesp., 1949, 313 ff.) this was made in Cordova and 
dates from the time of the Almoravids. Technically 
derived from mosaics, the decoration consists of 
interlaced bands incrusted with contrasting wood 
and ivory cubes enclosing polygons of carved 
arabesques, larger flowing floral or geometric 
patterns and a frieze with inscription in which the 
letters are formed of ivory sheets. The ivory is 
either natural colour or stained. (For detailed study 
and illustration see H. Basset and H. Terrasse, in 
Hesp., 1926, 168-204; also Ferrandis, no. 159.) Other 
minbars, if technically less perfect, reveal a rich inven- 
tiveness. (The earliest is the minbar in the Mosque 
of al-Karawiyyln, Fez, made at the close of the 
Almoravid period in 1145. Others are the minbar 
in the mosque of the Jtasaba, Marrakush, for which 
see Basset and Terrasse, 244-70, and Ferrandis, 
no. 160, and the minbars in the mosque of Taza 
(1292-3) and in the Madrasa Bu 'Inaniyya, Fez 



C ADJ — 'ADJA'IB 






(1350-5). There is a copy of the Kasaba minbar in 
the mosque of al-MawwasIn, Marrakush, dating 
from the 16th century.) In Spain, few large-scale 
works of incrustation have survived; but there is 
a particularly fine pair of doors from a cupboard 
in the Museum of the Alhambra (Torres Balbas, 
fig. 244-5; Ferrandis, no. 167; other examples, 
Torres Balbas, fig. 243, Ferrandis, nos. 172, 174). 
Equally remarkable are caskets with ivory incrus- 
tations, decorated either with figural representations 
or geometrical designs (Ferrandis, nos. 161-3, 168-71). 
All these caskets have been found in Spain and 
because of the similarity of their decoration to 
certain Toledan stucco work have been attributed 
to Andalusia and the 12th to 13th century. Finally 
the handle of the so-called rapier of Boabdil in the 
Museo Historico Militar, Madrid, has delicate ivory 
incrustations of arabesques and is an eloquent 
witness of the skill of the Granadan craftsmen. (See 
Torres Balbas, fig. 240, and E. Kiihnel, Maurische 
Kunst, Berlin 1924, pi. 124. The staff of Cardinal 
Cisneros has also ivory incrustations, see above.) 
6. In this account of ivory products in the Islamic 
world, Persia figures scarcely at all. No piece has 
yet appeared that can be attributed to pre-Mongol 
Persia. It would be rash to assume for this reason 
that the art of working in ivory was unknown for 
there are references in contemperary literature 
which suggest the opposite. (Monneret de Villard, 
op. cit., 15, quotes al-Kazwinl (Wustenfeld), ii, 273, 
who remarks that the inhabitants of Tark, in the 
district of Isfahan, are skilled in making objects of 
ebony and ivory. M. de V. suggests that this implies 
a local industry of incrustation.) We can only blame 
the accidents and ravages of time for this absence. 
That incrustation was practised in later times is 
proved by the pair of wooden doors inlaid with 
ivory from the Gur-i Mir, Samarkand, now in the 
Hermitage Museum, Leningrad (Survey of Persian 
Art, vi, pi. 1470). Made about 808/1405, their 
decoration is typically TImurid. A pen-box (S. Lane- 
Poole, The Art of the Saracens of Egypt, London 1886, 
fig. 72) and dagger handles dating from the 18th 
century or later (P. Holstein, Contribution d I'etude 
des armes orientates, Paris 1931, ii, pi. lxi) imply the 
existence of a native school of ivory carving. 

Bibliography: E. Diez, Bemalte Elfenbein- 
kdstchen und Pyxiden der Isl. Kunst, Jakrbuch d. 
Kdnigl. Kunstsammlungen, 1910, 231-44 ;E. Kiihnel, 
Sizilien und die Isl. Elfenbeinmalerei, Zeitschr. f. 
Bildende Kunst, 1914, 162-70; O. v. Falke, Elfen- 
beinhdrner, 1 : Agypten und Italien, Pantheon, 1929, 
5 1 1 -7 ; U. Monneret de Villard, LaCassetta incrostata 
delta Cappella Palatina di Palermo, Rome 1938; 
P. B. Cott, Siculo-Arabic Ivories, Princeton 1939; 
J. Ferrandis, Mar files drabes de Occidente, Madrid 
1935-40. (R. Pinder-Wilson) 

AJ2JA' and SALMA, the two main ranges of the 
central Arabian mountain group of .Djabala Tayyi', 
modern al-I2jabal. An old tale of the type of "meta- 
morphosis as punishment for sin" is attached to 
them; the tale is connected with reality insofar as 
Adja' and Salma occur in Old Arabic and in early 
North Arabic dialects as personal names. — According 
to Ibn al-Kalbi's "Book of Idols", and one of the 
two versions in the Djamhara by the same author, 
the God Fals/Fils/Fulus was worshipped in the guise 
of one of the cliffs of Adja'. This cult is probably 
of great antiquity, as the cult of a certain cliff (Ra'n) 
in the valley of al- c Ola/Dedan, in the 2nd century 
B.C., and later between 50 and 150 A.D., is attested 
by the evidence of some proper names. 



Bibliography: W. Caskel, Likydn und Lih : 

yanisch, Koln and Opladen 1954; Ibn Hisham, 56; 

R. Klinke-Rosenberger, Das GOtzenbuch, K. al- 

Asndm, des Ibn al-Kalbi, Leipzig 1941, 61 f.; 

J. Wellhausen, Reste arabischen Heidentums, 

51 ff.; Yakut, i, 122 ff., iii, 912. (W. Caskel) 

'AClA'IB, "marvels", are in the first instance 

the marvels of antiquity. In addition, the term and 

its derivatives comprise, already in the Kur'an, the 

marvels of God's creation. 'AdjdHb are thus any kind 

of casual data about extraordinary monuments, the 

three realms of nature and meteorological phenomena, 

and the two aspects under which they are viewed 

come from the Greek spirit on the one hand and the 

eastern biblical ideas on the other. 

Islam, the continuator of the classical tradition 
as it was formulated in the East, was interested in 
exceptional monuments ,but in a spirit different from 
that of the Greek. Among the surprising buildings des- 
cribed as marvellous by the Arab authors, the Pharos 
of Alexandria acquired great notoriety. The monu- 
ment, described by them in greater detail than by the 
Greek and Latin authors, existed until the 8th/i4th 
century and was erroneously attributed to Alexander 
the Great. In general the Macedonian king represented 
a universal symbol, a mixture of Greek conqueror 
and of the spirituality of the ancient Orient, and 
many famous monuments were attributed to him. 
As to the marvels of God's creation, these are no 
wanton inventions of fancy, but are often based on 
a minute and exact observation of nature. Thus in 
the al-Ifayawan of Djahiz, there are rudiments of 
"Darwinism", and Abu Hamid describes beavers' 
dams, which he considers to be miraculous; Ibn al- 
Faklh gives an account of the magnetic and electrical 
phenomena to be observed on a mountain near Amid. 
It was, however, inevitable that these two con- 
ceptions of the the 'adjd'ib, so different from the 
ideological point of view, should fuse together to 
give rise, especially in the Arabic geographical texts, 
to a peculiar literary genre. The 'AdidHb al-Hind 
by the captain Buzurg b. Shatiriyar [q.v.] deserves 
to be mentioned in the first place by its early date 
and by its incontestable documentary value for its 
period. It starts with the statement: "God has 
divided the marvels of creation into ten parts, of 
which nine belong to the East, one to the other 
points of the compass. Of the nine parts belonging 
to the East, eight belong to India and China and one 
only to the other regions of the East . . .". The book 
consists of stories by the navigators of East Africa, 
India, and the islands of S.-E. Asia; some of them 
show an admixture of real observation while others 
can be explained only by study of the folklore of 
the people in question. While the marvels of far-away 
countries found their literary form already in the 
4th/ioth century, the curiosities of the various 
Islamic countries were only described in excursus 
in the geographical treatises (e.g. in al-MakdisI). It 
was only in the 6th/ 12th century that these isolated 
zoological, ethnological, archaeological etc. accounts 
acquired a particular literary form, especially 
through Abu Hamid al-Gharnatf [q.v.] who collected 
them in his Tuhfat al-Albdb. The Arabic literature 
of the 4th/ioth and 5th/nth centuries, called 
"classical", is characterized by an equilibrium 
between erudition and aesthetic creation. When 
this equilibrium was disturbed by the decadence of 
Arabic literature, the writers increasingly disregarded 
science; the 'adjdHb thus came into greater favour 
and reached their full development in the cosmo- 
graphies of the 8th/i4th century. The greatest 



'ADJA'IB — ADJAL 



author of this period was al-Kazwinl [q.v.] whose 
work is divided into two parts : 'A djdHb al-Makhlukdt, 
"The Marvels of .Creation", and Athdr ai-Bulddn, 
"The Monuments"; thus the best representative of 
the genre bears witness, centuries later, to the two 
forms of 'adidHb mentioned above. At this epoch 
the cosmographical works increasingly neglect 
geography; what remains are collections of enter- 
taining stories. It was also in this period that the 
Sindbad cycle, which is but a literary adaptation 
of the accounts of Buzurg b. Shahrivar. was intro- 
duced into it. 

In the first centuries of the hidira the 'adidHb 
were correctly situated in geographical space by 
those who observed them or by the authors who 
copied the former; this is also the case with the 
earlier Arab geographers and with Abu Hamid. As 
the scientific interest decreased, however, and the 
popular interest in amusing literature grew, the 
data lost their precision and their exact geographical 
localization. The items of real knowledge acquired 
in Islam and unknown in antiquity recur in general 
in the descriptions of the 'adidHb; yet these 'adidHb 
acquire a particular role in the history of thought 
in that they transport us from tangible reality to 
the realm of fancy constituted by the oriental tales. 
Abu Hamid, the precursor of the popular cosmo- 
graphers, is one of the authors who had most 
influence on the Arabic and Persian writers in the 
age of decadence of Islamic literature in the late 
Middle Ages; it is not for nothing that his books 
were among the main sources of al-Kazwinl. On the 
other hand it is through the popular cosmographies 
that the 'adidHb stories brought an essential con- 
tribution of the Muslim genius to world literature 
in the form of the tales of the Arabian Nights. 
Bibliography: TA, i, 368; Pauly-Wissowa, 
s.v . Paradoxographoi; M. Asin, El faro de AUjandria, 
And., 1933, 241 ff.; for the "Darwinism" of 
Djahiz see E. Wiedmann, in SBPMSErlg., 1915, 
130; for Ibn al-Faklh, seeBG^, v, 134 and G. Jacob, 
Studien in arabischen Geographen, i, Berlin 1891; 
for al-Makdisi, see BGA, iii, 240; for the other 
authors mentioned, see Buzurg b. Shahriyar, 
Abu Hamid al-GharnatI and al-KazwIni; C. E. 
Dubler, El Extremo Oriente visto por los musulmanes 
anteriores a la invasidn de los Mongoles en el siglo 
xiii (La deformacion del saber geogrdfico y etndlogico 
en los cuentos orientates), Homenaje a Millds- 
Vallicrosa, i, 465 ff. (C. E. Dubler) 

ADJAL. the appointed term of a man's 
life or the date of his death; a topic regularly 
discussed in the earlier kaldm along with that of 
rizft or sustenance. The idea that the date of a man's 
death is fixed presumably belongs to pre- Islamic 
thought. The word adial is used in the Kur'an m a 
variety of ways, e.g. for the date when the embryo 
emerges from the womb (xxii, 5), for the period 
Moses had to serve for his wife (xxviii, 28 f.), for the 
date when a debt is due (ii, 282), etc. In creating 
the heavens and earth, the sun and moon, God fixed 
an adial for them (xlvi, 3;-xxxix, 5 etc.); with this 
is connected the coming of the Last Day. More 
especially it is used for the term of existence decreed 
by God for communities (xxiii, 43, etc.) and for 
individuals (lxiii, 10 f.; vi, 2). This term is neither 
to be anticipated nor deferred; its fixity explains 
why the wicked are not punished at once. "No one 
has his life prolonged or no one has his life cut 
short except (as it is written) in a book (of God's 
• decrees)" (xxxv, 12). The adial is not shortened 
even through sinning (xxxv, 44, xlii, 13), while 



on the other hand it may be concluded that 
Muhammad presupposed the shortening of the 
adial as a punishment, but it might be restored 
to the original length through repentance (xi, 3, 
xiv, 11). The Kur'an very often emphasizes the 
expression of adial as the irrevocable period of 
life assigned by God with the epithet musamma 
(xxxix, 43; xl, 69, and elsewhere), "enunciated" 
(without ambiguity) "through a word which had 
proceeded from God" (xlii, 13); the same epithet 
is applied to the course of the unchangeably 
operating phenomena of nature (xxxi, 28, xxxv, 14, 
xxxix, 7). The decreed duration of the world is 
also often designated by the same formal expression 
(vi, 2, 61, xxxv, 44). One may notice in the commen- 
taries to the Kur'an the tendency to refer the 
adial musamma, where it is possible, to the period 
of the end of the world. 

According to tradition (al-Bukhari, Kadar, 1; 
Muslim, Radar, 3; etc.) adial and raft are two of 
the four things determined for a man while he is 
in the womb. Some of the early Mu'tazila apparently 
suggested that a man who met a violent death had 
not reached the term decreed for him by God. 
Perhaps they said this because they hesitated to 
ascribe the evil of killing to God, just as they did 
not assert that sustenance consisting of stolen 
goods came from God. In a passage like Kur'Sn 
xl, 67, adial is capable of being interpreted as natural 
term or, as they put it, "the time at which God 
knew the man would have died had he not been 
killed" (cf. Ibdna). This view, however, offended the 
deep-rooted feeling that the date of death was fixed: 
Even Abu '1-Hudhayl said that, if the man had not 
been killed then, he would have died in some other 
way. Al-Nadjdjar insisted that, whatever the mode 
of death, a man died at his term ; and he was followed 
by the opponents of the doctrine of kadar, including 
al-Ash'ari. Al-Ka c bl tried to avoid ascribing evil to 
God by distinguishing between the death and the 
killing. No fresh points were raised after this, but 
the old points were frequently repeated by theo- 
logians. — The dogmatists discussed in connection 
with adial also the question, in how far God lengthens 
or shortens the adial as a reward for obedience or 
as a punishment of disobedience respectively, a 
question to which the answer results in the harmon- 
izing interpretation of the Kur'anic verses quoted 
above and puts the problem of adial in the domain 
of the debates on bads' [q.v.]. An aspect of the problem 
of adial concerns the death of great masses by 
elementary catastrophes, war, persecution, etc. 

Jewish religious philosophy treats- the problem 
from the same point of view. 

Bibliography: Ash'ari, Makdldt al-Isldmiyyin 
(Ritter), 256 (with further references), 285; idem, 
Ibdna, Cairo 1348, 59 f. (Hyderabad 1321, 76, 
transl. by W. C. Klein, New Haven 1940, 115-7; 
something has dropped out of the text) ; BaghdadI, 
Usui al-Din, Istanbul 1346/1928, 142-4; GhazaB. 
Iktisdd, kufb 4, bdb 2, fast 2, masHla 1 ; Shahras- 
tani, Nihdyat al-Akddm (GuUlaume), 416; IdjI 
Mawdkif, Cairo 1325, viii, 170 f.; TaftazanI, 
Shark al- c AkdHd al-Nasafiyya, Cairo 1335, 108 f. 
(transl. E. E. Elder, New York 1950, 94 f.) ; Ibn 
Abi '1-Hadid, Sharh Nahdi al-Baldgha — also quoted 
in Dildar <A1I, 'Imdd al-Isldm fi 'Urn al-Kalam, 
Lucknow 1319, ii, 149-153; W. M. Watt, Free Will 
and Predestination in early Islam, London 1948, 
16-8, 29, 66, 108, 146; G. Weil, Maimonides iiber 
die Lebensdauer, Basel 1953. 

(I. Goldziher-W. Montgomery Watt) 



C ADJ ALA. Arabic word borrowed from the 
North- Western Semitic languages (Hebrew 'agdldh, 
Phoenician 'git, Jewish-Aramaic 'agaltd, Syriac 'dgaltd, 
Old Egyptian loan-word of the New Empire 'grt = 
* ( agalta, whence Coptic atolte ; see references in L. 
Koehler, Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti libros, Leiden 
1953. 679), derived from a root denoting rotundity 
or swiftness. In Arabic, as in these languages, it 
designs wheeled vehicles (chariots, carts, wagons) 
drawn by animals; but in Arabic it is a generic term. 
It is for this reason that the use ot these vehicles 
in the Islamic Orient will be treated here, if only 
in a fragmentary way. 

Before Islam, the use of various kinds of cars 
(among them those termed 'agdldh, etc., in the 
Semitic countries of the west and in Egypt) is well 
attested in the whole of the Near East (cf, e.g. 
V. Gordon Childe, Wheeled Vehicles, in A History of 
Technology, i, Oxford 1954; A. G. Barrois, Manuel 
d'archeologie biblique, ii, Paris 1953, 98-100, 233; 
A. Salonen, Die Landfahrzeuge des Alten Mesopo- 
tamien, Helsinki 195 1; Erman and Ranke, Agypien', 
Tubingen 1923, 584 ; P. Montet, La vie quotidienne 
en Egypte, Paris 1946, 169). In spite of the decline 
of the chariot of war as early as the Persian period 
(Salonen, 21), carriages are frequently mentioned in 
the same region during the Hellenistic and Roman 
periods (cf., e.g., for Egypt, C. Preaux, Viconomie 
royale des Lagides, Brussels 1939, 214; W. E. Crum, 
A Coptic Dictionary, Oxford 1939, 26; Jewish texts in 
S. Kraus, Talmudische Archaologie, Leipzig 1910-2, 
ii, 336-8 andG. Dsimaa, Arbeit und Sitte in Paldstina, 
ii, nr-5, iii, 58 f., 88-90, vi, 193 etc.). The same 
applies for pre-Islamic North Africa (R. Capot-Rey, 
Odographie de la Circulation, Paris 1946, 87). 

In Islamic times, the texts concerning wheeled 
traffic seem much less frequent. The. word 'adfala 
occurs but rarely in the Middle Ages. None of the 
passages allows the technology of these vehicles to 
be determined ; at the most they mention the animals 
which draw them. The lexicographers do not seem 
to deal with the subject. The reference in Kalila wa- 
Dimna (Cheikho), 54, to a vehicle drawn by two oxen 
is derived from the Sanskrit original. In historical 
and geographical texts one comes across references, 
e.g. for Egypt, to such vehicles used for heavy loads 
(Umayyad period: Yakut, i, 260; al-Mas'udl (Murudi, 
iii, 28 f.) in the 4th/ioth century mentions large 
wagons drawn by buffaloes in the Syrian thaghr; 
7th/i3th century: Ibn Sa'id, in al-Makkari, Analectes, 
i, 691; for Morocco in the 8th/i4th century: al- 
liens 5 !, Zahrat al-As (Bel), 27, transl. 69 f.). 

Most of the references, however, concern vehicles 
used in exceptional circumstances, and which ap- 
peared to cause considerable astonishment. E.g. in 
242/856, a pilgrimage from Basra to the holy cities on 
an 'adfala drawn by camels (Ibn TaghrlbirdI, Cairo, 
ii, 307) ; a few years later, an 'adjala drawn by men, 
which carried the sick Ahmad b. Tmun from Antioch 
to Egypt (Ibn Abl Usaybi'a, ii, 84); in 307/919 the 
large vehicles prepared in Baghdad for the public 
humiliation of the rebel Yiisuf b. Abi '1-Sadj (K. al- 
< Uyiin, in Ibn Miskawayh, ed. Amedroz, i, 49, n.). 
The Christians during their feasts used state carriages, 
e.g. in Edessa on the eve of the feast of the cross 
(Husayn b. Ya c kub, in al- c Umari, Masdlik, i, Cairo 
1924, 265). The animals mentioned as drawing these 
vehicles, which were perhaps of very different 
shapes, are varied: horses of several breeds, camels, 
oxen, mules, donkeys, buffaloes, perhaps also ele- 
phants; as noted above, human traction also was 
used on occasion. 



\LA 205 

The word often serves to designate foreign vehicles: 
Byzantine racing chariots (Ibn Rusta, 120, Ibn 
Khurradadhbih, 112), wagons of the Christians of 
the Iberian peninsula (Ibn <Idhari, iii, 86; Akhbar 
al-'Asr, ed. M. J. Miiller, Die letzten Zeiten von 
Granada, Munich 1863, 44, transl. 147-8), later 
Turkish arabas. 

In Muslim Iran, literary references to carriages 
(gardun) seem to be equally rare (B. Spuler, Iran 
in friihislamischer Zeit, Wiesbaden 1952, 428-9, 
notes no examples). Firdawsi, however, transposes 
into the world of myth wagons drawn by buffaloes 
or oxen (reff. in F. Wolff, Glossar zu Firdosis Schah- 
name, Berlin 1935, s.v.). A wooden chariot used by 
Isfandiyar (Shah-namah (Mohl), iv, 500-2, 510) is 
often shown in miniatures (e.g. Survey of Persian 
Art, v, 832 D; La guirlande de I'Jran, Paris 1948, 
30), generally as a cart with two spoked wheels 
drawn by a horse tied between two shafts. Persian 
miniatures occasionally show other illustrations of 
wagons: a four-wheeled wagon drawn by a horse 
(MS from Tabriz, end of 7th/i3th century, in E. 
Blochet, Musulman Painting, London 1929, pi. xli) ; 
a cart with two spoked wheels drawn by a horse 
tied between two shafts on which are carried materials 
for building a mosque (miniature of Bihzad, A.D. 
1467, in E. Kiihnel, Miniaturmalerei im islamischen 
Orient, Berlin 1922, pi. 51); a kind of yurt probably 
mounted on wheels, drawn by horses, and used to 
carry to Tabriz the corpse of Ghazan Khan in 
703/1304 (MS of gth/i5th century, reproduced in E. 
Blochet, Les peinturesdes manuscrits de laBibl.Nat., 
Paris 1914-20, pi. xix, cf. p. 272). 

On the other hand, carts (kangli, later also araba, 
arba) were very frequently used by the Turco- 
Mongols of Central Asia until the 14th century, after 
which the economic decline of the nomad world led 
to a lessening of their use. Ibn Battuta, ii, 361, 
mentions them in Southern Russia. This vehicle, 
the name of which was arabicised as 'araba and even 
'arabiyya ("Arabian"), was introduced in particular 
into Mamluk Egypt (see c araba). Its name supplanted 
in popular use the word 'adiala as a generic term for 
carriage; so that 'adnata could be used anew in 
modern Egypt as a name for bicycle. In turkicised 
Anatolia the byzantine wagon (kaghni) remained 

The medieval situation survived in the countryside 
up to modern times. In Syria, Volney states in the 
18th century: "It is noteworthy that in the the whole 
of Syria no wagon or cart is seen; this is probably 
due to the fear lest they should be seized by the 
government's men and a heavy loss should be 
suffered in a moment" (Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie, 
Paris 1825, ii, 254). In Palestine, before the first 
world war, only Circassians and foreigners had 
peasant vehicles (Dalman, Arbeit und Sitte, ii, 98 and 
fig. 40-2; A. Ruppin, Syrien als Wirtschaftsgebied', 
Berlin-Vienna 1920, 424-5). On the whole, the situ- 
ation was the same all over the Near East, except in 
Anatolia. For Morocco at the beginning of the 20th 
century, see Ch. Rene-Leclerc, Le Maroc septentrional, 
Algiers 1905, 87, 251-2; idem, in Renseignements 
coloniaux, 1905, 248; R. Le Toumeau, Fis avant le 
Protectorat, Casablanca 1949, 415. Various expla- 
nations have been offered, the most common being 
the bad state and insecurity of the roads (R. 
Brunschvig, La Berberie orientate sous le Hafsidts, 
ii, 236 ; J. Weulersse, Pay sans de Syrie et du Proche- 
Orient, Paris 1946, 133-6; cf. Mez, Renaissance, 461, 
Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. mus., iii, 98). Yet the 
comparison with the condition of the same countries 



'ADJALA — 'ADJAMI OGHLAN 



in antiquity and with the Turkish countries makes 
this an unsatisfactory explanation. The increasing 
scarcity of wood, due to the loss of forests, should 
perhaps~be taken into consideration, and one could 
perhaps establish a parallel with the degeneration 
of the plough (cf. A. G. Haudricourt, L'homme et la 
charrue, in the press, and mihrAth). Also the impro- 
vement of transport due to the increasing use of the 
camel and the pack-saddle must be taken into 

Nevertheless, sooner or later in the various 

countries, European vehicles were introduced, 

together with their usually Romance names (in 

Persia with a Russian name, kdleske), but were often 

adapted to local techniques and customs. Restricted 

to urban, official and military use, to public transport 

(for Persia, numerous descriptions and illustrations 

in C. Anet, La Perse en automobile, Paris 1906, 122, 

189, pU. 19, 25, 26, etc.), they rarely penetrated into 

the country-side. As early as the 17th century, the 

Muradid bay of Tunis travelled in a karrusa (Italian 

carrozza) (Ibn Abl Dinar, Mu'nis, Tunis 1286, 224); 

this word is now in common use in North Africa and 

is found even in Berber dialects (L. Brunot, Textes 

arabes de Rabat, ii, Paris 1952, 712)- Similarly karrifa 

(Italian carretta) is used in Algeria for carts and 

wagons (Beaussier, Diet, pratique arabe-jrancais % , 

Algiers 1931, 793); the word was already used, in 

the plural form kardrit, to designate Portuguese 

wagons in the 16th century, Chronique anonyme de 

la dynastie sa'dienne (Colin), 59. In Egypt, the 

'arabiyyat hanfur, "cab", (from Hungarian hintd 

through Turkish hinto, cf. F. Miklosich, SBAk. 

Wien, 1885, 5, 1889, 8) and the '■arabiyyat kdrro 

(Italian carro) are used (Nallino, L'Arabo parlato in 

Egitto 1 , Milan 1913, 241; cf. Ahmad Amln, Kdtnus 

al- l Addt wa'l-Takdlid, Cairo 1953, 333 and pi. xvi). 

Bibliography: H. Zayyat, al-Khii&na al- 

Sharkiyya, iii, Beirut 1946, 149-51; V. V. Barthold, 

O kolesnom i verkhovom dviienii v Srednei Azii, 

Zap. Instituta Vostokovedeniya Akademii nauk 

S.S.S.R., 1937, 5-7; A. G. Haudricourt, Contribution 

a la giographie et a I'ethnologie de la voiture, Revue 

de Giographie humaine et d'Ethnologie, 1948, 54-64 

(important methodological indications). 

(M. Rodikson) 
' ADJ AM. the etymology and semantic evolution 
of this collective term in Arabic are exactly parallel 
to those of the Greek word (JdpPoepoi. In conformity 
with the basic meaning of the root from which it 
is derived, 'adfam means people qualified by l udjma, 
a confused and obscure way of speaking, as regards 
pronunciation and language. 'Udjma is therefore 
also the . contrary of the Arabic fasdha, and the 
'adjam are the non-Arabs, the pippapoi, so called 
after the most characteristic sign of barbarousness : 
an incomprehensible and obscure way of speaking. 
As to the Greeks, so also to the Arabs, the barbarians 
were primarily their neighbours the Persians, and 
pre-Islamic poetry already contrasted al-'Arab with 
al-'Adjam, although for the latter the form A'ddjim, 
the plural of a'djam, was preferred. The affective 
value attributed to the word depended on the point 
of view of the user; although it preserved for the 
most part the original contemptuous force inspired 
by the haughty presumption of Arab superiority, it 
sometimes, and even at an early date, implied the 
desirability and allurement of the exotic, and the 
acknowledgment of a more civilized and refined 
culture. In any case, during the whole Umayyad 
period the superiority of the Arabs, who held the 
hegemony in Islam and by whom it was spread, 



over the conquered 'adjam was uncontested, and 
only isolated voices were raised (e.g. by the poet 
Isma'Il b. Yasar in Aghani 1 , iv, 411-2) in support of 
the race and culture of non-Arabs, i.e. of the Iranians. 
With the coming to power of the 'Abbasids, the 
victory of the 'adjam over the Arabs, a victory 
which Nasr ibn Sayyar had already deprecated in 
famous verses (al-DInawari, 360), reversed the 
situation; the Iranians, having obtained political 
and social supremacy, soon laid claim to the 
supremacy of their cultural and spiritual values. 
This was the shu l ubiyya movement [q.v.] which, 
in its essential nucleus, reaffirmed the superiority 
of the 'adiarn over the Arabs, even although its 
campaign was carried on in Arabic. When the 
heat of the controversy had died down, the two 
words remained in current usage merely to indicate 
ethnical difference, '■adiam becoming synonymous 
with Furs (Persians). 'Irak '■Adjami indicated, from 
the late medieval period onwards, Iranian Media 
(which the ancient geographers had called al-Diibdl). 
to distinguish it from 'Irak 'Arabi, which is 'Irak 
proper. Lamiyyat al-'adfam was given as the title, 
in contrast to the celebrated kasida of Shanfara, to 
a similar poem in lam rhyme by the Iranian al- 
Tughral (d. 1121). For '■adjami = aljamiado see 

ALJAMIADO. 

Bibliography: I. Goldziher, Muhammeda- 
nische Studien, i, 10-146 ('Arab und 'Agam). 

(F. Gabrieli) 
'ADJAMl OGHLAN (acemt oglan), a term, 
meaning "foreign boy", applied to Christian 
youths enrolled for service as Ottoman kapi 
kulus [q.v.], originally, according to the Pendk kdnun 
of 1362, by the reservation of one in every five of 
those taken prisoner of war, and later by dewshirme 
[q.v.] conscription. They were first placed for from 
five to seven years at the disposal of feudal sipdhis 
and others in Anatolia, and later also in Rumelia, 
in order to learn Turkish and accustom themselves 
to Muslim usages, and then posted to the 'ad[ami 
odjak of Gallipoli and, after the conquest, to that 
of Istanbul, being simultaneously selected for 
subsequent service, according to their abilities, in 
the sultan's palace or in one or other of the odjaks of 
the standing army, infantry and cavalry, or of the 
bostandjls [q.v.] of Edirne and Istanbul. Their actual 
appointment — known as haplya tihma — to the 
palace service or these various corps was by seniority 



1 the 



After preliminary training at Ghalata Sarayl or 
Ibrahim Pasha Sarayl in Istanbul or at Edirne, 
'adjami oghldns appointed to the sultan's household 
(and hence thereafter called it oghldns or il aghas) 
might gradually rise from its lowest koghush or 
dormitory to the khdss oda [q.v.], from the chief 
posts in which those who attained them might be 
appointed beylerbeyis and wezirs. The two most 
important standing cavalry regiments (sipahs and 
sildhddrs) were likewise recruited from among the 
il aghas, the other four ('dlufedjis and ghurabd) 
being recruited from among those 'adjami oghldns 
who, though selected for the palace service, were 
not in the event appointed to it. 

Most of the 'adjami oghldns not chosen for the 
palace were destined for service as Janissaries (see 
yeni ceri), whether after preliminary service in the 
odjak of the bostandjis or by immediate admission 
into one of the thirty-four ortas [q.v.], under the 
command of the Istanbul aghast, which were reckoned 
as forming part of the Janissary odjak. 

The gradual abandonment during the 17th 



'ADJAMl OGHLAN — al-<ADJDJADJ 



century of the dewshirme naturally resulted in the 

disappearance of 'adiami oghldns proper, though 

their organization was maintained, like that of the 

whole Janissary odjak, till its abolition in 1826. 

Bibliography: I. H. Uzuncarsili, Kapukulu 

Ocaklarl, i, 1-141; IA, s.v. Acemi Oglan; Ahmad 

Djawad, Ta'rikh-i <Askari-yi 'Othmdni, 174 (Fr. 

transl., i, 241); Sayyid Mustafa, Nat&Hdi ul- 

Wu,fe<i c <a, i, 166, 174, ii, 109; D'Ohsson, Tableau 

dt V Empire Ottoman, vii, 313; Gibb and Bowen, 

Islamic Society and the West, i/i, index. 

(H. Bowen) 
'AEJAMIYYA, a term used of the writing of 
non-Arabic languages in Arabic characters, [see 

ALJAMIADO, HAUSA]. 

'ADJARIDA. Kharidjite sect which spread 
especially in Khurasan. The name is derived from 
that of its founder, 'Abd al-Karlm b. 'Adjarrad, 
who seceded from the 'Atawiyya, one of the sub- 
divisions of the Nadjadat [q.v.]. c Abd al-Karlm was 
a native of Balkh and was imprisoned by the 
governor of 'Irak, Khalid al-Kasri (105-20/724-38). 
The main religious tenets attributed to the 
•Adjarida were: the exclusion from Islam (bard'a) 
of children (even of one's own, according to Ibn 
Hazm) until they grow up and become believers; 
the duty to invite them to embrace the true faith 
when they reach puberty; the assertion that hidjra 
is a meritorious act, not a duty; the profession of 
friendship (wildya) towards the quietists (al-ka l ada) ; 
the affirmation that sura xii (surat Yusuf), which 
by its frivolity could not be the word of God, did 
not belong to the Kur'an. 

Al-Ash'arl names as branches of the 'Adjarida 
the Maymuniyya, Khalafiwa. Hamziyya, Shu'ay- 
biyya, Saltiyya, Khazimiyya (with two subdivisions) 
and Tha'aliba (with five subdivisions). Al-Shah- 
rastanl adds the Atrafiyya. Most of these schools 
held a less rigid opinion concerning children, viz. 
that they are in a neutral status until they accept 
or renounce faith at the time of puberty. The 
Hamziyya played an important political role in the 
'Abbasid period. The grave Kharidjite revolt which 
broke out in 179/795 in southern Khurasan and 
which lasted till 195/810 was, in fact, led by their 
chief Hamza b. Adrak.- 

Bibliography : Ash'ari, Makdldt al-Isldmiyyin 

(Ritter), i, 93 ft.; Baghdad!, Farft, 72 ff.; Ibn 

Hazm, Fisal, iv, 191; ShahrastanI, 95 ff.; Makrlzi, 

Khm, ii. 355; Ibn al-Athlr, vi, 101, 103 ff., 114, 

143; Mas'udI, Murudi, viii, 42, 127; L. Veccia 

Vaglieri, Le vicende del hdrigismo in epoca abbaside, 

RSO, 1949, 41. " (R. Rubinacci) 

al-ADJDAbI, Abu Ishafc IbrahIm b. Isma'Il 

b. Ahmad al-Luwati, author of various works 

on philology (especially the Ki/dyat al-Mutahaffiz, 

a lexicographical work). Al-TidjanI possessed several 

of them in autograph copies (al-Adjdabi was famous 

for his calligraphy). Al-Adjdabi lived in the second 

half of the 5th/nth century in Tripoli where he 

also died; his tomb is still venerated there. 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 131; idem, Irshdd, 

i, 47; SuyutI, Bughya, 178; Tidjanl, Rihla, Tunis 

1927, 188 ff.; Brockelmann, I, 375, S I, 541. 

(H. H. Abdul-Wahab) 

AEJDABIYA, town of Cyrenaica, on the 

old main road which followed the coast from 

Alexandria to Tripoli, halfway between Barka 

and Surt. Adjdabiya now belongs to the district of 

Benghazi. It was conquered by 'Amr b. al-'As in 

22/643, was subjected to poll-tax (diizya), and 

became during the following three centuries a 



military station and a great centre of commercial 
traffic. Built at the gate of the desert on stony 
ground — whence probably the Arabic name Adjda- 
biya, "the sterile" — it had in the 5th/nth century 
a citadel and a substantial mosque, built about 
300/912-3 by the Fatimid prince Abu '1-Kasim, son 
of c Ubayd Allah al-Mahdl, with a very fine octagonal 
minaret. Wells, cut in the rock, provided water of 
good quality; there was also a fountain of sweet 
water. The town was surrounded by orchards (figs, 
apricots, etc.) and a small number of palms. The 
houses were built mainly in the form of brick vaults 
(damUs), as in the Sahara ksurs. It was well supplied 
with meat, fruits, honey, wool, etc. from the hinter- 
land, especially the Diabal Akhdar, and prices were 
low. On the gulf of the Great Syrtis, later called 
Djawn al-Kibrit ("gulf of sulphur") there was a 
small harbour six miles from the town, called al- 
Mahur ( ?), which served as port for ships destined 
for Adjdabiya. According to the early geographers, 
the inhabitants of the town and the district were 
mainly Luwata Berbers (subdivisions of Zanana, 
Wahlla, Masusa, Slwa, Tahlala, etc.), but a number 
of Arab elements, such as Azd, Lakhm. Sadif, etc., 
settled there after the conquest. 

The prosperity of the town seems to have been 
lost following the great Hilall and SulamI invasion 
in the 5th/nth century. The travellers (al-'Abdari, 
al-'Ayyashl, al-Warthilani) who passed Adjdabiya 
on their way from the Maghrib to the East, describe 
it as a town long since ruined, without any vegetation 
in the vicinity, with only a few visible, but aban- 
doned, vestiges of habitation. During the Turkish, 
and especially the Italian, occupation, Adjdabiya 
became a small village, serving as a stage between 
Benghazi and Misrata. 

Bibliography: Ya c kubl, Baghdad 1918, 102, 
transl. G. Wiet, 203 ; Ibn Rusta, 344 ; Ibn Hawkal, 
67; Bakri, 5 (transl. 16); Yakut, Cairo, i, 121; 
'Abdari, Rihla (MS), vol. i; Warthilanl, Algiers 
1908, 219 ff. (H. H. Abdul-Wahab) 

AL- c ADJDjAjiI, Abu 'l-Sha c tha» c Abd Allah 
b. Ru'ba, Arab poet of the Tamlm tribe, who 
resided mainly in al-Basra; it is probable that he 
was born during the caliphate of 'Uthman (23-35/ 
644-56), and he died in 97/115. Little is known 
about his life, except that he had to joust with his 
Kufan rival Abu '1-Nadjm al- c ldjll [q.v.]. The main 
characteristic of al-'Adjdjadj's poetry — like that of 
his son Ru'ba [q.v.] — is the constant and exclusive 
use of the radiaz metre in poetical compositions 
marked by a very rich vocabulary and a laborious 
construction made more difficult by the poet's 
respect for the rules of prosody and the unusual 
number of lines (229 in one urdiiiza). His arddiiz 
on the model of the pre-Islamic kasida generally 
comprise a traditional nasib (replaced in one case 
by religious subject-matter), then descriptions of 
the desert and the animals found there (camels, 
horses, onagers, wild bulls), and end with the 
panegyric of a man, of the poet himself, or his 
tribe. Al-'Adjdjadj never cultivated either the 
satire or the elegy. His praises are addressed to 
eminent personnages such as Yazid b. Mu'awiya, 
c Abd al-'Aziz b. Marwan, Bishr b. Marwan, Sulayman 
b. 'Abd al-Malik, al-Hadjdjadj b. Yusuf, <Umar b. 
c Ubayd Allah b. Ma'mar, Mus'ab b. al-Zubayr. The 
Arabic critics unanimously praise the verbal richness 
of al-'Adjdjadj, whose verses are frequently cited 
by the lexicographers; but he was guilty of an 
exaggerated use of alliteration, and a 
addiction to rare words. 



,-<ADJDjADJ — ADJNADAYN 



Bibliography: The poems of al-'Adjdjadj 
have been collected by W. Ahlwardt, Sammlungett 
alter arabischer Dichter, ii: Die Diwane der Regez- 
dichter El'-aggag und Ezzafajdn, Berlin 1903; 
R. Geyer, Beitrdge zur Kenntnis altarabischer 
Dichter, 3: aV-Ajj&j und al-Zafay&n, in WZKM, 
1909. 74-ioi; Arddjiz al- c Arab, Cairo 1313, 
passim; R. Geyer, Altarabische Diiamben, nos. 1-2. 
Biographical accounts and verses are to be found 
in Djumahl, Jabakdt, Cairo, 2 1 8 ; Djahiz, Hayawdn', 
index; Ibn Kutayba, Shi<r, 374-6; Ibn Hadjar, 
Isdba, no. 6316; Mash., xxiii, 439-48; O. Rescher, 
Abriss, i, 219; Brockelmann, S I, 90; Nallino, 
Scritti, vi, index (Fr. transl. 153-5, 160-2). 

(Ch. Pellat) 
'ADJLCN. district of Transjordania, boun- 
ded on the north by the Yarmiik, to the east by 
the Hamad, to the south by the Wadl al-Zarka' 
and to the west by the Ghawr, partly corresponding 
to the old territory of Gilead, and occupied in Roman 
times by the towns of the Decapolis. The name 
seems to be of Aramaic origin. A mountanous and 
wooded district, it was first called Djabal Djarash, 
later Djabal c Awf from the name of the turbulent 
tribe which occupied it in the Fatimid period. It 
was pacified by the amir c Izz al-DIn Usama, who, 
having been granted it in fief by al-Malik al- c Adil 
b. Ayyub, built there (it is said on the site of an 
ancient monastery) a fortress which was since then 
called Kal'at c Adjlun. Changing hands among various 
■amirs and princes, it played a part in the struggle 
against the Franks. Stripped of its walls by the 
Mongols, it was rebuilt in the Mamluk period, when 
■•Adjlfin constituted one of the districts of Damascus. 
At present c Adjlun is the name of a ha&a> (the chief 
place being Irbid [q.v.]), and a small township near 
the old fortress. 

Bibliography: Ch. Clermont-Ganneau, Etudes 

d'arch. or., ii, 140; G. Schumacher and C. Steuer- 

nagel, Der 'Adschlun, Leipzig 1927; F.-M. Abel, 

Giographie de la Palestine, i, Paris 1933, 15, 67, 

276; G. Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, 

London 1890, 76, 383, 388; A.-S. Marmadji, Textes 

geographiques arabes sur la Palestine, Paris 1951, 

3, 45, 137; M. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, La Syrie 

A lipoque des Mamelouks, Paris 1923, 23, 66, 

179, 260; Abu Shama, in Hist. Or. Cr., v, index; 

Ibn al-KalanlsI (Amedroz), 151, 164, 174; Abu 

'1-Fida', in Hist. Or. Cr., i, index; M. van Berchem, 

MNDPV, 1903, 51-70 (inscriptions of the region 

and transl. of an important passage of Ibn Shaddad. 

MS Leiden 800, g6r-97v); C. N. J(ohns), QDAP, 

i, 1931, 21-33; RCEA, nos. 3746, 3970, 4528. 

(D. Sourdel) 

ADJMER (AjmBr, AjmIr), capital of a smaU 

semi-autonomous state of the name in the heart of 

Radjasthan, pop. (1951): I9 6 . 6 33 (of whom 23% 

Muslims). The place is renowned for its architectural 

monuments, and especially for the tomb of Kh'adja 

Mu c In al-Din Hasan Sidjzl [q.v.] (d. 1236), which is 

one of the most important centres of pilgrimage in 

the country. The tomb was built by the Sultans 

of Malwa shortly after 1455, while the adjoining 

buildings were constructed later, the two adjacent 

mosques having been erected by Akbar and Shah 

Djahan. Archeologically the most important building 

is the Arhal-din-ka-pjhonpra ("two-and-a-half days 

shed"), a Hindu college converted into a mosque. 

It consists of a quadrangle surrounded on all sides 

by cloisters of Hindu pillars, with four star-shaped 

towers at each corner. The liwdn is a pillared hall, 

248' x 40', divided into nine octagonal compart- 



ments, covered by a flat recessed roof, containing 
five rows of Hindu columns. A lofty screen wall 
(56 ft. high) of seven pointed arches gives the 
liwdn a facade of remarkable beauty. The central 
arch, which stands higher than the others, is sur- 
mounted by two small minarets for the mu'adhdhin 
similar in style, like the rest of the mosque, to the 
Kutb Minar and mosque at Delhi. Constructed by 
Sultan Iltutmish (probably in place, or as an 
extension, of an earlier mosque started in 1200), it 
represents one of the finest examples of early Indo- 
Muslim architecture. Other monuments include a 
fortified palace built by Akbar, a garden laid by 
Diahangir. and marble pavilions erected by Shah 
Djahan on the embankment of Anasagar. 

History. Founded by the Radjput Radja Adjaya 
Cawhan around 1100, Adjmer was conquered by 
Mu'izz al-Din Mufcammad GMri in 1 192, and annexed 
to the Sultanate by Kutb al-Din Aybak in 1195. 
Shortly after 1398, the Radjputs of Mewar captured 
it,„but in 1455 the Sultans of Malwa ousted them 
and held the place till 1531, when Radja Maldeva 
of Marwar occupied it. Adjmer was annexed by 
Akbar early in his reign and attached to a suba of 
that name. Surrounded as it was by Radjput 
principalities, and lying on the route to Malwa and 
Gudjrat, the town soon became a strategic and 
trading centre; while Akbar's frequent visits to 
the shrine of Kh'adja MuSn al-DIn made Adjmer 
one of the most important places of pilgrimage. 
After 172 1, it was occupied first by the Radjputs 
and then by the Mahrattas, who ceded it to the 
British in 1818. 

Bibliography: Imp. Gazetteer of India, 1908, 
» v; Arch. Survey of India, Annual Reports, ii and 
xxiii; H. B. Sarda, Ajmer, Indian Antiquary, 
1897, 162. (Nurul Hasan)' 

AJ2JNADAYN, the traditional name for the site 
of a battle fought in Djumada I or II, 13/July- 
August 634, between the Muslim Arab invaders and 
the Greek defenders of Palestine. Although located by 
the literary sources between Ramla and Bayt 
Djibrin, no place of this name is attested by the 
geographers. On topographical grounds, the site of 
the battle was located by Miednikoff on the Wadl 
al-Samt in the vicinity of the two villages of al- 
Djannaba (Gharbiyya and Sharkiyya), 34 57' E., 
31 41' N., from the dual form of which (al-Djan- 
nabatayn) the traditional name seems to have 
arisen by conflation with the Ar. plural adjndd 
("armies"). The Greek forces were commanded by 
Theodoras, brother of the Emperor Heraclius; some 
early Arabic sources mention also a certain Artabun 
(? Aratyvin = Aretion). The Arab forces were com- 
posed of the three separate contingents which had 
been operating in Palestine and Transjordan (see 
abu bakr), temporarily united under the command 
(most probably) of KhalM b. al-Walld [q.v.], who 
had reached Syria from the Euphrates three months 
before. (A less probable version represents c Amr b. 
al- c As as the commander of the joint forces.) The 
numbers of the combatants, especially on the Greek 
side, are highly exaggerated in the Arabic sources; 
and it is probable that in reality the forces on 
either side scarcely reached 10,000 men. The Greek 
army was severely defeated and withdrew to 
Damascus, leaving the whole of Palestine open to 
the invaders, who again broke up into separate 
columns, until a further attempt by the Greek 
command to establish a defensive position at Fih.1 
[q.v.] led to the renewed junction of their forces six 
months later. 








Fig. 3. Intarsia panel from Ka'itbay's minbar (Victoria and Albert Museum, London). Crown Copy; 



ADJNADAYN — C ADL 



209 



Bibliography: Caetani, Annali iii, 13-81 
(A. H. 13, §§ 7-66): an exhaustive analysis and 
discussion of the sources and related problems; 
summarized by C. H. Becker, Camb. Med. Hist, ii, 
341-2 (= Islamstudien i, 81-2). 

(H. A. R. Gibb) 
ADJR (a.), reward, wages, rent. The word is of 
Akkadian origin and was received into Arabic, 
through the intermediary of Aramaic, at an early 
date. It is used in a religious and in a legal sense, 
which both occur from the Kur'an onwards. 

1. In a great number of kur'anic passages, adjr 
denotes the reward, in the world to come, for pious 
deeds. This concept seems to derive from Christian 
rather than from Jewish sources, and it has become 
one of the fundamental ideas of practical'ethics in 
Islam. According to JJur'&n, vi, 160, ten good deeds 
are credited for each one accomplished, though tlie 
term adjr does not occur here. It is often stated in 
traditions that the well-intentioned, though imper- 
fect, fulfilment of religious obligations gives right to 
one reward, whereas their successful accomplishment 
is rewarded twice or several times. The fulfilment 
of the religious duty of the idjtihad [c.v.], and of the 
parallel duty of giving judgment according to 
religious law, in particular, gives right to one reward, 
even though the decision arrived at is faulty; if it 
is right, two (or even ten) rewards are promised. 
The earliest tradition to this effect seems to have 
originated towards the middle of the second century 
of Islam. 

2. As a legal term, adjr seems to have denoted in 
Mecca, in the time of the Prophet, any payment 
for services rendered, and it is used in the JJur'an 
not only of wages, but of the mahr [q.v.] which is» 
due to wives, whether free women or slaves, under 
the contract of marriage, including a mut'a marriage 
[q.v.] (iv, 23 f.; v, 5; xxxiii, 50; lx, 10), and of the 
maintenance due to divorced wives who feed their 
children (lxv, 5). In the doctrine of religious law, 
the term was restricted to wages or rent payable 
under a contract of idjdra [q.v.]. For rent in particular, 
the special term udjra is often used. 

Bibliography: A. Jeffery, The Foreign Voca- 
bulary of the Qur'dn, 1938, 49; C. C. Torrey, The 
Commercial-Theological Terms in the Koran, 
Leiden 1892, 23 ff. ; A. J. Wensinck, Concordance 
et indices de la tradition musulmane, s.v. adjr; 
Schacht, The Origins of Muhammadan Juris- 
prudence, 1950, 96 f. (J. Schacht) 
ADJURRCMIYYA [see ibn Aeiurrum]. 
C AEJCZ [see ayyam al-'adjuz]. 
AEJWAF [see tasrIf]. 

'ADL (1) Etymologically, the term is found both 
as substantive and as adjective, but with meanings 
that do not exactly correspond. 'Adl, the substantive, 
means justice; as an adjective, it means rectilinear, 
just, well balanced; it thus applies both to beings 
and to things. In its two forms, the word is current 
in the vocabulary of religion, theology, philosophy, 
and law. In the Mu'tazilite doctrine, 'adl, the justice 
of God constitutes one of the five fundamental 
dogmas (usul) of the system [see mu'tazila]. The 
JJadl must give judgment with 'adl (or kisf, cf. 
JJur'an, iv. 58; v, 42); but the idea of material 
justice plays hardly any part in the theory of 
religious law [cf. usul], although it is insisted upon 
in the "Investigation of Complaints" [see mazAlim]. 
The adjective which corresponds exactly to this 
substantive 'adl is 'ddil. 

As an adjective, the word 'adl expresses more 
particularly a juridical conception, and has 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



applications. However, agreement has never been 
reached on a definition of the term, as the Malikite 
jurist Ibn Rushd observes. Furthermore, the various 
definitions that have been formulated are too 
comprehensive and imprecise. In al-Mawardl's 
definition, c addla, the quality of 'adl, is described 
as a state of moral and religious perfection. For Ibn 
Rushd it consists in not committing major sins, and 
also avoiding minor ones. But another author 
observes that such a state can be found only very 
exceptionally, in the saints; that 'addla simply 
describes the state of a person who in general obeys 
the moral and religious law. This last conception is 
the one that came to be finally accepted. In the 
latest stage of Muslim law, as it appears in the 
codification undertaken in the Ottoman empire 
about the middle of the 19th century, the following 
definition is given: "The 'adl person is one in whom 
good impulses prevail over bad" (Madjalla art. 1705). 
In short, one can translate c adl by "person of good 
morals", with the essentially religious sense that 
this has in Islam. Whether this quality must be a 
natural inclination, innate or acquired, or whether 
it is sufficient for it to be achieved by an effort of 
will, is however a theoretically disputed point. — The 
antonym of 'adl is fdsik. 

The adjective is also employed substantively; it 
then means a person of good morals (pi. 'udUl). 

'Addla enters into various juridical categories. In 
the theory of public law, 'addla is one of the principal 
conditions for carrying out public functions recog- 
nized by the doctrine of the School. But it is in 
private law, in the theory of evidence, that the idea 
has been most fully developed and involves a most 
detailed system of regulations. The witness must 
be 'adl; it suffices, however, that his 'addla should 
be substantiated at the time when his evidence is 
given and not at the time of his observation of the 
fact in question. It is a disputed point, nevertheless, 
whether the witness is presumed to have 'addla so 
long as it is not contested by the adversary, or 
whether, even if it is not called in question, it 
should be the subject of verification. The latter 
course has prevailed in practice and in doctrine. 
Consequently a procedure has been evolved for 
substantiation of the 'addla of witnesses ; it is known 
as tazkiya or ta'dil. In the latest stage of the law, 
this procedure involves two phases. In the first, 
the judge proceeds to a secret investigation, by 
sending a question in a sealed envelope to qualified 
persons ; this is al-tazkiya al-sirriyya. It is afterwards 
necessary, in certain cases, for these persons to 
appear at the public hearing to confirm their former 
; this is al-tazkiya al-'aldniyya. The 
of the 'addla of a witness is called ta'dil; 
contestation of this 'addla is called djarh. 

However, the tazkiya procedure is not used 
exclusively as an accessory or as incidental to a 
law-suit. It functions also independently and as 
an end in itself, for recognizing in a positive and 
final manner the quality of 'addla in given persons. 
Because of the small reliance placed on writing, as 
such, once its use became widespread, recourse was 
had, in order to give it once and for all conclusive 
force, to the procedure of testimonial proof. However, 
this method was not altogether reliable, for the 
witnesses of the instrument could always themselves 
be challenged on the ground of lack of 'addla. This 
difficulty was overcome by the use of a preliminary 
tazkiya; the judge recognizes once and for all the 
'addla of a certain number of persons, who thus 
become in principle irreproachable witnesses, and 

14 



ADL — ADRAR 



to whom appeal can be made to establish the precon- 
stituted proof of written documents. From among 
such people the scriveners or notaries are recruited 
who bear the name of 'udiil in a technical sense. 
But the 'ud&l are employed also for many other 
services : as assistants to magistrates for the certifying 
of instruments of procedure and of judgments, for 
the carrying out of various acts of judiciary admi- 
nistration, for answering tazkiya inquiries, for 
nominating people to functions for which 'addla is 
a requisite, etc. (cf. shAhid). 

Bibliography: Ibn Farhun, Tabsirat al- 
Hukkdm, Cairo 1302/1884, i, 173, 204 ff., etc.; 
Dictionary of Technical Terms, ed. A. Sprenger, 
ioi5ff.; Juynboll, Handleiding, § 67; Santillana, 
Istituzioni, i, 109; Tyan, Histoire de I' organisation 
judiciaire en pays d'Islam, Paris 1938, t. i, Ch. iv, 

sect, v ; idem, Le notarial dans la pratique 

du droit musulman, Beirut 1945. (E. Tyan) 

(2) In numismatics l adl means "of full weight", 

and therefore thi; word (often abridged to c) is 

stamped on coins to si:ow that they have the just 

weight and are current ( K cdli). 

'ADLl, pen-name of Mubommad II and Mahmud 
ll, further of Bayazid II. dibb, History of the 
Ottoman Poetry, ii, 32 ff., believis that the pen name 
of this last was 'Adnl, but the Upsala MS bears 
•Adll. (Gibb, ii, 25 f. attributes the diwdn of <-Adni, 
Istanbul 1308, to Mahmud Pasha.) 
ADMINISTRATION [see dIwan]. 
•ADN [see djanna]. 

c ADNAN, ancestor of the Northern Arabs 

according to the genealogical system which received 

its final form in the work of Ibn al-Kalbl, about 

800 A.D. The name occurs twice in Nabatean 

inscriptions from N.W. Arabia ('Abd 'Adnon, 

'Adnon; Jaussen et Savignac, Mission Archeologique 

en Arabic, Paris 1909-14, nos. 38, 328) also in 

Thamudic (Lankester Harding/Littmann, Some 

Thamudic Inscriptions, Leiden 1952) and was taken 

to South Arabia along the incense-route (Corpus 

Inscriptionum Semit., iv, no. 808). As already 

noted by al-Djumani, Tabakdt (Hell), 5 (cf. also Ibn 

<Abd al-Barr, al-Inbdh 'aid KabaHl al-Ruwdh, Cairo 

1350, 48), it does not occur in pre-Islamic poetry 

at all (Labid, xli, 7 is spurious), and only very 

rarely in early Islamic literature. This means that 

the name does not owe its place in the system to 

the conflict of parties in the Umayyad period, like 

Nizar and Rabi'a, but is of pre-Islamic origin, 

although it does not spring from bedouin tradition. 

It may come, like other rudimentary elements of 

the system, from the Meccan tradition. — It is 

noteworthy that, owing to the revival of national 

feeling, the name 'Adnan again became current in 

Turkey by the last quarter of the 19th century. 

This is explained by the fact that the Young Turkish 

movement represented in its earliest stage an Ottoman 

nationalism which included also the Arabic traditions. 

Bibliography: W. Caskel, Die Bedeutung der 

Beduinen fiir die Geschichte der Araber (Arbeits- 

gemcinschaft fiir Forschung des Landes Nordrhein- 

Westfalen, Geisteswissenschaften, Heft 8) Koln and 

Opladen 1953, n ff.; CIH, 808; EI, s.v. nizar; 

Jaussen et Savignac, Mission archiologique en 

Arable, i, ii, Paris 1909, 1914, nos. 38, 328; 

Lankester Harding/Littmann, Some Thamudic 

Inscriptions, Leiden 1952; G. Strenziok, DieGenea- 

logie der Nordaraber nach Ibn al-Kalbi, thesis, Koln 

1953. Cf. also nizAr. (W. Caskel) 

ADRAMIT [see edremid]. 



ADRAR, Berber geographical term meaning 
"mountains" and applied to a number of mountainous 
regions of the Sahara. 

1. Adrar, 650 km. to the south-east of Colomb- 
Bechar, capital of the Tawat (Touat) and 
main (tsar (kasr) of the tribe of Timmi. 

The centre of Adrar, on its present site, dates from 
the French conquest (30 July 1900). Since that time, 
the town developped as an administrative and 
commercial centre. In 1951, Adrar had 1,795 
inhabitants. 

Agriculture plays but a small part in the life of 
the ksar. Craftsmanship (fabrication of woollen and 
cotton wall covers called dokkali) is in decadence. 
The main role was always played by commerce, but 
the caravan traffic to the Sudan (dates, tobacco) 
and to the oases of Algeria (skins, butter, live sheep) 
has greatly diminished owing to the competition of 
motor transport. 

Bibliography: Cne. Flye Sainte Marie, Le 
commerce et I'agriculture au Tuat, Bui. Soc. Gig. 
Arch. Oran, 1904; Watin, Origine des populations 
du Touat, Bui. Soc. Geog. Alger, 1905; A. G. P. 
Martin, Les oasis sahariennes (Gourara, Touat, 
Tidikelt), Paris 1908; P. Devots, Le Touat, etude 
geographique et medicate, Archives Inst. Pasteur 
Algerie, 1947. 

2. Adrar of the Ifoghas, an ancient massif 
in the southern Sahara (Sudan), between 2 1° 
and 18° N, 30' and 3° E. Like the Ahaggar range of 
which it is an extension, it is made up of crystalline 
rocks of the pre-Cambrian age, but there is no trace 
of recent volcanic action. 

The monsoon rains from the Gulf of Guinea come 
annually to the Adrar of the Ifoghas (Kidal: 123mm.) 
and the vegetation already approximates to that of 
the coastal region, at least in the valleys; but the 
water points are rare because of the impermeability 
of the soil. 

The massif is inhabited by Tuareg tribes, among 
which the noble tribe of Kidal, that of the Ifoghas, 
supplies the amenokal [q.v.] ; by extension, the name 
Ifoghas is applied to all the tribes who inhabit the 
Adrar and its confines. In 1949 the subdivision of 
Kidal had 14, 574 inhabitants, all nomads, breeding 
camels, oxen, and sheep. They nomadize close to 
the massif, but go to Tidikelt and Tuwat (Touat), 
crossing the Tanezruft, to sell their sheep. The 
principal administrative centre is Kidal (683 in- 
habitants) ; not far from there the ruins of the ancient 
Songhai town of al-SQk (Es Souq, Tadmekket) can 
still be seen. 

Bibliography : Ibn Hawkal, Description de 
I'Afrique (transl. de Slane, J A, 1842); Bakri, 
Description de I'Afrique septentrionale (transl. de 
Slane, Algiers, 1913); E. F. Gautier, A travers le 
Sahara francais (La Geo., xv, i, 1907); Lt. Cortier, 
D'une rive a V autre du Sahara, Paris 1908; R. 
Chudeau, Sahara soudanais, Paris 1909 ; R. Mauny, 
Encyclopedic maritime et coloniale. Afrique occi- 
dental francaise. Protohistoire et histoire ancienne. 
Paris 1949, vol. i; R. Capot-Rey, Sur quelques 
formes de relief de V Adrar des Ifoghas, Trav. I.R.S., 
vol. vii, 1951; H. Lhote, Sur V emplacement de la 
ville de Tademekka, ancienne capitate des Berbires 
soudanais. Notes Afr., no. 51, July 1951. 

3. Adrar of Mauretania (also called Adrar 
Tmar to distinguish it from the Adrar of the Ifogha). 
A group of plateaus in the southern Sahara between 
19 and 23° N, io° and 13 30' W, having a surface of 
150,000 sq. km. These plateaus are formed by 
sedimentary layers, gravel, schist and limestone 



• C APUD al-DAWLA 



and are limited by graded slopes which overlook 
schistous depressions followed by wadis or traced 
by sebkhas; the main slope, the Dhar, reaches the 
height of 830 m. 

By the scanty rainfall (81 mm. in Atar, 52 in 
Chinguiti), the absence of permanent drainage, the 
steppe vegetation consisting of thorny shrubs, the 
Adrar forms part of the desert. Nevertheless, the 
climate, the hydrography and the vegetation have 
features which are different form those of the Sahara. 
In the summer the humid air of the Gulf of Guinea 
invades the Adrar and tornadoes occur in July and 
August; the wadis flow and fill the closed depressions 

The first inhabitants of the Adrar were the Bafur 
about whom one knows scarcely more than that the 
Adrar was called by the Portuguese, as late as the 
16th century, "Mountains of the Bafur". From the 
10th century, the I.amtuna [q.v.] penetrated into the 
Adrar and their chief Abu Bakr b. 'llmar made 
himself master of Shinklt {[q.v.]; modern Chinguiti) 
and finally of Ghana, though this conquest did not 
last. Three centuries later the Ma'kil [q.v.], driven 
by the first Marinids, retraced the steps of Abu Bakr 
and subjugated the Berber tribes. The marabutic 
movement of the 15th century also contributed to 
the arabization of the western Sahara. At this period 
arose the hierarchical organization characteristic of 
the society of Mauretania ; at the summit of the 
scale the warriors (Hasan), descendants of the Arab 
conquerors, followed by the Marabuts (Zwaya) and 
the Tributaries (Zenaga), both Berbers; finally the 
Haratin, the slaves and smiths, Bafur, negroes or 
of mixed-race. This organization survived up to 
the French penetration. In 1909 the Adrar was 
occupied by the column of Gouraud. In 1932 the 
amir of the Adrar rebelled and the region was only- 
pacified two years later. 

Animal breeding is the main source of livelyhood. 
Warriors, Marabuts and Tributaries possess numerous 
herds of camels and sheep, which disperse during 
the cool season in the ergs, while in the summer they 
are assembled near the wells or graze in the coastal 
zone. Agriculture assumes two forms: raising of 
sorghum and water-melon in the graras, after the 
floods; raising of millet, corn and barley under 
the palm-trees in irrigated gardens; the dates, 
harvested in July (galna), arc the object of a lively 
trade. There are a number of small oases, Azougui, 
Ksar Torchane, Toungad, Oujeft. Chunguiti, which 
used to be a religious and intellectual centre, the 
radiation of which was felt as far as Senegal, is today 
a miserable little township. All the life is concentrated 
at Atar, capital of the district, which lies on the 
motor-road connecting Saint Louis with Agadir. 

[Cf. also MAURITANIA.! 

Bibliography: Th. Monod, L' Adrar maurita- 
nien, esquisse geologique, Dakar 1952; idem, 
Contribution a I'etude du peuplement de la Maure- 
tanie. Notes botaniques sur V Adrar, Institut 
Francais de I'Afrique Noire, April 1952; F. de la 
Chapelle, Esquisse d'une histoire du Sahara occi- 
dental, Rabat 1930; P. Marty, Les tribus de la 
Haute Mauritania, Bulletin du Comite de I'Afrique 
francaise, Renseignements coloniaux, 1915; Col. 
Modat, Les populations primitives de I' Adrar 
mauritanien, Bulletin du Comite des etudes histori- 
ques et scientifiques de I'A.O.F., 1919; idem, 
Portugais, Arabes et Francais dans I' Adrar Mauri- 
tanien, ibid., 1922; Cne. Huguet, Les populations 
primitives de VAdrar mauritanien, Bull, du Com. 
de VAfr. jr., Rens. col., 1927. (R. Capot-Rey) 



ADRIANOPLB [see edirne]. 

C ADUD al-DAWLA, AbO ShuqiA' FannA 
Khusraw, son of Rukn al-Dawla, B u w a y h i d 
[q.v.] amir al-umard', born at Isfahan on 5 Dhu 
'1-Ka'da 324/24 Sept. 936. On the death in 338/944 
of his uncle 'Irnad al-Dawla, according to the 
latter's wish, since he left no son of his own, Fanna 
Khusraw. though then aged only thirteen, succeeded 
him as ruler of Fars; in 351/962 he received the 
lakab c Adud al-Dawla from the caliph al-Muti c ; on 
the death of his other uncle Mu'izz al-Dawla in 
356/967 he obtained possession of c Uman; and in 
the following year he conquered Kirman, in the 
government of which he was confirmed by the 
caliph, and was acknowledged as overlord by the 
ruler of SIstan. In 361/971-2, after foiling an attempt 
by a brother of its former ruler to recover Kirman, 
he extended his authority south-eastwards over 
Makran, temporarily subduing the Baltic and other 
predatory tribes of that province. 

Having thus obtained control of all southern 
Persia, c Adud al-Dawla next sought to displace his 
cousin Bakhtiyar as lord of al-'Irak. Bakhtiyar's 
folly had involved him in a rebellion of his Turkish 
troops; and in 363/973-4 c Adud al-Dawla persuaded 
his father, now senior member of the Buwayhid 
clan, to authorize his leading an expedition to 
Bakhtiyar's aid in conjunction with a small force 
of Rukn al-Dawla's own troops from Rayy. He 
delayed moving, however, until Bakhtiyar was on 
the point of defeat. Then, himself routing the 
revolted Turks, he entered Baghdad in Djumada I 
364/January 975 and two months later frightened 
Bakhtiyar into abdicating. For the moment his 
ambition of acquiring al-'Irak for himself was 
nevertheless disappointed, his father's indignation 
at his treatment of Bakhtiyar being so violent as 
to bring on the illness from which in the next year 
he died. In the interval, however, by obediently 
restoring Bakhtiyar and returning to Shlraz, 'Adud 
al-Dawla succeeded in obtaining confirmation as his 
father's heir; and since his much younger brothers 
Fakhr al-Dawla and Mu'ayyid al-Dawla swore 
allegiance to him, on Rukn al-Dawla's death 'Adud 
al-Dawla was able to invade al-MrSk a second time 
without fear of opposition from them in Persia. 
Bakhtiyar was prepared for this attack, which he 
decided to meet at al-Ahwaz, only to be completely 
defeated (Dhu 'l-Ka'da 366/JuIy 977). It was not 
until three months later, however, that he acknow- 
ledged 'Adud al-Dawla as his overlord. Moreover, 
on his way to Syria, to which he proposed migrating, 
he was induced by the Hamdanid Abu Taghlib to 
defy 'Adud al-Dawla yet again, with the result that 
on 12 Shawwal 367/24 May 978 'Adud al-Dawla 
routed their combined forces at Samarra (Kasr al- 
Djuss). Bakhtiyar was caught and killed on the 
field; and Abu Taghlib in the course of the next 
twelve months was pursued, deprived of all his 
hereditary lands, and eventually forced to seek 
refuge with the Fatimids in Syria. The outcome of 
these operations was that by Dhu '1-Ka'da 368/June 
979, when 'Adud al-Dawla returned to Baghdad, 
he was master, not only of al-'Irak, but also of 
Diyar Rabi'a, Diyar Bakr, and most of the Djazira. 

In expectation of c Adud al-Dawla's second 
onslaught Bakhtiyar had sought help not only from 
Abu Taghlib, but also from 'linran b. Shahin, the 
ruler of the marshes (al-Batiha), from the Kurdish 
chieftain Hasanwayh al-Barzikani, from c Adud 
al-Dawla's brother Fakhr al-Dawla, and from the 
Ziyarid Kabus b. Wushmgir. In 369/979, accordingly, 



C ADUD al-DAWLA — ADWIYA 



having overcome Abu Taghlib, c Adud al-Dawla 
determined on ensuring the subservience of all these, 
sending two expeditions against 'Imran's son and 
successor al-Hasan, which resulted in the following 
year in his agreeing to pay tribute, and another 
against the sons of Hasanwayh, who had also died 
in the interval. On his addressing a letter of admonish- 
ment to Fakhr al-Dawla, moreover, the latter 
replied with such truculence as to prompt c Adud 
al-Dawla to lead a force in person into the gjibal 
against him; on which so many of Fakhr al-Dawla's 
supportes deserted him that he fled to Kazwln, 
whence he entered into a compact with Kabus to 
oppose c Adud al-Dawla with Samanid help, and 
moved to Nishapur to obtain it. Whilst on this 
expedition <Adud al-Dawla fell gravely ill with 
epilepsy, and though he was able to reduce all the 
local Hasanwayhid fortresses, he was then obliged 
to return to Baghdad. Finding, however, that, in 
contrast to Fakhr al-Dawla, his other brother, 
Mu'ayyid al-Dawla, was ready to acknowledge his 
suzerainty, he first conferred on him the government 
of Hamadhan and Nihawand, and in 371/981, after 
receiving a defiant reply to his approaches from 
Kabus, secured from the caliph a commission for 
Mu'ayyid al-Dawla to replace Kabus as governor 
of Tabaristan and Djurdjan. Mu'ayyid al-Dawla 
in due course drove Kabus from both these provinces; 
and though Kabus and Fakhr al-Dawla obtained 
Samanid assistance, they failed to dislodge him as 
long as 'Adud al-Dawla and he remained alive. 

In the last years of his reign c Adud al-Dawla was 
involved in negotiations with both the Byzantines 
and the Fatimids. In 369/980 the rebel commander 
Bardas Sclerus sought refuge in Diyar Bakr and 
solicited 'Adud al-Dawla's support; but on the 
arrival in Baghdad of an embassy from Constan- 
tinople, to which a favourable reply was sent by 
the hand of the W* Abu Bakr al-Bakillani, c Adud 
al-Dawla not only refused it but held the rebel and 
some of his relatives captive for the rest of his reign. 
In the same year there likewise arrived in the capital 
an envoy from the Fatimid al- c Aziz, who had been 
perturbed at rumours that c Adud al-Dawla intended 
invading Egypt — a project that he in fact abandoned 
only because of his preoccupation with the defiance 
of Fakhr al-Dawla and Kabus, but which, despite 
c Adud al-Dawla's eventual assurances of his good 
will, continued up to his death to occasion alarm in 

'Adud al-Dawla's death occurred in his forty- 
eighth year on 8 Shawwal 372/26 March 983 at 
Baghdad, by which date he had not only united all 
the territory ever held by princes of his family in 
a single dominion, but had greatly enlarged it by 
the various conquests referred to above. He is 
generally regarded, with justice, as the greatest amir 
of the Buwayhid dynasty, whose power reached 
its zenith after his acquisition of al- l Irak. He then 
exacted from the caliph al-Ta'i', who married his 
daughter, various privileges not enjoyed by his 
predecessors in the amirate, namely designation by 
a second lakab, Tadj al-Milla; the introduction of 
his name after that of the caliph into the khufba 
at the capital; and the beating of drums before the 
entrance to his palace at the hours of prayer. These 
distinctions were well deserved. <Adud al-Dawla had 
been early instructed in the duties of monarchy by 
his father's wazir Abu '1-Fadl b. al-'Amld; and 
first in Fars, and later in the other provinces which 
he acquired, he not only introduced such security 
and administrative order as had long been unknown 



in them, but exerted himself in 
public works, of which the most notable were the 
Band-i Amir, a barrage across the river Kur in 
FSrs, and the hospitals, called c Adudi after him, in 
Shlraz and Baghdad. To Baghdad indeed he restored 
much of its lost prosperity and magnificence. He 
also built a new mausoleum over the supposed 
grave of 'AH b. AM Talib at Nadjaf, where he 
himself was buried. For various references to other 
buildings etc. of his, see in particular the indices 
to the Fdrs-ndma of "Ibn al-Balkhl" and al-MakdisI 
and for references to his library at Shlraz see both 
al-MakdisI, 499 and Yakut, Irshdd, v, 446. c Adud 
al-Dawla was a liberal, though exacting, patron of 
the learned and of poets, including al-Mutanabbl, and 
himself wrote verse, some of which is quoted by 
al-jha c alibl in the Yatimat al-Dahr. A convincing 
account of his character, daily life, and methods of 
government, is supplied by al-Rudhrawari, iii, 39 f. 
Bibliography: Miskawayh, Tadfdrib al-Umam, 
continued by Abu Shudja c al-Rudhrawari (text 
and transl. in The Eclipse of the Abbasid Caliphate 
by Amedroz and Margoliouth), index; Makdisi 
and Ibn Hawkal, indices; c Utbi, Yamini, i, 
105-30 (citing the Tadji of Ibrahim b. Hilal 
al-Sabi'); the Fdrs-ndma, index; Ibn al-Athlr, 
index; Ibn al-KalanisI, Dhayl Ta'rikh DimasMf 
(Amedroz), index; Ibn Khallikan, no. 543 (transl. 
de Slane, ii, 481 f.) ; Yakut, Irshdd, i, ii, iv, indices; 
cf. also buwayhids. (H. Bowen) 

C ADUD al-DIN, Abu'l-Farasi Muijammad b. 
c Abd AllAh, of the family of Ibn Muslima [q.v.], 
held the office of ustdd ddr under al-Mustandjid 
until he had the latter assassinated in the bath 
and homage paid to al-Mustadl' (566/1170). He 
was appointed vizier by the latter, but one year 
later he was dismissed and shortly afterwards re- 
established in his office. When c Adud al-DIn prepared 
himself for the pilgrimage to Mecca in 573/1178 he 
was killed by the Ismallis. — Ibn al-Ta'awidhl 
[}.».] was one of the poets who glorified him. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Athlr, xi, 219 S.;Fakhri 
(Ahlwardt), 367 ff. 
'APUD al-DIN [see AL-Ipji]. 
ADULTERY [see zina']. 

ADWIYA, pi. of dawd?, every substance which 
may affect the constitution of the human body, 
every drug used as a remedy or a poison. In accor- 
dance with Greek ideas, Muslim pharmacologists 
distinguished between simple drugs, adwiya mufrada 
(<p<4p[iaxa emXa) and compound drugs, adwiya mu- 
rakkaba (<p. oiivBera), [for the latter see asrabAdhIn]. 
According to their origin, the adwiya were divided 
into vegetable (nabdtiyya), animal (hayawdniyya) and 
mineral (ma'-diniyya). 

Like medicine in general, Muslim pharmacology 
depends on Greek learning. An element of Persian 
tradition is also revealed in the pharmacological 
nomenclature. In many cases these Persian names 
of plants and drugs, some of them still in use (see 
e.g. Ahmed Issa Bey, Dictionnaire des noms des plantes, 
Cairo 1930) may date from the time of the celebrated 
medical school of Djundis&bur, where Greek science 
flourished on Persian soil. This learning began to 
exercise an effective influence on the Muslims in the 
year 148/765, when the caliph al-Mansflr summoned to 
attend him the chief physician of the hospital of 
Djundisabur, Diurdiis of the family of Bukhtvashu'. 
Greek pharmacological learning was transmitted 
through Syriac translations of the fundamental 
works of Dioscorides, Galen, Oribasius and Paul of 



For the history of the Arabic translation of the 
Materia Medica of Dioscorides, see DiyusburidIs. 
The Dioscoridean idea, clearly expressed by the 
great Iranian scientist al-BIrunl in his pharmacologi- 
cal work cited below, that, theoretically, every plant 
had some medicinal virtue, whether actually known 
or not, caused pharmacological writers to include 
in their works plant descriptions which had a purely 
botanical interest, derived especially from Abu 
Hanifa al-DInawari. There is thus in Muslim tradi- 
tion no clear difference between materia medica, or 
works on al-Adwiya al-Mufrada etc., and botany, 
Nabdt [q.v.]. 

According to the autobibliographical risdla of 
Hunayn b. Ishak ( Uber die syrischen und arabischen 
Galen- Obersetzungen, (Bergstrasser), no. 53), the 
first five makdlat of the Book of Simple Drugs of 
Galen were translated into Syriac, rather unsatis- 
factorily, by Yiisuf al-Khuri, later on by Ayyub 
(Job of Edessa, about A.D. 765-835), and, finally, in 
an abridged form ( ?) by Hunayn himself, who also 
made an Arabic translation of the text ; of the second 
part a Syriac translation made by Sergius (Sargis 
of Rish'ayna, d. 536; a MS of the text in Brit. Mus., 
1004) was corrected by Hunayn and turned into 
Arabic by his nephew Hubaysh. (The Book of Com- 
pound Drugs also was translated into Syriac by Ser- 
gius and IJunayn, then into Arabic by Hubaysh; 
IJunayn, op. cit., no. 79.) 

The Synopsis and the Ad Eunapium ofOribasius 
were translated (into Arabic?) by Hunayn, who 
translated also, together with 'Isa b. Yahya, into 
Syriac the first tract of the Collectiones (= al- 
Kunndsh al-Kabir mentioned by Ibn AM Usaybi'a, 
i, 10?). These translations are lost but frequently 
quoted by later authors. 

The Pragmatia of Paul of Aegina was highly 
appreciated by Muslim physicians, who used an 
(abridged ?) translation of its seven books by Hunayn 
(al-Kunndsh fi'l-Tibb, Fihrist, 293; Kunnash al- 
Thurayyd, Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, i, 103). Apart from 
small fragments no manuscript survives in Arabic, 
but there are frequent quotations in the works of 
later authors. 

According to Bar Hebraeus (The Chronography, 
transl. by E. A. W. Budge, Oxford 1932,57), Ahron 
the priest wrote his medical pandect in Greek, 
and his work was translated into Syriac. An Arabic 
translation was made by Masardjis (Masardjawayh). 
The Kunnash of Ahrun al-kass is often quoted by 
pharmacological writers, and its author had a 
great reputation as a scholar (Djahi?, al-Hayawdn, 
Cairo 1356, i, 250). Masardjis/Masardjawayh 
(see Steinschneider, in ZDMG, 1899, 428-34), the 
first translator of medical works into Arabic, was 
also the author of two books, one on food and the 
other on simples (al-'Akdkir), perhaps identical 
with the two makdlat added to his translation of 
Ahron (cf. Ibn al-Kifti, 80). 

After the time of Hunayn, pharmacology rapidly 
developed in the Eastern countries of the Muslim 
world. About a hundred Arabic authors on materia 
medica are mentioned in the bibliographical works 
of Ibn al-Nadim, Ibn Abi Usaybi'a and Ibn al- 
Kiftl. Some thirty are represented by manuscripts 
in Eastern and Western libraries. Only a few of these 
works have been studied by Western scholars. For 
the history of the Greek text of Galen etc. these 
Arabic texts will certainly prove to be of importance. 

In the course of time, many hundreds of names of 
simple drugs, not known to the Greeks, were incor- 
porated in the body of learning transmitted by the 



Greeks to their Arab and Persian disciples. (For a 
preliminary list of such drugs see L. Leclerc, Histoire 
de la midecine arabe, Paris 1876, ii, 232-3.) Serious 
confusion in terminology inevitably followed from 
the great influx of names of Arabic, Iranian, Greek 
and Indian names of plants and drugs which were 
current in theory and practice. In the course of time 
many works were written with the purpose of deter- 
mining their true significance and of putting together 
synonyms. For practical purposes the translation of 
Dioscorides made in Baghdad was of little use to 
readers, as long as the Greek names were for the most 
part only transliterated in Arabic characters. 
Arabic equivalents were introduced into the text by 
Spanish scholars in the middle of the 10th century. 
About the same time the Arab translator of the 
Syriac Kunndshd of Yuhanna b. Sarabiyun 
(Serapion, Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, i, 109) gave Arabic 
equivalents to the great number of Greek and 
Syriac names of simples contained in that work 
(MS Aya Sofiya 3716; P. Guigues, Les noms arabes 
dans Serapion, J A , 1905-6). One of the oldest prose 
works written in Persian is the al-Abniya 'an IfakdHk 
al-Adwiya of Abu Mansur Muwaffak b. 'All al- 
Harawi explaining, in alphabetical order, the Ara- 
bic, Persian, Syriac and Greek names of 584 different 
simples (ed. F. R. Seligmann, Vienna 1859; German 
transl. by A. C. Achundow, Dorpat 1893). 

The most interesting work on pharmacological 
synonyms written in the East is certainly that of 
al-BIruni (361-440/972-1048), al-Saydana fi'l-Tibb 
(M. Meyerhof, Das Vorwort zur Drogenkunde des 
Beruni, Quellen und Studien zur Gesch. der Naturwiss. 
und der Med., iii, Berlin 1933; idem, BIE, 1940, 
133 ff-, 157 ff-). Apart from two MSS of a Persian 
translation, this work has come down to us in a 
single, mutilated MS in Brusa, representing the 
author's rough draft of the work, probably written 
in his old age and never completed by him. In its 
unfinished condition it contains 720 articles, in the 
common order of the Arabic alphabet, dealing with 
vegetable, animal and mineral simples with numerous 
remarks on their names in Greek, Syrian, Indian, 
Persian and other Iranian languages, philological 
notes on the meaning of plant names and then- 
synonyms used in Arabic poetry, and copious quota- 
tions from medical and botanical works (many of 
them quite unknown to us) on the quality and origin 
of the drug, its substitutes (abddl) etc. This work 
certainly deserves further study. 

Among the numerous works on medicine written 
in the East and containing also chapters on pharma- 
cology only the most important can be mentioned 
here. The Firdaws al-ljikma of 'All b. Rabban al- 
Tabarl, written in 235/850 (ed. M.Z. Siddiqi, 
Berlin 1928), quotes the translations of Hunayn and 
his disciples and is of special interest as aiming to 
introduce also Indian medicine (cf. A. Siggel, in 
Abh. der Akad. der Wiss. und Lit., Berlin 1950). The 
large medical encyclopaedia (al-Ijdwi) of Abu Bakr 
al-RazI (250-313/864-925) abounds with names of 
drugs. The corresponding chapter in the immense 
al-Kdnin fi'l-Tibb of Ibn SIna (Bulak 1294) treats 
of eight hundred remedies. The 10th book of the 
Dhakhtra-vi Kh"drizmshdhi (not yet printed), a 
medical encyclopaedia written by Zayn al-DIn 
Ismail al- Djurdjanl in the 6th/i2th century, con- 
tains a special treatise on the names of drugs and their 
operation. 

In very many cases the descriptions of Dioscorides, 
Abu Hanifa al-DInawari, etc., were certainly inade- 
quate for the recognition of the plant. Thus, in the 



2I 4 



ADWIYA — AF<A 



absence of technical terminology — a want shared 
by Muslim as well as ancient science — it was a 
most valuable device to depict the plants in figures. 
In ancient time this method was introduced by the 
"rhizotomist" Crateuas (ist century B.C.). and a 
part of the synonyms and figures of his herbal passed 
into the recension of Dioscorides represented by the 
Juliana Anicia codex of A.D. 512 (in which later 
hands introduced also Arabic synonyms). It was the 
gift of an illustrated Dioscorides by the Byzantine 
Emperor to 'Abd al-Rahman III in Cordova in 
the year 948 that inspired a new and most fruitful 
study of the text in Spain. (For illustrated MSS of 
Dioscorides see diyusijuridIs.) By Ibn Abi Usaybi'a 
(ii, 216-9) w e are told that his teacher Rashid al-DIn 
al-Mansur b. al-Surl (d. 639/1241) prepared a herbal 
illustrated with figures depicted from living plants. 
For the botanical chapter of Ibn Fadl Allah, see 
B. Fares, Un Herbier arabe illustri du XIV siicle, 
Archeologica Orientalia in Memoriam E. Herzfeld, 
1952, 84 ff. 

The Muslim inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula 
were the inheritors of a country famous in antiquity 
for its wealth of minerals and plants useful for prepa- 
ring remedies. At first, pharmacological knowledge 
in Spain was, however, an import from the Orient, 
and Western students went to Baghdad for medical 
studies. A strong impulse to pharmacological stu- 
dies in Spain was given by the revised text of Diosco- 
rides, and from the end of the 10th century on there 
was no lack of contributions to the knowledge of 
simples. (See M. Meyerhof, Esquissc d'histoire de la 
pharmacologic et botanique chez les Musulmans d'Es- 
pagne, And., 1935, 1-41.) The first to write books on 
simples in Spain were c Abd al-Rahman b. Ishak 
b. Haytham and Sulayman b. Hassan, known as 
Ibn Djuldjul, both of whom joined the monk 
Nicolas and the other physicians and botanists who 
worked on the text of Dioscorides. Ibn Djuldjul 
wrote a work on those simples which are not mentio- 
ned by Dioscorides (MS Oxford, Hyde 34, fol. 197- 
201). The great medical encyclopaedia al-Tasrif by 
Abu'l-Kasim al-ZahrawI (d. about 400/1009) 
contains in its 27th book a treatise on the simples, 
their synonyms and substitutes. About the life of 
Abu Bakr Hamid b. Samadjun very little is known 
except that he was a prominent physician in the days 
of the hfidfib al-Mansur (d. 392/1002). His famous 
Book of Sayings of Ancient and Modern Physicians 
and Philosophers about the Simple Drugs has recently 
come to light (cf. P. Kahle, Ibn Samag'un und sein 
Drogenbuch, Documenta islamica inedita, Berlin 1952, 
25 ff.). 

The «.iost comprehensive textbook on simples 
(and botany) produced in Spain was written by al- 
Ghafikl, probably in the first half of the 6th/i2th 
century. The first vol. exists in two illustrated MSS 
(see M. Meyerhof, in BIE, 1941, 13 ff; the whole 
work was discovered in Tripolitania). An abridged 
version was m»de by the Christian Abu'l-Faradj b. 
al- c Ibri, commonly called Barhebraeus (ed. M. 
Meyerhof and G. P. Sobhy, Cairo I932r8, not com- 
pleted). The method and arrangement of materials 
followed by Ibn Samadjun and al-Ghafikl was the 
model also of al-ldrlsl (d. 560/1166). In his Book 
of Simple Drugs (the first half of the work in MS 
Fatih 3610, Istanbul) he contributes a vast material 
of synonyms in many languages (see M. Meyerhof in 
Archiv fiir Gesch. der Math., der Naturwiss. und der 
Technik, 1930, 45 ff.. 225 ff.; idem, in BIE, 1941, 
89 ff.). For Ibn Rushd's pharmacological chapter 



see the photographic reproduction of Book iv of 
al-Kulliyydt by A. al-Bustanl, Tangier 1939. 

In a vast encyclopaedia, al-Didmi' li-Mufraddt 
al-Adwiya wa'l-Aghdhiya (bad edition of the Arabic 
text, Bulak 1291); French transl. by L. Leclerc, 
Notices et Extraits de la Bibliothique Nationale, xxiii, 
xxv, xxvi, xxx, i877:93), Ibn al-Baytar (d. 646/ 
1248) put together all information available to him, 
quoting about 150 previous authors from Dioscor- 
ides to his own teacher, Abu'l-'Abbas al-Nabatl, 
whose Rihla, or "Botanical Journey", he often 
quotes. Most of these works Ibn al-Baytar certainly 
knew from secondary sources, al-Ghafikl above all. 
In 2324 articles the D£dmi l treats of about 1400 
different drugs and plants, 400 of which were not 
known to the Greeks. 

To these works, written in the West, containing 
descriptions of the drugs and directions for their 
use, may be added also a number of others, contai- 
ning lists of synonyms written in order to explain 
the meaning of the different names given to simples 
and drugs. Such are e.g. the Sharh A smd* al- c U kkdr 
of the famous Jewish theologian, philosopher and 
physician Musa b. Maymun (Maimonides, A.D. 
1135-1204), ed. M. Meyerhof, Cairo 1940, and the 
anonymous Tuhfat al-Ahbdb, ed. H. P. J. Renaud 
and G. S. Colin, Rabat 1934, treating especially of 
the names current in Morocco and written probably 
in the 18th century. 

Bibliography: M. Meyerhof, in the introduction 
to Maimonides, Sharh Asmd 1 al- l Ukkdr; for a list 
of drugs, M. Steinschneider, Heilmittelnamen der 
Araber, WZKM, xi (2043 items). (B. Lewin) 
AF'A means not only the viper, as it is commonly 
assumed, but also other similar kinds of snakes 
(Noldeke, in Wiedemann, 271). The descriptions, 
however, which are given in Arabic zoological works 
(spotted or speckled, broad head, slender neck, 
short tail, sometimes furnished with two horns, etc. ) 
fit well with specific kinds of vipers (echis carinatus, 
echis coloratus, aspis cerastes cerastes). Most sources 
state that af-d denotes the female, whereas the male 
is called uf'uwdn. The first term, however, is always 
employed in a generic sense. Corresponding forms 
in Hebrew and Ethiopian suggest that the word 
belongs to the oldest stock of the Semitic languages. 
The af-d is often mentioned in Arabic literature, 
from ancient poetry, proverbs and hadlth down to 
those later works in which zoology and zoological 
items are treated systematically. In ancient poetry 
it is represented as the emblem of the mortal enemy, 
of one who seeks revenge for murder. Its noxiousness 
is illustrated by the proverb: "He who has been 
stung by an af'd is afraid to take hold of a rope". 
Rich information is offered by al-Djahiz. The af-d 
had a market value since theriac was prepared from 
it. Certain people made a living from this trade 
importing the af'd chiefly from Sidjistan. In al- 
Pjahiz's time thirty af'd sold for two dinars. 
With certain Bedouins the af'd served as food, and 
this habit was satirically alluded to by some poets. 
A good deal of the information on the af'd is 
fabulous: e.g., that it lives to an age of a thousand 
years, that it becomes blind and recovers its sight 
by rubbing its eyes on the fennel-plant (rdziydnadj). 
Among the correct accounts is the statement that 
the af'd is viviparous, in contrast, i.e., to most other 
species of its genus. 

Bibliography: Abu Hayyan al-Tawhldl, 
Imtd', i, 160. 174, 192; Damirl, s.v. (transl. 
Jayakar, i, 56-8); Pjahiz, Ifayawdn', index; Ibn 
al-Athlr, Nihdya, i, 44; Ibn al-Baytar, Qjami', 



AF'A — al-AFDAL B. BADR al-DJAMALI 



Bulak 1291, i, 46-8; Ibn Kutayba, 'Uyitn al- 

Akhbdr, Cairo 1925-30, ii, 79, 96, 98, 99, ioi, 

102, 104 (transl. Kopf, 54, 72, 74, 75, 77, 80); 

Kazwlni (Wiistenfeld), i, 428-9; Ibn SIda, Mu- 

khassas, viii, 107-8; A. Malouf, Arabic Zool. Diet., 

Cairo 1932, index; Nuwayri, Nihdyat al-Arab, x, 

133 ff.; E. Wiedemann, Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Natur- 

wiss., liii, 249-50. (L. Kopf) 

AFAMIYA, or Famiya, the Seleucid city of 

Apamea on the right bank of the Orontes ('Asi), at 

its northward bend 25 m. N.W. of Hamat. During 

the Syrian campaign of the Sasanid Kljusraw I (540) 

it was captured and laid waste. After the Arab 

conquest of Syria it was colonized by tribesmen of 

'Udhra and Bahra 1 . It regained importance as a 

fortified outpost of Aleppo only in the Hamdanid 

period and during the early Crusades. After the 

disintegration of the Saldjuk power in Syria, Afamiya 

was occupied by the Arab Khalaf b. Mula'ib in the 

Fatimid interest in 489/1096. On his murder by 

Assassins, it was captured by Tancred in 500/1106, 

and became the seat of a Latin archbishopric. It 

was recaptured by Nur al-DIn Mahmud on 18 Rabl c i, 

544/26 July, 1 149, after his victory at Inab, but its 

fortifications were destroyed in the great earthquake 

of 552/1157- The ruins of the old city still exist, 

flanked on the west by the later citadel, now named 

Kal'at al-Mudik (for al-Madik, i.e. the shallows or 

ford). 

Bibliography: Ya'kubi, Bulddn 324; Yakut, 
i, 322-3; Ibn al-KalanisI, Dhayl Ta'rlkh Dimashk, 
index; Ibn al-'Adim, Ta'rlkh Halab, i, ii, Damascus 
195 1-4, index; Ibn al-Attjir, xi, 98 (wrong 
year); E. Honigmann, Ostgrenze des byzantinischen 
Retches, Brussels 1935, index; C. Cahen, La 
Syrie du Nord d I'ipoque des Croisades Paris 1940, 
index; J. Richard, Notes sur I'archidiocise 
d'Apamie in Syria, xxv, 103-8; E. Sachau, Reise 
in Syrien u. M esopotamien, Leipzig 1883, 71-82; 
R. Dussaud, Topographic historique de la Syrie, 
Paris 1927, 196-9. See also, for the Lake (buhayra) 
of Afamiya and the regime of the Orontes in its 
vicinity, Kalkashand! in G. Demombynes, La 
Syrie a I'epoque des Mamelouks, Paris 1923, 17, 
22-2; and J. Weulersse, L'Oronte, etude de fleuve, 
Tours 1940. (H. A. R. Gibb) 

'AFAJR [see dankalI]. 

al-AFPAL B. SalAh al-DIn, in full al-Malik 
al-Afdal Abu 'l-Hasan 'AlI NOr al-DIn, the 
eldest son of Saladin (Salah al-DIn, [?.».]), b. 
565/1169-70, d. at Sumaysat 622/1225. On Saladin's 
death he was recognized as ruler of Damascus and 
head of the Ayyubid family, but owing to his 
incapacity and self-indulgence he lost successively 
Damascus, Egypt, and all his Syrian fiefs, and 
ended as a dependent of the Saldjuk sultan of Rum. 
See ayyubids. 

Bibliography: Ibn Khallikan, no. 459; Aba 
Shama, Dhayl al-Rawdatayn, 145 ; Ibn TaghriblrdI, 
Nudium, vi, index; MakrizI, Suluk, i, index. 

(H. A. R. Gibb) 
al-AFPAL, Rasulid ruler [see rasulids]. 
al-AFPAL b. BAPR al-QJAMAlI, Abu 
'l-Kasih ShAnanshAh, Fatimid vizier, commonly 
known in history by his vizierial title. His birth is 
placed about 458/1066, and it is known from an 
inscription of 482/1089 that he was associated with 
his father in the vizierate. On the death of Badr, the 
aged caliph al-Mustansir was forced by the army to 
accept al-Afdal as his chief minister, and himself died 
a few months later. 



of the caliph al-Musta'U assumed a 
capital importance by its indirect repercussions. 
While al-Mustansir was still alive, but of great age, 
the problem of his successor had been debated, and 
an Isma'ill missionary from Persia, Hasan b. al- 
Sabbah, had concluded in favour of Nizar, one of 
the caliph's sons. Al-Afdal, being the vizier in office, 
raised to the throne a younger son of al-Mustanfir, 
Abmad, who was given the title of U-Musta c li. The 
dispossessed heir, Nizar, who had fled to Alexandria 
to raise an army, was seized and immured in a 
dungeon. Some persons, however, believed that he 
succeeded in escaping, and he v»as recognized as 
Imam by Hasan b. al-Sabbah, who founded the 
formidable sect of the Assassins. The coinage of the 
latter bore for some time the name of Nizar, and 
their partisans in Egypt were called Nizarls. Al- 
Afdal had not foreseen these consequences, and his 
attitude had been dictated by considerations of 
personal ambition, which induced him to place on 
the throne a young man who would be submissive 
to his will. 

Badr al-Djamali, who had saved Egypt from 
disaster, had set up a dictatorial regime, and al- 
Afdal now followed in his footsteps, confining the 
caliph al-Musta'U, who was about twenty years of 
age on his accession, to his palace. Al-Musta'll 
reigned for less than eight years (487/1094-495/1101), 
and some historians have suggested that he may 
have been poisoned by Nizaris. Al-Afdal then placed 
on the throne a son of al-Musta'H, a child five years 
old, who was given the title of al-Amir bi-Ahkam 
Allah, and the all-powerful minister went on to 
govern without interference. But as the caliph grew 
up he became restive under his vizier's tutelage, 
and succeeded in hiring the services of assassins who 
rid him of al-Afdal in 515/1121. The latter had held 
the office of chief minister for twenty-seven years, 
marked by an internal tranquillity which is the 
more impressive by contrast with the unprecedented 
disorders of the following years. 

Al-Afdal's dictatorial power justifies the laying 
at his door of the responsibility for the Egyptian 
negligence in face of the invasion of Palestine by 
the Crusaders. The Fatimid government may be 
partially exonerated if its unpopularity outside the 
borders of Egypt is taken into account. It has certain 
actions to its credit: some fortresses were restored 
(we have epigraphic evidence at least for the port 
of Sidon in 491/1098); in the previous year the 
Fatimid army had regained Tyre from a disloyal 
governor; finally, Jerusalem was forcibly captured 
in 491/1098 from the Artukid officers who had 
established themselves in it. The Egyptians were 
not unaware that Jerusalem was the essential aim 
of the Crusaders, and it cannot be believed that they 
captured it in order to hand it over to the Franks. 
Ambassadors from Egypt had in fact appeared in 
490/1097 in the Crusaders' camp before Antioch, and 
the latter in turn sent envoys to Cairo, possibly to 
negotiate an agreement. As a matter of fact, northern 
Syria was occupied by princes of Sunnl obedience; 
the Fatimids had no desire to interfere with them, 
and the Saldjukids would have viewed their inter- 
vention with bad grace. In the absence of precise 
documents we are reduced to putting forward these 
hypotheses. 

Nevertheless, the inaction, or at least the lack of 
vigour, of the Egyptian troops cannot be ignored. 
They did not move to the defence of Jerusalem. Its 
fall was deeply felt, and al-Afdal led an army corps 
to a position north of Ascalon; there, however, he 



.l-AFPAL b. BADR al-DJAMALI — AFGHAN 



held them immobile, while he waited for reinforce- 
ments which were expected to arrive by sea and for 
the concentration of his bedoiun contingents from 
Palestine. The Franks took the offensive and 
massacred the Egyptian army; al-Afdal fled to the 
protection of Ascalon and hastily returned to Cairo. 
The year 494/1 101 witnessed the Frankish occupation 
of Palestine, whose population sought refuge in 
Egypt. The vizier continued, in the following and 
later years, to show a certain activity against the 
Crusaders, but in fact the expeditions scarcely went 
beyond the outskirts of Ascalon and never gained 
more than booty and prisoners. The main ports of 
Syria were at the time in the hands of overlords, 
who sported Sunni or Shi'I colours according to the 
interest of the moment. One of the more important 
raids, led by a son of al-Afdal, succeeded in taking 
Ramla. In 497/1103 'Akka (Acre) fell, surrendered 
by its Fatimid commandant because of lack of 
support. The stubborn resistance of the autonomous 
prince of Tripoli induced al-Afdal to send a naval 
squadron, which arrived too late. In 512/1118 the 
Frankish threat redoubled when the town of Farama 
was burnt down — an episode which became famous 
because of the accidental death of Baldwin I, king 
of Jerusalem, who led the expedition. During this 
lamentable period the Muslim princes were full of 
mutual suspicion, but al-Afdal had solicited, and 
obtained, the cooperation of the Burids of Damascus. 
Clearly, a very bad impression is made by the 
luxury which surrounded the caliph al-Amir and his 
vizier; ceremonies and feasts seemed to multiply in 
direct ratio with the number of cities that fell into 
the hands of the Franks. Whatever responsibility 
rests on the government of Egypt for this indifference 
cannot be placed on the caliph, still a mere child, but 
on his all-powerful minister, who was given over to 
frivolous heedlessness. There is in particular a 
striking contrast between the kind of edifices built 
by Badr — of which only the wall and the monumental 
gates of Cairo need be mentioned here — and those 
erected by his son al-Afdal. The latter was concerned 
with his own wellbeing, and multiplied pleasure- 
pavilions in Fustat and Cairo. On his death, the 
caliph al-Amir appropriated the minister's property; 
it required no less than two months to transfer the 
precious objects, jewels and silks. On the credit side, 
however, the historians record al-Afdal's financial 
readjustments, which notably increased the revenues 
of the State. 

For al-Afdal's son, surnamed Kutayfat, see the 
following article. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Muyassar (Masse), 
30-43, 56-60; Ibn al-Athir, index; Ibn al-Sayrafi, 
al-Iskdra Ua man ndla 'l-Wizdra, Cairo 1924, 57-61 ; 
Ibn al-KalanisI, Dhayl Ta'rikh Dimashk (Amedroz), 
128-204 passim; Ibn Taghribirdl (Popper), ii (ed. 
Cairo, v, 142-222) ; Ibn Khafflkan, no. 285 ; Makrizi, 
Khitat. i, 356 ft., 423; ii, 290; S. Lane- Poole, 
History of Mediaeval Egypt, 161 sqq.; G. Wiet, 
Histoire de la Nation (gyptienne, iv, 255-67; idem, 
Matiriaux pour un Corpus Insc. Arab., ii (MIFAO 
Hi) (contains a very full bibliography) ; History of 
the Crusades, i, Philadelphia 1955, 95-97- 

(G. Wiet) 
al-AFDAL, AbO <AlI Ahmad, surnamed KU- 
TAYFAT, son of the preceding. After the death of 
the caliph al-Amir (12 Dhu'l-Ka c da 524/17 Oct. 
1 1 30), the power was assumed by two favourites of 
the late caliph, Hazarmard and Barghash, who put 
forward al-Amir's cousin 'Abd al-Madjld as tempo- 
rary regent. Four days later the army raised Kutayfat 



(who assumed the title of al-Afdal) to the vizierate. 
Shortly afterwards the vizier declared the Fatimid 
dynasty deposed, and the empire was placed under 
the sovereignty of the Expected Imam of the 
Twelver-Shi'a; c Abd al-Madjid was removed from 
the regency and placed in custody, and Kutayfat 
ruled as a dictator. We have coins of 525 bearing 
the name of "The Imam Muhammad Abu'l-Kasim 
al-Muntazir li-Amr Allah"; others of 526, with the 
inscription al-Imdm al-Mahdi al-kd'im bi-amr Allah 
hudjdiat Allah c ala 'l-dlamin, give greater prominence 
to the vizier: "al-Afdal Abu c Ali Ahmad, his represen- 
tative {ndHb) and lieutenant (khalifa)". Although 
this implied the abolition of Isma c ilism as the state 
religion of Egypt, Kutayfat did not propose to 
outlaw it, and even showed it a certain consideration; 
in the college of kadis appointed by him there sat 
an Isma'Ili in addition to a HanafI, a Shafi'I and 
an Imaml. The Isma'ili elements evidently did not 
relish the idea of being relegated to the status of a 
disestablished religious sect. Kutayfat was killed 
while riding outside the city, and c Abd al-Madjid 
was brought out of his prison (16 Muharram 526/ 
8 Dec. 1131). The event was commemorated annu- 
ally, right to the end of the Fatimid dynasty 
(Makrizi, Khitat, i, 357, 490). c Abd al-Madjid first 
ruled as regent, but after a brief interval was 
proclaimed caliph under the title of al-Hafiz li-DIn 
Allah. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Muyassar (Masse), 
74-5; Ruhi (MS. Oxford 865), art. "al-Hafiz"; 
Ibn al-Athir, s.a. 524, 526 ; Ibn Taghribirdl (Popper) 
ii, 328-9, iii, 1 ff. (ed. Cairo, v, 237-40); G. Wiet, 
Matiriaux pour un Corpus Insc. Arab., ii (MIFAO, 
Hi, 1930), 85 ff.; S. M. Stern, The Succession to tlte 
Fatimid Imam al-Amir, Oriens 1951, 193 ff. (with 
full numismatic references). (S. M. Stern) 
al-AFGHAnI [see djamal al-din al-afghani]. 
AFGHAN. 

(i) The people; (ii) The Pashto language; 
(iii) Pashto literature. 

Racially, there is a considerable difference between 
the various Afghan tribes. According to B. S. Guha, 
Census of India, 1931, i, iii A, p. xi, the Pathans of 
Badjawr are closely related to the Kalashes of Citral, 
probably because they are to a large extent afghanized 
Dards. On the other hand the broad-headed Pathans 
of BaluJSistan resemble their Baluc' neighbours. In the 
plains of Peshawar and the Deradjats there is some 
admixture of Indian blood, and among some tribes 
we find traces of Turko-MongoUan influence. But in 
general it may be said that the Afghans belong to the 
Irano-Afghan branch of the dolichocephahc Mediter- 
ranean race. According to Coon, Races of Europe, 419, 
the skull index is 72-75, and the average height 170 
cm. (Frontier Pathans), and 163 cm. (Afghans of Af- 
ghanistan). The nose is prominent, frequently convex, 
of the so-caUed "Semitic" type. Similar noses are 
found also among Balu&es, Kashmiris, etc. "The 
Afghans are usuaUy brunets, but at the same time 
show a persistent minority of blondism, which in 
this case reflects Nordic admixture. They are heavy- 
bearded" (Coon, 420). 

A distinction is sometimes made between Afghan 
and Pathan, the former name being appUed to the 
Durrani and allied tribes. But the difference is 
probably only one of nomenclature, the Persian 
designation Afghan (of unknown etymology) being 
naturally applied chiefly to the western tribes, 



while Pathan, the indianized form of the native 
name is used about the eastern ones. 

The native name, employed by all tribes, is 
Pashtun, or Pashtun (north-eastern dialect Pakhtfln), 
pi. Pa/sshtans. Lassen and others after him, compared 
Pashtun to the Ilix-rue; of Herodotus, and the name 
of the Afridls has been identified with that of the 
'Arcapiirai. This latter identification is possible, if 
by no means certain. The first one, however, must 
be rejected, for phonetic and other reasons. (The 
ending -»» goes btck to -ana, and the ancient 
sound-group which has resulted in Pashto sht (kht 
is a later dialect form), could scarcely have been 
rendered by Greek xt.) More probable is the con- 
nection first suggested by Marquart, with Ptolemy's 
IlapcuTJTai, a tribe inhabiting the Paropamisus. Psht. 
sht can go back to ancient rs (see Morgenstierne, 
"Pashto", "Pathan", etc., AO, 1940, 138 ff.), and 
the probable ancient form was "Parsw-dna, derived 
from *Parsu, cf. Assyrian-Babylonian Parsu(a) 
Persian. This does not imply any specially close 
relationship between the two Iranian tribes in 
question. (Cf. also Pusht, Pukht, the name of the 
supposed seat of the Afghan tribes in the Waziri 
country.) — Pashto (Pakhto) the native name of the 
Afghan language, probably goes back to a fem. 
adjective *Parsamd (sc. language). 

The Afghans are called Kdsh by the Ormurs of 
Logar, and the Wazlris Ktsl (pi.) by the Ormurs of 
Kaniguram. The origin of this word is unknown, 
but it is connected with KSsi, the name of an 
Afghan tribe near Quetta (Masson, Travels, i, 330) 
and with the Pashto name of the Sulayman Mount- 
ains: (da) Kase Ghar. 

The word Pashto is used also as a synonym of 
Pashtunwali, etc., the special social code of the 
Afghans, the main pillars of which are: nanawdtai, 
right of asylum, badal, revenge by retaliation, 
vendetta, melmastyd, hospitality. The causes of feuds 
leading to badal are said to be "women, gold and 
land" (zan, zar, zamin). Among most tribes the 
organization is democratic, the hereditary khan 
having restricted power. More important matters 
are settled in consultation with the chiefs of the 
sub-tribes and clans, and the tribal or village 
council (djirga) plays an important r61e. But the 
semi-independence of many tribes has become 
constantly more curtailed as well in Afghanistan as 
in India (Pakistan). Afghan or non-Afghan clients 
(hamsayas) are attached to, and living under the 
protection of most tribes. — The ancient custom of 
periodical redistribution of land (wish) is now dying 
out in most places. — Even while politically disunited, 
and fighting amongst themselves, the Afghan tribes 
had a feeling of some kind of unity, based upon 
their sharing language, customs and traditions. On 
the other hand, each tribe is split up into sub-tribes, 
septs and clans. The names of such sections are often 
formed with the word khll, or with the suffix -zay, 
but in some cases -zay denotes a whole tribe. 

The Afghans are first referred to (in the form 
Avagana) by the Indian astronomer Varaha Mihira 
(early 6th cent.) in his Brhat-satphitd. A little later 
is the probable reference to them in the Life of 
Hiuen-Tsang, which mentions a tribe A-p 5 o-kien 
(♦Avagan?) located in the northern part of the 
Sulayman Mountains (see A. Foucher, La vieille 
route de I'Inde de Bactres d Taxila, ii, Paris 1947, 
235, 252 note 17). The earliest Muslim work men- 
tioning them is the Hudud al-'Alam (372/982), 
followed by al-'Utbi's TaMhh-i Yamini, and al- 



Blrunl. The name Pathan does not occur till the 
16th century, but the change of sht to th shows 
that it must have been borrowed into Indo-Aryan 
at a considerably earlier date. — According to al- 
c UtbI, Cairo 1286, ii, 84, Mahmud of Ghazni attacked 
Tukharistan with an army consisting of Indians, 
Khaladi. Afghans and Ghaznawis, but on another 
occasion he attacked and punished the Afghans, and 
this is corroborated by Bayhakl who wrote shortly 
afterwards. Al-BIruni mentions the variojis tribes of 
Afghans as living in the western frontier-mountains 
of India (India, transl. Sachau, i, 1, 208, cf. 199). 
This points to the Sulayman Mountains as the 
earliest known home of the Afghans. It is uncertain 
how far they extended towards the West, but no 
Afghan settlement west of Ghazni is mentioned by 
early authors. There is no evidence for assuming 
that the inhabitants of Ghur were originally Pashto- 
speaking (cf. Dames, in EI 1 ). If we are to believe 
the Pita Khazdna (see below, iii), the legendary Amir 
Karor, grandson of Shanasb, (8th century) was a 
Pashto poet, but this for various reasons is very 
improbable. The origin and early history of the 
westernmost Afghan tribe, the Durranls (Abdalis) 
[q.v.], is quite obscure. — Regarding the Ghalzays [q.v.~\ 
it seems possible that their name is based upon a 
popular etymology ("Thief's Son") of the Turkish 
tribal name KhaldjI, Khaladi. located by al-Istakhri 
on the middle course of the Hilmand and by the 
Ifudud in the region of Ghazni [see khalaut]. But the 
Ghalzays themselves may have been partly, perhaps 
predominantly, of Afghan origin. At any rate the 
Afghans do not appear to have acquired any political 
significance during the Ghaznawi period. Some early 
references which follow were noted by M. Longworth 
Dames (EI 1 ) and have been supplemented by 
P. Hardy. In 431/1039-40 Mas'ud sent his son Izadyar 
into the hill country near Ghazna to subdue the 
rebel Afghans (Gardizi, ed. M. Nazim, 109). In 
512/1118-9 an army composed of Arabs, 'adjam, 
Afghans and Khaladj was assembled by Arslan Shah. 
In 547/1152-3, Alfi says, Bahram Shah assembled 
an army of Afghans and Khaladi. With the rise of 
Ghuri power, the same state of things continues. In 
588/1192 according to Firishta, Bombay 1831, 100 f., 
the army assembled by Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad 
b. Sam consisted of Turks, Tadjiks and Afghans, and 
his Indian opponent Pithoray (Prithwi Radj) assem- 
bled a force of Radjput and Afghan horsemen. Thus 
in this great war between Muslims and Hindus 
Afghans are represented as fighting on both sides, 
which probably indicates that they were not yet 
completely converted to Islam, although the manu- 
factured legends represent them as having been 
converted from the days of Khalid. It is not clear 
whence Firishta obtained his statement. It does not 
appear in the account of this war given by Minhadj-i 
Siradj in the Tabakdt-i Ndsiri. This author does not 
mention the Afghans throughout his account of the 
Ghaznawi and Ghuri kings. His first and only mention 
of them is in his own time in the year 658/1260 in 
the reign of Nasir al-Din Mahmud of Dihll. He there 
says (transl. Raverty, 852) that Ulugh Khan em- 
ployed 3000 brave Afghans in subduing the hill- 
tribes of MewSt in Radjputana. According to 
DJuwaynl, i, 142, Khaladj, Ghaznawis and Afghans 
formed part of the Mongol army which sacked 
Marw in 619. During the next two centuries we find 
occasional mention of Afghans in Indian history. 
For instance BaranI says in the TaMkh-i FirUzshdhi, 
57, that Balban in 664/1265 established small forts 
in the neighbourhood of Gopalpur and entrusted 



them to Afghans; three other towns, particularly 
afflicted by robbers, were also given the protection 
of forts entrusted to Afghans. According to the 
same author (p. 482) in the reign of Muhammad b. 
Tughlak there was a rebellion at Multan of a body 
of Afghans headed by Multan Mall (this name 
means in the MultanI dialect "the champion of 
Multan" and is probably not the proper name of an 
Afghan). Sirhindl, Ta'rlkh-i Mubarakshahi, Calcutta 
1931, 106, says that this revolt was in 744/1343. 
Again Makh Afghan was one of the foreign amirs 
who rebelled at Deoglr. In 778/1376-7 the fief of 
Bihar was given to Malik BIr Afghan (Ta'rikh-i 
Mubarakshahi, 133). TImur found them still hill 
robbers and in the Malfuzdt-i Timuri, the gafar- 
ndma and the Matla 1 al-Sa"-dayn it is related that 
he ravaged the country of the AwghanI (or Aghani) 
who inhabited the Sulayman Mountains. Thus 
except as occasional soldiers of fortune they remained 
a fierce race of mountain robbers until the rise to 
power in India of one of these adventurers made 
them famous. This leader was Dawlat Khan LodI 
of the LodI clan of Ghalzays; he rose to be one of 
the most important persons in the empire. Bahlul 
LodI occupied the throne of Delhi in 855/1450 [see 
lodI]. The dynasty was overthrown by Babur in 
932/1525. but for a short time (944-63/1537-55) Shir 
Shah Sur reinstalled the Afghans in power [see sur] 
and a large number of Ghalzays and other PathSns 
settled in India. At a later date Awrangzlb made 
grants of land to Pathans of various tribes in 
Rohilkhand [q.v.; see also rampur] (Bareilly division, 
etc.), so called from Pashto rohlla (Rohilla), "hill- 
man", "Pathan". At the court of the Nawab of 
Rampur some Pathan traditions were still alive at 
the time of Darmesteter's visit in 1886. But gradually 
the Afghan settlers in India were assimilated, except 
in the extreme North-West. 

The immigration into India was part of the great 
expansion of Afghan tribes during the late Middle 
Ages. This expansion was on such a scale that it 
is difficult to believe with Dames (E/ 1 ) that the 
Afghans were still at a period as late as that of the 
Ghurid dynasty only an unimportant hill-tribe 
inhabiting a restricted area. — The Lohanls were 



expelled from the Ghaznl mountains by the Sulayman 
Khel Ghalzays, who also pressed the Bitanis eastward 
through the Gomal Pass in the 15th cent. A century 
or two earlier the Khataks [q.v.] and Bangashes had 
started their movement towards their present homes 
in Kohat, and Yusufzays and allied tribes had, 
according to tradition, left the Tarnak and Arghasin 
for Kabul in the 12th cent. Later on they were 
expelled from Kabul and reached the Peshawar 
plain during the 14th cent., pushing back the 
DilazSks, who perhaps represented an earlier wave 
of Afghans, and penetrating into the mountain 
valleys to the North of Peshawar [cf. yusufzayJ. 
The Ghoriya Khels (Mahmands, etc.), followed in 
their wake early in the 15th century. Some tribes 
crossed the Indus into the Pandjab. 

A first attempt to rally the Pathan tribes on the 
Frontier to a common fight for independence from 
the Mughals was made by the warrior-poet Khushhal 
Khan Khatak in the latter part of the 17th century. 
But a national Afghan state first came into being 
under the leadership of the Ghalzay chief Mir Ways, 
and, more permanently, under Aljmad Shah Durrani 
in the 18th century [see Afghanistan, History]. 

The main outlines of the tribal traditions of the 
Afghans are mentioned by Abu '1-Fadl, Ahbar-ndma; 
slightly different versions are given in Sulayman 
Maku's Tadhkirat al-Awliyd' (allegedly of the 13th 
century) and in the Pi{a Khazdna (pf. about these 
below, iii). Our main source for the tribal traditions 
is Ni c mat Allah's Makhzan-i Afghani (completed 
A.D. 1613). The genealogies given there and copied 
in later works such as the Ijaydt-i Afghani, cannot 
be relied upon as historical sources, but are valuable 
as a testimony to the traditions current among the 
Afghans in the 17th century. According to this 
tradition the common ancestor of the majority of 
the Afghan tribes was Kays c Abd al-Rashld who 
was converted to Islam by Khalid and descended 
from Afghana, a grandson of King TalQt or Sarul 
(Saul). Kays had three sons: Sarban, Batan (Bitan) 
and Ghurghusht. Sarban had two sons: Sharkhbun 
and Kharshbun. The further ramifications may be 
tabulated as follows: 



(from a Kakar woman) 

SheranI 

ancestor of the tribes: 

SherSnl, Djalwanl, 

Haripal, Babar, 

Usturana 1— 



MiySna 

I 

Miyana tribe 



Spin ("White") 



1 

(adoptive son) 



Tor Tarin tribe Spin Tarln tribe Abdall (Durrani) tribe 



I 

Kand 
J 



Ghoriya Khel, comprising 
the tribes of Mahmand, 
Khalll, Da'udzay, Cam- 



Khakhay (or Khashay) 

tribes of TarklanI, 

Gugiyam, Mandan, 

Yusufzay 



Isma'Il (no descendants) 



tribes of Ghalzav, 

B^H doubts 



71 



(at 



Lohani 

(ancestor of the tribes 

of Dawlat Khel, Miyan 

Khel. NiyazI, Marwat, 

i&as5r, Tator) 



Kakar 

(Kakar tribe) 
(according to some versioi 
the tribe of Gadun on th 
upper Indus is related t 

the Kakar) 



Most of the remaining tribes are said to be 
descended from Karran (or Karlan), of doubtful 
ancestry. 

Karran 

_L 



PanI tribe, comprising the 

tribes of PanI of Sibi, Musa 

Khel, Isot, Zmaray (or 

Mzaray), Dehpal, etc. 



I 

Koday 
tribes of Wardak, 
Dilazak, Orakzay, 



Kakhay 
tribes of Afridl, Khatak, 
Pjadran, Utman Khel. 
KhugiyanI, DjadjI, Turl; 
probably also Shetak 
(with the subdivisions: 
Dawrl and Banufi) and 
Khostwal 



According to some traditions also the Bangash 
(Bangakh) and Wazlris are descended from Kakhay; 
according to other, the Wazlri and the Dawr tribes 
are not attached to any of these genealogies. 

Certain clans claim to be sayyids by descent; such 
are to be found among the Sherani, Kakar, Karranl, 
Daway, Tarln, Miyana and Bitanl. The same descent 
is claimed by the tribes of Gandapur and Ustarana ; 
these were originally subdivisions of the Sherani. The 
Bangash claim to be of Kurayshite descent. 

In the Makhzan-i Afghani all these tribes are ex- 
pressly acknowledged as Afghans, with the exception 
of the Bangash, Wazlri and those Karranl which 
belong to the Kakhay division (Afridl, etc.). The 
last seem to have remained unknown to him. 

It is of interest to note that all the Pashto dialects 
which change the long vowels (a > 6, etc., see below 
ii) belong to the Karranl group or to the Wazlris. — 
The extreme complexity of the tribal system may 
be exemplified by the ramifications of the Yusufzays. 
One of their five sub-tribes, the Akozays, are divided 
into Ranlzays and other sections. One of the five 
Ranlzay clans is in its turn divided into Ghavbl 
Khel and three other clans. And one of the two 
Ghaybl clans are the Nur Muhammad Khels, divided 
into Gharlb .Kh. and Dwar Kh.— It may also be 
noted that the name Torman, one of the 



of the Khataks, is probably identical with that of 
Toramana, a Huna king of India, and also a member 
of the Shahl dynasty. This does not imply any 
historical connection between the legendary Afghan 
and these princes, but only a survival of the name in 
local traditions. 

Geographical distribution of the Afghan 
tribes. Durranis [q.v.] in the lower river valleys 
from Sabzawar and Zamln-dawar to south-cast of 
Kandahar and Caman. Among the sections are the 
Popalzays (including the royal clan, the Sadozays) 
and the Barakzays.— Next to the Durranis, the 
Ghalzays [q.v.] are the most powerful tribe, and 
were for a long time their rivals. They occupy the 
country between Kalat-i Ghilzay and Djalalabad. The 
Hotaks were formerly the leading clan. The most 
important section is now the Sulayman Khel from 
whom are recruited the Powindas, nomads moving 
in autumn down through the Gomal and Toil 
passes to the banks of the Indus, and returning in 
spring to Afghanistan. The Kharotls are related to 
the Ghalzays. — Kakars and Tarlns inhabit the 
Pishin and 2ob districts in Balucistan. The Panls of 
Sibi are their neighbours.— North-west of 2ob, 
around the Takht-i Sulayman, we find the ShSranls. 
—The Wazlrs [q.v.] (divided into Darw6sh Khel and 
Mahsud) live in the mountains between the Gomal 
and the Kurram on both sides of the frontier. In 
the foothills to the East we find the Bitanls and 
Lohanls, and in the plains south of the lower Kurram 
the Marwats. The Toil valley is inhabited by the 
Dawris and Banufis. — The Khataks occupy the 
plains of Kohat and extend right up to Attock. In 
the upper Kurram valley live the Bangash, the 
Shi c a Turis and other tribes, and on the Afghan side 
of the frontier the Pjadjis, with their neighbours 
the Mangals and Khostwals. — North of the Bangash 
are the Orakzay (with some ShI'a clans), and in 
Tirah, the Khaybar and Kohat passes the Afrldls 
[q.v.], with Shinwarls to the north of them, on both 
sides of the frontier. — The Mahmand [q.v.] occupy a 
large tract of land north of the Kabul river in 



Afghanistan and in the Peshawar district. Related 
to them are the Khallls in Peshawar.— East of the 
Mahmands are the Yusufzays [q.v .] and allied tribes 
(Mandan), etc., in Peshawar and in the mountains 
to the North (Buner, Swat, Dir, etc.), where they 
are pushing back and assimilating the Dardic 
population. — The so-called Swatis are a mixed lot, 
driven by the Yusufzays across the Indus into the 
Hazara district. — In the Kunar valley and in other 
places in N.E. Afghanistan we find the Safis— In 
recent times many Pashto speaking Afghans have 
settled, or have been settled, in various places north 
of the Hindu-kush and in the Harat region. 

Bibliography: see the works of Muhammad 
Hayat, Bellew, Raverty, quoted in the Bibliogra- 
phy to Afghanistan, section ii; the work of 
Elphinstone, quoted in that to Afghanistan. 
section i; H. A. Rose, A Glossary of Tribes and 
Casts of the Punjab and the N.-W. Frontier Province, 
Lahore 191 1-9, especially s.v. Pathan; H. C. Willy, 
From the Black Mountain to Waziristan, London 
1912 (on the Pathan frontier tribes). 

Pashto is spoken in south-eastern Afghanistan 
from north of Dialalabad to Kandahar, and from 
there westwards to Sabzawar. (The Kabul area is 
mainly Persian-speaking, and so is Ghazni.) Pashto is 
also spoken by settlers in northern and western Af- 
ghanistan. In Pakistan Pashto is used by the majority 
of the inhabitants of the N.W. Frontier Province 
from Dir and Swat southwards, in some localities in 
the Pandjab, and in Baluiistan as far south as 
Quetta, probably in all by over 4 million people. 

Pashto is in its origin and structure an Iranian 
language, although it has borrowed freely from 
Indo-Aryan. It shares all the common Iranian 
sound-changes. It sides with the other Eastern 
Ir. languages e.g. in having fricatives corresponding 
to W.Ir. initial b-, d-, g-., and in the sonorization 
of intervocalic -sh-. In its origin it is probably a 
"Saka" dialect, introduced from the North, but it 
is not possible to define its relationship more closely. 
Note dr- < *thr, as in Khotanese, and I- < dh- as in 
Mundji (but also in other E.Ir. languages). Various 
sound-changes, especially assimilations and reduc- 
tions of consonant groups, have radically altered the 
form of most words of Iranian origin, as will appear 
from the comparison between some Pashto words 
and their Persian etymological equivalents: dre 3 : 
sih; tjal(w)6r 4 : iahar; shpag 6 : shash; ows 7 : haft; 
ats 8 : hasht; las 10 : dah; (w)shs>l 20 : bist; mor 
mother : mddar; lur daughter : dukhtar; ghwag ear : 
gosh;zr3 heart : dil; sor cold : sard; ux camel : ushtur; 
ytg bear : khirs; gdan millet : arzan; psxt-sm I ask : 
purs-am. — Stress has been retained as a relevant 
factor, and metre is based on it, not on quantity. 

Sound-changes and borrowings have given Pashto 
a phonemic system which includes a number of 
phonemes foreign to Persian, viz. the neutral vowel 3, 
the dental affricates ts, dz, the "back" sibilants here 
written x, g (v. below), and the "cerebrals", (, d, 
r, n. In Pashto literature these sounds are usually 
expressed by the following, special letters: -r ts 
and dz; ^fi x; .j I; y t 4 4; ^ r ; y p. 

Bayazid Ansari and some of his successors em- 
ployed a somewhat different set of letters, and in 
Afghanistan i & is now being differentiated from 
jr ts. Here also madihiU e is distinguished from i by 
putting two dots iu vertical position below the 



yd-sign ((_c), and devices have also been invented 
to express final -si. More sporadically, and chiefly 
in dictionaries, attempts have been made to mark 
other vocalic distinctions and stress. 

The most striking isoglott is that which separates 
the south-western group (the so-called "soft" 
dialects) from the north-eastern ("hard") group 
(Bangash, Orakzay, Afrldi, Yusufzay, Mahmand, 
etc.). The soft „dialects" preserve x, g with the 
original quality of back sh, i, while the „hard" 
ones they merge with respectively kh and g. Thus: 
Paxto = Pashto and Pakhto, gira beard lira or gira (in 
the other sections of this article x has been rendered 
by sh in tribal names and in the word Pashto, etc.). 
Some Ghalzay dialects occupy an intermediate posi- 
tion. The exact date of the change is uncertain, but it 
is probably later than the great northward migration 
of tribes. — Dialects also vary a good deal in their 
of sh, i, ts, dz (partly owing to the 
f an Indian sub- or adstratum), and 
palatalization, assimilation, dissimilation and meta- 
thesis act differently according to dialect (e.g. nwar, 
Imar, nmar, mar, etc. sun, wufonx, gmandz, tnangaz 
coomb, pxa, xpa foot). — Cutting across the line 
dividing "soft" from "hard" Pashto runs an isoglott 
encircling a number of dialects (from Afrldi to 
Waziri) changing a > 6; 6 > 6 and in some dialects 
further to £ and « > t (e.g. Waziri mlr mother, pier 
father; lir daughter).— The Wanetsi dialect of 
north-eastern Balucistan (Harnai-Shahrlg region) 
occupies a rather independent position and must 
have split off from the bulk of Pashto earlier than 
any other dialect. It has retained r before i, e.g. in 
yiri bear, and it shows a different development of 
-t- (piydr father, etc.). 

Important morphological features of Pashto are 
e.g.: 1. Distinction between two genders, masc. and 
fem. 2. A great variety of declensions and traces of 
case-inflection. 3. No distinction between 3rd sing, 
and plur. 4. So-called passive construction of the 
preterite of transitive verbs (za td wahsm I strike you, 
but z) td wahilim you struck me). 

(iii) PASHTO LITERATURE. 

Until recently no Pashto literary work older than 
the 17th century had been published. But in the 
Almanack de Kabul, 1940-1 {Da Kabul Sdlndma) c Abd 
al-rlayy rlabibl published fragments of the Tadh- 
kirat-i Awliyd? by Sulayman Maku, containing poems 
said to go back to the nth century. In 1944 he 
published in Kabul the P>(a Khazdna by Muhammad 
Hotak, which professed to be written in Kandahar 
(finished 1729), and to be an anthology of Pash,to 
poets from the 8th century down to the time of the 
compiler. But these works raise a number of grave 
linguistic and historical problems, and the question 
of their authenticity cannot be finally settled until 
the manuscripts are made available for philological 
investigation. Even if the authenticity of the 
Khazdna is admitted, however, Muhammad HGtak's 
dating of the oldest poems may be doubted. Ac- 
cording to Raverty, Shaykh Mall in 1417 wrote a 
history of the Yusufzays, but nothing more is known 
about this work [cf. yusufzay]. A manuscript exists, 
and has been examined, containing the Khavr al- 
Baydn of the arch-heretic Bayazid Ansari (d. 1585). 
From the early 17th century we possess the theolo- 
gical and historical works — rich in invectives— of 
his orthodox opponent Akhfln(d) DarwSza [see raw- 
shaniyya] (Makhzan-i Afghani and Makhzan-i 
Islam). The 17th and 18th centuries are rich in poets, 



AFGHAN — AFGHANISTAN 



but most of them are imitators of Persian models. The 
most remarkable according to European standards, 
and also the national poet of modern Afghanistan, 
is Khushhal Khan ([q.v.]; 1022-1106/1613-94), chief 
of the Khataks, patriot, warrior and prolific writer 
on a multitude of subjects. His spontaneousness, 
force of expression and independence of mind lend 
a special charm to his best poems. Several of his 
descendants were also poets, and his grandson Afdal 
Khan wrotq the Ta'rikh-i Murassa', a history of the 
Afghans. The oldest mystical poet was Mirza who 
belonged to the family of Bayazid Ansari, but the 
most popular were £ Abd al-Rahman and £ Abd al- 
Hamid (both about A.D. 1700). Also Ahmad Shah, 
the founder of the Durrani dynasty, was a poet. 
There are also numerous translations from the 
Persian and versified versions of Persian and Afghan 
legends, e.g. Adam Khan and Durkhanal. Of con- 
siderable interest are the folk-songs, ballads, etc., 
collected and published by Darmesteter. Recently 
the Afghan Academy (Paxto Tolsna) in Kabul has 
published a volume of folk-songs, chiefly so-called 
landais or misrd's, lyrical distichs in a peculiar 
metre, and some of them of great beauty. There is 
a considerable output of modern poetry in Afgha- 
nistan, and the Pashto Academy publishes also 
other literary works. 

Bibliography (for ii and iii): W. Geiger, 
Sprache der Afghdnen, in Grundriss der iron. 
Phihlogie, i/ii (with bibliography) ; G. A. Grierson, 
Linguistic Survey of India, x (with copious biblio- 
graphy, 14-6); H. G. Raverty, Grammar', London 
1867; idem, Dictionary, London 1867; idem, 
Gulshan-i-Roh (chrestomathy), London i860; 
idem, Selections from the Poetry of the Afghans, 
London 1864; H. W. Bellew, Grammar, London 
1867; idem, Dictionary, London 1867; Trumpp, 
Grammar, London-Tubingen 1873; J. Darmesteter, 
Chants populaires des Afghans, Paris 1888-90; 
T. P. Hughes, Kalid-i-Afghdnl, Peshawar 1872; 
transl., by Plowden, Lahore 1875 ; J- G. Lorimer, 
Grammar and Voc. of Waziri Pashto, Calcutta 1902 ; 
D. L. R. Lorimer, Syntax of Colloquial Pushtu, 
Oxford 191 5; Malyon, Some Current Pushtu Folk 
Sfortes.Calcutta 1902 ; Gilbertson, ThePakhto Idiom, 
A Dictionary, London 1932; Cox, Notes on Pushtu 
Grammar, London 191 1; G. Morgenstieme, Etymo- 
logical Voc. of Pashto, Oslo 1927; idem, Archaisms 
and Innovations in Pashto Morphology, Norsk Tid- 
skrift for Sprogwidenskap, xii; idem, The Wanetsi 
Dialect, ibid, iv; W. Lentz, Sammlungen zur afgha- 
nischen Literatur- und Zeitgeschichte, ZDMG, 1937, 
711 ff.; idem, Die PaSto Bewegung, ZDMG, 1941, 
117 rJ. ; H. Penzl, On the Cases of the Afghan Noun, 
Word, vi; idem, Afghan Descriptions of the Afghan 
Verb, JAOS, 1951; idem, Die Substantia nach 
Afgh. Grammatikern, ZDMG, 1952, with biblio- 
graphy; Muhammad A'zam Iyazi, Las zfra Paxto 
lughatuna, Kabul 1941 ; Muhammad Gul Mahmand, 
Paxto Sind, Kabul 1937; Da Paxto KM, Kabul 
1939-40, publ. by the Paxto Tolana; Paxto Kdmus, 
Kabul 1952-4. (G. Morgenstierne) 

al-AFQHANI [see djamAl al-d1n al-afghAnI]. 
AFGHANISTAN. 

(i) Geography; (ii) Ethnography; (iii) Languages; 
(iv) Religion; (v) History. 

(i) GEOGRAPHY. 

The country now known as Afghanistan has bome 
that name only since the middle of the 18th century, 
when the supremacy of the Afghan race became as- 
sured : previously various districts bore distinct ap- 



pellations, but the country was not a definite political 
unit, and its component parts were not bound together 
by any identity of race or language. The earlier 
meaning of the word was simply "the land of the 
Afghans", a limited territory which did not include 
many parts of the present state but did comprise large 
districts now either independent or within the bound- 
ary of Pakistan. As at present constituted, under the 
rule of the Barakzay kings (formerly amirs), Afgha- 
nistan consists of a territory of irregular shape lying 
between 29° 30' and 38° 30' N. and between 61° and 75° 
(or, if the long strip of Wakhan is omitted, 71° 30') E. 

Geological formation. This country forms 
the north-eastern portion of the great Iranian plateau 
(cf. Iran), which is bounded to the north by the 
Central Asian depression, and to the east by the 
plains of Sind and the North-West Frontier Province 
of Pakistan, while to the south and west it slopes 
away into the depressed tract which occupies the 
central portion of the plateau, and on the south-east 
is connected with the mountain system of Baludistan. 
The northern barrier of the highlands is the mountain 
range extending westwards from the Pamir, with its 
outlying ridge, the Band-i Turkistan, beyond which 
the plain of sand and loess extends to the Oxus. On 
the east there is a sudden drop into the Indus valley! 
It will be seen therefore that, with the exception 
of the loess plain of Turkistan, the whole country 
belongs to the plateau, which is itself a late geological 
formation of the tertiary period, mainly sandstones 
and limestones. The north-eastern part of the plateau 
previously formed part of a great ocean connecting 
the Caspian depression with the plains of Pakistan. 
The process of upheaval which has raised it still 
continues, and Holdich considers that the extra- 
ordinarily deep river gorges are due to the fact that 
the erosive action of the rivers is too slow to keep 
pace with the upward movement. 

Orography. The most prominent feature of the 
mountain system is the northern range running 
east and west above alluded to as forming the 
northern boundary of the plateau. It divides the 
Turkistan districts on the north (the ancient Bactria) 
from the provinces of Kabul, Harat and Kandahar 
(the ancient Ariana and Arachosia) on the south. 
This main range is known by various names such as 
HindO-kush [q.v.] on the E. where it branches from the 
Pamir, Kuh-i Baba further west, and Kuh-i Safld 
and Siyah Bubuk near Harat ; the latter is generally 
known as Paropamisus, although the trueParopamisus 
(or Paropanisus of Ptolemy) included the HindO-kush. 
The greater part of the country south of this range is 
occupied by a number of subsidiary chains or long 
spurs which run from east to west or more generally 
from north-east to south-west. These ranges and the 
intervening valleys form the greater part of the 
Harat and Kandahar provinces, while the tangled 
mass of mountains lying to the south of the eastern 
HindO-kush comprises the valleys of the Kabul and 
Kuram rivers and forms the provinces of Kabul and 
Nuristan. The highest elevation in the northern 
range is the Shah Fuladl peak (16,870 ft./5ij8 
metres) in the Kuh-i Baba, and the long spur 
running to the south-west contains several peaks of 
about 11,000 fL/3353 m. The ridges dividing the 
Hilmand, Tamak, Arghandab and Arghasan are 
outliers of this system, and it may be traced further 
south-east into BaluCistan. The Sulayman [q.v.] range 
(highest peak the Takht-i Sulayman, 11,200 ft./ 
3145 m.), which drops finally into the Indus valley 
and is the eastern edge of the plateau, is beyond the 
political limits of Afghanistan. The mountains further 



AFGHANISTAN 



north on this eastern flank of the plateau between 
the Kuram and Gumal rivers are a more irregular 
mass with peaks over n.ooo ft./3353 m., while 
further north still between the valleys of the Kabul 
and the Kuram is the Safld Kuh, the highest range 
in Afghanistan after the Hindu-kush and Kuh-i 
Baba (highest peak Sikaram, 15,600 ft./4543 m.). 

River system. Northward from the Hindu- 
kush the level of the country falls rapidly towards 
the Oxus valley, while southward the valleys fall 
more gradually towards the Sistan depression con- 
taining the Hilmand Hamun (H. Lake) and its 
extension the Gud-i Zirah, into which flow, with 
the exception of those belonging to the Indus 
system, all the rivers south of the Hindu-kush. 
Thus the rivers fall naturally into three groups, 
which may be called the Indus group, the Hilmand 
group and the Oxus group. 

The Indus group comprises the Kabul [q.v.] rive 
and its affluents, of which the most important are 
the Tagao and Kunar flowing from the Hindu-kush 
on the north and the Lughar flowing from the Gul 
Kuh on the south. South of this the Kuram rising 
in the Paywar, and its tributary the Toci, called in 
its lower course the Gambila, which joins it in 
Pakistan territory below the mountains. Still 
further south separating the Wazlristan mountains 
from the Takht-i Sulayman is the Gumal formed by 
the junction of the Kundar and 2ob. These rivers 
though of small volume drain extensive tracts and 
mark important military and trade routes through 
the mountains between India and the plateau. 
Other small streams such as the Wahua, Luni, Kaha 
and Nari further south serve a similar purpose. It 
may be noted that many of these streams flow not 
along the natural valleys formed by the mountain 
range but transversely across the sandstone and 
limestone ridges of the Sulayman Mountains, 
through which they cut deep precipitous gorges. 

The second or Hilmand group consists of the 
Hilmand and its tributaries, and of the other rivers 
running towards the south-west into the Sistan 
depression. The Hilmand [q.v.] or Hirmand (the 
Haetumant of the Avesta, the Etymandrus of 
classical writers) is the principal of these. It rises 
near Kabul and flows through narrow mountain 
valleys into the more open country of Zamln-dSwar, 
where it is joined on the left bank by the Arghandab 
(Harahwaiti, Arachotis). The latter in its turn is 
formed by the junction of the Upper Arghandab, 
the Tarnak, and the Arghasan (or Arghastan), 
which drain a series of nearly parallel north-easterly 
and south-westerly valleys. Another member of the 
same system is the stream flowing southward from 
Ghazna which never joins the Hilmand system but 
is absorbed by the Abistada Salt Lake. Other rivers 
west of the Hilmand with the same general south- 
westerly flow, which also discharge into the Hamun, 
are the Khash Rud, the Farah Rud, and the Harut 
Rud. 

The Hamun [q.v.], a basin sometimes of small 
extent, expands enormously to the south in seasons 
of high flood, when the hill fort of Kuh-i Kh w adja 
becomes an island. It then discharges itself through 
a channel called the Shllagh into a still lower depres- 
sion known as the Gud-i Zirah. Part of the Hamun 
is in Afghan territory and part in Persian according 
to modern demarcations which have divided Sistan. 
The Hamun is only 1580 ft. above sea-level, and 
the Gud-i Zirah is still lower. The Hamun on the 
average overflows once in ten years into the Gud-i 
Zirah. Its water is only slightly brackish, and can 



be drunk, a circumstance due no doubt to its occa- 
sional overflow. The level of Sistan does not appear 
to have risen since ancient times in spite of the 
enormous volumes of silt discharged by the rivers 
which have no other outlet. The cause for this is 
probably the prevalence of violent north-west winds 
through a great part of the year, which remove the 
light surface soil. 

The third or Oxus group of rivers comprises the 
Oxus [see amu daryA] and it southern tributaries, 
as weU as the Murghab [q.v.] and Hari Rud which 
also flow northward into the plain but never reach 
the Oxus. All of these rise on the northern flank 
of the great mountain barrier, with the exception 
of the Hari Rud [q.v.], which rises on the south of 
the Kuh-i Baba and flows westwards through a 
narrow valley between the Kuh-i Safld and KOh-i 
SiySh into the Harat plain where it turns to tn: 
north and after passing through a depression in th; 
mountains loses itself in the plains of Russiaa 
Turkistan beyond Dhu'l-Fikar. 

General formation. The mountain ranges 
generally become less lofty towards the south and 
west and the difficulties of communication that 
exist further north disappear. Hence the easy route 
for trade or military expeditions from Harat to 
Kandahar has in all ages been circuitous via Sab- 
zawar, Farah and Girishk, while from Kandahar to 
Kabul and Ghazna the direct line of the Tarnak 
valley is followed. From Harat where the Paropa- 
misus drops to an insignificant elevation the Turkistan 
province is easily accessible, and the same country 
can also be reached from Kabul directly by difficult 
passes, the Khawak, Bamiyan and others, through 
the Hindu-kush. 

Thus the three towns Harat, Kandahar and Kabul 
are marked out by natural position as the most 
important points in the country. Each of them lies 
in a fertile valley and is self-supporting, and each 
of them commands important routes to the others 
as well as to India, Persia and Central Asia. If 
therefore Afghanistan is to be an independent whole 
the possession of these three points is essential to 
its rulers. There can be no stability if they are in 
separate hands. In this political sense Ghazna and 
Djalalabad must be classed with Kabul, the old 
capitals Bust and Girishk with Kandahar, and 
Sabzawar with Harat. Sistan lying on the easy 
route from Harat to Kandahar has always been a 
debatable land. 

Kabul is in every way the strongest position, and 
has generally in consequence been more independent 
than other districts. Harat on the contrary is much 
exposed to attack from the west and north, and 
when Harat has been conquered by a foreign invader 
Kandahar is immediately threatened. As long as 
Harat is held Kandahar is safe from an attack on 
the western side and it has also a strong position 
towards the Indian side, though not so strong as 
that of Kabul. 

The district of Sistan adjoining the Hamun is 
fertile and suited for irrigation. Occupying a com- 
manding position on the route leading eastward to 
Kandahar and westward to Harat, it is of great 
importance to the rulers of Afghanistan, and its 
present division between that country and Persia is 
unfortunate. 

Climate. The whole country is liable to great 
extremes of temperature ranging from the intense 
summer heat of Sistan, the Garmsir district and 
the Oxus valley to the great winter cold of the 
high exposed regions, where violent si 



i. Instances of armies suffering from 
such cold are well known in history. The march of 
the emperor Babur from the neighbourhood of 
Harat through the Hazara mountains to Kabul is 
a case in point, and the Hindu-kush (lit. Hindu- 
slayer) is popularly supposed to derive its name 
from the death of the Indian troops of the emperor 
Shah Djahftn. More recent instances are the suffer- 
ings of 'Abd al-Rahman's army in 1868 and of the 
British Boundary Commission in Badghis in 1885. 
The daily range of temperature is everywhere very 
great, the difference between maximum and minimum 
varying from 17 to 30 degrees of Fahrenheit. In the 
spring and autumn the upland valleys have a 
temperate and pleasant climate, which is very 
favourable to the growth of fruit, especially grapes, 
melons, peaches, plums, apricots, walnuts and 
pistachio-nuts. Modem travellers have found the 
neighbourhood of Kabul to be not unworthy of 
the praises lavished on it by the emperor Babur. 

In the more lofty part of the Hindu-kush inhabited 
by the Kafir tribes a truly Alpine climate is found 
resembling that of parts of the Himalayas. 

The vegetation generally speaking is that of the 
Persian plateau, and is quite distinct from that of 
the Indian plains. In the plains few trees are found 
except those cultivated in gardens, fruit trees, 
planes and poplars, while on the higher mountains 
many varieties of pines and evergreen oaks are found 
with wild vines, ivy and roses. On the lower and 
dryer ranges the wild pistachio (Pistacia khinjuk), 
wild olive (Olea europea), juniper (/. excelsa) and the 
reodan (Tecoma undulata) are the most characteristic 
trees. The angiiza or king {Ferula assafoetida) is very 
abundant in many parts. Wild flowers also abound 
in the spring, especially the iris, tulip and poppy. 

Political divisions. The divisions of the 
country follow its physical formation. 

Kabul. The province of Kabul contains the 
fertile high-lying valleys round the upper waters of 
the Kabul, Lughar and Tagao rivers and Ghazna, 
also the lower part of the Kabul valley near Djala- 
labad [q.:i.]. Ghazna [q.v.] was the most important 
town in this tract formerly, but Kabul [q.v.] has 
taken its place during the past four hundred years. 
Kabul was recognized as the centre of government 
under Mughal emperors, and was adopted by the 
Durrani kings as their capital taking the place of 
Kandahar. Its old rival Peshawar [q.v.] is the natural 
centre of the tribes in the lowlands near the Indus, 
but has been cut off from Afghanistan since it was 
taken by the Sikhs in 1834, and from 1848 to 1947 
formed part of British India. 

Kandahar. Kandahar includes the old province 
of Zamin-dawar, and comprises the lower valleys of 
the Hilmand, Tarnak, Arghandab and Arghasan, 
the principal home of the Durranis. The modern 
town of Kandahar [q.v.] on the Arghandab has been 
the capital of the province since the 14th century, 
and has taken the place of older towns such as 
Girishk [q.v.] and Bust [q.v.]. 

Sistan. SIstan [see sidjistan] is the hot and 
fertile irrigated district lying around the Hamun. 
A large part of it, however, belongs to Persia. It 
contains no large town. 

Harat. The Harat province includes the fertile 
valley of the Hari Rud and the open country lying 
between the Hazara Mountains and the Persian 
border; also a considerable part of these mountains 
which are inhabited by the Hazara [q.v.] and Cahar 
Aymak [q.v.] tribes. The town of Harat [q.v.], one 
of the most famous in eastern history, is its capital; 



AFGHANISTAN 223 

although fallen from its ancient glory it is still and 
must remain a place of importance and will no 
doubt develop greatly with peace and improved 
communications. Sabzawar [q.v.] is also a thriving 
town in the south of the province. 

Hazaristan [q.v.]. The country of the Hazara 
and Cahar Aymak tribes in the mountainous mass 
bounded to the north by the KOh-i Baba, to the west 
by the open country of Harat, to the east and the 
south by the Hilmand valley. It is the country 
anciently known as Ghur -[q.v.], and the ruins of the 
town of Ghur probably mark the site of the old 
capital of Firiiz Kuh, where the Churl kings reigned 
in the 12th century. It now contains no town of 
importance. 

Turkistan. The country north of the Kuh-i 
Baba as far as the Oxus is known as Turkistan. Its 
old capital Balkh [q.v.] has lost its former importance 
and the present centres of administration are Mazar-i 
Sharif [q.v.], Tashkurgan and Maymana [q.v.]. 

Badakhshan. The region lying north of the 
Hirtdu-kush and east of Turkistan along the left 
bank of the Oxus is known as Badakhshan [q.v.]. It 
is watered by the Kunduz river and its affluents. 
Wakhan. Still further to the east and extending 
as far as the Pamir is the long mountain valley 
called Wakhan [q.v.]. 

N Oris tan. A mountainous tract of the Hindu- 
kush lying north of the Kabul valley and west of 
the Kunar is inhabited by the Kafirs. It was known 
as Kafiristan [q.v.], but after its conquest by 'Abd 
al-Rahman Khan in 18^7 its name was changed to 
NOristan. 

Bibliography: M. Akram, Bibliographic ana- 
lytique de V Afghanistan, Paris 1947; M. Elphin- 
stone, Caubul, London 1839-42; J. P. Ferrier, 
Caravan Journeys, London 1857; A. Burnes, 
Cabool, London 1842; idem, Bokhara, London 
1835; N. Khanikov, Bokhara, Engl, transl. by v. 
Bode, London 1845; H. W. Bellew, Afghanistan 
and the Afghans, London 1839; idem, From the 
Indus to the Tigris, London 1875; idem, Political 
Mission to Afghanistan, London 1862; T. H. 
Holdich, The Indian Borderland, London 1901; 
idem, Geographical Results of the Afghan Campaign, 
Proc. of the R. Geogr. Soc, 1879; Evan Smith, in 
F. J. Goldsmid, Eastern Persia, London 1876, i, 
223, 428; C. Masson, Travels in Balochistan, 
Afghanistan, etc., London 1844; G: T. Vigne, 
Ghazni, Kabul and Afghanistan, London 1840; 
Mohan Lai, Travels in Panjab, Afghanistan, 
London 1876; C. E. Yate, Northern Afghanistan, 
Edinburgh-London 1888; G. S. Thorburn, Bannu, 
London 1876; Oliver, Across the Border, Pathan 
and Baloch, London 1890; A. H. Mac-Mahon, 
Southern Borderland of Afghanistan, Geogr. Journal, 
1897; idem, Survey and Exploration in Seistan, 
ibid. 1906; P. Molesworth Sykes, Fourth Journey 
in Persia, ibid. 1902; A. and P. Griesbach, Field 
Notes, Geol. Survey of India, xix, 1, 14 ; A. Hamilton, 
Afghanistan, London 1906; F. A. G. Martin, Under 
the absolute Amir, London 1907; O. V. Niedermayer, 
Afghanistan, Leipzig 1924; E. Trinkler, Afgha- 
nistan, eine landeskundliche Studie, Gotha 1928; 
idem, Quer durch Afghanistan nach Indien, Berlin 
1925; R. Furon, V Afghanistan, Paris 1926; idem, 
L'Iran, Perse et V Afghanistan 1 , Paris 1951; 
E. Dollot, V Afghanistan, Paris 1937; Ikbal Ali 
Shah, Modern Afghanistan, London 1938; V. Cer- 
vinka, Afghanistan, Structure iconomique et social, 
rieur, Lausanne 1950. 

(M. Longworth Dames *) 



AFGHANISTAN 



(ii) 

The population of Afghanistan is divided into 
the following main groups: (i) Afghans; (2) Tadjiks 
and other Iranians; (3) Turko-Mongolians ; (4) Hindu- 
kush Indo-Aryans (including Kafirs). According to 
an estimate made in 1947 the population amounts 
to twelve millions, of which 53% are said to be 
Afghans, 36% Tadjiks, 6% Uzbeks, 3% Hazaras 
and 2% others. But the figures are by no means 
•certain. No "pure races" are to be found, each 
linguistic community being composed of several 
anthropological types, and intermixture and second- 
ary adoption of Persian and Pashto having to 
a great extent blurred whatever clear distinctions 
may have existed at some earlier date. Apart from 
the theoretical difficulties in defining race, the 
meagreness of anthropological data, dealing with 
clearly defined local groups, warns us to be cautious 
in our statements. 

1) For the Afghans, see the separate article 

AFGHAN. 

2) Tadjik is the general name [cf. tadjIkJ of the 
Persian-speaking population of Afghanistan, often 
also called Parsiwans, or, in the East and South, 
Dihgans and Dihwars. They are villagers, and also 
the inhabitants of most towns speak Persian. The 
Tadjiks have no tribal organization, except in some 
remote regions. In the villages they are peaceful 
tenants. In Harat and SIstan they are a direct 
continuation of the Persians of Persia, while in 
Northern Afghanistan (from Maymana to Badakh- 
shan) they are in contact with the Tadjiks of the 
Soviet Union. In South-eastern Afghanistan they 
occupy some of the most fertile agricultural districts 
around Ghazna and in the Kabul region (Kuh-i 
Daman, Pandjshlr, etc.). Anthropologically they 
are very mixed, but the hill-Tadjiks of Badakhshan, 
and of Northern Afghanistan in general, are of the 
Alpine type. South of the Hindu-kush many Tadjiks 
probably belong to the Irano-Afghan race. Some of 
the hill-Tadjiks of Badakhshan still retain their 
ancient Iranian languages. The same is the case 
with the Paracls north of Kabul and the Ormurs 
in the Logar valley. — The Kizilbash are descended 
from Persian Turks settled in Kabul and Harat by 
Nadir Shah. 

3) Turkish and Mongolian tribes. In the 
plains of Northern Afghanistan Turkish tribes form 
an important, or even dominant part of the popu- 
lation. The majority are Uzbeks [q.v.], settled in 
villages and towns, and estimated by Jarring at 
about 500,000. West of them, between Andkhuv and 
Bala Murghab we find Turkmen [q.v.] nomads, 
chiefly Ersarls (estimated at up to 200,000). In 
Afghan Pamir there are about 30,000 Kirghiz [q.v.] 
nomads. Also some other Turkish tribes are repre- 
sented in Afghanistan.— The Turks settled in the 
Kuhistan and Kuh-i Daman north of Kabul have 
now all probably given up their national language. 

The central massif, from Ghazna to Harat, and 
from north of Bamiyan to the middle Hilmand, is 
•occupied by tribes of Mongol or mixed Turko- 
Mongol origin and type, extending also into Persia. 
The eastern part of this territory is the home of 
the Hazaras [q.v.] (or Barbatis). They are divided 
into a number of tribes, Day-Kundl, Day-ZengI, 
Djaghuri, etc. The Hazaras are settled in villages, 
their formerly very powerful chiefs living in baronial 
castles. They are Shl'ites, and up to the time of 
the Amir c Aljd al-Rahman they retained semi- 
independence. Their orthodox neighbours accused 



them of practising the infamous "lamp-extinguish- 
ing" ceremonies, and of laxity in sexual behaviour 
in general. When filially subdued by the Afghan 
Amir, many of them sought refuge in Quetta and 
other places outside Afghanistan. A large number 
of Hazaras work as labourers in Kabul and other 
cities. They have decidedly mongoloid features, 
but are usually distinguishable from the more flat- 
faced Uzbeks. Further west, on both sides of the 
Hari Rud, we find the half-nomadic SunnI Cahar 
Aymak [q.v.] ("Four Tribes"), a term apparently used 
somewhat loosely, but usually including Taymanls 
(south of the Hari Rud), Firuzkuhls (north of this 
river), Djamshldls (Kushk), Taymuris (west of 
Harat, in Persia) and Hazaris (Kal c a-i Naw), probably 
not to be confounded with the eastern Hazaras. — 
The Hazaras are often assumed to be descended 
from Cinghiz Khan's soldiers, but more probably 
Mongol and to some extent also Turkish elements 
have gradually occupied the territories laid waste 
by him and his successors (see Bacon, op. cit.). 

4) Indo-Aryans and Kafirs. Among the 
Indo-Aryan "Dardic" tribes of Afghanistan the 
most important are the Pashals (locally also called 
Dihgans) in the Kuhistan of Kabul, Laghman and 
the lower Kunar Valley. They are the remnants 
of the ancient Hindu and Buddhist population of 
Kapisha and Nagarahara. There are also some 
smaller communities of Indo-Aryan origin in the 
Kunar region. — Nuristan (formerly Kafiristan) is 
inhabited by a number of tribes, linguistically 
distinguished from the true Indo-Aryans [cf. 
kafiristan]. They were finally conquered by c Abd 
al-Rahman in 1896, and converted to Islam. Some 
of the Dardic tribes also remained pagans till 
comparatively recent times. The Kafirs are now 
called Nuristanls or Djadldis, i.e. "Recruits (of 
Islam)". Their ancient religion was a polytheism of 
an Indian type, with pantheons varying from tribe 
to tribe. They had also preserved many ancient social 
customs. There is no evidence of their being of Greek 
origin as sometimes asserted. Their neighbours divi- 
ded them into Siyah-push "black-clad" (Katls and 
Kims) and Safld-push" white-clad" (Waygalls, Ash- 
kuns and Prasuns or Parunls). Anthropologically the 
Kafirs contain Oriental, Dinaric and Nordic elements, 
beside a short, dolichocephalic type with connections 
in the West Himalayas. Among some of the tribes 
the ratio of blondism is rather high. 

There are some Djat [q.v.] "gipsies" in Afghanistan, 
and a few Gudjars [q.v.] in the Kunar valley. Hindus 
are settled as traders and money-lenders in Kabul 
and other towns, and as horticulturists in the Kuh-i 
Daman north of Kabul. 

Bibliography: H. W. Bellew, Races of 
Afghanistan, Calcutta 1880; H. G. Raverty, Notes 
on Afghdnistdn, London 1880; Muljammad Hayat, 
Hayat-i Afghani (in Urdu; Engl, transl.: Afgha- 
nistan, Lahore 1876); J. Biddulph, Tribes of the 
Hindoo Koosh, Calcutta 1880; B. S. Guha, Racial 
Affinities of the People of India, in Census of 
India, 1931, vol. i, part iii A, pp. x ff., Simla 1935; 
G. S. Robertson, Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush, 
London 1896; Herrlich, Beitr&ge zur Rassen- und 
Stammeskunde der Hindukusch-Kafiren, in Deutsche 
im Hindukusch, Berlin 1937; Markowski, Die 
materielle Kuttur des Kabulgebietes, Leipzig 1932; 
Andreev, Po etnologiya Afganistana, Tashkent 
1932; G. Jarring, On the distribution of Turkish 
tribes in Afghanistan, Lund-Leipzig 1939; Bacon, 
Inquiry into the History of the Hazara Mongols, 
S. W. Journal of Anthropology, 195 1, 230 ff. 



THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ISLAM 



art. AFGHANISTAN 




AFGHANISTAN 



(iii) 

Babur mentions eleven languages spoken in the 
Kabul region, and the actual number for the whole 
of the country is considerably higher. The majority 
of the inhabitants speak either Pashto or Persian, 
both of them Iranian. 
For Pashto see Afghan. 

Other Iranian Languages. Most of the Persian 
dialects [cf. also Iran, section on language] spoken 
in Afghanistan are of the eastern type, retaining the 
distinction between madihul l, 6 and ma'-ruf i, u. 
In the Harat region they merge into the western 
type, and the dialect of the Hazaras presents traits 
of its own. BalQ6I just crosses the frontier into the 
southern deserts. In the Logar Valley, south of 
Kabul, Ormuri is dying out, but it is still spoken in 
Kaniguram in Wazlristan. Another ancient local 
Iranian language is Farad, which is found in a few 
villages north of Kabul. North of the Hindu-kush, 
in the mountains of Badakhshan. the so-called 
Pamir or Ghal6a [q.v.] languages have survived, but 
are probably receding and being gradually replaced 
by TadjikI Persian. They include: MundjI spoken 
in Mundjan (with an offshoot called Yidgha in 
Mitral), the very archaic Wakhi in Wakhan (over- 
flowing into Gilgit and Citral), Sanglecl, Zebakl and 
Ishkashmi at the bend of the Oxus and in the upper 
Wardodi valley; ShughnI and RoshanI in the Oxus 
Valley, north of Ishkashm. 

Iiido-Aryan and Kafiri. Apart from Lahnda 
■spoken by Hindus, we find a number of Indo- 
Aryan languages and dialects on the fringes of 
Nuristan in North-Eastern Afghanistan. They 
belong to the so-called Dardic branch of Indo- Aryan. 
The most important is Pashal which has several 
•widely diverging dialects, and is rich in popular 
poetry. In the Kunar Valley, close to the frontier 
of Citral, Gawar-Bati is spoken.— The Kafir langu- 
ages (Katl, Waigall, Ashkun and Prasun) occupy a 
somewhat separate position and must have split off 
from Indo-Aryan in pre-Vedic times. But they have 
now been heavily overlaid with purely Indo-Aryan 
elements. 

Non-Indo-Iranian Languages. Turkish dia- 
lects are spoken by Uzbeks, Turkmens and Kirghiz 
in Northern Afghanistan. Most Hazaras have now 
given up their ancient language, and the same is 
probably the case with the Cahar Aymaks. But 
(ace. to a private communication) F. Mackenzie was 
still able in 195 1 to collect lists of words, containing 
many of Mongolian origin, among the Hazaras of 
Bihsud and the "Moghols" north of Maymana. — 
Some nomads west of Mazar-i Sharif are said to be 
still speaking Arabic, as is also the case with some 
Arabs in Tadjikistan [see <arab]. 

Bibliography: General: Linguistic Survey 
of India, Vol. x (Eranian); viii/ii (Dardic Langu- 
ages); G. Morgenstierne, Report on a Linguistic 
Mission to Afghanistan, Oslo 1926; idem, Rep. 
on a Linguistic. Mission to N.W. India, Oslo 1932. 
Persian : D. L. R. Lorimer, Phonology of Bakh- 
tiari, Badakhshani, etc., London 1922; G. Morgen- 
stierne, Persian Texts from Afghanistan, AO, vi. 
Ormuri and ParacI: G. A. Grierson, The 
Qrmuri or Bargistd Language, Calcutta 1918; idem, 
Ormuri (LSI, x); G. Morgenstierne, Indo-Iranian 
Frontier Languages, i, Oslo 1929 (Parachi and 
Ormuri); idem, Supplementary Notes on Ormuri, 
N(orsk) Tfidskrift for) S(progwidenskap), v. Pamir 
Dialects: W. Geiger, Pamir-Dialekte (Grundr. 
d. iran. Philol. i/2, with bibliography); G. A. 
Grierson, Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. x (with 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



bibliography); G. Morgenstierne, Indo-Iranian 
Frontier Languages, ii, Oslo 1938; idem, Notes on 
Shughni, NTS, i; R. Gauthiot, Quelques observations 
sur le mindjani (MSL, 1915); W. Lentz, Mate- 
rialien zur Kenntnis der Schugni-Gruppe, GSttingen 
1933; H. Skold, Materialien zu den iranischen 
Pamirsprachen, Lund 1936; I. I. Zarubin, 
Kharakteristike mundzhanskogo yazika, Leningrad 
1927; Klimiitskiy, Vakhanskie tehsti, Moscow- 
Leningrad 1936. Dardic and Kafir Lan- 
guages : G. A. Grierson, Linguistic Survey of 
India, Vol. viii, ii (with bibliographies of older 
works); G. Morgenstierne, Pashai Texts (Indo- 
Iranian Frontier Languages, iii/2, Oslo 1944) ; idem, 
The Language of the Ashkun Kafirs (NTS, ii) ; idem, 
The Language of the Prasun Kafirs (NTS, xv); 
idem, Notes on Gawar Bati, Oslo 1950, and other 
publications. Turkish and Mongol: G. Jarring, 
Uzbek Texts from Afghan Turkestan, Lund 1938; 
Ramstedt, Mogholica, JSFO, 23; Leech, Voca- 
bulary of the Moghal Aimaks (Vocabularies of Some 
Languages, etc., Bombay 1838). 

(iv) RELIGION. 
Since the conversion of the Kafirs practically the 
entire population of Afghanistan are Muslims, and the 
great majority are Sunnls. Shi'ite are the Hazaras, 
Kizilbash, the Kayanis of Sistan and Harat, a few 
Pathan frontier tribes (Turis, and some sections of 
Orakzays and Bangash, beside the Sayyids of Tirah), 
and some Kuhistanls and Badakhshls (especially the 
Ghaieas). Of these the inhabitants of Badakhshan 
(with Shughnan, Wakhan, etc.) and many Pashals of 
Laghman and adjacent valleys are Isma'llls, the 
Badakhshls calling themselves Mullals and the 
Pashals being known under the name of C A1I-Ilahls 
(cf. Ivanow, Guide to Ism. Lit., p. 9). Among the 
Shrt Pathans there may still be secret adherents of 
the great heretic Bayazid Ansari [cf. rawshaniyya]. 
Orthodox Islam is now very firmly established in 
Afghanistan, and the Islamic law (shari'a) is recog- 
nized. Hindus and ShI c Is are tolerated, but Ahmadls 
are not allowed to enter the country, and Christian 
missions are prohibited. Local saints and their 
tombs are worshipped. Among the Pathan tribes 
of the Frontier the mullas have often played an 
important role in local politics and in preaching 
the djihdd (holy war). (G. Morgenstierne) 

The territories now known as Afghanistan were oc- 
cupied by Iranian tribes during the Aryan migrations 
in the second and first miUenia B.C., incorporated in 
the Achaemenid empire by Cyrus, and after the con- 
quests of Alexander (cf . e.g. W. W. Tarn, Alexander the 
Great, Cambridge 1948) disputed between the Greco- 
Bactrians and the Parthians (cf. W. W. Tarn, The 
Greeks in Bactria and India, Cambridge 1952). In the 
first century B.C. there was a fresh influx of Iranian 
tribesmen under the leadership of the Kushan tribe 
of the Yueh-Chi. The Kushan empire, which attained 
its height under Kujula Kadphises in the 1st century 
A.D. and Kanishka in the 2nd (cf. Cambridge History 
of India, i, 1935; R. Ghirshman, Blgram. Recherches 
archiologiques et historique? sur les Kouchans, Cairo 
1946), eventually fell to the Sasanids under Shapur 
II, probably before the middle of the 4th century. 
Shortly after 350 the Yueh-Chi tribes which had 
remained in Kashgaria, pressed from the East by 
Turco-Mongol elements, appeared in Bactria, sup- 
ported by a confederation of tribes of allied origin 
known as Chionites (see R. Ghirshman, Les Chionites- 
Hephtalites, Cairo 1948, 69 «.). Shapur, though at 



AFGHANISTAN 



war with Rome, marched against the invaders, but 
was obliged to come to terms with them and to 
establish them in Bactria and its peripheral regions, 
in return for their aid against the Romans. 

Kidara, the king of the Yueh-Chi or "Lesser 
Kushans", soon extended his conquests to the 
south of the Hindu-kush and annexed the Paropa- 
misad and Gandhara. It is in the period of this 
expansion that the establishment of a tribe of 
Chionites, the Zabuls, in the region of Ghazni is to 
be placed. When, later on, Kidara's efforts to assert 
his independence led to a fresh conflict with Shapur, 
the Chionites sided with the latter. Kidara lost his 
kingdom, and probably his life; and Bactria passed 
into the hands of the Chionites known as Heph- 
thalites from the name of their ruling dynasty. 
About 400 the lands both to the north and to the 
south of the Hindu-kush were held by the Chionites- 
Hephthalites, divided into two branches by the 
mountain-chain, but whose southern branch, the 
Zabuls, recognized the supremacy of the northern 
branch — both, however, remaining vassals of the 
Sasanids. This vassal status was preserved so long 
as the Persian dynasty remained strong, but already 
.by the beginning of the 5th century the Hephthalites, 
exploiting the difficulties experienced by Persia in 
the struggle against Rome and in defending the 
passes of the Caucasus against the barbarians, 
attempted to throw it off, only to be resubjected 
by Bahram Gor, just as their pressure towards 
India was halted by the Gupta kings. 

The middle of the 5th century was a turning-point 
in the relations between Persia and the Hephthalites. 
During the reign of Peroz, the Hephthalites won, 
in 484, a victory which transformed them almost 
from the vassals into the masters of Iran, to whom 
the Sasanids paid tribute for more than half a 
century. It was only c. 560, when a new people, the 
Western Turks, had appeared on the chessboard of 
Central Asia, that a coalition between them and 
Khusraw I put an end to the central power of the 
Hephthalites. (For the relations with the Sasanids, 
cf. A. Christensen, L'Iran sous Us Sassanides 1 , 1944.) 

The kingdom of Zabul, or of the southern Chio- 
nites, followed its own course. At the end of the 5th 
century a new dynasty reigned to the south of the 
Hindfl-kush. Its two kings, Toramana and Mihiracula 
(c. 515-544), made extensive conquests in India; 
the latter, devoted to a religion with a solar divinity, 
Mihira, left a memory of cruel persecutions which 
were pursued until he was crushed by an Indian 
national coalition. The disappearance of the kingdom 
of the southern Chionites preceded by a few years 
the destruction of Hephthalite supremacy in the 
northern lands. 

After the destruction of these two kingdoms, 
their territories remained in the hands of a number 
of minor princes, some of whom became vassals of 
the Sasanids, others of the Turks. The political 
condition of Eastern Afghanistan about the middle 
of the 7th century is portrayed in the account of 
the travels of the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen-Tsang, 
where the Afghan people are mentioned for the first 
time in an historical source under the form of the 
country of A-p'o-kien, located in the northern part 
of the Sulayman mountains (see A. Foucher, La 
vieilU route de I'Inde de Bactres a Taxila, ii, Paris 
1947, 235, 252 n. 17). 

Shortly after the passage of Hiuen-Tsang, the 
Chinese T'ang dynasty crushed the Western Turks 
and extended its suzerainty to the west of the Pamir. 
For a whole century (659-751) sixteen kingdoms 



north and south of the Hindu-kush recognized th e 
authority, more nominal than real, of the Chinese 
emperor. The Arab invaders, who so rapidly overran 
Iran, were checked in this part of Afghanistan by 
the tenacious resistance of the last kinglets, seconded 
by the civil wars and dissensions between the 
conquering tribes, and it was only at the end of the 
9th century that Islam finally triumphed south of 
the Hindu-kush. Nevertheless, the Hephthalite 
element did not disappear without leaving its 
traces in the ethnic composition of modern Afgha- 
nistan, and there still exists in Badakhshan an 
important group bearing the name of Haytal. See, 
for a fuller account of the Chionites-Hephthalites 
the articles haytal, zabulistan, zOn. For the 
background of the early history, cf. also W. M. 
McGovern, The Early Empires of Central Asia, 1939. 
(R. Ghirshman) 

(2) ISLAMIC— TO THE RISE OF THE AFGHAN N. 



To the Mongol period. The territories that 
form modern Afghanistan belonged in the first 
thousand years of Islamic history to different 
provinces, and although these neighbouring provinces, 
often shared common vicissitudes, they did not at 
any time form a separate entity. Nor did the Afghans 
form a state of their own until the days of Mir Ways, 
and more especially Ahmad Shah Durrani. The 
little that is known of the earlier history of the 
Afghans has been summarized in the article afcjhan; 
here a short sketch will be given of the history of 
the country. (For further details see the articles on 
the various provinces, e.g. Khurasan, sidjistan, 
zabulistan, zamIn-dawar,, tukharistan, kabul- 
istan, and on the various dynasties that ruled these 
lands, as well as the articles on the most important 
towns, e.g. balkh, ghazna, harat, Kabul, etc.) 

At the time of the Islamic conquest the provinces 
belonging to the Sasanid empire were quickly 
overrun. One wave of the invasion passed through 
Sidjistan, but the attempts made during the first 
three centuries to conquer Kabul from this base 
produced no lasting results until the rise of the 
Saffarid [g.v.] dynasty. The province of Kabul 
resisted Islamization much longer than the other 
eastern Islamic provinces, and it was only under the 
Ghaznawids that this was fully achieved. In the 
middle of the 4th/ioth century Alp-takin [g.v.] 
seized Ghazna from its former ruler Lawlk, con- 
quered Zabulistan and built up an independent 
principality, which was inherited by his son Ishak, 
then by a slave of his, Balka-takln, then by another 
slave, Subuk-takin, the founder of the Ghaznawid 
[g.v.] dynasty. The dynasty had its seat in Ghazna, 
and it was from that town that the greatest Ghaz- 
nawid ruler, Mahmud [q.v.], set out on his expeditions 
to Persia in the west and India in the east. Yet, 
while it is about this time that the name Afghan 
first appears in the historians, the Ghaznawid 
dynasty was in no sense a national Afghan one. The 
armies were probably composed mainly of Turks. 
When Mahmud marched to Balkh against the Kara- 
khanid ruler, his army comprised, according to 
al- c UtbI, Indians, Khaladj [g.v.], Afghans and 
"Ghaznawis", the last term no doubt meaning 
Iranians ("Tadjik" [q.v.]) of the province of Ghazna. 
In 414/1023 Mahmud attacked the Afghans of 
Sulayman Kuh and sacked their country. 

By the end of his life Mahmud ruled over an 
extensive territory comprising in the west Khurasan, 
part of Djibal and Tabaristan and in the east the 
whole of the Pandjab; to the north his influence 



AFGHANISTAN 






extended beyond the Oxus while the core was formed 
by the whole of what is now Afghanistan. The 
personality of the great conqueror made a deep 
impression, and he became in a way a national hero 
in the land which formed the centre of his empire. 
For the further history of the dynasty, see chaz- 
nawids. Bahram Shah (511-52/1118-57) had to 
acknowledge the suzerainty of the SaldjQks; there- 
after, the chieftains of Ghur became increasingly 
stronger, and after long struggles drove out the 
Ghaznawids. The Ghurid [?.«.] dynasty was probably 
of "Tadjik" origin. The fortunes of this dynasty 
were checked by invasions of Afghanistan by the 
Ghuzz and the Kh'Srizm-shahs, so that the Ghurids 
lost their power in their native land, but succeeded 
in building up an empire in India, which was 
inherited by their Turkish slaves. Djalal al-Din 
Mankubimi, the last scion of the house of the 
Kh'arizm-shahs. after strong resistance, had to 
vacate Afghanistan before the Mongols of Cingiz Khan. 

Mongols, Karts. Harat and Sistan were 
conquered by Cingiz Khan's son Tuluy, Ghazna by 
Uguday. Uguday also entered the Ghur country and, 
making it the centre of his operations, conquered 
the mountains of Firuz Kuh and Ghardjistan as 
well as the plains of Garm-sir and Sistan. The last 
Ghurid kings were swept away and Firuz Kuh 
completely destroyed. Tulak and other mountain 
fortresses offered resistance but to no effect. A 
leader of the resistance in Ghur was the amir 
Muhammad of Ghardjistan, descendant in the 
maternal line of the Ghurid kings. He was killed 
in 620/1223 i n tne fortress of Ashyar. The founders 
of the Kart dynasty were his descendants. The 
greater part of Afghanistan was incorporated into 
the Mongol empire. In the east, however, a Turkish 
chieftain, Sayf al-DIn Hasan Karlugh, who had 
perhaps been allied to Djalal al-DIn Mankubimi, 
managed for some time to get possession of Bamiyan, 
Ghazna and Ghur. He must have exercised his rule 
in 622/1225, in which year he issued coins in the 
name of the caliph al-Zahir. In 636/1238 he sub- 
mitted to Uguday, and was placed under the control 
of a Mongol shilina (intendant). Nevertheless, he 
was expelled through the Kuram valley to India. 
In Sind he and his son Nasir al-DIn reigned for a 
further twenty years. Ghazna and the Kuram served 
as a base for the further incursions of the Mongols 
into India. We do not hear of Afghans in these 
movements; perhaps they had not yet reached as 
far north as the Kuram valley. After Uguday's 
death the Mongol empire was divided and Afgha- 
nistan fell to the lot of the Ilkhans of Persia. Under 
their sovereignty a Tadjik dynasty, named Karts 
[?.».] came into power and ruled for nearly two 
hundred years over the greater part of the country. 
It was TlmOr who put an end to the dynasty of the 
Karts, who represented the last effort of the Tadjik 
element in Ghur and Harat to establish in their 
country an independent state. From this time until 
the rise of the Afghans in the i8th century no native 
dynasty held rule in Afghanistan. 

Tlmur, TImurids. In the course of Tlmur's 
invasion Sistan suffered terrible destruction; Kabul 
and Kandahar (which now began to be of importance) 
were quickly subdued and the whole country became 
part of Tlmur's empire. In 800/1397 Tlmur turned 
to the east and left his grandson Plr Muhammad 
as governor of Kabul, Ghazna and Kandahar, while 
his son Shahrukh received in fief the kingdom of 
Khurasan, with Harat as its capital. Plr Muhammad 
attacked the Afghans of Sulayman Kuh and then 



advanced into India. On the news that he was 
resisted in Multan, Tlmur himself advanced from 
Andarab over the Hindu-kush, turned aside from 
Laghman to attack the Siyah-push and the Kator- 
Kafirs. After this expedition, he attacked the rebel- 
lious Afghans and then passed over the Indus. Both 
on his outward march and on his return he passed 
Banu; he therefore probably followed the road of 
Toci, which leads through the country of the Ghalzav 
and the Wazirl. We do not hear of Afghans serving 
in his army, though it comprised Tadjiks. 

When Tlmur died (807/1405), Plr Muhammad 
reigned in Kabul; it was, however, Khalll who took 
possession of the throne of the empire. (For fuller 
details concerning the history of the descendants 
of Tlmur cf. tImurids.) The war that ensued ended 
with the murder of Plr Muhammad. Shortly after- 
wards, KhalU was deprived of the throne and 
Shahrukh became the supreme ruler. His reign, 
which lasted for about forty years, was a period of 
peace and the country was able to recover from the 
devastations of the last years. He was followed by 
Ulugh Beg, c Abd al-Latif, <Abd Allah, Babur Mlrza, 
all of whom reigned for a short time only. In 861/1456 
Abu Sa c id ascended the throne, but the possession 
of Khurasan and Afghanistan was contested by 
Husayn Baykara. The latter was defeated in 870/ 
1465, but Abu Sa c Id died two years later, and his 
successor, Sultan Ahmad, did not possess Khurasan 
at all. Husayn Baykara ruled uncontested, from his 
captal Harat, over Khurasan, Sistan, Ghur and 
Zamln-dawar. Under the long reigns of Shahrukh 
and Husayn Baykara, Harat reached the zenith of 
its fame as a centre of poetry, learning and art. 
During the latter years of Husayn Baykara, his rule 
was menaced from the north by the growing might 
of Shaybanl and his Uzbeks, while other parts of 
Afghanistan showed a tendency to dissolve into 
separate principalities, though not under indigenous 
rulers. Babur [q.v.] established himself in Kabul and 
assumed the title of pddshdh. Until then Kabul had 
been governed by more or less independent menbers 
of the TImurid house; Muklm, the son of Arghun, 
had just taken possession of it when Babur appeared 
before the city and occupied it (910/1505). Kabul 
remained under Babur and his successors, the 
emperors of India [see mughal] for more than two 
hundred years, until the invasion of Nadir Shah. 

Babur, Arghun, Uzbeks, Shah IsmaMl. 
More dangerous for the kingdom of Khurasan was 
the rise of the dynasty of Arghun [q.v.]. Its founder, 
Dh u '1-Nun Beg Arghun, a descendant of the Ilkhans, 
governor of Ghur and Sistan, received also, after 
defeating the tribes of Hazara and Nikudarl, the 
regions of Zabulistan and Garm-sir. Taking Kandahar 
as his capital, he made himself independent, and 
with the help of his son, Shah Beg, extended his 
rule southward to the Bolan pass and Siwastan. 
In 904/1498-9 he even invaded Harat, recruiting his 
army from the population of Ghur, Zamln-dawar and 
Kandahar— probably Tadjiks and Afghans. His son 
Muklm, as mentioned above, occupied Kabul, 
though only for a short time. Shaybanl's invasion, 
however, proved the undoing of Dhu '1-Nfln Beg; 
in the first battle against the Uzbeks he was killed 
and in 913/1507 Shaybanl took Harat. 

Dhu 'l-Nfln's sons Shah Beg and Muklm were now 
between Babur and Shaybanl. Babur with some 
right claimed to be heir to Tlmur's empire and 
advanced against Kandahar, while the Arghun 
princes allied themselves with his old enemy 
Shaybanl. Babur defeated them and took Kandahar. 



AFGHANISTAN 



He left there as governor his son Nasir Mirza, who 
was inmediately attacked by Shaybani. Babur 
himself had been on his way to Harat to concert 
measures of defence against the Uzbeks with Sultan 
Husayn when he heard of the latter's death. He 
joined the Sultan's sons in their campaign on the 
Murghab, and then after visiting Harat returned in 
winter by the mountain road to Kabul, a journey 
during which he and his troops underwent great 
hardships. He returned to Kabul in 912/beginning 
of 1507 just in time to suppress a dangerous plot 
amongst his own relations. Then followed his 
expedition to Kandahar in the summer, and he was 
back in Kabul by Djumada I 913/Sept. 1507, 
arranging an Indian expedition, and had already 
started when he was recalled by the news that 
Kandahar had fallen and that the Arghuns had been 
restored by Shaybani. When the news reached 
him he was actually engaged in war with the Afghan 
tribes of Djagdalak and Nangrahar, tribes recently 
established in the Kabul valley. He had great 
difficulty in holding even Kabul, where his authority 
was threatened by rebellion and mutiny. Shaybani 
was now possessor of Khurasan and overlord of 
Kandahar, but his power began to decline. His 
armies suffered severely during an expedition into 
the mountains of Ghur, and another warrior king, 
Shah Isma'U, founder of the Safawi kingdom of 
Persia, threatened him from the west. In 916/1510 
Isma'Il invaded Khurasan and Shaybani was defeated 
and slain near Marw. Harat passed into Isma'il's 
possession and the ShI'ite doctrines were enforced 
there by a severe persecution. Babur now allied 
himself with Isma'il and recovered for a time 
possession of his hereditary dominions in Central 
Asia, leaving the kingdom of Kabul to his brother 
Nasir Mirza. The alliance with the Safawi king was 
unpopular, however, and the Uzbeks rallied. In the 
end Babur, after a severe defeat at Ghaidawan near 
Bukhara (918/1512) from which he barely escaped 
with his life, had to fall back upon Kabul, which 
he found in great disorder, and he had to suppress 
outbreaks among his own Mughal troops and among 
the Afghan tribes. The Yusufzays had moved down 
from the mountains into the Peshawar valley, and 
expelled their predecessors the Dilazaks from the 
mountains of Badjawr and Swat. Babur put them 
down severely and took Badjawr with great slaughter. 
He also had to put down risings among the Hazaras. 
He then turned his attention to Kandahar where 
Shah Beg Arghun was still established. He had 
tried in vain to make terms with Shah Isma'il, had 
been imprisoned at Harat, but escaped, and had 
since been endeavouring to establish a kingdom for 
himself in Sind, which he invaded with the assistance 
of some Baluc tribes in 917/1511. Babur made two 
attempts to take Kandahar before he finally suc- 
ceeded in 928/1522. 3h5h Beg then removed his 
headquarters to ShSl (Quetta) in summer and SIbl 
in winter, and pursued his schemes in Sind, while the 
whole Kandahar province remained in Babur's 
possession. Babur now felt himself strong enough 
to embark on the series of enterprises which ended 
in the overthrow of the kingdom of the LodI Afghans 
in India. He always preferred Kabul to the plains 
of India, and was buried at Ghazna where his tomb 
is marked by a column. 

Between the Mughal and Safawi empires. 
Afghanistan entered upon a more settled period 
under the influence of the two great empires of India 
and Persia between which it was divided. Harat and 
SIstan remained with Persia though still for a time 



troubled by Uzbek raids. Kabul remained part of 
the Mughal empire while Kandahar belonged some- 
times to one and sometimes to the other. The power 
of the Mughal emperors was gradually restricted to 
the south of the Hindu-kush. North of it Sulayman 
Mirza, established by Babur as governor of Badakh- 
shan, founded something like an independent 
dynasty, and the rest of the country remained under 
the Shaybanids. Isma'il died in 930/1524, and 
Babur in 937/1530. Babur's son Humayun suc- 
ceeded him and his brothers Kamran, Hindal and 
'Askari held various governments. Kabul and 
Kandahar were united with the Pandjab under 
Kamran. On the Persian side Tahmasp the suc- 
cessor of Isma'H had made his brother Sam Mirza 
governor of Harat. The Safawls regarded Kandahar 
as an appanage of the kingdom of Khurasan now 
in their possession, and considered its occupation 
by the Mughal emperors to be a usurpation. In 
941/1535 Sam Mirza made a sudden attack on it, 
but it resisted him successfully, and after eight 
months Kamran arrived and raised the siege. 
During Sam's absence the Uzbeks under 'Ubayd 
Allah invaded Khurasan, and the unfortunate town 
of Harat was again taken and sacked. Tahmasp 
recovered it, deposed Sam and himself attacked 
Kandahar which he took; but it was recovered by 
Kamran. Meanwhile Humayun lost his throne in 
India through the rising of the Sur Afghans under 
Shir Shah, and in 950/1543 he made his way from 
Sind through the desert south of Kandahar to 
Sistan and Persia, where he was treated hospitably 
by Shah Tahmasp. In 952/1545 with the assistance 
of a Persian army he laid siege to Kandahar which 
was held against him by his brother 'Askarl on 
behalf of Kamran, and took it after a prolonged 
resistance. In accordance with his engagement with 
Tahmasp he made the town over to the Persians, 
but this excited great discontent among his own 
followers, and Humayun at last retook Kandahar 
from the Persians, and treated the province as part 
of his own dominions, greatly to the anger of 
Tahmasp. Shortly afterwards Humayun took Kabul 
and with it obtained possession of his young son 
Akbar now three years old. During the next few 
years the war between the brothers went on with 
varying fortunes. Kamran twice regained possession 
of Kabul but could not hold it long; on one occasion 
he is said to have exposed the young prince Akbar 
on the battlements. He then spent some time among 
the Mahmand and Khalil tribes of Afghans, whom 
he incited to plunder the Kabul valley. At last in 
961/1553, he surrendered to Humayun and was 
deprived of his sight. Humayun now held the 
kingdom of Kabul and Kandahar and found himself 
strong enough to attempt the reconquest of India. 
This resulted in his victory over the Sur kings, but 
soon afterwards, in 963/1556, he died from the 
effect of an accident. While the young king Akbar 
was occupied in completing the reconquest of India 
Tahmasp took the opportunity (965/1558) of seizing 
Kandahar, and it remained under Persian rule until 
the prince Muzaffar Husayn surrendered it to Akbar 
thirty-eight years later in 1003/1621. Shah 'Abbas 
recovered it, but it was lost again by his successor 
Shah Safl I, in whose time the governor c Ali Mardan 
Khan surrendered it to Shah Djahan (1047/1637); 
Girishk was also taken after a siege, and Zamin- 
dawar occupied. In 1058/1648 the young Persian 
king 'Abbas II, then only sixteen years of age, led 
an army to Kandahar and took it, and it never 
again formed part of the dominions of the Mughal 



empire. Shah Djahan's armies in vain attempted 
the reconquest. The rival princes Awrangzlb and 
Dara-shikuh both conducted expeditions against it, 
but were equally unsuccessful, and after the failure 
of the last (1062/1652) no further attempts were made. 

With the exception of the vicissitudes of Kandahar, 
there is little to record in the history of Afghanistan 
during the time it was divided between the Mughal 
and Safawl empires. The Afghan tribes were steadily 
increasing in numbers and influence, and it was 
probably in this period that the Abdalis and Ghalzays 
spread from their mountains over the more fertile 
lands of Kandahar and Zamin-dawar and the Tamak 
and Arghandab valleys. The decline in the position 
and influence of the Tadjik races which had borne 
the brunt of the Mongolian invasions, and the 
occupation of their mountain fortresses of Ghur 
by a semi-Mongolian population [cf. hazara], gave 
the Afghan race the opportunity of rising into 
prominence. In their eastern mountains they had 
been but little affected by invaders, eager chiefly to 
press on through the passes to the plunder of India, 
and the same need of an outlet for their increasing 
population which led them to spread into the plains 
of India on the east also led the pastoral tribes to 
spread westwards. The mountain tribes continued 
to maintain practical independence of all rule. The 
Mughal government of Kabul ruled nominally, but 
its actual power was confined to the open valleys. 
In 994/1586 for instance Akbar's army met with a 
disastrous defeat at the hands of the Yusufzays of 
Swat and Badjawr, and the general Radja Birbal 
was slain. Radja Man Singh afterwards defeated the 
mountaineers but they were never really conquered; 
they often raided the plains and sometimes took 
sides in dynastic quarrels, as when the Yusufzays 
took up the cause of the pretended prince Shudja' 
against Awrangzib. When Shah c Alam I before his 
accession was governor of Kabul under Awrangzib 
in 1 1 14/1702 one of his commanders Purdil Khan 
himself an Afghan, was killed with all his troops 
when trying to pass from Khost to Kabul, and he 
had to bribe the tribes to keep open the road between 
Kabul and Peshawar. 

Abdalis, Ghalzays, Nadir Shah. In the 
Kandahar province the frequent changes of govern- 
ment between India and Persia fomented dissensions 
and intrigue, and enabled the powerful tribes to 
play off one against the other. The Abdalis [?.w.] 
near Kandahar succeeded in this manner in ob- 
taining concessions from Shah 'Abbas the Great. 
Sado was recognized as chief, and his descendants 
the Sadozays became the ruling family. Never- 
theless their misconduct led to part of the tribe 
being removed to the Harat province. This removal 
led to the extension of the influence of the Ghalzay 
[q.v.] tribe near Kandahar, and their power continued 
to increase until the accession of the emperor Shah 
c Alam I, when the Ghalzays of the Kandahar 
province began to intrigue with him against the 
Persian government. The plot was discovered and 
Gurgin Khan, a Georgian chief, was sent to Kandahar 
at the head of an army, and arrested Mir Ways the 
Ghalzay chief. During his imprisonment, however, 
Mir Ways succeeded in gaining the confidence of 
Shah Husayn the Persian king, and was allowed to 
return to his tribe. Shortly afterwards he treacher- 
ously murdered Gurgin Khan whom he had invited 
to a banquet, seized upon Kandahar and defeated all 
attempts to subdue him. He died soon after, and his 
brother c Abd al- c AzIz, who showed an inclination to 
submit to Persia, was murdered by Mahmud, son of Mir 



AFGHANISTAN 229 

Ways, who established himself as ruler. (For further 
details of their conquest of Persia see ghalzay.) 

At the same period the section of the Abdali tribe 
in the Harat province became practically masters 
of that province, defeated a strong army sent 
against them under Safi Kuli Khan, and held then- 
own till the time of Nadir S_hah, even taking Farah 
from the Ghalzays after the latter had conquered 
Persia. While the Ghalzay Mahmud fought in Persia, 
the Abdalis spread over Khurasan and laid siege to 
Mashhad. The Ghalzay dynasty was in no way fitted 
to reign over a country like Persia, and had not 
sufficient force behind them to oppose any truly 
national movement. Even the support of the 
Kandahar province was lost when Ashraf succeeded 
his cousin Mahmud, whose brother was able to 
retain Kandahar. The Abdalis too remained inde- 
pendent in Harat. Thus when Nadir [q.v.'] put 
himself at the head of a national movement Ashraf's 
government collapsed rapidly, and few of the 
Ghalzays survived to reach their native country. 
Ashraf was killed while wandering in Balfidistan in 
1142/1729. Nadir now turned his arms against the 
Abdalis under Malik Mahmud Khan who held Mash- 
had (1142/1728). He thoroughly defeated them and 
took many prisoners. Nevertheless he perceived 
their value as fighting men and secured their support 
by restoring them to their old home near Kandahar, 
from which he removed the Ghalzays when he had 
the opportunity. He banished them to the Harat 
province, but very few, if any, seem to have really 
settled there, and there are none there at the present 
day. When Nadir Shah had made himself king of 
Persia he laid siege to Kandahar which resisted him 
for a year, but at last fell (1 150/1738). The Ghalzay 
power was thoroughly broken, but towards the 
Afghan tribes in general and especially the Abdalis 
he pursued a policy of conciliation, and enlisted 
large numbers in his army. Many Ghalzays took 
refuge in the Kabul province of the Indian empire, 
and Nadir Shah, asserting that his remonstrances 
had received no reply, advanced on Kabul which 
fell at once (1151/1738). Thus it was finally severed 
from the Mughal empire. The last known date of 
any coin of the emperor Muhammad Shah struck 
there is 1 138/1725. Nadir Shah apparently did not 
use the Kabul mint, but struck coins at Kandahar 
in 1 150/1737, the year of his conquest, and others 
struck at NadirabSd (which he built during the siege 
outside Kandahar) no doubt refer to the period of 
the siege. The whole of Afghanistan was now in his 
hands and afforded him the necessary base for his 
invasion of India in 1152/1739. As a result of his 
victory over Muhammad Shah the whole Mughal 
territory west of the Indus including Peshawar and 
the Deradjat with the suzerainty over the Kalhora or 
c AbbasI rulers el Sind was ceded to him as well as 
the province of Kabul. On his return from Dihll 
(1 152/1740) he first crossed the Indus at Attock and 
attacked the Vusufzays who had been giving trouble, 
and then went to Kabul. Thence he descended via 
the Kuram valley and the Bangash country, and 
went through the Deradjat to Sind, returning by 
the Bolan to Kandahar and thence to Harat. During 
the remainder of his life he relied to a great extent 
on his Afghan troops and but little on the Persians, 
from whom he was alienated by his SunnI creed. 
The Abdalis were especially favoured and their 
young chief Ahmad Khan rose to a high position 
in his army. Tradition says that Nadir himself 
prophesied that Ahmad would be king after him. 
When Nadir Shah was assassinated by Persians 



AFGHANISTAN 



and Kizil Bash, Ahmad Shah who was near by 
with a strong body of Abdalls seized on a treasure 
convoy and ..made his way to Kandahar, where he 
made himself king. (M. Longworth Dames *) 

(3) THE AFGHAN NATIONAL STATE, (a) THE SADO- 



Ahmad Shah made himself king in Kandahar and 
obtained possession of all the eastern portion of 
Nadir's empire up to the Indus. Harat soon followed, 
and in the general break up of the Persian monarchy 
Ahmad Shah acted as the protector of Shahrukh, 
grandson of Nadir Shah, who was blinded by his 
enemies, and maintained a principality for him in 
Khurasan. This province in reality formed part of the 
dominions of Ahmad Shah and his son Tlmur Shah, 
both of whom occasionally struck coins at Mashhad, 
but Shahrukh continued to rule in name until he was 
seized and killed by Agha Muhammad Kadjar after 
Timur Shah's death. Harat was however treated as an 
integral part of the Durrani monarchy, and the 
ancient kingdom of Khurasan has remained divided 
between Persia and Afghanistan. 

Ahmad Shah made Kandahar his capital and gave 
it the name of Ahmadshahi which appears on his coins 
and those of his successors. He took the title of Durr-i 
Durran, and his tribe, the Abdalls, have since been 
known as Durrani [q.v.]. His family had long been 
looked up to, and this fact, combined with his tact 
and energy, enabled him to hold his own. The tribes 
were treated mildly, and he relied upon foreign war 
rather than taxation to provide him with a revenue. 
The Durranis were proud of him and followed him 
willingly, but they were not an easy race to govern, 
and his son Timur Shah oil this account moved his 
capital to Kabul where the population is mainly 
Tadjik. In his Indian conquests Ahmad Shah not 
only rivalled but excelled Nadir Shah, and extended 
his dominions far beyond the Indus. He added the 
provinces of Kashmir, of Lahore and Multan, that 
is the greater part of Pandjab and the suzerainty 
over the Da'udpotras of Bahawalpur to his dominions. 
He invaded India several times, and occupied 
Dihli more than once. His defeat of the Mahrattas 
at Panipat in 1174/1761 was a turning point in 
Indian history, but he did not add any provinces 
beyond the Pandjab to his own dominions. His 
wars with the Sikhs were perpetual and led to the 
eventual loss of the province. The khan of Kalat 
too, the Brahul Nasir Khan who had become 
feudatory to Nadir Shah declared his independence 
in 1 172/1758. Ahmad Shah besieged Kalat without 
success, and on being called away to India accepted 
a purely nominal submission. Nasir Khan, however, 
supported Ahmad Shah in his wars in Khurasan, 
and contributed greatly to his victory over Karim 
Khan Zand in 1182/1768. On this occasion the blind 
Afsharl prince took the side of Karim Khan and 
sheltered him in Mashhad which Ahmad Shah 
reduced by blockade. 

For further details about Ahmad Shah see 
ahmad shah durran!; he died at Murghab in the 
hills near Kandahar in n87/i773» leaving his 
successor a very extensive but insecure empire. 

Timur Shah had held important posts under 
his father, such as the Nizamship of Lahore and 
Multan, which is marked by a distinct series of 
coins. At the time of Ahmad Shah's death he was 
at Harat, and only obtained possession of Kandahar 
after seizing and executing his brother Sulayman, 
who had been set up as his rival. He soon moved 
his capital to Kabul, and reigned uneventfully for 
twenty years, during which the monarchy declined 



steadily in strength and stability, although exter- 
nally it remained unimpaired. The authority of the 
central government over the outer provinces was 
precarious. The Sikhs grew in power and took 
Multan in 1196/1781, but Timur Shah retook it the 
same year. In Sind the feudatory Kalhoras were 
overthrown and replaced by Baluc amirs of the 
Talbur tribe (commonly called Talpurs), who waged 
successful war against Timur Shah's generals from 
1197/1782 to 1201/1786, and remained independent, 
although they accepted a nominal suzerainty. The 
Mangit amir of Bukhara Ma'sum, who had been 
encroaching on the Turkistan province, especially 
Marw, also made a nominal submission when attacked 
by Tlmur Shah, but retained all his conquests. In 
Kashmir also there was a revolt which was sup- 
pressed. Internally the power of the Barakzay clan 
of the Durranis became gradually greater. Timur 
Shah died in 1207/1793 and was succeeded by his 
son Zaman Shah, who reigned till he was dethroned 
by his brother Mahmud Shah in 1215/1800. Short 
as his reign was he was able to concentrate in it 
crimes and follies enough to wreck the Durrani 
monarchy. Although weakened at home by the 
rivalry of his brothers Mahmud and SJjudja' al-Mulk, 
threatened in Khurasan by the Kadjars and in the 
north by Shah Murad Mangit, and in the south defied 
by the khan of Kalat and the amirs of Sind, yet he 
could not refrain from wasting his strength in 
foolish attempts to rival Ahmad Shah's conquests in 
India, and to pose as the champion of Islam against 
Sikhs and Mahrattas. This brought him into collision 
with the English now rapidly becoming the ruling 
power in North India. His first invasion (1209/1795) 
was cut short at Hasan Abdal by the news that 
Agha Muhammad Kadjar had captured Mashhad 
and murdered the blind old Shahrukh. Having been 
appeased by an embassy from the Persian king he 
began a second invasion of India, which was inter- 
rupted by the rebellion of Mahmud at Harat. After 
defeating this rising he invaded the Pandjab, and 
this time reached Lahore and received the nominal 
submission of the Sikhs, now headed by Randjit 
Singh, but the Kadjar encroachments in Khurasan 
again called him back. *Mahmud meanwhile led a 
wandering life intriguing with discontented persons 
in Harat and Kandahar. Among these was the 
powerful leader of the Barakzay clan, Payinda 
Khan, known by the title of Sarfaraz Khan, who 
was jealous of the authority wielded by the vizier 
WafaMar Khan. The conspiracy was detected and 
Payinda Khan was executed. His son Fath Khan 
fled to Mahmud in Khurasan and induced him to 
throw himself on the sympathy of the Durrani tribe 
with whom Zaman Shah was unpopular (Zaman 
Shah's mother was a YQsufzay while Mahmud's was 
a Popalzay Durrani). This advice was justified by 
the result. Mahmud obtained possession of Kandahar 
while the infatuated Zaman Shah was preparing for 
another invasion of India. Mahmud advanced on 
Kabul and Zaman Shah fled, but was soon captured 
and blinded (1215/1800). Simultaneously with 
Mahmud's accession at Kabul Shudja' al-Mulk 
proclaimed himself king at Peshawar. He was 
assisted by a Ghalzay rising against Maljmud and 
in 1218/1803 he took Kabul, imprisoned Mahmud 
and released the blind Zaman Shah, his own whole 
brother. For a time Kandahar was held by Mahmud's 
son Kamran supported by Fath Khan, but the latter 
made terms for himself and' submitted, but dis- 
contented with his position almost immediately set 
up a rival king Kaysar Shah son of Zaman Shah. 



AFGHANISTAN 



The next few years were occupied by constant 
intrigues. Fath Khan changed rapidly from one 
pretender to another, sometimes supporting Mabmud 
and Kamran, sometimes Kaysar, while Shudja' al- 
Mulk dissipated his strength in expeditions to Sind 
and Kashmir. Finally Fatlj Khan, who was now 
supporting Mabmud, defeated Shudja' al-Mulk at 
Nimla (1224/1809). He fled into India and Maljmud's 
second reign began. He was however absolutely 
dependent on Fatlj Khan, whose power became very 
great. His brother Dust Muhammad held high office, 
another brother Muhammad A'zam became governor 
of Kashmir, and another Kuhandil governor of 
Kandahar. Harat which had become independent 
under another prince was reconquered by Fath 
Khan and Dust Mubammad in 1232/1816. Soon 
afterwards Dust Mubammad incurred the enmity 
of Kamran, who had become governor, by entering 
his harem and insulting his sister. He fled to Kashmir 
and Kamran took his vengeance on Fath Khan, 
whom he blinded and afterwards killed with the 
consent of Mabmud. Although perfidious and 
unscrupulous Fatb Khan was greatly admired by 
the Afghans, and his brother Dust Muhammad 
had no difficulty in raising a large force and defeating 
Mabmud in 1235/1818 near Kabul. Mahmud lost 
Kabul which he never recovered. He held Harat 
till his death in 1245/1829 and Kamran continued 
to rule there till he was murdered in 1258/1842. 
(M. Loncworth Dames *) 

(B) THE BARAKZAY (OR MUHAMMADZAY) DYNASTY. 

, The Mubammadzay, a small subdivision of the 
Durrani Barakzay of Kandahar, derive their name 
from Mubammad, a contemporary of Malik Sado, 
chief of the Abdall clans, with whom he lived amongst 
his small tribe at Arghasan, SE of Kandahar, about 
1000/1591. His descendants held the title of chief 
among the Barakzay tribes of Kandahar, and came 
into prominence with Hadjdji Djamal Khan b. 
Hadjdji Yusuf b. Yaro b. Muhammad, who served 
under Ahmad Shah and died in 1184/1770-1. His son 
Payinda Khan rendered important services to Timur 
Shah in the suppression of rebellions, but in con- 
sequence of his intrigues with Mabmud against 
Shah Zaman was executed in Kandahar in 1214/ 
1800. He left a number of sons, the eldest of whom, 
Fath Khan, was installed as vizier, with the title 
of Shah Dust, on Mahmfld's occupation of Kabul 
(1215/1800). With the increasing power of the 
Muhammadzay their ambitions clashed with the 
ruling Sadozay family and plunged Afghanistan 
into strife and bloodshed until finally, after the 
execution of Fath Khan in 1234/1818-9, his brother 
Dust Muhammad drove Mahmud out of Kabul. 

The Barakzay chiefs, who by now held most of 
the country, ruled at first in the name of various 
puppet kings of the Sadozay family, such as Ayyub 
and Sultan 'All (who took the name of Sultan 
Mahmud on his coins). It was not until 1254/1838 
that Dust Muhammad formally assumed the 
style of amir of Kabul; but neither he nor any of 
his successors before Hablb Allah took the title of 
shah or king. During the early years of his rule 
the outer provinces of the empire were rapidly lost. 
The Sikhs took Multan in 1233/1818, Kashmir in 
1235/1819, Dera GhazI Khan in the same year, and 
Dera Isma'U Khan in 1236/1821. Peshawar long 
resisted them under Dust Muhammad's brother, 
Sardar Sultan Muhammad, but it too fell in 1250/ 

1834. The amirs of Sind threw off the last sign of 
Afghan rule by taking Shikarpur, and to the north 
of the Hindu-kush Balkh was lost also. Dust Muham- 



mad therefore became the ruler of a compact Afghan 
kingdom; the loss of the outlying provinces, which 
had always been a source of weakness to the Sadozay 
kings, tended to consolidate his power. Although 
without scruples of any sort in attaining his ends, 
yet he had the reputation of a just man and was 
popular among the Afghans. But his progress was 
checked by the inevitable rivalries of his brothers. 
While he made Kabul his capital, Kuhandil Khan 
held Kandahar and defeated an attempt by Shudja 1 
al-Mulk Sadozay to recover it in 1250/1834. Harat 
was taken by the Persians after the murder of 
Kamran by his vizier Yar Muhammad Khan (1258/ 
1842), and was only recovered by Dust Mubammad 
in 1280/1863, just before his death. 

Shudja' al-Mulk, after his failure at Kandahar, 
endeavoured to obtain British assistance, and 
political events led to his ultimately obtaining it. 
Attempts by Alexander Burnes to negotiate a treaty 
with Dust Mubammad had broken down, and the 
growth of Russian influence led the Indian govern- 
ment to favour Shudja' al-Mulk's claims. The 
Persians had at this time (1253/1837) laid siege to 
Harat. It was believed that their operations were 
directed by Russians and an English officer con- 
ducted the defence. This brought matters to a climax. 
An Anglo-Indian army advanced through Sind and 
the Bolan Pass on Kandahar (end of 1254/Feb. 1839) 
and after taking the city marched on Kabul. Dust 
Mubammad fled to Bukhara and Shudja' al-Mulk 
was placed on the throne of Kabul (1 Djumada II 
1255/17 Aug. 1839). Dust Muhammad, after some 
unsuccessful operations in the north, surrendered to 
the British in the following year and was sent to 
Calcutta. 

Shudja' al-Mulk's reign was a troubled one. Kabul 
was abandoned by the British-Indian army in 1841, 
and on its retreat the army was almost annihilated 
1 at the Khurd Kabul pass. These operations were 
conducted by Muhammad Akbar Khan, son of 
Dust Muhammad. The British continued to hold 
Djalalabad and Kandahar, and reoccupied Kabul 
in the autumn of 1258/1842. Shortly before this, 
Shudja' al-Mulk had been murdered, and his son 
Fath Djang was recognized as king by the Popal- 
zays but opposed by the Barakzays. The British soon 
afterwards left Afghanistan, and Fath Djang, 
knowing that he could not hold his own, went with 
them, accompanied by the blind old Zaman Shah, 
who was still living. Dust Muhammad was sent back 
to Afghanistan, as he was the only man who could 
establish a firm government. His sons and brothers 
were reestablished in their governments, but rifts 
continued from time to time to breach the solidarity 
of the clan, and even Akbar Khan, now vizier, was 
on bad terms with his father till he died in 1266/ 
1849-50. Dust Mubammad maintained friendly 
■relations with Britain except at the time of the 
Sikh war of 1849, when the Afghan contingent 
covered itself with ridicule by its rapid flight after 
the battle of Gudjrat. During the mutiny of the 
Indian army in 1857, Dust Muhammad gave them 
no support. He occupied himself in strengthening 
his own country, and from 1267 to 1272/1850-55 he 
reconquered Balkh, Khulm, Kunduz and Badakh- 
shan. In 1 280/1863 he succeeded in driving the 
Persians from Harat, and he died there immediately 
after its recovery, having been a good ruler on the 
whole in spite of obvious faults. [See also dOst 

MUHAMMAD KHAN.] 

Shir 'All, his fifth son, who had been nominated 
by him as his successor, bacame almost at once 



232 



AFGHANISTAN 



involved in civil war with his own elder brothers 
Muhammad A'zam and Muhammad Afdal, and with 
'Abd al-Rahman, the able and determined son of 
the latter. (For an account of these wars see c abd 
al-rahman khan). Shir 'All was defeated in 1283/ 
1866 and lost first Kabul and then Kandahar. Afdal 
and A'zam reigned in succession until 1285/1868, 
but never held possession of Harat, whence Muham- 
mad Ya'kub, Shir 'All's son, advanced in the latter 
year and recovered Kandahar and Kabul for his 
father. Shir 'All now held the whole of Afghanistan, 
and was recognized by the Indian government, and 
met the viceroy Lord Mayo at Ambala in 1286/1869. 
He was not, however, satisfied with his treatment, 
as he could obtain no definite promise of support 
against other powers. At this period he imprisoned 
his enterprising son Muhammad Ya'tcub and resented 
the viceroy's attempt to intercede for him. He 
agreed to an arbitration by British officers as to 
the SIstan border, regarding which there was a 
dispute with Persia. According to this arbitration 
(1290/1873) a considerable part of the most fertile 
lands was awarded to Persia, and this was another 
cause of resentment. Finally he began to negotiate 
with Russia and refused to receive a British embassy. 
These causes led to the war of 1878-80. The British 
army took Kabul, and Shir 'All fled to Mazar-i 
Sharif, where he died in 1296/1879). [See also shIr 
'al!]. His army, organized on the European model, 
was defeated by Lord Roberts at the Paywar pass. 
Muhammad Ya'kub, released from prison and 
proclaimed amir on his father's flight (Rabi c I 1296/ 
Feb.-March 1879), me t the advancing British forces 
at Gandamak, and there concluded a treaty (4 Dju- 
mada II/26 May) by which he ceded to British India 
certain territories near the Bolan pass and the 
Kuram valley, and agreed to receive a mission at 
Kabul. A few months later a rising in Kabul resulted 
in the massacre of the members of the mission 
headed by Sir Louis Cavagnari. This led to a fresh 
outbreak of war. Roberts took Kabul a second 
time, but was besieged there by a tribal army 
headed by Muhammad Pjan and the mulla Mushk-i 
'Alam. After its defeat Ya'kub Khan was deposed 
and removed to India, and the government was 
offered to c Abd al-Rahman, a separate state 
being constituted at Kandahar. Part of the army at 
Kandahar under Stewart marched to Kabul, as a 
preliminary to evacuating the country, and in passing 
through the Ghalzav country was attacked at Ahmad 
Khayl by a large force of men of that tribe, who 
were only defeated after a most desperate conflict. 
Scarcely had c Abd al-Rahman been proclaimed when 
Ayyub, a son of §hir 'All, who had been collecting 
an army at Harat, marched on Kandahar, defeated 
a small Anglo-Indian force at Maywand, and laid 
siege to Kandahar. Roberts marched rapidly from 
Kabul and defeated Ayyub. After this the British 
army withdrew and the whole country including 
Kandahar was made over to 'Abd al-Rahman 
(1297/1880). In spite of internal difficulties and 
external problems [see c abd al-rahhAn khan], he pre- 
served the independence and integrity of the country, 
and on his death (15 Djumada II 1319/1 Oct. 1901) 
transmitted an undisputed authority to his son 
Habib Allah. Shortly after the latter's accession 
the conclusion of a Russo-British agreement removed 
the fears of further annexation or intervention by 
either Power, and in 1323/1905 the amir confirmed 
the treaty made by his father with the government 
of British India, securing to the latter control of the 
foreign relations of Afghanistan in return for an 



annual subsidy of eighteen lakhs of rupees (£ 160,000). 
Internally, peace was almost wholly unbroken and 
some advance was made in education. During the 
First World War Afghanistan maintained a policy 
of neutrality. On 18 Pjumada I 1337/20 Feb. 1919 
Habib Allah Khan was shot in his camp at Kala'-i 
Gush in Laghman. His brother Nasr Allah pro- 
claimed himself his successor, but was captured by 
the late amir's third son, Aman Allah, who had the 
support of the army, and imprisoned. 

Aman Allah Khan almost at once opened hostil- 
ities against British India but only a month later sued 
for an armistice, and by the Treaty of Rawalpindi (n 
Dhu 'l-Ka'da 1337/8 Aug. 1919) the independence of 
Afghanistan was formally recognized. New treaties 
were concluded with the USSR and Great Britain 
in 192 1, but tension continued on the northern 
frontier until 1922 and on the SE frontiers until 1924. 
In 1922 a constitution was promulgated at a Loe 
Pjirga, followed in 1923 by an administrative code 
and in 1924 by measures to provide for the higher 
education of women. After the outbreak of a rebellion 
in Khost. led by the mulla <Abd al-Karim, the latter 
were cancelled and the conscription laws modified 
at a second Loe Djirga (July 1924), and the rebellion 
was eventually suppressed. Nevertheless, King Aman 
Allah (he had assumed the royal title in 1926), on 
returning from a tour through India, Europe, the 
USSR and Turkey (Dec. 1927 to July 1928), sum- 
moned a third Loe Djirga to promulgate a new 
constitution, and to announce a programme of social 
and educational reforms. A series of tribal risings 
followed, during which a Tadjik brigand, BaMa-i 
Sakaw, later entitled Habib Allah Khan, ad- 
vanced from Kuh-i Daman and seized Kabul (Jan. 
1929). Aman Allah fled to Kandahar, and his 
attempts to regain Kabul were defeated by the 
Ghalzay supporters of Habib Allah (April-May 1929) ; 
meanwhile, Harat was occupied by another Tadjik, 
<Abd al-Rahlm. 

The cause of the Muhammadzays was now taken 
up by a collateral line descended from Payinda 
Khan, under the leadership of a former army 
commander who had been living in exile, Nadir 
Khan (b. Muhammad Yusuf Khan b. Yahya Khan 
b. Sultan Muljammad Khan, brother of Dust 
Muhammad). After several unsuccessful attempts, 
he secretly recruited a force of Wazlrs and Mahsuds, 
which, under the command of his brother Shah 
Wall Khan, occupied Kabul, where Nadir Khan 
was proclaimed king, with the title of Nadir Shah, 
on 12 Pjumada I 1348/16 Oct. 1929. Habib Allah 
surrendered, and was executed. The pacification of 
the country required a further two years, and 
discontent continued to smoulder among the former 
supporters of Aman Allah, of whom the most active 
were the Carkhl family of Logar. The hasty execution 
of its leading member provoked a blood-feud, in the 
course of which king Nadir Shah was assassinated 
(20 Radjab 1352/8 Nov. 1933) in the palace of 
Dilkusha. His son Muhammad ?5hir, then 
aged 19, was at once proclaimed as successor by 
the brothers of Nadir Shah, the eldest of whom, 
Sardar Muhammad Hashim Khan, exercised a 
virtual regency until 1946. Several tribal risings in 
the following years were sternly suppressed, and an 
active programme of military, educational and 
economic development was pursued. In 1934 
Afghanistan entered the League of Nations, and in 
1937 signed with Turkey, 'Irak and Iran the pact 
of Sa'dabad; a trade agreement was negotiated 
with the USSR in 1936. During the second World 



AFGHANISTAN — al-AFLADJ 



233 



War it again maintained a strict neutrality. The 
remaining frontier disputes were settled in 1947 — 
that in the north by agreement with the USSR, 
and that with Iran over the Hilmand river by 
American arbitration. Since the constitution of 
Pakistan in the same year, however, the problem 
of the unsubdued tribes of the former "North-West 
Frontier" (see the articles afrIdI and mahmand), 
which for a century bedevilled relations between 
Afghanistan and British India, continues equally 
to disturb those between the two Muslim States. 
Bibliography: in addition to the works 
quoted in section (i): J. P. Ferrier, History of 
the Afghans, London 1858; C. B. Malleson, 
History of Afghanistan, Lahore 1878, London 1880; 
G. P. Tate, The Kingdom of Afghanistan, a historical 
sketch, Bombay-Calcutta, 1911 ; P. Sykes, A History 
of Afghanistan, London 1940 (full bibliography); 
W. K. Fraser-Tytler, Afghanistan, a study of 
political developments', London 1953 ; A. A. Kuhzad, 
TaMkh-i Afghanistan, Kabul 1946; K. Ishtiya, 
Afghanistan dar Karn-i Nuzdahum, Kabul 1950; 
C. C. Davies, The Problem of the North-West 
Frontier, 1890-1908, Cambridge 1932; W. Hub- 
berton, Anglo-Russian Relations concerning Af- 
ghanistan, 1837-1907, London 1937; Cambridge 
History of India, v, ch. xxviii (483 ff., and Biblio- 
graphy, 643 ff .) ; Durand, Causes of the First Afghan 
War, London 1879; J- W. Kaye, History of Afghan 
War, London 1874; The Second Afghan War, 
1878-1880, Abridged Official Account, London 
1908; Heusman, Afghan Wat of 1879-80, London 
1881; The Third Afghan War, 1919, Official 
Account, Calcutta 1926; White King, History and 
coinage of the Barahzais, Numismatic Chronicle, 
1896. See also Bibliographies under ahmad shah 

DURRANI, DUST MUHAMMAD KHAN. C ABD AL-RAHMAN 
KHAN, SHIR C ALl, PANDJDIH. 

(M. Longworth Dames — H.A.R. Gibb) 
c AFlF al-DIN al-TILIMSANI (see al-tilim- 

SANl]. 

al-AFLADJ (Afladj al-Dawasir), a district in 
southern Nadjd athwart the great cuesta of 
Tuwayk, roughly bounded by WadI Birk (N), the 
plain of al-Bayad (E), WadI al-Makran (S), and 
the sands of al-Dahy (W). The most populous oasis 
and present capital is Layla (46 44' 35" E, 22° 16' 
45" N). 

The district contains a remarkable group of 
spring-fed pools called 'Uyfln al-Sayh and the 
extensive remains of a system of channels which 
once irrigated a more prosperous land. The pools, 
the largest of which is nearly a kilometre long, are 
the most noteworthy features of this kind in the 
Arabian Peninsula. The district, in older times also 
known as al-Faladj, takes its name from faladi 
(pi. afladj), the term still used in 'Uman for an 
underground aqueduct with surface apertures to 
facilitate cleaning of the channel, though strangely 
enough this type of aqueduct, which may be of 
Persian origin, is now called saki (pron. sddj.i, pi. 
sawddii) in al-Afladj. The poorly kept aqueducts of 
Samhan, Barabir, al-Wadjdjadj, and three smaller 
ones, all of which water the oasis of al-Sayh, are 
still flowing. 

The northernmost village of al-Afladj is Usaylila. 
Layla comprises the settlements of Ghaslba, the 
present seat of the amir, al-Mubarraz, the former 
seat, and al-Djufaydiriyya. Farther south are the 
oases of al-'Amar (not to be confused with Al 'Ammar, 
a section of the Dawasir), al-Sayh, which is the most 
extensively cultivated of all, al-Kharfa, and al- 



Rawda. The pools lie south-west of al-Sayh. South 
of the pools are the tiny oases of Suwaydan, al- 
Rukaykiyya, al-Ghawta, and Marwan. The southern- 
most oases are al-BadI c in WadI Hashradj, which 
descends from al-Haddar, and al-Shutba in the 
upper reaches of al-Makran. In the highlands of 
Tuwayk are al-Sitara (al-Sidara in al-Hamdanl), 
Hurada, and al-Ghayl, all ancient places. Along the 
western escarpment of Tuwayk are al-Hamar (al- 
Abmar) (N) and al-Haddar (S). 

At the dawn of Islam the dominant tribe in al- 
Afladj was Dja'da [q.v.], whose ancestor was a 
brother of Kushayr and al-Hashlr, sons of KaT),. 
a descendant of 'Amir b. Sa'sa'a of the Northern 
Arabs. In 9/630-1 Dja'da embraced Islam and sent 
an envoy to Medina, where the Prophet confirmed 
the tribe's position in the district (Caetani, Annali, 
ii, 1, 297). 

In 126/743-4 Dja'da and their allies of Banu 
c Amir on the First Day of al-Faladj killed a governor 
of Banu Hanifa who had been set over them. Banu 
Hanifa, after defeating Banu c Amir on the Second 
Day of al-Faladj, had their power broken on the Day 
of al-Nishash in 126 (Caetani, Chronographia, v, 1601). 

Three centuries after the Prophet, Dja'da remained 
the foremost tribe of al-Afladj, followed in importance 
by Kushayr and al-Hashlr (al-Hamdanl, i, 159). Dja'- 
da's chief centre was Suk al-Faladj, a city with iron 
gates and walls 30 cubits thick enclosing an area 
said to contain 260 wells of sweet water. Also within 
the territory of Dja'da was al-Kasr al- c AdI, reputed 
to date back to the time of Tasm and Djadls— 
perhaps the same as the ruins now known as Kusayrat 
c Ad just south of al-Sayh. Kushayr occupied the 
city of al-Haysamiyya with walls broad enough for 
four horses to run abreast along the summit. Among 
the towns belonging to al-Hashlr was al-Haddar, 
but many members of this tribe had already moved 

In 443/1051 Nasir-i Khusraw found al-Afladj in 
a state of virtual ruin as the result of internal 
dissensions so severe that men wore their shields and 
swords even while praying. During this medieval 
age the tribe of Djumayla, said to be a branch of 
'Anaza, became the leading power. Al Sabah and 
Al Khalifa, the present ruling houses of al-Kuwayt 
and al-Bahravn, who trace their lineage back to 
Djumayla, emigrated from al-Haddar well over two 
centuries ago under pressure from the Dawasir [q.v.] 
of the south, who eventually supplanted Djumayla 
in control of the whole district. 

In 1199/1785 the people of al-Afladj, following the 
lead of their kinsmen in WadI al-Dawasir, adhered 
to the WahhabI cause and have since remained 
staunch in its support, though the district has 
played only a minor role in modern history. In 
1328/1910 c Abd al- c Aziz Al Sa c ud cornered the 
rebellious leaders of the Hazazina of al-Fara' at 
Layla and executed them. The district is now under 
an amir responsible to the central government of 
Saudi Arabia in al-Riyad. 

In addition to the Dawasir, small numbers of 
SubayS the Suhul, and the Fulfil live in al-Afladj. 
Remnants of Djumayla are found at al-Haddar. 
Ashrdf form an important part of the population 
of al-Sayh. Negro blood is often seen in the towns, 
and there are many folk of Banu Khadir [q.v.], 
mainly tillers of the soil (hadddd, pi. hawddid). 

The dates of al-Afladj are famous. Both al- 
Hamdanl and Philby mention the sufri variety 
(called by al-Hamdani sayyid al-tumur, though the 
present inhabitants regard the siri as the sayyid), 



234 



L-AFLADJ — aflAtOn 



and Nasir reckoned the dates of al-Afladj better 
than those of al-Basra. 

Bibliography: Hamdani, index, s.v. al-Faladj; 
Nasir-i Khusraw, Safar-ndma (Schefer), 80-1, 
transl. 220-2 ; J. G. Lorimer, Gazetteer of the Persian 
Gulf, c Omdn, and Central Arabia, Calcutta 1908-15; 
H. St.-J. B. Philby, The Heart of Arabia; idem, 
Two Notes from Central Arabia (with map of al- 
Afladj), G], 1949, 86-93; Ibn Bulayhid, Sahih 
al-Akhbdr. (G. Rentz and W. E. Mulligan) 
AFLAKl, Shams al-Din Ahmad, biographer 
of the saints of the Mawlawiyya [q.v.], was 
a disciple of Djalal al-DIn Rami's grandson, Djalal 
al-Din al-'Arif, at whose request he wrote the 
Manakib al- l Arifin, lives of Djalal al-Din RumI, 
his father, successors and associates, begun in 718/ 
1318-9, completed in 754/1353-4- Edition: Agra 
1897; Fr. transl. by CI. Huart, Les saints des derviches 
tourneurs, Paris 1918-22; Engl, transl. of extracts: 
The Mesnevi, Book the first, transl. by J. W. Redhouse, 
London 1881, 1-135. There isarevised version by 'Abd 
al-Wahhab al-Hamadanl (947/1540-1), with additional 
dates, etc., and a Turkish translation of this work. 
Bibliography: Storey, i, 937 ff-; CI. Huart, 
in J A, 1922, 308 ff.; M. F. Kopriilii, in Bell., 1943, 
383, 422-3, 425; H. Ritter, in Isl., 1942, 129 ff. 

(F. Meier) 
AFLATON Arabic for Plato, the Greek 
philosopher, who became, together with Aristotle, 
the standard philosopher in late Greek philosophy, 
(i) Works and doctrine; (ii) Lives; (iii) Sayings, 
(i) Plato is known to Arab authors according to 
the different ways in which his genuine works or 
those erroneously attributed to him were read and 
studied in the Greek sections of the Roman Empire 
during the centuries preceding the Arab conquest 
of Hellenized lands in the Eastern Mediterranean. 
Most Arab thinkers did not consider Plato the main 
representative of Greek thought as St. Augustine 
e.g. had done (Civ. Dei, viii, 4, 12) but subordinated 
him to Aristotle; they were however like e.g. Por- 
phyry, Ammonius and Simplicius aware of an 
identity of purpose and a basic agreement between 
the two great philosophers. 

Just as commentaries on Aristotle written outside 
the Neoplatonic schools survived in Arabic trans- 
lations and, partly, in Arabic translations only (as 
in the case of certain writings of Alexander of 
Aphrodisias and Themistius, etc.), interpretations 
of Plato, untinged by Neoplatonism, found their 
way to the Arabic philosophers and were studied by 
them. Part of Galen's (Djallnus [q.v.]) FIXaTwvixciv 
SiaX6ya>v oiivo^i? in eight books, lost in the Greek 
original but still partly accessible to Hunayn b. 
Ishak (Ma Turdiima min Kutub Didlinus (Berg- 
strasser), no. 124) and his school, has been traced 
and recently published, viz. the summary of the 
whole of the Timaeus, with many verbal quotations, 
a fragment of his paraphrase of the Republic, a 
fragment of his summary of the Laws and a reference 
to his summary of the Parmenides (P. Kraus and 
R. Walzer, Plato Arabus, i, 1951). Fragments of his 
medical commentary on the Timaeus (Hunayn, 
no. 122) have been recovered from Arabic medical 
writers (H. O. Schroder and P. Kahle, Corpus 
Medicorum Graecorum, Supplementum, i, 1934). 
Many quotations from Plato and references to him 
reached the Islamic world through translations of 
other works by Galen. As had happened in the 
case of Aristotle, late Greek philosophers tried to 
arrange Plato's dialogues in systematic order. An 
otherwise unknown work of this type, completely free 



from Neoplatonic influence and still fully aware of 
the political aspects of Plato's thought, was used 
and partly reproduced by al-Farabl (F. Rosenthal 
and R. Walzer, Plato Arabus, ii, 1943). The author 
of the Greek treatise, who had even regarded this 
systematic ordering of the dialogues as a chrono- 
logical arrangement by date of composition, is 
unknown. A commentary on the Republic of 
similar provenience • was widely used by al-Farabl; 
it constitutes the main part of Ibn Rushd's com- 
mentary which is available in a Hebrew translation 
and a 16th century Latin one (edition in preparation 
by E. J. Rosenthal). A summary of Plato's Laws, of 
a similar type, was used by al-Farabl in his compen- 
dium of the work (F. Gabrieli, Plato Arabus, iii, 
1952). Al-Razi commented on Plutarch's commentary 
on the Timaeus (S. Pines, Atomenlehre, 90) and 
Yahya b. <Adi copied Plutarch's book (Fihrist, 246). 
But, in general, Arabic philosophers look at 
Plato through the eyes of his Neoplatonic inter- 
preters, Plotinus [cf. AL-SHAYigj al-yOnAnI], Por- 
phyry (Furflriyus [q.v.]), Proclus (Buruklus [q.v.]) and 
others. In the preface to his translation of a fragment 
of Proclus' commentary on the Timaeus (89E-90C: 
E. Pfaff, Corpus Medicorum Graecorum, Supplemen- 
tum, iii, p. xlii, 1941) Hunayn b. Ishak (cf. also Ma 
Turdiima, no. 45) says: "Galen is the standard 
interpreter of Hippocrates, and the man who is 
best entitled to explain the meaning of Plato's 
words is Proclus the most famous of scholars". An 
instructive example of this Proclean interpretation 
of Plato is to be found in Miskawayh's al-Fawz al- 
A sghar, in the section on the immortality of the soul 
(F. Rosenthal, 399 ff.), based probably on Proclus' 
work On the immortality of the soul according to Plato, 
in three books, which was known to the Arabs 
(Fihrist, 252). A tradition of this kind is followed 
by al-Kindl, in whom the Platonic element is strong 
(cf. RasdHl (Abu Rida), nos. 10-13) not only in psy- 
chology but also in his extremely orthodox neopla- 
tonic metaphysics of the One and in his ethics. The 
Plato to whom al-Farabi (with the exception of his 
theory of the ideal state), Ibn Sina, Ibn Badjdja 
and Ibn Rushd refer is, whether explicitly or 
implicitly, always the Plato of Plotinus and his 
followers. Yabya b. 'Adi had Olympiodorus' (6th 
century A.D.) commentary on the Sophist (lost in 
the Greek original) in his library (Fihrist, 256) in 
the translation of Ishak b. Hunayn. We rind an 
interesting account of Plato's metaphysics, cos- 
mology and psychology, derived from an unknown 
but valuable neoplatonic source, in al-Shahrastani, 
283 ff. (German transl. by Th. Haarbrucker, ii, 117). 
On the whole, since Neopiatonism claims to be a 
reinterpretation of Plato, influential Neoplatonic 
writings deserve to be mentioned here as well, the 
Theology of Aristotle, in which Aristotle is supposed 
to have become a Platonist in his old age, the Liber 
de causis based on Proclus' Elements of Theology, the 
new Plotinian text discovered by P. Kraus (cf. 
Bibliography) and the Arabic Plotinus source 
discussed by F. Rosenthal [cf. aristOtalis and 
al-shaykh al-yunanI]. 

A new development starts with al-Suhrawardi al- 
Maktul [q.v.] and the Ishrakis [q.v.], who, criticizing 
al-Farabi and Ibn Sina, emphasize the mystical 
aspects of Platonism, or rather Neoplatonism, and 
make Plato the mystic the chief authority in 
philosophy. The Sufis now become the true followers 
of Plato (cf. e.g. al-Suhrawardi, Opera Metaphysica 
et Mystica (Corbin), i, p. viii, xxxiiiff.). An anon- 
ymous book On the Platonic Ideas (ed. C A. Badawi, 



Cairo 1947), written probably in the 14th century 
(Corbin, op. cit., 4, n. 79), depends on al-Suhrawardl's 
strange interpretation of the Platonic ideas. 

Another special tradition of Platonism is repre- 
sented by Muhammad b. Zakariyya* al-RazI [».».), 
who also claims to follow Plato as his main authority. 
His Platonising ethics (cf. al-Tibb al-Ruhdnl) may 
be connected with his study of Galen, and his 
rejection of the eternity of the world with the 
interpretation of the Timaeus put forward by 
Plutarch and Galen, but his five eternal principles 
are of Neopythagorean provenience, although he 
considered them to be Platonic. His theory of the 
atomic structure of matter may go back to Plato's 
lecture On the Good'it is certainly found in a neopy- 
thagorean version of Plato's metaphysics (Sextus 
Empiricus, Advtrsus Physicos, ii, 249 ff.). 

The Arabic bibliographers list the titles of all the 
dialogues to be found in the Greek Corpus Platonicum, 
but give little information about Arabic translations. 
They mention a commentary on the Republic 
{translated by Hunayn b. Isljak); translations of 
the Timaeus by YahyS b. al-Bitrik, Hunayn b. 
Isljak and Yaljya b. 'AdI. (Hunayn wrote also 
a treatise That which ought to be read before Plato's 
works.) Ibn al-Nadlm also mentions a copy of the 
Crito in Yaljya b. 'Adi's handwriting. Part of 
Proclus' commentary on the Phaedo (lost in the Greek 
original) was translated from the Syriac by Ibn Zur'a. 

No manuscripts of these or other Arabic trans- 
lations of a Platonic dialogue have so far been traced. 
A verbal quotation from the Republic (apart from 
the more or less verbal references in Ibn Rushd's 
paraphrase and references to its contents in works 
of other philosophers) occurs e.g. in the Rasd'il 
Ikhwdn al-$afd>, Cairo 1347, iv, 134 (the story about 
Gyges, Rep., ii, 359 ff., cf. Rosenthal, 397). Al- 
Kindi wrote a treatise on the Platonic number 
{Rep., viii; Fihrist, 256). Quotations from the 
Timaeus occur frequently, but it is difficult to 
decide whether they are taken from Plato or from 
some intermediary. For the quotations from the 
Laws to be found in al-Biruni's India cf. F. Rosen- 
thal, 359 f. and F. Gabrieli, Plato Arabus, iii, p. xii, 
n. 2. There are numerous quotations from the 
Phaedo in the same work. The closing section on 
Socrates' death is to be found e.g. in Ibn al-Kifti, 
200-6 and Ibn Abl Usaybi'a, i, 45. A Persian version 
of the dialogue exists in Brusa (Bell., 1952, 114)- 
The Alcibiades-speech from the Banquet has been 
traced by F. Rosenthal in Istanbul, Koprulu 1608, 
fol. 216. Persistent research will no doubt trace more 
quotations of Platonic dialogues in Arabic philos- 
ophical and non-philosophical writings. 

Among the pseudepigrapha of a philosophical 
kind can be mentioned: the neophythagorean 
treatise Plato's Exhortation of young men, probably 
of Greek origin (F. Rosenthal, Orientalia, x, 383-95), 
a letter by Plato addressed to Porphyry (!) about 
the banishment of grief, depending on a treatise on 
consolation by al-Kindi (Mash., 1922, 884-9, see 
H. Ritter-R. Walzer, Memorie Ac. dei Lincei, 1940, 
388 n. 2) and Plato's will addressed to Aristotle. 
But the Arabs are acquainted not only with the 
different interpretations of Plato's thought which 
are familiar to the student of Greek philosophy but 
also with a Plato who had been associated with the 
superstitions which had become an integral part of 
the teaching of most of the neopla tonic schools: 
magic, astrology and alchemy (Olympiodorus and 
other late Neoplatonists had dabbled in alchemy 
and made Plato their patron). The Arabs went a 



FUN 235 

step further and made Plato the author of alchemical 
works. DiSbir quotes a Musahhahdt A f latin in 
which Plato initiates his disciple Timaeus in the 
secrets of alchemy; but the passages of the Timaeus 
referred to by Djabir have nothing to do with the 
original dialogue of Plato (P. Kraus, Jabir et la 
science grecque, 48 ff.). Another work of a similar 
character, a philosophical alchemical book attributed 
to Plato is the Rawdbi* Aflafun known to the West 
as Liber Quartorum and preserved in two Arabic MSS. 
It contains a dialogue between Ahmad b. al-Husayn 
b. Djahar Bukhtar and the well known Harranian 
mathematician and astronomer Thabit b. Kurra 
(P. Kraus, op. cit., 51, 339). Another alchemical 
treatise, the Liber Platonis de XIII clavibus, is 
supposed to have been translated from the Arabic 
into Latin in A.D. 1301 (L. Thomdike, A History 
of Magic, iii, 57). Cf. also Kraus, op. cit., 51, n. 9. 

Among the magical treatises ascribed to Plato the 
al-Nawdmls, which deals with artificial generation, 
appears to be worth mentioning (P. Kraus, op. cit., 
104 and n. 12), as well as al-Sirr al-Khafi (ibid., 52). 

(ii) The Arabic "Lives of Plato" do not add 
anything substantial to the material to be found 
in the Greek tradition as represented by Diogenes 
Laertius, book iii, Olympiodorus, and the Prole- 
gomena to the Platonic philosophy by an anonymous 
Neoplatonist (cf. H. Breitenbach, F. Buddenhagen, 
A. Debrunner, F. von der Muehll, Diogenes Laertius 
III, 1907; J. Kirchner, Prosopographia Attica, no. 
1 1855). There is, however, no direct connection 
between them and any of the Greek texts known. 
Part of the Arabic tradition can be traced back to 
an introductory work by Theo of Smyrna (2nd 
century A.D.), referred to by the Fihrist, 245, 
and quoted at length by Ibn al-Kif{I, 17-9 (cf. 
J. Lippert, Studien auf dem Gebiete der griechisch- 
arabischen Vbersetzungslitteratur, i, Braunschweig 
1898, 39 ff-)- The Fihrist refers also to (Ps.-) Plutarch, 
see H. Diels, Doxographi Graeci, 287. Al-'Amiri, a 
philosopher of the 4th/ioth century (quoted in the 
Abbreviation of Abu Sulayman al-Mantikl's $iwdn 
al-Hihma, introduction), probably following some 
lost Greek tradition, made Plato one of the five 
pillars of wisdom, the others being Empedocles, 
Pythagoras, Socrates and Aristotle (Anbaduklis, 
Futhaghuras, SukrS*, Aristutalls [qq.v.]); these 
philosophers derived their wisdom from the Prophets. 
According to him Plato retired in old age into 
solitude and prayer. He also gives an account of 
Plato's solution of the Delian problem (cf. Plutarch, 
De gen. Socr., 7, p. 579; idem De Ei ap. Delphos, 6, 
p. 386; Tannery, La Giomitrie grecque, no; al- 
Kazwini, Athdr al-Bildd (Wiistenfeld), 45 ; Lutfl al- 
Maktul, TadHf al-Madhbah (S. Yaltkaya, A. Adnan, 
H. Corbin), Paris 1940). On him depends Sa'id al- 
Andalusi, Tabakdt al-Umam, 23; Sa'ids life was used, 
as a minor source, by Ibn al-Kifti, passim. 

The life in Mubashshir b. Fa'tik's MukJUdr al- 
Hikam (MS Brit. Mus. Add. 25893, fol. 44 ff.; on 
this work cf. F. Rosenthal, in Orientalia, 1937, 
21 ff.) was copied by Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, i, 50 ff. 
He made both Plato's parents descendants of 
Asclepius, probably misinterpreting the epigram 
to be found in Diog. Laertius, iii, 45 (cf. E. J. and 
and L. Edelstein, Asclepius, Baltimore 1945, i, 
no. 322, ii, 127). Alone among the Arab biographers 
he mentions Plato's supposed stay in Egypt. For the 
physiognomical section cf. F. Rosenthal, loc. cit., 38. 
Ibn al-Kifti based his long and detailed life 
(17-27) on the Fihrist, on Theo of Smyrna (cf. above) 
and on an unidentified Greek source (19 line 16-25 



236 



AFLATON — AFRASIYAB 



1. 3). There are Greek parallels to almost everything 
mentioned. Stories similar to the discussions reported 
to have taken place at Dionysius' court (21) are to 
be found in Olympiodorus' Life and in Plutarch's 
Dio. There are a very few confusions, such as the 
story of Socrates' stay in Sicily and the introduction 
of Plato's two female disciples as his wives and the 
inclusion of Proclus among his pupils. The section 
25 4 -26" is taken from al-Farabi (cf. the anonymous 
Proll. Phil. Plat., cap. 7-16) ; 26"-27" reproduces 
Sa'id al-AndalusI, 19. Plato's prayer in neoplatonic 
language (27""') is worth mentioning (cf. also MS 
Oxford, Hunt. 162, fol. 202r). 

Al-Shahrazuri's account of Plato's life in his 
Nuzhat al-Arwdh (in MS) is based on Mubashshir. 
In later centuries Plato's tomb could be visited 
at Konya (F. W. Hasluck, Christianity and Islam 
under the Sultans, ' Oxford 1929, 363 and passim). 
(iii) The main source for the various compilations 
of sayings of Plato is Hunayn b. Ishak's Nawddir al- 
Faldsifa wa 'l-Hukamd' (cf . the Hebrew transl., ed. by 
A. Lowenthal, Frankfurt 1896, and translated by 
him into German, Berlin 1896; and K. Merkle, 
Sinnspriiche der Philosophen, Leipzig 1921). Another 
primary source is Ibn Hindu, al-Kalim al-Ruhdniyya 
fi 'l-Hikam al-Yundniyya, Cairo 13 18. The life in 
the Abbreviation of Abu Sulayman's Siwdn al- 
Hikma contains only sayings. Ibn Abi Usaybi c a, i, 
5i 7 -53 16 , reproduces the section on sayings to be 
found in Mubashshir. Sayings attributed to Plato 
occur very often in Arabic literature. 

Bibliography : A. Miiller, Die griechischen 
Philosophen in der arabischen Vberlieferung, Halle 
1873; M. Steinschneider, Die arabischen Vber- 
setzungen aus dem Griechischen, Centralblatt fur 
Bibliothekswesen, 1893; F. Rosenthal, On the 
knowledge of Plato's Philosophy in the Islamic 
world, IC, 1940, 387 ff.; idem, As-Sayh al-Yundni 
and the Arabic Plotinus source, Orientalia, 1952 ff.; 
P. Kraus, Plotin chez Us Arabes, BIE, 1941, 293 ff. 

(R. Walzer) 
AFRAG (Berber, "enclosure"), term adopted in 
Morocco since the Almohad period for the enclo- 
sure of cloth, which isolates the encampment of 
the sovereign and his suite from the rest of the camp. 
It corresponds to the Persian sardla or sardparda. 
AFRASIYAB, legendary king of the Tura- 
nians according to Iranian tradition. In the 
Avesta (especially Yasht xix) "Frangrasyan the 
Turian" was an adversary of Kavi Haosrava 
(> Kay Khusraw), having treacherously murdered 
Kavi Haosrava's father Syavarshan (> Siyawush). 
He vainly desired to secure the hvarna, "the Glory 
of the Aryans", and was killed, in revenge, by Kavi 
Haosrava. He may have been originally a historical 
figure, chief of the Turian tribes (who were probably 
themselves of Iranian race [cf. turan]). The Pahlavi 
form of the name is Frasiyab. Some additional 
details about him are given in the religious literature 
(Bundahishn, etc.). His genealogy is given, his first 
ancestor being Tu£ (Tur, ancestor of the Turanians), 
son of Fredon (> Faridun [q.v.]). His incursions are 
said to have started in the reign of Manushiihr: he 
defeated the latter and gained dominion over Iran. 
Subsequently Uzaw (> Zaw or Zab) delivered Iran 
from his domination ; Frasiyab tried to recapture the 
"Glory" and sought it in all the seven keshwars. 
Frasiyab's residence (the subterranean fortress of the 
Yashts, where Frangrasyan lived "surrounded by 
iron") is described in detail. In the end Frasiyab 
was killed by Kay Khusraw. Thus in the development 
of the legend after the period of the Yashts Frasiyab 



became the chief of the Turanians in all their wars, 
not only against the Kayanids but also against their 
predecessors, the "PIshdadids": he thus became a 
contemporary of Manushcihr and Uzaw; his end, 
however, is still firmly connected with Kay Khusraw. 
The Islamic authors derived their information 
from secular books on the national tradition, more 
especially the Khwaddy-ndmak. Many additional 
details are to be found. Afrasiyab fought with 
Manushihr in Tabarisian; then they reached an 
agreement, making the river of Balkh the boundary 
between their territories. Siyawush, sent by Kay 
Ka'us with an army against Afrasiyab, concluded 
an armistice with him, which was repudiated by Kay 
Ka'Os. Siyawush took refuge with Afrasiyab who 
married him to his daughter Wisfafaridh (al-Tabari ; 
Firdawsi: Faringis), but nevertheless murdered him, 
out of jealousy. Wisfafaridh, pregnant with Kay 
Khusraw. escaped and was taken back to Iran by the 
hero Gew (Bayy, Waww). Rustam and Tus then ravag- 
ed the land of Turin, to avenge Siyawush. The reign of 
Kay Khusraw was filled with wars against Afrasiyab 
(details in al-Tabari, i, 605 ff . ; cf . also index, s. v. ; 
al-Tha c alibi. Histoire des rois de la Perse (Zotenberg), 
222 ff.; Firdawsi, Shdh-ndma (Vullers), ii, 764-iii, 
1444). After the final battle Afrasiyab fled from 
Turkistin and hid in Adharbaydjan, but was caught, 
and killed by Kay Khusraw with his own hands. 

The Turanians having been identified with the 
Turks [see turan], Afrasiyab was regarded as a 
Turk; this is strongly emphasized in the Shdh- 
ndma. Turkish dynasties therefore sometimes claimed 
him as their ancestor: thus the Kara Khanid [q.v.] 
dynasty is also called Al Afrasiyab, and the Saldjuks 
claimed descent from him. (Cf. W. Barthold, Hist, 
des Turcs d'Asie Centrale, 70,84). 

Bibliography: A. Christensen, Les Kayanides, 
Copenhagen 1932, index, s. vv. Frarjrasyan and 
FrasiyaP (with further references to Islamic 
authors) ; F. Wolff, Glossar zu Firdosis Schahname, 
Berlin 1935, s.v. Cf. also pishdadids, kayanids. 

(S. M. Stern) 
AFRASIYAB founder of a line of governors 
of Basra (Al Afrasiyab). He was an officer of 
unknown racial origin, who purchased the govern- 
ment of Basra from the local pasha about 1021/1612. 
Afrasiyab was succeeded by his son 'All in 1034/ 
1624-5, during an attack on Basra by Persian 
forces, which failed in face of 'All's resistance. A 
second Persian attempt in 1038/1629 was equally 
unsuccessful. During the Turco-Persian struggle for 
Baghdad, 'All Pasha took neither part and continued 
to govern his province independently. The succession 
of his son Husayn (c. 1062/1652) led to internal 
conflicts, of which advantage was taken by Murtada 
Pasha of Baghdad to evict Husayn in 1064/1654 and 
replace him by c Ali's brother Ahmad. Murtada's 
subsequent execution of Ahmad led to a rising of 
the local population and tribesmen and the restoration 
of Husayn Pasha. His attempts to extend his power 
over al-Hasa were followed by a full-scale expedition 
against him led by Ibrahim (Tawll), pasha of 
Baghdad, in 1076/1665. After a prolonged siege of 
Kurna, Husayn abdicated in favour of his son 
Afrasiyab, but continued to govern as regent until 
a second expedition from Baghdad under Kara 
Mustafa (Firari) Pasha drove him out and restored 
the imperial government in 1078/1668. 

Bibliography : Murtada Nazmi-zade, Gulshan-i 
Klmlat<P, Istanbul 1730; Fath Allah al-Ka c bI, 
Zdd al-Musdfir, Baghdad 1924; Muh. Agha 
Kh w adja-zade, Ta'rikh al-Silihddr, vol. i, Baghdad 



afrAsiyAb - 



1928: Sidfill-i c Uthmdni, i, 108; ii, 195; iii, 513; 
iv, 400: J. B. Tavernier, Les Six Voyages, Paris 
1676 etc., Eng. trans. London 1678; S. H. Longrigg, 
Four Centuries of Modem '■Iraq, Oxford 1925, 
99-117; 'Abbas al-'Azzawi, Ta'rikh al-'Iral} bayna 
Ihtildlayn, vol. v, Baghdad 1953, 21-101. 

(H. A. R. Gibb) 
AFRASIYABIDS, also called (by Rabino) the 
Kiyas of Culab or Calab (after one of the eight 
buluhs of Amul, and (by Sachau), the Kiya Djalawl, 
minor dynasty of Mazandaran. The eponym of 
the clan, Afrasiyab b. Kiya Hasan, was a sipdh- 
salar in the service of his brother-in-law, Fakhr 
al-Dawla Hasan Bawand [see bAwand]. Kiya 
Afrasiyab conspired with his sister, who had a 
daughter from a previous marriage, accused the 
Bawand of taking this girl as his mistress, and 
obtained from the 'ulama of Amul a fatwa author- 
izing the death of the culprit. At the same time, 
the Bawand put to death his minister, Kiya Djalal 
al-DIn Ahmad b. Djalal, a member of the powerful 
family of the Kiya-yi Djalall. This filled the nobles 
with anger and consternation and obliged the 
Bawand to seek the friendship of the Kiyas of 
Culab, old rivals of the Kiya-yi Djalall. The recon- 
ciliation of the two families gave Kiya Afrasiyab 
liberty of action, and finally the Bawand was 
assassinated in a bath, on 27 Muharram 750/17 
April 1349, by 'All and Muhammad, sons of Afrasiyab 
(or by the latter alone, according to Justi). With the 
death of Fakhr al-Dawla, the dynasty of the Bawand, 
which had ruled for 750 years (45-750/665-1349) 
came to an end, and Kiya Afrasiyab took over the 
power in Amul (and Sari?; J A, 1943-5, 237). Seeing 
that most of the officers of his former master refused 
to submit to him, he tried to make use of religion 
and became the disciple of the darwish leader 
Kawam al-DIn Mar'ashi, called Mir-i Buzurg, hoping 
that the veneration of the population of Amul for 
the latter would restrain them from rebellion. After 
ten years of rule, however, Kiya Afrasiyab was 
defeated and killed, together with his three sons, 
by the same darwishes in the battle of Dialalakmar- 
parcin, in 760/1359. 

Mir-i Buzurg established himself as governor of 
Amul and thus founded the dynasty of the Mar'ashi 
[q.v.~\ sayyids (760-989/1359-1581). In the same year, 
a member of Afrasiyab's clan, Kiya Fakhr al-DIn 
Djalawl, murdered 'Abd Allah, son of Mir-i Buzurg, 
and was himself executed with his four sons; Kiya 
Gushtasp (Wishtas) also, another brother-in-law of 
the last Bawand, was killed with his seven children. 
The Kiyas of Culab re-emerge only with Iskan- 
dar-i Shaykhl, eighth son of Kiya Afrasiyab, who 
took refuge at Harat, led an adventurous life and 
eventually entered the service of Tlmur. In 795/ 
1392-3 Timur invaded Mazandaran, took the fortress 
of Mahana-Sar near Amul, sacked Amul and Sari, 
deported the Mar'ashi sayyids and appointed 
Iskandar as governor. Having returned with the 
invader, Iskandar enjoyed little popularity, all the 
less that he ordered the mausoleum of Mir-i Buzurg 
at Sari to be demolished. In 802/1400-1 Iskandar 
accompanied Timur on his expedition to 'Irak, 
Adharbaydjan, Anatolia and Syria, then, having 
obtained permission to return to Amul, he rebelled. 
In 805/1403-4 Timur marched into Mazandaran in 
pursuit of Iskandar, who fled into the forest with 
his wife and two small children, and fearing that 
he might be betrayed by their cries he killed them 
together with their mother. Finally he was killed at 
Shirud Du-Hazar, and the officers of Timur sent 



his head to his son Husayn Kiya who was holding 
out in the fortress of Firuz Kiih and now hastened 
to surrender it. Another son, 'All Kiya, had fallen 
into the hands of Timur's troops. Timur pardoned 
the two brothers and Husayn Kiya continued 
to rule over Firuz Kuh. His son, Luhrasp b. 
Husayn b. Iskandar ruled over Talakan in 880/ 
1479-80. In his turn, amir Husayn (Hasan ?; 
Sachau) b. 'All b. Luhrasp ruled over part of 
Rustamdar and the mountainous region of Firuz 
Kuh, Damawand and Hari Riid. In 909/1503 Shah 
Isma'Il I, after taking the fortresses of Gulkhandan 
and Firuz Kiih, laid siege to the fortress of Wusta, 
where the amir Husayn Kiya had taken refuge. 
Forced to surrender, he shortly afterwards committed 
suicide at Aywan-i Rasul Wad (Kabud-Gunbad). 
The last member of the family, amir Suhrab Culab, 
keeper of the fortress of Ardahin in Sawdj-bulak, 
was confirmed in his post by the Shah. 

Bibliography: Zambaur, 188; E. Sachau, 

Verzeichniss muh. Dynastien, 7; F. Justi, Iranisches 

Namenbuch, 103; W. Barthold, Istorikogeograf. 

obzor Irana, 155-61; H. L. Rabino, Dynasties 

ataouides du Mazandaran, J A, 1927, 253-77; idem, 

Dynasties de Mazandaran, J A, 1936, 397-474; 

idem, L'histoire du Mazandaran, JA, 1943-5, 218, 

221, 236, 237; idem, Mazandaran and Astrabad, 

1928, 40, 142. (B. Nikitine) 

AFRlDl, the name of a large and powerful 

Pathan tribe, with an estimated fighting strength 

of 50,000, on the northwest frontier of Pakistan. 

The territories inhabited by the Afridls stretch 

from the eastern spurs of the Safid Kuh through the 

northern half of Tirah and the Khyber (Khaybar) 

[q.v.] pass to the west and south of the Peshawar 

district. On the east they are bounded by the settled 

districts of Pakistan; on the north by the territories 

of the Mohmunds; on the west by the Shinwaris; 

and on the south by the Orakzays and Bangash 

tribes. They are divided into eight clans. In and 

around the Khyber Pass are to be found the KukI 

Khel. Malikdin Khel, Kambar Khel, Kamrals, 

Zakka Khel, and SipSh. These six clans are generally 

referred to as the Khyber Afridls. The Aka Khel 

Afridis have no connection with the Khyber and are 

located to the south of the Bara river. The Adam 

Khel Afridls inhabit the hills between the districts of 

Kohat and Peshawar. 

The origin of the AfridI, or as they call themselves, 
Apridi tribes has always puzzled ethnologists. H.W. 
Bellew (JRAS, 1887, 504) identified them with the 
' Aroxpuxoa of Herodotus. This has been accepted by 
G. A. Grierson (Linguistic Survey of India, x, 5) and 
A. Stein (JRAS, 1925, 404). But the name does not 
occur in the Achaemenian inscriptions, and it is 
doubtful whether Herodotus intended to describe the 
'AirapUTal as dwelling where the Afridls now are. 
H. G. Raverty (Notes on Afghanistan, 1888, 94), 
relying on what are probably fictitious genealogies, 
believed them to be of Pathan or Afghan origin, the 
descendants of a supposed eponymous ancestor 
Karlan. The derivation of the name AfridI in the 
Uaydt-i Afghani of Muhammad Hayat Khan (Engl, 
transl.: Afghanistan, Lahore 1874, 201), from dfrida 
(a creature of God) is also evidently a modern fabri- 
cation. According to Grierson (JRAS, 1925, 405-16) 
the modern AfridI country of Tirah was at one time 
occupied by a people speaking a language still 
known as Tirahi which resembles the Dardic langua- 
ges of the HindQ-kush. It seems probable, therefore, 
that the Afridls, although speaking Pashto, contain 
a large, if not predominant racial element, which was 



established in Tirah long before the advent of those 
Pashto-speaking Afghan invaders who gradually 
pushed their way into the belt of hills and alluvial 
plains to the west of the Indus between the 13th and 
16th centuries. 

Their position athwart the Khyber Pass connec- 
ting India with Afghanistan made it extremely 
difficult for the Mughal emperors of Hindustan to 
maintain safe communications with their outlying 
province of Kabul. In the reign of Akbar, incited by 
the preaching of Bayazld, the founder of the Rawsha- 
niyya [q.v.] sect of heretics, and of his son Dialal 
al-Din, they attacked Mughal troops and caravans 
passing through the Khyber. They were forced into 
submission by Akbar's forces in 1587 and in the 
following year agreed, in return for allowances, to 
keep the pass open for traffic. They were however 
only temporarily subdued and expeditions had to be 
undertaken against them in the reigns of Diahanglr 
and Awrangzib. Djahangir deported many Afridis 
to Hindustan and Deccan, where their descendants 
are still to be found. After the establishment of the 
Afghan kingdom by Ahmad Shah Durrani the 
Afridis were nominally subject to him and are men- 
tioned in the register of his army; according to it 
the tribe counted 19,000 fighting men. 

The first skirmish of British troops with the Afridis 
dates back to the invasion of Afghanistan during 
the first Afghan War of 1839-42. From the annexation 
of the Pandjab in 1849 to the formation of the North- 
west Frontier Province in 1901 no less than eight 
expeditions were required against these unruly clans. 
The first was against the Kohat Pass Afridis in 1850. 
In 1853, troops were sent against the Pjawakl 
Afridis, a clan of the Adam Khel Afridis. Punitive 
measures were necessary against the Aka Khel 
Afridis in 1855. Expeditions were necessary against 
the Djawaki Afridis in 1877 and 1878; and against 
the Zakka Khel Afridis in 1878 and 1879. The Zakka 
Khels of the Khyber and the adjacent Bazar valley 

the Afridl clans. Inhabiting lands stretching from the 
slopes of the Safld Kuh to the border of Peshawar 
they have been able to force their neighbours to 
pay exorbitant tolls for the privilege of passing 
through their territories. The first agreement with 
the Zakka Khels was during the Indian Mutiny of 
1857 (Aitchison, xi, 92-6). This was observed until 
the Second Afghan War, 1878-80, when the peace of 
the Khyber and the whole frontier zone was abnor- 
mally disturbed. Zakka Khel attacks on the Khyber 
lines of communication forced the British, in 1878 
and 1879, to enter their country, destroy their crops, 
and raze their forts and villages to the ground. On 
17 Febr. 1881, the Khyber Afridis, together with the 
Loargi Shinwaris of Landi Kotal, accepted responsi- 
bility for the safety of the Khyber; and in return 
for the recognition of their independence, agreed to 
have no dealings with other foreign powers. At the 
same time arrangements were made for the protection 
of the Khyber by a force of djazaHKls (tribal levies), 
to be paid by the Government of India (Aitchison, 
xi, 97-9). The Afridis were the last to join in the 
general frontier conflagration of 1897 and were only 
forced to come to terms after extremely severe 
fighting in the Tirah campaign of 1897-8. At the end 
of this campaign the previous system of allowances 
which had proved so successful for seventeen years, 
1881-97, were once more adopted. At the same time 
the Khyber Rifles were reorganized under British 
officers supported by a movable column at Peshawar. 
This agreement, under which the British became 



responsible for the Khyber Rifles and for the safety 
of the pass, regulated British relations with the 
Afridis until the year 1908 {Parliamentary Papers, 
1908, lxxiv, Cd. 4210, pp. 14-5). 

Towards the end of 1904 large numbers of Afridis 
visited Kabul. This was followed by small marauding 
incursions into British territory, in which the Zakka 
Khels, assisted by other Afridl clans, by Orakzays, 
and even by bands of Afghan outlaws, such as the 
Hazarnao gang, were the chief offenders. From 1905 
to 1908 bands of well-armed Afridis ravaged the 
British borders. An attack by a gang of about eighty 
men upon Peshawar city, on the night of 28 January 
1908, exhausted the patience of the Government of 
India, and in that year, the Zakka Kh61s were speedily 
coerced by troops under the command of Major- 
General Sir James Willcocks. The entry of Turkey 
into the First World War, in November 1914, created 
considerable excitement on the frontier. One of the 
great dangers on the frontier has always been the 
possible attitude of the Afridl clans whose lead in 
war the other tribes are usually prepared to follow. 
Fortunately for the peace of the Peshawar borders 
and possibly of the whole frontier, the mission of the 
so-called Turkish generals to Tirah failed because of 
a shortage of funds. The danger of an Afridl rising 
was averted when, on 1 February 1915 the Govern- 
ment of India decided to double their allowances. 
Quickly following the wake of the 1914-8 war 
came the Third Afghan War of 1919 which was the 
signal for risings along the entire frontier, and for 
the collapse of Lord Curzon's militia scheme. By 192 1 
the Afridl clans had made full submission. The 
Khyber Rifles were disbanded and their place taken 
by khdssaddrs, tribal levies paid by the Government of 
India but providing their own arms and ammunition. 
But there was a great danger of a recrudescence of 
Afrldi raiding because of the intrigues of the Aka 
Khel mulla, Sayyid Akbar, who denounced all 
tribesmen who had accepted British terms. His 
activities were checked when, in April 1921, the 
Afridl tribal djirga accepted new allowances in 
compensation for the increased tribal responsability 
involved in the construction of the Khyber railway 
(Secret Border Report, 1921-2, p. 1). In February 1922 
the Zakka KhSls agreed to pay a substantial fine for 
their past misdeeds. In the following year the peace 
of the Afrldi country was rudely disturbed by the 
exploits of the Kohat gang. Members of this gang were 
forced to seek refuge in Afghan territory where their 
immunity from punishment led to a diplomatic 
protest on the part of the Viceroy. The opening of 
the Khyber Railway from Djamrud to Landi Khana 
did not make for peace. The construction of this line 
had been a source of profit to the tribesmen but its 
completion reduced their allowances. From 1927 
to its settlement in March 1930 Tirah became the 
scene of a religious struggle between its Sunni and 
ShI'ite clans. In the spring of 1930 the Afridis came 
under the influence of Indian National Congress 
agitators with the result that Afridl lashkars (tribal 
forces) entered the Peshawar district and attacked 
the city of Peshawar in June and August of that 
year. By the end of August all raiding gangs had 
been expelled from the district. Since 1947 the 
Government of Pakistan has been responsible for 
the control of the Afridl clans. As recently as 
December 1952 the Afghan government has been 
accused of granting asylum to Afridl outlaws who 
had been organizing depredations into Pakistan. 
Bibliography: C.U. Aitchison, Treaties, Enga- 
gements and Sanads, 1909, xi; C. C. Davies, The 



AFRlDl — AFSHAR 



Problem of the North-West Frontier, Cambridge 1932; 
idem, British Relations with the A/ridis of the Khyber 
and Tirah, Army Quarterly, 1932; Frontier and 
Overseas Expeditions from India, ii, and Supplement 
A, 1908; H. D. Hutchinson, The Campaign in 
Tirah, London 1898; Th. Holdich, The Indian 
Borderland, London 1901, chs. xv-xvi; North- 
West Frontier Province Administration Reports 
(published annually); W. H. Paget and A. H. 
Mason, Record of Expeditions against the N.W.F. 
Tribes since the Annexation of the Punjab, 1888; 
Parliamentary Papers, 1908, LXXIV, Cd. 4201; 
R. Warburton, Eighteen years in the Khyber 
(1879-98), 1901. (C. Collin Davies) 

AFRlDCN [see farIdOn]. 

'AFRlN important right tributary of the 
Orontes (al-'Asi [q.v.]), which it reaches after 
joining with the Nahr Yaghra (Murad Pasha) in 
the Lake of Antioch and the Nahr al-Aswad (Kara-su), 
in the 'Arak. Its wide middle valley, between the 
Djabal Siman and the Kurd-dagh, was known in 
the Middle Ages as the district of the Djuma. The 
importance of the valley was due to the crossing of 
the road, which used it to connect Antioch with the 
districts of the upper Euphrates, with the roads 
which led from Cilicia and Asia Minor towards 
Aleppo and inner Syria. One of these roads, after 
passing the Amanus at the col of Baghras [q.v.] and 
following the shore of the Lake of Antioch, crossed 
the 'Afrin at the ford near modern Bellane (the 
"Ford of the Baleine" of the Crusaders). In the 
first centuries of Islam it was guarded on the south 
side by the small fortresses of Tizln, Artah, 'Imm 
and since the time of the Crusades by that of Harim 
[q.v.], which lay nearer to the Orontes. The other, 
more northern roads issued, after passing the Kurd- 
dagh, at the gap of c Azaz and passed the c Afrin 
either at the bridge of Kibar (now 'Afrin) or further 
up below the old capital of the region, Kuris 
(Cyrrhus). The new capitals were 'Azaz, outside the 
real basin of the 'Afrin, and Rawandan — of which 
important ruins are still preserved near one of the 
'Afrln's sources. Thus the valley of the 'Afrin served 
in the classical period of Islam as the main longi- 
tudinal line of communication in the western part 
of the military district of the 'Awasim [q.v.]. It 
was temporarily captured from Islam by the Byzan- 
tines in the 4th-5th/ioth-nth centuries, and by the 
Crusaders in the first half of the 6th/i2th century. 
At present it lies athwart the political and ethnical 
boundary between Turkey and Syria. 

Bibliography: The main medieval work on 
the geography of northern Syria is Ibn Shaddad's 
al-A c ldk al-Khdfira /» Qhikr Umard' al-Shdm wa 
'l-Diazira. partial ed. by Ledit, Mash., 1935 ; com- 
plete ed. (for Northern Syria) by D. Sourdel, to 
appear shortly. Modern accounts: R. Dussaud, 
Topographic historique de la Syrie, Paris 1927; E. 
Honigmann, Die Ostgreme des byzantinischen 
Reiches, Brussels 1935; CI. Cahen, La Syrie de 
Nord d I'ipoque des Croisades, Paris 1940; M. 
Canard, Histoire de la dynastie des Hamdanides, 
i, Algiers 1951. None of these deals with the 
Ottoman and modern periods, for which see 
Guide Bleu: Syrie — Palestine. For physical geog- 
raphy see S. Mazloum, L" Afrin, itude hydrologique, 
Paris 1939. (Cl. Cahen) 

'AFRlT [see 'ifrIt]. 

'AF$ denotes, according to Arab authors, the 
fruit of the oak or a similar tree and the 
tree itself. It actually is the gall, an excrescence 
which forms on certain kinds of trees and shrubs as 



the result of the sting of various insects. The Arabic 
term, however, was probably applied to the oak-gall 
in particular. It was maintained that the 'afs is 
produced either simultaneously or alternately with 
the acorn. 

In medieval Arab medicine the gall served chiefly 
as an intestinal astringent and a remedy for skin 
diseases. It was also said to strengthen the gums and 
preserve the teeth from caries. In different prepara- 
tions, chiefly in powdered form or boiled in vinegar 
or wine, it was applied both internally and externally. 
Frequent mention is also made of its use as a black 
hair-dye and as the main ingredient in the manu- 
facture of ink. Recipes for the latter are indicated 
by al-Kalkashandl. 

Bibliography: Da'ud al-Antakl, Tadhkira r 

Cairo 1935, i, 228; Ibn al-'Awwam, Fildha (transl. 

Clement-Mullet), ii/b, 265; Ibn al-Baytar, fifdmt', 

Bulak 1291, iii, 127-8; Kalkashandl, Subh al- 

A'shd, ii, 464-6; Kazwlnl, (Wvistenfeld), i, 259; 

I. Low, Aram. Pflanzennamen, index, s.v.: idem, 

Die Flora der Juden, i, 631-4; Maimonides, .'1W* 

Asmd 3 al- c Ukkdr (Meyerhof), no. 295; M. Stein- 

schneider, in WZKM, 1898, 220; Tuhfat al-Ahbdb 

(Renaud-Colin), no. 309. (L. Kopf) 

AFSANTlN, AfsintIn or, more rarely, IfsintIn 

(from Greek 4<|>tv0tov) mostly denotes the common 

wormwood (Artemisia Absinthium L.) but also 

other similar kinds of plants. In medical writing* 

it is often called kashAth rUmi. The cognate form 

isfinf (absinth-wine) already occurs in ancient 

Arabic poetry (Noldeke, in Low, 389). 

A good deal of the information which Arab 
authors offer on the afsantin goes back to classical 
sources. Its different kinds were generally classified 
according to their origin: Persian, Nabataean, 
Syrian, Egyptian, Khurasanian etc. That from 
Tyre and Tarsus was considered the best. The 
yellow flower in particular was put to diverse 
medicinal uses. Not only tonic and vermifugal but 
also laxative, diuretic and other properties were 
attributed to the plant. It was also recommended 
as an antitoxin. Externally it was used in piasters, 
oils etc. Its juice mixed with the ink was said to 
preserve the paper. In addition to many other 
applications it was also employed against the loss 
of hair (da 3 al-tha c lab). 

Bibliography: 'All al-Tabari, Firdaws al- 
Ifikma (Siddiqi), 418-9; Da'ud al-Antaki, Tadhkira, 
Cairo 1935, i, 49-50; Ghafiki (Meyerhof-Sobhy), 
no. 27; Ibn al-'Awwam, Fildha (transl. Clement- 
Mullet) ii/a, 302-3; Ibn al-Baytar, Dxdmi', Bulak 
1291, i,4i-4; Kazwlnl (Wustenfeld), i, 272; I. Low, 
Aram. Pflanzennamen, 81, 421; idem, Die Flora 
der Juden, i, 386-9: Maimonides, Sharh Asmd y 
al-'Ukkdr (Meyerhof), no. 3; Tuhfat al-Ahbab 
(Renaud-Colin), no. 1. (L. Kopf) 

AFSHAR (or Awshar), Oghuz (Ghuzz [q.v.]) 
tribe, first mentioned by al-Kashghari, Diwdn 
Lughdt al-Turk, i, 56; cf. also Rashld al-Din, Qiami'- 
al-Tawdrikh (Berezine), i, 32, according to whom 
Awshar was the grandson of Yildiz Khan, the third 
son of Oghuz Khan (whence Yazldjl-oghlu, Saldjuk- 
ndma, in MS; Abu '1-Ghazi, Shedjere-yi TurU 
(Desmaisons), 27; idem, Shedjere-yi Terdkime, 
Istanbul 1937, 42). They seem to have migrated 
westwards with the other Ghuzz tribes. An Afshar 
chieftain, Aydoghu b. Kushdoghan, known as 
Shumla, ruled in Khuzistan as a vassal of the 
Saldjuks (al-Bundari (Houtsma), 230, 287; al- 
Rawandi, Rdhat al-Sudur, 260; Ibn al-Athir, index, 
s.v. Shumla; Wassaf, ed. Bombay, ii, 149, writes 



Ya'kOb b. Arslan al-Afshari; "Husam al-DIn 
Shuhll" in Hamd Allah Mustawfi, Ta'rikh-i Guzlda, 
i, 547 — whence BidlisI, Sharaf-ndma (Velyaminov- 
Zarnov), i, 33 — seems to refer to the same person 
and to be due -merely to a textual error). Shumla, 
who ruled 543-70/1148-74, was followed by his son 
Ghars (or 'Izz) al-Dawla (al-Rawandl, 377); after 
his death in 590/1194 the family's rule came to an 
•end. No further information about the Afshar is 
-available in these early centuries; this may simply 
be due to the fact that authors often speak of 
Turkmens in general without specifying their exact 
tribal affinity. 

As is well known, the usual practice was to 
■allocate a particular district as an iktd 1 (tiyul) to 
a chieftain, who would take with him his clan and 
■whose office was inherited by his descendants; this 
practice was followed, no doubt, also in the case 
of the Afshar. Afshar chieftains are mentioned 
during the rule of the Ak Koyunlu (e.g. Mansur Beg 
Awshar, 877/1472-3, Hasan Rumlu, Ahsan al- 
Tawdrikh, in MS, chapter on the Ak Koyunlu; 
Dawwani, l Ard-ndma, MTM, v, 298, Engl, transl. 
in BSOAS, 1940-2. 156, 174; Mansur Beg, district 
of Shiraz, 904/1498-9, 906/1501-2, idem, ed. Seddon, 
Baroda 1931, 21 ff. 69; PIri Beg, Shiraz, 904/1498-9, 
ibidem, 24). The Afshar played a part in the estab- 
lishment of the Safawid dynasty [cf. kIzIl bash, 
isma'Il i]. High dignitaries of Afshar origin are 
often mentioned in the Safawid chronicles (e.g. 
Ahsan al-Tawdrikh, 236, 332, 339, 345, 438; Iskandar 
Munshi 5 , Ta'rikh-i l Alam-drd-yi "-Abbdsi, i, 155, 
185, 190, 251, 309 ff., 400, iii, 763; Tadhkirat al- 
Muluk (Minorsky), 16). 

Under the Safawids we find Afshar clans in 
various districts, and their chieftains occupied 
provincial governorships. Afshar khans ruled in 
the district of Kflh GIlu; the tribesmen of this 
region belonged mainly to the Gunduzlu and Arashlu 
clans (see Ta'rikh-i 'Alam-drd-yi 'Abbdsi, 199, 340-4, 
358 and lur). After the revolt of 1005/1596-7 their 
rule came to an end, most of the clans that escaped 
punishment were scattered and only small remnants 
survived by the beginning of the 19th century. 

The Gunduzlu and Arashlu played an important 
role in Khuzistan. In the beginning of the 16th 
century we find in Dizful and Shushtar Afshar 
governors like Mahdi Kuli Sultan and Haydar 
Sultan. When the governor Mahdi Kuli rebelled in 
946/1539-40, the Afshar Haydar Kuli was charged 
with his punishment {Ahsan al-Tawdrikh, 294 ff.). 
[For the Afshar governors of Shushtar, see shushtar.] 
After Nadir Shah, the Afshar in this region were 
weakened by the continuous attacks of the Arab 
tribes of the neighbourhood. According to C. A. de 
Bode, Travels in Luristan and Arabistan, London 1845, 
some Af share were removed from Doruk and trans- 
ferred to Kangawar, Asadabad and Urmiya, while a 
smaller portion were settled in Shushtar and Dizful. 

Afshar governors ruled for two and a half centuries, 
from the time of 'Abbas I till about 1250/1834-5, in 
Kazarun [q.v.]. We find governors belonging to 
various Afshar clans also in other regions: Inallu 
in Yazd, Kirmanshah, Mosul and Rumiyya, Alplu, 
Kose Afcmadlu and Kirklu in Khurasan (Abiward, 
Farah, Isfizar). 

In the vicinity of Urmiya, Afshars were settled 
in the time of 'Abbas I (the tradition in the text 
translated by Nikitine, that they came there with 
Timur in 802/1400, has no foundation). Kasim 
Khan, a distinguished general of 'Abbas I, chieftain 
of the Inanlu, settled with his tribe, shortly after 



1032/1622-3, in the regions of Urmiya, SS'in Kal'a 
and Sulduz {Ta'rikh-i l Alam-dra-yi 'Abbdsi, 763). 
His son, Kalb-i 'All Khan, was governor in 1037/ 
1627-8, and was followed by other Afshar governors; 
Khudadad Beg Kasimlu (the Kasimlu clan probably 
derived its name from Kasim Khan) took the title 
of beglerbeg in 1119/1707. (For further details see 
B. Nikitine, Les AvSar d'Urumiyeh, J A, 1929, 71 ff. 
and urmiya; cf. also sa'in ijal'a.) 

In general, the Afshar played an important role 
in the ware of the Safawids against the Ottomans 
and the Uzbeks, though, as we have seen above, 
'Abbas I, according to his policy in general, tried 
to break the particularist tendencies of the clans. 
During the reign of Nadir Shah, who himself came 
of the Kirklu branch of the Abiward district, Afshar 
amirs were prominent. Some Afshar chiefs played 
important roles during the troubled period after 
Nadir's death. Afshar contingents were an important 
element in the Kadjar army and were used in the 
suppresion of revolts as well as against external 

According to Joannin (quoted in Langles, Voyages 
du Chevalier Chardin en Perse, Paris 1811, x, 243) 
the Afshar counted at the beginning of the 19th 
century 88,000 souls (repeated by Ritter, Asien, viii, 
400-5 ; etc.) — this may, however, refer to the number 
of tents. (Detailed statistics according to localities 
are also given there.) For the same period, cf. also 
P. A. Jaubert, Voyages en Arminie el en Perse, 225; 
Zayn al-'Abidln ShirwanI, Bustdn al-Siydha', 106 
(the numbers seem exaggerated). For more modern 
times see Mas'ud Kayhan, Djughrdfiyd-yi Mufassal-i 
Iran, Teheren 1310-1, ii, 86 (Inanlu in Fars, as part 
of the ildt-i khamsa); 106 ff., 112, 363 (Inanlu and 
Afshar in the vicinity of Ardabll, Mishkin, Zarand, 
and especially Sawa and Kazwin [cf. also shah sewak 
and ifflAMSA] ; 90 (clan called Afshar as part of the 
Akadjeri in Kfih GIlu — cf. also Fdrs-ndma-yi Ndsiri, 
ii, 270); 92 (Gunduzlu near Shushtar and Dizful, 
completely assimilated); 92, 253 (Afshar in Kinnan); 
cf. also 75 and 371 (their name in geographical and 
administrative nomenclature); Meljmed IJasan Ba- 
harlu, Azarbaydfdn, Baku 1921, 73 (Afshar in the 
Republic of Adharbaydjan ; for an earlier time, cf . 
Ewliya Celebi, Siydhat-ndma, ii, 259, 859, iv, 284, 
337) ; G. Jarring, On the distribution of Turk tribes in 
Afghanistan, Lund 1939, 61 (some Afshar settled 
(in AndkhOy) by 'Abbas I, others by Nadir Shah).— 
just as Afshar elements were (as noted above) 
attached to other tribes, so also we find Afshar 
clans, which, to judge by their names, must have 
originally belonged to other tribes: the Shamlu and 
Djala'ir in Urmiya (mentioned by Nikitine) who 
were probably detached from the great tribes of the 
same name; the same is true of the Tekelii and 
Imirlu (O. Mann, Das Mujmil et-Tdrikh-i ba'd 
Nddirije, 31). 

Afshars figure among the Turkmens who lived 
during the Mamlflk period in Syria, especially round 
Aleppo (cf. e.g. al-Kalkashandl, Subh al-A c shd; 
Ibn Taghribirdl (Popper), vi, 225, 364, 386, 557). 
They seem to have played a role in the establishment 
of the principality of the Karaman-oghlu ([?.».]; see 
CI. Cahen, in Byzantion, 1939, 133). In the Ottoman 
period various branches of the Afshar are mentioned 
(Radjab-oghlu near Kal'at Dja'bar: HadjdjI Khalifa, 
Diihdn-niimd, 593 ; in documents : Radjablu A wshari, 
A. Refik, Anadoluda tiirk asiretleri, Istanbul 1930, 
145, 165-76, 186, 209, 239; Kara Awshar, Kara 
Gunduzlu Awshari, Bahrili Awshari 5 , ibid., 106, 
102). These tribes, who were also known under the 



AFSHAR — AFSOS 



collective name of Yeni II, spent the winter in Syria 
and the summer in Anatolia, near Zamanti. The 
government made continuous efforts to settle them 
(Awshar villages near Isparta, Diihan-numd. 640; 
also other villages in Anatolia called Awshar). In 
the 19 th century Darwlsh Pasha after military 
operations against the Af shar tribes in the Cukur Owa 
settled them forcibly in the vicinity of Goksun and 
Kayseri and other places (TTEM, lxxxviii, 348, 
and the general index to the series). There remain 
still some small nomad groups in the regions of the 
Cukur Owa, Mar'ash (cf . Besim Atalay, Mar'as tarihi, 
Istanbul 1340, 70 ff.), Ifcel and Kayseri in Anatolia, 
and near al-Rakka in Syria (Ali Riza Yalman, 
Cenupta tiirkmen oymaklarl, Adana 1939, ii, 105 ff.). 
Bibliography: I A, s.v. Avsar (by M. F. 
Kopriilu); Ahmad Aka TabrizI, in Ayanda, iv and 
v, and part ii, viii, Teheran 1926-8; idem, Ta'rikh-i 
Pansad Sdla-yi Khiizistdn, Teheran 1312; F. W. 
Hasluck, Christianity and Islam under the Sultans, 
index; V. Minorsky, AinallulInaUu, Rocznik Orien- 
talistyczny, 1951-2, 1 ff. (M. Fuad KoprOlC) 
AFSHlN, pre-Islamic title bome by the native 
princes of Ushrusana, the mountainous district 
between Samarkand and Khudjanda, including the 
upper course of the Zarafshan river (Barthold, 
Turkestan*, 165-9). The province was subjected to 
the Arab governors of Khurasan by an expedition 
commanded by al-Fadl b. Yahya al-Barmakl in 
178/794-5, but it was only after an internal conflict 
and a second expedition under Ahmad b. Abi 
Khalid in 207/822 that the ruling afshin Kawus 
accepted Islam. Kawus was succeeded by his son 
Khaydhar (in Arabic texts generally: Haydar), who 
became universally known in Islamic historiography 
as al-Afshin. He first came to notice in the reign 
of al-Ma 5 mun, when as an officer of the Caliph's 
brother Abu Ishak al-Mu c tasim, the titular governor 
of Egypt, he was given charge of Barka (Cyrenaica) 
and vigorously suppressed the rising of the Copts 
and Arabs in the Delta in 216/831. He is credited 
also- with forming al-Mu c tasim's regiment of 
"Maghariba" by recruitment from the Arabs of the 
Delta and the Western Desert. 

During the reign of al-Mu c tasim (218-27/833-41), 
the Afshln's chief exploit was the tenacious campaign 
which he maintained without interruption in 220-2/ 
835-7 against the Khurrami rebels in Adharbavdian 
led by Babak [?.«.]. In reward for his success the 
caliph gave him a crown, two jewelled swords, and 
the government of Sind in addition to that of 
Armenia and Adharbavdian. He played also a 
prominent part in the celebrated Amorium campaign 
conducted by al-Mu c tasim in person in 223/838. 
Subsequently, out of rivalry with c Abd Allah b. 
Tahir (as the leading native prince of the Transo- 
xanians, he appears to have resented the control 
exercised over Ma wara' al-Nahr by the parvenu 
Tahirids), he secretly encouraged the revolt of al- 
Maziyar (Muhammad b. Karin), the ispahbddh of 
Tabaristan, and was consequently involved in the 
latter's defeat, charged with apostasy, and after a 
celebrated trial starved to death in his prison at 
Samarra in Sha'ban 226/May-June 841. 

The title of afshin was borne also by other princes 
in Central Asia; according to al-Ya'kubi (ii, 344), 
Ghurak, the prince of Samarkand, calls himself in 
his treaty with Kutayba b. Muslim "Ikhshldh of 
Sughd, Afshin of Samarkand"; cf. also B. Spuler, 
Iran in friih-islamischer Zeit, 357, n. 14. 

Bibliography: Tabari, iii, 1105, 1171-1318 
passim; trans. Zotenberg, iv, 525-45; trans. 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



E. Marin, The Reign of al-Mu c tasim, New Haven 

195 1 ; Baladhuri 430 f; Kindi, 189-93; BayhakI 

(Morley), 199 «•; Ya'kubl, TaMkh, ii, 577-84 (ed. 

Nadjaf 1358, iii, 199-203); Ya'kubi, Bulddn, 259, 

262, 293; Abu Tammam, Diwdn, 107, 262, 326 f. ; 

Barthold, Turkestan', 210-1; Browne, i, 330 ff.; 

E. Herzfeld, Gesch. der Stadt Samarra, Berlin 1948, 

101, 138-52. (W. Barthold-H. A. R. Gibb) 

AFSCN (p.), charm, incantation; for etymology 

and usage in old Persian, see Salemann, in Gr.I.Ph. 

i/i, 304, and especially H. W. Bailey, in BSOAS, 

1933-5. 283 ff. This word is now used in Persia to 

designate especially a charm against the biting of 

poisonous animals ; certain darwishes who pretend to 

have the power to charm serpents, scorpions etc., will, 

for some gratuity, communicate their invulnerability 

to other persons. Often it is one part of the body 

which is so protected, as for instance the right or the 

left hand, and it is with this that the animals of this 

kind must be seized (Polak, Persien, i, 348). 

(Cl. Huart*) 
AFSCS (Afs6s), poetical name of Mir 
Shir c Ali, the son of Sayyid C A1I Muzaffar Khan, 
and descendant of the Prophet through Imam 
Dja'far al-Sadik. His ancestors dwelt at Kh'af in 
Persia. One of them, Sayyid Badr al-Din, the 
brother of Sayyid c Alim al-Din HadjdjI KhanI, came 
to India and settled at Namawl near Agra. Sayyid 
Ghulam Mustafa, the grandfather of Afsus, came 
to Delhi during the reign of Muhammad Shah 
(1719-48), and was an associate of Nawwab Samsam 
al-Dawlah Khan. Afsus was bom at Delhi and 
received a liberal education. On the assassination 
of the Nawwab (1747), when Afsus was n years of 
age, his father took him to Patna; later on, after 
1760, they removed to Lucknow, where Afsus 
settled, supported by Nawwab Salar Djang the son 
of Ishak Khan, and became an associate of MIrza 
Djawan-bakht (Djahan-dar Shah), the eldest son 
of the emperor Shah c Alam. 

After living some years at Lucknow, he was 
brought to the notice of the Resident, Colonel 
W. Scott, at whose recommendation he went to 
Calcutta in 1215/1800-1, and was appointed Head 
Munshi in the Hindustani department of the College 
at Fort William. 

Afsus wrote a Hindustani Dlwan during his 
residence at Lucknow. He also made there a trans- 
lation of the Gulistdn of Sa c dl, which was completed 
in 1216/1802, under the title of Bagh-i Urdu. The 
introduction to this translation contains an auto- 
biographical sketch, which is the principal source 
of our information regarding his life. Whilst at 
Calcutta, he edited the Kulliydt of Sawda, and 
revised the Hindustani translations of Persian 
works, which had been prepared by munshis of the 
College. He also made a translation of the first 
part of the Khuldsat al-Tawdrikh or a Persian 
history of Hindustan written by Munshi Sudjan 
Ra J e of Patiala in 1107/1695-1696. This work, 
undertaken at the instance of J. H. Moririgton, was 
completed in 1220/1805 under the title Ard'ish-i 
Mahfil, and was first printed at Calcutta in 1808. 
John Shakespear translated the first ten chapters 
of this work into English and included them in his 
Muntakhabdt Hindi, Dublin 1847. A complete 
English translation was made by M. J. Court and 
published at Allahabad, 1871 (2nd ed. Calcutta 1882). 
According to Garcin de Tassy and Sprenger (Oudh 
Catalogue, 198), Afsus died in 1809. 

Bibliography: Garcin de Tassy, Histoire de 
la Literature HindouU et HindoustanW, Paris 



L-AFWAH al-AWDI 



1870, i, 120-136; J. F. Blumhardt, Catalogue of 
Hindi, Panjabi and Hindustani MSS. in the 
British Museum, London 1899, no, 72; MIrza 
c Ali Lutf, Gulskan Hind (a contemporary source 
in Urdu), Lahore 1906, 47-50; Nawwab M. Mustafa 
JOjan Sheftah, Gulskan Bikhdr (in Persian) 
Lucknow 1874, 23-4; M. Yahya Tanha, Siyar 
al-Musannifin (in Urdu), Delhi 1924, i, 79-87; 
Sayyid Muhammad, Arbdb Nathr Urdu (in Urdu), 
Hyderabad-Deccan, 91-109; R. B. Saksena, A 
History of Urdu Literature, Allahabad 1927, 244-5. 

(J. F. Blumhardt-Sh. Inayatullah) 
AFTASIDS (Banu 'l-Aftas), small Hispano- 
Muslim dynasty of the 5th/nth century, which 
reigned during the period of the muluk al-faw&Hf of 
al-Andalus over a vast territory in the western part 
of the Iberian peninsula, with Badajoz (Batalyaws) 
as its capital. 

On the dismemberment of the caliphate of Cordova, 
the "Lower March" of al-Andalus (al-thaghr al-adnd), 
consisting of the middle valley of the Guadiana 
(WadI Ana) and the central portion of modern 
Portugal, passed into the possession of a liberated 
slave of al-Hakam II, Sabur, who, according to 
the custom followed in Muslim Spain at that period, 
took the title of hadjib. Sabur, whose epitaph has 
been preserved and who died on 10 Sha'ban 413/8 
November 1022, took as his minister a man of 
letters of Berber origin, belonging to the group of 
Miknasa established in the Fahs al-Ballut, north of 
Cordova: <Abd Allah b. Muhammad b. Maslama, 
surnamed Ibn al-Aftas. The latter did not hesitate 
to usurp power when Sabur died, leaving two sons 
under age, and founded the dynasty of the Aftasids 
of Badajoz, sometimes also called Banu Maslama. 
c Abd Allah, who took the honorific lakab of 
al-Mansur, reigned until his death, which, according 
to his epitaph, also preserved, occurred in Badajoz 
on 19 Djumada II 437/30 Dec. 1045. Few details 
are known of his reign, which seems to have been 
peaceful and fruitful for his principality at first, but 
was later troubled by the bad relations which soon 
obtained between al-Mansur and his neighbour in 
Seville, Muhammad b. 'Abbad (cf. <abbadids). The 
latter even captured him at Beja (Badja) and kept 
him prisoner for some time. 

<Abd Allah was succeeded by his son Muhammad, 
best known under his lakab of al-Muzaffar. The 
historians are unanimous in praising his deep learning 
and literary taste, and record that he appreciated 
but little the contemporary poets, who in his opinion 
were incapable of producing anything to equal 
even remotely the poems of al-Mutanabb? and al- 
Ma'arrt. He is attributed with the authorship of a 
large work, no doubt an anthology, in no less than 
fifty volumes, entitled al-Muzaffari. The fact that 
the book is very rarely quoted proves that it was 
not widely known even in Spain. 

The reign of al-Muzaffar, which lasted for twenty 
years, was extremely troubled from the political 
angle and almost entirely occupied with a tenacious 
but ineffective struggle against the king of Seville, 
al-Mu'tadid. In spite of the attempts of the prince of 
Cordova, Ibn Djahwar (cf. djahwarids) to arbitrate 
in the conflict, the almost continuous hostilities 
greatly weakened the kingdom of Badajoz and 
induced Ferdinand I, king of Castile and Leon, to 
attack it and impose a tribute upon it. In 449/1057 
the northern frontier fortresses of the Aftasid king- 
dom, Vizeu and Lamego, passed in this way into the 
possession of the Christian king, who in 456/1063, 
by the capture of the city of Coimbra (Kulumriyya) 



and of the whole region between the rivers of Douro 
(Duero) and Mondego, marked one of the decisive 
stages of the Reconquista. 

At the death of al-Muzaffar, who only survived 
for a short time this grave amputation of his domin- 
ions, he was succeeded by his son Yaljya al-Mansur, 
who was challenged by his brother 'Umar, governor 
of Evora (Yabura) and soon disappeared from the 
scene. c Umar, who took the lakab of al-Muta- 
wakkil, was exposed, like all the muluk al-(awd'if 
of his epoch, to the increasing demands of the 
Christian king Alfonso VI, who in 471/1079 took 
from him the fortress of Coria (Kuriya). He seems to 
have been the first, even before the capture of 
Toledo by Alfonso VI, to solicit the intervention 
of the Almoravids in Spain, but eventually, like all 
his neighbours, he was unable to resist the growing 
aggressiveness of the Christian king, and had to 
comply with his demands for tribute. His attempt 
in 472/1080 to add the kingdom of Toledo to his 
dominions, following on the offer made to him by 
the inhabitants of Toledo themselves, failed in spite 
of the fact that he stayed for ten months in the 
Dhu '1-Nunid capital. He was present at the battle 
of al-Zallaka [q.v.], which took place within his own 
territory on 12 Radjab 479/23 Oct. 1086, and had a 
hand in the intrigues which finally decided the 
Almoravids to dethrone all the muluk al-tawdHf of 
al-Andalus and annex their possessions. Feeling 
himself menaced, 'Umar al-Mutawakkil turned 
towards Alfonso VI and solicited his help, in return 
for the cession of Santarem (Shantarin), Lisbon 
(al-Ushbuna) and Cintra (Shintara). But all this was 
in vain, and Badajoz was taken at the end of 487/ 
1095 by the Almoravid general Sir b. AM Bakr, 
with the connivance of the inhabitants, who had had 
enough of the fiscal exactions of their king. Al- 
Mutawakkil and two of his sons, al-Fa<Jl and Sa c d, 
were taken prisoner and sent to Seville, but even 
before their arrival there they were executed. Another 
son of al-Mutawakkil, al-Mansur, escaped, fortified 
himself for some time in the castle of Montanchez, in 
the modem province of Caceres, and finally, together 
with his followers, migrated into the dominions of 
Alfonso VI and was converted to Christianity. 

Bibliography : All the chronicles of the period 
of the muluk al-tawdHf, especially Ibn HayySn, 
as quoted by Ibn Bassftm, Dhakhlra; Ibn 'Idhari, 
Baydn, iii, index; Ibn al-Khatlb, A'mdl al-AHdm 
(Levi- Provencal), 211-5. The narrative in the 
Memoirs of c Abd Allah b. Buluggln [q.v.] which 
relates to the reign of al-Mutawakkil is by far the 
most detailed and trustworthy source. Hoogvliet, 

Specimen e litt. orient de regia Aphtasidarum 

familia, Leiden 1839, is antiquated. See also 
R. Dozy, Hist. Mus. EspS, iii, index; A. Prieto 
y Vives, Los reyes de taifas, Madrid 1926, 65-8; 
R. Menendez Pidal, La Espana del Cid, Madrid 
1947, index; E. Levi- Provencal, Inscriptions arabes 
d'Espagne, 53-5; idem, Islam d'Occident, 125-6; 
idem, Hist. Esp. mus., iv (in preparation). 

(E. Lf.vi-Provencal) 
al-AFWAH al-AWDI, AbO RabI'a SalA'at b. 
c Amr, pre-Islamic Arab poet, chieftain of the 
Awd clan of Madhhidj, about the middle of the 6th 
century A.D. Most of his extant poetry celebrates 
the warlike virtues of his tribe and of its chief, while 
his gnomic poems caused him to be counted among 
the sages of the didhiliyya. Al-Djahiz, however 
(al-Hayawdn', vi, 280), doubts the authenticity of 
the poems attributed to him, and the arguments 
which he presents are to the point. 



al-AFWAH al-AWDI — AFYON KARA HISAR 



243 



Bibliography: The dxwan of al-Afwah al- 
Awdl was published in al-TardHf al-Adabiyya, 
Cairo 1937; L. Cheikho, Shu'ard' al-Nafrdniyya, 
70-4; it was introduced into Spain by al-^Call, 
who had received it from Ibn Durayd [BAH, ix, 
396). Verses and biographical notes are to be 
found in Diahiz. Hayawdn', index; idem, Baydn 
(Sandubi), i, 171; Ibn Kutayba, Shi<r, no-i; 
idem, 't/yun at-Akhbdr, iii, 113; Kali, Amdli, i, 
125; Aghdni', xi, 41-2; Barbier de Meynard, 
Surnoms, 45 (offprint from J A, 1907); Brockel- 
mann, S I, 57; Nallino, Scritti, vi, 29 (French 
transl. 48). (Ch. Pellat) 

AFYON, opium, from Greek omov, diminutive of 
07c6s, "vegetable juice". Opium is the dried resinous 
juice of the unripe capsules of the oppyx (Papaver 
somniferum L., in Arabic khashkhash), the preparation 
of which is already described by classical authors, 
e.g. by Dioscorides, iv, 64. (For opium in Antiquity 
see Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. Mohn.) In Islamic times it 
was used officinally and as a narcotic (also by 
darwishes). The poppy had long been cultivated in 
Upper Egypt: according to Kuhln al-'A$tar, 128, 
in his time (7th/i3th century) the best opium was 
prepared in Abu TIdj, S. of Asyut. The cultivation 
of the poppy and the preparation of opium flourished 
in Egypt until the beginning of the 19th century. 
(Cf. Lane, Modern Egyptians', i, 118, ii, 35). The 
cultivation of the poppy in Asia Minor does not seem 
to go back to the Byzantine period. It apparently 
spread after the Crusades, and under Turkish rule 
the plant was acclimatized especially in the neigh- 
bourhood of Kara Hisar, which received the nick- 
name of Afyun Kara Hisar [q.v.]. This town was the 
centre for the cultivation and the export of the opium 
as late as the 19th century (cf. O. Blau, Etwas iiber 
das Opium, ZDMG, 1869, 280). In Persia, as well as 
in Turkey, opium is often called tirydk, "antidote". 
When 'Abbas II tried to enforce the prohibition of 
wine, the consumption of opium grew to such 
dimensions that he was forced to soften the pro- 
hibition and take measures, instead, against the 
trade in opium (1621; P. della Valle, ii, 108). Yazd 
and Isfahan used to export opium to India and 
Turkey. (See Chardin, Voyages, Amsterdam 1735, 
iii, 14-5, 92 ff.; ii, 58.67; J. E. Polak, Ptrsien, Leipzig 
1865, ii, 248-55; and the vivid description of opium- 
eating by E. G. Browne, A Year amongst the Persians, 
index.) Opium played' a considerable role also in 
India, where the decoction of the husks was called 
post (cf. J. Charpentier, P6st(d), BSOS, 1935-7, 101 ff. \ 
especially for the Mughal period). According to' 
B. Laufer, in T'oung Poo, 1916, 462 (cf. also O. 
Franke, Geschichte d. Chines. Reiches, ii, 551, iii, 428) 
the knowledge of preparing opium came to the 
Chinese from (medieval) India and not from the 
Muslims (contrary to the assertions of scholars such 
as J. Edkins, The Poppy in China, 5; E. Bret- 
schneider, in A. de Candolle, Origin of Cultivated 
Plants, 400; Yule and Burnes, Hobson-Jobson, 641; 
Giles, Glossary of Reference, 200, who derive the 
Chinese names of opium from the Arabic). — For the 
adulteration of opium by dishonest merchants (by 
admixture of various resins, or sandarac, etc., see 
E. Wiedemann, in SBPMS Erl., xlvi, 1914, 176-206. 
Bibliography: Abu Mansur al-Muwaffak, 
Abniya (Seligmann), i, 36; Ibn al-'Awamm, 
Fildha, transl. Clement-Mullet, ii/i, 128 ft.; Ibn 
al-Baytar, Djdmi', i, 45, transl. Leclerc, nos. 116 
and 2120; Kazwlnl (Wustenfeld), i, 282; Tuhfat 
al-AHbdb (Renaud-Colin), 40; I. Loew, Die Flora der 



Juden, ii, 364-70; M. Meyerhof, Un glossaire de 
matiire midicinale comp. par Maimonide, no. 35. 
(cf. also no. 401); Millaut, V opium et le hachich. 
La Giographie, 1912, 132 ff. (C. E. Dubler) 
AFYON VARA HISAR (modern spelling: 
Afyonkarahisar), more correctly Afyun Kara Hi- 
sarI, "Opium Black-castle", at present also simply 
Afyon, formerly Kara Hisar-i Sahib (in Neshrl, ed. 
Ankara, 64 = ed. Berlin, 21 = Leunclavius, Hist. 
Musulm., Frankfurt 1591, col. 140: Sahibun Kara 
Hisar[t], Principis Maurocastrum; Saibcarascar in 
Caterino Zeno, Commentarii del Viaggio in Persia, 
Venice 1558, 14b), town in western Anatolia, 38°5o' 
N, 3<>°3o' E, about 1007 m. above sea level, on the 
stream Akarcay, which flows into the EberGolu, and 
then into the Akshehir Golii, at the foot of an isolated 
and steep trachyte cone which rises from the plain to 
a height of 200 m. above the town surrounding it. 
Kara Hisar-i Sahib was the capital of a sandiak of the 
eydlet Anadolu (HadjdjI Khalifa, Diihdn-numd, 641), 
since 1281/1864 of a sandiak of the wildyet Khudawen- 
digar (Brusa) ; in modern Turkey Afyun Kara Hisar is 
capital of the wildyet (il) of the same name, com- 
prising the ka4ds (ille) Afyun Kara Hisar, Bolwadin, 
Dinar Emirdagh ('Azlziyye), Sandlkll and Shuhut. In 
1945 the town had 29,030 (1950: 29,826), the kadd 
136, 667, the wildyet 335,609 (1950: 372,600) inhab- 
itants; the wildyet has a surface of 13,555 sq. km. — 
The name Afyun Kara Hisar, formerly only in 
popular, but at present also in official use (Tavernier, 
Les six voyages, i, 120 has: Aphiom Carassar; Ch. 
Texier, Asie Mineure, Paris 1834: Aphioum) comes 
from the rich production of opium in the district, 
already mentioned by Belon, Les observations de 
plusieurs singularitez et choses mdmorables, Paris 1555, 
183 a (cf. O. Blau, in ZDMG, 1869, 280). 

Kara Hisar-i Sahib is identified with the Byzantine 
fortress of Akroinos, Akroynos, near which in 740 
A.D. the emperor Leo III defeated the Arabs, and 
the legendary hero Sayyid Battal and his armies 
met their death (Theophanes, Chronogr. (de Boor), 
i, 390,411), and where the emperor Alexius I Com- 
nenus negotiated in 11 16 with the Saldjuk prince 
Malikshah (Anna Comnena, Alexias (B. Leib, Paris 
1934-45. iii, 209)). It was apparently taken from 
the Byzantines by the Turks in the beginning of 
the 13th century, but no details are available. The 
inscription on the Altlgoz kopriisu (RCEA, no. 3658) 
shows that the town was Turkish in 606/1209. It 
was to Kara Hisar that the famous Saldjuk vizier 
Sahib 'Ata> Fakhr al-DIn 'All b. al-Husayn (d. 
687/1288-9) from whom the town received its 
designation, retired with his treasures before the 
Karamanians. His sons, Tadj al-DIn Husayn and 
Nusrat al-DIn received in fief in 1271 the whole 
territory of Kara Hisar, with Kutahya, Sandlkll, 
Ghurghurum and Ak Shehir, later also Ladik 
(Laodicaea on the Lycus, near the modern Denizli) 
and Khonas (ancient Chonae, modern Honaz); 
see Aksarayl (Osman Turan), 74; Ibn BIbl 
(Houtsma), 308 (also mentioned, in connection with 
the sons of the Sahib, p. 323, 327, 334; by Kara 
Hisar Dewele our Kara Hisar is meant). Ladlk and 
Khonas fell into the hands of the Turkman 'All Beg 
during the troubles of Djimrl (1277) ; he was, however, 
defeated in a successful campaign by the Sultan and 
killed near Kara Hisar (Ibn BIbi, 333). The latter 
descendants of the $ahib 'Ata> had to submit to 
the Germiyans and finally lost their territory to 
them. (Ibn Fadl Allah al-'Umari, Masdlik al-Absdr 
(Taeschner) states in one passage, p. 31, that 
Karasar was in the possession of Ibn Torghud; in 



244 



AFYON KARA HISAR — AGADIR-IGHIR 



another, p. 36 and 37, that Karasari was in the 
possession of Ibn al-Sayib — by which no doubt the 
descendant of the Sahib is meant — under the 
suzerainty of the Germiyans ; cf . also Ahmed Tewhid, 
in TOEM, 1st series, ii, 563 ff.) After this Kara 
Hisar shared in the vicissitudes of the principality 
of Germiyan [q.v .], which soon became a dependency 
of the Ottomans and under. Bayazid I actually 
belonged for a time to the Ottomans, from 792/ 
1390 until its restoration under Timur, 805/1402. 
Khidr Pasha (d. 750/1349), son of Sulayman-shah 
of Germiyan, and other members of this princely 
family, are mentioned as heads (ielebi) of the 
Mewlewl colonies in Kara Hisar (see Ghalib Dede, 
Tedhkire-yi Shu'ard'-yi Mewlewiyye, MS Vienna, no. 
1257, fol. 54r, gor = C A1I Enwer, Semd'-khdne-yi 
Edeb, Istanbul 1309, 48 f., 102). During Timur's 
invasion of Asia Minor after the battle of Ankara 
(1401), Kara Hisar also suffered from the raiding 
parties of the conqueror (Sharaf al-Din 'All Yazdl, 
Zafar-ndma, Calcutta 1887-8, ii, 446. 457, 484, 49 2 = 
Histoire de Timur-Bec, transl. Petis de la Croix, 
Delft 1723, iv, 21, 31, 60, 68 ; Dukas, Hist., Bonn, 77). 

In 832/1428-9 the principality of the Germiyan- 
oghlu definitely fell into the hands of the Ottomans, 
and Kara Hisar with its territory became a liwd 
(sandjak) of the eydlet Anadolu (cf. Diihdn-numd, 
641). As a fortress near the Karaman frontier, it was, 
as long as Karaman remained independent, of 
military importance. At the beginning of the war 
with Uzun Hasan (877/1472-3) the prince Mustafa 
retired to Kara Hisar and used it as a base for his 
expeditions against the Karaman-oghlu, the allies 
of the Persians ('Ashikpasha-zade, Ta'rikh (Giese), 
169; Sa'd al-Din, Tdd± ul-Tewdrikh, i, 534; Caterino 
Zeno, loc. cit), and in 895/1489-90 il served as a base 
for the operations of Hersek-zade Ahmed Pasha 
against the Egyptians who had invaded Karaman 
(Sa'd al-Din, ii, 65). Kara Hisar is often mentioned 
in connection with the revolts and struggles of 
contending pashas in the 17th century (ion/1602, 
revolt of Pjelali, 1041/1631, revolt of Baba <Omer, 
1069/1658, revolt of Abaza Hasan Pasha). In 1833 
the town was temporarily occupied by Ibrahim 
Pasha, son of Muhammad 'All Pasha. In the Greco- 
Turkish war in 192 1-3 it was occupied by the Greeks 
twice (28 March-7 April 1921 and 13 July 1921- 
27 August 1922). The war caused great damage to 
the town, which was, however, restored by recon- 
struction on a large scale under the republic. 

The greater part of the scanty antiquities from 
the classical period seems to have been removed to 
the town from the ruined sites of the vicinity, 
notably SeydUer (Prymnessus), Isce Kara Hisar 
(Docimium) and Cifut Kasabasl (Synnada). The 
town's land-mark, the steep trachyte cone with 
the late Byzantine fortifications restored by the 
Germiyan-ogjilu (described by Ewliya Celebi, Seydhat- 
ndme, ix, 29-34) bore as late as at Niebuhr's time 
(1766) the name Bek Baran Kal'esi ("the fortress 
which gives refuge to the Beg"). It was never 
properly inhabited, and is now derelict, but was used 
occasionally for the internment of political prisoners 
('Ashikpasha-zade, Ta'rikh, ed. Istanbul, 243 f., 
not in ed. Giese), and as late as 1802 for the im- 
prisonment of the French prisoners of war from 
Egypt.— The other monuments from the epoch of 
the Saldjuks and the Germiyan-oghlu, such as the 
Sahibler Turbesi, the Ulu Djami t of Khpdja Beg and 
the mausoleum et Sultan Diwanl, as well as the 
Ottoman monuments, such as the mosque of Ahmed 
Gedik Pasha with its annexes (the medrese is at 



present used as a museum; Ekrem Hakki Ayverdi, 
Fdtih deuri mimarisi, Istanbul 1953, 252-58), still 
await detailed examination. — In addition to the 
inscription on the Altlgoz kopriisu, mentioned above, 
other inscriptions from the town are published in 
RCEA, nos. 4132, 4329, 4540 and 4667. 

Bibliography: Sdl-ndme of the wildyet 
Khudawendigar for 1302, 466 ft.; V. Cuinet, La 
Turquie d'Asie, iv, 224 ft.; Hadjdji Khalifa. 
Diihdn-numd, 641 f. ; Tavernier, Les six voyages, 
Paris 1677, i, 87 ff.; Pococke, Description of the 
East, London 1745, ii/2, 82; C. Niebuhr, Reise- 
beschreibung, iii, 131-4 (with plan and panorama); 
W. G. Browne (1802), in R. Walpole, Travels in 
various countries of the East, London 1820, 116 f.; 
Leon de Laborde, Voyage de I'Asie Minettre, 
Paris 1838, 64 ff. (with beautiful views); W. 
Hamilton, Researches in Asia Minor, London 1842, 
i, 462, 470; v. Vincke, F. L. Fischer and v. Moltke, 
Planatlas von Kleinasien, Berlin 1846, 54, page no. 
4; Mitt, des Deutschen Arch. Instituts in Athen, 
1882, 139 f. ; G. Radet, Rapport sur une Mission 
scientifique en Asie Mineure, Nouv. Archives des 
Missions scientifiques, 1895, 425 ff. ; E. Naumann, 
in Globus, vii, no. 19 (illustration); Korte, Ana- 
tolische Skizzen, Berlin 1896, 81 ff.; Oberhummer 
and Zimmerer, Durch Syrien und Kleinasien, 
Berlin 1899, 390 ft.; Besim Darkot, in I A, vii, 
277-80; Edib Ali Baki, Afyonda eski zamanlarda 
yasayis, in Taspinar dergisi, Af yon ; M. Ferid and 
M. Mesut, Sahip Ata He ogullari, Istanbul 1934. 

(J. H. Mordtmann-Fr. Taeschner) 
AGA [see agha]. 

AGADIR, one of the names of a fortified 
enclosure among the Berbers, where chambers 
are allotted to the various families of the tribe for 
storage of grain, and where the tribe takes refuge 
in times of danger. The following are the areas 
where this ancient Berber institution survives: 
DJabal Nafusa (under the name of gasr = kasr, or 
temidelt); Southern Tunisia (ghurfa); the Awras 
(gelda = kal'a) ; and in Morocco the Rif and more 
especially the Great, Middle and Anti-Atlas and the 
Sirwa (agadir among the Shluhs and igherm among 
the Berbers of the Middle Atlas). The word agadir 
probably goes back to Phoenician gadir = Hebrew 
gdder "wall" (in fact the word has in the SQs the 
meaning of "strong wall"). 

Bibliography: R. Montagne, Un Magasin 
collectif de I' Anti-Atlas: L'Agadir des Ikounka, 
Hesp., 1929; idem, Les Berbires et le Makhzen 
dans le Sud du Maroc, Paris 1930, 253 ff.; idem, 
Villages et Kasbas Berbires, Paris 1930, 9 ff.; 
Dj. Jacques-Meunie, Greniers Collectifs, Hesp., 
1949, 97 ff.; idem, Greniers-Citadelles au Maroc, 
Paris 1951. 

AGADIR-IGHIR, Moroccan town situated at 
the junction of the Moroccan High Atlas with the 
plain of SQs, on the Atlantic coast. The town stands 
at the northern end of a large bay, at the foot of a 
hill some 800-900 feet high which is surmounted by 
a fort. The population numbers 30,111, of whom 
1,518 are Jews and 6,062 Europeans (1952 census). 
It is not clear whether a settlement existed there 
before the arrival of the Portuguese, although a 
letter from the inhabitants of Massa to Emmanuel I 
of Portugal, dated 6 July, 15 10 (Sources inidites de 
I'Histpire du Maroc, Portugal, i, 243) speaks of an 
agadir al-arba'd at that site. This suggests that an 
agadir existed there near which a travelling market 
was held every Wednesday. At all events, it was of 
no great importance. Leo Africanus mentions the 



AGADIR-IGHIR — AGHA 



same settlement under the name Gartguessem 
("Cape Ksima" named after a Berber tribe living 
round about the town). 

In the second half of 1505, a Portuguese nobleman 
Joao Lopes de Sequeira, built a wooden castle there, 
perhaps to protect a fishing fleet, perhaps also, 
with the approval of his sovereign, to thwart the 
Spaniards in the Canary Islands who had designs of 
the southern coast of Morocco. The castle was 
situated near a spring, at the foot of the hill comman- 
ding the roadstead. This site still bears the name of 
Funti, although its official designation seems from 
the first to have been Santa Cruz del Cabo de Aguar, 
by reason of its relative proximity to Cape Ghir. 
This castle was purchased by the King of Portugal 
on 25 January 1513. 

The establishment of the Portuguese at Santa Cruz 
caused a strong reaction among the Berber tribes 
of the Sus. The members of the Diazulivva order, 
which had established itself in the Sus 50 years 
previously, were able to exploit this antipathy for 
the purpose of a holy war, and some of them promoted 
the rise of the Sa'dids (Banu Sa'd), a family of shu- 
rafa? coming from the Dar'a (Dra c ). The chief of this 
family, Muhammad, later entitled al-K5 5 im bi-Amr 
Allah, was proclaimed war leader about the year 1510. 

From that date the Portuguese fortress was 
subjected to an intermittent, but nevertheless irk- 
some, military and economic blockade, and to 
attacks which grew in severity as the power of the 
Sa'dids increased. In September 1540, the Sa'did 
king of the Sus, Muhammad al-Shaykh, son of al- 
Ka'im, captured the hill which dominated Santa 
Cruz and concentrated there a strong force of 
artillery. The siege began on 16 February 1541 and 
ended, on 12 March, with the surrender of the 
Governor, D. Guttere de Monroy, and the survivors 
of the garrison. A very detailed and lively account 
of these events can be found in the Chronique de 
Santa Cruz, the work of one of the besieged who, 
after 5 years' captivity at Tarudant and elsewhere, 
wrote this account of his adventures. 

For many years Santa Cruz-Agadir was left 
deserted until the Sa'did sultan c Abd Allah al- 
Ghalib bi'llah (1557-74) built a fort on the top of 
Agadir hill to protect the anchorage from the 
Christian fleets. From then onwards Agadir was 
one of the points at which European traders regularly 
called, principally to take on cargoes of sugar (see 
especially Sources inidites de VHistoire du Maroc, 
lire sfrie, France, iii, 361). Agadir retained its role 
of trading port up to the founding of the Muslim 
town of Mogador [q.v.] in 1773. Since that date, 
Agadir harbour has been little used. 

The settlement achieved momentary renown in 
1911 when the German gunboat "Panther" cast 
anchor in the roads to assert German claims there 
at a time when General Moinier's column had just 
occupied Fez (1 July 191 1). After the signing of the 
Protectorate agreement, Agadir was occupied by 
French troops in 191 3. Its population was then less 
than 1,000. 

Since then, the town has developed greatly. It has 
become the chief town of one of the administrative 
regions of Morocco which comprises nearly 700,000 
inhabitants. It owes its growth chiefly to the deve- 
lopment of its agriculture and fisheries, and to the 
exploitation of its mineral wealth. The port of 
Agadir, constructed since 1914, has recently been 
enlarged. 

Bibliography: Leo Africanus, Description de 

VAfrique, (Schefer), i, 176 (Guarguessem) ; Chro- 



nique de Santa Cruz du Cap de Gui (Agadir), 
ed. and tr. P. de Cenival, Paris 1934; Marmol, 
VAfrique, tr. Perrot d'Ablancourt, Paris 1667, 
ii, 34-9; J. Figanier, Historia de Santa Cruz de 
Cabo de Gui (Agadir), 1505-1541, Lisbon 1945 
(cf . Hesp., 1 946, 93 ff .) ; these works deal prima- 
rily with the Portuguese period; H. de Castries, 
Une description du Maroc sous le rigne de 
Moulay Ahmed el-Mansour (1596), Paris 1909, 
no; Ch. de Foucauld, Reconnaissance au Maroc, 
new edition, Paris 1934, 184-5; J- Erekmann, 
Le Maroc moderne, Paris 1885, 50-1 (with a 
map) ; Castellanos, Historia de Marruecos, Tangier 
1898, 203-17; Budge Meakin, The land of the 
Moors, London 1901, 378-82 ; H. Hauser, Histoire 
diplomatique de I'Europe (1871-1914), Paris 1929, 
vol. ii, 6th part, ch. iii: P. Renouvin, La crise 
d' Agadir; P. Gruff az, La port d' Agadir, in Bull. 
Ec. et Soc. du Maroc, 1951, 297-301; G. Guide, 
Agadir in Les Cahiers d'Outremer, 1952. 

(R. le Tourneau) 
AGDAL (Berber), a term borrowed by the Arabic 
of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia from Berber, with 
the same meaning as in that language namely "pas- 
turage reserved for the exclusive use of the landow- 
ner". In Morocco, however, the word has acquired 
the special sense of "a wide expanse of pasture lands, 
surrounded by high walls and adjoining the Sultan's 
palace, reserved for the exclusive use of his cavalry 
and livestock". Such enclosures exist in each of 
the royal cities, Fez, Meknes, Rabat and Marrakush. 
(G. S. Colin) 
AGEHl, Turkish poet and historian, d. 
985/1577-8. His real name was Mansur. He was 
born in Yenidje-yi Wardar (Giannitsa in Greek 
Macedonia), which was at that time an important 
centre. His career as mudarris and kadi took him 
to various places; Gallipoli and Istanbul are 
mentioned by his biographers. Agehi was a poet of 
considerable renown in spite of the fact that no 
diwdn of his poems seems to have existed. He 
owed his fame, particularly, to a kasida addressed 
to his sweetheart, a young sailor, and composed in 
the professional slang of the Turkish sailors of his 
time and containing many terms borrowed from the 
nautical lingua franca, especially, terms belonging 
to the terminology of the galley; it was imitated by 
several poets of his time. Of Agehl's only known 
historical work, the Ta^rikh-i Ghazai-i Sigetwar, 
describing Suleyman's expedition against Szigetvar, 
(see Babinger, 69) no manuscript is known. 

Bibliography: The main sources for Agehl's 
life are the contemporary collections of biographies 
of Ottoman poets (Tedhkire-yi Shu'ard 3 , by c Ashtk 
Celebi, Klnalt-zade Hasan Celebi, RiyadI, <AhdI, 
Beyani, Kaf-zade Fa'idi) and the biographical 
sections in 'All's Kunh al-Akhbdr; none of these 
sources is published; excerpts in the article Agehi 
in Saadeddln Niizhet Ergun, Turk sairleri, 
Istanbul 1936, i, 16-8, where also several of 
Agehl's poems are printed. The kasida in sailors' 
slang is published with a commentary in A. Tietze, 
xvi. aslr Turk siirinde gemici dili, Ageht kasidesi 
ve tahmisleri, Turkiyat Mecmuasi, 195 1, 113-121 
(with further bibliography). (A. Tietze) 

AGfiL [see c ukayl]. 

AGHA, a word used in eastern Turkish generally 
to mean "elder brother", sometimes in contrast to 
ini, "younger brother", but in Yakut (dgd) meaning 
"father" (cf. V. Thomsen, Inscriptions de I'Orkhon 
Dichifrics, 98 (dkd)), in Koybal-Karaghast "grand- 



2 4 6 



AGHA — AGHA MUHAMMAD SHAH 



father" and "uncle", and in Cuwash "elder sister". 
Among the Mongols it appears already to have been 
used as an honorific, the princesses of the imperial 
family being designated by it (cf. Quatremere, 
Histoire des Mongols, xxxix-xl). 

In Ottoman Turkish agha (usually pronounced 
a'a or even a) means "chief", "master" and some- 
times "landowner". It is also used for the head 
servant of a household and occurs in combination 
with many words, e.g. (arshi aghast ("market 
inspector"), khan aghast ("innkeeper"), k6y aghast 
("village headman") and aghabey ("elder brother" 
— cf. above — or "senior"). As a title, up to the 
reform period and in some cases even later, it was 
given to many persons of varying importance 
employed in the government service, for the most 
part in posts of a military, or at least a non-secre- 
tarial, character, being contrasted particularly with 
efendi [q.v.]. The most notable aghas of this kind 
were the Yenileri Aghast (see yeni ceri) and most 
of the principal officers of the standing as opposed 
to the feudal army, and the Czengi or Rikdb Aghalart 
and most officers of both the "Inside" and "Outside" 
Services of the sultan's household. But the kdhya 
(ked-khudd) of the Grand Vizier was also entitled 
agha, though his duties were entirely administrative 
and secretarial — whence, in his case, the word 
efendi was usually added to his title and he was 
called Agha Efendimiz; and so were the eunuchs of 
the palace service heade by the Bab ul-Se'ddet 
Aghast or Kapl Aghast (white) and the Ddr iil- 
Se'ddet Aghast or Klzlar Aghast (black), and the 
eunuchs attendant on the Wdlide Sultan and prin- 
cesses of the imperial blood. Hence eunuchs em- 
ployed by officials and the well-to-do in general 
came usually to be known as harem or khddim 
aghalart, till the word agha alome might sometimes 
mean "eunuch". 

After the abolition of the Janissaries in 1826 and 
the formation by Mahmud II of the l Asdkir-i 
Mensure, it became the custom to entitle agha 
illiterate officers up to the rank of kdHm-makdm, 
literate officers of corresponding rank being ad- 
dressed as efendi; and this usage was maintained 
among the people up to the end of the Ottoman 
regime. Until the establishment of the Constitution 
there existed a military rank intermediate between 
those of yiizbasht and binbasht called kol aghast 
(i.e. commander of a wing). 

Agha, often spelt dkd, is also used in Persian, in 
which it again sometimes signifies "eunuch", as 
notably in the case of the first Kadjar, Agha 
Muhammad Shah. 

Bibliography: W. Radloff, Versuch eines 
Wdrterbuch d. Turko-Tatar. Sprachen, i, 5-6; 
H. Vambery, Etymologisches WMerbuch d. Turko- 
Tatar. Sprachen, 5; Pavet de Courteille, Diction- 
naire Turc-Oriental, 24; Redhouse, A Turkish and 
English Lexicon, 1921, 146; c Ata, Ta'rikh, i, 
passim, particularly sections beginning pp. 7, 30, 
72, 138, 157, 182, 205, 209, 257 and 290; M. 
d'Ohsson, Tableau a\ I'Empire Ottoman, vii, cf. 
index; I A, s.v. Aga; Gibb and Bowen, Islamic 
Society and the West, i/i, index. 

(H. Bowen) 
A£HA KHAN, properly As* Khan, title applied 
to the Imams of the Nizarl [q.v.] Isma'IHs. It was 
originally an honorary title at the court of the 
Kadjar Shahs of Persia, borne by Hasan 'All Shah, 
who, after the murder of his father Khalil Allah in 
1817, gained the favour of Fath C A1I Shah and 
received the hand of one of his daughters in marriage. 



In consequence of intrigues at the court under the 
reign of Muhammad Shah, Hasan C A1I Shah revolted 
in 1838 in Kirman, but was defeated and fled in 
1840 to Sind, where he rendered valuable services 
to Sir Ch. Napier in the Sind campaign. After an 
unsuccessful attempt to establish himself in Persia 
from the Bunpore district, he went to live in Bombay, 
but was removed to Calcutta at the instance of the 
Persian government. In 1848 he returned to Bombay, 
which has remained, except for a brief period at 
Bangalore, the headquarters of the movement 
headed by him and his successors. Internal conflicts 
among the Khodias [q.v.] concerning the leadership 
of the Imam, led to lawsuits, culminating in the 
famous judgment of Sir Joseph Arnould in 1866 in 
favour of the Agha Khan. (It was this case, during 
which a great deal of information about the sect 
was elicited, which called the attention of western 
scholarship to the continued existence of the Nizarl 
Isma'Ilis; cf. M. H. B. Freer, The Khojas, the Disciples 
of the Old Man of the Mountain, Macmillan's Magazine 
1876, 431 ff.; St. Guyard, in J A, 1877/i, 337 «.) 
Hasan 'All Shah (d. 1881) was succeeded by his 
son 'All Shah (d. 1885), and the latter by his son, 
the present Agha Khan, H. H. Sir Sultan Muhammad 
Shah (b. 2 Nov. 1877), the spiritual head of the 
Nizarl Isma'ilis in India (including the Khodias). 
Persia, Central Asia, Syria and East Africa. Under 
his guidance, the organization of the Nizari com- 
munity has been greatly developed. The Agha 
Khan has also occupied a prominent position in 
public life. His heir (wall <ahd) is C AH Khan (b. 1910). 
Bibliography: J. N. Hollister, The Shi'a of 
India, London 1953, 364 ff. The memoirs of the 
present Agha Khan were published under the 
title of World Enough and Time, London 1954. 

(H. A. R. Gibb) 
AGHA MUHAMMAD SHAH, founder of the 
Kadjar [q.v.] dynasty of Persia, who was born 
in 1 155/1742, was the elder son of Muhammad 
Hasan Khan, hereditary chief of the powerful 
Kadjar tribe. When a child he was castrated by 
order of <Adil Shah, Nadir Shah's nephew, an 
act which warped his character in later life. On 
his father's murder in 1758, he became chief of the 
Kadjars. He spent his youth at Karlm Khan's 
court at Shiraz; on Karlm's death in 1779 he fled 
to Astarabad and engaged in a long struggle with 
his descendants. By 1785 he had made himself 
master of the north and centre of the kingdom, 
and in that year he made Teheran his capital 
because of its central position and its proximity 
to the Kadjar territories. In 1794 he captured the 
gallant Lutf 'All Khan, the last of Karim Khan's 
descendants, and put him to death after inflicting 
fearful tortures. In the following year he re-estab- 
lished Persian authority over Georgia. He was 
crowned Shah in 1796. He subsequently added 
Khurasan to his dominions, deposing Shahrukh, 
Nadir Shah's blind grandson; by means of torture, 
he forced Shahrukh to disclose where he had hidden 
his grandfather's jewels. So dreadful were the 
unfortunate prince's sufferings that he died. Nemesis 
soon overtook Agha Muhammad, for he was assas- 
sinated in 1797. He showed great skill as a statesman 
and also as a military leader, but his reputation was 
sullied by his revengefulness, his revolting cruelty 
and his insatiable avarice. 

Bibliography: c Abd al-Razzak b. Nadjaf 
Kull, Ma'dthir-i Sultdniyya, Tabriz 1826 (English 
translation by Sir Harford Jones Brydges entitled 
The Dynasty of the Kajars, London 1833); Rida 



AGHA MUHAMMAD SHAH — AGHLABIDS 



Kuli Khan Hidayat, Raw4at al-Safd-yi Ndsiri, ix; 
Sir J. Malcolm, History of Persia, ii, 300-302; 
R. G. Watson, A History of Persia from the 
Beginning of the Nineteenth Cintury to the Year 
1858, London 1866, 65-105; P. M. Sykes, History 
of Persia', ii, 289-96. 

(Cl. Huart-L. Lockhart) 
AGH Afi. meaning in Ottoman Turkish "a tree", 
■"wood", in Eastern Turkish (in which the forms 
yighad, ylghdt are the more frequent) means also 
"the male member" and "parasang"; cf. al- 
Kashgharl, Diwan Lughdt al-Turk, Istanbul 1933, 
iii, 6, and Brockelmann, Mitteltiirkische Wortschatz, 
Budapest-Leipzig 1928, 87. Al-Kashghari shows only 
the forms yightit and ylghat, but W. Radloff, 
Versuch eines Wirterbuches der Tiirk-Dialekte, 1893, 
i, 150, shows also aghal and other forms of the 
word such as aghatz, aghas and yaghal, as signifying 
not only "tfee" and "wood" but also "a measure 
of distance". The measure thus referred to by al- 
Kashghari as a "parasang" is said (cf. Pavet de 
Courteille, Dictionnaire Turc-Oriental, Paris 1870, 
554-5) to be three times the distance at which a 
man standing between two others can make himself 
heard by them. An aghai in this sense is equal, 
according to a verse of Mir 'All Shir Nawal, to 
12,000 double cubits {kari); according to Pietro 
della Valle, Voyages, iii, 141, to a Spanish league, 
or four Italian miles; according to Flandin and 
Costa, Voyages en Perse, i, m, to 6 kilometres; 
and according to Radloff, loc. cit., to between 6 
and 7 Russian versts. 

Bibliography: in addition to the references 

given above, Sulayman Efendi, Lughat-i CaghatdH 

wa-Turki-yi 'Uthmdni, 15 (transl. I. Kunos, 

Budapest 1902, 6, 105); H. Vambery, Cagataische 

Sprachstudien, 357. (Cl. Huart-H. Bowen) 

al-AGHAnI [see abu'l-faradj al-isfahanI]. 

AGHATHCDHImCN. Agathodaemon. The 

correct transliteration of the name occurs, e.g., in 

Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, l Vyun al-Anbd>, i, 18. Other 

forms are Aghathadhlmun and similar spellings, 

Aghadhimun and similar spellings, as well as more 

serious distortions. In Latin translations from 

Arabic we find various representations of different 

accurateness, e.g. in the Turba Philosophorum: 

Agadimon, Adimon, Agmon. 

The Graeco-Egyptian god Agathodaemon (see 
Ganschinietz, in Pauly-Wissowa, iii. Suppl.-Bd., 
s.v.) is represented in Arabic tradition as one of the 
ancient Egyptian sages or prophets. Already Ps.- 
Manetho refers to Agathodaemon as the third king 
of Egypt, in another place as sou of Hermes the 
second and father of Tat. According to Ibn al- 
Kiftl, 2, Agathodaemon was the teacher of Idrls/ 
Henoch/Hermes. Ibn AW Usaybi'a, on the authority 
of al-Mubashshir b. Fatik, says that he was the 
teacher of Asclepius. The Sabians [q.v.] identify him 

with Shlth b. Adam. Ibn Wahshiyya 

him the prohibition of fishes and beans, 
confirmed by Armisa/Hermes, and also the 
of three ancient alphabets. The Ikhwan al-Safa 5 
(Bombay), iv, 296, mention him together with 
three other sages, each of whom inaugurated one 
of four schools: Agathodaemon created the Pytha- 
gorean. Djabir b. Hayyan mentions him in several 
places together with Socrates, Ps.-Madjritl together 
with other philosophers, and al-Shahrastanl quotes 
some teachings of his. 

Agathodaemon is a great authority in the occult 
sciences. Djabir and Ps.-Madjritl attribute to him 
a clock that lures snakes, scorpions, etc. out of their 



holes. He is mentioned by Ibn al-Nadim amongst 
the alchemical authors and he is quoted in several 
authors on the art, even in Abu Bakr al-RazI's 

Many authors consider the two great pyramids 
the graves of Hermes and Agathodaemon [cf. haram]. 
Bibliography: Manetho, ed. Waddell, 1940; 
D. Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier, index s.v.; idem, 
Ueber die Ueberreste der altbabylonischen Literatur, 
'859; J. Hammer, Ancient alphabets and hiero- 
glyphic characters, 1806; A. v. Gutschmid, Die 
nabataische Landwirtschaft, Kleine Schriften, ii, 
1890; P. Kraus, Jdbir b. Hayyan, ii, 1942, index, 
s.v.; Ps.-Madjritl, Ghayat al-Hakim (Ritter), 327, 
406; Shahrastanl, 241; Fihrist, 353, cf. J. W. Fuck, 
Ambix, 1951, 92; J. Ruska, Tabula Smaragdina, 
1926, index s.v.; idem, Turba Philosophorum, 
1931, index s.v.; idem, Al-Rdzi's Buch Geheimnis 
der Geheimnisse, 1937, 21; M. Plessner, Hermes 
Trismegistus and Arabic Science, Studia Islamica, 
ii, 1954, 45 ff. (M. Plessner) 

al-AGJILAB al-'IDJLI (al-Aohlab b. c Amr b. 
'Ubayda b. Haritha b. Dulaf b. Djusham), Arab 
poet, born in the pre- Islamic era and converted to 
Islam, who later settled at al-Kufa, and was killed 
at the battle of Nihawand (21/642) at the reputed 
age of 90. He is not regarded as one of the Companions 
of the Prophet. Al-Aghlab is considered to be the 
first to have employed the radiaz metre in lengthy 
poems constructed on the pattern of the hasida, but 
very few traces of his works remain. Critics praise 
particularly a poem on the prophetess Sadjah [q.v.], 
and quote an anecdote which suggests that Islam 
afforded him little inspiration for the composition 
of religious poetry. 

Bibliography: Djumahl, Tabakdt, Cairo, 218; 
Sidjistanl, Mu'ammarin (Goldziher, Abhandlungen, 
ii), no. 107; Asma'I, Fuhula, in ZDMG, 1911, 466-7; 
Djaljiz, ijayawan*, ii, 280; Ibn Kutayba, Shi'r, 
389; Aghdni 1 , xviii, 164-7; Baghdad!, Khizdna. i, 
332-4; Ibn Hadjar, Isaba, no. 225; AmidI, Mufalif, 
22; Ibn Durayd, Ishtikdk, 208; O. Rescher, 
Abriss, i, 114; Brockelmann, S I, 90; Nallino, 
Scritti vi, 96-7 (Fr. trans. 149-51)- 

(Ch. Pellat) 
AGHLABIDS or BANU 'i-AOHLAB. a Muslim 
dynasty which throughout the 3rd/gth century held 
Ifrikiya in the name of the 'Abbasids and reigned 
at al-Kayrawan. 



In 184/800 the founder of this dynasty, Ibrahim 
b. al-Aghlab, who, as governor of the Zab, had 
displayed skill and energy in restoring law and order 
in his province, was invested with princely power 
by the caliph Harun al-Rashld on terms advantageous 
to the latter. His vassal relinquished the subvention 
hitherto paid to Ifrikiya and undertook to pay a 
tribute of 40,000 dinars to the imperial treasury. 
The ties which linked the Aghlabid amir to the 
Caliph were such as to allow him a large measure 
of autonomy, especially in the matter of the succes- 
sion. "He bequeathed his dominions to a son or a 
brother as he pleased" (al-Nuwayrl), making his 
choice without interference from Baghdad, and this 
practice was followed by each of the amirs who 
succeeded him. 

Our knowledge of these Arab rulers of Ifrikiya is 
considerable, and it is possible to discern their 



2 4 8 



AGHLABIDS 



characters with reasonable clarity. In these high 
officials of the caliphs who had become independent 
princes, one finds the merits and defects of their 
masters. Although the majority were devoted to 
pleasure and addicted to drink, which at times 
incited them to outbursts of violence and bloodshed, 
there were among them men of culture who had a 
sense of greatness, shrewd statesmen, at once stern 
and humane, and leaders anxious to promote public 
works and to devote the revenues accruing to them 
to the welfare of the State. Under them, Ifrikiya 
experienced a genuine renaissance, and many 
magnificent foundations still testify to their benefi- 

They needed energy and political skill to overcome 
the difficulties which confronted them. Ibrahim b. 
al-Aghlab (184-97/800-12) had to extinguish the last 
outbreaks of Berber revolt. On the borders of 
Aghlabid territory, Kharidjism was in control of 
Southern Ifrikiya, of the Awras and nearly all of 
Central Maghrib, the Zab forming the western 
boundary of the kingdom. The adherence of the 
Kutama of Lesser Kabylia to ShI'ism was to cause 
the downfall of the dynasty. The gravest crises, 
however, were centred round the very heart of the 
Aghlabid kingdom. Tunis and even al-Kayrawan 
were centres of opposition, and the most troublesome 
elements were the Arabs of the diund, who ought to 
have been the strongest supporters of Aghlabid 
power. In the towns in which they were garrisoned, 
they treated the indigenous population with contu- 
mely, and proved exacting and contentious in their 
dealings with the rulers of the country. Ibrahim I 
had to suppress two Arab revolts: that of Hamdls 
b. 'Abd-al-Rahman al-KIndi (186/802) and that of 
'Imran b. Mukhallad (194/809), in both of which 
Kayrawanls were involved. Foreseeing the danger, 
the amir had constructed, 2 m. south of al-Kayrawan, 
al-Kasr al-Kadlm (or al-'Abbasiyya [q.v.]) and had 
taken up residence there. He surrounded himself 
there with those elements of the diund considered 
reliable and with slaves bought for the purpose, 
who constituted an imposing coloured guard. 

Under the third Aghlabid amir, Abu Muhammad 
Ziyadat Allah (201-23/817-38), who had displayed 
excessive severity towards the diund, a new and 
more serious Arab revolt broke out, instigated by 
Mansur b. Nasr al-Tunbudhl. From his fort at 
Tunbudha, near Tunis, he called the Arab chiefs to 
arms and received their support (209/824). After 
varying fortunes the insurgents found themselves 
masters of nearly the whole of Ifrikiya except Kabis 
and its surrounding district. With the help of the 
Berbers of the Djarid, Ziyadat Allah succeeded in 
regaining the advantage. Al-Tunbudhl surrendered 
and was executed. The coalition then broke up and 
Ziyadat Allah pardoned the remaining rebel chiefs. 
Once again the Kayrawanls had supported the 
cause of the insurgents. 

The hostility of the Kayrawanls and the policy 
of the Aghlabids towards them constitute another 
aspect of the internal history of the dynasty. This 
hostility was fostered mainly by the religious classes, 
scholars and devotees who enjoyed the confidence 
and regard of the people. These doctors of religion, 
exponents of fradith, jurists and theologians who, 
for the most part, were of eastern origin, lived close 
to the people and guided public opinion. As professing 
ascetics, they criticised the morals of the amirs; as 
champions of orthodoxy, they protested against 
their illegal decisions and their abuse of power. The 
second of the Aghlabids, Abu 'l- c Abbas c Abd Allah 



b. Ibrahim (197-201/812-7) promulgated a financial 
reform which was contrary to Islamic tradition, 
namely, the levy on crops of a fixed sum in cash 
instead of the tithe in kind. This measure aroused 
strong protests, and the death of the amir soon 
afterwards was regarded as a divine punishment. 
On the whole, the Aghlabid rulers treated the 
religious classes with respect and tried to conciliate 
them, but they rarely induced them to relax their 
uncompromising attitude. Apart from various 
architectural creations and public works (which will 
will be described later), which may be considered to 
owe their origin to this religious policy, the conquest 
of Byzantine Sicily can also be attributed to the 

Although this conquest, the supreme military 
achievement of the Aghlabid amirs, was undertaken 
by Ziyadat Allah immediately after the revolt of 
Mansur al-Tunbudhl, and was doubtless inspired by 
the desire to divert the energies of the Arabs to an 
external theatre of operations, the expedition of 
211/827 assumed the guise of a holy war. The army 
was entrusted to the learned jurist Asad b. al-Furat 
[q.v.], and Susa [q.v.], where the fighters for the 
Faith and their followers embarked, already had the 
character of a djihdd port, as the town had been 
furnished with a ribat six years previously. 

This ribat still exists. An inscription at the foot 
of the signal tower bears the name of Ziyadat Allah 
and the date 206/821. The rebuilding of the Great 
Mosque at al-Kayrawan [q.v.] is attributed to the 
same amir. This splendid building, founded by 
Ukba b. Nafi' about 670, twice remodelled or 
rebuilt in the course of the 8th century, was in fact 
the work of the Aghlabids. In addition to Ziyadat 
Allah, two other amirs, Abu Ibrahim and Ibrahim II, 
carried out work there and enlarged the prayer-hall. 

The Aghlabids were enthusiastic builders. Under 
Ziyadat Allah's successor, Abu c Ikal al-Aghlab 
(223-6/837-40), the small mosque named after Abu 
Fatyata was built at Susa, which acquired other 
new foundations about the same time. Abu 'l-'Abbas 
Muhammad endowed it with the Great Mosque 
(236/850) which still exists. The ramparts, also 
preserved, were constructed under Abu Ibrahim 
Ahmad (242-9/856-63), who of all the dynasty 
figures most prominently in the architectural 
history of Ifrikiya. To him is attributed the con- 
struction of the great mosque of Tunis, which like 
that at al-Kayrawan, superseded an earlier mosque 
which was now considered inadequate. The creative 
activity and the munificence of this prince were 
shown, above all, in his military and public works. 
Ibn Khaldun, who is usually more cautious in his 
assertions, states that "Abu Ibrahim Ahmad built 
in Africa nearly 10,000 forts, constructed of stone 
and mortar and furnished with iron gates". It is 
true that he constructed a large number, both along 
the coast and on the western frontier, many perhaps 
being strongholds of the Byzantine limes which he 
restored. At Susa, the rampart, dating, according 
to an inscription, from 245/859, seems to have been 
built on the old wall of Hadrumetum. Similarly the 
Burdj Yunga, on the Tunisian coast south of Mahres, 
which also dates from the Aghlabid era, is a Byzan- 
tine fort, the foundations of which were used by the 
Muslim architects. 

The same thing probably applies to a number of 
of hydraulic undertakings, but it can be asserted 
that the Aghlabids carried out many of these in 
order to restore prosperity to regions possessing 
only a poor water supply, notably to the south 



AGHLABIDS 



249 



of the "Tunisian chain". A recent work by M. Solignac, 
based on an examination of the constructional 
methods employed and the nature of the materials 
used, and a comparison with those used at the 
neighbouring reservoirs at al-Kayrawan, leaves no 
doubt on this point. 

For their public works, their defence installations, 
and, in general, for their buildings, the amirs 
evidently relied on a labour force recruited locally. 
The superintendence of the workshops was entrusted 
to non-Muslim freedmen, their clients (mawla), whose 
names are recorded on the buildings themselves. On 
their coins are mentioned officials of the same 
origin who controlled the Mint. 

Although the inherited traditions of Christian 
Africa had a considerable influence on the construc- 
tion and ornamentation of buildings (the Roman 
mosaic style of paving being still employed), Aghlabid 
architecture draws also on Oriental sources. The 
influence of Syria, Egypt and Mesopotamia is 
apparent, and a new and specifically Muslim art 
emerges which finds its most striking expression in 
the Great Mosque at al-Kayrawan. 

The dynasty enjoyed its last years of prosperity in 
the reign of Abu Ishak Ibrahim 1 1 , who succeeded 
Abu <Abd-Allah Muhammad called Abu '1-Gharanik 
("Father of the Cranes"), a frivolous and extra- 
vagant prince. Ibrahim II, in whose strange character 
were blended in exaggerated form the merits and 
defects of his line, was by turns a just sovereign, 
concerned for the welfare of his people, and a 
sadistic tyrant, whose cruelty spared no member 
of his family. On the command of the 'Abbasid 
Caliph al-MuHadid, who had received complaints 
about him, he abdicated in 289/902 in favour of his 
son Abu 'l- c Abbas c Abd Allah, and devoted himself 
to a most edifying life of penitence. Being unable 
to perform the pilgrimage by the overland route, 
he travelled to Sicily, made himself master of 
Taormina, and then went on to Calabria, where he 
died before Cosenza (19 Dh u '1-Ka c da 289/29 Oct. 902). 
During the reign of Ibrahim II there appeared in 
Ifrikiya the ShI'ite missionary Abu c Abd Allah [q.v.], 
who was to bring about the downfall of the dynasty 
and secure the triumph of the Fatimid al-Mahdl 
c Ubayd Allah. Supported by the Kutama Berbers, 
whom he had converted to ShI'ism, Abu 'Abd 
Allah set out to conquer the Aghlabid kingdom. The 
posts on the western frontier, some of which had 
been imprudently denuded of their Arab garrisons, 
victims of Ibrahim's severity, were incapable of 
checking these fanatical mountaineers. The amir 
Abu Mudar Ziyadat Allah III perceived the 
danger, but his measures lacked any rational plan 
and were insufficient to delay the catastrophe. He 
restored the walls of al-Kayrawan and sent against 
the Kutama several forces which were defeated. 
Then, announcing a great victory, he made prepa- 
rations for flight. He left Rakkada, the royal city 
which Ibrahim II had founded 4% m. south of al- 
Kayrawan, and, taking with him what treasures he 
could, set out for Egypt. From there he went to 
Rakka, but later returned to Egypt, and died at 
Jerusalem. 

Bibliography: Ibn Khaldun. l Ibar, iv, 
195-207 (trans. Noel Des Vergers, Hist, de VAfrique 
sous la dynastic des Aghlabides, Paris 1841); 
NuwayrI, ed. M. Gaspar Remiro (trans, in appendix 
to Ibn Khaldun, Histoire); Ibn 'Idharl, Bayan, i 
(trans. E. Fagnan, i, n 1-204); Ibn al-Athlr, 
al-Kamil, vii (trans. E. Fagnan, Annates du Magh- 
reb et de I'Espagne, Algiers 1898, 157-299); Bakri, 



Descr. de I'Afr. sept., trans, de Slane, 52-54; 
Maliki, Riycuji al-Nufus, ed. H. Mu'nis, Cairo 1953; 
c Iyad, Madarik, passim; Abu 'l-'Arab, Classes des 
savants de Vlfrikiya ed. and trans. M. Bencheneb, 
passim; Vonderheyden, La Berberie orientate sous 
la dynastic de Benou l-Aghlab (800-909) Paris 1927; 
Fournel, Les Berbers, Paris 1857-75; Ch. Diehl and 
G. Marcais, Le monde oriental de 395 a 1081 
{Histoire generate de G. Glotz), 413-419; H.H. c Abd 
al-Wahhab, Khulasat Ta'rikh Tunis, Tunis 1372, 
64-76; M. Solignac, Recherches sur les installations 
hydrauliques de Kairouan et des steppes tunisiennes 
du Vile au Xle siicle, Algiers 1953; G. Marcais, 
La Berberie musulmane et I'Orient au Moyen Age, 
57-101 ; idem, V architecture musulmane d'Occident, 
Paris 1954, chap. i. (G. Marcais) 

Al-Kayrawan under the Aghlabids was a great 
centre of Islamic religious life, scholarship and 
literature, both in its own right and as a half-way 
house between the Islamic East and West. Whilst 
they did not elaborate a common local interpretation 
of religious law of their own, the scholars of al- 
Kayrawan followed one or the other of the Eastern 
schools of thought, sometimes adopting an eclectic 
attitude. This eclecticism is attested not only by the 
Asadiyya of Ibn al-Furat but by other works as well. 
'Irakian and Medinese doctrines were equally well 
represented in al-Kayrawan of the Aghlabids, but 
the teaching of al-Shafi c I never took root there. In 
particular, al-Kayrawan under the Aghlabids became 
the most important centre of the Maliki school, 
superseding Medina and Cairo as such. Some of the 
most prominent specialists in religious law of the 
period, whose works have to a greater or lesser 
extent survived, are: Asad b. al-Furat {[q.v.], d. 213), 
Sahnun {[q.v.], d. 240), author of the Mudawwana, 
the great digest of Maliki doctrine, Yusuf b. Yahya 
(d. 288), Abu Zakariyya 5 Yahya b. 'Umar al-Kinanl 
(d. 289), c Is5 b. Miskln (d. 295), and Abu 'Uthman 
Sa c Id b. Muhammad b. al-Haddad (d. 302). Manu- 
scripts dating from the time of the Aghlabids, of the 
works of these and of other scholars, are still preserved 
in the library of the Great Mosque of al-Kayrawan. 
In the field of dogmatic theology, too, al-Kayrawan 
under the Aghlabids was the meeting-place of many 
opinions and the stage of lively discussions, occasi- 
onally, too, of violence and persecution, between 
the orthodox, the Djabariyya, the Murdji'a, the 
MuHazila, and last but not least the Ibadiyya (see 
these artt.). Asad b. al-Furat, for instance, assaulted 
Sulayman al-Farra' who denied that the believers 
would see God, and when Sahnun became kadi, he 
had slowly beaten to death his predecessor c Abd 
Allah b. Abi '1-Djawad, who was of the opinion that 
the Kur'an was created. Concerning this last pro- 
position, the religious policy of the Aghlabids 
followed that of the Caliphs of Baghdad. Shortly 
after the mihna [q.v.] in the East, the upholders of 
the orthodox doctrine had to undergo a similar, 
though milder, tribulation under the pretender 
Ahmad b. al-Aghlab; Sahnun himself had been in 
danger on that occasion, but escaped serious trouble. 
In the same way as in the East, an orthodox reaction 
soon asserted itself, but Mu'tazilite doctrines were 
not eradicated, and a professed Mu'tazilite, such as 
Ibrahim b. Aswad al-Saddlnl, was appointed kadi 
of al-Kayrawan at the end of the reign of Ibrahim 
b. Ahmad, shortly before the end of the dynasty. 
Religious life proper is represented by a great 
number of pious persons and saints who were often 



AGHLABIDS — AGHMAT 



the Aghlabids, and both showed a spirit of indepen- 
dence ,and held a critical attitude towards the 
government. Occasionally, the kadis were at the 
same time governors and military commanders. 
Several collections of biographies, the oldest of 
which are very near to the period in question, give 
a vivid picture of the religious and intellectual life 
in al-IJayrawan (and. in the other cities of Ifrikiya) 
under the Aghlabids. 

Bibliography: Abu 'l- c Arab (d. 333), Tabakat 
'ulama' Ifrikiya; the same, Ta.ba.kat 'ulamd' Tunis; 
al-Khushani (d- 37l)> jabakat <-ulama> Ifrikiya 
(these three ed. and transl. by M. Ben Cheneb; 
Paris-Algiers, 1915, 1920); Abu Bakr al-Maliki 
(d. after 449), Riydd al-Nufus (ed. H. Mu'nis, i, 
Cairo, 1951); digest of the whole work by H.-R. 
Idris, in REI, 1935, 105 ff., 27311-; 1936, 45 «•; 
Ibn al-NadjI (d. 837), Ma'dlim al-Imdn, Tunis, 
1320-25. (J. Schacht) 

The dynasty consists of the following eleven 

1. Ibrahim I b. al-Aghlab b. Salim b. <Ik51 al- 
Tamlmi (12 Djumada II 184/9 July 800—21 Shawwal 
196/5 July 812), the founder of the dynasty. His 
father al-Aghlab, a former associate of Abu Muslim, 
was one of the commanders in the Khurasanian corps 
sent to Ifrikiya by al-Mansur; in 148/785 he had 
succeeded Muhammad b. al-Ash c ath as governor, 
and was killed in 150/767 during the revolt of al- 
Hasan b. Harb. In 179/795 Ibrahim was appointed 
governor of the ZSb, and in return for his assistance 
in putting down a revolt against the governor Ibn 
Mukatil was granted the province as a hereditary 
fief by Hariin al-Rashid. Energetic and wise, prudent 
and shrewd, a brave fighter as well as skilful diplomat, 
Ibrahim, gave Ifrikiya an excellent administration. 
He was a man of wide culture, being, it is said, a 
good faklh as well as a fine orator and poet. At 
the time of his death, his son 'Abd Allah, who had 
been sent in 186/81 1 to suppress a rising of the Kha- 
ridjite Huwwara in Tripolitania, was besieged in 
Tripoli by the Rustamid c Abd al-Wahhab of Tahart, 
and made peace with the latter by ceding the entire 
hinterland of Tripoli. 

Supplementary bibliography: Baladhurl, 
Futuh, 233 f.; K. al-'Uyun (Frag. Hist, arab., 
302 f.); Ibn Taghribirdi, Nudjum, i, 488, 5", 528, 
532; Abu ZakariyyS', Chronique, tr. Masqueray, 
121-6; Shammakhi, Siyar, Cairo, 159-241; for 
Frankish embassies to Ifrikiya, cf. Eginhard, 
Annates Francorum, an. 801; Reinaud, Invasion 
des Sarrazins en France, Paris 1836, 117. 

2. Abu 'l-'Abbas 'Abd Allah I b. Ibrahim 
(Safar i97/Oct.-Nov. 812—6 Dhu 'l-Hididja 201/25 
June 817) had a reputation for beauty and ill- 
nature; he was blamed more especially for having 
imposed non-kur'anic, and particularly heavy, taxes. 

3. Abu Muhammad Ziyadat Allah I b. Ibrahim 
(201/817— 14 Radjab 223/10 June 838) was one of 
the greatest princes of the dynasty. Apart from the 
revolt of al-Tunbudhi, the outstanding event of his 
reign was the conquest of Sicily, from 217/827 
onwards, under the command of the kadi of al- 
Kayrawan, Asad b. al-Furat [q.v.]. Two years later 
he granted an amnesty to the former rebels, and 
Ifrikiya entered on a period of general peace. To 
him is due also the restoration of the mosque of 
al-Kayrawan and other public works. 



4. Abu 'Ikal al-Aghlab b. Ibrahim (223/838— 
Rabl c II 226/Feb. 841) was a brilliant and cultivated 
prince, who devoted his attention to the adminis- 
tration of Ifrikiya and gave a further impulsion to 
the djihad in Sicily. 

5. Abu 'l-'Abbas Muhammad I b. al-Aghlab 
(226/841-2 Muharram 242/10 May 856).' Six years 
after his accession he was ousted by his brother 
Ahmad, whom, however, he managed to defeat a 
year later and banished to the East, where he died. 
His reign was marked by two rebellions: those of 
Salim b. Ghalbun in 233/847-8 and of c Amr b. 
Salim al-Tudjibl in 235/850. Muhammad was a 
warm supporter of the Malikites and especially of 
the kadi Sahnun [<?.«.]. 

6. Abu Ibrahim Ahmad b. Muhammad (242/ 
856—13 Dhu '1-Ka'da 249/28 Dec. 863) was a nephew 
of the preceding. He had a peaceful reign, marked 
especially by public works. 

7. Ziyadat Allah lib. Muhammad (249/863— 
19 Dhu '1-Ka'da 250/23 Dec. 864) was a brother of 
the preceding. 

8. Abu 'l-Gharanlk Muhammad II b. Ahmad 
(250/863 — 6 Djumada I 261/16 Jan. 875), son of Abu 
Ibrahim, was noted for his great passion for hunting. 
His reign was marked by the conquest of Malta 
(255/868). 

9. Abu Ishak Ibrahim II b. Ahmad (261/875— 
17 Dhu '1-Ka'da 289/18 Oct. 902) was raised to the 
throne by popular acclamation in place of his 
nephew Abu 'Ikal. In 264/878 he built himself a new 
residence, Rakkada [q.v.], which he later abandoned 
for Tunis. The main events of his reign are the 
capture of Syracuse (264/878), the defeat of an 
invasion of Ifrikiya by al-'Abbas, son of Ahmad b. 
Tulun, by the Ibadites of Djabal Nafusa (266-7/ 
879-80), the suppression of a revolt of the Berbers 
of the Zab (268/881-2), and of another rising in the 
north of Ifrikiya (280/893). His son c Abd Allah, 
appointed governor of Sicily in 287/900, captured 
Palermo and Reggio, and was recalled on Ibrahim's 
abdication (see above). 

10. Abu '1- 'Abbas c Abd Allah II b. Ibrahim 
(289/902 — 29 Sha'ban 290/23 July 903). He endea- 

sinated at the instigation of his son Ziyadat Allah. 

11. Abu Mudar Ziyadat Allah III b. c Abd 
Allah (290/903 — 296/909). Ascending the throne after 
the murder of his father and other members of his 
family, he was completely lacking in courage. 
Nevertheless, he proclaimed the djihad in 291/904, 
but, driven to despair by the fall of Laribus (18 
March 909; see abO 'abd allAh al-shI'I), he incon- 
tinently fled from the country. 

AGHMAT. a small town in Southern Morocco, 
about 25 m. south of Marrakush, on a small water- 
course Wadi Orika or Wadi Aghmat, at the edge of 
the Great Atlas range (the Djabal Daran of the 
Middle Ages). From the 5th/nth century the name 
of this place, according to the statement of the 
geographer Abu 'Ubayd al-Bakri, applied to two 
distinct settlements 1 y 2 m. apart, namely Aghmat 
an-Waylan (the spelling given by al-Baydaq, Doc. 
inidits d'hist. almohade) or Aghmat of the Aylan 
(a Berber tribe: arabice Haylana) and Aghmat 
Orika, or Aghmat of the Orika (Warika). To-day 
the latter is a small country town named simply 
Orika. Al-Bakri and al-ldrisl describe Aghmat as 
a flourishing town surrounded by well-irrigated 
gardens and inhabited by a considerable and highly 
industrious population. It is a fact that before the 
I foundation of Marrakush, at the beginning of the 



AGHMAT — AGHRI DAGH 



251 



Almoravid expansion beyond the Great Atlas range, 
this town was the chief urban centre in southern 
Morocco and even, if one accepts the testimony of 
certain biographical notices in the Andalusian 
dictionaries, an extremely active cultural centre. In 
the 25 years prior to the accession of Yusuf b. 
Tashufln [q.v.], many scholars and jurists flocked to 
Aghmat from Cordova and even from al-Kayrawan, 
the latter having been forced into exile in large 
numbers by the disturbances which had just 
devastated Ifrtkiya. At that time Aghmat was the 
capital of a small Berber state, in the hands of a 
chief of the Maghrawa [q.v.], Lakkut b. Yusuf, who 
married the celebrated Zaynab al-Nafzawiyya, the 
daughter of one of the emigres from Ifrikiya. The 
latter afterwards became successively the wife of 
the Lamtuna chief Abu Bakr b. 'Umar [see al- 
murAbitun], and of his lieutenant and successor 
Yusuf b. Tashufln. This intelligent and cultured 
princess who, according to certain chroniclers, was 
also something of a magician, speedily assembled 
at Aghmat a literary entourage and introduced 
the rough Lamtuna chieftains from the Sahara 
and their wives also to a more cultured mode 
of existence. Once it had been founded and 
become the capital of the Almoravids, Marrakush 
attracted many members of this select circle from 
Aghmat, and this marked the beginning of its 
decline which, however, seems to have been con- 
summated only much later. The Almoravids chose 
Aghmat as an enforced place of residence for two 
of the rulers whom they had deposed in Spain, 
namely the Zirid ruler of Granada <Abd Allah b. 
Buluggin, and the famous al-Mu'tamid of Seville. 
Later, Aghmat was the last stage on the journey of 
the Mahdi Ibn Tumart on his return from the East, 
prior to his "rising", in both a religious and a 
political sense, in the Great Atlas Mountains. By 
the time of Leo Africanus the old Berber capital 
was in a state of complete decline. 

Bibliography: Bakri, Descr. de I'Afr. sept., 
152/291-92; Idrlsl, al-Maghrib, 65-7/76-7; al- 
Istibsdr, trans. Fagnan, 177; Ibn 'Abd al-Mun'im 
al-Himyari, al-Rawd al-Mi'fdr, unpublished article; 
Leo Africanus, Descr. de VAfrique (Schaefer), i, 
209 ff., 338 ff. ; L. de Marmol, Descr. general de 
Africa, Granada 1573, ii, 35 ff., E. Doutte, En 
tribu, Missions au Maroc, Paris 1914, ch. i; al- 
'Abbas b. Ibrahim al-Marrakushl, al-I'ldm bi-man 
Halla Marrakush wa- Aghmat min al-A'-ldm, Fez 
1936 f., passim. — E. Garcia G6mez has published 
a romantic account of his journey to Aghmat and 
his pilgrimage to the tomb of al-Mu c tamid entitled 
El supuesto sepulcro de MuHamid de Sevilla en 
Aghmat, And., 1953, 402-11. 

(E. Levi-Provencal) 
AGHRI, an East-Anatolian wilayet {il) of the 
Turkish Republic, in large part identical with 
the former sandjak of Bayazid [q.v.], and named 
from the Aghrl Dagh [q.v.], the Biblical Ararat, 
which forms its N. E. boundary with the wilayet of 
Kars and with Iran. Area: 12,659 sq. km; inhabitants 
in 1889 (after SamI): 47,236, of which 8,367 were 
Armenians, the rest Muslims; in 1891 (after Cuinet): 
52,544, mainly Kurdish Muslims (41,471) and 10, 
485 Armenians; 1945 : 133,504, all Muslims, of 
whom 78, 987 were Kurds and 54,473 Turks. Capital: 
Karakose (1945 : 8,605 inhabitants; formerly called 
Kara Kilise). Consists of 6 kadd's (Me) : Karakose, 
Diyadin, Dogubayazit (formerly Bayazid [q.v.], 
capital of the sandjak of the same name), Eleskert 



(formerly Aleshkird or Alashgird), Patnos (formerly 
<Antab), Tutak. The name is now spelled Agn. 
Bibliography: V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, 

i, '227-39; §h. SamI Frasherl, Kdmus ul-AHdm, 

ii, I235.„ (F. Taeschner) 

A&HRI DA£H (sometimes also EchrI Dach), 
mountain (extinct volcano) with a double peak 
on the eastern frontier of the Turkish Republic, 
39°45 N 44°20 E, the highest point in the plateau 
of the region of the Aras (Araxes) and Wan (high 
plateau of Ararat), in Armenian Masis or Masik, in 
Persian Kuh-i Nub; by Europeans it is called 
Ararat, as it was identified with the mountain of 
this name (Hebrew Ararat, originally the name of 
the country of Urartu, later understood as the name 
of a mountain), on which Noah's ark is said to have 
alighted. (Originally Ararat was identified with 
Djabal Djfidl [q.v.] near Djazirat Ibn c Umar in 
Mesopotamia.) 

The mountain rises, almost without any inter- 
mediate ridges, over the flat plain of the Araxes, 
which is just over 800 m. high and extends to the 
east and north of the mountain. To the south and 
the west there extends an undulating high plateau 
from 1800 to over 3000 m. high, from which rise 
other extinct volcanoes, and ridges from which to 
NW and W form the transition to the system of 
the. Eastern Taurus. The Ararat group covers an 
area of over 1000 square kms. and has a circum- 
ference of over 100 kms. It culminates in two 
summits, Great Ararat (5172 m.) in the NW and 
Little Ararat (3296 m.) in the SE; these are con- 
nected by a narrow, smooth-rounded saddle (2687 m.) 
13-14 kms. long, called, after a spring c. 8 km. 
below, Serdar Bulak. A pass leads over this ridge. 
In absolute height Ararat surpasses all the mountains 
of Europe, and with its relative height of over 
4300 m. also many famous giants of the other 
continents. Seen from the north, the mountain, 
towering over the whole landscape, offers a majestic 
sight. 

Great Ararat (Djabal al-Harith) has the form of 
a slightly rounded cone. From its summit, which 
forms an almost circular plateau with a circumference 
of 150-200 feet, falling off steeply on all sides, 
snow-fields and glaciers descend for 1000 m. (the 
snow line is over 4000 m. high). The NE slope of 
Great Ararat is cleft downwards by a steep ravine 
(the valley of St. James), the highest part of which 
is a spacious basin, enclosed by vertical walls of 
rock, while the lower part, now a stony desert, was 
formerly inhabited (the village of Arguri, 1737 m., 
and the monastery of St. James). Lesser Ararat 
(Djabal al-Huwayrith) has the form of a beautiful 
regular cone. 

The district is afflicted by frequent earthquakes. 
The most terrible earthquake of recent centuries 
was that of 20 June 1840; this caused an enormous 
landslide, which destroyed a flourishing settlement, 
the ancient Arguri (old Armenian Akori; cf. Hiibsch- 
mann, in Indogerm. Forsch., xvi, 364, 395), with all 
its inhabitants (c. 1600), the small monastery of 
St. James 3 km. above, with all its monks, and the 
holy well of St. James. 

The whole of the Ararat district, owing to the 
porousness of the cinder- and slag-stone, suffers 
from a considerable scarcity of water; in spite of 
the abundant cover of snow, there are only two 
springs of importance on the slope of Great Ararat 
(the Sardar Bulak, 2290 m.; and the famous well 
of St. James, which emerges since 1840 at a different 
spot), none on Little Ararat. The latter does not 



252 



AGHRI DAGH — AGRA 



reach the region of eternal snow. It is only in the 
districts at the eastern and northern feet of the 
mountain, in the plain of the Aras, that the water 
oozes out and forms in parts marshy patches. 

The dearth of water results in scanty vegetation. 
Apart from some birches, Ararat, like all the neigh- 
bouring mountains, is completely bare of forests; 
in this extreme form, however, this is caused by 
human agency. A poor fauna corresponds to the 
scanty flora. Since the destruction of the human 
settlements in the valley of St. James the district of 
Ararat is an uninhabited, solitary desert. In the 
Middle Ages the conditions were quite different. 
Al-Istakhri, 191, expressly states that there was 
much wood and game on Ararat; al-MakdisI adds 
that there were more than 1000 hamlets on the 
promontories of Ararat. The Armenian historian 
Thomas of Artsruni (10th century) also stresses the 
richness of the region in deer, boars, lions and wild 
asses (cf. Thopdschian, in MSOS, 1904, ii, 150). 
After the Persian wars of Selim I and Siileyman I 
Ararat was for centuries the northern pillar of the 
Ottoman Empire against Persia, though both the 
summit and the northern slopes of Great Ararat, 
as well as the eastern slopes of Little Ararat, lay in 
Persian territory, or in that of the Persian vassal 
state of Nakhcewan. By the treaty of Turkman-day 
(2-14 Febr. 1828) the plain of the Aras north of 
Ararat (the districts of Surmalu, Kulp and Igdir) 
was ceded by Persia to Russia. Thus the northern 
slopes together with the summit of Great Ararat 
fell to Russia, while Little Ararat formed the gigantic 
boundary stone between the three empires of 
Turkey, Persia and Russia. By the treaty of Moscow, 
16 March 1921, between Soviet Russia and Turkey 
the plain of the Aras was ceded to Turkey; and in 
the Turco-Persian agreement (i'tildf-ndma) of 23 Jan. 
1932 (which came into force on 3 Nov. 1932) Persia 
also ceded to Turkey a small territory, comprising 
the eastern slope of Little Ararat (cf. MSOS, 1934, 
ii, 116); thus at present the whole territory of the 
immense mountain belongs to Turkey. (Cf. G. 
Jaschke, Die Nordostgrenze der Tiirkei und Nachit- 
schewan, WI, 1935, 111-5; idem, Geschichte der 
russisch-tiirkischen Kaukasusgrenze, Archiv des V6lker- 
rechts, 1953, 198-206.) 

Bibliography : Sh.. SamI Bey Frasheri, Kamus 
iil-A'-lam, i, 72 (Ararat), 230 (Aghri Dagh), ii, 
1015 (Eghrf Dagh); K. Rit'er, Erdkunde, x, 77, 
273, 343-5, 356-86, 479-514; E. Reclus, Nouv. 
giogr. univers., vi, 247-52; H. Abich, Geolog. 
Forsch. in den kaukasischen Ldndern, Vienna 
1882 ff., ii, 451 ff. and passim; Ivanoviski, The 
Ararat (in Russian), Moscow 1897; Le Strange, 
182 ; Yakut, ii, 183, 779. For the more important 
travel-books on Armenia, cf. Bibliography in 
armIniya; the following may be mentioned 
especially for the Ararat: Parrot, Reise zum Ararat, 
Berlin 1834, i, 138 ft.; F. Dubois de Montpereux, 
Voyage autour du Caucase etc., en Giorgie, Arminie 
etc., Paris 1839 ff., iii, 358-488 ; M. Wagner, Reise 
nach dem Ararat, Stuttgart 1848, 163-86 and 
passim; H. Abich, Geognost. Reise zum Ararat, 
Monatsber. der Verhandl. der Gesellschaft f. Erdk., 
Berlin 1846-7, and in Bullet, de la Socitti de Giogr., 
Paris 185 1 ; idem, Die Ersteigung des Ararat, St. 
Petersburg 1849 > Parmelee, Life among the mounts 
of Ararat, Boston 1868 ; D. W. Freshfield, Travels in 
the Central-Caucasus and Bashan, London 1869; 
M. v. Thielmann, Streifziige im Kaukasus, in 
Persien etc., Leipzig 1875, 152 ff.; J. Bryce, 
Transcaucasia and Ararat, London 1877; E. 



Markoff, Eine Besteigung des grossen Ararat, 

Ausland, 1889, 244 ft.; J. Leclerq, Voyage au 

mont Ararat, Paris 1892; Seidlitz, Pastuchow's 

Besteigung des Ararat, Globus, 1894, 309 ft.; 

Rickmer-Richmers, Der Ararat, Zeitschr. des 

Deutsch-Osterr., Alpenver., 1895 ; M. Ebeling, Der 

Ararat, ibidem, 1899, 144-63 (on p. 162-3 some 

bibliographical and cartographical references). 

(M. Streck-F. Taeschner) 

AGRA, town, headquarters of a division and 

district of the name in the state of Uttar Pradesh, is 

situated on the banks of the river Yamuna, 27° 1' N, 

77° 59' E. Pop. (1951) 375,665, of whom 15.6% are 

Muslims. The city was for a long time the seat of 

residence of the Mughal emperors, and is renowned 

especially for its remarkable monuments of Mughal 

architecture. 

History. Little is known about the early history 
of Agra, but there is no doubt it was founded long 
before the Muslim invasions of India. The first 
reference to the city, and to an ancient fortress in 
it, is contained in a kasida written in praise of the 
Ghaznawid prince Mahmud b. Ibrahim by the poet 
Mas'ud b. Sa'd b. Salman (d. 515/1121 or 526/1131), 
wherein the conquest of the fortress (presumably 
during the reign of Sultan Mas'fld III, 493-508/ 
1099-1115) is mentioned. The town was ruled by 
Radjput chiefs, who, upon making their submission 
to the Sultanate of Delhi, were allowed to keep then- 
control over it, under the overall command of the 
governor of Biyana province. It remained unnoticed 
until Sultan Sikandar LodI (894-923/1489-1517) 
rebuilt the city in 911/1505 and made it the seat of 
his government. The place quickly gained in im- 
portance and attracted scholars and learned men 
from many parts of the Muslim world. Commanding 
routes to Gwalior and Malwa in the south, Radj- 
putana in the west, Delhi and the Pandjab in the 
north-west, and the plain of the Ganges in the east, 
it soon became a strategic and trading centre. It 
continued to be the capital of Ibrahim Lodi (923-32/ 
1517-26) and, on his defeat in 932/1526, it became 
the capital of BSbur. In addition to building his 
palace of Carbagh, Babur laid out a number of 
gardens in the city and constructed many baths. 
His nobles followed his example, and a considerable 
portion of the old city was levelled down. The city 
remained Humayun's and Shir Shah's capital, but 
neither Humayun, nor Shir Shah or his successors 
were able to spend much time there. It again became 
the seat of government in the third year of Akbar's 
reign (965/1558), when he took up residence in the 
citadel formerly known as Badal Gadh, and his 
nobles built their houses on both banks of the river. 
In 972/1565 the construction of the fort on the site 
of Badal Gadh was undertaken, but before it could 
be completed, the building of Fathpur SIkrt [q.v.] 
was commenced. From 982/1574 to 994/1586 Akbar 
lived mostly in the new city, and later, till 1006/1598, 
his headquarters were generally at Lahore. In the 
latter year he returned to Agra. On his death in 
1014/1605, Djahanglr ascended the throne in that 
city and lived there almost continuously from 
1016/1607 to 1022/1613. He spent another year at 
Agra in 1027/1618, but later, until his death in 
1037/1628, he spent most of his time in Kashmir and 
Lahore. Like his father, Shah Djahan also ascended 
the throne at Agra, but had to leave for the Deccan 
in the following year. From 1040/1631 to 1042/1633 
he again resided in the city, but after that, except 
for brief visits, he did not stay there for long. 
Thereafter, he lived mostly at Delhi, where he built 



the new city of Shahdjahanabad. (The name of 
Agra was also changed to Akbarabad, but the latter 
name was never widely used.) In 1067/1657 he fell 
seriously ill and was brought to Agra by his eldest 
son, Dara Shikuh. In the war of succession that 
broke out, Awrangzlb was victorious and ascended 
the throne in 1068/1658. Shah Djahan was impri- 
soned in the Fort, where he died in 1076/1666. On 
hearing the news, Awrangzib returned to Agra and 
held Court there for some time. Later, he again 
stayed in Agra from 1079/1669 to 1081/1671. 
However, Awrangzib's usual place of residence was, 
first, Delhi, and then, in the Deccan. Though, in 
the 17th century, the court did not remain at Agra 
for long, the place was nevertheless regarded as 
one of the capital cities of the Empire. Most of the 
European travellers who visited India considered 
it to be one of the largest cities they had seen, 
comparable in size to Paris, London and Constan- 
tinople. It was a centre of trade and commerce and 
was well known for its textile industry, gold inlay 
work, stone and marble work and crystal. However 
the population as well as the trade diminished 
considerably when the court was away. 

The successors of Awrangzib lived mostly in 
Delhi, though Agra continued to be important 
politically. During the second half of the 18th 
century, it suffered much from the depredations of 
the Djats [?.».], the Mahrattas and the Rohillahs. 
Though nominal Mughal sovereignty over the town 
continued till it was annexed by the British in 1803, 
except for the years 1774 to 1785 when Nadjaf Khan 
(d. 1782) and his successors were its governors, 
Agra was under the occupation of the Djats (1761- 
1770, and 1773-74) and the Mahrattas (1758-61, 
1770-73. and 1785-1803). 

Monuments. The Fort. The present fort of 
Agra was built by Akbar on the site of the Lodi fortress 
of Badal Gadh on the right bank of the Yamuna. It 
was constructed in about eight years (1565-73) under 
the superintendance of Muhammad Kasim Khan 
MIr-i Bahr at a cost of 35 lacs of rupees. It is in 
the shape of an irregular semi-circle with its base 
along the river. The fort is surrounded by a double 
wall, loop-holed for musketry, the distance between 
the walls being 40 ft. The outer wall, just under 70 ft. 
high and faced with red sand-stone, is about 1 J miles 
in circuit and represents the first conception of 
dressed stone on such a large scale. The principal 
gateway, the Delhi Gate, is one of the most impres- 
sive portals in India. Within the fort, according to 
Abu'l Fadl, Akbar built "upward of 500 edifices of 
red stone in the fine styles of Bengal and Gudjrat". 
Most of these buildings were demolished by Shah 
Djahan to make room for his marble structures, 
among those that still stand Akbari and Bangdli 
Mahalls are the earliest. Akbar's buildings are 
characterised by carved stone brackets which 
support the stone beams, wide eaves and flat 
ceilings, the arch being used sparingly. Similar in 
design is the Djahdngiri Mahall, a double-storeyed 
construction, 261 ft. by 288 ft., supposed to have 
been built by Akbar for Prince Salim (later Djah- 
angir) but very probably built by Djahangir himself 
for the Radjput princesses of the haram, though 
Cunningham thinks it was built by Ibrahim Lodi. 
After the accession of Shah Djahan architectural 
style underwent a radical change. With the discovery 
of marble quarries, red sand-stone was practically 
eliminated and large-scale use of marble made 
carved line and flowing rhythm of style possible. 
Instead of the beam and brackets, foliated or cusped 



*A 253 

arches became common and marble arcades of 
engrailed arches distinguished the buildings of 
Shah Djahan. Among Jhe most important of his 
buildings in the Fort are the Khdss M ahull and its 
adjoining north and south pavilions; the Shish 
Mahall a bath whose walls and ceilings are spangled 
over with tiny mirrors of irregular shape set in 
stucco relief; the Muthamman Burdj built for the 
Empress Mumtaz Mahall (in which building Shah 
Djahan breathed his last); the Diwdn-i Khdss (or 
private assembly chamber); the Diwdn-i '■Amm 
(or public audience chamber) having a court 500 ft 
by 73 ft,, and a pillared hall 201 ft. by 67 ft. with 
an alcove of inlaid marble being the throne gallery 
(built of red sand-stone plastered with white marble 
stucco which is artistically guilded); the Moti 
Masdjid (or Pearl Mosque) a magnificent structure 
of white marble standing on a plinth of red sand- 
Not far from the fort stands the Didmi' Masdjid, 
built by Djahan Ara Begam, the eldest daughter of 
Shah Djahan, in 1058/1648, a red sand-stone building 
having three domes and five gracefully proportioned 
arches, the central archway being a semi-domed 
double portal. 

The tomb of Akbar at Sikandara, constructed 
in Djahangir's reign on a site selected by Akbar 
himself, stands in the middle of a well-laid garden 
about five miles from Agra. Very probably some 
idea of the design was settled by Akbar, but the 
building lacks that correctness which is characteristic 
of the construction undertaken by that monarch. 
The building is 340 ft. square, consisting of five 
terraces diminishing as they ascend. The lowest 
storey is arcaded and in the centre of each side 
is inserted a large portico with a deeply recessed 
archway. The next three storeys consist of super- 
imposed tiers of pillared arcades and kiosks built 
mainly of red sand-stone. The topmost storey is 
of white marble and is screened with perforated 
lattices. Each corner of this storey is surmounted 
by a slender kiosk. 

The tomb of Djahangir's minister, Mirza 
Ghiyath Beg entitled I'timad al-Dawla (d. 1622), 
constructed by his daughter, the Empress Nur 
Djahan and completed in 1628, stands in the middle 
of a well-laid garden on the left bank of the river. 
The mausoleum consists of a square lower storey 
69 ft. wide with a gracefully proportioned octagonal 
turret, like a dwarfed minaret, thrown out from 
each corner; while the second storey rises in the 
form of a traceried pavilion covered by a canopy 
shaped vaulted roof sending out broad stooping 
eaves, surmounted by two golden pinnacles. It is 
the first large building in India built entirely of 
marble and is remarkable for the richness of its 
decoration and profuse pietra dura work. 

Tadj Mahall. The most famous building at 
Agra is the Tadj Mahall, the beautiful mausoleum 
erected by Shah Djahan for his dearly loved wife, 
Ardjumand Banu Begam, entitled Mumtaz Mahall, 
popularly known to her contemporaries as Tadj 
Mahall. She was the daughter of Asaf Khan, son 
of I'timad al-Dawla, and was married to Shah 
Djahan in 1612 at the age of nineteen. She bore 
him fourteen children and died in June 1631 at 
Burhanpur after giving birth to a daughter. Work 
on the mausoleum was started almost immediately 
after her death and was completed in about twelve 
years at a cost of five million rupees, though some 
later writers have put the figure at 30 million rupees. 
According to the contemporary European traveller, 



- AHAGGAR 



Tavernier, the structure, together with its subsidiary 
buildings, was completed in about twenty-two years 
during which period twenty thousand workmen 
were continuously employed on it. The best architects 
and craftsmen, each a specialist in his own field, 
available in the Empire as well as in the neighbouring 
countries were engaged for the work, which was 
carried on under the general supervision of Makramat 
Khan and Mir <Abd al-Karim. The tradition that the 
architect of the T&H Mahall was a Venetian, 
Geronimo Veroneo, based on a statement made by 
Father Manrique, finds no corroboration either in 
the Mughal chronicles or in the writings of the other 
contemporary European travellers like Tavemier, 
Bernier, and Thevenot, who regarded the building 
as a purely oriental work. Its close resemblance 
with the tomb of Humayun at Delhi, and an analysts 
of its architectural as well as decorative features, 
suggest that it was undoubtedly the culminating 
point in the evolution of the Indo-Muslim style of 
architecture, though no other building in India is 
quite as exquisite, elegant or beautiful. 

The tomb, built of white marble from Djodhpur, 
stands on a raised platform, 18 feet high and 313 
feet square, faced with foliated arches. At each 
corner of this platform there is a beautifully propor- 
tioned cylindrical minaret, 133 ft. high girt with three 
galleries and finished with an open domed catr throw- 
ing out broad eaves. In the centre of the platform 
stands the mausoleum, a square of 186 feet, with 
angles canted to the extent of 33 ft. 9 ins., the facade 
rising 92 ft. 3 ins. from the platform. In each face of 
the building is a high arched recessed porch. On 
either side of each porch, and at the canted angles, 
there are arched recesses of uniform size arranged 
in two storeys. These recesses and the porches are 
vaulted. Above each of the canted angles stands a 
domed pillared kiosk, while the centre is occupied 
by a beautiful bulbous dome, rising from a high 
circular drum, and surmounted by a gilt pinnacle 
finished with a crescent. The central dome, 58 ft. in 
diameter and rising 74 feet above the roof or 191 
feet from the platform, is one of the finest in the 
world. Beneath the dome is the central chamber, 
octagonal within, buttressed at each angle by small 
octagonal rooms of two storeys, with the great 
porches in between each pair. In the middle of the 
central chamber is the cenotaph of Mumtaz Mahall, 
and beside it that 01 her husband. Immediately 
beneath these, in the crypt, are the two graves. The 
cenotaphs are enclosed by a remarkable screen of 
trellis-work of white marble. The porches are 
framed in ornamental inscriptions from the Kur 5 5n, 
and the beauty of the whole is enhanced by copious 
and graceful ornamentation in pietra dura. All the 
spandrels, angles, and important architectural 
details are inlaid with semi-precious stones combined 
in wreaths, scrolls, and frets, as exquisite in design as 
beautiful in colour. The tomb is surrounded by a 
formal garden of great beauty, with long lily-ponds, 
also of marble, containing a row of fountains, 
leading from the principal entrance to the mausoleum. 
The river, which bounds the garden on the north, 
provides marvellous reflections of the building. 
Bibliography: Babur-nama (tr. Beveridge), ii; 
Akbar-nama (Bib. Ind.), esp. ii, 246-7; 'Ala' al- 
Dawla Kazwlnl, Nafd'is al-Ma'dthir (Aligarh Univ. 
Ms.), ff. 266a-268b; Tuzuk-i Qiahdngiri (tr. Rogers 
and Beveridge), esp. i, 3-7, 152; c Abd al-Hamld 
Lahawri, Pddshah-ndma (Bib. Ind.), esp. I/i, 
384, 402-3, I/2, 235-41, II, 322-31; Muhammad 
Salih, C A mal-i Sdlth (Bib. Ind.), esp. ii, 380-5; 



Ifdldt-i Tddj Mahall (Aligarh Univ. Ms.) ; De Laet, 
The Empire of the Great Mogol, Bombay 1928, 
36-44; Tavernier's Travels in India, (ed. V. Ball, 
1889), i, 105-12; Bemier's Travels, London 1881, 
284-299; Indian Travels of Thevenot and Careri 
(ed. Sen, 1949), 46-57; S. M. Latif, Agra, Historical 
Descriptive, 1896; Duncan, Keene's Hand Book 
for Visitors to Agra, 1909; Imperial Gazetteer of 
India (1905); Report. Arch. Survey of India, 1874, 
and 1904-5, pp. 1-3; E. B. Havell, A Handbook to 
Agra and the Taj, 1912; J. Fergusson, History of 
Indian and Eastern Architecture, 1910; Camb. Hist, 
of India, vol. iv, chap, xviii; Havell, Indian 
Architecture, 1913; idem, Ancient and Medieval 
Architecture of India, 1913; E. W. Smith, Akbar's 
Tomb at Sikandara, 1909; M. Moinuddin Ahmad, 
The Taj and its Environments, 1924; M. Ashraf 
Husain, An Historical Guide to the Agra Fort, 1937; 
Stuart, The Gardens of the Great Mughals, 191 3; 
Hosten, Who Planned the Taj?, Jour. As. Soc. 
Bengal, June 1910; V. Smith, History of Fine Arts 
in India, 183-5 ; Mahdi Husain, Agra Before the 
Mughals, Jour. U.P. Hist. Soc, xx, pt. ii, 80-7; 
Sarkar, Studies in Mughal India, 19 19, 27-32. 
(Nurul Hasan) 
AGRICULTURE [see filAha}. 
AHAD [see khabar ai.-wA^id]. 
AHADllH [see hadIth]. 
AHADIYYA [see allAh, wahda]. 
AHAGGAR, a Berber word denoting (a) the 
members (pi. ihaggarsn) of one of the noble tribes 
constituting the former group of the Northern Tuaregs 
[q.v.], and (b) one of these tribes (Kal Ahaggar or 
Ihaggaran), inhabiting a region to which it has given 
the name of Ahaggar (Hoggar). 

In its widest sense, the Ahaggar is the group of 
territories under the dominion of the Kal Ahaggar. 
It covers an area of about 200,000 sq. miles between 
lat. 2i°-25°N and long. 3°-6° E. Bounded by moun- 
tain massifs (the Ahanaf to the E., the Tassili of 
the Ajjar to the N.-E., the Immidir to the N., the 
Adrar of the Ifoghas [q.v.] and the Ayr [q.v.] to the 
S.), it consists of a barren peneplain bounded by 
the Tassili, which stretch out in an arc both north 
and south, and dominated by mountain massifs, 
of which the highest and most important is, in the 
centre, the Atakor n-Ahaggar or Ahaggar proper, 
with a mean altitude of 7,200 ft. and with peaks 
rising to 9,835 ft. (Tahat, 9,835 ft.; Ilaman, 9,510 ft.; 
Asekram, 9,110 ft.). Valleys and steep gorges which 
debouch into shallow enclosed basins are evidence 
that in the past the volume of water was more 
considerable than at present, when the water courses 
are extremely irregular, and consist of subterranean 
channels which are easily accessible in places [see 
igharghar]. It has a desert climate, and the vege- 
tation is poor and thorny. The few trees which 
manage to survive are stunted and apparently 
unable to reproduce themselves further. The fauna 
comprises several ungulata, principally gazelles, and 
cheetahs, jackals and hares. The people grow dates 
and a few cereals, breed camels and goats and 
employ large numbers of donkeys. 

The name of the region is taken from that of the 
peoples who inhabit it or who rule it, the Kal 
Ahaggar. The word ahaggar is to be related to the 
name of the Huwwara [q.v.] tribe, the change from 
ww to gg being normal in Berber phonetics, and it 
is likely that branches of this tribe, coming from 
the Fazzan, established themselves during the 
historical era in the mountain massif which has 
taken their name, and reduced the inhabitants of 



AHAGGAR — al-AHDAL 



255 



the region to vassal status. The problem of the origins 
of these peoples is still not solved [see Berbers], 
and the local traditions and the theories formulated 
by writers at different periods about the populating 
of the Ahaggar must be treated with reserve. It is 
clear however that the country has been inhabited 
from remote antiquity, as witness the traces of work 
in stone and the many roclj engraving which have 
been discovered (see F. de Chasseloup-Laubat, Art 
rupestre au Hoggar, Paris 1938). 

The Ahaggar country was visited several times 
during the course of the 19th century. After the 
massacre of the Flatters mission (1880) and the 
Foureau-Lamy expedition (1898), the aminokal [q.v.] 
Musa ag Amastan surrendered to Commandant 
Laperrine in 1904, and Ahaggar was placed under 
the control of France. It forms part of the Oasis 
Territory and its chief centre, Tamanrasset, comprises 
less than 1,000 inhabitants. 

The population of the Ahaggar does not exceed 
5,000. The noble tribes of the Kal Ghala, Taytok 
and Tegehe Mallat, with their subdivisions and 
subject tribes constitute the Ahaggar confederacy, 
the aminokal being chosen from amongst the Kal 
Ghala. 

The Touareg of the Ahaggar live in tents. Society is 
divided into three classes: the noble and suzerain 
tribes (Ihaggaran or Imuhagh), the subject tribes 
(Amghid, pi. Imghad) and slaves (akli, pi. iklan). 
The Ihaggarsn, essentially warriors, levied tribute 
from the Imghad in exchange for their protection. 
They deputed all manual labour to them and to 
the slaves, and themselves lived by warfare and 
pillage. By putting an end to their warlike activities, 
the occupation of the country by France had some- 
what curtailed the resources of the Ihaggaran, who 
nevertheless retain their prestige and continue to 
be supported by the Imghad. 

For their writing (tifinagh), language (tamahakk), 
the subject of a masterly study by P. de Foucauld, 
and literature, see Berbers. 

Bibliography: Duveyrier, Les Touareg du 
Nord, Paris 1864; Benhazera, Six mois chez les 
Touareg de I'Ahhaggar, Algiers 1908; E. F. Gautier, 
La conquete du Sahara, Paris 1910; idem, Le 
Sahara, Paris 1928 ; Ch. de Foucauld, Dictionnaire 
de noms propres, Paris 1940, 97-101 ; idem, Diction- 
naire touareg-francais, Paris 1952, II, 533-39; the 
monograph of H. Lhote, Les Touaregs du Hoggar, 
Paris 1944, which has a detailed bibliography, is 
an essential work. (Ch. Pellat) 

C AHD, injunction, command ; thence: obligation, 
engagement; thence: agreement, covenant, 
treaty. The term (as well as the 1st and the 3rd 
forms of the corresponding verb) occurs frequently 
in the Kur'an. It is used there over the whole range 
of its meanings, of Allah's covenant with men and 
His commands, of the religious engagement into 
which the believers have entered, of political agree- 
ments and undertakings of believers and unbelievers 
towards the Prophet and amongst each other, and 
of ordinary civil agreements and contracts (xvii, 34; 
xxiii, 8; lxx, 32); occasionally, the agreement is 
personified: it "will be asked" to give evidence 
(xvii, 34; xxxiii, 15). From the idea of God's covenant 
derive the Christian Arabic terms al-'ahd al-'atik and 
al- l ahd al-djadid for the Old and the New Testament 
respectively. The basic concrete concept is "joining 
together", whereas the synonym 'akd derives from 
the concrete idea of "binding". In later usage, the 
latter term is commonly used of civil engagements 
and contracts, whereas l ahd is generally restricted to 



political enactments and treaties, in particular to 
the appointment of a successor, a ivali al-'ahd [q.v.], 
by a ruler, and to treaties of alliance with non- 
Muslims outside the Islamic state, who are therefore 
called ahl al-'ahd; this last term is occasionally 
extended, on one side to the musta'min [see aman], 
and on the other to the dhimmis [see dhimma] ; both 
aman and dhimma are, indeed, a political 'ahd with 
religious sanction. 

Bibliography: Lane, Lexicon, s.v.; Djur- 

djani, Ta<rifdt, 165; W. Heffening, Fremdenrecht, 

index s.v.; A. Jeffery, in MW, 1950, 120 f.; E. 

Tyan, Institutions du droit public musulman, i, 

Paris 1953, 270 fl. (J. Schacht) 

al-AHDAL (plur. Mahadila, < *MahdalI for am- 

AhdaU( ?) ; on etym. cf. al-Muhibbi, i ,67, Wustenfeld, 

6), a family of sayyids living mostly in SW 

Arabia, descended from the sixth 'Alid imam Dja c far 

al-Sadik. Their ancestor, C AH b. c Umar b. Muh. al- 

Ahdal, called Kutb al-Yaman, and his son Abu Bakr 

(d. 700/1300) were famous sufis, living in the little 

town of Murawa c a (TA) or Marawi'a (al-Muhibbi) 

N (kibliyya) of Bayt al-Faklh Ibn c Udjayl, where 

their graves are visited by pilgrims. To this clan 

belong the following sufi scholars: 

1. Husayn b. c Abd al-Rahman b. Muh., Badr 
al-DIn (b. in Kuhriyya 779/1377, d. as Mufti in 
Abyat Husayn 855/1451). Among eighteen titles 
enumerated by al-Sakhawi, Daw' iii, 146 f. are 
Tuhfat al-Zaman ft Ta'rikh Sadat al-Yaman (A'-ydn 
Ahl al-Y., Hadjdil Khalifa), an adaptation and 
continuation of al-Djanadi's Ta'rikh (al-Suluk); a 
similar revision of al-Yafi'I, Mir'dt al-Djandn was. 
called Ghirbal al-Zaman. Cf. Brockelmann, II, 185, 
S II, 238 f.; F. Rosenthal, A history of Muslim 
historiography, 248, 355, 407. 

2. Husayn b. al-Siddlk b. Husayn (grandson of i> 
(b. 850/1446 in Abyat Husayn, d. 903/1497 in 
c Adan) abridged, according to his pupil Abu Makh- 
rama, his grandfather's Ta'rikh (i.e. Tuhfat al-Zaman). 
A mosque was built in c Adan in his memory in 1847. 
Cf. Brockelmann, S II, 251 (incorrect), Nur, 27-30, 



Daw' 



, 144- 



3. Tahir b. Husayn b. c Abd al-Rahman, Djamal 
al-Din (b. 914/1508 in Murawa'a, d. 998/1590 in 
Zabld), a jurist and traditionist, abridged a work 
of his ancestor Husayn (no. 1) called Matdlib Ahl 
al-Kurba ft Shark Du'&> al-Wali AH Harba (Nur, 
447 ff-, cf. Daw', iii, 146). His son 

4. Muh. b. Tahir wrote Bughyat al-Tdlib bi- 
Ma'-rifat Awldd 'All b. Abi falib (Wiist., 7; Brockel- 
mann, S II, 239 is incorrect). 

5. Hatim b. Ahmad b. Musa b. Abi'l-Kasim b. 
Muh. (d. 1013/1604 in the seaport Makha 5 (Mukha), 
where he had lived for 37 years), famous sufi and 
scholar, "the Ibn c Arabi of his time",, according to 
his disciple c Abd al-Kadir al- c Aydarus (Nur, 
161-475), who published their correspondence in the 
work al-Darr al-Basim min Rawd al-Sayyid Hdtim. 
His improvised poems were collected into a diwan. 
Cf. Brockelmann, II, 407, S II, 565; al-Muhibbi, 
i, 496-500, Wiist., 114, Serjeant, Materials, ii, 585 f. 

6. Abu Bakr b. Abi'l-Kasim b. Ahmad (b. 984/ 
1576, d. 1035/162C) had a zdwiya in al-Mahatt (Wadi 
Rima c ). Among his works are: Nafhat al-Mandal (fi 
Taradjim Sadat al-Ahdal, Ism. Pasha, Dhayl) and al- 
A hsdb al-'A liyya fi'l-A nsdb al-A hdaliyya. Cf . Brockel- 
mann, II, 544; al-Muhibbi, i, 64-8, Wiist., 112 f. 

7. e Abd al-Rahman b. Sulayman (d. 1250/1835) 
is mentioned with eight titles in Brockelmann, S III, 
1311. Another work, al-Nafas al-Yamdnl fl Idjazat 
BaniH-Shawkani, cited by Serjeant, Materials, ii, 587. 



2 5 6 



i-AHDAL — AHDATH 



For two more members of this family, with the 
nisba al-MusawI, Muh. al-Kazim in the 9/15U1 
•century, the other in recent time, see Brockelmann, 
S II, 239, 865. A collection of traditions on South 
Arabia, Nathr al-Durr al-Makniln min FaidHl al- 
Yaman al-Maymun, was published ca. 1350/1931 in 
Cairoby Muh. b. c Ali al-Ahdall al-Eusayni al-Azhari. 
Bibliography: Shardji, tabakdt al-Khawdss, 
80, 173, 190; Sakhawi, al-Daw' al-Ldmi', iii, 
144-7; c Abd al-Kadir al- c Aydarus(i), al-Nur al- 
Sdfir, passim; Muhibbi, Khuldsat al-Athar, passim; 
F. Wustenfeld, Die Qufiten in Sud-Arabien im 
XI. (XVII.) Jahrhundert, n 1-5; H. C. Kay, 
Yaman, xviiif.; O. Lofgren, in MO, xxv, 129 f.; 
idem, Arab. Texte zur Kenntnis der Stadt Aden, 
introd., 22 f. and passim ;R. B. Serjeant, Materials 
for South Arabian history, i-ii, BSOAS, 1950, 281- 
307, 581-601). (O. Lofgren) 

AHDATH. literally "young men", a kind of 
urban militia which plays a considerable role in 
the cities of Syria and Upper Mesopotamia from the 
4th/ioth to the 6th/i2th centuries, and is parti- 
cularly well known at Aleppo and Damascus. Offi- 
cially, its role is that of a police, charged with public 
order, fire-fighting, etc., and also, in time of need, 
with military defence in reinforcement of the regular 
troops. For these services the ahddth receive stipends 
allocated from the product of certain urban taxes. 
The only distinction between them and any ordinary 
police is the local nonprofessional nature of their 
recruitment, but it is precisely this which gives 
them an effective function, much more important 
and often quite different from that of a police. As 
armed and pugnacious men of the native-born 
population, they constitute in face of the political 
authorities (usually foreigners, or in any case from 
outside the city) the dynamic element of "municipal" 
oppositions. It is for this reason that we repeatedly 
find them rising against the domination of the 
princes, and sometimes, when the latter are weak, 
forcing upon them in effect a regime of condominium 
in the city. In relation to the population, however, 
they do not always represent the same strata. At 
critical moments, for example at Damascus immedi- 
ately after the Farimid occupation, they are domin- 
ated by popular elements; more often they appear 
to accept the direction of the bourgoisie, and form 
more especially a body of supporters for one or two 
great families, from whom is drawn their chief, the 
raHs. This raHs forces the authorities to recognize 
him as raHs al-balad, a kind of mayor, whose in- 
fluence counterbalances, and sometimes exceeds, 
that of the kadi, also a local notable. Out of this 
there may thus emerge finally veritable urban 
dynasties, such as (parallel to the Banii 'Ammar of 
Tripoli, arising out of the kadis of that city) the 
Banu Nisan of Amid, hereditary chiefs of Amid in 
the 6th/i2th century under the nominal suzerainty 
of the Inalid Turkman princes. The portrait of the 
cities of Syria and the Diazira furnished to us by 
these facts is evidently at some remove from the 
common view which presents them as lacking any 
kind of municipal structure. The ahddth were, of 
course, most active at times and places in which 
a professional police {shurfa [q.v.]) could not be main- 
tained, and for this reason neither Baghdad nor 
Cairo offer us a comparable picture. Their final 
decadence begins with the establishment by the 
Saldjukids or their successors of military comman- 
dants (shihna [q.v.]) at the head of each city, supported 
by garrisons drawn from the regular army. About 
the same period the term ahddth is applied also to 



armed bands of the Batiniyya c 

The term is found in earlier centuries in 'Irak, 
especially in Basra and Kufa in the 2nd/8th century, 
but also in Baghdad and elsewhere. The officer in 
charge of the ahddth was responsible for public order, 
but the term ahddth in this case has generally been 
taken (following the opinion of Dozy, s.v.) in the 
other sense, equally justified by etymology, of 
blameworthy "innovations" of such a nature as to 
disturb public order and whose authors should be 
seized and -punished. In general use, the term 
certainly has in given contexts the sense of "crime", 
but equally certainly in other contexts the sense of 
groups of "young men", vaguely specified. In the 
light of the materials described above, Dozy's view 
must be regarded as open to question; but up to the 
present time no text has come to notice which allows 
of a definite decision. 

The further question arises of the relations between 
the Syrian and Mesopotamian ahddth and the fitydn 
(see fata) and l ayyarun (see 'ayyAr) whose exis- 
tence is documented in 'Irak and the Iranian regions 
throughout the Middle Ages, and who also were 
especially active from the 4th/ioth to 6th/i2th 
centuries. These certainly played the role of "active 
wing" of the popular oppositions to the official 
authorities, parallel to, but more vigorously pressed 
than, that of the ahddth ; the Iranian cities, moreover, 
all had apparently a raHs, who seems sometimes to 
have been the raHs of the fitydn in his city. Etymo- 
logically also, ahddth and fitydn have the same 
meaning. Nevertheless, though there is often con- 
vergence in fact, the two institutions differ in then- 
origin, and these differences persisted. Fitydn and 
'ayyarun were essentially private groups, recruited 
from the depressed classes and more violent in 
action, and it was only by gradual stages that they 
sometimes succeeded in drawing certain bourgeois or 
aristocratic elements in their train, or in replacing 
the military police. They often formed organized 
bodies with initiatory rites, within which there 
developed the peculiar ideology of the futuwwa [?.«.]. 
No parallel to this has yet been found among the 
ahddth. It may not be accidental that the boundary 
between cities with fitydn and those with ahddth 
corresponds very closely to the ancient Byzantine- 
Sasanid frontier, a fact which suggests that the 
ahddth may possibly be related to the ancient 
"factions" of the Later Roman empire. The whole 
question can, however, only be investigated in the 
framework of the general social study of the Islamic 
cities, on which little work has yet been done. 

Bibliography : Numerous references to ahddth 
in Ibn al-Kalanisi, Dhayl Ta?rlkh Dimashk 
(Amedroz) (Eng.tr. by H. A. R. Gibb, The Damas- 
cus Chronicle of the Crusades, London 1932; Fr. tr. 
by R. Le Toumeau, Damas de 1075 A 1154, Paris 
1952) ; also in Ibn al- c AdIm, Ta'rikh Ualab (Dahan), 
Ibn Abi Tayyi (ap. Ibn al-Furat, in MS), Ibn al- 
Athlr, Yaljya al-Antakl (Kratchkowsky & Vasiliev), 
Sib( b. al-Djawzi, and other Syrian sources. For 
the 'Iraki problem see esp. Tabari, passim, and 
Mawardi, al-Ahkdm al-Sultdniyya, ch. xix. Sum- 
mary in Recueil de la Soc. Jean Bodin, vi, by 
CI. Cahen, who is preparing a more complete study; 
remarks by Reinaud in J A, 1848/ii, 231; indi- 
cations by Gibb and Le Toumeau in their in- 
troductions to translations of Ibn al-Kalanisi; 
J. Sauvaget, Alep, 96, 103, 139. See also Aral, 
c ayyAr, fata. (Cl. Cahen) 



AHI — AHL al-BAYT 



257 



AHl, Turkish poet, whose real name seems to 
have been Beflli Hasan ("Hasan with the mole"). 
His father SIdl Khodia was a merchant in Trstenik 
(not far from Nicopolis). After the latter's death 
Ahi went to Istanbul and chose for himself the 
career of a scholar, but for a long time advanced 
no further than the rank of candidate (muldzim), 
because he declined the position of muderris in 
Bayazld Pasha's medrese in Brusa. Finally he obtained 
the less important position of muderris in Kara 
Ferya (Berrhoea), where he died in 923/1517. He 
left two unfinished poetical works, of which the titles 
are: SMrin we-Perwiz (imitating Shey kill's Khusrew 
u-Shirin), and Ifusn u-Dil (Istanbul 1277)- The latter 
work is an allegorical poem written in prose inter- 
spersed with verses, and is an imitation of Fattahi's 
[q.v.] work of the same title. Gibb has epitomized 
its contents. 

Bibliography: Sehl, 108; Latifi (Chabert), 

105 ; c Ashlk Celebi and Kinall-zade, s v. ; Gibb, 

ii, 286 ff.; Hammer-Purgstall, Gesch. d. Osman. 

Dichtkunst, i, 209; Yeni Medjm&a, 1918, no. 54; 

Istanbul Kitapliklarl Ttirkfe Yazma divanlar kata- 

logu, no. 33. 

al-AH&AF, the title of Sura xlvi of the Kur'an, 
and a geographical term the meaning and 
application of which have been generally mis- 
understood. The Sura derives its title from verse 
ai, which speaks of c Ad as warning his people 
in al-Ahkaf. The word ahkaf is usually interpreted 
in dictionaries, books of tafsir, and translations of 
the Kur'Sn as meaning curved sand dunes. Medieval 
Arab geographers considered al-Ahkaf to be the 
name of a sand desert in Southern Arabia, said to 
lie between Hadramawt and c Uman, i.e., in the 
eastern part of al-Ramla or al-Rub c al-Khalt [q.v.]. 
Modern Western geographers, on the other hand, 
have inclined towards the identification of al-Ahkaf 
with the whole of al-Ramla or just its western half. 
C. Landberg (Jfadramout, 146-160) showed that al- 
Ahkaf as a regional name is used in Southern Arabia 
as roughly synonymous with Hadramawt in the 
broadest sense and is not applied to the sands 
farther north. The southern bedouins define Barr 
al-Ahkaf as the mountainous area running behind 
the coast from Zufar west to Aden, the central valley 
of which is Wadl Hadramawt; to them the word 
ahkaf means simply mountains and is not associated 
either with dunes or, as suggested by Landberg, 
with caves (kuhuf). A statement made to C A1I b. 
Abi Talib by a man of Hadramawt, as recounted by 
Ibn al-Kalbl and repeated by al-Bakrl and Yakut 
(s.v.), indicates that even in ancient times ahkdf may 
have been used in Southern Arabia in this connection 
rather than as a name for dunes in the Great Desert. 
(G. Rentz) 

AHKAM, pi. of hukm, decision, judgment. 
[See also hakam.] In the Rur'an, the word occurs 
only in the singular, and is used (as is the correspon- 
ding verb) of Allah, the Prophets, and other men. 
Used of Allah, it denotes both individual ordinances 
and the whole of His dispensation (iii, 79; xlv, 16; 
lx, 10). In the ultimate sense, final jurisdiction 
belongs to Allah alone [see al-muhakkjma], but He 
has given authority to make decisions to His Pro- 
phets. The jurisdiction of Muljammad, in particular, 
is opposed to that of paganism ( v > 50). So hukm 
comes to mean the authority, imperium, of the 
Islamic government and, on the other hand, the 
judgment of a kadi on a concrete case. 

From hukm in the sense of a judicial decision derive 
the meanings of a logical judgment concerning a 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



thing, of a status to be predicated of a thing o 
a person, and of a rule in religious Ian 
and in other sciences. In all these meanings, the 
term is freely used in the plural. In particular, one 
speaks of al-ahkam al-khamsa, the "five qualifica- 
tions" (obligatory, recommended, indifferent, re- 
prehensible, forbidden), by one or the other of which 
every act of man is qualified in religious law [see 
sharI'a]. In a broader sense, ahkdm means the sum 
of the rules pertaining to any given subject (cf. the 
titles of books such as ahkdm al-awkdf "On Wakf", 
al-ahkam al-sul(dniyya "On Government", also 
ahkdm al-dkhira "On the Next World"; ahkdm al- 
nudjum "astrology", etc.). In the field of religious 
law, ahkdm is therefore synonymous with the furu', 
the positive law as opposed to legal theory or juris- 
prudence [see fiijh]; but as it also means judicial 
decisions, the term is more specifically used of the 
application of legal rules to concrete cases. 

Bibliography: Lane, Lexicon, s.v. hukm; 

Diurdjanl, Ta'rifdt, 97; A. Sprenger, Dictionary of 

the Technical Terms, s.v. hukm; J. Horovitz, 

Koranische Untersuchungen, 72 f . ; A. Jeffery, in 

MW, 1950, 121 f.; R. Bell, Introduction to the 

Qur'dn, 153; L. Gardet, La Citi musulmane, index, 

s.v. ahkdm and hukm. (J. Schacht) 

AHL (a.), originally meaning "those who occupy 

with one the same tent (Hebrew ohel)", thus "family, 

inmates". Therefore ahl al-Bayt means literally "the 

household of the Prophet". When the ahl (pi. ahdli) 

of a town or a country is spoken of it denotes 

its inhabitants, sometimes, as in Medina (according 

to Burton), specially those who were born there 

and own houses. But this word is often connected 

with other concepts, and is in these combinations 

more loosely used, so that it may come to mean 

"sharing in a thing, belonging to it", or "owner of 

the same", etc. Some of the compounds with ahl 

most in use follow here. 

AHL al-AHWA' (a.; sing, hawd, "predilection, 
inclination of the soul"; comp. Kur'an vi, 151) is 
a term applied by the orthodox theologians to those 
followers of Islam, whose religious tenets in certain 
details deviate from the general ordinances of the 
Sunnite confession (cf. ZDMG, 1898, 159). As ex- 
amples there are mentioned: Djabariyya, Kadariyya, 
Rawafid, Khawaridi. anthropomorphists, Mu'attila. 
From the above definition it may be inferred that 
in the sense of Muslim theology it is not proper 
to designate these tendencies as sects. 

(I. Goldziher) 
AHL al-BAYT, Al al-Bayt, "the people of the 
House", Al al-NabI, "the family of the Pro- 
phet", all mean the same; the term Al Yasln also 
occurs. The origin of the phrase is to be found in the 
strong clan sense of the pre-Islamic Arabs, among 
whom the term al-bayt was applied to or adopted by 
the ruling family of a tribe (by derivation from an 
ancient right of guardianship of the symbol of the 
tribal deity, according to H. Lammens, Le Cutte des 
Bityles, in L'Arabie ocndentale avant VHigire, Beirut 
1928, 136 ff., 154 ff.), and survived into later 
centuries in the plural form al-buyutdt for the noble 
tribal families [see ahl al-buyutat and Al]. In 
early Islamic times the term bayt was applied to 
themselves by a number of families, e.g. by c Abd 
Allah b. c Umar to the house of 'Umar (Ibn c Abd 
al-Hakam, Strat 'Umar *. c Abd al-'Azit, Cairo 1927, 
19), and by 'Umar II to the Umayyad house (innami 
al-Ha&i&ia&i'' minnd ahl* 'l-bayt 1 : ibid. 24). In the 
Bur'Sn the phrase ah? 'l-bayt> occurs twice: once 
in xi, 73, applied to the house of Ibrahim; the 



258 



AHL al-BAYT — AHL AL-HADlTH 



second passage, xxxiii, 33 ("God desires only to 
remove filthiness from you (masc. pi.), ahV 'l-bayt', 
and with cleansing to cleanse you"), serves as the 
proof-text for its application to the house of Muham- 
mad (but see R. Paret, in Orientalische Studien Enno 
Littmann .... iiberreicht, Leiden 1935, 127-20). 

The precise interpretation of the term in xxxiii, 
33, gave rise to differences of opinion. In one tradi- 
tion, according to which Salman al-Farisi [q.v.] is 
included among the ahl al-bayt (Ibn Hisham, Sira 
(Cairo), iii, 241; Ibn Sa c d, iv/i, 59,), it is opposed 
to muhadjirun and ansar. Among the Shi'a (and 
generally in circles friendly to 'All) it was applied to 
Muhammad, 'All, Fatima, al-Hasan and al-Husayn 
(cf. already al-Kumayt, Hashimiyyat (Horovitz), 
38 1. 30; cf. 92, 1. 67) by interpreting the verse 
through the wellknown "tradition of the mantle" 
(Judith al-kisa', hadith al-'aba'), which was accepted 
also in SunnI circles [see ahl al-kisa']. In keeping 
with an explanation of the Kur'anic phrase as 
referring to the Prophet's wives and dependents, 
attributed to Ibn 'Abbas and 'Ikrima, Umm Salama 
is, in some versions of this tradition, recognized by 
the Prophet as belonging to the ahl al-bayt. It is 
given a still wider application in a version of the 
so-called hadith al-thakalayn, where the term is 
applied to those to whom (including their mawali) 
a share in the sadaka is forbidden; among these are 
definitely mentioned the families (al) of 'All, of his 
brothers 'Akil and Dja'far, and of al-'Abbas. In 
this tradition, therefore, the ahl al-bayt includes the 
Talibids and 'Abbasids, historically the most im- 
portant families of the Band Hashim; and in order 
to strengthen their claim to inclusion in the verse 
of purification, the 'Abbasids also had their counter- 
part of the hadith al-kisa'. Malik and Abu Hanlfa 
extended it to include all the Banu Hashim and 
al-Shafi'i extended it to the Banu Muttalib also, 
while others make it include the whole community. 
The current orthodox view is based on a harmonizing 
opinion, according to which the term ahl al-bayt 
includes the ahl al-'aba', i.e. the Prophet, •All, 
Fatima, al-Hasan and al-Husayn, together with 
the wives of the Prophet. 

The Shi'a limit the family (which they call by 
preference Htra) to the ahl al-kisa' and their descen- 
dants, making devotion to them an essential, or even 
the main, part of religion. In one version of the 
"Farewell Sermon" Muhammad is represented as 
saying that God has given two safeguards to the 
world: His Book and the Prophet's surma; in another 
version, this is replaced by: His Book and the 
Prophet's Htra. The official creed of the Shi'a does 
not go beyond this, but popular belief ascribes 
cosmological importance to the family as in tradi- 
tions like: "The stars are a pledge to the world that 
it will not be drowned, and my family are a pledge 
to the community that it will not go astray" ; "God 
would not have created heaven, earth, paradise, 
Adam, Eve, the angels, nor anything else but for 
them (the family)". They have the same saving 
function as Noah's ark. The heads of the family are 
the Imams [q.v.], infallible and sinless. The extreme 
Mansuriyya called the family heaven and the ShI'a 
earth (al-'Ash'arl, Makalat, 9). 

The ideas of the Shi'a found their way into later 
collections of hadith, although the Sunna declares that 
love for the family is of no avail without obedience 
to the sunna. Al-Makrizi is quoted as saying : "Beware 
of finding fault with one of the family, for no heresy, 
no default in the performance of religious duties, and 
no sin deprives him of his sonsliip." 



The form Al is used more especially in the invo- 
cation: "O God, bless (salli 'old) Muhammad and 
his al" (cf. I. Goldziher, in ZDMG, L, 114-7). The 
definition of those comprehended in this expression 
has produced controversies similar to those about 
the ahl al-bayt. Ibn Khalawayh enumerated twenty- 
five classes in his K. al-Al (G. Flugel, Die gramma- 
tischen Schulen d. Araber, 231; citation in Bahrani, 
Manar al-Hudd, Bombay 1320, 200). See also al-TusI, 
List of Shy'a Books, no. 294. 

Bibliography: The law books on zakdt, e.g. 
Kuduri, Mukhtasar, Kazan 1880, 23; Nawawi, 
Nihdya (Van den Berg), ii, 305; Ibn Kasim al- 
Ghazzi, Fath al-Karib (Van den Berg), 252; 
Bukhari, Sahih, Fada'il al-ashdb, no 30, with 
Kastallani, vi, 151; Commentaries to Kur'an 
xxxiii, 33; the works of Makrizi, Sabban, Nabhani 
quoted in the bibliography to art. sharIf; Ahmad 
b. Muhammad al-Haythaml, al-SawaHk al- 
Muhrika, Cairo 1307, 87 ff. (comprehensive dis- 
cussion, in an anti-Shi'ite sense, of the extension 
of the notion of ahl al-bayt) ; Hasan b. Yusuf al- 
Hilli, al-Babu 'l-Hddi 'aster, trans. Miller, London 
1928; 'All Asghar b. 'All Akbar, <Aka'id al- 
Shi'a, summarised trans, by A. A. A. Fyzee, A 
ShiHte Creed, Bombay 1942 ; H. Lammens, Fatima, 
Rome 1912, 95 ff.; R. Strothmann, Das Stoats- 
recht der Zaiditen, Strassburg 1912, 19 f.; C. van 
Arendonk, De Opkomst van het Zaidietische Ima- 
maat in Yemen, Leiden 1919, 65 ff . ; Wensinck, 
Handbook, s.v. 

(I. GOLDZIHER-C. VAN ARENDONK-A. S. TRITTON) 

AHL al-BUYOTAT (a.), originally denoted those 
that belong to Persian families of the highest nobility 
(Noldeke, Gesch. d. Perser u. Araber zur Zeit der 
Sassaniden, 71), then, the nobles in general. Other 
meanings are given by Dozy, Supplement, i, 131. 

AHL al-DAR (a.) = "the people of the house", 
in the Almohad hierarchy the 6th order [see al- 

AHL al EHIMMA (a.), the Jews and Christians, 
between whom and the Muslims there is according to 
Muslim law a certain legal relation [see dhimma]. 

AHL al-FARP [see mIrath]. 

AHL al-HADIIH, also Ashab al-HadIth, the 
partisans of traditions [see iiadIth]. Traditionalism in 
Islam manifested itself first in the re-emergence of 
the old Arabian concept of sunna [q.v.], the n< 



identified with t 



sunna of the Prophet. This 
normative custom found its expression in the 
"living tradition" of the ancient schools of religious 
law, which came into being at the very beginning 
of the second century of Islam. In opposition to the 
ancient schools and their extensive use of human 
reasoning and personal opinion [see ashab al-ra'y 
and Ra'v), the ahl al-hadith, who appeared on the 
stage a little later, claimed that formal traditions 
from the Prophet, even though they were trans- 
mitted only by isolated individuals [see khabar 
al-wahid], superseded the "living tradition". The 
traditionists themselves were responsible for putting 
into circulation many traditions which purported to 
go back to the Prophet, and they specialised in 
collecting, perfecting, transmitting and studying 
them ; long journeys were made in search of traditions. 
Though hardly any of this material, as far as religious 
law is concerned, can be regarded as authentic by 
the standards of historical research, the Muslims, 
from the 3rd/9th century onwards, have accepted 
its essential parts as genuine. 

The movement of the traditionists was the most 



AHL al-HADITH — AHL-i HADlTH 



important event in the history of Islamic religious 
law in the second century of Islam. The ancient 
schools opposed it strongly at first, and the discussion 
concerning the authority of formal traditions from 
the Prophet, as against the "living tradition" of 
the schools, occupied most of that century. Once 
consciously formulated, however, the thesis of the 
traditionists, invoking as it did the highest possible 
authority under the Kur'an, was assured of success, 
and the ancient schools had no real defence against 
the rising tide of traditions. Al-Shafi c I [q.v.] adopted 
the thesis of the traditionists and the other schools 
accepted it too, though they did not necessarily 
change their established doctrine accordingly. Only 
the doctrine of Ahmad b. Hanbal [q.v.] is purely 
traditionist. The final theory of religious law 
represents a compromise, insofar as the thesis of 
the traditionists, while accepted in principle, was 
made dependent in its application on the consensus 
of the scholars [see usul]. 

The main material aim of the traditionists was 
the same as that of the ancient schools, that is, to 
subordinate the legal subject-matter to religious and 
ethical considerations. On occasion, they showed 
themselves interested in purely legal issues as well. 
Al-Shafi'i had reason to complain that their standards 
of reasoning in general were inferior to those of the 
ancient schools, and in particular, he disavowed 
those extreme traditionists who accepted all tradi- 
tions indiscriminately. The majority of traditionists, 
however, attempted to discriminate between reliable 
and unreliable traditions by criticism of the isndd 
[q.v.] ; this criticism was directed against the ancient 
schools whose standards, by the nature of things, 
were less exacting in this respect. This traditional 
criticism of the isndd has no direct bearing on 
determining the historical authenticity of a tradition. 
As early as the 2nd/8th century, the study of 
traditions from the Prophet became an end in itself, 
and the science of traditions, no longer opposed but 
complementary to the science of positive religious 
law (fikh [q.v.]), became an important and assi- 
duously cultivated branch of Islamic religious 
scholarship. The usual term for a technical specialist 
in traditions is muhaddith. 

Bibliography: Shafi'I, K. al-Umm, vii, 
passim; Ibn Kutayba, Ta'wil Mukhtalif al- 
Hadtth, 88 ff . (defence of the traditionists) ; idem, 
Ma'drif (Wiistenfeld), 251 ff. (list of traditionists); 
Fihrist, 225 ff. (another list) ; al-Hakim al-Nay- 
saburi, Ma'-rifat c l//«m al-ffadith, 3 f.; Ibn Furak, 
Baydn Mushkil al-Ahddith, 3; I. Goldziher, Muh. 
Stud., ii, 77 ff. (transl. Bercher, £tudes sur la 
tradition islamique, 91 ff.) ; A. Guillaume, The 
Traditions of Islam, 69 f.; J. Fuck, in ZDMG, 
1939, 1 ff. (represents a very conservative point 
of view); J. Schacht, Origins of Muhammadan 
Jurisprudence, 253 ff. and passim; idem, Esquisse 
d'une histoire du droit musulman, 31 ff. 

(J. Schacht) 
AHL-i HADlTH. "the followers of the Prophetic 
tradition", is a designation used in India and Paki- 
stan for the members of a Muslim sect, who 
profess to hold the same views as the early ashdb al- 
hadUh or ahlal-hadith [q.v.] (as opposed to ahlal-ra'y). 
They do not hold themselves bound by taklid or 
obedience to any of the four recognized imams of 
the /»ft*-schools but consider themselves free to seek 
guidance in matters of religious faith and practice 
from the authentic traditions, which together with 
the Kur'an are in their view the only worthy guide 
for true Muslims. They disregard the opinions of 



259 

the founders of the four schools when they find 
them unsupported by or at variance with traditions, 
transmitted on the authority of the Companions of 
the Prophet. They have thus earned the name of 
ghayr mukallid, which appellation, though disowned 
by them, nevertheless admirably defines their 
position in relation to other sects. They reject also 
the common notion that the iditihad or legal con- 
clusions of the founders of these schools are of final 
authority; and rather contend that every believer 
is free to follow his own interpretations of the 
Kur'an and the traditions, provided he has sufficient 
learning to enable him to give a valid interpretation. 
Consequently, they do not regard the idxmd' or 
consensus of the preceding generations of Muslims 
as binding on them. As a result of their characteristic 
attitude, they have found themselves in conflict 
chiefly with the Hanafis or followers (mukallids) of 
Abu Hanifa, who constitute the majority of Sunni 
Muslims in India and Pakistan. Their controversy 
has, however, been confined in actual practice to 
certain minor points of ritual (such as raf al-yadayn, 
amin bi'l-diahr) and belief, there being a substantial 
agreement on really important theological and 
doctrinal questions. 

The Ahl-i Hadlth try to go back to first principles 
and to restore the original simplicity and purity of 
faith and practice. Emphasis is, accordingly, laid in 
particular on the reassertion of tawhid or the unity 
of Allah and the denial of occult powers and know- 
ledge of the hidden things (Him al-ghayb) to any of 
his creatures. This involves a rejection of the mira- 
culous powers of saints and of the exaggerated 
veneration paid to them. They also make every 
effort to eradicate customs that may be traced 
either to innovation (bid'a) or to Hindu or other 
non-Islamic systems. In all this, their reformist 
programme bears a striking resemblance to that of 
the Wahhabis of Arabia; and as a matter of fact 
their adversaries often nickname them Wahhabis, 
an appellation which 'they repudiate, on the ground 
that their tenets are not derived from the Arabian 
Wahhabis, who are themselves mukallids in the 
sense that they follow the opinions of Ahmad b. 
Hanbal in legal matters. 

The Ahl-i Hadlth made their first appearance as 
a distinct sect in the last century, partly through the 
influence of the writings of Nawwab §iddUf Hasan 
Khan {[q.v.]; d. 1307/1890) and partly through the 
teaching of Sayyid Nadhlr Husayn (d. 1 320/1902), 
an eminent theologian who specialized in the science 
of Hadith and lectured on it for more than half a 
century at Delhi. Among his numerous pupils, who 
became influential teachers and writers in their own 
turn and propagated his ideas in different parts of 
the country, special mention is due to Mawlawl c Abd 
Allah Ghaznawi (d. 1298/1881), who was banished 
from his native country of Afghanistan for his views 
and settled in Amritsar (Pandjab) ; Mawlawi Muham- 
mad Husayn of Batala (d. 1338/1919), who edited the 
monthly Ishd'at al-Sunna for many years; and 
Mawlawl Abu '1-Wafa Thana Allah (d. 1367/1948), 
who edited the weekly A hi al-JfadUh till 1947 and 
made a great name for himself as a controversialist 
and an expositor of the views of the school. The 
last named also took a leading part in organizing 
the All-India Ahl-i Hadith Conference with its 
head-quarters at Delhi, where its first annual 
meeting was held in 1912. 

The Ahl-i Hadith have their own journals, mosques 
and seminaries, and are distinguished by (1) their 
zealous effort, only partly successful, to purify the 



AHL-i HADlTH — AHL-I HAKK 



religious life of the Muslims by ridding 
innovations, superstitions and unnatural 
(2) their active promotion of the study of Hadith 
literature, the importance of which had already been 
recognized by Shaykh 'Abd al-Hakk Muhaddith of 
Delhi [q.v.], and (3) their polemics against the Arya- 
Samadjist Hindus, the Christian missionaries and 
the Ahmadls (Kadiyanis). 

Bibliography: Siddik Hasan Khan, Tardiu- 

mdn-i Wakhdbiyya, Agra 1300; Muhsin al-Mulk 

Sayyid Mahdl 'AH Khan, Ta'rikh-i Taklid awr 

c Amal bi 'l-Hadith, Aligarh 1906; M. Thana Allah, 

Ahl-i Hadith ka Madhhab, Amritsar 1926; Abu 

Yahya Imam Khan, Tarddiim-i <-Ulama>-i ffa- 

dith-i Hind, Delhi 1356; idem, Ahl-i Hadith ki 

c Ilmi Khidmat, Delhi 1937; Nadjm al-Ghani 

Khan, Madhahib al-Isldm, Lucknow 1924, 611-22; 

Sayyid Sulayman Nadwi, Hindustan men '//m 

Hadith in the Ma'arif, xxii, Azamgarh 1928; 

Mas'ud 'Alam Nadwi, Islam ki Pehli Siyasi 

Tahrik', Rawalpindi 1368, .21-31; S. M. Ikram, 

Mawdi Kawthar, Bombay, 48-55 ; M. Ibrahim Mir 

SialkotI, Ta'nkh-i Ahl-i Hadith, Lahore 1953; 

Fatawa ThandHyya, ed. M. Da J ud Raz, Bombay 

1372. (All the preceding works are in Urdu.) Shah 

Wall Allah, Uudidjat Allah al-Baligha, Cairo 1352, 

i, 147-62; Siddik Hasan Khan. Hiddyat al-S&Hl ild 

Adillat al-MasaHl, 1292 A.H.; Shaykh Ahmad 

al-Makkl, Ta'rikh AM al-Hadith, lithographed at 

Lahore; Murray Titus, Indian Islam, 1930, 187-9; 

H. A. R. Gibb (editor), Whither Islam ?, London 

1932; W. C. Smith, Modern Islam in India*, 

Lahore 1947; H. A. R. Gibb, Modern Trends in 

Islam, Chicago 1946. (Sh. Inayatullah) 

AHL-i HAKK, "Men of God", a secret religion 

prevalent mainly in western Persia. Ahl-i Hakk 

would seem to be a rather imprecise name for this 

sect, because it is used, for example, by the Hurufls 

(see CI. Huart, Textes persons relatifs d la secte des 

Hurufi, 1909, 40), and because it has an affinity 

with such sufl terms as Ahl-i Hakika, a term which 

is also used by the Ahl-i Hakk. In the strict sense, 

however, Ahl-i Hakk is the name properly given to 

initiates of the religion described in the present 

article. The name 'All Ilahl [q.v.] applied to them 

by their neighbours is an unsuitable title, because 

'All is not the dominant figure in the religion of the 

Ahl-i Hakk, and further because the term 'All Ilahl 

is also used in relation to sects whose connection with 

the Ahl-i Hakk has not yet been established. 

The only reliable method is to describe the sect 
on the basis of the authentic sources, supplemen- 
ted by material drawn from the narratives of 
travellers. The difficulties of this task arise firstly 
from the fact that the number of texts available is 



still limited (besides being often in dialect and 
bristling with abstruse terms) and secondly from the 
existence of numerous subsects. The Ahl-i Hakk 
church has no canonical unity, but resembles rather 
a federation of associated movements (see a provisi- 
onal list of these subdivisions in Minorsky, Notes, 
46 [33])- There are twelve main khdnaddns or 
silsilas (v. infra), but there are branches which are 
not included in this list, cf. the Sayyid Djalall 
(Minorsky, Notes, 48 [35]) and the Tflmari (a highly 
abnormal group) [Minorsky, F\tudes, I). The account 
by Gobineau, the Firkan and the text published by 
W. Ivanow reveal a religious system more philoso- 
phical than the naive legends of the Sarandjam (in 
the Atash-begi version). Since, at the moment, 
however, this branch is better known to us, the 
following account will be based primarily on the 
Atash-begi documents, to be supplemented later by 
material from the Firkan, the author of which was 
a KhamushI ( ?). 

The Dogmas. The central point in the dogmas 
of the Ahl-i Hakk is the belief in the successive 
manifestations of the Divinity, the number of these 
being seven. The manifestations of God are compared 
to garments put on by the Divinity: "to become 
incarnate" means "to come (to dwell) in a garment" 
{libas, djama, dun < Turk. *don). 

On each occasion the Divinity appears with a 
following of Four (or Five) Angels (ydrdn-i lar- 
malak) with whom he forms a close group. 

The table of theophanies according to the MS. of 
the Sarandiam is given below. 

In pre-eternity (azal) the Divinity was enclosed 
in a Pearl (durr). He made his first external appear- 
ance in the person of Khawandagar, the Creator of 
the world. The second avatar was in the person of 
'All. From the beginning of the third epoch the 
list becomes quite original and typically Ahl-i Hakk. 
The first four epochs correspond to the stages of 
religious knowledge: sharV-a, (arika, ma'rifa and 
hakika. According to all branches of the sect, the 
representative of the last and the highest stage is 
Sultan Sohak. On the other hand, several differences 
of opinion regarding the successors of Sultan Sohak 
are recorded. 

Just as the divine essence reappears in each of 
the seven "garments", the angels (cf. the vertical 
columns in the table) are avatars of one another. 
For this reason their names are interchangeable 
and Salman is often spoken of in the epoch of 
Sult5n Sohak or Benyamin in the epoch of 
Khawandagar. The angels are emanations of the 
Divinity: the first of them was produced by 
Khawandagar from his armpit, the second from his 
mouth, the third from his breath, the fourth and 





I 


II 


III 


IV 


V 


1. Khawandagar 


Djibrall 


Mlkall 


Israfll 


'Azratl 


? 


2. Murtada 'All 


Salman 


Kanbar 


Hadrat-i 
Muhammad 


Nusayr 


Fatima 


3. §hah Khoshta 


BSba Buzurg 


Kaka Reda 
(Rid5) 


Kore-FakI 


BabaTahir 


Mam5 Djaiaia 


4. Sultan Sohak 


Benyamin 


Dawfld 


Pir-i Musi 


Mustafa Dowdan 


Khatun Davira 


5. Ktanlzl (Shah 


Kamaridjan 


Yaridjan 


Y5rall 


Shah Sawar 


Razbar 


Ways Kuli) 








Agha 




6. Mamad-beg 


Pjamshld-beg 


Almas-beg 


Abdal-beg 


? 


Pari-khan-i 
Shart 


7. JKhan Atash 


Khan Djamshld 


Khan Almas 


Khan Abdal 


? 


Dusti Khanum 



fifth from his perspiration and his light respectively 
(cf. the Sarandjdm). According to another version, 
Benyamin was created from the perspiration, which 
is characteristic of modesty; Dawud — from the 
breath (anger) ; Musi — from the moustache (pity) ; 
Razbar — from the pulse (charity). The angels play 
the part of ministers to the Divinity: Benyamin 
is the deputy (wakil) and the plr; Dawud is the 
overseer (ndzir) and judge (?); Plr Musi is the 
wazir who records good and evil; Mustafa Dowdan 
(= Nusayr) is the Angel of Death. 

The angels are usually said to be four in number 
(in some lists and in certain periods this number 
is reduced to three) but in fact a fifth angel is 
especially charged with the supervision of worship. 
This angel's symbolical name is Razbar, Razbar 
or Ramzbar ("entrusted with mysteries") and her 
feminine character is indisputable; but the sex in 
Razbar is not emphasized. One of the informants 
even alleges that Razbar is a hermaphrodite 
(khunthd). Razbar is the mystical name of Khatun 
Dayira, mother of Sultan Sohak, and the compiler 
of the list quoted above is wrong in relegating her 
to the fifth epoch. 

Metempsychosis and Eschatology. The 
belief in the reincarnation of the theophanies finds 
its parallel in the general belief in metempsychosis. 
"Men! Do not fear the punishment of death! The 
death of man is like the dive which the duck makes". 

Human beings must pass through the cycle of 
i.ooi incarnations, in the course of which they 
receive the reward of their actions (Notes, p. 131 
[251]). According to the Firkdn (i, 32, 35, 57, 68), 
however, the possibilities of purification are essen- 
tially limited by the very nature of beings; of 
whom some, created out of yellow clay (zarda-gil), 
are good, and the others, created out of black 
earth (siydh khdk), are evil. "The more (the 
former) go through the world of garments and 
the more they suffer, the more they approach 
God and the more their luminous state increases", 
while the "Dark ones" shall never see the Sun. 
As a complement to these beliefs, the Ahl-i Hakk 
eagerly await the advent of the Lord of Time who 
shall come "to accomplish the desires of the Friends 
and embrace (ihdta) the Universe". There are a 
number of prophetic kaldms which announce the 
coming of the Messiah. The scene of the Last 
Judgment, (sdn, "review") will be the plain of 
Shahrizur [q.v.] or that of Sultaniyya [q.v.] where 
the "sultans shall be exterminated" (Notes, p. 44 
[31]). According to the Firkdn, i, 57, the Good 
shall enter Paradise (which is the contemplation) 
of the beauty of the Lord of Generosities, while the 
Wicked shall be annihilated (maHum). 

Rites. The Ahl-i Hakk have a number of practices 
which are quite original. 

1. We find little mention of individual prayer; 
on the other hand, the Ahl-i Hakk attach tre- 
mendous importance to assemblies (diam < diam c ) 
in which "all difficulties find their solution". The 
life of the community is eminently collective and 
the assemblies are held at fixed intervals and in 
connection with all important events. Kaldms are 
recited at them to the accompaniment of music. 

2. On solemn occasions sessions of dhikr [q.v.] 
are held. Specially qualified darwlshes to the sounds 
of music (sdz) enter into a state of ecstasy, ac- 
companied by anaesthesia, which enables them to 
walk over burning coals, to handle them, etc. 

3. The indispensable features of these assemblies 
are tlie offerings and the sacrifices: nadhr wa-niydz 



(raw offerings, uncooked, including animals of the 
male sex, oxen, sheep, cocks, intended for sacrifice) 
or khayr wa-khidmat (cooked or prepared victuals, 
like sugar, bread, etc.). The Firkdn, i, 74 counts 
fourteen kinds of bloody or bloodless sacrifices 
(kurbdni-yi khunddr wa-bi-khun). The ritual of 
sacrifice is regulated and the flesh is separated from 
the bones, which are buried. The boiled meat and 
the other offerings are distributed among those 
present and dedicatory formulae (khutba) are repeated. 
The term sabz namiidan, "to render green, i.e. living, 
to reanimate", is applied to the ceremony (Notes, 
p. 210 [90]). 

4. "Just as every dervish must have a spiritual 
director (murshid) so the head of every Ahl-i Hakk 
has to be commended to a plr". In the course of 
this ceremony (sar sipurdan) the persons symbolising 
the "Five (sic!) Angels" stand round the infant. A 
Muscat nut (djawz-i buwd) is broken by the celebrant 
as a substitute for the head. It is then worn as an 
amulet, with a piece of silver called hawiza bearing 
the Shl c a form of the profession of faith (hawiza 
from the Shl c a town of Hawiza in Khuzistan; cf. 
Notes, p. 227 [107], and W. Caskel, Ein Mahdi 
des 15. Jahrhunderts, in Islamica, 1931, 48-93, 
and the art. musha c sha c ). Links recalling blood 
relationship are established between him whose head 
is commended and the line of the shaykh to whom 
the head has been commended. This spiritual relation- 
ship carries with it the prohibition of marriage 
between the individual dedicated and the family of 
the pir. 

5. With the object of attaining moral perfection 
special unions (nuclei) are formed between a man 
(or several men) and a woman who are called brother 
and sister (sharf-i ikrdr). The union is said to be 
formed in anticipation of the Day of Resurrection: 
Notes, p. 230 [no]; cf. the akh wa-ukht al-dkhira 
among the Yazldls [q.v.]. 

6. Fasting is rigorously observed but lasts only 
for three days, as among the Yazldls [q.v.]. It takes 
place in winter and is followed by a feast. Among 
the divisions of the sect, only the Atash-begl do not 
observe the fast "for the days of the (final) advent 
are near" and instead of fasting they say one ought 
to feast. 

For the other rites and customs see the Notes by 
Minorsky (Bibl.). 

Firkdn al-Akhbdr. The author of this treatise was 
HadjdjI Ni c mat Allah of Djayhun-abad near DInawar 
(1871-1920) who belonged to the KhamushI division 
and who believed the time had come to reveal the 
Real Truth (hakikat). His son Nur C A1I Shah (b. 1313/ 
1895) wrote the biography of his father and an 
introduction to the Firkdn under the title of Kashf 
al-IfakdHk. While confirming much that was already 
known, the Firkdn represents a tradition different 
from that of the Atash-begl in as much as it makes 
no mention of "seven" epochs and reserves a special 
position for Khawandagar and Sultan Sohak while 
the number of manifestations of less importance is 
increased (Baba Na c uth, etc.). 

The Firkdn consists of 4 parts. The first deals 
with the fundamental principles of the hakikat 
established in pre-eternity by the Divinity who 
in the stage of "yd-yi ghaybat" became externalised 
in the garment of Khawandagar. The law remained 
concealed till the coming of Sultan Ishak (Sohak). 
Then the daftarddrs recorded these doctrines but 
each in his own way and according to the sources 
which were accessible to him. As a result the Ahl-i 
Hakk community has no [single?] sacred book and 



AHL-i HAKK 



its divisions are distinguished by different views. 
The Ahl-i Hakk required a kutb-i kull which would 
be unique. So after 1324/1906 Ni'mat Allah, by 
God's command, abandoned the world and became 
the "messenger of the Lord of the Hour", i.e. of 
PIr Benyamln (explained as bin + yd + amin 
"faithful son of Y5"). Then comes the explanation 
of metempsychosis (gardish-i dun bi-dun — "going 
from one garment to another"). 

The creatures of the world are divided into two 
distinct categories according to their original 
element {zarda-gil or khak-i siydh). To the first 
belong the Saved and Luminous beings whose respec- 
tive sarddrs are Benyamin and Sayyid Muhammad 
(in his avatar of Buzurg-sawar). To the other category 
belong beings of Fire and Darkness whose respective 
sarddrs are Iblis and Khannas, with whom are 
associated the first three caliphs, Mu'awiya, 'A'isha, 
etc. The intermixture of the two categories of beings 
produces combinations which may be recognised 
even externally. 

The second part of the treatise is mainly 
concerned with the correspondence of the avatars 
through the ages. Thus the manifestations of Benya- 
min are Noah, Jesus and provisionally (mihmdn) 
Rustam of the Persian epic; those of Razbar: 
Bilkls, the queen of Saba 5 , Mary, etc.; those of 
Sayyid Muhammad: Zoroaster, the prophet Muham- 
mad, etc. Next we are given the history of Sultan 
Ishak (Sohak) and of his successors. 

The third part relates the personal experiences 
of Ni'mat Allah and the commandments which he 
received from God during his journey "to the 
beyond" {safar-i '■ukbd), notably his mission to unite 
the khdnaddns, to give absolution from sins (az 
khiydnat pdk namuddn) and to intercede (shifd'-at) 
with the Lord of Time. 

The fourth part is the very full description of the 
rites and customs (amr wa-nahy), with the GuranI 
text of the formulae recited on each occasion. 

Distribution. The principal centres of the Ahl-i 
Hakk are in the west of Persia, in Luristan, Kurdistan 
(land of the Guran east of Zohab, town of Kerend) 
and in Adharbaydjan (Tabriz, Maku, with ramifi- 
cations in Transcaucasia especially Karabagh). Little 
colonies of Ahl-i Hakk are found almost everywhere 
in Persia (at HamadhSn, Teheran, at Mazandaran, 
Fars and even in Khurasan, to which, according 
to tradition, one of the brothers of Khan Atash 
had gone). In 'Irak there are Ahl-i Hakk among 
the Kurd and Turkoman tribes of the region of 
Kirkuk, of Sulaymaniyya and probably at Mosul. 
Very little is known of the connection between the 
Ahl-i Hakk and the sects popularly known under 
the name of 'All Ilalri or by contemptuous terms 
like Hrdgh-sdnduren ("extinguishers of lights"), 
khuriis-kushdn ("slaughterers of cocks") etc. [see 
bektash, kIzIl-bash, sarli, shabbak). In any case, 
it is a striking fact that the direct influence of 
Ahl-i Hakk preachers of the district of Zohab could 
be traced among the 'Alawi (Klztlbash) of 'Ayntab; 
cf. Trowbridge, The Alevis, Harvard Theol. Review, 
1909, 340-55. repr. in MW, 1921, 253-66. 

Religious History. The Ahl-i Hakk possess a 
wealth of legends arranged according to the mani- 
festations of the Divinity. The collections of these 
legends are known as Sarandjam. The epoch of 
Khawandagar is interesting only for its cosmogonic 
myths. The traditions relating to the epoch of 
'All (which does not in any way form the central 
point) are inspired by the extreme Shi'a. The epoch 
of Khoshin is placed in a typically Lur [q.v.] environ- 



ment, the geographical nomenclature showing an 
excellent knowledge of the localities of Luristan. 
One of the angels of Khoshin is Baba Tahir [q.v.] 
whose quatrains in dialect are quoted. The fourth 
epoch is placed in the land of the Guran close to 
the river Sirwan. The sayings attributed to Sultan 
Sohak are in GuranI, which is the sacred language of 
the Ahl-i Hakk (cf. Firkdn, i, 3; see Minorsky, 
The Guran, BSOS, 1943, 77-103). The greatest 
sanctuaries of the sect: Baba-Yadegar and Perdiwar, 
are situated in the same region. In the later epochs 
the scene is transferred to Adharbaydjan and the 
kaldms relating to these epochs are in Adharl Turkish. 
From these facts it may be concluded that the stages 
of propagation and development of the religion have 
been : Luristan — land of the Guran — Adharbaydjan. 
Exact dates are naturally difficult to obtain and 
we shall endeavour to proceed from the known to 
the unknown. Khan Atash, born at Adjari (north of 
Maragha) and buried in the village of Atash-beg in 
the district of Hashta-rud, northeast of Mount 
Sahand, is said to have lived at the beginning of the 
18th century (Notes, p. 41 [27]). This line was con- 
tinued by his direct descendants of whom the 
seventh was called Sayyid 'Abd al-'AzIm MIrza 
(Agha-bakhsh) and lived at Garraban (also called 
Doru) 011 the Gamasab to the south of Bisutun, 
where O. Mann visited him. He died in 1917 and 
was succeeded by his son Muhammad Hasan Mirza. 
The popularity of the Turkish poems of Shah 
Isma'il Safawi is significant; the kaldm, known as 
Kutb-ndma, calls Shah Isma'il the "plr of Turkistan" 
(= Adharbaydjan where Turkish is spoken). The 
spread of Ahl-i Hakk doctrines among the Turkoman 
tribes seems in any case to go back to an earlier 
period, that of . the Kara Koyunlu rulers. The 
remnants of these Turkomans who live in a district 
in the centre of Maku are Ahl-i Hakk. Similarly in 
Transcaucasia the Kara- Koyunlu in the region of 
Gandja live in the close neighbourhood of the 
G'oran (< Guran!). Shah Ibrahim, whom many of 
the Ahl-i Hakk regard as the successor of Sultan 
Sohak, and who lived in Baghdad and whose acolyte 
angel was Kushdi-oghli (author of Turkish kaldms), 
is perhaps responsible for the dissemination of Ahl-i 
Hakk teaching among the Turkomans north of the 
Tigris. 

Tradition places immediately before Shah Ibrahim 
the famous Sultan Sohak who (outwardly) was the 
son of Shaykh c IsI and Khatun Dayira (Dayarak), 
daughter of Hasan Beg Djald, chief of the tribe 
of Djaf-i Murad. His real name is said to have 
been Sayyid c Abd al-Sayyid. Barzindja, north of 
Sulaymaniyya, is said to have been his birthplace. 



He ii 



e had s 



1 his v 



KhatQna Bashlr, who are named hafttan. His tomb 
is at Perdiwar (in Awraman-i luhun, see senne), on 
the right bank of the Sirwan. 

The Kakal chiefs of Ta'uk claim to be his direct 
descendants (see al-'Azzawi, al-KdkdHyya). Shaykh 
Mahmud, who after the World War proclaimed 
himself "King of Kurdistan" [cf. the article Kurds], 
claimed to be descended from the brother of Sultan 
Sohak in the twelfth generation. At Kirkuk Minorsky 
found a MS containing a genealogy of that family. 

The only definite indication of Baba Khoshin's 
date would be his association with the poet Baba 
Tahir (nth century) but here tradition is on very 
uncertain ground. 

The Elements of the System. The religion 
of the Ahl-i Hakk is typically syncretist. At its 
foundations we find Shi'a extremism. It should be 



AHL-I HAKK — AHL al-HALL w 



.-<AKD 






noted that the Ahl-i Hakk always speak of the 12 
imams and as a result ought not (at least directly) 
to be connected with Isma'ilism. According to the 
Firkin, the "religion of Truth" simply re-establishes 
the contents of the 10 dfuz' which were suppresed in 
the received text of the Kur'an, but in fact the Ahl-i 
Hakk deviate from the orthodox Shi'a to the extent 
of forming a separate religious system. The religion 
of the Ahl-i Hakk has in common with those of the 
Druzes and the Nusayris the worship of C A1T, but 
'AH is completely overshadowed by Sultan Sohak. 

The other obvious element in the formation of 
the Ahl-i Hakk is the rites of the Sufi darwishes: 
election of the pir, agapes with dhikr and distribution 
of food, brotherly unions. 

From the social point of view, the religion of 
the Ahl-i Hakk is professed particularly by the 
lower classes, nomads, villagers, inhabitants of the 
poorer quarters, darwishes etc. From this pro- 
bably comes the hope that on the day of the last 
judgment "the sultans" will be punished {Notes, p. 44 
[31]). On the other hand, the eminently popular 
character of the religion is apparent in the exuber- 
ance of the miraculous and folklore element in 
the traditions of the Ahl-i Hakk. Amid the country 
people in the remote provinces which have at all 
times been outside the control of central govern- 
ments, it is natural to expect to find survivals 
from olden times. The Divinity enclosed in the 
Pearl is a Manichaean idea (personal communication 
by Th. Noldeke), like the belief in the purification 
of the "Luminous" in the course of their transmi- 
grations. The belief in metempsychosis cannot be 
directly Indian for it was already in existence in 
Isma'ilism. The division of beings into two distinct 
categories is perhaps a later development of Zoro- 
astrian ideas. The sacrifice of the cock has been 
several times connected with the corresponding 
Jewish rite (cf. I. Scheftelowitz, Das stellvertretende 
Huhnopfer, Giessen 1914), while the Biblical names 
(Dawud, Musi) may have come through the inter- 
mediary of the Kur'an. The alleged Christian influ- 
ence ought not to be exaggerated: if the Ahl-i Hakk 
in their conversations with missionaries talk of Jesus 
and Mary, it should be remembered that, apart from 
these possibly being simply reminiscences of the 
: Ahl-i Hakk regard them merely as 



f thei] 



.wn pj 



itheo 



r the 



;apes il 



is not necessary to go farther back than the ki 
darwlsh practices (e.g. the Bektashi). The elasticity 
of the system of metempsychosis is responsible for 
the appearance of unexpected names in the myths. 
W. Ivanow has called attention to the name of 
Malak Ta'us [cf. yazidIs] in a fragment containing 
traditions, found at Shlraz. 

Bibliography: The first references to the 
genuine Ahl-i Hakk are found in the European 
travellers at the beginning of the 19th century: 
Macdonald Kinneir, A geographical memoir of the 
Persian Empire, 1813, 141; G. Keppel, Personal 
narrative of a journey from India to England, 1817, 
ii, 61 ff. H. Rawlinson, who commanded a regiment 
recruited from the tribe of Guran (Ahl-i Hakk), 
was the first to give any reliable information 
about the sect, Notes on a march from Zohab, 
JRGS, 1839, 36, 39. 53, 57, 95, 97, 99, 105, 109. 
The Baron de Bode visited the shrine of Baba 
YadegSr, Biblioteka dl'a tteniya, St. Petersburg 
1854, t. cxxiii, p. 45, cf. also his Travels in 
Luristan, 1845, i, 371-8, ii, 180. The first general 
outline of the doctrines of the Ahl-i Hakk is in 
Trois ans en Asie by Gobineau, Paris 1859, 338-70, 



who was in direct contact with the representative 
of the sect in Teheran, see Schemann, Gobineau, 
eine Biographie, Strasburg, 1913, i, 506-7, and 
Minorsky, Gobineau et la Perse, in Europe, Paris, 
Oct. 1923, 116-27. A very interesting anonymous 
article (signed: Sh.) on the Ahl-i Hakk of Tabriz 
appeared in the journal Kavkaz, Tiflis, 1876, nos. 
27, 29 and 30. The first authentic document of the 
Ahl-i Hakk (a Kaldm of 34 verses, "the Credo") 
was published with important notes by V. A. 
Zukowsky in the Zap., 1887, 1-25. The American 
missionary S. G. Wilson, Persian Life and Customs, 
1896, collected a certain amount of information 
at first hand. In 1902 Minorsky acquired in Teheran 
an authentic Ahl-i Hakk MS., dated 1295/1843 
and containing a collection of religious legends 
listed under epochs (see above), (Kitab-i Sarandidm 
"Book of the End, or Fulfilment") in Persian, 
and also a number of Kalims in Turkish (trans- 
lated and published in Russian with a French 
summary: V. Minorsky, Materiali dl'a izuleniya 
persidskoy sekti "L'udi Istini Hi "Ali-Ilahi", 
Moscow, 1911, published as fasc. xxxiii of Trudi 
po vostokovedeniyu izdavayemiye Lazarevskim 
Institutom; id., Notes sur la secte des Ahle-Haqq, 
in RMM, 1920, 20-97 (p. 61-84: detailed biblio- 
graphy containing 54 items), and RMM, 1921, 
205-302 (also published in book form with certain 
additions) ; a review by F. Cumont in Syria, 1922, 
262; V. Minorsky, Un traiU de polimique Be'hai- 
Ahle-Haqq, in JA, 1921, 165-7; D. Saeed-Khan, 
The sect of Ahl-i Haqq, MW, 1927, 31-42; 
Gordlevsky, Kara-koyunlu, in Izv. Obilestva 
izuleniya Azerbaydiana, Baku, 1927; Ajarian, 
Gyorans and Toumaris, a newly found religion in 
Persia, Bull, de I'UniversiU d'Erivan, French 
translation by F. Macler in RHR, 1926, 204-307; 
Minorsky, Etudes sur les Ahl-i Haqq, i, "Toumari" 
= Ahl-i Haqq, RHR, 1928, 90-105; F. M. Stead, 
The Ali-Ilahi sect in Persia, MW, 1932, 184-9; 
Y. N. Marr, Radeniye sekti L'udi istini (in Y. Marr. 
Statyi i soob&teniya, ii, 1939, 248-54); Ch. P. 
Pittmann, The final word of the Ahl-i Haqq, 
MW, 1937, 147-63 (makes use of a text of the 
Sarandidm which corresponds closely to that 
translated by Minorsky): W. Ivanow, An Ali- 
Ilahi fragment, Collectanea (The Ismail! Society), 
I, 1948, 147-84, idem, The Truth Worshippers of 
Kurdistan, Ahl-i Haqq, Texts, Bombay 1953, (a 
third version of the Sarandidm) ; 'Abbas al-AzzawI, 
al-KikiHyya fiH-Ta'rikh, Baghdad 1368/1949 (the 
Ahl-i Hakk of Kirkuk considered jointly with 
various c Ali Ilahl; cf. Oriens, 1953, 407 ff.); 
Minorsky, Un poime Ahl-i Haqq en turk, West- 
liche Abhandlungen R. Tschudi, 1954, 258. The 
results of the researches of Minorsky amongst the 
Ahl-i Hakk (Teheran, Tabriz, Maku, Kurdistan) and 
of his visits to the sanctuaries of the sect (Baba- 
Yadegar, Perdiwar) have been set forth in his Notts 
(see above). In the same work there is a translation 
of the Bahal polemic tract directed against the 
Ahl-i Hakk. Minorsky's other materials comprise 
numerous Kaldm (in Gurani and Turkish), and the 
important account of the collection of dogmas 
Firkin al-Akhbir (see above), as well as an account 
of his visits to the sanctuaries of Kirkuk and 
Kirind (1934). (V. Minorsky) 

AHL al-HALL wal-'A&D (this, though illogical, 
is the normal order of the words), "those who are 
qualified to unbind and to bind", the representatives 
I of the community of the Muslims who act on their 
I behalf in appointing and deposing a caliph or 






AHL al-HALL w 



: AKD 



- AHL al-KITAB 



another ruler [see bay'a]. They must be Muslims, 
male, of age, free, c adl [q.v.], and capable of judging 
who is best qualified to hold the office. No fixed 
number of "electors" is required; according to the 
prevailing opinion, even the appointment made by 
one "elector" in the presence of two qualified wit- 
nesses is valid. This is the theory ; in fact, all through 
the history of Islam, the ahl al-hall wa'l- c akd have 
consisted of the persons who wielded political power 
in the capital, acting in association with the notables 
and prominent religious scholars. The thought of 
modernists and reformers occasionally identifies them 
with the whole of the community, or nation, with 
parliament, or with the body of religious scholars. 
Bibliography: Juynboll, Handbuch, 332; id., 
Handleiding, 335 f . ; Santillana, Istituzioni, i, 
book I, § 13; H. Laoust, Le Califat dans la doctrine 
de RaSid Ridi, Beirut 1938, index, s.v. ; E. Tyan, 
Institutions du droit public musulman, i, Paris 1953, 
172 ff., 334 ff.; L. Gardet, La Citi musulmane, 
Paris 1954, index s.v. (Ed.) 

AHL al-KAHF [see ashab al-kahf]. 
AHL al SIBLA (a.) = "the people of the kibla" 
[q.v.], appellation of the Muslims. 

AHL al-KISA', the people of the cloak. 
According to a tradition Muhammad went out one 
morning — at the time of the visit of the Nadjran 
delegation in 10/631 [cf. mubahala] — wearing a 
figured black cloak; first Fatima, then 'All and 
then al-Hasan and al-Husayn came and he took 
them under his cloak, hugging them and quoting 
from Kur'an, xxxiii, 32 : "God only desireth to put 
away filthiness from you as his household, and 
with cleansing to cleanse you". The Sunnis explains 
filthiness as unbelief but the ShI'a explain it as 
e with the impure world, a parallel to the 
t that the family lost the visible caliphate 
to win the invisible. Another version says that 
Muhammad threw his cloak over his uncle 'Abbas 
and his sons saying: "Hide them from hell fire as 
I hide them with my cloak". 

Bibliography: See ahl al-bayt, and L. 
Massignon, in Vivre et penser, Paris 1941, 1 ff. 

(A. S. Tritton) 
AHL al-KITAB, "possessors of the Scripture" 
(or "people of the Book"). This term, in the IJur'an 
and the resultant Muslim terminology, denotes the 
Jews and the Christians, repositories of the 
earlier revealed books, al-Tawrdt [q.v.] = the Torah, 
al-ZabUr [q.v.] = the Psalms, and al-Indiil [q.v.] = 
the Gospel. The use of this term was later extended 
to the Sabeans (al-Sdbi y a [q.v.])— both the genuine 
Sabeans, mentioned in the IJur'an alongside the 
Jews and the Christians (= Mandeans), and the 
spurious Sabeans (star-worshippers of Harran) — to 
the Zoroastrians (Madjus [q.v.]), and, in India, even 
to idolaters. 

This article deals only with the doctrinal position 
of the Kur'an, the hadith and the controversialists 
concerning the Jews and the Christians. For- their 
legal status as protected persons (ahl al-dhimma) on 
the fringe of the Muslim community, see dhimma 
and djizya. 

In the Kur'an, the term does not occur before 
the end of the Meccan period. A possibly slightly 
earlier expression is ahl al-dhikr, "possessors of 
edification", witnesses of previous revelations (xv, 
43 (45) ; xxi, 7), but kitdb already denotes generally 
the Pentateuch and the Psalms. 

The Kur 3 an emphasises the community of faith 
between the possessors of the earlier scriptures and 
the adherents of the new revelation. It occasionally 



pays tribute to their religious and moral virtues and 
calls on the Prophet to interrogate them. More often, 
however, as a result of the disappointment of 
Muhammad at the intransigence of the Jews of 
Medina and of the Christians with regard to his 
mission, he puts the emphasis on their failure to 
comprehend the message which they possess but do 
not put into practice, just as they fail to comprehend 
the new teaching which fulfils that message, on 
their exclusiveness, and on their impotent jealousy; 
they are therefore not to be treated as allies, but 
to be fought with: xxix, 45-7 (44-6); xlii, 14(13); 
x, 93-5; ", 105 (99), i°9 (103), in (105), 135 (129); 
xcviii, i, 4, 6; iii, 19 (17), 23 (22), 64-5 (57-8), 69-73 
(62-7), 75-6 (68-9), 77 (71), 98-100 (93-5), no (106), 
113 (109), 199 (i 9 8);lviii,2 9 ;iv, 153 (152), 171 (169); 
lix, 11; ix, 29; v, 5 (7), 15 (18), 19 (22), 57-9 (62-4), 
65 (7o), 68 (72). 

The Ifur'anic texts which mention the adherents 
of these two religions by their proper names (BanU 
IsrdHl [q.v.] and Yahud [q.v.] for the Israelites of 
biblical history and the contemporary Jews of 
Medina respectively, Nasdrd [q.v.] for the Christians) 
adopt similar viewpoints and determine the entire 
future attitude of Islam towards these two groups. 
The children of Israel are God's chosen people, 
recipients of his bounty, admitted to his covenant, 
beneficiaries under his law, to whom Paradise is 
assured. The Kur'an recognises several episodes of 
their history: the bondage in Egypt, the crossing 
of the Red Sea, their wanderings in the wilderness, 
their sojourn before the Mount, their division into 
twelve tribes, their entry into the Promised Land 
and into the Holy City and the City by the Sea. 
But they distinguish themselves by their rebellious 
spirit and unbelief; they worship the golden calf, 
they demand to see God and they clamour for idols. 
Instead of believing in the prophets, they persecute 
them. They violate the Sabbath and infringe the 
Law; they are uncircumcised in heart. Though 
guardians of the Scriptures, they alter them, conceal 
them and pervert their meaning; they are signalized 
by their opposition to all further revelations, and 
they are themselves divided into factions. Cursed by 
the Lord, metamorphosed into apes, punished in this 
world where they are doomed to humiliation, they 
are moreover consigned to Hell. They can only be 
saved by righteousness; they have on the other 
hand given rise to a just community. 

This picture is coloured, like all Muhammad's 
conceptions of religious history, by his experiences 
and disappointments, which are expressed still more 
clearly in his pronouncements concerning the con- 
temporary Jews and Christians. 

At first the Kur'an admits that Jews, Christians 
and Sabeans can, like Muslims, achieve salvation 
through the performance of the rites of their respec- 
tive religions, but this standpoint is not maintained. 
At Medina, the IJur'an admonishes the Jews (recal- 
ling especially the divine protection vouchsafed to 
their ancestors) and summons them to Islam. 
Although certain Jews are praised and granted 
forgiveness, the tension, and finally the breach and 
conflict between the Jews and Muhammad, are 
reflected by the condemnation of their doctrines, by 
maledictions, and the ban on association between 
them and believers. Their sins fall into the moral as 
well as the religious category. Their attitude resem- 
bles that of their ancestors: eager to enjoy life, they 
fear death; ungrateful for God's blessings, they are 
careless too of the welfare of their doctors of religion ; 
they practise usury, war among themselves, and 



AHL al-KITAB 






rush into iniquity and corruption. They preserve and 
study their Law, but do not hesitate to transgress it, 
to distort its phraseology and to conceal the truth. 
The prohibitions concerning food have been imposed 
on them as a punishment. Their enmity towards the 
Christians is not forgotten. Even their monotheism 
is questionable; they believe in the Df ibt and Tagjtut 
and deify c Uzayr [q.v.]. They ally themselves with 
the polytheists. Their attitude towards the IJur^nic 
revelation, the advent of which has caused disunity 
amongst them, is compounded of hostility and 
unbelief. They are the worst enemies of Islam; they 
bandy words with the Prophet, are jealous of the 
believers, and are conspicuous for their mockery, 
their machinations, and their treachery. Assured 
of obloquy in this world, they are destined to 
Gehenna. [See also yahud.] 

As regards the Christians, God has made a con- 
venant with them, and their salvation through their 
faith is admitted in several passages. Muhammad at 
one time credited them with a leaning towards 
Islam, and they are declared to be superior to the 
Jews, to whom they are opposed. But the condem- 
nation of their doctrines is no less outspoken. Their 
exclusive claim to salvation and to the true religion 
is severely criticised; it would be a grave error to 
adopt their religion. The divinity of Jesus ( c Is5 [q.v.]), 
the reality of his Passion, the Trinity and monasticism 
are all rejected. They are threatened with Hell; 
affiliation with them is forbidden, and recourse to 
imprecation (mubahala [q.v.]) is proposed to them. 
The dissension between the Christian sects is not 
forgotten. [See also nadjran, nasara.] 

The attitude of Islam towards the Jews and 
Christians, as reflected in the hadith, is one of 
mistrust. It stresses the importance of differenti- 
ating at all costs, as regards religious and social 
conduct, between the believers and these two 
religious groups, which are rather superficially 
understood. Moreover there is noticeable in Muslim 
tradition a clear tendency to stress the originality 
of those Muslim institutions which invite comparison 
with similar (mainly Jewish) institutions. Finally, 
the hadith sometimes puts into a polemical context 
the condemnation of various abuses prevalent 
among the Muslims, as well as certain positions 
taken up in many internal controversies within 
the Muslim community. The principles and processes 
employed betray more than once their Jewish 
origin. The basic rule is: "do not act as do the people 
of the Book" (kh&lifuhum), which corresponds to the 
Talmudic ban on following the practices of the 
Gentiles (hukkot ha-goy). By virtue of this principle, 
the hadlth condemns numerous practices of little 
consequence in themselves. But to Jewish rieorism 
it opposes a certain degree of Muslim laxity, especially 
in sexual matters. It claims as purely Muslim (if it 
does not date back to "Israelite" antiquity or to 
pre-Islamic Arabia) an institution like the fast of 
'Ashura [q.v.], which is in fact derived from the 
Jewish Yom Kippur and is moreover virtually 
supplanted by Ramadan [q.v.], which again is found 
to have its origin in Jewish and Christian institutions. 
Developing and aggravating the grievances uttered 
in the Rur'an, Muslim tradition willingly underlines 
above all the enmity of the Jews, but also that of 
the Christians, ranging from certain episodes in the 
Prophet's life to eschatological disputes. Although 
Muslim tradition rarely gives evidence of direct 
acquaintance with large portions of the Judaeo- 
Christian Scriptures (information of this type 
stemmed from intercourse with the ahl al-kitdb or 



was supplied by converts), this does not prevent it 
from accusing the inheritors of those Scriptures of 
suppressing certain portions which had fallen into 
desuetude (capital punishment for adultery in Deu- 
teromony) or which foretold the mission of Muham- 
mad, and also of interpreting passages falsely and 
even of materially altering their sense. Discussion 
with the ahl al-kitdb is regarded with dislike, and 
consultation of their religious documents is depre- 
cated as much by reason of the probable fraudulency 
of their owners as from the fact of the autarchy of 
the Kur'anic revelation, which abrogates all that 
is antiquated in previous revelations and renders 
the remainder superfluous by superseding it. In 
contrast, the edifying stories connected with the 
antiquity of the ahl al-kitdb (IsT&iliyydt [q.v.]) are 
tolerated. 

The anti-Jewish and anti-Christian polemics of 
Islam display a remarkable consistency in their 
major themes from the writings of the contro- 
versialists of the 3rd/oth-4th/ioth centuries down 
to contemporary apologetics. Unlike the hadith, 
they make use of a scriptural, theological, historical 
and sometimes liturgical knowledge which is ample 
if not always exact. 

As regards their use of the two Testaments, 
Muslim polemics continually waver between two 
opinions: (a) the Judaeo-Christian Scriptures in 
their existing form are authentic documents which 
only require a suitable exegesis; (b) they are not 
to be trusted, either because their actual meaning 
has been falsified [see tahrIf], or because their 
recension and transmission do not afford the neces- 
sary guarantee of sincerity and authenticity, so 
that they cannot be accepted as the Torah and 
Gospel as actually revealed to Moses and Jesus. The 
first view prevailed in the gth-ioth centuries (what- 
ever one thinks of the authenticity of "The Book of 
Religion and Empire", attributed to C A1I b. Rabban 
al-Tabari, which includes a huge mass of scriptural 
arguments), whereas Ibn Hazm wrote the most 
penetrating literary, historical, theological and 
moral criticism of the Judaeo-Christian Scriptures. 
This method has been followed down to the modern 
polemic writers, who in addition utilise the rationalist 
bible-criticism of the 19th century in their attacks 
on Judaism and Christianity. 

In the an ti- Jewish polemics the chief theological, 
problem is the abrogation (naskh) [q.v.] of previous 
divine revelations, which does not imply badd* [q.v.] 
(alteration of God's purpose). The principal charge 
levelled at Judaism, in most of the traditional 
compositions, is that of the anthropomorphic con- 
ception of the Deity. 

The anti-Christian polemics are much richer in 
historical and theological argument. The message 
of Jesus has been altered by Paul, and the historical 
position of the Christian community has been 
falsified by Constantine. The christological contro- 
versies between the Melkites, the Nestorians and 
the Jacobites afforded ample material to the Muslim 
polemic writers. The Trinity, taken to mean tritheism, 
is irreconcilable with divine unity; the incarnation 
is a blasphemous offence against divine transcendence. 
Jesus may have had the prerogative of theopathic 
speech, but nothing more than a moral union can 
be involved (al-Ghazzali). Muhammad is the Para- 
clete foretold by the Gospel [see ahmad], and in 
addition several messianic and eschatological proph- 
ecies of the Old Testament are similarly fulfilled in 
his person. Historically and sociologically, the aston- 
ishing success of Muslim arms and the superiority 



AHL al-KITAB — AHL al-SUFFA 



of Muslim civilisation are proofs of the truth and 
superiority of Islam. In al-Djahiz, there is a "socio- 
logical" study of Christianity and Judaism within 
the framework of Muslim society. 

Bibliography: Kur'an: texts are usefully 
classified in R. Blachere, Le Coran, index, under 
the words: Detenteurs de l'Ecriture, Fils d'Israel, 
Juifs, Chretiens. On the relations between the 
Jews and Muhammad: A. J. Wensinck, Mohammed 
en de Joden te Medina, Leiden 1908. tfadith: 
I. Goldziher, Ober muhamm. Polemik gegen Ahl 
al-kitdb, ZDMG, 1878, 341-87; id., Usages juifs 
d'aprks lalitterature religieuse des Musulmans, RE J, 
1894, 75-94 (with references to earlier works); 
G. Vajda, Juifs et Musulmans selon le hadit, 
J A, 1937, 57-127; id., Je&ne musulman et je&ne 
juif, Hebrew Union College Annual, 1937-8, 
367-85 ; S. D. Goitein, Ha-dat ha-zo c efet, Slier Dina- 
burg, Jerusalem 1949, 151-64, 423. Polemics: 
M. Steinschneider, Polemische und apologetische 
Literatur in arab. Sprache, Abh.K.M., 1877 
(bibliographical list) ; M. Schreiner, Zur Geschichte 
der Polemik zwischen Juden und Mukammedanern, 
ZDMG, 1888, 591-675; E. Fritsch, Islam und 
Christentum im Mittelalter, Breslau 1930 (an 
important monograph; gives the bibliography 
relative to each subject). For C A1I b. Rabban al- 
Tabari, in addition to G. Graf, Geschichte der 
christl. arab. Literatur, i, 1944, 44-7, see now 
M. Bouyges, Nos informations sur c Aliy ... at- 
Tabariy, MFOB, 1949-50, 69-114, who denies the 
authenticity of the book. L. Massignon, Le Christ 
dans les Evangiles selon al-Ghazdli, REI, 1932, 
491-2, 523-36; al-Ghazzali, Refutation excellente de 
la diviniti de Jisus-Christ d'apres les Evangiles, 
edited by R. Chidiac, Paris 1939; I. S. Allouche, 
Un traiti de polemique christiano-musulmane au 
IXe siecle, Hesp., 1939, 123-55; M. Perlmann, 
Eleventh century Andalusian authors on the Jews 
of Granada, Proc. American Acad. Jewish Research, 
1949, 269-90; R. Brunschvig, V argumentation d'un 
theologien musulman du X' siecle contre le Judaisme, 
in Homenaje a Millds-Vallicrosa, Barcelona 1954, 
i, 225-41. See also the headings Judaeo-Arabica, 
Apologltique and Missiologie, Minorite's in Ab- 
stracta Islamica of the REI. (G. Vajda) 

AHL al-NA£AR, "those who apply reasoning". 
• This term originally denotes the Mu'tazila [q.v.], and 
it is probable that they coined it themselves. It 
occurs in Ibn Kutayba, Ta'wil Mukhtalif al-Hadith, 
passim ; al-Mas c udI speaks of ahl al-ba>ith wa 'l-nazar; 
synonyms are ahl al-kaldm (in al-Shafil) and al- 
mutakallimun (in al-Ash c ari). Later, ahl (or ashdb) al- 
nazar came to denote the careful scholars who held 
a sound, well-reasoned opinion on any particular 
question. See also nazar. (Ed.) 

AHL al-RA'Y [see ashAb al-ra'y]. 
AHL al-SUFFA, a group of Muhammad's 
Companions, mentioned chiefly in ascetic and 
mystical writings, where they have come to typify 
the ideal of poverty and piety. The suffa or zuUa 
(often rendered 'bench', 'banquette', etc.) was, 
according to Lane, a long, covered portico or vesti- 
bule, which formed part of the mosque at Medina. 
This — so the legend ran— was the sole home of these 
men, and they spent their time in study and worship, 
except when in obedience to a command from 
Muhammad they went out to fight. They are some- 
times said to have been as many as 400; Lane 
(s.v. suffa) quotes al-Sayyid Murtada as saying in 
TA that he had made a list of 92 or 93 names. 
Abu c Abd al-Rahman Muhammad b. rjusayn al- 



Sulaml (cf. Brockelmann, I, 200) wrote a history of 
them (al-Hudjwiri, Kashf al-Mahdjub tr. R. A. 
Nicholson, Leyden and London, 191 1, 81; Abu 
Nu'aym, Hilyat al-Awliyd>, i, 337-47). According to 
L. Massignon {Essai sur les Origines du Lexique 
Technique de la Mystique Musulmane, Paris 1922, 
140), al-Muhasibl, Ibn Karram and al-Tustarl 
admitted the authenticity of the legend, and it was 
defended by Abu Nu'aym, Ibn Tahir, al-Makdisi 
and al-Subkl. (For the latter cf. Brockelmann, II, 87.) 
It also appears in al-Ghazali, where there is an 
anecdote contrasting the ahl al-suffa with al-mu'allafa 
kulubuhum, 'those whose hearts are reconciled' 
(Ihyd>, iv, book 34, bay an fadilat al-fakr mutlakan; 
cf. al-Sayyid Murtada, Ithdf al-Sdda, ix, 277-8). 
Ibn Taymiyya, though in the main an opponent of 
tasawwuf or mysticism, developed his conception of 
the true nature of the religious or devotional life 
by describing the piety of the Companions, and in 
this gave a prominent place to the men of the suffa 
(esp. Risala fi Ahl al-Suffa, in Madimu c min al- 
Rasd'il wa-H-MasaHl al-Kayyima, Cairo 1349/1930, 
i, 25-60). The supporters of the legend claimed that 
Kur'an, ii, 273/4 (and other verses such as vi, 52, 
xviii, 28/7, and xlii, 27/6) referred to this group; 
but the orthodox commentators express hesitation 
about this attribution (cf. al-Baydawi on ii, 273/4, 
said') or neglect it al-together (al-Tabari on 



the s; 



le). 



The factual grounds for the legend are slight. The 
later lists include names of persons who were either 
poor or pious but not necessarily both; among the 
34 persons mentioned by al-Hudjwiri (I.e. 81-2) is 
Abu Lubaba, one of the most influential men in 
Medina, who was wealthy enough to present a 
balcony to the masdjid al-dirar (al-Wakidi, tr. 
Wellhausen, 410). In the early account in Ibn Sa c d, 
i/2, 13-4, those named are Wathila b. al-Aska c , Abu 
Hurayra, Abu Dharr and Kays b. Tihfa al-Ghifarl; 
while from the (possibly not exhaustive) index to 
Ibn Sa'd (s.v. suffa, ix/2, 26) we learn that c Abd 
al-Rahman (b. Ka c b) al-Asamm, Djarhad b. Razah 
al-Aslami, Rabi'a b. Ka'b al-Aslaml, Asma' b. 
Haritha al-Aslami and Talha b. c Abdallah (or b. 
■Amr) al-Nadri al-Laythi belonged to the ahl al- 
suffa (Ibn Sa c d, i/2, 48; iv/2, 33, 44, 51; vii/i, 35). 
The first report in Ibn Sa'd, i/2, 13 f. emphasizes 
not the poverty of the men of the suffa but the fact 
that they had no dwelling in Medina, but other 
parts of the material there speak of their ragged 
clothing. This suggests that those who slept (perhaps 
only temporarily) in the suffa were men from the 
less influential tribes round Medina who had np 
confederates to put them up in Medina apart from 
Muhammad. Some of them were prominent in their 
tribes, and so presumably not poverty-stricken. 
Muhammad apparently also invited a few poor 
followers to share his meal, but this probably 
happened only occasionally (cf. Ibn Sa'd, I.e.; al- 
Bukhari, Mawdkit al-Saldt, 41). 

The legend must have begun to grow before the 
time of al-Wakidi (d. 207/822), himself an Aslami, 
since Ibn Sa'd's material on this point comes from 
him. The statement that Kur'an, ii, 273/4 referred 
to the ahl al-suffa is passed on as from Muhammad 
b. Ka'b al-Kurazi. Though scholars are now agreed 
that siif{ is derived from siif, wool, the similarity in 
sound of suffa encouraged the legend, and it was 
said, for example, that a sufi was one who resembled 
the ahl al-suffa in character (al-Kalabadhl, al- 
Ta c arruf, ed. and tr. A. J. Arberry, Cairo 1934, and 
Cambridge 1935, ch. 1 ; cf. al-Hudjwiri, op. cit. 30). 



AHL al-SUFFA _ AHMAD I 



Bibliography: works mentioned in the 
article; also Sarradj, Luma 1 (Nicholson), 132 f.; 
Ibn al-DjawzI, Talbis Iblis, Cairo 1928, 176 f.; 
Wensinck, Handbook, s.v. Suffa; H. Laoust, 
Essai sur les doctrines . . . d'Ibn Taimiya, Cairo, 
1539, see index. (W. Montgomery Watt) 

AHL AL-SUNNA,the "Sunnites",i.e. the orthodox 
Muslims [see sunna]. 

AHL-i WARIS, in general use among the 
Muhammadan peoples of Indonesia with the meaning 
of Arabic warith. The word is taken from the Persian 
usage and has reached the East Indian archipelago 

Bibliography: Ph. S. van Ronkel, Over de 

herkomst van enkele Arabische bastaardwoorden in 

het Maleisch, in TBG, xlviii, 189 ff. 

AHLAF [see hilf]. 

AHMAD, one of the names of the Prophet 
Muhammad and a proper name used by Muslims. 
Formally, it is the elative of Mahmud or Hamid and 
means "more, or most, worthy of praise", or, less 
probably, of Hamid, in which case it would mean 
"praising [God] to a higher, or the highest, degree". 
As a proper name it is, however, distinct from the 
other, etymologically connected forms, including the 
name Muhammad. It occurs occasionally, and less 
frequently than Muhammad, among the pre-Islamic 
Arabs. In the Safaitic North-Arabian inscriptions 
of the Syrian borderland, names of this form seem 
to occur as abbreviations of composite theophoric 
names of the scheja^'God is praiseworthy"; but 
whether the same is true of literary Arabic in the 
Hidjaz is subject to doubt. 

The basis of its use in Islam is Kur'an, lxi, 6: 
"And when Jesus, son of Mary, said: '0 Children of 
Israel, I am God's messenger to you, confirming the 
Torah which was before me, and announcing the 
good tidings of a messenger who will come after me, 
whose name is Ahmad'." There is no obvious parallel 
to this passage in the New Testament. It has there- 
fore been suggested that Ahmad is the translation 
of periklutos "celebrated", which in its turn would 
be a corruption of paraklitos "the Paraclete" in 
John, xiv, 16, xv, 23-7. But the history of the text 
and of the translations of the Gospel, together with 
the fact that periklutos was not common in con- 
temporary Greek, shows this to be impossible. The 
Muslims did indeed apply to Muhammad the pre- 
diction of the Paraclete, before the middle of the 
2nd century A. H. (Ibn Hisham, 150, quoting Ibn 
Ishak); but the terms used are either the Greek 
paraklitos or its correct Aramaic translation 
m'ttaWmana; this identification is based only on 
the assonance between the Aramaic word and the 
name Muhammad, and seems to have been suggested 
by Christian converts to Islam. 

Whereas the name Muhammad was used by 
Muslims from the lifetime of the Prophet onwards, 
and the forms Mahmud, Hamid and Humayd occur 
in the first century of Islam too, the use of Ahmad 
as a proper name among Muslims seems to begin 
only about 125/740. From this it has been con- 
cluded that the word ahmad in Kur 5 5n, lxi, 6 is to 
be taken not as a proper name but as an adjective 
(the verse might then contain an obscure reference 
to John, xiv, 12), and that it was understood as 
a proper name only after Muhammad had been 
identified with the Paraclete. Occasional references 
to the Prophet as Ahmad in the poetry of the first 
century are accordingly explained as caused by the 
necessity of the metre. Traditions which state that 
the name of the Prophet was Ahmad (Ibn Sa c d, i/i, 



64 f.) are regarded as proposing an interpretation 
which had not always been obvious. But the original 
hesitation of the Muslims to use the name Ahmad 
is sufficiently accounted for by the form of the word 
as an elative, even though it was a proper name 
from the beginning. 

Bibliography: A. Sprenger, Das Leben und 
die Lehre des Mohammed, i, 1861, 158 ft.; Gesch. 
des Qor., i, 9, n. 1 ; H. Grimme, in ZS, 1928, 24 ft.; \ 
E. A. Fischer, in Ber. Verh. Sachs. Ak. Wiss., Phil.- 
hist. Kl., 1932, No. 3; M. W. Watt, in M W, 1953. 
noff. (J. Schacht) 

AHMAD I, fourteenth Ottoman sultan. 
Eldest son of Mehmed (Muhammad) III, born at 
Manisa 22 Djumada II, 998/18 April 1590, succeeded 
his father 18 Radjab 1012/22 Jan. 1603. The chron- 
iclers have noted that on his accession, contrary to 
established custom, he did not put to death his 
brother Mustafa, and the latter later succeeded him. 
One of the first acts of the sovereign was the con- 
finement in the old Seray of his grandmother Safiya 
Sultan (the Venetian Baffa), the prime mover in 
the Ottoman administration under Murad III and 
Mehmed (Muhammad) III. Ahmad sent an army 
under the command of Cighale-zade Sinan Pasha 
[q.v,] against the Persian troops of Shah 'Abbas I, 
who had just gained possession of Eriwan and Kars 
but had been repulsed in front of Aklska. Sinan 
Pasha, however, was defeated at Salmas (9 Sept. 
1605) and shortly afterwards died of chagrin in 
Diyarbakr, while Shah 'Abbas profited by his 
victory to recover Gandja and Shlrwan. In Hungary 
the Grand-Vizier Lala Mehmed Pasha [see muhammad 
pasha], after experiencing setbacks before Pest and 
Esterghon (Esztergom, Gran), captured Wac (Vac, 
Waitzen). In a seond campaign, in which he was 
supported by the ruler of Transylvania, Stephan 
Bocskay, he was able to isolate and storm the fortress 
of Esterghon (4 Nov. 1605), while Tiryaki Hasan 
Pasha entered Wesprim (Veszprem) and Palota. 
Bocskay was invested with the principalities of 
Transylvania and Hungary. Soon afterwards the 
Grand-Vizier died, and his post was held successively 
by Darwish Pasha and Murad Pasha [q.v.] surnamed 
Kuyudju ("the well-sinker"), who signed the treaty 
of Zsitvatorok (n Nov. 1606) with the Austrians, 
whereby the Ottomans were left in possession of the 
territory which they had conquered and received in 
a single, definitive payment an indemnity of 200,000 
kara ghurush, but contracted to accord the Austrian 
sovereign the title of "Emperor" and not merely 
"King", a step which would give him equality of 
status with the Sultan. Conferences were held at 
Neuhausel in 1608 to settle the final details of the 
treaty, and at Vienna in July 1615 and March 1616 
to extend its validity. Internal difficulties had 
forced the Ottomans to sign it; revolts, caused by 
repeated military levies and by the exactions of 
certain governors, had broken out in various parts 
of the empire. Kuyudju Murad Pasha was despatched 
against the rebels, and triumphed over Musli Cawush 
at Laranda, over Djamshld at Adana, and notably 
over Djanbulad-oghlu 'All Pasha in the plain of 
Orudj, near Beylan (24 Dec. 1607). In the west, he 
attacked Kalender-oghlu Mehmed (Muhammad) 
Pasha, who held the districts of Brusa and Manisa, 
and defeated him at Alacaylr (5 Aug. 1608). In Syria, 
the Turkish forces launched themselves against the 
Druse amir Fakhr al-Din b. Ma'n [q.v.], but could not 
win a decisive victory. The Grand-Vizier, at the age 
of 90, then set out for Tabriz, but shortly after 
opening peace negotiations with the Shah of Iran, 



AHMAD I — AHMAD III 



he died. His successor Nasuh Pasha [q.v.] concluded 
in 1611 a peace treaty which fixed the demarcation 
of the frontier on the basis of the settlement made 
during the reign of Selim II, but hostilities were 
resumed four years later. At sea, the Grand-Admiral 
Khalll Pasha [q.v.] achieved important successes 
against the Florentine and Maltese fleets. In 1609, 
six Maltese galleons were captured in Cypriot waters, 
including the "red galleon" of Commander Fres- 
sinet (battle of Kara Djahannam); in 1610, the 
Turks suffered a setback at Lepanto, and the 
Maltese Corsairs were checked at Cos; in 1612 a 
Florentine squadron raided the Cilician coast, near 
the port of Aghallman, and 161 4 Khalll Pasha 
inflicted some losses at Malta. In the Black Sea, 
the Cossacks, who had sacked Sinope, were overtaken 
and defeated at the mouth of the Don by ShakshakI 
Ibrahim Pasha; another Cossack attack in Moldavia 
was checked by Iskender Pasha, and peace was 
signed at Bussa, on the Dniester, on 27 Sept. 1617. 
Under Ahmad I, the capitulations with France, 
England and Venice were renewed (1604), and 
similar capitulations were concluded for the first time 
with the Netherlands (1612). The use of tobacco 
became widespread in Turkey during his reign. 
Ahmad I devoted himself to the promulgation of 
a Kanun-ndme designed to establish an authoritative 
code of the administrative and commercial regula- 
tions of the empire, hitherto not co-ordinated. He 
constructed (1609-1616) in the At Meydanl at 
Istanbul the magnificent mosque which bears his 
name. He died 23 Dhu'l-Ka c da 1026/22 Nov. 1617 
after a two months' illness. Of a violent and change- 
able nature, and easily swayed, Ahmad I was not 
always capable of appreciating the services of his 
most able ministers; a pious man, he established 
numerous religious foundations, and even furnished 
the Ka'ba with ornaments. He was passionately 
fond of hunting and djarid, and took a close interest 
in poetry. 

Bibliography: Ibrahim Pecewl, Ta'rikh, ii, 
290-360; HadjdjI Khalifa. Fadhlaka, i, 221-386; 
Solak-zade Mehmed HamdamI, TaWkh, 683-696; 
Na c Im5, Ta'rihh, i, 1-11, 154; Fera 3 idl-z5de 
Mehmed Sa c id, Gulshen-i Ma'arif, i, 595-625; 
Feridun Bey, Munsha'at al-Saldtin, ii; Ewliya 
Celebl, Siydhat-ndme, i, 212-19; Mustafa Pasha, 
NatdHdi al-Wuku'at, ii, 22-41; J. von Hammer- 
Purgstall, Histoire de V Empire ottoman, viii, 51-235; 
Zinkeisen, iv; N. Iorga, Geschichte des osmanischen 
Reiches, iii, 410 ff.; IA, s.v. (by M. Cavid Baysun). 

(R. Mantran) 
AJJMAD II, twenty-first Ottoman sultan. 
Son of sultan Ibrahim and Mu'azzaz Sultan, born, 
according to Na'ima, 6 Dhu'l Hidjdja 1052/25 Feb. 
1643 (according to Rashid 5 Djumada I 1052/1 Aug. 
1642), succeeded his brother Sulayman II on 26 
Ramadan 1102/23 June 1691. He confirmed the 
Grand-Vizier Kopriilu-zade [q.v.] Fadtl Mustafa 
Pasha in his post, and the latter resumed hostilities 
against the Imperial Powers, but was defeated 
and killed at the battle of Slankamen (19 Aug. 
1691). 'ArabadjI C A1I Pasha succeeded him, but was 
soon replaced by HadjdjI C A1I Pasha who, in 
1692, conducted his campaign with great caution. 
In the same year, the Venetians made an unsuc- 
cessful attempt on Canea. As the result of a dispute 
with the sultan, HadjdjI C A1I Pasha was dismissed 
from office, and his post given to Bozoklu Mustafa 
Pasha, who forced the Austrians to raise the siege 
of Belgrade (1693). Dismissed in his turn, he was 
succeeded by Siirmeli C AU Pasha [q.v.], who failed 



in an attempt to capture the fortress of Peterwardein 
(1694), while the Venetians gained control of Gabella 
in Dalmatia and of the important island of Chios. 
During the reign of Ahmad II, there were distur- 
bances in 'Irak and the Hidjaz and, in the west, 
Tunis was attacked by both Tripoli and Algiers. 
A sovereign of weak personality, and continually 
swayed by his entourage, Ahmad II was in addition 
addicted to drink, and died of dropsy 22 Djumada II, 
1 106/6 Feb. 1695 at Adrianople. He was buried in 
the tiirbe of KanunI Sulayman at Istanbul. 

Bibliography: Rashid, Ta'rikh, ii, 159-292; 
Fera>idi-zade Mehmed Sa c Id, Gulshen-i Ma'arif, ii 
993-1014; Mustafa Pasha, NatdHdi al-Wuku'-at, 
iii, 8-n; FindlklUI Mehmed Agha, Sildhddr Ta>- 
rlkhi, ii, 578-805; Hammer- Purgstall, Histoire de 
I' Empire ottoman, xii, 318-368; Zinkeisen; N. Iorga, 
Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches, iv, 254 ff.; 
IA, s.v. (by M. Cavid Baysun); S. Romanin, 
Storia di Venezia, L. xvi, ch. 6. (R. Mantran) 
AHMAD III, twenty-third Ottoman sultan, 
son of Metimed IV (Muhammad IV, [q.v.]). Bom in 
1084/1673, he succeeded his brother Mustafa II [q.v.] 
on 10 Rabi c II 1115/21 August 1703, when the latter 
abdicated in consequence of a rising of the Janissa- 
ries. The leaders of this rising were soon got rid of 
by the new sultan on his immediate re-establishment 
of Istanbul as the habitual residence of the court; 
and for the next few years large numbers of persons 
known to have, or suspected of having, been im- 
plicated in it continued to be dismissed, banished, 
or executed, to the detriment of governmental 
efficiency. Ahmad's resolve to break the power of 
the soldiery was also shown by his dismissal from 
the palace service of 700 bostandiis and their replace- 
ment by dewshirme conscripts (this being the last 
application of the dewshirme), as well as by his 
later drastic reduction of the Janissary establish- 
ment. Nevertheless during the first half of his 
twenty-seven years' reign in particular he lived in 
a morbid dread of "revolutionaries" (fitnedjiler) ; for 
three years he was unable, though making four 
changes in the Grand Vizierate, to find a capable 
minister; and it was only with the appointment in 
Muharram 1118/May 1706 of Corlulu C A1I Pasha 
[q.v.] that the government regained some stability. 
During this period, and indeed for the following 
eight or nine years, his actions were largely influ- 
enced by a palace camarilla, headed by the Walide 
Sultan, the Kizlar Aghasi, and the sultan's favourite, 
later to be known as (Shehld) Silahdar Damad C A1I 
Pasha [q.v.]. The sultan and the camarilla were 
always uneasy at the appointment to the Grand- 
Vizierate of "outsiders" — i.e. persons not of the 
palace service, such as Koprulvi Nu'man Pasha (see 
below), and took fright at any initiative they might 
display. 

No event of much note occurred during the 
reign until July 1709, when, after being defeated 
by Tsar Peter the Great at Poltava, King Charles XII 
of Sweden, nicknamed in Turkish demir bash, "Iron 
Head", sought refuge at Bender on the Dniester in 
Ottoman territory. The Porte had so far made no 
attempt at profiting either by the preoccupation of 
Austria and the western powers with the War of 
the Spanish Succession to recover any of the territory 
lost to the sultan in 1699 by the Treaty of Carlo vitz, 
or by the preoccupation of Russia with the "Great 
Northern War" to nullify the concessions to the 
Tsar's Black-Sea ambitions agreed to in the Russo- 
Ottoman treaty of 1700. Charles, however, in order 
to retrieve his fortunes, soon began urging the 



sultan to take up arms against Peter, an action to 
which the Porte was also incited by successive 
ambassadors of Louis XIV and the Venetian 
representative at Istanbul, with the result that in 
June 1710 Corlulu 'AH, who had but recently 
renewed the Russian treaty, was dismissed, and 
that though his successor, Kopriilii [?.».] Nu'man 
Pasha, proving too independent for the taste of the 
camarilla, fell in turn two months later, his replace- 
ment in September by the pliant intriguer Baltadji 
Mehmed Pasha [see Muhammad Pasha], who had 
shown his incapacity when in office earlier, was 
followed on 20 Nov. by a a declaration of war, the 
main Ottoman grievances being the Tsar's con- 
struction of warships at Azov, his erection of a 
number of fortresses along the Ottoman frontiers, 
his interference with the Tatars subject to the 
Khan of the Crimea, and his incitement of the 
sultan's Orthodox subjects to disaffection. 

The opposed armies met only in July 171 1, after 
Peter had been enabled to overrun most of Moldavia 
owing to the treachery of the Hospodar Demetrius 
Cantemir [q.v.]. But by then he had run gravely 
short of food supplies and was surprised by the main 
Ottoman army when marching south along the 
Pruth with the intention of seizing Ibrall; was 
forced to retreat; and was eventually surrounded 
and obliged to sue for peace. A treaty was signed 
forthwith by which Peter agreed to retrocede Azov 
and raze the other objectionable fortresses, to 
interfere no further either with the Tatars or in the 
affairs of Poland, no longer to maintain an ambassa- 
dor at Istanbul, and to cease intriguing with the 
sultan's Orthodox subjects. Since, however, the 
Grand Vizier could have forced the Tsar to 
almost any concession, he fell under suspicion of 
having been bribed into the acceptance of such 
lenient terms and was dismissed three months later, 
largely as the result of further intrigues on the part 
of Charles, whose hopes had been disappointed by 
the treaty. Charles continued indeed for most of 
the next three years to incite the Porte to a renewal 
of hostilities, a task made easier by Peter's failure 
to observe his undertakings. Largely as a result of 
the king's efforts war on Russia was again actually 
declared no less than three times (in Dec. 1711, 
Nov. 1712 and April 1713), though it was always 
averted by Russian concessions. A final agreement 
with Peter was reached only in June 1713, with the 
signature at Adrianople of a treaty, to remain in 
force for twenty-five years, whereby the terms of 
the Treaty of the Pruth were confirmed and peace 
with Russia was in the event established for a long 
period. Charles, persisting in a refusal to quit 
Ottoman territory unless provided with money and 
troops with which to recover his losses in Poland, 
was at length, in the spring of 1714, removed forcibly 
from Bender to Demotika and then to Demirtash 
Pasha Sarayl near Adrianople, and was obliged in 
the autumn to return home with his Swedish troops 
via Wallachia, Transylvania and Hungary. 

Meanwhile, on 27 April 1713, Ahmad's favourite 
and son-in-law, Silahdar 'All Pasha, had been ap- 
pointed Grand Vizier himself; and it was by his 
policy that peace was thus re-established with 
Russia, so that the Porte might seek to regain what 
had been lost to Venice at Carlovitz. Venetian rule 
had proved exceedingly unpopular in the Morea, 
the Orthodox inhabitants of which had sent repeated 
appeals to the Porte for deliverance from their new 
masters. But a suitable pretext for war against the 
republic occurred only in 1714, when, after the 



) III 269 

suppression of a Russian-instigated rebellion in 
Montenegro, the Venetian government refused to 
extradite the Vladika and other eminent Mon- 
tenegrins who had sought refuge in Venetian territory. 
War was declared on 9 Dec. 1714 ; and in the following 
summer within two months (June-July) an Ottoman 
army under Silahdar 'All's own command, operating 
in conjunction with the sultan's fleet, reconquered 
the whole province with but little serious fighting, 
while the fleet also took the islands of Tenos, Aegina, 
Cerigo and Santa Maura, and reduced Suda and 
Spinalonga (in Crete), which had remained till then 
in Venetian hands. 

These Ottoman successes, and the possibility that 
Corfu and the Venetian possessions in Dalmatia 
might also fall into the sultan's grasp, alarmed 
Austria. In April 1716, accordingly, the Emperor 
Charles VI concluded a treaty of mutual assistance 
with Venice, and in June provoked the Porte by an 
ultimatum into a declaration of war. It opened with 
an unsuccessful attack by the Kapudan Pasha on 
Corfu; and this was followed in August by a rout at 
the hands of Eugene of Savoy near Peterwardein of 
the Ottoman main army commanded by Silahdar 
'All, who was mortally wounded on the field. Eugene 
followed up this victory with the reduction of 
Temesvar and the occupation of the Banat and 
Little Wallachia in the autumn ; and in the summer of 
1717 laid siege to Belgrade, where on 16 August he 
completely routed a superior Ottoman relieving 
force. The Belgrade garrison surrendered three days 
later, after which, though the Austrians failed in an 
attempt to overrun Bosnia, there was no fighting 
of importance. The Porte soon made proposals for 
an armistice; and peace was eventually signed, on 
21 July 1718, at Passarovitz (Pasarofca, Poiarevac), 
whereby Belgrade and the region about it, the 
Banat, and little Wallachia were ceded by the Porte 
to Austria, while the Morea, the Cretan ports and 
Tenos, as well as the south-eastern districts of the 
Hercegovina were ceded to the Porte by Venice, 
which for its part received Cerigo and the strongholds 
the Venetians had captured in Albania and Dal- 
matia. A commercial treaty further secured to 
Austrian and Venetian traders certain advantages 
they had not till then enjoyed. 

The Grand Vizier responsible for this treaty was 
another favourite of Ahmad's: Newshehirli Ibrahim 
Pasha [q.v.], who by marrying the sultan's thirteen- 
year-old daughter, Fatime Sultan, formerly the 
nominal wife of Silaljdar 'AH, had also become a 
ddmdd; and for the remaining twelve years of the 
reign, which with this entered upon its second phase, 
he entirely dominated the court. Ahmad was of a 
pleasure- and art-loving nature, and with Ibrahim, 
who shared his tastes, was able, as he had not been 
able with the warlike Silahdar, to indulge them and 
set new fashions for Ottoman society. The gradual 
abandonment of the dewshirme during the 17th 
century had led, with the occupation of the chief 
governmental posts by free-born Muslims, to a 
growth of interest among the powerful in the arts 
and learning, side by side with a decline in military 
and administrative efficiency. Moreover the Greek 
community of the Phanar quarter had at the same 
time acquired both a stronger influence than before 
in metropolitan society and some familiarity with 
contemporary western thought. In consequence the 
twelve years ensuing on the peace of Passarovitz 
witnessed a remarkable change of taste in poetry, 
music and architecture and a new inclination to 
profit hy European example. During this short 



period — known as Idle dewri, "the Age of Tulips", 
the cultivation of which became for some years a 
"craze", and the secular spirit of which is exemplified 
by the poet Nadlm [q.v.] in the verse "Let us laugh 
and play and enjoy the world!" — pavilions and 
gardens were more often built than mosques and 
mausoleums, and they were built to designs imported 
from the west. An ambassador accredited to Louis 
XV received specific instructions to study French 
institutions and report on those adaptable to Otto- 
man use; and in 1724 his son assisted Ibrahim 
Muteferrika [q.v.] to establish the first printing 
press in Istanbul. A French officer of Engineers was 
invited by the Porte to prepare plans for the reform 
of the army on western lines, while a French convert 
to Islam organized a fire service (the odfak of the 
tulumbadiis); and though the reform of the army 
came to nothing, the organization of the Admiralty 
was overhauled and the building of three-decker 
men-o'-war was undertaken for the first time. Some 
of the 'ulamd further founded a society for the 
translation of books (from Arabic and Persian) ; the 
export of rare manuscripts was prohibited for 
educational reasons; and no less than five libraries 
were founded at the capital, including the sultan's 
own Enderun-u Hiimayun Kiitub-khanesi, of which 
Nadlm was made curator. China factories at Kutahya 
and Izmid were revived and a new one founded at 
Tekfur Sarayl at Istanbul; extensive repairs to the 
Byzantine walls were carried out from 1722 to 1724; 
and a barrage was built to provide water for the 
capital from springs at Belgrade. The most notable 
extant architectural monuments of the period are 
the mosque built by Ahmad III for his mother at 
Oskudar and his ieshme outside the Bab-i Hiimayun 
of the Topkapl Sarayl, for which he composed the 
chronogram himself. 

It was Ibrahim Pasha's policy to avoid war. 
Nevertheless the Tulip Age saw the temporary 
extension of Ottoman rule over large tracts of 
western Persia. The decline of the Safawids and the 
Afghan invasion of their dominions, culminating in 
the capture of Isfahan in 1 135/1722, had plunged 
the country into a state of anarchy tempting to 
both Russia and the Porte. In 11 35/1723 Ottoman 
forces occupied Tiflls, and on Russia's seizing 
Darband and Baku in the same year, in 1724, after 
a period of tension during which a fresh war between 
Ahmad and the Tsar came near to breaking out, 
another Russo-Ottoman treaty was concluded, 
providing for a partition that should leave Peter in 
possession of Darband, Baku and Gilan and the 
sultan in that of Georgia, Eriwan, Shirwan, Adhar- 
baydjan and all Persian territory west of the line 
Ardabil-Hamadan. Ottoman forces in fact took 
over all this vast region, the Porte forming it into 
some ten new eydlets. But when in April 1725 the 
Afghan Ashraf proclaimed himself shah, he demanded 
the relinquishment of these conquests; and on the 
Porte's refusal eventually, in November 1726, de- 
feated Ahmad Pasha [q.v.] commanding the Ottoman 
forces in Persia. However, a year later Ashraf was 
obliged to make peace ; and the sultan's sovereignty 
over the conquered provinces was recognized. From 
then until 1730, accordingly, these regions formed 
part of the Ottoman Empire. But in 1729 Ashraf 
was overthrown by the future Nadir Shah, who in 
the following year also defeated the Ottomans and 
obliged them to relinquish all their gains. 

The result was a revolt of the people at Istanbul, 
to suppress which Ibrahim and the sultan hesitated 
until it was too late. The Muslims of the capital, 



though they had at first disapproved the Persian 
conquests, were now indignant at their loss. But 
Ibrahim Pasha was anxious to avoid further fighting 
and prepared for it only under pressure from public 
opinion; moreover he was already unpopular for 
the nepotism he practised to secure his own position 
and for the fiscal policy he had pursued; the new 
luxurious and "Frankish" manners of the court were 
disliked by the conservative and resented by the 
poor; and the project of army reform had alarmed 
the Janissaries. The leader of the revolt was a Janis- 
sary "affiliate", an Albanian, formerly a lewend 
and hence [cf. bahrivya] called Patrona Khalil. who 
acted under the influence of two disaffected 'ulama 
and with the approval of many Janissary officers. 
It began on 28 Sept. 1730; and in a few hours a 
partially armed crowd of thousands had gathered 
in the At Meydanl. Aljmad and Ibrahim were in 
camp at Oskudar; but on learning of the outbreak 
in the evening, they returned to the palace at night. 
For the next two days fruitless attempts were made 
to parley with the rebels, who demanded the delivery 
up to them of the Grand Vizier, the Shaykh al-Islam, 
the Kapudan Pasha, the Kahya Bey and others, 
till, during the night of 30 Sept., the sultan, finding 
no support in any of his troops, decided to sacrifice 
his favourite, whose corpse, together with those of 
the Kapudan and the Kahya, was brought out to 
them in the morning. Ahmad himself agreed to 
abdicate on condition that his own life and the lives 
of his sons should be spared, and was accordingly 
succeeded on 1 Oct./i8 Rabl c I 1143 by his nephew 
Mahmud I [q.v.]. He died, in the retirement that was 
henceforth his lot, in 1149/1736. 

Ahmad III was handsome of person and an 
accomplished calligraphist, letter-writer and poet. 
Though normally of a mild disposition, he was 
ruthless in the treatment of those whom he feared 
or who had incurred his displeasure. He had no taste 
for war, partly because of the expense it entailed; 
for he was exceedingly fond of money and applied 
himself to the accumulation of treasure. His love 
of amusement and display ran counter to this 
propensity. But Damad Ibrahim Pasha contrived 
to minister to both his avarice and his extravagance 
by increasing the revenues and curtailing other 
expenditure in ways that contributed to his un- 
popularity. Ahmad was greatly attached to his 
harem, to which he gave much of his attention, but 
he did not allow its members to influence public 
affairs as some of his predecessors had done. He had 
no less than thirty-one children; and his reign was 
consequently distinguished by frequent festivities 
to celebrate the circumcision of his sons and the 
marriage of his daughters, which lent it a special 
air of gaiety. 

Minor events of the reign were a revolt of the 
Muntafik [q.v.] Arabs in the neighbourhood of al- 
Basra in 1117/1705; the suppression of another Arab 
revolt in the same region in 1727-8; the affirmation 
of Ottoman sovereignty over certain areas of the 
Caucasus bordering on the Black Sea early in the 
reign; the conquest of Oran (Wahran) from Spain 
by Algerian forces in 1708; recurrent troubles in the 
Armenian millet occasioned by Jesuit propaganda 
(particularly in 1706-7 and 1727-8) ; and two in- 
surrections in Egypt (in 1712-3 and 1727-8). Succes- 
sive khans of the Crimea played a considerable part 
in the events of the period, more especially in the 
war with Russia, the khan Dewlet Giray [q.v.] in 
particular strongly supporting Charles XII in his 
anti-Russian schemes. During the war with Austria 



AHMAD III — AHMAD B. ABl KHALID al-AHWAL 



the Porte accepted an offer of assistance from 
Francis Rakoczy, the Prince of Transylvania, after 
the final failure of his attempts to secure the indepen- 
dence of Hungary, but he reached Istanbul too late 
to be made use of. Finally the treachery of Cantemir 
and his fellow-Hospodar of Wallachia during the 
campaign of the Pruth resulted in the appointment 
from 1716 onwards of Phanariote Greeks to the 
governorship of the Principalities. 

Bibliography: Mehmed Rashid, Ta'rikh, 
continued by Kiicuk Celebi-zade Isma'il 'Asim, 
Istanbul 1153, ii, iii and iv; Sari Mehmed Pasha, 
NasaHh ul-WUzera (ed. and transl. W. L. Wright, 
Ottoman Statecraft, Princeton 1935); Seyyid Mus- 
tafa, NetaHdj. ul-Wuku'dt, Istanbul 1327, iii, 19-32, 
70-1 ; Ahmed Wefik, Fedhleke-yi Ta'rikh-i'Othmdni, 
Istanbul 1286, 221-36; Ahmed Refik, On ikinci 
asri hicrtde Osmanli hayati, Istanbul 1930, parti- 
cularly documents 63, 68, 81, 87, 88, 90, 98, 121-4, 
128, 129, 153; idem, Ldle Devri, Istanbul 1932; 
Mehmed Thureyya, Sidjill-i 'Othmdni, i, 16-7, 
124, iii, 526, 528-9, iv, 568-9; Mehmed Ghalib. 
Shehid 'Alt Pasha, TOEM, i, 137; A. N. Kurat, 
Isvec Kirali XII KarVin Turkiyede etc., Istanbul 
1943; idem, Prut Seferi ve Barlsl, Istanbul 1951; 
E. Z. Karal, in I A, s.v. Ahmed III; Lady Mary 
Wortley-Montagu, Letters, London 1837, i, 334-ii, 
149; Hammer-Purgstall 1 , vii, 87-390; Zinkeisen, 
v, 418-638; N. Jorga, Gesch. d. Ott. Reiches, Gotha 
191 1, iv, 275-412; A. Vandal, Une Ambassadt 
Francaise en Orient sous Louis XV, Paris 1887; 
M. L. Shay, The Ottoman Empire from 1720 to 1734, 
Urbana 1944; B. H. Sumner, Peter the Great and 
the Ottoman Empire, Oxford 1949. — Concerning 
the treaty of Passarovitz: V. Bianchi (the Venetian 
plenipotentiary), Istorica relatione delta pace di 
Posaroviz, Padua 1719 ; G. Nouradoungian, Recueil 
d'actes international de I'empire ottoman, Paris 
1897, i, 61-2, 216-20; D. M. Pavlovid, Poierevaiki 
mir (i7i8g.), in Letopis malice srpske, Novi Sad, 
1901, no. 207, 26-47, no. 208, 45-80; Fr. von 
Kraelitz, Bericht iiber den Zug des Gross-Bot- 
scha/ters Ibrahim Pascha nach Wien im Jahre 1719, 
SBAk. Wien, 1908 (the Turkish text also reprinted 
by A. Kefik, in TOEM, 1332/1916, 211 ff.).— For 
the revolt of Patrona Khalil one of the main 
sources is the History of <Abdi Efendi [q.v.]. 



(H. : 



*N) 



AHMAD b. ABl BAKR [see muhtadjids]. 

AHMAD b. ABl DU'AD al-Iyadi, AbO 'Abd 
Allah, Mu'tazilite kadi born at Basra about 
160/776. Through his own merit and also, it is said, 
through the good offices of Yahya b. Aktham [q.v.], 
who introduced him to the Court at Baghdad, he 
reached a position of great honour under the Caliph 
al-Ma'mun, soon becoming one of the Caliph's 
closest friends. Shortly before his death, the Caliph 
recommended his brother and successor al-Mu c tasim 
to admit Ahmad, a fervent follower of the Mu'tazilite 
doctrine, to the circle oi his advisers, and as a result 
al-Mu<tasim, after his accession (218/833) made 
Ahmad his Chief Kadi. In the latter capacity he 
presided over cases heard before the court of inqui- 
sition which had been set up by al-Ma'mun after 
the elevation of Mu'tazilism to the status of the 
state religion [see mihna], and he consequently 
played an important part in the examination of 
Ahmad b. Hanbal [q.v.]. In the discharge of his 
duties he nevertheless displayed a tolerance and 
humanity unusual at that time. He retained his 
post under al-Wathik; at the death oi the latter 
several high officials and officers wished to place 



his son, a minor, on the throne, but at the instance 
of the commander of the Turkish guard, Waslf, the 
brother of the late Caliph, Dja'far, was proclaimed 
Caliph, and Ahmad himself gave him the title of 
al-Mutawakkil. The new Caliph, however, gradually 
adopted a hostile attitude towards the Mu'tazilites 
and established amicable relationships with the 
Sunnls, with the result that the Chief Kadi could not 
maintain his position of influence. A short while 
after the accession of al-Mutawakkil, he suffered an 
attack of apoplexy, and handed over his office to 
his son Abu 'l-Walld Muhammad, who had been his 
nd'ib since 218/833 (L. Massignon, in WZKM, 1948, 
107). The latter was dismissed in 237/851-2 and, 
with his brothers, thrown into prison, and all the 
property of Ibn Abi Du'ad was confiscated. The 
prisoners were eventually released, but Ahmad and 
his son did not long survive their disgrace; Muham- 
mad died at the end of 239/May-June 854, and his 
father three weeks later, in Muharram 240/June 854. 
Sunni writers naturally pass a severe judgement 
on Ahmad b. Abi Du'ad and, in the religious sphere, 
do not conceal their hostility towards him, but all 
recognize his great learning and magnanimity. 
Himself endowed with some poetic talent, he was 
courted by the poets of his own circle. He was the 
patron of various men of letters notably of al- 
Djahiz [q.v.], who dedicated to him inter alia his 
al-Bayan wa 'l-Tabyin, and addressed to him, either 
directly or through his son Abu 'l-Walld, risalas in 
which he dwelt at length on the details of Mu'tazilite 
doctrine, and furnished the Kadi with arguments 
with which to confront the Sunnls subject to his 
inquisition (on the relations between al-Djahiz and 
Ibn Abi Du'ad, see Ch. Pellat, in RSO, 1952, 55 ff.; 
idem, in AlEO, Algiers 1952, 302 ff. ; and idem, in 
Mash., 1953, 281 ff.). 

Bibliography: Tabari, iii, ii39ff.; Ibn al 
Athir, vi, 365 ff.; Ya'kubl ii, 569; Ibn jOiallikan, 
no. 31; al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Ta'rikh Baghdad, 
iv, 141; Ma'arri, Risdlat al-Ghu/rdn, Cairo 1950, 
435; 'AskalanI, Lisdn al-Mizdn, i, 171; Weil, 
Gesch. d. Chali/en, ii, 261 ff. 

(K. V. Zettersteen-Ch. Pellat) 
AHMAD b. ABl KHALID al-AHWAL, secre- 
tary to al-Ma'mun, was of Syrian origin and the 
son of a secretary of Abu 'Ubayd Allah. He took ad- 
vantage of his former connections with the Barmakids 
to enter the service of al-Fadl b. Sahl. Indeed the 
Barmakids were already under an obligation to his 
father, and he himself had managed to be of service 
to the disgraced Yahya. Apparently even before the 
capture of Baghdad he went to Khurasan and, as 
the result of a letter of recommendation which 
Yahya had given to him before his death, he was 
placed in charge of several diwans at Marw. After 
the return of the caliph to 'Irak, profiting by the 
support of Thumama b. Ashras, he assisted al-Hasan 
b. Sahl in the direction of the administration, and 
later replaced him. A man of doubtful integrity, 
easily corrupted, notorious for his greed and his 
harshness towards his subordinates, he was, never- 
theless, up to his death in 21 1/826-7, the right-hand 
man of al-Ma'mun. It is not possible, however, to 
state definitely whether he acquired the rank of 
wazir. Doubtless his ability was the reason why the 
Caliph, who was fully aware of his faults, still 
retained him in his service. 

He played an important part in the political 
intrigues which secured in 205/821 the nomination 
of Tahir b. al-Husayn, then governor of Baghdad, to 
the governorship of Khurasan in place of Ghassan b. 



AHMAD B. ABI KHALID al-AHWAL — AHMAD B. HANBAL 



272 

'Abbad. When Tahir asserted his independence in 

207/822, al-Ma'mun ordered his secretary to proceed 

at once to Khurasan and to bring back the governor 

whose loyalty he had guaranteed. Ahmad with much 

difficulty secured a respite of 24 hours, and, before 

his departure, the news of the death of jahir is 

said to have reached the city. Everything points 

to the fact that, as some chroniclers aver, Ahmad 

was privy to this sudden death. He secured the 

appointment of Tahir's son Talha as governor, but 

al-Ma'mun sent Ahmad himself to Khurasan to assist, 

or rather to keep watch on Talha. The secretary, 

furnished with military powers, penetrated on this 

occasion as far as Transoxania, and conquered Ushru- 

sana. Ahmad also used his influence to obtain a 

pardon for al-Ma 5 mun's uncle, Ibrahim b. al-Mahdl, 

who had laid claim to the throne and who had for 

several yfcars succeeded in eluding the caliph's police. 

Bibliography: Baladhuri, Futuh, 430-1; Ibn 

Tayfur, Ya'kubi, ii, Tabari, iii, indexes; Djah- 

shiyari, index and RAAD, xviii, 330; Mas'fidi, 

Tanbih, 351-2; Aghdni, Tables; Shabushti, Diyardt 

(<Awwad), 94-5 (cf. G. Rothstein, in Festschrift Th. 

Ndldeke, .i, 155-70); Tanukhl, Nishwdr, i, 211-5; 

Faradj, Cairo 1938, i, 74-5, ii, 30 (cf. D. Sourdel 

in Melanges Massignon); Ibn al-Athlr, vi, index; 

Ibn Khallikan, Cairo 1948, ii, 205. (D. Sourdel) 

AHMAD B. ABl TAHIR TAYFCR [see ibn abI 

AHMAD b. HABIT (rather than HS'it, if the 
position in the alphabetical order given to him by al- 
'Askalanl is taken into consideration), a theologian 
ranked among the Mu'tazilites ; he was the pupil of 
al-Nazzam [q.v.], and the teacher, in particular, of 
al-Fadl al-Hadathi. Nothing is known about his life, 
and only his "innovations" are partly known to us. 
His doctrine, evolved before 232/846-7, seems to 
differ from Mu'tazilite teaching on the following two 
fundamental dogmas, which are borrowed from 
systems alien to Islam but which, in the eyes of 
Ibn Habit, found justification in the Kur'an. (1) On 
the basis of Kur'an lxxix, 22 (23) ; ii, 210 (206) ; and v, 
no, he affirms the divinity of Jesus, from which 
heresiographers infer that, for him, the world has 
two creators, God and the Messiah. (2) He professes 
the doctrine of kurur, or the reincarnation of souls, 
sprung from the Universal Spirit, in forms which 
will be more beautiful or more ugly according to 
the merits they have acquired in their previous 
incarnation. This theory involves the existence of 
five stages: a place of damnation (Hell); a place of 
testing (this world); two places of relative reward; 
and, finally, Paradise, where the souls were created. 
According to Kur'an vii, 34 (32); x, 49 (50); xvi, 61 
(63), souls which have "filled to the brim the cup" 
of good or evil go eventually to Paradise or Hell. 
Ibn Habit, who accepts incarnation in animals, is 
obliged to concede its corollary, the doctrine of the 
taklif of animals, of their individual responsibility, 
which can be justified only if they have had prophetes 
to teach them; verses vi, 38; xvi, 68 (70) and xxxv, 
24 (22), enable him to put forward this opinion. The 
heresiographers, of course, have passed a severe 
judgement on this theologian, to whom they deny 
the name of Muslim. 

Bibliography: Pjahiz, ffayawdn', iv, 288, 
293 ff., v, 424; ShahrastanI, Milal (Cureton) 42 ff., 
trans. Haarbriicker, i, 61 ff .) ; Ibn Hazm, Fisal, iv, 
197 ff.; Baghdad!, Fark, 260; IdjI, Statio, 340; 
MakrizI, Khitat, ed. 1270, ii, 347; S. de Sacy, 
Druzes, xlii ff. ; 'Askalani, Lisan al-Mizdn, i, 148. 
(Ch. Pellat) 



AHMAD b. HANBAL, "the imam of Baghdad", 
celebrated theologian, jurist and traditionist 
(164-241/780-855), and one of the most vigorous 
personalities of Islam, which he has profoundly in- 
fluenced both in its historical development and its 
modern revival. Founder of one of the four major 
Sunni schools, the Hanbali, he was, through his 
disciple Ibn Taymiyya [;.v.] t the distant progenitor of 
Wahhabism, and has inspired also in a certain degree 
the conservative reform movement of the Salafiyya. 

1. Life. Ahmad b. Hanbal was an Arab, belonging 
to the Banu Shayban, of Rabi'a, who had played an 
active role in the conquest of al- c Irak and Khurasan. 
His family, first resident in Basra, moved to Marw 
with Ahmad's grandfather, Hanbal b. Hilal, 
governor of Sarakhs under the Umayyads and one 
of the early 'Abbasid propagandists. Ahmad was 
born in Rabl c ii 164/Dec. 780, a few months after 
his father Muhammad b. Hanbal, who was serving 
in the army of Khurasan, had removed to Baghdad, 
where he died three years later. Ahmad inherited, 
however, a small family estate which allowed him 
a modest but independent livelihood. After studying 
in Baghdad lexicography, jurisprudence and tradi- 
tion, he devoted himself from 179/795 to the study 
of tradition, in pursuit of which he made a series 
of journeys in al- c Irak, Hidjaz, Yaman, and Syria. 
His visits to Iran, Khurasan, and even to the distant 
Maghrib must be dismissed as legendary. Already 
in 183 he had visited Kufa. He stayed more frequently 
in Basra ; after a first visit in 186, he returned there in 
190, 194 and 200. He was more often still at Mecca, 
where he made the Pilgrimage on five occasions: in 
187, 191, 196, 197 (followed by a pious retreat 
(mudjawara) at Medina), and 198, followed by a 
second mudjawara into the year 199, after which 
he visited the traditionist <Abd al-Razzak at San'a' 
(Mandlbib, 22-3; Tardjama, 13-24). 

His studies of fifrh and hadith were made under a 
great many teachers, whose names have been 
preserved (Manaliib, 33-6; Tarijama, 13-24). At 
Baghdad he attended the courses of the kadi Abu 
Yusuf [q.v.] d. 182/798), by whom he was not 
profoundly influenced, and studied regularly under 
Hushaym b. Bashlr, a disciple of Ibrahim al-Nakha% 
from 179 to 183 (Mandltib, 52; Biddya, x, 183-4). 
His principal teacher thereafter was Sufyan b. 
c Uyayna (d. 198/813-4), the greatest authority of 
the school of the Hidjaz. Others of his more important 
teachers were 'Abd al-Rahman b. Mahdi of Basra 
(d. 198/813-4) and Waki c b.' al-Djarrah (d. 197/812-3) 
of Kufa. But, as Ibn Taymiyya noted (Minhddj 
al-Sunna, iv, 143), his juristic formation is due, 
above all, to the school of hadith and of the Hidjaz. 
He cannot therefore be regarded, as is sometimes 
done, simply as a disciple of al-Shafi c I, whose juridical 
work he knew, at least partially, but whom he 
seems to have met only once, at Baghdad in 195 
{Biddya, x, 251-5, 326-7). 

The policy adopted by the caliph al-Ma'mun, 
towards the end of his reign, under the influence of 
Bishr al-Marisi, of giving official support to the 
doctrine of the Mu'tazila [q.v.], inaugurated for Ibn 
Hanbal a period of persecution, which was to gain 
for him a resounding reputation [see al-ma'mOn, 
al-mihna]. Ibn Hanbal vigorously refused to accept 
the dogma of the creation of the Kur'an, contrary 
to orthodoxy. Al-Ma'mun, then at Tarsus, on 
hearing of this, ordered that Ibn Hanbal should 
be sent to him, together with another objector, 
Muhammad b. Nuh. They were put in chains 
and sent off, but shortly after leaving Rakka they 



AHMAD B. HANBAL 



received the news of the caliph's death. They were 
then sent back to Baghdad; Ibn Nuh died on the 
journey, and Ibn Hanbal, on arrival in the capital, 
was imprisoned first at the Yasiriyya, then in a 
house of the Dar 'Umara, and finally in the common 
prison of the Darb al-Mawsill (Mandkib, 308-317; 
Tardjama, 40-56; Bidaya, x, 272-280). 

The new caliph, al-Mu c tasim, though inclined to 
abandon the inquisition, was, it is said, persuaded 
by the MuHazilite kadi Ahmad b. Abi Du'ad of the 
danger to the authority of the State of surrendering 
a position now officially taken up. Ibn Hanbal was 
therefore summoned to appear before the caliph in 
Ramadan 219. Still stoutly refusing to acknowledge 
the creation of the Kur'an, he was severely beaten but 
permitted to return to his home after an imprison* 
ment of some two years in all. During the whole of 
al-Mu c tasim's reign he lived in retirement and disisted 
from giving lectures on Tradition. On the accession 
of al-Wathik (227/842), he attempted to resume his 
courses of lectures, but almost at once preferred to 
discontinue them, though not officially forbidden to 
give them, lest he should be exposed by further 
reprisals by the MuHazilite kadi. He continued 
therefore to remain in retirement, sometimes even 
(it is said) in hiding, in order to escape from his 
enemies (Mandkib, 348-9). 

With the reinstatement of Sunnism by al-Mutawak- 
kil on his accession in 232/847, Ibn Hanbal was able 
to resume his teaching activity. He does not, however, 
appear among the traditionists appointed by the 
caliph in 234 to oppose the Djahmiyya and the 
Mu'tazila (Mandkib, 356). The disappearance of the 
leading figures of the era of persecution opened the 
way to an association between the caliph and the 
independent-minded theologian. Ahmad b. Abi 
Du'ad was removed from office in 237/852, and his 
successor Ibn Aktham is even said, in certain tradi- 
tions, to have been recommended to the caliph by 
Ibn Hanbal (Bidaya, x, 315-6, 319-29). After a first 
unsuccessful approach to the court, the date and 
circumstances of which remain obscure (Mandkib, 
359-62), Ibn Hanbal was invited in 237 to Samarra 
by al-Mutawakkil. It appears that the caliph wished 
him to give lessons in hadith to the young prince 
al-Mu'tazz, and it may also be supposed that he 
had some idea of utilizing the famous theologian 
for his policy of restoration of the sunna. This 
journey to Samarra gave Ibn Hanbal the occasion 
for making contact with the personalities of the 
court, without danger of compromise. The extant 
narratives show him welcomed on his arrival by the 
hadjib Wasif, installed in the luxurious palace of 
Ttakh, loaded with gifts, presented to al-Mu'tazz, 
but eventually exempted, on his own request, from 
any special charge on account of his age and health. 
After a short stay, he returned to Baghdad without 
seeing the caliph (Mandkib, 372-8 ; Tardjama, 58-75 ; 
Bidaya, x 314, 316, 337-4o). 

Ahmad b. Hanbal died in Rabl c i 241/July 855, 
at the age of 75, after a short illness, and was buried 
in the Martyrs' cemetery (Makabir al-Shuhada') 
near the Harb gate. The traditions which surround 
the account of his funeral, although partly legendary 
in character, convey the impression of a genuine 
popular emotion, and his tomb was the scene of 
demonstrations of such ardent devotion that the 
cemetery had to be guarded by the civil authorities 
(Mandkib 409-18; Tardjama, 75-82; Bidaya, x, 
340-3). His tomb became one of the most frequented 
places of pilgrimage in Baghdad. In 574/1 178-9 the 
caliph al-Mustadl 1 furnished it with an inscription 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



glorifying the celebrated traditionist as the most 
faithful defender of the Sunna (Bidaya, xii, 300). 
It was washed away by a flood on the Tigris in the 
8th/i4th century (Le Strange, Baghdad, 166). 

By each of his two legitimate wives Ibn Hanbal 
had one son, Salih and c Abd Allah, besides six 
children by a concubine, who are not otherwise 
known (Mandkib, 298-306). Salih (born in Baghdad 
203/818-9, died as kadi of Isfahan 266/879-80) is said 
to have transmitted a large part of Ahmad's fikh 
(Tabakdt, i, 173-6). c Abd Allah (b. 213/828) was 
chiefly interested in hadith, and through him the 
major part of Ahmad's literary work was transmitted. 
He died in Baghdad in 290/903 and was buried in 
the Kuraysh cemetery, and to his tomb was trans- 
ferred the veneration enjoyed by that of his father 
when the latter was swept away (Tabakdt, i, 180-8). 
Both sons, who were closely associated with the 
intellectual life of their father, were amongst the 
chief architects of that collective structure which 
constitutes the Hanbali madhhab. 

2. Works. The most celebrated of Ibn Hanbal's 
works is his collection of traditions, the Musnad 
(1st ed., Cairo 1311; new edition by Ahmad Shakir 
in publ. since 1368/1948). Although Ahmad himself 
gave an exceptional importance to this work, it 
was his son c Abd Allah who collected and classified 
the enormous accumulation of material, and himself 
made some additions. His Baghdad disciple Abu Bakr 
al-l£atl c i (d. 368/978-9) transmitted this recension 
with some further additions. In this vast collection 
the traditions are classified not according to subjects, 
as in the $ahihs of al-Bukhari and Muslim, but under 
the names of the first guarantor; it thus consists of 
a number of particular musnads juxtaposed, and 
includes those of Abu Bakr, c Umar, c Uthman, C AH 
and the principal Companions, and ends with the 
musnads of the Ansar, the Meccans, the Medinians, 
the people of Kufa and Basra, and the Syrians. 

This order, though evidence of an effort of intel- 
lectual probity, made it difficult to use by those who 
did not know it by heart. It was therefore sometimes 
reshaped. In his K. fi Djam t al-Masdnid al-'Ashra 
the traditionist Ibn Kathlr classified, in alphabetical 
order of the Companions, the traditions contained 
in Ibn Hanbal's Musnad, in the "Six Books", al- 
TabaranTs Mu'djam and the Musnads of al-Bazzar 
and Abu Ya'la al-MawsUI (Shadharat, vi, 231). Ibn 
Zuknun (d. 837/1433-4; Shadharat, vii, 222-3) follows, 
in his A'. al-Dardri, the order of the chapters of 
al-Bukhari, and has the great merit of having in- 
serted among the hadlths which he quotes extracts 
from numerous Hanbali works, especially of Ibn 
Kudama, Ibn Taymiyya, and Ibn al-Uayyim. This 
voluminous compilation, preserved in the Zahiriyya 
in Damascus, has served as a mine for numerous 
editions of Hanbali texts in the last fifty years. 

Within the framework of Tradition, Ahmad b. 
Hanbal is to be regarded as an "independent 
mudjtahid" (mustakill), who as Ibn Taymiyya has 
remarked (Minhddj, iv, 143), was able, from amongst 
the mass of traditions and opinions received from 
many teachers, to form his own doctrine (ikhtdra 
li-nafsih). In no sense can he be regarded, in the 
manner of al-Tabari, as merely a traditionist, and 
nothing of a jurisconsult (fakih) concerned with 
normative rules. As already pointed out by Ibn 
'Akll, "certain positions adopted (ikhtiydrdt) by 
Ibn Hanbal are supported by him on traditions 
with such consummate skill as few have equalled, 
and certain of his decisions bear witness to a juridical 
subtlety without parallel" (Mandkib, 64-6). "Fol- 



AHMAD B. HANBAL 



lowers of tradition" (ashdb al-hadlth) must not be 
too systematically contrasted with "followers of 
opinion" (ashdb al-ra'y), since it is hardly possible 
to acquire an understanding of hadiths and to 
resolve their contradictions and divergences, or to 
deduce from them the consequences which may 
derive from them, without using a minimum of 
personal judgment. 

The two fundamental treatises for the study of 
Ibn Hanbal's dogmatic position are the short Radd 
'■ala'l-Diahmiyya wa'l-Zanddika and the K. al- 
Sunna (both printed together, Cairo n.d., a longer 
version of the K. al-Sunna in Mekka 1349). In the 
former of these, he expounds and refutes the 
doctrines of Djahm b. Safwan [f.v.]> whose ideas, 
widely circulated in Khurasan, were adopted by 
certain disciples of Abu Hanlfa and of 'Amr b. 
'Ubayd. In the K. al-Sunna he re-examines some of 
the theological questions already raised in the Radd 
and unequivocally defines his own position on all 
the principal points of his creed (cf. also Tabakat, i, 
34-36). Of his other surviving doctrinal works, the 
K. al-Saldt (Cairo 1323 and 1347), on the importance 
of the communal prayer and rules for its correct 
observance, was transmitted by Muhanna b. Yahya 
al-Shami, one of his early disciples, and extracted 
from the bio-bibliographical repertory of the kadi 
Abu '1-Husayn (Tabakat, >, 345-8o). Two unpublished 
MSS should be noted: the Musnad min MasdHl 
Ahmad b. Hanbal (B.M.; cf. Brock., S I, 311), 
transmitted by Abu Bakr al-Khallal, which may 
possibly be a fragment of the K. al-Qidmi' (see 
below) and is important for the study of Ibn 
Hanbal's politico-religious ideas; and the K. al-Amr, 
transmitted by Ghulam al-KhaUJU (MS Zahiriyya). 

In the K. al-Wara l (Cairo 1340; partial trans, by 
G.-H. Bousquet and P. Charles-Dominique in 
Hespiris, 1952, 97-112), there are to be found, in 
the form of roughly-classified notes, the opinions of 
Ibn Hanbal on certain cases where scrupulosity 
(wara 1 ) seems necessary in his view. Their reporter, 
Abu Bakr al-Marwazi, has added the opinions of 
other doctors on the same or related subjects, with 
the apologetic object, it seems, of showing that Ibn 
Hanbal's teaching in the matter of pious scruples, 
the ascetic life and devotion, can be compared with 
advantage to that of his contemporaries Ibrahim b. 
Adham, Fudayl b. <Iyad, or Dhu'1-Nun al-Misri. 
This work, it has been noted (cf. Abd al-Jalil, 
Aspects intirieurs de I'Islam, 228, n. 193), is exten- 
sively quoted by Abu Talib al-Makk! in Kit al- 
Kulub, and taken up again by al-Ghazali in Ihyd' 
<Ulum al-Din. 

The Mas&'il. Ahmad b. Hanbal was constantly 
consulted on questions (masd'il) of all sorts relating 
to dogmatics, ethics or law. Although he may not 
have prohibited the writing down of his opinions 
as formally as certain traditions assert, it is certain 
that he warned his questioners against the danger 
of a codifying of his thought (tadwin al-ra'y) which 
might then replace the principles of conduct traced by 
the Kur'Snand theSunna; he himself, in contrast to 
al-Shafi'i, never sought to present it systematically as 
a body of doctrine. The fundamental purpose of his 
teaching is to be seen as a reaction against the codi- 
fication of the tikh. Since primitive Muslim law was 
a doctrine of essentially oral transmission, which 
on a common substructure left a wide latitude to 
individual variations, any systematic codification, 
such as to impose it in the terms of thought of any 
particular representative or to congeal it by fixation, 
was to change its inner character. 



The written redaction of his responsa and their 
classification under the general headings of the 
tikh was the work of Salih and <Abd Allah and of 
the following other disciples of Ibn Hanbal: 
1) Ishak b. Mansur al-Kawsadj (d. 251/865-6;' Tab., i, 
1 13-5); 2) Abu Bakr al-Athram (d. 260/873-4 or 
273/886-7; i, 66-74); 3) Hanbal b. Ishak (d. 273; i, 
143-5); 4) <Abd al-Malik al-Maymuni (d. 274/887-8; 
i, 212-6); 5) Abu Bakr al-Marwazi (d. 275/888-9; 
i, 56-63) ; 6) Abu Da'ud al-Sidjistani (d. 275 ; i, 156-63 ; 
printed in Cairo, 1353/1934); 7) Harb al-Kirmanl 
(d. 280/873-4; i, 145-6); 8) Ibrahim b. Ishak al- 
Harbi (d. 285/898-9; i, 86-93). There are also other 
collections, and in addition the Tabakat of Ibn AM 
YaMa contains the replies given by Ibn Hanbal to 



These dispersed materials were assembled in the 
K. al-Di&mi 1 li- l Uliim al-lmdm Ahmad, by a 
disciple of Abu Bakr al-Marwazi, the traditionist 
Abu Bakr al-Khallal (d. 31 1/923-4), who taught at 
Baghdad in the mosque of al-Mahdi (Tab., ii, 12-15; 
Ta'rikh Baghdad, v, 112-3). Al-Khallal's role has 
been well appreciated by Ibn Taymiyya, who says 
(K. oilman, 158) that his K. al-Sunna is the fullest 
possible source for a knowledge of Ibn Hanbal's 
dogmatic views (usul diniyya), and his K. fi'l-'Ilm 
the most valuable repository for the study of law 
(usul fikhiyya) ; these are no doubt subdivisions, 
or a rehandling, of K. al-Diami l . According to 
Ibn Kayyim al-Djawziyya (I l lam al-MuwakkiHn, 
Cairo, i, 31), the K. al-Didmi c consisted of twenty 
volumes. To our present knowledge, the work is 
lost, except for the fragment referred to above; but 
as it has entered deeply into the output of Ibn 
Taymiyya and Ibn Kayyim, the study of these two 
writers may partially ' compensate for its loss in 
assisting an evaluation of Ibn Hanbal's thought. 

Al-Khallal's work was completed by his disciple 
'Abd al-'AzIz b. Dja'far (d. 363/973-4), better 
known as Ghulam al-Khallal, who did not always 
accept his master's interpretations of Ibn Hanbal's 
thought, and whose Zad al-Musdfir, though less 
important than the Diami 1 . presents a body of 
supplementary materials often consulted. The 
divergences which this Corpus has allowed to remain 
in the exposition of Ibn Hanbal's thought explain 
why the Hanballs distinguish between the text 
(nass) of the founder of the school, the teachings 
ascribed to him (riwdydt), the indications {tanbihdt) 
suggested by him, and what are simply points of 
view (awdjdh) of his disciples. 

Ibn al-Diawzi (Mandkib, 191) cites aTa/sirbased 
upon 120,000 hadiths, and other works now lost. 
See also Brockelmann, I, 193; S I, 309-10. 

3. Doctrine. Hanbalism has sometimes suffered 
from a slightly fanaticized turbulence among certain 
of its followers, or an extravagant literalism adopted 
by others through ignorance or as a challenge. It 
has been exposed throughout its history to numerous 
and powerful opponents in the various schools 
whose principles it opposed, who, when they did 
not deliberately disregard it, have united to attack 
it or to muffle it with insidious suspicions. Western 
orientalism has taken little interest in it, and has 
been no less severe. It has become the received 
opinion to see in Ibn Hanbal's doctrine a ferociously 
anthropomorphist theodicy, a traditionalism so 
sectarian as to be no longer viable, a spirit of 
frenzied intolerance, a fundamental lack of social 
adjustment, and a kind of permanent inability to 
accept the established order. A direct study of his 
works shows that it is not in these summary judg- 



ments that the governing objectives of his teaching 
are to be sought. 

The Attributes of God. For Ibn Hanbal, God is the 
God of the Kur'an: to believe in God is to believe in 
the description which God has given of Himself in 
His Book. Not only, therefore, must the attributes 
of God, such as hearing, sight, speech, omnipotence, 
will, wisdom, etc., be affirmed as realities (hakk), 
but also all the terms called "ambiguous" (muta- 
shabih) which speak of God's hand, throne, omni- 
presence, and vision by the Believers on the day of 
resurrection. In conformity with tradition, also, it 
must be affirmed that God descends to the lowest 
heaven in the last third of every night to hearken 
to the prayers of his worshippers, and at the same 
time, with the literal text of the Kur'an (cf. sura 
cxii), that God, the Unique, the Absolute, is not 
comparable to anything in the world of His creatures 
(K. al-Sunna, 37; Mandkib, 155). Ibn Hanbal there- 
fore vigorously rejects the negative theology (ta'(il) 
of the Djahmiyya and their allegorizing exegesis 
(ta'wti) of the Kur'an and of tradition, and no less 
emphatically rejects the anthropomorphism (tashbih) 
of the Mushabbiha, amongst whom he includes, in 
the scope of his polemics, the Djahmiyya as uncon- 
scious anthropomorphists. In the fideism of Ibn 
Hanbal, one must believe in God without seeking 
to know the "mode" of the theologoumena {bild kayf), 
and leave to God the understanding of his own 
mystery, renouncing the vain and dangerous subt- 
leties of dogmatic theology (kaldm) (K. al-Sunna, 37 ; 
Mandkib, 155-6). So simple, and at the same time 
so strong, was this position from the Kur'anic angle, 
that al-Ash'ari, on abandoning Mu'tazilism, seeks, 
either for tactical reasons or in sincere acceptance, 
to place himself under the patronage of Ibn Hanbal 
before making certain concessions to his former 
credo, concessions successively enlarged by his 
disciples, on the problem of the attributes, the 
Kur'an, and the legitimacy of dogmatic theology. 

The Kur'an. The Kur'an is the uncreated Word 
of God (kalam Allah ghayr makhluk). To affirm 
simply that the Kur'an is the Word of God, without 
further specification, is to refuse to take up a position, 
and to fall into the heresy of the wakifiyya, the 
"Abstentionists", which, because of the doubt 
which it inspires, is a graver sin than the more open 
heresy of the Djahmiyya (A'. al-Sunna, 37-8). By 
Kur'an is to be understood, not just an abstract idea, 
but the Kur'an with its letters, words, expressions, 
ideas — the Kur'an in all its living reality, whose 
nature in itself eludes our understanding. 

The Pronunciation of the Kur'an. It is difficult to 
define Ibn HanbaPs position on this question. Some 
traditions assert that he regarded its pronunciation 
as uncreated (lafzi bi'l-Kur'dn ghayr makhluk). In 
K. al-Sunna (38) he goes no further than to say: 
"Whoso asserts that our words, when we recite the 
Kur'an, and that our reading of the Kur'an are 
created, seeing that the Kur'an is the Word of God, 
is a pjahml". While formally condemning the 
lafziyya, who held the pronunciation of the Kur'an 
to be created, he gives no more positive formulation 
of his own doctrine, to the embarrassment of the 
later Hanbalis. Ibn Taymiyya regards this question 
as the first on which a real division existed among 
the Ancients (cf. H. Laoust, Essai sur . . . Ibn 
Taymiyya, 172) and states that Ibn Hanbal avoided 
taking up a position. He himself gives, in al- 
Wdsifiyya, the cautious formula which appears to 
him to be in conformity with the spirit of Hanbal- 
ism: "When men recite the Kur'an or write it on 



HANBAL 275 

leaves, the Kur'an remains always and in reality the 
Word of God. A word cannot in fact be really attri- 
buted except to the one who first formulated it, and 
not to anyone who transmits or carries it." 

Methodology. Ibn Hanbal, unlike al-Shafi% wrote 
no treatise on ethico-juristic methodology (usul al- 
fikh), and the well-known later works of his school, 
composed with elaborate technique and in an 
atmosphere of discussion with other schools, cannot 
be accepted as rigorously expressing his thought. 
His own doctrine, as it may be elucidated from the 
Masd'il, is more rudimentary than the later elabora- 
tions, but has the merit of setting out the first 
principles of the methodology of the school. 

Kur'an and Sunna. This doctrine claims to rest 
above ail on the Kur'an, literally understood, 
without any allegorical exegesis, and on the Sunna, 
i.e. the total of traditions which can be regarded as 
deriving from the Prophet. From his own statement 
(Musnad, i, 56-7), Ibn Hanbal aimed to collect in 
his Musnad the hadiths generally received (mashhur) 
in his time. In this work , therefore, there are found, 
to use his own terminology, hadiths whose authenti- 
city is properly established and which may be 
regarded as perfectly sound (sahih), and hadiths 
which benefit only from a presumption of authenti- 
city and for whose rejection (as 4a l if) there is no 
positive reason, or, to use the classification esta- 
blished by al-Tirmidhl, sound hadiths and "good" 
(hasan) hadiths. It was only much later, when the 
criticism of Tradition had reached, with Ibn al- 
Djawzl, the climax of formalist rigour, that Ibn 
Hanbal was reproached with admitting apocryphal 
(mawdu c ) hadiths — an accusation contested by many 
traditionists, as, for example, Ibn Taymiyya and 
Ibn Hadjar al-'Askalanl. The opinion which has 
come to prevail is that in the Musnad there are 
found, along with "sound" traditions, "good" or 
"rare" (gharib) traditions, none of which, however, 
are strictly speaking unacceptable. 

The Fatawa of the Companions and Idjma'. 
Kur'an and Sunna find their continuation in a third 
source, derived and complementary: the consulta 
(fatawa) of the Companions. The reasons which, for 
Ibn Hanbal, sustain the legitimacy of this new 
source of doctrine, are clear: the Companions knew, 
understood, and put into practice the Kur'an and 
the Sunna much better than later generations, and 
all of them are worthy of respect. The Prophet also, 
in his wasiyya, had recommended the Muslims to 
follow, together with his own Sunna, that of the 
"rightly-guided" (rdshidun) caliphs who should 
succeed him, and to avoid all innovation (bid'a). 
Where the Companions disagree, it is easy to deter- 
mine the juster view by reference to the Kur'an and 
the Sunna, or by taking into account their order of 
pre-eminence (Mandkib, 161). 

In hierarchical order (tafdil), Ibn Hanbal puts 
Abu Bakr first, then 'Umar, then the six ashdb al- 
shurd appointed by c Umar "all of \ whom were 
worthy of the caliphate and merit the title of imam": 
'Uthman, <Ali, Zubayr, Talha, <Abd al-Rahman b. 
<Awf, and Sa c d b. AM Wakkas; then the fighters at 
Badr, the Muhadjirs and the Ansar (K . al-Sunna, 38 ; 
Mandkib, 159-61). This doctrine of Sunni reconcili- 
ation acknowledges the eminent position of 'Ali and 
the legitimacy of his caliphate, but also rehabilitates 
his enemies, and in the first place Mu'awiya, whose 
historical role in the consolidation of Islam has 
always been indulgently evaluated in the Hanball 
school, and whose decisions are not necessarily to 
be discarded. 



AHMAD b. HANBAL 



The decisions of the most authorized representa- 
tives of the later generations (tdbi'-un) also deserve 
to be taken into consideration as evidence of plau- 
sible interpretations. The consensus of the Commu- 
nity, in such a doctrine, expresses a general con- 
centration around a truth founded on IJur'an and 
Sunna; it does not constitute in itself, properly 
speaking, an independent source of law. A community 
may well fall into error collectively, if not guided by 
the light of revelation transmitted by the Tradition 
(cf. Essai, 239-42). 

Function of the mufti. The first duty laid upon 
the jurisconsult is to follow faithfully the spiritual 
legacy transmitted by the Elders, by avoiding any 
spirit of creation or innovation. Ibn Hanbal therefore 
condemns ra'y, the gratuitous expression of personal 
opinion (Abu Da'ud, MasaHl, 275-7), but without 
requiring as a rule of conduct an absolute and 
impossible passivity in face of the texts. He does not 
reject analogical reasoning {friyas), but does not 
fully appreciate its value as an instrument of juridical 
systematization and discovery, as Ibn Taymiyya 
and Ibn Kayyim were to do later, under intellectua- 
lizing influences. 

Ibn Hanbal made an extensive use of istishdb, a 
method of reasoning which consists in maintaining 
a given juridical status so long as no new circum- 
stance arises to authorize its modification, and of 
dhardH', another method of reasoning to the effect 
that, when a command or prohibition has been 
decreed by God, everything that is indispensable to 
the execution of that order or leads to infringement 
of that prohibition must also, as a consequence, be 
commanded or prohibited. — The notion of maslaha, 
or recognized common interest, which allows the 
limitation or extension of a juridical status, is also in 
conformity with his doctrine, although he did not 
himself extend and regulate its use as Ibn Taymiyya 
and his disciple al-Tufi were to do. 

To repeat a comparison of Ibn Rayyim's, which 
seems to us to characterize very successfully the 
double care for tradition and for realism shown by 
Ibn Hanbal: the mufti, like the physician who must 
adapt his treatment to the state of his patient, must 
make a constant personal effort (idftihdd) to draw 
from the sources of the law the moral prescriptions 
which should be applied to a given case. Thus, if 
the great Hanballs have never called for the reopening 
of id±tihad, it is because they have held that its 
continual use was indispensable to the under- 
standing and application of legal doctrine. 

The Caliphate and the Arabs. Ibn Hanbal's political 
views, directed essentially against the Kharidjites 
and the Shi'ites (rawdfid) affirm first and foremost 
the legitimacy of the Rurayshite caliphate: "No 
person has any claim to contest this right with them, 
or to rebel against them, or to recognize any others 
untU the Day of Resurrection" (K. al-Sunna, 35). 
In the quarrel of races {shu'ubiyya) which was 
raging in his time, he defended the Arabs, but 
without proclaiming their superiority: "We must 
give the Arabs credit for their rights, their merits, 
and their former services. We must love them, by 
reason of the very love which we bear for the Apostle 
of God. To insult the Arabs is hypocrisy; to hate 
them is hypocrisy" (ibid., 38) — hypocrisy because, 
behind the insults or the hatred, there was con- 
cealed a more secret aim, to destroy Islam by 
reviving the ancient empires or reinstating other 
forms of culture. 

On the precedents furnished by Abu Bakr and 
'Umar, Ibn Hanbal founded the legality of a caliph's 



designation of his successor, but any such designation, 
to become effective, should be followed by a contract 
(mubdya'a) in which the imam and the authorized 
representatives of public opinion swear to mutual 
fidelity in respect for the Word of God (cf. Essai, 
287). His view of the functions of the imam follows 
the general lines of the legal expositions, but leaves 
to the imam, within the framework of the prescrip- 
tions of the Kur J an and the Sunna, a wide freedom 
of action to take, for the common good {maslaha), 
all the measures which he considers necessary to 
improve the material and moral conditions of the 
community. In this lies the germ of that important 
concept of "juridical policy" (siydsa sharHyya), 
which was methodically taken up by Ibn c Akil, Ibn 
Taymiyya and Ibn Rayyim al-Djawziyya. 

The members of the community owe obedience to 
the imam and may not refuse it to him by disputing 
his moral quality. "The djihdd should be pursued 
alongside all imams, whether good men or evildoers ; 
the injustice of the tyrant or the justice of the just 
matters little. The Friday prayer, the Pilgrimage, 
the two Feasts should be made with those who 
possess authority, even if they are not good, just 
or pious. The legal alms, the tithe, the land taxes, 
the fay', are due to the amirs, whether they put 
them to right use or not" {K. al-Sunna, 35). If the 
ruler seeks to impose a disobedience to God (ma l siya), 
he must be met on this point with a refusal to obey, 
but without calling for an armed revolt, which 
cannot be justified so long as the imam has the 
prayer regularly observed. But every member of 
the community has also the duty, according to his 
knowledge and his means, of commanding to the 
good and prohibiting the evil. By their apostolate, 
therefore, the doctors of the law, while remaining 
within the limits of loyalty, may revive the Sunna, 
keep public opinion vigilant, and impose on the 
prince respect for the prescriptions of religion. 

The Spirit of Community. Ibn Hanbal's policy is 
one of communal concentration and confessional 
solidarity; to the fitna, disunity, which weakens the 
community, he opposes the concept of djamd'a, of 
group unity and cohesion. He goes so far as to adopt, 
on the problem of excommunication (takfir), an 
attitude of tolerance which links up with the 
laxism of the Murdji'a. One may not exclude from 
the community, he states, any Muslim guilty of a 
grave sin except on the authority of a hadith which 
must be interpreted with a restrictive literalism 
{K. al-Sunna, 35-6). He cites only three sins which 
involve excommunication: non-observance of prayer, 
consumption of fermented liquors, and spreading of 
heresies contrary to the dogmas of Islam, among 
which he mentions none but the Djahmiyya and 
the Kadariyya. As to excommunication properly 
speaking, he replaces it by a systematic refusal to 
associate with the heretical within the bosom of 
the community. "I do not like (he wrote) that 
prayer should be made behind innovators, nor that 
the prayer for the dead should be said over them" 
{K. al-Sunna, 35-6). 

Ethics. Ibn Hanbal's doctrine is entirely dominated 
by ethical preoccupations. The end of action is to 
serve God (Hbada). In opposition to the Djahmiyya 
and the Murdji'a, he asserted that faith (al-imdn) 
"is word, act, intention, and attachment to the 
Sunna" (K. al-Sunna, 34). It may therefore vary in 
intensity, "increase or diminish", and it implies so 
total an engagement of the being that no man may 
possibly call himself a Believer without making his 
affirmation in a conditional form {istithnd > ), by 



AHMAD B. HANBAL — AHMAD B. 'ISA 



277 



adding "if God wills". Faith is, therefore, not a 
simple body of rites, but implies a whole system of 
strong moral convictions: an absolute sincerity 
brought to the service of God (ikhlds) ; renunciation 
of the world, with refinement of feeling and a spirit 
of poverty (zuhd, fikr); a moral courage which lies 
in "relinquishing what one desires for what one 
fears" (futuwwa); fear of God; a scrupulous mind, 
which leads one to avoid dubious things (shubuhdt) 
between the two well-marked limits of the licit and 
:he illicit (cf. Mandkib, 194-269). Ibn Hanbal's 
relief has, therefore, nothing of a pedantic juristic 
literalism. 

Religious practices and Customs. This is not the 
place in which to analyse in detail the juridico- 
moral prescriptions which constitute the applied 
doctrine of Ibn Hanbal (/«r« c ) in the two domains 
which come within this discipline: that of religious 
practices (Hbdddt) and that of usages and customs 
('dddt, mu'dmaldt). The methodical exposition of 
them contained in al-Mukhtasar of al-Khirakl does 
no more than reproduce single opinions of Ibn 
Hanbal and presents a restrictive codification of his 
thought. The same is to be said of the 'Urnda of 
Ibn Kudama, precious as it may be for a knowledge 
of Hanbalism in the 7th/i3th century. (See Laoust, 
Pricis de droit d'Ibn Qudama, Damascus 1950.) 

But there is one very important rule which Ibn 
Taymiyya has brought out and which seems to us 
characteristic of primitive Hanbalism: nothing is to be 
regarded as imposing social obligations but the reli- 
gious practices which God has explicitly prescribed; 
inversely, nothing can be lawfully forbidden but the 
practices which have been prohibited by God in the 
Kur'an and the Sunna. This is the dual principle 
which Ibn Taymiyya resumes in the formula: 
tawkif fi 'l-Hbadat wa-'afw fi 'l-mu'amaldt, i.e. the 
most rigorous strictness in regard to religious obli- 
gations and a wide tolerance in all matters of usage 
(cf. Essai, 444). A wide liberty should therefore 
be left to both parties in drawing up the conditions 
of a contract, especially in regard to transactions, 
in which no stipulations can be nullified except 
those contrary to the formal interdiction in the 
Kur'an and the Sunna of speculation (maysir) and 
usury (ribd). In the Kitdb al- Sunna (38), Ibn Hanbal, 
reacting against al-Muhasibl, regards the free 
pursuit of an honest profit as an obligation of 
religion. , 

On the other hand, in the domain of religious 

practices those alone are lawful which are prescribed 

by the Kur'an and the Sunna, and only in the manner 

in which they are prescribed. The rigorism of the 

Hanbal] school is to be explained less by the spirit 

of devotion and of attention to detail which it seeks 

to bring to the performance of religious duties, 

than by its refusal to recognize any legal value to 

forms of worship introduced by the idjtihad of 

ascetics or mystics, or even by the arbitrary decision 

of the administrative authorities. This attitude of 

hostility to innovations (bid'a) — vestiges of paganism, 

inventions of later generations, or infiltrations from 

foreign civilizations — showed itself with especial 

violence in al-Barbahari and the early Wahhabiyya. 

Bibliography: (a) Biography: a chapter 

in Abu Bakr al-Khallal's (d. 31 1/923-4) history of 

Hanbalism, of which a few pages are preserved in 

the £ahiriyya in Damascus; the monograph of 

Abu Bakr al-Bayhakl (d. 458/1065-6), of which 

large extracts are quoted in Ibn KaUjIr, Biddya, 

x, 234-43. (A biography is also attributed to al- 

Harawl, d. 481/1087-8.) Two extensive biographies: 



Ibn al-PJawzi, Mandkib al- 1 mam Ahmad b. Hanbal, 
Cairo 1349/1931; Dhahabi, excerpt from his great 
history, ed. separately by A. M. Shakir, Tardiamai 
al-lmam Ahmad, Cairo 1365/1946 (reprinted in 
vol. i of the Musnad); they contain abundant 
documentation going back to Ibn Hanbal's sons 
and first disciples, but are in the first instance 
laudatory biographies and often lack precision 
in chronology, (b) Works: mentioned in the 
article, (c) Studies: W. M. Patton, Ahmed ibn 
Hanbal and the Mihna, Leiden 1897; I. Goldziher, 
Zur Geschichte der hanbalitischen Bewegungen, 
ZDMG, 1908, 1-28; idem, in EI 1 ; Muhammad 
Abu Zuhra, Ibn Hanbal, Cairo 1949. 

(H. Laoust) 
AHMAD b. IDRlS, Moroccan sharif and 
mystic, a disciple of c Abd al- c Aziz al-Dabbagh, 
the founder of the Khadiriyya order, himself 
founded a religious congregation, the Idrlsiyya, in 
'Aslr, where in 1823, he initiated the founder of the 
Sanusiyya [?.».]. He died in Sabya ('Aslr) in 1253/ 
1837, after founding a kind of semi-religious and 
semi-military state, the two last heads of which 
were his great-grandson Sayyid Muhammad b. C AH 
b. Muh. b. Ahmad (1892-1923), and the latter's 
son 'Ali (from 1923), who was forced to submit to 
Sa'udl Arabia by a pretectorate agreement, nego- 
tiated by the Sanusi leader Ahmad Sharif [see 
IdrIsIs]. 

The Idrlsiyya order is at present strongly repre- 
sented in former Italian Somaliland (Merca), in 
PJibuti, among the Banu c Amir (Khatmiyya) in 
Eritrea, and among the Gallas (where their missionary, 
Nur Husayn, enjoys great veneration). The Idrlsiyya 
order maintains fraternal relations with the other 
congregations derived from the Khadiriyya, parti- 
cularly the Mirghaniyya of the Sudan. 

Bibliography: Awrdd, Abzab, wa-Rasd'il, lith. 
Cairo 1318; Nallino, Scritti, ii, 387 f., 397 f., and 
especially 403-7; Annuaire du Monde Musulman', 
1954, 27, 380, 385. 387, 392-3; c Abd al-Wasi c b. 
Yahya al-Wasi'i al-Yamani, Ta'rtkh. al-Yaman, 
Cairo 1346, 338-43- (L. Massignon) 

AHMAD B. 'ISA B. Muy. B. <AlI b. al-'ArId 
b. Pja'far al-Sadiu (the great-grand-son of C AU), 
called al-Muhadjir "the Emigrant", saint and 
legendary ancestor of the Hadrami sayyids. He left 
Basra in 317/929 accompanied by Muhammad b. 
Sulayman (alleged ancestor of the Banu Ahdal [?.«.]) 
and Salim b. 'Abdallah (ancestor of Banu Kudaym), 
was prevented from visiting Mecca until next year 
by Abu Tahir al-Karmati's occupation and settled 
with his companions in Western Yaman (region of 
Surdud and Saham). In 340/951 he ieft with his son 
c Ubayd Allah for Hadramawt, and lived at first 
near Tarim in al-HadJaren, then in Karat Bard 
PJushayr and finally in Husayyisa, where he bought 
the territory of Sawf above the town of Bawr and 
where, after vigorously supporting the cause of the 
Sunna against the heresies of the Khawaridi and 
Ibadiyya he died in 345/956 (according to al-Shilll). 
His grave and that of Ahmad b. Muhammad al- 
Habshi in Shi'b Mukhaddam (Shi c b Ahmad) outside 
Husayyisa are visited by pilgrims. His grandsons 
Basri, Djadid, and c AlawI settled in Sumal, six miles 
from Tarim. Since 521/1127 this town is the centre 
of the (Ba) c Alawi [q.v.] family in its wider sense, i.e. 
the offspring of the c AlawI mentioned above. 

For another Ahmad b. 'Isa, c Amud al-DIn, 
ancestor of the Hadrami family al- c AmudI, see 
v. d. Berg, Hadhramout, 41, 85. 



278 



AHMAD B. 'ISA — AHMAD B. JOlON 



Bibliography: L. W. C. van den Berg, Le 
Ifadhramout, 1886, 50, 85 ; F. Wiistenfeld, QufiUn, 
2 ff. ; al-Shilli, al-Mashra' al-Rawi /» Manakib Bani 
'Alawi, 1319, i, 32 f., 123 ff. ; C. Landberg, tfadra- 
mout, 450; Zambaur, Manuel, Tabl. E. 

(O. Lofgren) 
AHMAD b. KHALID [see ahmad al-nasirI]. 
AHMAD B. MUHAMMAD B. <Abd al-Samad 
Abu Nasr, vizier of the Ghaznawid Mas'ud b. 
MahmGd (after the death of his celebrated predecessor 
al-Maymandl (423/1032). He began his career as 
steward (katkhuda) of Kh w arizm Shah Altuntash, and 
having become the vizier of Mas'ud he managed to 
retain this office during the latter's reign. After the 
defeat at Dandanakan, Mas'ud, who himself retired 
to India, sent him as attendant of his son Mawdud 
to Balkh in order to defend this city against the 
Saldjuks. Also after the accession of Mawdud (432/ 
1041) he officiated for some time as vizier until 
al-Maymandi's son received that office. The year of 
his death is unknown. 

Bibliography : Bayhaki (Morley); Ibn al-Athlr, 
ix; De Biberstein-Kazimirski, Diwan Menoutchehri, 

AHMAD b. MUHAMMAD 'IRFAN [see ahmad 

BRELWl]. 

AHMAD b. MUHAMMAD al-MAN$UR [see 

AHMAD AL-MANSUR]. 

AHMAD B. SAHL b. Hashim, of the aristocratic 
dihkan family Kamkariyan (who had settled near 
Marw), which boasted of Sasanian descent, governor 
of Khurasan. In order to avenge the death of 
his brother, fallen in a fight between Persians and 
Arabs (in Marw), he had under 'Amr b. al-Layth 
stirred up a rising of the people. He was taken 
prisoner and brought to Sistan, whence he escaped 
by means of an adventurous flight, and after a new 
attempt at a rising in Marw he fled for refuge to the 
Samanid Isma'Il b. Ahmad in Bukhara. Ahmad took 
an active part in the battles of Khurasan and Rayy 
under Isma'il, and in the conquest of Sistan under 
Ahmad b. Isma'Il. Having been sent under the 
command of Nasr b. Ahmad against the rebellious 
governor of Khurasan, Husayn b. <Ali al-Marwarrudi, 
he defeated his antagonist in RabT 1 I 3o6/Aug.-Sept. 
918. But shortly afterwards he rebelled himself 
against the Samanids, was vanquished on the 
Murghab by the commander-in-chief Hamuya b. 
'AH and sent to Bukhara, where he died in prison 
in Dhu'l-Hidjdja 307/May-June 919. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Athir (ed. Tornb., viii. 

86 ff.) and the same information in a somewhat 

more circumstantial wording in Gardlzi, Zayn al- 

Akhbar (ed. Nazim, 1928, 27-9); evidently there 

is a common source, probably al-Sallami's Ta'rikh 

Wulat Khurasan. (W. Barthold) 

AHMAD B. SA'lD [see bu sa'Id]. 

AHMAD B. TULUN, founder of the Tulunid 

[q.v.] dynasty, the first Muslim governor of 

Egypt to annex Syria. Vassal in name only of the 

'Abbasid caliph, he is a typical example of the 

Turkish slaves who from the time of Harun al- 

Rashld were enlisted in the private service of the 

caliph and the principal officers of state, and whose 

ambition and spirit of intrigue and independance 

were soon to make them the real masters of Islam. 

Ahmad's father Tulun i s said to have been included 

in the tribute sent by the governor of Bukhara to the 

caliph al-Ma'mun c. 200/815-6, and rose to command 

the caliph's private guard. Ahmad, born in Ramadan 

220/Sept. 835, received his military training at 

Samarra and afterwards studied theology at Tarsus. 



By his bravery he gained the favour of the caliph 
al-Musta'in, who, on his abdication in 251/866, chose 
to go into exile under the guard of Ahmad. The 
latter had no hand in the subsequent murder of al- 
Musta'in, probably because his cooperation had not 
been invited. In 254/868 the caliph al-Mu'tazz gave 
Egypt as apanage to the Turkish general Bakbak, 
who had married Tulun's widow. Ahmad was 
appointed as lieutenant of his father-in-law, and 
entered Fustat on 23 Ramadan 254/15 Sept. 868. 

For the next four years Ahmad was engaged in 
seeking to obtain control of the administration from 
Ibn al-Mudabbir, the powerful and skilful intendant 
of finance, whose intolerable exactions, cunning and 
greed had earned the hatred of the Egyptians. The 
struggle was fought out mainly through the medium 
of their agents and relations at Samarra, and ended 
with the removal of Ibn al-Mudabbir. After the 
murder of Bakbak Egypt was given as apanage to 
Yardjukh, who had married one of his daughters to 
Ibn Tulun; he confirmed Ahmad in his post as vice- 
governor, and invested him also with authority over 
Alexandria, Barka, and the frontier districts, which 
had hitherto lain outside his government. The revolt 
of Amadjur, governor of Palestine, gave Ahmad 
the opportunity to obtain the caliph's authorization 
to purchase a large number of slaves in order to 
subjugate the rebel. Although the task was subsequ- 
ently confided to another, this intact army consti- 
tuted the foundation of Ibn Tulun's power. For the 
first time, Egypt possessed a large military force 
which was independent of the caliphate. By liberal 
gifts, Ahmad gained the favour of the 'Abbasid 
courtiers, and succeeded in obtaining the annulment 
of an order of recall issued by the caliph. It was 
to Ibn Tulun, and not to Ibn al-Mudabbir's suc- 
cessor, that the caliph addressed his requests for 
the Egyptian contributions to the treasury. In order 
that he might have the personal use of them by 
keeping their sum a secret from his brother al- 
Muwaffak, he placed the financial administration of 
Egypt and the Syrian Marches under Ahmad. In 
258/872, the caliph's son Dja'far (later entitled al- 
Mufawwad) succeeded Yardjukh as apanagist of 
Egypt; al-Mu'tamid had -recognized his brother al- 
Muwaffak as heir to the throne after his own son 
and had divided the empire between the two heirs- 
presumptive, al-Muwaffak receiving the eastern 
provinces as his apanage, and al-Mufawwad the 
western; a regent, the Turk Musa b. Bugha was 
appointed as coadjutor of the latter. In fact, al- 
Muwaffak exercised the supreme power. But while 
the caliphate was threatened in the east by attacks 
and movements of independence, and in the south 
by the revolt of the Zindj which engaged the forces 
ot al-Muwaffak, he himself, the only man capable of 
making a stand against Ibn Tulun, was threatened 
above all by the disorders in the administration and 
by the internal conflicts between the caliph and 
himself on the one hand, and the captains of the 
Turkish regiments on the other. 

Such was the stale of the caliphate at the moment 
selected by Ibn Tulun for his essay at independence, 
after gaining the financial control of his territories. 
On account of the long and costly campaigns against 
the Zindj the commander-in-chief al-Muwaffak con- 
sidered himself entitled to obtain financial assistance 
from all the provinces belonging to the caliphate. 
On receiving a sum from Ibn Tulun which he con- 
sidered unsatisfactory, he sent a force of troops 
under Musa b. Bugha to remove him (263/877), but 
the demands of the soldiers and the fears inspired 



AHMAD B. TULUN — AHMAD BABA 



279 



by Ibn 'Julun's forces led to the abandonment of the 
attempt. Ahmad was now encouraged to occupy 
Syria (264/878), under the pretext of engaging in 
the holy war and of defending the frontiers in Asia 
Minor against' the Byzantines. But he had to return 
to Egypt shortly after to deal with a revolt by his 
son 'Abbas, whom he had appointed as his lieutenant 
in Egypt. 

After the Syrian campaign, Ibn Tulun began 
to add his own name to those of the caliph and 
of Dja'far on his gold coinage. (It should be noted 
that Ibn Tulun always recognized the caliph al- 
Mu'tamid himself, perhaps just because he was 
powerless.) In 269/882 Aljmad invited the caliph to 
take refuge with him, aiming by this means to 
concentrate the whole sovereign authority in Egypt 
and to gain the merit of being the saviour of the 
caliph, now a shadow. But the latter's flight was 
intercepted, and al-Muwaffak nominated Ishak b. 
Kundadj as governor of Egypt and Syria. Ahmad 
retaliated by proclaiming through an assembly of 
jurists which met at Damascus the forfeiture of 
al-Muwaffak's succession to the throne. Al-Muwaffak 
thereupon compelled the caliph to have Ahmad 
cursed in the mosques, while Ahmad had the same 
measure applied to al-Muwaffak in the mosques of 
Egypt and Syria. But al-Muwaffak, though finally 
victorious in his war with the Zindj, sought to have 
the status quo recognized, in the hope of gaining 
from Ahmad by mildness and diplomacy what he 
had failed to gain by war. Ahmad gave a favourable 
response to his first approaches, but died in Dh u 
'1-Ka'da 270/March 884. 

Ibn Tulun owes his success not only to his talents, 
his cleverness, and the strength of his Turkish and 
Sudanese slave-armies, but also to the Zindj rebel- 
lion, which prevented al-Muwaffak from devoting 
himself to counter his encroachments. His agrarian 
and administrative reforms were directed to encour- 
aging the peasants to cultivate their lands with zeal, 
in spite of the heavy charges which were still laid 
upon their produce. He put an end to the exactions 
of the officers of the fiscal administration for their 
personal profit. The prosperity of Egypt under Ibn 
Tulun was due principally to the fact that the 
greater part of the revenues of the state were no 
longer drained off to the metropolis ; they were thus 
employed to stimulate commerce and industry and 
to found, to the north of Fustat, a new quarter, 
called al-Kata'i', which was the seat of government 
under the Tulunids and in which the great mosque 
built by Ibn Tulun was situated. 

Bibliography : Balawi, Sirat Ahmad ibn Tulun 
(ed. Kurd c Ali); Ibn Sa'id, al-Mughrib (ed. Zaky 
M. Hassan, Sayyida Kashef and Shawky Deif, and 
ed. Vollers, Fragmente aus dem Mughrib); Tabari, 
iii, 1670 ff.; Ya'kubi (Houtsma), ii, 615 ff.; 
Makrizi, Khitat, i, 313 ff.; Abu '1-Mahasin (ed. of 
Cairo), iii, 1 ff.; Ibn Iyas, i, 37 ff.; Marcel, Egypte, 
chap, vi ff.; Wustenfeld, Die Statthalter von 
Agypten, iii ff . ; Corbett, The Life and works of 
Ahmed ibn Tulun, JRAS, 1891, 527 S.); Lane- 
Poole, History of Egypt, 59 ff.; C. H. Becker, 
Beitrdge zur Geschichte Agyptens, iii, 149-198; Wiet, 
Histoire de la Nation F.gyptienne, iv, Chap, iii; 
Zaky M. Hassan, Les Tulunides, Paris 1937. 

(Zaky M. Hassan) 
AHMAD b. YCSUF b. al-Kasim b. Subayh, 
Abu Dja'far, secretary to al-Ma'mun. Hebe- 
longed to a mawdli family of secretaries and poets 
originating from the neighbourhood of al-Kufa. His 
father, Yusuf, was secretary to c Abd Allah b. C A1I, 



then to Ya'kub b. Dawud, and finally to Yahya the 
Barmakid. It appears that Ahmad held a secretarial 
post in 'Irak at the end of the caliphate of al-Ma'mun. 
He was presented to al-Ma'mun by his friend Ahmad 
b. Abi Khalid, and soon attracted notice by his 
eloquence. He became an intimate of al-Ma'mun, 
and at a date impossible to determine accurately, 
was placed in charge of the diwdn al-sirr (rather 
than the diwdn al-rasdHl, which was entrusted to 
'Amr b. Mas'ada). As private secretary to the 
caliph he occupied a position of such importance that 
some historians have styled him "vizier", a title, 
however, which he does not appear to have held. 
He came into conflict with the future caliph al- 
Mu'tasim, and died, it seems, in Ramadan 213/Nov.- 
Dec. 828. Various letters, terse remarks, aphorisms 
and verses by which he achieved fame as a "secretary- 
poet" are attributed to him. 

Bibliography: Djahiz, Ft phamm AkUdk al- 
Kuttdb, 48, Baydn, ii, 263; Ibn Tayfur, Tabari, iii, 
Djahshiyari, indexes ; SOU, Awrdk (Poets), 143, 
156, 206-36; Mas'udi, al-Tanbih, 352; Aghdni, 
Tables; Yakut, Irshdd, u, 160-71. 

(D. Sourdel) 
AHMAD b. ZAYNl DAHLAN [see dahlan]. 
AHMAD AMlN, Egyptian scholar and 
writer, b. in Cairo 2 Muharram 1304/1 Oct. 1886, 
d. 30 Ramadan 1373/30 May 1954. After studying 
in al-Azhar and the School of Shar'I Law, he served 
as a magistrate in the Native Courts, and in 1926 
was appointed to the staff of the Egyptian University 
(U. of Cairo), where from 1936-1946 he was professor 
of Arabic Literature. In 1947 he became Director 
of the Cultural Section of the Arab League. Ahmad 
Amin was one of the founders and most active 
members of the Ladjnat al-taHif wa't-tardjama 
wa'l-nashr (see U. Rizzitano, in OM, 1940, 31-8), 
for which he edited and produced (in collaboration) 
a number of classical Arabic texts and general 
works on literary history. As a scholar, his most 
important production was a history of Islamic 
civilization to the end of the 4th/ioth century (in 
three parts: Fadfr al- Islam, 1st ed., Cairo 1928; 
Duha'l-Isldm, 1st ed., Cairo 1933-6; %uhr al-Isldm, 
Cairo 1945-53), notable as the first comprehensive 
attempt to introduce critical method into modern 
Muslim Arabic historiography. From 1933 he 
collaborated in the weekly literary journal al-Risdla, 
and from 1939 edited a similar journal al-Thakdfa; 
his essays on literary, social and other topics in 
these journals were later collected and issued in 
book form (Fay4 al-Khafir, 8 vols., Cairo 1937 ff.). 
Of his many other works special mention should be 
made of his dictionary of Egyptian folklore (Kdmus 
al- c Addt wa'l-Takdlid wa'l-Ta c dbir al-Misriyya, 
Cairo 1953), and his autobiography Haydti (Cairo 
i95o). 

Bibliography. Autobiography (see above; 

Eng. tr. by A. J. M. Craig to be published); 

U. Rizzitano, in OM, 1955, 76-89; Brockelmann, 

S III, 305. (H. A. R. Gibb) 

AHMAD BABA, otherwise Abu'l-'AbbAs Ahmad 

b. Ahmad al-TakrurI al-MassufI, Sudanese 

jurist and biographer belonging to the SinhadjI 

family of the Aklt, born at Tinbuktu (now Timbuktu) 

21 Dhu'l-Hidjdja 963/26 Oct. 1556. All his ancestors 

in the male line were imams or kd4is in the Sudanese 

capital in the 15th and 16th centuries, and he himself 

rapidly became a fakih of repute in learned circles 

in his country. At the time of the conquest of the 

Sudan by the Sa c did Sultan of Morocco Ahmad 

al-Mansur [q.v.] in 1000/1592, Ahmad Baba refused 



AHMAD BABA — AHMAD al-BADAWI 



to recognise the authority of the court of Marrakush 
and, two years later, the governor Mahmud Zarkun 
arrested him on the Sultan's orders, and accused 
him of fomenting a revolt at Tinbuktu against the 
new rulers. Taken in chains to Morocco with several 
of his compatriots, Ahmad Baba was not long in 
regaining his liberty, but he was required to reside 
in Marrakush (1004/1596). He began to give instruc- 
tion in fikh and hadith, and formulated legal opinions 
(fatwd). His renown soon spread throughout the 
Maghrib. At the death of Ahmad al-Mansur in 
1016/1607, his successor Mawlay Zaydan allowed 
Ahmad and the other Sudanese exiles to return to 
Tinbuktu. It was no doubt at this time that he 
went on pilgrimage to Mecca, and returned to his 
native town where he died on 6 Sha'ban 1036/22 
April 1627. 

Ahmad Baba was the author of some 50 works on 
M&likite law, grammar and other subjects. But his 
chief work is his supplement to the biographical 
dictionary of the fahihs of the school of Malik b. 
Anas, composed in the second half of the 14th century 
by Ibn Farhun [q.v.] and entitled al-Dibddi al- 
Mudhahhab fi Ma'-rifat A'-ydn l Vlama> al-Madhhab. 
Ahmad Baba gave his supplement the name of 
Nayl al-Ibtihddi bi-Tatriz al-Dibddi. He completed 
it at Marrakush in 1005/1596, and later issued an 
abridged version dealing only with those Malikite 
fahihs not represented in Ibn Farhun, called Kifdyat 
al-Muhtadi li-Ma^ifat ma laysa fi'l-Dibddi. The 
Nayl was lithographed at Fas in 1317 and printed 
at Cairo in 1329, in the margins of the Dibddi. 

Ahmad Baba's dictionary is one of the main 

sources for a bio-bibliographical survey of the 

Maghrib up to the 16th century, and contains, apart 

from the Malikite doctors, a certain amount of 

information on the great Moroccan saints (awliyd') 

of the period. The extensive library which he built 

up in the Sudan has still not been entirely dispersed, 

and it was one of his own copies of which particular 

use was made in the publication of the materials 

relating to Spain in al-Rawd al-MiH&r of Ibn 'Abd 

al-Mun c im al-Himyari (Levi-Provencal, La Pininsule 

iberique au Moyen Age, Leiden, 1938 p. xii-xiii). 

Bibliography: Levi-Provencal, Chorfa, 250-5; 

idem, Arabica Occidentalia, iv, in Arabica, ii (1955), 

89-96; MuhibbI, Khuldfat al-Athar, i, 170 ff.; al- 

Ifranl, Nuzhat al-ffddi, Fez, 81 if. ; idem, Safwat 

man intashar, Fez, 52 ff . ; Kadirl, Nashr al-Mathani, 

Fez 1310, i, 151 ff.; Ahmad Nasiri, Istiksd', Cairo 

1312, iii, 63; Sa'dl, Ta'rikh al- Sudan (Houdas), 

i, 35-6, 244; transl. 57-9, 379; M. Ben Cheneb, 

Idjaza, § 94; idem, in IE 1 , i, 191 (with a complete 

list of the works of Ahmad Baba) ; Brockelmann, 

II, 618, S II, 715-6. (E. Levi Provencal) 

AHMAD al-BADAWI (in modern Egyptian 

Arabic il-BedawI), with the kunya Abu '1-Fityan, 

is the most popular saint of the Muslims in 

Egypt and has been so for about 700 years. By the 

people he is often called simply is-sayyid; in a song 

in his honour (ed. Littmann) he has the title of 

jWAA il-'Arab because of his name al-Badawi, and 

this name was given to him because he wore a veil 

like the bedouin of the Maghrib. As a Sufi he was 

called al-kufb, «the pole*. 

Ahmad was probably bora in Fez in 596/1199-1200, 
and he seems to have been the youngest of seven or 
eight children. His mother was called Fatima, his 
father 'All (al-Badrl); the occupation of his father 
is not mentioned. His genealogy was traced up to 
'All b. Abi Talib. In his early youth Ahmad went 
with his family on a pilgrimage to Mecca where 



they arrived after four years' travelling. This is 
placed in the years 603-7/1206-n. In Mecca his 
father died. Ahmad is said to have distinguished 
himself in Mecca as a daring horseman, and he 
received there, according to tradition, the surnames 
al-'Attab, "the intrepid horseman", al-Ghadban, 
"the furious, raging one". His name Abu 'l-'Abbas 
may be a miswriting for Abu '1-Fityan; and the 
latter would have much the same meaning as al- 
'Attab. Other names that were given him later are 
al-Sammat, "the silent" and Abu Farradj, "libera- 
tor", namely of prisoners. About 627/1230 he seems 
to have undergone an inner transformation. He 
read the Kur'an according to all the seven readings 
and studied some Shafi'ite law. He gave himself up 
to devotion and declined the offer of a marriage. He 
retired from men, became taciturn, made himself 
understood by signs. According to some authorities 
Ahmad was summoned in 633/1236 by three con- 
secutive visions to visit 'Irak, and he went there in 
company with his eldest brother Hasan. They 
visited the tombs of the two great "poles" Ahmad 
al-Rifa'i and c Abd al-Kadir al-Pjilanl and of many 
other saints. In 'Irak he is said to have subdued the 
indomitable Fatima bint Barri, who had never yet 
surrendered to any man, and to have refused her 
offer to marry him. This incident has been turned 
into a highly romantic story in popular Arabic 
literature; it may go back to ancient Egyptian 
mythology. In 634/1236-7 Ahmad had another 
vision which told him to go to Tanta in Egypt. His 
brother Hasan returned from 'Irak to Mecca. In 
Tanta Ahmad entered on the last and most im- 
portant period in his life. His mode of life is described 
as follows : He climbed in Tanta to the roof of a 
private house, stood there motionless and gazed up 
into the sun so that his eyes went red and sore and 
looked like fiery cinders. Sometimes he would 
maintain a prolonged silence, at other times he 
would indulge in continuous screaming. He went 
without food or drink for about forty days. (The 
forty days fast is also known from the legends of 
Christian saints. The standing on the roof is remi- 
niscent of Symeon Stylites, and the name of the 
followers and disciples of Aljmad : Sutubiyya or 
Ashab al-Saft, "the roof men", of the Christian 
"pillar saints", the followers of Symeon.) Those 
saints who were still worshipped at the time of 
Abmad's arrival in Tanta (such as Hasan al-Ikhna% 
Salim al-Maghribl and Wadjh al-Kamar), found 
themselves eclipsed. His contemporary, the Mamluk 
sult§n al-Zahir Baybars, is said to have worshipped 
him and to have kissed his feet. A boy called 'Abd 
al-'Al came to him when he was searching for a cure 
for his sore eyes, and this boy became afterwards 
his confident and his khalifa (successor) ; the saint is 
therefore called Abu 'Abd al-'Al in popular literature. 
Ahmad died on 12 Rabi' I 675/24 August 1276. 

Ahmad al-Badawi is the author of (i) a prayer 
(hizb) ; (ii) a collection of prayers (salawat), commented 
by 'Abd al-Rahman b. Mustafa al-'AydarusI under 
the title of Fatfr al-Rahman; and (iii) a spiritual 
testament (wafdyd), containing admonitions of a 
rather general character. 

Ahmad al-Badawi is a representative of the lower 
type of the dervishes, and his intellectual qualities 
seem to have been of small importance. 

After his death 'Abd al-'Al (d. 733/1332-3) became 
his khalifa and built a mosque over his tomb. The 
veneration of Ahmad and the pilgrimage to Tanta 
were often disapproved by more highly educated 
scholars and other opponents of the sufis. These 



AHMAD al-BADAWI — AHMAD BEY 



opponents were partly men who were averse to all 
sufism, partly politicians who objected to the sufls as 
rulers of the people. We hear twice of the murder of 
a khalifa of al-BadawI (Ibn Iyas, ii, 61, iii, 78). In 
852/1448 the 'ulama' and pious politicians caused 
the sultan al-?ahir Diakmak to forbid the pilgrimages 
to Tanta, but this edict had no effect because the 
people would not forsake their old customs. The 
sultan PJa'itbay seems to have been an admirer of 
the saint (Ibn Iyas, ii, 217, 301). Under Ottoman 
rule the outward splendour of the cult of Ahmad 
seems to have diminished, because it annoyed the 
powerful Turkish orders. But this political attitude 
could not prejudice his veneration amongst the 
Egyptians. The darwish order of the Ahmadiyya 
founded by him is, together with the Rifa'iyya, the 
Kadiriyya and the Burhamiyya, among the most 
popular orders in Egypt. The banner and the turbans 
of the Ahmadiyya are red. There are several "bran- 
ches" of the Ahmadiyya, such as the Bayyumiyya 
[q.v.] etc. [cf. tarIka]. 

The place where Ahmad al-BadawI is venerated 
is the mosque at Tanta [q.v.], which was built over 
his tomb. On this E. W. Lane says (An Account of 
the Manners and Customs of the Modem Egyptians, 
London 1846, i, 328): "The tomb of this saint 
attracts almost as many visitors, at the period of 
the great annual festivals, from the metropolis, and 
from various parts of Lower Egypt, as Mekkah 
does pilgrims from the whole of the Muslim world". 
Many Egyptians who make the pilgrimage to Mecca 
first go to Tanta, and therefore Ahmad is called 
bob in-nebl, "the door of the Prophet". The three 
great festivals (mawalid, plural of mawlid [q.v.], 
mulid) are (i) on the 17 or 18 Jan.; (ii) on or about 
the vernal equinox; (iii) about a month after the 
summer solstice, when the Nile has risen considerably, 
but the dams of the canals are not yet cut. They are, 
as Lane says, "great fairs as well as religious festi- 
vals". The dates are reckoned according to the 
Coptic calendar, and it is very likely that in these 
festivities and pilgrimages old Egyptian and 
Christian practices have survived r the date of the 
first festival corresponds to the time of the Christian 
Epiphany. Goldziher (Muh. Stud., ii, 338) suggested 
a connection between the pilgrimages to Tanta and 
the ancient Egyptian processions to Bubastis 
described by Herodotus. 

Festivals in his honour are also held in other 
places in Egypt, in Cairo, but also in small villages 
(cf. e.g. 'All Mubarak, ix, 37). It is somewhat doubtful 
if all the sanctuaries bearing the name of "al-Badawi" 
refer to Abmad. Such sanctuaries occur, e.g. near 
Aswan; in Syria near Tripoli (J. L. Burckhardt, 
Syria, 166); at Gaza (Goldziher, Muh. Stud., ii, 338; 
ZDPV, xi, 152, 158). 

Many legends are told in Egypt about Ahmad 
al-Badawi: miracles that he did while he was alive; 
miracles that he performed from his tomb; miracles 
that he did reviving from the dead; miracles in 
favour of those who celebrated his festivals. What 
many people still nowadays believe of him is shown 
by the song taken down in Cairo by Littmann 
(see Bibl.). In this song incredible miracles of Ahmad 
are told; it is also said that he began to speak on 
the day on which he was born, and that he was an 
unusually heavy eater. He is especially renowned 
as a saint who brings back prisoners and lost persons 
or goods. Therefore he is known as gayib il-yasir, 
"bringer of the prisoner", and when a public crier 
announces the loss of a child, of an animal or of a 
piece of property, he invokes Ahmad al-Badawl. 



Spoer (in ZDMG, 1914, 243) tells of a miracle in 
Palestine by this saint. 

Bibliography: Biographies by MakrizI (MS 
Berlin 3350, no. 6) and Ibn Hadjar al-'Askalanl 
(MS Berlin 10,101); SuyutI, ffusn al-Muha<fara t 
Cairo 1299, i, 299 f.; Sha'ranI, Tabakdt, Cairo 1299, 
i, 245-51 (he was a particular admirer of the saint 
and called himself al- Ahmad! ; see Vollers, Cat. 
Leipzig, no. 353); 'Abd al-Samad Zayn al-Din, 
al-Djawahir al-Saniyya fi 'l-Karamat al-Ahma- 
diyya, repeatedly printed (this important com- 
pilation, written in 1028/1619, quotes, in addition 
to the above-mentioned, many lost works); 'All 
al-Halabi (d. 1044/1634-5), al-Nasiha al-'Alawiyya 
fi Bay an ffusn Tarikat al-Sada al-Ahmadiyya, MS 
Berlin 10,104; Hasan Rashid al-Mashhadi al- 
Khafadii. al-Nafahdt al-Ahmadiyya, Cairo 1321; 
Kissat Sidi Ahmad al-Badawi wa-ma djara lahii 
ma'- al-ThaXatha al-Akfdb; Kissat al-Sayyid al- 
Badawi ma' Fatima bint Barri wa-ma djara 
baynahumd min al-'AdjaHb; Kissat al-Sayyid al- 
Badawi ma' Fa(ima bint Barri wa-ma djara lahuma 
min al-'Adia'ib wa'l-Ghara>ib (the last three are 
small pamphlets printed in Cairo; the second and 
the third have much the same text). He is frequ- 
ently treated together with the other akfdb, so 
e.g. by Muhammad b. Hasan al-'Adjhinl (ca. 899/ 
1494), MS Berlin 163; A^mad b. 'Utjjman al- 
Sharnubl (ca. 950/1543), ibid. no. 337. A poem 
on Ahmad, ibid. no. 5432, 8115/3. 'All Mubarak, 
al-Khitat al-Djadida, xiii, 48-51 is mainly based 
on Sha'ranI and c Abd al-Samad. A Madih is-Sayyid 
iUBedawi we-Bayan Karamatu 'l-'Azima has been 
edited and translated in E. Littmann, Ahmed il- 
Bedawi. Ein Lied auf den agyptischen National- 
heiligen, Mainz 1950. See also Brockelmann, I 
450, S I, 808. (K. Vollers-E. Littmann) 

AHMAD BEY, bey of Tunis (1837-55), tenth 
ruler of the Husaynid dynasty. He proclaimed himself 
commander-in-chief of the army and attempted to 
modernize it; he sent Tunisian officers to Europe for 
instruction, and obtained European military advisers 
and French officers to act as instructors, but the 
latter were unable to instil habits of discipline into 
the troops or to form them into reliable regiments. 
When Ahmad decided to send a contingent of 
10,000 men to take part in the Crimean war, this 
force was quartered in the Caucasus, where epidemics 
decimated its ranks and shattered its morale. 

With the Bey's permission, a French topographer 
made a careful survey and drew up a map of the 
Regency. The Bey also founded, in 1838, a poly- 
technic institution, with the object of training a 
cadre of specialist and administrative officers. This 
institution ceased to function after the campaign 
in the East. 

Ahmad also wanted a navy. He purchased twelve 
ships abroad and resolved to create a naval station 
at Porto Farina. A frigate was built there, but 
proved permanently unseaworthy, and the port was 
soon silted up by the Medjerda. Towards the end 
of his reign, the Bey contented himself with moder- 
nizing the arsenal at La Goulette (Halk al-Wadi). 
He showed no interest in improving the commercial 

Ahmad resisted the claims of Turkey, which 
seized every opportunity to reassert its suzerainty 
over Tunisia, to demand gifts, and to press for 
payment of an annual tribute which would at least 
have been tangible evidence of the Bey's vassal 
status. As England supported Turkey, Ahmad 
sought the aid of France, which, to maintain security 



in Algeria and to put an end to the illicit arms 
traffic, took care that the Porte should not interfere 
in Tunisian affairs. In 1846, Ahmad went to France 
and was warmly welcomed in Paris. As a reward for 
his stubborn resistance, he succeeded in obtaining 
from the Porte in a kha((-i sherif which recognized him 
individually as an independant sovereign. 

Ten miles from Tunis, on the banks of the Sebkha 
Sedjumi, Ahmad built the Muhammadiyya palace, 
a huge mass of enormous buildings which were still 
incomplete at the end of his reign and which soon 
fell into ruins. 

This extravagances, and the prodigality of the 
Bey's favourites, the Genoese Raffo, the minister 
of foreign affairs, and above all the Greek Mustafa 
KhaznadSr, minister of finance from 1837 to 1873, 
exhausted the Treasury. The farming of the tax on 
tobacco and increased taxation generally caused 
revolts in 1840 at Tunis ind in the region of Kabis, 
and in 1842 at La Goulette. They were suppressed, 
but the Bey was unable to impose his will on the 
mountain tribes. Beneath an outwardly brilliant 
display, a love of ostentation coupled with chaotic 
administration set Tunisia on the road to decadence. 

It must nevertheless be recognized that Ahmad, 

institutions, introduced some beneficial reforms. In 
1 84 1 he prohibited the sale of negroes, and emanci- 
pated his household slaves. In 1846 he formally 
abolished slavery throughout the Regency. He 
abrogated the laws discriminating against Jews. 
Finally, he promoted the development of education. 
The abbe Bourgade, in charge of the chapel of 
Saint Louis of Carthage, the construction of which 
had been authorized by Ahmad, founded a hospital 
in 1843 and, two years later, built the Saint Louis 
College, which was open to boys of all creeds and to 
which a nursery school was attached, as well as a 
small printing press. The abbe later opened other 
schools and dispensaries. Various archaeological 
excavations were begun. French influence became 
dominant in Tunisia, as a result both of their edu- 
cational activities and of the flourishing trade 
conducted by the merchants of Marseilles. 

Bibliography: P.H.X. (D'Estournelles de 
Constant), La politique francaise en Tunisie, Paris 
1891 ; N. Faucon, La Tunisie avant et depuis I'occu- 
pation francaise, Paris 1893 ; A. M. Broadley, The last 
Punic War, Tunis past and present, London 1882 ; 
G. Hardy, La Tunisie (in the Histoire des colonies 
francaises, of G. Hanotaux and Martineau); 
J. Serres, La politique turque en Afrique du Nord 
sous la Monarchic de Juillet, Paris 1925 ; P. Marty, 
Historique de la mission militaire francaise en 
Tunisie, R.T. 1935; P. Grandchamp and Bechir 
Mokaddem, Une mission tunisienne a Paris — 
1853—, RAfr., 1946; Dr. Amoulet, La pinitration 
intellectuelle de la France en Tunisie, RAfr., 1953; 
Muhammad Bayram al-TunisI, Safwat al-IHibar, 
Cairo 1302, i, 136-45, ii, 6-9. 

(G. Yver-M. Emerit) 
AJJMAD BlDjAN [see bIdjan ah mad]. 
Savvid ASMADBRftLWl, a militant religious 
reformer of Muslim India, was the son of Muham- 
mad c Irf5n and the 36th direct descendant of Hasan, 
the son of 'AH. He was born on 6 Safar 1201/28 Nov. 
1786 at Bareilly (Brell), where he received his early 
education. He then went to Lucknow and after a 
few months' stay there, he proceeded about 1219/ 
1804 to Delhi, where he became a disciple of the 
famous divine Shah c Abd al-'AzIz [q.v.], the eldest 
son of Shah Wall Allah [q.v.], and received formal 



3 AHMAD BREXWI 



from his younger brother Shah 'Abd 
al-Kadir [q.v.]. About 1222/1807, he returned to 
Bareilly, where he married. In 1225/1810, he left for 
Radjputana, where he se rved for seven years in the 
army of Nawab Amir Khan, who subsequently 
became the ruler of Tonk. 

In 1232/1817, he left the service of the Nawab 
and returned to Delhi. Roused by the religious and 
political degradation of his co-religionists, he started 
on a missionary tour as a religious teacher aod 
reformer. His tenets bore a great similarity to those 
of the Arabian Wahhabis in the adoption of a pure 
and simple form of religion, free from superstitious 
innovations and exaggerated veneration for prophets 
and saints. His reputation spread far and wide, and 
thousands of Muslims adopted his views. His chief 
disciples and constant companions in his chequered 
career were Mawlawl Muhammad Isma'il, the 
nephew of Shah <Abd al-'Aziz, Mawlawl c Abd al- 
Hayy, the son-in-law of Shah c Abd al- c Aziz, and 
Mawlawl Muhammad Yusuf of Phulhat, a descendant 
of Shah Ahl Allah, the elder brother of Shah Wall 
Allah. 

In 1236/1821, Sayyid Ahmad set out on a pil- 
grimage to Mecca, staying a few months at Calcutta 
on the way. On his return to India in 1239/1824, he 
began to make active preparations for a djihad or 
religious war. It is clear from his letters that the 
ultimate object of his reformist movement was to 
overthrow the rule of the British and the Sikhs and 
restore Muslim dominion in India. His first aim was 
to oust the Sikhs from the Pandjab. Having enlisted 
the sympathy and promised aid of his co-religionists 
at Kabul and Kandahar, he started on his expedition 
in 1241/1826 with an army of enthusiastic followers, 
and reached Peshawar via Radjputana, Sind, Baluii- 
stan and Afghanistan. He attacked and repulsed the 
Sikh army at Akora Khattak (20 Nov. 1826) ; but lost 
the battle of Saydo through the desertion of 
Yar Muhammad Khan Durrani and his brothers. 
Although he succeeded in occupying Peshawar in 
1830, he was discouraged by the treachery of the 
Durranls and other local khans, and decided to 
proceed to Kashmir. On the way, however, he was 
encountered by the Sikhs in 1246/1831 at Balakot 
where he was killed along with Shah Muhammad 
Isma'Il and his army was dispersed. Nevertheless, 
the remnants of his army continued their struggle 
in the North-West Frontier Province for the cause 
for which their leader had laid down his life. 

His numerous disciples continued his reformist 
movement in India, and were responsible for the 
production of a vast religious literature. In order 
to reach the masses, they adopted the Urdu language 
as their medium and were incidentally instrumental 
in promoting the growth of a simple, direct and 
vigorous style. His adherents preferred to engage 
themselves in commercial pursuits rather than seek 
service under the British government. 

A few short epistles and pamphlets on religious 
topics are credited to Sayyid Ahmad. He is also 
said to have inspired the composition of Sirat 
Mustakim, a work written in Persian by his two 
foremost disciples, Shah Muhammad Isma'il and 
Mawlawl c Abd al-Hayy. Several collections of his 
letters (in Persian) also exist in manuscript. 

Bibliography: Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Athar 
al-Sanadid (in Urdu, Delhi 1847); WaqdH' 
Ahmadl also known as Ta'rikh Kabir, consisting 
of reports made by a number of the close associates 
of Sayyid Ahmad, recorded in Urdu at Tonk, 
covering about 2,000 large folios, still in manu- 



Sayyid AHMAD BRELWI — AHMAD-i DjAM 



script ; Garcin de Tassy, Hist, de la Lift. Hindouie 
et Hindoustani', Paris 1871, iii, 32-7; W. W. 
Hunter, The Indian Musalmans, London 1871; 
M. Djafar Thanesarl, Tawarikh 'Adjiba or 
Sawdnih Ahmadi (in Urdu), Delhi 1309; Sayyid 
Dja'far <Ali Nakawl, TaMkh Ahmadi (in Persian), 
MSS at Tonk and Lahore); Sayyid Muhammad 
C A1I, Makhzan Ahmadi (in Persian), Agra 1299; 
Abu'l-Hasan 'AH Nadwi, Sirat Sayyid Ahmad 
Shahid. 1939, 1941; Muhammad Ikram, Mawdj 
Kawthar, Bombay, 7-48; M. T. Titus, Indian 
Islam, London 1930, 181-6; W. C. Smith, Modern 
Islam in India, Lahore 1943 ; Ghulam Rasul Mihr, 
Sayyid Ahmad Shahid (in Urdu), Lahore 1954, a 
critical and exhaustive work on the subject. 

(Sh. Inayatullah) 
AHMAD DJALA'IR [see djala'ir]. 
AVMAD-i DjAM, "Ahmad of Djam", also 
Ahmad-i DjamI, Persian sufi in the Saldjuk 
period, contemporary of al-Ghazall, 'AdI b. Musafir, 
<Ayn al-Kudat al-Hamadhani, and Sanal, in full 
Shihab al-DIn AbO Nasr Ahmad b. Abi 'l-Hasan 
b. Ahmad b. Moh. al-NAmakI al-DjamI. He is also 
known by the nickname of 2anda Pil, "Elephant- 
colossus". He claimed descent from the Prophet's 
Companion Djarir b. c Abd Allah al-Badjall (Ibn 
Sa'd, vi, 13), but although of Arab origin had a 
ruddy complexion, reddish beard and dark-blue 
eyes. Born in the village of Nama or Namak, in 
Turshiz (Tunisian), in 441/1049-50, he led as a 
youth, according to the legend, a somewhat wild 
life, until, when 22 years of age, in 463/1070-1, as 
he was driving an ass laden with wine homeward 
to a drinking-bout, he was converted by a super- 
natural voice and withdrew to the solitude of the 
hills of his native village. After twelve years spent 
there in ascetic exercises, and visits to some cities 
of Khurasan, he settled as the result of an inner call 
in the mountains of B(P). z.d-i Djam (in Kuhistan), 
where he built a masdjid-i nur and entered into 
active intercourse with men. He stayed here for six 
years. At the age of 40, i.e. in 481/1088-9, he moved 
to the village of Ma'addabad of Djam and built here 
a convent (khdnkdh) and a Friday mosque. He 
travelled widely in eastern Persia, to Sarakhs, 
Naysabur, Harat, Bakharz, etc., and is said also to 
have visited Mecca. The sources speak also of a 
personal connection with sultan Sandjar. He died in 
his convent as the leader of a considerable body of 
disciples in Muharram 536/Aug. 1141, and had 
himself buried outside Ma'addabad at a place which 
a friend had seen in a dream. A mosque and convent 
were later built over the grave, followed by a complex 
of buildings which became the centre of a new, and 
still existing, place called Turbat-i Shaykh-i Djam 
[?.».], "Mausoleum of the Shaykh of Djam". One 
of his 14 surviving sons (out of 39), Burhan al-Dln 
Nasr, took over the leadership of the group of 
disciples. Shams al-DIn Muhammad al-Kusawi al- 
Djami, a sufi who died in Harat in 863/1459 (DjamI, 
Nafah&t al-Uns, 574 f.), was descended from a 
daughter of this Burhan al-DIn and her cousin 
Siradj al-Din Ahmad, another grandchild of Ahmad-i 
Djam. 

Ahmad-i Djam had no regular novitiate training, 
but sought his own way in solitude. He had never- 
theless relations with a certain Abu Tahir-i Kurd, 
who is said to have been a disciple of Abu Sa'Id b. 
Abi '1-Khayr and even to have given Ahmad the 
latter's patched robe (khirka). That a famous shaykh 
gives his own robe to the care of a friend, together 
with a description of certain signs by which he may 



recognize its future authorized wearer, is a wellknown 
motive of sufi hagiography, and can generally be 
shown up as an invention (cf. Firdaws al-Mur- 
shidiyya (Meier), introduction, 18 ff.). This may well 
be the case here. The above-mentioned al-Kusawi is 
later said to have claimed to wear the same robe. 

Ahmad wrote the following works, all in Persian: 
Vns al-TdHbin, Siradj al-Sd'irin (professedly written 
in 513/1119), Futuh al-Kulub (= Futuh al-Ruhl), 
Rawdat al-Mudhnibin, Bihar al-Hakika, Kunuz 
al-Hikma, Miftdh al-Nadfat (written in 522/1128). 
Of these only the first and last-named works have 
so far been recovered, although Mlrza Ma'sum c Ali 
Shah (1901) had still read the second. The biographers' 
information on the dates of the first six writings 
(Ivanow, in JRAS, 1917, 303 1., 349-52) must be 
false in part, since all these works are listed in Miftdh 
al-Nadidt, and must be earlier than 522/1128, unless 
the list is an interpolation or the works mentioned 
were subsequently revised. There has been preserved 
further a Risala-yi Samarkandiyya (also called 
Su'dl u-Qiawab), in reply to a question. Two or 
three other works listed by the biographers, together 
with the Futuh al-Ruh, are said to have perished 
in Djam in consequence of the Mongol invasion. 
Only the library (in Dihll) of Firuzshah, of the 
Tughlakid dynasty (752-90/1351-88), still possessed 
all Ahmad's works. The Misbah al-Arwah (MS Rida 
Pasha 3009), mentioned in the I A, s.v. Cami, is 
probably not a work by Ahmad. 

On his conversion Ahmad, as he himself says, 
possessed no theological training, and what he later 
learned and published on this subject was professedly 
acquired by revelation. This is to be taken cum 
grano salts. Even his early dicta betray some theo- 
logical knowledge and still more his writings, where 
he positively requires it. His views, or at least his 
formulations, are, however, not exempt from con- 
tradictions and inconsequences. His theology is 
firmly grounded on Knr'an and Sunna, and on the 
shari'a in the sufi sense, and in it he shows him- 
self a pronounced SunnI; he allows, for example, 
the mash al-hhuffayn. Right action includes, 
however, also hudxdjat, i.e. inner reasoning; unlawful 
conduct accompanied by hudidjat is, according to 
him, better than lawful conduct without hudjdiat. 
His doctrine of the tariha recognizes the purification 
of the soul through the stations ammara, lawwdma, 
mulhama, up to mutmaHnna, and aims to clarify 
the relation of the last stage to the heart {kalb); 
Ahmad defines the "soul at rest" (mutmaHnna) as 
the sheath in which the heart is fixed (ghildf-i dil). 
The aim of mystical endeavour is according to him — 
to pick out only one of many expressions — to find 
the "spirit" (rufi, djan), the "real being" hahikat-i tu), 
to which only two ways lead : remembrance of God 
(dhikr Allah) and waiting (intizdr) until God in His 
grace discloses this being to one. An assumption of 
God's qualities in concreto, as certain sufis had 
taught, is regarded by Ahmad, in agreement with 
al-Sarradj, al- KalabadhI, and al-Kushayri, as im- 
possible, since this implies indwelling (hulul), and 
only effects (athdr) of God's qualities, not these 
themselves, can inform the creature (incommen- 
surability of the eternal and the temporal). True 
belief in tawhid consists in Ahmad's view of referring 
all action and event back to the one original cause, 
God (muhaddarat — tahdir — hudrat — kddir). For 
the rest, conditions in mystical love are much the 
same as in ordinary love ; no person can really become 
one with another. The representation which one may 
take on oneself from the Beloved is rapidly dissipated, 



28 4 



AHMAD-i DJAM — AHMAD DJEWDET PASHA 



and one immediately returns to daily life. Should it 
reappear, so in reverse one loses again one's con- 
nections with the world. Together with this, however, 
Ahmad expresses the dignity and the spiritual 
power of sufi life in poetic tones. He cites the case 
of Fudayl b. c Iyad who, when converted from 
highway robbery, returned their possessions to those 
whom he had robbed and when he had nothing more 
left, still brought gold from beneath his robe for a 
Jew, the earth having been turned into gold. One 
who is converted, he says in the same treatise 
(Miftdh al-Nadjat, which was written on the occasion 
of the conversion of one of his sons), him does the 
water praise over which he journeys; him do the 
stars praise and for him they pray. The siddik, 
abdal, zahid, is the sun, from whom all men derive 
their light. The sufi should distil a dew of blessing 
around him, as musk and aloes distil their scent. 
True poverty (fakr) is, according to Ahmad, the 
elixir which has the faculty of colouring everything 
which comes into contact with it. 

The picture of Ahmad's spiritual personality 
acquired from his prose writings and sayings is in 
contradiction with the Diwan which goes under his 
name, and which would make him out to be an 
ecstatic pantheist intoxicated with self-deification. 
As already remarked by Ivanow [JRAS, 1917, 305) 
and expressed in a private letter by H. Ritter, there 
is room for suspicion that the Diwan is at least 
partly a falsification, but the question still awaits 
fuller, investigation. It is preserved in several MSS, 
not all of which are complete (list in Meier, Bibl.), 
and has been lithographed (Cawnpore 1898, Lucknow 
1923). Takhallus Ahmad and Ahmadi. A book of 
"Poems" is also mentioned, however, by his bio- 
graphers. 

Bibliography: Biographies: (1) Radi al- 
Dln c Ali b. Ibrahlm-i Ta'abadI, a contemporary 
of the shaykh; it is not preserved, but was used by: 
(2) Sadld al-Din Muhammad b. Mfisa al-Ghaznawi, 
also a contemporary and a disciple of the shaykh, 
Makdmdt Shaykh al-Isldm . . . Ahmad b. Abi 
'l-Hasan al-Namaki thumm al-Didmi. composed 
ca. 600/1204, MS Nafidh Pasha, Istanbul, 399, 
38V-132V. It is almost worthless for Ahmad's 
real biography and thought, being full of mira- 
culous legends appealing to the primitive masses; 
al-Ghaznawi must have interpreted in a concrete 
sense certain poetical utterances of his master. It 
is, however, interesting for the typical forms of 
the sufi legend and for certain historical circ 
stances, as well as geographical names, of east 
Persia. (3) Ahmad-i "Tarakhistanl", a cont 
porary of the shaykh, whose work is apparently 
not preserved, but was used, together with that 
of al-Ghaznawi, by: (4) Abu '1-Makarim b. c Ala> 
al-Mulk-i Djami, Khulasat al- Makdmdt, written 
in 840/1436-7 and dedicated to Shahrukh, MS of 
the Asiatic Society of Bengal (Ivanow's Cat., i, 
no. 245), and two incomplete MSS in Russia, one 
of which was published by Ivanow, in JRAS, 
1917, 291-365. (5) c Ali of "Buzdjand" (probably 
= Buzdjan), of 929/1523, probably depending of 
Abu '1-Makarim, was used by Khanikoff. — The 
articles in Djaml's Nafahdt al-Uns (Calcutta 1859, 
405-17) on Ahmad-i Djam and Abu Tahir-i Kurd, 
as well as certain other parts, are derived from 
al-Ghaznawi. — See also Ibn Battuta (Defremery- 
Sanguinetti), iii, 75 ff.; Mirza Ma c sflm 'All Shah. 
TardHk al-IfakaHk, Lith. Teheran 1316, 261. 
Studies: N. de Khanikoff, Mimoire sur la partie 
meridionale de I'Asie centraU, Paris 1861, 116-9; 



Ch. Rieu, Cat. of the Persian MSS in the Br. Mus., 
ii, 551 ; H. Ethe, in Gr. Ir. Ph., ii, 284; W. Ivanow, 
A Biography of Shaykh Ahmad-i Jam, JRAS, 
1917, 291-365; idem, Concise Descr. Cat. of the 
Persian MSS in the Coll. of the As. Soc. of Bengal, 
index; E. Diez, Churasanische Baudenkmdler, i, 
Berlin 1918, 78-82; F. Meier, Zur Biographie 
Ahmad-i Gam's und zur QuelUnkunde von Garni' s 
Nafahatu'l-uns, ZDMG, 1943, 47-67. Further 
references in these studies. (F. Meier) 

AHMAD DJAZZAR [see djazzar pasha]. 
AHMAD DJEWDET PASHA eminent Otto- 
man writer and statesman, bora on 28 Djumada 
ii, 1237/22 March 1822, at LofSa (Lovec) in northern 
Bulgaria, of which his father, Hadjdji Ismail Agha, 
was a member of the administrative council, and 
where his earliest known ancestor, a native of 
Klrklareli (Kirk Killse), had settled after taking part 
in the campaign of the Pruth in 171 1. Ahmed early 
displayed unusual aptitude and diligence, and in 
1839, on reaching the age of seventeen, was sent to 
continue his education in a medrese at Istanbul. 
There, as well as following the traditional medrese 
courses, he not only studied modern mathematics, 
but devoted his spare time to learning Persian with 
the poet Suleyman Fehim and himself took to 
composing verse in the traditional style. It was 
from Fehim that he received the makhlas Djewdet 
that he thenceforth added to his name. 

After obtaining the idiaset that permitted him to 
enter the judicial profession, he received his first 
paid but nominal appointment as kaQi in 1260/1844-5 . 
When Mustafa Reshld Pasha, on becoming Grand 
Vizier in 1846, applied to the office of the Shaykh 
al-Isldm for an open-minded '■SXim to provide him 
with the knowledge of the shari'a necessary for the 
proper drafting of the new kanuns and nizdm-ndmes 
he had it in mind to promulgate, it was Djewdet who 
was chosen. From this time to Reshld Pasha's death 
thirteen years later Djewdet remained closely 
attached to him, even living in his house and be- 
coming his children's tutor. During this period he 
also became acquainted with c AlI and Fu'ad Pashas, 
and under Reshld's influence was persuaded to 
undertake political and administrative duties. In 
August 1850 he received his first appointment 
proper as Director of the recently founded Bar al- 
Mu'-allimin, with membership, as its chief secretary, 
of the Medjlis-i Ma'arif. 

During his directorship of the Ddr al-Mu c allimin, 
which seems, however, to have come to an end in 
the following year, Djewdet achieved reforms in 
the admission, maintenance and examination of the 
students attending it; and as secretary of the 
Medilis-i Ma'dtif he wrote the report that led to 
the foundation in July 185 1 of the Endjiimen-i 
Danish, to which, after accompanying Fu'ad Pasha 
on a state visit to Egypt in March 1852, he devoted 
his attention, beginning his best known work, the 
Ta'Hkh-i Wakayi c -i Dewlet-i 'Aliyye, of which he 
completed the first three volumes during the Crimean 
War, under its auspices. On his presenting these to 
c Abd al-MedjId he received promotion to Suley- 
maniyye rank; in February 1855 he was appointed 
wak'a-niiwis; in 1856 he was appointed molla of 
Galata; and in 1857 he attained Mecca rank in the 
judicial hierarchy. Meanwhile, during the war, he 
was made a member of a commission set up to 
compose a work on the prescriptions of the shari'a 
regarding commercial transactions, which was 
dissolved, however, after publishing only a Kitab 
al-Buyu'. In 1857 he was appointed to the Council 



AHMAD DJEWDET PASHA 



285 



of the tanzimat, taking a lead in the composition of 
a new criminal kanun-ndme, and, as a president of 
the ArS4i-yi Seniyye Komisyonu, participated in 
that of a frdnun-ndme on tapu. 

After the death of Reshid Pasha in 1858 it was 
suggested to Diewdet by c Ali and Fu'ad Pashas 
that he should abandon the learned profession in 
favour of the government service by accepting the 
wdltiik of Vidin. It was not for another eight years, 
however, that he took this step, although in the 
interval he was twice charged with important 
administrative missions as an "Extraordinary 
Commissioner", the first in the autumn of 1861 to 
Ishkodra, and the second (in company with a 
general commanding a division) in the summer of 
1865 to Rozan m the Taurus region, to pacify those 
areas by the introduction of needed reforms. So 
successful was he in the first that he was sent in 
March 1863 as miifettish, with the judicial rank of 
kddi-'-asker of Anatolia, to Bosnia, where he was 
again markedly successful during the ensuing eighteen 
months in restoring order. During this period he 
was also made a member, first of a commission 
appointe to reform the official newspaper Takwim-i 
Wakdyi', and secondly of the MedjHs-i Wala. His 
abandonment of the learned profession took place 
in Jan. 1866, when he ceased to be wak'-a-niiwis. 
His "learned" rank was then replaced by that of 
vizier, and he was appointed governor of the wildyet 
of Aleppo, as reconstituted under the Ordinance of 
wildyets. In Febr. 1868, however, he was recalled 
to the capital to become president of the Diwan-i 
Abkam-i '■Adliyyt, one of the two bodies that then 
replaced the Medjlis-i Wala, the other being the 
Shurd-vi Dewlet. It was chiefly owing to Djewdet's 
efforts in this post that the Nizami courts were 
instituted ; that this Diwdn was in due course divided 
into a Court of Appeal (Temyiz) and a Court of 
Cassation (Istr'ndf); and that the presidency was 
converted into a ministry. It was also during this 
his first term as a Minister of Justice that on the 
one hand Djewdet instituted law courses at the 
Ministry for the better instruction of judges and 
the improvement of judicial procedure, and, on the 
other, a beginning was made with the composition 
of a legal code (Medjelle [q.v.]) based on Hanafl 
/»'£*, under the auspices of a society for the purpose. 
In securing approval for such a code (that is one 
based on Islamic prescriptions) Diewdet had the 
support of Fu'ad and Shirwanl-zade Riishdu Pashas 
in opposition to c Ali Pasha, who favoured rather the 
adoption of the French Code Civile. 

Djewdet Pasha (as he now was) remained Minister 
of Justice up to the end of April 1870, by which 
time four volumes of the Medjelle had been published. 
Just as the fifth was completed, however, he was 
dismissed, and though appointed wdli of Brusa, was 
almost immediately relieved of that post also. He 
remained unemployed until August of the following 
year, when he was recalled to the presidency of the 
Medjelle society and of the tanzimat department of 
the Shurd-yi Dewlet. In the interval, as well as the 
fifth volume of the Medjelle, a sixth, in which 
Djewdet had had no hand, had been published. It 
was largely the deficiencies of this volume, which 
he at once superseded by a new version, that led to 
his recall; and from this date until the publication 
of the final volumes in 1877 he continued to supervise 
the composition of the code, though also otherwise 
employed in a variety of important offices, sometimes 
in the provinces. One of the chief of these was his 
appointment in April 1873 as Minister of Education, 



in which capacity he achieved a reform of the 
primary schools for boys (f ibydn mektebleri) ; drew up 
curricula for the Rushdiyye, and the still to be 
created I'dadiyye, schools — measures that neces- 
sitated the composition of new manuals of instruction, 
three of which he wrote himself ; and reorganized the 
Ddr al-Mu'allimin to meet the demands of these 
three educational grades. On 2 Nov. 1874, however, 
after the appointment as Grand Vizier of Hiiseyn 
c AwnI Pasha, who was apparently already medi- 
tating the deposition of Sultan 'Abd al- c Aziz, 
Djewdet was made wdli of Yanya (Jannina) in order 
to remove him, as a likely opponent of the move, 
from the capital; and it was not until June of the 
next year, after Huseyn c AwnI's fall, that he was 
restored to his former post. In Nov. 187s he became 
for the second time Minister of Justice, and as such 
secured the transference to his Ministry of the 
commercial courts, which had till then depended 
on the Ministry of Commerce. But he incurred the 
displeasure of Malimud Nedim Pasha, during the 
latter's second Grand Vizierate, by opposing his 
grant of customs concessions to foreign capitalists; 
and after first being sent on a tour of inspection 
through Rumelia in March 1876, he was dismissed 
from the Ministry of Justice and was on the point of 
proceeding to Syria as wdli, when on the fall of 
Mahmud Nedim he was for a third time made 
Minister of Education. 

Diewdet played no part in the deposition of c Abd 
al- c Az!z, which occurred at the end of May, and in 
November, after the accession of c Abd al-Hamld II, 
he returned to the Ministry of Justice. It was now 
that he and Midhat Pasha became permanently 
estranged, owing to what Midhat regarded as 
Djewdet's reactionary attitude to the constitution, 
in the discussions upon which the latter began by 
taking part. Yet throughout his Grand Vizierate 
Midljat maintained Djewdet in office; and it was 
only on Midhat's disgrace and replacement by 
Saklzll Edhem Pasha that Djewdet left it for newly 
created Ministry of the Interior. In this he remained 
until near the end of the war of 1877 with Russia, 
the involvement of the- Porte in which he disapproved, 
when after a short term as Minister of the Imperial 
Ewfrdf, he was for a second time appointed wdli of 
Syria. 

He remained in Syria nine months, during which, 
having special knowledge of the area, he repressed in 
person another revolt at Kozan. In December of 
the same year he was replaced by Midhat and 
recalled to the capital to preside over yet another 
ministry, that of Commerce. On the dismissal of the 
Grand Vizier Khavr al-DIn Pasha in Oct. 1879 
Djewdet acted for ten days as President of the 
Council of Ministers, and on the appointment of 
Kufiik Sa'Id Pasha he was for a fourth time made 
Minister of Justice. This was, so far, his longest term 
in that position, lasting three years. It was during 
it that Midhat was put on trial. Djewdet appears 
already to have denounced him as treacherously 
pro-Christian, and went out of his way, as ex-officio 
head of the body appointed to arrest Midhat and 
bring him to the capital, himself to travel for the 
purpose to Smyrna. 

His fourth tenure of the Ministry of Justice came 
to an end in Nov. 1882, on the appointment of 
Aljmed Wefik Pasha as Grand Vizier; and it was 
only in June 1886 that he was given office again, for 
the last time, in the same post. He held it on this 
occasion for four years, during which he also became 
one of the three members of the special conclaves 



AHMAD DJEWDET PASHA — AHMAD GRAN 



convened by c Abd al-Hamld for 
political problems, and presided over a commission 
set up to compose a firman embodying various 
modifications in the regulations for the govern- 
ment of Crete, introduced after the suppression of 
the rebellion of 1889. In May 1890 he resigned, 
owing to differences with the Grand Vizier Kamil 
Pasha; and thereafter played no further part in 
public affairs. During the last thirteen years of his 
life, nine of which were spent in retirement, he 
devoted most of his attention to literary work of 
various kinds, including the last volumes of the 
Ta'rikh. He died on 25 May 1895 after a short 
illness at his yall at Bebek. 

Djewdet Pasha, both in his conduct and in his 
works, exhibited a curious mixture of the progressive 
and the conservative. While he consistently advoca- 
ted the greater enlightenment of Ottoman society and 
fiercely condemned any manifestation of ignorance, 
bigotry and self-seeking in the ruling class and the 
erroneous beliefs prevalent among the people, his 
outlook was fundamentally shaped by his early 
medrese education. Whereas in the writings of his 
earlier years he criticizes the shortcomings of his 
contemporaries in a hopeful tone, those of his 
declining age exhibit a disillusionment with the 
tanzimdt, about which his language is often bitter. 
It would appear that this change of attitude was 
due at least in part to his quarrel with Midhat, who 
antagonized him in particular by mocking Djewdet's 
imperfect command of French and consequently of 
European thought. Thenceforth he would seem to 
have been more or less forced by events, and above 
all by the unhandsome part he played in connection 
with Midhat's trial, into a reactionary attitude, 
which harmonized all too well with the prevailing 
spirit of the Hamidian regime. 

Of Djewdet Pasha's numerous works the most 
important are historical. Apart from his Kisas-i 
Enbiyd we-Tawdrikh-i Khulefd. an educational com- 
pilation in 12 vols, (starting with Adam and ending 
with the sultan Murad II), which he composed 
towards the end of his life, and Kirlm we-Kawk&z 
Ta'rikhlesi (largely based on the Giilbun-u Khdndn 
of Hallm Giray), three deserve particular mention. 
These are (i) his Ta'rikh, commonly called Ta'rikh-i 
Djewdet. also in 12 vols., covering the period between 
1774 and 1826 (from the Treaty of Kuciik Kaynardja 
to the abolition of the Janissaries). Thirty years 
elapsed between his beginning and finishing it, 
during which his outlook altered with the great con- 
temporary changes that took place in Ottoman life. 
This is exemplified in particular by his adoption 
from vol. 6 onwards of a simpler, less traditional 
style. In most of the various editions brought out 
as the composition of the work progressed, while 
making corrections and additions, he followed his 
original plan. But in the final edition {tertib-i dfedid), 
completed between 1885 and 1891-2, the whole 
was more radically altered, so that in it, for 
instance, the original vol. 1 figures wholly as an 
introduction, (ii) The Tedhakir-i Djewdet. a collection 
of memoranda made by him on contemporary events 
as wak'a-nuwis and for the most part handed over 
by him to his successor Lutfi. Only four of those so 
handed over have survived. They have been published 
in OTEM, nos. 44-7 and in the Yeni Medimu'a, ii, 
454. The memoranda he retained are preserved in 
manuscript in the Sehir ve Inkilap Miizesi at Istanbul, 
but form the basis of his daughter Fatma 'Aliyye 
Khanim's Djewdet Pasha we-Zamani. (iii) His 
Ma'riiddt, a long series of observations submitted to 



<Abd al-Hamld at the sultan's request on the events 
of the period 1839 to 1876, in 5 parts, the 2nd, 3rd 
and 4th of which have been published in OTEM, 
nos. 78-80, 82, 84, 87-9, 9i-3- Part 1 appears to be 
lost. Part 5 deals with the fate of c Abd al- c Aziz. 
Djewdet's purely literary works date from his 
medrese days and are of little interest. Most of the 
poems that he collected at c Abd al-Hamid's request 
into a Diwdnie were composed at this early period. 
Of more consequence were his Turkish grammars: 
the KawdHd-i 'Othmdniyye (the first version of 
which he wrote in collaboration with Fu'ad Pasha 
in 1850) ; an introduction to the same work for 
primary schoolboys called Medkhal-i KawaHd; and 
a much simplified version of the first called KawdHd-i 
Tiirkiyye (1292/1875^. Other works are the Belaghat-i 
l Othmdniyye, a manual on eloquence composed for 
his students at the Law School; the Ta^wim-i 
Edwdr (1287/1870-1), in which the question of 
calendar reform was first raised; and his completion 
of Pirl-zade Mehmed Sa'ib's Turkish translation of 
the Mukaddima of Ibn Khaldun, by which .Djewdet's 
own historical writing was much influenced. The 
publication from 1862-3 of the collection of kdnuns 
called Diistur was also due to Djewdet's initiative; 
and, as has been indicated above, he took the lead 
in the composition of the Medielle-yi Ahkam-i 
l Adliyye. 

Bibliography: I A, s.v. Cevdet Pasa (by Ali 
Olmezoglu); Ebu'lula Mardin, Medent Hukuk 
Cephesinden Ahmet Cevdet Pasa, Istanbul Vniver- 
sitesi Hukuk Fakultesi Mecmuasi, 1947; Mahmut 
Cevat, Maarifi Umimiye Nezareti Tarihcei Teskildt 
ve Icraatl, i, 47, 52, 128, 136-9, 149, 163-72; 
Osman Ergin, Tiirhiye Maarif Tarihi, 316, 317, 
319, 370-1, 390-1 ; Ibniilemin Mahmut Kemal Inan, 
Son Asir Turk Sairleri, 236-40; idem, Osmanli 
Devrinde Son Sadrlazamlar, 345, 355, 387; I. H. 
Uzuncarslll, Midhat ve Rustu Pasalarin Tevki- 
flerine dair Vesikeler, index; M. Z. Pakalln, Son 
Sadrazamlar ve Basvekiller, i-ii, index; Diurdit 
Zaydan, Taradiim Mashahir al-Shark, ii, 190 f. 
(H. Bowen) 
AHMAD FARIS al-SHIDYAIJ. [see faris al- 

SH1DYAKJ. 

AHMAD fiHULAM KHALlL [see qhulam 

KHALiL]. 

AHMAD GRAN b. Ibrahim, leader of the 
Muslim conquest of Abyssinia, whence he 
was called sahib al-fath and al-ghdzi. The Amharans 
nicknamed him Gran 'the left-handed'. According 
to tradition he was of Somali origin. Born (c. 1506) 
in the Hubat district of the state of Adal he attached 
himself to al-Diardd Abun, leader of the militant 
party opposed to the pacific policy of the Walashma 1 
rulers towards Abyssinia. On Abun's death Ahmad 
became leader of the opposition, defeated and killed 
Sultan Abu Bakr b. Muhammad, and assumed the 
title of imam. His refusal to pay tribute to the 
Negus Lebna Dengel precipitated the war. After 
defeating the governor of Bali he welded his Somali 
and 'Afar troops into a powerful striking force, won 
a decisive victory over the Abyssinians at Shembera 
Kure (1529) and within two years had gained 
control of Shoa. Six more years of remarkable 
campaigns sufficed for him to conquer most of 
Abyssinia. But he was unable to consolidate his 
successes. The centrifugal forces working within his 
army of nomads and the setback given by the early 
successes of the Portuguese force which had arrived 
in 1542 after Lebna Dengel's death, led him to send 
to the Pasha of Zabld for disciplined musketeers. 



AHMAD GRAN — AHMAD KHAN 



*87 



With their aid he defeated the Portuguese, 
then sent away his mercenaries. The i 
Galawdewos, joining up with the Portuguese remnant, 
took the offensive and won a decisive victory at 
Zantera in 949/1543, when Ahmad's death in battle 
brought about the complete collapse of the nomad 

Bibliography: Shihab al-Din, Futuh al- 
Ifabasha, ed. R. Basset, 1897-1901; R. Basset, 
ktudes sur Vhistoire d'£thiopie, 1882; F. Beguinot, 
La Cronaca Abbreviata d'Abissinia, 1901 (cf. 
Rivista di Studi Etiopici, 1941, 94-103); C. Conti 
Rossini, Storia di Lebna Dengel, Rend. Lin., 1894; 
Miguel de Castanhoso, Dos Feitos de D. Christovam 
da Gama em Ethiopia, ed. Pereira, Lisbon 1898. 
(J. S. Trimingham) . 
AHMAD HIKMET (1870-1927), Turkish novel- 
ist and journalist, was surnamed MOfti-Zade, 
his ancestors having long served as muftis in the 
Peloponnese. Born in Istanbul on 3 June 1870, he 
began his career as a writer while still a pupil at the 
Galatasaray lycee. He entered the Foreign service 
after leaving school (1889) and held several consular 
and vice-consular appointments, until 1896, when 
he was transferred to the Foreign Office. He crowned 
a distinguished career by becoming director-general 
of the Consular department (1926). At the same time 
he had been teaching literature at his old school and, 
from 1910 onward, at the Dar iil-Funun. For a time 
he acted at Ankara as head of the cultural section 
of the Turk Ocaklarl. 

He wrote for Ikddm and Therwet-i Funun, but did 
not conform to the prevailing literary fashion: his 
style and themes were Turkish and he was a pioneer 
of the language reform movement. A volume of his 
stories was published under the title of Kharistan 
we-Gulistan (Istanbul 1317/1899-1900); German 
translations of three of these, by Fr. Schrader, were 
published as Tiirkische Frauen in vol. vii of Jacob's 
Tiirkische Bibliothek, Berlin 1907. Some of his later 
writings appeared as a volume entitled Caghlayanlar , 
Istanbul 1922. His subtle humour is best exhibited 
in his monologues, a genre which he introduced into 
Turkish literature. He died at Istanbul on 20 May 
1927. 

Bibliography: Schrader's introduction to his 
translation (see above); Turk Yurdu, 1927, no. 30; 
I A, s.v. (by A. H. Tanpinar); F. Tevetoglu, 
Biiyiik Tiirkfii Mujtiioglu Ahmed Hikmet, Ankara 
1951, critically reviewed by H. Dizdaroglu in 
Turk Dili, 1952, 429-31. 

(F. Giese-G. L. Lewis) 
AHMAD IHSAN (Ahmet Ihsan Tokgoz), 
Turkish author and translator, was born in 
Erzurum on 24 Dhu'l-Hidjdja 1285/7 April 1869. 
Passing out from the school of administration 
(Miilkiyye) at the age of 17, he was appointed inter- 
preter to the Commander-in-Chief of the artillery, 
but soon abandoned this post, despite strong family 
opposition, to become a journalist. At the age of 
18 he founded a shortlived fortnightly, 'Umran, and 
at the same time embarked on his career as a trans- 
lator of French novels, including many of the works 
of Jules Verne and Alphonse Daudet. While working 
as a translator on the staff of Therwet, a Constan- 
tinople evening newspaper, he conceived the idea 
of publishing a weekly illustrated magazine. He 
persuaded his Greek employer to let him bring out 
•a scientific supplement to the paper, under the 
title of Therwet-i Funun. A year later, this acquired 
a separate existence under the ownership of Ahmad 
Ihsan. The first issue, in March 1889, was described 



as "an illustrated Ottoman newspaper" devoted to 
"literature, science, art, biography, travel and 
novels". The new review for the most part fought 
shy of politics. Realizing the potentialities of an 
illustrated magazine as a propaganda weapon, the 
authorities at first gave it every assistance, including 
financial subsidies, but this support was soon trans- 
ferred to another illustrated paper, Baba Tahir's 
Musawwar MaHumat. Therwet-i Fiinun continued to 
devote itself to making known and imitating the 
intellectual life of the west, especially of France. 
Almost all the young literary men of the time wrote 
for it: Ekrem Bey, Khalid Diya (Ziya), Ahmad Rasim 
and Nabi-zade Nazim were among the regular con- 
tributors and in 1896 Tewfik Fikret was given full 
editorial control. But in 1901 he quarrelled with 
Ihsan and resigned; their estrangement lasted till 
1907. In 1901 a worse disaster befell: the sultan's 
anger was roused against the paper because of a 
translation by Huseyn Djahid of a French article, 
some sentences in which touched on the French 
Revolution and were held to be seditious. Therwet-i 
Fiinun was closed down for some weeks but then 
reappeared, thanks to the influence of Mehmed 
'Arif, a member of the Palace staff who had been 
at school with Ihsan. But all the writers who had 
worked for the paper severed their connection with 
it, and although Ihsan continued to publish it the 
old enthusiasm was gone. 

Ihsan's original literary production was not out- 
standing. An account of his travels in Europe was 
published in 1891, and under the title of Matbuat 
Hatlralart, Istanbul 1930-1. 

Late in life he became a member of the Grand 
National Assembly and died in 1942. 

Bibliography: 0. Hachtmann, Die tiirkische 

Literatur des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts, Leipzig 

1916, 58; 1. A. Govsa, Turk Meshurlari Ansiklope- 

disi, Istanbul 1946, 383. 

(K. SCssheim-G. L. Lewis) 

AHMAD KHAN, educational reformer and 
founder of Islamic modernism in India 
(1817-98). Ahmad Khan (often called after his two 
titles of honour Sir Sayyid) sprang from an ancient 
Muslim family of high nobility. His forefathers 
came from Persia and Afghanistan, settled down 
in India about the reign of Shah Djahan (1628-66), 
and became closely connected with the Mughal Court. 
He was born on 6 Dhu'l-Hidjdja 1232/17 Oct. 1817 at 
Delhi. His mother, a sensible woman, gave him a 
good education, but the schooling he had was no more 
than that taught in a maktab. On the death of his 
father Mir Muttaki in 1838, the emoluments from 
fictitious posts at the Court stopped, and Ahmad 
Khan had to seek his livelihood. He entered the 
service of the East India Company and had to 
content himself with a minor clerical appointment 
in the court of justice at Delhi. Soon, however, his 
industry and sense of duty were rewarded with 
promotion to the rank of munsif (sub-judge). 

To his first literary products belong half a dozen 
religious treatises, mainly in defence of Sunni belief. 
More important are the historical and archeological 
studies he published in this period. The best known 
of them is the work on the old buildings and monu- 
ments in Delhi and its environs Athar al-Sanddid 
(1847). Its translation into French by Garcin de 
Tassy in 1861 won him fame. Three years later on 
he was elected an honorary Fellow of the Royal 
Asiatic Society of London. 

A second decisive change of his life and outlook 
was effected by the Indian Revolution, known as 



AHMAD KHAN — AHMAD AI.-MANSUR 



the Mutiny (1857). The unhappy outcome of it, 
especially for the Indian Muslims, decided him to 
work for the future of his compatriots, in the first 
place by earnest attempts at reconciliation between 
the British and the Indian Muslims, who, rather 
than the Hindus, were considered to have been the 
actual rebels. Ahmad Khan, who himself had 
proved his loyalty to his government by saving the 
European colony in Bidjnawr through personal 
intercession, wrote two treatises to calm the resulting 
passions, viz. Asbdb Baghawat Hind, 1858, and Loyal 
Muhammadans of India, 1 860-1. He put the blame 
on both sides, and in his opinion the Mutiny was 
caused by the Indian people's misunderstanding of 
English rule as well as by the government's ignorance 
of- the conditions of the ruled. 

Keeping aloof from political agitation he sought 
the uplift of his nation with spiritual means derived 
from 19th century European mode of life. On a 
visit to England (1869-70), he had been much 
impressed by the standard of civilization of the 
ordinary Englishman. Back in India he started a 
periodical Tahdhib al-Akhldk with the object of 
educating the public by removing prejudices. His 
next and still more admirable achievement was the 
establishment of a Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental 
College at AUgarh ([?.».] 1878), modelled after 
Oxford and Cambridge (in 1920 raised to the rank 
of a university). Thirdly he instituted The Muham- 
madan Educational Conference (1886), which held 
annual meetings in various cities and afforded 
opportunities for exchange of thought and propa- 
gation of reforming ideas. 

Ahmad Khan perceived that in the process of 
westernization religious ideas needed to be recon- 
sidered. In a speech at Lahore (1884) he argued: 
"To-day we are, as before (i.e. when Islam came into 
close contact with the Greek world of ideas), in need 
of a modern Him al-kaldm, by which we should 
either refute the doctrines of the modem sciences 
or undermine their foundations, or show that they 
are in conformity with the articles of Islamic faith". 
The last way of approach, however, gained so much 
the upperhand in his own re-interpretation of Islam, 
that it was felt to injure the specific character of 
religion, in spite of his sincere intentions to counter 
■secularism. The axiom of his theology was the 
adage: "The Work of God (Nature and its fixed 
laws) is identical with the Word of God (Kur'an)". 

A violent reaction was provoked in the camp of 
the 'ulamd, who heaped abuse on him as a Neiari 
<Urduized form of Naturist), and fiercely attacked 
his demythologizing of the Kur'an and his teaching 
about the du'a (the effect of it would be merely 
psychological, i.e. of setting the mind at rest, and 
not "real", in the sense of exerting any influence 
on the divine decrees), but in the end his tenacity 
and disinterested work for the welfare of his people 
overpowered the opposition. About the eighties he 
became the acknowledged leader of his community. 
This found expression, when in 1887 he advised the 
Muslims not to join the National Congress and the 
bulk of them followed his advice. His loyalty to the 
British was rewarded by nomination in 1878 as a 
member of the Viceregal Legislative Council and 
his appointment in 1888 to be a Knight Commander 
of the Star of India; in 1889 he received an honorary 
degree from the University of Edinburgh. 

He rendered great services to his countrymen 
in the field of social and educational reform; but also 
his significance as a religious reformer is not to be 
neglected. In a mitigated form his modernistic 



views re-emerge regularly in writings of the present 
generation. The greatest benefit, however, which 
Ahmad Khan rendered to his country was that he 
restored the despairing Muslims of his age to faith 
in themselves. In this respect — and not for the 
communalism imputed to him — he may be regarded 
as a forerunner of Pakistan. 

Bibliography: (a) His main writings 
(beside the above-mentioned): a Bible commen- 
tary Tabyin al-Kaldm, 1862; Essays on the Life 
of Mohammed, 1870 (cf. Noldeke, in Academy, i, 
312-4); Review on the Book of Dr. Hunter, 1872; 
Tafsir al-Kur>an, 1880-95. (b) On his life 
and work: Urdu biography by Alfaf Husayn, 
called Hill, Haydt Di&wid, 1901 ; J. M. S. Baljon 
jr, The Reforms and Religious Ideas of Sir Sayyid 
Ahmad Kh&n. 1949 (with a full bibliography); 
A. H. al-Biruni, Makers of Pakistan, 1950, 1-60; 
G. F. I. Graham, Life and Work of Syed Ahmad 
Khan, 1885. (J. M. S. Baljon Jr.) 

AtfMAD KOPRt)Lt). [See koprOlO]. 
AQMAD al-MANSCR, sixth sovereign of 
the Moroccan dynasty of the Sa'dids [?.».], 
son of the second sultan of the dynasty, Muhammad 
al-Shaykh al-Mahdl (d. 964/1557), was bom at Fez 
in 956/I549- He held various military commands, 
but was driven into exile at Algiers with his elder 
brother, c Abd al-Malik. The latter, on acceding to 
the throne in 983/1576, designated Ahmad as his heir 
presumptive. Two years later Ahmad took part in 
the famous battle of Wadi 'l-Makhazin, in the 
vicinity of al-Kasr al-Kabir [q.v.] in the N.W. of 
Morocco. This battle, which took place on the last 
day of Djumada I 986/4 August 1578, ended dis- 
astrously for the troops of King Sebastian of Por- 
tugal, who was killed, while a great number of 
Portuguese noblemen were taken prisoner. In his 
turn, the sultan c Abd al-Malik, who was very ill, 
died in his litter during the battle. The same day 
Ahmad was proclaimed sultan by the victorious 
troops, to whom he promised pay and rewards; he 
took the honorific lakab of al-Mansur, "the vic- 

The new sovereign acceded to the throne under 
the most favorable auspices. From all sides, felici- 
tations poured in, from the Grand Turk, the pasha of 
Algiers, even from Spain and France. Nevertheless 
he had to overcome many difficulties at home; these 
he faced with skill and energy, reinforced by the 
considerable sums which he realized by the ransom 
of the prisoners of Wadi 'l-Makhazin. With this 
money he engaged, in the customary manner of 
Islamic rulers, a reliable bodyguard commanded by 
morisco officers and organized in the Turkish 
fashion, and built fortifications in Taza, Fez and 
the kasaba of Marrakush. At the same time, he 
turkicised to a certain degree his court and admi- 
nistration {makhzen [q.v.]), as well as his military 
cadres, under the command of beys and pashas. He 
also had to repress various troubles stirred up by 
the Arab tribes and to overcome the opposition of 
some members of his family who rose against him. 
But in general, Ahmad's reign, which lasted for a 
quarter of a century, was peaceful and allowed 
Morocco, at last, to enjoy for a time a relative 
tranquillity. 

It was in foreign affairs that Ahmad al-Mansur 
showed real diplomatic talent. We have ample 
materials at our disposal for estimating his abilities 
in the incomparable collection of documents made 
by H. de Castries in his Sources inidites de I'histoire 
du Maroc. First of all, the sultan had to give some 



AHMAD al-MANSOR — AHMAD MIDHAT 



289 



pledges to the Porte, without completely yielding 
to its demands; then he had to negotiate with 
Philip II of Spain, and he did this in such a way that 
Spain achieved no positive results. On the contrary, 
the practically-minded sultan encouraged the deve- 
lopment of smuggling, or even piracy. In 1585 a 
"Barbary Company" was founded by British 
merchants in order to monopolize the external trade 
of Morocco. After the destruction of the Armada in 
1588, Ahmad al-Mansur gave up the friendship with 
Spain and entered into relations with Queen Eli- 
sabeth. 

To Ahmad's credit stands also the conquest of the 
Sudan, which, though it was ephemeral, gained for 
this ruler, greedy for riches, a considerable booty in 
gold and procured him his second surname of al- 
Dhahabl, "the golden". It was prepared by recon- 
noitring and the conquest of the oases of Tuwat 
(Touat) and Tigurarin in 990/1581 and was decided 
upon by the advice of al-Mansur's Morisco general 
staff. It is related in detail by all the historians of 
the Sa'did dynasty and by 'three Sudanese chronicles. 
The expedition, commanded by the pasha Djawdhar, 
left Marrakush in the autumn of 999/1590 and 
reached, not without difficulties, the Niger three 
months later. The Sudanese askia of Gao, Ishak, 
after a battle near that town, had to ask for peace 
and shortly afterwards the Moroccan troops entered 
Timbuktu [q.v.]. After the pasha Djawdhar had been 
replaced in his command by another morisco officer, 
Mahmud Zarkun, the conquest of the whole country 
was continued, while the most important fakihs of 
Timbuktu, amongst them Ahmad Baba [?.«.], were 
deported to Marrakush. Thereafter, for some years, 
there was an incessant afflux of gold and captives 
to the Sa'did capital. 

Ahmad al-Mansur, who hardly left Marrakush 
during the whole of his reign, wanted to build 
there a residence worthy of himself: the palace 
called al-Kasr al-BadI c , the construction of which 
was begun soon after his accession and lasted for 
about twenty years. This sumptuous mansion was 
later mutilated by the sultan Mawlay IsmaHl. At 
the same time, the Moroccan ruler made a point 
of assembling a literary court, in which shone 
various writers, especially the secretary of the 
chancery, e Abd al- e AzIz al-Fishtall [q.v.], author of 
a panegyrical chronicle, Mandhil al-$afa } . 

The last years of Ahmad al-Mansur's reign were 
troubled by the intrigues of his sons to obtain the 
succession, and by an epidemic of cholera which 
began, from 1007/1598-9 onwards, to decimate the 
population of the capital. Deserting Marrakush to 
escape the scourge, the sultan went to the north of 
the country, and soon after his arrival at Fez he 
died there on n Rabl* I 1012/20 August 1603. His 
body was transferred to Marrakush and buried in 
the sumptuous mausoleum which he had built 
for himself and his family and which still exists. 
Bibliography: Arabic sources enumerated 
in Levi-Provencal, Chorfa: Ifranl; Fishtail; Ibn 
al- Kadi, al-Muntaka al-Maksur ; Anonymous chron- 
icle (ed. by G. S. Colin, Rabat 1934) ; Nasirl, IsUksS\ 
Cairo 131 2 (translated by the son of the author 
in AM, xxxiv, Paris 1936). European sources: 
H. de Castries, Les sources itUdites de I'histoire 
du Maroc, 1st series, i-v. See also EI 1 , iii, 250 8., 
and the bibliography of the articles sa'dids and 

SOdAN. (E. LfiVI-PROVKNfAL) 

AHMAD MIDBAT, Ottoman Turkish wri- 
ter, was born in Istanbul in 1260/1844, the son of 
a poor draper called Sulayman Agha and a Circassian 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



mother. He lost his father in early childhood, and 
was for a while apprenticed to a shopkeeper. When 
he was 10 years old the family moved to Vidin, 
where his half-brother Hafiz Agha was the mudir of 
a kadi. Hafiz, however, fell into disgrace, and in 
1859 Ahmed returned to Istanbul, where he began 
his schooling. In 1277/1861 Hafiz Agha, having won 
the favour of Midhat Pasha, was reinstated and 
given an appointment in Nish, to which he brought 
the family. Ahmed entered the Riishdiyye school 
there, and graduated in 1280/1863. In 1281/1864, 
when Midhat Pasha took over the newly constituted 
wildyet of Tuna, the family followed him to its 
capital, Ruscuk, where Ahmed was apprenticed as 
a clerk in the provincial chancery {wildyet mektubi 
kalemi). While working, he continued his studies 
privately, and also studied French and western 
knowledge under the guidance of a Christian col- 
league. He won the favour of Midhat Pasha, who 
gave him his own name, and, after appointing him 
to various offices, made him, at the age of 24 or 25, 
editor-in-chief of the wildyet newspaper Tuna. In 
1285/1868, when Midhat Pasha became wdli of 
Baghdad, Ahmad Midhat followed him there, taking 
charge of the government printing-press and news- 
paper (Zawra'). During his stay in Baghdad he 
continued his private studies, and began to write 
school-books and stories. In 1288/1871 his brother 
Hafiz, who had meanwhile become mutasarrif of 
Basra, died, and Ahmed returned with the whole 
family to Istanbul. Abandoning the state service, 
he devoted himself entirely to writing and printing. 
For several years he contributed articles to various 
papers, and also ran a printing-press where he him- 
self printed and published his numerous books. His 
journalistic activities brought him into an apparently 
fortuitous association with the Young Ottomans, and 
in 1289/1872 he was arrested and summarily exiled 
to Rhodes, together with Abu'1-DiyS Tewflk. 
There he wrote a number of books, some of which 
were published in Istanbul under a pseudonym. In 
1293/1876, after the deposition of Sultan c Abd al- 
c Aziz, he was pardoned, and returned to Istanbul, 
where he resumed his activities as a writer and 
printer. His cautious attitude during the following 
months won him the good will of Sultan c Abd al- 
Hamld, and in 1294/1877, after publishing the 
Uss-i Inkildb (an historical justification of «Abd 
al-Hamld's accession), he was given the directorship 
of the official gazette and printing-press. This led 
to a permanent breach with the Young Ottomans. 
During the reign of c Abd al-Hamld he held various 
state offices, and from 1295/1878 onwards edited 
the Terdiumdn-i Ifakikat, a periodical of some 
importance in the intellectual history of that time. 
In the summer of 1888 he went as official Ottoman 
representative to the International Congress of 
Orientalists in Stockholm, and spent some 3*/j months 
in Europe. (This trip is described in his Awrupada 
bir Djeweldn, Istanbul 1307/1891.) 

In 1908, after the Young Turk revolution, he was 
retired from his official positions under the age- 
limit, and was subjected to vigorous attacks. He 
attempted to resume the literary work which he 
had long since sacrificed to his official career, but 
abandoned the attempt in the face of hostile opinion 
and altered tastes. For a few years he held teaching 
posts at the University, the Woman Teachers' 
Training College, and the School for Preachers. He 
died in Muharram 1331/Dec. 1912-Jan. 1913. 

Besides playing an important role in the develop- 
ment of Turkish journalism in the 19th century, 



AHMAD MIDHAT — AHMAD al-NASIRI 



Ahmed Midhat also wrote an enormous number of 

books, estimated at about 150. These fall into two 

main groups, fiction and popularised knowledge. 

His novels and short stories, many of them first 

published as serials in periodicals, were widely read 

among the generation of Turks that grew up under 

the tanfim&t, and played no small part in, developing 

new tastes and interests among a public still entirely 

unacquainted with western literary forms and 

aspirations. His novels were in every sense popular, 

simple in both style and sentiment, intended to 

entertain and sometimes also to instruct a reader of 

unsophisticated and unliterary tastes. Some are 

romances of adventure, others deal with his own 

and the immediately preceding periods, and at 

times manage to achieve a certain liveliness and 

realism. Afcmed Midhat was much influenced by 

the French popular novelists, and also translated a 

number of their works. Apart from fiction he wrote 

or adapted a considerable number of popular and 

semi-popular works on history, philosophy, religion, 

ethics, science, and other subjects, the purpose of 

which was to bring modern European knowledge to 

his compatriots in a simple and attractive form. The 

most important of his historical works are Uss-i 

Inkildb (2 vols., 1294-5/1877-8), already cited, and 

Zubdet ul-lfaka'ik (1295/1878), an attempt to explain 

the Turkish defeat in the war of 1877-8. He also 

wrote a universal history in 3 volumes (1303-5/ 

1880-2), and a series of separate histories of European 

countries {Kd'indt, 14 vols, 1292-1303/1871-1881). 

Bibliography: IA, s.v. (by Sabri Esat Siya- 

vusgil), on which much of the foregoing is based. 

Further Turkish publications are cited there. A 

contemporary judgment will be found in 'Abd 

al-Rahman Sheref's obituary notice, published in 

TOEM, 3rd year, 1328 [sic], 1113-9. See further 

P. Horn, Geschichte der Tiirkischen Moderne, 

Leipzig, [1st ed. 1902] 1909, 12-30; Babinger, 

389-91 ; O. Hachtmann, Die tiirkische Literatur 

des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts, Leipzig, 1916. For 

two sharply contrasted judgments by European 

contemporaries see M. Hartmann, Unpolitische 

Brief e aus der Tiirkei, Leipzig 1910, 70, 208; 

J. 0strup, Erindringer, Copenhagen 1937, 41-44- 

(B. Lewis) 
AHMAD b. Khalid b. Hammad al-NA$IR1 al- 
SALAWl, Abu'l <Abbas Shihab al-DIn, Moroccan 
historian, born at Sale (Sala) 22 Dhu'l-Hidjdja 
1250/20 April 1835, died in the same town 16 Djuma- 
da I 1315/13 Oct. 1897. The genealogy of this writer 
descends in a direct line from the founder of the 
Moroccan brotherhood of the Nasiriyya, Ahmad b. 
Nasir, who was buried at his zdwiya at Tamgrut in 
the valley of WadI Dar'a (Dra). He pursued his 
studies at Sale, and, without neglecting his religious 
and juridical studies, delved deeply into Arabic 
profane literature. At the age of about 40, Ahmad 
al-Nasiri entered the judicial branch of the Sharlfl 
administration as a notary or as a steward of State 
lands. Intermittently, he held relatively important 
posts. He lived first at Dar al-Bayda' (Casablanca), 
from 1292-3/1875-6, and had two periods of residence 
at Marrakush, where he was employed in the Steward's 
department of the royal household. Later, he lived 
for a time at al-Djadida (Mazagan), as a customs 
official. He then stayed successively at Tangier and 
Fez, and, at the end of his life, returned to his native 
town, where he devoted himself to teaching. At his 
death, he was buried in the cemetery at Sale situated 
outside the gate known as Bab Ma'allaka. In short, 
al-Nasiri was a minor official under the Sharlfs, and 



at the same time a man of letters and a historian. 
Apart from his historical writing, which gained him 
a name even outside Morocco, he left several works 
which without doubt would have sufficed to draw 
attention to him and to assure him an honourable 
place among contemporary Maghrib! men of letters. 
These are, in addition to six short works (Chorfa, 
P- 353 n- 1); 1) a commentary on the Shamak- 
makiyya, a poem by Ibn al-Wannan, which he called 
Zahr al-Afndn min Hadikat Ibn al-Wannan (litho- 
graphed at Fas in 1314/1896); 2) a survey of the 
schisms and heresies of Islam, entitled Ta'-zim al- 
Minna bi-Nusrat al-Sunna (Ms. Rabat ; cf . Catalogue, i, 
23); 3) a monograph on the alleged sharlfl house 
of the Nasiriyya, to which he himself belonged, 
entitled Taf-at al-Mushtari fi'l-Nasab al-Qia'-farx 
(lithographed at Fas; French summary by M.Bodin, 
La Zaouia de Tamagrout, Archives Berbires, 1918). 
This work, which the author completed in 1309/1881, 
is an excellent history of the zdwiya of Tamgrut, 
containing a great deal of interesting information 
which compensates for the lengthy arguments by 
which the author seeks to demonstrate the authen- 
ticity of the family's genealogy. 

The major work of Ahmad al-Nasiri is the Kitdb 
al-Istiksd li-Akhbdr Duwal al- Maghrib al-Aksd. Its 
publication was an unprecedented event in Maghribi 
historiography. The author produced, not a chronicle 
of limited scope, but a general history of his country, 
printed, moreover, in the Orient. Hailed, ever since 
its appearance, by the orientalists of Europe, this 
work speedily attracted the attention of the North 
African historians, who frequently had recourse to 
it in the course of their studies — the more so when 
a French translation, in the Archives Marocaines, 
rendered the last part of the work, containing the 
history of the 'Alid dynasty, available even to non- 
Arabists. 

It was quickly realised that this chronicle was 
akin to other productions of western Arab historio- 
graphy; it was no more than a compilation, the main 
virtue of which was to have combined in a connected 
narrative the fragments of political history scattered 
throughout the chronicles and the biographical 
anthologies previously produced in the country. But 
it must be recognized that al-Nasiri was the first of 
his countrymen to deal exhaustively with a subject 
which his predecessors had treated only in part. 
This however, was not his original aim. Elsewhere 
(Chorfa, 357-60) it has been explained that the 
starting-point for the compilation of the Kitdb al- 
Istiksd was a work of considerable length on the 
Marlnid dynasty of Morocco, composed mainly with 
the aid of the historical works of Ibn Abl Zar e and 
Ibn Khaldun, and entitled Kashf aW-Arin fi Luyuth 
Bani Marin. His successive transfers from one 
capital of Morocco to another enabled him to ex- 
tend his knowledge of the sources for the history 
of other Moroccan dynasties, and he conceived the 
idea of writing a full history of Morocco. He com- 
pleted his work on 15 Djumada II 1298/15 May 1881, 
and dedicated it to the reigning prince Sultan 
Mawlay al-Hasan, but received no reward for his 
action. On the death of this ruler, the author decided 
to have his history printed at Cairo, after bringing 
it down to the accession of Sultan Mawlay <Abd 
al-'AzIz, and the Istiksd duly appeared at Cairo in 
four volumes in 1312/ 1894. 

For an analysis of the Arabic historical sources 
of al-Nasiri, and for a list of the works from which 
he adapted or quoted verbatim numerous passages, 
the work previously cited should be consulted. It is 



AHMAD al-NASIRI — AHMAD PASHA BONNEVAL 



291 



sufficient to say here that, apart from documenting 
his work from the Arabic sources, he was the first 
Moroccan chronicler to call on European sources 
which, however, only became known to him by 
chance. These were the history of Mazagan under 
Portuguese domination, entitled Memorias para 
kistoria de praca de Mazagao, by Luis Maria do 
Conto de Albuquerque de Cunba, Lisbon 1864, and 
Description historica de Marruecos y breve resena de 
sus dinastias, by Manuel P. Castellanos, Santiago 
1878; Orihuela 1884; Tangier 1898. 

In the presentation of his history, al-Nasiri 
follows the usual method of his fellow-countrymen 
but he does occasionally demonstrate a critical sense. 
On the whole, however, he gives the impression of 
being a historian by accident, but a man of letters 
by vocation. Sometimes he gives indication of 
considerable intellectual independence and breadth 
of outlook. His style is lucid and polished, and he 
rarely resorts to the artificial use of metaphor and 
rhymed prose. He gives the impression of being the 
modern Moroccan historian who has perhaps handled 
his language with the greatest ease and elegance. 
Vol. iv of the Arabic edition of the Istiksd has 
been translated by E. Fumey, with the title of 
Chronique de la dynastie '■alaouie au Maroc, in 
Archives Marocaines, Vols, ix and x, Paris 1906-7. 
The remainder has been translated in the same 
journal, Vols, xxx ff., Paris, 1923-35, by 
A. Graulle, G. S. Colin, I. Hamet and the sons of 
the historian himself. 

Bibliography: Levi-Provencal, Chorfa, 350- 
368; Brockelmann, S II, 888-9 (new edition of 
al-Istiksa, Rabat 1954-) (E. L£vi-Provencal) 
AHMAD PAfiHA, Ottoman governor of 
Baghdad, son of Hasan Pasha [q.v.], also governor 
of Baghdad. In 1715 he was appointed governor of 
Shahrizur and Kirkuk, and subsequently of Basra; 
in 1719 he was made vizier. After the death of his 
father (at the beginning of 1724) he was appointed 
governor of Baghdad and charged with the conti- 
nuation of the expedition undertaken by the former 
against the Persians. In the spring of 1724 he took 
Hamadan, and although he was defeated (owing to 
the desertion of the Kurdish chieftains) by Ashraf, 
the Ghalzay ruler of Persia, he achieved in 1727 
favourable terms, acquiring foi the Ottoman 
empire Kirmanshah, Hamadan, Tabriz, Rawan, 
Nakhitewan and Tiflis. After losing these conquests 
to the §afawid Tahmasp, Ahmad Pasha undertook 
another campaign and captured Kirmanshah and 
Ardalan, and in 1732, after winning the battle of 
Kuridjan, reached Hamadan. By the treaty of 1732, 
some of the conquered territories were kept by the 
Ottomans, others returned to Persia. Hostilities, 
however, were soon resumed and Ahmad Pasha 
had to defend Baghdad itself from Nadir Shah. In 
1733 he was made governor of Basra in addition to 
Baghdad. The following year he was transferred 
first to the governorship of Aleppo, then to that of 
Rakka. After the death of Koprulu-zade <Abd Allah 
Pasha, he, though retaining the governorship of 
Rakka, was made commander-in-chief in the east and 
succeeded in reaching an armistice with Nadir Shah. 
He was appointed governor of Baghdad for the second 
time, and was engaged, in addition to the Persian 
affairs, in subduing rebellious tribes. He died in 
1747, on his return from an expedition against the 
Baban ruler Sallm, and was buried at the side of 
his father near the tomb of Abu IJanlfa. He had 
governed Baghdad first for a period of eleven, and 
on the second occasion for twelve years. 



Bibliography : Rashid, Ta'rikh, iv, 57; 
Celebi-zade 'Asim (continuation of the fcimer), 
Istanbul 1282, passim; SamI, Shakir and Subhl, 
Ta'rikh, Istanbul 1198, passim; <Izzi, Ta'rikh, 
Istanbul 1199, passim; Katib Celebi, Takwim al- 
Tawdrikh, Istanbul 1146, 153 ff.; Nazml-zade 
Murtada, Gulshen-i Khuleid' (MS of M. Cavid 
Baysun; the passage on Ahmad Pasha not in 
printed ed.); Dawhat al-Wuzard' (continuation of 
former), Baghdad 1246, index; Niebuhr, Voyage 
en Arabie, ii, 254-6; Sidiill-i 'Othmani, i, 250, ii, 
149; Hammer- Purgstall, index; C. Huart, Histoire 
de Bagdad, 145-6; S. H. Longrigg, Four Centuries 
of Modern Iraq, 75, 127 f., 131-62, 165 f., 346. 
(M. Cavid Baysun) 
AflMAD PASHA, SARA, Ottoman grand- 
vizier under Sulayman I. He was of Albanian 
origin, was educated in the palace and rose to the 
posts of kapidil bashi, mir-i 'alem and (in 927/1521) 
agha of the Jannisaries. He was appointed beylerbeyi 
of Rumelia and took part in the campaign in 
Hungary, taking (950/1543) Valpo and Sikl6s and 
being present at the capture of Esztergom (Usturgun, 
Gran) and Szekesfehervar (Estun-i Belghrad, Stuhl- 
weissenburg). In 955/1548 he was appointed com- 
mander-in-chief against the Persians and raised to 
the rank of second vizier. He put the Persians to 
flight in 1549 near Kamakh and took numerous 
fortresses in E. Anatolia and Georgia. After the loss 
of Lippa in Hungary (959/1552) and the vain siege 
of Temesvar (Temshwar) by Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, 
he was transferred to the post of commander-in- 
chief in Hungary and took Temesvar (defended by 
Stephan Losonczy) after a siege of 35 days. Sub- 
sequently he captured Szolnok, but was unsuccessful 
in the siege of Eger (Eghri, Erlau) undertaken by 
him together with Sokollu. During the war against 
Shah Tahmasp (960/1553) Sulayman deposed the 
grandvizier Rustam Pasha and appointed in his 
stead Ahmad Pasha. The latter took part in the 
campaigns of Nakhicewan and Karabagh. After the 
treaty of Amasya (1555) which ended the war, and 
the sultan's return to Istanbul, Ahmad was arrested 
during a meeting of the diwdn and decapitated 
(13 Dhu'l-Ka'da 962/28 Sept. 1555). Though the 
reason given was his intrigue against 'AH Pasha, 
governor of Egypt, the sultan's main motive seems 
to have been his wish to reappoint Rustam Pasha, 
his son-in-law, to the grand-vizierate. — According to 
Hadikat al-Djawami'; i, 143; Sidiill-i 'Othmani, i, 
259, Ahmad Pasha married Fatima Sultan, daughter 
of Selim I. He began to build a mosque near Top 
Kapl, which was, however, finished only after his 
death. 

Bibliography: Djelal-zade Mustafa, Tabakdt 
al-Masalik, MS; Djelal-zade Saiih, Siileymdn- 
name, MS; Rustem Pasha, Tawdrikh-i Al-i 
'Othman, MS; Luffl Pasha, Ta'rikh, Istanbul 1341, 
323-453; 'All, Kunh al-AkJtbdr, MS, Universite 
Kutiiph. no. 2290/32, fol. 317; Petewl, Ta'rikh, 
i, 24, 247-343; Solak-zade, Ta'rikh, Istanbul 1297, 
504-34; Munedjdjim-bashi, Sahd'if al-Akhbar, 
Istanbul 1285, iii, 497-506; Katib Celebi, Takwim 
al-Tawdrikh, Istanbul 1146, 121, 176, 236; t Othman- 
zade Ahmad Ta'ib, Hadikat al-Wuzard', Istanbul 
1271, 31; Aywansarayl tfiiseyn, Hadikat al-Dja- 
wdmi', Istanbul 1281, i, 141-3; Sidjill-i '■Othmani, 
i, 198-9, 259; Hammer- Purgstall, passim; Busbecq, 
Litterae Turcicae. (M. Cavid Baysun) 

AHMAD PASHA BONNEVAL. Claude-Alex- 
andre Comte de Bonneval was born in 1675 into a 
noble family of the Limousin. After serving with 



AHMAD PASHA BONNEVAL — AHMAD PASHA GEDIK 



great distinction in the French army at the begin- 
ning of the War of the Spanish Succession, in 1704, 
regarding himself as insulted, he changed sides and 
soon won a European reputation as a general in 
the Austrian service under Eugene of Savoy in a 
succession of campaigns against his own countrymen, 
the Pope, and finally the sultan, being wounded at 
Peterwardein in 17 16 and participating in the siege 
of Belgrade in the following year. He later, however, 
fell out with Eugene and, after being imprisoned for 
a year, in 1727 fled to Venice, whence, after offering 
his services in vain to various powers inimical to 
Austria, he resolved to place them at the disposal 
of Ahmed III. In 1729 he accordingly travelled by 
way of Ragusa to Bosna Sarayl, where, to avoid 
being extradited to Austria, he turned Muslim, 
taking the name Ahmed; and after the accession of 
Mahmud I was first given a daily allowance while 
resident at Gumuldjine in Thrace, and then, in Sept. 
1 73 1, summoned by the grand Vizier Topal 'Othman 
Pasha, who aimed at training the Ottoman army on 
European lines, to reform the odjak of the khum- 
baradiis. Although on 'Othmart Pasha's fall in the 
following April, Bonneval was at first neglected by 
his successor Heklm-oghlu C A1I Pasha, in 1733 the 
latter sought his advice on the course to be followed 
by the Porte in relation to the problem of the 
Polish succession, and in Jan. 1735 appointed him 
Khumbaradil Bashi with the rank of a pasha of two 
(ughs {mirmiran). After the dismissal of C AH Pasha 
in July of the same year, however, Bonneval was 
excluded from the counsels of the Porte until 1737, 
when he was again called on by Muhsin-zade <Abd 
Allah Pasha to advise on the conduct of the war 
against Austria. But although he eventually accom- 
panied the next Grand Vizier Yeghen Mehmed Pasha 
to the front, a plan he had put forward for the 
fomentation of a revolt in Hungary was a failure, 
and on his return to Istanbul in 1738 he fell from 
favour and in the following year was deprived of 
his command and exiled to IJastamonu. Moreover, 
although he was restored in less than a year, he never 
regained his former influence, and up to his death in 
1747, by which time he was casting about for means 
to return to France, he was employed only in the 
continued management of the khumbaradjls and in 
furnishing the Porte with comments (some of which 
have been preserved in Turkish translation) on 
European political developments. He was buried in 
the cemetery of the Mewlewl-khane in Galata, and 
succeeded in his command by his adoptive son, also 
a French convert, who went by the name of Siileyman 

Bibliography: Mehmed c Arif, Khumbaradil 
Bashl Ahmed Pasha Bonneval, OTEM, nos. 18-20; 
Prince de Ligne, Mimoire sur le comte de Bonneval, 
Paris 18 17; A. Vandal, Le Pacha Bonneval, Paris 
1884; idem, Une Ambassade Francaise en Orient, 
Paris 1887, index; I A, s.v. (M. Cavid Baysun). 

(H. Bowen) 
AHMAD PASHA, called BURSAL!, Ottoman 
poet of the second half of the 15th century, the most 
important after Sheykhl and before Nedjatl. He was 
the son of the kadi <asker Well al-DIn b. Ilyas (who 
claimed descent from Husayn) and was most probably 
born in Adrianople (according to some authorities in 
Brusa). He was appointed muderris at the madrasa 
of Murad II in Brusa and in 855/1451 succeeded 
Molla Khosrew as kadi of Adrianople. After the 
accession of Muhammad II he became kadi 'asker, 
and tutor of the new ruler, obtaining the rank of 
vizier. He accompanied the sultan during the con- 



quest of Constantinople. Though his wit made him 
a great favourite of the sultan, he fell into disgrace 
(allegedly because of a love affair with a favorite of 
the sultan, but possibly merely in consequence of 
the sultan's well known captiousness) and was held 
in custody, but was pardoned and appointed as 
mutewalli of the Orkhan and Murad mosques in 
Brusa, afterwards even as sandjak beyi of Sultan 
Onu, Tire and Ankara, and after the accession of 
Bayazid II, as sandjak beyi of Brusa. He took part 
in the suite of Sinan Pasha, beylerbeyi of Anatolia, 
in the battle of Aghacaytrl against the Mamluks 
(8 Ramadan 893/17 August 1488 ; cf. Sa c d al-DIn and 
Hammer Purgstall). He died in 902/1496-7 in Brusa; 
the ruins of his tiirbe could be seen not long ago in 
that town. 

Among his poems there are many composed for 
Muhammad II, Bayazid II and Sultan Diem; he 
also composed a dirge on the death of Muhammad 
IPs son, Mustafa. He was closely connected with 
various scholars of his time, and while governor of 
Brusa, he drew into his entourage poets such as 
Hariri, Resmi, MM, Cakhshirdji Sheykhl, andShehdl. 
Ahmad Pasha was influenced by Turkish poets 
such as Ahmedl, NiyazI, Mellhl and especially 
Sheykhl and <At51 (cf. Yeni Medjmu'-a, 1918). Like 
the other poets of his age, he was also under the 
influence of Persian poetry (his models were especially 
Salman SawadjI, Hafiz, Kamal Khudjandi and 
KatibI); on the other hand, the very widespread 
opinion (which we find for the first time in the 
Tedhkere of Hasan Celebi) that he began his poetical 
career by making nazires on some poems of 'All 
Shir Nawal is quite erroneous (cf. M. Fuad Kopriilu, 
in Turk Yurdu, 1927, no. 27; idem, Turk dili ve 
edebiyali hakkinda arastirmalar, Istanbul 1934, 
264 ff.). Ahmad Pasha was acknowledged as the 
greatest poet of his day and was imitated by many 
poets of the late 15th and early 16th century; and 
his influence can be felt even after his poetry lost 
its preponderant position owing to the new trends 
initiated by Nedjatl and especially by Bakl. 

Apart from his diwan, which was compiled by 

order of Bayazid II, and the numerous manuscripts 

of which are rather different from each other, 

Ahmad Pasha's poems (some of them written in 

Arabic and Persian) are to be found also in the great 

nazire collections of the 15th and 16th centuries. 

Bibliography: The tedhkeres of Sehl, 20, 

Latifl, 76, 'Ashik Celebi and Ktnall-zade, s.v.; 

al-ShakaHk al-Nu'-mdniyya, Turkish transl., 217; 

'All, Kunh al-Akhbar, v, 230 f.; Sa'd al-DIn, 

Tddj al-Tawarikh, ii, 511; Bellgh, Guldeste, 259; 

Hammer- Purgstall, index; idem, Gesch. d. osm. 

Dichtkunst, ii, 41ft.; Mu c allim NadjI, 'Othmdnll 

ShdHrleri, i, 209-17; Fa'ik Reshad, Ta'rikh-i Ede- 

biyyat-i '■Othmaniyye, Istanbul 1913, 137-50; Gibb, 

ii, 40-58; Sadettin Nuzhet Ergun, Turk sairleri, 

Istanbul 1936, i, 305-20; M. Fuad Kdpriilu, 

Bursali Ahmed Pasha, Dersa'ddet, 1920, nos. 29, 

36, 45, 56; idem in I A, s.v.; Istanbul Kitapliklari 

Tiirkce Yaztna Divanlar Katalogu, no. 13. 

(Haul Inalcik) 
AHMAD PASHA GEDIK, Ottoman Grand 
Vizier. Born in Serbia, he was taken into Murad 
IPs palace as an ic-oghlani and became for a short 
time beglerbegi of Rum (Tokat) under Mehmed 
(Muhammad) II before being appointed beglerbegi of 
Anatolia in 1461. He kept this post until he was made 
a vizier in 1470. He played a decisive role in con- 
solidating the new conquests in Anatolia against the 
Karamanids and Ak Koyunlus. He first distinguished 



AHMAD PASHA GEDIK — AHMAD RASIM 



himself by capturing Koyli Hisar (1461). In 1469-72 
he subdued the mountainous part of Kara- 
man-ili and its coastal area, taking c Ala 5 iyya in 
1471, Silifke, Mokan, Gorigos and Lulye (Lullon) 
in 1472. In 1472 a dangerous attack of the Ak 
Koyunlu forces, which, led by the Karamanid 
prince PIr Ahmad, had advanced as far as Hamid-ili, 
was repelled by Gedik Ahmed, who subsequently 
reconquered Karaman-ili. According to Neshri, 21 1, 
he played an important part in the victory over 
Uzfln Hasan [q.v.] in 878/1473. Later we find him in 
Ic-ili fighting successfully against the Karamanid 
princes who had retaken it with the help of a Christian 
fleet. During this campaign Ahmed captured Minan, 
Silifke, massacred or banished the local chieftains in 
Tash-ili (1473-4). Having been the second vizier up 
to this time, he became the first after the execution 
of the Grand Vizier Mahmud in 1474 (Kemal Pasha- 
zade). He was sent by Meljmed II against the 
Genoese in the Crimea, where he took Kaffa (June 
1475), Soldaya and Tana, and besieged Mangup 
(which was to be captured later by Ya'kub Beg 
(December 1475)). Ahmed also signed an agreement 
with the new khan Mengli Giray whom he had saved 
from prison in Kaffa, by which Mengli Giray accepted 
the sultan's protection. Ahmed's self-confidence 
roused the sultan's displeasure and when he dared to 
disagree with the sultan on the subject of an expe- 
dition to Scutari in Albania, he was imprisoned in 
Rumeli Hisar (1477). In 1478 he was released and 
made Kapudan of the fleet. In 1479 he seized Santa 
Maura from Leonardo Tocco (who fled to Apulia), 
and setting sail from Valona, he captured Otranto on 
ii August 1480. When in the next spring he gathered 
in Valona a new army to make further conquests 
from Otranto, he was persuaded to uphold the new 
sultan, Bayezld II, against his brother Djem Sultan, 
and played a decisive part in securing the throne 
for Bayezld. But as he would not, or could not, 
capture Diem in his flight to Mamlflk territory, the 
suspicious sultan put him into prison. This, however, 
led to a tumult among the kapi-kulu, so that he 
had to be rehabilitated. After the failure of Djem's 
second attempt to seize the throne, Bayezld felt 
himself strong enough to put Ahmed to death 
(6 Shawwal 887/18 Nov. 1482), though this caused 
a new tumult among the kapi-kulu. — A district in 
Istanbul is called after Gedik Ahmed because of his 
pious foundations there and the mosque of Gedik 
Ahmed in Afyon is a fine example of old Ottoman 



Bibliography : Neshri, Djihdn-numd (Taesch- 
ner); Kemal Pasha-zade (MS Fatih 4205); Urudj, 
Tawdrikh-i Al-i '■Othmdn (Babinger) ; D. da Lezze 
(G. M. Angiolello), Historia Turchesca, Bucarest 
1910; Hammer- Purgstall, index; S. Fisher, The 
Foreign Relations 0/ Turkey, Urbana 1948; Fr. 
Babinger, Mehmed der Eroberer, Munich 1953; 
I A, s.v. (by M. H. Yinanc). (Halil Inalcik) 
AHMAD PASHA KHA'IN, Ottoman Vizier. 
Georgian in origin, Ahmed entered Selim I's 
palace as ii-oghlani; later, as biiyiik emir-i akhur he 
took part in the campaign against the Mamluks in 
1516-7 and became beglerbegi of Rum-ili in 1519. In 
the campaign of Siileyman I against Belgrade 
Ahmed's plan of operations was accepted. Accordingly 
he took Bogurdelen (Sabacz) (2 Sha'ban 927/8 July 
1521) and invaded Syrmia. As a reward for his 
services in the siege of Belgrade the sultan appointed 
him vizier of the diwan (autumn of 1521). In the 
campaign against Rhodes he, as commander-in- 
chief, was responsible for the successful operations 



293 

during the landing and the siege. Subsequently he 
negotiated with the knights of St. John the terms 
of surrender of the castle (2 Safar 929/21 Dec. 1522). 
Ahmed Pasha was instrumental in causing the fall 
of the Grand Vizier PIri Mehmed Pasha [q.v.~] and 
expected to be promoted from the third viziership 
to the first, as the second vizier was in Egypt. But, 
contrary to custom, the grand vizierate was given 
to the khass oda-bashi Ibrahim [?.«.]. Deeply disap- 
pointed Ahmed asked the sultan for the governorship 
of Egypt (19 August 1523). There he reconciled the 
discontented Mamluks as well as the bedouin chief- 
tains who were in a state of great agitation after the 
death of Khayri Beg. Siileyman, still under Ibrahim's 
influence, appointed Kara Musa governor of Egypt 
and charged him with Ahmed's execution. On 
discovering this, Ahmed decided to declare his 
independence with the title of Sultan (January 1524). 
He massacred and dispersed the Janissaries in the 
castle of Cairo and established relations with the 
Christian powers against the Ottomans. Siileyman 
sent an army to Egypt under the vizier Ayas Pasha, 
while Ahmed's troops were secretdly encouraged to 
turn against him. One of his officers, Kadl-zade 
Mehmed Beg, made an attempt on his life in a public 
bath. Though wounded, Ahmed succeeded in escaping 
to the BanO Bakr Bedouins, who, however, finally 
delivered him to be beheaded. 

Bibliography: Djelal-zade Mustafa, Jabakat 
al-Mamdlik we-Derediat al-Masalik (MS Fatih 
4423); Suheyll, Ta'rikh-i Misr al-Djadid, Istanbul 
1145; Feridun Beg, Munshe'dt, Istanbul 1274, 
507-40; Pecewl, i, 71-9; Marino Sanuto, / Diarii, 
vols, xxxv-xxxviii, Venice 1879-1903; Hammer- 
Purgstall, index; J. W. F. Stripling, The Ottoman 
Turks and the Arabs, Urbana 1942. 

(Halil Inalcik) 
AHMAD RAFlK (he assumed the family name 
of AltInay), Turkish historian. He was born 
in Beshiktash, Istanbul, in 1880, and educated in 
the Kuleli military lycee and the military school 
(Ifarbiyye Mektebi), became an officer, but for most 
of the time was engaged in teaching geography and 
French. In 1909 he was appointed to the General 
Staff, as editor of the 'Askeri Medimu'a, in which 
he himself published articles on military subjects. 
After becoming a member of the Td'rikh Endjiimeni, 
he retired and devoted himself entirely to his studies. 
From 1917 to 1933 he was professor of history in the 
University of Istanbul. He died on 10 Oct. 1937. 
He wrote a very large number of historical books, 
partly of a scholarly, partly of a more popular 
character, and published many documents concerning 
Ottoman history from the archives. Among his 
best known books are those on life in old Istanbul 
(Hicri X uncu—ox respectively XI inci, XII inci, 
XIII uncu—Asirda Istanbul Hayati), and the series 
of monographs: Geimish 'Asirlarda Turk Ifayatl. 
Numerous articles by him were published in TOEM, 
Yeni Medimu'a, Ifayat, Edebiyat Fakultesi, Turkiyat 
Mecmuasi, 

Bibliography: Resad Ekrem KocI, Ahmed 

Refik, Istanbul 1938; Ismail Habib, Edebiyat 

Tarihi, Istanbul 1942, 384; O. Spies, Die tiirkische 

Prosaliteratur der Gegenwart, Berlin 1943, 83-7 

(with full list of his works). (A. Tietze) 

AHMAD RASIM, Turkish writer, b. 1864 

in Sariguzel or Sarigez, a quarter of Fatih, Istanbul, 

d. 21 Sept. 1932 in the island of Heybeliada and 

buried there. In early life he lost his father Baha 

al-DIn, who belonged to the family of Mentesh-oghlu 

from Cyprus, and was brought up by his mother. 



294 

From 1292/1875 to 1300/1882-3 he attended the 
school Dar ul-Shafaka in Istanbul, where he was 
attracted to art and literature and decided to 
become a writer; and to this profession (or, as he 
himself calls it, "the Sublime Porte Road", Bdb-i 
'Alt Djaddesi) he remained faithful throughout all 
later political changes. Like many other writers he 
began as a journalist, and almost all the more 
important Turkish papers received contributions 
from his pen. He afterwards collected his numerous 
articles and sketches, for example in the two volumes 
of Makdldt we-Mu$dhabdt (1325) and the four 
volumes entitled c Omr-i Edebi (1315-19). The latter 
is not an account of his life but reflects his spiritual 
development and the feelings and emotions reflected 
in his publications of different years. 

Ahmad Rasim's output became in time very 
extensive; in all, he is said to have produced about 
140 works of larger or smaller size. Nevertheless he 
was not a polygraph in the depreciatory sense of 
the word; before dealing with a subject he always 
studied it thoroughly and then wrote on it seriously, 
or sometimes in the lightly humorous fashion of 
which he was a master, or again in a pleasing con- 
versational way, but always with artistic feeling 
and in his particular style, which was new and 
independent of existing schools and coteries. He had 
a great success with his public; he himself created 
a school of writers, and his influence has been 
strongly felt in Turkish literature. 

His literary work in the fields of the novel, short 
story and tale, includes his early novels Meyl-i Dil 
(1890) and Tadjdrib-i Ifaydt (1891) (short analysis 
of both in P. Horn, Gesch. der Tiirkischen Moderns, 
46 f.), the patriotic novel Mashdkk-i Ifaydt (1308), 
the stories Tedjribesiz 'Ashk (1311) and Mekteb 
Arkadashim (13"), a little later Ndkdm (1315) and 
another patriotic novel 'Asker-oghlu (1315) and the 
more lyrical Kitdbe-yi Ghamm (1315) and 'Andalib 

At the same time he had from the first a preference 
for history and sought to arouse an interest in it 
among his fellow-countrymen by presenting his 
carefully prepared compilations in popular form. 
After earlier works on the history of Rome, of 
civilisation, etc., he devoted himself to the history 
of Turkey, and produced a work on Turkish history 
from Sellm II to Murad V, entitled Istibddddan 
Ifdkimiyyet-i Milliyyeye (1341-2), and a general 
survey, c Othmdnll Ta'rikhi (1326-30). A valuable 
supplement to these is formed by his "City Letters", 
Shehir Mektublari (1328-29), which contain an 
unsurpassed description of old Istanbul life in all 
its variety, written in a vivid and stimulating 
manner. In Mendkib-i Islam (1325) the Muslim 
festivals, mosques, and other religious matters are 
dealt with. To the history of literature belongs his 
book on ShinasI [q.v.], which was intended as an 
introduction to the history of the Turkish Moderns 
{Matbu'dt Ta'rikhine Medkhal. Ilk biiyiik Muhar- 
rirlerden Shindsi, 1927). -Matb&at Khdtirlartndan 
(1924) contains his personal recollections of Turksh 
writers, and Falaka (1927) of his own schooldays and 
the old system of education in general. 

Ahmad Rasim was also a prolific writer of school 
books on grammar, rhetoric, history, etc., and 
composed also a work on model letters (Hlaweli 
Khazine-yi Mekdtib yahod miikemmel Munshe'dt, 5th 
ed. 1318). In addition he translated many western 
works, and a large collection from his early period 
is called "Selections from Western Literature" 
{Edebiyydi-i Gharbiyyeden bir Nebdhe, 1887). He was 



AHMAD RASIM — AHMAD RASMl 



a talented composer as well, and left 65 songs now 
preserved in the Dar iil-Shafaka library. 

For this great literary activity Ahmad Rasim 
required a measure of freedom which did not exist 
under c Abd al-Hamid II, and such as he could hardly 
have enjoyed at all as a state official. He was, 
however, twice a member of a commission of the 
Conseil de l'lnstruction Publique (Endjiimen-i Tef- 
tish we-Mu'dyana), but only for a short time. He 
showed his interest in religious matters in 1924, 
when after the abolition of the caliphate he wrote 
an article in Wakit on 4 March 1924 on the relics 
(amdndt, mukhallafdt) of the Prophet, cloak {khlrka), 
banner (liwd'), praying-carpet (sadidjada) etc., which 
also appeared in Cairo and Damascus in Arabic. He 
proposed to make these relics accessible to the public 
in a museum (cf. C. A. Nallino, in OM, 1924, 220 f.). 
From 1927 he was a deputy for Istanbul along with 
men like c Abd al-Hakk Hamid and Khalil Edhem 
(cf. OM, 1927, 416; 1931, 227 and Mehmed Zekl, 
Encyclopddie biographique de Turquie, i, 1928, 23 and 
ii, 1929, 88), but suffered from ill-health in his last 

Bibliography: Newsdl-i Milli, i, 1330, 265-7; 

Isma'Il Habib, Turk Tedjeddiid Edebiyydti Ta'rikhi, 

Istanbul 1925, 567-9; Tanzimattanberi, 1940, 

358-64; Ali Camp, Edebiyat, 1929, 171-4; idem 

Turk Edebiyati Antolojisi, 1934, 98-120; Bulkur- 

luzade Rida, Muntakhabdt-i BeddyV-i Edebiyye, 

1326, 347-50; Basmadjian, Essai sur I'histoire de 

la litterature ottomane, 1910, 217; Hiiseyin Djahid, 

Kagawlarlm, 1326, 259-90; Ahmet Ihsan, Matbuat 

hatiralarim, 1930, 76; WI. Gordlewskij, Olerki po 

nowoy osmanskoy literaturie, Moscow 1912, 76, 

100; M. Hartmann, Unpolitische Briefe aus der 

Tiirkei (Der islamische Orient, vol. ii), Leipzig 1910, 

index, p. 252; Ibniilemin Mahmud Kemal, Son 

asir tiirk sairleri, viii, 1939, 1358-62; Resat Ekrem 

Kocl, Ahmed Rasim, hayatl, sefme siir ve yazttari, 

1938; Ibrahim Alaettin Govsa, Tiirk meshurlart 

ansiklopedisi, 24; Nihad Sami Banarlt, Resimli 

tiirk edebiyati tarihi, 328-9; I A, s.v. (by S. E. 

Siyavusgil); Suat Hizarcl, Ahmed Rasim (Tiirk 

Klasikleri, 30), 1953. (W. Bjorkman) 

AHMAD RASMl, Ottoman statesman and 

historian. Ahmad b. Ibrahim, known as Resmi 

came from Rethymno (Turk. Resmo; hence his 

epithet?) in Crete and was of Greek descent (cf. 

Hammer-Purgstall, viii, 202). He was born in 1112/ 

1700 and came in 1146/1733 to Istanbul, where he 

was educated, married a daughter of the Rels 

Efendi Ta'ukdji Mustafa and entered the service 

of the Porte. He held a number of offices in various 

towns (cf. Sidjill-i '■Othmdni, ii, 380 f.). In Safar 

1171/Oct. 1757 he went as Ottoman envoy to Vienna 

and on his return made a written report of his 

impressions and experiences. In Dhu'l-IJa'da 1176/ 

May. 1763 he was again sent to Europe, this time as 

ambassador to the Prussian court in Berlin. He also 

wrote a very full account of this mission, which 

early attracted attention, in the West also, for its 

views on Prussian policy, its description of Berlin 

and its inhabitants and all sort of observations on 

related topics. After filling a number of important 

offices he died on the 2 Shawwal 1 197/31 August 

1783; on this date cf. Babinger, 309, note 2) in 

Istanbul. His tomb is in the Sellmiyye quarter of 

Scutari. 

In addition to the descriptions already mentioned 
of his embassies (sefdret-ndme's) to Vienna and 
Berlin, Ahmed Resmi wrote in connection with the 
Russo-Turkish war and the peace of Kuiuk 



AHMAD RASMl — AHMAD SHAH DURRANI 



295 



Kaynardje (1769-74) a treatise entitled Khuldset iil- 
IHibdr, in which as a participator in the campaign 
and eye-witness, he gave his impressions of this 
important period in the history of Turkey. Of 
especial value are his biographical collections, 
particularly his Khalifet ul-Ru'esd' (composed in 
1157/1744) with the biographies of 64 re'is ul-kuttdb 
(re>is efendiler) and his tfamilet ul-Kuberd', in 
which he gives the lives of the chief eunuchs of the 
imperial harem (kizlar aghalari). Of a similar nature 
is his continuation (written in 11 77/1 766) of the 
Wefayat of Mehmed Emin b. HadjdjI Mehmed called 
Alay-beyl-zade, in which he gives in twelve lists the 
deaths of famous men and women (cf. the accurate 
list of contents in Hammer-Purgstall, ix, 187 f.). He 
also wrote several other works on geology and 
proverbs. 

Bibliography: Sidjill-i "■Othmani, ii, 380 f.; 
Brusalt Mehmed Tahir, 'Othmanli mu'elli/Uri, iii, 
58 f. (with list of works); Babinger, 309-12 (add 
to the list of the MSS of his se/er-ndme's: Berlin, 
Or. 4 1502, fol. 27V-46V (incomplete), Paris, 
Suppl. Turc 510 (?); Paris, collection of CI. Huart 
and the MSS described in Istanbul KUapliklarl 
Tarih-Cografya Yazmalari Kataloglarl, i, no. 483; 
add also the Polish transl. Podroi Resmi Ahmed- 
Efendego do Polski i poselstwo jigo do Prus 1177 
(according to Wasif, Ta'rikh, i, 239 ff.) in J. J. S. 
Sekowski, Collectanea z Dziejopisdw Tureckich, ii, 
Warsaw 1825, 222-89; for MSS of the Khalifet 
ul-Ru'esa' and the Jfamilet iil-KUbera' ', see also 
Istanbul Kitapllklarl etc., nos. 412 and 413). 
(F. Babinger) 
AQMAD al-RAzI. [See al-razI]. 
AHMAD SHAH is the name of various Muslim 
monarchs in India. The most notable are: 

1. Ahmad Shah Bahadur Mudjahid al-DIn 
Abu Nasr, son and successor of Muhammad Shah. 
Grand Mughal of Delhi. He was born in 1 138/1725 
and came to the throne in 1161/1748. The actual 
ruler during his reign was Safdar Djang, Nawab of 
Oudh, who was also appointed vizier of the new 
emperor. In order to check the Rohelas he called 
upon the Marathas for help, which resulted in 
their plundering the provinces of his realm, while 
the Afghans devastated the Pandjab. Ahmad Shah 
himself was an incapable ruler and lived for 
pleasure. After the dismissal of the vizier Safdar 
Djang his reign soon came to an end ; another vizier, 
'Imad al-Mulk Ghazi '1-DIn Khan caused him to be 
declared unworthy to govern, had him put into 
prison and had his eyes put out 1 167/1754. Ahmad 
Shah died in 1 189/1775. 

2. Ahmad Shah I, II and III, Bahmanid rulers; 

3. Ahmad Shah b. Muhammad Shah Shams al- 
DIn, prince of Bengal (835-46/1431-42); see radja 

4. Ahmad Shah I and II, rulers of Gudjarat, 
see GUDJARAT. 

5. Ahmad Shah, founder of the dynasty of the 
Nizam Shahs; see nizam shahs. 

AHMAD SHAH DURRANI, the first of the 
Sadozay rulers of Afghanistan and founder 
of the Durrani empire, belonged to the Sadozay 
section of the Popalzay clan of the Abdall [q.v.] tribe 
of Afghans. In the early 18th century the Abdalis 
were to be found chiefly around Harat. Under their 
leader Zaman Khan, the father of Ahmad Khan, 
they resisted Persian attempts to take Harat until, 
in 1728, they were forced to submit to Nadir §h&h. 



Some time later they rebelled under Dhu'l-Fikar 
Khan, the brother of Ahmad Mian, but were once 
more defeated by the Persian ruler who, in 1731, 
captured Harat. Recognizing the fighting qualities 
of the Abdalis he enlisted them in his army, and, 
in 1737, after the expulsion of the Ghilzavs. he 
allowed the Abdalis to settle in Kandahar. Ahmad 
Khan Abdall distinguished himself in Nadir's 
service and quickly rose from the position of personal 
attendant (yasdwal) to the command of Nadir's 
Abdall contingent, in which capacity he accompanied 
the Persian conqueror on his Indian expedition. In 
Pjumada II 1160/June 1747, Nadir Shah was assas- 
sinated by Kizilbashi conspirators at Kucan in 
Khurasan. This prompted Ahmad Khan and the 
Afghan soldiery to set out for Kandahar. On the 
way they elected Ahmad Khan as their leader, 
hailing him as Ahmad Shah. This election was 
facilitated by the withdrawal in his favour of 
HadjdjI Djamal Khan, the chief of the Muhammad- 
zays or Barakzays, the great rivals of the Sadozays. 
Ahmad Shah assumed the title of Durr-i Durran 
(Pearl of Pearls), after which the Abdall tribe were 
known as Durranls. He was crowned at Kandahar 
where coins were struck in his name. Like the 
Persian conqueror who served as his model, he 
organized a special force dependent on himself, 
known as the Ghulam Shahls, a heterogeneous body 
recruited from Tadjiks, Kizilbashes, and Yusufzays; 
but he naturally relied chiefly on his immediate 
followers the Durranls. With Kandahar "as his base 
he easily extended his control over Ghaznl. Kabul, 
and Peshawar. His aims were to consolidate his 
power in Afghanistan and to increase his prestige 
and provide employment for his turbulent followers 
by means of foreign wars in which course he was 
favoured by the anarchical conditions prevailing in 
India. Regarding himself as heir to Nadir Shah's 
eastern dominions, he laid claim to the provinces 
which Nadir had wrested from the Mughal emperor. 
In accordance with this policy, but with no intention 
of founding an empire in India, he invaded India 
nine times between 1747 and 1769. He set out from 
Peshawar on his first Indian expedition in December 
1747. By January 1748 Lahore and Sarhind had 
been captured. Eventually Mughal forces were sent 
from Delhi to resist his advance. Lacking artillery 
and greatly outnumbered he was defeated at 
Manupur, in March 1748, by Mu'In al-Mulk, the 
son of the wazir Kamar al-DIn, who had been killed 
in a preliminary skirmish. Ahmad Shah retreated to 
Afghanistan and Mu'In al-Mulk was appointed 
governor of the Pandjab. Before Mu'in al-Mulk 
could consolidate his position, Ahmad Shah, in 
December 1749, again crossed the Indus. Receiving 
no reinforcements from Delhi Mu'In al-Mulk was 
forced to come to terms. In accordance with in- 
structions from Delhi, Ahmad Shah was promised 
the revenues of the Cahar Mahall (Gudjrat, Awranga- 
bad, Sialkot, and PasrOr) which had been granted 
by the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah to Nadir 
Shah in 1739. While he had been absent in the 
Panjab, Nur Muhammad Allzay, a former Afghan 
general of Nadir Shah, had conspired to dethrone 
him. On his return to Kandahar the conspiracy was 
suppressed and Nur Muhammad executed. He next 
turned his attention to his western frontier. By 
1163/1751 Harat, Mashhad, and Nlshapiir had been 
captured. MIrza Shabrukh, the grandson of Nadir 
Shah, was forced to surrender several districts 
bordering on Harat and to acknowledge Afghan 
suzerainty on his coins. In the same year Ahmad 



AHMAD SHAH DURRANI 



Shah came into conflict with the rising Kadjar 
power but was repulsed at AstarSbad beyond which 
he was unable to advance. He was more successful 
across the Hindu Kush where he annexed Balkh 
and Badakhshan after which the Oxus roughly 
formed his northern frontier. 

The non-payment of the revenues of the Cahdr 
Mahdll was the reason for his third Indian expedition 
of 175 1-2. Lahore was besieged for four months and 
the surrounding country devastated. Mu'in al-Mulk, 
without reinforcements, was defeated in March 1752, 
but was reinstated by Ahmad Shah to whom the 
emperor formally ceded the two subus of Lahore and 
Multan. During this expedition Kashmir was 
annexed to the Durrani empire. By April 1752 
Ahmad Shah was once more back in Afghanistan. 
Mu'in al-Mulk found the Pandjab a troublesome 
charge and his death in November 1753 only served 
to intensify the anarchy. All power was for a time 
in the hands of his widow MughalanI Begam whose 
profligacy led to constant rebellions. The Mughal 
wazir 'Imad al-Mulk took advantage of this anarchy 
to recover the Pandjab for the empire and entrusted 
its administration to Adina Beg. Ahmad Shah 
immediately set out to recover his lost provinces. 
Lahore was reached towards the end of December 

1756, and, after an unopposed march, Delhi was 
entered on 28 January 1757. The city was plundered 
and the defenceless inhabitants massacred. A 
similar fate befell the inhabitants of Mathura, 
Brindaban, and Agra. Towards the end of March 

1757, an outbreak of cholera amongst his troops 
forced Ahmad Shah to leave India. Before leaving 
he married Hadrat Begam, daughter of the late 
emperor Muhammad Shah, while his son Timur was 
married to Zuhra Begam, daughter of the puppet 
emperor 'Alamglr II. The territory of Sarhind was 
annexed to his empire. Nadjlb al-Dawla, the 
Rohilla leader who had supported him, was left in 
charge of Delhi and Timur remained as viceroy of 
the Pandjab. He had no sooner left India than the 
Sikhs, together with Adina Beg, rose in revolt 
against Timur. Early in 1758 Adina Beg invited the 
Marathas to expel the Afghans from the Pandjab. 
This was accomplished by the Marathas who 
actually crossed the Indus and held Peshawar for 
a few months. (The evidence which corroborates 
Grant Duff's History of the Muhruttas, 1921, 507, is 
to be found in the Persian manuscript ukhburuts 
(news-letters) in the archives of the Bharat Itihasa 
Samahodhak Mandal and in the Chandrachuda 
Daftar, i, 1920, ii, 1934. See also H. R. Gupta's 
Studies in Later Mughal History of the Punjab, 1944, 
175-6.) These events brought Ahmad Shah to India 
a fourth time (1759-61). Before setting out he 
marched against Naslr Khan, the Brahui chief of 
Kalat in Balu£istan who had declared his indepen- 
dence. Despite Ahmad Shah's failure to capture 
Kalat, Naslr Khan agreed to acknowledge his 
suzerainty and to furnish contingents for his army. 
The Marathas rapidly evacuated the Pandjab before 
the Afghan advance and fell back on Delhi. SadSshiv 
Bhau, the brother of the Maratha peshwa, was 
entrusted with the formidable task of ousting the 
Afghans from northern India. The Marathas had not 
only to face a coalition of the northern Muslim 
chiefs who had joined forces with Ahmad Shah but 
they had to fight without the assistance of the 
Radjputs and other Hindu powers whom their ex- 
tortionate demands for chauth and sardeshmukhi had 
estranged. The Marathas occupied Delhi (22 July 
1760) but it was of little use as a base since food, 



fodder, and money were unprocurable. The situation, 
so far as supplies were concerned, was temporarily 
relieved by the capture of Kundjpura (17 October 
1760). But this advance proved disastrous as the 
Afghan army crossed the Djumna cutting off Maratha 
communications with Delhi. The Bhau now decided 
to entrench his forces at Panlpat. Deprived of all 
supplies by more mobile forces he was compelled to 
leave his entrenchments and attack the Afghans. 
Although the Marathas fought desperately they 
failed to withstand the fierce Afghan onslaught 
under Ahmad Shah's expert generalship and were 
routed with enormous losses at Panlpat on 14 
January 1761. Ahmad Shah made no attempt to 
consolidate his position and in March of the same 
year was once more on his way back to Afghanistan. 
The Afghan victory at Panlpat had far-reaching 
consequences. It enabled the Nizam to recover from 
his defeat at Udglr (1760), and probably saved the 
state of Hyderabad from extinction. It also contrib- 
uted to the rise of an independent Muslim power 
in Mysore under Haydar 'All. It is usual to regard 
Panlpat as a temporary set-back from which the 
Marathas rapidly recovered. This view ignores the 
real importance of the victory which granted the 
English the respite needed for the consolidation of 
their power in Bengal. 

After Panlpat the main factor in the history of 
northern India was the growing strength of the Sikhs 
whose attacks on Ahmad Shah's lines of communi- 
cation gradually led to a cessation of the Afghan 
menace. It was against the Pandjab Sikhs that his 
sixth expedition (1762) was directed. They were 
defeated with enormous slaughter near Gudjarwal in 
a battle known to Sikhs as the Ghallughara. Ahmad 
Shah remained in the Pandjab for nine months 
during which Kashmir whose Afghan governor had 
revolted was re-annexed to his empire. But the 
Sikhs were by no means crushed. Their attacks on 
Afghan garrisons necessitated three more expeditions 
between 1764 and 1769. Ahmad Shah had also to 
contend with serious revolts nearer home. The 
Aymak near Harat rebelled in 1763, and, in 1767, 
serious disturbances broke out in Khurasan. At 
Ahmad Shah's death, in 1 184/1773, his empire 
roughly extended from the Oxus to the Indus and 
from Tibet to Khurasan. It embraced Kashmir, 
Peshawar, Multan, Sind, Baluiistan, Persian Khur- 
asan, Harat, Kandahar, Kabul, and Balkh. Even 
in his lifetime it was apparent that he would be 
unable to maintain distant conquests like the 
Pandjab. Baluiistan was practically independant, 
and Khurasan was obviously destined to become a 
Kadjar possession. Under his successors the Durrani 
empire rapidly disintegrated. 

Bibliography : Abd al-Karim 'Alawl, Ta } rikh-i 
Ahmad, Lucknow 1266 (Urdu transl.: Waki'at-i 
Durrani, Cawnpur 1292; MIrza Muhammad 'All, 
Ta>rlkh-i Sulfdni, Bombay 1298; O. Mann, 
QuelUnstudien zur GeschichU des Ahmed Sdh 
Durrani, ZDMG, 1898; Storey, i, 395 (°n the 
historians of Ahmad Shah); H. Elliot and J. 
Dowson, History of India, viii. London 1877; M. 
Elphinstone, Caubul, ii. App. A., London 1839; 
H. R. Gupta, Studies in Later Mughal History of 
the Punjab, Lahore 1944; C. J. Rodgers, Coins 
of Ahmad Shah Durrani, JASc. Bengal, 1885; J. 
Sarkar, Full of the Mughal Empire, Calcutta 1934; 
idem, translation of Nur al-Din's Ta'rfhh-i Na&tb 
al-Dawla, IC, 1933; idem., translation of Kashiraj 
Shiv Rao Pandit's account of Panipat, Indian 
Historical Quarterly (1934); Selections from the 



AHMAD SHAH DURRANI — AHMAD SIRHINDl 



Peskwa's Daftar, ed. G. S. Sardesai, ii, 1930; 
T. S. Schejvalkar, Panipat: 1761, Deccan College 
Monograph Series 1946; Siyar tU-Muta'akhkhirin, 
by S. Ghulam Husayn Tabataba'I, English trans., 
Calcutta 1902. [See also bibliography in Afghani- 
stan, History.] (C. Collin Davies) 
AHMAD al SHAYKH (known locally as amadu 
sfiKu) Tokolor (Takriirl) ruler, son of al- 
Hadjdj c Umar Tal [q.v.] the Tokolor conqueror of 
Western Sudan. Before he proceeded to the conquest 
of Masina which cost him his life, 'Umax left Ahmad 
in charge of the Bambara kingdom of Segu, and 
appointed him khalifa of the Tidjaniyya \arika for 
the Sudan. c Umar died (1864) before he was able 
to consolidate his conquests and left Ahmad to 
face, not only a heritage of dynastic troubles and 
revolts of subjected peoples, but also the steady 
advance of the French. His titular inheritance to 
the paternal power was not seriously contested, but 
the unity of the military empire was weakened 
because the various governors ruled their regions in 
practical independence. These were his brothers 
Hablb (ruling Dingiray) and Mulch tar (at Koniakari), 
his cousin al-Tidjanl (who ruled Masina indepen- 
dently from 1864 to 1887), and his father's slave 
Mustafa at Nyoro. Ahmad's. vain attempt to avert 
the break up involved him in continual warfare. His 
early years were occupied in dealing with the 
Bambara of his own kingdom, who were never 
crushed. His Tokolor chiefs intrigued with his 
relatives, the revolt of Hablb in 1868 being only 
one of many. In 1874 he assumed the title of amir 
al-mu'minin. The period from 1878-84 witnessed the 
steady penetration of the French into the Sudan. 
The anarchy into which the country had fallen gave 
Ahmad no chance of offering effective opposition, 
whilst hostility between him and Samori [q.v.] 
enabled the French to attack and defeat them 
separately. Ahmad's brother, 'Adjlbu, ruler of 
Dingiray, allied himself with the French. In 1884, 
feeling his life in danger at Segu from discontented 
Bambara and Tokolor, he moved to Nyoro, dispos- 
sessing his brother Muntaka whom he had installed 
there in 1873. On 6 April 1890 Segu was occupied 
by the French Colonel Archinard, and the following 
year he fled from Nyoro (occupied by Archinard on 
1 Jan 1891) to Bandjagara where his defeat on 
26 April 1893 brought an end to Tokolor dominion 
over the Sudan. He fled to the Sokoto region in 
Hausaland where he died in 1898. 

Bibliography: M. Delafosse, Haut-Sinigal- 
Niger, 1912, ii, 323-37; idem, Traditions historiques 
et ligendaires du Soudan Occidental, 1913, 84-98; 
L. Tauxier, Histoire des Bambara, 1942, 162-81 
(with references to contemporary French writers). 

(J. S. Trimingham) 
Shays! AHMAD SIRHINDl, generally known 
as Mubjaddid-i Alf-i ThanI. an eminent divine 
and mystic of Muslim India, who contributed 
in a considerable measure towards the rehabilitation 
of orthodox Islam, after the heterodoxies of the 
Emperor Akbar (1556-1605) had had their day. He 
was born at Sirhind (Patiala State, East Pandjab) 
in 971/1564, being the son of Shaykh c Abd al-Ahad, 
who traced his descent from the Caliph c Umar b. 
al-Khattab. He received his early education from 
his father and later pursued a course of higher 
studies at Siyalkot. He later went to the capital, 
Agra, where he frequented the society of the chief 
minister Abu '1-Faoil [q.v.] and his brother Faydl 
[q.v.]. It was probably during these days that he 
wrote among other things a tract, entitled TahlUiyya 



297 

in refutation of Shilte views. (This tract was, 
subsequently, translated into Arabic by Shah Watt 
Allah al-Dihlawi, with a prologue on the religious 
trends of the court of Akbar and the activities of 
§haykh Ahmad.) After some years, he returned to 
his native town. In 1008 he was initiated into the 
Nakshbandi order of Sufis by Kh"adja Baki billah 
(d. 1012), who was then living in Delhi. The energy 
with which he controverted the doctrines of the 
Shi'a, who were at that time in favour at the court 
of the emperor Djahangir, rendered him particularly 
odious to them and they represented his activities 
as dangerous to the state. An ecstatic utterance of 
his caused him to be summoned in 1028/1619 to the 
court at Agra, where his unbending attitude incurred 
the displeasure of the emperor, who ordered him 
to be confined in the fort of Gwalior. The emperor 
was, however, soon reconciled to him, for he not 
only released him after a year but bestowed upon 
him a kkil'a and a gift of money. Thereafter, the 
Shaykh kept in close touch with the Imperial camp, 
till he died in 1034/1624 and was buried at Sirhind, 
where his tomb is an object of veneration to this day. 
Shaykh Ahmad wrote a number of tracts on 
religious topics, viz., al-Mabda' wa'l-Ma'dd (Delhi 
1311); Risdla TahlUiyya, published as an appendix 
to the Lucknow edition of his Maktubdt; Ma'drif 
Laduniyya; Mukdshafdt Ghavbivva : Risdla fi Ithbdt 
al-Nubuwwa; Addb al-Muridin; Shark RubdHyydt 
Kh'ddia Bdki bi'lldh, etc. But he is chiefly remem- 
bered for Letters (Maktubdt), which he wrote 
(in Persian) to his disciples and other persons and 
in which he explained a large number of points, 
ranging over a wide area of Islamic faith and 
practice. These letters have exercised a great 
influence in favour of orthodoxy and, in their 
collected form, constitute one of the most important 
classics of religious literature produced in Muslim 
India. It was in recognition of his services to the 
cause of orthodox Islam that Mulla c Abd al-Haklm 
al-Siyalkotl [q.v.] gave him the title (lakab) of 
Mudjaddid-i Alf-i Thani, i.e., the Renovator of 
Islam who appeared at the beginning of the second 
millenium of the Islamic era. Even in his life time, 
his influence spread as far as Afghanistan and 
Central Asia. After his death, it deepened still 
further, when his descendants and disciples, now 
called Mudjaddidls, were dispersed, as a result of 
the unfavourable conditions produced by the rule 
of the Sikhs in the Pandjab. 

Although Shaykh Ahmad was connected with 
several sufi orders, he avoided their extravagances, 
especially their pantheistic tendencies; and in fact 
he tried to bridge the gulf between the monotheistic 
and pantheistic groups of sufis by putting forth 
the theory of wahdat al-shuhad [q.v.] in place of 
wahdat al-wudiud (pantheism). This theory is regarded 
as his special contribution in the field of religious 
thought. 

Bibliography: The Maktubdt, about 530 in 
number, have been repeatedly lithographed in India 
(Lucknow 1913; Delhi 1288, 1290; Amritsar 
1331-4); Urdu translation by Kadi c AIim al-Din, 
Lahore 1913; Tuzuk-i Qiahdngiri, Aligarh 1864, 
272-3, 308; c Abd al-Kadir BadayunI, Muntakhab 
al-Tawdrikh, Calcutta 1868; Muhammad Hashim 
Kashml, Zubdat al-Makdmdt, composed in 1037, 
lithographed at Cawnpore, 126-282; Badr al-DIn 
Sirhindi, Ifadrdt al-Kuds composed in 1057, still 
in MS, Urdu translation by Ahmad Husayn 
Khan, Lahore 1922; Muhammad Amln Naksh- 
bandi, Makdmdt-i Ahmadiyya, composed in 1068, 



AHMAD SIRHINDI — AHMAD YASAWI 



still in MS, Urdu translation published at Lahore; 

M. Ra>uf Ahmad, IJiawdhir '■Ulwiyya, Urdu 

translation published at Lahore; Muhammad Bakir, 

Kanz al-Hiddya, composed in 1075, still in MS, 

Urdu translation by c Irf an Ahmad Ansarl published 

at Lahore; M. Fadl Allah,' 'Umdat al-Makdmdt 

composed in 1233; Muljammad Ihsan, Rawdat 

al-Kayyumiyya, still in MS, Urdu translation, 

Lahore 1336; Ahmad Abu '1-Khayr al-Makkl, 

Hadiyya Ahmadiyya, Cawnpore 131 3; c Abd al- 

Hakk Muhaddith Dihlawl, A khbdr al-Akhydr, 

Delhi 1332, 323-6; Ghulam 'All Azad, Subhat al- 

Mardidn, Bombay 1303, 47-52; T. W. Beale, 

Miftdh al-Tawdrikh, Cawnpore 1867, 230-1 ; Mufti 

Ghulam Sarwar, Khazinat al-Asfiyd', Cawnpore 

1894, ii, 607-19; Rahman 'All, Tadhkira-yi 

c Ulamd'-i Hind, Lucknow 1914, 10-12; Abu 

'1-Kalam Azad, Tadhkira, Calcutta 1919; M. 'Abd 

al-Ahad, Hdldt u-Makdmdt Shaykh Ahmad Faruki 

Sirhindi, Delhi 1329; M. Ihsan Allah 'AbbasI, 

Sawdnih-'umri Hadrat Mudjaddid-i Alf-i Thdni. 

Rampur 1926; S. M. Ikram, Rud-i Kawthar, 

Karachi; M. Manzur, ed., al-Furkdn, Mudjaddid 

Number, Bareilly 1938; Muhammad Miyan, 

Ulama'-i Hind kd Shdnddr Modi, revised ed., 

Delhi 1942; T. W. Arnold, The Preaching of 

Islam, 412; Burhan Ahmad, The Mudjaddid's 

Conception of Tawhid, Lahore 1940; Mustafa 

Sabri, Mawkif al-'Akl wa'l-'Ilm wa'l-'Alim, Cairo 

1950, iii, 275-99. (Sh. Inayatullah) 

AHMAD TA j IB [see 'uthman-zade]. 

AHMAD TAKOdAR [see iLraiANiDs]. 

AHMAD WAFltf PASHA, (Ahmed WefIi? 

Pasha), Ottoman statesman and leading 

Turkish Turcologist, born 23 Shawwal 1238/6 July 

1823, died at Istanbul 22 Sha'ban 1308/2 April 1891. 

He came of a family of interpreters, grandson of 

Bulgar-zade Yahya NadjI, a dragoman of the Porte 

converted to Islam, of rumi origin according to the 

historian Shanl-zade 'Ata Allah Efendi, of Jewish 

origin according to A. D. Mordtmann. Ahmed Wefik 

accompanied his father Ruh al-DIn Mehmed Efendi, 

the Turkish charge d'affaires in Paris, studied for 

three years at the Lycee Saint-Louis, and returned 

at the age of 14 to Turkey where a full and varied 

career lay before him (for details see Sidjill-i 

'Othmdni, i, 308). After initial employment on the 

interpreting staff, his most important posts were as 

follows: — ambassador in Paris (i860); inspector of 

the Western Anatolian provinces ; legendary president 

of the first and ephemeral Ottoman Parliament of 

1876, with the rank of wezir and title of pasha; 

twice Grand Vizier (for periods of 25 days and one 

day respectively); governor-general of Brusa. As a 

diplomat, he successfully defended Turkish interests 

at the time of the Russian occupation of the Danubian 

principalities and the French occupation of the 

Lebanon. He edited the first Imperial Year Book 

(1293/1876), and the newspaper Taswir-i Efkdr (in 

collaboration with ShinasI). He was responsible for 

the restoration of the Yeshil Pjami' mosque at 

Brusa (by the French ceramist Parville), and for 

effecting the transfer of the Burgaz Owa estates in 

the Izmir region, which were granted to Lamartine 

by 'Abd al-Madjid (1849). It was he who was 

responsible for the celebrated incident in the Paris 

theatre concerning the production of Voltaire's 

Mahomet. 

A strong personality, he was an energetic, honest 
and conscientious man, frank to the point of 
rudeness; at the same time he was whimsical and 
ic, and possessed a dry wit. Extremely 



studious, and with long periods of leisure at this 
disposal as a result of being debarred from office 
by the enmity of 'All Pasha, he immured himself 
in the library of his famous villa in Rumeli Hisar, 
and there produced works to which, however, he 
scorned to subscribe his name. Turkish studies were 
his special province. He was self-taught, but ac- 
quainted with western studies which, paradoxically, 
he underestimated; as one of the first "Turkicists", 
he made an impressive contribution to the Turkish 
purist movement. His Lehdje-yi 'Othmdni (1st 
edition 1293/1876: 2nd edition 1306/1890), the first 
Turkish dictionary in Turkish worthy of the name, 
a concise work of which the fullest use has not yet 
been made, formed a basis for the work of Shams al- 
DIn SamI Bey Frasheri and many others (see the 
preface to the Supplement of Barbier de Meynard, 
i, p. v). His translation, or rather adaptation, of 
sixteen comedies of Moliere (2nd edition in Latin 
script, 1933) is a masterpiece. (He produced them 
on the stage at Brusa.) He also translated TiUmaque, 
Gil Bias de Sentillane and the Micromigas of Voltaire. 
In eastern Turkish, he published Abu '1-GhazI and, 
in collaboration with Belin, the Mahbub al-Kulub of 
Mir 'All Shir Nawal (1289/1872). A collection of 
proverbs (Atalar Sozu) figures among his other 
works. For his historical works, see Babinger (see 
below) and Enver Koray, Tiirkiye tarih yayinlart 
bibliyografyasl, Ankara 1952. 

Ahmed Wefik was buried in the Kayalar ("Rocks") 
cemetery at Rumeli Hisar, allegedly by order of 
'Abd al-Hamld II, but once again there are probably 
no grounds for this assertion. Ahmed Weflk's grand- 
father, who owned estates in the neighbourhood, 
was buried in the same cemetery. The Sultan's 
displeasure may be explained by the fact that 
Ahmed Wefik had sold land to the American in- 
stitution Robert College. 

Bibliography: I A, s.v. (by Ahmed Hamdi 
Tanpinar); Istanbul Ansihlopedisi, i, 304b-3ioa; 
Babinger, 373-4, 185; Ch. Rolland, La Turquie 
contemporaine, Paris 1854, Chap, ix, 149 ff..; 
A. D. Mordtmann, Stambul und das moderne 
Turkenthum, Leipzig 1877, i, 167-73; p - Fesch, 
Constantinople aux derniers jours d'Abd ul-Hamid, 
Paris 1907, 287 ff.; Mahmud PJewad, Ma'drif-i 

'Umumiyye Nezdreti Istanbul 1328/1912, i, 

127-8 (a short article with a picture, reproduced 
in the monthly review Ergene of Sept. 1947, 
No. 5); 'Abd al-Rahman Sberef, Ta'rikh Mu.dh- 
abeleri: Ahmed Wefik Pasha, reproduced in Khalid 
Fakhrl. Edebi Kird'at Niimuneleri, Istanbul 1926 
(in Arabic script), 297-303, and Istanbul 1929 (in 
Roman script and abridged), 163-6; Ismail Hikmet, 
Ahmed Vefik pasa, 1932; Osman Ergin, Tiirkiye 
Maarif tarihi, Istanbul 1940, ii, 649-50 (on the 
subject of his burial); Mehmed Zeki Pakall, 
Ahmed Vefik pasa, Istanbul 1942; Murat Uraz, 
Ahmed Vefik pasa, Istanbul 1944; Ibniilemin 
Mahmud Kemal Inal, Osmanlt devrinde son Sadlra- 
zamlar, 1944, v, 651 ff. ; see also the indexes of the 
J A vol. 20 of the 6th, 7th and 8th series. 

(J. Deny) 
AHMAD WASIF [see wasif]. 
AHMAD YASAWI, Turkish sufi shaykh of 
Central Asia. His life story is shrouded in legend 
like those of many popular saints. Son of a certain 
Shaykh Ibrahim, he was born at Sayram (Isfldjab) 
in Turkistan during the second half of the nth 
century. He lost his father at the age of seven and 
the family settled at Yasl. There, he began his 
education (it is said as a disciple of Arslan Baba), 



AHMAD YASAWT — AHMADl 



later moving to Bukhara where he became a disciple 
of the great Shaykh Yflsuf HamadhanI, and even- 
tually succeeded him in 555/1160. He returned to 
and remained in YasI until his death in 562/1166. 
Ahmad Yasawl's tomb became a place of pil- 
grimage for kings and princes and was especially 
venerated by the Turks of Central Asia and the 
Volga region. A sumptuous mausoleum was erected 
in Yast (later known as Turkistan) by Timur [see 
yasI] and the cult of Yasawi has never decreased. 
Among the Turkish nomads Yasawl's doctrine was 
adapted to local trends and was strongly influenced 
by pre-islamic Turkish creeds and rituals. The 
shaykh's first khalifa was Arslan Baba's son, Mansur 
Ata (d. 594/1197) great-grandfather of Zengi Ata 
[q.v.]; the second, Sa'Id Ata (d. 615/1218), the third 
Hakim Ata [q.v.] (d. 582/1188). His other successors 
also bore the title of ata. Yasawism established 
itself in Eastern Turkistan, later spread to Ma wara 
al-Nahr, Kh'arizm, as far as Bulghar, Khurasan and 
Persia, and penetrated into Anatolia with the 
migration of Yasawi shaykhs, among whom Hadjdji 
Bektash and Sari Saltuk [qq.v.] are outstanding. 

We know that Ahmad Yasawi wrote vernacular 
Turkish verse in the old syllabic metre in order to 
popularize and spread his mystic doctrine. But the 
poems to be found in the extant collection called 
Diwdn-i Hikmet attributed to him (hikmet = "reli- 
gious poem"), can hardly be genuine. The original 
work of Ahmad Yasawi has not come down to us and 
the oldest MSS belong to the 17th century. But we 
can safely assert that these poems reproduce the true 
spirit and style of Ahmad Yasawi, since we know 
that the verses of many a mystic leader were often 
faithfully imitated, for centuries, by later disciples 
(cf. Yunus Emre and his followers). The poems in 
the Diwan-i Ifikmet are of a didactic character and 
express, in popular language, Islamic and mystic 
precepts. They gave rise to a new genre in Turkish 
literature : mystic folk literature which, in the fol- 
lowing centuries, flourished side by side with secular 
folk literature and classical literature. 

Bibliography : Kopriilu-zade Mehmed Fu'ad, 

Turk Edebiyyatlnda Ilk Mutesawwiflar, Istanbul 

1919, 13-201; idem, V Influence du Chamanisme 

Turco-mongole sur les ordres mystiques musulmans, 

Istanbul 1929; idem, in I A, s.v. Ahmed Yesevi; 

W. Barthold, Histoire des Turcs d'Asie centrale, 

111-2; idem, in Isl., xiv, 112; V. Gordlevskiy, 

Hodja Ahmed Yesewi in Festschrift Georg Jakob, 

Leipzig 1932, 57-67. The Diwdn-i Ifikmet has been 

printed several times at Kazan. (F. Iz) 

AdIb AQMAD YUKNAKl (the nisba may possibly 

refer to the village of Yughnak, south of Tashkent), 

early Turkish poet of the 12th century, author 

of the didactic poem in quatrains, l A ybat al-HahaHk, 

dedicated to a certain Dad Sipahsalar Beg. Its 

subject matter is related to that of Yusuf Khass 

Hadjib's [q.v.] Kutadhghu Bilig; its language is also 

akin to, though not identical with, that of the 

ICutadhghu Bilig. The content is, however, more 

Islamic in character, and more Arabic and Persian 

words are used. It was edited by Nedjib 'Asim, 

under the title Hibet al-HakaHk, Istanbul 1334. 

Critical edition by R. Rahmati Arat, Istanbul 1951. 

Bibliography: N. A. Balghasan-oghlu, in 

KeUti Szemle, vii, 257-79; W. Radloff, in Izvest. Ak. 

Nauk, 1907, 377-941 N. <Asim, Uyghur Yazlsl ile 

"Hibet al-HakdHk" in diger bir nuskhasl, Tiirkiyydt 

Medimu'esi, 1925, 227-33; T. Kowalski, Hibat-ul- 

'HaqaHq, Kdrdsi Csoma Archivum, 1925 (Turkish 

transl. in Tiirkiyydt Medimu'esl, 1926, 452-62); 



399 

J. Deny, in RMM, 1925, 189-234; M. Fuad 
Kopriilu, in MTM, v, 369-80; idem, in Turkiyyat 
Medimu'-asl, 255-7; idem, Hibet al-HakdHk hak- 
klnda yeni bir wethika, Turkiyyat Medimu'-asl, 
1926, 546-9; idem, Ttirk Dili ve Edebiyatl hakklnda 
Arastirmalar, Istanbul 1934, 45 ff. (reprint of the 
aforementioned articles and two new ones: Hibet 
al-Hakaylk hakklnda yeni bir vesiha daha, and 
Hibet al-Hakaylk tetkiklerinin bugiinku kali). 
AHMADABAD is the capital of the district 
of that name in India (Presidency of Bombay), on 
the river Sabarmatl. In 1901 the town numbered 185, 
899 inhabitants, of which about */» were Muslims, the 
district (3,816 square miles = 9,883 square kilo- 
metres) containing 795,967 inhabitants. Ahmadabad 
is one of the most beautiful towns in India and 
is famous for the manufacture of gold and silver 
brocade, of silk, cotton and satin (kamkhab) 
materials. It is equally noted for its brass and 
bronze works, and for the manufacture of mother 
of pearl ornaments, of japanned goods and wood- 
carving (e. g. betel-boxes, pdndan). There are also a 
great many monuments of ancient Muslim art, 
amongst others mosques and mausoleums of the 
15th and 16th centuries. 

Ahmadabad was founded in 141 1 by Ahmad 
Shah I sultan of Gudjarat [q.v.], (who made the 
old Hindu town of Asaval his capital), and was 
enriched by him with countless buildings. In the 
first century of the Gudjarat dynasty it rapidly 
attained prosperity. But after that it fell into 
decline; it enjoyed another period of prosperity 
under the reign of the Mughal emperors, until, in the 
18th century, it again deteriorated. In 1818 the 
English took possession of the town. 

Bibliography: Imperial Gazetteer, i, (1901), 
492; Bombay Gazetteer, iv-B (1904); Muhammedan 
Architecture of Ahmedabad A.D. 1411-1520 (1900); 
Th. Hope, Ahmedabad; Fergusson, Indian Archi- 
tecture; Schlagintweit, Handel und Gewerbe in 
Ahmedabad (Oesterr. Monatsschr. fiir den Orient, 
1884, 160 ff.). 

AHMADl, Tadj al-DIn IbrahIh b. Khidr, the 
greatest Ottoman poet of the 8th/i4th cen- 
tury. His place and date of birth are not known: 
the weight of the evidence is in favour of GermiySn, 
before 735/1334-5. After learning all that Anatolia 
had to teach him, he went to Cairo to study under 
Akmal al-DIn (al-Babartl), commentator of the 
Hiddya; he also made friends with Hadjdji Pasha 
and Molla Fenarl. Returning home, he entered the 
service of the Germiyan-oghlu in KUtahya, Sulayman 
Shah, a well-known patron of poetry, who ruled 
over the principality from c. 769/1367 to 788/1386. 
(He wrote for him the Iskander-ndme, the final 
version of which was, however, presented to Sulay- 
man Celebi.) Later he joined the court of his patron's 
son-in-law, the Ottoman sultan Bayezld I, and was 
especially favoured by his son, Sulayman Celebi. If 
the traditional account is to be believed, he met 
Timur after his victory at Ankara. What is certain 
is that the poet seized the earliest opportunity of 
rejoining Sulayman Celebi at his court in Adrianople, 
although from several hostile references in his poems 
to the people of Brusa it appears that Ahmed! spent 
some years in the latter city. This hostility is under- 
standable in view of Ahmedl's devotion to Sulayman, 
as the people of Brusa sided with Mehmed Celebi 
(Muhammad I). His diwan contains many panegyrics 
on Sulayman, to whom he also dedicated the final 
version of the Iskender-ndme, Diemshid we-Khurshid, 
and Tarwih al-Arwdh. At the end of his moving 



AHMADl — AHMADlLlS 



elegy on the death of Sulayman (814/1411) the poet 
did not neglect to add a prayer for the new sultan, 
Mehmed, to whom he subsequently dedicated some 
of his poems. He died at Amasia in 815/1413. 

His main works are the following. (1) Iskender- 
ndme, on the life and deeds of Alexander the Great, 
the subject matter of which is borrowed from 
Firdawsl and NizamI, but is expanded by many 
didactic digressions. The language is singularly 
pure Turkish and the metre is the native parmak 
llisdbi. The poem ends with a trivial sketch of 
Islamic history, the last part of which, however, 
is a highly important versified history of the Otto- 
mans, the first we have, on which later historians 
frequently drew. (The story is brought down to 
different dates in different versions.) (2) Qiemshid 
we-Khurshid. a mathnawi on the theme of the love 
of a Chinese prince for a Byzantine princess, based 
on Salman SawadjI's poem of the same title. (3) Tar- 
wih al-Arwdh, a didactic mathnawi on medicine and 
preservation of health, apparently written for the 
edification of Sulayman Celebi. (4) A diwdn. 

Bibliography: Ibn c Arabshah, < Ukud al- 
Na$iha, (quoted by Taki al-DIn, Tabakdt al- 
Hanafiyya, MS); Tashkoprii-zade, al-Shakd'ik al- 
Nu'maniyya, 70 f.; the Tedhkeres of Sehi, 54 f., 
Latlfi, 82, c Ashik Celebi; 'All, Kiinh ul-Akhbar, 
v, 128; Gibb, Ottoman Poetry, i, 260 ff.; Babinger, 
n ff.; J. Thury, Tordk nyelvemUkek, Budapest 
1903, 31 ff. (Turkish transl. in MTM, ii, noff.); 
S. Niizhet Ergun, Turk fairleri, i, 384 ff.; Nihad 
Sami Banarli, Ahmedt ve-Ddsitdn-i Tewdrlh-i 
Miil&k-i Al-i Osmdn, Tiirkiyat Mecmuasl, 1939, 
49 ff.; C. Brockelmann, in ZDMG, 1919, 1 ff. (on 
Ahmedi's language); P. Wittek, in Isl., 1932, 
205; idem, in Byzantion, 1936, 303 ft.; I A, s.v. 
(by M. Fuad Koprulu). (G. L. Lewis) 

AQMADl [see sikka]. 

AHMADlLlS, a dynasty of princes of 
Maragha. Distinction must be made between the 
eponym Ahmadll and his successors. Ahmadll b. 
Ibrahim b. Wahsudan al-Rawwadl al-Kurdl was a 
descendant of the local branch of the originally Arab 
family of Rawwad (of Azd) established in Tabriz 
(see rawwadids). In the course of time the family 
became Kurdicized, and even the name Ahmadll is 
apparently formed with an Iranian (Kurdish) dimi- 
nutive suffix -a. Ahmadll took part in the anti- 
Crusade of 505/im. During the siege of Tell Bashir, 
Jocelyn made an arrangement with him and he 
withdrew from the town (Kamal al-DIn, Ta'rikh 
Halab, RHC, iii, 599). Shortly afterwards he left 
Syria altogether in the hope of winning the succession 
to the Shah-i Arman [q.v.] Sukman (d. 506/1112). 
As Sukman had subjugated Tabriz, Ahmadll was 
probably interested in recapturing the basic fief of 
his ancestors. According to Sibt b. al-Djawz! (RHC, 
iu, 556), Ahmadll could muster 5,000 horsemen and 
his revenue amounted to 400,000 dinars yearly. In 
510 (or 508) he was assassinated in Baghdad by the 
Isma'IUs, to whom he had caused much harm 
{RHC, ibid.; Ibn al-Athlr, s.a. 510). 

The study of his successors is complicated by the 
variants of their names and titles used in different 
sources. Ahmadll was apparently succeeded by one 
of his slaves, bearing the Turkish name Ak Sunkur 
"al-Ahmadlll", who is often mentioned in the 
struggles between the sons of Sultan Muhammad 
(d. 511/1118). In 514 Mas'ud b. Muhammad appointed 
his former atdbek Kaslm al-Dawla al-Bursukl to 
Maragha, but Sultan Mahmfld b. Muhammad 
restored Ak Sunkur (who had come to Baghdad) 



to Maragha. After the death in 515/1121 of Kiin- 
tughdi, atdbek to Malik Tughril b. Muhammad, Ak 
Sunkur was anxious to succeed him; Tughril ordered 
him to raise 10,000 horse and went with him to 
conquer Ardabil. During the unsuccessful siege of 
this town, Maragha was occupied by Djuyush-beg, 
sent by Sultan Mahmfid. Under 516/1128 the 
Georgian chronicle (Brosset, i, 368) mentions the 
defeat of the "atdbek of Arran" Aghsunthul (»Ak 
Sunkur), whom Tughril had directed to carry out 
a raid in Sharwan. In 522 he was employed to 
frustrate the intrigues of the Mazyadid Dubays. 
Under 524 we hear of Ak Sunkur, atdbek to Da'ud b. 
Muhammad, supporting the candidature of this 
prince. In 526 jughril defeated his nephew Da'ud 
and occupied Maragha and Tabriz (al-Bundari, 161). 
Ak Sunkur fled to Baghdad and then helped Da'ud's 
other uncle Mas c ud to reoccupy Adharbaydjan. He 
also captured Hamadhan but in 527/1133 was killed 
by Isma'Ilis instigated by Tughril (ibid., 169). 

Ak Sunkur's son and successor is usually called 
Ak Sunkur (Ibn al-Athlr, xi, 166, 177; Ta'rikh-i 
Guzida, 472), but is called also Arslan b. Ak Sunkur 
{Akhbdr al-Dawla al-Saldjiikiyya), and referred to 
by 'Imad al-DIn as Nusrat al-DIn Khass-bek (al- 
Bundari, 231, and even, p. 243, as Nusrat al-DIn 
Arslan-Aba ?). At this time the authority in Adhar- 
baydjan was divided between Eldiguz, atdbek to 
Arslan b. Tughril, and Ak Sunkur II, who was 
associated chiefly with the family of Malik Muham- 
mad b. Sultan Mahmud. An enemy of Ak Sunkur, 
Khass-bek Arslan b. Beling-eri, besieged Maragha 
in 541/1146 (al-Bundari, 217). In 547/1152 Sultan 
Muhammad executed Ibn Beling-eri, but in point 
of fact this execution alerted the two lords {fdhibdn) 
of Adharbaydjan, Eldiguz and Ak Sunkur, who 
proclaimed another, candidate (Sulayman). When 
Muhammad was restored he appointed Ak Sunkur 
as atdbek to his son Da'ud. This led to a rift with 
Eldiguz. With the help of the Shah-i Arman, Ak 
Sunkur defeated Pahlawan b. Eldiguz on the Safld 
Rud. In 556/1 161 he supported Inandj of Rayy, who 
was hostile to Eldiguz, but this amir was defeated 
by Eldiguz in 557, and Ak Sunkur subsequently 
accompanied Eldiguz on his expedition to Georgia 
(557/1162). In 563, however, Ak Sunkur obtained 
from Baghdad the recognition of his charge, Malik 
Da'ud, and this led to a new clash with Pahlawan 
(Ibn al-Athlr, xi, 218). Soon afterwards, Ak Sunkur 
fades out of the picture. According to Ta'rikh-i 
Guzida, 472, his brother Kutlugh revolted in Maragha, 
apparently with the encouragement of the amir 
Inandj of Rayy (d. 564/1 168-9; see Ibn al-Athlr, xi, 
230). Pahlawan suppressed the revolt and left 
Maragha to Ak Sunkur's brothers c Ala' al-DIn and 
Rukn al-DIn. 

Under 570 Ibn al-Athlr (xi, 280) mentions in 
Maragha Falak al-DIn, son. of Ak Sunkur (II), who 
must have cherished some designs on Tabriz, but 
after a clash with Pahlawan had to desist from this 
claim, although the hereditary rift between the two 
families persisted. In 602/1205-6 the lord of Maragha 
C A15' al-DIn made a pact with the lord of Irbil 
GSkburi to depose the incapable Eldiguzid Abu 
Bakr, but the latter, with the help of the former slave 
of the family Ay-doghmlsh, expelled 'Ala' al-Dawla 
from Maragha, giving him Urmiya and Ushnu in 
compensation. In 604 c AIa' al-Dawla (whom Ibn 
al-Athlr, xii, 157, 182, this time calls Kara Sunkur) 
died, and a courageous servant of his took charge 
of his minor son who died in 605. The servant 
remained in the castle of Ruyln-diz, while Abu 



AHMADlLlS — AHMADIYYA 



301 



Bakr occupied the remaining territories of MarSgha. 
It seems certain that e A13 5 al-Dawla was the patron 
to whom Ni?aml dedicated his Haft Paykar (com- 
pleted in 593 ?) and whom the poet calls 'Ala' al- 
Dln Krb (tf«r£-"young")-Arslan (see Rieu, Cat. 
Pers. MSS, ii, 567, and Suppl., 1985, 154). Nizami 
refers to his two sons Nusrat al-DIn Muhammad and 
Ahmad (one of whom may be the son who according 
to Ibn al-Athir died in 605). 

After this we find the line continued by women. 
When in 618/1221 the Mongols took Maragha the 
mistress of the town survived in the fortress of 
Ruyln-diz. In 624/1224 Sharaf al-Mulk, wazir of the 
Kh'arazm-shah Djal&l al-DIn, besieged Ruyln-diz, 
whose mistress was a granddaughter of c Ala 5 al-DIn 
Kraba (Nasawi, 129; possibly *K6rp-apar). She was 
married to the deaf-mute son of the Eldiguzid Uzbek 
(called Khamush. "silent"), but probably was 
separated from him because Khamush had joined 
Djalal al-DIn and later went over to the Isma'ills 
(Nasawi, 129-30). The princess was ready to wed 
Sharaf al-Mulk when Djalal al-DIn himself arrived 
on the spot, married her, and appointed his own 
governor to Ruyln-diz (ibid., 157). Khamush had a 
numerous family and it is not clear whether his son 
"atdbek Nusrat al-DIn" was born to him of the 
Abmadill princess. According to Djuwaynl, Nusrat 
al-DIn was hiding in Rum, but towards 644/1246 he 
obtained an al tamgha from Guyuk Khan for the 
governorship of Tabriz and Adharbaydjan. 

(V. Minorsky) 

AHMADIYYA is the name (i) of an organized 
religious community, standing in continuity with 
its eponym, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Kadiyan; and 
(ii) of a small organization or movement derived 

Ghulam Ahmad was born into the leading family 
of the small town of Kadiyan, Gurdaspur district, 
Pandjab, India, about 1255/1839. The title Mirza 
relates to the family's having come in with the 
conquering Mughals, in this case under Babur. The 
boy received a good traditional education, in Arabic 
and Persian, and was from childhood studious and 
reflective. Rather than follow his father as hakim, 
or this father's wishes by going on in British govern- 
ment service or practising law, he soon gave himself 
up (on his landlord income) to quietude in his native 
place. Along with meditation and religious study he 
developed apparently a propensity for hearing voices. 
At the age of about forty he began to publish (1880) 
a considerable work Bardhm-i Ahmadiyya, which 
was well received. On 4 March 1889 he announced 
that he had received from God a revelation authori- 
zing him to accept bay'at; and a small group was 
forthcoming of formal disciples, who were devoted 
and in some cases remarkably able men. Opposition 
from the Muslim community began two years later 
when he announced that he was the Masih and the 
Mahdi. From that date (1891) until his death 
(24 RabI 4 II 1326/26 May 1908) there was continuous 
increase both in opposition to him and in his own 
claims; also in his following. Controversy raged; 
chiefly with Muslims, though also with Hindus and 
Christians. He claimed to receive revelations (both 
ilhdm and wahy are used), including foreknowledge; 
to perform miracles (including both raising the dead 
to life, and vice-versa: he boasted of bringing about, 
through prayer, the death of rivals); and to be an 
avatar of Krsna (1904) as well as Jesus returned to 
earth and the Mahdi ; also the bur uz ("re-appearance") 
of Muhammad. Whether he claimed to be a nabi, 
and if so what he meant by it, is disputed between 



the two groups into which his followers later divided 
(see below). His teachings, over his last twenty 
years, are multifarious: sometimes curious (as, e.g., 
that Jesus died and is buried in Srinagar) or well- 
informed, sometimes inconsistent, often polemical 
and crude, sometimes remarkably spiritual. One 
discerns in them, in addition to peripheral Hindu 
concepts and a reaction against Christian influences, 
but more especially in the pattern of his life and 
the positive response evoked, a late Indian sufl 
version of Islam activated by modern-Western 
infiltrations. 

When he died, his followers thereby ceased to be 
a body of disciples ; they became instead a community 
of believers, and, rather than disintegrating, elected 
a khalifa (Mawlawl Nur al-DIn) and proceeded to 
exist as an independent community. The validity 
of this, or at least of its form, was doubted 
by some; and when this first khalifa died (1914), 
most of the executive and westernized minority 
seceded, to set up at Lahore a society propagating 
the new teachings (as they saw them), while the 
majority remained at Kadiyan rather as a com- 
munity embodying those teachings (and propagating 
itself). There was a political difference also: the 
secessionists (dissociating themselves less from the 
wider Muslim community) were beginning to feel 
and to participate in the nascent anti-imperialism 
of Indian Islam (Kanpur mosque incident, 1913), 
while the major group explicitly clung to the 
traditional loyalty of the founder and his family. 
They chose the founder's twenty-five-year old) son 
as Khalifat al-Masih II. The forty years of his 
khildfat have been the story of the gradual forging 
of the virtually new movement that exists to-day. 
Similarly in the case of the Lahore party, which had 
as leader a young lawyer and religious intellectual, 
it has been rather the gradual working out of a 
virtually new system of ideas. 

Both groups were — and are — dynamic, and have 
developed much, each in its own way. They have 
travelled far, from their common starting point, and 
also from each other. They will, accordingly, be 
separately described. 

(i) The community. Name: Urdu, Djama'at-i 
Aijmadiyya; English, Ahmadiyya Movement in 
Islam. An AhmadI is also commonly referred to as 
Kadiyani (which since 1947 has become less ap- 
propriate; see below), and sometimes — usually 
to his own annoyance — as Mirza'i. Membership is 
by birth within the movement, or by joining, on 
formal profession of faith and acceptance of duties. 
According to their own figures, there are some 
half -million members; about half of these being in 
Pakistan, the rest somewhat evenly divided between 
India and the remainder of the world (chiefly 
West Africa; but there are AhmadI congregations 
from Indonesia to the Arab world, with small bands 
of converts also in Britain, the continent of Europe, 
and the United States). Members pay monthly dues 
(from each a minimum of V« % of his income is 
required; with various further contributions expected 
and often given). The movement accordingly handles 
considerable sums; and its organization is strong 
and centralized. The community also operates and 
enforces (on traditional "Islamic" lines) its own 
internal judiciary (kada?) so far as feasible. New 
headquarters of the community are at Rabwah, 
Pakistan. There is a central Advisory Council 
(Madjfis-i Mushawarat), largely elected; and a strong 
central secretariat. However, all power is finally 
vested in the head of the movement, who for the last 



302 AHMj 

forty years has been, as already indicated, the foun- 
der's son, Hadrat MIrza Bashir al-Din Mahraud 
Ahmad (b. 1306/1889). So largely have direction and 
control been in his hands that the movement in 
its present form may be said to be in significant 
degree his creation. 

The above organization binds the community 
together; and strikingly vigorous, well-planned 
missionary activity throughout the world continues 
to expand it. These externals, however, are mani- 
festly informed by a spiritual quality, a faith and 
religious life. Four, overlapping, aspects of this may 
be noted: the memory of the founder, reverence for 
the present head, doctrine, and the intensity of 
corporate life. The teachings are those of the founder, 
as interpreted (expanded, modified) by the present 
head. At the present stage of development they are 
most effectively presented in his Ahmadiyyat or the 
True Islam (1924: 3rd ed., Washington 1951; also 
available in other languages), and in his vast Kur'an 
commentary, now in process {Tafsir-i Kabir, in 
Urdu). In the formula currently signed on joining the 
movement, a statement addressed to the head, these 
sentences figure: "I bear witness that God alone is 
to be worshipped. He is One having no partner. 
I ... I will try my best to act upon all the Laws of 
Islam. /I will obey you in everything good that you 
tell me. /I consider the Holy Prophet Muhammad 
to be the Seal of the Prophets, and also believe in 
all the claims of the Prophet Ahmad of Qadian 
(peace be on them) . . ." (from the English version 
used in the Washington, D. C, mosque). The core 
of AhmadI belief is that their community embodies 
the only true form of Islam (the one true religion, 
sent by God), it having been launched in this revita- 
lized and newly revealed form by Ahmad, who was 
sent by God for the purpose, and it is being further 
divinely guided through its present head. Other 
Muslims, by rejecting this heaven-sent re-formation, 
are pronounced kdfir. Of the veneration in which 
the present head is held by his followers a compelling 
illustration is the reasoned tribute by one who is 
to-day a world figure: Zafrullah Khan, The Head 
of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam (offprint, 
Chicago, n.d. [c. 1945]). 

The activities of the community, apart from their 
zealous and efficient propaganda, include such 
internal matters as the establishing and running of 
schools and colleges (the former centre, Kadiyan, 
appears to have been much the most literate town 
in India, with almost total feminine literacy). They 
produce great quantities of literature (see below); 
have their own exclusive mosques; and sustain a 
telling esprit de corps. 

AhmadI relations with Hindus and Sikhs have 
been chiefly attempted proselytism, with very 
limited success; with Christians there was also at 
first a spirited polemic on both sides, not without 
acerbity, though the situation appears gradually 
to have improved. It is with other Muslims that the 
Ahmadiyya have had primarily to deal: from them 
has come the overwhelming body of their converts, 
and also their opposition, often bitter and at times 
violent. The ambiguities of their situation became 
particularly vexed with the establishment in 1947 of 
Pakistan, into which both geographically and ideolo- 
gically they almost, but not quite, fit. They trans- 
ferred their headquarters perforce from Kadiyan (in 
India, because of the controversial Radcliffe award) 
to a site, previously barren, in Pakistan, which they 
named Rabwah (cf. Kur'an, ii, 265) and where they 
are now constructing a town (about 90 miles south- 



west of Lahore). The political issue was less easily 
settled: wether they, who called other Muslims 
kdfir, should be fully admitted into the Muslims' new 
state, was a question that flared up in 1953 and 
brought riots, bloodshed, and the fall of governments. 
The Bibliography is enormous. The most 
important source is the movement's own volumi- 
nous publications. A few of the founder's more 
than 75 books (in Arabic, Persian, Urdu) have been 
republished by the present community in several 
languages (perhaps most important to-day: The 
Teachings of Islam, various editions); the first 
khalifa wrote some half-dozen, and the present 
head is the author of over thirty works (two most 
important noted above; add: Introduction to the 
Study of the Holy Quran, London 1949; Economic 
Structure of Islamic Society, Qadian 1946). Other 
members have written about the community, and 
its leaders; also lives of Muhammad, etc. (e.g. Sufi 
M. R. Bengalee, Life of Muhammad), and trans- 
lations of the Kur'an in several lanquages. More- 
over, the community has produced and produces 
large numbers of periodicals — daily, weekly, 
and monthly — from India, West Pakistan, East 
Pakistan, Ceylon, Indonesia, Lagos, Israel, Zurich, 
London, Chicago, Washington, and elsewhere. 
SunnI Muslim and Christian missionary writing 
on the movement has often, though not always, 
been polemical; the former often important and 
revealing (e.g. Muhammad Iqbal, Islam and 
Ahmadism, Lahore, 1936), the latter often in- 
formative (e.g. H. A. Walter, The Ahmadiya 
Movement, Calcutta and London 1918; numerous 
other studies; articles in MW every few years). 
Almost all books on Indian Islam (e.g. M. Titus, 
Indian Islam, 1930, 226 ff. ; W. C. Smith, Modern 
Islam in India, 1946, 298 ff.) or Modern Islam 
mention the community. Objective descriptive 
studies, of an academic sort, do not seem to have 
appeared in significant or comprehensive form 
since L. Bouvat, in J A, 1928, 159-81. 
(ii) The Ahmadiyya Andjuman Isha'at-i Islam 
(headquarters in Lahore). This group accepts Ghulam 
Ahmad as mudjaddid, not as prophet, and affirms 
that he never claimed to be a prophet. It has always 
been incomparably smaller than (i); but comparably 
zealous in its activities. It has differed, for instance, in 
trying more to win converts to Islam than to itself. 
It has been active in a systematic and effective 
fashion, chiefly in three overlapping fields : publishing, 
organized foreign missionary work, and leadership 
in intellectual modernism (liberalism) in Islam, 
especially of English-reading Islam. It has produced 
and circulated throughout the world (chiefly in 
English and Urdu, but also in a half-dozen and more 
other European and well over a dozen Asian languages) 
translations of the Kur'an, lives of Muhammad, 
impressive expositions of Islam, many monographs 
and essays, and innumerable pamphlets. Its foreign 
mission stations, in London, Berlin, Indonesia, have 
been influential; especially the first (the Woking 
Mission, an independent entity from 1930, but from 
1947 again semi-officially related to the Lahore 
movement). The leader of the movement from its 
inception until his death in 1951, prolific author of 
much of its literature, and chief creator of its 
distinctive intellectual contribution was Mawlana 
Muhammad C A1I. Also to be mentioned is the equally 
prolific but shorter-lived imam of the Woking mosque, 
Kh'adia Kamal al-DIn (1870-1932). 

Bibliography: The movement's own publica- 
tions are again the main source: see the writings 



AHMADIYYA — al-AHNAF b. KAYS 



303 



of Muhammad 'All (chiefly his English Translation 
of the Holy Qur'an with Arabic Text, Commentary 
and Index, Lahore, several editions; over 50,000 
copies have been distributed; The Religion of 
Islam, Lahore 1936; Muhammad the Prophet, 1924, 
Urdu original, Khavr al-Bashar, ibid., 1917; etc. 
etc.), and also of KamSl al-Din (e.g., the Ideal 
Prophet, London 1925; Islam and Christianity, 
ibid., 1932 ; and many others). For external sources, 
see the bibliography of (i) above. 

(Wilfred Cantwell Smith) 
AHMADNAGAR is the capital of the district 
fo that name in India (Presidency of Bombay) on 
the river Siva. In 1901 the town numbered 42,000 
inhabitants, the district (6586 square miles = 17,058 
square kilometres) 837,695 inhabitants. The town 
was built in 1494 by Ahmad Nizam Shah, the 
founder of the dynasty of the Nizam Shahs [<?.v.], 
who reigned for about a century in Ahmadnagar, 
until, after a brave defence by Cand BIbl, the place 
was taken by Akbar's troops and annexed to the 
Mogul empire. After the death of Awrangzlb, 
Ahmadnagar became subject to the Marathas, and 
in 1803 Dawlat Rao Sindhiya was obliged to sur- 
render the town to the Duke of Wellington. 

Bibliography: Bombay Gazetteer xvii-B (1904). 
AHMADU [see ahmad al-shaykh]. 
AHMADU LOBBO (Shaykh Ahmad, Seku 
Ahmadu (Hamadu) Lobbo, Sheku Ahmadu Sise), 
Ful religious chieftain, of the Ban clan (or 
Saugare or Daebe, corresponding to the Mandingo 
clan of the Sise) a native of Malangal or Mareval 
in central Masina, actually called Hamadu Hamadu 
Lobbo, that is to say the son of Hamadu Lobbo. 
The latter was a pious Muslim living at Yogunsiru 
(district of Uro Modi in central Masina), a native of 
Fituka (the region to the east of Niafunke), called 
Lobbo after the name of his mother. Masina was 
then occupied by the Ful, who were mostly pagan 
or superficially Muslim, and wer< ruled by ardos of 
the Dyallo dynasty, vassals of the Bambara rulers 
of Segu, and only Djenne was occupied by Moroccan 
troops. Ahmadu Lobbo, a disciple of the marabout 
Kunta of the order of the Kadiriyya Shaykh Sidi 
Muhammad, who died in 1826, accompanied 'Othman 
dan Fodio on his successful expeditions intended to 
propagate Islam (about 1800), and took up residence 
in a hamlet near Djenne. He was expelled by the 
Moroccans, who distrusted his reputation for learning 
and his influence, and settled in Sebera, birthplace 
of his mother, where he gathered round him many 
students. An incident between these students and 
the son of the ardo of Masina, Gurori Dyallo, incited 
Ahmadu to open revolt. A Bambara army which 
was sent against him was defeated by a ruse, the 
Dyallo dynasty was dethroned (1810) and all the 
Ful of the region placed themselves under his 
command. He took Djenne after a siege lasting nine 
months, defeated Geladjo, the leader of the Kunari, 
(whose exploits are still the subject of a popular 
ballad, see G. Vieillard, in Bull, du Comiti d'Hudes 
hist, et scient. d I'A.O.F., 1931, 151-6) and built a 
new capital in that district, on the Bani, called 
Hamdallahi (fulbe: Hamdallay) (1815). He conquered 
Isa Ber from the Touareg (1825), Timbuktu (1827), 
and extended his authority eastwards as far as the 
first ranges of Tombo, and to the south-east as far 
as the confluence of the Black Volta and the Suru. 
He adopted the title of amir al-mu'minin and devo- 
ted himself to propagating orthodox Islam according 
to the Kadiriyya order, demanding strict observance 
of its religious requirements; he demolished the tribal 



mosques and local places of worship, placed a ban 
on tobacco, established relations with the sultan of 
Istanbul, and, about 1838, welcomed al-Hadjdj 'Umar 
Tal [q.v.] on his return from Mecca. He organized 
his dominions along orderly lines. Vi lages, districts 
and provinces were governed by officials, appointed 
by himself, who could be impeached before the 
kadi (fulbe: algdli) of the region. The State owned 
lands and flocks, and received a portion of war booty, 
fines etc. Taxation comprised the zakat (fulbe: d'akka, 
tithe on grain crops, proportion of flocks) ; a surtax 
on the rich (1/40 on gold, cowry and bar salt) ; the 
kharddi on food crops; the muddu in millet at the 
festival of the breaking of the fast; a contribution 
from slaves for the provisioning of the army ; the 'ushr 
(fulbe: usuru), a 10% customs duty. Every spring 
military expeditions were organized. Each village had 
to provide a fixed quota of men for these military 
operations, a third of this quota being mobilized each 
year by roster. The troops, free men, received 
subsistence for the maintenance of their families 
during their absence. There were five high-ranking 
military officers, each responsible for the defence of a 
particular sector. There existed a right of appeal from 
the regional kadis to the kadi at Hamdallahi, and 
from the latter to Ahmadu himself, aided by a 
"marabout tribunal" in an advisory capacity. 

Ahmadu I died in 1844 and his son Ahmadu 
(Hamadu) II succeeded him, despite the native 
customary law of succession. In 1846 he reimposed, 
in a modified form, the sovereignty of Masina 
over Timbuktu, which had rebelled at the death 
of his father. Ahmadu II was similarly succeeded 
in 1852 by his son, Ahmadu III. He tried, by 
diplomacy or by force, to check the expansion of the 
great Tokolor conqueror, al-Hadjdj c Umar Tal, but 
the latter took Hamdallahi in June 1862. Ahmadu III 
fled towards Timbuktu, but was captured and put 
to death at 'Ulnar's orders. His uncle Ba Lobbo 
continued the fight against 'Umar and his successors. 
The Masina State had been a centre of strict Islam, 
inimical to infidels, as the European travellers Rene 
Caille and Heinrich Barth had discovered. 

Bibliographic : Ch. Monteil, Monographic de 
Djenne; Tulle 1903, 266-77; M. Delafosse, Haul- 
Sinigal-Niger, Paris 1912, ii, 232-9; L. Tauxier, 
Moeurs et histoire des Peuls, Paris 1937, 163-85; 
P. Marty, Etudes sur I' Islam et les tribus du 
Soudan, ii, Paris 1920, 137-8; 177-80, 246-7; 
Mohammadou Aliou Tyam, La vie d'El Had) Omar, 
ed. and trans. H. Gaden, Paris 1935, 20, i_ 
164 ft., 185 ft.; R. Caille, Journal d'un voyage a 
Tombouctou et d Jenni, Paris 1830, ii, 206 ff., 
E. Mage, Voyage dans le Soudan occidental, Paris 
1868, 258 ff. ; H. L. Labouret. La langue des Peuls 
ouFoulbe, Dakar 1952, 162-5. (M. Rodinson) 
AHMAR, BANU V, genealogical name of the 
nasrid dynasty [see nasrids]. 

al-AHNAF B. SAYS, the usual cognomen of a 
Tamimite noble of Basra named Abu Bahr 
Sakhr (sometimes, but erroneously, called al-Dahhak) 
b. Kays b. Mu'awiya al-TamImI al-Sa'dI, of the 
family of Murra b. 'Ubayd; through his mother, he 
was descended from the Bahilite clan Awd b. Ma'n. 
He was born before Islam and, probably at an 
early age, lost his father, killed by the Banu Mazin. 
His biographers state that he was deformed from 
birth and that he had undergone an operation. His 
cognomen (al-ahnaf) derives from the fact that his 
feet were misshapen, but he also had other abnor- 
malities (see the description of his physical appea- 
rance in al-Djahiz, al-Bayan (Harun), i, 56). 



L-AHNAF B. KAYS — al-AHSA'I 



At the advent of Islam, the Tamlm 
respond immediately to the Prophet' 
and it was al-Ahnai who was instrumental in 
procuring their conversion. He then presented him- 
self to c Umar, and was among the first inhabitants 
of Basra, where he soon emerged as spokesman and 
leader of the Tamimites who, during the ist/7th 
century formed the intellectual, religious and 
political elite of the city. Under the command of 
Abu Musa al-Ash'arl, he took part, notably in 23/644 
and 29/649-50, in the capture of Kumm, Kashan 
and Isfahan. He was later one of the best generals 
of c Abd Allah b. 'Amir [q.v.], under whose orders 
he conquered Kuhistan, Harat, Marw, Marw al-Rudh, 
Balkh and other districts (near Marw al-Rudh, his 
memory was perpetuated by the Kasr al-Ahnai and 
the Rustak al-Aljnai). He even led his troops as far 
as the plains of Tukharistan, thus preventing the 
last king of Persia from organising further resistance 
against the Muslims. For a time governor of a 
district of Khurasan, he afterwards returned to 
Basra where his position as head of the Tamimites 
enabled him to play an important political role. 
Although a neutral at the battle of the Camel 
(36/656) between the partisans of 'All and those of 
< A > isha, he fought on the side of 'All the following 
year at the battle of Siffin. From then on he appears 
to have devoted himself to local political affairs, but 
the Umayyads considered his influence to be such 
that they consulted him on general political problems, 
and it was in this way that he came to give his 
opinion on the question of Mu'Swiya's successor. 
At Basra there was latent hostility between the 
Rabi'a faction, represented by the Bakr b. Wa'il, 
and the Mudar faction, represented by the Tamlm. 
Al-Ahnaf was sufficiently adroit to prevent bloodshed, 
but he did not succeed in extinguishing smouldering 
animosities. At the death of Yazid b. Mu'awiya 
(64/683) a rising occurred there, and the governor 
'Ubayd Allah b. Ziyad [q.v.] placed an Azdite, Mas'ud 
b. 'Amr al-'Ataki, in charge of the city, but the latter 
was assassinated shortly afterwards. The Azd faction 
then allied themselves with the Bakr and the 'Abd 
al-Kays against the Tamlm, whom al-Ahnaf had 
exhorted to adopt a moderate policy towards the 
Azd. The situation remained extremely confused for 
several months; finally al-Ahnaf agreed to a com- 
promise favourable to the Azd, and contributed 
from his own funds to an indemnity for the Azdite 
victims. When order was restored, he devoted his 
■energies to achieving an alliance of the various tribes 
at Basra against the common enemy in the shape 
of the Kharidiites who were threatening the city, 
and it was he who, in 65/684-5, proposed that the 
Azdite al-Muhallab [q.v.] should be entrusted with 
the command of an expedition against the Azrakites 
which the populace hoped to induce him to undertake. 
In 67/686-7 the Shi'ite agitator al-Mukhtar [q.v.] 
succeeded in recruiting supporters at Basra, but 
al-Ahnaf took his stand against the ShI'ites, and 
succeeded in evicting al-Mukh tar's partisans from 
the city. He then assumed command of the Tamlm 
contingent of the Basra forces which, under the 
orders of Mus'ab b. al-Zubayr, marched to attack 
al-Mukhtar at Kufa. It was there that he died, at 
an advanced age. 

His line soon came to an end, but his memory was 
kept alive by the Tamlm who considered him one of 
their greatest leaders. He was something of a poet, but 
above all he left a reputation for sagacity, which is 
conveyed by a large number of aphorisms and maxims, 
some of which have become proverbs; his hilm is 



compared to that of Mu'awiya, and is also proverbial; 
hence the saying: ahlam min al-Ahnaf (al-Djabiz, 
al-Ifayawan % , ii, 92; al-Maydanl, i, 229-30). 

Bibliography: Djabiz, Baydn and Jfayawdn*, 
index; idem, Mukhtdr, Berlin ms. 5032, 816-866; 
Baladhuri, Ansdb, iv b, v, index, Istanbul ms. 
ii, 994 ff. (see B. Et. Or., 1952-4, 208) ; Ibn Sa'd, 
Jabakdt, vii/i, 66-69 ; DInawarl, al-Akhbdr al-fiwdl, 
173-74; Ibn Kutayba, Ma'drif, Cairo 1353/1934, 
36, 37, 134, 186-87, 250, 268; idem, 'Uyun al- 
Akhbdr, index; Ibn Nubata, Sarh al- c Uyun, 53-57; 
Tabarl and Ibn al-Athlr, index; Ibn Hadjar, 
If aba, no. 429; Maydanl, AmthSX, Cairo 1352, i, 
229-30, ii, 274; Agh&ni, index; Goldziher, Muh. St., 
II, 96, 205 ; Ch. Pellat, Milieu basrien, index. 

(Ch. Pellat) 
al-AHSA [see al-hasA and hufhuf]. 
al-AQSA'I, Shaykh Ahmad b. Zayn al-DIn b. 
IbrAhIm, founder of the theological school 
(later, after his excommunication by the Shll 
tnuditahids, more properly speaking "sect") which, 
from his designation, took the name of Shaykhl 
[q.v.]. He was born in al-Ahsa* (Arabia) in 1166/1753. 
His biographers record his great piety from his 
years of infancy. At the age of twenty, already 
learned in the religious sciences, he went on pil- 
grimage to the Shi'ite sanctuaries in al-'Irak, where 
he had his first successes, obtaining from their 
tnuditahids "licences" to teach the religious sciences. 
After establishing himself with his family in Bahrayn, 
and later in Basra, he made several journeys in al- 
'Irak and, from 1221/1806 onwards, also in Persia, 
where he made the pilgrimage to Mashhad and, on 
his return, settled at Yazd as a teacher, enjoying the 
greatest veneration. Even the shah (Fath 'All Shah 
Kadjar) summoned him to Teheran, and loaded him 
with honours. This, together with his great popularity, 
roused the jealousy of the divines of Yazd, and 
several reports began to circulate on the unorthodoxy 
of Shaykh Ahmad's teachings; more particularly 
challenged were his eschatological doctrines, in 
which, according to the 'orthodox' Shi'ite theologians, 
he had denied the resurrection of the body and inter- 
preted it as a purely spiritual resurrection (see 
shaykhj). After a final pilgrimage to Karbala', he 
settled in 1229/1814 in Kirmanshah, whence he made 
several journeys (into al-'Irak and, in 1232/1817-8, 
to Mecca). His definitive rupture with the tnuditahids 
took place at Kazwln about 1239-40/1824, after his 
return from another pilgrimage to Mashhad, in 
consequence of a discussion with the fiery HadjdjI 
Mulla TakI Barakani, uncle of the famous BabI 
poetess Tahira ( or Kurrat al-'Ayn, see bAbI). The 
hostility of the mullds towards him steadily increased, 
and he was even accused of professing theories which 
never entered his head (e.g., the divinity of 'AH, 
the doctrine of tafwia", according to which God had 
entrusted the care of the worldly creation to the 
imams, etc.). After many wanderings, interspersed 
with teaching and the composition of his numerous 
works, he died in the course of a pilgrimage to Mecca, 
at the age of 75 years, near Medina, in 1 241/1826, 
and was buried there. His theological works (in- 
cluding minor treatises) number about a hundred. 
For his doctrines see art. shaykhI. The school 
founded by him was guided by his successor Sayyid 
Kazim Rashti [q.v.], and out of it there developed 
at a later date the BabI [q.v.] movement. 

Bibliography: A. L. M. Nicolas, Cheikh 
Ahmad Lahfahi, Paris 1910 (Essai sur le Cheik- 
hisme, i); Brockelmann, S II, 844-5. For further 
bibliography see shaykb.1. (A. Bausani) 



AHSANABAD — C A»ILA 



AHSANABAD [see gulbarga]. 
»l-A^WA$ al-Ansari, c Abd Allah b. Muh. b. 
'Abd AllAh b. 'Asim b. Jhabit, Arabic poet, 
of the Banu Dubay'a b. Zayd (a clan of al-Aws), 
bom about 35/655; he spent his life mainly in the 
refined society of Medina. The noble-bom inhabitants 
of Medina had grown rich during the first conquests, 
acquired great wealth by the sale of historical 
buildings and gardens in the town and were, in 
addition, subsidized by the caliphs. They were, 
however, not allowed to take part in government 
and in political life and thus lived in a sort of political 
exile. Affluence and the exclusion of political aspi- 
rations exercised an influence also on the social life 
of Medina, which was dominated by worldly pleasures. 
In this milieu arose the urban poetry of love, of 
which 'Umar b. AW Rabl'a, al-'ArdjI, and al-Ahwas 
were the main representatives. 

The first personal relations of al-Ahwas were 
with al-Walld, 'whose guest he was on various 
occasions. 'Umar b. 'Abd al-'AzIz, when he was 
governor of Medina, had him whipped for an 
amorous adventure (Aghani 1 , vi, 53-4). During the 
last years of al-Walld's reign began his quarrel with 
Ibn Hazm, who was first kadi (94/713), and then 
governor (96/715) of Medina. Al-Ahwas slandered 
him in the presence of the caliph and also attacked 
him in his verses. This was aggravated by other 
political and moral offences, such as his love-affairs, 
his mentioning of noble ladies (e.g. Sukayna bint 
al-Husayn) in his poems, his conflict with the 
Islamic aristocracy, the suspicion of paederasty, 
immoral utterances, and perhaps also the circum- 
stance that he was the member of a family which 
had taken an active part in the rising in Medina. 
On the instigation of the governing circles and by 
order of the caliph Sulayman he was whipped, put 
in the pillory, and exiled to the island of Dahlak 
in the Red Sea (Aghani', iv, 48, «iv, 246; »iv, 43, «iv, 
233; 'iv, 45, 'iv, 239). He remained there during the 
reigns of Sulayman and 'Umar II, i.e. for four or 
five years, although the Ansar, whose mouth-piece 
he was, interceded on his behalf. Yazld II released 
him and conferred on him rich gifts; al-Ahwas 
became his boon-companion and supported his 
political aims by a satire against the Muhallabids. 
Nothing more is known of al-Ahwas after his 
relations with Yazld; he died after an illness in 
1 10/728-9. 

The judgements about al-Ahwas's character are 
negative: he had neither muruwwa nor din (Aghani 1 , 
iv, 43, »iv, 233). He was, however, highly appreciated 
as a poet. He excelled chiefly in love poetry, fakhr, 
madh and hidja'. He is praised for the ease of his 
diction, good sense, beautiful and agreeable expres- 
sions, and the well-ordered structure of his poems. 
He is, however, less original than 'Umar b. Abl 
Rabl'a; this is shown in his preference for the old 
themes of the kaslda and the old metres. His language 
is influenced by the dialect of Medina (cf. K. 
Petracek, in ArOr, 1954, 460-6). 

Bibliography: Aghani 1 , iv, 40-7, "iv, 224-68 
and Tables, s.v. al-Ahwas; Ibn Kutayba, §hi*r, 
329-32; Khizdna, i, 232-4; Djumahl, Tabakat, 
Cairo 1925, 334-45; Ibn Hazm, Qiamkara, 313. 
Verses by him in Bakri, -Mu'diam; Buhturl, 
ffamdsa; Abu Tammam, Ifamasa; Yakut, IrshSd; 
idem, Mu'diam; LA;TA; Ibn DS»ud al-Isfahanl, 
Zakra. Studies by Hammer-Purgstall, Literatur- 
gesck., ii, 232-40; Brockelmann, I, 44; Rescher, 
Abriss der ar. Lit., i, 167-8; Pizzi, Lett, ar., 115; 
Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Ibn Qotalba, Introduction 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



au Hvre de la poisie et des poites, 64-7; Tina 

Husayn, ffadiHi al-Arba'-a? , ii, Cairo 1926, 93-104; 

K. Petra&ek, Al-Ahwas al-Ansari, pfispivky A 

pozndni Hvota a dila, thesis, Prague 1951 (to appear 

in ArOr). (K. Petracek) 

al-AHWAZ (or Ahwaz), a town, is situated 

(3i°i9' N, 48°46' E) on the Karun river at the point 

on the Khuzistan plain where it cuts through a low 

sandstone ridge; this ridge causes rapids which 

impede navigation and necessitate the trans-shipment 

of goods from vessels on the lower river to those 

on the upper or vice versa. Attempts have been made 

to identify Ahwaz with the town of Aginis mentioned 

by Strabo, but it is more likely that it stands on 

the site of Tareiana where, in Achaemenian times, 

the royal road connecting Susa with Persepolis and 

Pasargadae crossed the river by a bridge of boats. 

Nearchus anchored his fleet just below this bridge 

after his memorable voyage up the Persian Gulf. 

(Cf. Pauly-Wissowa, s. vv. Aginis and Tareiana.) 

Tareiana was rebuilt by the Sasanian king Ardasljlr 
I, who renamed it Hormuzd Ardashlr and began the 
construction of the great dam across the rapids. 
Under him and his successors the town prospered 
greatly and became capital of the province of 
Susiana in place of Susa. (Cf. Th. Noldeke, Gesch. d. 
Perser und Araber tur zeit d. Sasaniden, 13, 19; 
I. Guidi, in ZDMG, 1889, 410.) 

When the Muslim Arabs conquered Susiana 
(Khuzistan) and took Hormuzd Ardashir, they 
renamed the town Suk al-Ahwaz, meaning "the 
market of the HQzI" (Ahwaz is the Arabic plural 
of Huzl, i.e., KhOzI r KhudjI, in Syriac Huzayfi, 
a warlike tribe which has been identified with the 
O8£ioi of the classical writers; hence also Khuzistan 
[?.»•])• 

Ahwaz continued to prosper under the Umayyad 
and 'Abbasid Caliphates. It was the centre of 
extensive sugar plantation [cf. sukkar], but the 
serious Zandj rebellion caused a decline towards the 
close of the 3rd/i9th century. A recovery was sub- 
sequently made, but the collapse of the great dam 
some five and a half centuries later brought about 
the virtual ruin of the town and it ceased in con- 
sequence to be the provincial capital. At the begin- 
ning of the present century it had about 2000 
inhabitants, but the discovery of the important 
oilfields in Khuzistan restored its fortunes to such 
an extent that it again became the capital of Khu- 
zistan in 1926. The town has also benefited greatly 
from the opening of the Trans- Persian railway; the 
line crosses the Karun by a fine bridge which has 
for its foundations the remains of the great dam. 
Further downstream is an imposing road bridge. 
In 1948 the population of Ahwaz exceeded 100,000. 
[See also khuzistan, for the history of the province.] 
Bibliography : F. Wtistenfeld, in ZDMG, 1864, 
424 ff. ; Le Strange, 233 ff.; Schwarz, Iran, 315-24; 
K. Ritter, Erdkunde, ix, 219-30; J. de Morgan, 
Mission scientifique en Perse; ii (Etudes giographi- 
ques), 275 ff.; A. Kasrawl, Ta'rikjt-i Pan-$ad 
S&la-yi Khuzistan. (L. Lockhart) 

AI , . . [for words beginning with ai, see under ay]. 
'A'lLA (a), "family". From the root C WL or 
C YL, this word is not found in the Kur'an except 
(ix, 28) as a variant reading for c ayla "poverty", 
but a marginal gloss in the Kdm&s al-Muhif (2nd 
ed., iv, 24) and a hadith quoted by al-Gfcazall attest 
the meaning "family". The modern neo-classic 
language uses it freely, perhaps influenced by the 
Ottoman civil code (Madialla), for example hukak-i 
'SHle kardr-ndmesi, "Ottoman family law", (/. 0. 



306 



<A J ILA — A>lN 



t the polished style 



Ottoman, 14 Muharram 
to-day prefers usra. 

Sociological theories. The collective work of 
the Arab genealogists is based implicitly on the 
assumption that the tribe is a family on a larger 
scale. Robertson Smith has made a just appreciation 
of this over-simplified conception, which is osten- 
sibly based on common sense, and, more recently, 
Bichr Fares (L'Honneur chez les Arabes, Paris 1932, 
49-50) has recognized "that it appears impossible 
to study the social morphology of the ancient 
Arabs". This picture corresponds to that given by 
the nomads regarding their social structure. But 
does it correspond to reality? The existence of 
ancestor-worship and of the cult of the dead among 
the Semites, disputed by Renan, has been proved 
by A. Lods as regards biblical antiquity, and by 
I. Goldziher as regards the Arab world. The cult 
of the dead concerns the family because the natural 
ministers of such a cult are recruited from within 
the family, and because it implies a posterity for 
its own perpetuation. It is not impossible even 
that this cult may have played some part in the 
formation of the family, and especially in establishing 
it as a religious unit, endued with social functions. 
Easily-recognizable traces of the cult of the dead, 
to which Islam has been opposed since its inception, 
persist even to the present day, with unmistakable 
signs of propitiatory rites. The need, still felt to 
be imperative, for descent in the male line could be 
a final relic of this cult. On the other hand, to liken 
saint-worship and the veneration of holy places to 
ancestor-worship is to invite disagreement. The 
inter-connexion between divine and human genealo- 
gies has been amply demonstrated by Dhorme (La 
Religion des Htbreux nomades, Brussels 1937, Ch. 
xviii). It confirms the identification of legal relation- 
ships involving protection or alliance, with kinship, 
an idea which still exists among the nomads, and 
which is typical of the patriarchal system. 

The basic social unit among the Semites was the 
clan (Hebrew mishpaha, Arabic hayy [q.v.]). The 
totemistic theory of an exogamous organization 
between maternal clans has been brilliantly developed 
by Robertson Smith (Kinship and Marriage in early 
Arabia, Cambridge 1885). In his review of this work, 
Noldeke (ZDMG, 1886, 148-87) disputes the im- 
portance of the naming of clans after animals 
"which occurs, relatively speaking, much rarer than 
the expose of the author would imply". But, in 
addition to the linguistic arguments based on the 
words indicating the clan by allusion to a uterine 
relationship, and on two parallel series of names 
of kinship, agnate and cognate, all the facts 
so far advanced hardly seem to provide a better 
explanation. Marriage customs of a matriarchal 
character seem to have persisted relatively late in 
the Peninsula. The lack of a prohibition of incest 
in the paternal line is also adduced as evidence by 
R. Smith (ibid., 163), but Wellhausen (Die Ehe bei 
den Arabern, Nachr. von d. kbnigl. Ges. d. Wiss. u. d. 
Georg-August Univ. zu G/lttingen, 1893, 431-82) is of 
the opinion (441) that this has not been sufficiently 
proved. Even if one admits the existence of a tote- 
mistic period during remote antiquity, the patriarchal 
regime is firmly established from the dawn of the 
historical era, and the notable survivals of earlier 
practices pose a difficult problem. According to 
Gertrude H. Stern (Marriage in Early Islam, London 
1939), certain marriage alliances of a political 
nature, contracted by the Prophet with the tribes, 
were of a different character from the others, and 



the women continued to reside amongst their own 
clan (appendix A, 151-7). In fact it is possible tc 
find, up to the contemporary epoch, evidence of this 
type attested in Assyrian legislation. It is, however, 
indisputable that the family regime has become 
patriarchal. 

The family in Islam. Islam did not create 
the practices of the social milieu in which it appeared, 
and to begin with it concerned itself only with 
improving the moral standards governing these 
practices. In the second period, at Medina, the 
Prophet, now head of the State, is led to dispense 
justice and to create, in progressive stages, a system 
of rules, called into being by judgements in individual 
cases, with the force of statutory law. The work by 
G. H. Stern quoted above shows that he followed a 
plan of reform, by unifying the chaotic practices of 
pagan Arabia. This unification could not have been 
completed, as is clear from monographs on present 
day customs. Elements borrowed from conquered 
peoples have been incorporated in the original 
Arabic background. But if the lack of unity displays 
itself in a marked discrepancy between fact and 
theory, the overall picture nevertheless reflects the 
type of patriarchal family which has maintained its 
position with remarkable stability throughout the 
Near East, and which is already depicted in the 
ancient Hittite, Babylonian, Assyrian and Sumerian 
systems of law. In its most primitive forms, the 
authority of the head of the family is entirely 
unrestricted; it becomes weaker among the settled 
populations of the great cities. This patriarchal 
authority is the origin of the laws on divorce, poly- 
gamy etc. The veil (hidjab [?.».]), which goes back 
to remote antiquity, is not strictly relevant to the 
subject of family institutions, although it is in 
keeping with their patriarchal character. In short, 
the Muslim family recalls in certain respects though 
with some notable points of difference that portrayed 
in European literature in the heyday of the Middle 
Ages. See also harim, mar'a, nikah, talak. 

Bibliography: In addition to the works 
mentioned above, the following works on Semitic 
antiquity should be consulted: Robertson Smith, 
Lectures on the Religion of the Semites, London 
1889 (re-ed. S. A. Cook, 1927); I. Goldziher, Le 
Culte des ancltres et le culte des marts chez les Arabes, 
in RHR, 1884, 332-59; A. Lods, La croyance a la 
vie future . . ., and especially Le Culte des marts 
dans I'antiquiti hibraique, Paris 1906; for the 
modern period, see H. A. R. Gibb, Modern Trends 
in Islam, Chicago 1947 (French trans. Paris 1949); 
R. Paret, Zur Frauen/rage in der arabische-islami- 
schen Welt, Stuttgart 1934; Lane, Manners and 
Customs of the Modern Egyptians, London 1895; 
Kazem Daghestani, Etude sociologique sur la 
famille musulmane contemporaine en Syrie, Paris 
n. d.; for a full bibliography, see J. Lecerf, Note 
sur la famille dans le monde arabe et islamique, 
Arabica, 1956/I. (J. Lecerf) 

A'lN, Persian word meaning "law, rite, insti- 
tution." Among the works translated from Pahlawl 
into Arabic by Ibn al-Mukaffa 1 in the middle of the 
2nd/8th century, the Fihrist, 118, mentions an 
A'in-ndma (sometimes rendered in Arabic as-Kitdb 
al-Rusum). This work which, like the Khuday-nama, 
was of a quasi-official character, presumably con- 
tained an account of the organisation of the Sasanid 
state, of the privileges and prerogatives of the classes, 
and of court life and etiquette (Christensen calls it 
"le vieil almanach royal"), much of its contents 
being of a sententious and didactic nature. Fragments 



'A'ISHA BINT ABl BAKR 



307 



of the AHn-ndma, translated by Ibn al-Mukaffa c , ai 
preserved in the '■Vyun al-Akhbar of Ibn Kutayb; 
and the most important of these, relating to military 
tactics, archery and polo, have been studied by 
Inostranzev. It is possible that, co-existent with 
the large official AHn-ndma, there were lesser works 
of a specialized nature dealing with each branch of 
court education. This belief arises from other titles 
quoted in the Fihrist, namely, A Hn al-Ramy and 
AHn al-Darb bi'l-Sawdlidia, although these could be 
considered merely as portions of or extracts from the 
larger work. The Sasanid A Hn-nama is also mentioned 
by al-Mas'udl (Tanbih, 104-6); (pseudo?)-Diahiz, 
in the Kitab al-Tddi /» Akhldk al-Muluk, which has 
very full materials concerning the manners and 
etiquette of the Sasanids, also refers to, but does not 
quote directly, an AHn al-Furs. The title of AHn 
was used later in other works on Persian Islamic 
history and institutions, such as the AHn-i Akbari, 
being that part of the Akbar-ndma of Abu'l Fadl 
'AUami [q.v.] (16th century) which is devoted to the 
institutions of Akbar's court. 

Bibliography : Inostranzev, Sasanidskie Etiudi, 

St. Petersburg, 1909, 25-80; F. Gabrieli, L 'opera 

di Ibn al-Muqaffa', in RSO, 1932, especially 213-5. 
(F. Gabrieli) 

AlR (ayr), also called Asben, mountainous 
district of the Sahara, falling between lat. 
i7°-2i° N., and long. 7°-9° E. It comprises three 
distinct regions: 1) the northern Air, consisting 
wholly of plateau and plain; 2) the central Air, 
which is a homogeneous unit, has a rugged landscape, 
with peaks rising to 5,000 ft. ; 3) the southern Air, 
consisting of rocky plateaus sloping towards the 
Sudan. The rainfall, more abundant in the Air than 
in the rest of the Sahara (rainy season from June to 
August) feeds underground basins which support a 
fairly rich vegetation (gum trees); agriculture is, 
however, on a small scale, and the country owes its 
important place in the economic life of the Sahara 
primarily to its position on caravan routes (azalay). 
It possesses strata of slate, and hot springs; primitive 
handicrafts are still carried on. 

The population of the Air is composed of two 
main elements: negroid (Hausa) and Berber — the 
Kel Air who form one of the seven principal Tuareg 
groups; they comprise the Kel Geres and the Kel Ui 

able extent with the Hausa. According to the cen- 
suses of 1933-8, the Kel Air number 27,765. They 
are a semi-settled people, and live in villages or in 
primitive encampments. The most important town 
is Agades. Founded in the 15 th century, it became 
after 1515 the capital of the sultanate of the Kel Ui 
who, in the AI, had just supplanted the Kel Geres. 
Agades is now the chief town of a region (Niger 
Territory) of which the Air is part. 

The whole population is Muslim (the Kel Geres 
since the 9th/i5th century), and religious activity 
is relatively keen, owing to the presence of religious 
brotherhoods with considerable numbers of adherents. 
Bibliography: H. Barth, Reisen und Entde- 
ckungen in Nord- und Central Africa, Gotha 1857 
(French trans., Paris i860); E. de Bary, in Zeitsch. 
d. geog. GeseUsch., 1880 (French trans, by Schirmer, 
Journal de Voyage, Paris 1898) ; Schirmer, On the 
ethnography of Air, Scott, geogr, Mag., 1899, 
538-40; E. Foureau, D' Alger au Congo par le 
Tchad, Paris 1902; idem, Documents scientifiques 
de la Mission saharienne, Paris 1905; E. F. 
Gautier, Le Sahara, Paris 1928; A. Buchanan, Ex- 
ploration of Air out of the world North of Nigeria, 



London 192 1 ; F. R. Rodd, People of the veil, Lon- 
don 1926; Y. Urvoy, Histoire des populations du 
Soudan central, Paris 1936; L. Chopard et A. Vil- 
liers, Contribution a Vitude de I' Air, Memoire de 
YI.F.A.N., no. 10, Paris 1950, particularly Eth- 
nologie des Touarag de I' Air, by F. Nicolas and 
H. Lhote, ibid. 459-533; Lhote, Les Touaregs 
du Hoggar, Paris 1944 (with a bibliography); 
L. Massignon, Annuaire du Monde Musulman', 
Paris 1955, 331. (G. Yver-R. Capot-Rey) 

'A'ISHA BINT ABl BAKR, the third and 
favourite wife of the Prophet, was born at 
Mecca about 614. Her mother, Umm Ruman, came 
from the tribe of Kinana. Muhammad gave c A'isha 
the kunya Umm c Abd Allah, after the name of her 
nephew <Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr. 

The usual story of her marriage to Muhammad is 
that the initiative came from Khawla bint Hakim, 
wife of 'Uthman b. Maz'un, who possibly helped 
Muhammad in domestic matters. Some time after 
the death of Khadidia. Khawla suggested to Muham- 
mad that he should marry either c A 3 isha, the six- 
year old daughter of his chief follower, or Sawda 
bint Zam'a, a widow of about 30, who had gone as 
a Muslim to Abyssinia and whose husband had 
died there. Muhammad is said to have asked her to 
arrange for him to marry both. It had already been 
agreed that c A J isha should marry Djubayr b. 
Mut'im, whose father, though still pagan, was 
friendly to the Muslims. By common consent, 
however, this agreement was set aside, and 'A'isha 
was betrothed to Muhammad. Since Muhammad 
had a political aim in nearly all his marriages, he 
must have seen in this one a means of strengthening 
the ties between himself and Abu Bakr, his chief 
follower. The marriage was not consummated until 
some months after the hid±ra (in Shawwal 1 or 2/ 
April 623 or 624). 'A'isha went to live in an apartment 
in Muhammad's house, later the mosque of Medina. 
She cannot have been more than ten years old at 
the time, and took her toys to her new home. Mu- 
hammad sometimes joined in her games with them. 
She seems to have possessed great beauty, both as 
child and as young woman, and to have remained 
Muhammad's favourite even after he had married 
several other beautiful women. Her position as 
principal wife, however, may partly depend on her 
father's position in the community. 

A serious crisis developed out of an incident on 
the return from the expedition against Banu 
'1-Mustalik in 5/627, on which c A J isha accompanied 
Muhammad. At the last halt before Medina 'A'isha, 
who had gone a little way from the camp to satisfy 
a natural need, dropped a necklace and spent some 
time searching for it. She was so light in weight 
that the men who loaded her litter on the camel 
had not noticed her absence from it, and the whole 
caravan had moved off before she returned to the 
camp. She sat down to wait, and was eventually 
found by a handsome young man, Safwan b. al- 
Mu'attal al-Sulaml, who escorted her back to 
Medina. In the circumstances of the time, especially 
in view of the imposition of the hidfdb on Muham- 
mad's wives, this was highly improper. Gossip was 
magnified, however, not merely by personal enemies 
of 'A'isha and her family, but by l Abd Allah b. 
Ubayy, the leader of the Munafikun or Hypocrites. 
Already during the expedition he had given ex- 
pression to his dissatisfaction with the growing 
power and prestige of Muhammad. It became clear 
at length that there was no solid evidence against 
'A'isha, and Muhammad received a revelation 



308 



'A'ISHA BINT ABI BAKR — 'A'ISHA al-MANNUBIYYA 



(Rur'an, xxiv, n ff.) implying her innocence and 
rebuking those who had gossiped. c Abd Allah b. 
Ubayy was publicly humiliated. 

A number of stories about 'A'isha have been 
preserved from the later years of Muhammad's 
life. They depict Muhammad as having genuine 
affection for 'A'isha, and 'A'isha as being devoted 
to him. They do not, however, justify the view (cf. 
H. Lammens, Le Triumvirat Abou Bakr etc., MFOB, 
iv) that she engaged in political intrigue and influ- 
enced Muhammad's decisions. Nevertheless, there 
seem to have been two factions among Muhammad's 
wives, one led by 'A'isjia and Hafsa, the daughter 
of c Umar, which supported the policy of then- 
fathers, and another led by Umm Salama of the 
Meccan clan of Makhzum; but their rivalry probably 
had little political effect. When Muhammad realized 
that death was near, he asked his wives to agree 
that he should go to 'Alsha's chamber and remain 
there. She nursed him for the few days of his illness, 
and his grave was made in the floor of her chamber. 
Abu Bakr and 'Umar were also buried there. 

As Muhammad's power increased, his wives had 
a more comfortable life and a higher status in the 
community, including the title "mothers of the 
believers" (cf. Rur'an, xxxiii, 6); but they were 
forbidden to remarry (ibid, v, 53). 'A'isha was thus 
left a childless widow about the age of 18. For two 
years her father was caliph, and then for ten c Umar, 
with whom she was on good terms, but she does not 
seem to have played any part in public affairs. As 
opposition grew against 'Uthman, the third caliph, 
however, 'A'isha came to have a leading part in 
it, though she was not in agreement either with the 
group of insurgents responsible for 'Uthman's assas- 
sination nor with the party of 'All. She openly 
declared her opposition to the killing of 'Uthman, 
but left Medina for Mecca to take part in the pil- 
grimage. Many motives have been alleged for this 
flight by 'A'isjja at a critical juncture. Perhaps the 
chief one was to help in organizing in Mecca a 
party of likeminded persons. 

'UJhman was assassinated in Qhu '1-Hidjdja 35/ 
June 656. About four months later 'A'isha left 
Mecca for Basra along with about 1,000 men of 
Kuraysh, professing to be taking vengeance for 
'Uthman. Shortly before this she had been joined by 
Talha and al-Zubayr. The three were now leaders of 
a movement in opposition to 'All. They obtained 
control of Basra, and with many of the Muslims of 
that city marched to the outskirts to meet 'All who 
had meantime left Medina for KQfa, and was ad- 
vancing against them. The battle (in Djumada II 
35/December 656) came to be known as the Battle 
of the Camel, since the fiercest struggle was round 
the camel bearing 'A'isha's litter. 'All was victorious, 
and the opposing army was scattered. 'A'isha 
herself was treated with respect, but Talha and al- 
Zubayr lost their lives. 

Alter this failure 'A'isha lived quietly in Medina 
for over twenty years. She took no further active 
part in politics, but became reconciled to 'All and 
did not oppose Mu'Swiya. Her approval and disap- 
proval, however, still seem to have counted for 
something. She died in Ramadan 58/July 678. In 
later times she was depicted as a model of piety, 
but it is difficult to know what is the basis of fact 
for this view. 

It is said that 1210 traditions were related on her 
authority, but barely 300 of these were retained by 
al-Bukharf and Muslim. She is said to have had a 
codex of the Kur'an, and a few readings are given 



on her authority (cf. A. Jeffery, Materials for the 
History of the Qur'dn, Leiden 1937, 231-3). She was 
noted for her knowledge of poetry and ability to 
quote it, and also for her eloquence; and she was 
versed in Arab history and other subjects. 

Bibliography : Ibn Hisham, index; Baladhuri, 
Ansab, v; Tabari, index; Ibn al-Athir, index; 
idem, Usd al-Ghaba. v, 501-4; Ibn Sa'd, viii, 
39-56; Ibn Hadjar, Isaba, iv, 691 ff.; Mas'udI, 
Murudi, iv; Nawawi (Wustenfeld), 848 ft.; Ibn 
Hanbal, Musnad, vi, 29-282; F. Buhl, Das Leben 
Muhammads, passim; N. Abbott, Aishah the 
Beloved of Mohammed, Chicago, 1942. 

(W. Montgomery Watt) 
'A'ISHA BINT TALHA, one of the most famous 
of Arab women. Daughter of a Companion of the 
Prophet, Talha b. 'Ubayd Allah al-Taymi [q.v.], who 
had already won great renown, grand-daughter of 
Abu Bakr through her mother Umm Kulthum, and 
niece of 'A'isha, the Prophet's favourite wife, she 
combined nobility of birth with an imperious spirit 
and a rare beauty, which she was anxious should not 
go unnoticed. By nature a coquette, she courted the 
praises of the ghazal poets ('Umar b. Abl Rabi'a, i, 
80; Kuthayyir 'Azza, Ibn Kutayba, SAt'r, 322; 
'Urwa b. al-Zubayr, Aghani, x, 60), and knew how 
to use to the best advantage the emotions which she 
inspired. She even occasioned the dismissal of the 
Governor of Mecca, al-Harith b. KhSlid al-Makhzuml, 
who had agreed to postpone the hour of prayer in 
order to allow her to complete her (awdf (Aghani, iii, 
100, 103, 113; see Diahiz, Bighal, (ed. Pellat, in 
course of preparation) § 20, and Aghani, x, 60, for 
an anecdote concerning the brilliant retinue which 
she had obtained from the caliph for the purposes 
of her pilgrimage). She is reckoned as one of the 
mutazawtmdi&t, i.e. women who have had several 
husbands; she married successively her cousin 'Abd 
Allah b. 'Abd al-Rahman b. Abl Bakr, Mus'ab b. 
al-Zubayr, and after the latter's death, 'Umar b. 
'Ubayd Allah b. Ma'mar al-Taymi. The date of her 
death is not known. 

Bibliography: Ibn Kutayba, Ma'drif, Cairo 

1353/1934, 102-103; Ibn Sa'd Tabakdt, viii, 342; 

Baladhuri, Ansab, xi, 16, 204-5, 222; Muhammad 

b. Hablb, Muhabbar, Haydarabad, 1361/1942, 

66, 100, 442; Aghani, Tables; Nawawi, Tahdhib, 

850; A. von Kremer, Culturgesch. des Orients unter 

den Chalifen, I, 29, II, 99. (Ch. Pellat) 

'A'ISHA BINT YUSUF [see al-bA'uni]. 

'A'ISHA al-MANNCBIYY A, Tunisian saint 

of the 7th/i3th century whose name was 'A'isha bint 

'Imran b. al-Hadjdj Sulayman. The nisba by which 

she became known derives from her native village 

of Mannuba (La Manouba), situated j m. W. of 

Tunis. She is also commonly known, especially at 

Tunis, by the reverential title of al-Sayyida. The 

contemporary historians of the Hafsid dynasty, 

under which she lived, maintain complete silence 

about her, but we possess a small anthology of her 

mandkib written, in a style strongly influenced by the 

colloquial, by an anonymous semiliterate author; the 

latter appears to have made use of another anthology, 

composed during the saint's lifetime or soon after 

her death by an imam of the mosque at Mannuba. 

While still young, 'A'isha gave evidence of her 

future vocation by a number of karamat. When she 

reached a marriageable age, her mystical ideal 

caused her to refuse the cousin whom her parents 

wished her to marry and to flee to Tunis, where she 

took refuge in a kaysariyya (a kind of caravanserai) 

situated outside the old Bab al-Fallak (S.E. of the 



C A>ISHA al-MANNOBIYYA — AK HISARl 



town, later known as Bab al-Gurdjani). There she 
passed her life, enjoying, especially among the lower 
classes, a great reputation for saintliness, although 
certain doctors of law showed hostility towards her. 
Oral tradition relates that she received mystical 
teaching from the celebrated sufl Abu'l-Hasan al- 
Shadhili. who was at Tunis during her lifetime, 
but neither the mandkib of the saint herself, nor those 
of the disciples of Abu'l Hasan, make any reference 
to this. She died at an advanced age, 21 Radjab 
655/20 April 1257, or 16 Shawwal 653/19 Nov. 1255. 
She was buried in the cemetery which, in her time, 
was known as Makbarat al-Sharaf. and at the 
beginning of this century, a fervent devotee believed 
he had discovered her tomb. He erected there a 
wooden mausoleum which soon became a place of 
pilgrimage for the women of Tunis. However, the 
locality where c A'isha lived continues to attract 
believers, especially women, and to-day bears the 
Dame of al-Mannubiyya. Around the old kaysariyya 
has grown up in the course of centuries a small 
group of buildings comprising an oratory, rooms for 
visitors, private dwelling-houses, and even a few 
shops. The visit (tni'dd) to the sanctuary is performed 
by men on Thursdays, by women on Mondays. 
The house in the village of al-Mannuba where the 
saint was born has similarly been made the object 
of special veneration. During the reign of the 
Husaynl Bey Muhammad al-Sadik (1859-82), it was 
converted into a huge building containing a zdwiya, 
private apartments, and a large covered courtyard 
where the religious fraternities held their meetings. 
To-day, the decline in saint-worship has meant the 
abandonment of the buildings at al-Mannuba. Much 
religious poetry in dialectal Arabic has been com- 
posed in honour of al-Sayyida Lalla c A 5 isha al 
Mannubiyya; Sonneck (Chants arabes du Maghreb, 
•» 5-7. ii, 36-9) has given examples of this verse. 
The cognomens al-Mannubiyya and al-Sayyida are 
frequently given to girls, especially in Tunis, and even 
a masculine cognomen, al-Mannubi, has been formed 
from the nisba of the Saint. 

Bibliography: Anon., Mandkib al-Sayyida 

'A'isha al-Mannubiyya, Tunis 1344/1925, 44 pp. 

(several Mss. of this work exist in Tunis itself) ; 

Muhammad al-Badj! al-Mas<udI, al-Khu^a al- 

Nakiyya fi Umard Ifrikiya, Tunis 1323/1905, 64; 

H. H. c Abd al-Wahhab, Shahlrat al-THnusiyyat, 

Tunis 1353/1934, 77-8; R. Brunschvig, Ifafsides, 

ii, 329. (H. H. Abdul-Wahab) 

AlSSAOUA [see 'IsAwa]. 

AJARAFE [see al-sjjaraf]. 

A& DENIZ [see bahr al-rum]. 

Ag HISAR (T. "white castle"), name of several 

1. The best known is Ak rjisar in Western 
Anatolia, formerly in the wilayet of Aydln, since 
1921 in that of Manisa, situated in a plain near the 
left bank of the river Gordiik (a sub-tributary of the 
Gediz), 115 m. above sea level. Known as Thyatira 
(see Pauly-Wissowa, s.v.) in antiquity and Byzantine 
times, it owes its Turkish name to the fortress on 
a neighbouring hill. Annexed by the Ottomans in 
784/1382, it was lost again during the disorders which 
followed Tlmur's invasion, and recaptured from the 
rebel Djunayd [q.v.] by Khalil YakhshI Beg in 829/ 
1425-6 (see Hadidji Khalifa, Takwim al-Tawdrikh). 
Before 1914 Ak Hisar had 12,000 inhabitants, of 
whom three-quarters were Muslims; in 1935 they 
numbered 21,000. The kadi of Ak Hisar in the 
wilayet of Manisa had, according to Cuinet (Turquie 



d'Asie, iii, 548 f.), 31,746 inhabitants; in 1935 it had 
91,000. 

2. Ak Hisar in the Marmara district, now 
called Pamuk-ova, in the kadi of Geyve, wilayet of 
Izmid (Kodja-eli), situated on the left bank of the 
Sakarya river, and a station on the Anatolian 
railway. It was captured by the Ottomans in 708/ 
1308-9. The fortress, now deserted, commands a 
vast plain. The remains of many ancient columns and 
other buildings in the town and its neighbourhood 
bear witness to its earlier prosperity, but its ancient 
name is unknown. In 1935 it had 1,668 inhabitants, 
and its ndhiye 9,324. 

3. Ak Hisar was formerly also the name of a 
small locality in Bosnia west of Sarajevo, at 
the outlet of the Prusekota in the Semeskilitza ; 
its modern name is Polnyi (i.e. Lower) Wakuf. It 
was conquered by Mustafa Pasha in 907/1501-2 
(J. von Hammer, Rumili und Bosna, 166; Ch. Per- 
turier, LaBosnie, Paris 1822, 222). (K. SCssheim*) 

4. Town in Northern Albania, called 
also in Turkish Ak&e Hisar, and in Albanian 
Krujg, Kroya, "well-spring", and formerly in the 
sandjak of Shkodra. Mentioned by the name of 
Kroas in the chronicle of Acropolites (13th cent.), it 
was in 1343 a Venetian possession and in 1395 passed 
into the hands of Constantine Castriota. It became 
famous as the residence of Scanderbeg (Iskender Beg 
[q.v.l), and withstood vigorous sieges in 1450, 1466, 
and 1468, before it was finally taken by Muhammad 
II in 883/14-15 July 1478. Later on it was the centre 
of the BektashI [q.v.] order of darwlshes in Albania. 
One of the graves of Sari Saltik Dede [q.v.] is shown 
in Kroya and the number of graves of BektashI 
saints around the town- is considerable. Special reve- 
rence is paid to the tombs of Hadjdjl Hamza Baba 
and Baba 'All (with a tekke). The citadel was 
demolished in 1248/1832 by order of Rashld Pasha. 
In the Albanian state the town became the centre 
of a sub-prefecture, and had in 1938 4,500 inhabi- 
tants, mostly Muslims. 

Bibliography: Ippen, Skutari. 71 f.; Wissen- 
schaftliche Mitteilungen aus Bosnien, vii, 60; A. 
Degrand, Souvenirs de la Haute-Albanie, Paris 1901, 
215 ff.; F. W. Hasluck, in Annual of the British 
School at Athens, 1915. 121 f. ; F. Babinger, in 
MSOS, 1930, 149; idem, Mehmed der Eroberer, 
index, s.v. Kruje. — For the date of the capture 
of the city see especially the contemporary 
chronicler Benedetto Dei (in Delia decima e delle 
altre gravezze, delta moneta, e delta mercatura de' Fio- 
rentini, ii, Lisbon-Lucca 1765, 270 f.). 

(K. SCssheim-F. Babinger) 
AK HISARl, nisba of several authors origi- 
nating from one of the places called Ak Hisar. To 
Ak Hisar in Aydln belong: 

(a) Ilyas b. <Isa, commonly called, Ibn <IsA b. 
Madjd • al-DIn, author of a Turkish book of prophe- 
cies (Kashf-i RumOt-i KunHz) which, composed in 
905/W57-8 when the Ottomans had reached the 
summit of their power, foretold the continuation of 
their empire until the end of the world and, from the 
numerical value of the letters of proper names, 
predicted the fate of the nation until the year 2035 
A.H. (Cf. Pertsch, Cat. Berlin, No. 45, 9; Krafft, 
Cat. Vienna Acad., No. 301; Fliigel, Cat. Vienna, 
No. 1502). A few other works of his in prose and in 
verse are mentioned by Hadjdjl Khalifa (Fliigel), iii, 
480, iv, 155, 412, 440 and by Mehmed Tahir (see 
bibliography). He died in 967/1559-60. 

Bibliography: Bursal! Mehmed Tahir, <Uth- 
mdnlt Mu'aUifUri, i, 18. 



3io 

(b) Muhammad b. Badr al-DIn, Muhyi '1-Dln 
al-Munshi', also called al-Sarukhanl, al-Ruml, or al- 
Mufassir. It was at his suggestion that Sudl wrote 
his commentary on Hafiz. His main work is a 
popular commentary on the Kur'an with the title 
Nazil al-Tanzil (or Tamil al-Nazil), begun in Ak 
Hisar in 981/1574 and completed in 999/1590. The 
author dedicated it to Sultan Murad III. He became 
Shaykh al-lfaram in Medina in 982/1574, was later 
in Damascus, where in 998/1589-90 he wrote an 
Arabic commentary on the Burda of al-Bu«Iri 
(Ahlwardt, Cat. Berlin, No. 7798), and died in 
Mecca towards the end of the year 1000/1592 (sic, 
according to the oldest sources). 

Bibliography: Brockelmann, II, 439, S II, 
651; 'Atal, Hada'ik al-lfakdHk, 321; Na'Ima, 
Ta'rikh, 40; HadjdjI Khalifa (Fliigel), ii, 380, 
iv, 528, vi, 339; MuhibbI, Kh^asat al-Athar, iii, 
400; Mehmed Tahir, ii, 20. 

(c) Nasuh, called NawalI, became in 990/1582 
tutor to the future Sultan Muhammad III, when 
the young prince was governor of Maghnisa. For him 
he wrote a Farah-name on the duties of a ruler 
(Rieu, Cat. Br. Mus., 117); this work claims to be 
the Turkish version of the Kitdb al-RPdsa wa'l- 
Siyasa, allegedly written by Aristotle for Alexander 
the Great (HadjdjI Khalifa, (Fliigel), iv, 411, v, 89). 
He also translated the Akhldk-i Muhsini. To NawalI 
is further attributed one of the Turkish translations 
of al-Ghazzall's Klmiya' al-Sa'dda, but this is 
perhaps a confusion with the work of Muhammad 
b. Mustafa al-Wanl (d. 1000/1591). Nasuh died in 
1003/1594-5. 

Bt&/»ogr»£Ay:'Ata > I,39o;MehmedTahir,ii > 43. 
To Ak Hisar in Bosnia belong: 

(d) Hasan, called KafI. He was born in 951/1544 
and died in 1025/1616, having been kadi in his 
native town for more than twenty years. His tomb 
became a place of pilgrimage. He took part in the 
campaign of Egri (Erlau) in Hungary in 1004/1595, 
and during the campaign composed in Arabic a 
treatise on good government and on the necessity of 
reforms in the Ottoman administration, entitled 
Ufiil al-tfikam fl Nizam ai-'Alam. In the following 
year 1005/1597 he translated it himself into Turkish, 
at the request of high officials. He further wrote 
a popular compendium of theology, directed against 
the Sufis and other innovators, called Rawdat al- 
Diannat fi l/jfl/ al-IHikddat (completed in 1014/ 
1605), to which he himself wrote a commentary 
called Azhdr al- Rawdat (completed in 1015/1606), 
a commentary on the l akida of al-Tahawi entitled 
Nur al-Yakin fi Vfil al-Dln, and a commentary on 
the Mukhtasar of al-Kuduri. 

Bibliography: Brockelmann, II, 443, S II, 
659; Babinger, 144; 'Atal, 304; HadjdjI Khalifa 
(Fliigel), index, s.v.; Ewliya' Celebi, Siyahat-name, 
v, 445 ff.; Mehmed Tahir, i, 277. For printed 
editions and French, German, and Hungarian 
translations of the treatise on government, pee 
Babinger, loc. cit. 

(e) HadjdjI NasIm-Oghlu Ahmad b. Hasan 
described in 1186/1772-3, whilst prisoner in Germany, 
the campaign and the subsequent events in Bosnia 
ol 1148-1156/1735-1744 (cf. Babinger, 276, n. 1). 

(K. SOssheim-J. Schacht) 
AK KIRMAN (KermAn), "White City" (or 
"White Emporium"), in Rumenian Cetatea Alba, 
in Russian Belgorod, town on the western bank of 
the Dniester estuary. In antiquity it was called 
Tyras. According to Constantine Porphyrogenetus 
(ed. and transl. Mora vcsik- Jen kins, 168, 62), the 



AK HISARI — AK KIRMAN 



fortress was called "the White Castle". The anony- 
mous "Toparcha Gothicus" (in B. Hase's ed. of Leo 
Diaconus, 496 ff.), however, calls it Maurokastron, 
"Black Fortress". Subject to the Mongols after 1241, 
the town was frequently visited by Genoese traders, 
who called it Maurocastrum (Malvocastrum, Mon- 
castrum), but also Album Castrum. Abu '1-Fida', fol- 
lowing Ibn Sa'id, calls it Akca Kirman; c AlI (Ktinh 
ul-Akhbdr, iv, 218) referring to Abu H-Fida 1 , writes : 
"Akia Kirman is known at present as Ak Kirman". 
In the 14th century Maurocastro-Moncastro was a 
Genoese fortress, under the administration of the 
Officium Gazariae (= Khazaria), which comprised 
the Genoese colonies on the northern shores of the 
Black Sea. The Genoese fortress was restored by the 
Moldavians and the Turks, and still exists. Towards 
the end of the 14th century the town was occupied 
by the ruler of the newly established state of Mol- 
davia (in Turkish Boghdan [q.v.]), and remained 
under Moldavian domination until 1484. The fortress 
was attacked by an Ottoman fleet in 1420, and 
another attack was made in 1454. In 1455 the 
Voivoda Petru III recognized Ottoman sovereignty 
over Moldavia; the sultan Muhammad II, by a 
firman dated 5 Radjab 860/9 June 1456, gave the 
merchants of Cetatea Alba permission to frequent 
Adrianople, Brusa and Istanbul. 

The town was captured by Bayezid II on 4 August 
1484; the sultan directed the operations in person. 
(Cf. Fetih-name-yi Kara Boghdan, MS Cairo, adab 
turki, 131, 103 f; I. Ursu, Stefan eel Mare, Bucarest 
1925, 202-4; I. Bogdan, Cronice inedite atingdtoare 
de istoria Romdnilor, Bucarest 1895, 43, 58). Most 
of the inhabitants of the town were deported to 
Istanbul and Anatolia, and Ak Kirman became a 
sandjak under the jurisdiction of the beylerbeyi of 
Rumelia. It was included in the eyaiet of Ozti 
[q.v.], when this was created in 1593. According to 
c Ayn-i c Ali, Kawanin-i Al-i c Othmdn (Istanbul 1280, 
12), the sandjak contained 914 timdrs. The custom 
duties of the port were regulated at the same 
period. The town is described by Ewliya Celebi 
(v, 108 f.) who visited it in May 1658. He mentions 
the fortress (read darun instead of biriin), mosques 
built by Bayezid II, Mengli Giray Khan, Sellm I, a 
Wa'iz Djami'i, a medrese built by Sellm I, and a ham- 
mam built by Bayezid II. He also mentions (vii, 501) 
the sanctuary of Mayak Baba Sultan near the ford of 
the Dniester. Muhammad Efendi Ak KirmanI, a well- 
known Turkish philosopher, was a native of the 
town (cf . Bursal! Meljmed Tahir, '■Othmdnll Mu'ellifUri 
i, 214). In addition to the original inhabitants, 
Ak Kirman and its district was inhabited by 
Turks and Crimean and Nogay Tatars; the Tatars 
were settled there after the attempt of the Voivoda 
Aron of Moldavia to capture the fortress in 1595. 

In 1502 the last chief of the Golden Horde, Shaykh 
Ahmad, fled to Ak Kirman, in order to rally his 
forces. Sellm I made Ak Kirman the base for his 
operations against his father Bayezid II (1 April 
1511). The brothers Mehmed Giray and Shahln 
Giray of Crimea in 1610 made the town their basis 
for raiding the Ukraine; they were, however, ousted 
by their brother the Khan Djanbey Giray (cf. 
I. H. Uzuncarstlt, Osmanli Tarihi, iii/i, 176). Between 
1618 and 1636, Kantemir, Pasha of Silistria, con- 
trolled the region between the Danube and the 
Dniester and defeated the kalgay Husam Giray, "in 
the plain of Ak Kirman" (HadjdjI Khalifa, Fedhlaka, 
ii, 187); Murad IV, however, had his head cut off 
(UVuncarsUI, 180). Ewliya Celebi (vu, 497) describes 
the battle between the Tatars of Mehrned Giray Khan 



and those of c Adil Giray, under the walls of Ak Kirman. 
In 1683 the Cossack chief Kunicki advanced as 
far as Ak Kirman, but was pushed back by the 
serddr Bosnak .Sari Suleyman Pasha (Ftndlkllll 
Mehmed Agha, Silafiddr Ta'rikki, Istanbul 1928, i, 
397, ii, 127, 185). The Russian general Igelstrom 
captured the town in 1770, but it was returned to 
the Porte by the treaty of Kiiciik Kaynardja (art. 
16). The fortress was repaired in 1780 (Topkapl 
Arsivi, E 10, 416; for other repairs from 1646 
onwards, see ibid. E 5880, 6237). In 1789 Potemkin 
occupied the town again (Djewdet, Ta'rikh*, iv, 332), 
but it was returned to Turkey in the peace of Yassi 
(1792), after which the fortress was strengthened. 
In 1806 the town was captured by the Russian 
colonel Forster and Prince Kantakuzino; the Tatars 
left the district and passed to the eastern bank of 
the Dniester. In the peace of Bucarest (1812), Ak 
Kirman was transferred to Russia. It was there 
that the short-lived Convention of Ak Kirman 
between Russia and Turkey, concerning the Ruma- 
nian principalities and Serbia, was signed in 1826. 
Subsequently the town shared the vicissitudes of 
Bessarabia. 

Bibliographic : N. Iorga, Studii istorice 
asupra Chiliei si Ceta(ii-Albe, Bucarest 1899; 
G. I. Bratianu, Reckerches sur Vicina et Cetatea 
Albi, Bucarest 1935 ; idem, Contribtdions a Vhistoire 
de Cetatea- Alba {Akkerman) aux XI //• et XIV 
siicles, Acad. Roumaine, Bull. Sect. Hist., xiii, 
Bucarest 1927, 25 ff. ; B. Spuler, Gesch. d. gold. 
Horde, 408 (commercial relations with Kh'arizm 
and China in the Genoese period) ; Feridun Bey, 
Miinshe'dt-i Seld(in, i, 312, 319; Hasan Eslri, MS 
Millet Kutiiphanesi T 803 (cf. Babinger, 267); 
A. Decei, Les Fetihname-i Karabogdan des XV et 
XVI' siecles, Actes XII* Congr. Orient.; O. F. v. 
Schlechta-Wssehrd, Walachei, Moldau, Bessarabien 
etc. in der Mitte des vorigen Jahrh., SBAk Wien, 
1863; Documente privitoare la istoria Romdnilor, by 
E. de Hurmuzaki. Bucarest 1887 ff. (A. Decei) 
Atf SOYUNLU, "those of the White Sheep", 
lederation of Turkmen tribes, which rose in 
the region of Diyar Bakr in post-Mongol times (in 
the 14th century) and lasted till c. 908/1502. The 
name (cf. Chalcocondyles, ch. ix: Aeuxol 'Aoitpo- 
<7tpo >PaT<£vres) is unknown in earlier times. 
There is some uncertainty about the origin of the 
name, whether it refers to the breed of sheep, or to 
some kind of totem; the tumular stones of the 
Turkmens have often the form of rams, but such 
a symbol is absent in Uzun Hasan's banner, see 
Uzuncarstll, pi. 49. The federation consisted of 
various Oghuz (Turkmen) tribes (Bayat, D6ger, 
Cepni, etc.) who had apparently arrived with the 
Saldjuks but, under the Mongols, led an inconspi- 
cuous existence. Among these clans must be parti- 
cularly distinguished the Bayundur clan, to which 
belonged the rulers, who, with their immediate 
followers, must have taken the leadership and 
organised the federation. The early period of these 
Turkmens (both Ak and Kara Koyunlu) is reflected 
in the Turkish epic poem Dede Korkut (Rossi), 
1. Kara 'Uthman 



Vatican 1952, 46-9. The Bayundur family ("the 
amirs of Amid") are first mentioned by the Byzantine 
chroniclers in 1340. They several times attacked 
Trebizond, and in 1352 Kiitlii Beg son of Tur 'All 
married a princess of Trebizond, as later did his 
son Kara Yoluk (sometimes: Kara Yiiliik, "black 
leech") 'Uthman. This latter was the real founder 
of the Ak Koyunlu power. For a long time, as a 
soldier of fortune, he took service with the local 
rulers of Erzindjan and Slwas and even with the 
sultans of Egypt. He succeeded in destroying two 
rivals: the chief of the Kara Koyunlu, Kara Muham- 
mad (in 791/1389) and Burhan al-DIn of Slwas 
(towards 799/1397). He submitted to TImur and, 
at his side, took part in the battle of Ankara (805/ 
1402), for which TImur gave him the whole of Diyar 
Bakr. However, till his death in 839/1 435 he was 
unable to take a firm stand on the Armenian plateau. 

The Ak Koyunlu were hampered in their expansion 
by the rise of the rival federation of the Kara Koyunlu 
(whose original centres lay north of Lake Wan) 
especially when the latter's chief Kara YQsuf, after 
the death of TImur, returned to his principality and 
even ousted (in 813/1410) his former protectors, the 
Dialavirs. 

After a period of struggles between Kara 'Uthman's 
sons, 'All and Hamza, the Ak Koyunlu came 
again to the fore with Uzun Hasan [q.v.], son 
of 'All (871-83/1466-78), who failed in his attempts 
to contain the eastward expansion of the Ottomans, 
but had brilliant successes in the east (he defeated 
the last Kara Koyunlu; pjihanshah, in 872/1467, 
and the Tlmurid Abu Sa'Id, in 873/1*68^ and 
extended his dominions to Baghdad, Harat and the 
Persian Gulf. His son Ya'kub (883-96/1478-90) 
was, on the whole, a successful ruler, but after his 
death struggles began between his children and his 
nephews. Meanwhile, the Safawids were sapping 
the position of the Sunnite Ak Koyunlu by their 
ShI'a propaganda carried on among the Turkmen 
tribes. In 908/1502, in a pitched battle in Sh.arur 
(near Nakhicewan) Shah Isma'Il defeated Alwand 
b. Yusuf b. Uzun Hasan. For some years the struggle 
was continued by Ya'kQb's son Murad who had 
to flee to the west. He accompanied Sultan Sellm 
during the latter's invasion of Persia in 920/1514 
but finally died in the same year near Urfa. 

For some time an autonomous Ak Koyunlu prin- 
cipality existed in Mardln: princes Hamza b. 
'Uthman, pjihanglr b. 'All and Kasim b. Djihanglr. 
About 909/1503 the latter was killed by Alwand 
retreating from Shah Isma'fl. 

In its heyday (under Uzun Hasan and Ya'kQb) 
the Ak Koyunlu power cut a figure in world affairs, 
and with the transfer of the capital to Tabriz, 
Persia was on the way to regain her political entity. 
The European powers (especially Venice) and the 
Pope sought alliances with the Ak Koyunlu against 
the prevailing Ottomans. Uzun Hasan's agrarian 
census (kdnun-i Hasan padshdh) was maintained for 
a time both in eastern Turkey and in Persia. 

The following is the genealogical tree of the 
Bayundur rulers: 
Kuthi b. Tur C AU 



, 'All 






Ughurlu Muhammad 
Ahmad Gowde 



AK KIRMAN — AK SHAMS al-DIN 



The chronology is as follows. Kara 'Uthman was 

killed in 839/1435 at the age of eighty. Of his sons 

who disputed his succession 'All died in 842/1438 and 

Hamza in 848/1444. pjihanglr ruled in the west 

848-74/1444-69. Uzun Hasan, b. 828/1424, ruled from 

857/1453, overthrew the Kara Koyunlu in 872/1467 

and died in 882/1478. Ya'kub ruled 883-96/1478-90; 

Baysunkur 896-7/1491-2; Rustam 897-902/1492-7; 

Ahmad Gowde 902-3/1397. After Ahmad Gowde's 

death the struggle went on (903-7/1497-1502) 

between Muhammad, Alwand and Murad. Alwand, 

defeated by §hah Isma'Il in 907/1502, retreated to 

Diyir Bakr and died in 910/1504. Murad, defeated 

by S>hah Ismail in 908/1503, fled to Baghdad, where 

he rilled for four and a half years, and then went 

to Diyar Bakr and Turkey. He died at the age of 

25 and with him the dynasty came to an end. 

Bibliography : The special history of the 

beginnings down to Uzun Hasan is the Ta'rikh-i 

Diydrbakriyya by Abu Bakr TihranI (being 

prepared for publication in Ankara by F. Sumer) ; 

for the reign of Sultan Ya'kub ' Alam-ara-yi 

A mini by Fadl Allah b. Ruzbihan (MSS in Paris 

and Istanbul — unpublished). Detailed general 

survey in Ghaffari, Qiihan-ara (with additions in 

MS Br. Mus. Or 141, fols. 190V-196V) and Miinedi- 

djim-bashl, Saha'if al-Akhbar (in the abridged 

Turkish translation, iii, 154-67). Numerous facts 

in historical works and documents in Persian, 

Turkish, Georgian, Armenian, Italian and Spanish; 

see bibliography in V. Minorsky, La Perse entre 

la Turquie et Venise, 1933; W. Hinz, Irans Auf- 

stieg, 1936 (early relations with the Safawls); 

I. H. Uzuncarslll, Anadolu beylikleri, 1937, 63-9, 

and index ; V. Minorsky, A soyurghal of Qasim b. 

Jahdngir (90311498), BSOS, 1939, 927-60; idem, 

A civil and military review in Fdrs in 8S1I1476, 

BSOS, 1939, 141-78; idem, The Aq-qoyunlu and 

land reforms, BSOS, 1952, 449-62; I A, s.v. (by 

M. H. I nan?; many new facts). On Ak Koyunlu 

refugees in Turkey see T. Gokbilgin, Tiirkiyat 

Mecmuasi, 1951, 35-46. — See also uzun hasan. 

(V. Minorsky) 

AS MASDJID. "White Mosque", name of two 

1. Town in the Crimea (local pronunciation: 
Ak Mecet), founded in the 16th century by the 
khans of the Crimea in order to protect their capital, 
Bagb.ce Saray, from nomad incursions. It was the 
residence of the crown prince (kalghay sultan), 
whose palace was outside the town, according to 
Ewliya Celebi, vii, 638-41. The town was destroyed 
by the Russians in 1736, and rebuilt in 1784 under 
the name of Simferopol (although the local popula- 
tion continued to use the Turkish name). 

2. A fortress on the Sir Darya, which belonged 
to the Khanate of Kh6kand. It was captured by 
the Russians under general Perovsky on 9 August 
(28 July) 1853, and rebuilt in the same year under 
the name of Fort Perovsky. Renamed Perovsk, it 
became the capital of a district in the province of Str 
Darya. In 1924, its name was changed into Klzil 
Orda; it was the capital of the Republic of Kazak- 
istan until 1928, when it became the capital of a 
province. . (W. Barthold) 

AS SARAY (Ak SarA), "White Palace", town 
in inner Anatolia. Its ancient name was Archelais 
(see Pauly-Wissowa, s.v.). Ak Saray was an im- 
portant place in the Saldjuk period and the castle, 
now in ruins, was built under Kllldj Arslan II. 
Subsequently it passed under the dominion of the 
Karaman-oghlus and the Ottomans. The great part 



of the inhabitants was transferred by Muhammad II 

to Istanbul after its conquest and a quarter in the 

capital received the name of Ak Saray after them. 

The town is an agricultural centre and has an 

important carpet industry, already mentioned by 

Ibn Ba(tuta, ii, 286; it is the capital of a kadi 

belonging to the wilayet of Nigde and had in 1935 

8,300 inhabitants (the kadd 19,000). Noteworthy 

monuments are the Ulu Djami' (beg. of 15th century, 

with a Saldjuk minbar), the Zindjirli medrese (first 

half of the 15 th century), the Kadiroghlu medrese, built 

under the Saldjuks and restored by the Karaman- 

oghlu Ibrahim Beg, the Nakkashi Djami'i (modern, 

but with a minaret from the 14th century) and 

various hammdms ; on the Erwal Tepe near the town 

there is a tiirbe in briquets from the 13th century. 

Bibliography : Fr. Sarre, Reise in Kleinasien, 

93 ff.; Ch. Texier, Asie Mineure, 509, 566; Ains- 

worth, Travels and researches in Asia Minor, i, 

192; E. Reclus, Nouv. giogr. univ., ix, 571; 

Hamilton, Researches, ii, 22; Gulshen-i Ma'arif, i, 

521, 524; 'AH Djewad, Memalik-i 'Othmdniyyenin 

Ta'rikh we-Dioehrdfiva Lughati, 21; W. Ramsay, 

Asia Minor, 284; Ewltya Celebi, ii, 191. 

(F. Taeschner) 
AS SARAY, palace near Gurgandj (Urgent), 
still mentioned in the "Shavbaniade" (ed. Vambiry, 
392). For the palace of the same name erected for 
TImur in Shahr-i Sabz, see kash.. 

AS SHAMS al-DIN, properly Muhammad 
Shams al-Milla wa'l-DIn, saint of the Bayra- 
miyya [q.v.] and discoverer of the tomb of Abu 
Ayyub al-Ansari near Constantinople. He was the 
son of a certain Hamza, who acquired fame in Syria 
as a worker of miracles and later died in the district 
of Kawak (near Amasia). Ak Shams al-DIn was 
born in 792/1389-80 in Syria (Damascus) and came 
with his parents to Kawak in 799/1396-7. After the 
early death of his father (when Shams al-DIn was 
seven years old) he engaged in theological studies; 
Badr al-DIn b. Kadi Samawna is reputed to have 
been among his teachers. Later he obtained a post 
of Kur'an teacher {miiderris) in 'OJhmandjIk. Not 
satisfied with the rational outlook of orthodox 
Islam, he sought a spiritual leader, undertaking for 
this purpose long journeys, extending to Persia and 
Transoxania. He gave up, following an exhortation 
in a dream, an attempt to attach himself to Zayn 
al-DIn al-Khawafi. and about 830/1426-7 he turned, 
after some initial hesitations, to Hadjdji Bayram 
[?.».], who shortly afterwards appointed him to his 
succession {khildfet).The scenes of his later activities as 
skaykh of the order and nature-healer were Begbaz&r 
(west of Ankara), where he built a small mosque 
and a mill, the district of Iskllb (near 'Othmandjtk) 
and Goyniik (near Brusa). The dates of his seven 
pilgrimages to Mecca are not known. Between 851/ 
1447-8 and 855/1451-2 he was called to Adrianople, 
to treat Sulayman Celebi, kadi l askar of sultan 
Murad II. He took part in the conquest of Con- 
stantinople as a preacher in the army; according 
to a later legend he discovered the tomb of Abu 
Ayyub al-Ansari [q.v.] and worked other miracles 
of firdsa. He healed a daughter of Mehmed II and 
in general gained the favour of the sultan. After the 
conquest Ak Shams al-DIn returned to GOynuk, 
where he died at the end of Rabl* II 863/1459. 
The story of his interpretation of a dream of the 
sultan before the battle of Terdjan against Uzun 
Hasan (1 August 1473) cannot refer to him and seems 
to be a forgery of Feridun. Ak Shams al-DIn had 
seven, according to others twelve, sons, the most 



AK SHAMS al-DIN — AK SU 



important of whom was the poet Hamdi [q.v.]. He 

also wrote several medical and sufl works, which 

have not yet been published. In the history of the 

Bayramiyya, Ak Shams al-Dln seems to have played 

a fatal part, because a quarrel betwaen him and 

some of his companions caused the great secession 

of the Malamatiyya, which could not fail to hamper 

considerably the development of the whole order. 

Bibliography: Tashkopru-zSde, al-ShakdHk 

al-Nu'mdniyya (transl. O. Rescher, 145 ff.) ; Emir 

Huseyn, Mendkib-i Ak Shams al-Dln, Istanbul 

1301 (also used, on the basis of a MS, by Unver) ; 

Gibb, ii, 138 ff.; Bursall Mehmed Tahir, 'Oth- 

mdnli Mu'eMfleri, i, 12 ff.; A. S. Unver, Ilim ve 

sanat bakimindan Fatih devri notlari, i, Istanbul 

1947, 127 ff. ("Hoik menakibine gore Ak-semseddin 

ve Istanbul hakklnda"; on his miracles, sayings, 

etc.) ; H. J. Kissling, AqSems ed-Din. Ein tiirkischer 

Heiiiger aus der Endzeit von Byzanz, Byzantinische 

Zeitschrift, 195 1, 322 ff. (with detailed justification 

of statements differing from views of earlier 

authorities). (H. J. Kissling) 

A1(. SHEHR, in modern Turkish orthography 

Aksehir, "White Town": 

(i) Town in inner Anatolia situated at the 
foot of the Sultan Dagh. In antiquity it was known 
as Philomelium (see Pauly-Wissowa, s.v.). In old 
sources the name of the town occurs as Akshar, 
Akhshar or Akhshehir. It was under Saldjuk and 
Karamah-oghlu dominion and was annexed by 
Bayezid I. In the i6th-i7th centuries it is mentioned 
by the travellers GhazzI, Makki and Ewliya Celebi. 
The town, capital once of a sandjak, now of a kadd 
in the wildyet of Konya, gained its importance from 
its situation on the Istanbul-Baghdad road (now on 
the railway line), and is also an agricultural centre; 
in 1935 it had 10,335 inhabitants (some of them 
immigrants from Greece and Yugoslavia) ; the kadd 
60,000. Its mosque was founded by Bayezid I, the 
Tash Medrese has an inscription of the Saldjukid 
Kayka'us I (613/1216) but is of a later time. Other 
monuments are a tekke with an inscription of Sahib 
e AtS from the time of Kayka'Qs II (659/1260-9); the 
tomb of Sayyid Mahmud Khayranl, with an octagonal 
pyramid (621/1224; restored in the beginning of the 
15 th century) ; the UluDjSmi 1 (beg. of 15 th century) ; 
Iplikci Djami c (73S/1337) ; and an imaret. The modern 
tomb of Nasr al-Dln Khodia [q.v.] bears the date of 
386/926. 

Bibliography: V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, 
i, 803, 818; CI. Huart, Konia, Paris 1897, 109-17; 
idem, Epigraphie Arabe d'Asie Mineure, Revue 
Simitique, 1894, 28-34; Fr. Sarre, Reise in Klein- 
asien, 21 f.; Ch. Texier, Asie Mineure, 435; 
Ainsworth, Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, 
ii, 63; Hamilton, Researches, ii, 185; C AU Djewad, 
Memdlik-i 'Othmdniyyenin Ta'rikh we-Djoghrafiya 
Lughati, 21; Ewliya Celebi, ii, 15 ff. 

(Cl. Huart-F. Taeschner) 
(ii) A? Shehir (also Akshar or Ashkar; Piz- 
zigani, 1367, writes Azcar), town in north-east 
Anatolia, on the Kelkit Irmak between Koylu 
Hisar and Sushehri; it is often mentioned by early 
authors, and occurs as late as in Katib Celebi's 
Dphdn-niimd, 627. It is probably identical with 
the modern village of Guzeller or Ezbider. The 
name was preserved, even longer than for the 
town, for the plain (Ak Shehir Owasi), which is 
regularly mentioned in the iteneraries of the Ot- 
toman armies on their campains against Persia 
and Georgia. 



313 

Bibliography: F. Taeschner, Das anatolische 
Wegenetz, ii, 2 (with further references). 

(F. Taeschner) 
Atf $U (T.), "white water", (1) technical term 
for the original bed of a river (also ak darya), 
from which a canal (kara su or kara darya) is derived ; 
(2) name of several rivers in Turkish-speaking 
countries; they are sometimes better known under 
other names. The following are some of the rivers 
that bear in Turkish the name of Ak Su: (i) one of 
the source rivers of the Amu Darya [q.v.], also called 
Murghab [q.v.] or the "River of Kulab"; (ii) the 
"southern" Bug (in Ukrainian: Boh) in the Ukraine 
(so regularly in the Ottoman historians), which 
forms at its issue into the Black Sea a common 
estuary with the Dnieper; (ill) a rapid mountain 
stream in Eastern Turkistan (Sin-kiang), which, 
coming from the T c ien-shan, flows in a S. E. direction 
towards the Tarim (Yarkand Darya) and reaches it 
somewhat above its junction with the Khotan Darya 
near Sil. The town of Ak Su (see next article) receives 
its name from this stream. (B. Spuler) 

A$ §U, town in Eastern Turkistan (Sin-kiang), 
about 6 km. to the north of the river of Ak Su (see 
preceding article), approximately opposite to its 
junction with the Tawshkan Darya; 1006 m. above 
the sea, 4i°i4, 7' N, 8o° E; on the northern caravan 
route, between Maralbashl and Kuca. A little 
upstream from the modern town lies another settle- 
ment called Ak Su, and N. E. of both is the "Old 
Town", which possibly both correspond to older 
settlements with Chinese names of their own (see 
below). Ak Su is first mentioned with its Turkish 
name in the 8th/i4th century only; the usual iden- 
tification (current since Deguignes) with Auzakia in 
Ptolemy is therefore more than doubtful. Its iden- 
tification with various Chinese toponyms is not yet 
finally settled. W. Barthold had identified it (mainly 
on the basis of its present Chinese name, see below) 
with the W6n-su of the Han period and the B.ncul 
(B.niuk ?) of the Ifudud al-'Alam (ed. Minorsky, 98) 
and Gardlzi (in Barthold's Otlet poyezdhye v 
Srednyuyu Aziyu, St. Petersburg 1897, 91); later, 
however, he gave up this view. P. Pelliot identified 
Ak Su with the Ku-mo of the Han period (Pa-lu-kia 
in Hsiian-tsang, Po-huan in the T'ang period; al- 
Idrisi's "Bakhuwan"). Chinese merchants in Ak Su 
are mentioned already about 1400 (Nizam Shami. 
Zafar-nama), but even in 1475 its importance was 
small in comparison with other towns of Eastern 
Turkistan (W. Barthold, 12 Vorlesungen, Berlin 1935, 
220) ; according to Haydar Mirza's Ta'rikh-i Rashidi, 
however, it was about 1547 one of the capitals of 
the country. In modern times the importance of the 
town (which did not reach, however, that of Yar- 
kand, Kashghar and TurfSn) lay in its role as a 
commercial centre and a junction of roads between 
China, Siberia, Eastern and Western Turkistan, 
Kashmir, Ladakh and India. It had also a military 
importance. It is said that at one time the town had 
6000 houses, six caravansarays, five madrasas, and 
a wall with four gates. As the town was almost 
completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1716, no 
old buildings have been preserved. By the travellers 
of the 19th century (A. N. Kuropatkin, 1876-7; 
N. M. Przeval'skiy, 1885-6; Carey, 1885-6; F. E. 
Younghusband, 1886; Sven Hedin, 1895) it is 
described as having about 15,000 inhabitants and 
being about 2 km. in circumference. The livelihood 
of the inhabitants was based on metalwork, cotton 
materials of very good quality (bazz), saddles, 
bridles, jewellery and the breeding of camels, horses 



J'4 



AS SU — al-'ASABA 



and cattle. Between 1867 and 1877 AH Su belonged 
to Ya'lfflb Beg [q.v.] of Kashghar, since 1877 again 
to China (Chinese name: W6n-su-chow) ; the Chinese 
chose the town for the residence of the president 
(tao-t c ai) of the "Four Eastern Towns" (AH Su, 
Kuca, Kara Shahr and Uc Turfan). In the 20th 
century it shared the changing fortunes of Eastern 
Turkistan. The number of the inhabitants (presu- 
mably mostly SunnI Eastern Turks) is at present 
given as between 20,000 and 40,000, who occupy 
themselves also with carpet weaving. 

Bibliography: P. Pelliot, La ville de Ba- 

khouan dans la giographie d'Idrtft, T'oung-pao, 

1906, 553-6; idem, Notes sur Us anciens noms de 

Kuca, d'Aq-su et d'Ut-Turfan, T'oung-Pao, 1923, 

126-32; the materials are put together in Hudud 

al-'-Alam, 293-7, cf. also 27 f. and the map, 279; 

Brockhaus-Efron, Entsiklopediieshiy slovar 1 , St. 

Petersburg 1890, i, 307 f.; A. Herrmann, Atlas of 

China, Cambridge (Mass.) 1935, 24, 37, 58, 60; 

Bol'shaya Sovyetskaya Entsiklopediya', 1950, i, 

617 f. (B. Spuler) 

A£ SU (Aim Su), village near Shemakhi, 

(Russian Shemakha) in Soviet Adharbaydjan, with 

a mosque, a bazar and with the ruins of "New 

Shemakhi" [q.v.]. (B. Spuler) 

AS SUNSUR, "White Falcon", the name of 
many Turkish officers, of whom the following are 
the most important: 

1. Aic Sunicur b. c Abd Allah S a sIm al-Dawla, 
known as al-Hadjib, mamluk of Malik-shah [q.v.], 
who appointed him to the government of Aleppo in 
480/1087. He at first supported the efforts of the 
Saldjuk prince Tutush [q.v.] to establish himself in 
Syria, but after Malik-shah's death he, with the 
other governors in northern Syria and the Djazira, 
declared for Barkiyaruk, and was defeated and 
executed by Tutush near Aleppo in Djumada I, 
487/May 1094. He was the father of ZankI [q.v.], 
afterwards atabeg of Mosul, and is highly praised 
for his justice and good government. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-KalanisI (Amedroz), 
119-26, trans. Le Tourneau, Damas de loys a 1154, 
Damascus 1952, 15-27; Ibn al-Athlr, x, 98, 149-51, 
157-8; Ibn Khallikan. no. 99; Ibn. al-'Adim, 
Ta'rikh Halab, ii, Damascus 1954, index. 

2. As Sun^ur al-AhmadIlI [see ahmadIlI]. 

(H. A. R. Gibb) 
AS SUNSUR al-BURSUSI (Abu Sa'Id Sayf 
al-DIn KasIm al-Dawla), originally a mamluk of 
Bursuk [q.v.], and one of the principal officers of the 
Saldjukid sultans Muhammad and Mahmud. He 
became prominent firstly through his activities as 
military governor {shihna) of al-'Irak, and later, at 
the end of his life, as governor of Mosul, which 
office he held simultaneously with the former. 
Appointed shihna in 498/1105. his main task was to 
oppose the Mazyadite Arabs of Dubays [q.v.], who 
were infesting the environs of Baghdad. In his first 
government of Mosul (507/1 113) his chief duty was 
the organization of the Holy War in the name of 
the sultan against the Franks in Syria, combining 
with this an effort to restore the Saldjuk authority 
in Diyar Bakr and up to the Mediterranean. After 
several setbacks, due essentially to the suspicions 
aroused by these ambitions, and which led to his 
spending the years 509-512/1115-8 in partial disgrace 
at his fief of al-Rahba on the Euphrates, he finally 
succeeded, after saving Aleppo from an attack by the 
Crusaders supported by Dubays, in taking over the 
government of the entire province (518/1125), by 



agreement with the leading citizens of Aleppo. He 
thus realized that union of a part of the Djazira 
with northern Syria which had served as the basis 
of Hamdanid power, and was to support that of 
ZankI [q.v.]. His life was cut short by the Batinls of 
Alamut, one of whose allies he had opposed in al- 
c Irak, in 519/1126, before he could display his 
abilities, and it fell to ZankI to realize, with greater 
solidity, the task thus begun. But already al-Bursuki 
had combined, as ZankI was also to do, Saldjukid 
legitimism, represented by his dignity as atabek of 
a prince, with an almost complete de facto autonomy 
at Mosul, and had effected that reinforcement of 
Muslim north Syria by the forces of the Djazira 
which was to permit the former to break the Frankish 
encirclement and explains its readiness, despite its 
particularism, to accept his authority. 

Bibliography: C. Cahen, La Syrie du Nord 
d Vipoque des Croisades, Paris 1940; R. Grousset, 
Histoire des Croisades, i, Paris 1934; S. Runciman, 
A History of the Crusades, ii, Cambridge 1952; 
Ibn al-SalanisI (Amedroz; tr. Le Tourneau, index, 
s.v. al-Borsoqi) ; Ibn al-Athir, x, 272, 290, 350-3, 
374, 378-80, 415, 439-40, 446-7; Ibn Khallikan. 
no. 100; Ibn al-'Adlm, ii, Damascus 1954, index; 
Ibn Abi Tayy; and, among non-Muslim authors, 
Matthew of Edessa; other sources quoted by 
Cahen, op. cit., introduction. (Cl. Cahen) 

al-'ASABA, a mountain-road, or a place 
difficult of ascent on a hill or acclivity. There are 
many places of this name: the best-known is that 
between Mina and Mecca. Here, according to 
traditional accounts, Muhammad had secret meetings 
with men from Medina at the pilgrimages of the 
years 621 and 622 A. D. In 621, at "the first c Akaba", 
twelve were present, and they gave to Muhammad 
an undertaking known as 'the pledge of the women' 
(bay'at al-nisd 3 ); at "the second 'Akaba" seventy- 
three men and two women promised to defend 
Muhammad, if necessary, by arms, in what is 
known as 'the pledge of war' (bay'at al-harb). Some 
Western writers have held that there was only one 
meeting at al- c Akaba, since only one is mentioned 
by al-Tabari (i, 1224 f.), and since the wording of 
"the pledge of the women" in the extant sources is 
based on Kur'an, lx, 12, which is admittedly later 
(cf. F. Buhl, Muhammed, Leipzig 1930, 186). It is 
likely, however, that the delicate negotiations involved 
would require more than one meeting. (For the 
stone-throwing that takes place at al- c Akaba as 
part of the pilgrimage, see al-djamra and hadjdj.) 
Bibliography: Yakut, iii, 692 f.; Ibn Hisham, 
288-300 ;TabarI,i, 1209-27; G. Melamede, in MO, 
kxviii, 17-58; Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at 
Mecca, Oxford, 1953,, 144 ff. 

(W. Montgomery Watt) 
al-'ASABA, the sole seaport of the Has^imite 
Kingdom of Jordan, lying on the eastern side of the 
head of the Gulf of 'Akaba at the foot of the Djabal 
Umm Nusayla. 

Al-'Akaba is the successor of Ayla [q.v.], from 
which it developed as the town grew further to the 
southeast. The name al- c Akaba is a shortened form 
of 'Akabat Ayla, "the Pass of Ayla", which refers to 
the pass through the Djabal Umm Nusayla traversed 
by the route from al- c Akaba northeast to Ma c 3n 
through the Wadi Ithm and the Wadi Hisma. This 
pass, which was improved under the Tulunid 
Khumarawayh (884-95), ultimately gave its name to 
the town itself. The term 'Akabat Ayla appears as 
early as the time of al-ldrisl (d. 11 66), but the town 
was still generally known as Ayla. Ibn Battuta 



L-«AKAWWAK 



315 



1304-77), however, knows it only as 'Akabat Ayla 
(i, 256, iv, 324) and by the time of the 16th century 
historian Ibn Iyas it was called by its present name 
of al- c Akaba. 

At the very end of the Mamluk period (920/1514-5) 
Sultan Kansawh al-Ghawri, through the agency of 
his architect Khayir Bey al-'Ala 5 !, erected the 
present ruined fortified khan at al-'Akaba in order 
to protect pilgrims from the attacks of predatory 
bedouin bands. 

Under Turkish rule (1516-1917) al- e Akaba, by the 
beginning of the 20th century, was reduced to a 
village of some fifty mud-and-stone huts, the 
inhabitants of which lived from the produce of 
their gardens and from the fruit of date palms, 
the latter of which they divided equally with the 
Huway(at bedouin, to whom the palms still belong. 
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the 
building of the Hidjaz railway in 1908 had deprived al- 
'Akaba of its only remaining importance as a 
pilgrimage station. When Musil visited the town 
in 1898 it was the seat of a Turkish garrison guarding 
the frontier with British occupied Egyptian Sinai. 
(It belonged to the province of the Hidjaz and was 
the seat of a muhdfiz subordinated to the too/* in 
Pjidda.) 

During the sea bombardment by British and 
French warships which preceded the capture of 
al- c Akaba by Anglo-Arab forces on 6 July 1917, 
the town was severely damaged. Following the end 
of World War I, al-'Akaba was part of the Hidjaz, 
but with the fall of the Hidjaz to the Sa'udl Arabian 
forces in Oct. 1925 the town, along with the Ma' an 
district, was annexed to Transjordan. Little change 
took place in the condition of al-'Akaba until 1942, 
when new construction was undertaken by the 
British forces to prepare the port as a supply port 
in the event of the fall of Egypt to axis armies 
driving from Libya. At this time a paved road was 
constructed from al-'Akaba to the railhead at 
Nakb Shitar S. W. of Ma'an. Following the Palestine 
war of 1948-9 the town grew rapidly in population 
and in 1954 it was projected to develop the port as 
Jordan's outlet on the Red Sea. 

Bibliography: A. Musil, The Northern tfigdz. 
New York 1926, 81-8; idem, Arabia Petraea, ii/i, 
Vienna 1907, 257-60; E. Robinson, Biblical 
researches in Palestine, London 1856, 163-72; 
T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, New 
York 1938, 310-4; C. Leonard Woolley and 
T. E. Lawrence, The Wilderness of Zin, London 
1936, 141-4; H. W. Glidden, A Comparative 
Study of Arabic Nautical Vocabulary from al- 
'Aqabah, JAOS, 1942, 69-72; idem, The Mamluk 
Origin of the Fortified Khan at al-'Aqabah, Jordan, 
in Archeologica Orientalia in Memoriam Ernst 
Herxfeld, Locust Valley, N. Y., 1952, 116. 

(H. W. Glidden) 
'AfcABAT al-NISA', a name for the pass of 
Baghras or Baylan [see baghras]. 
'AlfA'ID [see c akIda]. 
C A?AL [see 'imama]. 

AKANSUS Abu 'Abd AllAh Muhammad b. 
Ahmad, Moroccan historian and man of 
letters originating from the Berber tribe of Ida 
u-Kansus which inhabited Sus in southern Morocco, 
where he was born in 1211/1797. He studied at Fez 
under teachers of repute, and then obtained a post 
at the Sharlflan court as secretary. Promoted to the 
rank of vizier in 1236/1820, he was entrusted by 
the Sultan Mawlay Sulayman (Malay Sllman) with 
several official missions, but lost his post on the 



latter's death (1238/1822). He retired to Marrakusb,, 
where he devoted his time to the composition of 
poetical and historical works and became one of the 
most prominent representatives of the Tidjdjaniyya 
farika. He died, at an advanced age and afflicted 
with blindness, on 29 Muharram 1294/14 Febr. 1877, 
in the same town. His tomb, situated outside the 
Bab al-Rabb, is still visited by initiates of the Order. 
The major work of Akansus is a general history 
of Islam up to his own era, in which pride of place 
is given to the history of his own country and, even 
more specifically, to that of the 'Alid dynasty 
('Alawiyya) of Morocco, from its origins up to 
1282/1865. This voluminous work, a limited number 
of copies of which were lithographed at Fez (1336/ 
1918), is entitled al-Diays&al-'Aramram al-Khumasi 
ft Dawlat Awldd Mawlana ( Ali al-Sidiilmdsl. Its 
chief merit lies in the fact that it constitutes the 
first chronicle of the reigns of the sultans 'Abd al- 
Rahman b. Hicham and Muhammad b. 'Abd al- 
Rahman, and was subsequently used extensively by 
Ahmad b. Khalid al-Nasiri [q.v.] in his al-Istiksa>. 
For the earlier period, the Qiaysh plagiarizes most 
frequently the chronicles of al-Ifranl [q.v.] and al- 
Zayyanl [q.v.]. 
Bibliography : E. Levi- Provencal, CAor/a, 200-13 
(with bibliography, 200 n. 1); idem, Ex traits des 
historiens arabes du Maroc*, Paris 1948, 8-9 and 
126-7; Brockelmann, S II, 884-5. 

(E. L£vi-Provencal) 
'A&ARIB (see 'a*rabI]. 

'AKARKCF group of ruins 30 kms. west oi 
Baghdad; its identification by H. Rawlinson with 
the town of Dur Kurigalzu, founded by the Kassites 
in the 14th century B. C, has been confirmed by the 
excavations of 1942-5 (see T. Baqir, in Iraq, Suppl. 
1944, 1945; 1946, 73 ff.). The high tower (the ruins 
of the ancient zikkurat) drew the attention of the 
Arabs, and is referred to in connection with the Arab 
conquest as al-manzara (al-Bala<ihuri, Futuft, 250; 
cf. also al-Tabari, ii, 917, iii, 943). It was said to be 
the tomb of the "Kaynanl" dynasty (Ibn al-Faklh, 
in Yakut), or to have been built by Kay Ka'us 
(Hamd Allah, Nuzha, 39) or by 'Akarkuf, son of 
either Tahmurath (Yakut, al-Kazwini) or of Faris 
b. Tahmurath (Ibn al-Faklh, 196) or of Sam (Abu 
Hamid). According to a legend (already found in 
Hamd Allah) the stove into which Namrud threw 
Abraham [see ibrahim] was at 'Akarkuf; for this 
reason it was sometimes called Tell Nimrud. Abu 
Nuwas mentions 'Akarkuf in a verse (Dlwan, Cairo 
1898, 100) and al-Maljdis! (258) quotes from al- 
Kalbl a Persian tradition naming it among the seven 
towns of al-'Irak noted for intelligence (cf. Ibn al- 
Faklh, 210). There was also a village, a prominent 
family being the descendants of Sa'd b. Zayd al- 
KhazradjI (Ibn Sa c d, iii/2, 93; al-Sam'ani, Yakut). 
The European travellers of the 16th century and 
later who mention 'Akarkuf (see Ritter, Erdkunde, 
xi, 847-52; Tuch, De Nino urbe, Leipzig 1845, 4) 
usually call it the "Tower of Babel". 

Bibliography: Yakut, iii, 697-8; Sam'anl, 

395r; Abu HSmid al-Ghamatl, Tuhfat al-Albdb, 

79; Kazwfnl, Athar al-BUad, 284-5; Ibn c Abd al- 

Hakk, Mardsid al-Ittila*, i, 211, ii, 267-8, 227; Le 

Strange, 67; G. Awwad, in Sumer, 1949, Arabic 

part 81 ff. (S. M. Stern) 

al-'AKAWWAK, "thick-set", sobriquet of the 

poet c AlI b. Djabala. Bom at Baghdad in 160/776, 

of a family of Khurasanl mawali, al-'Akawwak seems 

to have spent most of his life in 'Ir5k, where he was 

the panegyrist of Abu Dulaf al- c IdjH [q.v.], Humayd 



316 



al-'AKAWWAK - 



b. c Abd al-Hamld al-Tusi, and the vizier al-Hasan 
b. Sahl [q.v.]. The exaggerated and almost sacrilegious 
eulogies addressed to the two first-named excited, it 
is sa.d, the hostility of the Caliph al-Ma'mun, who 
had the poet's tongue torn out. Al-'Akawwak died 
as a result of this mutilation in 213/828. His diwdn, 
a work of considerable proportions (see Fihrist, 164,,), 
has not come down to us, and his poetry is known to 
us only through the quotations of anthologists; the 
long poem quoted by al-Tha'alibl, Yatimat al-Dahr, 
Damascus edition, iii, is ascribed to him, but this 
is questionable. Al-Djahiz had a great admiration 
for the way in which he recited poetry (see al- 
Khatlb al-Baghdadi and also Ibn Khallikan); but 
this prolific and catholic writer quotes al- c Akawwak 
once only in bis Kitab al-Baydn wa'l-Tabyin. On 
the other hand, contemporaries of al-Djahiz such 
as Ibn Kutayba and Abu'l-Faradj al-Isfahani con- 
sider al- c Akawwak to be a poet of exceptional merit. 
Bibliography: Ibn Ifutayba, SAtV, 550-3; 
Aghdni, xviii, 100-14; Ibn c Abd Rabbih, al-'Ikd, 
('Uryan), i, 238, 243; al-Khatlb al-Baghdadi, 
Ta'rikh Baghdad, xi, 359; Ibn Khallikan, Cairo, 
1310, i, 348, ed. Cairo 1948, no. 434: Brockelmann, 

S I, I20. (R. BLACHERE) 

AKBAR, Abu 'l-Fat? Djalal al-DIn Muhammad 
(15 Oct. 1542-16 Oct. 1605), the greatest of the 
Mughal emperors of India, was born at Umarkot 
in Sind while his father Humayun, who had been 
ousted by the Afghan usurper Shir Shah Sur, was 
escaping to Persia. A grandson of Babur, he was 
both a Timurid Turk and a Caghatay Mongol. His 
mother, Hamida Banu, was a Persian. After thirteen 
years of exile Humayun, because of the decline of 
Sur power, decided to attempt the reconquest of 
Hindustan. Little however had been accomplished 
before his death on 24 Jan. 1556. In fact there was 
no Mughal empire before Akbar, only an attempt to 
create one. In his early struggles Akbar owed much 
to his able guardian and regent Bayram Khan [q.v.]. 
In addition to the Sur claimants the most dangerous 
of his rivals was a usurping Hindu minister named 
Hemu who had assumed the title of Radja Vikrama- 
ditya. Hemu's forces were routed at Panipat on 
5 Nov. 1556. The following year saw the surrender 
of Sikandar Shah Sur. In 1560 Bayram Khan fell 
from power, after which Akbar remained for about 
four years under the pernicious influence of the 
ladies of the harem and of a faction controlled by 
his foster relatives, the atga khayl of contemporary 
Muslim historians. His personal rule therefore dates 
from 1564. 

His annexations. In 1561 his kingdom com- 
prised the Pandjab and Multan; the basin of the 
Ganges and Djumna between Panipat and Allahabad: 
the country between the Gumti and the foothills of 
the Himalayas ; Gwalior in Central India and Adjmer 
in Radjputana. The country around Kabul was held 
by his half brother Muhammad Hakim. Kandahar 
belonged to Persia. Outside his dominions were the 
Muslim states of Gudjarat and Khandesh : the five 
Deccani sultanates of Berar, Bldar, Ahmadnagar, 
Bidjapur and Golconda; and, to the south of the 
river Tungabhadra, the Hindu empire of Vidjaya- 
nagar. Kashmir, Radjputana, and Gondwana were 
under independent chiefs and radjas. Bihar and 
Bengal acknowledged an Afghan ruler, Sulayman 
Kararani. The Portuguese were firmly established 
at strategic points along the coast. 

Between 1562 and 1576 he added to his dominions 
Malwa (1562), the Gond kingdom of Garha- Katanga 
in Gondwana (1564), Chitor (1568), Rantambhor 



AKBAR 

(1569), Kalandjar in Bundelkhand (1569), and 
Gudjarat (1573). The annexation of Bengal in 1576 
made him master of the whole of northern India 
with the exception of lower Sind. Subsequent 
additions to his empire were Kashmir (1586), Sind 
(1591), part of Orissa (1592), Balucistan and Makran 
(1594), and Kandahar (1595). As a result of his 
Deccan campaigns Berar, Khandesh. and part of 
Ahmadnagar were annexed between 1595 and 1601. 
At his death, in 1605, his empire comprised the 
following fifteen subas (provinces) : Kabul (including 
Kashmir), Lahore, Multan (including Sind), Delhi, 
Oudh, Agra, Adjmer, Afcmadabad, Malwa, Allahabad, 
Bihar, Bengal, Khandesh. Berar and Ahmadnagar 
(not fully subjugated). 

Administrative policy. Akbar was not 
merely a conqueror. He was in addition endowed 
with a genius for administration to which the 
structure of both his central and provincial govern- 
ment bears testimony. The ideas of Akbar can be 
traced back to his immediate predecessors the Sur 
Afghans and the sultans of Delhi. The chief lesson 
he learned from the past was the danger of the 
unlimited wazirate. In 1564, therefore, the central 
government was reorganized by entrusting the 
financial functions of the waktt-i muflak to the 
diwdn or wazir. From this time onwards the power 
of the wakil was eclipsed by that of the diwdn and 
the importance of the office was further lessened by 
keeping it vacant for long periods. Other important 
officers of the central government under Akbar were 
the mir bakhshi, the mir saman, and the sadr al- 
sudur. It is extremely difficult to define the functions 
of the mir bakhshi, who has been referred to as 
the Paymaster-General or as the Adjutant-General, 
but the more fitting modern equvalent would be 
Quartermaster-General. Under Akbar the mir 
bakhshi as administrative head of the military 
department was responsible for all transport 
arrangements during campaigns and could be 
placed in command of an army in the field. In 
accordance with Akbar's policy of separation of 
powers it was only on active service that the mir 
bakhshi actually paid the troops. Normally this was 
the work of the diwdn. The mir saman was in 
charge of the buyutat department and was responsible 
for the organization of the kar-khdnas, the factories, 
workshops, and stores maintained by the emperor. 
The sadr al-sudur, the chief spokesman of the 
'ulamd*, was the Chief liddi and head of the judiciary. 
In the early part of Akbar's reign this official had 
extraordinary powers. His reading of the khvfba in 
the name of a new sovereign legalized the accession. 
He also exercised the right of patronage recommend- 
ing deserving cases to the king for madad-i ma l ash 
grants. It is incorrect to assert that in 1581 Akbar 
abolished this office. It is true that six provincial 
sadrs were appointed but the office of sadr al-sudUr 
continued, though shorn of its former extraordinary 
powers. AU important officials, whether civil or 
military, were graded as amirs or mansabddrs on 
a military basis. They were divided into 33 classes 
and their rank and precedence were regulated by 
nominal commands of horse, ranging from 10 to 
5000. Under Akbar there was evidently some 
connection between an officer's rank and the number 
of troops he entertained, but the exact meaning 
of the terms dhat and suwar is controversial. 

The provincial government was administered by 
a hierarchy of officials corresponding to those at 
the centre. The subas (provinces) were divided into 
sarkdrs (districts) which were further subdivided 



into parganas or mahalls, the lowest fiscal unit in 
the empire. Distance and the backwardness of 
communications necessitated elaborate precautions 
to prevent fraud and rebellion. The provincial 
governor was a bureaucratic head and was not 
allowed to develop into a feudal baron. Not only 
was the governor's tenure of office short but im- 
portant provincial officials like the diwan and the 
fawdidar (executive head of a sarkdr) were appointed 
by the central government. There was also an ela- 
borate system of espionage carried out by the 
wdki'-a nuwis (reporter) and other officials. 

Akbar's revenue policy was the outcome of three 
experiments. In each case a different set of assessment 
rules was adopted but in all three the assessment 
was based on the area sown and varied with different 
crops. The first two experiments failed and it was 
not until the 24th regnal year (1579-80) that a 
stable system was introduced. This was known as 
the dah sola system because the assessment was 
based on the average of the previous ten years. An 
attempt was made to deal directly with the peasants 
who had to pay one-third of their gross produce to 
the state. It was enforced only in the six central 
provinces which formed the original nucleus of his 

His religious policy was chiefly dictated by 
political and dynastic considerations. His policy of 
suift-i hull (universal toleration), his abolition of the 
djizya and of the tax formerly levied on Hindu pil- 
grims were aimed at securing the loyalty of his Hindu 
subjects, who formed the bulk of the population. It 
was also inextricably bound up with his conception 
of sovereignty and was an assertion of the supremacy 
of the state politically, economically, and financially. 
With this object he curbed the powers of the 'alamo* 
by the so-called Infallibility Decree of 1579 by which 
he was recognized as the chief authority in the realm 
on religious matters. Although illiterate he was 
genuinly interested in the study of Comparative 
Religion and built an Hbddat-khana (House of 
Worship) where learned men of all religions assembled 
to discuss theological problems. These discussions 
convinced Akbar that there was good in all religions 
and prompted him to promulgate a new eclectic 
faith called the din ildhi which he vainly hoped would 
prove acceptable to his subjects. It was the reversal 
of his policy of conciliation by his immediate suc- 
cessors and their gradual departure from the main 
principles of his rule that led to the decline of the 
Mughal empire. 

Bibliography: Abu '1-Fadl 'AllamI, AHn-i 
Akbari (text in Bibl. Ind., transl. in the same 
series by H. Blochmann and H. S. Jarrett); idem, 
Akbar-nama (text in Bibl. Ind., transl. in the same 
series by H. Beveridge); <Abd al-Kadir Bada'uni, 
Muntakhab al-Tawdrikh (text in Bibl. Ind.; transl. 
in the same series by Ranking, Lowe, and Haig; 
Nur al-Hakk, Zubdat al-Tawdrikh; for the 
historians in Persian see also Storey; Graf von 
Noer, Kaiser Akbar, Leipzig (transl. by A. S. 
Beveridge, Calcutta 1890); V. A. Smith, Akbar 
the Great Moghul', 1919; Cambridge History of 
India, iv, 1937; Abdul Aziz, The Mansabdari 
System and the Mughal Army, Lahore; Ibn Hasan, 
The Central Structure of the Mughal Empire, 1936; 
W. Irvine, Army of the Indian Moguls, 1903; 
W. H. Moreland, India at the Death of Akbar, 1920; 
idem, The Agrarian System of Moslem India, 1929; 
T. Raychaudhuri, Bengal Under Akbar and 
Jahangir, Calcutta 1953; P. Saran, The Provincial 
Government of the Mughals, Allahabad 1941; 



R. P. Tripathi, Some Aspects of Muslim Admini- 
stration, Allahabad 1936; J. S. Hoyland, transl. 
of The Commentary of Father Montserrate, 1922; 
C. H. Payne, Akbar and the Jesuits, 1926; E. 
Maclagan, The Jesuits and the Great Mogul, 1932; 
J. J. Modi, Parsees at the Court of Akbar, Bombay 
1903; M. Roychoudhuri, The Din-i-Ilahi, -Calcutta 
1941; E. W. Smith, Mughal Architecture of 
Fathpur Sikri, Archeological Survey of India, 1896. 

Cf. also ABU 'L-FADL, <AZlZ KUKA, MUBARAK 
NAGAWRl, FATHPUR SlKRl. 

(C. Collin Davies) 
AKBAR, Sayyid JJUSAYN ALLAhAbAdI, 

Indian Muslim poet, who wrote in Urdu under 
the pen-name of Akbar. Born in 1846 in Bara, a 
small village near Allahabad, he received a casual 
and desultory schooling. After several years' practice 
as a lawyer, he spent many years of his life as a 
judge in the service of the British government, till 
his retirement in 1903. He died in Sept. 1921. 

His chief characteristic is his use of humour and 
satire to enforce his views on political and social 
subjects. The employment of jeux de mots, of 
which he made frequent and effective use, greatly 
added to his popular appeal. His command of pure 
Urdu was matched by his ability to bend to his 
purpose strange words, whether English or verna- 
cular. From the sociological point of view, the main 
interest of his poetry lies in the fact that it may be 
regarded as a running commentary on the social 
foibles of his contemporaries and the political and 
religious trends of his times. This r61e of a humorous 
commentator on contemporary life earned him the 
title of Lisan al- c Asr or "the Mouthpiece of the Age." 
His criticism is not, however, the result of deep or 
sustained sociological thought, but is the impulsive 
reaction of a conservative mind to that Wester- 
nization of Indian life, which as a matter of fact 
had been in progress for a long time past. The 
shafts of his wit and ridicule simply touch the 
surface of things, and as the phases of life criticised 
by him pass away in a changing society, a consider- 
able part of his poetry is likely to lose its topical 
interest for the coming generations. 

His poetical compositions have been collected in 
four volumes and frequently published under the 
title of Kulliyyat-i Akbar. The first volume was 
published in 1909, the fourth in 1948. His letters, too, 
have been published in several collections. Shortly 
before his death, he composed Gdndhi-ndma, in 
which he set down the political views of the various 
parties, which took part in the anti-British movement 
led by M. K. Gandhi. It was edited by M. Na'Im 
al-Rahman, Allahabad 1948. 

Bibliography: R. B. Saksena, A History of 
Urdu Literature', Allahabad 1940, 227-38; T. G. 
Bailey, A History of Urdu Literature, Calcutta- 
London 1932, 97; M. Sadiq, Twentieth Century 
Urdu Literature, Bombay 1947, 11-15; Kamar al- 
Din Ahmad Badayunl, Bazm-i Akbar (in Urdu, 
like the following works), Delhi 1944; Akbar 
Number of the Aligarh Magazine, edited by 
S. Shabih al-Hasan, Aligarh 1950; S. 'Ishrat 
Husayn, Havat-i Akbar Alldhdbddi, Karachi 195 1; 
Lisan al- l Asr, edited by Akhtar Ansarl, Karachi 
1951; Akbar is Dawr Men (a symposium), edited 
by Akhtar AnsSrI, Karachi, s.d.; <Abd al-Madjid 
DaryabSdl, Akbar-nama, Lucknow 1954. 

(Sh. Inayatullah) 
AKCE, meaning "small white", was the name 
given in Turkish to the Ottoman silver coin 
habitually referred to by European writers as the 



3i8 AtfCE 

aspre or asper, from the Greek aspron. The term 
was already in use under the Saldjukids of 'Irak 
during the 12th century (see al-Rawandl, Rdhat 
al-$udur, 300, where a gift of 1,000 akles is recorded) ; 
and since, when applied to the first Ottoman coin 
to be struck, under Orkhan in 727/1327, it was 
qualified by the epithet " c Othmani", it would 
appear to have continued in use either for some 
other coin or as signifying "money" in a more 
general sense. In later Ottoman times it certainly 
came to bear this wider sense, as in such phrases as 
selamet aklesi, 'awarid aklesi, and to have been 
generally used by all the northern Turkish-speaking 
peoples in both senses (cf. Radloff, WOrterbuch, s.v.). 
During the 14th and 15th centuries the Ottoman 
coin was usually called simply '"Othmani", but 
from the reign of Selim I onwards, this usage being 
abandoned, it came to be known simply as the akle. 
The earliest Ottoman akle was modelled on the 
dirham of the Saldjukids of Rum; and although in 
one issue or another of the sultans down to Murad II 
there appear most of the elements that were later 
to make up the final formulae of the akle's inscrip- 
tions, it was not until the reign of Mehmed II that 
these were all regularly, though not always iden- 
tically, combined. 

The akce of Orkhan weighed 6 frrdts, or one- 
quarter of a mithkal, was 90% silver, and measured 
18 mm. in diameter; and down to the reign of 
Murad II, though the akle was somewhat reduced 
in site, its standard of purity and even its weight 
were pretty well kept up. Under Mehmed II, 
Bayazid II, and Selim I, however, its standard was 
reduced by 5% and its weight to 3 3 /, kirdfs; and 
although under Suleyman I and Selim II this 
decline was retarded, it continued, till, under 
Murad III and his successors down to 'Othman II, 
though retaining the same standard and more or 
less the same diameter, it was reduced by fits and 
starts to a weight of no more than i l / 2 kirdts, becoming 
thinner and thinner. Moreover, under Murad IV, 
Ibrahim, and Mehmed IV, its silver content was 
reduced first to 70 and then to 50%, though its weight 
and size remained roughly the same. The effect of 
these various debasements on its value was that, 
whereas 40 akles went to the first Ottoman gold 
piece, of Mehmed II, by the reign of Mustafa II, 
when a currency reform resulted in the first coining 
of the Ottoman kurush, the rate of the gold piece 
(whose own weight and standard had been pretty 
well maintained) had risen to as much as 300 akles. 
The akce continued to be minted thereafter down to 
the reign of Mahmud II ; but from the end of the 
17th century its value, which gradually declined still 
further, was so slight that it became little more than 
a conventional unit, used chiefly for accountancy 
purposes; and in the tanzimdt period it was aban- 
doned, except in connection with wakfs, even for that. 
Bibliography: al-Sayyid Mustafa Nurl, Ne- 
tdHdi al-Wuku'at, i, 66, 148, ii, 99 f., Hi, 106; 
Djewdet Pasha, Ta'rikh, i, 254 f.; Belin, Essai 
sur I'Histoire Economique de la Turquie, J A, 
series vi, vol. iii; S. Lane- Poole, The Coins of the 
Turks in the British Museum; Isma'Il Ghalib. 
Takwim-i Meskukdt-i 'Othmdniyye; c Ali, 'Othmanli 
Imperatorlughunun ilk sikkesi we-ilk akleleri, 
OTEM, no. 48; idem, Fdtih Zamaninda akle ne 
idil, OTEM, no. 49; I A, s.v. (by I. H. Uzun- 
carslll). (H. Bowen) 

C AIJD. The 'akd, in Muslim law, is properly the 
legal act, whether it relates to a contract or to a 
simple unilateral declaration, such as a will. More 



- 'ASD 

especially, however, the term 'akd denotes the legal 
act which involves a bi-lateral declaration, namely 
the offer (id±db) and the acceptance (kabul). The 
offer by itself has no obligatory character, in 
IJanafite law. Malikite law differs on this point. At 
all events, the 'akd is formally constituted at the 
moment when the acceptance is given. 

It is necessary at this point to distinguish clearly 
between the '■akd or contract, and simple promises 
(Hddt) and also allowances (ibdhdt), which are not 
binding. 

The 'akd is not merely a simple expression of 
agreement. Every 'akd requires a sigha, or form, by 
which the wishes of each of the parties are expressed. 
These wishes must in principle be expressed verbally, 
unless a mute is involved. Writing cannot be used 
unless the parties are not in the presence of each 
other. But there is no question of an inflexible 
formalism. The sigha is not confined to a stereotyped 
form. Any mode of expression (sura) is valid, 
provided it gives the required meaning. It is necessary 
however to realise that verba de futuro can in no way 
validly express the will to contract. Verba de praesenti 
only bind the contracting party if the will to contract 
is established independently. There is no necessity 
to try to establish this intention (niyya) if the verba 
are in the past tense. 

The 'akd should therefore reflect a mutual under- 
standing which has already been reached. It is 
concluded in order to secure for this agreement its 
legal effects. Thus the effect of a contract of sale 
is the immediate transfer of the ownership of the 
object of sale to the vendee. This conveyance cannot 
be deferred. In the definition of the 'akd, there is 
no question of obligations being incurred by one 
party or the other by virtue of the contract. The 
'akd, in Muslim law, is not so much an act giving 
rise to obligations as a legal act creating a new legal 
situation or modifying an existing one. The vendor 
is naturally obliged to deliver the object of sale, 
just as the purchaser is obliged to pay the price. 
These obligations, however, are not considered to 
be effects (hukm) of the contract, but are properly 
considered to be contractual rights (hukiik al-'akd). 

If the obligations of the two contracting parties 
are discharged as soon as mutual agreement is 
reached, then this does not constitute an 'akd, but 
only a mu'afdt, a mutual delivery of the object of 
sale and of the sale price. This delivery is certainly 
valid for res viles. It is also valid, according to some 
legal doctrines, for articles of value, if there has been 
an effective fulfilment of the contract by at least one 
party. But, in principle, the 'akd postulates a sigha 









It should also be noticed tr 
the material delivery of the object of sale is regarded 
as a condition of the fulfilment of the 'akd. This 
position obtains as regards loan of fungible and not 
fungible things, pledge and gift which, in Muslim 
law, are equivalent to "real" contracts. 

The 'akd must comply with a condition of unity 
in time and space. The 'akd constitutes an indivisible 
whole. The negotium (safka) is one and indivisible, 
in the sense that the offer cannot be accepted in 
part, even when it involves two distinct things. 
Similarly, the offer cannot be accepted by one of its 
recipients to the exclusion of the other. Finally, the 
contract is rendered null and void if one of the objects 
of the contract proves to be an asset extra commercium. 
This conception of the contract as an inviolable unit 
gives great rigidity to the structure of the 'akd. 
Thus the 'akd cannot comprehend more than one 



negotium. On the other hand, the 'akd must be 
concluded at one and the same sitting (the con- 
tractual meeting or madilis al-'akd). In short, the 
contracting parties must assemble in one and the 
same place. The contractual act thus takes place 
under the symbol of the three unities (see Ch. 
Chehata, Thtorie ginirale, no. 116). 

From this it follows that any clause added to the 
contract will be declared inoperative unless it is 
implied by the nature of the contract itself, so that 
it can be smoothly integrated into its structure. 
Such clauses are termed essentialia and naturalia. 
All other clauses (accidentalia) will be considered 
invalid. Thus the inalienalibity clause added to a 
contract of sale will be deemed null and void. 

Does this mean that contracts in Muslim law are 
all formulated contracts, and that the parties cannot, 
by mutual agreement, conclude contracts which have 
not been anticipated by the Law (shar') ? The answer 
usually given is that Muslims are bound by their 
stipulations (shurut) [q.v.]. But at the same time 
every type of contract is considered on its merits 
and pronounced legal or otherwise on the basis 
of the FCur'anic texts, the hadith or the idima'. It 
must moreover be realised that the conditions 
governing the formation of contracts are tantamount 
to prescripts of an authoritative nature, and that 
the various regulations laid down by jurists con- 
cerning contracts entail the sanction of nullity, 
which considerably limits the area of contractual 
freedom. On the other hand it should not be forgotten 
that the Muslim social order, in matters concerning 
contracts, is based on two main principles; the 
struggle against usury and any suspicion of usury 
(riba and shubhat al-ribd), and the exclusion of all 
risk (gharar) from transactions. 

The '■akd, once drawn up in accordance with the 
requisite conditions, cannot in principle be vitiated 
by some fault in the agreement, unless there is a 
question of constraint (ikrah). Constraint is usually 
the subject for a separate chapter in works on Hkh. 
The party which has suffered constraint can revoke 
its contractual obligations. In the case of fraud, on 
the other hand, the contract can be challenged only 
if the fraudulent actions have inflicted on the 
deceived party excessive loss (ghabn fahish). Errors, 
such as a fault in the agreement, .pass almost unno- 
ticed. The party which is deceived as to the quality of 
the article can only withdraw from its contractual 
obligations if the quality has been made the subject 
of a special stipulation in the contract. The contract 
will then have to be cancelled, not on account of the 
error, but on the basis of the resolutory clause. 

An '■akd which does not satisfy the required con- 
ditions is in principle ineffective, and is termed null 
and void (batil) [q.v.]. Hanafite doctrine distinguishes, 
however, between the invalid contract and the 
irregular (fasid) contract. The contract will be con- 
sidered null and void only if one of the conditions 
(rukn) regulating the conclusion of the contract 
happens to be unfulfilled. In all other cases, the 
contract will simply be irregular. The irregular 
contract, however, is, like an invalid contract, an act 
devoid of legal consequences. The advantage of the 
distinction between these two categories appears 
only when the protection of a third party is involved. 
Thus a person acquiring property by virtue of a 
fasid contract can validly alienate it in favour of a 
third party, if he has previously taken possession 
of it. The alienation in this case arises from a non 
dominus, but it is considered valid, because the 
third party, which has acquired the property from 



<D 319 

its owner, could be ignorant of the irregularity (fasdd) 
attaching to that owner's title. This measure of 
protection is at the basis of the theory of fasid 
contracts in Hanafi Muslim law. (See Ch. Chehata, 
in Travaux de U Semaine de Droit Musulman, Paris 
1953. 36 ff.) 

It should, however, be noted that certain contracts 
are neither valid nor invalid, but belong to a third 
category. The 'akd is then said to be mawkHf, as, 
for example, in the case of a contract concluded, 
without the auctoritas of his guardian, by a minor 
who is not without powers of discrimination. Unless 
gratuitous transactions are involved, transactions 
concluded by minors who are not without powers 
of discrimination are not null and void. They are 
simply non-effective (cf. Art. 108 of the German 
civil code). The ratification (idjaza) of the guardian 
gives them full and absolute effect. Similarly a 
contract agreed to by a non-dominus is considered 
simply to be non-effective, prior to the ratification 
of the verus dominus. In the meantime, the contract 
has no legal effects whatever. It is in a state of 
suspense (mawkilf) between the parties and equally 
as regards any third party. 

If an 'akd is to have effect on other than on the 
contracting parties, representation is required. In 
Hanafi Muslim law the agent (wakU) does not, in 
principle, represent his client. In order that the 'akd 
may produce its effect directly on the client, the 
agent must act in the name of his client (alieno 
nomine). But he then assumes the role of a messenger 
a spokesman pure and simple (rasul). If he acts in 
his own name (proprio nomine), which is the usual 
function of an agent, the 'akd will still produce its 
effect in regard to the client, but the obligations 
arising from the contract will not be binding on the 
client; they will be binding on the agent alone. Thus 
the legal representative of a person acquiring 
property will find himself bound to pay its price 
himself, while the property will go directly to his 
client. The distinction, already noticed, between the 
effects of the contract (ahkdm) and rights arising from 
the contract (hukuk al-'akd) is clearly illustrated 
here. (See Chefik Chehata, La reprisentation dans les 
actes juridiques en droit musulman hanifite, d'apris 
les textes de Shaybani, to appear in the Proceedings 
of the Congress of Comparative Law, Paris 1954.) 
The effective 'akd is in principle binding (lazim). 
There are, however, several exceptions to this rule; 
for instance agency, gratuitous loan, pledge, partner- 
ship, suretyship, security and gift are considered, 
among others, to be contracts which are essentially 
revocable. In all these contracts one of the parties 
is free, depending on the circumstances, to withdraw 
from its contractual obligations by a simple unilateral 
declaration. (In the case of gift, however, a judicial 
decree is necessary.) Moreover, contracts of lease 
can always be rescinded if one of the parties lodges 
a plea {'udhr) on any grounds whatever. Finally, 
a special clause can be inserted in general in any 
contract, to confer on one party, or on both parties 
equally, the right to withdraw (jus paenitandi, called 
in Muslim law khiydr al-shart). 

In conclusion it may be mentioned that mutual 
agreement between the parties can always put an end 
to a contract. This is termed ikala [mutuus dissensus), 
and is discussed at length in works on fikh. But the 
'akd cannot in principle be cancelled on the grounds 
of non-fulfilment. Thus the vendor, in default of a 
special clause, cannot demand the rescission of the 
sale in a case where the purchaser has not paid the 
agreed price. [See also shurut.] 



320 

Bibliography: Ch. Chehata, Essai d'une 
thtorie gintrale de I'obligation en droit musulman, 
vol. i, Cairo 1936; D. SantiUana, Istituzioni di 
diritto musulmano malichita con riguardo anche al 
sistema sciafiita, vol. ii, Rome 1938; Sim. Toledo, 
Analyse de la thiorie des controls et obligations en 
droit civil ottoman, thesis Paris, 1915 ; G. G. C. van 
den Berg, De contractu "do ut des", thesis Leiden, 
1868 (Ital. trans. Gatteschi, Alexandria 1877); 
Z. A. Rifai, Le consentement et les vices du con- 
sentement en droit musulman hanefite, thesis Nancy, 
1933. Modern works in Arabic: 'All al-Khaflf. 
Ahkam al-Mu'amalat al-Shar'iyya, 3rd edition, 
Cairo 1947; Muhammad Abu Zahra, al-Milkiyya 
wa-Nazariyyat al-'Akd, Cairo 1939; Muhammad 
Yusuf Musa, al-Amwdl wa-Napariyyat al-'-Akd 
fi'l-Fikh al-lsldmi, 2nd edit., Cairo 1954; Subhl 
Mahmasanl, al-Nazariyya al-'Amma li'l-Mudiabdt 
wa'l-'Vkud, 2 vol., Beirut 1948; Mustafa Ahmad 
*l-Zaxl(i,al-Madkkalal-Fikhlal-<Ammila'l-yum 
al-Madaniyya fi 'l-Bildd al-Suriyya, i, Damascus 
1952 ; c Abd al-Razzak al-Sanhuri, Masddir al-Ifakk 
fi 'l-Fikh al-lsldmi, i, Sighat al-'-Akd, Cairo 1954. 
Doctrinal sources, i.e. those for IJanatite law, 
which is specially discussed in the article: Muham- 
mad b. al-Hasan al-Shaybanl, al-Asl, Kitab al- 
buyfl' wal-salam, ed. by Sh.aflk Shihata, Cairo 
1954; Sarakhsl, al-Mabsu(, 30 vol., Cairo 1324/ 
1906; Kasani, Bada'i' al-$andH' fi Tartib al- 
SharaH', 7 vols., Cairo 1328/1910. 

(Chafik Chehata) 
AKDARIYYA is the name of a well-known diffi- 
cult law-question about inheritance which 
belongs to the masdHl mulakkaba (i.e. questions 
"called by special names"). When a woman leaves 
behind as her heirs: 1. her husband, 2. her mother, 
3. her grandfather, and 4. her sister (whether she be 
her shakika, i.e. her full sister, or her ukht li 'l-ab, 
i.e. her half-sister on the father's side), then her 
husband gets '/„ the mother »/» (cf. Kur'an, iv, 12-13), 
so that there would only remain '/, of the inheritance 
for the grandfather and the sister. The latter two are 
generally considered, when they inherit together, 
as 'asabat, that is the sister inherits half of the 
grandfather's part, and together they get every- 
thing that remains when the ashab al-faraHd (i.e. 
the heirs to whom the Kur'an grants a definite 
part of the inheritance) have been satisfied. 

Now the grandfather can, according to the cur- 
rent interpretation of Kur'an, i v , 12, in any case 
lay claim to a sixth part of the whole inherit- 
ance. But then the sister would get nothing. 
This is actually the doctrine of the Hanafis. Ac- 
cording to them, the grandfather here excludes the 
sister from the inheritance. But the other schools 
of fikh are of opinion that in this case the grand- 
father and the sister are not to be regarded as 
< asabat, but that in the same way as the hus- 
band and the mother, they get the parts to which 
the Kur'an entitles them. Then the division is 

the husband inherits */t = */• 
the mother inherits V» = •/« 

the grand-father inherits */• = V« 
the sister inherits »/t = */, 

By means of 'awl [q.v.] these nine sixths are reduced 
io nine ninths. 



C AKD _ AKHBAR MADJMU'A 



Then the husband would r 



> 'I. 



But as the sister can after all only lay claim 
to half the grandfather's part, the right propor- 
tion between these two parts has again to be 
re-established. Together they inherit % = "In, but 
the grandfather receives */« and the sister '/„. 
About the meaning of the name akdariyya the 
Muslim scholars hold different opinions. Some say 
that the question itself is akdar (i.e. troubled, 
obscure), or that the otherwise generally accepted 
principles are "troubled, disturbed" in this case; 
others believe Akdar to be the name of a man, 
to whom c Abd al-Malik b. Marwan submitted this 
question. 

Bibliography: TA iii, 518; MutarrizI, al- 
Mughrib fi Tartib al-Mu'rib, sub voce; LA, vi, 
450; W. Marcais, Des parents et alliis, Rennes 1898, 
i54ff.; Ibn tfadjar al-Haythaml, Tuhfa, Cairo 
1282, iii, 15; SantiUana, Istituzioni, ii, 517 f.; 
id., Sommario del diritto malechita di tfalil Ibn 
Ishaq, ii, Milan 1919, 823; H. Laoust, Le Pricis 
de droit d'Ibn Quddma, Beyrouth 1950, 139; Sir 
R. K. Wilson, Anglo- Muhammadan Law, 6th ed., 
§ 229 f. (Th. W. Juynboix*) 

ABU [see 'a'ii.a, ikhwan, Mu'AraAT]. 
AJLHAL TEKKE was between 1882 and 1890 
the name of a district (uezd) in the Russian territory 
(oblast') of Transcaspia, which had been conquered 
by the Russians in 1881. It comprised the sub- 
districts of Atek [q.v,] (chief place: the village of 
Kaakhka) and Durun [q.v.] (Darun; chief place: 
Bakharden). Since 1890 the district is called 
'Ashkabad [q.v.] — The name Akhal (which is of 
modem origin) applies to the oases on the northern 
slope of the Kopet Dagh and Kuren Dagh; Tekke 
refers to the Tekke or Teke [q.v.] Turkmen, the 
present inhabitants of this region. The Islamic 
geographers of the Middle Ages have no special 
name for the region, which was inhabited by 
Iranians, masters in the art of irrigation. Here was 
situated the town of Nasa [q.v.] or Nisa, now in 
ruins, the border^ fortress of Shahristan (three 
parasangs to the north of Nasa) and Farawa (Afrawa) 
near the present Kizil Arwat. In the i6th-i7th 
century the country came under Uzbek rule and was 
called Tagh Boyu ("mountain side") in contrast to 
Su Boyu, "water side" (i.e. Kh'arizm proper). At 
that time the town of Nasa seems to have still 
existed, but subsequently it was completely ruined 
owing to the neglect of irrigation; Durun (Darun) 
is also mentioned at this time. At the time of the 
Russian conquest the country had no towns; 
'Ashkabad and KIzIl Arwat came into being only 
under Russian rule. The district suffers from earth- 
quakes (for instance in 1893, 1895, 1929, 1948). 
Bibliography: Brockhaus-Efron, Entsiklope- 
dileskiy Slovar 11 , St. Petersburg 1891, ii, 526 f. 
and xii, map after 160; Bol'shaya Sovyetskaya 
Entsiklopediya', 1950, iii, 562 (horse-breeding). 
Cf. also Bibl. s.v. c ashkAbAd. 

(W. Barthold-B. Spuler) 
AKHALftlKH [see aioiiskha]. 
AKHARNAR [see nudjOm]. 
AKHBAR [see ta'rIkh]. 

AKHBAR MADJMC C A, title of a short anony- 
mous chronicle recording the conquest of al- 
Andalus by the Arabs, the period prior to the 
foundation of the Marwanid amirate of Cordoba, 
and the history of the amirate itself up to the reign 
of c Abd al-Rahman III al-Nasir. This text, published 
on the basis of the unicum of the Bibl. Nat. in 
Paris, and translated into Spanish by Lafuente y 
Alcantara (Madrid 1867), has had little documentary 



AKHBAR MADJMO'A — AKHI 



interest since the discovery of the greater part of 
the Muktabis of Ibn Hayyan. It is an ill-proportioned 
and relatively late work, probably contemporary 
with the reconquest of Valencia. In it are found 
lengthy passages from earlier chronicles, notably 
from that of 'Isa b. Ahmad al-Razi. The fact that 
this text does not refer to the sources which it 
transcribes or transposes has deceived Dozy (preface 
to his edition of the al-Baydn al-Mughrib of Ibn 
'Idhari, Leiden 1848-51, 10-12) and Ribera (intro- 
duction to his translation of the Iftitdh of Ibn al- 
ICutiyya, Madrid 1926, XIII ff.) into supposing it 
to be an original work. The extremely debatable 
study and problematical conclusions reached by 
by the non-Arabist Spanish historian CI. Sanchez 
Albornoz, in his work El "Ajbdr maymuV, cuestiones 
kistoriogrdficas que suscita, Buenos Aires 1944, need 
only be mentioned here. 

Bibliography: Brockelmann, S I, 23-32. 

(E. Levi-Provencal) 
al-AKHPAR, "the green", a vulgar form cur- 
rently used in North Africa for the personal name 
il-Khidr [q.v.]. Various santons, especially at Con- 
stantine, are known by this name. 

al-AKHPARI, Abu Zayd <Abd al-Rahman b. 
SayyidI Muhammad al-Saghir, Algerian author 
of the ioth/i6th century. He wrote (1) al-Sullam al- 
Murawnak (composed in 941/1534), a short versifi- 
cation of al-Abhari's [q.v.] lsdghudji on logic; this 
little work soon became extremely popular and 
acquired numerous commentaries (one by the author 
himself) and glosses; it has often been lithographed 
or printed, in Fas, Bulak (editio princeps of 1241 
in Madimii' Muhimmdt al-Mutun), Cairo and Luck- 
now; French transl. by J. D. Luciani, Le Soullam, 
Algiers 1921. Very popular, too, is his (2) al-Djawhar 
tl-Maknun ft Sadaf al-Thaldtha al-Funun, a versifica- 
tion of the Talkhis al-Miftdh (Brockelmann, I, 353), 
to which the author himself supplied a commentary 
(composed in 950/1543); in this form, or with 
commentaries by other writers, it has often been 
lithographed or printed in Cairo (first in 1285). 
Also printed or lithographed are (3) al-Durra al- 
Baytfd' /» Ahsan al-Funun wa'l-Ashyd', a metrical 
treatise on arithmetic, inheritance and legacies (com- 
posed in 940/1533), (4) Nazm al-Sirddi ft Hlmal-Falak, 
a metrical treatise on astronomy (composed in 
939/1532-33), and (5) a Mukhtasar fi 'l-'-Ibdddt, a 
popular elementary treatise on ritual duties according 
to the MalikI school. Several other works of his exist 
in manuscripts. He is buried in the zdwiya of 
Bentiyus (al-Bakri, al-Mughrib, 52, 72), the modern 
Ben Thious, s.w. of Biskra, and his tomb is still 
visited. 

Bibliography: Brockelmann, S II, 705 f.; 
Sarkls, Mu'diam al-Matbu'at, 406 f. ; Muhammad 
b. Abi '1-Sasim al-HifnawI, Ta'rif al-Khalaf bi- 
Ridjal al-Salaf, Algiers 1325 -27/ 1907-9. 

(J. Schacht) 
al-AKHFASH. ("nyctalope" or "devoid of 
eyelashes" ) , cognomen of a number ofgrammarians 
listed by al-Suyufl {Muzhir , Cairo, undated, ii, 282-3), 
viz.: Abu *1-Khattab, Sa'Id b. Mas'ada and 'All b. 
Sulayman, see below; c Abd. Allah b. Muhammad 
al-Baghdadi, pupil of al-Asma'I; Ahmad b. 'Imran 
b. Salama al-Alhanl, died before 250/863, author of 
a Gharib al-Muwatta', grammarian, lexicographer and 
poet (see Ben Cheneb, Classes des savants de I'lfriqiya, 
34); Harun b. Musa b. Sharlk, d. 271/884-5 ; Ahmad 
b. Muhammad al-Mawsill, tutor of Ibn Djinnl ; 'Abd 
al-«AzIz al-AndalusI, tutor of Ibn «Abd al-Barr; 'All 
b. Muhammad al-Idrlsl, d. after 450/1058; Khalaf b. 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



321 

c Amr al-Yashkurl al-BalansI, d. after 460/1068; 'All 
b. Isma'il b. Radja 1 al-Fatiml. To this list may be 
added 'AH b. al-Mubarak (Brockelmann, S I, 165), 
and a traditionist named al-Husayn b. Mu'adh b. 
Harb, d. 277/890 (see Ibn Hadjar, Lisdn al-Mizdn, 
". 313-4)- The three following are the most famous; 
the first two of these belong to the school of al-Basra. 

I. — AL-AimFASH al-Akbar, Abu 'l-Khattab c Abd 
al-Hamld b. 'Abd al-Madjid, d. 177/793, pupil of 
Abu 'Ami b. al-'Ala J ; he was the first, it is said, to 
provide ancient poems with an interlinear commen- 
tary, and he collected together numerous dialectal 
terms; his principal pupils were Sibawayh, Abu Zayd, 
Abu c Ubayda and al-Asma'i [qq.v.]. 

Bibliography: Sirafl, Akhbdr al-Nahwiyyin 
(Krenkow), 52; Zubaydi, Tabakdt, Cairo 1954; 
Suyuti, Muzhir, ii, 248, 249; Ibn Taghribirdl, i, 
485; Brockelmann, S I, 165. 

II. — al-Aiojfash al-Awsat, Abu '1-Hasan Sa'Id 
b. mas'ada, the most famous of all the Akhafish, 
mawla of the Tamlmite clan of Mudjashi' b. Darim ; 
bom at Balkh, he was a pupil of the Mu'tazilite Abu 
Shamr, but more particularly of Sibawayh, whom 
he survived although superior to him in age, and it 
was he who gave instruction on the Book and made 
it widely known; he died between 210 and 221/825- 
835. Nothing has been preserved of his own works 
{Fihrist, i, 52). Al-Tha'aUbl (d. 427/1035) made use 
of his Kitdb Gharib al-$ur>an, and his Kitdb al- 
Mu'dy&t is frequently quoted in the Khizdna of al- 
Baghdadl (i, 391; ii, 300; iii, 36, 527). 

Bibliography: Ibn tfutayba, Ma'arif (Wus- 
tenfeld), 271; Azhari, in MO, 1920, 12; Ibn al- 
Anbarl, Nuzha, 184-8; Zubaydi, Tabakdt; Sirafl, 
Akhbdr al-Nahwiyyin, 49-51; Ibn Khallikan, no. 
250; Yakut, Irshdd, iv, 242-4; Yafi% Qiandn, ii, 
61 ; Suyuti, Bughya, 258; id., Muzhir, ii, 253, 287; 
Brockelmann, S I, 165. 

III. AL-AimFASH AL-ASGHAR, ABU 'L-HASAN 

'All b. Sulayman b. al-Mufaddal, pupil of al-Mubarrad 

and Tha'lab; he gained distinction by introducing 

the grammatical studies of Baghdad into Egypt, 

where Ahmad al-Nahhas was his pupil; a grammatical 

work which he wrote was studied and annotated in 

Spain (see BAH, ix, 313-4). He died in 315/927. 

Bibliography: Brockelmann, S I, 165. On 

the subject of these grammarians, see also Fliigel, 

Die grammatischen Schulen der Araber, 61 ff. 

(C. Brockelmann-Ch. Pellat) 
ABHl, designation of the leaders of asso- 
ciations of young men organized as guilds 
in Anatolia in the I3th-i4th centuries, who 
adopted the ideals of the futuwwa [q.v.] and were 
recruited mainly among the craftsmen. Ibn Battuta 
(ii, 260) connects the name with the Arabic word 
for "my brother"; if this explanation is based on 
anything more than an identity of sound, it would 
offer an instance of a "title in forms of address" 
similar to A. sayyidi, T. khanum, begum, etc. It is 
more likely, however, that the homonymy of the 
two words is accidental, though it was willingly 
adopted by the Akhls; occasionally also it is borrowed 
in the Persian translation biradar (cf. Taeschner- 
Schumacher, Ndsiri, 38). In reality it is a Turkish 
word (cf. J. Deny in J A, 1920, 182 f. ; H. H. Schaeder, 
in OLZ, 1928, 1049, n. 1), which is already found in 
Uyghur in the form akt "generous" (A. von Gabain, 
Altturkische Grammatih, glossary, s.v.; Turfantexte, 
vi, 1.4). The word occurs in the same form and with 
the same meaning (cf. also ahtlik, "generosity") in 
Middle Turkish (Kashgharian): in al-Kashgharl, 
Diwdn Lughat al-Turk (akt, "al-Hawdd", i, 84 — 



facs. ed. 57 ; akUik, iii, 129 — facs. ed. 520 ; C. Brockel- 
mann, MittcUiirkischer Wortschatz, s.v.), and in the 
didactic poem 'AUbet al-tfakaHk by Edlb Ahmed b. 
Mahmud Yiiknekl, ch. ix (ed. R. Rahmeti Arat, 
Istanbul 1951, 58-61, index, s.v.; under the title 
Hibet al-HakdHk, ed. Nedjib ( Asim, Istanbul 1334, 
52-j; cf. J. Deny in RMM, 1925, 219, n. 1); aki er, 
"the generous one", and aki bol, "be generous"; the 
opposite is bakhil and bakhiUik, or bukhul, also 
khasis and khasisHk). In the latter work the form 
akhi occurs also as a variant reading for aki, and 
this is the form which is exclusively used in Rum- 
Turkish. It is found several times in the oldest 
Rum-Turkish literature, as a Vocative ("oh generous 
one, oh noble one, oh hero") constituting the rhyme- 
word at the end of a line ; for instance in the Kitab-i 
Dede Korkut (ed. E. Rossi, fol. 65', three times; ed. 
Kilisli Rif'at, 16; ed. Gokyay, 9), in two poems of 
Yunus Emre (ed. Burhan Umid, ii, 344, 361; ed. 
Abdiilbaki Golpinarli, 117), and also elsewhere (e.g. 
Enweri (Miikrimin Khalil), 43). The word passed 
from the general to the particular meaning, i.e. 
possessor of futuwwa (P. tutuwwat, T. fiitiiwwet), by 
acquiring the full implications of the Persian word 
djawanmard, which the latter in turn had received 
as a translation of Arabic fata*, al-fatd (cf. H. H. 
Schaeder, loc. cit.). 

Akhi. as a term qualifying its bearer as possessing 
fiitiiwwet (sahib /iitiiwwet or fiitiiwwet-ddr), always 
precedes the name and occurs occasionally with 
reference to persons even earlier than the 7th/ 13th 
century. So for instance it is applied to the sufl 
shaykh Akhi Farad] Zandjani (d. 1 Radjab 457/D 
June 1065), and the teacher of the poet Nizami (b. 
535/1 141) is also said to have borne that designation. 
It is, however, only in the 7th/i3th, and more 
especially the 8th/i4th century, that the name occurs 
frequently, in the whole of the Middle East, but 
predominantly in Anatolia; it gradually disappears 
again in the course of the 9th/i5th century. 

In the more particular sense, Akhism is the specific 
form assumed by the jutuwwa organization in late- 
and post-Saldjuk Anatolia. It is well attested here 
by a literature of its own (the Persian Futuwwat- 
ndma of Nasirl, written in 689/1290 in N. E. 
Anatolia, being a mathnawi of 886 couplets; the 
Turkish Futuwwet-ndme, in prose, by Yahya b. 
Khalil al-BurghazI, probably from the 8th/i4th 
century; the important chapter on /iitiiwwet in 
Gulshehrl's old-Ottoman version of 'Attar's Mantik 
al-Tayr, studied by F. Taeschner in SBPAW, 1932, 
744-60), as well as by allusions in various authors 
(the most impressive being Ibn Battuta's vivid ac- 
count, ii, 254-354, especially 260 ff., the chapter on 
al-akhiyya al-fitydn), and by inscriptions and docu- 
ments. (A list of the references, to which many addi- 
tions could now be made, in Islamica, 1929, 29-47.) 
'Ashikpasha-zade (Giese), 201, 213 (= Istanbul ed. 
205), names the akhiydn, together with the ghdziydn, 
abddlan and bddjiyan, as the four groups of "travel- 
lers" (miisdfirler we-sayyahlar) in Rum (Anatolia) 
(for comments on this statement see P. Wittek, in 
Byzantion, 1936, 310). The wording of the sentence 
seems to imply that these groups came to Anatolia 
from abroad. They can perhaps be connected with 
the flood of darwishes and related figures from the 
east (Khurasan and Turkistan), who are known from 
other sources as well to have come to Anatolia in 
the Mongol period (second half of the 13th century). 
Some early mentions of akhis in Iranian territory in 
pre-Mongol times would bear this out. The earliest 
mentions of akhis in Anatolia (especially in AflakI, 



Mandkib al-'Ari/in, cf. CI. Cahen, see below) also 
go back to relations with Iran. On the other hand, 
in considering the forms of organization of Akhism, 
the connection with the courtly futuwwa at the 
caliphs' court in Baghdad ought not to be passed over; 
this is made likely by the relations, repeatedly 
attested, between the caliph al-Nasir li-DIn Allah 
(575-622/1 180-1225), the reformer of the futuwwa 
[q.v.], and the Saldjuk sultan of Rum. 

During the disintegration of the state of the Rum 
Saldjuks and the division of Anatolia into a number 
of Turkish principalities (second half of the 13th 
century), the akhis, who according to the contem- 
porary or slightly later authors (such as Ibn BIbi, 
Aksarayi, the Paris Anonymous and Aflaki) were 
leaders of bands (runud), showed a remarkable 
activity, reminiscent of the activity of the 'ayydrun 
[q.v.] in Baghdad and the ahddth [q.v.] in Syria a 
century before. In the first half of the 14th century, 
the akhis appear in the account of Ibn Battuta, 
to whom the akhis extended hospitality in every 
town during his journey through Anatolia, ca. 1333, 
as an important element of cohesion in the motley 
conglomeration of states in Anatolia at that period. 
In towns where no prince resided, they exercised a 
sort of government and had the rank of amir (Ak 
Saray, Ibn Battuta, ii, 286; Kaysariyye, ii, 288 f.); 
sometimes they exercised judicial authority (Konya, 
Ibn Battuta, ii, 281). Their position seems to have 
been especially strong in Ankara, at the time when 
the authority of the Mongol governor residing in 
Siwas did not reach so far. Sharaf al-Din, the richest 
and most powerful of these akhis of Ankara, calls 
himself in his tomb inscription of 751/1350: akhi 
mu'azzam (Mubarek Ghalib, Ankara, ii, 15 f., no. 20; 
Islamica, 1929, 44, no. 3b). According to Neshrl 
(Taeschner), 52 (= ed. Ankara, 190-2), it was from 
their hands that Murad I accepted the town in 
762/1360-1, We find akhis also in the entourage of 
the first Ottoman rulers; some of these akhis took 
part in the conquest of Brusa (for details see Islamica, 
1929, 30). Basing himself on this fact, Fr. Giese (ZS, 
1924, 255, 258) considered the akhis as the troops with 
whose help the Ottomans founded their power, and 
surmised that they themselves were members of 
akhi organizations. This is, however, little likely, 
in view of the urban character of Akhism and the 
fact that its associations were composed of craftsmen. 
P. Wittek has shown with much probability that 
the role attributed by Giese to the akhis belongs in 
reality to the gkdzis, fighters for the faith, who 
constituted a military counterpart to the akhis 
(first in ZDMO, 1925, 288 f., and then frequently). 
On the other hand it results from a wakfiyya 
of Murad I, of 767/1366, and an inscription in 
tfadjdjl Bektash, of 769/1368, that Murad, probably 
for political reasons, joined the still powerful akhi 
organization (see Fr. Taeschner, War Murad I 
Grossmeister oder Mitglied des Achibundes, Oriens, 
1953. 23-31). This was followed, however, by the 
decline, rather than the advancement, of Akhism. 
as it seems that the Ottoman sultans, when they 
had no further need of the akhis, dropped their 
relations with them. 

The akhis' own literature does not allude to any 
activity in public life. Here the akhi organization 
appears as a half-religious, darwish-like society. It 
comprised three grades: yigit ("young man", trans- 
lation of A. fata, designated the ordinary unmarried 
member of the organization); akhi (president of a 
corporation of fitydn and owner of a zdwiya, meeting- 
house, of which there were sometimes more than one 



AKHl — AKHl BABA 



323 



in a town); and shaykh. The latter grade seems to 
have played practically no active role; probably 
it refers to the leader of a darwish settlement, to 
which the members of the corporation felt them- 
selves attached. Such attachments seem to have 
varied with the individual corporations; there are 
known to have been relations between akhis and 
the Mewlewis, Bektashis, Khalwetls. and probably 
yet other orders. The ordinary members were again 
divided into two classes: they were either kawlis, 
"word-members", when they made a general profes- 
sion only ("by way of speech"), or say/is, "sword- 
members", who probably were the active members. 
Their symbol was, according to Ibn Battuta, ii, 264, 
a knife (sikkin); they covered their heads with a 
white woollen headgear {kalansuwa), from the end 
of which there hung down a piece of cloth one ell 
long and two fingers in breadth (the resemblance to 
the head-covering of the later Janissaries, the kele, 
is noteworthy). According to Ibn Battuta, the 
members of an akhi corporation met every evening 
in the house of their leader, the akhi, bringing him 
their daily earnings, which served to cover the ex- 
penses of the club premises and the communal meal, 
to which also guests, especially passing travellers, 
would be invited. The lodging and entertaining of 
travellers was considered by the akhis as their main 
function. According to Ibn Battuta, they also 
played a political role by fighting tyrants and 
murdering their adherents; this statement may be 
an echo of the frequently attested activities of the 
akhis in earler times, which found expression in 
revolts and similar demonstrations. 

As regards other customs and their code of honour, 
the akhis accepted the general rules of futuwwa ([?.«.], 
T. fiitiiwwet). As in the futuwwa, so also among the 
akhis, the initiation of novices (terbiye) into the 
association by their girding, the cutting of their 
hair, the passing round of a cup of salted water and 
putting on the trousers, was of central importance. 
Their religious-political position, however, was not 
fixed: some elements in the custom and theory of 
the akhis, as for instance the intense cult of 'All, 
shows a Shi'ite colouring; yet they no doubt con- 
sidered themselves to be Sunnis and like all Turks 
followed the IJanafI rite. (Ibn Battuta, as a MalikI, 
fell in Sinob under suspicion of being a Rafidi, i.e. 
ShI'ite, because of a minute difference in the ritual 
of prayer and had to clear himself by eating roasted 
hare (ii, 352 f.).) 

In the 15th century information about Akhism 
becomes more and more rare and finally ceases. 
Sometimes the word akhi occurs, but merely as a 
proper name. A molla Akhaweyn is named under 
Mehmed II ; a family called Akhl-zade, whose members 
occupied high judicial posts, survived into the 17th 
ctntury. Also place-names in which the word akhi 
occurs in various combinations are not uncommon 
in Anatolia and Rumelia. But it seems that Akhism 
disappeared in the course of the 15th century. Its 
tradition survived only in some elements of the 
Turkish guilds [cf. sinf], in whose organization 
(which according to Sayyid Mehemmed b. Sayyid 
'Ala 1 al-Din's Great Futuwwet-name (composed in 
1524) had nine grades) the akhi, also called khalife, 
occupied the seventh grade. The akhi tradition was 
especially cultivated in the guild of the tanners, 
who had as their patron Akhi Ewran [q.v.], a semi- 
mythical figure, who, if he is historical at all, must 
have lived in the first half of the 14th century. The 
president of the tanners' guild bore the title of 
Akhi Baba [q.v.]. Moreover, among the tanners the 



Futiiwwet-ndme of Yahya b. Khalil al-Burghazi con- 
tinued to be read, revised and copied. 

The designation akhi occurs sporadically also 
outside Turkey, but the evidences are too scanty to 
allow of any definite conclusions as to its exact 
significance. The most striking case is appearance 
of a man called Akhldjuk [q.v.], "little akhi" in 
Adharbaydjan after the decline of the 1 1 khans of 
Persia. The word akhi occurs, in a weakened sense, 
several times in the diwdn of "Khatal", i.e. Shah 
Isma'il, as one of the designations given to his 
followers (V. Minorsky, The Poetry of Shah IsmdHl I, 
BSOAS, 1942, 1030a; M. Fuad Koprulii, Turk 
Halkedebiyati Ansiklopedisi, no. 1, Istanbul 1935, 
30a). 

Bibliography: Koprulu-zade Mehmed Fu'ad, 
Turk Edebiyyatinde ilk Miitesawwifler, Istanbul 
1918, 237-43; 'Othman Nun, Medjelle-i Vmur-i 
Belediyye, i: Ta>rlkh>i TeshkUdt-iBelediyye, Istan- 
bul 1338/1922, ch. vi: Akhi teshkilatlnln esnajllk-la 
miindsebeti, 537-56; VI. Gordlevskiy, Ii liimi 
tsekhov v Turtsii.K istorii "akhi", Zapiski KolUgii 
Vostokovedov, 1926-7, 235-48 (French resume by 
G. Vajda, in REI, 1934, 791.); Fr. Taeschner, 
Beitr&ge tur Geschichte der Achis in Anatolien 
(14.-15. Jhdt.) auf Grund neuer Quellen, Islamica, 
1929, 1-47; M. Djewdet, Dhayl c ala Fasl "al- 
Akhiyya al-Fitydn al-Turkiyya" ft Kitdb al-Rihla 
li-Ibn Ba((u(a (L'iducation et V organisation aux 
foyers des gens des nUtiers en Asie M incur e ei 
Syrie du XII' stick jusqu'i notre temps), Istanbul 
1350/1932; Afet Inan, Apercu general sur I'Histoire 
eeonomique de I'Empire Turc-Ottoman, Istanbul 
1941, 63-6; Fr. Taeschner, Der anatolische Dichter 
N&siri (urn 1300) und sein Futuvvetname, mit 
Beitragen von W. Schumacher, Leipzig 1944; 
Ilhan Tarus, Ahiler, Ankara 1947 (to be used 
with caution); Fr. Taeschner, Spuren fur das 
Vorkommen des Achitums ausserhalb von Anatolien, 
Proceedings of the 22nd Inter. Congr. of Orient., 
Istanbul 1951 ; CI. Cahen, Sur les traces des premiers 
Akhis, M. F. Kdprulu Armaganl. Cf. also 
futuwwa. (Fr. Taeschner) 

AKHl BABA, in popular parlance also Ahu 
Baba or Em Baba, title of the shaykh of the 
tekye of Akhi Ewran [q.v.] in Klrsh,ehir. Some- 
times also his delegates to the Turkish guilds [cf. 
?inf] in Anatolia, Rumelia and Bosnia, especially 
those of the tanners and other leather workers 
(saddlers and shoemakers), as well as the heads of 
these guilds, were given the title of Akhi Baba (more 
correctly Akhi Baba wekili). The main task of the 
Akhi Baba, or of his delegate or local representative, 
was to carry out the initiation of apprentices to 
these guilds by the ceremony of the girding (kushak or 
peshtemal kushatmak); this carried with it some fees. 
The Akhi Babas succeeded little by little in extending 
their ascendancy over other guilds and conducting 
the girding ceremony in them also. Thus they 
brought under their control almost the whole 
Turkish guild organization, both in Anatolia and 
the European provinces (but not, however, in the 
provinces with Arab population), acquiring for 
themselves a position of considerable power, and 
for the tekye of KIrshehir great riches. Only a few 
guilds managed to escape their control; among these 
were the guilds of Ankara, which had formerly been 
the stronghold of akhism. His influence even reached 
as far as the Crimea, where also the tanners' guild 
had precedence in all celebrations of the guilds 
(E. Bulatov, in Olerki Rossii, ed. V. Passek, Moscow 
1840, iii, 139-54; V. Gordlewskiy, Organixatsiya 



324 

tsekhov v krimskikh Tatar, Trudi etnografo-arkhe- 
ologileskovo Muzei, pri I. Moskovskom Gosudarsto. 
Universitete, iv, Moscow 1928, 56-65). 

The Akhi Babas claimed to be descendants of 
Akhi Ewran. The local representatives of the Akhi 
Baba were elected by the members of the respective 
guilds, but did not necessarily belong to them, and 
any persons who were in any way notable could 
be chosen. They had, however, to receive a licence 
(idjdzet-ndme) from the Akhi Baba of Klrshehir and 
a diploma (berdt), confirming the appointment, from 
the government. The Akhi Baba of the tanners was 
at the same time the head of the whole guild organi- 
sation in his town. He could, however, be deposed. 

With the decline of the Turkish guilds, following 
on the penetration of Western economic systems, 
the journeys of the Akhi Babas of Klrshehir, as well 
as the sending of delegates by him, fell into disuse. 
A delegate of the Akhi Baba came to Bosnia for the 
last time in 1886-7 (Hamdija KreSevljakovii, Esnafi i 
Obrti u Bosni i Hercegovini, Sarajevo, in Zbornik 
Narodni iivot i obilaje juinik Slavena, Zagreb 1935, 
101-47). In the provinces which remained part of 
the Ottoman Empire, this practice ceased only at 
the time of the abolition of the old guilds in 1908. 
Bibliography : see akhI and akhI ewran, 
also Fr. Taeschner, Das Zunftwesen in der Tiirkei, 
Leipziger Vierteljahrschrift fur Sildosteuropa, 1941, 
172-88; idem, Das bosniscke Zunftwesen zur 
Tilrkenzeit (1463-1878), Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 
1951, 551-9. (Fr. Taeschner) 

AKHI EWRAN, semilegendary Turkish 
saint, patron of the Turkish tanners' 
guilds. His tomb sanctuary in Klrshehir (built in 
the 9th/i5th century, with inscriptions of 854/1450 
and 886/1481; the last in the name of 'Ala' al-Dawla 
b. Suieyman Beg, probably of the family of the 
Dh u '1-Kadr, and thus brother-in-law of Sultan 
Meljmed II), connected with a tekye, was a frequented 
place of pilgrimage. Tashkoprii-zade (on margin of 
Ibn Khallikan. 15; Turkish transl. of Medjdl, 33; 
German transl. by O. Rescher, 6) mentions him 
amongst the shaykhs of the period of Orkhan. His 
name first occurs in a Turkish mathnawi, Kerdmdt-i 
Akhi Ewran (aba tharah, by Gulshehri, which was 
composed probably after the author's Man(ik al-Tayr 
(finished in 7i7/i3'7) — from which it has many 
borrowings — and not long after the saint's death. 
He is next mentioned in the Wilayet-ndme of 
HadjdjI Bektash, written in the time of Murad 
II (E. Gross, Das Vildjet-name des U&l&t Bektasch, 
Leipzig 1927, 82-93). While in Gulshehri's mathnawi 
Akhi EwrSn's figure is given only a slight touch of 
the miraculous (it is noteworthy that there is as 
yet no mention there of his relation with the tanners' 
craft), in the Wilayet-ndme it is already fully 
elaborated with legendary features (there is also 
mention of relations with the tanners); it is worth 
noting that here Akhi Ewran is presented not as a 
disciple, but as a friend of HadjdjI Bektash. Ac- 
cording to 'All EmM (OTEM, 1335, 467 f., note) 
and M. Djewdet (Dhayl l ald Fasl "al-Akhiyya al- 
Fityan", Istanbul 1351/1932, 279-82) there exists a 
document of endowment (wakfiyye) by Akhi Ewran 
dating from 706/1306-7 (in a copy published by 
C. H. Tarlm, Klrsehir Tarihi, Klrsehir 1938, it even 
bears the date of 676/1277!), where the full name of 
the saint is given as al-Shaykh Naslr (Tarlm: Nasr) 
al-DIn Hr-i Plran Akhi Ewran. The document can, 
however, easily be recognized as a forgery, as Shaykh 
Hamid Well (d. 815/1412), teacher of Hadjdj 
BayrSm Well (d. 833/1428-9) is named in it; it was 



AKHI BABA — AKHI EWRAN 



probably fabricated in the first half of the 15th 
century, in order to give legal sanction to the posses- 
sions of Akhi EwrSn's sanctuary in Klrshehir. — The 
importance of the sanctuary as a place of pilgrimage 
is attested by SidI 'All Rels {Mir'dt ul-Memalik, 
Istanbul 1313, 16; Engl, transl. by A. Vambery, The 
Travels and Adventures of the Turkish Admiral Sidi 
Ali Reis, London 1899, 105), who visited it in 
964/1556 on his return from India. Also other 
Anatolian cities besides Klrshehir boasted of the 
possession of the grave, or at least of a memorial, of 
the saint, for instance Trapezunt (a makdm on the 
Boz Tepe), Konya (in the quarter of Sircali), Nigde 
and Brusa. All these were, however, more or less 
forgotten, and only the sanctuary of Klrshehir 
retained its position. 

In addition to the aforementioned writings, 
legends of Akhi Ewran are occasionally found in 
authors such as 'All, Kiinh ul-Akhbar, v, 64; Ewliya 
Celebi, Siydhat-ndme, i, 594 f.; in the literature of the 
tanners' guilds, which continued the akhi tradition 
(often in the form of appendices bearing the title of 
Mendkib to the Futuwwet-ndme of Yahya b. Khalil 
al-BurghazI, (cf. akhi)); in oral traditions, recorded 
for instance by M. Rasanen, Tiirkische Sprachproben 
aus Mittelanatolien, iii, Helsinki 1936, 99 ff., nos. 
22, 23 and 25, and by W. Ruben (see Bibl.). For the 
most part they deal with the saint's work as a tanner 
(or gardener) or with his name (Ewran or Ewren, 
"snake, dragon"; for this reason Gordlevskiy 
suspects a survival of a snake cult). In the tanners' 
guild literature the legend is found that his original 
name was Mahmud, that he was a son of al-'Abbas, 
the Prophet's uncle, and that he had been specially 
commended by the Prophet. (This anachronism was 
censured in the work of Munlri BelghradI, who 
criticized the ShiSte tendences which were displayed 
in the literature of the guilds, in a work entitled 
Nisab iil-Intisdb wa-Addb ul-Iktisab, composed in 
1620.) In the c Anka-yi Mushrik of the Djelwetl 
shaykh Sayyid Mustafa Hashim (d. 1 197/1783), 
quoted by 'AH Emlri (loc. cit., 464-6), the saint, 
under the name of Sayyid Ni'mat Allah Akhi 
Ewran Well, is brought, along with HadjdjI Bektash 
Well and Sayyid Edeball, into connection with 
GhazI 'Othman's girding with the sword. As patron 
of the Turkish tanners, a silsile was ascribed to him 
which went back to Zayd Hindi, patron of all the 
tanners; other silsiles go back to Mansur c Abid, 
i.e. al-Halladj. 

The sanctuary of Akhi Ewran in Klrshehir played 
a great role into the first years of the 20th century, 
as the shaykh of the monastery, who bore the title 
of Akhi Baba [q.v.] controlled, partly personally, 
partly through his representatives who resided in 
the various towns, the guilds of the tanners and of 
kindred leather workers (saddlers, shoemakers) in 
Anatolia and the European provinces of the Ottoman 
Empire, and gradually succeeded in extending his 
influence over almost the whole of the Turkish 
guild-organisation. 

Bibliography: V. Gordlevskiy, DervishiAkhi 
Evrana i tsekhi v Turtsii, Izvestiya A kademii Nauk 
SSSR, 1927, 1171-94 (French resume by G. Vajda, 
in REI, 1934, 81-8); Fr. Taeschner, in Islamica, 
1929, 31-4 (with references to earlier bibliography) ; 
idem, Legendenbildung um Achi Evran, den 
Heiligen von Klrsehir, WI, Sonderbd. Festschrift 
Fr. Giese, 1941, 61-71, 90 f.; C. H. Tarim, Klrsehir 
tarihi uzerinde arastirmalar, i, Klrsehir 1938, 
114-76; idem, Tarihte Klrsehri — Giilsehri, 1948; 
H. B. Kunter, Kitabelerimiz, Vaklflar Dergisi, 



AKHI EWRAN — AKHLAK 



325 



1942, 431 ff. (the inscriptions in the sepulchral 

sanctuary: 434 f. nos. 8-14); W. Ruben, Kirsehir'in 

dikkatimiz ceken san'at Stridden, Hi: A hi Evran 

Turbesi, Bell., 1947, 616-38 (German resum6 in 

Bell., 1948, 195-9; description of the sepulchral 

sanctuary and legends about Akhi Ewran); Fr. 

Taeschner, Giilschehri's Mesnevi aufAchi Evran, den 

Heiligen von Kirschehir und Patron der tiirkischen 

ZiinfU, Wiesbaden 1955. (Fr. Taeschner) 

AKHIDJOK. "little akhi", an amir of unknown 

name in Tabriz, in the 8th/i4th century, follower of 

the Cobanid Malik Ashraf, who was defeated and 

executed by Djanl Beg, khan of the Golden Horde. 

When after Djanl Beg's death his son, Berdi Beg, 

who had been left by his father as governor in the 

conquered city, left Tabriz in order to secure his 

father's throne for himself (758/1357). Akhidjuk 

succeeded in obtaining possession not only of Tabriz, 

but of the whole of Adharbaydjan, and in defending 

them for some time from the Djala'irid sultan of 

Baghdad, Uways, son of the "Great Hasan" (Hasan-i 

Buzurg). When, however, Uways captured Tabriz 

in 760/1359, he ordered the execution of Akhidjuk, 

who had taken part in a conspiracy agajnst him. 

During his short rule Akhidjuk corresponded with 

the Mamluk Empire of Egypt (he was adressed by 

the Mamluk chancery simply by the title of "akhi"; 

al-Kalkashandl, Subh al-A<shd, viii, 261, cf. W. 

Bjorkman, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Staatskanzlei 

im islamischen Agypten, 128). His fame spread as 

far as Anatolia, where a chapter was devoted to 

him by the old Ottoman poet Ahmed! in his famous 

Iskender-ndme. 

Bibliography: Mirkh'and, Rawdat al-Safd, 

Bombay 1266, v, 169; Kh'andamlr, flabib al- 

Siyar, Teheran 1271, iii, 81; Hafiz-i Abru, transl. 

Bayani, Paris 1936, 154; V. Minorsky in EI 1 , IV, 

artt. tabrIz and uways ; B. Spuler, Die Mongolen 

in Iran, 137; Fr. Taeschner, Der Achidschuk von 

Tebriz, in Festschrift Jan Rypka, Prague 1956. 

(Fr. Taeschner) 

AKHIR-I CARSHAMBA [see safar]. 

AKHIRA. fem. of akhir, "the last", is a term 

used already in the Kur'an for the life to come, 

according to the commentators properly al-ddr al- 

dkhira, "the last abode", as opposed to (al-ddr or 

al-hayat) al-dunya, "the nearer or nearest abode or 

life", i.e. the present world. A synonym is ma'dd. The 

same antithesis is expressed by the terms ddr al- 

baka*, "the abode of everlasting existence", and 

ddr al-fana', "the abode of transitoriness", and by 

the roots y djl and 'djl. Akhira also denotes the 

condition of bliss or misery in the hereafter, again 

as opposed to dunyd, the lot of man in the present 

world, and in particular its pleasures. From these 

meanings derive more technically theological and 

philosophical definitions, such as the state of 

resurrection whether corporeal or incorporeal or, 

if resurrection of the body is denied, a spiritual state. 

See also dunyA. 

Bibliography : Lane, Lexicon, s.v.; A. Sprenger 
(ed.), Dictionary of the Technical Terms, s.v.; 
Ghazzali, Ihya? c Ulum al-Din, kitdb 40 and passim; 
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Muhassal, rukn 3, ktsm, 2. 

(A. S. Tritton) 
AKHISKHA. the Persian and Turkish name of a 
town, in Georgian Akhal Tsikhe, "New Fortress", 
situated on the Poskhov river (left tributary of the 
upper Kur), centre of the Georgian province Samtskhe 
(later Sa-atabago) which is mentioned among the 
conquests of Hablb b. Maslama (under Mu'awiya), 
al-Baladhuri, 203. 



Under the Mongols the local rulers (of the Djakil'e 
family) became autonomous and received the title 
of atabegs. The name Kurkura found in Persian and 
Turkish sources refers to these rulers of whom 
several bore the name of Kuarkuare (see Brosset, 
Histoire de la Giorgie, ii). In 1579 Akhal Tsikhe was 
occupied by the Ottomans who succeeded in im- 
planting in this region Islam and Ottoman customs. 
In 1625 the Turkish pashas took over the admini- 
stration. Akhal Tsikhe became a considerable 
strategic point and one of the chief Caucasian slave- 
markets, cf. Hadjdji Khalifa, Diihan-numa, 408 f . 
In 1829 the town was incorporated by the Russians. 
After the revolution it forms part of the Georgian 
S. S. Republic. (V. Minorsky) 

AKHLAK (plural of khuluk, "innate disposition"), 
ethics. 

(i) Survey of ethics in Islam; (ii) Philosophical 



1. Islamic ethics took shape only gradually and 
the tradition of the different elements of which it is 
composed was not finally established before the 
5th/nth century. Unlike the Greek world, in which 
popular ethics were refined and reshaped by philo- 
sophical reasoning without any breach between them, 
and with no perceptible influence of any foreign 
doctrine, so that eventually philosophy came to 
express the moral values by which the lives of the 
educated classes were governed, in Islam ethics 
appear in their matured state as an interesting and, 
on the whole, successful amalgamation of a pre- 
Islamic Arabian tradition and Kur'anic teaching 
with non-Arabic elements, mainly of Persian and 
Greek origins, embedded in or integrated with a 
general-Islamic structure. The praise of, and value 
attached to, good character {husn al-khuluk) is 
common enough among traditionalists, mystics, 
philosophers, and those writers who aim at giving 
practical advice to rulers and "civil servants". But 
their ideas of moral perfection are drawn from 
widely different sources, although all of them, in 
various ways, try to conform to the basic standards 
of Islam (which are in themselves not static) ; hence 
the process of assimilation and eventual integration 
of these different and sometimes conflicting trends 
extended over a considerable time. 

2. It would be erroneous to assume that the 
different kinds of morality which found literary 
expression in successive periods from the age of the 
pre-Islamic poets to the 5th/nth century present a 
cumulative process, in the sense that each new type 
as it emerged replaced or suppressed the earlier 
types. On the contrary, they co-existed for a long 
time, in varying strength. The tribal sunna of the 
pre-Islamic Arabs, based on usage and custom, 
described by I. Goldziher (Muhammedanische Studien, 
i) and others (e.g. B. Fares, L'honneur chez les Arabes 
avant Vlslam, Paris 1932), by no means died out 
with the advent of Islam; and since pre-Islamic 
literature eventually became part of the accepted 
Arabic humanities, the values expressed in it were 
never entirely forgotten: a high sense of personal 
honour [see c ird], courage [see hamasa], loyalty to 
one's fellowtribesmen [see kabIla], hospitality [see 
Payf], endurance [see sabr], self-control [see hilm], 
and a secular spirit which could never be completely 
quelled by the prevailing religious morality [cf. also 
muruwwa]. The preaching of Muhammad obviously 
produced a radical change in moral values as well, 
based on the sanctions of the new religion, and fear 



326 AKI 

of God and of the Last Judgment: kindness and 
equity, compassion and mercy, generosity, self- 
restraint, sincerity, moral fellowship of the Believers 
are among the new virtues to replace tribal morality, 
and to become the pillars of an ethical society or, at 
least, the programme for such a society. 

The religious ethic of the Kur'an was subsequ- 
ently expanded and pointed in immense detail by 
the traditionists in the form of hadiths [q.v.], profes- 
sedly based upon and expounding the sunna, or 
model behaviour, of the Prophet, but frequently 
supplementing this source by traditions of the 
Companions and by adaptation of materials from 
the cultural traditions of the older religions. The 
importance of the Hadith in forming and maintaining 
the common ethical ideas of the Muslim Community 
in all ages and all regions has been incalculable; but 
in addition it was largely responsible for the ethical 
framework of the developing Islamic Law [see 
sharI'a], and for laying the foundations which made 
possible the process of integration described above. 
It may be said broadly that the whole corpus of 
Hadith constitutes a handbook of Islamic ethics, 
inasmuch as in the general Muslim view the correct 
performance of religious duties and the right under- 
standing of religious doctrine are inseparable elements 
of the moral life. Within this comprehensive structure, 
however, certain forms of conduct were more parti- 
cularly designated by the term adab [q.v.], which in 
this' early religious context had a definitely ethical 
connotation (see, e.g. Wensinck's Handbook, s.v. 
Adab). It is tempting to surmise (though it might 
be difficult to prove) that it was the capture of this 
term for the very differently motivated ethic of 
Persian origin expounded by the 2nd/8th century 
writers (see § 4 below) which led to the substitution 
of the term akhlak, which appears in various tradi- 
tions extolling "good akhlak" (see Wensinck, Hand- 
book, 11a and B. Fares, Makarim al-Ahldq, Rend. 
Line., 1937, 417 = Mabahith 'Arabiyya, Cairo 1939, 
21 ff.). The tradition of the Prophet used as a proof- 
text by later writers on Islamic ethics: "I have been 
sent to fulfil the virtues which go with nobility of 
character (makarim al-akJUdk)", does not occur in 
the canonical books of tradition (cf . B. Fares, loc. cit.). 
Under this title several collections of ethical hadiths 
were made from the 3rd/gth century onwards, e.g. 
by Ibn Abi '1-Dunyi (Brock., I, 160), al-Khara J itI 
(Brock., S I, 250), and al-TabarsT (Brock. I, 513; 
S I, 709), the last-named being the classical Shi'ite 
book on the subject (cf. also B. Fares, 411-2). 

3. The refinement and development of moral 
thought on the basis of the Hadith was carried 
further by both of the religious movements which 
began to develop within Sunni Islam in the 3rd/gth 
century. In theological circles, on the one hand, the 
conflict with the antideterminist trend of the 
Mu'tazila [q.v.], and the consequent emphasis laid 
by the Mu'tazilite theologians on moral decision 
and individual responsibility, produced an elaborate 
discussion and analysis of these topics [see kadar]; 
and it was through both' the Mu'tazilite movement, 
which in its turn was connected with Greek thought 
and Christian-Hellenistic apologetic works, and the 
orthodox reaction to it [see kalam] that the reception 
of Greek philosophical ethics was prepared and made 
possible. On the other hand, the anti-intellectual and 
ascetic mystical movement of Sufism [see tasawwuf] 
produced a somewhat divergent type of Islamic 
ethics, which was gradually to become more and 
more influential and eventually almost dominated 
in the Islamic world. For the sufl preachers, poverty, 



self-humiliation, and complete surrender of persona- 
lity became the highest values in life. It may be 
sufficient here to mention one eminent early sufl 
writer, al-Muljasibi (d. 213/857), who had a decisive 
influence on al-Ghazali when he made sufism a 
definite part of Islamic ethics in his fundamental 
Revivification of the Religious Sciences (see M. Smith, 
An early Mystic of Baghdad, London 1935, and 
JRAS, 1936, 65). 

4. The introduction of Persian moral thought 
into the Islamic tradition preceded the acquaintance 
with Greek ethics. Its main representative is Ibn 
al-Mukaffa' [q.v.], and — apart from Kalila wa-Dimna, 
a work which deserves to be mentioned in this con- 
text — its main content is to be found in the two 
adab works ascribed to him, the Adab al-Kabir (Ft. 
translation by C. F. Destree, Brussels 1902, from the 
Dutch of G. van Vloten; German trans, by O. 
Rescher, MSOS, 1917) and the Adab al-Saghir 
(German trans, by O. Rescher, 1915), whose authent- 
icity has been doubted but not disproved by G. 
Richter (Isl., 1930, 278) and F. Gabrieli (RSO, 
1932. 219 ff.). These works [cf. also ardashIr, 
buzurijimihr] are not based on any philosophical 
principle, but rather remind the reader of Greek 
rhetorics, giving the rulers, "civil servants" and 
persons who wish to advance in life advice on how 
to be successful. The Islamic allusions contained in 
this literature are at first scanty and formal, but the 
connection of this tradition with religion is steadily 
emphasized; Islam is regarded accordingly in the 
character of a state religion, linked to the sovereign 
power as religion had been linked with political 
power in the old Persian state (cf. A. Christensen, 
L'Iran sous les Sassanides", Copenhagen 1944, 
ch. iii): "religion and government are sisters". The 
advice, conveyed in a pleasing and effective style, 
is based on opportunist considerations and the 
recognition of force, which the intelligent man (al- 
'dkil) will know how to deal with properly. In the 
course of a century or so, however, this originally 
foreign adab tradition was more or less adapted to 
Islamic standards, and was finally received into the 
accepted body of Islamic adab in the l Uyun al- 
Akhbar of Ibn Rutayba (d. 276/889-90). This work, 
which may be called the first comprehensive manual 
of Islamic ethics, brought together and to a remark- 
able degree integrated the IJur'anic, hadith, pre- 
Islamic and Persian contributions, and by excluding 
the irreconcilable elements of the two latter, prac- 
tically defined and standardized the component 
elements of the orthodox morality in its pre-philo- 
sophical and pre-sufistic stage. Related types of 
literature are the "Mirrors of Princes" [see Malik] 
and popular wisdom in apophthegmatic form [see 

5. Philosophical ethics, derived from the Greeks, 
was introduced at first by the limited circles who 
devoted themselves to the study of philosophy. The 
details of its development amongst the Muslim 
faldsifa are studied in the next section. As is 
pointed out in § § 8-10 of that section, philoso- 
phical ethics exercised an influence on adab literature 
and what is of even greater importance, philoso- 
phical ethics in the form given to it by Miskawayh 
was fully excepted by such an influential theologian 
as al-Ghazali and in this way was integrated with 
religious tradition. Miskawayh's doctrine became 
known also through another channel, viz. the 
Persian works of authors such as al-TQsI and al- 
Dawwanl. On the other hand, the purely sQfistic 
morality gained through the great Persian poets an 



immense influence in the eastern Islamic world, 
including Turkey — an influence which was paralleled 
and reinforced in all countries by the powerful social 
position occupied by the sufi orders and the ex- 
tension of their lay membership to all classes. 

6. During the last century, the strong revulsion 
from sufism in orthodox Muslim circles has had a 
parallel effect on Muslim ethical thought, which in 
reaction from the extreme passivity of the sufi ethic 
has tended to swing towards an activist ethic, rather 
guardedly expressed by such leaders as Djamal al-DIn 
al-Afghani and Muhammad 'Abduh, and in more 
outspokenly "Mu'tazilite" terms by others. Outside 
theological circles, the same trend, reinforced by the 
influence of western philosophies, together with 
internal social and political developments, has 
stimulated more evolutionary types of ethical theory, 
notably those of the Turkish sociologist Ziya Gokalp 
and of the Indian poet Muhammad Ikbal, all of 
which, however, are most properly to be regarded 
as representing transitional phases in modern Muslim 
thought. (R. Walzer and H. A. R. Gibb) 

i. In the classification of the various branches of 
philosophy, akkldk is considered, together with poli- 
tics (al-Hlm al-madani, see madina) and economics 
(tadbir al-manzil [q.v.]), as a part of practical philo- 
sophy. Galen's work Fi 'l-Akkldk is described in 
Hunayn's treatise on the Syriac and Arabic Galen- 
translations in the following terms: "Galen dealt 
in it with different ^6t), their causes, signs and 
treatment" (ed. Bergstrasser, no. 119; cf. Seneca, 
Epist. xcv, 65). Al-Ghazali uses almost the same 
words when he says (al-Munkidh, 99) that akkldk 
as a branch of philosophy consists in "defining the 
characteristics and moral constitutions of the soul 
and the method of moderating and controlling 
them". The same definition still occurs in Ibn Sadr 
al-Din al-Shirwanl (d. 1036/1626-7), quoted by 
Hadjdji Khalifa, s.v. akkldk: "It is the science of 
virtues and the way how to acquire them, of vices, 
and the way how to guard against them. Its 
subject is: the innate dispositions (akkldk), the 
acquired virtues, and the rational soul as far as it 
is affected by them". Akkldk as a philosophical 
doctrine of ethics appealed at first only to the 
limited circles of persons interested in Greek philo- 
sophy. But since its representatives insist that 
philosophical ethics are not meant to contradict 
Islam but either to supplement or confirm it, these 
ideas could eventually be integrated with the 
religious tradition and retain some influence even in 
later centuries. 

2. Greek moral philosophy was conveyed to the 
Arabs in several different ways which eventually 
converged. Standard works of the classical days of 
Greece read in the late philosophical schools, like 
Plato's Republic, Tintaeus, Laws, were known in the 
original and in commentaries and summaries (cf. 
aflAtun). Aristotle's Nicomachean Etkics, divided 
into eleven books, were known in Ishak b. Hunayn's 
translation. Books viii-xi of the Arabic text, cor- 
responding to vii-x of the usual division, have been 
traced in a Moroccan manuscript (cf. A. J. Arberry, 
in BSOAS, 1955, 1 ff.). The same manuscript con- 
tains a summary of the Nicomachean Etkics by 
Nicolaus of Damascus (1st century B. C). Porphyry's 
commentary (cf. Fikrist, and J. Bidez, Vie de 
Porphyre, Gand-Leipzig 191 3, j6*-58*) was trans- 
lated into Arabic and most probably extensively 
used by Miskawayh in chapters 3-5 of his Tahdhib 



LAK 327 

al-AkUak (see § 7 below). The Arabs knew also a 
late Greek summary of the Nicomackean Etkics 
("Summary of the Alexandrines"): extracts in MS 
Taymur Pasha, akkldk 290, no. 16; this work was 
translated into Latin by Herman the German in 
1243 or 1244 (cf. Aristoteles Latinus, ii, Cambridge 
'955> 1308). Al-Farabi wrote a commentary on the 
introduction of the Nicomachean Ethics which is 
referred to by Spanish authors of the 12th century 
(cf. M. Steinschneider, Al-Farabi, St. Petersburg 
1869, 60). Ibn Rushd's Middle Commentary (written 
in A. D. 1 1 77) is preserved in a Latin translation by 
the same Herman in 1240 (cf. Aristoteles Latinus, 
ii, 1308) and in a Hebrew translation of 1321 by 
Samuel b. Judah of Marseilles (M. Steinschneider, 
Die hebr. Vbersetzungen, 217). 

Among Greek works less known in the Western 
tradition but widely read in the Arab world are 
three treatises by Galen. (1) Ilepl r)6tSv, Fi 'l-Akkldk, 
lost in the Greek original and preserved only in 
Arabic guise. (Arabic Epitome published by P. Kraus 
in Bull, of the Fac. of Arts of tke Univ. of Egypt, 
v /'» 1939; cf. R. Walzer, in Classical Quarterly , 1949, 
82 ff.; idem, in Harvard Theological Review, 1954, 
243 ff.; S. M. Stern, in Classical Quarterly, 1956.) (2) 
How a man may discover kis own vices (cf . Corpus Med. 
Grace, v, 4, n; Hunayn, Risala, no. 118). (3) Good 
men profit by their enemies (lost in the Greek original; 
Hunayn, no. 121). Both of these two latter treatises 
were used by al-RazI (see § 5 below), all three by 
Miskawayh (5 7 below). A treatise by Themistius is 
quo'ed under a wrong name by Miskawayh (see 
below); another one attributed to him survives in 
Arabic (ed. L. Cheikho, Mask., 1920, 887-9, tr. M. 
Bouyges, Arck. de Pkilosopkie, 1924, 15 ff.). There 
were, no doubt, some other late Greek books from 
which middle-platonic Greek thought, only slightly 
touched by neoplatonic ideas, was handed down to 
the Arabs. Among other pre-neoplatonic treatises 
studied by Arabic writers on moral philosophy are 
the Pinax of Cebes ("KSbis the Platonist"), repro- 
duced in Miskawayh's Djawidkan Kkirad (ed. Badawi, 
229 ff.; separate editions by Elichman, Leiden 1640 
and R. Basset, Algiers 1898); the neopythagorean 
Bryson's O£xovo|xix6;, preserved only in Arabic 
translation and extensively quoted by Miskawayh 
(ed. M. Plessner, Heidelberg 1928); the Golden Verses 
ascribed to Pythagoras [see futhaghuras] and a 
pseudo-platonic Exhortation concerning tke education 
of young men, two "pythagorean" documents by 
which Miskawayh was impressed (cf. F. Rosenthal, 
in OrientaHa, 1941, 104 ff., 383 ff.). 

3. Al-Kindl's ethical treatises {Fihrist, nos. 190-1, 
193-6, cf. also F. Rosenthal, al-Sarakksi, ii A, 10-2, 
16-7) were apparently appreciated by subsequent 
Islamic writers. His treatise On freedom from Grief 
(ed. H. Ritter-R. Walzer, Studi su Al Kindi II, 
Rome 1938; M. Pohlenz, in GGA, 1938, 404 if.) was 
used by Miskawayh (TahdMb, 70 ff.), Ibn SIna and 
others. Another quotation in Miskawayh (61) may 
derive from al-Kindl's lost work Ft 'l-Akkldk and is 
also known to al-Ghazill (F. Rosenthal, in Orientalia, 
1940, 186 ff.). Al-Kindl (cf. al-Hudid, in Rasd'U (Aba 
RIda), 177-8 and elsewhere in his Rasd'U) bases his 
moral philosophy, not unlike the Stoics, Galen and 
other late Greek philosophers, on the threefold 
platonic partition of the soul into a rational, spirited 
and appetitive part or soul or faculty, and on a 
platonic definition of the four cardinal virtues, 
wisdom, valour, temperance and justice [cf. fapIla] ; 
these in their turn are each associated with a number 
of subordinate virtues. This scheme may, though 



328 AKI 

different in detail, be compared to the Stoic arrange- 
ment of the virtues and vices, or, e.g., to the pseudo- 
Aristotelian De virtutibus el vitiis (transl. in the nth 
century by Ibn al-Tayyib (Brock., S I, 884). The 
Aristotelian definition of virtue as the mean between 
two extremes is combined with the platonising view 
(cf. Porphyry, 'Aipopjxat, ch. xxxii, 2 and I. Goldziher, 
Ma'dni al-Nafs, 20). Although the evidence available 
in the few extant works of al-Kindi is obviously slight, 
it seems probable that Miskawayh based himself in 
the first chapter of Tahdhib al-AkUdk on al-Kindi's 
treatment of the virtues and vices. There is on the 
whole nothing ultra-neoplatonic in al-Kindi's 
platonising popular philosophy, in which platonic, 
peripatetic and stoic elements are blended in a way 
not uncommon in hellenistic and later popular Greek 

4. The Christian Kusta b. Luka's treatise^6o»< 
the causes of the differences which exist between men 
with regard to their characters, ways of life, desires 
and considered moral choice (ed. P. Sbath, in BIE, 
1941) is based on the Platonic tripartition of the 
soul and on the whole on ideas to be found in 
Galen. 

5. Al-Kindi's treatise On Spiritual Medicine 
appears to be lost but al-RazI's brilliant treatment 
of the same subject is available in a critical edition 
of the Arabic text (Opera Philosophica, ed. Kraus, 
15-96, Eng. tr. by A. J. Arberry, The spiritual Physick 
of Rhazes, London 1950). As was to be expected in 
this Muslim "Platonist", it is written in an uncom- 
promisingly platonic vein, and the Aristotelian 
elements found in al-Kindi and Miskawayh are 
missing. It should be studied together with his 
autobiographical defence of the philosophical way 
of life (Opera, 98-11 1; French transl. by P. Kraus 
in Orientalia, 1935, 300 ff.; English tr. by Arberry in 
Asiatic Review, 1949). Al-RazI's version of Greek 
moral philosophy did not, however, influence the 
main trend of philosophical ethics in Islam. 

6. The treatise Ft Tahdhib ai-Akhldk of the 
Jacobite philosopher Yahya b. c AdI represents 
another variant of late Greek thought. There are no 
specifically Christian ideas in it; Aristotelian in- 
fluence is, as in al-RazI, non-existent. It is based on 
the platonic tripartition of the soul, but the 21 
virtues and corresponding vices are neither specifi- 
cally referred to the three souls nor subordinated 
to the four cardinal virtues and their contraries 
(which are listed among them). This scheme probably 
depends ultimately on some lost pre-neoplatonic 
Greek original. His concluding chapter on the 
perfect man who bases his life on the requirements 
of his intellectual soul and has trained himself to 
love every human being combines stoic and neopla- 
tonic language, and is not very different from the 
thought of al-Farabi [q.v.]. 

7. The most influential work on philosophical 
ethics is Tahdhib al-A kUdk of Miskawayh (d. 421/ 
1030) (analysis of its contents in de Boer, 507, and 
Donaldson, 127-133; Eng. tr. by A. J. M. Craig in 
course of publication). Miskawayh firmly rejects the 
pre-Islamic Arabic poets as educators, but is not 
unsympathetic to the Persian tradition of ethics. In 
many striking passages he insists on the agreement 
of Greek moralWlosophy with the basic tenets of 
Islam. He tries, however, to reconcile revealed and 
philosophical truth on the basis of rational thought, 
and for this reason his views are not acceptable to 
a primarily religious thinker, except with a certain 
shift of emphasis. The few Greek writers mentioned 
by name and quoted, sometimes at considerable 



length, are all of the later centuries of the Roman 
Empire: Galen (see § 2 above), Bryson (on the right 
upbringing of children; ibid.), Porphyry as a com- 
mentator on Aristotle's Ethics, and Themistius, 
wrongly quoted under the name of Socrates (cf. 
F. Rosenthal, in IC, 1940, 403). References to Plato 
and Aristotle occur within the context of these late 
works. Although al-Kindi is only twice mentioned 
by name, Miskawayh is probably in al-Kindi's debt 
to a much greater extent (see § 3 above). In chapters 
3-5 he follows rather closely a neoplatonic commen- 
tator on certain sections of the Nicomachean Ethics, 
which recalls the known teaching of ethics in the 
later Peripatos and the extant commentaries on the 
Ethics without being identical with any of them. But 
at the same time he stresses the platonic elements 
to be found in the Ethics to make out Aristotle to 
be a more decided platonist than he was. Miskawayh's 
own contribution to this inherited interpretation, 
if any, was (apart from demonstrating the com- 
patibility of Greek philosophy with Islam) to 
emphasise the neoplatonic aspects of this moral 
philosophy still further (cf. R. Walzer, Some aspects 
of Miskawaih's Tahdhib al-Akhldq, Milanges Levi 
della Vida, Rome 1956). 

8. The influence of philosophical ethics on adab 
literature has been noted by de Boer, who singles 
out as an instructive example A dab al-Dunyd wa 
'l-Din by al-Mawardi (d. 450/1058). In this work 
the presentation of the traditional ethical materials 
is refreshed and "modernized" by the inclusion of 
materials from the later centuries, including both 
philosophical and ascetic ideas; these are combined 
with the older materials somewhat unsystematically, 
but in a direction not dissimilar from that taken later 
by al-Ghazali. (German transl. by O. Rescher, 1932-3.) 

9. A much more far-reaching and fundamental 
synthesis was carried through by al-Ghazali (d. 505/ 
mi), who on the one hand discarded the merely 
formal and superficial elements of the adab tradition, 
and on the other firmly based his exposition on the 
penetrating spiritual analysis developed by the sufi 
teachers (see sect, i, § 3 above). At the same time, 
he evidently regarded Miskawayh's treatise as 
"reasonable in itself and supported by proof", and 
agreed that its contents "did not contradict the 
Book and the Sunna". Hence the philosophical ideas 
of Greek origin which Miskawayh discusses and 
explains became part of the generally-accepted 
educational theory to be found in the Ihyd' c Ulum 
al-Din, in which the section on self-discipline (2nd 
book of the 3rd quarter) is based on Miskawayh's 
Tahdhib al-Akhldk. Miskawayh's influence is also 
unmistakably traceable in other works of al- 
Ghazall. and his ethical theory was in this way 
eventually integrated with the religious tradition. 
(Cf. A. J. Wensinck, La Pensie de Ghazzali, Paris 
1946, esp. chap, ii; M. Plessner, op. cit.; H. Ritter, 
A I Ghazzali, Das EUxier der Gluckseligkeit, Jena 1925 ; 
and see al-ghazalI.) 

9. How successful the Ghazalian synthesis was in 
influencing later ethical literature and thought is 
a question which still awaits investigation. The 
literary evidence suggests prima facie that its in- 
fluence, if anything, was indirect, and that the 
diverse trends of ethical thought continued to 
exist side by side. The influence of Miskawayh's 
work was perpetuated chiefly in Persian literature; 
the ShI'ite Avicennian, Naslr al-DIn al-TusI, follows 
Miskawayh closely, as he himself avows, in the 
section on ethics of his AkMik-i Nasiri (completed 
633/1233) (cf. Plessner, loc. cit.). Two centuries 



AKHLAK — AKHLAT 



later, al-Dawwanl (d. 907/1501), the author of the 
AkUdk-i D£aldli (Eng. trans., with valuable notes, 
by W. F. Thompson, Practical Philosophy of the 
Muhammadan People, London 1839; short analysis 
by Donaldson, 184), selected his basic material from 
Tusl's work, but he also refers to al-Ghazall as an 
additional Islamic authority. (For Persian akhldk 
literature cf. H. Ethe, in Gr. I. Ph., ii, 346 ff.) 

Bibliography to (i) and (ii): No comprehensive 
history of Islamic ethics has yet been written. 
D. M. Donaldson, Studies in Muslim Ethics, 
London 1953, is of unequal value. There is a 
brief but suggestive survey by T. J. de Boer in 
Hasting's Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, 
vol. v, 1912, s.v. Ethics and Morality (Moslem). 
Scattered materials are to be found in a number 
of works; in addition to those mentioned in the 
article, different aspects are dealt with in the 
following: G. Richter, Studien zur Geschichte der 
dlteren arabischen Fiirstenspiegel, Leipzig 1932; 
D. B. Macdonald, The Religious Attitude and Life 
in Islam, Chicago 1909; C. E. von Griinebaum, 
Mediaeval Islam, Chicago 1946, etc.; L. Gardet, 
La Citi Musulmane, Paris 1954. (R. Walzer) 
AKHLAT or KhilAt, town and fortress at the 
N.W. corner of Lake Wan. 
(i) Pre-Mongol; (ii) Mongol and Ottoman periods, 
(i) In Armenian the town is called Khlat'. the 
name being possibly connected with the ancient 
inhabitants of the country, the Urartian Khalds. 
It lies half-way between Sipan Dagh and Nimrud 
Dagh on the route taken by invasions from Mesopo- 
tamia into eastern Armenia. Al-Baladhuri, 200, 
reckons it to Armenia III, which in the Arab view 
included Kalikala (Erzerum), Ardjlsh and Bahunays 
(i.e. either Apahunik', where Manazgird lies, or 
Bznunik', the district of Akhlat). 

Under c Umar, c Iyad b. Ghanm made a treaty 
with the Akhlatians (al-Baladhuri, 176, 199). For 
four centuries Akhlat was ruled in turn by Arab 
governors, Armenian autonomous princes, and the 
Arab local amirs of the Kays tribe (Constantine 
Porphyrogenitus, ch. 44, ed. and tr. Moravcsik- 
Jenkins, Budapest 1949, 198-205; cf. J. Markwart, 
Siidarmenien, 501-8, and M. Canard, H'amdanides, i, 
471-8). Among the episodes of this period may be 
cited: in 316/918 the attack on Akhlat by the 
domesticus John Curcuas (see Ibn al-Athlr, viii, 
146); in 328/939 the arrival of Sayf al-Dawla 
{Ta'rikh Mayyafdrikin, see M. Canard, Sayf al- 
Daula, Algiers- Paris 1934, 76-8; idem, H'amdanides, 
i, 478-87); in 353/964 the occupation of Akhlat by 
Nadja (Miskawayh, ii, 201 etc.). 

Towards 373/983 Akhlat became part of the 
dominions of the Kurd Badh (Asolik of Taron, iii, 
ch. 14) and was associated with the Marwanid [q.v.] 
princes untill the battle of Manazgird (463/1071), 
after which Alp Arslan himself is said to have taken 
it over [Ta'rikh Mayyafdrikin, fol. I45v). In 493/1100 
it was occupied by the Turkish amir Sukman al- 
Kutbi and for over a century remained the capital 
of the dynasty known as Shah Arman [q.v.]. In 
604/12071 t was captured by the Ayyubid al-Awhad, 
son of al-'Adil, and on his death in 609/1212 passed 
to his brother al-Ashraf. In the interval, the Geor- 
gians twice reached Akhlat (605/1208 and 607/1210). 
In 627/1230 it was stormed after a six months' siege 
by the Kh'arizmshah Djalal al-DIn Manguburni, who 
was, however, shortly afterwards defeated by al- 
Ashraf in alliance with the Rum Saldjukid c Ala> 
al-DIn Kaykubad I at Arzindjan. In 633/1233 



Bibliography: A full bibl. of Akhlat is given 
in A. Gabriel, Voyages archiologiques dans la 
Turquie Orientate, Paris 1940, i, 241-51 (with 
plates, ii, 85-90) ; for the inscriptions, Abdurrahim 
Serif, Ahlat KitabeUri, Istanbul 1932 (corrections 
and additions by J. Sauvaget, in Gabriel, op. cit., 
346-50, and RCEA, nos. 3880-2, 4440, 4682, 4696, 
4782-3, 4801-2, 4996, 5038, 5 1 16-9. E. Honigmann, 
Ostgrenze d. Byzani. Reichs, Brussels 1935, passim; 
V. Minorsky, Studies in Caucasian History, 
London 1953, index; Le Strange, 183; H. F. B. 
Lynch, Armenia, London 1901, ii, 280-97; Bach- 
mann, Kirchen und Moscheen in Armenien u. 
Kurdistan, Leipzig 1913, 58. (V. Minorsky) 
(ii) After the battle of K6se Dagh (641/1243) 
Akhlat was captured by the Mongols (642/1244; 
see Tomaschek, in SB AW, 133, no. iv, 31 ff.; Abu 
'1-Fida' (Reiske-Adler), iv, 472), who, however, 
confirmed the native princes in their possessions 
(confirmation of a Georgian princess in her posses- 
sions in Akhlat.: Cyriac of Gandja, 440, cf. B. Spuler, 
Die Mongolen in Iran, 330, n. 1). The definitive 
occupation by the Mongols of Akhlat and the neigh- 
bouring lands of Upper Mesopotamia and the 
Armenian highlands followed only after their 
capture of Baghdad (656/1258), in conjunction with 
Hulagu's advance into Syria in 658/1259-60 (Spuler, 
op. cit., 55). Thereafter Akhlat belonged to the 
kingdom of the Ilkhans and their successor states 
(Pjala'irids, Ak Koyunlu), and was also a mint-city 
of the Ilkhans. In 644/1246 the city was largely 
destroyed by a severe earthquake. 

In one version of the legend of the foundation of 
the Ottoman empire Akhlat is mentioned as the 
starting-point of the Oghuz tribe to which Ertoghrul, 
the alleged father of 'Othman, belonged; he is 
said to have moved westwards from Akhlat under 
pressure from the Mongols. Neshri, however, denies 
the identity of this Ertoghrul with 'Othman's father 
(Ta'rikh, ed. Taeschner, 21-2; the statement is 
missing in the Ankara ed.). According to Ewliya 
Celebi (iv, 140) tombs of the ancestors of the Ottomans 
were shown in Akhlat. The city appears to have 
come into Ottoman possession only under Selim I; 
in 955/1548, however, it was captured by Shah 
Tahmasp and levelled to the ground. Sulayman I, 
under whom it was finally incorporated in the 
Ottoman empire, built on the lake shore a citadel 
(completed in 963/1554-5 according to Ewliya 
Celebi), in the vicinity of which a smaller new town 
arose. During the Ottoman period, Akhlat remained 
under the rule of local Kurdish chieftains, and was 
brought under direct Ottoman administration only 
under Mahmud II in 1847. At the end of the 19th 
century, according to Cuinet, the kadi of Akhlat 
had 23,659 inhabitants (16,635 Muslims, 6609 
Gregorian Armenians, 210 Orthodox Greeks, 250 
Yazidls). It is now the capital of a kada (Me) in 
the wildyet (it) of Bitlis in the Turkish Republic; 
population of the town (1945), 3,124, of the kada, 
13.702. 

The mediaeval town (Eski Akhlat), on the slope 
of the mountain, is in ruins and uninhabited; the 
new town, with a large Ottoman kal'e (on the main 
gate an inscription of Selim II, 1568) lies to the E. of 
it on the lake shore. The latter contains two mosques 
of the 1 6th century (Iskender Pasha Djami c i, with 
inscriptions from 972/1564 and minaret from 978/ 
1570, and K5dl Mahmud Djami'i, dating from 1006/ 



AKHLAT — AKHSlKATH 



1597). Between the medieval and the modern towns 
there is a famous cemetery with richly ornamented 
tombstones from the I3th-i6th centuries (among 

buildings (turbes or kiinbeds) from the Saldjukid, 
Mongol and Turkmen periods. The most noteworthy 
among them are: Ulu Kiinbed (undated); Shadl 
Agha Kunbedi (1273; now disappeared); Iki Tiirbe 
(of Bughatay Agha, d. 1281, and his son Hasan 
Timur, d. 1279); Baylndlr Mesdjid (882/1483) and 
Tiirbe (890/1491-2; of specially interest, one built by 
Baba Djan); Shaykh Nadjm al-DIn Turbesi (1222); 
Hasan Padishah Turbesi (1275); and Erzen Khatun 
Turbesi (1396-7)- 

Bibliography: in addition to the works 
mentioned under (i), Hadjdji Khalifa, Qiihdn- 
niima, 413 f.; Ewliya Celebi, iv, 134-42; SamI, 
Kamus al-A c ldm, i, 46a; Reclus, Nouv. geogr. 
univ., ix, 376; V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, ii, 
564-6. (F. Taeschner) 

AKHMlM, town in Upper Egypt on the east 
bank of the Nile about 312 m. from Cairo. Its name 
reflects the Coptic name, Shmin, the Greek Khemmis, 
and the place is called Panopolis in Byzantine texts. 
It was the chief town of a pagarchy (ft lira), and 
later, from the time of the reforms of the Fatimid 
caliph al-Mustansir, of a province. In the I2th/i8th 
century the town lost its position of chief city and 
was incorporated in the province of Girga. In the 
middle ages, Akhmim was surrounded by rich areas of 
cultivation, with plantations of date palms and fields 
of sugar cane. Al-Ya c kubl mentions it as a centre for 
the manufacture of leather mats. There was a toll- 
house there, and the strictness of the officials 
aroused the indignation of Ibn Djubayr. The popu- 
lation to-day still includes a considerable number 
of Christians. The town was the birthplace, at the 
end of the 2nd/8th century, of the mystic Dhu '1-Nun. 
All the Arab writers have enthused over tha 
ancient temple of Akhmim, (of which no trace now 
remains), which was particularly famed owing to 
its traditional association with Hermes Trismegistus. 
Most of the accounts record the usual legends which 
have grown up around relics of Egypt under the 
Pharaohs. The delightful description given by Ibn 
Djubayr, however, merits special attention. He 
displays a keen power of observation, intelligently 
used. The temple was destroyed in the course of the 
8th/i4th century, and the materials used to build 
a madrasa. But it appears that some of the materials 
had previously been purloined; historians of Mecca 
mention the erection in the haram of columns 
originating from Akhmim. 

The town has no history. It was sacked at the 
beginning of the I2th/i8th century during the 
struggle between the Mamluk chiefs, and the gover- 
nor, Hasan Alchmini, was put to death; the latter 
had restored, in 1114-16/1702-4, the principal 
mosque, an act which is commemorated by inscrip- 

Bibliography: Ya'kubi, 332 (trans. Wiet, 
187); Makdisi, 201; Idrisi (Dozy and de Goeje), 
46-7; Ibn Djubayr 60 ff. (trans. Gaudefroy- 
Demombynes, 68-70; trans. G. Broadhurst, 53-55); 
Ibn Battuta, i, 103 ff.; Yakut, i, 165; Makrlzi, 
Khifat (Wiet), iv, 134-8; Maspero and Wiet, 
MaUriaux, MIFAO, xxxvi, 6-7; pjabartl, 1, 47, 
98; Wiet, L'£gypte de Murtadi, 103-10. 

(G. Wiet) 
AKHNOKH [see idrIs]. 

al-AKHRAS, 'Abd al-Ghapfar b. c Abd al- 
Waijid b. Wahb, Arab poet of 'Irak, born at al- 



Mawsil about 1220/1805, died at al-Basra 1290/1874. 
After settling in Baghdad, he established a connection 
with the wall Dawud Pasha. The latter, at his 
request, sent him to India for treatment to correct 
the defective power of speech which had gained him 
his sobriquet of al-Akhras ("the mute"), but he 
refused to undergo the operation. The panegyrics 
which he addressed to Dawud Pasha and 'Abd al- 
Bakl, and also to various men of note at Baghdad 
and al-Basra, appear to have secured him his live- 
lihood, but the fame which he enjoys in 'Irak rests 
on the remainder of his work, which embraces 
every category of classical poetry: ghazal, elegy, 
threnody, satire, descriptive verse, personal glori- 
fication. He even composed some muwashshahdt 
and wrote some notable bacchic songs which led to 
his being dubbed the "Abu Nuwas of the 19th 
century". His diwdn, although incomplete, was 
compiled through the efforts of the nephew of 
c Abd al-Baki, Ahmad c Izzat Pasha al-Faruki, and 
published in Constantinople in 1304/1886, under 
the title: al-Jiraz al-Anfas ff Shi'r al-Akhras. 
Bibliography : Dj. Zaydan, Taradfim Mashahir 
al-Shark, 3rd ed., 1922, ii, 257-60; L. Cheikho, La 
UtUrature arabe au XIXe siicle, 2nd ed., 1924-6, 
ii, 9-1 1 ; M. M. al-Basir, Nahdat al-Hrak al- 
Adabiyyafi 'l-Karn al-Tdsi c 'Ashar, Baghdad 1365/ 
1946, 114-29; H. Peres, La litt. arabe el I' Islam 
par Us textes, 28; Brockelmann, S II, 792 and 
references quoted. (Ch. Pellat) 

AKHSHAm [see salAt]. 

AKHSlKAXH or AkhshIkath (Sogdian, "city of 
the prince"), in the 4th/ioth century capital of 
Farghana and residence of the amir and his 
lieutenants C-ummal), on the north bank of the 
Sir Darya (JaxarteS), near the mouth of the Kasan- 
say, at the foot of a mountain. Ibn Khurradadhbih, 
208, calls the place Madlnat Farghana, "the city of 
Farghana"; according to Ibn Hawkal (Kramers), 
512, it was a large town (1 sq. mile) with many 
canals and a citadel where stood the Friday Mosque, 
the governor's palace, and the prison. The city was 
then enclosed by a wall with five gates, outside of 
which stretched extensive suburbs and gardens. 
There was a market-place both in the city and the 
suburb, and there were rich pasturages in the 
vicinity (al-Istakhri, 333; al-Makdisi, 271; al- 
Kazwini, ii, 156; Ijudud al-'Alam, 72, 116). 

The town was apparently destroyed during the 
wars of the Kh'arizmshah Muhammad II, at the 
beginning of the 13th century, and the succeeding 
Mongol invasions (Sharaf al-DIn 'All Yazdl, gafar- 
nama, Calcutta 1885-8, i, 441, ii, 633; here also the 
form Akhslkant). The capital was transferred to 
Andldjan, but for some time Akhsl, as the town was 
called at the time of Babur (see transl. of Beveridge, 
index), still remained the second town of Farghana. 
As late as the nth/i7th century Namangan, the 
present capital, was considered only one of Akhsl's 
less important sisters (tawabi 1 ); cf. Bahr al-Asrdr, 
in H. Ethe, India Office Cat., no. 575, fol. io8v. The 
ruins, near the villages of Akhsl and Shahand (1000 
steps from west to east, 600 steps from north to 
south, abou 150 feet above the level of the Slr 
Darya), with the old citadel, Iski Akhsl, were 
explored in 1885 by N. I. Veselovskiy (cf. Srednea- 
ziatskiy Vyestnik, Tashkent, July 1896). 

Bibliography: Schwarz, Iran, hi, 269 (inci- 
dental reference, Farghana is not dealt with in the 
book); Le Strange, 477 f-I 489; K. Miller, Mappae 
arabicae, Stuttgart 1926-31, iv, 78-82, 86*-9i*. 
(B. Spuler) 



l-AKHTAL — AKHUND-ZADA 



331 



al-A KH TAL. "the loquacious", the sobriquet of 
the Arab poet Ghiyath b. Ghawth b. al-Salt, 
who died probably before 92/710. He belonged to 
the great tribe of the Taghlib [?.«.] of northern Syria, 
which remained entirely Christian, of the Mono- 
physite persuasion. By his mother Layla he was 
connected to another Christian tribe, that of Iyad. He 
was born either at iiiia (see Aghdni 1 , vii, 170), or near 
Rusafa (Sergiopolis) ; his date of birth is uncertain, 
but may have been about 20/640. He remained a 
Christian all his life, and was unmoved by the 
efforts of prominent members of the Umayyad 
dynasty to convert him to Islam. Although a 
Monophysite, he maintained good relations with the 
Melkite family of the Sardjfin. In his poetry, certain 
features prove his zeal for his faith and even indicate 
a certain ostentation in asserting it (see Diwan, 
passim). His moral standards, however, do not seem 
to have differed markedly from those of the society 
in which he lived. He repudiated his wife and married 
a divorced woman. He seems to have been a heavy 
drinker, passing his time in taverns in the company 
of singing-girls of easy virtue. 

All his life al-Akhtal followed the fortunes of the 
reigning dynasty. During the reign of Mu'Swiya, 
he became embroiled in political affairs. He was 
the close companion of Yazld I, whom he lauded 
in his panegyrics, and of other men of rank such 
Ziyad and al-Hadjdjaj. Under <Abd al-Malik, he ac- 
tually became official poet to the Caliph (see A ghani 1 , 
xii, 172-6). He remained in the service of the succes- 
sors of c Abd al-Malik, and in his poetry attacked all 
opponents of the dynasty (see Diwan, 58, 73, 93, 
204, 277 etc.). Lammens has clearly shown the histo- 
rical interest of such compositions. 

The poet's whole career was dominated by verbal 
warfare with his contemporary, the poet Djarlr. In 
his diatribes he was supported by the poet al- 
Farazdak who, although a Tamlmite like Diarir. was 
in antagonism with his fellow-tribesman. It is almost 
impossible to dissociate here the accounts of these 
three men. It is clear that in this sphere al-Akhtal 
and Djarir perpetuated the pre-Islamic tradition 
and simply expressed the sentiments of their 
particular group. In this respect, the poems of al- 
Akhtal show how the old bedouin themes break 
through the religious veneer. 

Under Walid I, it appears that al-Akhtal was not 
held in such high favour (see Aghdni, vii, 179 ff.). 
He died, probably shortly before the end of Walld's 
reign, and left no offspring. 

The poems of al-Akhtal have reached us in a 
recension of al-Sukkarl, compiled with the aid of 
material collected by Ibn al-A'rabi (see Brockelmann, 
SI, 94; and Fihrist, 78, 158). This recension is 
availabe in provisional editions; SalhanI, Diwan al- 
Akhtal, Beirut 1891-2, is in part completed by the 
same, Diwan al-Akhtal, Beirut 1905, (photographic 
reproduction of a Baghdad MS.) and by Griffini, 
al-Akhtal, Diwan, Beirut 1906 (reproduction of a 
Yemen MS). In order to produce a counterpart to 
a compilation containing the epigrammatic polemics 
between Diarir and al-Farazdak, the poet Abu 
Tammam composed, in the 3rd/9th century, a 
Nak&Hd Diarir wa 'l-Akhfal, which presents the 
verbal contests between the two rivals. A MS of 
this work exists at Istanbul. 

The works of Al-Akhtal, like those of Djarlr and 
al-Farazdak, have their origin in contemporary 
events, and reflect the feuds and political controver- 
sies of the time. The bedouin tradition is always 
apparent in them. The Diwan comprises panegyrics in 



kasida form and also a large number of epigrammatic 
poems. The poetical forms, the stereotyped termi- 
nology and the language resemble, with but slight 
variations, those of the other contemporary poets. 
It is highly probable (as Bashshar thought) that the 
vogue which al-Akhtal enjoyed during his lifetime 
was the result of an infatuation on the part of the 
Rabl'ite Arabs, who rejoiced at finding in him a 
champion worthy to stand against those of the 
Bakrite and Tamlmite Arabs (see al-Marzubani, 
al-Muwashshah, 138). Later, however, when the 
literary centres of 'Irak evolved their poetic ideal, 
it became the fashion to draw comparisons between 
the works of al-Akhtal. al-Farazdak and Diarir. 
People succumbed to this taste for "assessments 
of comparative merit" so engrained in mediaeval 
oriental scholars, and this type of critical com- 
parison became a regular subject for debate, which 
al-Hamadhani parodied in his Makdmdt at the 
end of the 4th/ioth century. It is possible that as 
early as the end of the 2nd/8th century or the 
beginning of the 3rd/9th the grammarians and 
philologists of Basra and Kufa had indicated 
their preference for al-Akhtal (see the judgments 
of Abu 'Ubayda, al-Asma'i, and Hammad "the 
Reciter" collated in Aghdni', viii, 284 ff., 291, 
305). Al-Akhtal does not seem to have kept his 
place in Arabic literature in the eyes of later gene- 
rations (cf. for example the rather cautious judge- 
ment of Taha Husayn in ffadith al-Arba ( d, ii, 77 ff.) 
Up to the present time al-Akhtal has, in the West, 
been the subject only of biographical studies. 

Bibliography ■ Aghdni 1 , vii, 169-88 = Aghdni', 
viii, 280-320; Marzubanl, Muwashshah, 132ft.; 
Caussin de Perceval, Notice sur les poHes Akhtal, 
Ferazdaq et Djerir, in J A , xiii, 289 f f., xiv, 5 f f. ; 
Lammens, he Chantre des Omiades, in J A 1894, 
94-176, 193-241, 381-465; idem, Etudes sur le 
rigne du Calife omaiyade Mo'awia I", Beirut 1908, 
397-404; I. Kra£kowskiy, Der Wein in al-Ahtal's 
Gedichten, Festschrift G. Jacob, 146-64; further 
details in Brockelmann, I, 49-52 and S I, 83 ff.; 
C. A. Nallino, Raccolta di Scritti, vi, 73-6 (= La 
Litterature arabe des origines a Vipoque de la dynastie 
umayyade, trans. Pellat, Paris 1950, 115-20). 

(R. Blach£re) 
AKHTARl is the takhallus of Muslih al-DIn 
Mustafa b. Shams al-DIn al-Karahisari (d. 968/ 
1561). He wrote an Arabic-Turkish Dictionary 
(952-1545), known by the name of Akhtari Kabir 
(there are also concise recensions), and printed 
at Constantinople (1242, 1256, 1292). Cf. Flugel, 
Die arab. pers. u tiirk. Hss. zu Wien, i, 119-120. 
AKHUND (AiojOn, AjofAND), title given to 
scholars. In Eastern Turkistan it is used after the 
name as "Mister", in Western Turkistan it is given 
to l ulama> of high rank, in the district of Kazan to 
the chief imam of a place. In Persian it is current 
since Timurid times in the sense of "schoolmaster, 
tutor". The word probably comes from Persian 
kh"and (kh'and, khund), from khudawand [q.v.]. 

AKHUND-ZADA. MIrzA Fath <alI (1812-78) was 
the first writer of original plays in a 
Turkish idiom. The son of a trader who hailed 
from Persian Adharbaydjan, he was born in 181 1 
(according to Caferoglu) or 1812 (according to the 
Soviet Encyclopaedia, 1950) in ShSki, the present-day 
Nfikha. Thanks to the assistance of a relative he 
was able to avail himself of a good literary and 
philosophical education, which brought him into 
closer touch with liberal ideas than the actual 
calling which he intended to follow, that of an 



AKHUND-ZADA — 'AKlDA 



Islamic theologian. After instruction from a divine 
in Gandja (Karabagh) Akhund-zada finished his 
training at the newly-opened Russian intermediate 
school for Muslims at Shekl. It is possible that 
Akhund-zada was in his early days brought into 
touch with modern trends in Islam owing to con- 
tacts with the reformers Djamal al-Din Afghani and 
Malkum Khan. Influence of this nature, however, as 
reported by Kocerli on the basis of communications 
from Akhund-zada's family, can scarcely be proved. 
In his youth Akhund-zada wrote in the style of 
Persian poetry, one of his works being an elegy on 
Pushkin's death. 

He received a stimulus to activity as a dramatist 
from the advancement of the theatre in Tiflis by 
the military governor, Prince Worontsow (1844-48), 
in whose government chancellery he was employed 
as oriental interpreter. Between 1850 and 1857 
Akhund-zada wrote six comedies and a historical 
narrative in Adhari Turkish, the titles being as 
under: (1) Ifikayet-i Molld Ibrahim Khalil-i Kimi- 
yager ("Story of M. I. Kh. the alchemist"), 1850; 
(2) Ifikayet-i Monsieur Jourdan Ijekim-i Nebatat 
we-MostaHl Shah D±dduger-i Meshhur ("Story of 
M. Jourdan and Mosta'll Shah, the well-known 
magician"), 1850; (3) Serguzesht-i Wezir-i Khan-i 
Serdb ("Adventures of the Vezir of the Khan of S."), 
1850; (4) Ifikdyet-i Khirs-i Guldur-basan ("Story of 
the bear that caught the robber"), 1952; (5) Ser- 
guzesht-i Merd-i Khasis ("Adventures of the miser"), 
1852-3; (6) Ifikayet-i WukaW-ye Murdfa'a (Story 
of the attorneys in the lawsuit"), 1855; and the 
.historical-satirical narrative, Aldanmish Kewdkeb 
("The betrayed stars"), 1857. In the plays and in 
the narrative the author gave play to his progressive 
ideas in opposition to feudalism, the practice of 
highway robbery, the prevalent corruption of 
justice and the superstition then rife in the Caucasus. 
Now and again he preaches loyalty to the Russian 
authorities in order to facilitate the transition of the 
Transcaucasian Muslims (the term "Adhari Turks" 
was not yet in use in the 19th century) to modern 
civilization. 

Several of the plays were published in Russian 
translation in the official Government journal 
Kavkas, and performed in Russian at Tiflis and 
St. Petersburg. The first performances in the original 
language were given by pupils of Adharbaydjan 
state schools at the end of the 1870 s. A complete 
Adhari Turkish edition of the plays and the narrative 
appeared in Tiflis in 1859: a second was brought out 
in 1938 by the Ministry of Culture of the Az.S.S.R. 
to mark the 125th anniversary of the writer. (In 
the 1920 s, frequent separate editions for school use 
had already appeared.) The plays were translated 
into Persian by Muhammad Dja'far MunshI; no. 1 
was transl. into French by Barbier de Meynard, J A , 
1886; no. 2 into German (after the Persian) by 
A. Wahrmund, Vienna 1889, and into French (after 
the Turkish original) by L. Bouvat, Paris 1906); 
no. 3 into English (after the Persian) by W. H. O. 
Haggard and G. le Strange, The Vazir of Lanhurdn; 
no. 4 into French by Barbier de Meynard, in Recueil 
de textes et de traductions, Paris 1889; no. 5 into 
French by L. Bouvat, J A, 1904; no. 6 into French 
(after the Persian) by Ailliere, in Deux comidies 
turques, Paris 1888; the narrative was edited and 
transl. by L. Bouvat, J A, 1903. 

Besides his activity as a dramatist, which earned 
him the name of the "Caucasian Gogol" or the 
"oriental Moliere", Akhund-zada wrote treatises on 
political science against absolutism and theocracy, 



and also two memoranda on an alphabetical system 
of his own invention, designed to render the Islamic 
tongues, especially the Turkish idioms, more tractable 
and thus more capable of progress. 

Bibliography: F. Kocerli (in Russian Kocar- 
linskiy), Azerbaydjan Edibiyyati Materyallari, 
Baku 1925, i/2, 407 ff. (contains autobiography of 
Akhund-zada); A. Akherdov, ShisuH deyatelnost' 
Mirzi Fatah Akhundowi, Baku 1928; A. Caferoglu, 
XlXuncu asir biiyiik Azert Reformatdrii Mirza 
Feth-Ali Ahundzade, in "Festschrift" for Bonelli, 
Rome 1940, 69-85; A. Vahap Yurtsever, Mirza 
Fethali Ahunt Zadenin Hayati ve EserUri, Ankara 
1950; idem, Azerbaycan Dram Edebiyati, Ankara 
195 1 ; H. W. Brands, Azerbaiganisches Volhsleben 
und modernistische Tendenz in den Schauspielen 
Mirza Feth-'Ali Ahundzades (1812-78), thesis Mar- 
burg/L, 1952 (not yet published). 

(H. W. Brands) 
AKHOR [see AMiRAsiOR]. 
c A?lDA (a.), creed ; but sometimes also doctrine, 
dogma or article of faith; and hence 'aka'id (pi.), 
articles of faith, is also used for 'creed". 

1. The Development and Use of the 
Form. The documents to which the terms c akida or 
l aka>id are applied vary in length, and the longer 
ones cannot be sharply divided from the comprehen- 
sive theological treatises (e.g. al-'Akida al-Nizamiyya 
by al-Diuwavnl). The terms, however, may usefully 
be taken to signify compositions where the chief 
interest is in the formulation of doctrine or dogma, 
and not in intellectual discussion or argument about 
it. The earliest and simplest creed is the shahdda or 
confession of faith [?.».], and this alone appears to 
be used liturgically. Though the term c akida is 
usually not applied to the shahdda, there is a sense 
in which most of the later creeds are expansions of it. 
Sectarian discussions, however, also led to the 
development of doctrine, and an important source 
of the later creeds is the succinct formula defining 
the position of an individual, school or sect on some 
disputed point. The Fikh Akbar I attributed to Abu 
Hanlfa is a collection of such formulae, since it does 
not mention belief in God and in Muhammad's 
apostleship, but only the attitude of the Hanaff 
school on matters on which they rejected views of 
the Khawaridj, Shi c a and Djahmiyya. The later 
creeds are usually statements of the doctrinal 
position of the various theological schools, orthodox 
and heretical, and are often the subject of many 
commentaries and glosses. Sometimes an 'akida is 
intended as a catechism to be learnt by children. 
Creeds are often built round either the shahdda (as 
al-Ghazali's) or the tradition, which elaborates a 
Kur'anic formula, that faith is faith in God, His 
angels, His books, His prophets, etc. (as Birgewi's). 
Sometimes they are included in legal treatises, as 
introductory statements of what it is obligatory for 
a Muslim to believe. The development of the literary 
form and of its contents has been studied by 
Wensinck (see Bibl.). 

2. The Development of Dogma. While the 
statement of the faith, it seems likely, was constantly 
being more accurately formulated during Muham- 
mad's lifetime, the development of dogma is generally 
regarded as beginning with the caliphate of C A1I and 
the appearance of the Khawaridj and Sht c a as 
distinct religio-political parties, the one making 
justice according to the Scripture the supreme 
principle, while the other looked for a leader from 
the household of Muhammad. For at least the first 
two centuries of Islam religion and politics were 



inextricably mingled, but the topic has not been 
fully investigated. The exclusiveness of the Khawa- 
ridj was opposed by the inclusiveness of the Murdji'a, 
who refused to treat Muslims who had committed 
grave sins as unbelievers (and could therefore remain 
loyal to caliphs of whom they disapproved). As these 
sects had many subdivisions with differing views, 
there was a great variety of doctrine by the middle 
of the 2nd/8th century. In the second half of that 
century elaborate intellectual arguments about 
doctrine appeared, inspired partly by Greek and 
Christian thought. This may be regarded as the 
beginning of kaldm or theology [q.v.]. It influenced the 
formulation of dogma to the extent that some 
philosophical terms were introduced into the theo- 
logians' creeds, e.g. when they said that God is 
neither substance nor accident (djawhar, '■araf), or 
when al-Sanusi prefaces his creed by distinguishing 
between the necessary, the impossible and the 
possible. The opposition to this intellectualizing 
tendency, which probably always existed, found its 
chief exponent in Ibn Taymiyya. The statements of 
their position by Sufis often contain, besides their 
specifically mystical teaching, a section dealing with 
their attitude on matters of dogma. 

3. The main Dogmas of Islam. No credal 
statement has been accepted even by all Sunni 
Muslims as the standard account of Islamic dogma. 
The following brief account has been compiled from 
various creeds (chiefly those of al-Baghdadi, al- 
Ghazall and Nadjm al-DIn al-Nasafi), though not in 
their precise words. Short comments have been 
added. For fuller details see the articles referred to 

(a) God [see allah] is one; there is no god except 
Him; He has no partner nor wife; He neither begets 
nor is begotten. — This article of faith belongs to 
Muhammad's Meccan period, though it was given 
no emphasis in the earliest passages of the Kur'an. 
It soon became necessary, however, to insist that 
Muhammad's doctrine was incompatible with the 
vague monotheism apparently current in Mecca, 
which, while acknowledging God as supreme, 
tolerated lesser deities. Hence in the later Meccan 
surahs strict monotheism was vigorously proclaimed, 
and shirk [q.v.], the giving of partners to God, i.e. 
polytheism, became a serious sin. When the Muslims 
came into closer contact with Christians, they 
regarded the current interpretations of the doctrine 
of the Trinity as an infringement of this article of 
faith. This is the point chosen for emphasis in the 
first clause of the shahdda. 

(b) God exists; His existence is rationally proved 
from the originated character of the world. — When 
the Muslims had to defend their religion against 
materialists and other unbelievers, some of them 
offered rational proofs of the existence of God. These 
were given at length in the theological treatises, and 
came to influence the credal statements (cf. al- 
Baghdadi, Nadjm al-DIn al-Nasafi). Some schools 
(cf. al-Sanusi) treated existence (wudi&d) as one of 
God's attributes. This implied a distinction between 
essence and existence which was opposed by the 
early Ash'ariyya and Ibn Taymiyya. 

(c) God is eternal; His existence has neither be- 
ginning nor end. — This calls for no comment except 
on the difficulty of translation. Arabic has no single 
word for"etemal"./fa<i*m (properly "old"or"ancient" 
and azali mean "being from eternity" or "having no 
beginning", while bdki" and abadi mean "being to 
eternity" or "having no end" [cf. abad, ijidam]. 
Consequently the renderings in European languages 



333 



puzzle the uninitiated, e.g. "priority" and 
"continuance" for the hypostatized attributes kidam 
and bakd 3 . Perhaps "pre-etemity" and "post-eternity" 
might be suggested. 

(d) God is different from created things. He does 
not resemble any of them, and none of them resembles 
Him. He is not a body nor a substance nor the 
accident of a substance. He is not bounded nor 
limited in any way; He does not have a position in 
space; He may not be said to be in any direction. 
He sits on the throne ( c arsh), but only in the sense 
in which He Himself intended. He is above the 
throne and the heavens, but at the same time is 
"nearer to man than his jugular vein" (K.ur'an, 1, 
16/15). He is not subject to movement or change or 
suffering. — The otherness (mukhala/a) of God is 
presupposed in . Islamic thinking from the Rur'an 
onward, but only gradually became an explicit 
article of faith; al-Sanusi makes mukhdlafa one of 
the negative attributes of God. At an earlier period 
the main body of Muslims came to regard the 
Mushabbiha (those who made God resemble man) 
as unorthodox [cf. tashbJh]. This was chiefly with 
regard to the interpretation of the anthropomorphic 
expressions in the Kur'an, such as God's sitting on 
the throne and having hands and a face. At the 
other extreme from the Mushabbiha were those, like 
the Mu'tazila, who interpreted the terms metapho- 
rically. The central position was that of those who 
said the terms were to be taken neither literally 
nor metaphorically but bi-ld kayf ("without how' ), i.e. 
without specifying their manner or modality, or, as 
it was sometimes expressed, "in the sense in which 
God intended them" when He used them in the 
Rur'an. It was emphasized that God was not 
corporeal and not material, and those who held that 
view were sometimes called Mudjassima. From the 
5th/ nth century onwards the followers of al-Ash c ari 
and other orthodox theologians, but not the Hana- 
bila, largely abandoned bi-ld kayf and accepted 
metaphorical interpretations of anthropomorphic 

(e) God will be seen by the faithful in the world 
to come. — This article occasioned great difficulty 
because of God's incorporeality. The Mu'tazila and 
others denied the possibility of any vision of God. 
Pirar suggested that a sixth sense would be created. 
Eventually, however, it was generally agreed to 
accept the doctrine bi-ld kayf, and to avoid any 
inferences from it which involved corporeality. 

(f) God is eternally powerful (or omnipotent), 
knowing (or omniscient), living, willing, hearing, 
seeing, speaking. He is so by the attributes of power, 
knowledge, life, will, hearing, sight and speech. 
These attributes are eternal; they are not God, yet 
not other than God. His power extends to everything, 
and no inadequacy or weakness characterizes Him. 
He knows everything, even what is concealed and 
secret, even the creeping of a black ant on a rugged 
rock on a pitch-black night. — These seven attributes 
{si/at [q.v.]) received special attention from the 
theologians from the 3rd/9th century on. The 
discussion probably arose out of the question 
whether the Kur 3 5n was created or uncreated (see 
below). If the Kur 3 an was uncreated, it was an 
eternal entity existing in relative independence of 
God's essence, even though it was His speech. For 
the Diahmivva and Mu'tazila this view was unsatis- 
factory, and they asserted that God does not possess 
attributes of power, knowledge, speech, etc. which 
are distinct from His essence. In their view it is by 
His essence that He knows. Opponents called this 



334 'A 

ta'fil, "stripping" (sc. God of His attributes), and the 
upholders of it Mu'attila. Those who held that God 
knows by an attribute of knowledge, neither iden- 
tical with His essence nor distinct from it, are 
sometimes known as Sifatiyya, and include the 
Ash'ariyya and other orthodox theologians. The 
points at issue were discussed with much subtlety, 
and in al-Saniisi and al-Faddali a further distinction 
is drawn between God's power and His "being 
powerful" (kawn k&dir—), etc.; the first groupa re 
known as si/at al-ma'dni and the second as al-fifdl 
al-ma'nawiyya (perhaps to be rendered "attributes 
which are hypostatized concepts or aspects" and 
"attributes connected with hypostatized concepts"). 
It was doubtless because of their importance in 
popular religion that hearing and seeing were 
retained among the seven. 

(g) The Kur'an [q.v.] is the eternal and uncreated 
speech of God. This eternal speech is repeated by 
men's tongues, written in their copies of the Kur'an 
and remembered in their hearts, yet it is distinct 
from its material embodiments. — The doctrine of 
the uncreated character of the Kur'an was doubtless 
advanced in order to justify its position as the chief 
foundation of law and doctrine. The opponents, 
who included the Djahmiyya, the Mu'tazila, and the 
central government of the caliphate from about 
217/832 to 234/849 [cf. mihna], were sympathetic 
politically to certain groups of the Shi'a; and the 
ShI'a tended to set the imamate above the written 
scripture. (It is still the view of the ShI'a that the 
Kur'an is created.) The Maturidiyya and other 
followers of Abu Hanifa rejected the Ash'ariyya's 
view that the eternal speech of God can be heard. 

(h) God's will is supreme and always effective; 
"what He wills exists, and what He does not will 
does not exist". Thus He wills all things, good and 
evil, though He does not command or approve of 
all. There is no obligation of any sort upon Him, 
e.g. to do what is best for men, or to reward them 
for good works, or to command them to do only what 
they are able to perform. Actions are good or bad 
because He commands or forbids them, and not in 
themselves; He could, if He so willed, change what 
is good and bad. — The sovereignty of God's will in 
the world was thought to be impaired by the Mu'ta- 
zila's assertion of man's free will, and was vigorously 
re-asserted by the orthodox. The Mu'tazila also held 
that God was bound by our (sc. human and rational) 
conceptions of good and bad. Al-Ash c ari and some 
of his followers opposed this, maintaining that good 
and bad are known only by revelation. They further 
asserted that God may punish one who obeys Him, 
that He may change a faithful man into an infidel 
(and that therefore when one says "I am a believer" 
one ought to add "if God will" [cf. istitjjna']), and 
that God may impose on men duties that are beyond 
their powers. The Maturidiyya took a contrary view 
on these and similar problems, though affirming the 
sovereignty of God's will against the Mu'tazila. The 
later and more intellectualistic theologians emphasize 
the supremacy of God's will at the time of events, 
but in the earlier and more popular creeds, the stress 
is on God's determination of events beforehand [cf. 
ijadar]; and thus al-Ash c ari himself includes in his 
creed the doctrine that whether a man dies or is 
killed his death takes place at his appointed term 
(adjal [q.v.]). 

(i) Man's acts are created by God, but are never- 
theless properly attributed to man. They proceed 
from a power (kudra, istitd'a) in the man, but this 
power is created by God; God does so at the moment 



of the act, not before it. — The leading orthodox 
theologians all try to find a middle way between 
absolute determinism (djabr) and absolute free will 
(kadar). The argument of the Mu'tazila, that God's 
justice C-adl) presupposed that men could properly 
be punished or rewarded for their acts, forced 
orthodoxy to deny that men were mere automata. 
The Ash'ariyya (and others before them — cf. JRAS, 
1943, 234-47) used the vague word kasb [q.v.] or 
iktis&b, "acquiring", to describe the relation of man 
to his act. They held that, though the act proceeded 
from a power in the man, this power was created 
by God at the moment of the act for this specific 
purpose and no other. The Mu'tazila on the other 
hand held that the power was created before the 
act and was power to do either the act or its opposite, 
(j) God is also characterized by active attributes 
(fifat/i'liyya), such as creating and giving sustenance. 
— Some, especially the Ash'ariyya, held that God 
cannot be called creator, sustainer, etc. until He has 
created or given sustenance; as this implies the 
existence of originated beings, these attributes 
cannot be eternal. On the other hand, some, like 
the Maturidiyya, held that God is eternally creator, 

(k) Only those names (or attributes) are applicable 
to God which are to be found in the Kur'an and 
sound traditions, or are sanctioned by idjma'. — 
The Mu'tazila argued that names might be applied 
to God by inference. It is commonly held that there 
are 99 names [cf. al-asma' al-husnA], but in fact 

(1) The questioning by Munkar and Naklr, and 
the punishment of the tomb, are realities; so also 
are the signs of the end, such as the slaying of the 
Dadjdjal by <Isa.— Between death and the resur- 
rection on the Last Day men will be questioned in 
the graves by two angels, Munkar and Naklr, and 
rewarded or punished. Various signs of the coming 
of the Last Day are also mentioned. These are popular 
beliefs, based on Tradition and not on the Kur'an, 
but they have been incorporated into the creeds [cf. 
'adhab al-kabr]. Among the Shl'a special emphasis 
is laid on the Return (radfa [q.v.]), i.e. of the Mahdl 
and of a limited number of very good and very bad 
people; this is for the punishment of the latter and 
the glorification of the household of Muhammad 
(cf. D. M. Donaldson, The ShiHte Religion, London 
1933, 236 f.). This return to earth before the Last Day, 
though "a preliminary judgement", is to be distin- 
guished from God's final judgement. 

(m) God will judge all men on tbe Last Day 
[cf. kiyama]. The balance (mizan), the bridge (sirdt) 
and the pool (hawd) are realities. — The central fact 
of judgement is prominent in the Kur'an, and the 
balance on which men's deeds are weighed is hinted 
at (cf. Wensinck, Muslim Creed, 167ft.). The pool 
or basin of Muhammad, from which he quenches for 
ever the thirst of his followers, and the knife-edge 
bridge over the pit of Hell, from which the wicked 
fall down, come from popular conceptions. The 
various ideas were reconciled with one another only 
by the later systematizers. 

(n) Certain persons, and notably Muhammad, will 
be permitted by God to intercede for others on 
the Last Day [cf. shafA'a]. Muhammad will intercede 
for sinners of his community. — This was denied by 
the Mu'tazila on Kur'anic grounds, but ultimately 
gained general acceptance. 

(o) Paradise and Hell already exist, and will 
continue to exist eternally [cf. djanna, djahannam]. 
Grave sinners of the Muslim community will be 



punished in Hell, t 

will r, - _ . . 

other sects held that Paradise and Hell would not 
be created until the Last Day and would cease to 
exist after a time, but the majority rejected this 
view. There are some divergences about the precise 
late of Muslims who are sinners, but it is generally 
agreed that by intercession of otherwise they will 
eventually be released from Hell, if they enter it 
at all. 

(p) Prayers for the dead and alms offered on 
behalf of them are advantageous to them. 

(q) God has sent to mankind messengers (rusul) 
and prophets (anbiya'). The prophets are above 
saints and angels. Muhammad is the seal of the 
prophets and the most excellent of them. — The Fikh 
AJtbar ascribed to al-Shafi'i says there are 120,000 
prophets and 313 messengers. 

(r) Prophets are preserved (ma'sum) from all sin 
by God.— This was the view of the Maturidiyya 
and other followers of Abu Hanlfa, but the Ash'ariyya 
admitted that they might commit light sins. 

(s) The best of men after the prophets are Abu 
Bakr, then 'Umar, then 'Uthman, then 'All.— This 
assertion of the acceptance of the first four caliphs 
in order is made in opposition to the Shi'a who held 
that <Ali was best. 

(t) No Companion of Muhammad is mentioned 
except for good.— This was to bury the quarrels 
about rights and wrongs of 'Uthman, of Talha and 
al-Zubayr, etc. It was directed mainly against the 
Shi'a. 

(u) Unbelief (ku/r), or the status of being an 
unbeliever, does not necessarily follow the commis- 
sion of sin by a believer. — This was directed against 
the Khawaridj, who excommunicated anyone guilty 

(v) Faith is knowing in the heart, confessing with 
the tongue and performing works. It increases and 
decreases [cf. Iman]. — Many others, however, 
notably the Ash'ariyya, said that works were not a 
part of faith, and that faith did not increase and 

(w) Faith and unbelief are due to God's guidance 
and abandonment (khidhldn) respectively. 

(x) (Some later creeds also contain articles about 
the nature of knowledge and true report, and other 
philosophical matters.) 

Bibliography: A. Selected Creeds: — (1) 
Fikh Akbar I (c. 150/767); (2) Wasiyyat Abi 
Hanifa(c. 210/825); (3) Fikh Akbar II (c. 350/961); 
these three works with commentaries were publi- 
shed in a composite volume in Hyderabad, 1321/ 
1903; all are translated and commented on by 
Wensinck, op. cit. infra; tr. of (1) by J. Schacht, 
Religionsgeschichtliches Lesebuch 1 , Tubingen 1931, 
35 ff., and of (3) by J. Hell in Von Mohammed bis 
Ghazdli, Jena 1915; all are Hanafi. (4) Muhammad 
b. 'Ukkasha (of the Murdji'a, c. 225/840), 'akida, 
in Ibn <Asakir, al-Ta'rikh al-Kabir (Badran), iii, 
131 f.; (5) <Abd Allah b. Sulayman b. Abi Da'ud 
(of the Ahl al-Hadith, d. 316/928), metrical 'akida, 
in 'Ashr RasdHl wa-'Aka'id Salafiyya, Cairo 
1351/1932; (6) Al-Tahawi (Hanafi, d. 933/321). 
Baydn al-Sunna wa 'l-Qjama'a, Aleppo 1344/1924, 
tr. by J. Hell, op. cit., and by E. E. Elder, in 
Macdonald Presentation Volume, 129-44; analyzed 
by J. Schacht, in IsL, xxi, 288 ff . ; (7) Al-Ash'ari 
(d. 324/936), Kawl Ahl al-tfakk wa-'l-Sunna, in 
al-lbana, Hyderabad 1903/1321, 7-13; also Cairo 
1348/1929, 8-13; tr. by Macdonald, Development, 
293-99 (from text in W. Spitta, Zur Geschichte . . . 



al-Ai'art's, Leipzig 1876, 133 ft.); also by W. C. 
Klein, in tr. of Ibdna, New Haven 1940; a slightly 
different form appears in his Makaldt al-Islamiyyin 
(Ritter), i, 290-97, tr. by Schacht, op. cit., 56, and 
by Klein, op. cit., 31-45; (8) al-Hasan b. 'All b. 
Khalaf al-Barbahari (of the Hanabila, d. 329/941), 
extracts from his Shark K. al-Sunna, in Ibn Abi 
Ya'la, Tabakdt al-Hanabila (abbreviated by al- 
NabulusI), Damascus 1350/1931, 301-3. (9) Al- 
Samarkandl, Abu '1-Layth Nasr (of the Maturidiyya 
d- 373/983), 'Akida, ed. A. W. Th. Juynboll, in 
TTLV, 1881, 215-31, 267-74; (10) Ibn Abi Zayd 
al-Kayrawani, Al-Risdla, ed. and tr. by L. Bercher, 
Algiers, 1945, 18-27 (Maliki, d. 386/996); (11) Fikh 
Akbar III, falsely attributed to al-Shafi c i (of the 
Ash'ariyya, ? c. 400/1010), MS. Cairo, Madimu'a 
23, fols. 45-58; summarized by Wensinck, op. cit. 
infra; (12) Al-Baghdadl, <Abd al-Kahir b. Tahir 
(of the Ash'ariyya, d. 429/1037), al-Fark, 309-52; 
tr. by A. S. Halkin, in Moslem Schisms and Sects, 
Part II, Tel-Aviv 1935; (13) Isma'il b. <Abd al- 
Rahman al-Sabunl (of the Ahl al-Hadith, d. 449/ 
1057), 'Akidal al-Salaf wa-Ashab al-Hadith, in 
Madimu'at al-RasaHl al-Muniriyya, i, Cairo 1343/ 
1925, 105-35; (14) al-Djuwaynl (of the Ash'ariyya, 
d. 478/1085), al-'Akida al-Nizdmiyya, Cairo 1367/ 
1948; (15) al-Ghazali (of the Ash'ariyya, d. 505/ 
1111), al-Risdla al-Kudsiyya, incorporated in book 
ii of the Ihya 1 , numerous edd.; tr. by H. Bauer, in 
Die Dogmatik Al-Ghazali's, Halle 1912; and by 
Macdonald, op. cit. infra; (16) Ibn Tiimert (Mahdl 
of the al-Muwahhidun, d. 524/1130), 'Akida, in 
Le Livre de Mohammed Ibn Toumert, Algiers 1903, 
229-33 ; tr- by H. Masse, in Memorial Henri Basset, 
ii, 105-17; (17) Al-Nasafi, Nadjm al-Din Abu 
Hafs 'Umar, (Hanafiyya, d. 537/1142), 'Aka'id, 
ed. W. Cureton, London, 1843; numerous edd. of 
the commentary on it by al-Taf tazani (d. 791/1 389) ; 
tr. by M. d'Ohsson, Tableau general de I'empire 
ottoman, i, 21 ff. ; also by Macdonald, op. cit. infra, 
by Schacht, op. cit., 81 ff. and by E. E. Elder as 
part of the commentary by al-Taftazanl in A Com- 
mentary on the Creed of Islam, New York 1950; 
(18) Ibn Kudama, (of the Hanabila, d. 620/1223), 
'Akida, in Madimu', Cairo 1329, 551-60; (19) Al- 
Nasafi, Hafiz al-Din Abu '1-Barakat, (Hanafiyya, 
d. 710/1310), 'Umdat '■Akidat Ahl al-Sunna wa- 
'l-Diama'a. ed. W. Cureton, London 1843; 

(20) Ibn Taymiyya (of the Hanabila, d. 728/1328), 
Al-'Akida al-Wdsi(iyya, in Madxmu'at al-Rasd'il 
al-Kubra, Cairo 1323/1905, i, 387-406; also Al- 
' Akida al-fiamawiyya al-Kubra, ibid., i, 414-69; 

(21) Al-Idji (of the Ash'ariyya, d. 756/1355), creed 
known as Al-'AkaHd al-'Adudiyya, in a volume 
containing the Commentaries by al-Siyalkutl and 
Muhammad 'Abduh on Shark al-'Akd'id al- 
'■Adudiyya by al-Dawwanl, Cairo 1322/1904; 

(22) Al-Sanusi (d. 895/1490), Umm al-Barahin, also 
known as 'Akidat Ahl al-Tawhid al-Sughra and 
Al-Sanusiyya, ed. with Germ. tr. by M. Wolff, 
Leipzig 1848; many oriental edd., esp. with com- 
mentary by al-Baydjuri; tr. by J.-D. Luciani, 
Petit Traiti de Thiologie Musulmane, Algiers 1896, 
and G. Delphin, La Philosophic du cheikh Senoussi 
d'apris son Aqidah es-soghra, J A , 9th ser., x, 356-70; 
summarized by Wensinck, 275 f. ; (33) Birgewi (of 
the Hanafiyya, d. 981/1573), Wasiyyat-i Birgewi, 
in Turkish, various edd. ; tr. by G. de Tassy in 
L'Islamisme d'apris le Coran', Paris 1874, 127-60; 
(24) Al-Lakani (Maliki, d. 1041/1631), Djawharat 
al-Tawhid, in verse, ed. with commentary by al- 
Baydjuri, Cairo, various dates; ed. and tr. by 



336 



'AKlDA - 



J.-D. Luciani, La Djaouhara, Algiers 1907; 
(25) Al-Fadali (d. 1237/1821), Kifdyat aX-'-Awdmm 
ft <Ilm al-Kalam, Cairo 1315/1897, etc.; tr. by 
Macdonald, 315-51; (26) Muhammad b. 'Abd al- 
Latlf Al b. 'Abd al-Wahhab (of the Wahhabiyya), 
'Akida, in al-Hadiyya al-Sunniyya, Cairo 1342/ 
1924, 91-9; tr. by H. Laoust, in Essai sur les 
doctrines societies et politiques de . . . B. Taimiya, 
Cairo 1939, 615-24; (27) Shaykh Saduk (of the 
Ithna' Ashariyya, d. 381/991), Ris&lat al-IHikdddt 
al-Imdmiyya, ed. in composite vols. Tehran 1274/ 
1857, and Nadjaf 1343/1924; tr. by A. A. A. 
Fyzee as A ShiHte Creed, London 1942 ; (28) Say- 
yid-na c Ali b. Muhammad b. al-Walld (of the 
Isma'iliyya, d. 612/1215), Tddj al-'Ak&Hd; abridg- 
ed tr. by W. Ivanow, A Creed of the Fatimids, 
Bombay 1936; (29) al- l Alldma al-IJilli (of the 
Ithna 'Ashariyya, d. 726/1326), Al-Bdb al-ffddi 
'Ashar, tr. with commentary by al-Mikdad al- 
Hilll by W. M. Miller, London 1928; (30) Abu 
Hafs 'Umar b. Djaml' (of the Ibadiyya, 8th/i4th 
century), Mukaddimat al-Tawhid; ed. and tr. by 
A. de C. Motylinski, in Recueil de Mlmoires et de 
textes, publii en I'honneur du XIV* Congris des 
Orientalistes, Algiers 1905, 505 ff.; several edd. 
with commentaries; (31) For statements of Sufi 
doctrine on dogma, cf. e.g. al-Kalabadhl, al- 
Ta'arruf, ed. by A. J. Arberry, Cairo 1353/1934 
and tr. by him as The Doctrine of the Sufis, 
Cambridge 1935; Ibn al-'Arabi (d. 638/1240), 
'■Akidat Ahl al-Isldm, in Madimu'at Sitt RasdHl, 
Cairo and Kadiyan, n.d. 47-56. Cf. also Hadjdii 
Khalifa and Brockelmann, Index, s.v. 'Akida, 
AkdHd, etc. 

B. General Works. H. Lammens, L'Islam, 
croyances et institutions, Beirut 1926; Eng. tr. 
by E. D. Ross, London 1929; I. Goldziher, 
Vorlesungen'; A. J. Wensinck, The Muslim Creed, 
Cambridge 1932; D. B. Macdonald, Development 
of Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence and Constitu- 
tional Theory, London and New York 1903 etc.; 
W. Montgomery Watt, Free Will and Predestination 
in early Islam, London 1948; A. S. Tritton, 
Muslim Theology, London 1947; L. Gardet and 
M.-M. Anawati, Introduction d la Thiologie Musul- 
mane, Paris 1948. (W. Montgomery Watt) 
'AKIF PASHA [see muhammad 'akif pasha]. 
'Aglg (a.; nomen unitatis: 'Aklka) is the name 
of the cornelian, which is found in Arabia in 
various colours and qualities, of which the red 
shade is especially in demand. The cornelian has 
of old been exported from Yaman (al-Shihr) via 
San'a' to the ports of the Mediterranean; and also 
from India. It was used for seal-rings, for ladies' 
ornaments and even costly mosaics, for example in 
the mihrdb of the great mosque at Damascus (accord- 
ing to al-Makdisi, 157). It was used as a medicine for 
the preservation of the teeth; superstitious belief 
ascribed to the cornelian in the seal-ring the power 
of soothing the heart — especially in battle — and 
of stopping hemorrhage. Even Muljammed is said, 
according to some traditions, to have shared this 
belief and to have confirmed the power of the 
seal to give happiness and to protect from poverty. 
(Similar beliefs are attached to the cornelian also in 
Europe, cf. HandwMerbuch d. Deutschen Aber- 
glaubens, s.v. Karneol.) Down to the present day the 
cornelian has remained a favourite neck-ornament 
for women, and the name 'akik has been trans- 
ferred to any kind of necklace which is of a red 
colour, whether made of glass or shells or other 
materials. 



al-'AKIK 

Bibliography : BIrunJ, al-Qiamdhir ft Ma*rifat 

al-Djawdhir, 172 ff.; Kazwlnl (Wustenfeld), i, 230; 

Ibn al-Baytar, at-Djdmi^, Bulak 1291, iii, 128; 

Tlfashi, Ashdr al-Afkdr; TA, vii, 15; Dozy, 

Suppl., ii, 145; Lane, Modern Egyptians, London 

1836, ii, 358; J. J. Clement Mullet, in J A, 1868, 

i, 157. (J- Hell*) 

al-'AKIIJ, the name of a number of valleys, 

mines, and other places in Arabia and elsewhere. 

When applied to valleys, 'Akik is used in the sense 

of a bed cut out by a stream ; when applied to mines, 

it may refer either to stones such as the cornelian 

('aftift) or more generally to any mineral cut away 

from its source. The name is much used by the 

Arab poets, who do not always make clear which 

of the many 'Akiks they have in mind. 

The best known of the 'Akiks is the valley passing 
just west of Medina, from which it is separated 
by Harrat al-Wabra. It continues northwards to 
join Wadi al-Hamd [}.».], the classical Idam, which 
empties into the Red Sea south of al-Wadjh. The 
mountain c Ayr south of Medina rises above the 
right bank of al-'Aklk, which draws much of its 
water from the neighbouring lava beds. After heavy 
rains the valley is filled with a broad river which has 
been compared with the Euphrates; when the rains 
fail, only the wells remain to slake the thirst of men, 
beasts, and plants. 

In the Prophet's time the first stage of the route 
from Medina to Mecca ran through al-'Aklk to 
Dh u '1-Hulayfa, as does the present road. Numerous 
traditions speak of the fondness Muhammad had 
for al-'Akik, the "blessed valley" in which he was 
once told to pray by a messenger from God. As the 
valley lay within the territory of Muzayna, Muham- 
mad gave it as a kafi^a to Bilal b. al-Harith of this 
tribe. Muhammad also established a reserve (himd) 
for the Muslims' horses at al-Nakl' a good distance 
up the valley from Medina. Bilal having done 
nothing to improve his land, the Caliph 'Umar took 
most of it from him and distributed it among 
deserving Muslims. For several generations thereafter 
the valley flourished: wells were dug, gardens and 
fields abounded, and the country houses (kusur) of 
c Alids and other Medinan notables witnessed parties 
where the entertainment was hardly in keeping with 
the sober spirit of the first days of Islam. (Cf. 
H. Lammens, Berceau de V Islam, 98; idem, Le 
rigne de Mo'dwia, index — with further references.) 
Sa'd b. Abi Wakkas retired to his estate in al- 
'Akik on the election of 'All as Caliph. The poets 
lavished praise on the lovely scene and the famous 
wells, particularly Bi'r Ruma (now known as Bi'r 
'Uthman after c Uthman b. 'Affan, who bought it 
from its Jewish owner and gave its water to the 
Muslims) and Bi'r 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr. The water 
of al- c Akik was so sweet that it was sent all the 
way to Harun al-Rashld in 'Irak. With the decline 
of 'Abbasid power and the increase of insecurity in 
al-Hidjaz, the valley lapsed into its old somnolence, 
to remain there for centuries. 

Another 'Aklk, sometimes called 'Aklk Dhat 'Irk 
by the older authors, extends northwards from 
the vicinity of al-Ta'if along the inner side of 
the main mountain range of al-Hidjaz. Some writers 
state that this valley is connected with 'Aklk al- 
Madina, but recent hydrographic studies have shown 
that it empties instead into a large swampy basin 
called al-'Akul between Mecca and Medina. 

A great valley in Central Arabia was known 
in classical times as 'Aklk al-Yamama or 'Aklfc 
Tamra. Although the descriptions given by the 



.-'AtflS — 'AtflLA 



337 



older authors are meager, there is little doubt about 
the identification of this valley with the present 
Wadi'l-Dawasir [}.».], a small settlement in which 
still bears the name Tamra, while a nearby salt flat 
in the valley bed is still called al-'Aklk. According 
to al-Hamdani (i, 152), Tamra was a town with 
200 Jews. The same authority may well be mistaken 
in connecting the name of this valley with Ma'din 
al- c Akik, a mine he places in the vicinity, no trace of 
which has been found. Other mines with the same 
name are mentioned, but in such general terms 
that identifying them may be a hopeless task. 

In addition to various other valleys named al- 
'Aklk in Arabia, there has been at least one in 
'Irak south of the Euphrates (cf. W. Wright, 
Opuscula arab., no; ffamdsa, i, 468; Aghdni, vii, 
123; al-DInawarl, 260). On the Sudanese shore 
of the Red Sea a village named c AkIk (without the 
definite article) stands on a gulf of the same name 
southwest of Sawakin. 

Bibliography: HamdanI, index; Bakri, Mu<- 
djam, s.v. and "al-Nakl 1 "; Yakut, s.v.; Aghdni, 
index; SamhudI, Wafa' al-Wafa', Cairo 1326, ii, 
186-226; Shakib Arslan, al-Irtisamdt al-Li(df, 
Cairo 1350, 211-4; M. IJusayn Haykal, Ft Manzil 
al-Wahy, Cairo 1356, index; H. St. J. B. Philby, 
A pilgrim in Arabia, London 1946, 50 ff. 

(G. Rbntz) 
<Agl£A (a.) is the name of the sacrifice on 
the seventh day after the birth of a child. 
According to religious law it is recommendable 
(mustahabb or sunna) on that day to give a name 
to the new-born child, to shave off its hair and 
to kill a victim, for a boy two rams or two he-goats, 
for a girl one of these according to the Shafi'ites, 
but in both cases only one according to the Malikites. 
If the offering of the l akika has been neglected on 
the seventh day, it can be done afterwards, even by 
the child itself when it has come of age. The greater 
part of the flesh of the sacrifice is distributed amongst 
the poor and indigent, but a meal (walima) for the 
family is recommendable. 

Some of the older scholars (amongst other Da'ud 
al-Zahiri) have looked upon the offering of the 
c akika as a duty. Abu Hanlfa on the contrary 
regarded it as optional. 

The shorn hair of the child is also called 'akika, 
and the law recommends to the faithful to spend 
a sum not less than the weight of this hair in silver 
(or gold) in almsgiving. 

The 'akika sacrifice was doubtless derived from 
old Arabian heathenism. The Prophet is said to 
have observed: "When some one wishes to offer 
a sacrifice for his new-born child, he may do so". 
In heathenish times it was the custom to wet the 
child's head with the blood of the animal. According 
to some traditions Muhammed had allowed the 
Muslims to do the same. The jurisconsults maintain 
that this custom is not desirable {sunna) but it is 
done, e.g. in Palestine. 

According to Doughty (Travels in Arabia Deserta, 
i, 452) the 'akika is one of the most frequent sacrificial 
ceremonies in the Arabian desert, but there it is only 
performed at the birth of a boy, never when a girl 

Bibliography: Wensinck, Handbook s.v.; 
Badjurl, Cairo 1326, ii, 311 ff. and the other fikh- 
books; Dimashki, Rahmat al-Umma fi 'kJUilaf aU 
A'imma, Bulak 1300, 61; Juynboll, Handbuch 
160 f., 169; I. Guidi, II Muhtasar, i, Milano 1919, 
338 f.; J. Wellhausen, Reste*, 174; idem, Die 
Ehe bei den Arabern (NGW Gdttingen, 1893), 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



459; W. Robertson Smith, Kinship and marriage 
in early Arabia (new ed. 1907), 179 ff.; idem, The 
religion of the Semites (3. ed. 1927), 329; G. A. 
Wilken, Vber das Haaropfer etc., 92 (Revue coloniale 
Internationale, 1887, i, 381); J. Chelhod, Le Sacri- 
fice chez les Arabes, Paris 1955, index, and works 
quoted, 137-40; Lane, Manners and Customs 
(Everyman's library), 55; J. A. Jaussen, Coutumes 
Palestiniennes, i, Naplouse (1927), 37 ff.; H. 
Granquist, Birth and Childhood among the Arabs 
(1947), 88, 240; Snouck Hurgronje, Mekka, ii, 137; 
J. S. Trimingham, Islam in the Sudan (1949), 180 f. 
— Concerning the 'akika in Indonesia cf . C. Snouck 
Hurgronje, De Atjehers, i, 423 (= The Achehnese, 
i, 384); van Hasselt, Midden-Sumatra, 269 ft.; 
Matthes, Bijdragen tot de ethnologic van Zuid- 
Celebes, 67. (Th. W. Juynboix-J. Pedersen) 
C A£IL [see balioh]. 

'AfclL b. ABl TALIB, elder brother of 'All, 
who was 20 years his junior. After fighting against the 
Muslims at Badr, where he was taken prisoner and 
ransomed by al-'Abbas, he became a convert to 
Islam. The sources give contradictory information 
as to the date of this event (after the capture of 
Mecca, according to al-Baladhuri; shortly before or 
after the pact of al-Hudaybiya, according to Ibn 
Hadjar, etc.), as well as on his participation in the 
IChaybar and Muta expeditions, the capture of 
Mecca, and the battle of Hunayn. During the 
struggle between 'All and Mu'awiya, he ranged 
himself on the side of the Umayyad because his 
brother, it is said, refused to draw on the state 
coffers in order to pay a debt to him, but the 
estrangement between the two brothers probably 
had political causes. Yet 'Akll would never allow 
anyone to insult C AU in his presence. 

He had "an extremely prosperous household" and 
a considerable entourage. He died, probably in 
50/670, and was buried at Medina. He left several 
sons who joined al-Husayn at the time of his rebellion 
against Yazld; one of them, Muslim, was killed by 
Ibn Ziyad, and others, either six or nine in number, 
fell at Karbala 1 . <Akfl left a reputation not only as 
a great authority on genealogies and the history of 
Uuraysh, on the strength of which he became one 
of the four arbiters (hakam) of Kuraysh, and was 
summoned by 'Umar to assist in compiling the 
diwan, but also as a man endowed with great natural 
eloquence; his swift and pungent retorts are often 
quoted by the historians. 

Bibliography : Ibn Sa c d, iv/i, 28-30 and index; 
Djafci?, Bayan, index; Ibn Kutayba, Ma'arif, 
index ; Baladhurl, Ansab, ms. Paris, 4i6r-4i7v; 
Tabari, iii, 2340 ft. and index; Fihrist, Cairo ed., 
140; Mas'udI, Murudi, v, 89-93 and index; Ibn 
al-Athlr, Usd, Cairo ed., iii, 422-24; Ibn Hadjar, 
Isaba, Calcutta ed., no. 9994, Cairo ed. no. 5628; 
idem, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, Hyderabad 1325-27, 
vii, no. 463; Aghdni, xv, 45 ff. and Tables; 
BayhakI, Mahasin, 492; Ibn <Abd Rabbih, <Ikd, 
Bulak 1293, ", 133 «.; SafadI, Nakt, 200; Nawawl, 
Tahdhib al-Asma*, 426-27; H. Lammens, £tudes 
sur le rigne du calife Omayade Mo'awia I", Beirut 
1906-7, 91, 112-3, 175 ff. A series of anecdotes, 
translated from Baladhurl, are to be found in 
Caetani, Annali, 37 A.H. and 176, and several 
other quotations exist in his Chronographia, 
50 A.H., no. 39, 551. (L. Veccia Vaglieri) 
'AglLA, one of the most significant institutions 
of Muslim penal law as regards both the origins and 
the sociological evolution of that law. 
The term 'dkila, pi. 'awdkil, denotes, as its ety- 



338 'A* 

mology would suggest, the group of persons 
upon whom devolves, as the result of a natural 
joint liability with the person who has committed 
homicide or inflicted bodily harm, the payment 
of compensation in cash or in kind. This com- 
pensation is called diya [q.v.], l akl, pi. l ukul, and also 
ma'kula, pi. ma'dkil, from a root meaning "to bind, 
shackle": the Arab lexicographers readily explain 
that it referred originally to the camels of the diya, 
which were given "shackled" to the victim or his 
inheritors (cf. Ibn liutayba, A dab al-Kdtib, 1346 
A. H., 52; LA, xiii, 487-8, which has a detailed 
account) ; but the classical jurists prefer to relate it 
to the idea of a "restraint" operating against the 
exercise of private revenge (cf. Germanic wergild). 
The original meaning is perhaps to be found in the 
classical expression 'akal" l-katil', "to pay the com- 
pensation for the victim of a murder", which possibly 
meant at first "to prevent the victim [from avenging] 
himself". 

This institution has its roots in the ancient Arab 
tribal principle of joint responsibility (Procksch, 
Vber die Blutrache etc., Leipzig 1899, 56-61 ; Morand, 
Etudes de droit mus. algirien, Paris 1910, 65-7; idem, 
Introd. a Vltude du droit mus. algirien, Paris 1921, 
210-12; Lammens, Arabie occidentale, 189). In Islam, 
it seems to be a survival not easy to reconcile with 
the individualist tendencies of religious doctrine 
which find expression, in the field of moral respon- 
sibility, in the liur'an (vi, 164): "no soul bears 
another's load." Fikh, however, approved of it 
(protests were raised by the Mu'tazilite Abu Bakr 
al-Asamm, and in Kharidjite circles), and several 
"hadiths" of the Prophet" (conveniently grouped, 
with a commentary, in al-Shawkanl, Nayl al-Aw(dr, 
1357 A. H., vii, 80-6) gave it the tardy support of 
Tradition: the Muwatta , of Malik only takes cogni- 
zance of such versions as are irrelevant to the 
question of the c dkila, which it discusses at consi- 
derable length without invoking any decision of the 
Prophet. Its incorporation into fikh was accompanied, 
however, by the imposition of highly restrictive 
regulations and even, in one of the principal schools 
of law, by an appreciable change in the principle of 
joint responsibility. 

Firstly, as was to be expected, ta'dkul, or joint 
liability by 'dkila, is not permissible between Muslims 
and non-Muslims (it is allowed between dhimmis, 
the conditions varying according to the school). 
Secondly, a factor of much greater importance, four 
other basic restrictions are laid down in the formula, 
valid in principle for all the orthodox schools: Id 
ta'kil" 'l- l dkilat* c amd" wa-ld 'abd°*wa-ldsulk'»wa-ld 
iHirdf": '"-akila does not intervene in the case of an 
intentional act, or a slave, or a compromise or a 
confession". The first of these restrictions, which 
limits the legal function of the institution to the case 
of non-intentional homicide or injury {khata' [f.v.]) 
— and most of those who allow this supplementary 
category include the quasi-intentional — is extremely 
important; there is a clear connection between it and 
the distinction drawn in the liur'an (ii, 178; iv, 92) 
between intentional and non-intentional homicide. 
The intentional act of a minor or an insane person 
is counted by the majority of authors as tantamount 
to a non-intentional act. The second restriction 
apparently denotes (the grammatical vindication of 
this was given by the grammarian al-Asma'I to the 
rlanafl kadi Abu Yusuf) that if the victim — and 
not the guilty party — is a slave, the l dkila of the 
guilty party does not intervene; but the Hanafis, 
followed with some hesitation by the ghafiMs, see 



the matter in a different light. The two remaining 
restrictions mentioned in the formula are represented 
by the jurists as seeking to prevent any collusion 
prejudicial to the members of the 'akila. 

Even more drastic is the Hanafi innovation which 
affects the members of the 'akila themselves. Among 
the pre- Islamic Arabs, only the relatives by parentage, 
real or fictitious, were concerned. The Muslim jurists 
have not departed from this customary view, with 
the exception of the Hanafis of 'Irak, who have 
accepted and confirmed an Umayyad administrative 
practice (Schacht, Origins, 207) which gave prece- 
dence to the joint liability between companions-in- 
arms entered on the same pay-roll or diwdn. This 
tallied with the tendency towards state control, be- 
cause the authorities could in this way directly 
guarantee compensation for the victim, by means of 
official deductions from pay. The experiment made 
by some early Malikis, obviously following the 
example of the 'Irakis, of taking the diwdn into 
account to a certain extent, was unsuccessful (com- 
pare c Abd al-Wahhab, Ishraf, ii, 194, with al-BadjI, 
Muntakd, vii, 113-4). 

The schools of law are thus virtually unanimous 
on the point that the 'dkila comprise, as in the pre- 
Islamic period, the 'asaba (cf. mIrath] of the guilty 
party, that is to say, the male relatives or agnates, 
after whom come, in the case of a freedman, the 
patron and his 'asaba (an old Shafi'i ruling in favour 
of the reciprocal obligation of the freedman towards 
the patron has not been generally accepted). As 
regards the agnates, the old system of kinship is 
seen here in all its force and clarity, more plainly 
even than in the rules governing inheritance; more- 
over, the agnatic relationship, in such a conservative 
question of penal law, continues to be interpreted 
with the greatest strictness: Malik, for example, 
stipulates that neither the husband nor the son or 
a woman who is a guilty party, although they are 
her heirs, can be a member of her 'dkila. The Shafi'Is 
are alone in excluding from the 'dkila the ancestors 
and descendants of a man who is the guilty party, 
though the Hanbalis are undecided on this point 
(Ibn Kudama, al-Mughni, 1367 A. H., vii, 784). 
Minors and insane persons are excluded from the 
'dkila, as are women. As regards the guilty person 
himself, it is certain that originally he was not 
party to the 'dkila which intervened on his behalf; 
although certain Malikis have incorporated him in 
it, it can be confidently asserted that this is in 
imitation of the Hanafis — an additional modification 
to be attributed to the latter (Brunschvig, in Studia 
Islamica, iii, 69). 

Hanafism has not completely excluded from the 
'dkila either the agnates or the patron by right of 
manumission; it even includes the contractual 
patron, to whom it alone of the orthodox schools 
accords legal status; and it places no limitations of 
time or degree on the agnatic relationship. But 
agnates and patrons, under this system, only play 
a suppletory role. Further, Hanafism justifies its 
theory of the superiority of the military diwdn to 
the 'asaba by declaring itself faithful to the tradi- 
tional idea of an overriding duty of "mutual assis- 
tance" (nusra, tandsur) as the basis of penal solidarity, 
and by adducing the changes which had occurred 
during the first century of Islam in the very com- 
position of the natural group of mutual aid; thus 
there was initiated among the members of this 
school a development of doctrine which led to the 
acceptance of the principle that, in default of the 
diwdn, members of the same suk or of the same 



profession, in a given locality or district, should 
between them perform the function of 'akila. Further 
developments occurred among the mediaeval Hana- 
fls, but the various jurists trod divergent and con- 
fused paths (the classical works on ikhtildf, 
through being over-condensed, give the illusion 
of a unified doctrine); some left the judge con- 
siderable scope for the exercise of his own discre- 
tion, others were inclined to provide a definitely 
geographical basis for the institution, at least in the 
absence of agnates. 

As a result of the dislocation of the tribes under 
Islam and their dispersal over vast areas of territory, 
the problem of a limitation either, again, of a geo- 
graphical nature, or connected with the degree of 
kinship, arose in the other schools, in which the role 
of the agnates retained its original importance. The 
Malikls had early signified their decision (Mudaw- 
wana, xvi, 198) that there should be no ta'dkul 
between the people of Egypt and Syria, for example, 
because they constituted different djunds (a faint 
tcho of the diwdn theory) ; and the Shafi'Is, who to 
begin with saw no impediment in any distance, 
however remote, wondered in their turn whether 
relations who were near at hand might not be called 
upon in preference to more closely connected relatives 
who lived at a distance (compare al-ShlrazI, Muhadh- 
dhab, ii, 214, with K. al-Umm, vi, 103). The Hanballs 
were not inclined to take geography into account 
at all; but, while the Shafi'Is rejected joint liability 
between tribes considered to be related, they, on 
the other hand, limited the institution to that 
fraction of the tribe in which kinship was clearly 
established (Mughni, vii, 786, 788). Again, within 
the framework of the social changes occasioned by 
Islam, and as a mark of its distrust of Bedouin life, 
there is recorded the attempt of several doctors to 
prevent ta'dkul between townsmen and nomads: 
the HanafI al-Sarakhs! emphasizes this point {Mabsuf, 
xxvii, 132-3); the Malikls, notwithstanding the 
Mudawwana, loc. cit., on the whole refused to follow 
this path (al-BadjI, al-Muntakd, vii, 98). 

Attention must be drawn here to a theoretical 
discussion, which occurs in detailed works of fikh, 
on the nature of the obligation devolving on the 
l dkila, and which is notable as an interesting example 
of Muslim legal thought, rather than for its proble- 
matical influence on practical solutions. Does this 
obligation rest on the 'dkila "per se" (ibtida*": 
this is the technical significance of this term, which 
}s sometimes not fully understood), that is, are they 
considered as debtors "per se", or does it result from 
a legal "transfer" (inlikdl) from the guilty party, the 
"acceptance of responsibility" (tahammul) being 
made by the group ? The second hypothesis allows 
emphasis to be placed on the idea of the "alle- 
viation" (takkfif) and the "generous help" (muw&sdt) 
which, although obligatory, are afforded by the 
c dkila to the guilty party. Hanafism seems to 
adhere to this theory. The other schools are undeci- 
ded; the ibtidd' of the responsibility, which they 
hesitate to affirm or maintain, would doubtless 
tally better than the rival theory with the primitive 
conception by which the clan, jointly responsible, 
feels itself bound to offer reparation collectively, 
as much or even more on its own behalf as on behalf 
of the guilty party. 

Again, as regards the amount of c akl and the 
modalities of the payment incumbent upon the 
'dkila, Muslim law has shown a tendency to restrict 
and regulate the institution. The Shafi'is alone have 
remained faithful, or have returned to their allegiance, 



LA 339 

to the settlement of the compensation by the '■dkila, 
whatever the amount may be (theoretical discussion 
by al-Shafi'I, Risdla, ed. Shakir, Cairo 1940, nos. 
1039 *"•. a n d K - al-Umm, vii, 297). The Malikls, on the 
other hand, followed by the Hanballs, have fixed, 
perhaps in conformity with an old government 
decision (K. al-Umm, loc. cit.; Schacht, loc. cit.), a 
minimum, representing a third of the whole diya, 
below which the 'dkila are not liable. The Hanafis, 
in the same way, but acting with greater moderation, 
have absolved the 'dkila from responsibility for 
sums less than 500 dirhams or — what amounts to 
the same thing according to them — i/20th of the 
whole diya, the legal rate for head injuries which "lay 
bare" (mudiha) the skull. Below these minima, 
therefore, the responsibility rests on the guilty party 
personally. 

All the schools have given their assent (exceptions 
apart) to the general rule, deriving almost certainly 
from Umayyad practice, which allows the 'dkila to 
discharge its liability by three consecutive annual 
payments (according to some to commence from 
the date of the injury, according to others from 
that of the agreement between the parties, or 
from the date of the conviction), instead of by 
the immediate payment of the whole. But they again 
reveal an appreciable difference of opinion on the 
method of assessment among the members. The 
Hanafis, who like accountantcy, and who are anxious 
to embarrass each member as little as possible, have 
opted for an extremely low maximum, to be the same 
for all — three or four dirhams per head. The Shafi'is, 
who aim at relieving the poor, have fixed two rates 
of contributions according to means, very similar to 
the preceding ones, but in this case revolving round 
a minimum — J dinar for the rich, \ for persons of 
more moderate means, proceeding from the nearest 
agnates to the most distant. The Malikls and Han- 
balls refuse to lay down any fixed amount; each of 
the agnates, in order of kinship, must pay according 
to his means; this was undoubtedly the ancient 
method. In an organized State, if an equal assessment 
is refused, the case must be referred to a judge; the 
schools concerned agree on this. 

The 'dkila reappears in a closely-connected penal 
institution, the kasdma [q.v.], but in slightly different 
forms from the ones just described. 

The Imainl ShI'ites have made virtually no 
innovations on the subject of the 'dkila. Their 
fundamental solutions are those of the orthodox 
doctors, with a preference now for one school, now 
for another. In their eyes, the persons jointly respon- 
sible are firet and foremost the agnates; the guilty 
person himself, minors and the insane, and the 
emancipator too, are excluded; the priority accorded 
to, or rather imposed upon, relations german as 
against consanguineous relations of the same degree 
is debated by the orthodox, who in general disallow it. 
The minimum sum involving the 'dkila is that laid 
down by the Hanafis; the minimum devolving on 
each member is fixed either in accordance with 
Shafi'I doctrine, or by the magistrate; payment is 
made, as in the case of the Sunnls, in three annual 
instalments. 

Finally, can fikh be said to have succeeded in its 
effort to preserve, and at the same time to delimit, 
the function of the 'dkila ? The reply can only be in 
the negative. In general, large sections of the old 
Muslim penal law, even though based on the Kur'an, 
fell rapidly into disuse, when faced with competition 
from the secular, and highly arbitrary, justice of 
rulers; there was even greater reason why this 



340 



C AKILA - 



should occur in the case of an institution such as 
the c dkila, which was extra-rtur'anic and no longer 
corresponded to social reality as far as an increasing 
number of Muslims were concerned. The evolutionary 
process initiated during the first centuries of Islam 
by Hanafism, in the sense of joint liability on a 
territorial basis, was indecisive, and unsatisfactory 
in many respects; taken a stage further by the 
Hanafis in the course of time, it even went as far 
as the doctrine, put forward by some, that the 
public treasury, i.e. the state, was responsible in the 
absence of family or of a military diwan. Instead of 
this solution, which was hard to admit, some authors 
advocated that the diya should be placed to the sole 
charge of the guilty person — this being the germ of a 
theory of civil liability which was not further 
developed (Tyan, Le systime de la responsabiliU 
dilictuelle en droit tnusulman, Beirut 1926, 123-8; 
Abou Half, Le Dieh en droit tnusulman, Cairo 1932). 
It seems that collective responsibility to-day exists 
only in societies where the joint responsibility of 
the tribe is still an active force, for example among 
the Arabic-speaking nomads (the literature on the 
subject is summarized in Graf, Das Rechtswesen der 
heutigen Beduinen, Bonn 1952), or among the settled 
Berber populations ; customary law then predomina- 
tes, only influenced in varying measure by Muslim 
law. 

Bibliography: In addition to the references 

quoted in the text, all the general works on fikh. 

For the three principal orthodox schools see 

Bercher, Les Dilits et Us Peines de droit commun 

prtvus far le Coran, Tunis 1926. For reference on 

the MalikI school Arevalo, Derecho penal isldmico, 

Tangier 1939, 40-44. Bourham, De la vengeance du 

sang chez les Arabes d'avant I'Islam, 1933-44, is of 

no value. (R. Brunschvig) 

A&INDJ1, irregular cavalry during the first 

centuries of the Ottoman Empire, based on and 

primarily for service in Europe. Their name derives 

from the verbal noun akin (from ak-mak, "to flow, 

be poured out"), which means a "raid, incursion 

into enemy territory". Akindjl is "the name given 

to those who carry out akln-s on foreign territory 

to reconnoitre, plunder, or spread destruction". 

(M. Zeki Pakalln, Osmanll tarih deyimleri ve terimleri 

sOzlugu, Istanbul 1946, i, 36). The treasurer of 

Mehmed II, G. M. Angiolello, in his eye-witness 

account of the campaign against Uzun Hasan (1473), 

gives the best description (trans. Charles Grey): 

"Besides the five columns we have mentioned, there 

was also another of the Aganzi, who are not paid, 

except by the booty which they may gain in guerilla 

warfare. These men do not encamp with the rest 

of the army, but go traversing, pillaging, and 

wasting the country of the enemy on every side, and 

yet keep up a great and excellent discipline among 

themselves, both in the division of the plunder and 

in the execution of all their enterprises. In this 

division were thirty thousand men, remarkably well 

mounted . . .". 

Tradition ascribes the formation of these auxiliary 
troops, comprising contingents from the Turcoman 
tribes of Anatolia, to the Saldjukids; and in fact, 
although accurate information is lacking concerning 
the battle in the plain of Brusa at the end of the 
13th century between Ertoghrul, supported by the 
akindjl, and the Byzantine-Tatars, it seems probable 
that this tradition contains the truth. The term 
akin is also used in connection with naval expeditions. 
Enwerl (ed. M. H. Yinanc, Istanbul 1928, 24) 
records an akin made along the Bosporus with 



35 ships. Neshri mentions the akindjl kadllarl, or 
"akindjl judges". These irregular units of the 
Ottoman army established themselves, as the Turks 
gradually advanced into the northern Balkans, in 
strategic and wellprotected localities. Firuz Bey of 
Vidin was ordered by Bayazld I to make an akin on 
Wallachia, and in 1391 the Turks (akindjl) for the 
first time advanced north of the Danube. Later they 
numbered not less than 40-50,000 horsemen. They 
were commanded by what were virtual dynasties of 
local chiefs (bey) ; Ewrenos-oghullarl (the descendants 
of Ewrenos Bey [?.».], at Giimuldjina, Serez, Ishkodra) 
in the north-west; MIkhal-oghullari, descendants of 
Kose Mlkhal [q.v.], a Greek renegade of the family 
of the Palaeologi (Serbia, Hungary); Turkhan- 
oghullarl (Smederevo-Semendire, Greece, Wallachia 
and in the direction of Venetian territory) ; Malkoc- 
oghullarl, originally from Bosnia where they were 
known as Malkovitch (Hungary, Wallachia, Moldavia 
and Poland); Kasim-oghullart (at Vienna, 1529). 

Towards the end of the 16th century, the akindjl 
lost some of their thrust and importance. In the 
course of the ill-fated expedition of the Grand 
Vizier Kodja Sinan Pasha against Mihai Viteazul of 
Wallachia (1595), they were almost annihilated: at 
Giurgiu (Yerkoyii) on the Danube they remained 
on Rumanian territory, where "the root of the 
akindjl was severed and they withered away". Again 
in 1604, Sultan Ahmad I issued orders to c Ali Bey 
Mikhal-oghlu to join the expedition against Hungary. 
But the akindjl rapidly adapted themselves to new 
forms of warfare. They became artillerymen, 
armourers, and drivers, and demanded to be entered 
in the army muster-rolls and to be paid regularly. 
The statistician of the decline of the Ottoman 
empire, Koci Bey, in his Risdle (ed. A. Weflk Pasha, 
London, 1279/1862, 17) written in 1630, stated that 
"the akindjl contingents (akindjl (d'i/esi) had become 
either paid troops or regular soldiers, or had 
relinquished their positions (akindjilight inkdr idiib) ; 
scarcely 2000 akindjl remained". Their individuality 
became lost in the main body of the regular Ottoman 

Bibliography: Mehmed Zeki, Aklnlar we- 
akindjllar, TOEM, viii, 286 ff.; Ahmet Refik, 
Turk aklndjtlart, Istanbul 1933; N. Iorga, Notes 
et extraits pour servir d I'histoire des croisades au 
XV sihle, v, Bucharest 1915, 339; Giovan Maria 
Angiolello, A short narrative of the Life and Acts 
of the King Ussun Cassano, in the Hakluyt coll., 
A narrative of Italian traotls in Persia, in the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, London 1873, 80; 
I. H. UzuncarsIU, Osmanll devleti teskildtlna 
medhal, Istanbul 1941, 250; Ahmed Djewad 
Pasha, Ta'rikh,-i 'Askeri-yi 'Othmdnl. Kitab-i 
Ewwel: Yenileriler, Istanbul 1297, i, 4 and French 
text, 19; Friedrich Giese, Die altosmanischen 
anonymen Chroniken in Text und Vbersetzung, 
Breslau 1922, i, 28; Ta'rlkh-i N&Hma, Istanbul 
1 147, i, 68; Zinkeisen, iii, 185-88; A. Decei, 
U expidition de Mircta eel Bdtrdn centre les aklncl 
de Karinovasl (1393) in the Revue des £tudes 
Roumaines, Paris, i (1953). (A. Decei) 

C AKK, old Arabian tribe, probably identical 
with the 'Ayx" 1 * 1 CAxxyrai) of Ptolemy, vi, 7, § 23. 
H. Reckendorf considered the name c Akk as a place- 
name ; but it occurs as a personal name in Thamudic 
inscriptions. At the beginning of the 7th century 
the territory of the l Akk in the Tihama of Yaman 
stretched from Wad! Mawr, over Surdud, to Wadl 
Saham (i.e. between modern Luhayya and Hudayda), 
where it met that of the Ash'ar. At that time they 



participated in the Meccan cult. Earlier a colony of 
the c Akk was to be found in c AkIk (Tamra) = WadI 
al-Dawasir. No information is available concerning 
their adherence to Islam. In the revolt of al-Aswad, 
which broke out during the last year of the Prophet's 
life, they took sides against him, so that the represen- 
tative of Medina, Tahir b. Abi Hala, was able to 
remain in their territory. On the other hand, after 
the death of Muhammad a group of c Akk and 



Ash'ai 



mbled : 



A'lab i 



• Suhar 



i the 



territory of a sub-tribe of c Akk of the same name), 
but they were annihilated by Tahir and a chieftain 
of the c Akk themselves. During the wars of the 
conquests some groups from the tribe came to Syria 
(they settled in the valley of the Jordan), and from 
there to Egypt and the Maghrib, also to Kufa and 
Persia. Members of the tribe were prominent in the 
conquest of Egypt and in the battle of Siffln (on the 
Syrian side). In Arabia, the tribe preserved its old 
territory, and even extended it to the north and 

Wustenfeld, Table A2, shows the divisions of the 
emigrant c Akk, the Turfa those of the tribe in its 
primitive seat in the 13th century. In the tradition 
of Medina (Ibn Isljak) the c Akk are counted among 
the 'Adrian, in that of Khurasan among the Azd 
Shanu'a (through c Udthan, which is often corrupted 
into e Adnan). Both versions are easy to understand: 
when Kufa was founded, the c Akk were assigned 
to the "seventh" of the Iyad (b. Nizar b. Ma'add b. 
e Adnan), while in Khurasan they were assigned to 
the Azd. 

Bibliography: Azraki, Akhbdr Makka, Cairo 
1352, i, 117; HamdanI, Djazira, 68 f., 112 f.; Ibn 
HishSm, Sira, 6; c Umar b. Yusuf b. Rasul, Turf at 
al-Asbdb fi Ma l rifat al-Ansab, Damascus 1949, 
64 ft.; Tabari, i, 1855, 1985 ff., 2495; Lankester 
Harding and E. Littmann, Some Thamudic In- 
scriptions, Leiden 1952; M. Nallino, Le Poesie di 
an-Nabigah al-Ga c di, Rome 1953, iiia, 87. 

(W. Caskel) 
'AKKA, the Acco ( c Akko) of the Old Testament, 
the Ptolemais of the Greeks, the Acre of the French, 
town on the Palestinian seaboard. <Akka 
was captured by the Arabs under the command of 
Shurahbll b. Hasana. As the town had suffered in 
the wars with the Byzantines, Mu'awiya rebuilt it, 
and constructed there naval yards which the Caliph 
HishSm later transferred to Tyre. Ibn Tulun con- 
structed great stone embankments round the port; 
al-MakdisI, whose grandfather executed the work, 
gives an interesting description of their construction. 
The port became subsequently one of the naval 
bases of the Fatimids in Syria. The Crusades marked 
a new epoch in the history of the town. After an 
unsuccessful attempt, Baldwin I succeeded, in 497/ 
1 104, in gaining possession of this important port, 
which then became the central point in the Christian 
possessions in the Holy Land. Al-Idrlsl's description 
of c Akka belongs to this period: a large straggling 
town, with many farms, a fine, safe harbour and a 
mixed population. After Saladin had won the great 
battle of Karn Hattln, <Akka surrendered to him 
in 583/1187. But since possession of e Akka was vital 
to the Christians, they again laid siege to the town. 
The siege lasted for two years, and finally (1191) the 
arrival of Philippe Auguste and Richard Coeur de 
Lion led to the capture of c Akka by the Christians. 
From 626/1229 onwards, c Akka was the principal 
centre of Christian power in Palestine, and received 
the name of Saint- Jean d'Acre, after a splendid 
church built there by the Knights of St. John of 



- C AKL 341 

Jerusalem. In 690/1291 the Sultan al-Malik al-Ashraf 
gained possession of £ Akka and put an end to 
Christian domination in Palestine. The town was 
completely destroyed, and for long remained a heap 
of ruins, with few inhabitants. Towards the middle 
of the 18th century, a revival took place, when 
Shaykh ?ahir, who had founded a kingdom in 
Galilee, made c Akka his capital. The town was rebuilt, 
and flourished still more during the reign of terror of 
Ahmad al-Djazzar (1775-1804). It was during his 
rule that Napoleon conducted a fruitless siege of the 
town, which was protected by the British fleet. 
c Akka continued to prosper under the peaceful rule of 
al-Djazzar's successors, but in 1832 it was taken by 
Ibrahim Pasha and razed. It rose yet again, only to 
be bombarded in 1840 by the Turkish fleet supported 
by the British and the Austrians. Since then the 
town has witnessed a certain revival. 

Bibliography: Baladhuri, Futuh, 116-17; 
Makdisi, iii, 162-3 (comp. ZDPV, vii, 155-6); 
IdrisI (= ibid., viii, n); Yakut, iii, 707-9; Nasir-i 
Khusraw (Schefer), 48 ff. ; other descriptions 
translated by G. le Strange in Palestine under the 
Moslems, 328-34; E. Robinson, Neue biblische 
Forschungen, 115-29; Guerin, Galilie, i, 502-25; 
Palestine Exploration Fund, Survey of Western Pales- 
tine, Memoirs, i, 160-7; Gaudefroy-Demombynes, 
La Syrie a Vipoque des Mamlouks, Paris 1923; 
Guide Bleu de Syrie, Palestine, Paris 1932 ; F.-M. 
Abel, Giographie de la Palestine, Paris 1933-8 (in 
particular, vol. II, 13); idem, Histoire de la 
Palestine depuis la conquite d' Alexandre jusqu'a 
Vinvasion arabe, Paris 1952; A. S. Marmadji, 
Textes giographiques arabes sur la Palestine, 
Paris 195 1, 144-8. (F. Buhl*) 

AKKERMAN [see ak kirman]. 
'AKL, intellect or intelligence, the Arabic 
equivalent to Greek voug. 

(1) In neoplatonic speculation, which in many 
respects resembles the late Greek doctrine of the 
Logos and also in many respects corresponds to the 
Logos christology, c akl is the first, sometimes the 
second, entity which emanates from the divinity 
as the first cause, or proceeds from it by means of 
intellectual creation, nafs and (abi'a etc. coming 
after c akl in succession. As first created entity the 
c akl is also called "the representative" or "the 
messenger" of God in this world. The neoplatonic 
idea of c akl as first creation also appears in the 
hadith: "The fipst thing created by God was the 
c akl etc." (cf. I. Goldziher, Neuplatonische und 
gnostische elemente im Hadit, ZA, 1908, 317 ft.). 
[Cf. also falsafa, ikhwan al-safA 3 ; for the role of 
c akl in Isma'flisra, isma'Iliyya and duruz; for 
c akl in sufi theosophy, e.g. ibn c arabI and c abd al- 
razzak al-kAshAnI]. (Tj. de Boer*) 

(2) According to the theologians (mutakallimun), 
l akl is a source of knowledge and, as such, is the 
antithesis of nakl or tradition (see e.g. I. Goldziher, 
Vorlesungen iiber den Islam, ch. iii) ; the words fi\ra 
and tabi'a ((puai?) are also used for it. 'Akl is thus 
a natural way of knowing, independently of the 
authority of the revelation, what is right and wrong. 
(Thus it corresponds to the X6yo? of the Stoics, who 
understood by this term a "natural light" (lumen 
naturale), which was their criterion for disting- 
uishing between good and bad.) This 'akl, possessed 
by all human beings, is also called al-ra'y al-mushtarak 
(al-Farabl, R. fi 'l-'Akl (Bouyges); cf. the xoival 
gwoiai of the Stoics and the xoivo; vou? of Alex- 
ander of Aphrodisias, De anima (Bruns)). Allied to 
this meaning of 'akl is the view qualified by al- 



342 <AtfL - H 

Farabl (op. cit.) and Ibn Sina (al-lfudud) as that 
of the masses (al-diumhur), according to which ( akl 
must lead to praiseworthy conduct, so that a man 
of bad character, however ingenious he might be, 
is not an 'dkil (cf. the 6p66s X6y°S of the Stoics 
and the distinction made by Aristotle between 
9p6vrj(ji<; and raxvoupyta, Nic. Ethics); K akl here 
means "wisdom". 

(3) The philosophers of Islam followed in 
their accounts of c akl Aristotle and his Greek com- 
mentators, more especially Alexander of Aphrodisias. 
According to them l akl is that part of the soul (for 
their psychology in general see nafs) by which it 
"thinks" or "knows" and as such is the antithesis 
of perception. Mostly, however, <akl is not regarded 
as a part of the soul at all, which is then restricted 
to the lower mental functions, but as an incorporeal 
and incorruptible substance differing in kind from 
the soul — an ambiguity which also pervades 
Aristotle's psychology. l Akl is broadly divided into 
the theoretical (al-nafari) and the practical intellect 
(al-'amali) ; the former apprehends the quiddities or 
universals, while the latter deliberates about the 
future actions and through the appetitive faculty 
moves the body to the attainment of the good. 

The development of the theoretical intellect in 
man is the most widely and richly discussed subject 
of the doctrine. In a brief and rather obscure passage 
(De anitna, iii, 5) Aristotle had said that the potential 
intellect in man is actualized by an eternally actual 
intellect (an application of the general Aristotelian 
principle that for the realization of a potentiality 
the agency of something already actual is necessary) ; 
the latter acts upon it as light acts upon our faculty 
of sight or art on its material. The disparity between 
the two analogies obscures Aristotle's view of the 
relationship between the passive and active intellects, 
but it was Alexander's interpretation which provided 
the basis for the Arabs' discussions. According to 
Alexander (op. cit.) our intellect is initially a pure 
potentiality which is actualized by the active 
intellect which is God; when our actualized intellect 
is not operating, it is inteUectus in habit u, which in 
actual operation becomes inteUectus in actu. Most 
of the succeeding commentators, especially The- 
mistius and (pseudo-)Philoponus (Stephanus), reject 
Alexander's equation of the active intellect With 
God and declare it to be a part of the human 
soul. According to Muslim philosophers, the active 
intellect fakl fa"dl) is the lowest of the separate 
intelligences, which gives individual forms to mate- 
rial objects and universal forms to the human 
intellect — hence its name: wahib al-suwar (dator 
formarum of the later scholastics). According to 
al-Farabl (op. cit.) the first stage of actualization 
consists of the abstraction of forms from matter by 
the "light" of the active intelligence: the second 
stage is reached when the thus actualized intellect 
( c akl bi '1-fiH = intellectus in effectu) reflects upon 
itself and attains to a knowledge of the categories 
and becomes c akl mustafdd (inteUectus acquisitus or 
adeptus). According to Ibn Sina (al-Shifd 3 , De anitna) 
the potential intellect ( l akl bi 'l-kuwwa, or c akl 
hayuldni = inteUectus potentialis or materialis) reaches 
the first stage of its actualization when it acquires 
the axiomatic truths (this is called 'akl bi 'l-malaka 
— inteUectus in habit u), the second stage (called 'akl 
bi '1-fiH = inteUectus in actu) when it acquires the 
secondary intelligibles from the primary intelligibles 
or axioms, the final stage ( c akl mustafdd = intellectus 
acquisitus) when it actually contemplates these 
intelligibles and becomes similar to the active 



intellect. Ibn Staa, inspired by Neo-platonism, 
affirms that the universal cannot be acquired by 
abstraction from the particulars, but by direct 
intuition from the active intelligence. The final 
stage of human bliss comes when the human intellect 
becomes one with the active intellect, which happens, 
according to al-Farabl and Ibn Sina, only after 
death, although Ibn Rushd allows such a union 
during earthly life. I 

One of the chief difficulties of this whole Greco* 
Arabic doctrine is the individuality of intellect 
which they affirm to be incorporeal and therefore; 
according to their general principle of individuation 
by matter, universal. Although its individuality is 
recognized, seeing that the subject of thought is 
the individual "I", the basic principle of theii 
theory of knowledge, viz. that of the identity oi 
subject and object (a principle laid down by Aristotl* 
in order to ensure the objectivity of knowledge, but 
rejected by Ibn Sina), prevented the formulation oi 
the individual ego. This difficulty culminated in Ibn 
Rushd (De anitna), who declared the intellect to be 
one for all humanity, while recognizing that his 
theory did not do justice to the individuality of the 
act of thought. 

(4) The Muslim philosophers recognized a hie- 
rarchy of separate intelligences fukul mufarika), 
each lower one emanating from the higher. These 
incorporeal beings, usually ten in number and 
endowed with life, intuitive thought and bliss in 
varying degrees, create and govern their respective 
spheres which themselves are regarded as being 
possessed of souls. Like the Greco-Christian thinkers 
(e.g. (pseudo-) Philoponus, De anitna (Hayduck), 527), 
the Muslims identified the separate intelligences with 
certain angels, the lowest of these, the active 
intellect, called Gabriel, being the ruling 'akl of the 
sublunar sphere. 

Bibliography: A. Giinsz, Die Abhandl. des 

Alex. v. Aphrod. iiber den InteUect, Leipzig thesis 

1886; Farabl, Fi 'l-'Akl, ed. Bouyges; idem, Fi 

Ithbdt al-Mufarikdt, Hyderabad; idem, al-Siydsa 

al-Madaniyya, Hyderabad; Diet, of technical 

terms, ii, 1026 ff.; Maimonides, Le guide des tgarts, 

ed. transl. Miink, i, 301 ff.; ii, 51 «-, 66 ff.; T. J. de 

Boer, Zu Hindi und seiner Schule, Arch. f. Gesch. 

d. Phil., 1899, 172 ff.; idem, Gesch. d. Phil, im 

Islam, especially 94 ff., 105 ff.; M. Steinschneider, 

AlFdrdbt, St. Petersburg r869, 90 ff. ; Kitab Ma'dni 

al-Nafs, ed. and comm. I. Goldziher, G6ttingen 

1907, 41 ff.; idem, La onziime inteUigence, RAfr, 

1906, 242 f . ; E. Gilson, Les sources grico-arabes it 

V augustinisme avicennisant, Archives d'Histoirt 

Doctrinale et LitUraire du Moyen Age, 1929-30; 

B. Nardi, S. Tommaso d' Aquino, Trattato suU'Unita 

dell' Intelletto contro gli Averroisti, Florence 1938; 

F. Rahman, Avicenna's Psychology, Oxford 1952, 

33-56, 116-120; G. Vadja, Juda ben Nissim ibn 

Malka, Paris 1954, 74-9. (F. Rahman) 

'ASLIYYAT, (a.), technical term in Him al- 

kalam (scholastic theology). Its use is common (see 

the commentators on al-Taftazanl, al-Badjuri etc.), 

as expressing a certain concept, and to denote a 

genus of theological dissertations, which go back at 

least to the 6th/r2th century with Fakhr al-DIn 

al-RazI, and are clearly stated in the 8th/i4th century 

by al-ldjl, al-Taftazanl and al-Djurdjanl. The term 

refers to the earlier expression al-'ulum al-'-akliyya, 

derived from falsafa, signifying the rational (and 

natural) knowledge wh'ich the reason ( c akl) 

can acquire by itself.Al-Ghazzall uses this phrase 

freely (cf. Ihya?, iii) and opposes it to al-'ulum 



•AKLIYYAT — 'AKRAB 



343 



al-shar'iyya wa 'l-diniyya (revealed and religious 
knowledge). According to Mu'tazilite tradition, and 
Sa'adya al-Fayyflml, 'akliyydt denotes that which 
is accessible to the reason and especially, on the 
ethical level, the natural values of law and morals. 
Cf. the Mu'tazilite MS al-Ma^mu 1 /fl-MuW fa- 
bridged from the Muhit of the liddi c Abd al-Djabbar, 
end of the ioth century) by Ibn Mattawayh (Berlin, 
MS Glaser 526; information supplied by G. Vajda). 

In classical kaldtn, this distinction operates also 
within the "religious sciences". Traces of it are found 
from the time of the first Mu'tazilite disputation, 
when Him dini is sometimes subdivided into Him c akli 
and Him sharH. In later works (Ash'ari and Hanafi- 
Maturidi schools), 'akliyydt denotes the aggregate of 
subjects in kaldm (i.e. "religious science") which are 
amenable to reason; that is to say subjects the 
fundamentals of which, even where they are provided 
by the shar', can be "proved" by "apodictic argu- 
ments" (kdfi'). These are contrasted with the subjects 
called samHyyat, ex auditu, the fundamentals of 
which derive only from Kur'anic or traditional texts 
(hadith, idimd 1 ). In this latter category, reason only 
intervenes to resolve arguments of expediency. Two 
kinds of problems are considered as 'akliyydt: 
(1) the preliminary subjects of kaldm, which deal 
with "essentials and accidents", subjects which are 
in the strict sense "rational", and which assemble 
the products of logic, natural philosophy, and 
ontology; (2) ildhiyyat, which deal with (a) the 
existence of God (wudi&d Allah), and his attributes 
(sifdt), with the exception of the three attributes of 
Sight, Hearing, and Speech, and of the "vision of 
God" (ru'yat Allah), which are considered as samHy- 
yat; and (b) the "acts of God" (af'dluhu ta'dld). 
The ildhiyyat must always have a scriptural basis, 
but a basis which reason, for its .part, can prove by 
apodictic arguments. The other subjects, such as 
prophecy, eschatology, the "statutes and the names", 
the "command and prohibition" [imdma), . are 
samHyyat. The great classic of al-Djurdjanl, the 
Shark al-Mawakit (8th/i4th century) for example, 
has six principal sections; five of these treat of 
'akliyyat, and one only, the final section, comprises 
all the subjects called samHyyat. (L. Gardet) 

al-A&RA' b. HABIS b. 'IijAl b. Muhammad 
b. SufyAn b. Mudjashi' b. Darim, Tamimite 
warrior. Al-Akra' is an epithet ("bald"); his 
proper name (Firas ? Pull ?) is disputed. He is said 
to have been the last judge in the djdhiliyya at 
'Ukaz, having inherited this office (which was a 
privilege of Tamlm) from his ancestors; he performed 
this duty until the rise of Islam, giving his judgments 
in sad? (al-Djahiz, Baydn, i, 236). He is said also 
to have been the first to prohibit games of chance 
(kimdr), but was accused of partiality in the con- 
troversy between Badjlla and Kalb. He took part, 
and was captured, in the battle of Zubala (or Salman, 
according to al-Baladhuri and Yakut) and was freed 
by Bistam b. Rays. Another exploit of al-Akra' was 
the raid on Nadjran after the battle of al-Kulab al- 
thani (see al-NakdHd, 46, 448 ; Ibn Hablb's statement 
(Muhabbar 247) that he took part in al-Kulab al- 
awwal is due to a confusion with his ancestor 
Sufyan: see Aghdnl, xi, 61). Ibn Hablb also states 
that he was one of the djarrarun, who succeeded in 
uniting a whole branch of his tribe, the Banfl 
Hanzala, under his banner. According to Ibn 
Kutayba (al-Ma'drif, 194) and Ibn al-Kalbl (quoted 
in the Isaba) he was a Zoroastrian (madjOsl) ; this is 
of importance for the estimation of Persian influence 
on some sections of Tamlm. 



Nothing is known of his attitude towards Muham- 
mad up to the time when he joined the Prophet in 
al-Sukya during the expedition to Mecca in 8/630. 
He took part in the conquest of Mecca and was one 
of al-mu'allafa kulubuhum who were presented with. 
gifts, which gave occasion to a famous verse of 
'Abbas b. Mirdas. He took part also in the battle of 
Hunayn and refused to return his booty, in spite of the 
Prophet's request. (For Muhammad's somewhat 
negative opinion of him see also Ibn Hisham, iv, 
139.) He participated later in the deputation of 
Tamlm to the Prophet, the traditional account 
stressing his arrogant conduct; nevertheless, he was 
appointed to collect the sadakdt of part of the Banu 
Hanzala {al-Ansdb, x, 970'). Together with other 
chiefs of Tamlm, he interceded for the captives of 
the Banu 'l-'Anbar, and was a witness to a letter 
despatched by the Prophet to Nadjran. 

During the ridda, according to Sayf (al-Tabari, i, 
1920), al-Akra' and al-Zibrikan proposed to Abu Bakr 
to guarantee the allegiance of Tamlm against the 
grant of the kharadj of Bahrayn, and it was only 
'Umar who prevented Abu Bakr from accepting the 
proposal. In view of the situation of Tamlm at this 
period, this tradition does not seem trustworthy, 
but it may reflect 'Umar's attitude towards al-Akra' 
(cf. Baydn, i, 253, and <Uyun al-Akhbar (Cairo), i, 85). 
Sayf relates also that he took part in the battle of 
the ridda alongside Khalid b. al-Walld, and was in 
the vanguard at the battles of Dumat al-Djandal 
and al-Anbar. His name is last mentioned in 32/652-3, 
when he was sent by al-Ahnaf b. Kays to subdue 
Djuzdjan ; he must have been a very old man at that 
time. Al-Baladhuri mentions that his descendants 
lived in Khurasan. 

Bibliography: Ibn Hisjiam, Slra, index; 
Bukhari, ch. on Wa/d BaniTamim, iii, 65; Nakd>i4 
(Bevan), index; Ibn al-Kalbl, Qiamharat al-Ansdb, 
B. M. 1202, 65"; Baladhurl, Futih, Cairo 1319, 
414; idem, Ansab al-Ashrdf, MS, x, 969 T -97o r ; 
Hassan b. Thabit, Diwdn, Cairo 1929, 243-52, 353; 
Ibn Sa'd, index; Mubarrad, Kamil, Cairo 1355, i, 
133; Djahiz, Baydn, i, 236, 253; Ibn Hablb, 
Muhabbar, 134, 182, 247, 473; Ibn Kutayba, 
Ma'drif, Cairo 1935, 194, 305; Tabari, index; 
Aghdnl, Tables; Ibn 'Abd Rabbih, '/*<*, Cairo 
1940 f., index; Ibn Rashlk, <Umda, u, 160; Ibn 
Hazm, Dxamhara, 219; Ibn 'Asakir, iii, 86-91; 
Yakut, s. vv. Salman, Pjuzdjan; Ibn al-Athlr, 
index; LA, s.v. kara'a; Ibn Hadjar, Isaba, s.v. 
al-Akra'; E. Braunlich, Bisfdm b. Qais, Leipzig 
1923, 46; Makrlzl, ImW al-Asmd 1 , Cairo 1941, 
index. (M. J. Kister) 

'AKRAB (a.), scorpion. This branch of the 
arachnida, which is met with as far north as lat. 45°, 
includes, in Asia and Africa, some species whose 
sting produces effects of a more or less serious nature, 
and sometimes even death. For this reason the 
scorpion has always haunted the imagination of 
oriental peoples; it has found a place among the 
stars (a constellation and the 8th sign of the Zodiac 
are named after it), and has played some part in the 
magic and the interpretation of dreams. As a 
protection against its sting, magic formulas and, 
later, verses of the Kur'an, were used, engraved on 
rings and other talismans; according to the Tradi- 
tions, Muhammad saw no objection to this practice. 
The observations of Arab naturalists, who claimed 
that the scorpion escaped from pain and intense 
heat by committing suicide, and that the female 
carried its young on her back and ultimately perished 
in this way, have been confirmed in modern times. 



344 



'AtfRAB — AKRAbADHIN 



The behaviour of the scorpion when confronted by 
human beings, and the effect of its sting on different 
victims, were noted at an early period; different 
species were identified; but above all, efforts were 
made to discover a remedy against its sting. The 
best method, apart from sucking the venom from 
the wound, was to cut the animal open and place 
it on the affected part. The scorpion played aD 
important part also in Arab medicine ; its ashes were 
an effective remedy against calculus; its roasted 
flesh would cure the eye complaint known as rih 
al-sabal. Scorpion oil {duhn al- l akarib), prepared in 
various ways, was considered to possess particularly 
curative powers; it was used in the treatment of 
malignant sores, sciatica and pains in the back, 
orchitis, and falling hair. In addition, cases are 
quoted in which hemiplegia and fever were cured 
by a scorpion sting. 

On the use of scorpions in war see al-Diahiz. 
Hayawdn*, v, 358; Elliot and Dowson, History of 
India, v, 550-1. In Arabic literature, the name 
"scorpion" occurs quite frequently, and always 
typifies treacherous hostility (Ifamdsa, ed. Freytag, 
105, verse 1; 156, verse 2; Hudsailian poems, no. 21, 
verse 24; Mufaddaliyydt, ed. Thorbecke, no. 19, 
verse 12; Nabigha, ed. Ahlwardt, no. 1, verse 4), or 
mockery ('Urwa, no. 15, verse 2), or calumny ('Urwa, 
no. 5, verse 6; Farazdak, Diwan, no. 61, verse 3), 
and similarly in proverbs (Freytag, Proverbia, no. 
902). The three coldest days of winter (the new 
moons of November, December and January) were, 
on account of their "biting" cold, called "the three 
scorpions" (Calendrier de Cordoue, 10). 

Bibliography: Djahiz, Hayawdn', v, 353ft. 
and the index; Damirl, i, 106 ff.; Kazwlni 
(Wustenfeld), i, 439 ff. ; Ibn al-Baytar, al-Didmi 1 , 
Bulak 1291, iii, 1281; Dozy, Suppl., ii, 152-3; 
Hommel, Ursprung und Alter arab. Sternnamen 
und Mondstationen, in ZDMG, xlv, 605; A. Ben- 
hamouda, Les noms arabes des itoiles, in AIEO, 
1951. 155-7. (J. Hell) 

'ARRABA 1 is the name of two localities: 

1. A place on the frontier of Yamama, famous 
for the bloody battle in which Musaylima and the 
Banu Hanifa were defeated by Khalid. In its 
neighbourhood was a grove (hadika), surrounded by 
a wall and, before this battle, known by the name 
of "Rahman's garden"; later on it was called 
"garden of death". 

Bibliography : Tabari, i, 1937-1940; Baladhuii 
(de Goeje), 88; Yakut, Mutant ii, 226; iii, 694. 

2. A place of residence of the Ghassanid princes 
in Djawlan; it is probably identical with the present 
c Akraba> in the province of DjSdur. 

Bibliography: Yakut, iii, 695; Noldeke, in 

ZDMG, xxix, 430; cf. in ZDPV, xii, the map 

of the Djabal Hawran AB 3. (F. Buhl) 

AKRABADHlN, or KarabadhIn from Syriac 

grafadhin, reproducing Greek ypo^tSiov, "small 

treatise", was used by the Arabs as a title of 

treatises on the composition of drugs, or 

pharmacopoeias, while the simples which went into 

the composition were designed by the term al- 

adwiya al-mufrada [q.v.]. 

The practice of pharmacology. In the 
hospitals pharmacological instruction very early 
made an important part of the medical training. 
That the big hospitals had a pharmacist on the 
staff we can infer e.g. from the al-$aydala fi 'l-Tibb 
of al-BIrunl. The rapid increase in the materia 
medica, not only of Greek but also of Iranian and 
Indian origin certainly called for a special body of 



men and for the separation of the pha ^M-ii.ica 
from the medical profession. In ordinary outside 
practice the doctor may have prescribed and com- 
pounded his own mixtures (cf. C. Elgood, A medical 
history of Persia and the Eastern caliphate, Cam- 
bridge 1951, 272 f.). As a rule drugs were bought 
separately from the druggist [cf. al- c attar] and 
then compounded. The muhtasib had to give heed 
to the various ways in which drugs were adulterated 
(cf. Ibn al-Ukhuwwa, Ma'-dlim al-Kurba (Levy), 
ch. 25). The practice of preparing substitutes for 
certain simple drugs is attested by the philosopher 
al-Kindi who wrote a treatise containing recipes 
for the preparation of substitutes for rare drugs 
(Kimiyd* al-'Itr wa '1-TasHddt, (K. Garbers), Leipzig 
1948). 

Pharmacological literature. Galen's De 
medicamentorum compositione secundum locos et 
genera had been translated into Arabic, under the 
title Kitdb Tarkib al-Adwiya, by Hubaysh from the 
Syriac of Hunayn b. Ishak (cf. G. Bergstrasser, 
Hunain ibn Ishdq iiber die syrischen und arabischen 
Galeniibersetzungen, Leipzig 1925, 23 f.). We are 
told that surgeons, before they could practise, were 
obliged to make themselves masters of this work 
(cf. Ibn al-Ukhuwwa, ch. 45). 

The first pharmacopoeia to receive universal 
acceptance throughout the caliphate was written by 
the Christian physician Sabur b. Sahl (d. 255/869), 
of the staff of the hospital of Diundav Sabur. Accor- 
ding to Ibn al-Nadlm (Fihrist, 297) it contained 22 
chapters, according to Ibn Abi Usaybi'a ( c t/yfl» al- 
Anbd', i, 161) 17 chapters. It was in common use 
until the publication of the Akrdbadhin of Amin 
al-Dawla Hibat Allah b. Sa'Td b. al-Tilmldh (d. 560/ 
1165). Ibn al-Tilmidh was a court physician to al- 
Muktafi and to his successor al-Mustandjid and 
attached to the 'AdudI hospital in Baghdad. Besides 
the Akrdbadhin in 20 chapters he wrote a compen- 
dium (al-Mudjaz al-Bimdristdni) for use in ordi- 
nary hospitals (Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, i, 276). Manu- 
scripts of these works or of parts of them have come 
down to us (Brockelmann, I, 642 and S I, 888), 
as have also manuscripts of the Akrdbadhin of the 
famous physician and philosopher Abu Bakr Muh. 
b. Zakariyya' al-RazI (Brockelmann, I, 269). Of the 
pharmacopoeias written in the East, the Akrdbadhin 
of Badr al-DIn Muhammad b. Bahram al-^alanisl, 
who wrote in the year 590/1194, is also worth 
mentioning. In this work, of which several manu- 
scripts have come down to us, the author quoted 
the Hawi and the fibb al-Mansuri of al-RazI, the 
Kanun of Avicenna and other works (Ibn Abi 
Usaybi'a, ii, 31). Of the great medical compilation 
written by Nadjm al-DIn Mahmud b. Iyas al- 
ShlrazI (d. 730/1330), the 5th part, containing a 
treatise on compound drugs, was edited by F. F. 
Guigues (thesis, Paris 1902). 

In Egypt the Jewish physician Musa b. al- c Azar 
(Moses b. Eleazar) wrote an Akrdbadhin for the 
Fatimid caliph al-Mu'izz (Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, ii, 86). 
In the hospitals of Egypt, Syria and 'Irak the al- 
Dustur al-Bimdristdni of Abu '1-Fadl b. Abi '1-Bayan 
al-Isralll (publ. by P. Sbath in BIE, 1933, 13-78) 
was in common use until it was replaced by the 
Wnkadi al-Dukkdn of Ibn al-<AUar al-IsraTU which 
was published in Kairo in 658/1260 (Brockelmann, 
I, 648). 

In Muslim Spain the study of the text of Dioscu- 
rides seems to have inspired an exclusive confidence 
in the simple drugs. We are informed by Ibn AM 
Usaybi'a (ii, 49) that the famous physician Ibn 



asrAbAdhIn — Ala 



Wafid (d. after 460/1068) very seldom prescribed a 
compound drug. Like his contemporary c Abd Allah 
b. c Abd al- c Az!z al-Bakri, who wrote an inventory 
of the plants and trees of al-Andalus (Ibn AM 
Usaybi c a, ii, 52), Ibn Wafid seems to have been an 
enthusiastic adherent of the Dioscoridean tradition 
in medicine. This is true also of al-Ghafikl, the most 
important pharmacologist of Muslim Spain. In the 
Latin tradition the Grabadin of Mesue Junior (ac- 
cording to Leo Africanus this work was written by 
a certain Masawayh al-Marindi, who died in Baghdad 
in 1015, and translated into Latin by a Sicilian Jew) 
was for centuries the recognized authority on 
pharmacy throughout Europe and became the basis 
of later official pharmacopoeias. 

For the medical principles underlying the com- 
position and administration of drugs see tibb. 
(B. Lewin) 

<A(RABl (plural: c Akarib), a Soutb Arabian 
tribe in the neighbourhood of Aden. Their territory, 
stretching on the coast line from Bi*r Ahmad to 
Ra's 'Imran, is very small (a few square miles only). 
It is crossed by the lower part of the river of Lahidj, 
which here is nearly always dry; as rain is also 
lacking, the soil is barren and yields but little fruit. 
The chief town is Bi'r Ahmad, with a few hundred 
inhabitants and the castle of the sultan. The 'Akarib, 
according to the Rasulid al-Ashraf, Turf at al-Ashdb 
(Zettersteen), 56, 57, belonged to the Kuda'a (text 
obscure; according to 56 to the branch of Band 
Madjid, according to 57 to that of Khawlan). The 
identification by A. Sprenger, Die alte Geogr. 
Arabiens, 80, with the Agraei of Pliny, is very 
doubtful. Their chief, Mahdl, threw off the allegiance 
of Lahidj and became independent about 1770. 
Haydara b. Mahdl, a descendant of the former, 
signed a treaty of friendship with the British in 
1839, c Abd Allah b. Haydara various treaties in 
1857, 1863, 1869, and the treaty of protectorate 
in 1888. (The animosity always latent between 
them and the 'Abdali led to open war as late as 1887, 
when the latter besieged Bi'r Ahmad; peace was 
restored by British intervention.) 

Bibliography: H. v. Maltzan, Reise nach 

SUdarabien, Braunschweig 1873, 314-23; C. U. 

Aitchisen, A collection of Treaties etc.', xi, 99, 158 ff. 
(J. Schleifer-S. M. Stern) 

AKRAD [see kurd], 

<AKS [see balAgha]. 

AgSARA [see a* sarAy]. 

AKTHAM b. §AYFl B. RiyAh B. al-HArith b. 
MumjASHiN, Abu Ha yd a (or Abu *1-Haffad, Ansdb; 
the verse quoted there is, however, attributed in 
K. al-Mucammarin, 92, to Rabi c a b. c Uzayy, also 
of Usayyid) of the clan of Usayyid, a branch of the 
tribe of Tamim, was one of the judges of the 
iiahiliyya. The biography of Aktham consists mostly 
of legendary stories. Numerous traditions tell of 
missions by kings and chiefs to ask advice from him. 
The utterances of Aktham contain wise sayings about 
life, friendship, behaviour, virtue, women, etc. His 
personality as reflected in these sayings may be 
compared with that of Lukman, to whom some of 
the wise sayings attributed to Aktham are actually 
attributed in other traditions. 

Aktham is famous as one of the mu'ammarin. 
Muslim tradition tries to bring him into relation 
with the person of the Prophet and stresses that 
Aktham approved of Islam; he is even said to have, 
spurred on his people to embrace Islam, and to 
have died as a martyr on his way to the Prophet, 
but these traditions are certainly spurious. 



345 

Aktham is said to have had descendants in al- 
Kufa, particularly the kdft Yahya b. Aktham. 
Bibliography : Nakd'id of Djarir and Farazdak 
(Bevan), index; Baladhuri, Ansdb al-Ashraf, 
Istanbul MS, fols. 964^ io7or-io75r; Ibn Habib, 
Muhabbar, index; Sidjistani, K. al-Mu c ammarin 
(Goldziher), 9-18; Djahiz, Baydn, index; Ibn 
Kutayba, Ma'arif, Cairo 1935, 35, 130, 240; idem, 
'Uyun, index ; Mubarrad, Kdmil, Cairo 1355, index ; 
Washsha'.-FVMtf, MS Brit. Mus.,Or. 6499, fols. n8r, 
I2ir; Aghani, Tables; Ibn c Abd Rabbih, c Ikd, 
index t PabbI, Fdkhir (Storey), index; Ibn Hazm, 
Djamkarat Ansdb al- c Arab, 200; Ibn al-Athlr, Usd, 
Cairo 1280, i, 111-3; Ibn Hadjar, Isdba, no. 482. 

(M. J. Kister) 
AL (ar.), the definite article, see ta c rip. 
AL, the clan, a genealogical group between the 
family (ahl, l dHla, [q.v.]) and the tribe (hayy, kabila, 
[q.v.]), synonym of c ashira [q.v.]. In this sense, the 
word occurs in the title of sura iii, surat dl 'Imrdn. 
The al of the Prophet are the descendants of Hashim 
and al-MuHalib; when the Shl c a restricted this 
concept to his nearest relatives and descendants 
[see ahl al-bayt], the Sunnis enlarged it so as to 
include all his followers (cf. Lane, Lexicon, s.v.). 
Later, the term came to mean the dynasty of a 
ruler, e.g. al 'Uthmdn, the Ottoman dynasty, al Bu 
SaHd, the dynasty of the rulers of c Uman and 
Zanzibar, al Faysal al Su'ud, the official title of 
the Saudi Arabian dynasty. [Ed.] 

AL, demon who attacks women in childbed, 
a personification of puerperal fever; cf. ZDMG, 
1882, 85 ; Goldziher, Abh. zur arab. Philologie, i, 116; 
H. A. Winkler, Salomo und die Karina, 104-7. 

(A. Haffner*) 
AL [see sarAb]. 

ALA "instrument", "utensil" (synonym of addt 
plural adawdt). 

i. In grammatical terminology, dla and 
adit are found in expressions like Slat al-ta'rif 
"instrument of determination" (= the article al), 
dlat al-tashbih "instrument of comparison" (= the 
particle ka) etc. The term Ha (like addt) does not 
seem to have been used by the Arab grammarians 
of the 3rd/gth century; in works such as that of Ibn 
Faris, the word addt is only met with once. Towards 
the end of the 4th/ioth century the term harf 
("particle") may be regarded as signifying also the 
grammatical "instruments" later called dla and adit. 
This usage seems to imply a distinction between the 
idea of "casual action" (connected with harf) and 
the idea of "syntactic function" (represented by dla 
and addt), leading to the expression of "determina- 
tion", "finality", "comparison". 

Bibliography: Ibn Faris, Sdhibl, 102 ; al-Taha- 
nawi, Kashshdf Isfildhdt al-FunUn, ed. Sprenger, 
Calcutta 1862, art. adit and dla. (R. Blachere) 
ii. In the classification of sciences dldt is the 
name of such attainments as are acquired not for 
their own sake (as an end in itself), but "as a means 
to something else", as e.g. philological sciences and 
logic, as ancilliary studies of the religious ones: al- 
l ulum al-dliyya in contrast to al- c ulum al-sharHyya. 
Cf. the expression dldt al-munddama, i.e. knowledge 
and accomplishments which are useful in social 
intercourse. Consequently that what is called dla 
differs from what is called adab [q.v.] only in so far 
as the former takes into account the attainments in 
their relation to Him; cf. also c Uyun al-Akhbdr 
(Brockelmann), i, 4. The appellation dldt corresponds 
exactly to the expression Bpyosva in the classification 
of the philological sciences by Tyrannion of Amisus; 



346 



C ALA' al-DAWLA al-SIMNANI 



see H. Usener, Philologie und Geschichtswissensckaft 
Bonn 1882, 23. 

Bibliography: Ghazall, Ihya, Kitdb al-'Ilm.ch. 

ii (Ithdf al-Sdda, i, 149) ; Snouck Hurgronje, Mekka, 

ii, 206; Goldziher, in Steinschneider-Festschrift, 

114 (with further references). (I. Goldziher) 

iii. Logic is called Sia, following the peripatetic 

view according to which it is an instrument (op- 

Yavov), not a part, of philosophy (cf. Goldziher, in the 

bibliography of ii, above; S. van den Bergh, A ver roes' 

Epitome d. Metaphysik, 148; al-BIrunl, introd. to al- 

Saydana (ed. M. Meyerhof, in QueUen u. Stud. z. 

Gesch. d. Naturw. u. Med., 1932) ; and mantik). 

For other meanings of dla see hiyal, nawba. 

ALA DA£H (t.), "mountain of various colours", 

name of various mountains. (1) In N.W. Anatolia, 

near Bolu. (2) In the Taurus range. (3) In E. Anatolia, 

near the springs of the Murad Su, N. E. from Lake 

Wan; it served as summer headquarters for the 

Ilkhanids. (4) In N. E. Persia, S. of the Atrek. 

(5) In Central Asia, between Dzungaria and the 

basin of Lake Balkash. (6) Between the Issik Kol 

and Alma Ata. (7) In Siberia (in Russian Kuznets 

Mountains), N. of the Altai Mountains. The local 

pronunciation for the last three is Ala Taw. 

ALA SHEHIR. "the motley-coloured town", 
town in Anatolia at the foot of the Boz Dagh (ancient 
Tmolus), near the Kuzu Cay. In antiquity and in 
Byzantine times the town, called Philadelphia after 
its founder, Attalus II Philadelphia, played an im- 
portant role (see Pauly-Wissowa, s.v.). It was taken, 
together with the other towns of Phrygia, by Sulay- 
man b. Kutlumush in 1075 or 1076, but was recap- 
tured by the Byzantines in 1098 and served as an 
important base in their operations against the Sal- 
- djukids. According to Ibn BibI (Houtsma), 37, the 
battle between the emperor Theodore Lascaris and the 
Saldjukid Kay Khusraw I, in which the latter lost 
his life (607/1210), was fought near the town (here 
called for the first time Ala Shehir), but this is not 
borne out by the Byzantine historians. The town was 
besieged by the Germiyan-oghlu Ya'kGb I in 1303, 
but was relieved by the Catalan mercenaries; as a 
result of repeated sieges by the Germiyan-oghlus 
(1307 and 1324), the town was reduced to the 
payment of tribute. Subsequently, the tribute was 
paid to the Aydin-oghlus (though the statement of 
the Diistiir-ndme-yi Enweri, that it was actually 
captured by the Aydin-oghlu Umur Beg in 1335, does 
not seem to correspond to reality). Ala Shehir was 
captured, the last of the free Greek cities in Asia 
Minor, by Bayezld I in 794/1391, but passed in 1402 
into the possession of Timur, and subsequently into 
that of Djunayd Beg, until it came finally under 
Ottoman dominion in the reign of Murad II. In 
Ottoman times the town did not preserve its former 
importance and was only the capital of a kadd (of 
the wildyet of Aydin, later of Manisa). Between 
1919-23 it was occupied by the Greeks. In 1890 the 
town had 17,000 Muslim, 4000 Greek inhabitants 
(Cuinet) ; in 1945 the town counted 8,883 inhabitants 
(all Muslims), the kadd (1,115 sq. km.) 45,792. 
Bibliography : Lebeau, Histoire du Bas-empire, 
Paris 1833-6, xv, 357 f., 426 f., 447 i-, 446. xvi . 
6 f., 184, 285, 331 f., 412 f., xvii, 253, xviii, 3, xix, 
42 f., 76, 316, xx, 460 f. ; Chalandon, Alexis I. 
Comnine, Paris 1900, 12, 197, 255, 265; idem, 
Jean II. Comnine et Manuel Comnine, Paris 1912, 
37, 217, 305 f., 460, 501, 513; Moncada, Expidition 
des Catalans (French transl., Paris 1828), 73-84; 
'Ashlkpasha-zade, Ta'rikh, Istanbul 1332, 56, 
64 ft.; Sa'd al-DIn, Tadf al-Tawarikh, Istanbul 



1279, i, 127; Mukrimin Halil, Dusturndme-i 
Envert, Istanbul 1929, introd., 36 ff. ; CI. Huart, 
Epigraphie arabe de I'Asie Mineure, 61; I. H. 
UzuncarsllI, Anadolu Beylihleri, Ankara 1937, 
10, 28, 187 f.; Ch. Texier, Asie Mineure, 269 ft.; 

A. Wachter, Der Verfall des Griechentums in Klein- 
asien im 14. Jahrhundert, Leipzig 1903, 39 f.; 
P. Wittek, Das Furstentum Mentesche, Istanbul 
1934, 78 ff.; W. J. Hamilton, Researches in Asia 
Minor, ii, 375; A. Philippson, Reisen und For- 
schungen im westlichen Kleinasien, iv, 31 f.; 
V. Cuinet, La Turquie a" Asie, iii, 571 f.; F. Sarre, 
Reisen in Kleinasien, 4 f. ; I A s.v. Alasehir (by 

B. Darkot and Mukrimin Halil Yinanc). 

'ALA' al-DAWLA [see kakawayhids]. 

'ALA' al-DAWLA al-SIMNANI, Rukn al- 
DIn Abu 'l-Makarim Ahmad b. Sharaf al-DIn 
Muh. B. Ahmad al-BiyabanakI, important mystic, 
born in Dhu 'l-Hidjdja 659/Nov. 1261 in Simnan 
(Khurasan) of an illustrious and rich family [see 
simnanI]. When he was fifteen, he left Simnan and 
entered government service. Under the Ilkhan 
Arghun his father became governor of Baghdad 
and the whole of 'Irak, his paternal uncle vizier, 
and his maternal uncle kadi 'l-mamdlik. In the 
course of a campaign in 683/1284 against Arghun's 
uncle, SimnanI experienced near Kazwln a vision 
of the other world, and though he remained until 
mid-Sha'ban 685/beg. Oct. 1286 in the service oi 
the Ilkhan, he was then allowed to go on leave to 
Simnan, where he found his way, after examining 
his conscience, to Sunni Orthodoxy and Sufism. He 
performed spiritual exercises with the aid of Abu 
Talib al-Makkl's Kut al-Kulub, until he made the 
acquaintance of Akhi Sharaf al-DIn Sa c d Allah, 
by whom he was taught a particular form of •remem- 
bering God» (dhikr), viz. throwing the head swiftly 
hither and thither; this resulted after only one 
night in powerful manifestations of light. Simnani 
decided to join as a novice Nur al-DIn 'Abd al- 
Rahman al- KasirkI al-Isfara'inl, by whose command 
Sa'd Allah had visited him; so in Muharram 686/ 
Febr.-March 1287, instead of returning to Tabriz, he 
travelled in sufi dress to Baghdad, where KasirkI lived. 
He was, however, stopped in Hamadan by Arghun's 
men and was carried to Sharuyaz, where Arghun was 
founding the city of Sulfaniyya (later completed by 
Uldjaytu). He succeeded, as a result of successful 
disputations with Buddhist monks (bakhshl < 
bhihshu), who played a great role at the court, in 
appeasing the Ilkhan's anger, so that he was asked to 
remain at court at least as a Sufi. After staying, 
rather unwillingly, for eighty days, SimnanI escaped 
to Simnan, which he reached in Ramadan 686/Oct. 
1287. Arghun, having -ascertained that he had not 
gone to Baghdad, left him alone. Sa'd Allah, who had 
in the meantime visited Baghdad, brought for 
Simnani the khirka of KasirkI, in whose name he 
entered the khalwa in Simnan, in Shawwal 687/Nov.- 
Dec. 1288. After the dismissal of his father and the 
execution of his uncle (for the date see simnanI; 
'Ala> al-Dawla's own statements vacillate), he 
succeeded in reaching Baghdad, where for the first 
time he met his shaykh KasirkI personally (Ramadan 
688/Sept. 1289). Simnani entered the khalwa in the 
Masdjid al-Khalifa and undertook, in obedience to 
an order by KasirkI, the pilgrimage to Mecca and 
Medina. He returned to Baghdad in Muharram 
689/Jan. 1290, entered the khalwa for the second time 
(in the Shuniziyya), and finally returned to Simnan, 
where he began to instruct Sufis in the Khankah-i 
Sakkakl. After a life of extensive educational and 



l-DAWLA AL-SIMNANl — «ALA> . 



.-DIN 



3*7 



literary activity he died in his monastery, Siifiyabad-i 
Khudadad, in Simnan, on 22 Radjab 736/6 March 
1336- 

Simnani was a Sunnite ; he condemned the Shi'ite 
tendencies of -Uldjaytu and praised the amir Cuban, 
who did not share them. In spite, however, of his 
zealous advocacy of war against unbelievers, he rejec- 
ted the idea of a revolt against Shi'ite oppression 
and advised, with Hasan al-Basrl, to show patience 
under oppression, though not to withhold exhortation 
or prayer for improvement. In the ShI'a he appre- 
ciated the love of the Prophet's family, but depreca- 
ted their hatred of c A>isha. He adapted the Shi'ite 
belief in the disappearance of the twelfth Imam to 
his doctrine of the abddl, who according to him, was 
raised after his disappearance to the grade of hu(b 
and then, after 19 years, died. By his sufl affiliation 
he was a Kubrawl (Simnani — KasirkI, d. 717/1317 
—Ahmad al-Djiirafanl, (GurpanI), d. 669/1270— 
RadI al-DIn C A1I al-Lala, d. 642/1244— Nadjm al- 
Dln al-Kubra, d. 618/1221), but he also venerated, 
in addition to this line, other shaykhs, and more 
Especially Abu Hafs 'Umar al-Suhrawardi (d. 632/ 
1234). He also took as a model the Kubrawl Madid 
al-DIn al-Baghdadl (d. 616/1219,) whose name he 
sometimes inserts between Lala and Kubra. He was 
impressed by Djalal al-DIn al-Ruml, but advised 
caution. He admired also Ghazall, but blamed in 
him the excess of theory over experience and the 
abundance, in some of his writings, of philosophical 
(Avicennian) ideas. Simnani's main opponent was 
Ibn c ArabI, against whose pantheistic system he 
kept up continuous polemics, not only in his books, 
but also in his correspondence with <Abd al-Razzak 
al-Kashant (d. 730/1330). He accused Ibn c ArabI of 
idolizing a verb (/»'/), by his identification of Being 
(wudiud) and God; he himself considers Being as an 
attribute (?ifa) or accident, which, though it is 
eternally inherent in God, is distinct from His 
essence (dhat). For this reason the last degree of 
the mystic is not tawhid, but 'ubUdiyya. The only 
possible share of man in God is the grace of inner 
purity (?«/«'), by which he is enabled to reflect 
the higher things. To become a mirror in this 
sense is the aim of manhood and mysticism. Sim- 
nani's doctrine was later elaborated by the Cishtl 
Ahmad-i Sirhindl ([?.«.]; d. 1035/1626) who opposed 
this renovated doctrine, shuhiidiyya, to the wud±u- 
diyya of Ibn 'Arabl. 

Simnani shared with Kubra a strongly mediumistic 
nature and a preference and capability for visionary 
experience. He had a particularly refined feeling for 
spiritual vibrations in his environment; out of a 
deep sense of the living presence of Khadir, he 
insisted on saying "the Lord" Khadir; and at places 
where he attempted to contact the spirits of the 
great dead (tawadidiuh), he registered the slightest 
oscillations of experience. Like most of the Kubrawls, 
in mystical training he accepted the so-called "eight 
conditions of Djunayd" (see Meier, FawdHh, index), 
about which we have different statements by him. 
In addition to the particular dhikr of KasirkI (cf. 
above) he had another, viz. the recital of the formula 
Id ilaha illa'Udh, in four beats ; the la being drawn as 
it were from the navel, the ilaha sunk into the right 
side of the breast, the ilia raised from there, and the 
Allah thrust into the left side of the breast, the heart 
(cf. for the recital of this dhikr in two beats Nadjm 
al-DIn al-Daya, Mirfdd al-Hbdd, Teheran 1312/52, 
151, and for another practice, c Aziz-i Nasafl, in 
WZKM, 1953, 165). Simnani also practised listening 
to music (samd') and fed in his monastery passing 



travellers. The greater part of his possessions he 
left as wakf for the Sufis of his persuasion; he dis- 
agreed with the view that the §ufl must have no 
material possessions, though he demanded that each 
individual should give away all he had. He denounced 
begging and in general insisted, in the interest of 
humanity, upon the most intensive cultivation of 
the soil, another feature which connects him with 
Kubra and his disciple, Sayf al-DIn al-BakharzI. 

Simnani aspired to a great number of disciples, 
hoping that there would be amongst them at least 
one chosen one. His most important, and for a time 
most beloved, disciple seems to have been c AlI-i 
DustI, who became teacher of c AlI-i Hamadanl. 
Names of other disciples are to be found in Ikbal-i 
Slstanl's collections of Simnani's apophthegmata, 
and thence in Djaml, Nafahat al-Uns, 510-24 and 
Ibn Hadjar al-'Askalam, al-Durar al-Kdmina, i, 251. 
Some of them bore the title of akhi. 

There exists as yet no critical bibliography of 
Simnani and none of his works has been published. 
For the works in Persian, cf. the catalogues of MSS 
and for those in Arabic, Brockelmann, II, 263, S II, 
281 (delete al-Wdrid al-Sharid etc. and Tuhfat al- 
Sdlikin). Mashdri' Abwdb al-Kuds, al-'Urwa li-AU 
al-Khalwa and Safwat al-'Urwa belong together as 
different versions of the same work and can be 
exactly dated: the first 711/1311 (MS Shehld C A1I 
1378, not 1328), the second Ramadan 720/Oct. 1320- 

23 Muharram 721/22 Febr. 1321, and the last 
Djumada II 728/April 1328-18 Dhu 'l-Hidjdja 728/ 

24 Oct. 1328. Some of the surviving MSS are excel- 
lent; MS 'Ashlr I 482 of the c Urwa reproduces the 
autograph, Laleli 1432 of the Safwa is dated Sflfi- 
yabad 733/1333 and was thus written in the lifetime 
and perhaps under the eyes of the author). The book 
Fadl al-Shari'-a (MS Fayd Allah 2135, not 2133) 
should probably be called more correctly Fadl al- 
Tarika; it is once quoted by Simnani himself, in 
accordance with the sub-title of part i, as Tabyin 
al-Makamat wa-Ta'yin al-Daradjat and dates from 
712/1312-3. The treatise Ma Id budd fi 'l-Din is in 
Persian and the treatise on Simnani's sufl affiliation, 
also in Persian (MS Paris 159, 10) is called not 
Tadhakkur, but Tadhkirat al-Mashayikh. Of great 
importance for Simnani's biography and mystical 
teaching is the collection of his sayings, made by 
his disciple Ikbal b. Sabik-i SIstanI and preserved 
in several MSS under the titles of Cihil Madilis, or 
Malfifdt-i Shaykh '■Ala > al-Dawla-yi Simnani, etc. 
On this is based the greater part of Djaml, Nafahat, 
504-15- 

Bibliography: Autobiography in Mashari', 
'Urwa, Safwa; Ikbal-i SIstani and Djaml, see 
above; Nur al-DIn Dja c far-i BadakhshI, Khuldsat 
al-Makamat (MS Berlin, in Pertsch no. 6, 6; MS 
Oxford, in Ethe, no. 1264); Dawlatshah, 251-2; 
'All b. al-Husayn-i Wa'iz-i Kashifl, Ra&ahat 
l Ayn dl-Ijayat, lith. Lucknow 1905, 35 (corres- 
pondence with 'All-i RamltanI); c Abd al-Husayn 
NawatI, Ridial Kitdb Uabib al-Siyar, Teheran 
1324, 29-30; Rida Kuli Khan Hidayat, Riyad al- 
'Arifin, Teheran 1316, 178; and other biogra- 
phical collections; W. Ivanow, in JASB, 1923, 
299-303; Maulavi Abdul Hamid, Cat. of the Arab, 
and Pers. MSS in the Or. Publ. Libr. at Bankipore, 
xiii, no. 905; Mir Valiuddin, in IC, 1951, 43-51; 
F. Meier, in Isl., 1937, 14 f. ; idem, Die FawaHh 
al-gamdl des Nagm ad-din al-Kubra, Mainz 1956, 
index. (F. Meier) 

'ALA 5 al-DIN [see chOpids, kh'arizmshAh, 

SALDjOlfS]. 



348 



«ALA 3 al-DIN BEG — 'ALA'IYYA 



C ALA 3 al-DIN BEG (commonly C ALA 3 al-DIN 
PASHA), son of c Othman, the founder of the 
Ottoman state. His figure remains enigmatic, owing 
to the absence of reliable documents and the tenden- 
tious, and rather legendary, character of the early 
Ottoman chronicles — the same circumstances which 
are the cause of so many uncertainties in early 
Ottoman history. In some sources he is called Erden 
c Ali (Ibn Taghribirdi and Ibn Hadjar), or c Ali, 
According to the historians he and Orkhan were 
born of the same mother, Mai Khatun. daughter of 
the akhi Edebali; according to a document of 724/ 
1324, however, Mai Khatun was the daughter of a 
certain 'Omar Bey — thus there seems to be some 
error. There are conflicting statements as to whether 
he was a younger, or an older, brother of Orkhan. 

The historians relate that after the death of 
'Othrnan, 'Ala 3 al-DIn (who is said to have stayed 
during his father's lifetime with Edebali in Biledjik) 
refused the offer made by Orkhan to assume the 
direction of the affairs of the state and retired to 
his property situated in Kotra (or Kudra) in the 
district of Kete, between Brusa and Mikhalic. 
H. Husam al-Din has put forward the suggestion 
that in reality the two brothers were rivals for the 
throne and that this fact was purposely distorted 
in the historical tradition. (Ibn Taghribirdi and Ibn 
Hadjar say: "Erden 'All succeeded his father".) 

According to tradition C A15 3 al-Din for some time 
occupied the post of vizier and commander-in-chief; 
in effect, in a wakfiyya by him, dated 733/1333, he 
bears titles which befit a military position. H. Hiisam 
al-DIn holds that 'Ala 3 al-Din, while he was com- 
mander-in-chief, was never a vizier, but that his 
figure was conflated with that of a certain C A15 5 al- 
DIn Pasha, who was in fact c Othman's and Orkhan's 
vizier. (He is mentioned in a wakfiyya of Aspordje 
Khatun, Orkhan's wife, dated 723/1323.) 

The establishment of various Ottoman institutions 
are ascribed to 'Ala 3 al-Din: the choice of the coni- 
form cap of white felt as official costume and the 
organization, together with Djenderli-zade Kara 
Khalil. of Ottoman infantry (yaya). The responsibi- 
lity for the introduction of an Ottoman coinage 
is also credited to him by late historians. [Cf. 
Orxtian.] 

'Ala 3 al-Din died about 1333 ; the various accounts 
concerning the circumstances of his death in late 
authors (such as Nishandji and Beligh) are not 
worthy of credit. His tomb is in 'Othman's mausoleum 

Descendants of 'Ala 5 al-DIn are mentioned in the 
latter half of the 15th century by Neshrl and 
'Ashikpasha-zade, in the 16th century in land- 
cadasters, in connection with wakfs established by 
their ancestor.— 'Ala 3 al-DIn founded a tekke in the 
Kukvirtli quarter of Brusa and two mosques in 
the fortress of Kaplidja. 

Bibliography: 'Ashikpasha-zade, Ta'rikh, 
Istanbul 1332, 21, 36 ft.; Neshrl (Taeschner), 
index; Urudj, Tawarikh-i Al-i 'Othmdn (Babinger), 
5 ff. ; Ta'rikh-i Al-i <Othman (Giese) ; Lutfl Pasha, 
Ta'rikh, Istanbul 1341, 27 ff.; Sa c d al-Din, Tadj 
al-Tawdrikh, Istanbul 1279, i, 21 tt.; 'All, Kunh 
al-Akhbdr, v, 42; Solak-zade, Ta'rikh, Istanbul 
1297, 18 f. ; Muhammad Za'im, Ta'rikh (cf. TOEM, 
ii, 436-45); Hammer- Purgstall, index; Hiiseyn 
Husam al-Din, MZd 3 al-Din Bey, TOEM, xiv, 
307 ff., 380 ff., xv, 128 ff ., 200 ff. (with excerpts 
from unpublished sources) ; I. H. UzuncarsUI, Gazi 
Orhan Bey vakfiyesi (724), Bell., 1941, 276 ff.; 1A, 
s.v. (by I. H. UzuncarsM). (S. M. Stern) 



'ALA 3 al-DIN MUHAMMAD b. HASAN [se 
alamut]. 

c ALA 3 al-DIN MUHAMMAD KHALDJl [se< 

ALABA WA 'L-¥ILA C , "Alava and th. 
forts", a geographical expression used in the 2nd 
3rd/8th-9th centuries by Arab chroniclers to denoti 
that part of Christian Spain which was most exposec 
to the attacks of summer expeditions (saHfa) sen! 
from Cordova by the Umayyad amirs. The tern 
Alaba was used more especially to denote th< 
northern part of the Iberian peninsula beyond th< 
left bank of the upper valley of the Ebro. This 
region was bounded on the west by the territories 
of Bureba and Castilla la Vieja ("Old Castile" = al 
Kild c ), which stretched from the left bank of th< 
Ebro, opposite the Pancorbo pass as far as th< 
outskirts of the present town of Santander. Alava is 
to-day the name of a Spanish province, the capita 
of which is the modern town of Vitoria. 

Bibliography: E. Levi- Provencal, Hist. Esp 
Mus., i, 143 n. 1. See also al-andalus, i. 

(E. Le vi- Provencal) 
ALADDIN [see alf layla wa-layla]. 
ALADJA (t.; originally a diminutive of ala 
= spotted, variegated) = chintz with coloured 
stripes (cp. Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, s.v 
Alleja, 8 and 756) ; it is also found in geographical 
names (see for example the next article). 

ALADjfA DAfiH, "mountain of various colours" 
a name often employed for mountains in Turkish 
speaking countries; it is the name e.g. (1) of a 
mountain S. W. of Konya; (2) a mountain, consti- 
tuting a spur of the Kara Dagh in the S. E. part of 
Kars, near which the Russians defeated the Turks 
on 16 Oct. 1877. 

ALADJA HISAR, "the motley-coloured fortress" 
the Turkish name of the town of Krushevats, on 
the south side of the Western Morava. The town 
was the capital of Serbia under Lazar (who assembled 
there his army to march against the Turks, and lose 
his empire, at Kosovo, in 1389) and his son Stephan. 
It was occupied by the Turks in 1428, after the acces- 
sion of George Brankovits, who made Semendria his 
capital. The town played a role in the Serbian wars 
and Muhammad II established there a gunfoundry. 
Aladja Hisar was the capital of a sand£ak in the 
eydlet of Rum-eli [?.».]. The Austrians occupied the 
town for a short while in 1737; a second occupation 
lasted from 1789 to 1791, when the town was 
restored to Turkey by the treaty of Sistovo. It 
was occupied from 1806 to 181 3 by the Serbian 
insurgents of Kara George; in 1833 it was ceded to 
the autonomous principality of Serbia as one of 
the "six districts" (cf. G. Gravier, Les frontiires 
historiques de la Serbie, Paris 1919, 67 ff.); the 
small garrison of the citadel, however, had to be 
starved into surrender. 

Bibliography: C. Jirecek, Stoat u. GeseUschaft 
im mittelalt. Serbien, iv {Denkschr. Ak. Wien, 
1919), index; idem, Gesch. d. Serben, Gotha 1918, 
186, 191, 202, 212; B. de la Broquiere, Voyage 
d'Outremere (Schefer), 205; F. Babinger, Mehmed 
der Eroberer, 146, 165, 385; Ewliya Celebi, v, 584; 
HadjdjI Khalifa, transl. J. Hammer, Rumeli und 
Bosna, 146; A. Boue, Turquie d' Europe, Paris 
1840, ii, 25, 395, iii, 203-4, 267, iv, 287; idem, 
Recueil d' Itineraires dans la Turquie d'Europe, 
Vienna 1854, i, 176 ff.; R. M. Ilic, KruSevai, 1908. 

(S. M. Stern) 
'ALA 3 IYYA [see alanya]. 



'ALAKA - 

<ALA*A [see nisba]. 

'ALAM, plural a'ldm (a), i. "signpost, flag", used 
in the latter sense concurrently with the Arabic 
Uwa', raya; the Persian band, dirafsh; and the 
Turkish bayrak = liwa', sandiak: see Sandjai?, and 
compare the Latin signa. 

It is known that when, before the advent of Istam, 
the Kuraysh waged war on another tribe, they 
received from the hands of Kusayy the liwa', a piece 
of white cloth which Kusayy himself had attaqhed 
to a lance (Caussin de Perceval, Essai, i, 233-8). 
During Muhammad's lifetime, flags were cajled 
indifferently liwa' or raya, less commonly l a\^,m. 
Tradition, however, says that the flag ( l alam) of 
the Prophet was called c ukab. Other traditions 
contrast the raya, the Prophet's black flag, with 
his liwa'', which was white (Kanz al-'Ummal, iv, 
18, no. 346; 45, no. 995). In another tradition the 
proposal is made to Muhammad that the faithful 
should be called to prayer by the raising of a raya, 
but he will not consent to this method of summoning 
them (ibid., iv, 264, no. 5461). In yet other traditions, 
however, liwa' and raya appear to be synonymous 
(ibid., v, 268, no. 5357; 269, no. 15358). The use of 
the raya does not seem to have been confined exclu- 
sively to Muslims, since, at Badr, Talha carried the 
raya of the idolaters (ibid., 269, no. 5365). 

Later, flags played an important part in Islam. 
The Umayyads adopted white, the 'Abbasids black, 
and the ShI'ites green. Representations of flags 
occur frequently on various objects, especially in 
miniatures. One of the oldest representations is that 
shown on a Persian lustre-ware plate, which unquest- 
ionably dates from the 10th century (Survey, pi. 577). 
For other later drawings of flags, see Kratchkows- 
kaya in Ars Islamica, iv, 468-9. Compare also the 
Moorish flag of the 14th century preserved in Toledo 
cathedral (Kiihnel, Maurische Kuns't, pi. 149). 
Banners and standards were also used in Egypt and 
Syria during the Mamluk period (see Leo A. Mayer, 
Mamluk Costume, s.v. Banners; Makrizi, Kkifat, i, 
23 ff.: khizdnat al-bunud). There may at this period 
have been some differentiation in the use of the 
various words meaning "flag". 

In epigraphy, an inscription of Kaytbay balances 
the words sayf and kalam with band and l alam, which 
seems to suggest that the first term denotes a military 
standard, the second a religious flag (see J. David- 
Weill, Catalogue ginlral du Musle arabe du Caire, 
Bois d dpigraphes depuis I'ipoque mamlouke, 57-8; 
Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Ibn Fadl Allah, Masdlik 
al-absdr ft mamdlik al-amsar, XLVD-LVI and 26). 
Numerous flags with religious inscriptions are 
preserved in museums; they usually date from the 
17th or 18th century and the majority derive from 
the countries of the Middle East and North Africa. 
(Cf., among others, a Turkish flag: C. J. Lamm, 
MalmS Musei Vanners, Arsbok 1940; En Turkish 
Fana, Malmo 1940.) Some flags are still used in 
processions conducted by the religious orders. 

For Turkish standards see tugh, sandjak. For 
the emblem of the crescent see hilAl, for that of 
the lion and the sun, shIr u-ejOrshId. For heraldic 
symbols, see shi'Ar, tamgha. 

Bibliography : In addition to the references 
already mentioned : Freytag, Einleitung, 262 f f . ; 
Jacob, AUarabisches Beduinenleben', 126; Mez, 
Renaissance, 130-1; G. van Vloten, De opkomst 
der Abbasiden, 137ft.; idem, Les drapeaux en 
usage d la ftte de Hucein d Tdheran, Intern. Archiv 
fur Ethnographic, 1892, 109 ft.; Herklots, On the 
customs of the Moosulmans of India, 176 ft.; A. 



<ALAM 349 

Sakisian, in Syria, 1941, 66-80; Phyllis Ackerman, 
in A. U. Pope, Survey of Persian Art, iii, 2766-82. 
(J. David-Weill) 

c ALAM (a., pi. 'dlamun, 'awdlim), world. 

1. The word is found as early as the Kur'an, where 
in borrowed formulae we have references to the 
rabb al- c alamin and the seven samawat. 

Allah is its lord and creator who has created 
it for man as a sign of his omnipotence. This 
transitory world (dunya) is of little value — "not 
worth the wing of a midge" is the traditional 
expression — in comparison with the next (dkhira). 
We are told very little about the structure of the 
world [cf. the article khalk]; the subjects of 
interest, in the Kur'an as well as in Tradition, 
are God, the spiritual world and man. 

This became altered as Islam took over the 
inheritance of Hellenistic eclecticism and especially 
through the translation of Indian and Greek works 
on science and philosophy. The huge figures with 
which the Hindus operated were, it is true, ridi- 
culed, nor were the fables of the ancient Greeks 
about an endless plurality of worlds beside or in 
succession to one another, believed nor, from the 
theological point of view at least, was the belief 
in the eternity of the world accepted; on the 
whole however, the picture of the world as given 
by Greek science was accepted. The teaching 
of Plato and Aristotle that there is only one 
universe was naturally easy to reconcile with the 
monotheism of Islam; cf. Kur'dn, xxi, 22: "If there 
were in these two worlds gods in addition to Allah, 
both (heaven and earth) would perish". 

On the scientific development of the cosmogonic 
teaching of Aristotle and Ptolemy in Islam, see 
the articles nddjOm (Astronomy and Astrology) 
and the article Sun, Moon and Stars in Hastings, 
Encycl., of Rel. and Ethics (by C. A. Nallino). 
Here we must confine ourselves to the speculations 
of the theologians and philosophers regarding the 
origin and nature of the world in relation to the 
existence of God and man. They are mainly based 
on Plato's Timaeus or Aristotle's Ilepl oipavou and 
Book A of his Metaphysics and also on the commen- 
taries of Simplicius and Johannes Philoponus. Of the 
greatest importance for the Islamic elaboration of 
the Greek philosophy we have the neo-Platonic 
"Theology of Aristotle" and to some extent the 
tradition of Christian dogmatics. In reference to 
Aristotle's work Ilepl oipotvou ("On the Universe"), 
it should be noted that according to Hellenistic 
tradition the title of the Arabic tradition is fi 
•l-Samd' wa 'l-'Alam ("On Heaven and the World"). 
August Miiller (Die griechischen Philosophen in der 
arabischen Oberlieferung, Halle 1873, 51) therefore 
suggested that the Arab translators of the Aristotelian 
work had added to it the Ilepl x6o-|zou which is three 
hundred years later and influenced by the Stoics. 
But so far no translation of this work ascribed to 
Aristotle has been found. 

All Muslim thinkers asserted that God is the 
author of the world although they used different 
expressions for the coming into existence of the 
world in distinction to the existence of God: creation 
out of nothing, emanation (fay4) or manifestation 
(tadjalli). The image most used, whether emanation 
or manifestation was talked of, was that of light 
(nur) which disseminates itself tunelessly. 

In general the theologian who adhered to 
tradition said that the reason for the world was 
the all-powerful will of God. Mut'azill thinkers 



350 C A1 

laid more emphasis on the benevolent wisdom of 
the Creator, who orders everything well for the 
good of his servants. Mystics talked a great deal 
about the overflow of divine love; finally the 
philosophers in the narrower sense, as well as a 
few speculative theologians, regarded the world as 
the product of pure thought, in itself accidental, 
but necessary on God's part. 

The world forms a whole, a unity in plurality. 
Even the atomist theologians, who denied any 
interconnection in nature, were of the opinion 
that no part of the world but only the whole could 
be destroyed at once by an act or an omission 
of God. 

The world is a plurality. The traditional distinctions 
between heaven and earth or between this world 
and the next continued. But Hellenistic media- 
torial theories complicated this originally simple 
universe. From Plato came the distinction between 
the visible world of beings (x6a[XO? 6paT6?) and the 
spiritual intelligible world (x6o"fio<; voy]t6i;). Aristotle 
rather emphasised the distinction between our 
earthly world of origin and decline ('dlarn al-kawn 
wa 'l-fasdd) and the world of the heavenly spheres. 
The world of heaven controlled by exalted spirits 
or souls, consisting of one element entirely, 
the ether, and provided from eternity with the 
most beautiful motion revolving in a circle, is far 
more perfect than the earthly world with its four 
elementary circles and motions of various kinds 
Then came the Stoics who brought God and the 
world together and worked out a theodicy. Finally 
came the Neo-PyJhagoreans and Neo-Platonists, 
who took over a great deal from Aristotle and 
the Stoics, but with Plato, and much more decidedly 
than he, transferred the central point into the 
world of God and of pure spiritual existence. 

This is the starting point of the cosmological 
speculations of the Muslim thinkers just as it was 
for the Gnosis and the doctrine of the Eastern 
Christian church. Since God is the highest being 
and everything in the most exalted sense, so also 
is He the first world. The mystics in Islam (cf. 
al-Diill. ai-Insan al-Kdmil, ch. i ff. and Horten, 
Das philosophische System von Schirdzi, Strassburg 
1913. 36, 276 f.) in so far as they were influenced 
by Christian dogmatics, ultimately talked of five 
worlds: 1. the world of the divine being; 2. of His 
names; 3. of His qualities; 4. of His actions; 5. of 
His works. Others established mediation between 
God and the world by triads and tetrads. Emphasis 
on three qualities of God was very common : power, 
knowledge, and life (in speculation these were no 
doubt interpreted as the power of the Creator, the 
knowledge of the c akl and the life of the soul). 
God's spheres of activity in the world were deter- 
mined according to his qualities. When for example 
al-Ghazall speaks of three worlds ('dlam ai-mulk, 
al-malakut, al-diabarilt), this looks lt'ke a triad for 
the spheres of the Creator's power (for Ghazall's 
immediate sources see Wensinck (Bibl.)). 

To distinguish three or four worlds the philo- 
sophers as a rule used the neo-Platonic terminology 
from the "Theology of Aristotle": the world of 
the mind ( l akl), of the soul {nafs) and of nature 
((abi'a). The soul of man is there the centre of 
interest which, although associated with a mortal 
body, remains, in so far as it is intelligent, always 
associated with the highest world, its origin and 
the goal of its longing, through the mediation 
of the world soul and the world intelligence. From 
the point of view of this soul, only two worlds 



are as a rule mentioned: the physical and the 
spiritual, the lower and the upper world. If it is 
desired to define more closely the sphere ruled 
by the soul it is called the world of the heavenly 
spheres and its site (ufk) is transferred to the 
sphere of the fixed stars. The world of pure intel- 
lectual being has a superheavenly site (al-ufk al-a'ld) 
and nature has its special sphere of operation in 
the sub-lunary world. 

It is not possible here to go into the modifications 
of this cosmogony in the different philosophers. 
The main object in all cases is to indicate the dif- 
ferent stages of being and parallel with them the 
stages of cognition. The world is a man on a large 
scale and man a little world. Now man is made up 
of a natural body, a conceiving soul and a pure 
intelligence. The sub-lunary world is therefore also 
called the world of sensual perception (shahada, hiss) ; 
the world of the heavenly spheres that of allegorical 
conception (uiahm, takhayyul), if we assume, e.g. 
with Ibn Sina that the souls of the spheres possess 
a power of imagining (Ibn Rushd denies this); 
and the super-heavenly world that of pure thought 
or of intellectual observation (<akl, nazar etc.). 

Of the great deal that could still be said let 
us only emphasise one thing in conclusion, that 
is the optimism of the philosophers, who with 
the Stoics regard this beautiful world as the best 
possible and with Plato and Aristotle they make it 
last for ever. Al-Farabl, for example ("Model-State", 
Arab, text, ed. Dieterici, 17), sees in the general 
order of the universe God's goodness and justice. 
According to the general philosophical view, evil 
and wickedness are only imperfections without 
real existence. Even the Ikhwan al-Safa', although 
they call the physical world a hell for fools and 
a purgatory for the' wise, are quite aware of the 
amenities of this world and appreciate the splendid 
life of its kings. The mystics also can be optimistic: 
everything comes from God and returns to Him. 
All thus endeavour to regard the relatively better 
as allied to the absolutely good. 

Bibliography: in the text, cf. also: D. B. 
Macdonald, The Life of al-Ghazzdli, in J A OS, 
1899, esp. 116 ff.; Tj. de Boer, The Moslem 
Doctrines of Creation, Proceed, of the 6th Internat. 
Congr. of Philosophy, New York 1927, 597 ft.; 
Die Epitome der Metaphysik des Averroes, ed. 
S. v. d. Bergh, Leyden 1924, chap, iv.; A. J. 
Wensinck, On the Relation between Ghazdli's Cos- 
mology and his Mysticism (in Verh. Ak. Amst., 
vol. lxxv., ser. A, no. 6, 1933)- (Tj. de Boer) 
2. c Alam al-J2iabar0t, c Alam al-MalakOt, 
c Alam al-Mithal. c A'am, "world", is used here in 
the gnostic sense of "sphere of existence". The idea 
is a common one, and is derived from a dual stream 
of influences — Plotinian and Iranian : Isma'ill tradi- 
tions, the Hellenistic philosophers {faldsifa), notably 
al-Farabi, and the sufl schools. Introduced by the 
Sufis of the early centuries of Islam, it became one 
of the themes of al-Ghazzali, and was adapted and 
developped by the "master of the ishrak" and his 
school. Later, it was widely adopted by the sufis of 
the wahdat al-wudjud. 

Platonist and Neoplatonist stream of influence: 
the world of sensual perception: l alam al-mulk, c dlam 
al-khalk, is distinguished from the world of the mind 
or the world of ideas (ma'dnl, muthul). The latter is 
the 'dlam al-mithdl (or muthul), translated by Henry 
Corbin as "world of archetypal images". 

Oriental gnostic stream of influence: opposed to 
the 'dlam al-mulk are the worlds of the malakut and 



the diabarut (Aramaic terms); and, transcending 
them both, the world of the lahut. 

Lahut (antonym of ndsut, "humanity"): the 
incommunicable world of the divine essence — a word 
occurring frequently in Halladjian terminology. In 
general: the world of absolute divine transcendence, 
and therefore absolutely superior to all other "spheres 
of existence". For some supporters of Monist tenden- 
cies, malakut and diabarut are, as it were, assumed 
by lahut; this is then the 'dlam al-ghayb, the world 
of Mystery (uncreated). 

'Alam al-mulk, a term of Kur'anic origin, "the 
world of kingship" (synonyms: 'dlam al-khalk, 'dlam 
al-shahdda, the latter expression being frequently 
used by al-Ghazzali) : it is the world of becoming, the 
world here below. 

'Alam al-malakut, similarly of Kur'anic origin, 
(icf. Kur'dn, vi, 75; vii, 185; xxiii, 88; xxvi, 83): 
"the world of Kingdom, of Sovereignty", of which the 
'dlam al-mulk is the contingent reflection. It is the 
world of immutable spiritual truths (hakd'ik), and 
hence of the angelic beings, to which are added the 
cntia of Islamic tradition, the Preserved Table, the 
Pen, and the Scales (see al-wa'd wa'l-wa'Id), and 
often also the Kur'an. The spiritual reality (ruh) 
which is in man belongs to it. So too do the sepa- 
rated intellects, and hence the human 'akl which 
partakes of them. Al-DjurdjanifraVi/a/, 246) includes 
the nufus (souls) which are sometimes assigned to 
the 'dlam al-diabarut. Common synonyms: 'dlam al- 
ghayb, 'dlam al-amr. This "world of Sovereignty" 
recalls the "City of the Angels" of Gregory of Nyssa. 

'Alam al-diabarut, a term originating in Tradition, 
occurring in various hadith (see A. J. Wensinck, La 
pensle de Ghazzali, 83 n. 3): "the world of (divine) 
Omnipotence". In general, the place of barzakh, an 
"intermediate" world (some texts, however, are 
inclined to put this last near to the malakut). To 
it belong, according to al-Ghazzali, the impres- 
sionable and imaginative faculties of the human 
soul. Sometimes, however, as is pointed out by al- 
Djurdjanl, following Abu Talib al-Makki (Ta'rifdt, 
77), diabarut is the world of the divine Names and 
Attributes. Al-Kashanl assigns to it kadd' (decree of 
divine predestination) ; the Preserved Table has also 
been assigned to it. 

The mutual inter-relation of these various "worlds". 
(1) The 'dlam al-mithdl can coincide either with 
the malakut, or with the diabarut, or with both 
together. It is in fact stated (al-Ghazzali) that the 
world of sensual perception is the reflection, the 
image, the copy of the 'dlam al-malakut: cf. the 
"shadows" of the cave of Plato. In so far as the 
'dlam al-mithdl denotes the idea of archetypal 
images, it also recalls the diabarut and the barzakh. 
To sum up: malakut is the world of pure self-existent 
intelligibilia; diabarut, the world of the archetypal 
images and symbols of the contingent world, evoking 
the idea of "transcendental imagination", in Heideg- 
ger's acceptance. According to the Avicennan cos- 
mogony, the active intellects belong to malakut, 
the celestial souls to diabarut. 

(2) Whether this hierarchy of "worlds" is consi- 
dered as real or as a privileged myth, the faldsifa, 
al-Ghazzali, and the ishrdkiyyun teach, from the 
standpoint peculiar to each school, how man can 
elevate himself from the 'dlam al-mulk to the two 
superior worlds. This is the kashf ("unveiling") or 
mukdshafa. Al-Ghazzali (Ihyd\ iii, 17-19) tells us 
that the heart (kalb) has "two doors", the one open 
towards the world of the malakut, the other towards 
the world of the mulk or shahdda. Further, 1 eferring 



LM 351 

to the relationship of the macrocosm-microcosm, the 
same author sees in man — body, psychic faculties, 
and spirit — a reflection of the three worlds — mulk, 
diabarut and malakut. It can happen, however, that 
the relationship between the two worlds is reversed. 
The following summary classification can be made: 
the world of amr is opposed to the (perceptible) world 
of £halk, and the amr combines diabarut, malakut, 
and mithdl. 

(3) Some ambiguity exists regarding the mutual 
relation between malakut and diabarut: (a) the 
thesis of al-Ghazzali (cf. above) : malakut, the world 
of intelligible realities to which belong the Angels, 
"light-substances" (cf. the Ghazzalian text of the 
Mishkdt al- Anwar) is practically synonymous with 
'dlam al-amr, the world of Command, of the divine 
Logos uncreated. The diabarut becomes therefore a 
refraction of the light emanating from this higher 
world into an intermediate world of archetypal 
images, and is thence accessible to the insight of a 
prophet or a gnostic ('drif), who borrows from it 
symbols for the instruction of the people. In the 
Ihyd', al-Ghazzali compares the journey through 
the 'Ham al-mulk to the progress of man on earth; 
that through the 'Ham al-diabarut to a voyage on a 
ship; that through the 'dlam al-malakut to the 
progress of a man with the power to walk directly 
on the waters. Clearly, therefore, the diabarut is the 
"intermediate" world, "in contact with both the 
others". It "can be manifested in the visible world, 
although the eternal Power has linked it to the 
world of the malakut", says al-Ghazzali in the Imld*. 
The superiority of the malakut is also affirmed by 
Ibn 'Ata' Allah of Alexandria, etc. (b) In other 
texts, particularly, it seems, those representing the 
Sufi line of thought of the wahdat al-wudiud [see 
allah], which itself had its origin in a Plotino-gnostic 
tradition, superiority is accorded to the diabarut. 
Thus in the Turkish dictionary Ma'rifet-name (cf. 
Carra de Vaux, in Bibl.) the following hierarchy 
in descending order is given: (1) 'arsh (divine Throne 
or Tabernacle), (2) diabarut, (3) kursi (divine Seat), 
(4) malakut, (5) human worlds, including Paradise. 
The (according to W. Montgomery- Watt, apocryphal) 
Ghazzalian text al-Durra al-Fdkhira states: the race 
of Adam, and the animals, belong to the world of 
the mulk; the angels and the djinn to the world of 
the malakut; the "elect among the angels" to the 
world of the diabarut (cf. Wensinck, op. cit., 99). 
Or again: the Kur'an (uncreated), the substantial 
Word of God, "exists personally" in the diabarut, 
while islam (saldt, sawm, sabr) belongs to the malakut. 
Al-Suhrawardl, "master of the ishrdk", brings 
together in the same passage (Ifikmat al-Ishrdk, 
ed. Corbin, 156-7) the "light which permeates the 
world of the diabarut and the entities of the malakut". 
Other passages from the same work sometimes treat 
of the diabarut, sometimes of the "victorial lights of 
the malakut", both worlds being the hierarchized 
places of archangelic or intelligible irradiations 
(ishrdkdt)- 

The mutual inter-relation between the supra- 
sensory worlds can thus vary. Each case where the 
words are mentioned must be considered in its 
context, while the indications derived from the 
etymology can serve as a orientation. 

Bibliography : Numerous texts by al-Ghazzali. 
among others, Ihyd', Cairo 1352/1933. ', i°7, i", 
17-19, iv, 20, 212 ff., etc.; Imla' (in margin of the 
Ihyd', with inversion of texts 168-71 and 135-41), in 
Ihyd', i, 49, 170-1, 135, etc. See also Kistds, 
Arba'in, Mishkdt, Durra, etc. ; Ibn c Ata> Allah of 



352 

Alexandria, Miftdh al-Faldh, Cairo, n. d., 5-6 ; 
SuhrawardI, Ouevres pkilosophiques et mystiques, 
ed. H. Corbin, ii, Teheran-Paris, 1952; al-Muthul 
al- c Akliyya al-Afldfuniyya, ed. by <Abd al- Rahman 
Badawl, Cairo 1947. (On the concept of mithal, see 
the texts of Farabl, Ibn Slna, and others.) The 
Rasd'il of Ibn c ArabI, Haydarabad 1367/1948, still 
remain to be analyzed. — Carra de Vaux, La Philo- 
sophic illuminative d'apres Suhrawerdi Meqtoul, 
J A , 1902, 78 ; idem, Fragments d'eschatologie musul- 
mane, Brussels 1895, 27 ff. (with an explanation 
of the figure in the Ma'rifet-ndme) ; S. Guyard, 
Traitt du dicret et de I'arrit divins par le Dr. Soufi 
Abd er-Razzaq, 1879, 3-4 (text); A. J. Wensinck, 
La pensie de Ghazzdli, Paris 1940, chap, iii; idem, 
On the Relation between Ghazdli's Cosmology and his 
Mysticism, Mede. Ak. v. Wetenschappen, Amster- 
dam, 75, A, 7; M. Smith, al-Qhazzali the Mystic, 
London 1944, passim; Henry Corbin, Avicenne et 
le Ricit visionnaire, Teheran-Paris 1954, i, 34 ft. 
(Ibn Sina's idea of mithal). (L. Gardet) 

al-A<LAM al-SHANTAMARI [see al-shan- 
tamar!]. 

'ALAMA, mark of ratification or initial- 
ling used in the Muslim west, from the time of the 
Mu'minid dynasty, on all official chancery documents. 
This l aldma, in principle inscribed by the sovereign's 
own hand in the space provided for the purpose at 
the head of the document, beneath the basmala, 
consisted of a doxology, which varied under the 
different dynasties: al-hamdu li'lldh, under the 
Mu'minids and Sa'dids; al-hamdu li'lldh wa 'l-shukru 
li'lldh, under the Hafsids; la ghdliba illa'lldh under 
the Nasrids of Granada. The l alama was gradually 
replaced by illegible arabesque initials, and sup- 
planted, in modern times, by the seal in indelible ink. 
At the beginning of the 9th/i5th century, the 
chronicler Abu 'l-Walld b. al-Ahmar devoted a 
short treatise, Mustawda* al- c Aldma, to the formula 
of ratification (cf. Hespiris, 1934, 200). 

Bibliography : E. Levi-Provencal, Un recueil 
de lettres officielles almohades, Paris 1942, 17-9; 
the same, Arabica occitUntalia, v (in Arabica, ii, 
1955, 277 ; on the 'aldma of the 'Abbasid caliph 
of Baghdad, al-Mustazhir bi-llah al-Qahir bi-llah) ; 
H. de Castries, Les signes de validation des Cherifs 
saadiens, Hespiris, 1921, 231 ff. 

(E. Levi-Provencal) 
ALAMAK [see nudjum]. 
ALAMBIC [see al-anb!*]. 
'ALAMGlR [see awrangzIb]. 
al-'ALAMI, the name of an old Jerusalem 
family, the nisba being to one c Alam al-DIn 
Sulayman (d. 790/1388). The family traces its descent 
to Ibn Mashish and may have been one of the many 
Maghribl families which immigrated to Jerusalem 
in the 14th century, though Mudjlr al-DIn hints 
(ii, 616) that it was of Turcoman origin. Two sons of 
«Alam al-DIn: Musa (d. 802/1399) and 'Umar (d. 806/ 
1403), succeeded' one another as governors of the 
■city (nd'ib al-saltana), and keepers of the sacred 
places of Jerusalem and Hebron (ndzir al-haramayn), 
and at least three other members of the family 
"became chiefs of police (amir hddiib) before this post 
was merged into the governorship by al-Ashraf 
InSl about 857/1453. Muhammad al- c AlamI (d. 
Jerusalem 1038/1628), for whose works see Brockel- 
mann, S II, 470, was one of the more famous sufl 
saints of his day in Syria. He conceived the plan of 
building a mosque near the site of the Place of Ascen- 
sion on the Mt. of Olives, which the Christians of 
Jerusalem at first thwarted by appealing to Con- 



£ ALAM — ALAMOT 



stantinople. But Shavkh Muhammad enlisted the 
support of Shaykh As c ad b. Hasan, the mufti of 
Constantinople (al-Muhibbl, i, 396), after whom the 
building, when completed, in 1025/1616 was called 
al-As c adiyya, and where Muhammad was later 
buried. Muhammad's teaching was carried on by 
his nephew Salah (d. 1055/1645), who also became 
Shadhill khalifa in Jerusalem. Arab travellers to 
the city in the 18th century mention several c AlamIs, 
chiefly as lecturers at the Aksa Mosque and Hanafl 
muftis. Early in the present century the Alamls 
re-entered administrative life with Fayd Allah (who 
was also the author of the Concordance of the Kur'Sn, 
Fath al-Rahm&n, Cairo 1927, 1955) and his son, 
Musa (still alive). 

Bibliography: Mudjlr al-DIn, Uns, ii, 506, 
609; MuhibbI, index; Muradl, i, 49, 71, 116, ii, 
330, iii, 88, iv 218; Husaynl, Tarddjim A hi al- 
(Cuds; NabulusI, al-Hadra al-Unsiyya (both MSS 
in writer's possession) ; Kirk, The Middle East 
1945-1950, London 1954, 314-5. 

(W. A. S. Khalidi) 
al- c AJLAM1, Muhammad b. al-Tayyib, Moroc- 
can poet and man of letters belonging to 
the branch of the Shurafa' c Alamiyyun (or descen- 
dants of the Moroccan saint c Abd al-Salam b. 
Mashish '[?.».], who is buried among the Djebala, in 
Pjabal al- c Alam, north Morocco). Born and educated 
at Fas, he lived for a while at Miknas, at the court of 
Mawlay Ismail, and died at Cairo, on his way to 
Arabia to perform the pilgrimage, in n 34 or 1135/ 
1721-23. He has left a work, which is at once an 
anthology of poetry and a compilation on certain 
technical subjects, in which there is much information 
on Moroccan literary life at the beginning of the 
I2th/i8th century; this work, entitled al-Anis al- 
Mutrib fi-man lakUuhU min Udaba' al-Maghrib, was 
lithographed at Fas in 1315 A. H. 

Bibliography: E. Levi-Provencal, . CAor/a, 
295-97 (and references quoted); Brockelmann, 
S II, 684; J. Berque, La littirature marocaine et 
VOrient au XVIII' siecle, Arabica, 1955, 311-2. 

(L. Levi-Provencal) 
ALAMOT. (i) The fortress; (ii) the dynasty and 
state. 

The ruins of the fortress of Alamut are situated 
on the summit of a lofty and almost inaccessible rock 
in the heart of the Alburz mountains two days's 
march north-north-east of Kazwin. According to 
Ibn al-Athlr (x, 131), an eagle indicated the site to a 
Daylamite king, who built a castle there, hence the 
derivation of Alamut from dluh, "eagle" and 
dmu{kh)t, "teaching". In 246/860 the <Alid al-Hasan 
al-Da<i ila'1-Hakk rebuilt the castle. Hasan-i 
Sabbah, the founder of the Assassins, seized Alamut 
in 483/1090 and made it the headquarters of the 
Order. The Mongols took Alamut in 654/1257 but 
the Assassins regained it in 673/1275, only to/lose it 
finally soon afterwards. In Safawid times, Alamut 
was used as a state prison or "castle of oblivicta". 
Remains of the walls and buildings are still to be 

Bibliography: Hamd Allah Mustawfl, TaMkh-i 
Guzida, i, 517-27 ; Le Strange, 220-1 ; Col. Monteith, 
Journal of a Tour through Azerdbijan and the Shores 
of the Caspian, Journal of the Royal Geographical 
Society, iii; J. Shiel, Itinerary from Teheran to 
Alamut and Khurrem Abad in May, 1837, ibid., 
viii; L. Lockhart, Hasan-i Sabbah and the Assas- 
sins, BSOS, v, 675-96; W. Ivanow (who is doubtful 



regarding the identification of Alamut), Some 
Ismaili Strongholds in Persia, IC, xii, 382-92; 
F. Stark, The Valleys of the Assassins, London 
1934. (L. Lockhart) 

Alamut was the center of a Shllte state between 
483/1090 and 654/1256 with territories scattered 
unevenly from Syria to eastern Iran, ruled by the 
head of the Nizari Isma'UI [q.v.] sect, sometimes 
called the Assassins. 

The state grew out of an attempt by the Isma'ills 
of Iran to break the power of the Sunnite Saldjuks 
on behalf of the Fatimid rulers of Egypt. Their 
revolt began in the last years of Malik shah's reign, 
spreading especially during the troubled time of 
Barkiyaruk; Isma'UIs seized strongholds in Kuhistan, 
JCumis, Fars, al-Djazira, Syria, and elsewhere, and 
Isma'ili troops intervened in the civil wars. Among 
the leaders the most important were the learned 
r Abd al-Malik b. 'A^ash, ddH (chief propagandist) 
of Isfahan, his son Ahmad b. 'Attash, who seized 
Shahdiz near Isfahan in 494/1100, and Hasan -i 
Sabbah [q.v.], who seized Alamut in Daylaman in 
483/1090. On the death of the imam al-Mustansir of 
Egypt in 487/1094 the Isma'llls of Iran supported 
the claims of his son Nizar; when Nizar was defeated 
they refused to recognize al-Musta'U, and carried 
on their revolt independently of Egypt, under the 
name of Nizaris [q.v.]. 

With the concentration of Saldjuk power in the 
hands of Muhammad Tapar the tide turned against 
Ihe Isma'UIs; Shahdiz fell in 500/1107 and Alamut 
was in grave danger when Muhammad's death, in 
511/1118, allowed the Isma'HIs a time of recuperation. 
By this time the leadership was clearly in the hands 
of Hasan-i Sabbah at Alamut. He controlled an 
essentially independent state consisting of the 
strongholds in the Rudbar district around Alamut, 
of the fortress of Girdkuh near Damghan in Kumis, 
and of numerous towns in Kuhistan south of 
Khurasan. In addition, he was the leader 01 most of 
the IsmaHUs under Saldjuk rule in Iran and the 
Fertile Crescent and even a few partisans of Nizar 
in Egypt. With a later small addition in Syria, the 
territory of the state remained substantially the 
same till its end, while the importance of Isma'UI 
adherents in the surrounding lands seems to have 
declined rapidly. 

The history of the state was dominated by a 
sustained hostility between the Isma'UIs and the 
surrounding Sunnite and even Shi'ite populations; 
a hostility expressed on the one side in repeated 
massacres of all suspected Ismallls in a town and 
on the other side in assassinations of their most 
active enemies, such as Nizam al-Mulk [q.v.]. Assas- 
sination was not in itself unusual at that time, but 
its systematic use by the Isma'IUs produced a 
Special terror. Especially in the earlier years, 
IsmalUs owing allegiance to the sect leadership at 
Alamut lived interspersed among the people, keeping 
their unpopular faith secret with ghl'ite takiyya. 
Those detailed to get rid of some persecuting kadi 
or amir sometimes stalked their victim with signal 
devotion, finally killing him spectacularly in public. 
Any public murder therefore was likely to be 
ascribed to the Isma'IUs; hence a nickname of theirs, 
al-Hashlshiyya, has become the word assassin in 
Western languages. (There is no evidence that the 
use of the drug hashish entered in any way into the 
assassinations.) Eventually, at least, assassination 
as a weapon became institutionalized, assassins being 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



OT 353 

kept in readiness at hostile courts and their services 
perhaps even hired out to friendly rulers. Suspicion 
and war almost never ceased between the Isma'IlI 
state and the surrounding peoples; raiding Isma'ili 
villages and slaughtering their inhabitants was 
considered a pious act among the Sunnites, while 
the Isma'llls in their isolated districts maintained 
a united front against outsiders until the end. 

Hasan-i Sabbah died in 518/1124, leaving the 
leadership to one of his generals, Buzurg-ummid, 
as ddHot Daylaman. Buzurg-ummid's son Muham- 
mad succeeded him in 532/1138. During these two 
reigns defense against Saldjuk rulers, especially 
Sandjar and Mahmud, alternated with local raids 
against mountain rivals or nearby towns like 
Kazwln. Of symbolic importance were the assassi- 
nations of two 'Abbasid caliphs, al-Mustarshid and 
al-Rashid. Meanwhile, after playing a calamitous 
role in the politics of Aleppo and Damascus, the 
Syrian Isma'UIs finally acquired for the state the 
fortresses of a part of Djabal Bahra, north of the 

Muhammad's son, Hasan II, who succeeded in 
557/1162, declared himself in 559/1164 no longer 
simply dd c i but khalifa, plenipotentiary of the long- 
hidden imam; and probably hinted that he was 
himself that imam. Proclaiming the Day of Resur- 
rection, the spiritual consummation of the world, 
he abolished the Shl'ite shari'a law as inconsistent 
with the mystical life in Paradise to which Isma'llls 
were henceforth called; thus consecrating irrevocably 
the breach with the Muslim community at large. 
Some objected to the new order, and in 561/1166 
Hasan was murdered; but his young son Muham- 
mad II took firm control and carried through his 
father's policy. Henceforward the ruler of Alamut 
was regarded as an 'Alid imam, lineal descendant of 
Nizar. But external relations remained much as 
before; Muhammad had a long and relatively 
peaceful reign, troubled toward its end by the 
enmity of the Kh'arazmshah. During his reign 
Syrian Isma'Ilism was dominated by the able 
Rashid al-DIn Sinan [q.v.], who acted with apparent 
independence of Alamut in his quarrels and rap- 
prochements with Aleppo and Saladin, with the 
Crusaders, and with the NusayrI mountaineers about 
him. But after his death in 589/1 193 the authority of 
Alamut was unquestioned. 

The son of Muhammad II, Hasan 1 1 1, succeeded 
in 607/1210 and declared himself a Sunnite Muslim, 
ordering all his followers to accept the Sunnite 
sharf-a, and allying himself with, among others, the 
caliph al-Nasir. The Isma'ills accepted his decrees 
outwardly; he made minor conquests in alliance 
with Uzbag of Adharbaydjan. But when he died in 
618/122 1 (perhaps by poison) his young son who 
succeeded, Muhammad 1 1 1, was not brought up a 
Sunnite; and though officially Hasan's decrees 
probably stood, in fact the shari'a was dropped and 
the state resumed its political isolation. 

Nevertheless, a broad Islamic outlook was main- 
tained. Naslr al-DIn Tiki [q. v .] and other scholars 
were attracted to its fortresses; and ambitious 
quarrels were carried on with Djalal al-Din Mangu- 
birti [q.v.] and then with the Mongols; allies were 
sought even in western Europe. But the Sunnites' 
ingrained hatred finally prevailed. The Mongol 
Hulagu's first objective in Iran was to destroy the 
Isma'IlI state. Muhammad had developed a degenerate 
character and his refusal to negotiate frightened his 
generals, who were evidently hoping to circumvent 
him when a courtier murdered him, in 653/1255. 



354 ALAMOT - 

After ambivalent negotiations and the fall of many 
fortresses, his son Kh'urshah surrendered uncon- 
ditionally in 654/1256. He was soon killed, and the 
Isma'ffis of Daylaman, KOmis, and Kuhistan were 
massacred; the survivors never succeeded in reesta- 
blishing the state. The Syrian fortresses survived the 
Mongols only to be taken by Baybars of Egypt, who 
however left them as an autonomous community, 
furnishing assassins to their new overlords. 

Bibliography: Rashld al-DIn, Diami 1 al- 
Tawdrikh; Djuwaynl, iii; Ibn al-Athir, passim. 
Landmarks in modem research were Silvestre de 
Sacy, M (moire sur la dynastie des Assassins, 
Mlmoires de Vacadimie des inscriptions et belles- 
lettres, iv, Paris 1818, part 2; C. Defremery, 
Nouvelles recherches sur les Ismailiens ou Balhiniens 
de Syrie, J A, 1845/i, 373-421. 1855/1, 5-76, and 
Essai sur I'histoire des Ismailiens ou Batiniens de 
la Perse, J A, 1856/ii, 353-387, i86o/i, 130-210. 
J. von Hammer-Purgstall's Oeschichte der Assas- 
sinen, Stuttgart and Tubingen 1818, was a hostile 
tract. Zambaur's notice is full of errors. Full 
bibliography will be found in M. G. S. Hodgson, 
The Order of Assassins, The Hague 1955. 

(M. G. S. Hodgson) 
ALAN (in Arabic usually taken as al-Lan), an 
Iranian people (Alan < Aryan) of Northern 
Caucasus, formerly attested also east of the Caspian 
sea (see al-BIrunl, Tahdid al-Amdkin, ed. A. Z. 
Validi, in Biruni's Picture of the world, 57), as 
supported by local toponymy. The Alan are mentioned 
in history from the 1st century A.D. In 371 they 
were defeated by the Huns. Together with the 
Vandals, a part of the Alans migrated to the West 
across France and Spain, and finally took part in 
the creation of the Vandal kingdom in North Africa 
(418-534). On conquering this kingdom Justinian 
assumed the title of king of "Vandals and Alans". 
The Alans remaining north of the Caucasus became 
neighbours consecutively of the Bulghars, the Turks 
and the Khazars, who pushed them out of the plains 
towards the mountains. In na/737 Marwan b. 
Muhammad "entered the Khazar country from the 
direction of Bab al-Lan (Darial)", see al-Baladhurt, 
207 (Ibn al-Athir, v, 160). 

The Alans were the ancestors of the present-day 
Ossets whose name (in Georgian: Ows-et'i) is derived 
from As (very probably the ancient Aorsi; al- 
Mas'udl, ii, 10, 12: *al-Arsiyya guards in Khazaria) 
who were apparently a sister tribe of the Alans. The 
Armenian Geography calls the westernmost Alans 
"Ashtigor" (As-Digor), and the Digor are the 
western division of the present-day Ossetes, while 
"Asi" in Osset refers to the still more westernly 
region near Mt. Elbruz, which the Ossets must have 
occupied too in earlier days. 

The Alans were converted en masse under the 
Byzantine Patriarch Nicholas the Mystic (between 
A.D. 901 and 925), though al-Mas'udl, Murudj, ii, 
43, states that in 320/932 they apostasised (probably 
temporarily) and expelled their bishops and priests. 
According to Ibn Rusta, 148, only the chief of the 
al-Lan was a Christian. Muslim authors do not 
know any other peoples between the dominions of 
the Alans and those of the Sahib al-Sarir, the 
ruler of the Daghistan Avar, who also professed 
the Christian faith. The tribe D.khsas (*Rukhs-as) 
which Ibn Rusta, 148, mentions as the noblest tribe 
of the Alans, may correspond to the Roxalani of 
the western authors, anfl the name Twlas (see 
ffudud, 445) should probably be read Tuwal-as 
and refer to the Tualtae living now across the 



Caucasian range. The Alan capital M.gh.s mentioned 
in the Murudi, ii, 42, should be read *Magas and 
explained in Arabic as dhibbdna, "a fly" (not diyana 
as in the Paris edition). 

The Alans (or As) are frequently mentioned at 
the time of the Mongol invasion when they were 
Greek Christians. Their settlements in the 13th 
century extended towards Darband and the estuary 
of the Volga. The Alans had close relations with the 
Byzantines, the Georgians and the Russians (the 
latter called them YasI). 

The Mongol conquest led to a further dispersion 

of the Alans, whose military contingents and settlers 

are known even in China. The Persian sources know 

the As as Christians at the court of the Mongol 

sovereigns, but according to Ibn Battuta (Defremery), 

ii, 448, the As in Saray on the Volga were Muslims. 

Bibliography: Y. Kulakovsky, Alanl, 

Kiev 1899 (classical and Byzantine sources); 

V. F. Miller, Osetinskiye et'udi, 1887, iii, 1-116; 

M. Vasmer, Untersuchungen iiber die dltesten 

Wohnsitze der Slaven, i : Die Iranier in Siidrussland, 

Leipzig 1923, 23-59; Pauly-Wissowa, s. v. Alani; 

J. Marquart, Streifzuge, 164-72; Hudud al-'Alam, 

transl. Minorsky, 444-6 (bibliography); Minorsky, 

The Alan capital Magas and the Mongol campaigns, 

BSOAS, 1952, 221-38. On the Mongol invasion see 

Ibn al-Athir under 617/1220; d'Ohsson, Histoire 

des Mongols, ii, 235; cf. E. Bretschneider, Mediaeval 

Researches, ii, 84-90. V. I. Abayev, Osetinskiy 

yaztk etc., Moscow, 1949, i, 248-59: "Alanica" 

(linguistic evidence) ; B. Skitsky, Olerki po istorii 

osetinskogo naroda, Dzaudjikau 1947. 32-44. 

(W. Barthold-V. Minorsky) 
ALANYA ('AlA'iyya, < Alaya), port in South 
Anatolia, 36 32' N, 32° E, at the foot of a mountain 
250 m. high and towering above the sea; capital of 
the kadd of the same name, which belongs to the 
wildyet (formerly sandiak) of Antalya. In 1945 the 
town had 5884, the kadd 37, 971, inhabitants. The 
name is derived from the Rum Saldjuk sultan 'Ala' 
al-DIn Kaykubad I, who, in 1220, conquered, and 
adopted as his winter residence, the castle on the 
mountain. This had been in the possession of a Greek, 
or Armenian, baron, called by Ibn BibI (Houtsma), 
iii, 234-44, iv, 97-103, Kir Fard, and was known, on 
account of its beautiful situation, as Galonoros (i.e. 
x<XA6v8fo<;; hence the name of Candeloro or Skan- 
deloro in medieval European sources). From 692/ 
1293 'Ala'iyya belonged to the principality of 
Karaman ; Ibn Battuta (ii, 257 f.) found there in ca. 
1333 Yusuf Beg as prince of the Karaman. According 
to al-Makrizi (al-Suluk, s.a.) the town was sold by 
the Karaman to the Mamluk sultan Barsbey in 
830/1427; but according to the Ottoman chronicles 
the town was, later in the 15th century, in the 
possession of a descendant of the Saldjuk dynasty. 
In 876/1471-2 'Ala'iyya was captured by Gedik 
Ahmed Pasha, Mehmed II's general (Neshrl 
(Taeschner), i, 205 f.). From then 'Ala'iyya remained 
in Ottoman hands and was the capital of a liwd 
(sandiak) in the eyalet of I eel (Katib Celebi, Djihan- 

The old town of 'Ala'iyya was situated on the 
mountain, which slopes steeply to the W. and S., 
but descends more gradually to the E and N. To the 
north it is connected with the mainland only by a 
narrow neck of land, and thus forms together with 
the latter two bays, of which, however, only the 
eastern one served, and serves still, as a harbour. 
The old town on the mountain is surrounded by a 
wall which starts from a strong octagonal tower in 



the NE side of the peninsula on the eastern shore, 
made of red sand-stone (hence the name KIzIl 
Kule) and dated 623/1226, and ascends up to the 
summit of the mountain at the southern end of the 
peninsula. The area so enclosed is further divided 
by two transverse walls, of which the upper, 
southern one encloses, together with the outer wall, 
the citadel (Ic Kal c e) lying at the summit, the other 
the outer fortress (Dish Kal'e). In Turkish times, 
the citadel served as barracks for the garrison; 
it is uninhabited today, but contains the ruins of 
a Byzantine church. The outer fortress was the 
residential area of the old town; it contains a khan 
(caravanserai; not, it seems, a bedestdn, as is often 
stated) of the early Ottoman period, an old,, though 
in its present state only Ottoman, mosque (Kal'e 
Ejami') and the tiirbe (from 628/1230) of a certain 
Akshebe Sultan. The mosque called after c Ala J al- 
Dln, situated outside the outer fortress, does not 
seem to be very old. On the shore there is an arsenal 
Ifersdne) built, according to its inscription, by 'Ala' 
al-DIn Kaykubad I ; it consists of five large barrel- 
vaults with five arched openings in each partition- 
wall, the only building of its kind as yet known from 
the Saldiuk period. 

The old town is at present but sparsely populated; 
a new town arose at the foot of the mountain on the 
isthmuscand on the mainland. It contains no monu- 
ments worthy of mention. 

Not far to the east of 'Ala'iyya in the coastal plain 
on a rivulet, is to be found the ruin of a small, Wart- 
like building of the Saldjuk period, mainly consisting 
of a barrel-vault in the middle of an area surrounded 
by a wall. It was probably the country-house of 
a Saldjuk nobleman with a garden. On the line of 
the wall lies the ruin of a small Christian church. 
Bibliography: R. M. Riefstahl, Turkish 
Architecture in Southwestern Anatolia, Cambridge 
i93i» 53-6o and ill. 99-109, inscriptions (by P. 
Wittek), 92-101 and ill.209-213; IA, s.v. Alaiya 
(by B. Darkot and Mukrimin Halil YInanc), 
with further references. (Fr. Taeschner) 

ALARCOS [see al-arak]. 
ALAYA [see alaba wa 'l-kila c ]. 
'ALAsWl ('Alluwl < Ahl 'AH, according to v. 
Maltzanp: Reise, 356), tribe and district on the 
caravangroute 'Adan-Ka^aba-San'a 5 , the smallest 
among 6he "nine cantons" of the Western Aden 
Protectorate. It lies between 'Amiri (N) and Haw- 
shabl (S) territory and formerly belonged to the 
'Amir (v. Maltzan, loc. cit.), but later it became 
semi-independent and signed a treaty with the 
British in 1895. Population: 1000-1500. The shaykh 
lives at al-Sawda, which is the only place of some 
importance, with a landing ground for aircraft. 
Bibliography : Handbook of Arabia (Admi- 
ralty), i, 212; Hunter, Account of the British 
settlement of Aden, 87 f., 155, 169 f.; von Maltzan, 
Reise nach Siidarabien, 204, 356; D. Ingrams, 
Survey of social and economic conditions in the 
Aden protectorate, 24, 27, 34. (O. LSfgren) 
c ALAWlS ('Alawivva), the reigning dynasty 
in Morocco. 

Morocco at the advent of the 'Alawid 
dynasty. When the 'Alawid Shurafa' [see sharIf] 
succeeded in asserting their sovereignty over 
Morocco, the country was rent by a serious political, 
social and religious crisis. The great movement 
of maraboutism and xenophobia for which the 
growth of Sufism and Sharifism and the development 
of the religious brotherhoods had for long paved the 



'ALAWIS 355 

way, and which had manifested itself as early as the 
15th century, the period of incursions by Portuguese 
and Spanish Christians on the coasts of Morocco, 
assumed a new form. While the two Sa c did makhiens 
established at Fez and Marrakush crumbled into 
ruin, strong provincial factions, based on a religious 
allegiance, divided up the country and warred 
amongst themselves. The marabouts of al-Dila 5 [q.v.], 
supported by the Berber population of the Middle 
and Central Atlas, some of whom began to move 
down into the Atlantic plains, seemed to be on the 
point of establishing a Sinhadji domination in 
Morocco. Morocco needed rehabilitation, organi- 
sation, and also pacification, because anarchy and 
brigandage continued to spread. The 'Alawids, if 
they were not faced with the task of overcoming 
the preceding dynasty, had to meet difficult problems 

The establishment of the dynasty. The 
'AJawids, of Hasanid descent, had come from Arabia 
to Tafilalt at the end of the 13 th century. For a long 
time they played no part in politics. But, in the 
anarchy which marked the decline of the Sa c did 
dynasty, the inhabitants of Tafilalt, threatened 
simultaneously by Abu '1-Hasan al-Samlall and by 
the marabouts of al-Dila J , adopted as their leader 
Mawlay al-Sharlf. His son Mawlay Maham- 
mad (sic), who succeeded him during his lifetime in 
1045/1635-6, strove for a period of twenty years to 
organise a small principality in eastern Morocco, but 
left no permanent structure. Mahammad's brother, 
Mawlay al-Rashid [q.v.], took up his task with 
greater foresight and determination. The moment was 
favourable; the country was tired of anarchy and 
the great marabout organisations were beginning to 
decline. It was in order to escape from his brother 
Mawl§y Mahammad that Mawlay al-Rashtd, after 
the death of their father, al-Sharif, in 1069/1659, 
sought his fortune in Morocco. He had managed to 
collect a small force and, after obtaining funds by 
killing a rich Jew, Ibn Mash'al, he succeeded in 
establishing himself in eastern Morocco with the aid 
of the Ma'kil Arabs and the Ayt Inassen Berbers. 
Gradually he extended his kingdom, and made Taza 
his provisional capital. In 1076/1666 he seized Fez; 
from then on he assumed the role of sultan and 
applied himself to the subjugation of the marabout 
powers which shared the Atlantic seaboard of 
Morocco. First he conquered northern Morocco, and 
then he defeated the Dila'ites and took possession 
of their idwiya. In 1079/1669 he entered Marrakush, 
and occupied Sus and the Anti-Atlas. But he died 
at Marrakush in 1082/1672 without having conso- 
lidated his achievements. 

Thus the Filall Sharifs had achieved power as a 
result of a personal venture which for long was 
situated half-way between banditry and war, and 
which reached its climax with the conquest of the 
Morocco of the plains and oases. With a few Arab 
tribes forming his only genuine support, Mawlay 
al-Rashid, thanks to the weak state of the country 
and the decline of the great marabout organizations, 
had successfully carried out the task of regrouping 
and of imposing law and order. But, in this country, 
practically everything had still to be put in order. 
Although the marabout crisis had suddenly ended, 
the Arab problem, always serious, was about to 
find a parallel in a formidable Berber problem, the 
essential phase of which was to be the push of the 
Sinhadja of the Atlas towards the north and west. 
The tasks of organizing an army, re-forming a 
government, and of establishing the place which 



356 <AL 

Morocco intended to hold in the Mediterranean 
theatre, still remained. 

Mawlay IsmaMl (1082-1139/1672-1727) and 
the consolidation of the dynasty. The work 
of pacification accomplished by al-Rashid proved 
impermanent. His brother and successor Ismail 
[q.v.] (1672-1727) had to face two rival claimants to 
the throne and to suppress numerous revolts both 
in the towns and among the tribes. He deprived 
Fez and Marrakush, to which he had been obliged 
to lay siege, of their status as capital cities, and 
installed himself with his government at Miknasa. 
Mawlay Ismail had first of all to solve the problem 
of the army. He had recourse first to the old expedient 
of the Arab gish, to which he added the Ma c kil Arabs 
of the oases and to which he gave the name of gish 
of the Udaya. But more especially he pressed into 
service the descendants of the black slaves who had 
been imported in large numbers by the SaMids; 
these were the c abid al-Bukhari; but this black 
militia never had any great military value. 

Mawlay Ismail, who from the beginning of his 
reign had been unsuccessful in his Algerian ventures 
and had had to conclude peace with the Turks on 
the usual terms, succeeded in recovering from the 
Spanish Ma'mura, Mahdiyya and al-Ara'ish (La- 
rache). The British evacuated Tangier. Mazagan, 
Ceuta and Melilla remained in Christian hands. 

Nearly the whole of his long reign was devoted 
to the suppression of internal revolts, risings by 
pretenders, and rebellions on the part of the tribes. 
The task was a heavy one; the country had a long 
tradition of anarchy, and the crushing financial 
burdens which the sovereign imposed on conquered 
territory were a clear incentive to revolt. The 
hardest campaigns were those against the Sinhadja 
Berbers. With the aid of some of these, Mawlay 
Ismail pacified for a time the Middle Atlas. But he 
never succeeded in occupying the whole of Morocco. 

MawlSy Ismail's diplomatic relations with Europe 
have often given rise to misconceptions. The sovereign 
hated the Christian world. His European policy, 
based on a desire for holy war and on cupidity, and 
implemented with reluctance, was fundamentally 
negative. In spite of the efforts of the European 
nations, the crying problem of the captives was not 
settled. Foreign trade continued to be negligible. 
Morocco isolated itself to an increasing extent from 
Europe and also from Turkish Algeria; the seeds of 
revival could not be planted from without. 

At home, Ismail had strengthened the dynasty's 
position and pacified part of the country, but he 
had failed to resolve either the Arab or the Berber 
problem. After his death the black militia proved to 
be the principal fomentors of trouble. Ismail had 
not remedied Morocco's deep-rooted disorders, nor 
had he set the country on a new path. At his death, 
the ensuing anarchy was worse than ever. 

The period of anarchy (1139-70/1727-57)- For 
a period of thirty years, various sons of Mawlay 
Ismill were elected and deposed by the *abld, the 
gish and even by the Berber tribes, who had come 
down into the plains. Seven rulers came and went. 
One of them, Ahmad al-Dhahabl, reigned twice, 
and c Abd Allah [q.v.], on four different occasions. 
This was one of the darkest periods in Moroccan 
history. Anarchy and brigandage laid waste the 
subject territory and the large towns. 

The rehabilitation under Muhammad b. 
c Abd Allah (1170-1204/1757-90). Muhammad, 
when he was elected sultan in 1170/1757, had already, 
as Khalifa of his father at Marrakush, accomplished 



work of importance. Muljammad had no more 
ability than his predecessors or his succ ssors to 
devise new solutions or to undertake a real reorga 
nization of the country. He failed to settle any of 
the major problems which confronted him. Conscious 
of the limitations of his resources, he gave his 
kingdom, as far as he was able and as far as the 
country itself allowed him, peace and prosperity. He 
organized the collection of taxes, minted a sound 
currency, and built up a small army from the 
remnants of the gish and the 'abid, and a few con 
tingents from subject tribes. Despite his alliances 
with the Berbers, he was unable to check the 
encroachment of the SinhadjI tribes on the plains; 
the road from Fez to Marrakush via the Tadla 

He had the good fortune to reoccupy Mazagan, 
which the Portuguese evacuated in 1 182/1769. After 
two defeats at Ceuta and Melilla, he made peace 
with Spain. He realised that a certain minimum of 
foreign trade was indispensable to Morocco; accord- 
ingly he signed treaties of trade and friendship with 
the principal European powers. He tried in vain to 
concentrate the majority of the European merchants 
and consular officials in the new town of Mogador, 
planned by European architects, which was commen- 
ced in 1179/1765- 

The end of the reign of Muhammad b. c Abd 
Allah was marred by the rebellions of his son and 
heir-apparent, al-YazId. 

The conservative policy of the 'Alawids: 
prelude to the Moroccan crisis (1204-1311/ 
1790-1894). The short reign of al-YazId (1204-6/ 
1790-2) was marked by conflict with Spain and a 
serious revolt in southern Morocco. On the death 
of this fanatical and bloodthirsty sultan, his brother 
Sulayman rid himself of two rivals and gave 
Morocco a brief respite from warfare. 

Up to the end of the 19th century, Morocco was 
spared crises concerning the succession; in each case 
the heir designate succeeded to the throne without 
difficulty. 

The SultSns Sulayman 1206-38/1792-1822) [q.v.], 
c Abd al-Rahman b. Hisham (1238-76/1822-59) 
[q.v.], Muhammad b. c Abd al-Rahman (1276-90/ 
1859/73), and Mawlay al-Hasan (1290-1311/ 
1873-94) [?•"•]. were practical rulers endowed with 
common sense. But their policies, though persevering 
and flexible in detail, were not progressive. Through- 
out this period the internal problems of Morocco 
remained the same. The army was weak: the 'abid 
had been suppressed but the gish., restored to a 
position of supremacy, remained undisciplined and 
largely ineffective. The best troops were the con- 
tingents of the adherent tribes, which were mustered 
on the eve of an expedition. The energies of the 
sultans were entirely directed, not always with 
success, to levying the taxes in the subject territories. 
They had given up all pretensions to the pacification 
of the bilad al-siba [q.v.], which gradually increased 

In order to put down local revolts and to secure 
payment of the taxes, the 'Alawid sultans of the 
19th century spent part of their time conducting 
harkas over their territories ; the effect of these was 
often limited and temporary. Diplomacy was 
employed rather than force; and attempts were 
made to secure the aloof homage of the tribes which 
lived in actual independence. By all these means, 
the mahhzen endeavoured to save face, if not at 
home, at least in the eyes of Europe. It avoided 
headlong collision with the powerful unsubdued 



groups; the latter were, for their part, incapable 
of uniting against the central power. At the end of 
the 19th century, however, Mawlay al-Hasan had 
the good fortune to bring within his orbit the 
powerful kdHds who had established themselves in 
southern Morocco. 

Both the military and political activities of the 
sultans were limited in scope and exhausting. Their 
financial resources, though administered with care, 
remained exiguous; the smallness of the sums at 
the disposal of the makhzen precluded any works of 
a lasting character. 

, In a Morocco which clung obstinately to a sort 
of paradoxical mediaevalism, European interventions 
steadily became more pressing, and questions of 
foreign policy eventually, at the beginning of the 
20th century, took pride of place over domestic 
matters. The fate of Morocco, the last Mediterranean 
country to stand aloof from the modern world, was 
hot settled earlier because rivalries between the 
powers, and above all the desire of France, the 
country principally interested, for peace, long 
preserved it in its existing condition. Morocco, 
however, imprudently provoked two wars with 
European powers. c Abd al-Rahman gave his support 
to c Abd al-Kadir b. Muhyi'1-Din [q.v.] in his conflict 
with France. The Moroccan troops were defeated 
on the Isly (28 Djumada II 1260/15 July 1844) and 
the ports of Tangier and Mogador were bombarded 
by the French fleet. The sultan hastened to conclude 
peace. His son and successor, Muhammad, as a 
result of frontier incidents, declared war on Spain. 
The Spanish army, marching from Ceuta, occupied 
Tetuan and was advancing on Tangier when Great 
Britain negotiated peace. The c Alawid dynasty 
emerged unscathed from these two adventures into 
which it had been led by its xenophobia and its 
attachment to the holy war. Nevertheless European 
penetration increased during the reign of Mawlay 
al-Hasan [q.v.]. In 1297/1880 the Convention of 
Madrid gave rulings on questions of trade and 
protection; European trade in the ports expanded. 
Every endeavour of Mawlay al-Hasan was directed 
towards the maintenance of his authority in the 
subject territory, and the prolongation of an in- 
dependence which was in increasing jeopardy. This 
unstable and paradoxical position could only last 
so long as the diplomatic facade constituted by the 
Sharif ian empire remained intact. 

The Moroccan crisis and the establish- 
ment of the French Protectorate (1311-30/ 
1894-1912). The internal disintegration of Morocco 
grew more rapid during the first years of the 20th 
century. c Abd al- c Aziz [q.v.] was only fourteen 
when he succeeded his father Mawlay al-Hasan. 
Until 1900, the vizier Ba Ahmad exercised the real 
authority and in all respects continued the practices 
of the preceding reign. Despite the blundering good 
intentions of the sultan and his attempts at reform, 
the bilad al-makhzan itself was breaking up; a pre- 
tender unrelated to the dynasty, the rUgi Bu Hmara 
(Abii Hamara), installed himself at Taza and defied 
the Sharif ian armies. The dynasty was tottering. Thus 
Morocco advanced involuntarily to the forefront of 
the diplomatic stage. Mounting confusion in the 
country set at nought the agreements concluded 
by the chancelleries of Europe with a view to the 
preservation of peace. The main episodes in this 
crisis had their origin in military or other moves on 
the part of Germany, which was trying to prevent 
the expansion of French influence in Morocco. The 
final act of the Conference of Algeciras, convened to 



WIS 357 

resolve the first of these clashes, proclaimed the 
independence of the sultan, the inviolability of his 
empire, and economic equality among the Powers, 
while, however, recognizing a certain privileged 
position for France. 

The murder of French dependents and agitation 
on the Algerian border induced France to pacify 
the Oujda region and to occupy the Chaouia. A new 
diplomatic crisis ended with the Franco-German 
agreement of 1909. France and Spain increased their 
activities in Morocco. 

During all these events the 'Alawid dynasty, 
engrossed in domestic disorders and preoccupied with 
its own defence, was singularly inactive. c Abd al- 
c Aziz was replaced by his brother Mawlay c Abd al- 
Hafiz, who had rebelled against him at Marrakush. 
Finally the incident at Agadir, which for a moment 
threatened the peace of Europe, led to a new Franco- 
German agreement which gave the Reich compen- 
sations in Equatorial Africa and made possible the 
signature of the Protectorate agreement (n Rabi'II 
1330/30 March 1912). The 'Alawid dynasty, which 
had seemed on ■the point of collapse, could thus, 
under French protection, maintain its position and 
enter a new phase. Mawlay c Abd al-Hafi?, who 
showed extreme ill will in promulgating the reforms 
anticipated in the Protectorate agreements, abdicated 
in 1913 and was replaced by his brother, Mawlay 
Y u s u f , who was succeeded in 1926 by his son SidI 
Muhammad; the latter was replaced in Dh u 
'1-Hidjdja 1372/ August 1953 by SIdi Muhammad 
b. Mawlay 'Arafa. 

Bibliography: Arabic sources. The Arabic 
sources have been listed and appraised by E. Levi- 
Provencal, Les Historians des Chorfa, Paris 1922. 
Three recent works which give detailed infor- 
mation may be added to this list: Ibn Zidan, Ithaf 
A'ldm al-Nds bi-Qiamal Akhbar Hadirat Miknas, 
Rabat 1929-33 ; 'Abbas b. Ibrahim al-Marrakushl, 
al-Vlam bi-man Halla Marrakush wa-Aghmdt min 
al-AHam, Fez 1936ft.; Muhammad al-Muwakkit, 
al-Sa'dda al-Abaiiyya fi 'l-Ta'rif bi-Mashahir al- 
Hadra al-Marrakushiyya, lith., Fez 1335-6. Essen- 
tial texts in translation are: ZayyanI, al-Turdjumdn 
al-Mu^rib 'an Duwal al-Mashrik wa 'l-Maghrib, 
extract edited and translated by O. Houdas, Le 
Maroc de 1631 a 1811, Paris 1886; Nasiri, al- 
Istifrsa', trans. Fumey in AM ix, 1906 and 1907; 
al-Hulal al-Bahiyya, partial trans, by L. Coufou- 
rier, Chronique de la vie de Moulay el-Hasan, AM 
viii, 1906. European sources. Les sources 
inddites de I'Histoire du Maroc, Second series; 
Dynastie filalienne, Archives et Bibliothiques de 
France, 5 volumes published (up to December 
l6 99); Journal du Consulat-Gtneral de France a 
Maroc (1767-1785), initialled by the Consul 
Chenier, published, with an introduction and 
commentaries by Ch. Penz, Casablanca 1943; of 
the numerous travels and memoirs, the following 
are noteworthy: Mougtte, Relation de la captiviti 
du Sieur MouUte dans les royaumes de Fis et de 
Maroc, Paris 1682, republished in part at Tours 
1863 and 1927; Mouette, Histoire de la conqutU 
de Moulay Archy, connu sous le nom de roi de 
Tafilet et de Moulay Ismail, Paris 1683; and 
Sources inidites, Second series, France, vol. ii; 
G. Host, Efterretmuger en MarSkes og Fes, Copen- 
hagen 1779, German trans, under the title of 
Nachrichten von Maroco undFes, 1781 ; L. Chenier, 
Recherches historiques sur les Maures et I'histoire du 
Maroc, 1878, 3 vols. ; G. Lempriere, Voyage dans 
I'empire de Maroc et le royaume de Fez fait pendant 



358 



'ALA WIS — ALF LAYLA wa-LAYLA 



les annies iygo et iygi, trans, by Sainte-Suzanne, 
1801. On Morocco immediately prior to the 
Protectorate, see E. Aubin, Le Maroc d'aujourd'hui, 
Paris 1904; W. Harris, Morocco that was, trans, 
under the title of Le Maroc disparu, by P. 
Odinot, Paris 1929. Studies: H. Basset, Un 
grand sultan marocain: Moulay Hassan, in 
L'Armee d'Afrique, 1927; H. de Castries, Moulay 
Ismail et Jacques II: une apologie de I' Islam par 
un sultan du Maroc, Paris 1903; P. de Cenival, 
Lettre de Louis XVI a Sidi Mohammed b. Abdullah 
(10 decembre 1778), M tutorial Henri Basset, i; P. 
de Cenival, La ligende du Juif Ibn Mech'al et 
la flte du sultan des Tolba d Fis, Hesp., 1925; 
M. Delafosse, Les dibuts des troupes noires du 
Maroc, Hesp., 1923; Colonel Justinard, La Rihla 
du Marabout de Tasaft (trans.), Paris 1940; 
Lieutenant Reyniers, Un Document sur la politique 
de Moulay IsmaHl dans I' Atlas and F. de la 
Chapelle, Le Sultan Moulay IsmaHl et les Berberes 
Sanhaja du Maroc central, AM xxviii, 1931; 
Ch. Penz, Les Captifs francais du Maroc au XVII' 
silcle(i577-i6o9), Rabat 1944. On the Moroccan 
crisis: H. Hauser, Histoire diplomatique de 
I'Europe (1871-1914), 1929, especially ii, part 6, 
chap, iii; La Crise d'Agadir by P. Renouvin; A. 
Tardieu, La Conference d'Algisiras, Paris 1909; 
A. Tardieu, Le Mysthe d'Agadir, Paris 1912; 
G. Saint-Rene Taillandier, Les Origines du Maroc 
francais, Recti d'une mission (1905-6), Paris 1930. 
See also the detailed bibliography in H. Terrasse, 
Histoire du Maroc, ii, 239-41 and cf. al-rashId, 
ismA'Il, c abd allAh b; isma'Il, sulaymAn, c abd 
al-rahman b. hisham, al-hasan, <abd al-'aziz 
b. al-hasan. (h. terrasse) 

In October 1955, SIdl Muhammad b. Mawlay 
'Afara went to reside in Tangiers, and a Council of 
the Throne was instituted in the Sharif ian Empire; 
SIdl Muhammad b. Yusuf was installed on the 
throne again on 16th November 1955. (Ed.) 

ALAWITES [see nusayrI]. 
ALAY, a Turkish word probably derived from the 
Greek allagion, which was applied to certain divisions 
of the Byzantine army (cf. KSpriiluzade Mehmet 
Fuat, Bizans Miiesseselerin Osmanll Muesseselerine 
Te'siri, Turk Hukuk ve Iktisat Tarihi Mecmuasl, i, 
277), signifying in Ottoman usage "a troop", "a 
parade", and hence "a crowd", "a large quantity", 
and used from the time of the 19th century military 
reforms to denote "a regiment". The most im- 
portant parades to which the name was given were 
the kllU alayl, held on the occasion of the sultan's 
visit to Eyyub for his girding with the sword of 
'Othman; the alay-l humayun, held on his departure 
from or return to the capital whether in connection 
with a campaign or for some other reason; the 
silrre alayl, held at the sardy on the despatch of his 
annual gift to the Holy Cities; the Mewlud and 
Bayram alaylari, held for his visitation of mosques 
on the Prophet's Birthday and the two 'ids; and 
the wdlide alayl, held "on the translation of a new 
Walide Sultan from the Old to the New Saray. The 
word also figures in designations such as alay beyi, 
applied to officers commanding the feudal cavalry 
of a sandjak or eyalet and themselves fief-holders, 
and alay iawushu, applied either to Cavoushes whose 
duty it was to clear the route for processions or to 
those who conveyed commands in battle by shouting. 
The Alay KSshktt was a pavilion in the Topkapl 
Sarayl built in the reign of Murad III from which 
sultans might view parades. 



Bibliography: I. H. Uzuncarsfll, Osmanll 

Devleti Saray Teskildtl, index; I A, sv. (by the 

same); Gibb and Bowen, Islamic Society and the 

West, i/i, index. (H. Bowen) 

<ALAYA [see c alanya]. 

ALBAICIN [see gharnata]. 

ALBARRACIN [see razIn, banu]. 

ALBISTAn [see elbistan]. 

ALBUFERA [see balansiya]. 

ALBURZ (now usually pronounced Elburz), in 
Old Persian Hara Berezaiti or "High Mountain", is 
a mountain chain which, besides separating the 
Persian central plateau from the Caspian depression, 
links the Caucasus range with the Paropamisus. The 
average height of the western portion is just under 
10,000 feet, culminating in Damawand [q.v.], which 
is 18,600 feet high. The northern slopes of the range 
are densely wooded, but vegetation is scanty on the 
southern side because of the much lower rainfall 

Firdawsl gives the name Alburz to a mythical 
mountain in India. The first Persian geographer td 
apply the name to the range was Hamd Allah 
Mustawfl. 

Alburz or Elburz is not to be confused with 
Elbruz, the Caucasian peak. Cf. Le Strange, 368 note. 
(L. Lockhart) 

ALCACER DO SAL [see ijasr abI danis]. 

ALCALA [see al-jcal'a]. 

ALCANTARA [see al-ijantara]. , 

ALCAZAR, Spanish (from Arab, al-kasr): castle, 
citadel (Portug. Alcacer). Famous are the Alcazars 
of Seville, Cordova, Segovia, Toledo etc. Alcazar is 
also a frequent name of places, e.g. : Alcazar de San 
Juan, a town in the Spanish province of Ciudad-Real, 
Alcazarquivir, the Spanish name of Kasr al-Kablr 
[q.v.], a town in Mdrocco. 

ALCAZARQUIVIR [see al-ijasr al-kabIr]. 

ALCHEMY [see al-kImiyA']. 

ALCIRA [see pjazIrat shukr]. 

ALDEBARAN [see nudjum]. 

ALEMBIC [see al-anbIk]. 

ALEPPO [see halab]. 

ALEXANDER THE GREAT [see dhu 'l-ijar- 

NAYN, AL-ISKANDAR]. 

ALEXANDER OF APHRODISIAS [see al- 

ISKANDAR AL-AFRUDlsIj. 

ALEXANDRETTA [see iskandarun]. 

ALEXANDRIA [see al-iskandariyya]. 

ALF LAYLA wa-LAYLA, "Thousand nights and 
one night" is the title of the most famous Arabian 
collection of fairy-tales and other stories. One 
often reads or hears nowadays "like a fairy-tale from 
the thousand-and-one nights", and, indeed, the 
fairy-tales are the most striking part of the collection. 
Like all Orientals the Arabs from the earliest times 
enjoyed imaginative stories; but since the intellectual 
horizon of the true Arabs in ancient times before the 
rise of Islam was rather narrow the material for these 
entertainments was borrowed mainly from elsewhere, 
from Persia and from India, as we gather from the 
accounts of the Prophet's competitor, the merchant 
al-Nadr. In later times when Arab civilization had 
grown richer and more comprehensive the literary 
influence from other countries was, of course, much 
stronger. An attentive reader of the "Nights" will 
soon be astonished by the manifold variety of then- 
contents: they resemble in a way an Oriental meadow 
with many different beautiful flowers intermingled 
with a few weeds. On the other hand, the reader will 
notice that these stories comprise a very wide field : 
there are stories of King Solomon, of the kings of 



ALF LAYLA w 

ancient Persia, of Alexander the Great, of the 
caliphs and the sultans on one side, and stories in 
Which guns, coffee and tobacco are mentioned on 
the other side. 

Its appearance in Europe. The entire 
work is enclosed in a "frame-story", and this 
was known in Italy in the Middle Ages. Traces 
of it are to be found in a novel by Giovanni 
Sercambi (1347-1424) and in the story of Astolfo 
and Giocondo which is told in the 28th canto of 
Orlando Furioso by Ariosto (beginning of the 16th 
century); travellers who had been in the East may 
have brought this knowledge to Italy. But the whole 
Alf Layla wa-Layla came to Europe in the 17th and 
18th centuries. The French scholar and traveller 
Jean Antoine Galland (1646-1715) published it for 
the first time. Travelling in the Near East at first 
is a secretary of the French ambassador, then as a 
eollector of objects for museums commissioned by 
amateurs, he had known the world of the Orient, 
and his attention was directed to the great number of 
stories and fables told there. After his return to 
France he began in 1704 to publish his volumes Les 
mille et une Nuits contes arabes traduits en Franfais. 
By 1706 seven vols, had appeared: vol. viii appeared 
in 1709, vols, ix and x in 171 2, vols, xi and xii 
in 1717, two years after Galland's death. This 
delay in the appearance of the later vols, is significant 
for Galland's difficulties as to material and also for 
his indifference to this side of his work as a scholar. 
He was a born story-teller ; he had a flair for a good 
story and a knack of re-telling it well. Thus he 
adapted his translation to the taste of his European 
readers, changing sometimes the wording of the 
Arabic text and paraphrasing things that were 
foreign to Europeans. Hence the great success of 
his "Nights". But he was also fortunate in the 
material which fell into his hands. He began by 
translating Sindbad the Sailor from an unidentified 
MS; then he learned that this was part of a great 
collection of stories called "The Thousand and One 
Nights"; then he had the luck to have sent to him 
from Syria four vols, of a MS of that work which is, 
except for a small fragment found by Nabia Abbott, 
the oldest known and contains the best surviving 
text. The first three of his vols, are still in the 
Bibliotheque Nationale, but the fourth is lost. In 
the first seven vols, of his translation he exhausted 
his three vols, of Arabic text which we still have 
and added Sindbad and Camalzaman (Kamar al- 
Zaman) from unidentified MSS. Then for lack of 
material he stopped for three years until his publisher 
forced his hand by issuing, without authority, vol. 
viii containing Ganem (Ghanim), translated by 
Galland from an unidentified MS, and two stories, 
Zeyn Alasnam (Zayn al-Asnam) and Codadad 
(Khudadad), translated by Petis de la Croix and 
intended for his Mille et un jours. Again Galland was 
completely out of material and stopped; he was also 
tired and disgusted with the whole matter. But in 
1709 he met a certain Maronite from Aleppo, Hanna, 
brought to Paris by the traveller Paul Lucas, and 
at once recognized that he had got an oral source 
of the story material. Hanna told him stories in 
Arabic, and Galland inserted in his Journal abstracts 
of some of these. But Hanna also gave him tran- 
scripts of some. In this way the last four vols, of 
Galland's translation were filled out; his Journal 
gives full details. Hanna's transcripts have vanished, 
but two Arabic MSS of Aladdin have since come to 
light and one of Ali Baba. This, then, is the origin 
of the book which made the "Nights" known to 



359 

Europe and which in the French text and in very 
many translations from the French became the 
"Arabian Nights" for the great multitude of readers. 
For details see H. Zotenberg, Histoire d"Ata' 
aldin . . . avec Notice sur qutlques manuscrits des 
Mille et une nuits et la traduction de Galland, Paris 
1888. This contains the Arabic text of Aladdin 
( C A13 al-Din) and a study of certain MSS of the 
Nights and of the entries in Galland's Journal. See 
also V. Chauvin, Bibliographic arabe, iv, Liege 1900, 
and D. B. Macdonald, A bibliographical and literary 
study of the first appearance of the Arabian Nights 
in Europe, The Library Quarterly, vol. ii, no. 4, 
Oct. 1932, 387-420. 

For more than a century Galland's French version 
meant the Nights for Europe, and two of his stories 
whose original Arabic texts were not known were 
even translated into Oriental languages. But mean- 
while other MSS, more or less connected with the 
Nights, were brought to light and, from these, 
various supplements to Galland were translated and 
published. Just as the MSS of the Nights themselves 
varied enormously as to the stories which they 
contained, so these translators were prepared to 
attach to the Nights any story that existed in 
Arabic. The following supplements, partly separate 
and partly attached to editions of Galland, are of 
importance in themselves and as signs of the in- 
terests of their times. For further details on all of 
them see Chauvin's Bibliographic, iv, 82-120. 

In 1788 there appeared as a supplement to the 
Cabinet des Fees, vols 38-41, a series of tales translated 
from the Arabic by Denis Chavis. It is significant 
for the interest at the time in the whole subject of 
the Nights that there appeared, 1792-1794, three 
separate English translations of this supplement. 
In 1795 William Beloe published in the third vol. 
of his Miscellanies some Arabic stories which had 
been translated for him orally by Patrick Russell, 
the author of The Natural History of Aleppo (1794). 
In 1800 Jonathan Scott translated in his Tales, 
Anecdotes and Letters certain stories from the MS 
of the Nights brought from India by James Anderson, 
and in 1811 to his edition of an English version of 
Galland he added a vol. of new stories from another 
MS, the Wortley Montague MS now in Oxford. In 
1806 Caussin de Perceval had already added two 
vols, of supplement to his edition of Galland. But 
Edouard Gauttier in his professed edition of Galland 
(1822-1825) went much farther: besides two vols, 
of new tales drawn from all manner of sources he 
freely inserted others in the course of Galland's 
Nights. Von Hammer in his Die noch nicht iibersetzten 
Erzdhlungen der Tausend und einen Nacht, Stuttgart 
1823, had a much firmer foundation and used a 
real recension of the Nights. He had acquired in 
Egypt a MS of the recension now known as Zoten- 
berg' s Egyptian Recension, which through numerous 
editions has become the Vulgate text of the Nights; 
see the editions, below. Von Hammer's French 
translation of a number of stories not in Galland is 
lost, but Zinserling (1823) translated it into German, 
and this version was rendered in English by Lamb 
(1826) and in French by Trebutien (1828). In 1825 
M. Habicht began to publish 15 volumes professing 
to be a new translation but consisting really of 
Galland with some supplements from Caussin, 
Gauttier and Scott and an ending from a so-called 
Tunisian MS. He began also to publish an Arabic 
text. From this text, later on also from Galland, from 
Gotha MSS and from a text printed in Egypt, Weil 
published his translation within the years 1837-1867. 






ALF LAYLA \> 



Editions and translations. The main editions 
of the Arabic Alf Layla wa-Layla are the following. 

i. The first Calcutta Edition: The Arabian 
Nights Entertainments; In the Original Arabic, pub- 
lished under the Patronage of the College of Fort 
WiUiam; By Shuekh Uhmud bin Moohummud Shir- 
wanee ul Yumunee, Calcutta, vol. i 1814; vol. ii 
1818. It contains only the first two hundred Nights 
and the story of Sindbad the Sailor. 

2. The first Bulak Edition, a complete Arabic 
edition, printed in 1251/1835 (from MSS found in 
Egypt) in the State Printing Office at Bulak near 
Cairo founded by Muhammad 'All. 

3. The Second Calcutta Edition: The Alif Laila 
or the Book of the Thousand Nights and one Night, 
Commonly known as "The Arabian Nights Enter- 
tainments", now, for the first time, published complete 
in the original Arabic, from an Egyptian manuscript 
brought to India by the late Major Turner, editor of 
the Shah-Nameh. Edited by W. H. Macnaghten, Esq. 
In four volumes, Calcutta 1839-42. 

4. The Breslau Edition: Tausend und Eine Nacht 
Arabisch. Nach einer Handschrift aus Tunis heraus- 
gegeben von Dr. Maximilian Habicht, Professor an 
der Koniglichen Universitat zu Breslau (etc.), nach 
seinem Tode fortgesetzt von M. Heinrich Leberecht 
Fleischer, ordentlichem Prof, der morgenlandischen 
Sprachen an der Universitat Leipzig, Breslau 1825- 
43. D. B. Macdonald, in his article on Habicht's 
Recension in JRAS, 1909, 685-704, and in his article 
A Preliminary Classification of some MSS of the 
Arabian Nights, in the E. G.Browne Volume, Cambridge 
1922, 304, discussed the value of this edition. His 
expert opinion is that Habicht wilfully created a 
literary myth and enormously confused the history 
of the Nights because a Tunisian recension of the 
Nights never existed, and out of many stories which 
had come to him from many sources he constructed 
a new recension of the Nights much in the same way 
that he had constructed his translation described 
above. However, Macdonald acknowledged that 
Habicht's texts are given verbatim without any 
attempt at correction, and are, therefore, "vulgar" 
in the exact sense whereas all other texts have been 
grammatically and lexicographically "improved" by 
learned shaykhs. 

5. Later Bulak and Cairo. Editions. In the 
latter half of the 19th century and in the beginning 
of the 20th century the complete text of the first 
Bulak edition, in the main the same as the second 
Calcutta edition, was several times reprinted. They 
are representatives of Zotenberg's "Egyptian Recen- 
sion", which is the result of a compilation made by 
a certain shavkh in the 18th century, according to 
a notice in U. J. Seetzen, Reisen durch Syrien, 
PaUtstina, PhOnicien, die Transjordan-L&nder, Arabia 
Petraea und Unter-Aegypten, Berlin 1854-5, "i> 188; 
the name of the shaykh is not known, but this 
notice confirms Zotenberg's hypothesis. The Jesuit 
Press at Bayrflt has published an independent but 
expurgated edition from another MS of the same 
recension (1888-90). 

From the Egyptian Recension have been made 
all the modem western translations. Lane's trans- 
lation, incomplete but with a very valuable and 
full commentary, began to appear in parts in 
1839 and was finished in 1841. It was made from 
the first Bulak edition. Payne's translation from 
the Macnaghten edition, complete and privately 
printed, appeared in 9 vols. 1882-84. Three 
additional vols, contained tales in the Breslau 
and 1st Calcutta editions (1884), and a 13th vol. 



(1889) contained Aladdin and Zayn al-AsnSm. Since 
Payne's death in 1916 there have been a number of 
complete reprints. The translation by Sir Richard 
Burton, also from the Macnaghten edition, is very 
largely dependent upon that of Payne and often 
reproduces Payne verbatim (10 vols., 1885; 6 sup- 
plementary vols., 1886-8). Besides the Smithers 
edition (12 vols., 1894) and Lady Burton's edition 
(6 vols., 1886-8) it has been completely reprinted 
several times. On the strange relation between the 
versions of Payne and of Burton see Thomas Wright, 
Life of Sir Richard Burton (2 vols., London 1906) 
and Life of John Payne (London 1919), and for an 
attempt at a comparative estimate of the above 
English translations see Macdonald's On translating 
the Arabian Nights, The Nation, New York, 
Aug. 30 and Sept. 6, 1900, In Reclam's Universal- 
Biblioihek (1895-97) Max Henning published a German 
translation, 24 small vols. ; it is somewhat expurgated 
and rather prosaic and gives only half the verses. 
The first 17 vols, give the Nights from the Bulak 
edition and vols. 18-24 various supplements, largely 
translated from Burton. In 1899 J. C. Mardrus began 
a French translation of the Nights professedly from 
the Bulak edition of 1835. His translation is not very 
trustworthy, and it incorporates tales from all manner 
of other collections than the Nights. Moreover there 
are translations of the Nights in Spanish, English, 
Polish, German, Danish, Russian, Italian. The 
Spanish translation is by Vicente Blasco Ibanez ; the 
English by E. Powys Mathers ; the Polish translation 
is incomplete. The German translation by E. Litt- 
mann appeared in Leipzig, 6 vols., 1921-8; first 
re-edition Wiesbaden 1953, second re-edition ibid. 
1954. It contains the complete translation of the 
second Calcutta edition and the following stories: 
'Aid 3 al-Din and the Magic Lamp, from the Paris 
MS edited by Zotenberg (cf. above); 'Alt Baba 
and the Forty Robbers, from the Oxford MS edited 
by Macdonald (JRAS, 1910, 221 ff., 1913, 41 B.); 
Prince Ahmad and Pari Bdnu, from Burton, i.e. an 
English rendering of a Hindustani version derived 
from Galland; Abu'l-Ifasan or the Sleeper Awakened, 
from the Breslau edition ; The Craft of Women, from 
the first Calcutta edition; the end of Sindbad's 
sixth journey and his seventh journey, from the 
first Calcutta edition ; supplement in the Story of the 
Brass City; the end of the Story of Sindbad and the 
Seven Viziers; The Story of al-Malik al-Zdhir Rukn 
al-Din Baybars al-Bundukddri and the Sixteen 
Guardians, from the Breslau edition ; The Jealous 
Sisters, from Burton-Galland ; Zayn al-Asndm, from 
a Paris MS edited by F. Groff; The Nocturnal 
Adventure of the Caliph, Khuddddd and his Brothers, 
l Ali Khawddxa and the Merchant of Baghdad, from 
Burton-Galland. — The Danish translation by J. 
Oestrup was published at Copenhagen in 1927. The 
Russian translation by I. Kraikovsky appeared in 
1934, the Italian translation by F. Gabrieli in 1949. 



ble: 



gin 



When the Arabian Nights first became known in 
Europe they served only for the entertainment of 
European readers; but at the beginning of the 19th 
century western scholars began to take an interest 
in the question of their origin. Silvestre de Sacy, 
the founder of modern Arabian philology, discussed 
this question in several dissertations: Journal its 
savants, 1817, 678; Recherches sur I'origine du recueil 
des contes intituUs les Mille et urn nuits, Paris 1829; 
in the Mimoires de I'Acadimie des Inscriptions & 
Belles-Lettres, x, 1833, 3°- He denied, correctly, the 
possible authorship of one single writer and believed 



ALF LAYLA v 



that the book was written at a very late period 
without Persian and Indian elements; therefore, he 
regarded as spurious a passage in Murudj al-Dhahab 
of al-Mas'udi (written in 336/947 and re-edited in 
346/957) referring to these elements. This passage, 
published by Barbier de Meynard in Arabic and 
French (Les prairies d'or, iv, 89), reads in English: 
"The case with them (viz. some legendary stories) 
is similar to that of the books that have come to 
us from the Persian, Indian (one MS has here: 
Pahlawl) and the Greek and have been translated 
for us, and that originated in the way that we have 
described, such as for example the book Hazdr 
Afsana, which in Arabic means "thousand tales", 
for "tale" is in Persian afsana. The people call this 
book "Thousand Nights" (two MSS have here: 
Thousand Nights and One Night). This is the story 
of the king and the vizier and his daughter and her 
servant-girl; these two are called Shirazad and 
Dinazad (in other MSS: and her nurse; in again 
other MSS: and his two daughters)". 

In al-Fihrist by Muhammad b. Ishak b. AW 
Ya'kub al-Nadim (written in 377/987), ed. Fliigel, 
i, 304, the Hazdr Afsan are mentioned and- a resume 
of the frame-work story is given. The Fihrist adds 
that Abu <Abd Allah b. 'Abdus al-Djahshiyari 
(d. 331/942), the author of the Book of the Viziers, 
began to write a book in which he selected a 
thousand stories from the stories of the Arabs, the 
Persians, the Greek and other peoples. He collected 
four hundred and eighty stories, but he died before 
he had attained his purpose, i.e. to complete a 
thousand stories. 

Contrary to de Sacy, Joseph von Hammer (Wiener 
Jahrbiicher, 1819, 236; JA, ie serie, x; 3e serie, 
viii; Preface to his Die noch nicht iibersetzten Erzdh- 
lungen (see above) maintained the genuineness of 
the passage in al-Mas'udi with all its consequences. 
William Lane tried to prove that the whole book 
was the work of one single author and had been 
written in the period 1475-1525 (Preface to The 
Arabian Nights Entertainments, London 1839-41). 

The discussion was resumed by de Goeje (De 
Arabische Nachtvertellingen, De Gids, 1886, iii, 385, 
and The Thousand and One Nights in the Encycl. 
Britann., xxiii, 316). He collated the passage in the 
Fihrist (see above), in which the Hazdr Afsan are 
said to have been written for Humay (var. : Humani), 
the daughter of King Bahman, with a passage in 
al-Tabari (9th century), i, 688, where Esther is 
called the mother of Bahman and the name Shah- 
razad is assigned to Humay; and consequently 
tried to show that the frame-work story of the 
Nights was connected with the Book of Esther. 
August Muller seems to have been the pioneer 
towards a freer attitude in his Sendschreiben on 
the subject to de Goeje (Bezzenbergers Beitr&ge, xiii, 
222) and in his article in Die deutsche Rundschau, xiii, 
July 10, 1887, 77-96. He distinguished various 
layers in the work, one of which he supposed to have 
been written in Baghdad, whereas to another and 
larger one he assigned an Egyptian origin. The idea 
of various layers was worked out with greater 
accuracy by Th. Noldeke (Zu den dgyptischen 
Mdrchen, ZDMG, 1888, 68) who gave an approximate 
definition of the texts, by which each could be 
recognized. 

The contents of the Nights were described and 
considered by NSldeke several times. In this respect 
Oestrup's Studier over 1001 Nat, Copenhagen 1891, 
are of special importance; they were translated into 
Russian by Krymski (Izsliedowanie 1001 noli, 



Moscow 1905, with a long introduction) and into 
German by Rescher, "Oestrups Studien iiber 1001 
Nacht" aus detn Ddnischen (nebst einigen Zusdizen), 
Stuttgart 1925, and a French resume with notes 
was published by Galtier, Cairo 1912. Other 
ingenious discussions of the subject were given by 
Horovitz, mainly in his article Die Entstehung von 
Tausendundeine Nacht, The Review of Nations, no. 4, 
April 1927; idem, in IC, 1927. See also Littmann, 
Tausendundeine Nacht in der arabischen Literatur, 
Tubingen 1923, and Die Entstehung undGeschichtevon 
Tausendundeiner Nacht in the Anhang to Littmann's 
translation (mentioned above). 

The earliest testimony to the existence of the 
book of the Thousand Nights was discovered by 
Nabia Abbott, A Ninth-Century Fragment of the 
"Thousand Nights". New Light on the Early History 
of the Arabian Nights, Journal of Near Eastern 
Studies, 1949. After that the work is mentioned 
by al-Mas c udI and in the Fihrist (see above). In 
the 12th century a collection of tales called "The 
Thousand Nights and one Night" was known in 
Egypt as we learn from a certain al-Kurtl who 
wrote a history of Egypt under the last Fatimid 
caliph (1160-71), and al-Ghuzuli, who died in 815/ 
1412, transmitted in his anthology a tale of the 
Nights, as Torrey recognized (J A OS, 1894, 
42 f.). A MS discovered by H. Ritter in Istanbul 
which is of the 13th or 14th century contains four 
stories that are in the Egyptian recension. These 
stories are not stated to be a part of the Nights; 
they will be published and translated by H. Wehr 
on the basis of preliminary studies by A. von Bul- 
merincq. Then follow Galland's MS and a number 
of other MSS of the Nights which cover the period 
from the 15th to the 18th centuries. 

We know then that in the common form of the 
Nights there are a Baghdad and an Egyptian part. 
Oestrup grouped the separate tales into three 
layers of which the first one was to comprehend the 
fairy-tales from the Persian Hazdr Afsana with the 
frame-work of the book, the second those which had 
come from Baghdad, and the third the stories which 
had been added to the body of the work; certain 
tales, as for example the extensive chivalric romance 
of 'Umar b. al-Nu c man, were inserted when the 
number 1001 was taken in its literal sense. But the 
Story of Sul and Shumul in a Tubingen MS, which 
is professedly a part of the Nights and which was 
edited as such by Seybold, certainly never was an 
integral part of them, because in it a Muslim is 
converted to Christianity; in the true Nights 
Christians, Zoroastrians and pagans often adopt 
Islam, but a Muslim never adopts another religion. 

The following forms of the Nights were established 
by Macdonald (The earlier history of the Arabian 
Nights, JRAS, 1924, 353 ff.) — meaning by that any 
collection of stories fitted into the frame-work which 
we know: i. The original Persian Hazdr Afsana, 
"Thousand Stories", ii. An Arabic version of the 
Hazdr Afsana. iii. The frame- work story of Hazdr 
Afsana, followed by stories of Arabic origin, iv. The 
Nights of the late Fatimid period; to its popularity 
al-Kurtl testifies, v. The recension of the Galland 
MS. From notes in it that MS was in Syrian Tripoli 
in 943/1536 and at Aleppo in 1001/1592; it may, of 
course, be older. But it was written in Egypt. There 
remains the at present still unsolved problem of the 
relations between it and the other old and inde- 
pendent MSS; there are according to Macdonald at 
least six such MSS which must be considered. 

Nabia Abbott (see above) stated the following six 



ALF LAYLA v 



forms, i. An eighth-century translation of the 
Hazdr Afsana. According to her belief this was most 
probably a complete and literal translation, perhaps 
entitled Alf Khurdfa. ii. An eighth-century Islamized 
version of the Hazdr Afsana entitled Alf Layla. This 
could have been either partial or cdmplete. iii. A 
ninth-century composite Alf Layla containing both 
Persian and Arabic materials. While most of the 
former came undoubtedly from the Hazdr Afsana, 
other current story-books, especially the Book of 
Sindbdd and the Book of Shimds, are not improbable 
sources. The Arabic materials, as Littmann had 
already pointed out, were not so slight or insignificant 
as Macdonald believed them to be. iv. The tenth- 
century Alf Samar of Ibn c Abdus. Whether this was 
meant to include, among other materials, all the 
current Alf Layla and to supersede it, is not clear, 
v. A twelfth-century collection augmented by 
materials from iv and by Asiatic and Egyptian 
tales of local Egyptian composition. The change of 
title to A If Layla wa-Layla belongs, in all probability, 
to this period, vi. The final stages of the growing 
collection extending to the early sixteenth century. 
Heroic tales of the Islamic countercrusades are 
among the most prominent additions. Persia and 
'Irak may have contributed some of the later 
predominantly Far Eastern tales in the wake of the 
thirteenth-century Mongol conquest of those lands. 
The final conquest of Mamluk Syria and Egypt by 
the Ottoman Salim I (1512-20) closed the first 
chapter of the history of the Arabian Nights in its 
oriental homeland. 

The title "Thousand Stories" may have been 
changed to "Thousand Nights" when, with the 
Arabs, the frame-work story and other stories were 
combined; that cannot have been done later than 
the 9th century. Originally "1000 stories" meant 
only a very large number of stories; in the same 
way it is said of Shahrazad that she had collected 
"a thousand books". For the simple mind even 100 
is a high number, and "before 100 years" means — 
even for Oriental historians — the < 
time ago"; therefore the number 1 
taken in its exact sense. But 1000 is 
as "innumerable". And the Book of the Thousand 
Nights which was known at Baghdad scarcely con- 
tained a thousand separate nights. But why was 
1000 changed to 1001 ? This change may partly owe 
its origin to the superstitious aversion to round 
numbers common among the Arabs as among other 
peoples. But it is very likely that it was also influen- 
ced by the Turkish idiomatic use of bin bir "thousand 
and one" for a large number: in Anatolia there is 
a ruin called Bin-bir-kilise "1001 Churches", but 
there are, of course, not nearly so many there. In 
Istanbul there is a place called Bin-bir-direk "1001 
columns"; but there are only a few dozens of them 
there. The Turkish alliteration bin bir points to t" 
origin of the Persian idiom hazdr yak "1001" and of 
the title alf layla wa-layla. Since the nth century 

Persia, Mesopotamia and Syria and the other 
countries of Eastern Islam were under the influence 
of the Turks. Thus the title "1001 Nights" 
beginning meant only a large number of nights, but 
later on the number was taken in its literal meaning, 
and it became necessary to add a great many stories 

n order to complete the number i 



The 



elei 



If then India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt and in 
some way the Turks were partners in the origin of 
the Nights we must assume that materials derived 
from all these countries and peoples are to be found 



in them. The first outer tests might be the proper 
names. There are Indian names like Sindbad, 
Turkish names like c Ali Baba and Khatun; the names 
Shahrazad, DInazad, Shahzaman are Persian, and 
occur, as de Goeje has shown, in Persian legends; 
so also Bahram, Rustam, Ardashir, Shapur and 
many others are Persian. However, by far the major- 
ity of names are Arabic, i.e. old Arabic names used 
among the Arabian bedouin and later Islamic names. 
Greek and European names occur in a few cases in 
stories treating of the relations between Muslims and 
Byzantines and Franks. Egyptian names refer to 
places and to months in their Coptic forms. Of 
Hebrew names chiefly Solomon and David occur; 
both play an important rdle in Islamic tradition. 
Besides them Asaf, Barakhiya, Bulukiya and others 
are named. But since in very many cases stories are 
transferred to other persons and frequently persons 
without names act in them the question of the names 
must not be stressed. 

However, the frame-work system, which is very 
common in India but very rare in other countries, 
is a test of the Indian origin of certain parts of the 
Arabian Nights. In the Indian popular books it 
usually runs like this: "You may not do such and 
such a thing or else you will go the same way as so 
and so". — "How was that ?" asks the other, and then 
the admonisher begins his story. 

The foreign elements in the Nights have been 
carefully studied by Oestrup. One of the interesting 
statements he made was that in the Iranian fairy- 
tales the demons or supernatural powers act on 
their own account and independently, whereas in 
the more recent tales, especially in those from 
Egypt, they are always subject to some talisman 
or magic object; hence its owner decides the deve- 
lopment of the action, not the Djinns and 'I frits 
themselves. Only a short summary of the foreign 
elements in the Nights can be given here. 

The frame-story is of Indian origin. That it 
consists of three different parts which originally 
were independent stories was shown by Emmanuel 
Cosquin in Studes folkloriques, Paris 1922, 265. 
These parts are: 1. The story of a man who was 
grieved by a disloyal wife but whose grief was 
allayed when he saw that a high personality had the 
same misfortune. 2. The story of a demon or a giant 
whom his wife or his captive betrayed with many 
other men in the most audacious manner. This is the 
same as the tale told by the seventh vizier in the Story 
of Sindbdd the Wise. 3. The story of a clever girl who 
by her skilful telling of stories averts an evil threat- 
ening her or her father or both of them. Of these 
three parts only the third one seems to have belonged 
to the original frame-work story, as indicated by al- 
Mas'udi and by the Fihrist; in it, then, only the 
cruel king, the clever daughter of the vizier and her 
true old nurse were known. It is probable that the 
story of the clever daughter of the vizier came at 
an early date from India to Persia, where it was 
"nationalized" and combined with the other two 
parts of the frame-story. A number of tales in the 
Nights are of Indian origin: such are the stories of 
pious men that remind us of Buddhist and Jainist 
saints, the fables of animals, the story-cycles of 
Sindbdd [q.v.] the Wise, and of Diali c dd and Shimds. 
Indian motifs are to be found in different passages 
of the Nights: such are, e.g., the Story of the Magic 
Horse; the poisoning by means of the leaves of a 
book (by the physician Duban), a practice which 
points to Indian customs (cf. Gildemeister, Scrip- 
torum Arabum De Rebus Indicts loci et opuscula, Bonn 



ALF LAYLA wa-LAYLA 



363 



1838, 89). All this passed through Persian before it 
reached the Arabs. 

Quite a number of tales are of Persian origin, 
especially those fairy-tales in which the ghosts and 
the fairies act independently; see above. The tales 
which Oestrup enumerates as being of Indian- 
Persian origin are the following: 1) The Story of the 
Magic Horse; 2) The Story of Hasan of Basra; 
3) The Story of Sayf al-MulUk; 4) The Story of 
Kamar al-Zaman and of Princess Budur; 5) The 
Story of Prince Badr and of Princess Djawhar of 
Samandal; 6) The Story of Ardashlr and Hay at al- 
Sufus. And according to him the relation between 
the Story of 'All Shdr and the Persian original, the 
former containing many details which recur in the 
probably later narrative of Nur al-Dln 'All and the 
Girdle-girl, also to be found in the Nights, is 
uncertain. The Story of the Jealous Sisters and the 
Story of A hmad and Pari Banu that are found only 
in Galland give a strong impression of being originally 
Persian, but Persian prototypes of them have not 
become known as yet. 

Bag!) dad is situated in the region of ancient 
Babylonia: it is, therefore, probable that ancient 
Babylonian ideas should have survived there until 
Islamic times and might be reflected in the Nights. 
Even a whole story, the Story of Haykdr the Wise, 
which in some MSS appears as a part of the Nights, 
is of Old Mesopotamian origin; it probably dates 
back to the 7th century B.C., and it found its way 
through the Jewish and Christian literatures into 
krabic literature. Khidr the Ever-Youthful, has a 
Babylonian prototype; the journeys of Bulukiya 
and the water of life fetched by Prince Ahmad may 
seflect motifs of the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh. 
But Khidr and the water of life were probably 
iransmitted to the Arabs by the Romance of 
Alexander, and the journeys of Bulukiya became 
known to them through Jewish literature. Above all, 
the frequent anecdotes about the c Abbasid caliphs 
and their court and also some anecdotes about then- 
subjects belong to the Baghdad recension of the 
Nights. The Story of Sindbad [q.v.] the Sailor found 
its definite shape probably in Baghdad, the romance 
of 'Umar b. al-Nu'man [q.v.] contains Persian, Meso- 
potamian and Syrian materials; the romance of 'Adjib 
and Gharlb points to Mesopotamia and to Persia; the 
story of the clever slave-girl Tawaddud [q.v.] originated 
in Baghdad and was in some respects reshaped in 
Egypt. The Stories of Bulukiya, of Sindbad [q.v.] the 
Wise, and of Diali'ad and Wird Khan were certainly 
known in Baghdad. But there is no certain proof 
that all these tales were parts of the Baghdad 
recension. The same is to be said of the four stories 
of the Istanbul MS found by H. Ritter (see above); 
it contains four of our Nights stories but does not 
refer to Alf Layla wa-hayla. These stories are: 1) 
The Story of the Six Men, i.e. of the six brothers 
of the barber of Baghdad; 2) The Story of Djullandr 
the Sea-girl; 3) The Story of Budur and 'Umayr b. 
Diubayr ;\)The Story of Abu Muhammad the Slothful. 

Egyptian origin is to be postulated of the stories 
in which the tricks of clever thieves and rogues are 
related, of the tales in which the ghosts and demons 
appear as servants of talismans and of magic objects, 
and of stories that might be called "bourgeois 
novels", some of which resemble modern romances 
of adultery. All these stories date, of course, in their 
present form from the time of the Mamluk sultans 
and of Turkish rule in Egypt. But some of the 
motifs go back to Ancient Egypt. The clever rogue 
'All al-Zaybak and his companion Ahmad al-Danaf 



have their prototype in the bold condottiere Amasis, 
and the treasure of Rhampsinit is found in the story 
of C A11 al-Zaybak, as Noldeke pointed out. The 
monkey-scribe in the story of the three dames of 
Baghdad may have his- prototype in Thot, the scribe 
of the Egyptian gods who is often represented as a 
monkey, or in Hanuman the monkey-leader of the 
Indian Ramayana. It has also been suggested that 
the ancient story of the Egyptian shipwrecked 
person is to be connected with Sindbad's journeys, 
and that the story of the capture of Jaffa by 
Egyptian warriors hidden in sacks recurs in the 
story of 'All Baba; but these connections are not 
very likely; see Littmann, Tausendundeine Nacht in 
der arabischen Literatur, 22. 

For possible Greek influences in the Nights see 
von Grunebaum, Medieval Islam, Chicago 1946, 
Chapter Nine, Greece in the Arabian Nights. 

The various literary genres. It remains 
to give a summary account of the different classes 
of literature represented in the Nights; it is here, 
of course, impossible to mention every one of all 
the stories, as has been done in the Anhdng to 
Littmann's translation. There six main groups were 
distinguished: 1) Fairy-tales; 2) Romances and 
novels; 3) Legends; 4) Didactic stories; 5) Humorous 
tales ; 6) Anecdotes. A few examples of each group 
must suffice here. 

1. The frame-story consists of three Indian 
fairy-tales. The tales which come first in all manu- 
scripts {The Merchant and the Diinnl: The Fisherman 
and the Bjpnni; The Porter; The Three Calenders and 
the Three Dames in Baghdad; The Hunchback) belong 
to this class; they are themselves examples of the 
frame-work system and contain some traits which 
remind us of Indian prototypes and even of some 
motifs which have parallels in stories from farther 
east. The best known fairy-tales are those of 'Aid' 
al-Dln and the Magic Lamp and 'All Baba. Other 
examples are Kamar al-Zaman and Budur, The 
Jealous Sisters, Prince Ahmad and Pari Banu, 
Sayf al-Mulik, Hasan al-Basrl, Zayn al-Asndm. 

2. The longest romance is that of 'Umar b. al- 
Nu'man [q.v.] and his Sons; it has been discussed 
by Paret {Der Ritterroman von 'Umar an-Nu'mdn, 
Tubingen 1927), and by H. Gregoire and R. Goossens 
(ZDMG 1934, 213 : Byzantinisches Epos und arabischer 
Ritterroman). The Story of 'Adfib and Qharib is the 
model of an Islamic popular romance. The stories of 
the Porter and the Three Dames, of 'Ala' al-Dln Abu 
•l-Skdmdt, of NUr al-Dln and Shams al-Dln, of 
Nur al-Dln and Mar yam the Girdle-girl might be 
called "bourgeois" romances or novels, as also the 
story of Abu Kir and Abu Sir. 

Here the love-stories may be added. There are a 
great many of them in the Nights, and they com- 
prise three groups: a) ancient Arabian life before 
Islam; b) urban life in Baghdad and Basra, love- 
affairs with girls or slave-girls in the cities or in the 
palace of the caliphs; c) love-novels from Cairo 
which are sometimes frivolous and lascivious. See 
Paret, Friiharabische Liebesgeschichten, Bern 1927. 

Also the stories of rogues and of seafarers are to 
be mentioned here. For 'Alt al-Zaybak see above; 
many short stories of the guardians are told before 
the rulers of Egypt. The famous story of Sindbad 
[q.v.] the Sailor is based on a book The Wonders of 
India, which contained adventures and sailors* yarns 
collected by a Persian sea captain at Basra in the 
10th century. The first part of the story of Abu 
Muhammad the Slothful is composed of sailors' 
stories and motifs of fairy-tales. 



3 6 4 



ALF LAYLA v 



3. There are a few ancient Arabian legends 
inserted in the Nights: Hatim al-JaH, Iram the City 
of Columns; The Brass City; The City of Lebta, which 
refers to the conquest of North-western Africa by 
the Arabs. Other legends refer to pious men and 
women, among them to pious Israelites (these need 
not necessarily be due to Jewish authors); the 
legend of The Pious Prince, who was a son of Harun 
al-Rashid and became a dervish, is reminiscent of 
the famous legend of Alexius. 

4. Didactic stories, fables and parables, especially 
of animals, are known to many peoples and have 
found their way into the Nights also, where most 
of them seem to have originated in India, as e.g. the 
two long cycles of Sindbad [q.v.] the Wise (Syntipas) 
and of Qiali'dd and Wird Khan, and many of the 
fables of animals, but they were sometimes remodelled 
in their Arabic forms. The long story of the clever 
slave-girl Tawaddud [q.v.] (in Spain la doncella Teodor, 
in Abyssinia Tauded) with its probable Greek proto- 
type correctly discussed by Horovitz belongs in this 
category. 

5. Humorous tales are the stories of Abu 'l-Hasan 
or the Sleeper Awakened, of Khalifa the Fisherman, 
of Dia'far the Barmakid and the Old Bedouin, and of 
'Alt the Persian; the latter is a typical story of lies'. 
In the stories of Ma'ruf the Cobbler and of the 
Hunchback there ary many humorous traits. 

6. The group of anecdotes comprises here all the 
stories that are not classified in the preceding groups. 
Collections of anecdotes are the stories of the Hunch- 
back and of the Barber and his Brothers, and they are 
combined to a comedy of great style. The other 
anecdotes are to be divided into three groups: those 
of rulers and their circles, those of munificent men, 
those taken from general human life. Those of rulers 
begin with Alexander the Great and end with the 
Mamluk sultans: a few of them refer to the Persian 
kings, a very large number of them refer to the 
c Abb5sid caliphs, above all to Harun al-Rashid who 
became the ideal ruler in the opinion of later Muslims. 
Some of these anecdotes may not originate from 
Baghdad but from Egypt where they were ascribed 
to him. The munificent men about whom the Nights 
tell are mainly Hatim al-Tal, Ma'n b. Za'ida and 
the Barmakids. The anecdotes from general human 
life are of several kinds: they tell of rich and poor, 
of young and old, of sexual abnormities (Warddn 
and the Woman with the Bear; The Princess and the 
Monkey), of bad eunuchs, of unjust and of clever 
judges, of stupid schoolmasters (a type known in 
Greek and Roman literature as well as in modern 
Egyptian Arabic tales). The Nocturnal Adventure of 
the Caliph transmitted only by Galland contains three 
long anecdotes told at large and intermingled with 
'motifs from fairy-tales. 

There are about 1420 poems or fragments of poetry 

in the 2nd Calcutta edition, according to Horovitz 

(in Festschrift Sachau, Berlin 1915, 375-9) Of these 

a number of 170 repetitions must be deducted, so 

1250 insertions of poetry remain. Horovitz has been 

able to prove that those insertions whose authors 

he could discover are to be dated from the 12th 

to the 14th centuries, i.e. from the Egyptian period 

of the history of the Nights. These poems and 

verses are mostly of the kind that they might be 

omitted without disturbing the course of the prose 

texts, and, therefore, have been later added to them. 

Bibliography: Has been given in the course 

of the article. Here special attention should be 

called to Oestrup's Studier and their annotated 

translation by Rescher (see above), to N. Elisseeff, 



Themes et Motifs des Mille et Une Nuits, Beirut 
1949, and to the full bibliography given by 
Brockelmann, II, 72-4, S II, 59-63. For the 
influence of the Arabian Nights on European 
literature cf. The legacy of Islam, 199 ff.; Cassel's 
Encyclopaedia of literature, s.v. (E. Littmann) 
ALFARD [see nusjum]. 

ALFCNSHO, the transcription adopted by the 
majority of the Arab chroniclers of al-Andalus for 
Alfonso, the name of several monarchs of Christian 
Spain in the Middle Ages. The forms Idhfunsho and 
al-Idhfunsho. however, which correspond to the old 
Latin-Gothic form Ildefonso, are also occasionally 

ALGARVE [see gharb al-andalus]. 

ALGAZEL [see al-ghazalI]. 

ALGEBRA [see al-djabr wa'l-mukabala]. 

ALGECIRAS [see AL-fiiAziRA al-khadra']. 

ALGEDI [see NurjiUM]. 

ALGERIA (Ar.: Barr al-Djaza c ir), modern term 
indicating the central part of northern Africa between 
Morocco in the West, and Tunisia in the East. 

(i) — Geography, 
(ii) — History: 

(1) To the 16th century. 

(2) The Turkish period. 

(3) After 1830. 

(iii) — The population. 

(iv) — The institutions. 

(v) — Languages. 

(i) Geography. 
Algeria comprises the central section of North 
Africa (also called Maghrib, Barbary, Africa Minor, 
the Atlas region [cf. Maghrib] and a large part of 
the Sahara, and has an area of 2,191,464 sq. km. 
Situated between latitudes 37 and 19 N., it is 
bounded by Morocco and Spanish Rio de Oro in 
the West, by French West Africa and French 
Equatorial Africa in the South, and by Libya and 
and Tunisia in the East. Algeria proper, which 
extends roughly to the southern slopes of the 
Saharan Atlas, covers only 14.6% of this area, or 
320,000 sq. km. It is 1000 km. long, with 1,300 km. of 
coastline; it is 350 km. in breadth at the Moroccaq 
frontier and 240 km. at the Tunisian, and extends 
from lat. 32° 1° to 35 1' in the West, and from lat. 
34 9' to 37° 1' in the East. Tlemcen is at the same 
latitude as the oasis of Biskra. Algeria proper is a 
plateau with a mean altitude of 900 m. Is is traversed 
by the Atlas Mts., a southern branch of the Alpine 
chain, which were thrown up in a series of folds 
during the tertiary and at the beginning of the 
quaternary period, on the edge of the hard Saharo- 
African platform. They are divided into two main 
groups, the Tell Atlas in the North and the Saharan 
Atlas in the South, which come together in the east 
and enclose upland plains. 

The Tell. The Tell Atlas in relief presents a 
complex picture, by reason of its excessively folded 
structure and of the extensive erosion caused by the 
Mediterranean rains and by the fact that its coastline 
is near sea level. The successive ridges rise parallel 
to or at an angle to the coast, cut by deep transverse 
valleys and separated, in the West, by longitudinal 
depressions. South of the hills of the Sahil (Sahel) of 
Oran, Dahra, and Beni Menaser, and the mountains of 
Zaccar (1,579 m.) stretches a depression 350 km. in 
length, following the line of the Sebkha of Oran, 
the low marshy plains of the Macta and the Mina, 
and the valley of the lower Chelif (Shalaf). It is 




050100 KM 
) 50 100 MILES 



bounded in the South by lines of hills which rarely 
exceed iooo m.: the Tessala, Ouled Ali, and Beni 
Chougran mountains, and the great massif of the 
Ouarsenis (Wansharls) and the Matmata which rises 
between the Chelif valley and the high plains. To 
the West of the valley of the Mina, the inner plains 
are dominated to the South by table-like limestone 
and sandstone formations, which rise to between 
1000-1500 m.: these are the plateaus of Oran. 

To the East of Algiers and the hills of the Sahel 
the mountain formations are higher and more 
massive. Between the plains of the Mitldja and 
Bone (Buna) there is no important depression, except 
that of the WadI Sahil-Soummam with its western 
extension. The mountains of Kabylia, between 
the Mitldja and the Edough, are of great size and are 
dominated by a "limestone spine" formed by the 
Djurdjura (highest peak Lalla Khadldja. 2,308 m.) 
[see Kabvxia], the Babor (Babur) (2,004 m.), and 
the highest peaks of the Numidian chain. To the 
South, the Mitldja and the Medea mountains, the 
Blban ranges, and the Constantine and Medjerda 
mountains, composed of non-durable marl and 
schistose material, have comparatively soft or 
deeply-furrowed contours. The littoral, precipitous 
and rocky nearly everywhere, affords scant natural 



shelter against the N-W gales; the bays of Mers el 
Kebir-Oran (Mars al-Kabir), Arzeu, Algiers, Bougie 
(Bidjaya) and Bdne face East. 

The High Plains. The high plains, wrongly 
termed high plateaus, are monotonous expanses 
broken by isolated rocky humps whose moderately- 
folded structure makes them similar to theSaharan 
Atlas. Situated below the Tell Atlas, and subject to 
a climate which is already arid, they form a succession 
of enclosed basins: the wadis discharge their alluvia 
and their waters into sebkha (or zahrez), whose surface 
in summer sparkles with salt, while their margins 
(sAoff) have a covering of salt-loving plants. The 
high plains of the West, with the Gharbi (gharbi) 
and Chergui (shar£i) shofts (1000 m.), the Zahrez 
(800 m.) and the shallow basin of the Hodna ([?.».] 
400 m.), drain partially into the sea. East of the 
mountains of the Hodna (1,890 m.) and the Belezma 
(2,094 m.), the high plains of Constantine (900-1100 
m.) abound in mountain massifs which are extensions 
of the mountain chains of the Hodna, the Belezma 
and the Awras. 

The Saharan Atlas is formed, from Morocco 
to Biskra, by a group of asymmetrical minor ranges 
running SW-NE, the debris of moderately-folded 
ranges; they are separated by large depressions and 



366 ALG 

are half-buried under their own detritus. The Ksour 
(IJsur; 2,236 m.), the Amour ('Amur [q.v.]; 2,008 m.) 
the Ouled Nail and the Zfban (or Zab) mountains 
drop towards the NE.; they are easily negotiated. 
East of Biskra, the Aures [see Awras] is the largest 
and highest Algerian massif (Djabal Chelia, 2,329 m.), 
and is a succession of peaks and depressions running 
SW-NE. 

The Desert. The varied terrain of the Atlas 
region contrasts with the extremely monotonous 
expanse of the desert; for instance its severe plateaus 
or ftamdda, its immense plains which constitute 
enclosed basins and which are partly covered with 
sandy or pebbly reg, and finally its erg, vast agglo- 
merations of sand-dunes which cover only 1/5 of its 
surface [see al-§a^ra']. 

The climate is Mediterranean in the Tell Atlas, 
but it deteriorates in the high plains and the Saharan 
Atlas where it becomes an arid without actually 
becoming a desert climate. On the littoral the 
variation in the mean monthly temperatures is small, 
because of the humidity. The climate is becoming 
continental; considerable heat has been known in 
depressions sheltered from the sea winds, with cold 

Everywhere, except on the littoral, where it rarely 
occurs, the sirocco (shehili) brings temperatures of 
104° F and higher several times a year; in winter, 
on the other hand, snow covers the principal massifs 

The summer is dry, apart from a few storms, and 
rain falls principally from October to May. The 
massifs of the Tell Atlas to the East of Algiers 
receive more than 31 ins. of rain, and sometimes more 
than 39 ins. The plains of the West, and the Hodna, 
receive only some 7- n ins., except on their northern 
boundary, and the Saharan Atlas 11-15 ins. on its 
northern slopes. The desert receives less than 7 ins. 

Only the main rivers of the Tell Atlas have 
water all the year round, and even then their summer 
flow is very small: these are Mediterranean torrents 
whose spate is sudden and violent. Such are the 
Tafna, the Macta (formed by the confluence of the 
Sig and the Habra), the Shalaf (Chelif), the Sebaw 
(Sebaou), the Wadi Sahil, the al-Wadi al-Kablr, the 
Seybus (Seybouse), the Medjerda and its tributary, 
and the Wadi Melleg (the lower courses of the last 
two belong to Tunisia). Not one of them is navigable; 
some are used for irrigation. On the high plains and 
in the Saharan Atlas the wadis contain water for 
only part of the year, and then only in their upper 
courses; many only contain water after heavy rains. 

The vegetation has been much impaired by 
man. Thin forests of non-deciduous and resinous 
trees still cover the Tell mountains and certain more 
arid massifs; there are cork-trees on the siliceous 
and well-watered mountains of the Kabylias and the 
B6ne region; evergreen oaks, or holm-oaks, indif- 
ferent to the soil, even in the Awras; Aleppo pines on 
the limestone of the humid regions and on mountains 
already dry; Barbary thuyas and Kermes oaks in 
the Oran Tell, and thinly-sown junipers on the drier 
slopes. A few well-watered peaks still support 
plantations of cedars. Agricultural expansion and 
the demand for timber and charcoal have caused 
the forests to recede; the area under cultivation has 
chiefly increased at the expanse of dense thickets of 
wild olives and mastic trees, a characteristic of 
heavy, well-watered soils, and of a thin undergrowth 
of jujube trees on the drier plains of the Tell Atlas and 
the high plains of Constantine. 

The areas which receive less than 13 ins. of rain 



annually are the regions of the steppe, a formation 
characterized by the scarcity of bushes and trees, 
especially of the latter, and by the presence of 
perennial herbaceous plants such as alfa (10 million 
usable acres) and esparto, of small ligneous plants 
such as the artemisia, salt-loving plants growing on 
the saline soil of the shotts, and of an annual her- 
baceous vegetation which burgeons every spring. 
The desert is only an open steppe without alfa. 

Algeria, therefore, comprises two great natural 
regions in addition to the desert: a Mediterranean 
region, where the cultivation of cereals, wheat and 
and barley, and of trees like the olive, the fig and 
the almond is practicable without irrigation, and 
consequently where a sedentary mode of existence 
possible : it is known to the indigenous peoples as the 
Tell; and, secondly, the steppes, where cultivation 
is not practicable without irrigation or flood waters', 
and which is devoted to the breeding of livestock 
on a migratory basis, and to nomadism : natives know 
this area and that of the desert under the common 
name of Sahara. This distinction between Tell and 
Sahara is a fundamental one in the history of the 
country no less than in its geography. 

Bibliography: J. Despois and R. Capot-Rey, 
L'Afrique blanche, i, L'Afrique du Nord, 1949, ii, 
Le Sahara francais, 1953; Aug. Bernard, L'A/rique 
septentrionale et occidentale, 2 vol. of the Geog. 
Universelle, 1937 and 1939; Encyclopidie coloniale 
et maritime, Algeria. Sahara; J. Blottiere, L'Algirie, 
1949; M. Larnaude, Algirie, 1950; E. F. Gautier, 
Structure de I'Algirie, 1922; idem, Le Sahara, 
1928; idem, Un siecle de Colonisation, 1930; 
idem, L'Afrique blanche, 1939; P. Seltzer, Le 
climat de I'Algirie, 1946; Publications of the XIX 
International Geological Congress of Algeria, 1952 ; 
R. Maire, Notice de la carte phytogiographique de 
I'Algirie et de la Tunisie, 1926; P. de Peyerimhoff, 
Notice de la carte forestiere . . ., 1941; R. Tinthoin, 
Les aspects physiques du Tell oranais, 1948; Maps 
and Bulletins of the Algerian Geological Map 
Service; and the Bulletin of the Societe d'Histoire 
naturelle de l'Afrique du Nord. (J. Despois) 

(ii) History. 
(1) To the 16th century. 

The region which later became known as Algeria 
presents a framework not readily acceptable to the 
historian of Muslim North Africa. The frontiers 
which are shown on the map cannot set bounds to 
his field of study; they only assume any significance 
with the establishment of the Turkish regency of 
Algiers in the course of the 16th century. During 
the nine hundred years prior to this event, the 
future Algeria, which comprises what the Arab 
writers call central Maghrib (al-Maghrib al-Awsat) 
together with part of Ifrikiya (or near Maghrib), was 
closely linked with the two neighbouring countries, 
being almost invariably either subject to rulers 
coming from these countries or in fear of their 
domination. Although, in comparison with the two 
other subdivisions of Barbary or Maghrib, this 
central region appears to be a large rural area with 
few towns, populated by nomadic shepherds and 
hill farmers, it has nevertheless through the centuries 
played a not inconsiderable part in the history of 
the Muslim West. Only the more important episodes 
in its history will be mentioned here. 

In the middle of the ist/7th century, North 
Africa was invaded by the Arabs, the propagators 
of Islam. The military power of Byzantium rapidly 



disintegrated; but the reduction of the Berbers was 
a more difficult task. Resistance was primarily 
organized in central Maghrib; inspired, it is said, by 
Kusayla [q.v.], chief of the Awraba, native bands 
arose which, near Biskra, engaged Ukba b. Nafi c 
[q.v.] — a battle in which the latter lost his life 
(63/682). The Awras in particular seems to have 
been used as a strongpoint in the struggle against 
the Arabs; it was in the foothills of this mountain 
massif that the Kahina [q.v.], legendary queen of 
the country, witnessed, after a brilliant success, the 
destruction of Berber independence (74/693). 
t The central Maghrib again became the centre of 
autochthonous resistance in the 2nd/8th century, 
>vhen the Berbers had become converted en masse 
to Kharidjism. Tlemcen, where Abu Kurra, chief of 
the Banu Ifran [q.v.] (148/765), was in command, 
was at first their chief centre. In the 3rd/oth century 
Tihert (near the modern Tiaret), capital of the 
Rustamid [q.v.] imams, became the centre of Berber 
j&aridjism. 

The position of this central region, on the borders 
of the territory which the Aghlabids of al-Kayrawan 
held in the name of the c Abbasids, explains how the 
fatimid [q.v.] power was engendered there among 
the Kutama [q.v.] Berbers of Lesser Kabylia at the 
end of the 3rd/oth century. These new masters, 
however, were not accepted without a struggle; the 
Awras and its environs witnessed the terrible revolt 
of the Man with the Donkey, in which the Fatimid 
cause was nearly lost [see Abu Yazid al-NukkarI]. 

Taking over the role of the Kutama, the Sinhadja 
[q.v.; see also ZIrids] of central Maghrib became, in the 
4th/ioth century, the most useful allies of the 
Fatimids and supported their policy of opposition 
to the Zanata [q.v.], who were vassals of the Umay- 
yads of Spain. The Zanata were for the most part 
nomads, and frequented the central and western 
plains. The Sinhadja were settled tribes, and in- 
habited the central and eastern mountain regions; 
ithey founded or developed towns, such as Ashir and 
the Kal'a, capital of the Sinhadja Banu Hammad 
[see Hammadids]. This latter kingdom experienced 
the repercussion of the serious events which occurred 
in Ifrlkiya. The invasion of the Banu Hilal [q.v.] 
Arabs in the middle of the 5th/ nth century, which 
destroyed the kingdom of al-Kayrawan, caused an 
influx into the Kal c a of merchants and artisans, and 
palaces were built there which betrayed the influence 
of Fatimid Egypt and of Persia. But it was not long 
before the Arab scourge menaced, in their turn, the 
Banu Hammad, who emigrated to Bidjaya (Bougie). 

While, in what was later the province of Constanti- 
ne, the power and prosperity of the former rulers 
increased, the future provinces of Oran and Algiers 
acquired new masters. Emerging from Morocco, the 
Almoravids (5th/nth century) [see al-Murabitun] 
overran the country as far as Algiers; the Almohads 
(6th/i2th century) [see at.-Muwahhidun and Mu J - 
minids] extended their sway over the whole of North 
Africa. Both dynasties, which had in addition 
annexed Muslim Spain, enriched the cities of their 
Berber dominions, particularly Tlemcen, with the 
products of the magnificent civilization of al- 

At the beginning of the 7th/i3th century, the great 
Almohad empire collapsed, and Tlemcen, which had 
escaped ravage et the hands of the Arabs and the 
Almoravid Banu Ghaniva [q.v.], became the capital 
of the Banu <Abd al-Wad [see «Abd al-Wadids], 
formerly Zanata nomads. This new kingdom achieved 
real economic prosperity; hut it was constantly 



RIA 367 

threatened by the Marinids, its Moroccan neigh- 
bours, and, at the beginning of the ioth/i6th century, 
it was annexed by the Turks of Algiers. 

It was the appearance of the Spanish off the small 
Berber port of Algiers which led to Turkish inter- 
vention in the central region of North Africa and 
made Algiers the centre of a vassal J ate. For 
nearly three centuries piracy, a substitute for holy 
war, provided the Regency of Algiers with important 
resources. The country itself, which later became 
Algeria, and which was divided into three provinces, 
to some extent evaded the control of its Levantine 
masters, and its nomadic and settled populations 
pursued in relative independence an archaic mode 
of existence, the history of which is, and will doubt- 
less long remain, obscure to us. 

Bibliography: Ibn Khaldun, al- l lbar, ed. de 
Slane, Paris 1847, 2 vols. ; trans, de Slane, Algiers 
1852-1856,4 vols.: Ibn c Abd al-Hakam, Conquite 
de I'Afrique du Nord et de I'Espagne, ed. and trans. 
A. Gateau. Algiers 1942; Ibn al-Athlr, trans. 
Fagnan; Ibn c Idhari, trans. Fagnan (Histoire de 
VA/rique et de I'Espagne), Algiers 1901, 2 vols.; 
Yahya Ibn Khaldun, Histoire desBeniAbd el-Wad, 
rois de Tlemcen, ed. and trans. A. Bel, Algiers 1904- 
191 3, 2 vols.; Abu Zakariyya 5 , Chronique {Livres 
des Beni Mzdb), trans. Masqueray, Algiers 1878; 
Ibn Saghir, Chronique sur les imams Rostemides 
de Tahert, ed. and trans, de C. Motylinski (Actes 
du XIV Congris des Orientalistes), Paris 1907; 
Ya'kubi, Les pays, trans. G. Wiet, Paris 1937; Ibn 
Hawkal, Al-Masalik wa l-mamalik, trans, de Slane 
(J A 1842, 1); Bakri, Description de I'Afrique septen- 
trionale, ed. de Slane, 2nd ed. Algiers 191 1 ; trans, 
de Slane, 2nd ed. Algiers 1913; Idrlsi, al-Maghrib ; 
Leo Africanus, Description de I'Afrique, trans. J. 
Temporal, ed. Schefer, Paris 1896, 3 vols.; Marmol, 
Description de I'Afrique, trans. Perrot d'Ablan- 
court, Paris 1667, 3 vols. ; D. Haedo, Topographie 
et histoire ginirale d' Alger, trans. Monnereau et 
Berbrugger, RAfr. 1870-1871 ; idem, Les rois 
d'Alger, trans, de Grammont, RAfr. 1895-1897; 
d'Arvieux (Le chevalier), Mimoires, Paris 1735; 
Dan (Le P.), Histoire de la Barbaric, 2nd ed. Paris 
1649; Laugier de Tassy, Histoire dn royaume 
d'Alger, Amsterdam 1728, 2 vols ; Th. Shaw, 
Travels, Oxford 1738; French trans., Voyages, The 
Hague 1743, 2 vols.; new trans, with additions by 
Mac Carthy, 1830; Venture de Paradis, Alger au 
XVIW siicle, ed. Fagnan, RAfr. 1895-1897 and, 
separately, Algiers 1898; S. Gsell, G. Marcais, G. 
Yver, Histoire de I'Algdrie, 5th ed. Paris 1929; 
Ch.-A. Julien, Histoire de I'Afrique du Nord, Paris 
1931; 2nd revised ed., t. ii by R. Le Tourneau, 
Paris 1953; G. Albertini, G. Marcais, G. Yver, 
L'Afrique du Nord francaise dans I' histoire, Lyons 
1937; G. Marcais, Les Arabes en Berblrie, Constan- 
tine-Paris 1913; idem, La Berberie musulmane et 
I'Orient, Paris 1946; de Grammont, L'histoire 
d'Alger sous la domination turque, Paris 1887. 
(G. Marcais) 

(2) The Turkish period. 
The establishment of the Turks in Algiers was not 
the result of a deliberate policy of expansion planned 
and carried out by the Ottomans. It was, on the 
contrary, at least at its inception, a private venture 
by two intrepid corsairs, known in Western sources 
as the Barbarossa brothers, 'Arudj [q.v.] and Khayr 
al-DIn [q.v.]. These two, with a great reputation for 
valour gained in hunting down Christian vessels in 
the Mediterranean, came to the rescue of Islam in 



368 ALG 

Africa, which they saved from the hands of the 
Spaniards. In 922/1516, the inhabitants of Algiers " 
appealed to 'Arudj, who proclaimed himself sultan, 
and occupied Miliana, Medea, Tenes and Tlemcen. 
He was killed at Tlemcen after resisting siege by the 
Spanish for six months (924/1518). Khayr al-Din 
restored the situation, which had been rendered 
momentarily critical by the death of his brother, by 
presenting the Ottoman Sultan Selim with the 
newly-acquired territories, thus gaining both in- 
creased prestige and the military and financial aid 
which he needed. He extended his authority over 
Collo, B6ne, Constantine and Cherchell, and 1529 
forced the surrender of the Pefion of Algiers, a fort 
which the Spanish had erected on an islet some 
300 yards from the shore. In 940/1533 Khayr al-DIn 
was appointed commander-in-chief of the Ottoman 
fleet, and was replaced at Algiers by beylerbeys who 
administered the country either directly or through 
lieutenants until 995/1587. Aspirations to indepen- 
dence on the part of some of these officials led the 
Ottoman Government, in 1587, to replace them by 
pashas appointed for a term of three years. The 
pashas were eclipsed, after 1070/1659, by the aghas 
of the army corps, who were in turn succeeded by 
a new power, that of the deys, who ruled until the 
capture of Algiers by France. The triennial pashas, 
aghas and deys were more often than not tools in 
the hands either of the army corps (oajafr), recruited 
primarily from the townsmen of Anatolia, or of the 
ta'ifat al-ru'asa, a guild of corsair captains which, 
for three centuries, furnished the Algerian treasury 
with the greater part of its resources. The four 
aghas who reigned successively from 1659-71 were 
all assassinated, and fourteen of the twenty-eight 
deys met the same fate. 

The internal organization of the Algerian State is 
obscure; the scant information of a reliable nature 
which is available to-day deals for the most part 
with the era of the deys. The deys, when they managed 
to stay in power, governed as absolute sovereigns 
assisted by a council (diwdn) composed of the 
khazlneddr or khaznadji (treasurer), the agha of the 
camp (commander of the troops), the wakil al-khardi 
<head of naval administration), the bayt al-mdld[i 
(trustee of vacant estates), and the khoajat al-khawl 
or atkhodian (receiver of tribute). 

With the exception of the district of Algiers itself 
which constituted the ddr al-sultan and was divided 
into seven regions (wafan) administered by Turkish 
ka'ids under the direct control of the dey, the 
whole country was divided into three provinces 
(beylik), each under a bey, which anticipated the 
later French provinces. These were the province of 
TItari, with Medea as its chief town; the eastern 
province with Constantine as its centre; and the 
western province, the capital of which was succes- 
sively Mazuna, Mascara and, after 1792, Oran. The 
beys, appointed and dismissed by the dey, ruled their 
provinces with absolute authority, assisted by 
tePids. In the eyes of the central government, they 
were no more than revenue collectors, tax-farmers 
who contracted, usually having bought their offices, 
to pay into the state coffers large sums, the size of 
which was determined in Algiers. The sum con- 
tracted was payable during the financial year, the 
•commencement of which coincided with the appoint- 
ment of the bey, in several instalments, effected by 
the bey, his lieutenant and a courier. The bey appeared 
in person at Algiers during the spring following his 
appointment and thereafter every three years. His 
lieutenant travelled to Algiers twice a year, spring 



and autumn, and the courier, whose office was 
occasionally discharged by an official described in 
the archives at Algiers as wakil-i sipdhiydn, went to 
the capital regularly every month, or every two or 
three months. The sums remitted to the Treasury 
by each official remained constant, but each official 
remitted a different amount. This organization seems 
to have been designed solely to enable the dey to 
exercise the closest supervision of the provincial 
governors, and to dismiss them at the slightest sign 
of any shortcoming. 

This preoccupation with financial matters was 
apparent throughout the internal organization of 
Algeria under the Turks. All commissions and offices 
involving the collection of taxes, dues, imposts or 
fines were farmed out by the State for sums payable, 
according to circumstances, in one or more annual 
instalments. Such a system gave rise to a host of 
abuses and led to exploitation of the people on 
such a scale as to render any attempt at winning 
their sympathies impossible. Moreover, Turkish 
ascendancy existed more in theory than in fact, and 
in their garrison-towns in the interior of the country 
(Bidjaya, Bordj Lehaou, Constantine, Medea, Miliana, 
Mazuna, Mascara, Tlemcen) the Anatolian yoldash 
had often the appearance of troops under siege. 
In order to maintain their own position, the 
Turks were obliged to inflame tribal rivalries; the 
makhzen tribes, when they espoused the Turkish 
cause, secured not only various financial immunities 
but also the right to oppress subject tribes (ra'ayd) 
and to exterminate rebel tribes. At the same time, the 
Turks established military colonies (zumul) on all 
the main communication routes. Thus the Kabylian 
massif was ringed with posts responsible for ensuring 
the free passage of troops. Finally the Turks ende- 
avoured to conciliate the religious orders. But they 
were not entirely successful, and the revolts which 
broke out at the beginning of the 19th century in 
in the province of Oran and in the Babur Kabylia 
were the work of the powerful Darkawa order 
encouraged and supported by the Sharifs of Fez. 

The Turks had no thought of improving the 
territories they conquered. The future of Algeria, 
they considered, did not lie in its hinterland. They 
had come by sea, and they continued to look seawards, 
and Mediterranean piracy provided the major part 
of their revenue. The 17th century was the golden 
age of privateering. In Algiers, about 1650, there 
were nearly 35,000 captives in the city prisons. 
Spain made several unavailing attempts to capture 
Algiers (1541, 1567, 1775). But thereafter French and 
British naval demonstrations checked the Algerian 
mariners' piratical career, and their power declined. 
Their crews became less audacious. Only one ra'is, 
Hamldu, deserves mention in the 18th century for 
the temerity of his exploits. After the middle of the 
century Algiers, impoverished and shorn of its former 
importance, suffered a decline in population, a 
decline hastened by famine and plague. In 1816, 
after the Congress of Vienna, when Lord Exmouth 
and the Dutch admiral Van der Capellen, the 
representatives of Europe, arrived to bombard the 
town, there were only 1,200 slaves in the prisons. On 
the eve of the French invasion, Algiers, which had 
at one time had 100,000 inhabitants, had been 
reduced to barely 40,000. 

To sum up, little is known even now of the history 
of Algeria under the Turks; it is a period which has 
not aroused much interest. At that time, however, 
the frontiers of the region situated between present 
day Morocco and Tunisia, corresponded for the 



first time with the frontiers drawn on the map 
of Barbary as we know it to-day. Moreover, the 
fusion between the Arab and Berber elements of 
the population had become more complete. Algeria 
entered on its career as an entity, and Algiers attained 
the status of a capital. 

Bibliography: An up-to-date bibliography 
is given by Ch. A. Julien, Histoire de I'Afrique du 
Nord. de la conqulte arabe d 1830, 2nd ed., t. ii by 
R. Le Tourneau, Paris 1953, 346 ff. Haedo, Dan, 
Laugier de Tassy, d'Arvieux, Shaw, Venture de 
Paradis, de Grammont, see above, section (1), 
Bibliography; Haedo, Dialogos de la captividad, 
trans, by Molinet-Volle, in RAfr., 1895-1897 and, 
separately, Algiers 1911; E. d'Aranda, Relation de 
la captiviti et liberti du sieur Emmanuel d'Aranda, 
1656; Rehbinder, Nachrickten und Bemerkungen 
iiber den Algierischen Stoat; Reconnaissance des 
villes, forts et batteries d' Alger par le chef de 
bataillon Boutin (1808) suivie des Mimoires sur 
Alger par les consuls de Kercy (1791) et Dubois- 
Thainville (1809), published by G. Esquer, 1917; 
L. Rinn, Le royaume d' Alger sous le dernier dey, 
Algiers 1900; Vayssette, Histoire de Constantine 
sous la domination turque; J. Deny, Les registres 
de solde des Janissaires conserve's a la Bibliothique 
nationale d' Alger, RAfr., 1920; idem, Chansons de 
janissaires d' Alger, Mem. R. Basset, 1923, ii, 33-175. 
For lists of the beylerbeys, pashas, aghas and deys, 
see Zambaur, 82-3. (M. Colombe) 

(3) After 1830. 
Following a dispute concerning the supply of 
wheat, the dey of Algiers Husayn insulted Deval, 
the French Consul. The Government of Charles X 
instructed the fleet to blockade the old pirate 
stronghold. In 1830, influenced by considerations of 
internal policy, Polignac, the chief minister, decided, 
despite British objections, to send an expeditionary 
force to Algiers. The dey surrendered on 5th July 
and embarked with the majority of his janissaries. 
France, which did not aim at permanent occupation, 
entered into negotiation with the other powers. At 
first the July Monarchy was perplexed by the "em- 
barrassing legacy" of the previous regime. It decided 
to begin with to confine itself to a limited and 
temporary occupation. It was not until 1834 that 
a Governor-General was appointed following the 
report of an "African Commission". Until 1841 the 
French occupation, frowned on by the Chambers, 
was limited to possession of the principal ports and 



Meanwhile, the situation had changed in the 
interior. The Turks, the kul-oghlus, and the former 
makhzen were harassed by the Arabs, and various 
native states came into being. The bey of Con- 
stantine, Ahmad, consolidated his power within his 
province. In the west, after a period of anarchy, 
the people accepted or were subjected to the rule 
of the marabout 'Abd al-Kadir [q.v.], who was 
conspicuous for his bravery, his diplomacy and his 
organizing ability. French policy vacillated between 
collaboration with the former makhzen and dealings 
with the new Arab chiefs. But although c Abd al- 
Kadir twice agreed to sign treaties which streng- 
thened his position, Ahmad refused, and repulsed 
a French army before Constantine in 1836. The 
following year a new expedition captured the town, 
and France decided to effect a definitive occupation 
of the eastern province. In 1839 c Abd al-Kadir 
declared war on France. The conduct of operations 
during Marshal Valee's governorship was apathe- 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



RIA 369 

tic. General Bugeaud was despatched to Algeria 
with a large force and, by employing new tactics, he 
succeeded, between 1841 and 1847, in crippling the 
power of c Abd al-Kadir, in suppressing the risings 
organized in the mountains by religious agitators, 
in defeating in 1844 the army of the Sultan of 
Morocco, who supported the rebels, and in be- 
ginning the subjection of the nomads of the south. 
He put in hand the organization of indirect rule 
through "Arab bureaus", and encouraged European 
colonization in the coastal plains by populating 
villages, virtually military colonies, which were 
designed to consolidate his work. 

These colonies were reinforced in 1848 by an 
influx of Parisian workers who formed forty-two 
new villages, followed by colonists of all kinds, 
who were given small grants of land by the State 
or who set themselves up on their own account. 

The occupation of the country proceeded under 
the Second Republic, and at the beginning of the 
Second Empire, by the annexation of the oases and 
of Kabylia. In order to protect Algeria from the 
nomads of the south, and to control the desert trade 
routes, fortified posts were established on the 
plateaus, and columns scoured the Saharan borders. 
Kabylia, which was independent during the Turkish 
era, had already been penetrated by two expeditions 
under Bugeaud, and by the campaigns of Saint- 
Amaud and Randon. France was thus enabled to 
extend her control over the Kabylia of the Babors, 
the Oued Sahel region and the Sebaou valley. The 
Kabylian confederations of Djurdjura held out 
longer, and were subjugated by Marshal Randon in 
1857. France allowed the people to retain then- 
municipal organization and their customs. Since 
that time peace in Algeria has not been disturbed 
by any general uprising. The insurrection of 1871 
was the result of Germany's defeat of France, of the 
reduction in the strength of the garrisons, and the 
discontent of the great MokranI family. The Medjana, 
both the Kabylias, parts of the department of 
Algiers, and the southern half of the department of 
Constantine, rebelled. The rebels massacred colonists, 
arid threatened the Mitidja. Admiral de Gueydon, 
appointed Governor-General of Algeria, restored 
order. The rebels were heavily fined, and over a 
million acres of land were confiscated and set aside 
for colonization. Again in 1881 a comparatively 
serious revolt broke out in the south of the depart- 
ment of Oran, led by Bu 'Amama. This led to the 
establishment of a line of permanent posts on the 
southern edge of the plateaus. A revolt in the Setif 
(Satlf) and Guelma (Kalama) areas in 1945 caused 
the death of about 100 Europeans, but was of short 
duration and was severely repressed. 

The organization and colonization of Algeria since 
the time of Bugeaud have passed through several 
phases characterized by the application of quite 
distinct methods. The Second Republic favoured a 
policy of assimilation and of French colonization. 
The civil territory of the three departments was 
placed under prefects responsible for the admini- 
stration of the colonists. The remainder was in the 
hands of the military authority under the control 
of the Governor-General, the supreme head of the 
"Arab bureaus". The native population was governed 
by Muslim chiefs, appointed and supervised by the 
military administration. This organization continued 
to exist under the Second Empire. Under Randon's 
governorship, European colonization was increased 
and the economic framework of the country was 
built up. Algeria was visualised as a source of 



370 ALC 

tropical foodstuffs; but the crop which succeeded 
best was corn, the colonists' crop until about 1881. 
An economic crisis and the increasing claims of the 
colonists, who were handicapped by the limited 
scope of their concessions and who wished to acquire 
land made available through the establishment of 
cantonments, led the Government to renew the 
policy of assimilation. From 1858-60, the country 
was governed from Paris by a Ministry for Algeria 
and the Colonies, entrusted at first to Prince Napo- 
leon, and them to the Comte de Chasseloup-Laubat. 
The disorder of the administration forced Napoleon 
III to restore military government under Marshal 
Pelissier and, after the latter's death fii 1864, under 
Marshal Mac-Mahon. During this period, despite 
opposition from the colonists, the Emjperor tried to 
make Algeria an "Arab Kingdom". %e protected 
the tribal collective lands by the sen&tus consultum 
of 1863; by that of 1865, Muslims we're allowed to 
adopt French nationality. 

In 1870 the colonists expelled the imperial agents 
and set up the revolutionary goven; n.nt of the 
"commune" of Algiers. The Government headed 
by Thiers decided on the establishment of a civil 
administration. From that time, although the first 
two governors, Admiral de Gueydon and General 
Chanzy, came from the armed forces, the civil 
territory increased steadily in extent and the "Arab 
bureaus" gave way to "mixed communes". 

Complete administrative and financial autonomy 
was achieved in 1900. The powers of the Governor 
General were increased, and the budget was hence- 
forth voted by the "Delegations financieres", a body 
representing the various economic interests in the 
country. Algeria was empowered to raise loans in 
order to improve its industrial plant, ports, roads, 
railways, dams etc. An era of prosperity was inau- 
gurated. More varied types of crops were grown, and 
over an ever-increasing area. European colonization 
was stimulated; the outlay necessitated by increas- 
ingly scientific agricultural methods gave it a 
capitalist character unknown before the large-scale 
cultivation of the grape and of citrus fruits. New 
mines of iron, zinc and phosphates were developed. 
The native population increased as the result of 
a high birth-rate coupled with a decreased mortality 
rate, the product of more hygienic methods. The 
economic achievement was very considerable, but 
social policy continued to be paternal in spirit. 

Algeria played a prominent part in the I939"45 war. 
After the Anglo-American landings in 1942, a French 
liberation force was organized there which took part 
in driving the Germans and Italians out of Tunisia, 
and participated in the Italian compaign and in the 
fighting in France. In recognition of the services 
rendered by Muslims during this common effort, 
the political regime was improved by the creation 
of an Algerian Assembly, elected by universal suf- 
frage and consisting of two houses, European and 
Muslim, with equal rights. The work of economic 
development was resumed on a more generous 
scale; a comprehensive scheme for the education 
of Muslims was drawn up, and an era of social 
reform was ushered in. 

Bibliography: Ch. A. Julien, Histoire it 
I'Afrique du Nord*, t. ii revised by R. Le Tourneau, 
Paris 1953 ; S. Gsell, G. Marcais, G. Yver, L'Afrique 
du Nord franfaise dans I' histoire, Lyons 1937; S. 
Gsell, G. Marcais, G. Yver, Histoire d'A IgMe', Paris 
1929; A. Bernard, L'Algirie (coll. Hist, of French 
colonies by G. Hanotaux and H. Martineau), ii, 
Paris 1930; Paul Azan, Conqutte et pacification de 



I'Algirie, Paris 1932; idem, Bugeaud et I'Algirie, 
Paris n.d.; idem, L'tmir Abd-el-KaUer, Paris 1924; 
M. Emerit, L'Algerie a Vipoque cTAbd-el-Kader, 
Paris 1951; L. de Baudicour, La colonisation de 
I'Algirie, ses iliments, Paris 1856; idem, Histoire 
de la colonisation de I'Algerie, Paris i860; de 
Peyerimhoff, Enqutte sur les rtsultats de la colo- 
nisation officielle de 1871 d 1893, Algiers 1906; 
Schefer, L'Algirie et I' evolution de la colonisation 
franfaise, Paris 1928; Milliot, Morand, Godin and 
Gaf fiot, L'Oeuvre legislative de la France en A Igirie, 
Paris 1930; Douel, Un siicle de finances coloniales, 
Paris 1930; Emerit, Les Saints-Simoniens en 
Algirie, Paris 1941; E. F. Gautier, L'Algerie et 
la mltropole, Paris 1920; Ch. A. Julien, L'Afrique 
du Nord en marche, Paris 1952 ; Documents algiriens, 
published by the Governorate-General since 1947. 
(M. Emerit) 



(iii 



POPULATIOI* 



Demography. The total population of Algeria, 
according to the census of 31 Oct. 1948, is 8,681,785, 
which represents a large increase as compared with 
previous censuses. It comprises 7,721,678 Muslims 
and 960,107 non-Muslims; the latter include 876,686 
French and 45,586 other Europeans, of whom */< are 
Spanish. More than 75% of the Europeans live in 
the cities. In the country they are found chiefly in 
the Tell, especially in the wine-growing and market- 
gardening districts. In the department of Oran most 
of the French are of Spanish origin. 

The majority of the Muslims live in the rural areas, 
and the movement to the towns is a recent phenomen- 
on: 1/5 of them now live in them. They form the 
majority everywhere except in Algiers and Oran. 
The population of the largest towns (1948) is as 



Algiers (incl. suburbs) 
Oran (incl. suburbs) 
Cons tan tine 
B6ne 



225,539 
90,678 
77,089 
56,614 



Non- 



105,155 

There are five other cities of from 50-100,000 in- 
habitants: Tlemcen, Philippeville, Sidi-bel-Abbes, 
Mostaganem, and Setif, all situated in the Tell. The 
distribution of the population in the administrative 
districts and its density per sq. km. are as follows: 
Department of Oran 1,990,729 density 30 

Department of Algiers 2,765,896 density 50 

Department of Constantine 3,108,165 density 35 
Southern Territories 816,993 density 0.4 

The most populous regions are those of the TeH 
Atlas where the density per sq. km. generally exceeds 
30 and sometimes 60 (Trari, the Algiers district, the 
Kabylias); it reaches 114 ! in the purely rural and 
mountainous arrondissement of Tizi Ouzou, but 
drops to between 10 and 30 on the high plains of 
Constantine (except in the NW) and in the Awras 
and the Hodna, to less than 10 on the steppes, and 
less than 1 in the desert. 

Ethnography. The Muslim peoples of Algeria, 
the Berbers [q.v.], have an obscure origin. Of white 
race, they are, and apparently have been since 
remote antiquity, of various physical types. The 
influx of foreigners has not been on a large scale 
in the course of the centuries, except for that of 
the Arabs (i.e., Muslims frokn the East) in certain 



regions, and of Mediterranean elements in the cities, 
where the most recent arrivals are the Andalus 
(Muslims returning from Spain), Turks and Europeans. 
But although most of the population calls itself Arab 
because it speaks Arabic, although the descendants 
of Turks who married Algerian women call them- 
selves £ul-oghlu (kouloughli), although the older 
oitizens, of considerably mixed origin, pride them- 
selves in the term hadar while others boast of being 
"Andalus", the bulk of the population has changed 
little, anthropologically, and has remained Berber. 
In the Saharan oases the coloured Haratin [see 
ParjAni] cultivate the soil, and the coloured races 
of the Sudan were for long sold as slaves ( l abid) in the 
towns. In practice, the terms "Arabs" and "Berbers" 
are used for Arabic-speakers and Berber- speakers. 

29% of Algerian Muslims still speak Berber; they 
are chiefly the Shawiyya (Chaouia), who spill 
over extensively from the AwrSs, and the Kabyles 
(kaba'il) west of Djidjelli; there are also the BenI 
Menaser of the mountains between Tenes and Cher- 
chell, and small groups in the Mitldjian Atlas, the 
Wansharls (Ouarsenis), the Tlemcen Mountains and, 
in the South, the mountains of the Ksour. In the 
Sahara Berber is spoken by the Tuareg [?.«.], by the 
Mzabites [q.v.] and some Ksourians (villagers) of the 
Saoura, Gourara, Wargla and the WadI Righ (Oued 
Righ). The Berber dialects, which vary from district 
to district, do not constitute a literary language; 
Berber is not written, and its literature is trans- 
mitted orally. From the nth century onwards, 
Arabic was propagated far more by the nomads than 
by the towns. The sedentary Arab dialects are 
localised in the cities, in eastern Kabylia and the 
TrSra; everywhere else Berber was pushed back by 
the bedouin dialects. 

The Arabs, who have thus furnished 71% of 
Algerians with dialects derived from their language, 
have gradually converted them all to Islam (except 
for 130,000 Jews, at the present day). Virtually the 
only rite practised in Algeria is the Malikite; there 
are a few followers of the HanafI rite among people of 
Turkish descent in Algiers and Tlemcen. The 
Mzabites, Ibadi (Kharidjite) heretics, form a separate 
community. 

. Of the fundamental practices of Islam, which are 
the same everywhere, the five daily prayers are 
regularly performed in Algeria only by a minority of 
the population; the pilgrimage to Mecca, to which 
people now travel by sea or air, is performed by 
about a thousand believers a year; and the Ramadan 
fast is the most universally respected religious 
obligation. 

Islam in North Africa is characterised by the 
development there of religious brotherhoods and of 
the cult of saints or marabouts. The religious brother- 
hoods once played a considerable part in political 
affairs, as a result of their moral authority in an 
Algeria in which law and order had not yet been 
fully established. Their importance has since greatly 
diminished; they maintain, on the whole, good 
relations with the French authorities, but they are 
strongly criticised by the townspeople. It is impos- 
sible to state the number of their adherents with 
any accuracy (250 to 450,000?). The most important 
is the Rahmaniyya which comprises more than half 
the ikhwdn, notably in eastern Algeria; next come 
the Tayyibiyya, still active in the province of Oran ; 
the Shadhiliyya, whose adherents are primarily 
recruited in the department of Algiers ; the TidjSniyya 
in department of Constantine; and the KSdiriyya; 
there are also a few Darkawa in Oran, and 'IsSwa and 



RIA 371 

'Ammariyya in Constantine. [Cf. the articles on 
these orders.] 

The saints, or marabouts [cf. WalI], are not 
necessarily members of the brotherhoods. In former 
days some of them played a considerable moral and 
political role, especially in western Algeria where 
numerous marabout families or tribes still sur- 
vive, such as the Awlad Sidi Shaykh (Ouled Sidi 
Sheikh) of Southern Oran. Some of them trace their 
origin to the Prophet's family (though 'All and 
FatJma) : these are the shurafd' (chorfa) [cf. SharIf]. 
At the end of the Middle Ages, and later, many are 
said to have come from Morocco and Sakiyat al- 
rjamra' (Saguiet el Hamra, Rio de Oro), but the 
majority pass as natives of the country. They all 
transmit the baraka to their descendants, if any. 
But many marabouts have never existed, and their 
cult is proof of the persistance of pre-Islamic nature 
cults involving trees, springs, rocks, and mountains 
(for instance Lalla Khadidja at the highest point of 
the Djurdjura). The marabout cult has sometimes 
gained non-Muslim adherents. Pre-Islamic practices 
survive in various rites involving magic and sorcery ; 
in the belief in the evil eye, and in sundry agricul- 
tural rites. All the non-orthodox popular practices 
are still widespread in certain country districts, 
especially among the women. 

Islam, in Algeria as elsewhere, has permeated 
social life. Although .the life of the Kabyles in the 
West, and of the inhabitants of the Awras and of 
the Tuareg of the Sahara, remains faithful to 
customs which owe nothing to Muslim law, the 
private life of the majority of native Algerians is 
regulated by this law, especially as regards the law 
of succession, which, in detail, is extremely complex, 
and personal status. Polygamy, although of course 
authorized, is in fact not prevalent, particularly in 
the towns. Malikite law does not forbid child marriage, 
and the young girls' consent to their own marriage, 
which is arranged by their father, is not required 
(the right of diabr); women can be repudiated by 
their husbands without any formality or indemnity, 
a practice which encourages "successive polygamy". 
Agrarian law in Algeria has undergone a radical 
transformation through the influence of French law. 

Ways of life. Social life and economic activity 
are bound up with the way of life of the various 
elements of the population. 

The tribes of the steppes and the desert, consisting 
of shepherds who breed sheep, goats, camels and 
horses, are still more or less nomadic. Omitting the 
Tuareg and the Sha'anba who are pure Saharans 
[see al-Sa(jra j ], only those tribes will be mentioned 
which roam between the desert and Algeria proper. 
Some still spend the summer in the Tell. The Arba' 
(Laarba) of the Laghwat region, and the Said Atba of 
the Wargla neighbourhood are almost solely pastoral 
in their way of life, and spend the summer in the 
Serson and on the southern slopes of the Wansharls. 
The nomads of the Touggourt Territory, owners of 
palm-trees and with fewer flocks, spend the summer 
in the high plains of Constantine; they include the 
Ouled Djedi and Bouazid of the Oued Djedi, the Arab 
Sheraka (Cheraga), the 'Amur and Ouled Sidi Salah 
of the dependency of Biskra and the Arab Gheraba 
and the Ouled Moulet of the dependency of Touggourt. 
Other tribes, which live in the valleys of the Saharan 
foot-hills, cultivating a certain amount of grain and 
grazing the pasturages, spend the summer with 
their flocks in the Saharan Atlas; for instance the 
AwlSd Sidi Shaykh, the Awlad Nail of the south 
and the Nememcha in the east. 



372 ALG 

The steppes are the province of the semi-nomads 
who, for 6-8 months of the year, remain close to 
their barley and wheat fields and their winter pasture 
grounds. The 'Amur and the Awlad Nail of the 
north use the pasture grounds of the southern 
valleys of the Saharan Atlas and the folds of the 
high steppes, and spend the summer in the Atlas. 
The semi-nomads of the high steppes, cultivators 
of grain crops and collectors of alf a, spend the summer 
with their flocks on the southern slopes of the Tell 
Atlas. The Hamian, to the west, are former camel 
nomads. The tribes of the Jiodna have no alfa and 
in the summer migrate with their flocks and as 
labourers to the high plains of Constantine. 

The breeding of the horse, formerly used in 
battle, is on the decline; so also is that of the camel, 
the beast of burden and trade, owing to the compe- 
tition of rail and road. Sheep breeding, which 
flourished between 1880 and 1920, is giving way to 
the cultivation of cereals. The collective ownership 
of agricultural land is developing into family owner- 
ship and even into private ownership; the tents, 
made of camel hair, goat's hair and wool, formerly 
grouped in great douars, are dwindling; they are 
only used as temporary dwellings by the semi- 
nomads, who spend the winter in huts or houses. 
The economic and social unit, which among the 
nomads is the tribe or a subdivision of the tribe, is 
a smaller subdivision or the patriarchal family 
among the semi-nomads. 

In the principal mountain massifs the inhabitants 
often still retain their Berber dialects and customs; 
but their way of life depends on local conditions. 
The Awras is the stronghold of the Shawiyya, who 
are both agriculturalists and breeders of sheep and 
goats. Their terraced fields, usually irrigated, sup- 
port cereals and, depending on the altitude, date- 
palms, figs, apricots and nuts. Although principally 
village dwellers, they undertake a winter migration, 
and to some extent follow a semi-nomadic existence, 
in the direction of the plains of the north and south ; 
they spend the summer on the upland pasture 
grounds with the exclusively pastoral people. Their 
lofty villages, surmounted by fortified granaries 
(see agadir), are still under the effective author- 
ity of diemd'as. Among the Kabyles, only those 
of the west (Diurdjura, Soumman, Babur, Guergour) 
have retained their traditional dialects and customs. 
Their terraced fields chiefly support olive and fig 
trees; they lack cereals and livestock. For want 
of space they are emigrating in increasing numbers, 
principally to the towns of Algeria and to France. 
The village (taddart), whether its quarters (kharruba) 
are combined, separate or scattered, forms the 
economic, social and political unit: the diemd'a 
officially maintains its traditional authority in 
Kabylia of the Ejurdjura. The Kabyles of the east 
are arabicised. Like their non-Kabyle neighbours of 
the Bdne region, they live in large clearings where 
they cultivate barley, sorghum and a few fruit trees ; 
they breed cattle and sheep etc., and work in the 
forests, mainly stripping cork. Their neighbours have 
huts made with branches ; they live in houses grouped 
in hamlets and are emigrating in large numbers. In 
western Algeria the way of life of the Beni Menaser 
(Berber-speaking) and of the Trara (Arabicised) 
recalls that of the Kabyles of the west. The inhabi- 
tants of the high valleys of the Wansharls and the 
Oran plateaus, once almost all semi-nomads, now 
have no more than a few tents. 

The fertile plains and hills of the Tell, formerly 
coveted and menaced by both nomads and mountain 



dwellers, and only insufficiently exploited by 
people living in huts and tents and gaining a liveli- 
hood from the cultivation of cereals and extensive 
stock-breeding, have greatly changed in appearance. 
In the areas of dense colonization, some of the 
former fellahs have become agricultural labourers 
while others have profited by the examples before 
their eyes. The local populations everywhere, 
whose numbers have greatly increased, have con- 
siderably extended the area devoted to the cultivation 
of cereals, at the expense of rearing of livestock. The 
old semi-nomad tribes of the high plains of Constan- 
tine are now bound to the soil. Tribal connections are 
forgotten; society is crumbling, but private owner- 
ship of property often still remains vested in the 
family. French schooling, military service, and emi- 
gration—usually temporary— to the towns or to France 
accentuates individualism and family autonomy. 

Individualism is getting the upper hand in the 
cities, without causing loss of solidarity between 
men of the same origin. The partly-Turkish bour- 
geoisie of the ancient cities of Algeria (Algiers, Con- 
stantine and Tlemcen) has been to a large extent 
regenerated by people of rural origin; artisans have 
gradually disappeared. Both old and new towns now 
have a prosperous or rich bourgeoisie of landed 
proprietors and a few business men, a middle class 
of civil servants, members of the liberal professions 
and various employees, and a large proletariat, 
burdened with an excessive number of rural immi- 
grants with no manual skill and potentially only 
mediocre labourers. 

Economy. The native elements remain the 
dominant factor in the Algerian economy. They 
cultivate nearly »/« of the grain lands, sowing almost 
entirely barley and wheat, and nearly 2/3 of the 
bearing olive trees and of land devoted to pulses and 
tobacco. They own more than 96% of the date palms 
and nearly all the fig trees. They own 95% of the 
sheep and goats. The colonists, on the other hand, 
cultivate the vine almost exclusively, and are almost 
alone in growing early vegetables and citrus fruits, 
A fundamental problem is how to increase the 
volume, still very low, of the native output as a 
whole, and to improve the quality of livestock. Some 
Algerians have been trained in fishing by Frenchmen 
of Spanish or Italian origin. The native peoples pro- 
vide only the labour force and fill a few lower grades 
in the mines (iron and phosphates, especially lead 
and zinc), but they are employed in large numbers 
in the transport services. Industry, still under- 
developed despite recent efforts, finds in them an 
ample source of labour, but few skilled craftsmen 
or specialists. Short-term emigration to the industrial 
cities and to dockyards in France assures an abundant 
flow of money into the country. 

Bibliography: General statistical service of 
Algiers: -Rtsultals statistiques du denombrement de 
la population effectui le 31 Octobre 1948, and 
Annuaire statistique de I'Algirie. M. Eisenbeth, Les 
Juifs de I'Afrique du Nard, 1936; A. Basset, La 
langue berbire, in Handbook of African languages, i, 
1952; W. Marcais, Comment I'Afrique du Nord a 
iU arabisie, Ann. de I'Institut d'&tudes orientates, 
Algiers 1938; J. Cantineau, Parlers arabes du 
dipartement d' Alger . . . de Constantine . . . d'Oran, 
RAfr. 1937, 1938 and 1940; G. H. Bousquet, 
V Islam maghribin, 1946; E. Doutte, Les marabouts, 
RHR, 1899-1900; idem, Magie et religion dans 
I'Afrique du N., 1909; Dupont and Coppolani, Les 
confreries religieuses musulmanes, 1897; A. Bel, 
Berberie, i, 1938. 



Sociological: in addition to the general works: 
A. Bernard and N. Lacroix, L'ivolution du 
nomadisme en Algdrie, 1906; L. Lehuraux, Le 
nomadisme et la colonisation, 1931; idem, Ou va 
le nomadisme?, 1948; Travaux de I'Institut de 
Recherches sahariennes, Algiers, since 1942; 
J. Despois, Le Hodna, 1953; E. Masqueray, 
Formation des citis chez Us sidentaires de VAlgirie, 
1886; De Lartigue, Monographic de I'Aures, 1934; 
Fr. Stuhlmann, Ein Kulturgeschichtlicher Ausflug 
in den Auris, 1912; M. Gaudry, La femme chaouia 
del'Auris, 1928; A. Hanoteau and A. Letourneaux, 
La Kabylie et les coutumes kabyles; R. Tinthoin, 
Colonisation et evolution des genres de vie dans la 
rigion O. d'Oran, 1947; Articles in RA/r., Bull, 
de la Sociiti de giog. d' Alger, Bull, de la Socidte 
de gdogr. et d'archdol. d'Oran; R. Lespes, Alger, 
1930 and Oran, 1938; L. Muracciole, V Emigration 
algirienne, 1950; G. Leduc . . . Industrialisation 
de VAfrique du Nord, 1952. 

(iv) Institutions. 

Algeria is part of the French Union as defined by 
the constitution of 27 October 1946. In it Algeria 
holds a peculiar position, which was defined by the 
law of 20 September 1947 entitled "the Algerian 
Statute". At the head of Algeria, there is a Governor 
with wide powers. The inhabitants are represented 
by an elective Algerian assembly which not only 
has financial powers, as had the "Diligations finan- 
ciires" which it replaces, but also a part in the 
initiation and adaptation to the country of the laws, 
the principal legislative body being the French 
Parliament. 

Personal status had previously been defined by 
the law of 7 May 1946, an entirely new law which 
bears the name of its author, Lamine-Gueye, • and 
which proclaimed the equality of the inhabitants of 
the country: "all subjects of French nationality of 
the departments of Algeria enjoy, without distinction 
of birth, race, language or religion, the rights 
attaching to the status of French citizens and are 
subject to the same obligations". But since alongside 
the Europeans, who are mainly French, lives a large 
Muslim majority, whose private life is largely regu- 
lated by Muslim law, it is laid down that "citizens 
who do not possess French civil status keep their 
personal status as long as they have not renounced 
it". The citizens of French status are French citizens 
by birth, Algerian-born Jews, who have been citizens 
since the Cremieux decree of 24 October 1870, a 
few Muslims who have applied for French<itizenship 
as a result of the facilities given by the senatus- 
consultum of 14 July 1865 and by the law of 4 
February 1919, and finally naturalised foreigners, 
especially pursuant to the law of 26 June 1889. 
Citizens of local status are all the other Muslims. 
For these, the following matters remain subject to 
Muslim law (and, for certain Berber-speaking areas, 
to customary law): "marriage, marital authority, 
married women's rights, divorce, repudiation, affi- 
liation, paternal authority, majority, minority, depri- 
vation of control over property, emancipation, 
and guardianship" (J. Lambert). For foreigners the 
regulations are in general similar to those in force 
in France. Foreign Muslims, mainly Tunisians and 
Moroccans, have in certain cases, e.g. before the 
courts, the same status as Algerian Muslims. 

Political Organisation. The Governor Ge- 
neral "represents the Government of the French 

Republic throughout Algeria he resides at 

Algiers". The Algerian Assembly is composed of 120 



RIA 373 

members: 60 representatives of each of the two 
Colleges, elected for 6 years by universal suffrage, 
with two ballots on a single member basis, half the 
members being replaced every 3 years. The first 
College comprises citizens of French civil status. All 
other citizens of local status belong to the second 
College. The electoral laws are similar to those 
obtaining in France, but Muslim women do not vote. 
All citizens are eligible without distinction for 
election to one or other college. 

The peoples of Algeria are represented in the 
Parliament of the Metropolis by 30 deputies in the 
National Assembly (15 per College), by 14 Councillors 
of the Republic (7 per College), and by 12 elected 
persons in the Assembly of the French Union, 6 of 
these being elected by the Algerian Assembly and 
6 by the general councils. 

Administrative organisation. The three 
departments (Algiers, Constantine and Oran), whose 
prefects have wider jurisdiction than in the 
metropolis, are divided into arrondissements (7, 7 
and 6). Their general councils are made up of 3/5 of 
citizens of French status and 2/5 of elected Muslims. 
The communes are large and varied in character. 
Where the non-Muslim French are found in sufficient 
numbers, they are Communes de plein exercise (with 
full powers) in which both Colleges are represented 
(3/5 and 2/5); dependent on the mayor, where 
needed, are the tsd'ids (caids) of the douars (sections 
of communes), subdivisions which have their own 
elected representatives, the djama'a (djemda). The 
"mixed Communes", destined eventually to disap- 
pear, are headed by officials of the Algerian civil 
service. These preside over the municipal committee 
which consists of elected members, the kdHds, and 
the presidents of the diama'a of the various douars. 
In those areas with native populations which have 
reached a sufficient stage of development there have 
recently been set up "municipal centres" which, 
under the control of a civil servant, are undergoing 
their apprenticeship to public life. 

The increase in the size of the departments has 
gradually pushed back towards the Sahara the former 
military districts, which have become the Southern 
Territories. Covering an enormous area, two of them 
encroaching on the Saharan Atlas and the high 
steppes of the west, the four Territories have as their 
centres Colomb-Bechar, Laghaout (Laghwat), Toug- 
gourt and Ouargla (Wargla). They are under the 
direct authority of the Governor General, acting in 
the capacity of a prefect ; the military commanders 
who are subordinate to him have the administrative 
powers of a sub-prefect. The Territories used to be 
divided into dependencies (annexes) which have 
become the basis of the present communes: 10 mixed 
communes under civil administrators, and 9 "native 
communes" under officers for Saharan affairs or 
administrators. The kd'ids of the douars are sub- 
ordinate to them, and members of the djemd'a are 
elected or nominated. The Algerian Statute provides 
for the gradual conversion of the Southern Territories 
into civil districts. 

The Judicial System. The judicial system is 
closely modelled on that of the Metropolis. Algiers is 
the seat of a Court of Appeal; there are 17 assize 
courts (with French and Muslim jurors) and 17 courts 
of first instance. Questions concerning the personal 
status and the inheritance of French Muslims are 
dealt with by the frddis of the 84 principal mahhamas 
(mahakma) and by the bash l ddil (bachadel) of the 
23 dependencies. But their jurisdiction is always 
optional, and the interested parties can refer to the 



justices of the peace, judges of common law in 
Muslim matter? who apply the provisions of Muslim 
law, or to the French judicial authorities and to 
French law. The Kabyles of the west, the majority 
of whom have preserved their own customs, do not 
have kddis. [Cf. also 'Ada.] 

Bibliography: L. Milliot, M. Morand, Fr. 
Godin and M. Gaffiot, L'oeuvre Ugislative de la 
France en Algirie, 1930; J. Lambert, Manuel de 
ligislation algirienne, 1952; P. E. Viard, Les 
caractires politiques et le rigime ligislatif de I' A Igirie, 
1949; Ettori, Le rigime ligislatif de VAlgirie; 
Rolland and Lampue, Pricis de droit des pays 
d'Outre Mer, 1952; Fr. Luchaire, Manuel de droit 
d' Outre mer, 1949; Revue politique et juridique de 
I'Union francaise. (J. Despois) 

(v) Languages. 
(1) The Arab dialects of Algeria. 
The territory forming the present Algeria was arabi- 
cised during two distinct periods, in common with 
North Africa in general. The first period commenced 
with the Muslim invasions at the end of the ist/7th 
century. Although not important from the point of 
view of their ethnic contribution, these invasions 
had a considerable military, political, religious, and 
therefore linguistic, effect. They affected primarily 
the urban centres. The conquering Arabs established 
garrisons there, distributing units of the eastern 
diund throughout the countries which they wished 
to control and administer. Just as Idrlsid Fez 
and Aghlabid al-Kayrawan arabicised the rural and 
mountain regions around them, so Tlemcen and 
Constahtine, in Algeria, caused the regions which 
lay between them and the sea, namely Trara and 
eastern Kabylia, to foresake the native idiom and 
adopt the language of the conquerors. Later, the 
ShI'ite propaganda, by directly linking the Berber 
tribes to the Shl c a movement, very probably played 
a part in imposing Arabic on certain peoples in the 
north of the department of Constantine. The ara- 
bicisation of this first period is responsible for the 
Arabic spoken in the old centres and in the adjacent 
mountainous regions; thus its various forms can be 
called "pre-Hilall dialects". 

The invasion of the Banu Hilal, the Sulaym and 
the Ma'kil inaugurated the second period of arabici- 
sation. It began halfway through the 4th/nth 
century, unleashing the turbulent throng of Bedouin 
tribes against "perfidious Maghrib". This time the 
ethnic contribution was important. The movement 
of populations which was brought about by the 
invasion of these new-comers threw Barbary into 
a ferment, and resulted in the widespread diffusion 
of the language which they brought with them. Not 
merely small districts but vast areas abandoned 
Berber for Arabic; at first, no doubt, it was the 
steppes and high plains devoted 'to the pastoral life, 
where the nomads felt at home; then, as a result of 
alliances which were offered to them or which they 
imposed, vast settled regions of the Tell and even of 
the Sahel. Important transfers of populations con- 
tinued to take place up to - the end of the 8 th/ 14 th 
century; for example the establishment of the Hilal 
Dawadida in northern Constantine province, and of 
the Ma'kil <Ubayd Allah and the Hilal Zughba b. 
'Amir between Tlemcen and the sea. Through con- 
tact with the Bedouin Arabs or under their tutelage, 
entire Berber tribes, sharing a common mode of 
existence with the Bedouin, turned to Arabic; for 
example the Sadwikish of western Constantine 



province and sections of the Zanata of northern 
Oran. Arabicisation has continued until our own 
times, penetrating the mountain massifs and ancient 
Saharan centres which remained the strongholds of 
Berberism. An unpublished work of al-Sabbagh on 
the life of the great saint of the Chelif, Sidi Ahmad 
b. Yusuf, gives us an idea of the linguistic state of 
this region in the ioth/i6th century, and quotes 
phrases in lugha zandtiyya. Berber was still spoken 
in the Chelif at that period, but now Arabic alone 
is spoken, except in the mountain massifs of the 
Ban! Menaser and Wansharis which skirt the region. 
One is tempted to consider that the propagation of 
the conquerors' language was particularly encouraged 
by the Turks between the gth/i5th and the i3th/igth 
centuries. In the northern regions which they 
endeavoured to control, they executed large transfers 
of rural and Bedouin groups, on a scale surpassing 
that of the dynasties which preceded them in central 
Maghrib. 

The upheaval of populations in the course of 
centuries has been so great that linguistics cannot 
provide any ethnic criteria. It is doubtless permissible 
to conjecture that the groups which have remained 
Berber-speaking include a large proportion of 
elements of Berber origin, but nothing enables us 
to assess the proportion of the elements of Arab origin 
among the Arab-speaking populations. It is most 
likely that the latter are largely composed of arabi- 
cised Berbers. No shibboleth, or linguistic criterion , 
enables us to establish the ethnical origin of the 
various groups; no dialectal indication, as far as we 
know, makes it' possible to identify the Berber groups 
converted to Arabic such as the Ulhasa, the Huw- 
wara, the Sindjas, the 'Adjlsa, the Luwwata or the 
Kutama, etc. 

As regards the Arabic dialects introduced by the 
invasions of the 5th-6th/nth-i2th centuries, it is 
generally considered that the territory of the Sulaym 
was definitely to the east, and that of the Ma'kil 
more to the west. The territory of the Hilal cannot 
be defined exactly; it was certainly centrally 
situated, but probably encroached on the territories 
to the east and west. The dialectal variations of the 
language which they spoke or which they dissemi- 
nated are known as "Bedouin dialects". 

(A) Pre-Hilall dialects. Included in this cate- 
gory are village (or mountain) dialects, and urban 
dialects (Jewish and Muslim). 

(a) Village dialects. These are represented by 
two groups which have been clearly identified but 
have not been the subject of equal study; namely, 
Oran dialects, and Constantine dialects. The former 
embrace the mountain massif of the Trara, which 
extends from the wddi of Moghniyya (Marnia) as far 
as the sea, and is bounded approximately by the 
course of the Tafna to the east. Nadruma (Nedroma) 
is the urban centre. This region belongs to the 
Ulhasa and the Kumiyya, and is crossed by the 
routes connecting Tlemcen with the ports of 
Hunayn and Arashkun (Rachgoun). Its arabicisation 
dates probably from the Idrlsid era. The second 
group corresponds to eastern Kabylia, and is com- 
pletely mountainous, having the form of a triangle 
whose apexes are Djidjelli, Mila and Collo. Histori- 
cally, the region represents the seaward expansion of 
Constantine and Mila, which were Arab garrison towns 
in the Aghlabid period. This is the former Kutama 
country, the centre of the Fatimid movement. 

These dialects are characterised phonetically as 
follows: uvular * is changed into velar *, e.g. 
kalb for kalb "heart" ; * is pronounced as a palatal, 



and often, with a marked degree of palatalisation, 
ky, or as an affricate, ksh, tsh, or as a fricative sh, 
with a voiceless y (Trara), e.g. tshelb, shelb for kelb, 
"dog"; the interdentals th, dh, dh disappear, con- 
founded with t, d, d; t becomes the affricate <s; d 
often becomes (; the voiced sibilant is pronounced 
I when it is single, dj when it is doubled ; diphthongs 
with a short element are resolved, ay becoming », 
aw becoming u; there is a very marked decay of the 
short vowels especially in eastern Kabylia, where 
the neutral vowel e predominates; changes occur 
in the syllabic structure which derive, in words 
containing short vowels, from the phonetic influence 
of radical consonants, rather than from etymology; 
the labials m and b, and the uvular ft, have the 
ability to assimilate the / or the article, e.g. eb-bab, 
"the door", ek-kemh" the com". 
1 Morphologically these dialects are characterised 
as follows: by the constant reconstruction of 
defective verbs, nsa-nsdt-nsdw, yensd-yensdw "to 
forget", bkd-bkat-bkdw, yebki-yebkiw "to weep", and 
of verbs hamzated on the first radical, kla-klit-kldte, 
yakel, kul "to eat" ; by the use of -dyen as a sign of 
the dual in nouns of measure, yum-yumayen "two 
days", shbcr-dubrayen "two spans" ; by the adoption 
of plural forms, $nddek "coffers" and of diminutives, 
mfiteh "small key" (with a short vowel in the 
final syllable), for all quadrili terals ; by the sub- 
stitution in the case of diminutives for the form 
tfeyl (cl; iufayl) of tfeyyel "small child", from (fel. 
as in ineyyen (cl. tunayyin) "small garden", from 
inan; by the confusion of gender in the ex- 
pression of the second person, both in the verbal 
endings and in the inflexions of the independent 
personal pronouns, dfabt "thou (m. or f.) hast 
struck", tadfab "thou (m. or f.) wilt strike", enta 
"thou" (m. or f.) ; by the frequent usage of the form 
ydna for ana "I"; by the pronunciation u of the 
3rd person masc. sing, pronominal affix, after a 
consonant, dafbu "he has struck him", weldu "his 
son"; by the constant use of -ayyaj-iyya, ak)-ik, 
ihj-ih, etc., pronominal endings suffixed to the duals 
of nouns denoting parts of the body. On all these 
points of morphology, the dialects of Trara and those 
of eastern Kabylia are analogous, but they differ 
in certain other respects; in the plural persons of the 
imperfect of sound verbs with radical stems, the 
Trara dialects have a doubled form yeddarbu, while 
the rural Diidjellians have the non-doubled form 
iiajbu, from drab "to strike"; similarly in the case 
of nouns with a short vowel and final -at, the former 
have rekkebtek, the latter rkebtek "thy neck", from 
rekbat; in the perfect of hollow verbs, the Trara 
dialects follow the sequence, as regards the radical 
vowel, of short with changed quality, or long with 
pure quality, according as it occurs in a closed syllable 
or not, 6a c - ibi< - beH "to sell", while the rural 
peoples of Djidjelli maintain the same vowel quality 
and follow the sequence semi-long/long, bd c - tW* - 
6» c <; to express the continuous or customary present, 
the Trara use the imperfect of the verb, without any 
special verbal prefix, while the rural Djidjellians 
make free use of the prefix kajku (probably derived 
from the verb kin - ikun), ka-yekteb, ku-nekteb "he 
is writing, I am writing". 

As regards syntax and vocabulary these dialects 
are characterised as follows: by the extensive use 
of an indefinite article waked or ka; the latter is 
especially prevalent in eastern Kabylia; by the 
disappearance of the direct construct relationship 
(except in groups in which the idea of a possessive 
relationship impresses itself strongly on the speaker), 



RIA 375 

and by the expression of this relationship by means 
of the particles di, eddi, dydl and, especially in Collo, 
elli; by the impossibility, in the Djidjelli region, of 
expressing the noun of kinship unless it has a 
pronominal suffix denoting the person with whom 
the relationship is established: 'ammu ddi-Keddur 
"his unclf (to him) of Keddur". In both groups 
specifically Berber features have survived and been 
integrated) into the grammatical system, such as the 
use of thejgenitive link n among the TrSra, e.g. bbwdy 
en fdtma "the father of Fatma", or the use of the 
demonstrative d, which in the Djidjelli region plays 
the role qf a logical copula, as in khuh d • ek - kayd 
"his brother (the one who) is the fea'td" ; or again, the 
transference of the number and gender of the Berber 
word to the Arabic word which has superseded it, 
e.g., in eastern Kabylia, riel, a feminine treated as a 
masculine, (Berber aa\ir is masculine) "foot", fdf, 
masculinq changed to feminine (Berber feminine 
taduf) "wpol", ma, a singular considered as a plural 
(Berber plural aman) "water"; and finally, certain 
elements pf vocabulary have survived, such as words 
of Berbei; forms with the prefix a- (not taking the 
Arabic definite article), or of the form t . . .t, most 
of them associated with rural life (dwellings, dome- 
stic life, domestic utensils, country life, agricultural 
implements, animals, plants, etc.). 

These tjwo types of village dialects unquestionably 
possess considerable points of difference; but they 
have certain features in common with the dialect 
of the Moroccan Djbala to the west. The Oran group 
is nearer to the Moroccan group than to the Con- 
stantine. To the ears of townsmen, and with even 
more reason to those of the Bedouin, the speech of 
the Djbala, the Trara, and the rural Diidjellians 
sounds like a foreign tongue, whose sounds, syntax 
and vocabulary seem to them alien to Arabic. It is, 
however, Arabic, and even Arabic of an ancient 
stock, as is witnessed by certain archaisms, such as 
the preservation of the old monoliteral fa "mouth" 
in the Nedroma district, and of the final iyyesh 
among the rural Djidjellians ; but at the same time 
it is an Arabic in which appears the Berber method 
of presenting ideas, and through which the substratum 
of Berber vocabulary often emerges; an Arabic, 
finally, which, retaining the marks of the bilingualism 
which preceded the supersession of Berber by 
Arabic, is still handled by those, whose ancestors 
had adopted it, with a beginner's clumsiness. 

(b) Urban dialects. These do not form a 
homogeneous group, and the listing and description 
of these dialects is far from complete. They are 
divided into two classes — Jewish and Muslim. 

Jewish dialects. The North African Jews are 
almost entirely city-dwellers in Algeria. Apart from 
the semi-nomadic group of the Bahusiyya in the 
Souk-Ahras region, now dispersed, they all live in 
towns. Only those Jewish communities which, 
because of their populousness and strong social 
cohesion, constitute societies distinct from and 
virtually alien to the Muslim majority around them, 
possess any special form of Arabic; for instance the 
communities of Oran, Tlemcen, Miliana, Medea, 
Algiers and Constantine. Although the Jewish 
dialects differ from one city to another, they share 
certain common characteristics. 

The phonetic system is rather changed in these 
dialects, especially as spoken by women: loss of the 
interdentals th, dh, dh, which revert to t, d, 4; the 
unvoiced dental t becomes the affricate ts, in Oran 
and Tlemcen, a change which leads to confusion with 
the fricatives s* and s and the sibilants I (dj) and x; 



376 



e rolling of r, very noticeable in Algiers; 
a general inability correctly to pronounce back 
consonants; thus ', glottal check, for k, in Algiers, 
and, in Tlemceri and Oran (as in Jewish Fez), k for k, 
and tsh for k ; the muting of the aspirate, especially 
in Algiers; the decay of the short vowels, in which 
the neutral sound e predominates; an excessive syl- 
labic curtailment which gives the impression that 
the language consists wholly of consonants, where 
the only vowels are those which are absolutely 
indispensable to the pronunciation of the consonants 
and to the definition of morphological groups; e.g. 
yiktbu "they write", dj-abtu "she has struck him", 
rkebti "my neck", etc. Schematically, the morphology 
has forms analogous to, if not identical with, those 
described in respect of the village dialects, especially 
as regards the normalisation of paradigms and the 
strengthening of grammatical forms; it is character- 
istically Arabic. 

The dialects used by the Jewish communities 
differ from those of the urban Muslims primarily in 
vocabulary. The vocabulary, largely Arabic, never- 
theless contains a considerable foreign element: 
important borrowings from Spanish — some dating 
from the first period (imported in the 14th and 15th 
centuries by Spanish-speaking Jewish emigres from 
Spain), and some from the second period (the Jews 
of Algeria, particularly of Algiers and Constantine, 
had continuous intercourse with the Jews of Leg- 
horn), these last coinciding chronologically with the 
Spanish contribution of the second period ; borrowings 
from Turkish, common to both the Jewish and the 
Muslim dialects ; a few Berber loan words ; and finally 
considerable borrowings from Hebrew, especially of 
words appertaining to the intellectual or religious 
life. It should be emphasised that the Jews of 
Algeria write their Judaeo-Arabic in a special 
cursive Hebrew, and not in Arabic characters. But 
their more rapid Europeanization, stimulated by the 
progressive dislocation of communities and the 
break-down of the division into quarters, is leading 
to the substitution of French for the traditional 
dialect among the younger generation, and also of 
the latin script for the Hebrew cursive. 

Muslim dialects. The Muslim urban popula- 
tions present great human, and therefore, linguistic, 
variety. Some of them preserved the use of the 
Arabic of the first stratum, such as is found in 
Tlemcen, Nedroma, Cherchell, Dellys, Djidjelli, and 
Collo. On the other hand, at Tenes, Miliana, Medea, 
Blida, Bougie, Mila, Philippeville, and Constantine, 
it is only discovered among the older generation, and 
seems doomed to early extinction, if, indeed, it has 
not already disappeared. The old cities everywhere 
bear the marks of the external influences to which 
they have been subjected in the course of centuries, 
and to which they are still subject ; that of the rural 
populations and that of the Bedouin. The populations 
of certain towns are replenished by the contributions 
of their surrounding rural areas, as for instance in the 
cases of Neuroma, Djidjelli and Collo, where the 
dialect tends to conform to that of the surrounding 
villagers. In other cases, the townsmen have borrowed 
the language of the neighbouring Bedouin collective, 
or sedentary Bedouin, groups; for instance, in 
Tlemcen, Tenes, Blida, Miliana, Medea, Mila, Philip- 
peville, and Constantine. Although, on the whole, 
the language of these old centres has remained 
urban, there are others where the Bedouin dialect is 
almost completely dominant: for instance, in Oran, 
Mostaganam, Mascara, Mazouna, and Bdne (and 
similarly, in the extreme east of the Maghrib, at 



Tripoli and Benghazi). The case of Algiers and its 
environs, and that of Bougie, are more complex 
still. Algiers and the Fahs form a melting-pot for 
urban elements, for old-established rural sedentary 
population, for newly-arrived ruraL elements, and 
for Bedouin who, after a period of acclimatization 
in the Chelif and the Mitidja, flock to a city life which, 
although of a proletarian nature, attracts them; 
Kabylia, moreover, disgorges its emigrants there in 
an unending stream. The Kabylian element, indeed, 
has so far taken possession of Bougie as to render 
this ancient capital and mediaeval centre of Arab 
culture, a Berber-speaking city. 

Phonetically, the urban Muslim dialects have on 
the whole the same characteristics as those of the 
village dialects and the Jewish dialects. Only the 
ancients in Tenes, Cherchell, Dellys and Constantine 
have preserved the interdentals. In Medea, Blida 
and Algiers both the fricative and the occlusive 
pronunciation are heard together. T is everywhere 
converted to the affricate ts. The voiced sibilant is 
variously pronounced: dj, with an initial dental, in 
Tlemcen, Tenes, Cherchell, Mede^, Blida, Algiers, 
Dellys, Mila, and Constantine: elsewhere as i. The 
exaggerated rolling of r could be sand to be a typically 
urban "articulatory disease": its, presence in the 
Jewish dialects has already been narted : it is common 
in Constantine, Djidjelli, Chercltell, Tlemcen and 
Neuroma (and similarly at Tunis and Fez.) The 
change of k to ', a simple glottal check, exists at 
Tlemcen; at Djidjelli, a back k is substituted for it; 
but in all the other towns, it remains k. Ibn Khaldun 
based the essential difference between the dialects 
of the sedentary peoples and the dialects of the 
Bedouin of the Maghrib on the contrast between the 
unvoiced k voiced g , in the back velar. This distinction 
still exists; but the flow of nomadic elements into 
the cities has introduced g there; this has 
occurred at Tenes, Miliana, Medea, Algiers itself, 
Mila and Constantine (where the two sounds, in the 
same words, are sometimes heard from the same 
mouth). Elsewhere, the presence of a g in a word 
stamps it as a loan word from Bedouin dialects. 
Everywhere the aspirate A is a weak consonant, 
liable to become mute; thus in Tlemcen raw is 
heard from fdhum "here they are!", and at Nedroma, 
ma-'andd-sh for ma-'andhd-^t "she has not". 

The morphological forms contain both similar 
and dissimilar elements. Among the former should 
be noted reconstruction of defective verbs, for 
instance of khdd "to take" and of kid "to eat"; the 
general use of the plural quadriliteral form sn&dek 
"coffers" and the diminutive mfiteh "small key", 
and of the triliteral diminutive (feyyel "small child"; 
the frequent use (except at Constantine, Mila, 
Philippeville) of a sort of curious adjectival diminu- 
tive kbiber "somewhat large" from kbir, khihel 
"blackish" from khel, already vouched for in al- 
Andalus ; the pronunciation u or of the pronominal 
affix of the 3rd person sing, masc, after a consonant. 
The feminine ah is peculiar to Cherchell; elsewhere 
it is invariably ha, for the 3rd person pronominal 
affix: ah is doubtless an importation from al- 
Andalus, and there is evidence of other such impor- 
tations in the Cherchell dialect. In the 2nd and 3rd 
persons plural of the independent pronoun, the 
Cherchell dialect is also distinctive, using the forms 
entimdn, human, while elsewhere the forms always 
used are entum, hum, or entuma, Mma. Although 
Nedroma, Mostaganem, Tenes, Bougie and Djidjelli 
make no distinction between the genders of the and 
person sing, of pronouns or verbs, enta "thou" 



(m. and f.), djrabt "thou hast struck" (m. and f.), 
Miliana, Cherchell, Medea, Blida, Algiers and Dellys 
differentiate between them, enta "thou" (m), enti 
"thou" (f.), djabt "thou (m.) hast struck", dptbti 
"thou (f.) hast struck"; differentiation of gender 
again disappears in the eastern dialects, in Collo, 
Mila, Philippeville and Constantine, but the feminine 
form enti, dfabti, is extended to both genders; in 
Tunis the form is confined to the independent 
pronoun. The syllabic treatment of the persons of 
the plural, in the first form of sound verbs, produces 
a remarkable variety of forms: for "they strike" 
yeddarbu is the form used at Tlemcen, N6droma, 
Mostaganem, Tenes, Miliana, Cherchell, Medea, 
Blida, Algiers, Dellys and Collo; but idarbu is used 
at Bougie, Djidjelli, Philippeville, and occasionally 
in the suburds of Algiers, and yedafbu (with the 
stress on the first syllable) at Mila and Constantine. 
The attachment of personal affixes with an initial 
vowel to feminine nouns of the form fa'la(t) poses the 
same problem of syllabic economy, to which according 
to dialect, the same solution is reached; for "my 
neck" rakkebti, rkebti and rakebti. parbet + u "she 
has struck him", is pronounced throughout western 
and central urban Algeria dajrbdtu; in the Fahs of 
Algiers it is sometimes djrabtu; throughout the east, 
da r bettu (as in the cities of Tunisia). In all the cities, 
the plural of nouns of colour admits of a prolongation 
of the vowel u, which is known in the village dialects: 
e.g. humor "red" (even expanded to hUmfin in 
Nedroma and Djidjelli,) except in Dellys, where 
hm&fa is used, and in Collo, Mila, Constantine, and 
Philippeville, where the only form current is hmoj, 
the form used in the urban and rural dialects of 
Tunisia. To indicate the possessive relationship, the 
urban dialects only use the method of direct con- 
nexion (iddfa) to a limited extent; more often they 
have recourse to an analytical method, the governing 
word being linked to the governed by prepositions 
of dialectal origin, namely di (eddi), (dyal, in use 
from Tlemcen to Djidjelli, or the rival mrd c (ntd 1 
from Tlemcen to Dellys), which prevails in Con- 
stantine. Collo often uses the relative elli as a 
particle of connexion: en-nds elli-d-dowwdf "the 
people of the douar". 

Every urban dialect possesses characteristics 
peculiar to itself, but the points of difference are 
becoming progressively less, only what is common 
to all being retained, and these dialects are gradually 
merging into a sort of koine of the towns. The 
constant growth of relations between urban centre 
and urban centre inspires the desire, conscious or 
unconscious, to eliminate dialectal peculiarities, and 
to produce a language which will be understood 
everywhere, which will avoid ambiguities, and which 
will not occasion surprise or be the target for mirth. 
This tendency towards uniformity is perhaps streng- 
thened by a certain concern for purism awakened 
by listening to wireless broadcasts, which are heard in 
many homes and in a still greater number of shops, 
and in every cafe and meeting-place. Feminine 
society, which has always constituted an important 
factor in linguistic conservatism, is being profoundly 
influenced by the radio, which brings into the home 
a "universal Arabic" and effects its general adoption, 
and also by urban life, which affords ever greater 
freedom, and provides women with more and more 
opportunities for contact with the outside -world. It 
seems that the time is not far off when the urban 
Muslim dialects of Algeria will have the featureless 
appearance of uniformity, and will no longer preserve 
traces of their original characteristics except those 



RIA 377 

fossilized in songs, proverbs, and a few ready-made 
expressions. 

(B) Bedouin dialects. In so far as they are 
known (and knowledge of them is only approximate 
and incomplete), the Bedouin dialects of Algeria 
present the appearance of a composite and hetero- 
geneous mass. The isoglosses which some have 
attempted to trace form a complex picture; the 
interpretation of this picture, if it seeks to take an 
overall view, ignores the diversity of the material 
and glosses over numerous contradictions. 

The following are the identifying marks of a 
Bedouin dialect, (a) Phonetic. A fairly general 
retention of the interdentals tk, dk, dk', an occlusive 
pronunciation of the unvoiced dental t, except in 
certain oasis dialects in which it is affricated (as at 
Beni Abbes in southern Oran, orTouggourt in southern 
Constantine); the voicing of the back velar, g, k, 
only appearing in loan words and especially in the 
vocabulary of law and religion ; an occasional preser- 
vation of short vowels, often complicated by a 
change in quality attributable to the influence of 
adjacent consonants or, sometimes, to that of stress, 
(b) Morphological. A certain conservatism which 
preserves in the verbal and nominal forms traces of 
the ancient tongue; differentiation of gender in the 
second person singular of verbs and of the indepen- 
dent pronoun: dkjabt "thou (m) hast struck", 
dhfabti "thou (f.) hast struck", enta "thou (m), enti 
"thou (f.) ; a fairly widespread use of the dual, going 
beyond the limited use for nouns of measure and 
nouns denoting parts of the body which occur in 
pairs, (c) In syntax and vocabulary. A restricted use 
of the indefinite article wakd-el, the use of the 
undefined noun often being sufficient to indicate a 
state of indef initeness ; the frequent expression of 
the possessive relationship by the old method of 
direct connexion; the use of a vocabulary more 
exclusively Arabic than that of the sedentary 
populations. 

This group of characteristic forms constitutes a 
common basis of the Bedouin dialects. They possess 
other peculiarities, but either they do not alt possess 
them or they are not alone in possessing them: for 
instance the preservation of the diphthongs ey, ow 
or their contraction to I, 6, the sedentary dialects 
usually resolving them fully, to {, u: the use of the 
form id, not yedd "hand", and of the preposition 
mid'- {nt&<) "at", to the exclusion of eddi, di, dyal; the 
use of the plural form fnddig (not fnadeg) "coffers" 
and of the diminutive mfitik (not mfttek) "small key", 
for quadriliterals, and of the dimutives (ufeyl, \f&, 
(fil (not tfeyyel) "small child" for triliterals with 
a short vowel; the existence of a plural form for 
triliterals with a doubled medial consonant and short 
vowel, dterref from skaref "old, tough", and of a 
plural mfa"la from mafHA, e.g. mgkabbna from 
magkbun "deceived, afflicted"; the preservation, in 
the numerals from 11-19, of the ' of 'askar, e.g. 
khumsfd'ash "fifteen" (especially in southern Oran), 
the sedentary dialects habitually having khum- 
sfash etc. 

In order to attempt a provisional draft classification 
of the Bedouin group, only a limited number of those 
dialectal features which may properly be called 
distinctive will be selected, some phonetic, other 
morphological (but not distinctions of vocabulary, 
an enumeration of which would lead us too far. 
afield): 

(1) The pronunciation of the voiced sibilant: 
i is the pronunciation of the Bedouin dialects of 
eastern Algeria. The line of demarcation d£l passes 



to the east of Philippeville, Constantine and Ouled 
Rahmoun, curves south of Barika, keeps to the 
south of Hodna and veering north, reaches the 
neighbourhood of Mansoura des Bibans. It is also 
identical with that of the high plains and the Saharan 
regions of the centre and west of Algeria: the line 
of demarcation dijz passes to north of Ain Bessem 
in the direction of Champlain, leaves Medea, the 
Djerbel and the Ouarsenis to the south and, at the 
altitude of Teniet el-Hadd, crosses the Sersou, 
proceeds to the south of Trezel and north of Frenda 
and Saida, and swings north towards Mercier- 
Lacombe, Saint Denis du Sig and the approaches of 
Tlemcen. Df therefore represents the pronunciation 
of the regions of Constantine, Saint Arnaud, Setif, 
Bord Bou Arreridj, Barika, Msila and the Hodna; 
of the Algerian Sahel, Mitldja, the valley of the 
Chelif, Dahra, the plateau of Mostaganem, the 
mountains of Mascara and the plain of Macta; 
constituting a more northerly Bedouin group. 

(2) The change of the velar fricative gh to the 
occlusive back velar £. This characterises the Saharan 
Bedouin dialects (with the exception of certain oasis 
dialects), but also extends over a considerable area 
to the north towards the high Algerian plains: the 
line of demarcation ghjk commences south of Ain 
Sefra, passes to the east of Mecheria, turns back 
towards the Khreider, follows the Chergui ckott, 
leaves Trezel to the west, crosses the Sersou, passes 
to the south of Teniet el-Hadd, Berrouaghia and 
Ain Bessem, passes over the Hodna at the altitude 
of Msila, skirts Barika, El Kantara and Biskra, and 
plunges southwards, leaving Mraier, Djemaa and 
Touggourt to the East. 

(3) The pronunciation ah after a consonant of the 
3rd person sing. masc. personal affix. This is charac- 
teristic of the Bedouin dialects of (i) Oran. The line 
of demarcation ah\u commences at Mostaganem, 
goes down towards Uzes-le-Duc, leaves Tiaret and 
Trezel to the east, follows the eastern prong of the 
Chergui ckott, and passes approximately half-way 
between Geryville and Aflou: the Ouled Sidi Cheikh 
use ah, but the Doui Menia and the sedentary peoples 
of the Saoura use «; the Bedouin outskirts of 
Tlemcen and the region which lies towards A'in 
Temouchent and Oran also uses ah. (ii) Eastern 
Constantine, comprising: to the north, the inhabi- 
tants of mountains of the Collo region, which are a 
continuation of the Kroumirs and Mogods of Tunisia; 
to the south, the nomads of western Souf and of the 
Saharan zone which skirts southern Tunisia (the 
ah frequently being curtailed to a); this form is 
found among a considerable proportion of the 
Bedouin of Tunisia, and throughout Libya; all the 
rest of Algeria, both north and south, uses the forms 

(4) The structure of the 3rd person feminine of the 
perfect of sound verbs, when followed by a personal 
affix with an initial vowel, e.g. dharbet -\- k "she has 
struck thee": (i) dhajbatek is the pronunciation of 
north-eastern Constantine, as far as a line which 
starts to the east of Philippeville, reaches Jammapes 
and the Khroub, turns westwards, touches Chateau- 
dun-du-Rumel, and proceeds in the direction of 
Perigotville ; of the region situated to the south of 
this line, namely the high plains of Setif as far as 
Bordj Bou Arreridj, and also of the eastern Sahara 
as far as the outskirts of Biskra and Touggourt; of 
the Algerian Tell where the voicid sibilant is pro- 
nounced as dj; and finally of north and west Oran, 
following a line which passes south of Ammi-Moussa, 
swings southwards between Tiaret and Frenda, 



follows the Chergui chott and again swerves south, 
leaving Mecheria and Ain Sefra to the east: (ii) 
dharbettek is the pronunciation of the Constantine 
region, of Ferdjioua, and of the environs of Fedj- 
Mzala as far as Guergour; (iii) dharebtek (with the 
stress on the first syllable) extends south of a line 
joining Bordj-Bou-Arreridj and Colbert throughout 
the Hodna, south-west Constantine and the central 
Sahara; it is the pronunciation of all the Algerian 
nomads (including Teniet al-Hadd) who pronounce 
the voiced sibilant as I; and it is also the pronun- 
ciation which prevails in eastern and southern Oran. 

(5) The syllabic structure of the imperfect of sound 
verbs, first form, in the plural: yedhjab + « "they 
have struck" ; and that of the triliteral noun fa'la(t) 
with a suffix commencing with a vowel : rahba(t) + » 
"my neck" ; (i) yedhajbu, rafrebti (with the stress on 
the first syllable) is found throughout the^Con- 
stantine region except in El-Kantara, on the high 
Algerian plains and in the whole of the east, central 
and west Sahara ; the dialects of the south-east have 
a clearly-defined tendency to prolongate the vowel 
receiving the stress; (ii) yedhdhajbu, rakfrebti, with 
doubling of the medial and stress of the second 
syllable, is prevalent in El-Kantara and the region 
of Philippeville; these are the forms in use in the 
north of Algeria, wherever the voiced sibilant is rff, 
including Teniet el-Hadd ; they are also used through- 
out north and west Oran ; the dividing-line yedhdharbu) 
yedharbu passes between Tiaret and El-Ousseukh, 
follows the northern edge of the Chegui chott, and 
swings south, leaving Mecheria to the west and 
Ain Sefra to the east. 

(6) The conjugation of defective verbs (imperfect 
and imperfect a): msha - yemshi "to go" and nsd- 
yensd "to forget": (i) northern Constantine, from 
the Tunisian frontier as far as a line which drops 
rapidly from Bdne towards Ain Beida, and the 
eastern Sahara as far as Sidi Okba and El-Oued, use 
the forms msha (mshe) - mshet - mshu - yemshi ■ 
yemshu; nsd (nse) - nset - nsu - yensd - tensi - yensu; 
(ii) central Constantine, from the northern boundary 
delineated above as far as the outskirts of Biskra 
and Mdoukal, along a line which follows th»s Hodna 
depression and rises again towards Mansoura des 
Bibans as far as Kabylia, has forms which are 
completely resolved : msha - mshdt - mshdw - yemshi - 
yemshiw - ; nsa - nsdt - nsdw - yensd - tensd - yensdw, 
analogous to those of the sedentary dialects; (iii) 
throughout Bedouin Algeria, from the Sahara to the 
sea, and in a large part of Oran, bounded on the east 
by a line which, starting from the outskirts of Oran 
itself, passes to the south of Saint Denis-du-Sig and 
to the north of Cacherou, leaves Frenda to the east 
and proceeds southwards, passing between Aflou and 
Geryville, the conjugation of verbs with imperfect i 
and imperfect a is characterised by a peculiar usage: 
yemshi - yemshu on the one hand, yensa - tensay - 
yensdw on the other; this usage is found again in 
western Oran, from a line running east of Tlemcen, 
passing east of the Homeyan, and curving westwards 
north of Ain Sefra; (iv) central Oran, comprising 
the regions of Ain Temouchent, Sidi bel-Abbes, 
Mascara, Saida, Mechena, Geryville, Ain Sefra and 
Ouled Sidi Sheikh, has the forms yemshu, tensi, yensu. 

By drawing up a table of all the different cha- 
racteristics, there emerge, despite the overlapping 
and contradictions which blur the boundaries and 
split up geographical areas, four, or perhaps five 
distinct basic groups: 

(i) The Bedouin dialects of eastern Constantine, 
the region of La Calle and Souf (Cantineau's group 



- ALGORITHMIC 



379 



E): the pronunciations are I, gh, ah, dhafbatek, 
yedharbu, rakebti, mshet - mshu • yemshu, nset - nsi - 
Unsi • yensu. The final y vowel tends to become i 
(imala); diphthongs are generally reduced to I, o. 

(ii) The Bedouin dialects of central and western 
Oran (Cantineau's group D) : the pronunciations are 
i, gh, ah, dharebtek, ye dhdh arbu, rakkebti, yemshu, 
tensi - yensu ; diphthongs are either correctly preser- 
ved ey, ow, or reduced to I, 6. 

(iii) The Bedouin dialects of central and Saharan 
Algeria (Cantineau's group A): the pronunciations 
are t, k for gh, u, dharebtek, yedharbu, rakebti; diph- 
thongs are either correctly preserved or reduced 
to (?, 6. 

(iv) The Bedouin dialects of the Tell and of the 
Algerian-Oran Sahel (Cantineau's group B): the 
pronunciations are d±, gh, u (o), dhajbatek, yedh- 
dharbu, rakkebti ; diphthongs are sometimes preserved 
sometimes reduced to », u, and final u is pronounced o. 

These two last groups have the same conjugation 
of the defective verb: msha - tnshdt - mshdw - yemshu; 
nsd - nsat - nsdw - tensdy - yensdw. 

(v) The dialects of the high plains of Constantine, 
covering the north of Hodna and the belt which 
extends roughly from Bordj Bou Arreridj to the 
Valley of the Seybouse, occupies an intermediary 
position between groups i, iii and iv, and the seden- 
tary dialects (Cantineau's group C): the pronuncia- 
tions are d±, gh, u, dharbettek, yedharbu, rakebti; the 
diphthongs are reduced to » and u, and the con- 
jugation of the defective verb is completely, restored, 
as in the urban and village dialects; these dialects 
can be regarded as a complementary group, if not 
as an independent one: they are the dialects of the 
told ZIrid state of the Kal'a, a centre of sedentary 
peoples buried beneath the mass of the Bedouin. 

It cannot be pretended that any interpretation 
of this classification can be other than a hazardous 
and debatable undertaking. Having due regard to 
the delicacy of the task, it may be hazarded that 
group i is connected with the Tunisian group which 
W. Marcais considers Sulaymite; following him let 
us call it group S. Group ii is probably an extension 
of the eastern Moroccan group, which G. S. Colin 
considers Ma'kilian ; let us call it group M. Group iii 
comprises the most truly Sahara Bedouin elements, 
at once the most imposing and the most united, 
including the Chaamba, the Larbaa, the Ouled Nail, 
the Arab Cheraga; the dialectal area of these nomads 
extends over a wide area of the north — more to the 
east than to the west— covering the nomad's pasture 
grounds and the grazing lands of the high plains. 
The northern part of their domain forms a large zone 
of transition shared with group iv. They are grouped 
in the valley of the Chelif, and stretch as far as the 
environs of Relizane and Mostaganem in the west, 
and into Mittidja and as far as Kabylia in the east. 
Let us call group iii H 1 and group iv H', conjecturing 
a vast implantation there of Hilall Arabic, the 
Arab element (perhaps that of the Athbedj and the 
Zoghba) intermixed with a Zenata element. The 
proportion of Arabicised Berbers is doubtless more 
considerable in the north of the high plains and along 
the Tell Atlas. Group v, an extremely complex 
group, is inserted like a wedge between the still 
Berber-speaking groups of Kabylia and the Chaouia 
region; it to is perhaps consonant with an implan- 
tation of Hilall Arabic (Riyah?) in the formerly 
•Adjlsa and Kutama territories; let us call it H*. 
We do not profess to define the precise disposition 
of the zones of transition between the various groups, 
or to determine the possible preponderance in them 



of one type of dialect as opposed to another. It is, 
however, suggested that group H* succeeded, in the 
course of centuries, in spreading further afield, to 
the detriment of groups H* and H", as a result of 
the political superiority enjoyed by those forming 
that group: it was a case of warlike pastoral nomads, 
imbued with the spirit of conquest, confronting 
people who were at the same time small agricul- 
turalists and semi-nomadic, semi-settled. In the same 
way group H> must have impinged strongly on the 
territories of the settled regions of western Constan- 
tine : hence the presence of sedentary dialectal forms 
emerging from the superimposed Bedouin dialect as 
surviving witnesses to a group of dialects which have 
been superseded. On the other hands, more recently 
we see that not only is Bedouin linguistic expansion 
being checked, owing to the decline of the pastoral 
life, to its geographical limitation and even, at 
many points, to its disappearance, but that the 
sedentary dialectal elements are gaining ground, 
especially in the northern areas. 

Although any forecast must be risky, one is 

inclined to believe that the social changes whose 

effects are daily experienced by the Arabic-speaking 

peoples of Algeria can divert the spoken idiom into 

new channels. In the land in which they live, the 

towns, few in number, enclosed with walls whose 

gates were closed at nightfall, have remained, for 

thousands of years, alien intruders in a rural and 

pastoral, composite and inorganic world. The towns 

of modern Algeria, whether legacies of the past or 

recent creations, some of them populous centres, all 

of them centres of economic activity, exercise a 

magnetic influence on many a district of the former 

Regency, even the most distant, to which they 

represent labour markets and a source of livelihood ; 

and, one might add, melting-pots in which is being 

produced a koine of Algerian Arabic which is capable 

of causing the extinction of the old regional dialects. 

Bibliography: W. Marcais, Le dialecte arabe 

parli a Tlemcen, Paris 1902 ; idem Le dialecte arabe 

des UlddBrdhim de Saida, Paris 1908; Ph. Marcais, 

Contribution a Vitude du parler arabe de Bou Sa'-ada, 

Cairo 1945 ; idem, Le parler arabe de Djidjelli, 

Paris 1954; M. Cohen, Le parler arabe des Juifs 

d'Algers, Paris 1912; G. Delphin, Recueil de textes 

pour Vitude de I'arabe parli, Paris-Algiers 1891; 

A. Dhina, Textes arabes du Sud algirois, Algiers 

J 94<>; J. Desparmet, Enseignement de I'arabe 

dialectal, Algiers 1913; J. Cantineau, Les parlers 

arabes du dipartement d 'Alger, de Constantine, 

d'Oran, des Territoires du Sud, Alger, RAfr. 1938, 

1939. 1940, 1941. (Ph. Marcais) 

(2) The Berber dialects [see Berber]. 

ALGIERS [see AL-njAzi'iR]. 

ALGOL [see NurjiuM]. 

ALGOMAIZA [see nudjum]. 

ALGORITHMIC is the old name for the 

process of reckoning with Arabic numerals. In 

mediaeval treatises the word is spelt in various 

ways: e.g. Algorismus, Alchoarismus, Alkauresmus, 

etc., corruptions of the nisba of the oldest known 

writer on Arabic arithmetic: Muhammed b. Musa al- 

Kh w arizmi [?.».]. His book was translated into Latin 

in the 12th century by an unknown author, and the 

only known copy at Cambridge has been edited by 

B. Boncompagni (Trattati d'aritmetica i, Rome 1857). 

It opens with the words: "dixit Algorithmi", the 

word is here correctly given in the form of an Arabic 

nisba, i.e. as a proper name; it is strange that it 

should afterwards have come to mean the new 

process of reckoning with Arabic figures, as contrasted 



3 8o 



ALGORITHMUS — c ALl 



with the system of counting by the Greco- Roman 
abacus. Of the numerous attempts to explain the 
word it is enough to mention a derivation from a 
philosopher Algus, and a supposed origin from the 
Arabic article al combined with the Greek ipi0(i6?, 
hence the form "Algarithmus". The right explanation 
was given by M. Reinaud in his Mimoire sur I'Inde, 
303-4, in the year 1849, before the Cambridge 
manuscript had been edited, but the false acceptation 
prevailed, and Algorithm (or Algorism) is still used 
in the sense of "system of numeration, arithmetic". 
(H. Suter) 

ALHABOR [see nudjum]. 

ALHAIOT [see nudjum]. 

ALHAMA [see al-hamma]. 

ALHAMBRA [see gharnata]. 

ALHUCEMAS [see al-jojuzAmA]. 

c ALl, MustafA b. Ahmad b. c Abd al-MawlA 
Celebi, one of the most outstanding repre- 

century. Born at Gallipoli in 948/1541, from the 
age of 10 he studied under Sururi, great expert in 
Persian language and literature, and then under the 
Arab poet Muhyi '1-DIn. In 965/1557 he presented to 
the heir-apparent Selim his work entitled Mihr u- 
Mdh, a step which determined his future career (see 
Dozy, Cat. cod. or. bibl. Acad. Lugd. Baiavae, ii, 128). 
He became a member of the circle of his fellow- 
citizen Mustafa, tutor to the prince, and was for a 
long time attached to this important figure as a 
private secretary. Selim II, on his accession, con- 
firmed him in this post, and about the same time 
he made the acquaintance of Nishandji, through 
whom he acquired knowledge of numerous events. 
In 976/1568 he accompanied Mustafa to Egypt, but 
this visit was abruptly terminated by the tatter's 
dismissal. In 1570, Mustafa was placed in command 
of the army charged with the conquest of Cyprus, 
and c Ali, as his secretary, witnessed the achievements 
of the Ottoman fleet and army. During the following 
years he lived in Rumelia, and in 980/1572 he 
compiled the Heft Madflis or Heft Dastdn (MS 
L&leli, Istanbul, no. 2 114; printed edition in the 
collections of the Ikddm) in which he described, in 
a pompous style, the end of the reign of Suleyman I 
and the accession of Selim II. About the same time 
he compiled a collection of poetry in Turkish, 
sisting mainly of kasidas and ghazals. He also pro- 
duced a Persian diwdn (see Fliigel, Die arab., pers. 
und tiirk. Hss. der K.K. Hofbibl. zu Wien, i, 651) 
c Ali is, however, only ranked as a second-rate poet 
as his poetry shows little feeling or sensibility. In 
1577. he was again Mustafa's secretary when the 
latter was placed in command of an expedition to 
Persia; he was the author of numerous victory 
proclamations sent from the Caucasus. He took 
advantage of his stay in those areas to collect a 
mass of information on the customs and legends 
of the populations of the Caucasus, and especially 
those of Gilan, Shirwan and Georgia. After the dis- 
missal of Mustafa, c Ali returned to Istanbul; the 
sudden death of his protector placed him in a difficult 
position, but did not interfere with his literary 
activity. He dedicated to the Sultan his Mir'dt al- 
'■Awalim which gives an account of the miracles of 
the Creation and the Prophets (MSS: Istanbul 
Universitesi Kiitiiphanesi, nos. 17397-96 ; Esad Efendi 
Kiitiiphanesi, no. 2407; cf. Fliigel, loc. cit., ii, 94; 

Pertsch, Verz. d. tiirk. Hss zu Berlin, nos. 36, 

558). Soon afterwards he completed the Nusrat- 
ndme, which deals with the expedition to Iran (Esad 
Ef. Kiitiip., no. 2433; Rieu, Cat. of the Turk. MSS. 



in the Brit. Mus., p. 61). The ceremony of the cir- 
cumcision of the heir-apparent Mehmed, one of the 
most magnificent ceremonies which took place in the 
Ottoman Empire, was the occasion of a descriptive 
work which gained him an introduction to the prince : 
Didmi 1 al-Hubur der Madidlis al-Sur (Istanbul, 
Nuruosmaniye Kiitiip., no. 4318). 

In 995/1586 he compiled the Mandkib-i Huner- 
weran, in which he collected important material on 
some hundreds of calligraphists, miniaturists, illu- 
minators and bookbinders (see Fliigel, loc. cit., ii, 
386; edited by Ibniilemln Mahmud Kemal, Istanbul 
1926). The Zubdat al-Tawarikh, the Turkish trans- 
lation of an Arabic work, dates from the same 
period (Fliigel, ibid., ii, 90; 1st. Univ. Kiitiip., 
nos. 2378-2386). Interested in mysticism and 
pantheism, he gave in the Hilyat al-Ridjdl (Rieu, 
loc. cit., p. 19; Pertsch, Die tiirk. Hss. . . . zu Gotha, 
75; 1st. Univ. Kiitiip., nos. 1329, 404) detailed 
information on the saints, their hierarchy and their 
influence ; he also composed a diwdn entitled LdHhdt 
al-Hakikdt (Rieu, loc. cit., 261 ; 1st. Univ. Kiitiip., 
nos. 651, 1963). Appointed kdtib of the Janis- 
saries, then defter emini, he applied himself to 
tracing the course of history down to his own times; 
he wished, however, to produce his work at Cairo, 
then the greatest book centre of the Muslim world. 
Mehmed III who, on his accession, accorded him 
privileged treatment, appointed him defterddr of 
Egypt, but the hostility of certain wazirs caused 
him to lose this post. From 1000-1007/1592-9 he 
wrote his great work, Kunh al-Ahhbar, in four parts 
(printed at Istanbul between 1277/1861 and 1285/ 
1869 in 5 vols., covering the period up to the reign 
of Mehmed II ; no printed edition of the remaining 
150 years exists). In the first part, he recounts the 
ancient legends concerning the prophets; in the 
second, he treats of Muhammad and Islam. He was 
so convinced of the important role played by his 
nation in the development of Islam that he entitled 
the third part "The Turko-Tatar chapter". The 
fourth part is devoted to the formation of the 
states and to Ottoman history. A geographical 
dictionary is appended to the work. The Kunh" al 
Akhbdr is among the most important Ottoman 
historical works. Although the information given by 
C AU on the pre-Islamic period is of no great value, 
on the subject of Ottoman history, especially that 
of the 16th century, he is extremely valuable. HU 
passion for truth even leads him to criticise the 
actions of certain sultans, and in general he speaks 
favourably of non-Muslims. His style, poetical to 
begin with, becomes more simple as he proceeds. 

Later he wrote a historical summary of the Muslim 
World, en titled Fusul al-Hall wa 'l-'Akd Usui al- 
Khardi wa 'l-Nakd, which is one of the most popular 
works in Turkish (see, e.g., the MS in Nuruosmaniye 
Kiitiip., no. 3399). As a reward for his literary 
activities, he was appointed pasha of Djidda; in 
1008/1600 he wrote his last work, Hdlat al-Kdhira min 
al- l Adat al-Tdhira (MSS: Esad Ef. Kiitiip., no. 2407; 
Cairo, Bibl. Khidiv., Cat. des ouvr. turcs, 197), a 
short but significant work. He died the same year. 

'All is a particularly attractive character: although, 
in the circles in which he moved, violence and 
intrigue seem to have the rule, he showed himself 
always to be loyal, kindly and upright. His integrity 
and seriousness explain why he failed to win the 
goodwill of the rough and unpolished men of that 
period; even the Grand Vizier Siyawush Pasha, a 
remarkable man, viewed him with contempt. On the 
other hand, every writer of the period was his friend. 



'ALl - 



'ALl B. ABl TALIB 



Bibliography: His life and works have been 
described by J. von Hammer-Purgstall, Gesch. d. 
osman. Reiches, iv, 308, 651 ff. ; idem, Gesch. d. 
osman. Dichtkunst, iii, 115 ff.; by Mehmed Tahir 
b. Rif'at, Miiwerrikhin-i c Othmdniyyeden 'Alt 
we-Kdtib Celebi'nin Terdiiime-i Halleri, Salonica 
1322/1906; and by Ibniilemln Mahmud Kemal, 
op. cit. Cf. also Cat. cod. or. bibl. Acad Lugd. Bat., 
1873. v. 57! Fliigel, loc. cit., ii, 94; JA, 1869, 
76, 90 ff. (K. SCsshiem-R. Mantran) 

'ALl B. al-'ABBAS AL-MAaiusI, medieval 
medical writer, commonly known to the West 
as Haly Abbas. He was bom in al-Ahwaz from old 
Persian stock, as his title al-Madjusi shows. He pro- 
bably moved to Shiraz at an early date, for he made 
his medical studies under a physician of that city, 
Abu Mahir Musa b. Sayyar, and dedicated his 
magnum opus to its ruler, 'Adud al-Dawla the 
Buwayhid. This book he named the Kamil al-Sina'a 
ur K. al-Maliki; the medieval Latin translators 
named it the Liber Regius. It derives its title from 
the dedication to 'Adud al-Dawla. The exact date 
of 'All's death is not known. It occurred between 
982 and 995 A.D. 

The Kamil al-Sina'a, upon which the importance 
of 'Ali b. 'Abbas depends, was deliberately written 
to fall mid-way between the lengthy al-Hawi and 
the brief al-Mansuri, both works of al-RazI. It was 
immediately recognised as a master-piece and was 
adopted as the chief textbook ot medicine for stu- 
dents. Some hundred years later it was overshadowed 
by the Kanun of Ibn SIna. But it remained suffi- 
ciently popular to be translated into Latin in full by 
Stephan of Antioch in n 27 and this translation to 
be printed in Venice on 1492 and in Lyons in 1523. 
The surgical section of the book had already been 
translated by Constantine the African in the nth 
century and was used by the School of Salerno. 
(Printed in Constantini Africani Operum Reliquia, 
1539.) The Arabic text was reproduced in Cairo, 
Bulak 1294/1877, and in 1903 the anatomical section 
was translated into French (P. de Koning, Trois 
txaitis d'anatomie arabe, Leiden 1903, 90-427). 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Kiftl (Lippert), 232; 
Ibn Abl Usaybi'a, i, 236; Brockelmann, i, 273, 
S i, 423 ; G. Sarton, Introduction to the History of 
Science, i; E. G. Browne, Arabian Medicine, 
Cambridge 1921, 53 ff.; D. Campbell, Arabian 
Medicine, London 1926, 74; C. Elgood, Medical 
History of Persia, Cambridge 1951, 155. 

(C. Elgood) 
c ALl b. 'ABD ALLAH B. al-'ABBAS was the 
ancestor of the 'Abbasids. According to Muslim 
tradition, 'All was bom in the year 40/661, the very 
same night in which the caliph 'All was assassinated; 
but there are also other statements concerning the 
year of his birth. His mother was called Zur'a bint 
Mishrah. His grandfather al-'Abbas was the uncle of 
the Prophet, and on account of his high birth and his 
personal gifts 'All attained to great distinction. He 
was looked upon as the handsomest and most pious 
Kurayshite of his time, and received the surname 
of "al-Sadjdjad" (he who prostrates himself often) 
because of his constant praying. His piety did not 
prevent him from plotting secretly against the 
Umayyads, and was therefore banished from the 
capital by the caliph al-Walld I. He went to live in 
the province of al-Sharat on the border between 
Arabia and Palestine. Here he died in H7/735-6 or 
1 18 in the village of Humayma. This place remained 
the headquarters of the 'Abbasid propaganda, after 
'All's son Muhammed, the father of the future 



caliphs al-Saffah and al-Mansur, had been recognised 
as the head of the 'Abbasids. 

Bibliography: Ibn Sa'd, v, 229ft.; Ya'kubi 

(Houtsma), ii, 314 ff.; Tabari, ii, ^fr.; Ibn al- 

Athir, ii, 16 ff . ; Ibn Khallikan (transl. by de Slane), 

ii, 216 ff.; Weil, Gesch. d. Chalifen, i, 333; ii, 18; 

Miiller, Der Islam im M or gen- und Abendllind, i, 

444- (K. V. Zettersteen) 

'ALl B. ABl TALIB, cousin and son-in-law 

of Muhammad, and fourth caliph, was one 

of the first to believe in Muhammad's mission. 

Whether he was the second after Khadidja. or the 

third after Khadidja and Abu Bakr, was much 

disputed between ShI'ites and Sunnls. He was at 

that time aged 10 or n at most, and Muhammad 

had taken him into his own household to relieve 

the boy's father Abu Talib, who had fallen into 

poverty. One narrative, which is open to criticism 

on several counts, represents 'All as having occupied 

the Prophet's bed on the night when the latter left 

Mecca for Medina, so that the conspirators, on 

entering the house in order to kill Muhammad, 

were surprised to discover his young cousin sleeping 

there. After restoring to their owners the objects 

which Muhammad was holding on trust, 'All 

rejoined the Prophet at Kuba. Some months later, 

he married Muhammad's daughter Fatima [?.».], 

and of their marriage were bom al-Hasan and al- 

Husayn [qq.v.]. During the lifetime of Fatima 'All 

took no other wife. 

Military exploits. In Muhammad's lifetime 
'All took part in almost all the expeditions, often as 
standard-bearer, twice only as commander (at Fadak 
in 6/628, and in al-Yaman in 10/632). He always 
displayed a courage, which later on became legendary; 
at Badr he killed a large number of Kurayshites; 
at Khaybar he used a heavy door as a shield, and 
the victory of the Muslims over the Jews was due 
to his ardour; at Hunayn (8/630) he was one of those 
who stoutly defended the Prophet. After the 
Prophet's death, he took no part in any military 
expedition, for reasons unknown. 'Umar is said to 
have prevented the ICurayshites from going out to 
the provinces, but 'Uttiman removed all obstacles to 
their movements. It is possible that 'All himself had 
no wish to absent himself from Medina; perhaps it 
was simply his state of health which kept him from 
fighting, although several feats are attributed to him 
at the battles of the "Camel" and Siffln, in 36/656 
and 37/657, when he was already sixty years old. 
In addition, 'All performed several ether functions 
for the Prophet. He was one of his secretaries, and 
on occasion was charged with missions which might 
be called diplomatic; on two occasions he was 
deputed to destroy idols. He executed with his own 
hand enemies condemned to death by the Prophet, 
and with al-Zubayr supervised the massacre of the 
Band Kuray?a (5/627). In 9/631 he read to the 
assembled pilgrims at Mina the first seven verses 
of the sura Bard'a (ix). 

Dispute with Abu Bakr. During the election 
of Abu Bakr [?.».] as Muhammad's successor, 'All, 
with Talha, al-Zubayr, and several other Com- 
panions, remained apart in the Prophet's house to 
watch over his body and prepared for its burial. 
Although solicited to do so by al-'Abbas and also, 
it is said, by Abu Sufyan, he made no effort to keep 
the control of the Community in the hands of the 
Hashimites. When those persons who had at first 
abstained from recognizing Abu Bakr gradually 
accepted his election, 'All maintained his refusal for 
six months. His position was complicated by a 



'ALl B. ABl TALIB 



question of inheritance; Fatima had asserted a | 
claim to the lands held by her father, which Abu 
Bakr firmly rejected on the ground of Muhammad's 
saying that "Prophets have no heirs". Whether C A1I 
really hoped to succeed Muhammad is doubtful. The 
Arabs as a rule chose as their chiefs men of mature 
age (in 11/633 C AU was a little over thirty) and 
showed no inclination to legitimism. The ShI'ites, by 
inventing or interpreting in the light of their beliefs 
certain words said to have used by Muhammad 
concerning 'All (see Wensinck, Handbook, s.v. c Ali), 
have always maintained that the Prophet intended 
to transmit the succession to his son-in-law and 
cousin, but it is certain, in any case, that in his last 
illness he did not express this desire. 

Relations with 'Umar. According to the 
Muslim authors, C A1I was a valued counsellor of the 
caliphs who preceded him ; but although it is probable 
that he was asked for advice on legal matters in 
view of his excellent knowledge of the Kur'an and 
the sunna, it is doubtful whether his advice was 
accepted by c Umar on political questions. In regard 
to the famous dlwan, at least, C A1I held a view 
entirely opposed to that of the caliph, for on being 
questioned on this subject by 'Umar he recommended 
the distribution of the entire revenue without 
holding anything in reserve (al-Baladhuri, ap. 
Caetani, Annali, A.H. 40, § 275)- During the lifetime 
of c Umar (and of 'Uthman), 'All held no office, 
either military or political, except the lieutenancy 
of Medina during 'Ulnar's journey to Palestine and 
Syria (al-Tabari, i, 2404, 2522); for this reason he 
alone was absent from the meeting at Djabiya [q.v.] 
at which the military commanders and leading 
personages convoked by 'Umar gave approval to 
measures of the greatest importance on the regulation 
of the conquests and the diwdn. Further evidence 
of 'All's lack of complete agreement with the 
policies of Abu Bakr and 'Umar is Contained in the 
received tradition relating to the shura [see 'uthman 
b. 'affan], according to which 'All, on being asked 
by 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Awf whether he engaged 
himself to follow, together with the Kur'an and the 
sunna, the work (fiH, sira) of the preceding caliphs, 
gave an evasive answer. 

The Opposition to 'Uthman. During the 
caliphate of 'Uthman, 'All, with other Companions 
(notably Talha and al-Zubayr), frequently accused 
him of deviating from the r>ur 5 an and the sunna of 
Muhammad, particularly in the application of the 
kudud [see al-hurmuzan]. 'All insisted upon the 
duty of applying the divine Law; he was among 
those who demanded that the legal punishment for 
drinking should be inflicted on al-Walid b. 'Ukba. 
viceroy of Kufa, and in some accounts is said to 
have carried out the whipping with his own hand. 
With 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Awf he reproached 
'Uthman with introducing bidtf, such as making 
four rak'as at 'Arafat and Mina in place of two 
(cf. Wensinck, Handbook, s.v. 'All). But on political 
questions also he ranged himself with 'Uthman's 
opponents and was recognized by them as their 
chief, or one of their chiefs, at least morally. E.g. 
(1) when Abu Dharr al-Ghifari [q.v.], who preached 
against the misdeeds of the powerful, was exiled 
from Medina, 'AH with his sons went to salute him 
on his departure in spite of 'Uthman's prohibition, 
and provoked thereby a violent dispute with 
'Uthman. (2) When the rebels who came from Egypt 
to Medina opened negotiations with 'Uthman, 'All 
was their intermediary, or one of their intermediaries 
(see e.g. al-Tabari, i, 2969). (3) When they returned 



later on to Medina and besieged "the House, "the 
asked 'All to put himself at their head (idem, i, 
2965); although he refused, nevertheless by his 
attitude he encouraged the rebels during the siege, 
and there are reasons for suspecting him to have 
been in agreement with them in demanding the 
caliph's abdication, at the same time that any 
participation by him in the bloody conclusion of 
the conflict is to be excluded. (4) After his election 
as caliph, his partisans included those persons who 
are known to have been hostile to the government 
on economic questions, such as al-Ashtar [q.v.], Ibn 
al-Kawwa', Sa'sa'a and others (al-Mas'udi, iv, 261 ; 
al-Tabari, i, 2916, 2908, etc.). His own programme in 
face of the various financial demands put forward 
by the mukdtila (division of the surplus of the 
revenues, distribution of the domanial lands, etc.) is 
not known. It is recorded only that on becoming 
caliph he distributed the entire sums which he found 
in the bayt al-mal of Medina, Basra and Kufa, and 
the whole of the provisions collected in the bayt al 
(a'am (cf. also Annali, 40 A.H., §§ 276-80), an 
action which is to be regarded not simply as a 
demagogic gesture but as the consequence of the 
view that he had previously expressed to 'Umar. 
He is said also to have wished to distribute the 
Sawad (i.e. the domanial lands in al-'Irak), but to 
have refrained through fear of legal disputes (al- 
Baladhurl, Futuh, 265 f.). 

Apart from this, there is no statement which 
authorizes us to regard him as an extremist; on the 
contrary, he was hostile to the Saba'iyya, the 
followers of 'Abd Allah b. Saba' [q.v.], and when 
they exalted him beyond measure he rid himself of 
them; he tried to cut himself loose from the nufffif, 
the besiegers of "the House" (of 'Uthman) and 
their adherents, as soon as circumstances allowed 
him to do so (al-Tabari, i, 3163-5, 3182). By his 
extreme attachment to Islam 'All was driven to 
attach an absolute superiority in merit to priority 
of conversion and to services rendered to Islam in 
its early days, over other claims such as nobility of 
birth and political or administrative ability. Iu his 
conflict with the government he continually appealed 
to the duty of applying the Kur'an and following the 
sunna of the Prophet, which in his view were being 
neglected. Whether by this policy, or because, 
aiming to defend the right of the Hashimid house to 
the caliphate, he was bound to oppose the principle 
which extended this right to the whole of Muham- 
mad's tribe, he set the Kuraysh against him, 
although himself of Kuraysh; in return, he had the 
support of most of the Ansar, of the other non- 
Kurayshite Arabs who had been amongst the Old 
Believers, of the mukdtila in the provinces, and the 
depressed classes in general (Aghani, xi, 31). 

Election of 'All and early measures. 
When 'Uthman was killed the Umayyads fled from 
Medina and the opposition remained masters of 
the situation. Since 'AH was the person for whom 
they had most respect, he was invited to succeed 
to the caliphate. The traditions on the manner 
and circumstances of his election (the most com- 
monly accepted date is 18 Dhu 'l-Hidjdja 35/17 
June 656) are contradictory in regard to his willing- 
ness to accept it. His partisans on the other hand 
were ready to employ violence against those who 
refused to recognize him (including Talha and al- 
Zubayr); nevertheless there were some who would 
not yield and who left Medina, e.g. 'Abd Allah b. 
'Umar, Sa'd b. Abl Wakkas, al-Mughira b. Shu'ba, 
Muhammad b. Maslama al-Ansari, Usama b. Zayd. 



<ALl B. ABI TALIB 



383 



Mu'awiya was therefore able to 
election was invalid because made by a minority ; to 
this 'All replied that the election of the caliph was a 
right of those persons (Ansar, Muhadjirun, or Badr- 
combatants) who were present in Medina at the 
relevant time. What is certain is that 'All allowed 
himself to be nominated also by the rebels who had 
"iUthman's blood on their hands. This was an error, 
in that it exposed him to accusations of complicity in 
their crime, although some traditions represent him 
as vainly endeavouring to rid himself of the most 
factious of his partisans. In spite of counsels by Ibn 
'Abbas to go slowly, 'AH at once took some of the 
measures demanded by the opposition from 'Uthman : 
he removed the governors appointed by the latter 
and wherever possible replaced them by governors 
pf his own party, and satisfied the populace by 
distributions of money, made with a laudable equity. 
The report of 'Uthman's murder and of 'All's 
protection of those guilty of it had in the meantime 
provoked strong reactions in Mecca, Syria and Egypt. 
Mu'atwiya, governor of Syria and cousin of 'Uttiman, 
accused 'Ali of complicity with the murderers and 
refused to pay homage to him. 'All hastily collected 
troops to force him to obedience, but another serious 
rebellion compelled him to delay action in Syria, 
while Mu'awiya for his part maintained a prudent 
waiting policy. 

Rebellion of 'A'isha, Talha and al- 
Zubayr. Although 'A'isha had supported the 
opposition against 'Uthman, she had gone on 
pilgrimage to Mecca during the siege of "the House". 
On her way back she learned of the events in 
Medina, and in consternation, especially at the news 
of 'All's election, returned to Mecca and engaged 
in active propaganda against the new caliph. Four 
months later she was joined by Talha and al-Zubayr, 
and shortly afterwards 'Ali learned that all three, 
with several hundred troops, were marching to al- 
'Irak by sidetracks. He immediately set out in 
pursuit, but could not overtake them. The rebels 
expected to find in al-'Irak the forces and the 
resources which they needed. 'All was absolutely 
compelled to prevent them from seizing this province, 
since Syria obeyed only Mu'awiya, Egypt was in 
anarchy, and the loss of al-'Irak would have involved 
also the loss of the eastern provinces dependent on it. 

The three insurgents proclaimed that the hudild 
must be re-established for all alike, and that a 
"reform" (isldfi) must be put into effect (al-Tabari, 
'. 3093, 3131, 3132)- Since these influential leaders 
were in part responsible for the fate of 'Uthman, 
the reasons for their rising to demand vengeance for 
his murder, and the meaning which they attached 
to isldfr, are obscure. Social and economic motives, 
inspired by fear of the possible influence of the 
extremists on 'All, seem to provide a more con- 
vincing explanation than personal feelings for their 
action, and. especially for ■the effect -which it produced. 
The moderates amongst those opposed to 'Uthman 
had no doubt desired a change of policy, but not one 
so radical as that now foreshadowed. 

While the insurgents occupied Basra, and there 
massacred many of the nu//iir, 'All sent his suppor- 
ters to Kufa to invite its population to take his part, 
and when he had collected an adequate force he 
marched towards Basra. Since both parties aimed 
at a peaceful settlement of the dispute, an agreement 
was negotiated, according to which 'All should 
disengage himself from the nuffdr (while guaranteeing 
their lives), but this was not the conclusion of the 
affair which the extremists of his party meant to 



reach. A brawl provoked by them developed into 
a battle, which became famous in Muslim annals as 
the "Battle of the Camel" (15 Djumada II 36/9 Dec. 
656) [see al-djamal], and in which Talha and al- 
Zubayr lost their lives, while 'A'isha was peremp- 
torily ordered by 'All to return to Medina under escort. 

Conflict with Mu'awiya. Following on this 
success, 'Ali had hopes of regaining the allegiance 
of the governor of Syria by opening negotiations 
with him, but in vain. Mu'awiya demanded the 
surrender of the murderers of 'Uthman in virtue of 
a verse of the ICur'an (xvii, 32/35) which forbids the 
slaying of any person save for just cause (ilia bi 'l- 
bakk), at the same time according the right of 
vengeance in the case of anyone slain unjustly 
(mujliin") to his wait, i.e. his near relative. Mu'awiya 
maintained that 'Uthman had been killed unjustly; 
consequently, he proposed to exercise the right 
accorded by God. In the meantime, he would hold 
to his refusal to pay homage to 'All. The sources 
pass vaguely over the thesis maintained by 'All in 
rejecting Mu'awiya's demand, except for the explicit 
statement in the Wak'at Siffin of Nasr b. Muzahim 
al-Minkari (570): since 'Uthman was killed by the 
people, who were outraged by his arbitrary actions, 
the murderers should not be liable to the lex 
talionis. In reality the struggle had much deeper 
causes; what was at issue was the pre-eminence of 
Syria or of al-'Irak, and probably also two different 
conceptions of the policy to be followed in the 
government of the Muslim State. 

'Ali, finding that Mu'awiya was not to be won 
over, passed to the offensive; the two armies, each 
some tens of thousands strong, faced one another 
on the plain of Siffin [q.v.]. After some skirmishing, 
interrupted by a truce in Muharram 37/June-July 
657 and some parleys, battle was joined ; there was 
a week of combats between horsemen and foot- 
soldiers, followed by a violent conflict (the "night 
of clamour", laylat al-harir, 10 Safar 37/28 July 657). 
Mu'awiya's star seemed to be sinking, when 'Amr 
b. al-'As advised him to have his soldiers hoist 
copies of the ICur'an on their lances. This gesture, 
famous in Muslim history, did not imply surrender; 
by this means Mu'awiya invited the combatants to 
resolve the question by consultation of the ICur'an. 
Weary of fighting — the number of the killed is 
swollen in the sources to 70,000 or even more — the 
two armies laid down their arms. 'All was forced by 
his partisans to submit the difference to arbitration, 
as proposed by Mu'awiya, and further to choose the 
arbitrator for his side from among the "neutrals" 
So sure were his followers that they were in the 
right! In these decisions the kurra* [?•»•]. of whom 
many were in his army (though they were represented 
in Mu'awiya's army also), played a large part. 

{tafikim). A convention was drawn up at Siffin itself 
(Safar 37/657), by the terms of which the two 
arbitrators, Abu Musa al-Ash'ari [q.v.] for 'Ali and 
'Amr b. al-'As [q.v.] for Mu'awiya, would announce 
their decision at a place halfway between Syria and 
al-'Irak in the presence of witnesses chosen by 
themselves; the date fixed for the meeting was 
Ramadan, but the arbitrators might advance it or 
postpone it until the end of the year 37. In the two 
versions of the convention which have come down 
to us the points to be examined by the arbitrators 
are not defined; all that is said is that they were to 
consult the Kur'an "from the first to the last sura'" 
and, in default of clear indications in the sacred 
Book, the sunna of the Prophet, excluding what 



384 



C ALI B. ABI TALIB 



might give rise to divergences. L. Veccia Vaglieri 
(see the art. cited in the Bibliography) has shown 
that their task was to determine whether the acts 
of which 'Uthman was accused were or were not 
ahddth, arbitrary actions at odds with the divine 
Law. If the caliph were guilty, his murder could be 
regarded as an act of justice ; but if he had committed 
no errors, the conclusion must be that he had been 
killed unjustly (mazlum m ), and in consequence 
Mu'awiya was justified in claiming the right of 
vengeance. But this was not all, for a decision in 
favour of Mu'awiya would inevitably involve, for 
'All, the loss of the caliphate. 

Protests against the arbitration. While 
awaiting the verdict, the armies returned to their 
bases. But already at Siffin certain individuals had 
protested against recourse to arbitration with the 
cry Id hukm* ilia li'lldh, literally "No decision save 
God's". The phrase implied that it was absolutely 
improper to apply to men for a decision since, for 
the case in dispute, there existed a divine ordinance 
in the Kur'anic verse xlix, 8/9: "// two parties of the 
Believers fight with one another, make peace between 
them, but if one rebels (baghat) against the other, then 
fight against that one which rebels (allati tabghl), 
until it returns to obedience to God . . .". In fighting 
against his opponents 'All had appealed to this 
verse, since in his view the "rebellious party" had 
been, firstly, that of 'A'isha, Talha and al-Zubayr, 
and now that of Mu'awiya. The dissidents maintained, 
very logically, that it was his duty to continue to 
fight against Mu'awiya, as no new fact had intervened 
to alter the situation. 

During the return to Kufa, those had first raised 
the cry Id hukm' ilia li'Udh (hence called al-muhak- 
kima al-uld) persuaded many other partisans of 
'All that the arbitration was a sin against God, by 
substituting the judgment of men for His pre- 
scription. A group of some thousands proclaimed 
their repentance and stopped at Harura', near 
Kufa (whence their name of Harurites [?.».]). The 
caliph, on a personal visit to their camp, succeeded 
in reconciling the dissidents, all or in part, evidently 
by making concessions to them. After his return to 
Kufa, however, he denied from the minbar the 
reports which asserted his intention of infringing 
the convention of Siffin. When it was learned that 
he had sent Abu Musa to the meeting with 'Amr, 
a group of dissidents, 3,000 or 4,000, secretly left 
Kufa, and some hundreds more left Basra. The 
rallying-point chosen by these dissidents, called 
Khawaridj (Kharidjites [q.v.]), was al-Nahrawan, on 
the canal of the same deriving from the Tigris. 

The arbitration (hukuma). Mu'awiya, with his 
escort, was the first to arrive at the meeting-place of 
the arbitrators (Ramadan 37/Feb. 658). 'All, excusing 
himself on the ground of the troubles caused by the 
dissidents, did no more than send Abu Musa with 
the escort and his cousin Ibn 'Abbas as his represen- 
tative. The sources give vague or contradictory 
statements on the place and date of the meeting, 
some placing it at Dumat al-Djandal (now al-Djof), 
approximately halfway between Syria and al-'Irak, 
as stipulated in the convention, others at Adhruh. 
between Ma'an and Petra. There are many grounds 
(see the art. cited above) for believing that a first 
meeting in the presence of six persons only was 
neld at Dumat al-Djandal, and a second meeting 
(see below) at Adhruh in Sha'ban 38. At the former, 
the arbitrators must have reached an agreement 
on the result of their investigations, and this result 
•was that 'Uthman had committed no breach of 



his trust, since only on this ground can the later 
events be explained. A passage in Wak'at $iffhi 
(618 f.) explains why their verdict is known to us 
only indirectly: as a measure of precaution, "the 
two men agreed at Dumat al-Djandal to say 
nothing". But though the verdict was not promul- 
gated, it is certain that it became known to both 
parties; the Syrians, perhaps in the enthusiasm of 
the moment, took the bay'a to Mu'awiya (Dhu 'K 
Ka'da 37/ April 658: al-Tabari, ii, 199), while 'All 
publicly protested against both arbitrators, pro- 
claimed that their sentence was contrary to the 
Kur'an and the sunna, and that he was therefore 
under no obligation to submit to it. Thereupon he 
assembled his forces and set out to engage Mu'awiya 
in battle again. On reaching al-Anbar, he turned 
aside towards al-Nahrawan, in the conviction that 
it was necessary first of all to destroy this centre of 
insurgence. Mu'awiya, in the same month in which 
'All was engaged with the Kharidjites, took possession 
of Egypt (Safar 38). 

Battle of al-Nahrawan. 'Ali first tried to 
re-enlist the Kharidjites in his forces by a declaration 
that he would take the field again against Mu'awiya, 
but without effect. The dissidents demanded that 
he should confess himself guilty of an act of impiety 
(kufr), which he indignantly refused to do. After 
promising the aman to those who should submit — 
and there were some — he attacked the rebels (9 Safar 
38/17 July 658). It was a massacre rather than a 
battle, and it seems that 'All was the first to regret 
it. This action, condemned by contemporary 
opinion, — for many sincere believers, of well-known 
piety, had fallen on the field — had very grievous 
consequences for him; the defections, which had 
already begun, increased, and he was forced to 
return to Kufa and to give up the campaign against 
Mu'awiya. 

Conference of Adhruh. The situation was 
completely changed after these events. Hence- 
forward the opposing parties were no longer a caliph 
and a rebel governor, but two rivals for the supreme 
office in the State. While Mu'awiya had gained 
ground, 'All was struggling in a morass of diffi- 
culties: he had been disqualified in the eyes of the 
Muslim community by the verdict of the arbitrators, 
and he had lost many of his supporters by his 
refusal to submit to their decision after consenting 
to the tahkim, by the massacre of the Kharidjites, 
and in general by his vacillating policy. This was 
the position when the arbitrators and many eminent 
persons (with the exclusion of 'AH and also, it would 
seem, of his representatives) met at Adhruh in 
Sha'ban 38/January 659. In this conference the 
meetings attended only by the arbitrators and 
certain personages must be distinguished from the 
final plenary session., In the former the verdict of the 
arbitrators was promulgated (several sources assert 
that Abu Musa recognized that 'Uthman had been 
killed unjustly), and the selection of a new caliph 
was discussed. The information given in the sources 
is rather discordant, except as regards the final 
scene. It can be gathered that 'Amr maintained the 
cause of Mu'awiya against Abu Musa's preference 
for 'Abd Allah b. 'Umar, who for his part refused 
to stand for election in default of unanimity; Aba 
Musa then proposed, and 'Amr agreed, to declare 
both 'All and Mu'awiya deposed and to remit the 
choice to a committee. In the public discourses that 
followed, Abu Musa observed this agreement, 
possibly adding some counsels in which he alluded 
to his preference for the son of 'Umar; 'Amr in his 



C ALI B. ABI TALIB 



turn declared 'All deposed and confirmed Mu'awiya. 
Several modern historians have adjudged this scene 
entirely improbable, but this negative attitude 
towards traditions which are nevertheless explicit 
and fairly concordant on this point is due to an 
inadequate appreciation of the preceding events 
explained above. In the light of these the final 
scene at Adhruh can readily be accepted. The 
unexpected declaration of 'Amr seems to have been 
a strictly personal proposal on his part, which, as 
a man charged with a grave responsibility, he 
believed himself entitled, if not in duty bound, to 
advance. But this declaration, which obviously 
contravened the agreement previously reached (since 
Abu Musa reacted to it with indignation), was 
generally judged in later times as a treacherous 
trick, and was certainly a disloyal act. It is worthy ot 
notice that even in the plenary assembly no voice 
was raised on behalf of C AU ; the clash which followed 
c Amr's declaration was a reaction against the 
Umayyads, not in favour of 'Ali. In any case the 
conference had entirely negative results, for the 
participants separated without taking any decision 
on the caliphate. 

Last years, death and burial of C A1I. 'All 
continued to be regarded as caliph by his partisans, 
though their numbers were daily diminishing, and 
Mu'awiya by his. In 39/659 the situation was still 
uncertain. c Ali, confined to Kufa, remained passive 
even when Mu'awiya made small expeditions into 
the heart of al- c Irak and of Arabia. In Khurasan 
and the East Arab rule was thrown off [see 'abd 
al-rahman b. samura], but a rising in Fars was 
skilfully put down by Ziyad b. Ablhi [q.v.], as 
governor for 'All. In 40/660 'All enjoyed no authority 
in the two Holy Cities, and could not stop an attack 
by Mu'awiya on al-Yaman. Finally, a Kharidiite. 
c Abd al-Rahman b. Muldjam al-Muradl [see ibn 
muldjam], in revenge for the men slain at al- 
Nahrawan, struck 'All with a poisoned sword 
before the door of the mosque of Kufa. He died 
about two days later, being then 62 or 63 years of age. 
A questionable tradition asserts that Ibn Muldjam 
was only one of a group of fanatics who plotted to 
rid Islam of the three persons regarded as responsible 
for the civil war, and that Mu'awiya and 'Amr were 
to have been assassinated at the same time. 

'All's burial place was kept secret, evidently for 
fear lest his body should be exhumed and profaned. 
It was not until the time of Harun al-Rashld that 
it was announced that his tomb had been identified 
at a spot some miles from Kufa, where a sanctuary 
subsequently arose; a town, al-Nadjaf [q.v .], grew up 
there, surrounded by an immense cemetery, due to 
the aspiration of pious Shi'ites to be buried in the 
vicinity of their Imams. 

Personal details. In person, 'All is represented 
as bald, affected by ophthalmia, stout, short- 
legged and broad-shouldered, with a hairy body 
and a long white beard covering his chest, In manner 
he was rough and brusque, apt to give offence and 
unsociable. He had two nicknames: IJaydara, "lion", 
and Abu Tvrab, "dustman", a name probably given 
to him contemptuously by his enemies, but which was 
afterwards interpreted as an honorific by invented 
episodes (see Noldeke in ZDMG, 1898, 30). He had 
fourteen sons and nineteen daughters by nine wives 
and several concubines; of his. sons, only three, al- 
Hasan, al-Husayn, and Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya, 
played a historical role, and five in all left descendants. 
He was reputed to have a profound knowledge of 
the Kur'Sn, of which he was one of the best "readers" 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



(Suyuti, Itlkdn (Sprenger), 169, 171; the statement 
that he compiled a recension is to be rejected: 
Gesch. des Qor., ii, 8-1 1). Many political discourses, 
sermons, letters and wise sayings (ftikatn) have been 
ascribed to him; these can be read in Nahdi al- 
Baldgha, a collection of the 5th/nth century, which 
includes here and there old historical texts and 
of adab [see al-sharIf al-radI]. On the 
which some poems are perhaps authentic) 
and the prose works attributed to him, see Brockel- 
mann, i, 43 f. (/ J3''I, 73 f. His gifts as an orator were 
doubtless rejriarkable, but the same cannot be 
said of his poetic art (H. Lammens, A propos de c All 
ibn Abl JaMb, Etudes sur le stick des Omayyades, 
1930, i-ii). 

Personality. The personality of 'All is difficult 
to define, since the historian finds no sure guide 
either in his actions or his discourses, or in the data 
supplied by the sources. His own will was paralysed 
or modified by events and the constraint of his 
partisans. His discourses are obscure in form, and 
it is not easy to distinguish the genuine from the 
forged. Since the conflicts in which he was involved 
were perpetuated for centuries, the sources are 
sometimes tendentious, and, though less idealizing 
or hostile than has been asserted, more often reticent. 
The hostile judgment of Lammens (especially in 
Fafima and Mo'&aria I"), sometimes obtained by 
forcing the texts, is to be rejected. The milder pre- 
sentation of Caetani which, while exposing the 
weaknesses of 'All, gives due weight to the pressure 
of circumstances upon him, remains vague in its 
general lines. Neither Lammens nor Caetani has 
brought out the religiosity of 'AH and its retlections 
in his policy. There is an abundance of notices on his 
austerity, his rigorous observance of religious rites, 
his detachment from worldly goods, his scruples in 
regard to booty and retaliation; and there is no 
reason to suppose all these details invented or exag- 
gerated, since all his actions were dominated by 
this religious spirit. Without attempting to decide 
whether his devotion to Islam was always wholly 
unmixed with other motives, this aspect of his 
personality cannot be disregarded for the under- 
standing that it affords of his psychology. He 
engaged in warfare against "erring" Muslims as a 
matter of duty, in order "to sustain the Faith and 
to make the right way (al-huda) triumphant" (al- 
Baladhuri in Caet., 40 A.H., § 235, d, etc.). After 
his victory at "the Camel", he tried to relieve the 
distresses of the vanquished by preventing the 
enslavement of their women and children, in face 
of the protests of a group of his . partisans ; when 
battles ended, he showed his grief, wept for the dead, 
and even prayed over his enemies. Even the apparent 
ambiguity of his attitude towards the Harurites 
can be explained by his fear of disobeying God; 
though persuaded by them that the arbitration was 
a sin, he recognized also that to infringe the con- 
vention of Siffln was equally a sin, and in this 
painful dilemma chose to allow the arbitration to 
proceed. Obedience to the divine Law was the 
keynote of his conduct, but his ideas were governed 
by an excessive rigorism, and it was perhaps for this 
reason that his enemies described him as mahdud, 
"narrow-minded". Imprisoned in his strict con- 
tormism, he could not adapt himself to the neces- 
sities of a situation which was very different from 
that of Muhammad's time; thus he lacked that 
political flexibility which was, on the other hand, 
one of the pre-eminent qualities of Mu'awiya. His 
programme, rather than uncertain, was Utopian; 



386 



'ALl b. ABl JALIB — 'ALl B. 'ISA 



probably he himself discovered the impossibility of 
realizing it when the power came into his hands, and 
this may have contributed, along with the external 
events, to his discouragement in his last years. 
Caetani observed that the half-divine aureole which 
soon encircled the figure of 'AH was derived not 
only from his relationship with the Prophet, but 
also from the personal impression which he left on 
his contemporaries; but he did not indicate the 
qualities which gave rise to the legend. If it is 
recognized that his was a profoundly religious spirit, 
and that he supported by his authority a programme 
of social and economic reforms, at the same time 
placing them on a religious basis, this question also 
may find its solution. [For Shi'ite doctrines and 
legends concerning 'AH see shI'a.] 

Bibliography: The basic historical sources, 
with many additional texts adab, hadith and other 
works, are translated or summarized in Caetani, 
Annali (of which vols, ix and x (1926) are devoted 
to the caliphate of 'All). Further materials in 
Nasr b. Muzahim al-Minkari, Wak'at Si/fin, ed. 
'Abd al-Salam Muhammad Harun, Cairo 1365 
(the lith. ed. Tehran 1301 and abridged ed. Bayrflt 
1340 are much inferior), and Muhibb al-DIn al- 
Tabari, al-Riydd an-Nddira /» Manakib al-'Ashara, 
Cairo 1327, ii, 153-249. Studies: A. Miiller, Der 
Islam in Morgen- und Abendland, Berlin 1885, i, 
308-34; J. Wellhausen, Die religids-politischen 
Oppositionsparteien, Berlin 1901 {A. K. G. W. 
G6ttingen) ; id. Arabische Reich, Berlin 1902, 25-71; 
id. Skizzen u. Vorarbeiten, vi, Berlin 1899, 113-146; 
H. Lammens, Etudes sur le Regne du calife 
omaiyade Mo'dwia I", Paris 1908, index; id. 
Adhroh in £/'; G. Levi della Vida, // Califfato 
di 'Alt secondo il Kitab Ansab al-Asraf di al- 
Baldduri, RSO, 1913, 427-507; W. Sarasin, Das 
Bild A lis bet den Historikern der Sunna, Basel 
1907; F. Buhl, Siffln in EI 1 ; idem, 'Alt som 
Praetendent og Kalif, Copenhagen 1921 ; F. Gabrieli, 
Suite origini del movimento Harigita, Rend. Lin., 
1941, fasc. vi, 110-7; L. Veccia Vaglieri, // conflilto 
'Ali-Mu'dwiya e la secessione kharigita riesaminati 
alia luce di fonti ibddite, AIUON 1952, 1-94; id. 
Traduzione di passi riguardanii il conflitto 'Alt 
Mu'dwiya e la successione kharigita, AIUON, 1953, 
1-98; Muh. Kafafi, The Rise 0/ Kharijism according 
to Abu Sa'id Muhammad . . . al-Qalhati, in B. Fac. 
Ar., xiv, 1952, 29-48; Taha Husayn, al-Fitna al- 
Kubrd, vol. ii, ( Ali, Cairo 1954 (contains some 
suggestive ideas). (L. Veccia Vaglieri) 

c ALl B. al-DJAHM b. Badr b. al Pjahm al- 
SamI, Arab poet, of Banfl Sama b. Lu'ayy, a tribe 
from Bahrayn, whose claim to descent from Kuraysh 
was disputed. His father al-Djahm moved from 
Khurasan to Baghdad and was appointed to various 
offices under al-Ma'mun and al-Wathik; the poet's 
brothers also were prominent in official and literary 
circles. 'All was born probably c. 188/804, and 
received his education in Baghdad. Under al- 
Mu'tasim (218-27/833-42) he held tnazdlim juris- 
diction in Hulwan, but, perhaps because of his 
support of Ahmad b. Hanbal in opposition to the 
Mu'tazila, did not become prominent as a court 
poet until the reign of al-Mutawakkil (232-47/ 
847-61). For some time he enjoyed, as a nadim, the 
intimacy of that caliph, but fell from favour owing 
to his freedom of speech and the jealousy of his 
rivals. After a year's imprisonment he was sent to 
Khurasan, and suffered further punishment there 
before being released, when he returned to lead a 
disorganized life in Baghdad. After the murder of 



al-Mutawakkil (which he lamented with fiery 
denunciation of all those involved) he set out to 
join the volunteer ghdzi troops on the Syrian borders, 
and was killed on the way by a raiding party of 
Kalb, in 249/863. 

Only a selection from his diwdn has been preserved 
(ed. Khalil Mardam Beg, Damascus 1949). It shows 
him to have been a gifted poet, whose verse is above 
all the simple expression of his own emotions, 
whether in praise or satire, in patient acceptance 
of adversity or reckless adventure. It is noteworthy 
also as displaying the attitudes of the Khurasanian 
Arab supporters of the 'Abbasid caliphate in oppo- 
sition to Shi'ite and other unorthodox views. He 
was in friendly relations with Abu Tammam [q v.], 
who made him the subject of two poems, but was 
on the contrary coarsely satirized by al-Buhturl 
(Istanbul 1300, ii, 99, 107) for his hostility to 'AH 
b. Abl Talib. 

Bibliography: Aghdni ix, 104-120 and index; 
al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Ta'rikh Baghdad, vii, 170; 
xi, 367-9; Ibn Hazin, Djamharat Ansab al-'Arab, 
163; Suli, Akhbdr Abi Tammam 61-63; idem, 
Awrak, 81 ; Ibn Khallikan, no. 435; Preface to the 
Diwdn. (H. A. R. Gibb) 

'ALl b. eHANIYA [see ghaniya, banu]. 
'ALl B. HAMMUD [see hammudids]. 
'ALl b. al-IJASAN b. al-MUSLIMA [see Ibn 

'ALl B. HUSAYN [see sTd! raIs]. 

'ALl B. HUSAYN ZAYN al-'ABIDIN [see 

'ALl B. 'ISA b. Da'Od b. al-Djarrah, 'Abbasid 
vizier, b. 245/859 into a family of Persian origin 
settled at Dayr Kunna on the Tigris below Baghdad, 
who had probably turned Christian before their 
adoption of Islam. Many of his relatives, including 
his father and grandfather, were officials in the 
'Abbasid administration, and he himself seems to 
have received his first secretarial employment at 
the age of nineteen or twenty. In 278/892, on the 
formation of the diwdn al-ddr by Ahmad b. al-Furat, 
both 'AH and his uncle Muhammad b. Da'ud were 
employed in that department as secretaries under 
Ahmad's brother 'AH, and some seven years later, 
when independent departments for the Western and 
Eastern provinces were created, 'AH b. *Isa and his 
uncle were appointed to manage them respectively. 
During the later years of al-Mu'tadid's caliphate, 
a feud developed between members of the family 
of al-Djarrah and the brothers Ahmad and 'AH b. 
al-Furat, and this came to a head on the death of 
al-Muktafi in 295/908, when, after the latter's 
brother al-Muktadir had succeeded as caliph largely 
owing to the exertions of Ibn al-Furat, the Banu 
'1-Djarrah engineered a conspiracy to depose him in 
favour of 'Abd Allah b. al-Mu'tazz [q.v.]. 'AH b. 
'Isa was given control of the diwdns in the short- 
lived government of Ibn al-Mu'tazz and was con- 
sequently fined and banished to Mecca on the 
restoration of al-Muktadir. 

In Mecca, during the first vizierate of Ibn al- 
Furat, 'All was kept under surveillance until Ibn 
al-Furat's fall in 299/912. In 300/913 he was recalled 
at the suggestion of the general Mu'nis [q.v.], to 
succeed al-Khakan! as vizier. His first term in office 
lasted exactly four years, and was marked by 
efforts on his part to rehabilitate the 
te finances. Although he succeeded in augmenting 
revenues, his reduction of expenditure earned him 
dislike of the court, including the irresponsible 
I extravagant caliph. During his first year as 



vizier he despatched an embassy to the Karamita, 
which secured the release of the c AbbSsid prisoners 
of war; and since for some ten years, whether i 
not partly as a result of this approach (which w; 
repeated in 303/915-6), the Karamita remained 
quiescent, this action later gave 'All's enemie 
pretext for alleging that he was in league with the 
sectaries. The economy in military expenditure on 
this front was, however, offset by the cost of expe- 
ditions against the Fatimids in Egypt (301/914) and 
other rebels in 'Irak (303/916); 'All found himself 
unable to pay certain troops at the capital, who 
mutinied; and in the next year Ibn al-Furat, by 
promising plentiful supplies of money to the caliph 
and his mother, and engaging the influence of the 
powerful kahramdna Umm Musa, whom 'All had 
dffended, was reappointed vizier. Although 'AH was 
fined, imprisoned, and impeached (though unsuc- 
cessfully) for complicity in the rebellion of Yusuf 
b. Abi 'l-Sadj, which broke out shortly before hi« 
dismissal, the caliph began, little more than a year 
later, to consult him on whom to appoint in 
rival's place; and early in 306/July 918 Ibn al-Furat 
was dismissed and Hamid b. al-'Abbas made vizi 
Shortly afterwards, on Hamid's proving quite i 
competent, 'All was induced to accept office as 1 
deputy, and it was not long before he exercised all 
real power. An attempt by Hamid to regain his 
influence by undertaking to raise extra revenue from 
the Sawad, al-Ahwaz, and Isfahan, produced a sharp 
rise in the price of grain at Baghdad, followed in 
308/920-1 by prolonged popular riots. 'All thencefor- 
ward managed affairs on his own, but refused the 
office of vizier in the following year. He again 
incurred unpopularity by his measures of economy, 
which was rendered more than ever necessary by 
heavy expenditure on expeditions for the second 
expulsion of the Fatimids from Egypt and the 
defeat of Ibn Abi 'l-Sadj, and in 311/923 Ibn al- 
Furat was reappointed vizier for the third time. 

'All, once more arrested and questioned on his 
management of the finances and his relations with 
the Karami{a (who raided Basra four days after his 
dismissal), was cleared on the second charge but 
forced into signing a bond for 300,000 dinars, and 
subsequently tortured, by Ibn al-Furat's son 
Miihassin. He was nevertheless helped to pay off 
his fine and again allowed to retire under surveillance 
te- Mecca, whence, after more than one attempt on 
his life by his guardian, he was exiled to San'a', 
remaining there until the summer of the following 
year, when, on the execution of Ibn al-Furat, he 
*as appointed Overseer of Egypt and Syria. Three 
years later, at the end of 314/beginning of 927, 
he was recalled and reappointed to the vizierate. 

His second term of office lasted little more than 
a year. The ^Abbasid government was by now 
hopelessly insolvent; the Byzantines were tempted 
by its evident weakness to advance into Muslim 
territory and took Sumaysat (Sainosata) ; and the 
Karamita, after taking Kufa and defeating Ibn 
Abi 'l-Sadj, advanced on Baghdad and came near 
to taking it too. 'AH was forced to apply to the 
caliph and his mother for funds for the defence of 
the city and to raise the pay of the mutinous 
soldiery; and though, when he sought to resign in 
consequent despair over the finances, al-Muktadir 
refused to allow him to do so, he was dismissed 
shortly afterwards and imprisoned. 

On al-Muktadir's second deposition nine nonths 
later, 'All was released; and on the caliph's restor- 
ation ('All's partisan Mu'nis then becoming all- 



. 'ISA 387 

powerful) he was appointed to deal with mazalim 
and subsequently, in 318/930, made head of the 
diwans and general adviser first to his cousin 
Sulayman b. al-Hasan b. Makhlad and then to 
the latter's successor in the vizierate, al-Kalwadhl. 
Towards the end of 319/931, however, on the 
appointment of his second cousin and enemy al- 
Husayn b. al-Kasim, he was again exiled, this time 
to his native Dayr Kunna, though he was soon 
allowed to return to the capital. During the reign 
of al-Kahir he held a minor fiscal office for some 
months; and after the accession of al-Radi he was 
once more arrested, fined, and momentarily exiled 
to al-Safiya (near Dayr Kunna), at the instance of 
Ibn Mukla, who, however, at the end of 323/935, was 
obliged to enlist his help in negotiating peace with 
al-Hasan b. Abi '1-Haydja' the Hamdanid (afterwards 
Nasir al-Dawla), with whom 'All had been accused 
of intriguing. 

In the summer of 325/936, 'All, having as usual 
declined the vizierate for himself, acted as general 
assistant to his brother 'Abd al-Rahman for three 
months. In 328/940, on the accession of al-Muttakl, 
he was against appointed to deal with mazalim, and 
a few months later he again acted as assistant to 
'Abd al-Rahman, though for little more than a week. 
These were his last employments; and apart from 
expressing the view, which was acted on, that the 
Christian relic known as the "Image of Edessa" 
should be handed over to the Byzantines in exchange 
for an undertaking to refrain from attacking that 
city in 33^/944, he played no further part in public 
affairs. Six months after the arrival of the Buwayhid 
Mu'izz al-Dawla in Baghdad, he died at the age of 
eighty-nine (29 phu 'l-Hidjdja 334/1 A "6- 94 6 )- 

Comparatively little is known of 'All's private 
life. He had two sons, probably by different wives: 
Ibrahim, who became secretary to the caliph al- 
Mutl' in 347/958-9 and died in 350/961; and 'Isa, 
b. 302/914-5, who likewise became secretary to al- 
Tal', earned some repute as a traditionist and 
student of the "Greek" sciences, and died in 391/ 
1001. 'All's ascetic tendencies in religion seein to 
have been intensified by an attraction to sufism. He 
is known to have been a friend of the sufi al-Shibll : 
and his dealings with al-Halladj, whom, when the 
latter was accused of heresy in 301/913, he examined, 
but declined to try when he was further accused in 
306/918, suggest that there existed a secret sympathy 
between them. Some of 'All's letters to al-Muktadir's 
Sabian physician, Sinan b. ThSbit, are quoted by 
Ibn al-Kiftl and Ibn Abi Usaybi'a; according to the 
latter also the philosopher al-RazI addressed a 
medical treatise to 'AH, who displayed much interest 
in the improvement of public health, himself 
founding a hospital in the Harbiyya quarter of the 
capital. Other foundations of his were at least one 
mosque on his private estates, a well (called after him 
al-Diarrahivva) at Mecca, and another well and an 
aqueduct at San'a 1 . He was also the author of three, 
possibly four, books, none of which appear to be 

Bibliography: Tabarl, index; SOU, Awrdk, 
ed. Hey worth Dunne and transl. Canard, indices; 
Mas'udI, MurUdi, viii, index; 'Arlb, index; Kitidi, 
Wuldt, index; Hamza al-Isfahanl, i, 203-7; 
Tanukhl, al-Faradj. ba l d al-Shidda, Cairo 1903, i, 
50, ii, 14; idem, Nishwar, index; Miskawayh, in 
Eclipse of the Abbasid Caliphate, index; Hilal al- 
Sabl, Wuzard', index; Fikrist, 9, 31, 34, 82, 128-9, 
136, 235, 298, 327; Hamadhani, Takmila, MS 
Paris 1469, fols. I2r, 56r, 51, 89r, ggr-ioir; Ibn 



388 



c ALl b. <ISA — c ALl B. MUHAMMAD al-ZANDJI 



al-Djawzi. Munta?am, Hyderabad 1357, index; 
Yakut, Irshad, i, v, vi, indices; Ibn al-Athlr, index; 
Sibt b. al-Djawzi, Mir'at al-Zamdn, MS Br. Mus. 
Or. 4619, fols. 15V-16V, 56V, 59V, 62V, 63, 67r, 
76r, 77, 8iv, 82v-83r, 85V, 88r, g6v, n6v, I2gr, 
I32r-i36v, 137V, I38r, 139; Weil, Gesch. der 
Chalifen, ii, 544 ff.; M. J. de Goeje, Memoire sur 
les Carmathes du Bahrain, 77, 79. 80, 88, 89, 90, 
112, 139 ; L. Massignon, aZ-/foMa;', index ;H. Bowen, 
The Life and Times of '■All ibn c 7sa, Cambridge 
1928 (where other references are given). 

(H. Bowen) 
c ALl b. 'ISA was the best known oculist {kahhdl) 
of the Arabs. His work, the Tadhkirat al-Kahhdlin, 
deserves the greater claim to our attention from the 
point of view of the history of civilization in that 
it is the oldest Arabic work on ophthalmology, 
that is complete and survives in the original. The 
name of the author is also recorded in the inverted 
form: 'Isa b. c Ali. Preference is to be given to the 
first form as follows from a reference in Ibn AW 
Usaibi'a ( ( Uyun al-Anba', i, 240) and from quotations 
in later authors as al-Ghafikl, Khalifa b. Abi '1-Mahasin 
and Salah al-DIn. The uncertainty as to the form of 
the name is due to confusion with the court physician 
of the Caliph al-Mutawakkil, 'Isa b. C A1I, who lived 
some 150 years earlier {Fihrist, i, 297, 19; Ibn AM 
Usaibi'a, i, 203), and also wrote medical treatises. 
'AH b. 'Isa's life falls in the first half of the 5 th/ 
nth century; for (according to Ibn Abi Usaibi'a, 
I.e.) he was a pupil of Abu '1-Faradj b. al-Tayyib, the 
commentator on Galen, at Baghdad, who died in the 
third decade of the 5th/nth century (according to 
Ibn al-Kifti, ed. Lippert, 223). 'All, who, like his 
above mentioned teacher, professed the Christian 
religion, seems likewise to have practised at Baghdad. 
We know nothing of the external details of his life. 
As a physician he was full of foresight and prudence 
and of kindly feeling. This is evidenced by many a 
counsel given to the ophthalmic surgeon in the in- 
terests of the patient. 

His Tadhkirat al-Kahhdlin (promptuary for ocu- 
lists), — sometimes also designated Risdla (epistle), 
on account of the introductory words — is a very 
detailed treatise. According to the Preface the 
first Book treats of the anatomy of the eye, the 
second of diseases externally visible and their 
treatment (diseases of the lid, of the corners of the 
eyes, of the conjunctiva, cornea, uvea, cataract and 
its operation), the third of hidden diseases and their 
treatment (visual illusions, diseases of the albumen, 
crystalline lense, spirit of vision, long-sightedness, 
short-sightedness, blindness during the day, and 
during the night, diseases of the vitreous humour, of 
the retina, of the visual nerve, of the choroid, of the 
sclerotic, squinting and weak sight). After a chapter 
on the preservation of health, the work closes with an 
alphabetical treatment of 141 simple remedies and 
their particular action on the eye. — We cannot judge 
to what extent the work can lay claim to originality, 
since the older Arabic works on the subject are not 
preserved. 'All himself observes in his Preface: 
"I have searched the works of the Ancients through- 
out, and merely added the little of my own thereto, 
which I have learned publicly from the teachers 
of our own time and which I have acquired in the 
practice of this science". He mentions the work 
of Hunayn together with Galen as his principal 
sources. In addition he cites in the Tadhkira the 
Alexandrians, Dioscorides, Hippocrates, Oreibasius 
and Paulus. 
The comprehensiveness of his work laid the 



foundation of his fame [cf. 'ammar]; it has 
b«en considerably used by later Arab oculists — 
uitil the present day — both for the practical 
aid theoretical portions (Ibn al-Kiftl, I.e.: "the 
physicians of this branch work at all times in accor- 
dance with this") and has frequently been quoted 
wjhole chapters at a time. A commentary on it, 
wjritten by Daniyal b. Sha'ya, is mentioned by Kha- 
lifa b. Abi '1-Mahasin [q.v.] in the introduction to 
his ophthalmological work. This commentary is 
not preserved; on the other hand a large number 
of manuscripts of the Tadhkira itself have come 
down to us. Even in the Middle Ages it was trans- 
lated into Hebrew and twice into Latin (Trae- 
tatus de oculis Jesu b. Hali, Venice 1497, 1499, 
1500; edited once more by Pansier with a second 
translation, made from the Hebrew version, under 
the title Epistola Ihesu filii Haly de cognitione 
infirmitatum oculorum sive Memoriale oculario- 
rum quod eompilavit Ali b. Issa, Paris 1903). 
That the great importance of the Tadhkira in the 
history of medicine has been entirely unrecognized 
is due to the barbarous character of the Latin 
translation and the fact that whole sentences are 
frequently omitted therein. So the continuity is 
destroyed and the sense made unrecognizable. 

A German translation of the Manual for oculists 
based on the Arabic manuscripts is contained in 
vol. i of Die arabischen Augendrzte nach den Quellen 
bearbeitet by J. Hirschberg, J. Lippert and E. Mitt- 
woch, Leipzig 1904. 

Bibliography: cf. the introduction of the 

last-named work; Brockelmann, I, 635, S I, 884. 
(E. Mittwoch) 

c ALl b. MAHDl [see mahdids]. 

'ALl b. MA'SCM [see 'alI khan]. 

'ALl B. MAYMCN b. AbI Bakr al-idrIsI al- 
MaghribI Moroccan mystic of Berber (though 
pretended 'Alid) origin, born about 854/1450. In his 
youth he is said to have been the amir of a kabila 
of the Banu Rashid in the Djabal Ghumara, but 
to have relinquished that position because he was 
unable to enforce among his people the prohibition 
on wine-drinking. In 901/1495-6 he left Fez, visited 
Damascus, Mecca, Aleppo, and Brusa, and finally 
settled at Damascus where he died in 917/1511. 

His mysticism was of a moderate character; _in 
his Baydn Qhurbat al-Isldm bi-Wdsifat $infay al- 
Mutafakkiha wa 'l-Mutafakkira min Ahl Misr wa 
'l-Sham wa-md yalihd min Bildd al-A l didm, he 
inveighed against the religious and social abuses 
which he had noticed in the East (cf. Goldziher, in 
ZDMG, 1874, 293 ff.). He wrote this work at an 
advanced age (he commenced it on 19 Muharram 
916). On his mystical writings, among which an 
apology for Ibn 'ArabI calls for special comment, 
see Brockelmann, II, 124; S II, 152. See also Tash.- 
kopru-zade, al-Shak&Hk al-Nu c mdniyya (in the 
margin of Ibn Khallikan, Bulak 1299), i, 540. 

(C. Brockelmann) 

'ALl b. MUHAMMAD [see sulayhids]. 

'ALl b. MUHAMMAD al-ZANQJI, known as 
Sahib al-Zanbi, was the leader of the Zandjfa.w.j, 
the rebel negro slaves who for fifteen years (255-270/ 
868-83) terrorised southern 'Irak and the adjoining 
territories. He was born in Warzanin, a village near 
Rayy, and is said by some authorities to have been 
of Arab origin, being descended from 'Abd al-Kays 
on his father's side and from Asad on his mother's. 
His name is generally given as 'All b. Muhammad b. 
'Abd al-Rahlm. According to Ibn al-Djawzi (al-Mun- 
tafam, Hyderabad 1357, v, 2, 69) his real name was 



c ALl b. MUHAMMAD al-ZANDJI — c ALl b. YUSUF b. TASHUFlN 



389 



Bihbudh. Al-Birflni (Chronology, 332; translation, 
330) states that he was known as Al-Burku c I (the 
veiled one). He himself claimed to be an c Alid, and 
gave his pedigree as C A1I b. Muhammad b. Ahmad 
b. c Isa b. Zayd b. C A1I b. Husayn b. C A1I b. Abl 
Talib (al-BIrunl, loc. cit.; al-Mas'udi, Muriidi, viii, 
31; al-Tabari, iii, 1742- who gives a slightly different 
pedigree. On an c Alid of this name, whose father died 
in prison under Al-Musta c In, see al-Mas c udl, Muriidi, 
vii, 404 and Abu '1-Faradj al-Isfahanl, Makatil al- 
Tdlibiyyin', Cairo 1949, 672 and 689). After a first 
attempt to win support in Bahrayn, where he is 
said to have had family connexions, he sought to 
exploit the disturbed state of Basra in order to 
establish himself there. He failed, however, and 
only escaped imprisonment by fleeing to Baghdad. 
Not long afterwards new disturbances in Basra 
favoured his return. This time he sought for support 
among the negro slaves working in gangs on the 
salt-flats east of Basra. After a period of preparation 
he openly declared himself on 26 Ramadan 255/5 
September 869. Though claiming to be an e Alid, 
and using the title of Mahdi, he did not adopt the 
ShI'ite doctrine, but instead professed the equali- 
tarian creed of the Kharidjites. After a long period 
of military successes, including the temporary 
captures of Ubulla, Ahwaz, Basra and Wasit, the 
Zandj armies were at last overcome by a major 
expeditionary force mounted by the regent Muwaffak, 
and besieged in their capital al-Mukhtara. The Zandj 
leader refused the offer of a free pardon and a state 
pension, and after the final assault on 2 Safar 270/ 
11 August 883, his head was taken on a pole to 
Baghdad. 

Bibliography: The fuUest account is that of 
Tabari, iii ) 1742-1787; 1835-2103). Further details 
will also be found in Mas'fldl, Muriidi, viii, as 
well as in Ya'kubl, Hamza Isfahan! etc. For 
studies on the Zandj revolt see T. Noeldeke, 
Sketches from Eastern History, London-Edinburgh 
1892, 146-175; Faysal al-Samir, Thawrat al-Zandi, 
Baghdad 1954; and c Abd al-'Aziz al-Duri, Darasdt 
fi 'l- c Usur al-'-Abbdsiyya al-Muta'akhkhira, Bagh- 
dad 1945, 75-106. On the coins of the Zandj see 
P. Casanova in Revue Numismatique, 1893, 510-6, 
and J. Walker, in JRAS, 1933, 651-6. 

(B. Lewis) 
c ALl B. RABBAN AL-TABARl [see al-tabarI]. 
<ALl b. SHAMS al-DIN was the author of a 
history of Gilan entitled TaWkh-i khani, and 
covering the years 880-920 (1475-1514). According 
to the introduction, the book would appear to have 
been written by Sultan Ahmad Khan, but C A1I 
seems to be the real author. The work has been 
edited by B. Dorn, Muhammedanische Quellen zur 
Geschichte der siidl. Kiistenldnder des kaspischen 
Meeres, vol. ii. Cf. the preface of this volume, 15 f. 
c ALl B. YCSUF b. TASHUFlN, Almoravid 
amir and second sovereign of the Tashufinid 
dynasty, who ruled over a large part of the Maghrib 
and of southern Spain from 500/1106 to 537/1143. 
The reign of 'All, who succeeded his father Yusuf 
b. Tashufin at the moment when Almoravid power 
was at its greatest on both sides of the Straits of 
Gibraltar, was marked by a series of events of which 
hitherto the main facts were known, but the exact 
course of which was not always clear, owing to a 
lack of detailed sources old enough to be reliable. 
To-day, there is available on the one hand the 
volume of the Na?m al-Qiumdn of Ibn al-Kattan, 
and the "Memoirs" of the companion of the Mahdi 
Ibn Tumart, al-Baydhak, on the disintegration of 



Almoravid power before the onslaught of the 
Almohad rising, and on the other the unpublished 
fragments of the al-Bayan al-Mughrib of Ibn 'Idharl 
on the reign of C A1I b. Yusuf, fragments which were 
to a large extent borrowed from the work of the 
historian Ibn al-Sayrafl [q.v.], the contemporary of 
the Almoravids. This information derived from the 
chronicles of the 8th/i4th century has only a sup- 
plementary value; sometimes it must even be 
regarded with caution or even rejected, on account 
of its lack of objectivity and of its pro-Almohadism. 
This is particularly the case with the al-Mu c 4iib of 
c Abd al-Wahid al-Marrakushl, hitherto considered 
an essential source for the Almoravid period, which 
despite some picturesque and probably accurate 
accounts of the court at Marrakush, must be used 
with great care. 

The reign of C A1I b. Yusuf lasted for 37 years, 
despite the difficulties which faced him from the 
beginning— difficulties which soon appeared to be of 
little consequence compared with the danger occa- 
sioned by the rising in the Atlantic mountain region 
and the preaching of tawhid by Ibn Tumart [q.v.]. The 
first danger which 'All had to face, from the time of 
his accession and in the years following, arose from 
disputes between members of his own family and the 
chiefs of the murdbit movement, who belonged to 
two related, but not solidary clans, namely the 
LamtOna, the clan of the ruling branch, and the 
Massufa. Under the Almoravid regime, in which 
fraternal relationship on the father's side was of 
less importance than uterine kinship, and in which 
legitimate Tashufinid amirs were only designated 
by the name of their mother (Ibn 'A'isha, Ibn 
Gannuma etc.), disputes over precedence and con- 
spiracies against the reigning prince were, as was 
the case a few decades earlier at the Sinhadji courts 
of the Zirids of Ifrikiya and al-Andalus, mainly the 
work of the royal princesses (ummahdt), with the 
aid of their immediate kin and mawdli, in favour of 

Yusuf b. Tashufin had seen this danger so clearly 
that he was careful not to designate as his successor 
one of his sons by a Sinhadjian wife, not even his 
eldest son, Abu' 1-Tahir Tamim, offspring of his 
marriage at Aghmat to the influential Ifrikiyan 
Zaynab, who predeceased him by ten years. His 
choice fell on C A1I, born at Ceuta of his union with a 
Christian captive from Spain, in 477/1084, two years 
before the battle of al-Zallaka. This young man of 
23 years was enthroned without opposition at 
Marrakush on the death of his father, 1 Muharram 
500/2 September 1106, with the apparently dis- 
interested support of his elder brother Tamim. But 
he was obliged inmediately to bring to his senses a 
son of his brother Abu Bakr b. Yusuf, Yahya, who 
was in command at Fez and who submitted without 
delay. Relying on the judgement of his Andalusian 
advisers, who had belonged to his father's entourage, 
c Ali embarked on a policy of the pendulum which 
he was obliged to follow throughout his reign, 
namely, constantly to move, like pawns on a chess- 
board, the majority of the Almoravid amirs, including 
his brother, who held provincial governorships in the 
chief towns of Maghrib and Andalusia. The Almoravid 
governors received threatening letters of recall to the 
ruler's side, were dismissed or restored to favour, 
and were in addition assisted in their duties by 
administrative inspectors (mushrif) and secretaries 
of chancery, who were almost all Andalusians ; such 
is the record of the greater part of the annals of his 
reign. It will not be recalled here in detail, but this 



390 



C ALI b. YOSUF b. TASHUFlN — 'ALl AKBAR KHITA1 



lack of continuity in the tenure of the important 
military and regional commands already shows that 
the structure inherited by 'All b. Yflsuf from his 
father was not resting securely on its foundations. 

On the other hand, the fortunes of war for long 
smiled on the Almoravid sovereign in his djihdd 
expeditions against the Christians of Spain, led by 
himself or by one of his generals. The aged Alfonso 
VI had never abandoned the hope of revenging his 
defeat at al-Zallaka; but he suffered a further 
humiliation in Shawwal 501/end of May 1108, when 
Tamim, the elder brother of 'All, defeated under 
the walls of the fortress of Ucles (Uklidi) the Castilian 
troops of Count Garcia Ordonez, accompanied by the 
infant Sancho, the son of Alfonso VI and Mora 
Zaida, the step-daughter of al-Mu'tamid b. 'Abbad. 
The Christian general and the infant were overtaken 
and killed a few days later at Belinch6n, not far from 
Ucles. Alfonso VI, aged and broken by this blow, 
had nothing to wait for but death, which overtook 
him barely a year later, on 30 June 1109. The throne 
of Castille was occupied until 1126 by his daughter 
Urraca. Meanwhile, the young kingdom of Portugal 
was becoming organised, and, in Aragon, Alfonso 
the Warrior aimed at the capture of Saragossa, 
which the Almoravids had finally taken from the 
Hudids in 503/1110; Alfonso added it to his own 
dominions nine years later, in 512/1118. 

All the chroniclers mention the four successive 
crossings of 'AH b. Yusuf to al-Andalus; the first 
voyage, in the year of his accession, took him no 
further than Algeciras; the second was a djihdd 
expedition in the summer of 503/1109, which led to 
the temporary occupation of Talavera, on the Tagus ; 
the third, also inspired by the motive of holy war, 
was marked by a resounding success — the capture 
of Coimbra in Safar 511/June n 17, after a siege of 
twenty days. On his fourth crossing, in 515/1121, 
c Ali b. Yusuf did not go beyond Cordova. But the 
operations of the Almoravid generals against Spanish 
Christendom continued without respite, both in 
Aragon and in New Castille. One of the last notable 
victories of the reign was that of Fraga, in the 
region of Lerida: this town, besieged by Alfonso 
the Warrior, was relieved by the Almoravid general 
Yahya b. 'All b. Ghaniya, who inflicted a crushing 
defeat on the King of Aragon, 23 Ramadan 528/17 
July 1 1 34. 

'All b. Yusuf, despite some undeniably good 
qualities, was far from possessing the stature of his 
father Yusuf b. Tashufin. Although he spent the 
greater part of his reign in Morocco itself, he seems 
to have devoted his special attention to Spain and 
to have reserved the majority of his military forces 
for the djihdd against Christendom, only retaining, 
for the security of his capital and to guard the 
Moroccan mountain region, light forces, mainly 
composed of Christian mercenaries, under the 
command of the celebrated Catalan Reverter (al- 
Rubertayr). This policy brought about the downfall 
of his kingdom. From the moment when the history 
of the reign of 'All b. Yusuf became identical with 
that of the return of Ibn Tumart [?.».] to Morocco, 
the preaching of tawhld and the first military ventures 
of the Almohad chiefs, the game was lost, in default 
of strong and immediate measures against the rebel 
movement. 'AH b. Yusuf was gradually forced to 
face the facts: he had been unable adequately to 
strengthen the structure bequeathed to him by his 
father, and had allowed ever larger cracks to appear 
in it. Soon it collapsed, but the son of Yusuf b. 
Tashufin was not himself present at this dramatic 



climax; he died on 8 Radjab 537/38 January 1143, 
exactly five years before the capture of Marrakush 
by 'Abd al-Mu'min, leaving his son Tashufin to 
succeed him on his tottering throne. 

Despite these ultimate misfortunes, the reign of 
'AH b. Yusuf must be considered one of the most 
brilliant periods in the history of the Muslim West. 
The pro-Almohad historians (followed by Dozy) 
have tried in vain to disparage the Almoravids; 
to-day it must be admitted that the first third of 
the 6th/i2th century coincided with a positive 
renaissance of Spanish civilisation, both in al- 
Andalus and the Maghrib. The sovereign's literary 
circle was of the same quality as during the era of the 
tawd'if. Cordova once more became the intellectual 
and social capital of the kingdom. Ibn Kuzman 
gives us an attractive picture of it in his zadjals, 
and at Sevilla, the muhtasib Ibn 'Abdun gives us in- 
formation on the urban economy and the part played 
in it by the representatives of Almoravid authority. 

At the same time, however, the hand of Malikism 
in its most intransigeant form continued to retard 
the wheels of society. The fakihs, almost all of whom 
were natives of al-Andalus, were in a dominating 
position both at Marrakush and at Cordova. They 
promulgated autos-da-fi, and burned the Ihyd* of 
al-Ghazzall in the parvis of the great mosque of 
Cordova as early as 503/1 109. They fulminated against 
the laxity of morals and against innovations, in 
the knowledge that the sovereign would lend them 
an attentive ear. But the other Almoravid nobles 
and their wives paid no heed to their sermons. A 
steadily widening rift developed between the Lam- 
tunian aristocracy and the population of the towns. 
'All b. Yusuf did not possess the necessary energy to 

Bibliographic : Of the Arabic sources, the 
most important (Nazm al-Diumdn of Ibn al- 
Kattan and Baydn of Ibn 'Idhari) still unpublished 
are to be published by E. Levi- Provencal, Documents 
inidits d'histoire almoravide ; see also the same, 
Documents inidits d'histoire almohade, Paris 1928, 
index. For details of the other sources, belonging 
to later historiography, and assessed at the be- 
ginning of the article ('Abd al-Wahid al-Marra- 
kushl, al-Hulal al-Mawshiyya, Ibn Khaldun, Ibn 
Khallikan, Ibn al-Khatlb, Ibn al-Athlr, al-Nuwayd, 
al-Nasirl, etc.), see the bibliography of the article 
al-Murabitun. Cf. also the short work, now out- 
of-date, of F. Codera, Decadencia y desaparicidn 
de los Almoravides en Espana, Saragossa 1899; 
E. Levi- Provencal, Reflexions sur V empire almora- 
vide au dfbut du XII' siicle, Islam d'Occident, i, 
Paris 1948, 239-56. (E. L£vi-Provencal) 

'ALl B. SALI*I [see wasi' «alIsi]. 
'ALl AKBAR KHITA'l. author of a de- 
scription of China in Persian {Khi^ay-nama), 
which was finished in 922/1516, and originally inten- 
ded for the sultan Sellm, but later dedicated to 
Sulayman. The book is not a travel-book, but a 
systematic description in twenty chapters, based 
partly on observations by the author himself, 
partly on information collected by him in China. 
The work was translated into Turkish in the reign 
of Murad III, probably in 990/1582 (lith. Istanbul 
1270/1854); the translation served as the basis for 
the studies of Fleischer and Zenker. 

Bibliography: Storey, i 431; H. L. Fleischer, 
in BerichU der Kgl. Sachs. Ges. d. Wissensch., iii, 
Leipzig 1851, 317-27; J. Th. Zenker, Das chine- 
sische Reich nach dem turkischen Khatainame, 
ZDMG, 1861, 785-805; Ch. Schefer, Trois chapitres 



'ALl AKBAR KHITA'I - 



391 



de Chatay-name, Milanges Orientaux, Paris 1883, 
31 ff.; P. Kahle, Eine islamische Quelle iiber 
China um 1500, AO, 1934, 91-110; IA, s.v. (by 
A. Zeki Velidi Togan). 

'ALl AMlRl, Turkish historian, b. in 1274/ 
1857 at Diyar Bakr, d. at Istanbul 23 December 1923 
(1342). An official of the financial administration, he 
was primarily interested in the history of the Ottoman 
Empire, and he took advantage of his appointment to 
different towns to transcribe Arabic and Turkish in- 
scriptions, to study local history and above all to 
seek out old documents and historical and poetical 
manuscripts. In this way he built up a library of 
unpublished and rare manuscripts, which later 
enriched the National Library of Istanbul. He 
published the review Ta'rikh we-Edebiyyat, edited the 
Dfwan Lughdt al-Turk of Mahmud Kashghari, and 
was a member of various learned societies. He 
wrote historical and literary works, but is principally 
known as an editor of texts. He also helped to classify 
the archives of the Sublime Porte at Istanbul, and 



of the catalogues: Ali Emiri 

Ahmed Refik, 'AH Emiri, 
TOEM, 14th year, No. 1 (78), 
45-51; Resad Ekrem Kocu, 
Ali Emiri. The 
Istanbul Kiitu- 



gave his 

Bibliograph 

Paydtl we-Athar 

January 1340/ic 

in Istanbul Ansiklopedist, s.v 

description of numerous MSS. 

phaneleri Tarih-Cografya yazmalarl, fasc. 

Istanbul 1943-51, and Istanbul Kitapliklari 

Turkce yazma divanlar katalogu, 2nd series, fasc. 1 

(i2th-i6th centuries), Istanbul 1947. 

(R. Mantran) 

'ALl 'AZlZ Efendi, GIRIDLI, Turkish diplo- 
mat and writer, d. 19 Diumada I 1213/29 Oct. 
1798. He was born in Crete, where his father Tah- 
ndsdji Mehmed Efendi was defterddr. Son of a wealthy 
father, he lived a carefree life until circumstances 
constrained him to enter the service of the state 
(muhassil of Chios, ca. 1792-93 in Belgrad). In 1211/ 
1796-97, he was appointed ambassador to Prussia, 
arrived in Berlin early in June, 1797, and died there 
in the following year. Of his achievements as a 
diplomat little is known; he owes his fame to his 
writings. 'Ali Efendi, who knew Persian, French, 
and even some German, is an interesting forerunner 
of the 19th century Turkish movement of Wester- 
nization and self-interpretation. In his treatise 
Wariddt (unpublished, MSS in Istanbul Oniversite 
Kutuphanesi, nos. T 3383. T 347o, T 1698, and 
Millet Kutuphanesi, Ali Emiri, Ser'iyye 1154/23) 
'All Efendi defends the irrationalism of mystic 
religiousness (he himself was the disciple of a certain 
Sheykh Kerim Ibrahim of Abana near Sinob) with 
arguments tinged with 18th century rationalism. 
He accepts the vacillation of the God-searching soul 
between faith and scepticism, and offers the story 
of his own salvation, modestly admitting its inappli- 
cability to others. An expose of the ideas of 
mysticism, and, especially, of the superhuman powers 
of the sheykh, is also found in 'All Efendi's famous 
book of fairy tales, the Mukhayyeldl-i Ltdun-i Ildhi 
(written in 1211/1797-98, printed in Istanbul, 1268, 
1284, 1290), based mainly on Petis de la Croix's 
Les Mille et un jours (first printed in 1710-12), but 
handling its material freely and adding many new 
stories of various character. This book, which was 
very popular in the 19th century, may be regarded 
as the first modern educational novel in Turkish; 
beside fantastic tales, it contains also stories 
depicting life in 18th century Istanbul with charming 
realism. 'AH Efendi has also left poems, mostly in 



the sufl tradition. Finally, he is supposed to have 
written a (now lost) opus containing his discussions 
with European philosophers. 

Bibliography: Saadeddin Niizhet Ergun, 
Turk sairleri, ii, 620-2 (containing five poems); 
I A, s.v. (by M. Cavid Baysun and Ahmed Hamdi 
Tanpinar); A. Tietze, 'Aziz efendis Muhayyeldt, 
Oriens, 1948, 248-329 (containing the translation 
of one of the tales) ; E. J. Gibb, The Story of Jewdd, 
a romance by 'Alt 'Aziz Efendi the Cretan, Glasgow 
1884 (translation of the second of the three parts 
of Mukhayyeldt). (A. Tietze) 

ALI BABA [see alf layla wa-layla]. 
'ALl BEY, a Caucasian by birth, was for nearly 
20 years the chief personage in Egypt. He had 
been brought there at an early age, and had been 
offered as a gift to Ibrahim Katkhuda, who was the 
real master of the country from 1156 1068/1743-54. 
Before his death, the latter conferred on 'All the 
rank of bey, and made him a member of that curious 
council of "Powers", whose turbulent authority 
grew in proportion as the Pasha nominated by the 
Porte became a shadowy and passive spectator. 
This Ottoman governor, in order to survive, con- 
cerned himself with preserving an apparent neutrality 
in face of the sanguinary conflicts between the beys, 
a neutrality which he abandoned in order to hasten 

'All distinguished himself at the beginning of his 
career by the successful defence of a pilgrim caravan 
against Arab tribes. Appointed bey, he was plunged 
into an atmosphere of intrigue; each character in 
the drama was obliged to have recourse to murder, 
and was himself shadowed by assassins. At first, 'All 
Bey maintained an attitude of prudent watchfulness, 
confining his activities to enriching himself by 
every means, and was thus able to collect a sub- 
stantial number of mamliiks. This policy bore fruit 
when, from the year 1 177/1763, his peers recognised 
him as their leader. In the course of the following 
year he conferred the rank of bey on his mamluk 
Muhammad Abu '1-Dhahab [q.v.], the man who was 
destined to overthrow him. This rise to power, not 
achieved without setbacks and disputes, was 
abruptly checked: 'Ali Bey, forced to take refuge 
in Syria, established relations with 'Umar al-?ahir, 
the ruler of Acre. Through the good offices of the 
latter, 'All Bey returned to Egypt, with the support 
of the Porte, and again assumed his prerogatives as 
shaykh al-balad. 

Two years later, 'All Bey had to flee again, but 
he returned to the capital at the head of an armed 
force in 1181/1767. A new Ottoman governor was 
obliged to confirm 'All Bey as shaykh al-balad; 
however, alarmed by the latter's independent attitude, 
he tried to provoke a rising against him. It was a 
failure, and the Pasha was forced to resign (1182/ 
1768). From then on, 'All Bey did not trouble to 
conceal his ambitious designs, and he refused to 
tolerate the presence of an officer who had any 
influence. He showed his hostility to the Porte and 
reduced the number of his Janissaries. Nevertheless 
he did not throw off the mask completely, and did 
not refuse the Sultan's request to send a contingent 
for the war against Russia. He was then denounced 
at the Porte as a traitor, and accused of having 
mobilised these troops to aid the Russians: a firman 
was issued at Constantinople condemning him to 
death. 

Informed of this, 'All Bey replied with an arrogant 
declaration of independence. From then on, 'All Bey 
became entangled in a diabolical web and was 



c ALl BEY — c ALl KHAN 



forced to keep his forces in the field without respite. 
First, he subdued the Arab tribes of Upper Egypt, 
and intervened at' Mecca to instal there a pretender 
to the sharlfate who had sought his protection. The 
expedition was under the command of his right hand 
man, Muhammad Bey Abu '1-Dhabab. 

Conscious of his power, c Ali Bey struck coinage 
in his own name: the coins still bore the sultan's 
name, but the initials of the master of Egypt were 
inserted under a date which no longer represented 
the date of the sultan's accession. 

He then proceeded to invade Syria with a huge 
army, again under the command of Muhammad Bey 
Abu '1-Dhahab. Negotiations with the Russians were 
set on foot but there was no time for them to yield 
results. The whole of Syria was speedily conquered, 
but events took an unexpected turn when Muham- 
mad Bey Abu '1-Dhahab, after his victorious entry 
into Damascus, led his army back to Egypt to seize 
possession of it from his master. C A1I Bey decided to 
flee from Cairo in Muharram 1186/ April 1772, and 
took refuge once more with the Pasha of Acre. He 
set about raising another army, with the help of 
some Russian equipment, and, after a series of 
successful skirmishes, confronted his rival at Sali- 
hiyya, in the eastern part of the Delta. His army was 
defeated, and 'All Bey, mortally wounded on the 
field of battle, died a few days later, 15 Safar 1187/ 
8 May 1773. 

It is difficult accurately to assess the autonomy 
of 'All Bey. As already noticed, the form of his 
coins was unusual, although 'AH Bey had declared 
that the Ottomans had seized control of the country 
by force, aided by the treachery of the population. 
A document dated at the beginning of 1186 A.H., 
shortly before his final departure from Cairo, supplies 
evidence that he had not dared to proclaim himself 
officially sovereign of Egypt. It consists of a long 
inscription carved on the drum of the cupola of the 
tomb of al-Shafi'I; it makes no reference to the 
Ottoman Power, but does not mention 'All Bey 
either, merely stating that the order to restore this 
tomb was given by the "powerful master of Egypt, 
who has increased the prestige of this country by 
his authority". 

From a perusal of al-Diabartl. one gets the im- 
pression that 'AH Bey was in many respects a 
repulsive character, but the morals of the time and 
the environment must be taken into consideration, 
and one could express agreement with a contemporary 
judgment: "He was an extraordinary man, who 
only lacked a different education and a larger stage 
to have astonished the world". 

Bibliography: Djabartl, index, 148; S. Lui- 

sigan, A History of the Revolt of Aly Bey, London 

1783; C. Volney, Voyage en Syrie, i; J. Marcel, 

Histoire d'Egypte, Paris 1834, 227-39; Deherain, 

L'Egypte turque, 122-37; Wiet, Inscr. du mausolie 

de ShafiH in BIE, xv, 182-5; idem, L'agonie de la 

domination ottomane en £gypte, Cahiers d' histoire 

igyptienne, ii, 496-7. (G. Wiet) 

'ALl BEY b. 'UthmAn al-'ABBASI, pseudonym 

of the Spanish traveller Domingo Badia y Leblich 

(Leyblich), b. 1766, d. 1818 in Syria, author of 

Voyages d'Ali-Bey el Abbassi en Afrique et en Asie 

pendant les annles 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806 et 1807, 

3 vols, and Atlas, Paris 1814; Travels of AH Bey . . . 

between the years 1803 and 1807, 2 vols., London 1816. 

Bibliography: P. Larousse, Grand Diction- 

naire Universel du XIX* siicle, s.v. Badia y 

Leblich; U. J. Seetzen, Reisen, iii, 373 f. (Ed.) 

'ALt CELEBI [see wasi' 'alIsi]. 



'ALl EFENDI [see c alI]. 

'ALl b. Shihab al-DIn b. Muhammad al- 
HAMADANl, sufi saint and the apostle of 
Kashmir, born in Hamadan of a notable family 
of sayyids (claiming descent from 'All b. Husayn, 
grandson of the imam Zayn al- c AbidIn), on 12 Radjab 
714/22 Oct. 1314. His chain of initiation went back 
through two links to 'Ala' al-Dawla al-Simnanl, and 
through him to Nadjm al-DIn al- Rubra. He led the 
itinerant life of a darwish and is said to have visited 
all parts of the Muslim world. He arrived for the 
first time in the valley of Kashmir in 774/1373, 
during the reign of Shihab al-Din, accompanied by 
700 sayyids ; he remained for four months and then 
left for the Hidjaz. He came to Kashmir for the 
second time in 781/1379, during the reign of Kutb 
al-DIn, and remained for two years and a half. For 
the third time he visited Kashmir in 785/1383, but 
left it after less than a year for Turkistan. He died 
however, after having passed through Pakhll, near 
Kunar, on 6 Dhu 'l-Hidjdja 786/18 Jan. 1385 ; his body 
was carried to Khuttalan, where his mausoleum is still 
extant in modern Kulab (cf. Sufi, Kashir, i, 116 ff.). 
The khdnkd-yi Shdh-i Hamadan in Srinagar, repu- 
tedly built on the site where the saint performed his 
prayer, is a well-frequented place of pilgrimage (cf. 
R. Ch. Kak, Ancient Monuments of Kashmir, London 
1933. 77 it-)- This khankd and the mosque in Tral, 
built by 'Ali's son, Muhammad (774/1372-854/1450), 
during the reign of Sikandar, were centres of Islamic 
propaganda in Kashmir. A favourite pupil of 'All 
was Ishak KhuttalanI, who was in his turn the 
spiritual master of Muhammad Nurbakhsh, founder 
of the Nurbakhshiyya. 

The best known of his works are the Awrad-i 

Fathiyya, a collection of prayers in Arabic, and the 

Dhakhirat al-Muluk, on political ethics (Lahore 1323; 

lith. Amritsar) cf. also H. Ethe in Gr.IPh., ii, 349). 

His teachings have received as yet little attention; 

for a preliminary study (more especially of his 

theory of dreams) and a translation of his Risdla-yi 

Manamiyya, see F. Meier, Die Welt der Urbilder bei 

AH Hamadani, Eranos Jahrbuch, xviii, 1950, 115 ff, 

Bibliographie : Nur al-DIn Djafar Badakhshl 

(a pupil of the saint), Khulasat al-Mandkib (for 

MSS see Storey, i, 946-7); pjaml, Nafahdt al-Uns, 

515; Kh w andamir, Habib al-Siyar, Teheran, iii, 

87; Nur Allah Shushtari, Madidlis al-Mu'minin, 

Teheran, 311; Rieu, Cat. Pers. MSS Brit. Mus., 

ii, 447; Brockelmann, II, 287, S II, 311; A. A. 

Hekmat, in J A, 1952, 53 ff.; G. M. D. Sufi, 

Kashmir, Lahore 1949, i, 85-94, "6ff.; Storey, i, 

946, note 4 (in the last named three works further 

references). For 'All's Persian transl. of Nadim 

al-Din Kubra's Usui, see Isl., 1937, 17. 

(S. M. Stern) 
c ALt ILAHl ("deifiers of 'All"), a vague and 
popular designation of sects connected with, and 
issued from, ShI'a extremism (ghulat, [q.v.]). In 
Persia and Kurdistan it covers chiefly the Ahl-i 
Hakk [j.v.]and Klzll-bash [q.v.], but may occasionally 
refer to such smaller communities as Sarli, Shabbak 
[«.».] etc. (Ed.) 

<ALl SHAN B. Ahmad b. Muhammad Ma'sOm 
b. IbrahIm Sadr al-DIn al-HusaynI al-MadanI, 
author of biographical works and a book of travels, 
b. 15 Djumada I 1052/12 August 1642 in Medina; he 
was a descendant of Ghiyath al-DIn al-ShfrazI. His 
father was since 105 5/ 1644 in the service of the 
prince Shahinshah <Abd Allah b. Muhammad Kutfj 
Shah. *Ali joined him in Haydarabad in 1068/1657. 
His father died in 1083/1672, a year after the death 



'ALl MARDAN KHAN 



393 



of his patron, Shahinshah c Abd Allah, and c Ali 
himself incurred the displeasure of the ruler, Abu 
'1-Hasan. He succeeded, however, in escaping to the 
court of Awrangzlb, who made him khan and diwdn 
at Burhanpiir. He went on the pilgrimage, and 
visited Baghdad, Nadjaf and Karbala'. In Shiraz 
he taught at the Mansuriyya madrasa and died in 
that town in 1117/1705 or 1120/1708. 

In 1074/1663 he wrote a description of his journey 
from Mecca to Haydarabad, entitled Sulwat al- 
Gharib wa-Uswat al-Arib. He is best known for his 
work on the poets of the nth century A. H., which 
he wrote in 1082/1671 as a supplement to al- 
Khafadji's Raykana : Suldfat al-*Asr fi Mahasin 
A'yan al- l Asr, Cairo 1324, 1334- As a supplement 
to the commentary on his own BadiHyya he gives 
biographies of writers on rhetoric, and also wrote, 
in addition to Various treatises and poems, a biogra- 
phical collection of ImamI Shi'is. 

Bibliography: Rawdat al-Qiannat, 412 ; Hadi- 
kat al-'Alam, lith. Hyderabad 1266, i, 363-5; 
Rieu, Supplement, no. 990; Brockelmann, II, 627, 
S II 554. (C. Brockelmann *) 

'ALl KHAN [see mahdI 'alI khan]. 
'ALl KUCUK [see begteginids]. 
'ALl b. Muhammad al-KO SHDJ I. 'Ala 5 al-DIn, 
astronomer and mathematician, b. in Samar- 
kand, d. in Istanbul, on 5 Sha'ban 879/19 Dec. 1474. 
He received his surname from his father, who served 
as the falconer (kushdji) of Ulugh Beg. He studied 
mathematics and astronomy in his native city under 
the amir Ulugh Beg [?.».], who was at the same time 
an able astronomer, and Kadi-zade-i Rumi, one of 
the rectors of the celebrated madrasa in Samarkand 
which was especially favoured by the amir . 'AH al- 
Kushdji succeeded Kadl-zade as director of the 
renowned observatory of Samarkand, and took part 
in the compilation of the Zidi Gurkdni, the principal 
author of which was the amir himself (cf. its preface). 
'All al-Kushdji is said to have left secretly for 
Kirman, in order to perfect himself in his studies, 
and on his return to have presented his patron with 
his Hall Ashkal al-Kamar. 

After the murder of Ulugh Beg, C AU al-Kushdji, 
left Samarkand and stayed in Tabriz with the Ak 
Koyunlu ruler Uzun Hasan. He was sent by this 
ruler on an embassy to the Ottoman sultan Muham- 
mad II; he went back to Tabriz to accomplish his 
political mission, but subsequently returned to 
Istanbul to establish himself there definitely. He was 
appointed as professor of sciences in the madrasa of 
the Aya Sofiya and greatly influenced the develop- 
ment of the sciences in Turkey. 

He composed in Kirman a commentary, dedicated 
to Abu Sa'id Khan, on Nasir al-DIn Tflsl's Tadfrid 
al-Kaldm; he also wrote on grammar and rhetoric. 
His main works are the Risala fi 'l-Hay'a, Risdla 
fi 'l-Hisdb, and a commentary on Ulugh Beg's Zidi. 
(The Risala al-Fathiyya and the Risdla Muham- 
madiyya are Arabic translations of the Risdla fi 
'l-Hay^a^nd the Risdla fi •l-Hisab). 

Bibliography: Tashkoprii-zade, al-SkakaHk 
al-Nu'mdniyya, 177-81; the catalogues of Krafft 
(Vienna), 139; Dom (St. Petersburg), 304; Pertsch 
(Berlin), 351-2; Rieu (Brit. Mus.), ii, 456-7; 
Wopke, in J A, 1862/i, 120 ff.; W. Barthold, Ulug 
Beg und seine Zeit, Leipzig 1935, 164 ff.; A. Adnan, 
La science ckez les Turcs Ottomans, 33; idem, 
Ilim, 32-4; Brockelmann, II, 305, S II, 329 (add: 
Shark al-Tadirid, Univ. 82,016; 'Unkud, 'Atif 
2678; Shark al-'Adudiyya, Raghib 1285, Univ. 
1532; Lari's comm. on the R. fi 'l-Hay>a, Raghib 



926, Well al-DIn 2307; Miram Celebi's comm. on 
the R. al-Fathiyya, Bayezid e Umumi 4614). 

(A. Adnan Adivar) 
'ALl MARDAN, honorific title given to 
'All b. Abt Talib by the ShI'ites, being an 
abbreviation of 'All shdh-i mardan, '"All, King of 
mankind". 

'ALl MARDAN, a Khaldji adventurer who 
acquired power in Bengal, centring upon the capital 
Lakhanawatl, in the first decade of the 7th/i3th 
century. Appointed to the iq(a c of Naran-go-e by 
Malik Ikhtiyar al-Din Muhammad Bakhtiyar 
Khaldji. he took advantage of the latter's defeat 
by the Hindu Rai of Kamrup, says Minhadj al- 
Siradj, to murder his master at Dlwkot on a sick 
bed. This occurred in 602/1205-6. 'All Mardan, 
however, was later imprisoned by Muhammad 
Shiran, putting him in the charge of the kofwdl of 
Naran-go-e. 'AH Mardan, in collusion with the 
kofwdl, managed to escape to the court of Kutb 
al-DIn Aybak and accompanied him to Ghaznln 
where he became a captive of Tadj al-Din Yilduz. 
when the latter recaptured Ghaznln from Kutb al- 
Din Aybak (605/1208-9). After about a year 'All 
Mardan escaped and presented himself again before 
Aybak at Lahore. He was treated with favour and 
was assigned the territory of Lakhanawatl. According 
to the Tabakdt-i Ndsiri, 'All Mardan proceeded to 
Diwkot, assumed power there and brought the whole 
of Lakhanawatl under his sway. On the death of 
Kutb al-Din Aybak in 607/1210, 'All Mardan had 
the khufba read in his own name and was styled 
Sultan 'Ala 5 al-DIn. He brought the Khaldji nobles 
of Lakhanawatl under control and overawed 
neighbouring Hindu chiefs. His overbearing beha- 
viour caused discontent among the Khaldji nobles 
and under the leadership of Malik Husayn al-DIn 
'Iwaz, they conspired against him and slew him. 
'All Mardan ruled for something over two years, the 
probable date of his death being 610/1213. 

Bibliography: Minhadj al-Siradj, Tabakdt-i 
Ndsiri, trans. Raverty, i, 572-80; Sir Jadunath 
Sarkar (ed.), History of Bengal, ii, Dacca 1948; 
Cambridge History of India, iii, 50 ff. 

(P. Hardv) 
'ALl MARDAN KHAN, a Bakhtiyari chief 
who rose to prominence in the troubled period 
following the assassination of Nadir SJjah in 1747- 
In 1 163/1750 he captured Isfahan, and, in con- 
junction with Karim Khan Zand [?.».], placed Ismail, 
a grandson of Shah Sultan Husayn, on the throne. 
'All Mardan's oppressive measures led to an open 
breach with Karim Khan, who, fearing for his life, 
attacked and defeated him. 'All Mardan Khan fled, 
and was subsequently assassinated by Muhammad 
Khan who, according to Mirza Sadik, the author of 
the Tarikh-iGiti-gushd, was a relative of Karim Khan. 
This 'All Mardan Khan is not to be confused with 
his contemporaries and namesakes (a) the watt of 
Luristan, a Fayll Lur who was wounded at Gulnabad 
in 1722 and later vainly endeavoured to relieve 
Isfahan, and (b) 'All Mardan Khan Shamlu, whom 
Nadir Shah sent as ambassador to Delhi and Con- 
stantinople. 

Bibliography: MIrza Sadik, TaMkh-i GUi- 
guskd (quoted by Malcolm, History of Persia, 
London 1815, ii, 116-8); Rida Kuli Khan Hidayat, 
Rawdat al-Safa'-yi Ndsiri, Teheran 1853/6, ix, 7-9; 
Hammer-Purgstall, iv, 477, 478 (this authority's 
reference to 'AH Mardan's earlier career, iv, 278 
is inaccurate); O. Mann (ed.), Mugmil et-Tdrtkk-i 
ba c dnddirije, 7, 8. (L. Lockhart) 



<ALl MUHAMMAD SHlRAZl — <ALl PASHA CORLULU 



394 

c ALl MUHAMMAD SHtRAZt [see babI]. 

C ALI PASHA 'ARABADJI, Ottoman Grand 
Vizier. Born at Okhri between 1620 and 1622, died 
at Rhodes 16 Sha'ban 1104/21 April 1693. Af first 
imam to various eminent people, then ketkhuda, he 
became agha of the Janissaries in 1101/1689, and 
later wazir and ka'im-makdm of the imperial 
stirrup. Through the support of the kadi 'l-'asker 
Yahya Efendi and the Shaykh al-Islam Abu Sa'id- 
zade Feyd Allah Efendi, he succeeded Koprulii- 
zade Mustafa Pasha, killed at Szalankamen as Grand 
Vizier, on 6 Dhu 'l-Hidjdja 1102/30 August 1691. 
Showing no desire to place himself at the head 
of the army against the Austrians, c Ali Pasha suc- 
ceeded in disarming his opponents either by bribery 
or by dismissal. As a result of this policy he incurred 
the hostility of the sultan, who eventually dismissed 
him (28 March 1692), and replaced him by HadjdjI 
'All Pasha. c Ali Pasha c Arabadji was exiled to Rhodes, 
but as he represented a possible source of trouble and 
conspiracy, his enemies obtained his death warrant, 
and shortly afterwards he was executed at Rhodes. 
His cognomen is derived from the fact that he sent 
-off one of the officials whom he had dismissed in an 

Bibliography: Rashid, Ta'rikh, II, 166 ff.; 

c Othman-zade Talb, Jfadikat al-Wuzara, 118 ff.; 

Flndlkllll Mehmed Agha, Silahdar Ta'rikhi, ii, 

596-634; IA, s.v. (by Resad Ekrem Kocu). 

(R. Mantran) 

'ALl PASHA CANDARLl-ZADE (d. 1407), son 
of Candaril Khalll Khayr al-DIn Pasha, was, like his 
lather, kadi, then kadi 'l-'asker, and finally Grand 
Vizier, and also combined the functions of wazir, 
that is to say head of the administration and finance, 
and of army commander, perhaps after the death 
-of his father in 1387. After having directed a cam- 
paign in Anatolia against the IJaramanid 'All Bey, 
he conducted the skilful operations in Bulgaria which 
led to the capture of several fortresses (Pravad, 
Tlrnova, Shehirkoyii etc.) before the battle of 
Kossova (20 June 1389), in which he played a 
■decisive part. Murad I was killed in the battle, and 
-was succeeded by Ylldlrlm Bayazld I, who appointed 
< A1I Pasha Grand Vizier. 'AH Pasha accompanied 
the Sultan in the campaigns in Greece and Bosnia, 
and played an important part at the siege of Con- 
stantinople, commenced in 1391, but abandoned as 
the result of the invasion of eastern Anatolia by 
TImur. After the battle of Ankara (1402) in which 
Bayazld I was taken prisoner, 'All Pasha saved the 
heir apparent Sulayman and took him first to Brusa 
and then to Adrianople. Up to the time of his death 
in Radjab 809/January 1407, c Ali Pasha remained 
Grand Vizier to Sulayman Celebi, and his skilful 
diplomacy secured for the latter mastery over the 
Ottoman territory from Ankara to the "Aegean Sea ; 
deprived of his wazir, Sulayman Celebi succumbed to 
the attacks of Mehmed Celebi, later Mehmed I (1410). 

C A1I Pasha Candarll-zade, like his father, made a 
contribution to the organisation of the Ottoman 
administration, notably by codifying the functions 
of the kadis, by creating the corps of the il-oghldn — 
pages from whom numerous imperial officials were 
recruited, and by making the wazirs persons of 
influence and respect. The chroniclers have criticised 
his predilection for the pleasures of life — a taste 
which he communicated to Bayazld I, and have 
stated that he was not loved either by the people or 
by government personnel. C A1I Pasha was buried at 
Iznik (Nicaea) in his father's tomb. At Brusa, a 
quarter, a mosque and a convent bear his name. 



Bibliography: Ashlk Pasha-zade; Ta'rikjt, 
Istanbul 1332, 70, 71, 76, 77; Mehmed Neshrl, 
Djihan-numd, Ankara 1949, i, 220 ff. ; Sa'd al-DIn, 
Tddi al-Tawdtikh r i r 138 ff.; Gibbons, The Foun- 
dation of the Ottoman Empire, 171-2, 199-200, 
234 ; J. von Hammer, Histoire de V Empire Ottoman, 
i, I.5, 262-77; 1.6, 316-20, 341; 1.8, 105, 125, 
135-40; F- Taeschner and P. Wittek, Die Vezir- 
familie von Candarltzade, Isl., 1929, 60-115, IA, 
s.v. (by I. H. Uzuncarsili). (R. Mantran) 

<ALl PASHA CORLULU, Ottoman Grand 
Vizier. Born about 1670, the son of a peasant or 
barber of Corlu, he was adopted for his good looks 
and intelligence by a courtier of Ahmed II and 
placed as a probationer in the Ghalata Sarayl, 
whence he entered the Palace service, rising by way 
of the seferli oda to be silahdar under Mustafa II. 
As silahdar he greatly enhanced the importance of 
his office, whose occupant thenceforward replaced 
the Dar al-Sa'ade Aghast as intermediary between 
the sultan and the Grand Vizier and the Bab al- 
Sa'ade AghasI as controller of the il-oghUins, and 
composed a nizam-ndme re-defining the whole 
hierarchy of the enderun. At the onset of the revo- 
lution of 1703 he was ousted from this position by 
the influence of the Shaykh al-Islam Feyd Allah and 
the Grand Vizier Rami Mehmed and given the rank 
of wazir. But on the accession of Ahmed III he was 
made a kubbe waziri and continued as such, except 
for a short interval during 1704, when he was 
appointed wait of Tripoli in Syria, until his elevation 
to the Grand Vizierate in May 1710. 

Corlulu was the first competent Grand Vizier of 
the reign, and for four years he enjoyed great favour 
with the sultan, becoming a damad in 1708 by 
marrying Emine Sultan, a daughter of Mustafa II. 
He devoted himself in particular to the redress of 
abuses in the standing and feudal armies, the 
reduction of state expenditure, and the improvement 
of the Arsenal and the fleet. But he was so far 
determined that the Porte should not be involved 
in war that he neglected not only the opportunity 
provided by the outbreak of the War of the Spanish 
Succession for a possible recovery of the Morea 
from Venice, but also that provided by the invasion 
of the Ukraine by Charles XII of Sweden, which 
might, if assisted by Ottoman forces, have obviated 
the threat offered to the Ottoman Empire by thi 
designs of Peter the Great. He was criticized by his 
enemies on both counts; and after Charles's defeat at 
Poltava and his flight into Ottoman territory, the king 
himself refused to accept presents sent to him by 
Corlulu or to deal with him, on the ground that he had 
been led to expect assistance from the Crimean Tatars 
that had not been forthcoming. This was perhaps due 
to a misunderstanding; but it was fatal to Corlulu. 
Ahmed lost confidence in him, and he was accordingly 
dismissed in J une 1 7 1 o and banished, whilst on his way 
to assume the governorship of Keffe in the Crimea, 
to Mitylene, where he was executed in December 
of the following year at the age of about forty. 

Corlulu 'All Pasha was the founder of a number of 
fine monuments, notably two Udmi 1 mosques at Is- 
tanbul, at the Carshl Kapl (where he is buried) and the 
Tersane, and a school and fountain at his native Corlu. 
Bibliography: 'Othman-zade Ta'ib, Jfadikat 
al-Wiizerd, ii, 10 f.; Tayyar-zade c Ata, Enderun 
Ta'rikhi, i, 160 f., 285, ii, 76-83 ; Rashid, Ta'rikjt, 
passim; A. N. Kurat, Isvef Kiralt Karl (etc.), 
index; idem, Prut Seferi ve Barisi, index; Hammer- 
Purgstall, vii, 116 ff.; IA, s.v. (by R. E. Kocu). 
(H. Bowen) 



c ALl PASHA DAMAD — 'ALl PASHA HAKlM-OGHLU 



395 



<ALl PASHA DAMAD (1667-1716), Ottoman 
Grand Vizier. Born at S516z near Nicaea in 
1079/1667, he entered the Seraglio of Ahmed II, 
and filled successively the posts of katib, rikdbddr, 
iukadar and sildhddr; he exercised great influence 
over Sultan Ahmed III, who came to the throne in 
1703, and who made him wazir and gave him his 
daughter Fatima in marriage (Rabi c I 1121/May 
1709); he had a hand in the appointment and 
dismissal of wazirs, including Kopriilu-zade Nu c man 
Pasha and Baltadji Mehmed Pasha. The Grand 
Vizier Khodja Ibrahim Pasha was condemned to 
death for attempting to assassinate Damad 'AH 
Pasha, and the latter then became Grand Vizier 
(Rabi' II 1125/April 1713). One of his first acts was 
to sign with Russia the peace of Adrianople, which 
fixed the frontier between the two countries between 
the Samara and the Orel (5 June 1713). Wishing to 
erase the treaty of Karlovitz, he undertook the 
Morean campaign, for which the motive was the 
attacks by Venetians and Montenegrins against 
Turkish vessels; in 1715, Damad 'All Pasha occupied 
Napoli de Romania, Argos, Coron, Modon, Malvasia, 
and, in Crete, La Suda and Spina Longa. At the same 
time he had to suppress the revolts of 'Othman- 
oghlfl Nasuh Pasha in Syria, of the bandit 'Abbas 
in Anatolia, and of Kaytas Bey in Egypt. 

In 1716, he initiated an expedition against Corfu, 
but Venice and Austria concluded an offensive and 
defensive alliance which forced him to send his 
troops to Belgrade. The Austrian army, led by 
Prince Eugene, met the Ottomans at Peterwardein 
on 16 Sha'ban 1128/5 August 1716; Damad 'All 
Pasha was mortally wounded by a bullet in the 
forehead during the battle, when the Turkish troops 
had already begun to retreat. He was buried in the 
garden of the mosque of Sulayman I at Belgrade; 
70 years later, when he captured this town, the 
Austrian general Landon transferred the tomb to 
the forest of Hadersdorf at Vienna. While the 
campaign against Austria was in progress, Turkish 
forces were disembarked at Corfu, but the news of 
the death of the Grand Vizier resulted in the 
evacuation of the Turkish troops from the island 
(July-August 1716). 

Damad 'AH Pasha was at once a fine military 
leader and a great statesman ; he displayed a shrewd 
political sense, suppressed a number of abuses, 
restricted and controlled the expense- of the Seraglio, 
prohibited the system of giving presents, regulated 
the movements of government personnel and 
restored to their former state estates which had been 
converted into malikdne. He patronised men of 
letters, especially the historian Rashid, and displayed 
ijreat interest in science and poetry. He reopened the 
school for iHoghlans at Galatasaray, which had 
become a madrasa. He built a mosque at Soloz and 
repaired the Clnarll mosque at Ayvansaray. 

Bibliography: Rashid, Ta'rikh, iii and iv, 

passim; Faraidi-zade Mehmed Sa'id, Gulshen -i 

Ma'drif, ii; Mustafa Pasha, NatdHdi al-Wukii'dt, 

iii, 22-6; Tayyar-zade 'Ata 5 , Ta'rikh, ii, 85-100. 

iii, 208, v, 25-38; J. von Hammer, HisUrire de 

I' Empire Ottoman, xiii, ch. 63; I A, s.v. (by M. 

Cavid Baysun). (R. Mantran) 

'ALl PASHA GUZELQiIE ("the handsome"), 

(d. 1620) Ottoman Grand Admiral and Grand 

Vizier. Born at Istankoy (Cos), he was successively 

bey of Damiette, and beylerbeyi of the Yaman (1602), 

Tunis, Morea and Cyprus. In November 1617, he 

succeeded Khalll Pasha as kapudan-i deryd; in 

August 1618, a storm off the Dalmatian Coast caused 



the loss of eleven vessels of his fleet ; dismissed at the 
accession of Mustafa I, he again became kapudan-i 
deryd shortly afterwards. On 16 Muharram 1029/ 
23 December 1619, he succeeded Okiiz Mehmed 
Pasha as Grand Vizier following intrigues among 
the intimates of Sultan 'Othman II, who loaded him 
with gifts. He became notorious for his confiscation 
of property and extortion of money, in which he 
spared neither Muslim nor Christian; the Venetian 
dragoman Borissi, being unable to pay the 100,000 
thalers demanded, was strangled ; the Greek Skarlati, 
provider of the od£ak to the Janissaries, was forced 
to pay an enormous sum; the Greek patriarch 
obtained his release by paying 30,000 ducats on top 
of the 100,000 demanded. 'All Pasha was trying to 
incite the Sultan to a campaign against Poland, 
when he died of calculus (15 Rabi' I, 1030/8 March 
1621). He was buried at Beshiktash, near the tomb of 
Yahya Efendi. He also received the cognomen of 
Celebi ("the elegant"). 

Bibliography: Ibrahim Peiewl, Ta?rikh, ii, 
371-5; Na'Ima, Ta'rikh, ii, 153-86; 'Othman-zade 
Talb, Hadikat al-Wuzara 3 ; Katib Celebi, Tukfat 
al-Kibar fi Asfar al-Bihar, 105 ff. ; J. von Hammer, 
Histoire de I' Empire Ottoman, viii, 1. 44, 251-3 and 
263-72; I A, s.v. (by Resad Ekrem Kocu). 

(R. Mantran) 
'ALl PASHA HAKtM-OGHLU. Grand Vi- 
zier under the Ottoman sultans Mahmud I and 
'Othman III. His father, Nuh Efendi, the physician 
of Mustafa II, was a Venetian renegade. 'All Pasha 
was born on 15 Sha'ban 1 100/4 June 1689; brought 
up in the seraglio, he held various administrative 
posts at Istanbul, and then in the provinces; in 
1722 he was appointed as governor of Adana and 
subdued the tribes of Cilicia; in 1724 he became 
governor of Aleppo, and in the same year distinguished 
himself at the siege and capture of Tabriz. Appointed 
wazir in 1725, he was successively beylerbeyi of 
Anatolia, ser-'-asker of the East, governor of Siwas, 
and governor of Diyarbakir. In 1730, again ser-^asker 
of the East, he defeated Shah Tahmasp III at 
Kuridjsn (13 Rabi' I 1144/15 September 1731), and 
captured Hamadan, Urmiya and Tabriz. He became 
Grand Vizier soon after the peace called after 
Ahmed Pasha, 15 Ramadan 1144/12 March 1732. 
His first term of office as wazir was marked by wise 
administration and currency reform. In the field of 
foreign affairs, the Marquis de Villeneuve, the 
French ambassador, urged the Grand Vizier to 
conclude an alliance with France against Austria, 
but the conditions put forward by 'All Pasha (and 
suggested by Ahmed Pasha Bonneval) prevented 
the conclusion of the treaty. Dismissed on the 
resumption of hostilities with Persia (22 Safar 1148/ 
14 July 1735) 'AH Pasha was exiled to Mytilene, then 
appointed governor of Bosnia, where he held the 
Austrians in check for three years, successfully 
defended Trawnik, and, on 4 August 1737, defeated 
Marshal Hildburghausen near Banjaluka. In 1740 
he was sent to Egypt, where he suppressed a mamluh 
revolt; in 1741 he was made beylerbeyi of Anatolia, 
and on 15 Safar 1155/21 April 1742 he became Grand 
Vizier for the second time. The following year he 
was dismissed for wishing to lead in person the 
eastern expedition against Nadir Shah of Persia. 
Governor of Bosnia in 1744, then of Aleppo (1745). 
he was nominated commander-in-chief of the eastern 
army, but in the meantime peace was signed with 
Nadir Shah (1746). Governor of Bosnia, then of 
Trebizond, he was made Grand Vizier by 'Othman 
III on his accession 4 Djumada I 1 168/16 February 



396 



<ALl PASHA HAKlM-OGHLU — c ALl PASHA MUHAMMAD AMlN 



1755 ; this third term of office as Grand Vizier only 
lasted 53 days; the silihddr BlylkH 'All Agha suc- 
ceeded in securing his dismissal and his exile to 
Cyprus ; but in the course of the year he was appointed 
Governor of Egypt, and in 1756 beylerbeyi of 
Anatolia. Recalled in 1757, he retired to Kutahya, 
where he died 9 Dh u '1 Hidjdja 1171/14 August 1758. 
He was buried in the tomb adjoining the mosque 
which he was responsible for building at Istanbul 
(1732-4). He was reputed to be a learned, shrewd 
and liberal man, but quick-tempered and extremely 
severe in his dealings with officials guilty of extortion. 
Bibliography: Wasif, Ta'rikh, i, 50 ff.; 
Kiiciik Celebl-zade 'Asim, Ta'rikh, 301, 403. 566, 
598; Dilawer-zade 'Omer, Hadiftat al-Wuzard\ 
suppl. i, 42-51; J- von Hammer, Histoire de 
I' Empire Ottoman, xiv, xv, xvi, passim; Comte 
de Bonneval, Mimoires, ii, passim; I A, s.v. (by 
Resad Ekrem Kocu). (R. Mantran) 

'ALl PASHA KHADIM. Ottoman Grand 
Vizier. At first ah aghasi, then beylerbeyi of Kara- 
man and subsequently of Rumelia, he distinguished 
himself in the course of a campaign in Wallachia 
(1485); wazir in i486, he defeated the Mamluks of 
Egypt at the battle of Aghaiaylr in Cilicia (1942), 
took the fortresses of Coron and Modon (1500), and 
was appointed Grand Vizier the following year in 
succession to Meslh Pasha. Dismissed in 1503, he 
again became Grand Vizier in 1506 and remained in 
office until his death. He strove to secure the succes- 
sion of the shah-za.de Ahmed, second son of Sultan 
Bayazid II, against the shdh-zdde Korkud, whom 
he defeated in 914/1508; he also defeated prince 
Selim, who had rebelled against his father, at 
Corlu (1511). He died while engaged in suppressing 
the revolt of Kara Blylk-oghlu, at Gokiay, between 
Siwas and Kayseri (15 n): he was the first Grand 
Vizier to die on the field of battle; his death shattered 
the hopes of the shdh-zdde Ahmed. A skilful and 
upright statesman, esteemed by Sultan Bayazid II 
and by the people, C A1I Pasha was in addition the 
patron of men of letters and of science, notably of 
the poet Meslhi and the historian Idris Bitllsi. He 
built at Istanbul the mosque known as 'Atik 'All 
Pasha (1496), together with the adjoining medrese, 
school and Hmaret; he was also responsible for a 
hammdm at Karagumriik and a mosque at Yassloren, 
and it was he who converted the monastery church 
of Saint Savior in Chora into a mosque, known as 
Ka c riyye Didmi'. 

Bibliography: 'Ashik-pasha-zade, Ta'rikh, 
223-9; 'Othman-zade Ta 3 ib, Hadikat al-Wuzara 3 , 
i, 20; Mehmed Hemdemi Solak-zade, Ta'rikh, 
299 ft.; J. von Hammer, Histoire de V Empire 
Ottoman, iv, 1. 20, 14, 19,24-6, 69, 95-114; IA, 
s.v. (by Resad Ekrem Kocu). (R. Mantran) 
'ALl PASHA MUBARAK, Egyptian states- 
man and man of letters. Born in 1239/1823 in 
Birinbal (Dakahliyya province) he gained admission 
to the recently founded government schools of Kasr 
al- c AynI and of Abu Za'bal, and studied at the 
polytechnic (muhandis-khane) of Bfllak. In 1260/1844 
he was sent to France as a member of the "Mission 
£gyptienne" and was trained as an officer and 
military engineer. On his return to Egypt in 1266/ 
1849-50, he won the favour of 'Abbas I and began 
a distinguished career first in the topographical 
department of the Ministry of War, then as Director 
of the military training college al-Mafruza. During 
the Crimean War he held appointments in Istanbul, 
in the Crimea and in Gumushkhane. Under Sa'Id he 
resigned, but under Isma'il he occupied one after 



another almost all the ministerial posts and other 
offices of state. Everywhere he introduced reforms, 
though often acting with well-meant zeal rather 
than with thorough understanding. To him is due 
the establishment of printing-offices and the 
printing of textbooks, especially technical ones, the 
construction of a barrage in the Nile, near Cairo 
{al-kandtir al-khayriyya) which was, however, not 
very successful, of railways and irrigation-works, the 
foundation of the Dar al-'Ulfim, a teachers' training 
college on the model of the "Ecole normale supe- 
rieure" and of the Khedivial Library (1870). In 
matters of education he obtained the advice and 
cooperation of the Swiss educationalist Ed. Dor Bey 
(d. 18.80). During his last tenure of office as Minister 
of Education in the government of Riyad Pasha 
(from 1888 onwards), the defects of his admini- 
stration became more and more apparent, and he 
had to resign, following, the intervention of Sir 
Alfred (later Lord) Milner, in 1891. He died in Cairo 
on Djumada I 1311/14 Nov. 1893. 

His publications are concerned with education, 
engineering, etc. ; during his last period of office he 
published a reader for schools. His principal work, 
al-Khi(at al-Qiadida al-Tawfikiyya, Bulak 1306/ 
1888-9, in 20 parts, compiled with the help of 
numerous assistants, is intended to be a modern 
counterpart of al-Makrizi's Khitat. It contains 
descriptions of Cairo (i-vi) and Alexandria (vii) with 
biographies of the famous men buried in these 
cities; descriptions of the other principal places of 
Egypt, with biographies (viii-xvii) ; descriptions of 
the Nilometer (xviii), of canals and dams (xix) and 
of the coinage (xx). Part xi, s.v. Birinbal, contains 
his autobiography. His sources for the biographies 
are al-Sakhawi, al-Sha'rani, al-Suyutl, al-Muhibbi 
and al-Djabartl; for the historical and archaeological 
part he also uses European works, including the 
writings of de Sacy and Quatremere. It is a useful 
compilation but must be used with caution. 

Bibliography: K. Vollers, in ZDMG, 1893, 

720 ff.; I. Goldziher, in WZKM, 1890, 347 ff.; 

L. Cheikho, La litt. arabe au ig e siecle, ii, 87, 

PJ. Zaydan, Taradiim Mashdhir al-Shark, ii, 34 ff.; 

J. Heyworth-Dunne, Introduction to the History 

of Education in Modern Egypt, index ; Brockelmann, 

II, 634, S II, 733. (K. Vollers *) 

c ALl PASHA MUHAMMAD AMlN, Ottoman 

Grand Vizier, born in Istanbul in February 1815, 

his father being a shopkeeper of the Egyptian 

Market. At the age of fourteen he obtained his 

first government post in the secretariat of the 

Imperial diwan and, whether because of his short 

stature, or of his ability, acquired the nickname 

'All. In 1833, having already learnt some French, 

he was appointed to the translation department of 

the diwan, and three years later was sent with a 

mission, first to Vienna, where he remained some 

eighteen months, and then, in 1837, to St Petersburg. 

On his return he was appointed Interpreter to the 

diwan; in the following year he accompanied 

Mustafa Reshid Pasha [q.v.] to London as Counsellor, 

on the latter's appointment as Ambassador; and in 

1839, on the accession of c Abd al-MedjId, they 

returned together to Istanbul. 

In 1840, 'All first deputized for the Counsellor to 
the Ministry of Foreign affairs and then replaced him. 
In 1 84 1 he was appointed Ambassador in London. 
Returning in 1844, he was made a member of the 
medjlis-i walA; and in 1845 he deputized for Sheklb 
Efendi, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, until his 
replacement by Reshid Pasha. 



'ALl PASHA MUHAMMAD AMlN 



397 



During Reshid Pasha's tenure of the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs 'All, who then again became Coun- 
sellor of that department, was also appointed 
beylikH of the diwdn; and when in 1846 Reshid was 
made Grand Vizier for the first time C A1I replaced 
him as Foreign Minister. In April 1848, after 'All 
had been raised to the rank of vizier, both Reshid 
and he were simultaneously dismissed, but were 
restored four months later and remained in office 
until 1852, when, on Reshid's again being dismissed, 
*AlI succeeded him as Grand Vizier, with Fu'ad 
Pasha as Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

His first Grand Vizierate, however, lasted only 
two months; and it was not until November 1854, 
after the outbreak of the Crimean War, when 
Reshid again became Grand Vizier, that 'All returned 
to high office, as Foreign Minister. In the interval 
he had been appointed first wall of Izmir (January- 
July 1853) and then wall of Khudawendigar (April- 
November 1854), also assuming whilst in the latter 
post, the presidency of the newly formed High 
Council of the tanzimdt [q.v.]. He continued to hold 
this position while Foreign Minister, as which, in 
March 1855, at the conclusion of the war, he was 
appointed a delegate to the preliminary peace con- 
ference in Vienna. Then, in the same year, on 
Reshid's resigning the Grand Vizierate, 'All again 
replaced him in that office, so that it fell to him 
in February 1856 to draw up and promulgate the 
famous kha((-i hiimdyun of that year and in the 
following month to sign the Treaty of Paris as first 
Ottoman delegate. Within the next two years, 
however, the disputes of the western Powers over 
the affairs of the Principalities led first to 'All's 
resignation and replacement by Reshid Pasha in 
November 1856 and then, in August 1857, to 
Reshid's dismissal and replacement by Mustafa 
Na'ill Pasha, with 'All as Foreign Minister. 'All 
retained this post under Reshid during the latter's 
last tenure of the Grand Vizierate, and on Reshid's 
death in January 1858, replaced him in that office 
for the third time. 

In 1859 'All was again dismissed for having 
suggested a cut in palace expenditure as one remedy 
for the financial crisis that then faced the Ottoman 
government. But after deputizing first for the 
Grand Vizier KIbrlslI Mehmed Emln Pasha during 
the latter's tour of Rumelia in the summer of i860 
and then for Fu'ad Pasha as Foreign Minister during 
his absence in Syria, in July 1861 'All was once 
more first appointed Foreign Minister himself and 
then, after the accession of 'Abd al-'AzIz, Grand 
Vizier for the fourth time. Two months later, in 
November 1861, although the new sultan, finding 
him too deliberate in action, dismissed him in favour 
of Fu'ad, 'All returned to the Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs. Moreover he continued in that office under 
successive Grand Viziers until February 1867, 
when, on the resignation of Muterdjim Rushdii 
Pasha, he took his place. On this occasion he 
remained Grand Vizier (it was his fifth term) for as 
long as four years, until his death. . 

'All was more or less self-educated, poverty 
having obliged him, in order that he might earn his 
living, to forgo the receipt of an idjdzet from the 
Bayazld medrese, where he began the study of 
Arabic, later continued with Ahmed Djewdet Pasha 
[q.v.]. But he was of a high natural intelligence; 
though shy and reserved, he was notably witty; he 
acquired a mastery of French ; and from the date of 
the Paris peace conference he enjoyed a European 
reputation as an outstanding diplomatist of perfect 



manners and rare integrity. Among his countrymen 
he became unpopular. He was in fact secretive, 
solemn, and overbearing, and was regarded as 
vindictive. During his final Grand Vizirate 'Abd al- 
'Azlz would have been glad to get rid of him, but 
recognized 'All's standing in Europe to be such that 
he could not afford to ; and 'All profited by this 
security to insist on his correct treatment by the 
sultan, on his right to have all governmental matters 
of importance to be referred to him, and on the 
immunity of ministers and officials from banishment 
(in the bad old way) except after due trial. 

Both 'All and Fu'ad owed all their official training 
and advancement to Reshid Pa'sha. But when in 
1852 'All took Reshid's place as Grand Vizier, the 
latter was hurt; and from that time on a coolness, 
which was exacerbated by calumniators, and even 
a certain rivalry, developed between 'All and Fu'ad 
on the one hand and Reshid on the other, although 
'All was not thereby prevented from serving under 
Reshid on two further occasions. All three were 
regarded as pillars of the tanzimdt movement. But 
whereas it was in part Reshid's object to educate 
the Ottoman public in self-government, 'All was of 
an authoritarian temperament and after Reshid's 
death was bent rather on the firm establishment of 
the rule of law and the consequent limitation of the 
sultans' autocracy. The maintenance of the Empire 
now depending on the goodwill of the Powers, it 
was above all his constant concern to forestall their 
complaints and intervention. But by devoting too 
little attention to the internal reforms by the promise 
of which their favour had been gained, he contri- 
buted to its decline. However, in 1868, during his 
last Grand Vizierate, the medjlis-i wdld was replaced 
by a Council of State {Mrd-yl devlet) on the one 
hand and a High Court of Justice (diwdn-l ahkdm-l 
'adliyye) on the other, with the aim of separating 
the judicial from the executive powers of the govern- 
ment; soon after an Imperial School (mekteb-i 
sulfani) was opened in the Ghalata Sarayi, where 
the instruction, on European lines, was in French 
and the pupils were non-Muslim as well as Muslim ; 
and in 1869 a Ministry of the Interior was created. 
During the same period education was also promoted 
by an increase in the number of the Rushdiyye 
schools; the army and navy were overhauled; the 
fleet was enlarged ; and an agreement was concluded 
for the construction of railways in Rumeli. 

'All's most notable actions at this time were his 
agreement to the evacuation of the Serbian for- 
tresses by Ottoman troops (1876); his visit to Crete 
curing the insurrection, as a result of which he 
formulated the nizdm-ndme under which it was 
governed for the next thirty years (1868) ; his success 
in causing the Powers to oblige the Greek govern- 
ment to desist from aiding the Cretan rebels; his 
restraint of the Khidlw Isma'Il from exercising 
powers beyond those already conceded to him; and 
his opposition to the formation of the Bulgarian 
Exarchate, which was consequently delayed till 1870, 
and to the absorption by Rome of the Armenian 
Catholic Church. 

Owing to his lack of interest in the movement for 
an Ottoman constitution, 'All was savagely attacked 
during the last years of his life by its most ardent 
advocates, the refugee Yeni Othmanlllar (Jeunes 
Turcs), most of whom, however, recognized after his 
death, that they had done him an injustice; and 
he was further successively distressed by the death 
in 1869 of Fu'ad Pasha, after which he made himself 
responsible for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as 



398 



«ALl PASHA MUHAMMAD AMlN — c ALl PASHA TEPEDELENLI 



well as the Grand Vizierate; by the defeat in 1870 
of France, on whom he had long particularly lent; 
and by the consequent denunciation by Russia of the 
Black-Sea clauses of the Treaty of Paris. Exhausted 
by overwork and these calamities, he fell sick in the 
summer of 1871, and died after a three months' 
illness on 7th September, aged fifty-six, at his 
seaside villa at Bebek on the Bosphorus. 

Bibliography: Lutfi, Ta'rikh, vii, 26, 92, 
viii, 31, 72, 85, 115, 154. 159, 160; Memduh 
Pasha, Mir'dt-i Shu'unat, 40; Fatima 'Aliyye, 
Djewdet Pasha we-Zamdni, 33-4, 42, 44, 47, 49, 
53-5. 69, 76, 85-92, 95-99, 109-113, 118-119; Ali 
Fuat, Ricali Muhimmei Siyasiye, 56-101; Ibnu- 
lemin M. K. Inal, Osmanll Devrinde Son Sadria- 
zamlar, i, 4-58; E. Engelhardt, LaTurquieet Le 
Tanzimat; Charles Mismer, Souvenir du monde 
musulman; I. H. Seviik, Tanzimattanberi, i, index; 
IA. s.v. (A. H. Ongunsu). (H. Bowen) 

'ALl PASHA RI£WAN BEGOWIC [see rizwan 
BEGOWifi]. 

'ALl PASHA SEMIZ, Ottoman Grand 
Vizier. Born at Brazza in Herzegovina, he was 
carried off at an early age during a dewshirme 
operation to be brought up at Istanbul; in 953/1546 
he became agha of the Janissaries, and later beylerbeyi 
of Rumelia. Appointed governor of Egypt in 1549, 
he took part in SulaymSn I's Persian campaign, and 
succeeded Rustam Pasha as Grand Vizier in Shawwal 
968/July 1561, a post which he held until his death 
in Dhu '1-Ka'da 972/June 1565. Immediately after 
his appointment, he negotiated with the Austrian 
ambassador Busbecq a peace treaty which was signed 
at Prague 1 June 1562. But the peace policy of 'All 
Pasha was wrecked by the new Emperor Maxi- 
milian II; on the death of the Grand Vizier, Sultan 
Sulayman I had to undertake a fresh campaign 
against Austria. An intelligent and shrewd man, 
C A1I Pasha was famous for his corpulence (hence his 
cognomen Semiz, "the fat") and his wit. 

Bibliography: Mustafa SelanikI, Ta'rikh, 7-1 1, 
Ibrahim Pecewl, Ta'rikh, i, 24; 'Othman-zade 
Ta'ib, Uadlkat al-Wuzard', 31 ff.; J. von Hammer, 
Hisloire de I'Empire Ottoman, vi, 86 ff., 146 ft., 
199, 208; I A, s.v. (by Tayyib G5kbilgin). 

(R. Mantran) 
'ALl PASHA SURMELI, Ottoman Grand 
Vizier. Born in Dimetoka, he entered the financial 
administration and was eventually appointed 
defterddr in 1688 ; he was dismissed the following year, 
but in 1103/1691 was again defterddr and xvazir. 
Successively governor of Cyprus and Tripoli in 
Syria, he became Grand Vizier on 16 Radjab 1105/ 
13 March 1694 in the place of Bozoklu Mustafa 
Pasha, and conducted the Hungarian campaign, 
during which he unsuccessfully besieged Peter- 
wardein. Sultan Mustafa II, on his accession, 
retained C A1I Pasha in his post, but forced him to 
undertake a new campaign against Hungary; a 
revolt of the Janissaries led to his dismissal on 
18 Ramadan 1106/22 April 1695; condemned at 
first to exile, C A1I Pasha was later executed on 
4 Shawwal 1 106/18 May 1695. He instituted the 
practice whereby the Council of Ministers met four 
days a week, and changed the Egyptian crown 
lands, let at fixed perpetual rents, into fiefs on a 
life tenure. He was extraordinarily extravagant, 
and loved luxury; he owed his cognomen to his habit 
of using cosmetics. 

Bibliography : FlndlkllH Meljmed Agha, Sildh- 
ddr Ta'rikhi, ii, 739-48 ; Rashid, Ta'rikh, ii, passim ; 
'Othman-zade Ta'ib, Hadikat al-Wuzard', 121 ff.; 



J. von Hammer, Histoire de I'Empire Ottoman, 

xii, 323 ft.; IA, s.v. (by Resad Ekrem Kocu). 
(R. Mantran) 

'ALl PASHA TEPEDELENLI, governor of 
Yanya (Jannina). Born probably in 1744 of a 
family descended from a Mewlewl derwish of Kiitahya 
who migrated to Rumelia. His grandfather and father 
had in turn held the mutesellimlik of Tepedelen in 
the Epirus; but being left fatherless as a child 'All 
was brought up by his bold and ambitious mother, 
a native of Konitza, in an atmosphere of constant 
warfare between rival chieftains of the region. 

After attaching himself in turn to the Warden of 
the Passes (derbend bashbughu) and the mutasarrif 
of Delwine (Delvino), of whom he facilitated the 
murder after marrying his daughter, in 1874 he was 
himself made mutasarrif of Delwine with the rank 
of mir-i mirdn, and shortly afterwards, though only 
temporarily, that of Yanya as well. In the following: 
year he was transferred to TIrhala (Trikala) ; in 1786 
he was appointed Warden of the Passes in addition; 
and after the outbreak of war in 1787, having 
meanwhile exchanged TIrhala for Yanya, he fought 
with distinction on the Austrian front and after- 
wards took part in the suppression of a rising in 
Serbia. Although in 1790 he incurred the displeasure 
of the Porte so far as to be dismissed from the 
Wardenship, in view of his further prowess in the 
war, his conduct in continually adding without war- 
rant to f he territory under his control was overlooked; 
and in 1792, after the restoration of peace, he and 
his son Well al-Din were appointed joint Wardens 
for the specific purpose of preventing the passage 
of Albanians into Rumelia, where their employmept 
for the suppression of outlaw bands had only added 
to the prevailing disorder. Shortly afterwards 'Alt 
Pasha's influence was increased by the appointment, 
as a reward for his efforts to overcome the rebel. 
Paswan-oghlu, of another son, Mukhtar, to the 
sandiak of Eghriboz (Negropont) and Karll-ili. 

One of 'Ali Pasha's main concerns during and 
after the war of 1787-92, which had encouraged the 
Orthodox inhabitants of Suli to rebel against Ottoman 
rule, was to reduce them to obedience, though he 
was unable to do so finally before 1802. In the mean- 
time, after the transference of the Ionian Islands and 
the "four districts" of Preveze (Prevesa), Parga, 
Vonice (Vonitza) and Butrinto from Venetian tc- 
French sovereignty by the Treaty of Campo Formio- 
in 1797, 'Ali Pasha not only sent a contingent to- 
assist the conquest by Russo-Ottoman forces of 
Corfu, but also occupied Butrinto and, after several 
successes against the French, took possession of 
Preveze and Vonice as well. By the settlement of 
1802 the "four districts" were to be incorporated 
in the sandiak of Yanya. But it was not until i8i» 
that the incorporation of Parga, after various, 
vicissitudes, was in fact effected. 

In April 1802 'Ali Pasha was appointed wall of 
Rumelia. The Albanian irregulars employed to 
suppress the brigandage and revolts that were 
again rife in the province at this time had themselves 
mutinied at Edirne; and it was thought that 'All 
Pasha was alone capable of pacifying them and 
overcoming the general disorder. However, his. 
success in inducing many of the outlaws to return 
to their homes so far provoked the hostility of the 
many Rumelian a'ydn whose interest it was to- 
resist any thorough pacification, that in 1803 his 
appointment was revoked. He was then given the 
sandiak of Tirhala in addition to Yanya ;b ut it was 
sought to counterbalance his influence in Albania 



'ALl PASHA TEPEDELENLI — 'ALl AL-RipA 



399 



by replacing him in Rumelia by Ibrahim Pasha, 
the mutasarrif of Ishkodja (Scutari), whose authority 
among the Ghegs of the north was little less than 
'All's own among the Tosks of the south. 

After the resumption of the European war in 
1803 close relations were established between 'All 
and the French, who supplied him with weapons, 
munitions, and even gunners. But after Tilsit in 
1807, when the Ionian Islands were relinquished by 
Russia to the French, the latter then proposed 
regaining the "four districts", occupied Parga, and 
instigated a revolt of the Greeks of Tlrhala against 
'All's authority, which, however, was suppressed by 
his son Mukhtar. 

In 1810, after first marrying two of his sons and 
a nephew to daughters of the mutasarrif of Awlonya, 
and then contriving that the latter should be 
attacked in his capital, 'All Pasha was able to appro- 
priate this sandiak as well, under the pretext of 
flying to the relief of a relatieve. Mahmud II was 
enraged by this episode, but powerless to refuse the 
appointment of Mukhtar Pasha to Awlonya in place 
of the dispossessed governor. No less unwelcome to 
the Porte were 'All's acquisition of Ergiri (Argyro- 
castron) in the following year, and still more his 
invasion of the Gheg country, where, after over- 
coming some local resistance, he was able to add the 
fortresses of Tirana and Peklin (Pekinje) and the 
sandiaks of Okhri and Elbasan to his dominions. 

In the face of repeated protests from Istanbul 
'All Pasha sought to excuse this high-handed 
conduct, and in the war with Russia resumed in 
1809 sent a considerable force to the sultan's aid 
under the command of Mukhtar and Well Pashas. 
He also assisted the British forces in their occupation 
of the Ionian Islands; and in view of these services 
and his advanced age no attempt was made by the 
Porte to unseat him before 1820. Then, however, 
owing in the first place to his falling out with the 
all-powerful nishdnaji HSlet Efendi, and the latter's 
wish to divert Mahmud from his intention of 
abolishing the Janissaries; in the second place to 
the intrigues of certain Phanariot Greeks, who saw 
that he constituted an obstacle to the already 
projected insurrection in the Morea; and finally 
to the attempted assassination, contrived by 'AH 
Pasha, of Pasho Isma'il Bey, a former kakhya of 
Weli Pasha in Istanbul, in April 1820 he was dis- 
missed from his Wardenship of the Passes and 
ordered to withdraw his troops from all regions 
outside the sandiak of Yanya, while Well Pasha 
was deprived of his governorship of Tlrhala. Since 
there was little doubt that force would be needed 
to secure his obedience, all the governors of adjacent 
provinces had previously been warned to hold 
themselves in readiness to apply it; Khurshid 
Ahmed Pasha, recently made governor of the 
Morea, was appointed to command all the troops 
engaged in operations against him; and a flotilla 
was ordered to the Albanian coast. 'AH Pasha 
responded by concluding an agreement for mutual 
aid with the Greek rebel leaders and seeking to 
provoke revolts also in the Aegean islands, Serbia, 
and the Principalities; on which the Porte in turn 
deprived him of his vizirate, dismissed him from 
Yanya, and ordered him and his whole family to 
reside at Tepedelen. 

'AH Pasha was in fact deprived of all his acquisit- 
ions except Yanya itself, in the well stocked citadel 
of which he was then besieged, while three of his 
sons and a grandson, the governors of districts 
formerly in his control, surrendered. Owing to his 



provocation of a mutiny by the Albanians of the 
besieging force, a rising of the Suliotes, and the 
outbreak of the Greek revolt, it was not until the 
siege had continued for two years that 'All Pasha 
could be induced to give in. He then did so on 
condition that his life should be spared, retiring^ 
with a few supporters to a neighbouring monastery. 
But Khurshid Pasha's guarantee was repudiated by 
Halet Efendi, whose purposes it suited that the 
trouble at Yanya should continue. 'AH Pasha, on 
learning that his execution had been ordered, 
decided to fight. He was accordingly attacked and 
died from a shot wound on 24 January 1822. 

Tepedelenli 'AH Pasha attained some celebrity in 
Europe owing to his being visited by various writers, 
notably Lord Byron, and to his efforts to enlist help 
from both the French and the British in the prose- 
cution of his ambitions. He was brave, bold, and 
clever, but treacherous and wholly self-seeking. 
Having acquired great riches, he maintained a semi- 
royal state, surrounded by a strange entourage of 
European officers, Greek doctors, poets, derwishes^ 
astrologers, and the leaders of brigand bands. Of 
all the contemporary Muslim rebels against the 
Ottoman power he contrived to do it most harm, 
by facilitating the beginning of the Greek revolt. 
Bibliography: 'Asim, Ta'rikh, passim; Djew- 
det, Ta'rikh, passim; Lutfl, Ta'rikh, I, 13-30; 
Shems el-Din Sami, KamQs al-A'-ldm, iv, 3190-2; 
Juchereau de Saint-Denys, Histoire de I'Empire 
Ottoman, etc., Paris 1844, ii, 387!., iii, if.; 
C. H. L. Pouqup.ville, Voyage en Morie, etc., 
Paris 1805, iii, index; idem Histoire de la Giniration 
de la Grece, Paris 1825, iv, index; J. C. Hobhouse, 
Journey through Albania, etc., London 1813; 
T. S. Hughes, Travels in Greece and Albania, 
London 1830; Zinkeisen, vii, 83 ff.; Ibnulemin 
Mahmud Kemal, Mehmed HakM Pasa, TTEM, 
year 16; I. H. UzuncarsIH, Arsiv vesikalarlna gSre 
Yedi Ada Cumhuriyeti, Bell, i, 627-639; R. A. 
Davenport, Life of AH Pasha, 1837; A. Boppe, 
L'Albanie et NapoUon, Paris 1914; G. Remerand, 
AH de Tepelen, Paris 1928; J. W. Baggally, AH 
Pasha and Great Britain, Oxford 1938; I A, s.v. 
(by M. Cavid Baysun). (H. Bowen) 

'ALl al-RIPA, Abu 'l-Hasan b. MOsA b. Dja'far 
eighth Imam of the Twelver Shi'a, was born 
in Medina in 148/765 (al-Safadi) or, according to 
other and probably better informed authorities, in 
151/768 or 153/770 (al-Nawbakhtl, Ibn Khallikan, 
MIrkh»3nd). He died in Tus in 203/818; the sources 
agree on the year, but differ as to the day and 
month (end of Safar— al-Tabari, al-Safadi; 21 
Ramadan— al-Safadi; 13 Dhu '1-Ka'da or 5 Dhu 
'1-Hidj'dja— Ibn Khallikan). His father was the Imam 
Musa al-Kazim, his mother a Nubian umm walad 
whose name is variously given (Shahd or Nadjiyya — 
al-Nawbakhti; Sukayna— Ibn Khallikan: Khay- 
zuran — Ibn al-Diawzi). For the greater part of his 
life he played no political role, but was known only 
for his piety and learning. He related traditions 
from his father and from 'Ubayd Allah b. Artah, 
and gave fatwas in the mosque of the Prophet in 
Medina. His first appearance on the political stage 
was in 201/816, when the Caliph al-Ma'mun sum- 
moned him to Marw and appointed him as heir to 
the Caliphate, giving him the title of al-Rida. The 
sources agree that 'Ali al-Rida was reluctant to 
accept this nomination, ceding only to the insistance 
of the Caliph. The 'Abbasid and 'Alid princes and 
dignitaries, led by Al-Ma'mun's son al- 'Abbas, took 
the ftay'a to the new heir, who was dressed in green. 



400 



'ALl al-RIPA — 'ALIDS 



By the Caliph's order, green flags and green uniforms 
replaced the 'Abbasid black all over the empire. It 
is unlikely that the green colour was at this early 
date specifically associated with the house of 'All, 
and the precise significance of the change of colour 
is uncertain (cf. Weil, ii, 216, n. 3; Gabrieli, 37 n. 4). 
The full text of the document of appointment is 
preserved (al-Kalkashandi, Subh, ix, 362-6; Ibn 
al-Djawzi, MWat, Paris Ms. Ar. 5903, f. 149 r- 
151 r; translation in Gabrieli 38-45). It shows that 
al-Ma'mun carefully avoided the larger question of 
principle as between the claims of the houses of 
'Abbas and of •All, and simply appointed c Ali al- 
Rida as the person best fitted by his .personal 
qualities — that is to say, on SunnI rather than Shil 
grounds. Nor does the document make any allusion 
to the delicate question of the succession after 'All 
al-Rida. 

The appointment aroused vigorous and conflicting 
reactions. The various 'Abbasid governors, with the 
exception of Isma'il b. Dja'far in Basra, loyally 
carried out their orders, and exacted the oath of 
allegiance to the new heir. The Shi'ites were of 
•course jubilant, though by no means won over by 
this partial recognition of their claims. In 'Irak 
however this step, added to the effective transfer of 
the imperial capital from Baghdad to Marw, aroused 
the fury of the inhabitants, who rose in revolt 
against the Caliph. They were joined by the garrison 
and the 'Abbasid princes in Baghdad, one of whom 
they elected as Caliph. The hatred of the 'Irakis was 
especially directed against the brothers Ibn Sahl, 
to whose activities they attributed all their troubles. 
It seems to have been the disinterested 'All al-Rida 
himself who revealed to the Caliph the real meaning 
of the revolt in 'Irak. Al-Ma'mun, realising the 
position at last, made a gradual change of policy. 
In 203/818 he set out for Baghdad, arriving there in 
the following year. On the way both Fadl b. Sahl and 
< AU al-Rida died — the former murdered in Sarakhs, 
the latter after a brief illness in Tus. The ShiHte 
historians attribute his death to poison, administered 
in a pomegranate given to him by 'AH b. Hisham 
(al-Ya'kubl, ii, 551), or in a drink of pomegranate 
juice prepared by a courtier and handed to him by 
the Caliph himself {Makatil, 566-7). Al-Tabari makes 
no allusion to the possibility of murder. The Caliph 
mourned him publicly, and recited the last prayers. 
He was buried by the tomb of Harun al-Rashid, 
and his sanctuary {mashhad) has given its name to 
the town, supplanting the older name of Tus. In 
Shfite works he is credited with many miracles. 
Bibliography: Tabarl, iii, 1029 ff.; Mas'udI, 
Murudj, vii, 3, 61; Ya'kQbi (Houtsma), ii, 550 ff.; 
Ibn al-Athlr, vi, 249; Ibn Khallikan. no. 434; 
Safadi, MS. B. M. Or. 6587, fol. 214V-215V.; 
Djahshiyari (Cairo), 312-3; Ibn al-Djawzi, Mir'dt 
al-Zaman, MS. Paris Ar. 1505, fol. 40 v. ; Abu 
'1-Mahasin, Nudjutn, Cairo 1930, ii, 174-5; Mlr- 
kh'and, Rawdat al-Safa, iii, 18-23; Bal c aml, tr. 
Zotenberg, iv, 508 ff., 515 **-, 518. Shl'ite works : 
Nawbakhti, Firak al-ShTa, (Ritter), 73 «• ; Makatil 
al-Tdlibiyyin, Cairo 1949, 561-572; for Shl'ite 
hagiographical accounts of the life and 
sayings of 'All al-Rida, see Ibn Babuya al-Kumml, 
'■Uyun Akhbdr al-Rida, (Brockelmann, I, 187, 
S I, 321), lith. Tehran, 1275, and Abu 'Abd Allah 
Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Nu'man al-Harith! 
al-Baghdadl al-Mufid b. al-Mu'aUim, Al-Irshad fi 
Mahifat HudjaM Allah <ala 'l-'-Ibdd (Brockel- 
mann, S I, 322). Modern authors: F. Gabrieli, 
Al-Ma'mun e gli 'Alidi, Leipzig 1929, 35 ff.; 



G. Weil, Geschichte der Caliphen, ii, 316 ft; 

J. N. Hollister, The Shi'a of India, London 1953, 

80-4. (B. Lewis) 

'ALl RipA-I 'ABBASl, calligraphist in the 
reign of Shah 'Abbas, who wrote out inscriptions 
for some of the great mosques of Isfahan (Masdjid-i 
Shah, Masdjid-i Luff Allah) as well as for the dome 
over the tomb of the shrine of 'All al-Rida and the 
shrine of Kh'adja Rabi' in Mashhad. He was also 
appreciated as a copyist of manuscripts, several of 
which in his handwriting are still preserved. Some 
miniatures are also attributed to him, but he is not 
to be confounded with Rida-i 'AbbasI [?.».]. 

Bibliography: I. Hubbard, 'AKRifS-i 'Abbdsf, 

calligrapher and painter, Ars Islamica, 1937, 

282-91; Th. W. Arnold, Painting in Islam, 146; 

Survey of Persian Art, 1739, 1891. 

'ALl SHfiR KANI' [see sani']. 

'ALl SHlR NAVA'I [see navA 5 !]. 

'ALl TEGlN [see sarasianids]. 

'ALl WASI' [see wisi' 'alisi]. 

'ALl WERDl KUAN, bearing the title of 
Mahabat Djang. was the governor of Bengal 
(1740-56) under the later Mughal emperors of India. 
Being the son of a Turkoman of the name of MIrza 
Muhammad 'Ali, he started his career as the 
governor of Bihar, and after defeating the previous 
governor of Bengal, Sarfaraz Khan, entered Mur- 
shidabad [?.«.] on 12 May 1740, as viceroy of Bengal, 
Bihar and Orissa. For most of the time, he was 
engaged in ceaseless and fruitless warfare against 
the Marathas, who finally succeeded in taking 
Orissa from him. He died on 9 April 1756 and was 
succeeded by his grandson, Siradj al-Dawla MIrza 
Mabmud, who proved to be the last Mughal governor 
of Bengal; for Clive's victory at Plassey on 23 June, 
1757, established the supremacy of the British in 
that part of India. 

Bibliography: The Cambridge History of 

India, iv, index, s.v. 'All Vardl Khan. 

ALICANTE [see la&ant]. 

ALIDADA [see asturlab]. 

'ALIDS, descendants of 'AH b. Abl TSHb, 
who had eighteen sons (according to most works on 
'Alid genealogy, but fourteen according to another 
version given by al-Tabari and eleven according to 
al-Mas'udi), and seventeen daughters. His sons were 
as follows: 

By Fatima; al-Hasan, al-Husayn, and al-Muhsin 
(or Muhassin). The third does not appear in all 

By Khawla : Muhammad, known as Ibn al- 
Hanafiyya. 

By Umm al-Banin; 'Abbas the elder, 'Abd Allah, 
'Uthman the elder, Dja'far the elder. 

By al-Sahba 5 , called Umm Habib; 'Umar. 

By Layla bint Mas'ud; Abu Bakr 'Abd al-Rahman, 
'Ubayd Allah. 

By Asma 5 bint 'Umays; Yahya, 'Awn, Muhammad 
the younger (according to al-Tabari). 

By Umama bint Abi'l-'As; Muhammad the younger 
(the second, according to al-Tabari). 

By other mothers; Dja'far the younger, 'Abbas 
the younger, 'Umar the younger, 'Uthman the 
younger, Muhammad the younger (according to Akhii 
Muhsin, or the second, according to the Makatil). 

Five of these sons left issue, viz. al-Hasan, al- 
Husayn, Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya, 'Umar and 
'Abbas. (Itti'df, 7). 

It was to al-Hasan [?.«.], al-Husayn [q.v.], and, 
for a time, Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya (?.«.] and 



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their descendants that the loyalties of the different 
groups of the ShI'a [q.v.] were given. The claims made 
by the ShI'a on behalf of the c Alids were broadly of 
two kinds. For the extremist Shi'a the 'Alid Imams 
were the spiritual as well as the religious and political 
heirs of the Prophet, whose spiritual inspiration they 
retained or resumed. For the moderate Shi'a they 
were the legitimate heirs of the Prophet as heads 
of the Umma of Islam, with a better claim to the 
succession than that of the reigning Caliphs, whom the 
ShI'a regarded as usurpers. The early 'Alids, with 
the possible exception of Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya 
and the more probable exception of his son Abu 
Hashim, seem consistently to have refused to have any 
dealings with the extremists, or countenance their 
ideas (e.g. AghanC, vii, 24 and viii, 33). On the other 
hand they seem to have acquiesced — if somewhat 
passively — in the political claims made on their 
behalf by the moderate ShI'a. The numerous tradi- 
tions in which 'Alids reject and denounce the claims 
of their own supporters (e.g. Ibn Sa'd, v, 77, 158, 
»35, 238) are almost certainly due to Sunni propa- 
ganda, and a more accurate reflection of the political 
views and claims of the house of 'All will be found 
in the letter written by the Hasanid pretender 
Muhammad b. 'Abd Allah [q.v.] to the Caliph 
MansQr in 145/762 (al-Tabari, iii, 209 ff.), and in the 
verses of such pro-'Alid poets as Kumayt and 
Kuthayyir. Muhammad's letter is also interesting 
in that the writer claims pure Arab descent on both 
sides, without admixture of foreign or slave blood — 
thus accepting the aristocratic Umayyad principle 
of succession, (which had excluded sons of slave 
mothers like Maslama) and rejecting the Islamic 
rule followed by the Husaynids (several of whose 
Imams had slave mothers), and, later, by the 
'Abbasids. In the early period the claims of the 
•Alids were based on descent from 'All the Prophet's 
kinsman rather than from Fatima his daughter, 
since according to the ideas of the time kinship with 
the Prophet in the male line was more important 
than descent from him in the female line. (Thus in 
the revealing speech attributed to 'All at Siffin, he 
speaks of himself only as "cousin of the Prophet", 
Murudj, iv, 355). Claims based on kinship could 
thus be advanced on behalf of descendants of 'All 
by wives other than Fatima, and even of collateral 
descendants of Abu Tahb (see ahl al-bayt]. Only 
after the usurpation of 'Alid claims by their 'Abbasid 
cousins was stress laid on direct descent from the 
Prophet via Fatima. In the development of this 
new claim, the sixth Imam Dja'far al-Sadik seems 
to have played a role of some importance. 

After the abortive rising of al-Husayn and the 
massacre of Karbala' in 61/680, when most of the 
'Alids were killed, the 'Alid pretenders remained 
politically inactive, giving recognition and sometimes 
even help to the ruling house (examples in al- 
Tabari, ii, 3, 409, 420, 1338; al-Ya'kubl, ii, 298 ft.; 
Ibn Sa'd, v, 83, 159; Buhl, 369). They preferred to 
reside in Mecca or Medina, far from the main 
political centres, and while maintaining their claims 
did little to advance them. Such action as they took 
may be qualified as litigious rather than rebellious, 
concerned with their estates rather than their 
political rights (cf. I. Hrbek, Muhammads Nachlass 
und die 'Aliden, Arch. Or., 1950, 43-9)- In the 
tradition this passivity is naturally given a religious 
colouring, and appears as the prototype of the 
characteristic ShI'a practice of takiyya [q.v.]. 

Towards the middle of the 8th century growing 
discontent brought new opportunities to the 'Alids. 



In ca. 122/740 Zayd b. 'All b. Husayn [q.v.] led the 
first 'Alid bid for power since Karbala*. After his 
death, closely followed by that of his son Yabya 
[q.v.] in ca. 125-6/743-4, the 'Alid bolt was shot, and 
both the cause and the opportunity were taken over 
by the 'Abbasids. The first major expression of 
'Alid anger and disappointment at the 'Abbasid 
victory was the revolt of the Hasanid brothers 
Muhammad and Ibrahim b. 'Abd Allah [qq.v.], in 
Medina and Basra respectively. Both movements 
were choked in blood, and the Caliph Mansur 
adopted a policy of violent repression towards the 
'Alids, great numbers of whom were arrested and 
put to death (cf. al-Tabari, iii, 445-6; Murudj, vii, 
404; Makatil, 178 ff.). Al-Mahdl dealt more kindly 
with the 'Alids, as part of a general policy of appease- 
ment, but when this failed to gain 'Alid good will, it 
was abandoned by al-Hadi, whose harsh actions 
drove the 'Alids to open revolt. The rising of Husayn 
b. 'Ali [q.v.], known as Sahib Fakhkh (after the place 
of his death), in 169/786 was soon suppressed, 
(Tabari, iii, 551-9; Makatil 431 ff.), but Idris [q.v.], 
a brother of the ill-fated Muhammad b. 'Abd Allah, 
escaped to Morocco where he founded the first 'Alid 
dynasty. Harfln al-Rashld eased the severities of 
al-Hadi, but after the revolt of Yahya b. 'Abd 
Allah [q.v.] in 176/792-3 he resumed the strict 
surveillance of the 'Alids, and the Husaynid Musa 
al-Ka?im [q.v.] died in prison. Meanwhile, in 175/791, 
some Zaydids (of the line of Zayd b. Hasan) took 
refuge in Daylam, where in 250/864 they were able to 
establish the first of a series of local dynasties. Al- 
Ma'mun on his accession faced the pro-'Alid revolts 
of Abu '1-Saraya [q.v.] in association with the Hasanid 
Muhammad b. Ibrahim, called Ibn Tabataba [q.v.] 
in Mesopotamia in 199/814, and of Muhammad b. 
Djafar, [q.v.] known as Muhammad al-DIbadj, in 
Mecca in 200/815-6. His subsequent nomination of 
the Husaynid 'All al-Rida [q.v.] as his heir and his 
adoption of a pro-'Alid policy brought some allevi- 
ation, but did not save him from a further 'Alid 
rising, that of 'Abd al-Rahlm b. Ahmad in the 
Yemen in 207/822-3. Under al-Ma'mun's successors 
relations between 'Abbasids and 'Alids again 
deteriorated, reaching their lowest point with the 
insults and persecutions of al-Mutawakkil. Al- 
Muntasir is reported to have treated the 'Alids with 
consideration, but the revolts continued. Most of 
them were suppressed, some few resulted in the 
appearance of local dynasties of 'Alid stock, in such 
remote places as Morocco, Yemen, and the Caspian 
provinces of Persia. 

Most of the rebels and pretenders of the early 
'Abbasid period came from the line of al-Hasan, 
that of al-Husayn preferring a life of tranquil piety. 
It was however the latter that came to have the 
greatest influence. After the death in 148/765 of 
Dja'far al-Sadik [q.v.], the sixth Imam in the line 
of Husayn, the succession was disputed between his 
sons Ismail and MQsa al-Ka?im [q.v.]. Isma'il, 
whose claims were accepted by the sect known as 
Isma'Iliyya [q.v.], sired a line of Imams from whom 
came the Fatimid Caliphs (some authorities however 
doubt the authenticity of their pedigree). Musa's line 
ended with the disappearance of the 12th Imam; 
known as Muhammad al-Mahdi ca. 260/873-4. After 
this the aspirations of their followers [see ithna 
'ashariyya] became eschatological rather than 
political, since they could offer no real alternative 
to the 'Abbasid Caliphate, which was therefore 
accepted even by ShI'ite dynasties such as the 
Buyids. 



'ALIDS — 'ALIMA 



403 



' Many dynasties claimed to be of c Alid descent. 

They may be grouped as follows: 

1) Hasanids: a) N.W. Africa— Idrlsids [q.v.], Su- 
laymanids [q.v.], Sharffs ^Sa'dids 
[q.v.], Filalls, (see c alawids]). 

b) Yemen — Sulaymanids, Banu 
Ukhaydir, Rassids [qq.v.]. 

c) Mecca — Sulaymanids, Banu 
Ukhaydir, Banu Fulayta, Banii 
Katada [see makka]. 

d) N. Persia— Zaydids, c Alids. 

e) Ghana— Banu Salih [q.v.]. 

f) Amul — Hasanids. 

g) Cordova and Malaga — Hammu- 
dids [q.v.]. 

2,) Husaynids: a) Ifrikiya and Egypt — Fatimids 

b) Medina — BaniiMuhanna [q.v.]. 
3) Unknown Mecca and Medina — Banu Musa. 

Bibliography : Genealogies of the descendants 
of 'All were compiled from an early date. One of 
them was that of the 10th century c Alid genealogist 
Akhu Muhsin, who wrote a "complete account" of 
all the progeny of 'All, in an attempt to disprove 
the legitimacy of the Fatimids. This work is lost, 
but is preserved in excerpts in Makrizl's IttC-di 
td-Bitnafi>, <**ayyal), Cairo, 1948, 4 ff. and in 
Ibn Aybak al-Dawadarl, Kam al-Durar, Vol. vi, 
MS Saray, Ahmed III, no. 2932, 5 ff. where the 
source is named. A parallel account of the descen- 
dants of 'All will be found in the Sihak al-Akhbar 
of Abu '1-Ma'alI Muhammad al-Makhzuml (oth/i5th 
century), Cairo 1306. Slightly different versions 
are given by Tabari (i, 3471 ff., followed by Ibn 
al-Athlr iii, 333-4), and by Mas'udI {Tanbik, 298 
and Murudj,, v, 148). Among later works on c Alid 
genealogy mention may be made of the 'Umdat 
al-Jalib ft Ansab Al Abi Jalib of Ahmad b. 'All . . . 
b. Muhanna, Bombay, 1318. Biographies of c Alids 
will be found in Abu '1-Faradj al-Isfahanl's martyr- 
ology, Makdtil al-Jdlibiyyin}, Cairo 1949, (cf. 
Muriidi, v ". 4°4, where martyred 'Alids are 
listed), as well as in general works such as the 
TabaW of Ibn Sa'd and the Ansab al-Ashraf of 
Baladhuri (the 'Alids appear in vol. 10). On the 
role of the 'Alids in the Umayyad and early 
'Abbasid periods see Fr. Buhl, Alidernes Stilling 
til de ShiHtishe Bevaegelser under Umajjaderne, 
Oversigt over del Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes 
Selskabs Forhandlinger, 1910, no. 5, 355 ff. ; 
F. Gabrieli, Al-Ma'mUn e gli l Alidi, Leipzig 1929; 
H. I. Hasan, Ta'rikh al-Isldm\ Cairo 1948, ii, 
113 ff.; C A. 'A. al-Duri, Al-<Asr al- c Abbdst al- 
Awwal, Baghdad 1945. Genealogical tables of the 
descendants of 'All, showing the interrelation of 
'Alid dynasties, will be found in Zambaur, ii, A-E. 
On the status and organisation of persons descended 
from the Prophet in later times see sayyid and 
sharIf. (B. Lewis) 

ALIF [see HinjA']. 

ALIGARH, town (27°53'N., 78° 4' E.) and 
district in the Meerut (MIrat) division of Uttar 
Pradesh (formerly the United Provinces). In 1941 
the district (1946 sq. miles «= 5024.5 sq. km.) had 
i» 372, 641 inhabitants (186, 381 Muslims) and the 
town 112, 655 (51, 712 Muslims). The town was at 
first called Koil (Kol) and the citadel, built in 1542, 
was named Aligarh (high fort) when Nadjaf Khan 
restored it in 1776; previously it had been called 
Ramgarh, occasionally Sabitgarh after one Sabit 
Khan or Muhammadgarh. 



Koil, which was certainly an old town, was 
captured towards the end of the 12th century by 
Kufb al-Din Aybeg and was usually subject to 
Delhi, being a fief of Balban's eldest son c. 1270. 
It was ruled from DJawnpur in 1393 and was 
independent for a time from 1447. In 1785 Mahrattas 
of the Scindhia family captured it but were driven 
out by Lord Lake in 1803. It was often described 
by Muslim writers, e.g. Ibn Batata (iv, 6). 

Modem Aligarh owes its place to its university. 
In 1871 (Sir) Sayyid Afcmad KJian [q.v.] began to 
collect funds, some Hindus contributing, for a boys' 
school to be run more or less on English lines. In 
1875 the high school was started and three years 
later it was raised to a second grade college. The 
institution then became a school and the Muham- 
madan Anglo-Oriental College. Sir Sayyid kept the 
management in his own hands during his lifetime 
and had excellent helpers in the first principals, 
Th. Beck and (Sir) Theodore Morison. Finance was 
a trouble and there was opposition to this breach 
with traditional Muslim education. Entrance to the 
college was never restricted to Muslims and the 
language of instruction was English except in 
religious subjects. After the founder's death the 
management was put in the hands of Muslim 
trustees. In 1904 353 boys were in the school, 269 
-students in the college -and 36 students of law; of 
the total 76 were Hindus. In 1909 there were eight 
teachers of European origin and for some years 
the professor of Arabic was a European. Later 
the number of teachers who were not Indians was 
much reduced. In 1920 the college was created 
a university and an intermediate college was esta- 
blished for the first two years of the university 
course, following the recommendations of the 
Calcutta Commission. At the same time the non- 
cooperation movement caused trouble, resulting in 
the foundation of the National University; this was 
active for two years or so and existed in name for 
some time longer. Aligarh University continued to 
develop; in 1929 teachers of Yunani (Unani) medicine 
appeared on the staff; in 1932 the intermediate 
college was absorbed in the university and new 
laboratories opened; in 1934 a college of Yunani 
medicine was started and in 1938 an institute of 
technology and electrical engineering and a Yunani 
hospital were opened. Women were admitted to 
some degrees in the same year and later further 
concessions were made to them. In 1945 an agricul- 
tural college was opened and in 1947 the staff is 
found grouped in four faculties, arts, science, engi- 
neering and technology, and theology. The separation 
of Pakistan from India caused a great upheaval and 
many of the staff left but their places were filled, 
the university survived and still flourishes. Aligarh 
has always upheld the Muslim ideal of opening the 
road to education to the needy ; it is to be feared that 
the pursuit of this ideal may clash with the purpose 
of a university. In the year 1946-7 there were 5896 
students of whom 775 were graduates and 501 first 
degrees were given in the faculties of arts, science, 
commerce and engineering; in the following year the 
numbers were 4285, 1186 and 365. 

Bibliography: Imperial Gazetteer of India, v, 

208-19; Th. Morison, History of the Muhammadan 

Anglo-Oriental College Aligarh, Allahabad 1903, 

summarised in RMM, i, 380 ff. 

(A. S. Trittoh) 

'ALIM [see 'ulamA*]. 

'ALIMA, in the Egyptian dialect of Arabic 
'time, 'dlime, plural 'awalim, literally "a learned, 



'ALIMA — ALJAMfA 



expert woman", the name of a class of Egyptian 
female singers forming a sort of guild, according 
to the sources of the 18th and 19th centuries. They 
were engaged to perform in harems at celebrations 
of marriages or births, during Ramadan and on 
other occasions. Their art included the improvisation 
of poems of the mawdl [q.v.] type, singing and 
dancing. They withdrew from Cairo during the French 
expedition. Well-informed travellers were careful to 
distinguish them from the ghawdzi (sing, ghdziyye) 
who sang and danced primarily in the streets, 
making a speciality of lascivious dances and often 
becoming prostitutes (the most accurate descriptions 
are those of Savary, Lettres sur I'Egypte', Paris 1786, 
i, 149 ff., and Villoteau, Description de I'Egypte*, 
Paris 1826, xiv, 169-82; useful information is con- 
tained in Sonnini, Voyage dans la haute et basse 
Egypte, Paris, year vii, ii 372 ff. ; Chabrol in Descr. 
del'Egypte', Paris 1826, xviii, 1, 173 ff., 212 ff., 33°; 
Lane, Modern Egyptians, London 1836-7, i, 226, 261; 
ii, 65 ff ., 270 ff ., Laerty-Hadji (Baron Taylor), L'Egyp- 
te', Paris 1856, 263-5. The Arabic word as recorded 
by the travellers appears in French, from the time of 
Savary (loc. cit.; cf. Journal encyclopidique, 1787, ii, 
519 ff.), in the form almd, later almie, and in English 
(first recorded in 1814 by Byron, Corsair, ii, 8) as 
alma or almah. But Baedeker, Aegypten, Leipzig 
1877, i, 25-6 states that 'awdlim of the better class 
only survived in the harems of the most eminent 
houses; a debased type was frequently to be seen 
in the streets accompanied by one or two, usually 
blind, musicians. Travellers regularly confused the 
'almas with the ghawdzi, who were however expelled 
from Cairo to Upper Egypt in 1834 by Muhammad 
'All. The latter were found in large numbers at Kene, 
Esne, Luksor (Baedeker, Aegypten, Leipzig 1891, ii, 
81 ff., 258). Flaubert in 1850 associated with them 
there, and refers to them as almies (Voy. en Orient, 
Paris 1949, 63 ff.). Most of the '■awdlim and ghawdzi 
held an annual reunion at Tanta on the occasion of the 
mawlid of SidI Ahmad al-Badawi (Baedeker, loc. cit., 
i, 25, 245 ; cf ., referring to the year 1865, A. Rhone, 
L'Egypte d petites journies, Paris 1877, 172-8, and, 
as late as 1933, the parade of prostitutes, in J. W. 
Mc Pherson, The Moulids of Egypt, Cairo 1941, 286. 
Bibliography: apart from the works mentio- 
ned in the text, Afcmad Amln, Ramus al-'Addt 
wa 'l-Takdlid wa 'l-Ta'abir al-Misriyya, Cairo 
1953, 210 ff., s.v. raks; P. N. Hamond, L'Egypte 
sous Mehemet Ali, Paris 1843, i, 3 I 4"2o; Prisse 
d'Avennes, Petits nUmoires secrets sur la cour 
d'Egypte suivis d'une Itude sur les almies, Paris 
1930; Auriant, Koutchouk Hanem V almie de 
Flaubert, Paris, 1943. (M. Rodinson) 

ALINDJAK or Alindja (in Armenian Erndjak, 
a district of the province SiuiuV), now ruins within 
the Nakhicewan territory of the Azerbaydjan Soviet 
Socialist Republic. The river Alindja flows into the 
Araxes near Old Djulfa. The ancient fortress 
Alindjak stood some 20 km. above its estuary on 
the right bank of the river, on the top of an extremely 
steep mountain (near the village Khanaka). The 
fortress played a considerable role at the Tlmurid 
and Turkman period. 

Bibliography: V. Minorsky, Caucasica, J A, 
1930, 93-4, 112. (V. Minorsky) 

ALlSA' (or Alyasa') b. UkhtOb (or YakhtOb), 
the biblical prophet Elisha. The Kur'an mentions 
him twice (vi, 86 and xxxviii, 46, second Meccan 
period) together with other apostles of Allah, without 
special comment. The Arabs have considered the 
first syllable as the article (di ' ' * 



readings in al-Tabari, Tafsir, vii, 156 ff.). Muslim 
tradition identifies Allsa c with the son of the widow 
who sustained Elijah during the famine (I Kings 
xvii, 9 ff.). This son, a paralytic, was cured by Ilyas 
(Elijah) and became his disciple, his companion and, 
eventually, his successor. Because of his parentage, 
some authors call him Ibn al- c Adjuz (son of the old 
woman), but others, including al-Tabari (loc. cit. 
and Annals, i, 535) give this sobriquet to Hazkll 
(Ezekiel). In traditional Muslim chronology, Alisa ! 
is placed much earlier in date than Talut (Saul), 
and it is he who is said to have been evoked by the 
witch of Endor. His identification with one of the 
guardians of the Ark of the Covenant is a further 
detail derivid from the history of Samuel. Some 
identify him with al-Khidr [q.v.], or even with 
Dh u '1-Kifl [q.v.], who is generally regarded as his 



Bibliography: In addition to the references 
quoted in the article, see Tabarl, i_ j^ 2 ff., 559; 
Kisal (Eisenberg), 248-50; Tha'labI, c Ard>is al- 
Madjdlis, Cairo 1370/195 1, 259-61; J. Horovitz, 
Koranische Untersuchungen, 152. 

(M. Seligsohn-G. Vajda) 
ALJAMIA, Spanish transcription of the Arabic 
al-'adiamiyya ("non-Arabic"), a term used by the 
Muslims of al-Andalus to denote the Romance 
dialects of their neighbours in the north of the 
Iberian peninsula — dialects soon coloured with 
Arabisms which, for the most part, were introduced 
from the gth century by Mozarab emigrants who had 
settled in the Christian countries neighbouring the 
kingdom of Cordova. The Romance language, the 
use of which in al-Andalus by all classes of society, 
especially by the rural classes, alongside Spanish 
Arabic, has been established, was also called al- 
'adfamiyya. It was only in the latter Middle Ages 
that the Spanish equivalent of this term, aljamia, 
acquired the particular meaning which is attributed 
to it to-day, namely: a Hispanic Romance 
language (Portuguese, Galician, Castilian, Aragonese 
or Catalan, depending on the district) written, not 
in Latin, but in Arabic characters. The litera- 
ture in aljamia which has been preserved is therefore 
termed atjamiada. 

This aljamiada literature, of which there exists a 
number of manuscripts, has been the subject of 
numerous studies in Spain itself, especially towards 
the end of the 19th century. It comprises in ge- 
neral works of a religious or legal nature in addition 
to poetical compositions, usually didactic in tone, 
and a few works of fiction in prose. In considering 
this literature, a distinction must be made between 
the works written in Spain itself, before the expulsion 
of the Moors by Philip III in 1609, and those, more 
numerous, written after that date, in particular by 
the Moorish communities established in Tunisia 
[see moriscos]. In the first group, the most important 
work, which apparently dates back to the 14th 
century, is the anonymous "Poem of Yusuf"; 
R. Menendez Pidal, who has edited and commented 
on this poem (Poema de Yucuf: materiales para su 
estudio, in Revista de Archives, Bibliotecas y Museos, 
VIII, Madrid 1902 ; new edition, Granada 1952), thinks 
it is the work of an Aragonese Morisco. It consists of a 
version in Spanish verse of Kur'an, xii (Surat Yusuf), 
embellished with elements borrowed from the 
Muslim "legends of the prophets". In the second 
group, the poetical compositions of another Aragonese 
Morisco, Muhammad Rabadan, a native of Rueda 
de Jal6n, deserve special mention; composed about 
1603, they consist of strophic poems which narrate, 



ALJAMlA - 

following in general Abu '1-Hasan al-Basri, the various 
episodes of the sira of the Prophet. About the same 
period (beginning of the 17th century), an account of a 
pilgrimage to Arabia was composed, also in rhymed 
strophes, by a Morisco known as Alhichante (al- 
kddxdx) of Puey Monz6n. An anti-Christian polemical 
poem composed in 1627 by Juan Perez, a Morisco from 
Alcala de Henares, who had emigrated to Tunisia, 
and whose original name was Ibrahim Taybill, must 
also be mentioned. 

Dating from the same period are the Muslim 
apologetics written in aljamiado, for instance that 
composed in 1615 by c Abd al-Karim b. C A1I Perez. 
To this literature also belong some novelistic prose 
narratives concerning the Prophet or one of his 
Companions (for instance Tamim al-Darl). Others 
recount biblical episodes or are biographies of more 
or less legendary characters (especially Alexander 
Dhu 'l-Karnayn). 

Finally attention must be drawn to the discovery 
of private letters written in aljamia; the most 
characteristic — writte hardly later than the capt- 
ure of Granada in 1492 by the Catholic Kings— has 
recently been published in facsimile by I. de Las 
Cagigas Una Carta aljamiada granadina, in Arabica, 

1954. 271-5. (E. LEVI-PrOVENCAL) 

Bibliography: Manuscripts: There are 
scattered MSS at Paris, Algiers, Aix-en-Provence, 
Uppsala, the British Museum, Cambridge, the 
Escorial. For the few MSS at Toledo see A. 
Gonzalez Palencia, Noticia y Extractos de MSS 
drabes y aljamiados, in Miscelanea de Estudios 
y Textos Arabes, Madrid 1915. The three main 
collections are: (1) that of the Biblioteca Nacional, 
Madrid (see F. Guillen Robles, CaUUogo de MSS 
arabes, etc., Madrid 1889); (2) the "manu- 
scritos de la Junta" now at the Escuela de 
Estudios Arabes, Madrid. This is particularly 
interesting as preserving almost intact a large 
hoard of MSS found at Almonacid in 1884 (see 
J. Ribera and M. Asin, Manuscritos drabes y 
aljamiados de la Biblioteca de la Junta, Madrid 
1912, which also includes a description of MSS at 
Saragossa). (3) For the Gayangos collection at the 
Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, the only 
description is in E. Saavedra, lndice de la Literatura 
Aljamiada, appendix to his Discurso, in Memorias 
de la Real Academia Espanola, vi, Madrid 1878, 
still a fundamental work, but made before the 
discovery at Almonacid. On the spelling of the 
texts, see J. D. M. Ford, Old Spanish Sibilants, 
Boston 1900. Published works in aljamia: 
P. Gil, J. Ribera and M. M. Sanchez, Coleccidn de 
textos aljamiados, Saragossa 1888; H. Morf, Poema 
de Josi, in Gratulationsschrift der UniversitdtBern an 
die Universitat Zurich, Leipzig 1883; K. V. Zetter- 
steen, in MO, 1921, 1-174; R- Menendez Pidal, and 
I. de Las Cagigas, see above. In accurate trans- 
literation: J. Cantineau, in J A , 1927, 9-17; J.N. 
Lincoln, in American Geographical Riview, 1939, 
483 ft.; idem, in Publ. Mod. Lang, Assoc., 1937, 
631 ff.; A. R. Nykl, A Compendium of Aljamiado 
Literature, in Revue Hispanique, lxxvii; M.J. 
Muller, in SBBayr. Ak., i860, 201 ff.; M. Schmitz, 
in Romanische Forschungen, 1901, 315 ft.; D. 
Lopes, Textos em aljamia portuguesa, Lisbon 1897. 
In free transliteration: F. Guillen Robles, 
Leyendas Moriscas, 3 vols., Madrid 1885-6; idem, 
Leyendas de Josi y de Alejandro Magno, Saragossa 
1888; Historia de los amores de Paris y Viana, in 
Revista Histdrica, no. xxii, Barcelona 1876; M. de 
Pano y Ruate, Las Coplas del Peregrino de Puey 



al- c ALKAMI 405 

Moncdn, Saragossa 1897; P. Longas, Vida Religiosa 
de los Moriscos, Madrid 1915; J. Sanchez Perez, 
Particidn de Herencias entre los Musulmanes del 
Rito Malequi, Madrid 1914. Works written in 
Latin characters: c Isa b. Djabir, Suma de los 
principals mandamientos , ed. P. de Gayangos, in 
Memorial Histdrico EspaHol, v, Madrid 1853; H. 
E. J. Stanley, The Poetry of Mohamed Rabadan, 
in JRAS, 1867-72. Studies: J. Ribera, Diserta- 
ciones y Opusculos I, Madrid 1928, 493 ff.; P. Gil, 
in Homenaje Codera, Saragossa 1904, 537-49; R- 
Basset, in GSAI, 1893, 3-81; J. Oliver Asin, Un 
morisco de Tiinez, admirador de Lope, in And., 1933, 
413-8; J- Morgan, Mahometism fully explained, 
London 1723-5 ; A. Gonzalez Palencia, Hist, de la 
literatura aribigo-espanoW, Barcelona 1945, 303-9. 

(L. P. Harvey) 
C AL$AMA B. c Abada al-TamImI, surnamed al- 
Fahl, early Arab poet, was active in the first 
half of the 6th century. His poetry relates to the 
combats which took place between the Lakhmids 
and the Ghassanids; as the spokesman of his tribe 
he is reported to have obtained, by reciting a kasida 
(no. 2, ed. W. Ahlwardt, The Diwan of the six ancient 
Arabic poets, London 1870), the release of his 
brother Sha's and the other Tamimites whom the 
Ghassanid king, al-Harith b. Djabala (ca. 529-569), 
had taken prisoner. Arab tradition connects 'Alkama 
with Imru' al-Kays (d. ca. 540), with whom he is 
supposed to have fought and won a literary contest 
as a result of which Imru' al-Kays divorced and 
'Alkama married the umpire Djundab. The style 
of their work would bear out the suggestion of some 
sort of artistic association such as the anecdote 
implies. The oft-remarked similarities between 
'Alkama, 1 (Ahlwardt), and Imru 3 al-Kays, 4 
•(Ahlwardt), indicate a certain confusion of the two 
literary personalities on the part of the ruwai. 
Already Ahlwardt, Bemerkungen, 68 ff., noted that 
in all likelihood 'Alkama's is the older ode. c Alkama 
shares with Imru 5 al-Kays a predilection for the 
lODger and more tranquil meters. Stylistic and the- 
matic kinship justifies the grouping of the two poets 
together as representatives of a distinct "school". 
A certain enrichment of the techniques of description 
may possibly be traced to c Alkama. The poems 
Ahlwardt, 8 and 12, are spurious, so the chronological 
conclusions which Noldeke (Die Ghassdnischen 
Fursten aus dem Hause Gafna's Abh. Akad. d. 
Wissensch. Berlin 1887, 36) and, following him, 
Brockelmann (I, 48) have based on them must be 
dismissed. The Arab critics include 'Alkama among 
the fuhul or powerful poets (literally "stallions"). 
Bibliography: The Diwan of 'Alkama was 
first published, together with a German trans- 
lation, by A. Socin, Leipzig 1867, then the text 
alone, by Ahlwardt in the edition mentioned 
above; text with commentary by al-A'lam al- 
Shantamari, by Mohammed Ben Cheneb (Algiers 
1925); further references: Aghani, vii, 127-8; xxi, 
171-5; de Slane, Le Diwan d'Amro 'l-kais, Paris 
1837, 80; Caussin de Perceval, Essai sur Vhistoire 
des Arabes, ii, 314 ; G. E. von Grunebaum, in Orien- 
talia, 1939, 328-45. (G. E. von Grunebaum) 
al- c ALKAMI is, on the authority of the geo- 
graphers Kudama and al-Mas c udi, the name used 
in the 3rd-4th/3th-ioth centuries for the western 
branch of the Euphrates, between its bifurcation 
at or near the modern Hindiyya Barrage (44° 16' E, 
36 40' N) and its loss in the medieval Great Swamp. 
The proportion of Euphrates water using this or the 
eastern (al-Sura', or modern Hilla) channel, has 



IL-'ALKAMI — ALLAH 



varied from period to period thoroughout medieval 
and modern times: the western branch has finally 
been dominant, and the eastern merely a controlled 
canal, since the early 20th century; but al- c AlkamI, 
using a bed not necessarily identical with the modern 
"Hindiyya river", probably represented the main 
stream. It passed by the important towns of al- 
Kantara (on both banks) and Kufa (right bank). The 
name of the vizier Ibn al- c AlkamI [q.v.] was taken 
from the river. 

Bibliography : Le Strange, 74; S. H. Longrigg, 
Four Centuries of Modern 'Iraq, Oxford 1925, 311 ; 
cf. also al-furAt. (S. H. Longrigg) 

ALKANNA [see al-hinna']. 
ALKA$ MlRZA (or AnfAs, Aucasp), second son 
of Shah Isma'il I of the Safawl dynasty, and younger 
brother of Shah Tahmasp I. Born Tabriz 921/ 
1515-6, he fought a successful action at Astarabad 
against the Uzbegs in 939/1532-3- I Q 945/1538-9 he 
subdued Shirwan, and was made governor of that 
province by Tahmasp. He rebelled soon afterwards, 
but was granted a conditional pardon through the 
intercession of his mother Khan Begi Khanum. At 
the instance of Tahmasp, he fought an inconclusive 
campaign against the Circassians, but again rebelled, 
minting his own coinage and including his name in 
the khufba. In 953/i54°-7 Tahmasp launched his 
second Georgian expedition, and from Gandja 
dispatched 5000 men against Alkas. Alkas, worsted 
in several engagements, fled to Constantinople via 
the Kipcak plain and the Crimea (954/1547-8). 

He incited Sulayman I to send another expedition 
against Persia, and in 955/1548-9 he was sent ahead 
of the main Ottoman army which advanced on 
Tabriz via Siwas and Erzerum. The success of 
Tahmasp's policy of laying waste the countryside 
obliged Sulayman to retire from Tabriz after only 
five days. Alkas accompanied Sulayman at the 
capture of the fortress of Wan, and interceded for 
the garrison. But he had fallen in Sulayman's 
estimation because his presence in Persia had not 
evoked the support promised, and Sulayman willingly 
agreed that Alkas should leave Baghdad and raid 
Persia with a force of irregulars (he refused to allow 
him any Janissaries). Alkas marched to Hamadan, 
where he destroyed the palace of his brother Bahrain 
and captured his son BadI c -al-Zaman MirzS, and 
thence to Kum, Kashan and Isfahan. Then, instead 
of complying with Sulayman's order to rejoin him, 
he went on to Shushtar, and sent a conciliatory 
letter to Tahmasp. (Dhu'l-Hidjdja 955/January 
1549). Proceeding towards Baghdad, he was opposed 
by Muhammad Pasha, Governor of Baghdad, and 
fled to ArdalSn, where he was handed over to 
Tahmasp by Surkhab Beg, the ruler of Ardalan, on 
condition that his life was spared. According to 
Tahmasp's own account, Alkas was imprisoned at 
Alamut, where he was killed a few days later, 
ostensibly as the result of a private feud, but 
probably with Tahmasp's connivance. 

Bibliography: Tadhkira-yi Shah Tahmasp, 
ed. Phillott, Calcutta 1912 (P. Horn, Denkwiirdig- 
keiten Schdh Tahmdsp des I., 38, 64 ff., 134) ; Hasan 
Rumlu, Ahsan al-Tawarikh, Calcutta 1931; 
Sharaf Khan Bidllsl, Sharaf-nama, St. Petersburg 
1873 ; Pe&ewl, 267 ff. ; Hammer, Histoirede VEmpire 
ottoman, vi, 7 f f . ; Sir John Malcolm . History of 
Persia, London 1815, i, 5°9-io, 505 note. 

(R. M. Savory) 
ALLAH, God the Unique one, the Creator and 
Lord of the Judgment, polarizes the thought of 
Islam; He is the sole reason for its existence. 



Allah was known to the pre-Islamic Arabs; he 
was one of the Meccan deities, possibly the supreme 
deity and certainly a creator-god (cf. Kur'an, xiii, 
16; xxix, 61, 63; xxxi, 25; xxxix, 38; xliii, 87). He 
was already known, by antonomasia, as the God, 
al-Ilah (the most likely etymology; another sug- 
gestion is the Aramaic Alaha). — For Allah before 
Islam, as shown by archaeological sources and the 

But the vague notion of supreme (not sole) divinity, 
which Allah seems to have connoted in Meccan 
religion, was to become both universal and tran- 
scendental; it was to be turned, by the Kur'anic 
preaching, into the affirmation of the Living God, 
the Exalted One. 

I. ALLAH IN THE IJUR'aN. 

A Muslim tradition tells us that sura xcvi was 
the first to "come down" to the Prophet Muhammad; 
so the mission entrusted to him was from the first 
the preaching of the Word of Allah ("Preach!", 
xcvi, 1 and 3). Allah, as is said to Muhammad in this 
first sura, is thy Lord (rabbuka, xcvi, 1), Creator of 
man, the Very Generous, "Who teaches man that 
which he knew not" (xcvi, 3). The great Kur'anic 
leit-motiv, bismilldh al-Rahmdn al-Rahim, "in the 
name of God, the merciful Benefactor" cf. R. 
Blachere's translation), opens the announcement of 
the imparted message and is repeated at the head 
of each sura. It may be that it contains a reference 
to the Rahman of pre-Islamic south Arabia, and that 
Rahman should be taken as a divine proper name. 
The fact remains that the root RHM came to connote, 
in the course of the Islamic centuries, precisely the 
concept of benefaction, of clemency, of mercy, and 
that the expression rahmat Allah, "God's mercy", 
was to become, in the spiritual writers, as it were an 
evocation of the mysterious profundities of divinity 
in its relations with man. — Hence, from the begin- 
ning of Muhammad's preaching, the affirmation of 
God, Allah, as benefactor, creator, bountiful, im- 
parting instruction to men through a messenger, of 
whom He was, in a special way, the Lord. 

(A) The great themes. 

From a historical point of view, we shall accept 
the distinctions generally admitted to exist (with 
some differences as to detail, see Noldeke, Grimme, 
Blachere) between the three Meccan periods and the 
Medinan period, distinctions which roughly agree with 
some Muslim traditions (cf. kur'an). But although 
these various periods give us a multiplicity of perspec- 
tives and new flashes of illumination, there is strictly 
speaking no progressive revelation of Allah. The 
Kur'an is not a theological exposition of the existence, 
nature and attributes of God. Muslim fa ith has always 
regarded the text of the Kur'an as God's Word made 
manifest to man, in which God says what He wishes 
about Himself. God is "the benefactor Who teaches 
the Preaching" (lv, 1-2), which is addressed to "the 
pious who believe in the Mystery (ghayb)" (ii, 2-3). 
God remains mysterious, unapproachable (xlii, 50-51). 
He is declared in His transcendent perfections and 
in His dealings with the world; and every action of 
the Almighty (af'aluhu ta'ala) is the restatement of 
the inscrutable mystery, for "the sight cannot perceiv* 
Him, while He can perceive the sight" (vi, 103). 

Without a risk of breaking the very rhythm of 
suras and verses, it is not easy to pick out, still less 
easy to classify, the themes concerning God. Three 
seem to us to predominate, but they must be taken 



I. God of creation, judgment and retribution. He 
is "creator (khdlik) of all things" (xiii, 16). He is the 
absolute originator (badi c ). He creates what He 
wishes (xlii, 49; v, 17) by His command (amr), by 
the kun ("Be!") which causes existence (e.g. xxxvi, 
82; 11, 117). He is the bestower of all good, the 
supreme judge (hakim) and "the justest judge" 



', 8). 



The oldest suras proclaim God's unlimited sove- 
reignty (rububiyya) over His creation, particularly 
His human creation, and His attributes of sovereign 
judge and king (mdlik). The final shock is given to 
minds and hearts by the news of the Judgment 
(yawm al-din; see all sura lxvi) and the imminence 
of the Hour (liii, 56-57; liv, 1, etc.), which is known 
tD God alone (e.g. lxxix, 42-44; xliii, 85). The manner 
of this preaching may vary, but never its essential 
contents. For variations of theme relate less to God 
in Himself than to relations between God and the 
community of believers, depending on obstacles 
encountered or successive organisations. Thus, for 
example, the dichotomy of the Elect and the Damned 
(lxxxiv) at the end of the first Meccan period, and 
the Medinan leit-motiv of the "hypocrites" (muna- 
fikun) "whom God will mock" (ii, 15). — The Meccan 
suras of the first two periods stress the eschatological 
advent of the Hour; in them, God appears essentially 
as the sovereign judge, having jurisdiction because 
He is the omnipotent creator of man (cf. lxxxii, 17-19, 
which follows logically on lxxxii, 6-8; lxxx, 18-22; 
Xcv, 4-8, etc.). The theme of retribution is resumed 
however in the Medinan suras (xxxiii, 63 ; xxiv, 25-26, 
etc.). Here and there perspective doubtless changes. 
At Mecca there is blunt teaching, intended to bring 
about an admission of faith in the mystery of God, 
the Judge and Creator, by means of the rhythmic 
rapping-out of asseverations. At Medina the same 
mystery is as it were recalled; presented to the 
heart's recollection (dhikr), as a witness to the 
eschatological value of daily life itself, urging the 
Muslim, whether he be "believer" or "hypocrite", 
to be constantly mindful of the Hour, in his every 
action; therefore urging the "hypocrite" to the 

The same variations and resumptions of a single 
theme recur in the presentation of the divine 
management of human history. The Medinese suras 
relate in minute detail the story of Adam, proceed 
to the history of the prophets, from Noah to Jesus, 
and state what God's will is of the community of 
believers. But there it appears as a sequence of 
discontinuous interventions of the immutable decree 
(fradar) of God, which, as the Meccan preaching had 
already said, encompasses all things, both in and out 
of time. For God is "the King of life and death" 
(xcii, 13; a theme constantly reverted to later, e.g. 
xv, 23; ii, 258, etc.). From the very first suras Noah 
is evoked (liii, 52), and Abraham and Moses (lxxx, 
19; liii, 36-37), and the tribes of Thamud (xci, n and 
14; liii, 51, etc.). In the second Meccan period, God's 
plans for the Nations, for Thamud and 'Ad, are 
mingled with intimations of the Judgment (cf. Ixix 
and lxxix); to the second and third Meccan periods 
belong the most fully developed accounts of the 
history of the prophets. Mixed with the theme of 
the judgment of peoples, that of the judgment of 
every individual human being is constantly stated. 

2. God, Unique and One in Himself. In all of the 
earliest suras, God is thy Lord. Subsequently He is 
called Creator, Benefactor, Help, Judge. He is the 
Most. High (lxxx, 1). He is given these names by 
virtue of those attributes of His godhead which have 



407 



with man. The particular attribute 
of His godhead in which the faith of Islam was to 
have its focus is first stated as an answer to man's 
errors and impieties: God the One. 

Sura lii, 39 and 43, contains a condemnation of 
the Meccans who have been accustomed to ascribe 
partners and daughters to Allah. For Allah is wdhid, 
sole divinity. "Your God is One" (xxxvii, 4), the 
believers are told. The assertion is constantly repeated 
throughout the Book, constantly restated in the 
Medinan period (e.g. ii, 163). It is the very core of 
the preaching concerning God: "It has been revealed 
to me only that your God is One God", Muhammad 
says again and again (e.g. xli, 6, etc.). 

But in a verse of the first Meccan period is found 
what is perhaps a stronger affirmation that Allah is 
One in Himself. In relation to man, sole divinity, 
wdhid; in Himself, One in His nature of deity, ahad 
(cxii, 1). — Sole and One, the two Names come 
together in the Unity, the tawhid, and its absolute 
transcendence. Such is the meaning of the "witness" 
of Islam, the shahada. As early as that 73rd sura, 
which, according to the traditions, gave rise to the 
conversion of 'Umar, the assertion appears: "There 
is no divinity — save Him (huuia)" (lxxiii, 9). The 
second Meccan period declares: innanl And Allah — 
Id ildh ilia Ana, "I, I am God— there is no divinity 
save Me" (xx, 14), and that the mystery of this divine 
"I" is the Real (hakk, xx, 114; xviii, 44).— Lastly, 
the short sura cxii, of uncertain date (referred by 
some to the Medinan period), is known as the sura 
of Unity (tawhid) par excellence: God Alone, the 
Master, not begetting and not begotten; without 
equal: an assertion of the unity of the divine nature 
as such, its intrinsic mystery unfathomed (cf. 
xxiii, 91). 

3. God omnipotent and merciful. The twofold 
aspect of the mystery of God in relation to His 
creation: Lord of the worlds (lxxxiv, 29; a very 
frequent expression) in His unquestioned omni- 
potence and His forgiving benevolence, is found in 
all periods of the Kur'an alike, with varying shades 
of expression and emphasis. 

The quality of omnipotence is the first enunciated. 
He is "the Lord of Easts and Wests" (lxx, 49; cf. 
lxxiii, 9) ; but it is precisely this which encourages the 
believer to see in Him a protector, a surety (wakU, 
lxxiii, 9) and to exalt that power of mercy and 
forgiveness on which the text is so insistent. The 
names rahmdn, rahim, ghafur, ghaffar, benefactor, 
merciful, forgiving, everforgiving, are among those 
which occur most frequently. What is first brought 
into notice is, on the one hand, the inscrutable 
omnipotence of God and, on the other hand, the 
total and trusting committal of oneself which is 
demanded by night, by way of response to this 
omnipotence, of all who devote themselves to the 
Lord. A text of the Medinan period (v, 3) makes the 
"committal to God" (islam) into the religion itself, 
but already in the eschatological suras of the first 
period, the believer is exhorted to entrust himself 
to the gracious bounty (ni'ma, xciii, 11) of the Lord. 
God is the refuge and the guide (xciii, 6-7); the 
whole of sura lv (of the second Meccan period, 
according to Grimme; with later additions, acc- 
cording to Bell) proclaims the wrath of the Merciful, 
Lord of majesty (Haldl) and generosity (ikrdm), 
against those who reject His benefactions. 

(B) The Signs and Names of Allah. 

Thus God, through His prophets, is continually 

revealing to man the unexpressed mystery of His 



4 o8 AH 

ineffability, in which man is asked to believe, and 
His explicit sovereignty over all creation, and the 
transcendental perfections by which it is made 
known. For He is at the same time "the First and 
the Last, the Manifest (fdhir) and the Hidden 
(ba(in)" (lvii 3). 

In the first place, man, since he has received a 
revelation about them, must be able to recognize 
the "signs of the universe", which are "signs of God" 
(dydt Allah). So wonderful indeed are the "unfailing" 
(lxvii, 3-4) order and harmony of the world, that 
man is in danger of worshipping them. But he must 
recognize that there is nothing imperishable in this 
order and harmony. As happened to the prophet 
Ibrahim (Abraham) ; man's reason, guided by God, 
must grasp, in the perishable and the mutable, the 
incontrovertible evidence for the necessary and 
transcendent existence of the Creator. "To reflect", 
"to reason about the signs of the universe", is there- 
fore a religious duty for man's reason, imposed on 
it by the Rur'an (ii, 118, 164; iii, 190; vi, 99; xiii, 
2-3; xxiv, 43-54, etc.). The Kur'an also teaches it 
that God alone abides. "All perishes, save His Face" 
(xxviii, 88; cf. xxxix, 68; Iv, 26-27, etc.). At the 
declared eschatological Hour, God, creator 
therefore master of life and death, will annihilate all 
things, subsequently re-creating everything at 
great Gathering (hashr, 1, 44; lix, 2). The wonderful 
order and harmony of the present cosmos are 
presented as an invitation to prostrate oneself before 
the Power Which creates and annihilates (xxxii, 1 
xli, 37). 

God's perfections, which cause His transcendence 
to blaze forth in relation to this order of the world, 
are the same as those which God reveals. They are 
essentially the Names (asma>) which He gives f 
Himself. "He has the most beautiful Names" (v; 
180; xvii, no; xx, 8). Muslim piety has carefully 
picked out from the text of the Rur'an, supplemented 
by tradition, the 99 "most beautiful Names" and 
has never ceased to memorize them and meditate 
on them. Without wishing to give here an exhaustive 
analysis of them (see complete list under al-asmA* 
al-husnA), we may say that the following are the 
main themes which emerge (we shall confine our- 
selves to a single reference for each, generally the 
oldest) : 

God is One and Unique (cf. above), the Living, the 
Self-subsisting (al-hayy al-kayyum, xx, in), the 
Real, the Truth (al-hakk, xx, 114, frequent), the 
Sublime (al- c a?im, lxix, 33, frequent), the High and 
Great (al-'ali al-kablr, xxxi, 30), Light and "Light 
on Light" {nur, nUr '■aid nur, xxiv, 35), the Sage 
(al-hakim, lxxvi, 30, frequent), the Omnipotent (al- 
'aztz, lxxxv, 8, frequent; kadir, lxvii, 1, frequent), 
absolute Creator (bad?, vi, 101), creating the world 
(khalik, xl, 62), Who does not cease to create (khalldk, 
xxxvi, 81), Who is unlike all creation ("Naught is 
like unto Him" laysa ka-mitMihl shay', xlii, 11), the 
Hearing, the Clearsighted, the Omniscient (al-sami', 
al-baslr, al-'alim, e.g. xlii, 11-12, frequent), the 
Witness (shahid, lxxxv, 9, frequent), the Bountiful 
(al-wahhab, li, 58), the Benefactor {al-rahmdn, 
lxxviii, 37, very frequent), the Surety (al-wall, xlv, 
19), the Protector (al-wakfl, lxxiii, 9, frequent), the 
Generous (al-karlm, xliv, 49), the Merciful (al-rahlm, 
lii, 28, very frequent), the Forgiver (ghafur, lxxvi, 20, 
frequent) Who is ever forgiving (ghat far, xx, 
the Compassionate (aLra'&f, iii, 30), the Benevolent 
(al-wad&d, lxxxv, 14), the "Best of Judges" {kfjayr 
al-hdkimtn, x, 109), Who punishes in all strictness 
and rewards in all fairness and forbearance. 



A good many of these terms occur again and 
again. Stress may be laid on one or other of them, 
now in the Meccan period, now in the Medinan, 
but nearly all are at least recalled in suras of both 
periods. Often the text proceeds by fulgurating 
affirmations, "with no hollow", "facing" the 
believer, like God Himself (samad, cxii, 2) ; often too 
by allusive parables, which insist and "prove" by 
the literal veracity with which their parabolic mode 
of expression is then invested. 

A single example: the divine omniscience extends 
to the smallest action of the smallest created thing. 
These are the words employed: "No leaf falls but 
He knows it; there is no seed in the darknesses of 
the earth, no green shoot or dry but it is inscribed 
in the perspicuous Book" (vi, 59). Or again: "No 
female conceives or brings forth without His know- 
ledge" (xxxv, 11). The mind is thus powerfully 
disposed to recognize the full presence of God in 
every human deed, in every act of the human heart. 
He is the creator of every act, whatever it be (xxxvii, 
96); He is, in a special way, close to the man He 
has created (cf. xxxiv, 50); He knows "that which 
his soul suggests to him" ; He is "closer to him than 
his jugular vein" (1, 16). 

(C) Two groups of verses. 

Some remarks on two groups of verses which, in 
the course of the centuries, were to give rise to 
numerous controversies: 

1. Retribution and the divine decree. God's sovereign 
omnipotence becomes explicit in His wishes for the 
world. It is affirmed in his efficacious decree (kadar), 
and man, like all creatures, belongs to Him. But at 
the same time it is affirmed as the omnipotence of 
the just Judge, the equitable Rewarder, and man 
must know that every one of his acts will carry its 
own weight, — of recompense for the good, of 
punishment for the bad (e.g. ii, 286). 

It has been too often and too readily stated that 
the IJur'an contains a mass of "contradictory" 
verses. The truth is that there is no contradiction at 
all, but contrasted and complementary affirmations, 
with the aim of producing the required attitude 
towards God in the heart of man. 

The divine omnipotence is indeed monolithic. 
"God has no account to render", as Muslim tradition 
repeatedly says. But here we must be careful of the 
Kur'anic manner of preaching. The Kur'an poses 
neither the theological problem of predestination (it 
does not pose any problem), nor the philosophical 
problem of the nature of human freedom: it evokes 
the mystery of the relations between creature and 
Creator. Nor does it pose the problem of the nature 
of evil. "It is God Who has created you and all 
that you have done" (xxxvii, 96), an affirmation 
frequently applied later to every human act. Never- 
theless, "every good which comes to you comes from 
God, every ill which comes to you comes from you" 
(iv, 79). There is nothing here to demand an accep- 
tance of the positive nature of evil. 

The verses of the Ifur'an tirelessly proclaim that 
nothing escapes God, His will and His power, and 
equally that God is the Bringer of retribution. In 
a way, the idea of retribution is even dominant. 
Reward is promised to the just, and punishment to 
"him who turns away" (xcii, 16). The damned 
are those "who refuse the help" of God (cvii, 7). 
— In his Index, R. Blachere (iii, 1223) notices 
between two and three hundred passages which 
promise retribution in the measure of one's works. 
On the Day of Judgment, every soul will be judged 



by what it has acquired (xl, 17) : "whoever has done 
an atom's weight of good shall see it; whoever has 
done an atom's weight of evil shall see it' (xcix, 7-8). 
The necessity of "doing good", of "ordering what is 
right" (al-amr bi 'l-maHruf) and "forbidding what is 
wrong" (al-nahy 'an al-munkar) is one of the first 
commands; the very first, one might say, since the 
pre-eminently good act is the declaration of faith 
in the One, the sincere islam. This command is not 
addressed only to each man, but, in precise terms, to 
the community of believers as such (iii, 104, no, etc.). 
On the temporal plane of the fulfilment of the divine 
decrees in the contingent world, man is recompensed 
according to his works and his deserts. 

But on the intemporal plane of the immutable 
decrees, a shift of perspective occurs. Nothing can 
have any effect on God's Will (irdda) or on His 
Command (amr). The elect are the chosen of God. 
"He bestows His favour on whomsoever He wishes" 
(iii, 73-74; v, 54; lvii, 21; lxii, 4); it is He "Who 
brings low and raises up" (iii, 25). And the great 
affirmation : "He turns astray whom He wishes, and 
guides whom He wishes" (xiv, 4; xvi, 93; xxxv, 8; 
vi, 39, 125), — and he whom God sends astray can 
have neither surety nor guide (xvii, 97; xviii, 17; 
xxxix, 29, 37; vii, 186; xiii, 33). Twice there occurs 
this image of specifically Semitic construction, so 
close to Isaiah vi, 9-10: "We have placed veils over 
their hearts, that they may not understand, and a 
dullness into their ears" (Rur'an, xviii, 57); and 
"he whom God, knowingly, has sent astray, whose 
hearing and whose heart He has sealed, and on 
whose eyes He has set a blindfold . . ." (xlv, 23). 

The first of these two texts (xviii, 57) in fact 
throws into sharp relief the divine action which 
seals hearing and heart, and the wrongness of the 
one who has turned away from the signs of the Lord. 
The second (xlv, 23}, closes with a summons to 
reform. Verse xlv, 19, states that the wrongdoers are 
left to themselves ("they have no patrons but 
themselves"), while God is the patron of the righ- 
teous: thus according with iv, 79, quoted above. 

The responsibility of man, the omnipotence and 
the peremptory decree of God: these two lines of 
thought combine in the ultimate affirmation of the 
Judgment. This way of access to the mystery was 
one which presented itself most forcefully to Muslim 
speculation in later ages. 

2. Anthropomorphic verses. The other group of 
verses is one whose picturesque style, if taken 
absolutely literally, would seem to ascribe human 
attributes or acts to God. These are the mutashabih, 
"ambiguous", verses, as distinct from the muhkam 
verses, whose sense is clearly established. — Thus: 
God dwells on His throne (xx, 5; lvii, 4, etc.); He 
"comes" (movement in place, lxxxix, 22); the hand 
of God (xlviii, 10; li, 47); His face (e.g. Iv, 27); His 
eyes (xi, 37; Iii, 48 ; liv, 14) etc. Our reason for noting 
these texts is that they were later the object of 
exegetic and theological dispute. 

(D) Conclusion. 

The Kur'anic preaching about God is entirely 
centred on its affirmations of Oneness and Unity, 
of transcendence and subsistence, of absolute per- 
fections. The forbidding inaccessibility of the divine 
nature is resolutely maintained; God, omniscient and 
"near", can be known only by His Word, by the 
Names, the attributes and acts of His paramount 
Sovereignty, which He Himself reveals. 

It is indeed in His Sovereignty over every creature 
that Allah is manifested. The attributes of omni- 



AH 409. 

science and omnipotence relate to God's outward - 
directed knowledge and power. The declaration of 
Oneness pertains to the oneness of the divine nature, 
the godhead as such. God in Himself remains the 
unexpressed mystery, ghayb. 

For Islam, the name Allah is indeed, as Macdonald 
said (EI 1 ), the proper name of God; in that it 
expresses the sole and incommunicable godhead. 

Ought one to describe the God of this preaching as 
a personal God? This question has no place emong 
the problems of Muslim theologians. It is weightily 
posed by the speculations of western students of 
Islam (cf. Macdonald's article, quoted above, in 
which he speaks of the "overwhelming personality"' 
of Allah): God, personal because living, creating, 
acting on the world, speaking to men. But never 
will Islam say that Allah is shakhs or shakhsi. They 
shrink from the assertion made by western scholars; 
indeed, they take positive exception to it. There is 
a twofold misunderstanding here, (a) Vocabulary. 
Shakhs has not undergone, in philosophical Arabic, 
the same shift as the Greek forAoTaCTii; or the Latin 
persona. Shakhs always connotes the individual 
silhouette. There is no better term for the concept of 
"person" ; moreover, it is well suited to the created 
person, but suggests a limiting individualization, 
(b) The very concept as applied to God : generally, the 
Muslim will feel loth to trammel with it the inacces- 
sibility of the divine nature. 

But the misunderstanding disappears if we make 
it plain that "personal God" implies, in the Indo- 
European languages, an absolute perfection: God, 
subsisting in Himself, incommunicable in His purpose 
of godhead. God, personal because perfect and the 
source of perfection, infinitely distinct from every 
creature, and the object of faith and worship. Now 
this is precisely what the rjur'an teaches. If it leaves 
God's inmost Life in its own mystery, it is so as to 
insist on the Word communicated to man through the 
prophets, and on the inner attitude demanded of the 
believer. — God, sovereign Judge, just and terrible 
(diabbdr, lix, 23), is also, by the same token, pro- 
tecting, beneficent, merciful. Faced with the in- 
communicable mystery, the Kur'an demands of the 
believer, in respect of Allah, reverent fear (takwa, 
ix, 109) and, at the same time, piety (birr), the act 
of which is the same as the act of reverent fear (ii, 
189), gratitude (shukr; in the verbal form: "you may 
perchance be grateful", as the Book aften says, 
especially in the Medinan period), confidence 
(tawakkul; frequently in the verbal form: "have 
confidence in God", e.g. iv, 81). 

The "God-fearing" of the r>ur 5 an bow down 
before the inscrutable omnipotence. For the damned 
alone, i.e., "those who have rebelled" (lxxix, 37), 
this fear becomes dread of punishment (cf. Ixxv 25). 
The chosen "those who believe in the Mystery, 
perform the prayer, and give [in alms] of their goods" 
(ii, 3), those "who seek after His Face", to use the 
beautiful expression so often employed (e.g. xcii, 20), 
find in Him their protector (wakil) and guide (hadi) ; 
they find with Him the supreme Refuge {ma'ab, e.g. 
iii, 14; lxxviii, 39). 



*In section iii we shall sketch the most notable 
attitudes of the Muslim schools concerning God. For 
the moment, we seek to devote ourselves to the body 
of problems and the axiology of Sunnite theology. 
The traditional science which deals with divine 
matters is the Him al-kalam or Him al-lawhid, 
roughly "theology" or "defensive apology" (see below 



for certain criticisms raised in Islam against its 
legitimacy). We shall take it in its established form, 
assuming a knowledge of its historical origins, the 
influences it underwent, the formation of the 
various schools (see kalam). A reminder: i) under 
the Umayyads: the Murdji'ites, Kadarites, Djab- 
barites; 2) the Mu'tazilites, originally political 
(ist/7th century), then doctrinal (2nd-3rd/8th-gth 
centuries), who triumphed under Ma'mun but were 
subsequently regarded as "heterodox" for cen- 
turies; 3) from the 4th/ioth century onward, the 
official Ash'arite and Hanafite-Maturidite lines. — 
The conclusions vary with the diverse attitudes 
towards the relation of reason ( c aW) and the Law 
(s*ar c ), or of reason (<akl) and tradition {nakl, 
laklid), or of rational ( l akli) and authoritarian 
(satnH) proofs. 

The Him al-kaldm came to sustain itself by means 
of two other "religious sciences": 1) the science of 
hadith provided texts regarded as authoritative 
proofs, which took up one theme or another of the 
Kur'anic teaching, in a picturesque, even mythical, 
manner (cf. the six "authentic" collections, sahih, 
particularly the kitab al-tawhid of Bukhari's corpus). 
Numerous traditions relate, on the one hand, to 
God's mercy and forgiveness (e.g. "My mercy 
outweighs My wrath or takes precedence of it", 
Bukhari, Tawhid, 169, 175); on the other hand, to 
His absolute kingship ("I am the King; where are 
the kings of the earth?", id., 167, 181); on the one 
hand, to human responsibility (texts in Bukhari or 
Muslim, chap. Kadar), on the other hand, to the 
preordaining decree (e.g. these oft-quoted hadTUis: 
"All the hearts of mankind are like one single heart 
between two of the fingers of the Merciful", and: 
"These for heaven, and I care not; those for hell, 
and I care not"). Many hadiths had great influence 
on the formation of current notions and the popular 
attitude concerning God. 

2) The science of tafsir, or exegetic interpretation, 
played a leading part in the use and understanding 
of those Kur'anic verses which speak of God, 
particularly the anthropomorphic passages. 

Hadith and tafsir were employed in various ways 
by the schools of kalam. 

If we refer to the problems of the kalam (which is, 
in its essentials, of Mu'tazilite origin), we find two 
great principles directly concerning God: 1) the 
principle of tawhid or divine unity; 2) the principle 
of '■ail, of the justice of God in connection with the 
requital of human actions. As against the "free- 
thinkers" of their day, the Mu'tazilites had presented 
themselves as "the people of unity and justice", 
ahl al-tawhid wa 'l-'adl. These problems continued 
to inspire later schools. Only their titles changed. 
The great classic manuals of the Ash'arites and 
Maturidites (e.g. Shark al-Mawakif of Djurdjanl, 
Makasid of Taftazani, etc.) called the first principle 
wudjid Allah wa sifatuhv ("the existence and at- 
tributes of God"), and the second af l aluhu ta'ala 
("the actions of the Exalted One"). Here are the 
main questions raided in connection with both. 



(A) Tawhid. 

1. The Existence of God (wud±ud Allah). 

All schools agree in quoting those Kur'anic verses 
(cf. above) which bid the reason to "reflect on the 
signs of the universe", and to rise thereby to the 
affirmation of the Creator. But : (a) according to the 
Mu'tazilites, there is involved in this an obligation 
inherent in the nature of reason, prior to the promul- 



gation of the Law ; (b) according to the Maturidites, 
reason should, by rights, have been able to attain 
to the knowledge of its Creator, but was actually 
brought to it by the promulgation of the Law; 
(c) for the Ash'arites, the employment of the reason 
and of reasoning in order to rise to God is a 
purely legal (revealed) obligation. Cf. al-Diurdjanl, 
Shark al-Mawakif, Cairo 1325/1907, i, 251 ff. In 
other words: if the Law had not laid down the 
obligation, human reason could never have attained to 
the existence of God (cf . al-Ghazzall, al-Iktisad, Cairo, 
n.d., 77-8). The affirmation of the existence of God, 
for the Ash'arite school as a whole, is therefore the 
result of a rational ( l akli) argument, prescribed by 
an argument of authority (here, skarH). 

Whatever the nature of this obligation, the 
schools are as one with regard to the rational argu- 
ment itself. What is involved is a proof of the 
existence of God a novitate mundi, linked with the 
entirely contingent and perishable character of the 
world, as the Kur'an teaches and reason can 
convince itself. For the kalam, the temporal beginning 
and end of the world are demonstrable truths. There 
is then an inference (istidldl) which proceeds, with 
no universal middle term, from this utter inadequacy 
of the created to the necessary (wadjib) existence of 
the Creator, Who alone exists from all eternity and 
alone is self-subsisting (truths taught by the Kur'an 
and also accessibls to the reason, 'akliyydt). This 
inference, in the early days of the kalam (Mu'tazilites 
as well as Ash'arites) was set out as a piece of reaso- 
ning in two terms. Among the later mutakallimiin, 
more directly imbued with the Aristotelian logic, it 
frequently took the shape of a syllogistic deduction 
(both forms are found in al-Diuwavnl). The argument 
is given in all the manuals as a "decisive" (kafi) 
proof. Only rarely, under influences proceeding 
from the falsafa, does it take the form of the proof 
a contingentia mundi in the strict sense. The world is 
muhdath, and in the treatises of kalam this term 
stays very close to its etymological sense of "begun" 
in time (see the works of Wensinck and S. de 
Beaurecueil, cited in the bibliography, on the proofs 
of the existence of God). 

2. The Attributes of God {sifdt Allah). 

(a) Relations between essence and attributes. This 
was one of the most controversial topics. Some old 
traditionists held fast to the letter of the texts and 
set themselves against all research that might be 
called rational. Their opponents, exaggerating the 
rigidity of the position they were attacking, called 
them mudiassiina ("corporealists", who give bodily 
attributes to' God), or again, contemptuously, 
hashwiyya. They accused them of tashbih: comparing 
God to the created. 

In their anxiety to purify the concept of tawhid, 
the Mu'tazilites extolled, on the contrary, tamih, 
"withdrawal", the via remotionis which they applied 
with extreme rigour: one must deny God every 
created thing, as the Kur'an commands. The 
Djahmites, disciples of the Djabbarite 2jahm b. 
Safwan, had practically denied the existence of the 
attributes, God being known only as an inscrutable 
omnipotence. The MuHazilite tanzih, on the other 
hand, took the theistic standpoint of a ruling God. 
They recognized the divine attributes of knowledge, 
power, speech, etc., but asserted that they were 
"identical with the essence", a distinction which was, 
for them, hardly more than nominal. 

The "orthodox" schools likewise practised tanzih, 
i.e., they denied God any resemblance to anything: 



He is neither body nor substance (djawhar, in the 
sense of bounded substance) nor accidents, nor is 
He localized, etc. (It must be noted that the Karra- 
mites had recognized God as substance, by which they 
understood self -existent). — The Ash'arite reform, 
in the name of the "golden mean", held itself 
equally aloof from the Mu'tazilite tendency to prove 
everything rationally, and from the literalism of the 
mudjassima. This was the famous principle bild 
kayf wa Id tashbih, "without 'how' or comparison". 
It accused the Mu'tazilite tanzlh of amounting to 
the same as ta c (U, divesting the attributes of all 
reality and making of God no more than an empty 
concept. The Ash'arites, for their part, while recog- 
nizing the entire reality of the attributes, since the 
Kur'an informs us of them, yet affirmed that this 
reality can in no way compromise the perfect divine 
Unity. Simultaneously opposing Mu'tazilites and 
faldsifa, and following al-Ghazzall, they later arrived 
at this approximation: "the attributes subsist in 
the divine essence; they are not God and are nothing 
other than He". 

A kindred solution was advanced by certain 
Ash'arites who remained faithful to the conceptu- 
alist theory of "modes" (ahwdl) of the Mu'tazilite Abu 
Hashim: e.g. al-Djuwaynl (5th/nth century) ; on this 
point the so-called "modern" school (6th-7th/i2th- 
13th century) of Fakhr al-DIn al-RazI, Pjurdjanl, etc. 
was at variance with him. The "mode" (hdl) is an 
attribute which is attached to an existing thing but 
is itself qualified neither by existence nor by non- 
existence : that is how the relation between the divine 
essence and the attributes is to be understood. 

This difficult theological problem was served by 
a philosophical instrument which went on striving 
to improve itself, and making progress, though not 
without occasionally stumbling. Thus, at the be- 
ginning of the Hanafite-Maturidite line, we find in 
the Fikh Akbar II (text of the time of Ash'ari), that 
God is a "thing" (shay 3 ). Much though this statement 
might later be ridiculed by some of the mutakallimun, 
influenced by Greek thought, as used by the ancients 
it is clearly to be taken in the sense of "existing 
reality": "Allah is thing, not as other things but 
in the sense of positive existence" (Fifth Akbar II, 
Art. 4; cf. Wensinck, Muslim Creed, Cambridge 1932, 
ino). It was in this same sense that the term "body" 
or "bodily substance" (djism) was used in speaking 
of God; this practice of certain Karramites and 
Hanbalites was noted by Macdonald (EI 1 ). 

The Maturidites on the whole preferred not to 
distinguish God's attributes from Himself but to 
say: "God is knowing and has a knowledge which 
is attributed to Him in the sense of eternity", etc., 
thus laying stress on the divine Names (the Knowing, 
Willing, Powerful, Speaking, etc.). 

(b) List of attributes. The guiding principle was to 
affirm no attribute not expressly indicated in the 
Kur'an: the principle of tafwid, "leaving it to God" 
to elucidate through scripture. The majority of the 
doctors of kaldm, however, considered that it was 
not being false to the text to pass from the present 
participle, for example, to the noun, in accordance 
with the laws of language. Thus there evolved, in 
the course of the centuries, a list of attributes, 
enumerated in no particular order, to begin with 
(so in the Ibdna of al-Ash'arl), and then, especially 
from al-Djuwaynl onward, sorted out and classified. 

The order adopted, indeed the appellations 
themselves, vary with the different schools (cf. 
Sifa). To adhere to one commonly-held view, we 
offer the following list: 1) attribute of essence (sifat 



411 



al-dhat): wu&iud, existence; in the case of God, not 
distinguished from essence; 2) "essential" (dhoti or 
nafsl) attributes, sometimes divided in to (a) "negative" 
attributes which emphasize the divine transcendance : 
eternity (kidam), permanence (bakd'), dissimilarity 
to the created (al-mukhalafa li 'l-jiawddith), self- 
subsistence (kiydm bi 'l-nafsi), — and (b) ma'dhi 
attributes, "adding a concept to the essence": 
power (kudra), will (irdda), knowledge (Him), life 
(hay at), speech (kaldm), hearing (sam 1 ), sight (basar), 
perception (idrdk: some denied that this was an 
attribute); 3) attributes of "qualification" (ma'na- 
wiyya), the ma'anl attributes taken verbally: 
having power, willing, knowing . . . ; 4) attributes 
of action (sifat al-af-M), designating not an intrinsic 
quality but a "possibility" of God, which God may 
or may not do: visibility (ru'yat Allah), creation 
(khalk), actual creation of the contingent world (the 
Maturidite takwin), command (amr), decree and 
predetermination (kadar and kadd'), whose relations 
with the divine knowledge and will vary according 
to the school, consent (ridd: especially in Matur- 

The Ash'arites and Maturidites agree in taking the 
ma'dni attributes as eternal, even if their object is 
contingent; against the Mu'tazilites who maintained, 
for example (school of Basra), that God has a 
"contingent" knowledge, with a beginning, of free 
human acts. On the other hand, Ash'arites and 
Maturidites diverge over the "eternal" or "begun" 
character of the attributes of action : the Maturidites 
generally regard them as eternal. 

All but four of the attributes depend on the 
'akliyyat : they are taught by the Kur'an but human 
reason can "prove" them. The other four, visibility, 
speech, hearing and sight ("perception" is sometimes 
included), depend on the samHyyat and are knowable 
only because they have been revealed. 

(c) Two controversial attributes. The "vision of 
God" (attribute of visibility") and Speech were 
hotly debated. 

The vision of God (ru'yat Allah) is understood as 
being through the eyesight, bi 'l-absdr. The pious 
traditionists accepted it absolutely, interpreting in 
this sense Kur'an, lxxv, 22-23, and numerous 
hadiths. The Mu'tazilites denied it no less absolutely, 
interpreting the Kur'anic text by a philological 
ta'wil (cf. below). Ash'arites and Hanafite-Maturi- 
dites upheld the vision of God, but emphasizing the 
bild kayf: every man will see God with his eyesight on 
the Day of Judgment, the elect will see Him (tran- 
siently) in Paradise, — but they will not see Him as 
one sees an object spatially situated and limited, and 
it is impossible to specify the manner of this vision 
(Ibdna, Cairo 1348 h., 14, Fikh Akbar II, 17). 

The "traditional" (samH) attribute of Speech is of 
major importance, since by means of it God manifests 
Himself to men. The Mu'tazilites, precisely because 
of this manifestation in time, made of it a contingent 
"created" Speech (whence the thesis of the created, 
makhluk, Kur'an). The Kur'an is the Speech of God, 
but the latter is contingent. The Ash'arites, taking 
up that great affirmation which had earned Ibn 
Hanbal imprisonment and flogging, saw in it 
essential (nafsi) Speech, subsisting by the very 
existence of God. Hence the thesis of the "uncreated 
Kur'an" (ghayr makjdik, Ibdna, 20-22). But the 
school distinguished between it and its "created" 
expression: the Book and its recitation by human 
lips. In the 8/14M1 century, Ibn Taymiyya, meditating 
on and reviving the faith of the "pious ancients" 
(salaf), found Mu'tazilites and Ash'arites equally 



wanting: he reaffirmed the essential Speech of God, 
which expresses Him and subsists in Him, and decla- 
red that this Speech, in its mystery, is Torah, Gospel, 
Rur'an (Fatdwd, Cairo 1329 h., v, 265-7). 

3. Mutashabih Verses. 
The veneration of the Rur'anic text, coupled with 
the inscrutable mystery of the One God, soon con- 
fronted Muslim thought with the case of the "ambi- 
guous" anthropomorphic (mutashabih) verses, which 
apparently liken God to the created. Are they to 
be accepted in pure faith, or should they be inter- 
preted (fa'wil) by exegesis (tafsir) ? 

(a) The ancient traditionists took these verses at 
their face value. But it would be idle to bring 
against them an unqualified accusation of "cor- 
porealism", as their opponents did. The Ash'arites 
themselves declared valid the attitude of the 
"ancients" who, eschewing all ta'wil or interpretation, 
took refuge in the tafwid or committal to God. God 
sits on His Throne (istiwd'), descends towards the 
earth, has eyes, has a hand, because the text says so. 
But no one knows the acceptation given by God to 
these terms: this attitude was attributed to Malik 
b. Anas in particular. It is hardly necessary to add 
that an attitude like this became "corporealist" 
only insofar as it tried to conceptualize itself and to 
justify itself discursively, but not insofar as it 
interiorizes itself in adherence to faith. 

(b) But the MuHazilite schools, for their part, 
wished to justify dialectically the Muslim notion of 
God, in face of the Greek-inspired "God of the 
philosophers". On the one hand the emphasis 
placed on the Oneness of God, on the other then- 
confidence in the rational criterion (mizan l akli), 
led the MuHazilites to an extensive use of ta'wil. 
Their representative in ta'wil was al-Zamakhsharl, who 
adopted for his own purposes the philological method 
of al-Tabari. I n this way "shining countenances, 
looking at their Lord" became, as al-Djubbal sugges- 
ted, "beautiful countenances, aspiring to the bounty 
of their Lord": the vision of God could be denied 
without contradicting the Rur'an. — Recourse was 
had to figures of speech, as well as to philology. The 
mithak, the covenant granted by God to the race of 
Adam in pre-eternity (vii, 172) was regarded as a 
metaphor (madjaz), as were all the anthropomorphic 
passages. 

(c) The first Ash'arites r 
of reason in tafsir. For then 
terms, including the sitting 
motion in space, are just the expression of acti 
and attributes which are consistent with the di\ 
Majestry but of which we can know neither the nal 
nor the manner, and which have nothing ' 
with the corresponding human actions or attributes. 
This was the bild kayf attitude, often confused with 
that of the "ancients" and advanced by the master, 
al-Ash c ari himself. 

(d) Later, under an influence picked up from the 
Mu'tazilites and especially from the falasifa oppo- 
sition, another attitude, known as that of the 
"moderns", was admitted into the kalam. Ta'wil 
was permitted. Thus al-Djuwayni, Fakhr al-DIn al- 
Razi, etc. The "hand" of God was interpreted as 
"the protection extended over mankind", His 
"eyes" denote "the intensity of His providence and 
watchfulness", etc. (al-RazI, Kitab Asas al-Takdis), 
Cairo 1327 h., 149). A metaphorical interpretation, 
into which allegory may creep, if need be, and which 
comes very close to the Mu'tazilite legacy, with the 
following differences: 1) the attitude of the "an- 



jacted against this use 
1, the anthropomorphic 
1 the throne and the 



cients" is regarded as valid (cf. Asas al-Takdis, last 
chapter); 3) only the specifically anthropomorphic^ 
passages are accepted as metaphors; where the 
"apparent" (zdhir) sense would lead to a real impos- 
sibility: this was the position which Tabari had 
already taken up. But the vision of God, and the 
metahistorical fact of the covenant, were main- 
tained in their strict sense, in conformity with the 
Ash'arite dogmatic. 

(B) The actions of God (af'aluhu ta'dld). 
(The problem of justice and retribution). 

The P>ur 5 an teaches the two great truths of divine 
omnipotence and human responsibility, good works 
rewarded, acts of "disobedience" punished. Muslim 
thinkers strove tirelessly to find the solution to this 
apparent conflict. This was the subject of the first 
controversies, as early as Damascus, between, 
Djabarites, PJadarites and Murdji'ites. The great 
schools of kalam inherited it from them. 

1. The Mu'tazilites affirm human freedom: man 
acts by a power (kudra) which God has once and for 
all created in him. God knows these free actions; He 
does not create them. The school of Basra insisted 
that He knows them only from the moment of their 
production, by an attribute of knowledge which in 
this respect is contingent, "begun". — But these 
actions are rewarded or punished by God in all 
fairness. He is the just Judge, incapable of not 
acting for a purpose, with a fixed aim in view. 
There is a deliberate order in the universe (the 
wonderful order of which the Kur'an speaks), an 
objective order: and therefore there are intermediate 
aims subordinated to a final aim. There are secondary 
causes (asbdb) which act efficaciously on their effects, 
and there is a good and an evil (literally beautiful, 
ugly, hasan, kabih) in the nature of things, prior to 
the elucidation brought by the revealed Law (shar"). 
God is bound to do the best (aslah). He does not 
want evil and does not order it; His will (irdda) and 
His command (amr) are identical. Evil is created by 
man, just as he creates the moral denominations of 
his acts, since he creates (khalaha) all his actions, 
good and bad. — The two Mu'tazilite groups, of 
Basra and Kufa, parted company over the concept 
of the "best" which God always accomplishes, and 



2. The Ash'arite school revolted against this 
attempt at "justifying" God. God "does not come 
within the grasp of the intellect". He is the just 
Judge because He does what He wishes. "No obli- 
gation for God". What He does is the best, not 
because He is so obliged, but because He does it. 
Moral good and evil have no existence prior to the 
positive divine Law. "If God were to reverse the 
decision, and to declare good (hasan) what He has 
declared bad (kabih), and bad what He has declared 
good, there would be no impediment" (al-Diurdianl. 
Shark al-Mawakif, viii, 182). — Al-Ghazzali and al- 
Razi, it is true, recognize a "rational" ( l akli) meaning 
in the "beautiful good" and the "ugly-evil": only on 
the plane of being, for al-Razi (Muhassal, Cairo n.d., 
H7;Kitab al-ArbaHn,Caiio 1353I1,, 249) ;on the plane 
of the sensible qualities inherent in things, for 
al-Ghazzali (Iktisdd, Cairo n.d., 67). 

And God, as the JCur'an says, "guides whom He 
wishes, turns astray whom He wishes". Everything 
is fixed by His predetermination (kadd'), according 
to His eternal Will (irdda), encompassing in its 
generality the totality of things, — while His decree 
(kadar), existentialized by His command (amr), is 



an "attribute of contingent action", particularizing 
in time the things that are "begun", as they pass 
from non-being to being. As al-Diurdjaru says ( Ta'rifdt, 
■ed. Flugel, 1845, 181), "kadar is the relation of the 
essential Will to things in their individual realiz- 
ation"; and again: "Kadar: the passing of possible 
from non-being into being, one by one, in con- 
formity with kadd\ Kada? is of the order of pre- 
■eternity {azal), kadar depends on the present order 
of things" (ibid.). It follows that one must distinguish 
between irdda and amr; it is the latter which is 
■directly linked with man's obedience. God wishes the 
impiety of the infidel and creates it in him, yet 
commands him to believe. 

For man's "free" action, his ikhtiyar, is only a 
special case of more general principles. God is the 
creator of human acts, whatever they be. The text 
"God is creator of all that you do" is interpreted in 
the sense of a creation ex nihilo. True, man has a 
feeling of his own responsibility. This means that 
God sets down to his merit or demerit the actions he 
performs, as the Kur'an expressly states, and that 
He rewards or punishes him, as promised. Man 
receives the "acquisition", the attribution of his 
acts (kasb, iktisab: cf. Kur'an, ii, 281; Hi, 21, etc.). 
At the end of the last century, Badjuri found this 
formula necessary: "man is a bound being, in the 
shape of a free being" {Ifashiya c ala H-Qiawhara, 
Cairo 1352/1934, 62). On the empirical level, man 
must therefore continue to act as though he were 
free. But he must know that everything comes to 
him from God. If he acts well, it is because God in 
His Mercy has so decreed; if he acts badly, it is 
because God has so willed in His justice. 

This negation of ontological liberty accords with 
the negation of the efficacy of the second causes 
(asbab): as against the "reprehensible innovation" 
(bid'a) of the Mu'tazilite thesis (efficacy of the asbab, 
according to a "power" created by God), and against 
the absolute determinism of the causes ("cause" here 
rendered by Hlla) taught in the falsafa, a thesis tain- 
ted with kufr (impiety). (Cf. al-Sanusi, Mukaddimdt, 
Algiers 1908, 108-109; al-Badjuri, op. cit., 58). — For 
the Ash'arites, there is nothing efficacious about 
the second causes, because there is no conservation 
in being, on the part of God. There are discontinuous 
series of instantaneous creations, temporal existen- 
tializations of the eternal kaia?. At every instant 
(wahf), God creates and re-creates the world and the 
impermanent whole, extrinsically unified, which is 
man, and every act of man. The world of "free" 
acts, as well as the cosmos in its entirety, is a dis- 
continuous sequence of inscrutable divine decrees. 
The "causes" are but the channels, the tokens, of 
this divine Will, and the "laws" are a "custom of 
God" (sunnat Allah; the expression is still found in 
Muhammad 'Abduh, RisMat al-Tawhid, Cairo 1353, 
7). It is a custom which God can always modify: as 
He does, for example, when He decides to give proof, 
by miracles (mu'dfiedt), of the mission of His 
prophets. 

For most of the Ash'arites, though by no means 
all, there is an atomistic cosmology corresponding 
to the discontinuous view of things. Everything is 
but a concourse of atoms (nukfa, dharr), connected, 
disconnected, reunited, by divine decree. If it is 
true that al-Bakillanl (4th/ioth century) declared 
atomism to be "coessential" (Massignon) with the 
Kur'anic dogmas, it would, in our opinion, be going 
too far to see in this the pre-eminently characteristic 
aspect of Ash'arism, still more of all "orthodox" 
Muslim theology. This physico-theological atomism 



is actually of Mu'tazilite origin (Abu '1-Hudhayl; cf. 
studies by Horten and S. Pines), and matched well 
then with the kudra, the "power" which man was 
recognized as having over his acts. An impressive 
line of Ash'arites, al-Bakillanl al-Idji, al-Diurdjanl 
(with some modifications), the "frozen conservatism" 
of such men as al-Sanusi, al-Lakanl and al-Badjuri, 
remained faithful to the occasionalist atomism as 
being the most favoured explanation of the divine 
omnipotence over the world. But another line, in- 
fluenced to some small extent by the disputed theses 
of the falsafa, passed over it in silence (al-Ghazzall. 
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi) or greatly modified it (al-Shah- 
rastanl), although still affirming the usual theses 
on God's kadd' and kadar and the simple human 
iktisab. 

3. Some Maturldites (Abu Hafs al-Nasafi, al-Taf- 
tazanl) were atomists. But we wish to lay particular 
emphasis on the more directly psychological aspect 
in which the Hanafite-Maturidite school as a whole 
regarded the relations between the divine decree and 
human freedom. From the first, kadar and kadd' 
were no longer related to the divine Will, but to the 
divine Knowledge; — and, counter to the Ash'arites, 
it was kadar that was to be eternal, while kadd' was 
connected with existentialization in time. Kadar was 
therefore an eternal foreknowledge whereby God 
knows, from all eternity, the beautiful (good), ugly 
(bad) or harmful qualities of His creatures, while 
kada' was God's existentialization of these same 
things, created with wisdom and perfection (cf. c Abd 
al-Rahim b. 'All, Nazm al-FaraHd, 2nd ed., Cairo n.d., 
28-30; and al-Badjuri, Qiawhara, 66). 

For the majority of the Maturldites, there exists 
in things a "rational" good (beautiful) and evil 
(ugly), on the plane of being, not directly on the 
moral plane (a thesis already noted in connection 
with the Ash'arite al-Razi). On the moral plane, it 
is God Who directly creates the basis (asl) of man's 
"free" actions, but it is man's power which makes 
their qualification (sifa) good or bad. (It should be 
noted that al-Razi, Kitdb al-ArbaHn, 227, and al- 
Djurdjanl, Shark al-Mawdkif, viii, 147 ascribe this 
thesis, whose tenor is Maturldite, to al-Bakillanl). 
All that happens is willed by God; but only the 
good depends on His consent (rida). God is not 
bound to be just, as the Mu'tazilites say; His 
action is not just because He wishes it, as the 
Ash'arites say: He is above all justice by reason of 
His knowledge and wisdom. He is unable not to 

4. We have no need to follow here the abundant 
efforts of the doctors of the kalam to strengthen 
their arguments and to resolve the objections that 
were constantly cropping up. Those who were not 
satisfied with the Ash'arite theory of kasb, of acts 
imposed from outside, undertook more recondite 
analyses: thus we have the theory (common to 
Ash'arites and Maturldites) of istita'a [q.v ] or "capa- 
city" [for an act], created by God previously or 
simultaneously (cf. al-Djuwaynl, Irshad, ed. Luciani, 
1938, 122/196, 125/201; al-Djurdjani, Ta'rifit, 18, 
etc.); the theory of tawlid or tawallud [q.v.], which 
explains the "generation" of the transitive act by the 
divine occasionalism; and the theory of tawfik [q.v.] 
or "facilitation" of acts, especially of good acts, faith 
and obedience, which is created in man by the divine 
favour (luff), and its (positive) opposite, khidhlan 
or divine "abandonment" ("creation in man of the 
power to disobey", according to a definition by the 
Maturldite al-Taftazani, Makdsid, Istanbul ed., 118), 



We can see that these efforts of minute analysis, 
applied to problems of great complexity, may well 
have looked like disheartening intellectual games, 
to those who wished to remain true to the sense of 
mystery of the "pious ancestors", and who refused 
to "prove dogma" (cf. al- Diurdi anf. Sharh al-Maw&kif. 
I; 34-35) as the later Ash'arites aspired to doing. 
The kalam had its greatest opponents (apart from 
the falasifa opposition) in the Hanbalite and Zahirite 
systems of thought, which were wedded to tradition 
and mistrustful of the use of reason in matters of 
faith. Al-Ghazzali too was very severe with the kalam, 
on occasion. Yet it is sometimes among these op- 
ponents that we find the most pertinent bases of 
analysis of the relations between the free act and 
the divine omnipotence. 

Thus Ibn Hazm ( 4 th-5th/ioth-nth century) the 
Zahirite, who denied any criteriological capacity to 
the reason (one can speak of Ibn Hazm's "nominal- 
ism", but it is a nominalism centred on the effective 
value of language and its internal laws), and who 
meant to hold fast to the precise declarations of the 
scriptures: he rejected the Ash'arite kasb, since the 
texts, he said (Fifal, Cairo 1347 h.,iii,48)allowneither 
a "creation" by man of his acts (MuHazilite) nor an 
"acquisition" conferred by God (Ash'arite) ; but his 
whole refutation, highly discursive, of the opposing 
theories (id., 51-52) is pertinently developed; while 
a valuable personal solution is outlined in connection 
with istifa'a (id., 21-26 and 31). 

Al-Ghazzali, not indeed the Ghazzall of the Iktisdd, 
who confines himself to presenting or rather to 
improving the theses of the Ash'arites, minimizing, 
moreover, the scope of the halam (7-8), but the 
al-Ghazzall of the Tahdfut and, above all, of the / kya> 
(Cairo 1352/1933. " v . 2'9) carries out an extremely 
shrewd psychological analysis on the subject of 
"choice" and the relations of intellect and will in 
the free act. He defends an irrational concept of 
freedom and maintains that God alone, Who acts 
without motive (ghayr gharad) is totally free, with 
a freedom conceived as a free human choice raised 
to the power of infinity. What the mutakailimun 
called kasb is an "intermediate stage" (Ihya>,iv, 220) 
which is not at all a participation in the divine 
freedom. Man acts of necessity, in the sense that 
everything which happens in him comes not from 
him but from Another; he acts by free choice, in the 
sense that he is the place (makall) of the free act, 
which operates inevitably in him after the decision 
of the intellect, this last being only a matter of form. 
And al-Ghazzali propounds this formula, which it 
would be well not to interpret loosely: "Man is 
forced into free choice" (ibid.). 

This concern with analysis was to dwindle to 
vanishing point in the later manuals, which, from 
the 15th century onward, hardly did more than 
repeat the formulas of the past. At the end of the 
19th century, Muhammad c Abduh, wishing to free 
himself from the dialectic of the kalam, confined 
himself to saying: "As for seeking further, for 
wishing to reconcile God's omniscience and will, 
which are proved [by the Kur'an and rational 
arguments], with the free activity of man, which 
is shown to us by the evidence [sensory, psycho- 
logical] ; that means seeking to penetrate the secrets 
of the divine decree. We are forbidden to plunge into 
this abyss and to concern ourselves with that which 
reason is scarcely capable of attaining" (Risdlat 
al-Tawhid, 61). 



Some pointers, chosen from the most charac- 

1. Ismd'ili Theology. There is much that could 
be said about the "schismatic" theologies, of 
Kharidjite Islam on the one hand, of ghlHte on the 
other. We shall confine ourselves to the Isma'UI 
system, which had so many cultural contacts with the 
Sunnite majority. Integrated in it there is a twofold 
line of influence : MuHazilite (which continued to act 
on the Shi'a after the condemnation of the Mu'ta- 
zilites in the time of Mutawakkil) and Neoplatonic 
(consequently, a certain influence from falsafa). 

We know hardly anything of the very first phase 
of development or of its efforts to fix in an original 
direction such Muslim notions as hun, kadar, etc. 
Not until Abu c Abd Allah al-Nasafl (4th/ioth century) 
do we find these primitive conceptions given a new 
setting in a largely Neoplatonic, emanationist 
system. Speculation was pursued, and enriched by 
various trends, with Abu Hatim al-Razi, Abu 
Ya'kub al-Sidjistani, Nasir-i Khusraw, al-Kirmanl (in 
whom S.M. Stem has found a probable influence 
of Farabi: theory of the ten Intellects). Through 
the Ikhwan al-Safa', Isma'ilism was to influence 
many falasifa and even Sunnite theologians, up to 
the time of the conflict waged by Nasir al-DIn 
al-Tusi in favour of Ibn SIna. 

The emphasis is on the inscrutable mystery of God. 
A whole "negative theology" developed. No name 
or attribute can be attached to God in His essence. 
The perfect tawhid does not even attribute existence 
(Persian: hasti) to Him, and the Kur'anic Names 
signify only that those who bear them come from 
Him (cf. Idris al-Karsi, 8/i4th century). The Com- 
mand (amr), the Speech or Word (kalima), the Act 
of Creation (ibdd c ), the Absolute Knowledge (Him 
mahd) are hypostatized. God is neither eternal nor 
existing at present. What is eternal is His Command 
and His Speech; what exists at present is the 
creation, which emanated from Him at His Command 
(cf. al-Makrizi, Khi(at, U 395. quoted by G. Vajda, 
Juda b. Nissim ibn Malha, Paris 1954, iii, chap. 1). 
God remains, absolutely, the Unknowable (Nasir-i 
Khusraw). The tashbih-ta c (il dilemma is absorbed into 
a via negationis, which refers the affirmation of the 
attributes to the Word or the Command, or to the 
First or Universal Intellect. — Al-Kirmani identifies 
the First Intellect with the Word, and makes the 
ibdd' (Act of Creation) one of its attributes. 

The emanationist system of al-Nasafi and his succes- 
sors set up, in fact, the intermediary of the Universal 
Intellect, from which the world is produced by way 
of successive emanations. The echoes are heard in 
the Fusus fi 'l-Ifihma (which, after the researches of 
S. Pines, REI, 1951, 121-124, is to be ascribed not to 
al-Farabi but to Ibn SIna), and as far as al-Ghazzali: 
the mu(a> of the Mishkdt al- Anwar. 

Isma'ili religious feeling attached itself to a group 
of Gnostic hypostases. The Will (irada), Volition 
(mashpa) and Command (amr) are sometimes 
"spiritual grades" above the First Intellect; most 
often, Will, Command and Speech are identified 
with one another, and the Universal or First Intellect 
is itself, as the "manifestation" of God, unknowable 
and ineffable, operated by His Command. These 
speculations were rooted in an allegorical ta*w$ 
("hidden", bd(in, meaning of Kur'anic verses) and 
throve readily on Iranian myths. They were later 
interiorized by certain Shi'ite, and even Sunnite, 
Sufis. 



2. Falsa/a. It was in falsafa that the term 
ildkiyydt (taken up by kaldm) gained currency as 
denoting the whole mass of questions concerning 
God. The body of problems was no longer that of the 
ktldm. It came from Greece, particularly from 
Aristotle, but was pervaded, at least in eastern 
falsafa (especially al-Firabl, Ibn SIna) by a consider- 
able Neopla tonic inspiration (the pseudo-Theology of 
Aristotle). IJur'anic influence had some effect on this 
body of problems (e.g. the problem of the divine 
knowledge of individuals), but the Kur'an had 
ceased to be the chief source. We do not therefore 
need to set out the questions in detail, as we did in 
the case of the kaldm. We shall note merely that 
Ibn SIna demonstrates the existence of God by the 
proof a contingeniia mundi in the strict sense (not 
overlooking the proof by the "idea of being", 
Ishdrdt, ed. Forget, 146). The more flexible philo- 
sophic instrument of the faldsifa enabled them to 
affirm the attributes, distinct from the divine essence, 
by a simple, reasonable (ma'dni) distinction but 
with a basis in reality. 

The Greek contribution led to an emphasis on 
the necessary acts of the divine essence. God is 
the Thought which thinks itself (cf. Aristotle), He 
is the supreme Good (cf. Plato), which necessarily 
loves itself. He is the Intelligence, exercising intel- 
lection on itself; He is Love and the object of love 
for Himself: <-akl, <-akil, ma'kul, Hshk, 'dshik, ma'shak 
(cf. Nadjat, Cairo 1357/1938, 243, 245; corresponding 
passages of the Shifd', etc.). We should mention here 
an esoteric trend, still imperfectly known, which 
seems to take up several themes of the Ismalll via 
negatioms (intermediaries: Ikhwdn al-Safd', al-Taw- 
hldi; and, at an earlier date, the Isma'ill tendency, 
pointed out by S. Pines, of certain recensions of the 
Theology of Aristotle; see RE1, 1954, 7 & ■)■ 

The faldsifa do not provide us with treatises on 
l *dl or af-dluhu ta'dld. Contrary to the kaldm, they 
affirm (and set out to prove) the production of the 
world by way of necessary and deliberate emanation 
(cf. Isma'Ilism), and its temporal eternity: world 
without beginning or end, "possible" {mumkin) in 
itself, necessary by Another (ab alio); contingent in 
the order of essence, determined in the order of 
existence. Providence ('indya) is the law of emanation 
itself, necessarily willed by the eternal thought of 
God. 

The second causes cannot fail to act on their 
effects. There is no longer any problem of human 
freedom as against divine omnipotence (cf. Nadjat, 
302). 

Whatever solution may be adopted as regards the 
personal survival of the soul, the Active Intellect 
[ c akl fa"dl) appears as an intermediary between 
God and man, both in the order of knowledge and 
in the order of emanation. There is a hierarchy of 
discrete intellects, up to the First Caused; embracing 
these, there is the Universal Intellect. For Ibn SIna, 
(here is a corresponding hierarchy of Souls, rejected 
by Ibn Rushd; the latter seems to have been the 
only one of the faldsifa to come back, by way of 
philosophy, to the divine knowledge of the individual 
in its very individuality, so forcefully taught by the 
Kur'an. 

What is at stake is the whole attitude of faith 
with regard to God. Certainly the faldsifa were 
Muslims and remained Muslims. But even though 
their theses might be amended, and reconciled with 
the affirmations of the Kur'an, the God they pro- 
claim is exactly the God attained through reason, 
and, at the highest, through the flash of intellectual 



415 



They set out to prove (their notion of 
prophecy comes into it : a simple privileged moment 
of the universal determinism) that the God of reason 
and the God of the Kur'an coincide in every respect. 
But it is not a question of a verity of faith corrobo- 
rating reason on its own plane. They treat philosophy 
on the one hand, the Law on the other, as two 
sources of equal value; the point at issue is to show 
that they agree. They attain this end with the help 
of a rational ta'wil, philosophical and at the same 
time allegorical. God is, first and foremost, the 
necessary Being, al-wddjib al-wudjud. 

The God of the great faldsifa is a lofty concept of 
Being, necessary and perfect, supreme Intelligence 
and supreme Love, producing the world by a mode 
of necessary and deliberate emanation: in short, an 
object not so much of faith as of philosophic 
experience and rich intellectual intuition. The 
seriousness with which they pursued their researches 
and reasonings (notwithstanding certain setbacks) 
led to the integration of real riches into Muslim 
culture; their analyses sometimes influenced reli- 
gious thought itself. But here we find ourselves 
on a different plane from the inscrutable mystery 
of the Living God, which the Rur'an presents for 
the adoration of the faithful. 

3. Kaldm. We return now to the schools of 
Sunnite kaldm. The faldsifa no doubt despised the 
dialectic of the mutakallimun, those people "who 
have broken the religious Law into pieces", as Ibn 
Rushd put it (Fast al-Makdl, ed. and tr. Gauthier, 
Algiers 1942, 29). Their subtleties and debates are 
often confused, their philosophic arguments ques- 
tionable. But when they thus set out to defend the 
dogmas against "those who doubt", it is certainly 
the God of faith that is involved. The Mu'tazilites, 
just as much as the Ash'arites, are "men of religion 
first and philosophers second" (Ahmad Amin, 
Dukd al-Isldm, Cairo 1362/1943, iii, 204). 

The inner attitudes of the two kaldm's were 
nevertheless different. True, the Mu'tazilites took 
as their starting-point the Kur'an and the sovereign 
Justice of Allah. But their idea of l ahl as a criterion 
of the Law, and later the impact of the "foreign 
sciences", led them to fix the sum total of faith on 
an idea of God as being "justified" in the eyes of 
human reason. They meant to serve and to purify 
the affirmation of the transcendent Existence, but 
their drastic tanzih reached the pitch of attenuating 
the very notion of divine attributes; the Ash'arites 
were not wrong in accusing them of that. Thereafter 
the mystery of the divine Oneness, the tawhid, is- 
as it were encircled by a human concept; expressed 
negatively, no doubt, but directly attainable on a 
discursive level. We find something corresponding 
to this in tasawwuf, in the experience of Djunayd. 
In correlation, and, at the same time, as a counter- 
part, the l adl, the divine Justice, was in a way 
"humanized"; there was a touch of the idea of a just 
human judge, raised to the power of infinity. 

In its origins, the Ash'arite reaction was by no 
means a pure renunciation on the part of the faithful 
of every elaboration of the data of faith. The "con- 
version" of al-Ash'ari was presented as a return to 
the inner attitude of the "ancients" and a profession 
of loyalty to Ibn Hanbal (Ibdna, 9). Yet the Ash'arites 
accepted the challenge to dialectical combat. This 
led them far afield ; it led them to refine unceasingly, 
but also to complicate unceasingly, a body of 
problems which never came to an end, as a result of 
the multiplicity of objections and the rise of opposing 
schools. Amid the welter of arguments, it sometimes 



becomes difficult to trace that complete resignation, 
in the nakedness of faith, to the One God, Creator 
and Judge, which we find in the suras of the Rur'an. 
The negation of human freedom in its ontological 
reality turned many lines of thought towards a 
■divine voluntarism, conceptualized as such. This 
became still more marked after the 15 th century, 
when the Ash'arite (or Maturldite) kaldm, instead of 
regenerating itself to keep pace with its contemporary 
opponents, as its primarily apologetic function 
would seem to demand, congealed in rather stereo- 
typed manuals. This risk of sclerosis was no doubt one 
of the main considerations leading to the semi- 
agnosticism of Muhammad c Abduh. 

There, we believe, lies the explanation of the 
half-contempt for the kaldm (a half-contempt which 
sometimes grows to violent opposition), which is 
shown alike by the successors of the "pious ancients", 
notably represented by the hanbalite trend, and the 
mystics of the tasawwuf. 

4. The tasawwuf. We cannot hope to analyse here 
the theological bases of the diverse Sufi schools or 
attitudes, with all their fine distinctions (for the first 
centuries, see L. Massignon, Passiond'al-flallddi, Paris 
1922, and Lexique technique, 2nd ed. Paris 1954). 
The important thing to note is that we are no longer 
dealing with a rational endeavour towards the 
necessary Being, as in falsafa, nor, as in kaldm, 
with a discursive endeavour to find "decisive" or 
formal arguments for the Kur'anic doctrine about 
God. What is involved here is a spiritual experience, 
a life with God, soon to be understood as an expe- 
rience of oneness, an inner realization of the tawhid. 

There were some Sufis (al-Halladj, al-Tirmidhl) who 
rethought for themselves the dogmatic bases of 
their era; some (Hasan al-Basri) who could, by stret- 
ching a point, be called "semi-Mu c tazilite" ; others 
(Ibn Karram) who gave their name to a theological 
school; some were linked to the Hanbalite way of 
thought; there were many Shi'ite Sufis; and there 
were many Sunnite Sufis who in no way challenged 
the regular conclusions of the Ash'arite kaldm (al- 
Makkl, the al-Ghazzali of the Ihyd', many Shadhills, 
etc.). Finally, a great many, especially from the 
7th/i3th and 8th/i4th centuries onward, permitted 
themselves to be influenced by an existential monism 
of Neoplatonic tendencies. — From the point of view 
which concerns us, we shall confine ourselves to 
picking out two main lines of Sufism, according to 
a distinction insisted on by L. Massignon: 

(a) wahdat al-shuhud, the oneness of Witness, of 
which al-Halladj was the exponent. It seems also to 
nave inspired every mystic of Hanbalite influence. 
The union with God is achieved in God's bearing 
witness to Himself and to His mystery of Unity, in 
the mystic's heart. The divine transcendence and 
its absolute Oneness in relation to all creation 
remain the central object of the act of faith. But the 
meeting with God is brought about by love ("in 
His Essence, love, Hskk, is the Essence of the essence", 
said Halladj); by love, the dialogue is established 
between the faithful heart and God, until the sup- 
reme "I", which consummates the dialogue in unity, 
without destroying it. It is well known how much 
the official Islam of the 3rd/gth century opposed this 
union of love (which claimed the support of Kur'an, 
iii, 29 and v, 59), this oneness of the Witness in the 

Two intermediate stages. The al-Ghazzali of the 
IkyS? (5th/nth century), who gave the tasawwuf 
citizen-rights among the recognized religious sciences : 
uniting, not without some eclecticism, the dogmatic 



values of developed Ash'arism and the spiritual 
values of the love of God (mahabba), of dependence 
and trust {tawakkul), and of the diverse ascetico- 
mystic virtues. Another and more important inter- 
mediate stage is that of the ishrdk movement and its 
emanationism, which is by no means purely monist. 
The great figure of the master of the ishrdk, al-Suhra- 
wardl of Aleppo (6th/i2th century), so well studied 
by H. Corbin, illustrates a quest for unity which 
leads to identity in the order of knowledge; but the 
outer garb of Iranian myth permits him, on a plane 
of lofty poetic intuition, to leave the Witness its 
transcendence. 

(b) wahdat al-wudjud, the oneness of Existence. — 
This came to dominate later Sufism, since Ibn 
'Arab! (6th/i2th-7th/i3th century). Ibn Taymiyya 
saw (and condemned) in it the influence of Ibn SIna 
(discrimination to modify and to complete, not to 
reject). One may say that the Ghazzall of the minor 
works of the last period, so deeply imbued with 
falsafa, even with Isma'Ilism, was the forerunner of 
it. In it, the Neoplatonic monism of the pseudo- 
Theology of Aristotle meets the Ash'arite tendency 
which, the better to affirm the One God, denied the 
creature all real ontological density. In contrast with 
God, "sole Being and sole Agent", the created world 
is but impermanence. The illusory empirical existence, 
says the mystic, must obliterate itself (fans' 1 ) in the 
only Existence which subsists [bakd'), — that of God. 
Interpreting Kur'an, xvii, 85, the $ufl partisans of 
the monism of the Being said that the human spirit, 
the ruh, is a direct emanation from the divine 
Command (amr), and is therefore an emanation 
from God Himself. Cf. already the Ghazzalian text 
(ascription discussed by W. Montgomery Watt, 
Authenticity of works attributed to al-Ghazzali, JRAS 
1952, 1 and 2) the Risdla Laduniyya (Cairo 1353/ 
1934, 25)- Following some quite different references, 
we have here something like an echo of the "trace 
of the One in us" of Plotinus, even indeed — all 
question of historical channels aside — of the Indian 
"Thou art That". The supreme mystical experience 
is then an experience of unity (ittihdd), understood 
as identification. It readily justifies its chosen course 
by an allegorical and gnostic ta'wil of the scriptural 

The wahdat al-wudjud, for reasons partly doctrinal, 
partly historical, never aroused among the fukaha* 
and the mutakallimun the opposition encountered in 
the 3rd/9th century by the wahdat al-shuhUd. One 
cannot however forget how powerfully the latter 
might lead the tawakkul — the total dependence of 
the believer upon God, sovereign Judge and sovereign 
Unity — to spiritual experience in the strict sense of 
the term. 

5) The "pious ancients". The adherence to faith 
of many Sufis of the first centuries was in complete 
accordance with that of the "pious ancients". In 
the first centuries, Sufi and traditionist circles often 
overlapped. — There was no question of a school, in 
spite of the fact that these people frequently set 
themselves in the Hanbalite tradition; it was a 
question of an inner attitude. This reference to the 
"ancients" [salaf) must be understood as a choice, 
much more than a chronological distinction: we find 
it as much in the 14th century, with Ibn Taymiyya, 
as at the beginning of the hijrl era ; we find it again, 
systematized and with a predominantly anti-Sufi 
note, among the Wahhabites and neo-Wahhabites, 
among the modern Salafiyya and their contemporary 
disciples (including, in some measure, the Ikhwan 
al-Muslitniln). 



ALLAH — ALLAHABAD 



This tendency raised itself many a time against 
the quibbles and subtleties of the kaldm, against an 
excessive confidence in rational or dialectical proofs. 
In his Dhamm al-Kaldm, al-Ansari claimed for the 
Muslim the right not to seek for explanation (tafsir) 
oi the divine attributes, not to proceed down 
"blind alley" of the Ash'arites, glossing texts and 
distinguishing between the attribute and its kayf, 
its "mode of being" (cf. quotation from al-Ansari in 
Ibn Taymiyya, Fatdwd, v, 275-78). The very per- 
sonality of the mystic al-Ansari would suffice to 
show us that a tendency that is truly loyal to 1 
"pious ancients" has no grounds for condemning 
tasawwuf wholesale, as it often does nowadays; 
easily confusing the wahdat al-shuhUd with 
wahdat al-wudiad, and the latter with the deviations 
of the "brotherhoods". 

What remains affirmed is the faith in God Most 
High, Who speaks to men by His prophets and 
apostles, revealing no more of Himself than the 
"most beautiful Names" whereby He indicates and 
conceals Himself (hidiab al-ism) : a faith which does 
not require God to be explicit about Himself, while 
it holds fast (to His Word) and resigns itself (to 
Him), — in a unique act which bears witness both 
to the divine omnipotence and to the responsibility 
of the "slaves". The inner attitude of the believer 
is rightly then a total and confident surrender of the 
self, in the night, to God, to Whom one puts 
questions, but Whom one knows, according to 
His Word, to be the just Judge and supreme Help. 

It appears that this inner attitude which has been 
summed up is the most characteristic mark of 1' 
Muslim faith in God; that this, first and foremost, 
is what the Muslim has in his heart when he pro- 
nounces the name Allah. — No enumeration is 
needed here. In every age there have been "free- 
thinkers", "doubters and deniers". In every age, 
intellectual researches on the ilaltiyyit, and the 
discursive expression of them, have abounded in 
Islam. Contemporary thought seems harried on all 
sides by the diverse trends of the modern philoso- 
phies, as it was formerly by Greek or Iranian thought. 
It may be that a new kaldm will be called into being, 
a new "defensive apology", that will carry out an 
extensive re-examination of the questions and 
problems of its treatises on wudjud Allah and 
af-SXuhu ta'-dld, in the varying light of the idealism, 
pragmatism, dialectical atheism or existentialism of 
the moment. But maybe it will be able to avoid the 
mishaps that befell the ancient kaldm only by going 
beyond the "contradictory" appearances of the 
problems posed, — by a vital recourse to God, One, 
Living, Master of the worlds and of the retribution 
of mankind, Allah al-wahid, al-hayy, malik at- 
'dlamin, malik yawm al-din, whereby many sincere 
believers and "bearers of the Kur'an" have always 
endeavoured to live. 

Bibliography : I. Characteristic Muslim works: 

a) works, cited in the course of the article, by: 
Bukhari, Muslim, Ash c arl, Ibn SIna, Ibn Hazm, 
Djuwaynl, Abu Hamid al-Ghazzall, Ibn Rushd, 
Fakfar al-DIn al-RazI, Ibn Taymiyya, Sa'd al- 
Taftizanl, DjurdjSnl, Sanflsl, Badjurl, c Abd al- 
Rahlm b. 'All, Muhammad 'Abduh, Ahmad Amln; 

b) other works: Khayyat, Intisdr (ed. Nyberg, 
Cairo 1344/1925); Ash'arl, Luma' (ed. and English 
tr. by R. J. McCarthy, The Theology of al-Ash'ari, 
Beirut 1953), 6-74/6-103; Bakillanl, Tamhid (ed. 
Khudayri an( j Abu RIda, Cairo 1366/1947), 152-159; 
<Abd al-KShir al-Baghdadl, Usui al-din (Istanbul, 
1346/1928) chap. 3-6; njuwaynl, Shdmil (MS. 1290, 

Encyclopaedia of Islam 



Nat. Library, Cairo), 150-189; Abu Hafs ai-Nasafl, 
'Akd'id (ed. Cureton, 1843); ShahrastanI, Kitdb 
al-Milal wa 'l-Nihal (ed. Badran, Cairo 1370/195 1), 
esp. 8-1 1 ; Nihdyat al-Ikdam (ed. GuiUaume, Oxford 
1934); Baydawl, Tawali 1 al-Anwdr (Cairo 1324/ 
1905), bk. II, chap. 1-3; Abu '1-Barakat al-Nasafi, 
'Vmda (ed. Cureton, 1843); Abu RIda, Ibrahim 
b. Sayydr al-Nazzdm (Cairo 1365/1946), 80-98. 

II. Western works: a) before 1910, see biblio- 
graphy given by Macdonald, art. allAh, EI (1); 
b) more recent works, those of Blachere {Le Coran, 
Paris 1947, 1949, 195 1), Wensinck, Vajda, Massig- 
non, cited in the article, and also: M. Horten, 
Die philosophischen Ansichten von Rati und Jusi, 
Bonn 1910; Die spekulative und positive Theologie 
im Islam nach Rati und Jusi, Leipzig 1912; Die 
philosophischen Systeme der spekulativen Theologen 
im Islam, Bonn 191 2; J. Hell, Von Mohammad bis 
GhazaXi, Jena 1915 ; H. S. Nyberg, art. al-mu c tazila 
and al-nazzam, EI 1 ); Goldziher, Vorlesungen 1 ; A. 
J. Wensinck, Les preuves de I'existence de Dieu 
dans la theologie musulmane (Acad, of Amsterdam, 
1936); S. Pines, Beitr&ge zur Islamischen Atomen- 
lehre, Berlin 1936; H. Laoust, Essai sur les doctrines 
sociales et politiques de Taki-d-Din Ahmad b. Tai- 
miya, Cairo 1939, 153-178 ; Nallino, Scritti, ii, 10-18, 
432-436; O. Pretzl, Die fruhislamische Atomen- 
lehre, Isl., 1931, 117-130; Die fruhislamische 
Attributenlehre, 1940; S. Pines, Nathanall b. al- 
Fayyimi et la thiologie ismaelienne, in Etudes 
historiques juives, Cairo 1946; S. de Beaurecueil, 
Ghazzdli et saint Thomas d'Aquin, BIFAO, 1947, 
229-237; A. S. Tritton, Muslim Theology (London 
r 947) passim in the various sections on "God", 
"Capacity", "Man";J. Windrow Sweetman, Islam 
and Christian Theology, London 1945-47, vol. i, 
17-22, 93-117 (tr. of the Fawz al-Asghar of Ibn 
Miskawayh); ii, n-66; Gardet and Anawati, In- 
troduction d la theologie musulmane, Paris 1948; W. 
Montgomery Watt, Free Will and Predestination 
in Early Islam, London 1948. See also ilAh, 
khudA, tanrI. (L. Gardet) 

ALLAH AKBAR [see takbIr]. 
ALLAHABAD (IlAhAbAd), an important town 
in the State of Uttar Pradesh and the seat of the 
State High Court, is situated on the confluence of 
the rivers Ganga and Yamuna. Population in 195 1: 
town: 366, 127, including 90, 829 Muslims; district: 
2,048,250, including 12.8 % Muslims. 

History: One of the most ancient towns in 
India, it was known as Prayag and regarded as 
sacred by the Hindus. When the Ghurid Turks 
occupied Banaras in 1194, the town came under the 
Sultanate of Delhi, but presumably continued under 
the administration of autonomous Hindu radios, the 
nearest important military centre of the Sultanate 
being located at Kara [q.v.] about 45 miles to the 
west. With the overthrow of the independent 
Shark! Kingdom of Djawnpur in the 16th century 
and the subsequent rise of the Afghans, the usefulness 
of the ferry across Prayag to DjhusI began to' be 
appreciated. In June 1567, Akbar crossed the 
Ganga at Prayag after defeating Khan-i Zaman, the 
rebel Governor of Djawnpur. In 1574, h> again 
passed through the town on his way to Bengal. 
Realising its strategic importance he decided to make 
it a military centre. From a small township, it 
became a big city and was given by Akbar the name 
of Ilahbas (being changed to Ilahabad through 
popular usage). In 1579-80, when Akbar reorganised 
the administrative divisions of the empire, it became 
the capital of the suba (province) of the name, thus 



ALLAHABAD — ALMALiGH 



superseding both Kara and DjawnpOr in importance. 
Most of the Indian writers and European travellers 
visiting India during the 17th and 18th centuries 
testify to its importance. In 1736 the Mahrattas 
conquered it. After 1750 it changed hands several 
times, till the British garrisoned the citadel in 1798 
and the town in 1801. 

Monuments: The citadel built by Akbar (with 
Asoka's pillar and its famous inscription), and the 
Khusraw Bagh, with the tombs of Prince Khusraw. 
his mother and his sister, are the chief monuments 
of the Mughal period. 

Bibliography: Akbar-ndma (Bib. Ind.), ii, 
296; iii, 88, 414, etc.; A'in-i Akbari (tr. Sarkar), 
ii, 94, 169; T<>bakdt-i Akbari (Bib. Ind.), ii, 211, 
286, 379, etc.; De Laet 62; Bernier (1891), 457; 
Tavernier (1925), i, 15, 95; Thevenot, 92; Nevill, 
Allahabad, a Gazetteer. (Nurul Hasan) 

ALLAHUMMA is an old Arabic formula of 
invocation: "Allah!", for which also Lahumma 
is found (cf. NSldeke, Zur Grammatik d. class. Arab., 
6). Whether, as Wellhausen supposes in his Reste 
arabischen Heidentums', 224, it was originally meant 
for the god Allah, higher than and different from 
the old Arabian gods, is rather doubtful, because 
every god might be invoked as "the God" (just as 
"the Lord". It was used in praying, offering, con- 
cluding a treaty and blessing or cursing (see Gold- 
ziher, Abhandlungen z. arab. Philol., i, 35 ff.; cf. also 
the expression AUdhuma hayyi = much good may 
it do you, al-Akhtal iii, 7). The phrase bi'smika 
'Udhumma, said to have been introduced by Umayya 
b. Abi '1-Salt (according to a statement in Aghani, 
iii, 187) and used as an introduction in written 
treaties, has been replaced by others by Muhammed 
as being a heathen expression (Ibn Hisham.i, 747; 
Wellhausen, Skizzen u. Vorarb., iv, 104, 128). The 
simple Allahumma (Lahumma), on the other hand, 
was retained as inoffensive (e.g. Kur'an, iii, 26; 
xxxix, 46; subhanaka 'Udhumma, x, 10), and in the 
same way allahumma na c am = "certainly!", being 
in fact the answer on being conjured to tell the truth 
(al-Tabari, i, 1723). For the peculiar formula alla- 
humma minka wa-ilayka (or laka) used at the family- 
offering, cf. Goldziher, in ZDMG, 1894, 95 f. 

(Fr. Buhl) 
AL-'ALLAKl. name of a wadl in Lower Nubia 
between the Nile and the shore of the Red Sea, 
62 miles south of Aswan. 

In the Middle Ages, this small valley resembled 
a large populous and flourishing town, because it 
was a gold mining area, using black slave labour. 
"The nuggets of gold", wrote al-Ya c kubi, "appear 
in the form of sulphide of arsenic, and are made into 
bars". Al-Idrisi gives more curious information. The 
prospectors, he tells us, took up their positions at 
night in order to see the gold dust glistening in the 
darkness and to mark the sites so that they could be 
recognised the next day. The prospectors then 
proceeded to collect and transport the auriferous 
sand and to wash it in tubs of water to extract the 
metal, which was then blended with mercury and 
smelted. 

These gold mines, exploited in early times, were 
abandoned at the end of the Middle Ages. The old 
workings can still be seen. Gold mining has recently 
been resumed in the area (Umm Gharayat). 

Bibliography: Ya'kubl, Bulddn, 33-336; Fr. 
trans. Wiet, 188-192; Ibn Rustah, 183, Fr. trans. 
Wiet, 211 ; IdrisI, (Dozy and de Goeje), 26-7; Mez, 
Renaissance, 415; Baedeker, f.gypte, 1908 ed., 
379, 381. (G. Wiet) 



'ALLAmI [see abu 'l-fadl]. 

ALLAN [see alan]. 

ALMA ATA (formerly Vernyi), town, capital 
of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Kazakhstan 
since 1929 and administrative centre of the oblast 
(province) of the same name. Established in 1854 on 
the site of a Kazakh settlement called Almaty, in 
1867 it became the administrative centre of the 
Russian military governorate of Semirechia. By 
1871 it had been largely rebuilt on Russian lines 
and had become a thriving trade centre with a mixed 
population of 12,000 composed of Kazakhs, Dungans, 
Uyghurs, Tatars, Russians and Chinese. The popula- 
tion rose to 45,000 in 1926 and to 230,000 in 1939. 
Among the many educational and cultural establish- 
ments in the city are the Academy of Sciences, 
50 schools, 4 theatres and 13 cinemas. 

Bibliography: S. Djusunbekov and O. Kur- 

netsova, Alma-Ata*, Alma-Ata 1939; D. D. Boragin 

and I. I. Beloretskovskiy,/l/ma-/l<a, Moscow 1950; 

and see kazaiojistan. (G. E. Wheeler) 

ALMA-DAfiH [see elma-dagh]. 

ALMADA [see al-ma c din]. 

ALMADEN [see al-ma'din]. 

ALMAGEST [see batlamiyus]. 

ALMALfSH, capital of a Muslim kingdom 
in the upper Hi [j.ti.] valley, founded in the 7th/i3th 
century by Czar (Djuwayni, i, 57) or Buzar (Djamal 
Karshl, in W. Barthold, Turkestan, Russ. ed., i, 
'35 '•)> who is said to have previously been a brigand 
and horse-thief. According to Djamal, he assumed 
the title of Toghrll Khan as niler. Almallgh is first 
mentioned as the capital of this kingdom, and later 
as a great and wealthy commercial city. We owe our 
information about its site mainly to the Chinese 
(Bretschneider, Med. Researches, i, 69 f., ii, 33 ff. 
and index); it lay south of Lake Sayram and the 
Talki pass, north of the Hi, probably northwest of 
the modern Kuldja. 

Like other rulers of these regions, the king of 
Almallgh had dealings with Cingiz Khan, (whose 
hunting-ground was near Almallgh: Djuwayni, i, 21). 
He was surprised and killed while hunting by 
Kutfiik, the governor of the kingdom of the Kara 
Khitay [q.v.] ; but Kiicluk failed to capture the town 
of Almallgh. Czar's son and successor Suknak (or 
Sughnak) Tigin married a granddaughter of Cingiz 
Khan (a daughter of Djuci). On his death (851/1253-4 
cf. Djuwayni, i, 58; 648/1250-1 in Djamal Karshl, 
he was succeeded by his son whose name (Danish) 
mand Tigin) like the names of the other rulers 0- 
this line are given only by Djamal Karshl (Bartholdf 
Turkestan, i, 140 f.). Almallgh in his time (beginning 
of the 8th/i4th century) was still ruled by this 
dynasty. How long this line continued to reign is 
not known. The silver and copper coins struck at 
Almallgh in the 7th/i3th century apparently belong 
to them. After Cingiz Khan's death the territory of 
Almaligh was under the suzerainty of Caghatay, cf. 
B. Spuler, Mongolen in Iran, 277, note 2. The whole 
province (to which belonged also the old Kuz Ordu 
= Balgsaghun) was called in the I3th-i4th centuries 
ll ArghO (cf. also the nisba Ilarghawi in Barthold, 
Turkestan, i, 138-40). Near Almallgh was situated the 
"hord" of Caghatay and his successors, such as 
Ergene Khatun and Tarmashlrin (Djuwayni, ii, 241, 
243, 272 f.; iii, 97; Wassaf, lith. Bombay, 50; Ibn 
Battuta, iii, 41, 49 f. 

As a great commercial city on the main route 
through Central Asia to China, Almallgh is frequently 
mentioned by European travellers and missionaries 
(see I. Hallberg, L'Extreme Orient etc., Goteborg 1906, 



ALMALfGH — ALP 



17 f.: Almalech). In 1339 some Franciscan friars were 
murdered in the town (cf. A. van den Wyngaert, 
Sinica Franciscana, i, 510-1; G. Golubovich, Bibli- 
oteca Bio-Bibliografica, ii, 72, iv, 244-8, 310-1). Here 
was the seat of a Roman Catholic missionary bishop 
and, probably, of the Nestorian metropolitan (cf. 
Bretschneider, Med. Res., 38; Barthold, Olerk 
Utorii Semiryelya, Vyerniy 1898, 64-7; V. Rondalez, 
in Neue Zeitschrift fur Missionswissenschaft, 195 1, 
1-17; S. Dauvillier, in Milanges F. Cavallera, 
Toulouse 1948, 305-7). 

Like the towns on the Cu [q.v.], the Talas and 
elsewhere, Almaligh was completely ruined by the 
constant civil wars and other fighting in the 8th'i4th 
century (cf. Babur, ed. Beveridge, 1 ; MIrza Muham- 
mad Haydar, Ta'rikh-i Rashidi, tr. E. D. Ross, 364). 
Muhammad Haydar mentions the ruins of the tomb 
with the tomb of Tughluk Timur Khan (d. 764/ 
1362-3 ; cf . Dughi.at) ; these ruins (at present called 
Alimtu) lie between the Khorgos. the boundary 
river between the Soviet Union and China and the 
village of Mazar and have been fully described by N. 
Pantusov, Kaufmanskiy Sbornik, Moscow 1910, 161 ff. 
Inscriptions from graves of Nestorian Christians have 
also been found there (see especially P. Kokovtsov, 
in Zap., xvi, 190 ft.). 

A. N. Bemstamm (Pamyatniki stariny almaatins- 
koy oblasti po materialam ehspeditsii 1939s., Izvestiya 
Akad. Nauk Kazakh. SSR, Archeol. series, i, Alma 
Ata 1948, 79-91) identifies Almaligh with a town 
(also called Alimtu «= Chinese A-li-t'u) near the 
modern Alma Ata; but in reality this is another, diffe- 
rent, town having the same name (as an appellative, 
"apple town"); it is mentioned in 1390 in connection 
with Tlmur's campaign against Mughulistan (Yazdi, 
Zafar-nama, i, 466 ft.; cf. F. Petis de la Croix, 
Histoire de Timur-bec, ii, 66 ff.). 

(W. Barthold-[B. Spuler and O. Pritsak]) 

ALMANAC [see anwa'; ta'rIkh]. 

ALMANZOR [see al-hansOr]. 

ALMAS — frequently regarded as a noun defined 
by tho article (al-mds; correctly al- Almas according 
to Ibn al-Athlr, in LA, viii, 97: the '/ belongs to the 
loot as in Ilyds), a corrupt form from the Greek 
&86.\iac, (I.e.: "wa-laysat bi- l arabiyya"), — the dia- 
mond. According to the pseudo-Aristotelian Kitab 
al-Ahdi&r which, on the basis of cognate Greek 
sources, agrees in the main with the statements 
of Pliny, the diamond cuts every solid except lead, 
by which it is itself destroyed. On the frontier of 
Khurasan is a deep valley in which the diamonds 
lie guarded by poisonous snakes whose looks alone 
are enough to kill. Alexander the Great procured 
some of them by a trick: he had mirrors made in 
which the snakes saw themselves and died; then 
he had the flesh of sheep thrown down into the 
ravine so that the diamonds stuck to it and were 
brought up by vultures who seized the pieces of 
flesh. This story, already found in Epiphanius De 
XII gemmis, is generally known in the East (Arabian 
Nights). Al-BIruni ridicules this story and asks why 
the snakes did not die when looking at one another, 
but only when seeing themselves in the mirrors. He 
takes the opportunity to make fun of other stories 
about the diamond, and also of stories recounting 
the death of people who looked at certain animals 
and stones. On the other hand, he has many valuable 
notices on the qualities, mining and use of the 
diamond. He also tells of a piece which Mu'izz al 
Dawla Ahmad b. Buya presented to his brother 
Rukn al-Dawla al-Hasan weighing 3 mithkal (12, 75 
or even 14, 16 g). But al-Dimashkl knows of no 



diamonds heavier than 1 mithkal. The sources differ 
widely about the places where diamonds are found. 
— Al-TIfashI and al-KazwInl relate that the pieces 
obtained through smashing the stone are all triagonal 
(observation of the octagonal scissure?), and the 
former also says that the diamond attracts little 
feathers. — It is generally mentioned as being used 
for cutting and piercing other stones. Aristotle is 
said to have used it for destroying stones in the 
bladder. The powder of it must not touch the teeth ; 
applied externally it is a good cure for colic and 
stomach-ache. 

Bibliography: J. Ruska, Das Steinbuch des 
Aristoteles, 1912; Kazwinl (Wiistenf.), i, 236-7; 
TifashI, Azhar al-Afkdr, transl. by Reineri Biscia, 
2nd ed., 53-4; Clement-Mullet, in J A, 6th series, 
xi, 127-8; BIrunI, al-Djamahir fi Mahifat al- 
Djawdhir, 1355, 92-102; Ibn al-Akfani, Nukhab 
al- DhakhdHr fi Ahwal al-Djawahir, 1939, 20-25 
(with many valuable remarks by the editor, P. 
Anastase-Marie de St.-Elie, transl. by E. Wie- 
demann, SB Phys. Med. Soz. Erlangen, vol. 44, 
218 f.) ; Dimashkl, al-Ishdra ild Mahdsin al-Tididra, 
1318, 15 f. (transl. by E. Wiedemann, ibid., 
233>0; J- Ruska, Der Diamant in der Medizin, 
Festschr. f. Herm. Baas, 1908; B. Laufer, The 
Diamond, 1915; al-Machriq, vi, 865-78. 

(J. Ruska-M. Plessner) 
ALMEE [see c aliha]. 
ALMERIA [see al-mariyya]. 
ALMICANTARAT [see musantarat]. 
ALMODOVAR [see al-mudawwar]. 
ALMOGAVARES, or Almugavares, a name, 
apparently derived from the Arabic al-mughawir 
"one who makes hostile incursions", which was given 
at the end of the Middle Ages to certain contin- 
gents of mercenaries levied from among the 
mountaineers of Aragon, a tough, sober but undisci- 
plined race. Zurita {Anales, iv, 24) gives a picturesque 
description of them. These were the troops, fighting 
on foot, in the service of the Kings of Aragon and 
Castille, who cut to pieces the French army of 
Philip III the Bold during his campaign of 1285, at 
Roussillon, and who later, under the name of the 
Grande Compagnie Catalane, made daring raids in 
the Eastern Mediterranean. 

Bibliography: Dozy and Engelmann, Glossaire 
des mots espagnols et portugais dlrivls de I'arabe, 
Leiden, 1869, 172, s.v.; R. Fawtier in Hist, du 
moyen dge of G. Glotz, vi/i, Paris 1940, 188-9, 
283; P. Aguado Bleye, Manual de historia de 
Espana', i, Madrid 1947, 908-9. 

(E. Levi-Provencal) 
ALMOHADS [see al-muwahh^dOn]. 
ALMORAVIDS [see al-murabitun]. 
ALMUNECAR [see al-munakkab]. 
ALP (T.), «hero», a figure which played a great 
role in the warlike ancient Turkish society; syno- 
nyms: hatur (bahddur [q.v.], sokmen, lapar [qq.v.]). 
(Turkish heroic tradition survived in an Islamicized 
form and appears in Anatolia in the stories of Dede 
Korkud [q.v.] as well as in the poetry of 'Ashik 
Pasha and the history of Yazidjioghlu ; cf. Fuad 
Kopriilu, Bibl.). The word alp, used since ancient 
times among the various Turkish peoples either as 
an element in compound proper names or as a title, 
occurs frequently in proper names also of the 
Islamic period (cf. the various persons called Alp 
Tigin, the Saldjuk amirs Alp Kush, Alp Aghadjl, 
Alp Argu, the Saldjukid Alp Arslan, etc.). Another 
form is Alpl (cf. the Artukids Nadjm al-DIn <A1I 
Alpl, c Imad al-DIn Alpl) ; the word alpaghu (yilpaghu, 



ALP — ALP ARSLAN 



alpaghut, alpawut), found in various dialects and 
as the name of a tribe under the Ak Koyunlu and 
the Safawids, seems also to be related. 

As a title, alp was used by Saldjuk amirs, and 
together with other old Turkish titles such as 
inandi, kutlugh, bilge, was adopted by the rulers 
of the states which succeeded the Saldjuk empire. 
Alp alone is found in an inscription of Ak Sunkur 
of Aleppo; in the inscriptions of the Syrian and 
Mesopotamian atabegs and of the Artukids occur 
the titles alp kutlugh, alp inandi kutlugh, alp ghazi 
(cf. RCEA, nos. 2764, 3021, 3072, 3085, 3"i-2, 
3122, 3146; Van Berchem, Amida, 76, 92, 104, 120, 
122; idem, Arabische Inschriften aus Armenien und 
Diarbekr, Berlin 1910, 148 ft.; Ibn al-KalanisI, ed. 
Amedroz, 284: alp ghazi as title of Zengi; and the 
dedication of a translation of Dioscorides, in MS 
Mashhad, Cat. no. 27, to a prince with the title of 
alp Inandi kutlugh). 

Under the Ghurids we find Nasir al-DIn Alp 
Ghazi as governor of Harat (cf. also Tabakat-i 
Nasiri, Calcutta 1846, 121; 'Awfl, Lubdb, 159, 321; 
Ta'rikh-i Sislan, ed. Bahar, 388; Muhammad b. 
Kays, al-Mu'-diam ft Ma l ayir Ashlar al-^Adiam, 
346). In Rumiyya we find in 564/1168 a sahib-i 
kabir Alp Djamal al-Din (see Sachau-Ethe, Cat. 
Pers. MS MSS of the Bodl. Libr., i, 1424). A Turkish 
chieftain near Diand in the 12th century bore the 
title of alp direk (Djuwaynl, ii, 40 f.); for an Ana- 
tolian Saldjuk prince with that of alp ilek see Bell., 
1937, 288. In India we find alp khan (Barni, Ta'rikh-i 
Firuzshahi, 240, 527; Firishta, Ta'rikh, i, 176, 238; 
Bada'uni, Muntakhab al-Tawdrikh, 219). 

Bibliography: M. van Berchem, Amida, 
Heidelberg 1910, 92; Z. Gombocz, Arpddkori etc., 
43 ff.; M. Fuad Kopriilii, Turk Edebiyydtlnda Ilk 
Mutasawuriflar, Istanbul 1918, 272 ff.; idem, Les 
origines de I'Empire Ottoman, Paris 1935, index; 
idem, in I A, s.v. (O. Pritsak) 

ALP ARSLAN c Adud al-Dawla AbO ShudjA 1 
Muhammad b. DA'ud Caghribeg, celebrated 
Saldjuk sultan, the second of the dynasty (455/ 
1063-465/1073). Born probably in 421/1030, at an 
early age he led the armies of his father Caghribeg 
with great success, especially against the Ghaznawids, 
and in 450/1058 he saved his uncle, the sultan 
Tughrilbeg, from the revolt of Ibrahim Inal in 
Persia. Two or three years later he succeeded 
Caghribeg, who had been ill for a long time, and 
at the end of 453/1063 he succeeded Tughrilbeg, 
who died childless; he thus brought under his 
authority all the Saldjukid territories. He rid himself 
without difficulty of his half-brother Sulayman, 
who had probably been adopted by Tughrilbeg; 
the vizier al-Kundurl payed with his life for the 
indiscretion of having at first supported him. Alp 
Arslan was recognized by the Caliph al-RaMm and 
invested with all his predecessor's prerogatives; he 
enforced the submission of his uncle Yabghfl at 
Harat, and defeated Kutlumush, a cousin of 
Caghribeg and Tughrilbeg, who had been in revolt 
for some years in the mountains south of the 
Caspian, and who met an accidental death in this 
battle. He created difficulties for his elder brother 
Kawurt of Kirman, who aspired at least to a share 
in the succession, by supporting against him the 
Kurdish chief Fadlfiya; later (in 457/1065, 459/1067 
and 461/1069) he took direct action against him, 
and brought Fars firmly under his control by 
suppressing Fadluya, who had come to terms with 
Kawurt. The latter was allowed to retain Kirman, 
but as a subordinate. A demonstration of force in 



Karakhanid territory and up to the Aral Sea (457/ 
1065) reinforced the authority which his father had 
previously exercised there. As regards the Ghaz- 
nawids, he kept the peace concluded during the last 
years of Caghribeg's rule. 

His fame in the eyes of posterity rests on his 
activities on the western front. Like his predecessor 
Tughrilbeg and his successor Malikshah, he had the 
ambition to march on Egypt to destroy the strong- 
hold of Fatimid heresy. But he realised the necessity 
of maintaining his ascendancy over the Turkomans, 
who constituted the military strength of the dynasty, 
and who were primarily interested in the richly- 
rewarding campaigns of a holy war (ghazwa) on the 
Christian territories beyond Adharbaydjan, where they 
where concentrated. Shortly after his accession, there- 
fore, Alp Arslan conducted a series of campaigns 
against the Byzantines and their Armenian and Geor- 
gian neighbours, while independent bands of Turko- 
mans raided more deeply into their territories; these 
campaigns also had the effect of increasing his 
prestige in certain autochthonous Muslim circles. 
In 456/1064 he captured Ani and Kars, and extracted 
a pledge of submission from the tiny Georgian 
kingdom. A further expedition against Georgia, 
in which the Shaddadid prince of Arran took part, 
became necessary in 460/1068. The main advantages 
accruing from these campaigns were that the secu- 
rity of the Adharbaydjan frontiers was ensured, and 
that the Turkomans had free access to the pasture 
lands on the Aras. It is difficult to assess to what 
extent the peregrinations of the Turkomans, who 
simultaneously penetrated to the heart of Byzantine 
Asia Minor and permeated Muslim Diyar Bakr and 
Diyar Mudar, were directed by Alp Asian; the 
Turkomans opened the way for him, but withdrew 
after having gained their booty. Moreover, then- 
activities provoked a Byzantine counterattack 
against the Syrian and Armenian borders of the 
Muslim world (1068-9), following which terms were 
negotiated between the two empires. 

Alp Arslan then considered himself sufficiently 
secure against the Byzantines to listen to an appeal 
from rebels in Egypt and to undertake the anti- 
Fatimid expedition to support orthodoxy and the 
caliph. He occupied en route Ardjish and Mantzikert 
held by the Byzantines, attacked Edessa, and 
pushed on without delay to secure the submission 
of the Mirdasid Mahmud at Aleppo, who attempted 
to save himself by a last-minute recognition of the 
'Abbasid Caliphate. The sultan's intention was to 
advance into Southern Syria, where various Turko- 
man groups had preceded him, when he heard that 
the Byzantine Emperor Romanus Diogenes, at 
the head of a formidable force, was threatening his 
rear in Armenia; and he had to return with all 
possible speed. He nevertheless succeeded in 
regrouping sufficient forces to give battle to the 
Byzantine army at Mantzikert in Dh u '1-Ka c da 
463/August 1071. The diversity of the Byzantine 
forces in both their composition and morale, com- 
bined with their lack of manoeuvrability, made them 
no match for the agile Turks who, though far fewer 
in number, were inspired by the fervour of holy war. 
By evening, the Byzantine army had been annihilated 
and, for the first time in history, a Byzantine 
Emperor was taken prisoner by a Muslim ruler. Alp 
Arslan's object was not to destroy the Byzantine 
empire; he contented himself with frontier adjust- 
ments, promises of tribute, and an alliance — a 
settlement which the downfall of Romanus Diogenes 
rendered impermanent. In fact, however, the battle 



ALP ARSLAN — ALPAMISH 



of Mantzikert laid open Asia Minor to Turkish 
conquest. In later years there was no princely 
family in Asia Minor but wished to boast an ancestor 
present on that glorious day. 

Alp Arslan himself met an unworthy end not 
long after his triumph. At the other extremity of his 
empire, relations with the Karakhanids, despite 
marriage alliances, were again strained. At the 
beginning of 465/end of 1072 he invaded their 
territory. In the course of a quarrel with a prisoner, 
the latter mortally wounded him. He died in the 
prime of life, at the end of Rabi' I/beginning of 
January 1073. He had nominated his son Malikshah 

In the eyes of orthodox Muslims, Alp Arslan was 
a leader of men and a commander capable of enfor- 
cing strict discipline, generous, just, devout, with 
an aversion for informers. Christians, remembering 
massacres such as that at Ani, ascribed to him a 
reputation for brutality, in contrast to his son 
Malikshah, who was regarded by them in a more 
favourable light. Space does not permit here an 
account of his administration, which was essentially 
the achievement of his vizier Nizam al-Mulk and 
which is discussed in the article on the latter and 
in the general article on the Saldjukids. To Alp Arslan 
belongs the credit for singling out the Khurasan! 
who rose rapidly to fame and who became, under 
Malikshah, the real head of the State. The influence 
of his new vizier may have led to the execution of 
al-Kunduri. Even at the height of his power, Alp 
Arslan appears to have deliberately refrained from 
setting foot in Baghdad, in order to avoid being 
involved in embarrassing and futile disputes with 
the Caliph and the .Arabs of 'Irak such as had 
complicated the last years of Tughrilbeg. On the 
other hand, he energetically enforced in 'Irak the 
rights of the Sultanate. He saw no objection to the 
continued existence on his frontiers of dependent 
principalities, such as those of the 'Ukaylids of 
Mawsil and the Shaddadids of Arran. The close 
watch which he kept, for example, on Hazarasp of 
Basra shows that he would tolerate no defection from 
that source, too. It is in this light, and in the light 
of respect for family traditions inherited from a 
tribal organization, that one must consider the 
distribution by Alp Arslan among the more important 
princes of his family of various apanages in the 
original domains of the dynasty in Khurasan. 

Culturally, the reign of Alp Arslan does not seem 
to have been of great importance, either from the 
traditional Islamic, or from the Turkish, point of 
view. It may be of some interest to mention that 
the Malik-nama, an anonymous attempt to recon- 
struct the historical origins of the dynasty, was 
composed for Alp Arslan (cf. Cahen, in Oriens, 1949). 
Bibliography: A more comprehensive list of 
sources will be found under Saldjuijids. The 
principal chronicles are those of 'Imad al-DIn 
al-Isfahanl (in al-Bundari's version, ed. Houtsma, 
Recueil, ii), the anonymous Akhbar al-Dawla al- 
Saldjiikiyya (ed. M. Iqbal, Lahore 1933), the 
Rahat al-SudUr of Rawandi, ed. M. Iqbal, 1921, 
the Kamil of Ibn al-Athir and, a much-neglected 
work, the Mir'at al-Zaman of Sibt b. al-Djawzi 
(of which the relevant section will shortly be 
published). In other categories, the chief works 
are the Fdrs-ndma of Ibn al-Balkh! and the Siyasat- 
ndma of Nizam al-Mulk. The Byzantine, Syriac, 
Armenian and Georgian sources should not be 
forgotten. Later Persian historical works should [ 
be distrusted. There is no good comprehensive | 



modern work either on Alp Arslan or on the 
Saldjukids. For their activities in the east, see 
the masterly account of V. Barthold, Turkestan; 
for their activities in the west see general guidance 
in E. Honigmann, Die Ostgrenze des byzantinischen 
Reickes, Brussels 1935 ; CI. Cahen, La premiere 
pinitration turque en Asie-Mineure, in Byzantion, 
1948; and V. Minorsky, Studies in Caucasian 
History, Cambridge 1953. A provisional survey 
of Saldjukid history has been contributed by 
CI. Cahen to History of the Crusades Philadelphia 
1955, 135-176. (Cl. Cahen) 

ALP TAKlN (Alp Tigin), the founder of 
the Ghaznawid power. Like the majority of 
the praetorians of his time, he was a Turkish slave, 
purchased and enrolled in the Samanid body guard, 
who progressively rose to the rank of hadiib al- 
hudidjab (commander-in-chief of the guard). In 
this capacity he wielded the real power during the 
reign of the young Samanid 'Abd al-Malik I; the 
vizier Abu 'All al-Bal'aml owed his appointment to 
him, and did not dare to take any action "without 
the knowledge and advice" of Alp Takin. In order 
to remove him from the capital, the sovereign 
invested him (Dhu '1-Hidjdja 3 4 9/Jan.-Feb. 961) 
with the post of Governor of Khurasan, the highest 
military office in the empire. Dismissed from this 
post by Mansur b. Nuh, of whose elevation to the 
throne he had disapproved, Alp Takin withdrew to 
Balkh; in Rabi' I, 351/April-May 962 he defeated 
an army sent against him by the Samanid ruler, and 
retired to Ghazna where, after overthrowing the 
local dynasty, he set up an independent empire. The 
records disagree as to the date of his death ; according 
to some, he died before 352/963. His learned son 
Abu Ishak Ibrahim (on whom see Ibn Hawkal, 13, 
14) could only maintain his position, in face of a 
revolt by the former ruler of Ghazna, with Samanid 
aid. Thus the Ghaznawid kingdom only existed at 
first as a Samanid vassal state. Abu Ishak died 
childless, and the leaders of the army, on which the 
new state was based, selected as his successor first 
the commander of guard Bilga Takin (Tigin) (355-64/ 
966/974), who left a reputation for integrity, and 
then Piri Takin (Tigin). During the tatter's reign 
a final revolt by the supporters of the former dynasty 
was crushed. But the victor, Subuk Takin, the son- 
in-law and former chief officer of Alp Takin, was 
raised to power by the troops (Sha'ban 366/April 
977), and became the founder of the Ghaznawid 
[q.v.-] dynasty. 

Bibliography: A concise but comprehensive 
history of Alp Takin and his immediate successors, 
with references to all the sources, is contained in 
Muhammad Nazim, The life and times of Sulfdn 
Mahmud of Ghazna. Cambridge 193 1, ch. i. The 
chief sources are Gardlzi, Zayn al- Akhbar, ed. 
Muhammad Nazim, Berlin 1928, and Djuzdjanl, 
Tabakdt-i Ndsiri. Nizam al-Mulk's account in the 
Siyasat-ndma (Schefer), 95-101, is an idealized 
version designed to place Alp Takin and Subuk 
Takin in a more favourable light. On the effect on 
the frontiers of Sistan of the foundation of the 
new kingdom of Ghazna, see now, in addition to 
Muhammad Nazim's sources, the anonymous 
Tarikh-i Sistan published by Bahar, Teheran 
1314, 326 ff. (W. Barthold-[Cl. Cahen]) 

ALPAMfSH, One of the most famous Turkish 
epics (ddstan) of Central Asia, inspired by two clas- 
sical themes, (1) the quest for the betrothed and the 
rivalry of the suitors; (2) the return of the husband 
on the day of his wife's remarriage (theme of the 



422 ALPAM1SH - 

return of Ulysses). The Ozbek hero Alpamlsh of the 
Kungrat tribe repairs to Kalmlk territory in search 
of his fiancee and cousin Barcm. Alpamlsh triumphs 
over his Kalmlk rivals, marries Barcm and brings 
her back to his tribe. The second part is the account 
of a further expedition on the part of Alpamlsh to 
Kalmlk territory to rescue his wife's father. Alpamlsh 
is captured and held prisoner for seven years by the 
Kalmlk Khan, and is finally aided to escape by the 
Khan's daughter; he returns to his native land the 
very day on which his wife is about to marry — 
against her will — the son of a slave who has usurped 
his authority. Alpamlsh kills the usurper and regains 
his position as head of the tribe. 

It is difficult to determine accurately the date of 
the composition of Alpamlsh, although it cannot 
be before the beginning of the i6lh century, or later 
than the end of the 17th. In the dastan, the Kungrat 
tribe lives a nomadic existence around Lake Baysun 
north of Tirmidh (now the Surkhan Darya district 
of southern Ozbekistan). The Kungrat only moved 
into this area with the armies of Shaybani Khan, 
about 1500. Moreover, in the three versions, Ozbek, 
Kazak and Karakalpak, Alpamlsh and the Kungrat 
are called Ozbek, which postulates an origin later 
than the Shaybanid conquests. On the other hand, 
the main theme of the epic, the struggle of the Muslim 
Turkish nomads against the "infidel" Kalmiks, places 
it between the 16th and the 17th centuries, the 
period when the Kalmiks of the Oyrat Emp: 
making a series of bloody raids in Central 1 

Zirmunskiy and Zarifov believe that tl 
detect, beneath the existing versions of Alpamlsh, 
an older version, now lost, dating back to 
nth-i2th century, a period when the ancestor? 
the Kungrat were nomads near the Aral Sea (analogy 
with the Oghuz poem Bamsi-Bayrek) or to still e 
times when they dwelt in the fringes of the Altai 
(analogy with the Mongol poem Khan Kharangui). 

All the Central Asian versions of Alpamlsh are in 
verse, the prose passages serving only to mark the 
divisions between the various episodes of the poem. 
The versification is simplified. The repetition of the 
same rhyme divides the verses into stanzas of 
different length (2, 4, and up to 10 and 15 verses). 
This simple poetic form is perfectly suited to the way 
in which the poem is transmitted, whether red 
by a bakhshi ("bard"), or chanted by a ski 
("minstrel") with accompaniment on the kobuz (t' 
string violin). 

Several versions of Alpamlsh exist: Ozbek, Kazak, 
and Karakalpak, which correspond fairly closely to 
one another, but have occasional but obvious diffe- 
rences of detail. The best and the most popular is the 
Ozbek version of the bakhshi Fadil (Fazyl) Yuldash 
(born in 1873 at Klshlak Layk in the district of 
Bulungur near Samarkand), the text of which was 
published for the first time by Hamid 'Alimdjan 
at Tashkent in 1939, in a slightly abridged form, 
under the title "Yuldash oghly Fazyl: Alpamysh". 
The first part of this work in an abridged form has 
been translated into Russian verse by V. V. Deriavin 
and A. S. Ko&etov, and the second, in extenso, by 
L. M. Pen'kovskiy. These two translations, based on 
'Allmdjan's text and with a preface by V. M. Zir- 
munskiy, were published at Tashkent in 1944 under 
the title: "Fazyl Yuldash: Alpamysh". Finally, in 
1949, L. N. Pen'kovskiy published at Tashkent the 
first complete translation of the Yuldash version, 
with the title Alpamysh, uzbekskiy epos. There are 
other Ozbek versions, by other bakhshls, which are 
still unpublished, and which differ in certain details. 



The Kazak version (2nd part only) was published 
by Shaykh ul-Islamov at Kazan in 1896, and the 
complete text was edited by Divaev at Tashkent in 
1922, and re-edited some years later at Alma-Ata 
in 1933. It appears under the title Alpamys Batyr 
in the anthology Batyrlar Zyry, Alma-Ata 1939, 
249-96. 

The Karakalpak version (1st part only, with 
Russian translation) is based on the text of Djiya 
Murad Bek Muhammedov, bakhshi of Torkul (A. 
Divaev, Alpamys-Batyr, Etnografileskie materyaly, 
fasc. vii in Sbornik materyalov dlya statistiki Syr- 
Daryinskoy oblasti, ix, Tashkent 1901). The com- 
plete Karakalpak version was published in Moscow 
in 1937 and again in 1941 at Tortkiil and Tashkent, 
under the title "Aimbet uly Kally: Alpamys." 

In addition there exist two prose versions, Bashkir 
and Altai, which are radically different from the 
central Asian versions. The Bashkir version, Alpa- 
mysh hem liarsyn Kh'yluu, was published by N. Dimi- 
triev, with Russian translation by A. G. Bessonov, 
in Bashkirskie Narodnye Skazski, fasc. 19, Ufa 1941. 

The text of the apparently earlier Altai version 
Alyp-Manash, established by N. U. Ulagashev, 
appears in Allay Bulay (the Oyrat national epic), 
published by A. Koptelev, Novosibirsk 1941, 79-126. 

The longest version, that of Fazyl Yuldash, com- 
prises 14,000 stanzas; the Kazak and Karakalpak 
versions are shorter and comprise 2,500 and 3,000 
stanzas respectively. 

Bibliography: V. M. Zirmunskiy and Kh. T. 

Zarifov: Uzbekskiy Narodniy Geroideskiy Epos, 

Moscow 1947; Antologiya Uzbekskoy PoezH. 

edited by M. Aibek, etc., Moscow 1950. 
(A. Bennigsen and H. Carrere d'Encausse) 

ALPHABET [see al-hidja', huruf-]. 

ALPHARAS [see nudjum]. 

ALPUENTE [see al-bunt]. 

ALPUJARRAS [see al-busharrat]. 

ALRUCCABA [see rukba]. 

ALSJJ, now Eloche, a small town in the Spanish 
Levant (Shark al-Andaliis) 12 m. S-W of Alicante, 
noted for its palm groves, which still exist to-day, 
and which were described by Muslim authors such 
as Ibn Sa'id and al-KazwInl. 

Bibliography: Ibn <Abd al-Mun'im al Him- 

yarl, Pininsule ibirique, no. 26, text, 31, trans., 

39; H. Peres, he palmier en Espagne musulmane, 

in Melanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Cairo 1938, 

225-39; Levi- Provencal, Hist. Esp. mus., iii, 283-4. 
(E. Levi-Provencal) 

ALTAI, mighty, ca. 1000 miles long mountain 
system in eastern Central Asia, stretching from the 
Saisan Sea in the southwest to the upper Selenga and 
the upper Orkhon. with the sources of the Ob', the 
Irtish and the Yenissei. Here, and in the adjacent 
country to the north-east as far as the present-day 
Mongolia, was the oldest home of the Turks and 
the Mongols and their ancestors. The Turks had here 
for a long time after their "refuge" in the Otiikan 
[q.v.] mountains. The oldest Turkish designation for 
the southern Altai, as it appears in the inscriptions 
of the Orkhon, is Altin-ylsh ("gold mountains"), in 
Chinese Kin-shan (same meaning). The name of 
Ektag, however, mentioned by the Greeks (probably 
Ak Tagh, "white mountain"), seems to refer to the 
TSen-shan (E. Chavannes, Documents sur Us Tou-kieu 
occidentaux, 236 f.). It is uncertain whether the 
modern name, which appears for the first time in 
the Kalmuck period, is connected with the Mongol 
altan, "gold"; the local population explains it by 
a false etymology as old ay, "six month". 



ALTAI - 

Bibliography: Cotta, Der Altai, Leipzig 1871; 
J. Grano, Les formes du reliefs dans V Altai russe, 
Helsongfors 191 7; P. Fickeler, Der Altai, 1925; 
Bot'iaya Sovetskaya Enlsiklopediya 1 , ii, 136-51. 
For its role in Turkish civilization, cf. A. von 
Gabain, Steppe und Stadi im Leben der alteslen 
Tiirken, Isl., 19.19, 30-62 and Turk. 



ALTAIANS i 

e Altai 



the 



«Hy f 



(B. Spuler) 
1 Turkish tribe ii 






nominally, Orthodox Christianity, 
istic ; though Islam is not to be found amongst them, 
they had some contact, though possibly not an 
immediate one, with Islamic civilization (as attested 
by loan words such as kuday, "God"; skaytan, "the 
devil"). (Cf. for them G. Tcich and H. Rubel, 
Vblker ... der UdSSR, Leipzig 1943, 38-43, I3?f-i 
1.42; W. Radloff, Proben aus der V olkslitcralur der 
tiirkiscken Stdmme Sud-Sibiriens, i; idem, Aus 
Sibirien, i, 250 ff . ; Rol'skaya Sovttskaya Entsiklo- 
pediya 1 , 141 f.). 

The name Altais has been substituted since about 
1874, and more especially in the 20th century, 
following a proposal of M. A. Castren, for the term 
Turanian [(.».], coined by F. Max Miiller, as the 
designation of the assumed community of the 
Turkish -Mongolian peoples; the even wider concept 
of Ural-Altaians comprises also the Samoyeds, 
Finno-Ugrians and Tunguses. (Cf. e.g. Ural-Altaiscke 
Jakrbiicker, Wiesbaden, since r95a; J. Benzing, 
Einfuhrung in das Studium der attaischen Philologit 
und der Turkologie, Wiesbaden 1953. with biblio- 
graphy; W. K. Matthews, Languages of the URRS, 
Cambridge igsi). These peoples, however, with the 
exception of the Turks [j.wj.arenot touched by Islam. 
Bibliography: M. A. Castren, Ethnologiscke 
Vorhsungen iibcr die altaiscken V biker, St. Peters- 
burg 1857; the partly fanciful works of H. 
Winkler, the last being Die altaiscken Viilker und 
ikre Sprackenwell, Leipzig 192 1; O. Donner, Die 
uralaltaiscken Sprachen, Finnisch-ugriscke For- 
sckungen, i/i, 1901, 128; M. Cohen, Les langucs du 
monde, Paris 1924, ^3-243; P. Melioranskiy in 
Brockhaus-Efron, Entsiklopediicskiy Slovar', xxxiv 
/A 862 f.; I A, s.v. (by M. Fuad Koprulii); O. 
Pritsak, Stammesnamen und Titulaturen der 
altaischen Vblker, Vral-allaiscke Jakrbiicker, 1953-4. 
Maps; A. Hermann, Atlas of Ckina, Cambridge 
(Mass.) 1935, 66-7; V biker karie der Sow jet- Union, 
Eurof. Teil', Berlin 194 r. (B. Spdler) 

ALTAIR [see nudjOm}. 
ALTAMIfiH [see iltutmish]. 
[ ALTH. or al-'Alth, town, to the nortl of 
Baghdad, between 'Ukbara and Samarra, on the 
eastern bank of the old course of the Tigris. As the 
course of the Tigris has changed (cf. Dim la), 
'Alth is today on the western bank, on al-Shutay$a. 
The extensive ruins of the town are known as 'Alth 
up to the present day; they lie about 4 '/, m, N.W. 
of the modern town of Balad. The town is already 
mentioned by Ptolemy (v. 20) under the name of 
Altha. According to the medieval geographers the 
northern limit of the Sawad or al-'Irak was formed 
by 'Alth on the eastern, Harba on the western side 
of the Tigris. The town was a wahf for the benefit 
Of the descendants of 'All b. Abi Talib (Yakut) and 
some di tinguished traditionists of the 6th and 7th 
centuries A, H. came from it. A stone dam was built 
over the Tigris near 'Alth, but no trace of it remains. 
Near 'Alth lay the convent called Dayr al-'Alth or 
Dayr al-'Adhara, described, among others, by the 
poet Djahdha al-Barmakl. 



Bibliography: MakdisI, 123; Yakut, iii, 711, 
ii, 679; ShabustI, Dtyardt (G, Awad), 62-3; Ibn 
'Abd al-Hakk, Mardsid, ii, 275; 'Umari, Masalik 
al-Absdr, i, 258 ff,; Suyu(i, Lubb al-Lubdb, 1B1; 
TA, i, 634; A. Sousa, Rayy Samarra, Baghdad 
1948, 183-4, 3i8; J. F. Jones, Memoirs, Bombay 
1857. 257; M. Streck, Babylonien nach d. arab. 
Geograpken, ii, 224 f.; Le Strange, 50; If, Wagner, 
in Nackr. d. Gbttinger Ges. d. Wisstnsck. 1902, 256, 

(G, Awad) 
ALTI PARMAK ("the man with six toes"), 
Muhammad h. Muhammad, Turkish schoiar and 
translator. He was born in Uskiip, where he studied 
and joined the sufi (ariqa of the Bayramiyya [q.v.], 
became a preacher (avi'i?) and teacher in Istanbul and 
later in Cairo, where he died in 1033/1623-24. (1) His 
main work is the Dald'il-i Nubuwwat-i Muhammadl 
wa-Shamd i il-i Futuwwat-i Ahmadi, a translation of 
the Persian Ma l dridi al-Nubumwa by Mu'in al-DIn 
b. Sharal al-DIn Farihl, known as Mulia Miskin 
(d. 907/1501-02); there are numerous manuscripts 
in Istanbul, Cairo and elsewhere, and printed 
editions of Istanbul 1257 and BulSk 127 1 (see 
Storey, i, 188; Brockelmann, S II, 66r). For a 
detailed account of the contents of this work, 
see Fliigel, Handschr. Wien, ii, no. t23r. {2) 
He also translated from the Persian the Nigd- 
ristan, not the work of Djaml (as in Brockelmann, 
ii, 590), but (hat of Ahmad b. Muhammad Ghaffarl 
(d. 975/1567-68; cf. Storey, i, 114); the translation 
bears the title Nuzhat-i Djahdn tea- Nddirat-i Daiea- 
rdn, and exists in several manuscripts in Istanbul. 
(3) A further work of his is the translation of the 
Kitab-i sittin, PjoMtt' Lafd'if al-Basdiin, a mystical 
interpretation, in sixty "sessions", of sura xii by 
Abu Bakr b. Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Zayd T&Sl, 
an author of uncertain date (cf . Storey, i, ag, no. 10) ; 
a manuscript exists in the Koprtilii Library in 
Istanbul. (4) Finally, there is his translation of a 
"commentary on an extract on rhetoric" (Shark 
TalkhU al-Ma i dni), with the title Kaskif al-'Ulum wa- 
Fdtijf al-Funun, preserved in a manuscript of the 
'Umumt Library in Istanbul; this is presumably 
identical with his translation of the Mufawwat 
(Hadjdjt Khalifa, ed. Fliigel, ii, no. 3541) by al- 
Taftazanl (cf. Brockelmann, i, 354). 

Bibliograpky: al-Muhibbi, Kkuld$at al-Atkar, 
iv, 174; Brusall Mebmed Tahir, 'Uthmdnll Mu'el- 
ii fieri, i, 212 f. (J. Schacht) 

ALTI SHAHR, or Alta Shahh (the word "six" 
is always written alta in Chinese Turkistan), "six 
towns", a name for part of Chinese Turkistan 
(Sin-kiang) comprising the towns of Kuca, Ak Su, 
Uc Turfin (or Ush Turfan), Kashghar, Yarkand and 
Khotan. It appears to have been first used in the 
rSth century (cf. M. Hartmann, Der Islamische 
Orient, i, 226, 378). Yangi Hisar, between Kashghar 
and Yarkand, is sometimes added as the seventh 
town (though it also frequently counted as one of 
the six, in which case either Kuca or U6 Turfan is 
omitted). On account of this the country is often 
called in modern sources Diiti (or Yiti) Shahr, "seven 
towns"; cf, e.g. Ta'Ttkh-i Amdniyye, written in 
1321/1903 and printed by N. Pantasow, Kazan 1905. 

(W. BaRThold •) 

ALTILIK [see sikka]. 

ALTiN or Altun (t.), Gold, also used of gold 
coins. The word is often met with in Turkish proper 
names of persons and places, e.g. Altln K8prt), 
Altintash (Altuntasb). See also sikka. 



ALTlN KOPRO — ALTONTASH 



ALTIN (AltOn) KOPRO, a town oi 'Irak, 
built picturesquely on a small rocky island in the 
Lesser Zab river (44° 8' E., 35° 42' N.)— and in 
modem times overflowing on to both banks — 
serves as a ndhiya headquarters in the kadi oi 
Kirkuk in the Jtwa (province) of that name, formerly 
in the witdyet of Mosul. The Zab here forms the 
boundary between Kirkuk and the Irbil livtis. 
Known locally in Arabic simply as al-Kantara, the 
Turkish name ("Golden Bridge") is variously ex- 
plained; some believe it to commemorate a Turkish 
or Kurdish lady of that name, others that it refers 
to the rich caravan-tolls of earlier days, since the 
place lies on the agelong Baghdad- Mosul highway; 
while others understand it as an abbreviation of 
Altin-Su-KSprii, or the "Bridge of the Altin-Su". 
But it is at least equally probable that the river 
name (now rarely used) itself merely reflects the 

The place, no more than an obscure and unre- 
corded village in medieval times, gained importance 
in and since the Iith/i6th century, after the erection 
Of the two bridges by (it is said) Sultan Murad IV 
and a period of settled administration. It was 
visited and has been described by many European 
travellers; and, now reckoned as healthy as well as 
highly picturesque, has in late years been greatly 
improved in cleanliness, amenities, and communi- 
cations. The famous stone-built bridges, of which 
the southern contained an almost impractically high 
central arch, were destroyed by the Turks in 1918 
and later replaced by modern steel structures. The 
Kirkuk-Irbll branch of 'Irak Railways crosses the 
Zab immediately upstream. 

The inhabitants nf Altln Koprii, some 3500, are 
mixed Kurdish, Turkoman and Arab; this applies 
also to the thirty villages within the ndhiya. Many 
of the latter lie within the area of the rich and 
extensive Kirkuk oilfield (discovered in 1346/1927, 
and in full development since 1353/1934); oilfield 
operations give employment to many of the inhabi- 
tants. Their other main occupations are those of 
agriculture (partly rain -fed, partly aided by modern- 



M>, of s 



type i 

with road transport, of the characteristic keUek 
(skin-supported raft) traffic on the Zab, and of 
wholesale and retail trade. 

Bibliography: Turkish period, V. Cuinet, La 
Turquie d'Asie, ii, 855; S. H. Longrigg, Four 
Centuries of Modern '■Iraq, Oxford 1925, and many 
travellers* records, such as Niebuhr, Reisebeschreib. 
nock Arabien, Copenhagen 177$, ii, 340; Olivier, 
Voyage dans 1'ernpire Ottoman, Paris r8oi, ii, 372; 
Rousseau, Descriptian du Pachali de Bagdad, Paris 
1809, 85; C. J. Rich, Narrative of a Journey to 
the Site of Babylon, London 1839, ii, 10-2 ; Peter- 
mann, Reisen im Orient, Leipzig 1861, ii, 319; 
Czemik, in Peterrnann's Geogr. Mitteilungen, 
Ergdniungsheft, no. 44 (1875), 47; see also K. Ritter, 
Erdkunde, ix, 637-9; E. Reclus, Norw. giogr. univ., 
ix, 431; G. Hoffmann, Ausxilge aus syr. Akten 
pers, Mariyrer, 1880, 258, 263. For the 20th 
century, S. H, Longrigg, Hraq 1900 to 1950, 
London 1953. (S. H. Longrigg) 

ALTIN ORDU, modern Turkish imitation of the 
Russian term "Zolotaya Orda", "Golden Horde" 
[see bAtOids]. 

ALTJNTASH (also Altuntash, local pronun- 
ciation Altincesh), village in Anatolia, 39° 5' N, 
30° 10' E, and a nahiye in the wildyet and the kadd 
of Kutahya (though the capital of the nahiye is not 
in the village, but in the village of Kurdkoyii, a little 



to the west), on the small stream in the area of the 
sources of the Porsuk, somewhat to the west of the 
Afyon Kara Hisfir KiUahya road. Tim village con- 
tains a tiirbe of the r9th century and a modern mosque 
incorporating older fragments. It stands on the site 
of an older and larger mosque, the building in- 
scription of which (by the Rum Saldjuk 'Ala* al-Diu 
Kayliubad) is said to be in the museum of Afc 
SJjebir. The inscription which is now above the porch 
refers to the building of a bridge and bears the date 
of 666/1267-8; the place has two small old bridges. 
In the neighbouring Cakarsaz (called by the 
inhabitants Caklrsaz) there is an early Ottoman 
khan (three naves with five girders) with a remarkable 
porch, into which there are also built antique frag- 

Al tint ash was a stage on the highway from Brusa 
(and Uskiidar) via Ktitahya to Afyon Kara Hisar 
and Konya, forming the stage probably together 
with Cakarsaz. 

Bibliography: CI. Huart, Konia, Paris 1897, 
87, 254; 'Ali Die wad, Memdlik-i 'Otkmdniyyenin 
Ta'rikh we-Djpghrafya Lughdti, 26; Fr. Taeschner, 
Das anatolische Wegenetz, Leipzig 1924-6, ii, index. 

(Fr, Taeschner) 
ALTONTASH al-Haojib, Abo Sa'Id (his 
alleged second name Harun which occurs in a single 
passage of Ibn al-Athtr, ix, jg4, is probably due 
to an error of the author or of a copyist}, Turkish 
slave, later general of the Ghaznawid Sebuk 
Tegin and his two successors and governor of 
Kh/arizm. Already under Sebuk Tegin he attained 
the highest rank in the bodyguard, that of a "great 
hddjib"; under Mahmud he commanded the right 
wing in the great battle against the Karakhanids 
(22 RabI' II 398/4 Jan. roo8, and in 401/1010-1 he 
is mentioned as governor of Harat. After the con- 
quest of kh'arizm in 408/1017 he was appointed 
governor of the province with the title of Kh'arizm- 
shah and maintained himself in this office until his 
death in 423/1032. Altuntash seems to have adminis- 
tered the advanced border-province with energy 
and foresight and to have effectively guarded it 
against the neighbouring Turkish tribes. As, however, 
by this means he established his own rule even more 
than that of the sultans, his measures were always 
regarded with suspicion both by Mahmud and 
Mas'ud, and it is said that both of them made 
attempts to remove the troublesome governor by 
treachery. In the spring of 42 3/ r 032 Altuntaslj 
undertook, by order of the sultan Mas'Gd a campaign 
against 'All Tegin (cf. karakhanids) and received 
a mortal wound in the battle of Dabusiyya. He was 
succeeded as governor by his son Harun, but Mas'Od 
bestowed the title of Kh^arizmshah on his own son 
Sa'Id and Harun administered the country only as 
Sa'Id' s representative. In Ramadan 4 2 5/ August 1034 
Harun proclaimed himself independent, but was 
killed the very next year at the instigation of the 
Ghaznawids. His brother and successor Ismail 
Khandan ruled the country till 432/1041, when he 
was ousted, by order of the Ghaznawids, by Shah 
Malik, the prince of Djand. Thus the dynasty 
founded by Altuntash came to an end. 

Bibliography: 'Utbl, al-Ta>rikh al-Yamita, 
403-6; Gardlzl, Zayn al-AhXbdr, 73 it.; BayhakI 
(Morley), 59 «., 91 «■, 389 H-, 4*9 ft., 499 «•► 
834 ff. ; the dates in Ibn al-Athlr (cf. index) are 



Cf . also the anecdotes, which are probably derived 
from the lost portions of Bayhakl's great work, 
in Nizam al-Mulk, Siyusat-ndma (Sehefer), 206 



and 'Awfi (in Barthold, Turkestan, Russian ed., 
i, 89; c£. M. Nizamu 'd-din, Introduction to the 
JawdmiStl-Hikdydt, index). Barthold, Turkestan, 
275-9; M. Nazim, The life and times of Sultan 
Mahmud of Ghazna, 56-60; B. Spuler, Iran infruh- 
islamischer Zeit, 115, 120. (W. Barthold) 

AJLUDEL {see al-'uthal]. 
'ALCK [see al-djinn]. 

al-AlCSI, name of a family which included a 
large number of savants of Baghdad in the 19th and 
both centuries. The name is derived from Alus, a 
place situated on the west bank of the Euphrates, 
between Abu Kamal and Ramadi; according to 
family tradition, the ancestors of the Alusi (whose 
descent is traced back to al-Hasan and al-Husayn) 
fled there to escape from the Mongol conqueror 
Hulagu ; their descendants only returned to Baghdad 
in the nth/i7th century. Among the numerous 
representatives of this family who have added 
lustre to the cultural and political history of 'Irak are : 

(1) 'Abd Allah Salah al-DIn, forefather of the 
family (d. 1246/1830). 

(2) Abu'l Jhana> Mahmud Shihab al-DIn 
(1217-70/1802-54), son of the preceding; he was 
mufti of Baghdad for several years, but was also an 
outstanding professor, thinker and polemist. Among 
his numerous works are: Ruh al-Ma'dni (commentary 
on the Kur'an, Bulak 1301-10/1883-1892, 9 vols.); 
commentaries on grammar and prosody and attempts 
at makamdt; his doctrinal arguments are contained 
in al-Risdla al-Ldhuriyya (ed. 1301/1883) and al- 
Adjwiba al- c Irdkiyya c an al-As'ila al-Irdniyya 
(Istanbul 1317). The account of his voyage to 
Istanbul in 1267-9/1851-2, after his dismissal from 
his post as mufti, provided the material for there 
works: Nashwat al-Shamul fi 'l-Dhahdb ild Isldmbul, 
Nashwat al-Muddm fi 'l- l Awd ild Bar al-Saldm, and 
QharaHb al-Ightirab wa-Nuzhat al-Albdb, published 
at Baghdad, the first two in 1291-3/1874-6, the third 
in 1327/1909. 

(3) c Abd al-Rahman, brother of the preceding, 
(d. 1284/1867); a kha\ib at Baghdad, he was called 
''the Ibn al-Djawzi of his age and the Ibn Nubata 
of his generation". 

(4) c Abd al-HamId, brother of the preceding, (1232- 
1324/1816-1906) ; professor and w&Hz, author of some 
Verse and a Nathr al-La'dli 'aid Nazm al-Amali. 

(5) c Abd Allah Baha' al-DIn, elder brother of 
(2) (1248-91/1832-74); kadi of Basra, author of a 
small treatise on grammar, two texts on logic and a 
commentary on a treatise on mysticism. 

(6) <Abd al-BakI Sa'd al-DIn, brother of the 
preceding (1250-93/1834-76); kadi of Kirkuk in 
1292/1875; he wrote mainly commentaries on or 
adaptations of manuals on grammer or scansion, 
and a guide to the pilgrimage, Awdah Manhadj ild 
Ma'rifat Mandsik al-Ifadidj. (lith. Cairo 1277). 

(7) Nu'mAn Khayr al-DIn Abu' l-Barakat, 
brother of the preceding (1252-1317/1836-39). 
professor and waHz; author of a defence of Ibn 
Taymiyya, Diald 3 al- c Aynayn fi 'l-Muhdkama bayn 
al-Ahmadayn, which caused a great sensation. He 
wrote two other polemical works, al-Djawdb al-Fasih 
(against the Christians), and Shakd'ik al-Nu'mdn fi 
Radd Shakdshik Ibn Sulaymdn; his sermons and 
exhortations were collected in his Qhdliyat al- 
MawdHz, a work of great length which exists in 
several 'Editions. 

(8) Muhammad HamId, brother of the preceding 
(1262/1846-1290/1873-4). 

(9) Ahmad Shakir, brother of the preceding 
(1264/1848-1330/1911-2), Hdi of Basra. 



(10) Mahmud Shukri, known also as Mahmud 
AlusI-Zada, son of (5) (29 Ramadan 1273/14 May 
1857/3 Shawwal 1342/8 May 1924); the best known 
of his family, a fact which is partly due to the 
zeal of Muhammad Bahdjat al-Athari in publishing 
his works. He wrote some 50 works on history, 
fikh, biography, lexicography, rhetoric and dogmatic 
controversy; on history, the most noteworthy are the 
Bulugh al-Arab fi Ma'rifat Ahwdl al- l Arab (printed 
in 1313/1896), a history on the Arabs of the djdhiliyya 
compiled in answer to a question raised at the 8 th 
Oriental Congress (1889), and Ta'rikh Nadid (Cairo 
1343); on biography, al-Misk al-Adhfar (Baghdad 
1 348/ 1930) on the savants of Baghdad in 12th- 13th 
centuries; on dialectology, Amthal al- c Awdmm fi 
Madinat al-Saldm ; on controversy, a series of violent 
polemics against ShI'ism, against the Rifa'iyya Order, 
in support of the neo-Hanbalite law reform, etc., 
notably the Ghdydt al-Amani, published under a 
pseudonym (Cairo 1327). He was one of the most 
vigorous representatives of modern Islam, striving 
by means of the written and spoken word and by 
his example to combat bid'-a, and he may be regarded 
as one of the leaders of the Salafiyya movement, 
(n) <Ala 5 al-Din <AlI, son of (7) (d. 1340/1921) ; a 
professor; his only work is a manual on grammar in 
verse ; a collection of biographies was never completed. 
(12) Muhammad Darwish, son of (9) (d. after 
1340/1922); professor and preacher; he wrote several 
unpublished works. 

Bibliography: Mahmud Shihab al-Din al- 

AlusI, Ruh al-Ma'-ani, i, Preface; Mahmud 

Shukri al- Alusi, al-Misk al-Adhfar, i, 3-59; 

Brockelmann, II, 498, S II, 785-89; Muhammad 

Bahdjat al-Athari, A'-ldm al-'Irdk, 7 ff., 57-68; 

Muhammad Salih al-Suhrawardl, Lubb al-Albdb, 

ii, 218-24, 360-2, 2130-33; Sarkis, col. 3-8; Zirikll, 

al-A c ldm, iii, 1013-14; <Abd al-Hayy al-Kittani, 

Fihris, i, 97, ii, 84; Dj. Zaydan, Ta'rikh Addb al- 

Lugha al- c Arabiyya iv, 285; idem, Mashdhir al- 

Shark, ii, 175-77 Sandubl A'ydn al-Baydn, 99-110; 

c Umar al-Dasuki, Ft 'l-Adab al-lfadith, i, 49-51, 

139-41; L. Cheikho, Litt. ar. au XIX' s., i, 73, 

85-6, 93, 97; H. Peres, Litt. ar. et Isl. par les textes, 

74-5; L. Massignon, in RMM, 1924, 244-6 (see 

also xxxvi, 320 ff. and lviii, 254) ; Lughat al-'Arab, 

iv, 343-6, 399-402; Mash., i, 865-69, 1066-71; 

I. Goldziher, ZdhiriUn, 188, 190; Na'Im al- 

Himsl, Ta'rikh I<-dj.dz al-Kur>dn, in MMIA, xxix. 

420-22. (H. PfeRES) 

<ALWA, name of a Nubian people and 

kingdom. The kingdom was adjacent to that oj 

Makurra [q.v.] a little below the confluence of the 

White Nile and the Atbara and stretched southward 

well beyond the confluence of the White and Blue 

Nile; its capital was Soba, near the modern Khartum. 

The Christian kingdom preserved its independence 

even after the fall of the kingdom of the Makurra 

and only disappeared in the beginning of the 10th/ 

1 6th century under the pressure of Arab tribes 

allied to the Fund]. [See also nuba, and al-nil.] 

Bibliogrphy: Ibn al-Faklh, 78; Ya'kubl, 335; 

Mas'udI, Murudi, iii, 31; Ibn Sulaym al-Uswanl, 

in MakrizI, Khi\aJt (transl. by G. Troupeau, in 

Arabica, 1954, 284); Yakut, iv, 820; Dimashkl, 

Nukhba, 296; J. Marquart, Die Benin Sammlung, 

Leiden 1913, index; J. S. Trimingham, Islam in 

the Sudan, 72-5 ; U. Monneret de Villard, Storia 

delta Nubia Cristiana, Rome 1938, index; O. G. S. 

Crawford, The Fung Kingdom of Sennar, Gloucester 

195 r ; 25 ff . ; P. L. Shinnie, Excavations at Soba, 

Khartoum 1955. (S. M. Stern) 



426 



ALWAH — 'AMADIYA 



ALWAH [see lawh]. 
ALWAND [see as sOYUnlu]. 
ALWAND KCH or Kuh-i Alwand (Elwend), 
is an isolated mountain-group lying to the south 
of Hamadhan, and rising to a height of 11,717 feet. 
To the north and north-east the Alwand Kuh 
drops steeply off to the plain; to the north-west it 
is united to the Kuh-i Da*im al-Barf, a mountain- 
mass of almost equal height, which is joined to the 
Kuh-i Almu Kulakh by lower mountain-chains. The 
latter forms the north-western extremity of the entire 
Alwand system. The core of the real Alwand consists 
of granite, judging from the geological formation; 
only at the base is there to be found isolated red 
clay of salt formation. Wild rocky precipices, bare 
cliffs and gorges alternate with fertile mountain pas- 
turages; up to nearly 7,500 feet the southern slopes 
are clad with groves of walnuts, mulberries and 
iruit trees. The Alwand Kuh is noted for its abundant 
water-supply. Mustawfi observes (Nuzhat al-Kulub, 
Bombay 1311, 152) that in addition to the spring 
which rises on the highest peak, no fewer than 42 
■streams flow from this central portion of the 
mountain chain, some of which are tributaries of the 
Tigris, others turning eastwards, flow to the interior 
of Iran. As the result of the plentiful irrigation by 
the Alwand streams the plain of Hamadhan has 
always been considered as the most highly favoured 
region of Iran. Hamadhan itself, the old Ekbatana, 
which is built in terraces along the foot of the 
mountain was a favourite summer residence for the 
Achaemenid kings on account of its cool, lofty 
position (i860 metres). Two cuneiform inscriptions 
dating from Darius I and Xerxes I still remain 
as vestiges of ancient Persian times at a place 
named Gandj Namah (= treasure-house) on the 
slope of the Alwand Kuh at a height of 7,000 feet. 
Oriental writers relate many legends but few 
facts concerning the Alwand Kuh. (They mention a 
source on the summit of the mountain as one of the 
sources of paradise — probably following old beliefs 
concerning the locality; cf. Jackson, Persia Past 
and Present, 146, 170-3.) Al-Kazwlnl (682 = 1283) 
gives the best account; he names it Kuh Arwand. 
Yakut also uses the form Arwand, whereas other 
Arabic writers employ the later term Alwand 
(Mustawfi: Alwand Kuh). The Old Persian name 
Aruanda (Avesta and Pazend: Arwand) appears in 
Greek writers (Polybius, Ptolemy, Diodorus) in the 
form Op6v-rrjc;. In Old Armenian the word is found 
as the name of persons in the form Erwand (Arwand) ; 
cf. H. Hubschmann, Armenische Grammatik, Leipzig 
1897, i, 40, and in Indogermanische Forschungen, 
1904, 426. The "white mountains" mentioned in the 
cuneiform inscriptions are probably to be identified 
with the Alwand Kuh; cf. Streck in ZA, 1900, 371. 
Perhaps moreover, the "cedar-mountain" of the 
Old Babylonian Gilgamesh epic refers to the Alwand 
Kuh, as Jensen has conjectured in Schrader's 
KeiUnschriftl. Biblioth., vi/i, Berlin 1900, 573. 
Bibliography: Yakut, i, 225; Kazwini 
(Wustenf.), ii, 236, 311; Vullers, Lexicon Persico- 
Lattnum, s. v. Arwand; Le Strange, 22, 195; 
K. Ritter, Erdkunde, viii, 48, 82-98; H. Kiepert, 
Lehrbuch der alten Geographic, Berlin 1878, 69; 
E. Reclus, Nouv. giogr. univ., ix, 168 f. ; Fr. 
Spiegel, Eranische Altertumskunde, i, 103, 104- 
143 ff.; Justi. in Gr I Ph, ii, 427 (on the places of 
worship of old Persian deities on the Alwand); 
C. Olivier, Voyage dans Vempire Ottoman, I'Egypte 
et en Perse, Paris 1801, iii, 163; H. Petermann, 
Reisen im Orient Leipzig 1861, ii, 252; Mittei- 



lungen der K. K. Geogr. Get. Wien 1883, 72 f.; 

A. F. Stahl, in Petermann's Geograph. Mitteilungen, 

1907, 205 (geological observations) und also 1909, 6. 

Map: Iran series, I j t inch Sheet no. 1-39, G (Hama- 

dan) June 1942. (M. Streck-D. N. Wilber) 

ALWAR (ulwur in English spelling) was a 

"native" state in the east of Radjputana, India, 

lying between 27 3' and 28 1 3' north and 76 7' 

and 77 13' east with an area of 3, 141 square miles 

and a population of 861, 993 (1951 census). The 

languages spoken are mainly Hindi and Mewati; 

about one fourth of the inhabitants is Muslim. 

The founder of the modern state of Alwar was 
Pratap Singh, 1740-1791, who, between 1771 and 
1776, succeeded in carving out a principality which 
was recognised by the Mughal Emperor Shah 
c Alam II, and later, in 1811, by the British. 

After the lapse of British paramountcy Alwar 
joined the Matsya Union with Bharatpur, Dholpur 
and Karauli; the Maharaja of Alwar become Uparp- 
ramukh of the new state. On the 15th May, 1949, 
Alwar and the other component states of the Matsya 
Union merged with the Union of Radjasthan. 

The town of Alwar has some Islamic monuments, 

such as the mausolea of Bakhtawar Singh (the 

adopted son and successor of Pratap Singh) and of 

Fatih Djang (see Fergusson, Indian Architecture). 

Bibliography: The Imperial Gazetteer; The 

Rajputana Gazetteer; Government of India Ministry 

of States, White Paper on Indian States, Delhi 1950. 

(P. Hardy) 
AMA [see c abd]. 
. al-A c MA AL-TUTlLt, "the blind man of Tudela", 
Abu 'l- c Abbas (or Abu Dja'far) Ahmad b. <Abd 
Allah b. Hurayra al- c UtbI (or al-KaysI), 
Hispano-Arabic poet, b. in Tudela, but brought 
up in Seville; d. 525/1130-1. MSS of his diwdn, con- 
taining classical poetry, are to be found in London 
and Cairo (see Brockelmann, I, 320, S I, 480), but 
he is mainly famous as one of the great masters of 
muwashshah poetry. His muwashshahs are preserved, 
apart from occasional quotations in general works, 
in such special anthologies of the genre as Ibn Sana" 
al-Mulk's Ddr al-Tirdz (ed. Rikaby, nos. 1, 30, 34), 
Ibn Bushra's 'Uddat al-Qialis, Ibn al-Khatib's 
Qiaysh al-Tawshih (ch. ii), and al-Safadi's Tawshi' 
al-Tawshih (nos. 14a, 16a; for the last two, cf. S. M. 
Stern, in Arabica, 1955, 150 ff.); cf. Muwashshah. 
Bibliography: Ibn Bassam, Dhakhira, MS 
Oxford 749, fol. 167 vff.; Ibn Khakan, Kald'id 
aW-Ikyan, 271-8; Safadi, Waft, MS Oxford 664, 
fol. 73 ff.; Makkari, Analectes, ii, 139 (=162), 
235, 275, 336, 360, 652; Ibn Sa'id, in Ibn Khaldun, 
Mukaddima, ii, 392; H. Peres, Poisie andalouse, 
index, s.v. L'Aveugle de Tudele. 

(S. M. Stern) 
'AMADIYA, a town in Kurdistan, at about 100 
klm. north of Mosul in the basin of the Gara river 
(a right tributary of the Great Zab). The town stands 
on a hill and is dominated by the citadel built on a 
steep rock. The water supplying the citadel comes 
from cisterns hewn in the rock. The stronghold is 
situated at a point which, in the east, controls com- 
munications with valleys of the left affluents of the 
Zab (Shamdinan, Ru-Kucuk, Rawanduz) and, in 
the west, those within the Khabur basin. The climate 
of 'Amadiya is hot and unhealthy. 

According to Ibn al-Athir the fortress received its 
name from c Imad al-DIn Zangi who built it in 537/ 
1 142 on the spot where a more ancient castle stood 
called Ashib (al-Kamil, ix, 60) or al-Sha c baniyya 
(Ta'rikh al-Atdbakiyya, Recueil des Hist, des croisades, 



'AMADIYA — <AMAL 



ii/2, 114-5). Less probable is its attribution to the 
Buyid 'Imad al-Dawla (d. in 338/949, see Nuzhat 
al-Kulub, 105.) The original form of the name is, 
therefore, 'Imadiyya, but the modern pronunciation 
is 'Amadiya. 

1 'Amadiya had Kurdish princes of the Bahdinan 
family, originary of a place called Tarun (cf. Hoff- 
mann, Ausziige, 222) in the territory of the Shams 
al-Dinan (Shamdinan). Sharaf al-DIn, i, 106-15, 
traces their arrival back to circa 600/1203. In its 
heyday the principality comprised a number of 
adjoining territories ('Akr Shush, Dahuk and even 
Zakho). The later Bahdinan shifted between the 
Safawids and the Ottomans and were finally incopo- 
rated by the latter, under whom 'Amadiya was 
reckoned now to the wilayat of Wan and now to 
that of Mawsil. Since the settlement of the Mosul 
question in 1926 'Amadiya has formed part of 
'Irak. 

Bibliography: Yakut, iii, 717; K. Ritter, 
Erdkunde, ix, 717-20, 727; xi, 590 ff.; E. Reclus, 
Nouv. giogr. univ., ix, 430; G. Hoffmann, Ausziige 
aus syrischen Akten persischer Mdrtyrer, Leipzig 
1880, 203, 219 ff.; M. Hartmann, Bohtan { = Mit- 
teil. der Berliner Vorderasiat. Gesellsch., 1897-1898), 
10, note 2; 62, note 1, 107; (M. Rousseau), De- 
scription du Pachalik de Bagdad, Paris 1809, 198 
and elsewhere (see index, 235); H. A. Layard, 
Nineveh and its remains 1854, i, 157-62; San- 
dreczki, Reise nach Mossul und Urmia, iii, 275 ff- ; 
Thielmann, Streifziige im Kaukasus, 1875, 5^9! 
Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, ii, 795; Le Strange, 
92 f. ; Sir A. Wilson, Mesopotamia 1917-20, 
London 1930, index. 

(M. Streck-[V. Minorsky]) 
'AMAL (a.). 1. 'Amal, performance, action, is 
usually discussed by the speculative theologians 
and philosophers only in connection with belief 
[see c ilm, Iman] or with Him and nazar. From 
Hellenistic tradition was known the definition of 
philosophy as the "knowledge of the nature of 
things and the doing of good" (cf. Mafdtih, ed. 
van Vloten, 131 f.). Many Muslim thinkers have 
emphasised the necessity or at least the desirability 
of this combination (cf. Goldziher, Kitdb Ma'dni al- 
Nafs, 54*-6o*). But it is the intellectualism of the 
Greek philosophy, in ethics also, that explains how 
nine tenths of the philosophers and mystics influ- 
enced by it represented action if not of less import- 
ance than at least as dependent on knowledge. Plato 
placed wisdom (aoipta) as first of his cardinal virtues, 
the Stoics and Neo-Platonists followed him. Aristotle 
also esteemed theoretical (dianoetic) virtue higher 
than ethical. This is the doctrine of the so-called 
"Theology of Aristotle", that the soul of man is 
elevated, not through actions but by cognition, to 
perceive and enjoy the intellectual world. 

Different opinions on the relation between know- 
ledge and action are given by al-Tawhidi in his 
Mukdbasdt, Cairo 1929, 262 sff. We shall here con- 
fine ourselves to the predominantly intellectual con- 
ception and take as an example the Fusus, attri- 
buted to al-Farabl, Philosophische Abhandlungen, 
72 ff. [Arabic] ed. Dieterici; in reality by Ibn SIna, 
where we find the psychological and metaphysical 
basis of the author's teaching. He distinguishes 
three practical faculties of the soul, which are 
only briefly mentioned and two theoretical, which 
are discussed more fully. The activity of the vege- 
table and animal soul is practical as is that of the 
soul of man, i.e. the reasoning soul, in so far as 
the latter chooses not only the useful but also the 



427 

beautiful and prepares itself for the goals placed 
before it in this life. The theoretical faculties are of 
a higher rank. Beginning with sensual perception 
(animal soul) theoretical reason advances beyond the 
material world and rises to the intellectual sphere. 
Practical reason is only servile, theoretical however 
is independent (cf. al-Farabl's Musterstaat, [Arabic] 
ed. Dieterici, 47). 

In conclusion it may be mentioned that the 
philosophers following Aristotle divided sciences 
into theoretical (nazariyya) and practical {'amaliyya). 
The latter are ethics, economics and politics. 

Bibliography: A. J. Wensinck, The Muslim 
Creed, Cambridge 1932, s. index, s.v. Works; and 
Tj. de Boer, Ethics and Morality {Muslim), in 
Hastings' Enc. of Religion and Ethics. 

(Tj. de Boer) 

2. 'Amal (and the pi. a'mal), "that which is 
practised" and, following the usage of Kur'an 
and hadith, "the works". It is opposed com- 
plementarily to nazar [q.v.], speculative knowledge, 
and must be distinguished from fiH [q.v.] (pi. af'dl), 
acts. 'Amal signifies the moral action in its practical 
context and, secondarily, the practical domain of 
"acting". In the terminology of falsafa, al-'ilm al- 
-'amali is practical knowledge, which comprises, 
according to the list given by al-Kh w arizmi {Mafdtih 
al-'Ulum), ethics, domestic economy and politics, 
thereby reproducing an Aristotelian distinction. This 
then is a notion which applies to the "foreign 
sciences". It was used and developed in falsafa, 
particularly in distinguishing the "practical" and 
the "theoretical intellect". Concurrently, the idea 
of c amal sdlih, a morally good action, synonymous 
with ma'ruf, became current in Islam. But the Risala 
al-Laduniyya (a text usually attributed to al-Ghaz- 
zali) introduced the distinction between speculative 
knowledge (here Hlmi) and practical knowledge 
{'amali) as regards revealed knowledge {Him shar'i) 
itself, and it is canon law {fikh) which is called an 
'amali science. When works on kaldm consider the 
nature of faith {iman) and its relationships to Islam, 
the "external works" required by the Law are com- 
monly termed a'mal. Ibn Hazm does the same. 
{Af'dl, on the other hand, is commonly used in 
order to describe the human acts when discussing 
the question of free will.) Al-Ghazzali, especially 
in the Ihya', when speaking of the faith, follows 
the usage of kaldm with regard to the meaning of 
the term '■amal and its plural a'mal. He considers as 
permissible the following definition: iman is equi- 
valent to the sum of inward assent (tasdik), verbal 
confession {kawl) and works {a'-mal). 

Bibliography: Mafdtih al-'Ulum, Cairo 1342, 
79) al-Risdla al-Laduniyya, Cairo 1353/1934, 31; 
Ihya 1 'Ulum al-Din, Cairo 1353, i, 103 ft.; see 
also the Fisal of Ibn Hazm and the treatises of 
kaldm, chap, on al-asmd? wa'l-ahkdm. 

(L. Gardet) 

3. 'Amal, "judicial practice". The problem 
of "jurisprudence" as a source of law has arisen at 
every period and in every province of Islam. But 
Morocco has provided the best facilities for studying 
it, since the discovery there by L. Milliot in 1917 
of an 'amal which has regulative force. 

In Andalusia, despite controversy, there prevailed 
a tendency to require judges to follow "practice of 
Cordova". Jurisprudence entered into compendia of 
"formularies" {wathd'ik), "responsa" {fatdwd) and 
even "regulations" {kawdnin). Part of this material 
was incorporated in a late manual, the Tuhfa of 
Ibn c Asim (d. 829/1426), which was destined to have 



428 'a: 

a great success in Morocco, where the evolution was 
determined by local conditions. 

At Fez, the jurisdiction of the kadis was combined 
with the action of municipal authorities, and had 
to take into consideration special customs. The 
resultant of this complicated procedure, once set 
down in writing, was precisely the 'amal, which 
found a recognised place in the system from the 
end of the gth/i5th century. A short guide to 
procedure, the Lamiyya of 'All al-Zakkak (d. 
Shawwal 9i2/Feb.-March 1507), expressed already 
the technical aspect of the problem. Fikh is above 
all an "art" in the service of orthodoxy and of 
urban economy. At the same time, it reflects the 
difficulties met with in the existence of unusual 
practices, or even what we should call customary 
laws. Ahmad b. al-Kadi (960 — Safar 1025/1552 — 
Feb.-March 1611) expounds a Maliki 'amal. Al- 
'Arabi al-Fasi (6 Shawwal 488 — 14 Rabi c II, 1052/ 
14 Nov. 1588 — 12 July 1642) sanctions the evidence 
of the lafif, "unsifted" witnesses, which emanates 
neither from "virtuous men" [cf. 'adl] nor from 
professionals, but from the "man in the street", and 
relies therefore on the inherent integrity of the 
"group" (djamd'a). This innovation, which was not 
unconnected with conditions in rural areas, provoked 
controversy. Similarly the safka which, by sancti- 
oning the validity of a sale concluded by a joint 
owner, demonstrated the solidarity of the rural 
family, was the subject of a work by Mahammad b. 
Ahmad Mayyara (15 Ramadan 999 — 3 Diumada II, 
1072/7 July 1591 — 24 January 1662). 

In the second half of the nth/i7th century, c Abd 
al-Rahman al-Fasi (17 Djumada II 1040-16 Dju- 
mada I 1095/21 Jan. 1631-20 April 1695) collected 
together several hundred rules in a mnemonic poem 
called al-'Amal al-Fasi. This work, which acquired 
at least three commentaries, has given its name to 
a whole class of literature. There is also a "general 
practice" ('amal muflaft), and especially a Southern 
practice which, being based on an irregular local 
system, has great documentary value. An important 
part in its formulation was played by the kadi 'Isa 
al-Suktani (d. 1062/1652) and by the jurists origi- 
nating from the old intellectual centres in the SQs 
and influenced by the spiritual movement which 
developed round the zdwiyas, such as Dila 5 and 
particularly Tamggrut. 

Under the title of "opinions" (adjwiba), "judge- 
ments" (ahkam) or "precedents" (nawazil), each 
doctor reproduced and, on occasion, revised the 
contributions of his predecessors. The lack of criticism 
of the sources, and the tendency to cover expedient 
solutions by the cloak of doctrinal pretexts, make it 
difficult to trace the evolution of ideas, as well as 
of this voluminous branch of legal literature as a 
whole. Nevertheless, European scholarship, justly 
impressed by the continuity and by the practical 
value of this literature, is inclined to regard it as 
tending to the creation of a positive law. This thesis 
has been propounded in a masterly fashion by 
L. Milliot. On its part, Moroccan exegesis reduces 
'amal to a purely technical plane; when local 
customs require it, the kadi has the right to prefer 
the "isolated" or "anomalous" opinion (shadhdh) to 
the "predominant" opinion (mashhur). This right, 
limited by numerous conditions and differentiations, 
is therefore apt to produce only temporary and 
isolated solutions. In fact, '■amal is virtually a prag- 
matic law. But it remains subject to doctrinal 
criticism which can at any moment revoke it. It is 
nevertheless of considerable interest to historians, 



to whom it offers factual information, too often 
neglected by the chroniclers, and a many-sided 
documentation on the development of Moroccan law. 
Bibliography: Dogmatic theory of juris- 
prudence: Karafi, al-Ihkdm ft Tamyiz al-Fatawa 
'an al-Ahkdm, 22nd question; Ibn Farhun, 
Tabsira, Egypt, ed., 1302, i, 45-8. For the early- 
function of "practice", and a comparison between 
the attitudes of the various schools: J. Schacht, 
The origins of Muhammadan jurisprudence, 
Oxford 1950, 190 ff.; idem, Esquise d'une histoire 
du droit musulman, Paris 1953, 70 ff. For the 
literature of jurisprudence in Muslim Spain: 
Gonzalez Palencia, Historia de la literature arabigo- 
espaiiola, Madrid 1945, 280 ff. For the controversy 
concerning the application of the 'amal of Cordova: 
Makkari, Nafh al-Tib, Dar al-Ma'mun ed., n.d., 
v » 33-4°. For the history of 'amal in Morocco: 
Hadjdjwi, al-Fikr al-Sami, iv, Fez, n.d., 226 ff., 
trans. J. Berque, Essai sur la mithode juridique 
maghrdbine, 1944, 120 ff. For late attempts by the 
Sultan Muhammad b. c Abd Allah to systematize 
legal practice: 'Abbas b. Ibrahim, I'ldm, v, 1358, 
123 ff. Main works on 'amal in the strict sense: 
Zakkak, Lamiyya, with a commentary by 'Umax 
al-Fasi, lith., Fez 1306; trans, by Merad ben Ali, 
with text, and preface by L. Milliot, Casablanca 
1927; 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Abd al-Kadir al- 
Fasi, Al-'Amal al-Fasi,' with a commentary by 
SidjilmasI, lith. Fez, 2nd ed. n.d., and two other 
editions in 1298 and 1317; SidjilmasI RibatI, al- 
'Amal al-Muflak, lith. Fez 1196 (?), printed ed. 
Tunis 1290. The most commonly used compendia 
of jurisprudence are: in the North, the works of 
Ahmad b. Yahya al-Wansharisi (d. 914/1508-9), 
the compiler of a legal encyclopaedia, the Mi'yar; 
Muhammad called al-K5<JI al-Miknasi (835-917) 
1432-1522); 'All b. Harun (d. 95i/i545); Yahya 
al-Sarradj (d. 1007/1598); 'Abd al-Kadir al-Fasi 
(1007-1091/1598-1680); Muhammad Burdalla 
(1042-1133/1632-1720); Muhammad al-Madjdjasi 
(d. 1139/1726-7); 'Ali b. 'Isa al-'Alami (i2th/i8th 
century); al-Mahdl al-Wazzani (1266-1342/1849- 
1923-4), author of a new Mi'-yar. In the South : 
the works of 'Isa al-Suktani; the "Pole" Muham- 
mad b. Nasir al-Dar'i (d. 1085/1674-5); Ahmad 
al-'AbbasI (d. 1152/1739-40); Ahmad al-Rasmukl 
(d. 1133/1720-21). 

The theory of 'amal as positive law was ex- 
pounded for the first time by L. Milliot, Ddmem. 
brements du habous, Paris 1918, 23-30, with 
translation of a passage from Sidjilmasl's com- 
mentary on the 'amal, 109-17; idem, Recueil de 
jurisprudence cherifienne, Paris 1920-23, 3 vol., in 
section iv of the Introduction; idem, La con- 
ception de I'Etat et de I'ordre Ugal dans I'Islam, 
Paris 1949, 644-47. The most recent summary of 
L. Milliot's ideas is contained in his preface to 
vol. iv of Recueil de jurisprudence chdrifienne, 

For Moroccan doctrines on 'amal: Ahmad b. 
'Abd al-'Aziz al-Hilall (d. 1175/1761), Nur al-. 
Basar, lith. Fez 1309, fasc. i-fasc. ii, 6; al-Mahdl 
al-Wazzani, IJdshiya on the Lamiyya, Cairo 1349, 
330-38; idem, Shark al-'Amal al-Fasi, lith. Fez 
n.d. ii, 22-27; Muhammad al-Kadiri, Raf al-'Itdb 
wa 'l-Malam 'amman kola al-'amal bi 'l-da'ifi 
ikhtiydran hardm, n. p. 1308, 7-10, 17-20; Muham- 
mad al-Hadjwi, Al-Fikr al-Sami, iv, Fez, n.d 
229 ff., trans. J. Berque, Essai, 126-29; also cf 
ibid., 63 ff.). (J- Berque) 



C AMAL — AMAN 



429 



4. 'A mat as a legal and economic term, denotes 
the labour, as opposed to capital; as such, it occurs 
in the discussion of a number of contracts, e.g. 
idjdra (hire), mudaraba (or kirdd, sleeping partner- 
ship), musdkdt and muzdra'a (agricultural partner- 
ships); [qq.v.]. It also denotes the performance of 
an act or a duty (opp. niyya, "intention") ; hence 
Suyuti's [q.v.] 'Amal al-Yawm wa'l-Layla ("Acts 
to be performed every day and night" ; Brockelmann, 
II, 190, no. 113), and its Shi'ite counterpart, A'mdl 
al- Yawm w'al-Layla w'al-Usbu c w'al-Shuhur w'al-Sana 
<"Acts to be performed every day and night, week, 
month and year") by Muhammad al-Isfahanl 
(Brockelmann, S,II, 795, no. 16), and the tradition 
al-a c mdl bil-niyyat, "acts are valid according to the 
intention" (cf. Goldziher, Vorlesungen, 45, Vor- 
lesungen*, 41). (Ed.) 
AMALI [see tadris]. 

'AMALlK (or c Amalh?a), the Amalekites of 
the Bible. Not mentioned in the Kur'an, this 
ancient people is connected by Muslim literary 
tradition to the genealogical table in Genesis x, 
either to Shem (through Lud-Lawudh or Arpakh- 
shad), or to Ham. They take the place of the Phili- 
stines (the people of Djalut-Goliath) and of the 
Midianites (Balaam persuaded them to incite the 
Israelites to debauchery), and the Pharaohs are 
alleged to be of their race. On the other hand, in the 
mythical pre-Islamic history of Arabia and in the 
legendary cycle of the Yamanite migrations, they 
are listed among the first tribes speaking the Arabic 
tongue, with Tasm, gjadls and Thamud. At the 
time of Hud, they lived in the Hidjaz, but the same 
prophet is supposed to have preached to them in 
Babel. Ishmael's first wife, who was repudiated, was 
an Amalekite. Their moral corruption merited then- 
destruction. The evil deeds of King c Amluk belong to 
the folklore concerning jus primae noctis. Joshua 
fought against them, and the establishment of 
Jewish tribes at Yathrib is said to be an unforeseen 
result of the war of extermination waged on them by 
Jushua's order, but not fully carried out. David also 
made war on them. Reference is also made to an 
Amalekite settlement in the Yamama. Even the 
confused memories of the Palmyrene empire of 
Odenathus and Zenobia have been associated with 
the Amalekites. Noldeke has clearly shown that 
apart from the confused biblical references, there 
is no historical basis to these accounts. 

Bibliography: Ibn Hisham, Sira, (Wusten- 

feld), 5; al-Tidian, Hyderabad, 1 347/1928, 29 ft., 

45 ff.; fabarl, i, 213, 771, "31; Aghdni, iii, 12-3; 

xiii, 109; xix, 94; Mas'udI, Murudj, ii, 293; iii, 91- 

' 104, 270, 273 ff.; Kisal (I. Eisenberg), 102, 144 ff., 

241 ; Tha'labi, c ArdHs al-Madidlis, Cairo 1370/1951, 

62, 82. A useful resume of most of legends in Caussin 

de Perceval, Essai sur Vhistoire des Arabes, Paris 

; 1847, index s.v. Amalica; Th. NSldeke, Uber die 

Amalekiter, Orient und Occident, ii, 614 ff. (printed 

separately at GcSttingen 1864) ; D. Sidersky, Les Ori- 

gines des ligendes musulmanes dans le Coran et dans 

la vie des Prophites, 1933, 51-3; G. Wet, L'Egypte 

■ de Murtadi, Paris 1953, 22-26. (G. Vajda) 

AMAN, safety, protection, safe conduct, quarter; 

musta'min, the person who has received an amdn. The 

term does not occur in the Kur'an; it is derived 

from sura ix, 6 : "If a Polytheist asks you for djiwar 

(see below), give it to him so that he may hear 

Allah's words, then let him go to his place of safety 

(ma'man)" (cf. also sura xvi, 112). In Muhammad's 

letters to the Arab tribes, amdn (or amana) occurs as 

a synonym of ( ahd [q.v.], dhimma [q.v.] and djiwar. 



The institution of amdn continues, in fact, the pre- 
Islamic Arab institution of djiwar by which a 
stranger, who was in principle outlawed outside his 
own group, received for his life and property the 
protection of a member of a group to which he did 
not belong, and therefore the protection of the group 
as a whole (cf. E. Tyan, Institutions du droit public 
musulman, i, 60 ff.). All this goes back to Semitic 
antiquity (cf. the Hebrew ger). Muhammad replaced 
tribal by religious solidarity, and stated in the so- 
called Constitution of Medina (year 1 or 2 A. H.): 
"The dhimma of Allah is one and indivisible, and 
a djiwar given by the lowest (of the Believers) 
engages all" (Ibn Hisham, 342). Similar sayings are 
reported from the Prophet in traditions (cf. Wen- 
sinck, Handbook, s.v. dhimma, djdr). The opening 
passage of sura ix, of which the verse quoted above 
forms part, details the scope of the pacts of security, 
called <-ahd, between the Believers and the Poly- 
theists (cf. Blachere, Le Coran, trad., ii, 1076). The 
relevant letters, whether genuine or not, from the 
Prophet, the first Caliphs and their commanders 
(cf. M. Hamidullah, Documents sur la diplomatic 
musulmane, Paris 1935, with bibliography) are 
almost exclusively concerned with the granting of 
permanent security, which is acquired either by 
conversion to Islam or by political submission to 
the Islamic state (cf. ahl al-dhimma) ; at least one 
reference to safe conducts for foreign travellers exists 
(Ibn Sa<d, i/2, 37), but amdn in its later technical 
meaning was not, as yet, distinguished from the 
general concept of dhimma. This distinction was 
made when the religious law of Islam was elaborated. 
Amdn, in Islamic religious law, is a safe conduct 
or pledge of security by which a harbi or "enemy 
alien", i.e. a non-Muslim belonging to the dar al-harb 
[q.v.], becomes protected by the sanctions of the law 
in his life and property for a limited period. Every free 
Muslim, man or woman, who is of age, and according 
to most doctrines even a slave, is qualified to give 
a valid amdn, either to an individual or to a restricted 
number of harbis. The imam alone is qualified to 
give an amdn to undetermined groups, such as the 
population of a whole city or territory, or to all 
traders. An amdn, properly given, is valid whether 
the fundamental state of war exists between • the 
Muslims and the community to which the harbi in 
question belongs, or whether it has for the time 
being been suspended by treaty or truce. It can be 
given verbally in any language, or by an intelligible 
sign. The musta^min has the right to go, with his 
property, to his "place of safety", where he is not 
exposed to immediate attacks by the Muslims, 
when his amdn expires (or earlier), or at the latest one 
lunar year (according to the Shafi'is: four months) 
after the grant of the amdn, unless he prefers to 
stay in Islamic territory under the status of the ahl 
al-dhimma. Diplomatic envoys who are known or can 
identify themselves as such, automatically enjoy 
amdn; but that is not true of traders or of shipwrecked 
persons. During his stay in Islamic territory, the 
musta'min is, generally speaking, assimilated to the 
dhimmi as far as civil law is concerned; as regards 
criminal law, the doctrine hesitates, with many vari- 
ants on details, between subjecting him to the hadd 
punishments applicable to the dhimmi or making him 
only civilly responsible; in any case, if the musta'min 
acts against the interest of the Muslims or otherwise 
misbehaves, the imam may terminate his amdn and 
deport him to his "place of safety". The corresponding 
safe conduct given by the harbis to a Muslim in then- 
territory, is not called amdn but idhn (permission). 



43<> 



AMAN — AMANAT 



In practice, letters of amdn for individuals are 
attested from the late Umayyad period (104-108/ 
723-726) onwards. The oldest grants of amdn proper, 
given to whole groups for the purpose of travel or 
trade, are contained in the treaties between the 
Muslim administrators of Egypt and the Nubians 
and the Bedja, of 31/651-2 and 104-1 16/722-734 
respectively. Formularies of a later period are found 
in al-Salkashandi, Subh al-AHha, xiii, 321 ff. (sum- 
marized in BjSrkman, Beitrdge zur Geschickte der 
Staatskanzlei im islamischen Agypten, Hamburg 1928, 
170 f.). Al-Kalkashandi mentions, too, the issue of 
letters of amdn by the Muslim political authorities to 
Muslims and gives examples, mostly from the later 
period. These are free pardons issued to rebels, and 
they are, strictly speaking, superfluous or even in- 
compatible with religious law. They were, never- 
theless, issued frequently, and the historians provide 
numerous examples of this kind of amdn, which was 
on occasion unscrupulously broken, from the early 
'Abbasid period onwards. The institution of the 
regular amdn, on the other hand, made not only 
diplomatic relations (cf. M. Canard, Deux episodes 
des relations diplomatiques arabe-byzantines au X' 
stick, in B Et. Or., xiii, 51-69) but trade between the 
Islamic and the Christian world down to the middle 
of the 6th/i2th century possible, and letters of amdn 
were regularly granted to traders and pilgrims. It 
has been suggested that the Islamic doctrine of 
amdn was elaborated, on an old Arabian and Islamic 
basis, under the influence of the corresponding rules 
of Roman Byzantine law. From the end of the 
6th/i2th century onwards, coinciding with the in- 
crease in trade across the Mediterranean, the insti- 
tution of amdn was in practice superseded by state 
treaties between Christian and Islamic powers, 
which gave the strangers more security and rights. 
There are natural similarities in details, even the 
term amdn is sometimes used in the Arabic versions 
of the treaties, and the Muslim scholars, when called 
upon to (jive fatwds on questions arising out of them, 
naturally thought only in terms of amdn (cf. A. S. 
Atiya, An Unpublished XVI* Century Fatwd, in 
Studien zur Geschickte und Kultur des Nahen und 
Fernen Ostens [P. Kahle Festschrift], Leiden 1935, 
55-68). Nevertheless, these treaties, which later gave 
rise to the Capitulations [cf. imtivAz], did not 
develop out of the Islamic concept of amdn, but 
represent a type of treaty which had already come 
into being between the trading cities of Italy and 
the Byzantine Empire and the states of the Crusaders 
(cf. R. Brunschvig, La Berberie orientate sous Us 
Hafsides, i, Paris 1940, 430-40). 

Bibliography: Sources: Abu Yusuf (d. 182), 
A". al- Khar adj. ed. Bulak 1302 and Cairo 1346, 
transl. E. Fagnan, Paris 1921 ; the same, al-Radd 
'■aid Siyar al-Awzd'i (defends the doctrines of Abu 
Hanlfa, d. 150, against those of Awza% d. 157), 
Cairo [1357]; the same work, with the comments 
of Shafi'I, in Shafi'i (d. 204), K. al-Umm, vii, 
Bulak 1325, 303-336; Muhammad b. al- Hasan al- 
Shaybanl (d. 189), K. al-Siyar al-kabir, with comm. 
of Sarakhsi (d. 483), 4 vols., Haydarabad 1335-6; 
Turkish transl. by Muhammad Munib 'AyntabI 
(wrote 1213), 2 vols., Istanbul 1241; Yahya b. 
Adam (d. 203). K. al- Khar adj., Leiden 1986 and 
Cairo 1347; Abu 'Ubayd (d. 224), K. al-Amwal, 
Cairoi353;Tabari(d. 310), Ikhtildf al-Fukahd', ed. 
J. Schacht, Leiden 1933 ; the works of fikh in the 
section on djihdd; Shawkani, Nayl al-Awfdr, viii, 
Cairo 1344, 179-83 (discussion of the various 
traditions and doctrines) . S tudies : W. Heffening, 



Das islamische Fremdenrecht, Hanover 1925 
(supersedes the previous studies, but to be used 
with caution, cf. Bergstrasser, in Isl. xv, 311 ff.; 
contains extracts from Zaydi works); M. Hami- 
dullah, Muslim Conduct of State, revised ed., 
Lahore 1945, 117 ff., 192 f., 200-3; N. Kruse, 
Islamische VOlkerrechtslehre, GSttingen 1953 (not 
seen); M. Khadduri, War and Peace in the Law 
of Islam, Baltimore 1955, 162-169, 225 f., 243 f. 

(J. Schacht) 
AMAN, MlR, (commonly spelt in English Mir 
Amman, an Indian writer, born at Delhi, who- 
was active at the beginning of the 19th century at 
the Fort William College, Calcutta. His fame as a 
graceful writer of Urdu prose rests almost entirely 
on Bdgh o-Bahdr, which is an adaptation of the 
story of the four Dervishes, entitled Kissa Cahdr 
Darwlsh in its Persian original. It was completed in 
1217/1802; and thanks to its plain and perspicuous 
style, has been widely used as a text-book by 
Western students of Urdu, and has in consequence 
been repeatedly printed in India. It has also been 
translated into English by L. F. Smith under the 
title of The Tale of the Four Durwesh, Calcutta 1813. 
Other translations are due to Duncan Forbes, 
Hollings and Eastwick. There is also a French 
translation by Garcin de Tassy: Bag o Behar, Lt 
jardin et le printemps, poeme hindoustani traduite 
en francais, Paris 1878. Another less known work 
of Mir Amman is Gandj-i Khubi, which is a free 
translation into Urdu of Akhlak-i Muhsini, an 
ethical treatise by Husayn Wa'iz Kashifl. The dale 
of its composition is posterior to that of Bagh 
o-Bahdr. He was stimulated to this literary activity 
by the Director of the Fort William College, Dr. 
J. B. Gilchrist (d. 1841). The writings of Mir Aman 
are generally reckoned among those early works 
which have powerfully contributed to the develop- 
ment of a simple, natural and direct style in Urdu 
literature. 

Mir Aman occasionally wrote poetry under the 
poetical name of Lutf; but he did not excel in it and 
his ghazals seem to have been lost. 

Bibliography: Garcin de Tassy, HisUiire de 
la Litterature Hindouie et Hindoustanie', Paris 1870, 
i 208 ; R. B. Saksena, A History of Urdu LiUrature, 
Allahabad 1940, 243-44 ; T. G. Bailey, A History 
of Urdu Literature, Calcutta 1932, 81 ; M. Yahya 
Tanha, Siyar al-Musannifin, Delhi 1924, i, 71-78; 
Sayyid Muhammad, Arbdb-i Nalhr-i Urdu, 
Hyderabad-Deccan, 1937, 37-64; Hamid Hasan 
liadirl, Ddstdn-i Tdrikh-i Urdu, Agra 1941, 88-92; 
J. F. Blumhardt, Catalogue of the Hindi, Punjabi 
and Hindustani MSS in the Library of the British- 
Museum, Hindustani MSS n 



(Sh. 



h) 



AMAN ALLAH [see Afghanistan]. 

AMANAT, the poetical name of Sayyid AohA. 
Hasan (1231-75/1815-58), a poet of Muslim India, 
in whom the artificiality and conventionality if the 
Lucknow school of Urdu poetry reached its culmi- 
nating point. He began by composing marthiyas or 
elegies on the tragic death of Husayn the son of 
C A1I ; but soon turned to the ghflzal. His poetical 
compositions have been preserved in two collections, 
viz., Guldasta-i Amdnat, compiled in 1269/1853, and 
his Diwdn, also known as KhazaHn al-Fasaha, 
collected in 1278 A. H. and published for the first 
time at Lucknow in 1285 A. H. He also wrote two 
wasokhts, the second of which is longer (307 stanzas) 
and of a better literary quality. In the last days of 
his life, he became inordinately fond of composing 



AMANAT — AMASYA 



riddles and enigmas, which seem to have afforded 
him some sort of mental diversion. He is, however, 
chiefly remembered for his Indar Sabhd, a musical 
comedy, completed in 1270/1853 and published the 
next year, along with Shark Indar Sabhd, lithographed 
on the margin. It took the Indian public by storm 
and became the prototype of many similar plays, 
written by various authors in subsequent years. In 
the Shark, he reproduces the whole story and also 
describes the action scene by scene, for those unable 
to see the play on the stage. 

Bibliography: Garcin de Tassy, Histoire de 
la Littirature Hindouie et Hindoustanie, Paris 1870, 
i, 194; ii, 442; R. B. Saksena, A History of Urdu 
Literature, Allahabad 1940, 121, 351; T. G. Bailey, 
A History of Urdu Literature, Calcutta 1932, 67; 
Preface of Diwdn-i Amdnat, ed. Sayyid Hasan 
Latafat, Lucknow; Lala Sri Ram, Khumkhdna-i 
Diawid, Delhi 1908, i 401-404; Abu '1-Laytii 
Siddlkt, Lucknow ha Dabistdn-i Ska 1 "*, Aligarh 
1944, 290 ff. (Sh. Inayatullah) 

AMANUS [see elma dagh]. 
C AMARA (47°i3'E, 3i°5o'N), until 1333/1914 
the capital of the Turkish sandiak of that name in 
southern 'Irak, has been since 1340/1921 the head- 
quarter town of a liwd of the "'Irak kingdom, 
containing also the dependent kadds of 'AH al- 
Gharbl and Kal'a Salih. Pleasantly situated on the 
Tigris left bank thirty miles from the nearest 
Persian hills, and potentially rich from the great 
flood-canals, the abundant crops of rice and dates, 
and the sheep-breeding of its half marshy and half 
com-land territory, 'Amara was founded only in 
1279/1862 as a Turkish military post to control the 
ever warring Banu Lam and Al Bu Muhammad 
tribes. It grew rapidly as a local market and entrepdt, 
as a centre for the civil administration, as a re- 
fuelling station for the river steamers, and as from 
1308/1890 as a headquarters for administering the 
great estates acquired for Sultan 'Abd al-Hamld II. 
The town's main population elements were, and are, 
ShI'I and (fewer) Sunni Muslim Arabs, with com- 
munities of Chaldaean Christians, of resident Lurs 
and Persians, of the "Sabaean" silversmiths, and, 
until 1370/1956, of Jews. Under the British occu- 
pation and Mandate (1334/1915 to 1351/1932) and 
the 'Irak Government the town has expanded and 
acquired modern buildings, communications and 
public services ; but the particularly difficult problems 
presented by this district in tribal administration 
and land-tenure remain largely unsolved. 

Bibliography: For Turkish period, V. Cuinet, 
Le Turquie d'Asie, Paris 1892, iii, 279; S. H. 
Longrigg, Four Centuries of Modern 'Iraq, Oxford 
1925: J. G. Lorimer, Persian Gulf Gazeteer, iii, 
Calcutta 1908. For I4th/20th Century, S. H. 
Longrigg, '■Iraq 1900-1950, London 1953. 

(S. H. Longrigg) 
AMARKOT, town situated 25 22' N and 
69° 71' E, in the Tharparkar district of West 
Pakistan (population in 1951: 5,142, including 1,957 
Muslims), was, according to tradition, founded by a 
branch of the Sumra Radjputs who embraced Islam 
during the reign of 'Ala' al-DIn Khaldji (694/1294- 
716/1316). The Sumras lost the town in 624/1226 to 
the Soda Radjputs, who were expelled in 731/1330 by 
the Sumras. In 843/1439 the Sodas again came into 
power. In 949/1542, Humayun, after his defeat by 
Shir Shah, sought refuge in Amarkot with the Soda 
prince, variously named BIr S51, Prasad or Parsiya. 
Akbar was born in Amarkot on 5 Radjab 949/23 
Nov. 1542. In 999/1590, when 'Abd al-Rahim Khan 



Khanan conquered Sind, Amarkot became part of 
the Mughal Empire, but in 1008/1599 Abu '1-Kasim 
Sultan, an Arghun prince, drove out the Mughal com- 
mander. In 1 149/1736 Nur Muhammad Kalhora, the 
ruler of Sind, expelled the last Soda chief and took 
possession of the town. In 1 152/1739 Nadir Shah, on 
his way back to Persia after the sack of Delhi, forced 
Nur Muhammad into submission. Later one of the 
Kalhoras sold the fort to the chief of Djodhpur from 
whom it was captured by the Talpurs in 1228/1813, 
after which it lost its strategic importance. It passed 
into British possession with the conquest of Sind in 
1843. The old fort in which Akbar was born was 
demolished by Nur Muhammad in 1746, and it was 
he who built the present fort. The birth-place of 
Akbar, about half-a-mile to the north-west of the 
town, is marked by a stone-slab erected in 1898. 
Bibliography: Gazetteer of Sind, B, vi, 34; 
Imp. Gaz. of India, xxiv, n 7-8; Gulbadan Begum, 
Humdyun-ndma, 58; Abu '1-Fadl, Akbar-ndma, 
i, 182; Ta'rikk-i Ma'sUmi, 177; Pjawhar AftabaH, 
Tadhkirat al-Wdki<dt, Urdu tr. Mu'In al-Hakk 
(1955), 74-5; Erskine, Hist, of India under Baber 
and Humayun, ii, 250; 'Ali Sher Kani', Tukfatal- 
Kirdm, iii, 36, 109; Journal of the Sind Hist. 
Society, ii, iv; Goldsmid, Historical Memoir on 
Shiharpur, 17-8; H. T. Sorley, Shah Abdul Latif 
of Bhit, 30, Ta'rikk Rigistdn (in Sindhi), Karachi 
1956, 69 ff.; V. A. Smith, Akbar, 13; J. Tod, 
Annals and Antiquities of Rdjast'hdn*, London 
1914, ii, 253; D. Seton, History of the Color as. 
(A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
al-A'MASH» Abu Muhammad Sulayman b. 
Mihran, traditionist and Kur'an "reader". 
Born in 60/679-680, or 10 Muharram 61/10 October 
681, of a Persian father, he lived at al-KOfa and died 
probably in Rabi' I 148/May 765. He received tradi- 
tions from al-Zuhri and Anas b. Malik, and his 
instructors in kira'a, were: Mudjahid, al-Nakha'I, 
Yahya b. Wathfljab, 'Asim; Hamza was his disciple. 
His "reading", which followed the tradition of Ibn 
Mas'ud and Ubayy, appeared in the list of "the 

A great admirer of 'All, he is supposed to have 
furnished the poet al-Sayyid al-Himyari [q.v.] with 
the material for the eulogies which he composed in 
honour of that Caliph. 

Bibliography: Ibn Kutayba, Ma'drif, Cairo 

I353/I934, 214. 230, 239; Ibn al-Dja/.ari, Kurrd 7 , 

index; al-Nawawi, Tahdhib, 765; Ibn Abi Dawud, 

Masdhif, 91 ; A. Jeffery, Materials, Leiden 1937, 

314 ft.; R. Blachere, Introduction au Cor an, 123, 

127. (C. Brockelmann-[Ch. Pellat]) 

AMASYA, town in northern Anatolia and 

capital of a wildyet. It preserves the name of Amaseia, 

under which it was known in antiquity (for its 

ancient history see Pauly-Wissowa, s.v.; F. Cumont, 

Studia Pontica, ii-iii; A. H. M. Jones, Cities of the 

Eastern Provinces of the Roman Empire, index). In 

712 it was for a short time occupied by the Arabs 

(cf. Brooks, in Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1898, 193). 

In the nth century Amasya came under the 

dominion of the Danishmandids, and was annexed 

with the rest of their territories by the Rum Saldjufc. 

KUIdj Arslan II. At the division of his kingdom 

among his sons (588/1193) Amasya fell to Nizam 

al-DIn Arghun Shah (Ibn BIbl, ed. Houtsma, 5), 

but was seized by his brother Rukn al-Din Sulayman. 

Subsequently it was under Mongol governors, though 

it came for some time into the hands of Tadj al-DIn 

Altlntash, the son of the last Saldjuk sultan, Mas'ud 

II. In 742/1341 it was occupied by Habil-oghlu, and 



AMASYA — AMBALA 



then passed under the rule of Eretna and his succes- 
sors. The amir Hadjdji Shadgeldi seized Amasya 
from 'All Bey Eretna-oghlu (AstarabadI, Bazm u- 
Razm, ioo ff., 137-40). Subsequently strife broke 
out between Shadgeldi and his confederate Malik 
Ahmad on the one side, and Ka<JI Burhan al-Din on 
the other, for the possession of the town (ibidem, 
225, 235 ff.). After Shadgeldi's death, his son Ahmad 
managed, with the help of the Ottoman sultan 
Bayezid I, to hold Amasya against Burhan al-Din; 
finally it fell into the hands of Bayezid. After the 
tatter's capture by TimOr, his son, Mehmed Celebi, 
succeeded in escaping to Amasya, from which town 
he started on his campaign against his brothers. 
Under Ottoman rule Amasya enjoyed the special 
favour of the ruling house. Bayezid II when crown- 
prince was the governor of the town; Sulayman I 
often stayed in it, and received there the Austrian 
ambassador, Busbecq. Amasya, which had been a 
cultural centre already in the Saldjuk period, became 
one of the main seats of learning in Anatolia. In the 
17th century it was described by Ewliya Celebi and 
Katib Celebi. By the end of the 19th century Amasya, 
lying on the Samsun-SIwas-Kharput road, became 
an important centre of transit traffic; the Samsun- 
Siwas railway was completed in 1930. At the end of 
the 19th century the town had 25,000-30,000 inha- 
bitants (some of them Armenians), in 1940 13,732 
<500 non-Turks); the whole wildyet in 1950 had 
163,494 inhabitants. Its economy is based on fruit, 
silk and textiles. 

Amasya is situated on the main arm of the Yeshil 
Irmak (called Tozanll or Tokat Suyu), above the 
confluence of the Tersakan Cay, 400 m. above sea- 
level, in a narrow and rocky gorge, running from 
east to west; the gorge widens above and below the 
town, where its renowned orchards are to be found. 
The mountain on the right, southern, side of the 
river is called Farhad Dagh (local legend makes 
Farhad the founder of Amasya), while that on the 
opposite side contains the tombs of the kings of 
antiquity and the fortress. The most populous 
quarters and the greater part of the old buildings 
are on the southern side, which suffered greatly from 
a fire in 1915. The two sides are joined by five 

The fortress, of Hellenistic origin, was restored in 
the Byzantine, Saldjuk and Ottoman periods and is 
described by Ewliya Celebi; now it is in ruins. In 
the fortress are the ruins of a medrese built by Kara 
Mehmed Agha (890/1485) and of a school added by 
his son Mustafa Pasha (917/1511); also ruins of an 
'imaret, a Khalwetl Ukkiye and two baths. The 
mosque called Burmalt Minare was originally a Sal- 
djuk foundation; the inscription over the gate bears 
the name of Kaykhusraw II and the date 634-44/ 
1237-47, but it was repeatedly restored and is now 
derelict. The same is true of the Gok Medrese, also 
belonging to the Saldjuk period; it was built, 
together with the adjoining tiirbe, by Sayf al-DIn 
Turumtay, governor of Amasya, in 665/1266-7. Of 
the Ottoman mosques, those of Bayezid Pasha 
<8i2/i4i9), of Yurgiic Pasha (834/1430), of Sultan 
Bayezid (891/1486), of Mehmed Pasha (891/1486), 
and the Pazar Djami'i (unknown date) deserve 
mention. There are, furthermore, a lunatic asylum 
(708/1308), the tekkiye of Pir Ilyas (815/1412), the 
medreses of Kapi Aghasi (894/1488) and of Kiiciik 
Agha; the turbes of Khallfet Ghazi (622/1225), of 
Turumtay (677/1278), one attributed to Sultan 
Mas'ud, those of Shadgeldi (783/1381), of „Sheh- 
zade", and of various Ottoman princes: finally the 



ruins of the palace built for some Ottoman princes 

(Beyler Sarayi). The monuments of the town have 

suffered from the earthquakes of 1734, 1825 and 1939, 

Bibliography: Abu '1-Fida' (Reinaud), ii, 

138; Ibn Battuta, ii, 292; Ewliya Celebi, ii, 183 ff.; 

Katib Celebi, Djihdn-numd, 625 f.; W. J. Haton, 

Researches in Asia Minor, London 1842; H. Barth, 

Reise von Trapezunt, i860 ; Ch. Texier, Asie Mineur, 

603 ff.; K. Ritter, Erdkunde, ix/i, 154 ft.; V. 

Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, i, 741 ff. ; F. Taeschner, 

Das anatolische Wegenetz, 199 ft.; Hiiseyin Husa- 

meddin, Amasya tarihi, Istanbul 1330-2, 1927-33; 

A. Gabriel, Monuments turcs d'Anatolie, ii, Paris 

1934; IA, s.v. (by B. Darkot and M. H. Yinanc). 

(Fr. Taeschner) 
AMAZlfiH [see Berbers]. 

AMBALA, town in East Pandjab, India, 
situated 30° 21' N and 76° 52' E, 125 miles from 
Delhi on the way to Sirhind. The town consists of 
the old town and the cantonments, four miles away. 
The population in 195 1 was 146,728. Though the 
neighbourhood of Ambala played an important role 
in early Indian history, the town itself is first 
mentioned in the Safar-ndma-i Kafi Taki Muttahl 
(Bidjnawr 1909, 2 ff.), according to which it was 
occupied by the Muslims at the time of the second 
invasion of India by Mu c izz al-DIn b. Sam in 587/ 
1 192. Iltutmish (608-33/121 1-36) is reported to have 
appointed a kadi here. In 781/1379 FIruz Tughluk 
occupied the town together with Samana and 
Shahabad. Babur camped here on his march to 
Panlpat for the decisive battle of 933/1526. In 956/ 
1545 Ambala was the scene of a severe engagement 
between the NiyazI insurgents from the Pandjab 
and the Pathan troops under Islam Shah Sur. 
During the Mughal period the town was a dependency 
of Sirhind and was a favourite camping ground of the 
Mughal sovereings on their way to Lahore or Kashmir 
(the place of the camp is still known as Badshahi 
Bagh). It was also a centre of cultural activity. Two 
of its learned men ( e Abd al-Kadir and Nur Muham- 
mad) are mentioned in the Maktubdt of Ahmad 
Sirhind! (i, no. 284, ii, nos. 56, 63, 94, iii, no. 317). 
A number of madrasas flourished here in the days 
of Shahdjahan. SSdik Muttalibi, the compiler of the 
Addb-i 'Alamgiri, a collection of Awrangzlb's letters, 
was a native of Ambala. In 1122/1710 the town was 
captured by the Sikhs under Banda Bayragi. During 
the anarchy which followed the rout of the Marathas 
at the hands of Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1175/1761 and 
the decline of the Mughal empire, it was occupied in 
1763 by the Sikh adventurer Sangat Singh. On his 
death it passed into the hands of his brother-in-law, 
Dhiyan Singh, who leased it to Gurbakhsh Singh 
Kabka; on the latter's death in 1 198/1783 his widow, 
Mat Daya Kawr, succeeded him. She was ousted in 
1808 by Randjit Singh, but re-instated by the 
British a year later. On her death in 1823 the town 
passed into the possession of the East India Company. 
During the Mutiny the town remained quiet. In 
it took place in 1864 the "Ambala Trials", as an 
aftermath of the Ambeyla campaign against the 
followers of Ahmad BrelwI. The town is a rail-head, 
an important military and air base, and has a busy 
grain market; it is famous for its „durries", 01 
cotton carpets. It has a mosque of the Pathan period 
and some pillars erected by Shir Shah Sur; also the 
shrines of Haydar Shah Lakhkhl and Sain Tawakkul 
Shah, and the congregational mosque, an imitation 
of the Masdjid al-Aksa, deserve mention. 

Bibliography: Gazetteer of the Ambala District, 
1892-3; Imp. Gaz. of India, 276, 287; Muhammad 



AMBALA — AMGHAR 



433 



Salih Kanboh, "Amal-i Salih (Bibl. Ind.), i, 625, 
iii, 18; <Abd al-Hamid Lahori, Bddshdh-ndma 
(Bibl. Ind.), index; Shams Siradj c Aflf, Ta'rikh-i 
Firuzshahi (Bibl. Ind.), index; Memoirs of Bdbur, 
transl. Leyden and Erskine, 302; Ishwari Prasad, 
The Life and Times of Humayun, Calcutta 1955, 
181, 187; Banarsi Prasad Saksena, History of 
Shahiahan of Dihli, Allahabad 1932, 248; Lepel 
Griffin, Chiefs and Families of Note in the Punjab, 
100; W. L. McGregor, A History of the Sikhs, 
159; S. M. Latif, History of the Punjab, Calcutta 
1891, 328-9, 334, 368 ff.; H. R. Gupta, Later 
Mughal History of the Punjab, Lahore 1944, 297; 
W. Irwine, Later Mughals, i, 98; W. W. Hunter, 
Our Indian Mussulmans', Calcutta 1945, 76. 

(A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
AMBASSADOR [see elci, rasOl]. 
AMBON, the central island of the South 
Moluccas, Indonesia. Nearly one half (ca. 25,000) of 
the population is Muslim, especially in the northern 
part. Already before the arrival of the Portuguese 
(1512 A.D.), Islam had been introduced in Hitu, a 
supply station for the East Javanese spice trade, 
and in some other villages; according to local 
tradition, this was done by chiefs who had traveled 
to East Java, Pasai and Mecca. After the turbulent 
times of the 16th and 17th centuries the Muslims 
have remained a stationary, neglected but prosperous 
community, where the original language and much 
of the old costumes are preserved. 

Bibliography: F. Valentijn, Oud en Nieuw 
Oost-Indiln, Dordrecht 1724, vols, ii, iii; H. 
Kraemer, Mededeelingen over den Islam op Ambon 
en Haroekoe, Djawa 1927, 77-88; F. D. Holleman, 
Het adatgrondenrecht van Ambon en de Oeliassers, 
Delft 1923; Adatrechtbundel, 1922, 60-64; 1925, 
354-37i; 1928, 201-208; 1933, 438-459- 

(J. Noorduyn) 
AMBRA [see c anbar]. 

AMEDDJI (t.), an official of the central 
administration of the Ottoman Empire; before the 
tanzimat, he was directly subordinate to the ReHs 
iil-Kuttdb; he made copies of reports written by 
the latter, and also drafted reports on minor matters ; 
in short, he performed all the clerical duties con- 
nected with the office of Re'ls ul-Kiittdb. Moreover, 
he was present at meetings between the Re'is 
Bfendi and ambassadors, and kept official minutes 
of the proceedings. He, like the Beylikdji, held the 
title of Kh'ddjagdnltk. The name and origin of this 
office derives from the Persian word amad meaning 
"has come, has been obtained", an endorsement on 
documents acknowledging receipt of the dues payable 
to the Re'is iil-Kuttdb by newly installed military 
personnel for their timdrs and zi l amets. The person 
making this endorsement was called the Ameddii, 
and the administrative bureau where the formalities 
connected with these documents were completed, 
Amedi. The terms Amedi Katibi (secretary to the 
Amedi), and Amedi Kalemi (the Amedi department), 
were also used. 

This office seems to have come into being later than 
the 17th century. After the tanzimat, the office of 
Ameddii increased in importance and was also known 
as Amedi-i Diwdn-i Humayun: its function was to 
make copies of the documents sent to the sadaret by 
other ministries and administrative departments 
which required the sanction of the Padishah, after 
resolutions of the Council of Ministers or the Sadr-i 
A'zam; in the case of documents which did not 
require this formality, its duty was to correct them, 
register them and send them to the Head Chamber- 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



lain; and, on the other hand, to register imperia 
decrees communicated to the sadaret. The Ameddii 
supervised the secretaries whose duty it was to keep 
the minutes of the Council of Ministers. He was one 
of the five principal officials of the Sublime Porte; 
this department was more important and more 
distinguished than the other departments of the 
sadaret. After the proclamation of the Second 
Constitution, the name Amedi-i Divan-i Humayun 
was changed to Secretariat of the Council and 
Interpreters' Department, under one official, but 
later (1912) it was restored. — See also my article 
in I. A. (M. Tayyib Gokbilcin) 

AMENOKAL, the current spelling of the Berber 
ammukal, meaning "any political leader not 
subordinate to anyone else" ; it is applied to foreign 
rulers, to highranking European leaders, and to 
the male members of certain noble families; in some 
regions of the Sahara, the title of ammUkal is given 
to the chiefs of small tribal groups, but in the 
Ahaggar [q.v.], it is only conferred on the overlord of 
a confederation of noble or subject tribes. The 
ammukal must Deselected from among the Ihaggaran 
nobles, and his nomination is submitted for approval 
to an assembly of the nobles and the chiefs of the 
subject tribes; political succession is, in principle, 
transmitted, according to rules deriving from the 
matriarchal regime, to the eldest brother of the 
preceding amenukal, to the eldest son of his maternal 
aunt or to the eldest son of his eldest sister, but 
these rules are not always strictly observed. The 
ammukal has as a sign of rank a drum {Ktfebil, see 
Ch. de Foucauld, Diet., iv, 1922-5), and receives 
tribute from subject tribal groups. His principal role 
was that of war leader, but in normal times, he applies 
the criminal law, settles disputes and concerns 
himself with relations with neighbouring tribes; he 
is always assisted by the assembly of notables which 
ratifies his decisions, and can dismiss him. 

Bibliography: Duveyrier, Les Touareg du 
Nord, Paris 1864, 397; Benhazera, Six mots chez 
les Touareg du Ahaggar, Algiers 1908, 107; E. F. 
Gautier, La conquite du Sahara, Paris 1910, 191; 
Seligman, Les races de VAfrique, Paris 1935, 128 ; 
F. Nicolas, Notes sur la sociiti et Vital des Touareg 
du Dinnik, IF AN, i, 586; H. Lhote, Les Touaregs 
du Hoggar, Paris 1944, 154-6; G. Surdon, Institu- 
tions et coutumes berberes du Maghreb 1 , Tangier- 
Fez 1938, 489-92; Ch. de Foucauld, Dictionnaire 
touareg-francais, Paris 1952, 1213-4. 

(Ch. Pellat) 
AMfiHAR, Berber word corresponding to the 
Arabic shaykh [q.v.], and meaning "an elder (by 
virtue of age or authority)". Among the Touareg, it 
applies to chief of a tribal group who acts as an 
intermediary between the aminokal [q.v.] and his 
tribe (see Ch. de Foucauld, Diet, touareg-francais, 
Paris 1952, iii, 1237; H. Lhote, Les Touaregs du 
Hoggar, Paris 1944, 157-8), or even to the chief of a 
confederation (cf. H. Bissuel, Les Touaregs de I'Ouest 
Algiers 1888, 23). In Kabylia (see A. Hanoteau and 
A. Letourneau, La Kabylie et les coutumes kabyles', 
Paris 1893, ii, 9) and among the Imazighsn of 
Morocco (see G. Surdon, Institutions et coutumes 
berberes du Maghreb', Tangier-Fez 1938, 187-90), the 
amghar is both the president elected by the (frama'a 
[q.v.] and its executive agent among the tribe or 
tribal groups which compose it. In the ShlOh group 
in Morocco, the chief elected by the Hama'a has the 
title of mktddfm (mukaddam), and the amghar is 
more particularly the temporal ruler who owes his 
authority to force and not to regular election (R. 



AMGHAR - 



Montagne, La vie social* et politique des Berbires 
Paris 1931, 78 ff., 94 ff.; G. Surdon, op. cit., 307). 
(Ch. Pellat) 

AMID [see diyAr bakr]. 

c AMlD (Ar.) ( title of high officials of the 
Samanid-Ghaznawid administration, which the Sal- 
djukids, the inheritors of their institutions and 
personnel, extended throughout their empire. The 
word, properly speaking, does not denote a function, 
but the rank of the class of officials from whom the 
civil governors, 'amil (as opposed to the military 
governors, salldr, shihna), were recruited; thus Sibf 
Ibn al-DjawzI, Mir'dt al-Zamdn, MS Paris 1503, 
193V: "one of the 'umadd" is appointed governor; 
the same author, supplemented by Ibn al-Athlr, 
enables one to follow with considerable accuracy the 
career of the 'umadd' of Baghdad at the time of 
the Great Saldjuks. Some people continued to be 
known by the title of 'amid after ceasing to be 
governor: for instance the 'A mid- Khurasan Mubam- 
mad b. Mansur al-NasawI, a celebrated personage 
under the rule of the Great Saldjuks ; and (according 
to Ibn Khallikan) the cultured wazir of the Buyids 
Ibn al-'Amld derived his usual name from his 
father's title. 

On the other hand Barthold, Turkestan 229, has 
established that the title 'amid al-mulk was held 
under the Samanids and Ghaznawids by the sahib 
al-barld; this is supported by various passages, also 
in the Dumyat al-Kasr of Bakharzl; it is possible 
that the great wazir of Tughril-Beg, 'Amid al-Mulk 
al-Kundurl, began his career in this way. Their 
former title of 'amid was perhaps also kept by 
wazirs; the famous Djayhanl is perhaps a case in 
point (Ibn Fadlan, ed. Kratphkovsky, 197b). 

Under the Buyids, the word 'amid is found in 
compound titles like 'amid al-dawla, 'amid al-din, 
'amid al-diuyush. 

In the 6th/i2th century the title still sometimes 
occurs, even at Baghdad, but it was becoming a 
rarity at a period when the prerogatives of the civil 
authorities were being curtailed by the military 
governors. It does not occur under the Mongols. 

It does not seem to have spread to other Muslim 
countries, which only possessed lakabs with Hmdd, 

Bibliography: All the Arab and Persian 
chronicles and the collections of letters and poetical 
anthologies of eastern Persia during the pre- 
Saldjukid period and of the Saldjukid empire, and 
Lane. (Cl. Cahen) 

<AMlD al-DIN al-ABZArI al-Ansari, As'ad 
b. Nasr, minister and poet, hailing from Abzar, 
south of Shlraz. He was in the service of Sa'd b. 
Zangi, atabeg of Fars; was sent by his master as an 
ambassador to Muhammad Kh'arizmshah, refused 
the offers which were made to him, succeeded Rukn 
al-DIn Salah KirmanI as minister and held his 
position until the death of Sa'd. Sa c d's son and 
successor, Abu Bakr, had him arrested on the charge 
of having held a correspondence with the ruler of 
Kh w arizm and of having acted as a spy for him. He 
was imprisoned in the fortress of Ushkunwan, near 
Istakhr and died there at the end of five or six 
months (Pjumada I or II 624/April June 1227, 
after having dictated to his son Tadj al-DIn Muham- 
mad an Arabic poem of 11 1 verses (al-kasida al- 
Ushkunwaniyya) in which he deplored his misfort- 
unes and which achieved celebrity as a collection 
of rhetorical figures. 

Bibliography: MIrkh«and, iv, 174 (= W. 

Morley, Hist, of the Atabeks, 28); Kh'andamlr, ii, 



4, 129; Wassaf, 156; Cl. Huart, L'ode arabe 
d'Ochkonwdn, Revue sdmitique, 1893; Brockelmann, 
I, 298, ii, 667, S I, 456. (Cl. Huart) 

al-AMIDI, <AlI b. AbI c Al1 b. Muh. al-TaohlabI 
Sayf al-DIn), Arab theologian, born at Amid 
in 55 1/1 156-7; at first a Hanbalite, he later, at 
Baghdad, entered the ranks of the Shafi'ites; he 
embarked on a study of philosophy which he con- 
tinued in Syria, became a teacher at the madrasa 
of al-Karafa al-Sughra adjoining the mausoleum 
of al-Shafi'I in Cairo, and in 592/1 195-6 became 
professor at the Djami' al-Zafiri. His intellectual 
powers and his knowledge of the "rational scien- 
ces" ('akliyya) gave him a brilliant reputation, 
but caused him to be accused of heresy and to flee to 
Hamat, where he placed himself at the service of the 
Ayyubid sovereign al-Malik al-Mansur (615/1218-9); 
on the death of the latter he was summoned to 
Damascus by al-Malik al-Mu'azzam who conferred 
on him the chair of the madrasa al-'AzIziyya (617 
1220-1); he was dismissed from this post after 
629/1229 by al-Malik al-Ashraf, for having taught 
philosophy. He died at Damascus in Safar 631/ 
November 1233. 

His numerous works relate to theology (Abkdr al- 

Afkdr, in MS, a refutation of philosophers, Mu'ta- 

zilites, Sabeans, Manicheans) ; the sources of the law 

(Ihkdm al-Hukkam /• Us&l al-Ahkdm, dedicated 

to al-Mu'azzam, Cairo 1347, summarized in the 

Muntahd al-Su'ul, Cairo, n.d.) ; the art of controversy 

{al-Diadal, in MS); and philosophy (Daka'ik al- 

HakdHk fi 'l-Mantik, in MS, Kashf al-tamwihdt, in 

MS, dedicated to al-Mansur and aimed at Ibn SIna'). 

Bibliography: Subkl, Jabakdi al-Shdfi'iyya, 

v, 129-30; Ibn Khallikan. Cairo 1948, ii, 455, no. 

405; Ibn AbI Usaybi'a, ii, 174; Ibn al-Kifti, 240-1; 

al-Nu'ayml, al-Ddris, Damascus 1948-51, i, 362, 

389, 393 and ii, 4, 129; Brockelmann, GAL, i, 

393/494, S, i, 678; Mash. 1954, 169-81. 

(D. Sourdel) 
al-'AMIdI, Rukn al-DIn Abu Hamid Muhammad 
b. Muh. al-Samarkandi, Hanafi lawyer, d. on 
9 Djumada II 615/3 Sept. 1218 in Bukhara. His 
chief merit lies in the art of dialectics, which he 
treated in his al-Irshdd and his al-Tarika al-'Am\- 
diyya li'l-Khilif wa'l-Diadal (in MS). 

His name is connected with the translation of 
an Indian work on Yoga, called Amjtakutfda. Of this 
work there exists an Arabic translation, under the 
title of Mir'at al-Ma'ani li-Idrak al-'Alam al;Insani, 
the various MSS of which offer a slightly divergent 
text. It was published on the basis of five MSS 
(which are not all those extant) by Yusuf Husair,, 
in JA, 1928, 291 ff. Persian and Turkish versions 
also exist. (Cf. also M. de Guignes, in Mimoires de 
VAcadimie des Inscriptions etBelles-Lettres, ancienrie 
serie, xxvi, 791; J. Gildemeister, Script, ar. de rebus 
indicts, 115; W. Pertsch, in Festgruss an Roth, 1893, 
208-12). In the preface a story is told of a certain 
Bahucara Brahman Yogi, who came from Kamrup 
(modern Assam) to Lakhnawti under the gover- 
norship of c Ala' al-Din 'AH b. Mardan (ca. 605/1208) 
and was converted to Islam by Rukn al-DIn al- 
Samarkandl; Rukn al-DIn in his turn learned from 
him the practices of the Yoga, and according to the 
version in some of the MSS, translated the book into 
Persian and then into Arabic. The account, which 
is moreover coupled with another, different one, 
does not, however, throw full light on the true 
history of the translation of the work and more 
especially on al- c AmtdI's share in it. 



al-'AMIDI — <AMIL 



435 



Bibliography: Ibn Khallikan. no. 575; Ibn 
Kutlubugha, Tddj al-Tarddjim (Fltigel), 171; 
SafadI, Waft, i, 280; Hadjdji Khalifa, svv. Irshad, 
al-Tarika,Mir>atal-Ma<ani;BTOckelmsLnn, I, 568, 
S I, 785. (S. M. Stern) 

c AMIL (a.) signifies tax-collector, agent, prefect. 
<AMIL (pi. 'ummdl), active, agent. As the 
verbal adjective corresponding to 'amal (see 'amal, 
section 1), 'dmil denotes the Muslim who performs 
the works demanded by his faith, and is often used 
in conjunction with the term 'dlim (pi. l ulama > , 
[q.v.]) as an epithet of pious scholars. As a technical 
term, 'dmil denotes (1) the active partner in a 
society of muddraba [q.v.] or kirdd; (2) the govern- 
ment agent or official, particularly the collector 
of taxes. In this last meaning, it occurs already in 
Kur'Sn, ix, 60, though not yet as a technical term. 
The Prophet appointed representatives among 
the tribes or in the areas under his authority in order 
to collect the sadakdt [see zakat] from Muslims and 
the tribute from non-Muslims; some of them had 
political and military duties (M. Hamidullah, 
Documents sur la diplomatic musulmane, Cairo 1941, 
63, 212; al-Tabari, Annates, i, 1758, 1999-2008; 
KattanI, al-Tardtlb al-Iddriyya, i, 243 ; Abu Yusuf, 
Kharadj, Bulak 1302, 46 f.). The 'dmil of Khaybar 
was sent to receive the Muslims' share of the crop 
(al-Kattanl, i, 245). 

Under the Caliphs of Medina, 'dmil generally 
meant a provincial governor or administrater (al- 
(Tabarl, i, 2665 f., 2933 f., 2936, 2944; Hamidullah, 
224). Among 'Umar's 'ummdl in 'Irak are mentioned 
the governor, the kadi who was also the keeper of the 
provincial treasury, and two assessors of kharadj. 
(AbO Yusuf, 20 f.; al-Baladhuri, Ansdb, v, 29). The 
commander of the fleet in Syria under 'Uthman is 
called 'dmil (al-Tabari, i, 3058). The collectors of 
kharadj and djizya [qq.v] and administrative officers 
in the districts (kura), whose main function was the 
collection of taxes, were also called 'ummdl (al-Tabari, 
'. 3058, 3082-3087; Abu Yusuf, 59). 

In the Umayyad and the early 'Abbasid periods, 
c dmil continued to be used both of the higher and 
the lower ranks in the hierarchy of government 
officials. Under the Umayyads, 'dmil could mean the 
governor of a province or his lieutenant (al-Tabari, 
ii, 1481 ; al-Baladhuri, v, 273 ; al-Kindl, Governors, 63, 
63 f.). When finances were separated from other 
administrative matters, 'dmil tended to be used more 
especially of the director of finances in the capital 
of a province, such as Egypt (al-Kindl, 73"75> 84), 
'Irak (al-Tabari, ii, 1305) or Khurasan (al-Tabari, ii, 
1,256, 1458). These 'ummdl were appointed either by 
the governors or by the Caliph (al-Kindl, 70-75; al- 
Tabari, ii, 1305, 1356). Tax collectors in the districts, 
too, were called 'ummdl, as appears from the papyri 
(A. Grohmann, A rabic Papyri in the Egyptian Library, 
iii, 12 f., 121 ff., 137). 'Umar ii complained of the 
grave injustices committed by the 'ummdl in KQfa 
(al-Tabari, ii, 1366). In Khurasan, these 'ummdl were 
usually non-Muslims (ibid. 1740), in other provinces 
they were recruited both from Muslims and non- 
Muslims (Zaki Hasan, Les Tulunides, 213, 248). 
Occasionally the 'dmil was appointed by the people 
(al-Tabari, ii, 1481 : 'dmil al-hadar). There is a mention 
of an 'dmil ma'una or chief of the local police 
(al-Tabari, iii, 1740). 

Under the early 'Abbasids, 'dmil could still mean 
the governor of a province (al-pjahshiyari, Wuzard'', 
Cairo 1357, 134, 139, 151; al-Baladhuri, v, 402). For 
Egypt, the 'dmil kharadj was usually appointed by 
the central government in Baghdad (al-MakrizI, 



Khitat. i, 15), though full powers were occasionally 
given to the governor (al-Kindl, 120, 125). More 
commonly, however, the term is used of tax collectors 
in the districts; we hear of an 'dmil k&ra (RasdHl 
al-Bulaghd', ed. Kurd c Ali, iii, 403), of 'ummdl al- 
Sawdd [see saw ad] (al-Diahshiyari, 134), of 'ummdl 
kharadj (ibid., 93, 233), of 'ummdl of a governor and 
(al-Kindl, 194, 200; RasdHl al-Bula- 






, 86). 



By the 4th (10th) century, 'dmil had normally 
come to mean a finance officer. The amir of a 
province had beside him an '■dmil (al-Sabi, Wuzard*, 
156), and when the amir and the 'anil worked 
together, their power on the province was practically 
unlimited (Ibn al-Athir, viii, 165 f.). The local 
'ummdl ('dmil kura, 'dmil (assudj, 'dmil nahiya) 
were responsible for encouraging agriculture, for 
keeping irrigation works in order, for collecting 
revenue, and for submitting balance sheets of their 
areas (al-Sabi, 71, 193. 313. 318; Miskawayh, Eclipse, 
i, 27 f., ii, 23; al-Sabi, Letters, ed. Arslan, 211). 
There are also references to 'ummdl appointed for 
specific duties, not all of them purely financial, 
such as the 'dmil ma'dwin, in charge of the police 
(Miskawayh, i, 139; combined with kharadj, ii, 
29), the 'dmil masdlih, in charge of the fortified 
frontier posts (ii, 48), or the 'dmil djahbadha, in 
charge of the financial administration (Kumml, 
Ta'rikh, 149). Occasionally, a chief 'dmil was 
represented at the seat of the central government 
by a ndHb (Miskawayh, i, 324). 

The full development of the system of 'ummdl is 
presupposed by the writers on the constitutional 
law of Islam (al-ahkdm al-sulfdniyya), such as 
al-Mawardi and Abu Ya'la. They distinguish 'ummdl 
(governors) of provinces with full and with limited 
powers, and 'ummdl appointed for specific duties. 
The 'dmil of a province is appointed by the Caliph, 
by the wazir or by the governor, and the governor 
or the 'dmil can appoint 'ummdl for the districts. 

The same system prevailed under the independent 
dynasties, with variations in details. Under the 
Tulunids and Ikhshldids in Egypt, most of the tax 
collectors were Copts (Zaki Hasan, Les Tulunides, 
213, 248; KSshif, The Ikhshidids, 136 f.). Mention is 
made of the 'dmil al-ma'una, the chief of police 
(Ibn al-Daya, al-Mukdfa'a, ed. A. Amin and al- 
Djarim, 70 f.). The 'ummdl of the Fatimids in 
Egypt were supervised by ndzirs and mushrifs 
(al-MakrizI, Itti'dz, 179 ,£**»*, iv, 77 f.). The same is 
true of the 'ummdl of the Ayyubids (Ibn al-Mammatl, 
Kawdnin al-Dawdwin, ed. 'Aziz Suryal 'Atiyya, 303). 
Under the Mamluks, the local 'ummdl or 'ummdl 
al-bildd were landlords of villages or local farmers 
(A. N. Poliak, Feudalism, 45 n. 1, 47 n. 1). For the 
Samanids, see GardizI, Zayn al-Akhbdr, Berlin 1951, 
51; for the Ghaznawids, NizamI 'Arudl, Cahdr 
Makdla, 48; for the Saldjukids, Nizam al-Mulk, 
Siydsat-ndma, 28; Balkhl, Fdrs-ndma, 121; for the 
Ilkhanids, the Djala'irids and the Ak Koyunlu, 
Djuwaynl, Ta'rikh-i Djahdn-gushdy, ii, 33; V. Mi- 
norsky, in BSOAS, ix, 950; A. K. S. Lambton, Land- 
lord and Peasant in Persia, 102 f. ; for the Timurids, 
Kh'andmlr, Dastur, 179 ; for the Safawids, Minorsky, 
Tadhkirat, fol. 75&-7&J, 82a-*; Lambton, 116. 

In Muslim India, 'dmil at first denoted a governor 
in charge of the general administration, then came 
to mean a collector of taxes in a small district 
(Moreland, Agrarian System of India, 270; Lybyer, 
Ottoman Government, 294). 

The Ottomans used 'dmil- of a tax farmer; later, 
the term was little used, except occasionally for a 



436 



C AMIL — AMIN 



subordinate tax collector in the provinces ( Man t ran 
and Sauvaget, Riglements fiscaux ottomans 20). 

Muslim North Africa and Spain continued the 
Umayyad usage, and c dmil meant a governor or 
administrative officer, responsible for general admi- 
nistration and finance. This continued until the end 
of the Umayyad Caliphate (Ibn 'Idhari, al-Baydn 
al-Mughrib, passim; E. Levi- Provencal, Histoire de 
I'Espagne musulmane, i, 92). 

Bibliography: the sources mentioned in the 
text, and Dozy, Supplement, s.v.; A. Mez, Renais- 
sance des I slams; F. Kdpriilu, in I A, s.v. (parti- 
cularly useful for the later period). 

(A. A. Duri) 
C AMIL (a.; pi. 'aummit), derived from l amila 
/» (= to act upon), signifies as a grammatical term 
a regens, or to express it in the way of the Arabic 
grammarians a word, which, by the syntactical 
influence which it exercises on a word that follows, 
causes a grammatical alteration of the last syllable 
of the latter, i. e. a change of case or mood. Two 
kinds of regentia are distinguished, one which can 
be recognized externally (lafti) and one which is 
only to be supposed logically, but which is not 
expressed (ma'nawi). 

The 'amil laf?l again is of two kinds: (1) the 
case where it concerns a whole series of mutually 
dependant words, which can be treated analogously 
according to the same rule (as for example in the 
iddfa construction) ; (2) the case in which each regens 
requires special treatment (e. g. bi, lam) ; these two 
sub-divisions are named 'amil kiydsi and ( dmil 
samdH respectively. It makes no difference whether 
the regens is expressed as in kdma Zayd, or whether 
it must be supplied grammatically from the sentence 
as a form of the verb, as in Zayd fi 'l-dar. Indeed the 
absence of a regens is a very frequent occurrence in 
Arabic grammar (cp. al-Zamakhshari, al-Mufassal, 
index s. v. idmdr l dmil). This case must be 
distinguished from the complete absence of the 
regens in the case of the l dmil ma'nawi, . for in this 
second kind it is impossible to supply the '■amil 
grammatically, although it can be done logically; 
grammarians usually cite as an example the subject 
of the nominal sentence, whose 'amil cannot possibly 
be supplied. 

Bibliography: Sprenger, Did. of techn. terms, 
1045; Djurdjanl, Kitdb al-Ta c rifat (Fliigel), 150; 
<Abd al-Kahir al-Djurdjanl, Kitdb al-'Awdmil 
al-Mi'a (ed. Erpenius). (G. Weil) 

c AMILA, an old tribe in North-Western Arabia. 
The reports concerning their past (al-Tabari, i, 685 ; 
AghdnP, xi, 155) are unworthy of belief. In the later 
geuealogic system the 'Amila are reckoned as 
belonging to the South-Arabian Kahlan [cf. pju- 
dham]. At the time of the Muslim invasion we find 
them settled S. E. of the Dead Sea; they are men- 
tioned among the Syro-Arabian tribes which joined 
Heraclius (al-Baladhuri, 59; al-Tabari, i, 2347); but 
do not appear again in the history of the conquest. 
Shortly afterwards we find them established in Upper 
Galilee, which is named after them Djabal 'Amila 
(al-Ya'kflbl, 327; al-MakdisI, 162; al-Hamdanl, 129, 
132). They play a very unimportant part and are 
almost completely absorbed by the Banu Djudham. 
c AdI b. al-Rika c , the poet of al-Walid I, was then- 
chief pride; he celebrated the Djudhamite Rawh b. 
Zinba', as the sayyid of his tribe (Agjtdni, viii, 179, 
182) ; and thereby gives a further proof of their small 
importance. Ibn Durayd (Ishtikdk, 224-5; cf- l lkd, 
ii, 86) finds few notable men among them ; satire rarely 
deals with them (e. g. IJutay'a, lx). After the 5th/nth 



the c Amila seem to have spread S. of the Lebanon, 
in the present district of Bilad al-Shakif which is 
still called Djabal < Amila (Abu 'l-Fida J , 228; al- 
Dimashkl, 221). 

According to Yakut, iv, 291, they also occupied 
a part of the country of the Isma'ills, a day's journey 
to the S. of Aleppo, which he says was named after 
them 'Amila Mountain. This isolated refereuce (cf. 
JA, 1855, i, 48) is the more surprising in that the 
corresponding text of the Mardsid gives 'Amira 
instead of 'Amila. To avoid the difficulty, G. le 
Strange (Palestine, 75) supposes an emigration 
towards the N. during the crusades, but without 
giving references. The Arabic historians of this 
period are ignorant of this change of place, and 
continue to use the synonymy 'Amila-Djalil (Re- 
cucil des historiens des croisades, Hist, or., ii, 88 
for Khalil read Djaltt; iii, 491, 543). The application 
to the 'Amila of the passage from the Kur'an, 
lxxxviii, 3, by the poet Djarir is only a sneer of the 
Tamimite who was jealous of the favours enjoyed 
by Ibn al-Rika c . The Djabal 'Amil(a) in the Lebanon 
was, and is, an important Shilte centre, and several 
eminent ShI'ite authors bear the nisba al-'AmilL 
[For further details see mutawali.] 

(H. Lammens-[W. Caskel]) 
al-'AMILI, Muhammad b. Husayn Baha' al-DIn, 
with the takhallus of Bahal, born in 953/1547, died 
1030/1621; author of several works in Arabic and 
Persian, on a variety of subjects. Originating from 
Djabal 'Amila in Syria, he migrated to Persia, and 
eventually obtained an honoured place at the court 
of Shah 'Abbas. The best-known of his works is the 
anthology al-Kashkul ("the beggar's bowl"), fre- 
quently printed in the East; he also wrote an expo- 
sition of Shi'ite fikh (in Persian), under the title of 
Djdmi'-i c Abbdsi, and was the author of various 
works on astronomy and mathematics. As a Persian 
poet, he distinguished himself by a mathnawi called 
Nan u-Halwd which, according to Ethe, formed a 
sort of introduction to the Mathnawi of Djalal al-Din 
Ruml. A second mathnawi entitled Shir u-Shakar, is 
less known. 

Bibliography: Muhibbi, Khuldsat al-Athar, 
iii, 440-1; I. Goldziher in SBAK. Wien phti.-hist. 
CI., lxxviii, 458-9; Brockelmann, II, 414 S II, 595; 
Ethe, in the Gr. I. Ph., 301. 
al-'AMILI, al-HURR [see al-hurr al-'AmilI]. 
AMlN, "safe", "secure"; in this and the more 
frequent form dmin (rarely dmmtn, rejected by 
grammarians) it is used like amen and (Syriac) amin 
with Jews and Christians as a confirmation or 
corroboration of prayers, in the meaning "answer 
Thou" or "so be it", see examples in al-Mubarrad, 
al-Kdmil, 577 note 6 ; Ibn al-Djazari, al-Nashr, ii, Cairo 
• 345, 442 f., 447. Its efficacy is enhanced at especially 
pious prayers, e.g. those said at the Ka'ba or those 
said for the welfare of other Muslims, when also the 
angels are said to say amin. Especially it is said 
after sUra i, without being part of the sura. Ac- 
cording to a hadith the prophet learned it from 
Gabriel when he ended that sura, and Bilal asked 
the prophet not to forestall him with it. At the 
saldt the imam says it loudly or, according to others, 
faintly after the fdtiha, and the congregation repeats 
it. It is called God's seal ((aba 1 or khdtam) on the 
believers, because it prevents. evil. 

Bibliography: LA, s.v.; tafsir to sura i by 
Zamakhshari and Baydawl ; Wensinck, Concordance 
et Indices de la tradition Musulmane, s.v.; Gold- 
ziher in RSOI, 1907, 207-9. (J. Pedersen) 



AMlN — AL-AMlN 



AMlN (Ar. pi. utnand), "trustworthy, in whom 
one can place one's trust", whence al-Amin, with the 
article, as an epithet of Muhammad in his youth. As 
a noun, it means "he to whom something is entrusted, 
overseer, administrator": e.g. Amin al-WaJiy, "he 
who is entrusted with the revelation", i.e. the 
angel Gabriel. The word also frequently occurs in 
titles, e.g. Amin al-Dawla (e.g. Ibn al-Tilmidh 
others), Amin al-DIn (e.g. Yakut), Amin al-Mulk, 
Amin al-Saltana. 

In addition to these general and undefined uses 
of the word amin, there are other more technical 
uses, of importance in the history of Muslim insti- 
tutions. Thus amin is used to denote the holders of 
various positions "of trust", particularly those whose 
functions entail econimic or financial responsibility. 
In legal works the word denotes "legal representa- 
tives" ; under the early. 'Abbasids the amin al-hukm 
was the officer in charge of the administration of the 
effects of orphan minors (Tyan, Organisation judici- 
aire, i, 384). In a wider connotation the word applied 
to treasurers, customs officers, stewards of estates 
etc. (see Ibn Mammati, Kawanin al-Dawawin 
(Atiya), ch. 3, regarding Egypt, and for the West, 
Levi-Provencal, Hist, de I'Espagne Musulmane, iii, 
40, 52; Le Tourneau, Fis avant le Protectorat, index, 
and in particular 299 n. 3; etc.). 

The most important technical meaning of the 
word amin is "head of a trade guild". In this sense 
the word often has the plural amindt (Le Tourneau 
loc. tit.). But the use of the word amin in this sense 
seems to have been always limited to the various 
countries of the Muslim west; the east, in pre- 
Ottoman times, preferred in general the term l arif 
[q.v.], and, in modern times, has employed a variety 
of terms. For general information on the heads of 
trade guilds, and for the bibliography, see 'arTf, sinf. 
For the Ottoman period, see emin. (Cl. Cahen) 

al-AMIN, Muhammad, 'Abbasid Caliph, reig- 
ned 193-8/809-13. Born in Shawwal 170'April 787, 
of Harun al-Rashid and Zubayda, niece of al- 
Mansur, he was thus of pure Hashimite stock both 
on his father's and his mother's side; hence he was 
given priority in the order of succession over his 
brother <Abd Allah (the future al-Ma'mun), who was 
born six months before him but of a slave mother. 
In fact, the first bay'a as heir to the throne was 
accorded to him by al-Rashid in 175/792, when he 
was barely five years old, and it was not until 183/799 
that al-Ma'mun was designated second successor. 
The whole question of the double succession was 
settled with due solemnity by al-Rashid in 186/802, 
in the "Meccan documents", designed to eliminate 
all uncertainty and all conflict between the two heirs: 
in the first of these documents, al-Amin acknow- 
ledged al-Ma'mun's right of immediate succession to 
himself, and his virtually absolute sovereignty over 
the eastern half of the empire ; in the second document, 
al-Ma'mun took cognizance of these rights, and 
declared in his turn his loyalty and obedience to his 
brother as caliph, whether or not the latter had 
respected his obligations. The system of obligations 
and counter-obligations by these documents shows 
clearly that al-Rashid recognized the delicacy of the 
situation created by the double nomination and by 
the latent conflict between the two brothers (pro- 
foundly different both in character and interests), 
and tried to preserve a precarious equilibrium 
between them by these juridical and religious 
formulas. 

When al-Rashid died at Tus, on 3 Djumada II 
193/24 March 809, al-Amin was recognized as caliph 



437 

at Baghdad and throughout the empire, while al 
Ma'mun hastened to return to his fief of Khurasan. 
The following year (194/810) al-Amin, by suddenly 
introducing the name of his own son Musa in the 
Friday Prayer after that of al-Ma'mun, took a step 
which, without formally violating the Meccan 
agreement, revealed his intention of setting it aside, 
by placing alongside his brother a later successor 
who suited him better. There followed a brisk 
exchange of diplomatic correspondence between 
the two brothers (supported respectively by the 
wazir al-Fadl b. al-Rabi c , and by the future wazir 
al-Fadl b. Sahl), the text of which has been preserved 
by al-Tabari, and which assumed the form of 
political manoeuvring or a "cold war" between 
Baghdad and Marw preceding the armed conflict. 
Al-Amin tried to entice his brother to Court, to 
persuade him to give up his right to the control of 
several important areas of Khurasan, and to obtain 
his consent to a modification in the order of succes- 
sion. The respectful and prudent, but firm, resistance 
of al-Ma'mun induced him to precipitate matters 
and, at the beginning of 195/end of 810, he formally 
violated the Meccan documents and substituted the 
name of his own son for that of al-Ma'mun (and of 
the third brother al-Kasim, the future al-Mu c tasim), 
as direct heir to the throne. To smash the resistance 
of al-Ma'mun, who was declared a rebel, 'All b. 
'Isa b. MShan was despatched at the head of an 
army, an act which marked the commencement of 
open hostilities between 'Irak and Khurasan (Dju- 
mada II 195/March 811). 

The war was conducted for al-Ma'mun by his 
redoubtable general Tahir b. al-Husayn [q.v.]: in 
the first clash near al-Rayy, the latter defeated and 
killed 'All b. 'Isa, and then c Abd al-Rahman b. 
Djabala al-Abnawi who was sent against him with 
a second army. The whole province of al-Djibal fell 
rapidly into the hands of the Khurasani troops, 
against whom al-Amin vainly flung contingents levied 
from among the Syrian Arabs. The attempt to use 
this Arab element as a weapon against the Persian 
element, which supported al-Ma J mun en bloc, failed 
completely, while in Syria grave disorders occurred, 
and in Baghdad itself, as the result of a coup effected 
by al-Husayn b. c Ali b. c Ts5, al-Amin was tempo- 
rarily declared deposed and al-Ma'mun was recog- 
nized as caliph; but the attempt failed (Radjab 
196/March 812) and al-Amin, restored to the throne, 
had to face the Khurasani armies which were then 
approaching the capital. Baghdad was invested in 
Dhu 'l-Hidjdja 196/August 812 by two corps under 
the command of Harthama b. A'yan and Tahir. 
who had meanwhile completed the conquest of 
Khuzistan; throughout the remainder of the empire 
('Irak, Mesopotamia, Arabia) al-Amin's authority 
waned; he was declared deposed (makhlu'-) and 
replaced by his brother. Despite this, the desperate 
defence of the capital lasted for more than a year, 
during which there grouped themselves around the 
Caliph the most turbulent social elements of the 
metropolis (known as "the naked", c urat), who in 
the course of bloody fighting barred the path of the 
besiegers. The position was not clarified until 
Muharram 198/September 813, when all resistance 
was overcome and al-Amin requested Harthama for 
a safe-conduct. But while he was making his way 
towards that former loyal general of his father, who 
had promised him his life, he was intercepted by 
Tahir's men, who feared that their prey might 
escape, and was captured and put to death (night 
of 24 of 25 Muharram 198/24-5 September 813). It 



il-AMIN — AMIR 



appears that al-Ma'mun was not directly responsible 
for the murder of his brother which, however, was 
not unwelcome to him and which left him de facto 
and de jure the sole ruler of the empire. 

The war between the two brothers has been 
viewed by some as an aspect of the conflict between 
Arabism and Iranism at the beginning of the 
'Abbasid dynasty ; in fact, it was primarily a dynastic 
dispute, although admittedly there were certain 
ethnic factors in the origin of the two rival brothers 
and in the deployment of the forces on which they 
relied for their support; but although Khurasan and 
Persia in general supported the al-Ma'mun bloc, it 
cannot be asserted that al-Amin was the conscious 
champion of Arabism, or that the Arabs were solidly 
behind him. He had the superficiality and indo- 
lence of the hedonist, ignorant of the complexities 
of political intrigue, and was concerned solely to 
secure supreme power for himself and his descend- 
ants; the policy necessary for the achievement 
of this aim, conducted, incidentally, without much 
serious consideration, was less his own work than that 
of his minister and counsellor al-Fadl b. al-RabI c 
[q.v.], who is depicted by the sources as his evil genius 
and who, in the hour of danger, abandoned him 
to his fate in order to secure a pardon for himself 
from the victor. The loyalty and obstinate resistance 
of Baghdad during the siege was not due so much 
to legitimist and dynastic ideals as to the excessive 
liberality of the Caliph and to the belligerent 
instincts of the dregs of the city, who regarded the 
situation as an opportunity for licence and booty. 
Thus al-Amin had no one actually at his side except 
a small group of courtiers and poets, companions 
of his debauches, like Abu Nuwas, who remained 
faithfully at his side until the end and who sincerely 
lamented his death in his elegies. His memory, in 
Muslim historiography, is associated with that of the 
Umayyad Caliphs Yazid I and Walid II, who were 
also libertines and hedonists, but who possessed 
political and artistic abilities altogether lacking in 
the frivolous c Abbasid. During the four years of his 
reign (or three years if the year of the siege is not 
counted), there is no outstanding administrative or 
political measure with the exception of the cold (and 
later hot) war designed to eliminate his brother who, 
far superior in intellect and political acumen, in 
the end justly supplanted him. 

Bibliography: The chief source is Tabarl, Hi, 
603-974 (summarized in Ibn al-Athlr, vi, 152-207); 
other sources are Ya'kubi, ii, 493 ff., 524-38; 
Dinawari, 388-96; Fragmenta Historicorum Arabi- 
corum (de Goeje), 320-344; Ibn al-Tiktaka, 291-97; 
more anecdotal, but valuable for the siege of 
Baghdad, Mas'udi, Murudi, vi, 415-87. Western 
works, apart from general histories of the caliphate, 
include F. Gabrieli, Documenti relativi al calif fato di 
al-Amin in af-Tabari, in Rend. Lin., 1927, 191-220, 
idem, La succession* di Hatun al-Raiid. e la guerra 
fra al-Amin e al-Ma'miln, in RSO, 1928, 341-97. 

(F. Gabrieli) 
AMlNA, a legendary wife of Solomon. He 
one day entrusted to her the ring, on which his 
dominion and his wisdom depended. She gave it 
to a demon who had assumed the form of Solo- 
mon, and it only returned to the king after many 
adventures. 

Bibliography: Griinbaum, Neut Beitrage xur 

semitischen Sagenkunde, 222 ff. 

AMINA, Muhammad's mother. Her father 

was Wahb b. c Abd Manaf of the clan of Zuhra of 

the tribe of Kuraysh, and her mother Barra bint 



c Abd al-'Uzza of the clan of <Abd al-Dar. It is said 
that she was the ward of her uncle Wuhayb b. 
c Abd Manaf, and that on the day he betrothed her 
to c Abd Allah b. c Abd al-Muttalib he also betrothed 
his own daughter Hala to c Abd al-Muttalib (Ibn 
Sa c d, i/i, 58). If this report is correct it may be an 
example of some forgotten marriage-custom. Amina 
seems to have remained with her own family and to 
have been visited there by c Abd Allah, who is 
usually said to have died before Muhammad's birth. 
So long as Amina lived, Muhammad was under her 
charge, and hence presumably lived with her family 
(except when sent to a wet-nurse in a nomadic tribe). 
Amina's death when Muhammad was six is said to 
have taken place at al-Abwa', between Mecca and 
Medina, as she returned from a visit to Muhammad's 
kinsmen there. Though this visit to Medina is 
mysterious, there are no strong reasons for rejecting 
the above details. The same is not true of the 
stories connected with her pregnancy, such as her 
alleged statement that she saw a light going from 
her, which lit up the palaces of Busra (Bostra) in 
Syria. 

Bibliography: Ibn Hisham, 70, 100-2, 107; 

Ibn Sa c d, i/i, 60 f., 73 f.; Tabarl, i, 980, 1078-8 1; 

Caetani, Annali, i, 119 f., 150, 156 f.). 

(W. Montgomery Watt) 

AMlR, commander, governor, prince. The 
term seems to be basically Islamic (Nakald, 7, 964; 
Ibn Durayd, Djamhara, iii, 437. In the Kur'an, only 
the expression ulu 'l-amr is found (sura iv, 59, 83), 
but amir occurs often in traditions (cf. Wensinck, 
Concordance, s.v.). 

The sources for the early period frequently use 
the terms 'amil [q.v.] and amir as synonyms (cf. 
Hamidullah, Documents, 36, 38 and 39, 83). In the 
reports on the meeting of the sakifa, amir is used for 
the head of the Muslim community (Tabarl I, 1840, 
1841 ; Ibn Sa'd, II, 3, 126, 129). During the caliphate 
of Medina, the commanders of armies, and occasi- 
onally of divisions of an army were called amirs (or 
amir al-dfaysh or amir al-dfund), and so were the 
governors who were initially the conquering generals 
(Tabarl, Annates, I, 1881-4, 2013, 2054, 2532, 2593, 
2606, 2634, 2637, 2645, 2662, 2775, 2864, 3057; 
Kindl, governors, 12,13, 3i> 32. 3°°. 302, 303I; 
Hamidullah, 207, 257). 

The Umayyads began to distinguish between 
administrative and financial duties. Yet during most 
of this period, amirs had full powers, administrative 
and financial, and felt that their authority in their 
province was equal to that of the caliph (Tabarl, 
annates, II, 75; Kindl, governors, 35; Mas'fldt, 
Murudi, V, 308-312). The local population in the 
Eastern provinces saw the amir as a Katkhudi 
(Lord) (Tabarl, II, 1636) or Shah (King) (Tabarl, II, 
300). 

The amir organizes the army and appoints 'arifs 
who keep ' he register of their units, maintain 
discipline, distribute pay and report incidents. He 
conducts expeditions personally or through his 
lieutenants, and concludes agreements. He leads 
prayers, builds mosques and sees to the establish- 
ment of Islam in conquered territories. The admini- 
stration of justice is usually in his hands and, with 
a few exceptions, amirs appoint Kadis. The amir 
maintains peace and order through the prefect of 
police (sahib al-shurfa) whom he appoints. He 
usually has a chamberlain (hadjtb) and a bodyguard. 
He appoints a postmaster (sahib al-barid) to report 
on his subordinates and generally on matters of 
interest. Representatives ('dmils or amirs) in 



important sub-provinces are appointed with the 
approval of the Caliph and at times directly by 
him (Tabari, II, 1140, 1501, 1504). 

The amir supervises the mint and strikes silver 
coins, usually with his name on them. Some amirs 
were famous for'their good dirhams. But the type of 
currency, its weights and minting places are at times 
regulated by the caliph. 

The amir with full powers is responsible for 
financial policy. He issues instructions about the 
time and methods of levying taxes, the measures 
used and the amounts required. An amir could 
revise the system of taxation and revise the rates 
of pay of the troops. The amir pays his troops and 
officials, provides funds for public works such as 
the construction and repair of bridges, canals, roads, 
public buildings and fortresses, and sends the 
balance of the revenue to Damascus. 

The powers of the amir are greatly reduced, 
however, when the caliph appoints an 'dmil for the 
kharddi. Ibn al-Habhab, 'arnil of Egypt under 
Hisham, could even have the amir changed (Kindi, 
72, 76; Ibn <Abd al-Hakam, Futuh misr, 178). 

The amir takes the bay'a or oath of allegiance in 
his province for the caliph or to the heir designate. 
He may lead a delegation from his province to 
convey their views to the caliph or to offer their 
homage. He tries to influence public opinion in his 
province through tribal chiefs, poets, qussas, or 
money and threats (Baladhuri, Ansdb, IV/ii, 101, 
1 16-7; Pedersen, in Melanges Goldziher, I, 232). 

When the amir leaves his province or capital, 
he appoints a khalifa to represent him (Kindi, 13, 
35, 49, 62, 65; Tabari, II, 1140). 

Amirs receive salaries and administrative allow- 
ances {'amdla). Some amirs looked for other sources 
pf wealth such as trade, appropriation of part of the 
revenue, speculation on the sale of crops taken in 
taxation, and presents. Some amirs amassed great 
wealth, and the caliphs tried to bring them to 
account; this degenerated to a system of torturous 
investigation at the end of the appointment under 
\he later Umayyads. 

The caliph, especially in difficult times, takes the 
views of the Arabs of the province into consideration 
when appointing an amir (Baladhuri. Futuh, 146; 
Pjahshiyari, 57). A new caliph usually appoints new 
amirs, especially in the later Umayyad period. 

Umayyad administrative traditions were carried 
by the 'Abbasids, but were gradually modified by 
new tendencies. The 'Abbasids created a bureau- 
cracy to replace the tribal aristocracy and stressed 
centralization. 

Amirs were frequently members of the 'Abbasid 
family, but generally they were members of the 
bureaucracy, and whereas they were generally Arabs 
under the Umayyads, many were now Persians and 
(ater Turks. The ashab al-barld now played a pro- 
minent role and were expected to report regularly on 
,the actions of the amir and the affairs of the province. 
The Kadi, too, became practically independent of the 
amir since he was appointed directly by the caliph. 
The amir's term of office is generally short. 

A new official, the sahib al-nazar fi 'l-mazdlim, is 
appointed to consider complaints about injustices 
of the government officials, including the amirs. 

Most amirs in the early c Abbasid period continued 
to be responsible both for civil and financial admi- 
nistration, but soon it become customary to appoint 
a finance officer ( c am«7) together with the amir 
(Kindi, 185, 192, 213). 

The amir was primarily concerned with main- 



taining order and ensuring the collection of taxes. 
Amirs occasionally increased taxes, abolished them 
or exempted people from paying arrears. Local 
discontent with the amir, especially when it lead to 
trouble, was at times investigated and could lead 
to his dismissal (Pjahshiyari, 99-100; Kindi, 192; 
Tabari, III, 716-721). 

New developments took place before the end of 
the first 'Abbasid period. Ma'mun appointed his 
brother Abu Ishak amir of Egypt, but he stayed at 
the capital and sent two representatives, one for 
kharddi an d the other for saldt. Absentee amirs in 
Egypt followed until the rise of the TOlOnids (Kindi, 
185 ff.). 

Another development was the appearance of 
amirs who, appointed by the caliph, were given a 
free hand in their province against payment of 
tribute. Such amirs established dynasties and limited 
their relations with the caliph to receiving his 'ahd 
(decree of appointment), reciting his name in the 
khufba and striking coins in his name. This was the 
case of the Aghlabids and the Tahirids. Others 
shared with the caliph the attributes of sovereignty 
by adding their own names to his in the khufba and 
on gold coins, for instance the Tulumds, the 
Ikhshidids, the Samanids and the Hamdanids. 

We further notice the rise of amirs who conquered 
their territories by force and then sought the 'ahd 
of the caliph, in order to acquire a legitimate basis 
of their authority. Such were the Saffarids and the 
Ghaznawids. These amirs were practically indepen- 
dent. The Buwayhids, amirs by conquest, went even 
further. They conquered Baghdad, usurped all 
authority from the caliph and made him their 
pensioner, appointed wailrs, and interfered with 
the succession to the caliphate. Only the fact that 
the Caliph was still considered the source of all 
political authority by the people prevented the 
Buwayhids from overthrowing the 'Abbasids and 
made them seek the 'ahd from them. 

The Umayyads in Spain called themselves amirs 
until c Abd al- Rah man al-Nasir assumed the title of 
caliph. Their governors and the governors of the 
Fatimids were called not amir but wall. 

Al-Mawardl (d. 422/1631) reflects the full develop- 
ment of the institution. After distinguishing amirs 
with full powers from amirs with limited powers, he 
deals with the amlrate acquired by force {imdrat 
al-istiW) ; he admits this as lawful in order to avoid 
rebellion and division, on condition that the 'ahd 
given requires the amir to follow the shari'a (cf. Gibb 
in Isl. Cult., 1937). 

On the other hand, during the 4tli/ioth and 
5th/nth centuries the traditional bureaucratic 
administration collapsed and was replaced by the 
rule of the military. This influenced the status of 
the amlrate, and under the Saldiuhs, the Ayyubids 
and the Mamluks, the title amir was given to 
military officers of all ranks (also to the smaller 
Saldjuk princes). Ibn Djama'a (d. 733/1333) reflects 
this development when he states that in his days 
amirs were commanders who were given fiefs in 
order to maintain their troops, and that their 
primary duties were military (Isl. Ill, 367). 

Bibliography: the main literary source for the 

ancient period is Tabari, Annales, supplemented by 

the other historians, in particular Baladhuri, Ibn 

<Akd al-Hakam, Kindi MakrizI and Kalkashandt; 

the primary archaeological sources are the coins 

and (for Egypt under the Umayyads) the papyri. 

See also A. A. Durl, al-Nuzum al-isldmiyya, and 

the references given in the text. (A. A. Duri) 



440 



AMIR — C AMIR 



al-AMIR bi-Ahkam AllAh Abu 'Al! al-MansOr, 
the tenth FStimid caliph, b. 13 Muharram 490/ 
31 Dec. 1096. He was proclaimed caliph as a mere 
child of five by 1;he vizier al-Afdal on the death of 
his father al-Musta'li (14 Safar 495/8 Dec. 1101). 
For the next twenty years the government was in 
the hands of al-Afdal [}.».]. In 515/1121 al-Afdal 
was assassinated by Nizari emissaries, but the caliph 
was accused of complicity. Al-Ma 3 mun b. al- 
Batalhl [q.v.'] was made vizier, but was in his turn 
imprisoned on 4 Ramadan 519/1125 (and executed 
three years later). No new vizier was appointed, 
but the Christian chief collector of revenue, Abu 
Nadjah b. Kanna 3 , exercised great influence until 
his arrest and execution in 523/1129-30. 

During al-Afdal's vizierate a certain activity was 
shown against the crusaders and various expeditions 
were undertaken, under the command of Sa'd al- 
Dawla al-Tawashi (495/1101); Sharaf al-Ma'ali, al- 
Afdal's son (496/1102); Tadj al-'Adjam and Ibn 
Kadus (497/1103); Djamal al-Mulk (498/1104); Sana 5 
al-Mulk al-Husayn, another son of al-Afdal (499/ 
1105); and later under that of al-A c azz (505/1112) 
and Mas'fld (506/1113). (The main base in Palestine 
was 'Askalan). Nevertheless, the greater part of 
Palestine and the Syrian coast fell into the hand 
of the crusaders; Tartus, 495/1102; 'Akka, 497/1103; 
Tarablus, 502/1109 [cf. 'Ammarids]; Sayda, 504/ 
mi; Sur, 518/1124). Egypt itself was invaded in 
511/1117 by Baldwin, king of Jerusalem, who took 
Farama and reached Tinnls; he was, however, 
forced to retreat because of his illness and died 

A noteworthy event was the invasion by the 
Luwata in 517/1123, who reached as far as Alexan- 
dria, but were repelled by al-Ma'mun. 

During the reign of al-Ainir the Nizari schism, 
which caused the Fatimids to lose the support of 
the greater part of the Isma'ili "diaspora", threatened 
Egypt itself. Al-Ma'mun had to take police measures 
in order to prevent the infiltration of their agents, 
and a great public demonstration was held in Cairo 
(Shawwal 516/1122) in order to publicize the falsity 
of the Nizari claims and the legality of the Musta'lian 
line. A document issued on this occasion has been 
preserved under the title of al-Hidaya al-Amiriyya 
(ed. A. A. A. Fyzee, Oxford 1938). 

In 524/1130 a heir, named al-Tayyib, was born to 
al-Amir; his fate, however, is shrouded in obscurity. 
On 2 Dhu '1-Ka'da 524/8 Oct. 1130 the caliph was 
assassinated by Nizaris and a period of coups d'Uat 

followed [Cf. AL-AFDAL KUTAYFAT, AL-HAFIZ], 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Muyassar, Akhbdr Misr 
(Mass£), 42-3, 56-74 (some passages which are 
missing in the defective MS are preserved by al- 
Nuwayrl, chapter on the Fatimids) ; Ibn al-Athlr, 
index; Ibn Khallikan. nos. 753, 280 (transl. de 
Slane, iii, 455); Abu '1-Fida 3 (Reiske-Adler), index; 
Ibn Khaldun, </(„„•, i v , 68-71; Ibn Taghribirdi, ii, 
326-91 passim; Ibn Dukmak, Intisar, index; 
MakrizI, Khitaf, i, 468-93, ii, 181, 289 ft.; Suyflti, 
Ifusn al-Muhadara, ii, 16 ff.; H. C. Kay, Yaman, 
its early mediaeval history by Najm al-Din 
'Omdrah al-Hakami, index; RShricht, Gesch. d. 
K&nigreiches Jerusalem, passim; R. Grousset, 
Histoire des Croisades, i, passim (especially 218-84, 
597-618); E. Wustenfeld, Gesch. der Fatimiden- 
Chalifen, 280 ff.; S. Lane-Poole, A hist, of Egypt, 
index; B. Lewis, in History of the Crusades, 
Philadelphia 1956, i, 118-9; S. M. Stem, The 
Epistle of the Fatimid caliph al-Amir (al-Hidaya 
al-Amiriyya, JRAS, 1950, 20-31; idem, The 



succession to the Fdfimid caliph al-Amir, Oriens 
195 1, 193 ff.; and cf. Bibl. to al-afdal, al-ma 3 m0n 
b. AL-BATA'nii. (S. M. Stern) 

'AMIR, the name of a South Arabian tribe 
[see pja'da]. 

BanC c AMIR (Beni Amor), a camel- and cattle- 
owning nomadic tribe, pop. approx. 60,000, in 
Western Eritrea and the adjacent area of the 
Sudan. The tribe is divided into 17 sections, some 
speaking Bedja (a hamitic language) others Tigr6 
(a Semitic one), though there is a firm tradition of 
common descent, traced in considerable detail to 
the ancestor c Amir, some 10 generations ago. Thb 
applies only to the small ruling caste (nabtab), not 
to the heterogeneous and much more numerous serf 
population (called hedareb or tigrl), which seems 
to have come under BanI 'Amir domination at 
different times, either through conquest or voluntary 
submission. A few serf groups are subject only to 
the Paramount Chief, while the large majority live 
in hereditary bondage to particular nabtab families, 
tributary to them and charged with all the menial 
tasks, especially herding and milking. The masters, 
in turn, are bound to protect their serfs and care for 
their welfare. Though tempered by personal loyalties, 
the caste division is kept rigid by the prohibition of 
intermarriage and by certain taboos imposed on the 
serfs. Formerly there was also a class of slaves, who 
were the absolute property of their masters. 

The whole tribe is Muslim, though the purity of 
the belief and adherence to observances vary widely 
not only individually but among the sections. Their 
political unity is a tenuous one, resting on a loose 
federation not infrequently threatened by secession. 
Tribal government is in the hands of a paramount 
chief (digldl) and a council of headmen (sherfaf) 
elected by the different sections. Formerly elective, 
the chief's office became hereditary in 1829, and 
since 1897 separate chiefs, though close kin, have 
been ruling over the Eritrean and Sudanese branches 
of the tribe. 

The relations of the tribe with neighbouring 
groups were, and still are, marked by frequent raids 
and blood feuds. Though internal conflicts were not 
infrequent they never followed class lines. The 
modern political and economic changes, however, 
which seriously weakened nabtab prestige, also 
caused the serfs to show signs of restiveness, visible 
in sporadic acts of lawlessness and 'passive resis- 

Bibliography: C. C. Rossini, Principi di 
Diritto Consuetudinario deW Eritrea, 1916; A. 
Pollera, Le Popolazioni indigene deW Eritrea, 
Bologna 1935 ; Races and Tribes of Eritrea, Asmara 
1943; S. H. Longrigg, Short History of Eritrea, 
Oxford 1945; C. G. and B. Z. Seligman, Note on the 
History and present condition of the Beni Amer, 
Sudan Notes and Records, 1930; S. F. Nadel, 
Notes on Beni Amer Society, ibidem, 1945, 51-94; 
S. Hillelson, Aspects of Mohammedanism in 
Eastern Sudan, JRAS, 1937; J. S. Trimingham, 
Islam in Ethiopia, Oxford 1952, 155-8 and index. 

(S. F. Nadel) 
c AMIR I. (al-Malik al-Zaiir Salah al-Din) foun- 
ded in Yemen the dynasty of the Banu Tahir, 
after the fall of that of the Rasulids about the 
year 855/1451 in conjunction with his brother 'All 
(al-Malik al-Mudjahid Shams al-Din). He lost his 
life during an unsuccessful attempt to capture the 
town of San'S' in 870/1466. 

Bibliography: see the following art. 



'AMIR II — 'AMIR b. sa'sa'a 



441 



'AMIR II. (b. c Abd al-Wahhab, al-Malik al- 
Zsfir Salah al-Din), was the last prince of the house 
of the Banfl Tahir; he ruled in Yemen 894/1488- 
923/1517. Already in 922/1516, the Egyptian admiral 
Husayn occupied the capital of Yemen, Zabid, 
because 'Amir refused to supply the fleet sent out 
against the Portuguese with provisions, Husayn left 
his brother Barsbay behind in the city; and in the 
following year 'Amir, who had taken flight together 
with his brother 'Abd al-Malik, feU in a battle 
with Barsbay. As in the interval the Mamluk dynasty 
had been overthrown by Sellm, the Ottoman Sultan, 
Yemen also fell into the power of the Ottomans. 
Bibliography: Kutb al-Din, in Notices et 

Extraits, iv, 421; C. Th. Johannsen, Historia 

Jemanae, 1828, 186 f., 229 f.; Weil, Gesch. d. 

Chalifen, v, 398 f.; Zambaur 121, O. Lofgren, 

Arab. Texte zur Kenntnis der Stadt Aden, index; 

Khalll Edhem, Diiwel-i Isldmiyye, 133 f. 

'AMIR b. 'ABD al-$AYS (later 'Abd Allah 
al- c ANBARI, tdbiH and ascetic of Basra. His way 
of life attracted the attention of the agent of 'Uth- 
man, Humran b. Aban, who denounced him to the 
Caliph; 'Amir was interrogated by c Abd Allah b. 
c Amir and exiled to Damascus where he died, proba- 
bly during the caliphate of Mu'awiya. His way of 
life seems to have consisted of various kinds of 
abstinence (he despised wealth and women) and 
pious works, and it is possible that the measures 
taken against him were dictated by the desire to 
prevent the advocacy of celibacy at a time when 
Islam needed fighting men; Ibn Kutayba, Ma'drif, 
194, states on the other hand that his puritanism 
led to his being suspected of Kharidjism, even 
though these events happened between 29-35/650-6. 
In the eyes of posterity, 'Amir b. 'Abd al-Kays is 
not only an eloquent man whose sayings have been 
preserved, but Sufism, which includes him among 
the "eight" principal zuhhdd, still recognizes him 
as a forerunner and attributes to him a number of 
miracles. 

Bibliography: Djahiz, Baydn, index; Ibn 

Kutayba, c Uyun, i, 308, ii, 370, iii, 184; Baladhuri, 
, Ansab, v, 57-8; Ibn Sa c d, Tabakdt, vii/i, 73-80; 

Tabari, Ibn al-Athlr, index; Abu Nu'aym, tfilya, 

ii, 87-95, no. 163; Ibn Hadjar, Isdba, no. 6284; 

Massignon, Essai, index ; Pellat, Milieu basrien, 96. 
(Ch. Pellat) 

c AMIR b. $A'$A'A, a large group of tribes 
in Western Central Arabia. It is mentioned first in 
a South Arabian inscription of Abraha in 547 or 
544-45 (G. Ryckmans, No. 506, in Le Musdon, 1953; 
J. Ryckmans, ibid., 339-42; Caskel, Entdeckungen in 
Arabien, 1954, 27-31). Judging by that inscription 
and by the later area of the c Amir, their original 
area began to the west of the Turaba oasis and 
extended towards the east, past Ranya, to the 
upland south of the Riyad-Mecca road. Here it 
ended at about the 44th degree of longitude, but 
,the north-western borderline can not be ascertained. 
From this area the tribe of Kilab (b. Rabi'a b. 
'Amir) advanced to the north and northwest into 
that territory in which the himd Dariyya [?.i>.] was 
later founded, and into the adjacent southern district 
as far as Siyy to the west; the tribe of Ka'b (b. Rabi'a 
b. 'Amir) advanced to the east and northeast into 
the southern Tuwayk. Only the Hilal (b. c Amir) 
never left their territory, Harrat Bani Hilal «= 
Harrat al-Nawasif. Earlier inhabitants of the ffimd, 
such as a part of the Muharib, the Ghani and the 
Numayr (who are counted among the 'Amir in later 
genealogies, cf. however 'Amir b. al-Tufayl, xiii, 1) 



became more or less dependent on the Kilab, whilst 
the Ka'b assimilated the little-known inhabitants 
of the Tuwayk oases, and later on settled there 
themselves, particularly the sub-tribes of Dia'da 
and Harlsh. Of the sub-tribes of the Kilab, the 
Dibab migrated between the centre of the ffi'md 
and their old villages near Turaba, the 'Abd Allah 
along what is today known as 'Ark al-Subay', the 
Abu Bakr migrated from the southern Ifimd in a 
south-easterly direction to Karish = Karsh on the 
Riyad-Mecca road, and the 'Amr from the south- 
eastern IJimd to Damkh, whence both turned to 
the southwest into the above mentioned upland. 
The sub-tribes of Ka'b also migrated between then- 
old and their new areas: the Kushayr north of the 
Wadi Birk (= Birk)-Surra towards the road, the 
'Adjlan went there along that Wadi, the 'Ukayl 
migrated from the Wadi Dawasir-Wadi Ranya 
northwards to the upland, but they also went south 
in the direction of Nadjran. Thus the two areas of 
migration touched along a considerable stretch. 
This fact and also the fact their migrating areas 
were large, explains the remarkable solidarity of 
the Ka'b and the Kilab, while their internal unity, 
as usual, left much to be desired. The Kilab had the 
Ribab and Tamlm as neighbours in the east, the 
Asad in the northeast and tribes of the Ghatafan in 
the north and northwest. There was a latent state 
of war with all these, whilst relationships with the 
Sulaym, and especially the Hawazin, in the south- 
west were amicable. To the south, Kilab and Ka'b 
had a feud with the tribes on the border, especially 
with the Khath'ani, but also with South Arabian 
tribes like the Murad, Suds' and Dju'fi (of Sa'd 
al-'Ashira) which had been bedouinized for some time 
and were pressing towards the north. They did, 
however, live in peace with the Bal-Harith b. Ka'b 
and their satellites Nahd and Djarm in the Nadjran 
region, until that peace was broken by 'Amir b. al- 
Tufayl's marauding expeditions. Noteworthy among 
the "days" of 'Amir are the battle of Shi'b Djabala 
(on the eastern border of the Ifimd), where they repul- 
sed an army of Asad, Dhubyan and Darim-Tamim 
ca. 580). 

The house of Dja'far (rather a family than a 
subtribe before the times of Islam) had some vague 
authority over the Kilab. It held this position 
thanks to a pact with the 'Amr b. 'Amir (b. Rabi'a, 
according to the later genealogy a "brother" of 
the Kilab and Ka'b), without always being a 
match for the Abu Bakr, the strongest Kilab tribe. 

The 'Amir, as Hums [q.v.], were on good terms 
with the inhabitants of Mecca. Nevertheless, the 
relations with the rising community of the Muslims 
in Medina were peaceful, since both were opposed to 
the Ghatafan. These relations were not seriously 
threatened — not even by the incident of Bi'r Ma'una 
— until the prophet demanded not only the political, 
but also the religious, union of the tribes. In 629, a 
gang of marauding Muslims penetrated as far as 
Siyy; soon afterwards, the head of the older line of 
the Dja'far, 'Alkama b. 'Ulatha, embraced Islam. 
'Amir b. al-Tufayl, however, his opponent, remained 
unregenerate. After Muhammad's victory over the 
Hawazin near Hunayn (8/630), the 'Amir effected 
their union without further friction. There was hardly 
any fighting against the 'Amir in the ridda. 

The part played in the wars of conquest by the 
'Amir was not considerable. Yet the 'Ukayl reached 
Spain with the Syrian armies, and the Dja'da and 
Kushayr reached Persia with those of Kufa and 
Basra. Other groups followed after the conquests. 



442 

Some 'Amir settled in Northern Syria and others on 
the far side of the Euphrates. There they settled on 
the land, whilst those on this side of the Euphrates 
slowly reverted to a nomad existence. Here we meet 
of the old units of 'Amir: Kilab, Kushayr, 'Adjlan, 
'Ukayl, as well as Numayr. The Kilab remained on 
the Syrian side. From them sprang the Mirdasid 
[q.v.] dynasty. The Numayr and 'Ukayl, however, 
went over to the Diazlra between 940 and 955. Some 
decades later, their leaders attained political power 
there [cf. numayrids, 'ukaylids]. 

There was little immediate change amongst 
those 'Amir who had stayed in Arabia. Through the 
establishing of the ffima, the existing dissensions 
between the Dja'far on the one side and the DibSb 
and Abu Bakr on the other grew worse, while the 
'Ukayl temporarily occupied areas near BIsha and 
Tathlith which had been left empty after emigration. 
Larger displacements did not occur until after the 
first 'Abbasids. The Kushayr advanced into the 
steppes to the northwest until the Numayr stopped 
them. The Kilab were also concerned, in the Central 
Arabian risings shortly before the middle of the 
9th century (defeated 846). After the annihilation 
of the Numayr (847), the Kilab began to advance 
from the west, and the 'Ukayl from the south, into 
areas which had been swamped by the former for so 
long. The expeditions of the East-Arabian Karma- 
tians started a new wave of migrations : in the east, 
the Khafadja [q.v.]— 'Ukayl and later the Muntafik 
[q.v.], reached 'Irak, the 'Ukayl in the west reached 
Palestine, and the Kilab Transjordania. 

There were no important poets among the KilSb 
before the last quarter of the 6th century (Labld, 
'Amir b. al-Tufayl); among the Ka'b until shortly 
before the hidira (al-Nabigha al-Dja'dl). Of the poets 
of early Islam Tahman must be mentioned among 
the Kilab, Ibn Mukbil al-'Adjlani and Muzahim al- 
'Ukayll among the Ka'b. 

Bibliography: The diwdns of the poets 
mentioned above [cf. articles on each]; NakdHd 
Qjarir wa'l-Farazdak, ed. Bevan, passim; Wakidi, 
transl. Wellhausen, 308; Wellhausen, Skizzen, iv, 
115, 142-6; the Arabic Geographers; Max Freiherr 
von Oppenheim, Die Beduinen, i, 58 f., 222-7, 
281, ii, 174, iii, 12-8, 127-32, 208 ff. [Cf. also 

HILAL, ICUSHAYR, NUMAYR, 'UKAYL.] 

(W. CASKEL) 

'AMIR b. al-TUFAYL, ancient Arab hero 
and poet, sprung from the Malik, the younger line 
of the Dja'far b. Kilab, belonging to 'Amir b. 
Sa'sa'a. In the nineties and past the threshold of the 
7th century he took part in many marauding 
expeditions, sometimes leading his own men. After 
the death of his father, who appears to have fallen 
in the south fighting against the Khath'am, he took 
over the conduct of the war until the loss of an eye 
at the battle of Fayf al-Rih (against the Khath'am. 
ca. 614) rendered him unsuited for this post. In the 
beginning he suffered some setbacks, and he him- 
self lost eight or nine of his relatives. In one battle 
other tribes of the 'Amir b> Sa'sa'a must have 
suffered grievously, for bitter reproaches were made 
to him from their side. The unfortunate result of 
Fayf al-RIh was not his fault; nevertheless the 
Dja'far held him responsible for the loss of men and 
horses. It is possible that this dissension formed the 
basis for the legal contest, or the struggle for prece- 
dence, which brook out a short time after between 
'Amir and the head of the older line, 'Alkama b. 
'Ulatha. Though the arbiter gave no verdict, 'Amu- 
recovered his good reputation through this suit; the 



'AMIR B. SA'SA'A — AMIR 'ALl 



poet al-A'sha seems to have provided essential help 
in accomplishing this. After the death of his uncle 
'Amir Abu Bar5> (ca. 4-5/614-5), he became, formally, 
the head of the Dia'far,. the mightiest Bedouin 
leader of Central Arabia, as before he had been 
the greatest warrior. 

Legend connects 'Amir several times with the 
Prophet and depicts him as his bitterest Bedouin 
opponent. He is supposed to have attacked Muslim 
missionaries treacherously at Bi'r Ma'una and have 
organised a plot to assassinate the Prophet. This is 
true to the extent that he did not submit to the 
sovereignty of Medina and died a heathen, probably 
shortly before the taking of Mecca. The accusation 
of treachery goes back to an exchange of hidi£> 
between the poets of Medina and those of the 
Dia'far (the verses of whom have been lost or 
suppressed). In this 'Amir was accused of occasioning 
the catastrophe of Ma'una by breaking the covenant 
of protection. It is true that there was an engagement 
of protection entered into by his uncle, only that 
'Amir could not fulfil it among the Sulaym, who 
had killed the "holy band", in reality a pillaging 
expedition; cf. Lyall, Diwdns, 84-91. 

The fragmentary impression left by the diwdn of 
'Amir is caused not only by the unsatisfactory 
tradition. 'Amir appears really to have cultivated 
only the small forms of fakhr and hidid'. In the 
case of no. 29 he created a perfect work of art 
through expansion of a framework which also 
occurs elsewhere; no. 11 is moving through its 
humanity, the complaint about the loss of his eye. 
In no. 16 he shows himself, uplifted by a recently 
won victory, equal to the hurtful scorn of al- 
Nabigha. 

Bibliography: The Diwdns of 'Abid Ibn al- 
Abras and 'Amir Ibn a\-Tufail, ed. Sir Charles 
Lyall, 1913; A'sha (Geyer), nos. 18,19; Labid 
(Brockelmann), nos. 45, 51; Mufaddaliyyat 
(Lyall), no. 5; Aghdni', xv, 50-4, 132; Ibn al- 
Athir, i, 482 f., 484 f. ; Ibn 'Abd Rabbih, "-Ikd, iii, 
ay yam, nos. 15, 16; Mufaddaliyyat, 30-4, 704 ff.; 
NakdHd (Bevan), 469-72 and index. (The prose 
texts have no independent historical value and can 
serve only in helping to understand the poems.) 

(W. Caskel) 
AMIR AKJtJOR, in Persian MIr Akhur, "high 
equerry", one of the highest officials in the court 
of Oriental princes. Under the Mamluks the amir 
akhur was the supervisor of the royal stables. He 
was generally an amir of a thousand and had under his 
orders three amirs of fourty. In the Circassian period 
he occupied the fourth place among the grand 
amirs, cf. A. N. Poliak, Feudalism in Egypt, Syria, 
etc., London 1939, 30; D. Ayalon, Studies on the 
Structure of the Mamluk Army, BSOAS, 1954. 63, 68. 
(D. Ayalon) 
AMlR 'ALl, Sayyid (1849-1928), Indian jurist 
and writer, descended from a Shi'ite family which 
had come from Khurasan with Nadir Shah and 
remained in India, finding service with successively 
the Mughal and Awadh courts and finally the East 
India Company. He was educated at the Muhsiniyya 
("Hooghly") College near Calcutta, where he learned 
Arabic and also came into close contact with the 
English and their literature, as well as studying 
their law (see his Memoirs, in IC, 1931-2). He was 
in England in 1869-73, being called to the Bar in 
1873, and settled there permanently with his 
English wife (nee Isabelle Ida Konstam) on retirement 
from the Bengal High Court in 1904. His activities 
were significant in many fields: as a professor of 



AMIR <ALI — AMIR al-HADJDJ 



443 



Islamic Law, at the Bar, on the Bench, in social 
service, government administration, politics, and as 
a writer. Some of his works became, and have 
remained, standard authorities for Anglo-Moham- 
medan Law. In 1883 he became one of the three 
Indian members (and the only Muslim) on the 
Viceroy's Council, and in 1909 he was appointed 
the first Indian member of the Judicial Committee 
of the Privy Council in London. In the field of 
social service he sponsored a juvenile reformatory 
in 'Alipur (Calcutta), and in London he was a 
protagonist in the British Red Crescent Society. 

On the political front he founded in 1877 a 
"National Mahommedan [sic] Association", which 
presently was a nation-wide organization with 34 
branches from Madras to Karachi; its programme 
was "primarily to promote good feeling and fellow- 
ship between the Indian races and creeds, at the 
same time to protect and safeguard Mahommedan 
interests and help their political training" (Memoirs, 
1932, 10). Amir 'All sensed, expressed and fostered 
a nascent political self-consciousness in Indian 
Islam, disagreeing with the then conviction of Sir 
Sayyid Ahmad Khan [see ahmad jchan] as to the 
adequacy of modem (western) education for the 
Indian-Muslim community as a guarantee of its 
position in the country. After moving to England 
he was instrumental in setting up the London 
branch of the Muslim League (speech in IC, 1932, 
335 ff .) ; his loyalty to and real affection for Britain 
led him, however, to resign in 191 3 when the League 
joined with the Indian National Congress in talk of 
"Home Rule." He was involved in negotiations in 
London over the projects for political reforms in 
India. After the First World War he came into 
prominence as London champion of the kh'lafat 
movement; a letter to 'Ismet Pasha signed by him 
and the Agha Khan, being published in Istanbul 
before reaching the government in Ankara, roused 
drastic opposition in Turkey, where the khildfa was 
presently abolished altogether. 

It is, however, as a writer that his basic contri- 
bution was made. While a student at the Inner 
Temple, he wrote in answer to a western account of 
Islam a study of Muhammad's life and message, 
which was published in London (1873). This became 
the basis of a developing work which he subsequently 
kept revising and republishing throughout his life, 
under the eventual title of The Spirit of Islam 
(editions in 1891, 1922, 1953). This liberal modernist 
interpretation of Islam was favourably received and 
has remained influential in the West; its influence in 
the Muslim world, not least outside of India, has also 
been marked, and it has been translated into Turkish. 
His other major book (apart from legal works), A 
Short History of the Saracens (London 1899; 10th 
repr. (revised) 1951 ; also in Urdu transl.), also 
contributed to a new attitude towards the Islamic 
past on the part of many, both western and Muslim. 
These two books, and the other smaller presen- 
tations on Islam which he proferred, were supple- 
mented by a steady stream of articles, both in India 
and especially in Britain (chiefly in the Nineteenth 
Century), in which he pleaded the cause of Islam 
before the bar of world opinion. His historical 
significance lies in considerable part in his role in 
the creation of favourable appreciation of Islam in 
the West, and perhaps also in awakening or facili- 
tating such a favourable appreciation of Islam 
among westernized Muslims. 

Bibliography: In addition to works menti- 
oned in the article; Bibliography of Amir 'All's 



writings, by W. C. Smith, Islamic Review, London ; 

Eminent Mussulmans, Madras c. 1922, 145-76; W. 

C. Smith, Modern Islam in India', London 1947, 

index; H. R. A. Gibb, Modern Trends in Islam, 

Chicago 1947, index. (W. Cantwell Smith) 

AMlR DAD, "amir of justice", minister of 

justice during the Saldjuk rule, especially in Asia 

Minor; other amirs bore this name as a fixed title 

(cf. Ibn al-Athlr, index s.v.). 

AMlR al-HADJDJ, leader of the caravan 
of pilgrims to Mecca. In 9/630, after which date 
non-Muslims were excluded from the hadjdi, the 
Prophet nominated Abu Bakr to conduct the 
pilgrimage and to prevent pagans from taking part 
in it. In 10/631 he presided over it himself. There- 
after this duty belonged directly to the caliphs, who 
either undertook it themselves or nominated an 
official to act in their place (e.g. the Governor of 
Mecca or Medina, a high official etc.). When the 
authority of the Caliph was disputed, there were 
sometimes several rival leaders of pilgrimages to the 
Holy Places (e.g. in 68/688 there were four, of whom 
one was c Abd Allah b. Zubayr). Great importance 
was attached to the function of presiding at the 
ceremonies, which entailed authority over all the 
assembled pilgrims (hadidja bi 'l-nds). When this 
president came from the seat of the caliphate, the 
sources sometimes underlined his role as leader of 
a particular caravan, for example by calling him 
amir al-hddi4i al-'Irdki.Under the shadowy 'Abbasid 
Caliphs of Cairo (after 660/1262) the office became 
secularized and nominations were made by the 
Mamluk sultans. The amir al-hadidi al-Misri, 
usually a commander of a thousand appointed 
annually, claimed pre-eminence at the Holy Places. 
The title of amir al-hadidi was sometimes used for 
the leaders of other caravans (Damascus, 'Irak). 
Each of these had absolute authority over his own 
pilgrims (supply organization, travel arrangements, 
protection of merchants, the sick and the poor, 
police duties, application of Kur'anic penalties). He 
was assisted by a specialized staff, and took any 
measures necessary to avoid attack by Bedouin. 
The Mamluk sultans of Cairo used their amir al- 
hadidi to support their policy of establishing gradual 
control over the Hidjaz, symbolized by the mahmal 
[q.v.], and to distribute gifts or surre [q.v.]. The 
Ottoman sultans did the same after 923/1517, but 
their amir al-hadidi (Cairo, Damascus and, for a 
short period, Yemen), were appointed for a period 
of years until recalled. In Egypt under the Ottomans, 
up to the end of the 18th century, one of the principal 
beys held the post. The discharge of their duties 
necessitated heavy expenditure, a large part of 
which was met by the sultans; but as a result of the 
fact they received many gifts; that the effects of 
those who died on the way without heirs legally 
reverted to them, and that they carried on trade 
on their own account, the holders of this office 
could make a handsome profit. It was a great 
honour to be required to fill the post. Ibn Sa'ud, 
who ruled the Hidjaz from 1924-5, prohibited any 
practice which recalled former Egyptian or Ottoman 
control of the Holy Places. The military escorts and 
the mahmal which formerly accompanied the amir 
al-hadidi could no longer appear in Sa'udi Arabia. 
The amir al-hadidi had now only a diplomatic role, 
andt he ministries of their respective countries dealt 
with the material organization of the pilgrimages. 
In 1954, Egypt abolished the title of amir al-hadidi, 
replacing it by raHs baHhat al-hadidi (Head of the 
Pilgrimage Mission). 



AMIR al-HADJDJ — AMIR KHUSRAW 



Bibliography: J. Jomier, Le Mahmal et la 

caravane Igyptienne des pelerins de La Mecque, 

Cairo 1953 and references quoted. (J. Jomier) 

AMlR HAMZA [see hamza b. c Abd al-Muttal- b]. 

al-AMIR al-KABIR, "great amir", title which 

had originally been granted in the Mamlfik kingdom to 

"all those who had seniority in service and in years" 

Consequently there was a whole group of amirs of 

which every individual was called al-amir al-kabir. 

In the days of Shaykhun al- c Umari (752/1352) the 

title became reserved for the commander-in-chief 

(atdbak al-'dsakir) of the kingdom. From that 

date onward it became the most common title 

of the commander-in-chief beside that of his rank. 

Bibliography : M. van Berchem, CIA.L'Egyp- 

te, 276, 290, 452, 593; Makrizi, Histoire des Sultans 

Mamlouks, transl. Quatremere, i, 3; Poliak and 

Ayalon, as quoted in amir akhur. 

(D. Ayalon) 
AMlR EUAN, 1768-1834, the famous Pathan 
predatory chief and associate of Djaswant Rao 
Holkar, was born at Sambhal in the Muradabad 
district of Rohilkhand. As a young man he and his 
adherents were employed by various zaminddrs and 
Maratha officials as sihbandi troops for the collection 
of the revenues. He rapidly developed into a leader 
of banditti and as such was successively employed 
by the rulers of Bhopal, Indore and Djaypur. In 
1798 he received the title of nawdb from Djaswant 
Rao Holkar. The following year he plundered 
Saugor and the surrounding country. In 1809, in 
combination with the Pindaris, he planned to 
attack Berar but his designs were frustrated by 
Lord Minto's despatch of troops to that area. By 
the year 1817 the strength of his army had increased 
to 8,000 infantry, 20,000 cavalry, and 200 guns. In 
the same year, realizing the strength of the British, 
he concluded a treaty with Lord Hastings, the 
governor-general, by which, provided he disbanded 
his army, he was guaranteed in the possession of 
his territories. He thus became the founder of the 
state of Tonk [q.v.] which, since 1948, has been 
merged into the Union of Radjastan. 

Bibliography: Busawun Lai, Memoirs of the 

Puthan Soldier of Fortune the Nuwab Ameer-ood- 

Dowlah Mohummud Ameer Khan compiled in 

Persian, translated into English by H. T. Prinsep, 

Calcutta 1832; J. Malcolm, A Memoir of Central 

India, London 1823; M. S. Mehta, Lord Hastings 

and the Indian States, Bombay 1930; H. T. 

Prinsep, History of the Political and Military 

Transactions during the Administration of the 

Marquess of Hastings, 1825 ; Treaties, Engagements 

and Sanads (ed. C. U. Aitchison, 1909) Vol. iii, 

No. xcix. (C. Colin Davies) 

AMlR KHUSRAW DihlawI, the great Indo- 

Persian poet, was born in 651/1253 at Patiyali 

in the district of Etah, Uttar Pradesh, India. His 

father, Sayf al-DIn Mahmfid, was a Turk who had 

entered India in the time of Sultan Shams al-DIn 

Iltutmish under whom he took service as an army 

officer. His mother was a daughter of c Imad al- 

Mulk, muster master of the kingdom. Amir 

Khusraw. according to his own statements, early 

showed great promise as a poet. From the age 

of eight when his father died, Amir Khusraw was 

cared for by his maternal grandfather. After the 

latter's death, Amir Khusraw took service with 

c Ala> al-DIn Kishlfi Khan, nephew of Sultan Balban 

and then with Nasir al-DIn Bughra Khan, son 

of the sultan, when he was appointed governor of 

Samana. After accompanying Bughra Khan to 



Bengal, Amir Khusraw returned to Dihli and 
accepted the patronage of the sultan's eldest son, 
Muhammad Ka'an Malik and accompanied him to 
Multan. In 683/1284 Muhammad was killed in 
battle with the Mongols and Amir Khusraw himself 
was captured only to escape soon after. He returned 
to Dihli and attached himself to Malik c Ali SardjandSr 
Hatam Khan and went with him to Oudh when 
Sultan Muizz al-DIn Kaykubid went to meet his 
father Bughra Khan in 686/1287. Hatam Khan was 
appointed governor of Oudh and Amir Khusraw 
remained with him for two years before seeking 
permission to return to Dehll, where he accepted 
the patronage of the Sultan. 

In the reign of Djalal al-DIn KhaldjI 689/1290- 
695/1295, Amir Khusraw was given a royal pension 
of twelve hundred tankahs annually and, according 
to BarnI, was a great favourite of the Sultan. But 
on the murder of Djalal al-DIn KhaldjI the poet 
transferred his allegiance to his assassin c Ala' al-DIn 
Khaljl who confirmed him in his pension but proved 
an exacting patron. C A15 al-DIn Khaldii's reign, 
695/1295 to 715/1315, saw Amir Khusraw's most 
prolific period. Amir Khusraw also enjoyed favour 
under Sultans Kutb al-DIn Mubarak Shah 716/1316- 
720/1320 and Ghiyath al-DIn Tughluk, 720/1320- 
-25/1325- 

During his lifetime, Amir Khusraw became a 
disciple of the Cishtl saint Nizam al-DIn Awliya of 
Ghiyathpur and when the poet died in 725/1325, a 
few months after the accession of Sultan Muhammad 
Tughluk, he was buried at the foot of Nizam al-DIn 
Awliya's grave. 

The following works of Amir Khusraw are extant. 
(1) Five diwans, viz., (a) Tuhfat al-Sighdr, poems 
of adolescence collected about 671/1272; (b) Wasaf 
al-Hayat, poems of middle life collected originally 
about 683/1284; (c) Ghurrat al-Kamdl, poems of 
maturity collected originally about 693/1293; 

(d) Bahiyya Nakiyya, collected about 716/1316; 

(e) Nihayat al-Kamdl, collected about 725/1325. 

(2) The Khatnsa, viz., (a) Matla'- al-Anwar, 
698/1298; (b) Shirin u-Khusraw, 698/1298; (c) AHna- 
i Sikandari, 699/1299; (d) Hasht Bihisht, 701/1301; 
(e) Madinun u-Layld, 698/1298. 

(3) The Ghazalivvat. or lyrical poems. 

(4) The Prose Works, viz., (a) KhazaHn al-Futuh, 
the victories of Sultan C A15 5 al-DIn KhaldjI; (b) Afdal 
al-FawdHd, a collection of the sayings of Nizam 
al-DIn Awliya presented to the saint in 719/1319; 
(c) I'-dx&z-i Khusrawi, completed in 719/1319, speci- 
mens of elegant prose composition. 

(5) The historical poems, viz., (a) Kirdn al-Sa c dayn, 
completed in 688/1289, a mathnawi on the meeting 
of Sultan Mu'izz al-DIn Kaykubad and his father 
Nasir al-Din Bughra Khan on the banks of the 
Sardju in Oudh.; (b) Miftdh al-Futuh, a mathnawi 
on four victories of Djalal al-DIn FIruz KhaldjI, 
completed in 690/1291 and forming part of the 
Ghurrat al-Kamdl. (c) Duwal Rani Khidr Khan or 
'Ashika, a mathnawi completed in 715/1316 on the 
love story of Khidr Khan, son of Sultan c Ala' al-DIn 
KhaldjI, and Devaldi, the daughter of Radja Karn 
of Nahrwala, with a later continuation telling of 
Khidr Khan's estrangement from his father, his 
confinement in the fortress of Gwalior, his blinding 
and eventual murder at the instigation of Malik 
Kaffir; (d) Nuh Sipihr, a mathnawi describing the 
glories of Sultan Kutb al-DIn Mubarak Shah Khaldii's 
time, completed in 718/1218; (e) TugUuk-ndma, a 
mathnawi on the victory of Ghiyath al-DIn Tughluk 
over Khusraw Khan in 720/1320. 



AMIR KHUSRAW — AMlR SILAH 



44* 



Amir Khusraw and the History of his 
Times. The works of Amir Khusraw provide the 
fullest single expression extant of medieval Indo- 
Muslim civilisation. They reveal, as perhaps does 
no other surviving body of Indo-Persian literature 
of the time, the religious, ethical, cultural and 
aesthetic ideas of courtly, educated and wealthy 
Indian Muslims of the 8th/i4th and 9th/i5th centuries. 
Amir Khusraw was not an historian. No more 
in his "historical poems" than in his diwans and 
ghazals does he attempt a critical account of the 
human past. Amir Khusraw wrote to please his 
patrons by appealing to their imaginations, emotions 
and to their vanity as courtly educated Muslims. 
For Amir Khusraw the life of man in history is a 
pageant of stereotyped formal action by god-like 
saltans and great men, who personify Muslim ideals 
of conduct. 

Bibliography: Storey, Section II, Fasciculus 
3.M. History of India, London 1939; Muhammad 
Wahid Mirza, Life and Times of Amir Khusrau, 
Calcutta 1935. (P. Hardy) 

AMlR MAQJLIS, master of audiences or 
ceremonies, one of the highest dignitaries of the 
Saldjuks of Asia Minor (see saldjuk). In the Mamluk 
kingdom the amir madjlis had charge of the physi- 
cians, oculists and the like. The sources do not 
elucidate the connection between the rank of amir 
madjlis and this particular task, which seems to be 
of no special importance. Althc \ the rank of 
amir madjlis was in the early Mamlun. period superior 
to that of amir silah [?.».], neither of them was of 
great significance at that time. In the Circassian 
period the amir madjlis, though inferior to the amir 
silah, was third in importance amongst the highest 
amirs of the kingdom. 

Bibliography: Makrlzl, Histoire des Sultans 
mamlouks (transl. Quatremere), ii/i, 97; M. van 
Berchem, CIA, L'EgypU, 274, 585; M. Gaudefroi- 
Demombynes, La Syrie etc., p. lvii ; L. A. Mayer, 
Saracenic Heraldry, 69, 101 etc.; D. Ayalon, in 
BSOAS, 1954, 59, 69. (D. Ayalon) 

AMlR al-MU'MIN1N, "Commander of the Be- 
lievers" (the translation "Prince of the Believers" 
is neither philologically nor historically correct), 
title adopted by c Umar b. al-Khattab on his election 
as caliph. Amir, as a term designating a person 
invested with command (amr), and more especially 
military command, is in this general sense com- 
pounded with al-mu'minin to designate the leaders 
of various Muslim expeditions both in the lifetime 
of the Prophet and after, e.g. Sa c d b. Abi Wakkas 
[q.v.], the commander of the Muslim army against 
the Persians at Kadisiyya. Its adoption as a title 
by 'Umar may more probably, however, be con- 
nected with the Kur'anic verse "Obey God and 
obey the Apostle and those invested with command 
(uli 'l-amr) among you" (iv, 58/62). From this time 
until the end of the Caliphate as an institution, 
amir al-mu'minin was employed exclusively as the 
protocollary title of a caliph, and among 
the Sunnls its adoption by a ruler implied a claim 
to the office of caliph [see iojalIfa], whether in its 
universal significance (as by the Umayyads, c Abba- 
sids, and the ShI'ite Fatimids) or as implying, 
independent Islamic authority (as by the Umayyads 
in al-Andalus from 316/928 [see 'abd al-ra^man hi], 
the Mu'minids in the Maghrib [see E. L6vi-Provencal, 
Trente-sept lettres officielles almohades, Hesp., 1941, 
1 ff.], and several of the minor dynasties in al- 
Andalus before and after the Muwahhid conquest). 
The Mu'minid caliphate was claimed from 650/1253 



by the Hafsid amirs of Ifrflpya, and was after the 
extinction of the 'Abbasid caliphate at Baghdad in 
656/1258 fleetingly recognized as the universal 
caliphate by the Mamluk sultans of Egypt, until 
their establishment of the new line of 'Abbasid 
caliphs in Cairo [see 'abbasids]. In the Maghrib 
itself the Hafsid claim was contested by the Marlnids 
in Morocco, who also adopted the title of amir al- 
mu'minin in the 8th/i4th century, and were 
followed by all the succeeding dynasties in Morocco. 
By the political jurists the title amir al-mu'minin 
was interpreted in a general sense, without special 
reference to command in the Holy War, except in 
so far as the proclamation of djihad remained a 
prerogative of the caliphate. In other Muslim 
circles, however, especially among the Zaydls (see 
below), its association with active prosecution of 
the djihad still survived. In this sense it was 
occasionally employed by the early Ottoman sultans 
(see H. A. R. Gibb, in Bibl.); but it was never 
formally adopted by their successors as implying a 
claim to the universal caliphate, even after the 
occupation of Egypt by Sallm I in 922/1517. In the 
same sense it was assumed by various leaders of 
Muslim armies in West Africa [see ahmad al- 
SHAYigj and ahmad lobbo], and is still employed 
as the style of their successors in N. Nigeria. 

Among the Shi c a, the Imamls in general limit the 
title to c Ali b. Abi TaUb. exclusively; the Isma'ffis 
apply it to such of the Fatimid caliphs as each sect 
recognizes; while the Zaydls regard it as legimately 
claimed by any c Alid who seeks to establish his 
claim by force of arms (hence its present use by the 
Imams of al-Yaman). Among the Khawarid) the 
title was rarely used, except by the Rustamids [q.v.] 
of Tahart. 

Very occasionally the term is applied in a figurative 
sense to outstanding scholars; e.g. the traditionist 
Shu c ba b. al-Hadjdjadj is described as amir al- 
mu'minin fi 'l-riwaya (Abu Nu'aym, Hilyat al- 
Awliya', vii, 144), and the grammarian Abu Hayyan 
al-Gharnatl as amir al-mu'minin fi 'l-nahw(M.ak- 
kari, Analectes, 826). 

Bibliography: M. van Berchem, Titres cali- 

fiennes d'Occident, J A 1907/i, 245-335; E. Tyan, 

Institutions de Droit public musulman. I. Le Calif at, 

Paris 1954, esp. 198 ff. ; H. A. R. Gibb, Some 

Considerations etc.. Archives a" Histoire et de Droit 

oriental, iii, Wetteren 1948, 401-10. See also general 

works under khalIfa. (H. A. R. Gibb) 

AMlR AL-MUSLIMlN, i.e. lord of the 

Muslims, a title which the Almoravids first 

assumed, in contra-distinction to Amir al-Mu'minin 

[q.v.]. The latter title was born by the independant 

dynasties; the Almoravids, however, recognized the 

supremacy of the c Abbasids and did not wish to 

arrogate to themselves this title of the Caliphs. So 

they established a kind of sub-caliphate with a title 

of their own. Afterwards the African and Spanish 

princes bore either the one or the other of these titles, 

according as they sought after the independent 

caliphate or recognized any supremacy. 

Bibliography : M. van Berchem, Titres calif iens 

d'Occident (Journ. As., series 10, ix, 245-335). 

(A. J. Wensinck) 

AMIRSILAH, grand master of the armour. 

In the Mamluk kingdom he was in charge of the 

armour-bearers (silahddriyya) and supervised the 

arsenal (silahkhana). It was his duty to bear the 

sultan's arms in public ceremonies and to convey 

them to him in battle and other occasions. In the 

early Mamluk period the office of amir silah was not 



446 AMIR SILAl 

very high (cf. amIr madjlis) ; under the Circassians 
it was the second office among the highest amirs 
of the kingdom. The amir sildh had the right of 
sitting as the ra's al-maysara in the sultan's presence. 
Bibliography: L. A. Mayer, Saracenic He- 
raldry, index; D. Ayalon, in BSOAS, 1954, 60, 
68, 69. (D. Ayalon) 

AMIR al-UMARA", chief Emir, commander- 
in-chief of the army. As the name shews this dignity 
was originally confined to the military command. 
But the pretorians continued to become more 
powerful, and already the first bearer of the title, the 
eunuch Munis, soon became the real ruler, for it was 
to him that the weak and incapable Caliph al- 
Muktadir owed his rescue on the occasion of the 
conspiracy on behalf of 'Abd Allah b. al-Mu'tazz 
in 296 (908). After the appointment of Mubammed 
b. Ra>ifc the governor of Wasit in 324 (Nov. 936) 
as Amir al-Umara 5 by the Caliph al-Radl, this des- 
perate ruler could not but hand over to him the 
entire civil authority, and his name was even 
mentioned in the public prayers together with that 
of the Caliph. So the Emirs became in reality virtua 
rulers, while the Caliphs sank more and more to 
mere shadows of their former power. 

This title is very rarely met with in Mamluk 
sources. According to one source it was synonymous 
with baklarbaki, a title given to the atabah al- l asakir. 
It seems, however, that other amirs also bore the 
same title. Cf. D. Ayalon, in BSOAS, 1954, 59- 

In Ottoman usage amir al-umara* and its equi- 
valent mir-i miran are common synonyms for 
beylerbeyi [q.v.]. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Attiir (ed. Tornb.), viii, 

10 et seq.; Weil, Gesch. d. Chalifen, ii, 543 et seq.; 

Miiller, Der Islam im Morgen- und Abendland, i, 

532 et seq.; Muir, The Caliphate, its rise, decline 

and fall (3 rd ed.), 568 ; Defremery, Mimoire relatif 

aux Emirs al Omera. (K. V. Zettersteen *) 

AMlRfiHANIYYA [see mirghAniyya]. 

c AMIRl (not Amlti, as often implied in literature), 

territory of the 'Amir, a sub-tribe of the Dja'da, 

forming one of the "nine cantons" in the Western 

Aden Protectorate, with some 27,000 inhabitants 

(Brit. Agency, 1946). The sultan (amir) resides at 

Pali' (Dhala), a small town on the south-eastern slope 

of Djabal Djihaf, about 10 miles south of Ka'taba 

and the border of Yaman. According to von Maltzan 

the name Shafil was applied not only to the country 

and the capital (Bilad Shafil) but also to the reigning 

sultan, a mamluk of the Zaydl Imams of Yaman 

who had made himself independent and created 

fairly good order in the district. A treaty with the 

British was signed in 1904 and supplemented in 

1944 by an adviser agreement with the Government 

of Aden, which gives instructions to the tribal 

guards of the amir. Pali' has a permanent military 

landing ground for aicraft. A sub-grade school has 

an average of 30 pupils. 

Bibliography: v. Maltzan, Reise, 353 ff. (with 

full details); Abdullah Mansur (Wyman Bury), 

The land of Uz, 1911, 17 ff.; and the references 

given in c alawI. (O. Lofgren) 

'AMIRIDS, the descendants (and clients of al- 

Mansur b. Abl 'Amir [q.v.], in the first place his 

sons 'Abd al-Malik and 'Abd al-Rahman [qq.v.]. c Abd 

al-'AzIz al-Mansur, a son of c Abd al-Rahman, founded 

the dynasty of the 'Amirids in Valencia, where he 

ruled 412-53/1021-61. He was succeeded by his son 

c Abd al-Malik al-Muzaffar [q.v.], 453-7/1061-5. After 

a ten years' interval under al-Ma'mun of Toledo, 

''Abd al-Malik's brother, Abu Bakr b. 'Abd al- c AzIz, 



— al-'AMK 

ruled in Valencia 468-78/1075-85. In this last year 
the city was wrested from Abu Baler's son, the ka4i 
'UUiman b. AW Bakr, and fell into the power of 
al-Kadir, who had been dethroned in Toledo. [For 
further details, see balansiya.] — To the former 
clients of the house belong Muharak and Muzaffar, 
who ruled Valencia for a short time from 401/1010-1 
onwards, and Mudjahid al-'Amiri [q.v.], who became 
the ruler of Denia and the Balearic Islands. 

(C. F. Seybold*) 

al-'AM$, large alluvial plain of northern Syria, 
situated N-E of Antioch and framed in the tectonic 
depression which separates the Elma Dagh, or 
Amanus, from the Kurd Dagh, and which stretches 
as far as the lower spurs of the Taurus. With a mean 
elevation of 260 ft. above sea level, it is largely 
covered by a lake fringed with marshes, called 
Buhayrat Antakiyya ("the lake of Antioch") or 
Buhayrat Yaghri, and in Turkish Ak Deniz; fed 
from the north by the 'Afrin [q.v.] and the Kara Su, 
streams which are violent when in spate, the lake 
discharges its waters in the direction of the Orontes 
which, before receiving this outlet, the Kiicuk 'Ast, 
follows the depression without discharging its waters 
into it; it flows several metres above the depression 
and is separated from it by an alluvial or rocky 
shelf. The marsh, which varies in size with the 
season, lends itself to the raising of buffalo and to 
fishing (eels and silurus; hence the alternative name 
Buhayrat al-Sillawr, which appears in the "Casal 
Sellorie" of the Crusaders), while the perpetually 
flooded areas bordering the marsh are reserved for 
the extensive cultivation of cereals. 

About the 9th century before Christ, Assyrian 
inscriptions point to a kingdom centred on the plain 
of Antioch, the lake -being perhaps of less con- 
sequence than now, named 'Unki; the toponym 
c amk, Semitic in origin and vouched for by the 
Aramaic stele of King Zakir, derives from a common 
noun which still has the meaning in Arabic of 
"depression", or more exactly, according to Ibn 
Khurradadhbih (97), "any prairie surrounded by 
mountains"; this explains the title ( amk TIzIn 
formerly given by historians to this country, as 
distinct from the c amk Mar'ash [q.v.] further north. 

As a corridor region commanding the approaches 
to Antioch, the plain of the 'Amk, under the name 
of Amykes Pedion, was the site of important battles 
in the Hellenistic era. After the Muslim conquest, it 
became part of the disputed zone between the Arabs 
and the Byzantines, to whom it was given by the 
treaty of 359/969. Guarded by various forts which 
cut it off from the Syrian hinterland (Artah, 'Imm, 
Harim, Tizln), it was, like Antioch, momentarily 
reoccupied by the Muslims; the latter had to cede 
it to the Crusaders, and it was only finally recovered 
by Nur al-DIn in 543/1149 after the battle fought 
near Yaghra, a place situated north of the lake where 
the sultan Kayt-bay later camped during his famous 
tour of inspection of the Syrian territories. During 
the Mamluk and Ottoman periods, the 'Amk formed 
part of the province of Aleppo, and was crossed by 
the routes from Antioch to Aleppo (via Djisr al-Hadid, 
south of the lake) and from Antioch to Mar'ash, and 
by the post road Ayas-Baghras-Aleppo, which 
passed to the north of the marsh after crossing the 
Amanus by the Baylan pass [see baghras]. 

The numerous projects under the French mandate, 
designed to increase the value of the plain and to 
drain the lake, all failed to provide a satisfactory 
solution. The return to Turkey in 1939 of the sandjah 
of Alexandretta, which included the 'Amk, deprived 



al-AMK — 'AMMAN 



447 



the plain of its position as a corridor region, which 
was one of the main reasons for the interest displayed 
in it, and explains its present neglected state. 

Bibliography: Baladhurf, Futuh, 161-2, Ta- 
bari, ii, 2016; Ibn al- c AdIm, Zubda (Dahan), ii, 
292; Ibn al-Athir, xi, 89 and Hist. Or. Cr., ii, 164; 
Yakut, i, 316, 514, 516, 727; Abu '1-Fida>, Takwim, 
41-2, 49, 261; Pauly-Wissowa, i, 1996, Suppl. i, 
72; G. Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems-, 
London 1890, 60, 71-2 (wrongly makes a distinction 
between the lake of Antioch and that of Yaghra), 
391; R. Dussaud, Topographic historique de la 
Syrie, Paris 1927, index (particularly 425 and 
435-9); M. Canard, Histoire de la Dynastic des 
H'amdanides de Jaztra et de Syrie, i, Algiers 1951, 
229, 831 ff. ; CI. Cahen, La Syrie du nord d Vlpoque 
desCroisades, Paris 1940, index (particularly 133-8) ; 
M. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, La Syrie a I'ipoque 
des Mamelouks, Paris 1923, 22; Ch. Clermont- 
Ganneau, Rec. Archiol. or., iii, 255; J. Sauvaget, 
La poste aux chevaux, Paris 1941, 96; J. Weulersse, 
L'Oronte, Tours 1940, 77-8o. (D. Sourdf.l) 
ai'AMMA wa'l-KHASSA [see al-kbassa]. 
'AMMAN, capital of the Hashemite Kingdom 
of Jordan. Population (1953) approximately 108, 
304 plus a small floating population, chiefly refugees 
from Palestine of about 30,000. 

The site has been occupied since earliest pre- 
historic times. The Citadel Hill (Djabal al-Kal'a) 
is undoubtedly the site of the ancient city often 
referred to in the Old Testament as Rabbath Ammon, 
"Rabba of Ammon". Of this ancient city little now 
remains save some tombs on the hill sides, and a 
short stretch of Iron Age city wall, perhaps 9th 
or 8th. century B.C. The early Israelites (c. 1300 
B.C.) failed to secure control of either the city or 
the district until the determined assault of David 
in the 1 1 th century B.C. During this attack occurred 
the episode of Uriah the Hittite, whose name was 
still traditionally associated with the site in the 
10th century A.D. (al-Makdisi, 175)- Under Solomon 
'Amman regained its independence. In common with 
the rest of the country it became a vassal of Assyria 
during the 8th. and 7th. centuries B.C., but main- 
tained a precarious independence during the Baby- 
lonian period. When Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-227 
B.C.) conquered the town he renamed it Philadelphia, 
by which name it was known in Roman and Byzan- 
tine times. The Seleucid King Antiochus III captured 
it about 218 B.C. In the first century B.C. 'Amman 
joined the league of the Decapolis, and the Nabateans 
occupied the city for a short time, but were driven 
out by Herod the Great about 30 B.C. From him 
the Romans took over and rebuilt it on the standard 
Roman provincial plan, with theaters, temples, 
Forum, Nymphaeum and a main street with 
columns. Some of these monuments still exist. In 
Byzantine times 'Amman was the seat of the 
Bishopric of Philadelphia and Petra, one of the sees 
of Palestina Tertia under Bosra. This title is still 
held by the Greek Catholic Bishop. (For details of 
ancient history, see Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. Phila- 
delphia.) 

Excavation on the Citadel on the site of the 
present Museum have shown that it was still flour- 
ishing when it was captured by the Arab general 
Yazid b. Abl Sufyan in 14/635, almost immediately 
after the fall of Damascus, and on the Citadel at least 
there were some fine private houses of the Umayyad 
period. These are of some importance archaeologi- 
cally, as only the palaces of the Ommayad Caliphs 
have so far been excavated, and they give us the 



first evidence of how the ordinary man lived in this 
period. There is also a square Ghassanid or Umayyad 
building on the Citadel. 

In common with the rest of Jordan, a decline 
apparently set in with the removal of the Caliphate 
from Damascus to Baghdad. Ibn al Faklh, 105, 
writing in 292/903, mentions 'Amman as belonging 
to Damascus. Al-Makdisi, writing some 80 years later 
(375/985) gives a rather full account of the city as 
it then was (175; quoted by Yakut, iii, 760). Al- 
MakdisI puts the town in the district of Filastln and 
calls it the capital of the Balka' district (156; cf. 
also 180, 184). 

Yakut, iii, 710, in 622/1225 refers to it as the 
city of Dakiyanus or the Emperor Decius, and 
connects the legend of Lot and his daughters with 
'Amman. He still calls it one of the fruitful towns of 
Filastln and capital of the Balka. But al-Dimashki, 
213, writing about 699/1300, assigns it to the King- 
dom of Karak and says that only ruins remain. Abu 
'1-Fida 5 , 247, writing a mere 20 years later says "it 
is very ancient town, and was ruined before the days 
of Islam". 

It is difficult to account for this sudden drop in 
the town's fortunes, for no historical or natural 
catastrophe has been recorded from this period. 
Thereafter writers are silent on the subject of 
'Amman, and when the first western travellers 
started to penetrate east of the Jordan in the early 
19th century, it was no more than a very small 
village. In 1295/1878 a group of Circassians were 
settled there by the Turkish authorities, but it 
remained a mere handful of houses for many more 

The first systematic exploration of the town and 
its environs was that made by Major Conder and 
his party in 1881, when the ruins of the mosque 
with a square minaret, perhaps the one mentioned 
by the al-Makdisi, were still standing. They were 
still there when the much fuller survey of Butler was 
carried out in 1907, but he considers the main wall 
to have been either Roman or Byzantine. Exactly 
when it was destroyed cannot be ascertained pro- 
bably soon after the first World War. 

In 1340/1921 'Abd Allah b. al-Husayn [q.v.] made 
it the capital of Transjordan, and it has grown 
steadily ever since. Its greatest period of prosperity 
came during and immediately after World War II 
since the end of which the city has increased in size 
at least 50%. It is now the capital and administrative 
centre for the Kingdom on both sides of the Jordan, 
and contains the Royal Palace, Houses of Parliament 
and head offices of all the Ministries. Some fine 
Government buildings, including a Museum, and 
Schools have been erected during the last few years, 
but in the early days of its growth many monuments 
of the past have disappeared. 

Bibliography: Baladhurl, 126; Briinow and 
Domaszewski, Provincia Arabia, ii, 216; J. S. 
Buckingham, Travels among Arab Tribes, 68-9; 
H. C. Butler, Publications of the Princetown Uni- 
versity Archaeological Expedition to SyrUi, Div. II, 
Sec. A, Pt. I, 34 ff.; Major Conder, Survry of 
Eastern Palestine, 19 ft.; idem, Heth and Moab, 
152 ff. ; Laborde, Voyage de le Syrie, 1837, 99 ff., 
pi. LXXXII; G. Le Strange, Palestine under the 
Moslems; Letters of Lord Lindsay, ii, 1839, 108 ff.; 
A. S. Marmardji, Buldaniyyat Filasfin al- c Arabiyya, 
1948; S. Merrill, East of Jordan, 1881, 399 '-; 
Puchstein, in Jahrbuch des Kaiserlich Deutschen 
Archdologischen, Instituts, 1902, 108; Sailer and 
Bagatti, Town of Nebo, 225; J. Strzygowski, in 



448 



'AMMAN — 'AMMAR al-MAWSILI 



Jakrbuch der KSniglich Preuszischen Kunstsamm- 
lungen, 1904; W. M. Thomson, The Land and the 
Book, iii; H. B. Tristram, Land of Israel, 535; 
M. van Berchem, in Journal des Savants, 1903, 476 ; 
Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, 
i, 7 it.; Bolletina de Arte, Dec. 1934; Quarterly of 
the Department of Antiquities of Palestina, i, xi, 
xii, xiv; Khayr al-DIn al-Zarakll 'Aman ft 'Am- 
man, Cairo 1925. (G. Lankester Harding) 
AMMAN, MIR [see amAn, mIr]. 
'AMMAR, BanO, a family of kadis who 
governed the principality of Tripoli (in Syria) for 
forty years preceding the capture of the town by 
the Crusaders in 502/1109. 

The first ruler of the family, Amln al-Dawla 
Abu Talib al-Hasan b. 'Ammar, who had been 
ka$i of the town, declared himself independent 
after the death of the Fatimid governor, Mukhtar 
al-Dawla b. Bazzal in 462/1070. He made the town 
an important intellectual centre and founded a rich 

On his death in 464/1072 his two nephews quar- 
reled about the succession. Dialal al-Mulk 'All 
b. Muhammad succeeded in evicting his brother. The 
authority of Dialal al-Mulk must have been con- 
siderable, as he maintained himself for almost 
thirty years. In 473/1081 he took Djabala from the 
Byzantines. He manoeuvred as well as he could 
between the Fatimids and the Saldjukids, as Ibn 
al-KalanisI has pointed out: "The towns on the sea, 
Tyre and Tripoli, were in the hands of their kadis 
who were their independent rulers. Not satisfied 
with renouncing the authority of the amir of the 
armies Badr al-Djamali, they tried to obtain the 
good will of the Turks by diplomacy and presents". 
The last ruler, Fakhr al-Mulk 'Ammar 
(brother of the preceding), succeeded in 49/1099, 
and for some years withstood the attacks of the 
Crusader Raymund of St. Gilles and his successor. 
In 501, however, he decided to leave the town in 
order to seek help against the Franks. The inhabi- 
tants, however, faithful to the Fatimid dynasty, 
called in the Egyptians, but in spite of the great 
efforts made by the Fatimids, their fleet arrived in 
Tyre eight days after the fall of Tripoli. Fakhr 
al-Mulk passed first into the service of the Saldjukids, 
then of the princes of Mosul, and finally that of the 
'Abbasid caliph and died in 5 1 2/1 1 18-9. 

A fragmentary inscription by Dialal al-Mulk is 
extant, in which his name figures alone. One can 
therefore conclude that the Banu 'Animar had 
detached themselves from the Fatimids and that this 
action drove them towards the caliphate of Baghdad ; 
they proceeded, however, with caution, as their 
subjects showed c Alid sympathies. 

Bibliography: M. Sobernheim, Matiriaux 

pour un Corpus inscriptionum arabicarum, Syrie 

du Nord, 39 ff.; Ibn al-KalanisI, Ta'rikh Dimashk, 

arabic text and translations of Gibb and Le 

Tourneau, index; Wiet, Inscription d'un prince de 

Tripoli, Memorial Henri Basset, ii, 279, 84; R. 

Grousset, Histoire des Croisades, iii, 785 ; A History 

of the Crusades, Univ. of Pennsylvania, i, 660. 

(G. Wiet) 

'AMMAR, Banu (or BanO Thabit, dynasty 

which ruled in Tripoli (of the West) 727/1327- 

803/1400. Its founder, Thabit b. 'Ammar, a Huw- 

wara Berber, died after a rule of a few months, and 

was succeeded by his son Muhammad. During 

the reign of Muhammad's son, Thabit, the Genoese 

surprised and plundered Tripoli (756/1355); Thabit 

was killed by the neighbouring Arab chiefs with 



whom he was seeking refuge. In 771/1370 or 772/1371 
Abu Bakr b. Muhammad expelled from Tripoli 
the governor of the Banu Makkl of Kabis (Gabes). 
Abu Bakr died in 792/1392 and was followed by his 
nephew 'All b. 'Ammar. In 800/1397-8 the Hafsid 
Abu Faris succeeded in arresting 'All whom he 
replaced by two members of the same family, Ya 
hya b. Abl Bakr and his brother 'Abd al-Wahid. 
On 6 Radjab 803/31 May 1401 Abu Faris captured 
Tripoli, imprisoned the brothers and brought to 
an end the dominion of the 'Ammarids. 

Bibliography: Ibn Khaldun, Hist, des Berb., 
i, 196 ff.; Munadjdjimbashi, ii, 595; R. Brunschvig, 
La Berberie orientate sous Us Haf sides, i, 1 50, 173, 
191, 205-7, 212-3, ii, 106 (with further references). 

(G. Wiet) 
'AMMAR b. YASIR b. 'Amir b. MAlik, Abu 
'l-Yakzan, a Companion of the Prophet, later 
a partisan of 'AH. His father, a mawla of the Makh- 
zumite Abu Hudhayfa, had married one of his 
master's slaves, Sumayya, who was manumitted, 
but Yasir and his family remained with Abu 
Hudhayfa. They were early converts to Islam, and 
suffered severe tortures. 'Ammar is said eventually 
to have emigrated to Abyssinia; after the hidfra he 
returned to Medina. He took part in the early 
campaigns, and fought at Badr, at Uhud, and, in 
general, in all the battles of Muhammad, who at the 
time of the mu'akhat between the Muhadjirun and 
the Ansar, paired him with Hudhayfa b. al-Yaman. 
Under Abu Bakr, he lost an ear at the battle of 
Yamama; in 21/641 he was made governor of Kufa 
by 'Umar; in this capacity he took part in the 
conquest of Khuzistan. He was from the first a 
partisan of 'All; from 35/656 onwards, 'AH placed 
exceptional confidence in him. Before the Battle of 
the Camel (see al-pjamal), he helped to rally the 
population of Kflfa to 'AH, and he was one of those 
who led the Prophet's widow 'A'isha prisoner to 
Basra. He lost his life at Siffln (37/657) at an 
extremely advanced age. Several centuries later, his 
tomb near Siffln was still pointed out. 

'Ammar was considered to have an excellent 
knowledge of the Traditions of the Prophet, and in 
addition owed his renown to his great piety and to 
his devotion to Islam. Later, writers hostile to the 
Umayyads did not fail to glorify him by inventing 
hadiths in his favour, and by discovering in the 
IJur'an allusions referring to him (ii, 207; iii, 62; 



1, 52, i 



(, 108, 1 



\, 61; x 



notable prophecy attributed to 
Muhammad concerns the death of 'Ammar at the 
hands of the "rebel band", which he condemns to 
Hell. 

'Ammar had a son, Muhammad, also famous for 
his knowledge of hadith, and a daughter, Umm al- 

Bibliography: Ibn Sa'd, iii/i, 176 ff.; Ibn 
Kutayba, ■Ma'-drif, 48, 111-2, 239, 252; Nawawl, 
Tahdhib, 485-7; Ibn Hadjar, Isdba, no. 5704; 
Djahiz, 'Uthmaniyya (ed. by Pellat, in prepara- 
tion), index. (H. Reckendorp *) 
'AMMAR al-MAW§ILI, Abu 'l-KAsim 'AmmAr 
b. 'AlI, one of the most famous, and certainly the 
most original of Arab oculists. He lived first 
in 'Irak, then in Egypt; he travelled widely, as he 
himself informs us in his book, and on his travels, 
which took him to Khurasan in one direction, to 
Palestine and Egypt in the other, he practised his 
profession and performed operations. His work on 
ophthalmology was composed in Egypt, in the reign 
of al-Hakim (996/1020) ; thus he was a contemporary 



'AMMAR al-MAWSILI — AMR 



449 



of the more famous, but less original, oculist c Ali 
b. <Isa [q.v.]. If 'All's Tadhkira became for the 
Arabs the standard work on ophthalmology and 
overshadowed 'Ammar's work, the reason lies in 
the greater completeness of the former. 'AmmJr's 
book has a strictly logical arrangement and is 
extremely succinct, as even the title shows: al- 
Muntakhab ft Hladi aW-Ayn. After a preface con- 
taining an account of its compilation, the book deals 
first with the anatomy of the eye, then with diseases 
of the eyelid, the corner of the eye, the conjunctiva, 
the cornea, the pupil, the albumen, and the visual 
nerves. The descriptions of the diseases and of their 
treatment are in general very clear, and often, 
especially when he describes operations which he 
performed himself, of a dramatic vividness. This is 
more especially the case in the six cases of operation 
for cataract described by 'Ammar; in effect, his 
most significant achievement was the radical opera- 
tion for soft cataract by suction through a hollow 
metal tube invented by him. Salah al-Dln of Hamat 
(end of 7th/i3th century) has borrowed that part of 
'Ammar's book almost verbatim in his Nur al- 
<-Uy*n. At an earlier date al-Ghafiki (6th/i2th 
century) made considerable use of 'Ammar's book 
in his medical work al-Murshid. 

The Arabic original is preserved in MSS of the 
Escurial. There is a Hebrew translation of a slightly 
different version by Nathan ha-Meathi (13th century). 
The Latin tractatus de oculis Canamusali is, however, 
a forgery. German transl. by J. Hirschberg, J. Lip- 
pert and E. Mittwoch, Die arabischen AugenSrzte 
nach den Quellen bearbeitet, Leipzig 1905, ii. 

Bibliography. Ibn AW Usaybi'a, ii, 89; J. 

Hirschberg, etc., op. cit., introduction; Stein- 

schneider, Die hebr. Obersetzungen d. Mittelalters, 

667 ; G. Sarton, Introduction to the Hist, of Science, 

i, 729; Brockelmann, S I, 425. 

(E. Mittwoch*) 

'AMMARIYYA, Algerian religious order 
deriving its name from Ammar Bu Senna, born about 
1712; his tomb is situated at Bu Hammam in the 
province of Constantine, which is also the site of the 
parent foundation (zdwiya) of the order. Actually, 
the order was only founded in 1822 by al-Hadjdj 
Mubarak (Embarek) al-Maghribl al-Bukhart. Ac- 
cording to Depont and Coppolani, Les Confreries 
religieuses musulmanes, Algiers 1897, 356-7, the 
order comprised, at the end of the 19th century, 
s6 zdwiyas and 6,433 adherents. 

'AMMCRIYA, Arabic form of the name of 
the famous stronghold of Amorium (Syriac 
Amurln) in Phrygia, situated on the great Byzantine 
military road from Constantinople to Cilicia, S-E of 
Dorylaeum, S-W of Ankara, and S. of the Upper 
Sangarios (Sakarya). The site of the town for long 
remained unknown. Its ruins were discovered by 
the English traveller Hamilton about 7Vi m. E. of 
Emirdag (formerly 'Azlziyye) near the village of 
Hamza Hacfll and Hisar, at a place which, he said', 
was called by the inhabitants Hergan Kale. The 
name Hergan Kale is unknown to-day, and the ruins 
are called Asar (or, according to Murray's guide 
Asar Kale). The name Hergan Kale was also 
recorded by Texier, and was reproduced along with 
that of Asar Kale on Kiepert's map (scale 1 : 400,000, 
sheet B III Angora). The name Amorium, according 
to Ramsay, survived in the name of the plain which 
stretches to the east : H adjdjl c Umar ( Hacioiner) - owa. 

Amorium, fortified by Zenon (474-91) — al- 
Mas'udl, MurOdi, ii, 331, says that it was built by 
Anastasius (491-518) — was on several occasions 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



threatened, besieged or captured by the Arabs. 
Mu'awiya reached it in 25/646; <Abd al- Rahman 
b. Khalid b. al-Walid forced it to capitulate in 
46/666; it was occupied in 49/669 in the course 
of Yazld's expedition against Constantinople, but 
was retaken by Andreas, the general of Constans. 
In 89/708, Maslama b. c Abd al-Malik defeated a 
Byzantine army before Amorium. In 98/716, at the 
time of Maslama's expedition against Constantinople, 
it was beseiged by one of his lieutenants, and relieved 
by the future emperor Leo the Isaurian. Leo sub- 
sequently made it a formidable stronghold, which 
successfully resisted al-Hasan b. Kahtaba in 162/779, 
in the reign of al-Mahdi, then in 181/797, in the 
reign of Harun al-Rashld. It only fell in 223/838 
to the powerful forces of al-Mu'tasim, whose 
Turkish troops besieged it for twelve days, and who 
finally took it only as the result of treachery. 

The capture of Amorium was the subject of a 
famous poem of Abu Tammam. Forty-two of the 
prisoners taken to Samara were executed there on 
6 March 845. Their martyrdom is celebrated in the 
Acta XLII martyrum Amoriensium. The town 
destroyed by al-Mu'tasim was rebuilt, but was 
again burnt down in 319/931 by Thamal, amir of 
Tarsus. Thereafter it does not seem to have played 
a part in history, although in the 12th and 14th 
centuries it was still an important place, according 
to the geographers al-ldrlsl and Hamd Allah 
Mustawfl. 

Bibliography: W. Hamilton, Researches in 

Asia Minor, Pontus and Armenia, i, 1842, 448 ff.; 

Ch. Texier, Description de I'Asie Mineure, 1849. 

471 ; W. Ramsay, The historical geography of Asia 

Minor, 1890, 230-1; Pauly-Wissowa, 1894, 

p. 1876; Murray's Handbook for travellers in Asia 

Minor, 1895, 16; Le Strange, 137-9, 153; Yakut, 

i. 391. 568, 928; ii, 805, 864; iii, 264, 692, 730; 

iv, 95; v, 25. — For the Arab expeditions, see 

E. Brooks, The Arabs in Asia Minor, 641-750, 

Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1898, 182-208; idem, 

The campaign of 716-18 from Arabic sources, ibid., 

1899, 19-33; idem, Byzantines and Arabs in the 

time of thi Early Abbasids, English Historical 

Review, 1900, 728-47, 1901, 84-92; J. Wellhausen, 

Die Kdmpfe der Araber mit den Romdern in der 

Zeit der Umaididen, NGW Gbtt., Phil.-hist. Klasse 

1901, 414 ft.; A. Vasiliev, Byzance et les Arabes, 

Fr. ed., I, La dynastie d' Amorium 1935, 144-74, 

Arabic trans., al- c Arab wa 'l-Rim, Cairo s.d., 

130-57; Fr. ed., ii, La dynastie macidonienne, 2nd 

part, Extraits des sources arabes 1950, 152, 238; 

Russian ed., 232-3. (M. Canard) 

AMORIUM [see 'ammuriya]. 

AMR, a term which occurs in many verses of 

the Kur'an in the sense of command, viz. of God. 

(A paper by J. M. S. Baljon, The amr of god in the 

Koran, is to appear in Acta Orientatia.) These 

Kur'anic passages formed the point of departure for 

speculations of theologians and philosophers, in 

which the Muslim element is often so contaminated, 

with doctrines of Hellenistic origin, that it loses all 

distinctive character. Nevertheless, the term itself 

does not seem to have an exact parallel in the 

relevant Greek terminology, so that it seems that 

the various theological notions about the divine 

command were originally conceived by Muslims. 

This conclusion supports the hypothesis according 
to which the longer version of the Theology of 
Aristotle, the one which forms the basis of theXatin 
translation and of which the Arabic original has 
been discovered by Borisov, was elaborated in a 



450 



AMR — 'AMR b 



Muslim environment. In effect, there are in that 
version passages dealing with the theory of the amr. 
On the other hand, the fact that the doctrine as 
it appears in that version seems to be identical with 
the teaching of certain Isma'ili .theologians, is 
suggestive: it is very probable that the Isma'ili 
authors and the author of the longer version of the 
Theology used a common source, which cannot, 
however, be identified. 

According to the longer version of the Theology, 
the amr is one of the designations of the word 
(lialima) of God, also called His will, which is an 
intermediary between the Creator and the first 
intelligence and the immediate cause of the latter. 
In a certain sense it can be qualified as the cause of 
causes. It also can be called "nothing" (laysa), as 
it transcends movement and rest. Intellect, which 
is the first created thing, is so intimately united with 
the word that it is identical with it. 

This theory recurs in an identical, or almost 
identical, form among the Isma'Iliyya, for instance 
in the Kh'dn-i Ikhwdn attributed to Nasir-i Khusraw. 
Other writings which go under the name of Nasir-i 
Khusraw, however, show doctrinal divergences. The 
Zdd al-Musd/irin does not regard as correct the 
thesis expounded in the Kh'dn-i Ikhwdn according 
to which the amr is identical with the ibdd 1 , the 
creative act of God; and the GushdHsh wa-RahaHsh 
calls the amr, which in the Kh"dn-i Ikhwdn is 
qualified as "non-being", "the first being". 

Another Isma'ili author, Hamid al-Din al-Kirmanl, 
seems to have regarded the amr as an influx (this 
seems to be the meaning which ought to be attributed, 
in this context, to the term mddda) coming from 
God and united to the intellect. In his view, the amr 
is not a principle superior to the intellect; in common 
with other Isma'ili theologians, he considers it 
identical with the divine will. 

In the Rawdat al-Taslim, or Tasawwurdt (ed. 
W. Ivanow, 54 f., cf. 29), an Isma'ili work attributed 
to NSsir al-Din al-TusI, the doctrine of the divine 
amr is connected with the notion that at the psychic 
level the ascension marked by the stages of the 
sense-perception, estimation (wahm), soul (na/s) and 
intellect, ends in the amr. 

There is a certain similarity between these Isma'ili 
doctrines and the concept of amr found in the theolo- 
gical dialogue commonly called Kuzari, by the 
Jewish thinker Judah Halewi. On the one hand he 
seems to postulate, or at least to consider as admis- 
sible, the identity of the amr with the will (ed. 
Hirschfeld, 76), on the other, he calls divine amr the 
power which is given to the prophet as an inherent 
faculty and which is superior to the intellect (e.g. 



On the basis of Kur'an, vii, 53, an 
opposed to khalk: the first term then designates 
the creation of the spiritual substances, or these 
substances themselves, while the second refers to 
the creation of the material substances, or the 
material substances themselves (cf. 'alam; for the 
contrast between amr and khalk according to Ibn 
Hanbal, see Massignon, La passion d'Al-Hallaj, ii, 
627, n. 2). This idea recurs in some Isma'ili writings, 
such as the Tasawwurdt (55), where it interferes with 
the concept of amr in the sense explained above; in 
texts related to Isma'ilism, such as the Rasd'il 
Ikhwdn al-Safd (cf. Goldziher, in RE J, 1905, 38 n. 4) ; 
and in the "dispute of the Sabians and the Hanl- 
fiyya". This last is found in the al-Milal wa 'l-Nihal 
of al-Shahrastani (ed. Ahmad Fahmi Muhammad, 
Cairo 1948, ii, 118), a SunnI author; nevertheless, 



in the discourse of the representative of the Hanifiyya 
one finds notions current among the Isma'ilis, but 
put in a form which avoids giving offence to Sunni 
orthodoxy. In the Didm? al-lfikmatayn attributed 
to Nasir-i Khusraw (ed. Corbin, J54) the "world iof 
the amr" is the Isma'ili hierarchy, while the "world 
of the khalk" is the physical world. 

Another theme, often treated by the Sufis, is the 
contradiction, assumed by some as possible, between 
the amr, God's command to perform an action, and 
the divine will which prevents it. 

Bibliography : A. Borisov, 04 iskhodnoy lochkt 

volyuntarisma Solomona Ibn Gabirolya, Bulletin \de 

VAcadimie de I'U.R.S.S., 1933, 755-68; H. Corbin, 

in his ed. of the Djami 1 al-ljikmatayn, Etude 

Preliminaire, 75; I. Goldziher, Le amr ildhi (hd- 

Hnydn ha-el6hi) chez Juda Halivi, REJ, 1905, 

32-41; L. Massignon, La passion d'al-Halldj, ii, 

624 ff.; S. Pines, Nathanael ben Al-Fayyumt et la 

thlologie ismailienne, Bulletin des Eludes Histo- 

riques Juives, Cairo 1946, 7 ff. ; idem, La tongue 

recension de la "Thiologie d'Aristole" dans ses 

rapports avec la doctrine ismailienne, REI, 1954; 

J. M. S. Balyon, Jr., Amr in the Koran, AO, x*ii. 

On the concept of al-amr bi 'l-ma'ru/ wa 'l-nahy 

c an al-munkar, see mu'tazila. (S. Pines) 

'AMR B. 'ADl b. nasr b. RabI'a, first Lakhmid 

King of al-Hira. His father 'Adi employed a ruse 

(which frequently appears in Arab legend, cf. the 

story of 'AbbSsa bint al-Mahdi) to win the hand Iof 

Rakash, sister of Djadhlma al-Abrash fa.v.], whose 

favourite he was; 'Amr, the offspring of this union, 

succeeded in winning the favour of Djadhima, but 

was then carried off by the d[inn, was considered 

lost, and was finally restored to his uncle. After 

al-Zabba 3 (identified with Zenobia, queen of Palmyra) 

had seduced and killed Pjadhlma, 'Amr succeeded 

the latter on the Lakhmid throne and established his 

capital at al-HIra; then, with the aid of the sage 

Kusayr, he succeeded, by means of a stratagem 

related at length in the historical sources, in avenging 

his uncle's death and in killing al-Zabba'. Such; is 

the account of the Arabic sources, and it is difficult 

to doubt the existence of 'Amr b. 'Adi, who lived 

in the 3rd century A.D. (Caussin de Perceval, 

Essai, ii, 35, gives the dates of his reigns as 268-88, 

but the historians credit him with a reign of 118 

years) ; moreover, his name appears in the inscription 

of al-Namara. On the other nand, the fact that he 

is mentioned in the commentary on numerous 

proverbs proves that, as the historical reality of 

this personage and of the events involving Zenobia 

became blurred, legend made use of his name to 

fix the time of events displaced from their historical 

sequence, and of stories invented to explain proverbs 

which had become unintelligible ; thus, in representing 

him as the conqueror of Zenobia, legend attributes 

to him the role played by Aurelian who, in 270-3, 

seized possession of the Kingdom of Palmyra. 

Bibliography: Djahiz, Ifayawan*, i, 302, y, 

279, vi, 209; Ibn Kutayba, Ma'drif Cairo 1353/ 

1934, 202; Tabari, ibn al-A*hlr, index; Mas'udJ, 

Murudi, iii, 183 ff.; Marzubani, Mu'diam, 205; 

Tha'alibI, Thimdr al-Kulub, 505; MaydanI, Cairo 

1352, i, 243-7, ii, 83-5, 145; Caussin de Perceval, 

Essai, ii, 18-40; G. Rothstein, Lahmiden, Berlin, 

1899, index. (Ch. Pellat) 

'AMR b. al-AHTAM (Sinan) b. Sumayy al 

TamImI al-MinkarI, an eminent Tamimite 

famous for his poetic and oratorical talent, and also 

for his physical beauty which earned him the 

surname of al-Mukahhal ("anointed with collyrium'1). 



Born a few years before the hidjra, he made his way 
to Medina in 9/630 with a delegation from his tribe; 
in 1 1/632, he was a follower of the prophetess 
Sadjahi [q.v.], but he was converted to Islam and 
took part in the wars of conquest ; he conveyed the 
news of the capture of Rashahr to 'Umar in verse; 
he is said to have died in 57/676. His poems, some of 
which have come down to us, are superficially 
brilliant rather than profound; according to tradition 
his eloquence provoked the famous comment by the 
Prophet: inna min al-bayan la-sihr". 

Bibliography: Ibn Kutayba, Shi'r, 401-3; al- 
Mufaddal al-Dabbi, Mufaddaliyyat, (Lyall), 245-54, 
830-7; Aghani 1 , iv, 8-10, xii, 44. xxi, 174; 
Baladhuri, Futuh, 387; Mubarrad, Kamil, i, 476; 
Tabari, i, 1711-16, 1010; Hamasa (Freytag), i, 
722; Ibn al-Athir, Usd, Cairo 1286, iv, 87 ft.; Ibn 
Hadjar, Isdba, no. 5770; Ibn Nubata, Sarh al- 
'Uyun, Alexandria 1290, 77 ff.; Marzubani, 
Mu'djam, 262. (A. J. Wensinck-Ch. Pellat) 
'AMR b. al-'A$ (al-'Asi) al-SahmF, a con- 
temporary of Muhammad of Kurayshite 
birth. The part which he played in Islamic history 
begins with his conversion in the year 8/629-630. 
At that time he must already have been of middle 
age, for at his death which took place circa 
42/663 he was over ninety years old. He 
passed for one of the most wily politi- 
cians of his time, and we must endorse this 
verdict. The more clear-sighted inhabitants of 
Mekka already foresaw shortly after the unsuccess- 
ful siege of Medina that this fact was the turning- 
point in Muhammad's career. It is not strange 
therefore that men like Khalid b. al-Walid, 
'Uthman b. Talha and 'Amr b. al-'A? went over 
to Islam even before the capture of Mecca. Not 
much importance is to be attached to the story 
of their conversion. That of 'Amr is said to have 
taken place in Abyssinia under the influence of 
the Christian Negus! — Muhammad at once made 
use of his newly-gained assistance: after a few 
small expeditions he sent 'Amr to 'Uman, where 
he entered into negotiations with the two brothers 
who ruled there, Djayfar and 'Abbad b. Djulanda, 
and they accepted Islam. He was not to see the 
Prophet again. The news of the latter's death 
reached him in 'Uman, and occasioned his return 
to Medina. But he did not remain there long. 
Probably in the year 12/633 A bu Bakr sent him 
with an army into Palestine. The accounts of the 
conquest of this country [see filastIn] are known 
to be somewhat confused (cf. also Caetani, Annali 
dell' Islam, A. H. 12); but this is certain, that 
in this undertaking 'Amr played a most prominent 
part. The subjection of the country west of the 
Jordan especially was his achievement, and he 
was also present at the battles of Adjnadayn and 
the Yarmuk as at the capture of Damascus. 

Yet his real fame is due to his conquest of 
Egypt. According to some sources he betook 
himself there with his troops on his own respon- 
sibility. It is more probable, however, that 'Umar 
was informed of the matter (cf. Wellhausen, 
Skizzen und Vorarbeiten, vi. p. 93) or even that 
it was undertaken under his orders. It is certain 
that re-inforcements were soon sent out to him, 
under al-Zubayr. For the history of the conquest 
cf. the article misr; only the following need be 
mentioned here: In the summer of 19/640 the 
Greeks were defeated at Heliopolis. In 20/641 
Babylon was occupied by the Arabs, in 21/642 
Alexandria lay in their power [see muijawijis]. 



But not only the conquest of Egypt was the work 
of the genius of 'Amr; he also regulated the 
government of the country, administration of justice 
and the imposition of taxes. He founded Fusta(, 
which was later called Misr and in the 4th/ioth 
century al-Kahira. 

We can understand, that 'Amr felt himself 
wronged, when the Caliph 'Uttiman recalled him 
in favour of 'Abd Allah b. Sa c d, shortly after his 
accession to the throne. He retired in disgust 
from active life, occasionally giving utterance to 
his mortification. When circumstances became threa- 
tening for 'Uthman, 'Amr was wise enough not to 
commit himself as a partisan of his enemies ; but he 
secretly incited 'All, Talha and al-Zubayr against 
him. From his estates of al-Sab' (Beer-Sheba') and 
'Adjlan he awaited the developement of events 
with the greatest anxiety. Yet it was not till after 
the Battle of the Camel (see al-biamal), when only 
the two opponents 'AH and Mu'awiya survived, 
that he once more came to the front, associating 
himself with Mu'awiya. At the battle of Siffin he 
commanded the Syrian cavalry. When the battle 
turned in favour of 'All, he conceived the clever 
device of placing leaves of the Kur'an on the 
lances. The ruse was successful and the battle 
remained undecided. A court of arbitration was 
agreed upon, which was to consist of Abu Musa 
'1-Ash'arI and 'Amr b. al-'As. Before the day 
appointed came, 'Amr rendered Mu'awiya- the 
important service of occupying Egypt for him. 
It was an easy task to dispose of the youthful 
'Alid governor, Muhammad b. Abi Bakr: he defeated 
him (early in 38/658) and put him to death. 

In the same year (Sha'ban) 'Amr proceeded to 
Adhruh [q.v.] to the court of arbitration (accor- 
ding to al-Wakidi's chronology in Tabari, i. 3407). 
Here again he gave a brilliant proof of his poli- 
tical talent. He succeeded in conducting matters 
so far that Abu Musa declared both 'All and Mu'a- 
wiya unworthy of the highest office. 'AH lost thereby 
his title of Caliph, Mu'awiya however, who had only 
fought for '"UUiman's blood", lost nothing. Until 
his death [see above] 'Amr remained Governor of 
Egypt. On 15 Ramadan 40/22 January 661 he 
escaped by mere chance assassination at the hands 
of Zadawaih, one of the three Kharidjites who 
are said to have chosen the three leaders, 'All, 
Mu'awiya, and 'Amr, as the victims of their fana- 
ticism. 'Amr felt unwell on that day and left the 
leadership of the Saldt to Kharidja b. Hudhafa. 
So the latter was mortally wounded. "I meant 
'Amr, but God meant Kharidja", the assassin is 
reported to have said after accomplishing his deed. 
Bibliography : Ibn Hadjar, Isdba, ii. 1 tt seq.; 
Ibn al-Athir, Usd al-Ghaba (Cairo, 1286), iv, 115; 
Nawawl (ed. Wiistenf.), 478 tt stq.; Baladhuri (ed. 
de Goeje), see Index; Tabari (ed. de Goeje), see 
Index; Ibn Sa'd iii». 21; Wustenfeld, Die Statt- 
halter von Agypten (Abh. d. Gtsellsch. d. Wissensch. 
zu G&ttingen, xx); Wellhausen, Skizzen und Vor- 
arbtiten, vi. 51 et seq. 89 et seq.; Ya'kubi (ed. 
Houtsma), see Index; Caetani, Annali dell' Islam, 
see Index; Butler, The Arab conquest of Egypt 
(London, 1902); S. Lane Poole, A History of 
Egypt (London 1901) vi. (A. J. Wensinck) 
'AMR b. HIND, son of the Lakhmid prince al- 
Mundhir and of the Kindite woman Hind ; after the 
death of his father, he became "king"of al-HIra 
(554-570 A.D.). He was a warlike and cruel prince; 
the story of how he sent the poets al-Mutalammis 
and Tarafa to the governor of Bahrayn with letters 



•containing their own death warrants, is well-known. 

The severity of his character earned him the surname 

of Mudarri? al-Hidjara ("he who makes the stones 

emit sounds"). He was also called Muharrik 

{"burner"); in explanation of this surname, the 

Arabs recount that in order to avenge the death of 

one of his brothers, he had ten Hanzalites seized and 

burnt. However, as several other Lakhmids were 

also called Muharrik, this surname could well be the 

name of an ancient idol (see Rothstein, Lahmiden, 

46 ff.). He was assassinated while dining by the poet 

•Amr b. Kulthum [q.v.], because the tatter's mother 

had been offended by the mother of 'Amr b. Hind. 

Bibliography : G. Rothstein, Die Dynastie der 

Lahmiden in al-Vtra, 94"-; Noldeke, Gesck. der 

Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden, 107 ff.; 

Caussin de Perceval, Essai sur Vhistoire des 

Arabes avant I'islamisme, ii, 115 ff.; Ibn Kutayba, 

Shi<r, (de Goeje), index, idem, Ma'drif, (Wiisten- 

feld), 318-9; Aghani, ix, 178 ff.; xxi, 186-207; 

Mubarrad, Kamil, i, 97-8; Tabari, i, 900; Ibn 

Nubata, Sarh al- l Uyun, Alexandria 1290, 240 ft.; 

Ya'kubi, i, 239-40; Hamza al-Isfahani, (Gottwald), 

i, 109-10; Ibn al-Athlr, i, 404 ff. 

(A. J. Wensinck) 
'AMR B. KAMl'A B. EjjirrIh (DharI^) b. Sa'd 
al-Puba'I, pre- Islamic Arab poet of the Bakrite 
tribe of Rays b. Tha'laba. The only biographical 
details we possess concern his disputes with his 
uncle Marthad b. Sa c d, whose wife had tried to 
seduce him, and his journey to Byzantium with 
Imru '1-Kays [q.v.]. According to Ibn kutayba 
{Shi'r, 45), he lived in the entourage of Hudjr, 
father of Imru '1-Kays, but according to the Aghdni 
(xvi, 165-6), the two poets met when 'Amr had 
already reached an advanced age, and 'Amr died 
in Byzantine territory (between 530-540 A.D.), 
thereby gaining the soubriquet of 'Amr al-paV. 
His poems, collected by the philologists of the 
2nd/8th century, have often been quoted by critics 
who appreciate their delicacy and simplicity; they 
have been edited and translated into English by 
Ch. Lyall, The Poems of <Amr son of Qami'ah, 
Cambridge 1919. 

As he is commonly called Ibn Kaml'a, he must 

not be confounded with others possessing the same 

ma'rifa, notably 'Abd Allah (or Ma%iar) b. Kaml'a, 

father of Djamll al-'Udhri [q.v.], and the poet Rabl'a 

b. Kaml'a al-Sa'bl (see AmidI, Mukhtalif, 168). 

Bibliography: Among the sources quoted in 

the edition of the diwan, the following can be 

mentioned: Ibn Kutayba, S*»'V, 222-3; Aghdni, 

xvi, 163-6; Baghdad!, Khizdna, ii, 247-50; Cheikho, 

Nasraniyya, 293-7. See also: G. Rothstein, 

Lahmiden, Berlin 1899, 76-7; O. Rescher, Abriss, 

i, 71-3; Brockelmann, S I, 58. (Ch. Pellat) 

<AMR b. KULXttOM, pre-Islamic sayyid and 

poet; through his mother he was the grandson of 

the sayyid and poet al-Muhalhil [q.v.]. While still a 

youth he became chief of his tribe, the Djusham 

branch of the TaghHb [q.v.] of the Middle Euphrates. 

What we know of his life is confined to a few traditions 

(khabar); one describes the circumstances of his 

assassination of the King of al-HIra, 'Amr b. Hind, 

about 568 A.D.; another serves as a commentary 

on some epigrams against another ruler of that town, 

al-Nu'man b. al-Mundhir (580-602 A.D.). To his 

Taghlibite fellow-tribesman at the end of the ist/8th 

century, 'Amr. b. Kulthum seemed a man weighty 

in years (he was included among the mu'ammar&n'.) 

surrounded by an aura of prestige derived from his 

resistance to the domination of the kings of al-HIra, 



and from his being an incarnation of the virtues of 
the didhiliyya. Above all, they proudly attributed 
to him a poem celebrating their deeds in their 
conflict with the Bakr. Inserted several generations 
later in the anthology of the Mu'allahdt [q.v.], this 
poem, in so far as it is not a pastiche, bears the mark 
of a later hand; see T. Husayn. In addition to this 
poem, there are several fragments attributed to 
'Amr, forming a small diwan edited by Krenkow in 
Machr., 1922, 591-611. These pieces, all of pre- 
Islamic inspiration, are notable for their impetuosity 
of style and simplicity of language. 

Bibliography: Ibn Kutayba, Shi<r (de Goeje), 
117-20; Aghani', xi, 42-5, 52-60 (reproduced by 
Cheikho, Poetes Chretiens 197-220 and followed by 
Caussin de Perceval, Essai sur Vhistoire des 
Arabes, Paris 1847, ii, 363-5, 373-84; Marzubani, 
Mu'diam (Krenkow), 202, Rothstein, Die Dynastie 
der Lahmiden in Ifira, Berlin 1899, 100; Noldeke, 
Fiinf Mo'-allakat, Vienna 1899, i; T. Husayn, Fi 
'l-Adab al-Djahili, Cairo 1345/1927, 236-41. 
Translations of the Mu'allaka by Kosegarten 1819, 
Caussin de Perceval 1847; see Brockelmann, 
S I, 52. (R. Blachere) 

'AMR B. al-LAYTH. Persian general, 
brother and successor of Ya'kub b. al-Layth [q.v.[, 
the founder of the Saffarid [q.v.] dynasty in Sidjistan. 
Said to have been a mule-driver in his youth, and 
later on a mason, he was associated with his brother's 
campaigns and in 259/873 captured for Ya'kub the 
Tahirid capital Naysabur. After Ya'kub's defeat at 
Dayr al-'Akul and subsequent death (Shawwal 265/ 
June 879), 'Amr was elected by the army as his 
successor. He made his submission to the caliph, 
and was invested with the provinces of the former 
Tahirid principality in Eastern Persia and Sind, 
together with Fars, and the command of the shurfa 
in Baghdad and Samarra (Safar 266/Oct. 879). He 
reoccupied Fare in 268/881-2, but obtained effective 
control of Khurasan only in 280/893, after a long 
struggle with Ahmad b. 'Abd Allah al-Khudiistanl 
(d. 268/882) and Rafi' b. Harthama. In the interval, 
he was twice dismissed from the command of the 
shurfa and formally divested of his provinces (in 
271/885, after a severe defeat by the caliph's forces 
under Ahmad b. 'Abd al-'AzIz b. Abl Dulaf, and 
again in 276/890), and also lost Fars in 274/887. 
Confirmed for the third time as governor of Khurasan 
and Sidjistan in 279/893, he finally reestablished his 
control of the former in 283/896, after a transient 
reoccupation by Rafi' b. Harthama. Thereafter, at 
his own request (arising out of his ambition to 
restore in his own favour the former Tahirid suze- 
rainty over the Samanid family in Transoxiana) 
he was granted the tawliya of Ma ward' al-Nahr, 
in 285/898. His attempt to enforce his rights of 
suzerainty was, however, cut short when in RabI' II, 
287/April 900 the Samanid Ismail [q.v.] defeated his 
forces and captured him at Balkh. 'Amr was sent 
to Baghdad and after remaining in captivity there 
for over a year was executed on 8 Ejumada I, 
289/20 April 902. For his organization of government 
and the general significance of his campaigns in the 
history of Persia, see the art. saffarids. 

Bibliography: Tabari, iii, 1930-2208 passim; 
Mas'udi, viii, 46, 125, 144, 180, 193, 200 sqq.; 
Gardlzl, Zayn al-Akhbdr, London 1928, 14-19; 
Ta'rlhh-i Sistdn, Teheran 1314, 233-69 and index; 
Narshakhl./fts/oryo/Bttftftafo (trans. R. N. Frye), 
Cambridge Mass. 1954, index; Ibn Khallikan (Wus- 
tenfeld), no. 838 (Cairo) no. 799; Th. Noldeke, 
Orientalische Skiizen (Berlin 1887, 187-217 (Eng. 



'AMR B 



L-LAYTH — 'AMR b. SA'lD a 



trans., Sketches from Eastern History, London- 
Edinburgh 1892, 176-206) ; W. Barthold, Turkestan 2 , 
216-225; ibid., Zur GeschicMe der Saffariden, Fest- 
schrift Ndldeke I, Giessen 1906, 177-iQi ; B. Spuler, 
Iran in Friih-islamischer Zeit, Wiesbaden 1952, 
69-81 and index. (W. Barthold*) 

<AMR B. LUBAYY, the legendary founder 
of polytheism in Arabia and the ancestor of the 
Khuza'a [q.v.] at Mecca. The Ka'ba being, according 
to the Kur'an (iii, 96/0), "the first sanctuary ap- 
pointed for mankind", it was necessary to believe 
that polytheism was a later corruption. Neither the 
Djurhum, Isma'U's relatives, nor the Prophet's tribe, 
the Kuraysh, were likely to be responsible for it. So 
the blame was laid on 'Amr b. Luhayy, the leader of 
the Khuza'a, who was said to have expelled the 
Bjurhum from Mecca. He was said to have "changed 
the religion of Abraham" by introducing the idols 
either from Hit in Mesopotamia or from Ma'ab in 
the Balka' and placing them around the Ka'ba. 
Others maintained that he fetched the five idols of 
Noah's contemporaries (mentioned in Kur'an, lxxi, 
23) from Djidda and distributed them amongst the 
Arabs over whom by dint of his wealth und liberality 
he was believed to have an absolute command. He 
was also accused of setting free certain camels in 
honour of the idols, a superstition denounced in 
Kur'an, v, 103/2 as an invention of the unbelievers. 
He was made responsible for the divination by 
arrows, for the pagan talbiya, in short for everything 
heathen. It was even told, that the Prophet had seen 
him in hell and that he closely resembled in appear- 
ance to one of Muhammad's followers (showing that 
appearances are deceiving). The Prophet is also made 
to decide the dispute about the genealogy of 
Khuza'a by stating that '"Amr b. Luhayy b. 
Kama'a b. Khindif is the father of Khuza'a" in 
contradistinction to the prevailing opinion of the 
genealogists that the Khuza'a are of Yamanite 
origin and that 'Amir's father Luhayy was Rabi'a 
b. Haritha b. 'Amr b. 'Amir al-Azdl. These differences 
and the fact that 'Amir's name does not occur in 
any ancient poem, point to the conclusion that even 
if he be a historical personality, no reliable infor- 
mation about him exists. 

Bibliography: Ibn Hisham. 50 f.; Ibn Kalbl, 

Asndm, 8 (and Nyberg, Bemerkungen turn Buck 

der Gbtzenbilder, Skrifter utg. af Svenska Instil. 

i Rom, 1939, 355; Azraki (Index); Ya'kiibl i, 263, 

295; Ibn Durayd, Ishtikak, 276; Mas'udI, Murudj, 

iii, 114 f.; iv, 416; Shahrastani, ii, 430 f.; Suhayli, 

Rawd, i, 61 f.; Yakut, index.— Bukhari, Mandkib, 

§ 9; Muslim, Qianna, §50, 51; Kusuf, §3, 9; 

'Ala' al-DIn, Kanz al- c Ummal, vi, 213 ; Wellhausen, 

Reste arabischen Heidentums', 72. (J. W. FOck) 

'AMR B. MA'DlKARIB B. 'Abd Allah al- 

ZubaydI, Abu Thawr, famous Arab warrior and 

mukhadram poet. Born of a noble Yamanite 

family, he is depicted as a fighter of uncommon 

strength who, armed with his legendary sword al- 

Samsama, took part in many battles during the 

d£dhiliyya. In 10/631, he went to Medina and was 

converted to Islam, without, however, making any 

radical change in his way of life ; on the death of the 

Prophet, he apostatised and took part in the rebellion 

of al-Aswad al-'AnsI [q.v.]; taken prisoner in the 

course of the suppression of the ridda by Abu Bakr, 

he was freed by the caliph and fought at the battle of 

the Yarrnuk (15/636) and with distinction at that of 

al-Kadisiyya (probably 16/637). The sources differ 

regarding the date of his death; some, relying on 

the legends which grew up about his exceptional 



longevity, place his death in the caliphate of 
Mu'awiya; but it is more likely that he lost his life 
either at al-Kadisiyya or at the battle of Nihawand 
(21/641), as stated by the most reliable authorities. 
His poetry, devoted to fighting, seems to have 
been characterised by its brevity and clarity of 
expression, but only a few examples of it have come 

Bibliography: Verses and appreciation can 

be found in: Abkaryus, Rawdat al-Adab 239-43; 

F. E. Bustani, al-Mad£dni al-Haditha, i, Beirut 

1946, 309-314 ; Pjahiz, Baydn and Hayawdn, index ; 

Ibn Kutayba, Ski<r (de Goeje), 219-22; Buhturl, 

Hamdsa, index; Ibn Durayd, Ishtikak, 245; Ibn 

Hisham, index; Aghani, index (especially xiv, 

25-41); MarzubanI, Mu'djam, 208-9, Baghdad!, 

Kkizdna, ii, 445; Amidi, Mukhtalif, 156; Ibn 

Hadjar, Isdba, no. 5970; see also: C. A. Nallino, 

Letteratura (= Scritti, vi) 48 (Fr. Trans. 76-7); O. 

Rescher, A br iss, i, 117. (Ch. Pellat) 

'AMR b. MAS'ADA b. Sa'Id b. Sul, secretary 

of al-Ma'miin, was of Turkish origin, and was a 

relative of Ibrahim b. al-'Abbas al-SulI [q.v.]. His 

father had been secretary of chancellery under al- 

Mansur. He himself served the Barmakides, and was 

later for many years one of al-Ma'mun's chief 

assistants, in charge of the Chancellery and also 

of various financial posts which seem to have 

brought him substantial profits, but he never 

received the title of wazir. He accompanied the 

Caliph to Damascus and on his expedition into 

Byzantine territory, and died at Adana in 217/832. 

He was noted for his epistolary talent, and the Arab 

authors have preserved several specimens of his work. 

Bibliography: Ibn Tayfur, index; Ya'kubl, 

index, Tabari, index ; Djahshiyari, Wuzard 1 , index 

and D. Sourdel, in M Manges Massignon; BayhakI, 

Mahasin, (Schwally), particularly 473-76; Mas'udI, 

Tanbih, 352; Aghani, Tables; Tanukhi, Faradi, 

Cairo 1938, i, 74"5. 105, ii, 25-6, 38-45; Yakut, 

Irshad, vi, 88-91; Ibn ghallikan, Cairo 1948, iii, 

145-8, Muti. Kurd 'Alt, in MMIA, 1927, 193-218. 

(D. Sourdel) 
'AMR b. SA'lD b. al-'As b. Umayya al-umawI, 
known as AL-AgHDAK, Umayyad governor 
and general. Governor of Mecca when Yazid b. 
Mu'awiya came to the throne (60/680), he was the 
same year appointed governor of Medina. On Yazld's 
orders, he sent an army to Mecca to subdue the anti- 
Caliph 'Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr, and entrusted the 
command to a brother of the latter, 'Amr ; but 'Amr 
was taken prisoner and, with his brother's consent, 
flogged to death by his personal enemies. At the end 
of the following year, al-Ashdak was dismissed. Later 
he went with the Caliph Marwan on his Egyptian 
expedition and, when Mus'ab b. al-Zubayr invaded 
Palestine in an attempt to reconquer Syria during 
the Caliph's absence, Marwan sent against him al- 
Ashdak, who forced him to withdraw. At the time 
of the conference after the death of Yazid, 'Amr 
had been mentioned as a possible eventual successor 
to Marwan; he was the Caliph's nephew through his 
mother, and was also related to him on his father's 
side ; since he was also well liked in Syria, he could 
have become a source of danger; but when MarwSn 
had consolidated his position he enforced the bay'a 
in favour of his two sons 'Abd al-Malik and 'Abd 
al-'AzIz. When 'Abd al-Malik came to the throne, 
he entertained fears of 'Amr which were not entirely 
without foundation ; in fact, in 69/689, when the 
Caliph undertook a campaign against 'Irak, al- 
Ashdak took advantage of his absence to assert his 



C AMR b. SA'lD al-ASHDAK — AMO DARVA 



right to the caliphate and to stir up a dangerous 
revolt at Damascus; <Abd al-Malik had to return, 
and c Amr only submitted after receiving a promise 
safeguarding his life and liberty. The Caliph, however, 
soon decided to remove this potential threat; he had 
al-Ashdak brought to the palace where, according to 
tradition, he was killed by <Abd al-Malik himself 
(70/689-90). 

Bibliography: Bala-Jhurl, Ansdb al-Ashraf, 
iv/B, index; Ibn Sa c d, v, 176-7; Va'kubi. ii, 81 ff.; 
Tabari, i, 1779 ff.; Ibn al-Athir, ii, 318 ff.; 
Mas'udi, Murudi, v, 198 ff.; 206, 233 ff.; ix, 58, 
Aghdni, index; Marzubam, Mu'djam, 231; Well- 
hausen, Das arabische Reich, 108, 118; Buhl, Die 
Krisis der Umajjadenherrschaft im Jahre 684, in 
ZA, xxvii, 50-64. (K. V. Zettersteen*) 

<AMR B. 'UBAYD b. BAb, one of the first 
of the Mu'tazila, with the kunya, Abu 'Uthman. 
His grandfather Bab was captured by Muslims at 
Kabul. He himself was born at Balkh in 80/699 and 
was a mawla of a branch of Tamlm. His father 
apparently moved to Basra, and 'Arar seems for a 
time to have been a member of the school of al-Hasan 
al-Basrl, though al-Djahiz also speaks of him as a 
pupil of al-Fadl b. <Isa al-Rakashl. He also had some 
connexion with Yazld III. He gained a great reputa- 
tion as an ascetic, and was known at the court of 
al-Mansur, to whom he apparently spoke fearlessly 
on religious and moral questions, while refusing all 
reward. For his strength of character al-Mansur 
respected him highly, and on his death composed a 
eulogy of him in verse. He died in or about 144/761. 
There is some obscurity about his precise relation- 
ship to Wasil b. c Ata° and their respective parts in 
founding the Mu c tazila. The story of how Wasil went 
apart {iHazala) from the circle of al-Hasan is also 
told of 'Amr both with al-Hasan and with his pupil 
Katada; and the early writer Ibn Kutayba (d. about 
270/884) knows of 'Amr but not of Wasil. Bishr b. 
al-Mu'tamir (d. 210/825) speaks of his own party 
as followers of 'Amr and some opponents as followers 
of pjahm {Intisar, 134). <Amr's views are usually 
said to be similar to Wasil's, apart from a slight 
difference in attitude towards the parties at the 
battle of the Camel; and Wasil had married c Amr's 
sister. So there was doubtless some relation between 
them, but it is possible that 'Amr did more than 
Wasil, who died thirteen years earlier, to create the 
later Mu'tazila, especially as Abu '1-Hudhayl al- 
'Allaf was 'Amr's pupil {Intisar, 67). 

Bibliography: Khavvat. Intisar (Nyberg), 67; 
97 f., 134, 206; Ash'ari, Makalat, 16, 148, 222 f.; 
Nawbakhti, Firak al-Shi'a, 11; Ibn Kutayba, 
Ma l arif, 243, 301 ; al-Sayyid al-Murtada, Munya, 
18, 22-24; I2iahiz, Baydn (Cairo, 1 345/1926), i, 
202, 245; BaghdadI, Fark, 15, 98-101, 224, 306; 
Shahrastani, Milal, 17, 33 f. ; al-Mas c udi, Murudi 
al-Dhahab, vi, 208-12, 223; vii, 234-36; Ibn 
Khallikan, no. 514; A. S. Tritton, Muslim Theology, 
London, 1947, 50, 60-62 with further references. 

(W. Montgomery Watt) 
AMRITSAR, capital of a district in the Pandjab 
(India). Pop. (1951). town-325,747, district- 1,367,047, 
of whom 4,585 Muslims. The population of the 
Muslims in the district declined sharply after 
Partition. It was founded by the fourth guru of the 
Sikhs [?.».], Ram Das (1574-81), upon a site granted 
by the emperor Akbar, where he excavated the holy 
tank from which the town derives its name (amrita 
saras, tpool of immortality*; initially it was called 
guru ka chah or chak guru and Ramdaspura). The 
next guru, Ardjun (1581-1606) completed the 



Harmandir (in English, the «Golden Temple*), the 
chief worshipping place of the Sikhs. In 1761, 
Ahmad Shah Durrani destroyed the temple and 
the tank, but it was quickly rebuilt by the Sikhs. 
With the establishment of independent Sikh power 
after 1764, the importance of the town increased, 
and the Sikh rulers, especially Randjit Singh, 
endowed the temple heavily. The town passed under 
British rule in 1849. For about two centuries the 
town has been important for its entrepGt trade. 
Bibliography: Imperial Gazetteer v^igff.; 

Sarkar, Fall of the Mughal Empire, ii/487; H. R. 

Gupta, Studies in Later Mughal History of the 

Pundjab; Cunningham, A History of the Sikhs; 

Gurmukh Singh, A brief History of the Harimanda 

or Golden Temple of Amritsar (1894); Ratan Singh 

Bhangu, Prachin Panth Parkash (1830, in Gur- 

mukhi). Cf. also Bibliogr. under sikhs. 

(Nurul Hasan) 

'AMS [see nusayrIs]. 

AM© DARYA, the river Oxus. 

Names. The river was known in antiquity as 
"O^o? (also T ft!jos, Latin Oxus); length 2494-2540 
kms. The present Iranian designation is traceable to 
the town of Amul [?.».], later Amu, where the route 
from Khurasan to Transoxania crossed the river as 
long ago as the early Islamic period. The Greek name 
is, according to W. Geiger and J. Markwart {Wehrot, 
3, 89) derived from the Iranian root wakhsh, "to 
increase"; a derivation from the homonymous root 
meaning "to sprinkle" is also possible. (Cf. the name 
of the Wakhshab, a tributary of the Amu Darya). 
In Sasanian times the river was called Weh-rodh or 
Beh-rodh (Markwart, Wehrot, 16, 35). The Arabs and 
Islamicised Persians for a long time called it, espe- 
cially in learned works, Djayhun (used by Gardiz! in 
the nth century as an appellative for a river in 
general) ; this name derives from the Biblical Gihon, 
one of the rivers of Paradise. In Chinese it is known 
as Kui-shui, Wu-hu or Po-tsu. The region north of 
the Amu Darya is called by the Muslims Ma wara' 
al-Nahr [?.».], "land on the other side of the river", 
Transoxania. 

The upper course of the river. The Amu 
Darya rises from several rapid head-waters. The 
most southerly of these, the Pandj (rising from the 
Wakhkhab— in the Middle Ages Djaryab, cf. Mark- 
wart, Wehrot, 52; Barthold, Turkestan, 65 — and the 
Pamir Darya), has its source in the Pamir. After 
following initially a course from East to West, it 
turns North near Ishkashim and receives on the 
right (E.) the Ghund and the Ak Su [q.v.], and flows 
from there once more westwards. There follow as 
tributaries on the right bank the Yazgulam and the 
Wancab, and lastly the Kulab Darya. All these 
rivers as well as those to be named later are fed by 
several headwaters and tributaries. 

The most important and highest tributary of the 
Pandj on the right bank is the Wakhshab (also 
known as Klzll Su or Surkhab)', which is regarded as 
the upper course of the Amu Darya in the gafar- 
nana of c Ali Yazdi (1424-5, ed. M. Ilahdad, Calcutta 
1885-8, i, 179 ff.). On the other hand the inhabitants 
of today, as well as the mediaeval geographers, 
consider the Pandj as the upper course proper; 
modern geography favours the Ak Su. 

The area of the source of the Amu Darya began 
to become known from the 19th century onwards 
(cf. the map in A. Schultz, Landeskundliche For- 
schungen im Pamir, Hamburg 1916, 24-5; details 
in Pamir). The x\rabic geographers did not entirely 
grasp the true state of affairs; 1 



pretation of the names of the headwaters given by 
tbem is controversial. Al-Istakhri, 296 (= Ibn 
Hawkal (Kramers), 475), names five headwaters of 
the Amu Darya; the co-ordination of these names 
with the designations in use today proposed by 
W. Barthold, with which, in general, V. Minorsky 
associates himself, appears the most plausible: (See 
Barthold, Turkestan, 68 ff.; Minorsky, ffudud, 208, 
360; different identifications were proposed by 
Marquart Erdniahr, 233 f., and Wehrot, 53, and Le 
Strange, 435). The area of confluence of these streams 
was known in the 13 th century as Arhan (in the gafar- 
nima Arhang), in al-BIrunl Hu(b)sara. Al-MakdisI, 
22, counts as sixth headwater the Kawadhiyan river. 
The Kukca and the Kunduz river are other left-hand 
tributaries mentioned by the Arabs (al-Tabari, ii, 
1590; Ibn Khurradadhbih, 33; Ibn al-Faklh, 324, 
Ibn Rusta, 93; Minorsky HudQd, 353 f.). From the 
right enter the Kafirnihan (260 kms.; in the Middle 
Ages Ramidh, in Ibn Rusta, 93, Zamil, today the 
name of one of its headwaters) and the Surkhan 
(200 kms.; in the Middle Ages and in the 14th 
century Caghan Rudh). It is from the mouth of the 
Kafirnihan at Pandjab (Aywadj of today; Barthold, 
Turkestan, 72) that some geographers consider the 
Oxus proper to begin. The last (right-hand) tributary 
before the mouth (11 75 km. distant) is the Surkhan 
Darya, as the Shirabad and Kalif rivers do not, 
under normal circumstances reach the Amu Darya, 
and the Zarafshan [q.v.] too loses its waters and does 
not join the Oxus. Similarly numerous rivers on 
the left-hand side run out in the sand before reaching 
the Amu Darya. The (lower) Murghab did not in 
Islamic times reach it; it remains doubtful how far 
Greek sources, which indicate that this did occur in 
their time, are correct (Ptolemy, vi, io[cf. Murghab]) ; 
the Had Rudh [q.v.], Arius, ran out in the sands 
of the Kara Kum (Strabo, xi, 58; Ptolemy, vi, 17, 
cf. Pauly-Wissowa, ii, 623 f.). 

Iu the upper region of the Amu Darya lie the 
districts of Wakhan (on the Pandj), then Badakh- 
shan (on both sides) and Shughnan with Gharan 
(Gharan) S. and S.E. of the junction of the Pandj 
with the upper Murghab, further N. Darwaz. Between 
the Amu Darya and the Wakhsh lies Ghuttalan. The 
Wakhsh flows through the Pamir region (the name 
Famir occurs already in al- Ya'kObi, al-Bulddn, 290 and 
al-Dimashki) and then touches Zasht (thus correctly in 
GardizI, ed. Nazim, 35) and Kumidh. Between the 
Wakhsh and Kafirnihan lay in maedieval times Wash- 
djird (the Faydabad of today) and Kuwadhiyan (the 
Kabadiyan of today). The Surkhan valley contained 
the province of Caghaniyan (Arabic Saghaniyan). On 
the left bank lay, W. from BadakhshSn, the province 
cf Tukharistan (approximately up to Balkh). At this 
point the Amu Darya enters the desert tract between 
the Kara Kum of the present day (on the left) and 
the Klzll Kum (on the right) where it loses a con- 
siderable proportion of its waters through evaporation. 
It skirts the ancient Sogdia and finally reaches 
Kh'arizm. 

In the 19th and 20th centuries the Amirates of 
Bukhara and Khlwa lay here, while towards the S, 
since the frontier adjustment of 1886-93, the Amu 
Darya forms the N. frontier of Afghanistan for 1100 
kms. from the Pamir Darya past Kal'a-yi Pandj to 
Bosaga below Kalif. Since 1924 the Amu Darya forms 
the southern boundary of Tadjikistan and, since 
the latest revision of provincial frontiers (1936) in 
the Soviet Union, in its lower course approximately 
separates Uzbekistan (with Kara-kalpakia which 
embraces the whole delta) from Turkmenistan. 



\RYA 455 

Historical maps for the mediaeval period in 
Minorsky, ffudud, 339; Le Strange, maps ix and x; 
Atlas Istorii SSSR, i, Moscow 1949, 6, 12, 26; 
A. Herrmann, Atlas of China, Cambridge (Mass.) 
1935, 24, 32, 49, 60; for later times cf. Atlas Istorii 
SSSR, ii, Moscow 1949, 15, 17 right bottom, 18; 
Burhan al-DIn Khan Kushkekt, Kattagan i Badakh- 
shan, transl. from Persian into Russian by A. A. 
Semenov, Tashkent 1926; A. Herrmann, Atlas of 
China, 66 (distribution of nationalities) ; Westermanns 
Atlas zur Weltgeschichte, iii, Brunswick 1953, 134, 135. 

The following were places of particular importance 
on the Amii Darya in the Middle Ages: Tirmidh, 
Kalif, Zamm (Karkhi; left), opposite to which lies 
Akhshlkath, Amul (Cardjuy; left), opposite to which 
is Firabr, finally various towns of Kh w arizm. [Cf. the 
articles]. 

The water of the Amu Darya rises in its middle 
course, which is 3570-5700 ms. broad and 1, 5-8 ms. 
deep, in April-May, and becomes low again in July. 
It frequently floods the areas on its banks, parti- 
cularly to the right, hence from time to time a more 
luxuriant growth of bushes and vegetation is pro- 
duced there. The river is in this neighbourhood not 
directly tapped for irrigation; nevertheless there 
ran along its left bank in the Middle Ages a strip 
used for agricultural purposes; from the 14th century 
on it apparently began to turn into a steppe (Bar- 
thold, Turkestan, 81 f.). 

The lower course and its changes. From 
the middle course onwards, somewhat beyond Kalif, 
the course of the Amu Darya shifted in various 
directions in prehistoric or even in historical times. 
According to Ptolemy the course of the Amii Darya 
in the area between Kalif and Zamm (Karkhi) 
turned in approximately a W. direction (as opposed 
to the NW direction of the present day) and ran 
into the region of the Kara Kum desert. Al-BIrunI 
too assumed such a course for the river in a previous 
epoch (cf. A. Z. V. Togan, Biruni's Picture). In 
actual fact it is possible to trace a former bed which 
branches off at Karkhi, goes between Repetek and 
06 HadjdjI and finds its continuation in the (former) 
Unguz river bed. Between 1928 and 1940 for instance 
the Amu Darya showed a tendency to flow S. in 
this vicinity, so that from the geological point of 
view a similar courst is not out of the question. 
The theory of a bed in Unguz (in spite of the molluscs 
which al-BIrunl reports having found there) requires 
further geological research before further conclusions 
can be drawn from the extremely uncertain reports 
of the old geographers. Al-BIruni's account is that 
the Amu Darya/Unguz flowed into a great desert 
lake but did not reach the Caspian. On the other 
hand Strabo (xi, 50) reports a discharge into the 
Caspian Sea. The culture of Kh'arizm. however, 
which has ten centuries' history behind it, and 
which would have been impossible without irrigation 
from the Amu Darya, is a sure indication that in 
that time the Unguz cannot have been the sole 
lower course of the Amii Darya. 

Al-BirunI supposes that as a result of obstructions 
of the riverbed, the Amu Darya later, instead of 
flowing into the Unguz, squeezed through the narrow 
river-gorge (360 m.) between the Diildiil Atlaghan 
and the Ttiye Moyun (at the present day Pitnyak, 
384 kms. from its mouth); it is called Dahan-i 
Shir = Fam al-Asad, "lion's mouth"). But geological 
research here too indicates that this break-through 
must have come about already in prehistoric times. 
Below this pass there branch off the large side canals 
which render possible the oasis culture of Kh w arizm. 



456 AMO I 

The Arabic geographers of the ioth century give 
Tahiriyya, S. of the river-gorge, as the southern 
limit of this area of irrigation. In the nth century 
Darghan, further NW (N. of the gorge) was generally 
regarded as the limit (BayhakI, ed. Morley, 859). 
The S. boundary of the Khanate of KMwa was first 
fixed further S. (S. of Pitnyak) after the Russian 
conquest of 1873. 

Opposite the present-day Sadwar (three farsakhs 
on the other side of the gorge) there branch off to 
the right the Gawkh'ara, and after five more 
farsakhs the Kirya canal. They extended, respec- 
tively, N. to the Sultan Uways Daghl chain and E. 
from it to the same latitude and formed the basis 
of the rich cultural development during and preceding 
the Islamic era on the lower right bank of the Amu 
Darya N. of the present-day Dortkul (Turtkul), the 
capital of the province of Karakalpakia. (Cf. Tolstov, 
in Bibl., and Kh-arizm). 

Further NW and N. the main bed of the Amu 
Darya has repeatedly shifted in historical times and 
does so even at the present day. The question has 
been thoroughly debated whether the Amu Darya 
had in earlier times a different lower course. De 
Goeje quoted historical sources to the effect that 
this river has always in historical times emptied 
itself — albeit in separate main branches — into the 
Aral Sea. W. Barthold opposed this view and 
supposed that the Mongols by piercing a main dam 
with the object of conquering the town of (Old) 
Urgandj [q.v.] in 1221, diverted the river towards 
the W., so that it flowed into the depression and the 
sea and marsh tracts of the Sari Kamish and finally 
into the Caspian along the eastern edge of the Cifl 
(Cink) ridge and further through the Ozboy (Russian 
Uzboy) until the end of the 16th century. Barthold 
quotes in support of his thesis statements by Hamd 
Allah Mustawfi (213 transl., 206; 117, transl. 170), 
Hafiz-i Abrii (see W. Barthold, Aral, 48 f.), and 
?ahlr al-DIn Mar'ashl. The latter (ed. B. Dorn, 
Mohammed, Sources etc., i, St. Petersburg 1850, 436, 
transl. 436) speaks of a fleet which travelled up on 
the Djayhun from the mouth of the Ozboy in the 
Caspian. Kh'andamir (iii, 244-6) reports that the 
sultan Husayn Baykara travelled from Aghrica (the 
Balkfcan mountains) to Adhak (now Ak Kal'a) and 
crossed the Amu Darya "after seven days". But 
most of this evidence is subject to doubt, and 
KVandamlr himself in his geographical appendix 
definitely makes the Amu Darya flow into the Aral 
Sea. Everything considered, the evidence adduced 
by de Goeje seems to have more weight than that 
relied on by Barthold. 

Barthold's views, however, found widespread 
support among historians and Le Strange, A. Herr- 
mann and A. Zeki Velidt Togan (Biruni's Picture; 
recapitulated in IA, i, 423-6) contended that the 
Amu Darya flew into the Caspian even at an earlier 

Barthold, and following him Togan, viewed the 
16th century as the time of the shifting back of the 
mouth of the Amu Darya to the Aral Sea. Both 
refer in this connection to the reports of the English 
traveller Anthony Jenkinson in 1558 (in R. Hakluyt, 
The Principal Navigations etc., i, London 1927, 449) 
and of the Ottoman traveller Sayfi in 990/1582 
(Barthold, Aral, 71; idem, Oroshenie, 93) as well as 
to Abu '1-GhazI (b. 1603), who dates a shifting of 
the Amu Darya 30 years before his birth (thus ca. 
1573)- The Kh'arizmian writer Agihl and the 
chronicle of Khlwa by Mu'nis (19th century) place 
this event in the year 1578 (Barthold, Aral, 69-74)- 



Thus the discharge of the Amu Darya into the Aral 
Sea is unequivocally established for the period 
following the 16th century. 

Although the question of the course of the lower 
Amu Darya seemed to be settled to the satisfaction 
of the historians by the theory that the Ozboy up 
till the 16th century formed the lower bed of the 
river (cf. A. Herrmann, Gibt es noch ein Oxus- 
Problemt, Petermanns Mitteilungen, 1930, 286 ff.), 
yet geographers and geologists have always rejected 
this view (see A. S. Kes, I. P. Gerasimov and K. K. 
Markov, and S. P. Tolstov, in Bibliogr.). At the 
present state of geological research, it appears that 

temporary diversion of the Amu Darya into the 
Sari Kamish has been established; on the other 
hand, the Ozboy was clearly not the river-bed of the 
Amu Darya on its way to the Caspian in historical 

Shifting of the channels of the Amu Darya in the 
delta proper is not a matter of doubt either in 
historical times or at present. The early Islamic 
capital of Kh'arizm, Kath [q.v.] gradually decayed 
owing to shifting of the bed of the river. The inter- 
pretation of the reports of the ioth century geogra- 
phers is, however, uncertain. They speak of a seriss 
of lakes (Khalidjan); according to Ibn Rusta, 92, 
these were on the edge of the Siyah Kflh (Cin), but 
according to al-Is(akhri, 303, and Ibn Hawlfal 
(Kramers), 480, on the Aral Sea; al-MakdisI, 288, 
343 f., gives no details. (Cf. also Barthold, Turkestan, 
152; idem, Oroshenie, 84; idem, Aral, 22). The town 
of (Old) Urgandj lay after the Mongol conquest "on 
the right bank of the river" (i.e. the Daryalik). The 
breaking off of the connection to the Sari Kamish. 
in the 16th century may be accepted as a fact: 
possibly the resumed intensive irrigation took away 
the necessary water. At all events (Old) Urgandj 
lost its water-supply and was replaced by the towns 
of Wazir (since ca. 1450, ruined in the 17th century, 
ruins near the present day fortress of Dew Kal'a) 
and (New) Urgandj. Finally the emergence of 
Khlwa as capital of the province is to be attributed 
to these shiftings. The delta "island" (Aral) now 
took on importance. From here a new system of 
canals going to the left was constructed in the 19th 
century, and (Old) Urgandj was once again enabled 
to regain some kind of existence. 

For the settlement and the population in the area 
of the mouth of the Amu Darya, cf. kh w arizm. 

KHlWA, ALAN, PECENEG, OGHUZ, TURKMEN, UZBEK, 
KARAKALPAK, SART. 

In the delta and in the lower reaches of the Arau 
Darya occurs a covering of ice, which on the average 
holds from the end of December to the end of March, 
and which caused astonishment to the Arab geo- 
graphers and travellers (Ibn Battuta, ii, 450 f., iii, 
1 f.). It nearly cost Yaljut his life in 1219 during 
his flight from the Mongols. In particularly severe 
winters it is up to 12 in. thick. The upper reaches 
also frequently freeze over in the mountainous 
regions. 

In recent times there have been various projects 
for the diversion of the Amu Darya into the Caspian. 
In 1716 Peter the Great commissioned Prince 
Alexander Bekovii-Cerkasskiy (actually Dewlet 
Kizden MIrza, cf. Brockhaus-Efron, Entsikl. Slovak, 
iii, 356 f. ; Bol'shaya Sovetskaya Entsikl.*, iv, 406, 
with references) to investigate the possibilities of 
establishing a waterway almost right up to the 
frontiers of India. In 1873 the project was once 
more explored and pronounced" basically feasible. 
It appeared that the way from CardjQy through 



AMO DARYA — <AMUD 



457 



the Unguz was the most suitable, since it would 
thus not be necessary to await the protracted 
fulling up of the Sari Kamlsh depression (cf. A. I. 
Gluiovskiy, Propusk vod r. Amu-Dar 'i po staromu 
yeya ruslu v Kaspiyskoe More, St. Petersburg 1893). 
After an extensive flood in 1952 the Soviet Govern- 
ment is said to have tackled anew in 1953 the 
project for a diversion of the powerful and incal- 
culable Amu Darya through a part of the Ozboy. 
It is planned to have power-stations at Tashiz and 
Tash, on the old course of the river. The main 
portion of the water however would be led off by 
a canal 1100 kms. long into the lower Ozboy, and 
would fall into the Caspian at Klzll Suw (Kras- 
novodsk). Two barrages with large lakes are to 
produce further electricity and in addition ensure 
the irrigation of 1.3 million hectares of land for 
cottongrowing. In order to provide for the settle- 
ments thus brought into being two fresh-water 
canals are to be constructed. It is impossible to 
ascertain how far this project has actually been 
put into effect, or when if ever its completion is 
to be expected. 

Bibliography: General: For the pre- 
Islamic period cf. A. Herrmann, in Pauly-Wissowa, 
xviii/2 (1942), 2006-7. W. Barthold, in EI 1 , s.v.; 
A. Zeki Velidf Togan, in I A, s.v. (the information 
given by these two scholars has been used in the 
text); Entsiklop. Slovak of Brockhaus-Efron, i 
(1890), 676 f., xxxiv (1902), 610, 742 (Uzboy, 
Unguz); Bol'shaya Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya % , ii 
(1950), 304-6 (with a map of the river area). — 
Geographical: F. Machatschek, Landeskunde 
von Russisch-Turkestan, Stuttgart 1922; Trudy 
karakumskoy ekspeditsii, Leningrad 1934, iv; 
W. Leimbach, Die Sowjetunion, Stuttgart 1950, 
nof.; Th. Shabad, Geography of the USSR, New 
York 1951, 364-408 (cf. index), — Geographical- 
geological examination of the river-bed, 
etc.: Zap. Imp. Russk. Geogr. Ob.-va po obshley 
geogr., iv (R. E. Lenz), ix, xvii (A. V. von Kaul- 
bars), xiv (Zubov), xx (V. A. Obruchev, Zakas- 
piyskaya nizmennost'), xxxiii (A. Konshin, Raz'yas- 
nenie voprosa drevnem telenii Amu-Dar'i); 
Trudy Amu-Dar'inskoy ekspeditsii, ii-iv, St. 
Petersburg 1877-81; A. I. Tkhorievskiy, Amu- 
Dar'ya meldu g. Kerki i Aral'skim Morem, St. 
Petersburg 1916; L. A. Molianov, Proiskholdenie 
presnovodnykh our Uzboya, Izv. Gos. Gidrolog. 
Instituta, 1929, 43-57; A. S. Kes, Rush Uzboy i ego 
genezis, Trudy instituta geografii Ah. Nauk SSSR, 
1939; I. P. Gerasimov and K. K. Markov, Cet- 
vertilnava geologiya, Moscow 1939; iidem, Led- 
nikovyy period na territorii SSSR, Moscow- 
Leningrad 1939. — General historical geo- 
graphy: W. Geiger, Ostiraniscke Kultur im 
Alter turn, Erlangen 1882 (especially 10-30); 
W. Barthold, Turkestan (especially 64-82, 142- 
55); idem, Istoriya Orosheniya Turkestana, St. 
Petersburg 1914; J. Marquart, EranSahr, Berlin 
1901; fludad al-'Alam, index (also maps); A. Z. 
V. Togan, BtrHnls Picture of the World, New 
Delhi 1940; S. P. Tolstov, Drevniy Khoresm, 
Moscow 1948; idem, Po sledam drevnekhorez- 
miyskoy tsivilizatsii, Moscow-Leningrad 1948 
(German transl. by O. Mehlitz, Auf den Spuren 
der alt-chorezmischen Kultur, Berlin 1953) — cf. 
for the last two works S. P. Tolstow, Die Arbeits- 
ergebnisse der sowjetischen Expedition zur Erfor- 
schung des alien Choresm, Sowjetwissenschaft, 
Geisteswiss. Abt., 1950, 105-30 and B. Spuler, 
Chwarizms (Chorasmiens) Kultur nach S. P. 



Tolstovs Forschungen, Historia, 1950, 601-15; 
S. P. Tolstow, Die arch&ol. Forschungen der 
Choresm-Expedition vom Jahre 1952, Sowjetwissen- 
schaft, Geisteswiss. Abt., 1954, 267-80.— The 
upper course of the Oxus: J. Wood, A 
journey to the source of the River Oxus', London 
1872 (with historical geographical introduction by 
H. Yule); J. Markwart, Wehrot und Arang, Leiden, 
1938 (especially 52 ft.; cf. also index). — The 
Oxus-Ozboy problem: M. J. de Goeje, Das 
aUeBett des Oxus, Leiden 1875 ; Barthold, Svldiniya- 
ob aral'skom more i nizovyakh Amudar'i, Tashkent 
1902 (in German: Nachrichten tiber den Aralsee 
und den unteren Lauf des Amudarja, Leipzig: 
1910); V. Lokhtin, Rika Amu-Dar' ya i eya 
drevnee soyedinenie s Kaspiyskim Morem, St. 
Petersburg 1879; Le Strange, 433-45, 455-58 
and index; D. D. Bukinii, Starye rusla Oksa i 
amu-dar 'inskaya problema, Moscow 1906; A. 
Herrmann, Alte Geographic des unteren Oxus- 
gebUtes (Abh. G. W. G&t., N.F. xv/4), Berlin 1914; 
F. Kolacek, Etait I'Ouzboi pendant Us temps 
historiques un ancien lit de I'Amou-Daria?, Spisy 
vydivani pHrodovideskou fakultetou Masarykovy 
University, 1927 (with map); W. W. Tarn, The 
Greeks in Bactria and India, 1938, 491-3. 

(B. Spuler, shortened by the Editors). 
•AMCD (Ar.) (tent pole, hence a monolithic 
column and capital; less commonly, a constructed 
pillar). 

The use of the column and the capital in Muslim 
art, and in particular in religious architecture, is- 
connected with the adoption by the builders of 
mosques of the oratory with multiple aisles and of 
the court surrounded by galleries. The column, like 
thif type of oratory and peristyle, appears to be a 
Hellenistic legacy, especially since in Syria, Egypt,. 
Ifrikiya and Spain the columns of the early mosques 
are constructed of used materials. However, after 
a period of more or less faithful imitation of earlier 
models, types which are characteristically Muslim 
emerge, with a more simple outline. The shaft of the 
column is no longer slightly convex, and its diameter 
is equal throughout its length, the plan being 
circular or polygonal. The capital assumes various 
forms which can be classified in two main groups, 
both perhaps derived from the Corinthian capital, 
but each possessing a distinctly localized development 
and descent. 

The first group consists of capitals whose cam- 
panula or lyre-shaped outline (Herzfeld) has perhaps 
been contaminated by the lotus-bud capital of 
ancient Egypt. This capital appears in the 3rd/9th 
century in the 'Abbasid monuments of Samarra 
and Rakka (^4). It passes, with many other 
elements, into the Tfllunid architecture at Cairo 
(end of 3rd/9th century) (B), and is preserved in 
Egypt under the Burdji (C) and Circassian {D) 
Mamlflks. The base has a similar, though inversed, 
outline. This bell-shaped capital is also found in 
Persia, whose brick and tile architecture admits of 
few real columns. It crowns the small imitation 
columns of the faience mihrdbs (E). 

The general outline of the second group of capitals 
is rather that of the Corinthian corbel; it appears as 
a simplified form of the latter, by eliminating the 
vigorous reliefs of the Corinthian and its local 
variants, and predominates in western Islam. In the 
3rd/9th century, al-Kayrawan possessed small 
capitals related to Coptic models, with four smooth 
leaves joined at the bottom and curving inwards at 
the point like a hook (F). From them derived, in 



<AMOD — AMUL 



459 



the same region, the Fatimid capitals of the 4th/ 
10th and sth/nth centuries, with a limb of flowing 
floral designs surmounting shafts decorated with 
whorls or inscriptions in scroll form (G), and, from 
the 7th/i3th century onwards, the Tunisian capitals 
(H). About the same period, the monuments of the 
Umayyads of Spain were ornamented with capitals 
copied from the two classical models : Corinthian and 
Composite (/), rounded off, as in the Great Mosque 
at Cordova, or scored with deep grooves as at 
Madlnat al-Zahra (2nd half of the 4th/ioth century). 
These were the prototypes of the many beautiful 
variants offered by the Aljaferia of Saragossa 
(5th/nth century) and the Almohad mosques of 
Ttnmal (/) and Marrakush (6th/i2th century). In 
the 7th/i3th century there emerged the Hispano- 
Morisco capital with a cylindrical lower portion and 
a paralleliped upper portion (K), which is recog- 
nizably a development from the Corinthian corbel 
which is both logical and in harmony with the 
Islamic plastic ideal. Various types can be found in 
the mosques and madrasas of North Africa and in 
the Alhambra at Granada. The latter has also some 
capitals in the shape of stalactites, probably an 
imitation of Persian originals. (G. Marcais) 

AMUL, name of two towns: (1) A town in the 
south-west corner of the east Mazandaran plain; 
it stands on the west bank of the Harhaz river, 12 
miles south of the Caspian Sea, in the district which, 
according to the Classical writers, was the home of 
the MdtpSoi ('A(zdtp8ot) (Amul may be the Modem 
Persian form of the (hypothetical) Old Persian 
Amardha). Ibn Isfandiyar (Ta'rikh-i Tabarist&n, 
Teheran 1941, 62 f.) states that Amul was founded 
by Amula, daugther of a Daylamite chieftain and 
wife of King Firiiz of Balkh, while Hamd Allah 
Mustawfi (Nuzhat al-Rulub, 159) maintains that 
King Tahmurath was the founder, but these are mere 
legends. In the Sasanid era, the district of Amul, 
together with Gelan (the modern Gilan), formed a 
Nestorian episcopal see (ZDMG, xliii, 407); the 
town is also entioned several times in the Shah-ndma. 
In Muslim times Amul became an important indu- 
strial and trading centre. The great historian al- 
Tabari and the famous jurist Abu '1-Tayyib al- 
Tabari were born there. The anonymous author of 
the Hudud al- l Alam (134, 135) described Amul as 
a great town and the capital of Tabaristan. It was 
then very prosperous, and many merchants and 
scholars resided there. It had a number of industries, 
and the surrounding disctrict produced large quan- 
tities of fruit of various kinds. Writing at much the 
same time, Ibn Hawkal stated that Amul was 
larger than Kazwln. 

Amul was sacked by Mas'ud, the son of Mahmud 
of Ghazna, in 426/1035-36, and again by Timur some 
350 years later. Sir Thomas Herbert, who visited 
Amul in 1628, described it as being "fruitfull and 
blessed", and as having "three thousand houses and 
those not builded in the meanest fashion" (A Relation 
of a Journey begun in 1610, London 1632, 106-7). 
Amul has been devastated by earthquakes and floods 
several times; despite these disasters, it is still a 
considerable town (modern Amul, however, stands 
a little to the east of the old town, the site of which 
is marked by extensive ruins). 

Its houses of burnt brick, with their red-tiled 
roofs, give Amul a picturesque apperance. It is 
connected with its suburb on the east bank of the 
Harhaz by a fine twelve-arched bridge. It is linked 
by roads with the small port of Mahmudabad on the 
Caspian, with Barbul (Barfurush) to the East, and 



with Calfls and Rasht to the west. In 1941 Amul 
had a population of 14, 166 (but the number of 
inhabitants undergoes seasonal variations, as many 
retire to the mountains in summer to escape from 
the heat and the mosquitoes). 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 68; Le Strange, 370; 

Sir W. Ouseley, Travels in various countries of the 

East, London 1819, 296-316; B. Dorn, Ausziige aus 

muhammed. SchriftsteUern betreffend die Gesch. und 

Geogr. der siidl. Kiistenldnder des Kaspischen 

Meeres, St. Petersburg 1858, 382; F. Spiegel, 

Eranische Altertumskunde, Leipzig 1871, i, 70; 

E. Reclus, Nouv. giogr. univ., ix, 235, 237; Pauly- 

Wissowa, s.vv. Amardoi and Amarusa; H. L. 

Rabino, Mazandaran and Astarabad, London 1928, 

33-40. (L. Lockhart) 

(2) A town situated at 39° 5' N. Lat. and 63° 41' 

east of Greenwich, 3 miles from the left bank of the 

Oxus (Amu Darya). In the Arabic Middle Ages, 

Amul belonged to the large province of Khurasan; it 

is now (under the name of Cardju or Cardjuy) in 

the Turkmen S. S. R. Although surrounded on all 

sides by desert, Amul was once of great importance 

for the caravan trade, as the meeting place of the 

roads connecting Khurasan with Transoxiana and 

Khlwa. The Samanid Ismail routed the c Alid 

Muhammad b. Bashlr and his army near Amul in 

287/900. The town is frequently mentioned in the 

sources dealing with the Mongol invasion and Timor's 

campaigns. The name Amul (like that of Amul no. 1) 

may be connected with the MdtpSoi (AjiipSoi), 

more especially with an eastern branch (cf. Pliny, 

vi, 47). In order to distinguish the town from Amul 

no. 1, definitions were sometimes added to the name, 

as Yakut points out, and it was called either Amul 

Zamm (cf. e.g. al-Baladhurl, ed. de Goeje, 410 and 

420), i.e. the Amul near Zamm (the modern Kerki, 

125 miles to the south-east), or Amul Djayhfln, i.e. 

the Amul on the Djayhfln (Oxus), or Amul al-Shatt, 

i.e. the Amul on the river. Yet another name of the 

town, which occurs already in the Middle Ages, is 

Amuya (cp. especially al-Baladhuri, 410; Yakut, i, 

365) or Amu (Yakut, i, 70); this last is perhaps 

merely a dialectical form of Amul, from which the 

later medieval name of the Oxus, Amu Darya 

('river of Amu') may have been derived (thus 

Barthold, cf. amu darya); it seems more likely, 

however, that Amuya may be derived from Amu, 

an ancient local name of the Oxus. The modern 

name, Cardjuy, "the four streams", refers to the 

important ford over the Oxus near by. Cardjuy is 

now connected by rail with Marw and Krasnovodsk 

to the west, and with Bukhara, Samarkand and 

Tashkent to the north-east; the railway crosses the 

Oxus by a long bridge go the north-east of the town. 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 69, 70, 365; Le 

Strange, 403 f., 434; Marquart, Eraniahr n. d. 

Geogr. d. Pseudo Moses-XorenacH, Berlin 1901, 

136, 311; id. Untersuchungen zur Gesch. von Eran, 

Leipzig 1895, ii, 57. (M. Streck*) 

The town aprJears to have received its present 

name of Cardjuy in the time of the Timurids; in his 

account of the events of 903/1477-8, Babur (Bdbur- 

ndma, ed. Beveridge, f. 58) mentions the passage of 

the river at Cardju (Cardju giizari). In 910/1504 

the fortress of Cardju (in Muhammad Sa\\\\,Shaybdni- 

ndma (Melioranski), 197: Cardju haV-asi, in Bana'i's 

Persian Shaybdni-ndma, quoted by SamoiloviC, Zap. 

Vost. Otd. Arkh. Obshc, xix, 173: KaV-a-yi Cahdr- 

djuy) had to surrender. to the Uzbegs. 

During the period of Uzbeg domination, as in the 
Middle Ages, the most important passage of the 



AMUL — 'AMWAS 



Oxus was at Cardjuy; boats were always kept in 
readiness for this purpose; bridges of boats were 
occasionally built for the passage of large armies, 
as, for example, for Nadir Shah's army in 1 153/1740. 
Cardjuy, is, however as far as is known, nowhere 
mentioned in any authority as a large town in this 
period, still less as the residence of a prince or governor 
of importance. (Cf. Burnes, Travels, iii, 7 ff. [visited 
the town in 1832] ; more reliable than J. Wolff, Nar- 
rative of a Mission to Bokhara, 1844, 162 ff.; Mush- 
ketow, Turkestan, St. Petersburg 1886, 606 ff. [visit 
of 1879]). 

In 1884, the Turkmens of Marw had to submit 
to the Russians; the old caravan route was replaced 
by a railway which reached the Amu Darya in 1886. 
The importance of Cardjuy, as a result, rapidly 
increased; the town, which was the residence of a 
beg of Bukhara, had before the Revolution about 
15,000 inhabitants. 

10 miles from Old Cardjuy near the Amu 
Darya railway station, on ground ceded by the 
amir of Bukhara to the Russian Government, a 
new town arose which was the seat of a Russian 
military commandant and which had a population 
in 1914 of 4-5,000. In 1901 a railway bridge was 
built across the Amu Darya thus ensuring railway 
communication between Cardjuy-Bukhara and Tash- 
kent. 

Under the Soviet regime new Cardjuy has be- 
come an important administrative and, since 1924 
industrial centre. In 1926, its population increased 
to 13,959, of whom 8,069 were Russians, 846 Arme- 
nians, 525 Uzbeks and only 458 Turkmens; in 1933 
it rose to 54,500, the Turkmens always forming a 
small minority. In 1955 it was the second town of 
the Soviet Republic of Turkmenistan, and for a time 
(before 1930) there was a proposal to make it the 
capital of the Republic. Since 21 Nov. 1939 New 
Cardjuy has been the chief town of the oblast* of 
the same name. It is a modern town designed on a 
rectilinear plan, and the town-planning scheme 
visualises an eventual population of about 200,000. 
It is the home of numerous industries, and an 
important centre of communications — rail (Kras- 
novodsk-Tashkent and Cardjuy- Kungrat lines); 
road (the Cardjuy- KMwa motor road) ; and river, the 
Amu Darya being navigable from Termez (Tirmidh) 
to the Aral Sea. 

Old Cardjuy (now Kaganovicesk) is now a small 
workers' town situated 5 miles from the outskirts 
of Cardjuy, and has retained its character as an 
ancient indigenous town. In 1931 its population was 
only 2,042, mainly Turkmens of the Salor tribe, and 
Uzbeks. 

The district (oblasP) of Cardjuy, created on 21 Nov. 
1939, has a total area of 36,000 sq.m. and is situated 
in Eastern Turkmenistan. The oasis of Cardjuy, 
which stretches between the Amu Darya and the 
Kara l£um desert, forms the centre of this disctrict ; 
it is a rich agricultural area (cultivation of silk, 
horticulture, cotton plantations, vine- 
ing of karakul sheep). (A 

AMULETS [see ijama'il]. 

'AMCR (Pjabal), a mov 
southern Algeria. The mountains of the 'Amur, 
named after a section of the people who live there 
form part of the Saharan Atlas of Algeria, together 
with the mountains of the r>sur and the Ouled Nail 
which form a continuation to the S-W and N-E. 
Nearly all over 3,900 ft., they rise slightly above the 
high steppes of Oran (3,275-3,900 ft.), and drop 
sharply down to the Saharan foothills (2,975-3,275 ft.). 



Between the ranges, which run S-W to N-E, stretch 
large synclinal watercourses with flat beds, with 
the occasional contrast of deep valleys which form 
scarped plateaus such as that of El-Ga'da. The alti- 
tude gives the region cold winters, temperate summers, 
and a relatively heavy rainfall. Thus the mountains 
of the 'Amur, are still covered with forests, especially 
in the north-western ranges (4920-5575 ft.) and on 
El-Ga'da (3935-4590 ft.) : these forests are mainly 
of juniper. Mediterranean flora mingles with that of 
the steppe, such as alfa, which prevails on the 
southern slopes. 

Inhabited from very early times, as is witnessed 
by the rock carvings and graves scattered over the 
massif, the Djabal 'Amur was for long ignored by 
the historians. The earliest inhabitants mentioned 
are the Rashid Berbers who have given their name 
to the massif. They were to some extent superseded, 
in the course of the 8th/i4th century, by the Arabi- 
cised nomads of the Sahara, the 'Amur, perhaps 
partly of Hilalian origin, who settled in this moun- 
tain massif, and the name Djabal 'Amur was sub- 
stituted for that of Djabal Rashid. 

Numerous traces of villages (ksur) point to the 
early existence of agricultural life on a wider scale 
than to-day. The Djabal 'Amur is primarily a pas- 
toral mountain region; flocks of sheep and goats 
move from the north to the south of the massif and 
along its fringes, and the inhabitants live in tents 
often carried on the back of oxen. The 'Amur make 
excellent knotted carpets. Aflou, the administrative 
and economic centre, has developed at the expense 
of the four surviving ksur. 

Bibliography: Derrien, Lt Djebel Amour 

[Bull, de la Soc. de geog. d'Oran, 1895); Cauvet, 

Le Djebel Amour (Bull, de la Soc. de geog. d' Alger, 

r 935) ; L. Golvin, Les Tapis algiriens, Algiers 1953 ; 

J. Despois, Pasteurs et villageois du Djebel Amour 

(in preparation). (G. Yver-[J. Despois]) 

'AMWAS or 'AmawAs, the ancient Emmaus, still 

marked by a large village, was situated in the plain 

of Jud<ea at the foot of the mountains, some 19 miles 

from Jerusalem, and commanding one of the principal 

approach routes to the latter. The site of a victory 

won by Judas Maccabaeus in 166 B.C., it was 

fortified by the Seleucid general in 160 B.C. and 

became under Caesar the chief tow of a toparchy, 

only to decline to the size of a small market-town 

after being burnt by Varus in 4 B.C. Its strategic 

importance, however, led to its being selected by 

Vespasian as the site of a fortified camp, and it had 

again grown to the size of a small city when it 

obtained from Elagabalus in 221 A.D. the title of 

Nicopolis, its Christian colony embellished it with 

a basilica which, as excavations have discovered, was 

rebuilt successively by the Byzantines and the 

Crusaders. 

The conquest of the area by the Arabs, which 
according to the sources occurred in 13/634 after the 
victory of Adjnadayn, or in 17/638 after that of the 
Yarmuk, marked its final decline; it was chiefly 
known as the source of the notorious "'Amwis 
plague" which left its tragic record in contemporary 
annals and which claimed 25,000 victims including 
the famous chiefs Abu 'Ubayda, Mu'adh b. Djabal 
and Yazld b. Abi Sufyan. Its position as admini- 
strative capital was taken over by Ludd, and then 
by Ramla, founded in Umayyad times; the Arab 
geographers confined themselves to mentioning the 
small town, which played no part even during the 
period of the Crusades, when it experienced the same 
fortunes as Jerusalem down to the temporary 



'AMWAS — ANADOLU 



4 6! 



o the Franks under the treaty of Jaffa 
between al-Malik al-Kamil and Frederick II. 

Bibliography: Ya'kuM, . t, 172; Baladhuri, 
Futuk, 138; Tabart, I, 2516-20; Ibn al-Athir, ii, 
388-9; Makdisi, 176; Bakri, Mu'djam (Wusten- 
feld), ii, 669; Harawl, Ziydrdt, Damascus 1953, 
34; Yakut, iii, 729; Caetani, Chronographia 
islamica, 209, Annali, iii, A.H. 13, 206, 17, 141; 
iv, A.H. 18, 4 and 47; G. le Strange, Palestine 
under the Moslems, London 1890, 393; A.-S. 
Marmardji, Textes giographiques arabes sur la 
Palestine, Paris 1951, 150-1; Vincent and Abel, 
Emmaus, Paris 1932; F. M. Abel, Histoire de la 
Palestine, Paris 1952, i, 136-9, 167, 411-13; ii, 6, 
187-9, 393-406; R. Grousset, Histoire desCroisades, 
Paris 1934-6, iii, 308. (J. Sourdel-Thomine) 
ANA [see sikka]. 

C ANA— in the Middle Ages also 'AnAt, and in 
Turkish official usage 'Ana — is a town of modern 
■•Irak situated on the Euphrates right bank (41° 58' E, 
34 28' N.), some 245 kilometers southeast of Dayr 
al-Zur and 148 north-west of Hit. The river, not 
here navigable by steamers (in spite of attempts a 
century ago), is used by shakhturs (wooden rafts), 
downstream only; and the traditional caravan-road 
from central 'Irak to northen Syria, passing through 
*Ana — a main element in its early importance — is 
little used since the appearance of trans-desert 
motor traffic. The town is flanked to the west by the 
tribal area of the 'Aniza sections in the Syrian 
desert, and to the east by the Shammar Djarba' in 
the Djazira, while the river banks are the area of 
the settled cultivating and sheep-breeding Dulaym. 
It is, under the 'Irak Government, the headquarters 
of a kadd in the liwd of Dulaym (headquarters, 
RamadI), and contains the additional ndhiyas of al- 
Ka>im, Djubba, and Hadltha. The townspeople, 
practically all SunnI Arabs — with small Jewish 
communities till 1369-70/1949-50 — were for centuries 
at bitter enmity with those of Rawa, immediately 
across the river: the feud was composed in 1340/1921. 
'Ana, utilising the thin strip of land between the 
river and the line of low cliffs to the west, has the 
singular form of great length — some 7 miles — and 
■extreme , narrowness. The buildings lie within a 
dense date-belt, irrigated by water wheels [nd'iir, 
pi. nawd'ir ) : there is also cultivation, and dwellings, 
on the mid-stream islands in the river. The town is 
reckoned as healthy and picturesque. 

The women of 'Ana are famed for their beauty, 
and for their weaving of cotton-cloth and woollen 
mats and cloaks: the men, whom lack of space for 
■expansion forces largely to emigrate, are known for 
their skill as Euphrates boatmen, and in earlier 
days for their monopoly of water-carryingin Baghdad. 
The educational standard, with eight schools in 
11)46, is relatively high. 

The modern 'Ana is the heir of a history disap- 
pearing into remote antiquity. Its name, recorded 
in cuneiform inscriptions as Anat or Khanat, was 
identical with the Greek Anatho ('AvaOw) (see Pauly- 
Wissowa, i, 2069, Suppl. i, 77; M. Streck, in ZA, xix, 
25; idem, in Klio, vi, 197; ZDMG, lxi, 701) and 
occupation (probably with minor variations of site) 
has apparently been continuous, as a centre of cul- 
tivation, trading-post, and at times military head- 
■Quarters; the islands, and sites on high ground west 
of the town, have at various periods been fortified 
as strong points or places of refuge. In 'Abbasid 
times 'Ana belonged to Djazira province, lying close 
to the frontier of al-'Irak; it was known to travellers 
n with extensive date and fruit 



gardens and a reputation for wine-making. Its wine 
is already praised by the old poets ; cf . S. Fraenkel, 
Die aram&ischen Fremdwbrter im Arabiscken, 157; 
G. Jacob, Altar ab. Beduinenleben, 98, 248. The caliph 
al-Ka'im took refuge here in 450/1058 from the con- 
temporary Daylami ruler of 'Irak. In early modern 
times, 8th/i4th to nth/i7th centuries, it was the 
headquarters of tribal rulers, who about 1750 were 
replaced by first a rudimentary and later (after about 
1267/1850) an organised Turkish administration; 
under the latter 'Ana was the headquarters of a 
kadd grouped directly under the wildyet of Baghdad. 
The town and district were occupied by the British 
in 1337/1918, and became part of the Kingdom of 
'Irak, with their present administrative grouping, 
in 1340/1921. 

Bibliography: Le Strange, 106, (with full 
references to Arab geographers); V. Cuinet, La 
Turquie d'Asie, Paris 1894 iii, 145; K. Ritter, 
Erdkunde, x, 141, 143 ft., xi, 717-26; E. Reclus, 
Nouv. giogr. un., ix, 450; M. Hartmann, in ZDPV, 
xxiii, 2, 122; S. H. Longrigg, Four Centuries of 
Modern 'Iraq, Oxford 1925: 'Abd al-Razzak al- 
Hasani, al-'Irak, Kadiman wa-Hadithan, Sidon 
1948, 239 ff. (S. H. Longrigg) 

ANADOLU, Anatolia, Asia Minor, 
(i) - The name, 
(ii) — Physical geography, 
(iii) — Historical geography of Turkish Anatolia. 

1. The conquest of Anatolia by the Turks, first 
phase, and the state of the Saldjuks of Rum. 

2. The conquest of Anatolia, second phase, and 
the beginnings of the Ottoman empire. 

3. The political divisions of Anatolia. 

4. Population. 

5. Communications. 

6. Economy. 

Anadolu (Arabic spelling i-^blj I, Anatoli i.e. Greek 
*AvaT0A7) in Byzantine pronunciation), Anatolia; 
Asia Minor, the mountainous peninsula — including 
its base — proceeding from the southern part of the 
Asiatic continent towards Europe (Balkan peninsula) 
— known as Asia Minor (MixpA 'Aaia) in antiquity — 
is situated between 36° and 42° N and 26° and 45° E. 
Together with the Balkan peninsula it has formed 
a bridge between Central Europe and Western Asia 
throughout its history. Arab geographers in the 
Middle Ages, and Turks until far into Ottoman 
times, called the country Bilad al-Rum (country 
of the Rhoraaeans). 

The name 'Ava-roM) ("rising" of the sun) is used 
first and foremost as a geographical term by the 
Byzantines, as "Orient" or "Levant", to denote all 
that lies east of Constantinople, i.e. especially Asia 
Minor and Egypt. A prefecture "per Orientem" 
(?7capxo<; fij? 'AvctTOATjc) appears, however, in the 
reorganization of the administration by Diocletian 
and Constantine as one of the four large sections 
of the empire; it consists of the five dioceses of 
Aegyptus, Oriens ('Avixtoa7j in the stricter sense), 
Pontus, Asiana and Thracia, that is to say, the 
Middle East, Thrace, Egypt and Libya. The admi- 
nistrative term ' Avixtoa7) disappears with the intro- 
duction of the division into themes (at the beginning 
of the first half of the 7th century); the name 
'Avixtoaixov or diym twv 'AvaroAixciv is now 
applied to the theme (administrative area) around 
Amorium and Iconium. This considerably smaller 
administrative unit is called al-Natolus, or some- 



462 ANA 

thing similar, (explained as al-mashrilf, "the east") 
by Ibn Khurradadhbih (107, transl. 79); al-NatolIk 
(explained as al-mashriki, "the eastern") by Kudama, 
(ed. de Goeje, 258, transl., 198) ; cf. H. Gelzer, Die 
Genesis der byzantinischen Themen-Verfassung, Leip- 
zig 1899, 83; F. W. Brooks, Arabic Lists of Byzantine 
Themes, Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1901, 67-77). 
The name of the theme Anatolikon disappears again 
with the Turkish conquest. The general geographical 
term Anatoli reappears, however, and gradually 
becomes Anadolu with the Turks. To begin, with, 
this meant only western Anatolia. The large Ottoman 
province {eyalet or wilayet) of this name embraced 
the area of the former western Anatolian Turkish 
principalities [see next article]. The term Anadolu 
as name of a province disappeared at the time of the 
reorganisation of the provinces during the tanzimat 
(middle of the 19th century). From then on "Ana- 
tolia", used geographically, came to mean the whole 
peninsula (roughly as far as the line Trebizond (Trab- 
zon) Erzindjan-Biredjik-Alexandretta) which today 
forms the main part of the area of the Turkish 
republic. "Anadolu", as it is used today in Turkish, is 
the whole Asiatic part of modern Turkey, including 
those areas which geographically belong to upper 
Mesopotamia: al-DjazIra (Diyarbakr), Kurdistan 
(Van and Bitlis), as well as to Armenia (Kars). It 
is in this sense that the term is used in the present 
article (the islands in the Aegean Sea are not taken 
into account). In 1950 the overall area of Turkey 
was stated to be 767,119 sq. km. Of these, Thrace 
has 23,485 sq, km. and Anatolia 743,634 sq. km. The 
number of inhabitants in the whole of Turkey was 
20,934,670 in 1950; of these, 1,626,229 lived in the 
European part of Turkey, and 19,308,441 lived in 
Anatolia. 

[For pre-Turkish Anatolia, see rum]. 

(F. Taeschner) 

General survey of the nature of the 
country. Anatolia consists of a spacious high 
plateau, ringed by longitudinal and even higher 
mountain ranges to the north and south. The central 
plateau contains Central Anatolia. The northern 
part of this ring may best be collectively called the 
northern Anatolian border mountains; the southern 
section is formed by the Taurus system. Central 
Anatolia is ringed off by hills to the east and west 
as well, where the northern and southern ranges 
come into contact. Thus there is the mountainous 
ridge of western Anatolia, with the Aegean coast- 
lands lying beyond it. In the east, there are the 
chains of mountains of the upper Euphrates region 
and — as a sort of outpost of Anatolia — the high 
plateau of Mount Ararat. 

As might be expected from the geographical 
position, the winter temperatures along the coast 
of Anatolia are mild, ranging from an average of 
over 5 C. on the Black Sea coast to over 8° C. on 
the southern coast during January. A large part of 
the country lies within the reach of the system of 
low atmospheric pressure which moves from west 
to east and influences the weather in western and 
central Europe throughout the year. Hence humidity 
in Anatolia is comparatively high during the winter. 
In summer, the coastal areas become oppressively 
hot, with average temperatures for July and August 
of 22° in the north and over 27° C. in the south. 
Northern winds prevail and bring a dryness, typical 
of the mediterranean climate, to the west and south 
coast in summer, whilst, coming from the sea, they 



bring rainfall even in summer to the northern coast. 
On the south and west coast, natural vegetation is 
largely of the evergreen variety common in mediter- 
ranean countries. In many places it has been made 
into arable land, whilst the rest has deteriorated into 
shrubs and sparse grazing ground. More luxuriant 
vegetation appears along the northern coast, which 
is more humid in the summer and where plants which 
need more water grow in woods, bushes and cultivated 
fields. 

The border mountains naturally have colder 
— in parts extremely cold — winters, their summers 
arc less hot, and the humidity is higher than along 
the coast. The sides of the mountains are naturally 
wooded. In the case of the western, southern, and 
eastern rims, these woods consist largely of "dry 
forest", particularly oak and coniferous trees. Many 
of them had to be sacrificed in the drive for 
arable and grazing land. In the northern mountain 
chains nearer the coast, "damp forest" prevails^in 
which the beech and the pine play a large part in 
the higher regions. "Dry forest" replaces "damp 
forest" even in northern Anatolia pn the inner 
mountain ranges, owing to the decreased humidity. 
"Damp forest" has great resilience and is therefore 
less threatened by human activity. 

The central Anatolian plateau — ringed by its 
border mountains — is cold in winter, with average 
temperatures for January below freezing point, 
whilst it is very hot in the summer, the July/August 
average reaching 24° C. Since there is considerably 
less rainfall here than there is in the coastal areas 
and their mountains, it is a steppe. Despite erroneous 
information on some maps, there are no stretches of 
desert in central Anatolia. Even in the "driest districts 
it is possible to grow barley and wheat without 
artificial irrigation,' relying solely on natural rainfall, 
with moderate success. 

There are steppes on the southern edge of the 
eastern Taurus where Anatolia and Mesopotamia 
meet. Although they are not much above sea level, 
they are a long way from the sea, and as a result 
winters are less mild and less humid than along the 
mediterranean coast, and summers very hot and d^y. 

The Noi" 



latolia 



tains. The range of north Anatolian border moun- 
tains (often known as the Pontic Mountains in 
Europe) consists of comparatively straight parallel 
mountain ranges from 1200 m. to 1500 m. in height, 
often rising to over 2000 m. These are fairly broad 
and some have plateaux. To the east, in the so-called 
Zigana mountains (called after the Zigana pass 
south of Trabzon) there is a long stretch over 
3000 m. in height, and here one finds alpine forma- 
tions. The mountains are made up largely of slate, 
sandstone, marl, volcanic stone, and crystalline 
substances. In the west one can trace — through the 
mountains south of the Sea of Marmara — a relation 
to the inner Dinaric mountain ranges of the Balkan 
peninsula. In the east, the southern Caucasus 
mountains form the link with the northern Iranian 

On the plateaux of the naturally wooded northern 
Anatolian mountain ranges, especially in the middle 
part, woodland has been turned into arable land up 
to a height of 1500 m. Growing of grain and raising 
of sheep and goats (in the east also cattle) form its 
economic basis. The long spacious valleys between 
the ridges, where hot summers and the presence of 
water make agriculture possible, are the main areas 
of settlement. Of these the most important is the 
row of basins of Bolu-Gerede-Cerkesh-Ilgaz-Tosya 



in the eastern part of the ancient Bithynia, the basin 
area of Safranbolu-Kastamonu-Boyabat, the centre 
of the ancient Paphlagonia, and, in the regions of 
the ancient Pontus, the basins on. the upper Yeshil 
Irmak (Iris) around Amasya, Zile and Tokat, and 
im the east, the Kelkit-Coruh furrow which is over 
500 km. long. 

On the north coast, mountains rise steeply out 
of the Black Sea; there are few bays. The coastal 
strip is very narrow and much cut up by valleys; it is 
densely populated, especially in the east, and maize, 
beans, and particularly hazelnuts are grown around 
Giresun [q.v.] (Cerasus), Tarabzun [q. v .] (Trapezus, 
Trebizond, modern Trabzon), and Rize [q.v.] The 
only larger flats are in the deltas of the rivers Yeshil 
irmak [q.v.] (Iris) and the Klztl frmak [q.v.] (Halys), 
b|ut these are partly swamp. The more fertile soil 
produces excellent, tobacco. The peninsula of Kodja- 
eli [q.v.] and the Thracian peninsula are flat, and 
the plains of Adapazarl [q.v.] on the lower Sakarya 
(Sangarius) are very fertile. 

A part from the Bosporus, there is only one harbour 
which is protected against the north-westerly gales 
of the Black Sea, and that is Sinob [q.v.] which, 
however, because of its unfavourable hinterland, is 
a.t present of little importance. Samsun [q.v.] (Amisus) 
has the best access — both rail and road— to central 
Anatolia. The coal-mining and industrial areas of 
Zonguldak [q.v.] and Eregli [q.v.] (Heraclea Pontica) 
are now being greatly developed. In the past, the 
silver, lead, and copper mines in the Zigana moun- 
tains were of some importance (Gumush-khane 
[q.v.], Murgul near Borcka, and others). 

The subsidence of land which has created the 
Aegean between Anatolia and the Balkan peninsula, 
has also affected the northern Anatolian mountain 
ranges in the Marmara region. As a result, there are 
hilly districts and plains around the Sea of Marmara 
(the basin of which is only deep in parts). These 
have a very favourable mediterranean climate. 
Silkworm is cultivated near Bursa [q.v.] (Brusa), and 
wine produced around Tekir Dagh [q.v.] (Rodosto). 
Qwing to its unique geographical position, the city 
of Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul [q.v.] grew 
up and retained its importance for thousands of 
years. Situated on the bridge between Anatolia and 
the Balkan peninsula, the most important times of 
the city were naturally those in which it played the 
r61e of the natural capital of an empire stretching 
over both areas. Yet even today, it is Turkey's gate 
to the world and her principal import harbour. The 
straits here are obviously not a borderline of conti- 
nents or cultures. Such a boundary might rather be 
found in the sparcely populated steppes and heather 
regions in eastern Thrace. 

The Taurus (Toros) System. On the whole, the 
Taurus system in southern Anatolia is considerably 
higher than the northern Anatolian border ranges. For 
long stretches, the mountain chains and broad waves 
of elevations rise to more than 2000 m. and at times 
to more than 3000 m. To the south-east of Lake 
Van (Wan) there are even heights up to 4176 m. in 
the ice-covered Djilo Dagh. Limestone predominates 
in these mountains. The mountain ranges are often 
strongly bow-shaped, thereby making clear sections. 
To the west of the Gulf of Antalya (Adalia, Attalia) 
the mighty ranges of limestone 
Western Taurus — the highest of which 
referred to as Lycian Taurus — point outwards in 
a S and SW direction towards the sea and towards 
Rhodes, Crete and the outer fringes of the Dinaric 
Mountains of the Balkan peninsula. Between the 



Gulf of Antalya and the Adana plain stretches 
the mighty arc of the Central Taurus. The name 
Cilician Taurus, which often occurs, refers to its 
better known eastern wing. The Taurus system 
continues in two parallel chains to the east of the 
Gulf of Alexandretta. An outer chain stretches from 
the Amanus Mountains to the chains south of Lake 
Van by way of the chains south of Malatya and 
south of the Murad River. An inner chain — the 
western section of which is sometimes called Anti- 
Taurus (a name given with little justification) — 
runs from the ridges of the upper Seyhan region 
north of Adana to the Urmiya area by way of the 
chains south of the upper Euphrates (Kara Su) and 
the upper Aras (Araxes). Between these two there 
are a number of basins, those of Elbistan, of Malatya- 
Elazig (Elaziz, Kharput), of Capakcur, Mush and 
Van. This whole mountain sytem is best called the 
Eastern Taurus. (In earlier works, nomenclature 
varied: in addition to Anti-Taurus, other names for 
parts of the system were employed, such as Armenian 
Taurus and Kurdish Taurus, without determining 
the precise use of each). The above-mentioned row of 
basins separates the chains of the inner from those 
of the outer Taurus. Thus, seen as a whole, the 
eastern Taurus system (with these two ranges) 
describes an arc towards the north, and its southern 
end merges into the southern Iranian border ranges. 

There are considerable longitudinal basins between 
the mountain ranges in the Western and the western 
part of the Central Taurus. Several of them contain 
lakes, the famous lakes of the old districts of Pisidia 
and Isauria. These basins are the main centres of 
habitation. In some places there are valuable special 
cultures, as for instance near Isparta [q.v.] and 
Burdur [q.v.]. The limestone mountains are thinly 
populated because of the scarcity of water. Grazing 
ground of a poor quality — used by goats and sheep 
in summer — has largely replaced the former "dry 
forest". Habitation in the Central Taurus, which is 
really one large massif, is restricted to the few narrow 
valleys. Here, too, the higher regions serve chiefly 
as grazing ground (yayla) for sheep and goats in 
summer. The eastern Taurus, which, as we have seen, 
stretches out more broadly, has a larger area in its 
basins which could be inhabited, but at present they 
are only thinly populated. As far as rainfall — which 
decreases with the distance from the mountains — 
permits agriculture exclusively based on rain water, 
habitation is also possible in the as yet thinly 
populated southern foothills of the eastern Taurus. 
It is possible in the vicinity of the ancient centres of 
Diyarbaklr (Diyar Bakr [q.v.] Diyarbekir, Amid), 
Urfa [see al-ruha] (Edessa), Gaziantep ('Ayntab 
[q.v.]), Halab [q.v.] (Aleppo), but not much further to 
the south. The most propitious area of these eastern 
foothills is the Hatay [q.v.] in the west around 
Antakiya [q.v.] (Antioch), where the nearby Mediter- 
ranean makes the growing of citrus fruits and other 
mediterranean crops possible. 

On the whole, the coastal strip of the Taurus 
offers only a narrow stretch of alluvial land and few 
hills which invite habitation. These few make pos- 
sible the cultivation of mediterranean plants, and 
in parts of citrus plants. There is, however, danger 
from malaria. Generally we find limestone mountains 
(with little water) rising at a small distance from the 
sea. The only really large arable area is the Adana 
[q.v.] plain — in which also Tarsus [q.v.] lies — the 
Cilician plain of antiquity, formed by deposits from 
the rivers Sayhan [q.v.] (Saros) and Djayhan [q.v.] 
(Pyramos). In recent years cotton growing in this 



464 ANA] 

area has increased considerably. The tufaceous 
limestone plain of Antalya [q.v.] with sheer drops 
or 30 m. to the sea, is less favourable. 

Anatolia's southern coast — in as much as it is a 
longitudinal one — has no protected landing places 
for larger ships. Iskandarun [q.v.] (Alexandretta) and 
Mersin [q.v.] have some importance as harbours of 
the Adana plain and the Hatay and as the harbours 
for shipping the chromium ore of the eastern Taurus. 
This part is played more to the west by the small 
harbour of Fethiyye for the western Taurus. 

Aegean Anatolia (Ege region). The areas 
between the two bordering mountain systems show 
less relief. There are several distinguishable units. 
In the west, there is Aegean Anatolia, in modern 
Turkish called the "Ege region", between the southern 
Marmara mountains in the north, and the western 
Taurus in the south, which corresponds roughly to 
the area of Ionian colonisation of the ancient Greeks. 
Here the broad valleys of the Bakir Cay (Caicus), 
<Jediz (Hermus), the greater and lesser Menderes 
(Kayster, Maeander), penetrate to a depth of 200 km. 
into the peninsula, in an area of crystalline rocks 
■(called Lydian-Carian rock by Philippson) between 
the mountain peaks running from west to east at 
heights between 1000 m. and 2000 m. Thanks to 
these valleys, the mediterranean climate can 
penetrate deeply into the country. This area is 
■densely populated. Tobacco, olives, figs, and grapes 
— largely dried for raisins — are grown here. More 
recently, cotton growing has gained some importance. 

The coast, running at right angles to the mountain 
xanges, has many bays, coves and good natural 
harbours. The larger rivers, however, carry a great 
•deal of sediment and gradually fill in the bays. 
Ephesus and Miletus, which were harbours in anti- 
quity, are today several kilometres inland, and the 
■otherwise excellent harbour of Izmir (Smyrna) is 
•only saved from being filled up by diversion of the 
liver Gediz Cay. Izmir [q.v.] is linked by railway to 
ail the above mentioned valleys, and has thus 
"become the economical centre of the region and the 
principal harbour for exporting the agricultural 
produce of Turkey. Bergama [q.v.] (Pergamum), 
Manisa [q.v.] (Magnesia), Tire [q.v.] Aydtn [q.v.] 
(Giizel Hisar) and Denizli [q.v.] are local centres of 

The Western Anatolian Ridge. Where in 
the east the valleys of Aegean Anatolia come to an 
■end, a huge ridge rises between the re-entrant angle 
of the Taurus system on the one hand, and the 
southern border chains of the sea of Marmara on the 
■other hand, in the area around Afyun FCara Hisar- 
Kiitahya-Ushak. This is formed by huge plateaux 
■which reach a height of 1200 m. to 1500 m. Massive 
ranges rise above these which frequently exceed 
2000 m. There is a gradual decline in height to 
1 1 00 m towards the northeast and the upper 
Sakarya (Sangarius). This large rise is the western 
Anatolian ridge. The plateaux consist largely of 
flat tertiary deposits of clay and sand which had once 
risen and were later cut into by the valleys we see 
today. They are steppes. Only the higher mountains 
reach the natural tree-line, but most of the woods 
lave been cut down. 

The growing of grain and the raising of sheep and 
goats form the livelihood of the scanty population. 
Several roads and railways lead to the inland 
plateau on the one hand and branch off near Afyun 
Kara Hisar [q.v.] (Afyonkarahisar) to the basins in 
the western Taurus, to the lowlands of the Ege 
region and to the Sea of Marmara on the other. 



Central Anatolia. The inland plateau of 
central Anatolia comprises large stretches of flat 
country at a height of 800 m. to 1200 m. These were 
formed by recent sedimentation in the bottoms of 
the landlocked basins of ^onya (Iconium), such as 
the Tuz Gdlli ("salt lake"), a huge flat salt pan at 
a height of 900 m. often erroneously marked down 
as Tuz Colii ("salt desert") on our maps. They also 
exist on the upper Sakarya and in certain places 
on the Klzll irmak. There are also other broad 
plateaux of horizontal new tertiary deposits, and 
flat plains over creased subsoil. 

Mountains of considerable height are, however, 
also found in central Anatolia. They rise from 500 m. 
to 1500 m. above the surrounding plateaux. There 
are some gigantic recent volcanoes which are, however, 
not active at present, such as the Erdjiyas Dagh, 
[?•»•] (3916 m.), the Argaeus of antiquity, near 
l<ayseri, and the Hasan Dagh (3258 m.) near Nigde. 

The mountains are of vital importance to human 
existence. In dry central Anatolia, surrounded by 
high mountains, the lowest areas are the driest, 
while the high mountains catch the rain. Hence the 
most favourable regions for settlement are, on the one 
hand, on the highest plateaus, such as for instance 
in the area of the bend of the tflztl irmak, in the 
Cappadocia of antiquity, and on the other hand at 
the foot of the surrounding mountains, where fast 
rivulets come forth. Most of the important towns 
are in the latter of these two positions, such as 
Ankara [q.v.] (Ancyra, Angora), Eski Shehir [q.v.}, 
Konya [q.v.] (Iconium), Nigde [q.v.] Rayseri [q.v.] 
(Caesarea), and Sivas [q.v.] (Sebastia). All these 
have — or had — land that can easily be irrigated. 
There is little population in the steppes, where the 
basis of livelihood is the growing of wheat and 
barley and the raising of sheep and angora goats, 
although thanks to recent mechanisation the 
cultivated areas have been increased and improved; 
there is least of all in the particularly dry basin of the 
Tuz G61U and of r>onya, the Lycaonia of antiquity, 
with a great deal of "Artemisian steppe". 

Traffic is easier through the central plateau than 
through the mountainous borders. For this reason 
this plateau, which has always been the centre of 
Anatolia, has become even more important since the 
capital shifted to Ankara and the road and rail net- 
work of Turkey was extended. 

The upper Euphrates area and the 
Ararat highlands. Geographically, the eastern 
limit of Anatolia is to be found on the upper 
Euphrates, where the mountain chains of the 
northern Anatolian border mountains and the 
eastern Taurus are joined by the rising of new 
mountains between the two systems. In this region 
of mighty chains of high mountains, where peaks 
generally exceed an altitude of 2500 m. (often 3000 
m.), the scanty population is found only in the 
valleys, more especially in the longitudinal ones. 
Along these, too, run the roads from Anatolia to 
Adharbaydjan and Iran. The rdle of the towns of 
Erzindjan [q.v.] and Erzurum [q.v.] (Erzerum) has 
always been to guard these roads. 

The eastern Taurus on the one hand, and the 
northern Anatolian border mountains on the other, 
divide again east of the meridian of Erzurum, thus 
forming a highland which, at 1500 m. to 1700 m., is 
an even higher basin than that of Central Anatolia. 
There are considerable volcanic deposits of recent 
formation over a creased basis. Huge recent (at 
present inactive) volcanoes, such as Ararat (Aghrl- 
dagh [q.v.]) (5172 m.), Alagoz Dagh (4094 m.), 



Sibhan Dagh (4434 m.) rise above the highlands, and 
in places, such as at lake Van, have led to a damming 
up of basins. 

This rough highland with low winter temperatures 
is used chiefly for grazing, since somewhat more 
favourable conditions for agriculture and habitation 
exist only in the comparatively small basins. It is 
generally known as Armenia. Historical events have 
resulted in the fact that there have been no Arme- 
nians living there for a generation. The scanty 
population speaks either Turkish or Kurdish. Thus 
it seems appropriate to give this eastern border 
region of Turkey — which is actually outside the 
geographical Anatolia — the name of the Ararat 
Highlands. This name would be neutral, yet geogra- 
phically characteristic. 

Bibliography: More recent general geo- 
graphical surveys: E. Banse: Die Tiirkei, 
eine moderne Geographie', Braunschweig 1916, 
contains an extensive list of earlier writing on the 
subject; R. Blanch ard: Asie occidental*, Paris 
1929; U. Frey: Tiirkei und Zypern (Handbuch 
der geograph. Wissenschaft, vol. Vorder- und Slid - 
asien), Potsdam 1937; H. Louis: Anatolien, 
Geograph. Zeitschr., 1939, 353-76; Hamit Sadi 
Selen: Iktisadt Turkiye, Istanbul 1939-40; Faik 
Sabri Duran: Turkiye Cografyast, Istanbul 1940; 
R. Stein metz: Anatolic, Tijdschr. Nederl. Aardr. 
Genootsch., 1941; H. Louis: Turkiye Cografyaslnln 
ana hatlari, 1. Turk Cogr. Kongresi Raporlar, 
Miizakereler, Kararlar, Ankara 1941, 171-228; 
Besim Darkot: Turkiye Cografyast, Istanbul 1942; 
H. Wenzel, Die Tiirkei, ein landeskundlicher Ober- 
Hick, Zeitschr. f. Erdkunde, 1942, 408-23; Sta- 
tistics: Kiiciik Jstatistik YUligl, Statistical 
abstract. Istatistik Genel Mudurlugu, last ed. 
1951, Istanbul 1952. Particularly important 
maps : R. Kiepert, Karte von Kleinasien, 24 sheets, 
1 : 400.000, Berlin 1902-6; A. Philippson, Topo- 
graphische Karte des westlichen Kleinasien, 6 sheets, 
1:300.000, Gotha 1910-3; Faik Sabri Duran: 
Biiytik Atlas, i" ed., Istanbul 1937, more recent 
eds. since then, contains a good map of Turkey, 
scale 1 : 4.5 Mill, and 1 : 2 Mill. ; Turkiye, 1 : 800.000 
Harta Genel Direktorlugti, Ankara since 1933, 
8 sheets, Istanbul, Ankara, Sivas, Erzurum, 
Izmir, Konya, Malatya, Musul; Turkiye Jeolojik 
Hartasl, 1 : 800,000, Maden Tetkik ve Arama 
Enstitusu, Ankara 1942, 8 sheets on the simplified 
topographical basis of the above mentioned map 
("Notes explicatives" to individual leaves have 
appeared in French); Turkiye Tektonih Hartasl, 
1 : 800.000, Maden Tetkik ve Arama Enstitusu, 
Necdet Egeran and E. Lahn, Ankara 1945. 

(H. Louis) 



(1) The conquest of Anatolia by the Turks, first 
phase, and the state of the Salaiuks of Rim. 

The main part of Anatolia remained untouched 
by the conquests of the Muslim Arabs. The boun- 
daries of the Byzantine empire remained: in the 
north-east, the Christian states of Armenia and 
Georgia; to the south of these, Kallkala (formerly 
Theodosiopolis, then Arzan al-RQm, Erzurum) and 
— at times — Kamakh were the furthest outposts of 
the empire of the caliphs; thence the Taurus, the 
"land of the passes" (bildd al-durub), formed the 
boundary as far as the Mediterranean. Although 
frequent raids into Byzantine territory were made, 
the Arabs never occupied the land. These border 
legions, comprising the outermost parts of Northern 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



OLU 465 

Syria and Upper Mesopotamia, were the "military 
area of the protecting fortresses" (diund al-'awdsim, 
or simply al-'awasim, [?.».]); Manbidj or Antakiya 
(Antioch) was the capital of this region, whilst the 
armed fortresses of the "Syrian marches" (thughur 
al-Sha'm) with Tarsus as its centre, and the "Meso- 
potamian marches" (thughur al-Djazira) with Mala- 
tiya (Melitene) as their centre, formed the outer 
border. In the changing fortunes of the war between 
Byzantines and Arabs, these border areas suffered 
greatly, but they remained, on the whole, in the 
possession of the Arabs. Not until the conquests of 
the great emperors Nicephorus II Phocas (963-69), 
John Tzimiskes (969-76), and Basil II (976-1025) did 
these areas return to Byzantine ownership. At the 
time of the death of the last of these three, the whole 
of the territory of Turkey as we know it today, with 
the exception of Amida (DiySr Bakr) and its sur- 
roundings, was Byzantine (compare E. Honigmann, 
Die Ostgrenie des Byzantinischen Reiches von 363 
Ms 1071, Brussels 1935). Then, however, the rivalries 
between the military nobility and the nobility of 
civil servants began in Byzantium. These, particu- 
larly when the latter were in power, led to a weakening 
along the borders. 

The Turkish conquerors of the house of Saldjuk 
found the Byzantine borders in one of these weak 
periods, when, after conquering the whole of the 
Middle East, they sent their Turkish warriors 
against the frontier, in order to fight the holy war 
(Hihad). They did, in fact, achieve several breaks 
through into Byzantine Anatolia (456/1064 conquest 
of AnI in the Byzantine-Armenian border area, 
laying waste Cilicia and storming Cae°area (Kay- 
sariyya). After the death of emperor Constantine X 
Ducas, a champion of the civilian nobility (May 
1067), Romanus IV Diogenes, a member of the 
military nobility, was raised to the throne on the 
battlefield (1 Jan. 1068) because of the desperate 
position which had arisen. To begin with, he fought 
the Turks successfully, so that the Saldjuk sultan 
Alp Arslan was obliged to go against him in person. 
The numerically superior Byzantine army was 
routed by Alp Arslan near Mantzikert (Malizgird) 
in the vicinity of Lake Van, (463/19 August 1071) 
because of lack of discipline among the mercenaries 
and treachery by the opponents of the emperor. The 
emperor was captured, but he was freed by the 
sultan after a lenient treaty had been concluded. 
The defeat, however, caused a revolution in Con- 
stantinople, which brought the opposing party to 
power. Romanus IV lost his throne and was blinded. 
He died soon afterwards (summer 1072). 

With the fall of the Emperor Romanus, the treaties 
between him and Alp Arslan became void, and the 
Turks renewed the holy war against Byzantium. 
This was fought not by regular Saldjuk troops, but 
by individual leaders, the most successful of whom 
was Malik Danishmand r ,q.v.] Aljmad GhazI who ope- 
rated in north-eastern Anatolia. Bands ot Turkish 
warriors roamed the countryside and interrupted 
communications between towns, paralysing Byzantine 
administration. Eventually the successor of Alp 
Arslan, sultan Malikshah (since 465/1072), despat- 
ched a member of the house of Saldjuk, Sulayman 
b. Kutlumlsh, to . lead the Turkish cavalry in 
Anatolia in the war being waged against Byzantium. 
His task was facilitated by the existing confusion 
over the succession to the throne in Byzantium. 
Emperor Michael VII Ducas and — after his abdica- 
tion (1078) — Nicephorus III Botaniates, obtained 
Sulayman's assistance to gain their aims. On their 
30 



part, they had to recognise his rights to those parts 
of the country which the Turks had occupied, and 
to hand over the recently conquered cities of Cyzicus 
and Nicaea (1081). Sulayman established his head- 
quarters in Nicaea (Turkish Iznik). The Emperor 
Alexius F Comnenus, who began his reign in 1081, 
confirmed Sulayman's rights to settle his Turkish 
troops in the occupied territory, whilst nominally 
retaining Byzantine suzerainty. In actual fact, 
Sulayman ruled over practically the whole of 
Anatolia through his troops which roamed the 
country. Byzantine administration was virtually 
superseded. 

After his successes in Anatolia, Sulayman turned 
to the east, to extend his rule in this direction. He 
did succeed in capturing Antioch (Antakiya), which 
was still Byzantine, but met with heavy opposition 
from the Saldjuk amirs, especially from Tutush, the 
brother of Malikshah, when advancing towards 
Aleppo. He was beaten and fell in battle (1086). 

In the meantime, Turkish bands fighting the holy 
war in AdharbaydjSn had conquered the Christian 
kingdom of the Bagratids in Armenia (473/1080). 
Following this, the Bagratid Ruben and his faithful 
followers founded a new state in Cilicia, known as 
the kingdom of "Lesser Armenia". It survived until 
the 14th century (1375) under his successors, the 
Rubenids. [See sis.] 

After the death of Sulayman, Anatolia was left 
to its own devices for some time. Other Turkish 
leaders settled in the country together with their 
troops and founded dominions there: the afore- 
mentioned Malik Danishmand Ahmad Ghazi in the 
north-east, with Sebastia (Sivas) as headquarters; 
the amir Mengiidjek [q.v.] Ghazi with Tephrike 
(Divrigi) and Erzindjan; and in the west, in Smyrna, 
a certain amir called Tzachas by the Byzantines. 
Only after the death of sultan Malikshah (1092) did 
his successor, Barkiyaruk, permit the son of Sulay- 
man, KUldj Arslan, to return to Anatolia, but he 
found it difficult to establish himself among the 
Turkish princes. Tzachas, who was advancing 
against Constantinople by sea, was repelled with 
Byzantine aid. 

At the beginning of the first crusade, the allied 
Byzantines and crusaders gained a victory over 
the Turks under Kllldj Arslan and Malik Danish- 
mand (or his son, Ghazi Giimushtegin) near Nicaea. 
The Turkish headquarters at Nicaea was besieged 
and taken on 20 June 1097. On 1 July 1097, the 
victory of the crusaders near Dorylaeum, near 
the Eskishehir of today, decided the fate of western 
Anatolia and opened the way for the crusaders 
through the rest of the Turkish territories. They 
reached Antioch, which was taken after a long siege 
(3 June 1098). Here the principality of Antioch, the 
first crusader state, was founded under the suze- 
rainty of Byzantium. The county of Edessa (today 
Urfa), in Mesopotamia, was founded in the same 
year. After these successes by the crusaders, the 
Emperor Alexius found little difficulty in driving 
the Turks from western Anatolia and in re-incor- 
porating this area into the Byzantine empire. He also 
re-inforced the border — running straight through the 
middle of Anatolia — against the region remaining 
under Turkish occupation. This, for the time being, 
checked the Turkish conquests. 

After this set-back, the area of Turkish conquest 
remained limited to central Anatolia for over a 
century. The whole of the west (roughly from Dory- 
laeum), and the Black Sea and Mediterranean coasts 
remained in Byzantine possession, Cilicia became 



the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia, and the regions of 
Antioch and Edessa formed the afore-mentioned 
crusader states. Amid (Diyar Bakr) was the seat of 
the atabeg dynasty of the Artukids [q.v.]. Later (1144), 
Edessa was conquered by the atabeg Zengi of Mosul; 
later still (1268), Antioch was taken by the Mamluk 
sultan Baybars. Kllldi Arslan had to share the centre 
of the country, occupied by Turks, with Malik 
Danishmand, or his son, and Mengiidjek. The 
former retained the steppe in Central Anatolia, 
with Konya — the Iconium of antiquity — as his 
capital; the latter retained the mountainous nortri- 
east with Sivas and Erzindjan respectively. There 
was a heated quarrel over some places, especially 
Melitene (Malatya), which Kllldj Arslan eventually 
managed to decide in his own favour (1104 or 1106). 
KUldj Arslan failed, however, in his attempt to make 
conquests further to the east, in Mesopotamia 
(Mosul). He was beaten by the confederated Saldjuk 
amirs on the banks of the Khabur, and died during 
the retreat (9 Shawwal 500/3 June 1107). Concerning 
events at this period, see also CI. Cahen, La premiere 
pinitration turque en Asie Mineure, Byzantion, 
1946, 5-67). 

Thus the Rum Saldjuk state [see saldjuk] or 
the Sultanate of Iconium, as the crusaders called it, 
was a rather limited territory in the poorest part 
of Anatolia. The Rum Saldjuks under Mas'ud I 
retained this area and, having beaten the crusaders 
of the second crusade in the second battle near 
Dorylaeum (26 Oct. 1147), forced them to continue 
their way through Byzantine instead of Turkish 
territory. The Rum Saldjuk state was considerably 
extended when Kllldj Arslan II succeeded in incor- 
porating the Danishmandid state (1174), which he 
secured against the claims of the Byzantine Emperor 
Manuel I Comnenus by the victory in the Phrygian 
mountain passes, near Myriocephalon (pass of 
Cardak, 17 Sept. n 76), in which he surrounded and 
routed the Byzantine army. The aged Sultan Kllldj 
Arslan II was involved in the disputes which arose 
after he had divided his land among his sons. Owing 
to this, the German Emperor Frederic Barbarossa 
was able to take the route through Turkish Anatolia 
and even capture its capital Konya (18 May 1190), 
but this had no lasting consequences, particularly 
as the emperor himself was drowned not long after- 
wards (10 June 1 190) in the river Saleph (Calycadmjs 
in antiquity, GSksu today). 

The crusaders of the so-called fourth crusade 
conquered Constantinople (1204) and erected a 
Latin Empire there, at the instigation of the Doge 
Enrico Dandolo of Venice; the Byzantines, under 
Theodore Lascaris, founded a Greek Counter-Empire 
in western Anatolia with Nicaea for its capital; and 
the brothers David and Alexis, of the imperial 
house of the Comneni, had, with the help of Queen 
Thamar of Georgia, formed the empire of the so- 
called "Great Comneni" in Trebizond. The Rum 
Saldjuk sultan Ghiyath al-DIn Kaykhusraw I, the 
youngest son of Kllldj Arslan II, succeeded in 
conquering Attalia (Adaliya, Antaliya), thereby 
gaining access to the Mediterranean for his kingdom 
(1207). He was not, however, successful in advancing 
further into western Anatolia. He was beaten by 
Theodor Laskaris near Honas, in 1210, and fell in 
battle (possibly in single combat with his adversary). 
Theodor Laskaris and his successors protected the 
eastern border of their Nicaean empire with a strong 
system of fortifications which, for the time being, 
made it impossible for the Turks to advance in that 
region. In 1214, Kaykhusraw's son 



<Izz al-DIn Kaykawus I, forced the emperor of 
Trebizond to cede Sinope (Sinob), and so the Rum 
Saldjuk Kingdom also gained access to the Black 
Sea. This extension meant traffic with the outside 
world. Connections were made with the Italian 
trading republics, trade flourished and brought 
undreamed-of prosperity to the country. c Ala J al- 
Dln Kaykubad, the brother and successor of Kay- 
kawus, and the greatest of the Rum Saldjuk sultans, 
extended the frontier of his empire on the medi- 
terranean and took the fort of Galonoros (xaXov 
8po?), which he expanded into a sizable harbour town, 
to which he gave the name 'Ala'iyya (now Alaya or 
Alanya), and where he had his winter residence. In 
the east, in upper Mesopotamia, he also won territory 
from the Artukids of Amid and Hisn Kayfa and 
forced them to recognise his supremacy. In 625/1228, 
he annexed the Mengiidjek principality of Erzindjan, 
and in the east he also made further conquests 
(Erzerum 1230, Akhlat 1231, Kharput 1234). Under 
his rule, Rum Saldjuk culture and power reached 
their peak. His son and successor Ghiyath al-Din 
Kaykhusraw II (ace. 634/1237) succeeded in incor- 
porating Amid into his empire, and at that time the 
eastern borders of the Rum Saldjuk kingdom were 
roughly those of Turkey today. 

(2) The conquest of Anatolia, second phase, and 
the beginnings of the Ottoman Empire. 

Two things in the middle of the 13th century 
brought about a change of conditions. The first of 
these was the Mongol invasion of the Middle East, 
which also affected Anatolia. Although the Rum 
Saldjuk army was defeated by the Mongols under 
Baydju Noyon near Kdse Dagh in eastern Anatolia 
(6 Muharram 641/26 June 1243), there was no 
actual conquest of the Rum Saldjuk Kingdom, but 
the Mongols advanced as far as Kaysariyya and 
did much plundering. The Kingdom grew more and 
more into the role of a vassal state of the Mongols, 
first of Batu, the conqueror of eastern Europe, then 
of the Mongol rulers of Persia, the Ilkhans. A new 
stream of Turkmens came to Anatolia with the 
Mongols, partly as their followers, partly because 
they had been driven by them from their original 
homes. They increased the partly-nomad Turkmen 
element already present in Anatolia, and played an 
important part. Those of most immediate importance 
were the hordes led by Karaman [ ? .„.] b. Nura Sufi 
(thus probably a member of a darwish family). He 
founded a state on the border of Lycaonia and 
Cilicia around Ermenik (the ancient Germanicopolis) 
in the Taurus foothills. In 1277, Karaman's son, 
Muhammad Beg, tried to gain the dominion over 
tbe Rum Saldjuk kingdom by means of a pretender 
by name of Djimri, and he conquered Konya for 
his protege. But the town was re-taken by a Mongol 
retaliatory expedition, and Muhammad Beg had to 
retreat into the mountains with his Turkmens. 
Djimri escaped to the north-west, but he was beaten 
by Saldjuk troops on the Sakarya (Muharram 
676/June 1277), taken prisoner, and executed. 

The other important event was the reconquest of 
Constantinople by the Byzantines under the 
Emperor Michael VII Palaeologus, and the restora- 
tion of the Byzantine Empire. The power of the 
empire was, however, past. The emperors of the 
house of Palaeologus were increasingly engaged in 
the Balkan peninsula, and they had to ward off the 
covetousness of the Latins. The remaining strength 
of the empire was taken up with this. The emperors 
were unable to devote the necessary attention to 



conditions in Anatolia, and allowed the defensive 
system — built up by the Lascarids — to fall into 
decay. This made it easy for the Turkmen hordes 
which.were pouring into Anatolia to pursue the holy 
war and to gain a hold on the western parts. These, 
with their greater fertility as compared with the 
inner region, had already tempted them. The 
Palaeologi were thus forced progressively to sur- 
render their Anatolian territories, and the Turks — 
especially in the open country — met with hardly any 
resistance. By about 1300 most of western Anatolia 
was in Turkish hands, and there was now hardly a 
district in which there were no Turks among the 
non-Turkish inhabitants. Eventually, only a few 
fortresses (such as Prusa, Nicaea and Nicomedia in 
Bithynia; Sardes, Philadelphia and Magnesia in 
Lydia) and some ports (such as Smyrna and Phocaea 
on the Aegean and Heraclia on the Black Sea) 
remained in Byzantine possession, as isolated 
Byzantine possessions in Turkish territory. 

The Turkish hordes generally operated indepen- 
dently of each other under their leaders who founded 
principalities (amlrates) in the conquered districts. 
We know little about their early history, although one 
gathers that there were quite a number of such small 
semi-nomadic states, of which some were of only 
ephemeral importance. By about 1300, a small 
number of principalities had emerged. The most 
powerful of these was, to begin with, Germiyan [q.v.] 
in Phrygia, with Kutahiya (the ancient Cotyaeum) 
as its capital. According to al- c Umari, the Turkish 
amirs of western Anatolia paid tribute to the 
Germiyan at some periods, and according to Ibn 
Battuta they were feared by them. Temporarily 
they extended their power into central Anatolia, in 
1300 as far as Ankara (according to an inscription). 
Incidentally, they do not seem to have been Turk- 
mens originally, but possibly YazidI Kurds (com- 
pare Cahen, Notes sur I'histoire des Turcomans d'Asie 
Mineure au XIII' siicle in J A, 1951, 335-54; con- 
cerning the origin of the Germiyan, especially 
349 ff.). A whole circle of principalities grew up 
around Germiyan and some of the founders of these 
seem to have come from Germiyan. The second 
greatest of these western Anatolian principalities 
at that time, was Djandar [q.v.] in Paphlagonia, 
with Kastamoni (Castra Comneni, today Kastamonu) 
as its capital, and the harbour town of Sinob (Sinop, 
Sinope) also belonging to it. To the west of it, in 
northern Phrygia (around Eskishehir-Dorylaeum), 
was the principality of c Othman with Sogiid as its 
centre. After the conquest of some fortresses there, 
it soon expanded as far as the Sea of Marmara. 
Still further west, in Mysia, was KarasI [q.v.] with 
Balikesri (Palaeocastro) and Berghama (Pergamum), 
which included the coastal area of the Sea of Marmara 
as far as the Hellespont (Dardanelles). Next to this, 
in the Aegean coastal region, were Sarukhan [q.v.] 
in northern Lydia, with Maghnisa (Magnesia, now 
Manisa); Aydln [q.v.] in southern Lydia and the 
hinterland of Smyrna with Tire; and Menteshe [q.v.] 
in Caria, with Milas (Mylasa) and Mughla. Lastly, 
in furthest south-western Anatolia, were Tekke 
[q.v.] in Lycia and Pamphylia with Adalia (Antalya), 
and Hamid [q.v.] in Pisidia with Isbarta. 

At about the same time, the Rum Saldjuk state 
ceased to exist. For some time past, the importance 
of the reigning sultans had been replaced by that 
of the Mongol governors who resided in Sivas. 
After the death of c Ala' al-DIn Kaykubad III 
(707/1307 or 708/1308), the last of the shadow 
sultans, the empire simply became a province of 



468 ANA 

the Mongol Ilkhan Empire of Persia. By exploiting 
this condition, the Karamans [q.v.] tried to extend 
their territory from their Taurus foothills; they 
succeeded in conquering the town of Laranda (now 
Karaman), which they made their capital. They did 
not, however, succeed in taking Konya, as this was 
held by the Ilkhan governor Copan and his son 
Temurtash. The latter actually extended the domain 
of the Ilkhan Empire by conquests in the west, 
where he fought with the Turkish petty princes. 
In the twenties, unrtst in the Ilkhan Empire spread 
to Anatolia (Temurtash fled to Egypt in 728/1328). 
The conquered territories were lost, and the Karamans 
succeeded in capturing Konya; but they kept 
Laranda as their capital. During the course of the 
14th century, the Karamans extended their rule 
westwards in southern Anatolia, and thereby came 
into contact with the Turkish states which were 
developing in western Anatolia. 

With the continuing decay of the Ilkhan Empire, 
the Mongol governors declared themselves indepen- 
dent as amirs (or sultans) of Rum, and sought the 
support of the Mamluk sultans of Egypt. In 1375 
the latter brought the kingdom of Lesser Armenia 
to an end, and a Turkmen dynasty, named Ramadan 
[q.v.], founded a new state in its Cilician territory 
soon afterwards, with Adana as capital, under 
Egyptian supremacy. Another family of Turkmens, 
the Dulghadir (Arabicised as Dhu '1-Kadr [q.v.]) 
settled in the Eastern Taurus area including Elbistan, 
also under Egyptian supremacy. 

In the west, the principality of Ghazi 'Othman, 
and his descendants, the Ottomans [see c uthmanl1], 
extended more and more at the expense of the 
remaining Byzantine territory. After northern 
Phrygia and the territory as far as the Sea of 
Marmara had become Ottoman, the towns of Prusa 
(Brusa, Bursa, 6 April 1326), Nicaea (Iznik, 2 March 
1331) and Nicomedia (Iznikomid, now Izmit, 1337) 
fell into the hands of Orkhan, the son of 'Othman. 
Brusa became his capital. Turning quarrels over 
the succession in the neighbouring principality of 
Karasi to his advantage, Orkhan annexed its 
territory (736/1336). Thus the whole southern coast 
of the Sea of Marmara became Ottoman territory, 
including the access to the Dardanelles. Acquisitions 
in Anatolia — usually peaceful ones — coincided with 
the conquests on the Balkan peninsula under 
Murad I. Soon after his accession (761/1360), he 
gained Ankara, which was nominally under the 
Mongol governors — and later under their successors 
the amirs of Rum (Sivas) — but governed in actual 
fact by the heads of the guilds forming the akhi [q.v.] 
union and practically independent. Some time later, 
he obtained the principality of Hamid (783/1381), 
thereby extending Ottoman territory considerably 
to the east and south. Murad's son and successor 
Bayezld I simply annexed all Anatolian Turkmen 
principalities shortly after his accession (792/1389), 
including Karaman and the territory of the Mongol 
governors. This, however, resulted in an attack by 
Tlmur, and Bayezld I was beaten in the battle near 
Ankara (19 Dhu '1-Hidjdja 804/20 July 1402). Tlmur 
reinstated the deposed Anatolian rulers, and, apart 
from the original Ottoman territory, only the original 
Mongol territory in the northeast of Anatolia 
remained in Ottoman hands. From there, Meljemmed I 
unified the empire once more, and under Murad II 
the western Anatolian principalities gradually merged 
with the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans' only 
remaining rival was Karaman. Murad's son, Me- 
hemmed II, completed the rounding off of Ottoman 



territory in Anatolia after having given it a natural 
centre by conquering Constantinople (29 May 1453). 
He put an end to the empire of Trebizond in 1461, 
and to the principality of Karaman in 1467, incor- 
porating both into the Ottoman Empire. The 
attempt of the Turkmen ruler Uzun Hasan, of the 
House of the Ak Koyunlu, to force Mehemmed to 
cede the annexed provinces failed with the loss of 
the battle of Terdjan (east of Erzindjan, 878/1473). 
Ottoman rule in Anatolia was completed in the east 
when Mehemmed's grandson, Selim I (921/1515) 
incorporated the principality of Dulghadir into the 
empire and conquered Diyar Bakr, and when he 
reduced the principality of the Ramadanoghullart 
(in Cilicia) to vassalage and gained the allegiance of 
the Sunnite Kurdish chieftains. In the north-east, 
his rule was further extended into the Caucasian 
foothills by campaigns of the Ottoman Sultans and 
their generals against Persia. These were generally 
directed towards the north-east (Suleyman, 940/1534, 
955-56/1548-49. the ser-'asker Mustafa Pasha, 986/ 
1578, against Georgia, and Murad IV, 1045/1634, 
against Erivan). The whole of Anatolia henceforth 
remained undisputedly in Ottoman possession and 
has been taken over by the Turkish Republic in 
our day. 

The only change in more recent years has been the 
transfer of the districts (sandjaks) of Kars, Ardahan 
and Batum which went to Russia in accordance 
with the Berlin Treaty of 13 July 1878, which in 
this respect confirmed the peace of San Stefano 
(3 March 1878). But the peace of Brest-Litovsk 
(3 March 1918) returned this territory to Turkey. 
This was finally ratified (with the exception of the 
town of Batum and a small hinterland, today 
known as Adjaristan) by the USSR in the Treaty of 
Moscow (16 March 1921), and by the — then still 
nominally independent — Soviet Republics of Georgia, 
Armenia and Adharbaydjan in the Treaty of Kars 
(13 Oct. 1921) (cf. G. Jaschke, GeschichU der russisch- 
tiirkischen Kaukasusgrenne, Archiv des Vblkerrechts, 
1953. 198-206). In the Franco-Turkish Treaty of 
23 June 1939, Syria ceded the sandjak of Iskandarun 
to Turkey, and it was incorporated into her territory 
as the (63rd) wilayet of Hatay. 

(3) Political division of Anatolia. 

The earlier Ottoman organisation. The 
Ottoman Empire extended so quickly that it soon 
became necessary to divide it up into political 
regions. In the beginning these were simply districts 
of the feudal cavalry, "standards" (sandjak [q.v.] 
or liwa') which were under a district commander of 
the "standard" (sandiafr begi or mir-liwa'). Under 
Orkhan, the second Ottoman ruler, there were 
already four of these. (1) Sultan-iiyugi [q.v.'] which 
incorporated the original territory of the Ottomans 
around Eskishehir and Sogiid; (2) Khudawendkar 
(eli) "the ruler's (land)", administered by the ruler 
himself, with Brusa and Iznik; (3) Kodja-eli [q.v.] 
the feudal tenure which Orkhan had bestowed upon 
his general Akde Kodja, the Bithynian peninsula 
with Izmid; and (4) Karasl-eli [q.v.] the former 
principality of Karasi, with Balikesri and Berghama. 
Under Murad I, when the empire extended still 
further after the conquests in the Balkan peninsula 
and further regions of Anatolia, Ottoman territories 
were united into one province on each side of the 
straits (eyalet, later wilayet), each under a pasha 
with the title of begUrbegi (later wait). Thus, to 
begin with, there were two provinces, with the 
names of Anatolia (Anatoli, later pronounced 



Anadolu) arid Rumelia (Rum-eli). Each of these was 
subdivided into districts of the feudal militia (sandiak 
or liwa'). When the Turkish principalities in Anatolia 
became part of the Ottoman Empire, they were made 
into such sandiaks, but retained their original names. 
The gradual growth of the empire is thus shown in 
its political divisions. Later on, when the Ottomans 
penetrated further to the east, under Bayezid I and 
particularly under Meljemmed II andSellm I, newly 
acquired areas no longer became sandiaks of the 
eyalet of Anadolu, but became provinces in their 
own right. Independent of this division into provinces 
and sandiaks was a separate division into judicial 
districts (kadd), each of which was under a judge 
(kadi). Furthermore, there were domains (hukumet) 
ruled by local dynasties, direct vassals to the 
Sublime Porte. This whole system was finally fixed 
by the laws of Sultan Siileyman I Kanuni. According 
to this, (cf. the printed edition of Katib Celebi, 
Diihdn-niimd ; cf . also J. v. Hammer, Des osmanischen 
Retches Staatsverfassung und Staatsverwaltung ii, 
249 ff. and P. A. v. Tischendorf, Das Lehnswesen in 
den muslimischen Staaten, Leipzig 1872, 62 ff.), there 
were the following eyalets in Anatolia: (1) Adana 
(601, also mentioned as sandiak of Aleppo) ; (2) Ana- 
dolu (630; cf. also anadolu the following art.) ; (3) part 
of Cildtr (408, later Akhiska in Transcaucasia); 
(4) Diyar Bakr (436) ; (5) Arzan-i Rum (Erzerum, 422) ; 
(6) Karaman (Konya, 614); (7) Kars (407); (8) Dhul- 
kadriyya (Mar'ash, 598); (9) Rakka (Urfa, 443); 
(10) Siwas (also simply called Rum 622); (n) Tirab- 
zon (Tarabzon, 429); (12) Wan (411); (13) from the 
eyalet of Halab (Aleppo) the sandiaks Antakiya (595, 
the modern Hatay), Bire (Biredjik, 597) and Kilis 
(598); (14) the western Anatolian sandiaks Bigha 
(667), Karasl (661) and Sughla (Izmir, 667), and the 
areas of Icel (Selefke) and Alaya with the island of 
Kubrus (Cyprus) on the south coast, which were 
under the Kapudan Pasha. [See individual articles 
for each of the preceding.] 

Basically, this division was adhered to until the 
beginning of the 19th century, although, at times 
of weak central governments, some local pashas rose 
and attempted to extend their rule beyond their 
original provinces. Such governors who acquired 
independent power and founded dynasties were 
known as "Princes of the Valleys" (dere begi [q.v.]). 
They were no longer civil servants, but vassals of 
the Sublime Porte, and — reluctantly — recognised as 
such, contributed troops to the sultan. Because they 
had an interest in the prosperity of their regions, 
their rule was generally a beneficial one, whilst the 
governors sent from the Porte changed frequently, 
and their main interest was to amass wealth for 
themselves as quickly as possible. The 18th century 
in particular saw the development of several such 
dominions in Anatolia, e.g. that of the Kara c Othman 
in the Aegean region, and that of the Capan (or Capar) 
in the area of the middle Klzll Irmak (Halys). 

Tanzimat. In the course of his reforms, Mahmud II 
abolished the dominions of the derebeys. During the 
subsequent times of reform (tanzimat), a new division 
of the empire on European lines was made by the 
law of 7 Djumada II 1281/8 Nov. 1864. Now there 
were provinces (wildyet), administrative areas 
(sandiak) and districts (kadd); many of the old 
sandjahs, especially those of the eyalet of Anadolu — 
later (1875) also those of the eyalet of Erzerum — were 
raised to the status of wildyets and then subdivided 
into smaller sandiaks. Some other eyalets of smaller 
size were assigned to a wildyet as sandiaks- After 
some vacillation, Anatolia consisted of the following 



OLU 469 

wildyets (according to Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, 
Paris 1890): (1) Adana; (2) Ankara, (3) Aydln 
(Smyrna/Izmir); (4) Bitlis; (5) Diyar Bakr; (6) 
Erzerum ; (7) the sandiaks of Mar'ash and Urfa of the 
wildyet of Halab (Aleppo), as well as some kadds; 

(8) some kadds and ndhiyes of the wildyet of Istanbul ; 

(9) KastamunI; (10) Khudawendigar (Brusa); (11) 
Konya; (12) Ma'muret al- c Aziz (Kharput, since 
1880); (13) Siwas; (14) Tirabizon; (15) Van; and 
the two independent sandjaks; (16) Bigha; (17) 
Izmid. [Articles on each of the preceding.] This 
division was kept — with some alterations — until 
after the First World War. 

Under the Turkish Republic, the wildyets 
were abolished, and sandjaks were raised to wildyets. 
These were called il in the course of the language 
reform. Their number varied. On 20 October 1935, 
there were only 57 wildyets, at the end of 1935, a 
further 5 were formed (from the districts, hadd, 
now Me, of the neighbouring wildyets); in 1939, 
Hatay was added (ceded by the French mandate 
of Syria, see above) as the 63rd. (The 63 provinces 
of January 1st 1940 with their districts at that time 
are enumerated by G. Jaschke, Tiirkei, Berlin 1941, 
22-4). In 1953 Usak was added as the 64th wildyet. 
On January 4th 1954 the overall area of the Turkish 
state consisted of 64 provinces (of which only 4 are 
in the European part of Turkey, the other 60 in 
Anatolia) and 523 districts. Of the Anatolian pro- 
vinces, however, Canakkale is partly on European 
ground ; the province of Istanbul, on the other hand, 
is mainly in Europe. 

Geographically the provinces are grouped into 
the following 8 zones (bolge) (the names in the modern 
spelling): (1) the Black Sea Coast: the provinces of 
Trabzon, Ordu, Rize, Zonguldak, Giresun, Samsun, 
Sinob, Kastamonu, Bolu, Coruh; (2) the coast of 
the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean Sea: the Asiatic 
parts of the provinces of Istanbul (districts Uskudar, 
Kadikoy, Beykoz, Adalar, Kartal, Sile, Yalova) and 
Canakkale (districts Canakkale, Ayvaclk, Biga, 
Bayramlc, Bozcaada, Ezine, Lapseki, Yenice), and 
the provinces Izmir, Kocaeli (Izmit), Aydln, 
Ballkesir, Bursa, Manisa, Mugla; (3) the Mediter- 
ranean coast, the provinces of Hatay (Iskenderun), 
Seyhan (Adana), Icel (Selefke), Antalya; (4) Euro- 
pean Turkey: the European provinces of Istanbul, 
(districts Beyoglu, Besiktas, Sarlyer, Fatih, Eyiip, 
Eminonii, Baklrkdy, tatalca, Silivri) and Canakkale 
(districts Eceabat, Gelibolu, Imroz), and the pro- 
Ktrklareli, Tekirdag, Edirne; (5) western 
the provinces of Denizli, Bilecik, Kutahya, 
Afyonkarahisar, Isparta, Burdur, Eskisehir — and 
since 1953 — Usak; (6) central Anatolia, the provinces 
Tokat, Corum, Amasya, Kayseri, Malatya, Ankara, 
Canklrl, Yozgat, Sivas, Maras, Nigde, KIrsehir, 
Konya; (7) south-eastern Anatolia: the provinces 
Gaziantep, Mardin, Urfa; (8) eastern Anatolia: the 
provinces Kars, Elazig, Diyarbaklr, Gumusane, Er- 
zurum, Erzincan, Siirt, Bitlis, Tunceli, Agrl Mus, 
Bingol, Van, Hakari. 

(4) Population. 

Turks and non-Turks. At the time of the 
Turkish conquest of Anatolia, it had already been 
Hellenised. The Hellenisation of the various old- 
Anatolian peoples (begun in Greek and Roman 
times) was completed during the course of Christi- 
anisation. Now, remnants of the old peoples (for 
example the Lazes), remain only in the mountains, 
especially those near the Caucasian foothills. Such 
areas are at the same time refuges in which ancient 



religious communities, such as the Paulicians, 
survived as sects. By the time the Turks came, 
Anatolia was, however, on the whole Greek speaking 
and mainly adhered to the Byzantine Orthodox 
Church. Only the Armenians in the east, who were 
Monophysites (Gregorians), remained ecclesiastically 
apart from the Greeks and were not Hellenised. 
Being merchants, Armenians had probably spread 
towards the west as far as the capital, even in pre- 
Turkish times. 

A new central-Asiatic race with a new religion, 
Islam, came to Anatolia with the Turks. In the 
beginning it may well have been a minority, compared 
with the Greeks, but, since it consisted of the ruling 
classes in the Turkish occupied territories, it suc- 
ceeded in spreading. The reason for this was probably 
that many members of the old population, who had 
lost contact with their spiritual centre in Constan- 
tinople, felt this spiritual isolation, turned to Islam 
and were thereby assimilated to the Turks. Initially, 
this process was a very slow one. In any case, at 
the time when Marco Polo travelled through Anatolia 
in 1272, the inhabitants do not appear to have been 
Turkicised (cf. E. Oberhummer, Die Tiirken und das 
Osmanische Reich, Leipzig- Berlin 1917, 42). On the 
other hand, the documents of the Patriarchate of 
Constantinople prove clearly, as A. Wachter. (Der 
Verfall des Griechentums in Kleinasien im XIV. 
Jahrhundert, Leipzig 1903) shows, that, especially 
in the 14th century, when increased numbers of 
Turks occupied Anatolia, the Orthodox Christianity 
gradually receded, and with it the land gradually 
lost its Greek character. This may be due, on the one 
hand, to emigration from the Turkish occupied areas, 
but on the other hand also to assimilation to the 
Turks. Here one must distinguish, however, between 
the regions with long established Greek inhabitants, 
such as the western Anatolian coastal regions, which 
held on to Greek culture and Christianity with great 
tenacity (as also did those areas which had been 
under Greek rule for a long time, like Trebizond), 
and the central Anatolian regions with their only 
superficially Hellenised and Christianised population 
(especially in northeastern Anatolia, where the 
Persian Mongols, the Ilkhans — who themselves had 
only taken to Islam since Ghazan — ruled for some 
time with the true ardour of renegades). Christianity 
in Anatolia was hard hit by Tlmflr, who — as every- 
where else he appeared — let the Christian population 
feel his hardness and cruelty with a special severity. 

The position of the Christians improved when 
Mehemmed II granted the Greek Orthodox Church a 
secure position in the Ottoman state for political 
reasons after the conquest of Constantinople, and 
made it into a pillar of his empire side by side with 
Sunnite Islam. Thus the Christian communities, 
Greek [see rOm] as well as Armenian [see arman] in 
Anatolia were freed from their spiritual isolation, 
and hold their own until this day. The so-called 
system of the millets [q.v.] according to which non- 
Muslim religious communities within the Ottoman 
Empire enjoyed considerable autonomy, saved these 
from further shrinking. In this manner, a modus 
Vivendi evolved during the flowering of this empire 
which did justice to both Muslims and non-Muslims. 
In the 18th and 19th centuries, there was a positive 
revival of Anatolian Hellenism, and Armenians were 
still referred to as "The faithful nation" (i.e. faithful 
to the state) (millet-i fddika) in the 19th century. 
On the whole, linguistic and religious areas were 
identical, except in central Anatolia (in Konya and 
Kayseri), where the Greeks adopted Turkish as the 



language of social intercourse and of the house 
(partly in Greek script), whilst the Armenians by 
and large accepted Turkish as the language of social 
intercourse (partly in Armenian script), whilst 
retaining Armenian — their ecclesiastical language— 
as the language spoken at home. 

Apart from Turkish inhabitants, either city 
dwellers or peasants, there are — or were — nomad and 
semi-nomad elements as well as migrating shepherds 
in Anatolia, who belonged to Islam but were of 
differing languages and races: Turks, Kurds and 
Circassians. In the case of Turks (so-called Yuriiks 
and Turkmens [qq.v.]), their origin is debatable: 
they may be Turkmens who kept to their nomadic 
way of life, or remnants of races of varying origin 
which became Turkicised. By religion they are 
mostly 'Alawites, i.e. they confess to Shi'ism of 
some type or have at least Shl'ite leanings. The 
Kurds [q.v.] who are for the most part Sunnite 
Muslims, have a closed area of settlement in the 
south-eastern provinces. The Circassians (Cerkes 
[q.v.]), lastly, had mostly immigrated from the 
Caucasus at the time whem Russo-Christian rule 
spread over the Caucasus. Apart from these, one 
frequently meets returned Muslim emigrants (muhd- 
djirQn) all over Turkey especially from the Balkan 
countries, who preferred to leave a country with a 
Christian government and to seek a new home in 
Turkey which belongs to the dar al-isldm. Those 
people are, however, not nomads but are assimilated 
by the town or country area in which they settle. 

The comparatively amicable relations between 
Muslims and non-Muslims deteriorated when the 
western powers began to meddle in the affairs of 
Turkey in the 19th century. On the grounds of the 
treaty of Kucuk Kaynardja (1774), Russia claimed 
the protectorate over the Christian Orthodox 
inhabitants of Turkey, and awakened anti-Turkish 
feelings in them. Coming from western Europe, 
nationalism gained ground amongst the Christian 
part of the population. The Turkish reaction to this 
was a dislike for these Christians which soon became 
hatred. The Armenians felt this most strongly, since 
they, as neighbours of Russia, were particularly 
under the suspicion of being in Russian service. 
The insistance on effecting the reforms laid down 
in the Berlin Treaty (1878) led to bloody clashes 
with the Kurds in the years 1894-96. In the First 
World War, following an invasion by the Russian 
Caucasus army into the Van region, during which 
— according to Turkish opinion — the Armenian 
population behaved disloyally, the whole population 
was forcibly moved to Mesopotamia, and many of 
them perished. The remainder emigrated after the 
war. There was a war against the Greeks in 1919, 
when, supported by Great Britain, they occupied 
Smyrna and advanced as far as the Sakarya in 1921. 
The Turks under Mustafa Kemal Pasha beat the 
Greek army which retreated from Anatolia, and the 
greater part of the Greek population retreated with 
it. The remainder was exchanged by treaty (30 
January 1923) for the Muslim inhabitants of Greece 
(with the exception of the Turks in western Thrace 
and the Greeks in Istanbul). Through this action 
Anatolia became a 90% Turkish and 99% Muslim 
country. With the exception of the Arabs living on 
the Syrian border, the small non-Turkish Muslim 
pockets will hardly be able to withstand Turkish 
influence indefinitely. One may also expect a 
gradual Turkicisation through military service and 
the influence of the schools among the Kurds, who 
have no cultural tradition of their own. 



End of the 19th century. The statistics 
oa p. 472 show the population of Anatolia during 
the last decade of the last century according to 
their religions, as given in the work of V. Cuinet 
(see Bibl.) on the basis of the imperial and provincial 
sal-names. As there was no official census in Turkey 
at that time, the numbers are largely based on 
estimates and only to a small extent on actual 
figures. Additional inaccuracies come from the fact 
tliat the principle on which these statistics were 
based was not consistent throughout the various 
wildyets. For some of them we have detailed figures 
(in certain cases, even separate data for men and 
women), in others only summary ones. Thus, for 
example, the fact that ShlMtes and Yazidls are 
mentioned separately only in some wildyets, does 
not necessarily mean that there were none in some 
others. The statistics may, nevertheless, serve to 
give at least a rough picture of the composition of 
the population of Anatolia before the First World 
War. 
Abbreviations: 

w = wildyet, s = sandiak, k = ka<fd, 
n = ndhiyc, i.s. = independent san&ak. 
In the case of the administrative areas belonging to 
the wildyets of Istanbul and Halab (Aleppo), 1st. 
and Hal. respectively is added in brackets. 

tt). Adana 93, 200 

w. Diyarbakr 310,644 

Anat. districts of w. Halab . . . 177,048 

tip. Ma'murct al-'Am 267,616 

w. Van 30,500 

879,008 

If one adds up the members of non-Islamic 
religions, then the composition of the population 
— according to religions — appears as follows for the 
time of Cuinet (actual figures and percentages): 

Muslims 9,676,714 : 78.9 % 

Non-Muslims 2,577,745 : 21.1 % 

Total 12,254,459 : 100.00 % 

Of the non-Muslims, 2,410,272 were Christians of 

These statistics show some peculiarities which 
need explanation. Particularly obvious is the high 
number of "Copts" (2,867), but only a very small 
number of these are actual Copts (i.e. Christian 
Egyptians); by Copts (Kibtl), the Turks usually 
imean the non-Muslim gipsies. These "Copts" should 
therefore be added to the number of gipsies (2,867 + 
37,752 = 40,619). The Column "foreigners' includes 

Syrian 
Orthodox 

w. Adana 20,900 

w. Diyarbakr 4,990 

w. Bitlls — 

Anat. distr. of w. Halab .... — 

Total 25,890 

not only real "foreigners", (e&nebi) but also immi- 
grated Ottoman citizens (yabandji), whose home is 
not in the wildyet in question. The two categories 
are mentioned separately only for the wildyet of 
Erzerum (1,220 edinebl + 4,986 yabandU = 6,206). 



DLU 471 

The proportion prevailing there (1 : 4) might also 
prove right for the other wiliyets. 

Concerning the races, the statistics show clearly 
that at that time the Armenians (Gregorian, Catholic 
and Protestant Armenians together 1,142,775) were 
concentrated in some eastern wiliyets (Erzerum, 
Bitlls and Sivas, to a lesser extent also in Van, 
Ma'muret al-'AzIz, Diyar Bakr and Adana), although 
even there they were a minority in comparison with 
the Muslim part of the population (Turks and Kurds). 
In the case of the Greeks, one must add to the Ortho- 
dox (1,042,612 — 25,890 Syrian Orthodox = 1,016,722 
Greek Orthodox) the Uniates (16,811), who were 
included under Catholics in these statistics; their 
total was thus 1,033,533. They were concentrated 
in the districts belonging to the wildyet of Istanbul, 
and in the wildyets of Khudawendigar, Aydln (Izmir) 
and Trabzon, to a lesser extent in Sivas, Konya, 
and Adana. They, also, were a minority everywhere 
compared with the Muslims (and in Sivas and 
Adana also as compared with the Armenians). It is 
more difficult to arrive at the racial composition of 
those elements of the population which are described 
as Muslims, because the statistics generally give 
merely a total figure. Only for some eastern wildyets 
are the races for the Sunnite Muslims given as follows: 



Kurds 






Circassians 



Total 



14,138 



143,536 



One can only surmise to which race the occasionally 
separately mentioned members of Muslim sects 
(usually SJiI'ites) belonged (total number 533,677). 
In Van and Bitlls they are given as Yazidls (5,400 + 
3,863 = 9,263), and in the case of Diyar Bakr it is 
stated that the figure 6,000 for members of different 
sects also includes Yazidls. We may assume that 
these were on the whole Kurds. Of the others, by 
far the greater part probably consisted of ShI'ite 
Turks, in Arab areas probably also Nusayrl Arabs. 
If one deducts the figures for SyStes and, Yazidls 
as well as those of Arabs, Kurds and Circassians 
there remains the figure 8,537,863 for supposedly 
Sunnite Turks, which still contains small elements of 
ShlMtes, non-Turkish Sunnites, and also Lazes, and 
emigrants from former Ottoman provinces which had 
come under Christian rule (muhddjir). To the number 
of Arabs a considerable number of Christians of 
various denominations should be added as follows: 

Syrian Chald. United Total 



13,687 



18,467 



4.539 



62,583 



With the addition of the total of the non-Uniate 
Jacobites, Chaldaeans and Nestorians (168,706) one 
arrives at the total of 231,289 for Christian Arabs 
of differing denominations; of these, however, some 
Chaldaeans and Nestorians, as well as Uniate 















Other 

Catholics 

(Uniate and 

Latin) 


Non-Uniate 














Muslims 
(• ShI'ites 
and Yazldls) 


Greek 
Orthodox 


Gregorian 


Armen. 
Catholic 


Armen. 
Protest. 


Jacobites 
Chaldaeans 

Nestorians 


Jews 


« Copts » 


°"- 


Others 
(For- 
eigners) 


Total 


A. Adalar (1st.) 


2,990 


5,oio 


1,300 


300 


_ 


903 












10,503 


w. Adana 


158,000 
•56,000 


67,100 


69,300 


",550 


16,600 


4,539 


- 


- 


- 


16,050 


4,400 


403,539 


w. Ankara 


768,119 


34,009 


83,063 


8,784 


2,45i 


— 


— 


478 


— 


997 


— 


892,901 


ft. Antakya (Hal.) 


46,000 




2,084 


2,500 






4,5oo 










62,850 


w. Aydln (Izmir) 


1,093.334 


208,283 


14,103 


737 


265 


i,i77 




22,516 








1,396,477 


ft. «Ayntab (Hal.) 


65,085 












5,906 


857 






594 


86,988 


ft. Beykoz (1st.) 


5.444 


2,150 


1,900 


















9,494 


i.s. BIgha 


106,583 


17,585 


1,636 


— 


60 


92 


— 


2,988 


— 


— 


494 


129,438 


w. BiUis 


254.0O0 
*3,86 3 


210 


125,600 


3,840 


i,95o 


2,600 


6,190 


- 


372 


- 


- 


398,625 


w. Diyar Bakr 


328,644 


14,240 


57,890 


10,170 


11,069 


206 


38,974 


1,269 


- 


3,000 


- 


47L462 


w. Erzerum 


500,782 


3,725 


120,273 


12,022 


2,672 


— 


— 


6 


16 


— 


6,206 


645,702 


ft. Gebze (1st.) 


14,000 


5,100 


















150 


19,250 


w. Khudawendigar (Brusa) 


1,296,593 


230,711 


85,354 


3,033 


604 






3,225 






7,319 


1,626,839 


ft. Iskenderun (Hal.) 


12,500 




1,142 






4,146 












23,330 


»'.s. Izmid 


129,715 


40,795 


46,308 


390 


1,937 


— 


— 


2,500 


— 


I,H5 


— 


222,760 


n. Kadlkoy (1st.) 


9,374 


8,i37 












450 






3,180 


32,211 


n. KafiUdja (1st.) 


16,796 


3,387 


4,080 
















800 


25,183 


ft. Kartal (1st.) 




5,000 


















50 


18,300 


w. Kastamoni 


992,679 


21,507 


2,617 


30 










2,079 








ft. Kills (Hal.) 


73,520 




1,547 


1,300 






3,000 










83,888 


w. Konya 


989,200 


73,ooo 


9,700 














15,000 




1,088,000 


w. Ma'muret 

al- c AzIz (Kharput) 


♦182,580 


650 


61,983 


1,675 


6,060 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


575,314 


s. Mar'ash (Hal.) 


134,438 


5,505 


1,850 


2,463 


7,806 


18,505 


8,918 


368 


— 


— 


— 


179,853 


w. Sivas 


559,68o 
*279,834 


76,068 


129,523 


10,477 


30,433 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


1,086,015 


ft. Shile (1st.) 


15,750 


3,200 


800 


— 


— 


— 


— 


— 


— 


— 


— 


19,750 


to. Tirabzon 


806,700 


193,000 




2,300 


800 


400 














s. Urfa (Hal.) 


122,665 






2,437 




2,738 


6,218 


367 








143,485 


n. Oskudar (1st.) 


71,210 


12,180 


15,800 


250 


250 


— 


— 


5,100 


— 


700 


200 


105,690 


w. Van 


241,000 
*5,4O0 


- 


79,000 


708 


290 


6,002 


92,000 


5,000 


- 


600 


~ 


430,000 


Total 


9,676,714 
(9.143,037 + 
•533,677) 


1,042,612 


977,679 


19,749 


85,347 


56,179 


168,706 


47,299 


2,867 


37,752 


79,555 


12,254,459 



Chaldaeans have to be added to the Kurds. In these 
statistics, one may assume that the 2,675 Catholics 
not contained in the number of the Uniates were 
largely Latins, i.e. occidentals (missionaries etc.) 
with or without Ottoman nationality, who had not 
been included under the heading "foreigners". 

Thus, for the time of Cuinet we have roughly the 
following picture of the ethnic composition of Ana- 
tolia: 



OLU 473 

H. Louis, Die BevOlkerungskarU der Tiirkei, 
Berlin 1940, bases his work on the publication of 
the census in Turkey in 1935. It can be seen from 
the map that the three most densely populated 
areas in Anatolia are the following: 1) the western 
Anatolian coastal strips together with the river 
valleys, leading into the interior, especially that of 
the Maeander (Biiyuk Menderes Cay), 2) the coastal 
area of the Black Sea, 3) Cilicia, the new sandjab of 















unknown 






Sunnites 


Shl'ites 


Yazidis 


Christians 


Jews 


foreigners 


Total 


Turks 


8,547,863 


462,414? 


_ 


_ 


_ 


_ 


9,010,277 


Kurds 


424,138 


? 




? 








Arabs 


I43,536 


62,000 ? 


— 


231,289? 


— 


— 


436,825 


Circassians 


27,500 












27,500 










1,033,533 






1,033,533 


Armenians 








i,M2,775 






i,M2,775 


Jews 










47,299 




47,299 


















Unknown and 
















foreigners 


— 


— 


— 


2,675 


— 


79,555 


82,230 


Total 


9,143,037 


524,414 


9,263 


2,410,272 


47,299 


120,174 


12,254,459 



The figures for several official censuses for the 
Turkish Republic are already available: namely, 
those of 1927, 1935, 1940, 1945, and 1950, but the 
last of these is given as only "provisional" (muvakkat). 
The particular figures can be found in the individual 
articles on the capitals of the various Us (wildyets) 
enumerated above, ch. 3, last paragraph. 

The total for 1945 is 18,790,174 and 20,934,670 
for 1950: 1,496,612 and 17,293,562 in European 
Turkey and Anatolia respectively in 1945; 1,598,255 
and 19,336,415 in European Turkey and Anatolia 
respectively in 1950. 

Definite figures for some towns exist for 1950. 
According to these, there are 5 towns of over 100,000 
inhabitants : Istanbul (1,000,022), Ankara (286,781), 
Izmir (230,508), Adana (117,799), and Bursa 
(100,007); and the following 6 towns between 
50,000 and 100,000 inhabitants : Eskisehir (88,459), 
Gaziantep (72,743), Kayseri (65,489), Konya (64,509), 
Erzurum (54,360), SiVas (52,269). 

There are also figures for the distribution of the 
town and the country population for 1945 and 1950. 
The percentage rate, worked out for the purpose of 
this article, is: 



Hatay, and the plain towards the Euphrates, which, 
geographically, belongs to northern Syria; compared 
with this, the centre with its steppes and the 
mountainous north-east show the lowest density of 
population. The distribution is caused by the nature 
of the country, and has probably always been 
roughly the same — at least since the Middle Ages — 
and should remain so at any rate in the near future. 
Figures for religious and linguistic divisions are only 
available for 1945 (21 Ekim 1945 Genel Niifus 
Sayimi, Recensement general de la population du 
21 Octobre 1945, Turkiye Nufusu, Population de la 
Turquie, vol. 65, Ankara 1950). According to these, 
Turkey can be divided up linguistically as follows: 

people with 

Turkish as mother-tongue 16,598,037 : 88.34% 

a non-Turkish language 2,192,006 : \ 

as mother-tongue > 11.66% 

Unknown 131 : 1 





1945 


1950 






5,267,695: 25.16% 
15,666,975: 74.84% 











At Turkey's overall area of 767,119 sq. km., this 
produces a density of population of 24.49 P 61 S Q- km. 
in 1945 and 27 in 1950. The official percentage of 
town and country population (both as a whole and 
»ccording to individual teUdyets) is only available 
ior 1935. According to this, there were then 23.5% 
of the population in towns and 76.5% in the country. 
With these figures, one must bear in mind that 
according to the law of 1930, every place with a 
municipal government (belediye te$kilatt) counts as 
a town. Such a body is to be set up both in all places 
of more than 2,000 inhabitants and also (irrespective 
of this minimum figure) in all kada centres, of which 
some have hardly 500 inhabitants. If judged by 
western standards, the proportion would alter in 
favour of the country population. 



According to religions : 

non-Islamic religion 
unknown denomination 



Of the non-Muslims there w 
Christians. 



8,497,801: 98.45% 



292,152 : 100.00% 



474 ANA 

These rough statistics, when compared with those 
at the end of the last century as given by Cuinet, 
clearly show an enormous change which was caused 
by the events during and shortly after the First 
World War. 

More detailed information can be gained from the 
following division into both categories which is 
reproduced here in shortened form. 



mentioned under "other denominations" — with the 
exception of a few foreigners of unusual religious 
denominations — are largely Kurds (probably of 
extreme SfciMte sects or Yazidls) who either do not 
count themselves members of Islam or are not 
recognised as such by the Sunnites and Moderate 
ghl'ites. Those giving Georgian as their mother- 
tongue are Lazes, and not real Georgians — who are 



Language 


1 

S 


1 

■5 

<3 


1 
O 


! 
$ 
£ 


8 

n 
8 


l!l 


I 


if 


I 
5 


1 


Total 


Turkish 


16,546,681 


4,955 


10,705 


1,099 


17,581 


3,847 


11,836 


298 


1,017 


18 


16,598,037 


Kurdish 


i,469,57o 




57 




43 


16 


23 


9 


5,208 


3 


1,476,56* 


Arabic 


235,668 


964 


7,07i 


657 


92 


617 


1,027 


1 


1,517 


3 


247,204 


Greek 


9,898 


4,546 


73,083 


6 


177 








80 


3 


88,680 


Circassian 


66,681 




5 






3 










66,691 


Armenian 


3,396 


2,295 


2,880 


979 


42,019 


4,301 


124 


40 


136 


9 


56,179 


Yiddish 


602 




57 


14 


43 


16 




5 






51,019 


Laz 


46,979 




3 








3 








46,987 


Georgian 


39,870 




23 








159 








40,076 


Other languages 
























Albanian \ 
























Bosnian f 


78,447 


11,214 


i9,95i 


2,342 


305 


10,712 


13,286 


196 


4,582 


181 


118,608 


Judaeo-Spanish ( 
















































Unknown 


47 


8 


4 


2 


— 


70 


— 


— 


— 


— 


131 


Total 


18,497,801 


21,950 


103,839 


5,213 


60,260 


10,782 


76,965 


561 


12,582 


221 


18,790,174 



With regard to the totals of the division into 
languages, the following facts stand out from the 
figures given for individual wildyets, (the numbers 
are again given in round figures). The Kurdish 
speaking people live together densely in the south- 
eastern wildyets, and form the large majority in the 
wildyets of Agrl (80,000), Bingol (42,000), Bitlls 
(43,000), Diyar Bakr (180,000), Hakari (30,000), 
Mardin (155,000), Mus (53,000), Siirt (100,000), and 
Van (78,000). In Tunceli (48,000) and Urfa (123,000) 
they have a slight majority over the Turks (43,000 
and 103,000), and in Elazig (82,000), Kars (66,000), 
and Malatya (141,000), they form a large minority. 
The Arabic speaking people are everywhere in the 
minority compared with the Kurds; 60,000 in 
Mardin compared with 155,000 Kurds, but in the 
majority compared with the Turks (15,000); 40,000 
in Urfa compared with 123,000 Kurds and 105,000 
Turks; 100,000 in Hatay, where the largest number 
of Arabs live, compared with 150,000 Turks. The 
smallest number of Turks is found in the wildyets of 
Mardin and Siirt (in each ca. 15,000) and in Hakari 
(4,000). Greeks, Armenians and Jews (including ca. 
10,000 who speak Judaeo-Spanish) live almost 
exclusively in Istanbul. There are also some 7000 
Greeks in Canakkale and some 12,000 Jews in 
Izmir; there are only extremely small groups 
elsewhere. Other small racial groups, such as the 
Circassians (most of these in the vcildyet of Kayseri), 
Lazes, and Georgians (both of these especially in 
the eastern Black Sea provinces), form a very small 
minority in all these places in comparison with 
the Turks. 

The division into religions is also very informative. 
Above all, it is worth noting that all those religious 
groups which have Turkish as their mother-tongue 
have increased. In the case of Islam, no distinction 
is made between Sunnites and ShiHtes. But those 



Christians — as can be seen clearly from the fact 
that most of them give Islam as their religion. The 
relatively high figure for Catholics and Protestants 
under "other languages" obviously refers to foreig- 
ners. The number of Jews under "other languages" 
includes the 10,866 who speak Judaeo-Spanish. The 
Gipsies, who in Cuinet's statistics were given with 
the rather large figure of 40,000, have disappeared 
altogether from the new statistics. As they do not 
speak a different language from that of the people 
amongst whom they live, nor profess a different 
religion, one may assume that they are present, 
unrecognised, in the various groups of the statistics. 

(5) Development of Communications. 

Being a thinly populated peninsula with steppes 
in the centre and few usable harbours, Anatolia has 
little traffic. Long distance traffic from Istanbul to 
the east mostly tries to bypass Anatolia, preferring 
to the difficult overland roads the easier sea routes 
to Trabzon on the Black Sea, or to Ayas at the 
mouth of the Djeyhan in the Middle Ages, to Payas 
in the Gulf of Issus under the Ottomans, and to 
Iskenderun (Alexandretta) in recent times. Through- 
out the ages the main caravan tracks led from these 
harbours to the interior of Asia. Traffic inside 
Anatolia was generally only of local importance. 
There were always through-roads, usually leading 
to or from Istanbul (which was regarded as the 
undisputed metropolis even at times when Anatolia 
did not regard it as its political capital). 

Three types of such roads can be distinguished in 
Turkish times: (1) Military roads; (2) Caravan 
routes; (3) Postal routes. All three types follow the 
nature of the country and circumvent the interior 
steppes, passing through adjoining regions, but 
keeping to the inside of the border-mountains. 
They prefer the edges of the steppe where animals 



can graze and where the towns are situated. The 
routes follow roughly the same lines, though they do 
not coincide altogether. 

The main Military road (on which the armies 
of the sultans moved in the 16th and 17th centuries 
against Persia and Caucasia) described a large arc 
south of the central Anatolian steppe from Uskudar 
via Izmid, Eskishehir, Akshehir, to Konya and from 
there via Eregli, Nigde, Kayseri to Sivas, then via 
Erzindjan and Erzurum to the east. When Sellm I 
marched against Syria, he too went to Kayseri and 
only from there through the Anti-Taurus to Elbistan 
and Mar'ash. The route from Eregli through the 
Cilician Gate (Gulek Boghazl) to Adana and further 
into Syria was usually avoided, particularly for 
difficult transports, and especially because the 
Gulek Boghazl is easy to block. In 1638, for instance, 
Murad IV sent the artillery he needed for the capture 
of Baghdad by sea as far as Payas, only transporting 
it' overland from there onwards with the aid of 
buffaloes. The northern Caravan route (to be menti- 
oned below) was used for small detachments only. 
The reports of the Imperial armies often give the 
sites of the camps on the main Military road, but 
these are frequently at a considerable distance from 
the inhabited places along the route. 

The most important of the Caravan routes is 
the one leading diagonally across from Uskudar via 
Gebze, then, after crossing the Gulf of Izmid from 
Dil to Iznik, following roughly the Military route 
via Eskishehir to Konya and Eregli, then through 
the Cilician Gute (Gulek Boghazl) to Adana and 
thence to Syria or Mesopotamia. The route via 
Antakiya to Syria is, at the same time, the route 
which pilgrims took (via Damascus) to Mecca and 
Medina, the holy places of Islam, and it is often 
mentioned in this capacity. There is also a northern 
caravan route of some importance which goes from 
Uskudar to Amasya via Izmid, Boll and Tosya (or, 
bypassing Amasya, via Niksar), and thence to 
Erzindjan and Erzerum and further to the east; 
alternately, from Amasya via Tokat, Sivas and 
Malatya to Diyarbakr and further to Mosul and 
Baghdad; from Uskudar onwards this route is called 
Baghdad Yolu. An older variant of this — used by 
Busbecq in 1555 — follows the diagonal route as far 
as Eskishehir and then goes on to Amasya via 
Ankara. Lastly, the north-south route which 
bypasses the central Anatolian steppe to the east 
is of some importance. In Saldjuk times, this route 
branched off at Konya, the capital, and went right 
across the steppe, past the beautiful Sultan Khan 
and Aksaray to Kayseri and on to Sivas, where it 
Connected with the northern route as well as with 
those leading to the east (Erzindjan and Erzerum). 
In Karaman and Ottoman times it went from 
places at the foot of the Taurus, Laranda (Karaman), 
Or Uluktshla via Nigde to Kayseri. In western 
Anatolia, only roads leading from Izmir seem to 
Have had some local importance and little is reported 
of them. 

Postal routes, like the caravan routes, were 
divided into three "arms" (Jo/, for this term, which 
& also used as a technical term in administrative 
language, cf. Redhouse, A Turkish and English 
Lexicon, 1942; H. W. Duda, Balkantiirkische Studien, 
Vienna 1949, 98 ff. note 8). In the 17th century, 
according to the Diihan-numd. the middle one of 
these "arms" embraced the entire length of the 
diagonal route together with its offshoots as far as 
Damascus; the right one, the whole west Anatolian 
network, and the left, the northern caravan route 



with its extension as far as Baghdad. According to 
reports of postal routes in the 19th century, the 
diagonal route forms the right arm together with 
the western Anatolian network, the northern caravan 
route the- central one, whilst the left one does not 
leave the central one until Tokat, whence it embraces 
the eastern network to Erzerum. (Concerning the 
development of road and route-nets in Anatolia 
prior to the 19th century, cf. F. Taeschner, Das 
Anaiolische Wegenetz nach Osmanischen QuelUn, 
Leipzig 1924; idem, Die Verkehrslage und das 
Wegenetz Anatoliens im Wandel der Zeiten, Petermanns 
Geographische Mitteilungen, 1926, 202-6). 

The word "roads" can be applied to these routes 
only in a limited sense, as roads were not built 
with foundations; except where Roman roads could 
still be employed, they are simply much used and 
well-trodden tracks, along which caravanserais, wells, 
and bridges have been erected by benefactors for 
the comfort of the travellers. 

This tripartite route-system has been gradually 
falling into disuse with the expansion of railways in 
the 19th and 20th centuries, though the railway follows 
roughly the track of the old routes — at least in the 
case of the diagonal road. 

The building of railways naturally did not replace 
the building of roads, which also has been encouraged 
(to a certain extent) since the tanzimdt period. (For 
the means devised to finance the building of the 
roads: corvee and road-tax, "yol parasi", see 
G. Young, Corps de Droit Ottoman, IV, Oxford 1906, 
245 ff., "Routes et Prestations"). 

The history of railway building in Anatolia 
began with the granting of a concession to a 
British company for a railway from Smyrna (Izmir) 
to Aydln in 1856, and the line was opened 10 years 
later. In the last decades of the Ottoman Empire the 
following sections were opened in Anatolia: 

(1) British Company: Smyrna (Izmir) — Aydtn 
1866, — Dinar 1889 (with branchlines to Odemis, 
Tire, S6ke, Denizli and Civril) — Egirdir 1912; 
(2) Franco- Belgian Company (British until 1893): 
Smyrna (Izmir) — Manisa — Kasaba 1866, — Alashehir 
1873 (?), — Afyun Kara IJisar 1897; Manisa — Soma 
1890, — Ballkesir — Bandlrma 1912; (3) Narrow Gauge 
Railway Mudanya-Brusa (Bursa) 1875, rebuilt by 
a Franco- Belgian Company in 1892 (not in use now); 

(4) German Company (since 1888) Anatolian Railway: 
Haydar Pasha — Izmid 1873 (with a branchline to 
Adapazar) — Eskishehir — Ankara 1892; Eskishehir — 
Afyun Kara flisar (with a branchline from Alayunt 
to Kiitahya) — Konya 1896; Baghdad Railway: 
Konya — Bulgurlu 1904; Toprakkale — Iskenderun 
191 3; Bulgurlu — Adana — Toprakkale — Aleppo (fla- 
leb)— Nusaybin 1918 (with a branchline to Mardln); 

(5) British Company: Mersin — Adana 1886 (1906 
taken over by the Baghdad Railway Company). 

Thus the railways consisted — with the exception 
of the short stretches which linked Adana and 
Brusa with their harbours — on the one hand of a 
network based on Smyrna (Izmir) and opening up 
the rich agricultural districts of western Anatolia, 
on the other hand of a diagonal line, with a branch 
to Ankara, which linked the capital to the far- 
distant Arab provinces of Mesopotamia, 'Irak and 
Syria. Plans for a railway system in the Black Sea 
area and in north-eastern Anatolia broke down 
because of Russian opposition. 

Existing railways were nationalised at the begin- 
ning of the Turkish Republic in 1920 ("Tiirkiye 
Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryollarl"), and the system 
has since been extended and based on Ankara as 



its centre. This extension began as early as 1922 
with a narrow-gauge railway Ankara — Irmak — 
Yahsl Han 1925 — Yerkoy and in the Kayseri 
direction 1925. This was later extended in wide gau,»e. 
There are the following lines: (1) Ankara- Kayseri 
1927, — Sivas 1930, — Erzincan 1938, — Erzurum 1939, 
— Horasan 1950; — Sarlkamis under construction. 
Here it will link up with the broad gauge railways 
which the Russians built in 1896: Giimrii (Alexan- 
dropol, now Leninakan) via Kars to Sarlkamis. The 
line was continued in narrow gauge from there to 
Mamahatun via Erzerum during the First World 
War.. (2) IHca (in the Gulf of Edremit)— Edremit— 
Palamutluk (narrow gauge) 1924 (unused since 1953) ; 
(3) Fevzipasa (on the Adana — Aleppo line) — 
Malatya 1931, — Diyarbekir (Diyarbaklr) 1935 (with 
a branchline to Elazlg), — Kurtalan 1944; (4) Samsun 
— Carsamba (narrow gauge) 1926 (no longer in use) ; 
Samsun — Amasya — Sivas 1932; (5) Kiitahya — 
Balikesir 1932; (6) Kayseri — Uluklsla (more speci- 
fically: Bogazkoptii — Kardesgedigi) 1933 (since then 
through-trains to Syria and Iraq — the Taurus 
Express — go via Ankara and no longer via Konya) ; 
(7) Irmak — Filyos 1935, — Zonguldak 1937, — Kozlu 
1943, — Eregli planned, under construction as 
far as Camll; (8) Afyon Karahisar — Karakuyu (near 
Dinar), Baladiz (near Egirdir) — Burdur, and Bo- 
zanonii (also near Egirdir) — Isparta 1936; (9) 
Cetinkaya (on the Sivas — Erzincan line) — Malatya 
1937; (10) Elazlg — Gene 1947, — Mus under con- 
struction — Tavan (on Lake Van) planned; (11) 
Kopriiagri (near Fevzipasa)— Maras 1948; (12) 
Narll (near Fevzipasa) — Gazianteb 1953, — Karkamis 
formerly Djarabulus (on the Euphrates, on the 
Aleppo — Nusaybin line) under construction. (Cf. 
G. Jaschke, Geschichte und Bedeutung der tiirkiscken 
Eisenbahnen, Zeitschrift fur Politik, 1942, 559-566; 
concerning the Baghdad . railway in particular, cf. 
H. Bode, Der Kampf urn die Baghdadbahn 1903-1914, 
Breslau 1941; R. Hiiber, Die Baghdadbahn, Berlin 

The increased use of motor-transport and the 
consequent decrease in rail-transport, has already 
resulted in the closing of local lines (Mudanya — 
Brusa, IUca — Edremid — Palamutlu) and threatens 
to outdo rail-transport in Turkey. As a result there 
bas been a fresh emphasis on road construction 
(Mukbil Gokdogan, Strassenbau und Verkehrspolitik 
in der Tiirkei, Stuttgart 1938). In recent years the 
road network in Turkey has been greatly expanded 
— partly with American aid — and there are now 
numerous bus lines (cf. R. W. Kerwin, The Turkish 
Roads Programme, The Middle East Journal, 1950). 

Since the Anatolian rivers are not navigable, there 
is no real inland shipping (except in the case 
of the greater rivers just above their months, and 
the use of rafts of inflated skins (kelek [q.v.]) on the 
Tigris). Nor are there any artificial waterways. The 
project of unking the Sabandja lake with the Sakarya 
on the one side and the Gulf of Izmit on the other 
by canal has been considered twice (999/1590-91 and 
1064/1653), but on neither occasion did it get past 
the preliminary stages [see Sabandja]. 

Conditions for sea shipping are not very 
favourable either: the north and south coasts have 
few natural harbours, and the many bays along the 
west coast are of little use because the river estuaries 
are silted up by. the rivers (cf. above, ii, "Aegean 
Anatolia"). Apart from Smyrna (Izmir [q.v.]), 
the most important harbour, there are a few — 
admittedly unimportant — harbours along the west 
coast, such as Fota [q.v.'] (Phocaea; in ancient times 



and in the Middle Ages it was a considerable rival 
of the port of Smyrna, because it jutted further out 
into the sea), Bodrum (Halicarnassus), and Fethiye 
(Makri), which are only of importance for coastal 
shipping. In recent times only Smyrna has had any 
importance as an overseas harbour, though Foca 
also held a similar position in the Middle Ages. 

Unlike the ports on the western coast which can 
be easily reached by the river valleys from the centre 
of Anatolia, the few ports on the north and south 
coasts are difficult to reach. On the north coast, 
Sinob (Sinope) [q.v.] — rather inaccessible because of 
its mountainous hinterland — and Samsun [q.v.] 
(Amisos) are of some importance, particularly in 
traffic with the Crimea which lies opposite. Samsun, 
situated in the plain between the mouths of the 
rivers Kizil Irmak (Halys) and Yeshil Irmak (Iris), 
has grown more important than Sinob, particularly 
in the 19th century. On the south coast, the ports 
of Antalya [q.v.] (Adalya, the ancient Attaleia and 
Satalia of the Crusaders) and Alanya [q.v.] ( c A15 J iyya, 
Galonoros in Byzantine times, the Candelor of the 
European merchants in the Middle Ages) have been 
of importance ever since the Middle Ages. More 
recently, the harbour of Mersina (now Mersin [q.v.]) 
has also been of importance since it was built in 1832. 
The only points for landing which would link up 
with traffic across the continent were actually those 
at the "base" of the Anatolian peninsula i.e. Tarabzun 
[q.v.] (Trebizond) on the Black Sea, and one on the 
Mediterranean (in the Middle Ages Ayas [q.v.], 
Laiazzo of the crusaders, Payas in Ottoman times, 
low Iskenderun, Alexandretta) ; caravans from 
Trebizond went to Adharbaydjan and Persia, and 
from the above-mentioned Mediterranean ports to 
northern Syria (Aleppo), Mesopotamia (Mosul) and 
c Irak (Baghdad). 

(6) Economy. 

Anatolia has always been an agricultural country 
and it has largely remained one in spite of the con- 
siderable incipient industrialisation. In the centre — 
wherever the land is fit for more than grazing — the 
main crop is grain, whilst fruit and vegetables are 
cultivated in the coastal areas and near rivers where 
gardens can be watered with the aid of water- 
wheels. Fruit-growing is characteristic particularly 
of the districts on the Black Sea (apples from 
Amasya are famous throughout the country, and 
Cerasus, now Giresun, is supposed to be the original 
home of the cherry), hazelnuts are grown in many 
areas. Along the Aegean Sea (with its Mediterranean 
vegetation) figs, olives, melons (watermelon, karput 
and sweet melon, kavun), and mulberry trees and 
vines are grown. The woods in the Black Sea area 
(especially the "Wood Sea", aghal denizi, of former 
times near Sabandja) were extensive enough to meet 
not only the local demands for timber for building, 
wood for burning and charcoal but also part of the 
need of the capital, which got the remainder of its 
supply from woods on the European side. 

The steppes in the centre of the country are most 
propitious for the raising of cattle. Various types of 
sheep and goats are found here, including Angora 
goats whose wool (tiftik) is in great demand (mohair). 
Anatolian horses have been famous since the Middle 
Ages. The 'Azlziyye stud farm in Phrygia used to 
breed the horses for the Ottoman cavalry. The 
growing of silkworms is a speciality of north-west 
Anatolia thanks to the cultivation of the mulberry 
tree there. Brusa is the centre for this and for the 
silkspinning industry. 



The silver mines of Gumush-khane between 
Trabzon and Erzurum, and those of Gumush 
Hadidji Koy near Amasya, must be mentioned as 
the oldest ; here, too, were the mints for silver coins. 
Copper was found in Kiire (between Inebolu and 
Kastamonu) and in Ergani Ma'den (near Diyarbakr). 
Near Eskishehir is the only area in the world where 
"Meerschaum" is found. This was in great demand in 
the 19th century for pipes {liile) and similar articles, 
but since "Meerschaum" is no longer in fashion now, 
production is much reduced. 

Arts and crafts have been playing a considerable 
part, especially ceramics (introduced from Persia as 
early as the Saldjuk period). Magnificent examples 
of RQm Saldjuk ceramics are found especially in 
buildings in Konya. The golden age of Ottoman 
ceramics began when Selim I brought craftsmen 
back from Tabriz during his Persian campain (1514), 
and settled them in Istanbul and Iznik. In the 16th 
and 17th centuries, Iznik was the centre for the 
production of the classical Ottoman pottery with 
blue and green as the main colours, contrasting 
effectively with the interspersal bright "Bolus-red". 
The tiles produced in Iznik adorn mosques and tiirbes 
in Istanbul, as well as the Topkapl Saray. Of 
vessels, the plates (known as "Rhodes plates" to 
the trade) are the best known and most exported 
product of the potteries. In later years (under 
Ahmed HI) potteries were founded in the Tekfur 
Saray in Istanbul and in Kutahya (concerning 
Turkish Fayence manufacture in Iznik and other 
places, cf. K. Otto-Dorn, Das islamische Iznik, 
Berlin 1941, 109 ff., and the list of sources by R. 
Anhegger, ibid., 165 ff.). [Cf. also Khazaf]- 

Besides pottery, textile goods form a characteristic 
part of Anatolia's produce, particularly rugs. The 
Turks brought this skill from the east and developed 
it (mainly in 'Ushak, Kula, Gordez and others) 
partly in the Persian tradition, partly in a more 
popular style. The rugs best known in Europe are 
those made in the 19th century, which are loosely 
knotted, with long threads and known as "Smyrna" 
rugs after their harbour of export, although they 
were actually made in the 'Ushak area. The Anatolian 
silk industry was also of great renown ; the centre for 
which was in Brusa. Its products, of which the 
brocades with inwoven gold and silver threads are 
of an especially high artistic quality, were chiefly 
woven for the court and for higher society. (Con- 
cerning Turkish textile production cf. Tahsin Oz, 
Tiirk Kumas ve Kadifeleri, Istanbul 1946-51; idem, 
Turkish Textiles and Velvets, Ankara 1950). Lastly, 
coarser weaving (kilim) of rugs and mats must be 
mentioned; such mats cover the mosque floors in 
winter. [Cf. also BisAt, NasIdjI]. 

Trades in towns were organised into guilds. These 
guilds (esnaf, from the singular sin/ [?.«.]) which 
were "fraternities" somewhat similar in character to 
a darwish order, maintained and guarded traditions, 
quality and integrity. In cases of accident, their 
members were protected against loss by the spirit 
of comradeship, and the resultant esprit de corps gave 
them a power to which — at times — even the govern- 
ment had to yield. The guilds were supervised by 
the clerk of the market (muhtesib), who, in turn, was 
subordinate to the Kadi — an institution belonging 
to the shari'a. (Concerning Turkish guilds cf. Osman 
Nuri, MedjeUe-i Umur-i Belediyye, I, Istanbul 1922, 
chap. Esnaf, 479-768; Taeschner, Die Ziinfte in der 
Turkei, Leipziger VierUljahrsschrift fur Siidosteuropa, 
1941, 172-88; and Sinf; concerning economy in 
early Ottoman times in general, cf. Afet Inan, 



Aperfu giniral sur VHistoire (conomique de V Empire 
Turc-Ottoman, Istanbul 1941.) 

The ancient guilds began to disintegrate in the 
19th century when state reform (tanzimdt) opened 
the way to commercial reforms on western European 
lines and to a western legal code (partly by direct 
adoption of European legal codes). Finally the 
guilds were formally dissolved on 13 Febr. 1325 
M./26 Febr. 1910 (the Gedik on 16 Febr. 1328 M./ 
1 March 1913). Modern organisations (grouped into 
trade unions in 1943) took their place. Improvements 
were made in agriculture, as for instance the irri- 
gation to bring water to the Konya plain carried out 
by the Baghdad Railway (1907-1913), and new 
cultivations (e.g. cotton in the Cilician plain) were 
introduced. 

Attempts to bring Anatolia into line economically 
with European countries have been particularly 
marked since the foundation of the Turkish Repu- 
blic. Cf. (amongst others) : Orhan Conker and Emile 
Witmeur, Redressement (conomique et industrialisation 
de la Nouvelle Turquie, Paris 1937; Ahmed Oguz, 
Die Wirtschaftslenkung in der Turkei, Berlin 1940; 
Schewket Raschid, Die tiirkische Landwirtschaft als 
Grundlage der tiirk. Volkswirtschaft, Berlin-Leipzig 
1932 ; M. Thornburg, G. Spry, G. Soule, Turkey. An 
Economical Appraisal, New York 1949; The Economy 
of Turkey. An Analysis and Recommendations of a 
Development Program. Baltimore 195 1. 

Bibliography: al-Idrisi, Kitdb Rud[ar or 
Nuzhat al-Mushtdk (K. Miller, Mappae Arabicae, 
iv, Stuttgart 1927, plates 35, 45, 55; Edrisii 
Geographia Arabice, Rome 1592, fol. H3r-n4v, 
I3gr-i42r, 153V-154V; P. Amedee Jaubert, 
Giographie d'Edrisi, Paris 1836-40, II, 129, 305, 
391); Yakut, Mu'djam al-Bulddn and al-Kazwini, 
Athar al-Bildd, s.v. al-Rum; Abu '1-Fida>, Takwim 
al-Bulddn (Giographie d'Aboulftda, ed. Reinaud 
and de Slane, Paris 1840; French translation by 
Reinaud, Paris 1848, continued by St. Guyard, 
Paris 1883); Ibn Battuta (Arabic text with 
French translation: Voyages d'Ibn Batoutah, by 
Defremery and Saguinetti, ii, Paris 1877, 254-354; 
French translation with annotations by Defremery 
in Nouvelles Annates des Voyages, Dec. 1850- April 
185 1 ; English translation by H. A. R. Gibb, Ibn 
Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa 132 5-1354, 
London 1953, 123-66); al- c Umari, Masalik al- 
Absar (F. Taeschner, Al-'-Umari's Bericht iiber 
Anatolien, Leipzig 1929; incomplete translation 
by Quatremere in Notices et Extraits, xiii, Paris 
1838, 151-384); Hamd Allah Mustawfi, Nuzhat 
al-Kulub, {The geographical part of Nuzhat al- 
qulub, ed. by G. le Strange, Leyden-London 1915, 
English translation 1919); G. le Strange, The 
Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, Cambridge 1905, 
127-58; F. Taeschner, Ein attosmanischer Bericht 
iiber das vorosmanische Konstantinopel, in Annali 
1st. Univ. Or. Napoli, N.S. I, Rome 1940, 181-9. 
Muhammad 'Ashik's Mandzir al-'Awdlim (1006/ 
1598) brings to an end the geographical literature 
of the mediaeval type. In the geographical section, 
he begins with a Turkish translation of what older 
authors — al-Idrisi, Abu '1-Fida' and others — have 
said; in the case of places which he himself has 
visited, this is followed by an account of what he 
has seen. These reports, which are interspersed 
throughout the work, are of the greatest im- 
portance and would merit an edition, especially 
since they were used as a basis for later works. 
Those original works by Ottoman writers which 
have survived are more revealing than any of the 



above-mentioned ones: PW Rels, Kitdb-i Bahriyye, 
Istanbul 1935, Facsimile edition, from p. 746; 
Katib Celebi (or HadjdjI Khalifa), Djihdn-numd, 
of which there are two recensions (cf. Taeschner, 
Zur Geschichte des Djihdnnumd, MSOS, 1926, ii, 
99-11 1 ; idem, Das Hauptwerk der geographischen 
Literatur der Osmanen, Katib Celebis Gihdnnumd, 
Imago Mundi 1935, 44-7). The former exists only 
as an unfinished fragment in a series of manu- 
scripts of which the Viennese one, Mxt. 389 (Cat. 
Fliigel, ii, No. 1282) is the most important because 
it seems to have been the working copy of the 
great scholar. Abu Bakr b. Bahrain al-Dimashkl 
(d. 1102/1691) continued Katib Celebi's work and 
wrote a description of Anatolia, a manuscript of 
which is in London (Brit. Mus., Or. 1038). Ibrahim 
Mutafarrika printed the Djihdn-numa (10 Muh. 
ii45/23rd July 1732; an inaccurate translation into 
Latin by Matth. Norberg, Gihan Numa, Geographia 
Orientalis, 2 vols. Lund 18 18; French translation 
by Armain, Description de I'Asie Mineure, in Louis 
Vivien de Saint Martin, Histoire des dicouvertes 
gtographiques, iii, Paris 1846, 637 ff.), in which 
he completed the part left unfinished by Katib 
Celebi from the work of Abu Bakr (p. 422 ff., 
Norberg, i, 618 ff.) Thus this book — which is one 
of the incunabula of Turkish printing — became a 
geographical description of Asia. Of Anatolia, 
however, (Norberg, i, 589 ff.) only the parts on the 
eyalet of Van (p. 411) are actually by Katib 
Celebi, everything else, i.e. the description of the 
eydlets Kars (inserted, p. 407), Erzerum (422), 
Tirabzon (429), Diyarbakr (436; from here onwards 
Norberg, ii),Cilicia(Icel, 610) Karaman (6i4),Sivas 
(622), and Anadolu (631), is by Abu Bakr. 

Further sources of information on Anatolia in 
Ottoman times are the few reports of travellers in 
Turkish and in Arabic: Ewliya Celebi, Seydhat- 
ndme (i-vi, badly edited in Istanbul 1314-6, vii 
and viii slightly better in 1928, ix and x (in Latin 
script) in 1935 and 1938; the first two volumes 
were rather inadequately translated into English 
from a bad manuscript by Joseph von Hammer, 
Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa, 
London 1834, 1846 and 1850), which we have 
only as a rough sketch. Those parts of the work 
which relate to Anatolia (vols ii-v) are brought 
together in Taeschner, Das Anatolische Wegenetz 
nach osmanischen Quellen, i, Leipzig 1924, 37-39, 
44. Further, there are the travel guides for pilgrims 
going to Mecca, such as Muhammad Adib's work 
of 1193/1779 (printed in Istanbul 1232/1817, 
French translation by Bianchi, Hintraire de Con- 
stantinople a la Mecque, Paris 1825, in which the 
date of writing is erroneously given as 1093/1682, 
cf. Taeschner, Wegenetz, i, 82). 

To complete the picture given by the above- 
mentioned Oriental travel accounts, there are 
those by Europeans (the older ones listed by 
L. Vivien de Saint-Martin in Histoire des dicou- 
vertes Giographiques, iii, 743-808: vi, Bibliographie ; 
the more recent by Selcuk Trak, Tiirhiyeye ait 
Cografi eserler genel bibliografyasl, i, Ankara 1942, 
30-9). 

A wealth of information may be expected from 
documents kept in Turkish archives, but research 
into these is only in its beginning (Omer Lutfi 
Barkan, Turkiyede Imperatorluk devirlerinin niifus 
ve arazi tahrirleri ve Hakana mahsus defterler, 
Istanbul 1941, and XV ve XVIinci asirlarda 
Osmanlt Imperatorlugunda zirat ekonominin hukukt 
ve malt esaslarl, Kanunlar, Istanbul 1943). 



Finally, the official handbooks (Dewlet-i '•Aliyye-i 
'Othmaniyye Sdl-ndmesi) which are available for 
the 68 years from 1263 H/1847 to 1334 Maliyye/ 
1918 and the Sdl-ndmes of the individual wildyets 
may be fused as sources of information for the last 
decades of the Ottoman Empire. (The imperial and 
provincial Sal-names of that time, together with 
other sources, are exploited in the important work 
by V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, Paris i/ii, 1892, 
iii/iv, 1894). Under the Turkish Republic, a similar 
series was started (Turkiye DJiimhuriyeti Dewlet 
Sdl-namesi), but only 5 volumes have appeared 
so far (i, 1926; ii, 1927; iii, 1328; iv, 1929; v, 
1930), and they do not contain nearly as much 
material as the earlier sal-names of Ottoman times. 

Lastly, the lists of place-names may serve a& 
sources for the most recent period, for instance: 
Son teskilat-i miilkiyede Kdylerimizin adlarl, 
Istanbul 1928; I dare Taksimati, 1942, Istanbul 
1942; Turkiye' de Meskun Yerler Ktlavuzu, 2 vols., 
Ankara 1946 and 1950. 



Key to the map of Anatolia in ti 



17th c 



This map is based on the Uevolkerungskarte der 
Turkei, 1 : 4,000,000, by H. Louis, 1938. The entries 
are mainly taken from the Diihdn-numd of Katib 
Celebi, and therefore reflect conditions in Anatolia 
in the 17th century. The map shows the approximate 
limits of the eydlets (within' the present-day boundary 
of Turkey) as red broken lines, and in some cases 
those of the liwds (or sandjaks), within the eydlets, 
as red dotted lines. It further shows the more im- 
portant roads indicated by Katib Celebi, Ewliyi 
Celebi and other sources, the main communication 
routes as double red lines, other routes as single red 
lines. The names of towns (in red) and of mountain 
peaks (in black, with heights in metres) are abbre- 
viated, and the following list explains these abbre- 
viations; first comes the name as it appears in the 
Djihdn-numd and in the other sources of the i7ih 
century, then, in brackets, the antique or Byzantine 
name (if known), the modern name (if different from 
the old one), the administrative district (except in 
the case of towns which have gained importance 
only later and therefore do not occur in the ancient 
sources; these have been put in brackets on the map), 
and finally the reference to the squares of the map. 
The names of the capitals of eydlets are printed in 
small capitals, those of the capitals of liwds in 
italics. General abbreviations : B. = Buyiik; C. = 
Cay, Cayl; D. - Dag, Dagt; E. = Eyalet; G. = G61, 
Golii; I. = Irmak; L. = Liwa; N. = Nehir, Nehri. 
For practical reasons, the transliteration has been 
based on modern Turkish orthography. 
A D = Agrt Dagi (Ararat: L 3) 
Ad = Adana (E. Adana: F 4) 
Adc = Adilcevaz (E. Van: K 3) 
(Adp) = Adapazar (D 2) 
A Py = Amid/Diyarbekr (Diyarbaklr; E. Diyar- 

bekr: I 4) 
A E == Aksehir(Enderes: L. Karahisar-i^arki: H 2} 
Ah = Ahiska (K 2) 
Ahl = Ahlat (E. Van : K 3) 
Ak = Antakya (Antiocheia; L. Antakya : G 4} 
Akh = Afyon Karahisari (I... Karahisar-i Sahib : 

D 3) 
Aks = Aksaray (E. Karaman : E 3) 
Al = Alaya ( c Ala1ya, Alanya, Kalonoros; L. 

Icel : E 4) 
Ala D = Ala Dag (F 4) 
Als = Alasehir (Philadelphia; L. Aydin : C 3) 



479 



Cay 



Cmk 



= Amasya (Amaseia; E. Sivas : F 2) 

= Amasra (Amastris; L. Bolu : E 2) 

= Ankara (Ankyra, Angora; L. Ankara : E 3) 

= Antalya (Attaleia, Adalya : L. Tekke : D 4) 

= Ardahan (E. CUdlr : K 2) 

= Ayas (E. Adana : F 4) 

= Aksehir (Philomelion; E. Karaman : D 3) 

= 'Ayntab (Gaziantep; E. Mar<as : G 4) 

= Altlntas (L. Germiyan : D 3) 

= Artvin (E. CUdlr : I 2) 

= Ayas (L. Ankara : E 2) 

= Ayasoluk (Ephesos, Hagios Theologos, 

Selcuk; L. Aydln : B 4) 
= Bayburt (E. Erzerum : I 2) 
= Binboga Dagl (G 3) 

= Bodrum (Halikarnassos; L. Mentese : B 4) 
-= Burdur (L. Hamid : D 4) 
= Benderegli (Heraclea Pontica, Eregli; S. 

Bolu : D 2) 

- Biga (L. Biga : B 2) 

= Bire (Birecik; L. Bire : H 4) 

= Balikesri (Balikesir; L. KarasI : B 3) 

= Bolu (L. Bolu : D 2) 

= Bilecik (L. Sultan Oyiigi : C 2) 

= Boz Dagl (Tmolos : C 3) 

= Beypazar (L. Ankara : D 2) 

= Bursa (Prusa, Brussa; L. Hudavendigar : 

C 2) 
= Bergama (Pergamon; L. KarasI : B 3) 
= Bitlis (E. Van : K 3) 
= Beysehir (E. Karaman : D 4) 
= Batum (I 2) 

- Buz Dagl (H 3) 

= Bolvadln (L. Karahisar-i Sahib : D 3) 

= Bayezid (Dogu Bayazit; E. Kars : L 3) 

= Cay (L. Karahisar-i Sahib : D 3) 

= Cerkes (L. Kanklrl : E 2) 

= CUdlr (E. CUdlr : K 2) 

= Caldlran (E. Van : K 3) 

= Corum (E. Sivas : F 2) 

= Colemerik (E. Van : K 4) 

= Corlu (Tzurullon : B 2) 

= Divrigi (Tephrike; E. Sivas : H 3) 

= Denizli (L. Germiyan : C 4) 

= Develi-Karahisar (Develi; E. Karaman : 

F 3) 
= Diizce (L. Bolu : D 2) 
= Ercis (E. Van : K 3) 
= Edirne (Adrianopolis : B 2) 
= Edremit (L. KarasI : B 3) 
= Ergani (E. Diyarbekr : H 3) 
= Egirdir (L. Hamid : D 4) 
= Ermenek (L. Icel : E 4) 
= Elbistan (E. Mar'as : G 3) 
= Elma Dagl (E 3) 
= Elmall (L. Tekke : C 4) 
= Erzerum (Arzan al-Rum, 

Erzerum : I 3) 
= Erzincan (E. Erzerum : H 3) 
= Eregli (Herakleia; E. Karaman : F 4) 
= Erciyas Dagl (Argaios : F 3) 
= Eskisehir (L. Sultan Oyiigi : D 3) 
= Foca (Phokaia; L. Samhan : B 3) 
= Firiike (L. Tekke : D 4) 

- Gegbiize (Dakibyza, Gebze; L. Kocaeli : 
C 2) 

- Geyik Dagl (E 4) 

= Gordcs (L. Saruhan : C 3) 

= Gumushane (Giimiisane; E. Erzerum : H 2) 

= Guzelhisar-Aydln (Aydln; L. Aydln : B 4) 

= Giilek kalesi (E. Adana : F 4) 

« Gemlik (L. Hudavendigar : C 2) 



Erzurum; E. 



= Gelibolu (GaUipoli, Kalliopolis : B 2) 

= Gonen (L. Biga : B 2) 

= Goyniik (L. Sultan Oyiigi : D 2) 

= Gerede (L. .Bolu : E 2) 

= Giresun (Kerasus; E. Trabzon : H 2) 

= Giimrii (Alexandropol, Leninakan : K 2) 

= Geyve (L. Sultan Oyiigi : D 2) 

= Gediz (L. Germiyan : C 3) 

= Had Bektas (E. Karaman : F 3) 

=■■ Hasan Dagl (F 3) 

= Hekim Hani (E. Sivas : F 3) 

= Hisn Kef (Hisn Kayfa, Hasankeyf; E. 
Diyarbekr : I 4) 

= Hersek (L. Hudavendigar : C 2) 

= Haleb (Aleppo : G 4) 

= Hisn-i Mansur (Husniimansur, Adlyaman; 
E. Mar'as : H 4) 

= Hama (G 5) 

= Hlnls (E. Erzerum : I 3) 

= Hoy (L 3) 

= Harput (Hartbirt, Elazlg; E. Diyarbekr : 
H 3) 

= Harran (Karrhai; E. Rakka : H 4) 

= Horasan (E. Erzerum : K 2) 

= Hims (Emesa, Horns : G 5) 

= Hasankale (Pasinler; E. Erzerum : I 2) 

= Inebolu (L. Kastamonu : E 2) 

= Ilgaz Dagl (E 2) 

«= Ilgiin (E. Karaman : D 3) 

= Iznikomid (Nikomedeia, Izmit; L. Kocaeli : 
C 2) 

= Iznlk (Nikaia; L. Kocaeli : C 2) 

= Inofiii (L. Sultan Oyiigi : D 3) 

= Izmir (Smyrna; L. Sugla : B 3) 

= Iskelib (E. Sivas : F 2) 

=■■ Iskenderun (Alexandreia, Alexandretta; 
L. Antakya : G 4) 

= Isparta (L. Hamid : D 4) 

= Kus adasl (Scala nuova; L. Aydln : B 4) 

= Karabunar (Karaplnar; E. Karaman: E 4) 

= Kalecik (L. Kanklrl : E 2) 

= Kohu Dagl (C 4) 

= Klgl (E. Erzerum : I 3) 

= Kangal (E. Sivas : G 3) 

= Kadln Hani (E. Karaman : E 3) 

= Kemah (E. Erzerum : H 3) 

= Karahisar-i sarki (Sabin Karahisar; L k 
Karahisar-i sarki : H 2) 

= Keskin (E. Sivas : E 3) 

= Klrkkilise (KIrklareli : B 2) 

= Kanklrl (Canklrl; L. KangW : E 2) 

= Kula (L. Germiyan : C 3) 

= Koyluhisar (L. Karahisar-i sarku : G 2) 

= Kilis (L. Kills : G 4) 

= Kelkit (E. Erzerum : H 2) 

= Kastamonu (L. Kastamonu : E 2) 

= Kirmasti (L. Hudavendigar : C 2) 

= Konya (Ikonion; E. Karaman : E 4) 

= Kiire (L. Kastamonu : E 2) 

= Kal'e-i Sultaniye (Canak Kalesi; L. Biga r 
B 2) 

= Kars (E. Kars : K 2) 

= Kaysariye (Kaisareia, Kayseri; E. Kara- 
man : F 3) 

= Kostantinive (Konstantinopolis, Istanbul : 
C 2) 

= Klrsehir (E. Karaman : F 3) 

= Kesis Dagl (Ulu Dag, Olympus of Bithynia : 
Ca) 

= Kesis Dagl (H 3) 

= Kiitahya (Kotyaion; E. Anadolu, L. Ger- 
miyan : C 3) 



- Kagtzman (E. Kars : K 2) 
= Luleburgaz (B 2) 

= Laranda (Karaman; E. Karaman : E 4) 
= Lefke (Leukai, Osmaneli; L. Sultan Oyiigi : 

C 2) 
= Latakiye (Laodikeia : G 5) 
= Membic (G 4) 
= Mucur (E. Karman : F 3) 
= Mededsiz Dagt (F 4) 
= Mudurnu (L. Bolu : D 2) 
= Mudanya (L. Hudavendigar : C 2) 
= Meyafarikin (SUvan; E. Diyarbekr : I 3) 
= Mugla (L. Mentese : C 4) 
= Magnisa {Magnesia, Manisa; L. Saruhan : 

= Mihalic (Karacabey; L. Hudavendigar : 

C 2) 
= Makri (Fethiye; L. Mentese : C 4) 
= Milas (L. Mentese : B 4) 
= Malkara (B 2) 

= Malatya (MeUtene; E. Mar c as : H 3) 
= Malazgird (E. Van : K 3) 
= Ma'arrat an-Nu c man (G 5) 
= Mar'as (Maras; E. Mar'as : G 4) 
= Mardin (E. Diyarbekr : I 4) 
= Mersin (F 4) 
= Mosul (K 4) 

= Misis (Mopsuestia; E. Adana : F 4) 
= Mus (E. Van : I 3) 
= Manavgat (L. Icel : D 4) 
= Merzifun (E. Sivas : F 2) 
= Nusaybin (Nisibis; E. Diyarbekr : I 4) 
= Nigde (E. Karaman : F 4) 
= Niksar (Neokaisareia ; L. Karahisar-i sarki : 

G 2) 
= Nevsehir (F 3) 
= Osmanclk (E. Sivas : F 2) 
= Ordu (E. Trabzon : G 2) 
= Payas (Baiai; E. Adana : G 4) 
= Ra's ul- c ayn (E. Rakka : I 4) 
= Roha/Urfa (Edessa; E. Rakka : H 4) 
= Re van (Erivan : L 2) 
= Rize (E. Trabzon : I 2) 
= Sabanca (Sapanca; L. Kocaeli : D 2) 
= Siiriic (E. Rakka: H 4) 
= Sultan Dagt (D 3) 

= Selefke (Seleukeia; Silifke; L. Icel : E 4) 
= Seydi Gazi (Nakoleia; L. Sultan Oyiigi : 

D 3) 
= Sogiit (L. Sultan Oyiigi : D 3) 
~ Sivrihisar (L. Ankara : D 3) 
= Sis (E. Adana : F 4) 
= Siverek (E. DiySrbekr : H 4) 
= Sinop (L. Kastamonu : F 1) 
= Samsuu (Amisos; E. Sivas : G 2) 
= Susigtrllgi (Susurluk; L. Karasi : C 3) 
= Si'irt (Siirt; E. Diyarbekr : I 4) 
= Sivas (Sebasteia; E. Sivas : G 3) 
= Sarklsla (E. Sivas : F 3) 
= Sile (L. Kocaeli : C 2) 

- Tercan (Mamahatun; E. Erzerum : I 3) 
= Tekeli Dagt (G 2) 

= Tadmur (Palmyra : H 5) 

= Tefeni (L. Hamid : D 4) 

= Tiflis (L 2) 

= Turhal (E. Sivas : G 2) 

= Tokat (E. Sivas : G 2) 

= Tekirdag (Rhaidestos, Rodosto : B 2) 

= Tire (L. Aydln : B 3) 

= Trabzon (Trapezus; E. Trabzon : H 2) 

= TarSbulus-i Sam (Tripolis : G 5) 

= Tosya (L. Kanklrl : F 2) 



Tss = Tarsus (Tarsos; E. Adana : F 4) 

Ts = Tavsanit (L. Germiyan : C 3) 

Tt = Tortum (E. Erzerum : I 2) 

Tv = Tatvan (E. Van : K 3) 

Ub = Uluburlu (L. Hamid : D 3) 

Uk = Ulukisla (E. Karaman : F 4) 

Ur = Urmiya (L 4) 

Us = Usak (L. Germiyan : C 3) 

Osk = Oskiidar (Skutari; C 2) 

Vst = Vostan (E. Van : K 3) 

Y D = Yildiz Dagt (G 2) 

Ys = Yenisehir (L. Hudavendigar : C £ 

Yv = Yalovac (L. Hamid : D 3) 

(Yz) = Yozgat (F 3) 

Zb = Zafranbolu (L. Kastamonu : E 2) 

(Zg) = Zonguldak (D 2) 

Zl = Zile (E. Sivas : F 2) 

Zr = Zara (E. Sivas : G 3) 

(F. Taeschner) 

ANADOLU. In the time between the 15th and 
the 18th century, this was the name applied to the 
province (eyalet) comprising the western half of 
Anatolia [cf. preceding article] and embracing 
largely the western Anatolian Turkish principalities. 
At the beginning, Ankara was the capital and the 
seat of the governor (beglerbeg), later it was Kiitahya. 
The eyalet of Anadolu contained the following military 
districts (sandjak or liwd) which were partly former 
principalities (in the order given by Katib Celebi in 
Diihan-niima) : 1) Germiyan with Kiitahya as its 
capital; 2) Sarukhan with Maghnisa (now Manisa) ; 
3) Aydln with Tire; 4) Menteshe with Mughla; 
5) Tekke with Antaliya; 6) Hamid with Isbarta: 
7) Karahisar-i Sahib with the capital of the same 
name (later Atyun Kara Hisar); 8) Sultan Oyiigi 
(often in the corrupted form of Sultan Oni) with 
Eskishehir; 9) Ankara with the capital of the same 
name (also called Engiiri); 10) Kanklrl with the 
capital of the same name (now Canklrt) ; 11) Kasfamo- 
ni with the capital of the same name (now Kasta- 
monu); 12) Boll with the capital of the same name 
(now Bolu); 13) Khudawendigar with Brusa (Bursa); 
14) Kodja-eli with Iznikomid (later Izmid, Umit). 
In addition there were the following sandjaks which 
were under the Kapudan Pasha: 1) Karasi with 
Balikesri; 2) BIgha with the capital of the same name 
and Kal'e-i Sultaniyye (or Canak Kal'esi); 3) Sughla 
with Izmir. [Cf. individual articles on each of the 
preceding]. 

When other eydlets besides Anadolu were formed 
in the Asiatic part of Turkey, the term Anadolu was 
loosely applied to the whole Asiatic half of the 
empire, inasmuch as there was in addition to the 
"Military Judge" (kidi 'asker, pronounced kazasker) 
of Rumelia as highest judge in the European part 
of the empire, also such a one for the Asiatic half. 
The latter had to accompany the Padishah on his 
campaigns into Asia. Besides the "accountant" 
(defterdar), i.e. the Minister of Finance, in Rumelia 
there was also one in Anatolia whose post, however, 
became a mere sinecure in comparison with the 

The law of 7 Djumada 1281/5 Nov. 1864, con- 
cerning wildyets, dissolved the exessively large 
eyalet of Anadolu, raised the sandiahs of Khudawen- 
digar, Aydln, Ankara and KastamonI to the status 
of wilayets, and assigned the remaining sandjaks to 
these. 

Bibliography: Katib Celebi, Djihan-niima, 
Istanbul 1145/1732, 630 ff. For further biblio- 
graphy cf. Anadolu, preceding article. 

(F. Taeschner) 



THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA 




ANADOLU HISARI — ANAPA 



481 



ANADOLU HISARI, a fortress (also known 
as Giizeldje Hisar, Yenidje, Yeni, or Akca Hisar) 
at the narrowest part of the Bosporus, built by 
BayezJd I in 797/1395 in order to cut off commu- 
nications between Byzantium and the Black Sea 
(cf. 'Ashlkpasha-zade, ed. Giese, Leipzig 1928, 61 , 
121, 131; Neshri, ed. Taeschner, i, Leipzig 1951, 90; 
Bihishti, Ta'rikh; Solak-zade, Ta'rikh, Istanbul 
1298, 64; Sa c d al-Din, Tddi al-Tawdrikh, Istanbul 
1279, i, 148; Munedidjim-bashl, Sahd'if al-Akhbdr, 
Istanbul 1285, 310). Some improvements were made 
by Mehemmed II during the erection of Rumeli 
Hisari [?.«.] in 856/1452 (hence he is wrongly named 
as the founder of Anadolu Hisari cf. Katib Celebi, 
Siy&hat-ndme, i, 664). Anadolu Hisari played an 
important role before the battle of Varna, during 
the passage of Murad I's army from the Anatolian 
to the European shore (cf. Neshri, loc. cit. ; Sa c d 
al-Din, 379; Miinedidjim-bashi, 358; Lutfi Pasha, 
Tawdrikh-i Al-i '■Othmdn, Istanbul 1341, 117). After 
the conquest of Istanbul, the fortress lost its military 
importance, and when further changes in political 
power made it necessary to protect the Bosporus 
again, Murad IV built fortifications at Rumeli 
Kavaghl and Anadolu Kavaghl in order to repel the 
incursions of the Cossacks. The fortress is described 
by Ewliya Celebi (Siydhat-ndme, loc. cit.); after a 
long period of neglect, it was thoroughly restored 
in 1928. The sub-district called Anadolu Hisari 
(already mentioned by Ewliya Celebi), has about 
5000 inhabitants (including Kanlldja and Cubuklu). 
Tke rivulets Gok-su and Kucuk Su, known as the 
Sweet Waters of Europe, were formerly one of the 
most popular places for excursions from Istanbul, 
often mentioned in literature. Here, between the 
fortress and Kanlldja, stands the "maison de plai- 
sance", the only surviving part of a villa built by 
'Amudja-zade Husayn Pasha towards 1695, and 
one of the few remaining examples of early Ottoman 
civil architecture. 

Bibliography : S. Toy, The Castles on the Bos- 
porus, Oxford 1930, 225 ff.; H. Hogg, Tiirken- 
Burgen am Bosporus und Hellespont, Dresden 
1932, 9 ff. ; A. Gabriel, Chateaux Turcs duBosphore, 
Paris 1943, 9 flf. ; IA, s.v. (R. Anhecger) 

ANAHlD [see zuhara]. 

'ANAtf, name given by the Arabs to the 
daughter of Adam, the twin sister of Seth, wife 1 
of Cain and mother of c 0dj [q.v.] ; see Djahiz, Tarbi' | 
(Pellat) index. — In zoology, 'andk denotes a kind 
of lynx, the caracal (from the Turkish Kara kulak 
"black-ear", Persian siyah gush) found in much of 
Asia and Africa, which is thought to walk in front 
of the lion and, by its cry, to announce the latter's 
approach. — In astronomy, 'Andk al-Bartdt is the £ 
of the Great Bear, and 'Andk al-Ard, y Andromedae; 
see A. Benhamouda, Les Noms arabes des itoiles, in 
AJEO, Algiers, ix, 1951, 84, 97. (Ed.) 

ANAMUR, small town and harbour on the 
southern coast of Anatolia, 36 6' N, 32 10' E, 
capital of a kadd in the wildyet of Icel, with 2734 
inhabitants (1945 ; the kada has 23,725 inhabitants). 
It is situated in a plain formed by the mouth of 
a little river, ca. 5 km. from the promontory 
of Anamur Bumu which forms the southernmost 
point of Anatolia. The town is called in medieval 
portulans Stallimuri, Stalemura, etc. On the coast, 
at the foot and on the slopes of the Anamur Bumu 
lie the extensive ruins of the late antique and early 
Christian town of Anemurium or Anemorium. 

At the east end of the plain of Anamur, close to 
the shore, lies Ma'muriyye Kal'esi, a well-preserved 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



medieval fortress, which was made use of and 
repaired by the Ottomans; this is recorded by an 
inscription from 874/1469-70. Inside there is a 
small mosque. 

Bibliography: V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, 
ii, 81 f.; W. Tomaschek, Zur historischen Topo- 
graphie von Kleinasien im Mittelalter, Vienna 
1891, 59. (F. Taeschner) 

'AnANIYYA, Jewish sect of the adepts of 
'Anan b. David (c. 760 A.D.), rather incorrectly con- 
sidered to be the founder of the Karaite schismatic 
faction; his schism was only one of many which 
affected Rabbinical Judaism during the 8th-gth cen- 
turies. The Muslim authors seem to have taken most 
of their information about 'Anan and his sect from 
Karaite sources, especially Kirkisani, but they have 
only used a small part of the mass of information 
supplied by him. The author of the al-Bad' wa 
'l-Ta'rikh represents c An5n as a sort of Mu'tazilite, 
who professes the divine unity and justice and 
rejects anthropomorphism. The 'Ananiyya of Ibn 
Hazm are in fact the Karaites. Al-Biruni is interested 
in their particular views regarding the calendar. Al- 
Shahrastani, in addition to briefly mentioning their 
calendar and their prohibitions concerning food 
(M. Badran has rejected the correct reading into 
the footnote) comments on their favourable attitude 
to the person of Jesus. The later Muslim sources 
throw no fresh light on the subject. No Muslim 
author mentions the alleged meeting between 'Anan 
and Abu Haiilfa in the prisons of al-Mansur. 
Although kiyds is recognized as a source of the law 
both by the Karaites and by the Hanafis, there is 
nothing to suggest that the latter influenced the 
former. 

Bibliography: Abu Ya'kub al-Kirkisanl, al- 

Anwar wa 'l-Marakib, ed. L. Nemoy, New York 

'939-45. index, s.vv. Anan and Ananites; Le Livre 

de la Creation et de I'Histoire, ed. and trans, by 

CI. Huart, iv, Paris 1907, text 34-6, trans. 32-5; 

Ibn Hazm, Fisal, Cairo 1317, i, 99 (1347, 82); 

Blrunl, Athar = The Chronology of Ancient 

Nations, ed. and trans, by E. Sachau, text 58-9, 

cf. 284, trans. 68-9, cf. 278; Shahrastanl, Milal, 

ed. Cureton, 167-8, ed. M. Badran, 503-5. The 

most recent statement of the problems concerning 

'Anan and the origins of Karaism is contained in 

the articles of Leon Nemoy: Anan ben David. 

A re-appraisal of the historical data, Semitic 

Studies in Memory of Immanuel Low, Budapest 

'947, 239-48; idem, Yivo-Bleter, 1949, 95-112; 

JQR, 1950, 307-15: the essentials of the earlier 

bibliography will be found there. (G. Vajda) 

ANAPA, a former fortress on the Black Sea, 

situated on the Bugur river 40 km. S. W. of the 

Kuban estuary. Built by French engineers for Sultan 

c Abd al-Hamld I in 1781, it was unsuccessfully 

attacked by the Russians in 1787 and 1790, but 

stormed by Gen. Gudovich in 1791. Returned to 

Turkey by the treaty of Yassy (1791), it was in 1808 

taken by the Russians but returned to Turkey in 

1812. In 1828 it was blockaded by Admiral Greig 

and Prince Menshikov and ceded to Russia by the 

treaty of Adrianople of 1829 (article 4). In 1846 a 

town was built at Anapa. During the Crimean war 

it was first blown up by the Russians, then reoccupied 

in 1856. In i860 the inhabitants of Anapa were 

transferred to Temruk. In recent decades Anapa 

was used as a beach and rest home for children. 

It was destroyed by enemy action in 1942-3, and is 

now restored. 

3i 



♦82 



ANAPA — 'ANAZA 



Bibliography: Novitsky, Anapa, Zap. Kavk. 
Old. Imp. Gcogr. Obi., 1853, »\ '4-43 ; P. P- Semenov, 
Geogr. Slovar Ross, imperii, i, 96; Russian and 
Soviet Encyclopaedias. (V. Minorsky) 

ANAS b. MALIK Abu Hamza, one of the most 
prolific traditionists. After the hidira his mother gave 
him to the prophet as servant ; according to his own 
statement he was then ten years of age. H' was 
present at Badr, but took no part in the battle, and 
is therefore not counted among the combatants. He 
remained in Muhammad's service up to the time of 
the Prophet's death; later he took part in the wars 
of conquest. He also played small parts in the civil 
wars. In the year 65/684 he officiated as imam of 
the saldt at Basra on behalf of the rival caliph c Abd 
Allah b. al-Zubayr. When «Abd al-Rahman b. al- 
Ash'ath revolted, al-Hadjdjadj charged Anas with 
being a partisan of the rebel just as he had formerly 
taken the part of the enemies of the Umayyads, 
•AH and Ibn al-Zubayr; and although Anas was 
highly respected as a Companion of the Prophet, 
al-Hadjdjadi had no scruples in putting round 
his neck a cord with his seal (72/691). It is said 
however that the caliph 'Abd al-Malik apologised 
for al-Hadjdjadj's disrespectful act. Anas died at 
Basra at a very advanced age, which is variously 
given as from 97 to 107 years, the dates most 
frequently mentioned are 91-93/709-71 1. 

Traditions attributed to Anas are found, collected 
together, in the Musnad of al-Tayalisi (Haydarabad 
1321, Nos. 1959-2 150) and in the Musnad of Ahmad 
b. Hanbal (Cairo 1313, iii, 98-292). Al-DhahabI states 
that al-Bukhari and Muslim record between them 
278 traditions from Anas, of which 80 occur in 
al-Bukhari alone, 70 in Muslim alone, and 128 are 
common to both. It is not surprising that many 
traditions were attributed to the servant of the 
Prophet; but while they may contain some genuine 
material, it is likely that they are mainly attributions 
of a later age; so Anas should not be blamed for 
all the strange statements given currency on his 
authority. 

Bibliography: Ibn Sa'd, Tabakdt, vii, 10 ff.; 
Bukhari, al-Ta'rikJt al-Kabir, Haydarabad 1361, 
no. 1579; Baladhuri, Futuh, index; Tabarf, An- 
nates, index ; Ibn Kutayba, Ma'ari/ (Wiistenfeld), 
157; Nawawl, Biographical Dictionary, 165 ft.; 
Dhahabi, Tadhkirat alHu//dz, i, 42 ; Ibn al-Ath.ir, 
Usd ai-Qhaba, i, 127 ft.; Ibn Hadjar, Isdba (Cairo 
1358/1939), no. 277; Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, i, 276 ff.; 
Sam'Snl, Ansdb, f. 553 b; Yakut, Mu'djam 
(Wiistenfeld), index; Ibn Khallikan, transl. de 
Slane, i, 587 f. ; Damlri, Hayat al-Hayawdn, 350 
(quoted by Caetani, Annali dell' Islam, Introd., 
§ 26, note 1). (A. J. Wensinck-J. Robson) 
ANATOLIA [see anadolu]. 
ANATOMY [see tasjirIh]. 

'ANAZA, short spear or staff {LA, vii, 251), 
usually synonymous with harba. In the Muslim 
ritual the 'anaza first appears in the year 2/624. 
When Muhammad first celebrated the 'id al-/i(r, 
Bilal carried a spear (reputedly the gift of al-Zubayr, 
who had received it from the Nadjashi) before 
him on his way to the musalld [q.v.]; during the 
service this spear was planted in the ground and 
served as sutra and kibla [q.v.]. The same was done 
on the 'id alaiha. This custom or carrying a spear 
or staff on ceremonial occasions was observed and 
expanded by the early caliphs. It became the rule 
for the preacher to hold in his hand, or to lean upon, 
a staff {ha Alb), sword or bow when he ascends the 
pulpit at the Friday service. All these are symbols 



expressing the same idea as the 'anaza, essentially 
that of authority (cf. the spear of Marduk). Among 
the ancient Arabs staff and pulpit were attributes 
of judge and orator. 

The word survives as an architectural term in the 

Maghrib, where it signifies an external mihrdb for 

those praying in the court of the mosque; see Kir Ids 

(Tornberg), 30, 31, 32, 37 (inscript. dated 524 H.; 

cf. RCIA, no. 3031); E. Pauty, in Hesp., 1923, 5'5-6. 

Bibliography: Bukhari, i, 107, 135-6, 241; 

Ibn Sa'd, iii/i, 167 ft.; Samhudi, Bulak 1285, 187 

= Wiistenfeld transl. 127-8; Wensinck, Handbook, 

s.v. sutra; idem, Mohammed en de Joden te Medina, 

141 ft.; Juynboll, Handbuch, 84, 87-8 ; Schwarzlose, 

Wat ten der alien Araber, Leipzig 1886, 212 ff.; 

G. C. Miles, Mihrdb and 'anazah, Archaeologica 

orientalia in memoriam Ernst Herz/eld, N.Y. 1932, 

156-171 (early iconographical representation, full 

references). (G. C. Miles) 

'ANAZA, a very ancient, but still existing, 

Arab tribe. The classical genealogical scheme 

'Anaza b. Rabl'a (Wiistenfeld, Tab. A 6) has in 

recent times been changed in the same way as in the 

case of other tribes such as the Banu 'Atiyya in 

Northern Hidjaz and Wall, the ancestor of the 

Bakr and Taghlib, is taken to be their tribal ancestor; 

in the most recent genealogies Kuraysh appears 

above Wa'il. Whether or not the Rabl'a groups are 

inter-related, as implied in the genealogy, they were 

in any case connected by neighbourly and other ties 

in their home, the Yamama. The 'Anaza were living 

in the Tuwayfc to the south of the Wadi Nisah ; there, 

in Haddar, a remnant of them, the Banu Hizzan, 

remain to this day. Sections in al-Afladj have 

disappeared and 'Anaza villages south of Ta'if were 

destroyed by the plague in about 1200. The Banu 

'Otba/'OtOb, to which the ruling houses of Kuwayt 

and Bahrayn belong, also come from Haddar. 

Accompanying some migrating Bakr, 'Anaza 
elements reached as far as the Euphrates in the 
second half of the 6th century, and like them, even- 
tually stayed there. As allies of the Kays b. Tha'laba, 
whose area was to the south of Basra, they took part 
in the East Arabian ridda. It is not known how and 
when they, and the 'Anaza who had remained behind, 
went over to Islam. It is said that they had previ- 
ously worshipped the god Su'ayr/Sa'ir, and, together 
with the "Rabl'a", Muharrik, whose image stood in 
Salman, to the south of HIra. 

Some 'Anaza settled in Kufa, others migrated 
together with a group of §hayban (Bakr) to the 
region of Mosul, where they can be traced up to the 
second half of the 9th century. The ancestors of the 
present-day. 'Anaza appear in the Harra of Khaybar 
in the 12th century. We do not know exactly 
whence they came: perhaps from the Tuwayk, 
perhaps from the area between 'Ayn al-Tamr and 
al-Anbar (Ibn Sa'id quoted by Ibn Khaldun, Hist, 
des Berberes, i, 14). This new emigration must be 
connected with the movements of the Eastern 
Arabian Karmatians which completely changed the 
face of Bedouin Arabia. In the 16th century they 
extended as far as the Kasim in the east, to Djafr 
'Anaza (= Wakisa ?) east of al-'Ula in the north. 
Later they occupy that oasis itself and Mada'in 
Salib. The tribal division we find today begins to 
be recognisable as early as 1700: the Djelas (Ruwali) 
roomed to the south of the Harrat Khaybar from 
Medina via Hanakiyya to Samira, the Sba'a in the 
Wadi '1-Ruma, as far as the Kasim; the 'Amarit 
in the Shammar mountains and in Eastern Arabia. 
The Fad'an may have been to the north of the Hana 



C ANAZA — ANBADUKLlS 



483 



where we find today the Wald Sulayman, who i 
closely connected with them. The Wald 'All were 
the west of Khaybar, and their close relatives, the 
Hesene, were most probably there too. 

The new migration of the 'Anaza, the firft stage 
of which lasts for over a century (ending with the 
arrival of the Djelas (Ruwala) in Syria in the second 
half of the 18th century), began before 1700. In i 
there is mention of them in Ma'Sn, in 1705 on 
Euphrates. This migration achieved its aims because 
the power of the amirs of the Mawall in the north 
of the Syrian desert had been waning since the end 
of the 17th century, and because the tribe of Ghaziwa 
was about to vacate the hinterland of Karbala' and 
go over the Euphrates. The second stage of in 
gration into Syria and Mesopotamia began about 
1800 and was due to the Wahhabls: the 'Anaza were 
partly on their side ('Amarat), and partly fled from 
their tax-collectors. In the 19th century the history 
of the 'Anaza is governed by their relations with the 
Turkish authorities and the house of Rashld, the 
ghammar amirs of Hayil. At the turn of the 20th 
century the Ruwala and their hereditary shaykhs, 
the Sha'lan, play an important part (the oasis of Djof 
was in the possession of the Sha'lan from 1909 to 
1922). In the first World War, the 'Amarat joined 
the English after the fall of Baghdad (n March 17). 
The Ruwala did not take part in allied operations 
until September 1918. Their shaykh, al-Nuri b. 
gha'lan, entered Damascus with the British and 
Arab troops in October 1918. In the post-war 
troubles the c Anaza frequently changed sides. The 
political reorganisation in the Middle East distributed 
the 'Anaza over Syria, 'Irak, Transjordan and Saudi- 
Arabia. The Fad'an, Sba'a and Ruwala are regarded 
as Syrian, the 'Amarat (with the exception of those 
who stay permanently in the Nadjd), are regarded 
as 'Iraki citizens, although they periodically leave 
the territory of that state during their migrations. 

There have always been two opposing groups 
within the c Anaza: the Pana Muslim (Hesene, Wald 
'All, Djelas/Ruwala) and the Bishr (Fad'an, Sba'a 
and 'Amarat). The last flare-up of this old animosity 
was quelled by the French in 1929. The Shamn 
especially since the 'Anaza's advance to the north, 
and the inhabitants of the Safa and the Hawran, 
particularly the Druzes, are the hereditary enemies 
of the 'Anaza. This is the reason why the 'Anaza 
sided with the government in all Druze risings. 

The 'Anaza's modern grazing areas are as follows. 
The Fad'an: in summer the area east of Aleppo 
and Hama, especially to the east of the Euphrates; 
in winter the Syrian desert (al-Bishri — al-Ka'ara, 
at times as far as al-R6da). The Sba'a: in summer to 
the east and northeast of Hama; in winter in the 
Syrian desert to the south of the Syria-'Irak border. 
The 'Amarat: in summer in the Djazlra, southeast 
of the Khabur, mostly on 'Iraki territory, in winter 
in the south-eastern Syrian desert (al-Wudyan). The 
Hesene: in summer to the east of Homs; in winter 
in' the Syrian desert close to the Syria-'Irak border. 
The Wald 'All: in summer to the northeast of 
Damascus and in the Hawran plain ; in winter in the 
heart of the Syrian desert as far as Dj6f and Tayma'. 
Of the sections which remained in Arabia, the Fukara 1 
and the Wald 'AH (both Dana Muslim) have their 
tents between the Harra of al-'Uwayrid and that 
of Khaybar; the Wald Sulayman (Bishr) migrate 
between the Harra of Khaybar and the southern 
border of the Nufud as far as Beds Nathll (to the 
southwest of Hayil), where a hudjra settlement of 
the ikhwan was founded in the twenties. 



The northern 'Anaza are camel breeders. Sheep 
breeding is the main occupation of the Hesene and 
the Wald 'AH (since 1900), and since 1920 the 
Fad'an and Ruwala have also increasingly taken to 
this. The Hesene and Wald 'AH — also, more recently, 
the Sba'a — have for some time been farming the 
land. In former times the 'Anaza had a right to part 
of the harvest of Khaybar; the tribes living there 
have retained that right. In Ottoman times the 
'Anaza had a right to the surra, a payment for 
protecting the pilgrims' caravan in their area. If 
this was not, or only partly, paid, then they reim- 
bursed themselves by plundering the hadidj (as e.g. 
in 1700, 1703, 1757). A further source of income was 
the tolls raised from the caravans, and the hhuwwa 
(protection money) collected from the settled 
population. The more prominent families among 
whom the office of shaykh is held, have considerable 
property in land, some of which dates back to 
donations of 'Abd al-Hamld. In the Diazlra this is 
partly cultivated, following American methods, in 
partnership with town-dwellers. 

Bibliography: Max Freiherr von Oppenheim, 
in collaboration with E. Braunlich and W. Caskel, 
Die Beduinen, i, Leipzig 1939, 62-130, 305, 
(Mawall); ii, Leipzig 1943, 342-51; i"' (compiled 
and edited by W. Caskel), Wiesbaden 1952, 351, 
412 (Ghaziyya), with full bibliography ; A. Musil, 
The manners and customs of the Rwala Bedouins, 
New York 1925 ; Ahmad, Wasfl Zakariyya: 'Ash&'ir 
al-SJsa'm, Damascus 1945-47. 'Abbas al-AzzawI, 
Ta'rikh al-'Irdk bayn Ibtildlayn, Baghdad 1935-49, 
index s.v. 'Anaza. Ashkenazi, The Anazah Tribes, 
Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, New Mexico, 
1948, 222-39. [See also ruwala.] (E. Graf) 
ANBADUKLlS, the Arabic form of the name 
of Empedocles (often corrupted into Ablduklis, 
etc.). Some authentic information about his doctrines 
came down to the Muslims by way of such channels 
as the works of Aristotle, the doxography of Ps.- 
Plutarch (e.g. i, 3, cf. ed. Badawl; also quoted in 
Abu Sulayman al-Mantrikl, Siwdn al-Ifikma, intro- 
duction; al-Makdisi, al-Bad?, i, 139, ii, 75), etc. The 
authentic Empedocles, however, plays no role in 
Islamic philosophy; on the other hand, his figure 
was appropriated by late Neoplatonic circles, and 
treatises in which Neoplatonic speculations were put 
into his mouth were translated into Arabic. The main 
representative of this literature is the Book of the 
Five Substances, the Arabic translation of which is 
lost, but parts of which are preserved in excerpts 
from a Hebrew translation made from the Arabic 
(see D. Kaufmann, Studien iiber Salomon b. Gabirol, 
Budapest 1899, 1 ii.). It seems that the quotations 
in Ps.-Madjritl, Ghayat al-lfakim, 285, 289, 293-4, 
are from some closely related source (289 = ed. 
Kaufmann, § 13). Various Neoplatonic ideas are 
attributed to Empedocles in Ammonius, Ara } al- 
Faldsifa (MS Aya Sofiya 2450: see fols. 109V ff., 
i3or), in which Neoplatonic doctrines are distributed 
among a number of ancient Greek philosophers. 
This work, quoted in al-BIruni, India, 41-2, transl. 85 
(the passage from Empedocles = MS Aya Sofiya, 
fol. i3or), was also the main source of al-Shahrastanl's 
account of the ancient philosophers and also of that 
of Empedocles (al-Milal, 230 ff.). In addition, 
however, al-Shahrastanl reproduces another text by 
"Empedocles" (262 1. 1-263 1. 18) from some other 
source. Al-Shahrazuri, in his Rawdat al-Afrah, 
though mainly basing himself on al-Shahrastanl and 
Ibn al-Kiftl, also has some additional passages 
(extracts in Asin Palacios). 



484 



ANBADUKLlS — al-ANBAR 



According to SS'id al-Andalusl Ibn Masarra was 
acquainted with books by Empedocles; for a discus- 
sion of his alleged indebtedness to Ps.-Empedoclean 
doctrines, see ibn masarra. 

In the biographical literature Empedocles is 
counted as the first of the five great philosophers 
Empedocles, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle) 
and is deemed to have been a contemporary of David 
and to have derived his philosophy from Lukman; 
see al-'Amiri, al-Abad c ala 'l-Amad, quoted in the 
Siwan al-Ifikma, introduction; Sa'id al-Andalusl, 
Tabakdt al-Umam, 21 (who follows al-'Amiri or a 
common source); Ibn al-Kiftl, 15-6 and Ibn Abi 
Usaybi'a, i, 36-7 (both of whom follow Sa'id); al- 
Shahrastani, loc. cit. (who uses the Siwan). 

Bibliography: M. Steinschneider, Die arabi- 
schen Ubersetzungen aus dem Griechischen, Philo- 
sophic, § 4; idem, Die hebrdischen Ubersetzungen, 
index; P. Kraus, Jabir ibn ffayyan, ii, index; 
M. Asin Palacios, Ibn Masarra y su escuela, chs. 
iv-v (= Obras escogidas, i, 53 ff.); a monograph 
on the Ps.-Empedoclean writings is being prepared 
by S. M. Stern. (S. M. Stern) 

'ANBAR (a,), ambergris (ambre gris, ambra 
grisea, to distinguish it from ambre jaune = amber), 
a substance of sweet musk-like smell, easily fusible 
and burning with a bright flame; highly valued in 
the East as a perfume and as a medicine. It is found 
floating on the water in tropical seas, (spec, gravity 
0.78-0.93), or on the shore, sometimes in large lumps. 
Ambergris probably is a morbid secretion of the gall- 
bladder of the sperm-whale in whose intestines 
it is found. KazwinI mentions it amongst the oily 
minerals, together with mercury, sulphur, asphalt, 
mineral tar and naphtha, and states, in addition 
to various marvellous theories of its origin, that 
it is secreted by an animal and found in the body 
of salt-water fish. There is, he says, no difference 
of opinion as to its originating in the sea; the 
'sea of Zandj' especially (i.e. the part of the Indian 
Ocean stretching along the east coast of Africa) 
washes it ashore at certain times in big lumps, 
mostly of the size of a head, the largest lumps 
weighing 1000 mith^dl (4-5 kg).— He states further, 
that it strengthens the brain, the senses and the 
heart in a wonderful way; it increases the mental 
substance, and is of the greatest use to old men 
owing to its subtle warming effect. — The fullest 
account of the medicinal effects of ambergris are 
found in Ibn al-Baytar, the most detailed account 
of its origin, of the various commercial varieties and 
their provenance in the Encyclopaedia of al-Nuwayrl 
who follows Ahmad b. Abi Ya'kfib (i.e. al-Ya'kubi) 
and al-Husayn b. Yazld al-SIraii (i.e. Abu Zayd al- 
Hasan al-SIrafi, the continuator of the Akhbar al-Sin 
wa 'l-Hind; both sources are known to him through 
the Djayb (or TM) al- l Arus wa-Rayhan al-Nufus by 
the physician Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Tamimi 
{GAL, I, 237). There is an interesting reference to 
varieties called 'fish-ambergris' and 'beak-ambergris' : 
the former also called 'swallowed ambergris' (al- 
mabM 1 ) is said to be got from the belly of a large fish 
called bdl or 'anbar which swallows the ambergris 
floating on the sea and dies in consequence; the 
body is cast ashore and, bursting open, gives forth 
the ambergris which it contains. The 'beak-amber- 
gris' (al-mandkiri) contains the claws and beak of 
a bird which alights on the lumps and being unable 
to get away perishes on them. This fable is obviously 
founded on the fact (pointed out by Dr. Swediaur) 
that ambergris frequently contains the hard mandi- 
bles (beaks) of a cuttle-fish which serves as food to 



the spermwhale. Al-Dimashkl specifies various kinds 
with regard to their commercial value. 

Bibliography: Ya'kubl, Bulddn, vii, 366 ff.; 
Mas'Odl, Murudi i, 333 ft.; 366; al-MukaddasI, 
101 (transl. by E. Wiedemann, SB Phys. Med. 
Soz. Erlangen, vol. 44, 253 f.); Idrisi, transl. by 
Jaubert, i, 64; Ibn al-Baytar, 1291, III, 134 f. 
(transl. by Leclerc, Notices et Extraits, xxv", 469 ff,) ; 
KazwinI (Wiistenf.), i, 245; DamM, Ifayat al- 
IJayawan, Bulak 1284, ii, 186; Dimashkl, aX- 
Ishara ila Mahdsin al-Tidfdra, 1318, 19 (transl. 
by E. Wiedemann, ibid., vol. 45, 38 ff.) ; Nuwayrl, 
Nihdyat al-Arab, xii, 1937, 16-22 (transl. by 
E. Wiedemann, ibid., xlviii 16 ff.) ; G. Ferrand, 
Voyage du marchand arabe Sulaymdn etc., 1922, 
132-3. — On bdl cp. Kazwini, i, 131; Damiri, i, 141. 

(J. Ruska-M. Plessner) 
'ANBAR, BANU 'l- [see tamim]. 
al-ANBAR, town on the left bank of the 
Euphrates, 43 43' E, 33 22.5' N. Arab geographers 
give the distance from Baghdad to al-Anbar on the 
mail route as twelve (Yakut: ten) farsakhs (cf. Streck, 
Babylonien, i, 8); as measured by Musil (p. 248) it 
is 62 km. = 38 m. 

Al-Anbar lies on the north-western projection of 
the Sawad on a cultivable plain near the desert, 
near the first navigable canal from the Euphrates 
to the Tigris (the Nahr <Isa), and controlled an 
important crossing on the Euphrates (cf. Musil, 
267-9, 307; Le Strange, in JRAS, i%95, 66). The 
town is pre-Sasanid. Maricq identifies it with M§YK 
or Maskin, but Arab authors (al-Baladhurl, 249-50; 
Ibn Khurradadhbih, 7; Kudaraa, 235) distinguish 
between the two. The suggestion that al-Anbar is of 
Babylonian origin (Hilprecht, Explorations in Bible 
lands, Philadelphia 1903, 298) needs confirmation 
by excavations, though the head of an ancient canal 
and the remains of an ancient settlement (Tell 
Aswad, ca. 3000 B.C.) can be seen north of the plain. 
Al-Anbar's strategic importance as the head of 
the irrigation system of the Sawad and the western 
gate (from the side of the Roman Empire) to the 
capital led Shapur I (241-72 A.D.) to rebuild it 
and turn it into a garrison town with a double line 
of fortifications and a citadel. He named it Periz 
Shapur ("victorious Shapur") to commemorate his 
victory over Gordian IV in 243 A.D. (Herzfeld, 
Samarra, 12; Maricq, 47; cf. al-MakdisI, al-BacP, 
94; Hamza, 49; al-DInawari, 51). Other authors 
erroneously referred the name to Shapur II (al- 
Tabari, i, 839; Yakut, i, 367, ii, 919; Hamd Allah 
Mustawfi, 37). The official name appears as Piri- 
sabora in Ammianus Marcellinus, as BT)po~<x[3c>pa in 
Zosimus; it is also used in Syriac and by the Jews. 
The Arabs retained the name Fh-uz Shapur for the 
surrounding district ((assudf) belonging to the pro- 
vince (astdn) of al-'AU (Le Strange, Lands, 56-66; 
Streck, i, 16, tg). The name Anbar (storehouse" 
or "granary" in Persian) came into use by the 6th 
century A.D. and is due to the storehouses of the 
citadel (Maricq, irs-6; cf. al-Baladhuri, 296; Yakut, 
i, 368, 749). 

The town was an extensive and populous one, the 
second in c Irak (Ammianus, xxiv, 2). It was the seat of 
a Jacobean and a Nestorian bishop (cf. I. Guidi, in 
ZDMG, xliii, 413), and was an important Jewish 
centre (Musil, 356; Maricq, 114; Newman, Jews in 
Babylonia, 14). Its garrison was Persian, while its 
population contained an Arab element (al-Tabari, i, 
749, 2095). The tower played a considerable part 
in the Emperor Julian's campaign against Persia 
Al-Anbar was taken as early as 12/634 by Khalid. 



l-ANBAR — al-ANBARI ABU 'l-BARAKAT 



485 



who expelled the Persian garrison and concluded a 
treaty with the inhabitants (al-Baladhuri, 245; al- 
Tabari, i, 2059; Musil, 295, 308-9). The third mosque 
in c Irafc was built in al-Anbar by Sa'd b. Abi Wakkas 
(al-Baladhuri, 289-90). When asked by c Umar to 
found a garrison town (ddr hidjra) in 'Irak, Sa c d first 
thought of al-Anbar, but changed his mind because 
of the fever and the flees infesting the town (al-DIna- 
warl, 131 ; al-Tabari, i, 2360). Al-Hadjdjadi cleared 
the canal of al-Anbar (al-Baladhuri, 274-5, 333)- 

In 134/752 Abu 'l- c Abbas moved his seat to al- 
Anbar and built a city at half a farsakh (ca. 2.5 km.) 
above the town for his Khurasani troops, with a 
great palace in the centre (al-Baladhuri 287; al- 
Dinawarl, 273; al-Tabari, iii, 80); he died and was 
buried there (al-Ya c kubi, i, 434; al-Baladhuri, 
283; cf. al-MakdisI, al-Bad>, iv, 97). Al-Mansur 
resided in the town before the foundation of Baghdad 
(145/762). Al-Rashid stayed twice (180/799 and 
187/803) at al-Anbar, the population of which 
partly consisted of descendants of the Khurasanis 
(al-DInawari 38; al-Ya c kubI, i, 510; al-Tabari, iii, 
678). Judging by its kharddf, al-Anbar was still 
prosperous in the early decades of the 3rd/gth 
century (Ibn Khurradadhbih, 8, 42; Kudama, 237). 
As the caliphate weakened, al-Anbar was exposed 
to the raids of the bedouins, who attacked the town 
in 269 and the district in 286 (al-Tabari, iii, 2048, 
2189). Its capture and devastation by Abu Tahir 
the Karma tian in 315/927 accelerated the process of 
decay (al-Mas c udi, Tanbih, 382). In 319/929 the 
bedouins caused much damage ( c Arib, 158). Al- 
Istakhri (73) describes the town as a modest but 
populous town, in which the remnants of Abu 
'l-'Abbas' buildings could still be seen. Ibn Hawkal 
(227) states that al-Anbar was declining and al- 
MakdisI (123) says that the number of the inhabitants 
was small. The population was mainly engaged in 
agriculture, but as the the town was lying on both 
the land and river route to Syria (cf. Ya c kubi, transl. 
Wiet, 250; Ibn Hawkal, 166; Le Strange, in JRAS, 
1895, 14, 71; Ibn Khurradadhbih. 154), it had some 
commercial importance, and there were boat- 
builders in the town. An anecdote in Ibn al-Sa c I 
(597/1200, p. 19-20) shows that the town was divided 
into quarters with a shaykh responsible for each. 
In 1262 the Mongol commander Kerboka plundered 
al-Anbar and slew many of the inhabitants (al- 
MakrizI, Suluk (Quatremere), i/5, 171-3)- Under the 
Mongols al-Anbar remained an administrative centre. 
Djuwaynl dug a canal from near al-Anbar to Nadjaf. 
Reference is still made to al-Anbar during the first 
half of the 8th/i4th century (al- c AzzawI, 'Irak, i, 
204, 337, 548) as the centre of a district; it was 
surrounded by a wall of sun-dried bricks (part of 
vhich is visible at the north end of the ruins). 

The ruins of al-Anbar are situated five km. north- 
west of al-Falludja (cf. Musil, 296 ; Herzfeld, Samarra, 
13); thi,y extend from NW to SE and have a circum- 
ference of irregular shape of about six km. The ruins 
have kept the name Anbar (cf. Musil, 174; Ober- 
meyer, 219; Ward, in Hebraica, ii, Chicago 1885, 
83 ff.). The remains of a square fortified building, 
built of Parthian sun-dried bricks, are to be seen 
in the NE comer. The mosque lies ca. one km. SW 
from the former and belongs to early Islamic archi- 
tecture: it is rectangular, with one line of columns on 
three sides and five lines on the side facing the 
kibla. 

The Nahr al- Karma or al-Saklawiyya, which leaves 
the Euphrates to the west of these ruins, cannot (at 
any rate in the earlier part of its course) be identical 



with the Nahr c Is5 (see Herzfeld, 13; Le Strange, 
JRAS, 1895, 70), as the latter was excavated under 
the c Abbasids and branched off one farsakh below 
al-Anbar. It is more probable that Nahr al-Sakla- 
wiyya is identical with the pre-Islamic Nahr al- 
Rufayl, and flows partly in the bed of a ancient 
canal (cf. Musil, 268; Maricq, 116; Suhrab, 123; map 
of the Iraqi Directorate of Survey, 1934, 1 : 50,000). 
It seems that this canal lost its importance in 
Islamic times. 

Bibliography: Chesney, The expedition for 

the survey of the river Euphrates and Tigris, London 

1850, ii, 438; Bewsher, in JGS, 1867, 174; K. 

Ritter, Erdkunde, x, 145 f., 147 f.; G. Hoffmann, 

Ausziige aus syrisch. Akten pers. M&rtyrer, Leipzig 

1880, 83, 88 f.; Th. Noldeke, Gesch. d. Perser und 

Araber, 57; Pauly-Wissowa, i, 1780-95, xx, 1950; 

Le Strange, 25, 65 ; A. Musil, The Middle Euphrates, 

New York 1927; A. Maricq and E. Honigmann, 

Recherches sur les Res Gestae divi Saporis, Brussles 

1953, 116-7. (M. Streck-[A. A. Duri]) 

al-ANBARI, ABC BAKR Muhammad b. al- 

Kasim (properly Ibn al-AnbarI), traditionist and 

philologian, son of Abu Muhammad [cf. al- 

anbarI, abu muhamad] ; b. ii Radjab 231/3 Jan. 

885, d. Dhu 'l-Hidjdja 328/Oct. 940. He was a 

disciple of his father and of Tha'lab, lectured in his 

father's lifetime in the same mosque, and was famous 

for his phenomenal memory and his abstemiousness. 

The following of his works are extant: al-Adddd, 

ed. M. Th. Houtsma, Leiden 1881; al-Zahir; al-Iddb 

fi 'l-Wakf wa 'l-Ibtida'; on the passages in the 

Kur'an where ta' is written instead of ha>, probably 

an extract from al-Hd'at fi Kitab Allah; Mukhtasar 

fi Dhikr al-Alifat; al-Mudhakkar wa 'l-Mu'annath. 

Of his commentary on the Mu'allakdt (for MSS see 

Brockelmann, S I, 35) the following portions were 

published by O. Rescher: Tarafa, Istanbul 1329/1911; 

'Antara, in RSO, iv-v; Zuhayr, in MO, 1913, 137-95. 

Ibn al-Athir in the preface to the Nihdya mentions 

al-Anbari's Gharib al-ffadith among his sources. 

Bibliography: Fihrist, 75; Zubaydi, Tabakdt, 

111-2; Azhari, in MO, 1920, 27; al-Khatib al- 

Baghdadl, Ta'rikh Baghdad, iii, 181-6; Anbari, 

Nuzha, 330-42; Yakut, Irshdd, vii, 73-7; Ibn al- 

Kifti, Inbah al-Ruwat, iii, 201-8; Ibn Khallikan. 

no. 653; G. Fliigel, Die gramm. Schulen der Araber, 

168-72; Brockelmann, I, 122, S I, 182. 

(C. Brockelmann*) 
al-ANBARI, ABU 'l-BARAKAT <Abd al- 
Rahman b. Muh. b. c Ubayd Allah b. AbI Sa'Id 
Kamal al-d!n (properly Ibn al-AnbarI), Arabic 
philologian, b. RabP II 513/July 1119, studied 
philology at the Nizamiyya in Badjdad under al- 
Djawallkl and Ibn al-Shadjari and himself became 
a professor for this subject in the same madrasa; 
subsequently, however, he retired from public life 
in order to devote himself entirely to his studies and 
pious exercises. He died on 9 Sha'ban 577/19 Dec 
1181. He wrote a biographical history of philology, 
from the beginning to his own time, under the title 
of Nuzhat al-Alibbd' fi Tabakdt al-Udaba', lith. Cairo 
1294. His easy manual of grammar, Asrdr al-'Ara- 
biyya, has been edited by C. F. Seybold, Leiden 1886, 
his great collection of differences between the schools 
of Basra and Kufa, al-Insdf fi MasaHl al-KKti*f 
bayn al-Nahwiyyin al-Basriyyin wa 'l-Kufiyyin by 
G. Weil, Leiden 1913. Other treatises by him are 
extant in MS. A dictionary by him, al-Zahur, is 
quoted by c Abd al-Kadir al-Baghdadi, Khizanai 
al-Adab, ii, 352; al-Wakf wa 'l-lbtidd' by al-Suyviti, 
Sharh Shawdhid al-Mughni, 158. 



486 



M.-ANBARI ABU 'l-BARAKAT - 



Bibliography: Ibn al-Kifti, Inbdh al-Ruwat, 

ii, 169-71; Ibn Khallikan, 469; Kutubl, Fawdl, i, 

262; Subkl, Tabakat, iv, 248; Brockelmann, I, 

334, S I 494. (C. Brockelmann*) 

AL-ANBARl, ABtJ MUflAMMAD al-KAsim b. 

Muh. b. BashshAr, traditionist aad philolo- 

gian, d. 304/916 or 305/917. He wrote a commentary 

on the Mufa4daliyyat which was revised by his son, 

Muhammad: The Mufaddaliyat . . . according to the 

recension and with the commentary of Abi M. al-Q. 

b. M. al-Anbdri, ed. Ch. J. Lyall, Oxford 1918-21. 

Bibliography: Fihrist, 75; Zubaydi, Tabakat, 

144; al-Khatfb al-Baghdadi, Ta'rikh Baghdad, xii, 

440-1; Yakut, Irshad, vi, 196-8; Ibn al-Kifti, 

Inbdh al-Ruwat, iii, 28; A. Haffner, in WZKM, 

xiii, 344 ff.; F. Kern, in MSOS, xi/2, 262 ff.; 

Brockelmann, S I, 37. (Ed.) 

AL-ANBlg, in medieval Latin Alembic, is the 

name for that part of the distilling apparatus which 

is also called "head" or "cap". The word was 

borrowed from Greek &(i(3t5. Al-anbik occurs as 

early as the 10th century in a translation of Dios- 

corides, in the Ma/dtih al-'Ulum and in al-Razl. The 

anbik is often referred to as "one of the apparatuses 

used in distilling rose-water". 

The complete distilling apparatus consists of three 
parts: the "cucurbit" (kar l a), the "head" or "cap" 
(anbik) and the "receiver" {kdbila). Modern retorts 
have the "cap" and the "cucurbit" made into one. 
— Illustrations of distilling apparatuses in Arabian 
manuscripts are to be found in al-Dimishkl's Cos- 
mography (Mehren) 194 ff. Whereas usually however 
the cucurbit is surmounted by the cap, here it is 
placed in front of it. In the former case the cap has 
the shape of a cupping-glass, as it is represented in 
the Ma/dtih (ed. van Vloten, 257). The anbik is 
described by Ibn al- c Awwam (transl. Clement 
Mullet, ii, 344) where he explains how rose-water 
is distilled. But in this description the name does not 
always refer to the entire "cap", but often to the 
additional faucet-pipe only, which fits onto it (that 
is, if the text is not corrupt). The anbik is also called 
the ra's (head) of the cucurbit. 

The anbik is mentioned in the various lists of 
emical apparatuses, amongst others in the Ma- 
fatih al-'Ulum, in the Kitdb al-Asrdr of al-Razl, 
where different kinds are enumerated and described, 
and in a text written in Karshuni, which has been 
published by Berthelot and shows close similarity 
to al-Razi's account. 

Special kinds of anbik are the blind anbik, which 
has no additional faucet and is consequently closed, 
the anbik with a beak, and others of various shapes. 
In Ibn al- c Awwam the appendix is also called 
4haiab (as CI. Mullet prefers to read it) or dhabab 
as the text has it and as Dozy would like to retain 
because he combines the additional faucet with 
worm-pipe used in condensing (but no illustrations 
of the latter can be found). 

As the Arabian alchemists mainly depend on the 
Greek alchemists, the illustrations which are found 
in the works of the ancients can be turned to 
account. Some also occur in the Latin translations 
of works which are attributed to Geber. 

Bibliography: E. Wiedemann, in ZDMG, 
xxxii, 575 ; idem, in Diergart, Beitr. aus d. Gesch. 
d. Chemie, 1908, 234; M. Berthelot, La Chimie au 
moyen &ge, ii, lxiv, 66, 105 ff. ; J. Ruska, Al-Rdzi's 
Buck der Geheimnisse (1937), index s.v.; A. Siggel, 
Arab.-deutsches Wbrterbuch der Stoffe, 1930, 95. 

(E. WlEDEMANN-[M. PLESSNER]) 



al-ANDALUS, or DjazIrat al-Andalus, geo- 
graphical term which, in the Islamic world up to 
the end of the Middle Ages, denoted the Iberian 
peninsula, that is, modern Spain and Portugal. 

(i) Toponymic significance of the term al-Andalus ; 
(ii) Geographical survey; (iii) Outline of its histo- 
rical geography; (iv) Population of al-Andalus; 
(v) Development; (vi) Survey of the history of al- 
Andalus; Appendix: The Andalus in North Africa; 
(vii) Islam in al-Andalus; (viii) Andalusian literature 
and culture; (ix) Andalusian art; (x) Spanish Arabic. 

(i) Toponymic 



The name al-Andalus is hypothetically connected 
with that of the Vandals (al-Andallsh), who named 
Baetica "Vandalicia" when they crossed the Iberian 
Peninsula before their invasion of North Africa; al- 
Andalus is mentioned as early as 98/716 on a bilingual 
dinar, the Latin inscription giving as its equivalent 
the term "Spania". The latter term, or its doublet 
"Hispania", were the only ones by the earliest 
Spanish Latin chroniclers to denote the Iberian 
Peninsula as a whole, that is, the two Spains, 
Christian and Muslim. On the other hand, the use 
of the term al-Andalus by Arab writers appears 
always to have been confined to Muslim Spain, what- 
ever its territorial extent, which was progressively 
reduced in size by the Christian Reconquest (the 
Spanish equivalent "Reconquista" will always be used 
in this article). Even when Islamic power in the 
Peninsula was restricted to the tiny Nasrid princi- 
pality of Granada, the term al-Andalus was used to 
denote the territory of this small Kingdom alone. 
On the other hand, there had been in existence for 
some time in the Muslim chroniclers the names (in 
Arabic form) of Ishbaniya (Hispania, Espafla) and 
the Christian principalities formed as a result of the 
Reconquista: Liyun (Leon), Kashtalla or Kasht3a 
(Castilla, Castile), Burtukal (Portugal), Araghun 
(Aragon), Nabarra (Navarre). 

From the name al-Andalus — the form al-Andulus 
is sometimes found, especially in Ibn Kuzman — 
derive the ethnic form andalusi and the collective 
form ahl al-Andalus. This term is retained in modern 
usage to denote the geographical area formed by 
the Sub-Mediterranean region (littoral zones and 
highlands) corresponding, from East to West, from 
the modern province of Almeria to that of Huelva, 
to the natural region of Andalusia (Span. Andalucia), 
the inhabitants of which are called Anduluces (sing. 
Andaluz). 

Bibliography: Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. 

mus., i, 71-3; idem, Esp. mus. X' siicle, 5-6; Ch. 

Courtois, Les Vandales et I'Afrique, Paris 1955, 56, 



(ii) Geographical survey 
1. Physical situation. S-W of Europe, the 
Iberian Peninsula forms a massive promontory 
almost pentagonal in shape, joined to the continent 
by the range of the Pyrenees, and washed on the 
remaining sides by the Atlantic and the Mediter- 
ranean. It is situated between 43° 27' 25" and 
35° 59' 30" N, and 9 30' and 3 19' E. Its sur- 
face area is about 229,000 sq. m., modern Portugal 
constituting less than a fifth of this total (modem 
Spain has an area of 195,000 sq. m.). 

The situation of the peninsula at the western end 
of the Mediterranean basin, with a large Atlantic 
seaboard, explains many episodes in its history. 



al-ANDALUS 



Cut off by the barrier of the Pyrenees from the rest 
of the continent of Europe, it is only separated from 
Africa by the narrow Straits of Gibraltar, bounded 
to the N. and S. by the bridgeheads of Tarifa and 
Ceuta. It has as a result acquired an insular character, 
which has for long isolated the Iberian bloc from 
trans- Pyrenean influences, while leaving it open 
from earliest times to Oriental influences via the 
classical Mediterranean approach route. 

The Spanish Peninsula has one of the most broken 
terrains in Europa. A general examination of its 
structure reveals that it consists basically of a large 
central plateau which constitutes at least half of 
the total area, the Meseta, with a mean altitude of 
1,96s ft., comprising the two Castiles, Old (Castilla 
la Vieja) and New (Castilla la Nueva), and the 
Estramadura. The Meseta is bounded by high 
mountain escarpments; to the North, the Cantabrian 
range; to the North-East and East, the range of 
the Iberian Mts., to the South, the successive tiers 
of the Sierra Morena (Subbaetic range) ; to the West, 
the high table-lands of Galicia and Portugal. The 
plateau possesses three deep lateral depressions; 
those of the Ebro, the Gualdaquivir and the lower 
Tagus. To the South, the upheaval of the "Penibaetic 
system" has thrown up a mountain mass which 
comprises the greater part of Upper Andalusia and 
forms a confused series of ranges (Span, sierra, 
"saw"; Ar. al-sharrnt), of which the highest is the 
Sierra Nevada (highest point; the Mulhacen, 
13,420 ft.). 

As a result of this tortuous orographic formation, 
the mean ground elevation of the Peninsula is not 
less than 2,160 ft. The additional fact that the 
proportion of lowlands, of an altitude of less than 
1,645 ft., is only 40%, shows the difficulties which 
have always been encountered, over the greater part 
of the country, in exploiting a soil which, because 
of the inadequate rainfall and the meagre supply 
from the rivers, is generally arid. 

2. Climate. — The Peninsula has a dry, generally 
temperate, climate, despite extreme variations of 
temperature in the high and mean altitude regions, 
which escape the moderating influence of the Atlantic 
or the Mediterranean. Here the winters are severe 
and the summers torrid. The sub-littoral zones are an 
exception, especially the largely exposed depression 
of maritime Andalusia. 

As regards rainfall, a distinction must be drawn 
between dry Spain and wet Spain. The latter com- 
prises, starting from the western prong of the 
Pyrenees, the Basque country, the Cantabrian coast 
and nearly all modem Portugal. Dry Spain, which 
covers nearly 2/3 of the Peninsula, has an essentially 
erratic rainfall, varying from the annual average 
of 23 ins. to less than 15 ins. In many cases, the 
beneficial effects of the rain are nullified by evapo- 
ration, wherever it is not possible, as in the Levant 
(the region of Valencia and Murcia), to remedy this 
state of affairs by the irrigation of parched lands. 

The North and North- West of the Peninsula, and 
in general all the Atlantic seaboard, enjoy, as a 
result of the humidity and prevalence of clouds which 
are features of the region, comparatively mild 
weather. Similarly, in the Mediterranean zone, from 
Catalonia and Levante to the Andalusian coast, 
the winters are mild, with a characteristically high 
sunshine record and clear, bright atmospheric 
conditions. 

3. Hydrography. The physical formation and 
climate of the country, and the frequently imper- 
meable nature of the soil, explain the Peninsula's 



water shortage and the irregularity of the supply 
from its rivers, which are nearly always dry during 
the dog-days, when evaporation is at its highest. 
These rivers have the same characteristics as North 
African wadis; they are either almost completely 
dry, or else sudden spates transform them into 
torrents, with the disastrous concomitant effects of 
erosion and removal by alluvion. 

The rivers which flow towards the north and 
west are in general coastal rivers of no great length, 
the chief one being the Miflo (Portuguese Minho), 
which forms the northern frontier of Portugal and 
discharges its waters into the Atlantic. Three other 
rivers, which have an extremely irregular . supply 
of water and which drain the waters of the Meseta, 
also flow towards the Atlantic; the Duero (Port. 
Douro), the Tagus (Span. Tajo, Port. Tejo), and the 
Guadiana, whose estuary forms the southern frontier 
between Spain and Portugal. The most important 
river of the Peninsula is the Guadalquivir which, 
rising in one of the mountain groups in the South- 
East of the Meseta, is swelled by several tributaries, 
the most important being the Genii, which issues from 
the Sierra Nevada and is fed in summer by the 
melting snows from that massif. The Guadalquivir 
is the only river in the Peninsula whose lower course 
is navigable (over the last 75 miles). Several wadis 
of a torrential nature reach the Levantine coast; 
they issue from the edge of the Meseta and provide, 
by means of dams, rather uncertain reserves of 
water for irrigation. The chief of these are the Segttra 
and the Jucar, to-day used for the improvement of 
the huerta of Valencia. 

The Ebro, which rises in the Basque country, is 
fed by the southern slopes of the Pyrenees (Arag6n, 
Segra) and, after a difficult course, during which 
the gentleness of the gradients gradually reduces 
the volume of its waters in its lower reaches, turns 
towards the Mediterranean, into which it discharges 
after crossing an alluvial delta of considerable size. 
4. General characteristics. The subsoil of the 
Peninsula is especially rich in metalliferous strata: 
lead, silver, iron, copper, manganese, marble. It is 
also rich in the natural salts, saltpetre, magnesium 
and silicates. The vegetation varies completely 
between dry Spain and wet Spain. In the former, 
three types of vegetation, more often associated with 
the Mediterranean zone, predominate: the forests 
(non-deciduous trees, various kinds of pines and 
holm oaks or cork-trees), the foothills (Span, monte 
bajo), and the steppe (scrub, esparto). In wet Spain, 
on the other hand, the countryside is green all the 
year round, owing to the presence of forests and 
natural prairies. 

As a result of this natural variety Spain is a 
country of the greatest possible contrast. It is a 
commonplace to state that it is frequently possible 
to pass almost without transition from a river valley 
(vtga), with its luxuriant vegetation, to the steppe 
burnt by the sun and the wind. 

Bibliography: Geography manuals; in parti- 
cular, M. Sorre, La PtninsuU ibtriqut, vol. vii 
of the Geographie universale by Vidal de Lablache 
and Gallois. 

(iii) Outline of the historical geography 

of al-Andalus 
1. Descriptions of al-Andalus. The works 
of the Arab geographers, both eastern and western, 
which have come down to us constitute the essential 
part of our knowledge of al-Andalus in the Middle 
Ages, its development and the exploitation of its 



uMNDALUS 



natural resources. First, there are the Road Books 
(masalik) published by De Goeje in BGA, which only 
devote a limited amount of space to Spain: the 
oldest, those of Ibn Khurradadhbih, al-Ya'kubi, Ibn 
al-Fakih and Ibn Rusta, contain such brief descript- 
ions that one assumes that up to the 4th/ioth 
century al-Andalus was a province of Islam little 
known to the eastern world. From the time of the 
restoration of the Marwanid Caliphate at Cordova, 
the geographical documentation on al-Andalus 
becomes systematised, although still not elaborated 
in great detail. The expositions on al-Andalus by 
al-Istakhri (d. 322/934) concern agriculture and 
commerce, and describe fourteen itineraries in the 
interior of the Peninsula. His contemporary Ibn 
Hawkal had the advantage of having himself visited 
Spain and of having brought his documentation up 
to date by the interrogation of informants en route ; 
the picture of al-Andalus revealed by the pen of 
this pro-Fatiirid writer, is too often partial, but it 
is nevertheless the first rational description, at once 
full and coherent, of the Cordovan Kingdom, which 
has come down to us. Equally worthy of attention 
is the account of the Palestinian al-MukaddasI (end 
of 10th century) who, although he had not himself 
visited the Peninsula, makes important statements, 
apparently based on good authority, concerning in 
particular the intellectual life, the language, the 
metrology and the trade of the country. 

From the time of the Caliphate, and in the cen- 
turies following, all the descriptions of al-Andalus, 
written primarily in the West, were indebted to the 
description which the celebrated Cordovan chronicler 
of oriental origin Aljmad al-Razi (d. 344/955) placed 
at the head of his great history of al-Andalus, now 
lost, and which was used as a source for quotation, 
usually without acknowledgement, particularly by 
the compiler Yakut in his Mu'dfam al-Bulddn. The 
"Description" of al-Razi is only known to us in a 
Castilian version, published in 1852 by P. de Gayangos 
and derived from a Portuguese version executed 
about the beginning of the 14th century at the order 
of King Denis of Portugal (1279- 1325); the author 
of the present article has translated it into French 
and attempted to reconstruct the original Arabic 
(in And., 1953, 51-108). 

It is thus clear that the plan of the "Description" 
of Ahmad al-Razi, though on the whole only sketched 
in outline, has served as a framework for most 
later descriptions; among the latter pride of place 
must be given to the description of the Andalusian 
Abu 'Ubayd al-Bakrl (d. 487/1094), which unfortu- 
nately is lost, but which can be largely reconstructed 
from the notices on al-Andalus in the al-Rawd al- 
MiHdr of the Maghribi compiler of the 7th/i4th 
century Ibn c Abd al-Mun c im al-Himyari, who has 
also made use of material from al-Sharif al-Idrisi. 
To this list must be added, in addition to the col- 
lections of 'adj&'ib relative to al-Andalus contained 
in the works of al-Kazwini and al-Dimashki, the 
notices, sometimes of considerable length, collected 
by the Maghribi al-Makkari (17th century) in the 
first volume of his Nafh al-Tib. 

Bibliography: General survey in Levi- 
Provencal, Hist. Esp. mus., iii, 233-9. The de- 
scriptions of Spain appearing in the BGA, are: 
Ibn Khurradadhbih and Ibn Rusta (French trans, 
by G. Wiet, Cairo 1937, 217-221), al-Istakhri, 
BGA, v, 37-46; Ibn Hawkal, BGA, ii, 74-9, to be 
studied in the new edition of J. H. Kramers, 
Leiden 1938, i, 108-17; al-Mukaddasi, BGA, iii, 
215-48 (French trans, by Ch. Pellat, Algiers, 1950). 



On the geographical literature of al-Andams, the 
most complete work, despite many imperfections, 
is that of J. Alemany Bolufer, Le Geografia de la 
Peninsula iberica en los escritores drabes, Granada 
1 92 1 (extract from the Rev. del Centra de Est. 
hist, de Granada y su reino). CI. also al-Idrisi, 
Nuzhat al-Mushtdk (Dozy and de Goeje, De- 
scription de I'Afrique et de I'Espagne, Leiden 1866, 
text 165-214, Fr. trans. 197-266); E. Levi- 
Provencal, La PlninsuXe ibdrique au moyen dge 
d'apres le Kitab al-Rawd al-mi'-tdr, Leiden 1938. 
2. Physical geography of al-Andalus according 
to Muslim geographical tradition. — According to al- 
Razi, al-Andalus forms the extremity of the fourth 
clime towards the West. It is a country mainly 
watered by numerous rivers and sweet water springs. 
The geographers, after this declaration, usually 
launch into panegyrics and devote much space to 
laudes Hispaniae rather in the manner of Isidore of 
Seville. 

Al-Andalus is triangular in shape. Each of t he 
angles of this triangle corresponds to a place famous 
in the traditions of Hispanic legend. On the angle 
at the apex, in the South-West, rises the temple of 
Cadiz, Sanam Kadis [q.v.]; the second angle is 
situated on the latitude of the Balearic Islands 
between Narbonne and Bordeaux (sic); the third, 
in the North-West, corresponds to the Torre de 
Hercules, near Corunna. These ideas are also partly 
illustrated by the maps of the Road Books, Ibn 
Hawkal and al-Idrisi. Al-Razi has clearly grasped 
one of the characteristics of the physical structure 
of the Peninsula: in his opinion, a distinction must 
be made between western Spain and eastern Spain, 
taking into account the differences in the direction 
of the winds, the rainfall and the course of the rivers. 
In western Spain, the rivers flow towards the 
Atlantic and rain in brought by the westerly winds. 
The opposite is true of eastern Spain, where easterly 
winds prevail and the rivers flow eastwards. 

Other landmarks are often given to mark some 
of the points of the "triangle" formed by al-Andalus: 
Cape St. Vincent, at the south-western extremity 
of Portugal, in Arabic the "Church of the Crow" 
(Kanlsat al-Ghurab); the Temple of Venus, at the 
opposite extremity, Haykal al-Zahra (Port-Vendres). 
On approaching al-Andalus from continental 
Europe, Gaul (Ghalish) or the "Great Land" (al- 
Ard al-Kabira), one must cross the range of the 
Pyrenees by one or other of the passes (abwab) or 
"gates" (burtdt) in order to reach the land of the 
Gascons (al-Bashkunish) or that of the Franks (al- 
Ifrandj). From there, it is possible to reach the shores 
of the Atlantic, called the "Sea of Darkness" (Bohr 
al-Zulumdt) or the "green sea" (al-Bahr al-Akhdar) 
or the "Surrounding Sea" (al-Bahr al-Muhit). In 
this dangerous ocean a number of intrepid mariners 
carried on coastal trade from the land of the Blacks 
and the Canary Islands, the "Fortunate Islands" 
(al-Khdliddt), as far as the confines of Great Britain 
(Britaniya). The Mediterranean is known as the 
"Great Sea" (al-Bahr al-Kabir), the "Middle Sea" 
(al-Bahr al-Mutawassif) or even the "Tyrrhenian 
Sea" (Bakr Tlran). 

In the opinion of al-Razi, there are only three 
mountain ranges in Spain, which traverse the 
Peninsula from one sea to the other, and none of 
which is crossed by a river. The first of these ranges 
is the Sierra Morena, called Mountains of Cordova 
(Djibal Kurtuba), which rises from the Mediterra 
nean coast of Levante and terminates in Algarve, 
on the Atlantic. The second is the Pyrenean range, 



al-ANDALUS 



489 



between Narbonne and Galicia. The third cuts 
Spain obliquely, from Tortosa to Lisbon. It corres- 
ponds to the transverse range called al-Sharrat, 
according to al-ldrisl. However, the geographer is 
obliged to mention in addition the Sierra Nevada 
(Djabal Shulayr, "Mons Solarius") and the Serrania 
of Malaga (Djabal Rayyo) which extends as far as 
Algeciras. 

The chief river of al-Andalus is the "Great River" 
(al-Wadi 'l-Kabir), Guadalquivir, also known as 
al-Nahr al-A c zam and Nahr Kurtuba "River of 
Cordova". It is sometimes referred to by its ancient 
name of Nahr Bit! ("Baetis"). It is 310 miles in 
length. It is the river of Baetica, the richest part of 
the Peninsula, and waters Cordova and Seville. Its 
chief tributaries are the Genii (Wadi Sindjll or 
Shanil), which flows through Granada, Loja and 
Ecija; the Guadajoz (Wadi Shush); the Guadalimar 
(al-Wadi '1-Ahmar), thus named because of the 
reddish colour of its waters; and the Guadalbull6n 
(Wadi Bullun). 

The Guadiana (Wadi Ana) has a total length of 
320 miles and rises not far from the source of the 
Guadalquivir. It runs underground for part of its 
course, and re-emerges in the Calatrava region. It 
discharges into the Atlantic at Ocsonoba. 

The Tagus (Wadi Tadju) rises in the mountains 
of Toledo and, after a course of 580 miles, flows 
into the Atlantic at Lisbon. Further north still is 
the Duero (Wadi Duwayro), 780 miles long, which 
is fed by several tributaries and flows into the 
Atlantic at Oporto (Burtukal). Another important 
river, also flowing into the Atlantic, is the Miflo 
(Portuguese Minho), Nahr Minyo, which crosses 
Galicia from East to West and is 300 miles long. 

Of the rivers which flow towards the Mediter- 
ranean, al-Razi only mentions the Segura (Wadi 
Shakura) which rises near the sources of the Guadal- 
quivir and the Ebro (Rio Ebro = Wadi Ibro); the 
latter rises at Fontibre, in Upper Castile and even- 
tually reaches the sea not far from Tortosa, a distance 
of 204 miles. The Ebro has numerous tributaries, 
including the Rio Gallego (Nahr Djillik), which 
comes down from the mountains of Cerdagne (Djibal 
ai-SIrtaniyyln). 

3. Urban toponymy and territorial divi- 
sions of al-Andalus. Al-Andalus is notable, at 
all periods of its Muslim history, for the number of 
its urban centres, and provides a contrast with the 
relative poverty of North Africa, as regards popu- 
lation centres of equal importance. Nearly all the 
towns of Roman Spain survived the Arab invasion 
and continued to prosper. On the other hand, the 
new towns founded by the conquerors were not 
numerous and were almost always built for strategic 
reasons or as coastal bases intended to neutralise 
the aggressive ambitions of the Fatimids in the 
western Mediterranean, for instance, Murcia (Mursiya) 
which replaced the old town of Ello, and Almeria 
(al-Mariyya), which was at first simply a coastal 
observation post before being developed in the 
10th century as an arsenal and naval station. In 
most cases, the old Latin place-names survived 
virtually intact, for instance, Corduba/Kurtuba, 
Hispali/Ishblliya, Caesaraugusta/Sarakusta, Valentia/ 
Balansiya, or else assumed a diminutive form, as 
Toletum, Toledo becoming Toletula/Tulaytula. Cer- 
tain place-names of historical interest had their 
origin in puns, Ocili becoming Madlnat Salim/ 
Medinaceli, which gave rise to the mythical existence 
6f a pseudo-founder named Salim. Towns with 
a descriptive Arabic name were the exception: 



e.g. the "Green Island", al-DjazIra al-Khadra* 
(Algeciras). Some places bore the name of the Arab 
or Berber tribe which had populated them after the 
conquest: Baliy (Poley), Ghafik north of Cordova, 
Miknasa (Mequinenza) in Aragon. In Levante, 
as evidence of a more profound Arab influence, many- 
place-names were the names of "stages" coupled 
with an Arab forename : e.g. Manzil £ Ata' (Mislata) and 
Manzil Nasr (Masanasa), in the suburbs of Valencia. 
Many place-names of the Valencia region were formed 
like names of tribes, with Beni plus the name of the 
eponymous ancestor (see Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. 
tnus., iii, 326-8). 

At the time when Ahmad al-Razi wrote his 
description of al-Andalus, Muslim Spain was already- 
separated from Christian Spain by a boundary line, 
a sort of no man's land, flanked along its periphery by- 
three Marches (thughur): al-a'-ld, al-awsa(, al-aina. 
Already many regions of the Peninsula, long since 
evacuated under the pressure of the first mani- 
festations of the Reconquista, had been finally- 
severed from al-Andalus; the Hispanic March in 
the East, the Basque country in the centre, the 
Cantabrian coast in the West. The famous ex- 
pedition led against Santiago de Compostela (Shant 
Yakub) by the 'Amirid al-Mansur was no more 
than a spectacular raid without lasting effect. 
During the period of the Caliphate, therefore, Islam 
definitively lost part of Spain and did not seek to- 
recover it. The provincial organisation of al-Andalus, 
however, remained unchanged. 

This organisation dated from the 8th century, and 
was therefore prior to the Marwanid restoration. It 
was based on the provincial districts (kura), which 
had a chief town, a governor and a garrison. The 
lists of kuras under the Caliphate differ widely; al- 
MukaddasI gives an incomplete list of only 18 names. 
Yakut enumerates 41, a figure approached by al- 
Razi, who describes successively 37. Later, al-Idrisr 
introduced a division not into kuras, but into 
"climes" (iklim), with no administrative significance 
and putting forward many names which must be 
firmly rejected as apocryphal. By utilising the 
information given by al-Razi, who follows' a con- 
centric order round the capital, and al-Bakri, the 
principal features of each of the main kuras of the 
provincial organisation under the Caliphate can 
easily be determined. The kuras usually had the same 
name as their chief town, apart from a few exceptions 
noted below: the most important kura was that of 
Cordova, bounded to the north by that of the Fahs 
al-Ballut (Llano de los Pedroches, "plateau of the 
oaks"), whose chief place was Ghafik (doubtless the 
modern Belalcazar: cf. F. Hernandez, in And., 1944, 
71-109). On the other side of the fluvial plain of 
Cordova (al-Kanbaniya, modern la Campifia), to 
the south of the Guadalquivir, lay the small kuras 
of Cabra (Ifabra) and Ecija (Istidjdja). Further west 
were the rich districts of Carmona (Karmiina), 
Seville (Ishblliya) and Niebla (Labia). The kura of 
Ocsonoba (Ukhshunuba), with Silves (Shilb) as its 
chief town, corresponded to Algarve (Gharb al- 
Andalus, i.e., the southern border of modern Portugal 
on the Atlantic. North of this district lay that of 
Beja (Badja). The southernmost part of al-Andalus 
was divided into four kuras: Meron (Mawrfir), 
Sidona (Shadhuna), chief town Calsena (Kalshana), 
Algeciras and Tacaronna (Takurunna), chief town 
Ronda (Runda). Further east, the kura of Malaga 
(Malaka), which was called Rayyo, had as its first 
chief town Archidona (Urdjudhuna) ; it was adjacent 
to the kura of Elvira (Ilblra, formerly Iliberris), a 



49 o AI.-AN 

little to the west of modern Granada (Gharnata). 
The kura of Elvira adjoined those of Jaen (Djayyan) 
and Pechina (Badjdjana), the chief town of which 
was transferred to Almeria under al-Hakam II. 

The Levante seaboard (Sharif al-Andalus) on the 
Mediterranean was divided from South to North into 
three large kuras: Tudmir, the old kingdom of 
prince Theodemir the Goth, with Murcia as its 
chief town, Jativa (Shatiba) and Valencia (Balansiya), 
which extended as far as the delta of the Ebro. 
Inland, beyond the Sierra Morena, the region of 
Toledo constituted a kura, extended eastwads by 
the kura of Santaver (Shantabariyya), with Ucles 
(Uklidj) as its chief town. It is probable that, under 
the Caliphate, the Balearic Islands (al-Djaza'ir al- 
Sharkiyya) constituted a separate provincial district. 
In the western half of al-Andalus, the same applied 
to regions which had recently been pacified, such 
as Merida (Marida), Badajoz (Batalyaws), Santarem 
(Shantarin), Lisbon (al-Ushbuna) and perhaps 
Coi'mbra (Kulumriyya). 

Nine of these kuras, called mudjannada, still 
enjoyed under the Caliphate a privileged position, 
because their territories had been granted as fiefs 
in 125/742 by the Governor Abu '1-Khattar al-Kalbi 
to the Syrian djtmds brought to Spain by the general 
Baldj b. Bishr [q.v.]: these were the districts of 
Elvira, fief of the Damascus djund; Rayyo, fief of 
the al-Urdunn djund; Sidona, fief of the Filastin 
djund; Niebla and Seville, fief of the Him? djund; 
Jaen, fief of the Kinnasrin djund; Beja, Ocsonoba, 
and also Murcia, fief of the djund of Egypt. 

A certain number of outlying districts are menti- 
oned by al-Razi in the territory of the Upper Marches: 
Tarragona (Tarrakuna), adjacent to Lerida (Larida) ; 
Barbitaniya (Boltana), with its stronghold of 
Barbastro (Barbashtro) ; Huesca (Washka); Tudela 
(Tutila), with the fortified towns of Tarazona 
(Tarasuna) ; Arnedo (Arnut) ; Calahorra (Kalahurra); 
and Najera (Nadjira). 

Bibliography: Levi-Provencal, La "Descript- 
ion de I'Espagne" d' Ahmad al-Razi, in And., xviii, 
1953, passim Hist. Esp. mus., iii, chap, vii (4) and 
xiii. See also separate articles on the various towns. 

(iv) Population of al-Andalus 
The complete absence of reliable statistics, and 
the silence of the geographers, precludes any com- 
putation, even a relative one, of the size of the, 
population of al-Andalus at the period of its greatest 
geographical expansion, i.e. at the end of the 10th 
century. If one agrees with the conjectural estimate 
that the population was about ten millions during 
the Visigoth period on the eve of the Conquest, it 
must, in view of the small number of Muslim emi- 
grants of other races, have remained roughly the 
same, with probably a higher proportion of urban 
dwellers and villagers than rural elements. On the 
other hand, more weight can be attached to the 
hypothesis that the distribution of the population 
over the various regions of the Peninsula was always 
dictated by -physical environment, and that the 
density of the population in any particular area 
depended on the altitude and the nature of the 
country, the climate, the fertility of the soil and the 
possibility of irrigating it. It is not going too far to 
conjecture that those regions of al-Andalus which 
to-day have the smallest numbers of inhabitants 
already displayed the same characteristic at the 
time of the Caliphate of Cordova. 

Among the components of the Muslim popu- 
lation of al-Andalus, a distinction must be drawn 



between the mass of neo-Muslims, i.e. Spaniards 
who became Muslims after the Conquest as the 
result of more or less spontaneous a 
the elements of other races. Among the U 
settled in the country in the wake of s 
though numerically small, waves of immigrants, the 
Berber 'element seems to-. have- been the most 
important; the Berbers do not seem to have come 
from all parts of Barbary, but from the regions of 
the Maghrib nearest to al-Andalus, the Moroccan 
Djabal and Rif. These Berbers, who came from the 
other side of the Straits of Gibraltar, when political 
or economic circumstances did not force them to 
return with all speed to their country of origin, were 
thrust back towards the uplands by the Arab 
emigrants who formed the aristocracy so that the 
latter might enjoy exclusive rights over the most 
fertile tracts of Andalusian soil. From certain 
information given by authors such as Ibn Hazm, in 
particular in his Diamhara. it might be supposed that 
the Berber colonies only occupied in a sporadic 
fashion certain territories of the coastal zone, and 
that they were obliged to settle in the Meseta. Once 
they were established, presumably these Berbers of 
al-Andalus rapidly became arabicised, even to the 
extent of ceasing to use their original dialects. It 
was not until the end of the 10th century that the 
influx of further contingents, justified by the large- 
scale recruitment of Berber mercenaries in central 
and eastern Maghrib, introduced into al-Andalus a 
mass of North Africans, who precipitated the ruin 
of the structure of the Caliphate and congregated 
in ethnical groups, which formed the following 
century the Berber (d'i/a opposed to the Andalusian 

mta. 

The Arab element in al-Andalus was never 
more than a minority. The majority entered the 
country either at the time of the Conquest or in the 
course of the following years, and were later rein- 
forced by contingents of Syrian djundis and by the 
emigrants who flocked from Asia at the time of the 
Marwanid restoration in Spain. The Arabs originally 
probably only numbered a few thousand before 
inter-marriage with the native women and the 
system of wala' produced an impressive number of 
people who, rightly or wrongly, claimed an Arab 
origin. At all events, it is a fact that the Arabs 
represented an especially turbulent and aggressive 
element in the early centuries of the history of al- 
Andalus, and that although they despised work 
on the land, they nevertheless retained for them- 
selves the best land, and left to crop-sharing colonists 
the task of farming the land and paying them their 
due share of the crops. 

A third alien element in Andalusian society, which 
should be alluded to here although it formed only 
a relatively small proportion of the population, was 
the Negroes and Slavs. The Negroes {'abid) of the 
Sudan, brought to Spain by traders specialising in 
the slave trade, eventually not only constituted a 
steadily increasing guard of mercenaries, but inter- 
mixed with the rest of the urban populations as the 
result of the marriage of Negro women, who were 
specially prized, and sought after also for their 
domestic virtues. The Slavs (Sakaliba [q.v.]), on 
the other hand, who were the product oY captures 
in continental Europe from Germany t<£ the Slav 
countries, or were captured in the course°of sdHfas 
on the borders of al-Andalus, eventually, during the 
second period of the Caliphate, constituted, especially 
at Cordova, a numerous and active group which 
weighed heavily in the economy of the Cordovan 



THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ISLAM 




AL-ANDALUS 



state and contributed in no small measure to its 
rapid collapse. 

The Berber, Arab and other Muslim foreign 
elements, important though they were, were numeri- 
cally far inferior to the much more important group 
of the Spanish neo-Muslims, who were known in 
al-Andahis hy the generic terms musalima or, more, 
especially, muwalladun. These were Spaniards who, 
during or after the Conquest, had adopted Islam in 
order to enjoy a better personal status than that of 
dkimmi. The complete and rapid arabicisation of all 
these converts to Islam, to which in the vast majority 
of: cases they displayed a deep and sincere attach- 
ment, is a remarkable phenomenon. In a short time 
the muwallads became assimilated into Muslim 
society and enabled the rulers of the country, by the 
rational use of their services, to make good the lack 
of emigrants of old Muslim stock. Many muwal- 
lads, soon fused in the melting-pot of Andalusian 
society, lost even the memory of their Spanish 
(Iberian or Gothic) origin, although they often bore 
Romance names. The co-existence within Islam of 
elements of population of such diverse origin, led to 
their gradual fusion, a process which was aided by 
the adoption of an identical way and rhythm of 
life and by the bilingualism which, at least in every- 
day life, placed Spanish Arabic and the Romance 
tongue (al-^adjamiyya) on the same footing. 

The Muslim population of al-Andalus, which was 
so composite in origin, but which gradually became 
relatively homogeneous, was divided in the ioth 
century into a certain number of social classes, 
in the same way as the rest of the Islamic world: 
khdssa and 'dmma. The former comprised the great 
noble families who were often hereditary grantees, 
while the middle class, composed of merchants and 
small land owners, soon became a sort of urban 
bourgeoisie, though without charters or immunities. 
In contrast, the plebs or c dmma, in the towns and 
particularly in the country, constituted an obscure 
mass subjected to severe vexation by authority. As 
there is virtually no information on the agrarian law 
which was in force in al-Andalus, one is compelled 
to postulate the existence, undoubtedly necessary, 
of a rural proletariat, composed of day-labourers tied 
to the soil and leading a particularly wretched 
existence, mostly unable to escape their servile 

The tributaries (mu'dhidun) in Andalusian society 
formed an important part of the population and 
comprised both Christians and Jews. The 
former, usually grouped under the general name of 
Mozarabes, all belonged to that part of the Spanish 
population which, at the time of the Conquest, had 
refused to renounce its faith in order to adopt that 
of the conquerors. In the large towns at least, 
notably in Cordova, Seville and Toledo, the Mozarab 
communities were organised under the protection 
and control of the Muslim central authority, with a 
leader responsible to that authority, the comes 
(kumis), sometimes also called defensor or protector. 
He exercised over his community the powers of a 
police magistrate, and had the duty and responsi- 
bility of collecting the taxes; he was assisted by a 
special judge, censor or kadi 'l- c adj,am, who settled 
disputes between the Mozarabs. The territory of al- 
Andalus, up to the end of the 1 1 th century, remained 
divided into the same ecclesiastical districts as at 
the time of the Visigoths, namely, three metropolitan 
provinces (Toledo, Lusitania and Baetica), each 
with an archbishopric and several dioceses. The 
details have been preserved for us by al-Bakri in 



\LUS 491 

what he calls "Constantine's partition". The names 
have been preserved of some very rare church digni- 
taries of al-Andalus under the Caliphate. The 
Mozarab community about which we possess the 
most information, though not numerically the most 
important, is that of Cordova. 

We have even less information as to the numbers 
and activities of the Jewish communities in the 
towns of al-Andalus, each of which had a Jewish 
quarter (hdrat or madlnat al-Yahud, Span. Juderia). 
At the same time, in the nth century, and especially 
in the Zirid Kingdom of Granada, the part played by 
Jewish excise officials and treasurers, the importance 
of the Banu '1-Naghralla family, the pogrom un- 
leashed in Granada following the murder of the 
Crown Prince Buluggin b. Badis b. Habus b. Zirl, 
and the importance accorded in the economy of the 
small state of Granada to the large Jewish community 
which formed the bulk of the population in the town 
of Lucena (al-Yussana), give rise to the belief that 
the Jews of al-Andalus, at all stages of the Recon- 
quista, in the service of Muslims or Christians, 
played an active part in the country as counsellors 
and ambassadors, and that they controlled the main 
commercial channels between al-Andalus and con- 
tinental Europe on the one hand, and the Muslim 
East on the other. In this connection, much may be 
expected from the study of the documents obtained 
in particular from the Geniza of Cairo. 

Bibliography: The material given above in out- 
line will be found in greater detail, with references, 
in Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. mus., iii, 163-232. 
See also, idem, Esp. mus. X' siicle, 18-39 and 
passim; F. J. Simonet, Historia de los Mozdrabes 
de Espana, Madrid 1897-1903; F. de las Cagigas, 
Les Mozdrabes, Madrid 1947-49; H. Graetz, Ge- 
schichte der Juden, vols. 5-7, Leipzig 1871-3; idem, 
Les Jui/s d'Espagne, trans, into French by Stenne, 
Paris 1872; J. Amador de los Rios, Historia social, 
politica y religiosa de los Judios de Espana y 
Portugal, Madrid' 1875. 



(v) The development of al-Andalus 
It is primarily the geographers who have given 
us more or less detailed information on the manner 
in which the soil of al-Andalus was cultivated and 
its vegetable and mineral resources exploited. We 
also possess a fairly extensive technical literature, 
formed by agronomic works of various periods, 
notably those of al-Tighnari, ibn Wafid, Ibn Bassal, 
Ibn Luyun and Ibn al- c Awwam. Mention must also 
be made of the "Cordovan Calendar of the year 961", 
published in 1873 by Dozy, at the same time as a 
definitely later version, and attributed to the 
Cordovan chronicler c Arib b. Sa c d [?.».]. Unfortu- 
nately, this technical literature gives us practically 
no information on the methods of cultivation and 
on contracts of lease, questions on which certain 
juridical works give us information which is too 
vague for complete reliance to be placed on it. 

1. Agriculture. As to-day in Spain, there was 
a distinction between dry land (Span, secano = Ar. 
6a H) and irrigated land (Span, regadio = Ar. saky), 
the former being reserved for the cultivation of 
cereals. Owing to the poor quality of the soil and 
unfavourable climatic conditions, the cultivation of 
cereals was quite inadequate to provide the popu- 
lation with wheat and other bread grains; con- 
sequently al-Andalus, at certain periods of famine, 
had to rely on imports of North African wheat. Some 
varieties of Andalusian wheat (Toledo) were especi- 



ally renowned. Millers used either horse-driven mills 
(m*na) or water-mills (ram- 
Wast stretches of country, especially in Andalusia 
and the Aljarafe region, were covered with olive- 
trees, and the olive oil industry was always extremely 
active there. Extraction methods were primitive, but 
the quantities of oil produced were sometimes in 
excess of local needs, and the surplus was exported 
to the rest of the Islamic world. 

The cultivation of the vine, like other forms of 
dry cultivation, seems to have been extensively 
practised. Raisins were used for cooking, and above 
all the consumption of wine was virtually tolerated 
and its sale regulated. 

It was, however, in the sphere of crops needing 
suitable irrigation that the Andalusians soon 
achieved an unchallenged supremacy, although it 
is not possible to attribute to them the invention 
of the system of irrigation which they used, in 
particular in the East of al-Andalus, and which 
still exists without substantial modification. The 
simplest form of irrigation was that practised with 
the aid of a network of irrigation channels (safiya, 
Span, acequia) which criss-crossed the littoral plains 
of the Murcia and Valencia regions, and in which 
the flow of water depended entirely on differences 
of level. Water rights were fixed by custom according 
to a code, patriarchal in character, which is also 
still in use to-day. On the higher ground and in the 
valleys of rivers such as the Guadiana, Tagus and 
Ebro, irrigation could only be carried on with the 
aid of pumping machines, named, according to their 
type and function, na'ura (Span, and Fr. noria) or 
sdniya (Span. aceHa). This irrigation was used for 
the cultivation of vegetables and trees. The geo- 
graphers vie with one another in their praises of the 
fruits of al-Andalus: cherries, apples and pears, 
almonds and pomegranates, and above all figs, of 
which numerous varieties were known in Spain. In 
some unusually sheltered coastal strips it was 
possible to grow crops of a sub-tropical nature: 
sugar-cane, bananas. The palm-groves of Elche 
{Alsk [q.v.]) were one of the sights of the country. 
Finally, the cultivation of aromatic herbs and 
plants used for making cloth was also carried on on 
a considerable scale; saffron, safflower, cumin, 
coriander, madder and henna, on the one hand, 
flax and cotton on the other. Silk cultivation 
flourished, mainly between Granada and the Medi- 



The geographers, in their desciiptions, have 
devoted little space to the rearing of saddle- and 
draught-animals or animals for meat. Horses were 
bred in the grass-lands of the lower Guadalquivir, and 
Andalusian mules were already celebrated by the time 
of Ibn Hawkal. Cattle, sheep and goats were reared 
everywhere, making use of the meagre pasture 
available. Apiculture, for the production of honey, 
was also practised. 

The forest region of al-Andalus was exploited for 
the needs of the towns, notably charcoal. Pines, 
numerous on the edge of the Meseta, were felled for 
use as joists or ships' masts. The great steppe-like 
expanses of the south-east furnished an abundance 
of dwarf palms and esparto, used in basket-making 
and domestic purposes. 

2. Mineral exploitation. The richness of the 
subsoil of al-Andalus justified mineral exploitation 
from earliest times, and the process continued during 
the Muslim era. Apart from gold, extracted from 
the gold-bearing sand of certain rivers, veins of 
silver and iron were mined north of Cordova, and 



deposits of cinnabar were exploited at Almaden and 
Ovejo. Copper was produced from pyrite mines of 
the Huelva region. Alum, sulphate of iron, lead and 
galena were also extracted. Muslim Spain was also 
renowned for its marble and precious stones. Like 
the Romans before them, the Andalusians made use 
of many thermal springs, nearly all of which still 
retain their old name of Alhama (Ar. al-hdmma). 
The exploitation of the rock-salt mines and the 
salt-deposits on the coast at Cadiz, Almeria and 
Alicante was a flourishing industry. Fishing was 
carried on, especially with string-nets and tunny- 
nets (Ar. al-madraba): sardines and tunny were 
caught in large quantities. 

Bibliography: The preceding is developed 
at length in Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. mus., iii, 
233-98; see also idem, Esp. mus. X" siicle, 157-94. 
Cf., for the period nth to 13th century, C. E. 
Dubler, Vber das WirtschaftsUben auf der iberischen 
Halbinsel vom XI. zum XIII. Jahrhundert, 
Geneva-Zurich 1943; A. Carbonel T.-F., La 
mineria y la metalurgia entre los Musulmanes en 
Espana, Cordova 1929. 

(vi) General survey of the history of 



It is only possible to give here a brief outline of 
the development of the history of al-Andalus during 
the seven centuries of Muslim occupation of the 
Iberian Peninsula. For greater clarity, this outline 
will be divided into a number of chronological 
compartments, which will allow the presentation of 
a chronologically connected account without the 
necessity in most cases of going into events in greater 

1. The conquest of al-Andalus. 

2. The history of al-Andalus up to the Marwanid 

3. The Marwanid Kingdom of Cordova. 

4. The Caliphate and the 'Amirid dictatorship. 

5. The collapse of the Marwanid Caliphate and 
the partition of the Kingdom of al-Andalus. 

6. The Kingdoms of the (dHfas up to the battle 
of al-Zallaka. 

7. Spain under the Almoravids. 

8. Spain under the Alniohads and the progress 
of the Reconquista. 

9. The Nasrid Kingdom of Granada and the con- 
clusion of the Reconquista. 

1. The conquest of al-Andalus. Of all the 
conquests undertaken by the Arabs in the first 
century of Islam, the conquest of al-Andalus is 
most remarkable for the speed and despatch with 
which it was accomplished. The accounts which 
have reached us of successive stages culminating 
in the extension of Muslim power over the whole 
of the Iberian Peninsula are particularly brief and 
unreliable; legend rapidly obscured historical 
reality with a veil which is nearly always impene- 
trable. It is clear that at the opportune moment the 
Arabs profited by the decayed state of the Visigoth 
Kingdom of Spain to turn their attention to it, and 
that they had the effective co-operation of many 
of the Spaniards themselves, desirous of throwing 
off a yoke which had become insupportable to them, 
to aid them in conquering it. The opportunity was 
tempting, at a moment when Arab power had just 
established itself firmly in North Morocco, and 
when the post of Governor of Ifrikiya and the 
Maghrib was in the hands of Musa b. Nusayr [q.v.]. 
To the latter, and to his lieutenant, the mawla 



Tarik b. Ziyad [q.v.], belonged the glory of the 
conquest of al-Andalus. 

It seems certain that Musa b. Nusayr himself took 
the decision to try to occupy new territories on the 
other side of the Straits of Gibraltar before referring 
the matter to the Caliph at Damascus; Musa took 
this step as a result of promises of support which he 
had received from the exarch of the town of Septem 
(Ceuta), which had remained a Byzantine possession 
despite the recent fall of Carthage into Muslim hands. 
This dignitary, Count Julian, facilitated the first 
Muslim landing, which was merely a raid led by the 
Berber officer Tarif on the island of Tarifa (Djazlrat 
Tarif) in Ramadan 91/ July 710. The success of 
Tarif's raid encouraged Tarik, the lieutenant of 
Musa b. Nusayr, to place on a war footing an assault 
force of 7,000 men, which, with the aid of Count 
Julian's flotilla, established itself on Andalusian soil 
in the neighbourhood of Gibraltar (Djabal Tarik) in 
Radjab or Sha'ban 92 April-May 711. 

The decisive battle between the Muslim assault 
force and the regular troops of the Visigoth king, 
Roderic, which occurred a few weeks later, on 28 
Ramadan 92/19 July 711, at Wadi Lago (Rio 
Barbate), ended in disaster for the Visigoths, who 
wavered and fled, while Tarik decided to advance 
further. The cities of the Gothic kingdom fell one 
after another: Cordova was taken by the freedman 
Mughith at the beginning of 93/Oct. 711 and Toledo 
fell without resistance. Musa b. Nusayr, anxious not 
to leave to Tarik alone all the prestige of the 
conquest, entered Spain shortly afterwards, in 
Ramadan 93/June 712, with a force of 18,000 men, 
mainly Arabs, and captured successively Seville and 
Merida (Shawwal 94/June-July 713). Musa effected 
a junction with Tarik at Toledo and from there 
marched to occupy Saragossa. At that moment he 
received the order of the Caliph al-Walid to return 
to Syria with Tarik. They both left Spain, which 
was almost completely conquered, never to return. 

2. The history of al-Andalus up to the 
Marwanid restoration. The departure of Musa 
b. Nusayr to the East inaugurates a period during 
which a number of governors (wait) succeeded one 
another as rulers of the newly-conquered territory 
with powers delegated by the central authority at 
Damascus, or simply as delegates of the nominal 
governor at al-Kayrawan. It is an extremely obscure 
period during which the rivalry of the Arab clans 
re-awoke in Spain, resulting in the greatest political 
confusion, and only marked by various fruitless 
attempts to extend Muslim power towards Gaulish 
territory (capture of Barcelona, Gerona and Nar- 
bonne), a raid against the Narbonnaise and Toulouse 
(100-2/719-721), and, in 725, an expedition to the 
valley of the Rhfine as far as Burgundy. The last 
expedition of any size, led by the governor c Abd 
al-Rahman al-Ghafikl, who was killed in action, 
ended in the defeat of the Muslims by the Duke of 
the Franks Charles Martel, at Baldt al-Shuhadd', a 
battle more commonly known as the Battle of 
Poitiers (Ramadan 114/October 732). 



1. c Abd al- c AzIz b. Musa b. Nusayr [q.v.], succeeded 
his father on the tatter's death on 94/712-3. 
Assassinated in Radjab 97/March 716. 

2. Ayyub b. Habib al-Lakhmi (97/716), for six 
months. 

3. al-Hurr b. c Abd al-Rahman al-Thakafl [q.v.] 
(97-100/716-719)- 



A.LUS 493 

4. al-Samh b. Malik al-Khawlanl (Ramadan 100- 
Dhu '1-Hidjdja 102/719-721). 

5. 'Anbasa b. Suhaym al-Kalbl (102-107/721-726). 

6. 'Udhra b. <Abd Allah al-Fihri (107/726). 

7. Yahya b. Salama al-Kalbi (107-110/726-728). 

8. Hudhayfa b. al-Ahwas al-Kays! (110/728). 

9. 'Uthman b. Abl Nis'a al-Khath'aml (110-111/ 
728-729). 

10. al-Haytham b. 'Ubayd al-Kilabi (m/729-730). 
n. Muhammad b. c Abd Allah al-Ashdja'i (111-112/ 
730). 

12. c Abd al-Rahman b. <Abd Allah al-Ghafiki ([q.v.], 
112-114/730-732). 

13. c Abd al-Malik b. Katan al-Fihri [q.v.] (114-116/ 
732-734)- 

14. c Ukbab.al-tfadjdjadjal-SalulI(n6-i23/734-74i). 

15. c Abd al-Malik b. Katan (for the second time) to 
123/741. 

16. Baldj b. Bishr al-Kushayri [q.v.] (123-124/ 

17. Tha'laba B. Salama al-'Amill (124-125/742-743). 

18. Abu '1-Khattar al-Husam b. Dirar al-Kalbl 
(125-127/743-745). 

19. Thawaba b. Salama al-Djudhami (127-129/ 
745-746). 

20. Yusuf b. c Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri (129/746- 
138/756, date of the proclamation of c Abd al- 
Rahman I. 

Bibliography: (For 1 and 2): Sources and 

bibliography listed in detail in Levi-Provencal, 

Hist. Esp. mus., i, p. 8, note 2, Ibid., 1-89, contains 

a detailed account of the conquest and the period 

of the governors. Cf. also Dozy, Recherches*, i, 

1-83; E. Saavedra, Estudio sobre la invasion de 

los Arabes en Espana, Madrid 1892. 

3. The Marwanid Kingdom of Cordova. 

(138-300/756-912). The circumstances attending 

the arrival in Spain of the Marwanid pretender c Abd 

al-Rahman b. Mu'awiya, which enabled him to rally 

to his cause a large number of clients and partisans 

of his family and eventually defeated the governor 

Yusuf b. c Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri near Cordova, 

where he was proclaimed amir of al-Andalus on 

10 Dhu'l-Hidjdja 138/15 May 756, are narrated in 

the article on this prince [see c Abd al-Rahman I]. 

« /// 

1. <Abd al-Rahman I b. Mu'awiya b. Hisham b. <Abd 
al-Malik b. Marwan, born 11 3/731, amir of al 
Andalus 138/756 to 172/788. 

2. Hisham I b. c Abd al-Rahman I, bom 139/757, 
amir 172/788 to his death, 3 Safar 180/17 April 796. 

3. al-Hakam I b. Hisham I, born 154/770, amir 180/ 
796 to his death, 25 Dhu '1-Hidjdja 206/21 May 822. 

4. c Abd al-Rahman II b. al-Hakam I, born 176/792. 
amir 206/822 to his death, 3 Rabi c II 238/22 
September 852. 

5. Muhammad I b. c Abd al-Rahman II, born 207/ 
823, amir 238/852 to his death, 28 Safar 273/4 

August 886. 

6. al-Mukdhir b. Muhammad I, born 229/844, amir 
273/886 to his death, 15 Safar 275/29 June 888. 

7. c Abd Allah b. Muhammad I, brother of the latter, 
bom 229/844, amir from 275/888 to his death, 
I Rabi c I 300/16 Oct. 912. 

Among the noteworthy features ol this period 
of the Marwanid amlrate of al-Andalus, which lasted 
more than a century and a half, are the introduction 



494 al-ANI 

of the Malik! madhhab into Spain during the peaceful 
reign of Hisham I, and the efforts of the amirs 
throughout almost the entire period to deal with the 
revolts instigated in the Marches by the Berbers, 
the Arabs and the muwallads, and to wage a holy 
war on the frontiers of the Kingdom. The attempts 
made against al-Hakam I (in particular the famous 
"revolt of the Suburb") on several occasions placed 
him in a dangerous position. Moreover the Recon- 
quista, as a result of the aggressive spirit of the 
first Asturio-Leonese princes and the Franks of the 
Spanish March, gradually gained ground (final 
recapture of Barcelona). 

The internal crisis was relieved for a time by c Abd 
al-Rahman II [q.v.], who fought simultaneously 
against the Franks, the Gascons and. the Banu Kasi 
[q.v.] of the Ebro valley, crushed the Mozarab 
revolt at Cordova (850-9), and threw back into the 
sea the Norsemen (Urdumdniyyun or Madjus) who 
had landed on the coast of Seville. This great ruler, 
who broke with the "Syrian tradition" introduced 
into Spain by his great-grandfather 'Abd al-Rahman 
I, organized the state of the 'Abbasid model. 

His work was continued by his son Muhammad I, 
at the end of whose reign, however, occurred the 
renewed insurrection of c Abd al-Rahman b. Marwan 
b. al-Djilliki [q.v.] and the rising of the whole of 
southern Andalusia under c Umar b. Hafsun [q.v.], 
whose revolt continued during the following reigns; 
further, during the reign of the amir c Abd Allah, 
serious fighting broke out between Arabs and 
muwallads in the Elvira and Seville regions. 

Bibliography: Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. 
mus., i, 91-396, with details of sources and biblio- 
graphy. Dozy's history, Hist. Mus. Esp.', vol. ii, 
is now out of date. 

4. The Caliphate and the 'Amirid dic- 
tatorship. On the long and fruitful reign of c Abd 
al-Rahman III al-Nasir, the restoration of the 
Cordovan Caliphate, and home and foreign policy, 
M III, and Levi-Provencal, Hist. 



Esp. 1 



-164. 



gn of fifty years represented not only the 
high-water mark of Marwanid rule in the Peninsula, 
but also the most flourishing period in the Muslim 
history of al-Andalus. On the death of <Abd al- 
Rahman, 22 Ramadan 350/4 November 961, he was 
succeeded by his son al-Hakam II, who was already 
nearly fifty years old, and who reigned until his own 
death on 3 Safar 366/1, October 976. The latter's 
reign was also a successful and prosperous one. 
Cordova, in the words of the Saxon poetess Hros- 
witha, was the "ornament of the world", and at 
the same time, under the stimulus of a prince like 
al-Hakam II, who was a man of letters and a biblio- 
phile, one of the most active centres of philological, 
literary and juridical culture in the entire Muslim 
world at that time, Christian Spain requested his 
arbitration, and the Reconquista seemed finally to 
be checked. 

When he died, al-Hakam II only left as his suc- 
cessor a young son unfit to rule, Hisham II, born in 
354/965 of the union of the Caliph with the Gascon 
umm walad Subh. Once the palace intrigues were 
frustrated, the way was clear for a man of ambition 
and energy, who soon seized the reins of power and 
directed the destinies of the Caliphate with a dicta- 
torial hand: the celebrated "major-domo" Muham- 
mad b. Abi c Amir, the future al-Mansur [q.v.]. The 
stages in the brilliant career of Ibn Abi c Amir, which 
speedily led him to the highest honours, will not be 
recounted in detail here. But this highly-talented 



politician showed himself also to be a general and 
a strategist who was both able and successful in his 
undertakings. He mounted successive attacks in 
the djihad against the Christian kingdoms to the 
North, inflicted on them severe defeats and even 
succeeded in capturing and destroying the famous 
sanctuary of Saint James of Compostela (Santiago, 
Shant Ydfrub) in the course of his campaign of 
387/997 against Galicia. Al-Mansur died at Medi- 
naceli (Madinat Salim), on his return from a final 
campaign to North Castile, on 27 Ramadan 392/ 
9 August 1002. He left Muslim Spain intact and, 
following c Abd al-Rahman III and al-Hakam II, 
had even been able to extend Andalusian political 
influence over the whole of western Barbary. 

One of al-MansOr's most skilful archievements 
was to respect throughout his life the external 
trappings of the Caliphate and to keep intact certain 
of its prerogatives on behalf of his nominal master 
Hisham II. The latter bequeathed the same powers 
of "major-domo" or hddjib to the favourite son of 
al-Mansur, c Abd al-Malik, who succeeded his father 
and adopted the honorific surname of al-Muzaffar. 
He remained in power until his death in 399/1008 
see c Abd al-Malik b. AbI 'Ati'fR for the details of the 
history of his "septennate". The death of c Abd al- 
Malik b. Abi c Amir and his replacement by his 
brother 'Abd al-Rahman ushered in a period of 
disastrous disorders in the Spanish Caliphate which 
soon brought about its downfall. 

Bibliography: Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. 

5. The collapse of the Marwanid Caliphate 
and the partition of the Kingdom of al- 
Andalus. The military policy of al-Mansur had 
resulted in the introduction into Muslim Spain of 
a large number of mercenaries of North African 
Berber origin who, after his death and that of his 
successor, formed a centre of agitation against the 
Andalusians themselves and against the powerful 
Slav bloc. The train was fired by the insane desire 
of c Abd al-Rahman Sanchuelo to have himself 
designated heir-presumptive to the throne by the 
Caliph Hisfiam II (Rabi< I 399/November 1008). 
This designation was extremely badly-received at 
Cordova and, following a plot against him, the 
'Amirid hddjib was executed by the supporters of 
the Marwanid pretender Muhammad b. Hisham b. 
c Abd al-Djabbar near Cordova on 3 Radjab 399/3 
March 1009 [see c Abd al-Rahman b. AbI c Amir], 

From then on, the Kingdom of Cordova went 
through a period which was fatal to its destinies: 
pretenders and counter-pretenders, supported by 
the Berbers or by the enemies of the Berbers, 
hastened the ultimate downfall of the Caliphate. 

List of the last Caliphs of Cordova 

1. Hisham II b. al-Hakam II al-Mu J ayyad bi'Uah 
(366-399/976-1009: 400-403/1010-1013). 

2. Muhammad II b. Hisham b. c Abd al-Djabbar 
al-Mahdi (399-1009). 

3. Sulayman b. al-Hakam b. Sulayman b. c Abd al- 
Rahman III al-Musta'in (399/1009; 403/1013). 

4. <Abd al-Rahman IV b. Muh. b. <Abd al-Malik b. 
c Abd al-Rahman III al-Murtada (408/1018). 

5. c Abd al-Rahman V b. Hisham b. <Abd al-Djabbar 
al-Mustazhir (414/1023-24). 

6. Muhammad III b. c Abd al-Rahman b. 'Ubayd 
Allah b. c Abd al-Rahman III al-Mustakfi (414- 
416/1024-1025). 

7. Hisham III b. Muh. b. <Abd al-Malik b. c Abd al- 
Rahman III al-Mu'tadd (420-422/1029-1031). 



Hammudid Caliphs 
i. 'All b. Hammud (407-408/1016-1018). 
2. al-Kasim b. HammOd (4o8-4f3*»oi8-io23). 

The Andalusian, Slav and Berber "factions" 

{ta'i/a, pi. (awa'if) did not wait for the collapse of 

the Cordovan caliphate before splitting up the 

territory of al-Andalus into a multitude of small 

states, most of which had only an ephemeral existence 

and among which emerged only a few large political 

blocs, the Kingdoms of the 'Abbadids of Seville, the 

Aftasids of Badajoz, the ZIrids of Granada, the 

Dh u '1-Nunids of Toledo and the Hudids of Saragossa. 

Bibliography: Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. 

mus., ii, 291-341 (and bibliography quoted on 

p. 291, note 1); and see Hammudids. For 3-5 see 

Umayyads. 

6. The Kingdoms of the (a'ifas up to the 
battle of al-Zallaka. The history of Spain in 
the nth century is characterized by (he vigorous 
efforts of the Reconquista, stimulated by energetic 
and enterprising Christian monarchs who were more 
and more conscious of the necessity of re-establishing 
national unity at the expense of Islam. The internal 
history of the Kingdoms created by the dismember- 
ment of the Spanish Caliphate is particularly dull 
and devoid of interest. As portrayed by the chroni- 
clers, it presents a picture of constant turmoil — 
opposing interests, rivalries and perpetual disputes, 
through which it is not always possible to trace a 
guiding thread. The ethnic groups, to which belonged 
the dynasties which outlived those which were 
rapidly absorbed by their more powerful rivals, 
joined issue with one another. Andalusians fought 
against Berbers, and Slavs fought against both. 
Before long there was no hope of restoring the 
Caliphate, and the increasing weakness of each of 
these states only whetted the appetite of the Christian 
monarchs, who levied heavy tribute from them: this 
policy was followed particularly by King Alfonso VI, 
who succeeded, by skilful diplomacy, in effecting the 
peaceful occupation of Toledo (1085) and in making 
himself the arbiter in disputes between the muluk 
al-iawa'if. 

The danger became so great that, whether they 
wished to or not, the muluk al-tawaH/ were forced to 
seek help from the Almoravids. The turning-point 
came with the intervention of North African troops 
led by the amir Yusuf b. Tashufin, who defeated the 
forces of Alfonso VI at Sagrajas (al-Zallaka [?.».]) 
on 22 Radjab 479/2 November 1086. This victory was 
not followed up, and Yusuf b. Tashufin, soon 
wearying of the spectacle of the disunion of the 
Andalusian kings and their compromises with the 
Christian monarch, dethroned them one after the 
other and simply annexed the greater part of al- 
Andalus to his dominions. From that moment, 
Muslim Spain was only the vassal of the Maghrib. 
Bibliography: See the usually accurate lists 
given by A. Prieto y Vives, Los Reyes de Taifasr 
estudio historico-numismaiico de los Musulntanes 
espaAoles en el sigh V de la hlgira (XI de J. C), 
Madrid 1926. See also Dozy, Hist. Mus. Esp. 1 , vol. 
iii; A. Gonzales Palencia, Hist, de la Esp. mus., 
54-69; and 'Abbadids, Aftasids, dhu'l-nOnios, 
hudids, zIrios etc.; for a list of the dynasties 
of the fawd'if cf. Muluk al-Tawa'if. 
7. Al-Andalus under the Almoravids. The 
Almoravid occupation of Muslim Spain was com- 
pleted by the recapture of Valencia (495/1102), 
which had fallen into the hands of the Cid Campeador 
Rodrigo Diaz in 478/1085, and by the surrender of 



'ALUS 495 

the Hudid capital of Saragossa on the death of al- 
Musta'In (503/1 no). Al-Andalus then experienced, 
despite the domination of society by the fakihs, 
several decades of prosperity, marked by the 
indisputable successes of Almoravid arms (victory of 
Ucles in 502/1108) which, however, were unable to 
recapture Toledo. Saragossa itself fell in 512/1118 
into the hands of Alfonso the Warrior. Christian 
pressure on al-Andalus increased, and achieved the 
greater success because the son and successor of 
Yusuf b. Tashufin, c Ali, threatened in Morocco 
itself by the Almohads, soon became incapable of 
offering serious resistance to the manifestations of 
revolt which were appearing on all sides. The time 
was ripe for another change of masters in al-Andalus. 
[See al-MurAbitun]. 

Bibliography : R. Menendez Pidal, La EspaHa 
del Cid, definitive edition, Madrid 1947, F. Codera, 
Decadencia y desaparicidn' de los Almoravides en 
Espana, Saragossa 1899. 

8. Al-Andalus under the Almohads, and 
the progress of the Reconquista. After a 
period of thirty years, in the middle of the 12th 
century, during which certain movements took 
shape to weave a new pattern of "Kingdoms of 
ta'ifas", al-Andalus submitted to the authority of 
the Mu'minid dynasty of Morocco. The Almohads 
maintained for nearly a century an increasingly 
precarious grasp on those parts of the Peninsula 
which still belonged to Islam. The Reconquista won 
back more territory each year. In Catalonia, Ramdn 
Berenguer IV occupied successively Tortosa and 
Lerida, but the chief architect of the Reconquista 
was King Alfonso VIII of Castile (1158-1214), who 
gained possession of Silves, Evora, and Cuenca. The 
Muslim victory at Alarces (al-Arak), won by the 
Almohad Caliph Abu Yusuf Ya«kub, 8 Sha'bSn 
591/18 July 1 195, had no lasting effect. Less than 
fifteen years later, the Christian coalition, com- 
prising troops from Castile, Leon, Navarre and 
Aragon, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Muslims 
at Las Navas de Tolosa [al-'Ikab), 15 Safar 609/ 
17 July 1212, which was followed by the fall of 
Ubeda and Baeza. The capture of Cordova occurred 
less than a quarter of a century later, followed by the 
capture of Valencia by Jacques I of Aragon (636/ 
1238) and of Seville by Ferdinand III (646/1248). 

Bibliography: See al-Arak, al-Mkab, IshbI- 
liya, Balansiya, Kurtuba, Mu'minids. 

9. The Nasrid Kingdoi 



mquis 



. For a 



further two and a half centuries the "Kingdon 
Granada", despite successive amputations, continued 
to be the only territory on the Iberian Peninsula 
still under the authority of a Muslim ruler; bounded 
by the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Almeria, 
this Kingdom did not extend inland beyond the 
mountain massifs of the Serranfa de Ronda and the 
Sierra d'Elvira. The ancestor and founder of the 
Nasrid dynasty (or Banu '1-Ahmar), Muhammad I 
al-Ghalib bi'llah, took possession of Granada in 
635/1237-8 and organized the fortress called al- 
Hamra', the Alhambra, as a royal palace; at the 
same time, he agreed to become the tribute-paying 
vassal of the King of Castile, Ferdinand I, and then 
of his successor Alfonso X. Henceforth the policy 
of kings of Granada was to try to achieve a precarious 
balance in their alliances concluded either with the 
Christians, or with the Marinids of Morocco, who 
intervened militarily on Andalusian territory and 
occupied certain points such as Tarifa. Moroccan 
co-operation was gradually proved to be illusory: 



496 al-AN 

the sultan Abu '1-Hasan suffered a grave defeat on 
the Rio Salado (741/1340). Granada still retained 
•some of the prestige of a capital by virtue of its 
monuments and literary gatherings, in which men 
like Lisan al-Din b. al-Khatlb were conspicuous. In 
the following century, with the advent of the 
Catholic Kings, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella 
of Castile, the Christian offensive became co-ordinated 
and was conducted on a wider scale. Loja fell in 
i486, Velez-Malaga, Malaga and Almeria the fol- 
lowing year, Baza in 1489, and Granada eventually 
surrendered to the Catholic monarchs on 2 Rabi c I 
•897/3 January 1492. 

Bibliography: See Nasrids. See also, on the 
fate of Spanish Muslims, whether converted to 
Christianity of not, after the conclusion of the 
Reconquista, Moriscos. (E. L£vi-Provencal) 



t North Afric 



Appendix: the "Andalus" 

As a generic term al- Andalus is especially well 
known in the North African context where it 
•denotes that element of the Islamic population which 
•derives its origins from Spain. Generally speaking, 
the Andalusian element only appears in relief from 
about the end of the 15th century, but here we have 
to do with nothing more than the culmination of a 
long historical trend. 

In the course of Hispano-Islamic history emigration 
to the Maghrib not infrequently served the inhabi- 
tants of al-Andalus as a means of escape from 
internal crisis. Andalusian commercial and external 
interests also played a great part in bringing Hispano- 
Islamic elements to the littoral of the Western and 
Central Maghrib. 

From about the middle of the 12th century, when 
Muslim disasters in Western Andalusia sent a stream 
of emigrants to Kasr al-Kutama (al-Kasr al-Kablr), 
the advance of the Reconquista was to prove an in- 
creasingly important, though by no means the sole 
■cause of emigration to North Africa. With the pro- 
tracted disintegration of Islamic Spain emigration 
progressed sporadically until the 15th century when 
the critical events which foreshadowed the fall of 
•Granada marked the beginning of what was to prove 
a veritable diaspora, of which North Africa experien- 
ced appreciable effects. By the end of the 16th 
century the number of Andalusian expatriates on 
Maghrib! soil was such that they could be accounted 
•an important minority of its population. 

The advent of the 17th century brought new 
■developments and it is not long before we see the 
outcome of the general expulsion of the Moriscos. 
From their ports of disembarkation large numbers 
are said to have made for Fez and Tlemsen, 
"but of these a great proportion suffered death or 
spoliation at the hands of the Arab tribes. Many 
others succeeded in joining their compatriots at 
Algiers, and in Tunisia, where a policy of immi- 
gration was actively encouraged by 'Uthman Day, 
the influx was considerable. 

Of the Andalusians thus established in 17th 
century Tunisia a fairly detailed picture can be 
■drawn. Their case is somewhat different from that 
of their 13th century precursors who are best known 
for their great political role in the Hafsid state. 
Appearing as a highly organised and exclusive 
■community under a supreme head (shaykh al- 
Andalus), they seem in their village communities to 
have enjoyed certain legal rights together with a 
large measure of independence in local government. 
The monopoly of a highly successful and well organ- 
ised shashiya industry enabled them so to modify 



system that the amin al-shawwasha 
became de jure amin of commerce, presiding over 
a commercial tribunal to which all corporations were 
subject and whose members were, with only two 
exceptions, recruited from the Andalusian shaw- 
washa. In the agricultural field Andalusian skill, 
fostered by the enlightened c Uthman Day, was 
turned to the exploitation of the fertile north, where 
the Moriscos ably applied their knowledge of irri- 
gation and the techniques of husbandry to arbori- 
culture and market gardening. During the 16th and 
the production and traffic of raw 
the manufacture of stuffs, fabrics 
Is were great specialities of the 
exiles. At Algiers, for instance, the silk industry 
was very much in their hands and contributed much 
to the wealth of the city. Much, on the other hand, 
that they might have contributed to the Maghrib 
was lost. In Morocco, for instance, the Sa'dids 
sought mainly to exploit them as a military force. 
For the rest, their occupation with piracy, and the 
slave trade must have accounted for the disappear- 
ance of traditional skills. Their traces, however, still 
survive in many spheres and many North Africans 
proudly proclaim their Andalusian origin which is 
in many cases apparent from their patronymics. 
Bibliography: No comprehensive work has 
yet been published. The following list is a selection 
from the vast literature. For the earlier centuries, 
see: Bakri, Descr. de I'Afrique sept, (de Slane), 
55, 61-2, 65, 70-1, 104, 112, etc.; E. Levi-Pro- 
vencal, Fondation de Fis, Paris 1939; id., Hist. 
Esp. Mus., i, 169-70 etc.; R. Le Tourneau, Fis, 
Casablanca 1949, 35, 47, 136 ft. For Morocco, 
see: Abu Hamid Muhammad al- c Arabi, Mir'dt 
al-Maltdsin, lith. Fez, 135-6, 142, 144, 146 etc.; 
Chronique anonyme sa'dienne (Colin), 38-9, 48, 
53 ect.; IfranI, Nuzhat al-Hadi (Houdas), 62, 116, 
237, 264-5, 267, 303; Kadirl, Nashr al-Mathd**, 
transl. Graulle etc., i, 219, 322-4, 328-9, ii, 39, 
etc.; K. Nubdhat al-'Asr (Bustani and Quiros), 
Larache 1940, 47-8/56-7, etc.; Leo Africanus, 
Descr. dell' Africa, in Ramusio, Navigationi, Venice 
1563, 31. 35, 48, etc.; Makkari, Nafh, Cairo 1949, 
iv, 148-9, vi, 279-81; Marmol, Descr. de Affrica, 
Granada 1573. ii. 33, 83-5, etc.; M. J. Miiller, 
Beitr. z. Oesch. der westl. Araber, i, 42-4; 'Umari, 
Masalik al-Absdr, tr. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, 
147, 154, 214; Abu Djandar (Boujendar), Ta'rikh 
Ribdf al-Fath, Rabat 1345, 194-7, 202 ff. etc.; 
Sources inidites de I'histoire du Maroc, passim; 
Caille, La ville de Rabat, Paris 1949, i, 213 ft. 
and passim; Michaux-Bellaire, El-Qcar el-Kabir, 
AM, 11/2, 1905, 153, 173-4, 177-8, 182-3, 187, 
191-2, etc.; Terrasse, Hist, du Maroc, index. For 
Algeria see: Ghubrini, 'Unwdn al-Dirdya (Ben 
Cheneb), 171 and passim; Marini, '■IJnwan al- 
Ahhbar, transl. Feraud, RAfr., 1868,251-2,254-5, 
337, 342-3, etc.; Leo, op. cit.; Marmol, op. cit.; 
Haedo, Topographia e historia de Argel, passim; 
Salvago, Africa overo Barbaria (Sacerdotil, Padova 
1937, passim; Lea, Moriscos of Spain, London 
1901, 273-4, 329-31. 350; 364 and passim ;Trumelet, 
Blida, Algiers 1887, i, 572 ff., ii, 760, 764 and 
passim. For Tunisia see: Ibn Khaldun, Proligo- 
menes, transl. de Slane, ii, 23, 299, 362 ; id. Berberes, 
ii, 365, 373, 382 and passim ; Bruaschvig, Berberie 
orientate sous les Hafsides, index. For the 17th 
century and after see G. Marcais, Testour et sa 
grande mosquie, RT, 1942, 147-69 and references; 
Ibn al-Khodja, Ta'rikh Ma'-dlim al-Tawfiid, Tunis 
1939. 82-3, 186, etc. ; Grandchamp, La France en 



Tunisie, Tunis 1920-30, ii-iv passim ; Peiresc, Lettres 
inlds. communiquies par M. Millin, Paris 1815, 
passim; id., Lettres publ. par Th. de Larroque, vii, 
Paris 1898, passim; Ximenez, Colonia Trinitaria 
de Tunez (Bauer), Tetuan 1934, passim; Atger, 
Corporations tunisiennes, Paris 1909, passim; 
Despois, Tunisie orientate: Sahel et Basse Steppe, 
Paris 1955, index. (J. D. Latham) 

Al-Andalus was always a stronghold of Malikism 
and a centre of orthodoxy from the beginning of the 
9th century, when the madhhab of Medina was 
adopted and supplanted that of al-Awza c I. During 
the Marwanid period, as the new madhhab had the 
official support of the rulers of the country, there 
was no possibility of the implantation of other rites, 
and all KharidjI or Shi c i tendencies were suppressed 
in their early stages; the Andalusians could only 
direct their legal and theological activity towards 
the elaboration of manuals of fura', and to a 
permanent attachment to the method of taklid. In 
the 3rd-4th/9th-ioth centuries, however, there is 
apparent an infiltration, admittedly slight, of the 
Shafi'i and £ahiri schools, the latter represented in 
Spain by the Hdi Mundhir b. Sa c Id al-Balhiti (d. 
355/966) until it found its "standard-bearer" in the 
person of the famous Ibn Hazm [q.v.]. Similarly, 
there is apparent at certain periods a certain spread 
of Mu'tazilism, which corresponded to a revival of 
ascetic tendencies, whose principal representative 
was the Cordovan philosopher Ibn Masarra [q.v.] 
(d. 3I9/93I). 

The representatives of Andalusian Malikism whose 
names and sometimes works have come down to 
us are legion. Nearly all of them have received 
biographical notices in the collections printed in the 
Bibliotheca arabico-hispana. After the fall of the 
Caliphate, jurisprudence was held in even greater 
esteem than before, and the social class of the 
fafrihs frequently formed the most influential and 
active section of the population, especially under the 
Almoravids. From a doctrinal point of view, al- 
Andalus was scarcely affected by Almohad pro- 
paganda, and Malikism reigned supreme up to 

Bibliography: General survey in Levi- 
Provencal, Hist. Esp. mus., iii, 453-88. 

(E. L£vi-Provencal) 



(viii) t 
See c arabiyya, B, Appendix. 

The Iberian Peninsula, by virtue of its geograph- 
ical position, which encloses the western end of the 
Mediterranean, and by reason of its predominantly 
Mediterranean characteristics, has been since ancient 
times an area favourable to the germination of 
Oriental influences. Possession of a common religion 
and a common language, the two factors, says Sarton, 
which constitute the strongest bond between peoples, 
strengthened relations between the two regions, 
relations which benefited also by the religious 
obligation of the pilgrimage to Mecca. 

Artistic trends and forms reached the Iberian 
Peninsula from the Orient over a period of eight 
centuries; some of these were developed to a greater 
degree and extent than in their country of origin. 
In Hispanic art there are echoes of the art of 
Byzantium and its cultural zones, of Syria, Meso- 
potamia, Persia, Egypt and Ifrikiya. In Syria as on 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



ALUS 497 

Iberian soil, the art of the Middle Ages was modelled 
on the pattern of the art of Imperial Rome. The 
coincidence of certain forms in the works of these 
two countries points sometimes to their common 
origin and not to a direct relationship between the 
two. But, whereas in the eastern Mediterranean, 
civilisation developed without interruption from the 
first centuries of the Christian era and during the 
first centuries of Islam, the Iberian Peninsula, and 
the West as a whole, experienced grave crises and 
a considerable decline in its standard of civilisation. 

We do not know many details of the transition 
from Visigothic Spain, whose lack of homogeneity 
and decadence are shown by its feeble resistance to 
the invaders, to Spain under Islamic domination. 
In the artistic sphere, works and remains of this 
obscure period and of the subsequent Islamic 
periods are lacking, with the result that in many 
cases the gaps must be filled by guesswork. 

The art of al-Andalus developed with an original 
and distinctive character of its own. During the period 
of contact with the Orient, between the 2nd/8th 
and 9th/i5th centuries, certain monuments of 
incomparable beauty, perfection and originality, 
such as have been preserved in no other Muslim 
country, were built there: the mosque at Cordova, 
unique both for its complex and skilful construction 
and for the richness of its decoration ; the palaces of 
Madlnat al-Zahra 5 , whose art and magnificence have 
never been surpassed; the Aljaferia of Saragossa, a 
palace of extraordinary originality and decorative 
profusion, the reconstruction of which is being 
undertaken at the present time; the Giralda tower, 
a monumental minaret which is one of the most 
beautiful in the Islamic world; and, finally, a huge 
palace, the Alhambra of Granada, wonderfully 
preserved despite its extreme fragility, in which 
architecture and the natural beauties of water and 
vegetation have combined to create one of the most 
inspiring scenes in the world. 

Architecture 

Umayyads. In default of older buildings, the 
study of Islamic architecture in al-Andalus must 
start from the oldest part of the Cordova mosque, 
built by c Abd al- Rahman I between 168 and 170/ 
784-6, i.e. three-quarters of a century after the 
invasion and conquest of the Peninsula. By the time 
of the death of this amir, only the finishing touches 
remained, and these were executed by his son 
Hdsham (172-180/788-96). 

This early oratory occupies the N.-W. portion of 
the building, which is still preserved to-day. The 
mosque is rectangular, with stone walls, divided 
into eleven aisles running North to South, perpen- 
dicular to the kibla wall, the central aisle being 
larger than the others. The aisles are separated by 
marble columns deriving from Roman or Visigothic 
buildings. On the capitals rest square impost blocks, 
which in their turn carry rectangular stone piers, the 
overhang being supported transversely by means of 
corbels and terminating above in an impost. The 
piers are linked longitudinally by two ranges of 
arches; the lower arches, horseshoe-shaped, are 
suspended and support nothing; above, a second 
range consisting of semi-circular arches, springs from 
the imposts and supports the walls. By this method 
of construction it was possible to erect a huge 
building on slender columns, making the maximum 
use of the interior space and, for the faithful, 
ensuring a good view of the imam leading the prayer. 
Owing to the fact that the width of the supports was 



498 al-ANI 

increased in proportion to their height, it was 
possible to support the roofs and to place rain-water 
gutters in the thickness of the walls. 

The method of construction wHh double super- 
imposed arches, which gives the Cordova mosque an 
original beauty and a unique character in mediaeval 
architecture, is not found in any other mosque. In 
the other hypostyle mosques, the arches separating 
the aisles are supported by means of wooden beams 
which give them the appearance of temporary con- 
structions. It is astonishing to find in Cordova in 
the second half of the 8th century such a perfect 
structure, in view of the apparent lack of architectural 
ability which is suggested by the use of columns 
originating from earlier buildings. 

Repeated attempts have been made to establish 
the origin of these forms. The system of double 
arches could be inspired by Roman architectural 
works, for example aqueducts. Stone was used as 
constructional material in Syrian architecture, but 
also in Visigothic architecture in Spain. The arrange- 
ment of the ashlars alternately as stretchers or as 
parpens is frequently found in Roman buildings of 
the East and the West, which have inherited it from 
Greek buildings. Visigothic architecture made more 
general the use of the horseshoe arch, specimens of 
which are found in Roman and eastern Islamic 
architecture, although fewer than in the Peninsula. 
The alternate use of stone and brick in the voussoirs 
of the arches was frequent in Roman architecture, 
from which it passed into Byzantine architecture. 
The originality of the mosque of c Abd al-Rahman I 
resides in the plan and general arrangement of the 
building, with its numerous parallel aisles, the 
central aisle being larger, as in the eastern mosques, 
and perhaps also in the wall buttresses and probably 
in the stepped crenellations which crown them. 

The growth of the population of Cordova, in the 
reign of c Abd al-Rahman II (206-38/822-52), neces- 
sitated the enlargement of the mosque. By demo- 
lishing the mihrdb and piercing the kibla wall, the 
aisles were extended southwards. The portion added 
follows the lines of the earlier work, but, among a 
large number of capitals originating from earlier 
buildings, there are eleven which were finely cut 
for the purpose and were inspired by classical 
models, and four, from the mihrab, which were later 
transferred to that of al-Hakam II. The latter are 
not inferior to the finest Roman capitals, and are 
evidence of the existence of a workshop of selected 
artisans. These works were commenced in 218/833; 
the first prayer before the new midrib took place in 
234/848, but the work was incomplete at the death 
of c Abd al-Rahman II. His son and successor 
Muhammad I completed them in 241/855, a date 
which appears in an inscription on the St. Stephen 
door, whose bevelled decorations, inspired without 
doubt by Roman mosaic motifs, are of the Byzantine 
type. 

<Abd al-Rahman III (300-50/912-61), left in the 
Great Mosque a memorial of his long and glorious 
reign, by constructing in 340/951 a new and monu- 
mental minaret, of square section like the Syrian 



In 326/936, 'Abd al-Rahman III, proclaimed 
caliph, began the construction of the royal city of 
Madlnat al-Zahra', at the foot of the Sierra, less 
than five miles from Cordova. The work proceeded 
until 365/976, a period of forty years during which 
the grandeur and power of the Andalusian caliphate 
reached their zenith, as is witnessed by the disfigured 
ruins oi the palaces of this city, the seat of the court 



and officialdom, and by the enlargement of the 
Cordova mosque on the initiative of al-Hakam II. 
The portions of Madlnat al-Zahra' until now 
brought to light are the ruii»s of stone buildings- 
dwellings, offices and reception balls; the last-named 
situated at the end of patios and consisting of several 
parallel aisles, separated by horseshoe arches on 
columns, following a basilica-type arrangement 
common in theEast. For its decoration, the two 
caliphs, fired by the ambition to construct buildings 
of exceptional spendour and richness, imported 
materials and skilled craftsmen from the other end 
of the Mediterranean. The roofs and ceilings have 
gone — Madlnat al-Zahra 5 was sacked and burnt 
several times during the early years of the nth 
century and later served as a quarry up to a recent 
date — but there remains part of the stone and 
marble surfaces of the walls of many of the rooms, 
numerous columns and capitals of the same materials, 
and pavements of stone, marble and brick. The 
richly decorated surface of these buildings was 
entrusted to workshops of skilled craftsmen, some 
of whom came from the eastern Mediterranean ; they 
possessed different training and different techniques 
for the working of stone and marble, but were 
especially familiar with the general characteristics 
of two-dimensional reliefs with "vegetal motifs (there 
are a few simple geometrical motifs, of Byzantine 
origin), the majority far-removed from the vine and 
the acanthus motifs which derive from them. A mag- 
nificent hall, discovered in 1944, and at present in 
course of reconstruction because among its ruins 
were found many reliefs from the decorated surfaces 
of the inner walls, was decorated from 342 to 345/ 
953-7. 

The same craftsmen from the palaces of al-Zahra' 
worked on the enlargement of the Great Mosque at 
Cordova; this work, initiated by al-Hakam II, was 
put in hand in 350/961, and the principal part was 
completed in 355/966. Workers in mosaic, requested 
from the emperor of Byzantium, had a hand in its 
decoration. An Oriental influence is also noticeable 
in the four vaults of intersecting arches in the 
extension, although no comparable example of an 
earlier date has yet been discovered in the East. The 
increase in the height of the walls of some bays in 
order to form vaulted lanterns probably comes from 
the mosques of Ifrikiya of the 9th century, although 
the vaults of the latter are of Byzantine origin. The 
arches, intersecting equally, but in plan and not in 
space, form an open lattice-work which, by an 
ingenious and skilful constructional technique, 
supports the cupolas. Some of the arches are cusped 
and 'Abbasid in origin ; there are also a number of 
broken arches. The former were, from then on, 
combined with intersecting arches, one of the 
favourite themes of Hispano-Muslim art, used 
purely as decoration — following a process common 
to all Islamic art, but in al-Andalus carried to its 
ultimate conclusion. 

In this extension, which dates from the reign of 
al-Hakam II, and which in fact constitutes a new 
mosque contiguous to the original, decorative forms 
of an incredible richness blend with a magnificent 
blaze of colour to cover the walls and the vaults, 
composed of vivid mosaics, with arabesques (atau- 
riquc, al-tawrlk), the majority of cut stone, with 
the background painted red and inscriptions - in 
other kinds of blue, and veined marble in the columns 
and pedestals. The mosque of al-Hakam II, like the 
hall of 'Abd al-Rahman III at al-Zahra', illustrates 
an art utilising its resources to the full, at its peak, 



which, without parallel in the contemporary West, 
is an expression of the grandeur of the Cordovan 

The third and final enlargement- of -the Great 
Mosque was due to the initiative of the powerful 
al-Mansur , the minister of Hisham II, and was 
carried out between 377-80/987-90. It maintained 
the unity of the whole by repeating once more, as 
regards the engaged piers and the arches, the con- 
struction of the originals, without any novel feature, 
and inferior in richness and style. The doorways 
reveal a process of unification of the great variety 
of decorative techniques displayed at Madlnat al- 
Zahra 5 , but the result is heavy and monotonous. 

Few traces remain of the work executed during 
the period of the (a'i/as in the 5th/nth century. 
In the mosques, on the evidence of the texts and 
such traces as remain, the division into aisles 
perpendicular to the (tibia wall by means of horseshoe 
arches on columns, is repeated. The princes of the 
fd'i/as built palaces rather than religious edifices. 
They could not rival their predecessors, rulers of a 
unified Spain, in power or wealth but they tried to 
imitate, at least in appearance, their splendid 
residences. In place of the solid stone walls of Madlnat 
al-Zahra' they erected walls of clay and brick. The 
surfaces of stone and marble covered with arabesques 
(ataurique) were replaced by decoration in plaster, 
and yie columns -of -marble, as m the Alcazaba of 
Malaga, by wooden columns. The polychromy con- 
ceals the poverty of the interior under an ephemeral 
display of richness and luxury. The reduction in 
grandeur and solidity, and the lack of architectural 
greatness, were compensated for not only by the 
more agreeable and picturesque aspect of the 5th/ 
nth century buildings, but also by the introduction 
of running water in the halls and patios, and by the 
use of plants in the patios, doubtless as a result of an 
Oriental influence, perhaps via Ifrikiya. 

The decorative art which sought to conceal the 
structural poverty of these palaces was a direct 
successor of the art of the caliphate but with an 
evolution towards the baroque, essentially Hispanic, 
by the transformation of the architectural elements 
of Cordova and Madlnat al-Zahra' into other purely 
decorative elements, consisting of involved and 
complex designs and profuse ornamentation. 

A work which is highly characteristic of the art 
of the (d'ifas is the palace built in the immediate 
vicinity of Saragossa by al-Muktadir b. Hud (441-74/ 
1049-81). 

1 The 6th/i2th century, i.e., the period of Almoravid 
and Almohad domination in al-Andalus, was one of 
the most fruitful periods of Western Islamic art, and 
at the same time one of the periods in which there 
occurred the greatest assimilation of forms originating 
from the eastern Mediterranean. 

The Almoravids, Berber nomads from Africa, 
without a cultural tradition, remained on the fringe 
of the artistic trend. But the political union of 
Muslim Spain and Barbary for a period of just over 
a century (the 6th/iath and the first years of the 
7th/i3th), at first under the Almoravids and then 
under the Almohads, resulted in the spread of 
Andalusian art across the Straits of Gibraltar, into 
regions with a mainly rural civilization and without 
large urban centres. [Cf. al-murAbitOn (section on 
art)]. 

The construction of the Almoravid mosques shows 
changes as compared with the earlier Hispanic 
mosques, probably as the result of Mesopotamian 
influence. In place of the columns which had hitherto 



\LUS 499 

separated the aisles, they built brick pillars; this 
resulted in increased stability, enabling them to do 
away with the wooden tie-beams, but also in a loss 
of space end in reduced visibility. Compared with a 
hypostyle oratory, an oratory with brick pillars 
always seems heavy and monotonous. 

No Almoravid mosque has been preserved in al- 
Andalus. The Great Mosques of Tlemcen and Algiers, 
originally devoid of decoration, were built probably 
in the last years of the 5th/nth century, before 
Andalusian influence reached the African shore. 
This occurred during the reign of c Ali b. Yusuf 
(500-37/1106-43), during which the mosque at 
Tlemcen was enriched with splendid and profuse 
Hispanic decoration, which covers the surface of the 
mikrdb as well as the walls and the cupola of the bay 
which precedes it. This decoration, according to an 
inscription in cursive letters which forms part of it, 
was completed in 530/1136. About 529/1135, C AU b. 
Yusuf enlarged the al-Karawiyyln Mosque at Fez, 
still closed to non-Muslims, in which there are 
intersecting arches obviously of Cordovan origin, and 
vaults formed by stalactites (called mocarabes in 
Spanish), originating from Persia or c Irak, which 
span some of the bays. Its amazing perfection shows 
that this was not one of the first experiments with 
these imported elements. 

The most characteristic Almoravid work of the 
decorative style is the Kubbat al-Barudiyyln of 
Marrakush, built probably between 514 and 526/ 
1 1 20- 1 1 30. The central portion of this small rectan- 
gular building is covered by a small cupola of curved 
brick. Within, eight arches intersect, in a fashion 
similar to those of the cupola which covers the bay 
before the mifrrab in the mosque at Cordova. The 
arches are mixtilinear in the Marrakush specimen, 
composed of cusps, curves and right-angles, and the 
surfaces contained between their springings are 
covered, like almost all the others, with delicate 
plaster arabesques, around large scallops. This is a 
Hispanic work of extraordinary richness and unusual 
imagination; it expresses in an eloquent manner the 
anti-classical tendency to fragmentation and decora- 
tive excess which breaks out periodically in the 
course of the history of Spanish art. 

The Almohads who, like their predecessors, 
lacked a cultural tradition, and were governed by 
their fundamental asceticism which condemned all 
luxury and all excess, as befitted a movement 
purporting to restore the purity of early Islam, 
influenced artistic evolution by placing severe 
restrictions on ornamentation, which was reduced 
to basic essentials, with precise and well-defined 
lines, on large, plain backgrounds. [Cf. al-muwa^- 
hidun, section on art]. As no Almohad oratory has 
survived in Spain, we do not know whether these 
characteristics extended to them also; the remains 
of the Great Mosque at Seville, completed during 
the reign of Ya'fcub al-Mansur (572-94/1176-98), 
lead one to suppose that they displayed richer 
decoration than those preserved in the Maghrib. 

The Almohads influenced artistic evolution in 
other respects as well. Inspired hy the memory of the 
past greatness of the Cordovan caliphate, as witnessed 
by its buildings, they built huge, symmetrical and 
well-planned mosques, solid, tall minarets, and great 
city gates, veritable triumphal archways in honour 
of the dynasty. 

In the remainder of the Almoravid and Almohad 
palaces there appear two types of patios which later 
reached an extraordinary pitch of development in the 
art of Granada: the court with ( 



al-ANDALUS 



pathways forming four squares of vegetation, with 
projecting pavilions on the shorter sides (£1 Castillejo, 
in the Vega of Murcia), and the type with a portico 
on one or two of its sides (the Yeso, in the Alcazar 
of Seville). 

Almohad military architecture uses, in al-Andalus, 
arrangements deriving from Byzantine architecture 
and as yet unknown in the West. For instance, the 
bent gates (walls of Badajoz, Seville and Niebla) ; 
the barbicans; the polygonal towers (Caceres, 
Badajoz, Seville) and the albarranas or towers outside 
the walls (Caceres, Badajoz, Ecija). With the stal- 
actites, there arrived from the Orient cursive epigra- 
phy (plaster decorations of the Mauror at Granada, 
and of the Castillejo at Murcia), and glazed of 
varnished ceramics used for exterior architectural 
decoration, of which the first example known in 
Spain is in the Torre del Oro at Seville (617/1220-21). 

After the collapse of the Almohad empire, the last 
foothold of Islam in Spain was the tiny Kingdom of 
Granada, established a little before the middle of the 
7th/i3th century. The universally famous palace of 
the Alhambra at Granada, and nearly all the other 
buildings remaining from this final period, are not 
earlier than the 8th/i4th century. 

Nasrid [see nasrids] or Granadan art, is a 
brilliant final phase of Islam in the Peninsula, which 
maintained its position partly on the fringes of 
official dynastic Almohad art, enriched by the 
legacy of the latter and by a few importations from 
the East, without forgetting the changes wrought 
by the inexorable march of time.- It also represented, 
in its decorative aspect, the revival of the national 
tradition of dense, flat and fine ornamentation, after 
the brief Almohad deviation; the extent to which 
the latter spread through Spain is not known. 

The craftsmen of Granada adorned the last days 
of a moribund civilisation with the most exquisite 
examples of what human genius and art can produce 
in the decorative field. With poor and fragile mate- 
rials, they created large, strong, plain masses and 
severe, purely architectural volumes, like the Tower 
of Cora ares and the Gate of Justice, in the Alhambra, 
compositions as serene, harmonious and original as 
the patio of the Alberca, and cleverly planned 
interiors, such as those which are arranged in 
echelon from the Lions' Court to the platform of 
Daraja, in the royal palace at Granada. At the same 
time they constructed fortifications which are more 
important than the Hispano-Almohad ones which 
have been preserved, and Granada was enriched by 
public buildings, houses and palaces embellished 
with exquisite art. From modest residences to the 
royal palaces which surrounded the city, every 
building had its patios, fountains, cisterns, pavements 
of brilliant coloured tiles, plaster decoration and 
skilfully-assembled wooden roofs. 

It is in the royal palace of the Alhambra, mira- 
culously preserved despite its great fragility, that 
the art of Granada acquires its characteristics of 
magnificence and grandeur. The patios of the Alberca 
and of the Lions, built in the middle of the 8th/i4th 
century, are the development are the development 
respectively of the types with porticos built on the 
shorter sides and with two transverse pathways of 
the Almoravid era. The stalactites in the Alhambra 
form complex vaults, cover the extrados of the 
arches, serve as imposts and cover the surface of 
some capitals. Above the socles of the glittering 
alicatados (al-lukdf) — mosaics of coloured tiles — the 
walls of the rooms are covered, as if hung with 
carpets, with plaster panels in which vegetal motifs — 



leaves divided into small leaflets, in Almoravid 
tradition, and others smooth, derived from Almohad 
decoration — are combined with complex geometrical 
outlines and inscriptions in Kufic and cursive. 
There is a tremendous wealth of ornamentation in 
the Alhambra, but the paucity of relief and the 
orderly arrangement on the walls within the panels 
obviate any sense of superabundance disorder. The 
whole is harmonious, light, and pleasant to look at. 

At the time when these palaces were being built, 
Granada was being enriched by the construction of 
a series of important public buildings : a fundak, the 
"Alhondiga nueva"; a madrasa completed in 750/ 
1349; a maristan or lunatic asylum (767-8/1365-7). 
These three buildings — only the first is preserved — 
conform to foreign plans, but their form represents 
the local style. 1 

In the first half of the oth/i5th century, which 
coincided with the final political decadence, the art 
of Granada, failing to receive new contributions 
from the eastern Mediterranean, and exhausted by 
amazing but sterile refinements and subtleties, 
owing to self-repetition and dwelling exclusively in 
the past, became an empty formula. In a petrified 
form, it still survived in the Maghrib for several 
centuries, almost up to the present day. 

Industrial Arts 

Trade, mainly in the hands of the Jews and 
Syrians, distributed throughout al-Andalus many 
products of the decorative and industrial arts of the 
Orient, a number of which were easily transported. 
During the reigns of c Abd al-Rahman II and his son 
Hisham I, a taste for refined luxury and ostentation 
prevailed at Cordova, under the influence of Baghdad 
and Byzantium. There rapidly developed in al- 
Andalus the manufacture of textiles, jewelry, 
productions in ivory and ceramics, furniture, et«., 
imitations of imported work, in order to satisfy t&e 
demands of a large clientele in Muslim territory and 
the Christian kingdoms of the Peninsula and north 
of the Pyrenees. The copy was sometimes so faithful 
that it is difficult to say whether certain articles 
emanated from countries at the other end of the 
Mediterranean, or whether they were made in al- 
Andalus. In the case of various bronze works in the 
Fatimid style, it is impossible to say definitely 
whether they were made in Egypt or Spain. It is 
only after a most careful scrutiny that one can say 
whether certain fabrics had their origin in the work- 
shops of the 'Abbasids or al-Andalus. 

The activity of the Hispanic workshops did not 
slacken in the 5th/nth century, but only in the 
folLowing one, when the austerity of the first Almohad 
caliphs imposed a check, particularly on the royal 
workshops. In the Kingdom of Granada, in contrast, 
in spite of its smallness, the industrial arts reached 
a magnificent and final peak of development. In 
addition to satisfying the needs of an extravagant 
court, the export of its products helped to support ia 
large population, which was obliged to pay a heavy 
tribute to the King of Castile. 

Religious furniture in al-Andalus, commencing at 
least from the 4th/ioth century, was of extra- 
ordinary richness and perfection. "The most skilful 
craftsmen", wrote an 8th/i4th century historian, 
"agree that the minbars of the mosque at Cordova 
and of the Kutubiyya at Marrakush are the finest 
in existence ; Orientals, to judge from their works, are 
not experts in wood-carving". According to al- 
IdiisI, the minbar of the Great Mosque at Cordova is 
without equal in the world; it was made in the reign 



of al-Hakam II. It is described as an incomparable 
example of the cabinet-maker's art, with inlays of 
ivory and fine woods. 

The minbar of the Kutubiyya was made at 
Cordova between 534/1139 and 538/1143. It is 
covered with a delicate ornamentation of geometric 
interlacing figures in marquetry, consisting of small 
pieces of rich woods of various colours, bordered by 
fine lamellae of ivory; exquisite wood-carving fill 
the spaces between the traceries. 

One of the greatest artistic glories of the caliphate 
was the caskets and jars of ivory ( c adi, [q.v.]), whose 
antecedents must be sought in the sphere of Byzantine 
culture. They were in the court workshops during 
the 4th/ioth century and the first half of the 5th/ 
nth, Arabesques are the predominant feature of 
their ornamentation, although there is no lack of 
representations of animals and human beings, whose 
Mesopotamian origins go back to eras well before 

Ceramics also achieved a singular development in 
al-Andalus [cf. khazaf]. During the period of the 
caliphate were manufactured what are known as 
"ceramics of Madinat al-Zahra 3 ", or of "Medina 
Elvira", because numerous examples have been 
found in the ruins of these two cities. On a white 
background, the decoration consisted of patterns in 
green (oxide of copper) outlined in dark brown 
(manganese). These ceramics are of Byzantine origin, 
but they developed independently in al-Andalus. 

From 'Irak and Iran came the immensely rich 
gold faience. There is evidence of its manufacture 
in al-Andalus from the 5th/nth century; it may be 
earlier still. This luxury technique reached its 
greatest development and perfection in the 8th/i4th 
century, with productions which were exceptional 
for their shape and richness, such as the superb vases 
of Malaga, the pride of those museums and collections 
which possess the rare specimens which have been 
preserved. Some have only decoration in gold; in 
others, gold ornamentation is combined with blue. 
From the 4th/ioth century, we have fragments of 
ceramics with the colours separated by thin outline 
plates (cuerda seca), which appear to be of Spanish 
manufacture; on the other hand, engraved pottery, 
without glazing, only appeared, it seems, in the 
6th/i2th century. 

Several specimens of the famous "baldachins", 
imported from Baghdad, which mark the peak of 
mediaeval silk-manufacture, are preserved in Spain. 
Sirico (Syrian) and Grecisco (Byzantine) fabrics, 
mentioned in numerous documents of Christian 
Spain of the 4th/ioth and 5th/nth centuries, are 
evidence that the rich fabrics emanating from the 
Orient reached Spain. 

At Seville and Cordova, there were in the 4th/ioth 
century workshops producing (iraz, i.e., silken fabrics 
and brocades designed for ceremonial robes. Fabrics 
and robes were among the best-appreciated gifts. 
At the time of the Almoravids, the looms of Almeria 
vere famous. During that period, the Byzantino- 
Sasanid tradition of decoration was still in force; 
it consisted of tangential circles with representations 
of animals arranged symmetrically inside, following 
the technique and the style of the 'Abbasid capital. 
The Almohad sovereigns suppressed the (iraz. The 
circle then disappeared from silks, and was replaced 
by geometric designs, traceries of straight and curved 
lines, rhombi, star-shaped polygons, etc.; from the 
?th/i3th century, decoration by means of multiple 
parallel bands bearing inscriptive and geometric 



elements, finally prevailed. The silks of Granada are 
of this type. 

We have already alluded to the bronzes of the 
caliphate — lamps, chandeliers, frandils, waterspouts 
in the form of animals, mortars, perfume-burners, 
etc. — and to the difficulty of establishing their place 
of origin because of their resemblance to the Fatimid 
bronzes. The perfection of the artistic metal-working 
technique in the 6th/i2th century is illustrated by 
the plaques of engraved and chased bronze which 
cover the wooden leaves of the door of the patio of 
the Great Mosque at Seville, and its magnificent 
door-knockers, of cast and chased bronze, which 
remain on the very spot where they were made. 

Museums and collections have preserved specimens 

of repousse silver bracelets dating back to the period 

of the caliphate. The technique of tepoussage is less 

commonly found in gold jewelry, in which there is 

a predominance of filigree-work and wire threads 

forming settings filled with precious-stones or pieces 

of glass, a technique which survived until the last 

days of the Kingdom of Granada. Several swords 

are of this type, such as that of Boabdil in the 

Military Museum at Madrid, a masterpiece of the 

goldsmith's craft, of consummate elegance, whose 

hilt, of silvergilt and ivory, has a decoration of 

filigreework and polychrome enamels set in frames. 

Bibliography: K. A. C. Creswell, Early 

Muslim Architecture, ii, Oxford 1940; G. Marcais, 

Manuel d'art musulman, V architecture, i-ii, Paris 

1926-27; M. Gomez Moreno, El arte drabe espanol 

hasta los Almohades Arte mozarabe, in Ars 

Hispaniae, iii, Madrid 1951; H. Terrasse, L'art 

hispano-mauresque des origines au XIII' siicle, 

Tours 1932; L. Torres-Balbas, Arte almohade, 

Arte nazari, Arte mudijar, in Ars Hispaniae, iv, 

Madrid 1949, and vol. iv of Historia de EspaHa, 

ed. Menendez Pidal, Madrid 1957. 

(L. Torres Balbas) 

(x) Spanish arabic 

I. Of all post-classical Arabic dialects, the Arabic 
spoken in the Iberian Peninsula is the best known, 
as regards the mediaeval period. 

As early as the 4th/ioth century, the philologist 
al-Zubaydi al-Ishblli wrote a treatise on the errors 
of speech of the common people in al-Andalus. In 
the middle of the 6th/i2th century, Ibn Kuzman 
[q.v.] wrote some zadials [q.v.'] full of linguistic and 
sociological interest, the majority of which have 
been preserved. In the 7th/i3th century, the mystic 
al-Shushtari [q.v.] also composed zadials of which 
numerous collections are known. Unfortunately, the 
nature of the subjects dealt with in these dialect 
poems means that they are of less interest than 
those of the preceding poet. 

In the middle of the 13th century, too, the recon- 
quest of the Kingdom of Valencia by the Chrstians 
and the requirements of religious propaganda 
among the Muslim population, resulted in the pro- 
duction of a copious anonymous Vocabulista, Arabic- 
Latin and Latin-Arabic, which has been published. 
At the end of the 9th/i5th century, the reconquest 
of the Kingdom of Granada led Br. Pedro de Alcala 
to compile in his turn an Arte and a Vocabulista, 
giving the Arabic in Roman transcription ; the latter 
work is particularly valuable, but the prose texts 
of the Arte are often incorrect. 

These are only the essential sources. Many secon- 
dary sources exist: minor composers of zadials; 
several khardias of muwashshajis [q.v.]. As regards 



502 AL-AN] 

prose, there are documents in archives, private 
correspondence, account sheets, etc. Finally, as 
regards vocabulary, the authors of technical works 
written in classical Arabic point out numerous 
dialectal names: historians, geographers, doctors, 
botanists, agronomists, works on tiisba, etc. 

There is reason to suppose that Spanish Arabic 
must have ceased to be a living language towards the 
end of the ioth/i6th century, the date of its extinction 
probably varying in different provinces. At all events, 
the Moriscos who, driven out of Spain, reached Tunisia 
and Morocco about 1610, seem to have no longer 
spoken Arabic, but Spanish. The Arabic-speaking 
period, in the Iberian Peninsula, would therefore 
have lasted for about eight centuries. This long period 
of time, combined with the division of the country 
into separate physical and political units, as well 
as the heterogeneous character of the Arab populat- 
ion, ought, it would seem, to have favoured the 
formation of separate Arabic dialects, as had occurred 
within the Romance linguistic framework: this does 
not seem to have happened. It is true that the docu- 
ments we possess are disparate, both in time and 
space, thus precluding any worthwhile comparison. 
At the most, one can try to distinguish between the 
dialects of the South (Seville, Cordova, Granada), 
those of the East (Valencia, Murcia) and those of 
the Marches (Aragon). In the case of Toledo, we only 
possess notarial documents, drawn up in an extremely 
debased form of the classical language. 

To sum up, as far as we are able to tell, Spanish 
Arabic seems to have preserved a high degree of 
homogeneity. But one must not forget that our only 
documentation relates to the urban dialects. It is 
possible that the rural dialects, spoken by people 
who moved about less than the inhabitants of 
towns, may have been more differentiated. 

Although Spanish Arabic became extinct towards 
the end of the ioth/i6th century, as a spoken 
language, it survived in the poems which still served 
as 'words' to the "Andalusian" airs that were played 
and sung by the inhabitants of the towns, from 
Tunisia to Morocco. 

II. General characteristics: (In what follows, the 
origin of certain linguistic facts will be denoted as 
follows: Q = Ibn Kuzman; V = Vocabulista of 
Valencia; G = Vocabulista of Granada). 

A. Phonetics. Consonants 

As in all post-classical dialects, the lateral D ({jo) 
is represented, phonetically, by D (Jo) and, ex- 
ceptionally, by D. The interdentals : t, d, d are 
preserved, at least until late 15th century Granadan. 
5£ appears to have been, originally, an affricate: 
I = di. In Q and V it does not assimilate the definite 
article. In G, it does assimilate, which can correspond 
either to a pronunciation (, or to a weakening of the 
first occlusive element. As regards kdf, there is 
evidence of a "weak" Spanish pronunciation, but 
we do not know exactly what this "weakness" 
consists of. Apart from the consonants of classical 
Arabic, Spanish Arabic has the following, usually 
in Romance loan-words (or developments from the 
substratum) : p and t, written respectively in Arabic 

v_j and -.. G (Old Romance or Ibero- Visigoth), 
transliterated by i; this creates a problem for 
Romance scholars. There is a noticeable tendency, 
especially marked in G, for the final-n after ay to 
disappear: ay "where?", bay "between", shaharay 
"two months". 



Short Vowels. We must wait for the transliteration 
of G into Roman characters in order to have an idea 
of the nuances of the short vowel system : a/e, i/e, u/o, 
governed by the nature of the preceding or following 
consonants. This is largely the position in present-day 
Maghribi. 

Up to the end of the 15th century, short vowels in 
open syllables are relatively stable. The only short 
vowel threatened with elimination is that occurring 
in the second of two internal open syllables: yat- 
(a)kallam "he speaks", yat(a)khasamu "they 
quarrel with one another", dakh{a)lat "she enters". 
Of the short vowels, that of the quality a is the 
most dominant. In nouns, it is that of segol whatever 
the nature of the preceding stressed vowel. It is 
also that of the first syllable of nouns of instrument 
of the classical type mif-al, and that of the last 
syllable of the diminutives = C l uC*ayya C* and 
C'uCaiC'aC*. In verbs, the quality a appears at the 
beginning of the imperative of I: aktubl "write!", 
and at the beginning of the imperfect of the forms V, 
VI, VII, VIII and X. By analogy with the vocali- 
sation of the perfect, this quality also appears in the 
imperfect of all derived forms (except, sometimes, 
III) and in both forms of the quadriliterals. Many 
vowels (short and always unstressed), seem to 
separate consonantal groups which are difficult to 
pronounce. Such a group may be initial (a process 
known to classical Arabic): ufruntdl "frontal" or 
final: katdbti-lak "I have written to you". In addition, 
in poetry, a disjunctive vowel freely appears after 
a word ending in CVC and followed by another word 
beginning with a consonant. It can be internal, as 
in the case of nouns of the type, R'vR'R", in which 
R»is either R, L, N, M, or B, or >. E.g. <akal "intel- 
lect", Hdjal "veal", shoghal "work", ratab "smooth 
and supple", humar "red", Aben-Zuhar "Ibn Zuhr". 

Long Vowels. In nouns, the sequence a-u tends to 
become ai-u. The vowel a, not supported by a strong 
(back) consonant tends to become palatalised. The 
stage most readily reached is I; the Arabic letter alif 
is also regularly used in aljamiado to transliterate 
the Romance vowel e. In G., this last pronunciation 
is reserved for the a of bookish vocabulary. In the 
words (not verbs) belonging to popular vocabulary, 
the palatalisation reaches the maximum degree: », 
hence bib "door" written '^-f^, with a yd'. 

Diphthongs: The classical diphthongs ai, au are 
preserved in their correct form, except in a few 
link- words: kif,.kaf, kayfa; lis las, laysa. 

Accent: This is only known to us as regards 
of the 15th century — the result of the notations of 
P. de Alcala, which have been assembled and studied 
by A. Steiger. Several Granadan scripts in Arabic 
characters show that, under the influence of stress 
accent, short vowels in open syllables becorne 
prolonged. 

B. Morphology 

The Verb: There are no 2nd persons feminine. In 
the perfect tense, the suffix of the 2nd person plural 
is — turn. In the imperfect, the 1st persons are of the 
pattern naktub — naktabu. In the 1st and and persons 
of the perfect, the "doubled" verbs in the 1st form 
follow the classical conjugation: halalt "I have 
opened". In the case of verbs with R* weak, the 
imperfect plural is of the pattern yamsu "they set 
out", yaltaku "they meet". In the derived forms in- 
cluding the Ilnd, the form of the imperfect is in — a — , 



like that of the perfect. The use of the passive with 
vowel-change is well attested, but only in the 1st 
form; it is sometimes imitated by the Vllth. While 
the majority of the real settled dialects created an 
indicative present,' Spanish Arabic evolved a con- 
tingent tense, which also functions as an unfulfilled 
conditional (after a protasis with lau) and as an 
optative. It is formed by the imperfect preceded by 
kan (G. = kin), which is constant and of which the 
final -n is normally assimilated by the preformatives 
t- and y-. The patterns of the perfect, for forms V 
and VI, are atfa"al, atfa'al, derived secondarily 
from the imperfects yat(a)fa"al, yat(a)fd'al. On the 
same basis, we have atfa'lal for the Ilnd form of the 
quadriliteral. Note that, in these forms, the formative 
; is assimilated, not only by the dental occlusives, 
but also by the sibilants (s, z, s) and the fricatives 
(s, g). In a nominal clause, various negative copulas 
derived from the classical laysa ; las ; lis ; is ; is G. are 
used. Finally the use of -ski, to reinforce an inter- 
rogative or a negative, appears to be unknown. 

Substantives: A real indefinite article is found: 
wakd-al-faras "a (certain) horse". The dual is clearly 
obsolescent. It is only used for parts of the body 
occurring in pairs, and for words expressing measure. 
The plurals af l ul and afHla axe those ordinarily used. 
The type mafdHl is only used for singulars with 
second vowel long. The diminutive of triliteral words 
without medial or final long vowel is of the type 
fu c ayyal: kulayyab "small dog (m.)", but kulaiba 
"small dog (f.)". In the construct state, the ending 
•a becomes -at-. 

Numerals: For "2", we find zaudi followed by a 
plural. From n to 19 the numerals in their free 
state retain the ending -ar. 

Qualifiers: Note, in Granadan, a diminutive of the 
type fu'ai'al for qualifying adjectives of the patterns 
kabir and akmar. 

Personal Pronouns: 2nd pers. sing.: ant, att, at. 
The third person has the abridged forms: Am, ki, 
hum, which perform the function principally of 
copulas in a nominal clause. On the other hand, 
there are the expanded forms: huwat, hiyat, humat 
(emphatic forms). For the 1st person of the plural, 
there are many variant forms: nuhan, nihin, nihinat 
V.; ahan, kan, henat G. The reflexives are of the 
form ana annassi "myself", perhaps for la-nafsi. 
We find traces of a suffix -ak for the 3rd pers. fern, 
(after a consonant). 

Relatives: The most usual is alladki, indeclinable. 
Sometimes, from Q. onwards, we find it appearing 
as addi. In G., there occurs a mysterious form alii. 
Between an undefined noun and the adjective or 
clause (nominal or verbal) which qualifies it, there 
occurs an indeclinable conjunctive particle: -an-. 
This may possibly have some connexion with an 
old tanwin with a highly-developed usage: lakyat-an 
baydka "a white beard", l aynayn-an sUd "black 
eyes", kawddiib-an rikdk "eyebrows", kilmat-an fiha 
kaf "a word containing a kaf, kitf-an madha-li "a cat 
which I have lost", wakt-an tudhkar at the moment 
When your name is mentioned". 

C. Prepositions 

The word matd'/mita 1 is used as a preposition to 
introduce, analytically, the determinative comple- 
ment (noun or pronoun) when direct connexion 
(iddfa) would be awkward. Between two nouns, the 
shortened form mata/miU (written j£/o) is found. 
The preposition ma'- is used to express a meaning 



ALUS 503 

corresponding to our verb "to have"; before personal 
suffixes with an initial vowel, it becomes ma'-: ma'-u 
ki(d l "he has money". The preposition dh which one 
meets fairly frequently in Toledan texts, is merely 
the transcription of the Romance de. 

Grammatical link-words: The following should be 
noted: ashhdl? "how much?", bakdl "as", dhaba 
"now", hurma /-ash "for what reason ?", makkai, 
"at all events, at least", yadda "also, equally" (the 
classical ay& n ), ni'ma, saraf, akdds "very, many" 
skuway "a little", fawdt "late", ikkdn "if" (for 
inkan), yd- c ala .... "would to God that . . . ." 
(utinam). 

D. Vocabulary 

Attention will only be drawn to the following: 

dukdm "mouth"; udjdi "face"; plur. kitd 1 "coins, 

minted silver" ; wild "father" ; mukdrib "poor, bad" ; 

akhal "black". 

Bibliography: A) Texts: De Gunzburg, Le 
Divan d'Ibn Quzman, fasc. I (the only one which 
has appeared): photographic reproduction of the 
unicum, Berlin 1896; Nykl, El Cancionero de Aben 
Quzman, Madrid 1933 (-the preceding text trans- 
literated in Roman characters, with the translation 
of a selection of zadials; see review, in Hesp., 
'933, 165). Schiaparelli, Vocabulista in Arabico, 
Florence 1871 ; Pedro de Alcala, Arte para ligera- 
mente saber la lengua arauiga-V 'ocabulista arauigo 
en letra castellana, Granada 1505 (photographic 
reproduction issued by the Hispanic Society of 
America, New York 1928; a re-issue, partially 
corrected of the first edition by Paul de Lagarde, 
Petri Hispani de Lingua Arabica libri duo, Got- 
tingen 1883); Martin de Ayala, Doctrina, en lengua 
arauiga y castellana, Valencia 1566 (reproduction 
in photogravure by Roque Chabas, Valencia 191 1). 
The Arabic Ms. No. 3 (1389) of the Fagnan cata- 
logue of the Bibliotheque-Musee d' Alger shows 
that it consists of a translation, in Spanish Arabic, 
by a certain cleric Bartolome Dorador, at Guadix, 
of a Castilian text written in 1554 by M. de Ayala, 
then Bishop of Guadix; Yafil, Madimu 1 al-aghani 
wa 'l-alhdn min kalam-al-Andalus, Algiers, n.d. 

B) Special studies : M. Alarcon, Carta de Abenaboo 
en arabe granadino, in Miscelanea de estudios y 
textos arabes, Madrid 1915; M. Asin Palacios, 
Glosario de voces romances, Madrid-Granada 1943; 
G. S. Colin, Sur une charte kispano-arabe de 1312, 
in Islamica, 1927, III; idem, Les voyelles de 
disjonction dans V arabe de Grenade au XV° siicle, 
in Memorial Henri Basset, P.I.H.E.M., Paris 1928, 
211 ; idem, Notes sur V arabe d'Aragon, in Islamica, 
vol. 4, p. 159, 1928; idem, Les trots interdentales 
de I'arabe hispanique, in Hesp. 1930, 91; idem, 
Un document nouveau sur I'arabe dialectal d'Occident 
au XII" siicle, in Hesp., 1931, 1; De Eguilaz, 
Glosario . . ., Granada 1886 (contains the Arabic 
words which have passed into Romance Spanish); 
Gonzalez Palencia, Los mozarabes de Toledo en los 
sighs XII y XIII, 4 vol., Madrid 1926-30; 
Simonet, Glosario . . ., Madrid 1888 (contains the 
Iberian and Latin words used in Spanish Arabic) ; 
A. Steiger, Contribution a la fonitica del hispano- 
arabe . . ., Madrid, 1932 (cf. C. R. Colin in Hesp., 
'933. '7 1 ); Neuvonen, La negacion ka(t en el 
cancionero de Ibn Quzman in Studia Orientalia, 
XVII, 9, Helsinki 1952; L. Seco dc Lucena, Un 
nuevo texto en drabe dialectal grenadino, in al- 
Andalus, xx, 1955, 153. (G. S. Colin) 



ANDARAB — ANDIDJAN 



ANDARAB "between the waters", a frequent 

(i) A district in northern Afghanistan watered by 
the river Andarab and its tributary Kasan, al- 
Istakhri 279 (Andaraba). Its present centre is Band, 
see Burhan Kuskhaki, Kattaghdn wa-Badakkshan, 
Russian transl., Tashkent 1926, 28-34. The Khawak 
pass connects it with the silver-mines of Pandjhir 
(Pandishir). The mint of Andarab was used by 
several dynasties, and especially by the local Abu 
Dawudids (coins 264-310/877-922), see R. Vasmer in 
Wien. Num. Zeit., 1924, 48-63. The rulers of Andarab 
bore the title of shahrsaUr. See Ifudud al-'Alam, 
109, 341; Le Strange, 427. 

(2) A town (Andaraba) near Marw in which 
Sultan Sandjar had a castle built, see Barthold, 
istoriya orosheniya Turkestana, 1914, 63. 

(3) A place in Arran, at one day's march from 
Barda c a, al-Istakhrl 182, probably identical with 
the present-day Lambaran on the KhacSn river, 
which flows to the south of the Terter. 

(4) According to the Nuzhat al-Kulub, 223, a 
place on the river of Ardabil (now Ballkhll-su), 
where it flows north of Mt. Sawalan above its junction 
with the Ahar river. (V. Minorsky) 

ANDARCN [see enderun]. 

ANDI. The term "Andi peoples" embraces eight 
small Ibero-Caucasian Muslim peoples, some 
50,000 in number, ethnically akin to but linguistically 
distinct from the Awar [q.v.]. They live in the basin 
of the Koysu of Andi, which runs from north to 
south across the mountainous western portion of 
the Soviet Autonomous Republic of Daghistan [q.v.]. 

The group comprises: (1) the Andi proper, num- 
bering 8,986 in 1933, about 10,000 in 1954; (2) 
Akhwakh (or Acwado); 4,610 in 1933; (3) Bagulal 
(or Kvanada), 3,637 in 1933; (4) Botlikh, 1,864 in 
1933; (5) Godoberi, 1,500 in 1946; (6) Camalal, 
5,101 in 1933, about 7,000 in 1954; (7) Karata (or 
Kirdl-Kalal), 6,235 in 1939; (6) Tindi (or Tindal, 
Ideri), 4,777 in 1933. 

The Andi peoples were converted to Islam by the 
Awar between the 13th and the 15th centuries, and 
are, like them, Sunnis of the Shafi'ite school. Each 
Andi people has its own language, belonging to the 
Awar-Ando-Dido group of the Daghistan branch of 
the Ibero-Caucasian languages, differing both from 
the language of the neighbouring people and from 
Awar; only the following peoples are able to under- 
stand the language of each other: Karata- Akhwakh, 
Bagulal-Tindi, and Godoberi-Botlikh. No language 
of the Andi group is fixed by writing, the Andi using 
Awar, or less commonly Russian, as the language of 
administration and of education. Bilingualism (Awar 
and the local tongue) is general. On the eve of the 
1918 Revolution Andi still had a pre-feudal system, 
and had never formed or belonged to a principality 
(despite the attempts of the Awar Khanate to 
subdue the Botlikh and the Akhwakh in the 17th- 
18th centuries). They formed clans or "free societies", 
some of which combined as "federations". Each clan 
was governed by the assembly (diama c a) of the 
uzden (free peasants). Women had more freedom 
than among the other Daghistan peoples (absence 
of the ladra and of polygamy). Before 1918, 
the economy of the Andi was linked with Cecnya, 
which imposed its authority on them [see cecen], 
and with Central Causasia. To-day, especially since 
the suppression of the Soviet Republic of Ceceno- 
Ingushen in 1945, they incline politically and 
culturally towards the Awar, and constitute with 
the latter, the Dido [q.v.], and the Arci [q.v.], a 



single "Awar nation". The economy of the Andi 
peoples is still of the traditional type — based on 
sheep-breeding on the seasonal migration system, 
cultivation on the terrace system, and the existence 
of a skilled body of artisans. The aul of Botlikh 
is an important market in the mountainous part 
of Daghistan. 

Bibliography : Narody Daghesiana, Ac. of Sc, 

Moscow 1955 ; Z. A. Nikol'skaya, Istorileskie pred- 

posilki natsionaPnoy konsolidatsii Awartsev, Sovets- 

kaya Etnografiya, 1953, 113-24; Bolshaya Sovets- 

kaya Entsiklopediya, 2 na edition-II, Andiitsl and 

Ando-Didoiskie Yaziki; B. Grande, Spisok narod- 

nosteyS.S.S.R.,Revoliitsiyai Natsional'nosti, 1936, 

74-85 ; E. M. Shilling, Daghestanskaya Ekspeditsiya 

1946 goda, Kratkie SoobshCeniya Institute Etno- 

grafii, Moscow 1948, iv, 31-40; A. A. Bokarev, 

Kratkie svendeniya yazlkakh Daghestana, 

Makhac-Kala 1949; idem, Oierk grammatiki 

lamalinskogo yazlka, Moscow 1949; A. Dirr, 

Kratkiy grammatileskiy olerk andiyskogo yazlka, 

Sbornik Materyalov dlya opisaniya mestrostey i 

piemen Kavkaza, xxxv, Tiflis 1904 ; idem, Materyalt 

dlya izuleniya yazikov i nareCii andodidoiskoy 

gruppl, Sbornik Materynlov dlya opisaniya mest- 

nostey i piemen Kavkaza, Tiflis 1909, fasc. 40; see 

also bibliographies to awar, daghistan, dido. 

(H. Carrere d'Encausse) 

ANDIEJAN, town in Farghana, 40 43° north, 

72 25° east, on the left of the upper Jaxartes (Sir 

Darya). In the 4th/ioth century the town — then 

known as Anduk(g)an — was under the rule of the 

Karluks and later under their Karakhanid rulers; 

in the nth century it was under the Saldjuks 

(Yakut, Cairo ed., i, 347). In the 12th century the 

town is mentioned as the centre of Farghana (cf. 

Zap. Imp. Russk. geogr. ob-va xxix, 72). Apparently 

the town suffered greatly from the Mongol raids and 

had to be rebuilt towards the end of the 13th century 

under the Caghatay Khans Kaydu and Duwa (rlamd 

Allah Mustawfl, 246). Since then the place has been 

inhabited almost exclusively by Turks whose 

separate tribes apparently settled in different 

quarters of the town (Barthold, Vorlesungen, 2ji 

following "the Anonym of Iskandar"). Their language 

became the model for the whole of Farghana. It 

was used by C AH Shir Nawal (according to the 

Babur-ndma, Kazan 1857, 3). Andidjan remained the 

capital of Farghana and the centre of trade with 

Kashghar throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. 

In the 15th century it became the capital of the 

Khanate of Khukand [q.v.] and continued to be an 

important market for agricultural products. 

In 1875, when the Khanate was subjected, it was 
conquered by the Russians (Russian form, of the 
name: Andiian). At that time it had 30,620 inhabi- 
tants who lived largely by agriculture and horticul- 
ture. Since then, petroleum fields and iron mines have 
been opened in the district. On the 17th and 18th 
of May 1898 a national-religious rising under the 
ishdn [q.v.] Madall from Min Tepe (in the Margilan 
district) which Soviet historians attribute entirely 
to social motives, was put down after much blood- 
shed. . (cf. such Soviet literature as Revolyutsiya v 
Sredney Azii, i, Tashkent 1928, in which: Sang-zada: 
K 30-letiyv Andilanskogo vosstaniya 1898 g.; E. G. 
Fedorov, Ocerki natsional'tw-osvoboditel'nogo dviieniya 
v Sredney Azii, Tashkent 1925; K. Ramzin, Revct- 
yuciya v Sredney Azii v obrazakh i kartinakh, Moscow 
1928). In 1902 the town lost 4500 inhabitants (there 
were 49,682 in 1900) in an earthquake (F. N. Cer- 
nysev, etc., AndiSanskoe zemletryasenie 1902 g„ 



ANDIDJAN — ANDJUMAN 



505 



St. Petersburg 1914). After the suppression of the 
Basmaci [q.v.] rising (since 1916) Andidjan became 
part of the Soviet Republic Uzbekistan in 1924 
(number of inhabitants in 1939: 83,700; partly 
Russian) and it is now the centre of a separate 
district (since 6 March 1941; 3,800 sqkm.) and the 
centre of an important cotton-growing area. Since 
1937/38 there have been petroleum finds in the area 
(comp. W. Leimbach: Die Sowjetunion, Stuttgart 
'95°, 34° f-> with map). Today the town has a 
teachers' training college, an agricultural college 
a. training college for women, an Uzbek theatre, a 
regional museum etc. 

Bibliography: BoUaja Sovetskaya Enciklope- 
diya 1 , ii, Moscow 1926, 279 f., a ii, 1950, 423-6 
(with map and plates); Zap. Imp. Russk. Geogr. 
Ob-va, xxix, 41-78, 435 ««•> 496-502; W. Barthold, 
Zwblf Vorlesungen iiber die Geschichte der Tiirken 
Mittelasiens, Berlin 1935, especially 141, 192, 221, 
(cf . index) ; A. Zeki Velidi Togan, Turk Hi tarihi, 
Istanbul 1943, index; L. Kostenko, Turkestanskiy 
kray, St. Petersburg 1880. (B. Spuler) 

ANDJUMAN. a Persian word already in frequent 
use in the Shah-ndma of Firdawsi (5th/nth century) 
in the sense of "meeting, assembly, army". In 
modern times, it denoted primarily religious or 
confessional associations; then, at the beginning of 
the 20th century, at the time of the establishment 
of the parliamentary regime in Iran, political groups. 
One of the most celebrated of these groups was the 
andiuman-i milli ("national club") of Tabriz, founded 
1 Ramadan 1324/17 December 1906, by the leaders 
of the constitutional movement; other groups, 
moved by the same liberal tendencies, were then 
organised in the principal provincial towns [see 
Iran]. Later, other andjumans were set up by 
Persians in Istanbul and Bombay, and in India by 
the inhabitants of those parts. To-day, the term is 
applied primarily to learned or professional societies : 
the andiuman-i adabi-i Iran ("Persian Literary 
Society" preceded the foundation of the Farhang- 
istan-i Iran ("Iranian Academy") in 1355/1936; 
since 1346/1926, the andiuman-i dthar-i milli ("Com- 
mittee for National Monuments") has published 
scholarly editions of old texts (notably the works 
in Persian attributed to Avicenna). More recently, 
this term is also used for local associations, for 
example andiuman-i Khurdsdniha ("Association of 
the People of Khurasan resident in Tehran"). 

Bibliography: As. Fr. B., May 1908, 175-6; 
RMM (National Club of Tabriz), May 1907, 1-9; 
August, 116-7; January 1908, 85, 161; March, 
597; May, 167; Sept. 745; Oct. 291; Nov. 534; 
Women's Club: August 1905, 145; May 1907, 
311, 379; Nov. 569; Muslim Associations of India: 
Nov. 1906, 77-8; Nov. -Dec. 1907, 579; Jan. 1908, 
172; March 600). (H. Masse) 

The term is also used in Turkey, where it is pro- 
nounced Endjumen. In 1267/1851 the first modern 
atademy of letters and sciences in the Middle East 
Was created in Istanbul, under the name of 
Bndiiimen-i Danish. Inspired by Ahmed Djewdet 
Pasha [q.v.], it was modelled on the French Academy, 
with forty Turkish members and a number of 
corresponding members, including such European 
orientalists as Hammer, Bianchi, and Redhouse. 
Its programme included the encouragement of the 
letters and sciences in Turkey and the advancement 
of the Turkish language. The Academy was first 
mooted at the Council of Education (Medjlis-i 
Ma'-drif) in 1261/1845, and was formally authorised 
by an trade of 27 Radjab 1267/26 May 1851. It was 



publicly inaugurated on 19 Ramadan 1267-18 July 
185 1, with a speech by Mustafa Reshid Pasha, 
indicating the part the academy was to play in the 
renovation of Turkey. Its work was however impeded 
by the political instability of the time, and it petered 
out in 1279/1862 without having accomplished much 
more than the sponsorship of a few books, which 
included the Ottoman Grammar of Djewdet and 
Fu'ad Pashas, part of the history of Djewdet Pasha 
and his Turkish translation of the Prolegomena of 
Ibn Khaldun. After the revolution of 1908 a number 
of learned societies appeared, the most important of 
which was the Ottoman Historical Society (Ta'rikh-i 
'Othmdni Endjiimeni), founded in 191 1. 

The term Endjumen was also used in Turkey 
for various parliamentary and administrative com- 
mittees, for the standing provincial and municipal 
committees, and for certain educational committees 
operating under the Ministry of Education. Such were 
the Endjiimen-i Teftish we-Mu'dyene, (established 
1299/1882, and the provincial and local educational 
committees (Ma'-drif Endjumeni) established in 
1328/1910 to initiate and supervise elementary 
education. — The word was also used for certain clubs 
founded on the European model, the first of which 
appears to have been the Endiumen-i Olfet, founded 
in Istanbul in 1287/1870. In recent yars it has been 
replaced in most contexts by words of Western 
or Turkish origin. 

Bibliography: Mahmud Djewad, Ma'drif-i 
'Umumiyye Nezdreti Ta'rikhie-i Teshkildt we 
Idjrd'dti, Istanbul 1338, 44 ft. and 213; Lutfi, 
Tanzimdtdan soHra Turkiyede Ma'-drif Teshklldtl, 
T.O.E.M., 16th year, no. 94, p. 302; Cevdet Pasa, 
Tezdkir 1-12 (ed. Cavid Baysun), Ankara 1953, 
5, 13; Server Iskit, Turkiyede Nesriyat Hareketleri 
Tarihine bir BaMs, Istanbul 1939, 40-46; Enver 
Ziya Karal, Osmanll Tarihi VI, Ankara 1954, 
170, 176-8; Ebu '1-Ula Mardin, Medeni Hukuk 
Cephesinden Ahmet Cevdet Pasa, Istanbul, 1946, 
37-41; A. Ubicini, Lettres sur la Turquie, Paris 
1853, Letter 9 and Document 15; Mehmet Zeki 
Pakalln, Osmanll Tarih Deyimleri ve Terimleri, I 
Istanbul 1946, 529-533. (B. Lewis) 

In India and Pakistan there have been and are 
several andjumans in different fields; the two most 
important, influential, and enduring are: 

(1) The Andiuman-i Tarakki-i Urdu which was 
founded in 1913 within the scientific section of the 
Mohammadan Educational Conference (itself esta- 
blished by Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan) with Sir Thomas 
Arnold and Muhammad Shibli Nu c mani as its first 
president and secretary respectively. Its aims were 
to defend the Urdu language against Hindi as the 
lingua franca of India, and to develop and enrich it. 
Under its impulse and auspices books were written 
in Urdu and various others were translated from the 
English. In 1912 the Andiuman moved its head- 
quarters from Aligarh to Awrangabad (Deccan) since 
when it ha been under the able and zealous secretary- 
ship of Mawlawi c Abd al-Hakk. In its new seat, 
where it was supported by the Haydarabad State, 
the Andiuman showed vigorous activity not only 
in writing and editing Urdu works and classics but 
also in translating from the English (some trans- 
lations were also made from the French, Arabic and 
Persian), works on history, philosophy, science and 
others of general interest. The Andiuman, thus, 
supplemented the work of the 'Uthmaniyya Univer- 
sity (established 1918) which, in pursuance of its 
programme of giving all instruction in Urdu, con- 
centrated on translating texts rather than general 






ANDJUMAN — ANHALWARA 



works. But, besides issuing a learned quarterly 
called "Urdu" (which still continues) and another 
entitled "Science", and attempting to find means of 
improving Urdu script and print, perhaps the most 
important pioneering work has been the publication 
of the lists of translations of scientific, philosophical 
and professional technical terms and the issuing of 
English-Urdu and Urdu-English Dictionaries, model- 
led on the Oxford Concise Dictionary of English. In 
1936, the Andiuman moved to Delhi and in 1948 
to Karachi, where an Urdu College has been esta- 
blished giving all instruction (including modern 
science) in Urdu and hoping to become a University. 
(2) The Andjuman-i Himdyat-i Islam of Lahore, 
founded in 1884 under Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan's 
inspiration of spreading Western education among 
Muslims and working for their social welfare, 
established in 1912 the Islamiyya College at Lahore 
(and since the creation of Pakistan, has acquired 
another, a formerly Hindu College), where, like 
Aligarh, Western education was given along with 
the compulsory instruction of Islamic theology. The 
Andiuman has played, through its institutions and 
its leaders, an important role in the awakening of the 
Muslims of the Panjab. Besides High Schools for 
boys and girls, the Andiuman runs an Islamiyya 
College for Women, an Industrial School, a Tibbiyya 
College and Dispensary (on traditional lines but 
with some blend of modern medicine), an orphanage 
etc., and had a missionary school (Isha'at-i Islam 
College). It also issues a weekly paper called Hima- 
yat-i Islam and has its own press. 

Bibliography : For (1) see a detailed account 
in Oriente Moderno, 1955, 331-43 and 536-48 
by A. Bausani, also Ta^rikh-i Adab-i Urdu by 
Ram Babu Saksena (Urdu translation by Muham- 
mad 'Asfarl, Nawalkishore, Lucknow 1929, 
392-4). For (2) see Pakistan by Dr. Gamal-Eddine 
Hevworth-Dunne, Cairo 1952, 38. 

(F. Rahman) 
ANDKHCY, in Yakut, i, 372, Andakhudh, also 
written Addakhud and al-Nakhud, name of a town 
in Afghanistan situated in the northwestern province 
of Mazar-i Sharif. Located on the steppes sloping 
north some 50 kilometers to the Amu Darya (Oxus) 
river, this town of about 25,000 people is on the 
perennial Andkhuy river and along the motor road 
which joins Harat, Mazar-i Sharif and Kabul. Its 
modern fame is as a leading center of the karakul 
(lambskin) trade. The single structure of architectural 
interest and considerable antiquity is the domed 
shrine of Baba Wall Sahib, a local Moslem saint whose 
proper name may have been Baba Shukr Allah 
Abdal. 

Bibliography : Le Strange, 426, with references 
M. N. Kuhi, Armaghdn-i Maymana, Maymana 
1949, 43-4, 54. (D. N. Wilber) 

ANEIZA [sec <unayza]. 

ANFA the old name of Casablanca (Ar. al- 
Dar al-Bayda', dial.: Par 1-Beda), often written as 
Anafe in the Portuguese chronicles. The word, 
according to E. Laoust (RE1, 1939) is a variant of 
the Berber afa «summit, hillock», which induces one 
to place the early site on the hill now occupied by 
the residential quarter called < upper Anfa». Marmol 
attributes the foundation to the Carthaginians, 
Leo to the Romans, but neither theory is supported 
by any text or archaeological remains. Al-Zayyani 
ascribes it to the Zanata amirs, and places it at the 
end of the ist/7th century, but does not quote his 
sources. Al-Idrisi mentions the port, already busy 
with the export of cereals. Nothing is known of the 



part played by the town during the episode of the 
Baraghwata. Under the Marinids, it figures as the 
capital of the province of Tamasna; it had fortifi- 
cations, a governor, and a kadi; Abu '1-Hasan built 
a madrasa there. In the anarchy which accompanied 
the decline of the dynasty, the town became virtually 
independent, and formed a small corsair republic. 
The Portuguese decided to terminate the activities 
of the corsairs, and in 1468 or 1469, during the reign 
of Alfonso V, an expedition led by the infante 
D. Fernando captured Anfa, which had been eva- 
cuated by its inhabitants. The Portuguese destroyed 
the town, razed the ramparts and re-embarked. 
Several authors state that they returned in 1515 
and occupied the town until the middle of the 
18th century. This is a legend, probably having its 
origin in the plan actually conceived by the Portu- 
guese in 1515 of reoccupying Anfa and building 
there a stronghold when they had completed that 
of al-Ma'mura. Their setback at the latter place 
forced them to abandon their plan. Anfa remained 
deserted and in ruins until its reconstruction by the 
sultan SidI Muhammad b. c Abd Allah, in the 18th 
century, when it assumed the name of al-Dar al- 
BaydS' [q.v.]. 

Bibliography: IdrisI, Descr. de I'Afr. et de 
I'Esp., ed. and tr. into French by Dozy and de 
Goeje, 1866, 84; Marmol, L'Afrique, trans, into 
French by Perrot d'Ablancourt, 1667, ii, 140; 
Leo Africanus, Descr. de I'Afrique, ed. Scheffer, 
1897, ii, 9-13; Une description gtographique du 
Maroc d'Az-Zydny, trans, into Fr. by Coufourier, 
AM, 1906, 452; E. Levi-Provencal, Un nouveau 
texte d'histoire mirinide: le Musnad d'lbn Marzuk, 
Hesp. 1925, 69; David Lopes, in Histdria de 
Portugal, edited by Damiao Peres, 1932, iii, 
536-7; Robert Ricard, Sources inidites de I'histoire 
du Maroc, 1st series, Dynastie sa'dienne, Portugal, 



1933. P 



(A. , 



LM) 



ANGELS [see Mala'ika]. 

ANGORA [see Ankara]. 

ANHALWARA, in Arabic and Persian literature 
nahrwala, modem Patan (pop., 1951 census, 
43,044), situated 20°5i'N, 72°n'E on the left 
bank of the SaraswatI in the Mihsana district of 
Bombay State, was the headquarters city of the 
Muslim wildyat of Gudjarat from 699/1299 to 
816-817/1413-1414 when Ahmad Shah, grandson of 
Muzaffar Khan, the first of the independent sultans 
of Gudjarat, made Ahmadabad his capital. 

History. Hindu and Jain tradition ascribes the 
foundation of Anhalwara to the Cavada ruler 
Vanaraja in either 128/746 or 148/765 (see K. M. 
Munshi, The Glory that was Gurjaradeia, II, Bombay, 
1944). Capital of the Chaulukya-SolankI dynasty 
from the beginning of the 4th/middle of the 
10th century, Anhalwara was abandoned to 
Mahmud of Ghaznin by Bhimadeva in 416/1025, but 
Mahmud, intent upon Somnath, paused there only 
to replenish his supplies. Although Kutb al-DIn 
Aybak plundered the city in 593/1 196-7, the defi- 
nitive Muslim conquest by the forces of the sultan 
of Dihli did not occur until 699/1299, when Anhal- 
wara, ruled then by the Chaulukya-Vaghelas, was 
sacked by Ulugh Khan and Nusrat Khan, generals 
of Sultan c Ala> al-Din Khaldji. (See K. S. Lai, 
History of the Khaljis, Allahabad, 1950, on the date 
of this conquest). For a century Anhalwara remained 
within Dihli's area of paramountcy. Under the 
descendants of the wall Muzaffar Khan, who formally 
proclaimed himself independent in 810/1407, Anhal- 
wara sank to a diagir; after Akbar's conquest of 



ANHALWARA — ANI 



507 



Gudjarat in 980/1572, it became the centre of the 
salkdr of Pattan in the suba of Gudiarat. (See 
Aln-i-Akbari, ed. H. Blochmann, Calcutta, 1877). 

Buildings. The Muslim remains at Anhalwara date 
from the beginning of the 8th/i4th century. The 
Adina or Djami 1 Masdjid, built of white marble 
c. 705/1305, was destroyed by the Mahrattas in the 
I2th/i8th century and was used as a quarry for 
the modern town walls. The Gumada und Shavkh 
Djodh masdjids still stand, but the most magni- 
ficent Muslim construction now at Anhalwara is 
the Khan Sarowar, "a really noble sheet of water", 
1228 by 1273 feet, given its present form by Akbar's 
foster brother Mirza c Aziz Koka between 997/1589 
and 1002/1594- 

Bibliography: H. C. Ray, Dynastic History 
of Northern India, II. Calcutta 1936; H. Cousens 
and J. Burgess, Archaeological Antiquities of 
Northern Gujarat, Archaeological Survey of 
Western India, IX, 1903. Bombay Gazetteer, VII, 
(Baroda), Bombay 1883. M.S. Commissariat, 
A History of Gujarat, London 1938. 

(P. Hardy) 
ANl, ancient Armenian capital, whose 
ruins lie on the right bank of the Arpa-Cay (called 
by the Armenians Akhuryan) at about 20 miles from 
the point where that river joins the Araxes. A sug- 
gestion has been made that the town may owe its 
name to a temple of the Iranian goddess Anahita 
(the Greek Anaitis). The site was inhabited in the 
pre-Christian period, for pagan tombs have been 
found in the immediate vicinity of the town. As a 
fortress AnI is mentioned as early as the 5 th century 
A.D. Its foundation was conditioned by its position 
between the ravine of Tsalkotzadzor, through which 
a stream coming from the hills of Aladja flows 
towards the Arpa-Cay, and the steep bank of that 
river. In the ensuing centuries the princely house of 
the Kamsarakan (connected with the Arshakids) had 
a castle at Ani, and the foundations of this building 
etected of stone blocks without mortar right on the 
rock, have been discovered. The oldest portion of 
the structure seems to be a little church which may 
have been built before the 7th century castle, and 
later used by the Kamsarakan as a house-chapel. 
From the 8th century onward the district of AnI, 
like the rest of Armenia, was under the suzerainty 
of the caliphs. During this period the dynasty of the 
Bagratids succeeded in gradually consolidating their 
possessions and establishing direct relations with the 
caliphs. In A.D. 887 the Bagratid Ashot, "prince of 
the princes of Armenia and Georgia", was proclaimed 
king by the nobles of his country and confirmed in 
this dignity by the caliph. The son of this first king, 
Smbat (called by Arabic authors Sanbat b. Ashut), 
was crucified in the year 914 by the governor Yusuf 
b. Abi '1-Sadj, whose act is stigmatised as tyranny 
and rebellion against God and His Prophet" by Ibn 
Hawkal, 252. Even under Smbat the kingdom of the 
Bagratids is said to have included the whole region 
from Dwin (Arab. Dabil) to Bardha'a reaching 
southwards as far as the frontiers of Mesopotamia 
(al-Djazira; thus al-Istakhrl, 188, 194). The son of 
the murdered king, "the Iron" Ashot, succeeded, 
partly with Byzantine assistance, in reconquering 
his kingdom ; as ruler of Armenia he bore the Persian 
title shahdnshah (king of kings) which had already 
been conferred on his predecessor and rival, Ashot, 
son of Shapuh, by Sabuk, the successor of Yusuf. 
In the first half of the 9th century the Bagratid 
Ashot Msaker ('the meat-eater') bought the district 
Of AnI from the Kamsarakan; but only under Ashot 



III (961-77) did AnI become the royal capital. The 
wall which is still extant was built by Smbat II 
(977-89) ; the site of an older wall erected in 964 has 
been fixed by the excavations of 1893, and a com- 
parison of the areas enclosed by the two walls 
indicates the rapid growth of the population. At a 
later period, town life overstepped the comparat- 
ively narrow space within the walls. The Bagratids 
built several bridges over the Arpa-Cay thus enabling 
the trade between Trebizond and Persia to take the 
shorter route through AnI instead of passing through 
Dwin. The zenith of the Bagratids and their capital 
was reached under Gagik I (990-1020); from 993 
onwards AnI was the residence of the Catholicos of 
Armenia. As numerous inscriptions prove, Gagik 
retained the Persian title of shahdnshah which also 
appears in an Armenian form {ark'ayitz ark'-ai); he 
was also styled "king of the Armenians and Georg- 
ians". The remains of a church erected by Gagik in 
1001 were excavated in 1905 and 1906; among them 
was found a statue of the king, with the model of 
the temple in his hand, and wearing a Muslim turban ; 
the same headgear is also found in a relief portrait 
of his predecessor Smbat II, preserved in the 
monastery of Halbat. 

Under Gagik's successors the kingdom rapidly 
decayed and in 1044 it became a part of the Byzantine 
empire but the growth of the town of Ani was 
further encouraged by the Byzantine governors 
(catapans): an Armenian inscription ascribes to the 
catapan Aaron the erection of a magnificent aqueduct 
conducting water from the hills of Aladja to the 

The Greek rule was ended by the sultan Alp 
Arslan who conquered and destroyed AnI in the year 
1064; according to Ibn al-Athir, x, 27, the town 
possessed at that time 500 churches. In 1072, a year 
after the defeat of the emperor Romanos Diogenes, 
the sultan sold AnI to the Muslim dynasty of the 
Shaddadids [q.v.], and down to the end of the 12th 
century the town remained (apart from a few 
interruptions) the residence of a branch of that 
family. At that period the town had two mosques, 
one of which collapsed during the second half of the 
16th century; the other, which had survived, was 
used (since 1907) as a museum for the objects 
discovered during the excavations. There are also 
Christian buildings belonging to the same period; 
the Shaddadids acted as beneficent rulers even 
towards their Christian subjects, and being related 
by marriage with the Bagratids, they were recog- 
nised by the Christian population as native and 
lawful kings. The walls of the town were repaired and 
furnished with some towers during their rule. 

Ani was for the first time conquered by the 
Georgians in 1124, under David II, who laid the 
foundation of the power of the Georgian kings; the 
town was giv> n as a fief to the Armenian family of 
the Zak'arids, (in Georgian: Mkhargrdzeli = Long- 
imani), who extended the walls of the town so as to 
reach the steep banks of the Arpa-Cay. The Armenian 
tradition ignores the fact that the Georgian rulers 
(like their Greek predecessors) favoured the Greek- 
Orthodox tendency, which accordingly predominated 
in the architecture of the period. There was no 
religious persecution of Muslims during this period, 
just as there had betn no persecution of Christians 
under the Shaddadids; a Muslim contemporary, 
whose gloss is found in Ibn Hawkal, 242, confirms 
that the Georgian king protected Islam against all 
injury, and made no distinction between Muslim 
and Georgian. Probably in connection with the 



5 o8 ANl • 

foundation of the Trebizond Empire (1204), AnI 
became an important centre of international trade; 
see A. Manandian, torgovle i gorodakh Armenia, 
Erevan 1954, 278. 

AnI was besieged unsuccessfully by the Kh w arizm- 
shah Djalal al-DIn in 1226, and conquered by the 
Mongols in 1239; but even after this conquest the 
town remained for a time in the possession of the 
Zak c arids; an inscription on the main gate shows 
that at a later period it was considered the 'private 
domain' (khdss-indiu) of the Mongol rulers of 
Persia; but it never regained its former importance. 
According to tradition, Ani was finally destroyed by 
an earthquake in the year 1319; but both inscriptions 
and coins of a later date have been found. A variety 
of copper coins struck at AnI by the llkhan Sulayman 
(1339-1344) is called by the Turks "monkey-coin" 
(maym&n sikkesi), the coins bearing the image of 
a hairy figure. Coins bearing the name of AnI were 
struck as late as the 14th century by the Diala'ir. 
and even in the 15th century by the Kara Koyunlu, 
though actually the mint must have Jtood outside 
the town, perhaps in the fortress of Maghazberd 
(less than 2 miles from AnI). The excavations have 
shown that, after the decay of the palaces and 
churches, a rude and miserable population had built 
their dwellings on the ruins. At the time of Ker 
Porter's visit (November 1817) it was possible to 
distinguish these houses and their separate rooms, 
as well as the streets of the later period, which are 
but 12-14 feet wide. Later the name of AnI was 
preserved only by a Muslim si ttlement standing 
near the ruins. After the war of 1877-8 AnI was 
incorporated in Russia, but restored to Turkey by 
the treaty of 1921. It is now in the kada of Arpacay 
in the wilayet of Kars, and has a population of 



Bibliography: Accounts of the history of 
AnI are chiefly found in Armenian sources, 
especially in Stephan Asolik, a contemporary of 
king Gagik I. The Arabic and Persian accounts 
are extremely scanty, and the town is not ment- 
ioned by the Arabic geographers of the gth and 
10th centuries; Yakut, i, 70, gives AnI a single 
line; Hamd Allah Mustawfl, Nuzhat 93, states 
merely that the district has a cold climate and 
produces much corn and little fruit. The only 
Islamic source containing firsthand material on 
Ani in the 6th/i2th century is al-Farikl's Ta'rikh 
Mayyafarihin, Br. Mus., Or. 5803 and Or. 6310; 
see also the didactic chronicle by the local 
scholar Burhan al-DIn Anawl (Ants al-Kulub, 
written in Persian in 608/1211, and described by 
F. Kopriilii in Bell., 1943, 379-521). Cf. also Ibn 
al-AUiir, x, 27 (not quite accurate). See Minorsky, 
Studies in Caucasian History 1953, 79-106. 

The ruins were first visited in 1693 by Gemelli- 
Carreri (Collection de tons Us voyages faits autour 
du monde, ii, Paris 1788, 94) and described at 
length in 1817 by Ker Porter (Travels, i, London 
1821, 172-5). In 1839 plans of the town were 
sketched by Texier (Voyages en Arminie, Paris 
1842, Atlas, plate no. 14) and in 1844 by Abich 
(cf. M. Brosset, Rapports sur un voyage dans la 
Giorgie et dans VArminie, St. Petersburg 1851, 
Atlas, plate no. 23 and Brosset, Les ruines d' Ani, 
St. Petersburg i860, Atlas, plate no. 30). The 
Christian monuments were described by Muravyev, 
Truziya i Armeniya, St. Petersburg 1848; for the 
Muslim inscriptions see Khanykov (in 1848), cf. 
Milanges Asiatiques, i, 70 ff. and M. Brosset, 
Rapports etc., 3-e rapport, 121-50); the Album 



compiled by Kastner (1850) contains pictures of 
architectural monuments on 36 leaves, and a 
collection of Armenian, Arabic, Persian and 
Georgian inscriptions on 11 leaves (cp. Brosset, 
Les ruines d' Ani, 10-63). Among Armenian 
writers Nerses Sarkisyan and Sarkis Djalalyantz 
collected Armenian inscriptions, and their material 
was used in Alishan's historical work on the 
history of the town (Venice 1855, in Armenian, cp. 
Brosset in Milanges Asiatiques, iv, 392-412), 
now obsolete. 

Russian excavations began in 1892 and were 
carried on systematically by Prof. N. Y. Marr in 
1904-1917. Their results were published in 
numerous reports in Russian periodicals and in a 
special series (Aniyskaya seriya) containing guide 
books and studies by Marr, J. Orbeli, Barthold etc. 
In more detail see N. Marr, Ani. Kniznaya 
istoriya goroda i raskopki, Moscow 1934, and the 
architectural studies by T'oros T c oramanian (in 
Armenian), Erevan 1942-4. V. and I. Kratch- 
kovsky, Iz arabskoy epigrafiki v Ani, in the 
presentation volume to N.. Y. Marr, Moscow 1935, 
671-93. (W. Barthold-[V. Minorsky]) 

ANIMALS [see hayawan[. 

ANlS, the pen-name of MIr Babar 'AlI, Urdu 
poet of Lucknow, India, who was noted chiefly as 
a writer of marthiyas or elegies on the tragic fate of 
Husayn b. C A1I and other martyrs of Karbala. He 
was born at Fyzabad (Faydabad) in 1216/1801 or 
12 17/1802; but, in his early manhood, migrated to 
Lucknow, where he enjoyed the patronage of the 
ShI'ite rulers of Oudh and their nobles. When the 
kingdom of Oudh was annexed by the British in 
1856, he left Lucknow and visited many other places 
like Patna, Benares, Allahabad and Hyderabad- 
Deccan; but ultimately returned to his favourite 
city in bis old age and died there in 1291/1874. 

The chief merits of his poetry lie in the beauty and 
appropriateness of his diction, the perfection of his 
art, his remarkable powers of description, his success- 
ful delineation of character and the striking use of 
rhetorical figures. The emotional effect of his 
marthiyas was heightened by the forceful and 
dramatic manner in which he recited them in the 
presence of large audiences. In his special branch of 
poetry, Anls had a serious rival in the person of his 
contemporary Dabir [q.v.]. Each poet had thousands 
of enthusiastic partisans, who maintained that he 
was superior to his rival. The citizens of Lucknow 
were thus divided into two camps, the Anlsites and 
the Dablrites, each extolling the qualities of its own 
favourite poet. Opinion is still divided on their 
relative merits; but there is general agreement that 
they share the honour of raising the Urdu marthiya 
to its greatest heights and that their cultivation of 
the poetic art undoubtedly contributed to the 
refinement and enrichment of the Urdu language. 
The works of Anls were published under the title, 
Marathi Anis, in four volumes at Lucknow in 1876, 
and have been reissued several times since then. 
There is another edition in three volumes by S. 'All 
Haydar Tabatabal (Badayun 1921-30). A good idea 
of his writings may also be obtained from Wdki'dt-i 
Karbala, a volume of selections so arranged by 
S. Manzur 'All Kakawrawl as to make a single 
connected story (2nd ed., Lucknow 1342). 

Bibliography: R. B. Saksena, A History of 
Urdu Literature, Allahabad 1940, 126-130, 131- 
33; T. G. Bailey, A History of Urdu Literature 
No. 152, Calcutta 1932; M. Husayn Azad, Ab-i 
Hayat, Lahore c. 1880; Shibll Nu'mani, Muwa- 



ANlS — ANGARA 



509 



tana-i Ants o-Dabir, Agra 1906; S. Nazlr al-Hasan 
Fawk, al-Mizdn, Aligarh, n.d.; Amdjad 'All Ash- 
hari, ifaydt-i Ants, Agra 1907; Mir Mahdl Hasan 
Assail, Wdfri'dt Ants, Lucknow 1908; L. Sri Ram, 
Khumkhana-i Jdwid, vol. i, Delhi 1325; S. Mas'ud 
Hasan Ridawi, Ruk-i Ants, Allahabad 1931; Amir 
Ahmad c AlawI, Ydd^dr-i Ants, Lucknow 1353; S. 
«Abd al-Hayy, Gul-i Ra'na, Azamgarh 1370; Abu 
'1-Layth Siddlkl, Lakhnaw ha Dabistdn-iShdHri, Ali- 
garh 1944; S. Muhammad 'Abbas, ed., RubdHyydt 
Mir Ants, Lucknow 1948. (Sh. Inayatullah) 
c ANKA' (often followed by mughrib as an epithet 
or in iddfa) a fabulous bird approximating 
to the phoenix, which was also located by the Greeks 
in the deserts of Arabia. The belief in this creature 
is of long-standing among the Arabs, who connect 
it with the Ashab al-Rass [?.«.], but it received its 
confirmation in a hadith reported by Ibn c Abb5s 
(al'Mas'udl, Murudi, iv, 19 ff.), which states that, 
created by God, the c anftd 3 , in the beginning endowed 
with all perfections, had become a plague; one of 
the prophets of the "Interval" {fatm}, either Khalid 
b. Sinan or Hanzala b. Safwan, is credited with 
having put an end to the havoc wrought by this 
species of bird. After Islam, the 'anfrd* was definitely 
assimilated with the simurgh, which plays some part 
in Iranian mythology, and probably with the Indian 
garuda, the mount of Vishnu; thus a Shi'ite group, 
the Shumaytiyya (see al-Shahrastanl, in the margin 
of Ibn Hazm, ii, 3), adopted it and included it 
among the attributes of the Hidden Imam. Some 
authors give precise descriptions of this bird, although 
recognizing that it is extinct, but others claim that 
the Fatimids possessed specimens of it in their 
zoological gardens; there is no doubt that it is a 
type of heron. 

Bibliography: Djahiz, {fayawan', vii, 102 ff. 
and index; idem, Tarbi c (Pellat), index; Tha'alibI, 
Thimdr, 356-7 ; RasdHl Ikhwdn al-Safd', ii, 190-1 ; 
MaydanI, Amthal, Cairo 1352, i, 210; Kazwlni 
(Wiistenfeld), i, 419-20; Damlri, s.v. 

(Ch. Pellat) 
c ANKABCT (a.), the spider. Al-KazwinI and 
al-Damlri mention several species, the most dan- 
gerous of which is the poisonous tarantula, al- 
Rutaild' or al-Ruthaild'. Al-Damlri also describes 
a fieldspider of reddish colour with fine hair on 
its body; at the head it has four claws with which 
it bites; it digs a nest in the ground, and seizes 
its prey by night. The weaving spiders make their 
webs according to mathematical rules; according to 
some the male spins the warp and the female the 
woof ; according to others the female only is capable 
of making a web; as material they use spittle. When 
the web is finished the spider sits down in a corner 
waiting for a fly to enter the web, and pounces on 
it at once. Others suspend themselves on threads, 
others sit motionless on the ground and catch then- 
prey at a jump; after rendering it helpless by 
entangling it in their web they carry it off to their lair 
and suck its blood. According to al- Djahiz the spiders 
young are among the most wonderful of existing 
things because they are able to spin without being 
taught. The spider lays eggs out of which come small 
worms which, after three days, change into spiders; 
the act of copulation lasts a very long time, Damlri 
describes how the male approaches the female. — 
Spiders webs are applied to external wounds to 
stay the flow of blood; they are also used for 
polishing cornished silver. The spiders themselves 
when pounded, are said to be a good remedy 
against mucous fever etc. — According to the | 



tradition a spider once saved Muhammad from a 
great danger. When during the Hidjra he and 
Abu Bakr had sought refuge in a cave the 
Kuraish who pursued him found a spider web in 
its opening. They therefore gave up the search 
thinking that no one could have entered the cave 
a short time previously. This and similar - legends 
are founded on the fact that the spider makes its 
web with extraordinary rapidity. — Surat al- c An- 
habut is the title of sura 29. See also asturlab. 
Bibliography : Djahiz, Ifayawdn, index ; 
Kazwini, ed. Wiistenfeld, I, 439; Damlri, Cairo 
1298, vi, 132 ff. (J. Ruska) 

ANGARA (Greek and Latin Ancyra, modern 
Greek Angora; known as Ankira, Ankuriyya and 
also as Kal'at al-Salasil, "fortress of the chains", 
to the Arab geographers; in Turkish times formerly 
Engiiriye, Enguri, Engiirii, forms which also occa- 
sionally appeared on coinage), town in the district 
of Galatia, in central Anatolia, capital of the 
Turkish Republic (at the same time of a wildyet) ; 
38°55'N, 32°55'E; 835 m. above sea level. It is 
situated near the northern edge of the central 
Anatolian steppe where three small rivers meet: the 
Bent Deresi or Hatip Suyu, the Incesu (Indje Su) 
and the Cubufc Suyu, which subsequently flow into 
the Sakarya under the name of Ankara [formerly 
Engiirii] Suyu (or Cayl). It is at the foot and on the 
slopes of a mountain which lies -north to south and 
rises towards the north, beiag crowned at its summit 
by an extensive castle. This summit is 978 m. above 
sea level and no m. above the valley of the neigh- 
bouring Hatip Deresi. The other side of the valley 
is flanked by a second hill, called Hlzirllk ( Khidlrlik). 
Ankara has probably always been a centre for the 
caravans going through Anatolia in all directions, 
and thus also a political centre. The old town — 
dating back to prehistoric times — was situated on 
the plateau of the castle hill; it gradually spread over 
the slope outside the fortifications and even to the 
western side of the plain at its foot. The original 
layout of the castle itself may well date back to the 
prehistoric period. In its present form it dates back 
to Byzantine days, and it was frequently extended 
and restored in Saldjuk times. Its walls contain many 
ancient remains. There are three distinct parts: the 
"outer castle" (Dish Kal'e) which can be reached by 
the Hisar Kaplsl, whose walls encircle the castle to 
the south and to the west; the "inner castle" (Ic 
Kal c e), a fairly regular rectangle; and, on the crest 
of the mountain to the north, the citadel, called Ak 
Kal'e ("white castle"). 

Ancyra, at one time the capital of the Galatian 
tribe of the Tectosages, and later within the sphere 
of power of the Pontic King Mithridates, was finally 
incorporated into the Roman Empire in the year 
25 B.C. It was then embellished with the buildings 
required by a Roman town. Of those which survive, 
the one deserving most mention is the temple of 
Roma and Augustus, erected on older foundations. 
On its walls we find the most famous of all antique 
inscriptions: the Monumentum Ancyranum, an 
account (in Latin and in Greek) given by the Emperor 
Augustus of his reign. In Christian times the temple 
was converted into a church; in Muslim times, the 
building was the seat of a Dervish saint, HadjdjI 
Bayram Wall, whose ttirbe and mosque stand beside 
the ruined temple. A column (Bilkis Minaresi) 
erected by Emperor Julian (or Jovian ?) should also 
be mentioned. The foundations of a large Roman 
bath have recently been discovered on the road 
towards the north (to Canklrl). 



3io AN] 

In the year A. D. 5 1 Ancyra was visited by St. Paul, 
who founded one of the oldest Christian communities 
there — to which he addressed his Epistle to the 
Gatatians. Christianity survived in this town until 
the First World War. 

In A.D. 620 Ancyra was taken by the Persian 
King Khusraw II Parwiz on his campaign against 
Asia Minor. After his defeat near Niniveh A.D. 627 
he had to withdraw from the country — hence also 
from Ancyra. Subsequently Ancyra — capital of the 
Bukellarion theme — frequently suffered at the hands 
of Arab raiders. As early as 654, the Arabs held the 
town for a short space of time. In 806, the Caliph 
Harun al-Rashid besieged and plundered the town; 
as did his son, the Caliph al-Mu c tasim, in 838. In 
871 the town was plundered by the Paulicians of 
Thephrike (Diwrigi), and in 931 it was threatened 
by the Arabs of Tarsus. 

Ancyra came under Turkish supremacy after the 
Emperor Romanus IV was defeated by the Saldjuk 
Sultan Alp Arslan, near Malazgerd, in 1071 (the 
exact date is not known— the city was still Byzantine 
in 1073). During the First Crusade, however, it was 
re-conquered for the Byzantine Emperor by Raymond 
of Toulouse in 1101. Soon afterwards (it is not 
known exactly when), the city reverted to the Turks: 
first the Saldjuks; then, in 1127, the Danishmendids ; 
and finally, after the death of the Danishmendid 
Malik Muhammad GhazI (1143), back to the Saldjuks. 
When the Rum Saldjuk empire was divided up 
under KlUdj Arslan II (1190), Ankara went to hi-, 
son Muhyi '1-Dln Mas'ud. In 1204, however, it was 
taken from him by his brother Rukn al-DIn Sulayman 
Shah, who re-unified the Rum Saldjuk empire. The 
oldest dateable work of Rum Saldjuk art is of the 
time of Prince Mas'ud (Safar 594/Dec. 1197-Jan. 
1198), a wooden minbar in the so-called c Ala' al-DIn 
mosque in the fortress of Ankara. 

After the death of the Sultan Kaykhusraw I in 
1210, his son 'Ala' al-DIn Kaykobad — revolting 
against his elder brother, the Sultan c Izz al-DIn 
Kaykawus I — obtained the fortress of Ankara. After 
a year's siege, however, the city had to surrender to 
the other brother and Kaykobad was imprisoned in 
Malatya, whence he returned only after the death of 
Kaykawus (in 1219) to succeed to the throne. His 
reign (1219-37) introduced the Golden Age of the 
Rum Saldjuk Empire. It is commemorated by the 
"White Bridge" (Ak Kopru) over the Cubuk Suyu, 
of 619/1222, an hour's joumey to the north-east of 
Ankara. This bridge connects Ankara with Beypazar 
and the west. It cannot be stated with any degree 
of certainty whether the beautiful bridge over the 
Klzll Irmak near Koprukoy (to the south-east of 
Ankara) on the road to KIrshehir and Kayseri, the 
Cesnigir Koprusu, is of the same period. It bears no 
inscription but its name may well refer to the amir 
Sayf al-DIn Ayna Cashneglr who is repeatedly 
mentioned by Ibn BIbl, e.g. in connection with the 
handing over of Ankara to Kaykawus I (Ibn BIbl, 
ed. Houtsma, index). 

The large so-called Arslan-Khane mosque, outside 
the gate to the fortress (which may be regarded as 
the main Friday Mosque for the area of the city 
lying outside the fortress), dates from the late 
Saldjuk period, when the empire had sunk to the 
position of a protectorate of the Mongol Ilkhan 
Empire of Iran. It is a mosque with wooden pillars 
and with open beam work, containing a beautiful 
wooden minbar which was donated by two brothers 
belonging to the Akhis in the year 689/1290. It also 
a mihrab with beautiful faience facing. The 



Klztlbey Djami c is of roughly the same period. Its 
minbar bears an inscription of 699/1299-1300 
mentioning a certain amir Ya'kub b. C A1I Shir as 
*iaor. H« was possibly a .member of the Turkmen 
dynasty of the Germiyan-oghlu. Towards the end 
of the 13th century the Saldjuk rule appears to have 
been merely nominal, whilst other rulers made their 
influence felt in Ankara, such as the Germiyanid 
Ya'kub and the members of the Akhl fraternity [?.».]. 

In the beginning of the 14th century, after the 
collapse of the empire of the Saldjuks of Rum, 
Ankara belonged to that part of Anatolia which was 
incorporated into the Mongol Ilkhan empire of 
Iran. There are coins made in Ankara for the 
Ilkhans from the year 703/1304 to 742/1342. There 
is also a Persian inscription of the Ilkhan Abu 
Sa c id (over the entrance to the fortress) dated 
730/1330, in which the taxes payable by the popu- 
lation are recorded (cf. W. Hinz, in Bell., 1949. 
745 ff.). The Ilkhan rule extended over the area 
towards the west, beyond Ankara, as far as Siwri- 
hisar. After the collapse of the Ilkhan Empire, 
Ankara belonged to the territory of the amir (after 
1 34 1, Sultan) Eretna of Siwas, and his descendants. 
It may be assumed, however, that the rule over 
Ankara of both the Ilkhans and the Eretnids, was 
merely one of military occupation and tax collec- 
tion, whilst the actual government remained in the 
hands of rich merchants and craftsmen of the city 
who were able to exercise considerable influence 
through the Akhl organisation. Akhi Sharaf al-DIn 
(d. 751/1350) appears to have been the most promi- 
nent personality. He made donations to the main 
mosque in Ankara, the Arslan-Khane mosque, and 
he lies buried in a tiirbe beside this mosque. In the 
inscription on his wooden sarcophagus (now in the 
ethnographical museum in Ankara), he calls himself 
akhi mu'-azzam. 

According to John Cantacuzenus (ed. Bonn, iii, 
284), Ankara is supposed to have been occupied for 
the first time by the Ottomans in 1354 under 
Suleyman, the son of Orkhan, but the Ottoman 
chronicles make no mention of this. This occupation, 
if it occured, can only have been a temporary one. 
It was not until the beginning of the reign of Murad I 
(762/1361) that Ankara became Ottoman. The early 
chronicler Neshri (ed. Taeschner, i, 52, ii, 80 (57) 
reports that Ankara was at that time in the hands 
of the Akhis, and that they handed it over to Murad 
Beg. Murad' s rule in Ankara in the year 763/1 361 -2 
is proved by an inscription in the 'Ala 5 al-DIn 
mosque in the fortress. In the early days of Ottoman 
rule, the wealthy Akhl families seem to have retained 
some influence in Ankara, as we can gather from 
inscriptions in the mosques they built (such as that 
of a certain Akhl Ya'kub of 794/1391 and a certain 
Akhi Evran of 816/1433). Later on there is no mention 
of them. 

On July 20th 1402, there took place, on the Cubuk 
OwasL north of Ankara, the battle in which Tlmur 
defeated Bayezid I and took him prisoner. During 
the time of the subsequent fights between Bayezid's 
sons, Ankara belonged to the area of Mehmed 
Celebi. On various occasions he had to defend the 
city against his brothers, in 1404 against c Isa 
Celebi, in 1406 against the amir Suleyman. During 
the quarrels between Sultan Bayezid II and his 
brother Djem, the governor of Ankara decided in 
favour of Djem in 1482, until Bayezid succeeded in 
conquering the city. During the reign of Ahmed (, 
Ankara became the centre of a revolt led by a native 
of the town, a robber chieftain by name of Kalender- 



oghlu. This revolt spread over most of Anatolia (1607) 
until it was put down by the Grand Vizier Kuyudju 
Murad Pasha in 1608. 

The most prominent figure in Ottoman Angara is v 
HaHidji Bayram Walifa.u.] (753/1352 to 833/1429-30), 
the founder of the darwlsh order of the BayrSmiyya. 
His tiirbe and the mosque belonging to it (an 
attractive building with a tiled roof and a flat 
wooden ceiling inside, built in the beginning of the 
15th century) are close up against the ruins of the 
temple of Augustus. 

There are a number of small and medium sized 
mosques of Ottoman times in Ankara. Amongst 
these some are worthy of special mention, such as 
the 'ImSret Djami c (built in 831/1427-28 by a certain 
Karadja Beg, perhaps the one killed in the battle of 
Varna in 848/1445) in the style of an ancient Ottoman 
mosque on al shaped plan, and the mosque of 
I>jenabl Ahmed Pasha, also called Yeni or Kurshunlu 
Pjami'. This was built in 973/1565-66 by Sinan, the 
greatest of Ottoman architects. It has one dome, 
and beside it stands the tiirbe of its founder (d. 969/ 
1561-62; concerning mosque and tiirbe see Hikmet 
Turhan Dagltoglu and A. Saim Olgen, in Vaklflar 
Dergisi, ii, 1942, 213-22; E. Egli, Sinan, Der 
Baumeister osmanischer Glanzzeit, Stuttgart [1954], 
S6S). Other ancient buildings of Ottoman times 
which deserve a mention here, are the khan (Kur- 
shunlu Khan, wakfiyye of 1159-1746; see A. Galanti, 
ii; 133) and the bedistdn beside it, which are halfway 
up the fortress hill. Both these were in ruins until 
recently, when they were restored for use as a 
museum of antiquities. 

In Ottoman times, Ankara was the capital of a 
sandjak (liwa) of the eyalet of Anadolu. In the be- 
ginning it was at the same time the capital of the 
eyalet, until Kutahiya took over this function. Under 
the re-organisation of the internal government in the 
tanzimat times (law of 7 Djumada II 128 1/7 Nov. 
1864), Ankara became the capital of a wildyet with 
the sandjaks of Ankara, Yozgad, Klrshehir and 
Kayseri. The sandiak of Ankara had the following 
katlas: Ankara, Ayash, Bala, Zir, Beypazar, Djlbuk- 
abad, Haymana, Sifrihisar, Mihalicdjik, Nalllhan, 
Yabanabad. 

Ankara is famous under the name by which it 
was formerly known in Europe, Angora, as the home 
of the beautiful white long-haired goats, which are 
bred all over central Anatolia. Their silky hair 
(mohair, Turk, tiftik) is a commodity in great demand.. 
The long-haired Angora ("Persian") cats and rabbits 
also enjoy considerable fame. 

Since 1892, the town has been connected by 
railway with Haydarpasha, opposite Istanbul. 
Before the First World War it was a small town; 
Guinet gives 27,825 inhabitants for the time round 
about 1890, with a Christian minority of ca. 10%. 
Other reports about the number of inhabitants of 
Ankara agree with this. The figure 70,000, given by 
SamI Bey Frasheri, Kamiis al-AHdm, i, 439, is 
undoubtedly exaggerated. 

After the meeting of the National Congress at 
Slwas in June 1919, that town remained for some 
months the centre of the revolutionary government. 
The seat of'the government was moved to Ankara in 
October, and Mustafa Kemal entered it on 27 Dec. 
1919. On 13 Oct. 1923, by a decision of the Great 
National Assembly, Ankara was declared the capital 
of Turkey. (Cf. Gazi Mustafa Kemal, Nuiuk, i, 240, 
J72; G. Jaschke, in WI, 1924, 262 ff.). In view of 
its increased importance and growing population 
Ankara underwent great and rapid changes after 



1925. The town plan was designed by H. Jansen. 
The most important suburb, on a spur of the Elma, 
Dagh, is Cankaya. The mausoleum of Ataturk, a 
work of the Turkish architect Emin Onan, stands- 
on a hill in the SW. Ankara is the seat of a 
University and of other educational institutions. 
According to the preliminary returns for the census 
of 1955 Ankara had 453,151 inhabitants. 

Bibliography: E. Mamboury, Ankara, Guide 
touristique; J. Deny and R. Marchand, Petit 
manuel de la Turque nouvelle, Paris 1934, 295-314 
(bibliography by G. Vajda); A. Galanti, Ankara 
Tarihi, Istanbul 1950-1; I A, s.v. (by B. Darkot); 
K. Ritter, Erdkunde, xviii, 472 ff. ; Reclus, No«- 
velles giogr. univ., ix, 373; M. Galib, Ankara, 
Istanbul 1341/1923; Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. Ankyra; 
G. de Jerphanion, Mtlanges d'archiologie anato- 
lienne MFOB, 1928, 1440.; H. Gregoire, in 
Byzantion. iv, 437-61, v, 327-46; W. Ramsay, 
The Historical Geography of Asia Minor, London 
1890; P. Wittek, Zur Geschichie Angoras im 
Mittelaller, Festschrift fur G. Jacob, 1932, 359-54; 
Ewliyi Celebi, Siyahatndme, ii, 426-43; Hadjdji 
Khalifa, Diihan-numa, 633; the travel-books of 
Busbecq, Tavernier, Lucas, Poujoulat, Texier, 
Barth, A. D. Mordtmann, Humann-Puchstein (for 
titles see anadolu); W. Ainsworth, in JRGS, 
1840, 275 H-, 3" ff-; W. J. Hamilton, Researches 
in Asia Minor, London 1842; V. Cuinet, Turquie 
d'Asie, i, 247 ff.; Sal-names of th© vilayet ot 
Ankara; H. Louis, Turkiye cografiyasinin bdzi 
esdslari, Birinci cografya kongresi, 1941, 223 ff.; 
Ankara sehrinin Jausseley, Jansen ve Brix 
tarafindan yapilan plan ve projelerine ait izah- 
nameler, Ankara 1929. (F. Taeschner) 

ANNA [see sikka]. 

al-'ANNABA, the present town of Bdne, on the 
Algerian coast, east of Algiers. It is not known when 
it received the name of al-'Annaba or, according 
to Leo Africanus, Bilad al-'Unndb, "city of the 
jujubes", a reference to the fruit grown there. The 
early Arab geographers call it Buna, derived from its 
ancient name Hippona and testifying to its long 
history. It was successively a Phoenician settlement, 
a Punic city, a possession of the Numidian kings, 
and a Roman city named Hippo Regius, it played 
a major role during the Christian era when Saint 
Augustine was bishop there (395-430). Captured by 
the Vandals (430), retaken by the Byzantines, it 
became a Muslim possession at the end of the 7th 
or beginning of the 8 th century. 

The urban centre has occupied various sites in the 
course of the centuries. Al-Bakri is the most precise 
on the question. He distinguishes three settlements: 
the town made famous by "Agushtin, the doctor 
of the Christian religion", situated on an eminence, 
very probably that on which the basilica of Saint 
Augustine stands to-day. At its foot, stretches "the 
city of Sibus" r also called Madinat Zawi, from the 
name of the Zlrid prince who had received it as his 
portion (?). This site of the old town, which is in the 
process of being uncovered by excavation, and of the 
first Muslim city which in the 5th/nth century was 
flourishing, must gradually have been abandoned, 
as being too exposed to raids from oversea, and 
disappeared under the silt of the Seybouse. Finally, 
three miles from Madinat Zawl, rose New Bdne, 
Buna al-Haditha, in a more secure position and, 
after 450/1058, eneircled by a rampart. This is the 
present Muslim quarter, which occupies the height 
overlooking the port and the European city. Since 
425/1053 it has possessed a Great Mosque, certain 



features of which recall the Great Mosques at al- 
Kayrawan and Tunis, and which later received the 
name of the holy man Sidi Abu Marwan (died 505/ 

Like al-Bidjaya, B6ne was a base for active piracy, 
and was for this reason attacked by the Pisans and 
Genoese (1034). Roger II of Sicily captured it in 
1153 and installed a Hammadid prince there. In 
1 160, it was taken by the Almohads. In the middle 
of the 13th century, it was annexed to the Hafsid 
•dominions; but, frequently independent of Tunis, 
it was furnished with governors, from al-Bidjaya 
or Constantine. In 1533, it appealed to Khayr al-DIn, 
the ruler of Algiers, and was occupied by a Turkish 
garrison, which remained there until 1830. 

Bibliography: Ibn Hawkal, French trans, by 

de Slane, J A, 1842, I,. 182; al-Bakri, Description 

de VAfrique septenlrionale, text (1911) 54, French 

trans, by de Slane (1913), 116-17; al-Idrisi, 

Description de VAfrique et de I'Espagne, ed. and 

trans, into French by Dozy and de Goeje, text, 

116-17; trans. 136; Leo Africanus, ed. Ramusio 

{Venice 1837) 117, French trans, by Temporal, ed. 

Schefer, III, 107; Feraud, Documents pour servir 

d I'histoire de BSne, R. Afr. 1873; G. Marcais, 

La mosquie de Sidi bou Meroudn, in Melanges 

William Marcais, 225-236. (G. Marcais) 

•ANNAZIDS (Banu c Annaz), a dynasty 

<c. 381-511/991-1117) in the frontier region between 

< Irak and Iran, which was one of the manifestations 

of the period "between the Arabs and the Turks" 

when, in the wake of the westward expansion of the 

Buyids, numerous principalities of Iranian origin 

■sprang up in Adharbaydjan and Kurdistan. 

As the rise of the Banu c Annaz was based on the 
Shadhandjan Kurds, the dynasty should be considered 
as Kurdish, although the Arabic names and titles of 
the majority of the rulers indicate the Arab links of 
the ruling family. The organisation of the Banu 
'Annaz was typically semi-nomadic, in that it 
■combined clans living in tents with strongholds 
■serving as treasuries and refuges in time of danger. 
The characteristic feature of the Banu c Annaz 
dominion was the unusual flexibility of the organi- 
sation, now expanding and now shrinking. The 
■existence of several rival branches of the family 
contributed even more to the vagueness of then- 
territories and the constant displacement of their 
little-known centres. 

There were two periods in the history of the 
^Annazids. At first the external centres between 
which the family shifted were Baghdad, with its 
"branch of the Buyids issued from 'Adud al-Dawla, 
and Rayy, with its branch of descendants of Rukn 
al-Dawla. In the immediate west the Shadhandjan 
■were constantly involved in the tribal affairs of the 
Arabs Banu 'Ukayl and Banu Mazyad. In the east, 
they were separated from Rayy by the dominions 
of the Kurdish Hasanwayhids. In the second period, 
the appearance of the Saldjuks and their Turkish 
(Ghuzz) tribes completely disorganised the life of 
the Banu 'Annaz who leaned now on the newcomers, 
now on the Bflyid epigons, or fended for themselves 
in various tribal combinations. 

The founder of the dynasty was (1) Abu '1-Fath 
Muhammad b. 'Annaz who ruled in Hulwan 
(at the foot of the pass leading up to the Iranian 
plateau). The fact that Hilal b. Muhassin (Eclipse, 
iii, 422) calls him hadjib and nadjib suggests that 
he was attached to the administration of Baha' al- 
Dawla (379-403/989-1013) and through that channel 
■established himself in Hulwan where he ruled 20 



years (381-401/991-1010). In 387/997 he tempo- 
rarily seized Dakuka from the 'Ukayl. In 392/1002 
he joined the commander Hadjdjadj b. Hurmuz in 
the campaign against the Banu Mazyad. Later in 
the year he entered the service of c Amid al-Djuyush. 
In 389/999 he destroyed the family of Zahman b. 
Hindi, lord of Khanikin. In 397/1006 Badr b. 
Hasanuya temporarily dislodged him from Hulwan 
and he retired to Baghdad, though according to Ibn 
al-Athir, ix, 157, he died in Hulwan. 

(2) His son Husam al-DIn Abu '1-Shawk 
Faris (401-37) succeeded him in the principal fief 
(Hulwan), but at the same time his brothers became 
autonomous: Muhalhil b. Muhammad in 
Shahrazur [?.».], and Surkhab in Bandanldjln 
(Mandall), on the border of the southern Kurdish 
tribes and the Lurs [q.v.]. This division led to a 
number of complications. In 405/1014 the Buyid 
Shams al-Dawla (of Hamadan) clashed with the 
Hasanwayhid Hilal b. Badr who was killed and his 
son Tahir captured. During Shams al-DawU's 
absence in Rayy Abu '1-Shawk occupied Kirmanshah 
(Karmlsln). Shams al-Dawla returned to Hamadan 
and released Tahir (in 405/1015) who rapidly defeated 
the 'Annazids. Abu '1-Shawk submitted to him and 
gave him his daughter, but then suddenly attacked 
and killed him. Shams al-Dawla himself marched 
against Abu '1-Shawk but in the battle fought near 
Kirmanshah (and witnessed by Avicenna, see his 
autobiography in Ibn Usaybl'a, ii, 4), lost the day 
(c. 406/1015). 

The Buyids of Rayy were succeeded (in 398/1007) 
by their maternal relative the Kakuyid 'Ala' al- 
Dawla. By that time Abu '1-Shawk had already 
expanded up to Daynawar (and Shabur-khast ?), 
which 'Ala 5 al-Daula now occupied. In the struggle 
between the western Buyids Abu Kalidjar and 
Djalal al-Dawla, Abu '1-Shawk (420/1020) helped the 
latter but insisted on the reconciliation of the rivals. 
In the same year parties of Ghuzz occupied Maw&il 
and Abu '1-Shawk was ready to assist Djalal al- 
Dawla, but the Arabs lost the day. In 428/1037 Abu 
'1-Shawk sided with Abu Kalidjar who was be- 
sieging Djalal al-Dawla. In 460/1039 he again 
occupied Kirmanshah and the castles Khulandian 
and Aranba (probably Khalindje and Aranga near 
Kangawar?) which belonged to the Kuhl Kurds 
(i.e. the Kurds of the Hasanwayhid federation). 

In 431/1040 a war broke out in the region of 
Daynavar between his son Abu '1-Fath and Muhalhil, 
who took Abu'1-Fath prisoner. Abu'l-Shawk 
marched against his brother (in Shahrazur). But 
Muhalhil appealed to the Kakuyid 'Ala* al-Dawla 
who arrived and annexed Kirmanshah and Day- 
nawar (432/1040). When his other brother, Surkhab. 
made a pact with the Djawanl (now Djaf) Kurds, Abu 
'1-Shauk turned for help to Djalal al-Dawla. Mean- 
while 'Ala' al-Dawla pushed on to Mardj (Kerind?) 
and Abu '1-Shawk took refuge in the castle of Sirwan 
(on the Diyala?). Finally 'Ala al-dawla contented 
himself with Daynawar and then suddenly died in 
433/Sept. 1041. In 434/1042 Abu '1-Shawk again 
attacked Muhalhil who fled to Snda (perhaps Senne ?). 
Abu '1-Fath had died in captivity and the brothers 
made peace. 

In 435/1043 Djalal al-Dawla died and at the same 
time a new enemy threatened the 'Annazids. In 437/ 
1045 Tughril sent his half-brother Ibrahim Yinal to 
the west, and Abu '1-Shawk fortified himself in the 
castle of Sirwan (see above), while the Ghuzz deva- 
stated his dominions. He died in Ramadan 437/ 
April 1046. 



The Kurds rallied now round (3) Muhalhil who 
hastened to reoccupy Kirmanshah and Daynawar 
(438/1047), whence he ousted Badr b. Hilal appointed 
by Ibrahim Yinal. It is possible that Muhalhil relied 
on some local tribes of Shahrazur, for his nephew 
(4) Sa'dl (Su'da) b. Abi '1-Shawk felt disap- 
pointed by his uncle's neglect of himself and the 
Shadhandjan. He went to join Ibrahim Yinal (438/ 
Sept. 1046), who reinforced his Shadhandjan by a 
troop of Ghuzz. In Hulwan Sa'dl read the khutba for 
Ibrahim. He also occupied Bandanldjln, and his 
uncle Surkhab sought refuge in Diz-i Deloya (cf. the 
name of the Kurdish tribe Delo between Sharaban 
and Khanikin), but then defeated and captured 
Sa'dl and his ally, the chief of the Djawan tribe. 
Soon, however, the Lurs, who were Surkhab's 
subjects, extradited their master to Ibrahim who 
had one of his eyes blinded. By that time, Sa'dl had 
been liberated by a rebel son of Surkhab. As Sa'dl 
was not too favourably received by Ibrahim, he 
returned to Daskara (near Shahraban) and sought 
the help of Baghdad. 

Ibrahim appointed a relation of his to occupy 
Surkhab's dominions and remitted Surkhab to him 
to facilitate the surrender (Djumada II 439/Dec. 
1047), but the envoy was defeated by Sa'dl's ally 
Abu '1-Fath b. Warrant (*Waram < Bahram?) 
Pjawani. Then the Ghuzz defeated Sa'dl and spread 
on the left bank of the Tigris. Sa'di sought refuge 
among the Banu Mazyad Arabs and Ibrahim captured 
the last important castle of the 'Annazids, Kal'at 
al-SIrwan (see above). Muhalhil had also to flee from 
Shahrazur (439/1047). During the siege of TIranshah 
(Tirhan?) by the Ghuzz, plague broke out among 
them and in 440/1048 Ibrahim Yinal recalled them 
to Mahldasht (west of Kirmanshah). 

Muhalhil re-occupied Shahrazur but in 442/1050 
he felt obliged to pay homage to Tughril-bek, who 
received him kindly and re-instated the 'Annazids: 
Muhalhil in Sirwan, Dakuka, Shahrazur and Sam- 
ghan (Zimkan? a left affluent of the Diyala); 
Surkhab in Diz-i Mahkl (cf. the Kurds Mahkl in 
north-western Luristan) and Sa'dl in the two 
Rawands (near Nihawand). In 444/March 1053 Sa'dl 
was placed in command of Tughril's van and advan- 
ced to Nu'maniya, clashed with his uncle Muhalhil 
and made him prisoner. 

Meanwhile Baghdad was occupied by al-BasasM 
[«.«.]. Muhalhil's son (5) Badr went to ask Tughril 
to intervene for the liberation of his father. Tughril 
offered to exchange Muhalhil for one of Sa'dl's sons 
kept by him as a hostage. Sa'dl disliked the offer 
arid suddenly revolted against Tughril and sided 
with al-Malik al-Rahim, the Buyid. He was defeated 
by Tughril's generals and Badr. Muhalhil must have 
died at that time. Badr proceeded to Shahrazur, 
while Sa'dl remained in the castle of Rawshan- 
Kubadh (on the right bank of the Diyala?), and 
«ven in 446/1054 the Ghuzz were unable to dislodge 

After the occupation of Baghdad by Tughril (447/ 
18 December 1055) the sources are silent on the 
'AnnSzids but some survivors of the dynasty can 
be traced even at a considerably later time. Under 
495/1 101, Ibn al-Athir, x, 238, reports on the attack 
of Karabuli (a Salghur Turkman) on (6) Surkhab 
b. Badr. The commanders in Khuftldhagan 
(Yakut, ii, 456, Khuftiyan Surkhab, which G. Hoff- 
mann, Ausziige, 1880, 264, identifies with Koy- 
sandjak?), seized his treasure, out of which they 
sent a present to Sultan Bark-yaruk. The Turkmans 
occupied Surkhab's dominions, except DakukS and 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



Shahrazur. Khuftidhaghan was also restored to 
Surkhab, who died in 500/1106 and was succeeded 
by his son (7) Abu Mansflr. On this occasion Ibn 
al-Athir, x, 305, mentions Surkhab's great wealth 
and great number of horsemen adding that (up to 
that date) the family had ruled for 130 years. Nothing 
is known of Abu Mansur but from the Tdrikh-i 
Guzida, 547 (clearer in the Sharafnama, 32-4) we 
learn that in the second half of the 6th/i2th century 
under the Alshar ruler of Khuzistan called Shfihla 
(read: *Shumla? [cf. apshAr]) there existed a ruler 
in Luristan called (8) Surkhab b. 'Annaz (mis- 
spelt: c Ayyar). After *Shumla's death (in 570/1174, 
Ibn al-Athir, xi, 280) the founder of the dynasty of 
Lesser Lur [q.v.] Khurshld (Silurzl) curtailed Sur- 
khab's possessions, until the latter contented himself 
with being a mere shihna on his behalf in Manrud 
(near the Mungerre range in Central Luristan). 
Finally the whole of Manrud was incorporated by 
Khurshld. This Surkhab was undoubtedly a descen- 
dant of Surkhab, lord of Bandanldjln and Mahkl, 
and with him the last scion of the 'Annazids must 
have diasppeared. 

Bibliography: Hilal b. Muhassin, in Margo- 
liouth, The Eclipse, iii; Mudjnuzl al-Tawirikh 
(written in 520/1126), Teheran, 1318/1938; this 
book adds some interesting details to our principal 
source Ibn al-Athir, ix-x, who repeats some of Ibn 
al-DjawzI's data in al-Muntazam, HaydarabSd, 
viii-ix, but is much more explicit. Sharaf-Khan. 
Sharal-nama (Veliaminof-Zernof), 22-3; Miinedj- 
djim-bashi, Saha'if al-Akhbdr, Turk, translation, 
ii, 503; C. Huart, Les BanoH-'Anndz, Syria, 1921, 
265-79, and 1922, 66-79 (based mainly on Ibn 
al-Athir, ix). See also Bergmann, Beilrage z. muh. 
Numismatik, in WNZ, 1873, 25. An undated coin 
struck by Husam al-Dawla Abu '1-Shawk (or one 
of his vassals?) under the caliph al-Ka'im (422-67) 
belongs to the American Numismatic Society 
(information by G. C. Miles). (V. Minorskv) 
ANNIYYA, an abstract term formed from the 
conjunct particle 'an or 'anna, "that", is the literal 
translation of the Aristotelian term t6 8ti and 
means therefore the fact that a thing is, its "that- 
ness" (the particle 'anna is used also substantively 
and al-'anna has the same meaning as al-'anniyya). 
The principal passage where Aristotle employs this 
term is in Anal. Post. II. 1 and the important 
distinction he makes there between the fact that a 
thing is (to 8ti) and the question what it is (to t( 
cotiv) is the fundamental source of the later dis- 
cussions about existentia and essentia. Indeed, the 
most pregnant sense in which the term 'anniyya is 
used by the Muslim philosophers is the meaning of 
existentia, i.e. the existence in reality of a particular 
individual in opposition to its essentia, its intrinsic 
nature, its "whatness", mahiyya, quidditas in the 
Latin translations. When, for instance, Ghazall in his 
Makdsid al-falasifa expounds the general doctrine 
of the Muslim philosophers that in God existence 
and essence are unified, he uses the terms 'anniyya 
and mahiyya. Since, however, in philosophy existence 
and non-existential being are often confused — in 
Greek philosophy the terms 6v and elvoa serve to 
express both meanings and Aristotle himself uses 
(Met. VII 17. 1041* 15) to 8ti and t6 elvai as 
synonyms (the Arabic translation of these terms here, 
in the edition of Bouyges p. 1006.9, is al-'anna and 
al-'anniyya) — we find the term al-'anniyya used also 
for non-existential being. For instance in a passage 
in Aristotle's Metaphysics IX io.io5i B 23 the non- 
existential being of truth and falsehood is rendered 

33 



514 ANNIYYA - 

by 'anniyya (the Greek has tiTtipxetv) and Averroes 
in his comment on this passage explains the term by 

A special feature of the pseudo-Aristotelian 
neoplatonic treatises the "Theology of Aristotle" 
and the liber de causis in which 8v and elvai are 
constantly translated by 'anniyya, is the intro- 
duction of Plotinus' five intelligible categories (cf. 
Plotinus, Enn. VI, 2); the category ov (being) is 
translated here by 'anniyya, whereas the category 
t<xut6t»)<; (identity) is rendered by huwiyya. But in 
other translations e.g. the translation of Aristotle's 
Metaphysics ov is often translated by huwiyya (e.g. 
in Book V. 7, where a definition of 8v is given) and 
we find the terms, 'anniyya, wudjud and huwiyya 
often used interchangeably. 

It may be remarked that the fanciful derivation 
of 'anniyya from 'and, ego, given by some Persian 
mystics and which has been adopted also by some 
modern European scholars, cannot be maintained, 
if only for grammatical reasons. The correct deri- 
vations from 'and: 'andniyy*" and 'and'iyy** are 
both found in later Arabic philosophy for instance 
in Shlrazi (17th Century). 

Bibliography: We do not possess a satis- 
factory lexicon of Arabic philosophical terms. 
However, the examples given by Bouyges in the 
accurate indexes to his edition of Aristotle's 
Metaphysics with Averroes' Commentary may be 
studied with profit. Although the term is fre- 
quently used by Avicenna, it is found neither in 
Ghazall's Tahd/ut nor in Averroes' Tahajut al- 
Tahd/ut. (S. van den Be*ch) 

al-AN§AR, 'the helpers', the usual designation 
of those men of Medina who supported 
Muhammad, in distinction from the Muhadjirun or 
'emigrants' i.e. his Meccan followers. After the 
general conversion of the Arabs to Islam the old 
name of al-Aws and al-Khazradj jointly, Banu 
Kayla, fell out of use and was replaced by Ansar, 
the individual being known as an Ansari (cf. Kur'an, 
ix, 100/101, 117/118). In this way the early services 
of the men of Medina to the cause of Islam were 
honourably commemorated. Anpdr is presumably 
the plural of nafir, but the latter is never used as a 
technical term. The verb nafara has the connotation 
of helping a person wronged against his enemy. This 
is sufficient to explain why the Muslims of Medina 
were called al-Anfdr (sometimes anfdr al-nabi, "the 
helpers of the Prophet"), but the choice of the name 
may have been influenced by the resemblance to 
Nasara, "Christians"; e.g. Kur'an, lxi, 14, "Be 
helpers of God as c Isa b. Maryam said to the 
disciples, Who are my helpers towards God?" (cf. 
iii, 52/45). 

Muhammad's first effective contacts with Medina 
were at the pilgrimage of 620 A.D. with six men of 
the Khazradi. As the reconciliation of the Aws and 
the Khazradi, however, was part of his aim, he seems 
to have insisted on the Aws being represented at the 
negotiations; and in the traditional accounts of "the 
first and second 'Akaba" [q.v.] about a sixth of those 
who pledged themselves to Muhammad were men 
of the Aws. Medina had suffered so much from the 
feuds of the two tribes [see al-aws, al-khazradj, 
al-madIna], that the ready acceptance of Muham- 
mad's claims must have been partly due to the hope 
that he would be able to restore and maintain peace. 
While there is much obscurity about the details, it 
is clear that most of the inhabitants of Medina, 
apart from the Jews, had entered into the agreement 
with him. The chief exceptions were four clans of 



al-ANSAR 

the Aws, called Khatma, Wa>il, Wakif and Umayya 
b. Zayd, and part of a fifth, c Amr b. 'Awf, all of 
which had close relations with the Jews. These 
non-Muslims are to be distinguished from the 
Munafikun or 'hypocrites', since the latter were 
parties to the agreement with Muhammad who 
afterwards disapproved of him. Despite these 
defections, the Aws were important among the 
Ansar, and indeed the leading Ansari, until his 
death in 5/627, was SaM b. Mu'adh, chief of the 
clan of <Abd al-Ashhal of the Aws. 

The following table shows the number of men of 
the various clans present at "the first c Akaba" 
(A 1), "the second c Akaba" (A 2), and the battle 
of Badr (B). The last column (W) gives the number 
of women of the clan who are given notices in Ibn 
SaM, viii; this may be taken as a rough indication 
of the total strength of the clan 



Clan 

<Abd al-Ashhal 

?afar 

Haritha 

'Amr b. c Awf 

Aws Manat (Khatma) 

al-Aws (total) 

al-Nadjdjar 

al-Harith 

Banu '1-Hubla, al-Kawakila 

Sa'ida 

Bayada 
al-Khazradj (total) 



A2 B W 



175 «8 



These figures suggest that a leading part in the 
approach to Muhammad was played by clans like 
al-Nadjdjar and Salima, which had many members 
but had produced no great leaders in war. The two 
chief men of Medina at this time, SaM b. Mu'adji 
and <Abd Allah b. Ubayy were not at al-'Akaba, and 
their clans ('Abd al-Ashhal and Banu '1-Hubla) seem 
to be relatively badly represented. 

It is disputed in the primary sources whether the 
Ansar took part in any of the first small Musljm 
expeditions. They constituted, however, about 
three quarters of the Muslim force at Badr. Of the 
leaders SaM b. Mu'adh was the most zealous in the 
cause of Islam; not merely c Abd Allah b. Ubayy, 
but Usayd b. Hudayr (a rival of SaM b. Mu'adh for 
the chieftaincy of c Abd al-Ashhal) and SaM b. 
'Ubada were absent from Badr. At least until the 
siege of Medina in 5/627 c Abd Allah b. Ubayy was 
trying to prevent the growth of Muhammad's 
power; but the others threw in their lot with 
Muhammad after Badr. At the meeting to deal 
with "the affair of the lie (»/£)" against 'A'isha's 
chastity, it was clear that the first man among tj>e 
Khazradi was now SaM b. 'Ubada. Indeed, shortly 
afterwards, on the death of SaM b. Mu'adh, he was 
recognized as the leader of the Ansar as a whole. 
These continued to be one of the main foundations 
of Muhammad's power, though about the time of 
the expedition to Tabuk in 9/630 a small section 
became disaffected. 

Throughout Muhammad's residence at Medina the 
old feuds were slowly being forgotten, and the 



l-ANSAR — al-ANSARI al-HARAWI 



Ansar were coming to feel themselves a unity, 
especially in contrast to the MuhadjirQn or "emi- 
grants", with whom they rarely intermarried. The 
cleavage between the Aws and the Jfljazradj' was 
factor of occasional importance as late as the meeting 
after Muhammad's death at which Abu Bakr was 
made caliph; but nothing is heard of it subsequently. 
Alter the wars of conquest the Ansar, despite their 
honourable position in the new Islamic nobility, 
declined in influence. They mostly opposed 'Uttiman 
and supported C A1I. Later they constituted a "pious 
opposition" to the Umayyads and took the side of 
the 'Abbasids. Before the c Abbasids came to power, 
however, the Ansar had largely become merged with 
members of Kuraysh and other tribes who had 
settled in Medina. 

Bibliography: Ibn Hisham; Ibn Sa c d, iii/2; 
Caetani, Annali, i, ii/i ; F. Buhl, Muhammed, 
Leipzig, 1930; W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad 
at Medina, Oxford 1956. 

(W. Montgomery Watt) 
'ANSARA, the name of a festival. Ibn al- 
Hadjdj (Tddj al-Muluk, Cairo 131 2) derives the word 
from the Arabic root c j;\ For more than three- 
quarters of a century, Dozy, on the one hand, and 
Eguilaz y Yancas on the other, have attributed it 
to the Hebrew <asdrd fafereth) "an assembly of the 
people to celebrate religious festivals, especially 
Pentecost". Among the Copts, it is still the name for 
Pentecost (Lane, Modern Egyptians, ii, 365). In 
Spain, existing in the forms -alhanzaro, alhanzara, 
alhansara, it is the feast of St. John, among both 
Christians and Muslims (Cf. Dozy and Engelmann, 
Glossaire, 135-7; Eguilaz y Yancas, Glosario, 187-8). 
In the Maghrib, c ansara (with the variants 'ansra, 
'ansla, 'ansara, c ansereth, depending on the district) 
denotes the festival of the summer solstice, celebrated 
on the 24th June in the Julian calendar, or the 
5th-6th July in the Gregorian. Though known 
throughout Morocco, and almost everywhere in 
Algeria, it is not known, it appears, in Tunisia. The 
magico-religious character of the acts which make 
up its popular ritual is not in doubt: (a) fire rites 
intended perhaps to give greater strength to the sun 
at' the time of the solstice; the burning of braziers 
full of plants, of hives, or of huts, thus producing 
copious smoke which is supposed to have the virtue 
of purification and fecundation; (b) water rites, 
ablutions, sprinklings, the mingling of water with 
the ashes of the ritual brazier, by virtue of which 
the fructifying humidity is besought to combine 
itself with warmth, at the beginning of a new period 
of. the solar cycle. It is reasonable to accept as 
clearly established the relationship between the 
rites of the 'ansra of the Maghrib and those of the 
Middle Eastern nawruz [f-v.J, and also the trans- 
ference of the popular practices of the 'ansra to 
anpther festival, that of 'dshiird' [q.v.]. 

1 Bibliography: Dozy and Engelmann, Glos- 
saire de mots espagnols derives de Varabe, 135-7, 
with a summary of the information provided by 
the early European travellers to the Maghrib; 
Eguilaz y Yancas, Glosario de palabras espanolas 
de origen oriental, 187-8, with numerous references 
to Spanish sources; Destaing, Files et coutumes 
saisonnieres chez les Beni Snous, R.Afr., 1907, 
with an abstract of the principal Arab authors 
who have referred to the *ansara (Makrlzl, Ibn 
al-Hadjdj, SusI, Madjawl, WarzUi, Buni) ; Wester- 
tnarck, Midsummer customs in Morocco, in Folklore, 
1905 ; idem, Ritual and belie/ in Morocco, ii, 182-207 ; 
E. Doutte, Marrakech, 377-82; idem, Magie et 



religion dans I'Afrique du Nord, 505 f f . ; W. Marcais, 
Textes arabes de Tanger, 152 ff., and 392; A. Bel, 
Feux et rites du solstice d'iti en Berberie, Melanges 
Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Cairo 1935-45, 48-83; 
G. S. Colin, Chrestomathie marocaine, 205; E. 
Laoust, Noms et ceremonies ,des feux de joie chez 
les Berbires du Haul et de I'anti- Atlas, Hespiris 192 1. 

(Ph. Marcais) 
al-ANSARI al-HARAWI, Abu IsmA'Il <Abd 
AllAh b. Muh. b. c AlI b. Muh. b. Ahmad b. c AlI b. 
Pja'far b. Mansur b. Matt al-AnsarI al-HarawI 
al-HanbalI, born at Kuhandiz, the citadel of Harat, 
on 2 Sha'ban 396/4 May 1005. An infant prodigy, 
he was at a very early age the pupil of Abu Mansur 
al-Azdi, of Abu '1-Fadl al-Djarudl and of Yahya b. 
c Ammar, who instructed him in hadith and tafsir. 
Although commencing under Shafi'I teachers, he 
soon adopted Hanbalism with enthusiasm, because 
of its devotion to the Kur'an and the Sunna. In 
417/1026, he went to continue his studies to Nishapur, 
where he frequented the disciples of al-Asamm, and 
then to Tus a nd Bistam. In 423/1031, he made the 
pilgrimage, breaking his journey at Baghdad in 
order to attend the lectures of Abu Muhammad al- 
Miallal; on his return he met Abu '1-Hasan al- 
Khirkanl, who had a decisive influence on his 
mystical career, on which he had first embarked 
under the guidance of his own father Abu Mansur, 
the murid of the sharif al- c AkIH of Balkh. He finally 
settled at Harat, and divided his time between 
teaching his disciples and polemics against the 
theologians; as a result of the latter activity he was 
threatened with death on five occasions, and was 
thrice exiled. He died, honoured with the tiile of 
Shaykh al- Islam, in the city of his birth, on 22 Dh u 
'l-Hidjdja 481/8 March 1089. 

His biographers are unanimous in praising his 
piety, the breadth of his knowledge in all branches 
of the religious sciences, and the indomitable fervour 
of his devotion to the Kur'an, the Sunna, and the 
school of Ibn Hanbal, which led him to be accused 
by his enemies of bigoted fanaticism and anthro- 
pomorphism. 

His works are the exact expression of the varied 
aspects of his rich personality: in the field of mysti- 
cism, he bared his soul in the Munddjat and other 
writings in sadi c or in verse, which are considered 
to be among the masterpieces of Persian literature; 
the Mandzil al-Sd'irin, a valuable spiritual guide, 
impresses by its originality, its conciseness and its 
masterly psychological analyses (the number of the 
commentators on this work alone places it in an 
eminent position in the history of Sufism). The 
Tabakat al-Su/iyya, forming a link between al- 
Sulaml's work and the Na/ahdt of Djami, is valuable 
both as a biographical document and as evidence of 
the dialect spoken at Harat in the 5th/nth century. 
Finally, the Dhamm al-Kaldm wa-Ahlih is a principal 
source for the history of the struggle against rational 
theology in Islam. 

Among his chief disciples, the following are 
worthy of note: Abu '1-Wakt c Abd al-Awwal al- 
Sidjzl, Mu'tamin al-Sadji and, above all, Yusuf al- 
Hamadhani, the inheritor of his ideas. 

Bibliography: Storey, i, 924-6; Brockelmann, 
I 433, S I 774; H. Ritter, in Isl., 1935, 89-100 
(his extant works, and more especially the MSS 
of them preserved in Istanbul); Ibn AM Ya'lS, 
Tabakat al-ffandbila, Damascus 1350, 400; 
Ibn Radjab al-Baghdadi, Tabakat al-ffandbila 
(Laoust), no. 27; Djami, Na/ahdt al-Uns, (Lees), 
316; DhahabI, Ta'rikh al-Isldm, MS Brit. Mus. Or. 



5i6 



L-ANSARl al-HARAWI — ANTAKIYA 



50 P 27524, 176 b; idem, Tadhkirat al-tfuffaz, 

Haydarabad, 375; Subkl, Jabakdt al-ShdfiSyya, 

Cairo, iii, 117. On the musadidja'-dt, see Browne, 

ii, 264; Munddjal, ed. Kaviani, Berlin 1924; 

Ildhi-ndma, ed. and trans., in BIFAO, xlvii. On 

the language of the Tabakdt, see Ivanow, in JRAS, 

1923, 1-34, 337-82. On the Mandzil, see comm. 

by Ibn Kayyim al-Djawziyya, Madaridj al- 

Sdlikin, Cairo 1956, the collection Ansdriyydt at 

IFAO, several articles in MIDEO, Cairo, and the 

edition of K. sad maydan, in Mil. Islam., IFAO, 

1954. (S. de Beaurecueil) 

al-ANTAKI, Da'ud b. c Umar al-DarIr, Arab 

physician born at Antioch, son of the raHs of 

Karyat Sidl Habib al-Nadjdjar, undertook, though 

blind, long journeys which led him also into Asia 

Minor. There he learnt Greek, on the advice of a 

Persian physician who had cured him of a malady 

from which he had long suffered, in order to be able 

to study the sources of medical science in the original 

texts. Later, he lived at Damascus and Cairo, and 

died in 1008/1599 at Mecca, after less than a year's 

stay there. 

His chief work is a large, exhaustive medical 
hand-book in which he followed Ibn al-Baytar, named 
Tadhkirat Oli 'l-Albdb wa 'l-Djdmi' li 'l- l Adiab al- 
'Udidb, Cairo 1308-9/1890-1 (in the margin: the Dhayl 
of a pupil and the work al-Nuzha al-Mubhidj.a fi 
Tashhidh al-Adhhdn wa Ta'dil al-Amzidia, on thera- 
peutics); see Leclerc, in Notices et Extraits, XXIII, 
13; recent study by Hasan e Abd al-Salam. As the 
Art of Love was then considered as an appendix of 
medicine, he also edited the work of Muhammad al- 
Sarradj (d. 500/1106) on love, under the title Tazyin 
al-Aswdk bi-Tafsil {Tartlb) Ashwdk al- c Ushshdk, 
Bulak 1281/1864, 1291/1874, Cairo 1279/1862, 
1302/1884, 1305/1887, 1308/1390; see Kosegarten, 
Chrestom. arab., 22; A. V. Kremer, Ideen, 408; 
Goldziher, in SB A K Wien, Phil. -hist. Kl., lxxviii, 
513 ff., no. 7. In addition to a few short monographs, 
he also wrote a work on the philosophers' stone, 
Risala fi 'l-fdHr wa'l-Ukdb >de Slane, Cat. d. mss. 
de la Bibl. Nat., no. 2625, 8) and another on the use 
of astrology in medicine, UnmUdhadi fi l Ilm al-Falak 
(ibid., no. 2357, 7). 

Bibliography: Muhibbi, Khuldsal al-Athar, 
ii, 140-149; Leclerq, Histoire de la midecine arabe, 
ii, 304; Wiistenfeld, Geschichte der arab. Aerzte und 
Naturforscher, no. 275; Brockelmann, II, 364; 
S II 491; Hasan e Abd al-Salam, Dhakhirat al- 
c A((dr aw Tadhkirat Dd'ud fi Daw' al- l Ilm al- 
}}adith, Cairo 1 366/1947. 

(C. Brockelmann-[J. Vernet]) 
al-ANTA&I (Abu '1-Faradi), Yahya b. Sa'Id b. 
Yahya, Arab physician and historian, a 
Melkite Christian, and close relative of Eutychius of 
Alexandria (Sa'id b. Batrik). He was born probably 
about 980 A.D., and spent the first 35-40 years of 
his life in Egypt. After the persecutions perpetrated 
against the Christians of Egypt by the Caliph al- 
Hakim, the latter, in an access of goodwill, in 
404/1013-14 allowed the Christians to leave Egypt, 
and in 405/1014-15 Yahya b. Sa'id settled on 
Byzantine soil at Antioch, where he lived from 
then on. There, in 455/1063, he met the physician 
Ibn Bat Ian. He lived to an advanced age, and did 
not die until 458/1066. 

Yahya is mainly known as a historian and author 
of a sequel {Dhayl) to the Chronicle of Eutychius 
from 326/938. After publishing the first edition of 
this work about 397/1006-7, he modified it, on the 
basis of fresh historical sources, shortly before 



405/1014-5. At Antioch, he had at his disposal new 
works, and he again revised his history and gradually 
completed it by an account of contemporary events, 
neglecting no opportunity to obtain material for 
this purpose. Although none of the manuscripts of 
his work which we possess goes beyond 425/1034, 
it is probable that his history continued beyond 
that date and that he brought it down to 455 and 
perhaps even to 458. Yahya b. Sa'id does not 
describe events year by year, but arranges his 
material under the reigns of the caliphs (first the 
'Abbasids, then the Fatiir.ids) and under countries. 
He displays special interest in Egypt, Syria and 
the Byzantine Empire, and a moderate interest 
in Baghdad, but only mentions North Africa in 
connection with the early Fatimids. He used not 
only the Muslim sources, but also the Greek and 
local Christian sources with which he became 
acquainted at Antioch. His work abounds in chrono- 
logical information, in most cases both the hidjri 
and the Seleucid dates being given, the latter being 
taken from the sources and converted, perhaps by 
himself, into the hidjri dates. Yahya's work is very 
important for the history of Syria — Mesopotamia 
and Byzantium in the 4th/ioth and 5th/nth cen- 
turies; it is equally important for Fatimid Egypt 
and naturally for the life of Christian circles and 
ecclesiastical affairs. The problem of his sources and 
the relationship between his history and the Arab 
chronicles of the same period is difficult to solve. 
Bibliography: This will be found in the notice 
on the author in the French edition of A. Vasiliev, 
Byzance et les Arabes, ii, La dynastie macldonienne, 
2nd part, Extraits des sources arabes, by M. Canard, 
Brussels 1950; in this use was made of the 
fundamental study by V. Rosen in his work The 
Emperor Basil the Bulgar-Slayer, Extracts from the 
Chronicle of Yahya of Antioch (in Russian), St. 
Petersburg 1883, a brief summary of which had 
been given by A. Vasiliev in the Russian edition 
of Byzance et les Arabes, ii, St. Petersburg 1902, 
58-9. The only complete edition is that of L. 
Cheikho, B. Carra de Vaux and H. Zayyat, CSCO, 
Script, ar., 3rd Series, bol. 7, Paris 1909; the ed. 
and transl. by Vasiliev (Patrologia orientalis, xviii, 
1924, and xxiii, 1932) stops at the year 404; cf. 
also G. Graf, Gesch. der christl. arab. Litteratur, ii, 
49-51. (M. Canard) 

ANTAKIYA, Arabicised form of Antiocheia, 
town in northern Syria, situated on the Orontes 
('Asi) river, 14 m. from the Mediterranean coast. 
Founded about 300 B.C. by Seleucus I, and occupied 
by Pompey in 64 B.C., it became the largest and 
most important Roman city in Asia and capital of 
the Asian provinces of the Roman empire. Its 
gradual decay dates from the foundation of the 
Sasanid empire, which diminished its political and 
economic influence in the Tigris-Euphrates basin 
and made it the object of repeated Persian attacks. 
It was occupied and pillaged for the first time in 
258 and 260 by ShSpiir I, who removed many of 
its inhabitants to DjundS-Shapur [q.v.] in Susiana 
(cf. al-Tabari, i, 827), and from 266 to 272 it was 
subject to Zenobia, queen of Palmyra. Never- 
theless, despite endemic internal conflicts and 
disastrous earthquakes (to which the region has 
always been liable), it maintained its prosperity 
until its siege and destruction by Khusraw I 
(AnusharwSn) in 540, and a further deportation of 
its inhabitants to the Persian empire (cf. Th. Noldeke, 
Ges. d. Perser u. Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden, 
Leipzig 1879 165, 239; M. Streck, Babylonien nach 



ANTAKIYA — ANTALYA 



d. arab. Geographen, ii, 1901, 266 ff.). Rebuilt by 
Ju=*inian within a much reduced but strongly 
fortified perimeter (which remained that of the city 
throughout the mediaeval period), it was again 
sacked by Persian armies in 602 and 61 1, and 
occupied by the Arabs in 16/637-8. 

Under the early caliphates Antioch is seldom 
mentioned. It was the headquarters of the frontier 
military organisation called al- c Awasim [q.v.], 
appears to have remained an active centre of in 
lectual life. With the rest of N. Syria, it was anne 
by Ahmad b. Tuhjn [q.v.] in 265/878, remaining 
the possession of his successors until 285/898, and 
occupied by the Hamdanid Sayf al-Dawla [q.v.] in 
333/944. Recaptured in 358/969 by the Byzantine 
general Michael Burtzes, it was governed by Byzan- 
tine dukes until 477/1084, when it fell by treachery 
to the Saldjukid Sulayman b. Kutlumlsh [q.v.]. His 
possession of the city was disputed by the c Ukaylid 
ruler of Mosul and Aleppo, Muslim b. Kuraysh [q.v.] ; 
Sulayman defeated the latter (who fell in the battle) 
near Antioch in Safar 478/June 1085, but was himself 
defeated and killed by his kinsman Tutush in the 
following year. This conflict brought about the 
intervention of the Saldjukid sultan Malikshah, 
who gave Antioch in fief to the Turkish amir Yaghl- 
siyan. It was from this governor that the city was 
captured by the Crusaders in Djumada II, 491/2 June, 
1098 ; and, after their defeat of a siege by the governor 
of Mosul, Karbugha, it remained in their hands until 
recaptured and destroyed by the Mamluk sultan 
Baybars Bundukdarl [q.v.] on 4 Ramadan, 666/ 
19 May, 1268. During this period it was ruled by 
the Norman dynasty descended from Bohemond, 
whose principality waxed and waned with the 
changing fortunes of the Crusading forces, but whose 
capital was never seriously challenged except for 
a brief moment by Salah al-DIn [q.v.] in 584/1188. 
Antioch remained thereafter a minor dependency 
of the Mamluk niydba and later Ottoman pashallk 
of Aleppo. After the first World War it was occupied 
by French troops in February 1919 and attached to 
the French mandated territory of Syria. When a 
separate regime was established for the Sandjak of 
Alexandretta (later called Republic of Hatay) in 
1938, Antioch was selected as its capital, but the 
Sandjak was ceded by France to the Turkish 
Republic on 23 June, 1939 (see M. Khadduri, The 
Alexandretta Dispute, American Journal of Inter- 
national Law, 1945, 406-425). 

The extant remains of the Byzantine and mediaeval 
city are relatively small, the inhabitants having been 
permitted to use the remains of the walls to rebuild 
their homes after a severe earthquake in 1872. It 
has no Muslim monuments of importance except the 
sanctuary below Mt. Silpius, the former citadel, called 
by the name of Habib al-Nadj.dj.ar ("the Carpenter") 
[910.], identified by Muslim tradition with the un- 
named believer referred to in Kur'an, xxxvi, 12 ff. 
lit 1931, the population of the kadi' of Antakiya 
numbered about 99,347 (36,500 Turkmens, 32,602 
'Alawls, 21,926 Arabs, 8,319 Armenians). 

Bibliography : There is an extensive literature 
on the Byzantine period; see Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. 
Antiocheia; Antioch-on-the-Orontes, vols, i-iv, 
Princeton 1934-0; on its ecclesiastical rdle: 
R. Devresse, Le Patriarchat d'Antioche . . . jusqu'd 
la conquite arabe, Paris 1945. For the Islamic 
period: (a) Geography: the data of the Arabic 
geographers collected in G. Le Strange, Palestine 
under the Moslems, London 1890; Yahya b. Sa c Id 
al-Antakl, Nazm al-Djawhar, Corpus scr. chr. or., 



ser. II, ii, vii, (1906-10) and Dhayl, Patr. or., 
xviii, 5 and xxiii, 3 (1924, 1931); A. von Kremer, 
Denkschriften d. Wiener Akad. d. Wissenschaften, 
1852; Mas'udI, Murudj, ii, 226 f., 282 f.; iii, 
406-10; iv, 55, 91; viii, 68-70: anon. Arabic work 
(cod. vat. arab. 286), ed. and trans. I. Guidi in 
Rendiconti . . . Lincei, Rome 1897 (corrections by 
D. S. Margoliouth, JRAS, 1898, 157-69), utilised 
also by Hadjdji Khalifa in Djihdn-numa, Istanbul 
"45, 595 ff. See also R. Dussaud, Topographie 
hist, de la Syrie antique et midiivale, Paris 1927, 
index; (b) History : bibliographies of the articles 
referred to in the text ; A. A. Vasiliev, Byzance et les 
Arabes, ed. fr. by H. Gregoire etc., i-iii, Brussels 
J 935; E. S. Bouchier, A short history of Antioch, 
Oxford 1921; C. Cahen, La Syrie du Nord d 
I'ipoque des Croisades, Paris 1940; Gaudefroy- 
Demombynes, La Syrie a I'ipoque des Mamelouks, 
Paris 1923; (c) Travel literature: R. Pococke, 
A Description of the East &c, London 1743-45, ". 
188-93; C. Niebuhr, Reisebeschreibung nach 
Arabien, Amsterdam 1774, iii, 15-18; J. Russegger, 
Reisen in Europa, Asien, u. Afrika, Stuttgart 1841, 
i, 363-73; T. Chesney, Expedition . . . to the rivers 
Euphrates and Tigris, London 1850, i, 425 ft.; 
H. Petermann, Reisen im Orient, Leipzig 1867, 
ii, 366 ff. ; E. Sachau, Reise in Syrien u. Mesopota- 
mien, Leipzig 1883, 462 ff. See also V. Cuinet, La 
Turquie d'Asie, ii, Paris 1892, 193-7; P. Jacquot, 
A ntioche, Centre de Tourisme, Beirut 1931, vol. ii; 
J. Weulersse, A ntioche , Essai de geographic urbaine, 
B.E.O., 1934, 27-79- 

(M. Streck-H. A. R. Gibb) 
ANTALYA (the form Antaliya occurs already 
with Ibn Battuta, ii, 258, and the Arab geographers; 
Turkish formerly also Adalya, Greek Attaleia, in 
mediaeval western sources Satalia), town and 
harbour on the south coast of Anatolia in the inner- 
most bend of the bay of Antalya, on a fertile plain, 
36° 55' N, 30°42'E; capital of a wilayet with the 
kadas of Antalya, Akseki, Alanya, Elmall, Finike, 
Giindogmus, Kash, Korkuteli, Manavgat, Serik; in 
1945 the number of inhabitants was 25,037 (the 
kadd 56,935; the wilayet 278,178); in pre-tanzimdt 
times the capital of the sandjak of Teke in the eydlet 
of Anadolu, after the tanzimat, capital of a sandjak 
in the wilayet of Konya. The town is 50 m. above sea 
level and surrounded by three city walls lapped 
by the river Diiden Su. These walls date back to 
Roman times. 

Antalya was conquered on 3 Sha'ban 601/5 March 
1207 by the Rum Saldjuk Sultan Kaykhusraw I. 
When the Rum Saldjuk empire collapsed, Antalya 
was occupied by the Turkomans under rulers of the 
house of Teke (an offshoot of the house of Hamld) 
[see teke-oghlu]. In 792/1390, the principality of 
the Teke was appropriated by the Ottoman Sultan 
Bayazid I, but it was re-established after TImur had 
defeated him at Ankara in 1402. In 826/1423 it 
finally came under Ottoman rule, and the princi- 
pality of Teke became an Ottoman sandjak of the 

The Ulu Djami c (adapted from a Christian basilica) 
in Antalya dates from Saldjuk times, the YIwlI 
Minaresi of 774/1373, which stands isolated and may 
well have been a lighthouse in the past, dates from 
the time of the princes of Teke, and the mosques of 
Kuyudju Murad Pasha and Mehmed Pasha (beside 
the Ylwli Minaresi) date from Ottoman times. 

Antalya is a famous and favourite holiday resort 
because of its mild sub-tropical climate, its fertile 
surroundings (producing citrus fruit and sub- 



518 



ANTALYA — SIrat 'ANTAR 



tropical plants such as bananas) and because of its 
beautiful countryside. There are many waterfalls, 
and the Lycian mountain ranges on the western 
shores oi the bay rise to a height of 2000 m. like 
a backcloth. The mountains are inhabited by a 
primitive population of Shi'ite religion, called the 
Takhtadjls "woodcutters") [q.v.]. 

Bibliography: Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. Attaleia, 
Katib Celebi, Qxihannumd, 638 f.; Ewliya Celebi, 
Siyahat-ndme, ix, 285-90; Ch. Texier, Asie Mineure, 
705 ff.; K. Ritter, Erdkunde, XIX, 624 ff., 640 ff.; 
E. Reclus, Nouvelle glogr. univ., ix, 650; V. Cuinet, 
La Turquie d'Asie, i, 853-63; R. M. Riefstahl, 
Turkish architecture in south-western Anatolia, 
41-53 (inscriptions by P. Wittek, 78-90); Tabarl, 
index; Ibn al-Athir, index; Ibn BibI (Houtsma), 
23 ff.; 51 ff.; 97, 103 ff.; 112 ff., 123, 127 ff., 
142, 147, 153, 182, 199, 212, 273, 284, 287 ff., 
296; Chalandon, Les Comnines, i, 197-234; ii, 
38, 48, 113, 181 ff. 198; de Mas Latre, Hist.de 
I'lledeChypre, Paris 1861, i, 174, ii, 13 ff., 365 ff.; 
Siileyman Fikri, Anfdliya Ta'rikhi, Istanbul 1339- 
40 ; S. Fikri Erten, Antalya Vilayeti Tarihi, Istanbul 
1940 ; idem, Antalya Tarihi, fundi Klslm, Antalya 
1948; I A, s.v. (by B. Darkot); cf. also teke-oghlu. 

(F. Taeschner) 
SIrat 'ANTAR, the romance of e Antar, 
rightly considered the model of the Arabic romance 
of chivalry. This sira surveys five hundred years 
of Arab history and includes a wealth of older 
traditions. The story in the Kitdb al-Aghani of 
how 'Antar, the son of a slave-girl, was adopted 
into the tribe of Banu c Abs for saving them at 
a time of great crisis bears the stamp of a 
flourishing but already legendary tradition. The 
Sirat < Antar far transcends the unconscious de- 
velopment of a legend. By a bold stroke 'Antar, 
the solitary hero, is raised to be the representative 
of all that is Arab, 'Antar the pagan is made 
the champion of Islam. The romance thus comes 
to reflect the vicissitudes of the Arabs and Islam 
through half a millennium; the tribal feuds of the 
old Arabs; the wars against Ethiopian rule in 
Arabia; the subjection of Arabia and especially 
of 'Irak to Persian suzerainty; the victories of the 
rising Islam over Persia; the remarkable historical 
position of the Jews in Arabia down to the seventh 
century; the conquests from Christianity by the 
Arabs, especially in Syria; the continuous wars 
of the Persian and later of the Muslim East against 
Byzantium; the victorious advance of Islam in North 
Africa and in Europe; the influence of the Crusades 
is also undeniable. The contacts between East and 
West are numerous. The romance is written in 
smooth rhymed prose into which have been inter- 
woven some 10,000 verses. The editions printed in 
the East since 1286 a.h. divide the Sira into 32 little 
volumes, none of which, like the separate nights of 
the 1001 Nights, ever ends at the conclusion of a tale. 
Contents. The romance brings us through 
numerous legendary stories from early times down 
to the period when King Zuhayr is ruling over 
the Banu 'Abs. The 'Absl hero Shaddad on a raid 
captures the negro slave-girl Zabiba (not till the 
xviiith book do we get the denouement that she 
is a king's daughter, who had been carried off 
from the Sudan), who becomes the mother of 
'Antar. As an infant, 'Antar tears the strongest 
swaddling clothes, when two years old pulls down 
the tent, at four slays a large dog, at nine a wolf 
and as a young shepherd a lion. Soon he comes 
to the rescue of his oppressed tribe, for which 



he is acknowledged by his father and adopted 
into his tribe. He seeks 'Abla, his uncle's daughter, 
in marriage; the latter promises her to him in an 
hour of need; but after 'Antar has averted the 
danger, he imposes the most dangerous conditions 
to be carried out before the marriage. 'Antar 
fulfils them all but is only allowed to marry 
'Abla after ten volumes of wonderful exploits. 
The area of his exploits widens continually. In 
his own tribe 'Antar has first to overcome the 
resistance of his father, then the hostility of 'Abla's 
relatives, to win over his rivals including the 
poet 'Urwa b. al-Ward, to put an end to the 
feuds of the Banu Ziyad, Rabi' and 'Umara. In 
the feuds between the sister-tribes of 'Abs and 
Fadhara, 'Antar proves himself the saviour of the 
Banu 'Abs; outside of his tribe, he fights and 
overthrows the strongest heroes and makes them 
his friends; such are Duraydb. al-Simma, Mu'ammar, 
Hani' b. Mas'ud, the victor over the Persians at 
Dhu Kar, 'Amr b. Ma'dikarib, 'Amir b. al-Tufayl, 
'Amr b. Wudd, the knight of the Haram, Rabi'a 
b. Mukaddam, the pattern of Arab chivalry and 
many others. He hangs up his mu'allaka in the 
Haram of Mecca after defeating the other mu'il- 
laka-poets in a competition, overcoming all his 
rivals in duels and passing an examination in 
Arab synonyms set by Amru '1-Kais. From Mecca 
he goes to Khaybar and destroys the town of the 
Jews. But 'Antar is also taken beyond the bounds 
of Arabia. The Sira does not lack reasons for 
this. 'Abla's father demands ajd/tf-camels as a 
bridal gift, which are only bred by Mundhir, King 
of HIra. This takes 'Antar to 'Irak. From there 
he is summoned to Persia to fight the Greek 
champion Badramut. Next we find him in constant 
association with the kings of 'Irak, Mundhir, 
Nu'man, Aswad, 'Amr b. Hind, Iyas b. Kabisa 
and their viziers, notably 'Amr b. Bukayla. He 
also has constant dealings with the Shahs, Khus- 
raw Anosharwan, Khudawand (no shah of this 
name is found in Sasanian history), Kawadh (pro- 
bably Kawadh Shiroe) sometimes as a dreaded 
opponent, sometimes as a most welcome ally. The 
son of the king of Syria woos the promised bride 
of a friend of 'Antar. The latter goes to Syria, 
kills his friend's rival, defeats King Harith al- 
Wahhab (Aretas), but becomes his friend and after 
the death of Aretas at the request of the princess 
Halima becomes guardian of the new king 'Amr 
b. Harith, who is still a minor, and as such ruler 
of Syria. Here 'Antar comes into contact with the 
Franks, sometimes as an enemy and sometimes 
as their ally against the Persians. Syria is under 
Byzantine suzerainty. For the services which 'An- 
tar renders the Christians here, he is invited to 
Constantinople and entertained and honoured. Lay- 
laman, the king of the Franks, objects to this 
and demands that the emperor should hand over 
'Antar to him. 'Antar along with Heraclius, the 
emperor's son, then leads the Byzantine army 
into the land of the Franks, subjects them to 
the emperor, reaches Spain, defeats King Santiago, 
pursues his victorious march through his pro- 
vinces in North Africa from Morocco to Egypt. 
When he returns from these conquests on behalf of 
Byzantium to Constantinople, an equestrian statue 
of him is erected out of gratitude; the statues 
of his two brothers, who had accompanied him 
to Byzantium, are placed at the side of his. 
Shortly before his death, 'Antar comes to Rome. 
The king of Rome, Balkam b. Markas is hard 



SIrat C ANTAR 



519 



pressed by Bohemund; 'An tar kills Bohemund 
and liberates Rome. On a campaign of reprisal 
against the Sudanese, 'Antar goes from kingdom 
to kingdom deeper into Africa till he reaches the 
land of the Negus. Here he discovers in the Negus 
the grandfather of his mother Zabiba. Even more 
fantastic are the campaigns against Hind-Sind, 
against the Christian king Laylaman in the land 
of Bayda, in the land of the demons. 'Antar's 
death is brought about by Wizr b. Djabir called 
ASad al-Rahis. 'Antar had repeatedly defeated him 
and taken him prisoner but always set him free 
again. Wizr feels humiliated by this magnanimity 
and continually renews his attack. Finally 'Antar 
blinds him. Though blinded, Wizr learns to shoot 
birds and gazelles with bow and arrow from their 
sound. ' 'Antar is struck by one of his poisoned 
arrows, but Wizr dies before 'Antar under the 
delusion that he has missed. While dying, and 
indeed when dead, still sitting on his steed Abdjar, 
'Antar still wards the enemy off from his people. 
'Antar's marriage with c Abla was childless but 
frtim his secret marriages and love-affairs, several 
children were born including two Christians, and 
indeed Crusaders, Ghadanfar, Coeur-de-Lion, son 
of 'Antar and the sister of the king of Rome 
whom 'Antar had married in Rome and left in 
Constantinople, and Djufran (i.e. Geoffroi, Godfrey), 
the son of 'Antar and a Frankish princess. 'Antar's 
children avenge and lament the death of their 
heroic father. Ghadanfar and Djufran then return 
to Europe. 'Abs becomes a convert to Islam. 

Analysis. The following are the main elements 
that have contributed to the growth of the Sira: 

1. Arab paganism; 2. Islam; 3. Persian history 
and epic; 4. The Crusades. 1. To Arab paganism 
it owes the chivalrous and knightly Bedouin spirit 
of the work, the majority of the characters in it, 
who often have historical features, the feuds be- 
tween the sister tribes of c Abs and Fadhara; in 
connextion with the race between Dahis and Ghabra. 
the most powerful of the Akhbar al-'Arab, like 
king Zuhayr"s marriage with Tumadir, Zuhayr's 
death, Malik b. Zuhayr's death, Harith and Lubna, 
PJaida and Khalid. anecdotes of Hatim Tayyl, the 
splendid figure of Rabi'a b. Mukaddam etc. 2. To 
Islam belong the introduction with a long midrash 
of Abraham, repeated legends of Muhammad and 
'AH, the conclusion of the work which forms a 
transition to Islam; the tendency of the book, to 
make 'Antar really prepare the way for Islam; 
'Antar's victorious campaigns through Arabia, 
Persia, Syria, North Africa and Spain are modelled 
on the conquests of Islam. Certain details give 
the Sira a slightly Shi'ite colouring. 3. Persian 
influence is found in the knowledge of Persian 
history and the Persian epic, in places of the 
Persian language, in the conception of kingship 
by grace of God, in the knowledge of Persian 
court life and ceremonial (throne, crowns, imperial 
carpet), court-hunts (falcons, cheetahs), pigeon-post, 
Persian offices and ranks (vizier, mobedan mobed, 
marzpan, pehlewan, eyes and ears of the Shah) 
even the sahdridia (gentleman-carvers). 4- Christ- 
ianity and the Crusades. The Sira knows of 
Christians in the Syria of the Sasanians, in By- 
zantium and among the Franks. The Franks appear 
as Crusaders (the romance even mentions the cross 
worn on the breast), fighting for Shiloe and Jerusalem. 
Djufran (Godfrey) besieges Damascus and sends 
troops against Antioch. The Sira mentions the 
cross, the dress of the priests and friars, the girdle 



of the order (which in the Sira ii 
portant symbol of Christianity nex 
the crazier, the bell (clapper), incer 
prayers foi the dead, unction, 
holy-days, Christmas, Palm-Sunday, is aware that 
among the Franks the clergy are first in Church 
and state, that marriages between cousins are 
illegal, seems also to know of excommunication 
and describes a Spanish place of pilgrimage and 
day of pilgrimage. The Christians swear by Jesus, 
Mary, the Gospels, John the Baptist (Mari Hanna 
al-Ma'madan, Yukhna), by Luke (Luka), Thomas 
(Mar Toma) and Simon. The En.peror Radjlm 
rules in Byzantium and his son is called Heraclius; 
Balkam b. Markas is king of Rome. The Christian 
rulers of North Africa have names which end 
with the -s, common in Greek and Latin, e. g. 
Martos, Kardus, Hermes, Ibn al-'Umus, Kindaryas 
b. Kirmas, Sindaris, Theodoras. The king of Spain 
is called Santiago; of the names of Frankish 
kings and princes that of Bohemund alone is cer- 
tain. The names of his brothers Mubert, Subert, 
Kubert and that of the prince "Shubert of the 
Sea" show what is perhaps the commonest ending 
in personal names in Old French. 'Antar's son by 
the Frankish princess is called Djufran, which 
conceals the old French form (Jofroi, Jefroi, Geffroi) 
of the name of Godfrey of Bouillon. As the 
romance of 'Antar knows nothing of Europe, but a 
good deal about Europeans, the author must have 
become acquainted with them outside of Europe, 
of course at the period of the Crusades; Bohemund 
is slain by 'Antar. Godfrey is the son of 'Antar, 
who comes as a Crusader to Asia, learns his 
paternity there, avenges the death of his father 
and then returns to Europe. Even the name "Tafur" 
of the king of the beggars in the army of Peter 
of Armenia, seems to be preserved in the Sira: 
"Pafur" is the name of the usurper who drives 
the infant prince 'Amr from the throne of Syria 
but is overthrown by 'Antar. In regard to intel- 
ligent sympathy with and toleration of Christianity, 
the picture we get from the SIrat '■Antar is far in 
advance of that which the mediaeval Christian 
epic reveals of Islam, where the Muslims are made 
to worship idols, like Apollo, Cahu, Gomelin, 
Jupiter, Margot, Malquedant, Tervagant etc. The 
romance of 'Antar regards the Crusades not with- 
out sympathy and admiration. It is true that 
Crusaders are mentioned, who go to the Holy 
Land to seek plunder and to escape punishment; 
but the Franks are fighting for God the Father, 
for the Son and for the spread of religion. 

Folk-lore and literary parallels. There 
is remarkably little folk-lore in the Sirat 'Antar 
but it includes several noteworthy features: 
a splendid witches' kitchen, fine examples of 
allegorical speech, of omens, life-token. Most of 
the agreements with other narrative poetry may 
be regarded as commonplaces of the epic; the 
strength and growth of the hero, his exploits, the 
killing of a lion, mu'ammarun (longevity is as 
common in the 'Antar as in the Shak-nama), 
dreams, visions, Amazons, fights between father 
and son, the Gudrun motif of the bride's fidelity, 
the motif of the stupid man. There are very few 
borrowings: Nu'man's lucky and unlucky day, 
Khusraw's bell of justice (the motif of the legend 
of the Emperor Charles and the snake), a flight 
to heaven in a box borne by eagles, several 
African traditions (probably taken from geogra- 
phical works on Africa). There are also links with 



SIrat 'ANTAR 



European legends. The marvellous signs at the 
birth of Charlemagne (in Pseudo-Turpin) resemble 
those recorded in our romance at the birth of 
Muhammad, but Pseudo-Turpin undoubtedly bor- 
rowed from an older source. Artificial birds made 
of metal, which sing in various tunes by means 
of bells and organ pipes are described in French 
and German epics and also in the Sirat 'Antar. 
But here we have to deal with the historical 
marvel of the Chrysotriklinium in Constantinople, 
and with a similar thing in the Ctesiphon of the 
Sasanids and also in the capital of the Tatar 
Khans. Some coincidences are very striking. Harith 
al-?alim beats his sword Dhu '1-Hiyat against a 
rock, so that it may not fall into the enemy's 
hands; the rock is broken but the sword is 
uninjured, just as is the case with Roland's Durandal. 
'Antar instructs his son Ghadban, who wishes to 
slay Khusraw and seize the power for himself, 
on the subject of kingship by God's grace just as 
Girard de Viane does his nephew Aimeri who 
wants to kill Charlemagne. 'Antar's horse Abdjar 
takes flight to the desert after c Antar's death, so 
that he may not serve another master, just as 
Renaud de Montauban's Baiart escapes to the 
forests of the Ardennes. Very remarkable is the 
parallel between the duel between Roland and 
Oliver and that of c Antar and Rabl'a b. Mukaddam ; 
the sword of the one combatant breaks in two 
and his magnanimous opponent gets him another; 
the duellists are reconciled and become brothers- 
in-law. But such poetical developments have their 
origin in a similar chivalrous outlook, the relations 
of the knight to his sword, to his horse, to his 
overlord and to his opponent. 

Chivalry in the SIrat c Antar. The Sim 
is rightly recognised to be a romance of chivalry. 
In the pagan period among the Arabs the ideal 
of masculine virtue was muruwwa, futuwwa; 
alongside of this we have more frequently in the 
Sirat 'Antar furusiya along with fardsa and 
tafarrasa. The knight is called fdris. 'Antar is 
called "a father of knights", Abu 'l-Fawdris, some- 
times Abu 'l-Fursdn, 'Ala 'l-Fursdn, Fdris al- 
Fursdn, Afrasu. Not everyone who rides a horse 
is a knight. The knight's qualities are courage, 
fidelity, love of truth, protection of widows, or- 
phans, and the poor ('Antar arranges special 
meals for them), magnanimity, reverence for wo- 
men ('Antar begins and ends his heroic career 
protecting women; he swears by 'Abla, by 'Abla's 
eye, conquers in 'Abla's name), liberality, especially 
to poets. The knights are also poets, especially 
poets of the Hidjaz, who are found in hundreds 
in the Sirat 'Antar. The Sira also knows the 
institutions of chivalry. We meet pages and squires, 
not only the sahdridia of Ctesiphon; 'Antar him- 
self trains several thousand squires. The Sira 
even describes tournaments on a great scale, in 
the Hidjaz, in Hira, in Ctesiphon, the most splendid 
in Byzantium where 'Antar's lance strikes the ring 
476 times. These tourneys have many features in 
common with those of Europe, fighting with 
blunted weapons, tilting at the ring, decorating 
and beflagging the lists, the presence of ladies 
and girls. These agreements have been explained 
in the most diverse ways, t n the one hand 
Delecluze saw in 'Antar the mode' of the European 
knight, in the Sirat 'Antar, the source from which 
Europe had obtained all its ideas of chivalry, 
while on the other hand Reinaud simply found 
European ideas, customs and institutions imitated 



in the Sira {J A, 1833, i. 102-105). In this 
some have seen the starting point for the study 
of the question of the origin of the Sirat ' Antar. 
Origin. The Sirat "-Antar itself frequently 
and readily talks about itself and its origin. It 
professes to have been composed by al-Asma'I in 
the time of the Caliph Harun al-Rashld at his 
court in Baghdad; Asma'i lived for 670 years, of 
which 400 were in the Diahiliva : he was personally 
acquainted with 'Antar and his contemporaries, 
concluded the composition in the year 473/1080 
and recorded traditions from the mouths of 'Antar, 
Hamza, Abu Talib, Hatim Tayyi, Amru '1-Kais, 
Hani 3 b. Mus'ud, Hazim of Mecca, 'Ubayda, 'Amr 
b. Wudd, Durayd b. al-Simma, 'Amir b. al-Tufayl. 
In fact we have a regular romance regarding the 
origin of the romance. The repeatedly mentioned 
rami, nd^il, musannif, sahib al-ibdrat, Asma'i and 
other authorities have the same significance for 
the Sirat 'Antar as the Dihkans, Pehlewi books 
and the hoary authorities in Firdawsi, or as the 
chronicles of St. Denis for the French epic. It is 
simply fiction when the Sirat 'Antar tells us that 
it exists in two versions, one for the Hidjaz and 
the other for 'Irak. The invention of a Hidjaz 
recension is intended to encourage the belief that 
Asma'i collected from 'Antar and his companions 
in the Hidjaz the information, which was utilised 
in the romance. The Hidjaz as the home of the 
romance is a pure invention. On the other hand 
'Irak may really have made a considerable con- 
tribution to the composition of the Sirat 'Anttr. 
For the date of origin of the Sirat 'Antar we 
have the following clues: 1. In a religious dialogue 
between a monk and a Muslim (Das Religions- 
gesprdch von Jerusalem urn 800 A . D. aus dem 
Arabischen ubersetzt von K. Vollers, Ztschr. f. 
Kirchengeschichte, xxix, 49) the monk mentions 
the exploits of 'Antar. 2. About the middle of the 
xiith century the former Jew Samaw'al b. Yahya 
al-Maghribl, a convert to Islam, describes his career 
and mentions that in his youth he was fond of 
long tales like that of 'Antar (MGWJ, i8g8, 
xlii, 127, 418). 3. The evidence contained in the 
book itself. The appearance of Bohemund, Djufran 
(Godfrey of Bouillon), perhaps also of the king 
of the beggars, Tafur, brings us to the period 
after the first Crusade, that is at the earliest in 
the first half of the xiith century. The composition 
of histories of 'Antar must therefore have already 
been begun in the viiith century — on the evidence 
of the religious dialogue above mentioned. According 
to Samaw'al b. Yahya a book of 'Antar of con- 
siderable size was actually in existence in the 
middle of the xiith century and if Bohemund and 
Djufran already appeared in it, it must have been 
completed at the beginning of the xiith century. 
At the same time the meddahs may have con- 
tinued to add a great deal to it and in particular 
continued its islamisation. The midrash of Abraham 
which is quite an inorganic addition and the 
legends of Muhammad and 'All could belong to 
any period. An original 'Antar can be recon- 
structed with philological probability. In vol. xxxi., 
the dying 'Antar reviews his heroic career in his 
swan-song. He proudly recalls his victories in 
Arabia, 'Irak, Persia, and Syria. But he makes no 
mention of Byzantium or Spain, of Fez, Tunis, or 
Barka, of Egypt, or Hind-Sind, of the Sudan or 
Ethiopia. This original 'Antar may have arisen in 
'Irak (under Persian influence or perhaps in emula- 
tion of Persian epic poetry). The^ swan-song makes 



STrat c ANTAR — 'ANTARA 



52r 



no mention of children, and knows of only one 
love of 'Antar's. This original c Antar therefore 
should be called 'Antar and 'Abla. Following a 
genealogical stimulus, the later epic made royal 
ancestors be found in the Sudan and royal des- 
cendants in Arabia, Byzantium, Rome, and the land 
of the Franks. The Crusades next found an echo 
and a reaction in the 'Antar story. The Crusaders 
came from the land of the Franks via Byzantium 
to Syria. 'Antar goes in a kind of reversed crusade 
from Syria via Byzantium to the land of the Franks 
and brings about the victory, if not yet of Islam, 
at least of Arab ideals and culture over European 
Christianity. The whole geographical area and 
historical range of the novel is filled with the 
exploits of 'Antar. 

The romance of 'Antar seems to be first men- 
tioned in Europe in 1777 in the Bibliothique 
Universelle des Romans (J A, 1834, xiii. 256); 
it was first introduced to European scholarship in 
1819 by Hammer- Purgstall and to comparative 
literature in 1851 by Dunlop-Liebrecht (Geschichte 
der Prosadichtungen, xiii-xvi). The study of 
the problem of scholarship raised by the SirOt 
'Antar was begun by Goldziher (mainly in his 
Hungarian works). The Slrat 'Antar was for 
long a favourite subject of study in France. In 
the Journal Asiatique the work was often dis- 
cussed and partly translated. Lamartine went into 
raptures of admiration and enthusiasm for 'Antar 
(Voyages en Orient: Vie des grands hommes I. 
Premises Meditations Poitiques, Premiere Preface). 
Taine places c Antar beside the greatest epic heroes 
— Siegfried, Roland, the Cid, Rustam, Odysseus and 
Achilles (Philosophie de I'Art, ii, 297). These tributes 
are not unmerited. The Slrat 'Antar unfolds before 
us the ever changing, glowing panorama of a parti- 
cularly attractive period with an extravagant power 
of imagination, a skill in narration which never palls 
throughout the 32 volumes, and a poetical style of 
inexhaustible richness. 

Bibliography: A very full collection of 
references to the manuscripts, editions, trans- 
lations of and treatises on the Sirat 'Antar is 
given in V. Chauvin, Bibliographie des ouvra- 
ges arabes ou relatifs aux Arabes, etc., iii; 
Louqmdne et les fabulistes. Barlaam 'Antar et les 
Romans de chevalerie, Luttich-Leipzig 1898, 113- 
126. Cf. also: I. Goldziher, Der arabische Held 
'Antar in der geographischen Nomenclatur (Globus, 
1893, lxiv., no. 4, 65-67); do., Ein orientalischer 
Ritterroman, Pester Lloyd, Mai 18, 1918; B. Heller, 
Der arabische 'Antarroman, Ungarische Rundschau, 
v. 83-107 ; do., Az arab Antarreginy ; Budapest 1918 ; 
do., Der arabische 'Antarroman, ein Beitrag zur ver- 
gleichenden Litteraturgeschichte, Hanover 1925. 
(B. Heller) 
C ANTARA, "the valiant" (see LA, vi, 283, 
which also gives the meaning "blue-bottle"); the 
word is probably derived from the root Hr which 
expresses the idea of violence. Several warrior-poets 
of Pre-Islam bore this name; see AmidI, 151-2. 

"Antara b. Shaddad, warrior-poet of the 6th 
century A.D., belonged to the c Abs tribe of central 
Arabia (see ghatafan). The short notice by al- 
Isfahani, in the A ghani, suggests that by the 4th/ioth 
century responsible people tended to dismiss exag- 
gerated popular accounts which had already made 
'Antara a hero of fiction. Restricted to positive 
facts, the biography of this man is extremely 
sketchy. Born of an Arab father and a black slave, 
'Antara, in his youth, lived in slavery as a shepherd; 



in the course of the conflicts between the 'Abs and 
their Central Arabian neighbours, he had opportunity 
to display his prowess; in the "War of Dahis and 
al-Ghabra 5 " especially between the 'Abs and the 
Dhubyan, then the Tamlm, he seems to have parti- 
cularly distinguished himself (see Cheikho, 805 f. and 
the scholia on Diwan nos. 13 ff. ; see also Diwan nos. 12 
and 26, diatribes against other poets). It is probable 
that 'Antara was emancipated as a result of these 
exploits and that, at an advanced age, he fell in 
a raid against the Tayyi 5 (see the A ghani for the 
different versions of his death). Legend soon clothed 
this bare outline, under the influence of 'Abs parti- 
cularism and Kharidjite equalitarianism. 'Antara 
provided proof that a person of mixed race could, 
in the pre-Islamic era, achieve the status of a pure- 
blooded Arab. The embellishments were concerned 
with a limited number of themes: the valiant 
achievements of the hero, his passion for his cousin 
'Abla, his vain efforts to overcome her scorn and 
to be worthy of this heartless beauty. These develop- 
ments eventually resulted in the composition of a 
celebrated epic entitled Sirat 'Antar (see the preceding 
article). As is frequently the case, fragments and 
poems form the sub-stratum of the biographical 
legend. At the beginning of the 3rd/gth century, the 
collection of these poetic works was undertaken by 
the scholars of Basra, notably by al-Asma'i [q.v.]; 
in a recension with commentary by the Spaniard 
al-A'lam al-Shantamari (d. 476/1083), there are 
27 poems and fragments: one of these, the Kasida 
in mim also appears in the Mu'allakdt anthology; 
numerous fragments, often of considerable length, 
attributed to 'Antara, and appearing in various 
works, have been assembled by Cheikho, 816-82 
(without exact references). On the whole, these last 
texts appear to be clumsy pastiches; see for example 
the fragments given by Cheikho, 812, 820, 829, 855; 
scholars — or forgers — have too often been led to 
attribute to 'Antara any poem containing the name 
of 'Abla (see Cheikho, 846, 848-9 where a poet 
addresses himself to 'Abla and celebrates his 
exploits against the Persians); many of the items 
attributed to 'Antara are dubious (see Cheikho, 
853 and Agh 3 , 235); the Mu'allaka, suspect on 
account of its length, is composed to begin with of 
elements in juxtaposition. Taken as a whole, the 
poems and fragments placed under the name of 
'Antara which do not betray too obviously the 
forger's hand are generally short; poems introduced 
by a nasib are rare (see Diwan, ed. Ahlwardt, nos. 
13, 21; and Cheikho, 817, poem in fta 3 ). With the 
exception of a threnody (Diwan, no. 24) and a few 
fragments of invective like Diwan no. n, the 
majority of the poems celebrate the poet's valour, 
his exploits, and the claim which these give him to 
the love of 'Abla. Those which have some chance of 
not being clumsy forgeries are distinguished by 
their simplicity of language and style. 

Bibliography : IbnSallam, Tabakdt al-shu'ard' , 
ed. Shair, 128 ; Ibn Kutayba, Shi'r, ed. De Goeje, 
130-4; Aghani 3 , viii, 237-46 (taken up again by 
Cheikho, Shu'ard' al-Nasrdniyya, Beirut 1890, i, 
794-882, who reproduces in an expurgated form 
the Diwan (ed. Ahlwardt) and numerous poetic 
texts) ; Caussin de Perceval, Essai sur Vhistoire 
des Arabes, Paris 1847, ii, 44iff., 514-21; Ibn 'Abd 
Rabbih, Ikd, ed. 'Uryan, Index; AmidI Mu'talif, 
151, Noldeke, F«m/ Mu'allaqat, ii, i-4g;Thorbecke, 
Antarah, Leipzig 1867 followed by Derenbourg, 
Le Poete antetslamique Antar, in Opuscules d'un 
Arabisant, Paris 1905, 3-9; Ahlwardt, Bemerkungen 



522 

uber die Acktkeit der alien arab. Gedichte, Greifswald 

1872, 50-7; Nallino, La Littitature arabe, trans. 

Pellat, Paris 1950, 44-5; Iskender Agha, Munyat 

al-Nafsi fi Ashlar 'Antara al-'Absi, Beirut 1864. 

The Diwdn. has been edited by Ahlwardt, The 

Divans of the six ancient Arabic poets, London 1870, 

33-52 + additions, I78ff. ; other editions at Cairo, 

1315 and at Beirut, 1888, 1001, upon which see 

Brockelmann, S I, 45. (R. Blachere) 

'ANTARl (a.), noun derived from 'Antar [q.v.], 

denoting in Egypt: 1) a story-teller whb narrates the 

Sirat 'Antar; 2) a short garment w^rn under the 

kaftan. The latter usage, assimilaWd by popular 

etymology to 'Antari, derives from the Turkish 

Entari, a word of Greek origin. 

Bibliography: Dozy, Suppl. ii, 180 and 
references quoted. (Ed.) 

ANTARTCS [see tar?0s]. 

ANTEMURU, tribe of south-eastern Mada- 
gascar, comprising 85,000 sedentary agriculturalists 
living in the low river valleys, from the Matatana 
in the south to the Namurana in the north, and eking 
out their livelihood by fishing. Of their number, 
25,000 members of certain clans claim to come from 
Emaka, a region which they liken to Mecca. According 
to their written traditions, some siiamu "Muslims", 
accompanied by kafiri "pagans", passing through the 
Comores and the north-east of Madagascar, settled, 
during the 7th/ 13th century, near their present 
territory. They found there, and assimilated, other 
groups of the same origins. 

It seems likely that an Indonesian community was 
augmented by an influx of groups which had in 
varying degree been Islamicised, and came probably 
from the east coast of Africa, which had been 
penetrated by the descendants of immigrants from 
the Persian Gulf. The prestige of these "Islamicised" 
elements was such that the Indonesian dynasties and 
some clans ascribed to themselves an Arab origin. 
It is possible to distinguish two successive waves 
of immigrants; the earlier introduced divination 
based on geomancy, while the Antalaotra of the more 
recent influx introduced writing in Arabic characters 
and paper-making. The Islamicised elements in- 
troduced in addition : plants (the vine, pomegranate, 
hemp, the copal-tree), the game of chess, a few 
prayers, a period of comparative fasting, some words 
of Arabic origin, and above all a calendar. 

Since the ioth/i6th century, the fame of the 
Antemuru magicians has extended their influence 
throughout Madagascar. Isolated from the Muslim 
world, they look upon writing not as a vehicle of 
communication, but as a means of preserving their 
magico-religious secrets. The development of the 
occult sciences has represented a corresponding 
decline of the Islamic tradition. The astrological 
calendar has supplanted the Muslim lunar calendar; 
prayers, their meaning not understood, have become 
magic formulas. This decadence is most marked in 
the tribe which dwells to the north of the Antemuru, 
namely the 12,000 Antambaok or Antambahwaka. 
Since the beginning of the 19th century the over- 
population of Temuru territory has led to a temporary 
exodus to the north-west of Madagascar. There, they 
live wiih the Cormorian Muslims. This has given 
rise since 19 13, and especially between 1926 and 1939, 
to an Islamic revival among some of the 2,000 
literates belonging to the clans of the Antalaotra 

After 1924, the development of coffee-planting, 
which created new resources, checked the migration 
to the north-west. Relations with true Muslims again 



'ANTARA — ANOSHIRWAN b. KHALID 



came to an end. The Islamic revival, opposed by 
the Christians as well as by the traditionalist magici- 
ans, declined, despite several attempts by Pakistani 
Khodias to make converts. 

Bibliography: Flacourt Histoire de la grande 
tie de Madagascar, Paris 1661, republished in the 
Grandidier collection Collection des ouvrages 
anciens concernant Madagascar, Paris 1913; 
G. Ferrand, Les musulmans a Madagascar et aux 
lies Comores i and ii, Paris- Algiers 1891-93; 
E. F. Gautier, Madagascar, Paris 1902; G. Ferrand, 
La Ugende de Raminia, in J A, 1902; idem, Vn 
texte arabico-malgache du XVI' siicle, in Recueil 
de I'Ecole sup. des lettres, Algiers 1905; idem, Un 
chapitre d'astrologie arabico-malgache in J A, 1905; 
idem, Un texte arabico-malgache ancien, Algiers 
1905; idem, Textes magiques malgaches, in Revue 
de V Histoire des religions, 1907; E. F. Gautier and 
Froidevaux, Un manuscrit arabico-malgache sur les 
campagnes de La Case dans Vlmoro de 1659 a 1663, 
Paris 1907; G. Ferrand, Un vocabulaire malgache 
arabe, in Mimoires de la socitti de linguistique, 
1908-9; A. and G. Grandidier, Ethnographic de 
Madagascar, I, Paris 1908, III, Paris 1917; G. 
Ferrand, Les voyages des Javanais a Madagascar, 
in J A 1910; G. Mondain, L' histoire des tribus de 
Vlmoro au XVII' siicle d'apris un manuscrit 
historique arabico-malgache, Paris-Algiers 1910; 
Ardant du Picq, Le samantsy, jeu d'echec des 
Tanala de Vlkongo in Butt, de I' Acad, malgache, 
1912; G. H. Julien, Pages arabico-malgaches in 
Annates de I' Acad, des sciences coloniales, iii, Paris 
1929, vi, Paris 1933; Perrier de la Bathie, Les 
plantes introduces d Madagascar, Toulouse 1933; J. 
P. Rombaka, tantaran-drazana antaimoro-anteony 
(in Malagazi), Antananarivo 1933; H. Berthier, 
Notes et impressions sur les moeurs et coutumes iu 
peuple malgache, Antananarivo 1933; F. Kasanga, 
tantaran'ny Antemoro Anakara teto Imerina (in 
Malagazi), Antananarivo 1956. (J. Faublee) 
ANTIOCH [see antakiya]. 
ANTON FA RAH [see farah]. 
ANCSHARWAN, Arabic form of the surname 
of Chosroes I (al-Tabari, I, 862) [see kisra], in 
Pahlawi anoshagh-ruvdn, in Pazand anosh-rudn 
"possessed of an immortal soul", then in Persian 
Nushiravan (Nushirvan), which is popularly ex- 
plained as nushin-ravdn "possessed of sweet soul" 
(Burhdn-i Kali'). Several persons in Islam bore this 
name (Zambaur mentions four), particularly a son of 
Manu&hr and of a daughter of Mahmud al-GhaznawI, 
who was amir of Djurdjan from 420/1029 to 434/1042 
(Ibn al-Athir, IX, 262), and Anusharwan b. Mialid 
b. Muhammad al-Kashani (see the following art.). 
Bibliography: A. Christensen, L'Iran sous les 
Sassanides, chapter VIII; Zambaur, index, s.v. 

(H. Masse) 
ANOSHIRWAN b. KHALID b. Muhammad 
al-KAshanI, Sharaf al-DIn Abu Nasr, was trea- 
surer and 'arid al-djaysh to the Saldjuk sultan, 
Muhammad b. Malikshah- After being succeeded by 
Shams al-Mulk b. Nizam al-Mulk as 'arid al-djaysh he 
went to Baghdad. He was imprisoned during the 
reign of Mahmud b. Malikshah for a short period 
but subsequently appointed wazir by Mahmud 
(521/1127-522/1128). From 526/1 132-528/1 134 he was 
wazir to the caliph, al-Mustarshid. In 529/1134 he 
became wazir to Mas'ud b. Muhammad and held 
office until 530/1135-6. He died in Baghdad in 
533/1 138-9 according to Ibn al-Athir, but according 
to the Tadjarib al-Salaf of Hindu Shah b. Sandjar 
in 532/1137-8. He composed a work in Persian on the 



ANOSHIRWAN b. khAlid - 



events of his time, entitled Futur Zaman al-Sudur 
wa Sudir Zaman al-FutUr, which was later trans- 
lated into Arabic by <Imad al-DIn fa.tr.]. Al-Bundari's 
abridged version of this translation has been edited 
by Houtsma (Recueil de textes relat. a I'hist. des 
Seidjoueides, ii). HadjdjI Khalifa mentions another 
work by him, entitled N a/ that al-MasdCr, but this 
is probably the same as the Futur Zaman al-Sudur 
mentioned above (see MIrza Muhammad Kazwlnl, 
Makdla-i Ta'rikhi wa Intikddi, Tehran, 1308 solar). 
AnOshirwan was praised by various contemporary 
poets. It was he who encouraged al-Harjrl to compose 
his makdmas. 

Bibliography: Recueil de textes relat. a I'hist. 
des Seidjoueides, ii; Ibn al-Athlr, x, xi; Sibt b. 
al-DjawzI;' Hindu Shah b. Sandjar, Tadjarib al- 
Salaf. (A. K. S. Lambton) 

ANWA 5 (a.), a system of computation among the 
early Arabs. The singular now', connected with the 
root nd'a "to rise with difficulty, to lean, to support 
a load with difficulty" (cf. Kur'an, xxviii, 76), 
denotes the acronychal setting of a star or con- 
stellation and heliacal rising of its opposite (rakib); 
by extension, it is applied to a period of time and, 
in the language of the later Middle Ages and the 
modern era, it has come to mean "cloud, rain, storm, 
tempest" (see Dozy, Suppl., s.v.; Beaussier, s.v.; 
H. Wehr, Arab. WUrierbuch, s.v.), on account of the 
pluvial role ascribed to the stars contemplated. In 
the plural, anwa' denotes the whole system based 
on the acronychal setting and helical rising of a 
series of stars or constellations; it also appears in 
the title of a number of works which 
separate class of their own. 

1. The system of the anwa'. — 
the passage of time, the early Arabs possessed a 
primitive system — perhaps already influenced by 
the "Calendar of the Pleiades" (cf. J. Henninger, 
Sternkunde, 114 and references quoted) — which can 
be summarized as follows: — (a) on the one hand, 
the acronychal setting of a series of stars or con- 
stellations marked the beginning of periods called 
now', but within which the duration of the now* 
proper was from 1-7 days. The stars themselves 
were responsible for rain and were invoked during 
the istiskd' [q.v.] ; knowledge of these anwa' enabled 
Bedouin trained in this science to foresee the state 
of the weather during a given period; (b) on the 
other hand, the helical rising of the same series of 
stars or constellations, at six monthly intervals,- 
marked out the solar year by fixing a number of 
periods probably about 28. Such maxims as have 
survived suggest that this was the very basis of the 
calendar. 

Some time before Islam (cf. Kur'an x, 5 ; xxxvi, 39) 
the Arabs learnt from the Indians to distinguish the 
"stations" or "mansions" (manzila), pi. mandzil 
[q.v.]) of the moon, numbering 28. Perceiving that 
the list of these mansions corresponded grosso modo 
with their own list of anted', they proceeded to 
combine the two ideas and to adjust their anwa 1 
to make them coincide with the mandzil, by dividing 
the solar zodiac into 28 equal parts of approx. 
12° 50'; thus the 28 anwa' identified with the 28 
mandzil (see list in the article manazil) are deter- 
mined by 28 stars or constellations constituting 
14 pairs (the acronychal setting of the one corres- 
ponding to the heliacal rising of the other) and 
marking the beginning of 27 periods of 13 days and 
one of 14. These modifications, the date of which 
cannot be fixed accurately, were definitely completed 
after Islam, the passage from one system to the 



other being favoured by the development of astro- 
nomy, and by the anathema hurled by the Prophet 
against the anwa', which are not mentioned in the 
Kur'an. The old system, however, still survived, 
on the one hand empirically among the Bedouin 
tribes (cf. for example the nuwa, pi. nwdwi of the 
Marazig of southern Tunisia in G. Boris, Documents 
linguistiques . . ., Paris 1951, 208-11), on the other 
hand traditionally, and with complete identification 
of the anwa' with the mansions, in the specialised 
works which have perpetuated it among certain 
rural populations (see Ed. Westermarck, Ritual and 
Belief in Morocco, London 1926, ii, 177, and Wit 
and Wisdom in Morocco, London 1930, 313-17). 

2. The anwa' in Arabic Literature. — As 
might be expected, it was the lexicographers who 
first assembled Bedouin ideas on the subject of the 
anwa' and published them in lexicographical works 
of which we shall consider only those entitled 
K. al-Anwd', leaving aside the K. al-Azmina and 
others which fall into the same category. The fol- 
lowing are the principal writers mentioned as being 
authors of works entitled K. al-Anwd', none of 
which has as yet come into our possession: Ibn 
Kunasa (d. 207/822), Mu'arridj (d. 195/810-n), al- 
Nadr b. Shumayl (d. about 245/859), al-Asma^ (d. 
213/828), Ibnal-A'rabl (d. 233/846), al-Shaybani (d. 
about 245/859), al-Mubarrad (d. 285/898). On the 
other hand, we have the K. al-Anwd' of Ibn Kulayba 
(d. about 276/889) which has recently (1957) been 
printed at Haydarabad, and we have fragments of 
that of Abu Hanifa al-DInawarl (d. after 282/895); 
the works of al-Akhfash al-Asghar (d. 315/927), 
al-Zadjdjadi (d- 310/922), Ibn Durayd (d. 321/933), 
the kadi Waki c (d. 330/941) and others are also 
lost. Basically these works contain an explanation 
of the system of the anwa', a list of the mansions 
(i.e. the modified anwa'), a table of the dates of 
the rising and setting of the stars which determine 
them, the system of the winds and the rains, etc.; 
the explanation is accompanied by maxims and 
poetry, usually with a commentary. 

From the 3rd/gth century, however, astronomers 
in their turn showed interest in the anwa': al-Hasan 
b. Sahl b. Nawbakht, Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi (d. 
272/885-6), Thabit b. Kurra (d. 289/902^, and Ibn 
Khurradadhbih (d. 300/912-3), wrote K. al-Anwd' 
while al-BirOni (d. 440/1048) devoted to this subject 
a chapter of his Athdr and reproduced in part 
(243-75) the K. al-Anwd' of Sinan b. Thabit b. 
Kurra (d. 331/943), which is an almanac. 

One would expect, indeed, to see Arab authors 
producing almanacs on the lines of those which 
they found in conquered territories, and, although 
we only have the almanac of Sinan for 'Irak, it is 
probable that Egyptian authors composed them at 
an early stage, as is proved by certain chapters of 
Ibn al-Mammatl and al-MakrizI, and by the names 
of the Coptic months which appear in the calenders 
produced in Spain. For the latter country, we in 
fact possess an almanac published by Dozy under 
the title of Calendrier de Cordoue de I'annie 061 
(Leiden 1873) and still entitled K. al-Anwd', as is 
that of the mathematician of Marrakush, Ibn al- 
Banna' (d. 721/1321) which has been published by 
H. P. J. Renaud (Paris 1948); other K. al-Anwd', 
now lost, are attributed to al-Gharbal (d. 403/1012-13) 
and al-Khatib al-Umawi al-Kurtubl (d. 602/1205-6). 
These calendars are solar and, under each day, the 
author gives information on the anwa', the length 
of the day and night, agricultural practices, etc., 
with, in the Calendrier de Cordoue, notification of 



524 



ANWA> 



'he Christian festivals. The modern popular calendars 
{ra'diyya, tafrwim etc.) are a final re-incarnation of 
the K. al-Anwa\ 

Bibliography: BattanI, Opus astronomic, m, 
ed. and trans. C. A. Nallino, Milan 1903ft., index; 
Farghani, K. fi 'l-ffarakat al-Samawiyya wa-Dia- 
warni 1 al-Nudjum, ed. and trans. J . Golius (Elementa 
astronomica), Amsterdam 1669; l Abd al-Rahman 
al-Sufi, K. al-Suwar al-SamaHyya, Haydarabad; 
Ibn Sida, Mukhassas, ix, gff.; BIruni, Chronologie 
orient. Volker, ed. C. E. Sachau, Leipzig 1878; 
Ibn Madjid, K. al-FawaHd fi Usui Him al-Bahr 
wa 'l-Kaw&Hd, ed. G. Ferrand, Paris 1921-23; 
Kazwlni, 'AdjdHb al-Makhlilkdt, ed. Wiistenfeld; 
Hadjdji Khalifa, ed. Fliigel, v, 53-4; LA, s.v. na>a; 
MarzukI, K. al-Azmina wa 'l-Amkina, Haydarabad 
1332 ; Reinaud, Introduction glnlrale a la giographie 
des Orientaux (vol. i of the Giographie d'Aboulfida), 
Paris 1848, clxxxiii ff. ; G. Ferrand, Introduction 
a I'astronomie nautique arabe, Paris 1928; Moty- 
linsky, Les Mansions lunaires des Arabes, Algiers 
1899; J. Henninger, Vber Sternhunde und Sternhult 
in Nord- und Zentralarabien, in Zeitschrift fur 
Ethnologic, 1954, 82-117; Ch. Pellat, Dictons rime's, 
anwa 3 et mansions lunaires chez les Arabes, in 
Arabica, 1955/i, 17-41. (Ch. Pellat) 

ANWARl, the takhallus of Awhad al-DIn 
Muh. b. Muh. ( ? or c Ali b. Mahmud) Khawarani, 
proclaimed in a well-known bayt to be master of the 
Persian frasida. Of his life little is known for certain 
except that he became one of the court poets of the 
Saldjuk sultan Sandjar (d. 1157) at some period 
towards the end of the prince's life and that he was 
writing tMsidas in 540/1145— two of them being 
thus dated — when he must still have been quite 
young. He was born in the district of KhawarSn in 
Khurasan and received part of his education at the 
Mansuriyya madrasa in Tus. Either while he was 
there or subsequently his studies embraced astrology, 
his skill in which brought him renown, though it also, 
if legend can be trusted, led to his downfall. This was 
in 581/1185, when an extraordinary conjunction of 
the planets failed to produce the upheaval of the 
elements which he had foretold. He died a few years 
afterwards, probably in 585/1189 or in 587/1191, 
being buried at Balkh (thus Dawlatshah) or at 
Tabriz, in the Poets' Cemetery alongside Khakani 
and Zahlr-i Faryabi (cf. Mustawfi, Nuzhat al-Kulub, 
78), the former seeming more probable. His literary 
powers are considerable, as shown in his famous 
lament over the ruin caused by the Ghuzz tribesmen 
in Khurasan, and his exercises in irony and ridicule 
make pungent reading. He shows little of self- 
criticism, being satisfied that he is an adept in 
astrology and superior to his contemporaries in 
logic, music, theology, mathematics and all other 
intellectual pursuits. It appears that his patrons 
after Sandjar failed to value his services as highly as 
he did himself; at any rate he considered their 
rewards inadequate. Either that fact or jealousy of 
his rivals caused him to renounce the writing of 
eulogies and of ghazals, although it is difficult to 
decide at what point in his career this took place. 
His satires doubtless brought him enemies and 
declining fortunes led to persistent complaint against 
capricious Fate. In style and language he is some- 
times obscure, so that Dawlatshah declares that he 
needs a commentary. That obscurity, and a change 
in literary taste, may be reasons for his comparative 
neglect in recent times. 

Bibliography: Browne, ii, 365 ff., incidentally 
epitomising V. Zhukovski's Russian monograph, 



Alt Awhad al-Din Anwari; Materials for a Bio- 
graphy etc., St. Petersburg 1883; Dawlatshah 
(Browne), 83-86; 'Awfl, Lubab al-Albdb (Browne), 
ii, 125-138; Diwan, Tabriz 1266/1850; Kulliyyat, 
Lucknow 1880 and 1889 (both deficient). 

(R. Levy) 
ANWARl, al-Hadjdj Sa'dullah [see enweri]. 
ANWAR-I SUHAYLl, title of the Persian ver- 
sion of Kalila wa Dimna by Kashifi [q.v.]. 
APAMEA [see afamiya]. 
APOLLONIUS OF TYANA [see balInus]. 
al-'ARA, a place on the S. shore of Yaman, W. 
of c Adan, on Subayhi territory, between 'Umayra 
(Khor Omeira) and Sukya (Sukayya). Ibn al- 
Mudjawir (ca. 600/1200) makes it the starting point 
of several routes. Al-Shardji (d. 893/1488) still calls 
this headquarter of the Banu Mushammir "a big 
village" (cf. Abu Makhrama TaMkh Thaghr c Adan, 
ii, 91 f., in the biography of Sa'id b. Muh. Musham- 
mir). Since then, with the diminishing caravan trade, 
there has been a steady decline. The place is still on 
the map of von Maltzan (ca. two miles from the coast), 
but nowadays the name seems to survive only in 
Bi'r c Ara and Ras <Ara, which is the utmost 
Southern point of Arabia, the Promontorium 
Ammonii of the ancients. 

Bibliography : Hamdani, 52, 74, 79; 'Umara 
(Kay) 8/n; Makdisi, 85; ShardjI, Tabakdt al- 
Khawass. 194; Ibn al-Mudjawir, Ta'rikh al- 
Mustabsir, 101 ff. ; Sprenger, Alte Geogr. Arabiens, 
72; Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Pilot, 1932, 130. 

(O. Lofgren) 
al- c ARAB, the Arabs. 



(iv) The expansion of the Arabs: Egypt, 
(v) The expansion of the Arabs : North Africa. 

(See also al- c arab, djazIrat, as well 
and the articles on the several Arab < 



(For the ethnic origins of the Arabs cf. al-'Arab 
(EiazIrat al-), section on Ethnography, cf. also 
para ii, below). 

The early history of the Arabs is still obscure; 
their origin and the events governing their early 
years are equally unknown to us. Probably we 
would know a good deal more about them, if Uranius' 
five books of 'ApaPixa, which constituted a special 
monograph on the Arabs, had been preserved. What 
we know about them is derived chiefly from the 
Assyrian records, the classical writers, and, as far 
as the history of the last three centuries before 
Islam is concerned, from Muslim tradition and some 
pre-islamic Nabataean and Arabic inscriptions. 

Possibly "the Aramaean Bedouins", who in 
880 B.C. interfered in the affairs of Bet-Zamani on 
the upper Euphrates and helped to overthrow the 
local vassal of the Assyrian king Assur Nasirpal, 
were predecessors of the Arabs. Their anti-Assyrian 
policy was subsequently followed by the Arabs, who 
first appear in the light of history in 854 B.C.: 
Gindibu, the Arab with 1000 camel troops from 
Aribi territory, joined Bir-'idri of Damascus (the 
biblical Benhadad II) against Salmanassar III at 
the battle of Karkar in which, it is said the Asyrian 
king was successful. Perhaps the camp of Gindibu 



was situated somewhere south-east of Damascus. 
Certainly the bedouin element of the Arabian 
Peninsula — for which Aram, c Eber, and Khabiru 
are probably synonyms — was to be found originally 
in the area which extended between Syria and 
Mesopotamia and which, including Syria, was the 
oldest centre of the Semites. 

If the hypothesis, presented by F. Hommel 
(Ethnologic, 550), that the land of Magan corresponds 
to Arabic Ma c 5n and forms the starting point for 
the foundation of the South-Arabian kingdom of 
Ma'In, were established — though it would be difficult 
to prove it — the South-Arabian tribe of the Minaeans 
must have detached themselves from Arab nomads 
settled in this country, which had already been 
included in the Babylonian Empire by Naram-Sin 
(2320 to 2284 B.C.). The traditional pro-Babylonian 
policy of the Arabs would, therefore, be under- 
standable because of their old political and cultural 
relations with Babylonia. 

The geographical position of the land of Aribi 
between Syria and Mesopotamia, and the rdle of the 
Arabs in the traffic on the commercial routes leading 
from the Persian Gulf to Syria, from Syria to Egypt 
and Southern Arabia, and along the Wadi Dawasir 
through the highlands of Nadjd to Ma c in, influenced 
historical events in the Near East. The struggle for 
the possession of these important high roads 
characterises the course of history during the last 
two millennia B.C. and the Roman period. 

Already in 738 B.C., during the reign of Tiglat- 
Pilesarlll (745 to 726 B.C.), who had occupied Gaza, 
the terminal point of the "incense" road from 
Southern Arabia to the Mediterranean Sea, Zabibe, 
the queen of the Aribi region, sent tribute to the 
Assyrian king. She probably ruled the oasis of 
Adumu (Dumat al-Diandal) and was high priestess 
of the Kedar tribe, to which the oasis paid tribute. 
In 734 B.C. Tiglat appointed the Arab Idiba'il as 
his representative in the land of Musri (Midian and 
Northern Hidjaz), through which the "incense" road 
passed, and in 732 B.C. he subdued another queen 
of Aribi, Samsl — who had apparently joined a 
coalition of the king of Damascus and several Arab 
tribes, among them Mas'a (Massa in Genesis xxv, 
13 f.), Tema (Tayma'), Khayappa ( c Efa, a Midianite 
tribe in the territory of Hesma, east of Tayma 3 ), 
the Badana (south-east of the oasis of el-'Ela'- 
Daydan) and Sab'a (the Sabaeans) — conquered two 
of her cities and besieged her camp, so that she sent 
white camels as a tribute; the aforementioned Arab 
tribes were also compelled to pay tribute, and 
Idiba'il (the Adbe'el of Genesis xxv, 13), who resided 
near Gaza, was forced to recognise Assyrian suze- 
rainty. In order to be sure of the loyalty of queen 
Samsl's land, Tiglat-Pilesar III appointed a resident 
at her court. As the cities subdued by the Assyrian 
king were situated on the caravan road in southern 
Hawran and northern Hidjaz, it is obvious that the 
object of the struggle was the possession of the 
northern part of the caravan road from Marib to 
Gaza (Ghazza). Nevertheless his success in subduing 
these people was neither complete nor lasting, for 
in 715 B.C. king Sargon II (722 to 705 B.C.) again 
defeated the Khayappa as well as the Tamudi 
(Thamud, west of the oasis of Tayma 3 ) and the 
Marsimani (south of al-'Akaba), and Samsi, queen 
of Aribi, and the SaHaeans are again recorded as 
paying tribute. In 703 B.C. the Arabs (Yati'e was 
then queen of Aribi) helped the Babylonian king 
Marduk-apal-iddina against Sennacherib, king of 
Assyria (705 to 681 B.C.) ; but the Arab troops were I 



KAB 525 

taken prisoner by the Assyrians, and Sennacherib 
seems to have possessed considerable influence over 
the Arabs, as Herodotus (ii, 141) calls him "king of 
the Arabs and Assyrians" (F. Hommel, Ethnologic, 
574). In 689 B.C., after the defeat of Babylon, 
Sennacherib attacked the camps of the Arab clans 
subject to queen Te 3 elkhunu, routed them and 
pursued them into the inner desert around Adum- 
matu (Dumat al-Djandal). The settlers of this large 
oasis were dependent upon the Kedar tribe which 
had control over Northern Arabia (the Palmyrene). 
The queen and priestess of Adummatu, Te 3 elkhunu, 
and her lieutenant Khaza'il, king of Aribi, had taken 
refuge here; the latter, after a dispute with the 
queen, fled into the inner desert, but was pardoned 
by Assarhaddon, Sennacherib's successor, who recog- 
nised him as chief of all the Kedar. Khaza'il died in 
675 B.C., and his son Uaite 3 (Yata 3 ) succeeded him, 
paying a heavy tribute to the Assyrian king, who 
had sent back Te 3 elkhunu's daughter Tabu 3 a to 
Khaza 3 il as queen and priestess. In 676 B.C. Assar- 
haddon made an expedition against the Bazu (Buz) 
and Khazu (Khazo) in the depression of the Wadi 
Sirhan. When Shamash-shum-ukin, the king of 
Babylon, revolted against Assurbanipal, the Kedar 
under Uaite 3 began hostilities against him and 
plundered the western borders of the country 
between Hama' and Edom, but were driven back 
to the desert; when they again plundered the Assy- 
rian provinces, they were forced to flee to Hawran, 
while king Uaite 3 , expelled by his own subjects, who 
were enraged by the devastation of their lands 
during the campaign, was captured and brought to 
Niniveh. The Nabayati and the Kedar, settled in 
the Palmyrene and south of Damascus, and the 
Harar in the southern Sirhan valley were also 
subdued by Assyrian forces coming from Damascus, 
while an auxiliary detachment, which fought in 
Babylon on the side of the Babylonian king, was 
completely destroyed after the capture of that 
capital. Aribi and the tribes of the Nabayati and 
Kedar again recognized Assyrian suzerainty. About 
580 B.C. the Kedar are mentioned as having been 
subdued by Babylon. 

Strenuous efforts had been made during the 
Assyrian period to restore order in Arabia, but as a 
whole this was an impossible task. The utmost that 
could be achieved, was the protection of the important 
trade routes and the punishment of razzias, under- 
taken by the independent or rebellious tribes. If the 
title of "kings" reappears frequently in the Assyrian 
records, this title scarcely meant more than a local 
chief or shaykh. and it is much later before a really 
kinglike power is exercised by these Arabian chiefs. 
So "the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the 
Arabs, who live in the desert", of whom Jeremiah 
xxv, 23 f. foretells the ruin, are the nomad chiefs. 
The kings of Arabia are the chiefs of the settlements, 
e.g. the inhabitants of the oasis of Buz in the depres- 
sion of Wadi Sirhan. Some of these settlements are 
occupied by the Neo-Babylonian kings, e.g. Tayma 3 , 
which was occupied by Nabonid (552 to 545 B.C.). 
Some years later (539 B.C.) Arab warriors helped 
King Cyrus II to take Babylonia (Xenophon, 
Cyropaedia, vii, 4, 16; v, 13). 

When the Near East was annexed to the Achae- 
menid Empire, the Arabs again furnished camel 
troops to the Great King of Persia, e.g. to Xerxes 
(Herodotus, vii, 86), but sometimes the Arabs also 
joined the kings of Asia Minor in their struggle 
against Persia; for instance their king Aragdes (or 
Maragdes, Kharidja?) was a confederate of Croesus 



526 AL- C . 

(Xenophon, Cyropaedia, ii, i, 5). The "King of the 
Arabs" mentioned in Herodotus (iii, 4) may be a 
king of the Lihyanites (the Laianitai of Agatharchi- 
des; the latter had- occupied the Northern Hidjaz, 
i.e. the colony of the Minaeans known as Musran 
("border-land") in the land of Midian, with the 
centre of Agra-Hegra, between 500 and 300 B.C., 
and were followed by the Nabataeans. 

When Alexander the Great had conquered the 
Achaemenid Empire, he also subdued Arabia ac- 
cording to Livy (xlv 9) and Pliny (Nat. Hist, xii, 62). 
The Arabs now had to supply clothes and arms to 
the Greek army, and they participated in military 
actions, e.g. in the defence of Gaza (Arrian, Anabasis, 
ii, 25, 4, Curtius Rufus, Memorabilia, iv, 6, 30) and 
in the battle of Raphia (217 B.C.) on the side of Anti- 
ochus III. Although the western part of Arabia was 
occupied by Ptolemy after the death of Alexander, 
the majority of the Arabs joined Antiochus (Polybius, 
v, 71); presumably these Arabs are the predecessors 
of the Nabataeans. Arab colonies, established at the 
foot of the Lebanon and in Syria, mainly served the 
traffic on the great commercial route Petra-Damascus- 
Mesopotamia (Pliny, Nat. Hist., vi, 142 ; Strabo, xvi, 
749, 755, 756), as nomad Arabs ("ApaPe? Sx7)viTat) 
were also settled by Tigranes with this end in view 
(Plutarch, Lucullus, 21; Pliny, Nat. Hist., vi, 142). 
In the Mithridatian war Arabs fought along side the 
Romans, but in the Syrian war they harassed the 
Roman army under Pompey and were defeated by 
him. Arabs served with Cassius (53 B.C.) and Crassus 
against the Parthians. The Roman policy of winning 
over Arabs as confederates and auxiliaries against 
their own kindred in the Arabian-Syrian desert and 
against the Parthians was continued and extended 
by the Eastern Roman Emperors. The Arabian- 
Syrian border-land was under the rule of the Ghas- 
sanids [q.v.] as phylarchs, as was the border-land of 
the Euphrates in Southern Babylonia (al-Hira) 
which remained under the rule of the Lakhmids [q.v.] 
until 602 A.D. 

In the meantime Arabs had even infiltrated in the 
4th century A.D. into Southern Arabia apparently 
in connection with camel-breeding and traffic on the 
"incense" road. They are mentioned in the Sabaean 
inscriptions as A'rab and form a notable part of the 
population, along with the ancestral sedentary 
population. Their importance is emphasised by the 
mention of these A'rab in the title and style of the 
Sabaean ruler. But this political position did not 
prevent their kindred in North-West Arabia from 
entering into warlike disputes with the South 
Arabian kings. King Amr al-Kays b. 'Amr besieged 
Nadjran, which belonged to the king Shammar 
Yur'ish, and it may have been this Amr al-Kays 
who put an end to the prevailing influence of South 
Arabia in the region of 'Asir and Southern Hidjaz. 

At the beginning of the fourth century, the afore- 
mentioned Amr al-Kays b. 'Amr, who succeeded 
in gaining power over the tribes of Asad and Nizar 
and called himself "king of all the Arabs", put a 
detachment of Arab cavalry at the disposal of 
the Romans. This fact is clearly stated in the 
Nabataean inscription of al-Namara dated 328 A.D. 

From the end of the fourth century A.D. for 
about a hundred years the princes of the family of 
DadjS'ima, the leaders of the tribe of Banu Salih, 
were vassals of the Byzantine Empire on the Syrian 
border, and held territories there which were gradu- 
ally yielded to the Ghassanids in the second half 
of the fifth century A.D. Unfortunately we do not I 
learn very much about them from Arabic sources. I 



About the middle of the 4th century A.D., the 
tribe of Kinda [q.v.'], which after a long struggle 
with Hadramut, to which it was inferior, had to 
leave the Yaman, and migrated to the country of 
Ma'add, where it settled at Ghamr Dhl Kinda in 
the south-western corner of Nadjd, two days journey 
from Makka. Although the leaders of Kinda, as 
kings of the tribes of Rabl'a and Mudar, may have 
possessed a certain influence on the Bedouin tribes 
in Nadjd from the time when they settled there, the 
real kingdom of Kinda, governing a coalition of 
Arabian tribes in close connection with the Himy- 
arite Power in the Yaman, actually begins with 
Hudjr Akil al-Murar. Yamani tradition says that he 
was made king of Ma'add, when Tubba' ibn Karib 
invaded al-'Irak, but possibly the attacks, directed 
against Persia or its vassals in al-Hira, were made 
by the Kindites supported by the Himyarites. It is 
further said that Hudjr made military expeditions 
with the tribes of Rabi'a to al-Bahrayn and at the 
head of the Banu Bakr attacked the frontiers of the 
Lakhmids. depriving them of their possessions in 
the country of Bakr, so that Hudjr is called "King of 
the Arabs in Nadjd and of the border-lands of al- 
'Irak". His dominion probably comprised most of 
Central Arabia including al-Yamama, and he died 
after a long and successful reign; he was buried in 
Batn 'Akil on the road between Makka and al- 
Basra south of the WadI al-Rumma. After his 
death about 478 A.D., the tribe of Rabi'a denied 
'Amr al-Maksur, son of Hudjr, the dominions of his 
father; we find the tribe of Rabi'a now under the 
guidance of Kulayb Wa'il, leader of the Banu 
Taghlib, and at war with the Himyarites, who 
supported 'Amr b. Hudjr. Kulayb as well as 'Amr 
were killed in these struggles about the last decade 
of the fifth century (<;. 490 A.D.). With al-Harith ibn 
'Amr the dynasty of Kinda attained its greatest 
power. He is known to the Byzantine historians as 
Arethas, chief of the Saracens, and concluded an 
alliance with the Romans, directed against Persia 
and the Lakhmids of al-Hira. In the struggles and 
expeditions against the latter, the tribes of Bakr and 
Taghlib played the most important rdle (about 
503 A.D.). 

At any rate al-Harith succeeded in uniting the 
tribes of the Nadjd into a great kingdom and made 
invasions into Roman as well as Persian territory. 
The statement that al-Harith subjugated Syria and 
the Ghassanid kings may be an exaggeration. The 
peace of 502 A.D. put an end to the war against 
the Romans, and in the following year (503 A.D.) 
al-Harith's troops attacked al-Hira, doubtless with 
the consent and help of the Romans. Al-Harijh 
became master of all the Arabs in al-'Irak (503- 
506 A.D.), and the Lakhmid al-Mundhir, who got 
no assistance at all from his suzerain, the Persian 
king Kubadh, submitted to al-Harith and married 
his daughter Hind. However, the domination of the 
Lakhmid country was not complete; according to 
a South Arabian tradition, by an agreement between 
Kubadh and al-Harith, the Euphrates or the canal 
al-Sara near the Tigris not far from Baghdad was 
fixed as the northern boundary of al-Harith's ter- 
ritory, and it is said, that, after King Anushirwan. 
had restored al-Mundhir to power in al-Hira, al- 
Harith kept what was on the other side of "the river 
of al-Sawad" until 527-28 A.D. So the Kindite inter- 
regnum in al-Hira may have lasted some time 
between the years 525 to 528 A.D., when the Persian 
Empire was weakened by the Mazdakite movement. 
It seems, that al-Harith for some period even ruled 



over al-'Irak as far as 'Uman, possibly as a feofec of 
the Persian king Kubadh. After the fall of the Maz- 
dakites al-Harith had to flee; he lost all his property 
and 48 members of his family were puf to death by 
al-Mundhir. He nevertheless could again approach 
the Romans and was even appointed as a phy larch 
of the Arabs, on the side of East-Roman Empire. 
In 528 A.D., the date of his death, he is mentioned 
in this position by Byzantine sources. With his 
death the second climax of the K indite power in 
Arabia came to an end. Al-Harith had divided his 
dominion, comprising all Nadjd, great parts of al- 
Hidjaz, aj-Bahrayn and al-Yamama, between his 
sons, who had been placed as chiefs over the tribes 
of Ma'add. His eldest son Hudjr, who had a certain 
supremacy over the whole kingdom of Kinda, was 
killed in a rebellion of the tribe of Asad. Between 
Shurahbll and Salama, ruling the tribes of Rabi'a 
and Tamim and possessing the eastern half of the 
kingdom of Kinda, a discord arose concerning the 
division of power after their father's death, and 
Shurahbll was killed in the battle of al-Kulab (a 
well between al-Kufa and al- Basra) a few years after 
J30 A.D.; it is highly probable that this dissension 
was caused or nourished by the intrigues of al- 
Mandh,ir, whom the Banu Tagblib as well as the 
Bakr joined after the expulsion of "the victorious 
Salama, Ma c dikarib, the chief of the Kays-'Aylan, 
went mad, or fell in the battle of Uwara, and the 
fifth son of Hudjr, 'Abdallah, who ruled over the 
Kabf'a tribe of <Abd al-Kays, in al-Bahrayn, is not 
mentioned further. So the kingdom of the family 
of H u di r Akil al-Murar broke down, and the Kinda, 
or considerable parts of them, migrated to Hadramiit, 
where they settled about 543 A.D. according to a 
Sabaean inscription at the dam of Marib. Hudjr's 
son, the famous poet Irnra 1 al-Kays, tried in vain to 
regain the power of his father with the help of the 
Byzantine Emperor, and died in Angara perhaps 
before the year 554 A.D. A cousin of Imra' al-Kays, 
Kays ibn Salama, chief of the Kinda and Ma'add, 
is possibly identical with Kaisos (Kitao?), who 
received from the Emperor the governorship of 
Palestine and defeated the Lakhmid al-Mundhir 
b. al-Nu'man, who died in 554 A.D. 

The disputes and struggles between the nomad 
tribes in Arabia are listed under the well known 
"Ayyam al-'Arab", and an expedition to Khavbar 
in 567 A.D. is referred to in the Arabic inscription of 
Harran (dated ; 68 A.D. ). That there existed "kings" • 
of individual tribes along with those mentioned 
here is proved by a Nabataean inscription found in 
Umm al-Djimal and dating from about 250 A.D., in 
which a king of Tariukh is mentioned. 

Bibliography: O. Blau, Arabien im sechsten 
Jahrhundert, ZDMO, 1869, 579 ff.; E. Glaser, 
Skitze der Geschichtt und Geographic Arabiens, ii, 
Berlin 1890, 232 ff.; idem, Zwei Inschriften iiber 
den Dammbruch von Mdrib, MVAG 1897, 55; 
M. Hartmann, Die Arabisihc Frage, Der islamische 
Orient ii, Leipzig 1909, 479 ff. ; F. Hommel, 
Ethnologic und Geographic des alien Orients, 
{Handbuch der klassischen Alieriumswissenscha/t 
von W. Otto, III. Abtl. I, Tei!, Bd. I, Munich 
1936), 550, 578 ff. E. Mittwoch, Proelia Arabum 
paganorum (Dissertation, Berlin r899). B- Moriti, 
Der Sinaikultus in heidnischer Zeit, Preuss. Akad. 
d. Wissensch. Abh. Neue Folge XVI, Berlin 19 r?, 
8, 50.53. De Lacy O'Leary, Arabia before Muham- 
mad, London Kj2 7, 52. A. Musi I, Northern He(di, 
New York 19*7, 388-391; Arabia Deserta, New 
York 1937, 477-497; Northern Nc(d, New York 



AB 52? 

1928, 224 ff. Th. NStdeke, Die Ghass&nischen 
Fiirsten aus dem Hausc Ga/na's Abh. Akad., 
Berlin 1887. .Gunnar Olinder, The Kings of Kinda 
or' the family of Akil al-Murar, Lunds Universitets. 
Arskrift, Lund 1937, 32 ff,, 45 ff. G. Rothstein, 
Die Dynastic der Lahmiden in al-ffira, Berlin 
r8g9, H. Winckler, Geschichtt Babyloniens und 
Assyrians, Leipzig 1893, i, 94, 265-7, 286-8 j 
Ausxvg aus der vorderasiatischen GeschichU, 
Leipzig 1905, 70-3; T. Weiss Rosmarin, in 
Journal of the Society of Oriental Research, 193X, 
1-37 (cuneiform data); I. Rabinowitz, in Journal 
of Near Eastern Studies, xv (r 9 56) 1-9; W. F. 
Albright, The Biblical tribe of Massa' and some 
congeners, Studi Orientalistici in onore di G. Levi 
delta Vida, i, 1-14; J. Starcky, Palmyrc (VOrient 
ancien illustri no. 7, Paris 1952), 36 note T4, 67, 
88; S. Smith, Events in Arabia in (he sixth century 
A.D., BSOAS, xvi, ^54, 425-68; M. Guidi, 
Storia e Cultura degli Arabi, Florence 1951; W. 
Caskel, Entdeckungen in Arabien, Arbeitsgcmein- 
schaft fur Forschung des Landcs Nordrkcin-West- 
falen, Hft. 30, 1954. (A, Grohmann) 



If the expansion of the Arabs is regarded as a 
continuous process certain permanent features can 
be detected: the expansion consists usually in the 
emigration of large or small nomadic groups, rarely 
in that of groups with permanent habitations; it 
-may be military, by means of service in foreign 
armies or in their own army which has set out for 
conquest; or through the founding of trading colonies. 
Apart from this last case, the extent of emigration 
depends partly on particular coincidences, partly on 
a recurrent, but incalculable, factor, the increase in 
the pressure of population in Arabia, This is brought 
about by the decline of cultivation (in South Arabia 
also of industry) and of the caravan trade (in 
Islamic times also of the pilgrim traffic) ; there is a 
corresponding increase in the nomadic population. 
The expansion was preceded by the immigration 
into the central parts of the peninsula, which had 
been sparsely occupied by an earlier population. 
It was facilitated by the taming of the camel in 
the second ( ?) half of the second millennium B.C. 
Nor is it likely that the occupation of South Arabia 
took place earlier, to judge from the philological, 
ethnological and archeological evidence. The forerun- 
ners of these immigrants into South Arabia were 
presumably traders who followed the ancient trade 
routes into the land of incense and myrrh. A little 
later the Arabs begun to expand in the North, 
at first in the direction of Sinai and Transjordan. 
The evidence of the inscriptions shows that in 
853 they were present in the north of the Syrian 
desert, shortly afterwards on both edges of the 
Fertile Crescent; they were camel-breeders, oasis- 
dwellers, traders. This formed the chief objective 
of the Arab -expansion, 't did not, however, .remain 
the only one, as the emigration of the Sabaeans into 
Ethiopia (about 400?) shows. It depended on the 
strength of the various states of the Fertile Crescent 
whether this immigration could be canalised in the 
form of colonisation, and, on the borders, of semi- 
nomadic life, or whether it led to the flooding of the 
cultivated land by nomads. In the 1st century B.C. 
the nomads (Scenites) on the near side of the 
Euphrates crossed the border of the arable land 
as far as the tine Apamaea-Thapsacus, while in the 
Djazlra they roved as far as the border of the arable 



land to the south of the Khabiir and the Sindjar. 
We cannot here examine exceptional developments, 
like that of the trading state of the Nabataeans 
which expanded in the same century, in the north 
to the Hawran, in the south to N.-W. Arabia. 

The incorporation of the Syrian part of the 
Nabataean kingdom in 105 A.D., and the abandon- 
ment of the Roman sphere of interest in N.-W. 
Arabia some sixty years later, shook the security 
of these countries. It is, however, impossible to 
discern what were the consequences of the in- 
cursions of the "Saracens" in the west and of the 
Tayyi 5 settled in the central mountain ridges of 
North Arabia (al-Djabal). Different is the case of 
the entry of two tribes into the steppe lying between 
the Lower Euphrates and the sandy desert, which 
was perhaps originated by Ardashlr I, the first 
Sasanid (d. 241). They were the Tanukh and Asad 
(2), who came from East Arabia; and they were 
followed by Nizar from Middle and Western Arabia. 
The Nizar, with the exception of Iyad, were absorbed 
by the population of the Euphrates frontiers; the 
Tanukh and the Asad, on the other hand, continued 
their wanderings, the Tanukh, for the most part, to 
Northern Syria and the Asad to the south of the 
Hawran. Since the 4th century these countries saw 
also the arrival of tribes from West Arabia. In 

(from the 3rd century ?) and its extinction (at the 
latest in the 5 th century) had led to the bedouin- 
isation of part of the population of South Arabia. 
Groups of such tribes, taking part in military 
expeditions of the Himyarite kings, reached the 
district of Nadjran and also Central Arabia (e.g. 
Kinda). All through the 6th century we can observe 
an advance into the north, sped forward initially by 
the campaigns of the kings of Kinda; its path lay 
along the northerly 'Arid = Tuwayk to the steppe 
on the lower Euphrates (Bakr, Tamlm), from Bisha 
to the WadI al-Ruma ( c Amir), from the country 
north of Medina in the direction of Palmyra (Bahra 5 , 
Kalb). The Taghlib, dwelling formerly on the lower 
Euphrates, moved upstream and settled at the 
beginning of Islam in the Djazlra to the north of the 
Sindjar. 

The expansion at the beginning of the Islam came 
about in the first place through enlistment in the 
armies and auxiliary troops which were sent by 
Medina to the Euphrates, to Transjordania and to 
Southern Palestine and after that conquered al- 
'Irak, Syria and al-Djazira; later through partici- 
pation in the campaigns which led, across the Persian 
Gulf or from the garrison cities of Kufa and Basra, to 
Iran, from Damascus to Egypt, North Africa and 
Spain. It occurred further through the displacement 
of tribes from Transjordania to Palestine (in the 
north 'Amila and Djudham, in the south Lakhm); 
the emigration of parts of Bali and Djuhayna from 
the Hidjaz to Egypt ; through continuous infiltration 
of families and groups into the garrison towns and 
the Djazlra; and through resettlement of the people 
of Kufa and Basra in Khurasan. With the enrolment 
of 400 families of the Sulaym and other West 
Arabian Kaysites as colonists for Lower Egypt, 
followed spontaneously by three times their number, 
the first period of expansion in Islamic times ends. 
The curtain between the Fertile Crescent and Arabia 
falls again. 

It took a considerable time before the loss which 
the population of Arabia incurred by the emigration 
during and after the campaigns of conquests was 
made good again. The first new movement led from 



the Djabal towards the north-east : before the middle 
of the 9th century the Asad (1) began to advance 
along the pilgrims' road of Kufa, and Tayyi 5 followed 
close on their heels. In the second half of the 10th 
century, quarrels under the Buwayhids allowed the 
Asad to penetrate into the cultivated land; a part 
of them wandered on to Khuzistan. where already 
before Islam a small Arab island (Tamim) had been 
formed. In the meanwhile the campaigns of the 
Karmatians of East Arabia into 'Irak (311-25/923- 
37), Syria and Egypt (353-68/964-78/9), had driven 
new waves of migration to the north: Khafadja 
('Ukayl) moved out of East Arabia into the steppe 
on the lower Euphrates, followed in the nth century 
by Muntafik (also of 'Ukayl). Their place in East 
Arabia was filled by tribes which immigrated from 
c Um5n; part of these too later moved to 'Irak. Some 
Tayyi 5 settled in southern Transjordania, and 
subsequently acquired the overlordship over the 
older immigrants of the same tribe in Palestine. The 
stream of tribes from South Palestine to Egypt, which 
began in early Islamic times, began again in the 
middle of the nth century (originated by orders of 
the government), until in the late Middle Ages it was 
brought to a halt by a movement in the opposite 
direction. Since the end of the 12th century there 
is a trickle of Djudham from Northern Hidjaz over 
Sinai to Egypt and particularly to Transjordania, 
until in the 17th century this source dries up. They 
are followed by Bali. Finally since the end of the 
15th century groups of the pariah tribe of Hutaym 
penetrate into the same districts from the territory 
east of Khaybar. Meanwhile a new expansion had 
begun in the Djabal. Around 1200 the Ghazivva 
(Tayyi 5 ) appeared in the north between Trans- 
jordania and 'Irak, the Banu Lam (also of Tayyi') 
in the south between Medina and the Kasim. Since 
the 15th century Ghaziyya camped on the Eu- 
phrates, but did not cross it for good till around 
1800. The Banu Lam penetrated at the end of the 
15th century to the northern frontier of the Hidjaz, 
but were repelled by the Ottomans, and following 
their ancient route turned in the middle of the 
16th century to the east, and on to the lower Tigris 
and Khuzistan. 

The last great emigration, that of Shammar and 
'Anaza, commenced in the same district. At the end 
of the 17th century the ghammar came from the 
Djabal to the frontier of 'Irak. 'Anaza (whose 
territory had been till that time from Mada?in 
Salih to the Kasim) penetrated at the same time, 
accompanied by the Banu Sakhr, as far as Trans- 
jordania. In the 18th century 'Anaza, coming 
from S.-W. and S.-E., occupied the Syrian desert. 
Into the midst of this movement burst the cam- 
paigns of the Wahhabis. In the nineties the 
Shammar-Djarba left their homeland occupied by 
the Wahhabis and went to the Euphrates. At 
the beginning of 1802 they crossed it with the 
agreement of the government and soon pushed on 
into the Djazira up to the edge of the mountains 
of Asia Minor. Other parts of 'Anaza reached the 
Syrian Desert together with the troops of the 
Wahhabis or in the course of flight from their 
tax-collectors. 

As the result of the progress of agriculture 
in North Arabia since 191 1 and the exploitation of 
the oil resources in the last two decades, the expans- 
ion of the Arabs has ended for the moment. 

Some features of the expansion must still be 
mentioned, which it was not possible to fit into this 
article: the settlement on the Iranian coast of the 



.-'ARAB 



529 



Persian Gulf (which had pre- Islamic antecedents); 
the foundation of trading colonies on the coasts and 
the islands of the Indian Ocean from the early to 
the late Middle Ages: Malabar, Madagascar, East 
Africa (Peta-Kilwa, with antecedents in the ancient 
South Arabian period); the more recent colonial 
policy of 'Uman; the continuous emigration from 
Hadramawt, which in the 19th century was princi- 
pally, but not exclusively, directed towards Indonesia 
(mercenaries in Haydarabad); and infiltration into 
Upper Egypt across the Red Sea. (W. Caskel) 

(in) t 



The Arab conquest of Iran brought a part of the 
Arab people to that country. There appear to be 
two separate developments in settlement. (1) The 
immigration from the opposite Arab coast to the 
south coast of Iran along the Persian Gulf. The 
Arabs also spread in a south-easterly direction along 
the coast from the mouth of the Euphrates and 
Tigris. Apparently Arab settlements could be found 
here already in pre- Islamic times (see A. Chris tensen: 
L'lran sous Us Sassanides', 87, 128). The number of 
Arabs increased considerably here in early Islamic 
times; there is, for example, explicit mention as 
settlers of the c Abd al-Kays from the coast of 'Uman 
(al'Baladhuri, 386, 392; al-Istakhrl, 142; Ibn al- 
Athlr (Bulak), iii, 49). From then on Arab settlements 
remained along the coast and at some places inland 
(e.g. Mahan, in the district of Bardslr, 985 A.D.: al- 
MakdisI, iii, 462) until at least the times of the 
Mongols (B. Spuler: Die Mongolen in Iran, 'Leipzig 
I 955> 142, 149 f., 164). It seems reasonable to 
suppose that there is a connection between those 
settlements and the ones of today, in view of the 
continued migration of Arabs across the Persian 
Guy and from Basra. (2) There was a second influx 
of Arab settlers into Iran from Mesopotamia. In the 
7th century Arab colonies were formed in several 
towns such as Kashan, Hamadan and Isfahan; 
Kumm became a predominantly Arab (and Shl'ite) 
town, and remained so for a considerable time (al- 
Baladhuri, 314, 403, 410, 426; Narshakhl (Schefer), 
52; Ibn al-Athir (Bulak), v, 15; E. G. Browne, 
Account of a rare ms. hist, of Isfahan, Hertford 1901, 
27 [offprint from JRAS, 1901]; B. Spuler: Iran 
(see Bibl.] 179). The number of Arab settlers in 
Adharbaydjan (al-Baladhurl, 328, 331 ; al-Tabarl, i, 
2805 f.; Ibn Hawkal', 353; al-Ya c kObi, TaWkh, ii, 
446; Aghdni 1 , xi, 59) was apparently much smaller. 
Khurasan, however, remained the main goal 
throughout all these migrations. The actual settle- 
ment was partly made by large groups: there are 
reports of 25,000 from Basra and an equal number 
from Kufa, who arrived in 52/672 ; a further batch 
reached the country in 683. On the basis of this 
number of men capable of bearing arms (50,000) 
and in view of the strictness of recruiting, J. Well- 
hausen (cf. Bibl.) estimates the number of Arab 
settlers in the beginning of the 8th century at 
200,000. They did not live only in the towns — 
where in some cases quarters were put at their 
disposal after the conquest — but were scattered all 
over the country, as for example in the oasis of 
Marw, where they acquired possessions and adapted 
themselves to the dihkdns* way of living. The 
geographical contours of Khurasan suited the Arabs 
very well: they could easily travel across the large 
plains and the steppes, although they were somewhat 
more awkward than the natives both at crossing rivers 
and in the mountains (cf. Barthold, Turkestan, 182). 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



The main body of Arabs in Khurasan had come 
from Basra. Of the tribes settled there, the Kays 
(especially in the 8th century: al-Tabari, ii 1929) 
were in the majority in the west, while the Tamlm 
and Bakr were mixed together in the east and in 
SIstan; thus the outcome of inter-tribal feuds was 
varied. Ibn al-Athir (Bulak, v, 6) states their numbers 
for 715 as follows: Basrans 9,000, Bakr 7,000, Tamlm 
10,000, <Abd al-Kays 4,000, Azd 10,000, Kufans 
7,000 (= 47,000 which tallies almost exactly with 
the above mentioned number for Kufans and 
Basrans); in addition altogether 7,000 mawali of 
these tribes. (In this list the people from Basra and 
from Kufa must stand for elements from the two 
towns which could not be reckoned among the tribes 
mentioned). The tribal divisions valid in Basra were 
taken over into Khurasan. On the one side were the 
Rabl'a (= Bakr and <Abd al-Kays) and the Yama- 
nite Azd (who had arrived later), and on the other 
the Tamim and Kays (collectively known as 
"Mudar"), who were very pround of their descent 
[cf. articles on these]. The bloody battle between 
these began in connexion with the great civil war 
for the Caliphate in 683; a static war raged outside 
Harat for one year, 64-5/684-5 between Bakr and 
Tamlm (al-Tabarl, ii, 490-6), which eventually came 
to an end because of internal dissensions among 
the Tamlm. Inspite of the fact that a neutral 
Kurayshite became governor in 74/693-4, fighting 
continued until 81/700 (al-Tabarl, ii, 859-62). The 
attitude of the governor often made the difference 
between victory and defeat, and his attitude, in 
turn, depended to a great extent on the party 
divisions in the west (Syria and Mesopotamia). In 
85-6/704-5, the ascendancy of the Azd and Rabl'a 
was temporarily checked by a change of governors. 
Kutayba b. Muslim, the conqueror of Transoxania, 
who was not linked to either of the powerful groups 
by descent, tried to remain neutral. It was thanks 
to him that the Arabs had the chance of spreading 
to Samarkand, Bukhara and Kh'arizm, often 
moving into specially cleared quarters (al-Baladhurl, 
410, 421 f.; al-Tabari, ii, 156; Ibn al-Athir (Bulak), 
iii, 194; Narshakhl, 52). After his death the Azd 
resumed power under Yazld II, until the Tamlm took 
over in 720. The misrule of the latter and of the 
Kays brought Umayyad rule in Khurasan into such 
disrepute that even the open-minded governor Nasr 
b. Sayyar could not find a way to settle the disputes 
of the opposing groups after 744. The 'Abbasid 
revolution, caused largely by the behaviour of the 
Arabs, passed them by. Its victory in 748-50 brought 
about new conditions for the Arabs in the east. 

A few of the Arabs had, of course, entered into 
friendly relations with the Iranians soon after the 
conquest of Khurasan. Some of the marzbans and 
dihkins had come quickly to terms with the Arab 
rule and the Arabs frequently took part in the 
cultural life of the Iranians (especially the celebrat- 
ions of the nawrui and the mihragdn, as, similarly, 
they had also done in Egypt on the occasion of 
Coptic festivities). There were mixed marriages 
(mentioned expressly only where more prominent 
persons were concerned, yet even more likely to 
have taken place among the ordinary people) and 
the descendants of such unions in Iran were undoub- 
tedly inclined to attach themselves to, and disappear 
among, the islamicised Iranians. In addition, there 
were cases of Arabs (as, for instance, Musa b. c Abd 
Allah b. Khazim in Tirmidh) who quarrelled with 
the government and joined forces politically with 
the natives. Furthermore, since the time of 'Umar II 

34 



530 



7I7-2Q, there was a growing religious 
among some Arabs (such as Harith b. Suraydj) which 
demanded — with increasing insistance — equal treat- 
ment for the Iranian Muslims (cf. Wellhausen, 
Das arab. Reich, 280). Hence the many attempts to 
come to a reasonable solution of the question of the 
personal and land taxes where converted Iranians 
were concerned. In any case, one has the impression 
that the tribal feeling was more and more superseded 
by a new, predominantly religious, grouping from 
round about 720 onwards, when a new process of 
assimilation began which became important for the 
general feeling of pan-Arab unity. From this time 
onwards, political events can no longer be explained 
as deriving their main spring from tribal feuds. 

Because of this, Umayyad politics, which had been 
built up on the tribal structure, were doomed, and 
the future belonged to the 'Abbasid movement (and 
also to that of the 'Alids connected with the former 
in the beginning) which worked on a different basis. 
The collaboration between the Arabs, who often took 
a leading part in the 'Abbasid movement, on the 
one hand, and the Iranians on the other, went 
smoothly — at least until the fall of the Umayyads 
(nor was there much friction on a national basis 
subsequently). Hence the victory of the years 746-50 : 
at that time, however, the greater part of Arabs in 
Abu Muslim's army spoke Persian (al-Tabari, iii, 
51, <>4 f-)- 

There were, however, Arabs, who took no part in 
this process of assimilation. The greater part of these 
were pushed out of Khurasan in the course of the 
'Abbasid campaign. The remaining settlers, towards 
whom the Iranians showed no more animosity, were 
politically (i.e. as Arabs) of little importance. Tribal 
warfare now ceased completely, although some 
tribes are still mentioned in the 10th century (cf. 
the authorities quoted below). Assimilation continued, 
however, without interruption so that many Arabs 
eventually merged completely with the Iranians: 
more quickly, certainly, where they lived in isolation 
on their estates (as for instance in the oasis of Marw). 
One must also take into account a further distribution 
of the Arab element all over the country during the 
'Abbasid period, and further immigration from the 
west. Consequently there were places which had a 
partly Arab population as late as the nth and 12th 
century, though the gradual decrease in their num- 
bers is already recognisable in the 10th century. 
Detailed statements regarding this are rather rare: 
compare for Isfahan: al-Ya'kubl, Buldan, 274, for 
various places in Khurasan, ibid., 294; al-Istakhri 
322/323, Ibn Hawkal*, 499; al-MakdisI, 292, 303; for 
Kashan: Hudud al-'Alam, 133, and ibid. 104, 108, 216 
(Pjuzdjan); al-Djahiz, Tria opuscula, (van Vloten), 
40; AghanP, xiv, 102, xvii, 69; Djuwayni, ii, 46, 
(read manzilgah-i 'Arab); S. A. Volin, K istorii 
sredtuaziatskikh arabov, (in the Trudy vtoroy sessii 
assotsiatsii arabistov, Moscow and Leningrad 1941), 
124; B. Spuler, Iran, 250. The family histories in Ibn 
al-Balkhl, Fars-ndma, xix f. = 116 f., and Kurami, 
Ta'rikh-i Kumm (Tihrani), 266-305 (family of al- 
Ash'ari) are most illuminating for the gradual 
assimilation of Arab families of civil servants into 
the Persian people. 

Bibliography: A. v. Kremer, Culturgeschichte 
des Orients, Vienna 1875-7 (especially ii, 143); 
J. Wellhausen, Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz, 
Berlin 1902, especially 247-352; W. Barthold, Tur- 
kestan, index ; idem K istorii oroshlniya Turkestuna, 
St. Petersburg 1914, in f., 126; P. Schwarz, Iran, 
viii, 1181-5 (Adharbaydjan) B. Spuler: Iran in 



The origin of the Arabs living at the present day 
in Central Asia, and apparently also in Afghan 
Turkistan (where they speak Persian: The Imperial 
Gazeteer of India, V, Oxford 1908, 68; without definite 
mention of places) can not (or not yet) be fixed 
with certainty. According to their own tradition, 
they were brought there by Timur, and they men- 
tion the Andkhuy [?.«.] district in Afghanistan and 
the nearby Ak£a (in the privonce of Mazar-i SJiarif) 
as the site of their original settlement, and KarsM, 
Bukhara and Hisar as places through which they 
had passed. There is, however, no mention of Timur 
re-settling Arabs, in the sources concerning his life, 
nor can his son-in-law, Mir Haydar, who is frequently 
mentioned in the oral tradition, be identified. On 
the other hand there is proof that inhabitants of 
Marw were transplanted to Bukhara, and those of 
Balkh, Shaburg&an and Andkhuy into the Zaraf- 
shan valley in the year 15 13 ('Ubayd Allah, Zu\dat 
al-Athar, in the Zap. Vostoinago Otdlleniya, J|tV, 
202 f.). We know, furthermore, that migration, of 
"Arabs" was still possible in the first half of the 
16th century between (Persian) 'Irak on the pne 
side, and the areas of Bukhara, Samarkand and jthe 
valley of the Kashka Darya on the other ( c ^bd 
Allah b. Muhammad al-Marwarid: Tarassul, qucjted 
by Volin 121-3; cf. also H. R. Roemer, Stapts- 
schreiben der Timuridenzeit, Wiesbaden 1952, 94 f., 
177, with facsimile 38b-3ga [without the factual Rart 
of the document]). 

Thus it appears that the Arabs living in Central 
Asia today are not the immediate descendants of 
the immigrants of early Islamic times [see above jiii], 
although one must allow for the possibility of an 
association with these settlers, who had already 
been Iranised in the nth and 12th centuries. In the 
1 6th century, the Central Asian Arabs were under 
a mir hazar who collected taxes for the government ; 
they were generally known as nomads (a'rdb) (in 
addition to the above mentioned document cf. also 
an tnsAa-collection of Samarkand of ca. 1530, pub- 
lished by Volin 1 17-20). In the 17th and 18th centuries 
there is no information concerning these Arabs, but 
there is mention of them in the beginning of the 19th 
century, especially in various travel reports (quoted 
by Volin). Here we must distinguish two concepts: 

(1) A close group marked by strict endogamy, 
who are, however, in their physical appearance 
hardly different from their Iranian neighbours; 
they call themselves "Arabs" but accepted the 
language of the country they live in. There is a group 
of Tadjik and a group of Uzbek-speaking "Arabs' 
in the Samarkand area. Travellers mention similar 
groups of "Arabs" in Turkmenistan, Khlwa, Far- 
ghSna and mountain Tadjikistan. In the 19th 
century their number was assessed at between 50 
and 60,000; Vinnikov (see Bibl.), 9, sticks to these 
numbers (in spite of the result of the census), in 
1926. In the 19th century these "Arabs" were still 
under a mir hazar, but by this time he no longer 
exercised any fiscal function. The figure mentioned 
in a Soviet census of 1926 is 28,978, that of 1939, 
21,793. According to this it would appear that these 
groups of "Arabs" who already spoke the language 
of their area, were absorbed more, and more into 
their Uzbek or Tadjik surroundings. Their economic 
also like that of their neighbours. As 



survivals of the matriarchal system, however, we 
still find the institution of the "avunculate" (a 
special connection between the nephew and his 
maternal uncle and the marriage of first cousins), 
in which at least one third of these "Arabs" lived 
before the revolution. (Compare M. O. Kosven, 
Avunkulal in Sovetskaya Etnogra/iya, 1948, no. i). 
(2) From these self-styled "Arabs" (obviously in 
a historical sense), we must distinguish groups 
which still speak Arabic. According to the above 
mentioned documents, it appears that this distinction 
goes back as far as the 16th century. This would 
mean that the settlement of these Arabs must have 
taken place some generations earlier, otherwise 
there could have been (in the case of nomads) no 
possibility of a partial linguistic assimilation. The 
Soviet census of 1926 gives the figure 4,655 for these 
Arabs, who can be divided into the dialectally 
different tribes of Sa'noni and Sa'boni. They live 
largely in Uzbekistan (2,170) and in Tadjikistan 
(2,274). In 1939, Arab speaking inhabitants of 
Uzbekistan numbered about 1,750. It would appear 
that the Russian census of 1897, mentioning 1696 
Arabs, had only the Arab speaking ones in mind; 
yet some doubt about this figure must remain, in 
view of the numbers mentioned in later years. 
Apparently this group, too, is in the process of being 
assimilated by its surroundings. 

The language of these Arabs has developed from 
a Mesopotamian dialect but has (like Maltese) 
developed into an independent branch of Arabic, 
and has split in two. The Central Asian Arabic 
language developed p and I even in pure Arabic 
words, on the other hand it lost the th, dh and 
partly the hamza. F often disappeared, and k often 
became g; the a usually became d, the u in the 
personal suffix uh (u): u. Stress vacillates; assimi- 
lation, inversion, and elision are frequent. The 2nd 
and 3rd person fern. pi. retain their endings (as in 
the bedouin dialects). One of the two dialects 
developed the prefix mi- in the imperfect tense 
(would this correspond to Iranian, or to Syrian and 
Egyptian Arabic ?). A durativus praesenlis developed 
under the influence of Turkish. As in the Caucasian 
languages (e.g. Old Georgian), the direct object is 
taken up again by a personal suffix in the' verb 
(of. also the Syrian development). "Kana" is often 
used as an auxiliary verb (originally with a plu- 
perfect meaning). The infinitive ends regularly in 
either -ahdn or -an. The nunation of the nouns is 
almost completely absent; plurals end in -inj-dt (this 
also frequently in the case of masculine nouns), while 
broken plurals are rare. Arabic numerals have been 
replaced by Tadjik ones almost completely. Status 
Constructus is retained, but word combinations of 
the Indo-Germanic type are frequent {ffatab mibih, 
"wood-seller"). Usual word order: subject, object, 
predicate. Vocabulary largely Semitic, leaning to 
•Iraki and occasionally to peninsular Arabic. 

Bibliography: (a) Historical: M. S. 
Andreev, in the Izvestiya Turkest. otdela. Russk. 
geogr. ob-va, 1924, 126-37; N. Burykina and M. 
Izmaylova, Nekotorye dannye po yazyku arabov 
kishlaka Diugary Buhharskogo okruga i kishlaka 
Dteynau Kashkadar'inskogo okruga Uzbekskoy SSR, 
Zap. Kollegii Vostokovedov, 1931, 527-49; S. L. 
Volin, K istorii sredneaziatskikh arabov, Trudy 
vtoroy sessii assotsiatsii arabistov, Moscow and 
Leningrad 1941, 111-26; I. N. Vinnikov, Araby 
v SSSR, Sovetskaya Etnografiya, 1940, no. iv, 
3-22; D. N. Logofet, Bukharskoe khanstvo pod 
russkim protektoratom, i, igio;Bol'shaya Sovetskaya 



■AB 531 

Entsiklopediya* , ii, 598. (b) Language: Bury- 
kina and Izmaylova as above; G. V. C'eret'eli, 
K kharakteristike yazyka sredneaziatskikh arabov, 
Trudy vtoroy sessii assotsiatsii arabistov, Moscow 
and Leningrad 1941, 133-48; idem, Materialy 
dlya izuUniya arabskikh dialektov Sredney Azii, 
Zap. Instituta Vostokvedeniya Akademii Nauk 
SSSR, 1939, 254-83. (Not seen: Zarubin: Spisok 
narodnostey SSSR, Leningrad 1927; N. B. 
Arkhipov, Sredne-aziatskie respubliki', Leningrad 
1930). (B. Spuler) 

At the end of the year 18/639, an Arab army 
appeared on the Syro-Egyptian frontier and com- 
menced the conquest of Egypt. On 20 Rabi' II 
20/9 April 641, a treaty was signed which wrested 
Egyptian territory or, more precisely the autoch- 
thonous population, from Byzantine domination. 
Alexandria still held out, and only surrendered 
eighteen months later. Viewed as a whole, the 
operations give the impression of an advance carried 
out no doubt with enthusiasm, but also of a carefully 
planned offensive. Certain papyri of this period 
assume particular importance. We possess requisition 
orders for the billeting and provisioning of Arab 
troops, and we learn that the expenses incurred by 
the villages were remitted from the taxes for the 
following year. From information supplied by the 
same documents, we see advancing into the country 
a well-equipped army : armoured cavalry and infantry, 
accompanied by a flotilla for operations in Upper 
Egypt. Teams of blacksmiths and a 
formed for the repair of weapons. This ir 
is based on Greek texts, some of which are indeed 
accompanied by an Arabic translation, but if the 
initiation of similar measures was the duty of the 
Coptic civil administrators, it is a fact that the Arab 
military leaders were fully aware of them. All this 
indicates training and discipline, and we may 
suppose that Bedouin elements did not form the 
major part of the Arab army. c Amr b. al-'As relied 
in the main on a first contigent of Yemenite origin, 
nearly all from the <Akk tribe, and it is apparent from 
the names of the districts of Fustat that the majority 
of the groups were Yemenite. On the other hand, 
contingents of the Djudham and Lakhm tribes, who 
had formed part of the population of the Ghassanid 
Kingdom and had remained neutral at the battle 
of the Yarmuk, had joined the army of Egypt. The 
largest figure recorded of the numbers of the Arab 
warriors is 15,000 men; this seems to be a maximum 
figure, but not an impossible one. 

After the conquest the Arabs remained in their 
tribal groups: in this connexion, the names of the 
districts of Fustat are again revealing. It may be 
questioned whether, in the beginning, the Arabs 
thought of anything but exploitation of the country 
by the military, who formed a de facto aristocracy 
which did not admit to its ranks any native of the 
country or mix with the inhabitants since it was 
forbidden to acquire land. The army of occupation 
was distributed between Fustat, Alexandria, and 
various posts scattered along the Mediterranean 
coast, on the desert frontiers of the Delta, and on 
the Nubian borders. We lack any critical basis on 
which to form an estimate of the numbers of these 
garrisons, which were heavily reinforced, since in 
43/663 12,000 men were needed in Alexandria alone. 
With a view to increasing their cohesion, these 
elements were organised in tribes. The members of 
each tribe were divided into sections of seven or ten, 



532 AL-«, 

under the control of a syndic, who received their pay, 
and also administered orphans' pensions under the 
supervision of the If&di. Every morning an official 
visited the tribes and registered new births. 

In 109/727. the Comptroller of Finance in Egypt 
installed an important part of the Kays tribe in the 
region of Bilbais : the figure 3,000, which we are given, 
seems to include women and children. These Kaysites 
who, as camel-drivers, participated in the traffic 
on the Fustat-Kulzum route, were probably liable 
to military service, since they were registered on the 
pay-rolls. These reinforcements had been to some 
extent necessitated by the first revolt of the Copts, 
which occurred in 107-725. When the Christian 
historian of the Alexandrian patriarchate is des- 
cribing this, he writes "One tribe was situated in the 
eastern desert of Egypt, between Bilbais and Kulzum 
on the coast; these were Muslims, who were known 
as Arabs". This mode of expression seems to postulate 
that the indigenous Muslims, doubtless a minority of 
the whole population, were at that time more 
numerous than the Arabs. 

These Arabs preserved for more than two centuries 
the memory of their tribe of origin, and in the majo- 
rity of the funeral steles, in the cemeteries at Aswan 
and Fustat, the name of the deceased is habitually 
followed by the ethnic appellation indicating the 
tribe. It was the Arab title of nobility, and Coptic 
converts were, in the beginning, second-class Muslims. 
Some of the latter aspired further, and a judicial 
scandal which took place in 194-5/8 10-2 proves that 
the Arab tribes were still strong enough to appeal to 
Baghdad against the judgement of a kadi of dubious 
integrity which conferred on Copts the status of 
pure-bred Arabs. We observe that in the course of the 
3rd/gth century surnames relating to tribes give way 
gradually to surnames of geographical significance; 
here, too the funeral steles are documents of the 
greatest value, and furnish us with toponymic 



The Muslims of Fustat, at the beginning of the 
3rd/gth century, must have been mainly autochtho- 
nous elements, installed in all types of sedentary 
employment, in government service or in trade; the 
Arabs, occupied in suppressing revolts in the Delta 
in the course of the preceding century, were then 
struck off the military rolls as a result of the influx of 
Khurasanls, and later of Turks, and had probably 
resumed in the country side the principal occupation 
of their ancestors, the raising of live-stock. At all 
events, from then on they are not mentioned in the 
towns. Descendants of former soldiers, moreover, 
acquired land: we find the proof of this in the fact 
that the government claimed from them the 
kjjurafa, or land tax. They thus became mingled with 
the indigenous population, which, at the beginning 
of the 3rd/gth century, was mainly Muslim; on the 
other hand, the Arabic language was used to an 
increasing extent by the Copts. The majority of the 
army, of Turkish stock, could not have made any 
distinction between the truly autochthonous elements 
and the descendants of Arab immigrants. 

Finally, in 219/834, groups of the Lakhm and 
Djudham tribes rebelled in the Delta: they were 
easily dispersed, and no further mention is made of 
their rights. The Arabs re-appear, even frequently, 
in the history of Egypt: they remained organised 
in tribes, some of which retained their nomad habits. 
They were mobilised as reserve troops in times ot 
crisis, for example at the time of the landing by the 
Crusaders at Damietta. Later governments were 
obliged periodically to exercise their authority against 



them, either to collect taxes, or to suppress banditry. 
In general, these interventions were bloody affairs, 
and were virtually punitive expeditions. 

The most significant events were set in train by 
the temporary migration, in the 5th/nth century, 
of the Banu Hilal and the Banu Sulaym before their 
destructive onslaught on North Africa. It should 
not be forgotten that a group of Bedouin from the 
Arabian Peninsula tried to resist the advance of 
French troops in Upper Egypt in 1799. 

Recent censuses have been vague in the extreme: 
it is estimated that the Bedouin scattered among 
the deserts of Egypt number about 50,000. 

Bibliography: Ibn <Abd al-Hakam, Futak 
Misr, ed. by Torrey; Kindi, Wuldt Misr, ed. by 
Guest; Makrizi, MM, Bulak ed. and the Institut 
francais ed.; Kalkashandi, Nihayat al-'arab ■ fi 
ma'rifat kabdHl al- c Arab; Quatremere, Mimoire sur 
les tribus arabes itablies en Egypte, in Mtmoins 
giographiques et historiques sur I'Egypte ed. and 
trans, by G. Wiet; G. Wiet, Pricis d'Histoire 
d' Egypte, II ; idem, Histoire de la Nation igyptientie, 
vol. IV; Ibn Iyas. (G. Wiet) 

It is extremely difficult to enumerate the Arab 
elements which, from the year 27/647 onwards, 
entered North Africa. Wee an only accept with 
the usual reservations the first number of 20,000, 
representing the fighting men from the Hidjaz, 
furnished by the tribes and grouped round their 
chiefs, reinforced by contingents taken from (he 
army of Egypt. The first expeditions were nothing 
more than long-distance raids, without any intention 
of settling in the country. This ambition appears 
with <Ukba b. Nafi', who founded al-Kayrawan [q.v.] 
in 50/670. The death of this chief and the occupation 
of al-Kayrawan by the Berbers led to the despatch 
of fresh contingents. From then on, every serious 
failure on the part of the invaders, every Berber 
rising, every new phase in the arduous task of 
conquest, occasioned the arrival of reinforcements. 
Under the Umayyads, elements derived from the 
djund, detached from the Syrian garrisons, and 
constituting regiments which already had an indivi- 
dual character, took the place of the fighting men 
recruited in Arabia. Under the 'Abbasids, the 
Khurasan militia joined forces with the Syrians, or 
relieved them. All these elements, living in groups 
as in the East, were distributed among the towns 
of the conquered territory. As is well known, their 
haughtiness as conquerors, their demands and their 
lack of discipline were a source of the gravest 
embarrassment to the governors of Ifrikiya, and the 
Aghlabid amirs, obliged to subdue them with great 
bloodshed, found them employment in Sicily. 

Along with the fighting men intended to effect 
the first occupation of the country, the Arab world 
sent civilian elements. Apart from the governors and 
their entourage, kinsmen and clients, there were men 
of a religious character, who, from the time of the 
caliphate of c Umar b. £ Abd al- c Aziz (99-101/717-20), 
undertook the methodical conversion of the Berbers. 
There were also merchants hoping to prosper in 
fresh territory reputedly rich in resources. 

These Arab immigrants constituted exclusively 
urban elements. The towns, where they formed a 
considerable proportion of the population, were 
centres of arabisation. By virtue of the prestige 
enjoyed by the conquerors, through the education 
given in the Kur'anic schools and the mosques, and 
through economic relations and mutual contact in 



,- c ARAB — !2iazIrat al- c ARAB 



the markets, the Arabic language spread simul- 
taneously with Islam in the cities and their environs. 
Al-Kayrawan played an important part in this 
process, but the other garrisons of Ifrikiya and its 
western marches were also able to spread their 
influence over a limited area. 

The Arab immigration of which the Hilali invasion 
was the first phase was very different from the Muslim 
conquest and its consequences, both as regards those 
who took part in it and their role in the history of 
Barbary. The initial cause of this disaster was as 
follows: — in the middle of the 5th/nth century, the 
amir al-Mu c izz of the Banu Zirl [see zirids] branch 
of the Sanhadja, which governed Ifrikiya in the name 
of the Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir, broke with his 
suzerain in Cairo, and the latter, on the advice of 
his minister al-Yazurl, despatched against the rebel 
kingdom the Arab nomads then encamped east of 
the Nile, recognising in advance their title to any 
towns and rural districts which they could conquer. 

The Banu Hilal [see hilAl], who formed the first 
wave of this "westward movement" (taghrib), and 
also the Banu Sulaym, who came on the scene later, 
were connected through their common ancestor 
Mansur b. Kays with the powerful line of Mudar. 
Both had previously dwelt in Nadjd, and groups of 
the two families continued to live there. Brought 
late within the pale of Islam, they had migrated in 
considerable numbers to Upper Mesopotamia and 
the Syrian desert. Their independent nature revealed 
itself immediately after the death of the Prophet. 
The Umayyads, and the 'Abbasids even more, had 
to punish their plundering activities conducted in 
particular at the expense of Meccan pilgrims. In the 
4th/ioth century they took part in the Carmathian 
revolt. The Fatimid caliph al-'Aziz crushed the move- 
ment (368/978) and forced the Arabs who had sup- 
ported it to transfer themselves to Upper Egypt. It 
was from there that they set out to conquer Ifrikiya. 

At the moment when their first bands, which could 
have numbered barely a million, reached the Zirid 
kingdom of al-Kayrawan and caused its downfall, 
the most powerful of the Banu Hilal were the Riyah, 
who occupied the plains of Tunisia. Further east, 
the kingdom of the Hammadids [q.v.] and the Zab 
]q.v.] received the Athbedj. This Arab expansion, 
whose limits in the 6th/ 12 th century are described 
by IdrisI, caused the exodus of Hammadids from 
the Kal'a to al-Bijaya and drove the Zanata nomads 
towards the plains of Oran. 

The arrival of fresh bands led subsequently to 
an extension of the territory and to alterations in 
the distribution of the Arabs. The most important 
of these waves of immigrants was, starting from the 
end of the 12th century, that of the Banu Sulaym, 
who came from Tripolitania. At first allied to the 
Armenian adventurer Karakush, then to the Banu 
Ghaniya who attempted to revive Almoravid power, 
they placed themselves at the service of the Hafsids, 
the Almohad governors of Ifrikiya, who assured the 
fortunes of this great tribe. Thus Ifrikiya, the first 
domain of the Banu Hilal, remained, with the 
Sulaym, the region where the Arabs were the most 
numerous and most powerful. But no part of North 
Africa escaped what was considered by Ibn Khaldun 
to be an irreparable disaster. The quest by new 
arrivals for lands as yet unoccupied and for seden- 
tary populations to exploit, the repulse of the weak 
by the strong, the advance of certain tribes, such as 
the Ma c kil of Southern Morocco, from the western 
boundaries of the desert, were the quasi-normal 
causes of their "westward movement". To these must 



533 

be added the mass transfers effected by the MaghribI 
rulers within their own territories of Arab con- 
tingents on whose collaboration they rashly counted. 
For example the transfer in 583/1187 of the tribes 
of Ifrikiya by the Almohad al-Mansur who, wishing 
to use them in Spain, granted them the sub-atlantic 
plains of Morocco which were then uninhabited. 

The whole economy of Barbary was overthrown 
by this expansion. With their North African territory, 
where they lived during the summer, these pastoral 
nomads combined the corresponding Saharan terri- 
tories, where they migrated in autumn with their 
families and where they found new pasturages for 
their camels. At the two extremities of the annual 
migration, they possessed a source of income: by 
right of protection they claimed taxes in kind from 
the people of the oases, cultivators of date-palms; 
on the sedentary population of the north they levied 
imposts which the rulers had assigned to them in 
the form of ifrtd' [q.v.], or as part of the tax (djibaya) 
for whose collection they were responsible. 

Intimately associated with Berber life, these 
eastern Bedouin naturally played a large part in 
the propagation of the Arabic language, and it has 
been thought possible still to recognise in dialect 
characteristics which seem to mark the difference 
between the contributions of the great tribes, Hilal, 
Sulaym, and Ma'kil. Simultaneously, however, with 
arabisation of the Berbers, one must take into 
account the berberisation of the Arabs, the progres- 
sive tendency towards a sedentary form of existence, 
and the adoption of the way of life of the autochthones 
by groups of immigrants who had become irremedially 
impoverished. 

Bibliography: Ibn Khaldun. '■Ibar, ed. de 
Slane, 2 vol. Paris 1847-51; trans, de Slane 
(Histoire des Berberes) 4 vols. Algiers 1852-56; Ibn 
al-Athir, trans. Fagnan; Ya'kubl, Buldan, trans. 
G. Wiet, Cairo 1937; Tidjani, Rihla, trans. 
Rousseau, JA 1852, ii, 1853, i; IdrisI, al-Maghrib; 
Fournel, Les Berbers, 2 vols., Paris 1857-75; 
Carette, Recherches sur les origines ei les migrations 
des tribus de I'Afrique septentrionale (Exploration 
scientifique de I'Algirie) Paris 1853; Carette and 
Warnier, Notice sur la division territoriale de 
I'Algirie. Tableau des Etablissements francais, 
1844-45 and the 1846 map; Nomenclature et 
repartition des tribus de la Tunisie, Chalon-sur- 
Sadne, 1900; A. Bernard and N. Lacroix, V evo- 
lution du nomadisme, Algiers- Paris 1906; E. 
Mercier, Comment I'Afrique Septentrionale a iti 
arabisie, Constantine 1874; G. Marcais, Les Arabes 
en Berberie du XI" au XIV" siecle, Constan tine- 
Paris 1913; idem, La Berberie musulmane et 
I' Orient au moyen Age, Paris 1946; W. Marcais, 
Comment I'Afrique du Nord a iti arabisie, in 
AIEO, 1938. (G. Marcais) 

DjazIrat al-'ARAB, "the Island of the Arabs", 
the name given by the Arabs to the Arabian 

(i) Preliminary remarks, 
(ii) Physical structure and principal geographical 

(iii) Climate, drainage, and water resources. 
(iv) Political divisions, 
(v) Flora and fauna, 
(vi) Ethnography, 
(vii) History: 

1. Pre-Islamic. 

2. Islamic Middle Ages. 

3. The making of modern Arabia — from the 
ioth/i6th century to the present. 



PjAZlRAT AL-'ARAB 



(i) 



Although the Peninsula may not be the original 
cradle of the Arab people, they have lived there for 
thousands of years and regard it in a very special 
sense as their homeland. For students of Islam, 
Western Arabia occupies a unique position as the 
land in which the Prophet Muhammad was born, 
lived, and died. It was there that the inspiration of 
Allah descended upon the Prophet, and to this Holy 
Land come many thousands of Muslims every year 
from all parts of the Islamic world to make the 
pilgrimage to the Ka'ba, the House of Allah in 
Mecca (Makka), and to visit the Prophet's tomb in 
Medina (al-Madina al-Munawwara). 

The Peninsula has the shape of a rough quad- 
rilateVal with a length of c. 2200 km. from north-west 
to south-east and a breadth of c. 1200 km. The 
symmetry of the quadrilateral is marred by the 
bulge of Oman ('Urnan) on the eastern side reaching 
out close to the Iranian coast. On the west, south, 
and east the Peninsula is clearly defined by the Red 
Sea (al-Bahr al-Ahmar), the Gulf of Aden (Khalldj 
<Adan), the Arabian Sea (Bahr al- c Arab), the Gulf 
of Oman, and the Persian Gulf (al-Khalidj al-Farisi). 
In the north, the Arabs themselves have often 
disagreed as to where Arabia ends and Syria (in the 
broad sense) begins. A vast steppe unrolls northwards 
from the Great Nafud with no natural feature 
suitable as a limit for the Peninsula. For the purposes 
of this article the Peninsula is considered as extending 
only to the borders separating Saudi Arabia and 
Kuwayt from Jordan and 'Irak, even though these 
borders represent little more than artificial political 
concepts. This definition places the northernmost 
point of the Peninsula at 'Unaza, a low mesa in the 
desert farther north than either Jerusalem or'Amraan. 
From 'Unaza the borders between Saudi Arabia and 
Jordan, not yet fully agreed upon, reach the sea near 
the head of the Gulf of al- c Akaba, while the borders 
between Saudi Arabia and Kuwayt on the one hand 
and 'Irak on the other run to the head of the Persian 
Gulf south of al-Basra. Along these eastern borders 
lie two small neutral zones, in one of which Saudi 
Arabia and 'Irak and in the other Saudi Arabia and 
Kuwayt share undivided half interests. 

It is impossible to make a reasonably reliable 
estimate of the size of Arabia's population. All 
figures found in reference works are highly suspect, 
as none is based on proper statistics or sufficient 
familiarity with the whole Peninsula. In view of the 
extensive areas inhabited solely by scattered nomads 
and the relatively light density of population in 
most of the settled areas, one may doubt whether 
the total approaches 10,000,000, and it may well fall 
several millions short of this figure. The most 
densely populated country is the Yaman (al-Yaman). 
In Saudi Arabia the main concentrations are in a 
few cities of al-Hidjaz, the well watered mountains 
and plains of 'Aslr and its Tihama, some of the 
valleys of Nadjd, and the eastern oases of al-Hasa 
and al-Katlf. Hadramawt and Oman both contain 
many towns and Bedouin tribes. 

Present state of knowledge. The inhabitants 
of Arabia have naturally always known much about 
the land, but each man's knowledge is restricted to 
a certain region, being detailed and particularistic 
rather than general and comprehensive. No single 
work in Arabic gives a full and accurate description 
of Arabia. The best volume in the language is still 
$ifat Qxazirat al- € Arab by al-Hamdanl (d. 334/945-46), 
which, though rich in information, fails to provide 
a coherent panoramic view of the whole Peninsula. 



The serious scientific exploration of Arabia began 
with Carsten Niebuhr and the Danish expedition of 
1762. While travellers of different nationalities 
pressed on with the penetration of the interior during 
the 19th century, British officers of the Indian 
Government undertook technical surveys of the 
surrounding seas and stretches of the coast. Tech- 
nical surveying in the interior had to wait for the 
20th century, when it began with an investigation 
of the southern border of the Yaman and preliminary 
studies for the Hidjaz Railway. In recent years oil 
companies have surveyed large parts of Eastern 
Arabia, using the highly refined methods of modern 
geological and geophysical exploration, besides 
engaging in extensive reconnaissance in other 
regions. 

By 1 3 74/ 1 95 5 travellers — both Western and Arab — 
had visited virtually all of the remoter places, so 
that none of the old major mysteries regarding the 
surface of the land had been left unsolved. Travellers' 
reports, however, are often incomplete and sometimes 
inaccurate, and much remains to be done in checking 
and correlating those now available. A number of 
important reports remain unpublished or buried in 
archives. 

Recent years have also seen the introduction of 
aerial photography as an indispensable procedure in 
mapmaking. By 1954 a good part of the Peninsula 
had been photographed for cartographic purposes, 
and some of the results had already been transferred 
to maps. Aerial photographs, however, are of 
maximum value only if supported by ground control, 
i.e., the establishment of fixed points on the ground 
whose relationship to the photographs is precisely 
determined. For much of Arabia such control is 
still lacking. 

The general outlines and main features of the map 
of Arabia have now been delineated with a fair 
degree — and in a few instances a high degree— of 
reliability, but years of study lie ahead before all the 
details can be filled in. Surveys done in the earlier 
days, such as those of the Persian Gulf, are now 
being redone in the interests of greater thoroughness 
and accuracy. Errors of the past, many of which have 
become established on maps, are being corrected, 
but the process is long drawn out. 

Arabian governments are now making available 
information about their countries in a growing body 
of official publications, and modern Arab authors 
keep producing books and articles dealing with 
different parts of the Peninsula. Interest in such 
diverse things as oil and South Arabian antiquities 
has called forth a flood of material by Western 
authors, part of which is sound but much of which 
is superficial, misleading, or flagrantly contradictory 
to fact. Arabic sources likewise are often unreliable, 
so that the student of Arabia must constantly be 
on the lookout for pitfalls along his path. 

(«) 



Lying between Asia and Africa, Arabia is of such 
size and individuality of character as almost to 
justify its classification as a sub-continent. Usually 
considered an appendage of Asia, it also joins 
Africa through Sinai, which, though politically a 
part of Egypt, is closer to Arabia in both physical 
environment and the nature of its human life. Before 
the development of rift valleys provided a bed for 
the Red Sea, Western Arabia formed a part of the 
African land mass, and the southern half of Western 
Arabia still has a greater affinity in many ways with 



PjAZIRAT AL-'ARAB 



Somalia-Ethiopia than with Northern Arabia or the 
rest of Asia. Northern Arabia, on the other hand, 
merges imperceptibly with Arab Asia through the 
Syrian steppe, and ' the Oman bulge contains a 
mountainous area closely resembling the ranges of 

Geomorphologically the Peninsula consists of two 
main provinces: the ancient Arabian Shield of 
igneous and metamorphic rocks in the west, and 
the more recent sedimentary areas sloping away 
from the Shield to the north-east, east, and south- 
east into the vast basin consisting of Mesopotamia, 
the Persian Gulf, and the eastern part of al-Rub' 
al-Khali- The Arabian Shield is actually only 
the eastern part of the Arabian-Nubian Shield, an 
immense mass of basement rocks — greenstones, 
schists, . granite, gneiss, &c. — which have thrust 
upwards to form bare and forbidding mountains, 
with the whole mass split into two by the rift valleys 
running southwards from the Dead Sea and along 
the course of the Red Sea. The older igneous rocks 
of the Arabian part represent primarily plutonic 
activity of the more remote past, while more recent 
volcanoes have blanketed the surrounding ground 
with fields of lava (ftarra, pi. fiirdr) often imposing 
in extent. Regions of igneous and metamorphic rocks 
may be rich in minerals and precious stones, but only 
insignificant quantities of these have so far been 
found in Arabia. 

To the north and south the eastern limit of the 
Arabian Shield lies not far inland from the Red Sea. 
Between these two extremities the limit sweeps 
around in a rough bulge reaching as far east as the 
vicinity of al-Dawadiml, less than 200 km. west of 
the western wall of Tuwayk. The geomorphologically 
confused mountains of the Yaman, though composed 
of similar rocks, are physiographically highly different 
from the remainder of the Shield. Volcanic areas 
occur in the Yaman as well as in the mountains 
fringing the southern coast and those of the Oman 

Valleys drop sharply westwards to the coast plain 
of Tihama from the high mountains paralleling the 
Red Sea. The gentler eastward slope to the Persian 
Gulf is interrupted by cuestas in Nadjd such as 
Tuwayk and al-'Arama, whose steep escarpments face 
westwards and whose backs then resume the down- 
ward trend. From the highlands of tfadramawt and 
Zufar the slope southwards to the Gulf of Aden and 
the Arabian Sea is short, while a longer slope runs 
northwards to al-Rub' al-Khali. The Oman bulge 
has a short descent north-eastwards to the Gulf of 
Oman and a much longer descent south-westwards to 
the same sand sea, though the mountains here, 
unlike those elsewhere near the coast, are steep on 
both sides, forming a hogback range. 

The sedimentary province consists predominantly 
of limestone, along with an abundance of sandstone 
and shale. These rocks are products of sediments left 
behind by seas that in the distant past spread out 
as far west as the Shield. The sedimentary deposits 
reach a depth of over several kilometers in the 
vicinity of the Persian Gulf. Organic matter from the 
plants and animals that lived in the old seas is the 
source of the enormous accumulations of petroleum 
discovered in Eastern Arabia during the 20th century. 

Islands. The islands, islets, and coral reefs {ska% 
pi. shi'bdn) off the Arabian coast increase in number 
as one proceeds southwards down the Red Sea. The 
Farasan Bank parallels the coast for nearly 500 km., 
its southern part including the Farasan [q.v.] Archi- 
pelago, where the largest islands on the eastern side 



535 

of the Red Sea are found. Kamaran [q.v.] Island lies 
close to the coast of the Yaman. West of Kamaran 
the volcanic peak of Djabal al-Tayr in the fairway 
of the sea is reported to have been in eruption as late 
as the early 19th century. Also in the fairway is 
al-Zukur, the highest island in the Red Sea (nearly 
700 m.). The island of Perim [q.v.] (Mayyun) in the 
straits of Bab al-Mandab, the entrance to the Red 
Sea, stands nearer Arabia than Africa. 

The island of Sukutra [q.v.], c. no km. long and 
nearly 400 km. distant from the mainland on the 
southern side of the entrance to the Gulf of Aden, 
must for both political and ethnographic reasons be 
regarded as belonging to the Peninsula. The Kuria 
Muria Islands stand off the mainland in a large bay 
east of Ra's Naws. The Arabic name for the group, 
Khuriya Miiriya [q.v.], is seldom used today, the more 
familiar names being al-Hallaniyya, al-Hasikiyya, 
and al-Sawda', which belong to individual islands. 
Separated from Oman by a narrow channel is Maslra, 
the only island of considerable size lying along the 
whole southern coast. The Arabian side of the Gulf 
of Oman is also almost entirely devoid of islands 
worthy of the name; one encounters only rocky 
islets standing alone, such as al-Fahl north-west of 
Muscat, or in clusters, such as al-Daymaniyyat a 
little farther towards the west. 

The mountains of Oman end abruptly at the 
Strait of Hormuz, the entrance to the Persian Gulf, 
and some of the peaks detached from the main 
range form inhospitable islands, the northern tip of 
one of which is RaH Musandam. Abu Musa, an 
island in the Persian Gulf north-west of the port of 
al-Sharika, has deposits of iron oxide which are 
worked commercially. Close to the southernmost 
shore of the Gulf are a number of sandy islands, the 
largest of which is Mukayshit (shown on most 
charts as Aba al-Abyad, the name of its northern 
part). In the western half of the embayment between 
the Trucial Coast and the Katar Peninsula are islands 
presumed to be salt domes rising above the sea, 
among which are Sir Ban! Yas [q.v.], Dalma', 
Zarakkuh, Das, and rlalul. The main island of 
Bahrain (al-Bahrayn) has a scattering of attendant 
islets and a dependency of fair size, rlawar, which 
almost touches Katar. Tarut, Abu 'AH, and other 
islands hug the coast of Saudi Arabia, while al- 
'Arabiyya [q.v.] and al-Farisiyya [q.v.] lie out near 
the middle of the Gulf. 

The Great Pearl Banks (hayr, pi. hayardt) stretch 
along nearly the entire length of the Arabian side 
of the Persian Gulf, with the richer banks in the 
central portion. The term sha'b is not used for a 
reef in this Gulf, its place being taken by /as*/ (pi. 
/ushiit), nadiwa, and tufa. A Itidd (pi. liudud) is a sand 
bank, a hala (pi. ftuwal) is a low sandy islet which 
may be covered at high tide, and a baffdr is a 
projecting rock. Rufrk is the common word for a 
shoal, while an area of deep water — 15 fathoms (bd ( , 
pi. abwa 1 or bpdn, the Arab fathom being a little less 
than the English fathom of 6 feet) or more — is called 
a gkubba (pi. skabib). The Persian Gulf is a shallow 
sea, with few depths greater than 90 m., in contrast 
to the Red Sea, the depth of which in places is in 

Bays and Coasts. The coasts of the Peninsula 
on the three sides facing the sea are relatively 
unmarked by major bendings or indentations; no 
other great land mass on the surface of the globe 
provides such a paucity of shelter for ships. The Red 
Sea has few bays on the Arabian side, but many 
narrow inlets of the type called sjharm, which penetrate 



536 



PjazIrat AL-'ARAB 



some distance inland and then broaden out into 
lagoons in which small sailing vessels can anchor. 
The one good natural harbour along the southern 
coast is Aden. Between Ra>s Fartak and Ra's al- 
Hadd there are four large bays, here called ghubba 
(cf . the use of this term in the Persian Gulf mentioned 
above), but all are so open to the sea that they give 
no protection. Muscat on the Gulf of Oman offers a 
hill-encircled bay large enough for steamers of 
medium size. Excellent harbours exist in the cliff- 
walled inlets in the vicinity of Musandam, but they 
are so hot and inaccessible from- the interior that 
good use has never been made of them. The Persian 
Gulf has a proportionally larger number of bays, 
here called dawha, but their waters are almost 
without exception extremely shallow. Inlets in the 
Arabian shores of the Persian Gulf go by the name 
of khawr, a term also used here for a submarine 
valley. One of the best examples of these inlets is 
Khawr al-'Udayd, which pierces the coast on the 
eastern side of the base of the Katar Peninsula. 

Mountains, Plateaux, and Plains. The 
chain or chains of mountains paralleling the coast 
of the Gulf of al-'Akaba and the Red Sea are known 
collectively as al-Sarat [q.v.], though use of this name 
is not particularly widespread. In many places a 
lower range lies close to the coast and is separated 
by a plateau from a higher range farther inland. The 
average height of al-Sarat is considerably below 
2,000 m. Between the region of Madyan and Mecca 
only the famous crags of Radwa [q.v.] west of Medina 
and a few other mountains reach noteworthy 
heights. Southeast of Mecca several peaks go up to 
over 4,500 m., and thence the chain rises to its 
greatest heights in southern 'Asir and the Yaman 
(Hadiir Shu'ayb west of San'a', c. 3,760 m.). The 
more precipitous western slopes are generally the 
higher, but many bold features are also met with 
along the inner eastern slopes. The range of Hadn 
east of Mecca, the historic boundary between al- 
Hidjaz and Nadjd, appears to have lost this distinct- 
ion in the popular mind, though the dividing line 
is considered to be along the eastern slopes or 
among the foothills of al-Sarat. Passes across al- 
Sarat, called 'akaba in 'Asir and nakil in the Yaman, 
are few and far between, and are usually difficult of 
transit. Notable gaps in the chain are those leading 
through to Medina and Mecca. 

Interspersed among the mountains and occurring 
frequently along their eastern slopes are plateaux, 
among the most fertile of which are those in 'Asir and 
those surrounding San c a' and Dhamar in the Yaman. 
The plateaux are often capped with a bed of lava, 
and in places the lava has spilled down the western 
slopes to reach the verge of the Red Sea. 

The highlands of the Yaman present a steep 
face towards the south, the eastern stretch of 
which is al-Kawr, called after its indigenous tribes 
Kawr al-'Awadhil in the west and Kawr al-'Awalik 
in the east. Northeast of Kawr al- c Awalik is the 
highly dissected limestone plateau of al-Djawl 
which is split in twain by the eastward-trending 
channel of Wadi Hadramawt. The southern part of 
al-Djawl reaches heights of nearly 2,000 m., while 
the higher elevations of the northern part do not 
greatly exceed 1,000 m. The cliffs along the edges 
of al-Djawl are often awe-inspiring in their sheerness. 

Farther east in the region of ?ufar are the mount- 
ains of the tribe of al-Kara with peaks well over 
1,500 m. in height. The growth of trees and grasses 
on the range is so thick that the residents often 
call, it the Black Mountain. North-eastwards of 



Ra's Naws the mountains paralleling the coast begin 
to dwindle in size and number, and the coast from 
Ra's Sawkira to Ra's al-Hadd has generally lowlying 
country behind it. 

Mountains reappear again overlooking the Arabian 
shore of the Gulf of Oman, along which the range 
of al-Hadjar runs from Ra's al-Hadd to Ra 5 s 
Musandam. The towering peaks of al-Hadjar are in 
the central portion, in the vicinity of Djabal al- 
Akhdar, the highest exceeding 3,000 m. by a bare 
margin. Northwest of Djabal al-Akhdar the mount- 
ains called al-Kawr form a part of the main range, 
while Djabal Hafit rears its formidable hogbacked 
ridge in the open country west of the northern half 
of the range. 

In the interior the range of al-Tubayk lies in the 
borderland between Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Just 
south of the Great Nafud the parallel ranges of 
Adja' [q.v.] and Salma are together known as Djabal 
Shammar. The hills of al-NIr lie in the central bulge 
of the Arabian Shield, near its eastern edge. 

East of the Shield a series of roughly parallel 
cuestas curve around from north to south, following 
the contour of the crystalline bulge. The most 
striking of these is Tuwayk [q.v.], the backbone of 
Nadjd, with a length of c. 1,000 km. from Khashm 
Djazra to Khashm Khatma, where the sands of 
al-Rub c al-Khall encompass its southern end. Just 
east of the sands of al-Dahna 5 is the low rocky 
plateau of al-Summan (classical al-Samman [q.v.]). 

Mesas, buttes, and ridges often rise singly or in 
groups above the plateaus and plains. The Bedouins 
use the term djabal for rocky hillocks as well as 
massive mountains, and other terms in commpn 
use are dil< (pi. dttlu 1 or diV-an, a general synonym 
for djabal, not necessarily a rib-shaped hill), hasm 
(usually lower than a djabal), abrak (pi. bvrkan, 
whence the name of the great oil field of Kuwayt, 
al-Burkan), and barka? (pi. burk), the last two being 
applied to hills whose sides are mottled with patches 
of sand. The promontories jutting out from the 
inland escarpments are called khaskm (pi. khushiim), 
the word for nose. 

Within the northern border of Arabia lies the 
southernmost portion of al-Hamad, a stony plain 
stretching on northwards into the steppe, and 
south-east thereof is al-Hadjara, another stony plain. 
Among the major hadabas — plains with a mantle of 
gravel — are al-Dibdiba in the north-eastern corner 
of the Peninsula and Abu Bahr and Rayda south 
of the southern end of al-Dahna'. The plain of al- 
Djalada south-west of Rayda is completely ringed 
about by the sands of al-Rub' al- Khali. Other plains 
are found along the southern and eastern edges of 
al-Rub c al- Khali, all sloping towards the basin 
occupied by the sands. 

The coast plains in the west and south are confined 
within a fairly narrow space nearly everywhere by 
the mountains crowding down towards the sea. 
Tihama [q.v.], the general name for the coast plain 
along the Red Sea, is sometimes subdivided into 
Tihamat al-Hidjaz, Tihamat 'Asir, and Tihamat 
al-Yaman. On the Gulf of Oman no more than faint 
traces of plains exist between Ra's al-Hadd and 
Muscat, but between Muscat and Shinas the plain 
broadens out into al-Batina [q.v.], one of the great 
date-producing districts of Arabia. Salt pans are 
particularly common along the southern shore of 
the Persian Gulf, and much of the low ground in 
this region is covered with sand. 

Sandy Deserts. Dunes may be star-shaped, 
dome-shaped, or crescent-shaped (the crescentic or 



DjazIrat al- c ARAB 



537 



barchane dune = muftawtvi, pi. maftdwi). Dunes 
bare of vegetation are called (u'us (sing. f» c s, probably 
from classical <tt c j), with the term nafra (pi. nifiyan) 
being used for the larger ones. Masses of sand may 
form long single or parallel veins (Hr%, pi. '«*■«£) or 
more complex arrangements underlying which an 
orderly pattern can often be discerned. Wide ex- 
panses of ground are covered with relatively thin 
sheets of drift sand. Barchane dunes occur in sizes 
ranging from c. i m. to c. 200 m. in height, and the 
largest are several km. or more in length. Almost 
all of the dunes consist of pure sand, with no 
core of rock or other substances. The colour and 
composition of the sand itself vary from place to 
place, with the predominant colour in the interior 
approaching red. 

A sandy area is generally called a nafud (pi. pauc. 
nafd'id, pi. abund. nifd) in the north and a ramla 
(pi. rimdl) in the south. The term Sr$ may be applied 
to a whole area containing a number of 'uruk, e.g., 
'Irk al-Mazhur embraces seven major veins. As 
frequently happens with the Arabs, these common 
nouns are transformed into proper names applied to 
the most noteworthy examples of their categories: 
the northern desert known to Westerners as the 
Great Nafud is called by the Arabs simply al-Nafud, 
the whole southern desert known to Westerners as 
atRub* al-Khall is ordinarily referred to simply as 
al- Ramla, while al- c Urayk is a sandy area south of 
Katar. 

Almost all of the principal sandy deserts lie in the 
sedimentary province, where they curve around the 
central bulge of the crystalline Shield in the same 
fashion as the cuestas, along the western bases of 
which many of them lie. The two largest are the 
Great Nafud [?.».], with an area estimated at c. 
70,000 km'., and al-Rub c al-Khall [?.».], with an 
area estimated at over 500,000 km'., making the 
latter the largest continuous body of sand in the 
world. These two are connected by the long thin 
arc of al-Dahna 1 [?.».] lying east of Tuwayk and 
al- c Arama. A similar arc runs west of Tuwayk 
between the two main sandy deserts, but its con- 
tinuity is broken in several places. This lesser arc 
begins with 'Irk al-Mazhur, which leaves the Great 
Nafud south of the point of departure of al-Dahna* 
and merges into three parallel fingers of sand, which 
from east to west are Nafud al-Thuwayrat, Nafud 
al-Sirr, and al-Shukayyika. The southern extension of 
al-Thuwayrat is named Nafud al-Baladin after the 
towns of the district of al-Washm lining its south- 
western edge. Almost connected with al-Sirr is 
Nafud Kunayfidha, the south-eastern end of which 
nestles under the western wall of Tuwayk. South of 
Kunayfidha occurs a major interruption in the arc, 
after which the sands reappear in c Irk al-Dahy, 
Which ends north of WadI al-Dawasir. The principal 
direction in which the sands migrate is southwards; 
in other words, they are slowly but steadily forsaking 
the Great Nafud and working their way along the 
ttvo arcs towards al-Rub c al- Khali. 

Although on the map al-Rub c al-Khall appears 
to have two long arms extending northwards, the 
western of these, al-Djafura, is regarded by the Arabs 
as constituting a separate desert cut off from al-Rub' 
al- Khali by the low ground of al-Djawb (Djawb 
Yabrin). The eastern of the two arms, also regarded 
as a separate region, penetrates deep into the 
hinterland of the Trucial Coast. 

Ramlat al-Sab'atayn south of the south-western 
corner of al-Rub c al- Khali lies outside the system 
just described. Perhaps the largest accumulation of 



sand on the Arabian Shield is c Irk Subay c in the 
southern part of the central bulge. 

Various geographical features associated with 
drainage and water resources are discussed in the 
following section. 

The Tropic of Cancer bisects Arabia, passing 
between Medina and Mecca, between the districts of 
al-Khardj and al-Afladj, and between Muscat and 
Ra 5 s al-Hadd, so that most of the land enjoys a 
generally temperate climate. Even in the south, 
where the tip of the Peninsula approaches 12° N. 
lat., much of the country is sufficiently elevated to 
avoid the rigours of tropical heat. Only the lowlands 
along parts of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the 
Arabian Sea have a semitropical rather than a 
temperate environment. 

Meteorological records, though improved in recent 
years, are still too scanty to provide a completely 
detailed picture of Arabian weather. The summer 
heat (%ayz) is intense throughout the Peninsula, 
reaching over 50° C. in the hottest places. The 
dryness of much of the interior makes the heat 
tolerable there, but along the coasts and in some of 
the southern highlands the humidity in summer is 
high and debilitating. Fogs and dews are common 
in the humid regions, but over Inner Arabia the 
sun shines the year round, obscured only by an 
occasional sandstorm or even rarer shower. Although 
not the happiest on earth, the Arabian climate has 
often been damned more violently than it deserves. 
Many days in fall and spring are fresh or mild. 
The winters are invigoratingly cool, with bitter cold 
occurring only at the higher altitudes, where snow 
crowns some of the peaks, and in the far north, where 
the winds are biting. 

The winds vary greatly in different parts, being 
subject in particular to the influence of the sur- 
rounding seas. In Eastern Arabia the wind tends to 
blow from the same quarter, but on occasion it 
suddenly shifts halfway round the full circle, the 
prevailing shamdl from c. NNW yielding to the kaws 
from c. SE. Winds whipping up into sandstorms may 
subside quickly or go on for days. In Nadja the wind 
may box the compass, with drastic changes some- 
times taking place every half hour. The monsoons 
of the Indian Ocean reaching parts of Southern 
Arabia profoundly affect the character of the 
country and the life of the people there. 

Most of Arabia has been made and kept a desert 
by the scarcity of rainfall. In portions of al-Rub c al- 
Khali no rain at all may fall for ten years on end, 
and in many other parts of the Peninsula the annual 
fall seldom if ever exceeds 150 mm. When rain does 
fall over the desert, it may come as a torrential 
downpour, providing enough moisture to carpet the 
ground with wild flowers. Periods of drought some- 
times last for several years, bringing misery and even 
death to the people and causing some to migrate 
abroad. Higher areas tend to catch more rain than 
lower areas nearby: heavy winter rains may fall on 
the plateaus and plains in the north while the depres- 
sion of Wadi al-Sirhan remains completely dry. Only 
the areas where the monsoons blow receive fairly 
ample rains. 

Although Arabia contains no large perennial 
rivers, in the monsoon zone water may be found 
throughout the year in some stretches of the valleys 
(called ghayl in the south-west). A few of the valleys 
descending to the sea blend their fresh water with 
the salt, but most of them dissipate it throughout 



538 






their alluvial fans on the coast plains. In the dry 
zone rainwater from the higher areas occasionally 
comes down in spate through the stream channels 
{wadi, pi. widyan, or sha'ib, pi. sAt'ftan), which 
otherwise contain only a few pools or none at all. 
These flash floods (sayl, pi. suyul) sometimes cause 
great damage, and much of their precious water may 
flow away unused. Other floods come in sheets over 
flat surfaced such as gravel plains or the fans at 
channel mouths. Part of the water that seeps under- 
ground is recovered by man through wells and 
springs. 

Although the courses of some valleys can be 
traced for considerable distances, bodies of sand lying 
athwart them in places tend to prevent through 
drainage. A characteristic feature of the Arabian 
drainage system is the local enclosed basin, varying 
in size from very large to very small. Wadi al-Sirhan 
is not a true wadi but a depression c. 300 km. long 
and 50-70 km. broad into which many wadis on both 
sides empty their sayls. Types of smaller basins are 
the khabrd', a hollow with an impervious bottom 
holding water for a while after rain, and the rawda 
(called fayda in the north), whose bottom does not 
hold water, so that wild vegetation may be fairly 
abundant there. Another type of basin is the salt pan 
or saline flat (sabkha, pron. sabkha), which occurs 
with great frequency along the coasts and also in 
the interior, where it is fully enclosed. 

The eastern tributaries of Wadi al-Hamd, which 
runs down to the Red Sea, originate in rlarrat 
Khaybar. A short distance farther east are the 
headwaters of Wadi al-Rumah (al-Rumma in al- 
Hamdani), which through its extension al-Batin 
runs to the Persian Gulf basin in the vicinity of 
al-Basra, though the connecting link between al- 
Kumah and al-Batin is choked with sands of al- 
Dahna'. The small area in Harrat Khaybar between 
the sources of al-rlamd and those of al-Rumah is 
the one place in the whole Peninsula from which 
an easy slope to the seas on both sides can clearly 
be discerned. 

Descending from the eastern slope of al-Sarat, the 
three large valleys of Ranya, Bisha [q.v.] , and 
Tathlith converge on the upper reaches of Wadi al- 
Dawasir [q.v.], which receives their waters in times 
of exceptional floods only to lose them again as it 
fans out against the sands of al-Rub c al- Khali after 
piercing through the wall of Tuwayk. Habawna 
(rlabawnan in al-Hamdanl) and Nadjran [q.v.] are 
valleys coursing eastwards to the sands which lie south 
of the southern end of Tuwayk. From the highlands 
of the Yaman the valley of al-Kharid [q.v.] flows 
down into the basin of al-Djawf [q.v.] (Diawf Ibn 
Nasir), the home of the ancient Minaeans. 

The mountains of the Yaman send water south- 
wards towards the coast in the vicinity of Aden 
through Tuban, Bana, and other valleys. Water 
from Bana is used for an extensive development of 
agriculture at Abyan. The southern outriders of al- 
Djawl give rise to Wadi Mayfa'a and Wadi rladjar. 
Hadjar is the one truly perennial river in Arabia, 
but its total length probably does not exceed 100 km. 
Its water, part of which comes from the hot springs 
of al-Sidara in the uplands, supports cultivation in 
the area of Mayfa c at the river delta (not to be 
confused with Wadi Mayfa'a to the west). 

Wadi yadramawt [q.v.], the principal artery of a 
great drainage system, is fed by valleys coming from 
both the southern and the northirn parts of al- 
Pjawl, those from the south being far more thickly 
settled than those from the north. Just beyond the 



town of Tarlm the Valley of Hadramawt assumes 
the name of al-MasIla, which it bears for the remainder 
of its course to the sea. 

Sama'il, one of the valleys flung out by the range 
of al-Hadjar towards the Gulf of Oman, provides 
passage for the main road from the coast to Inner 
Oman. The chief valleys of al-Batina are named 
after the tribes inhabiting their banks, al-Ma c awil 
and others. Going up Wadi al-Djizy and Wadi al- 
Kawr, one comes to passes leading over the moun- 
tains to the Trucial Coast. 

In the region east of al-Dahna' between al-Batin 
and al-Sahba 5 the insufficiency of surface water has 
militated against the formation of true wadis of any 
size. Wadi al-Miyah northwest of al-Katlf is a basin 
rather than a stream channel, deriving its name from 
the numerous wells and springs found within its 
confines. Other large basins are al-Faruk south of 
Wadi al-Miyah and al-Shakk southwest of the city 
of Kuwayt. 

In the far north a series of valleys known as 
al-Widyan (Widyan c Anaza) runs north-eastwards 
towards the Euphrates; among these are Tubal, 
c Ar'ar, and al-Khurr. In Nadjd a number of valleys 
between al-Ruinah and Wadi al-Dawasir cut through 
Tuwayk; al- c Atk [q.v.] is the northernmost of these. 
Wadi rlanifa [q.v.], rising on the crest of Tuwayk 
rather than making a gap in the escarpment, twists 
down co the basin of al-Khardj where several im- 
portant valleys empty into al-Sahba 1 [q.v.], the 
course of which can be traced across al-Dahna' and 
al-Djafura into the Persian Gulf basin. The valley 
of Birk cleaves through the wall of Tuwayk via a 
picturesque gorge and turns northwards under the 
name of al-'Akimi to follow a course towards al- 
Sahba'. 

Arabia contains ho large permanent lakes. Deep 
pools occur in places, with the most unusual ones 
being those in the districts of al-Khardj and al- 
Afladj. In oases such as al-Hasa big ponds may be 
formed by the run-off from irrigation. Dry lakes in 
the north may be filled with water over an area of 
10 or more km>. after a rain. 

The thousands of wells (bi'r, pron. bir, pi. abyir, 
or kalib, pi. kulbdn) in the desert, some of them 
even in the central portions of al-Rub c al- Khali, 
make possible the nomadic life of the Bedouins. The 
deepest is reported to descend c. 170 m. into the 
earth, and depths in excess of 70 m. are not uncom- 
mon. The wells may be steyned or unsteyned; they 
may be frequently visited or seldom seen by man. 
Other watering places are spots in the sand or in 
valley bottoms where exiguous water is secured by 
digging down a meter or more. Blowing sand rapidly 
fills in these shallow holes, so that finding them may 
tax even the navigational skill of Bedouins bred in 
the wild. The water in some of the desert wells is 
too salty for humans (such a well is called a khawr, 
pi. khiran), but camels drink it and furnish milk to 
sustain their masters. 

Around most of the flowing springs ( c ay», pi. 
'uyun) oasis settlements or towns have grown up. 
Other communities draw their water only from dug 
wells, while sometimes tanks and cisterns are used 
to catch rainwater. The larger oases consist of 
several or more villages or towns grouped close 
together, each with its own belt of date groves. The 
oasis name may apply to the whole group, which 
may cover tens or hundreds of square kilometers, 
rather than to any single community within its con- 
fines, e.g., al-rlasa with its chief towns al-Hufhuf and 1 
al-Mubarraz, and Bisha with al-Rawshan and Nimran. 



EjAZlRAT A 

Various methods of irrigation are used wherever 
there is sufficient water. Terracing is much practised 
in the south with water being led from enclosure to 
enclosure. In some regions an old system of under- 
ground aqueducts (faladi, pi. afladi) similar to the 
kandts of Iran is common, while in others it is not 
known. In large oases such as al-Hasa and in Tihama 
the rules governing the distribution of water for 
irrigation are elaborate and firmly fixed by custom. 
The building of dams, once an art in which the Arabs 
excelled, has been neglected in more recent times, 
but now, with a growing population and higher 
standards of life demanding an expansion of agri- 
culture, it is being revived. 

Political divisions in Arabia are often ill defined. 
Few international boundaries have been agreed upon 
by the parties concerned, and none has been properly 
demarcated throughout its full length. A rapid 
survey of the main political divisions as they existed 
in 1374/1954-5 will furnish examples of the truth of 
these statements. 

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia occupies the whole 
northern half of the Peninsula — with the exception 
of the small states of Kuwayt, Bahrayn, and Katar, 
and parts of Oman — and a good share of the southern 
half as well. Stretching from the Red Sea to the 
Persian Gulf, it incorporates the large regions of 
al-Hidjaz [q.v.], c Asir [q.v.], and Nadjd [q.v.], and also 
most if not all of al-Rub' al-Khali. Saudi Arabia and 
the Yaman agreed in 1354/1936 upon a boundary 
running from the Red Sea coast to a point short of 
al-Rub c al-Khali, but no serious attempt has since 
been made to extend the line southwards from this 
point over a gap between 100 and 200 km. in breadth. 
No land boundaries have been fixed between Saudi 
Arabia and any of the following states, all of which 
may be assumed to have territories abutting on the 
Kingdom: the Aden Protectorate, the Sultanate of 
Muscat, the Imamate of Oman, the Amirate of Abu 
?abt (the southernmost of the Trucial States), and 
the Amirate of Katar. The boundary between Saudi 
Arabia and Kuwayt and the boundaries of their 
neutral zone have been agreed upon in a general way. 
[See further sa'udiyya, al-aflAdj, al-'Arip, al- 
WasA, al-yamAma.] 

The Mutawakkilite Kingdom of the Yaman lies 
along the Red Sea between Saudi Arabia and the 
Aden hinterland. The British and Yamanite Govern- 
ments have a not entirely satisfactory working 
arrangement regarding the boundary between the 
Yaman and the Aden Protectorate, and the joint 
commission provided for in the Agreement of 1370/ 
1 95 1 to demarcate boundary locations and to 
recommend solutions to disputes arising from con- 
flicting positions has not yet been constituted. [See 
further al-yaman.] 

The British Crown Colony of Aden, the only 
possession of a Western power on the Arabian 
mainland, occupies a tiny area c. 160 km. east of 
the south-western tip of the Peninsula. Perim Island 
forms a part on the Colony, and Kamaran is subject 
to its administration. The Governor of Aden Colony 
is also Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the 
Aden Protectorate, which runs c. 1200 km. along 
the southern coast from Bab al-Mandab to Ra's 
Darbat 'All and reaches inland an undetermined 
distance. [See further 'adan, hadramawt.] 

The Sultanate of Muscat (Maskat [q.v.]) provides 
ah outstanding example of the peculiarities of the 
political scene in Arabia. The ruler, who styles 



.L-'ARAB 539 

himself Sultan of Muscat and Oman, lays claim to 
virtually all the territory east of the eastern edge 
of al-Rub' al-Khali, a space roughly 1200 km. long 
and 500 km. broad. Within this space, however, 
the Sultan administers only three relatively small 
areas, the remaining areas coming under the Imam 
of Oman or other independent chieftains. The 
Sultan's foothold on the southern coast — ?ufar, 
which abuts on the Eastern Aden Protectorate — is 
separated from the main base of his power — the 
towns of Muscat and Mat rah and the coast of the 
Gulf of Oman, including al-Batina — by nearly 
1,000 km. of coastline with its hinterland. Again, 
his domains on the coast of the Gulf of Oman are 
interrupted in the north by territories belonging to 
the Trucial States around Kalba and al-Fudjayra 
before the third centre of his authority appears near 
Ra's Musandam. The Sultan is of the line of Al Bu 
Sa'Id, an Ibadi dynasty which first came into power 
c. 1157/c. 1744- Unlike his neighbours on both sides, 
the Sultan is not formally under British protection, 
though he does have special ties with the British 
Government. 

Another Ibadi ruler, the Imam of Oman, whose 
authority rests more firmly on a religious foundation 
than does that of the Sultan, directs the destinies of 
the interior region occupied by the Ibadi com- 
munity. No clear dividing line exists between the 
territories of the Imamate and the Sultanate; those 
of the Imam reach the crests of the main mountain 
range of al-Hadjar throughout much ql its length, 
and a few of his governors (waits) are established 
on the seaward slopes. The Imam, whose theocratic 
realm is a continuation of the Kharidji state founded 
in Oman c. 133/c. 750, has his capital at Nazwa, and 
his two principal lieutenants reside at Tanuf in Inner 
Oman and al-Kabil in the district of al-Sharkiya. 
Of all the major rulers in Arabia, the Imam, who 
maintains no formal diplomatic relations with any 
other power, is the most self-sufficient and the least 
known to the outside world. [See further c umAk.] 

The Trucial Coast (Sahil c Uman or simply al- 
Saljil) is the southern shore of the Persian Gulf 
running southwestwards and then westwards for 
an undetermined distance towards Katar. When 
the Arabs living there in the early 19th century were 
preying vigorously on shipping in the Gulf, the region 
was known as the Pirate Coast; after the British 
forcibly stopped the marauding and imposed a 
maritime truce on the rulers of the ports, it came 
to be called the Trucial Coast. The Trucial States, 
all of which are in special treaty relations with the 
British Government, are regarded as being under 
that government's protection, though without having 
the formal status of protectorates. [See further 

BAflR FAR1S.] 

The Sultan of Muscat claims a part of the oasis 
of al-Buraymi, but Saudi Arabia challenges this 
claim on the basis of its own connexions with the 
place. Saudi Arabia likewise challenges the claim 
of the Trucial State Abu ?abi to al-Djiwa\ Saudi 
Arabia claims an outlet to the Persian Gulf on the 
coast between Abu ZabI and Ka(ar, but the British 
Government, which by treaty controls the. foreign 
relations of these two states, disputes this claim. In 
1373/1954 the two parties agreed to submit the 
dispute to arbitration. 

The Katar [q.v.] Peninsula, jutting northwards 
into the Persian Gulf about halfway between its 
mouth and its head, is the seat of an Amirate under 
the rule of Al Than!, a dynasty of recent origin, with 
its capital in the port of al-Dawha. The boundary 



DjAzlRAT AL- C ARAB 



between the Amirate and Saudi Arabia in the 
vicinity of the base of the peninsula has not been 
agreed upon, and the Amir of Bahrayn claims a 
piece of territory around al-Zubara in the north- 
western part of the peninsula. 

The archipelago of Bahrayn [q.v.] between Katar 
and the Saudi Arabian mainland constitutes an 
Amirate under the rule of Al Khalifa, a family from 
Nadjd which established itself in the islands in 
1197/1783 and has ruled there ever since, with its 
capital in the port of al-Manama on the main island. 
British interests in the Persian Gulf come under the 
supervision of a Political Resident with headquarters 
in al-Manama. Also subject to his administration are 
the Kuria Muria islands, which belong to Great 

On the Arabian mainland at the head of the 
Persian Gulf is the small roughly triangular Amirate 
of Kuwayt, partially separated from Saudi Arabia 
by a neutral zone and bounded on the north and 
west by 'Irak. Al Sabah, a family related to Al 
Khalifa of Bahrayn, has ruled Kuwayt for over two 
centuries [see kuwayt]. 

Katar, Bahrayn, and Kuwayt have all granted the 
British Government by treaty the right to conduct 
their foreign affairs and have agreed not to enter 
into relations with other powers without the consent 
of that government. Questions dealing with water 
boundaries and the appurtenance of a number of 
islands in the Persian Gulf remain to be settled 
between Bahrayn and Kuwayt on one hand and Saudi 
Arabia on the other. 



Throughout most of the Peninsula a sharp con- 
trast exists between the unfilled stretches of desert 
and the green patches of cultivation in the oases. 
In places, particularly along the margins of the 
Peninsula where rain falls more frequently or where 
stream channels bring sufficient water down from 
the highlands, cultivation is more widespread, some- 
times climbing the heights in skilfully built terraces 
and sometimes carpeting the narrow plains between 
the mountains and the sea. Arabia, however, boasts 
no endless prairies or pampas tamed by the plough, 
nor does it boast any rich belt of forests — the best 
it can offer are the juniper woods of High c Asir. 

The plant beyond compare in the oases is the date 
palm (nakhla [q.v.]), so much in a class by itself that 
the Arab tends to think of it as a thing apart from 
all other trees. Not only is the date the most important 
staple food, but the branches and bark of the palm 
are also used in building huts, in making baskets and 
mats, and for a myriad other purposes. The date 
palm does not flourish at the highest altitudes, so 
that the villagers there depend on grains. In Zufar 
and a few other spots coconut palms grow in place 
of or alongside the date, which is also replaced on 
occasion by the dawm palm (gingerbread tree). 

Wheat, barley, and the millets are the chief 
grains. Alfalfa (lucerne = batt or kadb or barsim) is a 
common crop raised in the shade of the date palms, 
and cotton, rice, and tobacco are cultivated on a 
small scale. 

On high terraces in the Yaman and l Asir grows 
the coffee which made Mocha a goal for Western 
traders after the Portuguese found the way around 
Africa to India. Introduced only about five centuries 
ago into Arabia, coffee gave its Arabic name (hakwa 
[q.v.]) to the world, but the world now goes to Brazil 
for its everyday bean, the bean of the Yaman having 
become an exotic luxury. On many terraces coffee 



has yielded place to the more profitable hat [q.v.], 
whose slightly narcotic leaves are chewed by people 
of all classes in the Yaman and other parts of the 

Frankincense (lubdn) [q.v.] and other aromatics, 
exported to the West over two thousand years ago 
by the Incense Road from South Arabia to the 
Mediterranean, still grow in the south, especially 
in the land of Mahra, but as articles of commerce 
they are now of virtually no value. Of greater use 
today is indigo, much favored as a dye in the south 
(the tree is called .havoir and the dye nil [q.v.]). 
Other common dyes are the yellowish mars and the 
reddish henna. 

Among the larger trees are tamarisks — sometimes 
planted in a row as a wind break or to stop the 
advance of drifting sand — acacias, mimosas, and 
carobs. The jujube (Zizyphus spina christi = sidr 
[q.v.] in the north, Sib in the south) bears an edible 
fruit, called dawm (a homonym of the name of the 
palm) by the Bedouins and kunar by the townsmen. 
The aloe and the euphorbia often grow to a con- 
siderable height, and some varieties of euphorbia 
closely resemble cactus. 

Arid though Arabia is, it is not without flowers 
and fruits. For roses and pomegranates al-TS'if is 
famed, al-Khardi for watermelons (djihh in Nadjd, 
habhab in al-Hidjaz, and dibshi in the north), and 
al-Burayml for mangoes (anbd or hanb). Figs, grapes, 
peaches, bananas, and other fruits sometimes vary 
the monotonous diet of the townsman, but the 
Bedouin seldom savours anything more than his milk 
and dates. 

In the cool season the Bedouins roam far afield, 
sometimes going for months without resort to water 
wells — the forage supports the camels, whose milk 
supports their masters. The most sought after plants 
for forage are the annuals ( c «sA6, pron. Hshb) — grasses, 
wild flowers, and herbs which spring up green after a 
rain, especially in the rabi', the season of plenty 
following the first and best rains (wasmi). The sands 
provide favorable soil for the growth of such annuals 
and so are reckoned by the nomads as among the 
most attractive types of desert terrain. Perennial 
shrubs and bushes (shadiar) eaten by camels are nasi, 
hddhdh, and sabaf (pron. sabaf), as well as others too 
numerous to mention. From time to time camels 
hanker after bushes of the category called hamd, a 
prime source of the salt needed by their system. 
Among the many plants falling in this category 
are rawtha, rimth, c ardd, 'udirum, suwtid, shindn, 
ghadd, and hddhdh (not hddh as in classical Arabic). 
Dry bushes are also essential to the Bedouins for 
firewood (hatab), among the best for this purpose 
being 'abl, ghadd, and rimth. Burning with a fragrant 
scent, these woods help to make the ceremony of 
brewing coffee for a guest at the open door of the 
tent one of the chief pleasures of life. The Bedouin 
likes truffles (/a£ c ) and eats other desert plants, 
though by preference and philosophy there is little 
of the vegetarian in his being. Twigs of the ardh (pron. 
rah) are in common use as a toothbrush (miswdk), 
and senna (sand) is chewed as a purgative. 

Vegetation would be more abundant in the deserts 
were it not for the migrating dunes, some of which 
move 20 m. in a year. In many places, however, 
bushes have taken root and fixed the sand, a hum- 
mock of which is built up around each bush. An 
area of such hummocks may extend for many kilo- 
meters, making very rough country known as '■afdia. 
Less difficult types of sandy terrain with vegetation 
are called marbakh or dikdka (pi. dihah, cf. class. 



PjAZlRAT 

dakk, pi. dikak; and dakdak = flat surface, sandy 

Among animals the camel occupies a place 
analogous to that of the date palm among plants. 
The vast majority of Bedouins in Arabia depend on 
the camel above all other material possessions. The 
tribes which herd sheep rather than camels range 
over the steppes north of Arabia, close to the great 
rivers of Mesopotamia, and do not pass beyond the 
territory of Kuwayt in their southward migrations. 
Milk is the camel's most precious product, but its 
meat, hide, and wool are also put to good use, its 
dung (dimn) is collected to be burned as fuel, and the 
tail of a dead camel makes a strong rope. Camels are 
sometimes harnessed for ploughing or drawing water 
from wells, and the nomads sell part of their stock 
to secure money for clothing and other necessities. In 
time of great thirst a Bedouin may slaughter a 
camel to drink the water stored in its stomach 
(harsh) and the urine in its bladder (mibwdl). 

The general term for camels is ibil [q.v.~\ (often 
pronounced bil), with bawsh being common in the 
south. A riding camel is a dhalul (pi. diaysh); the 
plural rikab is used for both those that are ridden 
and those that are not. The most highly desired 
camels are the thoroughbreds (asaHl), whose pedigree 
has been controlled and recorded over a number of 
generations. Many of these are from the breeds of 
Oman ('Umaniyyat), among which the Bawa^in of 
al-Bafina are particularly well known, though these 
have the disadvantage of wanting to drink every day 
and of not being adapted to rough country. The 
camels of the sands tend to be smaller and lighter 
in color than those raised in the mountains of the 
Yaman. Among the multitudinous names in the 
special vocabulary reserved for camels are ones 
describing beasts which graze on certain plants, e.g. 
hawarim (fem. sing, hdrim) from the Harm bush, and 
axtdrik (fem. sing, drika) from the ardk tree. Along 
the coasts camels are often fed on dried sardines. 

Along with camels, most of the nomads keep sheep 
and goats (ghanam), though not in great flocks like 
those of the northern steppes. Sheep and goats are 
valued for their milk, fleece, and skins. Sheep are in 
demand as the piece de resistance of the Arab banquet ; 
even royalty can offer nothing more appetising than 
a young lamb ((alt, pi. tulydn) basted in a pot with 
samn and served on a platter heaped high with rice. 
Samn, clarified butter for cooking and greasing made 
from the milk of the ewe (na'dja) or she-goat ( l anz), 
is considered superior to djabdb from the milk of the 
she-camel (n&ka) or wadak from the fat of camels, 
sheep, or cattle. 

The Arabian horse, the ancestor of the Western 
thoroughbred and once the pride of the Peninsula, is 
a disappearing strain. Few Bedouins now own 
horses, and the export of stock to India, Egypt, and 
the West, formerly an important item in the Arabian 
economy, has dwindled away to insignificance. An 
occasional man of rank still maintains a stud, but 
even this is likely to be neglected. The speed of the 
motor car has captured the Arab's fancy; cars are 
now used in place of horses for hunting and as 
cavalry in some of the Arabian military forces. 

Fine breeds of donkeys are raised, particularly the 
large white ones of Bahrayn and al-Hasa. Donkeys 
ale used for riding, drawing water, and as pack 
animals in the mountains, where their surefootedness 
makes them more reliable than camels. Cattle, which 
in most places are not numerous, are usually of the 
small humped variety, except in Sukutra, where the 
humpless kind is found. 



L-'ARAB 54 i 

The gazelle (zaby), which in days past used to 
speed across the plains in great herds, is rapidly 
being thinned out by rifles in the hands of hunters 
hurtling by in trucks or cars. The three common 
types are the ri y m (pron. rim), the Hfri (cf. class. 
ya'fur), and the idm; the term ghazdl is used only 
for the newly bom kid. The swift greyhound (soJufcf) 
of the Bedouins can on rare occasions outrun even 
the gazelle. Of the oryx (wudayhA in the south, bakar 
wabsh in the north), a larger antelope, small numbers 
survive in the remoter parts of al-Rub' al- Khali but 
none or almost none is now left in the Great Naffld. 
The ibex or mountain goat (waH or badan) also 
seeks refuge in distant retreats on higher cliffs. Other 
large wild beasts are the hyena (dab c ), jackal (wdwi), 
wolf (dhi'b, pron. dhib, pi. dhiyaba), and cheetah 
(nimr). The lion has long been extinct in Arabia. In 
the mountains of the south baboons are common, 
often chattering along in troops; they are fond of 
raiding the millet fields. Smaller animals are the fox 
{tha'lab or thaH or fiusni), the ratel (zarinbdn, class. 
zaribdn), the cony or hyrax (wabr), and the hare 
(arnab). The hedgehog (kunfudh) with its short quills 
is much commoner than the unrelated long-quilled 
porcupine (nis). The jerboa (djflrba', cf. class, yarbiP) 
hops about the desert on its long hind legs, resembling 
a miniature kangaroo; its cousin the diirdhi (cf. class. 
djuradh), on the other hand, runs on all fours. 

Snakes live in the sands and rocks, though seldom 
seen because of their nocturnal habits. Some are 
poisonous, including the horned viper, as well as a 
species of Arabian cobra (= Egyptian asp) and a 
large snake called the yaym (cf. class, aym), which 
the Bedouins say has the power of flying or leaping 
over a considerable distance. According to popular 
report, perhaps the most deadly of all is the bathn, 
a small innocent-appearing snake living in the sands. 
The striped seasnakes of the Persian Gulf are 
poisonous, but they rarely if ever bite human beings. 
The two large lizards are the dabb and the Arabian or 
desert monitor (waral), the first of which is eaten by 
all the Bedouins with relish, while the second is 
ordinarily shunned. Among the smaller lizards of the 
sands are the fierce-looking (ukayhi and the slippery 
sand-swimming skink (dammusa). 

The ostrich appears to have become extinct in 
Arabia during the past few years. Fragments of 
ostrich eggshells are often found in the desert, aod 
the word na l dm and other terms relating to ostriches 
occur frequently in place names. Trained falcons, 
often called simply (uyur, are much used in the chase, 
their chief game among other birds being the lesser 
bustard (bubdrd). Species of the sand grouse such 
as the (ta(d and the gha(d( are too fast for trained 
falcons, though they can be overtaken by the wild 
variety. The presence of wild falcons is attested to 
by the number of high places called mashara = 
nesting-place of the falcon (sahr). Among the larger 
birds of the desert are the eagle, the vulture (nasr), 
and the owl, while the flamingo, the egret, and the 
pelican are found along the coasts. Smaller birds are 
commoner in the cultivated regions, among them 
being the cuckoo, the thrush, the swallow, the wagtail, 
the Syrian nightingale (bulbul), and the hoopoe 
(hudhud). The bifasciated lark (umm sdlim) is 
ubiquitous in the desert, and the courser (daradf) 
nearly so. The pigeons of the Great Mosque in Mecca 
are famous throughout Islam. 

The seas embracing the Peninsula are rich in fish, 
many of which, such as the king mackerel (kan'ad) 
and the grouper (hdmur) of the Persian Gulf, are 
tasty and nutritious, but are not eaten as much by 



.-'ARAB 



the Arabs as might be expected. Whales occasionally 
enter the Persian Gulf from the Indian Ocean. Both 
sharks and sardines are caught in great numbers c 
the southern coast, and the Persian Gulf produc 
delicious shrimps. 

The most disastrous plague visited upon Arabia 
by living creatures is that of the locusts (djardd). 
The solitary mitigating aspect of a locust invasion is 
that a number of the invaders themselves are eaten 
by the people they afflict. Minor plagues by compari- 
son are those of flies, camel ticks, and similar vermin, 
which are no worse in Arabia than in many other 
countries, even though the Bedouin may describe 
his life as all rami wa-^aml (sand and lice). A more 
agreeable insect, even in spite of its sting, is the 
bee, kept for its honey. 

Bibliography (for sections i-v): Oldei 
Arabic sources: 'Arram al-Sulami, Asmd' 
Qiibdl Tihdma, Cairo 1373; Hamdani, Sifat 
Diazirat al-'Arab; idem, al-IklU; BGA, espec. Ibn 
Hawkal and al-Makdisi; Mas'udI, Murudi al- 
Dhahab: BakrI, Mu'diam ma ista'diam, Cairo 
1945-51; Zamakhsharl, al-Amkina wa'l-Diibal 
wa 'l-Miydh, Leiden 1856; Ibn Djubayr, Rihla*, 
Leiden 1907; Yakut, Mu'diam al-Bulddn; Ahmad 
b. c Abd Allah ai-Tabari, al-lfira li-Kdsid Umm 
al-Kurd, Cairo 1367; Ibn al-Mudjawir, Descriptio 
Arabiae meridionalis, Leiden 1951; Abu '1-Fida 5 
Descriptio peninsulae Arabiae, Oxford 1712; Ibn 
Battuta, Voyages; al-Makrizi, De valle Hadhramaut, 
Bonn 1866; Khalil al-Zahiri, Zubdat K-ashf al- 
Mamdlik, Paris 1894 (French tr. Damascus 1950); 
<Abd al-Ghani al-NabulusI, al-Hakika wa'l-Madjdz, 
Cairo 1324. 

Modern Arabic works of a broa 
scope: Amln al-RIhani, Muluk al-'Arab', Beirut 
1929; Hafiz Wahba, Diazirat al-'Arab, Cairo 1354; 
•Umar Rida Kahhala, Qiughrdfiyyat Shibh 
Djazirat al-'Arab, Damascus 1364; Fu'ad Han 
Kalb Diazirat al-'Arab, Cairo 1352; idem, al-B 
al-'Arabiyya al-Su'udiyya, Mecca 1355; 
Cheikho, in al-Mashrik, 1920; Muh. b. <Abd Allah 
b. Bulayhid, Sahih al-Akhbdr, Cairo 1370-3. 

Works dealing primarily with tl 
Hidjaz: Ibrahim Rif'at, Mir'dt al-tfaramayn, 
Cairo 1344; Muh. Labib al-Batanuni, al-Rihla al- 
Ifidjdziyya', Cairo 1329; Khayr al-DIn al-Zir 
Ma Ra'ayt, Cairo 1342; Shakib Arslan, al-Irtisd 
al-Lifdf, Cairo 1350; c Abd al-Kuddus al-Ansari, 
Athdr al-Madina, Damascus 1353; Muh. Husayn 
Haykal, Fi Manzil al-Wahy, Cairo 1356. 

Works dealing with <Asir: Sharaf a l- 
Barakatl, al-Rihla al-Y amdniyya, Cairo 1330; 
Fu'ad Hamza, Fi Bildd 'Asir, Cairo 1951; Muh. 
'Umar Rafi', Fi Rubu' 'Asir, Cairo 1373. 

Works dealing with the Yaman, Had- 
ramawt, Kuwayt and Saudi Arabia: Nazih 
al- c Azm, Rihla fi Bildd al-'Arabiyya al-Sa'ida, 
Cairo 1937; Salah al-Bakri, Fi Djanub al-Djazira 
al-'Arabiyya, Cairo 1 368 ; Muh. b. Hashim, Ri}fla ila 
'l-Thaghrayn, Cairo; Ahmad al-Shurbasi, Ayydm 
al-Kuwayt, Cairo 1373; Faysal al-'Azma, Fi Bildd 
al-LuHu', Damascus 1945 ; Hamad al-Djasir, recent 
articles in MM'I'A, al-Bildd al-Su'udiyya, etc.; 
Rushdl Malhas, Bahth al-Ma'ddin, Mecca 1349; 
idem, Masdfdt al-TuruP, Mecca 1368; 'Isa al- 
Kutami, Dalil al-Mufitdr', Cairo 1369; Husayn 
Muh. Badawl, K. al-Zird'a al-Haditha bil-Mamlaka 
al-'Arabiyya al-Su'udiyya, Cairo 1945. 

General works dealing with Arab 
E.-F. Jomard, ttudes giographiques et historiques 
sur I'Arabie, Paris 1839; C. Ritter, Die Halbinsel 



Arabien*, Berlin 1846-7; N. Desvergers, Arable, 
Paris 1847; A. d'Avril, L'Arabie contemporaine, 
Paris 1868; S. M. Zwemer, Arabia, N. Y. 1900; 
B. Moritz, Arabien, Hanover 1923; W. Lesch, 
Arabien, Munich 1931; E. Nune, in OM, 1941; 
R. Sanger, The Arabian Peninsula, Ithaca, N. Y., 
1954; Admiralty, A handbook of Arabia, London 
1916-7; idem, Iraq and the Persian Gulf, London 
1944; idem, Western Arabia and the Red Sea, 
London 1946; J. G. Lorimer, Gazetteer of the 
Persian Gulf, 'Oman, and Central Arabia, Calcutta 
1908-15; India, General Staff, Routes in Arabia, 
Simla 1916; Selections from the records of the 
Bombay Government, n.s., xxiv, Bombay 1856; 
G. W. Forrest, Selections from the travels . . . in 
the Bombay Secretariat, Bombay 1906; C. R. 
Markham, A memoir on the Indian surveys*, 
London 1878; Annual reports etc. of the Govern- 
ments of Aden and Bahrayn ; Iraq Petroleum Co., 
Handbook, London 1948; A. Zehme, Arabien u. die 
Araber, Halle 1875; D. G. Hogarth, The penetration 
of Arabia, London 1905; O. Weber, Forschungs- 
reisen in Sud-Arabien, Leipzig 1907; R. H. 
Kiernan, The unveiling of Arabia, London 1937; 
F. Wustenfeld, Die v. Medina auslaufenden Haupt- 
strassen; Die Strasse v. Bacra nach Mekka; Das 
Gebiet v. Medina; Bahrein u. Jem&ma; all in Abh. 
d. K. Ges. d. Wiss. zu GOtt., 1862-74. 

Travellers up to the middle of the 19th 
century: C. Niebuhr, Beschreibung v. Arabien, 
Copenhagen 1772; idem, Voyage en Arabic, 
Amsterdam 1776-80; D. Badia y Leblich, Voyages 
d'Ali Bey, Paris 1814; F. Kruse, etc., eds, U. J. 
Seetzen's Reisen, Berlin 1854-9; J- Burckhardt, 
Travels in Arabia, London 1829; G. Sadlier 
[Sadleir], Diary of a journey across Ar., Bombay 
1866; E. Ruppell, Reisen in Nubien . . . u. dem 
petrdischen Ar., Frankfurt 1829; P. Aucher-Eloy, 
Relations de voyages, Paris 1843; J. Wellsted, 
Travels in Ar., London 1838; idem, Travels to the 
city of the Caliphs, London 1840; P. Botta, Relation 
d'un voyage dans VYlmen, Paris 1841 ; M. Tamisier, 
Voyage en Ar., Paris 1840; V. Fontanier, Voyage 
dans le gol/e persique, Paris 1844-6; S. Elmgren, 
ed., G. A. Wallins reseanteckningar, Helsingfors 
1864-6; T. Arnaud, in JA, 1845; idem, in Revue 
d'&gypte, 1894-5; H. v. Maltzan, ed., A. v. Wrede's 
Reise in Hadhramaut, Brunswick 1870. 

Travellers during the second half of the 
19th century: L. Pelly, in JRGS, 1865; C. 
Guarmani, Northern Najd, London 1938 ; J. Halevy, 
in J A, 1872; idem, in BSG, 1873-7; H. v. Maltzan, 
Reise nach Siidarabien, Brunswick 1873 ; R. Burton, 
Pers. narrative of a pilgr. to A l-Madinah & Meccah, 
London 1893; idem, The gold-mines of Midian, 
London 1878; idem, The land of Midian, London 
1879; C. Huber, Voyage dans I'Ar. centrale, Paris 
1885 ; idem, Journal d'un voyage en Ar., Paris 1891 ; 
R. Manzoni, El Yemen, Rome 1884; S. Miles, The 
countries & tribes of the Persian Gulf, London 
1919; C. Doughty, Travels in Ar. Deserta, London 
1936; D. Miiller & N. Rhodokanakis, E. Glasers 
Reise nach Mdrib, Vienna 1913; O. Weber, E. 
Glasers Forschungsreisen, Leipzig 1909; J. Wer- 
decker, in BSRGE, 1939; A. Deflers, Voyage au 
Yemen, Paris 1889; W. Harris, A journey thr. the 
Yemen, Edinburgh 1893; J. Euting, Tagbuch einer 
Reise in Inner-Arabien, Leiden 1896-1914; L. 
Hirsch, Reisen in Sud-Arabien, Leiden 1897; 
J. and M. Bent, Southern Arabia, London 1900. 



ellei 



duri 



loth century: H. Burchardt, in ZGEBer., 



PjAZtRAT * 

1906; E. Mittwoch, ed., Aus dem Jemen, Leipzig; 
A. Jaussen and R. Savignac, Mission archiologique 
en Ar., Paris 1909-22; A. Musil, Ar. Deserta, New 
York; idem, The northern Hegdz, New York 1926; 
ilem, Northern Negd, New York 1928; G. Bury, 
The land of Uz, London 191 1; idem, Ar. infelix, 
London 1915; B. Raunkiaer, Gennem Wahhabi- 
ternes land, Copenhagen 1913 ; A. Wavell, A modern 
pilgrim in Mecca, London 1912; G. Leachman, in 
GJ, 1911-14; H. Jacob, Kings of Ar., London 
•1923; idem, Perfumes of Araby, London 1915; 
f. Lawrence, Seven pillars of wisdom, London 1935 ; 
idem, Secret despatches from Ar.; H. Philby, The 
heart of Ar., London 1922; idem, Ar. of the Wah- 
iabis, London 1928; idem, The empty quarter, 
New York 1933; idem, Sheba's daughters, London 
1939; idem, A pilgrim in Ar., London 1946; idem, 
Arabian Highlands, Ithaca, New York 1952; R. 
Cheesman, In unknown Ar., London 1926; E. 
Rutter, The holy cities of Ar., London 1928. 

of the 20th century : B. Thomas, Alarms and 
ixcursions in Ar., Indianapolis 1931; idem, Ar. 
lelix, New York 1932; C. Rathjens and H. v. 
Wissmann, Siidarabien-Reise, Hamburg 193 1-4; 
idem, in Erdkunde, 1947; idem, in ZGEBer., 1929; 

C. Rathjens, Sabaeica, i, Hamburg 1953 ; A. Rihani, 
Around the coasts of Ar., Boston 1930; idem, 
Arabian peak and desert, Boston 1930; D. van der 
Meulen and H. v. Wissmann, Ha^ramaut, Leiden 
1932; D. v. d. M., Aden to the Hadhramaut, London 
»947; idem, Ontwakend Arabil, Amsterdam 1953; 

D. Carruthers, Arabian adventure, London 1935; 
P. Harrison, Doctor in Ar., New York 1940; 
F. Stark, The southern gates of Ar., New York 1936 ; 
W. Ingrams, Ar. and the isles', London 1952; A. 
Hamilton, The kingdom of Melchior, London 1949; 
H. Scott, In the high Yemen, London 1947; G. de 
Gaury, Ar. phoenix, London 1946; idem, Arabian 
journey, London 1950. 

E. Bremond, Ylmen et Saoudia, Paris 1937; C. 
Nallino, V Arabia Sa'udiana, Rome 1938; K. 
Twitchell, Report of the U. S. agric. mission to 
Saudi Arabia, Cairo 1943; idem, Saudi Arabia', 
Princeton 1953; R. Lebkicher, etc., The Arabia 
of Ibn Saud, New York 1952; W. Schmidt, Das 
sudwestliche Arabien, Halle 1913; A. Grohmann, 
Sudarabien als Wirtschaftsgebiet, Vienna 1922-33; 
N. Lambardi, in OM, 1947; E. Rossi, in OM, 1953; 

F. Hunter, An account of . . . Aden, London 1877; 
F. Apelt, Aden, Grossenhaim 1929; C. de Landberg, 
Arabica, Leiden 1886-98; L. van den Berg, Le 
Hadhramout, Batavia 1886; U. Omar, 77 sultanaio 
di Oman, Rome 1912; G. Rentz; ed., Oman, 
Cairo 1952; A. Wilson, The Persian Gulf, Oxford 
1928 ; S. Genthe, Der Persische Meerbusen, Marburg 
1896; G. Schott, Geog. des Pers. Golfes, MGG- 
Hamburg, 1918; R. Vad«la, Le golfe persique, 
Paris 1920; A. Mohr, Den Persiske bukt, Oslo 1929; 
M. Esmaili, Le golfe persique, Paris 1936; Admi- 
ralty, Persian Gulf .pilot', London 1942; U.S. 
Hydrographic Office, Sailing Directions for the 
Persian Gulf 1 , Washington 1952; Admiralty, Red 
Sea and Gulf of Aden Pilot', London 1944; U. S. 
Hydrographic Office, Sailing Directions for the 
Red Sea and Gulf of Aden', Washington 1943. 

Geology: O. Little, The geog. and geol. of 
Makalla, Cairo 1923; R. Richardson, Die Geol. u. 
die Salzdome im sudwest. Teile d. Pers. Golfes, 
Heidelberg 1926; G. Lees, The geol. and tectonics 
of Oman, Qly Jour, of the Geol. Soc., 1928; idem, 



L-'ARAB 543 

in GJ, 1928; P. Lamare, Structure gfologique de 
I'Ar., Paris 1936; H. v. Wissmann, etc., Beitrdge 
zur Tektonik A rabiens, Geol. Rundsch., 1942 ; C. Fox, 

The geol of Dhufar, Calcutta 1947; R. Mikesell 

and H. Chenery, Arabian oil, Chapel Hill 1949; 
W. Pratt, ed., World geog. of petroleum, Princeton 
1950; R. Lebkicher, Aramco and world oil, New 
York 1952; V. IUing, ed., The world's oilfields, 
London 1953. 

Fauna and flora: E. Blatter, Flora arabica, 
Calcutta 1919-23; O. Schwartz, Flora des tropischen 
Arabien, Hamburg 1939; R. Meinertzhagen, Birds 
of Arabia, Edinburgh 1954; W. Tweedie, The 
Arabian horse, Edinburgh 1894; E. Ruppell, 
Fische des Rothen Meeres, Frankfurt 1826-31; 
K. Jessen, etc., Danish scientific investigations, 
Copenhagen 1939-44; G. Bertram, The fisheries 
of Muscat, 1949 ? ; H. Forbes, The natural hist, of 
Sokotra, Liverpool 1903. 

(vi) Ethnography 

In the study of the ethnography of the Peninsula 
an array of formidable problems remain unsolved. 
Who were the first inhabitants ? Did they arise from 
the soil or did they come from abroad ?If immigrants, 
what was their original home? What was the 
environment in which they lived — did it differ 
greatly from the Arabia of today? What intrusive 
elements intermingled with the earliest dwellers as 
time went by ? Who were the first people to deserve 
the name of Arab, and where did they come from ? 

A measure of progress has been made in the 
attempt to elicit answers to these and similar 
questions, but far more work must be done before 
any of the more likely hypotheses can achieve the 
status of historical fact. Much more needs to be 
known about the geology and geography of the 
Peninsula, many promising archaeological sites need 
to be excavated, and an exhaustive investigation 
must be made of the various segments of the present 
population and their history. Moreover, the solution 
of Arabian problems may well depend to a consider- 
able degree on the success of work relating to other 
areas. The problem of the identity of the Arabs, for 
example, dovetails inextricably into the broader 
problem of the identity of the Semites, the host of 
people speaking languages of the family to which 
Arabic belongs. 

Space does not permit a review of the numerous 
hypotheses receiving serious consideration with 
respect to the early history of man in Arabia. 
Suffice it to say that available evidence indicates 
that the highlanders of the Yaman may form the 
least adulterated large group anywhere in the world 
now representing what anthropologists call the 
Mediterranean race. East of the territory of these 
highlanders a Veddoid strain is said to appear, 
particularly among the tribe of Mahra and other 
tribes in the south speaking their own Semitic 
languages, which are distinct from Arabic. This 
Veddoid strain and other data suggest an ancient 
connection with lands farther east, perhaps India 
or Ceylon. The Bedouin of the north, to most 
Westerners the classic Arab type, is also basically 
Mediterranean, though not quite as characteristically 
so as the mountaineer of the Yaman. All along the 
coasts and with less frequency in the interior, other 
strains occur, sometimes in easily recognisable forms 
and at other times lying so far below the surface as 
almost to defy identification. 

The unraveling of these mysteries is the concern 
of the archaeologist and the anthropologist [cf. also 



PjAZlRAT AL-'ARAB 



badw], More important for the student of Islam is 
the concept the Arab — especially the Muslim Arab — 
has had, and in many cases still has, of his ethno- 
graphical development, a concept so prevalent and 
tenaciously held that it merits the careful consider- 
ation of the anthropologist as well. 

The seeds of the Arab's own concept go far back 
into his past ; how far can not be determined because 
of the relative lateness of the sources available, 
though the basic particulars of the concept had 
developed before the appearance of Islam. In 
weighing data pertaining to pre-Islamic times, 
however, one must use caution, bearing in mind the 
iact that most of the existing sources were recorded 
not only long after the event but also subsequent 
to the introduction of Islam with its new ways of 
looking at many aspects of life, so that the complete 
genuineness of these data may often be open to 
question. Furthermore, various refinements of the 
Arab concept were still being made in the time of the 
Prophet, and other refinements came even later. 
Finally, Islam with its doctrine of the brotherhood 
of Muslims and the equality of Arab and non-Arab 
presented a fundamental challenge to the validity 
of the Arab concept as a guiding principle for the life 
of the community. 

Muslim genealogists have worked out an elaborate 
and ingenious system for the illustration and appli- 
cation of the Arab concept. Although this system 
has weaknesses — obscurities in the early stages, 
obvious gaps, unexplained riddles, inconsistencies, 
and contradictions — on the whole it hangs together 
well. Most important, its primary theses — the core 
of the Arab concept — have been by no means the 
exclusive property of scholars; they have belonged 
to the people, and their influence on the politics and 
social life of Arabia has been penetrating and 
pervasive. 

According to the Arab concept, the Arabs con- 
stitute a race, not simply a community of people 
speaking the same language. This race is made up 
of innumerable men and women each descending in 
a direct line from one or the other of two ancestors, 
who probably were not closely related (the connection 
between these two eponyms is one of the major 
unresolved aspects of the system). Greater homo- 
geneity could have been attained only by insisting 
on the descent of all Arabs from a single ancestor. 
That the Arabs recognized in their clear and undis- 
puted tradition the duality of their origin is a 
significant fact, and its effect on the history of the 
Arabs and Islam has been far-reaching. 

The system of the genealogists begins with a nod 
at those whom the Arabs regarded as the original 
inhabitants of the Peninsula, tribes such as c Ad, 
Thamud, Iram, Djurhum, Tasm, and pjadis [qq.v.], 
all of which are believed to have disappeared before 
the beginning of Islam. Some of these, such as c Ad 
and Iram, may well have been entirely legendary, 
while the historicity of others, such as Thamud, is 
not in doubt. Nothing certain is known about the 
identity of these tribes, though they are generally 
reckoned to have been Arabs, the Lost Arabs (al- 
'-arab al-baHda). Sometimes they are even called the 
True Arabs (al-'arab al-'-ariba), though this has 
little meaning, as in the Arab concept they are mainly 
a historical curiosity and an example of the terrible 
iate visited on people who heeded not their prophets. 
Although in later times there were men who claimed 
descent from these ancients or even tribes reputed 
to have sprung from them, the conclusion of the 
genealogist Ibn Hazm (d. 456/1064) was that "on 



the face of the earth there is no one whose descent 
from them is verified" (ed. Levi- Provencal, 8). 

Disposing of the autochthons in this fashion, the 
Arab concept concentrates on the two great 
ancestors — Kahtan and c Adnan [qq.v.] — and the two 
great divisions of the Arab race they fathered. As 
all men go back to Adam, these two must have been 
at least remotely related. The question of a closer 
relationship depends on whether Kahtan was a 
descendant of Ismail, who was recognised as an 
ancestor of 'Adnan. One opinion commonly held 
opposes such a descent for Kahtan, whose presumed 
line from Noah's son Shem (Sam b. Nuh) is separately 
traced. Kahtan's offspring are generally denominated 
the True Arabs (al-'-arab al-'ariba or al-'arba') ind 
c Adnan's the Arabised Arabs (al-'arab al-muta'arriba 
or al-musta'riba), though the uncertainty of Ihis 
classification is revealed by the existence of other 
versions, one of which brackets the Lost Arabs with 
Kahtan as the True Arabs, while another reserves 
the title of True Arabs for the Lost Arabs, designating 
the people of Kahtan as muta'arriba and those of 
c Adnan as musta'riba. In any event, Kahtan clearly 
comes out closer than c Adnan to genuine Arabness. 

The descendants of Kahtan are the Southern 
Arabs, Kaba'il al-Yaman, whose origin is traditionally 
assigned to the south-western corner of the Peninsula, 
while the descendants of c Adnan are the Northern 
Arabs, held to have made their first appearance in 
the northern half of the Peninsula. Whether this 
traditional division has a basis in truth is open to 
question. Certain data, for example, suggest that 
Saba' came from the north into the Yaman, though 
in the scheme of the Arab genealogists Saba 3 is the 
great-grandson of Kahtan and the father of rjimyar 
and Kahlan, the eponyms of the two main branches 
of the Southern Arabs. 

The peoples of the ancient South Arabian states — 
Sabaeans, Minaeans [qq.v.], and others — were regarded 
as descendants of rjimyar, so that Ilimyar in Arabic 
became the comprehensive term embracing the 
civilisation of these states. Few of those recognised 
without qualification as descendants of IJimyar played 
an important role during the Islamic period, the 
centre of the stage having by then been occupied by 
the sons of Kahlan, among whom were numbered 
Tayyi', Madhhidj, Hamdan, and al-Azd. Among the 
subdivisions of al-Azd were al-Aws and al-Khazradj, 
residents of Medina who rose to fame in Islam as the 
Prophet's Ansar. Lakhm, Ghassan, Kinda, and other 
tribes of Kahlan became solidly established in the 
north and centre long before the beginning of 
Islam, so that a tribal map of Arabia in the 6th and 
early 7th centuries reveals a curious patchwork in 
which the ranges of many Arabs of Southern descent 
lie north of those belonging to Arabs of Northern 

c Adnan, the putative progenitor of the Northern 
Arabs, appears to have been even more of a misty 
figure than Kahtan, so that the Northern Arabs in 
popular practice often trace their descent back no 
further than c Adnan's son Ma'add or even his 
grandson Ntzar. Mudar and Rabi c a, sons of Nizar, 
were the eponyms of the two main branches of the 
Northern Arabs, the descendants of a third son, 
Iyad, having largely sunk out of sight by the time 
of Islam. Kays c Aylan, one of the two major divisions 
of Mudar, was of such importance that the term 
Kaysi was often used for all Northern Arabs. This 
division embraced Hawazin and Sulaym, and 
Hawazin alone included such notable tribes as 
Thakif and the whole group of c Amir b. Sa'sa'a 



THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ISLAM 



art. al-'ARAB, DJAZIRAT 






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BlAZlRAT AL-'ARAB 



545 



(Kushayr, 'Ukayl, Dja'da, Kilab, and Hilal). 
Khindif, the other major division of Mudar, num- 
bered in its ranks Hudhayl and Tamlm and above 
all Kinana, the tribe of which Kuraysh formed a 
subdivision. Although the Northern Arabs by origin 
lacked the same identification with Arabdom that 
their Southern cousins enjoyed, the fact that the 
Seal of the Prophets camje from the Northern tribe 
of ' Kuraysh has redeemed their prestige under 
Islam in ample measure. 

From Rabl'a sprang the tribes of 'Anaza, 'Abd al- 
Kays, al-Namir, Taghlib, and the strong group of 
Bakr b. Wa'il, one of whose members was Hanlfa. 
Well before Islam the original groups of Mudar and 
Rabl'a dissolved, early folk of Mudar moving to 
the territory on the Euphrates called after them 
Diyar Mudar and early folk of Rabi'a to the 
territory on the Tigris called Diyar Rabl'a. Many 
of their- of fshoots, however, remained behind in the 
Peninsula: Hudhayl in the vicinity of al-Talf; 
Sulaym in the mountains between Mecca and 
Medina; Tamim and Hanlfa and various members 
of 'Amir b. Sa'sa'a in the center; and 'Abd al-Kays 
in the east. 

An attitude of hostility between Kahtan and 
'Adnan, which went far back into the past, was 
enhanced by the rivalry that developed between the 
AnBar of Medina and Kuraysh of Mecca, so that it 
beoame a factor of extraordinary significance in the 
history of the early Islamic dynasties, the effect of 
which extended as far afield as Spain. The struggle 
between South and North finally faded away into 
an affair of dwindling consequence with the eclipse of 
the Arab element in the Islamic world. Only in one 
section of the Peninsula — 'Uman — has the ancient 
hostility endured down to the present as a vital 
forte. For centuries the Northerners were known in 
'Uman as Nizaris, and the Southerners as Yamanls. 
As the result of a civil war there in the early 18th 
century, the Northerners came to be called Ghafiris 
and the Southerners Hinawis, a distinction which 
stiH carries weight.-, 

A-major anomalyin the system appears in the case 
of Kuda'a. A number of tribes — Bahra', Diuhavna. 
Ball, Tanukh, Kalb, and others — recognised a 
common ancestor named Kutfa'a, but agreement 
wat lacking as to whether he was a Southerner or a 
Northerner. Some said he was a son of 'Adnan, while 
others said he was a grandson or later descendant of 
Himyar. The genealogists also resorted to the device 
of declaring that all the Arabs were descended from 
three men— Kabtan, 'Adnan, and Kuda'a— but 
without the suggestion that Kuda'a represented a 
third element, neither Southerner nor Northerner. 
In the conflicts between the Southerners and the 
Northerners during the early period of Islam, the 
tribes of Kuda'a tended to side with the Southerners; 
genealogy was used for political purposes, the 
attribution to Kuda'a of a descent from Kaftan 
through Himyar prevailed, and the tribe of Kalb 
of Kuda'a advanced to the fore as champions of the 
Southern Arabs in the days of the Umayyads. 

In studying the history of Arabia from 'Abbasid 
times to the present, one encounters great difficulty 
in determining the links between the tribes of a 
thousand years ago and the tribes of today. Oppen- 
heim, Braunlich, and Caskel in their work Die 
Beiuinen have made the most ambitious attempt so 
far with respect to the tribes of northern and central 
Arabia, but much remains to be done in spite of 
the laudable degree of success they have achieved. 
Information on the tribes during the time when 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



the government of Islam was in or near Arabia is 
fairly abundant, and the same is true of the last two 
centuries or so, but for hundreds of years in between 
their story remains for the most part concealed 
from view. Great migrations took place of which 
only trifling records have been recovered. Elements 
broke off from one tribe to join another, or whole 
tribes reshuffled themselves into new groupings. 
Popular tradition among the Bedouins has preserved 
some recollection of the changes, but this tradition 
is often far from trustworthy. In the 4th/ioth 
century al-Hamdani remarked on the tendency of 
tribes bearing a given name to associate themselves 
with stronger or more renowned tribes of the same 
name, and this tendency still holds true. In the time 
of the Caliph Abu Bakr the appearance of the false 
prophet Musaylima among Hanlfa brought this tribe 
into disrepute; descendants of Hanlfa in Nadjd 
today prefer to name as their ancestor Rabl'a, from 
whom Hanlfa sprang, but so many other tribes have 
been named Rabl c a and popular knowledge of the 
traditional genealogical system is so scant that the 
result is often complete confusion. The modern 
tribe of al-Dawasir has a tradition that its ancestor 
was named 'Umar; the ordinary Dawsari today 
glibly identifies him as 'Umar b. al-Khattab without 
knowing who 'Umar b. al-Khattab was. The modern 
tribe of BanI Ghafir in al-Batina of 'Uman provides 
an example of the often unstable status of the 
tribes; although the Northern Arabs of 'Um4n are 
now called Ghafiris after this tribe, the tribe itself 
is notorious for the way in which it has shifted its 
allegiance back and forth between the Northerners 
and the Southerners. 

.Some of the great tribes of the present, such as 
Tamlm in the centre and Hamdan in the southwest, 
apparently represent in a generally faithful manner 
the ancient entities which bore these names, though 
many members of each have in the course of time 
broken away and lost their identity, while outsiders 
have attached themselves to this tribe or that and 
become completely absorbed into the community. 
The modern tribe of Kaftan may be the residue 
of one or more segments of the original nation of 
Southern Arabs, or the connexion may be even more 
tenuous than this, despite the fact that the Bedouins 
of Arabia still associate this tribe with the father 
of all Southerners. To follow the vicissitudes of the 
tribe of Kuraysh since the beginning of Islam, one 
would have to investigate — among other things — 
the history and current status of the many thousands 
of real and reputed sayyids and sl&rifs scattered not 
only throughout Arabia, but from one end of the 
Islamic world to the other. 

Members of one modern tribe may tenaciously 
insist on their homogeneity in descent from a single 
ancestor, while members of another tribe readily 
admit that they are a confederation of diverse 
elements. The tribes of al-'Udjman and Al Murra, 
which migrated from the vicinity of Nadjran to 
Eastern Arabia about two centuries ago, maintain 
that they share a common descent from Hamdan 
of the Southern Arabs through Yam. Their physical 
characteristics, their speech, and other facets of 
their life and history lend credence to this claim. On 
the other hand, large tribes such as 'Utayba-and 
Mutayr in Inner Arabia are closely knit composites 
the original components of which probably first 
coalesced not more than five or six centuries ago. 
These confederations may be transitory, e.g., the 
confederation of Nu'aym in 'Uman appears at present 
to be in the process of breaking down into its two 

35 



546 



PjAZlRA 



its, Al Bu Khurayban and Al Bu 
Shamis, with the old name of Nu'aym frequently 
being applied to Al Bu Khurayban alone, while 
other members of Nu'aym, living c. 500 km. to the 
west, are no longer in close contact with the main 
body. 

Despite all the genealogical vagaries and uncer- 
tainties, it is impressive how much importance is 
attached by most of the Arabs of Arabia to purity 
of descent.^ Mankind is divided into those whose 
race is universally recognised as purely Arab (asil) 
and those of a lower category whose blood is mixed 
or impure (ghayr asil). The Bedouin who knows his 
immediate forebears through no more than six or 
eight generations is still profoundly convinced of 
his own nobility; his membership in a tribe of 
acknowledged purity of descent is sufficient guarantee 
that the line further back is without taint. Purity 
of blood is preserved by strict rules governing 
marriage, which among the Bedouins at least are 
seldom violated. The distinction between pure and 
impure, strongest among the Bedouins, is carried 
over to a considerable extent into the oases and 
towns, particularly those away from the coasts, 
where many of the townspeople keep alive their 
sense of affiliation with one tribe or another. Other 
townspeople are grouped together in Nadjd under 
the appellation of BanI Khadfr, a generic term for 
those whose origin can not be traced back to a 
specific tribe. 

In the desert a few nomadic tribes by general 
consent bear the stigma of non-Arab descent. Among 
these is the tribe of al-Sulaba [q.v.] in the north, the 
physical characteristics of whose members, as well 
as the popular traditions regarding them, suggest 
an origin hidden in an unusual aura of mystery, 
though there is no foundation for the oft-repeated 
legend that they are the offspring of wandering 
Crusaders. Others of this category in the north are 
Hutaym and al-Shararat. The tribe of al- c Awazim 
in the east has succeeded in rising somewhat above 
its inferior status as a result of its prowess in battle 
during the past forty years in the ranks of King c Abd 
al-'Aziz of Saudi Arabia. 

Along the coasts, in the seaports, and in towns 
not far inland are found the greatest infusions of 
foreign or nondescript racial elements. In some cases 
these are well defined types from abroad, such as 
Somalis and Indians along the southern coast and 
on the Red Sea; banians or Indian merchants are 
also numerous in the ports of the Sultanate of 
Muscat and on the Persian Gulf. In other cases 
people of obscure origin are classified primarily on 
the basis of their occupations, such as the servants 
in Southern Arabia called Sibyah and Akhdam. 
Because many Muslims from distant lands desire to 
live and die on hallowed ground, Mecca contains a 
strikingly heterogeneous population, in which the 
so-called Javanese and Bukharan colonies (made 
up respectively of settlers from Indonesia and 
Central Asia) are among the largest. Certain foreign 
elements, such as the Abyssinians from the west 
and the Persians from the east, have a history in 
Arabia going back two millennia or more, yet they 
have never immigrated in great force and few are 
the places where the majority of the population 
has not retained its basic Arab character, at least 
in such important aspects as language and religion. 
Other foreign elements, such as some of the Baluchis 
settled in the interior of c Uman, have become so 
thoroughly Arabised that they are now considered 
by their Arab neighbors as asil. 



Racial matters in Arabia are often intermingled 
with religious considerations. Descendants of the 
Prophet, who usually bear the title of sharif in al- 
Hidjaz and sayyid in the Yaman and Hadramawt, 
sometimes form a privileged caste in the community, 
while at other times they lead the life of simple 
nomads in the desert. The numerous sayyids of 
Hadramawt, who enjoy exceptional prestige, all 
claim descent from a small group of families who 
emigrated from 'Irak to Hadramawt in the first half 
of the 4th/ioth century. In 'Uman the title sayyid is 
popularly accorded to the Sultan of Muscat, who 
does not claim descent from the Prophet, and in 
Nadjd the incidence of sharifs is remarkably low. 
In Eastern Arabia most of the sayyids are found 
among the ShI'ites, a fact which prompts the 
Sunnite Bedouins to question the authenticity of 
their descent. The Jews, whose history in Arabia 
goes back well into the pre-Islamic period, may have 
been in the beginning Israelites who moved south- 
wards or Arabs converted to the Judaic religion or 
a combination of the two. Once fairly numerous in 
the south-west, almost all of the Jews have departed 
within the last few years for Israel. 

Slavery as an institution sanctioned by Islam 
flourished in the Peninsula until very recent times, 
though now it appears to be slowly dying out. The 
great majority of the slaves came from Central 
Africa, and Negro blood is found even in villages of 
al-Afladj in the heart of Arabia. Like other Islamic 
lands, Arabia has remained uncursed by a colour bar, 
and emancipated slaves have on occasion attained 
positions of influence in society. Another Negro 
element exists in the so-called Takarina, who come 
halfway across Africa, often on foot, to make the 
pilgrimage; some of these stay on to eke out a living 
in the Holy Land, where their huts stand in the 
outskirts of Djidda. 

Although migrations of persons and tribes from 
place to place within the Peninsula and from the 
Peninsula to the fertile lands farther north have 
been common throughout the centuries, only a 
relatively small proportion of the Arabs of Arabia 
have shown a fondness for crossing the seas to 
settle in foreign lands. Chief among these have been 
the people of 'Uman, who since ancient times have 
moved down along the coast of East Africa and into 
southern islands such as Zanzibar, and the people 
of Hadramawt, many of whom have more recently 
established themselves in the Indonesian Archipelago, 
the Malay Peninsula, and India, where they have 
been influential in the domains of the Nizam of 
Haydarabad. Arabs of Eastern Arabia have moved 
across the Persian Gulf to occupy much of the 
Iranian coast, and seafarers from the Yaman have 
founded tiny colonies in such distant spots as 
Cardiff in Wales. 

Bibliography: Ibn Hisham, al-Tidjdn fi 
Muluk Ifimyar, Haydarabad 1347; 'Abid b. 
Shaiya, Akhbdr al-Yaman, Haydarabad 1347; al- 
Mus'ab al-Zubayrl, Nasab Kuraysh, Cairo 1953; 
al-Mubarrad, Nasab 'Adndn wa-Kahfdn, Cairo 
1936; Ibn Durayd, al-Ishlikdk, Gottingen 1854; 
Ibn Hazm, Djamharat Ansdb al-'Arab, Cairo 1948; 
Ibn 'Abd al-Barr, al-Kasd wa 'l-Amam and al- 
Inbdh, Cairo 1350; 'Umar Ibn Rasul, Turf at al- 
Ashdb, Damascus 1949; Ibn 'Inaba, 'Umdat al- 
Tdlib, Nadjaf n.d.; al-Kalkashandl, Nihdyat al- 
Arab, Baghdad 1332; Muhammad b. Ahmad 
al-Husayni, Bahr al-Ansdb, Cairo 1356; Ibn Li'bun, 
Ta'rikk, Mecca 1357; al-Suwaydi, Sabd'ik al- 
Dhahab, Baghdad 1280; Mahmud al-AlusI, Bulugh 



DjAZlRA 

al-Arab, Baghdad 13 14; DjurdjI Zaydan, Ansdb 
Ol-'Arab', Cairo 1921 ; 'Umar R. Kahhala, Mw'rffam 
Ifabd'il al-'Arab, Damascus 1949; Muhammad 
Sa'id al-Asbahl, Saldlat KaMn, Aden 1941 

E. Braunlich, in Islamica, 1933; E. Brauer, 
Ethnol. der jenunit. Juden, Heidelberg 1934; 
J. Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins, London 1831 ; 
f. Coon, in Papers of the Peabody Museum 1 
H. Dickson, The Arab of the desert', London 1 
V. Dowson, in JRCAS, 1949; C. Feilberg, La 
tenie noire, Copenhagen 1944; H. Field, in The 
Open Court, 1932; E. Glaser, in Ausland, 1885; 
E. Graf, Das Rechtswesen, Walldorf 1952; R. 
Hamilton, in JRCAS, 1942-3; P. Harrison, The 
Arab at home, New York 1924; idem, Doctor \ 
Arabia, New York 1940; W. Hein, in MGGW, 1903; 
J. Henninger, Die Familie bei den heutigen Beduinen 
Arabiens, Leyden 1943; idem, in Festschrift St 
Gabriel, Vienna 1939; J. Hess, Von den Beduinen 
ies Innern Arabiens, Zurich 1938; T. al-Hilali, 
in WI, 1940; D. Ingrams, A survey of soc. 
icon, conditions in the Aden Protectorate, Asmara 
1949; G. Jacob, Altarab. Beduinenleben % , Berlin 
1897; A. Jaussen, Coutumes des arabes, Paris 1948; 
A. Kaselau, Die freien Beduinen, Hamburg 1927; 
H. Lammens, Le berceau de I' Islam, Rome 1914; 
C. v. Landberg, Etudes, Leyden 1901-13; idem, 
Glossaire dattnois, Leyden 1920-42; idem, Langue 
ies bidouins '■Anazeh, Leyden 1919; E. Littmann, 
Arab. Beduinenerzahlungen, Strassburg 1908; 
R. Montagne, La civilisation du de'sert, Vaxis 1947; 
idem, in REI, 1932; A. Musil, The manners 
customs of the Rwala Bedouins, New York 1928; 
S. Nystrom, Beduinentum u. Jahwismus, Lund 
1946; M. v. Oppenheim, E. Braunlich, and W. 
faskel, Die Beduinen, Leipzig and Wiesbaden 
1939-52; E. Rackow and W. Caskel, in Baessler- 
Archiv, 1938; E. Rossi, in RSO, 1948; H. Scott, in 
JRCAS, 1941; A. Socin and H. Stumme, Diwan 
tus Centralarabien, Leipzig 1900-1 ; B. Thomas, 
Four strange tongues, London 1937; idem, The 
Kumzari dialect, London 1930; J. Wellhausen, 
Ein Gemeinwesen ohne Obrigheit, Gottingen 1900; 
idem, Reste arab. Heidentums 1 , Berlin 1927; F. 
Wustenfeld, Geneal. Tabellen der arab. Stdmme u. 
Familien, Gottingen 1852-3; idem, in Abh. d. A. 
Ges. d. Wiss. zu Gott., 1869. 

(vii) HISTORY 
1. — Pre- Islamic 

Arabia before the First Millennium B.C. — The 
Arabian Peninsula has as yet no history earlier 
than the first millennium B. C, though future in- 
vestigations will certainly bring many new facts to 
light. Excavations have been few and limited in 
extent, and even the surface in many regions has 
not been scrutinised by trained searchers. 

Scattered finds indicate that the Peninsula was 
inhabited in both Palaeolithic and Neolithic times, 
but nothing is known about who the people were or 
where they came from. The problem of the site of the 
original home of the Semites is still a matter of 
speculation. The Semitic nomads who began filtering 
into the Fertile Crescent from the adjacent deserts 
in the fourth millennium B. C. relied chiefly 011 the 
donkey, a beast not as well adapted as the camel 
to wide ranging in waterless tracts. 

The cuneiform inscriptions of Mesopotamia contain 
numerous references to Magan, Melukhkha, and 
Dilmun, places which may have lain in Arabia, 
though much of the geography of the time remains 



\L- l ARAB 547 

vague. The Egyptian records relating to Punt are 
similarly imprecise. Egypt's connections with Sinai 
and the Red Sea are very ancient, and the availability 
of frankincense in Southern Arabia led to indirect 
or even direct intercourse at an early period. 

A development of vast importance in the later 
history of Arabia and the Islamic world occurred, 
probably in the early second millennium B. C, with 
the devising of a system of alphabetic writing from 
which later Semitic alphabets, including South 
Arabic and North Arabic, derived. Tribal migrations 
about which little is yet known took place inside 
Arabia; in this millennium many of the "sons of 
Kahtan" may have gone south to their new homes. 
The last centuries of this millennium were a time of 
change, with the Iron Age beginning in the Near 
East and the Semitic Aramaeans entering the Fertile 
Crescent in strength. The domestication of the camel 
appears to have been achieved during this period 
in Arabia, the first contribution of the Peninsula to 
the material progress of mankind. 

Arabia during the First Millennium B.C. — The 
tenth chapter of Genesis, believed to belong to 
about the 10th century B. C, mentions Joktan and 
Hazarmaveth, who may be identified with Kahtan 
and Hadramawt. In the same century Solomon sent 
vessels into the Red Sea from the port of Ezion-geber, 
while his caravans traded with Northern Arabia. 
The location of Ophir, from which Solomon received 
gold and other products, continues to be a mystia-y. 
From the 9th century on, Assyrian and Babylonian 
inscriptions make frequent mention of the Aribi, 
camel-owning inhabitants of Northern Arabia who 
paid tribute to the masters of Mesopotamia. 

In recent years knowledge of the ancient civilisation 
of Southern Arabia has expanded tremendously. So 
many new inscriptions and other traces are coming 
to hand that current conclusions must often be 
regarded as tentative. An intensive review of the 
chronology is in progress, with the general tendency 
favoring a downward revision of dates. Available 
information suggests that organised states came into 
being in Southern Arabia during the second half of 
the first millennium B. C. 

The four chief states — Saba' of the Sabaeans, 
Ma c in of the Minaeans, Kataban, and Hadramawt — 
throve on agriculture and commerce. The Marib dam 
in Saba' was the most imposing structure in an 
elaborate system of irrigation. For centuries the 
Southern Arabian merchants monopolised the 
frankincense trade and controlled traffic between 
India and the West, sending their goods by overland 
routes which traversed Arabia from south to north. 
Colonies were established in Northern Arabia, and 
evidence of business activity has been found in 
Egypt, the Aegaean, and the Persian Gulf region. 
Strong Graeco-Roman influence on Southern Arabian 
culture is shown by archaeological discoveries. 
Southern Arabians migrated to Abyssinia, to which 
they gave its name, and their influence reached 
along the eastern coast of Africa. 

Many impressive buildings in Southern Arabia were 
temples dedicated to pagan deities. The earlier rulers 
of Saba', who bore the title of Mukarrib, combined 
the functions of prince and priest; later they gave 
way to the more secular rule of kings. [For details 

In the north, Aramaean influence was strong in 
the oasis of Tayma', briefly the capital of the Neo- 
Babylonian Empire under Nabonidus (regn. B. C. 
556-539). Dedan, near modern al-'Ula, became the 
center of a culture now called Lihyiinitic, using an 



S48 



DjAZlRAT AL- C ARAB 



alphabet derived from South Arabic. Thamud. 
mentioned as a tribe in an Assyrian inscription of 
the 8th century B. C, held Egra (al-Hidjr or Mada'in 
Salih) just north of Dedan. The recent finding of 
widely dispersed Thamudic inscriptions has raised 
new questions regarding the spread of this derivative 
of the South Arabic script and those who used it. 

After the Persian capture of Babylon in B. C. 539, 
a short-lived satrapy called Arabaya was created in 
Northern Arabia. Darius I (regn. 521-485), who 
sought to stimulate trade via the Persian Gulf, sent 
out Scylax of Caryanda, who sailed from India to 
the northern end of the Red Sea. The world's know- 
ledge of Arabia increased through Alexander's 
expeditions and the reconnaissance of the Persian 
Gulf carried out by Nearchus the Cretan. Alexander 
died in 323 just as he was planning the circum- 
navigation of the Peninsula and the subjugation of 
its peoples. Not long afterwards the Greek naturalist 
Theophrastus wrote an account of Southern Arabia 
and its products. 

The Ptolemies of Egypt, who often pursued a 
forward policy in the Red Sea, threatened the trade 
monopoly held by the Arabs, while the Seleucids of 
Syria promoted the use of the northern routes from 
India. The establishment of the Parthian state in 
the mid-3rd century B. C. weakened the Seleucids, 
but Antiochus III was still strong enough to conduct 
an expedition in 205-204 against Gerrha on the 
Arabian shore of the Persian Gulf. 

Late in the millennium the Nabataeans, a people 
of Arab stock with their capital at Petra, began 
playing a considerable role in the affairs of Syria, 
and Arabs appeared as rulers in various places in 
the Fertile Crescent, such as Charax Spasini at the 
head of the Persian Gulf. Arab vassal chiefs enjoyed 
a large measure of autonomy under Parthian rule, 
and the immigration of Arabs into Mesopotamia 
went steadily on. 

Towards the end of the 2nd century B. C. Eudoxus 
of Cyzicus sailed from Egypt to India, and in time 
Westerners learned the secret of using the south-west 
and north-east monsoons for voyaging across open 
water. The growing competition of the West seriously 
undermined the commercial dominance of the 
Southern Arabians, in whose homeland radical 
changes were taking place. An important event 
near the close of the 2nd century, later taken as the 
starting point of the "Sabaean era", has been 
plausibly connected with the assumption of royal 
power in Saba 9 by the mountain tribe of Hamdan. 
Both the kingdoms of Main and Kataban came to 
an end in the 1st century B. C, and the Katabanian 
capital Timna* in Bayhan was destroyed. Rome, 
which had made a client state of Petra in B. C. 60, 
coveted the wealth of Arabia Felix. Augustus sent 
the Prefect of Egypt, Aelius Gallus, supported by 
Nabataeans from Petra, on a long march in B. C. 
24 towards the incense country, but the expedition, 
finding the deserts inhospitable and its Arab allies 
treacherous, did not get beyond Saba'. [For details 

Arabia during the First Six Christian Centuries. — 
About A. D. 50 an unknown author wrote in Greek 
the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, an invaluable 
account of trade in the Red Sea and along the 
southern coast of Arabia. The King of Hadramawt 
in his capital Shabwa controlled the whole territory 
from Bayhan in the west to ?uf4r in the east, while 
the "King of Saba' and of DJiu Raydan" (a recently 
assumed title) sat in ?afir in the mountains of the 
Yaman, where the power of Himyar was growing. 



In A. D. 105 or 106 the Roman province of Arabia 
was created in the old Nabataean domain, stretching 
from Ayla (al- c Akaba) in the south to al-Namara 
in the northeast, with its capital first at Petra and 
later at Bostra. Merchants were encouraged to trade 
via the Red Sea through the port of Ayla, and 
Bedouin raids were warded off by the building of 
a limes along the desert borders. Roman knowledge 
of the Peninsula in the mid-2nd century was sum- 
marized by the geographer Claudius Ptolemy. 

Ardashlr I, the first Sasanid (d. A. D. 241), is said 
to have founded a city in Eastern Arabia and to 
have induced the tribe of al-Azd to settle in 'Uman. 
Sasanid authority on one flank of Northern Arabia 
and Roman authority on the other were challenged 
by the Arab rulers of Palmyra, but the Roman 
Emperor Aurelian defeated Queen Zenobia and 
captured her desert stronghold in 272. 

Something of the old glory of Saba' and Dh u 
Raydan was regained by Shammar (or Shamir) 
Yuhar'ish, who signified his triumphs about the end 
of the 3rd century by adding the names of hadra- 
mawt and Yamanat to his royal title. His reign was 
followed by a relapse into weakness, during which 
Nadjran on the northern border was besieged by 
the Lakhmid Mar 5 (= Imru 3 ) al-Kays, extravagantly 
described as "King of all the Arabs" in the oldest 
North Arabic inscription known (al-Namara 328). 
Later Kings of Saba' made their title even longer by 
appending "and of their Arabs in the mountains and 
the lowlands". 

One of the most obscure periods in Arabian history 
fell in the 4th and 5th centuries. The decline and 
impoverishment of the Roman Empire affected the 
Peninsula, where urban civilisation waned and the 
simpler ways of nomadism attracted more adherents. 
Christianity with its promise of a better life in the 
hereafter made headway in Arabia as elsewhere. 
The Arabs proved particularly susceptible to the 
doctrines of Nestorianism, coming from Mesopotamia, 
and Monophysitism, coming from Egypt and Abys- 
sinia. The Abyssinians occupied the Yaman for a 
brief period in the 4th century, with 'Ezana, the 
first Christian King of Aksum, proclaiming himself 
ruler of Himyar, Raydan, Saba', etc. Shapur II 
(regn. 310-79), called Dhu '1-Aktaf by the Arabs, 
subjugated Eastern Arabia; the Sasanid yoke was 
later removed, only to be reimposed shortly before 
the dawn of Islam. Judaism also made a successful 
appeal in Arabia, among its reputed converts being 
the King of Saba> in the early 5th century, Abkarib 
As c ad, known to Arab tradition as Tubba c As'ad 
Kamil, and one of its centres being the oasis of 
Yathrib (later Medina). 

Both the Sasanids and the Byzantine successors 
of Rome found it necessary to protect their territories 
from the unruly folk of Arabia by relying on buffer 
states ruled by Arab princes, the Lakhmids [}.».] 
standing guard on the edge of Mesopotamia and 
the Gljassanids [q.v.] shielding Syria. The two client 
states, like their suzerains, often came into conflict. 
In the first half of the 6th century al-Harith b. 
Djabala, the greatest of the ghassanids, proved 
stronger than al-Mundh.ir b. Ma 1 al-SamV, the most 
famous of the Lakhmids. In the late 5th century the 
chief of the Southern Arab tribe of Kinda [«.».], 
Hudjr Akil al-Murar, assumed the leadership of a 
confederacy of tribes in Central Arabia, but this 
loosely knit Kingdom of Kinda lasted only about 
half a century before it was overthrown by al- 
Mundljir the Lakhmid. 

In the 6th century Southern Arabia lay open to 



PjazIrat al-'ARAB 



549 



attack by the Christian Kings of Aksum and the 
Sasanid Khusraw I Anushirwan (regn. A. D. 531-79). 
Persecution of the Christians of Nadjran by the 
Judaising Arab Dhu Nuwas [q.v.] led to a new 
Abyssinian occupation of the Yaman c. 521. The 
Abyssinian Abraha [q.v.] as ruler of the Yaman 
carried out the last repair of the dam of Marib before 
its final abandonment, marched into the heart of 
Nadjd on a campaign against the Arabs of Ma'add, 
clients of the Lakhmids, and, according to Islamic 
tradition, undertook an unsuccessful expedition 
against Mecca in the Year of the Elephant (c. 570). 
Under Khusraw the Persians evicted the Abyssinians, 
and the Yaman was Persian territory at the rise of 

Mecca, a town of some antiquity on the ri 
route paralleling the Red Sea, achieved greater 
prominence and prosperity in the late 6th century, 
aided by foreign domination of the Yaman and 
chaotic conditions along the northern routes resulting 
from the long drawn out wars between Persia and 
Byzantium. The Meccan merchants of Kuraysh 
showed astuteness and industry in profiting from 
their participation in international trade. 

The last centuries of this period gave birth to the 
form of Arabic now called classical, the dialectal 
sources and the exact process of the development 
of which remain uncertain. Used by the poets of 
the di&hiliyya, many of whom were Bedouins and 
some Christians or Jews by faith, this language 
became the instrument of expression for the supreme 
masterpiece of Islam, the Kur'an, and the great 
works of Arabic literature in succeeding ages (s( 
■)• 



2. — Islamic Middle Ages 

Muhammad and the Rise of Islam (A. D. c. 570- 
632). — About A. D. 570 Muhammad [q.v.] b. 
c Abd Allah of Kuraysh was born in Mecca, then a 
principal centre of pagan worship. Only traditional 
accounts survive of Muhammad's early years, 
during which he became well acquainted with the 
tribal structure of both urban and nomadic life and 
saw something of the world outside Arabia while 
accompanying merchant caravans to Syria. About 
610 he received his first revelation; two or three 
years later he began preaching in public, after which 
the nature of Islam was elaborated upon in a series 
of revelations during the rest of his career as God's 
Messenger and Prophet. 

The men in authority in Mecca did not welcome 
Muhammad's message. A small body of Muslims 
went into exile in Christian Abyssinia; later the 
whole Muslim community migrated northwards from 
Mecca to Yatiirib, an event taken afterwards as 
having marked the beginning of the Islamic era 
(A. H. i/A. D. 622). During the ten years Muhammad 
maintained his capital at Medina, he erected a state 
guided in all its functions by the precepts of Islam. 
Two revolutionary concepts emerged which trans- 
formed the face of Arabia. The Kur'an, as emphasised 
by the divine revelations of which it consisted, was 
Arabic, a standard under which all Arabs could 
unite. Arabia had never before known an entity 
larger than relatively petty states or independent 
tribes and tribal confederations, usually at logger- 
heads with each other if not openly at war. At the 
same time, the Kur'an and Islam were not limited to 
the Arabs: the Kur'an is a revelation to all men, 
and under Islam the noblest man is the most 
Godfearing, not the one of highest lineage. This 



universal appeal opened the way for Islam to go 
far beyond the borders of Arabia. 

Muhammad's efforts during the Medinan period 
were devoted in large measure to settling affairs 
with Mecca, which was finally incorporated in the 
Islamic state in 8/630. Before this a fair number of 
tribes had been won over to Islam, but the great 
flood of applications to join Islam from tribes all 
over the Peninsula did not come until 9/630-1, the 
Year of the Delegations. Muhammad died in 11/632, 
before there had been time to anchor the Kur'anic 
religion in the hearts of all who had taken the name 
of Muslim. Neither had there been time to carry 
Islam abroad, though a halting attempt had been 
made in that direction, and the moment was indeed 
ripe for shattering the fragile shells of Byzantine and 
Sasanid defences in the Fertile Crescent. 

The First Three Caliphs (n-35l63*-56)- ~ Soon 
after Abu Bakr (regn. 11-13/632-4) succeeded 
Muhammad as head of the Islamic state, many 
tribes reasserted their independence, with prophets 
in several cases preaching doctrines contrary to 
Islam. Abu Bakr reacted vigorously, dispatching 
Muslim columns to Central Arabia, Bahrayn, 'Uman, 
and the Yaman. When Hadramawt, which held out 
the longest, was subdued, the Arabian Peninsula 
for the first and last time in history was effectively 
united throughout its length and breadth. 

The other great achievement of Abu Bakr"s brief 
rule was the inauguration of the grand programme 
of Muslim conquests outside Arabia. After invading 
'Irak Khalid b. al-Walid marched across the Syrian 
Desert in 13/634 to participate in a victory over the 

The conquests started by Abu Bakr were carried 
forward with verve during the rule of c Umar (13-23/ 
634-44). 'Irak was taken from the Sasanids, and 
Arabs from both the Northern and the Southern 
tribes peopled the newly founded military settlements 
of al-Basra and al-Kufa. After a decisive victory 
over the Byzantines at al-Yarmuk and the capture of 
Jerusalem, 'Umar came to visit this holy city, the 
first journey of a Caliph beyond the confines of 
Arabia. Islam next advanced into Egypt, the 
occupation of which brought about stronger economic 
and cultural ties with Western Arabia. Although 
'Umar is reputed to have ordered the expulsion of 
all Christians and Jews from the Peninsula, numbers 
of them lived on there for a long time to come. 

In the days of 'Uthman (regn. 23-35/644-56) of 
the House of Umayya, wealth and luxury abounded 
in Medina and Mecca, into which poured booty from 
the lands recently subdued. 'Uthman had no ear 
for the voice of Abu Dharr decrying the decay of the 
stern and frugal virtues of earlier Islam. Even more 
dangerous to the future of Arabia and Islam was 
the rift developing between the most powerful 
figures in the state, which led to the murder of 
'Uthman in Medina. 

The Struggle over the Caliphate (35-73I656- 
692). — The rift in high circles widened into a 
chasm when 'All, Muhammad's son-in-law and 
cousin, came to the fore as Caliph on the death of 
'Uthman. Muhammad's wife 'AHsha and his Com- 
panions al-Zubayr and Talha rose in opposition to 
'AH, who left Medina to march against them in 
36/656. In the Battle of the Camel 'All overthrew 
his rivals and won 'Irak, only to find himself faced 
with a more formidable adversary in ' Uthman' s 
Umayyad kinsman Mu'awiya, the governor of Syria. 
When 'All fixed his capital at al-Kufa in order to 
marshal strength against Mu'awiya, Medina lost 



5JO 



DjAZlRAT A 



the preeminence it had held since the Prophet's 
migration. 

'All's tactics against Mu'awiya so exacerbated the 
extremists among his own followers that they turned 
against him as the Khawaridi. Despite the crushing 
victory 'All gained over these seceders. at al- 
Nahrawan in 38/659, their party survived, Arabia 
long providing a fertile field for its propaganda. 
Mu'awiya was proclaimed rival Caliph in Jesuralem, 
and his forces clashed with 'Ali's in Western Arabia 
from Medina to Nadjran and the Yaman. When a 
Kharidii assassinated 'AH in 40/661, the 'Alids set 
up his son al-Hasan as Caliph in al-Kufa, but he 
soon renounced his claims in favor of Mu'awiya, 
who thus temporarily reunited the community of 

For the rest of Mu'awiya's life no serious rising 
took place against the new Syrian Caliphate, but 
resentment was stirred up by his advocacy of 
hereditary succession. After the accession of Yazid 
b. Mu'awiya (regn. 60-4/680-3), 'All's second son 
al-Husayn left Mecca to rally support in 'Irak, only 
to fall a martyr at Karbala 1 in 61/680. His death 
cleared the field for a stronger candidate, 'Abd 
Allah b. al-Zubayr, the foremost representative of 
the sons of the Prophet's Companions. Yazid's army 
defeated the rebellious Medinans in the battle of 
Harrat Wakim and laid siege to Mecca, Ibn al- 
Zubayr's stronghold, where the Ka'ba caught fire, 
but Yazid's death brought a pause in the hostilities. 
Ibn al-Zubayr won recognition as Caliph in nearly 
every quarter of Islam ; in fact, had he proceeded to 
Syria immediately, he might well have destroyed 
the Umayyad power forever. While Ibn al-Zubayr 
lingered on in Mecca, 'Abd al-Malik (regn. 65-86/ 
685-705) of the Marwanid branch of the Umayyads 
gradually regained ground outside Arabia. The 
Khawaridj, who had at first leagued themselves 
with Ibn al-Zubayr, turned against him, the Kharidii 
Nadjda b. 'Amir of Banu Hanifa making himself 
master of much of Arabia, only to be overthrown by 
another Kharidii, Abu Fudayk. 'Abd al-Malik gave 
al-Hadjdjadj b. Yusuf command of an army which 
captured Mecca in 73/692 after a long siege. Ibn 
al-Zubayr fell in the struggle, leaving the Holy Land 
of Islam in the hands of the Umayyads. Another 
Umayyad army marched to Eastern Arabia and put 
an end to Abu Fudayk. 

Arabia under the Umayyads (7 3- 132 1692-7 5°)- — 
The Umayyads of Syria regularly appointed 
governors for Medina and Mecca, and exercised a 
measure of control, often shadowy, over other parts 
of Arabia. Powerful Umayyad governors of al- 
Basra such as al-Hadjdjadi and Yazid b. al-Muhallab 
made their word law in the Persian Gulf and along 
its Arabian shore. 

The Umayyad Caliphs honoured the sanctity of the 
Holy Cities in Arabia and lavished large sums on 
their shrines, even while favouring at times the claim 
of Jerusalem, which was easier of access, to an equal 
or higher rank. During much of this period Western 
Arabia was at peace, enjoying a prosperity such as 
it was not to know among the dissensions of later 
ages. The Umayyads developed the irrigation system, 
and many personages of Islam lived in their days of 
retirement on estates near Medina, Mecca, or al- 
Ta'if. The Holy Cities became renowned not only 
for Islamic learning but also for indulgent living, 
poetry, and singing. 

The intense rivalry in Umayyad politics between 
the Northern Arabs and the Southern Arabs had its 
repercussions in Arabia, where Kalb, the principal 



tribe among the Southerners, owned land in WadI 
al-Kura near Medina. 

Towards the end of the Umayyad period an 
alliance of Khawaridi was formed under the leader- 
ship Of 'Abd Allah b. Yahya Talib al-Hakk of 
Kinda and Abu Hamza of al-Azd. Abu Hamza took 
Mecca, won a victory at Kudayd in 130/747, and 
then entered Medina, while Talib al-Hakk supported 
him from their base in Hadramawt and the Yaman. 
Despite the waning might of the Umayyads, Marwan 
II summoned sufficient strength to overcome these 
Kharidii chiefs, but only after they had contributed 
to his final undoing. Mecca was also used by the 
'Abbasids as a centre for their plot aiming at the 
supersession of the Syrian Caliphs. 

Arabia under the Early 'Abbasids (132-266! 
750-879). — The 'Abbasid transfer of the Caliphate 
to 'Irak enhanced the importance of the Persian 
Gulf as a seaway for trade reaching out to China 
and East Africa. Wares bound to and from the 
'Abbasid capital passed through al-Basra, while in 
the Gulf itself Siraf on the Persian side in the 3rd/9th 
century became the busiest port. 

'Abbasid authority in Arabia kept its strength for 
not much over a century, during which time governors 
were sent to the Holy cities and the Yaman, and on 
occasion to the central and eastern regions. The 
earlier Caliphs, notably al-Mahdi and Harun, and 
their wives, notably Zubayda, were diligent in 
making the pilgrimage and encouraging their 
subjects to do so by improving communications 
and the amenities of the route. 

A sect of the Khawaridi known as the Ibadiyya 
set up its own Imamate in 'Uman under al-Djulanda 
b. Mas'ud of al-Azd, but an 'Abbasid expedition 
under Khazim b. Khuzayma defeated and killed 
al-Djulanda in 134/752. Soon afterwards this 
Imamate was revived to endure with few inter- 
ruptions for the next four centuries. 'Uman, 
however, was an out of the way region, and the 
Khawaridj on the whole gave the 'Abbasids little 
trouble. [Cf. 'uman.] 

Taking the place of the Khawaridj as a thorn in 
the Caliphs' flesh were the 'Alids [q.v.], both Hasanids 
and Husaynids. Through skilful propaganda the 'Ab- 
basids in their campaign against the Umayyads had 
forestalled the 'Alids and usurped the leadership they 
regarded as rightfully theirs. For this the 'Alids never 
forgave them, and one after another they contested 
the 'Abbasid title to rule. Even though the 'Abbasids 
themselves came from a Meccan ancestor close to 
the Prophet, the 'Alids almost invariably found 
ready followers in Arabia; in the Holy Cities their 
rallying cry inspired the hope of regaining the place 
lost to Damascus and Baghdad. 

The first 'Alid pretender in Arabia was the Hasanid 
Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, who appeared as 
the Mahdi in Medina and had his claim to the 
Caliphate certified by no less a scholar than Malik 

b. Anas, but all to no avail when he fell in 145/762 
before the troops of al-Mansur. 

A major split took place among the 'Alids following 
the death of their sixth Imam, Dja'far al-Sadik, 

c. 148/765. The main body, giving loyalty to Dja'far's 
son Musa al-Kazim and five of his descendants, 
came to be known as the Twelvers. Others, the 
Seveners, advocated the cause of Isma'Il b. Dja'far 
and his son Muhammad, for which they worked, 
often in secret, in the movement of Isma'ilism. As 
time went by the Isma'llis in particular tended to 
attract to their side the discontented and oppressed 
elements of society, enemies of the ruling classes. 



DjAZlRAT AL-'ARAB 



Another Hasanid pretender, al-Husayn b. C A1I, 
met a martyr's death fighting against an 'Abbasid 
army at Fakhkh near Mecca in 169/786. The 'Alid 
cause, however, made progress in the Yaman, where 
it received the support of the great jurist al-Shafi'I, 
who finally won a pardon after being delivered as a 
prisoner to Harun's presence. 

The end of the 2nd century H. saw a new upsurge 
of 'Alid strength in Western Arabia: in Mecca the 
Husaynid al-Husayn al-Aftas put forward Muham- 
mad al-Dibadj, a son of Dja'far al-Sadik, while the 
Hasanid Muhammad b. Sulayman established him- 
self in Medina. These pretenders did not hold their 
ground against the 'Abbasids, but greater success 
was achieved by Ibrahim al-Djazzar, a grandson 
of Dja'far al-Sadik, in the Yaman. Yielding to the 
tide of pro-'Alid sentiment, the Abbasid Caliph al- 
Ma'mun designated 'All al-Rida, the eighth Imam 
of the Twelvers, as his heir apparent and substituted 
'Alid green for 'Abbasid black as the royal colour, but 
this change evaporated with 'All's death in 203/818. 

To cope with the 'Alid threat in the Yaman, al- 
Ma'mun appointed as his governor there one Muham- 
mad, who claimed descent from Mu'awiya's lieute- 
nant Ziyad b. Ablh. Refounding the city of Zabid 
in 204/820 and carving out a domain for himself, 
Muhammad established the dynasty of the Ziyadids 
[q.v.], which, while according nominal allegiance to the 
'Abbasids, was actually the first of the numerous 
independent dynasties to spring up in Arabia as the 
Caliphate disintegrated. 

Although not a strong Caliph, al-Wathik (regn. 
227-232/842-847) executed a vigorous policy in 
Arabia. When Bedouins of Sulaym made the region 
around the Holy Cities unsafe with their depredations, 
al-Wathik dispatched the Turkish general Bugha the 
Elder to bring the culprits to heel. For the next 
two years Bugha campaigned against other tribes, 
climaxing his operations in 232/847 with a hard won 
victory over Numayr at Batn al-Sirr deep in the 
interior, after which a man of Udakh in Nadjd was 
appointed governor of al-Yamama, Eastern Arabia, 
and the pilgrim route to Mecca. 

Following the death of al-Mutawakkil in 247/861, 
the career of the 'Abbasids both at home and in 
Arabia took a turn for the worse. The dynasty of 
the Ya'furids [q.v.], claiming descent from the ancient 
Tubba's of yimyar, arose in the highlands of the 
Yaman with San'a' as capital. Hadramawt secured 
its independence, and local rulers set themselves up 
in the east, where 'AH b. Muhammad — either a 
genuine Husaynid, as he gave himself out to be, or 
a' member of 'Abd al-Kays — began an agitation 
among the nomadic tribes. Another Hasanid revolt 
ift Mecca, inaugurated by Isma'il b. Yusuf al- 
Ukhaydir, led to the establishment under Isma'Il's 
brother Muhammad of a new state in al-Yamama, 
where these Ukhaydirids maintained themselves 
until submerged by the onrush of Karmatianism. 

Another blow was dealt the 'Abbasid empire by 
the recalcitrant governor of Egypt, Ahmad b. 
Tulun, who by occupying Syria broke down the 
control once exercised over the tribes of the Syrian 
Desert. The most direct menace to the empire, 
however, came from the agitator in Eastern Arabia, 
'All b. Muhammad, who transferred his activities to 
Southern 'Irak, where he stirred up the Zandj, the 
negro slaves laboring in the salt marshes, in a massive 
insurrection (255-70/863-83) extending as far as the 
Holy Cities. 

Ism&Hlis and Karmatians in Arabia (266-567/ 
879-1171). — At this juncture in 'Abbasid affairs 



551 

the rapidly spreading movement of Isma'Ilism (see 
isma'Iliyya) took full advantage of its opportunities. 
Isma'IlI missionaries carried out a well laid plan of 
penetration, with the Persian Gulf coast and the 
Yaman as the principal foci for their activity in 
Arabia. As these two parts of Arabia remained 
relatively isolated from each other, the connexion 
between later developments in them was slight. 

Isma'Ilism was first introduced into the Yaman 
by Ibn Hawshab (Mansur al-Yaman) and 'All b. 
al-Fadl in 266/879-80. Collaborating closely, these 
two won many followers, and 'AH occupied both 
San'a 5 and Zabid for brief periods. The Ziyadids 
and the Ya'furids fought the Isma'llis, and a new 
opponent arose against them in 280/893 with the 
arrival in the Yaman of the first Zaydi Imam, al- 
Hadl Yahya, a grandson of the Hasanid al-Kasim 
al-Rassi (d. 246/860), who had fashioned legal 
foundations for a Zaydi government closer to 
Sunnism than to the extreme Shi'ism of the Isma'llis. 
The two Ismail! leaders eventually fell out, and by 
303/915 both were dead, but their doctrines did not 
die with them. 

Isma'Ilism appeared c. 286/899 in Eastern Arabia, 
where under Abu Sa'Id al-Hasan al-Djannabi and 
his son Abu Tahir Sulayman a strong state was 
organised. The name Karmatian, the origin and 
meaning of which are still in doubt, remains the 
popular designation for this particular aspect of 
Isma'Ilism, though its application is not restricted 
to this region. The 'Abbasids were too feeble to 
prevent these Karmatians from sacking al-Basra 
and al-Kiifa, and in 317/930 they entered Mecca and 
carried off the Black Stone to their new capital al- 
Ahsa* (al-HasS). With the conquest of 'Uman soon 
thereafter the Karmatians held the greater part of 
Arabia. These disturbances prompted the Husaynid 
Atimad b. 'Isa, the most famous ancestor of the 
sayyids of Southern Arabia, to leave al-Basra on a 
migration ending in Hadramawt, where Ibadls from 
'Uman then held the upper hand. 

New threats to the 'Abbasids came from the 
Buyids of Iran and the Ikhshldids of Egypt, who 
reached out at times to Mecca, though neither got 
a lasting foothold there. The Buyids, who by taking 
Baghdad in 334/945 assumed de facto authority 
over the 'Abbasid realm, also brought 'Uman within 
their sphere. 

Abu Tahir died in 332/944, and the Karmatians at 
the behest of the Isma'ili Fatimids of North Africa 
restored the Black Stone to Mecca in 339/950-1. 
Under al-Hasan al-A'sam, a nephew of Abu Tahir, 
the Karmatians joined the Fatimids in a pincer 
movement on Syria and Egypt, the former exerting 
pressure from the east as the latter advanced from 
the west. However, after the Fatimids occupied 
Egypt in 358/969, the Karmatians broke with them 
and sided with the Buyids in resisting their designs 
on Syria. Damascus was captured by al-Hasan in 
360/971, but he was repulsed on two expeditions 
against Egypt before reaching the newly founded 
Fatimid city of Cairo. 

Following the death of al-Hasan, the Karmatian 
government was placed in the hands of a Council 
of six sayyids. The Fatimids won a military victory 
over the Karmatians, but had to pay a large sum 
to induce them to return to al-A^sa*. The Karmatians 
lost 'Uman in 375/985-6, were checked by the Buyids 
in 'Irak and defeated in their own territory by a 
chief of al-Muntafik, who plundered al-Katif. [Cf. 

also KARMATIANS.] 



352 



DjazIrat al-'ARAB 



About the mid-4th/ioth century the Sharifate of 
Mecca [for which see makka], destined to last a 
thousand years, was established by a family of 
Hasanids known as the Musawids. The most promi- 
nent member of this family was Abu al-Futuh al- 
Hasan, who in 402/101 1-2 tried to make himself 
Caliph, only to be thwarted by the Fatimids, liege 
lords of the sharifs. Contemporary with the early 
Musawids were Husaynids descended from al- 
Husayn al-Asghar, a younger brother of the fifth 
ShI'ite Imam, who began ruling as amirs of Medina. 
This line, which lasted until the 9th/ 15 th century, 
came later to be known as the House of Muhanna. 

An offshoot of Isma'Ilism was the Druze movement, 
which had its origins during the reign of the Fatimid 
al-Hakim. The Druze al-Muktana sent a letter to 
the Karmatian sayyids of Eastern Arabia, proposing 
that they combine forces on the basis that they 
shared a common doctrine, but nothing concrete 
came of this. 

Early in the 5th/nth century the Ma c nids [q.v.] 
came to power in Aden and Hadramawt, and the 
Ziyadlds in the Yaman gave way before the 
Nadjahids [q.v.], originally their own Abyssinian 
slaves. Isma'Ilism in the Yaman enjoyed a revival 
under the Sulayhids [q.v.], rulers sprung from the 
tribe of Yam who held San'5 3 as nominal vassals of 
the Fatimids, while the Zaydl Imams kept their 
base at Sa'da. 

In 443/1051 Nasir-i Khusraw visited al-Ahsa 1 , 
where he found the Council of Six still in control. 
The details of his eyewitness account of the Karma- 
tian state in its later days are unfortunately not 
supported by corroborating testimony. 

The Shi'ism of the Buyids, Karmatians, and 
Fatimids aroused a Sunnite reaction championed by 
the Saldjuk Turks, whose leader Tughril took 
Baghdad in 447/1055. A Saldjuk of Kirman, KSwurd 
Kara Arslan, brought 'UmSn under his sway. About 
this time Siraf was yielding its place as the chief 
port of the Persian Gulf to the island of Kays, the 
rulers of which made themselves also lords of 'Uman, 
where in the mid-5th/nth century a break came in 
the line of Ibadi Imams. For the next three and a 
half centuries records survive of only one Imam. 

The Sulayhids of the Yaman seized Aden from 
the Ma'nids and also expanded northwards, the 
authority of the Musawid sharifs over Mecca having 
faded away. In 455/1063 the Sulayhid 'All b. Muham- 
mad installed an agnate branch of sharifs, the 
Hashimids, in Mecca. Under Malik Shah in Baghdad 
the Saldjuks reached the zenith of their power, and 
thanks to him the shadowy 'Abbasid of the day had 
lipservice paid to him in the Holy Cities as the 
Caliph of Islam. Malik Shah and his minister Nizam 
al-Mulk concerned themselves with the affairs of 
the pilgrimage, spending freely to put them to rights. 

About 470/1077-8 the Karmatians of al-Ahsa 5 met 
their final defeat at the hands of a native dynasty, 
the 'Uyunids [q.v.] of the tribe of c Abd al-Kays. 
There is no trace of Karmatianism left today among 
the Arabian people. The Shi'ites of al-Katif and 
modern al-Hasa, sometimes described as the rem- 
nants of the Karmatians, are in fact orthodox 
Dja'farls of the Twelver persuasion or Shaykhis. 

In 461/1068-9 Aden was granted as a dowry to a 
remarkable woman of the Sulayhid house, Sayyida 
bint Ahmad, upon her marriage to al-Mukarram 
Ahmad b. c Ali al-Sulayhl, and soon afterwards the 
government of the town was transferred from the 
Ma'nids to the Zuray'ids [q.v.], who like the Sulayhids 
were Isma'ills of the stock of Yam. The Zuray'ids 



ruled Aden for nearly a century, gradually acquiring 
a larger measure of independence. Under Sayyida, 
into whose hands al-Mukarram placed the authority 
of the state so that she was recognized by the 
Fatimid Imam as Suzerain of the Kings of the 
Yaman, the Sulayhids enjoyed their last days of 
real dominion. Her death in 532/1137-8 marked the 
effective end of the dynasty, the succeeding 
representatives of which were a feckless lot. 

Upon the death of the Fatimid Imam of Egypt al- 
Mustansir in 487/1094, two parties arose among the 
Isma'ills which have persisted to the present day. 
From the party supporting al-Mustansir's eldest son 
Nizar descended the Isma'Ui Assassins of AlamOt 
and the Khodias. the head of many of whom is now 
the Agha Khan. The party favoring al-Mustansir's 
youngest son al-Musta'li Ahmad, allied with the 
Sulayhids through Queen Sayyida, was strong in 
the Yaman. 

The rule of Ahmad b. Sulayman, one of the 
greatest of the earlier Zaydl Imams, ran from 532 
to 566/1 1 37-7 1, during which time he held Sa'da, 
Nadjran, and al-Djawf, occupied San'a 5 and Zabid, 
and made his influence felt as far north as Khaybar 
and Yanbu'. 

Like the Sulayhids, the Nadjahids also produced 
a queen to rule during the dynasty's declining years, 
'Alam, originally a slave girl, whose death in 545/ 
1 1 50- 1 was followed about a decade later by the 
ephemeral sway of the Mahdids [q.v.], who called 
themselves Himyarites and were accused of being 
Khawaridj. 

The Fatimids of Egypt succumbed to the Ayyubids 
in 567/1171, and a plot to restore them was nipped 
in the bud in 569/1174 by Saladin, who executed 
the poet and historian 'Umara b. 'All al-Hakami 
of the Yaman. The center of the Musta'lian party 
was transferred from Egypt to the Yaman, where 
it stayed until the ioth/i6th century, when it shifted 
to India, after which a split divided the party into 
the Da'Odls of India and the Sulaymanls of Southern 
Arabia [see bohora]. Extensive secular dominion in 
Arabia eluded the grasp of the Isma'ills until the 
reign of the SulaymanI Makramids [q.v.] of Nadjran 
in the I2th/i8th century. 

Arabia in the Later Middle Ages {s6j-end of gth 
Centuryjiiji-end of 15th Century). — The advent 
of the Ayyubids meant the triumph of Sunnism 
over Shi'ism in Arabia as well as in Egypt. Saladin, 
recognized as sovereign in Mecca, sent his brother 
Tflran Shah to depose the third and last Mahdid 
and occupy the Yaman in 569/1173. During the 
half century or so of Ayyubid rule there members 
of collateral branches of the dynasty sat on this 
southern throne. Hadramawt was conquered, but 
did not become an integral part of the Ayyubid 
domains. Closer home the Ayyubids had their 
hands full with the Crusaders from the West, one 
of the boldest of whom, Renaud de Chatillon, 
raided Tayma', sent his men cruising against the 
Muslims in the Red Sea, and even thought of 
attacking Medina. 

About 598/1200 the Hasanid Katada b. Idrls 
moved from Yanbu' to Mecca, where he founded 
the dynasty of all the later sharifs. Endeavoring 
to build a strong independent state in al-Hidjaz, he 
found the rivalries of the day too great to overcome. 
Katada died in 617/1220-1, and soon afterwards al- 
Malik al-Mas'Od Yiisuf, the last Ayyubid in the 
Yaman, took Mecca and appointed the founder of 
the Rasulids, who claimed descent from the Ghas- 
sanids, his governor there. 



PjAzlRAT 

On the other side of the Peninsula the Salghurid 
Atabeg of Fars, Abu Bakr b. Sa'd, the patron of the 
poet Sa'di of Shiraz, annexed islands in the Persian 
Gulf and set foot on the mainland at al-Katif and 
al-Hasa. The local dynasty of the 'Uyunids gave 
way before the Salghurid pressure and that of the 
tribe of 'Amir of 'Ukayl, which supplied a new 
dynasty in the 'Usfurids [q.v.]. 

Succeeding the Ayyubids, the Rasfifids [q.v.] 
reigned in Ta'izz and Zabid from 625 to 850/1228- 
1446 as the most illustrious house in mediaeval 
Yaman. Islamic architecture reached one of its 
higher points, and scholars received the stimulus of 
royal approbation, some of the Rasulid Sultans 
themselves being authors of note. Embassies came 
to> the court from China and other distant lands. 
'Umar b. 'All (regn. 626-47/1229-50) ruled from 
Mecca to Hadramawt, and after Hulagfi executed 
the last 'Abbasid in Baghdad in 656/1258 'Ulnar's 
son Yflsuf styled himself Caliph of Islam, but full 
enjoyment of such rank lay beyond the capabilities 
of the Rasulid state. 

Baybars, the first great Mamlflk Sultan of 
Egypt, assumed nominal overlordship of the Holy 
Cities, leaving Meccan affairs in charge of the 
Sharif Abu Numayy I Muhammad (regn. 652-701/ 
1254-1301), who strengthened the foundations of 
Katadan rule. Bedouins of Al Mira and other tribes 
roamed through the Syrian Desert, exacting large 
fees from pilgrim caravans and penetrating into 
Nadjd on their raids. In Damascus the religious 
reformer Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) laid the theolo- 
gical basis for the Wahhabi movement of the 12th/ 
18th century. 

About the beginning of the 8th/i4th century the 
port of Hormuz on the Persian mainland at the 
entrance to the Persian Gulf was moved to a nearby 
island, after which it grew apace and in time sur- 
passed its rival the island of Kays in attracting to 
its warehouses the merchandise of the East. 

Political disturbances in Mecca during the reign 
of the Sharif 'Adjlan b. Rumaytha (746-77/1345-75) 
provoked interference by the Mamluks of Egypt, who 
took the Rasulid Sultan of the Yaman prisoner in 
a battle at 'Arafa in 751/1351. Rasulid fortunes 
were temporarily recouped by Ahmad b. Isma'Il 
(regn. 803-27/1400-24), who held the Red Sea coast 
as far north as Haly, but after his death the state 
swiftly disintegrated. The later Rasulids carried on 
a lively competition with merchants in Egypt for 
Indian trade via the Red Sea. 

'In the early years of the 9th/ 15th century the 
Ibadi community of "Uman returned to its old 
practice of electing Imams, who succeeded one 
another in a series lasting over 150 years. About the 
same time the House of Kathir under 'All b. 'Umar 
set out on its long course through the tortured politics 
of Hadramawt and Zufar, while Hadrami missionaries 
carried the gospel of Islam into Somaliland. 

In the mid-gth/i5th century Mani' b. Rabi'a al- 
Muraydi, the ancestor of Al Sa'ud, migrated from 
the vicinity of al-Katif to Nadjd, where he settled 
in WadI Hanlfa. In the latter half of the century 
Adjwad Al Zamil of the Djabrid branch of the 
'Usfurids ruled as lord of al-Katif and Bahrayn, 
making his name a byword for generosity in Eastern 
Arabia. Mecca prospered under the sharif Muham- 
mad b. Barakat and the Mamliik Sultan Ka'itbay, 
wtho erected many buildings there, while the 
Tahirids [q.v.] in Zabid and Aden supplanted the 
Rasulids in the south. 



In the late gth/isth century Portuguese explorers 
made their way from the Mediterranean down the 
Red Sea, and in 903/1498 Vasco da Gama, after 
rounding the Cape of Good Hope, was guided to 
India by an Arab pilot, probably the Nadjdi Ahmad 
b. Madjid. Portuguese vessels soon appeared in the 
Red Sea, and under Afonso de Albuquerque the 
invaders seized Arabian ports on the Gulf of 'Uman 
and the great mart of Hormuz. Pedro, Afonso's 
nephew, toured the Persian Gulf in 920/1514, but 
Afonso died the following year without having 
achieved his ambitions of reducing Aden and 
launching an expedition against Mecca. 

About 912/1506-7 a new line of Zaydi Imams was 
inaugurated by Sharaf al-Din Yahya, and from then 
onwards the Zaydis tended to fix their capital, if 
possible, at San'a 5 . Coffee appears to have been 
introduced into the Yaman from Abyssinia about 
this time, and the use of kat and tobacco spread 
among the people. 

Badr Abu Tuwayrik of Al Kathir (regn. 922-76/ 
1516-68), whose authority in his palmier days 
reached from the land of al-'Awalik through 
Hadramawt to Sayhflt, did not hesitate to offer 
fealty to the Ottoman Sultan. Before Badr died he 
lost all his territories and suffered long imprisonment 
at the hands of his Hadrami enemies. 

Salim I, the Ottoman conqueror of Egypt in 
923/1517, assumed the high title of Servant of the 
Holy Cities, and the reign of Sulayman the Magnifi- 
cent (926-74/1520-66) fenced other regions within 
the empire. The Portuguese in alliance with the King 
of Hormuz attacked Bahrayn, where Mukrin, the 
uncle and successor of Adjwad the Djabrid, lost his 
life defending the island in 927/1521. Reacting to 
the aggressive policy of the Portuguese, the Turks 
bestirred themselves in the Persian Gulf and the 
Red Sea. Sulayman at Baghdad in 941/1534 received 
the homage of the Arab chiefs of al-Katif and 
Bahrayn, and later his troops pressed up into the 
mountains of the Yaman. Aden and Muscat were 
occupied briefly, and an Ottoman governor was 
installed in al-Hasa. 

For a period of some sixty years after c. 968/1560 
there were no Ibadi Imams in 'Uman, where the 
secular Nabhanid [q.v.] princes in their mountain 
fastnesses reached the climax of their power. 

The slow receding of the Ottoman tide from the 
highwater mark reached under Sulayman was 
observable in Arabia as elsewhere. The diversion 
of trade from the overland routes to the sea route 
round Africa contributed to the serious economic 
depression which beset the Near East during the 
early modern age. Besides the Austrians and other 
foes in Europe, the Turks had to face the Safawids, 
the strongest of whom, Shah 'Abbas I, pursued an 
expansionist policy in the Persian Gulf, where he 
subjected Bahrayn in 1011/1602. In the Yaman the 
Zaydi Imams kept alive resistance to the Turks, and 
al-Mu'ayyad Muhammad succeeded in expelling 
them completely in 1045/1635. 

The formation of the East India Company in 
1009/1600 was the prelude to a burst of activity by 
English traders in the Red Sea and the Persian 
Gulf. Allying themselves with the Persians, the 
newcomers drove the Portuguese out of Hormuz in 
1031/1622. Once the Portuguese monopoly had been 
broken, the English found themselves involved in 
competition with the Dutch, who secured commercial 



PjAZIRAT AL-'ARAB 



preeminence during the second half of the uth/i7th 

After the election of Nasir b. Murshid of the 
Ya'rubids of al-Azd c. 1034/ 1624 as Ibadi Imam, this 
Imamate remained in his family for more than a 
century. The Ya'rubids in their early days drove 
the Portuguese out of Muscat and all other pieds-d- 
ierre, and in their later days extended their authority 
overseas to Mombasa, Pemba, and Kilwa in East 

Husayn b. <Ali, the third and last Pasha of the 
House of Afrasiyab, under whom al-Basra in the 
early nth/i7th century had become virtually 
independent of Ottoman rule, incited Al Humayd 
of the tribe of Banu Khalid to overthrow the Ottoman 
governor of al-Hasa in 1074/1663-4. These Bedquin 
chiefs kept the oases and grazing grounds of Eastern 
Arabia subject to their will until the Wahh»Dis 
advanced to the Persian Gulf in the early £th 
century H. 

In Hadramawt the Zaydls of the Yaman encou«Bed 
the spread of their version of Islam at the expose 
of Shafi'ism. About 1070/ 1660 Ahmad b. al-rjasan, 
a nephew of the reigning Zaydl Imam, led into the 
main valley of Hadramawt a terrifying force known 
as the Night Flood (sayl al-layl) which undermined 
the position of the House of Kathlr, but Zaydism 
failed to secure a permanent triumph over Shafi'ism 
in this region. 

In the I2th/i8th century a new era began in 
Arabia with the spread of the reforming movement 
inspired by Muhammad b. c Abd al-Wahhab of 
Nadjd. In a sense this also marked the beginning of 
the modern history of the whole Near East. Placing 
the unity of God above all else and demanding 
that the popular faith be cleansed of innovations, 
Ibn c Abd al-Wahhab's call reverberated throughout 
the Islamic world from West Africa to the East 
Indies and moved the spirits of the modernists of 
the Salafiyya in Muslim countries closer than Arabia 
to the encroaching lands of the West. As an Arab 
movement opposed to the remote and vitiated rule 
of the Ottomans, Wahhabism [q.v.] influenced the 
nationalistic tendencies developing among the Arabs 
in the 19th and 20th centuries. Within Arabia 
political unity supplanted petty particularism, and 
orderly Islamic government functioned as it seldom 
had before. 

Soon after first preaching in public in 1153/1741, 
Ibn c Abd al-Wahhab concluded a basic alliance with 
Muhammad b. Sa'ud, ruler of the insignificant town 
of al-Dir c iyya. When Muhammad died, his son c Abd 
al-'Aziz carried on, and by 1202/1788 all Nadjd had 
accepted the doctrines and sway of the reformers, 
who had withstood three expeditions directed against 
them by the Isma'Ili Makramids of Nadjran, then a 
power in their corner of Arabia. [Cf. also sa'Odids.] 

In 1156/1743 the Ya'rubid line of Imams died out 
in 'Uman while the Persians were trying to establish 
themselves there. Ahmad b. Sa'Id of Al Bu Sa'Id 
expelled the invaders from the Batina coast and 
won election as Imam. After Ahmad's death the 
electors chose his son, but he proved such an obscure 
figure that even the date of his death is unknown. 
Later rulers of Al Bu Sa'Id [q.v.] made Muscat their 

selves at first simply sayyid (though they claimed no 
descent from the Prophet) and afterwards sultan. 
The Persians also held suzerainty over Bahrayn for 
about thirty years until the occupation of the islands 
by Al Khalifa in 1197/1783, since which date no part 
of Arabia has been subject to Persian dominion. 



The rapidly expanding puritan state of Nadjd came 
into conflict with the sharifs of Mecca in a war lasting 
fifteen years (1205-1220/1791-1806), with the Sa'udls 
occupying Mecca for the first time in 1218/1803. 
Shortly after the death of Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab 
(1206/ 1 792) Sa'Qdi authority flowed eastwards to 
the Persian Gulf, along which it extended to 'Uman. 
In the south the reformers reached the Yaman and 
Hadramawt, while in the north their forces threatened 
to overrun Syria and Iraq. The Ottoman government, 
unable itself to dam the flood, turned in desperation 
to the new Viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad C AH. 

In the I3th/i9th century foreign intervention in 
Arabia, both Muslim and Western, became more 
effective and extensive than ever before. Muhammad 
'All annihilated the first Sa'udi state when his army 
captured al-Dir'iyya in 1233/1818. The British, at 
first welcoming and then fearing the advent of the 
Egyptians, carried out military actions against the 
Persian Gulf Arabs and in Inner 'Uman and occupied 
Aden in 1254/1839, after which their influence 
gradually advanced along the southern and eastern 
coasts and penetrated into the hinterland. 

Sa'Id b. Sultan, the most famous ruler of Al Bu 
Sa'Id (regn. 1221-1273/1806-1856), wielded little or 
no authority in Inner 'Uman, where he was hard 
pressed by the Sa'udis, to whom he often paid 
tribute. In the latter part of his reign he devoted 
most of his attention to his East African possessions, 
but five years after his death the British established 
Zanzibar as a Sultanate independent of Muscat. 
The only Ibadi Imam elected during the century, 
'Azzan b. Kays, failed to win recognition by the 
British and was overthrown in 1287/1871 after two 
years of rule. The Sultans who followed him depended 
upon British support for the maintenance of their 
position in Muscat in the face of the hostile IbadI 
tribes of the interior. 

During the century internecine warfare was 
common in Hadramawt, where much power rested 
in the hands of mercenaries imported from the 
mountains behind Aden, particularly of the tribe 
Yafi'. In 1283/1867 the Ku'aytis of this tribe 
occupied al-Shihr and fourteen years later acquired 
full possession of al-Mukalla. 

Proving resilient in recovering from disastrous 
blows struck by Muhammad 'All's forces, the Sa'udi 
state rebuilt its strength under Turki b. 'Abd Allah, 
who fixed his capital at al-Riyad, and later his son 
Faysal, though al-Hidjaz was not occupied again. 
Civil war between Faysal's sons after his death in 
1282/1865 caused another decline in Sa'udi fortunes, 
facilitating the reimposition of Ottoman sovereignty 
over part of Eastern Arabia and the rise of Al 
Rashid [q.v.] of Ha'il to dominance in Nadjd, where 
al-Riyad itself was made subject. The Ottomans also 
reestablished themselves in the highlands of the 
Yaman with headquarters at San'a 1 , but they failed 
to crush the resistance of the Zaydl Imams. The 
opening of the Suez Canal in 1286/1869, making 
communications between Istanbul and Djidda easier 
and faster, helped the Turks to exercise more control 
in al-Hidjaz. 

Al Sa'ud, thrice crushed to earth, rose once more 
under the leadership of Faysal's grandson 'Abd al- 
'Aziz, who took al-Riyad from its Rashidi governor 
in 1319/1902. 'Abd al-'Aziz fought for twenty years 
before finally overcoming Al Rashid in the north. In 
1331/1913 he drove the Turks out of al-Hasa and 
then lent the British sympathetic support during 
the First World War. Although the Hidjaz Railway 
from Damascus to Medina had been inaugurated in 



DlAZlRAT 

1326/1908, the Turks had to yield Mecca when 
sharif al-Husayn b. 'AH, encouraged by the British, 
proclaimed the Arab Revolt in 1334/1916. The end 
of the war brought the end of Ottoman sovereignty 
in Arabia, the Zaydi Imam al-Mutawakkil Yahya 
b. Muhammad becoming fully independent in the 

In 1331/1913 a new IbadI Imam was elected in 
Inner 'Uman in opposition to the Sultan of Muscat. 
Two years later the British intervened to forestall 
the capture of Muscat by the Imam's army. Through 
British mediation a treaty was concluded at al-Sib 
in 1 339/1920 providing that the people of 'Uman 
and the Sultan's government should abstain from 
interference in each other's internal affairs, but in 
I 373-4/i954-5 the Sultan's forces, trained and led 
by British officers, occupied points not held before, 
hemming the Imamate in on all sides. 

Although homage was paid to sharif al-Husayn 
as King of the Arabs and later as Caliph of Islam, 
successor of the Ottomans, he was defeated by c Abd 
al-'Aziz Al Su'ud when war broke out between the 
two. Following the conquest of al-Hidjaz, c Abd al- 
'Aziz annexed the territories of the minor dynasties 
of Al 'A'id and the Idrlsids in 'Aslr and its Tihama, 
received the title of King of Saudi Arabia in 1351/ 
1932, and defeated Imam Yahya of the Yaman in 
a brief war in 1353-4/1934, as a result of which 
Nadjran was recognized as belonging to Saudi Arabia. 

Killed in an abortive insurrection in 1367/1948, 
Imam Yahya was succeeded by his son Ahmad. 
Dying in 1373/1953, c Abd al-'Aziz was succeeded 
by his son Sa'ud. Thus passed from the scene two 
monarchs who did far more than simply bequeath 
their names to the realms they wrought and guided 
for half a century. 

Bibliography " ~ 



Isl 



» the 



loth ( 



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■ C ARAB 555 

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Nabhdniyya, Cairo 1342; c Abd al-'Aziz al-Rashld, 
Ta'rikh al-Kuwayt, Baghdad 1344- 

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Ephesus ; Evagrius ; Theophanes, Chron. ; Photius, 
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Modern authorities-Pre-Islamic period: 
N. Abbott, The rise of the north Arabic script, 
Chicago 1939; A. ' Fakhry, An archaeological 
journey to Yemen, Cairo 1951-2; R. Aigrain, in 
Diet, d'hist. et de giog. ecclis. ; W. Albright, in Gesch. 
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BASOR, 1950 ff.; D. Attema, Het oudste Christen- 
dom in Zuid-Arabie, Amsterdam 1949; A. Beeston, 
in Le Musion, 1938; idem, in BSOAS, 1954; 
O. Blau, in ZDMG, 1868-9; H. Bossert, Altsyrien, 
Tubingen 195 1; A. van den Branden, Les inscript- 
ions thamoudiennes, Lou vain 1950; R. Briinnow 
and A. v. Domaszewski, Die provincia Arabia, 
Strassburg 1904-5; W. Caskel, Das Altarabische 
Kbnigreich Lihjan, Krefeld; idem, Lihyan u. 
Lihyanisch, Cologne 1954; idem, in Islamica, 
1927-31; idem, in ZDMG, 1953; idem, in The 
American Anthropologist, 1954; G. Caton Thomp- 
son, The tombs and moon temple of Hureidha, 
Oxford 1944; H. Charles, Le christianisme des 
Arabes nomades, Paris 1936; C. Conti Rossini, in 
J A , 1921 ; P. Cornwall, in GJ, 1946; R. Dougherty, 
Nabonidus and Belshazzar, New Haven 1929; 
E. Glaser, Skizze der Gesch. u. Geog. Arabiens, 
Berlin 1890; idem, Die Abessinier in Arabien, 
Munich 1895; idem, in MVAG, 1897; I. Guidi, 
Raccolta di scritti, i, Rome 1945 ; M. Guidi, Storia 
e cultura degli arabi, Florence 1951; J. Halevy, 
in J A, 1872; idem, in BSG, 1873-7; M. Hartmann, 
Die arabische Frage, Leipzig 1909; G. Hill, Greek 
coins, London 1922; J. Hirschberg, Israel be- 
'Arab, Tel-Aviv 1946; M. Hofner, in WZKM, 
1938; idem, in ZDMG, 1945-9; F - Hommel, 
Ethnol. u. Geog. des alten Orients, Munich 1926; 



556 






.-'ARAB — ARABA 



G. Hourani, Arab seafaring, Princeton 1951 ; 
S. Huzayyin, Arabia and the Far East, Cairo 1942; 
A. Jamme, Pieces Ipigraphiques de Heid bin c Aqll, 
Louvain 1952; A. Jeffery, in MW, 1946; I. 
Kawar, in Arabica 1956; idem, in JAOS 1955; S. 
Kramer, in BASOR, 1944; H. Lammens, L'Arabie 
occidentals avantl'higire, Beirut 1928; E. Littmann, 
Thamud u. Safa, Leipzig 1940; E. Mittwoch and 
H. Schlobies, in Orientalia, 1936-8; K. Mlaker, 
Die Hierodulenlisten v. MaHn, Leipzig 1943; idem, 
in WZKM, 1927; idem, in ZS, 1929; J. Mont-, 
gomery, Arabia and the Bible, Philadelphia 1934; 
J. Mordtmann, in ZDMG, 1881; D. Miiller, in 
Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. Arabia; S. Nadvi, in IC, 
1937; C. Nallino, Raccolta di scritti, iii, Rome 1941 ; 
idem, in BIFAO, 1930; D. Nielsen, Handbuch der 
altar abisc hen Altertumskunde, Copenhagen 1937; 
T. Noldeke, Die ghassdnischen Fursten, Berlin 
1887; G. Olinder, The kings of Kinda, Lund 1927; 
idem, in MO, 1931 ; H. Philby, The background of 
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Arabian, London 1951; N. Rhodokanakis, in 
SBAWW, 1915-31; idem, in WZKM, 1932; G. 
Rothstein, Die Dynastie der Lahmiden, Berlin 1899 ; 
G. Ryckmans, Les noms propres sud-simitiques, 
Louvain 1934-5 ; idem, Les religions arabes priisla- 
miques, Louvain 1951; idem, in Le Musion, 
1927 ff. ; J. Ryckmans, L'institution monarchique 
en Arabie meridionale, Louvain 1951; idem, in 
Le Musion 1951 ff. ; idem, inBO, 1953; W. Smeaton, 
The beginnings of Ghassdn, Chicago 1943; S. Smith, 
in BSOAS, 1954; W. R. Smith, Kinship and 
marriage in early Arabia*, London 1907; A. 
Sprenger, Die alte Geog. Arabiens, Berne 1875; 
idem, Die Post- u. Reiserouten des Orients, Leipzig 
1864; J. Tka«, in Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. Saba; 
R. Walz, in ZDMG, 1951; E. Warmington, The 
commerce between the Roman Empire and India, 
Cambridge 1928; F. Winnett, A study of the 
Lihyanite and Thamudic inscriptions, Toronto 
1937; H. v. Wissmann in Saeculum, 1952; H. v. 
Wissmann and M. Homer, Beitrdge zur historischen 
Geog. des vorislamischen Siidarabien, Mainz 1952. 
Islamic period: C. Aitchison, ed., A col- 
lection of treaties*, xi, Calcutta 1933; G. Antonius, 
The Arab awakening, Philadelphia 1939; C. van 
Arendonk, De opkomst van het Zaidietische 
Imamaat, Leiden 1919; H. Armstrong, Lord of 
Arabia, Beirut 1954; J. Aubin, in J A, 1953; 
A. Auzoux, in Rev. d'Hist. Diplomatique, 1909-10; 
G. Bell, The Arab war, London 1940; C. Boxer, ed., 
Commentaries of Ruy Freyre, London 1930; R. 
Briinnow, Die Charidschiten, Leiden 1884; H. 
Brydges, A brief hist, of the Wahauby, London 1834 ; 
F. Buhl, Das Leben Muhammeds, Heidelberg 1955 ; 
L. Caetani, Annali; idem, Chronographia islamica, 
Paris 191 2; idem, Studi di storia orientale, Milan 
1911-14; W. Caskel, in Oriens, 1949; L. Cordeiro, 
ed., Batalhas da India. Como se perdeu Ormuz, Lisbon 
1896; L. A. [Corancez], Hist, des Wahabis, Paris 
1810; A. Cortesao and H. Thomas, Carta das novas, 
Lisbon 1938; M. de Faria e Sousa, Asia portuguesa, 
Oporto 1945-7; A. Faroughy, Hist, du royaume 
de Hormuz, Brussels 1949; M. de Goeje, Mlmoire 
sur les Carmathes du Bahrain', Leiden 1886; idem, 
in J A, 1895; S. Goitein, in BSOAS, 1954; P. 
Graves, The life of Sir Percy Cox, London 1941; 
M. Guidi, in RSO, 1946; Ch. Guillain, Documents 
sur I' hist. . . . de I'Afrique orientale, Paris 1856; 
H. al-Hamdanl, in BSOS, 1933-5; idem, in JCAS, 
1931; D. Hogarth, Arabia, Oxford 1922; H. 
Hoskins, British routes to India, N. Y. 1928; idem, 



in ME J, 1947; W. Ivanow, The alleged founder of 
Ismailism, Bombay 1946; F. Kajare, Le sultanat 
d'Oman, Paris 1914; A. Kammerer, La met Rouge, 
Cairo 1929-51; G. Kirk, The Middle East in the 
war, London 1953; idem, The Middle East 1945- 
1950, London 1954; H. Lammens, itudes sur le 
siecle des Omayyades, Beirut 1930; idem, in JA, 
191 1 ; idem, in Melanges de I' Univ. St- Joseph, 1927; 
B. Lewis, The origins of Ismd'ilism, Cambridge 
1940; L. Lockhart, Nadir Shah, London 1938; 
idem, in JRCAS, 1947; S. Longrigg, Four cen- 
turies of modern Iraq, Oxford 1925; idem, Oil in 
the Middle East, London 1954; D. Lopes, Extractos 
da historia da conquista do Yaman pelos Othmanos, 
Lisbon 1892; C. Low, Hist, of the Indian Navy, 
London 1877 ; F. Mengin, Hist, de I'Egypte, Paris 
1823-58; A. Mez, Die Renaissance des Isldms, 
Heidelberg 1922; C. Murphy, Soldiers of the 
Prophet, London 1921 ; A. Musil, Zur Zeitgeschichte 
von Arabien, Leipzig 1918; H. Philby, Arabia, 
New York 1930; idem, Arabian jubilee, London 
1952; idem, Sa c udi Arabia, London 1955; A. 
Rihani, Maker of modern Arabia, Boston 1928; 
R. Said-Ruete, Said bin Sultan, London 1929; 
idem, in JCAS, 1931; idem, in Der Islam, 1932; 
E. Sanceau, D. Joao de Castro, Oporto 1946 ; idem, 
Indies adventure, London 1936; J. Sauvaget, La 
mosquie omeyyade de Mldine, Paris 1947; G. 
Schurhammer, Die zeitgenossischen Quellen zur 
Gesch. Portugiesisch-Asiens u. seiner Nachbar- 
lander, Leipzig 1932; R. Serjeant, in BSOAS, 
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the Al Bu SaHd dynasty, London 1938; W. 
Thompson, in The Macdonald Presentation Vol., 
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national affairs 1925, London 1927; A. S. Tritton, 
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Wissmann, in Lebensraumfragen europdischer VOlker, 
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Leipzig 1861; idem, in Abh. d. k. Ges. d. Wiss. zu 
Gdtt., 1883-5 ; E. de Zambaur, Manuel de ginialogie 
et de chronologie, Hanover 1927. (G. Rentz) 
ARABA. I. — The Turkish word araba (arba, abra), 
meaning "wagon" or "cart", is as old as the 14th 
cent. A.D., but it does not look like a pure Turkish 
word; neither does it have an obvious Arabic or 
Persian etymology. In Osmanli the usual spelling 
was 'araba with an l ayn ; and although Saml Frasheri 
in his Kamus-i-Turki (Istanbul 1318), in an effort 
to prove the purely Turkish nature of the word, 
described this spelling as a "shocking solecism", it 
is in fact the more correct. The etymology of the word 
was correctly explained in the (18th cent.) Sanglakh 
of Mlrza Mahdi Khan (folio 36 v. of the Gibb 
Memorial Trust MS.) in the following words: "araba, 
which rhymes with khardba, is a corruption {muharraf) 
of c arrdda, also called 'adiala, in Arabic". l Arrada 
means "a ballista, a military siege weapon". Admit- 
tedly a ballista is not a wagon, but the word came 
to mean "a gun, a mobile gun, a carriage carrying a 
gun", from which the transition to "wagon, cart" 
was an easy one. The transitional stage is seen in 
the Emperor Babur's Memoirs (Gibb Memorial 



Series, i, fol. 336 v., 1. 7), where the phrase darbu- 
djanHk arabalart ("culverin carts" in Beveridge's 
translation) occurs. There is at present no direct 
evidence of the date of the transition from 'arrada 
to araba, but the guess may be hazarded that the 
word was adopted as a technical term in the Mongol 
army during the invasion of Persia early in the 13th 
cent, and that the change took place there. It had 
certainly taken place before the 14th cent., since 
there is no trace of 'arrada in Turkish at that date 
and araba occurs in both the Italian and the German 
sections of the Codex Cumanicus (early 14th cent., 
with a late 13th cent, substratum) ; on the other hand 
there is no trace of either word in such nth cei 
authorities as Kashghari's Diwan LugjuU al-Turk 
the Kutadhghu Bilig. It is interesting to note that 
araba, in one form or another, occurs in practically 
every modern Turkish dialect, except apparently 
Yakut and Cuvash, which corroborates the general 
belief that these dialects had broken away from 
"common Turkish" before the 13th cent., and 
establishes the less generally accepted fact that the 
other peripheral dialects in Siberia, Chinese Turke- 
stan and Europe had not yet broken away by that 
date. (G. L. M. Clauson) 

II. — It appears that the plains and steppes of 
Central Asia, inhabited by the Turco-Mongols, were 
the centre where, about the beginning of the Christian 
era, a type of vehicle with two wheels and with shafts 
(carts), earlier developed in China, was furnished 
with a yoke of modern type relying on traction by 
the shoulders (A. G. Haudricourt and M. Jean- 
Bmnhes Delamarre, L'homme el la charrue, Paris 
1955. 173 ff.)- From there the use of this vehicle 
spread in both directions, towards China and towards 
Europe. These carts play an important part in the 
history of the peoples of the Steppe, particularly in 
the period of the Mongol empire. 

The word 'araba appears in the 8th/i4th century 
in the Codex Comanicus, where it is glossed by currus, 
and in Ibn Battuta. The latter describes, in the 
Crimea, a vehicle called by the inhabitants 'araba, 
which had four wheels, carried a yurt, was pulled by 
two or more horses, by oxen or by camels, and 
controlled by a driver mounted on one of the animals. 
He travelled from Sara to Kh w Srizm on an 'araba 
pulled by camels (ii, 361-2; 385; 389, 451 etc.; iii, 
1 ff.). This is therefore a different vehicle, at least in 
the first case, from those of Central Asia, and is of 
a type (waggon) which probably had a pole (with old- 
fashioned yoke; traction by the neck), invented in 
the Danube region of Europe or in the Ukraine in 
pre-historic era, and perpetuated among the Tatars 
of the same region under the same name (P. S. Pallas, 
Bemerkungen auf einer Reise in die stidlichen Statt- 
Halterschaften des russischen Reichs . . ., Leipzig, 
1799-1801, i, 144 s. and pi. 6). In the 14th century also, 
'arabas appeared in the Mamluk Empire as a 
"Turkish custom" (al-MakrlzI, Sulilk, ed. M. M. 
Ziyada, ii 1, Cairo 1941, 232, concerning an event in 
721/1321). The word, in the form 'araba or 'araba, 
considered to be Ottoman by Ibn Iyas {Die Chronik 

ed. P. Kahle, etc., v = Bibl. Islamica, v 5, 

Istanbul-Leipzig 1932, 131; trans, by W. H. Salmon, 
London 1921, 100 ff.), was introduced into Arabic 
and denoted wooden vehicles, on wheels, pulled by 
camels, horses, mules or oxen, used to transport 
people and principally, it seems, articles, and 
possessing an astonishing turn of speed (al-Nuwayrl, 
Nihdyat al-Arab, apud Hablb Zayyit, article quoted 
below). The Mamluk army sent against Sellm I 
included one hundred wooden 'arabas, each carrying 



LBA 557 

a culverin and pulled by two oxen (Ibn Iyas, loc. cit). 
In Central Asia, where wheeled transport lost its 
importance after the 15th century as a result of the 
economic decline of the nomad world, the word 
araba, arba denotes chiefly a vehicle with two 
extremely large spoked wheels (diameter from 2 m. 
to 2 m. 30 cm.), with a reed floor which acts to some 
extent as a shock absorber; the vehicle is often 
covered with a sort of hood, decorated in varying 
degree, and is pulled by a horse between two shafts 
(sometimes by an ox or camel). Often one of the 
wheels is fixed to the axle while the other revolves 
on it, a factor which facilitates turning. It is con- 
sidered to be extremely practical because its height 
from the ground enables it easily to cross fords, 
canals, and rivers in spate (the best description, 
with excellent photographs, is to be found in O. 
Olufsen, The Emir of Bokhara and his Country, 
Copenhagen 1911, 351-3; on the wood used in its 
construction, see Aziatskaya Rossija, St. Petersburg 
1914, ii, 402, with a good photo of a Sart 'araba, i, 
166; cf. A. Woeikof, Le Turkestan russe, Paris 1914, 
139-40 and pi. IXa). When heavy loads are carried, 
the number of horses is increased (F. Grenard, 
Geographic universelle, viii, 326). There are two 
distinct types of 'araba: the 'araba of Kh w arizm and 
Kashghar, in which the driver sits in the vehicle and 
steers with reins, and the common 'araba of Turkistan, 
called the Khokand, in which the driver sits on the 
horse's withers, his feet resting on the end of the 
shafts, and steers with a short bridle (A. D. Kalmykov, 
Protokoly zasedanii i soobshlenija Clenov Turkestans- 
kago kruzhka arkheologii, xiii, 1908, Tashkent, 
1909, 41). At Touva, the 'araba is described as having 
four wheels (A. A. Pal'mbakh. Russko-tuvinskii 
slovar, Moscow 1953, 25), and in Kirghiz the wcrd 
is so common that a locomotive is termed "fire 
'araba" (ot araba) (K. K. Yudahin, Kirgiz sdzltigti, 
tr. A. Taymas, Ankara 1945, 39). 

The word has infiltrated into the Slav and Balkan 
languages: Rumanian (h)araba; Russian arba; 
Ukrainian harba; Bulgarian, Serbian araba (K. 
Lokotsch, Etymologisches WSrterbuch der europ. 
WOrter orient. Ursprungs, Heidelberg 1927, no. 90). 
The word has also been borrowed by Iranian: 
Persian drabe, Tadjik aroba. 

In Ottoman Turkish, the word, usually written 
'araba in Arabic characters, is the generic term for 
all types of carriage. In Ottoman Istanbul, people 
always went about the town on horseback. This 
was also the normal mode of travel for the sultans 
when they left their residences. When they were 
indisposed, however, and on various other occasions 
they travelled by 'araba. Sulayman the Magnificent, 
an invalid at the time of his departure for his last 
campaign, passed through Istanbul on horseback, 
but had to transfer to an 'araba in the plain of 
Da>ud Pasha and never left this vehicle (with four 
wheels and a pole), the driver remaining seated on 
one of the two horses even during the sultan's 
conferences with his viziers (Hammer-Purgstall, iii, 
439; illustration based on a MS. in the article in 
Cumhuriyet quoted in the bibl.), etc. etc. The 'arabas 
of the sultans, princes and important personnages 
were highly decorated {ibid., v, 413; cf. the vehicle 
of the sultan walide depicted in F. Taeschner, 
AU-Stambuler Hof- und VolksUben, ein Turkisches 
Miniaturenalbum aus dem 17. Jhrdt., Hanover 1925, 
pi. 28). They were especially used in royal marriage 
processions. In 1048/1638, the guild of 'araba-makers 
at Istanbul numbered 40 members and possessed 
15 shops (Ewliya Celebi, I, 628; tr. Hammer, I, 231). 



ARABA — ARABESQUE 



In the 18th century, the drivers' corporation at 
Istanbul was organised on regular lines. The 
profusion of vehicles was at its height at the begin- 
ning of the 18th century during the "tulip epoch" 
(Idle dewri) (Ahmed Refill, Lale dewrP, Istanbul 
I33i, 47)- Later the sumptuary laws restricted this 
luxury, and the vogue of the 'araba declined (Ahmed 
Refik, Hicri on ikinci aslrda Istanbul hayati, Istanbul 



1930, ] 



10). 



Apart from these luxury vehicles, the rural type 
of 'araba drawn by oxen (ot 'arabasi) circulated in 
the streets of the capital. It was a disgrace for a high 
personage to ride in one, and the Grand Vizier 'All 
Pasha (1102-3/1691-2) was surnamed 'Arabadji 
because he inflicted this ignominious treatment on 
his political enemies, a treatment to which he himself 
was in the end subjected ( Hammer- Purgstall, vi, 
566 ff.). 

Up to the beginning of the 19th century, the right 
to use 'arabas in Istanbul was restricted to very 
important functionaries (Sheykh id-Islam, Grand 
Vizier; Djewdet, Ta?rikh, x, Istanbul 1309, 185 ff.). 
At this period the importation of European carriages 
was in its initial stages. The number of vehicles 
increased, and they were increasingly adapted to 
conform to European fashions. In 1852 Theophile 
Gautier wrote: "Paris and Vienna send the master- 
pieces of their coach-builders to Constantinople, from 
whose streets the talikas with their brightly-painted 
and gilded coachwork, the typical arabas (carriages 
with shafts used by ladies for their drives in company 
and properly called %oCu) pulled by huge grey oxen, 
will soon completely disappear" (Constantinople, Paris 
1853, 318). But in 1863 Emmanuel Scherer, living 
at Hamidiyye, a suburb of Istanbul, built coupes, 
victorias, omnibuses and every kind of carriage to 
order (Taswir-i Efkar, no. 193, 3 Di>u '1-Hidjdja 
1280/26 April 1864). Standing-places for 'arabas 
were provided at many .points. Their number, 
combined with the narrowness of the streets, caused 
congestion. The Taswir-i Efkar of 19 November 1909 
complains about this, and demands that the con- 
stitutional regime should no longer tolerate the 
inconvenience caused by the arrogance of the 
pashas and the beys. 

"■Arabas made their appearance in Turkish literature 
with the exile to Keshan of c Izzet Molla in 1238/1823; 
his celebrated poem Mihnet-keshan was composed in 
the 'araba which conveyed him there, the author 
conversing with his reflection in the mirrors which 
decorated its interior (Gibb, Ottoman Poetry, iv, 
308, 314). In his novel 'Araba sewdasi (1895), 
Redjalzade Mahmud Ekrem describes a snob with 
a passionate love of carriages. To-day the rural 
four-wheeled vehicles are divided into yayll "with 
(double) springs", and yarlm yayll "semi-sprung", 
that is to say with a single spring for each axle-tree 
(cf. Indnii Ansihlopedisi, iii, Ankara 1949, 194-6); 
they are framed by wooden uprights, covered by 
a semi-circular tilt; as they are not provided with 
seats, a mattress is used to sit on. Freight vehicles 
(yiik arabasi) are often unsprung (but some are 
"semi-sprung"; this category in particular is subject 
to decoration in various styles. The talika (sometimes 
written ta'lika by false Arabic etymology, but in 
fact from the Slav word taliga, telega, etc., itself 
derived from the Mongol tdrgin) provided greater 
amenities for the comfort of passengers. This carriage, 
widely used in the 19th century and still in use, 
especially on the Asiatic coast of the Bosphorus, 
is a sort of open fiacre ; it has no door, but a footboard, 
inted by a small platform; the equally com- 



fortable "long carriage" (uzun 'araba), a sort of 
benched carriage, is also open, with a door to the 
rear, and is equipped with curtains and two benches 
placed lengthwise inside. 

Bibliography: See the article 'Adjala above. 

In addition, Arabalar (in the supplement to the 

journal Cumhuriyet, 17 subat 1955 = Asirlar 

Boyunca Istanbul, 97-100); M. Rodinson, Araba, 

in JA (printing). (M. Rodinson) 

'ARABA, (WAdI 'Araba), is the southern 

extension of the Jordan fault, which includes 

the deep depression of the Dead Sea. The term 

'Araba in the Old Testament refers also to the 

Jordan Valley. From approximately three to five 

miles in width, the Wadi 'Araba extends for about 

no miles between the south end of the Dead Sea 

and the north end of the Gulf of 'Akaba, which is 

the east arm of the Red Sea. Along much of its 

length are numerous ancient copper mining and 

smelting sites. They were probably worked by the 

Kenites and were intensively exploited in King 

Solomon's times. There are also extensive haematite 

deposits in the Wadi 'Araba. 

The route of the Exodus led in part through the 
Wadi 'Araba. The few springs in the Wadi 'Araba 
attracted settlements as early as Middle Bronze I 
(2ist-i9th centuries B.C.), Iron II (ioth-6th cen- 
turies B.C.) and particularly in Nabataean, Roman 
and Byzantine times. Near the centre of the north 
shore of the Gulf of 'Akaba, at the south end of the 
Wadi 'Araba, is Tell el-Kheleyife, which has been 
identified with Solomon's port-city and industrial 
center of Ezion-geber: Elath. The Nabataean to 
Byzantine site of Ayla [q.v.] is situated near the east 
side of this shore, with the modern village of 'Akaba 
[q.v.] immediately east of it, and the modern Israeli 
town of Elath is located on the west side of the shore. 
Bibliography: A. Musil, Arabia Petraea, ii; 
N. Glueck; The Other Side of the Jordan; idem, 
The River Jordan; idem, Explorations in Eastern 
Palestine, I-IV. (N. Glueck) 

ARABESQUE. For a long time this term was 
used in literature devoted to art to designate several 
kinds of typical Islamic ornament: geometric, 
vegetal, calligraphic and even figural. In the first 
edition of the EI, E. Herzfeld still took into account 
this wider interpretation of the arabesque, which 
however was already antiquated since the time 
when A. Riegl had defined in his Stilfragen its 
distinctive character as being a particular, and 
exclusively Islamic, form of denaturalised vegetal 
ornament consisting of shoots ot split or bifurcated 
leaves on inorganic tendrils. The leaves may be 
flat or curved, pointed or round or rolled, smooth 
or rough, feathered or pierced, but never isolated 
and always joined to the stalk for which it serves as 
an adjunct or a terminal. The stalk itself may be 
undulating, spiral or interlaced, going through the 
leaf or issuing again from it, but always intimately 
connected with it. To quote Herzfeld's definition: 
stalk and leaf are completely grown into each other, 
the leaves forming additions growing from the main 
stalk. 

The principles which regulate the arabesque are 
reciprocal repetition, the formation of palmette or 
calice forms by pairs of split leaves, the insertion 
of geometric interfacings, medallions or cartouche 
compartments. In every instance, two aesthetic 
rules are scrupulously observed: the rhythmical 
alternation of movement always rendered with 
harmonious effect, and the desire to fill the entire 
surface with ornament. By its balanced and serene 



convolution, the arabesque avoids the dynamic 
excitement, the restless whirling and violent twisting 
of the nordic ornament with which it otherwise has 
much in common. The effect of contrast is obtained by 




Fig. 5. Fayence mosaic in the tiirbe of Fakhr 

al-Din C A1I, Sonya, 13th century (after F. 

Sarre, Denkmdler persischer Baukunst, Berlin 

1910, fig. 185) 



differences in density, the stalk sometimes nearly 
disappearing beneath an abundance of foliage, at 
other times vigorously dominating the pattern. 

The denaturalised vegetal ornament conforming 
to the rules described above is termed "arabesque" 




with good reason, because its invention was certainly 
the outcome of a particular Arab attitude and 
parallel developments occur in Arabic poetry and 
music. The Arabic term tawriljt [<?.».] clearly implies 
that the description was restricted to foliage; it 



is preserved in ataurique, a term commonly used by 
Spanish authors to designate the genuine arabesque 
as understood by Riegl. 




The arabesque may be combined with every kind 
of geometric decoration. In epigraphy, it may form 
a background to the calligraphy, or the letters 




may terminate in arabesques, or letters and arabesque 
may be interwoven. Animals may be drawn in the 
form of arabesques, which may also be combined 



ARABESQUE - 

with human figures; the animals and the human 
figures may then be rendered more, or less, recog- 
nizable. Sometimes, an Islamic "grotesque" deco- 
ration occurs in which masks and protomes of 
animals are combined with an arabesque scheme. 
It seems unnecessary to emphasise that the arabesque 
never has any symbolic significance but is merely one 
ornament from a large stock which includes other 
vegetal forms such as palmettes, rosettes and 
naturalistic flowers, and abstract forms such as 
cloud-bands. At certain periods, however, it played 
a predominant role. 

The arabesque has its prototype in certain acanthus, 
vine leaf and cornucopia forms of late antiquity 
which tend to progress in undulations or with 
bifurcations. It is not yet completely developed in 
the Umayyad period, acquires its typical shape in 
the 9th century under the 'Abbasids and in Islamic 
Spain and appears fully developed in the nth 
century under the Saldjuks, Fatimids and Moors. 
From then on it occurs throughout the Islamic 
world in countless variations, so that it is impossible 
to classify the various forms according to a chro- 
nological order or according to national or dynastic 
predilections. Persian, Turkish and Indian artists 
understood the language of the arabesque quite as 
well as Arabic-speaking artists, and through the 
centuries they competed one against the other in 
creating ever more varieties and combinations. Its 
use is not restricted to any one material, but is used 
in architectural decoration as well as carved or 
painted decoration, in pottery and glass and metal- 
work, and above all in book illumination. 

In Hispano-Mauresque art of the 12th century and 
later the arabesque predominates almost to the 
exclusion of other ornamental forms, and from 
Islamic Spain it found its way in the late 15 th 
century to the Christian countries. Known as moresque 
it became fashionable in the first half of the 16th 
century and was introduced into Italy by Francesco 
Pellegrino, into France by the unknown master 
G. J., and into Germany by Hans Holbein and Peter 
Flettner. Like them, other artists tried to imitate, 
with more or less understanding, the particular 
character of the arabesque, principally in their 
pattern-books for jewellers and armourers (e.g. the 
Livre de moresques, Paris 1546). 

[See also ornament]. 
Bibliography: A. Riegl, Stilfragen, Berlin 

1893; E. Kiihnel, Die Arabeske, Wiesbaden 1949. 
(E. KOHNEL) 

'ARABFAKIH, Shihab al-Din Ahmad b. <Abd 
al-Kadir, chronicler of 16th century Muslim Ethiopia. 
He personally took part in the war between the imam 
Afimad b. Ibrahim, lord of Harar, and the Negus 
Ltbna Denghel; but, when he wrote his chronicle, 
he had already left Ethiopia for Djizan in Arabia. 
His (Harari) surname 'Arab-Faklh "the Arab doctor" 
can be explained either as the sobriquet of an 
Ethiopian who was particularly well-versed in the 
Arabic language and filth, or as the local lakab of 
an Arab who emigrated at first to Ethiopia (and 
who later returned to his native country). His 
chronicle bears the title (in the colophon) of Tuhfat 
al-Zaman, but it is given in the MSS. as Futuh al- 
Habasha ("Conquests of Ethiopia"). The narrative 
closes with the events of the year 1537; but the 
colophon describes the work as the "First Part". 
A second part, however, has never been found, and 
it is quite possible that the author was never able to 
complete his work as planned. 

The Futuh al-Habasha, of which we possess only a 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



'ARABIYYA 561 

few MSS., all recent, is also quoted and to a large ex- 
tent summarised in the (Arabic) Chronicle of Gujarat 
(Zafar al-Wdlih bi-Mu?affar wa-Alihi) by al-Ulugh- 
Khani, also an Arab writer, who emigrated to Muslim 
India during the second half of the 16th century. 
Bibliography; Rene Basset, Histoire de la 
Conquete de I'Abyssinie (Arabic text and French 
translation) 2 vols., Paris 1897; E. Denison Ross, 
An Arabic History of Gujarat, 2 vols., London 
1910-28. (E. Cerulli) 

<ARABl PASHA [see 'urabI pasha]. 
ARABIAN NICHTS [see alf layla wa-layla]. 
ARABIC WRITING [see khatt]. 
'ARABISTAN, 'the Arab country', a term much 
in use until recently to denote the Persian province 
of Khuzistan ; the latter name was revived during 
the reign of Rida Shah Pahlawi. Fur further parti- 
culars see khuzistan. Following Persian usage, 
'Arabistan denotes occasionally the Arabian penin- 
sula. In Ottoman administrative documents from the 
1 6th century it is occasionally applied to the Arabic- 
speaking provinces of the Empire, more especially 
to Syria. (Ed.) 

'ARABIYYA. Arabic language and literature. 

A. The Arabic Language (al- ( Arabiyya). 
(i) Pre-classical Arabic. 

(1) The position of Arabic among the Semitic 
languages; (2) Old Arabic ("Proto-Arabic") ; (3) 
Early Arabic (3rd-6th centuries A.D.). 

(ii) The Literary Language. 

(1) Classical Arabic; (2) Early Middle Arabic; 
(3) Middle Arabic; (4) Modern Arabic. 

(iii) The Vernaculars. 

(1) General survey; (2) The Eastern dialects; (3) The 
Western Dialects. 

B. Arabic Literature. 

Al- l arabiyya, sc. lugha, also lisan al- l arab, is: 

(1) The Arabic language in all its forms. This use is 
pre-Islamic, as is shown by the appearance of Idshdn 
l drabhi in third-century Hebrew sources, arabica 
lingua in St. Jerome's Praefatio in Danielem; this 
probably is also the sense of lisan 'arabi (mubin) in 
Kur'an, xvi, 103 (105); xxvi, 195; xlvi, 12 (n). 

(2) Technically, the Classical Arabic language (CI. Ar.) 
of early poetry, Kur'an, etc., and the Literary Arabic 
of Islamic literature. This may be distinguished from 
'arabiyya in the wider sense as aX- l arabiyya aX- 
fasiha or aX- l arabiyya al-fushd, from fasuha "to be 
clear, pure" (cf. Assyr. pisii "pure, bright", Aram. 
passih "bright, radiant"); it means "clear", i.e. 
"(universally) intelligible" Arabic, not "pure Arabic", 
as is shown by afsaha (al-kaldma) "to speak clearly" 
(LA, iii, 377), cf. also a'raba "to speak clearly, 
intelligibly" and "to use correct Arabic". 

CI. Ar. is the chief literary dialect of Arabic, 
though not the only written one (cf. Old Arabic and 
some modern colloquials, notably Maltese). The other 
forms of Arabic known to us belong to three distinct 
stages: 1) Old Arabic, also called Proto-Arabic 
(though this term would better be reserved for the 
hypothetical common ancestor of all Arabic dialects), 
German altnordarabisch. 2) The Early Dialects (lughat). 
3) The Colloquials (medieval lughat ai- c dmma, modern 
al-lugha al- c ammiyya or al-ddridja, or lahadjdt). 

(i) Pre-classical Arabic 
(1) The Position of Arabic among the Semitic 

Languages 

Arabic belongs to the Semitic language family, 

which is part of a wider Hamito-Semitic family 



including, inter alia, also Ancient Egyptian. Within 
that family, it belongs to the South-Semitic or 
South-West-Semitic branch, which includes two 
further sub-groups: (a) South-Arabian (comprising 
ancient Sabaean, Minaean, Katabanian, Hadramitic, 
etc. in Yaman and Southern Hadramawt and 
modem Mehri, Shkhauri etc. in Northern Hadramawt 
and the language of the island of Sok ojra) ; contrary 
to a widespread assumption, ancient South-Arabian 
is a language-group quite different from Arabic; 
(b) Ethiopian (comprising ancient Ethiopic or Ge'ez, 
modem Tigre, Tigrinya, Amharic, Harari, Gurage, 
etc.); it is not yet quite clear whether Ethiopian 
originally derived from some form of South- Arabian 
(cf. E. Ullendorff, Sent. Languages of Ethiopia, 1955). 
The common traits of the S.-Sem. branch (partly 
obscured in the modern forms) are: almost complete 
preservation of the proto-Sem. sound system, except 
for p becoming / and sh coalescing with 5 (Arabic 
tji is proto-Sem. i); plural of nouns formed by 
internal vowel changes ; fd'ala and istaf'ala patterns 
in the verb. S.-Ar. and Eth., however, have some 
features in common with Accadian which Arabic 
does not share (W. Leslau, in JAOS, 1944, 53-8). 

On the other hand Arabic shares with North-West 
Semitic (Hebrew, Ugaritic, Aramaic) certain traits 
not found in S.-Ar. and Eth.: the pi. masc. suffix 
-i»/ m a, the internal passive (W. Christian, in WZKM, 
1927, 263; for S.-Ar. see M. Hofner, AUsiidarab. 
Gramm., 82), and the pu'ayl diminutive (F. Praetorius, 
in ZDMG, 1903, 524-9), see also I. al-Yasin, Lexical 
Relation between Ugaritic and Arabic, 1952. Some 
forms of Arabic had closer connection with N.W.- 
Sem.: Old Arabic had, like Hebrew, a definite 
article ha- with doubling of the following consonant 
(as in A(i(iaotxo<;) ; names like AfkaiXa (3rd cent. 
B.C.) and A^ivouv (3rd cent. A.D.) show that ab 
had the construct oil in all cases, as in Hebrew. 
Among the Early Dialects, the Tayyi' rel. pron. 
dhu corresponds to poetical Hebrew zu, while the 
dhl of other Western dialects has its equivalent in 
older Aramaic; the W. dialects also sounded long 
a as 6, like Canaanite and W.-Syriac, and changed 
iya to a, like Hebrew. The Eastern dialects, on the 
other hand, had »'-prefixes with the a-imperfect, like 
Canaanite and W.-Syriac (cf. C. Rabin, in Journal 
of Jewish Studies, 1950, 22-6). 

Arabic as a whole thus stands between S.-Sem. 
and N.W.-Sem., having contacts with both. There 
existed perhaps dialects intermediate between N.W.- 
Sem. and Arabic: this has been claimed for the local 
dialect which influenced the Hebrew book of Job 
(cf. B. Moritz, in ZATW 1926, 81-93; Foster, in 
Am. Journ. of Sent. Lang., 1932, 21-45). 

(2) Old Arabic ("Proto- Arabic") 

The oldest record of Arabic are some 40 proper 
names in Assyrian accounts of fighting against the 
Aribi (Arubu, Urbi, cf. O'Callaghan, Aram Naha- 
taim, 95) during the years 853-626 B.C., collected 
by T. Weiss-Rosmarin, in JSOR, 1932, 1-37, and 
F. Hommel, Ethnologic u. Geogr. d. alien Orients, 
1926, 578-89. Almost all can be identified as Arabic: 
the view of Landsberger and Bauer (in ZA, 1927, 
97-8) that the Aribi were Aramaeans has as little 
foundation as that of B. Moritz (Or. Studies . . . 
Paul Haupt, 1926, 184-21 1) that the Arammu 
mentioned in texts of the same period were Arabs. 
The Gambulu were closely allied with the Aribi 
(Assurbanipal's Rassam Prism iii, 65); among their 
chiefs (Sargon's Annals 254-5) were Hamdanu, 



Zabidu, and Haza'ilu, as well as some bearing 
Aramaic names. Most had Assyrian names, however, 
showing that some of these tribes had undergone 
the influence of the higher culture. 

Assyrian influence also marks the earliest texts 
written by Arabs, in the 8th-7th cent. B.C., in a 
North-Arabian script close to the Dedanite, but in 
the Accadian language, except for the mixed form 
yzbl, which is Accadian izbil "he carried" with West- 
Semitic y-prefix. These include two short inscriptions 
found at Ur (Burrows, in JRAS 1927, 795-806) and 
some seal cylinders (W. F. Albright, in Bull. Am. 
School f. Or. Res., no. 128, 39-45). Albright identified 
the group from which these texts originated as the 
Chaldaeans. 

The Dedanite inscriptions at al-'Ula are probably 

only slightly later (H. Grimme, Buch u. Schrift, iv, 

19-28; id., in OLZ, 1932, 753-8). At the same locality, 

but later, are the Lihyanite inscriptions. The 

latest are about 150 A.D., and show Early Arabic 

features. About this time (see, however, Boneschi, 

in RSO, 1951, 1-15) "Mas'ud king of Libyan" put 

up inscriptions in archaic Nabataean Aramaic. 

Bibliography: Texts: Jaussen & Savignac, 

Mission archiol. en Arabic, 1904-14, ii, 363-534. 

Grammar: Winnett, Study of the Lihy. and 

Thamudic Inscr., 1937; id., in Mus., 1938, 299-310; 

W. Caskel, Liyhan u. Lihyanisch, 1954. 

Grave inscriptions in Lihyanic script exist in al- 

Hasa (G. Ryckmans, in Mus. 1937, 239 ; Cornwall, 

in GJ, 1946, 43-4; Winnett, Bull. Am. School for 

Or. Res., no. 102, 4-6) ; S. Smith (in BSOS 1954, 442) 

thinks they emanate from the people of al-Hira. 

Thamudic is represented by graffiti in northern 
Hidjaz, Sinai, Transjordan, southern Palestine 
(3,000 in A. v.d. Branden, Inscriptions thamoudiennes, 
1924; 524 in Harding & Littmann, Some Th. I*scr. 
from . . . Jordan, 1952), Asir (9,000 discovered by 
G. Ryckmans in 1952), and Egypt (Kensdale, in 
Mus., 1952, 285-90). For grammar see v. d. Branden, 
op. cit.; E. Littmann, Thamud u. Safa, 1943; id., in 
ZDMG 1950, 168-80. The latest Thamudic texts 
occur in conjunction with Early Ar. : one line on the 
stele of Hedjra of 267 A.D. (in Nabataean script), 
some graffiti on the temple of Ramm in Sinai, ca. 
300 A.D., next to the oldest graffiti in Arabic script. 
The language hardly changed during the 600 years 
of its use; this suggests some literary tradition. 

Safatene or Safaitic graffiti are found in the 
Safa, Harra, and Ledja east of Damascus (for texts 
outside that area, see E. Littmann, in Milanges 
Dussaud, 1939, 661-71; G. Ryckmans, ib., 507-20). 
Around al-Namara there are some graffiti inter- 
mediate between Safatene arid Thamudic. Historical 
allusions provide dates as far as the 3rd cent. A.D. 
(G. Ryckmans, in Comptes Rend. Ac. Inscr. 1942, 
127-36; M. Rodinson, in Sumer, 1946, 137-55), ac- 
cording to Winnett (in JAOS, 1953, 41) even until 
614 A.D. One Thamudic text may be Christian, (E. 
Littmann, in MW, 1950, 16-8; against this v. d. 
Branden, in Mus., 1950, 47-51)- 

Bibliography: Texts: 396 in M. 4e Vogue, 
Syrie Ccntrale: Inscr. Simit., 1868-77; 904 in 
Dussaud & Macler, Mission dans . . . Syrie 
moyenne, 1903; 136 in E. Littmann, Public. Amer. 
Arch. Exp. iv, Semitic Inscriptions, 1904; 390 in 
H. Grimme, Texte u. Untersuchungen tur Saf.- 
arab. Religion, 1929; 1302 in E. Littmann, Safaitic 
Inscr. = Syria, Publ. of the Princeton Archeol. Exp. 
iv, C, 1943, with best sketch of grammar, cf. also 
id., ThamOd u. Safa; 5380 in Corp. Inscr. Sem., v/i, 
1950. See also R. Dussaud, Arabes en Syrie avant 



V I slam, 1907; id., Penetration des Arabes en Syrie 

avant I' Islam, 1955. 

For further bibliography, cf. G. Ryckmans, in 

Revue Biblique, 1932, 89-95; idem, in Med. Kon. 

Vlaamsche Acad., 1941, 12-13; idem, in Mus., 

1948, 137-213- 

Since graffiti mostly consist of names, our know- 
ledge of all these idioms is scanty. It is probable 
that the method of elucidating them by reference 
to the Arabic lexicon makes them appear more 
similar to CI. Ar. than they really were. The trans- 
literation of the Aribi names shows that 'ayn was 
sounded weakly, djim was like Accadian g, kaf like 
*, ttd' like t, and fd> like p. Greek transliterations 
of names from the Safatene area show a vowel- 
system reminiscent of Hebrew or Colloquial Arabic, 
e.g. OaeSou -= Usayd. Spellings like bny = (_jvj and 
ngy = l^? suggest that all defective verbs ended 
in -iya, as in Hebrew. 

While all these peoples wrote their own languages 
in varieties of a script closely related to Old S.- 
Arabian, the Nabataeans (100 B.C.-4th cent. A.D.) 
and the Palmyrenians (ist-3rd cent. A.D. used local 
varieties of Imperial Aramaic (the lingua franca of 
the Achaemenian empire) and Aramaic script, but 
their names show that the Nabataeans were wholly 
Arab, and at Palmyra there was an important Arab 
element (cf. Goldmann, Palmyr. Personennamen, 
1937). In Palmyrenian, Arabic words are few 
(J. Cantineau, Gr. du Palm.-tpigr., 1935. 150-1 ; even 
fewer in F. Rosenthal, Sprache d. palmyr. Inschr., 
1937, 94-6). Nabataean has many Arabisms; their 
number increases sharply in later texts (Cantineau, 
op. cit., ii, 171-80; id., AIEO, 1934, 77-97; see also 
F. Rosenthal, Aramaistische Forschung, 1939, 89-92). 
This Arabic substrate — which was probably different 
in various regions — includes Thamudic 'sdk "legiti- 
mate heir" ; in contrast to the epigraphic Old Arabic 
dialects it had the al- article {Shy' Hkwm against 
Safat. Shy' hkwm, name of a god; Hhgrw = hgra); 
long a was sounded 6 as in the Early Western 
Dialects. 

A source of Old Arabic hardly tapped is the study 
of the personal names, thousands of which are 
known. These show a striking continuity from the 
Aribi to present-day bedouins and form a common 
stock in various Old Arabic idioms (instructive 
diagram in Harding & Littmann, op. cit., 50). They 
preserve obsolete forms into CI. Ar., as in Udad (al- 
Tabart, iii, 2360) = AuSaSou, Safat. >dd (i.e. Odadu), 
which in CI. Ar. would be *Awadd, and give valuable 
information on the vocabulary of Old Arabic. 

Bibliography: G. Ryckmans, Noms propres 

sud-stmitiques, 1934; Wuthnow, Semit. Menschen- 

namen i. d. griech. Inschr. u. Papyri d. V order en 

Orients, 1930; Gratzl, Arab. Frauennamen, 1906; 

Brau, AUnordar. kuitische Personennamen, WZKM, 

1925. 3'-59. 85-115. 

Another valuable source for reconstructing the 
phonetic history of Arabic is the geographical 
names preserved in texts in Accadian (cf. under 
Aribi above), Hebrew (J. A. Montgomery, Arabia and 
the Bible, 1934; idem, in Haverford Symposium on 
Archeol. and Bible, 1938, 188-201), and Greek and 
Latin (A. Sprenger, Alte Geogr. Arabiens, 1875; 
Glaser, Skizze etc., 1889-90; A. Musil, Topographical 
Itineraries, ii, Appendix 3; cf. on all the material 
F. Hommel, Ethnologic etc., 538-634). O. Blau, 
Atiarab. Sprachstudien, ZDMG, 1871, 525-92. is 
methodically unsatisfactory. 

Possibly Old Arabic was the dialect of DJurhum, 



IYYA 563 

from which Abu c Ubayd (d. 223/838) gives ca. 30 
words in his monograph on dialect words in the 
Kur'an (cf. Rabin, Ancient West- Arabian, 7; ed. by 
S. al-Munadjdjad as a work of Isma'il b. c Amr al- 
Mukri', Cairo 1946). The Djurhum, of course, belong 
to the 'Arab al-'driba [q.v.] or al-bd'ida, from whom, 
according to the Arab historians, the 'Arab al- 
musta'riba, the tribes making up the bulk of the 
population in the 6th cent. A.D., took over the 
country and the language. More specifically we learn 
that the Tayyi' adopted the language of the SuhSr 
(Yakut, i, 127). We must ask (1) whether the 'Ariba 
tribes were identical with the known speakers of 
Old Arabic, 2) what language the musta'riba tribes 
spoke before they adopted Arabic. To neither 
question have we any answer. The matter is further 
bound up with the cleavage between Eastern and 
Western Early dialects: on the whole the latter 
appear to have been somewhat closer to Old Arabic, 
but it is likely that the real successor of Old Arabic 
were the Kuda'a dialects, spoken over the same 
area as the former, our knowledge of which is prac- 
tically nil; on the other hand we possess practically 
no epigraphic material from those areas where 
either the Eastern or the Western dialects were 
spoken, and the speech of those regions during the 
Old Arabic period may have been quite different 
from the Old Ar. dialects perpetuated by inscriptions. 



(3) Early Arabic (3rd-6th c< 

Following precedents in the nomenclature of 
English and German, we may give this name to the 
period from the 3rd to the 6th cent. A.D., when 
over a large part of Arabia dialects quite distinct 
from Old Arabic, but approaching CI. Ar. were 
spoken, and during which CI. Ar. itself must have 
evolved. 

Outside evidence for this period is scarce, but we 
possess a number of quotations in contemporary 
Jewish sources (partly coll. by A. Cohen, in JQR, 
1912/13, 221-33), including even sentences, e.g. 
"]nOS7 1V30 = mab'ad li-dammatika "make room 
for thy throng" (Midrash Rabba on Canticles, iv, 1). 

This is the period during which hundreds of 
Aramaic loan-words entered the language through 
Christian and Jewish contacts (S. Fraenkel, Aram. 
FremdrvSrter im Arab., 1886); their phonological 
study throws some light on the Arabic of the period. 
Thus there is an older layer where Aram, sh = (j», 
and a younger one where it = <ji, due no doubt 
to a sound-change in Arabic (D. H. Muller, Acts VII 
Or. Congr., 1888, 229-48 ; Brockelmann, Grundr. Vergl. 
Gr., i, 129-30). Other words penetrated during this 
period from South-Arabian (H. Grimme, in ZA, 
1912, 158-68; cf. also F. Krenkow, in WZKM, 1931, 
127-8) and Ethiopic (NOldeke, Neue Beitrdge, 31-66; 
but see Rabin, Ancient West-Arabian, 109, on tdbut 
and mishkdt) — owing to our restricted knowledge 
of S.-Ar., the two sources cannot always be clearly 
distinguished. Some Persian loan-words, found in 
the Rur'an and poetry, entered during this period, 
though the great influx of Persian words took place 
in the first Islamic centuries (A. Siddiqi, Studien iiber 
d. pers. Fremdworter, 1919). Greek words entered 
mainly via Aramaic, Latin words via Greek and 
Aramaic: thus hinfdr < Syr. kanflra < Lat. cen- 
tenarius; mandil < Syr. mandild < Gk. pav&fjXi) 
(with typical late Gk. soundchange) < Lat. mantele. 
Some military terms, e.g. siraf < strata or kasr < 
castra (cf., however, Palest. Jew. Aram, kasrd) may 
have come directly from Latin. 



564 <ARA] 

Bibliography: Djawaliki, Mu'armb (Sachau), 

1867; Noldeke, Neue Beitrdge, 23-30; A. Jeffery, 

Foreign Vocabulary of theQur'dn, 1938; A. Salonen, 

Alte Subslrat- und Kulturworter im Arab., 1950 

(= St. Or. Soc. Or. Fennica, xvii, 2). 

It must be assumed that these words originally 

entered some specific dialect area in contact with 

the culture in question and then spread into CI. Ar. 

We hear of foreign words used only at Medina 

(Rabin, op. cit., 96; Fuck, Arabiya, 10. 

Arab philological literature preserves much 
material about the Early Dialects of Nadjd 
(Tamim, Asad, Bakr, Tayyi', Kays), Hidjaz and the 
highland area of the South-west (Hudhayl, Azd, 
Yaman), very little about those of other areas. The 
information seems to have been gathered during 
the 2nd-3rd Islamic centuries — when these dialects 
were probably rapidly disintegrating — partly from 
tribesmen in the amsdr; it is distorted by the 
scholastic approach and by the use made of it for 
elucidating difficulties in texts which had nothing 
to do with the dialects cited. Interest in the dialects 
for their own sake developed only late, and many 
data are preserved only in late works whose sources 

A sharp cleavage clearly emerges between an 
Eastern group centred on the Persian Gulf, and a 
Western one, including besides the south-western 
and Hidjaz dialects also that of Tayyi'- Within the 
Utter the characteristic features are most clearly 
marked in Yaman and Tayyi', while Hudhayl and 
Hidjaz show evidence of Eastern influence. The 
differences are in rhythm (vowel-elisions and assimil- 
ations in the East), phonetics (e.g. West distinguished 
a — sounded — and I, while in the East both coalesced 
into one a, sounded ae; hamza was strongly sounded 
in East and even became c ayn, but was completely 
elided in the West,) grammar (e.g. Eastern alladki: 
Western dha, &K E. passive kola: W. kUa; E. 
imper. rudduji: W. urdud), syntax (e.g. the "Hidjaz! 
ma"; E. djd'aiti) 'r-rididlu: W. djd'u 'r-rididlu) and 
vocabulary. 

It cannot be determined whether this cleavage 
had but recently developed or was old-inherited; 
the possibility must be taken into account that the 
inhabitants of Arabia had come from different parts 
of the Semitic world and that the common "Arabic" 
features were produced by mutual influence or by 
a common substrate after their settlement in Arabia. 
The dialects of Yaman hold a special place: owing 
to the lexica of Ibn Durayd and Nashwan b. Sa'Id 
information is plentiful, and can be evaluated because 
the modern colloquial here continues the ancient 
dialect (cf. data in C. de Landberg, Datina, 1905-13; 
idem, Glossaire Datinois, 1920-47). The dialect of 
"Himyar" as described by the philologists was an 
archaic Western Arabic idiom strongly influenced 
by South-Arabian. We possess some rhymes and 
sayings in it, as well as a number of "inscriptions" 
(Musnads) forged by Nashwan and al-Hamdanl in 
the belief that the South-Arabian kings of ancient 
Himyar and Saba spoke the language of the 7th-cent. 
A.D. "Himyar". 

Bibliography: Older literature (to be used 
with caution) : G. W. Freytag, Einfiihrung etc., 1861, 
65-125; P. Anastase Marie, in Mash., vi, 529-36; 
Naslf al-YazidjI, in Acts VII Or. Congr., 1888, ii, 
69-104; K. Vollers, Volkssprache, 1906. Modern 
research begins with Sarauw, Die altar ab. Dialekt- 
spaltung, ZA, 1908, 31-49; H. Kofler, Reste altarab. 
DialekU, WZKM, 1940, 61-130, 233-62; 1941, 
52-88, 247-74; 1942, 15-30, 234-56; I. Anls, Al- 



Lahadjdt al-'Arabiyya, ca. 1946; E. Littmann, B. 
Fac. Ar., 1948, 1-56; C. Rabin, Ancient West- 
Arabian, 1951; K. Petracek, ArO, 1954,460-6. 
To the Early Arabic period belong two inscriptions 
in Nabataean characters but practically pure Arabic 
language: One is at Ifigrd (Arabic al-Ifidir, now 
MaddHn Sdlih), northern Hidjaz, dated 267 A.D. 
(M. Lidzbarski, in ZA, 1909, 194-7; Jaussen & 
Savignac, in Rev. Biblique, 1908, 241-50; Chabot, in 
Comptes Rend. Ac. Inscr., 1908 269-72; I. Cantineau, 
Nabatien, ii, 38), with a line in Thamudic : the other 
the inscription of Imra' al-Kays "king of all Arabs" 
at al-Namara, dated 328 A.D. (R. Dussaud, in Rev. 
Archiol., 1902, 409-21; id., Mission ... Syrie 
Moyenne, 314; M. Lidzbarski, Ephemeris, ii, 34; 
(Rip. Epigr. Sim., no. 483; Cantineau, ii, 49). M. 
Hartmann (OLZ 1906, 573; Arab.Fragei, 1908, 501; 
now also Dussaud, Penetration etc., 64 sqq.) thought 
Imra' al-Kays to have been a king of al-HIra, but 
the language of the inscription is shown to be a 
Western dialect by the pronouns ty fem. sg. demonstr. 
and dha relat. 

(ii) The literary language 
(1) Classical Arabic 
The oldest texts in Arabic script are three graffiti 
on the wall of the temple of Ramm in Sinai, dating 
from ca. 300 A.D. (H. Grimme, Rev. Bibl., 1935, 270; 
1936, 90-5). Christian inscriptions, accompanied by 
Greek versions, are at Zabad, dated 512 A.D. 
(E. Sachau, in Mitth. Pr. Ah. W., 1881, 169-90; id., in 
ZDMG, 1882, 345-52), and at Harran in the LejjjS 
dated 568 A.D. (Schroder, in ZDMG, 1884, 34; 
Dussaud, Mission . . . Syrie Moyenne, 324 ; Cantineau, 
Nabatien, ii, 50; on both inscrr. E. Littmann, in 
RSO 1911/12, 193-8). The text of an inscription on 
the church of Hind at al-HIra, about 560 A.D., is 
recorded by Muslim historians (al-Bakrl, 364; 
G. Rothstein, Lahmiden, 1899, 24). An undated 
graffito is at Umm al-Djimal (E. Littmann, in ZS, 

1929, 197-204). All four inscriptions in N. Abbott, 
Rise of the North-Arabian Script, 1939, plate I. 

The Christian character of the dated inscriptions 
suggests that the Arabic script was invented by 
Christian missionaries, as were so many Eastern 
alphabets. Abbott (op. cit. 5) localises its invention, 
with much probability, at HIra or Anbar. 

It is probable that at least partial Bible trans- 
lations into Arabic existed before Islam. Stylistic 
reminiscences of the Old and New Testaments are 
found in the Kur'an (W. Rudolph, Abhingigkeit d. If. v. 
Judentum u. Christentum, 1922 ; T. Andrae, UrsprHng 
d.' I slams u. d. Christentum, 1926; A. Mingana, Bull. 
J. Rylands Library, 1927, 77-89; Ahrens, in ZDMG, 

1930. 15-68, 148-90). A. Baumstark claimed pre- 
Islamic date for the text of some Arabic Bible MSS 
{Islamica, 1931, 562-75;/?.? 1929/30, 350-9; OC, 1934, 
55-66; against this Graf, Gesch. d. Chr.-Arab. Lit., i, 
142-6). There also is a fragment of the Psalms in 
Arabic in Greek characters (Violet, in OLZ, 1901, 
384-403). Examination of this and of two of Baum- 
stark s texts (B. Levin, Griech.-Arab. Evang. Vebers., 
1938) shows a language, slightly deviating from CI. Ar. 
towards the colloquials. This is typical for Chr.-Arab. 
literature (Graf, Sprachgebrauch d. SUeren Chr.-Arab. 
Liter., 1905), for early papyri and for tl 
of scientific writing; it may be early c 
influence, but also a CI. Ar. not yet standardised by 
grammarians. 

The Arabian Jews are less likely to have partic- 
ipated in the literary formation of CI. Ar., since 



at that period written translations of the O.T. were 
not being made by Jews (though a Jewish translation 
is mentioned Bukharl ill, 198). The Jewish traditions 
in Umayya b. Abi '1-Salt (J. W, Hirschberg, Jiid. u. 
Chr. Lehrenim vor- u. friikislam. Arabien, 1939) and 
in the Kur'an (cf., e.g., Torrey, Jewish Foundations 
of Islam, 1933; A. Katsh, Judaism in Islam, 1954), 
show all signs of oral transmission. Jews, however, 
used CI. Ar. before Islam, as e.g Samaw'al b. 'Adiya' 
(cf. also I. Guidi, Arabic anUisl., 1921, 145-6; Hirsch- 
berg, Diwdn des as-S. b. >A., 1931, Introd.), and are 
said to have taught the Muslims to write at Medina 
(Baladhurf, Futuh, 473). 

Wellhausen (Reste arab. Heidentums', 1927, 232) 
plausibly suggested that CI. Ar. was developed by 
Christians at al-Hira. Muslim tradition names among 
the first persons who wrote Arabic Zayd b. Hamad 
(ca. 500 A.D.) and his son, the poet c Adi, both 
Christians of Hira (AghdnP, ii, 100-2). 'AdI's language 
was not considered fully fasih, which may be taken 
as meaning that CI. Ar. was still in course of evolu- 
tion. Al-Mufaddal (apud al-Marzubanl, Muwashshah, 
Cairo 1343, 73) says that c Adi drew on many tribal 
dialects, a procedure alleged by other scholars to 
account for the excellence of the Kuraysh dialect. 
This statement gains in substance if we recall that 
nowadays the poetry of settled Arabs is often 
couched in bedouin dialects, and that the oldest 
genuine bits of poetry, those connected with the 
War of Basus, come from the Euphrates region. The 
court of Hira remained a centre for bedouin poets: 
this helped in developing and unifying the language 
of poetry; its written use at Al-HIra also furthered 
its standardisation. 

As to the origins of that poetical language itself, 
earlier Muslim tradition sought it in various tribes, 
while later scholars, no doubt for theological reasons, 
identified it with the dialect of Kuraysh. This view 
was accepted by Grimme (Mohammed, 1904, 23), 
Taha Husayn (Al-Adab al-Djahili, 1927), and 
Dhorme {Langues et icritures simit,, 1930, 53). 
Most western scholars agree in seeking its home 
among the bedouins of Nadjd — as did in practice 
the Muslim philologists of the 2nd-4th centuries 
who would only accept Nadjdi bedouins as autho- 
ritative informants. Some believe it to have been 
originally the language of one definite tribe, others 
a compromise between various dialects; others 
again think it acquired some purely artificial 
characteristics. An important feature is its archaic 
character, both in phonetics (it lacks the contractions 
typical for the Eastern Dialects) and in syntax, 
where it keeps alive constructions lost in early 
prose (Bloch, Vers und Sprache im Altarab., 1946). 
It is beyond doubt, however, that in the late 6th 
cent. A.D. it was a purely literary dialect, distinct 
from all spoken idioms and super-tribal. It is today 
often referred to as the "poetical koinl". Its conti- 
nuity was assured by the professional reciters, or 
rdwis. The language was practically uniform 
throughout Arabia: even allegedly local features 
like the dhu TaHyya and ma Hidjaziyya occur in 
poetry from outside those regions. There may have 
been differences in the choice of words: Prof. F. 
Krenkow, in a letter to the present writer, suggested 
that northern poets used asad for "lion", southern 
ones layth. The main differences, as in the c. 
other standard languages, were no doubt in pronun- 
ciation', it is interesting that Abu '1-Aswad al- 
Du'all of 'Abd al-Kays chose from thirty m 
'Abkasi as the one with the best pronunciation (al- 
Anbari, Nuzha, n) and the HidjazI 'Uthman though! 



IYYA 565 

a Hudhali the best person to dictate to a scribe 
(Gesch. d. Qor., iii, 2). It is, however, likely that some 
regionalisms and archaisms in the poems were 
eliminated by editors, for it is not rare to find that 
a verse is quoted by a grammarian for some pecu- 
liarity which is absent in the diwdn of the poet, the 
verse being slightly recast. 

Bibliography: K. Vollers, in ZA , 1897, 125-39; 
I. Guidi, Una somiglianza fra la storia dell' arabo 
e del latino, Miscellanea linguist. . . . G. Ascoli, 
Torino 1901, 321-6; id., Arabic anUisl., 1921, 
41-4; A. Fischer, in Verhandl. d. Philologentags 
zu HaUe, 1903, 154; Noldeke, Beitr. z. Sem. 
Sprachwiss., 1904, 1-14; C. de Landberg, La 
langue arabe et ses dialectes, 1905 ; C. Brockelmann, 
Grundr. d. vergl. Gramm., i, 23; M. Hartmann, 
in OLZ, 1909, 19-28; R. Geyer, in GGA, 1909, 
10-56; Nallino, in Hildl, Oct. 1917 = Scritti, vi, 
181-90; J. H. Kramers, Tool van den Koran, 1940; 
H. Fleisch, Introd. d Vitude des langues sim., 1947, 
96-104; H. Birkeland, Sprdk og religion hos Jeder 
og Arabere, 1949; J. Fuck, Arabiya, 1950, 5; 
R. Blachere, Hist, de la litt. arabe, i, 1952, ch. iii; 
W. Caskel, in ZDMG 1953, *28*-* 3 6* = Amer. 
Anthrop. Assoc. Memoir, no. 76, 1954; C. Brockel- 
mann, Handbuch d. Orientalistik, iii/2/3, 1954, 214-7 ; 
Rabin, Ancient West-Arabian, 1951, ch. iii; idem, 
in Stud. Isl., 1955, 19-37. 

Our sources for the investigation of CI. Ar. proper 
are: (1) pre- Islamic and early Islamic poetry; (2) the 
Kur'an; (3) the official correspondence of Muhammad 
and the first caliphs, as recorded by historians, and 
the early papyri; (4) the Hadlth; (5) the prose 
portions of the Ayyam al-'Arab. 

Utilisation of pre-Islamic poetry for the study of 
Arabic would, of course, be pointless if we were to 
reject all these poems as forged, as did A. Mingana 
(Odes and Psalms of Solomon, ii, 1920, 125) and 
D. S. Margoliouth (in JRAS, 1925, 415-49)— Taha 
Husayn, who in al-Adab al-Didhili rejects most of 
them, admits at least those by Hidjazis as genuine — , 
though even then the language of the earlier Islamic 
poets would still be evidence of a bedouin tradition 
distinct from the Kur'an. 

In assessing the language of the Kur'an, we must 
distinguish between the consonantal skeleton, unal- 
tered since the revision under 'Uthman, and the 
vowels, inserted considerably later. The genuine 
Kur'an spelling {Gesch. d. Qor., iii, 19-57) — unfor- 
tunately "corrected" in the Fliigel edition — differs 
in some respects from the current orthography; the 
difference was already felt in the time of Malik b. 
Anas (al-Suyutl, Ith&n, now 1 , 76/2). Some of these 
peculiarities are no doubt pure spelling archaisms 
(e.g. the omission of alif when = a), others probably 
represent grammatical deviations (P. Schwarz, in 
ZA, 1915/6, 46-59), not always amenable to inter- 
pretation, e.g. J^SJ for tatakattalu, which some 
Readers pronounce takftattalu, others taftattalu. The 
diacritic points and vowels differ according to the 
kird'dt [?.».]. Readers differ not only in interpreting 
the polysemous consonantal outline, but also in 
grammar and pronunciation. Some readings agree, 
or are said by commentators to agree, with Early 
Dialects (cf. Hammuda, al-Kira'dt wa'l-Lahadidt, 
1948), others resemble the colloquials. 

In 1906 K. Vollers (Volkssprache u. Schriftsprache 
im alien Arabien) asserted that these colloquial 
readings represented the townsman's speech of 
Muhammad, while the fasdha of the official, 
"canonical" reading systems was the result of a 



J66 C ARAI 

revision in accordance with bedouin language. This 
theory found little acceptance; it has partly been 
revived by P. Kahle (in Goldziher Memorial Volume, 
i, 1948, 163-82, etc.) who sees in a saying of al- 
Farra' promising reward to those reciting the R. 
with i'tab support for Vollers' view that the original 
tfur'an had no i'rdb. Fuck (Arabiya, 2-3) cites 
verses which would have been ambiguous without 
i'tdb; the dialect variants prove that Readers 
sometimes did not have command of CI. Ar. or 
were slovenly. There is thus no proof for a revision 
by adding i'tdb, though we know of another revision : 
the introduction of the hamza into a spelling based 
on its absence. We learn, however, that the hamza 
sign was added later than the vowels and at first 
written in a different colour (al-Dani, al-Nukaf 
(Pretzl), (133-4) and there was opposition to it 
(TA, iii, 553), while we hear of no hesitation with 
regard to i'tdb. 

As far as we can see, the language of the Rur'an 
stands somewhere between the poetical standard 
koine and the Hidjazi dialect. A slightly different 
mixture of the same elements marks the style of 
the Meccan poet 'Umar b. Abl Rabl'a (P. Schwarz, 
Diwan des U. b. A .R., iv, 1909). Either their command 
of the 'Arabiyya was not perfect, or. Muhammad 
used Meccan dialect, but was influenced by the 
CI. Ar. used by the kdhins or soothsayers (Brockel- 
mann, in Handb. d. Orient., iii/2/3, 216) — not of the 
poets whom he detested — , or there existed already 
before Muhammad a Meccan variety of CI. Ar., 
used perhaps in writing (e.g., commercial accounts 
and letters) and public speaking. The differences 
from the poetical language may be partly due to 
the needs of prose expression ; here, too, some of the 
developments may well antedate Muhammad. 

Bibliography: Noldeke, Sprache d. Korans, 
in Neue Beitrdge, 1-30, trsl. by G. H. Bousquet as 
Remarques critiques sur le style et la syntaxe du 
Coran, 1953; G. Bergstrasser, Verntinungs- u. 
Fragepartikeln im K., 1914; T. Sabbagh, La 
mitaphore dans le K., 1943 ; Zayat, Les niologismes 
arabes au dibut de I' Islam ; R. Blachere, Introduction 
au Coran, 1947, 156-81; G. E. v. Grunebaum, in 
WZKM, 1937, 29-50. 

The language of Hadlth, especially in dialogue, 
often deviates from CI. Ar., mostly in the direction 
of colloquial Arabic, but sometimes in that of the 
Hidjazi dialect. In traditions invented about 100 AH 
such features may show, at best, that at that time 
a more "popular" variety of CI. Ar. existed (cf. our 
remarks above on Christian Arabic), but in fact the 
earliest recordings of traditions, in Ibn Wahb and 
Malik, are much freer from these peculiarities: 
unless we assume that they corrected the style of 
the texts they noted down, we must admit the 
likelihood that these stylistic artifices were intro- 
duced later in order to create' "atmosphere". The 
value of H. for linguistic research is thus a complex 

The language of the A yydm al-'A rab, which were 
handed down by philologists, shows only few 
aberrant features (W. Caskel, in Islamica, 1931, 43). 

CI. Ar. had an extremely rich vocabulary, due 
partly to the bedouin's power of observation and 
partly to poetic exuberance ; some of the wealth may 
be due to dialect mixture. It was not rich in forms 
or constructions, but sufficiently flexible to survive 
the adaptation to the needs of a highly urbanised 
and articulate culture without a disruption of its 



Already in Pre-Islamic Arabia, the koine had to 
be learnt, and the men who preserved and taught 
it, the rawis, were ready when the need arose for 
non-Arabs to acquire it under the Umayyads and 
Abbasids. Abu '1-Aswad ad-Du'all and Khalll b. 
Ahmad belonged to that class, but they were soon 
joined by men who had inherited the habits of 
thinking taught in the Hellenistic Schools of Rhetoric, 
and who systematised the traditional lore of the 
rawis and applied the science thus created not only 
to poetry but also to the Kur'Sn, harmonising 
wherever the texts "deviated" from the rules. 
Before turning into the Literary Arabic of the 
Islamic period, CI. Ar. thus underwent a process of 
sifting and systematisation, with subsequent refur- 
bishing of the old sources, poetry and Rur'an, 
according to the new stricter standards. 

Bibliography: (see J. Fuck, Arab. Studien, 
in Europa vom 12. bis . . . jo. Jahrh., Beitrdge lur 
Arabistik, Leipzig 1944, 85-253). 

The history of the European study of Arabic 
is at first one of increasingly effective utilisation 
of the Arab philologists' work. The first grammars, 
by Postel (1538) and Erpenius (1613), were based 
on late school manuals. The first systematically 
to use older and more advanced Arabic works 
was S. de Sacy (1810). C. P.Caspari (1848) was based 
on Zamakhsharl; in the 3rd edition of W. Wright's 
translation (1896 and reprints) this base is much 
enlarged. D. Vernier (1891-2) utilized SIbawayh; 
M. S. Howell (1880-1911) digested all Arab gram- 
marians. In lexicography, the evolution goes from 
Raphelengius (1613) and Giggeius (1632, based on 
the fidmus of al-FIruzabadi), via Golius (1653, 
based on the Sahdh of al-Djawharl) to E. W. Lane's 
gigantic translation and rearrangement of the TA 
(1883-93; parts 6-8, ed. by S. Lane Poole, are less 
useful) and the practical dictionaries of Belot and 
Hava, based on LA. 

In its second stage, European scholarship 
attempted to improve on the achievements of 
the Arabs by direct reference to texts and in- 
dependent analysis. In grammar, the process 
begins with H. L. Fleischer's notes on S. de Sacy 
(Kleinere SchrifUn i-ii, 1886-8); further of special 
importance Th. Noldeke, Zur Gramm. d. klassischen 
Arabisch, SBAk. Wien, 1897, ii; H. Reckendorf, 
Syntdktische Verhdltnisse d. Arab., 1895-8; id., 
Arabische Syntax, 1921; C. Brockelmann, Grundr. 
d. vergl. Gramm. ii, 1913; M. Gaudefroy-Demom- 
bynes and R. Blachere, Gramm. de I'Arabe Clas- 
sique, 1937. In lexicography, the principal fault 
of the Arab works is that — apart from some 
specialist vocabularies and al-Fayyumi's Misbdh 
al-Munir — they largely neglect the post-classioal 
accretions to the language. Texts were utilised 
already by G. W. Freytag (1830-7) and A. de 
Biberstein-Kazimiiski (i860). In spite of the Sup- 
plement of R. Dozy (1881), the Additions of E. 
Fagnan (1923), the glossaries added to the Leiden 
Tabari e dn. (1901) and vols, iv, v, viii of theBGA, 
etc., the vocabulary of medieval Arabic is still 
far from fully recorded. I. Krachkovsky, Neustadt 
and Shusser (1947), and H. Wehr (1952) deal with 
modern Arabic. Vet even for CI. Ar. there is still 
much work to be done. Some gaps are closed by 
glossaries with editions of poems, e.g. that of \. 
Miiller to Noldeke's Delectus etc. (1890), A. A. 
Bevan to C. J. Lyall's edn. of the Mufaddaliyyat (ii, 
1924), and those added by Ch. Lyall to 'Abid and 
'Amir b. Tufail (1913) and F. Krenkow to Jujail 
and Jirimmah (1927). The Hebrew University of 



Jerusalem has prepared a card-index concordance 
to Pre-Islamic poetry. Publication is planned at 
Cairo of the lexicon of A. Fischer; the edition by 
J. Kraemer of NSldeke's BelegwOrterbuck (incor- 
porating collections by Bevan and others) began 
in 1952. No scientific dictionary exists as yet for 
the Kur'an, those by F. Dieterici (1881) and 
Penrice (1873) being unsatisfactory. 

(C. Rabin) 

(2) Early Middle Arabic 

The Arabic literary language has been academically 
standardised since the 3rd/oth and 4th/ioth cen- 
turies. Its grammar, syntax, vocabulary and literary 
usages were clearly defined after systematic and 
laborious research. Since that time and down to 
the present it has had a continuous and uninterrupted 
existence. Although every Arabic-speaking country 
has developed its own colloquial language for every- 
day life, they have all continued to use the standard 
literary language for purposes of writing. 

The scholars of the early centuries of Islam — who 
were responsible for that remarkable achievement 
of linguistic standardisation — made their starting 
point the historically authentic text of the Kur'an 
which described itself as a "Clear Arabic Book", and 
which was recorded, put together, and officially 
circulated in the ist/7th century. Collections of the 
traditions, epistles and speeches of the Prophet; 
sayings and speeches of the Caliphs and the famous 
orators of the early Islamic period, and anthologies 
of Arabic poetry were also used as references and 
textual examples of the literary language. But the 
greatest efforts of the scholars in the 2nd/8th, 
3rd/oth and 4th/ioth centuries were directed towards 
the collecting, reviving and verifying what was still 
kept in the memories of rawis and bedouins of pre- 
Islamic literature. The poetry as well as proverbs 
and speeches of the last hundred and fifty years of 
the didhiliyya period were collected, studied and 
commented upon, and were used as explanations of 
Kur'anic usages and as proofs of linguistic and 

The assumption on which this work of recon- 
struction and standardisation was built was the 
identity of pre-Islamic and post-Islamic literary 
language. This assumption is borne out by many 
historical and literary data. The Kur'an claimed to 
have spoken to the Arabs in their own tongue as 
was God's way with every Divine mission ("We have 
never sent any messenger except in his people's 
tongue"; xiv, 4). When the Arabs heard the Kur'an 
they understood it, appreciated its literary excellen- 
ces, and were greatly struck by its superior eloquence 
(Ibn Hisham, Cairo 1914, I, 201, 216-7). 

Many references could be quoted to strengthen 
the claim to authenticity of what was retrieved of 
the didhiliyya poetry, and the identity of its con- 
struction, style and language with the text of the 
Kur'an and the manner of composition of post- 
Islamic poetry. The second fact upon which historical 
references are agreed is that the djahiliyya poetry 
as it has been collected and handed down to us was 
recited and appreciated all over Arabia. The poetic 
language heard in the courts of the Lakhmids in 
al-HIra and the Ghassanids in Syria was the same 
as that heard and applauded in Nadjd and Hidjaz. 

Claims for priority in evolving the literary language 
Were advanced for different tribes. A statement often 
quoted in Islamic books advances the theory that 
pre-Islamic poetry began in Rabi'a with Muhalhil; 
then shifted to Kays where the two Nabighas and 



[YYA 567 

Zuhayr flourished, and finally reached Tamlm where 
it remained till the days of Islam (al-Muzhir, II, 
476, 477). Light on the subject may be sought in 
the many attempts at explaining the tradition "The 
Kur'an was revealed in seven ahruf (tongues or 
languages)". According to Ibn 'Abbas those were 
the seven dialects of Upper Hawazin and Lower 
Tamlm. This may be taken to mean that these seven 
dialects, being the clearest and the most eloquent, 
contributed largely to the formation of the literary 
language (al-Suyuti, al-Itkdn*, Cairo 1935, 47). Al- 
Tabari raises the question as to whether the Kur'an 
was revealed in all or some only of the Arab dialects, 
and uses the tradition referred to above to argue 
that the Kur'an was revealed in some only (seven) 
as the Arab dialects were too numerous to count. 
{Ta/sir, Cairo 1323, I, 15). 

The second stage in the development and spread 
of literary Arabic begins with the rise of Islam. The 
new religion chose to make its challenge to the 
poetically-minded Arabs through a literary composi- 
tion. The new Holy Book, by its excellence, proved 
to the Arabs as miraculous as the turning of a stick 
into a snake, or the healing of the sick was to former 
peoples. The whole revolution in the life, belief and 
practical philosophy of the Arabs was embodied in 
the chapters of this new Book. From the beginning 
of its revelation it was being learnt by heart by the 
Muslims and recorded in writing by the special 
scribes employed by the Prophet (al-Djahshiyarl, 
al-Wuzard' wa 'l-Kuttdb, ed. Sakka and others, 
Cairo 1938). 

The general practice was that a Muslim would 
learn a few verses (ten for example) and would not 
exceed them until he knew their meaning and 
followed their precepts in practical life (al-Tabari, 
Didmi' al-Baydn, I, 27, 28). It was not long before 
a group of companions (e.g. Ibn 'Abbas. Ibn Mas'Od, 
'Ikrima, and 'All) became specialists in the inter- 
pretation of the Kur'anic text. Thus a new branch 
of literary and linguistic learning started which 
became later an important factor in the standard- 
isation of literary Arabic. But there was another 
important aspect of Kur'anic reading which had 
some bearing on the development of literary Arabic, 
namely the variants which caused concern to many 
a faithful believer. 

The danger of this variation in the reading of the 
Kur'anic text was removed only by the preparation 
of standard copies at the command of the third 
Caliph, 'Uthman (see uur'An). 

Thus the first and foremost Islamic literary work 
in the Arabic language became the most authentic 
model for literary usage. Wherever the Islamic 
faith went in its rapid spread, it carried with it this 
religious and literary constitution. Every believer 
learnt part -or all, of it by heart, and was influenced 
in his literary activities by its diction and modes 
of expression. 

Many of the variant readings of the Kur'an, 
however, were preserved to us through the Kird'at 
literature and have proved valuable in the recon- 
struction of Arabic dialects. 

The Kur'an had, yet, another aspect in which it 
influenced the course of the literary language, 
namely its miraculous unsurpassable excellence. The 
literary Arab celebrities admitted impotence before 
its challenge, and Muslims down the ages looked up 
to it as their literary guide and linguistic authority. 
The study of the secrets of Kur'anic eloquence 
(i'-djdz) has given Arabic literary criticism a special 
approach and a wealth of material (see M. Khala- 



568 <ARA 

fallah, Qur'anic Studies as an Important Factor in 
the Development of Arabic Literary Criticism, Faculty 
of Arts' Bulletin, Alexandria 1953). 

During the Prophet's life-time and some time 
after, poetical activities among the Arabs gave way 
to the propagation of the new faith by word and by 
sword. Some devout Muslims found better occupation 
in learning the Kur'an and pondering on the beauty 
of its style, others joined the invading Muslim 
armies in Syria, 'Irak and Persia. The art of public 
speaking, for a period, took the place of the art of 
poetry. The literary language now was turning more 
and more into a language of religious guidance, 
moral uplifting and legislation for the new order. 
New shades of meaning and literary usages began 
to develop within the framework of the pre- Islamic 
literary language. "The Arabs in their diahiliyya 
days", says Ibn Fans, "had inherited from their 
ancestors a heritage of dialects, literature, rituals 
and sacrificial practices. But when Islam came 
conditions changed, religious beliefs were discarded, 
practices abolished, some linguistic terms were 
shifted from one usage to another, because of matters 
added, commandments imposed, and rules esta- 
blished". (Examples of these changes are given by 
as-Suyuti, Ibn Khalawayh, al-Tha'alibi and Ibn 
Durayd, see, al-Muzhir, i, 294, 295, 296, 298, 301, 
302). 

Thus the second stage in the development of the 
Arabic literary language has brought in new im- 
portant factors, religious and social, and introduced 
many necessary linguistic changes. But that was not 
all. The scene was considerably widening and 
shifting. The Arabs were no longer contained in 
their Peninsula, but were spreading out with the 
rapidly sweeping conquests of Islam. Wherever they 
went they carried with them not only their new 
Arabic Holy Book with its polished and appealing 
language, but they carried also their tribal linguistic 
characteristics, and their traditionally inherited 
literature (poetry, proverbs, narratives, and oratorial 
speeches) which they stored in their memories. 

These conquests were an important factor in the 
process of Arab linguistic unification. Several of the 
big invading armies were composed of mixtures of 
tribes, many of whom were accompanied by their 
women and children. Thus a good deal of inter- 
mixing and intermarriage between the tribes took 
place in the conquered cities. Newly established 
settlements — such as al-Kufa — had in them elements 
from North as well as from South-Arabia, and from 
Hidjaz as well as from Nadjd. 

The Arabs were now passing from the tribal stage 
to the stage of cities and countries. Their social 
units were no longer tribal, but urban, as in Basra 
or Kufa, and regional, as in Syria or Egypt. This 
new regrouping of the Arabs must have reduced 
considerably the differences of the dialects, and 
reinforced the unifying processes already begun in 
pre-Islamic times. 

With those conquests, Arabic was now spreading 
to new non-Arab territories. Its fortunes in the 
different units of the vast Islamic empire were 
varied. In some countries like Syria and Egypt it 
became — and is still at the present time— the 
national language of the country. In others like 
Persia it remained for a few centuries the language 
of culture, but with time it gave way to the native 
Persian language. The story of this spread in its 
early stages, and the emergence of the colloquial 
languages in the Arabic-speaking countries is a long 
and interesting one. (See, S. Faysal, al-Mudjtama'-at 



al-Islamiyya, Cairo 1952, Vol. II). The spread and 
establishment of Arabic in some countries as a 
national language was aided by various factors. In 
Syria Arab elements had already settled, Arabic 
poetry had been welcomed at the Ghassanids' courts, 
and many of the inhabitants spoke Aramaic, a 
kindred language. In 'Irak, too, Arab tribes had 
already settled from pre-Islamic times, and an 
Arab state had established itself in al-Hira. In 
those regions of 'Irak where Persian was prevalent, 
the long-established neighbourhood of Arabs and 
Persians paved the way for the conquering language. 
Some Persian kings — such as Bahram Gur — are 
said to have been brought up in the Arabic courts 
and to have composed Arabic poetry. H. C. Woolner 
(in Language in History and Politics) states that 
Persian was influenced in the seventh century A.D. 
by a strong Aramaic current which prepared the 
way for the spread of Arabic. Another form of that 
influence came through Syriac which occupied an 
important position as a cultural medium in Persia. 

In Egypt, Greek had been, since Ptolemaic times, 
the language of culture, politics, administration, and 
later of the Church, while Coptic was the vehicle for 
daily intercourse among the population. Yet the 
adoption of classical Arabic as a state language, and 
of colloquial Arabic as a conversational medium 
among the Egyptians was accomplished within a 
century after the conquest. Authorities state that 
Coptic disappeared almost completely after that 
period from most parts of Egypt, and could only 
be found among the scholars who specialised in 
studying it (A. Amin, Fadjr al-Isldm', 259). When 
Islam entered North Africa it found three languages 
there; Latin, which was the language of admini- 
stration and culture; a mixed language composed 
of Greek, Latin and Semitic elements which was 
bequeathed by Carthage; and Berber in the in- 
terior of the country. Arabic became the dominant 
language in the cities through the spread of the new 
religion and the arrival of wave after wave of 
Arab settlers. The Berber language, however resisted 
the spread of Arabic in its strongholds in the interior. 

These conquests, then acted as carriers of Arabic 
both as a literary and as a colloquial language in 
many different lands. As many Arabs migrated to 
these new territories, taking their language with 
them, so did great numbers of non-Arabs migrate 
in the opposite direction; many as slaves and 
clients (mawali), and they settled in the big Arab 
centres of Mecca, Medina, al-Basra and al-Kufa. 
They naturally adopted Arabic as their medium of 
intercourse, and some of them mastered literary 
Arabic and became famous writers and poets. 
Some of the Persian mawali found in the two capitals 
of Hidjaz a fertile soil for their music and singing. 
Thus a movement of interaction between Arabs and 
non-Arabs was taking place all through the Islamic 
empire during the ist/7th century. This movement 
produced a great civilisation which became known 
as Arab-Islamic civilisation. The contribution of the 
conquered races to this civilisation consisted in 
culture, learning, and administration, while the 
purely Arabian contribution lay in the linguistic and 
the religious fields. The ancient Aramaic and Iranian 
cultures, under the aegis of the Caliphate, were woven 
into a new pattern and expressed through the medium 
of the Arabic tongue. Arabic was thus invigorated 
by new elements of ideas and images, stimulated 
with fresh conceptions of excellence and eloquence, 
and enriched even with a new vocabulary. Persian, 
in particular, was responsible for the introduction 



'ARABIYYA 



569 



of new terms in the fields of luxury, ornaments, 
handicrafts, fine arts, government administration, 
and public registers (A. Amin, Fadjr al-Islam, 
Section iii). (M. Khalapallah) 

(3) Middle Arabic 

The creation of an Arabic Empire stretching at 
the height of its power from the Pyrenees and the 
Atlantic to the shores of the Sir Darya and the 
Indus had far-reaching consequences on the develop- 
ment of the Arabic language. Arabic, hitherto 
spoken in Arabia proper and its immediate neigh- 
bourhood, went with the Muslim armies to the 
farthest ends of the far-flung empire. Life in camp 
and on expedition brought men of different tribes into 
close contact and the vicinity of the tribal quarters 
(khifat) in the great cities soon led to a levelling of 
their dialects. In addition to these dialects, some 
forms of interdialectal speech were in existence, 
notably the language of oratory used by the tribal 
spokesman (khafib) in his harangues, and the poetical 
language, both of which had been cultivated in pre- 
Islamic days and were now enriched by the language 
of the JCur'an. The poetical language was charac- 
terised by certain pecularities of metre and rhyme, 
vocabulary and phraseology, figures of speech and 
imagery inherited from the ancient bards, but 
otherwise it was presumably still close to the 
language of everyday conversation; verses were 
still improvised on the spur of the moment, nor did 
their understanding require any sort of education 
on the part of their hearers. 

It is only in the latter half of the first century that 
we find new linguistic traits in the love-poetry of the 
Hidjaz. These poets, whose surroundings gave them 
leisure to reflect upon their emotional experiences, 
felt the conventions of bedouin poetry inadequate 
for their purposes and began to use the conversational 
style of the new aristocracy, which was modified 
by the Hidjazi dialect as well as by the exigencies of 
settled city-life (see Paul. Schwarz, Der Diwan des 
l Umar b. abi Rabija, iv, 1909, 94-172). 

In the new provinces — except perhaps Syria— 
the Arabs were considerably outnumbered by the 
indigenous population who continued to use their 
mother-tongues, but had in their dealings with 
government to adapt themselves to the idiom of the 
conquerors, though at the beginning they used some 
sort of makeshift language. Then there were those 
non-Muslims who had been taken prisoner and 
were brought into the houses and harems of their 
Arab masters. They quickly adopted Arabic and 
as a rule embraced Islam. Many of them or their 
descendants were freed from bondage and played as 
freedmen (mawdli) an important r61e in the economic 
life of the empire, especially in the cities where they 
formed the bulk of the population. They spoke 
Arabic with many alterations, due partly to the 
influence of the language of their forebears, partly 
to the dialect of their Arab patrons and neighbours, 
and last but not least to the rapid changes in their 
economic and social environment. These widely 
differing idioms were the forerunners of the Middle- 
Arabic local dialects, which were spoken by the 
lower classes in the towns of the various provinces. 
They were characterised by a simplified pronuncia- 
tion; the glottal stop was dropped; k, voiced in 
bedouin speech became voiceless ; emphatic and non- 
emphatic sounds and also dad and zd* were confused; 
iii the areas where Aramaic was formerly dominant, 
the interdental spirants were replaced by the cor- 
responding occlusives. But the most telling feature 



of Middle Arabic was the weakening and loss of the 
short final vowels and along with it the abandon- 
ment of the desinential inflexion (i'rdb), which had 
momentous consequences for the structure of the 
language (J. Cantineau, Bulletin de la sociiti lingu- 
istique, 1952, 112). The old system of inflexion fell 
into disuse; cases, status, moods were no longer 
distinguished. Their functions had to be taken over 
by word order, periphrastic expressions, and other 
means common in languages of an analytical type. 
Middle-Arabic was also adopted by the Christians 
of Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia and by the 
oriental Jews, and from the 2nd/8th century 
onwards used by them for literary purposes, whilst 
with the Arab Muslims the classical language 
remained the proper medium for literary activities. 
In this appreciation of the language of the Rur'an 
and of the ancient Arabic poetry they were followed 
by the mawdli, who from the first tried to conform 
to the higher standards of Arabic and were already 
in the ist/7th century contributing to Arabic poetry 
(e.g. Ziyad al-A'djam). By the end of the ist/7tb. 
century the mawdli felt the necessity for some sort 
of training in the classical language, thus giving an 
impetus to the beginnings of grammatical studies, 
whilst the Arabs grew apprehensive of unidiomatic 
speech and realized the necessity for preserving the 
purity of their language. 

Once taken up by the mawdli, the classical language 
survived the downfall of the Umayyad dynasty and 
continued to be the medium of Islamic culture 
throughout the Muslim world, not only in those 
provinces where Arabic was dominant or gaining 
ground but even in countries where it was never to 
gain a firm footing. In the schools of Basra and 
KOfa the rules of the '"arabiyya" were standardised 
according to the idioms of those bedouins who were 
credited with the purest language. This standard 
language was used at court and in good society, and 
to master it was one of the first accomplishments 
of a man of letters or learning. Its application to 
literary purposes shows a great variety of types. 
All narratives referring to Arabic and bedouin life 
(e.g. the amthdl al- l Arab, ayydm aW-Arab, but also 
the maghdzi and the sira) preserved to some extent 
the uncouth originality and artless naivete of the 
old language. In the literature of hadith (traditions) 
and fifrh (jurisprudence) the social and economic 
changes left their marks on the vocabulary, phrase- 
ology, and even morphology. Of a quite different 
type is the language of the secular prose-writers of 
the early ^Abbasid period (e.g. Ibn al-Mukaffa c ). Here 
the changes in Muslim society brought about by 
the ascendancy of the non-Arab races, the pre- 
Islamic heritage and the revival of Oriental Helle- 
nism, took full effect. It is polished, lucid, flexible 
and well adapted to the expression of thought in a 
precise manner; its vocabulary, though lacking the 
exuberant abundance of the bedouin language (as 
witnessed e.g. by the urdxuza-poetry), is rich and 
expressive, and its grammatical structure free from 
the cumbersome overgrowth of nominal and verbal 
forms so conspicuous in the bedouin language. The 
same simplicity and smoothness is found also in the 
verses of the so-called "modern" (mufidath) poets 
of the same period (e.g. Abu 'l- c Atahiya), although 
in poetry as a rule the imitation of the old patterns 
has always been closest. 

On the language of every-day life and the dialects 
spoken by the different strata of Muslim society 
during this period very little is known. How com- 
plicated the linguistic situation had grown by the 



570 C ARA 

end of the 2nd/8th century we can gather from 
occaional remarks of al-Djahi? (165-255) not only 
about the correct language of true bedouins, its 
gradual corruption through the vicinity of towns 
and intercourse with the peasantry, about the 
patois of the lower orders, the cant of pedlars, the 
argot of beggars, the technical terms of trades and 
professions, but also about mispronunciation and 
faulty speech on the one hand and euphemism and 
mannerism on the other. 

These divergent tendencies soon affected the 
written language. The translators and scientists who 
made the legacy of Greek philosophy, medicine, 
mathematics, and other sciences accessible to the 
Muslim world, enriched the vocabulary considerably 
by innumerable technical terms. But they were often 
Christians (e.g. Hunayn b. Isljak) or Jews, and had 
neither a good grounding in Arabic grammar nor 
any aptitude for literary perfection and accom- 
plished style. Their translations, therefore, show as 
a rule some Middle Arabic features (see G. Berg- 
■'. lshdfc und seine Schule, Leiden 



1913, 



8-53). 



The decline of the 'Abbasid power and the ascen- 
dancy of the Turkish soldiery in the course of the 
3rd/gth century led to a general lowering of the 
standards of education; even the court-language no 
longer preserved its former purity but became 
marred by vulgarisms. About the year 300/912 the 
classical language ceased to be used in the con- 
versation of good society, in the law-courts and 
colleges, and froze into a literary idiom; to stick to 
the rules of the i'rdb was considered a sign of pedantry 
and affectation. At the same time the former 
enthusiasm for the bedouins began to wane, and 
their language — the dialects of which had in the 
meantime undergone many changes — was no longer 
looked upon as the best representative of Arabic 
speech. The classical language was spoken only 
on solemn occasions, otherwise its use was restricted 
to the domain of literature. Here its application was 
mainly a problem of style. Henceforward the term 
'arabiyya meant an unalterable system of words, 
phrases, grammatical forms and syntactical struc- 
tures, which was strictly regulated by the rules of 
grammarians and lexicographers and could not — at 
least theoretically — be improved upon. In applying 
this artistic language to his theme — which in its 
turn he had to select from a limited number of 
topics {ma'dni) — an author had a choice between 
different styles, differing in the employment of 
rhyme, rhythm, figures of speech and other embel- 
lishments. But once he had chosen his theme and its 
style he was committed to the traditional patterns 
(see G. E. von Grunebaum, The Aesthetic Foundation 
0/ Arabic Literature, Comparative Literature, 1952, 
323-40). It is for this reason that a writer had not 
only to possess a thorough knowledge of the intri- 
cacies of Arabic grammar and lexicography, but had 
also to study and learn by heart the best pieces of 
classical prose and poetry (though the question as 
to what authors were of classical rank was often 
hotly debated). In these circumstances the 'arabiyya 
was bound to become a learned medium and its 
study was cultivated by Arabs and non-Arabs alike. 
The non-Arab races contributed even some of the 
best prose- writers (e.g. al-Kh"arazmi, and Bad! 1 al- 
Zaman) and philologists (e.g. Abu Hilal al- c Askari). 
High literature was the privilege of an elite and 
required sometimes a commentary either by the 
author (e.g. Abu 'l-'Ala' al-Ma c arri) or by his 
admirers (e.g. al-Mutanabbi) in order that it might 



be understood by the hearers. Occasionally vulgarisms 
were used for artistic purposes (in muwashska(t, 
zadjal) and even the argot of the beggars and 
swindlers was made use of by Abu Dulaf in his al- 
Kasida al-Sdsdniyya; but on the whole the vocabu- 
lary of high literature was choice and exquisite. 

These high standards, however, were required in 
high poetry and ornate prose only. In the other 
branches of literature there is a great variety in 
language and style. Often it is only the preface 
which is written in rhymed prose and in choice 
wording, whilst the bulk of the book betrays the 
Middle-Arabic character of the author's speech. In 
books written for practical purposes the technical 
terms of the subject had to be used. If the author 
had no proper knowledge of the grammar, faulty 
speech was unavoidable; the worst example is 
perhaps the Kitdb 'Adjd'ib al-Hind by Buzurg b. 
Shahriyar al-Ramhurmuzi written after 342/953 {Le 
Livre des Merveilles de I'Inde, ed. par P. A. van der 
Lith et L. M. Devic, Leiden 1883-6). It is full of 
vulgarisms (see de Goeje's remarks in van der Li th's 
edition, 205), some of which are common in Middle- 
Arabic whilst others are probably due to the author's 
non-Arab mother-tongue and his profession. 

These disrupting tendencies were fostered by the 
disintegration of the 'Abbasid empire. Already in 
375/985 al-Makdisi could in his description of the 
Muslim world attempt to characterise each coun- 
try by the peculiarities of its language. It appears 
from his account that in his days in all Arabic- 
speaking countries the conversational language of 
the upper classes had suffered considerably under 
the inroads of local dialects and that the most 
correct Arabic was heard in the Eastern (Iranian) 
countries where much attention was paid to the 
study of grammar. 

Already in the days of al-Makdisi the increasing 
independence of the Samanid dynasty led to the 
revival of New-Persian literature, which had 
momentous consequences on the position of Arabic 
as the Islamic language in the Eastern regions. 
Outside the Arabic-speaking world, Arabic was in 
the dominions of the Saldjuks gradually superseded 
by New-Persian not only as the language of court, 
society, diplomacy and administration, but also in 
poetry, belles-lettres and other branches of secular 
— and later on even religious — literature. At the same 
time the rise of independent dynasties in the Arabic- 
speaking countries gave a new impetus to the 
development of the dialects spoken in their dominions 
and increased the already existing tension between 
literary language and colloquial. Thus the picture of 
the Arabic language as reflected in the literature 
of the Saldjuk period (5th/nth-7th/i3th centuries) 
is of a bewildering complexity. There are master- 
pieces of ornate prose, written in a faultless style 
like the Makamat of al-Harlri (d. 516/1122), which 
could be appreciated only by a small group of con- 
noisseurs. In high poetry the imitation of the time- 
honoured patterns continued, but some poets 
succeeded in modernising the poetical diction by 
adapting it to the conversational style of their 
contemporaries, e.g. Baha' al-DIn Zuhayr (d. 656/ 
1253). Others even made use of the local dialects, 
e.g. Ibn Kuzman (d. 555/1160) and Ibn Daniyal 
(c. 693/1294). Usama b. Munkidh (d. 584/1188) com- 
posed verses in the conventional fashion, but his 
famous memoirs are written in an unpretentious 
style which savours of the dialect of Syria. Some 
grew lenient in admitting expressions 
formerly excluded from correct speech, 



whilst others, like Ibn Ya'Ish (d. 643/1245) (see 
G. jahn in the preface to his edition, i, 10-12) wrote 
in a slovenly style, without regard for the rules of 
grammar they were expounding. In ordinary prose, 
offences against grammar are rather the rule than 
the exception, as witnessed by the works of Yakut 
(d. 626/1229) (see Wustenfeld in vol. v, 58-65 of his 
edition) and al-Kazwinl (d. 682/1283) (see Wusten- 
feld in vol. ii, ix of his edition). Works written outside 
the Arabic-speaking countries sometimes betray the 
fact that their authors had not a full command over 
the language; Persian (and later Turkish) writers 
e.g. Ibn al-MudJawir (d. 690/1291) (see Loi'gren, Arab. 
Texte zur KentUnis der Stadt Aden im Mittelalter, ii/2, 
21) were apt to disregard the differences of gender, 
the concord of gender and number, and the rules 
concerning the article. There are further works of a 
popular character, such as the epic romances (e.g. 
the Sirat t Antar, Sirat Bani Hildl), the Maghazi- 
legends (e.g. by Abu '1-Hasan al-Bakrl, c. 693/1294) 
and the mystic poems of the religious orders; they 
were destined for- the edification and entertainment 
of the middle and lower classes and were therefore 
written in a rather vulgar language and style. 
Similar vulgarisms are found in the writings of the 
Druzes (see de Sacy, Chrestomathie Arabe ii, 236, 
n. 9, etc.) and the religious poetry of the Yazldls 
(see R. Frank, Scheich <Adl, 107 ff.). Naturally the 
writers of other denominations, as e.g. the Christians, 
the Jews (see J. Friedlaender, Der Sprachgebrauch 
der Maimonides, i, Frankfurt a.M. 1902) and the 
Samaritans (see Abu '1-Fath, Annates Samaritani, 
ed. E. Vilmar 1865) had no part in the literary 
traditions of the Arabs, though men like Maimonides 
were otherwise deeply imbued with Islamic culture. 
But many more inquiries into the language of 
individual authors will have to be made before the 
development of literary Arabic in these centuries can 
be elucidated. For these studies a perusal of auto- 
graphs or at least of contemporary manuscripts will 
be necessary, for our editions are as likely as not 
"corrected" by oriental printers (see August Miiller 
in the preface to his Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, Konigsberg 
1884, VII-VI1I) or European editors (see S. L. 
Skoss in the preface to his edition of al-Fasi, Djdmi' 
al-Alfaz, i, 1936, CXL-CXLIII). 

After the devastation of the Asiatic countries 
caused by the invasions of the Mongols, there began 
a new period in the history of literary Arabic. Egypt 
rose into prominence and became under the Mamluks 
(648-923/1250-1517) the centre of Islamic culture and 
of Arabic literature. The literary language during 
these centuries was post-classical. Prose-writers like 
Ibn Abi Usaybi'a (d. 668/1270; see August Miiller, 
Vber Text und Sprachgebrauch in Ibn abi Usaibi'-as 
Gcschichte der Arzte, Sitz.-Ber. Bayr. Ah. d. Wiss. 
1884, 853-977) represent the colloquial as it was then 
spoken in good society. Later authors such as Ibn 
Iyas (c. 930/1524; see P. Kahle in the preface to 
hisedition, vol. iv, 1931, 26-8) and Ibn TulQn (c. 955/ 
1548; see R. Hartmann, Das Tiibinger Fragment der 
Ckronik des Ibn 7"uWn, 1926, 103) are even more 
influenced by the local dialect, especially in vocabu- 
lary. Others, such as the Amir Bektash al-Fakhiri 
(c. 741/1341; see K. V. Zettersteen, Beitrdge zur 
Geschichte der MamluhensuUane, Leiden 1919, 1-33) 
show by their style that Turkish was their mother- 
tongue. In poetry the dialect was sometimes utilised 
e.g; by Ibn Sudun (d. 868/1464) in his humorous 
and satirical poems. 

The great changes which took place in the world 
from the end of the gth/isth century deeply affected 



literary Arabic. After the capture of Granada in 
897/1492 and the expulsion of the Moors the Arabic 
language vanished from the Iberian peninsula. In the 
Maghrib, where the classical language had always 
stood in sharp contrast to the local dialects, there 
sprang from the latter a new poetical language, the 
so-called malhun, which since the ioth/i6th century 
has enjoyed an ever-increasing popularity in 
Morocco. The other Arabic-speaking countries were 
sooner or later conquered by the Ottoman Sultans 
who were not primarily concerned with the cultiva- 
tion of the Arabic language and literature. Even in 
Egypt, hitherto the mainstay of Arabic culture, 
literary activity sank to its lowest ebb. Literary 
Arabic was the prerogative of an elite. The dialect 
was occasionally utilised for literary purposes (e.g. 
by al-Shirblnl, c. 1098/1687, in his Hazz al-kuhuf). 
Already in the ioth/i6th century poems were com- 
posed in the vernacular (see M. U. Bouriant, 
Chansons populaires arabes, Paris 1893, and Fuad 
Hasanain Ali, Agyptische VolhsUeder, i, 1939). In 
Syria, the Maronite archbishop of Aleppo, Germanus 
Farhat [q.v.] (d. 1145/1732) did much to revive the 
study of Arabic grammar, lexicology and rhetoric 
amongst his countrymen. Outside the Arabic coun- 
tries Arabic continued to be used by scholars, more 
especially in theology, jurisprudence and kindred 
subjects; but though its sphere comprised by now 
parts of North and East Africa, Zanzibar, Malaya, 
and the Indonesien Archipelago, yet it was less 
influential than in the preceding period. This 
period of stagnation and decay lasted till the begin- 
ning of the I3th/i9th century. 

Bibliography: References are already given 
in the article. Many observations on the classical 
and postclassical usage are found in the prefaces 
to editions of Arabic texts, in grammars and 
dictionaries and especially in H. L. Fleischer, 
Kleinere Schriften, i-iii, Leipzig 1885-8; Th. 
Noldeke, Zur Grammatik des classischen Arabisch, 
Wien 1896; see also J. Fuck, Arabiya, Unter- 
suchungen zur arabischen Sprach- und Stilgeschichte, 
Berlin 1950 (Arabic translation by <Abd al-Hallm 
al-Nadjdjar, Cairo 195 1; French translation byC. 
Denizeau, 1955). (J- W. FCck) 

(4) Modern written Arabic 
The intrusion of Europe into the range of vision 
of the Arab world begins with Napoleon's expedition 
to Egypt in 1798. The adoption of innumerable ele- 
ments of Western civilisation had far-reaching effects 
on the written language. This began already with 
Muhammed 'All's programme of reform which set out 
deliberately to take over Western achievements and 
was focussed on France, which everywhere remained 
the model until after the first World War. As a 
result of the sending of student missions to study 
in France, the formation of schools on European 
lines and the foundation of an Arabic press, and, 
above all, of the translation of numerous European 
books, the necessity of finding expressions for a 
host of foreign ideas was felt first in Egypt and then 
too in other countries — foreign ideas for which at 
first only foreign words were available. Even the 
works of early translators in Egypt, of whom the 
most notable was al-Tahtawi (1801-1873; cf. 
Brockelmaiin, II 481, S II 731, W. Braune in 
MSOS XXXVI 2, 1 19-125, J. Heyworth-Dunne in 
BSOS IX 961-7, X 399-415) already contain, side by 
side with numerous foreign words taken over indis- 
criminately, pure Arabic neologisms to express 
Western concepts. 



572 c ara: 

But a real counter-movement against the excessive 
use of foreign words did not begin until the second 
half of the 19th century. The question of how to 
meet the ever-growing need for new expressions in 
Arabic became one of the major problems of intel- 
lectual life. The impact of Europe in itself awoke 
among the Arabs, after an interval of centuries, 
reconsideration of their own linguistic and literary 
tradition. The revival of the old philological learning 
was facilitated by the printing of many old literary 
works and especially of native dictionaries and 
grammars. The dogma that the 'Arabiyya as the 
oldest literary form of the language was better and 
more "correct" than any later forms and that it 
must therefore be the highest authority for linguistic 
correctness at the present day too became the 
guiding idea for the whole language movement, even 
if there were voices in opposition. Thus the old 
purism was revived again, and with it the tendency 
artificially to control the development of the 
language, with recourse wherever possible to the 
old model language. This movement started in the 
Syrian-Lebanese area. Outstanding among the 
earlier language critics was Ibrahim al-YazidjI 
(1847-1906; Brockelmann, S II 766), who criticised 
the language of the journalists of his time in Lughat 
al-Diara'id (published in book form, Cairo 1319). 
The inevitable modernisation and expansion of 
the vocabulary of the c Arabiyya ought, according 
to the wishes of the purists, to be carried out by 
drawing to the greatest possible extent on the 
wealth of words, roots and forms in the 'Arabiyya. 
The question of how to proceed in detail and how 
far European words should be employed has been 
actively discussed again and again. In innumerable 
essays in nearly all periodicals and in many sepa- 
rate publications right up to the present moment, 
immense quantities of neologisms have been pro- 
posed, although it must be said that only a small 
percentage pass into general usage. Extending far 
beyond the circle of professional philologists, this 
movement has also affected large circles of the general 
educated public. The struggle with technical terms 
(mustalahdt) is a difficult problem for every specialist 
in any technical or scientific branch and gives many 
of them the impetus themselves to become linguisti- 
cally creative and to publish their own technical 
terms. The literature on this subject written in 
Arabic is very vast and scattered, and cannot be 
treated here more than generally. There are large 
collections of the terminology for many special 
fields (Ahmed c Isa, Mu'diam Asma' al-Nabat, Cairo 
1930; Amln al-Ma J luf, Mu c d£am al-Ifayawan, Cairo 
1932; Mustafa al-Shihabl, Mu'djam ai-Alfaz al- 
ZiraHyya, Damascus 1943 ; M. Ashraf, English- Arabic 
Dictionary of Medicine, Biology and allied Sciences, 
2nd ed., Cairo 1929 — to mention only a few). But such 
works do not confine themselves to listing expressions 
which are already in current use ; they also introduce 
suggestions of their own; they cannot therefore be 
considered as descriptive scientific material but are 
contributions to the establishment of terminology. 
The idea of co-ordinating these efforts and of esta- 
blishing language academies for the standard- 
isation of vocabulary dates from the 8o's of the last 
century (cf. Braune I.e. 133). After several unsuc- 
cessful attempts, a scientific academy (al-Madjma'- 
al-'-Ilml al-'Arabi) was founded in Damascus in 1919, 
which also devoted itself to the reform of the 
language and published many contributions to the 
language problem in its review, which first appeared 
in 1921. In 1932 the Egyptian Royal Academy of 



the Arabic Language (now Madima c al-Lugha al- 
l Arabiyya) came into existence. Apart from the study 
of the old language and literature its main concern 
is the regulation and expansion of the modern 
vocabulary. In its review (Madiallat Madjma 1 al- 
Lugha al-'Arabiyya, Vol. I-VII, 1934-1953) and since 
1942 in a sequence of special publications, the use 
of a great many musfalahdt has been recommended, 
so far without the anticipated and desired effect 
being achieved. The official principles on which the 
Academy works can also be gathered from the 
minutes of meetings (Mahadir, since 1936). Even 
in Irak, where formerly the review Lughat al-'Arab 
(Vol. I-IX, 1911-1931) of P. Anastase al-Karmall 
was the leading organ of the purist trend, an 
Academy was formed in 1947 (al-Madima* al- 
'-Ilml al-'Iraki) which, inter alia, is also concerned 
with the problems of terminology. The real diffi- 
culty, however, with all these official attempts at 
creating standard ' terminologies for technical and 
scientific fields lies not so much in coining new 
expressions, as in securing their general use among 
the specialists concerned. Although the possibility 
of popularising newly-coined technical terms in 
specialist circles has often been overestimated, the 
practical effect of the purist movement on actual 
language usage cannot be denied. In many individual 
cases one can observe how artificially created words 
have quickly entered into the general stock of words 
of journalists and writers. The efforts of the purists 
however are concentrated almost entirely on the 
isolated word, that is, on the extrinsic elements of 
the language. 

Turning to the linguistic facts, the striking 
feature is the infiltration of English and French 
phraseology, translated into Arabic (so-called loan 
translation or "caiques") and the change in the 
inner form. In particular the language of daily 
communication (press and radio) and of writers 
with little or no classical education has a distinct 
European touch. Phraseology and style are far 
more difficult to check than terminology. This 
development is therefore inevitable and must be 
accepted as a fact. In the field of belles lettres, 
on the other hand, we find in many cases a strong 
attachment to tradition. Authors with a classical 
education are still today able to keep close to the 
ideal of the c Arabiyy a in their style ; they sometimes 
make use of uncommon words and phrases of the 
old literature and especially of the Kur'an as 
artistic stylistic devices. But no-one can completely 
escape the influence of European phraseology. 

Grammar, on the other hand, which can be 
defined in rules and which is much more subject 
to conscious control, gives quite a different picture. 
The written language has remained untouched by 
the sound-change, and the morphology has remained 
constant from the earliest times till the present day; 
the same is true of the syntax at least in its basic 
features. Here the conservative attachment to the 
'Arabiyya has proved itself astonishingly effective. 

In vocabulary a considerable basic stock has 
remained alive since the earliest times. Post-classical 
words, including those from the later Middle Ages, 
form a further element of the modern vocabulary. 
A host of generally accepted expressions are available 
to express ideas which come from Europe, most of 
which are in full accordance with the above-men- 
tioned wishes of the purists. Forgotten words of the 
c Arabiyya have been revived and are used without 
formal alteration but with meanings more or less 
modified (e.g. ki(dr = train of camels drawn up one 



behind the other > railway train) ; words of the 
'Arabiyya still in use have been given a new addi- 
tional meaning (e.g. bark = lightning > telegraph) ; 
sometimes the change of meaning is made by analogy 
with the foreign word, which served as model (e.g. 
svndiik = box > cash-box, cash office, after the 
French "caisse"). Moreover a large number of 
completely new nouns formed from old roots with 
the help of the Arabic nominal forms (most frequent : 
maf-al, -a, mif-al, -a, fa"dl, -a) have passed into 
general usage (e.g. mathaf = museum, naffatha = 
jet-plane); likewise verbal nouns and participial 
forms are used for new expressions (e.g. idhd'-a = 
broadcasting, muharrik = motor). The n»'s6a-ending 
is widely employed in the formation of new words 
(e.g. ishtirdki — socialist, ishtirdkiyya = socialism) ; 
by the expansion of its use many new adjectives 
have been derived from nouns, and with them 
European compounds can easily be reproduced (e.g. 
al-barid al-diawwi = airmail) ; genuine compound 
forms are still confined to those with the negation 
Id (e.g. Id-silki = wireless). Until the first World 
War the majority of foreign words were borrowed 
from French, others from Italian. English became 
an influence after the first World War, especially 
in Egypt and Irak. The decrease of foreign words in 
Arabic is a considerable achievement of purist 
efforts. Words of Turkish origin have disappeared 
almost entirely in the last decades. We may consider 
as loan-words such as correspond to an Arabic 
nominal form or can easily be assimilated to it, and 
for which broken plurals are formed (e.g. bank-bunHk, 
film-afldm, duktur-dakdtira) and such as are assimi- 
lated through the addition of the ending -iyya which 
serves as abstract ending (dlmukrdtiyya = demo- 
cracy). 

The numerous accepted new words are still not 
sufficient. Very specialised scientific and technical 
details to the present day still cannot be expressed 
in Arabic in a form understood by all concerned. 
The anarchy in the field of specialised terminology 
even within one country is far from being at an end. 
The situation is aggravated by the fact that Greek 
and Latin technical terms which so often help 
specialists towards an international understanding 
even on complicated matters, are translated into 
Arabic. There are often several terms in circulation 
for the same thing; on the other hand cases occur 
where the same term means different things to 
different authors. Nevertheless the standardisation 
of technical terminology which is the basic problem 
of present-day Arabic has undoubtedly made con- 
siderable progress and thus we can also expect 
further favourable developments in the future. 

The fact that there exists a basically uniform 
written language in all Arabic countries from Irak 
to Morocco is of great value, ideal and practical, 
to the Arabic peoples. It is the symbol of their 
old cultural unity and their political union in the 
present day. Thus we can conclude that there is no 
reason to anticipate that the written language will 
anywhere be replaced by a local dialect and forced 
out of practical use. 

Bibliography: W. Braune, in MSOS xxxvi, 
2, 130-40; H. Wehr, ibid, xxxvii, 2, 1-64 and 
ZDMG xcvii, 16-46; D. V. Semyonov, Sintaksis 
sovremennogo arabskogo yazyka, Moscow-Leningrad 
1941; Brockelmann, S III 5-7; J. Fuck, 'Arablya 
xiv; R. B. Winder and F. J. Ziadeh, An Intro- 
duction to Modern Arabic, Princeton 1955; Ch. 
Pellat, Introduction d Varabe moderne, Paris 1956. — 
Dictionaries and most important contributions to 



SfYA 573 

lexicography: Ch. K. Baranov, Arabsko-Russkiy 
Slovar', Moscow-Leningrad 1940-6 (with Preface 
by I. Kratchkovskiy with further references) ; L. 
Bercher, Lexique Arabe-Francais, 2nd ed., Algiers 
1944 (Supplement) ; M. Brill, D. Neustadt and P. 
Schusser, The basic word list of the Arabic Daily 
Newspaper, Jerusalem 1940; Elias, Modern Diction- 
ary Arabic-English 4th ed., Cairo 1947; D. Neustadt 
and P. Schusser, MiUon < Arabi- c Ibri, Jerusalem 
1947; Ch. Pellat, Varabe vivant, Paris 1952; H. 
Wehr, Arabisches Worterbuch filr die Schriftsprache 
der Gegenwart, Leipzig 1952, 1956. (H. Wehr) 

(iii) The Vernaculars 
(1) General survey 



Arabic is spoken to-day by about 60 million people 
ranging from Hither Asia to North Africa, from the 
Persian Gulf to the Atlantic Ocean; these regions 
are: Arabia with the Fertile Crescent up to the 
Persian and Turkish frontiers; Egypt and most of the 
Sudan (from the Nile to the Chad); Tripolitania; 
Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco; Mauritania, French 
West Sudan, and the northern Sahara. In addition 
to this continuous geographical area, there exist 
isolated pockets; in Africa: Djibuti and Zanzibar; 
in Europe: Malta (formerly with the Balearic Is., 
Sicily, Pantellaria up to the 18th century), Spain 
(up to the 15th century [see al-andalus]). Finally, 
attention should be drawn to the Syro-Lebanese 
diaspora in North and South America and French 
West Africa. 

Within the limits of the geographical area 
mentioned above, Arabic has found itself in contact 
with a series of foreign languages which it has 
tended to supplant, although some have still retained 
great vitality side by side with Arabic (e.g. Berber), 
but it is characteristic that Arabic has only succeeded 
in replacing indigenous languages when the latter 
have possessed structural features akin to its own; 
this has been the case in Egypt, where Coptic ceased 
to be spoken in the Middle Ages, while the Indo- 
European sphere has successfully resisted it, despite 
the implantation of Islam. 



The Arabic spoken to-day is derived basically 
from old dialects of Central and Northern Arabia. 
To the limited extent to which one can form an idea 
of them, these dialects, although differentiated, do 
not seem to have presented any essential points of 
difference, because the classical philologists, who 
remain the most important source, only note 
variations in pronunciation and vocabulary, while 
the structure of the languages seems to have been 
homogeneous. The same philologists, using fasdha 
[q.v.] as their criterion, divided the old dialects 
into three main groups: those of the Hidjaz, consi- 
dered the purest, those of the Nadjd, and finally 
those of the neighbouring tribes, considered to be 
contaminated to a greater extent by other Semitic 
or by non-Semitic languages. This distinction, 
always a fine one, is no longer tenable to-day, 
because the dialects concerned have developed 
markedly. Of all the classifications worthy of 
consideration, the most convenient, although it is 
based on a geographical division rather than on 
linguistic criteria (which are: the formation of the 
1st person s. and pi. of the imperfect of the verb, 
and the treatment of short vowels in open syllables), 
consists of distinguishing two major groups, the 



574 'ARA 

first (see below, section II) comprising the Eastern 
dialects, east of a line running approximately from 
Solium to Chad, the second being formed by the 
Maghrib! dialects, situated geographically west of 
the above line. 

The dialect of the IJidjaz, and more particularly 
that of the l<uraysh of Mecca, is known to have 
been one of the pre- Islamic Arabic dialects; it was 
elevated to the status of a literary language, not, 
however, without some interference with the pre- 
Islamic poetic koine. But the old dialects remained 
none the less alive, not only in their own country, 
but also outside the Arabian Peninsula, because they 
were spread abroad by the Arabs in the territories 
which they conquered. Organised in their traditional 
groups, the Arab conquerors preserved for some time 
their own tongue, but dialectal peculiarities tended 
to become less marked as the result of the blending 
of tribes within the fighting units. It was this sort 
of koine, rather military in character, which con- 
stituted the language of the conquered or newly- 
founded towns, but a contrary development soon 
occurred, with the appearance of indigenous elements 
and elements from the linguistic substratum, which 
resulted in an ever greater differentiation between 
the urban dialects, although on the whole the dialects 
of the large cities of the Arab world still displayed 
common characteristics. It is therefore possible, in 
order to rely on a sociological rather than a geo- 
graphical criterion, to distinguish on the one hand 
the dialects of the urban and settled populations 
(because the role of the large cities had aided the 
rapid spread of the urban dialects in concentric 
circles), and on the other the Bedouin dialects. The 
latter were the dialects of more or less homogeneous 
and nomadic tribes which had emigrated from the 
Arabian peninsula either before or after the con- 
quests. In general, the boundaries between the two 
major groups defined above are not fixed absolutely, 
and it is even possible to discern the existence of an 
intermediate group of dialects which display both 
urban and Bedouin characteristics. The criteria 
which enable one to distinguish between urban and 
Bedouin dialects are set forth in sections II and III 
below, but it should be noted here that, in general, 
the Bedouin dialects exhibit more conservative 
tendencies, and greater homogeneity within the 
framework of the tribe. The urban dialects display 
pronounced evolutive tendencies; they have intro- 
duced morphological and syntactical innovations 
and, further, differentiated dialects quite often 
appear within the same urban area, not only between 
the following of different religions (Muslims, Jews 
and Christians for example), but also between the 
social classes and even between the sexes and 
different generations. 

If Classical Arabic is compared, in the most 
general terms, with present-day dialectal Arabic, 
the main point to be noted is the early abandonment, 
by spoken Arabic, of case endings and the inflexions 
of the verb. Perhaps less characteristic, in the 
phonetic sphere, are the loss of the phoneme repre- 
sented by <J£> and the tendency of short vowels in 
open syllables to disappear; further, short internal 
vowels, even in stressed syllables, have become 
weakened in the most developed dialects. Morpholo- 
gically, in addition to the disappearance of termina- 
tions, one notes the almost complete disappearance 
of the passive with vowel change, the decreased use 
of the dual and the feminine plural. On the other 
hand the phonetic system is richer than that of 
classical Arabic and the vowel range greater; a 



present indicative a, in a number of dialects spoken 
by settled populations, was derived from the imper- 
fect by means of various preverbs; the syntax, less 
synthetic, used an analytical construction simultane- 
ously with the relationship of annexation (idija). 
Finally, as regards vocabulary, the basic vocabulary 
is also found in classical Arabic, with losses due to 
the disuse of a large number of special terms (notably 
those relative to Bedouin life, in the case of the 
settled populations), but also with gains due to loan 
words from foreign languages which continued to 
co-exist with Arabic. 



The religious prestige of classical Arabic naturally 
prevented dialectal Arabic from playing the part of 
a literary language, at least among Muslims; further, 
with the exception of a certain number of proverbs 
and poems (see especially zadjal) dialectal literature 
is fundamentally oral; it consists of songs and poems, 
which treat of the same themes — epic, religious, lyric, 
satiric, eulogistic, erotic etc. — as classical Arabic, of 
tales, legends and even epics. When, exceptionally, 
a dialectal work of importance has been set down in 
writing, it has never preserved its original form, 
but has been transformed into more or less correct 
literary Arabic, which deprives us of documentary 
evidence which would otherwise be of great interest. 
The most typical example is that of the Thousand 
and One Nights (see alf layla wa-layla). For the 
attempts made in recent years to create -a dialectal 
literature, and for the use of colloquial Arabic in 
novels and plays, see Arabic Literature below. 
Christian Arabic literature should not be over- 
looked (see G. Graf, Geschichte der Ckristlick-Arabi- 
scken Literatur and Der Sprachgebrauck der dltesten 
christlick-arabiscken Literatur, Leipzig 1905), nor 
that, in Roman script, which developed, but without 
great originality, at Malta, nor the Judaeo-Arabic 
writings. On these last, which until the present 
time form a vast branch of literature, see the article 
Tunisia, and E. Vassel, La litterature populaire des 
Israelites tunisiens, in RT, 1904; G. Vajda, Un Recneil 
de textes kistoriques judio-marocains, Paris 1951^ M. 
Steinsehneider, Arabiscke Litteratur der Juden, Frank- 
No complete work has yet been devoted to dialectal 
literature, but the reader is referred to the references 
given in Ch. Pellat, Langue et litterature arabes, 
Paris 1952, 54. For North Africa, H. Basset, Essai 
sur la litterature des Berberes, Paris 1920, deals with 
a subject which is closely connected with Arabic 
dialectal literature. 

Sources: — The works of modem Orientalists, who 
often give texts in dialectal Arabic and help to give 
a fixed form to popular literature, are enumerated 
in sections II and III below, which are specially 
devoted to the modern dialects. For a historical 
study, apart from the references of the Arab philo- 
logists and the glossaries quoted in the article 
al-andalus, special reference should be made to 
the transcriptions of Arabic texts in Coptic or Greek 
script (see especially the ancient psalm fragment 
given by Violet in OLZ, 1901), to the early Egyptian 
papyri and to the Sicilian documents edited by 
S. Cusa (/ diplomi greci ed arabi di Sicilia, I, 
Palermo 1868). (Ed.) 

(2) The Eastern dialects 



The geographical area covered by these dialects 
extends from Egypt to Syria in the case of the 



former, and in the case of the latter, comprises on 
the one hand the Arabian Peninsula, and on the 
other the Syrian desert and 'Irak. 

The non-Arab languages represented are as follows: 
in Egypt, the Siwa Berber group. In Syria-Lebanon, 
the Aramaic dialect of Ma'lula, Pjubba'din and 
Bakh'a; the language of the Circassians living in 
villages in various parts of Syria: Kunaytira, 'Ain 
Zat, Tell Ameri, Khanasir, Manbidj, and in Jordan 
Pjirash; the Armenian (or Turkish) of about 
200,000 Armenians (principal centres Beirut, Aleppo) ; 
the language of about 230,000 Kurds living in the 
region of Hassetchl, Diarablus. Djabal Akrad and 
certain cities, notably Beirut and Damascus. In 
c Irik, these Kurds constitute a quarter of the popu- 
lation; in addition, there is the neo-Syriac of the 
Mawsil plain. In Arabia, Kumzari (peninsula of 
Masandam, in c Uman), a Persian dialect; the modern 
South Arabian languages, between the Hadramawt 
and 'Uman: Mahri, Karawi, Harsusi, and Botahari. 
In Israel, modern Hebrew. 

Egyptian Arabic (nomad dialects) has penetrated 
into the republic of Sudan among the Nilotic and 
Kushitic languages, and then, with Maghribl in- 
fluences, among the Negro-African languages in the 
region of Lake Chad. Yemenite Arabic is used as the 
second language in Africa among the Somalis. The 
Arabic of 'Uman has found its way to Zanzibar. 
In Turkmenistan, Khazaristan, Tadjikistan traces 
have been found of Arabic nomadic dialects. Finally, 
in America, there is the Syro-Lebanese diaspora. 

The eastern dialects. In Egypt, Cairo usage 
is well-known, that of Alexandria less well, that of 
the falldhs very little, and that of the nomads and 
the whole of Upper Egypt hardly at all. In Palestine, 
a tripartite division must be carefully observed 
between sedentary urban-dwellers, the sedentary 
rural population (falldhs), and nomads. In Syria- 
Lebanon, the dialects of the sedentary urban and 
rural populations are indeed distinguishable, but 
their differences are less marked ; they contrast with 
the nomad dialects; the dialects of the large towns 
(Beirut, Damascus, Aleppo, Jerusalem) are curiously 
similar to one another. The Mountain region of 
Lebanon, divided into separate districts, introduces 
local variations, the anti-Lebanon still more. In 
'Irak, the urban and rural dialects have been 
submerged by the dialects of the North Arahian 
nomads; this has resulted in blending and com- 
promise in varying degree between the two types of 
dialect, even in the large towns. Only assiduous 
linguistic research can show what remains of the 
dialects of the sedentary populations. In general, 
nomad dialects are linguistically dominant; thus 
'Irak remains within the sphere of the North Arabian 
dialects. A study of the dialects of the Jews of 
Baghdad and Basra would be most useful; recent 
migrations have disorganised these communities. 
It is interesting to note the use of dialect in a literary 
context, in Egypt (al-lfagg Darwish, plays for the 
theatre), and jn the Lebanon (Finianus, Shmunt) ; 
see J. Lecerf, Literature ■ dialectal* et renaissance 
arabe modern* , in BEOD, ii, 1932, 179-258; iii, 
1933, 43-175- 

The eastern dialects have not received equal 
treatment as regards actual publications. A concise 
bibliography will be given here, within the limits of 
this general outline (fcr convenience, 'Irak will be 
included here): 

At least six works deal primarily with the Arabic 
of. Cairo; the following will suffice: W. Spitta-Bey, 
Gtammatik des arabischen Vulg&rdialectes von Agypten, 



IYYA 575 

Leipzig 1880, xv-519 pp. in 8vo. (Texts 441-516; K. 
Vollers, Lehrbuch der dgypto-arabischen Umgangs- 
sprache, mit Vbungen und einem Glossar, Cairo 
1890. xi-231 pp. small 8vo. (English ed. by F. R. 
Burkitt, Cambridge 1895) ; C. A. NaUino, L'arabo 
parlato in Egitto, grammaiica, dialoghi e raccolta 
di circa 6,000 vocabuli, Milan 1900, xxviii-386 pp. 
small 8vo., 2 ed. Milan 1913; D. C. Phillott and 
A. Powell, Manual of Egyptian Arabic, Cairo 1926, 
xxxiv-911 pp. small 8vo., In addition: Spiro-Bey, 
Arabic-English Dictionary of the Modern Arabic of 
Egypt, 3rd ed., Cairo 1929, xvi-518 pp. in 8vo. 
(arranged in purely alphabetical order). For Upper 

Egypt there are only the Conies arabes , 

published by H. Dulac, J A, 8th series, v, 5-38 
(in Arabic characters with translation but without 
transcription) ; the Chansons populaires, collected by 
G. Maspero (Ann. Serv. Ant. Egypte, xiv, 97-291) 
are inadequate for a linguistic inquiry. For the 
nomads of Lower Egypt a number of the Lieder 
der libyschen Wiisle of M. Hartmann, Leipzig 1899; 
it should be used with caution. 

The Sudan is hardly better known, nor is the Lake 
Chad area. For the former: A. Worsley, Sudanese 
Grammar, London 1925, vi-80 pp. in 8vo. ; S. Hillelson, 
Sudan Arabic, English- Arabic Vocabulary (p. 205-19, 
Cambridge 1935, xxiv-219 pp. in 8vo., see especially 
pp. xi-xxiv of the Introduction; idem, Sudan 
Arabic, English- Arabic Vocabulary [with transcrip- 
tion] 2nd ed., London 1930, xxviii-351 pp. in 12V0.). 
For the latter: G. J. Lethem, Colloquial Arabic, 
Shuwa Dialect of Borna, Nigeria and the region 
of Lake Chad, London 1920, xv-487 pp. in 8vo. 
(Part III English-Arabic Vocabulary, 235-487)- 
Lethem gives good conservative Bedouin Arabic; 
a form of Arabic which already shows changes 
(disappearance of the emphatics) is found in Mtthode 
pratique pour I'etude de V arabe parli au Ouaday et 
i I'Est du Tchad by H. Carbou, Paris 1911, 251 pp. 
(reprinted, 1954). Narrative texts: C. G. Howard, 
Shuwa Arabic Stories, with an Introduction and 
Vocabulary (p. 83-115), Oxford 1921, 116 pp. in 
12VO.; J. R. Patterson has published the Stories of 
Abu Zeid the Hilali in Shuwa Arabic, London 1930, 
Arabic text with translation but without transcrip- 

For linguistic geography, we are indebted to 
G. Bergstrasser's Sprachatlas von Syrien und Paldstina 
(incl. the Lebanon and Jordan), ZDPV, xxxviii, 
169-222, 42 maps. This Sprachatlas is an excellent 
beginning. J. Cantineau has added his Remarques 
sur les parlers de stdentaires Syro-Libano-Palestiniens , 
BSL, no. 118, 80-8, in which he proposes a classi- 
fication; his article on Le Parler des Druz de la 
montagne Ifdranaise, AIEO, Algiers, iv, 157-84, in 
which he shows that' a dialect of the sedentary 
population of the Lebanon is involved; his profound 
study of Hawran, Les parlers arabes du H6rdn, 
Notions ginirales, Grammaire, Paris 1946, x-475 pp. 
in 8vo. (Publ. SL, Hi), and an Atlas of 60 maps, 
ibid. 1940. Haim Blanc has studied the dialects of 
the Druzes in northern Galilee and on Mt. Carmel 
in his Studies in North Palestinian Arabic, Jerusalem 
1953, 139 PP- in small 8vo. (Or. Notes and St. Isr. 
Or. Soc., No. 4), phonological and phonetic survey 
22-78; texts 79-108. 

For Syria-Lebanon, Palestine, the following should 
be mentioned: (1) General descriptive works: 
A. Barthelemy, Dictionnaire Arabe-Franfais, 5 fasc, 
Paris 1935-54 (the last two published by H. Fleisch), 
943 PP- in large 8vo. (deals exhaustively with the 
vocabulary of Aleppo (1900), and gives the elements 



576 C ARA1 

of the Lebanon, Damascus and Jerusalem). G. R. 
Driver, A Grammar of the Colloquial Arabic of Syria 
and Palestine, London 1925, x-257 pp. in 8vo. 
L. Bauer, Das palastinische Arabisch, die DialeHe 
des Stddters und des Fellachen, Grammatik, Vbungen 
und Chrestomathie p. 164-256, 3rd edition, Leipzig 
1913, viii-264 pp. in 8vo., 4th edition, Leipzig 1926, 
and Worterbuch des Palastinischen Arabisch, Deutsch- 
Arabisch, Leipzig and Jerusalem 1933, xvi-432 pp. 
in i6vo. Feghali (Mgr. Michel), Syntaxe des parlers 
■actuels du Liban, Paris 1928, xxv-635 pp. in small 
8vo. (PELOV). The Grammaire du dialecte Libano- 
Syrien of R. Nakhla, Beirut 1937, does not describe 
•a fixed dialect. (2) Monographs: a) on the Lebanon: 
M. T. Feghali, Le parler de Kjar'abida (Lebanon- 
Syria), Paris 1919, xv-304 pp. in 8vo.; this type of 
■dialect only obtains in part of the Lebanon. H. 
Fleisch, Notes sur le dialecte arabe de Zahli (Liban), 
MUSJ, xxvii, 75-116, in part a monograph on an 
Important dialect of the Beka. H. El-Hajje, Le 
Parler arabe de Tripoli (Liban), Paris 1954, 203 pp. 
in 8vo. (Text in transcription and translation pp. 176- 
■99). b) on Syria: J. Cantineau, Le dialecte arabe de 
Palmyre, i, Grammar, x-287 pp. in 8vo., ii, Vocabu- 
Jary and Texts, vii-149 pp. in 8vo., Beirut 1934 (Mem. 
Inst. Fr. Damas, ii), which describes a dialect of the 
settled population. The only works dealing with 
Damascus are the phonetic survey of Bergtrasser 
<see below), the Manuel tltmentaire d' arabe oriental 
{Damas musulman) of J. Cantineau and Y. Helbaoui, 
Paris 1953, 124 pp. in 8vo., and the elements given 
by J. Oestrup in his Contes de Damas (Leiden 1897, 
163 pp. in 8 vo.), pp. 122-155. (3) Useful texts: for 
Palestine, it is sufficient to mention here the 
Chrestomathie of L. Bauer; for the Lebanon, the 
Contes, Ligendes et Coutumes populaires du Liban 
et de Syrie of M. Feghali, Arabic text, transcription, 
translation and notes, Paris 1935, xiii-195-87 pp. 
in 8vo.; for Damascus (Christian), Zum arabischen 
Dialeht von Damaskus of G. Bergtrasser, I Phonetik 
{p. 1-50), Prosatexte, Hanover 1924, m pp. in 8vo. 
{Beitr. z. sent. Phil. u. Ling., No. 1), Arabic text in 
transcription with translation) ; for Hama, the story 
<in transcription, with translation) Mhammad 
■il-halabi, published by E. Littmann, ZS, ii, 20-50. 
Little is known about 'Irak: the Neuarabische 
■Geschichten aus detn Iraq of B. Meissner, Leipzig 
1903, lviii-148 pp. in 8vo., and the Beitrdge zur 
Kunde des Irak-Arabischen of F. H. Weissbach, i, 
Prosatexte, Leipzig 1908, xlvi-208 pp. in 8vo., ii, 
Poetische Texte, Leipzig 1930, 357 pp. in 8vo. 
{Leip. sem. St., iv, 1 and iv, 2), deal with the same 
■dialect of the rural population of northern 'Irak; 
Meissner's work contains a substantial section on 
grammar, pp. vii-lviii, and a short vocabulary, 
pp. 112-48. For Mawsil and Mardin, we have only 
the texts collected by A. Socin, ZDMG, xxxvi, Der 
Dialeht von Mosul, 4-12; Der Dialekt von Mardin, 
■22-53 an< i 238-77, in transcription with translation, 
accompanied in part by the Arabic text, without 
«tudy of the grammar or vocabulary. L. Massignon, 
in his Notes sur le dialecte arabe de Bagdad (reprint 
■from Bull. IFAO, xi, 24 pp. in 8vo.) has emphasised 
the linguistic complexity of Baghdad, where he 
las distinguished "at least seven stable indigenous 
groups, all of the Arabic language, but differing 
in dialect" (p. 2). A survey of Baghdad, which 
-will be a particularly difficult task, is still awaited. 
The Bagdadische Sprichwdrter, published by A. S. 
Yahuda in Or. Studien (collection of studies dedicated 
to Th. Noldeke, Giessen 1906), pp. 399-416, deals 
with Jewish Baghdad. The two works: J. van Ess, 



The Spoken Arabic of Iraq (above all Basra), 2nd 
ed. Oxford 1936, and M. Y. van Wagoner, Spoken 
Iraqi Arabic (Baghdad), Ling. Soc. of America, 1949, 
are a medley of dialects and are not so far of use 
as linguistic information. 

The western dialects bear a certain family 
likeness, and the same can be said for the eastern 
dialects. For the purposes of this comparison the 
more conservative nomad dialects (this does not 
exclude the facts of their own evolution), which are 
much less well-known, will be disregarded. We are 
concerned with the dialects of the settled populations 
of east and west. We will consider first the elements 
which link them (and also those which distinguish 
them): cf. G. S. Colin, L 'arabe vulgaire, 150th anni- 
versary of ELO (Paris 1948), pp. 100-1. 

Phonetically: 1) The disappearance of the velarised 
latero-interdental phoneme represented by the old 
l_p, replaced in general by d (emphatic); dh (em- 
phatic) among the fellahs of P. and at T.*). 2) The 
development of the three interdental fricatives (dh, 
th, dh emphatic) into dental occlusives (d, t then ts 
in M. and Alg., d emphatic except among the fellahs 
of P. and at T. 3) The tendency of the short vowels 
to disappear in open syllables, particularly when they 
are not stressed (especially t, «). 4) The tendency 
to reduce the diphthongs ay, aw to the simple sounds 
I, 6, (even t, « in Oc), except in a large part of the 
Lebanon. 

Morphologically: 1) The disappearance of the old 
inflexional vowels (i'rdb); as a result the dialect 
becomes less synthetic, and makes greater use of 
grammatical instruments. Word order assumes im- 
portance in denoting relationship (construct state), 
the subject and the complement of the direct object. 
2) The dual retrogressively becoming a survival 
without influence as such as regards grammatical 
concord. 3) The periphrastic expression of relation- 
ship (determinative complement of the noun), in 
place of the construct state, for various reasons: 
Eg. beta'-; P., S-L. taba 1 ; (M. dyal, Tl. ntsa\ T. mta<). 
4) The use of an indeclinable simplified relative 
pronoun: elli (similarly di, eddi in M. and in several 
Arabic dialects (W. Marcais, Tlemcen, 175). 5) The 
formation of a new interrogative pronoun for things : 
Eg. >esh; P., S-L shu, 'eysh, Vsft (M. ash, wash; Tl. 
wash; T. ash, ashnua). 6) The abandonment of a 
special form for the feminine plural of personal 
pronouns and verbs. 7) The abandonment of the 
passive formed by change of vowels: batata "he has 
killed", kutila "he has been killed" (except in Oman). 
8) A form indicating duration: Eg. '■ammal, <amm; 
P., S-L. 'am (M. kd, verb expressing duration or 
habitual action). 9) The formation of an indicative 
by means of various auxiliary words prefixed to the 
old imperfect. 10) The conjugation of the imperfect 
of doubled verbs with the intercalation of a phoneme 
ay (I), e.g.: L. madddyt or maddgl. n) The reduction 
of the number of types of broken plurals and still 
more of the types of infinitive (masdar). 

The Eastern and Western dialects, over and above 
these common characteristics, give respectively a 
certain impression of unity, in so far as evolutionary 
tendencies have culminated, in each of the two 
groups, in different results. They can only be con- 
trasted when, on both sides, the different result is 
identically constant. For example the method of 



*) Abbreviations used: Alg. = Algeria; Eg. = 
Egypt; Ir. = 'Irak; L. = Lebanon; M. = Morocco; 
Oc. = Occidental; Or. = Oriental; P. Palestine; 
S. = Syria; T. = Tunis; Tl. = Tlemcen. 



forming the first persons of the imperfect of the 
verb. The Eastern dialects have formed an indicative : 
imperfect with b- being contrasted in general with 
the subjunctive-jussive (without b-): L. birid yiktob 
"he wishes to write". This indicative has in the ist 
pers. s. a preformative b-: L. bektob "I write", 
mnektob "we write", whereas the Western dialects 
have a preformative n- and, secondarily, by analo- 
gical normalisation, a distinctive plural form in -« 
e.g.: T niktib "I write", niktbu "we Write"; this 
is an excellent and characteristic example of con- 
trast between the Eastern and the Western dialects; 
but it is not absolute: a preformative n- of the 
ist pers. s. impf. is found in the Nadjd (Socin, 
Diwan, Part iii, 133c and 194b) and is confirmed in 
the Hadramawt (de Landberg, Arabica, iii, 55). The 
loss of short vowels in open syllables, largely complete 
in the Western dialects, is a much less reliable 
indication: in fact in the Lebanon at Kfar'abida, 
all short vowels in open unstressed syllables disap- 
pear; at Palmyra, there is a fairly general disap- 
pearance of » and u, even when stressed, if they occur 
in an open syllable (this is one of the dialects called 
"differential" by J. Cantineau, Etudes, in AIEO, 
«, 49). 

The dialects also reveal a certain individuality, by 
comparison with the Western dialects, by virtue of 
the presence of grammatical characteristics which 
are lacking in the latter. Note for instance, in Eg., 
P., S-L.: 1) In the vocalisation of the simple verb, 
the retention of vowel contrasts reduced to a pattern 
katal byiktel or byiktol and ketel byiktal (in Eg. the 
pattern is not quite so clear). 2) The formation of the 
plural of the demonstrative pronouns in a similar 
manner: the addition to the singular of the old 
demonstrative form of the pi. '«/ (cl. '«/-£, 'ul-a'i: 
Eg. da + »«/ > dol: P., S. hada + >ul > hadel; 
L. hey da + 'ul > hey dol, Ba'albek ha + >ul > hoi; 
and other forms. These two phenomena, however, 
also obtain in the case of a number of North Arabian 
nomad dialects (Cantineau, Etudes, Ann. ii, 79 and 
107) and their 'Iraki extension ; in addition, a form 
hddhula occurs at T. (which seems to have been 
brought in by an 'Iraki dialect, according to Barthe- 
lemy, Diet., 876 fin.). 3) The frequent use of the 
present participle in Eg., P., S-L., as a present- 
perfect: shdyef? "do you see?" (= "have you seen 
and do you still see?). But 'Uman presents similar 
features and in the Maghrib certain participles serve 
as a present-perfect. 

As regards vocabulary (here 'Irak is included), a 
distinction must be made between: 1) The vocabulary 
of the dialects at the time of their formation. This 
consists of the Arabic basis brought by the invaders 
and words taken from the languages of the conquered 
and arabicised peoples (substratum) : Coptic in Eg., 
Aramaic-Syriac in P., S.-L. ; Syriac in 'Irak. L. only 
has been made the subject of study: M. Feghali, 
£tude sur les emprunts syriaques dans les parlers 
atabes du Liban, Paris 1918. 2) Vocabulary borrowed 
since the formation of the dialects. Pahlawl, Persian, 
Aramaic-Syriac, Greek and Latin (by various routes) 
have given words to literary Arabic, received through 
it and with it into the dialects at the time of their 
formation (such words form part of the Arabic basis) 
or received from it after their formation. The history 
of these borrowings from within is completely un- 
known to us. The loan-words proper are distributed 
as follows: Persian words in 'Irak; Turkish, Turkish- 
Persian and Turkish-Italian words, throughout the 
■whole area from 'Irak to Egypt; Italian words in 
Eg., P., S.-L.; French words (recent borrowings) in 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



Eg., P., S.-L.; English words (recent borrowings) 
in Eg. 

The co-existence of Arabic and Aramaic-Syria 
in the Lebanon, and of Arabic and Coptic in Eg., 
has provided the occasion for a certain amount ol 
borrowing. But how can the loan-words be distin- 
guished from the vocabulary of the substratum ? 

The Turkish contribution (in its different forms) 
is very important at Mawsil, Baghdad, Aleppo, and 
slightly less so at Damascus, in P. and in Eg. A study 
has been made, for Damascus, by E. Saussey, 
Melanges Inst. Fr. Damas (Section des arabisants), 
i, 77-129, and for Eg., by E. Littmann in Festschrift 
Tschudi (Wiesbaden 1954), 107-27. The Diet. Ar.-Fr. 
of A. Barthelemy, deals with all the loan-words in 
its etymologies; there is a systematic study for 
Aleppo in the Introduction, (to appear shortly) Part 2, 
Section 3, B. 

Greek can have given certain liturgical terms 
directly to the dialects; its contribution is primarily 
indirect through literary Arabic, Syriac and Coptic. 

A peculiarity of the substratum: bakk "mosquito" 
at Aleppo, "bug" in L. and Alg. (literary Arabic 
bakku- = "bug"). Aleppo has retained the meaning 
of the Syriac bakkd "mosquito". Dakn "chin, beard", 
in L., perpetuates two different words: the literary 
Arabic dhakanu- "chin" and the Syriac daknd 
"beard". The etymology, however, is complicated; 
the Syriac daknd also has the meaning of "chin". 

Certain loan-words pose questions: how did the 
Persian keshtebdn "thimble", which is not known 
in literary Arabic or in Turkish, reach S-L? How 
did the Pahlawl randadi "plane", an early loan- 
word, of which there is no evidence in literary Arabic 
or Turkish (Persian randa), reach Aleppo, and by 
what route? The comparative study of vocabulary 
has not yet been pursued sufficiently to enable us 
to dwell further on this subject here. 

The Arabian and North Arabian dialects. 
The North Arabian dialects have been studied by 
J. Cantineau: Etudes sur quelques parlers de nomades 
d'Orient, in AIEO, Algiers, ii, 1936, 1-118, iii, 1937, 
117-237; these studies in linguistic geography have 
enabled him to make a classification which he con- 
siders allows at least the main points of the subject 
to be clearly defined. There is not space here to 
repeat the critical appreciation made by J. Cantineau, 
at the beginning of his ist Etude, of the publications 
of G. A. Wallin, I. G. Wetzstein, A. Socin, E. 
Littmann, C. de Landberg (Anazeh), A. Musil 
(Rwala), J. J. Hess and A. de Bouchemann (com- 
plete references, Cantineau, AIEO, iii, 126). In addi- 
tion, R. Montagne Contes pottiques, Ghazou (critical 
appreciation and references, J. Cantineau, ibid.). The 
following should also be mentioned: R. Montagne, 
Salfet Shdye'- Alemsdh g'edd errmdl, in Mil. Gaude- 
froy-Demombynes, Cairo 1939, 125-30; H. Charles, 
Tribus moutonniires du Moyen-Euphrate c Agld4t, 
Inst. Fr. Damas, Doc. Et. Or. viii, 1939, an 
ethnographical study containing several phrases, 
vocabulary and 14 lines of narrative. H. Charles, 
Quelques travaux de jemmes chez les nomades mou- 
tonniers de la rigion de Homs-Hama c Emur and 
Bani Khdled. an ethnographical and dialectal study, 
BEOD, vii-viii, 1937-38, 195-213; 3 texts of con- 
siderable length and a short passage of 6 lines, 
transcribed and translated. For the other regions l : 

1) The nomads of Arabia Petraea are only known 
through the ethnographical study by A. Musil, 
Arabia Petraea, iii, Vienna 1908; these texts must 
be used judiciously. 



578 'ARA 

Hidjaz: only the Mekkariische Sprichworter und 
Rfdensarten of Snouck-Hurgronje, The Hague 1886. 

Vemen: S. D. F. Goitein, Jemenica, 1432 Sprich- 
wirter und Redensarten aus Zentral-Jemen (Jews of 
San'a), Leipzig 1934, xxiii-194 pp. in 8vo., gram- 
matical study pp. vii-xxiii. E. Rossi, L'arabo parlato 
a San'a, grammattca, testi, lessico [ital.-ar., 190-246], 
Rome 1939, vi-250 pp. in 8vo. (Pub. Is. Or.); see 
particularly by the same author RSO, xvii, 230-65 
and 460-72 (a classification of the dialects, p. 472). 
Aden: E. V. Stace, An English-Arabic Vocabulary 
for the use of the students of the Colloquial, vii-218 pp. 
in 8vo., London 1893, in printed Arabic characters 
without transcription. 

Dathinah: Count C. de Landberg, Glossaire 
Dathtnois, i, xi-1038 pp., Leiden 1920; ii, vii-1039 
to 1814, ibid. 1923; iii (published by K. V. Zetter- 
steen), xxxiv-1815 to 2976 pp. in 8vo.; idem, 
Etudes sur les dialectes de I'Arabie meridianale: ii, 
Dathtnah, Leiden 1905, ix-774 to 1440; iii Dathinah, 
ibid. 1913, xv-1440 to 1892 pp. in 8vo. 

Hadramawt: Count C. de Landberg, Etudes sur 
Us dialectes de I'Arabie miridionale: i, }fadramo6t, 
ibid., 1901, xvii-774 PP- in 8vo. (Glossary 517-748). 

Zfar: N. Rhodokanakis, Der vulgdrabische Dialekt 
im Dofdr (Zfdr) I, Prosaische und poetische Texte, 
Wien 1908, ii, Einleitung, Glossar, Grammatik, Wien 
1911, xxxvi-219 pp. in 4V0. (Siidarabische Exp. viii 
and x). 

'Uman (and Zanzibar): C. Reinhardt, Ein arabi- 
scher Dialekt gesprochen in 'Oman und Zanzibar, 
Stuttgart and Berlin, 1894, xxv-428 pp. in 8vo. 
(Lehrbiicher des Seminars f. Or. Spr., Berlin) ; texts 
297-428. 

J. Cantineau, Remarques (BSL, no. 118) has 
indicated (p. 81-2) the main general characteristics 
which enable a distinction to be drawn between the 
dialects of the settled populations of the East and 
the dialects of the Arab nomads. The sole effective 
criterion is the unvoiced pronunciation of \Ji (irre- 
spective of what might otherwise be the articulation- 
point): all the dialects of the settled populations, 
and only the dialects of the settled populations 
have this pronunciation; the voiced pronunciation 
of vjs is the mark of a nomad dialect (as it is in 
the case of western dialects). 

We owe our present knowledge of the classification 
of the dialects of the Arabian nomads to J. Cantineau 
in his Etudes, in AIEO, iii, 222 f. The brief summary 
which follows is based on him: 

As regards the North-Arabian dialects, he distin- 
guishes: dialects A ('Anaza), dialects B (Shammar), 
dialects C (Syro-Mesopotamian) ; 'Anaza dialects: 
Hsane, Rwala, Sba'a, Weld, 'Ali, etc.; Shammar 
dialects: 'Abde, Khrose, Rmal, etc.; are linguistically 
akin to the Shammar dialects, group Be: in 'Irak 
probably the Tayyi', in Syria and Jordan: 'Amur, 
Slut, Sardiyya, Sirljan, in part the Banu Khalid of 
Jordan and the Banu Sakhar; Syro-Mesopotamian 
dialects: the population of the town of Regga and 
the tribes: Hadidln, Mawall, N'em of Djolan, Fad«l 
(these last two forming a sub-group), which fall into 
the category of lesser nomads called shwaya or rd'ye. 
The case of the Djof dialect is a separate question; 
the dialect of ar-Rass (Kaslm) is to some extent a 
Ba dialect. 

It is difficult to demarcate, even approximately, 
the southern limit of the North Arabian dialects; 
their existence is definitely confirmed in Kasim, 
al-Hasa, and probably in the 'Arid, the Woshm and 
the Sdeir. Of the dialects of the Hidjaz very little 



is known, and nothing of those of 'Astr. The dialects 
of the Hadramawt and the Dathina, known through 
Landberg's texts, seem to be related, distantly it is 
true, to the dialect of the North Arabian nomads, 
and it is possible that the dialects of the nomads 
of the Rub' al-Khali are connected with the same 
group. On the other hand, through the efforts of 
C. Reinhardt, E. Rossi, H. Burchardt, and S. D. 
Goitein, we know that the dialects of 'Uman and 
the Yemen are of a completely different type. 

Bibliography: In the body of the article. 
Works treating of the dialects as a whole: C. de 
Landberg, La langue arabe et ses dialects, Leiden 
1905; C. Brockelmann, Das Arabische und seine 
Mundarten in Handbuch der Orientalistik, iii, 
Semitistik (1954), 207-45; J- Cantineau, La 
Dialectologie arabe, in Orbis, iv, 1955, 149-69; 
this work gives additional bibliography and 
information on the current position as regards 
studies in Arabic dialectology. (H. Fleisch) 

(3) The Western Dialects 
The Arabic language is widely used in North 
Africa, but is by no means the only language in 
use. Berber is extensively used [see Berbers], and 
the Berber language, though losing ground in some 
instances, can for the most part be considered to 
be in an extremely flourishing state and not on the 

The elimination of the old autochthonous language 
naturally has taken place in those cases and in those 
countries in which the tide of Arabic spread without 
meeting any obstacles: first of all, in the towns 
which the Arab conquerors rebuilt, colonised or 
founded, and their environs; then in Cyrenaica and 
above all in Tunisia, which were reached by the first 
and largest waves; finally in those regions of the 
Maghrib, probably Zenata, where the old pastoral 
life prepared the way for Bedouin Arabism: the 
Sahara, the Saharan fringe, the high plains of 
Algeria and Constantine, the valleys of the Tell, 
and practically the whole of Orania. This Arabic 
tide surrounded but did not submerge the settled 
centres of the Saharan oases, and similarly the 
mountainous regions in the interior and on the 
coast, which were difficult of access. In Morocco, 
arabicisation followed the Atlantic seaboard, reached 
the Fez and Taza corridor, flooded the Gharb, and 
left almost intact the riparian massifs of the Mediter- 
ranean and the interior, the Berber mountains. — The 
area in which Arabic is dominant in the Maghrib is 
thus immense. Nearly fifteen million people there 
speak it. They are to be found in widely-differing 
regions, and following very dissimilar ways of life: 
all town-dwellers, nearly all the agriculturalists and 
semi-pastoral peoples of the plains, plateaux and 
steppes, a large number of villagers, several groups 
of the 'settled population of the oases, and hill 
peoples arabicised by the neighbouring towns. This 
geographic dispersion (which, unlike that of the 
Berber dialects, is still in progress) and the diversity 
of these modes of existence are the result both 
of the complex configuration of the country and of 
the historical circumstances of its arabicisation. 
These two aspects will not be dealt with here. It will 
be sufficient to emphasise that, given physical and 
human conditions such as these, it is not surprising 
to discover great dialectal variations in spoken 
Arabic; variations so great that it seems difficult 
to define the Arabic dialects as a whole by common, 
specific characteristics; and that it is perhaps rash 
to employ the term 'Maghrib! Arabic'. It will never- 



theless be employed, if only for the convenience of 
this exposi. 

G. Brockelmann, at a time when few documents 
on the various Arabic idioms spoken in North Africa 
were in our possession, said in his Grundriss that the 
MaghribI dialects were mainly of the Bedouin type. 
He doubtless based this on the accentuation of the 
verb in the ist form, which he considered as the 
primitive form in all Semitic languages: fa'ala, 
/a'ila, /a l ula culminating in pal, /'el. This syllabic 
reduction, doubtless attributable to stress, can 
already he found in Andalusian, but it is not Maltese. 
And it is far from being the only example which is 
found in the Maghrib, on the one hand, nor is it on 
the other hand exclusively Bedouin. This appreciation 
by Brockelmann, without doubt open to dispute in 
principle, is clearly completely inaccurate when one 
compares it with the extraordinarily complex reality 
of the dialectal facts. 

This is a phonetic characteristic which applies to 
the great majority of the MaghribI dialects, without 
being common to them all or being confined to them 
alone (since it is found in certain Middle East 
dialects) : a considerable loss of vocalic content, and 
consequently a marked tendency towards the neutral 
tones of the short vowel system. Obviously such a 
general statement takes no account of dialectal 
variations. In order to try to justify it, the actual 
facts must be examined more closely. In all the 
dialects of northern Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and 
in all the dialects of the western Sahara, the short 
vowel drops out in an open syllable v + e + v. The 
articulatory effort is directed towards the end of the 
word and disregards the beginning: the word, from 
being a disyllable, becomes a monosyllable. Thus 
iajab becomes djab "he has hit", farah becomes 
Ijah "joy". Naturally the reduction also operates, 
and in the same sense, when the root of the word 
is followed by a suffix or an inflexion, or is preceded 
by a prefix. Thus dafabu becomes dajbu "they have 
hit", tadribuhu becomes ledjbu or Idafbu "thou hast 
hit him", shadjara becomes shedjra "tree", mahkama 
becomes mehkma or mhekma "court of a kadi", etc. 
The concentration of elements is sometimes so strong 
that the whole vocalic element disappears, the 
articulation of series of consonants being made 
possible by a consonant with a vocalic function, with 
an ultra-short vocalic point. Thus q.sba "reed", 
sh-kh.ssk "who is taking you ?". These are the dialects 
of Morocco, especially the extremely degenerate 
dialects of the towns (for example, Fez), where this 
feature can be readily observed. In this evolution, 
which leads correctly-spoken idioms to reduce the 
elements of the language (thus taking the line of 
least resistance), it has often been noticed that the 
short vowels of quality t and u are most in danger. 
Being of small aperture, they seem to be by nature 
ex'tremely vulnerable : the slightest relaxation of the 
organs of speech alters the nature of their original 
quality, if it does not cause their disappearance pure 
arid simple. One is tempted to think that the loss of 
the short vowels in open syllables started with the 
vowels of quality « and i. This is what emerges from 
the. position of the Syrian dialects, on which J. Can- 
tineau has written some excellent monographs (one, 
in; particular, devoted to Palmyra) : the conjugation 
of sound verbs in the basic torm differs according 
asi the radical vowel is u or «', or a ; the former have 
become monosyllabic, the latter have remained 
disyllabic. This is similarly the case in a considerable 
number of the dialects of Fezzan-Cyrenaica and in 
the extreme south of Tunisia, which constitute, from 



YYA 579 

this point of view, the link between the eastern and 
the MaghribI dialects: some trace of the vowel a 
always remains, whether it is a well-preserved 
qualitative element, as in dafab "he has hit", halib 
"milk", or an element with a different form, as iru. 
rubaf "he has joined", (ubag "basket", etc. 

Morphologically, there are also traits which can 
be in differing degrees considered to be typically 
MaghribI. The most characteristic, it appears, is the 
presence of the sign n — in the first person singular 
of the imperfect of the verb, replacing the initial 
hamza which is general throughout Middle East 
dialects. This morpheme n — is, to the exclusion of 
all others, that of all the dialects, without exception, 
of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, the Sahara, 
Fezzan, Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Malta. Egypt 
seems indeed to form the eastern limit of its use. 
Ch. Kuentz, during recent years, has precisely 
defined the extreme limits (dialects of Alexandria 
and of certain settled populations of the Delta). 
The substitution of «- for >-, already reported by Ibn 
Khaldun in the Hilall popular songs which he 
collected, is recorded by Ibn Kuzman for Almoravid 
Andalusia, and recurs in mediaeval Norman Sicily. 
It can be considered as a morphological innovation 
proper to the Muslim West; it consists in the creation 
of a personal sign of the singular, clearly on the 
analogy of the signs of the plural : napal from na/'alu 
napalu. The purely MaghribI creation (all the dialects 
give evidence of this, including Maltese) of a verbal 
derived form Pal, originating perhaps from the old 
forms IX-XI, must also be accounted an innovation. 
It expresses a resultative meaning: khdl "he has 
become black", byad "he has become white", l wdr 
"he has become one-eyed", brash "he has become 
rough-skinned", (wdl "he has become tall", smdn 
"he has become fat", shdl "he has become compliant", 
sydn "he has become handsome", etc. The presence 
of a long vowel d between the 2nd and 3rd radical, 
creates a phonetic problem of conjugation which the 
dialects answer in different ways (L. Brunot, Sur U 
theme verbal pal en diaUcte marocain, in Melanges 
W. Marcais, Paris-Maisonneuve 1950, 55-62). — On 
the analogy of the derived forms with a reflexive and 
middle-passive significance, with a prefix /- (V t/a"al 
originating from II /a«al, VI t/d'al from III fd'al), 
MaghribI has formed, like certain eastern dialects, a 
tpal (which recalls the very old ethpe'el) as opposed 
to the ist form Pal; it uses it by preference, often 
to the detriment of nf'al; then, carrying this further 
still, it arrives at a combination of tpal and nPal and 
produces ntpal and tnpal, for instance entejjah "he 
is wounded", ttnhjah "he is burnt". — The old system, 
for forming nouns of action corresponding to verbs 
of the basic form, resorted freely to the subtle inter- 
play of contrasts of vocalic quality: faH, /a c al, /u l l, 
fiH etc. It is the decay of the short vowel system, 
fairly general in the Maghrib (and the syllabic 
upheavals which accompany it), which has doubtless 
induced the dialects to display a preference, in the 
case of verbal nouns, for nominal forms with long 
vowels. Among them, there is one which recognises 
an unusual prolongation, which can be held to be 
specifically MaghribI (Malta also uses it): namely, 
PU. Formerly a masdar form of limited application 
(verbs denoting a noise, a cry), to-day it constitutes 
the most frequently used masdar of verbs of action, 
especially those denoting material operations: shfih 
"act of dancing", ghsU "act of washing", (bM "act 
of cooking", slikh "act of flaying", etc. This form 
/HI perhaps owes its success to the analogical influence 
of te/Hl, mafdar of the 2nd form, a characteristic of 



verbs of action, and of transitive action. — Just as in 
the case of this masdar /HI the case of the analogical 
extension of the plural /'«K seems to be an entirely 
Maghribi peculiarity. It is, as elsewhere, a plural form 
f'alil of nouns with a weak radical, ftahwa "coffee" 
pi. kkdwi, ma'-nd "sense, allusion" pi. m'ani. It is 
widely extended to nouns with sound, not defective, 
roots, such as ebra "needle" pi. abdri, kas'a "large 
bowl" pi. ksdH, meshta "comb" pi. mshdti, etc. 

The establishment of syntactic connexions has 
caused the appearance of a certain number of 
dialectal innovations. The most noteworthy of these 
in the Maghrib include: (i) the creation of a true 
indefinite article to express the state of the undefined 
noun (cl. radiul"). The numeral "one" is used for 
this purpose: waited, made indeclinable (sometimes 
contracted to wahi, wah, ha) is then followed by the 
noun, defined either by the definite article el-, 
wdftd-er-rdjel "a man", wahd-el-mra "a woman", 
wdhd-ed-d&r "a house", or by a determinative 
complement, wdfied-bdb-ed-ddr "a house door", 
wdfted-sdhbi "a friend of mine". Where it is prevalent, 
that is to say in the dialects of Morocco, Algeria and 
the Algero-Tunisian borders, the use of wafted, the 
article, does not exclude the use of wafted, the 
pronoun, which remains declinable, wafted rdjel 



the only construction possible in central and 
Tunisia and in Libya. (2) The tendency to eliminate 
the direct annexation of the determinative com- 
plement to the noun (classical id&fa), of the type 
rikt-el-ward "the perfume of roses", and to substitute 
for it an indirect annexation, which makes use of a 
copulative particle, of the type er-rifta mtd' -el-ward. 
This phenomenon is found in the dialects of the Near 
East (Brockelmann, Grundriss, ii, 238, 161), but there 
are some particles of annexation peculiar to those of 
the Maghrib: d, di, dyad in Morocco and Algeria, mtd 1 
or nto c in Algeria and Tunisia, to (derived from mtd 1 ) 
in Malta, jen in Fezzan. The presence of mtd 1 , from 
the cl. mata 1 "goods" is already attested in the 
dialects of Andalusia and in the Almohad chronicle 
of Baydhak (6th/i3th cent.) and extends from the 
Atlantic to Egypt, where it assumes the form beta'. 
(3) The use of the preverb ba, b, so common in a 
number of eastern dialects, is also found in Cyrenaica 
and as far as Fezzan to mark a sense of completion, 
result or finality in the imperfect of the verb. In the 
Moroccan dialect to (or ka) appears, preceding verbs 
in the same tense, in order to mark actual action in 
the present; the Moroccan ka is perhaps the same 
preverb which occurs in the semi-flexible form ka-ku 
(derived from kdn-ikUn) with a clearly analogical 
meaning, in Algeria (eastern Kabylia). In addition 
to these preverbs, the Maghrib, Morocco and Libya 
use in their own right a presentative of the verbal 
idea which combines the imperative of the verb "to 
see", fd, with the personal suffixes, in the sense of 
"I am here, thou art here", etc., or "here I am, thou 
art" etc., fdnl, fdk, raft, rdha (or j\iAi) fdrta r&kum, 
fdhum, to express the reality of a state or action, in 
the present or past, both before a verb (in the perfect 
or imperfect), rani jit "here I am, I have come", r&k 
yebki, "there he is, crying", and in a nominal clause, 
r&k mp4 "it is thou who art ill", r&hum l-temm "there 
they are below". A negative sense is formed in a 
completely analogous way: md-ra-ni-sh and mdni-sh 
"I am not", mdk-sh "thou art not", mdhu-sh "he is 
not" etc., more often used in nominal clauses than in 
verbal: mdni-sh mpd "I am not ill". (4) The revival 
of particles: it is a general linguistic fact, that the 
originality of the Maghribi dialects consists in the 



creation of a sign -ash (or -ah), deriving from the 
cl. 'ayy-shay', which is in use from one end of North 
Africa to the other (-esh in Malta, iyyesh in northern 
Constantine), in order to form, in combination with 
nouns or prepositions, adverbs and conjunctions: 
bash "from what" and "in order that, in such a way 
that", lash "towards which, with what object", 
kifdsh "how", '■alash "on which" and "why", kaddash 
"of what size, how much" ; the word kayf, kif is used 
as a preposition "like, resembling" and as a con- 
junction "when, granted that". (5) Recourse to the 
expression ma-zdl, md-zdl ma-, conjugated or in- 
declinable, to render the sense "still, not yet", c dd 
being used in Malta and elsewhere. 

More than phonetic, morphological or syntactic 
differences, there are points of vocabulary which 
place the Arabic dialects of the Maghrib in the 
clearest, if not the deepest, contrast to those of the 
Middle East. Without making a systematic inquiry 
to determine the origin, Arabic or non-Arabic, of the 
Maghribi dialectal terms, the commonest will be 
mentioned here. The word lamin (with an agglutinate 
article) has the sense of "head of a corporation" only 
in the Maghrib; for "pears" angds or anjds (lanjdf, 
lanzds), formerly Andalusian, is spreading every- 
where; berrdd is the usual term 'or "teapot", and 
berrdda for "water-jug"; "bosom, breast" is always 
bezzul or bezzula from Senegal to Libya, as well as 
in Malta, thedi making an appearance at Fezzan; 
bakur is the only term for "fig blossom" in Morocco 
and Algeria; it was formerly Andalusian; Tunisian 
and Maltese have bithar, baytar with the same 
meaning; bekkush everywhere means "dumb"; the 
"stork" is commonly bellarej (belldrenj, berrdrej), 
from the Greek 7reXapY<5s; the word for "tea" is 
lay, atay, Idtdy in Mauretania, Morocco, and Algeria, 
et-tey in Tunisia, shdhi, shay only appearing in 
southern Tunisia and Libya; "individual, person, 
pedestrian" is very commonly terras, apparently 
derived from the cl. tarrds "valet d'armes, shield- 
bearer"; truffles are called terfds; terma is the usual 
word for "rump, buttocks"; "hail" is everywhere 
called tabrUri, a Berber word which is found as far 
as Libya, where hfar "stones" is preferred; for "to 
find", jbar is used together with, depending on the 
region, Ihd, Igd or sab, with different shades of meaning 
("to discover" or "to find what one is looking for") ; 
jarra (or jurra) is the word for "trace"; the Pan- 
Maghribi word for 'frog" is jf&n, where the Berber 
agro is not found as well; jughma is one of the most 
characteristic terms of the Maghrib, Mauritania and 
Tripolitania, in the sense of "draught (of liquid)"; 
for "orange" tshina, letshina is used in Morocco and 
Algeria, burdgdn appearing in Tunisia; tshell&k 
(tshellik, sUdleg) reappears, in varying forms, 
throughout North Africa, in the sense of "rag" or 
"piece of cloth"; for "to cpen" the whole of the 
Maghrib uses hall (which also means "to untie"), 
ftah being reserved for a rarer and more literary 
usage; harkus is the name of the "black cosmetic", 
from the Greek j(<xXx6s; for "fish" the word samak, 
which is completely unknown, gives way to hit; 
khdem, properly "to serve", is the usual word for 
"to work" and sometimes "to do (in general"); 
khadem, without any morphological indication of 
gender, denotes a "negress"; for "knife" the whole 
Maghrib uses khudmi, formerly Andalusian; "to 
come upon, to befall" is usually expressed by kJjUf; 
for "to reflect", khammem is used; deshra is the name 
of "rural dwellings" or even of "peasants' huts", 
and has a rival in meshta, originally "winter dwelling'' 
(shtd); dMb signifies, not "wolf", but "jackal"; 



rdsjii is the usual adjective for "unstable, rotten"; 
artab "soft, tender", opposed to ahrash "coarse, 
rough", follows the declension of nouns denoting 
colours and deformities; zafbiyya "carpet", which is 
kur'anic {Kur'dn, lxxxviii, 16), has continued to 
exist in this sense throughout the Maghrib; to 
express "to hurry, to hasten", the verb zreb is used; 
zuf (zuz, juz, ;'«;'), properly "pair", serves for the 
numeral "two", either supplanting thnln, or existing 
in competition with it — formerly an Andalusian usage, 
which predominates in the Saharan and eastern 
Maghrib, as well as at Malta; zdyla is the current 
term for "beast of burden"; az'ar signifies "blond"; 
zwd "to scream, to shout"; "cock" is expressed 
everywhere, including Malta, by serduk, dik being 
heard only in Orania and Fezzan; from the Greek 
ondyyoi; "sponge" is derived a dialectal shfenj (or 
sfenj) which means exclusively "fritter", "sponge" 
being neshshdfa or jeffdfa; "hot" is skhun and sukhn; 
slek means "to extricate oneself" and sellek "to extri- 
cate"; the cl. sullam always appears in the recast 
form sellum "ladder" ; "to beg" is nearly everywhere 
sdsd4sdsi; seyyek has the particular sense of "to 
swill with water" ; shdreb is the word for "lip" and 
shelgun that for moustache"; "axe" is shdkur and 
"sack" shkdra; sabb "to pour out" is the commonest 
verb for "to fall (talking of rain)"; the word for 
shoes is sebbdt (formerly the Andalusian sebbdt); 
everywhere in the Maghrib the "minaret of a mosque" 
is called som'a; "to be cooked, ripe" is (db-itib and 
"to cook, make ripe", tayyeb; tajf, in addition to its 
universal meaning of "end, extremity", in the 
Maghrib also means "piece"; c arsh is fairly general 
in the sense of "tribe" ; the word for "he-goat" is 
c atrus, and that for "lamb" is frequently 'allush; to 
denote "fire" the euphemism 'dfya "tranquillity, 
peace", is used, from the root ghshsh, the sense "to 
deceive" is well-known; Maghrib! derives from it 
a 2nd form "to cause resentment, irritation" and a 
5th form "to be vexed, irritated"; from ghnd "chant" 
derives the Maghribi ghndwa "song", with y of the 
3rd radical, while the eastern dialects only recognise 
ghndwa, with w; "scurvy" is expressed throughout 
the Maghrib by f arras, which means "bald" in Malta; 
for "chicken", fellus is used, and for "tortoise", 
feltrun, fekrdn, of Berber origin; from Berber is also 
borrowed the word for "butterfly" fartatto, farfattin 
and its variants; to "urinate (of a horse, donkey)" 
is fag; kadd means "to suffice", kdam (gdem) "heel"; 
the word for "dried meat" is keddid with doubling 
of the medial radical; gar junta is the usual word for 
"throat"; "to belch" is tgaffa'-; one of the most 
characteristic Maghribi words is that for the "lock 
ofihair which is allowed to grow long", guttdya; "to 
cobgh" is kahh ; side by side with aswed there occurs, 
sometimes with a marked difference of meaning, 
akhel "black"; "figs" are called karmus and "fig- 
trees" kram; "cliff, escarpment" is kdf; Ibdn means 
"whey", never "milk"; "sheet" is mlaf or malf; the 
form mishmish "apricots" is recast as meshmash; to 
express "late, last-born", the word in use is mazozi, 
taken from Berber; for the Pan-Arab kder "power" 
is often substituted najjem; hdar is a common verb 
for "to speak"; "widow" is hajjdla; wujh (ujah), 
known in its proper sense of "face", also has a 
particular meaning, namely "shot (of a fire-arm)"; 
wella-iwelli means "to return", but also "to become, 
happen to be", etc. 

Thus marked differences of vocabulary separate the 
Maghribi dialects from those of the Near East, 
either as regards the actual words employed, or 



their form, or in a semantic sense. Equally important 
and equally numerous variations, if not more so, 
occur among the Maghribi dialects themselves, from 
end to end of the vast area in which they are spoken. 
The terms expressing the adverb of time "now' 
differ according to region: 1) ddba, without doubt an 
Andalusian contribution, is known in the whole of 
Morocco (except the South), and, in Algeria, among 
the Jewish dialects of Tlemcen and Algiers. 2) From 
the cl. dhd-l-wakt derive numerous forms, delwok, 
derwok, delwek, drug, dluk, derwekh etc. (with or 
without an emphatic r), which are in use in Maure- 
tania, Southern Morocco, the whole of Algeria — 
cities, villages and countryside — (and which are 
also known in the East). 3) el-dn is the term of 
polished speech ; it is also that of the Bedouin dialects 
of Algeria. 4) es-sd'a {es-sa) is the form used in Malta. 
5) taw, tawwa belong to the eastern zone of the 
Maghrib, from eastern Algeria as far as Libya. 
"Much" is barsha in Tunisia, bezzdf in Algeria and 
Morocco, bel'a in southern Morocco, ydser among 
the Bedouin of Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, where it 
is a declinable adjective, not an adverb. — "Enough, 
that is enough", is kdfi in Mauretania, tekfi, yezzl, 
bdrka, bdrdka from Morocco to Tunisia, but bess in 
Malta and Libya.— "There is, there is not", can 
always be expressed by means of the verb kdn in a 
personal form or as a participle ; kdn, kdyn, md-kdn-sh ; 
these are the forms usually spoken in Algeria and 
Morocco; but in Tunisia the forms themma, md- 
themmd-sh, prevail, and in the south of Tunisia and 
in Libya ft md-fi-sh. — "Nothing" can everywhere be 
rendered as shey; it is, in fact, so rendered in Algeria 
and Tunisia, by freely strengthening the negative 
adverb by hatta, hatt-shey; but this is often replaced 
in Tunisia and Libya by kdn-el-bafka "(nothing else) 
than benediction" ; in Morocco and as far as Orania, 
wd-lu is used, properly "and if". — The exclamation 
"good, very good" is expressed by mezydn in Morocco 
and up to Tlemcen, mlih (amlih) in Algeria, (ayyeb 
in Tunisia, bdhi in Fezzan.— To express "what, what 
is it ?", wash is the Pan-Maghribi form, but Maltese 
recognises more particularly shi, Moroccan and 
Mauritanian ash, Fezzanese shen or esh, Tlemcenian 
asem. — The equivalent of "how much ?" is hem in 
Malta, Mauritania and in the majority of the 
Bedouin-type dialects; it has lost ground to sh-hdl, 
dsh-hdl (cl. 'ayy-shay-hdl), an Andalusian contri- 
bution which permeated the urban dialects of 
western Morocco, and then won the countryside 
and the rural and pastoral regions; eastern Con- 
stantine, Tunisia, and Libya prefer kadddsh, kodddsh. 
— "Eggs", doubtless because they represent an idea 
which lies under the interdict of language, are 
designated by various words; dthi in Libya, '■dam in 
Tunisia, northern Constantine and the villages of 
Algeria, bid in rural and pastoral Algeria and in 
Morocco, awldd-jdj in Algiers, Tlemcen, Fez, Tangier. 
— Apart from the word mtar, which is understood 
nearly everywhere and is used freely in Bedouin 
regions, there exists naw which means "rain" in the 
majority of pastoral and rural areas, except in the 
western Sahara, where shdb seems to predominate; 
the word used in the towns and villages, and exclusi- 
vely in Malta, is shtd, properly "winter". — "Grocer" 
is attdr in Tunisia and Libya, hwdntl in Algeria and 
Constantine, hadri among the rural populations of 
Orania; in Morocco it is bakkdl, which was formerly 
Andalusian. — The verbs meaning "to sit down" are 
k'ad in Tunisia and the Algerian villages, g c ad in 
Tlemcen, Constantine, jamma'- in the Oranian 
countryside, gles in the towns of Morocco, ga l mez 



in Fezzan. — "To send" is sifof (safof, zifof, sd/ed, etc.) 
in Morocco and a considerable part of Orania, b l ath 
in Algeria, seyyeb in the South, dezz in Tunisia and 
Libya, rsel representing a term of educated speech. — 
For "to lift, remove", rfed is the verb of the west, 
Moroccan, Oranian and Algerian, and of part of 
Constantine; hazz is the word of eastern Constantiiie 
and Tunisia, rfa< that of Suf, Tripolitania and 
Fezzan. — "To do" is a vague idea expressed by a 
variety of verbs: 'mal is the most general; ddr-idir, 
essentially Bedouin, has everywhere infiltrated into 
the urban dialects; sdwd (and its metathesis wdsd) 
as well as 'addel, sawwel prevail in the western 
Maghrib, Ikd-yelki extends into the north-west of 
Orania, khdem in northern Constantine. 

Whatever the difference between the dialects of the 
Maghrib, they remain closely akin to one another 
and are in varying degrees peculiarly Arabic. From 
the Arabic system proceeds the vast majority of the 
sounds of the language, the grammatical forms, the 
lexicographical material and the methods of present- 
ing ideas. The dialectal variations found in the 
Maghrib seem, in general, scarcely more palpable 
than those which appear in the dialects of the Middle 
East. They can, to some extent, be attributed to 
influences alien to Arabic: i) that of the Berber 
substratum which cleatly gained new strength in 
certain regions and in certain fields of expression 
(those concerning the things of the material life, 
especially rural); but there are also areas where the 
memory of Berber has almost entirely disappeared 
from the language; 2) that of the languages of the 
coloured races in the northern zones bordering on 
the Negro lands; 3) that of the Romance language: 
of Latin, often transmitted through the medium of 
Andalusian, and also of Spanish and Italian; — 
4) that of Turkish, particularly in Algeria and 
Tunisia; — 5) finally, that of French, an influence 
which is still exerted to-day. 

The part played by inherited or loan elements, 
however, does not seem to be the only reason to put 
forward to explain the original and motley character 
of Maghribi. There is the diversity of the Arabic 
dialects, which were already differentiated when they 
were imported by the conqueror at various periods 
during the process of establishing himself in the 
Maghrib There is also, and perhaps this is the most 
important differentiating factor, the caprice of 
innovations, spontaneous or conditioned, which have 
come into being and have spread in different direct- 
ions, sometimes propagating themselves throughout 
vast geographical groups, sometimes confining 
themselves in districts divided into rigid com- 
partments. 

Bibliography: General — 0. Houdas, Chresto- 
maiie maghribine, Paris 1891; Joly and Lacheraf, 
A propos de I'arabe parU dans le Nord africain, 
Batna 1903; C. Brockelmann, Grundriss der ver- 
gleichenden Grammalik der 'semitischen Sprachen, 
i, ii, Berlin 1908 passim; H. Peres, Cahier d'Arabe 
dialectal (Algerie, Maroc, Tunisie), 3rd ed., Algiers 
1957. 

Malta — M. Vassalli, Grammalica delta lingua 
mallese, Malta 1827; F. Vella, Maltese Grammar, 
Leghorn 1831; H. Stumme, Maltesische Studien, 
Leipzig 1904; idem, Maltesische MOrchen, Gedichte 
und Rdtsel, Leipzig 1904; G. Vella, II dialetto 
mallese, Malta 1929; Sutcliffe, A grammar of the 
Maltese language, London 1936. 

Libya and Tunisia — H. Stumme, Tripolitanisch- 
tunisische Beduinenlieder , Leipzig 1894; idem, 
M&rchen und Gedichte aus der Stadt Tripolis in 



Nordafrika, Leipzig 1898, M. Hartmann, Lieder 
der libyschen Wiiste, Leipzig 1899; Trombetti, 
ManuaU dell'arabo parlato a Tripoli, Bologna 191 2; 
E. Griffini, L'arabo parlato della Libia, Milan 1913; 
Ducati, Grammalica pratica della lingua araba 
parlata in Tripolitania, Bologna 1913; E. Panetta, 
L'arabo parlato a Bengasi, i, ii, Rome 1943; W. 
Marcais, Les parlers arabes du Fezzan, in Trav. Inst. 
Rech. Sahariennes, Algiers 1945, 186-8; H. Stumme, 
Tunisiscke M&rchen und Gedichte, Leipzig 1893; 
idem, Grammalik des tunisischen Arabisch, Leipzig 
1896, idem, Neue tunische Sammlungen, Leipzig 
1896; W. Marcais, Le nom d'une fois dans le parler 
arabe du Djendouba, Paris 1921; W. Marcais and 
A. Guiga, Textes arabes de Takrouna, Text i, 1925, 
Glossary, ii-ix, (in the press) Paris; W. Marcais 
and Dj. Fares, Trois textes arabes d'El Uamma de 
Gabis, in J. A. 1931-32-33; G. Boris, Documents 
linguistiques et ethnographiques sur une region du 
Sud tunisien (nefzaoua), Paris 195 1; chapter Les 
parlers arabes in Initiation a la Tunisie, Paris 1950; 
numerous articles on Tunisian dialectology in the 
Tunisian journal 1BLA. 

Algeria and the Algerian Sahara: G. Delphin, 
Recueil de textes pour I'itude de I'arabe parU (Oran), 
Paris 1894; Sonneck, Chants arabes du Maghreb, 
i, ii, Paris 1902; W. Marcais, Le dialecte arabe parU 
a TIemcen, Paris 1902; E. Doutte, Un texte arabe 
en dialecte oranais, Paris 1904; G. Kampffmeyer, 
Siidalgerische Studien, Berlin 1905; L. Mercier, 
U arabe usuel dans le Sud oranais, Algiers 1905; 
W. Marcais, Le dialecte arabe des Uldd Brahim de 
Saida, Paris 1908; M. Cohen, Le parler arabe des 
Juifs d' Alger, Paris 1912; J. Desparmet, Enseig- 
nement de I'arabe dialectal (Algiers), Algiers 1913; 
Medjoub Kalafat, Choix de fables traduiles en arabe 
parli, 6th ed., Constantine 1929; A. Dhina, Notes 
sur le parler des Arba' in R.Afr., 1938; idem, 
Textes arabes du Sud atgerois in R.Afr., i, 1940; 
J. Cantineau, Les parlers arabes du dipariement 
d'Alger (1938), de Constantine (1939), d'Oran 
(1940), des Territoires du Sud (1941), in R.Afr.; 
Ph. Marcais, Contribution a V elude du parler arabe 
de Bou Sadda, Cairo 1945; idem, Le parler arabe 
de Djidjelli (Nord constantinois), Paris 1956; 
chapter Les parlers arabes in Initiation d VAlgirie, 
Paris 1957; numerous articles on Algerian dialec- 
tology in R.Afr., A.I.E.O., Bulletin des Etudes 
arabes d'Alger. 

Morocco: F. de Dombay, Grammalica linguae 
mauro-arabicae, Viennes 1800; Lerchundi, Voca- 
bulario espanol-arabigo des dialecto de Marruecos, 
Tangiers 1892; A. Socin, Zum arabischen Dialekt 
von Marokko, Leipzig 1893; H. Liideritz, Sprich- 
wdrter aus Marokko, Leipzig 1893; A. Socin and 
H. Stumme, Der arabische Dialekte der Houwdra 
des Wdd Stis in Marokko, Leipzig 1894 ; A. Fischer, 
Marokkanische SprichwOrter, Berlin 1899; G. 
Kampffmeyer, Texte aus Fis mit einem Text aus 
Tanger, Berlin 1909 ; idem, Marokkanische arabische 
Gesprdche im Dialekt von Casablanca, 1912; W. 
Marcais, Textes arabes de Tanger, Paris 1911; 
Alarcon, Textos arabes en dialecto vulgar de Laracht, 
Madrid 1913; G. S. Colin, Notes sur le parler 
arabe du Nord de la rigion de Taza, Cairo 1920; 
E. Levi- Provencal, Textes arabes de I'Ouargha, 
Paris 1922; L. Brunot and M. Ben Daoud, V arabe 
dialectal marocain, Rabat 1927; L. Brunot, Textes 
arabes de Rabat, Paris 1931; E. Destaing, Textes 
arabes en parler des Chleuhs de Sous, Paris 1937; 
L. Brunot and E. Malka, Textes judeo-arabes de 
Fis, Rabat 1939; G. S. Colin, Chrestomatie maro- 



caine, Paris 1939; M. T. Buret, Cours gradul 
d'arabe marocain, Casablanca 1944; L. Brunot, 
Introduction a I'arabe marocain, Paris 1950; 
V. Loubignac, TexUs arabes des Zaer, Paris 1952; 
Chapter Les purlers arabes in Initiation au Maroc, 
Paris 1945; numerous articles on Moroccan dialect- 
ology (L. Brunot, G. S. Colin and others) in 
Archives marocaines and Hesperis. 
' Mauritania and Black Africa: Marie-Bernard, 
iltthode d'arabe parlt, Paris 1893; Reynier, 
Mithode pour V etude du dialecte maure, Tunis 1909 ; 
R. Basset, Mission au Sentgal {Notes sur 
Hassania), Algiers 1910; Shangiti, al-Wasif /» 
Taradiim Udaba> Shangif, Cairo 191 1; P. Marty, 
Proverbes et maximes maures, Dakar 1916; Beyrics, 
Proverbes et dictions mauritaniens, in R.E.I. , 1930; 
Le Borgne, Vocabulaire du chameau en Mauritanie, 
Dakar 1953; R. Pierret, Etude du dialecte maure, 
Paris 1948; G. S. Colin, Mauritania (bibliography) 
in Hesperis, 1930; G. Kampffmeyer, Mater talcn 
zum Studium der arabischen Beduinendialekte 
Innerafrikas, Berlin 1899; H. Carbou, Mithode 
pour I'arabe parlt au Ouaday, Paris 1913; G. J. 
Lethem, Colloquial Arabic, Shuwa Dialects of 
Bornu, Nigeria and the region of Lake Tchad, 
London 1920; G. Muraz, Vocabulaire du parley 
arabe tchadien, Paris 1926; articles on Arab 
dialectology in Bull. Inst, franc. d'Afr. noire of 
Dakar. (Ph. Marcais) 

B. Arabic Literature 
(I) Early Arabian Literature. 

(a) Pre-Islamic; (i) Poetry; (ii) Prose; (b) First- 
Century Poetry. 



(III) Third to Fifth Centuries. 
|i) Prose; (ii) Poetry. 

(IV) Sixth to Twelfth Centuries. 

(V) Modern Arabic Literature. 
fa) To 1914; (b) Since 1914. 

Seneral Bibliography: No complete history of 
Arabic literature has yet been written. Many im- 
portant works still exist only in manuscript, critical 
studies of individual poets and writers are relatively 
few, and several periods and regions have not yet 
received monographic treatment. The fullest bio- 
bibliographical details are to be found in C. Brockel- 
mann, Gesch. der arab. Literaiur and Supplementbdnde. 
Outline surveys are given by F. Gabrieli, Storia delta 
Letteratura araba, Milan (1952); H. A. R. Gibb, 
Arabic Literature, London 1926; R. A. Nicholson, 
Literary History of the Arabs, 2nd ed., Cambridge 
1930; Ch. Pellat, Langue et Litterature arabes, Paris 
19(52; O. Rescher, Abriss der arab. Literaturgeschichte, 
i, lii, Stuttgart 1925; Djirdji Zaydan, Ta'rikh Adab 
al\Lugha aW-Arabiyya, 4 vols., Cairo 191 1; Ahmad 
alllskandari and M. 'Inani, al-Wasit fi 'l-Adab al- 
l Arabi, Cairo 1919 etc.; and numerous other text- 
books in Arabic. Monographs on separate periods 
are cited in the sectional bibliographies below; 
those on particular writers will be found in the 
relevant articles. 



(I) Early Ara 



i Literati 



(i) Poetry. The history of Arabic literature 
begins with the emergence, towards the end of the 
5th century A.D., of a school of Arabic poets in 



[YYA 583 

N.E. Arabia and the Euphrates border, of whose 
productions more or less extensive fragments have 
survived. The second generation of poets of this 
school, of whom the most outstanding was Imru > al- 
ways, brought its technical and artistic methods to 
a high degree of perfection.- Their odes, technically 
called kasida (pi. ka/sa'id, coll. kasid), served as 
standards and models for later generations of 
Arabian poets, whose odes were, almost without 
exception, cast in the same structural mould, with 
some variation in content and treatment of the 
themes. The productions of this school spread with 
great rapidity in Arabia and the regions of Arab 
settlement in Syria and Mesopotamia, and found in 
all parts imitators and practitioners, who in some 
regions gave rise to local schools. The poets of the 
third generation (middle of the 6th century A.D.) 
already represent widely diverse regions; those of 
the fourth (end of the 6th century), drawn from all 
tribes and regions, are beginning to show characte- 
ristic epigonic features. With the rise of Islam and 
the consequent shift in tribal interests, this type of 
poetry was temporarily eclipsed. 

The kasida, the distinctive artistic production of 
this poetic literature, is essentially an art-form, 
which has little in common with the forms of artistic 
poetry in other literatures. Its main theme is boasting 
or panegyric, led up to by a journey theme. The 
latter is elaborated: (i) by an elegiac-erotic prelude 
(nasib), recalling a former attachment to- a woman, 
of another tribe, leading to or connected with the 
journey- theme; (ii) by description and praise of the 
poet's camel or horse, more especially (iii) by 
comparing it with a beast of the chase, developed 
into a finely-executed tableau of animal life in the 
desert. The main theme is similarly elaborated by 
the introduction of idealised pictures of beduin 
hospitality or drinking, thunderstorms, war and 
battle scenes, and satire of rivals. The whole poem 
runs from 60 to 100 lines in length, being composed 
throughout in the same metre ending in the same 
rhyming syllable [see further kasIda]. 

The prehistory of the kasida, i.e. the origins 
of Arabic poetry in general, are lost in obscurity and 
apparently irrecoverable. The Arabic philological 
tradition (which constitutes almost the only source 
of information) itself knows nothing earlier than the 
rise of the kasid-poets. It can scarcely be doubted 
that the poets of this school stood on the shoulders 
of a long chain of predecessors, who perfected its 
diverse metrical systems [see c ARup] and who laid 
the foundations of the special literary idiom ( l ara- 
biyya [see above, Arabic language, ii (1)]) and of 
the artistic devices utilised by them. The hypothesis 
(put forward by al-BahbHI, v. Bibl.) of an earlier 
production of lengthy homogenous odes, recon- 
structed fragments of which supplied the model for 
the kasida, is purely speculative and improbable. 
The rise of the new school contemporaneously with 
the kingdom of Kinda [?.».] in N.E. Arabia, and 
its relations with the princes of HIra and Ghassan. 
suggest the possibility of a stimulus from the 
Fertile Crescent, but nothing has been adduced in 
evidence for this supposition. In any case, it seems 
reasonably certain that the kasida constituted a 
new departure in Arabic poetic art, consisting of 
the combination of a number of existing themes of 
Arabic poetry into a subjectively related pattern, 
and that (prefiguring a characteristic often to be seen 
in later Arabic literature) such a pattern, one esta- 
blished, became normative for future generations 
of poets and by reason of its combination of different 



584 'ARAJ 

subjects furnished the supreme test by which their 
poetic powers were judged. 

The (wsid poets also illustrated certain linguistic 
and aesthetic features which were to dominate all 
later Arabic poetry. The chief of these is verbal 
concision, in which all the resources of morphology, 
suggestion and allusion are utilised to present a 
sharply focussed picture in the smallest compass of 
words. Metaphors are limited to a few traditional 
images, mainly relating to war and feasting; similes, 
on the other hand, are extensively used to give 
imaginative depth to a descriptive passage; for 
similar reasons, situations of time or place are often 
indirectly indicated by pictorial imagery, and a 
particular situation may be universalised by adding 
a phrase cast in a proverbial mould. The most fully 
developed sections are usually those devoted to 
descriptions of animals, which are vivid and realistic ; 
by contrast, the nasib briefly indicates the site of 
a former encampment in stereotyped terms and 
rarely describes the woman whom it recalls, although 
passages of erotic description occasionally occur as 
separate themes. Throughout, the poet appeals to 
the hearer's eye, and the imaginative response is 
determined by the completeness and precision of 
the concrete visual image; hence the importance 
attached by critics to the single line as evidence of 
poetic skill. This imaginative interplay between 
artist and hearer had the further effect that the 
range of visual images so presented was circum- 
scribed by the communal basis and pattern of tribal 
life and its popular sentiments. Pre-Islamic poetry 
(or at least almost all of it that has survived) is tied 
to a limited number of themes treated in conformity 
with the prevailing aesthetic standards and moral 
values. Thus the content of the literary product was 
not only known in advance, but dictated to the 
extent that anything more than a slight deviation 
from what was expected was disapproved, and the 
whole emotional response was determined by the 
form. Form therefore acquired an absolute value; 
the content was merely the substrate by which the 
superior excellence of form was realised. The pursuit 
of formal perfection was, however, limited by the 
realism and sobriety of the poet's imagination. 
Excessive elaboration of any theme is in general 
avoided, except for a limited range of accepted 
exaggerations in boasting and panegyric, particularly 
in the theme of hospitality. Finally, it was a major 
function of the poets to preserve the collective 
memory of the past, so giving an element of conti- 
nuity and meaning to the otherwise fleeting and 
insubstantial realities of the present; and in the two 
main themes of eulogy and satire they pressed home 
the moral antitheses and sanctions by which this 
collective existence was regulated and sustained. 
Thus the frjsid-poets, with relatively few exceptions, 
express, and even prescribe, a high standard of 
tribal morality, and noticeably avoid any reference 
to the humbler and ruder features of beduin life and 
environment. [See further under 'abid b. al-abras, 

ABU DHU C AYB, AMR B. KULTHUM, £ ANTARA, AL-a'shA, 

al-hArith b. ijilliza, imru 5 al-kays, labId, mu'al- 
lakat, al-nabicha, tarafa, zuhayr.] 

In addition to Ifasidas, a considerable body of 
shorter poems and fragments has been transmitted, 
representing the more ordinary output of occasional 
verse on single subjects. All of these, however, date 
from the age of the (tas Id-poets and, having presum- 
ably been influenced in technique by them, cannot 
be regarded as representative of the poetry of an 
earlier period. Partial exceptions are offered by 



war-poems in the radiaz metre, and by the elegy [see 
marthiyya], which in a few surviving examples 
presents some primitive features; but the later 
elegy approached more closely the general type of 
art-poetry, while retaining the characteristics 
required by its special function. Of the other subjects 
of occasional verse, the commonest is praise or 
boasting of courage (fiamdsa [q.v.]), a special branch 
of which is formed by the poems of solitary brigands 
and outlaws (sa'dlih [see al-shanfara and ta'ab- 
bata sharr an ]). 

Peculiar significance attached to the satire 
(ftidjd [q.v.]), in which there still survived the 
primitive conception of the poet (shaHr [q.v.]) as the 
mouthpiece of supernatural forces (see I. Goldziher, 
Abhandlungen zur arab. Philologie, i, 1896, 1-121). 
It seems that the concentration of the aesthetic sen- 
sibilities of the Arabs on the apt use of words 
endowed the words themselves with mystical and 
magical power. Poetry was a source of pride and 
rivalry; and the poet who, by skilful ordering of 
vivid imagery in taut, richly-nuanced phrases, could 
play upon the emotions of his hearers, was not merely 
lauded as an artist but venerated as the protector 
and guarantor of the honour of the tribe and a potent 
weapon against its enemies. Tribal contests were 
fought out as much, or more, in the taunts of their 
respective poets (mujdkhara) as on the field of battle, 
and so deeply rooted was the custom that even 
Muhammad, though in general hostile to the influ- 
ence of the poets, himself conformed to it at Madina 
(see Diwan of Hassan b. Thabit (Hirschfeld), comm. 
on no. XXII). The sensitiveness of the Arabs to 
satire (noted by al-Djahiz, iJayawdn*, i, 359) did 
not prevent its almost universal employment against 
chiefs and men of note, but few of these poems have 

A remarkable feature is the total absence of love- 
poetry (apart from the conventional nasib); wine- 
songs (khamriyya [q.v.]) as such are also rare, but 
their existence is attested by examples contemporary 
with the rise of Islam [see abu mihdjan] ; and there 
are no independent examples of hunting-poems 
(fardiyya [q.v.]). In the urban settlements also there 
were poets, whose productions differed from those 
of the desert poets both in texture and content, but 
little of these have survived except some of the 
drinking-songs and religious poetry of c AdI b. Zayd 
of Hira, and the religious poems doubtfully ascribed 
to Umayya b. Abi '1-Salt of Ta'if. 

Transmission and authenticity. There is 
no certain evidence for the fixation and trans- 
mission of any pre-Islamic poetry in written form 
prior to the 1st century A.H. (reference by al- 
Farazdak to a written text of LabId: Diwan (Sawl), 
721), although the use of Arabic script for literary 
purposes before the rise of Islam cannot be totally 
excluded [see kit aba]. Arabic tradition represents 
the transmission and survival of such poems as 
survived as due to the existence of professional 
"reciters" (rdwi", pi. ruwdt), either of the production 
of particular poets or of some general body of poetry, 
and its fixation in written form as due to the 
efforts of the philologists of the 2nd/8th century to 
collect what could be saved of the dwindling 
repertoire of pre-Islamic poetry. Thus the date of 
written fixation was by 200 to 300 years later than 
the date of production. The fact itself lays the 
poetry so collected open to question, firstly as to 
the reliability of the text as finally established, and 
secondly (and more seriously) as to its authentic 
attribution to the original poet — the more so since 



'ARABIYYA 



many Arabic philologists freely charged one another 
with forgery in this field. (See, on the latter point 
in particular, D. S. Margoliouth in JRAS, 1925, 
417-449; and on the question in general, Taha 
IJusayn, Fi 'l-Adab al-Qx&hili, Cairo 1927 (a logical 
argument based on erroneous premises), and R. 
Blachere, Litt., i). On historico-critical and logical 
grounds the argument admits of no conclusion, and 
it will seldom be possible to prove the authenticity 
ot any specified poem with complete certainty. On 
literary and stylistic grounds, on the other hand, 
it is no less certain that the commonly accepted 
nucleus of poems ascribed to the pre-Islamic kasid- 
poets (allowing for verbal modifications or rear- 
rangement by successive generations of rdwis) is a 
faithful reproduction of their poetic output and 
technique, which lies behind but is yet markedly 
distinct from the poetic production of the ist/7th 
century. 

(ii) Prose. The absence of any written Arabic 
prose literature in pre-Islamic Arabic is even less 
open to doubt (in spite of occasional arguments to 
the contrary, e.g. Z. Mubarak, La Prose arabe, 
Paris 1931). Parallel, however, to the cultivation of 
the art of poetry, there existed several forms of 
artistic speech which were distinguished from 
ordinary speech by the conscious application of 
aesthetic principles to their selection and polishing. 
One of these was the compression of a complete 
visual observation or social experience into a brief 
proverbial phrase [see mathalI. using the same 
technique of concision (idjaz) as was applied in 
poetry. Judicial decisions and maxims also 
were probably couched in the same style. Casual 
references occur to the existence of "written sheets" 
(suhuf, sing, sahija) containing proverbial phrases or 
hikam (cf. I. Goldziher, Muh. Stud., ii, 204-5), and 
it is probable that judicial maxims also were occa- 
sionally committed to writing. 

In oratory, the leading principle, in contrast to 
idjaz, was elaborate expansion or "adornment" of 
the theme, by processes resembling in some respects 
those employed in poetry, together with the 
balancing of phrase with phrase, often emphasised 
by parallelism in structure, assonance, and especially 
end-rhyme (sad? [q.v.]). The authenticity of the 
pre-Islamic discourses quoted by later anthologists 
is almost certainly to be rejected; probably only 
such fragments as were preserved by al-Djahiz in 
al-Bayan wa 'l-Tabyin can be regarded with any 
confidence and accepted as evidence of style. As 
regards the language of oratory, there is good 
reason to assume that distinguished orators em- 
ployed much the same idiom as that of the poets, 
but more freely adapted to local usage. The original 
language of the proverbs (except those which 
originated from poetic quotation) is more uncertain; 
although the vast majority, as transmitted by the 
later philologists, are in the lughat al-fusha, the 
surviving exceptions suggest that many of them 
were at first framed in more or less divergent local 
forms of speech. 

A few traces have survived also of elements of 
folk-literature, namely the riddle and the beast- 
fable. How far, on the other hand, the pre-Islamic 
narrative materials handed down by the later 
collectors, especially those of the battle-days [see 
ayyam al- c arab], have preserved their original 
linguistic form, is more doubtful. The narrative 
content and the literary technique, with comple- 
mentary prose and verse passages, are certainly 
authentic (see F. Rosenthal, Hist, of Muslim Histo- 



riography, Leiden 1952, 17 ff.), but the method of 
narrative presentation is closely paralleled by 
similar materials of the ist/7th century and may 
have been considerably modified before they were 
first written down at the end of the 2nd/8th century. 
Other pre-Islamic narratives, particularly those 
which relate to South Arabia, are still more suspect. 

A third form of artistic speech in pre-Islamic 
Arabia was the conventional oracular style 
affected by the diviners [see kahin], consisting of 
a series of obscure rhyming oaths, generally relating 
to celestial phenomena, followed by two or three 
brief rhymed phrases, often as obscure. In the 
history of Arabic literature, the fragmentary remains 
of such oracular utterances would be of little 
importance, had it not been that (if reliance is to 
be placed on the traditions related, professedly by 
Muhammad himself, of the Christian preacher 
Kuss b. Sa'ida [q.v.] : al-Djahiz, Bayan, i, 247) they 
were adapted by revivalist preachers at the Arab 
fairs to their own purposes, and through this medium 
came to literary fruition in the early Meccan suras 
of the IJur'an. Otherwise, as a literary production, 
the Kur'an stood apart from the main vehicles of 
conscious artistic style in Arabia, being linked to 
them only by adoption of the 'arabiyya idiom as 
its medium (adapted in points of phonetic detail and 
vocabulary to the speech of the Hidjaz, following 
what may be assumed to have been regular oratorical 
practice), and the common feature of sad?. As the 
oracular style was replaced by narrative and argu- 
ment, the singularity of the Kur'an became still 
more marked, since its narrative style appears to 
have little in common with the pre-Islamic kasas 
[q.v.], and the argument arose out of the personal 
circumstances of the preacher. The prose structure 
of the Madinian suras is equally distinctive, except 
possibly in regard to the form of some legal enact- 
ments. For its literary art in general, therefore, the 
Kur'an discards most of the methods of conscious 
artistic decoration common to the literary or 
aesthetic productions of its time. Form is subordi- 
nated to content, and in forcing the literary idiom 
into the expression of new ranges of thought it 
depends for its effectiveness rather on the suggestive 
modulation of the syntactical phrase [see further 
kur'an]. In this highly personal art, the Kur'an 
found few imitators in later Arabic prose literature, 
partly by reason of its special content, but also 
because the growing standardisation of literary 
usage limited the freedom of prose writers to handle 
syntactical structure with the same measure of 
originality. The Kur'an thus stands by itself as a 
production unique in Arabic, having neither fore- 
runners nor successors in its own style; and its 
literary heritage is to be found mainly in the pervasive 
influence of its ideas, language and rhythms in 
later artistic contexts. 

During the ist/7th century, however, the flexi- 
bility imparted to the 'arabiyya idiom by the 
Kur'an ma/le it an instrument ready to hand for 
the multifarious new tasks about to be imposed on 
it as a result of the Arab conquests and the new 
needs of administration. Although the traditions of 
pre-Islamic oratory still dominated among the tribal 
and KharidjI orators, the influence of the Kur'an is 
to be seen in a new style of oratory developed, 
probably, out of the formal khufba pronounced by 
the caliphs and their governors (cf., e.g., a khufba 
of 'Umar I in al-Djahiz, Bayan, iii, 80), in which more 
emphasis was laid 011 the content and less on external 
adornment, sad? in particular being avoided. It was 



in all probability this style which furnished the models 
for the first literary art of Arabic written prose, 
at the hands of the kuttdb, the secretaries of the 
Umayyad caliphs and governors, of which, however, 
there are few authentic examples until the papyrus 
documents of the period of Sulayman and the 
chancery records of 'Umar II at the end of the ist 
century (between 715 and 720 A.D.). 

(b) First-Century Poetry 
The Arabic poetry of the ist/7th century closely 
reflects the social and economic changes resulting 
from the Islamic movement and the Arab conquests, 
the military settlements of the Arabs outside 
Arabia, the growth of luxury and a money economy, 
the rise of an imperial government and the imposition 
of its authority over the tribesmen, and the emergence 
of religious and political parties and tribal factions. 
The results of these changes are most clearly seen 
in the transformation of the occasional poem, and 
the cultivation of particular themes or types by 
individuals or schools. The old satire (hidxd) loses its 
aura of supernatural influence and develops either 
into a string of indecencies or a theatrical display 
of mutual taunting by poets of rival groups (see 
below). The hamdsa poem becomes the vehicle of 
religious exaltation and defiance among the Kharidjis 
[q.v.]. The most remarkable new development is the 
rise of the independent love-poem (ghazal [q.v.]) in 
the wealthy and luxurious cities of the Hidjaz, 
using a simplified linguistic structure influenced by 
HidjazI conversational style, and, through its close 
association with the rise of a new musical profession 
[see ghina 5 ], metrically adapted to the needs of 
singing. This ghazal was of two kinds: one, connected 
more especially with Mecca [see c umar b. abi rabi'a], 
realistic, urbane, and gay; the other, connected 
especially with Madina [see djamii. and c udhra1. 
depicting an idealising and hopeless love, with beduin 
protagonists. New themes of politico-religious 
poetry were inspired by the disasters and aspirations 
of the 'Alid shi c a [see 



> radiaz 



mple ia 



.erly 



used especially to rouse the ardour of 
was made into an instrument for displays of linguistic 
virtuosity in lengthy and consciously archaising 
kasidas by a school of beduin poets [see al-'adjiji adj]. 
All these give evidence of the new vigour and 
plasticity which had been imparted to the literary 
arts of the Arabs by the Islamic movement and its 
political and social consequences. Poetry, without 
losing any of its artistic qualities, becomes less 
ormal and more functional; style am 



vith 



:. The 



Ifasida also, revived after a short intermission during 
the conquests, was shaken out of the rigid mould 
and obligatory canons of style which had circum- 
scribed it in the old tribal society. During the ist 
century it was cultivated almost exclusively by a 
group of beduin extraction in al- c Irak and Mesopo- 
tamia, represented especially by al-Akhtal, Djarir, 
al-Farazdak, and Dhu '1-Rumma. Al-Akhtal, the 
authentic representative of the schools of 'Ami b. 
Kulthum and al-Nabigha, stands closest to the 
spirit of pre-Islamic poetry, both in his tribal odes 
and his panegyrics of the Umayyad caliphs. For the 
poets of al-'Irak, on the other hand, the kasida, 
while preserving the traditional external structure, 
changes both in inner content and in function. Al- 
Farazdak in his boasting odes may celebrate the 
renown of his ancestors, but for him, as for PJarir, 
beduin life is poor and brutish, and the ka$ida an 



gain riches from the powerful and 
wealthy at the price of often hypocritical adulation, 
no longer phrased in terms of tribal virtues, but of 
political and religious controversy. Alternatively 
inter-tribal mufdkhara is overlaid by a flood of 
personal taunts in slanging matches on- parallel 
themes (nakdHd [q.v.]), of considerable ingenuity 
and virtuosity, for the delectation of the tribesmen 
of Kufa and Basra. Both of these developments 
went far towards changing the original art-form of 
the ba$ida into an artificial convention; and in 
language also the poets sought the suffrages of the 
rising philological schools in al- c Irak by conscious 
exhibitions of luxuriant and sonorous vocabulary. 
This is still further developed in the special art of 
Dhu '1-Rumma, devoted mainly to descriptions of 
desert scenery and life, emotionalised by a ghazal 

The outstanding difference between the pre- 
Islamic poetry and that of the Umayyad age in 
general is, however, psychological. The passions of 
the pre-Islamic age were strong, but moved within 
narrow limits; and the poets held them to a high 
moral plane. Those of the Umayyad age were 
multiple and conflicting, and the poets shared in 
the general psychological instability and conflict of 
principles and parties. The emotional foundation of 
the gkazal is self-evident; but emotion enters also 
into the traditional themes, bringing them closer 
to the popular taste and giving them a sharper and 
coarser tone, which lowers the ethical plane, in spite 
of a copious sprinkling of Kur'anic phraseology and 
pious sentiment. The political role also of much' of 
this poetry required the poets to play to the gallery 
and pander to the debased taste and love of excite- 
ment of the masses, especially in their nakdHd. 
As regards the authenticity and transmission of 
Umayyad poetry, it is evident from the relatively 
complete state of the diwdns, as compared with 
those of the pre-Islamic poets, that they were 
written down either during the poet's lifetime or 
immediately afterwards. Specific references are 
found to a written corpus of the poetry of al- 
Farazdak, kept by a secretary {A £*«»», xix, 22), 
and also to that of Dhu '1-Rumma (aX-Dja^if, 
Ifawayan 1 , i, 41), and to a written text of the 
nakdHd (ed. Bevan, 430). 

Bibliography (in addition to general works 
and works cited in the text): R. Blachere, Lift., 
i; C.A. Nallino, Raccolta di Scritti, vi, Rome 1948; 
Ahmad Amin, Fadjr al-Isldm, Cairo 1928; N.M. 
al-Bahbitt, Ta'rikh al-Shi'r al-'-Arabi hattd dkhir 
al-Karn al-thdlith al-hidjri, Cairo 1950; Shawkl 
Dayf, al-Tatawwur wa 'l-Tadjdid fi 'l-Shi'r al- 
Umawi, Cairo 1952; M.M. al-BasIr, <-Asr al-Kur'dn, 
Baghdad 1947. 

(II) Second-Century Literature 

(i) Poetry. The Arabic literature of the 2nd/8th 

century is sharply distinguished from that of the 

ist/7th century by two main features. It was t with 

few exceptions, the literature of an urban society, 






Irak; a 



I the 



majority of its producers were half-A 
Arabs, converts or descendants of converts from the 
original Aramaean and Persian population. The 
resulting changes and developments in literary 
production are more marked in prose than in verse 
production, but are clearly to be seen also in the 
poetry of this period. 

In contrast to the new prose literature, however, 
the transition to the early c Abb5sid age made no 



violent breach in the tradition of Arabic poetry. 
Metrical systems and technique evolved within the 
older framework, and structural innovations met 
with little or no success [see abu 'l-'atahiya]. The 
permissible metres and deviations were ingeniously 
syslematised by al-Khalil b. Ahmad (d. 175/791) 
and strictly adhered to. In language also the poets 
are as precise and meticulous in their pursuit of 
'■arabiyya as their predecessors, but begin to aim 
at smoothness and simplicity in place of the sonority 
of the beduin poets. These changes are masked to 
a certain extent by the continued cultivation of the 
iasida, which now, however, even more than in the 
Umayyad age, acquired a ceremonial function. The 
poet who presented himself at the court of the 
caliphs or of lesser authorities was required to 
demonstrate his qualities by his kasidas and was 
rewarded accordingly. Since it was by their patronage 
that the poet gained his livelihood, he was compelled 
to conform to their expectations, especially when 
the reward was not infrequently proportioned to the 
length of his ode. To these factors must be added 
the natural conservatism of the Arab, which tended 
to restrict the poet to conventional forms, and of 
the poets themselves, for whom (as for their critics 
in the rising philological schools) poetry was the 
guarantor of the pure tradition of Arabic linguistic 
art, and the kasida the highest proof of the poet's 
mastery of it. Internally, in spite of the conven- 
tionality of its form and matter, the kasida shows 
a development away from the old beduin themes, 
and both panegyric and satire are handled with 
considerable diversity and originality, while at the 
same time the newer types of poetic production 
affect to some extent the traditional modes of 
expression. 

It is, however, in these newer types that the 
social changes and currents in the new age found 
their fullest expression. The first impulses came 
from the gltazal poetry of the Hidjaz and its musical 
accompaniment, both directly and through Syria, 
where they were combined with the (probably native 
Syrian) tradition of wine-songs by the Umayyad 
caliph al-Walid II (d. 126/744), w 'th whom tradition 
connects the first representatives of the new school 
in al-'Irak [see mutI* b. ivAs]. Their witty, unin- 
hibited, and often scandalous verses met with a 
delighted reception in the new secular and pleasure 
seeking society of Basra and Baghdad, and were 
even, set to music, enjoyed in the private enter- 
tainments in caliph's palaces. The general intellectual 
effervescence resulting from the contact of Islamic 
society with Persian and Aramaean culture stimulated, 
both by attraction and by repulsion, a wide range of 
emotional attitudes and r' actions, which were 
freely exposed in verse, and at the same time created 
a social atmosphere which, in spite of the opposition 
of the nascent legal and theological schools, en- 
couraged freedom of thought and expression. 
Together with the new trends of urban poetry, 
several of the movements of the Umayyad age 
(notably Shl'ism) still continued to furnish themes 
for poetic elaboration, and the old 'Iraki tradition 
of religious and moral verse was revived by the 
Mu'tazill Bishr b. al-Mu c tamir, Abu 'l- c At5hiya, and 
others. Two other lesser poets also were originators 
of new literary genres: 'Abbas b. al-Ahnaf (d. c. 192/ 
807), the inventor of the court-ghazal, short poems 
on themes of chivalrous love; and Aban b. c Abd 
al-Hamld (d.c. 200/815), who first used the rhymed 
radial couplet (muzdawidj) for verse romances and 
didactic poems. In sum, therefore, the output of 



Arabic poetry in this century \ 
characterised for the most part by an originality, 
achieved not so much by breaking out along new 
lines as by fusing new elements with the traditional 
themes in such a way that the effect is almost that 
of a wholly new art. 

Yet, for all this, the poetry of the 2nd century 
prefigures, if it does not itself illustrate, the decline 
of the true poetic art and the growth of artificiality 
in Arabic poetry. The freshness and sincerity of the 
Hidjaz! ghazal were not compensated for by wit and 
cynicism; and the pursuit of wit led to a straining 
after verbal brilliance and originality in metaphor. 
This was the origin of the so-called badi c [?.».], the 
embellishment of verse by tropes and antitheses and 
ingenious exploitation of Arabic morphology. The 
earliest exponent of this "new style" — not as yet 
exaggerated or formalised — was the blind poet 
Bashshar b. Burd (d. 168/784), of Iranian extraction, 
and the first major Arabic poet of non-Arab origin. 
The elaboration of the traditional kasida with badi c 
devices is generally ascribed to one of the poets of 
the next generation, Muslim b. al-Walid, who was 
in consequence highly esteemed by some critics and 
condemned by others as "the first who corrupted 
poetry". There is, in contrast, little trace of these 
artifices in the work of his greater contemporary 
Abu Nuwas (d.c. 198/803), who in poetic genius, 
fecundity, many-sidedness and command of language 
has few rivals in Arabic literature. Witty, gay, 
cynical and foul-mouthed, he was at his best in his 
incomparable wine-songs, most virulent and coarsest 
in satire and gltazal, versatile in panegyric, and a 
linguistic virtuoso in the beduin style of hunting- 
poems (tardiyyat), the fashion for which he revived. 

On the other hand, Abu Nuwas and the other 
poets of the latter half of the century exemplify a 
new development which was soon to affect all 
Arabic poetry, not generally to its advantage. 
Hitherto the poets had learned their art exclusively 
by association with, their predecessors. With the 
rise of the philological schools, particularly at Basra, 
they began to perfect their training by systematic 
instruction from and association with the philolo- 
gists. The common ground of this association has 
already been noted above, but its effect was to 
imbue the poets themselves (exclusive of the purely 
popular poets) with a more or less philological 
approach to their art and the acceptance of philo- 
logical criteria of poetic merit. To this, probably, 
is due, more than to any other cause, the increasing 
formalisation of Arabic poetry in later centuries, 
and its degeneration, in the hands of the less gifted, 
to an almost mechanical recapitulation of well-worn 
themes with a surface decoration of badi c . 

Transmission. Paradoxically, the situation in 
regard to the texts of the early 'AbbSsid poets is 
often much worse than to those of the Umayyad 
poets, since the philologists (who did not regard 
them as reliable authorities for linguistic usage) 
made no efforts to collect their diwdns. Some have 
never been collected, and such diwdns as survive in 
later MSS (including that of Abu Nuwas) are far 
from reliable. The authorship of single verses and 
even of whole poems is sometimes in question, and 
later collectors of badi 1 figures have caused much 
confusion by lack of care in citation and attribution 
(see I. Kratchkowsky, Abu 'l-Faraj al-Wa'tvd, 
Petrograd 1914, Introduction, 68-96). 

(ii) Prose. As already mentioned [I (a) (ii) above, 
ad fin.], the first essays in Arabic prose were made 
by the kutt&b, the chancery secretaries of the 



588 c ara: 

Umayyad caliphs, in a style based on that of the 
official khufbas. In the earliest known literary 
productions, those of 'Abd al-Hamid b. Yahya 
(d. 132/750), however, in which the matter cal'ed 
for a logical expansion of general principles in 
complex detail, the adaptation of Arabic syntax 
to these unfamiliar demands could be met only by 
ingenious experiment. As in other literatures, 
flexibility in prose style was first acquired by 
the processes of translation, in this instance from 
the Pahlawi court-literature of Sasanid Persia, 
initiated by c Abd al-Hamld's disciple Ibn al-Mukaffa' 
(d. 139/757). In their existing forms, the extant 
works of Ibn al-Mukaffa c have probably undergone 
some rehandling in subsequent decades; but it is 
clear that he posed the problem which was gradually 
solved by his successors: that of creating a smooth 
and palatable prose style which was capable of 
expressing systematic thought, within the limits of 
the available vocabulary. The function of this 
literature was didactic and ceremonial; it laid down 
rules of conduct for princes, court officers, secretaries 
and administrators of all kinds, and supplied the 
general knowledge required for the performance of 
their duties, in the form of manuals, anecdotes and 
romances, the whole being comprised under the 
general head of adab [q.v.]. Their agreeable literary 
style and diverting contents procured a wide 
popularity for these works in the new urban society, 
and for several decades the translations from and 
imitations of Persian literature held a dominant 
place in Arabic prose literature. 

In the meantime, native forms of Arabic prose 
were being developed. The primitive narrative 
arts were organised into conscious literary styles, 
such as the kasas, the combination of a number of 
hadtths into a connected story (exemplified in the 
Sirat al-Nabi of Ibn Ishak (d. 151/768), the kissa 
[q.v.] or anecdote, and khabar [q.v.] or narration, 
particularly in the romances of beduin lovers 
('ushshdfc) and of the "battle-days" (ayydm al- c arab 
[see I (a) (ii) above]). In contrast to these narrative 
genres, which preserved in a greater or less degree 
their original Arabian structure, the rapid expansion 
of intellectual energies in Basra and Kufa, especially 
in the schools of philology and law, was creating, 
with the help of Greek logic, a new argumentative 
prose which was far more flexible and close knit 
than either the new narrative forms or the trans- 
lations of the secretaries. At the same time, the 
philologists, consciously opposing the increasing 
degeneration and impoverishment of Arabic in the 
mixed society of the 'Iraki cities, and with the support 
of Islamic religious circles, set themselves to define 
the correct modalities of Arabic speech and to 
preserve both the extensive vocabulary (lugha) and 
the pure idiomatic usage (/asdha) of the peninsula. 
Thus, in opposition both to the jurists and to the 
secretaries, for whom the Arabic language was 
primarily an instrument, they reasserted — in a new 
context — the old Arabian insistence on the im- 
portance of form, and thereby contributed to main- 
tain the concept of the l arabiyya as a standardised 
and unchanging artistic structure, which remained 
unaffected by the varieties and evolution of spoken 
Arabic. Closely related to these activities, and also in 
conscious opposition to the secretarial school, was 
their activity in searching for and preserving the 
memorials of the old Arabic culture, such as poems, 
proverbs and tribal traditions, to serve (in conjunction 
with the Kur'an and all the materials relating to 
the Islamic movement) as the basis of the "Arabic 



humanities". Except for technical monographs, 
mainly on philological subjects — the most important 
of which are the dictionary, K. al-'Ayn, of al-KhaW 
b. Ahmad (d. 175/791), the grammar, al-Kitdb, of 
his pupil SIbawayh (d.c. 180/796), and the mono- 
graphs of Abu 'Ubayda (d. 210/825) and al-Asma c I 
(d.c. 216/831) — few original literary works, in the 
strict sense, had been produced in philological 
circles by the end of the century, and it was only 
in the 3rd/gth century that the Arabic humanities 
came into full fruition. 

Much the same may be said of the associated 
field of historical studies [see ta'rIkh], in 
which, except for the rather conscious adaptation 
of the ayyam-technique in the Sira of Ibn Ishak, 
the activities of historical students were devoted 
mainly to the compilation of source-materials in the 
form of monographs on particular episodes of Arab 
or Islamic history [see abu mikhnaf, al-mada'inI, 
al-wajcidi] or on tribal genealogies [see hisham b. 

The legal schools, on the other hand, had 
already attained the stage of producing major 
works, both expository and controversial [see fikh]. 
The lead was taken by the Hanafi school of al- c Irak 
with Abu Yusuf (d. 182/798) and Muhammad al- 
Shaybanl (d. 189/804), while the school of al-Madina 
produced the first important corpus of legal hadith 
in al-MuwaRa' of Malik b. Anas (d. 179/795)- As 
early as the next generation, al-Shafi c i was able to 
set out and defend in a series of tractates (al-Umm) 
the principles which were henceforth to govern 
legal reasoning in SunnI Islam. 

Finally, in regard to IJur'anic studies, the 

practice of oral transmission still predominated, and 

the first collected work on exegesis appears to have 

been made by the above-mentioned Abu 'Ubayda. 

Bibliography (in addition to works cited at 

the end of § I) : Ch. Pellat, Le Milieu Basrien el la 

Formation de Gahiz, Paris 1952; Ahmad Amln, 

Duha 'l-Isldm, i, Cairo 1933; A. F. Rifa'i, '■Asr 

al-Ma'mun, ii, Cairo 1927; Taha Husayn, IfadUh 

al-Arba'-d, i, ii, Cairo 1925, 1926; J. Schacht, 

Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence, Oxford 

1950. 

(Ill) Third to Fifth Centuries 
(i) Prose 
By the opening of the 3rd/gth century, the philo- 
logical, historical, legal and IJur'anic studies just 
described had laid the foundations for an Arabic- 
Islamic prose literature, which could challenge the 
predominance hitherto enjoyed by the secretarial 
school in the field of polite letters {adab). The 
problem that remained to be solved was that of 
mobilisation, or how to bring these studies out of 
their scholastic or technical isolation into a positive 
relation with the public interests and social issues 
of the day. This problem was illuminated, rather 
than solved, by the genius of al-Djahiz (d. 255/869), 
who brought them to bear on all aspects of con- 
temporary life in a series of tractates and epistles, 
written in a sonorous and witty style, of unequalled 
linguistic vigour and variety, but too individual to 
serve as a stylistic model for general literature. The 
final solution was found by his later contemporaries 
who blended the clarity of the secretarial style with 
the traditional art-language and the argumentative 
prose of the philological and legal schools into a 
medium capable of expressing all varieties of factual, 
imaginative and abstract subjects with great refine- 



roent and precision, though at some cost to the 
wealth and vigour of the ancient idiom cultivated 
by the philologists. One of the first results of this 
"modernised" prose medium, with its superior 
flexibility and adaptation to social changes, was to 
restrict and ultimately to displace poetry from its 
former social function, and to relegate it more and 
more to a purely aesthetic role in social and literary 
life. 

The success achieved by the writings of al-Diahiz 
and his successors was not due solely, however, to 
their command of the Arabic sciences and a more 
flexible linguistic instrument. The schools of Basra, 
with their rationalising tendencies, had already been 
attracted (especially in the theological groups of the 
Mu'tazila [?.i>.]) by the surviving elements of 
Hellenistic culture in Western Asia. Early in the 
3rd/oth century the revival of Hellenistic learning 
received a strong impulse from the establishment by 
al-Ma'mun (198-218/813-33) of the bayt al-hikma 
[q.v.] for the translation of Greek philosophical and 
scientific works. During the whole period treated in 
this section, the dominant feature of Arabic culture 
is the fruitful interaction of the Arabic and Greek 
traditions which is already illustrated in the writings 
of al-Djahiz, and was subsequently displayed in 
almost all branches of Arabic literature, both 
secular and religious. These internal developments 
were further expanded and accelerated by the vast 
extension of literary activities, which, hitherto all 
but confined to al-'Irak, began in the 3rd century 
to be cultivated in a large number of centres, from 
Samarkand to r>ayraw5n and al-Andalus. The 
material foundation of this expansion was the rapid 
economic development of the Islamic empire, 
supplemented by the introduction of paper {warak 
Iq.v.]) manufacture from the Far East in the second 
half of the 2nd century. 

rhe range and extent of these new literary 
movements rapidly overwhelmed the Sasanid 
tradition of the kuttdb, in spite of their rearguard 
movement of resistance [see shu'Obiyya] and 
denigration of the Arabs and their culture. A recon- 
ciliation was effected by Ibn Kutayba (d. 276/889-90), 
who in a long series of works furnished the secretaries 
with compendia and extracts from all branches ot 
Arabic learning, but incorporated in them also such 
elements of the Persian historical and courtly 
traditions as had established themselves at the 
court and could be harmonised with the Arabic- 
Islamic humanities. Henceforward, adab, in the 
strict sense, was confined to treatises and other 
literary works based on this widened Arabic-Islamic 
tradition, including both the Persian and the Helle- 
nistic components. 

Simultaneously, the widening of general intellec- 
tual interests was displayed in the cultivation of a 
great variety of specialist disciplines, the cumulative 
productions of which constitute the climax of the 
mediaeval Islamic culture, and for this reason 
cannot be entirely excluded from any general 
survey of Arabic literature. In the 3rd century the 
Hellenistic contribution was greatly expanded by 
the many translations of Greek works made 
by Kusta b. Luka (fl. 220/835), Hunayn b. Ishak 
(d. 260/873), his son Ishak b. Hunayn (d. 298/910), 
and other translators. Already before the middle of 
the century, the first independent Arabic works on 
philosophy were being written by Ya'kub al- 
Kindl (d.c. 236/850), to be followed in the next 
century by the Turk Abu Nasr al-Farabl (d. 339/950) 
and the Persian Abu C A1I Ibn SIna (d. 428/1037), 



[YYA 589 

to mention only the most prominent names [see 
falsafa]; on mathematics by Muhammad b. 
Mflsa al-Kh w arizmi (fl. 230/844) and Thabit b. Kurra 
al-Sabi' (d. 288/901) [see riyada]; on astronomy 
by al-Farghanl, Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhl (d. 272/885), 
and al-Battani (d. 3*7/929) [see tandem]; and on 
medicine by Ibn Masawayh (d. 243/859) and 
Muhammad b. Zakariyya al-Razi (d.c. 311/923) 
[see tibb]. Although the technical literature of the 
sciences cannot be dealt with here, yet the importance 
of these studies, and of other popular works on 
Hellenistic origin (such as Sirr al-Asrdr, attributed 
to Yahya b. al-Bitrik, c. 200/815), in determining 
or at least influencing the intellectual climate of the 
period must not be underrated. In geography, 
in particular, they not only directly inspired the 
"revision" of Prolemy's geography by the above- 
mentioned al-Kh w arizmi, but also indirectly con- 
tributed to the first road-book, by the postmaster 
Ibn Khurradadhbih (fl. 230/844), and in conjunction 
both with the older philological interest in the place- 
names of Arabia and with Indian materials [see 
sindhind] and old Persian concepts, stimulated the 
intellectual curiosity which produced the rich 
geographical literature of the following century [see 
djughrafiyaI. 

The opposition to these hellenising tendencies 
was led by those 'orthodox' students of theology 
and law who rejected the rationalist principles of 
the Mu'tazila. The search for Prophetic Tradi- 
tion (kadith [q.v.]), which had developed in the 
2nd century as a weapon against the pragmatic 
tendencies of the local schools of Law, was vigo- 
rously cultivated in the 3rd by the orthodox every- 
where, partly (as in the famous "Six Books" of al- 
Bukhari, Muslim, al-Tirmidhi, Abu Da'ud, Ibn 
Madia, and al-Nasal) in order to consolidate the 
dominant place which it had gained in the juristic 
sciences, but partly also (as in the more comprehen- 
sive Musnad of Ahmad b. Hanbal, d. 241/855) 
against the critical attitudes of the Mu'tazila. So 
potent a force did the hadith prove to be, with its 
appeal to simple piety and veneration for the 
Prophet, that in the next century the ShI'a also, 
both among the Isma'ilis (Da'&Hm al-Isldm of the 
kadi al-Nu'man b. Muhammad, d. 363/974) and in 
Imam! circles (the "Four Books" of al-Kulinl, 
d. 328/939, and others [see shI'a]), aimed to rival the 
achievement of the Sunnis by the collection and 
attribution of kadiths to the Imams. 

Nevertheless, although the schools of law, thanks 
to the early standardisation of their methodology, 
seem to have been little affected by the hellenistic 
revival and continued to produce an extensive 
literature of their own, both theology and popular 
religion could not but be coloured by their environ- 
ment. Orthodox theologians, in the schools of al- 
Ash'ari (d. 324/935) and al-Maturidi (d. 333/944), 
reconciled Greek physics with the data of the 
Kur'an and the Uadlth by a skilful dialectic [see 
kalah], which by the end of the 5th century had 
established itself as the universal scholastic theology 
of SunnI Islam; while ShI'I theology, especially in 
the Isma'ill schools, was still more strongly influ- 
enced by the neoplatonism expounded, together 
with the Greek sciences in general, in the popular 
encyclopaedia of the 4th/ioth century called the 
Epistles of the Sincere Brethren [see ijohwAn al-safA]. 
The literature of theological polemics also, as well 
as that on "comparative religion" (i.e. on the dif- 
ferences between the Muslim and the non-Muslim 
religions), is clearly aware of the general positions of 



39o c ara: 

Greek philosophy and prepared on occasion to 
discuss them in detail. The most celebrated work 
in these two fields is the incisive K. al-Fasl by the 
Andalusian Zahiri Ibn Hazm (d. 456/1064), equally 
noted for his delicate anatomy of love under the 
title of The Dove's Neckring. 

While popular religion was less affected by theolo- 
gical problems as such, it had from the first been 
influenced by the older religious movements in 
Western Asia and North Africa. By the 3rd century 
most of these accretions had been pruned away, 
except for gnosticism and Syrian mysticism (itself 
incorporating many Stoic and Neoplatonic elements), 
which were exercising an increasingly profound 
influence upon ascetic and pious circles, and trans- 
forming piety and asceticism into mystical sufism 
[see tasawwup]. Already in the 3rd and 4th cen- 
turies a new sufl literature was fully developed, 
ranging from systematic treatises (beginning with 
al-Muhasibl, d. 213/857) and rasdHl (al-Djunayd, 
d. 297/910) to collections of aphorisms, symbolist 
poetry [see al-hallAdj], and seances by Dhu '1-Nun 
(d. 245/859) and al-Niffari (d. 354/965). 

The total result of these specialist literary activities 
was immensely to expand the range of mediaeval 
Arabic as a linguistic instrument. Not only in the 
technical vocabulary of the various sciences, but 
also as a medium for expressing fine shades of 
philosophical and psychological analysis, it had 
developed capacities far bevond the oM classical 
language. But this must not be taken to imply that 
the range of literary adab, or even its expressiveness, 
was widened in an equal degree. Much of this tech- 
nical and analytical vocabulary was probably little 
understood outside the restricted circles of specialists. 
No doubt (indeed, it could hardly have been other- 
wise), some of these wider intellectual horizons 
were occasionally reflected in works of polite letters. 
Nevertheless, the adab works also demonstrate very 
clearly the marginal position of the purely Helle- 
nistic elements and of the special sciences dependent 
on them (as distinguished from the generalized 
influence of Hellenistic culture) in relation to the 
main body of Arabic and Islamic elements in the 
mediaeval Islamic culture. A few udabd' show in 
their writings an interest in metaphysical and scien- 
tific disciplines, e.g. Ahmad b. ai-Tayyib al-Sarakhsi 
(d. 286/899), Abu Hayyan al-Tawljidi (d. 414/1023) 
and Abu c Ali Miskawayh (d. 421/1030) [see also 
akhlaij]. But such works are on the whole excep- 
tional. The mainstream of Arabic letters after Ibn 
Kutayba runs through miscellaneous topics drawn 
from Arab poetry and history, politics and rhetoric, 
anthologies and collections of anecdotes, and popular 
ethics, illustrated by such writers as Ibn Abi '1-Dunya 
(d. 281/894), Ibn al-Mu c tazz (d. 296/908), the Anda- 
lusian Ibn <Abd Rabbihi (d. 328/940), Abu Bakr al- 
Suli (d. 335/946), Abu 'l-Faradi al-Isfahani (d. 356/ 
967), author of the A'. al-Aghani, al-Muhassin al- 
Tanukhi (d. 384/994), collector of "table-talk" and 
anecdotal literature, and Abu Mansur al-Tha'alibl 
(d. 429/1038 [see below]). The huge output and 
popularity of such works show how sharply, on 
the whole, the social and intellectual interests of 
literary circles were circumscribed, and the con- 
sequent limitation of the concept of adab. On a 
more technical level of adab, but essentially of 
the same kind, were the "sessions" (madidlis) and 
"dictations" (dmali) of the professional philologists 
(e.g. al-Mubarrad, d. 285/998, Tha'lab, d. 291/904, 
Ibn Durayd, d. 321/934, al-tfall, d. 356/967), in 
distinction from their pedagogical works on philology 



proper, which included the first major dictionaries 
of the classical language by Ibn Durayd, al-Djawhari 
(d. c. 393/1002) and Ibn Faris (d. 395/1004-5).! 

This intense absorption in literary and linguistic 
production was bound to produce in due course a 
considerable volume of technical literary criti- 
cism. Although as late as the K. al-Aghdnl criticism 
seems to consist mostly of subjective judgments 
on the relative merits of given poets or verses, the 
first steps towards a more systematic criticism had 
already been taken by al-Djahiz and, from a different 
angle, by Ibn al-Mu c tazz, who in his K. al-Badi 1 
classified the figures of speech employed in the "new" 
poetry. Kudama b. Dja'far (d. 310/922) introduced 
the practice of classifying poetic "beauties" and 
"faults", and by the end of the 4th/ioth century the 
K. al-Sind<-atayn of Abu Hilal al-'Askari (d. 395/1005) 
offers a complete critical analysis of poetry and prose 
in terms of structure, rhetorical devices,' and figures 
of speech. The significant feature of most of this 
discussion was the insistence upon form rather than 
matter as the decisive criterion of quality; the de- 
clared assumption is that little if anything new can 
be originated in poetry, and that the only difference 
between one poet and another lies in his manner 
of expression. The balance was to some extent 
redressed by 'Abd al-Kahir al-Djurdjani (d. 471/ 
1078), who supplemented the excessively formal 
analysis of his predecessors by a system of logical 
and psychological analysis which demanded an at 
least equal consideration for the ''ideas" expressed. 
Additional point was given to the argument on 
literary aesthetics by its bearing on the doctrine of 
the incomparability (i'dj/Sx) of the Kur'an; inevitably, 
in spite of protests in theological circles and by 
al-Djurdjani, the prevailing concentration of literary 
criticism upon form tended to emphasize unduly its 
supreme verbal qualities in terms of the current 
stylistic theories. 

A further consequence, equally inevitable, was 
that rhetorical and literary prose began to be 
affected by the same theories and to display the 
same pursuit of verbal elaboration. The virtuosity 
of the adib was displayed in "Paragraphs" (fusiil) 
describing scenes, persons, emotions, events, and 
objects, or in Epistles (rasd'il) addressed to friends 
or colleagues on a variety of occasions. Ibn al- 
Mu'tazz seems to have been, if not the inventor, at 
least the populariser of this art, which in the 4th 
century swept over the whole field of Arabic letters. 
The secretarial class fell victim to it almost at once; 
in the intense competition for office every refinement 
of literary style was eagerly exploited. The technique 
of secretarial correspondence was elaborated 
into an art {insha* [q.v.]), based upon admired models 
of elegant, florid, insinuating or pungent writing, 
and it was not long before rhyming prose (sadf), 
which the best stylists had hitherto used only as 
occasional ornament, became inseparable from 
official style. By the middle of the 4th century the 
vizier Abu '1-Fadl b. al-'Amid (d. 359/369-70) was 
composing his correspondence in sad?; with his 
disciple and successor Ibn 'Abbad, known as "the 
Sahib" (d. 385/995), its use had become a mania. 
Contemporary litterateurs, the most celebrated of 
whom are Abu Bakr al-Kh"arizmI (d. 383/993) and 
al-Hamadhanl, known by the sobriquet of BadI' 
al-Zaman (d. 398/1007), developed the new style 
more freely and flexibly in their rasaHl, which often 
resemble a kind of unscanned verse rather than 
prose. From then onwards every writer with a 
reputation to make or to maintain had perforce to 



follow their example; and industrious compilers like 
al-Tha'alibl, in his Yatlmai al-Dahr, and Abu Ishak 
al-Husrl of Kayrawan (d. 453/1O61), in his Zahr al- 
Addb, were quick to compose anthologies and 
treasuries of the most successful verses and fusul and 
the most approved metaphorical descriptions and 
imagery. The additional premium which this placed 
on wit and agility produced, it is true, not a few 
masterpieces of artistic invention by those who 
possessed a natural gift for this style, but exacted in 
return a heavy price. The enforced cult of rhyming 
prose not only contorted the style of men of natural 
but more ponderous genius like Abu 'l-'Ala al- 
Ma'arri (d. 449/1057), but by rewarding artificiality 
it contributed to turning Arabic writers still further 
away from the solid ground of real life and living 
issues and to sap the vitality of Arabic literature. 

For the moment, however, the revival of sad? 
coincided with a search for new or original methods 
of presenting literary themes. Bad!' al-Zaman found 
a new setting (or revived a Hellenistic genre) in the 
popular theme of the witty vagabond, and created 
the dramatic anecdote or mahama [?.».]. About 416/ 
1025 the Andalusian Ibn Shuhayd in al-Tawabi 1 wa 
'l-Zawdbi' imagined a series of interviews with the 
diinnls who had inspired the great poets of the past. 
Eight years later Abu 'l-'Ala al-Ma'arri wrote his 
Risalat al-Ghufrdn, in which, more daringly, he 
imagined a visit to heaven and hell to interview 
the poets themselves. These extravaganzas, however, 
were less appreciated by literary taste in then- 
respective regions than the wittily allusive risala of 
Ibn Zaydun of Cordova (d. 463/1070), satirising his 
rival Ibn 'Abdun, and the letters in tightly-knit and 
decorated sadj 1 of Kabus b. Washmglr, prince of 
Tabaristan (d. 403/1012), collected under the title 
of Kamdl al-Baldgha. Even the makdmdt of al- 
Hamadhani seem to have found few imitators until 
the end of the 5th century, when they were revived 
by al-Harlri of Basra (d. 516/1122), with the same 
motif as that of his predecessor, but with a refinement 
of philological subtlety and wit equalling the most 
ingenious of the rasd'il and a striking poetical gift 
in addition. It is something of a paradox that with 
all their formal perfection and qualities of erudition 
and virtuosity, al-Hariri's makdmdt, like those of 
al-Hamadhani, are firmly rooted in the common 
life of the Islamic city, and portray its manners and 
its humours so realistically as to constitute one of 
the most precious social documents of the Islamic 
Middle Ages. 

Historical composition, though properly 
distinct from adab, was to some extent affected by 
the same influences. At the beginning of the 3rd/9th 
century, the continued association of history with 
religious studies is seen in the histories of Mecca by 
al-Azrakt (d. after 217/832) and al-Fakihf (d. after 
272/885), and in the biographical and genealogical 
works on the Companions by Muhammad b. Sa'd 
(d. 230/845), the secretary of al-Wakidi, and on 
Kuraysh by al-Zubayri (d. 233/848). It is still present 
in the first (and last) attempt to compile a com- 
prehensive Universal History based on the corpus 
of Islamic materials (which by now incorporated 
the SSsanid tradition) and significantly entitled 
"The History of the Prophets and Kings", by 
Muhammad b. Djarlr al-Tabarl (d. 310/923), as a 
complement to his Commentary on the Kur'an, and 
also, though with a difference of emphasis, in the 
History of the Conquests and the "Genealogies of 
the Arab Nobles" of al-Baladhurl (d. 279/892). In 
the same century, however, the concept of history 



!YYA 591 

as an independent branch of study and of literary 
activity begins to appear in such diverse forms 
as the historical encyclopaedia of al-Ya'kubi 
(d. 284/897) and the history of Baghdad by Ibn 
Abi Tahir jayfur (d. 280/893). By the 4th century 
historical writing not only flourished luxuriantly, 
but took in a wide range and variety of subjects: 
universal history (combined by the traveller al- 
Mas'udl, d. 345/956, with a hellenistic curiosity 
about all things terrestrial and celestial), local 
histories of regions and cities from Central Asia to 
Spain, antiquarian research, memoirs on current 
events, histories of viziers and kadis, biographies of 
individuals, biographical dictionaries of different 
classes and professions, even historical pseudographs 
and forgeries. History became an essential part of 
the equipment of an educated man, and as such 
entered into the general concept of adab. 

It is possible, generally speaking, to draw a broad 
line of division between two attitudes to history 
among the educated classes. On the one side stand 
the scientific or serious historians, whose writings 
conform to certain standards of accuracy and 
veracity. By the 5th century these were mostly, 
though not exclusively, officials and courtiers, such 
as Miskawayh (d. 421/1030) and Hilal al-SabP 
(d. 448/1056) in al-'Irak, al-Musabbihl (d. 420/1029) 
in Egypt, and Ibn Hayyan al-Kurtubi (d. 469/ 
1076-7) in Spain, together with a few independent 
scholars, of whom the mathematician and astronomer 
Abu Rayhan al-BIruni (d. 440/1048) is the most 
outstanding. On the same side of the line stand the 
compilers of biographical dictionaries of scholars, 
notably al-Khatib al-Baghdadl (d. 463/1071). On the 
other side are those for whom history is no more 
than a branch of adab, a quarry for ethical or enter- 
taining anecdotes, or an instrument of propaganda, 
as in the biographies of saints, the literature of 
'Alid martyrology, and the largely forged collection 
of 'All's letters and speeches known as Nahdj al- 
Baldgha [See AL-SHARlF AL-RApI]. 

The elaboration of literary prose also, in time, 
invaded the field of historical writing, but only, it 
seems, in the composition of eulogistic dynastic 
annals. The example was set by Ibrahim al-Sabi' 
(d. 384/994) in his lost work al-Tddii on the history 
of the Buwayhids, and was followed by al-'Utbi 
(d. 427/1035) in its counterpart al-Yamini on the 
history of the early Ghaznawids. It may be more 
than coincidence that these works are contemporary 
with the revival of the old Persian historical tradition 
and the Persian epic. At all events, no other examples 
of this style seem to be known until the later Saldjuk 
period (see § IV below). 

(ii) Poetry 
It has ieen pointed out at the beginning of the 
preceding section that from the 3rd century onwards 
poetry was displaced from its former social function 
by the new prose literature. Partly this was due to 
the adaptation of the artistic tradition of the 
'■arabiyya to produce a vigorous prose style, which 
deprived poetry of its previous aesthetic monopoly. 
But to a far greater extent it was the result of 
the wide expansion of intellectual interests, with 
which the poets were unable to keep pace. As at 
the end of the pre-Islamic age, they were prisoners 
of their own conventions, broadened out and 
diversified as these conventions had been during 
the 1st and 2nd centuries. To a certain extent also 
they were the prisoners of their society. In his 
private verse the poet was no doubt free to amuse 



'ARABIYYA 



himself as he pleased, but the doctrine which finally 
prevailed was that his major function was to "im- 
mortalise" his patron by his panegyrical ftasidas: 
a curious and remarkable revival of the tribal 
Junction of the pre-Islamic poet. 

From the literary-historical angle, one of the most 
interesting features of 3rd century poetry is the 
effort made, but without substantial success, to 
break through these conventions in different ways. 
Abu Tammam "al-Ta 3 !" (d. 231/846), a self-taught 
Syrian, tried to revive the weighty sonority of 
beduin poetry and to marry it to the bad? orna- 
mentation of the poets of al-'Irak; at the same time 
he attempted to make his verse the vehicle of a 
more complex structure of thought. His poetry is 
in consequence often strained and overloaded, or 
alternatively relaxed to an excessive degree, although 
it has found warm admirers in both mediaeval and 
modern times. His fellow-townsman and disciple, 
al-Buhturi (d. 284/897), with a more natural gift, 
remained closer to the 'Iraki tradition in his 
smoother and more polished verse. In al- c Irak, on 
the other hand, Ibn al-Rumi (d. 283/896) attempted 
to create a new introspective and analytical poetry, 
in which each poem develops a single theme in an 
organic unity, and which has sometimes, but doubt- 
fully, been genetically linked with his "Greek" 
origin. The originality of this poetry (though marred 
by an excessive sense of grievance) was appreciated, 
but not imitated; and the more typical and influ- 
ential representative of 'Iraki modernism was the 
'Abbasid prince Ibn al-Mu'tazz (d. 296/908), who 
freely adapted traditional themes and metres to 
poetical rasaHl and descriptive verse, corresponding 
to the prose fusul. His innovations in technique and 
ingenuity (including a historical poem in 450 radjaz 
couplets celebrating the reign of his cousin, the 
caliph al-Mu c tadid) rest, however, on the established 
conventions of Arabic poetry; they revise, rather 
than reform, its characteristic methods and outlook. 

From the 4th/ioth century on, such pieces of 
natural description, epistles, poems on social 
occasions and the like constitute, together with 
epigrams and ceremonial kasidas, the stock-in-trade 
of all minor poets in every part of the Muslim world, 
and in varying degrees of excellence. By now the 
use of badi c had become so universal in poetry as to 
be a natural constituent of the finished poetic 
imagination; in the ghazal or wine-song it might 
be allowed to play only a minor part, but no poem 
with any pretensions could be composed without 
it. It required, however, the genius of a greater poet 
to blend in just proportions the Arabian kasida of 
the Syrian school and the smoothness and technical 
ingenuity of the 'Iraki school. This was accomplished 
by Abu '1-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi (d. 354/965), of 
Kiifan origin and an admirer of Ibn al-Rumi and 
Ibn al-Mu'tazz, but Syrian in his poetical appren- 
ticeship, and the brightest ornament of the "Circle 
of Sayf al-Dawla". For skill in construction, felicity 
of language, and mastery of the lapidary phrase, 
al-Mutanabbi has no equal among the later kasid- 
poets, although his chief rival in Aleppo, the 
Hamdanid prince Abu Firas (d. 357/968) may have 
surpassed him in the direct emotional appeal of his 
best poems. A greater rival was his contemporary 
Ibn Hani' al-AndalusI (d. 362/973), the panegyrist 
of the Fatimid caliph al-Mu'izz, whose kasidas 
(sometimes unjustly depreciated on sectarian 
grounds) are more faithful to the pre-Islamic models. 

Little need be said of the later poets in the 
eastern provinces, whose production remains on the 



whole within the frame of subjects, 
and techniques established in the 3rd and 4th cen- 
turies. The leading poets in al-'Irak were the ShlHtes 
al-Sharif al-Radi (d. 406/1015) and Mihyar al- 
Daylami (d. 428/1037), who seem, however, to have 
been less appreciated in their own time than a 
number of writers of popular poetry (in the literary 
language), of which only a few fragments have 
survived. The most notable of 5th century poets 
was the Syrian Abu 'l- c Ala al-Ma'arri (d. 449/1057) ; 
a follower of al-Mutanabbi in his earlier diwan 
(Siftt al-Zand), he broke with convention in his 
later collection of short pieces (Luzum ma lam 
Yalzam), the fame of which, however, probably owes 
less to their poetical quality and elaboration of 
technique than to the unorthodox freedom of the 
ideas which they expressed. 

In the Maghrib and al-Andalus also, the main- 
stream of poetry, like that of Arabic letters in 
general, still flowed in the channels dug for it in 
the East, distinguished only by local colouring. As 
Ibn Hani 5 took Abu Tammam and the pre-Islamic 
bards for his models, so Ibn Zaydun (d. 463/1071) 
followed al-Buhturi — but with an elegance and 
freshness that sometimes surpasses his model — and 
Ibn Darradj (d. 421/1030), the panegyrist of al- 
Mansur b. Abi 'Amir, followed al-Mutanabbi. With 
these may be mentioned, though of later date, the 
Sicilian Ibn Hamdis (d. 527/1132), and among the 
many minor poets the 'Abbadid prince al-Mu'tamid 
(d. 488/1095). During the 5th/nth century, however, 
a new strophic type of poetry, of local inspiration, 
began to be cultivated in Spanish-Arab literary 
circles, but did not reach its full development until 
the following century (see § IV below). 

Bibliography: Z. Mubarak, La Prose arabe 
au IV siicle de I'Htgire, Paris 193 1 (Arabic 
edition, Cairo 1934); M.M. al-Basir, Fi 'l-Adab 
al-'Abbdsi, Baghdad 1949; A. Mez, Die Renais- 
sance des I slams, Heidelberg 1922 (English tr., 
The Renaissance of Islam, London 1937) ; G. E. von 
Grunebaum, A tenth Century Document of Arab 
Literary Theory andCriticism, Chicago 1950; idem., 
The Spirit of Islam as shown in its Literature, 
Studia Islatnica i/i, 1953; H. Ritter, Introduction 
to Asrar al-Balagha of al-Diurdiani. Istanbul 1954; 
Kh. Mardam, Shaqra' al-Sham fi 'l-Karn al- 
Thalith, Damascus 1925; A. al-Makdisi, Umara' 
al-Shi'r al- c Arabi, Beirut 1932; A. Gonzalez 
Palencia, Historia de la Literatura Ardbigo- 
Espaiiola, Barcelona 1928; H. Peres, La Poisie 
andalouse en Arabe classique au XI e siecle, Paris, 
1937, 1953*. 



(IV) Six 



1 Twelfth Centu 



The beginning of the 6th/i2th century witnessed 
the triumph of the two forces which were henceforth 
to dominate the intellectual life of the Arab coun- 
tries: scholasticism and sufism. Both of these 
movements were associated in the Sunni revival 
under the Saldjiiks [q.v.] which, beginning in 
Khurasan in the middle of the 5 th century, spread 
to 'Irak under the Saldjiik sultanate, and to Syria 
and Egypt under its Zankid and Ayyiibid offshoots. 
In the West a similar movement, led by the Berber 
Muhammad b. Tiimart (d. 524/1130) on his return 
from Baghdad, was associated with the Muwahfcid 
(Almohad) regime in the 6th century, and their 
parallel development in the two halves of the Arab 
world was maintained by multiple contacts and 



The chief m 



tor in the spread of scholas- 
s the gradual concentration of all literary 
education in the madrasa [q.v.~], the new type of 
organised college introduced by the vizier Nizam 
al-Mulk ([?.».]; d. 485/1092) into Baghdad for the 
training of '■u.ldma' and administrators, and thence 
spread over the entire Muslim world. The forma- 
lisation of education involved also the formalisa- 
tion of the disciplines taught, and contributed 
powerfully to the substitution of text-book and 
encyclopaedic compilation for original composition. 
This tendency is already visible in the first generation 
of leading scholars at the Nizamiyya madrasa: in 
the philologist al-Tibrlzi (d. 502/1109), a pupil of 
Abu 'l- c Ala al-Ma'arri, whose production was 
confined to schoolworks and commentaries, as also 
was that of his successor al-Djawallkl (d. 539/"45); 
and in the Shafi'I theologians al-Djuwayni Imam al- 
Haiamayn (d. 478/1085) and his pupil Abu Hamid 
al-Ghazali (d. 505/nn), whose earlier works were 
devoted to methodology and the scholastic defence 
of orthodoxy against Hellenistic philosophy and 
Islamic heresy. In their footsteps followed the 
immense majority of Sunni theologians and jurists 
of the later generations, producing a vast literature 
of doctrinal summaries ('abida [?.».], pi. l a^dHd) (the 
most reputed being those of the Hanafl Abu Hafs 
al-Nasafl (d. 537/1132). 'Adud al-DIn al-ldjl (d. 756/ 
1355), and Muh. b. Yusuf al-Sanusi (d. 892/1486))— 
works on fradith (especially the supplement to the 
"Six Books" by Ibn al-Haythaml (d. 807/1405) and 
the; comprehensive Kanz aW-Ummal of the Indian 
£ Ali al-Muttaki (d. 975/1567)— school textbooks of 
law and collections of jatwas; as well as handbooks 
on special branches of it [see fikh] — commentaries 
on the Kur'an or on particular sections of it [see 
tafsir] or on the kird'dt [q.v.~] — and on all of these 
and similar works a ponderous structure of commen- 
tary (shark) an d super-commentary (fidshiya). The 
ShI'a, in turn, on the basis of the 4th and 5th 
century works, produced similar theological and 
dogmatic compends (especially by al-Mutahhar al- 
Hilli, d. 726/1326, and Muhammad BSkir al-MadjlisI, 
d. 1110/1700), textbooks of law, and Kur'an- 
commentaries. 

The exceptions to this increasing stratification 
and narrowing down of scholastic thought are few 
but important. The outstanding original religious 
thinker and reformer, the Hanbalite Ibn Taymiyya 
(d. 728/1328), and his pupil Ibn Kayyim al-Djawziyya 
(d. 751/1350) engaged in a vigorous polemic against 
both the inertia of the schools and the sufl cults, 
but with little success until the revival of his teaching 
by Muhammad b. c Abd al-Wahhab (d. 1206/1791) 
in Central Arabia. In India, an important and 
little-studied school of religious philosophy, founded 
at Djawnpur by Mahmud al-Djawnpuri (d. 1062/ 
1652), remained active for several generations, and 
influenced the work of the religious reformer (Shah) 
Wall Allah al-Dihlawi (d. 1 176/1762). In law, original 
contributions were made to the study of legal 
principles by the Shafi'I Tadj al-DIn al-Subkl (d. 771/ 
1370) and the Hanafl Ibn Nudjaym al-Misri (d. 970/ 
1563). In philology also, fresh minds were occasionally 
brought to the study of the congealed schooltexts, 
as, for example, by the Andalusian Abu Hayyan 
(who, amongst other works, composed grammars of 
Turkish, Persian, and Ethiopic; d. 745/1344) and 
his- Egyptian pupil Ibn Hisham (d. 761/1360). 

The effects of scholasticism were not, however, 
confined to the religious and philological sciences. 
It affected every branch of literary composition, 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



IYYA 593 

not even excluding poetry, by encouraging an 
intellectual tendency to standardisation on the part 
of both writers and readers. Originality of thought, 
though not stifled, reaped little reward, and was 
less valued than the ability to refurbish familiar 

output was enormous, yet characterised in every 
field by a sameness of method and treatment which 
reduces any survey of the literature of this period to 
little more than lists of names. But there was also 
another factor which contributed its share to this 
levelling process. In the vast new territories added to 
the Islamic world between the 7th/i3th and gth/isth 
centuries, as indeed already in Persia and Central 
Asia, although the parallel extension of the madrasa 
system carried with it an extension of the area of 
Arabic scholastic studies, the medium of belles 
lettres and poetry was no longer Arabic, but Persian 
or Turkish. These new literatures, while drawing to 
a greater or less extent on the traditions of Arabic 
literature, not only contributed nothing to Arabic 
letters, but siphoned off the talents which might 
otherwise have rejuvenated Arabic literature or 
opened it up to new experiences. When it is recalled 
how much that had given variety and resilience to 
the literature of the preceding centuries was produced 
or initiated in the Persian provinces, the effect of 
their loss to Arabic letters can be readily appreciated. 

At the same time, the intellectual energy and 
literary taste that displayed themselves in this 
period must not be underrated. Original works of 
belles lettres may be few, but the same vigour and 
freshness of mind that broke through even in the 
scholastic disciplines found other fields of exercise, 
especially in the first four centuries. It was in the 
continuing impulse of the Hellenistic tradition, in 
the immense development of historical composition, 
and under the growing stimulus of sufism that they 
were most active; yet from time to time certain 
writers found ways and means to express their 
interests and personalities in works which bear an 
individual stamp. Amongst memoirs, there are 
some which throw a vivid light upon the authors 
and their times, especially the reminiscences of war 
and the chase of the Syrian Usama b. Munkidh 
(d. 584/1188), the more literary narrative of 'Umara 
of al-Yaman (d. 569/1175), and the autobiography 
of the Tunisian historian Ibn Khaldun (d. 808/1406). 
Among the books of travel, which were stimulated 
more especially by the Pilgrimage, there are some 
which betray a lively interest in the observation of 
manners and customs of other countries; of the 
travellers from the West the most remarkable are 
Abu Hamid al-Gharnatl (d. 565/1169-70), Ibn 
Djubayr (d. 614/1217), and Ibn Battuta of Tangier 
(d. 779/1377), and of those from the East C A1I b. 
Abi Bakr, "the shaykh of Harat" (d. 611/1214). 
Memoirs and travels, it is true, succumbed in most 
cases to the prevailing scholasticism and sufism, 
being reduced to little more than lists of teachers 
and books, or of visitations to religious personnages 
and shrines. But even to a few later travellers we 
owe interesting narratives of missions to different 
parts, such as those of the Moroccans Abu '1-Hasan 
al-Tamghrutl (fl. 1000/1591) and Abu '1-Kasim al- 
Zayanl (d. 1249/1843), and there is even a journal 
of a visit of a Chaldean priest, Ilyas b. Yuhanna, to 
America (1668-83). 

A third and still newer branch of letters which 
flourished for a time was devoted to the arts of 
war, stimulated especially by the Crusades. During 
the following two or three centuries there was a 



594 <ARAE 

considerable output of works on military tactics 
and the handling of weapons, the management of 
horses, and the dphad in general. 

Even in al-Andalus prose literature was largely 
a belated reflection of eastern models, as in the 
"Furstenspiegel" Sirddjal-MulUk of Ibn Abi Randaka 
al-Turtushi (d. 525/1131), the reworking by Ibn 
Tufayl (d. 581/1185) of Ibn Sina's philosophical 
romance tfayy ibn Yafrfdn, and Ibn Hudhayl's 
treatise on horsemanship Tuft/at al-Anfus. Granada, 
however, produced in the versatile Lisan al-Din Ibn 
al-Khatib (d. 776/1374) one of the last all-round 
masters of Arabic literary art. 

In the field of belles Uttres in general, the cult of 
sad? reached its culmination in the 6th/i2th century. 
Rhyming-prose fusul were pressed into the service 
of ethics in the Atwalf al-Dhahab of the philologist 
al-Zamakhshari (d. 538/1143)- Secretarial prose 
received a fresh impulse from the rich and flexible 
insha* of al-Kadi al-Fadil (d. 596/1199), secretary of 
the last Fatimid caliphs and of Saladin; and the 
examples of historical composition in sarff' set by 
al-Sabi' and al-'Utbi were followed and even sur- 
passed by the loquacious virtuosity of 'Imad al-Din, 
known as al-Katib al-Isfahani (d. 597/1201), in his 
histories of the Saldjuks and of Saladin. In the next 
generation, the larts of rhetoric and euphuism were 
reduced to text-book form by the Kh'arizmian al- 
Sakkakl (d. 626/1229) in his Miftdh al-'Uliim, 
probably the most frequently and widely abstracted, 
glossed and commented on of all secular works in 
Arabic literature. But the cult of sad? itself suffered 
some decline in the following centuries, except in 
secretarial insha', in works imitated from or modelled 
on the makdmdt, and in the introductions and 
dedications of books of every kind. It is on the whole 
sparingly used in the new type of homiletic adab 
popularised by the Hanbalite preacher Ibn al- 
Djawzi (d. 597/1200), and even in the numerous 
later anthologies, (lorilegia, and similar works of 
literary compilation. Its reintroduction into such 
works setms to date from the Rayhdnat al-Alibba' 
of the Egyptian stylist Shihab al-Din al-Khafadji 
(d. 1069/1659) and its continuation by Ibn Ma'sum 
(d. 1 104/1692), and it continued thereafter to impose 
a veneer of literary artistry upon utilitarian works 
of various kinds. 

The Hellenistic element in Arabic-Islamic culture 
remained active for several centuries, not only in 
the special fields of medicine, the sciences and 
philosophy, but also in combination with the branches 
of madrasa learning. Medical works based on 
independent study continued indeed to be written 
down to the time of Da'ud al-Antaki (himself the 
the compiler of one of the most celebrated florilegia 
of poetry and adab, extracted from an earlier work 
by al-Sarradj (d. 500/1106); d. 1008/1599). Mathe- 
matics, after the Persian encyclopaedist Naslr 
al-DIn Tusi (d. 672/1273), became increasingly 
confined to astronomy. Philosophy, also culti- 
vated in the East by Tusi and the more orthodox 
encyclopaedist Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. 606/1209), 
but thereafter passing into sufistic metaphysics, 
flowered brilliantly for a time in Muslim Spain with 
Ibn Badjdja (d. 533/11 38), Ibn Tufayl, and the great 
Abu '1-Walid Ibn Rushd (Averroes, d. 595/1198), 
before yielding likewise to sufism with Ibn al-'Arabi 
[see below] and Ibn Sab 'in (d. 668/1269). Scientific 
geography, which attained one of its peaks in 
the world-map and descriptive text compiled by 
the Sharif al-Idrisi for Roger II of Sicily in 548/1154, 
still survived to the time of Abu '1-Fida, sultan of 



Hamah (d. 732/1331), but was already giving way to 
the electic literary art of cosmograph y , exemplified 
by Zakariyya al-Kazwinl (d. 682/1283), Shams al-DIn 
al-Dimashkl (d. 727/1327) and Siradj al-Din Ibn 
al-Wardi (d.c. 850/1446). Natural science was 
cultivated chiefly in the field of medical botany 
(notably by al-Ghafikl, d. 560/1165, and Ibn al- 
Baytar, d. 646/1248), and was included, along with 
a variety of literary materials, in the zoological 
dictionary of al-Damiri (d, 808/1405). 

On a more restricted scale, the Hellenistic legacy 
entered into the encyclopaedic tendency, 
exemplified not only by Tusi and al-Razi, but also 
by many lesser compilers. Encyclopaedism» it 
might be said, was one outlet for scholarship which 
found itself, consciously or unconsciously, cramped 
by the prevailing emphasis on religious studies and 
philology. It took many forms. The simplest and 
most compact was the alphabetical arrangement of 
data in a given field or fields, as in the dictionary 
of nisbas (Kitdb al-Ansab) compiled by Tad] al-DIn 
al-Sam'anl (d. after 551/1156), on the basis of which 
the Greek Yakut compiled his geographical dictionary 
(K. al-Bulddn). The field which offered the widest 
scope for this treatment was that of biography, 
whether general (beginning with the Wa/aydt al- 
A'ydn of Ibn Khallikan. d. 681/1282, and followed by 
others, notably the voluminous Wdfi bi 'l-Wafaydt 
of Khalil b'. Aybak al-Safadi, d. 764/1363), or limited 
to particular classes of savants "and men of letters: 
of scientists by Zahlr al-Din al-Bayhakl (d. 565/1169- 
70) and 'All b. Yusuf al-Kifti (d. 646/1248); of 
physicians by Ibn Abi Usaybi'a (d. 668/1270); of 
philologists by al-Kifti also and by Djalal al-DIn 
al-Suyuti (d. 911/1505); of men of letters by Yakut; 
of jurists of the different schools, notably by Tadj 
al-Din al-Subki (Shafi'ite, d. 771/1370), Ibn Kut- 
lubugha (Hanafite, d. 879/1474), and Ibn Farhun 
(Malikite, d. 799/1397; supplemented by Ahmad 
Baba of Timbuktu, d. 1036/1626); of Kur'an-readers 
by Ibn al-Djazari (d. 833/1429-30); of the Com- 
panions of the Prophet by c Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athlr 
(d. 630/1234) and Ibn Hadjar al-'Askalani (d. 852/ 
1448); of traditionists by Shams al-DIn al-Dhahabi 
(d. 748/1348); and many others. The already esta- 
blished practice of compiling dictionaries of scholars 
and eminent men and women associated with a 
particular city or region was continued on an 
extensive, and sometimes massive, scale, e.g. for 
Damascus by Ibn <Asakir (d. 571/1176), for Aleppo 
by Kamal al-Din Ibn al-'Adim (d. 660/1262), for 
Egypt by Taki al-Din al-Makrizi (d. 845/1442), for 
al-Andalus by Ibn Bashkuwal (d. 578/1183) and 
Ibn al-'Abbar (d. 658/1260), for Granada by Ibn 
al-Khatib, for the Ottoman empire by Tashkopruzada 
(d. 968/1560), in addition to many other biographical 
works less systematically arranged. A novel principle, 
introduced by Ibn Hadjar al-'Askalani, was to 
organise biographical dictionaries by centuries; his 
dictionary of notabilities of the 8th century (al- 
Durar al-Kdmina) was followed for the 9th by al- 
Sakhawi (d. 902/1497), for the 10th by Nadjm al-Din 
al-GhazzI (d. 1061/1651) (supplemented with special 
reference to South Arabia and Gudjarat by Ibn al- 
Aydarus, d. 1038/1628), for the nth by al-Muhibbl 
(d. mi/1699), and for the 12th by al-Muradl 
(d. 1206/1791). A concise summary for the first 
millenium, in order of years, was compiled by Ibn 
al-'Imad al-Hanbali (d. 1089/1678). Here too may 
be mentioned the bibliographical encyclopaedia 
(Kashf al-Zunun) made by the Turkish scholar 
Katib Celebi Hadjdji Khalifa (d. 1068/1658), and the 



elaborate dictionary, of technical terms (Itfildhat al- 
Funun) written in 1 158/1745 by the Indian Muham- 
mad 'All al-TahanawI. 

A second direction taken by encyclopaedism was 
to combine several branches of learning in a single 
work. Al-Nuwayri (d. 732/1332) dealt in Nihayat 
ai-Arab with geography, natural 
universal history; and the Egyptian 
Kalkashandi (d. 821/14 18) combined and supple- 
mented two works by his predecessor al-'Umari 
(d. 748/1348) in his $ubb al-A<shd, to serve as a 
manual of history, geography and chancery proce- 
dure, and to supply models of inshd 3 for the secre- 

More frequently, however, the encyclopaedists 
wrote separate works on a variety of subjects. The 
physician c Abd al-Latlf al-Baghdadl (d. 629/1231), 
for example, wrote not only on medicine, but also 
on hadUh and literary subjects, as well as a remark- 
able "Description of Egypt". The historians in 
particular were fertile in many fields besides history, 
and the Mamluk period in Egypt closes appropriately 
with the greatest polygraph in Islam, Djalal al-Din 
al-Suyuti (d. 911/1505), who in 
graphs presented an almost complete conspectus of 
the entire range of religious sciences and Arabic 
humanities. 

In the secular sciences, the most impressive 
production was in the field of history. The Sunni 
movement encouraged the revival of the "universal 
history" (often conjoined with, 
shadowed by, necrology), begun by al-Muntazam of 
Ibn al-Djawzi (d. 597/1200), expanded in the 
magisterial Kdmil of Ibn al-Athir (d. 630/1234), and 
continued with varying emphases by Sibt ibn al- 
Djawzi (d. 654/1257), al-Nuwayri, Abu '1-Fid5, al- 
Dhahabl, Ibn Kathir (d. 774/i373>, 'Abd al-Rahman 
Ibn Khaldun (d. 808/1406) and al-'Aynl (d. 855/1451)- 
Regional and dynastic chronicles were cultivated in 
every province from Central Asia to West Africa, 
and more especially by the sequence of major 
historians in Mamluk Egypt (al-Makrizi, d. 845/1442; 
Ibn yadjar, d. 852/1449; Ibn Taghribirdi, d. 874/ 
1469; Ibn Iyas, d. 930/1524) and those of the 
Maghrib down to the I3th/i9th century (see E. Levi- 
Provencal, Les Historiens des Chorfa, Paris 1922). 
Rashid al-Din (d. 718/1318), the historian of the 
Mongols, produced an Arabic version of his work; 
the history of the Berbers was exhaustively treated 
by Ibn Khaldun; that of the Muslims in Spain \ 
comprehensively summed up by al-Makkari (d. 1041/ 
1632) in Nafb al-Tib; that of the Muslims i * " 
to his own time by al-Asafi al-Ulughkhanl (d. after 
1020/1611); and the Muslim negrolands likewise pro- 
duced their historians, notably al-Sa'dl of Timbuktu 
(d. after 1066/1656). So great a concentration upon 
history could scarcely fail to produce some reflection 
upon the principles and methods of historical 
writing, as in the scholastic defence of history by 
al-SakhawI (d. 902/1497); and it was out of such 
roots that there sprang the bold and original theories 
of society put forward by Ibn Khaldun in the justly 
celebrated "Prolegomena" (Mukaddima) I 
versal history. It is noteworthy that after the 
brilliant works of 'Imad al-Din al-Isfahanl the 
ornate style of rhyming-prose chronicle was largely 
discarded in favour of plain annalistic, and is 
represented only by two later works of any impor- 
tance in Arabic literature: a history of the Mamluk 
sultans by Ibn Habib al-Dimashki (d. 779/1377) and 
the virulent history of Timur by another Damascene, 
Ibn 'Arabshah (d. 845/1450). On a smaller scale, but 



IYYA 595 

also conceived primarily as a work of adab, was the 
popular Fiirslenspiegel and anecdotal history of the 
caliphs and their viziers compiled, under the title 
of al-Fakhri, by the 'Iraki Ibn al-Tiktaka in 701/1301. 

The growing fixation of the traditional literary 
arts bore with especial weight upon the secular 
poetry of this period. Diwans abound, but few of the 
more classical poets gained more than a fleeting 
reputation except the 'Iraki Safi al-DIn al-Hilli 
(d. 749/1349), the Syrian Ibn Hidjdja al-Hamawi 
(d. 837/1434), and of the lyrical poets Baha al-DIn 
Zuhayr "of Egypt" (d. 656/1258). A panegyric on 
the Prophet, known as al-Burda, composed in elabo- 
rate badi* by the Egyptian al-Busiri (d. 694/1296), 
became and has remained one of the classics of 
religious poetry. The poetic art found more congenial 
expression in newer patterns of strophic poetry, 
related in the East to the popular mawdl and dubayt, 
and already partially exploited by al-HarW. In al- 
Andalus the more complex strophic art of the 
muwaskshalt [q.v.] was given finished form by the 
blind poet al-Tutlli (d. 523/1129) and Ibn Baki 
(d. 540/1 145-6). Although it owed something to 
popular poetry in its origin, the muwashshalta, as a 
developed literary form, retained only in its final 
line (khardia) a trace of its provincial source and was 
cultivated as a courtly art in Spain, becoming a 
highly ornate lyric with musical accompaniment. 
In this function it was transplanted to the East by 
Ibn Sana 5 al-Mulk (d. 608/1211), and continued to 
flourish there for a time, but as a formalised art 
which lacked the freshness and apparent spontaneity 
of the earlier Andalusian poets. [For the muteasAsAafc 
in sufl poetry, see below.] Of the more genuinely 
popular poetry using the vulgar speech very little 
has survived, except for the zadjal [q.v.] poems of 
the Andalusian Ibn Kuzman (d. 555/1160), the 
satyrical flazz al-Kub&f of the Egyptian al-Shirblnl 
(c. 1098/1687), and the shi'r malhun of the Maghrib 
and of the Yaman. An isolated attempt made by the 
oculist and wit Ibn Daniyal (d. 710/1310) to give a 
place in literature to the popular shadow-play 
seems to have met with no success. On the other 
hand, the popular romances celebrating the epics 
of the Banu Hilal in Arabia and Africa and the Banu 
Kilab against the Greeks, and the exploits of various 
heroic or legendary figures ('Antar, SidI Battal, the 
Yamanite Sayf b. .DM Yazan, and the Mamluk 
sultan Baybars) reached in these centuries the 
climax of their development, together with the 
miscellaneous collections of popular tales, drawn 
from all ages and strata, out of which the Alf Layla 
wa-Layla finally emerged in a more or less esta- 
blished form about the gth/isth century. 

The literary output of the sufi movement in Arabic 
was at first small in bulk compared to the scholastic 
literature described above, but of much greater 
significance in the cultural development of Islam. 
The 6th century opened with the epoch-making 
reconciliation of ta$awu/uf with orthodoxy in IHya* 
<-l)lum al-Din of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, and the 
equally orthodox homilies and writings of the 
Hanbalite c Abd al-Kadir al-DjIU (or Gilani) (d. 561/ 
1 166). The sufl khdnkdh or zduiiya everywhere took 
its place alongside the madrasa in the Sunni reviva- 
list movement, and received the same patronage 
from the governing classes. It was not long, however, 
before the sufl movement began to develop its own 
systems of theology and metaphysics. The "oriental" 
platonist and illuminationist (ishrdki) doctrines were 
restated by Shihab al-Din Yahya al-Suhrawardl 
(executed by order of Saladin in 587/1 191, and hence 



596 C ARA1 

known as al-maktul), in opposition to the Aristotelian 
school; but another SuhrawardI, Shihab al-Dln 
'Umar (d. 632/1234) issued a more orthodox exposi- 
tion of ishrdfri mysticism in l Awdrif al-Ma'drif. Both 
works had a deep and lasting influence in the East, 
but much less in the Arab world. Here the new 
monistic mysticism (wahdai al-wudjud) was founded, 
on a basis of neoplatonism and Moroccan sufism, 
by the Murcian Muhyl al-DIn Ibn al-'Arabl (d. in 
Damascus 638/1240), carried to Anatolia by this 
pupil al-KonawI (d. 672/1273), and spread still more 
widely by the ordered exposition of its metaphysics 
in al-Insdn al-Kdmil of Kutb al-DIn al-Djill (d. 832/ 
1428). 

The prose literature of Arabic sufism down to the 
ioth/i6th century offers little that calls for remark. 
Paraenetic in function, it gradually became affected 
by the scholasticism of the madrasa, especially as in 
course of time the 'ulamd themselves were increa- 
singly drawn into the ranks of the sufi orders. At 
a more popular level it produced a voluminous body 
of hagiography, more interested in the miracles of 
the saints than in their teachings, illustrated at one 
extreme by al-Shattanawfi's (d. 713/1314) manakib 
of 'Abd al-Kadir al-Djilanl (Bahdjat al-Asrdr), at 
the other by the lives of the saints of the Moroccan 
rif (al-Maksad) by c Abd al-Hakk al-Badisi (d. after 
722/1322). More important was its poetical output, 
which, though never rising to the heights of the 
great sufi poetry of Persia, played a considerable role 
in stimulating and conserving the religious enthu- 
siasm of its adepts among both the literate and the 
illiterate. Its chief characteristic was the adaptation 
of the themes of love and wine songs, whether in the 
ornate styles of the traditional art-poetry or in 
popular verse, to those of Divine Ix>ve and ecstasy. 
The most gifted representative of the former is the 
Egyptian 'Umar b. al-Farid (d. 632/1235), but in 
bulk of output he is far surpassed by Ibn al-'Arabl 
himself, who displayed an astonishing virtuosity in 
modelling his mystical poems not only on pre- 
Islamic and 'Abbasid odes, but also in the form of 
muwashskahas. His most highly esteemed successors 
in this art were the disciple of his pupil al-ftonawl, 
'Aflf al-DIn al-Tilimsani (d. 690/1291), and the 
latter's son Shams al-DIn, known as al-Shabb al- 
£arif (d. 688/1289). 

The rapid desiccation of most other branches of 
literary activity which followed the Ottoman con- 
quest of Syria and Egypt at the beginning of the 
ioth/i6th century gave an added impulse to sufi 
activity, which almost alone displayed an element 
of vigour, though often expressed in extravagant 
and even fantastic terms, as in the writings of the 
Egyptian c Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'ranl (d. 973/1565). 
The outstanding figure in the Arabic literature of 
the Ottoman period was c Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi 
(d. 1143/1731), not only for his theological and sufi 
treatises, but also as a poet and the originator of a 
new kind of mystical travel-literature in rhyming 
prose. Almost all the later 18th-century writers of 
Egypt and Syria came directly or indirectly under 
his influence, which reached even to the Maghrib. 
In the East, the prevailing sufi philosophy continued 
to follow the ishraki school, which through the 
Persians Sadr al-DIn Shirazl (d. 1050/1640) and his 
pupil Fayd al-Kashl (d. after 1090/ 1679) influenced 
both the Indian schools of sufism and the founder of 
the reformist ShI'ite school of the Shaykhls, Ahmad 
al-Ahsal (d. 1 242/1827). Only at the end of this 
period there appeared the first indications of a 
return to earlier orthodox sufism, with the writings 



of Murtada al-Zabldi, of Indian birth but domiciled 
in Egypt (d. 1205/1791), and among the Shadhiliyya 
in the Maghrib. 

Bibliography: J. Rikabi, La Poisie profane 
sous les Ayyubides, Paris 1949; C A. L. Hamza, 
al-Haraka al-Fikriyya ft Misr . . ., Cairo, n.d. ; 
G. Graf, Gesch. d. christlichen arabischen Literatur, 
ii, hi, Vatican City 1947-9; and see alsoTASAwwuF. 

(V) Modern Arabic Literature 

(a) To 1914 

The term "modern Arabic literature" implies a 
development differing from, and a degree of change 
greater than, a simple revival of literary activity, 
whether within the narrower circle of the philo- 
logical arts or in the wider humanistic range of the 
3rd and following centuries. Such minor local revivals 
had occurred from time to time, as, for example, in 
Aleppo under the influence of the Maronite archbishop 
Djarmanus Farhat (1670-1732), and in Baghdad in 
the first half of the I2th/i8th century (see al-AlusI, 
al-Misk al-Adhfar, Baghdad 1348/1930). In the 
I3th/igth century also, the rise of a new literature 
was preluded by a sustained movement for the 
revival of classical Arabic and an output of literary 
works directly or indirectly inspired by classical 
models. The first object of the leaders of this move- 
ment was to rescue the Arabic language from its 
degeneration in the preceding centuries and to 
restore the heritage of classical literary art; in its 
purest form it is represented by Nasif al-Y5zidJI 
(1800-1871) among the Syrians, by Nasr al-Hurinl 
(d. 1874) and C AH Pasha Mubarak (1823-93) in 
Egypt, and by Mahmud ShukrI al-AlusI (1857-1923) 
in 'Irak. All of these, and many others, were con- 
sciously ambitious to revive the classical traditions, 
both in their pedagogical work, and in their original 
productions, e.g. al-Yazidji's makdmdt (Madima* 
al-Bahrayn) in the manner of al-Harirl, 'All Pasha's 
al-Khitat al-Tamfikiyya in continuation of al- 
Makrizi, and al-Alusi's adab collection Bulugh al-Arab. 

Alongside these, but also fundamentally sharing 
their aims, was another group of writers who were 
led by circumstances or personal choice into closer 
contact with the literature and the ideas of the 
western world. The first major impulse in this 
direction was given by the needs of the military 
academies set up by the viceroy of Egypt, Muham- 
mad 'All, for translations of technical works from 
the French, together with the establishment of a 
printing press in Egypt in 1828, and others scon 
afterwards in Syria. The chief of the Egyptian 
translators was Rifa'a Bey Rafi' al-TahtawI (<j. 1873), 
whose original works included a vivid narrative of. 
his experiences in France as imam of the Egyptian 
educational mission, and many later educational 
handbooks. It is questionable how widely the large 
body of translated technical works of this period 
circulated, or how far they affected the outlook 
of men of letters ; but it seems clear that for Rifa'a 
Bey and others like him the western materials 
which they used in their literary works were 
simply adjuncts embedded in the framework of the 
established Islamic categories or (in the case of 
their translations from French literature) supple- 
ments to them. The literary productions of the 
contemporary Lebanese scholars who were in 
contact with the western educational missions in 
Syria, and in particular Butrus al-Bustanl (1819-83), 
Afcmad Fans al-Shidyak (1801-87), and Naslf's son 
Ibrihlm al-YazidjI (1847-1906), as also of the 



Tunisian Muhammad Bayram (1840-89), were to a 
large extent similarly motivated; but along with 
this all these men were also among the creators of 
the new Arabic periodical press and experimenting 
in the formation of a modern journalistic medium. 

The development of the new periodical press in 
Egypt, at first largely under Syrian direction but 
soon followed by a vigorous native Egyptian produc- 
tion, provided the real forcing-bed of modern 
Arabic literature. During the last decades of the 
19th century and the first decade of the 20th, the 
press was the theatre in which (except for poetry) 
literary reputations were made and literary Arabic 
was adapted to modern social themes and currents 
of ideas. This did not exclude the widest diversity 
in literary styles: the strict but vigorous classicism 
of Muhammad 'Abduh (1849-1905), the modernised 
makamat of Muhammad al-Muwaylihl (1868-1930), 
the elegant neoclassicism of Mustafa Lutfl al- 
Manfaluti (1876-1924), the functional prose of 
Djirdji Zaydan (1861-1914), Ya'kub Sarruf (1852- 
1927) and Kasim Amin (1865-1908), the fiery 
rhetoric of Wall al-Din Yakun (1873-1921) and 
Mustafa Kamil (1874-1908), the satirical colloqui- 
alism of Ya'kub §annu c "Abu Naddara" {1839-1912) 
and c Abd Allah Nadim (1844-96). At the same time 
the Syrian press transported to America was 
producing a type of literary essay and Whitmanesque 
"prose poems" which entirely discarded the classical 
traditions and even sought to remodel the linguistic 
structure in part; its leading figures were Djibran 
Khalil Djibran (1883-1931) and Amin al-Rayhani 
(1877-1940). 

This stylistic experimentation in the press in the 
treatment of modern themes was reinforced by a 
very extensive output of translations of European 
works of literature, often by the same hands. Of the 
translations so made few have much claim to 
literary distinction, except those made by al-Man- 
falutl and perhaps one or two others. But the 
activity in translation played a vital part in the 
development of modern Arabic literature. "It may 
be said that, just as the works of an Ibn al-Mukaffa' 
or an al-Djahi? would have been impossible without 
the translators of the 'Abbasid period, so without the 
translators of the 19th century modern Arabic 
literature could never have been called into exis- 
tence" (Kratchkowsky). The translated works served 
not only as exercises in expanding the range of 
Arabic literary expression, but also as models. Not 
a few translators themselves tried their hands at 
original works of a similar kind, and many others 
were stimulated to original composition by them. 
In the former group, the most interesting are the 
attempts to develop a dramatic literature. The 
earliest of these were made by the Syrian Marun 
al-Nakkash (1817-55), inspired by Moliere; he was 
followed by Nadjib al-Haddad (1867-99), in the 
style of Corneille, Hugo, A. Dumas and Shakespeare, 
and more successfully, by the Egyptian Muhammad 
c Uthman Djalal (1828-98), who adapted Moliere to 
Egyptian settings and speech, besides producing a 
remarkable adaptation in literary Arabic of Paul et 
Virginie. In spite of this, however, it cannot be said 
that the Arabic drama achieved much success in the 
19th century. On the other hand, some progress was 
made with the novel, particularly in the series of 
historical novels written in the manner of Scott by 
Pjirdji Zaydan and the psychological novel Uriishalim 
al-Diadida by Farah Antfln (1874-1922). Many other 
original compositions also depend largely on Euro- 
pean materials, e.g. the politico-social writings of 



IYYA 597 

•Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi (1849-1903), while the 
literature of the nascent Egyptian feminist move- 
ment, illustrated by 'A'isha al-Taymuriyya (1840- 
1902), Malak Hifni NSsif (1886-1918), and Kasim 
Amin, betrays its original inspiration even though 
adapted to its own social and literary environment. 
In the sphere of poetry, on the other hand, the 
continuing classical tradition far outweighed any 
literary influences from the west down to 1914. 
With the rise of nationalism, its range was widened 
by patriotic themes, developed first by Mahmud 
Sami al-Barudi (1839-1904), then with more classical 
polish by Ahmad Shawkl (1868-1932) and more 
depth of social feeling by Muhammad Hafi? Ibrahim 
(1871-1932). But neither the new themes, whether 
patriotic or social or individual, nor the techniques 
of western poetry affected to any marked extent the 
long-established structure, genres, and modes of 
expression of Arabic poetry (in the hands, at least, 
of its most competent artists). The only outstanding 
exceptions are found in 'Irak, where the native 
Arabic poetic tradition had remained more vigorous 
and less cramped by artifice than in Syria and Egypt 
in the previous centuries. In more unconventional 
forms and freer language Djamll Sidki al-Zahawi 
(1867-1936), and with more classical restraint Ma'ruf 
al-Rusafl (1875-1945), both achieved an authentic 
expression of current ideas and aspiration. An 
isolated attempt to acclimatise Greek poetry in 
Arabic was made by Sulayman al-Bustani (1856- 
1925) with his translation of the Iliad (1904); in 
itself not unsuccessful as a translation, it never- 
theless failed to make much impression. 

(b) Since 1914 

In contrast to the preceding period, which was 
on the whole a period of experiment and imitation 
in modern Arabic prose, the decades since 1914 have 
seen the beginnings of a new and original Arabic 
literature which to a much greater extent reflects 
the social and intellectual interests of the Arab 
peoples. A leading part in this development was taken 
by the "liberal" group of Egyptian writers, inspired 
by Muhammad c Abduh, who were associated with 
the journal al-Diarida (issued from 1907, edited by 
Ahmad Lutfl al-Sayyid) and its successor al-Siydsa 
(from 1922, edited by Muh. Husayn Haykal); but 
the movement itself soon extended widely beyond 
this circle. The principal types of production were 
at first the short story (followed by the novel) and 
the literary essay; later on these were followed by 
the literary drama. 

The first major work of the new school was 
Zaynab, a noval of Egyptian village life, published 
anonymously in 1914 by M. H. Haykal (b. 1888). 
In spite of its merits, the technical weaknesses of 
the work threw a sharp light on the deficiencies of 
literary Arabic at that time for the adequate presen- 
tation of the novel of manners. During the decade 
1920-30 these were largely surmounted by a growing 
output of realistic short stories of contemporary life, 
beginning with the sketches (Ma Tarahu 'l-'Uyun) 
of the talented Muhammad Taymur (1891-1921), 
and continued With increasing skill and success by 
his brother Mahmud Taymur (b. 1894) and by 
several others ('Isa c Ubayd, Shihata 'Ubayd, Tahir 
Lashln, etc.). The most brilliant stylist in this field 
was Ibrahim 'Abd al-Kadir al-Mazinl (1890-1949), 
who eventually produced also the first successful 
novel of manners (Ibrahim al-Katib, 1931). From 
1930 the output of novels slowly increased, among 
the more notable of the earlier works being c Au>dat 



598 C ARAI 

al-Rik (by Tawfik al-Haklm, 1933), Sara (by 
'Abbas Mahmud al- c Akkad, 1938), and Nidd al- 
Madikul (by Mahmud Taymur, 1939)- The histo- 
rical novel had already been recreated by Muham- 
mad Farld Abu Hadld with Ibnat al-Mamluk (1926). 
The psychological novel also was successfully 
attempted on a smaller scale by Taha Husayn 
(b. 1889), who in his autobiographical work al-Ayyam 
(1926)' endowed modern Egyptian literature with 
one of its masterpieces in content and literary style. 
Innumerable short stories have been produced also 
in Lebanon, Syria, 'Irak and America, with the 
variations in subject, style and technique which one 
would expect. The output of novels, on the other 
hand, has been more fluctuating, and is still relatively 
small in proportion to the total literary production. 
The literary essay envisaged a different purpose. 
It aimed not only at the critical evaluation of both 
classical Arabic and modern western literature (ex- 
tending sometimes even to classical Greek and 
Latin literature) and social criticism in general, but 
also at the valorisation of the Arabic cultural 
tradition, in the widest sense, in the circumstances 
of the modern world. The rapid increase in 
daily, weekly and monthly journals after 1920 
provided endless opportunities for the publication 
of such essays, and the representation of all points 
of view. The collected essays of many writers were 
subsequently reissued as separate works, whose 
very profusion makes it difficult and invidious 
to single out individual names. It must suffice to 
mention, from among the older generation of writers, 
Taha Husayn and al- c Akkad as particularly influen- 
tial thipkers and critics on the modernist wing; 
Shaykh Rashid Rida (the editor of the reformist 
religious journal al-Manar, 1865-1935) and Farld 
Wadjdl as equally influential in conservative and 
religious circles; Mustafa Sadik al-Rafi'I (1880-1937), 
who carried neo-classicism to the verge of preciosity ; 
in Syria, the classicist Muhammad Bey Kurd c Ali 
(president of the Arab Academy of Damascus, 
1876-1952); and of the Syro-Americans Mikhail 
Nu'ayma (b. 1889). Out of this more or less 
ephemeral production there gradually arose a more 
developed literature of literary and social criticism, 
with a dominantly academic bias, but also borrowing 
in some hands (e.g. Tawfik al-Haklm) the technique 
of the novel, and even other literary media, as in 
the scientific travel narrative al-Sindibad al-'Asri 
by Husayn Fawzl (1938). Another noteworthy 
later development was the application of these 
newer literary methods to the early history of Islam, 
exemplified by M. H. Haykal, Taha Husayn, and 
al- c Akkad, and in dramatic form, somewhat earlier, 
by Tawfik al-Haklm. 

The technical advance made in the presentation 
of the realistic narrative and novel was reflected 
also in dramatic literature. With few exceptions, the 
lead was taken by Egyptian authors, beginning 
again with Muhammad Taymur, and continued more 
especially by Tawfik al-Haklm, who, after some 
experiments in literary -drama on themes drawn 
from Islamic literature ( A hi al-Kahf, Muhammad, 
Shahrazad) , has shown himself a major dramatist on 
modern social themes. Together with these may be 
mentioned the experiments made by the poet 
Ahmad Shawki to create a literary genre of "clas- 
sical tragedy", based on traditional Arab themes, 
followed more recently by Mahmud Taymur. 

Among the technical problems confronted by the 
Arabic drama, and to a lesser degree by the short 
story and novel, the question of language 



a peculiar difficulty. In the purely literary drama 
and in historical plays generally the use of the 
written language needs no justification; but in the 
contemporary realistic drama this involves a degree 
of artificiality which tends to destroy the theatrical 
effect. Whereas, however, the popular theatre has 
always flourished on plays in the colloquial language, 
the attempts made to produce a more developed 
drama in colloquial speech have neither been 
markedly successful on the stage nor met with 
much approbation in literary circles. Even in the 
short story the introduction of colloquial speech 
in dialogue (attempted in their earlier works by 
Mahmud Taymur and Tawfik al-Haklm) was felt 
to involve a stylistic dislocation, and has not been 
commonly practised. Even less consideration has 
been given to more ambitious attempts to produce 
literary works in the colloquial throughout, chiefly by 
Lebanese writers and poets. A definite solution of 
this problem is not yet in sight, but for the time 
being a working compromise is provided by the use 
of a simplified form of the literary language for 
dialogue both on the stage and in the novel. 

At the same time, and in the opposite direction, 
one consequence of the vogue of the literary essay 
has been to mobilise more effectively the resources 
of classical Arabic, and to facilitate the growth of 
a neo-classical style in the novel and general literature 
since 1940. With the richer and more flexible range 
of vocabulary and construction thus made available, 
together with the more technical concentration of 
meaning in modern Arabic (in contrast to the conr 
ceptual looseness of the older literary language), the 
contemporary writer has at his disposal an instrument 
which can express with grace and precision all 
normal aspects of contemporary Arab life and 
thought. Beyond this range, however, neo-classical 
Arabic is still deficient in both the fine nuances and 
the contextual associations which are the product 
only of long use and habit. For this reason, the 
attempt (first made by Bishr Faris, in his play 
Mafrak al-Tarik, 1938) to create a symbolist or 
impressionist style in modern Arabic must be con- 
sidered premature. 

This applies even more especially to the poetical 
production of recent years. Since 1914, the situation 
of prose and poetry have been reversed. Whereas in 
prose- writing Arabic authors, after the period of trans- 
lation and imitation, moved on to original composi- 
tions, Arabic poetry has moved towards the freedom 
of western poetry and the imitation of its techniques. 
On the one hand, the intensity of political aspirations 
and frustrations could not fail to inspire many poets 
in the Arab countries (particular mention may be 
made of the Tunisian Abu '1-Kasim al-Shabbl. 
1909-34), who have applied traditional themes and 
imagery to modern situations with great effect, most 
of the younger poets have been experimenting with 
the creation of a psychological poetry in new 
strophic and rhythmical forms, and wrestling with 
the traditional linguistic structure and its associa- 
tions. The Syro-American poets were the first to 
challenge the traditional formalism, and have been 
followed particularly by the Lebanese poets in Brazil 
(Rashid Salim al-Khuri and Fawzl Ma'luf, 1899-1930), 
in North America (Ilya Abu MadI), and in Lebanon 
itself (Ilyas Abu Shabaka, 1903-47, and others). The 
leader of the '!new school" in Egypt was Ahmad ZakI 
Abu Shadi (1892-1955), whose magazine A polio for a 
short time (1932-3) provided a forum for the younger 
poets, in competition with the older "modernising" 
school represented by the Lebanese Khalil Matran 



(1871-1949). an d with greater freedom by al-'Akkad, 
which, though no less contemporary in subject and 
psychological approach, made a less violent breach 
with the formal and linguistic traditions of Arabic 
poetry. Much the same may be said also of the 
contemporary poetry of 'Irak, within the frame- 
work of its own tradition. 

Bibliography: Brockelmann, S III; Dj. 
Zaydan, Ta'rikk Adab al-Lugka al-'Arabiyya, iv 
Cairo 1914; L. Cheikho, Ta'rikk ai-Addb al-'Ara- 
biyya fi 'l-lfarn al-Tasi'ashar, Beirut 1924-26; ibid. 
T. al-A. al-'A. fi 'l-Rub' al-awwal min al-Iiarn al- 
'Iskrin, Beirut 1926; c Umar al-Dasukl, Fi 'l-Adab 
al-tjadttk, Cairo 1950; Anls al-MakdisI, al-'Awdmil 
al-Fa"dla fi 'l-Adab al'Arabi al-ffaditk, Cairo 1939 ; 
idem, al-Ittidjakdt al-Adabiyya fi 'l- c Alam al- 
t Arabi allfaditk; Beirut 1952; F. Tarrazi, Ta'rikk 
al-Sikafa al- c Arabiyya, i-ii, Beirut 1913, iii, Beirut 
1914, iv, Beirut 1933; 'Abd al-Latlf Hamza, 
A dab al-Makdla al-Sakafiyya fi Misr, Cairo 
'949-53; I- Kratchkowsky, El 1 , Supplement 
(enlarged Russian ed. in Zap.', 1934); idem, Die 
Litteratur der arabischen Emigranten in Amerika, 
MO, 1927, 192-213; idem, Der kist. Roman in d. 
neueren arab. Litteratur, WI, 1930, 51-87; H. A. R. 
Gibb, Studies in Contemporary Arabic Literature, 
i-iv, BSOS 1928, 1929, 1933; T. Khemiri and 
G. Kampffmeyer, Leaders in Contemporary Arabic 
Literature, WI, 1930, 1-40 (with Arabic texts) ; 
J. Lecerf, La Litt. arabe moderne, RA, 1931 ; idem, 
Litt. dialectale et Renaissance arabe moderne, BEO, 
1932-33; C. C. Adams, Islam and Modernism in 
Egypt, London 1933; H. Peres, Les premieres 
Manifestations de la Renaissance arabe en Orient 
au XIX' siicle, AIEO 1935; idem, Le Roman etc. 
dans la litt. arabe moderne, AIEO 1937; idem, 
La litt. arabe et I' I slam par les textes, les XIX' et 
XX' siicles, 4th ed., Algiers 1949 (full bibliography) 
N. Barbour, The Arabic Theatre in Egypt, BSOS, 
1935-7; F- Gabrieli, Corrente e figure delta leti. 
araba contemporanea, OM 1939; L. Veccia Vaglieri, 
Notizie biobibliografiche su autori arabi moderni, 
AISON 1940; A. J. Arberry, Modern Arabic 
Poetry, London 1950; Yusuf As c adDaghir, Masddir 
al-Dirisa al- c Arabiyya, ii, Beirut 1956. 

(H. A. R. Gibb) 

Appendix — Arabic Literature in Spain*). 

General bibliograpky : Apart from the general 
histories of Arabic literature (see above, B), which 
devote one or more chapters to Muslim Spain, the 
work of A. Gonzalez Palencia, Historia de la literatura 
aMbigo-espaHola, Barcelona, Madrid, etc., 1928, 2nd. 
ed. 1945 (a recast edition, with an extensive biblio- 
graphy) is the only comprehensive work which 
exists on Arabic literature in Al-Andalus. A brief 
general account will be found in: Ellas Teres Sadaba, 
La Literatura Ardbigo-espanola, apud F. M. Pareja, 
Islamologia, ii, Madrid 1954, 979 ff. Apart from a 
few monographs on authors (see under the names 
of these authors) and, fewer still, on periods, 
specialists have been primarily concerned with the 
production of short studies (such as are to be found 
in the journal al-Andalus in particular); the following, 
however, should be mentioned; for poetry : E. Garcia 
G6mez, Poemas ardbigo-andaluces, Madrid 1930, 
•1940, '1943; idem, Poesia arabigoandaluza, breve 



*) Circumstances beyond our control have obliged 
us to insert here an article which, in a more expanded 
form, was originally designed to form part of the 
article al-andalus. [Editors' note]. 



YYA 599 

sintesis kistdrica, Madrid 1952; for history and 
geography : F. Pons Boigues, Ensayo biobibliografico 
sobre los kistoria/lores y gedgrafos ardbigo-espanoles, 
Madrid 1898 ;,ln addition : E. Levi-Provencal, La 
Civilisation arabe en Espagne. Vue gtntrale, Cairo 1938, 
'Paris 1948 (Spanish translation, Buenos-Aires-Mexico 
1953); Dozy, Recherckes sur I'kistoire et la litt. de 
l' Espagne pendant le moyen &ge, Leiden 1849, *i86o, 
•1881. 

1. — Down to the Almoravids (92-485/711-1092). 

2. — From the Almoravids to the end of the period 
of Arab domination (485-897/1092-1492). 

It would certainly be possible, if not desirable, in 
a more detailed account of the history of Arabic 
literature in Spain, to distinguish five or six periods 
corresponding to the political history of the country 
under Arab domination, but, for the purposes of 
this article, it seemed simpler to keep to a division 
into two long periods of four centuries each, in order 
to take into account two facts: first, up to the time 
of the Almoravids, Spain was governed by amirs, 
caliphs and kings who, although defenders of Islam, 
did not act in the name of strict religious principles, 
while the Almoravids and Almohads were prisoners 
of an ideology; secondly and reciprocally, up to the 
end of the kingdoms of the Jawa>if, profane literature, 
especially poetry, predominated over religious 
literature proper, whereas after the Almoravids, the 
religious sciences — and, through a shift of emphasis, 
science pure and simple — took precedence over 
profane literature. In addition, the Arabic literature 
of Spain seems scarcely to have experienced any 
sudden setbacks, despite an unusually turbulent 
political and military history; it appears on the 
contrary to have pursued a steadily upwards path 
until the 5th/nth century; it then altered course 
somewhat, and came to an abrupt end when the 
last Arabs were driven out of Spain. 

(1) Down to the Almoravids (92-485/71 1-1092) 

When the conquerors set foot on Spanish soil, at 
the end of the ist/beginning of the 8th century, 
Arabic literature was still only represented, in the 
East, by the JCur'an and the religious sciences, as 
yet in their infancy, and by a lively poetic muse. It 
is therefore probable that the Arab warriors, who 
were poets to a greater or lesser degree, respected 
the old tradition, but probably confined their 
literary activity to the composition of a few poems 
designed to extol their tribe, celebrate their military 
exploits, lament their dead, or bewail their exile 
from their homeland, in the same way as their fellow- 
Muslims sent to conquer other parts of the world 
(cf. C. A. Nallino, Letteratura = Scritti, vi, 51, 110-4; 
French trans., 81-2, 170-7). None of this has been 
preserved; a late notation states however that in 
ancient times, "the inhabitants of al-Andalus sang 
in the style of Christians or of Arab cameleers" 
{apud E. Garcia Gdmez, Poesia, 30-1). 

Nevertheless, the foundation of the Umayyad 
amirate brought about the establishment of close 
contact with the East, which did not fail to send 
religious notabilities to catechise Spain, and the 
rapid islamisation of a considerable part of the 
indigenous population required the development of 
juridico-religious studies. From 200/816 onwards, the 
substitution, encouraged -by the Umayyads for 
political motives, of Malikism for the madhhab of 
al-Awza c I [see al-andalus, vii], soon bore fruit in 
the formation of a school of jurists who, to a varying 



but not inconsiderable degree, contributed to the 
propagation of the Muwatfa' of Malik. In his defence 
of Muslim Spain, Ibn Hazm (see Al-Andalus 1954/1) 
cites in the first place e Isa b. Dinar (m. 212/827), 
Ibn Hablb (180-238/796-852), al- c Utbi (m. 255/869), 
Ibrahim b. Muzayn (m. 258/872), Malik b. C A1I al- 
Katani (m. 268/882); these studies were pursued 
with enthusiasm by the successors of these pioneers, 
Muh. b. 'Umar b. Lubaba (225-314/840-926), Muh. 
b. c Abd al-Malik b. Ayman (252-330/866-941), 
Kasim b. Asbagh (247-340/861-951), Ahmad b. 
Sa'Id (284-350/897-961) and especially the great 
fakih, traditionist and man of letters Ibn c Abd al-Barr 
(368-463/978-1070). The attempt made by Baki b. 
MaUhlad (201-76/817-89), on his return from the East 
(his meeting there with Ibn Hanbal is worth special 
mention), to introduce into Spain the Shafi'i madhhab, 
had little effect, but this traditionist is the author 
of a collection of liadiths presented in the combined 
form of a musanna/ and a musnad, of a work on the 
Companions of the Prophet, and above all of a 
commentary on the Kur'an which Ibn Hazm con- 
siders to be superior to that of al-Tabari. Zahirism, 
on the other hand, was introduced by c Abd Allah b. 
Kasim (d. 272/885-6) and supported by Mundhir b. 
Sa'id al-Ballutl (d. 355/962), before being made 
famous by Ibn Hazm (384-456/994-1064) who 
dominates, in nearly every sphere, the intellectual 
activity of the first half of the 5th/nth century, and 
whose K. al-Fisal, going beyond the strict limits of 
Islam, set forth the history of religious ideas in 
terms of Islamic thought. Mu'tazilism itself was not 
unknown; among its supporters were Khalil Ghafla 
(3rd/gth century), Yahya b. al-Samlna (d. 315/927), 
and Musab. Hudayr (d. 320/932). Finally, philosophy 
appeared on the scene with the mystic Ibn Masarra 
(d. 319/931) and his school (see Asin Palacios, 
Abenmasarra y su escuela, Madrid 1914). 

The disciplines connected with the religious 
sciences developed on parallel line?. From the end 
of the 2nd/beginning of the 8th century, the first 
oriental works on grammar were introduced into 
Spain and a course of instruction was devoted to 
them, but it appears that philological and lexico- 
graphical studies received their greatest stimulus from 
the arrival at Cordova, in 330/941, of the c IrakI 
philologist Abu c Ali al-Kall (288-356/901-67), whose 
Amdli are only a reflection of the knowledge which 
he disseminated there, because he also composed, 
inter alia, the K. al-Nawadir and an important work 
on lexicography, the K. al-B&ri'-; his contemporary 
Muh. b. Yahya al-Riyahi (d. 358/968) and Muh. b. 
'Asim (d. 382/992) are considered by Ibn Hazm to 
be the equals of the great disciples of al-Mubarrad. 
Ibn al-Kutiyya (d. 367/977) also devoted himself to 
the study of grammar, while a disciple of al-Kali, Ibn 
al-Sayyid (d. 385/995) produced a lexicon, which was 
followed by that of Ibn al-Tayyani (d. 436/1044) and 
above all by the masterly work of Ibn Sida (SIdo) 
(398-458/1007-66), al-Mukkassas. 

As regards history, the Andalusians were not 
averse to retracing the course of universal history, as 
for instance Ibn Hablb, already mentioned, who did 
not make any clear distinction between history and 
legend, or 'Arlb b. Sa c d (d. 370/980), who took up 
again and continued the Annals of al-Tabari, but 
they applied themselves in determined fashion to 
the history of Spain, in the form either of dynastic 
chronicles — in particular of the 'Amirids, but also 
of the Zirids of Granada by the last king of that 
dynasty, <Abd Allah (447-after 483/1056-after 1090) 
— or of biographies of jurists and traditionists (Ibn 



al-Faradi, 351-403/962-1013), of kadis (al-Khushanl. 
d. 361/971), of physicians (Ibn Djuldjul, d. after 
372/982), of secretaries (Sakan b. Sa'id, d. 457/1065), 
or of chronicles covering the period from the con- 
quest to the author's own times. This last genre was 
the particular concern of Ahmad b. Muh. b. Mflsa 
al-Razi (274-344/888-955) and his son e Isa, whose 
work is quoted in part in the Akhbdr Madimu'-a [q.v.~], 
by Ibn al-Kutiyya — or at all events by the editor of 
the book published under his name — and above all 
by the great historian Ibn Hayyan (377-469/987-1075), 
whose important chronicle, al-Mufrtabis, has been 
partially recovered. An apt disciple of Ibn Hazm — 
who himself also took an interest in history, preferring 
mainly the genealogical genre highly esteemed by the 
Andalusians — Sa'id of Toledo (419-63/1029-69), 
wrote his Tabafrat al-Umam, in which both the Greeks 
and the Romans figured. In the realm of geography, 
apart from al-Razi (Ahmad b. Muh.) whose descript- 
ion of Spain has been partially reconstructed, the 
principal author is Abu c Ubayd al-Bakri (d. 487/ 
1094). 

As a result of the beneficent influence of al-Hakam 
II, a school of mathematicians and astronomers 
arose under the leadership of Maslama al-Madjriti 
(d. about 398/1007) and continued under Ibn al- 
Samh (370-426/980-1034) of Granada, while in the 
following century there flourished at Toledo al- 
Zarkali and, at Saragossa, the Hudid kings themselves. 
Finally, the study of medicine and botany received a 
powerful stimulus as a result of the arrival at 
Cordova, in the reign of c Abd al-Rahman III, of 
the work of Dioscorides. After Ibn I2iuldjul, who has 
already been mentioned, and Muh. b. al-Hasan al- 
Madhhidji (d. about 420/1029), Abu '1-Kasim Khalaf 
b. c Abbas al-Zahrawi (325-404/936-1013), known to 
Europe in the Middle Ages as Abulcasis, and Ibn 
Wafid (388-466/988-1074) were the first of a series 
of great physicians and botanists who achieved fame 
during the era which followed. 

According to customary practice when dealing 
with Arabic literature, it has been necessary up to 
this point to give an account of disciplines and 
genres which the historian of most other literatures 
would certainly disregard, and an attempt has been 
made to make a rapid list of works which for the 
most part bear the characteristic imprint of Islam 
and which differ little from similar works written in 
the East. The same consideration obtains when one 
embarks on a study of the first literary works 
proper, whether in prose or verse. It is nevertheless 
astonishing that it was not until the 4th/ioth century 
that there appeared in Spain an adab work written 
by an Andalusian, the famous l Ikd of Ibn c Abd 
Rabbih (d. 328/940), the contents of which are still 
specifically oriental; it is equally remarkable that 
this genre had no great success in Spain and that 
Ibn c Abd Rabbih had few imitators during the first 
period with which we are dealing. Yet for more 
than a century, the country had been " c irakicised", 
from the time of the arrival at Cordova, at the 
beginning of the amirate of c Abd al-Rahman II, 
of the celebrated 'Iraki singer Ziryab (173-243/ 
789-857), who brought to Spain the fashions of the 
'Abbasid court (see E. Levi-Provencal, Civilisation, 
69 ff.). Baghdad was indeed still a model to be 
imitated, but an event of the utmost importance 
had occurred, of a kind which gave to the Arabic 
literature of Spain an orientation slightly different 
from that which obtained in the East. In fact, from 
the 3rd/gth century, the two strongly disparate 
ethnic elements which populated the Peninsula had, 



after a long period of mutual ignorance, been 
gradually drawn closer together and had finally 
achieved a sort of fusion eminently favourable to 
the production of an original literature. 

Our information on the Arabic poetry written 
during the early centuries of Muslim domination is 
very scanty, and the loss of the oldest collections — 
especially the K. al-fladd'ift of Ahmad b. Faradj 
(d. 344/976) — deprives us of essential documentation. 
Perhaps Yahya al-Ghazal (d. 251/864), who was sent 
by c Abd al-Rahman II on an embassy to Constan- 
tinople (see E. Levi-Provencal, Islam d'Occident, 
81 ff.), wrote poetry of merit; it is known that he 
favoured a minor epic form, by his use of the urdjuza, 
and this form was also employed by Tammam b. 
c Amir (184-283/801-96) and Ibn c Abd Rabbih. It is 
not the epic, however, but the muwashshah [q.v.] 
which is the most typical Spanish form. From the 
end of the 3rd/gth century dates the creation, 
attributed to a poet of Cabra named Mukaddam b. 
Mu c 5fa (d. at the beginning of the 4th/ioth century) 
of this new verse-form; its fundamental character- 
istics were the arrangement in strophes, an arrange- 
ment virtually unknown to the Arab lyric, and the 
addition of an envoi (khardja) not in Arabic, but in 
Romance, as has recently been revealed by S. M. 
Stern (Les vers finaux en espagnol dans les muwaS- 
Saks hispano-hibra'iques . . . ., in al-And., 1948, 299- 
346): we have here a unique example of the com- 
bination of the two languages and the two systems. 
As long as there are manuscript collections of 
muwashshahdt still unpublished (see S. M. Stern, in 
Arabica, 1955/2), it wculd be premature to draw up 
a list which, if not exhaustive, would at least be 
fairly comprehensive, of authors of poems of this 
type; in any case, some of them are later than the 
period under review. 

The importance attributed in recent years to the 
khardfa can be explained on the one hand by the 
attraction of a novelty and, on the other, by the 
renewed controversy on the relationship between 
Spanish poetry and that of the troubadours, but it 
mhst be admitted that the muwashshahdt, however 
much appreciated by the Andalusians, even by 
Orientals, constituted no more than a minor literary 
category which could in no way supersede the other 
poetic forms esteemed in the Muslim Orient, and 
the necessary concomitant of the establishment of 
the western caliphate was an original poetic form 
which neither showed clearly signs of indigenous 
influence, nor followed too closely oriental forms. 
Nevertheless, oriental works were well known in 
Spain, from the pre-Islamic kasidas — studied as 
relics of a bygone age but not imitated — to the 
diwdns of "modern" and neo-classical poets, in 
particular al-Mutanabbi — who was the subject of 
commentaries by al-Ifllll (352/441/963-1049), al- 
A c lam al-Shantamari (410-76/1019-83), and Ihn 
Sida — and it was these works which inspired Anda- 
lusian poets when Cordova, the metropolis of the 
Muslim West, possessed all the conditions favourable 
to the production of poetry of a characteristic flavour. 
As was to be expected, this poetry passed through 
various phases; somewhat official to begin with, it 
later became progressively independent and free, 
and finally blossomed in the 5th/nth century with 
incomparable richness. 

Without going so far as to claim that the Umayyad 
caliphs were the centre of literary circles, one may 
legitimately affirm that they regularly played their 
part as patrons of letters by promoting Arab culture 
— notably by creating libraries, including the cele- 



brated library of al-Hakam II — and by granting 
pensions to poets commissioned to sing their praises 
and to give, through their compositions, the custo- 
mary lustre to the various solemn functions of 
official life; the wazlr of al-Hakam II and Hisham II, 
al-Mushafi, (d. 372/982) is the perfect example of 
such poets (see E. Garcia G6mez, La Poisie politique 
sous le calif at de Cordoue, in REI, 1949, 5-1 1). 

Although this type of poet did not hesitate on 
occasion to embark on other kinds of poetry than 
the political, it was under al-Mansur — who had 
ordered the burning of those books on philosophy, 
astronomy and other sciences which were con- 
sidered to be contrary to the interests of Islam — 
that truly urban poetry came into being with Ibn 
Darradj al-Kastalli (347-421/958-1030), Sa'id of 
Baghdad (d. 418/1026), al-Ramadi (d. 403 or 413/1013 
or 1022). Moreover, from the end of the period of 
the caliphate, a literary group was established which, 
aristocratic in origin, but revolutionary in its ideas, 
was hostile to the muwashshahdt genre which was 
considered too popular, stoutly defended arabism 
without however submitting wholly to oriental 
influence, and proclaimed that the production of 
good literature depends on the genius of the authors 
and not on erudition or imitation. The leader of this 
school was Ibn Shuhayd (382-426/992-1035), who 
developed his ideas in a prose work of undoubted 
originality, the Risdlat al-TawdW- wa 'l-Zawdbi c (see 
Garcia G6mez, Ibn Hazm de Cdrdoba y El Collar de la 
Paloma, Madrid 1952, 6 ff.) ; his natural heir was Ibn 
Hazm who, although he did not give evidence of 
superior poetic talent, was none the less the author 
of a charming analysis of 'Udhrite love, the Tawk 
al-IJamdma which, unique of its kind, belonged 
henceforth to universal literature. 

The momentous events which led to the fall of 
the caliphate and the establishment of the kingdoms 
of the taifas (Tawd'if [q.v.]) did not appear to have a 
fatal effect on the future of poetry, and it was 
precisely in the 5th/nth century that poetry reached 
its peak — a "false" peak, according to E. Garcia 
G6mez, Poesia, 65 ff. It is no mere chance that we 
possess, on this period, not only anthologies and 
diwdns, but also the most important monograph 
which has been devoted to the literary history of 
Muslim Spain, La Poisie andalouse, en arabe classique, 
au XI' siicle, Paris 1937, 2nd ed. 1953, by H. Peres 
who, while seeking to bring out its documentary 
value, has at the same time painted an overall 
picture of the poetry of this period. Although it is 
possible to distinguish at each of the courts which 
came into being a kind of specialisation in some 
branch of knowledge, poetry dominates all literary 
activities; everywhere it reigns supreme, it opens all 
doors and "an extempore poem can be worth a 
viziership" (Garcia G6mez). For the most part in 
neo-classical verse, and in the form of kasidas, which 
is an indication of a recrudescence of oriental 
influence, every imaginable theme is dealt with; 



satire 









panegyrics, songs of wine and passion. Every genre 
is found, and the most trivial incidents of daily life 
are recounted in verse; nevertheless the poets show 
a certain preference for descriptions, whether of 
nature, cities, gardens, animals or human beings. 
At Cordova flourished Ibn Zaydun (393-463/ 
1003-70), who sang the praises of the princess 
Wallada; at Seville the sovereign himself, al- 
Mu'tamid (d. 488/1095), whose life was "pure 
poetry in action" (Garcia G6mez, Poesia, 70), gave 
inspiration to a court which attracted not only 



Spanish poets like Ibn 'Ammar (d. 477/1084) and 
Ibn al-Labbana (d. 507/1113) but even the Sicilian 
poet Ibn Hamdls (447-527/1055-1132) (see S. Khalis, 
La Vie MUraire a Seville au XI" siecle, Sorbonne 
thesis 1953, unpublished); at Almeria, al-Mu'tasira 
(d. 484/1091) received IbitSharaf (444-534/1052-1139), 
while at Granada flourished the celebrated Abu 
Ishak al-Ilblri (d. 454/1069), and at Badajoz Ibn 
'Abdun (d. 529/1134). 

(2) From the Almoravids to the end of the period 
of Arab domination (488-897/1092-1492) 

The Almoravid conquest, which here and there 
brought the careers of these poets to an abrupt close, 
for a time reassembled the fragments of al-Andalus. 
It was unfavourable to the development of poetry, 
because the new rulers lacked the refinement and 
the taste of the reyes de taifas, and showed less 
interest in literature than in religion. While a wholly 
conventional type of poetry flourished at court, only 
Valencia maintained the tradition of the preceding 
century with the "landscape-painters" Ibn Khafadja 
(450-533/1058-1138) and Ibn al-Zakkak (d. 529/1135), 
who did not despise, respectively, erotic poems and 
bacchic songs. Under the Almohads, the only names 
of any note are those of al-Rusafi (d. 572/1177) and 
Ibn Sahl (d. 649/1251); later, up to the fall of Gra- 
nada, Lisan al-DIn Ibn al-Khatlb (71 3-76/1 31 3-74) 
and Ibn Zumruk (733-96/1333-93) merely maintained 
the tradition. Their contemporaries did, not fail to 
note the decline of poetry and, thinking that the time 
had come to gather together the legacy of the past in 
order to save it from oblivion, they compiled antho- 
logies: Ibn Bassam (d. 542/1147) his Dhakhira, al- 
Fath b. Khakan (d. 529/1134) his KaldHd aX-Hkyan 
and Matmah al-Anfus, while Ibn Sa c Id al-Maghribi 
(d. 672/1274), in extracting from his Mughrib the 
K. Ray at al-Mubarrizin, seemed to be writing "the 
last testament of Arabo-Andalusian poetry" (Garcia 
G6mez, Poesia, 86). 

If, however, noble or classical poetry shone with 
but a feeble lustre, the muwashshahdt, which the 
most aristocratic poets had continued to produce in 
the preceding century (see Arabica, 1955/2), again 
flourished with singular brilliance through the 
efforts of al-A<ma al-Tutlll (d. 520/1126), Ibn BakI 
(d. 540/1145) and many others. In addition, the 
zadial [q.v.], whose origin is attributed, perhaps 
erroneously to the 3rd/gth century, came truly to 
life with "one of the highest poetic peaks of the 
entire Middle Ages" (Garcia G6mez, Poesia, 81), 
Ibn Kuzman (555/H59), and a host of popular poets 
mastered this form and kept it alive until the end of 
the period of Arab domination. 

Prose literature, which had made such a promising 
beginning with Ibn Shuhayd and Ibn Hazm, again 
became orientalised with the Sirddi al-Muluk of 
al-Turtfishi (451-520/1059-1126), the encyclopaedia 
of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Balawi (576-604/1132-1207), 
and the several imitations of the Makdmdt of al- 
Harlrl which found their most prolific commentator 
in Spain in the person of al-Sharishl (d. 619/1222). 

While particularly unfavourable to poetry and 
literature properly so-called, the Almoravid conquest 
was, on the other hand, an advantage to the sciences, 
both religious and profane, which developed to a 
considerable degree from then on. Space will not be 
devoted here to the religious disciplines which, 
though they had innumerable devotees, produced 
few noteworthy works apart from the Tuhfa of Ibn 
'Asirn (760-829/1359-1426), or to philology or 
lexicography, because, apart from Ibn al-Sid al- 



Batalyawsl (508-80/1114-85), the masters of these 
sciences, Ibn Malik (605-72/1208-74) and Abu 
Hayyan (655-744/1257-1344), preferred to go and 
give the fruits of their knowledge to the peoples 
of the East. 

As regards history, the biographical genu achieved, 
great success, with the kadi c Iyad (478-544/1085- 
1149), Ibn Bashkuwal (493-578/1100-83), al-Dabbl 
(d. 599/1202), Ibn al-Abbir (595-658/1 198-1260), Ibn 
al-Zubayr (628-708/1231-1308); to the dynastic 
chronicles was added a great work by Ibn Sa'id 
al-Maghribi, a continuation of the Mushib of al- 
Hidjari (500-49/1106-55), the Mughrib, which made 
extensive use of earlier historians including Once 
again Lisan al-Din Ibn al-Khatib. In the sphere of 
geography, the greatest name is, of course, 1 al- 
IdrisI (493-564/1100-69), while the Maghribis, and 
especially Andalusians, applied themselves success- 
fully to the genre of narratives of travel: Abu Hamid 
al-Gharnatl (473-565/1080-1169), Ibn Djubayr (560- 
614/1145-1217), al-<Abdari (7th/i3th century). 

The 6th/i2th and the 7th/i3th c 

Andalusia the golden age of sciem 

astronomy, medicine, pharmacology, botany. There 

is no need to repeat here the names of those *ho 

achieved fame in these sciences (see above, B, from 

the 6th to the 12th century); the names of the 

principal philosophers and mystics of the period 

under review will also be found in that section. 

For aljamiada literature, see aljamIa. On 'the 

question of the possible influence of the Arabic 

poetry of Spain on European works of the Middle 

Ages, see muwashshah and zadjal. ' 

Bibliography: In addition to the works 

already quoted in the introduction and in *the 

body of this article, see: critical works and 

literary history: R. Dozy, Scriptorum arabum tori 

de Abbadidis, Leiden 1846-63, '1927; L. Eguilas 

y Yanguas, Poesia histdrica, lirica y descripiiva 

de los Arabes andaluces, Madrid 1864; F. Simonet, 

El siglo de oro de la literatura arabigo-espanbla, 

Granada 1867; G. J. Adler, The Poetry of the 

Arabs of Spain, New York 1867; A. F. v. Schack, 

Poesie und Kunst der Araber in Spanien und 

Sicilien, Berlin-Stuttgart 1865, "1877; (Spartish 

trans, by J. Valera, Poesia y arte de los Ardbes 

en Espana y Sicilia, Seville 5 i88i); G. Dierx, Die 

arabische Kultur in mittelalterischen Spani\en, 

Hamburg 1887; R. Basset, La litt. populdire 

berbire et arabe dans le Maghreb et chez les Maures 

d'Espagne, in Mil. afr. et orient., Paris 1915; 

J. A. Sanchez Perez, Biografias de matemdticos 

Arabes que florecieron en Espana, Madrid igii; 

<Abd al- Rahman al-Barkuki, Haddral aW-Arab fi 

'l-Andalus, Cairo 1341/1923; K. Kaylani, Nazarat 

fi Ta'rikh al-Adab al-Andalusi, Cairo 1342/1914; 

A. Dayf, Balaghat al-'-Arab fi 'l-Andalus, Cairo 

1342/1924; M. Asin Palacios, Abenhdzam de C6r- 

doba, I, Madrid 1927; J. Ribera y Tarragd, Dider- 

taciones y opilsculos, Madrid 1928; R. Blachere, 

Le poete arabe al-Mutanabbt et I'Occident musultnkn, 

in REI, 1929, 127-35; A. Gonzalez Palencia, El 

amor platdnico en la corte de los Califas, in Bol. 

Ac. Cdrdoba, 1929, 1-25; M. M. Antufia, La 

corte literaria de Alhiquem II en Cdrdoba, 'in 

Religion y Cultura, 1929; Dom R. Alcocer Martinez, 

La corporacidn de los poetas en la Espana musul- 

mana, Madrid 1940; E. Teres Sadaba, Ibn Faraf 

de Jaen y su "Kitdb al-IfaddHq" : las primefas 

antologias ardbigoandaluzas in al-And. 1946, 131-57; 

E. Garcia G6mez, Cinco poetas musulmanes, Madrid 

1944; Arabic texts: Ibn Khayr al-Ishblll, Fahrasa, 



'ARABIYYA - 

in BAH, ix-x, Saragossa 1894-5; Shakundi, Risdla 
(Spanish trans. Garcia Gdmez, Elogio del Islam 
espanol, Madrid-Granada 1934; French trans. A. 
Luya, in Hesp., i936/3rd Quarter, 133 ff.); Makkari, 
Analectes, Leiden 1855-61. 

Anthologies and trans.: Abu'l-Walid al-Him- 

yari, al-Badi< /« Wasf al-Rabi', ed. by H. Peres, 

Rabat 1940; Ibn Dihya, al-Mufrtb ft •Ash'ar AM 

al-Maghrib, Cairo ed. 1955; Ibn Sa'IcT al-Maghribl, 

K. Rdydt al-Mubarrizin, ed. and trans, by Garcia 

Gomez, Madrid 1942, (English translation by 

A. J. Arberry, Anthology of Moorish Poetry, 

Cambridge 1953); A. R. Nykl, Mukhtdrdt min al- 

Shi'r al-Andalusi, Beirut 1949; E. Garcia G6mez, 

Poemas arabigoandaluces, Madrid 1930, '1940, 

•1943 (partially trans, into English, H. Morland, 

Arabic Andalusian Cacidas, London 1949); idem, 

Qasidas de Andalucia, puestas en verso casUUano, 

Madrid 1940. (Ed.) 

al-'ARABIYYA, DjazIrat, island in the Persian 

Gulf in Lat. 27° 46' N, Long. 50 10' E, about 50 miles 

from the Saudi Arabian mainland and 60 miles from 

that of Iran. It is one of a five-island group — the 

others being Harkus, al-Farisiyya, Karan, and 

Kurayn — on the Arabian side of the Gulf. Al- 

'Arabiyya is less than a mile square and is normally 

uninhabited, but it is claimed by three of the Gulf 

states: Saudi Arabia, Kuwayt, and Iran. 

(W. E. Mulligan) 
'ARABKlR, (taken to mean 'Arabgir, i.e. «con- 
quest of the Arabs"), in modern Turkish orthography 
Arapkir, in Armenian Arabker, in the Byzantine 
sources Arabrakes, a town in eastern Anatolia, 
19° 3' north, 38 30' east, about 70 km. north of 
Malatya, situated on the Arapkir Su, a tributary of 
the Karasu, which later becomes the northern 
Euphrates, 1,200 m. above sea-level. Capital of a 
kadd in the wildyet of Malatya, with 6,684 inhabitants 
(1945); the kadd itself has 23,612 inhabitants. 

The town is situated on a hill in a lowland which 
is surrounded by steeply rising walls of basalt. 
Because of the altitude, the climate of the town is 
harsh. Extensive orchards which surround the town 
are worthy of special mention. The town, as we find 
it at present, dates back only to the beginning of 
the 19th century, and is consequently of a modern 
appearance. Until then, the town -had been situated 
at a place half an hour further to the north, which 
is still called Eskishehir ("old city") and still shows 
traces of buildings. 

The town is not mentioned by any of the older 
Arabic geographers; it is, however, mentioned 
several times in the Saldjuk Chronicle of Ibn Bibi 
(written 680/1281, ed. Houtsma, Leiden 1902). In 
the nth century, the town was occupied by the 
Saldjuks; in the 15th century, it came under Ottoman 
rule. As the centre of a sand^ak, the town belonged to 
the eydlet of Sivas, but it changed its orientation 
several times; since 1216/1878, it has belonged to 
the wildyet of Ma'murat al-'AzIz (Kharput). 

During the 19th century, the town began to 
flourish. Ainsworth gave the number of inhabitants 
as 8,000 (amongst them 6,000 Armenians) in the 
year 1839, whilst the British Consul General, J. 
Brant, who travelled a few years earlier, mentioned 
6,000 houses (4,800 inhabited by Turks, 1,200 by 
Armenians), from which one might assume a higher 
total of inhabitants. Taylor mentions 35,000 inha- 
bitants in the year 1868 and Cuinet 20,000 towards 
1890 (11,000 Muslims, 8,500 Gregorian Armenians). 
A considerable part of them, particularly Armenian 
families, made its living by weaving (cotton goods 



VF 603 

from English yarn). Every year, emigrants come 
down from the mountains of Arapkir and Kharput 
to try and make their fortune in Istanbul, Diyarbakr, 
Damascus, Aleppo and the sea-ports. In former days 
one used to find a servant from Arapkir in most 

In the First World War 1914-18, the town suffered 
greatly, most of the houses and their famous gardens 
were destroyed, and trade died down. In post-war 
years, it recovered and began to flourish again. 
Bibliography : Le Strange, 119; Hadjdji 
Khalifa, Qiikdn-numd, 624; Ewliya Celebi, Seydhat- 
ndme iii, 215 f. ; St. Martin, Mimoire histor. et 
giograph. surVArminie (Paris 1818), i, 189; Ritter, 
Erdkunde, x, 793-9; E. Reclus, Nouvelle gtographie 
univers., ix, 371; J. Brant in the Journal of the 
Royal Geographical Society, vi (1836), 202 ff.; 
Moltke, Brief e Mber Zustande und Begebenhciten in 
der Ttirkei in den Jahren 1835-1839 (Berlin 1841), 
357; W. Ainsworth, Travels and researches in 
Asia Minor etc., London 1842, ii, 5; Taylor's 
report in the Journal of the Royal Geographical 
Society, London 1865; Ch. Texier, Asie Mineure, 
589 f.; Vital Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie ii, 358-61; 
Sdlndme of the wildyet of Ma'murat al-'AzIz 1310; 
I A, i, 553 f. (Besim Darkot). 

(M. Streck-[F. Taeschner]) 
'ARAB SHAHIDS [see kh'arizm]. 
'ARAP, translation of the Aristotelian term 
au[zPePi]x6<;, accident is defined as that which 
cannot subsist by itself but only in a substance 
(djawkar [q.v.]) of which it is both the opposite and 
the complement. Thus, anything that is asserted 
of a subject is an accident, by which term the Muslim 
philosophers understand the Aristotelian categories 
(ma'kuldt, [q.v.]) except that of the substance. The 
theologians (mutakallimun) held different views 
on the subject (e.g., some believed t; 






c) 



which cannot be described here (see e.g. al-Ash'a 
Makdldt al-Isldmiyyin, vol. ii). Some held the 
doctrine of ahwdl (states) [q.v.] which they described 
as qualities which are neither existent nor non- 
existent. An important tenet held by the mutakal- 
limun was the thesis that an accident cannot 

In another sense *arad is ttie opposite of mdhiyya 
(quiddity) or dhdt (essence) [q.v.] and denotes an 
attribute which is not a constituent element of an 
essence. Two kinds of 'arad are distinguished: 
(a) that which, though it is not a part of an essence, 
is its necessary concomitant farad Idzim) e.g., 
laughing with regard to man <ju|z(3ePv]xo<; x<x8' <xut6 
in Aristotle, Met., iv, 1 ; (b) that which is found in 
some members of a species but not in others ('arad 
Idhik or zdHl) e.g. writing with regard to man 
(simply <ju(z|3ePY]x6<;, in Aristotle. An essential 
attribute, on the other hand, is e.g. rationality in 

Discussions on 'arad will be found in Muslim 
works on logic. For the views of the mutakallimun 
see makdldt al-isldmiyyin of al-Ash'ari, ed. C. Ritter, 
ii; Diet, of Technical Terms, s.v.; S. Pines, Beitrdge 
zur islamischen Atomenlehre, etc. (F. Rahman) 

al-A'RAF (a.), plur. of c «r/> "elevated place", 
"crest". In an eschatological judgement scene in 
Ku'ran, vii, 46 a dividing wall is spoken of which 
separates the dwellers in Paradise from the dwellers 
in Hell, and men, "who are on the a'raf and recognise 
each by his marks" (v. 48: "those of the a'rdf"). 
The interpretation of this passage is disputed. Bell 
makes the doubtful conjecture i'rdf and translates: 



604 al-A'RAF — 

"(Presiding) over the recognition are men, who 
recognise . . .". According to T. Andrae the "Men 
on the elevated places" are probably the dwellers 
in the highest degrees of Paradise, "who are abk. to 
look down both on Hell and on Paradise". Perhaps 
the reference is in particular to the messengers of 
God, who come into action again at the Last Judge- 
ment in order to separate the good from the bad. 

According to the traditional explanation "those 
of the elevated places" are to be supplied as subject 
of the sentence at the end of v. 46 (lam yadkhuluhd) 
and in v. 47. According to this they would be- 
at any rate provisionally — neither in Paradise nor 
in Hell, but in an intermediate place or condition. 
As a result of this explanation al-a'rdf was given 
the meaning "Limbo" [see barzakh]. 

Bibliography: fabari, Tafsir, Cairo 1321, 

vii, 126-9; R. Bell, The Men of the A'raf (MW, 

1932, 43-8) ; Tor Andrae, Der Ursprung des I slams 

unci das Christentum, Uppsala 1926, 77 f. 

(R. Paret) 

C ARAFA, or 'Arafat, plain about 21 km. 
(13 miles) east of Mecca, on the road to Ta'if, 
bounded on the north by a mountain-ridge of the 
same name. The plain is the site of the central 
ceremonies of the annual Pilgrimage to Mecca; 
these are focussed on a conical granite hill in its 
N.E. corner, under 200 feet in height, and detached 
from the main ridge; this hill also is called 'Arafa, 
but more commonly Djabal al-Rahma (Hill of 
Mercy). On its eastern flank, broad stone steps 
(constructed by order of Djamal al-DIn al-Diawad. 
vizier of the atabek Zanki) lead to the top, which is 
surmounted by a minaret; on the sixtieth step there 
is a platform containing the pulpit from which the 
ritual khutba, the Pilgrimage address, is delivered 
on the afternoon of the "Day of c Arafa" (9 Dh u 
T-Hidjdja). On the top there stood formerly a 
kubba named after Umm Salama (Ibn Djubayr 173), 
which was destroyed by the Wahhabls. The hill is 
also said to have been called Hal, but this name is 
more probably to be regarded as that of a shrine or 
perhaps of the deity worshipped on the spot in the 
pre-Islamic period (Wellhausen, Reste arab. Heiden- 
thums 1 , 82-3). 

The plain of 'Arafat (about 4 miles in breadth 
from E. to W. and 7-8 miles in length) lies outside 
the karam or sacred territory of Mecca; the pilgrim 
coming from Mecca emerges through a defile called 
Ma'zamayn and passes the pillars which delimit 
the haram ; to the east of these is a depression called 
'Urana, at the further edge of which is a mosque 
called by the names of Ibrahim or Namira or 'Arafa. 
The mawkif or place of assembly extends immediately 
to the east of this mosque and southwards from 
the Djabal al-Rahma, and is bounded on the east 
by the mountain-chain of Ta'if. In the early centuries 
of Islam, a number of wells were dug in the plain 
and several plantations and dwellinghouses are 
mentioned. The aqueduct built by order of Zubayda 
to bring water from the region of Ta'if to Mecca 
also runs at the base of the ridge of 'Arafa. The 
plain is now covered with rough herbage and normally 
unpopulated, and is filled with life only on the 
"Day of c Arafa", when the pilgrims pitch their camp 
for the celebration of the prescribed wukuf or festival 
assembly. This begins after the midday khu(ba and 
prayer and lasts until just after sunset. For further 
details of the ceremonies see the art. hadjdj. 

The origin of the name 'Arafa is unknown. The 
legendary explanation is that Adam and Eve, 
separated after their expulsion from Paradise, met 



again at this spot and recognised each other (ta'arafa). 
Arabic writers mention also other etymologies of a 
similar kind. 

Bibliography: Azraki and Fast apud F. 
Wustenfeld, Chroniken der Stadt Mekka, i, 418-9; 
ii, 89, etc.; Makdisi 77; Bakri, Mu'diam ma'sta'- 
Mam, s.v.; Yakut, s.v.; Ibn Djubayr (Wright-de 
Goeje), 168-176; Ibn Battuta (Paris), i, 397-9; 
Burckhardt, Travels in Arabia, ii, 186; C A1I Bey, 
Travels, i, 67 f.; R. F. Burton, Pilgrimage to el- 
Medinah and Meccah, 2nd ed., ii, 214 f. ; Snouck 
Hurgronje, Het Mekkaansche Feest, 141 f.; al- 
Batanuni, al-Rihla al-Hidiaziyya, 186 £f.; Ibra- 
him Rif'at, Mir^at al-Haramayn, i, 335, ff.; 
Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Le Pilirinage a la Mekke 
(Paris 1923), 240-253; E. Rutter, Holy Cities of 
Arabia (London 1928), i, 156-163. Pictures ofi the 
hill and of the plain during the Pilgrimage Cere- 
monies in 'All Bey, Burckhardt, Rif'at Bey, '■ and 
Snouck Hurgronje, BUder aus Mekka, xiii-xvi. 
(A. J. Wensinck-[H. A. R. Gibb]) 
ARAGHCN [see supplement^ 
al-'ARA>ISH ("the trellises of grape vines"), in 
French and Spanish orthography Larache, town on 
the Moroccan seaboard situated on the Atlantic 
coast, about 44 m. S.-W. of Tangier and 83 m. 
N.-W. of Fas. Astronomical position: 35° 13' lat. N. ( 
8° 28' 22" long. W. (of Paris). 

Larache covers the slopes of a hill which juts out 
into the sea in the form of a headland and dominates 
the left bank of the Wadi Lukkos at the point where 
this river discharges into the sea. The Muslim town 
is insignificant, and has no feature of interest except 
the suk, quadrilateral in form, which is lined with 
arcades and presents a vaguely monumental appea- 
rance. As a legacy of the first Spanish occupation 
(1610-89), there remains a fortress called Castillo de 
las Cigiienas (of the storks) or Santa Maria de Europa. 
To the S. and S.-W. of the Muslim town, the Spanish, 
who re-occupied Larache in 1911, built a European 
town, the centre of which in 1955 was a circular area 
called Plaza de Espana. The alluvial deposits of the 
Wadi Lukkos have formed a bar which renders the 
harbour inaccessible to vessels of large tonnage. The 
population of Larache in 1955 numbered just under 
43,000, of whom (in round figures) 28,000 were 
Muslims, 1,300 Jews and 13,000 Europeans, almost 
all Spanish. In the neighbourhood of Larache 
potatoes and fruit trees are chiefly cultivated. In- 
dustry is of little importance, but fishing has increased 
to some extent (more than 230 small craft in 1953). 
The patron of Larache is Lalla Mennana, whose 
kubba marks the beginning of the Madina as one 
approaches it from inland. 

Al- c Ar5 5 ish is not a very old town. Al-Idrisi does 
not mention it, and the Arab authors do not mention 
it before the 7th/i3th century. Further, it only 
occurs infrequently in texts. It was apparently 
founded by the Banii 'Ariis tribe, who gave it, on 
account of the abundance of vines in the neighbour- 
hood, the name of al- c Arish mta c Bni 'Arus. The 
Almohad sultan Ya'kub al-Mansur built a fort at 
the mouth of the Wadi Lukkos, and, in 1270, Spanish 
Christians carried out a successful surprise attack 
on the place. However, as is often the case with 
places of secondary importance on the Moroccan 
coast, the history of Larache is only known with any 
certainty from the time that the Portuguese set foot 
in Morocco. In the years immediately following their 
occupation of Ceuta (1415), the Portuguese launched 
a successful attack against the town, but the results 
of this victory were short-lived. The occupation of 



Arzila and Tangier by King Alfonso V of Portugal 
in 1471 led to the evacuation of Larache, which the 
peace treaty included in the zone of Portuguese in- 
fluence and which remained depopulated for twenty 
years. In 1489, King John II of Portugal took 
advantage of this- circumstance to consolidate his 
position in northern Morocco and to constitute a 
more direct threat to Fas and al-Kasr al-Kbir, by 
erecting a fort named la Graciosa on the right bank 
of the Lukkos a little below the confluence of that 
river with the Wadi Mkhazen. Besieged by the 
Moroccans, decimated by marsh-fever, ill-supplied 
and ill-reinforced because the river was barely 
navigable, the Portuguese garrison, after a long 
resistance, was obliged to accept an honourable 
surrender, which enabled it to retire unmolested. 
Al-'Ara>ish was restored by Mawlay al-Nasir, son 
of the Wattasid Sultan Muhammad al-Shaykh. Leo 
Africanus, who gives an account of the town at the 
beginning of the 16th century, informs us that large 
numbers of eels were caught there, that a plentiful 
supply of game was to be found there, and that on 
the banks of the Lukkos there were woods abounding 
in wild animals. The inhabitants made charcoal 
which they sent to Arzila and Tangier. But they 
lived in fear of the Portuguese, who continually 
raided the area and who attacked the port itself in 
1504 (there was also an unsuccessful attack by the 
Spanish from Cadiz in 1546). This insecurity did not 
prevent the development of a certain amount of 
maritime trade due to the fact that al-'Ara'ish was 
then the only port in northern Morocco not occupied 
by the Christians, and that it was one of the channels 
through which passed the trade of Fas, to which it 
was relatively near. The Portuguese maintained a 
commercial agent there (feitor); Genoese merchants 
visited it regularly, and a castle situated at the 
entrance to the harbour became known as. "Genoese 
Castle". From then on, Larache became a pirates' 
lair, and piracy increased after the evacuation of 
Arzila by the Portuguese in 1550. The havoc wrought 
by the pirates on the Spanish coast led Philip III to 
occupy Larache in 1610, following an agreement 
with the Sa'did Sultan Mawlay Muhammad al- 
Shaykh. The town was retaken by the Moroccans 
in 1689 during the reign of the 'Alawid Sultan 
Mawlay IsmS'Il, and was repopulated by the 
Djabala and the tribes of the Rif. From that date 
until 1911, the operations of the European powers 
against Larache were confined to bombardments 
or to more or less successful attacks from the sea. In 
1765, the French Admiral Du Chaffault suffered a 
heavy defeat there. In i860, during the Spanish- 
Moroccan war, Larache was bombarded by a 
Spanish squadron. During the "Moroccan crisis", 
Spanish troops landed at Larache on 8 June 1911, 
and the town remained within the Spanish zone of 
influence until the proclamation of the independence 
of Morocco in 1956. 

Opposite Larache, on the other bank of the Wadi 
Lukkos, on the Shammish hill, there stand the ruins 
of the Punic town of Lixos or Lixus, where many 
excavations have been made. 

Bibliography: — Leo Africanus, Description 
de I'Afrique, ed. by Schefer, ii, Paris 1897, 215-19; 
Le6n Galindo y de Vera, Historia, vicisitudes y 
politica traditional de Espaha respecto de sus 
posesiones en las costas de Africa, Madrid 1884, 
224-84 (to be used with care) ; Eugene Aubin, Le 
Maroc d'aujourd'hui, 6th ed., Paris 1910, 89-95; 
Maximiliano Alarc6n y Sant6n, Textos drabes en 
dialecto vulgar de Larache, Madrid 191 3; Real 



— al-ARAK 605 

Sociedad Espaflola de Historia Natural, Yebala 
y el bajo Lucus, Madrid 1914, 44-51, 287; Relato de 
la expedicidn de Larache (1765) por Bidi de Maur- 
ville . . . Translation of the French edition 
Amsterdam 1775, Tanger-Larache 1940 (on the 
expedition of Du Chaffault); Tomas Garcia 
Figueras, Misceldnea de estudios africanos, Larache 
1947-48, 109-47. For la Graciosa, see the biblio- 
graphy given in Les Sources inedites de I'histoire 
du Maroc, Portugal, I, Paris 1934, XV, n. 3 (by 
Pierre de Cenival), to which should be added: 
Tomas Garcia Figueras, Misceldnea de estudios 
varios sobre Marruecos, Tetuan 1953, 7-33. The 
statistical information was supplied by the 
"Delegaci6n de Asuntos Indigenas" at Tetuan. 
For Lixus, cf. Jerdme Carcopino, Le Maroc antique, 
7th ed., Paris 1948, passim, especially 49-56, 
66-72, 85-105, 308-9; Pierre Cintas, Contribution 
a Vitude de Vexpansion carthaginoise au Maroc, 
Paris n.d. (1954), 60-6; and the bibliography 
given in / Congreso arqueoldgico del Marruecos 
espanol, Tetuan 1954, 469-72, 474-5. 

(G. Yver-[R. Ricard]) 
al-ARAK, to-day Santa Maria de Alarcos, a 
small citadel in the district of Calatrava la Vieja, 
situated about seven miles S.-W. of Ciudad Real, 
on the summit of a mountain whose spurs descend 
to the Rio Guadiana. In the undulating plain which 
lies at its feet, between Poblete and Guadiana, was 
fought the famous battle between Ya'kub al-Mansur 
and the Castilians, which ended in the rout of 
Alfonso VIII (see the article abu yusuf ya'kub, 
for details of events immediately prior to the battle). 
We have little information on the details of the 
actual battle, because we only have at our disposal 
on the Muslim side accounts which are rather 
fanciful. The Christian sources are more objective, 
although briefer. It seems that the Castilians 
launched a surprise attack on the Almohad advance 
guard, commanded by the Vizier Abu Yahya, 
grandson of Abu Hafs 'Umar Inti [q.v.], but only 
achieved a partial success. Ya'kub, with his own 
force, attacked the flank of the Christians who, 
as the struggle became prolonged, were forced, 
exhausted by the heat and by thirst, to take refuge 
in the castle of Alarcos or to flee with their King in 
the direction of Toledo. Moreover the Castilian 
Pedro Fernandez de Castro, a personal enemy of 
Alfonso VIII, contributed with his own squadron of 
cavalry to the success of the Almohad ruler, on 
whom he lavished advice. Don Diego Lopez de Haro, 
the great al/drez, of Castile, took refuge with the 
royal standard in the castle, but was soon forced to 
surrender. 

The Muslim chroniclers, on the subject of this 
battle, have absurdly exaggerated the numbers of 
the troops on either side, that of the Christian dead 
and that of the prisoners taken in the castle. At all 
events, the army of Alfonso VII suffered heavy 
losses and experienced such a severe blow that, in the 
years following, despite the aid of the King of Aragon, 
it did not dare to risk a further engagement with 
Ya'kub when the latter penetrated into its territory. 
The battle of Alarcos took place under the most 
favourable conditions for the Almohads. Alfonso 
VIII was at war with Leo and Navarre. Accustomed 
to easy and fruitful raids into Andalusia, where his 
troops did not meet with serious resistance, he com- 
pletely underestimated the strength of the Muslim 
forces and the strategic ability of Ya'kub al-Mansur. 
Bibliography: To the references given by 
E. L6vi-Provencal in La Ptninsule iberique d'apris 



al-Rawd al-mi'fdr, 18, no. i, the following should 

be added: Ibn 'Idhari. Baydn, iv, trans. Huici, 

155 ff.; al-Sharif al-Gharnatl, Shark Maksurat 

Hdzim al-Karfddianni, Cairo 1344, ii, 153-6; 

Primera Crdnica General, ed. by R. Menendez 

Pidal, i, 680; Ckronique des Rois de Castille, ed. 

by Cirot, 41, app. 45 ; A. Huici, Las grandes baiallas 

de la Reconquista, 137 ff. (A. Huici Miranda) 

ARAKAN, The most westerly Division of Lower 

Burma, lying between the Arakan Yoma range and 

the Bay of Bengal. Until 1 199/1784, Arakan was 

an independent kingdom, and thereafter formed part 

of Burma, (under British administration from 1241/ 

1826). From the 9th/i4th to the I3th/i8th century 

the history of Arakan was closely linked with that 

of Muslim Bengal. 

From the 3rd/ioth century Arakan was Buddhist, 
but in 809/1406 King Narameikhla, defeated by the 
Burmese, took refuge with the Muslim ruler of 
Bengal. He was restored to his throne, in 833/1430, 
by troops of the Bengal sultan, whose tributary he 
became. (For the identity of this sultan see Phayre, 
76-7; Collis, 34-52; History of Bengal ii, 120-29). 
If Narameikhla's connection with Bengal had 



- ARAL 

Arakanese fleets and taking Cittagong in 1076/1666. 
(The Portuguese had been won over the previous 
year, and the Mughals were accompanied by Kamal, 
son of Prince Mangat Rai, the governor of Cittagong 
who had fled to Dhaka in 1048/1638). 

This ended the Arakanese ascendency in Eastern 
Bengal, though slave raiding continued far into the 
I2th/i8th century. Moreover, in 1 103/1692 Muslim, 
soldiers of. fortune, combining with the many cap- 
tive Bengalis, rose in the capital and for twenty 
years had the mastery in Arakan. The Bengali 
Muslim poets Dawlat Kadi and Sayyid al-Awwal, 
who wrote at the courts of Kings Thirithudamma 
and Sandathudamma, were under the patronage of 
such Muslim officers and officials at the court. 
Descendants of these Muslim soldiers still live in the 
Ramri and Akyab areas, and are called Kaman 
(Pers. kamdn — a bow). (Bisveswar Bhattacharya, 
Bengal Past and Present No. 65, 1927, 139-44) 

The Arakanese connexion with Muslim Bengal 
found expression in the assumption of Muslim titles 
by the Buddhist kings and in the issue of coins on 
which appear those titles, or the kalima, in the 
Persian script. 



Arakanese title 



Regnal years 



Muslim title 



Coinage 



Narameikhla 833/1430 — 837-8/1434 

Meng Khari 837-8/1434— 863-4/1459 

Basawpyu 863-4/1459— 887/1482 

Kasabadi 929-30/1523 — 931-2/1525 
Thatasa 931/2/1525— 937-8/1531 

Minbin 937-8/I53I— 960-61/1553 

Minpalaung 978-9/1571 — 1001-02/1593 

Minyazagyi 1001-02/1593— 



Minhkamaung 
Thirithudamma 
Sandathudamma 



1031-2/16 



-1031-2/16 



17-8/1638 



1062-3/1652 — 1096-7/1685 



Tributary of sultan 
'All Khan 

Kalima Shah kalima 

Ilyas Shah Sultan kalima & title 

C A1I Shah kalima & title 

Zabuk Shah title 

Sikandar Shah title 

Salim Shah title 

Husayn Shah title 

Salim Shah Persian lettering 
No Muslim title or coinage 



been that of a tributary, that of his nephew, Basaw- 
pyu, was a conqueror's, for he took the important 
port of Cittagong. Lost about 918/1512 to the Tippera 
radja, recaptured by King Minyaza, and then in the 
hands of the Husayn Shahis from 923/1517 until 
946/1539, Cittagong was absorbed into the Arakan 
kingdom from the time of King Minbin until that 
of King Sandathudamma. 

The naval forces of Arakan based on Cittagong, 
working with those of Portuguese freebooters settled 
in the head of the Bay, now dominated the riverine 
tracts of Bengal. The Noakhali and Backergunge 
districts were swept for plunder and slaves, (see 
Travels of Father Manrique, ed. C. E. Luard for the 
large numbers involved), and, indeed, for some years 
they were virtually Arakanese possessions. In 10^4/ 
1625 even Dhaka, the Mughal provincial capital 

In 1070/1660, Shah Shudja 1 , defeated in Bengal 
by the forces of his brother, the emperor Awrangzib, 
sailed with an Arakanese flottilla which had operated 
in his support, and sought asylum with King 
Sandathudamma at Mrohaung. The Mughals offered 
the King large sums for his extradition, while 
Shudja', denied shipping in which to leave, intrigued 
with the many Muslims in Arakan. On 6 DjumSda II 
1071/7 Feb 1661 Arakanese troops surrounded his 
house, and the Prince was probably killed in the 
struggle which followed. (See G. E. Harvey, Jour. 
Burma Research Soc. 1922/ii, 107-15). 

Awrangzib's viceroy, Shayista Khan, avenged the 
death and curbed Arakanese raids by destroying two 



It is clear that the Arakanese coins are modelled 
upon those of Bengal. Thus in Bengal the use of the 
kalima begins about the time when Narameikhla Was 
restored by the sultan to the Arakan throne, and 
in both countries a clumsy Kufic is used. (See 
Phayre, Coins of Arakan, of Pegu, and of Burma, in 
International Numismata Orientalia, 1882; M. S. 
Collis, Jour. Burma Research Soc. 1925,'i, 34-52; 
J. W. Laidley, J.A.S.B. 1846 pi. IV no. 12; H. F. 
Blochraan, J.A.S.B. 1873/i, 209-309). 

Muslims in Arakan left their traces in the Sandihkan 
mosque at Mrohaung, and in the Buddermokan at 
Akyab and Sandoway — shrines of Badr al-Din 
Awliya, whose most famous shrine is at Cittagong. 
He is the guardian saint of sailors of Arakan and 
Bengal. (See E. Forchhammer, Monograph on 
Arakan Antiquities, and Sir R. C. Temple, Jour. 
Burma Research Soc. 1925, 1-31). 

Bibliography: Sir A. P. Phayre, History of 
Burma, 76-81, 171-84; G. E. Harvey, History of 
Burma, 137-49; History of Bengal ii, ed. Sir Jadu- 
nath Sarkar, Dacca 1948; Sir J. Sarkar, Studies 
in Aurangzib's Reign, 1933, 191-213. 

(J. B. Harrison) 
ARAL, a large, slightly salty lake in west 
Turkistan, 46° 45' to 43° 43' N and 76 to 79° 27' E, 
with a surface area of (1942) 66,458 sq.km.; of this 
2345 sq.km. are islands. (The largest islands are the 
Tokmak Ata in front of the mouth of the Amu 
Darya, Ostrov Vozroideniya, "Island of the Resur- 
rection", formerly Nicholas Island, discovered in 
1848, 216 sq.km.; Barsa Kelmez, "arrival without 



return", I33sq.km.; and finally Kug Aral, in the 
north, eastward in front of the Kara Tup peninsula, 
273 sq.km.) The maximum length from NE to SW 
is 428 km., the breadth at 45 N 284 sq.km. The 
average depth of the lake is 16 m., in the middle it 
is up to 20-25 m., in the west up to 68 m. The lake 
has today in the N, E and S numerous bays, and, 
particularly in the SE, rocky islands offshore. Only 
the western shore, which borders on the Ost Yurt 
plain partly with cliffs up to 190 m. high, has no 
bays. The east bank is flat and sandy. 

In prehistoric times (diluvium and ice ages) the 
level of Lake Aral stood some 4 m. above the present 
waterline; hence the lake had (particularly in the 
bays in the NE and NW) a considerably larger 
extension and was besides (through the Ozboy 
[cf. amu darya]) connected with the Caspian Sea 
and through this, at the time, with the Ocean. 
Since the production of the present geological con- 
ditions it has no longer any outlet. (Cf. Brockhaus- 
Efron, Entsiklopedileskiy Slovar' 1 , ii, 10-12, and 
Bol'shaya Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya 1 , xx, 326.) In 
historical times also the water-level fluctuated by 
several meters, and the banks altered because of 
this, especially in the E and NE; but there is no 
evidence of significant changes at this time. In fact 
the description of the delta of the Amu Darya by 
al-Makdisi, 288 : two days from Mizdakhkan to the 
Kerder, one day and four farsakhs to Parategin 
(B(F)aratigin) and a further day to the bank of the 
lake, corresponds as well with modern conditions as 
Ibn Hawkal's account (ed. Kramers, 512). He says 
that the place Dih-i Naw = Arabic al-Karya al- 
Hadltha = Turkish Yefii Kent (al-Mas'udi: Naw 
Karda?), identical with the present ruins of Dian- 
kent, some 22 km. SW of the modern Kazalinsk 
(ill. in S. A. Tolstov, Auf den Spuren der alt-chores- 
mischen Kultur, Berlin 1953, 254; further details, 
ibid., 266) is two days distant from the bank of the 
lake (both 10th century accounts, Barthold, 
Turkestan, 178). In the igth-20th centuries the level 
fell and rose alternately: 1860-80 it fell, then the 
waterline rose till 1915 by 2 m; within the period 
1874 to 1931 it fluctuated by 3.1 m. Accordingly its 
height above sea-level is given variously as 49 m. 
(as an average: Bol'shaya Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya), 
52 m. (Leimbach), and as its highest point in 1931: 
as 54 m. This changes also correspondingly the 
estimation of its depth. The lake, whose salt content 
(1.03-1.08%) is considerably lower than that of the 
Ocean, scarcely ever freezes up completely. Mostly 
only the bays in the north turn solid, or the whole 
northern part (as far as the Barsa Kelmez island). 
To this northern part (some 5500 sq.km.) the 
Kazakhs have given the special name Ki«ik Tefiiz 
("small sea"); so the main southern part is called 
U)u Tefiiz ("great sea"). 

The Amu Darya {[q.v.] concerning the possible 
change of its course) and the Sir Darya run into 
the Aral Sea. Of the Sir Darya al-'Umari (1301-48) 
claims in his Masdiik al-Absar (reproduced by 
W. von Tiesenhausen, Materialy otnosyashiiesya k 
istorii Zolotoy Ordy, i, 1884, 215, transl., 237), 
following the account of the merchant Badr al-Din 
al-Rumi, that it changed its direction three travel- 
ling-days below Djand, and Hafiz-i Abru (1424-5), 
who disputes the existence of the Aral Sea, makes 
it join the Amu Darya. Finally in the Babur-nama 
the great conqueror of India (d. 1530) reports that 
the Sir Darya subsides into the sands in the west. 
One should not attach much weight to these 
accounts, of which that of Hafiz-i Abru may be 



regarded as legendary and that of al-'Umari conveys 
nothing conclusive ; Abu '1-GhazI too knows nothing 
of the Sir Darya at one time not reaching the Aral 
Sea [cf. also sIr darya]. 

It is uncertain whether the Aral Sea was known 
to classical antiquity. A. Hermann does not refer 
the reports about the 'O^etav^ Xtfivn) (palus Oxiana) 
to the Aral Sea; on the other hand he sees in the 
palus Oxia of Ammianus Marcellinus, xxiii, 6, 59 
the Aral Sea (Pauly-Wissowa, xviii/2, 1942, 2004-5). 
Also the quite general accounts of the Chinese and 
the Xifivn) of the Byzantine ambassador Zemarchos, 
568 A.D. (Menander Protector, Corp. Script. Hist. 
Byz., xviii, 238 f.; C. Miiller, Fragm. Hist. Graec, iv, 
229) cannot be interpreted with any certainty. 

In Islamic times Ibn Rusta, 92, is the first to 
describe the lake, without naming it. He gives its 
circumference as So farsakhs; al-Istakhri. 304, makes 
it 100, the Hudud al-'Alam, 53, 300 farsakhs. 
Whether the earlier report in Ibn Khurradadhbih. 
173, about the lake of Kerder (for this form instead of 
Kurdar cf. A. Zeki Velidf Togan in Tiirkiyat 
Mecmuasi, ii, 340) can be referred to the Aral Sea, is- 
questionable. At that time the Oghuz (Ghuzz) and 
the Peceneg nomadised round the lake, except on 
the southern bank (Kh w arizm). 

The Aral Sea was called by al-Istakhri, the 
Hudiid, and the later geographers, Buhayrat 
Kh w arizm and rightly described as a closed salty lake, 
which lay to the right on the journey from Gurgandj 
(Old Urgandj) to the Peceneg (so Gardizi, reproduced 
in W. Barthold, Otlet o komandirovkl v Srednyuyu 
Aziyu, 1897, 95) and so had no connexion with the 
Sari Kamlsh [see amu darya]. On the other hand 
al-Mas'udi (Tanbih, 65; in more general terms also 
in Murudi. i, 211) says that the "Lake of Diurdia- 
niyya" is connected with the Caspian Sea. Djurdjani 
(d. 861/1476-7), following the Qiihan-nama (from the 
beginning of the 13th century), calls it also "Lake 
of Djand" after the city on the lower reaches of the 
Sir Darya. Finally, Hafiz-i Abru claims (in 820/1417) 
that the lake has vanished (and furnishes thus new 
proof of the fact that one must by no means blindly 
trust isolated accounts by Islamic geographers of 
the Middle Ages). 

Between the 13th and 16th century no report 
about the Aral Sea has been handed down. Abu 
'1-Ghazi Bahadur Khan speaks in the Shadiarat al- 
Atrak (Desmaisons), 338, for the first time of Aral 
("island") as the place where the Amu Darya runs 
into the lake. After this "island" (which in the 18th 
century formed a separate state with the capital 
Kungrat [q.v.] and was not re-united with Khiwa 
until the reign of Muhammad Rahlm Khan, 1806-26) 
the lake later received the name of Aral Tefiizi, 
"Aral Sea", among the Kazaks. Following this the 
Russians call it Aral'skoe More, "Aral Sea" (first 
occurrence in 1697). Previously the Russian work 
Kniga bol'shogo terieia (finished in 1626) called it 
Sinee More, "Blue Sea" — it does in fact have a deep 
blue colour. This name appeared in 1697 also on the 
Dutch map in Witsen, Noord- en Oost-Tartarye 1 , 1687, 
while J. N. de l'lsle, in 1723, uses the modern name 
(Barthold, Aral, 77 f.). 

The Russians erected first in 1847 a fortress 
Ralmskoe (the name probably derives from Rahim) 
on the right bank of the lower Sir Darya, 60-65 km. 
from its mouth. Already from 1819 several expedi- 
tions had more closely explored the lake and furnished 
descriptions (1819 N. N. Murav'ev; 1820-1 A. F. 
Negri and A. K. Baron Meyendorff ; 1825-6 F. W. R. 
Berg; 1833-5 G. von Helmersen; 1839 V. A. Count. 



ARAL — ARCHITECTURE 



Perovskiy; 1840 M. M. Zemcuznikov; 1840-1 Antov; 
1841 I. P. Blaramberg and D. I. Romanov; 1842-3 
Danilevskiy ; 1843 Schulz and Lemm; then in 1848 
A. I. Butakov and A. I. Maksheyev). Between 1853 
and 1883 the Russians kept a flotilla on the Aral 
Sea, which was stationed in the beginning in Aral'sk, 
then in Kazalinsk (on the lower Sir Darya). It was 
•disbanded after the Aral Sea had become a Russian 
inland lake with the conquest of the Khanate of 
Khiwa in 1873. Since 1906 the lake is reached by 
the railway line Orenburg-Tashkent at the NE 
corner near Aral'sk. Otherwise the lake is still to-day 
situated inconveniently for traffic. — During the civil 
war of 1918-21 a flotilla was formed again on the 
Aral Sea. Since the reorganisation of territories in 
1924 and 1936 the southern part of the lake belongs 
to the autonomous republic of Karakalpakia in the 
framework of the Uzbek SSR, the northern part 
to Kazakistan. The lake is of importance for the 
surrounding population and altogether for the USSR 
principally because of its fishing industry. 

Bibliography : Brockhaus-Efron, Entsihlopedi- 
ieskiy Slovar 1 , ii, 12-4; Bol'shaya Sovetskaya En- 
tsiklopediya? , ii, 609-n (with coloured map); 
A. I. Maksheyev, Opisanie Aral'skago Morya, Zap. 
Russk. Geogr. Ob-va., 185 1; W. Leimbach, Die 
Sowjetunion, Stuttgart 1950, 120-2 (with map), 
285 f., as well as the general works about the water- 
ways in the USSR mentioned there, 495, nos. 123-5 ; 
T. Shabad, Geography of the USSR, New York 
X951, index; W. Barthold, Nachrichten iiber den 
Aral-See etc., Leipzig 1910; idem, in EI 1 , s.v. ; 
idem, Turkestan, index; R. Roesler, Die Aralsee- 
Frage, SBAk. Wien, 1873, 173-260; L. S. Berg, 
Aral'skoe More, St. Petersburg 1908 and in 
general the Naulnye rezul'taty Aral'skoy Ekspe- 
ditsii, Vyp. 1-14, Tashkent, 1902-15 (= Izvlstiya 
Turkestansago otdgla Imp. Russk. Geogr. Ob-va, 
iii, iv, v, viii, xi, xii); A. Woeikow, Der Aralsee 
und sein Gebiet, Petersmanns Mitteilungen, 1909, 
82-6; idem (Woeikof), he Turkestan russe, Paris 
1914: I. V. Mushketov, Turkestan, 1886-1906. 
Cf. also Bibl. to Amu darya, kh w arizm, khiwa, 



SlR D 



ARAR [see harar]. 

ARARAT [see djabal al-harith]. 

ARAS [see al-rass]. 

c ARBAN, site of ruins in Mesopotamia, 
on the Western bank of the Khabur, to the 
South of the Djabal c Abd al- c Az!z, situated under 
36°io'N. Lat. and 4o 5o'E. Long. (Greenw.). 
The remains of the old town are hidden under 
several hills, after one of which the site is 
also called Tell 'Adjaba. It was here that H. A. 
Layard found several winged bulls with human 
heads, products of the genuinely Mesopotamian 
civilization which is closely related to that of 
ancient Babylonia. 'Arban is probably identical 
with the Gar (Sha)-dikanna of the cuneiform in- 
scriptions. During the later Roman period the 
town, then called Arabana, possessed considerable 
military importance as the principal station on 
the line of frontier against the Parthians. In the 
Arab period 'Arban played an important part as 
the centre of the Khabur district and as place of 
storage for the cotton cultivated in the Khabur 
valley. Geographers (cf. e.g. Yakut s.v. c Araban) and 
historians refer to it frequently as a flourishing town. 
The date of its destruction is unknown; possibly it 
took place during the Mongol invasion under Timur. 
Bibliography: K. Ritter, Erdkunde xi, 271; 

H. A. Layard, Niniveh und Babylon (German 



transl. by Zenker), 208 fl.; M. von Oppenheim, 

Vom Mittelmeer zum persischen Golf (Berlin 1900) 

ii, 19-21; id., in Z G Erdkunde xxxvi, (1901), 69 

ff. ; Streck, in the Zeitschr. f. Assyriologie xviii, 

190; Le Strange, 97. (M. Streck) 

ARBCNA, the name by which the Arab historians 

designated the town of Narbonne. Reached by the 

early Muslim expeditions, it was taken in 96/715 

under c Abd al- c Aziz b. Musa b. Nusayr, was probably 

then lost or abandoned, and was retaken in 100/719 

by al-Samh b. Malik al-Khawlani. In 116/734, two 

years after the battle of Poitiers [see balat al-shu- 

hada'], the Duke of Provence concluded a treaty with 

the governor of Narbonne, Yusuf b. c Abd al- Rahman, 

whereby the latter was allowed to occupy a certain 

number of places in the valley of the Rhdne, in order 

to protect Provence against the attempts of Charles 

Martel and to procure a new invasion route to the 

north ; Charles Martel reacted at once, took Avignon 

in 119/737 and invested Narbonne, but without 

success. It was not until 142/759 that the town, 

after a long siege, was finally taken from the Muslims 

by Pepin the Short. In 177/793, c Abd al-Malik b. 

Mughlth advanced as far as Narbonne, set fire to 

the outskirts, defeated the Duke of Toulouse not 

far from the city, and withdrew with considerable 

booty; another expedition, which was unsuccessful, 

took place in 226/840. Narbonne and its region still 

maintained relations with the Umayyad court, Jewish 

merchants being particularly active in this respect. 

Bibliography: E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. 

Mus., i (see index), gives the main facts and 

enumerates (8, n. 2, 30-1 and 54, n. 1) the sources 

and studies, amongst which should be noted: 

Codera, Narbona, Gerona y Barcelona bajo la domi- 

nacidn musulmana in Est. crit. hist. dr. esp. (viii) ; 

M. Reinaud, Invasions des Sarrazins en France, 

Paris 1836 (Eng. tr. by H. K. Sherwani in Islamic 

Culture, iv/1930, 100 ff., 251 ff., 397 ff-, 588 ff.. 

v/i93i, 71 ff-, 472 ff., 651 ff.); A. Molinie and 

H. Zotenberg, Invasions des Sarrazins dans le 

Languedoc d'apres les historiens musulmans in Devic 

and Vaissette, Histoire ginirale du Languedoc, ii, 

Toulouse 1875. There is also the Chronicum Frede- 

garii, the Chronicon Moissiacense, the Chronicon 

Fontanellensis, and other Latin chronicles (cf. Ch. 

Pellat, Les Sarrasins en Avignon, in En Terre 

d'Islam, 1944/iv, 178-90). (Ed.) 

ARCHIDONA [see urpjudhuna]. 

ARCHITECTURE. 

I. Early Muslim architecture 
(1) The Time of the Prophet 

Arabia, at the rise of Islam, does not appear to 
have possessed anything worthy of the name of 
architecture. Only a small proportion of the popu- 
lation was settled, and these lived in dwellings which 
were scarcely more than hovels. Those who lived in 
mud-brick houses were called ahl al-madar, and the 
Bedawln, from their tents of camel's-hair cloth, 
ahl al-wabar. 

The sanctuary at Mecca, in the time of Muhammad, 
merely consisted of a small roofless enclosure, oblong 
in shape, formed by four walls a little higher than 
a man, built of rough stones laid dry. Within this 
enclosure was the sacred well of Zamzam. This 
little sanctuary, known as the Ka'ba, lay at the 
bottom of a valley surrounded by the houses of 
Mecca, which came close up to it, and we are expressly 
told that when 'Umar wanted to surround it by an 
open space, large enough to contain the Faithful, he 



ARCHITECTURE 



609 



had to demolish many houses (al-Baladhurl. 
FutHh, 46). 

The Ka'ba, being in a bad state, was demolished 
and reconstructed by the Kuraysh, when Muham- 
mad was in his thirty-fifth year, i.e. in A.D. 608. The 
Kuraysh took the wood of a ship which had been 
wrecked, and employed a carpenter and builder 
named Bakum, who had been on the ship, to help 
them in the rebuilding. AzrakI (Wustenfeld's ed., 
Chroniken der Stadt Mekka, i, no, last line— 112, 
1. 12) says that the new Ka'ba was bui^t with a 
course of stone alternating with a course of wood 
up to the roof, there being sixteen courses of stone 
and fifteen of wood. The door, which had previously 
being at ground level, was now placed with its sill 
four cubits and a span from the ground. The rooi 
rested on six pillars (sawari, pi. of sariya) arranged 
in two rows of three each. Total height of structure-18 
cubits. Azraki says that on the ceiling, walls and 
columns were pictures (suwar) of the Prophets, trees 
and angels. (Cf. Creswell, in Archaeologia, 94, Oxford 
1951, 97-102). 

This curious style of architecture, of alternate 
courses of stone and wood, resembles the style 
practised in Abyssinia in early times (see Krencker, 
in the Deutsche Aksum-Expedition, ii, 168-94) and 
Bakum is probably an abbreviation of 'Enbakom, 
the Abyssinian form of Habakkuk, that is to say 
the "carpenter and builder" employed was most 
probably an Abyssinian (see my Ka'ba in A.D. 608, 
in Archaeologia, XCIV (1951), 97-102). 

When Muhammad migrated to Madina he built a 
house for himself and his family. It consisted of an 
enclosure about 100 cubits square of mud brick, 
with a portico on the south side made of palm trunks 
used as columns to support a roof of palm leaves and 
mud. Against the outer side of the east wall were 
built small huts (hudjra) for the Prophet's wives. All 
opened into the courtyard. We have the description 
(preserved in Ibn Sa'd, Tabakdt, I„ 180) of these 
huts, due to a man named c Abd Allah b. Yazid who 
saw then just before they were demolished by order 
of al-Walld: "There were four houses of mud brick, 
with apartments partitioned off by palm branches, 
and five houses made of palm branches plastered 
with mud and not divided into rooms. Over the doors 
were curtains of black hair-cloth. Each curtain 
measured 3x3 cubits. One could reach the roof 
with the hand". 

Such was the house of the leader of the community 
at Madina. Nor did Muljammad wish to alter these 
conditions; he was entirely without architectural 
ambitions, and Ibn Sa'd records the following saying 
of his: "The most unprofitable thing that eateth up 
the wealth of a Believer is building" {Tabakdt, I„ 
18 J, 11. 7-8; also VIII, 120, 1. 1). At this time 
T9<if was the only town in the Hidjaz that possessed 
a wall. When Madina was attacked in 5/627 it had no 
wall, so Muhammad had a ditch dug to defend 
it; the idea is said to have been due to a Persian 
slave named Salman, and it created a great sensation 
for nobody had ever heard of such a thing before. 
The word khandak given to it is Persian. Madina was 
first surrounded by a wall in 63/682-3; (Mas'udi, 
Tanbih, 305, 1. 4). 

(2) The Patriarchal and Umayyad Caliphates 
The men who formed the Arab armies of conquest 
were mainly Bedouin, but even those who came 
from permanent settlements, such as Mecca and 
Madina, knew nothing of art or architecture. They 
soon found themselves in two totally different 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



cultural environments, one of which had been under 
Hellenirtic influence for a thousand years, the 
other under Persian influence for even longer. 

And not only were the cultural conditions dif- 
ferent, the material conditions were different also. 
Syria was a country of splendid building materials. 
Syrian limestone was the best of its kind, resisting 
weathering and taking a beautiful amber lint on 
exposure, and cedar wood was plentiful, for the 
Lebanon had not yet been deforested. So the seventh 
century invaders found themselves in a country of 
splendid buildings — churches of cut stone, some of 
ashlar in courses 90 cm. high, with arcades on 
marble columns, gable roofs of cedar wood and 
large surfaces decorated with coloured glass mosaics 
on a glistening gold background. 

In the other cultural sphere they met with buildings 
of brick, sometimes only of mud brick, sometimes 
vaulted and sometimes with flat roofs of palm 
trunks, palm leaves and mud. 

In these early days, the Muslims, when they con- 
quered a town in Syria, usually took one of the 
churches and used it as a mosque, or merely divided 
one of the churches if the town had surrendered 
without resistance. At Hims, for example, they took 
a fourth part of the Church of St. John. How was a 
church converted into a mosque? One can easily 
guess. In Syria the kibla (direction of Mecca) is due 
south, whereas churches are turned towards the east. 
Under these circumstances it was only necessary to 
close the western entrance (or three entrances), 
pierce new entrances in the north wall and pray 
across the aisles. That this is exactly what happened 
can be verified in the Great Mosque of Hama where 
the west front of the Kanisat al- c U?md (Great 
Church) which was converted into a mosque in 
15/636-7, now forms the west end of the sanctuary. 
Its three western doors have been converted into 
windows and it is now entered from the north. 

At Jerusalem they made use of the remains of the 
basilical hall of Herod, ruined by the army of Titus, 
which ran along the south side of the Temple 
Enclosure. This primitive mosque was seen by Arculf 
about A.D. 670 (Geyer, Itinera Hierosolymilana, i, 
145). In Persia, at Persepolis and Razwln, they appear 
to have taken apaddnas, or hypostile audience-halls 
of the Persian kings, with flat roofs resting on 
columns with double bull-headed capitals. 

But the situation was different in 'Irak, for here 
the Arabs founded new towns (which they did not 
do in Syria) so pre-existing buildings could not be 
employed, and they had to construct some sort of 
place for themselves. What manner of buildings were 
the first mosques of the earliest towns in Islam? 

The following is a list of those Umayyad Friday 
mosques the essential features of which are known 
from literary or archaeological evidence: 

1. — Basra, reconstructed in 45/665. 

2. — Kufa, reconstructed in 50/670. 

3. — Damascus, construction begun in 87/706. 

4. — Medina, reconstructed 88/706-91/710. 

5. — al-Masdjid al-Aksa, Jerusalem, built under 

Walld I, 86/705-96/715. 

6. — Aleppo, built under Walld I or Sulayman, 

86/705-99/717. 

7. — Fus^at, reconstructed 92/710-93/712. 

8. — Ramla, completed 98/717-102/720. 

9. — Busra, built in 102/720-1. 

10. — Kasr al-Hayr al-gharkl (identified by Sau- 
vaget as Rusafa, the residence of Hisham) 
built in 110/728. 

39 



ARCHITECTURE 



ii. — Harran, built in 126/744-133/750. 

12. — Hamat, reconstructed, date 

13. — Dar c a, date uncertain (?). 
At Basra, founded about 14/635, the first mosque 

(according to al-Baladhuri, Fuluh, 341, 342 and 
346-7) was simply marked out (ikhtatfa) and the 
people prayed there without any building. According 
to another version, also given by al-Baladhuri (346 
and 350), it was enclosed by a fence of reeds. 
At Kufa, founded in 17/638, the first mosque 
was equally primitive. Its boundaries were fixed by 
a man who threw an arrow towards the tiibla, then 
another towards the north, another to the west and 
a fourth to the east (al-Baladhuri, 275-6; al-Tabari, 
i, 2481, 11. 12-13). A square with each side two 
arrow-casts in length was thus obtained. This area was 
not enclosed by walls but by a ditch only, and the 
sole architectural feature was a covered colonnade 
(zulla), 200 cubits long, which ran the whole length 
of the south side. 

The columns were of marble, taken from some 
buildings of the Lakhmid Princes at Hira, about 
4 miles away. This zulla was open on all sides so 
that, in the words of al-Tabarl (i, 2494), a man 
praying in it could see the convent known as Dayr 
Hind and the gate of the town known as Bab Djisr. 
On the kibla side and only separated from the 
praying place by a narrow street was built a dwelling 
for Sa'd the Commander-in-Chief. 

The first mosque in Egypt, the Mosque of 'Amr, 
built at Fustat in the winter of 641/2, was equally 
primitive. It measured 50 x 30 cubits and had two 
doors on each side except on the Itibla side. (Makrizi, 
Khitaf, ii, 247)- The roof was very low and 
probably consisted of palm trunks resting of palm- 
trunk columns as in Muhammad's house at Madlna. 

The first mosques to be worthy of the name of 
architecture were the second Great Mosques at 
Basra (45/665) and Kufa (50/670). Regarding the 
latter al-Tabari (i, 2492) says that Ziyad b. Abihi 
summoned "Masons of the Days of Ignorance" (i.e. 
non-Muslims). Then a man who had been one 
of the builders of Khusraw, came forward and 
described how columns of stone from Djabal Ahwaz 
should be used to carry a roof 30 cubits high. Ibn 
Djubayr, who saw this mosque, says (de Goeje's 
ed., 211) that "the Ifibla side has five aisles whereas 
the rest have two only; the aisles are supported oil 
on columns like masts, . . . extremely high and not 
surmounted by arches" (Fig. 1). It is obvious that 
the roofing system resembled that of an apaddna, or 
Hall of Columns of the Achaemenian kings, exactly 
as was the case in the first Great Mosque at Baghdad. 

The Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem, the 
oldest existing monument of Muslim architecture, 
was built by the Caliph 'Abd al-Malik and completed 
in 72/691. It is an annular building and consists in 
its simplest analysis of wooden dome 20.44 m - in 
diameter, set on a high drum, pierced with sixteen 
windows and resting on four piers and twelve 
columns, placed in a circle and so arranged that 
three cclumns alternate with each pier. This circle 
of supports is placed in the centre of a large octagon 
averaging 20.60 m. a side, formed by eight walls 
9'/i m. high (excluding the parapet which adds 
2.60 m.) each pierced in their upper half by five 
windows (Plate Ilia and Fig. 2). 

There is a door 2.60 m. wide and 4.30 high in 
each of the four sides which face the four cardinal 
points, and on these sides the central window above 
the door is consequently much reduced. The space 



between the circle and the octagon being too great 
to be conveniently spanned by single beams, an 
intermediate octagon, consisting of arches borne by 
eight piers and sixteen columns, so arranged that 
two columns alternate with each pier, has been 
placed between the two to provide the necessary 
support for the roof (Plate IV a). The two concentric 
ambulatories thus formed were of course used for 
the \awwaf or ceremonial circumambulation of the 
sacred object, the Rock. 

The exterior was always panelled with marble for 
half its height, as it is to-day, but the upper part was 
originally covered with glass mosaic {fusayfisd) like 
the inner arcades. This was replaced by the present 
coating of fayence by Sultan Sulayman in 959/1552. 
The vaults of the four entrance porches were also 
decorated with mosaic, but it has only been preserved 
in the eastern porch. The lintels of the four doorways 
are decorated on their under side with sheet metal, 
either copper or bronze, worked en repoussi and 
exhibiting a variety of designs, chiefly vine leaves, 
bunches of grapes and acanthus. The raised parts 
of the design are gilt, the background of the central 
part is painted black and the outer border bright 
green. The inner side of the outer wall is panelled with 
marble from top to bottom, likewise all the piers. The 
tie beams of the arches of the octagonal arcade are 
decorated beneath with a bronze sheathing like the 
door soffits (Plate 1116c), but their inner faces are 
treated like a Corinthian entablature. The arcades 
above are covered with glass mosaic on both faces 
and their soffits also (Plate IV6, V and VI). The 
arcades of the central circle are also decorated 
with glass mosaic on their outer faces, but their 
soffits and inner faces have been given a coating of 
marble at some unknown date, but before A.D. 
1 340. The drum above is also decorated with mosaic. 
The ceiling of the outer ambulatory is probably the 
work of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad in 718/1318 
like the present lining of the dome. The ceilling 
of the inner ambulatory dates from the end of the 
18th century. The original dome, until it fell in 
407/1016-7, was covered with sheets of lead, over 
which were placed 10,210 plates of brass gilt (Ibn 
c Abd Rabbihl, al-'Iftd, iii, 367). The harmony of its 
proportions and the richness of its decoration make 
the Dome of the Rock one of the most beautiful 
buildings in the world. 

The Great Mosque of Damascus. Al-Walid 
began the construction of the Great Mosque of 
Damascus immediately after his accession in 86/705. 
A curious situation had prevailed here since the 
conquest. A great sanctuary of a Syrian god existed 
here, consisting of a temenos, or sacred enclosure, 
measuring 100 m. from N. to S. and 150 m. from E. 
to W., set in an outer enclosure over 300 m. square. 

At each corner of the inner enclosure, which had 
pilastered walls nearly 13 m. high resting on a socle 
of at least 4 m., was a square tower, and all round the 
interior ran a double colonnade. There were tour 
axial entrances and in the centre, or a little to the 
west of it, was the temple, its entrance facing east. 
In the 4th century Christianity became the state 
religion and Theodosius (A.D: 379-95) converted the 
temple into a church (Malalas, Chronograpkia, 
344-5). After the Arab conquest the temenos was 
divided between Muslims and Christians. Ibn 
Shakir says that they both "entered by the same 
doorway, placed on the south side where is now the 
great mifirab. Then the Christians turned to the 
west towards their church (i.e. the converted temple), 
and the Muslims to the right to reach their mosque". 



ARCHITECTURE 



Where? Opposite the traditional "mihrab of the 
Companions of the Prophet", i.e. under that part of 
the interior colonnade which was to the east of the 
entrance. As for the comer towers, Ibn al-Faklh 
(p. 108) says: "The minarets (mi'ghana) which are 
in the Damascus Mosque were originally watch- 
towers in the Greek days . . . when al-Walld turned 
the whole area into a mosque, he left these in their 
old condition". Al-Mas c udl (Afwrudj, iv, 90-91) 



then built the sanctuary with three aisles running 
parallel to the south wall and cut through its centre 
by a transept about 8 m. higher. The arcades are 
in two tiers, the lower of large arches being 10.35 m. 
high, the upper, in which two small arches correspond 
to each one below, is nearly 5 m. high. Similar 
arcades form porticoes on the three sides of the court. 
The aisles of the sanctuary have gable roofs covered 
with sheets of lead, and so has the transept, but 



h 



Qasral-Kufa 



lii 



nl 



Moscjue 



— 200 cubic*. io3«om. — ■ 



ii] 



Fig. 1. Plan of Great Mosque of Kufa. 



says: "Then came Christianity and it became a 
Church; then came Islam and it became a mosque. 
al-Walld built it solidly and the sawdmi' (the four 
corner towers) were not changed, they serve for the 
call to prayer at the present day". 

This state of affairs lasted until al-Walid, after 
bargaining with the Christians, demolished every- 
thing except the outer walls and the corner towers 
and built the present mosque. He first of all reduced 
the interior of the enclosure into a rectangle by 
building the long rooms to east and west, leaving a 
vestibule in front of the east and west entrances. He 



the porticoes on the three sides of the court have 
roofs which slope slightly inwards (Plate Vlla-b). 
Over the transept was a wooden dome, very high 
and conspicuous. 

The decoration consisted of marble panelling 
(some parts of the original panelling exist next the 
east entrance) above which ran a golden karma or 
vine-scroll frieze, and above that was glass mosaic 
(/usay/isd) right up to the ceiling. A considerable 
amount has survived the three fires of 1069, 1401, 
and 1893, and may still be seen under the west 
portico, where the famous panorama of the Barada 



ARCHITECTURE 



ie river of Damascus) is over 34 m. iD length 
id nearly 7 m. high (Plate Villa). When intact 
e surface of the fusayfisd must have been greater 
an in any other building in existence! There were 
50 six marble window-grilles (Plate VIII b) which 




Dome of the Rock. 



ie earliest geometrical designs in Islam. 
The Great Mosque of Damascus was rightly regarded 
by mediaeval Muslims as one of the Seven Wonders 
of the World. 

Another building due to al-Walid is the audience 
hall and fuimmam, known to-day as Kusayr 'Amra, 



in Transjordan. It consists of an audience hall 
about 10 m. square, with two slightly pointed 
transverse arches supporting three tunnel-vaults 
(Plate IX and Fig. 3). There is a vaulted recess 
on the side opposite the entrance, with a small 
vaulted room on either side of it. A door on the 
east side gives access to the hammdm, which con- 
sists of three small rooms covered by a tunnel vault, 
a cross vault and a dome. The latter was the 
calidarium, and under the floor are hypocausts 
exactly as in a Roman bath. But most remarkable 
of all are the paintings which cover the walls (Plate 
X), mostly scenes from daily life, a hunting scene 
and figures symbolising History, Poetry and Philo- 
sophy with the words in Greek above their heads. 
The dome of the calidarium was painted to represent 
the vault of heaven, with the Great Bear, the Little 
Bear, the signs of the Zodiac, etc. But most important 
of all was the painting of the enemies of Islam 
defeated by the Umayyads, with their names written 
above them in Greek and Arabic: Kaysar |the 
Byzantine Emperor), Rodorlk (the Visigothic King 
of Spain), Chosroes, Negus (the King of Abyssinia), 
and two more the names of which have been obli- 
terated. Painting, contrary to the popular idea, is 
not forbidden by any passage in the Kur'an, and 
hostility to it only took proper theological form 
towards the end of the 8th century A.D. (see 
my Lawfulness of Painting in Early Islam, in Ars 
Islamica, XI-XII, 159-66). 

The Umayyad Caliphs were great builders of 
palaces. Their external fortified appearance, although 
built in the heart, of their Empire, hundreds of miles 
from the nearest frontier, is to be explained by the 
route taken by the armies of the conquest. They 
passed a long series of Roman frontier forts, the 
castra of the Roman limes, which ran from the Gulf 
of 'Akaba to Damascus and thence to Palmyra. The 
most important of these (for which see Brunnow and 
von Domaszewski, Die Provincia Arabia) are: 




Fig. 3. Kusayr c Amra, 



ARCHITECTURE 



Udhrufc built by Trajan 

Da'djanlyya probably Trajanic 

Ladjdjun probably Trajanic 

Bshayr inscription of Diocletian (A.D. 284-304) 

Dumayr A.D. 162. 

Some of these frontier forts were lived in by 
Umayyad princes. For example, Walid II sometimes 
lived at Azrak, which was rebuilt in 634/1236-7, but 
which in his day (A.D. 744) was a Roman fort of 
Diocletian and Maximian. When he was attacked 
by conspirators he fled north to the Kasr al-Bakhra J , 
which is the Arabic name of a Roman fort about 
15 miles S.-W. of Palmyra. 

Now the result of this was twofold. It not only 
gave the Umayyad Caliphs the necessary knowledge 
when they wanted to built fortresses on the 
Byzantine frontier, e.g. Massisa in 83-4/702-3, al- 
Muthakkab, Katarghash, Mura, Buka and Baghras, 
all in 105/724 (see al-Baladhurl, 165-7), but it affected 
the design of their palaces. Here is a list of them: 
1. _ al-Walid's palace at Minya on Lake Tiberias, 

A.D. 705/15. 
2- — al-Walid's far at Djabal Seis, A.D. 705/15. 
3. — Hisham's palace of Kasr al-Hayr al-Gharbl. 

c. 727. 

4- — Hisham's palace of Kasr al-Hayr al-Sharki, 

110/729. 

5- — Hisham's palace at Khirbat al-Mafdjar, 4 

miles N. of Jericho. 

6. _ Walid II's palace of Mshatta, c. A.D. 744. 

7. _ Walid II's palace of Kasr al-TOba, c. A.D. 744- 
All these palaces, although built in the midst of 

Muslim territory, look externally like forts, for they 
are stone enclosures with round flanking towers. 
Nos. 1-5 are approximately 70 m. square externally, 
No. 7 is twice as large, 70 X 140 m. and No. 6 is four 
times as large, i.e. 145 m. square. Why this fortified 
appearance when it was not necessary ? It would 
seem that having been in the habit of occupying 
forts belonging to the Roman limes, they came to 
look upon a rectangular enclosure flanked by towers 
as a necessary feature of a princely residence. 

When Hisham about 727 A.D. built his palace, 
known to-day as Kasr al-Hayr al-Gharbl. he chose a 
site on a small mound about 40 miles to the west of 
Palmyra, where there was a monastery built by the 
Ghassanid Arethas (= al-Harith) under Justinian 
in A.D. 559. He incorporated the tower of this 
monastery, which had a door protected by a machi- 
coulis (of one opening only) high above it, so that 
it formed a tall watch-tower at the north-west corner 
of his 70 m. square far. This is how the machicoulis 
first passed into Muslim architecture. 

Kasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi has been admirably exca- 
vated by M. Daniel Schlumberger, (see Syria, XX, 
195-238 and 324-73). The entrance was found to 
consist of two great stone door-posts and a lintel 
decorated with vine ornament, which must have 
been taken from Palmyra. He has also brought to 
light masses of stucco ornament, wall panelling, 
window grilles and frames, and human figures, part 
of which has been skilfully assembled and put 
together in the Museum at Damascus. Two large 
fresco paintings were also discovered, one representing 
the Caliph on horseback hunting with bow and arrow 
and using stirrups, which is almost the oldest known 
record of their use. 

Two years later Hisham built another palace, 
known to-day as Kasr al-Hayr al-Sharki, together 
with a small walled city provided with a mosque of 



three aisles, cut through the centre by a transept of 
greater height, exactly as at Damascus (Plate XI I a 
and Fig. 4). 

As for the Palace Enclosure it averages nearly 
67 m. a side internally and 71 m. externally with 
walls of stone flanked by 12 round towers, of which 
the total height must have been at least 14 m. There 
is only one entrance in the centre of the west side; 
it is defended by a machicoulis as are the four gates 
of the Madina alongside. The walls are decorated with 
a string-course of brickwork at the level of the 
rampart walk and each tower was crowned by a 
room with a brick dome. The tops of the pair which 
flank the entrance are decorated with arched panels 
of stucco, acanthus leaves and also apparently vine 
leaves and grapes (Plate XI). The interior consisted 
of an open court, which must have measured about 
37 x 45 m., surrounded by two tiers of rooms, the 
lower tunnel vaulted, the upper with flat wooden 
ceilings. It awaits excavation. *~ 

Another palace of Hisham at Khirbat al-Mafdjar, 
4 miles north of Jericho, has also been excavated in 
recent years. It consists of a palace enclosure about 
70 m. square with its own mosque, a large forecourt, 
a tank with a little open octagonal pavilion in the 
centre, another mosque with aisles (two) on the 
(tibia side only, and to north a very large hammam, 
consisting of nine domed bays arranged three by 
three, with a small annexe on the north side con- 
taining the most beautiful floor mosaic ever discovered 
in Palestine. It consists of a fine tree executed in 
three shades of green, with two gazelles grazing on 
the left and a lion pouncing on another on the right. 
In Muslim palaces the staircases are generally narrow 
and inconspicuously tucked away, but here there are 
fine broad staircases which led to the upper floor. 
Here again masses of stucco ornament have been 
recovered and put together in the Palestine Museum 
at Jerusalem. It consists of panels decorated with 
geometrical ornament, window grilles, human heads 
and dancing girls (see the Quarterly of the Department 
of Antiquities, V, VI, VIII and X-XII). 

These three palaces each had an enclosure which 
is Kasr al-Hayr al-Sharki is about i'/s km. wide and 
7 km. long, with walls of stone to the height of a 
metre and a half and above that at least 2 m. more 
of mud brick. There are half-round buttresses at 
intervals, first on one side of the wall and then on 
the other alternately. Traces of a similar wall exist at 
Mafdjar. Such an enclosure was called a hayr, and 
here is the proof. Ya'kubi {Bulddn, p. 263) describing 
the foundation of Samarra by the Caliph al-Mu'tasim 
in A.D. 836 says: "And wherever these streets of 
al-Hayr touched land granted to other people, he 
would order the wall [of al-Hayr] to be built farther 
back. Behind the wall were wild animals, gazelles, 
wild asses, deer, hares and ostriches, kept in by an 
enclosing wall in a fine broad open tract". And 
Miskawayhi (Margoliouth's text, i, 159) under the 
year 315/925-6, says: "This year there was a 
rising of the disbanded cavalry, who went out to 
the Oratory, plundered the palace called al-Thurayya 
(the palace of the Pleiades at Baghdad), and 
slaughtered the game in the ffayr". 

Mshatta, about 4 miles from Zlza and about 20 
miles south of 'Amman, is the largest of all the Umay- 
yad palaces, measuring about 145 m. each way, but it 
was never finished. The outer walls with their half 
round towers are of well dressed limestone, but all the 
walls of the interior are of red bricks resting of three 
or four courses of cut stone. The brickf are of two 
sizes, 21 cm. square and 28 cm. sq., and 6V« cm. thick. 



ARCHITECTURE 




f-fSie^pSE^^f^rJ^K-— -^Mp.= ^7%pj=-i!|H - 



ii 






Fig. 4. Kasr al-Hayr al-Sharkl, mosque. 



The entrance is in the centre of the south side. 
Internally it is divided into three tracts running 
from north to south, the central one being 57 m. 
in width and the lateral ones about 42 m. The 
buildings intended to occupy the lateral tracts have 
never been begun, and even those projected for the 
central tract have never been finished. Of the latter, 
however, the group at the north end must have been 
very nearly finished, and the plan of the group at 
the south end can be clearly seen, for a great stone 



grid is visible formed by the stone foundation 
course (Fig. 5). 

The part immediately behind the gateway was 
obviously intended to be an entrance hall 17.40. m. 
long, leading into a court 27-14 m. broad and 23 m. 
deep ; these two elements were flanked by other rooms 
and courts. This group may be called the Gateway 
Block. Beyond the court just mentioned is an 
enormous central court, just over 37 m. sq. on the 
north side of which is a triple-arched entrance (the 



ARCHITECTURE 



arches have fallen) leading into a great basilical 
hall, 21.60 m. deep, ending in a triple apse (Plate 
XII b-c and Fig. 6). This basilical hall, which presu- 
mably was the Throne Room, is flanked by two 
symmetrical complexes composed as follows: on 
either side of an oblong court, placed perpendicular 
to jjhe basilical hall, is another court at right angles 
to it, flanked on each side by a pair of vaulted 
chambers. These rooms were intended to have a 
marble panelling, for great block of a fine green 
stone (looking like marble, but really a calc-schist), 



a vine leaf and a bunch of grapes. The wall-surface 
is divided into twenty upright and twenty inverted 
triangles by a cornice-like moulding, which runs up 
and down zig-zag fashion from the socle to the 
entablature. The triangles are about 2.85 m. in 
height and 2.50 in width at the base. Exactly in 
the centre of each is a rosette, those in the upright 
triangles being lobed hexagons, those in the inverted 
triangles straight-sided octagons. The kernels of all 
the rosettes vary. The surface of the upright triangles 
is decorated with extraordinary richness in high 




Fig. 5. Mshatta, plan. 



some already sawn into slabs 3 cm. thick, were once 
to be seen lying in the east side tract. 

But Mshatta really owes its fame to the marvellous 
carving on its south facade, or rather on the two 
half-octagonal towers that flank the entrance and 
the first length of curtain wall to right (13.20 m.) 
and left (13.50 m.). It consists of a plain socle 47 cm. 
high, a richly decorated base 1.25 m. in height, a 
decorated wall-face 2.95 m. in height and an entabla- 
ture, 90.4 cm. The base consists of a torus moulding 
with a hollow moulding above and below. The torus 
moulding is decorated with a network of interlacing 
vine tendrils which form loops, each occupied by 



relief, vine tendrils, bunches of grapes, birds which 
pluck at the fruit, etc. In the lower part of some of 
the triangles is a chalice, out of which two animals 
drink (Plate XIII). On the right hand side of the 
facade there are neither animals nor birds and the 
ornament is on a much smaller scale, in fact the 
differences are sufficient to justify the suggestion 
that it was executed by a different school of 
craftsmen. 

Summary: The monuments of Umayyad archi- 
tecture are really splendid structures of cut stone 
with arcades resting on marble columns and richly 
decorated internally with marble panelling and 



ARCHITECTURE 



mosaic (fusayfisa). The mosques are nearly always 
covered with a gable roof (diamaliin). The minarets 
were tall square towers, derived from the church 
towers of pre-Muslim Syria, and the triple-aisled 
sanctuaries were due to the same influence. Umayyad 
monuments exhibit a mixture of influences, Syria 
occupying the first place and Persia the second, 
and Egyptian influence is definitely demonstrable 
at the end of this period in Mshatta. Umayyad 
architecture employed the following devices: the 
semi-circular, the horse-shoe and the pointed arch, 
flat arches or lintels with a semi-circular relieving 
arch above, joggled voussoirs, tunnel-vaults in 
stone and brick, wooden domes and stone domes on 
true spherical-triangle pendentives. The squinch 
does not appear to have been employed. But we 
know from descriptions of early authors that a type 
of mosque prevailed in 'Irak and Persia quite 
different from the Syrian type. It was square in plan, 
had walls of brick (sometimes of mud brick) and its 
flat timber roof rested directly on the columns 



4 m. thick, the inner about 17 m. high including the 
crenellations and about 5 m. thick; the towers, of 
which there were 28 between each gate, rose about 
2 1 /, m. higher. There were four equidistant gateways. 
al-Khatib says that "each was composed of two 
gateways, one in front of the other, separated by a 
dihliz and a rahaba opening on the fasil between the 
two walls. When one entered by the Khurasan Gate 
one first turned to the left in an oblong passage 
(dihliz dzdj) with a vault of brick, 20 cubits wide 
and 30 long, the entrance of which was in the width 
and the exit in the length and passed out into a 
rahaba ... 40 cubits wide leading to the second 
gateway. At the far end of this court was the second 
gateway which was that of the city . . . The four 
gates were constructed on the same model". It is 
clear from the words of al-Khatib — "when one 
entered by the Khurasan Gate, one first turned to 
the left, etc." that the outer gateway was a bent 
Al-Khatib continues: "The second or 
gate, which was that the city . . . gave access 




without the intermediary of arches. Here we have 
a direct link between the ancieut Persian audience- 
hall (apaddna) and the flat-roofed portico (talar) of 
more recent Persian palaces. 

(3) The 'Abbdsid Caliphate 

The effect of the foundation of Baghdad was as 
far reaching as the transfer of the capital cf the 
Roman Empire from Rome to Constantinople. The 
whole centre of gravity of the Empire was changed ; 
hitherto its capital had been in territory which 
since the time of Alexander had been in the sphere 
of Hellenistic culture. The transfer resulted in the 
weakening of this influence and its replacement by 
the cultural influences of Sasanian Persia, to which 
sphere 'Irak belonged. This made itself felt in the 
design of the new city, for which we possess such 
detailed accounts in al-Ya c kubi and al-Khatib that its 
form can be reconstructed, although no trace of the 
Baghdad of al-Mansur has survived. The foundation 
took place in A.D. 762 and everything was finished 
in 766. 

It was a circular city with an outer and inner wall, 
and a fasil or intervallum, about 35.40 m. wide 
between. The outer wall was about 14 m. high and 



to an oblong corridor, vaulted with bricks and 
gypsum (a±tss) 20 cubits long and 12 wide. Above 
the vault was an audience hall . . . covered by a 
gigantic dome 50 cubits high" (Fig. 7). 

The Muslim historians insist that the circular 
form of the city was a feature that had never been 
known before, but such is far from being the case, 
for many earlier examples are known, e.g. the 
Hittite city of Sinjerli, Abra, Agbatana, Parthian 
Ctesiphon and Takht-i Sulayman, Darabdjird in 
Fars and also Flruzabad. 

A mosque was built in the centre of the new city. 
According to al-Khatib it was 200 cubits (roughly 
100 m.) square and had a roof supported by wooden 
columns. There were 17 ailes from right to left, and 
the side aisles were two deep, the sanctuary was 
probably five deep as at Kufa and Wasit. It was 
rebuilt by Harun al-Rashld with burnt bricks and 
teak-wood, in 193/808-9. 

The palace of al-Mansur measured 400 cubits each 
way. It was on the (tibia side of the mosque and in 
contact (muldsik) with it, as was the practice in 
early Islam, e.g. at Damascus about 30 A.H., at Basra 
in 45 A.H., at Kayrawan in 50 A.H., at Wasit in 83 
or 84 A.H., at Merv in 132-8 A.H., and (if we count 



ARCHITECTURE 




Fig. 7. Baghdad, takat 



6i8 



ARCHITECTURE 



thej Dar al-Imara as a palace) in the mosque of Ibn 
TQlun at Cairo, in 265 A.H. 

Palace and Mosque have long since disappeared 
but fortunately a fairly well preserved 'Abbasid 
palace of this period has survived, viz: Ukhavdir. 
on the Wadi <Ubayd about 30 miles west of Karbala'. 

It consists of a fortified rectangular enclosure 
measuring 175 X 169 m. with a gateway in the centre 
of each side. There are four round corner towers and 
ten intermediate half-round towers, not counting the 
peculiar gateway towers, on each side (Plate XIV a-b). 
Within the great enclosure and in contact with its 
northern face, is the Palace proper, measuring mm. 
from north to south and 82 from east to west. It 
also is provided with half round towers. Its main 
entrance forms one with the northern entrance of 
the main enclosure. The masonry is composed of 
roughly shaped slabs of limestone set in gypsum 
mortar. The walls with the parapet must have been 
about 19 m. high. The palace proper consists of a 



between. It must have been intended to contain a 
fire, for the vault next the outer wall is pierced by 
a pair of terra-cotta pipes, so it must have been a 
kitchen. 

The palace was also provided with a mosque 
24.20 m. wide and 15.15 deep, with a portico one 
aisle deep on the east, south and west sides, but 
without one on the north. 

Ukhavdir was probably begun by 'Isa b. Musi, 
uncle of the Caliph al-Mansflr, in 161/778. 

At about this time the Aksa Mosque at Jerusalem 
was partly rebuilt by the Caliph al-Mahdl. Recent 
research enables us to affirm that it then consisted 
of a central aisle 11.50 wide with seven aisles to right 
and seven to left about 6.25 m. in width, all covered 
by gable roofs and all perpendicular to the kibla wall. 
There was a great wooden dome at the end of the 
central aisle. On the north side was a large central 
door with seven smaller ones to right and left, and 
""" ones on the east side (Fig.9). 




Fig. 9. The Aksa Mosque in A.D. 780. 



great court of honour, with 
Public Audience and a sc 
presumably a hall of priva 
side are other \ 



liwdn for the Hall of 
tare room behind it, 
: audience. On either 
great vaulted 



1. wide runs completely 
this group of rooms and the court of honour, and 
on the east and west sides of it are four isolated and 
self-contained sets of vaulted chambers, each with 
its own courtyard, which I regard as four bayts for 
the four lawful wives of the Muslim prince for whom 
it was built, as at Mshatta (Fig. 8). 

In these bayis the side next the great corridor is 
bounded by a blind arcade of five arches, the central 
arch being occupied by the door. On the far side was 
a portico 2.80 m. deep of five arches resting on four 
round piers, and covered by a tunnel vault. The 
north and south sides are occupied by a triple- 
arched facade. These arches form a portico, behind 
which are three parallel tunnel-vaulted rooms. A 
passage leads from the courtyard to a room 17.60 m. 
long and 3 1 /, wide, placed transversely behind the 
three tunnel- vaulted rooms. It is covered by two 
lengths of tunnel-vault with a space open to the sky 



There can be no doubt that this mosque had a 
great influence on the Great Mosque of Cordova 
built by <Abd al-Rahman I in 170/786-7. It was 
added to on three occasions but this earliest part 
still exists; as at Jerusalem the aisles, of which there 
are eleven, run perpendicular to the back wall, they 
are all covered by parallel gable roofs, and the 
central one is wider than the rest. The influence of 
Syria in Spain at this time is not surprising for Spain 
was full of Syrian refugees. The arcades each consist 
of twelve arches with twelve more above, an ingen- 
ious device whereby a height of ceiling of about 
9.80 m. was obtained with columns which, with 
their capitals and bases, only measure 3.80 m. (Plate 
XlVc and XV a). 

Another building of this period, of great impor- 
tance for the history of architecture, is the Cistern 
of Ramla in Palestine, for it consists of a subter- 
ranean excavation 8 m. deep divided into six aisles 
by five arcades of four arches each, all of which are 
pointed and appear to be struck from two centres, 
varying from one seventh to one fifth of the span 
apart (Plate XV 6 and Fig. 10). And there can be 



ARCHITECTURE 






no doubt about the date for on the plaster of the 
vault is a Kufic inscription of Dhu 'l-Hidjdja 172/May 
789. It is therefore centuries earlier than the earliest 
pointed arches in Europe. 

In 212/827 'Abd Allah b. Tahir, the Governor of 
Egypt, ordered the Mosque of 'Amr at Fustat to 
be doubled in size by the addition to the west of 
its exact area in the same shape. Makrlzl tKhitat. ii, 
253)1 savs that the part added included the great 
mibrab and all that is to the west of it. The number 
of doors was now thirteen: five on the N.-E., three 
on the N.-W., four on the S.-W., and one for the 
khafib on the Ifibla side. This is the last recorded 
extention of the mosque, and its significance is of 
far reaching importance for it follows that no part 
of the present structure lying to the right of a line 
drawn through its centre can possibly be older than 
212 A.H. The Mosque then measured internally (as it 
does) to-day) 109 m. on the S.-E. side, 105.28 on the 
N.-W., 120.55 on the N.-E. and 117.28 on the S.W. 
As a result of a number of trial trenches made 




between 1926 and 1933, we now know from the 
foundations that there were 7 arcades running from 
right to left on the hibla side and the same number 
on the side opposite, and four on the S.-W. side. 
On the N.-E. side the arcades ran perpendicular to 
the wall. The outer walls were about 10.50 m. high 
without their cresting, about which we know 
nothing. There were seventy-eight windows of very 
interesting construction. The span was about 2.70 m. 
There were engaged colonnettes at the inner and 
outer corners and a pair of dwarf marble columns 
placed on either side in the opening. A transverse 
beam resting on the latter reduced the span to 
about 1.90 m. The springing of the arch began 
about 1.40 m. above the sill, and the rise was about 
1.40. Those arches which have survived are con- 
siderably stilted and very slightly pointed, and the 
broken edge of a stucco grille is visible along their 
intrados. A beam ran across the opening at the 
springing of the arch, and nailed to its inner side 
was a strip of carved woodwork which continued 
along the face of the wall. The decoration consists 
of a flowing acanthus frieze in which four-leaved 



whorls alternate with five-lobed leaves (Fig. 11). This 
is of fundamental importance, for it is derived from 
the Hellenistic art of Syria and it shows that the 
'Abbasid art of 'Irak, which we find fifty years later 
in the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, had not yet reached 
Egypt. 

The Great Mosque of ICayrawan is another famous 
mosque, founded in the early days of Islam, of 
which no part (excepting the minaret only) is earlier 
than the IXth century A.D. The oldest part of 
the present mosque dates from the rebuilding 
carried out by theAghlabid Ziyadat Allah in 221/836. 




The measurements of the mosque are as follows: 
N. 65.60 m., S. 70.28, E. 121.80, W. 120.50. The 
sanctuary consisted of sixteen arcades of seven 
arches each, running perpendicular to the fribla wall, 
but without reaching it, for a transverse arcade 
runs at a distance of about 6 m. from it and it 
is against this arcade that the sixteen arcades abut. 
The side aisles are 3.30 m. in width against 5.40 
for the central aisle, which must have measured 
6.60 m. originally, for its width has been subseq- 
uently reduced by two arcades built in contact 
with the old ones, without any bond or liaison of 
any sort. The columnsev en have their own impost 
blocks instead of each pair being tied together by a 
common impost block, and the arches of the "lining 
arcade" are pointed horse-shoe arches instead of 
round horse-shoe arches like all the rest (Plate XVI). 
There is no doubt that they are the work of Ibra- 
him II b. Ahmad, 261-89 A -H. (see below). The whole 
was covered by a flat roof of uniform height, even 
over the central aisle, for the latter was only raised 
during the extensive works of Ibrahim II. There were 
no riwdks on the three sides of fahn until the time 



ARCHITECTURE 



of Ibrahim III. The outer walls were of stone, 
strengthened at intervals by buttresses. 

This same year 221/836 was marked by an event 
of great importance — the foundation of Samara. 
The palace was built on the edge of the plateau, 
which is about 17 m. above the alluvial valley of 
the Tigris. In the valley itself is a great basin, 127 m. 
square, from which a great flight of steps, 60 m. 
broad, gently ascended to the terrace in front of the 
Bab al- c Amma. The latter consists of a great triple- 
arched facade, about 12 m. high, with three parallel 
tunnel-vaulted rooms behind it (Plate XVIIa). This is 
the best preserved part of the whole palace; nearly 
everywhere else the walls either only rise a metre or 
two or have been exposed by excavation. Behind the 
Bab al- c Amma were six transverse halls, then a 
square court. To the north one reached the rooms 
of the Caliph, on the south was the Ifarim. But 
going directly forward led to an oblong Court of 
Honour, with the triple entrance of the Throne Room 
beyond it. The latter consisted of four T-shaped 
halls arranged in a cruciform fashion. Each one 
resembled a three-aisled basilica so as to obtain 
light from the clerestory. Between the arms of the 
cross are smaller rooms with marble dados, also a 
mosque for the Caliph with a mihrah. Beyond this 
again is the Great Esplanade, a great court or garden, 
180 m. wide and 350 m. deep, intersected by little 
canals. Beyond again was the polo-ground, and 
the distance from the great basin to the race-course 
must have been nearly 1400 m. 

The decoration consisted of dados, generally of 
moulded stucco, except in the Throne-Room group 
where they are of marble slabs. The upper part of 
the walls in the Ifarim were decorated with fresco 
paintings, which included living forms and foliage. 
All woodwork was of teak, carved and painted. 

The Great Mosque of this period has not survived, 
as it was entirely rebuilt in 234-7 H. Before describing 
it we must speak of the. Great Mosque of Susa in 
Tunisia built in 236/850-1. 

The mosque proper, excluding its annexes, is a 
perfectly regular rectangle built of stone in courses 
about 1/2 m. high and measuring internally 49-39 m. 
deep and 57.16 wide. The sahn, which measures 
41 x 22 , / 4 m., is surrounded by low arcades of slightly 
horse-shoe form, resting on squat T-shaped piers. 
There are eleven arches to north and south and six 
to east and west, and the height of the facade is 
about 6'/a m. It is perfectly plain except for a splay- 
face moulding, immediately above which is a fine 
inscription frieze in simple undecorated Kflfic, the 
maximum height of the characters being 28 cm. The 
band on which they are carved curves forward 
slightly to compensate for foreshortening and thus 
help the observer at ground level. This is the earliest 
known example of this treatment, which passed into 
Egypt with the Fatimids and appears in the Mosque 
of al-Hakim, 380-403/990-1013. The three riwafc vary 
in depth from 4.08-4.27 m. and each is covered by 
a tunnel-vault (Plate XVIIIa). 

The sanctuary consists of thirteen aisles formed 
by twelve arcades of six arches each running towards 
the (tibia wall. Each aisle is divided into six bays by 
other arcades running from east to west. All these 
arches, which rest on squat cruciform piers, are of 
horse-shoe form. The first three bays going south 
are covered by tunnel-vaults, with one exception, 
the third bay in the central aisle, which is covered by 
a dome on ait octagonal drum with slightly incurved 

The next three bays going south are covered by 



cross-vaults at a slightly higher level. Here again 
the third bay in the central aisle is covered by a dome 
on squinches. It is obvious that the mosque has been 
extended towards the south, that the first three 
bays are the original part and that the first dome 
marks the bay in front of the original mihrab (Plate 
XVIII 6), which has been removed together with 
the original back wall. Before that the depth of the 
mosque must have been 44 m. The date of the original 
work is given by the great KQfic inscription as 
236/850-1. 

The Great Mosque of Samarra was rebuilt by 
Mutawakkil; the work was begun in 234/848-9 and 
finished in Ramadan 237/Feb.-March, 852. It is the 
largest mosque ever built, for its outer walls form 
an immense rectangle of kiln-baked bricks measuring 
roughly 240 m. deep internally by 156 m. wide 
(proportion approximately as 3 : 2) ; its area therefore 
is nearly 38,000 sq.m. Only the enclosing walls have 
been preserved; they are 2.65 m. thick, strengthened 
by half round towers averaging 3.60 m. in diameter 
with a projection of 2.15 m., and the curtain walls 
between them average 15 m. in length. There are 
four corner towers, twelve intermediate towers to 
east and west and eight to north and south making 
forty-four in all. There were sixteen rectangular 
doorways spanned by beams with a relieving arch 

The towers are perfectly plain, but each curtain 
wall is decorated with a frieze of six recessed squares 
with bevelled edges; in each square is a shallow 
saucer about a metre in diameter and 25 cms. deep. 
The total height of the walls is now about 10.50. In 
spite of its simplicity the whole effect is truly 
monumental (Plate XVII 6). 

The south wall is pierced by twenty-four windows 
placed on the axis of the twenty-five aisles of the 
sanctuary, except the central one, for there was no 
room above the miltrab. There were two more windows 
on each side making 28 in all. Externally they are 
narrow rectangular openings, but internally they 
are" splayed and covered by scalloped arches of five 
lobes resting on little engaged columns, the whole 
being set in a sunk rectangular frame. 

Herzf eld's excavations showed that the roof 
rested directly on octagonal piers of brick, with 
marble colonnettes at the four corners, making 
a support 2.07 m. square. The clear height within 
was 10.35. There were no arches. 

The mosque proper was surrounded by an outer 
enclosure, or ziydda, on the east, north and west 
sides, and air photographs show that the great 
rectangle thus formed stood in a still greater enclosure 
measuring 376 x 444 m. 

The minaret, the famous Malwiyya, stands free, at 
a distance of 27'/j m. from the north wall of the mos- 
que. There is a square socle, 33 m. a side and about 
3 m. high, on which rests a spiral tower with a ramp 
about 2.30 m. wide, which winds round in an anti- 
clockwise direction until it has made five complete 
turns. The rise for each turn is 6.10 m., but as the 
length of each turn is less than the previous one it 
follows that the slope inevitably becomes steeper 
and steeper. At the summit of this spiral part is a 
cylindrical storey, decorated with eight recesses, each 
set in a shallow frame (Plate XVIII c). The southern 
niche frames a doorway at which the ramp ends; it 
opens on to a steep staircase, at first straight then 
spiral, leading to the top platform which is 50 m. 
above the socle. From eight holes to be seen Herzield 
concluded that there -was probably a little pavilion 
on wooden columns here. 



ARCHITECTURE 



A few years later, between A.D. 860 and 861, 
another immense mosque was built by the same 
Caliph at Abu Dulaf to the north of Samarra. It 
measures internally 213 m. from north to south and 
135 from east to west. Here the outer walls are of 
mud brick about 1.60 m. thick strengthened by 
half-round buttresses, but the roof rested on arcades 
of burnt brick running from north to south; it was 
apparently only about 8 m. high. The sanctuary is 
divided into seventeen aisles by sixteen arcades of 
five arches fcach with an average span of 3.13 m. 
The two outer arcades are carried right through to 
the north end of the mosque, forming side riwdks 14 m. 
in depth. The northern ritual resembles the southern 
one, except that it is only three arches deep. On the 
north side and about 9.60 m. from the mosque is a 
miniature Malwiyya on a socle about 1 1.20 m. square, 
above which is the much damaged spiral part which 
barely makes three turns. 

Ten years later important works were carried out 
in the Great Mosque of Kayrawan by Abu Ibrahim 
Ahmad, who reduced the width of the central aisle 
by about 1.20 m. by constructing two new arcades 
in contact with the old ones. The arches of these 
arcades are pointed horse-shoe arches instead of 
round horse-shoe arches like those they are in contact 
with. He also built three free-standing arches and 
one wall-arch of the same type to carry a fluted dome 
in front of the mihrdb. They rise to a height of 
9.13 m., and the square thus formed is terminated 
above by a cornice, its top edge being 10.83 m. from 
the ground. On it rests the octagonal zone of transit- 
ion, 2.15 m. in height, which is formed by eight semi- 
circular arches springing from colonnettes resting 
on little corbels inserted in the cornice just mentioned. 
The drum is composed of eight arched windows and 
sixteen arched panels arranged in pairs between the 
windows. The dome, which is 5.80 m'. in diameter, 
has twenty-four ribs, each springing from a little 
corbel. Between the ribs are concave segments, 
30 cm. deep at the base and diminishing to nothing 
at the apex. The whole composition is charming. 
Externally the dome resembles a cantaloup melon, 
with 24 convex ribs (corresponding to the 24 concave 
segments) which taper to nothing at the apex (Plate 
XIX a and XX). Abu Ibrahim's work was carried 
out in 248/862-3. He also lined the mihrdb with a 
series of very beautiful carved marble panels assem- 
bled in four tiers of seven panels each ; total height 
2.72 m. He also decorated the face of the mihrdb 
and the wall surrounding it with lustre titles about 
21 cm. square (Plate XIX 4). The marble panels 
and the tiles had been imported by him from 'Irak, 
and the latter constitute the oldest examples of lustre 
pottery of certain date. 

The Mosque of Ion TiMn 
In 263 A.H. Ahmad b. Tulun decided to built a new 
mosque on an outcrop of rock called Djabal Vashkur. 
The scheme of the mosque can be seen from the plan 
(Fig. 12) and the general view (Plate XXI) taken 
from the minaret of the Madrasa of Sarghitmish. It 
consists of a safrn of about 92 m. square surrounded 
by riwdks, five aisles deep on the kibla side and two 
aisles only on the other sides. This part — the mosque 
proper — is enclosed by a wall with a remarkable 
cresting, and forms a great rectangle measuring 
122.26 m. in width and 140.33 in width. It is sur- 
rounded by a great outer court or ziydda, except 
on the south-eastern (kibla) side which was occupied 
by a private apartment of the amir, the DSr al- 
Imara. This outer ziydda is roughly 19 m. broad 



and its outer walls are lower than those of the mosque 
proper. The whole forms a great rectangle almost 
exactly square, measuring 162 m. in depth and 
162.46 in width, constructed of red bricks, measuring 
roughly 18 x 8 x 4 cm., coated with a very hard 
stucco in which the ornament is cut. No, wooden 
ties are used anywhere, except at the tops of the piers. 

It results from careful measurements that the unit 
employed for setting out the mosque was the Nilo- 
metric cubit of 54.04 cm., for the principal dimensions 
are almost exact multiples of it. 

The scheme of the facade of the mosque proper is 
as follows. It would seem that the architect set out 
his design by bisecting the facade as regards its 
height and then took this median line for the level 
of the window sills. Then the plain lower part was 
pierced by seven rectangular doorways, and the upper 
part by thirty-one poi&ted-arched windows, with 
their sills from 5.70 to 5-86 m. above the floor. The 
window-arches rest on stumpy engaged colonnettes 
of brick exactly as in that part of the Mosque of c Amr 
which dates from 212 A.H. The walls are 10.03 ra- 
in height up to the roof level, above which is a row 
of pierced circles in squares and then a curious open 
work cresting, making a total height of 13.03 m. 
above the sills of the doorways (Plate XXII a). The 
latter are perfectly plain except for the carved wooden 
soffits, of which four original ones remain. In addition 
to the seventeen large and two small doors leading 
from the ziyddas into the mosque proper there are 
four in the kibla wall, one of which leads into the 
room behind the mihrdb. This must be the door 
mentioned by Makrizi (ii, 269, 1. 22 ff.) which enabled 
Ibn Tulun to go directly from the Dar al-Imara to 
the maksura next the mihrdb and the minbar, as was 
the practice- during the first three centuries of Islam. 

The sahn is rotighly 92 m. square with thirteen 
pointed arches on each side (Plate XXII 6). The 
sanctuary is formed by five arcades of seventeen 
arches each, and the riwdk opposite by two arcades. 
These seven arcades are carried right through to the 
side walls. The arcades of the lateral riwdks, however, 
abut against the outer arcades of the sanctuary and 
N.-W. riwdk and consequently consist of thirteen 
arches only. The arches rest on piers 2.46 m. wide 
and 1.27 m. deep, with engaged brick columns at the 
comers. They are placed about 4.60 m. apart. Dove- 
tailed wooden plates are used round the tops of these 
piers to strengthen them. The pier-capitals are 
derived from late Corinthian capitals, the two tiers 
of acanthus being replaced by conventionalized 
Samarra vine leaves (Plate XXIII a). 

The soffits of the arches are decorated with bands 
of stucco ornament, of which about ten are fairly well 
preserved (Plate XXIV). AU consist of a very broad 
central strip between narrow double borders. The 
central strip in every case consists of a geometrical 
frame-work, the interstices of which are filled with 
various elements belonging to style B of Samarra 
(Fig. 13). In addition to this a continuous border of 
ornament, 46 cm. wide, runs round the arches on 
both faces, turns at right angles at the springing, 
runs across the top of the pier, and then turns again 
at right angles to run round the next arch. A frieze 
of stucco ornament runs along just above the band 
of ornament running round the arches. About 20 cm. 
above this ran the famous Kufic inscription carved 
on wood, of which a fair amount still remains, 
running along about 30 cm. below the beams of the 
ceiling. Calculation shows that this frieze, which 
must have been over 2 km. long, may have contained 
about one seventeenth part of the Kur'an. 



ARCHITECTURE 




Fig. 12. Mosque of Ibn Tulun, pl< 



The windows, in the shadow of the aisles, stand 
out against the sky like delicate lacework and form 
one of the most beautiful features of the mosque. 
There are 128 in all. Each consists of a pointed arch 
springing from a pair of engaged dwarf columns with 
stucco capitals, and a border of stucco ornament 
runs round each, turns at right angles at the springing 
and runs along horizontally to the next window 
(Plate XXIII b-c). Unfortunately only three, or at 
most four, of the window-grilles are original. These 
are mainly composed of compass work, i.e. inter- 
secting circles and segments of circles; two have 
been set out by a method similar to that employed 
for one of the marble grilles in the Great Mosque at 
Damascus (Plate VIII 6), the third on a network of 
equilateral triangles (Fig. 14). 



The pendentives of the present wooden dome in 
front of the miftrdb, on stylistic grounds, are undoubt- 
edly the work of Ladjln in 696 A.H., and the dome is 
much later. I very much doubt if there was a dome 
here originally. The present minaret is likewise the 
work of Ladjln, the original one (seen, by MukaddasI) 
was probably fairly similar to the Malwiyya of 
Samarra. 

The statement of al-Kuda% quoted by Ibn 
Dukmak and Makrizi, that the Mosque of Ibn 
Tulun was built after the style ('aid bind') of the 
Mosque of Samarra (unless it refers to the general 
impression produced by the minaret) is certainly not 
correct, for its plan does not in the least resemble 
either of the two mosques of Samarra, except that 
all three are surrounded by ziyaias. It differs from 



ARCHITECTURE 




Fig. 14. Mosque of Ibn TulOn, analysis of window-grille (see Plate XXIII c). 



ARCHITECTURE - 



the Great Mosque of Samarra in the number of its 
aisles 5, 2, 2, 2 instead of 9, 4, 4, 3. As for the Mosque 
of Abu Dulaf , its aisles run perpendicular to the kibla 
wall instead of parallel to it. It also differs from the 
Great Mosque of Samarra in that its roof rests on 
arcades instead of directly on the piers. Its piers 
alone recall those of Samarra, but whereas the 
piers at Samarra are square and have engaged 
marble columns at the corners, those of Ibn Tulun 
are oblong and the columns at the corners are 
only counterfeited in the brickwork. Neither does 
the scheme of the facade recall either of the mosques 
of Samarra for it has no bastions. The sole feature 
of the facade that recalls Samarra is the row of 
circles in squares below the cresting. Its windows in 
no way resemble those of the Great Mosque, which 
are few in number, have lobed arches internally and 
are treated externally like arrow-slits, but they do 
resemble those of the mosque of c Amr of 212 A.H., 
except that they lack the transverse beam and carved 
wooden frieze. In other words, Ibn Tulun's facade 
is derived from that of the Mosque of "Amr of 
212/827 and, as no such facade is known elsewhere, 
must be regarded as Egyptian. 

As regards the ornament, everybody now agrees 
that it is derived from Samarra, but whereas at 
Samarra the three styles, A, B and C, occur separately, 
in the mosque of Ibn Tulun they are combined and 
mixed. By its ornament and in certain other respects 
the mosque may be regarded as a foreign, 'Iraki 
building planted down on the soil of Egypt, and large 
numbers of 'Iraki craftsmen must have been employed 
for its decoration in wood and stucco. Its ornament 
and that of the Dayr al-Suryani in the WadlNatrun 
are the two most westerly examples of the art of 
the 'Abbasid Empire, which prevailed over a large 
area from Bahrayn and Nlshapur to Samarkand. 

Summary: Under the 'Abbasids the Hellenistic 
influences of Syria were replaced by the surviving 
influences of Sasanian Persia, which profoundly 
modified the art and architecture, and this gave 
birth to the art of Samarra, the influence of which 
extended to Egypt under Ibn Tulun, to Nishapur 
and Bahrayn. In palace architecture there was a vast 
difference between that of the Umayyads and 
'Abbasids, partly due to the adoption of Persian 
ideas of royalty which almost deified the king. 
Hence elaborate throne-rooms, generally domed, for 
private audience, preceded by a vaulted liwan (or 
four radiating liwans) for public audience. The 
bayts also were different, following the type of 
Kasr-i Shirin and not the Syrian type of Mshatta 
and Kasr al-Tuba. The scale was immense and 
axial planning is a marked feature. But all are built 
of brick and a great part of that basest of materials 
— mud brick — hidden by thick coats of stucco. 
A new type of pointed arch appears, the four- 
centred arch. The earliest existing squinches in 
Islam date from this period. An important innovation 
was the introduction of lustre tiles, the earliest 
examples being those brought to Kayrawin from 
'Irak in 248 A.H. Bands of inscription were usually 
made to stand out on a rjfue background. But the 
widespread influence of ^Abbasid art did not extend 
to Spain, where Umayyad art, brought' thither by 
Syrian refugees, was still full of life. ■""■ 

Bibliography: de Vogue, Le Temple de 
Jerusalem, 1864; E. T. Richmond, The Dome of the 
Rock, 1924; idem, Moslem Architecture (Forlong 
Fund, iii), 1926; J. Sauvaget, La Mosquie omeyyade 
de Midine, 1947; Watzinger and Wulzinger, 
Damaskus, 2 vols., 1921-4; A. Musil, Kusejr C A) 



2 vols., 1907; Schulz and Stryzgowski, Mshatta, in 
the Jahrb. der Preusz. Kunstsammlungen, 1904, 
205-373; Herzfeld, Die Genesis dir islamischen 
Kunst und das Mshatta Problem, Der Islam, i, 1-61 ; 
O. Puttrich-Reignard, Die Palastanlagc von Chirbet 
Minje, Paldstina-Hefte des Deutschen Vereins vom 
Heiligen Lande, Heft 17-20, 1939; articles on 
Khirbet al-Mafjir by R. W. Hamilton, Baramke 
and others, in the Quarterly of the Department of 
Antiquities of Palestine, vols v-xiv; C. Nizet, La 
Mosquie de Cordoue, 1905; Oscar Reuther, 
Ocheidir, Leipzig 1902 ; Gertrude L. Bell, Ukhai4ir, 
Oxford, 1914; Sarre and Herzfeld, Archdologische 
Reize im Ephrat- und Tigris-Gebiet, 4 vols., 1911-20; 
E. Herzfeld, Samarra: Der Wandschmuck, 1933; 
idem, Die Malereien, 1927; idem, Geschichtt der 
Stadt Samarra, 1948; G. Marcais, Coupole et 
Plafonds de la Grande Mosquie de Kairouan, Paris 
1925; idem L'Art dt: V Islam, 1947; idem, L' Archi- 
tecture musulmane a" Occident, Paris 1955; G. T. 
Rivoira, Moslem Architecture, Rushforth's trans- 
lation, Oxford 1918; K. A. C. Creswell, Early 
Muslim Architxture, 2 vols., Oxford 1932-40. 
(K. A. C. Cresweli,). 

II. For later architectural developments, see the 
articles on individual countries, cities, and dynasties. 

III. For the types of buildings, see bina\ 
ARCHIVES [see basvekalet arsivi, daftar, 

DAR AL-MAHFUZAT AL-'uMUMIYYA, WAJHIKA]. 

ARCI, (Arshashdib), a small Caucasian nation 
of Upper Daghistan, ethnically akin to the Awar 
[q.v.], but distinct from the Ando-Dido group [see 
andi, dido]. In 1933 it comprised 1,930 people, 
living in the high valley of the Kara-Koysu (Soviet 
Autonomous Republic of Daghistan). The Arci have 
their own language, which belong to the Daghistan 
branch of the Ibero-Caucasian languages, and which 
represents an intermediate stage between Awar [?.».] 
and Lak [q.v.] ; it is not fixed by writing, and the 
Arci use Awar and, less commonly, Russian and 
Lak, as the languages of civilisation. Since the 1918 
Revolution, they have been merged in the Awar 
nation. Converted to Islam by the Awar, towards 
the end of the 15 th century, the Arci are, like the 
former, Sunnls of the §hafi'I rite. 

Bibliography: A. Dirr, Arlinskiy yazlk, in 
Sbornik Materyalov dlya opisanii mesinostey i 
piemen Kavkasa, xxxix, Tiflis 1908. See also awar, 

ANDI, DAGHISTAN, LAK. 

(H. Carrere d'EncaussIe) 

ARCOS [see arkush]. 

ARCOT (Arkat), a town in North Arcot district 
of Madras, on the right bank of the Palir. From the 
Tamil Arkkad— 'forest of Ar", or Aru-haiu — 'six 
forests'. A Cola foundation, the Arkatos of Ptolemy, 
it is much earlier than is suggested by the tradition 
of its foundation by a son of Kolottunga Cola, and 
the building of its fort and refoundation by Tinuni 
Reddi. (See K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, The Colas, 1955; 
R. Sewell, Archaeological Survey of Southern India, i, 
165). In the I2th/i8th century it became the capital 
of the Mughal J^awwabs of Arkat. 

During the previous century, Arkat had passed 
from Vidjayanagar to Bldjapur and Golkonda, to 
the Marafhas, and then to the Mugh.als. In 1 109/1698, 
Awrangzlb formed a new province, the Camatic, 
and Da*ud Khan, its governor from 1115/1703, made 
ArkSt the capital. 

His successor, Muhammad Sayyid Sa'adat Allah 
Khan, was a Nawayat, who parcelled out the whole 
province of Arkat among his relatives. His nephew 
succeeded him and extended the province. His son 



ARCHITECTURE 




the Rock. General view from the 



_ _. 







The Dome of the Rock. Bronze covering on under-side of ti 



W^^^^^ifl^^^^^^^^^Smmm 




pw^^^^K^^ 


§?lfl 




•r~ • i in ^ 11 



e Dome of the Rock. Bronz 





i. The Dome of the Rock. ] 



ing of dome-bearing supports on right. 



b. The Dome of the Rock. Decoration on flanks of piers which 
strengthen the inner corners of the octagonal arcade. To right: soffit. 










E Rock. Mosaic decorai 



r face of octagona 



ARCHITECTURE 




ARCHITECTURE 




i. The Great Mosque of Damascus. View of sahn taken from roof of east riwak. 




). The Great Mosque of Damascus. Facade of sanctuary. 







. The Great Mosque of Dj 




Marble window grille. 



ARCHITECTURE 




i. Kusayr 'Amra. West si 







-.-. 




'■ill 


WM 


-^\^^m^^^mm4 


LJHKJB 




















■ " .*■.-.'. :/- ' 



A. Kusayr 'Amra. East side. 




b. Kusayr 'Amra. Painting oi the Enemies of Islar 



ARCHITECTURE 



PLATE XI 




. Royal enclosure from the S.-W. 










b. Kasr al-Hayr 



[. Entrance of royal enclosure, defended by a machicoulis 




i. Kasr al-Hayr al-sharsi. Remains of mosque 




i. Mshatta. The main building. 







:. Mshatta. The triple-apsed Throne Room. 



ARCHITECTURE 




Mshatta. Decoration of tower of fagade. 




i. Ukhaydir. From the north- 





7m* W- ^ 



;. Cordova, the Great Mosque. View of sanctuary from campanile 



If 


^ ..W *■ gj| 



E Great Mosque. Interior looking w 



*i*^ 


%i 


pr 'i| 


h8 ^ ^ /,■■' 


M |P 






^^V^^" . .^. &f . ^B 


1 


^^B '^51 


^MKk^l 


■■■' 


■k 


^Bl l^fc " * TO 


' 


■ 


Mfe ; $ J«2^ 


'■■ ' K l~fe 




JjiJjEh ■' ^j| 




HI 2MPNH Bi ^£ <i4£fl 



. Ramla. Cistern, entirely built with pointed arches 



ARCHITECTURE 



wSSmEEwm'*- ■ 










'iM 


t— 


f8 









i. Kayrawan, the Great Mosque. From the min; 




i. Kayrawan, the Great Mosq_ue. Interior of sanctuary, looking e 



ARCHITECTURE 



PLATE XVII 




a. Samarra. The Bayt al-Khalifa. 




ARCHITECTURE 



PLATE XVIII 




A. Susa, the Great Mosque. Part under first d 



c. Samarra. The Malwiyya. 




:. Kairawan, the Great Mosque. The mihrab and its surroundings. 




b. Kairawan, the Great Mosque. Marble panelling of mihrab 



ARCHITECTURE 




;. Kairawan, the Great Mosque. Dome in front of mihrdt 




?. Kairawan, the Great Mosque. Setting of don 




Cairo, the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. General 




:. Cairo, the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. Facade. 



m$ww$. 




>. Cairo, the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. Arcades of south-west side of sc 



ARCHITECTURE 



PLATE XXIII 




a. Cairo, the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. The 




e Mosque of Ibn Tulun. One of tl 
original windows. 





E Mosque of Ibn Tulun. Dec 



ition of soffits of arches. 



Safdar c Ali attacked Maratha Tanjore, while his 
son-in-law Husayn Dust Khan, (Canda Sahib) took 
Trichinopoly by a trick. 

This aggression brought the Marafchas down upon 
Arkat in 1153/1740. The Nawwab was killed at the 
Damalcherry pass, Arkat sacked, and Chanda 
Sahib carried off prisoner to Satara. 

Safdar 'AH succeeded to power but was murdered 
in 1 155/1742. The subaddr of the Dakhan thereupon 
appointed an outsider, Anwar al-DIn, a move 
resented by the many Nawayats who held subord- 
inate posts in the province. 

Their hostility allowed Dupleix, governor of 
Pondicherry, to intervene. In 1161/1748 Dupleix 
assisted the release of Canda Sahib, the Nawayat 
candidate for Arkat. Next year French troops under 
Canda Sahib slew Anwar al-DIn at Ambur, and in 
1 164/1750 when the subaddr of the Dakhan was 
killed, Canda Sahib was proclaimed Nawwab of 
Arkat. 

In the next eleven years Arkat was a pawn in the 
Anglo-French struggle, now taken and held by 
Clive, now lost to Lally. The war ended with the 
British protege, Muhammad 'All, established as 
Nawwab. His troops twice surrendered Arkat to 
Haydar c Ali of Maysur, he became deeply involved 
in debts, but his line continued till 1272/1855, 
when the estate escheated to the Company on failure 
of male heirs. (The administration of the province of 
/irkat had passed to the British in 1216/1801). 

The palace and fort, and the fortifications of 
the town, elaborately constructed on European 
lines by Muhammad 'All, are now in ruins. There are 
numerous mosques, a fine tomb of Sa'adat Allah 
Khan, and the shrine of Tipii Mastan Awliya, after 
whom Tipu Sultan of Maysur (Mysore) was named. 
(L. B. Bowring, Haidar AH and Tipu Sultan, 
117-18 n.). 

Bibliography: M. Wilks, Historical Sketches 

of the South of India; Sewell, op. cit, i, 165; ii, 

198-9; Imperial Gazeteer of India, v, 419, 1908; 

Cambridge History of India, v, ch. viii and bibl.; 

S. K. Aiyangar, Jour, of Indian Hist., 1930, 

173-217; S. M. H. Nainar, Sources of the History 

of the Nawabs of the Carnatic, 4 vols., 1934-44; 

C. S. Srinivasachari, A History of Gingee. 

(J. B. Harrison) 

AJRp, earth, land. For the terrestrial globe, see 
kukat al-ard. For land law, see ikta c , ijatI'a, 
khAlisa, kharadj, JOIass, mahlul, matrOk, mawat, 

MIS AH A, MUKASAMA, MU¥ATA C A, MULK, SOYURGHAL, 
TIMAR, C USHR, WA^F, Zl'AMET. 

c ARp, [see isti'rad]. 

<ARp jjAL, petition. In the Ottoman Empire of 
the 18th century, the writing of petitions was the 
prerogative of the '■Ard-haldxk (Arzuhalci). Admission 
to their number was regulated by the '■Ard-haXdH- 
bashi, the CavuMar emini, and the Cavushlar kdtibi, 
the qualifications required being personal respect- 
ability, proficiency in calligraphy, and a knowledge 
of sharPa and kdniins. Petitions were considered by 
the Cavushbasht on behalf of the Grand Vizier, and 
answers to them were drafted by the two Tedhkiredjis 
(known as Tedhkire-i etvwel and -thdni). 

Bibliography: Ahmet Refik, Hicrt uinci 

aslrda Istanbul hayati (Istanbul 1930), 207; 

I. H. UzuncarsIU, Osmanli Devletinin Saray 

teskildti (Ankara 1945), 417, 419. 

(G. L, Lewis.) 

ARDABB [see kayl]. 

AADABlL (Turkish ErdebU). A district and a 
town in eastern Adharbaydjan. The town is located 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



at 48° 17' E. long. (Greenw.) and 38 15' N. lat. The 
distance to Tabriz is 210 km. by road, and it is 
40 km. to the Soviet frontier. The altitude of the 
town is 4,500 ft. above sea level, and it is situated 
on a circular plateau surrounded by mountains. The 
district (shahristdn), of which the town is the capital, 
comprises four counties (bakhsh), capital county, 
Namln, Astara, and Garmi. 

There are few trees around the town and irrigation 
is necessary for cultivation. Some 20 m. west of the 
town is Mt. Savalan (Sablan of Arabic geographers) 
15,784 ft. at the summit, with perennial snow. The 
climate of the town and capital county is cold in 
winter (average monthly temp, below freezing) and 
the town is assigned to the cold districts (sardsir). 
The other three counties, however, are reckoned in 
the warm districts (garmsir). The river Balikhlu or 
Baliksii (or chay), a tributary of the Karasii, flows 
through the southern part of the town. In the 
vicinity of the town are warm springs which have 
attracted visitors throughout history. 

The etymology of the name is uncertain, but 
Minorsky in J A, 217 (1930), 68, proposes a 
meaning "willows of the sacred law". The pre- 
Islamic history of ArdabU is unknown, for we find 
the name only in Islamic times. Sam'ani vocalises 
the name as Ardubll, while the HudOd al-'Alam 
writes Ardawll. In Armenian we find Artavgt 
(Ghevond) and later Artavel. Firdawsl and Yakut 
say the town was founded by Peroz the SSsanian 
king (457-484 A.D.), hence it was called Badan 
Peroz or Badhan Fayruz. Kazwlnl in his Nuzhat al- 
KulUb attributes its founding to a much earlier 
monarch. 

It is uncertain whether the mint mark ATRA, on 
Sasanian and pre-reform 'Umayyad coins (Adhar- 
baydjan?) refers to ArdabU, but it was the residence 
of the marzbdn at the time of the Arab conquest 
of Adharbaydjan, according to al-Baladhurl. The city 
was taken by treaty, and under the caliph 'All his 
governor al-Ash c ath made ArdabU his capital. It 
probably did not remain the capital continuously 
throughout the 'Umayyad Caliphate; for example 
ip 112/730 the Khazars captured it. Maragha may 
have been a second capital of Adharbaydjan, for 
the seat of authority seems to have shifted between 
it and Ardabll. 

The district of Ardabll suffered from the uprising 
of Babak [?.».]. Ardabll was in the domain of the in- 
dependent Sadjid governors at the beginning of the 
10th century A.D., and the district suffered from 
internecine struggles of local rulers, as well as from 
the invasions of the Rus in the first half of the 10th 
century. We find dirhems with the name Ardabll on 
them for the first time in 286/899. 

The town of ArdabU was captured and destroyed 
by the Mongols in 617/1220. It lost its former 
importance until the rise of the Safawids Shavkh 
SafI al-DIn had made ArdabU the centre of his $ufl 
order at the end of the 13th century. In 1499 Isma'fl, 
his descendant, returned from exUe in Gilan to ArdabU 
where he started the Safawid dynasty, and shortly 
thereafter he became shah in Tabriz. 

ArdabU became a Safawid shrine and Shah 'Abbas 
especially enriched the mausoleum and mosque of 
Shaykh $afi by gifts, among them Chinese porcelains 
and rugs. The city was held by the Ottomans for 
a short time at the end of Safawid rule, but Nadu- 
Shah retook it and was crowned shah in the nearby 
Mughan steppe in 1736. During the Ottoman occu- 
pation a survey of population and land was made 
for the city and province; a copy of this is preserved 



in the Basvekalet Arsivi [q.v.) in Istanbul. In the 
time of Napoleon Gen. Gardanne fortified the city 
and built ramparts, and 'Abbas MIrza established 
court there. 

European visitors who visited the town and 
briefly described it were Pietro della Valle (1619), 
Adam Olearius (1637, with a pictoral map of the 
town), J. B. Tavernier, Comeille Le Brun (1703), 
and James Morier (1821). Much of the library of the 
shrine of Shavkh Safi, as well as art objects, were 
carried to St. Petersburg by the Russians after 1827. 
Morier (Second Journey) estimated the population 
of the town at 4,000; now it is ca. 23,000. Historical 
structures include the shrine of Shaykh Safi, the 
masdjid-i djum'a (built in 1382) and the mausoleum 
of Shaykh Djibra'il (father of Shaykh Safi?) 6 km. 
to the north of Ardabil. 

Bibliography: P. Schwarz, Iran im MitUl- 

alter 8 (1935), 1026-47, where references to Islamic 

sources are given in footnotes; F. Saare, Ardabil 

Grabmoschee des Schech Safi, Denkmaler persischer 

Kunst, Teil II, Berlin 1925; J. A. Pope, Chinese 

Porcelains from the Ardabil Shrine, Washington 

D.C. 1956; Le Strange, Lands, 168; Razmara, 

Farhang-i Djughrdfyd-yi Iran, 4, Tehran 1952, 

11-13; Dihkhuda, Lughat-ndma, Tehran 1950, 

1290-2; Rdhnamd-yi Iran (Ministry of War map 

service, Tehran, 1952), 10-12 (where a sketch 

map of the town appears). (R. N. Frye) 

ARDAHAN, town in the remote north-east of 

Turkey, 41* 8' north, 42 42' east, on the Kurucay, 

which becomes the Kura, 1,800 m. above sea-level. 

At one time capital of a sandjak in the iydlet of 

Kars. By the Treaty of San Stefano in 1878, the 

town, its surrounding district and Kars were ceded 

to Russia. On Feb. 23rd 1921, it was ceded back by 

Georgia; it has since remained Turkish, and is the 

capital of a hadd in the wilayet of Kars. In 1945, the 

town had 6,182 inhabitants, and the hadd 49,699. 

Bibliography : HadjdjI Khalifa (Katib Celebi), 

Diihdn-numd. 407. (Fr. Taeschner) 

ARDAKAN (dialect (Erdekun), town in Persia 

situated 32 18' N. Lat. and 53 50' E. Long. (Greenw.) 

on the present route from Naln to Yazd. It is 

located on the edge of the desert. To the north is the 

district (buluk) of 'Akda, and to the south Maybud. 

It is located at a height of 3280 ft. above sea 

level. The identification with Ptolemy's ' Apraxava 

(Toinaschek, in Pauly-Wissowa, s.v.) is open to doubt, 

and there are no ancient ruins in the town. Ibn 

Hawkal (Kramers), 263, mentions a town Adharkan 

on the edge of the desert near Yazd which may be 

identical with Ardakan. There is no certain mention 

of the town until the 7th/i3th century when a Sufi 

khanahah was erected there; cf. <Abd al-Husayn 

Ayati, Ta'rikh-i Yazd, Yazd 1939, 50, who also lists 

the famous people from this town. The name Ardecan 

appears on European maps beginning in the early 

18th century. Today the town is the centre of a 

district with 5 villages and 10,430 population (in 

1930), according to Mas'ud Kayhan, Qiughrd/iyd, ii, 

Tehran 1933, 438. Some of the population are 

Zoroastrians. The people are known for their metal 

work and sweets. The former flourishing cloth and 

carpet industry is now unimportant. 

Bibliography: 'AH Akbar Dihkhuda, Lughat- 
ndma, Tehran 1950, 1774; General Razmara, 
Diuehrahvd-vi Ni2dmi-yi Iran, Tehran 1945; for 
references to European travellers cf. A. Gabriel, 
Die Erforschung Persiens, Vienna 1952, 58 (von 
Poser), 188 (Buhse), 304 (Baier); Stahl in Peter- 
man's Geogr. Mitteil., Supplement 118 (1985), 29. 



Another Ardakan, in Fars, 30 16' N. Lat. 51° 50/ 

E. Long. (Greenw.) is a Kashka>i tribal centre. 
(R. N. Frye) 

ARDALAN. This name was formerly used for 
the ill-defined province of Persian Kurdistan, the 
major part of which at present is the district 
(shahristdn) of Sanandadj (formerly Senna). For the 
geography see kurdistAn (Persian). 

Usually the name refers to the Banii Ardalan who 
were rulers of much of Kurdistan from the 14th 
century A.D. The origin of this extended family is 
unknown, but according to the Sharaf-ndma, Baba 
Ardalan was a descendant of the Marwanids of 
Diyar Bakr, who settled among the Guran in 
Kurdistan. Another source (B. Nikitine, Les Valis) 
says Ardalan was a descendant of Ardashlr the first 
Sasanian king. Several histories of the rulers of 
Ardalan were written in Persian in the 19th century 
which are primarily biographies of the rulers 
(Storey, 369, 1300). The rulers received the title 
wait from the Safawid shahs, but sometimes they 
declared their allegiance to the Ottomans. 

One of the most illustrious of the rulers was 
Aman Allah Khan who ruled at the beginning of the 
19th century, and his son married the daughter of 
Fath 'AH Shah. Nasr al-Din Shah appointed a 
Kadjar prince as governor of Kurdistan and the 
rule of the Ardalan family came to an end. [See 

Bibliography: B. Nikitine., Les Kurdes, 
Paris 1956, 34-6, 167-170; idem, Les Valis d'Arde- 
lan, in RMM, 49 (1922), 70-104; Dihkhuda, 
Lughat-ndma, Tehran 1948, 1775. For the Sharaf- 
ndma and other sources cf. Storey, 366-9. 

(R. N. Frye) 
ARDASHlR, old Persian: Artakhshathra, Greek 
'ApTa^p^T)?, well-known name of Persian 
kings. Muslim tradition has certain knowledge only 
of the later Sasanid kings of that name, viz. 
Ardashlr I (226-241), Ardashir II (379-383) and 
Ardashlr III (628-629). [See sasanids]. 

Bibliography: A. Christensen, L' Empire 
des Sassanides (Introd., ii, 2: Litteratures arabe 
et persane, and index, s.v. Ardasher). 

(H. Masse) 
ARDASHlR KHURRA [see fIruzabad]. 
ARDIBEHISHT [see ta'rIkh]. 
ARDISTAN (dialect Artsun), a town in 
Persia located on the edge of the desert east of the 
present road from Natanz to Naln, at a height of 
3575 ft. and 33 22' N. Lat., 52 24' E. Long. (Greenw.) 
It was a well known town in the Middle Ages. Arabic 
and Persian histories say a fire temple was erected 
by Ardashir the first Sasanid (226-42 A.D.) and 
Khusraw I Anusharwan (531-79) was bom here. 
On the early (4th/ioth century) mosque here cf. 
A. Godard, in Athar-i Iran, 1936, 285. Zawara, NE 
and near Ardistan, has an old mosque and pre- 
Islamic ruins. The population of the district of 50 
villages (1930) was ca. 27,000. 

Bibliography. Schwarz, Iran, v, 638; Le 
Strange, 208 ; 'Ali Akbar Dihkhuda, Lughat-ndma, 
Tehran 1950, 1692; Mas'ud Kayhan, Qiughrd/iyd, 
ii, Tehran 1933, 425; for a town plan and infor- 
mation on the present town, cf. Rdhnamd-yi 
Iran (Ministry of War map service), Tehran 1952, 
part, ii, 14. (R. N. Frye) 

al-'ARDJI <Abd Allah b. 'Uraar, great-grandson 
of the Caliph 'Uthman, and a poet regarded as the 
best of those who belonged to the Umayyad family. 
Of a generous but violent disposition, he tried to 
play a part in politics and took part in several 



L-'ARDJI — ARGHUN 



627 



expeditions (especially with Maslama b. 'Abd al- 

Malik, against the Byzantines), but, thwarted of 

power, he retired to the Hidjaz, dividing his time 

between Mecca and one of his estates near al-Ta^, 

al-'Ardj, from which he took his nisba. Reduced to a 

life of idleness, like so many of the aristocracy of the 

Hidjaz, he turned to amusements, frivolous or 

riotous, and joined the erotic poets who flourished 

at that time in the two Holy Cities. Doubtless moved 

by jealousy, he satirised the Governor of Mecca, 

Muhammad b. Hisham, the maternal uncle of the 

Caliph Hisham, and went so far as to compose, in 

order to discredit him, erotic verse regarding his 

mother Djayda'. His behaviour led to his being 

molested, placed in the pillory and thrown into 

prison, where he died, probably about 120/738. 

Bibliography: His diwdn was recently printed 

in Baghdad (1956) with an Introduction. See also 

Ibn Kutayba, Shi'-r, 365-6; idem, Ma'drif, Cairo 

I 353/ I 934> 86; DjShiz, Hayawdn 1 , index; AghanI, 

i, 147-60 and index; Baghdad!, Khizdna. i, 99; 

Yakut, s.v. al-'Ardj; Brockelmann, i, 49; Taha 

Husayn, Hadith al-arbi c d>, ii, 72-81; O. Rescher, 

Abriss, i, 146-7; C. A. Nallino, Scritti, vi (= Lette- 

ratura, 61; French trans. 97-8); F. Gabrieli, Un 

pOeta minore omayyade: al-'-Argi, in Studi Orient. 

in onore di G. Levi Delia Vida, 361-70, with bibl. 

(Ch. Pellat) 
ARDjlSH, a small and ancient town situated on 
the north-eastern bank of Lake Van, which in the 
Middle Ages was still called the Lake of Ardjlsh. Its 
existence seems to be vouched for since the Urar- 
taean period, and more expressly by the Graeco- 
Roman geographers. It was occupied for a time by 
the Arabs during the time of c Uthman, but remained 
an integral part of the Armenian principalities up 
to the 8th century A.D.; from 772 onwards, it was 
incorporated into the Kaysite emirate of Akhlat 
[}.».]. In the 10th century A.D., it belonged to the 
Marwanids, but about 1025 it was taken by the 
Byzantines, who proceeded to annex southern 
Armenia. In 1054, it was retaken by the Saldjukid 
sultan Tughril Beg [?.«.], and, when the Saldjukid 
empire was divided up at the end of the 5th/ nth 
century, it was incorporated in the principality of 
the Shahs of Armenia of Akhlat and, at the beginning 
of the 7th/i3th century, in that of their Ayyubid 
successors Pillaged repeatedly in the 13th century 
by the Georgians and the Mongols, it was never- 
theless of sufficient importance for the Ilkhanid 
waiir 'All Shah to fortify it at the beginning of the 
8th/i4th century (it does not appear to have been 
fortified before). Later, it suffered from the devastat- 
ions of Timur and during the disorders associated 
with the Perso-Ottoman wars. It was still the chief 
town of an Ottoman district in the 17th century; but 
the growth of Van, and the northward movement 
of the lake waters, acted to its detriment. The last 
inhabitants left the town about the middle of the 
19th century, and to-day the ruins are mainly under 
water. A small modern township has sprung up 
half an hour's journey to the north. 

Bibliography: See Armenia and akhlat. To 
the Arabic sources (al-Baladhuri, Ibn al-Azrak 
al-Fariki studied by Amedroz in JRAS, 1902, 
785-812, Ibn al-Athlr, etc.), should be added the 
Armenian sources used in R. Grousset, Histoire 
d'ArmMie, Paris 1948, and F. Neve, Histoire 
des Guerres de Tamerlan d'apres Thomas de 
Medzoph, Brussels i860, in Persian, Hamd Allah 
Mustawfi, Nuzha, and, in Turkish, the Djihan- 
niima of Hadjdji Khalifa and the Travels of 



Ewliya Celebi, vol. iv, cf. also M. Canard, Us 

Hamddnides, i, 188 and 473 ff.; E. Honigman, Die 

Ostgrenze des byzantinischen Retches, Brussels 1935; 

and Besim Darkot, article Ercis in I A, which gives 

the references to the earlier modern works 

(Hiibschman, Markwart). (Cl. Cahen) 

ARDJlSH-DAGH [see erdjiyas daghI]. 

ARGAN (Berb.), argan-tree (argania spinosa or 

argania sideroxylon), a tree of the family Sapotaceat 

which grows on the southern coast of Morocco. A 

shrub with hard, tough wood, it produces a stone 

whose kernel, when ground, yields a much-valued 

oil; the oil -cakes are given to cattle. 

The word is also known to some of the Arabic- 
speakers of Morocco, but they look upon it as a 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Baytar, no. 1248; 
L. Brunot, Textes arabes de Rabat, ii, Glossary, 
Paris 1952, 6-7; V. Monteil, Contribution a I'itude 
de la (lore du Sahara occidental, ii, Paris 1953, 
no. 409 (with a bibl.) ; A. Roux, La vie berbere par 
les textes, i, Paris 1955, 34-6. (Ed.) 

ARGJBANA [see erghani]. 

ARGJtiUN, name of a Mongol dynasty claiming 
descent from Hulagu. (Raverty, Notes on Afghani- 
stan, 580, refuses to accept this claim). The Arghuns 
rose to prominence towards the end of the 15th 
century when Sultan Husayn Baykara of Harat 
appointed Dh u 'l-Nun Beg Arghun governor of 
Kandahar. He soon began to assume an independent 
attitude and resisted all attempts of the ruler of 
Harat to coerce him. As early as 884/1479 he occupied 
the highlands of Pishin, Shal and Mustang which 
now form part of BaluCistan. In 890/1485 his two 
sons, Shah Beg and Muhammad Mukim Khan, 
descended the Bolan Pass and temporarily wrested 
SIwi (Sibi) from Djam Nanda, the Samma ruler of 
Sind. In 902/1497 he espoused the cause of Badi' 
al-Zaman, the rebel son of Husayn Baykara, and gave 
him his daughter in marriage. He was killed at the 
battle of Maruiak, in, 913/1507, during the invasion 
of Khurasan by Shaybani Khan the Uzbeg leader. 
He was succeeded by his eldest son, Shah Beg, who 
was forced to acknowledge the overlordship of 
Shaybani Khan in order to maintain his position at 
Kandahar. After the defeat and death of the 
redoutable Uzbeg leader at Marw, in 1510, he was 
threatened by Babur who had established himself 
at Kabul and by Shah Isma'il Safawl who had 
annexed Harat. He was saved for a time by Shah 
Isma'il's wars against the Ottomans and by Babur's 
attempt to recover Samarkand. Realising that his 
expulsion from Kandahar was merely a matter of 
time, he sought to establish his power in the Balu£ 
country and Sind. In Sind, Djam Nanda had been 
succeeded by his son Djam Firuz whose hold over 
the country was weakened by faction fights. In 
926/1520 Shah Beg entered Sind, defeated Djam 
Firuz's army and sacked Thatta, the capital of 
Southern Sind. A treaty was made by which upper 
Sind was surrendered to Shah Beg while lower Sind 
was to remain under the Sammas. This agreement 
was almost immediately repudiated by the Sammas 
as a result of which they were once more defeated. 
Shah Beg now dethroned Djam Firuz and founded 
the Arghun dynasty of Sind. After the complete 
loss of Kandahar to Babur, in 928/1522, Shah Beg 
made Bakhar on the Indus his capital. He died in 
930/1524 and was succeeded byl his son, Shah 
Husayn, who had the khutba read in Babur's name, 
and immediately, probably by arrangement with 
Babur, proceeded to attack the Langah kingdom of 



628 



ARGHON - 



Multan. In 1528, after a long siege, Multan capitu- 
lated. Shah Husayn, after appointing a governor, 
retired to Thatta. When, shortly afterwards, his 
governor was expelled, he made no attempt to 
retake the city. After a brief period of independence 
those in authority in Multan deemed it expedient to 
acknowledge the suzerainty of the Mughal emperor. 
Shah Husayn was reigning in 947/1540 when 
Humayun, after his defeat and expulsion from 
northern India by Shir Shah Sur, sought refuge in 
Sind. Probably because he did not wish to be drawn 
into a war with Shir Shah, the Arghun ruler refused 
to help Humayun. This was followed by Humayun's 
attempt to seize the strong fortresses of Bakhar and 
Sihwan for which he lacked the necessary resources, 
energy and generalship. In 950/1543, Humayun was 
granted an unmolested passage through Sind to 
Kandahar. Towards the end of his days Shah 
Husayn's character degenerated. As a result his 
nobles deserted him and elected as their sovereign 
MIrza Muhammad <IsS Tarkhan, a member of the 
elder branch of the Arghun clan. Shah Husayn died 
childless in 1556 and with him ended the Arghun 
dynasty. 

The Arghun Tarkhan dynasty lasted from 1556 

to 1591. Muhammad <lsa Tarkhan was forced to 

come to terms with a rival claimant, Sultan Mahmud 

Gokaldash. It was arranged that Muhammad c lsa 

Tarkhan kept lower Sind with his capital at Thatta, 

and Sultan Mahmud upper Sind with his capital at 

Bakhar. In 982/1573 upper Sind was annexed by 

Akbar. £ Isa Khan died in 1567 and was succeeded by 

his son Muhammad Bakl who committed suicide in 

1585. During the reign of his successor, Djani Beg, 

Akbar, in 1591, sent <Abd al-Rahlm Khan, Khan 

Khanan, to annex lower Sind. Djani Beg was 

defeated and lower Sind incorporated in the Mughal 

empire. Djani Beg died of delirium tremens in 1599. 

Bibliography : Nizam al-DIn Ahmad, Tabakdt-i 

Akbari (Bibl. Ind.); Muhammad Kasim Firishta, 

Gulshan-i Ibrahimi, Bombay 1832; Muhammad 

•All Kufl, Cal-nama; Babur-nama, (Beveridge); 

H. M. Elliot and J. Dowson, The History of India 

as told by its own Historians (i, Sayyid Djamal's 

Tarkhan-ndma or Arghun-nama based without 

acknowledgement on Mir Muhammad Ma'sum's 

Ta'rikh al-Sind) ; W. Erskine, A History of India 

under Baber and Humayun, London 1854; M. K. 

Fredunbeg, A History of Sind, ii, Karachi 1902) ; 

M. R. Haig, The Indus Delta Country, London 

1894; H. G. Raverty, Notes on Afghanistan and 

Part of Baluchistan, London 1888. 

(C. Collin Davies) 
ARG_H.CN [see il-khanids]. 
ARGYROCASTRO [see ergeri]. 
<ARlB B. SA'D al-KATIB al-^ORTUBI, an 
Andalusian mawld who held various official posts 
(he was in particular 'dmil of the district of Osuna in 
331/943), lived in the entourage of al-Mushafi [q.v.] 
and Ibn Abl 'Amir [see al-mansur] and was the 
secretary of the Umayyad caliph al-Hakam II (350- 
66/961-76) ; the date of his death is not known, but 
is put by Pons Boigues at about 370/980. 

A man of wide learning, c ArIb distinguished 
himself as physician and poet, but is primarily 
known for his work as a historian. He was in fact 
the author of a resume of the Annals of al-Tabari, 
which he continued down to his own times; the 
section relating to the Orient has been published by 
M. J. D4 Goeje (Arib, Tabari continuatus, Leiden 
1897), while R. Dozy added to his edition of the 
Baydn of Ibn 'Idhari (Leiden 1848-51) the fragments 



AL-'ARID 

relating to Spain (from 291 to 320), which constitute 
the principal source for the reign of c Abd al- Rahman 
III (cf. E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. Mus., iii, 506 
and index). 'Arib probably also wrote a work on 
obstetrics (K. Khalk al-Qianin wa Tadbir al-Habdld 
wa '1-MawlUd, a MS. of which has been preserved; 
see H. Derenbourg-H. P. J. Renaud, Mss. ar, de 
VEscurial, ii/2, Paris 1941, 41-2, No. 833) dedicated 
to al-Hakam II, and a K. c Uyun al-Adwiya. The 
K. al-Anwd', of which he is certainly the author, has 
clearly been merged in the liturgical calendar of 
bishop Rabi c b. Zayd (= Recemundo), in a com- 
posite text which R. Dozy published under the title 
of Le Calendrier de Cordoue de Vannle 961, Leiden 
1873 (a new edition by Ch. Pellat will appear 
shortly). 

Bibliography: Marrakushi, al-Dhayl wa 
'l-Takmila (part of this has been edited by F. 
Krenkow in Hespiris, 1930, 2-3); A. A. Vasiliev, 
Vizantiya i Arabi, ii/2, 43 ff. (French ed. H. 
Gregoire and M. Canard, ii, Brussels 1950, 48 ff. 
with a bibliography) ; Pons Boigues, Ensayo, 88-9 ; 
E. Levi-Provencal, X' Siicle, 107; Gonzalez 
Palencia, Literatura, index; Brockelmann, i, 134, 
236, S I, 217; Steinschneider, Hebr. Obersetzungen, 
§ 428; idem, in Zeit. fur Math, und Physik, 1866, 
235ft. ; R. Dozy, in ZDMG, xx, 595-6; idem, 
Preface of Col. de Cordoue ; idem, Introd. to the ed. 
of Baydn, 43-63 ; Leclerc, Hist, de la mid. ar., i, 432 ; 
Sarton, i, 680. (Ch. Pellat) 

al-'ARIP, the central district of Nadjd. 
Originally applied to the long mountainous barrier 
Tuwayk [q.v.], the name al- c Arid is still very com- 
monly used in this, sense. In a more restricted sense 
it refers to the central part of the barrier, the district 
between al-Khardj to the south and al-Mahmal to 
the north. On the west al- c Arid is bounded by the 
western escarpment of Tuwayk and the district of 
al-Batln below it, in which lie Parma, al-Ghatghat, 
etc. On the east Wadi '1-Sulayy, the escarpment of 
Dial Hit, and the land of al- c Arama separate al- 
'Arid from al-Dahna'. 

The district is traversed from northwest to south- 
east by Wadi Hanifa [q.v.'], formerly known as al- 
c Ird, the head of which lies below 'Akabat al-Hay- 
siyya (formerly Thaniyyat al-Ahlsa), whence it 
flows for c. 160 km. before emptying into al-Sahba* 
near the modern town of al-Yamama in al-Khardj. 
The principal towns of al-'Arid, all of which lie 
in or near Wadi Hanifa, are: (1) al-'Uyayna [q.v.], 
the birthplace of Muhammad b. <Abd al-Wahhab 
[q.v.]; (2) al-Djubayla, near which the battle of 
'Akraba' between Musaylima and Khalid b. al- 
Walid is supposed to have been fought; (3) al- 
Dir'iyya [q.v.], the first capital of Al Su £ ud, the 
picturesque ruins of which still overlook the modern 
town in the valley; (4) al-Riyad [q.v.], the present 
capital of Al Su l ud; (5) Manfuha, which is presumed 
to lie on or near the site of the poet al-A'sha's home; 
and (6) al-Ha'ir (also called Ha>ir Subay' or Ha'ir 
al-A c izza, the latter being the section of the tribe 
of Subay 1 dominant in the oasis). Ha'ir Subay' lies 
at the junction of the valleys Luha (not Ha as 
shown on most modern maps) and Bu'aydja 1 (the 
lower stretch of al-Awsat) with Wadi Hanifa. 

The Bedouin tribes roaming through al-'Arid are 
Subay', al-Suhul, and al-Kurayniyya. Many other 
tribesmen are drawn there by the presence of the 
capital. The townspeople are descended from Tamlm, 
'Anaza, al-Dawasir, and many other sources. 

Since the beginning of the reform movement 
preached by Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab [q.v.] 



al-'Arid has been the great stronghold of the faith. In 
the myriad campaigns conducted by Al Su'fld the 
people of al-'Arid, both townsmen and nomads, have 
almost invariably been in the front rank. One of the 
main reasons the reformation began in al-'Arid in 
the I2th/i8th century was that this district had 
preserved a tradition of Islamic learning, and since 
then al-'Arid has contributed more than its share of 
highly honoured religious scholars. 

Bibliography: al-Hamdani, Sifat; Ibn Bulay- 

hid, Sakik al- Akhbdr, Cairo 1370; Ibn Ghannam, 

Rawdat al-Afkdr, Cairo 1368; Ibn Bishr, 'Unwdn 

dl-Madid, Mecca 1349; H. Philby, The heart of 

Arabia, London 1922; idem, Arabia of the Wah- 

habis, London 1928. (G. Rentz) 

c ARlF, "one who knows", a term applied to the 

holders of certain military or civil offices, based 

on competence in customary matters, Htrf, as 

opposed to knowledge of the law, which characterises 

the 'dlim. There may have existed in some cases de 

facto Htrafd' in Arabia already prior to and at the 

time of Muhammad (al-Shafi'I, Umm, iv, 81) who 

is said to have condemned them (Ibn Hanbal, iv, 133; 

Ibn al-Athir, Nihdya, in, 86; al-SarakhsI, Sharh al- 

Siyar al-Kabir, i, 98; al-Bukhari, al-Ta'rikh al-Kabir, 

ii, 341). But such traditions are obviously influenced 

by later conditions. 

During the periods of the caliphs of al-Madina 
and of the Umayyads, the 'arifs collected taxes from 
the tribes and handed them over to the mu$addik 
who was appointed by the caliph (al-Shafi'I, Umm, 
ii, 61, 72, 74; Aghdni', iii, 62, xi, 248). No details 
are available concerning their appointment, except 
that they were chosen among the tribe concerned, 
though not among its chiefs. 

From the time of c Umar I onwards there are 
frequent references to the office of c arif in connection 
with the military organisation of the empire and the 
amsdr. Sayf b. 'Umar claims that the armies of 
Kufa were divided after the battle of Kadisiyya into 
numerous units (Hrdfa), with an 'art/ over each unit 
(al-Tabari, i, 2496) ; but most of the details concerning 
the functions of the c arifs apply to the period of 
Mu'awiya only. Each l arif was assigned to an 
Hrdfa and was responsible for the distribution of the 
stipend ('a(d') among its members, for which purpose 
he had to keep a register (diwdn) of the payees and 
their families. He was furthermore responsible for 
security inside his own Hrdfa, and probably also had 
other responsibilities, such as collecting blood-money 
and arbitrating in disputes among the members of 
the Hrdfa. 

The governor of the misr (or the sahib al-shurta) 
was the sole authority with the power to appoint and 
dismiss Htrafd' and it was not necessary for him to 
seek the approval of the caliph or of the clan; he 
was, however, probably obliged to choose influential 
persons (cf. the authorities quoted in Salih al- c AH, 
al-Tanzimdt, etc., 97-100). 

The military office of c arif continued throughout 
the Middle Ages; the rather scanty evidence indicates 
that its scope varied. At the time of al-Rashld, for 
instance, the l arif was responsible for ten to fifteen 
men (al-Baladhuri, Futuh, 196), while in Spain, at 
the time of al-Hakam, he is mentioned as a com- 
mander of a hundered horsemen (Akhbdr Madjmu'-a, 
129-30). (In the 'Iraki and Syrian armies of the 
present day the 'arif is in charge of ten men). We 
also hear of Htrafd'' of the 'ayydrun [q.v.], when it 
was desired to organise these into official military 
units (al-Tabari, iii, 179; al-Mas'fldi, MurOdj, vi, 452). 
Among the civil offices whose incumbents bore 






the name of 'art/ we hear, in the first ti 
of the Hidjra, of a special official responsible for the 
interests of orphans and illegitimate children. An 
'art/ of dhimmis is also occasionally mentioned. But 
the most frequent use of the title of 'art/ in the 
mediaeval Arabic-speaking Orient is to denote the 
head of a guild, although the term was used con- 
currently (or in varying hierarchical relationships) 
with others, such as nakib, ra'is or simply shaykh, fell 
into disuse during the Ottoman period, and in the 
west was usually replaced by amin [q.v.J. We find 
instances of 'arif in this sense, it seems, from 
Umayyad times, in direct relationship with the 
kadi, prior to the appearance of the office of 
muhtasib (according to Waki' Akhbdr al-fCuddt, ii, 
347, referring to the time of the kadi Shurayh, who 
died about 80/700). But it is mainly from the 6th/ 
12th century onwards that references to Htrafd', now 
in the r61e of assistants to the muhtasibs, occur 
frequently in works designed for the use of the latter. 
It is impossible to discuss the position of the head 
of a trade-guild in detail except in the general study 
of the organisation of the guilds which will appear 
in the article Sinp. The basic problem, in assessing 
the position of the 'art/ or the amin, is to know to 
what extent this individual, situated midway 
between the administrator and the guilds, was the 
representative of an autonomous corporation 
comparable to those of the mediaeval Christian west 
at the time of the communes, or the agent of 
authority supervising a guild governed from above, 
like the colleges of the late Empire and Byzantium. 
His actual position must have varied according to 
the relative strength of the forces concerned. In 
general, the c arif or amin figures mainly as an 
assistant of the muhtasib as regards the regulation, 
internal jurisdiction and financial obligations of the 
guild; he could not however discharge his duties 
unless he was regarded with a certain minimum of 
confidence by the leaders of the guild, from amongst 
whom he himself was chosen and who often, by 
acclamation, accepted or proposed him. In practice 
he also to a certain extent represented the guild in 
its dealings with authority. He organised the parti- 
cipation of his guild in certain festivals. He was 
often duplicated by a khalifa, and exercised his 
powers of arbitration and jurisdiction, in the large 
centres, assisted by a small customary tribunal 
subordinate to the muhtasib. It sometimes happened 
that there was also an amin al-umand'. The amin 
kept a register of the members of the guild, and 
admitted new members, in accordance with various 
initiatory rites. His function was of an eminently 
temporary nature. This organisation has, of course, 
been undermined to-day by the progress of trade- 
unionism on the European pattern. 

Bibliography: In addition to the references 
quoted in the article, see Dozy, Suppl., s.v.; 
I. Goldziher, Abhandlungen zur Arab. Philologie, 
i, 21; Dj. Zaydan, Ta'rikh al-Tamaddun al- 
Isldmi, i, 148; P. Hitti, History of the Arabs, 
London 1946, 328; I A, s.v. (by M. F. Koprulu); 
Rashid Barrawl, tfdlat Misr al-Iktisddiyya, Cairo 
1948, 190-4; A. A. Duri, Ta'rikh al-'Irdk al- 
Iktisddi, Baghdad 1948, 82; Salih A. al-'AU, 
al-Tanzimat al-ldjtimdHyya wa 'l-Iktisddiyya fi 
'l-Basra, Baghdad 1953, 97-100. 

For matters relating more particularly to the 
c arif and amin as technical terms of the guilds, the 
essential sources are the Syro-Egyptian works on 
hisba (Shayzari, ed. 'Arinl, 1946, analysed by 
Bernhauer, who calls him Nabrawl, in J A, i860, 



<ARlF — ARISTOTALlS 



61; Ibn al-Ukhuwwa, ed. R. Levy, 1938; Ibn 
BassSm, extracts by Cheikho in Mash., 1907) or 
the similar works of Spanish origin (Ibn 'Abdun, 
ed. LAvi-Provencal, in J A, 1934, trans, in Seville 
musuimane au XII' s , and especially, from our 
point of view, SakatI of Malaga, ed. Colin and 
Levi-Provencal, 1931), not to speak of other 
similar works, as yet unpublished, written in 
other countries. The material which they provide 
on the 'arif has been utilised by E. Tyan, Organi- 
sation judiciaire, ii, to be completed, as regards 
the amin of Spain and mediaeval Tunisia, by the 
remarks of Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. Mus., iii, 
especially 300-2, and Brunschvig, La Berbirie 
orientate sous les Hafsides, ii, 150, 203, etc. For 
the modern period, on North Africa, see the study 
of Massignon on the Moroccan guilds (RMM, 1924), 
to be completed as regards Fez before the Pro- 
tectorate by the work of Le Tourneau on that 
town (with bibliography) ; for Tunisia, Payre, Les 
amines en Tunisia, 1940, should be consulted. 
No equivalent study exists for the Orient, where 
we are still dependent on the valuable, but 
restrained picture of the guilds at Damascus at the 
end of the 19th century, by Elyas Qudsi (Travaux 
de la VI' Session du Congres international des 
Orientalistes, Leiden 1884, 3 ff.), and for Egypt, 
on the information given in the Description de 
I'Egypte, xvii and xviii, and on certain special 
monographs such as G. Martin, Les Bazars du 
Caire, 1910. For a comparison with central Asia 
see M. Gavrilov, Les corps de metiers en Asie 
Centrale, in REI 1928, 209 ff. ; with Persia, the 
lecture by Ann K. S. Lambton, Islamic Society 
in Persia, School of Oriental and African Studies, 
London, 1954; with the Ottoman Empire, the 
description of the guilds at Constantinople in the 
17th century by Ewliya Celebi {Siydhat-ndme, i, 
473 ff-; Hammer's English translation I, 2,90ft.) 
and H. Thorning, Beitragt zur Kenntnis des isla- 
mischen Vereinswesens auf Grund von Bast Madad et- 
Tauflg, (Turkische Bibliothek 16) Berlin 1913. 
(Salih A. el-Ali and Cl. Cahen) 
c ARIF HIKMET BEY (1201-1275/1786-1859) 
shaykh al-isldm from 1262 to 1270/1845-54, and one 
of the last representatives of Turkish classical poetry. 
Descended from a family of high officials (his father, 
Ibrahim 'Ismet was kadi 'l-'-askar under Selim III), 
he became molla of Jerusalem (1231/1816), then of 
Cairo (1236/1820) and Medina (1239-1823); later 
appointed nakib al-ashrdf (1246/1830) and kadi 
'l-'-askar of Anatolia (1249/1833), then of Rumelia 
(1254/1838), he finally became shaykh al-isldm, a 
post which he held for seven years. 'Arif Hikmet 
Bey maintained relations with the principal poets 
of 'his period, notably Es c ad Efendi, Ziwer Pacha 
and Tahir Selam. He himself wrote poetry, and his 
Diwdn, which contains poems in Turkish, Arabic and 
Persian, is considered to be one' of the last works of 
note of the old school of Turkish poetry; in it may 
be perceived the influence of Nef c i, NabI and Nedim 
(see M. F. Koprulii, Tiirk' divan edebiyatt antolojisi, 
18th and 19th centuries) ; this Diwdn was printed in 
Istanbul in 1283/1867. His other works are: Tedhkire-i 
Shu'ard' (biographies of Turkish poets up to the 
year 1250/1834); MadjmU'at al-Tarddjim: Dhayl 
li-Kashf al-Zunun (see Ibniilemin Mahmud Kemal, 
Son aslr tiirk sairleri, iv, 626-628); al-Ahkam al- 
MarHyya fi '1-Ard4i al-Amiriyya (quoted in Osmanll 
miieUifUri) ; Khuldsat al-Makaldt fi Madjalls al-Mukd- 
lamat (MS. in Istanbul University Library, no. 3791 ; 
cf. Ibniilemin Mahmud Kemal, ibid., 626). 'Arif 



Hikmet Bey enjoyed great fame during his lifetime, 
and Namik Kemal wrote that he was, with Tahir 
Selam, the most notable poet of the era of Mahmud II. 
Bibliography: On the life of 'Arif Hikmet, 
there are numerous references in the historical 
and biographical works written in the second half 
of the 19th century; see in addition: Fajima 
'Aliyye, Diewdet Pasha we zamanl, Istanbul 1332, 
passim. On his poetry: the Introduction to his 
Diwdn, written by Mehmed Ziwer (Istanbul 1283); 
Gibb, Ottoman Poetry, iv, 350 ff., Ibniilemin 
Mahmud Kemal, Son aslr tiirk sairleri, Istanbul 
1937, iv, 620 ff., I A, s.v. (article by Fevziye 
Abdullah). (R. Mantran) 

al- c ARISH, or 'the 'Arish of Egypt', the Rhino- 
korura of the ancients, town on the Mediterranean 
coast situated in a fertile oasis surrounded by sand, 
on the frontier between Palestine and Egypt. The 
name is found as early as the first centuries of our 
era in the form of Laris. According to the ordinary 
view, which is presupposed also in the well-known 
anecdote about c Amr b. al- c As's expedition to Egypt, 
the town belonged to Egypt. The inhabitants, ac- 
cording to al-Ya c kubi, belonged to the Djudham. Ibn 
Hawkal speaks of two principal mosques in the town 
and refers to its wealth of fruit. It was at al-'ArisJi 
that King Baldwin I died in n 18. Yakut states that 
the town contained a great market and many inns, 
and that merchants had their agents there. Al- 
'Arish was occupied by Napoleon in 1799; in the 
following year a treaty was concluded in the town, 
by which the French were forced to evacuate Egypt. 
Bibliography: Butler, The Arab conquest of 
Egypt, 196-7; Ibn Hawkal, 95; Mukaddasi, 54, 
193; al-Ya'kubi, 330; Yakut iii, 660-1; Wilhelmus 
Tyrensis, 509; Musil, Arabia Petraea, 2, Edom i, 
228 ff., 304-5 ; J. Maspero and G. Wiet, MaUriaux 
pour servir d la giographie de I'Egypte, 125; 
Capitaine Bouchard, La chute d' el- A rich, ed. and 
ann. by G. Wiet, Cairo 1945; Makrizi, KhiW, 
IFAO ed., iv, 24-7. (F. Buhl») 

ARISTtJTALlS or ARISTtJ, i.e., Aristotle, the 
4th century B.C. Greek philosopher, the stndy of 
whose works became permanently established in the 
Greek philosophical schools from the first century 
B.C. onwards. 

I. The commentators Nicolaus of Damascus (sate. 
I B.C.) Alexander of Aphrodisias (± A.D. 200), 
Themistius (saec. IV), John Philoponus and Simpli- 
cius (saec. VI) show the way in which Aristotle was 
understood in such late Greek teaching. With very 
few exceptions (cf. below), most of the writings of 
Aristotle eventually became known to the Arabs in 
translation, and a great number of the commentaries 
(which are partly familiar to us in the Greek original, 
partly only preserved in Arabic versions or even in 
Hebrew versions from the Arabic) were also thor- 
oughly studied by Arabic teachers of Aristotle and by 
Islamic philosophical writers. The oriental tradition 
of Aristotle reading follows his late Greek inter- 
preters without a gap, and the medieval Western 
tradition depends as much on the Islamic study of 
Aristotle (particularly in the huge sections of Al- 
Farabl, Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd made available to 
the Schoolmen) as on the late Greek and Byzantine 
expositions of his thought. A. is without reservation 
considered by most Arabic philosophers as the 
outstanding and unique representative of philosophy 
from al-Kindi (cf. RasdHl I, 103, 17 Abu Rida) to 
Ibn Rushd's unqualified praise (Comm. Magnum in 
Arist. De anima III, 2, 433 Crawford): Aristotle 
is 'exemplar quod natura invenit ad demonstrandum 



ARISTOTALlS 



ultimata perfectionem humanam'. A. is often 
referred to as 'the philosopher'. He is by implication 
'the first teacher', al-Farabl being described as the 
second (al-mu c allim al-thani). 

Since a full survey of Muslim Aristotelianism 
would virtually constitute a complete history of 
Islamic philosophical thought, it must be sufficient 
to point out the main facts and name the instruments 
of study at present available. In agreement with 
the Greek commentators Aristotle is understood as 
a dogmatic philosopher and as the author of a closed 
system. He is, moreover (again in a way not unknown 
to the Greek neo-Platonic teachers), supposed to 
agree with Plato in all the essential tenets of his 
thought or, at least, to be complementary to him. 
The Arabs could even go as far as to credit Aristotle 
himself with neo-Platonic metaphysical ideas, and 
it is hence not altogether surprising that extracts 
from a lost Greek paraphrase of Plotinus and a 
rearrangement of a number of chapters of Proclus's 
Elements of Theology could pass as Aristotle's 
Theology and Aristotle's Book of the Pure Good or 
Liber De Causis respectively. 

The Arabs eventually became acquainted with 
almost all the more important lecture-courses of 
Aristotle, with the exception of the Politics, the 
Eudemian Etkics and Magna Moralia. They had no 
translation of the Dialogues, which had become less 
popular in post-Hellenistic times. Their knowledge 
of Aristotle thus went far beyond the few logical 
writings known to the early Latin Middle Ages in 
Boethius's translation, and comprehended the whole 
late Greek syllabus (cf. also the interesting passage 
Comm. in Arist. Graeca iii/i, xvii f.). Surveys of the 
treatises and the ancient commentaries known are 
to be found in Ibn al-Nadlm, Fihrist, 248-52, Fliigel 
(347-52 in the Egyptian edition) and Ibn al-Kiftl, 
Ta'rikh al-Hukamd, 34-42 Lippert. It is odd that Ibn 
al-Kiftl op. cit., 42-8 (cf. Ibn AM Usaybi'a, '■Uyun 
al-Anbd' fi Tabakdt al-Aiibbd 1 1 67 ff.) has preserved 
an otherwise lost but originally Greek list of 
Aristotle's writings ascribed to a Ptolemy, cf. 
A. Baumstark, Syrisch-Arabische Biographien des 
Aristoteles, Leipzig 1900, 61 ff. and P. Moraux, Les 
listes anciennes des outrages d'Aristote, Louvain 
1951, 289 ff. 

Aristotle's lecture courses did not become known 
to the Arabs in their entirety at once, but in stages. 
Th« first texts translated of which we are informed 
are, in conformity with the syllabus followed in the 
Syrian monastic schools and by Greek patristic 
writers, limited to formal logic, i.e. Porphyry's 
Isagoge, Categories, De Interpretation and part of 
the Prior Analytics. The first translator of Aristotle 
whose work is known (although still unedited) is 
Muhammad Ibn 'Abdallah, the son of the famous 
Ibn al-Mukaffa' (cf. P. Kraus, RSO 1933). The 
Topics and the Posterior Analytics and Rhetoric and 
Poetic (which belong to the logical writings in late 
Greek tradition) were soon added but it was not 
before the foundation of the bayt al-hikma during 
the reign of al-Ma'mun that non-logical writings by 
Aristotle were made accessible as well. Details about 
the history of the early translations are still scarce, 
but 'ancient' versions of the books On the Heaven, 
the Meteorology, the main zoological writings, the 
greater part of the Metaphysics, the Sophislici 
Elenchi and (most probably) the Prior Analytics 
have survived until the present day; whilst the so 
called Theology of Aristotle (cf. above) was also 
translated at this early stage. Al-Kindl's under- 
standing of Aristotle is based on these translations 



(cf. M. Guidi-R. Walzer, Studi su al-Kindi I, Uno 
scritto introduttivo alio studio di Aristotele, Rome 1940). 
Hunayn b. Ishak and his son Ishak and other 
associates of this renowned centre of translations of 
philosophical, medical and generally scientific Greek 
works produced a great number of partially improved 
and partially first translations of Aristotle. The 
translators sometimes worked from -the Greek 
original, sometimes from older or recent intermediate 
Syriac translations. The better ones were eager to 
establish a Greek text before they started upon their 
task. We eventually find a well established tradition 
of Aristotle reading in the 10th century, in Baghdad, 
upheld by Christian Arabic philosophers such as 
Abu Bishr Matta and Yahya b. c Adi and others who 
considered themselves, probably correctly, as late 
descendants of the Greek philosophical school of 
Alexandria. The syllabus which they followed was 
partly based on earlier translations and partly on 
translations of their own (made from older or recent 
Syriac translations), since most of the representatives 
of this school were no longer able to read Greek. 
Al-Farabl's acquaintance with Aristotle presup- 
poses the achievement of this circle (his treatise On 
Aristotle's Philosophy will be published by Muhsin 
Mahdi), and all the subsequent Islamic philosophers 
equally base themselves on the same corpus of 
translations which had eventually emerged (after an 
activity of almost 200 years) in Baghdad and spread 
from there all over the Islamic world, from Persia to 
Spain. The work of these translators seems to have 
surpassed even Ibn Rushd in accuracy and know- 
ledge of textual variants. These Arabic versions of 
Aristotle are certainly not without importance for 
the establishment of the original Greek text, and 
they deserve the same attention as a Greek papyrus 
or an early Greek MS. or the variants recorded in 
Greek commentators. They help us moreover to 
get a more common sense view of the history of texts 
in general. 

The Greek commentators became known to the 
Arabs together with the text of Aristotle. We meet 
their influence in different forms: Full texts com- 
prising the lemmata of the Aristotelian groundwork, 
terse paraphrases by Themistius and his like, shorter 
surveys of the argument of individual treatises, and 
marginal notes in manuscripts which quote sentences 
and views taken from the larger works. Not many 
of the translations of these Greek commentaries 
have survived, since they were used by the Arab 
successors of the Greek Aristotelian scholars who 
wrote commentaries and monographs in their own 
name. Of these, again, not very many have come 
down to us in the original text. Not one of Al- 
Farabi's commentaries on Aristotelian treatises has 
yet been traced in any library. Ibn Badjdja's elaborate 
summaries of works of Aristotle are still unedited. 
A certain number of Ibn Rushd's shorter and more 
elaborate commentaries are also known, whilst more 
survive only in Hebrew and Latin translations. 

A list of the works of Aristotle (mentioning the 
more important spurious ones as well) which are at 
present available for study is following. 



Categories. Al-Hasan b. Suwar's edition of Ishak 
b. Hunayn's translation was published, with all the 
marginal comments to be found in Paris Bibl. Nat. 
Ar. 2346, a French translation of the notes and an 
index of terms by Khalil Georr, Les Categories 
d'Aristote dans lews versions Syro-Arabes, Beirut 
1948 (cf. Oriens 6, 1953, 101 ff.). Other edition 



63* ARIST 

(without the marginal notes) by A. Badawi, Manfik 
Arisfu, 1-55, 3°7 '•» 673 "• Ibn Rushd's Middle 
Commentary is available (together with a critical 
text of the groundwork) in an edition by M. Bouyges, 
Bibliotheca Arabica Scholasticorum, torn. IV, Beirut 
1932. 

De interpretatione: Best edition of Ishak b. 
Hunayn's translation by I. Pollack, Leipzig 1913. 
Other edition by A. Badawi, op. cit., 57-99. 

Prior Analytics: Al-Hasan b. Suwar's edition of 
Theodoras' (Abu Qurra's?) translation with copious 
marginal comments was published for the first time 
by A. Badawi, op. cit., 103-306 (cf. Oriens 6, 1953, 
108-28). 

Posterior Analytics: First edition of Abu Bishr 
Matta's translation (based on Ishak b. Hunayn's 
Syriac version) and later scholars' marginal com- 
ments published by A. Badawi, op. cit., 309-462 (cf. 
Oriens 6, 1953, 129 ff. 

Topics : First editions of Abu 'Uthman ad-Dimashkl 
and Ibrahim b. 'Abd Allah's translations and later 
scholars, marginal comments published by A. 
Badawi, op. cit., 467-733. 

Sophistici Elencki: First edition of three trans- 
lations (Yahya b. 'Adi, c Isa b. Zur c a and Ibn 
Na'ima) by A. Badawi, op. cit., 736-1018. C. Haddad, 
Trois versions inidites des Refutations Sophistiques, 
Thesis, Paris 1952. 

Rhetoric: No edition of cod. ar. 2346 Paris exists, 
cf. S. Margoliouth, Semitic Studies in memory of A. 
Kohut (Berlin 1897), 376 ff. S. M. Stern, Ibn al-Samh, 
JRAS 1956, 41 ff. F. Lasinio, II commento medio di 
Averroe alia Retorica di Aristotele (Florence 1877 — 
edition of part of book I). A. M. A. Sallam, Averroes' 
commentary on the third book of Aristotle's Rhetoric, 
Thesis (Oxford 1952), Typescript. 

Poetics: Editions of Abu Bishr's translation by 
D. S. Margoliouth (1887, Latin translation 1911), 
J. Tkatsch (Die arabische Vbersetzung der Poetik und 
die Grundlage der Kritik des griechischen Textes, 
2 vols., Vienna 1928-1932) and A. Badawi (Arisfufalis. 
Fann al-Shi^r, Cairo 1953, 85-143)- The texts of the 
Poetics by Al-Farabl (/» Kawdnin Sind'-at al- 
Shu'ard', ed. Arberry, R.S.O. 16, 193 8 ). Ibn SIna 
(from the Shifd, ed. Margoliouth) and Ibn Rushd 
('Middle Commentary', ed. Lasinio) are reprinted in 
the same volume. 

Physics: About the Leiden MS (no. 1443) of 
Ishak ibn IJunayn's translation cf. S. M. Stern, Ibn 
al-Samh, in JRAS, 1956, 31 ff. A critical edition will 
be published in the Bibliotheca A rabica Scholasticorum. 
Ibn Rushd's 'Middle Commentary' is available in a 
Hyderabad edition of 1947: RasdHl I.R., fasc. 1. 

De caelo: cod. Brit. Mus. Add. 7453 (Yahya b. 
al-Bitriq). A critical edition will be published in the 
Bibliotheca Arabica Scholasticorum. The Hebrew text 
of Themis tius's otherwise lost commentary was edited 
(with a Latin translation) by S.Landauer, Commentaria 
in Aristotelem Graeca V 4, Berlin 1902. Ibn Rushd's 
'Middle Commentary': RasdHl (cf. above) fasc. 2. 

De gen. et corr. : cf. Rasd'il Ibn Rushd, fasc. 3. For a 
fragment of Alexander of Aphrodisias's lost com- 
mentary cf. MS. Chester-Beatty 3702, fol. 168". 

Meteorology: Translation by Yahya b. al-Bitrik in 
cod. Yeni Cami 1179 and Vat. Hebr. 378. RasdHl Ibn 
Rushd, fasc. 4. 

De naturis animalium (= On the parts of animals, 
On the generation of animals, History of Animals): 
Translation by Yahya b. al-Bitrik in cod. Brit. Mus. 
Add. 75 1 1 and cod. Leyd. 166 Gol. G. Furl, id, R.S.O. 
9, 1922, 237. 

De plantis (by Nicolaus of Damascus): Ishak b. 



Hunayn's translation, as revised by Thabit b. Kurra, 
was edited (from cod. Yeni Cami 1179) by A. J. 
Arberry, Cairo 1933-4, and edited a second time by 
A. Badawi, Islamica 16, Cairo 1954, 243 ff. Cf. 
H. J. Drossaart Lulofs, Journal of Hellenic Studies 
77, 1957, 75 ff- 

De anima: First edition of Ishak b. Hunayn's 
Arabic version by A. Badawi, Islamica 16, Cairo 1954, 
1-88 (from cod. Aya Sofya 2450). Anonymous 
Paraphrase, ed. Ahmad Fouad al-Ahwani, Cairo 1950 
(cf. Oriens 6, 1953, 126 ff. and JRAS 1956, 57 ff.). 
Arabic translation of sections of Themistius's para- 
phrase (Comm. in Arist. Graeca V 3), cf. M. C. Lyons, 
BSOAS 17, 1955. 426 ff. Ibn Bddidia, Paraphrase of 
Aristotle's De anima, edition and English translation 
by M. S. Hasan, Thesis, Oxford 1952 (Typescript). 
Rasa^il Ibn Rushd fasc. 5 (other edition Cairo 1950). 
Averrois Commentarium Magnum in Aristotelis De 
anima Libros, rec. F. S. Crawford, Cambridge Mass. 
1953 (critical ed. of the Latin translation). Cf. also 
Ibn Sina, Kitdb al-Insdf 75-116 (ed. Badawi, Arista 
c inda-l- c Arab, Cairo 1947). 

De sensu et sensato. De longitudine et bremtate vitae: 
Ibn Rushd's paraphrases were edited by A. Badawi, 
Islamica 16, Cairo 1954, 191 ff. Averrois Compendia 
Lihrorum qui Parva Naturalia vocantur, rec. A. L. 
Shields, Cambridge Mass. 1949 (Latin version). 

Metaphysica: First edition of Arabic text (from 
MSS. Leiden or. 2074 and 2075) of books a, A 5, 
987a 5 ff., B-I and A by M. Bouyges, in Biblio- 
theca Arabica Scholasticorum V-VII, Beirut 1938-1952 
(together with Ibn Rushd's Great Commentary). Part 
of the Arabic version of the commentary on book A 
by Themistius was published by A. Badawi, Arista 
Hnda? I- 1 Arab, Cairo 1947, 329 ff.; 12 ff., the full text 
in Hebrew and Latin by S. Landauer, Comm. in 
Aristotelem Graeca V 4, Berlin 1903 (the Greek 
original is lost). For Alexander of Aphrodisias cf. 
J. Freudenthal, Die durch Averroes erhaltenen 
Fragmente Alexanders zur Metaphysik des Aristoteles, 
Berlin 1885. Cf. also Badawi, Arisfu etc., 3-1 1 and Ibn 
SIna, Kitdb al-insdf, 22-33 (ed. Badawi, Arisfu etc.). 

Nicomachean Ethics : The last four books have been 
traced in Morocco, together with a paraphrase of 
another section of the work ascribed to Nicolaus of 
Damascus, cf. A. J. Arberry, BSOAS 1955, 1 ff. 
Books 1, 7 and 8 of the c Summaria Alexandrinorum' 
are available in cod. Taimur Pasha, Akhldk 290. 

De Mundo: Translation from the Syriac (by c Isa 
b. Ibrahim al-Nafisi) in cod. Princetontanus RELS 
308, ff. 293 v -303 v . Cf. W. L. Lorimer, American 
Journal of Philology 53, 1932, 157 ff. 



Fragments of lost works 

Eudemus ( ?) : R. Walzer, Studi Italiani di Filologia 
Classica, N.S. 14, 1937, 125 ff.; Sir David Ross, The 
Works of Aristotle translated into English XII, 
Oxford 1952, 23 (cf. Al-Kindl, Rasd'il I, 179; 281). 

Eroticus (?): R. Walzer, JRAS 1939, 407 ff.; Sir 
David Ross, op. cit., 26. 

Protrepticus (?): S. Pines, Archives d'Histoire 
doctrinale et litteraire du Moyen Age, 1957 (from 
Miskawayh, Tahdhib ai-AkUdk, ch. 3). 

De philosophia (?): S. van den Bergh, Averroes' 
Tahdfut al-Tahdfut, London 1954, II 90. 



Books attributed to Aristotle in Arabic tradition. 

De porno (Kitdb al-Tuffdha): J. Kraemer, Das 
arabische Original des 'Liber de porno' (Koprulii 1608), 
Studi Orientali in onore di G. Levi delta Vida, Rome 



ARISTOTALlS — ARKUSH 



635 



1956, i, 484 ff. D. S. Margoliouth, The Booh of the 
Apple, ascribed to Aristotle, ed. in Persian and 
English, JRAS 1892, 187 ff. 

J. Ruska, Das Steinbuch des Aristoteles, Heidelberg 

Secretum Secretorum (Sirr al-Asrdr): ed. A. 
Badawi, Islamica 15, Cairo 1954, 67-171. 

Ilepi PaoiXefa<;,ed. J. Lippert, Dissert. Halle 1891. 
Cf. I. Goldziher, Der Islam 6, 1916, 173 ff. 

'Theology of Aristotle', based on a probably Greek 
paraphrase of sections of Plotinus, ed. F. Dieterici, 
Leipzig 1882 (German translation, ibid. 1883); new 
edition by A. Badawi, Islamica 20, Cairo 1955. Ibn 
SIna's comments are published by A. Badawi, 
Arista Hnda-l 'Arab, 37 ff. and translated into French 
by G. Vajda, Revue Thomiste 195 1, 346 ff. Cf. also 
S. Pines, Revue des £tudes Islamiques 1954, 7 ff. 
'Liber de causis', based on Proclus' Elements of 
Theology, ed. O. Bardenhewer, Freiburg i. Br. 1882 
(with German translation); new edition by A. 
Badawi, Islamica 19, Cairo 1955. 

II. The Arabic 'Lives of Aristotle' add almost 
nothing to the information available in Greek texts. 
To be mentioned are the accounts of his life in the 
Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadlm (cf. above), in Mubashshir 
b. Fatik's Mukhtdr al-Hikam (cf. J. Lippert, Studien 
auf dem Gebiet der griechisch-arabischen Vbersetzungs- 
literatur I, Berlin 1894, 4 ff . and F. Rosenthal, 
Orientalia 6, 1937, 21 ff.), Sa'id al-AndalusI, Tabakdt 
al-Umam, 24 ff., Ibn al-Kifti, Ta'rikh al-lfuhamd, 
27 ff. Lippert, Ibn Juljul, Tabakdt al-Afibbd' wa-l- 
tfukamd (ed. Fu'ad Sayyid, 1955), 25 ff-. Ibn AM 
Usaybi'a, 'Uyiin al-Anbd' I 54 ff. Miiller. Sections 
from these biographies were transited and compared 
by A. Baumstark, op. cit., 39 ft., 117 ff-, 128 ff. A 
very comprehensive list of all the works and com- 
mentaries translated into Arabic (cf. above), to be 
found in Ibn al-Nadlm and Ibn al-Kifti was discussed 
by A. Miiller, Die griechischen Philosophen in der 
arabischen Vberlieferung, Halle 1873 and M. Stein- 
schneider, Die arabischen Obersetzungen aus dem 
Griechischen, Beihefte zum Centralblatt fur Biblio- 
thekswesen V, 1893. The lost Greek catalogue by a 
still unidentified Ptolemy (cf. above) was published 
by A. Miiller, Morgenldndische Forschungen, Festschrift 
Fleischer, Leipzig 1875, 1 ff., by M. Steinschneider in 
vol. 5 of the Berlin edition of Aristotle, 1870, 1469 ff. 
and in Aristotle, Fragmenta, ed. V. Rose, 18 ff., by 
A. Baumstark and P. Moraux (cf. above). A new 
and comprehensive treatment of the whole Arabic 
biographical tradition is to be found in I. During, 
Aristotle in the Ancient Biographical Tradition, G6te- 
borg 1957. (R. Walzer) 

ARITHMETIC [see ?isab]. 

'ARIYYA (a.) or <-driya, also i'dra, the loan of 
non-fungible objects (prit' d usage, commo- 
daium). It is distinguished as a separate contract from 
the hard or loan of money or other fungible objects 
(pftt de consommation, mutuum). It is defined as 
putting some one temporarily and gratuitously in 
possession of the use of a thing, the substance of which 
is not consumed by its use. The intended use must 
be> lawful. It is a charitable contract and therefore 
"recommended" (mandub), and the beneficiary or 
borrower enjoys the privileged position of a trustee 
(amin) ; he is not, in principle, responsible for damage 
or loss arising directly from the authorized use of 
the object. In working out the details, however, the 
several schools of law differ greatly, the doctrines 
of the Hanafls and of the Malikls being more 
favourable to the borrower than those of the 
Shafi'is and of the Hanballs. 



Bibliography: E. Sachau, Muhammedanisches 
Recht nach schafiitischer Lehre, Stuttgart and 
Berlin 1897, 457 ff. ; D. Santillana, Sommario del 
diritto malichita di fjalil ibn Ishdq, II, Milan 1919, 
417 ff.; id., Istituzioni, II, 373 ff.; O. Pesle, Le 
cridit dans I'Islam maUkite, Casablanca (n.d.), 
31 ff.; G. Bergstrdsser's Grundziige des islamischen 
Rechts, ed. J. Schacht, Berlin and Leipzig 1935, 
76 f.; H. Laoust, Le precis de droit d'Ibn Quddma, 
Beirut 1950, 101; A. Querry, Droit musulman, 
recueil de lois concernant les musulmans schyites, I, 
Paris 1871, 537 ff.; <Abd al-Rahman al-DjazIri, 
al-Fikh '■ala 'l-madhdhib al-arba'a, III, Cairo 1354/ 
1935, 366 ff. (Ed.) 

al-ARKAM, an early companion of Muham- 
mad's, commonly known as al-Arkam b. Abi 
'1-Arkam, and having the kunya Abu c Abd Allah. 
His father's name was c Abd Manaf, and he belonged 
to the influential clan of Makhzum at Mecca. His 
mother's name is variously given, but she is usually 
said to be of the tribe of Khuza'a. As al-Arkam's 
death is placed in 53/673 or 55/675 at the age of over 
eighty, he must have been born about 594; and he 
must have become a Muslim when very young, since 
he was one of the earliest converts, one source alleging 
that he was seventh, another twelfth. For reasons 
which are not stated he was in a position, perhaps 
round about the year 614, to offer to Muhammad 
the use of his house on the hill of al-Safa, and this 
was the centre of the new community until after the 
conversion of c Umar b. al-Khattab. Ibn Sa'd fre- 
quently says that conversions and other events took 
place when Muhammad was in the house of al- 
Arkam or before he entered it, but Ibn Hisham is 
silent on the subject. Al-Arkam migrated to Medina 
with Muhammad and was at Badr and on the other 
chief expeditions, but was not prominent in any 
way. The house, which contained a place of worship 
{masdiid or kubba) remained in the family till the 
caliph al-Mansur purchased it. It passed into the 
hands of al-Khayzuran, mother of Harun al-Rashld, 
and came to be known as "the house of al-Khayzu- 

Bibliography: Ibn Sa c d, iii/i, 172-4; Ibn al- 
Atolr, Usd al-Ghdba, i, 59 f . ; Ibn Hadjar, Isdba, 
Calcutta 1856-73, i, 205; Ibn Hisham, 457; al- 
Wakidi (tr. by J. Wellhausen as Muhammed in 
Medina), Berlin 1882, 67; F. Wiistenfeld, Chro- 
niken der Stadt Mekka, Leipzig 1858-61, iii, 112, 
440; Caetani, Annali, i, 261 f., with further 
references. (W. Montgomery Watt) 

ARKAN [see rukn]. 

ARKUSH (Span. Arcos). There are at least 
twenty places in Spain which bear this name, which 
is also given to a large number of rivers, streams, 
ravines and river basins, either in the sing. Arco or 
the plur. Arcos; there is also a commune, 4 Va m - 
(7 km.) from Valencia, which retains the Arab name 
Alacuas (al-Akwds, the Arcos). As regards the 
history of Muslim Spain, the most important of 
these localities is Arcos de la Frontera, north-west 
of the province of Cadiz, on the last western spurs 
of the sub-Betic chain and in the grape-growing 
region of the campina of Seville. It numbers about 
30,000 inhabitants, and its situation is extremely 
interesting both from the point of view of geography 
and of strategy, because it occupies the axis of a 
rock-mass which is lapped by a sharp bend of the 
Guadalete ; throughout the Middle Ages, its important 
castUlo and its suburbs were at different times razed 
and repopulated. Numerous traces of the pre- 
historic era, concrete evidence and Roman paving- 



634 



ARKUSH — ARMlNIYA 



tstones prove its antiquity. Arcos declared for <Abd 
al-Rahman I when the latter undertook his campaign 
against Yflsuf al-Fihri; it was subsequently sacked 
by Shakya b. <Abd al-Wahid al-MiknasI, leader of the 
most important and most dangerous Berber revolt 
-against the first Umayyad amir. During the Arab- 
muwallad conflict at the end of the 3rd/gth century 
in the region of Seville, the rebel castillos of Arcos, 
Jerez and Medina Sidonia were assaulted by the 
troops of the amir c Abd Allah. Yusuf b. Tashufln 
stopped at Arcos on his way to Zallaka. The Almohad 
-caliph Ya'kub al-Mansur, in his campaign of 586/ 
1 190 against Portugal, concentrated his troops at 
Arcos de la Frontera; from there he dispatched his 
-cousin al-Sayyid Ya'kub b. Abl Hafs against Silves, 
while he himself proceeded to lay siege to Torres 
Novas and Tomar. Ferdinand III took possession 
■of Arcos in 648/1250, after having captured Granada; 
its Muslim inhabitants rose in revolt in 659/1261, and 
it was reduced to submission by Alfonso the Learned 
in 662/1264. In 739/1339, when the Marinid amir Abu 
'1-Hasan undertook his Andalusian campaign, which 
resulted in his defeat at the battle of the Salado or 
Tarifa, the Andalusian Councils routed the troops of 
prince Abu Malik a short distance from Arcos, and 
put him to death on the banks of the Barbate, which 
marked the frontier between the two countries. Up 
to 856/1452, the Moors of Granada encroached on 
the territory of Arcos, which for two centuries was 3 
"frontier town, kept constantly on a war footing and 
thus deserving its name of Arcos de la Frontera. 

Bibliography: Idrisi, Arabic text 174, trans. 
208; E. Levi- Provencal, La Pininsule iberique, 
Arabic text 14, trans. 20; Die. geog. de Espana, 
1957. ii. 97; A. Huici, Las Grandes batallas de la 
Reconquista, 336. (A. Huici Miranda) 

ARMAN [see armIniya]. 

ARMlNIYA, Armenia, a country of Hither Asia. 
1. Geographical Outline. 

Armenia is the central and most elevated part of 



Hither Asia. Encompassed between 
chains, the Pontic chain to the north and the chain 
of the Taurus to the south, it lies between Asia 
Minor to the west of the Euphrates, Adharbavdjan 
and the region south-west of the Caspian (on a level 
with the confluence of the Kurr [Kura] and the 
Araxes) to the east, the Pontic regions to the north- 
west, the Caucasus (from which the line of the Rion 
and the Kurr separates it) to the north, and the 
plain of Mesopotamia to the south (area of the 
Upper Tigris). To the south of Lake Van, Gordjaik 
(the ancient Gordyene, now Bohtan) and the land 
of the Hakkiari Kurds (the region of Djulamerk and 
Amadiye) form geographically a part of Armenia, 
although they have not always been subject to the 
Armenians. Armenia thus embraces almost the 
whole of the territory extending between long. 37 
and 49 East and lat. 37.5 and 41.5 North. Its 
area can be estimated at about 300,000 sq. kms. 
The geological framework of the land consists of 
mountains having an archaean core and covered 
with sedimentary strata and tertiary deposits, but 
vast volcanic masses and lava flows of more recent 
date have modified its structure. High plains extend 
between the mountain ranges and vary in altitude 
from 800 to 2 000 metres (Erzerum: 1,880 m. ; Kars : 
1,800 m.; Mush on the Murad Su : 1,400 m.; 
Erzindjan : 1,300 m. ; Erivan : 890 m.). The eruptions 
have produced a whole series of volcanic cones which 
are among the highest peaks in the land : Ararat 
(5,205 m.) to the south of the Araxes; the SIpan 



dagh (4,176 m.), already known to al-Baladhuri (ed. 
De Goeje, 198. Cf. Zeitschr. fur arm. Philol., ii, 67, 
162; Le Strange, 183); the Bingol dagh (3,680 m.) 
to the south of Erzerum; the Khoridagh (3,550 m.), 
the Ala-dagh (3,520 m.), and the Alaghoz (4,180 m.) 
which forms to the north an almost completely 
isolated massif. 

Armenia is the cradle of great rivers : the Euphrates, 
the Tigris, the Araxes and the Kurr (Kura). The 
Euphrates is formed through the confluence of two 
branches, the northern branch or Kara Su (Ar. 
Furat) and the southern branch or Murad Su (Ar. 
Arsanas) which come from the Armenian plateau; 
the Tigris is born in the border range of the South 
called the Armenian Taurus. While the system of the 
Tigris and the Euphrates irrigates the lands inclined 
towards the Persian Gulf, the Araxes (Ar. al-Rass, 
[q.v.]) which comes from the Bingol dagh, waters the 
lands turned towards the Caspian Sea and, before 
flowing into it, joins the Kurr which, with its 
parallel prolongation, the river Rion, a tributary of 
the Black Sea, separates the Caucasus sharply from 
Armenia. The Euphrates and the Araxes cut deeply 
into the Armenian plateau and these breaches 
facilitate the drainage of water with the result that 
Armenia has but a small number of lakes, Lake Van 
(1,590 m.) called in Arabic the lake of Khilat and 
Ardjlsh [q.v.] and the Gok Cay [q.v.] or Sevanga 
(2,000 m.) mentioned already in 1340 by al-Mustawfl, 
and several smaller lakes. 

The orographical and hydrographical systems of 
Armenia are such that the land is divided into a 
number of basins separated the one from the other 
by high mountains, a fact that helps to bring about 
the feudal disunion in which the Armenians have 
always lived. 

The climate of Armenia is very severe. The winter 
lasts regularly for eight months on the plateau, the 
short and very hot summer rarely exceeds two 
months; it ij. very dry and crops have need of 
artificial irrigation. The region of the plains along 
the Araxes enjoys, however, a more favourable 
climate. The snow-line in the mountains of the 
South lies at 3,300 m., but rises to 4,000 m. in 



1. — Armenia before Islam. 

Armenia is thought to have been inhabited 
towards the 17th century B.C. by an Asiatic people, 
the Hurrites, who were neither of Semitic nor of 
Indo-European origin; this people was organised 
in the first half of the second millennium by a 
conquering Indo-European aristocracy and later 
became subject to the Hittite empire and there- 
after to the Assyrians. In the 9th century B.C. a 
people closely related to the Hurrites, the Urartians, 
also called Khaldi. established there the powerful 
kingdom of Urartu (the biblical Ararat), of which 
Lake Van formed the centre. This kingdom, which 
had to fight against the Assyrians, attained its 
apogee in the 8th century, but was destroyed 
towards the middle of the 7th century by the 
Cimmerian and Scythian wave that flowed over 
Hither Asia. During and after these changes an 
Indo-European people of the Thraco-Phrygian 
family, a branch, probably, of the Phrygians whose 
state had just been destroyed by the Cimmerians, 
came from the West and conquered Urartu. These 
new inhabitants were called Armenians by the 
Achaemenid Persians (Greek: 'Ap|xivioi), a name of 



which the meaning and origin are still unexplained, 
and the region became known in the course of time 
as Armenia. The Armenians, however, call them- 
selves Haik (from the name of the hero who led the 
Armenian people to the conquest) and refer to theii 
land as Hayastan. 

The Armenians, save in the time of Tigranes II 
(Tigranes the Great), have never played a dominant 
rdle in Hither Asia. The reasons for this were, to a 
large degree, the feudal regime favoured by the 
geographical nature of the country and itself a 
source of internal dissensions, and also the proximity 
of powerful empires. From the time of their settlement 
in Armenia the Armenians were vassals of the Medes 
and then of the Achaemenid Persians who placed 
the land under the control of satraps. These latter, 
taking advantage of the troubles caused by the 
death of Alexander the Great, became veritable 
kings who afterwards recognised the suzerainty of 
the Seleucids. When Antiochus III was defeated by 
the Romans at Magnesia (189 B.C.), the two "stra- 
tegi" who governed Armenia made themselves 
independent, took the title of king and formed 
two kingdoms, the one, Artaxias, in Great Armenia 
or Armenia proper and the other, Zariadris, in 
Little Armenia (Sophene-Arzanene). Great Armenia 
fell afterwards under the suzerainty of the Arsacids. 
In the first century B.C. a descendant of Artaxias, 
Tigranes the Great, threw off the Parthian yoke, 
dethroned the king of Sophene and united all 
Armenia under his sceptre ; having achieved Armenian 
unity, he established at the expense of the Parthians 
and the Seleucids a vast Armenian empire and 
played an important political rdle. After him, 
however, Armenia was reduced more and more to 
the role of a buffer state between the two empires, 
the Arsacid Parthian and the Roman, each of which 
desired to impose a king of its choice, internal 
troubles furnishing a perpetual pretext for inter- 
vention and encroachments. In general, from the 
year 11 A.D. down to the fall of the Arsacids in 224, 
it was, for the greater part of the time, cadets of the 
Arsacid family who ruled in Armenia, now supporting 
their relatives in their wars against Rome, and now 
accepting the Roman protectorate. When the Arsacid 
Parthians were replaced by the Sasanids, Armenia, 
continuing under the rule of Arsacid kings and 
embracing Christianity at the close of the 3rd 
century, became once more a new apple of discord 
between the two empires which in the end reached 
an agreement to share the weak vassal state. By a 
partition which took place about 390 Persia received 
the ' eastern portion, four -fifths of Armenia, over 
which Khosraw III reigned with Dwln (Ar. Dabil) 
as capital, while Rome kept the western part where 
Arshak III ruled at Erzindjan. After the death of 
Arshak the Romans (Byzantines) entrusted to a 
count (comes) the administration of the land. The 
Persian part of the country or Persarmenia retained 
its national princes until 428-9 and was thereafter 
administered by a Persian martban residing at Dwln. 
According to the Armenian historian Sebeos, the 
moit important native source for the period extending 
from the 5th to the middle of the 7th century, the 
Persian domination never succeeded in implanting 
itself solidly in Armenia, all the more since the 
Sasanids persecuted Armenian Christianity. The 
Armenian Jards (the nakharar) availed themselves 
of every opportunity to shake off the detested yoke 
of the fire-worshippers and in their quarrels with the 
Persian marzbans invoked frequently the aid of 
their co-religionists in Byzantine Armenia, a proce- 



tflYA 635 

dure that led to frontier skirmishes and at times 
to real battles. A wide breach in the community of 
interests between Armenia and Byzantium was made, 
however, in 451 by the Council of Chalcedon, the 
decisions of which were condemned by the Armenians 
at the Council of Dwln in 506. This schism, which 
was definitive despite the efforts of the Greeks to 
restore union, facilitated political relations between 
the Armenians of Persarmenia and the court of 
Ctesiphon, now become more tolerant towards 
Christianity. 

Under the emperor Maurice (582-602) the Byzan- 
tines, profiting by the troubles of the Persian empire, 
reconquered a part of Persarmenia. Armenia now 
enjoyed a period of peace, but Khusraw II Parwlz 
(590-628) resumed in 604 against the Byzantines a 
war which was to last until 629 and was marked by 
the celebrated campaigns of Heraclius (610-41) in 
Atropatene. 

Throughout the Sasanid period the intervention 
of the two great powers, the internal discords between 
the great families which vied with each other for 
pre-eminence and the incursions of the Khazars on 
the north-eastern frontier maintained a complete 
anarchy in the land. Armenia, ravaged and torn, 
found itself at the moment of the Muslim invasion 
in a state of weakness that did not allow it to oppose 
a strong resistance to the Arab assault. Favoured 
by this anarchy, there now developed in the region 
of Lake Van the power of the Rshtuni family which 
had for its base the island of Aghtamar in Lake Van 
and whose chief Theodore played a great r61e at the 
time of the Arab invasions. 

2. — Armenia under Arab domination. 

The history of the conquest of Armenia by the 
Arabs still presents in its details many uncertainties 
and obscurities, for the information found in the 
Arab, Armenian, and Greek sources is often con- 
tradictory. The Armenian account by Bishop 
Sebeos, who speaks to us as an eye-witness of these 
memorable events, is by far the most important 
source for this period; to this account there must be 
added, as a valuable complement, the work of the 
priest Leontius which constitutes indeed for the 
years 662-770 the only notable testimony. Among 
the Arab authors the first place belongs to al- 
Baladhurl who made use to a unique degree of 
accounts drawn from the inhabitants of Armenia. 

After the conquest of Syria and the defeat of 
Persia by the Arabs, the latter began to make 
repeated irruptions into Armenia and to contend 
with the Byzantines for possession of the land. 
c Iyad b. Ghanim, the conqueror of Mesopotamia, 
undertook between the close of the year 19 and the 
beginning of the year 20/639-40 a first campaign in 
south-western Armenia, where he penetrated as far 
as Bitlis. Al-Baladhurl (176), al-Tabarl (i, 25 o6) and 
Yakut (i, 206) agree on the date of this campaign, 
but differ in regard to its details. A second Arab 
attack took place, according to the accounts of al- 
Tabari (i, 26 66) and Ibn al-Athlr (iii, 20-1), in the 
year 21/642. In four corps, two of which were under 
the command of Hablb b. Maslama and of Salman 
b. Rabl'a, the Muslims advanced into the frontier 
regions of north-eastern Armenia, but, driven back 
on all sides, soon had to retire from the land. Nor 
did the brief razzia carried out in the year 24/645 by 
Salman b. Rabl'a from Adharbaydjan into the 
Armenian border territory have any more enduring 
effect: see, on this raid, al-Ya'kubl, 180; al-Bala- 
dhurl, 198; al-Tabarl, i, 2806. 



636 



According to the evidence of the Arab hi 
and geographers (see especially al-Ya c kubI, 194; al- 
Baladhuri, 197-8; al-Tabari, i, 2674-5, 2806-7; Ibn 
al-Atb,Ir, iii, 65-6), the greatest invasion of Armenia, 
the one which for the first time reduced the country 
to effective Arab control, occurred during the 
caliphate of 'Uttiman towards the end of 24/645-6. 
Mu'awiya, the governor of Syria, charged the same 
general Habib b. Maslama, who had already 
distinguished himself in the battles of Syria and 
Mesopotamia, with the conquest of Armenia. The 
general marched first against Theodosiopolis (Armen. 
Karin, Ar. Kallkala, now Erzerum), the capital of 
Byzantine Armenia and took the town after a 
short siege. He inflicted a heavy defeat on a great 
Byzantine army which, reinforced by Khazar and 
Alan auxiliary troops, had moved forward to stop 
him on the Euphrates. He turned next towards 
the south-east in the direction of Lake Van and 
received the submission of the local princes of 
Akhlat [q.v.] and Moks. Ardjlsh on the north-eastern 
shore of Lake Van also yielded to the Arab troops. 
Habib then marched to besiege Dwln, the centre of 
Persarmenia, which likewise capitulated after a few 
days. He concluded a treaty of peace and guarantee 
with the town of Tiflls in return for the recognition 
of Arab suzerainty and the payment of a capitation 
tax {diizya). At the same time, Salman b. Rabi'a 
with his army of 'Iraki troops, subjugated Arran 
(Albania) and conquered its capital Bardha'a. 

The Armenian tradition differs from the Arab 
tradition in the matter of dates as well as in various 
details. On one point alone, the direction given to 
the great Arab invasion, is there complete agreement 
in Sebeos and al-Baladhuri, as a comparison of 
the routes indicated in each of these authors reveals. 

According to the Armenian historians, an army 
entered Armenia in 642, penetrated to the region 
of Airarat, conquered the capital Dwin and then left 
the country by the same route, carrying off 35,000 
prisoners. In the next year the Muslims made, from 
Adharbaydjan. a new irruption into Armenia. They 
ravaged the region of Airarat and penetrated even 
into Georgia; a sharp defeat which the prince 
Theodoros Rshtuni inflicted on them compelled them, 
however, to retreat. Soon after this event the emperor 
recognised Theodoros as commander of the Armenian 
troops. Armenia, spared the Arab incursions for a 
number of years, then recognised anew the suzerainty 
of Byzantium. When the truce of three years con- 
cluded between the Arabs and Constans II, the 
successor of Heraclius, who had died in 641, came to 
an end in 653, a resumption of hostilities had to be 
expected in Armenia. In order to prevent a threa- 
tening invasion by the Arabs, Theodoros surrendered 
the land voluntarily to them and concluded with 
Mu'awiya a treaty very favourable to the Armenians 
and which imposed on them only the recognition of 
Muslim suzerainty. In the same year, however, the 
emperor, with an army 100,000 strong, appeared in 
Armenia, where most of the local princes ranged 
themselves on his side. He brought all Armenia and 
Georgia once more under his authority without 
much trouble. Yet scarcely had Constans II left the 
country (654), having wintered at Dwin, than an 
Arab army entered the land in its turn and took 
possession of the districts on the northern shore of 
Lake Van. With the aid of these Arab forces Theo- 
doros drove the Greeks from the country once more 
and was thereafter recognised by Mu'awiya as 
prince of Armenia, Georgia and Albania. The 
attempts of the Greeks, with an army under the 



orders of Maurianos, to reconquer the lost provinces 
failed completely. In 655 the Arabs extended their 
domination over the whole of Armenia and the 
Greco-Armenian capital Karin (Kallkala) had also 
to open its gates to them. Two years later the Muslims 
saw themselves constrained, however, to renounce 
for the time being a possession that was ill assured. 
When, in the year 36/657, the first civil war between 
Mu'awiya and c Ali broke out, the former had need 
of his army of occupation established in Armenia 
and the country, empty of troops, fell back immedi- 
ately under its old master, Byzantium. 

It transpires from the account of Sebeos that all 
these events, merged by the Arab sources in the 
great campaign of Habib in 24-25/644-646, occurred 
only after the end of the three year truce; it is on 
this date, too, that the information in the Chrono- 
graphy of Theophanes is based. There is, in the 
Arab historians, no mention at all of the fact that 
Armenia, after the first Arab invasion which occurred 
in the reign of c Umar, had been subjected anew to 
Byzantine domination, nor of the events which 
unfolded themselves in the land during the period 
before the accession of Mu'awiya. That Theodoros 
Rshtuni submitted voluntarily to Mu c 5wiya, a fact 
attested not only by Sebeos, but also by Theophanes, 
would be incomprehensible, if, ever since the first 
invasion of the Arabs, the country had been sub- 
jected to their full authority. According to Ghazarian, 
who, in the Zeitschr. fiir arm. Philol. (ii, 173-4), has 
made a close analysis of the divergences between the 
Arab and the Armenian sources, the contemporary 
account of Sebeos deserves more trust than the 
tradition of the Arabs; it is on Ghazarian that 
Muller relies (Der Islam im Morgen- und Abendland, 
i, 259-61); a different opinion is that of Thopdschian 
[Zeitschr. fur arm. Philol., ii, 70-1), according to 
whom there can be established in the Armenian and 
Arab historians a concordance of dates and facts 
relative to the first great Arab invasion. In the view 
of J. Laurent, L'Armenie entre Byzance el V Islam, 
90, 371, there were six Arab invasions between 640 
and 651. H. Manadean, Breves ttudes, Erivan 1932 
(trans, by H. Berberian in Byzantion, xviii, 1946-8) 
has submitted the traditional data to a close criticism 
and has arrived at the conclusion that until 650 there 
were only three Arab invasions: (i) in 640, a first 
invasion through the Taron region and the capture 
of Dwin on 6 October 640; (ii) in 642-3, a second 
invasion by way of Adharbaydjan into Persarmenia ; 
(iii) in 650, a third invasion carried out from 
Adharbaydjan and marked by the taking of Artsap c 
in the Kogovit district to the north-east of Lake Van 
on 8 August 650. 

The Arabs, who had carried off Theodoros 
Rshtuni in 655 to Damascus, where he died in 656, 
had set in his place at the head of Armenia Hamazasp 
Mamikonian, a member of a rival family, the fiefs 
of which extended from the Taron to Dwin. Mami- 
konian took, however, the side of Byzantium and 
was nominated by Constans II to the command of 
the country in 657-8. The Byzantine domination did 
not last long. Mu'awiya, after he had come to power 
(41/661), wrote to the people of Armenia, inviting 
them to recognise anew the Arab sovereignty and 
to pay tribute, and the Armenian princes dared not 
oppose this demand. According to the Armenian 
sources, members of the most notable families (the 
Mamikonians, the Bagratuni or Bagratids) assumed 
the government of the land under the first Umayyads 
down to <Abd al-Malik. The Arab historians, on the 
other hand, describe Armenia as being under the 



administration of Muslim governors since the 
conquest of Habib (see al-Ya c kubI, al-Baladhuri, 
al-Tabarl for the period extending from 'Uthman to 
the 'Abbasid al-Muntasir, and the list of governors 
in Ghazarian, op. cit., 177-82, Laurent, op. cit., 336- 
47, R. Vasmer, Chronology of the governors of Armenia 
under the first 'Abbdsids, in Memoirs of the College 
of Orientalists, Leningrad 1925, i, 381 ff., in Russian). 

The first century of Arab domination in Armenia 
was, despite the destructive wars, an era of national 
and literary efflorescence for the country. And yet 
Muslim rule, in the time of the Umayyads and still 
less in the time of the 'Abbasids, under whom the 
hand of the Arab governors weighed heavily on 
Armenia, was not able to implant itself solidly in 
the land. Disturbances and rebellions were therefore 
frequent. The greatest and most dangerous insur- 
rection against the Arab yoke occurred in the reign 
of al-Mutawakkil. The Caliph sent his most skilful 
general, the Turk Bugha the Elder, with a strong 
army which, after sanguinary and desperate battles 
in the year 237-8/851-2, succeeded in overcoming the 
rebellion. The entire nobility was then carried off 
into captivity. Al-Mutawakkil renounced his hostile 
policy only when he had need of his troops to fight 
the Byzantines and in order to prevent a new 
uprising fomented by the latter. He therefore freed 
the captive nakharar and recognised (247/861-2) as 
the chief prince of Armenia the Bagratid Ashot (Ar. 
Ashut) who had already rendered to the Arab cause 
most important services. During the twenty-five 
years of his rule as the prince of princes Ashot won 
the affection of all his subjects as well as that of 
the local lords to such a degree that, on the request 
of these latter, the Caliph al-MuHamid conferred on 
him in 273/886-7 the title of king. He received the 
same distinction from the emperor, who concluded 
with him at the same time a treaty of alliance. The 
relations of Ashot with the Caliph were never 
troubled; he paid his tribute regularly, but admi- 
nistered and governed his possessions in his own 
fashion; the native princes likewise acquired during 
his reign an almost independent status. 

After the death of Ashot (862-90) there reigned his 
eldest son, Smbat I (Ar. Sambat), a man indeed of 
heroic character, but one who was in no wise capable 
of withstanding his external foes, the Shaybanids 
of Diyar Bakr and the Sadjids of Adharbaydjan. He 
was unsuccessful in his conflict with the Shaybanids. 
Nevertheless, a little later in 286/899 the inter- 
vention of the Caliph al-Mu'tadid brought to an end 
the Shaybanid domination and delivered the Arme- 
nian provinces from these invaders. The Sadjid 
Afshhi, however, in his thrust towards the west and 
the north menaced Armenia unceasingly. The 
situation of Smbat became still more difficult in 
the time of the astute Yusuf, the brother and 
successor of Afshin (d. 288/901). YQsuf understood 
that above all else he must draw to his side the 
Ardzruni family which had become, since the reign 
of Ashot I, the most powerful princely house next 
to that of the Bagratids. About 909 he even conferred 
the royal crown on the head of this family, Gagik, 
the • lord of Vaspurakan, a distinction that the 
Caliph al-Muktadir renewed in 304/916 and 306/919. 

Yusuf, from the year 910, ravaged Armenia in 
the course of his expeditions and at length, in the 
fortress of Kapoit, besieged Smbat, now abandoned 
by all the princes. In 913 (according to Adontz in 
911) the king of Armenia surrendered to his adver- 
sary, who, after having inflicted on him a year of 
imprisonment, had him put to death by cruel 



NIYA 637 

tortures (914; according to Adontz 912). Anarchy 
ensued in Armenia after the fall of Smbat I. His 
vigorous son, Ashot II, the "Iron King" (915-29), 
succeeded in recovering the throne with the support 
of Byzantine arms; he was at first thwarted by 
YQsuf who raised against him one of his cousins, but 
YQsuf, seeing that Ashot was getting the better of 
his foes, -granted him recognition and sent him a 
royal crown (about 917). After the capture of Yusuf, 
who had risen in revolt, by the troops of the Caliph 
in 919, his successor Sbuk (Subuk) allied himself 
with Ashot II in order to drive out the Caliph's 
forces and bestowed on him the title of Shahanshah, 
a title which recognised as belonging to Ashot 
suzerainty over the principalities of Vaspurakan, 
Iberia, Georgia and other regions. Ashot II raised the 
Bagratid power to its apogee and ruled over the 
greatest part of central and northern Armenia 
where Smbat had already considerably enlarged the 
territory of this family. His reign ended in tran- 
quillity after a reconciliation of the Armenian 
princes and the nominal recognition of his supremacy 
by his rivals, notably the Ardzruni. Dwin, however, 
remained in the hands of Yusuf's lieutenant. 

In southern Armenia the Ardzruni (see above) 
ruled over a less extensive territory (Vaspurakan, 
with Van as the capital). Apart from these two great 
kingdoms there still existed a series of smaller 
principalities which for the most part recognised 
only nominally the suzerainty of the Bagratids. 
Moreover, in the south, in the region of the Apahunik 
and Lake Van, there were several Arab emirates, 
independent but isolated from the Caliphate. The 
history of Armenia is not therefore conterminous 
with that of the Bagratids. 

Throughout the entire reign of Ashot II and for 
much of the reign of his successor Abas (929-53) the 
war between Byzantium and the Arabs continued 
without interruption and was at times fought out 
in Armenia. The Greeks operated in northern 
Armenia as well as in southern Armenia against the 
Armeno-Arab emirates of Lake Van which, according 
to the Byzantine sources, were compelled to submit 
to the emperor Romanus Lecapenus (919-44). The 
last Sadjid amirs of Adharbaydjan retained hardly 
any influence in Armenia. The Hamdanids, who were 
the masters of Diyar Bakr, bordering on Armenia, 
and were in constant war against the Byzantines, 
succeeded for a time in exacting from all Armenia 
(according to the historians Ibn ?5fir and Ibn al- 
Azrak) a recognition of their sovereignty and 
established a more effective dominion over the 
Armeno-Arab emirates in the region of Lake Van. 
These emirates later recognized the suzerainty of 
Badh, the founder of the Marwanid dynasty [q.v.] 
of Diyar Bakr, and of his successors. 

After the Hamdanids, it was the Musafirids [q.v.] 
of Adharbaydjan who exacted from the princes of 
Armenia a recognition of their suzerainty, imposed 
tribute on them (see Ibn Hawkal>, 354, for the year 
955-6) and became the masters of Dwin. 

Ashot III (952-77) transferred the official capital 
of the Bagratid kingdom to the little fortress of Ani 
[q.v.] which he and his successor Smbat II, by 
erecting there magnificent buildings, transformed 
into a pearl of the Orient. It is during his reign that 
the territory of Kars was raised to the rank of a 
kingdom for the benefit of a prince of the Bagratid 
house and that Byzantium, moreover, in 968 
annexed the region of Taron, the fief of another 



«38 ARM 

Smbat II (977-89) and his brother Gagik I (990- 
1020) ruled with vigour and success but, in con- 
sequence of a ridiculous family policy, became 
involved in almost continual strife with the neigh- 
bouring Christian principalities; they were also in 
conflict with the neighbouring Muslim amirs who in 
turn took possession of Dwin, imposed tribute on 
the Armenians and were at times invited by the 
Armenians themselves to intervene in their quarrels. 
Thus the Bagratid of Kars called in a Musafirid 
amir against Smbat. In 987-8 Smbat had to recognise 
the authority of the Rawwadid prince of Adhar- 
baydjan, the successor of the Musafirids, and to 
pay him the tribute due in former years. 

In the conflict against the Rawwadid Mamlan 
■concerning the other emirates of southern Armenia 
Gagik allied himself with Davit' of Taik c who was 
the master of a great part of Iberia (Georgia) and, 
about 993, had seized Malazgerd from the Marwanid 
prince of Diyar Bakr. Mamlan was twice defeated, 
the second time decisively, in 998, at Tsumb near 
Ardjlsh, and to take refuge in that place. 

The emperor Basil II (976-1026) aimed, however, 
at gaining possession of all the Armenian principa- 
lities. Having succeeded in obtaining from Davit' of 
Taik', in 990, the promise that he would cede to him 
his territories after his death, the emperor annexed 
Taik' and also Malazgerd in 1001 after the death 
of Davit'. Following the death of Gagik I, troubles 
arose in the Bagratid kingdom owing to the com- 
petition for the throne between his sons, Johannes- 
Smbat and Ashot IV, the younger brother, to the 
intervention of the king of Georgia and the king of 
Vaspurakan in this matter, and to the first Saldjukid 
incursions. Basil II took advantage of these events 
and succeeded, partly through annexation and 
partly through mediation between the princes, in 
extending his authority over Armenia. Senek'erim, 
the last Ardzruni, abandoned Vaspurakan to By- 
zantium in 1021 through fear of a threatening 
Turkish assault and received in exchange the region 
of Sebasteia (Sivas), to which were added other 
territories in Cappadocia (Caesarea, Tzamandos). 
The Muslim amirates of Lake Van (Akhlat, Ardjlsh, 
Berkri) were annexed between 1023 and 1034. King 
Johannes of Anl, intimidated and seeing his lands 
encircled by Byzantium, proclaimed the emperor his 
heir, retaining temporary possession of Ani until his 
death. On the death of Ashot IV (1040), which was 
soon followed by that of Johannes (1041), with 
whom he shared possession of the Bagratid realm, 
the emperor Michael IV resolved at last to incor- 
porate Armenia wholly within his empire, but his 
army was defeated and the son of Ashot IV, Gagik II, 
then only 17 years old, was proclaimed king by the 
Armenian nobles (1042). As soon, however, as 
Constantine Monomachos had ascended the throne, 
he decided to annex Am and, in order to weaken 
Gagik, did not hesitate to launch against him the 
amir of Dwin, Abu '1-Aswar, of the dynasty of the 
Shaddadids of Gandja (see ShaddAd, banu). Taken 
between two fires, Gagik allowed himself to be 
drawn to Constantinople and was obliged to cede 
Ani (1045). He received in recompense lands in 
Cappadocia in the themes of Charsianon and Ly- 
kandos. Thereafter the greater part of Armenia was 
governed directly by Byzantium and the discontent 
provoked by the centralising policy of the empire and 
the favours granted to the Chalcedonian clergy ex- 
plain in part the success of the Saldjukids in Armenia. 

The Bagratid kingdom of Kars was only annexed 
by Byzantium in 1064 after the Saldjukid invasion; 



the last king Gagik-Abas surrendered it to the 
emperor Constantine X Ducas, who indemnified 
him with estates in Cappadocia. 

Thus, following their kings, an important part of 
the Armenian people settled down in the territories 
of the Byzantine empire. Armenians, however, had 
long been found outside Armenia. It is well known 
that they furnished Byzantium with soldiers and a 
number of generals and even emperors. It was 
Armenians who, under the famous Melias (Arm. 
Mleh), colonised the regions of Lykandos, Tzamandos, 
Larissa and Symposion, when, at the beginning of 
the roth century, Byzantium decided to reoccupy 
these territories of Cappadocia which had been 
devastated by the Arab raids, and who assured the 
defence of these lands and at the same time won 
renown in the Arab-Byzantine wars. There were 
Armenians, too, in the Muslim territories, serving 
the Caliphs, but converted to Islam, like the cele- 
brated amir 'All al-Armani who died in 863, not long 
after he had been named governor of Armenia and 
Adharbaydjan. Armenians were also to be found in 
Egypt in the army of the Tulunids. It is above all 
in Byzantine territory, however, that the immi- 
gration was important and contributed, in the 
second part of the 10th century to the repopulation 
of the lands in Cilicia and northern Syria recon- 
quered by Byzantium and evacuated by the Muslim 
inhabitants. The geographer MukaddasI (BGA iii, 
189) states that in his time the Amanus was peopled 
with Armenians. Asoghik tells us that under the 
pontificate of Khacik I (972-92) there were Armenian 
bishops at Antioch and Tarsus. During the course 
of the nth century the rdle of the Armenians in 
these regions (Cappadocia, Commagene, northern 
Syria and even Mesopotamia, e.g., at Edessa) was 
considerable; numerdus Armenian officers acted as 
governors of towns for Byzantium and, profiting 
from the troubles caused by the first Saldjukid 
invasions, founded Armenian principalities (see 
Arman). During the same period Armenians were to 
be found with the Fatimids of Egypt. Following the 
Armenian Badr al-Djamali [q.v.] who, after being a 
slave, had become commander of the Egyptian 
troops in Syria and then rose to the rank of wazir at 
Cairo (1073/94), there entered into Egypt, first, the 
Armenians with whom he had already surrounded 
himself, and later all those whom he summoned 
there and who took service in the army and even 
in the administration. These Armenians furnished 
to the Fatimid Caliphate a number of wazirs, of 
whom one, Bahram [q.v.] remained a Christian. The 
introduction into Egypt of an important Armenian 
population led to the creation of numerous Armenian 
monasteries and churches and also of an Armenian 
catholicosate. The Armenians were regarded with 
favour by some of the Fatimid Caliphs. See on this 
subject M. Canard, Un vizir chritien d I'ipoque 
fatimite, in AIEO, Algiers, xii (1954) and Notes sur 
lies Arminiens en Egypte a I'ipoque fatimite. ibid., 
xiii (1955)- Cf. J. Laurent, Byzance et les Turcs Seld- 
joucides dans I'Asie Occidentale jusqu'en 1081, in 
Annates de I'Est, 28th year, fasc. 2, Paris, 1914 (1919). 
(M. Canard). 



While these last events were taking place, the 
Turkomans, before long led by the Saldjukid dynasty, 
were conquering Muslim Iran as for as the Armeno- 
Byzantine borders. Although this thrust was 
probably not, as is sometimes alleged, the cause of 



the first losses of Armenian territory to Byzantium 
(JA., 1954, 275-9 and 1956, 129-34) it never- 
theless constituted a tragic threat to the Armenians 
in the middle of the 5th/nth century. After a 
period of Turkoman ravages, the battle of Manaz- 
gird (1071) [see malazgerd] marked the end of 
Byzantine supremacy, and the Turkomans settled 
in Armenia, Cappadocia and throughout most of 
Asia Minor. The Armenian territories on the borders 
of Adharbaydjan were incorporated in the Saldjukid 
empire, while those in the centre and west took shape 
as different principalities: that of Akhlat [q.v.], 
founded by a Saldjukid officer and vassal, Sukman 
al-Kutbi, who assumed the ambitious title of Shdh-i 
Arman; that of Ani [q.v.], assigned by the Saldjukids 
to a branch of the former Kurdish dynasty of Arran, 
the Shaddadids (V. Minorsky, Studies in Caucasian 
History, 1953, 79-106); and finally the autonomous 
Turkoman states of the Saltukids at Erzerum and 
the Mangudjakids at Erzindjan, while the Danish- 
mandids of Cappadocia and the Saldjukids of 
Anatolia and the Taurus contended for possession of 
Malatya, and Diyar Bakr was eventually absorbed 
by the Artukids. The position changed at the 
beginning of the 7th/i3th century, when the greater 
part of Diyar Bakr and the principality of Akhlat 
were annexed by the Ayyubids of Egypt and Syria; 
later, following the temporary invasion of Armenia 
and Asia Minor by the Kh w 4rizmians, the principa- 
lities of Erzindjan and Erzerum, together with that 
of Akhlat. were incorporated, as the Danishmandid 
territories had been earlier, in the united and powerful 
Saldjukid state of Asia Minor. In the regions of 
Arran and Ani however, the Armenians again became, 
if not independent, at least subjects of a Christian 
state (but of a different Church), as a result of 
Georgian expansion at the expense of the Atabeks of 
Adharbaydjan and the Shaddadids. 

Although some Armenians had made agreements 
with the invaders, and most in any case had tried to 
come to terms with them, the devastation caused in 
the early stages had accentuated and increased the 
emigration which had been set in motion by 
Byaantine policy, and which now took the direction 
of the Taurus Mountains and the Cilician plain. For 
a time, after Manazgird, all the territories from the 
Cilician Taurus to Malatya, including Edessa and 
Antioch, were reunited under the control of a former 
Armeno-Byzantine general, Philaretes, whose descen- 
dants still maintained their position in the Taurus 
at Edessa and Malatya, under Turkish suzerainty, at 
the time of the arrival of the Crusaders. The 
Armenian populations of the Syro-Euphrates borders 
were then incorporated in the free states of Antioch 
and Edessa, but, in Cilicia, a national dynasty, that 
of the Rupenians, gradually achieved freedom; its 
rise, sanctioned in 1198 by the recognition of the 
royal title of Leo the Great, attracted so many 
Armenians that the area could with justice be 
referred to as a "Little Armenia". We are not 
required here to follow its history, but only to draw 
attention to the fact that the struggle against his 
neighbours and hostile factions impelled Prince 
Mleh temporarily (from 1170 to 1174) to become a 
Muslim in order to obtain the protection of Nur 
al-Din [q.v.], and that for a longer period, in the 
7th/i3th century, under the new Hethumian dynasty, 
the kingdom had to wage hard battles against the 
Saldjukids of Asia Minor, to whom they were obliged 
at intervals to pay a vague allegiance (cf. a treatise 
by P. Bedoukian in course of publication for the 
Amer. Numismatic Society). 



IIYA 639. 

Nevertheless, once the initial devastation was 
over, and stable states had been organised, the lot 
of the Armenians under Muslim domination was no 
worse than it had been under earlier Muslim regimes. 
Quite apart from Malikshah, whose generosity the 
Armenian historians are unanimous in praising, it 
is difficult to see major difficulties occurring in the 
principalities of Asia Minor, where there remained an 
ecclesiastical organisation, monasteries, some cultural 
activity (cf. for example S. Der Nersessian, Armenia 
and the Byzantine Empire, Harvard 1947, 133), 
and large Armenian towns, such as Erzindjan and 
Erzerum. The only dramatic events which occurred 
were due to special causes. There was first of all, 
about 1 180, the massacre of the Armenians of 
Djabal Sassun, as a result of the disorders among 
the almost autonomous Turkomans and Kurds of 
that region, and especially, the massacre of part of 
the Christian population of Edessa, at the time of the 
recapture of the city from the Franks by Zangi in 
1 144 and Nur al-Din in 1146. 

Fundamentally, in fact, it was not for religious but 
political reasons that the Armenians at different 
times suffered at the hands of their Muslim masters. 
Despite some friction, the Armenians of the west 
generally acted as "accomplices" of the Franks. 
This was the reason, moreover, for the frequent 
disputes in the Armenian Church, especially between 
the Armenians of the Muslim States of Great 
Armenia, who were primarily concerned not to incur 
the ill-will of their masters, and those of Cilicia, who 
were drawn more towards the Latin world; and it 
was similarly the attitude of the Armenians to the 
Mongol invasion which determined the reactions of 
the Muslim powers towards them. 

The establishment of the Mongol empire heralded 
profound changes in the conditions of life in the 
different religious communities of the Near East. In 
the Muslim states conquered by them, the Mongols 
usually relied on the support of the religious mino- 
rities, Christians in particular. Favourably impressed 
by the news received from his eastern co-religionists, 
Hethum I acted as the precursor of the Mongols on 
the shores of the Mediterranean, against the Muslims, 
of Syria and Asia Minor. But this action of the Ar- 
menians in itself provoked the wrath of the Muslims, 
with the result that, when the Mamluks of Egypt took 
the offensive against the Mongols, the Cilician 
kingdom was one of their principal targets. The 
break-up of the Mongol empire in the 8th/i4th 
century left the Armenians defenceless, and the 
capital of the Cilician kingdom, Sis, succumbed in 
1375- The seat of the Katholikos was moved back to 
Etchmiadzin, near the Araxes, in the 9th/i5th 
century. 

In Great Armenia, however, the situation was not 
favourable for long. About 1300, the Mongols 
became Muslims, and, although their toleration was 
not affected, all the same there was no longer any 
question of special protection. Moreover, Mongol rule 
had increased in Armenia the size of the nomad 
element, primarily Turkoman, which inflicted great 
injury on the peasants, for the most part Armenians. 
Later Great Armenia, in common with all its neigh- 
bours, experienced the savage assault of Tlmur, and 
the establishment in the 9th/i5th century of a stable 
and well-organised principality under the Turkoman 
dynasty of the Ak-Koyunlu [q.v.] was not sufficient 
to restore the former strength of the Armenian 
community; again many Armenians emigrated, this 
time mainly to the regions north of the Black Sea. 
The wars between the Ottomans and the Safawids 



640 ARM 

were still to be fought on Armenian soil, and part of 
the Armenians of Adharbaydjan were later deported 
as a military security measure to Isfahan and 
elsewhere. Semi-autonomous seigniories survived, 
with varying fortunes, in the mountains of Karabagh, 
to the north of Adharbaydjan, but came to an end 
in the 18th century. 

Bibliography: (in addition to the general 
works): the general sources, in all languages, for 
the history of the Near East from the nth to the 
15th century will not be enumerated here; a study 
of these will be found, with regard to the period 
of the Crusades, in Syrie du Nord mentioned below, 
1-100; special attention will be drawn here to the 
not inconsiderable number of 12th and 13th 
century Armenian historians, especially Matthew 
of Edessa and the anonymous "Royal Historian" 
used in the works of Alishan mentioned below (an 
edition of the text has been prepared by Skinner), 
and to the historians of Great Armenia at the time 
of the Mongol conquest; in connexion with the 
latter, the History of the Nations of the Archers, for 
long attributed to Malachi the Monk, has been 
restored by its editor-translators R. P. Blake and 
R. N. Frye {Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 
xii, 1949) to its real author Gregory of Akanc). 
For the last two centuries of the Middle Ages, only 
one noteworthy Armenian chronicle exists, that of 
Thomas of Medzoph, part of which has been made 
accessible in French by F. Neve, Expose" des 
guerres de Tamerlan etc., Brussels i860; for the 
Safawid period, Arakel of Tabriz, trans, by M. F. 
Brosset, Collection d'Auteurs armeniens, i. 

Modern works: J. Laurent, Byzance et Us Turcs 
Seldjoucides, 1920; CI. Cahen, La premiere pini- 
tration turque en Anatolie, Byzantion 1948; idem, 
La Syrie du Nord d I'ipoque des Croisades, 1940; 
the histories of the Crusades of de Grousset, 
Runciman, and the syndicated History of the 
Crusades of Philadelphia; L. Alishan, Sissouan, 
French trans., Venice 1899; the Introduction by 
Dulaurier to Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, 
Historiens armeniens i. Among other special 
studies of recent date, O. Turan, Les Seldjoucides 
et leurs sujets non-musulmans, in Studia Islamica, 
i, 1953. (Cl. Cahen) 

11(c) Ottoman Armenia. 

The Ottomans conquered western Armenia in the 
last decade of the 14th century, under Bayezld I, 
and eastern Armenia in the following two centuries 
under Mehemmed II and Sellm I. They eventually 
became masters of the whole of Armenia, Great and 
Little (separated grosso mode by the upper reaches 
of the Euphrates), except the Khanate of Erivan 
(or rather Erevan), in Persian and Turkish Revan, 
a region containing the patriarchal seat of Ecmiadzin 
(in Turkish 04 Kilise) and relics of the ancient 
capitals of the Kings of Armenia. This region, 
situated in Transcaucasia on the middle Araxes, for 
long disputed by Turks and Persians, was ceded by 
the treaty of Turkmen-Cay (1 February 1828) to the 
Russians, who have since created from it the Soviet 
Federal Republic of Armenia. In the south of this 
region is situated Mt. Ararat (in Turkish Aghrl Dagh, 
in Armenian Masis), on which western expeditions 
periodically seek and claim to discover the wreckage 
of Noah's Ark. It is the point where the Turkish, 
Persian and Russian frontiers meet. 

The province of Kars on the other hand, ceded to 
the Russians in 1878, was recovered by Turkey in 



Ottoman administrative terminology — especially 
with respect to the programmes of reforms prom- 
ised to the European Powers — adopted the term 
wildydt-i situ ' "the six provinces (scil., populated 
by Armenians)": viz., Van, Bitlis (alternating with 
Mush), Erzerum, Harput, Siyas and Diyarbekir. No 
account was taken by this convention of the sandjak 
of Marash, forming part of the former wilayet of 
Aleppo, or of the former wilayet of Adana (Cilicia 
or Little Armenia in the strict sense of the term). 

Turkish domination did not result in the assimilat- 
ion of the Armenians, who were preserved by the 
difference of religion. Many Armenians, especially 
among the men and the Catholics, adopted Turkish 
as their second, or even as their first language. 

After the capture of Constantinople an important 
change occurred in the life of the Armenian com- 
munity. Up to 1453 it had at its head three patriarchs 
or katoghikos (katholikos) : (1) the patriarch of 
Ecmiadzin, restored to this monastery since 1441; 
(2) the patriarch of Sis (now Kozan) in Cilicia, who 
had resided in this town since 1292 and did not 
recognise (1) ; (3) the patriarch of Aghtamar, (a small 
island in the Lake Van), since 1113. The Armenian 
bishop of Jerusalem also bore the title and ornaments 
of a patriarch. 

After the conquest of Byzantium, Mehemmed II, 
true to his political views, summoned to Istanbul the 
Armenian bishop of Brusa, Joachim, and made him 
a patriarch with the same prerogatives the patriarch 
of the Greek Orthodox Church. In this way the 
Armenian "nation" (Turkish millet) was formed. A 
council of the clergy and a council of the laity 
assisted the patriarch who was elected from the 
"prelates" superior to the ordinary bishops and 
called marhhassa, properly "saint priest" (from the 
Syriac mdrkassa; the etymology through the Turko- 
Arabic murakhkhasa must be rejected). The residence 
of the patriarch of Constantinople is in the Kum 
Kapu quarter. 

From then on on a better footing, the Armenians 
succeeded in occupying an important position in 
Turkey, notably as bankers (sarrdf, properly "money- 
changers"). Ubicini (Lettres sur la Turquie, 1854, ii, 
311-14) gives interesting details about the position 
of genuine strength which they had achieved in 
their dealings with the provincial pashas and the 
Ottoman government in general. They were also 
merchants (often cloth merchants) and active caravp 
leaders who maintained connexions between Istanbul, 
Moldavia, Poland (Lemberg, Lwow), Nuremburg, 
Bruges and Antwerp. As artisans they were archi- 
tects, house-painters, manufacturers of silk stuffs 
and gunpowder, and printers (Armenian printing- 
press at Istanbul in 1679). Like the Jews they were 
exempt from military service until the revolution of 
the Young Turks. 

The most important events in the history of 
Ottoman Armenia are: 

1) The religious schism, which resulted in the 
formation of a (Uniate) Catholic Community and 
internal persecution (Protestant propaganda played 
a less important part); 

2) The revolutionary activity; 

3) The repression and massacres. 

Roman propaganda had been sporadically effective 
in Armenia since the 12th century. It was resumed by 
the oecumenical council of Florence (1438-45) and, in 
1587, by the famous Pope Sixtus Quintus, among 
the Armenians of Syria, but found its greatest driving 
force in Mechitar (bom at Sivas in 1675, died Venice 
1749). Converted to Catholicism by the Jesuits, he 



THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ISLAM 




succeeded in founding a remarkable order which bore 
his name. The Republic of Venice ceded in 1717 to the 
Mechitarists the small island of Saint-Lazare, near 
Lido, where their monastery was installed in an old 
leper hospital. After the death of Mechitar a schism 
occurred, and a certain number of clergy retired to 
Trieste and then to Vienna (1810). There was also 
a subsidiary branch of the order at Padua which, 
transferred to Paris, continued to exist there for 
twenty years. The Mechitarists possessed rich 
libraries (numerous oriental MSS.), and printing- 
presses; from these they published historical and 
philological works which gave a place to Turkish as 
well as Armenian studies. 

Even during the lifetime of Mechitar the over- 
zealousness of Catholic propaganda, which was 
gaining ground in the richest and most enlightened 
section of the Armenian community, provoked a 
lively reaction among the patriarchs of the Gregorian 
persuasion. The latter were supported by the Ottoman 
government, which regarded with disfavour these 
"Frankish plots". 

There were martyrs among the Armenian Catholics 
who refused to abjure their faith, as in the case of 
Der Gomidas or Don Cosme and two of his followers 
(1707). He was the grandfather of Cosme Comidas of 
Carbognano, an interpreter at the Spanish embassy 
and author of a Turkish grammar in Italian (Rome, 
1794)- The Catholics suffered further presecutions in 
1759, and even during the reign of the reforming 
Sultan Mahmud II, in 1815 and 1828. 

They found allies, on the other hand, in the French 
ambassadors and the Jesuits. Thus the imprudent 
M. de Ferriol secured from the Porte the banishment 
of the patriarch Avedis, who was hostile to the 
Catholics, after which the latter was abducted and 
incarcerated in the Bastille. He died in 171 1 at Paris 
in the house of Francois Petis de la Croix. The 
Jesuits at the same period secured the closure of the 
Armenian printing-press. 

In 1830 General Guilleminot, who also was a 
French ambassador, secured for the Catholics a 
separate ecclesiastical organisation, and in 1866 
Mgr. Hassun, already patriarchal vicar of Constan- 
tinople, assumed the title of Catholic-Armenian 
Patriarch of Cilicia for all the Ottoman empire. 

To what cause are the Armenian revolts to be 
attributed? Certainly not to utilitarian considerat- 
ions. "The Armenians", wrote the impartial Ubicini 
(op. cit. ii, 347), "are of all the nations subject to the 
Porte, the one which has most interests in common 
with the Turks and is the most directly interested in 
preserving them". See also Victor Berard, La 
Politique du Sultan (Abdulhamid II), 1897, 149- In 
the official texts, and when compared with the 
Greeks and Macedonians, the Armenians were 
termed millet-i sddika, "the loyal nation". 

The causes of Armenian discontent were as follows: 

1) The vexatious and troublesome behaviour of, 
and the acts of brigandage committed by, the 
Kurdish and Circassian immigrants. 

2) The negligence, exactions and extortions of 
Ottoman officials. 

3) Russian incitement, especially from 1912 
onwards. 

4) A keen love of independence in a generally 
courageous people which prides itself on being one 
of the most ancient known, and which still looks 
back nostalgically to the short periods during which 
it succeeded in maintaining its autonomy. Certain 
districts even succeeded in remaining virtually in- 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



flYA 641 

independent; for example the unconquerable moun- 
taineers of Zeytun (now Suleymanll, in the present 
wildyet of Maras), Hacin (now Saimbeyli, in the 
present wildyet of Seyhan) and Sasun (Kabilcoz, in 
the present wildyet of Siirt). 

5) The activities of the revolutionary committees, 
sometimes particularly audacious, as in the case of 
the armed attack in broad daylight by 24 Armenians, 
and the siege of the Ottoman Bank at Galata 
(26 August 1896). The extremist or terrorist revo- 
lutionaries were called Tashnaksutyun. There existed 
a more moderate committee, the Hincak, formed in 
1867 at Paris by Avedis Nazarbek, an Armenian 
from the Caucasus. 

All these factors served as reason or excuse for a 
violent campaign of repression which took the form 
of mass deportations or massacres. With the con- 
nivance or at the instance of the authorities there 
occurred, among a people who were by nature 
kindly and even chivalrous, a long and contagious 
outburst of religious fanaticism and racial hatred. 
The calvary of the Armenians in Turkey began with 
the Erzerum affair (25 February 1890), went through 
numerous crises, notably in 1895-6 and in 1909 
(Adana), and reached its culmination during the 
First World War, in 1915, during the systematic 
suppression of the Armenians organised by the 
government of the Young Turks. 

Armeno-Turkish war of 1020. — After the collapse 
in 191 7 of the Bolshevised Russian front, which in 
Turkey passed to the west of Trebizond and Erzincan, 
it was in the main the Armenian corps formed by the 
government of Transcaucasia which had to contain 
the Turkish counter-thrust. It was defeated and 
driven from Turkish territory (Turkey concluded the 
treaty of Batum with the Armenian Republic on 4 
June 1918). In 1920 Mustafa Kemal Pasha, in order 
to put an end to a state of undeclared war, appointed 
General Kazim Karabekir Pasha, commanding the 
15th army corps, to the command of the north-east 
front. The troops of the "United Armenian Repub- 
lic" of Tashnakist allegiance, were again defeated, 
and the treaty of Alexandropolis (in Turkish Giimru, 
now Leninakan 1 of 2 December 1920 confirmed the 
gains won by the Turks, the most important of which 
was the recovery of Kars. 

Bibliography: As far as is known, no works 
specially devoted to Turkish Armenia exist in any 
western language (the works in Armenian are not 
accessible to me). Such information as exists, often 
bearing the imprint of a strongly partisan bias, is 
to be gleaned here and there in the general works 
on Turkey. The following should be mentioned: 
Amedee Jaubert, Voy. en Arm. et en Perse, 1821; 
Comte de Cholet, Arm., Kurdistan et Mesopotamie, 
1892; Andre Mandelstamm, La Soc. des Nations et 
les Puissances devant le probltme armtn., i;p#3> 
Aghasi, Zettoun depuis Us orig. jusqu'a I'ilitf- 
rection de 1895, translation by Archag TchobinJaSi, 
preface by Victor Berard, 1897. — There is a 
copious bibliography on the massacres. The 
following only will be mentioned: Le traitement 
des Armin. dans I'Emp. Ott. (1915-1916), extracts 
from the "Blue Book" with a preface by Vis- 
count Bryce, 1916; Rene Pinon, La suppression 
des Armin., 1916, Les massacres d'Arminie; 
Umoignaf.es des victimes, preface by G. Clemenceau, 
1896; Kh<Hirdt-i Sadr-i esbak Kdmil pasha, Istanbul 
1329/1911, 2nd ed, 184 ff.; Sa'id pashanln 
Kdmil pasha Khatirdtina Qiewdblari, Istanbul 
1327/1909, 78 ff. (J. Deny) 



Division. 

Since the size of Armenia, in its territorial de- 
limitation, has varied much in the course of the 
centuries, the regions into which the lands designated 
under this name were divided have not always been 
the same. In ancient times the Armenians (see the 
Geogr. of the Pseudo-Moses Xorenaci, 606) separated 
the land into two unequal sections: Mez-Haik 
(Armenia major) and Pokr-Haik (Armenia minor). 
Great Armenia, i.e., Armenia proper, extended from 
the Euphrates in the west to the neighbourhood of 
the Kur in the east and was divided into 15 provinces; 
Little Armenia ran from the Euphrates to the 
sources of the Halys. The Arabs also were acquainted 
with this twofold division (see, e.g., Yakut, i, 220, 13). 
Yet, in contradistinction to the Armenians, the 
Romans and the Byzantines, they extended the 
name Armlniya to the whole of the land situated 
between the Kur and the Caspian, i.e., to Pjurzan 
(Georgia, Iberia), Arran (Albania) and the mount- 
ainous regions of the Caucasus as far as the pass of 
Darband (Bab al-Abwab), the reason being that the 
history of this country, especially in the struggle 
against the Muslims, reveals itself as closely linked 
with that of Armenia. By Armlniya al-Kubra, 
"Great Armenia", the Arabs (see Yakut, ibid.) 
understood particularly the districts which have 
Khilat (Akhlat, [q.v.]) as their centre, whereas they 
applied the name Armlniya al-Sughra, "Little 
Armenia", to the region of Tiflis (i.e., to Georgia). 
Ibn Ilawkal (ed. De Goeje, 295) was acquainted 
with yet another division of Armenia proper (ex- 
cluding Albania and Iberia) into Inner (Armlniya 
dakhila) and Outer (Armlniya kharidja); to the 
former belonged the districts of Dabil (Dwln), 
Nashawa (Nakhiawan) and Kalikala, later Arzan 
al-Rum (Karin) and to the latter the region of Lake 
Van (Berkri, Akhlat, Ardjlsh, Wastan, etc.). 

Apart from this division there existed also another 
of ancient date which was adopted by the Byzantines 
(partition of Justinian in 536) and which, with the 
changes introduced by Maurice (591), remained in 
force until the Arab invasion. This system (Armenia 
prima, secunda, tertia, quarta) was also taken over 
by the Arabs ; but, in the classification of the various 
districts among these four groups, the Arabs deviate 
so markedly from their predecessors that the ex- 
planation of this divergence can only be found by 
supposing a new distribution of districts to have 
occurred after the conquest. The data given by the 
Arab historians and geographers differ, moreover, 
greatly among themselves. Here, in essentials, is a 
table of the Arab division: (1) Armenia I: Arran 
(Albania) with the capital Bardha'a and the land 
between the Kur and the Caspian (Shirwan); (2) 
Armenia II: Djurzan (Georgia); (3) Armenia III: 
comprising central Armenia proper with the districts 
of Dabll (Dwin), Basfurradjan (Vaspurakan), 
Baghravand, and Nashawa (Nakhiawan); (4) 
Armenia IV: the south-western region with Shimshat 
(Arsamosata), Kalikala, Akhlat and Ardjish. 

Furthermore, when mention is made in the Arab 
authors (al-Sharishl, ii, 156 ff., and Abu '1-Fida', 
Takwim, 187 = al-Ya'kubl, Bulddn, 364, 5, 12) of 
a threefold partition of Armenia reproducing very 
exactly the division that existed before Justinian, it 
transpires, from the enumeration of the districts 
included therein, that this division is obtained only 
by the complete exclusion of Armenia II. 



See, on the pre-Islamic divisions of Armenia, 
H. Gelzer, Die Genesis der byzantinischen Themen- 
verfassung, Leipzig 1889, 66 and, by the same 
scholar, the edition of George of Cyprus (Lipsiae 
1890), xlvi ff. (ed. E. Honigmann, Brussels 1939, 
with the Synecdemos of Hierocles, 49-70); and, for 
the Arab period, Ghazarian in the Zeitschr. ftit 
arm. Philol., ii, 207-8, Thopdschian, I.e., ii, 55 and 
in the Mitteil. dts Semin. fur orient. Sprachen, 1905, 
ii, 137, J. Laurent, UArminie entre Byzance et 
V Islam, 299 ff., and R. Grousset, Histoire de 
I'Arminie, 239. 



In regard to the internal situation in Armenia 
during the Arab period (see especially Ghazarian, 
loc. cit. ii, 193-206; Thopdschian, loc. cit., ii, 123-7; 
Laurent, op. cit., passim) this land did not always 
constitute a separate province, but was frequently 
united with Adharbaydjan or with the Djazlra under 
a single government. The governor fdmil or wait), 
usually appointed by the Caliph himself, resided to 
the south of Erivan, near the Araxes, at Dwln, 
which had already been, before the Muslim conquest, 
the seat of a Persian marzban. The principal task 
of the governor consisted in protecting the country 
against its external and internal enemies; he had at 
his disposal for this purpose an army which was 
garrisoned, not in Armenia itself, but in Adhar- 
baydjan (Maragha and Ardabil were the general 
headquarters). The governor had above all to see 
to the punctual payment of taxes. For the rest, the 
Arabs did not concern themselves with the internal 
administration; this was left to a number of local 
lords (Arm. ishkhdn, and nakharar, Greek ajchdn, 
At., batrik, patrikios) who, after the Arab invasion, 
retained all their possessions and enjoyed within 
their domains a certain independence. Each of these 
lords, from 'Abbasid times onward, was also obliged, 
in case of war, to furnish a contingent of troops 
without receiving any indemnity. 

Armenia was, among the provinces of the empire 
of the Caliphs, a land taxed only moderately. In 
place of the various kinds of taxes (diizya, kharddj,, 
etc.: capitation tax, land tax, etc.) the system of 
mukdfa'a was applied from the beginning of the 
9th century, i.e., the Armenian princes had to pay 
a fixed sum. The list of contributions given by Ibn 
Khaldun, which relates to the period of greatest 
prosperity for the Caliphate, notes for Armenia 
(taken in the broad sense of the Arabs) the sum of 
13 million dirhems, i.e., more than 15V1 million gold 
francs, as the revenue of the years 158-70/775-86; in 
addition to this there were also the revenues in k^ind 
(carpets, mules, etc.). Kudama gives as the average 
figure for taxes during the years 204-37/819-52 no 
more than 9 million dirhems only. The treaties, in 
respect to taxation, were scrupulously observed by 
the Umayyads and the c Abbasids and were violated 
only by Yusuf b. Abi '1-Sadj. See, in regard to financial 
matters, A. von Kremer, Kulturgesch. des Orients, i, 
343, 358, 368, 377; Ghazarian, op. cit., 203 «.; 
Thopdschian, op. cit. (1904), ii, 132 ff. The Arab 
monetary system was also introduced into Armenia; 
under the Umayyads, coins were already being 
struck there (see Thopdschian, ii, 127 ff.). 

According to Yakut (i, 222, 12) there were in 
Armenia not less than 18,000 localities great and 
small, of which 1,000 were situated on the Araxes 
alone (according to Ibn al-Faklh). In Arab mediaeval 
times the most important towns of Armenia proper 
were: Dabil (Dwln) which, as the residence of the 



Muslim government, filled the rdle of a capital 
throughout the period of the Caliphs — while it had 
a large population at this time, it became, in the 
modern period, nothing more than an insignificant 
village; in addition, Kallkala, later called Arzan al- 
Rum (Erzerum), Arzindjan (Erzindjan), Malazdjird 
(Manazkert, Mantzikert), Badlls (Bitlls), Akhlat 
(Khitat), Ardjish, Nashawa (arm. Nakhcawan), AnI 
and Kars (see the separate articles). 

The native Armenians formed, in the time of the 
Caliphs, the main part of the population; but there 
were strong Arab colonies at DabU, Kallkala, and 
likewise at Bardha'a in Arran and Tiflis in Djurzan, 
which were the chief bases of Arab power. Outside 
these great towns there existed also more extensive 
settlements of Arab tribes, notably to the south- 
west in the region of Alznik (Arzan in the Arzanene) ; 
the old district of Badjunays (Arm. Apahunik) with 
its capital Malazdjird was controlled by a branch of 
the famous tribe, the Kays, who also held a number 
of places on the northern shore of Lake Van. The 
growth of the Bagratid dominion was "like a thorn 
in the flesh" to these Muslim colonies, since it 
hindered the consolidation and extension of their 
own power (see especially, on these colonies, 
Thopdschian, op. cit., 1904, ii, 115 ff.; Markwart, 
Siidarmenien, 501 ff. ; and, on their situation in the 
10th century, M. Canard, Hist, it la dynastic des 
Hamddnides, 471-87). 

After the Russo-Persian and Russo-Turkish wars 
of the 19th century, Turkey, Russia and Persia 
shared possession of the Armenian territory and, 
until the war of 1914-18, there existed a Persian, 
a Russian and a Turkish Armenia. 

(1) Persian Armenia: the smallest of the three 
sections, with an area of about 15,000 sq. km.; it 
embraces only a few districts and forms, as it were, 
an appendix to Russian Armenia; politically, it is 
joined to the province of Adharbaydjan. To the 
west it touches the Turkish wildyet of Van, while 
to the north, facing Russia, the Araxes serves as the 
frontier over a distance of about 175 km. from the 
eastern foot of Ararat as far as Urdabadh (Ordubadh). 
The chief town is Khoy. In addition, Maku, Cors and 
Marand should be mentioned. In general Persian 
Armenia corresponds to the eastern part of the old 
Armenian province of Vaspurakan (Ar. Basfurradjan). 
There exists, moreover, an Armenian population at 
Isfahan, resulting from the deportation of the 
inhabitants of Djulfa [q.v.] by Shah c Abbas I in 1605. 

(z) Russian Armenia: before the war of 1914-18 
it formed the southern and south-western part of 
the province of Transcaucasia and covered an area 
of about 103,000 sq.km. It embraced the regions 
bordering on Persia and Turkey and, in particular, 
the whole of the governments of Erivan (27,777 sq. 
km.), Kars (18,749 sq.km.) and Batum (6,976 sq.km.). 
The governments of Elizavetpol and Tiflis were 
Armenian only in their southern and western parts, 
and that of Kutals only on the right bank of the 
river Rion. The most notable towns of Russian 
Armenia were: Batum, important strategically and 
commercially, and capital of the government of the 
same name; in the government of Tiflis, the two 
strongholds of Akhalcikh [q.v.] and Akhalkhalaki; in 
the government of Kars, the very strong fortress of 
the same name, important also as a commercial 
centre, and the old town of Ardahan set high on its 
hill, a citadel of the first order; in the government 
of Erivan, which once belonged in great part to 
Persia, Erivan itself, and 18 km. to the west the 
famous monastery of Ecmiadzin, the religious 



«YA 643 

centre of the Armenians, Nakhcawan (Nashawa, 
[q.v.]) which, like Erivan, has played a pre-eminent 
role in Armenian history, and Alexandropol (the 
ancient Gumri), an important frontier fortress until 
1878 and thereafter a town given over to the silk 
industry; in the government of Elizavetpol, Eli- 
zavetpol (the ancient Gandja, [q.v.]), Shusha situated 
in the region of Kara-Bagh and formerly the capital 
of a separate khanate, and the frontier town of 
Ordubadh (Urdabadh) on the Araxes. 

(3) Turkish Armenia: the greater part of the 
Armenian territory, far superior in size to the Russian 
and Persian sections taken together, had been for 
500 years in the hands of the Turks and included the 
wildyets of Bitlis, Erzerum, Ma'muret al- c AzIz (now 
Elazig, i.e., Kharput), Van and, although only in 
part, Diyarbekir, with a total area of about 186,500 
sq.km. The most important towns were SIvas, 
Erzerum, Van, Erzindjan, Bitlls, Kharput. Mush and 
Bayazid [qq.v.]. 

Save in Persian Armenia, the war of 1914 brought 
about important changes in this situation. In 1917, 
after the retreat of the Russian troops from the 
Caucasian front, the regime which was then created 
in Armenia and itself formed part of the provisional 
government of Transcaucasia (Georgia, Armenia and 
Azerbaijan), undertook the task of defending the 
front against the Turks, but could not prevent the 
latter from regaining Erzindjan and Erzerum 
(February-March 1918), and then Kars (25 April) 
after the peace of Brest-Litovsk which granted to 
the Turks possession of Turkish Armenia, together 
with Kars and Ardahan, previously in Russian 
hands since 1878. After the dissolution of the Trans- 
caucasian government and the formation of an 
independent Armenian republic (28 May 1918), the 
republic itself was reduced, by the treaty of Batum 
(4 June 1918) to Erivan and the region of Lake 
Sevan, the Turks and the Azerbaidjanis sharing 
between themselves the remainder of Russian 
Armenia. There now ensued the collapse of the 
Turks on other fronts and the armistice of Mudros 
(30 October 1918). At the beginning of 1919 Armenian 
forces reoccupied Alexandropol (Leninakan) and 
Kars and came into conflict with Georgia over the 
region of Akhalkhalaki and with Azerbaidjan over 
the Kara-Bagh. The Armenian Republic, recognised 
de facto in January 1920 by the Allies, received 
dc jure recognition by the treaty of Sevres (10 August 
1920). Nevertheless, the arbitration of President 
Wilson, which gave to this republic the regions of 
Trebizond, Erzindjan, Mush, Bitlis and Van, 
remained a dead letter, the Turkish government of 
Mustafa Kemal having resumed the war, while the 
Soviet government, on its part, reconquered the 
Caucasus. After the Turks had entered Kars and 
then Alexandropol, the Armenian Republic was 
compelled, on 2 December 1920, to accept the 
Turkish peace conditions. Turkey retained Kars and 
Ardahan, annexed the region of Igdir to the south- 
west of Erivan and demanded that the district of 
Nakhcawan (Nakhitchevan) be transformed into an 
autonomous Tatar state. On the same day, the 
Armenian Republic, within which there had been 
formed, some time earlier, a pro-Soviet revolutionary 
committee, changed itself into the Soviet Socialist 
Republic of Armenia. The Russo-Turkish treaties of 
1921 ratified the cession of Kars and Ardahan, but 
Turkey abandoned Batum to Georgia. 

The Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia embraces 
the territories of Erivan and Lake Sevan, but the 
Kara-Bagh and Nakhitchevan are attached to the 



Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan under the 
designation of autonomous Region of Nagomy 
Karabakh (mountainous Kara-Bagh) and auto- 
nomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Nakhitchevan, 
while the districts, formerly included in Russian 
Armenia, of Akhalkhalaki, Akhalcikh (Akhaltzike) 
and Batum, this latter in the form of the autonomous 
Soviet Socialist Republic of Adjarie, are part of the 
Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia. The principal 
towns in the Republic of Armenia are Erivan, 
Leninakan (formerly Alexandropol), Kirovakan (the 
old Elizavetpol) and Alaverdy. 

The former Turkish Armenia, which can no longer 
bear this name, since it is now empty of 
as, a result of the deportations ; 
1915-18, has been increased by the addition of Kars, 
Ardahan and Igdir. 

Population. 

Owing to the invasion of Turkish and Turcoman 
tribes on the one hand and, on the other, to the 
advance of the Kurds (in the south) the composition 
of the population had undergone, ever since the 
second half of the mediaeval period, a trans- 
formation so profound that the Armenians properly 
so called constituted, over the whole extent of 
their ancient homeland, no more than a quarter of 
the total inhabitants. According to the statistics of 
L. Selenoy and N. Seidlitz (Petermanri s Georg. Mitt., 
1896, i^f.), out of the 3,470,000 people to be found 
in the provinces of Transcaucasia enumerated above 
897,000 (27%) were Armenians; in the purely 
Armenian districts, out of 2,000,000 inhabitants, the 
Armenians numbered 760,000 (more than a third). 
The government of Erivan, however, had a popu- 
lation of which 56% was Armenian. In the whole 
of Transcaucasia the towns were more strongly 
peopled by Armenians than the countryside (notably 
Tiflls: 48%); but, in regard to the total number of 
inhabitants (4,782,000), the Armenians (960,000) 
constitued only 20% of the population. 

The five wldyets of Turkish Armenia had 2,642,000 
inhabitants, of whom 1,828,000 were Muslims, 
633,000 were Armenians, and 179,000 were Greeks; 
in the sandj.ak of Mush, however, and also in that 
of Van the Armenians possessed the numerical 
superiority (almost twofold). 

The total population of Russian and Turkish 
Armenia, according to the estimates given above, 
amounted to about 4,642,000, of whom 1,400,000 
were Armenians. In Russian Armenia the Caucasian 
peoples were more numerous, while in Turkish 
Armenia it was the Kurds, Turks and other racial 
elements (Greeks, Jews, Gypsies, Circassians, 
Nestorian Christians to the south-east of Lake Van, 
nomad Tatar tribes) who had the majority. 

In Persian Armenia there were, in 1891, 42,000 
Armenians, only half of them to be found in 
Adjjarbaydjan (see above concerning Isfahan). 

Such was the estimate of the Armenian population 
given by Streck, for a period anterior to 1914, in 
the first edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam. He 
noted that as a result of massacres and of emigration 
the number of Armenians on Turkish soil was con- 
stantly diminishing. The settlement of Armenians 
in foreign lands and their dissemination throughout 
the world had continued, although in varying degree 
(see above for the emigration into Byzantine territory, 
and then into Syria and Egypt). Cf. on this subject 
Ritter, Erdkunde, x, 594-6n; R. Wagner, Reise 
nach dtm Ararat, 239-50. The total number of 



living in the Old World amounted to 
between 2 and 2 1 /, millions. 

According to the figures given by Pasdermadjian 
Histoire de I'Arminie, Paris 1949, 444, the total 
number of Armenians in the world in 1914 was 
approximately 4,100,000, of whom 2,100,000 lived 
in the Ottoman empire, 1,700,000 in the Russian 
empire, 100,000 in Persia and 200,000 in the rest of 
the world. In Russian Armenia proper they num- 
bered 1,300,000 (including Kars, Nakhitchevan, the 
Kara-Bagh and Akhalkhalaki) and, in Turkish. 
Armenia (with Cilicia), 1,400,000. They represented 
in Russian Armenia the majority of the population, 
1,300,000 out of 2,100,000. 

Here, on the other hand, are the figures of the 
Armenian population in the world and in the Soviet 
Union for 1926 and 1939, according to W. Leimbach, 
Die Sowjetunion, Natur, Volk und Wirtschaft, Stutt- 
gart 1950. In 1926 the total number of Armenians 
in the world amounted to 2,225,000 (the difference 
from the figure given for 1914 being explained to a 
certain degree by the losses due to the war, to the 
massacres and to the sufferings endured during the 
deportations); of these, two thirds were in the 
Soviet Union, while one third remained in the Near 
East (130,000 in Syria, 100,000 in Persia, approxi- 
mately 100,000 in Turkey, Palestine, Egypt and 
Greece, with a further 100,000 in America). The 
Soviet Union held 1,568,000 Armenians, of whom 
1,340,000 were in Transcaucasia and 162,000 in 
Ciscaucasia. Of those to be found in Transcaucasia 
744,000 lived in the Soviet Socialist Republic of 
Armenia (29,900 sq.km.) and constituted there 85% 
of the total inhabitants (831,290), i.e., the half of 
the Armenian population of the Soviet Union and 
one third of the entire Armenian population in the 
world. 311,000 dwelt in Georgia, 112,000 in the 
autonomous Region of Nagorny Karabakh (89% of 
the total population there) and 173,000 in the rest 
of the Republic of Azerbaijan. 

According to the census of 1939 the Armenians 
of the Soviet Union numbered 2,152,000; in the 
Republic of Armenia they were 1,100,000 out of a 
total population of 1,281,599; they constituted 90% 
of the total population in the autonomous Region of 
Nagorny Karabakh, but, in the remainder of the 
Republic of Azerbaijan, only 10% of the total 
population. In Georgia they numbered 450,000. The 
Armenian population of the Soviet Union, taken as 
a whole, had increased by 37% between 1926 and 
1939- 

In Syria and the Lebanon there were in 1914 
about 5,000 Armenians; in 1939 they numbered 
approximately 80,000 in the Lebanon, and more 
than 100,000 in Syria. In 1939, after the reunion of 
the sandiab of Alexandretta with Turkey, 25,000 
Armenians left the country. When, in 1945, the Soviet 
government issued its appeal to the Armenians, 
inviting them to return to Soviet Armenia, this 
invitation concerned, in Syria, about 200,000 
Armenians who lived especially at Aleppo and 
Beirut (Aleppo: 100,000 out of a total of 260,000; 
Beirut: 50,000 out of 160,000). In Persia, between 
1926 and 1939, the Armenian population had risen 
from 50,000 to 150,000; approximately 93,000 
expressed the wish to emigrate to Soviet Armenia and 
the Armenians of Persia formed a great part of the 
60.000 to 100,000 Armenians who, from Syria, the 
Lebanon, Persia and Egypt, went to Soviet Armenia 
after this appeal. Of the 27,000 Armenians who 
dwelt in Greece, 18,000 emigrated to Soviet Armenia 
in the period down to 1947. 



In 1945 (see H. Field, Contribution to the anthro- 
pology of the Caucasus, Cambridge, Mass. 1953, 5) 
the population of Soviet Armenia amounted to 
1,300,000, with a figure of 200,000 for the capital, 
Erivan. Today (see P. Rondot, Les Chrttiens d'Orient, 
Paris 1955, 191 and 196) the Republic of Armenia 
approaches a total of 1,500,000 inhabitants and 
there are almost as many Armenians in the rest of 
the Soviet Union. Erivan numbers 300,000 inhabi- 
tants and has formulated plans for 450,000. 400,000 
to 500,000 Armenians are to be found in the Near 
East, 100,000 in the countries where 'popular 
democracy' prevails, 200,000 to 300,000 in North 
America, 20,000 in France and important nuclei in 
South America, India, Palestine and Greece. 

The Armenian question had been given a definite 
form. Various Armenian groups in Brazil, the United 
States, etc. have presented to the U.N.O. demands 
which seek to bring about the restoration to the 
Armenians of the former Turkish Armenia with the 
frontiers fixed by President Wilson and the Armenian 
question continues to be an obstacle to the improve- 
ment of relations between the Soviet Union and 
Turkey. 

Commerce. 

As a land of transit between the Pontus and 
Mesopotamia and as a frontier territory between 
Byzantium and the Muslim empire, Armenia played 
an important economic role in the mediaeval period. 
The numerous merchants and the caravans that 
crossed it contributed to the development of a 
native industry which was favoured, like the flow of 
commerce, by the richness of the country in natural 
products. The commercial importance of Armenia 
arose also from the existence of numerous transit 
routes which cut across the land and of which the 
Arab geographers have described the most important. 
The Arabs attached to the support which these 
routes furnished to their military interests a greater 
weight than to their commercial usefulness. For this 
reason they linked together the principal routes at 
Dabil, the bulwark of the Arab domination. The 
maintenance and security of the routes was a duty 
which fell to the Muslim governor. Even today 
Erzerum, a point of junction for all the great routes, 
is a place of high strategic importance and, as it 
were, the key to Asia Minor. 

Armenia communicated with Byzantium through 
Trebizond (Tarabazanda), the main entrepdt for 
Byzantine merchandise (above all, precious materials). 
The great fairs held there several times a year were 
visited by merchants from the entire Muslim world; 
the traffic ran ordinarily from Trebizond to Dabil 
and Jtalikala (Erzerum). In Persia, Rayy was the 
most important market for the Armenian merchants 
(see Ibn al-Fakih, ed. De Goeje, 270); they were also 
in direct business relations with Baghdad (see al- 
Ya. c kubi, Bulddn, 237). 

Natural Products and Industry. 

Armenia was considered to be one of the most 
fertile provinces of the Caliphate. It produced so 
great a yield of cereals that some of it was exported 
abroad, e.g., to Baghdad (see al-Tabari, iii, 272, 275)- 
The lakes and rivers, which were full of fish, also 
favoured the export trade; Lake Van provided 
enormous quantities of a certain kind of herring 
(Ar. (irrikh) which, from mediaeval times, was sent 
out in salted form even to the Indies (according to 
al-SazwInl, ed. Wustenfeld, ii, 352). This salted fish is 
encountered even today as a food much sought after 



throughout the whole of Armenia, Adharbaydjan, 
the Caucasus and Asia Minor. 

Armenia is rich, above all, in minerals; copper, 
silver, lead, iron, arsenic, alum, mercury and sulphur 
are especially to be found there; gold, too, is not 
lacking. Very little is known concerning the exploi- 
tation of these products by the Arabs; the only Arab 
author who has furnished us with information on the 
natural products of Armenia is Ibn al-Faklh. 
According to the Armenian writer Leontius, silver 
mines were discovered at the close of the 8th century 
A.D.; these mines correspond no doubt to the silver 
(and lead) mines which are exploited at Giimush- 
Khane (now Gumushane) = House of Silver, half- 
way between Trebizond and Erzerum (see, on this 
subject, Ritter, Erdkunde, x, 272 and Wagner, Reise 
nach Persien, i, 172 ff. and cf. also the article 
GOmOsh-khane). There were important mines, too, 
at Bayburt and Arghana [qq.v.]. The great and 
ancient copper mine of Kedabeg with its offshoot at 
Kalakent (between Elizavetpol-Gandja and the 
lake of Gokcay) had been much developed before 
1914 (see Lehmann-Haupt, Armenien einst und 
jetzt, i, 122 ff.). Today there are important copper 
foundries at Alaverdy, Zangezur and Erivan. It was, 
however, the salt mines which, in the past, were the 
richest in Armenia, their products being exported to 
Syria and Egypt. The salt beds mentioned by the 
mediaeval authors were probably to the north-east 
of Lake Van; there was also an extensive salt- 
bearing deposit at Kulp to the south of the Upper 
Araxes and east of Keghizman (see Ritter, op. cit., 
x, 270 ff. and Radde, Vier Vortrage uberden Kaukasus, 
47). Erivan today is an industrial town with work- 
shops for the building of machinery and factories for 
preserves, tobacco, synthetic rubber, etc. 

The industries for which Armenia was most 
renowned during the mediaeval period were weaving, 
dyeing and embroidery. Dabil was the centre of this 
industrial activity; magnificent woollen cloths were 
made there, carpets and heavy materials of silk 
decorated with flowers and multi-coloured (Ar. 
buzyun) which were also sold abroad. The kirmiz, a 
kind of purple-bearing worm, was used for dyeing. 
Armenian carpets were long considered to be of the 
finest workmanship. Ardashat (Artaxata), some 
kilometres from Dabil, was so famous for its dye- 
works that al-Baladhurl calls it "the town of the 
kermes" (karyat al-kirmiz) (ed. De Goeje, 200; cf. 
Zeitschr. fur arm. Philol., ii, 67 and 217). See in 
particular, on the commerce and industry of 
Armenia in the mediaeval period, Thopdschian in 
the Mitt, des Sem. fur orient. Sprache, 1904, ii, 
142-53. On the carpets, see Armeniag Sakisian, Les 
tapis d dragons et leur origine arminienne, in Syria, 
ix (1928) and, by the same author, Les tapis armeniens, 
in Revue des Et. arm., i/2 (1920). On Armenian 
textiles in general, see R. B. Serjeant, Material for 
a History of Islamic Textiles up to the Mongol Con- 
quest, in Ars Islamica, x (1943), 91 ff. 

Bibliography: (1) General Works: Giogr. des 
quatre parties du monde, written in Armenian by 
L. Indjidjean, Pt. i, Venice 1806; J. Rennel, 
Comparative Geogr. of West Asia, London 1831; 
K. Ritter, Erdkunde, ix, 779, 784-8, 972-1009 and 
x, 285-825 ; Spiegel, Eranische Altertumskunde, i, 
Leipzig 1871, 137-88, 364-8; Issaverdenz, Armenia 
and the Armenians, Venice 1874-5; Vivien de 
Saint-Martin, Diet, de geogr. univ., i, 213-7 (1879); 
E. Reclus, Nouv. Geogr. Univ., vi (1881), 243-83: 
Russian Armenia, ix (1884), 321-77: Turkish 
Armenia; V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, i-iv, 



Paris 1 890-1; H. Gelzer (Petermann) in the 
Realencycl. der protest. Theologie (3rd ed.) by 
Herzog-Hauck, ii, 63-92, which deals especially 
with the history of the Church; C. F. Lehmann- 
Haupt, Armenien einst und jetzt, Berlin 1910; 
R. Blanchard, L'Asie occidental*, vol. viii of the 
Giogr. univ. by Vidal de La Blache and Gallois 
(1929). 

(2) History and HistoricaLGeography: Camcean, 
Hist, de VArminie depuis Vorigins du monde 
jusqu'a Vannie 1784 (in Armenian, Venice, 1784-6; 
English ed. (Chamich) by I. Ardal, Calcutta 1827) ; 
Saint-Martin, Mimoir. hist, et giogr. sur VArminie, 
Paris 1818; Issaverdenz, Hist, de VArminie, 
Venice 1887. — On the most ancient period of 
Armenian history, see C. F. Lehmann, Materialien 
sur Slteren Gesckichte Armeniens und Mesopota- 
miens, Berlin 1907; M. Streck, in ZDMG, lxii, 
755-74 and, by the same author, Das Gebiet der 
heutigen Landschaft Armenien, Kurdistan und 
Westpersien nach den babyl.-assyr. Keilinschriften, 
in ZA, xiii, xiv, xv; H. Berberian, Dicouvertes 
archiologiques en Arminie de 1924 a 1927, in the 
Rev. des Et. arm., vii (1927) ; K. von Hahn, Verkehr 
und Handel im Alien Kaukasus, in Peterm. Mitt., 
lxix, 1923. See also Fr. Hommel, Grundriss der 
Geogr. des alt. Orients, Munich 1904, 37-40; 
L. Alishan, Hayastan . . . (V Arminie avant qu'elle 
fut VArminie), Venice 1904; H. Kiepert, Lekrbuch 
der alt. Giogr., Berlin 1878, 73-83, 94-5; Pauly- 
Wissowa, Realencycl. der klass. Altertumwiss., ii, 
1181-2; H. Kiepert, Vber die dlteste Landes- und 
Volksgesck. von Armenien, in Monatsschr. der Berl. 
Ak. d. Wiss., 1869; Georgius Cyprius, ed. Gelzer, 
Leipzig 1890 and ed. Honigmann, with the 
Synekdemos de Hiirocles, Brussels 1939; Strecker 
and Kiepert, Beitr. sur Erkl&rung des Ruckzuges 
der 10,000, Berlin 1870; I. v. Akerdov, Armenia in 
the 5th century (in Russian), 3rd ed., Nakhfcawan 
1897; H. Karbe, Der Marsch der 10,000, Berlin 
1898; K. Guterbock, ROmisch- Armenien im 4.-6. 
Jahrh., in Schirmer Festschrift, Konigsberg 1900; 
J. Markwart, ErdnSahr, Berlin 1901, 11 1-2, 114, 
169-70; F. Murad, Ararat and Masis, Heidelberg 
1901 ; K. Hiibschmann, Die altarm. Ortsnamen, in 
Indogsrm. Forschungen, xvi, Strasburg 1904, 
197-410; J. Markwart, Untersuch. sur Gesch. von 
Eran, ii, Leipzig 1905, 218-9; K - Montzka, Die 
Landschaften Grossarmeniens bei griech. und rdm. 
Schriftstellern, 1906; N. Adontz, Armenija v 
epoxu Justinjana (in Russian), St. Petersburg 1908 
and, by the same author, Hist, d' Arminie: Les 
origines {du X 4 au VI' siecle av. J.C), Paris 1946; 
P. J. Mecerian, S. J., Bilan des relations armino- 
iraniennes au V silcle apris J.-C., in the Bulletin 
arminologique, 2nd. cahier, MFOB, XXX, Beirut 
1953; P. P. Goubert, Byxance avant V Islam, I 
(Byz. et I' Orient sous les successeurs de Justinien. 
L'empereur Maurice), Paris 1951. 

The following works relate to the ancient and 
mediaeval periods: Tomaschek, Sasun und das 
Quellgebiet des Tigris, in SBAk., Vienna, cxxxiii, 
no. 4, 1895 and, by the same author, Hist.- 
Topographisches vom oberen Euphrates, in Kiepert- 
Festschrift, Berlin 1898 ; J. Markwart, Sudarmenien 
und die Tigrisquellen nach griechischen und arabi- 
schen Geographen, Vienna 1930; by the same 
author, Notes on two articles on Mayyafariqin, in 
JRAS, 1909; by the same author, Die Entstehung 
der armenischen Bistiimer, in Orientalia Christiana, 
80 (1932); E. Honigmann, Die Ostgrenze des bys. 
Retches von 363 bis ioyi, in Corp. brux. hist, bys., 



3, Brussels 1935; R. Grousset, Histoire de VArminie 
des origines a 1071, Paris 1947; V. Minorsky, 
Studies in Caucasian History, Cambridge Oriental 
Series, no. 6, London 1952. 

See in addition: P. Fr. Tournebize, Hist. pol. et 
relig. de VArminie, vol. i (no more published), 
Paris 1901-1910; by the same author, the article 
Arminie in Diet, d'hist. et de giogr. eccl., vol. 
iv, Paris 1930; J. de Morgan, Hist, du peuple 
arm. depuis les temps les plus reculis . . . jusqu'a 
nos jours, Nancy- Paris 1919; Kevork Asian, 
Etudes hist, sur le peuple arm., Paris 1909 and 
ed. Macler, 1928; Vahan, History of Armenia, 
i, Boston 1936; N. Marr, Ani, Hist, de la ville 
d' apris les sources et les fouilles, Leningrad 1932 (in 
Russian); Pasdermadjian, Histoire de VArminie, 
Paris 1949. 

The old native Armenian sources have been 
utilised in the excellent Descr. de la vieille Arminie 
by Indjidjean, Venice 1832 (in Armenian). See 
also L. Alishan, Topogr. von Gross-Arm., Venice, 
1855, Geogr. der Provins Shirakh (ibid. 1879), 
Sisuan [ibid. 1885), Airarat {ibid. 1890) and 
Sisakan (ibid. 1893), all in Armenian; H. Kiepert, 
Die Landschaftsgrenzen des siidl. Armeniens nach 
einheim. QueUen, in Monatsber. der Berl. Ak. d. 
Wiss., 1873; Thopdschian, Die inneren Zustandt 
Armeniens unter Aschot I, in Mitteil. d. Seminars 
fiir orient. Sprachen in Berlin, 1904, Pt. ii, 104-53; 
by the same author, Polit. und Kirchengesch. 
Armeniens unter Aschot I und Smbat I, (ibid. 
98-218) ; Sebeos, Gesch. des Heraklius (the period 
from 457-459 to 602) and Leontius (period from 
532 to 790). H. Hiibschmann has translated the 
chapters of Sebeos relating to Armenia in Zur 
Gesch. Armeniens und der ersten Kriege der Araber, 
Leipzig 1875. See also: Jean Catholicos, Hist, de 
VArminie des origines a 92 5, trans. V. de Saint- 
Martin, Paris 1841 ; Ghevond (Leontius), Hist, des 
guerres et des conquites des Arabes en Arminie, 
trans. V. Chahnazarian, Paris 1856 (cf. A. Jeffery, 
Ghevond! s Text of the corresp. between Umar II and 
Leo III, in Harvard Theol. Review, xxxvii, 1444); 
Asoghik of Taron, Hist, d' Arminie des origines i 
1004 (German trans, by H. Gelzer and A. Burck- 
hardt, Leipzig 1907; French trans., Pt. i by 
Dulaurier, Paris 1883, Pt. ii by Macler, Paris 1917); 
Thomas Ardzrouni (9th-ioth cent.), Hist. 1 des 
Ardzrounis, French trans, by Brosset in Collection 
d'Historiens armeniens, I, St. Petersburg 1874 
(goes as far as 907; continued down to 1226); 
Matthew of Edessa, Chronicle (from 952 to 1136), 
French trans, by Dulaurier in Bibl. Hist, arm., 
1858. Other trans, in Brosset, Collection . . . 
St. Petersburg (2 vols.), 1874-6 and Deux historiens 
armeniens, St. Petersburg 1870-1. Also, of the 
same chronicler, trans, by Orbelian, Hist, de la 
Siounie, St. Petersburg, 1864. Langlois, Collection 
des historiens anciens et modemes de VArminie, 
Paris (2 vols.), 1867-9; J- Muyldermans, La 
domination arale en Arminie, drawn from the 
Hist, universale of Vardan, Louvain-Paris 1927. 

On the period of the Arab invasions and the 
Arab domination, see: Baladhurl, Futih, 193*212 
(trans. Hitti and Murgotten, 2 vols., New York, 
1916-24); Tabart, (references indicated in the 
course of this article); Ya'kuM, 190-1 (the 
passages relative to Armenia in Baladhurl and 
Ya%QM have been translated into Russian by 
P. Zuze, Baku 1927, in Materials for the History 
of Azerbaydjan, fasc. iii and iv; the same author 
Ms translated the passages from Ibn al-AJhlr 



which concern the Caucasus, Baku 1940). Pseudo- 
Wakidl, Gesch. der Eroberung von Mesopotamien 
und Armenien .... Hamburg 1847; B. Khala- 
teantz, Textes arabes relatifs d I'Armenie, Vienna 
1919; for the first Arab invasions, H. Manadean, 
Les invasions arabes en Armenie, in Bytantion, 
xviii, 1946-8, French translation by H. Berberian 
of a pamphlet of H. Manadean published in Erivan 
in 1932 under the name Manr Hetazotut' yunner 
(Short Studies) ; M. Ghazarian, Armenien unter der 
arab. Herrschaft bis zur Entstekung des Bagratlden- 
reickes, in Zeitsckr. fiir arm. Pkilol., ii, Marburg 
1904, 149-225; H. Thopdschian, Armenien vorund 
w&krend der Araberzeit, ibid, ii, 50-71; Vasmer, 
Chronology of Ike Governors of Armenia vnder the 
early '■Abbdsids, in Zap. Kol. Vos., i (1925), 381 ff. 
(German translation Vienna 1931); F. W. Brooks, 
Byzantines and Arabs in the time of the Early 
Abbasids, in Engl. Hist. Rev., 1900 and 1901; 
Daghbaschean, Die Griindung des Bagratidenreiches 
unter Aschot Bagratuni, Berlin 1893; A. Green, 
La dynastie des Bagratides en Armenie (in Russian, 
in the Journ. of the Russian Minist. of I. P., St. 
Petersburg, 1893, CCXC, 51-139); J- Markwart, 
Osteur. und ostas. Streifziige, Leipzig 1903, 117-88, 
391-465; R- Khalateantz (Chalatianz), Die Ent- 
stehung der arm. Furstentumer, in YVZKM, xvii, 
60-69. See also: J. Laurent, L'Armenie entre 
Byzance et I' Islam depuis la conqutte arabe jusqu'en 
886, Paris 1919. On the 10th century and the 
Byzantine reconquest, see in addition to the 
already mentioned works of Grousset and Honig- 
mann: S. Runciman, Romanus Lecapenus, Cam- 
bridge 1929, 151 ff. ; M. Canard, Hist, de la 
dynastie des Hamdanides, i, 462 ff. and earlier; 
G. Schlumberger, Un empereur bys. au X' siecle, 
Nictpkore Pkocas, Paris 1890; by the same author, 
L'tpopee byz. d la fin du X' siecle, i, 1896 (1925) 
and ii, 1900 (Pt. I, John Tzimisces; Pt. II, 
Basil II); various articles by N. Adontz published 
in Bytantion (Les Taronites en Armenie et d 
Byzance, ix, 1934, 715 ff., x, 1935, 531 ff., xi, 
1936, 21 ff. and 517, xiv, 1939, 407 ff.; Notes 
armino-byzantines, ix, 1934, 367 seq., x, 1935, 
161 ff.; Tornik It Moine, xiii, 1938, 143 ff.), 
and in the Ann. de I' Inst, de Pkilol. et d'Hist. 
Orient. Bruxelles, iii, 1935 (Allot de Fer); articles 
by V. Laurent in Eckos d'Orient, xxxvii, 1938 and 
xxxviii, 1939; by H. Tarossian, Grigor Magistros 

et ses rapports avec deux imirs musulmans in 

REI, 1941-7; by Leroy-Mohringen on the rdle of 
certain Armenians at Byzantium, in Bytantion, xi, 
1936, 589 ff. and xiv, 1939, i47ff.; by Akulian, 
EinverUibung arm. Territorien durck Byzanz im 
XI. Jakrhundert, 1912; by Z. Avalichvili, La 
succession de David d'Iberie, in Bytantion, viii, 
1933, 177 ff- On the settlement of emigrant 
Armenians in Byzantine territory, see, in addition 
to the already mentioned articles by N. Adontz, 
Grousset, op. cit., 488-9, 511, 522 and H. Gregoire, 
MMas It Magistre, in Byzantion, vii, 1933, 79 ff. 
and, ibid. 203 ff., Nicipkore au col roide. Reference 
should also be made to works which deal with 
Byzantine history (see Krumbacher, Byz. Litte- 
raturgesck., 2nd ed., 1068-9) and the publications 
of Vasiliev, Byzance et les Arabes: i, La dynastie 
amorienne (820-67), French trans., Brussels, 1935 
(Corp. brux. kist. byz.) and ii. La dynastie maci- 
donienne (867-959), St. Petersburg 1902 (in 
Russian; French ed. of Pt. ii only: Textes arabes, 
Brussels 1950). See also F. Dolger, Regestsn der 
Kaiserurkunden des ostrom. Retches, Munich- 



Berlin 1924-32; S. Der Nersessian, Armenia and 
the Byz. Empire: A brief study of Armenian art 
and civilization, Harvard University, 1945. In 
addition, the chapters relating to Armenia in the 
Syriac chronicles (Ps.-Denys of Tell-Mahre, Elias 
of Nisibin, Michael the Syrian, Bar Hebraeus) and 
in works concerning the history of Islam and of 
the Caliphs, notably the Memoir of Defremery on 
the Sadjids (JA, 1848, 4th ser., vols. 9 and 10). 
On persons of Armenian origin who figure in the 
history and literature of the Arabs, I. Kraikovsky 
has written for the Encyclopaedia of Soviet Armenia 
(Erivan) the articles AbkSryus, Abu SSlih al- 
Armanl and Badr al-Djamall (see above for 
Bah ram). 

The main source for the Saldjukid period is the 
history (989-1071) of Aristakes of Lastivert 
(Arisdagues of Lasdiverd), Armenian ed., Venice, 
1845, French trans., 1864. Kirakos (Guiragos) of 
Gandzak (13th cent.) gives a contemporary 
account of events for the period 1165-1265: 
Armenian ed., Moscow 1858 and Venice 1865, 
French trans, by Brosset, 1870-1. See also J. 
Laurent, Byzance et les Turcs seldjoucides dans 
I'Asie occidentaie jusqu'en 1081, Paris 1913-4 and 
the bibliography given there; C. Cahen, La 
campagne de Mantzikert d'apris les sources musul- 
manes, in Byzantion, ix, 1934, 613 ff.; and, by the 
same author, La premiere penetration turque en 
Asie Mineure, in Byzantion, xviii, 1948. For a more 
ample bibliography, see the art. saldjuijids. 

The monk Malak'ia composed a history of the 
Mongol invasion: Armenian ed., St. Petersburg 
1870, Russian trans, by Patkanean, ibid. 1871, 
French trans, by Brosset, 1871. Thomas of 
Medsoph wrote, in the 15th cent., a history of 
Timur and his successors: Armenian ed. by 
Chahnazarian, Paris 1861. 

The principal source on the sufferings of the 
Armenians under Shah 'Abbas I is Arak<el of 
Tabriz, whose Histoire runs from 1602 to 1661: 
Armenian ed., Amsterdam, 1669, French trans, 
by Brosset. 

On the history of the kingdom of Little Armenia, 
in addition to the Gesch. der Kreuzziige by F. 
Wilken and B. Kugler, the modern histories of the 
Crusades (Grousset, 3 vols., Paris 1934-6; Runci- 
man, 3 vols., Cambridge 1951-5), the history of the 
last Crusades by Atiya, London 1938 and the 
history of Cyprus by Hill, Cambridge 1940, see 
V. Langlois, Essai kist. et crit. sur la const, soc. et 
pol. de I'Armenie sous les rois de la dynastie 
roupenienne, in the Mim. de I' Ac. Imptr. des Sc. 
de St. Pttersbourg, 7th ser., iii (i860), no. 3; the 

same author, in the Bull, de I'Ac. Imptr, , iv, 

1861 and in the Melanges asiatiques, iv; E. Dulau- 
rier, Etude sur I' org. pol., relig. et administr. du 
royaume de Petite Armenie, in JA, 1861, xvii, 
377-437 and xviii, 289-357; by the same author, 
Le royaume de Petite Armenie, in RHC, Doc. arm., 
i, Paris 1869; and K. J. Basmadjian, Les Lusignan 
de Poitou au trdne de la Petite Armenie, in JA, 
10th ser., vii, 520 ff. 

In regard to the information provided by the 
mediaeval geographers, see BGA, ed. De Goeje 
and BAHG, ed. v. Miik; Yakut, I, 219-22 (cf. 
Heer, Die Quellen in Yakut's Geogr. YVOrterb., 1898, 
62-3); Abu '1-Fida 1 , Takwim, 387-8; Le Strange, 
129-31, 139-41, 182-4; A. v. Kremer, Kulturgesck. 
des Orients unter den Chalifen, i, 342-3, 358, 368, 
377; N. A. Karaulov, Renseignements fournis par 
les icrivains arabes sur le Caucase, I'Armenie et 



VAdkarbaydjdn, in Sbornik materialov dlya opisa- 
niya mestnostey i piemen kavhaza, xxix, xxxi, 
xxxii and xxxviii, Tiflis 1908; 2uze (Difize), Trans, 
into Russian of the passages in Yaisut relating 
to the Caucasus (ed. by the Inst, of Hist., Acad, 
of Sciences of Azerbaijan) ; and B. Khalateantz, 
in the Armenian review, Handes Amsorya (Vienna), 
xvii, 27-8, 53-4, 1 12-3, 176-7, 252-3 and xviii, 
53+, 367-8. 

On the K-.uf, of the lust ccotury; sue: V. 1,'scha- 
koff, Gesch. der Feldzuge des Generals Paskewitsch 
in der asiat. Tiirkei wdhrend der Jahre 1S38-9 
[German ed., Leipzig 1838 ; cf. Ritter, Erdkunde x, 
+14-23); and W. Potto, Der persische Krieg, 
1826-8 (St. Petersburg, 1887 ff.). 

In regard to the Crimean war, see the works of 
Riistow (1855 ff.), Bazancourt (German ed., 
Vienna 1856), Anitschkow (1857-60), Bogdano- 
vitsch (in Russian, 1867), Kinglake (London, 6th 
ed., 1883), C. Rousset (Paris, 3rd ed., 1894), 
Geffcken (1891}, Hamley [London, 3rd ed., 1891), 
Rothan (1888), Kurz (r88o), A. du Casse (Paris 
i8ga) ; and C. Rousset, Hist, de la guerre de Crimie, 
Paris 1877 (also to be added : E, Tarle, Krymskaya 
vojna, 2 vols., Moscow 1943-5), 

On the war of r877-8, see Greene, The Russian 
army and its campaigns in Turkey, 1 877-1878, 
London 1880; v. Jagwitz, Von Plewna bis 
Adrianopel, Berlin 1880; and Kuropatkin, Kritische 
Riickblicke auf din russich-turkiscken Krieg (in 
German, by Kramer, Berlin 1885-7). 

On the troubles in Armenia during the last 
decade of the 19 th century, see F. D. Greene, The 
Armenian crisis and the rule of the Turk, London 
1895; R. de Coursons, La ribelUon arminienne, 
Paris 1895; R. Lepsius, Armenien und Europa, 
Berlin 1896; G. Godet, Les souff ranees de VArminie, 
Neufchatel 1896. On the massacres, deportations 
and emigration of the Armenians since 1915, see 
the modern histories of Armenia cited above 
(J. de Morgan, Kevork Asian, Pasdermadjian); 
Tchobaniau, Le pettpte arminien, VArminie sous 
le joug turc, Paris 1913; F. Kansen, VArminie et 
le Proche-Orient, Paris 1928; Basmadjian, Hist, 
mod. des Arminiens, Paris 1922; Pasdermadjian, 
Apercu de I' hist. mod. de VArminie (especially 
from r848 to 1920) in Vostan, Cahiers d'hist. et 
de civil, arm,, i, Paris 1948-9; J. Missakian, A 
searchlight on the Armenian question, 1878-1950, 
Boston 1950; A, Nazarian, Viritis hisioriques sur 
VArminie, Paris 1953; W. Leimbach, Die Sowjei- 
union, Stuttgart 1950 (passages devoted to Russian 
Armenia); P. Rondot, Les Chritiens d' Orient 
(Cahiers del' Afrique etV Asie,vv), Paris 1955, 171-99. 
Amongst other works, see also: A. J. Toynbee, 
Les massacres arminiens, Paris 1916 ; The treatment 
of Armenians in the Ottoman empire, British Blue 
Book, London 1916; H. Barby, Au pays de 
I'ipouvante, VArminie martyre, Paris 1917; J. 
Lepsius, Le rapport secret ... sur les massacres 
d' Arminie, Paris t9i8; Anonymous, Timoignages 
inedits sur les atrocitis turques commises en Arminie, 
Paris 1020; C. Jaschke, President Wilson als 
Schiedsrichter zwischen der Tiirkei und Armenien, 
in MSOS, Berlin, xxxviii, 1935, ii, 75-80. See also 
A. Andonian, The Memoirs of Nairn bey. Turk, 
off. doc. relative to the deportations and the massacres 
of Armenians. London 1920; and J. de Morgan, 
Essai sur Us nationalitis (les Arminiens}, Paris 
1917. 

On the history of the Armenian Church, see 
A. Ter Mikelian, Die arm. Kirche und ihre Beziek- 



ungen zur byzant. tiom 4.-13- Jahrh., Leipzig 1891; 
H. Gelzer, Der gegenwdrtige Zustand der arm. 
Kirche, in Z.j. Theol., 1893, XXXVI, 163-71; the 
same author, Die Anfdnge der arm. Kirche, in 
SB. d. sdchs. Ges. d. Wiss., 1895, 109-74; S. Weber, 
Die kaikol. Kirche in Armenien, Freiburg im B., 
rgo3; Ter Minassiantz, Die arm. Kirche in ikren 
Beziehungen zu den syrischen Kirchen, Leipzig 1904; 
N. Ormanian, L'Fglise arminienne, son hist,, sa 
doar., son rigime, sa discipline, sa luurgie, sa 
litterature, son prisent, Paris 1910; and the art, 
Arminie, by L. Petit, in the Diction, de thiologie 
calholique, i, Pt. 2. 

[3) Geography, Ethnology, Cartography: Otter, 
Voy. en Turquie, Paris 1748; D. Sestini, Voyage 
de Constantinople a Bassora en 1781, Paris, Year 
VII (on the region of Handzit); Hanway, Be- 
schreib. seiner Reise von London durck Russland 
und Persien, Hamburg 1754 (Engl, ed., London, 
1753; also other editions); J. Morier, A journey 
through Persia, Armenia, etc., London 1812; 
J. C. Hobhouse, A journey through Albania and 
other pros, of Turkey, London 1813; j. M. Kinncir, 
Geogr. Memoir of the Persian empire, London i8r3; 
J. Morier, A second journey through Persia, 
Armenia, etc., 1818; Dupre, Voyage en Perse, 
Paris 1819; W. Ouseley, Travels in various 
countries of the East, London iSrg-23, vol. iii; 
R. Walpole, Travels in various countries of the 
East, London 1820; A. Jaubert, Voyage en 
Arminie et en Perse, Paris 1821; Ker Porter, 
Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, London 
182 r-2; Relation du voyage de Monteith, in JRGS, 
iii, London 1833; E. Smith and Dwight, Mis- 
sionary Researches in Koordistan, Armenia, etc., 
London 1834; J. Brant, Journey through a part 
of Armenia, in JRGS, vi, London 1836; C. J. Rich, 
Narrative of a residence in Koordistan, ibid., 1836; 

E. Bore, Corresp, et tnimoires d'un voyage en 
Orient, Paris ^37-40; Armstrong, Travels in 
Russia and Turkey, London 1838; Wilbraham, 
Travels in Transcaucasia, etc., London 1839; 

F . Dubois de Montpireux, Voyage autour du 
Caucase . . . en Georgie, A rminie, etc., Paris 1839-43, 
with an atlas; J. B. Fraser, Travels in Koordistan, 
Mesopotamia, etc., London 1840; E. Sehultz, 
Mimoire sur le lac de Van et ses environs, in J A, 
3rd ser., ix, 260-323; H. Southgate, Narrative of a 
tour through Arrmnia, Koordistan, London 1840; 
J. Brant, Notes of a journey through a part of 
Koordistan, in JRGS, x, 184 1; H. Suter, Notes of 
a journey from Erzerum to Trebisond (ibid.); 

G. Fowler, Three Years in Persia, with travelling 
adventures in Koordistan, London 1841 (German 
transl., Aix-la-Chapelle 1842); W. F, Ainsworth, 
Travels and Research in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, 
Chalaaea and Armenia, London r84z; W. J. 
Hamilton, Research in Asia Minor, Ponlus and 
Armenia, London 1842 (German ed. by A. Schon- 
burgk with add. by H. Kiepert, Leipzig r843) ; Ch. 
Texier, Description de VArminie, la Perse et la 
Misopotamie, Paris 1842 ; K. Koch, Wanderungen 
im Orient, Weimar 1846-7; M. Wagner, Reise nach 
dem Ararat und dem Hochland Armenien, Stutt- 
gart 1848; A. N. Muravjev, Crousinie et Arminie 
(in Russian, St. Petersburg 1848); Brosset, 
RaPPorts sur un voyage archiologique en Giorgie et 
en Arminie, ibid,, 1851; M. Wagner, Reise nach 
Persien und dem Lande der Kurden, Leipzig 1852; 
Curzon, Armenia, a year at Erzeroum, etc., London 
1854; Hommaire de Hell, Voyage en Turquie et 
en Perse, Paris 1854-60; K. Koch, Die kaukasische 



Lander und Armenien, Leipzig 1855; A. v. Haxt- 
hausen, Transcaucasia, Leipzig 1856; N. v. 
Seidlitz, Rundreise um den Urmiasee, in Peter- 
mann's Geogr. Mitteil., 1858, 22-3; Blau, Vom 
Urmiasee zum Vansee, ibid., 1863, 200-1; I. 
Ussher, A journey from London to Persepolis, 
London 1865; Pollington, Half round the old 
world, a tour in Russia, the Caucasus, Persia, etc., 
London 1867; Taylor and Strecker, Zur Geogr. von 
Hocharmenien, in Z. d. Ges. f. Erdkunde, Berlin 
1869; F. Millingen, Wild life among the Koords, 
London 1870; Radde and Sievers, Reise in 
Hocharmenien, in Petermann's Geogr. Mitteil., 
1873, 301-2; Radde, Vier Vortrdge iiber den 
Kaukasus, ibid., Ergdnz. Heft n° 36, Gotha 1874; 

M. v. Thielmann, Streifziige im Kaukasus 

Leipzig 1875 ; J. B. Telfer, The Crimea and Trans- 
caucasia, London 1876; Relation de voyage de 
Deyrolle, in Le Tour du Monde, xxix-xxxi and in 
the Globus, xxix-xxx (Braunschweig 1876); J. 
Bryce, Transcaucasia and Ararat, London 1877 
and later editions; Creagh, Armenians, Koords and 
Turks, London 1880; H. Tozer, Turkish Armenia 
and East Asia Minor, London 1881; Frede, 
Voyage en Arminie et en Perse, Paris 1885; W. 
Petersen, Aus Transkaukasien und Armenien, 
Leipzig 1885; G. Radde, Reisen an der persisch- 
russischen Grenze, Leipzig 1886; H. Binder, Au 
Kurdistan, en Misopotamie et en Perse, Paris 1887; 
G. Radde, Karabagh, in Petermann's Mitt. Erg.- 
Heft n° 100, Gotha 1889; Muller-Simonis and 
Hyvernat, Du Caucase au Golfe Persique, Washing- 
ton 1892 (German ed., Mainz 1897) ; E. Naumann, 
Vom goldenen Horn zu den Quellen des Euphrates, 
Munich 1893; Chantre, A travers I'Armlnie russe, 
Paris 1893 (cf. in Globus, lxii, 1892); W. Belck, 
Untersuchungen und Reisen in Transkaukasien, 
Hocharmenien, etc.,' in Globus, lxiii-lxiv, 1893; 
v. Nolde, Reise nach Innerarabien, Kurdistan und 
Armenien, Braunschweig 1885; H. Abich, Aus 
kaukasischen Lander n. Reiseberichte von 1842-1874, 
Vienna 1896; J. de Morgan, Mission scientifique 
en Perse, 4 vols., Paris 1895; the same author 
Mission scientifique au Caucase, tt. arch, et 
historiques, 2 vols., Paris 1889; H. Hepworth, 
Through Armenia on horseback, London 1898. 

On the journeys of exploration carried out in 
1898-9 by W. Belck and C. F. Lehmann, see the 
travel reports noted in the J ahresberichte der 
Geschichtswissenschaft, 1901, i, 16 and Lehmann- 
Haupt, Armenien einst und jetzt, 2 vols., Berlin 
1910-26; Sarre, Transkaukasien, Persien, Mesopo- 
tamien, Transkaspien. Land und Leute, Berlin 1899; 
Lynch, Armenia: travels and studies, London 1901 ; 
P. Rohrbach, Vom Kaukasus zum Mittelmeer, 
Leipzig 1903. 

Many important documents are published (in 
Russian) in the Memoirs of the Caucasian Section 
of the Imperial Russian Geogr. Soc; see also the 
works of the Committee for Caucasian Statistics 
(Elizavetpol, Tiffis, 1888 and Kars, 1889). Cf. 
also the article Djabal al-HArith (ararat). 

Consult also B. Plaetschke, Die Kaukasus- 
lander (Handbuch der geogr. Wiss., Band Mittel- 
und Osteuropa, 1935); Uj. Frey, V order-Asien, 
Schrifttumsiibersicht 1913-1932, in Geogr. Jahrbuch, 
47, 1932, vol. ii; P. Rohrbach, Armenisn, 1919; 
W. Leimbach, Die Sowjetunion, Natur, Volk 
und Wirtschaft, Stuttgart 1950 (pages relating to 
Soviet Armenia); P. George, URSS, Paris 1947 
(Collection Orbis), 471-2 ; A. Fichelle, Gtogr. phys. 
et econom. de I' URSS, 97 ff. (information will be 



found in P. George, op. cit., concerning Soviet 
works and reviews, such as the Revue de la Soc. 
russe de Geogr., etc.). See also: The USSR: A geo- 
graphical survey, London 1943. 

L. Alishan, Physiographic de V Arminie, Venice 
1870; H. Abich, Geolog. Forschungen in den kauk. 
Ldndern, Vienna 1882-7; R- Sieger, Die Schwan- 
kungen der hocharm. Seen, Vienna 1888; G. W. v. 
Zahn, Die Stellung Armeniens im Gebirgsbau 
Vorderasiens, Berlin 1907; J. H. Schaffer, Grund- 
ziige des geolog. Baues von Turkisch Armenien, 
in Peterm. Mitt., 1896; Cartl giol. du Caucase au 
1 : 1,000,000, Inst, de cartogr. geol. . . . de l'URSS, 
1929-31. 

See also: Macler, Erzeroum. Topographie d'Er- 
zeroum et sa region, in JA, 1919; J. Markwart, Le 
berceau des Armeniens, in Rev. des Et. arm., viii, 

In regard to the statistics of the population, 
for the period before 1914, see G. L. Selenoy and 
N. v. Seidlitz, Die Verbr'.itung der Armenier in der 
asiat. Tiirkei und in Trans-Kaukas, in Peterm. 
Mitt., 1896, and for more recent statistics, the 
works indicated on the subject in the course of 
this article; see also: R. Khermian, Les Arminiens, 
introd. a V anthropologic du Caucase, 1943. 

For maps, see the atlases attached to the travel 
account of Monteith (1833) and Dubois (1839-40); 
Glascott, Map of Asia Minor and Armenia (about 
1850); H. Kiepert, Karte von Georgien, Armenien 
und Kurdistan, 1:1500000, Berlin 1854; the 
same author, Karte von Armenian, Kurdistan und 
Azerbeidschan, 1:1000000, Berlin 1858; H. 
Kiepert, Specialkarte des tiirk. Arm., 1 : 500 000, 
Berlin 1857; the same author, Carte ginlrale des 
prov. europ. et asiat. de I' empire ottoman, 1 : 3 000 00, 
Berlin 1892; H. Kiepert, Karte von Kleinasien in 
24 Blatt, 1 : 400 000, Berlin 1902-6. The best map 
is Lynch-Oswald's Map of Armenia and adjacent 
countries, London 1901. See also the maps of 
Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, 1891-2 and of Muller- 
Simonis, op. cit., 1892; the map of Armenia in 
Hiibschmann, Die altarm. Ortsnamen, in Indogerm. 
Forschungen, xvi, 1904 and his remarks (ibid.) on 
the Kartenbibliographie of the Grundriss der iran. 
Philol., by F. Justi; the maps of Honigmann, 
Ostgrenze; see also Murray's Handy Classical Maps, 
Asia Minor; the maps in the tourist guides, 
Baedeker, Guide Bleu; the route map of Turkey 
(Tiirkiye Yol Haritasi, 1 : 2 500 000) ; the maps 
(scale = 1 : 800 000), Tiirkiye, 1936 (sheets for 
Malatya, Sivas, Erzurum, Mosul); the map 
prepared by the National Geogr. Institute, Paris, 
1 : 1 000 000, 1934 (sheet for Erzerum). 

(4) Bibliographical Works: M. Minusaroff, Bi- 
bliogr. Caucas. et Transcaucas., vol. i, St. Peters- 
burg 1874-6; P. Karekin, Armenische Bibliogr., 
Gesch. und Verzeichnis der arm. Litteratur, covering 
the years 1 565-1843 (in Neo- Armenian, Venice 
1883). The more important works are enumerated 
in H. Petermann, Grammatica armeniaca (Port, 
lingu. orient. VI); P. de Lagarde, Arm. Studien, 
Gottingen 1877. Karekin, Gesch. der arm. Litteratur 
(in Armenian, 2nd ed., Venice 1886); Patkanean, 
Bibliogr. Umriss der arm. Hist. Litteratur (in 
Russian), St. Petersburg 1880; F. N. Finck, 
Abriss der arm. Litteratur, in Litter, des Ostens, by 
Amelang, vii, Leipzig 1907. See also A. Salmalian, 
Bibliographie de I' Arminie, Paris 1946 and Chap. 
XI, Les lettres, les sciences et Us arts chez Its 
Armeniens, in J. de Morgan, Hist, du peuple 
armenien, where information will be found on the 






ARMlNIYA — ARNAWUTLUK 



Armenian journals and reviews down to 1919 
(Ararat, Handes Amsorya, etc.). See also the 
Bulletin arminologique published by Pere Mecerian 
in the Melanges de I' Univ. Saint-Joseph, Beirut, 
1947-8 and 1953, and the specialised reviews. 
(M. Canard) 
ARMS [see silah]. 

ARMY [see djaysh, lashkak, ordu etc.]. 
ARNAWUTLUK, the Ottoman Turkish name 

1. — Language. Allegedly descended from Pelas- 
gian, Albanian is an Indo-European language of 
"satem" type like Armenian, I ndo- Iranian and 
Slavonic. No literary records occur before 1496 A.D., 
but ancient Illyrian and ancient Epirote, on the 
basis of personal and place names, are held to be the 
prototypes of Geg (northern) and Tosk (southern) 
Albanian respectively. Illyrian mantua, mantia, 
"'bramble", and grossa, "file", are Albanian mand, 
manz'e and grrese respectively. Macedonian, Thracian 
and Dacian were languages of Albanian type. 

Known as shqip in Albania, arberesh in the Albanian 
colonies, the Albanian language is spoken by some 
1,500,000 in Albania, 700,000 in the adjoining 
Kosovo-Metohija area of Yugoslavia, and some 
40,000 in Epirus. An archaic form of the language 
survives on the Greek islands of Hydra and Spetsa, 
and in Sicily and Calabria, brought there by Tosk 
exiled from the Turkish invasions. Impoverished by 
centuries of neglect, Albanian has a small native, 
but a large borrowed vocabulary. Thus the wheel, 
the cart and the plough are represented by borrowings 
and the usual Indo-European terms of kinship are 
absent. City life, road-building, horticulture, law, 
religion and family relationship are expressed by 
Latin loanwords, much disguised by phonological 
breakdown. Terms used in the Orthodox ritual are 
Greek ; names of prepared dishes, garments, parts of 
the house, and Islamic terms have come in via 

The composite alphabet is : a, b, c (like ts), c (like ch), 
d, dh (like th in this), e, I (like French e in le), f, g, gj 
(like Turkish g before e, i, 6), h, i, j (like y in yoke), 
ft, / (as in French), U (as in English all), m, n, nj (as 
in canon), 0, p, q (like Turkish A before e, i, 6), r 
(weak), rr (strong trill), s, sh (as in shop), t, th (as in 
thin), u, v, x (as in adze), xh (as in judge), y (German 
u), z, zh (as in pleasure). The vowels d, I, t are Geg 

Geg is the dialect of Tirane, the capital, and the 
North, including Kosovo-Metohija. Tosk has a con- 
siderable literature. Its main deviations are: replace- 
ment of the infinitive by subjunctive 
absence of nasal vowels, occasional 
n to r, and representation of ue, uem as ua, uar. 
There are small differences of vocabulary. 

The noun has three genders and five cases. A noun 
is linked to a following genitive or adjective by an 
inflected particle, thus mali i veriut, "the mountain 
of the north", mali i buhur "the beautiful mountain", 
in which -»' of mal-i is the detachable masc. definite 
article. Similarly molla, f. "the apple", but molU 
"apple". The verb possesses an imperfect, aorist, 
subjunctive, optativ* imperative, a mediopassive, 
and a compound mood called the admirative. 

2. — Literature. From the third century A.D. 
the Roman Church has maintained a bishopric at 
Scutari in N. Albania. This became the first cultural 
centre; evidence of this is Bishop John Buzuk's 
Liturgy of 1555, and the 17th century religious 
works of Budi, Bardhi and Bogdani. Literary 
activity,, tolerated by the Turks in the Catholic 



North, was suppressed in the Muslim centre and the 
Orthodox South, but took root among the exile 
colonies cf Sicily and Calabria. Matranga, descendant 
of the exiles, began a tradition of hymn-writing 
using folk-rhythms (1592), which was continued by 
Brancato (1675-1741) and the Calabrian Variboba 
(born 1725). The movement became secular with 
the folksongs and rhapsodies of De Rada (1813-1903), 
an ardent spokesman of Albanian liberation, and 
was continued well into the present century by Zef 
Schiro (1865- 1927), Sicilian-born author of two 
allegorical epics and a collector of folksongs. 

The work of de Rada was helpful in inspiring three 
Tosk patriots, the brothers Abdyl, Sami and Nairn 
Frasheri, to form a league at Prizrend in 1878. 
Under the stimulus of the San Stefano settlement 
they sought Albanian autonomy and literary freedom. 
After several years of activity in Istanbul, where 
they were joined by the lexicographer and Bible 
translator Kristoforidhi (1827-1895), they were 
forced into exile. At Bucharest Abdyl the politician, 
Sami the educationist, and Nairn, the Bektashi 
lyricist of Albanian nostalgia, formed a literary 
society and printed Albanian books from 1885 
onward. Thimi Mitko and Spiro Dine, exiles in 
Egypt, collected folksongs from the local colony. 
In Sofia Midhat Frasheri, son of Abdyl, published 
an almanach, an anthology and a journal, and 
wrote didactic essays and short stories with a 
moral. Books printed in exile were smuggled into 
Albania by caravan. 

The absence of a literary centre, and the want of 
a standard alphabet, hampered the movement, and 
Sami's difficult phonetic spelling was replaced by 
a digraphic one resembling that of A. Santori of 
Calabria and the linguist Dh. Camarda (1821-1882) 
of Sicily. After independence in November 1912 the 
various literary currents combined. A. Drenova 
(born 1872), the Tosk lyricist, Bubani, and L. 
Poradeci (born 1899) continued the Bucharest 
tradition, the last in an unorthodox style of his own; 
the Catholic North was represented by the nostalgic 
F. Shiroka (1847-1917), the linguist and historian 
A. Xanoni (1863-1915), N. Mjeda (1866-1937), the 
satirist Gj. Fishta (1871-1940), the folk-poet and 
elegist V. Prennushi (1885-1946), and the short- 
story writer E. Koliqi (born 1903). Foqion Ppstoli, 
and M. Grameno (1872-1931), the Tosk novelists, 
Kristo Floqi (born 1873), the dramatist, and F. 
Konitza (1875-1943) transferred their activity to 
Boston, U.S.A., where a literary society Vatra, and 
a journal Dielli ("The Sun") were founded in 1912. 

The brief fascist regime (1939-1943) attracted a 
few writers with pro-Italian leanings; the present 
communist regime encourages writing on the 
partisan movement, the class struggle, work themes 
and peace. Textbooks are based on Russian models. 
There are three active theatres and a writers' union. 
This activity is paralleled in Kosovo-Metohija, 
where the communist themes are Titoist. 

3. — Geography. Albania (Shqipni, Shqipgrl) lies 
on a N-S axis 20 E of Greenwich. With a total area 
of 11,097 square miles (28,748 sq. km.) it is bounded 
by Yugoslavia, Greece and the Adriatic. Lying 
between N Latitudes 39° 38' and 40° 41', its total 
length is 207 miles. It narrows to 50 miles at Peshkopi, 
and widens to 90 miles at the lake of Little Presba. 
Its ten prefectures formerly had 39 subprefectures, 
now redrawn and renamed as 34 districts. Continuing 
the limestone formation of the Dinaric Alps, the 
terrain is highest in the E, reaching some 7,000 feet 
in places. Of the western lowlands, some below sea- 



ARNAWUTLUK 



level, the largest is the fertile Myzeqeja plain. The 
longest river, the Drin, rises in Lake Ohri (Ochrida), 
and flows N-W and S-W to the Adriatic below 
Shengjin. The Mat, Ishem, Arzen, Semen-Devoll- 
Berat and the Vijose flow in general N-W, but the 
Shkumb!, a torrent in winter, flows broadly E to W 
dividing the country into two roughly equal areas, 
Gegnija and Toskerija. 

The mountain massif consists of three north-to- 
south barriers in Gegnija, and four N-W to S-E 
parallel ranges in Toskerija. The highest mountain 
is Tomorr near Berat (7,861 feet: 2396 metres). 
Denudation and deforestation have given the 
country a bare, rugged character. The lakes of 
Shkoder (Scutari), Ohri and Presba are only partly 
in Albania; Terbuf in the central plain is a marsh, 
and Malik, below Korcg, has been drained. 

Durres (Durazzo) is the main port, with wharves 
and a shipyard; Valona has a fine natural harbour, 
and handles refined oil and bitumen; Saranda is a 
fishing port, and Shengjin handles ore. Chief towns 
are Tirane, the capital (100,000), Shkoder (35,000). 
Korce (25,000), Durres (16,000), Vlore or Valona 
(15,000) and Gjinokaster or Gjirokaster (12,000). 
Railways (80 miles) link Tirane with Durres, Peqin 
and Elbasan, but most towns are reached by road. 

Climate ranges from European in the high country 
to sub-tropical in the S-W, and the vegetation is 
Mediterranean. Forests, mainly deciduous, include 
hornbeam, turkey oak, sumach, avellan oak, holm 
oak, jujube and celtis. The foothill scrub includes 
arbutus, bush heather, pomegranate and juniper. 
Densest forests are at Mamuras near Kruja. 

Bibliography: M. Lambertz, Albaniuhes 

Lesebuch, Parts I and II (Albanian Grammar, 

Texts and Translation into German), Leipzig 1948; 

S. E. Mann, Albanian Literature, An Outline of 

Prose, Poetry and Drama, London 1955; idem, 

A Short Albanian Grammar, London 1932; idem, 

An English-Albanian Dictionary, Cambridge 1957; 

S. Skendi, Albania {Statistical, Historical, Political, 

etc.), New York and London 1957. 

(S. E. Mann) 

4.— Population. 

According to the census of 1955 the population of 
Albania was 1,394,310 (in 1930 it was 1,003,097). 
Outside Albania there are Albanians in Yugoslavia 
(750,000 according to the Yugoslav census in 1948), 
in Greece (estimated between 30-60,000) and in 
Italy (estimated at 150-250,000). The number of 
Albanians bv birth all over the world is estimated at 
3 millions (see Albania, ed. S. Skendi, New York 
19561 50). According to the 1930 census there were 
45,000 Vlachs, 35,000 Slavs, 20,000 Turks and 
ij.ooo Greeks in Albania. Approximately 20 percent 
of Albania's total population lived in towns in 
1949-50. In the same year the larger towns were 
Tirana, the capital, with an estimated population 
of 80,000 (in 1930, 30,806), Shkoder 34.000, Korce 
24,000, Durres 16,000, Elbasan 15 000, Vlore 15,000, 
Berat 12,000, Gjinokaster 12,000. 

The Albanians are divided into twc principal 
ethnic groups: The Gegs to the North of the Shkumbi 
River and the Tosks to the South. The Turks called 
these two regions Gegallk and Toskallk. Not only in 
their dialects but also in the outlook and social 
behaviour the Gegs differ from the Tosks. The Gegs 
are considered as keeping national characteristics 
purer than the Tosks. 

Generally speaking the barren mountains of Al- 
bania provided too little for an increasing population 
to subsist. Especially when an epidemic decimated 



livestock, the helpless people had no choice but to emi- 
grate or to fall upon neighbouring plains. They usually 
went out as mercenaries, shepherds or agriculturists. 
Toward the middle of the 14th century the Al- 
banians, under the pressure of the Serbs or as 
mercenaries of feudal seigneurs in Greece, migrated 
and settled in Epirus, Thessaly, Morea and even in 
the Aegean Islands. There most of the Albanians 
were gradually graecised, or migrated to Southern 
Italy under the pressure of the Ottomans later on. 
But about 1466 in Thessaly there were still Albanian 
districts in the towns as well as 24 Albanian ftatunes 
in Livadia (Lebadea) and 34 in Istifa (see my Fdtih 
Devri, Ankara 1954, 146). Under the Ottomans these 
Itatunes had a special status and, later, are known 



When Iskender-beg died in 1468 a number of the 
Albanians involved in his struggle against the 
Ottomans either retired to the mountains or migrated 
to the kingdom of Naples. In 1478, 1481 and 1492 
more Albanians migrated to Southern Italy and 
Sicily where they preserved their language and 
customs down to the present day. 

In the 15th century the Ottoman government 
transferred some Albanian itmar-holders [see tImAr] 
of the feudal families (Mazeraki and Keykal) to 
Trebizond. 

No large Turkish settlement is recorded in Albania 
except a small number of exiles from Konya, locally 
called Konici. There are also the Yuruks of Kodja- 
djlk on the mountains to the East of Dibra where 
they were stationed apparently to safeguard the 
Rumeli- Albania highway. The surguns (the deported), 
sent c. 1410 from such parts of Anatolia as Sarukhan, 
Kodja-ili, Djanik were also few in number (see 
Sureti Defter-i Sandidk-i Arvanid, index). 

The second significant expansion of Albanians in 
Rumeli occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries. They 
came to settle in the plains of Djakovg (Yakova), 
Prizren, Ipek (Pec), Kalfcandelen (Tetovo) and 
Kossovo, especially after the mass migration of the 
Serbs from these areas in 1690. It seems that 
Albanian settlement was mostly the result of the 
land mukdfa'a system (see my Tanzimat nedirl, in 
Tarih Arastlrmalari, Ankara 1942) prevailing there 
in this period. Albanians came to lease small tracts 
of lands from big mukdfa'a owners in these rich 
plains and settled there as tenants permanently. 

As for the Vlachs in Albania, they had lived a 
pastoral life on the mountains of North Albania side 
by side with the Albanians since the Slavic invasion 
in the 7th century and they took part in the Albanian 
expansion from the nth century onwards. In the 
Ottoman Register of 835/1431 we find the Vlachs 
and their batunes (E/laft-katune) in Southern Albania 
especially in the region east to Kanina. 

The Albanian tribes to the North of the Drin 
River are called by the general term of Malj-i-sor 
(highlanders). Toward 1881 there were 19 tribes 
belonging to this group with a population of 35.000 
Roman Catholics, 15,000 Muslims and 220 Greek 
Orthodox. The most famous tribes among them were 
Hotti, Klementi, Shkreli, Kastrati, Kocaj, Pulati, 
living on the mountains east of Scutari. 

It seems that during the Ottoman conquest of 
Albania from 1385 to the end of the 15th century 
the rebellious clans had to retire once more to the 
most rugged parts of the highland;. Their reap- 
pearance in the lowlands coincided later with 
the weakening of Ottoman control in the pro- 
vinces in the 17th century, and, later on, they 
became "the terror of Rumeli". 



652 



ARNAWUTLUK 



From the beginning the Ottoman government 
had to respect the tribal organisation arid autonomy 
of these tribes. As they had actual control of the 
important mountain passe*: from Rumeli into Albania 
the government charged them with the guardianship 
of these passes and in return for these services made 
them exempt from taxation. A regulation dated 
1496 (Basbakanllk Archives, Istanbul, Tapu Def. 
no. 26) reads as follows: "The nahiye of Klemente 
(Klementi) consists of five villages. Their inhabitants 
of Christian faith pay one thousand ahia of kharddj, 
and one thousand ahia of ispendje to the Sandjakbegi 
and they are exempted from 'ushr and l awdrid-i 
diwdni and other taxes, but they are made derbenddji 
(guardians cf the passes) on the route Scutari- 
Petrishban's territory-Altun-ili as well as the route 
Medun-Kuca-Plava". Later in the 17th century the 
Klementi caused troubles through their depredations 
in Rumeli and their co-operation with the rebellious 
tribes of Montenegro (Karadagh). 

To the south of Drin lived the Mirdite tribe, 
32,000 in number (in 1881) and all Roman Catholics. 
They were divided into five clans called bayrafrs, 
namely Oroshi, Fandi, Spashi, Kushneni, Dibri. 
Distinguished by their service to the Ottomans 
against the Venetians in 1696, the Hotti were 
promoted to the first place among the clans. Their 
bayrak headed all the others. But today the Shale 
tribe is the chief. 

In tribal tradition the origin of the bayraks goes 
back to the Ottomans. In fact it was an Ottoman 
institution to give a bayrak or a sandjak to military 
chiefs as a symbol of authority. Each clan was under 
a bayrakddr i.e. standard-bearer, who was a hered- 
itary chief. The public affairs of the clan were decided 
in the council of the hereditary elders. In order to 
discuss general affairs the five clans had their 
annual meeting at Orosh. A bdliik-bashl, appointed 
by the Ottoman governor, arranged all kinds of 
affairs between the administration and the clans. 
The "captains" of the five clans of Mirdite claimed 
to descend from Leke Dukagjin who played an 
outstanding rfile in Iskender-beg's struggle against 
the Ottomans. Leke' Dukagjin is believed to have 
codified the customary law practiced among the 
tribes, which is called Kanuni i Leke Dukagjinit 
(A. Sh. K. Gjecov, Kanuni i Leke Dukagjinit, 
Shkoder 1933). 

These tribes used to send to the Ottoman army 
an auxiliary force composed of one man per house- 
hold, an Ottoman practice which was also applied 
to the Yiiruks and the Kurds. When from the end 
of the 1 6th century onwards the empire came to 
need more troops for its lengthy wars the Albanian 
auxiliaries seemed to gain an increasing importance. 
They were used especially in the local wars against 
the Montenegrins. The Mirdite were regarded as the 
bravest soldiers in Rumeli. But at the same time 
H. Hequard (1855) calls them "the greatest plunderers 
in the world". In 1855 when the Tanzimdt administra- 
tion attempted to disarm them and enrol them in 
the regular army they rose up and infested the 
Zadrima (Zadrime) area with the result that the next 
year the government gave up these attempts. Later 
the Mirditan chief Prenk Bib Doda played an im- 
portant part in the Albanian independence movement 
(1908). The "Republic of Mirdite", proclaimed under 
Yugoslav auspices in 1921, collapsed the next year. 

5.— Religion. 

According to the Italian statistics of 1942 (see, 
Albania, ed. S. Skendi, 58) out of a total population 



of 1,128,143, 779,417 were Muslims, 232,320 Orthodox 
and 116,259 Catholics. The only significant Catholic 
group is located in the Shkoder (Scutari) district, 
while large Orthodox groups live in the districts of 
Gjinokaster (Argyroka«tro), Korce (Kbrice), Berat 
and Vlore (Avlona). Muslims are spread all over the 
country, but mostly in the Central Albania. 

Albania which became attached to the Partriar- 
chate of Constantinople in 732 A.D., was split 
between Rome and Constantinople in 1054, the 
northern part coming under the jurisdiction of 
Rome. The Normans and the Angevins strengthened 
Catholicism in the country; Antivari was the seat 
of the Archbishop of Albania and Durazzo that of 
Macedonia. 

Orthodox Albania was dependent directly on the 
Archbishopric of Ohrida. As the protectors of the 
Orthodox Church the Ottomans, even before their 
restoration of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 
1454, favoured Orthodoxy against Catholicism. 
However, for political reasons the Porte tolerated 
the Catholic church in Albania. The Albanian lords 
wavered between East and West according to the 
political conditions. The Orthodox Albanian immi- 
grants to southern Italy had their own Uniate 
church recognising the Pope's supremacy. According 
to the Ottoman year-book of 1895 there were, in 
the province of Yanya (Epirus and Albania south 
of the Devoll River), 223,885 Muslims, 118,033 
Greeks, 129,517 Orthodox Albanians, 3,517 Jews 
and only 93 Roman Catholics. It must be added that 
a part of these Greeks were in origin Orthodox 
Albanians graecised through the Greek religious and 
educational institutions which were zealously 
founded beginning with the second half of the 18th 
century. After the independence of Albania an 
autocephalous Orthodox church of Albania was 
finally recognised by the Patriarchate (1937). The 
first converts to Islam were the Albanian feudal 
lords holding timdrs from the Ottomans. Contrary 
to what is generally held conversion was not required 
as a condition for keeping their lands as timdrs; 
allegiance to the Ottoman state was sufficient in 
order to receive timdrs. Throughout the 15th century 
Christians were granted timdrs. By the end of the 
15th century, however, only a few Christian timar- 
holders were left because of voluntary conversions. 
Elbasan, built by Mehemmed II in 870/1466, became 
a Mu?lim centre from the outset, as did Yenishehir 
in Thessaly. It appears, however, that Islam had 
then only a few converts among the common people, 
ra'dyd. At the beginning of the 16th century in four 
sandjaks of Albania (Elbasan, Ohri, Awlonya and 
Iskenderiye) there were about three thousand 
Muslim ra l dya families. In Catholic sources written 
around 1622 it was estimated that only one thirtieth 
of the Albanian population was Muslim. During the 
17th century the Venetians and Austrians attempted 
to foment an insurrection of the Catholic Albanians 
as well as the Orthodox Serbs who wire feeling 
hostile to the government because of an increase in 
the djizyr. In 1614 at a meeting of church dignitaries 
at Ku£i it was decided to ask for aid from the Pope. 
Toward 1622 the first Franciscan missionaries 
appeared in Albania and Southern Serbia. Albanian 
Catholics and the Serbs co-operated with the Venet- 
ians in 1649 and with the Austrians in 1689-1690, 
which made the Porte decide to have recourse to 
retaliatory measures. To escape these, the Christian 
populations in the plains of Pet, Prizren, Djakove 
and Kossovo, who were partly Albanian, migrated 
in mass or adopted Islam; but many of them became 



ARNAWUTLUtf 



653 



•Crypto Christians, locally called laramani (motley). 
The albanisation and islamisation of these plains 
went hand in hand in the 17th and rSth centuries. 

Conversion to Islam received a new impetus under 
the Bushatlls and 'All Pasha [q.v.] of Tepedeien, 
According to tlie contemporary witnesses, the latter 
forced a number of villages to adopt Islam. He is 
believed to have been a BektashI himself and in his 
time Bektashism (see bektAshiyya) made its greatest 
progress in Albania. Under King Zog its adherents 
were estimated at about 200,000. With its prosperous 
Ukkes in Tiran, Akcahisar (the old centre of the 
Bektashls), Berat, and on the Tomor mountain, as 
well as its central organisation in the capital, 
Bektashism assumed importance in Albania. During 
the Congress of Korcfi in ioig the Bektashis sought 
to establish a community of their own, separate 
from t lie So mils, flits was to be accomplished only 
under the Communist regime in 1943. 

Islam played an essential part in ottomanising 
the Albanians, and the Christian Albanians often 
referred to their Muslim compatriots as Turks. On 
the other hand Islam prevented the Albanians from 
being assimilated by her Greek or Slavic neigh- 
bours. It is asserted that under the veneer of 
Christianity as well as Islam the primitive religious 
beliefs survived with the Albanians, especially in 
the highlands. 

6.— History, 

The Illyrian origin of the Albanian people is 
generally admitted, but their ethnic relationships to 
the Thracians, Epirots and the Pelasgians are still 
subject to argument. The Illyrian tribes first came 
into contact with Greek culture, through the Greek 
colonies founded on the Albanian coastland, in the 
7th century B.C. The principal one was Epidamnos 
near Durazzo (Durres). The Ulyrians formed their 
first independent political organization in the third 
century B.C. Conquered by the Romans in 167 B.C., 
they were subject to strong Roman influence for 
centuries. The Roman highway to the Orient, Via 
Egnatia, started at Dyrrachium (Durres) and 
followed the Shkumbi valley. Ptolemy mentions, 
for the first time, the AXp«voi among Illyrian tribes 
and their capital AXfJavoTtoXtc, (near Croya). In the 
7th century the invasion of Albania by the Slavs 
put an end to the romanisation of the Albanians 
who retired to the mountains in north Albania to 
live a pastoral life for half a millennium. In the qth 
and 10th centuries the Bulgarian empire extended 

(Greek Dyrrachion), and toward the end of the rath 
century the Serbs under Neman] a occupied northern 
Albania. The long coexistence with the agriculturist 
Slavs left a deep cultural imprint on the Albanian 
people. Finally, Emperor Basil II restored Byzantine 
rule in southern Albania, and conquered Dyrrachion 
{1005) which had been the capital of the By2antine 
tbtma of Dyrrachion since the 9th century. When 
toward the middle of the nth century the control 
of Byzantium was weakened in the provinces the 
Albanians came out from their mountain retreats. 
From this time on, the Albanians, who were then 
located between the lines of Skodra (Shkoder)- 
Dyrrachion and Ohrida-Prizren, are seen to be 

'AXpavot or 'AppaviTat in Greek, Arbanenses or 
Albanenses in Latin and Arbattaci in Slavic sources. 
The Ottomans first used the Greek form Arvanid 
and then its turcicised versions Arnavud and Araaamt. 
Again from the nth century on, Albania became 



a bridge-head for feudal Europe to attack the 
Byzantine empire. Dyrrachion was temporarily 
taken by the Normans in 108 1 and 1185, and by the 
Venetians in 1304. Then, it came into the possession 
of the Despot of Epirus, Theodore Angelus (1215- 
1230). In 1272 Charles of Anjou occupied Dyrrachion 
as well as the rest of the Albanian coastland, and 
called himself the "King of Albania", This started 
a long struggle between the Byzantines and the 
Angevins in Albania. 

Anatolian Turks, as a result of their alliance with 
the Byzantine emperor, first came to know Albania 
in 737/1337. During the Byzantine civil war the Al- 
banian highlanders had increased their depredations in 
Albania, taken Timoron (Timorindje), and threatened 
the other Byzantine strongholds, Kanina, Belgrade 
(Berat) Klisura and Skarapar. In order to establish his 
control in Albania as well as in Epirus, Andronicus III 
entered that province with an army which included 
a Turkish auxiliary forci;. It was scut hi his ally 
Umur Beg, ruler of Ay din. The army overran the 
country as far as Durazzo (Dyrrachion). The rebels 
who retired into the mountains suffered great losses 
at the hands of the Turks. The Turks returned home 
through Thessaly and Boeotia (Cantacuzenus), 

Before long Stephan Dushan occupied Albania 
(Croya in 13+3, Central Albania 1343 1346). This 
seems to have accelerated the migration of Albanians 
into Greene. Native Albanian feudals and soldiers 
joined Dushan in his conquests further south (L. von 
Thalloczy— C, Jirecek, Zmei Urkundtn . . ., 85). The 
voyniks whom we later find in Albania under the 
Ottomans settled there apparently with Dushan at 
this time. When in r355 Dushan's empire collapsed, 
local feudal lords, Slav, Albanian or Byzantine in 
origin, appeared in all parts of Albania. Soon the 
Balshas (Balshici), in the north and the Thopias in 
the centre emerged as the most powerful of these 
lords. The Balshas possessed the coastland between 
Durazzo and Cattaro, and tried to secure control of 
a large area as far Prizren. They came into conflict 
with Twrtko, king of Bosnia, as well as with the Serbs 
who sought to bring this region, Zeta, again under 
their control. Soon the Balshas, who had already 
settled themselves in Avlona, Belgrade and Kanina, 
threatened Carlo Thopia in Durazzo. He asked for 
help from the Ottoman Turks in 787/1385, as their 
udj (frontier) units had appeared near Yannina 
already in 783/1381. Balsha II was defeated and 
killed by an Ottoman army at Savra (on the Vijose 
River in Myzeqe) on 12 Sha'ban 787/18 September 
^85, This is recorded in Ottoman chronicles as the 
expedition to "Karii-ili", that is "the land of Karli" 
(Carlo Thopia), and it is dated correctly as 787/1385. 
The Albanian lords, including Balsha's heirs, recog- 
nised the Sultan's overlordship. The Dukagjini of 
Alessio notified the Ragusans of their peace with the 
Ottomans in 789/1387. Alarmed by the Ottoman 
advance, Venice sent Daniel Cornaro to Murad I to 
protect Thopia (Ramadan 789/October ^87), but 
on the other hand started negotiations with Thopia 
to take over the city. Thus the long Venetian- 
Ottoman rivalry over Albania had begun. As a 
vassal of the Sultan, Gjergj Stratsimirovic, Balsha's 
heir in Scutari (Shkoder) and Dulcigno, now wished 
to profit from the Ottomans in his conflict with the 
Bosnians. Kefalia ghahin (in Turkish chronicles 
Kavala Shahiti, latsr ijhihab al-DIn Shahln Pasha) 
an udx-beci and probably subaM of Liaskovik, 
embarked on a series of successful raids into Bosnia; 
but he was finally defeated by Bosnians near 
Trebinje 23 Sha'ban 790/27 August 1388). According 



654 



ARNAWUTLUK 



to Neshri, this expedition was made at the request 
of the "Lord of Skutari" (G. Stratsimirovic) who 
after Shahin's defeat was accused of a secret under- 
standing with the enemy. After their victory at the 
Kossovo plain (791/1389) the Ottomans made 
Skoplje (Uskiib) a strong frontier centre by settling 
there the Turks from Sarukhan under Pasha- Yigit 
(toward 793/1391). Then Shahln came back and 
drove out G. Stratsimirovic from Scutari, and 
St. Sergius (1393-1395) who had returned to the 
Venetians for protection. Venice for its part took 
Alessio, Durazzo (1393), Drivasto (1396), all given 
up by the native lords for a yearly pension. The 
Ottomans too tried to keep the local lords on their 
side by" guaranteeing them their lands as timdrs. 
Thus Dimitri Yonima (Gionima), Konstantin Balsha, 
Gjergj Dukagjin as Turkish vassals all co-operated 
with Shahin against the Venetians. 

The establishment of the Ottoman rule in Albania 
with its tahrir (see Tapu) and tlmdr [q.v.] system 
started first in the region of Premedi (Premete) and 
Korce (Korice). The regular Ottoman administration 
with its subashts and kddis in townr and sipdhis in 
villages is found there in the records going back to 
the time of Bayazid I (Basvekalet Archives, Istanbul, 
Maliye no. 231). This must have followed the Otto- 
man expeditions in Albania in 796/1394 and 799/ 
1397. The Ottoman records also show that Akcahisar 
(Croya, Kruje) was granted tax exemption in the 
same period. Albanian forces under Coia Zaccaria, 
Dimitri Yonima, Gjergj Dukagjin and Dushmani were 
present at the battle of Ankara in 804/1402. Upon 
the collapse of Bayazid's empire in 1402, many of 
these Albanian lords (Ivan Kastriot, Coia Zaccaria, 
Niketa Thopia) recognised Venetian suzerainty. 
When in 1403 Georg Stratsimirovic died, Venice, 
which had already taken Scutari, seized a part of 
his heritage — Dulcigno, Antivari and Budua. But 
his son Balsha, supported by Stephan Lazarevic and 
Vuk Brankovid of Serbia embarked upon a long 
struggle against Venice. The latter finally reached 
an agreement on Albanian affairs with their suzerain, 
Emir Suleyman (19 Djumada I, 812/29 September 
1409). Then Pasha-Yigit of Uskiib forced Ivan 
Kastriot to submit to the Sultan's suzerainty (813/ 
1410). In the South the Ottomans supported 
Albanian Spatas against the Toccos. Finally war 
was declared against Venice during which the 
Ottomans made the real conquest of Albania from 
Northern Epirus to Croya (Akcahisar) and formed 
the province of Arvanid-ili or Arnavud-ili (818-20/ 
1415-1417). 

The conditions which the Ottoman conquest 
brought into the country can be fully ascertained 
with the help of the details contained in the timdr 
register of 835/1432 (S&ret-i dejter-i Sancdk-i Arvanid, 
ed. H. Inalcik, Ankara 1954). The names of various 
regions in the register frequently contains references 
to the chief feudal families who were vassals of the 
Ottoman- about 819/1416: Yuvan-ili (land of Kas- 
trioti), Balsha-ili (east of Kavaje and south of 
Shkumbi), Gionomaymo-ili (North of Pekin), Pavlo- 
Kurtik-ili (the Jilema Valley), Kondo-Miho-ili (area 
west of Elbasan), Zenebish-ili (Zenebissi, Gjinokaster 
and its surroundings), Bogdan-Ripe-ili (north of Elba- 
san), Ash tin-ili (Premete). Besides these great families, 
many smaller Christian feuda'.s kept some of their 
lands as timdrs. Among them we may mention 
Dobrile (in Cartolos), Simos Kondo (in Kokinolisari), 
Bobza Family (Gion and his sons Ghin and Andre in 
the Village of Bobza or Bubes), Karli family (Matja). 
This kind of timdrs constituted 16 per cent of all the 



Hmar-holders in Arvanid-ili. Conversion to Islam, 
was not considered necessary for possession of tlmdr. 
One Metropolid in Belgrade (Berat) and three 
Peskopos in Kanina, Akcahisar and Cartolos were 
given their former villages as timdrs. The Turkish 
population in the province consisted only of the 
military and religious personnel. The Turkish tlmdr- 
holders with their men did not exceed 800 in number. 
The whole sandjak was distributed among about 
300 ttmar-holders who lived in the villages or 
castles, namely, Argirikasrl (Argyrocastro, Gjino- 
kaster), Kanina, Belgrade, Iskarapar, Bratushesh 
or Yenidje-kale and Akcahisar. Argirikasrl (later 
on Argiri or Ergiri) became the seat of the sandjak- 
begi and in each county {wildyet) centre there was a 
subashl and kddi. The revolutionary step taken by 
the Ottoman state was that it considered almost 
all the agricultural lands as owned by the state, 
because only such a system would enable it to apply 
its timdr system. The peasants, therefore, must have 
had the feeling that they were under an impersonal 
central government as compared to their close 
dependence upon the feudal lords under the old 

In the north, the Ottomans supported first, 
Balsha III, and upon his death (824/1421), Stephan 
Lazerevid of Serbia, against Venice, which finally 
had to return to Stephan, Drivasto, Antivari and 
Budua (826/1423). In the south the Despot Carlo 
Tocco died in 832/1429 and Murad II, taking advan- 
tage of the conflict between his heirs, took Yannina 
(Muharram 834/October 1430). After that a new 
land and population survey of Albania was effected 
(Sha c ban 835/spring 1432) which meant the 
tightening of the Ottoman administrative control 
there. This survey may be regarded as the real 
starting-point of the long Albanian resistence during 
the subsequent decades. Moreover it demonstrates 
the real character of the rebellion. Firstly some of 
the villages in the mountainous Kurvelesh and 
Bzorshek areas refused to be registered. In a few 
places they even killed their Ottoman ttmar-holders. 
Great feudal lords such as Ivan (Yuvan) Kastriot 
in the north, Arianites (Araniti, Arnit) Comnenus 
in the Argirikasrl region, had to give up considerable 
parts of their lands for distribution to the Ottoman 
sipdhis as timdrs. First Araniti took up arms, killed 
many sipdhis in the autumn of 836/1432, and 
Thopia Zenebissi besieged Argirikasrl. Alfonso V. of 
Naples, Venice and Hungary encouraged the rebels, 
who defeated 'AH, son of Evrenuz, governor of 
Albania, at the Bzorshek pass. Encouraged by these 
developments Christian lords in central and northern 
Albania joined the rebellion. Finally in 837/1434 
all the forces of Rumeli under Sinan Beg, governor- 
general of Rumeli, combined to put an end to 
this dangerous rebellion which was giving hope to 
Hungary of a new Crusade. But Araniti managed 
to escape to the mountains. The additional records 
made after 836/1432 in the defter of Arvanid-ili 
indicate that the rebellion did not affect the Ottoman 
control of the country to any considerable extent. 
A great majority of the Ottoman and Christian 
rtmdr-holders remained in possession of their timdrs. 
It appears that mostly the highlanders co-operated 
with the feudal families who had matrimonial 
connexions with their chieftains. 

From 847/1443 onwards Iskenderbeg [q.v.], the 
son-in-law of Araniti, assumed the leadership of the 
rebellion; his unusual energy and boldness, and the 
international situation which obtained at the time, 
character of international 



ARNAWUTLUK 



significance. Setting aside the legend that has 
grown up around his person, it must be emphasised 
that the origin and the motives of his rebellion were 
not different from those of the other Albanian lords. 
Appointed subashi of Akcahisar (Croya) about 843/ 
1438, he was dismissed in 1440. He wished to recover 
Croya and his father's lands in their entirety and to 
possess them as a feudal lord, not as a ftmir-holder. 
It is true that he made an alliance with other feudal 
families, Thopias, Balshas, Dukagjini, Dushmani, 
Lecca Zaccarla and Araniti (The Ales? to Meeting, 
ist March 1444), but the idea of an Albania unified 
by a national leader is far from reality. He controlled 
Only northern Albania while central and southern 
Albania always remained under Ottoman control. 
Subashk and sandja^-begs, based on ArgirikasrI 
(Gjinokaster),Ohrida or Belgrade (Berat) tried to 
suppress him with local forces. He waged guerilla 
warfare all the time. Many of the battles described 
by Marino Barlezio with such fantastic figures were 
nothing but local clashes. Kkender-beg's own 
forces seem never to exceed 3,000 By the treaty 
of 36th March 1451 he became vassal of Alfonso V 
of Naples and surrendered Croya to the king's men. 
Araniti, who had claims on southern Albania 
(Vagenetia, Valoua, Kanina) followed his example. 
Araniti was authorised by the king to accept in his 
name oaths of allegiance by other Albanian lords. 
So Zenebissi and others also became Alfonso's vassals. 
In return, the King agreed to grant a yearly pension 
varying between 300 and r40o ducats to each of 
these vassals and to provide them a place to take 
refuge in care of danger. This simple eha>ige of 
masters was obviously determined by the fact that 
the Aragonese system appeared much more favourable 
than- the Ottoman regime to the Albanian feudals. But 
as witnessed by a contemporary Aragonese document, 
"the common people had hardly any complaints 



against the Ottoman administration", (see C. 
Marinesco, Atphonse VIII., MU. de VtcoU Roum. en 
France, Paris r()33, 104). A timdr register made in 
87^466-67 included Dibra, Dlgobrdo, Rjeka, Mat 



and Cermentfea {i 
Maliye no. 508). It is therefore seen that after 
Mehemmed II 's [f.tr.] expedition in 870^466, the 
timdr system was extended into these areas. Whatever 
his real motives may have been, Iskender-beg, who 
defied, in his mountains, Murad II (in 853/1448 and 
854/ r 450) and Mehemmed II (in 870/1466 and 87 r/ 
14(17), was also glorified in his time as "Champion 
of Christ", by the Pope, and as the Albanian National 
hero, by the nationalists in the 19th century. 

During the Ottoman- Venetian war of 1463-1479 
Albania became one of the main scenes of operation. 
Finally the Ottomans were able to take Croya, 
Drivasto, Atessio and Jabljak (Jabyak) in 1478, 
Scutari in 1479, and Durazzo in rsoi. Alessio (Lesh), 
which the Ottomans lost during the war of 1499-1503, 
was retaken in 1509. After having failed in their 
attempts in 1538, the Ottomans finally took 
Antivari (Bar) and Dulcigno (Ulcinj, Olgiin) in 1571, 
and thus completed their conquest of Albania. 

It appears that up to the end of the 16th century 
Ottoman rule in Albania created a peaceful and 
prosperous era. Most of the old feudal families then 
adjusted themselves to the Ottoman regime, and 
even one of the Aranitis named 'AH beg had a large 
timdr around Kanina, ArgirikasrI and Belgrade 
toward 1506. 

Until about 87o/r466 Ottoman Albania was 
organised as a sandjak under the name of Arvanid 
(or Arnavud)-ili. Its subdivisions were the witdyets. 
of ArgirikasrI, Klisura, Kanina, Belgrade, Timor- 
indje, l-:k:u.xpAT, i»avk> Kurtiii, C.artalos and Ak- 
Cahisar. When in 1466 Mehemmed II erected the fort 
of Elbasan, this region was set up as a new sandj.a&. 



Sandjafrs 


Communities 


population 


Officials and soldiers** 


Ta, revenues 




i 


2 


J 


ll 


1 3 


| 

if 


f 
f 


* 


I 

it 
N 




1 




in a*& (one 
Venetian ducai 
was worth 52-6 

abta in this 


iskenderiye; Its £affa J divi- 
sions: Iskenderiye, Podgo- 
■idja, Bihor, Ipek, Prizrin, 
Karadagh. 


5 


6 


S95 


23,355 


3?r 


- 


1 


4 


s 


137 


? 


297 


4,392,910 


Awlonya; its kadd* divisions : 
Belgrade, Iskarapar, 
Premedi, Bogonya, 
Depedelen, ArgirikasrI, 
Awlonya. 


7 


7 




33,570* 


1,344* 


538* 

25 
in Belgrade 






68 


479 


654 


107 l «a& 


6,991,830 
in three badds 
ArgirikasrI, 
Awlonya and 
Belgrade 


Elbasan; its /pada* divisions: 
Elbasan, Cermenika, 


3 


* 


250 


8,916 


536 


? 


1 


3 


* 


109 


1,031 


400 


1,260,087 


lshbat, DIrac, 
























350 'azab 




Ohri; its kadil divisions: 
Ohri, Dibra, AkcahiEar, Mat, 


4 


6 


de- 


32,048 


623 


- 


1 


4 


e 


388 


655 


193 


3,947,949 



i, ArgirikasrI and Awlonya only. 
5, kethhuddi, kka(lbs, imams, or shaykhs, w 



e present almost in every town. 



656 ARNA\ 

Moreover in the south the sandiafy of Awlonya 
{Avlona) and in the east that of Ohri were created 
and in 1479 the sandiafr of Iskenderiye (Scutari) was 
formed in the north. The following is a list established 
on the basis of the surveys of 912/1506 and 926/1520. 
(Basv. Archives, Tapu no. 34 and 94), showing the 
administrative and military situation in the 16th 

A comparison of the survey of 835/1431 with those 
of the 16th century reveal the fact that everywhere, 
in towns and villages, the population more than 
doubled during the intervening period, and in 
consequence the tax revenues increased similarly. 
The following illustrates this for the principal towns. 



Towns 


1431 


The beginning of 
the 16th century 




c | 


■a 


si 


■3 
il 




ll 




it 


Argirikasrt 


121 


_ 


143 


_ 


Belgrade 


175 


— 


561 


11 




216 








Premedi 










Klisura 










Akcahisar 


125 


~ 


89 


65 



The Albanian towns, which numbered 19 in the 
four Albanian sandiafrs, were small local market- 
towns with populations varying between 1,000 and 
4,000. Only Awlonya (Avlona) became a commercial 
centre of some importance (population 4 to 5 
thousand). In order to further commerce, the govern- 
ment settled there a sizeable Jewish colony of the 
refugees from Spain (end of the 15th century). 
According to the Kdnun-ndme of Awlonya (see 
Arvanid Defteri, 123) the port handled goods 
imported from Europe, and velvets, brocades, 
mohairs, cotton goods, carpets, spices and leather 
goods came from Bursa and Istanbul. Some of the 
citizens of Awlonya even had business associates in 
Europe. Quite a large amount of tar and salt, 
produced near the city, was bought by state agencies 
at fixed prices. The tax income from Awlonya for 
the sultan's treasury alone amounted to about 32 
thousand gold ducats a year. A garrison and a 
small fleet were stationed there permanently (for 
vols. 7 and 8). It must be noted that the Ottomans 
Albanian towns circa 1081/1670 see Ewliya Celebi, 
continued the tax privileges of Akcahisar and 
Iskarapar which went back to Byzantine time* (see 
L. von Thall6czy-C. Jiretek, Zwti Urkunden aus 
Nordalbanien, Archiv fur slavische Phil, xxi, 1899, 83). 
The defter of 835/1431 reads as follows: "Let the 
inhabitants of Akcahisar guard the castle and be 
exempt from all kinds of taxation with the exception 
of kharddi". These tax exemptions were abolished 
toward the end of the 16th century. 

The Ottomans did not radically change the taxat- 
ion system which had existed in Albania under the 
Byzantines and the Serbs. Ispendfe, most probably 
a Serbian tax, was paid by every adult Christian 
male at the rate of 25 abla. The basic Ottoman taxes 
were the *ushr, which was actually one eighth of 
agricultural products, and the diizya. The Byzantine 
tax of two bushels of wheat and two of rye a year 



survived in some parts of Albania under the Otto- 
mans. So did fines called bad-i hated [q.v.], apparently 
an adaptation of Byzantine aerikon. Tavuk vt 
boghaca (Byzantine kaviskia) also survived in 
Albania as an l ddet. All these taxes except the 
diizya, which was collected for the sultan's treasury, 
were assigned to Hmar-holders. Under the Ottomans 
the rate of taxation seems not to have been lighter 
than before. But they abolished forced labour and 
determined, in advance, for each peasant, the amount 
of taxes due. Unlawful practices did exist, and the 
Kdnun-ndme of 1583 would seem to give a good idea 
concerning such abuse*. It states that no timdr- 
holder should subject his peasants to forced labour, 
make them carry hay for themselves, take their lands 
away without lawful reason, or force them to pay 
in cash the 'ushr, which was to be paid in goods. The 
commonest complaint of a semi-nomadic people was 
that they were liable to the sheep-tax more than 
once a year during their move from one pasture to 
another. 

At the beginning of the 16th century the public 
revenue in the sandiak of Iskenderiye (Scutari) 
amounted to 4,392,910 akia, half of which was 
assigned to the sultan and the other half to the 
sandiak-begi (449,913) and the Mmar-holders 
(i.776,ii8). 

The Albanians occupied an outstanding place in 
the ruling class of the empire. At least thirty Grand- 
Viziers can be identified as of Albanian origin — 
among them Gedik Ahmed, Kodja Dawud, Dukagin- 
zade Ahmed, Lutfl, Kara Ahmed, Kodja Sinan Pasha, 
Nasiih, Kara Murad, and Tarhoncu Ahmed. In the 
Kapl-kulu army, too, the Albanians were always 
present in great numbers. One obvious reason for 
it was that the dewshirme [q.v.] system was practised 
extensively in Alhania, as in Bosnia. 

Two fundamental changes in the structure of the 
empire, namely the disruption of the timdr system 
on the one hand, and the deterioration of the fiscal 
system on the other, had their impact on the situation 
in Alhania as elsewhere. The first change, which 
coincided with the weakening of the central authority 
at the end of the 16th century made possible the 
formation of large estates in the provinces, while the 
second made it necessary for the state to assess new 
taxes and to reform the diizya, which due to its 
increased rate, affected particularly the Christian 
population. The discontent is manifested especially 
in the rebellious attitude of the Catholic highlanders 
in Albania in the 17th and 18th centuries and in 
their co-operation with hostile powers. For example, 
the original tax of 1000 akia a year paid by the 
Klementi clan had become a trivial amount by the 
end of the 16th century due to the depreciation of the 
akia, and the government therefore wanted instead 
to assess the diizya at 1,000 gold coins. This/caused 
the rebellion of the trihes of northern Albania. 
They started to attack and plunder the plains of 
Rumeli as far as Filibe. In order to stop these 
depredations the Porte sent several armies against 
them and built a new castle near Gusinje. Their new 
uprising in 1638 was quelled by Dufe Mehmed Pasha 
(see Na c Ima, iii, 399-409). The Klementi, Kuci 
(Kcdaj), Piperi in the North, and the Himariots on 
the coastal range of Himara, co-operated also with 
the Austrian and Venetian armies during the wars 
of 1683-99, I7I4-8, 1736-9. 

On the other hand, as the central control weakened, 
the highlanders began to penetrate into Rumeli and 
even in Anatolia from the beginning of the 17th 
century. In the 18th century, pashas, begs and 



ARNAWUTLUK 



a l ydn everywhere took into their service these high- 
landers who were reputed to be the best mercenaries. 
They were organised in bdliiks of about ioo men 
under a bSluh-bashl, who, as a perfect condottiere, 
arranged everything for his men with the hirer. The 
part played by such bdliiks is well illustrated by the 
example of Mehrued Ali in Egypt. Many Albanians 
also joined the mountain bands in Rumeli, called 
Daghlt eshkiydsi or Klrladli. 

In the same period the lease system o' the state- 
owned lands {miri arddi mukdta'-asi} on the lowlands, 
coastal plains or inland basins, in Albania gave birth 
to the big land-owning class of a l ydn [q.v.]. These 
absentee land-lords used every means to obtain 
more and more mukdta'dt. Among them, the Bushatll 
family in the North, in the land of Gegs, and Tepe- 
delenli 'All Pasha (see £ Al! Pasha thpedelenli) 
(1744-1822) in the south, in the area of Tosks, 
emerged as semi-independent despots. The first 
Bushatll (in Turkish chroniclers Budiatll or BucatH), 
Mehmed Pasha, built up his power by acquiring 
large tnukdta'-at and by making an alliance with the 
Malisors, the Highlanders, and thus forced the Porte 
to confer him the governorship of Scutari (Ishkodra, 
Shkoder) (1779). After his death (1796), the Porte's 
attempt to get back these mukdta'dt caused his son 
Kara Mahmud Pasha [q.v.] to rebel. 'All Pasha, too, 
possessed about 200 estates {(iftliks). The Porte at 
first did not challenge the increasing power and 
authority of the Bushatlls and C AU Pasha, as they 
were rightly considered to check the domination of the 
local a'ydn, and the rivalry between these two 
pashas seemed to counterbalance each other. c Ali 
Pasha once tried to extend his control into the zone 
of the Bushatlls and fought them. Through his sons 
whom he managed to have appointed governors of 
Thessaly, Morea, Karli-ili he actually formed a semi- 
independent state in Albania and Greece. In 1820, 
when the central government finally took action 
against him, he rebelled, and instigated the Greeks 
to revolt. The power of the last Bushatll, named 
Mustafa Pasha, was destroyed only in 1832 by the 
reformed army of Mahmud II. The centralist policy 
of the Tanzimdt caused troubles with the autonomous 
tribes in North Albania. 

The "Albanian League for the Defence of the 
Rights of the Albanian Nation" had been set up at 
Prizren on June 13, 1878, only to influence the 
decisions of the Congress of Berlin ; but it proved to 
have great significance for the birth of an Albanian 
state later on. Encouraged by the Ottoman govern- 
ment at the beginning, the League set up resistance 
to the Montenegrins and Greeks in order to keep the 
Albanian provinces united (the four Ottoman 
wildyets of Yanya, Ishkodra, Manastlr and Kosova). 
But when the league tended to further the idea of 
an autonomous Albania, the Porte sent an army and 
dispersed the League (1881). The great powers, 
•especially Austria-Hungary and Italy, encouraged 
this autonomy movement with the purpose of 
-extending their influence over Albania while Russia 
was supporting Montenegro's territorial claims over 
Albania. On the other hand, by enlisting Albanians 
in his bodyguard and conferring special favours on 
them, <Abd al-Hamld II was trying to win Albanian 
support. But the Albanian intellectuals, in co- 
operation with the Young Turks in Paris and 
elsewhere, were anticipating an autonomous Albania. 
In 1908 the stand taken by the Albanians against 
'Abd al-Hamld at the Frizovik Meeting did actually 
help the Revolution to succeed. In the Ottoman 
Parliament the influential Albanian deputies, such 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



as Isma'il Kemal, Es'ad ToptanI, Hasan Prishtina, 
joined in the Hiirriyyet we Ptildf Party which 
sought decentralisation as against the centralist 
ottomanisation policy of the Ittihdd we Terakki Party. 
While the heated discussions on an Albanian educat- 
ional system was going on (the Congress of Manastlr, 
November 1908) an uprising broke out among the 
Albanian Highlanders who resisted the Ottoman 
government attempt to collect their arms. Finally, 
on 4th September 1912, the new Ottoman government 
accepted the Albanian demands for an autonomous 
administration. But the Balkan War completely 
changed the situation in the Balkans. A short time 
after the declaration of war, in November 1912, 
Isma'il Kemal declared the independence of Albania 
at Awlonya (Vlore). The London Conference pro- 
claimed Albania an autonomous principality under 
the guaranty of the six powers (29th July 1923); 
but the newly elected prince, Wilhelm von Wied, 
had soon to leave the country (3rd September 1914). 
After the first world war Serbia laid claims to 
Shkoder and Durres. Seeing their country dismem- 
bered, the Albanian leaders hastily convoked a 
congress at Lushnje (21st January 1920) and 
demanded the independence of Albania. A national 
government was formed in Tirana, and an Albanian 
partisan army drove out the Italians from Vlort. 
Italy finally recognised the independence of Albania 
with the treaty of Tirana (3rd August 1920). The 
small Albanian state experienced a tumultuous 
parliamentary life during the first years of its 
existence (1921-4). The Muslim land-owning beys of 
the western and central plains came into conflict 
with the Popular Party (under its leader Fan 
S. Noli). A revolution forced Ahmed Zog, the Prime 
Minister, to flee to Yugoslavia. With Yugoslav 
support he came back into power (24th December 
1924). A constituent Assembly proclaimed Albania 
a Republic and named Ahmed Zog (Zogu) President. 
He then signed a series of treaties with Italy (12th 
May 1925; 27th November 1926; 22nd November 
1927 and March 1936) putting the country practically 
under Italian protection. In September 1928 Zog 
was proclaimed the King of Albanians. He fled from 
Albania one day before the Italians invaded the 
country on April 6, 1939. 

Bibliography: Emile Legrand, Bibliographic 
albanaise, completed and published by Henri Guys, 
Paris 191 2; Jean G. Kersopoulos, Albanie, 
ouvrages et articles de revue parus de 1555 a 1034, 
ed. Flamma, Athens 1934; Herbert Louis, 
Albanien, Eine Landeskunde vornehmlich auf 
Grunde eigener Relsen, Stuttgart 1927; Antonio 
Baldacci, Studi speciali albanesi, 3 vols., Rome 
1932-33, 1938; Johann G. von Hahn, Albanesische 
Studien, Jena 1854; F. Nopcsa, Albanien. Bauten, 
Trachten und Gerdte Nordalbaniens, Berlin and 
Leipzig 1925; Hyacinthe Hequard, Histoire et 
Description de la Haute-Albanie ou Ghegarie, Paris 
1855; M. E. Durham, High Albania, London 1909; 
S. Gopcevtf ., Oberalbanien und Seine Liga, Leipzig 
1 881; Margaret Hasluck, The Unwritten Law in 
Albania, Cambridge 1954; Carleton S. Coon, The 
Mountains of Giants: A Racial and cultural Study 
of the North Albanian Mountain Ghegs, Cambridge, 
Mass. 1950; Ludwig von Thalloczy, lUyrisch- 
albanische Forschungen, Munich-Leipzig, 1916; 
Georg Stadtmiiller, Forschungen tur albanischen 
Friihgeschichte, Archivum Europae Centro-Orien- 
talis, vii/1941, 1-196; M. M. v. Sufflay, Srbi i 
Arbanasi, Belgrade 1925 ; N. Jorga, Breve Histoire 
de I' Albanie et du peupU albanais, Bucharest 1919; 



ARNAWUTLUK — 'ARRADA 



Fr. Pall, Marino Barletio. Uno storico umanista, 
histoire gtntraU, ii (Cluj 1938), 135-318; 
, Suret-i Defter-i Sancak-i Arvanid, 
Ankara 1954; idem, Timariotes chrttiens en Albanie 
au XV. Hide, MitteU., des oesterreichischen Staats- 
archivs, Vienna iv/1952, 118-38; idem, Iskender 
bey, I A cut 52; Stavro Skendi, Religion in Albania 
during the Ottoman Rule, in Siidostforschungen 
xv/1956, 311-27; Albania, S. Skendi (editor), New 
York 1956; the Ottoman chroniclers, Neshri, 
Urudj, ra>odja Sa<d al-DIn, Katib Celebi, Nalma, 
FlndlkUU Mehmed Agha, Rashid, Enweri, Djewdet 
Pasha, contain considerable information on 
Albania (for these see F. Babinger, OOW); for 
Ewliya Celebi, see F. Babinger, Evlifd Tschelebi's 
Reisewege in Albanian, Berlin 1930; for the last 
period under the Ottoman rule, see Y. H. Bayur, 
Turk Inkllabl Tarihi, pub. Turkish Historical 
Society, Ankara 1943-1956; T. W. Arnold, The 
Preaching of Islam, London 1935; J. K. Birge, 
The Bektashi Order of Dervishes, Hartford 1937, 
K. Sussheim, Arnavutluk, 



(Ha 



lIn, 



IK) 



ARNlT, Span. Arnedo, a small town in the 
province of Logroflo, chief town of a partido judicial ; 
it numbers about 10,000 inhabitants and is situated 
on the left bank of the Cicados, a tributary of the 
Ebro, about 22 m. (35 km.) from the capital. Arnedo 
is a toponym of Iberian origin which is found in the 
provinces of Burgos, Albacete and Logroflo, and 
which also occurs, in the last-named, in the diminu- 
tive form Amedillo. In the middle of the 6th/i2th 
century, Muslim Spain consisted, according to al- 
IdrJsI, of twenty-six climes (iklim) or regions, among 
which figured that of Arnedo, with the towns of 
Calatayud, Daroca, Saragossa, Huesca and Tudela. 
The only Arabic work which describes it is the al- 
Raa>4 al-Mifdr; according to this, it is "an ancient 
town of al-Andalus, 30 m. from Tudela, surrounded 
by rich cultivated plains. It is a place of great 
strength, and ranks among the most important. 
From this fortress one looks down on to Christian 
territory". Arnedo, Tudela and Ofiate were the 
principal towns of the seigniory of the Banfl Kasl. In 
308/920, ( Abd al-Rahman III, in the famous 
campaign, called the Muez campaign, against 
Navarre, occupied Calahorra, which had been 
conquered two years previously by Sancho Garces, 
and forced the latter to take refuge in Arnedo; 
Sancho Garces left Arnedo when <Abd al-Rahman 
moved off in the direction of Pampeluna to inflict 
a bloody defeat on the united forces of Navarre and 
Leon at Valdejunquera. 

Bibliography: Idrlsl, Arabic text 176, trans. 
211; E. Levi-Provencal, La Peninsule iberique, 
Arabic text 14, trans. 20; Ibn Hazm, Djamharat 
al-Ansab, 86, 1. 17-8; Die. geog., ii, 582; J. M. 
Lacarra, Exp, musul. contra Sancho OarcH, in 
Revista del Principe de Viana, 1940, i, 41-70. 

(A. Huici Miranda) 
AROR [see arCr]. 

ARPA. 'Barley* in Turkish. The term arpa tanesi 
— 'a barley grain' — was used under the Ottoman 
regime to denote both a weight and a measure: a 
weight of approximately 35-3 milligrams (half a 
habba), and a measure of rather less than a quarter 
of an inch, 6 equalling one parmak (itself equivalent 
to i 1 /. inches). (H. Boweh) 

ARPALl?, (literally, "barley money"), a term 
used in the Ottoman empire up to the beginning of 
the 19th century to denote an allowance made to 
the principal civil, military and religious officers of 



state, either in addition to their salary when in 
office, or as a pension on retirement, or as an indem- 
nity for unemployment. This term does not appear 
in the historical sources before the 16th century, and 
corresponds, to begin with, to an indemnity for 
fodder of animals, paid to those who maintained 
forces of cavalry or had to look after the horses: 
the first beneficiaries were the Agha of the Janis- 
saries, the Aghas of the imperial stable and the 
Aghas of the bdluk, that is to say the principal 
army and palace officers; this benefit was later 
extended to religious officials: the shaykh al-isldm, 
the k&4i 'l- l asker, the tutor of the sovereign, 
and later (17th century) to the viziers' and 
c ulamd' who were already titular holder- of ti'dmet, 
and also to officials of the central or provincial 
administration, or to military officers who had 
specially distinguished themselves; the Khans of the 
Crimea were also numbered among the beneficiaries. 
The maximum amount of the arpallk was fixed at 
70,000 aspers for religiou« officials, 58,000 aspers for 
the Agha of the Janissaries, and 19,999 aspers for 
palace officials. These endowments took the form of 
the grant of fiefs of varying degrees of importance; 
it is said that some holders of arpallk farmed its 
revenues. The haphazard distribution of these grants 
caused serious disturbances in the military, economic 
and social organisation of the state, and from the 
18th century onwards only the principal religious 
authorities could benefit by the grant of an arpallk. 
The arpallk disappeared at the time of the Tanzimdt: 
a fund for retirement pensions was then created and, 
after the proclamation of the Constitution, an 
indemnity for unemployment was instituted. 

Bibliography: 'All, Kunh al-Akhbdr (un- 
published MS. of Istanbul University Library, 
Turkish MSS. No. 2290/32); Koci Beg, Risdle, 17, 
47; Sa c d al-DIn, Tddj al-Tawdrlkh, ii, 564; 
Salanlkl, Ta'rikh, 77, 78, 133; Mustafa NOri 
Pasha, Naid'idi al-Wuku<dt, i, 279, ui, 87; M. 
d'Ohsson, Tableau general de I'Empire ottoman, 
iv, 62, 491; J. von Hammer, Des osmanischen 
Reichs Staatsverfassung und Staatsverwaltung, ii, 
387 «.; M. Belin, Essai sur I'histoire iconomique 
de la Turquie, J A, 1864-65; M. Zeki Pakalln, 
Osmanlt Tarih DeyimleH ve TerimleH Sdzlugu, i, 
84-7; M. Tayyib Gdkbilgin in I A, i, fasc. 8, 59*"5- 

(R. Mantran) 
'ARRADA, a mediaeval artillery engine. In 
general, from Europe to China, there were every- 
where in existence two main types of engine* of 
projection which were operated by more than one 
man. In the case of the one, the heavy type of 
engine, the projectile was hurled from a great 
distance by virtue of the centrifugal force produced 
by the rocking of a great arm: these were the 
mandianik or mangonels; in the case of the other, 
a lighter engine, the projectile was discharged by the 
impact of a shaft forcibly impelled by the release of 
a rone: these were the 'arr&da. The principle of the 
'arrdda only differs from the large arbalest mounted 
on a fixed chassis in the comparative lightness of the 
latter, and in the fact that the arbalest discharges 
its arrow itself instead of using it to propel a pro- 
jectile. 'Arrdda, like mandianik, were naturally siege 
and not field weapons. The word itself comes from 
an almost identical Syriac form, and corresponds to 
the Classical Greek onagros; but, strangely enough, 
it seems that in mediaeval Greek manganikon 
denoted a light weapon: this is a source of possible 
confusion. — To-day, 'arrdda is applied to cannon. 
[See also 'araba]. 



C ARRAF 



659 



Bibliography: Kalervo Huuri, Zur Geschichte 

des mittelalterlichen Geschiitzwesens aus orienta- 

lischenQuellen, Helsinki-Leipzig 1041 (Studia Qrien- 

talia, ed. Societas Or. Fennica, ix, 3) ; cf. CI. Cahen, 

Un traiti d'armurerie compost pour Saladin, Bull. 

d'Etudes Orientates de I'Institut Fr. Damas, xii 

1947-48, 157-8. (Cl. Cahen) 

ARRADJAN. town in Fars. According to the 

Arabic authors it was founded by the Sasanid king, 

Kawadh I (488, 496-531), who settled there the 

prisoners of war from Amid (Diyarbakr) and Mayya- 

farikin, and gave to the new settlement the official 

name Weh Amid-i Kawadh = "Good (or Better)- 

Amid of Kawadh", run together and arabicised into 

Wamkubadh or usually simply Amid^Kubadh 

(Marquart proposed to read so in al-Tabari, i, 887, 

888)! Some Arabic writers have erroneously given to 

Arradjan the name Abar(z)kubadh, which was 

borne by a district and a town on the western 

frontier of Ahwaz (Khuzistan) ; see also abarkubadh 

In any case, the name which is in common use, 

Arradjan, comes from an older town which existed 

before the new one founded by Kawadh. 

In the Arabic mediaeval age Arradjan was a very 
frequently mentioned frontier-town of Fars against 
Ahwaz, and down to the end of the 7th/i3th century 
was the capital of the most westerly of the five 
provinces of Fars ; a part of the province of Arradjan 
belonged earlier not to Fars but to Khuzistan (cf. Ibn 
Fakih, 199; al-MakdisI, 421). Arab geographers 
describe Arradjan as a large place with excellent 
bazaars, which manufactured much soap, grew great 
quantities of corn, possessed numerous date and 
olive plantations, and was considered to have one of 
the healthiest situations of the "hot land" (Garmslrf. 
The rise of the Assassins portended its decline; for 
they seized possession of several strongholds on the 
neighbouring hills and from there made frequent 
plundering raids on the town and its adjacent 
district, and finally took it in the 7th/i3th cent. 
Arradjan never recovered from the horrors of this 
conquest. The inhabitants emigrated mostly to the 
neighbouring town, Bihbahan, which succeeded 
Arradjan as capital of the province. 

According to the Arab geographers Arradjan lay 
on the road leading from Shiraz to 'Irak, 37 miles 
distant from Shiraz and al-Ahwaz, and a day's 
journey from the Persian Gulf; it was situated on 
the river Tab, which here formed the boundary 
between Fars and al-Ahwaz. 

The ruins of Arradjan were discovered by C. de 
Bode on the river Tab (modern Ab-i Kurdistan or 
Marun) at 31 40' N. Lat. and 50 20' E. Long. 
(Greenw.). Mustawfl shows that the form Arghan or 
Arkhan for the town, was in popular use at the 
beginning of the 8th/i4th century. The site of the 
ruins, according to Herzfeld, is a ride of two hours 
by horse east of the town of Bihbahan on a canal 
leading out of the Martin River, and it forms an 
almost rectangular plain of ruin ca. 3930 x 2620 ft. 
near the Kuh-i Bihbahan. Cultivation has now 
effaced all structural remains, according to Stein. 
About two miles farther up the river remains of a 
bridge from the Middle Ages, and of a barrage 
below the bridge, still exist. The bridge was mentioned 
by Arab geographers. 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 193-5; Strange, 247, 
248, 268-70; Th. Noldeke, Gesch. d. Perser u. 
Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden, 13, 138, 146; J. Mar- 
quart, ErdnSahr n. d. Geogr. d. Pseudo Moses- 
XorenacH 41 f. ; Schwarz, Iran, i, 2 f., 5 f. ; K. 
Ritter, Erdkunde, ix, 136, 145; C. de Bode, Travels 



in Lurislan and Arabislan, London 1845, i> 295 f. ; 

E. Herzfeld, in Petermann's Geogr. Mitteil, 1907, 

81-2; idem, in Klio, viii, 8; Sir Aurel Stein Old 

Routes in Western Iran, London 1940, 80-7, 

pi. 22-4. (M. Streck-[D. N. Wilber]) 

al-ARRADJANI. Nasih al-DIn Abu Bakr 

Ahmad b. Muhammad al-AnsarI, Arab poet born 

at Arradjan in 460/1067, died in 544/1149-50 at 

Tustar or 'Askar Mukram. Religious studies, pursued 

mainly at the Nizamiyya at Isfahan, enabled him 

to be nominated kadi of Tustar, but he early devoted 

himself to poetry, which he considered as a means 

of livelihood, and wrote panegyrics, addressed in 

particular to the c Abbasid Caliph al-Mustazhir, in 

kasida form, with the traditional nasib. Although 

some critics praise his work, al-Arradjanl must be 

considered as a versifier of limited stature. His diwdn, 

compiled by his son, was printed at Beirut in 1307/ 

1889; several Mss. exist in London and Cairo. 

Bibliography : Ibn al-Shadjarl, IJamdsa, 
Haydarabad 1345, 283; Sam c anl, Ansdb, 24a; Ibn 
al-Diawzi. Muntazam, Haydarabad 1359, x, 139- 
40; Yakut, i, 193-5; Ibn al-Athir, xi, 96-7; Ibn 
Khallikan. ed. 1299/1881, i, 83-5; Brockelmann, 
S I, 448 ; C A1I Al Tahir, La Poisie arabe en Irak et 
en Perse sous les Seldjoukides, Sorbonne thesis 
1954, index. (Ed.) 

'ARRAF. (a.; the abstract is, Hrafa) one of the 
names for a diviner. Literally "eminent in know- 
ledge" or "a professional knower"; the European 
equivalent would be "wise woman" with a change 
of sex. There are several synonyms. Tabib (physician) ; 
"I said to the 'arraf of Yamama, "Treat me, for if 
you cure me you are indeed a physician"; and "I will 
give the c arraf of Yamama his due and the 'arraf 
of Nadjd, if they cure me." The two were respectively 
Rabah b. <Adjala and al-Ablak al-Asadl. Kdhin 
(diviner) [q.v.] is especially one who deduces his 
answer from the words, behaviour or circumstances 
of the enquirer or finds things which have been 
stolen or lost. It is said that the 'arraf is somewhat 
less than the kdhin. Of course, opinions differ on the 
precise meaning of these words; a proverb says that 
the 'arraf takes what escaped the thief. Kundkin or 
kinkin, dowser. IJdzi one who divines from the shape 
of the limbs or moles on the face. A tradition says 
that he who consults the c arraf or kdhin is an unbe- 
liever. Nevertheless the examples of their activity 
are Islamic. 'Amr b. al- c Aj was not a professional 
c arrdf but was famous for his practical wisdom; from 
the names of two travellers, Haslra and Kattal, he 
deduced that 'Uthman had been first besieged and 
then killed (al-Tabari, i, 3250). The Ikhwan al-Safa 
say that the kdhin uses no tools, books or calculations 
but relies on his motherwit and interprets what he 
sees or hears. Zadjr is employed to describe this 
method of divination though it first meant drawing 
omens from birds or animals. Ibn Khaldun sets out 
a theory of divination. "It is a property peculiar to 
the human soul. The soul is so constituted that it 
can divest itself of its fleshly integument and rise 
to a higher spiritual state. Men who belong to the 
rank of prophets through their natural disposition 
receive as it were a flash (of intuition), and this 
comes to them without effort on their part, without 
the aid of sensual means of perception, and without 
forcing the imagination; nor need they bring their 
bodies into play by uttered word or hurried move- 
ment. They need employ no artificial means. By 
divesting themselves of the flesh they put on the 
angelic state which is natural to them in less than 
the twinkling of an eye." 



'ARRAF — arrAn 



Bibliography: LA, s.v. Mas'udi, Murudj, iii, 
352 f ; Ibshlhl, Mustafraf, ch. 60; Tanukhl, Nishwar 
al-Huhddara, 263-68; Ikhwdn al-Safa (Cairo), ed., 
iv, 382 ; Ibn Khaldun, Mukaddima bk. I. preface 
6.2; Tashkopri-zade, Mift&h al-Sa c ada i, 293 f.; 
A. Guillaume, Prophecy and Divination, ii, 7 if., 
198 f. ; I. Goldziher, Abhandlungen zur arab. 
Philologie, i, 25. (A. S. Tritton) 

ARRAN. The name is usually applied in Islamic 
times to the district in Transcaucasia between the 
Kur (Kura) and Aras (Araks) Rivers. In pre-Islamic 
times, however, the term was used for all of eastern 
Transcaucasia (present Soviet Azerbaijan), i.e. Clas- 
sical Albania (cf. article "Albania" in Pauly-Wissowa). 
By the 15th century A.D. the name Arran was not 
in common parlance, for the territory was absorbed 
into Adharbaydjan. 

The origin of the name Arran, Georgian Rani, 
Greek *AX(J<xvol, and Armenian Alwank' (people), is 
unknown. (In some Classical authors one finds the 
form Arian/Aryan, and in Arabic sources one can 
find al-Ran). Before 387 A.D. the land between the 
two rivers was considered part of Armenia, com- 
prising the provinces of Ardzakh, Uti, and P'aita- 
karan. After the division of Armenia between the 
Greeks and Sassanians in 387 A.D., the first two 
provinces went to Albania/Arran and the last to 
Persia. This is one reason for much confusion in the 
designation of Arran, since the Armenians considered 
only the land north of the Kur River as Arran. 

By the 7th century A.D. the population of 
"greater" Arran was thoroughly mixed, and one can 
hardly speak of a distinctive people. Istakhri, 192, 
and Ibn Hawkal, 349, however, mention al-rdniyya 
as a language still spoken in the city of Bardha'a 
in the 10th cent. A.D. 

The Arabs, adopting the Roman system of desig- 
nation of Armenia, extended the terminology, in- 
cluding all of eastern Transcaucasia under Armenia I 
(Ibn Khurradadhbih, 122; al- Baladhuri, 194). When 
the Arabs appeared in the country they found it 
divided among many small lords, some of whom held 
allegiance to the Khazars, especially after the fall of 
the Sassanians. Arran had been Christianised from 
Armenia and during the Umayyad Caliphate was 
nominally under the rule of the princes of Armenia, 
who in turn were subject to the Arabs. Since it 
was on the Islamic frontier, subject to Khazar raids 
and rule, Arran in fact enjoyed a great measure of 
independence. 

The early Arab raids under Salman b. Rabl'a and 
Habib b. Maslama at the end of the caliphate of 
'Umar and the early years of 'Uthman brought the 
nominal submission of Baylakan, Bardha'a, Kabala, 
and SJiamkur, the principle towns of Arran. After- 
wards the Arabs warred constantly with the Khazars 
and local princes (cf. Baladhuri, 203; Tabarl, i, 
2889-91). 

After the first civil war, and in the caliphate of 
Mu'awiya Arab rule in Arran was established, but 
the KJjazars continued to raid south of the Caucasus 
Mountains. In the caliphate of <Abd al-Malik the 
Christian church of Arran, which had been joined 
to the Greek Orthodox church, was united with the 
Armenian church by the Armenian clergy with Arab 
aid and approval (cf. J. Muyldermans, La domination 
arabe en Armenie, Louvain 1927, 99). On the 
Umayyad governors of Armenia (including Arran) 
cf. Baladhuri, 205-9. During the governorship of 
Maslama b. 'Abd al-Malik, appointed by the Caliph 
Hisham in 107/725-6, large Arab garrisons were 
brought into Arran, and Bardlja'a served as head- 



quarters in operations against the Khazars. On the 
campaigns against the Khazars cf. D. M. Dunlop, 
The History of the Jewish Khazars, Princeton 1954, 
60-87, and F. Gabrieli, II Califfato di Hisham, 
Alexandria 1935, 74-84. Under the governorship of 
Marwan b. Muhammad, last of the Umayyad caliphs, 
from 113-26/731-44, the Khazars were decisively- 
defeated and Arab rule firmly established. 

During Umayyad and 'Abbasid rule in Arran local 
Armenian and Arranian dynasties continued a semi-, 
independent existence subject to the Arabs. Taxes 
were paid in Islamic coins, and we find a mint with 
the appelation Arran on 'Abbasid dirhams as early 
as 145/762. This mint was either in Bardha'a or 
Baylakan. By 207/822 we find coins bearing madinat 
Arran, and after 226/840 the mint seems to have been 
abandoned. 

The local ruler from the ancient house of Mihran 
was called the ba(rik of Arran by the Arabs, and the 
last of the family, Varaz Trdat, was assassinated in 
821 or 822. Shortly after this the lord of Shakki, 
north of the Kur River, a certain Sahl b. Sunbat, 
extended his sway over all of Arran declaring his 
independence of the caliphate. He became reconciled 
with the Arabs by delivering the rebel Babak to 
them after Babak had taken refuge with him. Later 
he, or his son and successor, was taken to Samarra 
about 854 when the new governor of Armenia Bugha 
deported many of the local princes. At this period 
the lords of Sharwan and Derbend interfered in 
Arran, but the Sadjids were the most powerful 
rulers in Arran. 

The Sadjid governors of Armenia at the end of 
the 9th and early 10th centuries A.D. were especially 
harsh to the Christian population of Transcaucasia, 
but local dynasties continued to rule, especially 
north of the Kur River (cf. Ibn Hawkal, 348). 
Marzuban b. Muhammad b. Musafir ruled over 
Arran, as well as Adharbaydjan from 941-57 A.D., 
and most of the lords of Arran were his vassals. It 
was under his rule, in 943, that the environs of 
Bardha'a were ravaged by the Russians. After this 
Arran fell under the sway of the Shaddadids of 
Gandja. The strongest member of the Shaddadid 
dynasty was Abu '1-Aswar Shawur b. Fadl b. Muh. 
b. Shaddad, who ruled from 441-459/1049-1067. In 
468/1075 Alp Arslan sent one of his generals, Saw- 
tegin, to rule Arran displacing the Shaddadid 
dynasty. Turkish tribes, primarily Ghuzz, settled in 
Arran and gradually Turkish replaced all other 
languages in common use. 

In the Turkish period Baylakan seems to have 
replaced Bardha'a as the most important city of 
Arran, but the former was destroyed by the Mongols 
in 1221. After this Gandja became the leading city 
of Arran. Under the Mongols Arran was joined to 
Adharbaydjan and single governors ruled both 
provinces. The process of islamicisation and turki- 
cisation was hastened after the Mongol invasion. 
The land between the rivers came to be called 
Karabagh. After the conquests of Timur, who did 
much building and repair of canals, Arran only 
appears as a memory, and its affairs are part of the 
history of Adharbaydjan. 

Bibliography: The religious history of the 

Arranians is told by Moses Kalankatuaci in 

Armenian (Tiflis, 1912); for the contents see 

A. Manandian, Beitrdge zur albanischen GeschichU 

Leipzig 1897, 48. On the pre-Islamic history cf. 

J. Marquart, Erdnfahr, 117. For geography cf. 

Le Strange, 176-9, and Hudud al- l Alam, 398-403. 

On the early Islamic history of Arran see 



ARRAN — ARSLAN B. SALDjOK 



J. Laurent, L'Arminie entre Byzance et I' I slam 
(Paris, 1919). For Sahl b. Sunbat see Mi- 
norsky, Caucasica IV, in BSOAS 1953, 504-29. 
On the Shaddadids cf. his Studies in Caucasian 
History, London 1953. Many details of nomen- 
clature and linguistics may be found in the article 
Arrdn in IA by Zeki Velidi Togan. 

(R. N. Frye) 
ARSENAL [see dar al-sina c a]. 
ARSH [see diya]. 
C ARSH [see kurs!]. 

'ARSH, the name given in Algerian legislation, 
during about the last hundred years, to some of the 
lands under collective ownership. This meaning of the 
word, which has various senses in the Maghrib! 
dialects: "tribe" (for example, on the high plains 
of Constantine), "agnatic group" (for example, in 
the Tunisian Sahel), "federation" (for example, in 
Kabylia), only seems to be vouched for from the 
time of the preparatory enquiries for the Law of 
16 June 1851. 

A dispute has long existed in Algeria between 
those who support recognition of the collective 
ownership, or only usufruct, of these lands, and 
those who support recognition of their private 
character. This dispute overlies the conflict between 
the administrative theory, which tends to safeguard 
the patrimony of the tribes, and the expansion of 
private interests, which want the rapid conversion of 
these lands into movable property. Arguments have 
been borrowed, somewhat superficially, from fikh, 
which offered the theory of tenure subject to 
payment of the kharddi, and of the Islamic commu- 
nity as the paramount landowner. A secular dispute, 
which is not yet resolved, has raged over the title to 
the lands of the Maghrib. It is certainly more in 
conformity with the facts to say that the system 
of exploitation, itself a function of the climatic 
conditions, of divorce from the central power, and 
of vitality of the local seignories, is the factor 
fundamentally responsible for the forms of land 
tenure in the ancient Maghrib: (1) milk or "private 
property"; (2) l azib, or c azl, or hanshir, depending 
on the district, "latif undium" ; (3) mushd', or mushu', 
or bldd djama'a, "collective, communal holding"; 
(4) wakf or hubus, "domain constituted into a pious 
endowment". According as one or other factor 
predominated, it seems that there was a certain 
alternation, characteristic of the social history of 
North Africa, between these different concepts and 
the realities that they correspond to. 

At all events, the decree of the Senate of 22 April 
1863 ' a y s down, (article 1), that the triber. of Algeria 
"are the owners of the territories of which they 
enjoy the permanent or traditional usufruct, under 
what title soever". This patrimony, under the 
tutelage of the administration, is, however, liable to 
come under the privative statute through the medium 
of "partial inquiry". This legislation aroused lively 
opposition. With less clarity than the Moroccan law, 
but with greater resolution than the Tunisian law, 
it seems to have found a compromise solution to 
this long-standing and difficult problem of real estate 
and society. 

Bibliography: Dr. Worms, Recherches sur la 
constitution de la proprilti territorial, 1846; 
M. Pouyanne, La propriltl fonciere en Algirie, 
1895, 130 ff. ; Mercier, La propriiti fonciere en 
Algirie; and especially F. Dulout, Des droits et 
actions sur la terre arch ou sabga en Algirie, 1929. 
On the word, see Ph. Marcais, Textes arabes de 
Djidjelli, 1955, 27, n. 3. (J. Berque) 



ARSHGCL, a town, not now in existence, on 
the Algerian coast, which was situated between 
Oran and the Moroccan frontier, at the mouth of the 
Tafna, facing the island of Rachgoun, which perpe- 

The Muslim city, which took the place of Portus 
Sigensis, the port of Siga, the capital of King Syphax, 
is first heard of at the beginning of the 4th'ioth cen- 
tury as being assigned by Idris I to his brother c Isa 
b. Muhammad b. Sulayman. It is mentioned in the 
second half of the 4th/ioth century by Ibn Hawkal, 
who informs us that it had then just been rebuilt by 
an amir of the Miknasa Berbers, a vassal of the caliph 
at Cordova al-Nasir. Some years later, al-Bakri 
describes Arshgul, a town on the "coast of Tilimsan", 
as possessing a harbour accessible to small vessels, 
and surrounded by a rampart which had four 
gateways. Within the city were a seven-aisled mosque 
and two baths, one of which was pre-Islamic, a fact 
which indicates that the Muslim city occupied the 
ancient site. In the middle of the 6th/i2th century, it 
was regarded by al-Idrisi only as a populous place, 
recently a stronghold, where ships could replenish 
their water supplies. 

Political vicissitudes account for its decline. 

During the struggles between the Fatimids of al- 

Kayrawan and the Umayyads of Cordova (4th/ioth 

century), its Idrisid rulers were driven out and its 

inhabitants were deported to Spain. Partially 

repopulated by Audalusians, it was again laid waste 

at the beginning of the 5th/nth century. Again, in 

the first half of the 7th/i3th century, it fell prey to the 

B. Ghaniya Almoravids, and was finally abandoned 

at the end of the ioth/i6th century, at the time of 

the Spanish expeditions against the coast of Oran. 

Bibliography: Ibn Hawkal, trans, by de 

Slane, JA 1842 i, 187; Bakri, text, Algiers 1911, 

79-80; trans., Algiers 1912, 161; Idrlsl, ed. by 

Dozy and de Goeje, 172, trans. 206; Leo Africanus, 

// viaggio, ed. by Ramusio, Venice 1892, 107 

(transl. F.paulard, Paris 1956, 330-1); Gsell, Atlas 

arch(olo%ique, shee'. 31, no. 2. (G. Marcais) 

ARSHlN [see dhira c ]. 

ARSLAN (t.), lion; also frequently appears as 
a Turkish proper-name. 

ARSLAN b. SALDJCS, the son, probably the 
elder son, of the ancestor and eponym of the Sal- 
djukid dynasties, Saldjuk. His history is merged in 
that of the first contacts between the Oghuz led by 
his family and the Muslim states of Central Asia. 
His personal name was Israll (cf. his brothers 
Mikhail and Musa, fore-names in which it is possible 
to see Jewish Khazar or Nestorian Central-Asian 
influence), with Arslan as a totemic name (cf. his 
famous nephews Tughril Muhammad and Caghri 
Da'ud). The beginnings of his history are confused. 
During his lifetime the Saldjukid family, which had 
settled at Djand, was converted to Islam and freed 
itself from the Kingdom of the Yabghu of the Oghuz; 
it is not disputed that his father, Saldjuk, then sent 
him to the aid of one of the last Samanids who was 
engaged in a struggle with the Karakhanids, as is 
affirmed by the tradition of the Malihndma, a 
history of the family written under Alp Arslan about 
1060; and it is generally thought that it is he who 
is mentioned, under the title of Yabghu, by the 
Ghaznawid historian Gardlzl, as assisting in 1003 
the last Samanid attempt at resistance to the 
Karakhanids; but latterly this version has been 
contested by O. Pritsak, according to whom the 
title of Yabghu can only be understood to refer to 
the last Yabghu of the Oghuz Kingdom north of the 



ARSLAN b. SALDJUK — ARTUKIDS 



Aral Sea. It is true that manuscripts of the Arab and 
Persian chronicles frequently attach to individual 
Saldjukids an appellation which can be read yabghu, 
but O. Pritsak has shown that side by side with the 
title of yabghH, which alone has been taken into 
consideration hitherto, there existed a totemic name 
payghi, and it is probable that the word must be 
read thus in some cases; I think however that as far 
as Arslan Israll is concerned, he could not have had 
two totemic names, and did in fact bear the title of 
yabghu, indicative of the revolt of his family against 
the pagan kingdom of the north, and it seems to me 
probable.although not certain, that he is, in agreement 
with the traditional account, the person mentioned 
by Gardizl. 

The main features of his later history are less open 
to dispute. After the final collapse of the Sama- 
nids. he is found associated with the Karakhanid 
rebel at Bukhara, 'All Tegin, in whose service he was 
eventually joined by his nephews Tughril an d Caghri. 
In 416/1025 he was involved, to a greater extent 
than they, in the defeat of 'All Tegin by the com- 
bined forces of the supreme Karakhanid Kadr- 
Khan (supported mainly by the Karluks) and 
Mahmud of Ghazna, and his Oghuz were transferred 
to Khurasan, separated from those of Tughri'1 and 
Caghri who soon emigrated to Khwarizm. Legend 
or adulation has obscured the account of this move 
which, according to some, was voluntary, but 
more probably was carried out on the orders of 
Mahmud, as is asserted by others, in order to 
weaken c Ali Tegin. At all events it is not open to 
dispute that Mahmud kept Arslan-Israll prisoner, 
and that he died in captivity, about 427/1034, in a 
fortress on the borders of Hind. It is impossible to 
say what the connexion was between this fate and 
the persistent tendency to rebellion on the part of 
the Oghuz of Khurasan from 418/1027 onward. Those 
historians, like Rawandl, who wished to flatter the 
Saldjukid dynasty of Asia Minor, descended from 
Arslan's son Kutlumush (Kutalmlsh?), ascribed to 
the latter the role of secret liaison agent between the 
prisoner and his Oghuz, but it is impossible to 
verify this. 

Bibliography: CI. Cahen, Le Malikndmeh el 
I'histoire des origines seldjukides, in Oriens ii, 1949, 
which contains a survey of the sources, but which 
is to be revised in the light of the studies of 
Omelyan Pritsak, in particular Der Untergang des 
Retches des Oghuzischcn Yabghu, in Kopriilu 
Armaganl, Istanbul 1953, or in Annals of the 
Ukranian Academy of Arts in the USA, ii, 2, 1952, 
together with my discussion in J A, 1954, 271- 
275; cf. also Pritsak's Die Karachaniden, in Isl. 
1953. For the relations between Arslan and the 
Ghaznawids. a comprehensive account will be 
found in Muhammad Nazim, The Life and Time of 
Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna, Cambridge 1931. 

(Cl. Cahen) 
ARSLAN b. TOfiHRUL [see SaldjOkjds]. 
ARSLAN-ARSHCN, brother of Malikshah who, 
on the death of the latter, seized possession of 
Khurasan and the province of Balkh, defeated and 
put to death another brother, Buribars, who had been 
sent against him (488/1095), but incurred odium as 
a result of his punitive measures against the sup- 
porters of his defeated brother and his destruction, 
as a preventative measure, of the ramparts of Marw, 
NishapOr, Sarakhs, Sabzawar etc.; he was finally 
killed in 490 by one of his slaves. His young son, 
aged seven, was easily swept aside by Sandjar, the 
brother and lieutenant of the Sultan Barkyaruk. 



Ibn al-Athlr, x, 34, speaks of an Arslan-Arghun, a 

brother of Alp Arslan, who received from him the 

government of Khwarizm at the time when Malikshah 

was proclaimed heir-presumptive; the author of the 

Akhbdr al-Dawlat al-Saldjukiyya, 40, gives the same 

information, but calls this Arslan Arghun the son 

of Alp Arslan, and therefore identical with the 

brother of Malikshah ; but according to 'Imad al-DIn 

Bundari, 257, followed by Ibn al-'Athir, 178-80, 

the brother of Malikshah was twenty-six years old 

at the time of his death, and only possessed at the 

death of the former a small iktd c in Western Persia; 

although nothing else is known of a brother of Alp- 

Arslan of this name, it seems as though we must 

conclude that two individuals of this name existed. 

Descendants of the brother of Malikshah were still 

living at Marw in the middle of the 6th/i2th century. 

Bibliography : 'Imad al-DIn/Bundarl, ed. 

Houtsma, Receuil de Textes relatifs a I'histoire des 

Seljoucides, ii, 84, 255-8, whence Ibn al-Athlr, x, 

178-80; Akhbdr al-Dawla al-Saldjukiyya, ed. Moh. 

Iqbal, Lahore 1933, 33, 34 (relations between 

Arslan-Arghun and the 'Amid-i Khurasan known 

as Muhammad b. Mansur al-Nasawi), 40 (cf. Ibn 

al-Athlr 34), 54; 'All b. Zayd al-Bayhaki called Ibn 

Funduk, Tarikh-i Bayhak, ed. Ahmad Bahmanyar, 

Teheran 1337/1938, 72, 270. (Cl. Cahen) 

ARSLAN KHAN [see ]<arakhanids]. 

ARSLAN SHAH b. KIRMAN SH.AH [see 

SALDlOltlDS]. 

ARSLAN SHAH b. MAS'OD ABU 'l-HARIXH 



3S]. 



ARSLAN SHAH B. MAS'OD [see ghaznawids]. 
ARSLAN SHAH b. TOGHRIJL SHAH [see 

SALDjOlJS OF KIRMAN]. 

ARSLANLl [see ghurOsh]. 

ARSCF, small fishing port on the coast of 

Palestine, 10 miles north of Jaffa. The Arabic name 

probably preserves its original dedication to the 

Semitic god Reseph. Under the Seleucids it was 

renamed Apollonia. In the early centuries of the 

Caliphate it was one of the principal fortified cities 

of the province of Filasfln. It was occupied by the 

Crusaders under Baldwin I in 494/1 101 and called 

by them Azotus; recaptured by Saladin in 583/1187; 

scene of an engagement between Saladin and 

Richard I, 14 Sha'ban 587/7 Sept. 1191; restored 

to the Crusaders under the truce with Richard 588/ 

1192; refortified by John of Arsuf 640/1242; captured 

by sultan Baybars Bundukdarl after a forty-days' 

siege, 11 Radjab 663/29 April 1265, and left in ruins. 

Bibliography: Makdisi 174; Yakut s.v.; Abu 

'1-Fida (Reinaud) 239; 'Imad al-DIn, al-Fath al- 

fCudsi (Landberg), 383-7; MakrizI, Suluk, i (Cairo 

1934), 528-30; general histories of the Crusades; 

G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of Ike Holy Land, 

index ; G. Beyer in Zeitschr. d. deut. Paldstina- 

Vereins, lxviii (1951), i5«-8, 178-84. 

(H. A. R. Gibb) 
ART [see articles on countries, cities and dynasties, 

'ADj, ARABESQUE, ARCHITECTURE, BINa', (CALI, NA£SH, 

ARTENA [see eretna]. 

ARTILLERY [see bArOd, top]. 

ARTUKIDS, (not Urtukids), a Turkish dynasty 
which reigned over th^ whole or part of Diyar Bakr, 
either independently or under Mongol protectorate, 
from the end of the 5th/nth to the beginning of 
the 9th/i5th century. 

Artuk, son of Ekseb, belonged to the Turkoman 
tribe Doger [q.vX In 1073 he was in Asia Minor, 
operating for an<* against the Byzantine Empercr 



-~r 



-| 



(Mardln then Mayafarikln and Aleppo) 



husam al-dIn 

timurtash 

(Mardln then Mayyafarifcln) 

NADJM AL-DlN ALPI 
I 

$utb al-dIn ilgj]azI 



SHAHS AL-DAWLA 

(MayyafSriyn) 



(IJisn-Kayfa then Mardln) 



RUJJN AL-DAWLA 

(tfisn-Kayfa then Khartpert) 



c IMAD AL-DIN ABU B 



<Abd al-Djabbar AlpyaruV 
I I 

BADR AL-DAWLA YAlfUTl 

sulayman (Mardin) 
Aleppo I 



loses Mayyaiarifein 



as'Od 



NIZAM AL-DlN 
IBRAHIM 

(Khartpert) 



NADJM AL-DlN 

ghAzI-al-mansOr 
(recovers Amid, etc.) 



664 ARTU 

Michael VII, but he later appears principally 
as an officer in the service of the Great Saldjuk 
Malikshah. In 1077 he brought the Carmathians 
of Bahrayn under the rul* of Malikshah; in 
1079 Malikshah placed him under the command of 
his brother Tutush in the Syrian campaign, and in 
1084 under Ibn Diahlr in the Diyar Bakr campaign; 
in 1085 he was sent to Khurasan against the sultan's 
brother, Tokiish. He received as an *&a £ Halwan, 
a strategic point in southern Kurdistan. From 1085 
onwards, however, he intrigued in Diyar Bakr with 
Murlim, the Arab prince of Mawsil and Aleppo, who 
was at variance with Malikshah. The death of 
Muslim obliged him to re-enter the service of Tutush, 
who gave him Palestine (1086). The date of his death 
is not known ; he left several sons, among whom were 
Sukman and Ilghazi. 

After the death of Malikshah, the Artukids, led by 
Tutush into Djazira, helped him to dispute the 
throne with his nephews (1092-5); on the death of 
Tutush, they supported his son Rudwan of Aleppo 
against another son, Dukak of Damascus; they later 
lost Palestine, and its reconquest by Egypt (1098) 
and subsequent occupation by the Crusaders finally 
prevented their return there. One of the two 
Artukid leaders, Ilghazi, then entered for a time the 
service of Muhammad, one of the sons of Malikshah, 
whom he had supported against his brother Barkya- 
ruk, and who made him governor of 'Irak, but the 
Turkomans from whom the family derived its 
strength remained in Diyar Bakr. In 1097, the 
nephew of Sukman succeeded in occupying Mardin. 
Sukman himself, who had taken possession of Sarudj, 
was expelled from there by the Crusaders (1097), but, 
as a result of quarrels between the chiefs of Djazira. 
obtained possession of Hisn Kayfa (1102), controlled 
numerous districts further north, and then inherited 
Mardin. He took part in the wars against the Franks, 
and in 1104 before Harran captured Count Baldwin 
of Edessa. He died soon afterwards. 

Muhammad, who became sole sultan by the 
death of Barkyaruk, sent Ilghazi back to Diyar 
Bakr, where in 1107 he had a hand in the defeat of 
Kilidj Arslan of Rum, who had been summoned by 
Muhammad's enemies, and in 1108 he took the place 
at Mardin of one of the sons of Sukman (another son, 
Da'ud, retained Hisn Kayfa). Other chiefs, at Amid, 
Akhlat, Arzan etc., carved out seignories for them- 
selves. Muhammad tried to unite them for the Holy 
War against the Franks; he could not prevent the 
rupture, in the middle of the campaign, between 
Ilghazi and Sukman of Akhlat, who, however, died 
(mo). From then on, relations between Ilghazi and 
Muhammad became strained; the former more and 
more avoided participation in the expeditions sent 
against the Franks by the Sultan, from which, 
having regard to the risks run, only Saldjuk authority 
stood to gain. In 1114, Ilghazi formed a Turkoman 
coalition against the governor of Mawsil, Aksunkur 
al-Barsuki. He was victorious, but, apprehensive of 
retaliation by Muhammad, fled to Syria, and 
reached an understanding not only with Tughtegin, 
the atabeg of Damascus, who was also disturbed at 
the Sultan's Syrian ventures, but even with the 
Franks of Antioch; the latter, by crushing the 
Saldjuk army (1115), saved Ilghazi. In 1118, Muham- 
mad died, and Ilghazi seized possession of the last 
Saldjukid post in Diyar Bakr, Mayyafarikin. He 
was now a power to be reckoned with. Aleppo, 
threatened by the Franks and rent by anarchy, 
appealed to him, despite its leading men's dislike 
of handing over power to him. Ilghazi, secure as 



regards the Saldjukids, did not wish to see the power 
of the Franks increase. In agreement with Tukhtegiu, 
he answered the appeal (1118), and, in 1119, his 
Turkomans inflicted on the Franks of Antioch a 
resounding defeat. Their base, however, remained in 
Diyar Bakr, and, in face of the reaction of other 
Franks, Ilghazi was disposed to make peace. He was 
also called into action against the Georgians; this 
time he was defeated (1121). Nevertheless his 
prestige was unimpaired at the time of his death 

From 11 13 onwards, his nephew Balak had been 
progressively building up, north-east of Diyar Bakr, 
astride the eastern Euphrates, a stable principality 
whose chief town, from about 11 15, had been 
Khartpert. Moreover, as tutor of the Saldjukid of 
Malatya, who was a minor, he achieved fame by 
crushing, with the aid of an alliance with the 
Danishmandid Gumushtegin, Ibn Mangudjak of 
Erzindjan and the Byzantine governor of Trebizond, 
Gavras (1120), and later, while in the service of 
Ilghazi, by capturing Joscelin of Edessa (1122), and. 
after the death of Ilghazi, Baldwin of Jerusalem, who 
had come to protect the Franco-Armenians of the 
border regions of the Euphrates (1123). He was then 
able to take the place of another nephew of Ilghazi at 
Aleppo but was killed while besieging Manbidj in 
1124. Aleppo then passed out of Artukid hands. 

In Diyar Bakr, where they remained firmly en- 
trenched, Shams al-Dawla Sulayman, son of Iljkazl, 
who had succeeded at Mayyafarikin, also died at the 
end of 524/1129-30. Another son of Ilghazi, Timurtash, 
already master of Mardin, succeeded him. Balak's 
principality had passed to Da'ud, the son and 
successor, since 1104, of Sukman at Hisn Kayfa. 
From then on, the two branches maintained a 
separate existence for two centuries. 

The period of expansion, however, was at an end. 
From 1 1 27 ZenkI ruled at Mawsil, and from 11 28 at 
Aleppo also; he built up a strong kingdom there. 
Timurtash acted as Zenkl's vassal, by hostile action 
against Da'ud, then (1144) against his son Kara- 
Arslan, as well as against the prince of Amid whom 
ZenkI and he besieged in 1133. Da'ud had been 
active in the north, where he had also conducted an 
anti-Georgian expedition; he had absorbed the small 
seignories bordering on his own, especially to the 
east of Hisn Kayfa. But he was subjected to relent- 
less pressure from ZenkI, who conquered Buhtan, east 
of Diyar Bakr, and, on the accession of Kara Arslan, 
the districts lying between Hisn Kayfa and Khart- 
pert. Kara Arslan was forced to effect a rapproche- 
ment with the Franco-Armenians of Edessa against 
whom, like Timurtash, he had waged war from time 
to time; the capture of Edessa by ZenkI (1144) was 
a disaster for him too, but he was saved by his 
enemy's death (1146). Not without difficulty Timur- 
tash and Kara Arslan divided Diyar Bakr between 

Zenkl's dominions were divided between Nur al- 
Din at Aleppo, and at Mawsil a line of other princes, 
brothers and nephews of Nur al-Din, who increa- 
singly brought them under his tutelage. His struggle 
against the Franks and his efforts in the Mawsil 
direction led him again to seek an alliance with the 
Artukids; he did not contend with them for Diyir 
Bakr and allowed them north of the Euphrates to 
take their share of the spoils of the Count of Edessa, 
but dragged them along in his wake in holy wars 
against the Franks or Byzantines. Nevertheless his 
relations with them were excellent, especially with 
Kara Arslan, and Alpi, the son 



Timurtash, sought to secure his position by obtaining 
the protection of the Shah-i Armin of Akhlat, whom 
he was obliged in return to aid against the Georgians. 
Kara Arslan himself, in 1163, attempted to take 
Amid from the Inalids and the NIsanids, but was 
prevented from doing so by a Danishmandid attack ; 
but soon his son Muhammad, with Nur al-DIn, went 
to the aid of the Danishmandids who were threa- 
tened by the expansionist policy of the Saldjfikids 
of Konya. The growing power of Nur al-DIn had 
imperceptibly caused the Artukids to assume the 
rdle of vassals, when Nur al-DIn died in 1174. 

The history of the following years is mainly con- 
cerned with the resistance offered by the princes of 
Upper Mesopotamia to the ambitions of Salalj al-DIn 
who, master of Egypt, gradually took possession of 
the Syro-Djazlran heritage of Nur al-DIn. The 
Artukids to begin with gave their united support to 
the Zenkids of Mawsil. Then Muhammad considered 
it more prudont to come to terms with Salah al-DIn, 
who captured Amid, for long the object 01 his envious 
regard, and gave it to Muhammad as fief; from then 
on it became the family seat (1183). Muhammad's 
death shortly afterwards, which left only young 
princes on the throne of Amid, Mardln, Akhlat and 
Mawsil, together with the division of Muhammad's 
dominions into two branches, Hisn Kayfa with 
Amid, and Khartpert, increased their subjection to 
Salah al-DIn; the latter directly established his 
authority in Diyar Bakr in 1185 by the occupation 
of Mayyafarikin. 

The Artukids were from then on only remnants 
gradually whittled away by the successors of Salah 
al-DIn of the Ayyubid dynasty, his brother al-'Adll 
and the latter's descendants, who became masters 
of Akhlat in 1207 but were sometimes divided among 
themselves. Against the most powerful of them, al- 
Kamil of Egypt, the Artukids became for a time 
vassals of the Saldjfikids of Rum, then expanding 
rapidly to the east, and then of the Kh w arizmshah 
Djalal al-DIn Mangubertl, who had become master 
of Adharbaydjan and Akhlat; Saldjukid vengeance 
caused them to lose the towns north of the Euphrates 
(1226), and the vengeance of al-Kamil deprived them 
of Amid and Hisn Kayfa (1232-3). Al-Kamil quar- 
relled with the Saldjukid Kaykubadh and was 
defeated, and as a result the Artukid of Khartpert. 
who had supported him, was dispossessed in his 
turn (1234). From then on only the Mardln branch 
remained; this continued to exist for nearly another 
two centuries. In 1260 its representative, al-Malik 
al-Sa'Id, endured a lengthy siege by the Mongols; 
but his death saved the dynasty, for his son, al- 
Muzaffar, submitted to Hfllagu and thus, as a 
humble vassal, preserved the heritage of his ancestors. 

The internal organisation and the civilisation of 
the Artukid principalities are too little known and, 
on the whole, too lacking in originality, for them 
to merit a general study on their own. Forming, with 
the exception of Khartpert, part of the Muslim world 
since the Arab conquests, the territories over which 
the Artukids reigned continued to be governed by 
the same people (for example the illustrious family 
of the Banfl Nubata at Mayyafarikin) and according 
to the same principles (summarised in the <-Ikd al- 
Farid of Muhammad b. Talha al-Karshl al-Adwi, 
wazir of Mardln in the 7th/i3th century) which had 
existed formerly or still existed in the neighbouring 
principalities. The taxes recorded in one or two 
inscriptions are those obtaining everywhere, and it 
would be unwise to attach more than a passing 
significance to the anecdote which emphasises the 



CIDS 665 

lightness of the burdens borne by the rural elements 
subject to Timurtash compared with those subject 
to Zenkl. The introduction of the Turcoman element 
had no effect on the traditional economic activity 
of the country, which was based on agriculture and 
stock-breeding, the iron and copper mines, and trade 
with c Ir5k and Georgia. Culturally, although we do 
not know of any writer of note who lived in the 
entourage of the Artukids, the Arabic literary 
tradition was sufficiently alive among them for a 
Usama b. Munkidh, for example, an exile from 
Syria, to have lived for several years at the court of 
Kara Arslan at Hisn Kayfa. 

When all this has been said, we still have to see 
whether, by virtue of its origin or otherwise, the 
Artukid regime had any particular characteristics. 
The first problem is that of Turcoman influence. The 
Turcomans remained until the end an important 
element in the life of Diyar Bakr, in the south 
perhaps more than in the north, where the Kurds, 
were always dominant; and Diyar Bakr was one of 
the starting points for the vast Turcoman migration 
of Rustem, which embraced about 1185-90 the 
whole of eastern and central Asia Minor. It is 
known, on the other hand, that the few verses which 
constitute the earliest specimen of popular literature 
in the Turkish language in western Asia, emanated 
from Artukid territory. There is no doubt that the 
Artukid dynasty did not remain purely Turcoman. 
The use of the symbolic arrow, however, continued 
for some time, and the princes (but not more than the 
Zenkids, who were not of direct Turcoman origin) 
preserved in their style, alongside Arab and Persian 
names, specifically Turkish titles. There has been 
much discussion on the significance of the animal 
motifs on certain coins or in decorative work on 
buildings, which perhaps belong to a general group 
of Turkish traditional symbolic signs. None of this 
has much bearing on the actual organisation of the 
Artukid principalities. What perhaps has a greater 
bearing on this, if it must be attributed to an original 
tribal practice deriving from authority which was 
more family than individual, is the impossibility 
which faced the dynasty of avoiding apportionment, 
and the numerous and detrimental grants of apanages 
to "princes of the blood". All the same, it is hardly 
open to dispute that the continued existence of the 
dynasty at Mardln, and its replacement by the 
Ayyubid Kurds north of the Tigris, should be 
related to the redistribution of the population and 
consequently to the support given to the Artukids 
by the Turcomans despite the existence of numerous 
Turks in the Ayyubid army. This does not mean 
to say that the Artukids had had much quarrel 
with their Kurdish subjects, despite memories of 
the Marwanids; nevertheless one sees them pur- 
suing on their eastern frontiers the same policy 
of reabsorbing the autonomous Kurdish states which 
Zenki was following a little further south, and at 
the end of the century a massacre of Kurds, with 
whom they were indeed formerly half intermixed, 
marked the beginning of the migration of the Turco- 
mans of Rustem. 

As regards religious belief, the attitude of the 
Artukids seems in general to have been fairly 
tolerant. It is true that they took part in the general 
trends towards orthodoxy which characterise*; the 
Saldjukid and post-Saldjuljid period, and were among 
the most active builders of madrasas and mosques 
and executors of public works (bridges, khans, etc.) 
and military defence works. IlghazI, who was of neces- 
sity a diplomat, had avoided a complete break with 



the Assassins; none of his successors 1iad the appea- 
rance of a champion of orthodoxy comparable to 
that of Nur al-Din, and one of them, at Khartpert. 
favoured the Persian mystic SuhrawardI who, it is 
true, had at that time not yet be«n denounced as 
heterodox. The same tolerance, on the whole, 
characterised the relations of the Artukids with 
their Christian subjects. The latter complained, in 
the second half of the 6th/i2th century in particular, 
of various tribulations; but popular disturbances 
sometimes among the Kurds, rather than any action 
by the government, seem to have been at the root 
of the matter. About 1180, Turkomans and Kurds 
massacred, on the borders north of Diyar Bakr, the 
Armenians of Djabal Sassun, but the latter con- 
stituted a quasi-autonomous group, intriguing 
frequently with the Shah-i Armin, and the action of 
which they were the victims was therefore of a 
political rather than religious nature. Towards their 
ordinary Christian subjects, it has to be admitted 
that the Artukids acted with correctitude. There is 
no other explanation for the fact that the Armenian 
Catholicus resided for a period during the 12th 
century at Dzovk, in the province of Khartpert, and 
that the patriarch of the Monophysites constantly 
alternated his periods of residence at the Convent 
of Mar Barsawma (itself momentarily subject to the 
Artukids, but normally a dependency of Edessa, and 
then of the princes of Malaga) with periods of 
residence at Amid or at Mardin, where their election 
frequently took place with Artukid permission. 
Several bishoprics, especially Monophysite, always 
existed in Diyar Bakr, the Christian population 
remained numerous and, on the south-eastern 
frontiers of the province, the district of Tur-'Abdin 
remained a great centre of monastic life until the 
8th/i4th century. 

The strange character of Artukid coins, which, 
like those of the Danishmandids, for long resembled 
ancient Byzantine coins, is sometimes explained as a 
Christian influence. This does not seem to me to be 
a sufficient explanation. To speak of the impossi- 
bility of finding an artisan capable of striking Muslim 
coins in an ancient Muslim country does not make 
sense; nor does the importance of trade with By- 
zantium carry greater weight, because it is impossible 
to believe that it had suddenly assumed greater 
importance than trade with neighbouring Muslim 
states, or that the copper pieces with which we are 
exclusively concerned could be used for any other 
purpose than local consumption. These arguments 
are admissible for the Danishmandids, but not for 
the Artukids, and the problem deserves to be 
reconsidered as a whole. 

The history of the Artukids after the Mongol 
conquest, despite their disappearance from the larger 
political stage, should not cease to attract our 
interest as an example of how an autonomous 
principality adapted itself to new circumstances; 
unfortunately very little is known about it. The 
Artukids played the role of loyal servants of the 
Ilkhans; they gained, apart from the title of sultan, 
the advantage of being considered for a time as 
auxiliaries or delegates of Mongol authority, and of 
recovering more or less permanently a considerable 
part of Diyar Bakr (Amid, in a state of decay, 
Mayyafarikln, perhaps Is'ird) and in addition Khabflr, 
only Hisn Kayfa (Ayyubid) and Arzan (Saldjukid) 
remaining autonomous. Moreover, like all the vassals 
of the Ilkhans. the Artukids, in the second quarter of 
the 8th/i5th century, as a result of the break-up of 
the Mongol state, found themselves once more .'ree, 



and subsequently free to bow momentarily before 
one or other of the new powers created by this 
break-up. The little which is known of their "foreign 
policy" shows them trying to preserve their pre- 
eminence in the face of, on the one hand, the AyyObids 
of Hisn Kayfa, against whom they waged in 735/ 
1334 an unsuccessful war which cost them their 
possessions on the left bank of the Tigris, and on 
the other hand the Mongols, Turcomans and Mamluks 
who contested Upper Mesopotamia with them. On 
the one hand they appear to have joined forces with 
the Turcomans against the Kurds of the north, 
supporters of the AyyObids; there is, however, no 
further mention of any special link with their parent 
tribe, the Doger, now settled further to the west, 
on the borders of the MamlOk state; on the other 
hand, with the formation of the two great rival 
Turcoman federations of the Ak Koyunlu and the 
Kara Koyunlu in Armenia and Upper Mesopotamia 
in the middle of the 8th/i4th century, the Artukids 
seem at first to have supported the enemies of the 
latter (although it is not possible to affirm that they 
belonged strictly to the Ak Koyunlu group); but, 
some time before the invasion of Timur, a general 
rapprochement seems to have taken place between 
the Mongols (Djala'irids) of Baghdad, the Kara 
Koyunlu, the Artukids and the Mamluks. 

Whatever the position regarding these disputed 
questions, on another plane, that of economx and 
social life, the increase, by comparison with pre- 
Mongol times, of the nomad element compared with 
the settled element, and the consequent decline of 
agricultural life, are not open to dispute. Never- 
theless some towns, among them Hisn Kayfa and 
Mardin, perhaps derived profit from the surrounding 
decadence, which made them valuable places of 
refuge. Building was definitely still going on at 
Mardin in the 8th/i4th century, and Arab culture, 
represented, for example, by the poet Sayf al-DIn 
al-Hilll, still held an honoured position there. 
Christianity, favoured by the Mongols, but sometimes 
ill-treated by their descendants, retained for its part 
a certain vitality in Artukid territory: the Mono- 
physite patriarch often resided at Mardin, and 
Daniel bar al-Khattab is a theologian still held in 

The invasion of Timur caused fresh upheavals. 
Sultan al-?ahir c Isa, suspected of maintaining a 
connexion with Egypt, could not save his principality 
from the ravages of the conqueror. He contended 
with the AyyObids, zealous vassals of Timur, and 
especially with the Ak Koyunlu who, to begin with 
on behalf of Timur, then, after his desth, on then- 
own account, sought to conquer the Artukid princi- 
pality; in 809, al-Zahir was killed making a vain 
attempt to save Amid, and in 811/1409 his successor 
al-Salih decided to abandon Mardin to Kara Yusuf, 
the leader of the Kara KoyOnlu. This represented 
the end of the dynasty and of the period of compara- 
tive autonomy of southern Diyar Bakr. 

Bibliography: The sources are those for the 
general history of the Near East from the end 
of the jth/nth to the beginning of the oth/ijth 
century. For the I2th-i3th centuries see the 
introduction to my Syrie du Nord a Vtpoqtu its 
Croisades, Paris 1940. Special note should be made 
of the following: for the nth century, the History 
of Aleppo of Kamal al-Din Ibn al- c AdIm (ed. SamI 
Dahhan, Damascus vol. 1, 1951, vol. 2, 1954, vol. 3 
in preparation), the Mir'dt al-Zamdn of Sibt Ibn 
al-Djawzi (the portion relevant to this period has 
not been published), and, for the Bahrayn eposide, 



ARTU^IDS — «AR0P 



667 



bn al-Mukarrab (De Goeje, La 
findes Karmates, in J A 189s) ; for the izth century, 
the Syriac chronicle of Michael the Syrian, ed. 
and trans, by Chabot, iii, and above all, a unique 
extant chronicle originating from Artukid Diyar 
Bakr, the History of Mayyafarikln of !bn al- 
Azrak al-Fsrikl (unpublished; analysis of the 
political events in my Diyar Bakr au temps des 
premiers Uriukides, in JA 1935); for the 13th 
century, before the Mongol intervention, the 
great histories of Ibn al-'Adlm (mentioned above), 
Ibn al-Athlr, Ibn Wasil (edition in course of 
preparation by Djamal at -Din al-Shayyal, Alexan- 
dria; vol. I, appeared in 195$, al-Djazarl {Oricns 
'9Sij 15O. and especially the section relating to 
Pjazira in the AHak of Ha al-DIn Ibn Shaddad 
(unpublished; analysis in my IJiatira au XIII 4 s., 
in REI 1934), which constitute the Arab sources, 
and, in addition, in Persian, the History of the 
Saldjufcids of Asia Minor of Ibn BIbl (facsimile 
edition by A. S. Erzi, Ankara 1956, critical edition 
by N. Lugal and A. S. Erzi, i, Ankara 1957; a 
Turkish version was edited by T. Houtsma, 
Recueil, iii, A. German translation by H. W. Duda 
is in the press.) and, in Syriac, the Chronograpky 
of Gregory Abu '1-Faradj Bar Hebraeus (ed. and 
trans, by Budge); for the Mongol, post-Mongol 
and TJmurid period, one must glean the fragments 
of information scattered among the standard 
chronicles of the Mamluks, the Itkhanids and 
TImur, and more especially in the History of the 
Ayyubids (of S.Iisn Kayfci, uu published, :in;ilvsis 
by the author in JA 1955), and augment this by 
the inskd' works of the period, the continuation 
of the Syriac Eccleciastical Chronicle of Bar- 
Hebraeus (ed. Abbeloos and Lamy) and (for the 
period since Timur) the anonymous Syriac work 
edited and translated by Behnsch (Bratislava r8j8) 
and the Armenian history of Tamerlane by 
Thomas de Medzroph (ed. and trans, by Neve) ; 
see also the diwdn of Sayf al-Din al-Hilll, and, 
perhaps, the Kitdb-i Diydrbakriyya of Abu Bakr 
Tihrani (end of the r;th century), which is not 
accessible to me (see I A, articles Diyarbekir and 
Akkoyunlu, and Faruk Sumer, article mentioned 
below}. 

The inscriptions, collected up to the beginning 
of the 14th century in RCEA, have nearly all been 
studied by Sauvaget in the appendix to A. Gabriel, 
Voyage archtotegique en Turquie Orientate, 1940; 
see also Sauvaget, La tombe de VOrtokide Balak 
(Ars Islamica t93S) and SHI. Savci, Silvan Tarihi, 
Diyarbekir 1949. — For buildings, see Gabriel, 
op. cit. — For objets d'art, see J. T. Reinaud, 
Monuments Rlacas, ii, 40, and P. Casanova, Inven- 
taire de ia collection Princesse Ismail, 1896. For 
coins (not a few unpublished coins exist in private 
collections), the Istanbul and British Museum 
catalogues, and S. Lane Poole, The Coins of the 
Urtuk's, in Marsden Numismatic Chronicle, 1875; 
B. Butak, Resimii turk paralari, Istanbul 1947-50. 

The only comprehensive modern studies are 
those, necessarily brief, by Mukr. Halil Yinanc 
{Diyarbekir) and Kc-priilii (Artuk-ogullari) in I A, 
My Diyar Bakr etc. mentioned above, one of my 
early works, is only of value for political events; 
see also my Premiere Pinitration titrifue en Asie- 
Mineure (Byzantion 1948) and my Syrie du Nord 
mentioned above: the histories of the Crusades of 
Grousset and Runciman; the valuable commen- 
taries on inscriptions by Van Berchem in Abh. 
G. W. GtSttingcn 1897, and in Strzygowsky, Amida 



1910; H. Derenbourg, Ousama b. Mounkidk, i, 

1 88 b; Faruk Sumer, DOgerlere Dair, in Tiirkiyat 

Mccmuasi 1953. For the r4th century, see ray 

Contribution a I'histoire du Diyar Bakr au XIV s., 

in J A, 1955 ; on Daniel bar aI-Khatt3b, Nau, in 

Rev. Or ChrH. 1930. (Cl, Oaken) 

ARTVIN, town in the far north-east of Turkey, 

41° 10' north, 41° 50' east, situated on the Coruh. 

It was ceded to Russia by the Treaty of San Stefano 

in 1878 together with Kars and Ardahan, and ceded 

back by Georgia on Feb. 23rd, 1921. Since then, it 

has been the centre of the kadd and the capital of 

the wildyet of Coruh. In 1945, there were 3,980 

inhabitants in the town itself and r6,966 in the kadd. 

(Fr. Taescknbr) 

<ARUBA [see ta'rIkh]. 

'ARCp. I. Him a!- c Arud is the technical term for 
ancient Arabic metric. Him al-'Ariid and Him cd- 
sftt'r are occasionally used synonymously in the 
sense of "science of versification", and in this ex- 
tended sense Him al- l Arud embraces not only the 
Science of Metre, but also the Science of Rhyme. 
Usually, however, the rules governing rhyme {Him 
al-Kawdfl, sg. Kdfiya) are treated separately, and 
Him al-'Arud is confined to metrics in the stricter 
sense. As such, Arabic philologists define it in the 
following manner: At-'ariid Him bi-usul yu c raf bihd 
sahib awzdn al-ski'r wa-fdsiduhd {'Arid is the 
science of the rules by means of which one disting- 
uishes correct metres from faulty ones in ancient 
poetry). 

There is no generally accepted etymology for this 
sense of the term 'Arid. Some Arabic grammarians 
maintain that it acquired the meaning of metrics 
because the verse is constructed on its analogy 
{yu'rad 'atayhi); others say that the term was used 
because a!- Khali! developed it in Mecca, and this 
city is also called a 1 -'Arid. Georg Jacob (Studien in 
arabischen Dichtern, 180) has suggested a curious 
explanation by pointing to the passage in the Diwdn 
of the Hudhaylites (95, 16), where the poem is 
compared to an obstinate female camel ('arud) which 
the poet tames. The most plausible explanation still 
remains the one based on the concrete meaning 
which 'Arud has as part of a tent, and the transferred 
sense which it acquired in metrics, as the last foot 
of the first hemistich: originally it describes "the 
transverse pole or piece of wood which is in the middle 
of a tent, and which is its main support and hence 
the middle portion (or foot) of a verse" (Lane). 
Since the last foot of the first hemistich in the centre 
of the line (bayt al-shi'r) is as important for its 
structure as the centre pole is for that of the tent 
(bayt al-ska'r), one may readily assume that 'Arud 
then came to be the general term for the science of 
metric structure. 

There are few works on metrics by Arab philolo- 
gists, and their contents are of little value. This 
fact is all the more surprising if one bears in mind 
how many works of lasting value have been written 
by prominent Muslim scholars on grammar and 
lexicography. The Kitdb al-'Arud, which al-JOialll, 
the founder of the science of metrics, is said to have 
written, has not survived, nor have any of the works 
on the subject written by the older grammarians. 
The earliest monographs which we have concerning 
Him al-'Arud, in the wider sense, date from the turn 
of the 3rd century A, H. There are sections on metrics 
in some of the larger Adah works; the oldest and 
best known of these can be found in the Hkd al-Farid 
(Ed. Cairo, 1305, III, 146 ff.) of Ibn <Abd Rabbihi 
(died 328/940). The following list gives the names o 



4th century 








Ibn Kaysan 


I, no 




talhib al-kawdfi wa-U 
Opuscula arabica (185 


Al-$ahib al-Talkani 


S. I, 199 




al-iknd* fi 'l-'arHd 


Ibn Djinnl 


i, 126; S. 


, 192 




5th century 








Al-Raba c I 


S. I, 491 






Al-Kundhuri 


1,286 






Al-Tibrizi 


i, 279; s. 


,492 


1) al-kdfi 2) al-wdfi 


6th century 








Al-Zamakhshari 


i.aguS. 


. 5" 


al-kus(ds fi 'l-'arud 


Ibn al-Kana 1 


1, 308; S. 


, 540 


aW-arud al-bdri c 


Al-Dahhan 








Nashwan al-Himyari 


1, 301 






Al-Sakkat 


1, 282; S. 


, 495 




7th century 








Abu 'l-DJaygh al-AndalusI 


i, 310; S. 


1,544 


c aru4 al-Andalusi; fi 



■talhib harakatiha; ed. W. Wright in 



t printed Istanbul 1261; much com- 
mented upon, 

al-ktifida al-khazradiiyya; critical ed. by R. Basset: Le 
Khazradjiyah, Traiti de mitrique arabe (Alger 1903); the 
text can also be found in all editions of the Modj'mfl 1 ttf- 
mutun al-kabir; much commented upon. 
al-makfad al-djalU fi Him al-KhalU : ed. Freytag in: Dar- 
stellung der arab. Verskunst (1830) 334 ft.; much com- 
mented upon. 
1) shifd 2) urdjuza 
al- l arud 



59; S. 2, 258 al-ka?ida al-hus 



1 2th century 
Al-Sabban 



manzuma [al-^afiya al-kdfiya] fi Him al-'arud; printed 
several times in Cairo; also copied in all editions of the 
Madimu*. 



those Arab philologists whose works on metrics are 
preserved in manuscripts ( — mere commentators are 
omitted). They are arranged in centuries, reckoning 
from the Hidjra, and details are given only in the 
case of the better known works; references to 
Brockelmann are, however, given in every case. 

Just as the ancient Indians and Greeks developed 
their own form of metric poetry, so did the ancient 
Arabs. Ancient Arabic poems were already written 
and recited in the known metres a hundred years 
before Islam, and they retained their form more or 
less unchanged in the succeeding centuries. The 
usual ancient Arabic poem, the so-called ICafida, 
[q.v.] is comparatively short and simple in its 
structure. It consists of 50 to 100 monorhyming 
lines (rarely of more), and there is no strophic 
division in ancient Arabic poetry. Each line (bayt, 
pi. abydt) consists of two clearly distinct halves 
(misrd 1 , pi. mafdri') ; the name for the first hemistich 



being al^adr, that for the second al-'adiuz. Only 
these more obvious attributes of the line were 
recognised and named during the 1st century A.H. 
Al-Khalll Ibn Ahmad al-Farahidl (died ca. 175 A.H. 
in Basra) was the first to investigate the inner, 
rhythmical structure of Arabic verse; he distingui- 
shed between different metres, gave them the names 
by which we still know them, and divided them up 
into their subordinate metric element;. The written 
description and analysis ,of observations made by 
ear presented, however, very serious difficulties. 

In all languages the choice and position of words 
in prose is solely governed by generally accepted 
syntactic rules and by the desire of the speaker to 
express his thoughts as clearly as possible. In poetry, 
however, when it is based on rhythm, the choice of 
words and their sequence within the line is not so 
uncontrolled. The rhythm of the verse and the 
metres in which it finds its external expression are 



created by the following factors: i) the observance 
of a definite order in the sequence of syllables 
within the line, and 2) the regular recurrence of 
accent, indicated either by stress or some other 
means. The rhythm of a line in poetry is as completely 
tied to the phonetic properties of the language in 
which it is written as are the syllables of the words 
in the prose of the language concerned. This is, 
above all, a matter of the duration of the syllables 
and the stress with which they are pronounced. 
Syllables have a measurable length in all languages, 
but whereas in some (e.g. in the Germanic languages) 
there is no fixed and definite proportion of length of 
syllables (for, although there are admittedly some 
syllables in these languages which are always long 
and others which are always short, there are many 
which have no fixed quantity), there are, on the 
other hand, other languages (such as ancient Greek) 
where the quantity of every syllable in every word 
is absolutely fixed. In these, there is a strict 
distinction between long and short syllables in 
prose, too; the ratio of their length is roughly 2 : 1. 
The position is similar with regard to the element of 
stress: whilst in every language there is one syllable 
in a word which is somehow raised above the others, 
the strength of this accent is, however, something 
which differs widely in the individual languages. 
Thus, for example, ancient Greek uses musical 
pitch, whereby individual syllables are distinguished 
only by a higher tone, whilst in the Germanic 
languages they are distinguished by an expiratory 
stress which renders them more emphatic in com- 
parison with the other syllables. The rhythmic 
structure of the verse has in all languages to adapt 
itself to these qualities of the syllables. If the 
quantity of the syllables is definitely fixed, then the 
rhythm of the verse is attained largely by regularly 
recurring sequences of short and long syllables, 
forming metrical 'feet', which last the same- length 
of time. One then speaks of 'quantitative' verse. If, 
on the other hand, stress, rather than any fixed 
quantity, is the characteristic by means of which 
definite syllables are distinguished from their neigh- 
bours, then the rhythm of the verse and the structure 
of its metre, will both be largely produced by the 
alternation of accented and unaccented syllables. In 
this case we speak of 'accentual' verse. 

From the prose of the JJor'an, and the poetry of 
the ancient poets, as it has come down to us, we 
know that in the ancient Arabic language the quan- 
tity of the syllables was definitely fixed. From 
certain grammatical facts one may assume that an 
expiratory accent was also present, though only 
slightly developed. A priori one can therefore assume 
that the rhythm in ancient Arabic verse (as in 
ancient Greek verse) found its expression in 'quan- 
titative' metrics. The theoretical treatment of this 
problem, however, was at that time a far more 
difficult one for the Arabic philologist than for the 
Greek prosodist. The latter used the term 'syllable', 
made a clear distinction between short and long 
syllables, and chose the short syllable, the XP OV0 ? 
7Tp<0T0?, as the basic unit for measuring the duration 
of the verse. They also had a term and a graphic 
sign for the pitch by which one syllable in every 
word was distinguished. Arabic philologists, by 
contrast, did not possess the concept of syllable, let 
alone the refinement of the 'short syllable'. Al- 
Khalil, too, did not know the words 'syllable' and 
'stress', yet his ear surely perceived what we call 
syllables and stresses, for his graphic paraphrase 
— which we can understand if we try hard — does 



give us a clear picture of the rhythm in ancient 

Primarily, Al-Khalll made good use of the 
peculiarities of Arabic script, in which the face of 
each word is a guide to the quantity of its syllables : 
one individual 'moving" consonant (fiarf mutafiarrik) , 



>wel sign (e.g. 



'•*), 



the second 'quiescent' (sdttin) (e.g. AS '_^i ' ,j). 



this rule (e.g. f> I =j>" ' j ! 3 = 6i ' V = tf q*' 
iiU>3 = liUU « J^> = jiii ). Thanks to this pecu- 
liarity of the Arabic script, Al-Khalil was able 
to take the face of the verse as a basis for his 
treatment of Arabic metres. In order to be indepen- 
dent of the changing shape of the letters, graphic 
symbols were introduced, namely the symbol | o for 
the 'quiescent' and the symbol o for the 'moving' 

consonant (e.g. dCi Ui = o | o | o o). 

Both al-Harlrf and ' Ibn Khallikan report that 
Al-Khalil had noticed the different rhythms produced 
by the hammering in different copper-workshops in 
the bazaar in Basra, and that this gave him the idea 
of developing a science of metre, in other words, 
of determining the rhythm in the structure of the 
ancient poems. This late report agrees with the 
earlier one by Al-DjahU, who states that Al-Khalll 
was the first to distinguish between different metres, 
that is to say, that he was the first who in listening 
had distinguished different rhythmic structures in 
the ancient verses, and that he was the first to 
analyse this rhythm, by dissecting it into its metric 
elements. His theory was supplemented in its details 
by later Arabic prosodists, but these additions made 
no difference to the basic conception. Even today, 
the 16 Arabic metres are still given in the very order 
in which Al-Khalll gives them, because it is only in 
this order that they can be united in the graphic 
presentation of the five metric circles [dawd'ir, sg. 
d&Hra). 

According to him, every metre comes into being 
by the repetition of 8 rhythmic feet which recur in 
definite distribution and sequence in all metres. The 
term applied to these feet is djuz } , pi. adizd' ("part"). 
In accordance with the common practice of Arabic 
grammarians, he represents each of these 8 "parts" 
by a mnemonic word, derived from the root fH. Of 
these eight mnemonics, 2 consist of five consonants 

each, namely: fa'ulun iVy* and fa'ilun qIcIs, 6 of 

seven consonants each, namely mafa'ilun .jLicUu, 

mustaf'ilun ^Ui Xw.*, fa'ilatun ^J^eli, mufa- 

'alatun ^ilelX*, mutafa'ilun qIcUa*, maf'ulatu 

0%*a*' The following table of the 5 metric 
circles will clarify how the 16 metres are made up 
of these 8 feet. For the sake of clarity, the circles 
are opened out and given as straight lines, and only 
one hemistich is given in the rhythmical mnemonic 
words for each metre (see Circle 1-5, p. 670). 



Tawil | FA C 6 

Basit -'ILUN 

Madid -'ILUN 



| MUFA 
-'ILUN 



Hazadi | MAFA 

Radjaz -'ILUN 

Ramal - C ILA 



| m 



Sari' 

Munsarih 

Khafif 

Mudari' 

Muktadab 

Muditathth 





Circle i 




MAFA' - c i- lun FA'6 
- C ILUN | mus -taf -'ILUN 


-lun MAFX -'1 -lun| 

fa -'ILUN mus -taf- 


-'ILA 


-tun fa -'ILUN 


fa -'ILX -tun fa..| 


a -fa 


MUFA -'ala -tun 
-'ILUN muta -fa 

Circle 3 


MUFA' -'ala -tun | 
-'ILUN muta -fa- . . | 


-taf 
|fa 


MAfX -'i -lun 
-'ILUN mus -taf 
-'ILA -tun fa 


MAfX -'I -lun | 
-'ILUN mus -taf-..| 
-'ILA -tun fa- ... | 


js -taf - 


ilun maf -'u -LATU 
ilun maf -'u -LATU 
ild -tun mus -TAF'I 


IZ'-Uf'ZZ™ "^ "''"" 



- c u-lXtu I 



I maf -'u -LATU m 



5 -TAF'I -lun fa -Hid 



Mutakarib | FA'6 -lun FA'6 
Mutadarik -'ILUN | fa -'ILUN fa 



-lun FA'6 -lun FA'6 

•J fa -'ILUN f 



The order of the 5 circles is based on an arithmetical 
principle. They are arranged according to the 
number of consonants in the mnemonic words of the 
metres which compose them. The three metres 
Jawil, Basif and Madid, whose hemistiche: consist 
of 24 consonants each, form the first circle; the two 
metres Mutakarib and Mutadarik, whose hemistiches 
consist of only 20 consonants each, form the last 
circle. The remaining metres, whose hemistiches 
consist of 21 consonants each, are divided among 
the three circles in the middle. The order of the 

Adjza' of a metre are first written around the 
periphery of a circle, thus the three mafdHlun 
mafdHlun rnafdHlun of the Hazadi are inscribed 
around the periphery of circle 3. If one reads the 
same circle again, but starting at a different point, 
one automatically gets the mnemonic words of 

does not begin with ma/a- (as in Hazadi), but only 
with the -'»- of mafdHlun, one obtains the metric 
scheme of Radiaz, and if one advances still further 
and does not begin reading till the -lun, ore obtains 
the scheme of Ramal. The possibility of dividing the 
Aajzd' of a circle in various ways, and of reaching 
different metric schemes by doing so, is only due to 
Al-Khalil having purposely constructed his circles 
so that the mnemonic words united in each circle 
not only produce the same total number of con- 
sonants, but coincide completely in their 'moving' 
and 'quiescent' consonants as well, if they are 
written in a certain relationship to one another. 
This can be clearly seen in the above table of the 
5 circles if one transcribes the Latin letters into 
Arabic ones. The agreement emerges even more 
obviously if we substitute the signs which are used 
by the Arabic prosodists for the 'moving' and 
'quiescent' consonants themselves. The following 
picture will then emerge for circle 3: 

Hazadi |o|o|oo|o|oioo|o|o|oo 

Radiaz |oo|o|o|oo|o|o |oo|o| o 
JW|o|oo|o|o|ooio| o|oo|o 



The 



•I 



relative ( 



i is also found 
ween the metres contained in the remaining 
ircles. Al-Khalil's object in arranging the metres 
:his purely formal system of the 5 circles has not 
n handed down to us either by himself, or by 
' of the later prosodists. It is quite certain, 
vever, that this merely external superimposition 
'moving' and 'quiescent' 



The 8 Adjzd 



mply a rh 
it of another. 



n the 11 






can be further split into their metric components. 
For Al-Khalil, however, the metric component 
means something different than for the occidental 
prosodist. It is not the smallest indivisible unit of 
sound, but the smallest independent word occurring 
in the language. Accordingly, he distinguished two 
pairs of metric components which he apparently 
regarded as such because none of the 4 words 
concerned (each with its particular sequence of 
'moving' and 'quiescent' consonants), could be 
derived from any of the other 3, whilst all 8 feet 
could be formed by combinations from these 4 
words. He took the terms for these two pairs of 
components from two important parts of the tent, 
and he distinguished between: 

A : The two Asbdb (sg. sabab "cord") which consist 
of two consonants each, namely 

1) sabab khafif — 2 consonants, the first 'moving*, 
the second 'quiescent', as in words like lAS 

2) sabab thakil = 2 consonants, both 'moving', e.g. 
words like liX-J 

B: The two Awtdd (sg. watid "peg") which consist 



;h, namely 



1) u 



, the f 



words like ci^*} 
In this manner, each of the 8 feet can be reduced 

to its metric components as follows; thus qLLacLm 



'#' 



mafd-'i-lun = Bi + Ai + Ai 

fd-Hlun = A2 + Ai + Bi. Each of the 16 metres 
given in ths circles can therefore be scanned on this 
basis, e.g. Wdfir = mufd'alatun mufd'alatun mufd- 
'alatun = Bi + A2 + Ai, Bi + A2 + Ai, Bi + A2 
+ Ai or Sari' = mustafHlun mustafHlun maf'uldtu = 
Ai + Ai + Bi, Ai + Ai + Bi, Ai + Ai + B2. 

Since it is thus possible to reduce all the metres 
to their basic components, one might assume this 
metric system to be complete. The fact remains, 
however, that the 16 metres never actually appear 
in the form in which they are given in the 5 circles, 
but nearly always deviate from this ideal form — at 
times to a considerable extent. In other words, the 
sequence of 'moving' and 'quiescent' consonants in 
ancient Arabic poems does not correspond to the 
sequence determined by the circles. Therefore one 
can no longer split the metric forms used by the 
poets into the 8 ideal feet, nor yet divide these into 
their two metric elements, because that method of 
scanning is based completely on the sequence of 
'moving' and 'quiescent' consonants in the ideal 
metres of the circles. This fact was, of course, known 
to Al-Khaffl just as well as it is to us, and in fact 
his circles are just a kind of rhythmic Usui, from 
which the actual metric forms used by the poets 
deviate in a certain manner as Furu'. Consequently, 
there are also two different terms designating the 
metres. The ideal forms in the circles are called 
buhur (sg. bafir "river, fu9(io?"); those deviating 
from them, and actually occurring in ancient poetry 
are called awzdn al-shi'r (= metres). 

The smallest of the deviations is the shortening 
of the metre. This is immediately visible, because 
then the metre no longer has its full (tarn) number of 
adjsd'. According to the degree of shortening, there 
are three possibilities. The line is either 

a) madj zu'. if there is one djui' missing in each of 
the two hemistiches (if, for instance, in Hazadj, 
Kdmil or Radjaz the foot is repeated only twice 
and not three times); or 

b) mashtur, when a complete half (sAafr) is absent 
(as, for instance, when the Radjt 
one hemistich); or 

c) manhuk, when the line, on rai 
"weakened to exhaustion" i.e. (as for instance 
in Munsarih) when it is reduced to a third of its 

All these deviations only concern the external 
shape of a metre and not its rhythmical structure, 
which does find its expression in the sequence of 
'moving' and 'quiescent' consonants. 

The very numerous cases in which this particular 
sequence in the ancient poems differs from that 
prescribed by the circles have been covered by a 
special set of rules. This forms a necessary supplement 
to the circles, because the deviations would be 
arbitrary — and thus the circles would lose their 
authoritative character as Usui — if there were no 
such rules. Just as one is amazed at the regularity 
of the first part of the system — the five circles and 
their normal metres — so one is confused by the 



s reduced t 



second part with its casuistry and its complications. 
This, however, is inherent in its very nature. 
Neither Al-Khalil nor the later prosodists use the 
term 'syllable', and we can therefore not expect any 
general rules (e.g. concerning the reduction of long- 
syllables to short, the omission of short syllables 
etc ). In effect, they were obliged to mention in each 
individual case whether and to what extent the 
'moving* and 'quiescent' consonants in ancient 
poetry showed a plus or a minus as compared with 
the ideal scheme of the circles. This had to be done 
in every metre and every one of its feet in both 
halves of the line, and in order to denote them 
clearly, individual terms had to be created to 
cover each one of these numerous differences. A 
certain order and clarity emerges from this baffling 
list thanks to the fact that all deviations fall into 
two classes, which perform different functions and 
appear in different parts of the line. 

The last foot of the first hemistich (al-'arud, pi. 
a'drid) and the last foot of the second hemistich 
(al-darb, pi. durub), that is to say, the ends of the 
two halves of the line, suffer most from deviations. 
The terms for these two vulnerable parts of the 
verse are definite, the terms for the other feet vary 
and are usually given the collective name al-hashw 
('stuffing'). By analogy, one also distinguishes two- 
groups of deviations, the Zihdfdt and the 'Ilal. The 
Zihdfdt ('relaxations') are, as the name suggests, 
smaller deviations which occur only in the Hasha 
parts of the line in which the characteristic rhythm 
runs strongly, and their effect is a small quantitative 
change in the weak /Isftdi-syllables. As accidental 
deviations, the Zihdfdt have no regular or definite 
place, they just appear occasionally in the feet. By 
contrast, there are the 'Ilal ('diseases', 'defects') 
which appear only in the last feet of the two halves 
of the lines, and there, as - their name suggests, they 
cause considerable change as compared to the 
normal feet. They alter the rhythmic end of the line 
considerably, and are thus clearly distinct from the 
Bashw feet. As rhythmically determined deviations, 
the 'Ilal do not just appear occasionally but have 
to appear regularly, always in the same form, and 
in the same position in all the lines of the poem. 
A further difference between the two groups of 
deviations is the fact that the Zihdfdt fall only on 
the Sabab (and there on its second consonant), 
whilst the 'Ilal alter the Watid in each of the last 
feet of the two hemistiches as well as in their 
Sababs. 

By applying the definite Zihdfdt and 'Ilal rules, 
and taking the normal form of the feet of each 
metre as a point of departure, one arrives at the 
forms actually occurring in the Kasidas. Just as the 
normal feet are denoted by their 8 mnemonic words, 
(fa'ulun, mafd'ilun, etc.), which express the normal 
sequence of their 'moving' and 'quiescent' conso- 
nants, there are also mnemonics denoting the forms 
which have undergone alteration because of Zihdfdt 
and 'Ilal, and these indicate the changed sequence 
of consonants. Thus, for instance, mu[s]tafSlun, 
when its Sin is lost, should become mutafHlun. If, 
however, as in this case, the resulting form is not one 
linguistically possible in Arabic, then the same 
sequence of consonants (i.e, the same sequence of 
'longs' and 'shorts') is expressed by an equivalent 
word which is linguistically acceptable, in this case, 
for instance, by mafd'ilun. By contrast with the 
Usui forms of the feet, these modifications are 
known as the Fur*' forms of the feet. In the following, 
the Furu' will be added in brackets, if their form 



6 7 2 



differs from that of the Usui. Space here does not 
permit a detailed list of all Zifidfat and Hlal (cf. for 
the details the arabic compendia of the Him al- l aru4). 
A few examples will be given, however, in order to 
illustrate the theoretical exposition, and to show 
how peculiar and complicated this particular part 
of the system is. 

As already stated, the Zifidfat appear when the 
Sabab in a line does not possess its full normal form, 
but shows a change in the second consonant. Then, 
however, one does not simply speak of a Zifidf, 
because this would be ambiguous. In order to 
describe the Zifidf accurately, one must state which 
consonant of a foot is affected, and whether that 
is a 'moving" or a 'quiescent' consonant. For example, 
one can divide the so-called 8 'simple Zifidfat' into 
two groups, according to whether a sabab khafif or 
a sabab thakil is affected. Even then, one must 
denote the eight cases by individual' terms, i) We 
have a khabn, if the second consonant of a foot is 

missing, e.g., the sin in ^ji*&[-*\|-* [= Q^li*], 

or the alif in q!c[L] J; we have a tayy, if the 4th 

issing, e.g., the fa of ,^A*[rJa*««o 

( = ^Jbtia*] ; a kabd, if the 5 th consonant is 

•concerned, e.g., the nun in [^]Jj*S or the yd in 

|.-i[j.Jcli« ; and a kaff, when the 7th consonant 

is missing, e.g., the nun of [^JJ'bLcLs. 2) In the 

sabab thakil, there can either be only the vowel of 
the second consonant missing (then one speaks of 
an idmdr, in the case of the fatfia of mut[a]fdHlun 
[= mustafHlun], and of an c asb in the case of the 
fatfia of mufd c al[a]tun [--= mafdHlun]) or both this 
consonant and its vowel (then one speaks of a teaks, 
if the ta of mu[ta]fdHlun [= mafdHlun] is missing, 
and of an c akl in the case of the la of mufd c a[la]tun 
1= mafdHlun]). 

Whilst the Zifidfat always lead to a minus, when 
•compared with the normal Sabab, the- Hlal (which 
•change the last feet of the two hemistichs) fall into 
two groups, according to whether they arise out of 
an addition (ziydda) or an omission (naks). 1) the 
tadhyil, for example, adds a 'quiescent' consonant 

to the watid madimu* (thus { ^mXm*j« becomes 

1), the tarfU a sabab khafif (thus l ^jlcli£« 

becomes ^jbLcUx*). 2) On the other hand, the 

haiht means the loss of a sabab khafif (as for 
mafdH[lun] [«= fa'ulun] or for fa c u[lun] [= fa ( al]), 
the katf means the loss of a sabab khafif and 
the preceding vowel (as, for instance in mufd'-al\atun] 
{= faHtlun]) and the hadhadh means the loss of a 
whole watid madimu 1 (as in mutafd[Hlun] [= faHlun]). 
These examples give only a rough impression of 
the complexity of the classical system. Even more 
complicated changes take place when two deviations 
obtain within one foot and in certain other special 
cases. In this manner one can derive from the 8 basic 
feet no less than 37 Furu c feet, all of which actually 
appear in old poetry. Feet undergoing a change 



through Hlal play the greater part for two reasons. 
Firstly because they produce a greater plus or 
minus in the normal feet than the weaker Zihdfdt, 
and secondly because they cause rhythmic variants, 
which recur throughout the whole poem. Because 
of the large range of varying line endings, a great 
number of sub-divisions appear in all metres; and 
because the Darb, the last foot of the second 
hemistich, is (being the end of the whole line) more 
concerned with these changes than the c Aru4 (the 
last foot of the first hemistich), the possible metres 
are named after their different DurUb. The Tamil, 
for example, has only one l Aru4, i.e., the last foot of 
its first hemistich always has the same form 
(shortened by habtf) of mafdHlun; but it has three 
Durub, i.e., apart from the normal form of the last 
foot of its second hemistich there are two further 
forms of its Darb. Accordingly, one speaks of the 
first, second, or third 7"<»«ci/, depending on whether 
the Darb has the form mafdHlun, mafdHlun or 
faHtlun. The same goes for all other metres. The 
Kdmil, which has 9, has the greatest number of 
Durub. The sum of all possible A'-drid of all 16 
metres is 36, and that of all Durub is 67; in other 
words, the 16 ancient Arabic metres are used by the 
poets in a total of 67 rhythmic variations, merely 
counting the changes caused by Hlal in the line- 
endings and ignoring the sporadic Zihdfdt in the 
flashw of the line. 

We are now — if we trust the Arabic prosodists and 
follow them on their circuitous ways — in a position 
to scan all the metres which appear in ancient 
Arabic poetry, and this would appear to bring to an 
end the exposition of Him al- l Arud in 'its general 
structure. Nevertheless, European Orientalists have 
never relied unreservedly on the Arabic prosodists, 
because the inner reason for the complicated structure 
of their system has not been understood. What was 
the reason for constructing the circles ? And why 
formulate statements about ideal metres when one 
cannot arrive at the actual forms of the metres 
except by a complicated system of permissible 
deviations? To these objections we must add that 
the underlying concepts of Arabic prosodists, and 
the way in which they expound the patterns of sound 
and rhythm, are completely alien to us. They 
describe prosodic phenomena externally, according 
to the changes which the consonants of the words 
in the line undergo, whereas we are accustomed — 
as already mentioned — to explaining the changing 
metrical shape of a line in different languages by 
giving the characteristics of the syllables of the 
language concerned. In the system of the Arabic 
prosodists we do not, however, find any direct 
statement concerning the length and stress of 
syllables in ancient Arabic poetry. Therefore it 
seems that we have nothing to learn from them 
concerning the real essence of Arabic metrics, that 
is to say, nothing about the way in which the 
characteristic rhythm of ancient Arabic poetry 
originated, whether — as in ancient Greek — it came 
into being exclusively through the harmony of 
periodically recurring sequences of 'shorts' and 
'longs', i.e., purely quantitatively, or whether the 
element of accentual stress was also a factor in 
deciding the shape of the rhythm of their poetry. 
Hence one has generally tended not to accept their 
system, making use of its terminology with reluctance 
and only to the extent required in order to understand 
the commentaries on the ancient poems. 

It has already been pointed out that the quantity 
of the syllables is absolutely fixed in the ancient 



literary Arabic language, so that one can assume 
that the rhythm in their verse has found its expres- 
sion in some form of quantitative metrics. This 
basic assumption is shared by almost all the experts 
who have dealt with Arabic metrics. There is no 
agreement, however, on the question as to whether 
(and to what extent) factors other than the quantity 
of syllables shaped the rhythm of ancient Arabic 
verse. There are various views as to the composition 
and sequence in which 'shorts' and 'longs' are 
arranged into feet, and these, in turn, into metres; 
and there is furthermore the particularly vexed 
question of whether the rhythm of the lines found 
its expression exclusively in a quantitative pattern 
of 'shorts' and 'longs' in the individual feet (as in 
ancient Greek), or whether there was also a rhythmic 
stress (ictus), which recurred regularly and empha- 
sised certain syllables in the line. 

Heinrich Ewald, disregarding the theories of the 
Arabs, produced an entirely fresh theory regarding 
the organic growth of ancient Arabic metrics. He 
began with the thesis that its rhythm originated not 
only from the quantity of the syllables but also from 
the presence of marked stress on some of them 
{rhythmum constat aequabili arseos et theseos vicis- 
situdine contineri). To begin with (in 1825), he found 
only iambic metres (marked by a recurrance of short 
and long syllables); but in his second presentation 
(1833) he distinguished 5 rhythmic kinds: genus 
iambicum, genus antispasticum, genus amphibrachicum, 
genus anapaesticum, genus ionicum. This classification 
has gained currency because W. Wright accepted it 
and printed it at the end of his Grammar of the 
Arabic Language (3rd ed. 1898, vol. II, 361 ff.). 
Whereas Ewald could start on secure basis concerning 
the quantity of syllables, his conclusions, as far as 
the second rhythmical factor (stress) was concerned, 
could only be based on assumptions at which he had 
arrived by comparing the structure of Arabic verse 
with the structure of Greek metres and the sequence 
of 'longs' and 'shorts' within them. His conclusions 
not only cannot be proved, but are not, in fact, 
tenable because they start with the assumption that 
the same rhythm obtains in both Arabic and Greek 
metres, without adducing any proof to this effect 
and without taking into account that the very 
presence of rhythmic stress in ancient Greek poetry 
is itself a matter of controversy. This is the reason 
why all the later experts who started from the same 
or similar assumptions as Ewald disagree both with 
Ewald and with each other on the important 
question of how to divide up the feet and whether 
any syllables are to be stressed (and, if so, which). 

Stanislas Guyard advanced an entirely different 
explanation of the essence of Arabic metrics: he 
decided to adopt a musical beat, measuring the 
exact time of each syllable and fixing it by a musical 
note, instead of merely distinguishing metric 'longs' 
and 'shorts' at the ratio of 2:1. Accepting the 
division of feet and metres, handed down in the 
Arabic mnemonics, he concluded from his musical 
measurements that a temps fort and a temps faible 
had to alternate every time. Apparent contradictions 
were explained either by describing a temps fort as 
weak or by inserting a pausal note (silence) — which 
was not, however, graphically expressed — to play 
the r61e of a temps faible. Other deviations were 
explained by the assumption of a double ictus in 
every Arabic foot, and he discarded the maf'illdtu 
foot as imaginary because it would not fit in with 
his theories. He was then in a popition to assert that 
the 16 metres with all their variations did correspond 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



>P 673 

to the musical rhythm which he had assumed; but 
far from explaining the essence of the metric line- 
structure in Arabic poetry he had simply transposed 
it into a sequence of musical terms. 

Martin Hartmann is concerned with the develop- 
ment of the various metres and with their derivations 
from each other, rather than with the actual essence 
of Arabic metrics. He therefore does not argue with 
Ewald, though one may assume that he disagrees 
with him because he goes so far as to say that there 
was nothing to indicate that the Arabs ever thought 
of quantitative distinctions in their poetry. Although 
Hartmann never explicitly says this, it has been 
asserted that ancient Arabic poetry was in his 
opinion accentual in character. On the other hand, 
he rightly asserts that the syllable with the main 
stress must always be of a constant length and that 
its preceding short syllable must equally be of a 
constant duration. Concerning the origin of the 
metres, he assumed that these were in the last 
resort instinctive rhythmical imitations of the regu- 
larly recurring sounds made by camels' feet. As a 
camel advances its feet in pairs, he assumes the basic 
metre to be the one which consist? of the alternation 
of an accented and an unaccented syllable. Depending 
on whether one starts with the animal's first step, 
as it starts off from the static position, or from one 
of the intermediate paces, one gets the Hazadj 
( w ^_) or Radjaz (^-w-i) ; the difference between 
them being that the stress is on the first element in 
the first case and on the second in the other. 
According to him, Mutakarib and Mutaddrik 
developed from these two basic metres by inserting 
not one, but in each case two, unstressed syllables 
between the two steps, i.e. between the two stressed 
syllables; and Wafir and Kdmil respectively by the 
alternate insertion of two unstressed syllables and 
one unstressed syllable between the two stressed 

ones. Similarly, he takes Basif ( ^-[-]-w_) and 

Tamil (w-[-]-w ) to be defective forms of 

Radjaz and Hazadj. He, too, has difficulties with the 
derivation of other metres from the diiamb, because 
in that case there is no alternation of stressed and 
unstressed syllables, but two stressed ones have to 
come together. Hartmann's expositions are sub- 
jective assumptions concerning the origin of Arabic 
poetry in general, and the derivation of metres from 
one original metre in particular. His arguments do 
not convince as he offers no conclusive proof, and 
also because he appears to believe that rhythmic 
occurrances can be adequately explained by the 
arbitrary inclusion or exclusion of syllables or by the 
simple assumption of an anacrusis or a pause. 
Hartmann himself admits that he has been unable 
to show what made the Arabs choose the particular 
combinations which appear in the 16 metres. 

Gustav Hoelscher, too, has advanced a theory 
concerning the origin of Arabic metrics and the 
derivation of its metres from each other. The 
simplest, and according to tradition the oldest, 
metre, the Radjaz, developed from rhymed prose, 
Sad?, by regulating the number and quantity of 
syllables; it has a rising rhythm and is dipodically 
bound. In his opinion, all other metres developed 
from Radjaz: first Sari', Kdmil and Hazadj; and 
then, with varying forms of syncope, Wafir, Basif, 
Jawil and Mutakarib. The same objections must be 
raised here as were raised in the case of Hartmann's 
theory of derivation: Hoelscher himself admits that 
Khatif and Munsarih cannot be derived from Radjaz, 
and apart from diiambic metres he also lists ditrc- 
chaic metres of a falling rhythm. In addition. 



674 'A I 

Hoelscher deals extensively with the baric rhythmic 
factors which determine the essence of all metres. 
He says that the simplest rhythmical group, the 
beat or foot, has a "division of time into fixed 
proportions" and consists of a "regular change from 
light to heavy"; but he does not define these two 
factors any further. The rhythmical time-value of 
the syllable, according to him, is always one single 
"counting-unit", irrespective of its quantity, and 
the law according to which a long syllable has twice 
the length of a short one is not to be applied to 
Arabic poetry. Similarly, he admits the presence of 
an ictus, and states that a "bar" consists of two 
dynamically related parts (of which the second is 
always the heavier) ; at the same time he asserts that 
the stronger ictus, being free, is not tied to either 
of the two stresses. 

Alfred Bloch, in contrast to Hoelscher, stresses the 
existing clear difference between longs' and 'shorts'. 
His detailed study of the patterns in ancient Arabic 
prose and the facility with which it can be fitted 
into all metres lead him to the conclusion that — 
compared with other languages — ancient Arabic 
possessed truly ideal phonetic conditions which 
rendered it suitable to quantitative metrics. Fur- 
thermore, he regards quantity as the only factor 
shaping the rhythm of the verse, and (following 
Rudolf Geyer) decides against the assumption of an 

The reason why such varying and contradictory 
theories concerning the essence of Arabic metrics 
have been advanced lies in the fact that we have no 
record of the recitation of ancient poems, and that 
the casuistic expositions of the Arabic metricians 
have such a repellent character that it seemed 
justifiable to disregard them completely. Thus, 
different experts approached the subject from 
personal points of view (the musical analogy, 
analogies with the poetry of other peoples, etc.). 
Neither attitude towards the teaching of the Arabic 
metricians (uncritical acceptance or outright rejec- 
tion) is in fact justifiable. Surely as renowned a 
philologist a? Al-Khalil, whose fundamental achieve- 
ments as a phonetician, grammarian and lexico- 
grapher are recognised even today, did not construct 
the five circles and the complicated metric system 
connected with them just for fun. One may assume 
with certainty that thereby he meant to express 
certain observations which he had made when he 
heard the ancient poems. Starting from this ass- 
umption, the author of this article has analysed all 
the parts of Al-Khalil's system in order to arrive 
at the actual core of the theory of the circles. The 
following gives the most important results of these 
investigations, which bring out clearly the particular 
peculiarity of ancient Arabic metrics. 

a) Al-Khalil purposely arranged the feet of the 
metres within the circles in such a relation to one 
another that all 'moving' and 'quiescent' consonants 
(i.e. all their long and short syllables) should coincide. 
In this way, the length of the syllables was graphi- 
cally shown, and he did not have to use a term for it. 
Since the Arabic language in itself already mirrors 
the quantity of syllables, there would have been no 
need for Al-Khalil to construct the circles if he had 
only wanted to make statements concerning the 
length of the syllables in the feet. One must therefore 
assume from the start that he meant to express 
something else in addition, concerning the rhythm of 
Arabic poetry, by this arrangement of the metres 
in the circles. 

b) Whilst the Greek metricians used terms for the 



metric feet which state nothing other than a certain 
sequence of 'longs' and 'shorts', Al-Khalil chooses 
mnemonic words to represent the 8 basic feet which 
correspond to words actually occurring in the Arabic 
language. But it is the stress which is the bond that 
integrates the syllables into the unity of a word. 
One is therefore tempted to assume that the 
mnemonics for the feet are meant to indicate that 
in them, too, one syllable was always to be stressed 

c) This assumption is strengthened by the way in 
which Al-Khalil further divides the feet up into their 
components. Whilst the Greeks accept the short and 
long syllables as basic metric units, Al-Khalil again 
used actual words — the shortest words pronoun- 
ceable in themselves (i.e. monosyllabic and disyllabic 
words) — to denote these smallest parts. These words 
too, state something concerning the stress obtaining 
in them. The two Asbdb, i.e. (sequences of syllables 

like <A5 (kad = -) and tfXJ (laka = uu ), do 
not have a stress of their own in prose either, but 



Watid words <ASJ (laUd = ^-i) and c>J> 5 (wakta = 
-^<j) have a marked stress of their own in opposite 
directions. When these sequences of syllables 
form a line, as metric components of a foot, then 
they have definite rhythmical functions. The two 
Asbdb, being unstressed parts of the foot, have no 
influence over the shaping of the rhythm, and are 
thus exposed to quantitative changes, the Ziltd/dt, 
but the Watid, as the bearer of the stress, constitutes 
the rhythmical core of the metre, and as such 
within the line it is (as has been shown) proof against 
any change whether in sequence of syllables or in 
its quantity. Depending on which of the two 
opposing Awtdd forms the core of the foot, we have 
a rising or a falling rhythm. 

d) This substantiated assumption that those 
syllables in the line which form the Watid element 
carry the rhythmic stress becomes a certainty as a 
result cf the following argument, which brings out 
the obvious purpose for the construction of ihe 5 
circles. Only 4 of the 8 basic feet can be absolutely 
and unambiguously scanned. These are the following: 
FA'6-lun, MAFA~-Hlun, MUFA-'ala-tun, maj-'-u- 
LATU. Since every foot must have a Watid, one 
cannot divide those 4 feet into their components 
except as shown in print, the Watid being represented 
by capital letters. In other words, the syllables which 
carry rhythmic stress in these 4 feet are clearly 
established; consequently it is equally clear which 
syllables carry the stress in the 4 metres Jawil, 
WaHr, Hazadj and Mutahdrib, because these metres 
consist exclusively of unambiguous feet. But, 
according to the teaching of Al-Khalil, there are two 
ways of analysing the other 4 basic feet. Either: 
/d-<ILON, mus-taf-'ILVN, fa- l ILA-tun, mula-fd- 
'ILVN, or: FA'I-lun, mus-TAF l I-lun, FA'I-ld tun, 
muta-FA'I-lun. In other words, the rhythmic stress 
in these 4 feet could actually lie on a different 
syllable in every case, and, accordingly, all metres 
which consist of these 4 feet could also have either 
a rising or a falling rhythm. In the case of these 
ambiguous metres — which form the greater part of 
those in existence — there is only one possible 
method of showing clearly in which of the two 
possible ways it is to be read, namely by placing it 



in one of the 5 circles. The following well thought-out 
inner mechanism emerges as the actual reason for 
the construction of the circles: the first metre of 
every circle — with the exception of circle 4 — is. the 
leading metre, and consists only of unambiguous 
feet, for which the position of their Awtad is absolu- 
tely fixed; the second and third metres, however, 
consist of the 4 ambiguous feet. If one writes down 
the mnemonic words of these metres in relation to 
the first metre (as reproduced in the table), it will 
be found not only that the short and the long 
syllables coincide, but also that in every circle from 
the second metre onwards, one of two possible 
Awtad falls in its entirety (i.e. in its indivisible 
syllable-sequence) under the unambiguous Watid of 
the first metre. Thir , in turn, means that the second 
possibility of scanning is out of the question. Thus 
the circles are graphic figures whose purpose is to 
show which syllables bear the rhythmic stress as 
Watid elements by means of the arrangement of all 
metres in relation to one another. Thus, for example, 
the two feet mustaf'ilun fd'ilun, which form the 
Basif, cannot be unambiguously scanned. However, 
the fact that their TAF'I and FA'I do not fall 
under the Watid of the 7ViwiJ, but that in both cases 
their c ILON falls under the unambiguous Awtad 
FA C 6 and MAfX of the Jawil, shows (as clearly 
as if it were written in a table) which syllables of the 
Basif actually bear the rhythmic stress. In this way 
it has been proved that the metres brought together 
in the circles 1, 2, 3 and 5 have, without exception, 
a rising rhythm, and we also know, on what syllables 



the s 



e laid. 



e) Circle 4 differs from this rule. This is already 
clearly visible externally, because its first metre, the 
Sari', does not consist exclusively of unambiguous 
feet. This deviation was surely intended by Al- 
JChalil, because (1) in contrast with the other circles, 
which are homogeneous and only incorporate metres 
of rising rhythm, circle 4 is not uniform; in it — and 
only in it— one finds the foot maf-'u-LATV , the 
only one of the 8 basic feet which has a falling 
rhythm, but that, too, never alone, but always 
together with one of the other 7 feet. The metres of 
this circle thus have a mixed rhythm of rise and fall. 
(2) The Watid madimu', the representative of rising 
rhythm, (v^-i) has a particularly rigid structure in 
Arabic verse; it never undergoes any change within 
the hemistich and therefore clearly and distinctly 
dictates the rhythm of those metres in which it is 
to be found. In contrast with it, the Watid mafruk, 
the core of the falling rhythm (-ivj) is less clearly 
fixed in composition, hence variable and weaker in 
shaping rhythm. This explains why the syllables 
carrying the stress in the metres Sari', Khafif and 
Munsarih do not stand out with the same clarity 
as in the other metres. It is certain that Al-KhalU 
realised this because he gave this circle the name 
"al-mushtabih" ("the dubious one, the one of several 
meanings"). 

It becomes evident that analysis of the circles 
produces an answer to the questions which have 
been in dispute, and on which arabists have hitherto 
held such different views. (1) The rhythm of ancient 
Arabic metres was not only produced by the 
quantity of the syllables, but also by the element of 
rhythmic stress; we even know on which syllables 
this stress lay in all the metres. (2) Nearly all the 
metres have a clear, rising rhythm; in no metre was 
there exclusively a falling rhythm; only a few 
metres — namely those in circle 4 — which occur more 



>P 675 

rarely, have a rhythm which changes from rise to 
fall and which, because of this mixture, has less of a 
clear character. (3) The rhythmical core of all feet 
and metres (excluding the few in circle 4) is formed 
by the sequence of a short and a long syllable (vj-0 
which is inseparable in its sequence and unchangeable 
in its quantity, and where the long syllable always 
carries the stress. 

Al-Khalil listened to recitals of ancient poetry and 
embodied hi:, observations graphically in the con- 
struction of the circles, hence the results of th< ir 
analysis can be taken to be contemporary evidence; 
and, indeed, they lead us to a complete understanding 
of the peculiarities of ancient Arabic metres. As 
we shall see, a metric system, theoretically constructed 
from the inseparable core of the rising rhythm (vj — ), 
is completely identical with the system of metres 
used by the ancient Arabic poets. 

If neutral syllables are grouped around the core, 
we get feet of a rising rhythm; these cannot have 
less than 3 or more than 5 syllables. Thus we arrive 
at the following 7 feet: (i)w-ix, xv* (2) ^-l xx , 
»» u -!, x^-*^ (3) v^v^-, ^^-^-i. No further or 
different forms of feet can be derived from the 
core vj— . If one does not represent these feet by 
symbols, but in the manner of the Arabic gram- 
marians by voces memoriabiles, then one gets 
exactly those mnemonic words which Al-Khalil 
fashioned for the 7 feet of the rising rhythm: 
(1) FA'O-lun, fd-'ILON, (2) M AF A-H-lun, mus- 
taf-'ILVN, fa-H Li-tun, (3) MVFA-'ala-tun, muta- 
fa-HLON. 

Whilst the actual rhythmical core of these feet 
always appears in the same indivisible and unalte- 
rable form, with the stress on the 'long*, the neutral 
syllables (which have no part in the shaping of the 
actual rhythm) are neither bearers of stress nor stable 
in their quantity; they can be either a 'long' or a 
'short', and their only function is to bring some 
variation into the rhythm. Such variations do 
appear, and the difference between them depends 
on whether (a) the foot begins immediately with the 
core, which makes a rising rhythm especially strong: 
vj-^x, vj-ixx,vj-iv^-;(b) whether the core is at the 
end of the foot, which gives the rhythm a somewhat 
hurrying and skipping character: x^-z, xxuJ, 
yjyj— v^-i; (c) or whether the core is enclosed within 
the foot, which somehow' hampers the forcefulness 
of the rising rhy thm : x ^ -* x . Just because the 
grouping of neutral syllables around the core deter- 
mines the rhythmical variations, it is absolutely 
necessary to keep to this fixed shape of the feet 
when scanning the metres. 

By combining these 7 feet, one gets metres of 
rising rhythm of the following 3 groups: (1) The 
7 "simple" metres are arrived at by the repetition 
of the 7 feet in identical form. These 7 theoretically 
constructed metres are completely identical with 
the metres Wdfir, Kdmil; Hazadj, Radjaz, Ramal; 
Mutakdrib, Mutaddrik used by the ancient poets. (2) If 
the 7 feet are combined not with themselves (as 
sub 1) but with each other, there result according to 
the calculation of variables many possibilities of 
"combined" metres. Most these potential metres, 
however, are incapable of realisation chiefly because 
they would offend against the general metric law 
according to which two cores can never succeed each 
other directly, but must always be separated by not 
more than two neutral syllables. It will then be seen 
that the three groups of feet, distinguished above, 
can be combined into compound metres only with 



themselves, but never with each other. Consequently 
of the list of possible combined metres only three 
pairs are left, namely those which correspond 
exactly to the metres Tamil, Basil, Madid used by 
the ancient poets and to their reverses. 

(3) The gap which is caused by the absence of 
metres combined by feet of diverse variations of 
rising rhythm (as shown sub 2) is filled in by 
"mixed" metres which commence with one of the 
7 feet of rising rhythm and are then varied by the 
foot of falling rhythm maf- c u-LX.TU. In this case too 
the theoretical construction again leads to the mixed 
metres used by the ancient poets, and which Al- 
Khalil has united in circle 4- 

The fact that the metrical system constructed 
theoretically from the core of the rising rhythm ^ -^ 
is identical with the metres actually used by the 
ancient poets affords us full insight into the ground- 
plan and the system of the ancient Arabic metres. 

If the rising rhythm was "the" poetic form, by 
means of which Arabic poets fashioned their poems, 
one can, a priori, assume, that those metres which 
displayed the core of the rising rhythm most 
strongly were preferred and used most readily. Such 
are, primarily, the two metres Tamil and Basil, 
which combine unequal feet, and of the simple 
metres Wdfir and Kdmil (in which the rhythm is 
more variable because of the sequence of the two 
'shorts'), rather than the other simple metres. In 
fact, this accords with the results obtained by 
various arabists (cf. Braunlich, in Islam, XXIV, 
249) in their statistical investigations into the 
frequency of metres: three-quarters of all Kasidas 
were composed in these 4 metres, and amongst 
these Jamil (as the strongest) heads the list. 

Thus the peculiarity of ancient Arabic metres 
lies in the fact that they unlike the ancient Greek 
ones are not formed by the joining of single syllables, 
but are developed from an inseparable pair of 
syllables, the core of the rising rhythm. Only this 
one rhythmical idea has taken shape in Arabic 
metrics, but the principle is carried out in all its 
possible variations and effects. The reason why 
poets unconsciously developed this one principle to 
perfection can only be explained by the fact that 
the ancient Arabic literary language, in its structure 
of sound and syllable, conforms to the shape of the 
rising rhythm and invites such development. It is 
this monorhythm which basically distinguishes 
ancient Arabic metrics from the polyrhythm of 
ancient Greek metrics (which expressed various 
rhythmic figures without developing any one, as it 
were, systematically to its ultimate possibilities, as 
the Arabic does). Because Arabic metrics are some- 
times wrongly simply equated with Greek ones, a 
further basic difference between the two systems of 
versification must be pointed out: the only factor 
which governs the rhythm of Greek verse is the 
quantity of the basic metric units which recur at 
regular intervals, and it is therefore a case of a 
quantitative metric (measuring the time) ; the ictus 
(the element of energy of rhythmic stress), if indeed 
it was present, merely had the task of regulating the 
quantity when this was disturbed by an anoeps- 
syllable. Ancient Arabic metrics are also of a 
quantitative nature (every syllable in the language 
has an absolutely fixed duration), but in poetry the 
number of neutral syllables which can be either a 
'long* or a 'short' is 40 great that the quantity alone 
cannot have been decisive for the rhythm. Therefore, 
with it we have — not only in a regulating but in a 
shaping capacity — stress; these two together, in an 



indivisible and unchangeable unit, form the rhythmic 
core of the feet and metres. In most lines, the ictus 
and the word-accent will coincide on the same 
'long', but even when a word-accent falls on a 
syllable without an ictus there could be no discord. 
Within a line, the ictus — being the factor which 
shapes the rhythm — acts more strongly than the 
word-accent ; but in ancient Arabic, with its contrast 
of 'long* and 'short', both are dependent on the 
quantity of the syllables, and hence are not as 
strong as in accentual languages. 

The special peculiarity of the rhythmical vtructure 
in ancient Arabic poetry is in itself proof enough 
that Arabic metrics are an autochthonous growth 
which has not been transplanted from somewhere 
else to Arabic soil. Merely for the sake of complete- 
ness, let it be mentioned here that Tkatsch {Die 
arabischen V ' ebersetzungen der Poetih des Aristoteles, 
vol. I, Vienna 1928, 99 ff.) supposes that "the 
illiterate sons of the desert" had received knowledge 
of Greek metrics through Aramaic-Christian inter- 
vention, and that they had then developed it 
further. This assumption, however, has been 
accorded little attention and no acceptance because 
of its lack of substantiation. 

The form of the Kasida and the ancient metres 
used in it, have survived— though in a limited 
range — until today. There is considerable material 
on this in Socin's Diwan aus Centralarabien (Leipzig, 
1901, T. 1-3), where the older literature is also 
mentioned (vol. Ill, 1 f.). The Kasida and its 
ancient metres are still used today by the Bedouin; 
but they are rarely used by other poets, and then 
only when they want to appear consciously archaic. 
The metre of the modern Bedouin Kasida is usually a 
Tamil with the first syllable missing; Ramal, Basif, 
Radjaz and Wdfir are also used. As this form of 
modern verses is a direct continuation of ancient 
Arabic poetry in content, form, and language, the 
rules of the c Ilm al-'arud are applicable to it. They 
can, however, not be applied to the actual Arabic 
folk-poetry, of which there are traces even in pre- 
Islamic times, and which was greatly cultivated in 
later centuries. This 'muse populaire' is different 
from the ancient Kasida because it no longer has the 
monotonous rhyme which recurs throughout the 
poem but a rich strophic structure, and because it 
is freer in its choice of themes, but most particularly 
because the language of folk-poetry is the language 
of every-day life. The sound-structure of this, 
however, is fundamentally different from that of 
ancient literary Arabic. The emphatic stress which 
is evident in the colloquial language caused a short- 
ening of the vowels and omission of the endings. 
Consequently one can no longer find the regular 
alternation of 'long* and 'short' and the absolutely 
fixed relation in the quantity of the syllables which 
were the most characteristic feature of the old 
literary language, and as such determined the 
rhythm of the poetry. Therefore we cannot expect 
to find in popular poetry the metres which the 
ancient poets created, and adapted to the phonetic 
structure of the Arabic literary language. In it, as 
well as in the colloquial language, stress prevails; 
it even gains in force when the songs are recited, 
because the stressed syllables are then emphasised 
by beating on instruments or by hand-clapping. The 
different forms of Arabic popular poetry are therefore 
outside the framework of the article 'Arufl, which 
is concerned only with the metrics of the ancient 
poetry. 



<AROD — <ARODJ 



Bibliography: (Apart from the works quoted 
in the article itself) : Arabic Sources : Ibn Khallikan, 
translated by de Slane, ii, 578; Mas'udi, Paris ed., 
vii, 88; viii, 92; Tddjal-'Arus, x, 134 s.r. day day; 
Hariri, ed. Sacy, 451; Djahiz, Baydn (Cairo 1932) 
i, 129. — Expositions of c Ilm al-'Arud: Muhammad 
b. Abl Shanab (Ben Cheneb), Tuhfat al-Adab fi 
Mizdn Ash'dr al- c Arab, Algiers 1906, 3rd ed. 
Paris 1954; Mohammed-Ben-Braham: La mitrique 
arabe, Paris 1907; G. W. Freytag, Darstellung der 
arabischen Verskunst, Bonn 1830; also appended 
to the Arabic Grammars by Sacy, Palmer, Wright, 
Vernier and others. — European theorists: H. 
Ewald, De metris carminum arabicorum libri 2, 
Braunschweig 1825; H. Ewald, Grammatica 
critica linguae arabicae, ii, 323-43, Leipzig 1833; 
H. Ewald in: Abhandlungen zur orient, u. bibl. Lit., 
Gottingen 1832, i, 27-52; St. Guyard, "Nouvelle 
theorie de la metrique arabe", in Journal A siatique, 
Serie 7, vii, 413 ff., viii, 101 ff., 285 ff., x, 97 ff.; 
M. Hartmann: Metrum und Rhythmus, Giessen 
1896; M. Hartmann in: Actes du 10° congris 
intern, des Orientalistes, Geneva 1894, Sect, iii, 
53 ff.; R. Geyer, Altarabische Diiamben, Leipzig 
1908, Vorwort ; G. Hoelscher, Arabische Metrik, in : 
ZDMG, 74, 1920, 359-416; G. Hoelscher, Elemente 

arabischer Metrik, in: Festschrift Karl 

Budde, 93 ff. (1920 Supplement 34 to ZAW); 
R. Brunschwig: Versification arabe classique, 
Algiers 1937 {Rev. africaine N. 372/3); E. Braun- 

lich : Versuch altarabische Poesien, in : 

Islam 24, 1937, 201 ff. ; A. Bloch, Vers und 
Sprache im Altarabischen, Basle 1946; A. Bloch, 
Qasida, in: Asiatische Studien, vols. 3 and 4, 
106-32, Bern 1948; A. Bloch, Der kunstlerische 
Wert der altarabischen Verskunst, in: Acta 
Orientalia, vol. 21, 207-38, Copenhagen 1951; 
G. Weil, Das metrische System des Al-Xalil und 
der Iktus in den altarabischen Versen, in: Oriens, 
vol. 7, 304-21, Leiden 1954; G. Weil, Grundriss und 
System der altarabischen Metren, Wiesbaden 1958. 

(Gotthold Weil) 
II. The most outstanding feature of the 'Arud 
system as adopted by the Persians is the emphasis 
laid on quantity, which gives to Persian verse a 
lilt and swing which can be more readily appreciated 
by ears to which the more subtle rhythms of Arabic 
verse are unfamiliar. To words ending in two con- 
sonants (nun excepted) preceded by a short vowel, 
or one consonant preceded by a long vowel, an 
extra short vowel was added. This nim-fatha, as it 
is called, is now not pronounced by the Persians. By 
poetic licence, certain monosyllabic long syllables 
may become short according to scansion. Of the 
types of poem in use the MaOmavi and the Rubd'i 
are most characteristic of Persian poetry. The 
former is a many-rhymed poem in couplets of 
which each hemistich rhymes with the other. The 
freedom thus allowed in rhyming renders this form 
eminently suitable for epic and didactic verse. The 
Rubi'i (Quatrain), also called Tardna, is said 
(Browne, i, 472-3) to have been the earliest of the 
verse-forms invented by the Persians. It is derived 
from no less than twenty-four varieties of the 
Hatadj metre, and it is perhaps the form best known 
to the West. The Kasida lost much of its importance 
at an early period in Persian literature and became 
more and more artificial under such poets as 
Khakani (d. 582/1185). In scope and subject matter, 
it much resembled its Arabic prototype except that 
in Persian hands it became more of a eulogy of the 
poet's patron. Of the same single-rhymed type but 



shorter (five to fifteen verses), the Qhazal achieved 
more fame at the hands of Persian poets and lent 
itself to a graceful sonnet-like form. Only in the 
opening lines do the hemistichs of these poems 
rhyme. The two types of refrain poem — the Tardjl'- 
band and Tarkib-band were a Persian innovation. 
The former consists of about five to ten lines which 
differ in rhyme with a refrain (wdsifa) in the same 
metre. If the refrain differs in each instance where 
it occurs, the poem is then called Tarkib-band. Of 
the various types of multiple poem which have 
internal rhymes and are grouped under the general 
term of Musammat, the Mustazdd deserves special 
mention. It is a poem of which each second hemistich 
is followed by a short metrical line which has some 
bearing on the sense of the first hemistich without 
altering the meaning. All these lines rhyme together 
throughout the poem. The Persians have been 
credited with the invention of three new metres — 
the Djadid, Karib and the Mushakil, but these are 



The adoption by the Turks of the Perso-Arabic 
metrical system was facilitated, not only by a 
genuine admiration for Persian belles-lettres, but 
also by the resemblance which the ancient Turkish 
method of versification (parmak hisdbi) bore to the 
'Arud metres. For example, the Kutadghu Bilik, 
composed in 462/1069, was written in a metre 
which was not unlike the Mutakdrib, and the 
Turkoman tuyug was similar to the rubd'i. Both 
the original and the 'A rud systems enjoyed a parallel 
existence until the former was ousted by the latter 
during the XVth century. The main difference 
between the two forms is that in the parmak hisdbi 
the verses were based not on quantity but on the 
number and beat of the syllables. The old system 
survived only in the folk-poetry of Anatolia of 
which the most representative types are the ttirkii, 
sharkl and the mani (ma'ni). In the XVIIth century, 
a revival of the old prosody began under such poets 
as Karadjaoghlan, and, in the course of last century, 
the growth of national feeling led to the victory of 
the Turkish system. The 'A rud system is now obsolete 
and is cultivated only by a few conservative or 
neo-classicist poets. The most important innovation 
produced by the Turks in the c Arud was somewhat 
artificial, although it was very necessary. In purely 
Turkish words there are, of course, no long syllables, 
but the Perso-Arabic letters of prolongation were 
used as vowel-letters. By a poetic licence, these 
were regarded as long where the metre demanded it. 
The metres in use in Persian and Turkish are 
rather less numerous than those used in Arabic. 
Some of the more popular metres such as the Tamil, 
Basif, Wdfir, Kdmil and Madid are scarce. For 
details of the metres most used the reader is referred 
to the bibliography. 

Bibliography: H. Blochmann, The prosody 
of the Persians according to Saifi, Jdmi and other 
writers, Calcutta 1872; Riickert-Pertsch, Gram- 
matik, Poetik und Rhetorik der Perser, Gotha 1874 ; 
Browne, ii, 22 ff. ; Gibb, Ottoman Poetry, 1, chapter 
3 and 4; I. A., Aruz (by M. Fuad Koprulii). 

(G. Meredith-Owens) 
ARCpI [see nizamI <arOdi]. 
'ARCDJ. Turkish corsair who seized possession 
of Algiers at the beginning of the ioth/i6th century. 
He is sometimes designated by the name of Barba- 
rossa (a term which is sometimes interpreted as a cor- 
ruption of Baba 'Arudj), but it appears this surname 
more often refers to his brother Khayr al-DIn [q.v.]. 
'Arudj came from the island of Midilli (Mytilene- 



678 C ARI 

ancient Lesbos); his father was a Turk, a Muslim 
soldier of the garrison of occupation {Qhazawdt), or 
a Greek potter (Haedo). He had at least two 
brothers, who were with him in the Maghrib; Khavr 
al-DIn and Ishak. A sailor and a Muslim from an 
early age (Qhazawdt), or only from his twentieth 
year (Haedo), he began to act as a privateer in the 
eastern Mediterranean. He later decided (the exact 
reasons for this decision are not known) to operate 
off the coast of the Maghrib. 

It is fairly certain that from 1504 onwards, or 
soon afterwards, 'Arudj and his brothers made their 
base at Goletta; they started in a small way with 
two ships, but soon took some remarkable prizes ; as 
a result of these they increased both the numbers of 
their fleets, which comprised eight galliots in 1510, 
and their capital, which enabled them to honour 
their obligations to the ruler of Tunis. The latter, 
Abu 'Abd Muhammad b. al-Hasan (1494-1526), in 
fact only authorised them to establish a base on his 
territory on condition that he received a share of the 
prizes. The Qhazawdt describes on one occasion the 
magnificent cortege organised by the corsairs in 
Tunis to carry to the Hafsid ruler his share of the 
booty (text, 15-16; tr., 28-30). They were authorised 
to establish a secondary base on the island of 
Djerba, and 'ArOdj was even appointed kd'id of the 
island in 1510 (Haedo). Until 1512, they cr,uised in 
the western Mediterranean and off the Spanish coast. 

The Spanish, however, occupied various points on 
the coast of North Africa, notably Oran (1509), the 
Peflon of Algiers, Bidjaya (Bougie) and Tripoli (1510). 
Despairing of being able to retake Bidjaya (Bougie) 
by his own efforts, the Hafsid governor of that town 
appealed to 'Arudj who had then at his disposal 
twelve ships armed with cannon, and a thousand 
Turkish soldiers. 'Arudj established a naval blockade 
of the port, while the "king" of Bidjaya (Bougie), 
supported by the Turkish troops, laid seige to it by 
land with three thousand "Moors". After eight days' 
bombardment, 'Arudj lost his left arm. His brother 
Khayr al-DIn took him back at full speed to Tunis 
where he spent his time recovering his health. In 
August 1514, he attacked Bidjaya (Bougie) for " 
second time, with twelve ships and 1100 Turkish 
troops. Again 'Arudj was forced to raise the siege, 
this time because of bad weather, the appearance of 
a Spanish relief squadron, and perhaps the desertion 
of local contingents; it is even possible that he was 
forced to burn some of his vessels in the gulf of 
Bidjaya to prevent them falling into the hands of 
the Spanish. 

He may perhaps have been already established at 
Pjidjelli [q.v.], as the Qhazawdt lead one to believe. 
At all events, he took refuge there after his second 
reverse before Bidjaya, because his relations with 
the Hafsid ruler had undergone a change — we do 
not know for what reason. 

At this juncture, apparently, 'Arudj conceived 
political ambitions. Haedo describes him as sup- 
plying corn to tribes in the vicinity which had been 
smitten by famine, thereby acquiring great popu- 
larity, and intervening in the quarrels of the Kabyle 

When King Ferdinand the Catholic died on 22 
January 1516, the inhabitants of Algiers sought to 
rid themselves of the threat from the Pefion, and ap- 
pealed to 'Arudj, who had both ships and cannon. He 
answered their appeal, and bombarded the Peflon 
without success. The leader of the Arabs of Algiers, 
Salim al-Tumi, then sought to get rid of 'Arudj and 
his Turks, who behaved as though they were in 



quered territory. But 'Arudj forestalled him, put 
him to death and seized power with the help of his 
Turks. Despite the intrigues of the son of Salim al- 
Tumi, who had taken refuge with the Spanish, he 
succeeded in maintaining his position at Algiers by 
exercising the greatest severity. He also succeeded 
in repulsing a Spanish landing carried out by Diego 
de Vera (30 September 1516). 

The Spanish then sent the Sultan of Tenes against 
him, but 'Arudj went out to meet him and inflicted 
on him a severe defeat, as a result of which 'Arudj 
made himself master of Miliana and Tenes. According 
to the Qhazawdt he then organised the territory he 
had conquered; Khayr al-DIn had the territories to 
the East, with Dellys as his seat, while 'Arudj took 
Algiers and the western territories. 

'Arudj then received an appeal from the inhabitants 
of Tlemcen, whose king had accepted a sort of 
Spanish protectorate. He at once organised an 
expedition with the greatest thoroughness, and 
entrusted the government of Algiers to his brother 
Khayr al-DIn. He occupied in passing the strongpoint 
of the Kal'a of the Banu Rashld, now the site of 
Oued-Fodda, and left his brother Ishak there with a 
small garrison. He then proceeded to Tlemcen, which 
he took' possession of without great difficulty, after 
having defeated the troops of King Abu Hammu in 
the field (September 1517). Instead of raising to 
power the pretender Abu Zayyah who had no link 
with the Spanish, 'Arudj assumed power and 
despatched expeditions as far as Oudja and the 
Beni Snassen ; he seems to have had the intention of 
negotiating with the ruler of Fez against the Spanish. 
The latter did not give him time for this: in 
January 1518, a Spanish column under the command 
of Don Martin of Argote captured the Kal'a of the 
Banu Rashld, thus cutting communications between 
Tlemcen and Algiers. In May, the Marquis of 
Comares, governor of Oran, marched on Tlemcen. 
There he laid siege to 'Arudj, who hoped, it appears, 
to be relieved by the troops from Fez. The inhabitants 
of Tlemcen rebelled against the Turks, and forced 
'Arudj to shut himself up in the fortress of Mishawar 
[see tlemcen]. As supplies were running low, 'Arudj 
attempted a sortie and managed to escape with a 
few men, but he was overtaken, probably in the 
vicinity of the present Rio Salado (department of 
Oran) and put to death ; he was 44 or 45 years of age 
(Autumn 1518). 

It will be seen that on the whole very little is 
known about the history of 'Arudj. It seems likely 
that political aspirations awoke within him, when he 
realised the political anarchy existing in the central 
Maghrib and the possibilities it offered to a bold man 
backed by a body of men equipped with fire-arms 
and artillery. But the possibilities were so great that 
'Arudj allowed himself to be carried away by 
ambition, and he failed because he was too far from 
his base, and had not prepared the ground politically 
to a sufficient extent. 

Bibliography: Kitdb Qhazawdt <-Arudi wa 
Khavr al-Din, ed. by A. Noureddine, Algiers 1934, 
6-34; rough translation in Sander Rang "and 
F. Denis, Fondation de la Rigence d' Alger, i, Paris 
1837, 1-103; Diego de Haedo, Epitome de los reyes 
de Argel, tr. by H. de Grammont under the title 
Histoire des rois d'Alger in R.Afr. xxiv, 1880, 
39-69 and 1 1 6-7; Lopez Gomara, Cronica de los 
Barbarojas, Madrid 1854, in vol. vi of Memorial 
historico espaAol; H. de Grammont, Histoire 
d'Alger sous la domination turque, Paris 1887, 20-8; 
Ch. A. Julien, Histoire de I'A/rique du Nord, ii, 



<AKODJ — ARZAN 



679 



250-6. The best known Turkish account is that 

given by Hadjdil Khalifa in his Tuft/at al-Bifidr 

(Istanbul 1141/1728 and 1329/1914, Eng. tr. of 

chaps. 1-4 by J. Mitchell, History of the Maritime 

Wars of the Turks, London 1831). This narrative, 

which was used by Hammer in his account of the 

naval wars, rests on earlier sources, some of which 

are still extant. A list of Ottoman ghazawdtndmes 

dealing with the campaigns of 'Arudj and Khavr 

al-DIn is given in Agah SIrrI Levend, Cfazavat- 

nameler, Ankara 1956, 70 ff. (R. le Tourneau) 

AROR (Aror) also written al-ROr, town in 

Sind; it is surmised to have been the capital of king 

Musicanus, defeated by Alexander the Great, and 

to be mentioned in the 7th century A.D. by Hiung- 

tsang. The town was conquered by Muhammad b. 

al-Kasim before 95/714 (al-Baladhuri, Futiih, 439, 

440, 445) and it is mentioned by al-Istakhri. 172, 

175, and al-BIrunl, Hind (Sachau), 100, 130, 

according to whom it lay thirty farsakhs S-W of 

Multan and twenty farsakhs upstream from al- 

Mansura. The Indus used to flow near the town, 

but later it changed its course, destroying the 

prosperity of the town. The date of the change is 

uncertain; the local historians of the I7th-i8th 

centuries (cf. Elliot-Dowson, History of India, i, 

256-8) give a legendary account. Five miles west 

from the old site there exists a small town, Rohri, 

chief place of the taluka of the same name (Imperial 

Gazetteer of India, Oxford 1908, vi, 4, xx, 308). One 

of the names of the Gypsies, Lull < *Ruri, may be 

connected with Arur [see lOlI]. 

Bibliography: Yakut, ii, 833; H. Cousens, 
The Antiquities of Sind, Calcutta 1929, 76-9; 
V. Minorsky, in J A, 1931, 285; idem, Hudud al- 
'Alarn, 246. (V. Minorsky) 

'ARCS [see <urs]. 

'ARCS RESMI, also resm-i 'arus, resm-i 
'arusane, c adet-i 'arusl, etc., in earlier times gerdek 
degheri and gerdek resmi; an Ottoman tax on 
brides. The standard rates were sixty aspers on girls 
and forty or thirty on widows and divorcees. There 
are sometimes lower rates for persons of medium and 
small means. In some areas the tax is assessed in 
kind. Non-Muslims are usually registered as paying 
half-rates, but occasionally double rates. On timar 
lands the tax was normally payable to the timar - 
holder, though part or all of it might be reserved for 
the Sandjak-beyi or the Imperial Treasury. The 
destination of the payment was determined by the 
status of the bride's father or, in the case of widows, 
of the place where she resided or where the marriage 
occurred. Tax was also payable on the daughters of 
sipahls, garrison janissaries, etc. These were paid to 
the Sandjak-beyi, the Beylerbeyi, the Su-bashl, or 
the representative of the Treasury, according to the 
rules inscribed in the kdnuns and registers of the 
province. These also contain rules for the bride-tax 
paid on the daughters of Tatars, yuriiks, musellems, 
miners, and other special categories. No tax was 
payable by an owner who married two of his slaves 
to one another. 

The tax, which seems to be of feudal origin, is 
already established in kdnuns of the 15 th century 
in Anatolia and Rumelia, and was introduced into 
Egypt, Syria and 'Irak after the Ottoman conquest. 
Tt was abolished in the 19th century and replaced 
by a fee for permission to marry (idhnndme) given 
by a kadi. This was at the rate of 10 piastres for girls 
and 5 for widows. 



1921, 36, 40, 45; 'Othmdnlt Kdnunndmeleri, 
Milli Tefebbu'ler Medimu'ast, Istanbul 1331, 
1 1 0-1 1 1 ; Kdnunndme-i Al-i 'Othmdn, TOEM suppl., 
Istanbul 1329, 38 etc. ; R. Anhegger and H. Inalctk, 
fCdnunndme-i Sulfdni bet MUceb-i Orf-i 'Osmdni, 
Ankara 1956, 51, 52, 64; Omer Lutfi Barkan, 
XV ve XV Unci A sir tarda Osmanlt Imparatorlu- 
gunda Zirai Ekonominin Hukukt ve Malt Esaslarl, 
I. Kanunlar, Istanbul 1943, index; c Abd al- 
Rahman Weflk, Tekdlif KawdHdi, i, Istanbul 1328, 
42; J. von Hammer, Des osmanischen Reichs 
Staatsverfassung und Staatsverwaltung, i, Vienna 
1815, 202; N. Cagatay, Osmanlt Imparatorlugunda 
reayadan alinan vergi ve resimler, AUDTC Fak. 
Dergisi V 1947, 506-7. (B. Lewis) 

•ARCSIYYA, Dervish-order, according to Rinn 
a branch of the Shadhiliya which takes its name 
from Abu 'l- c Abbas Ahmad (b. Muhammad b. <Abd 
al-Salam b. Abi Bakr) b. al- c Arus, who died c. 1460 

Bibliography : Rinn, Marabouts et Khouan, 

268; Depont et Coppolani, Les confreries musul- 

manes, 340. 

ARZACHEL [see al-ZarkAU]. 

ARZAN (Syriac Arzon, Armenian Arzn, Alzn). 
The name of several towns in eastern Anatolia. The 
most important was the chief city of the Roman 
province of Arzanene, Armenian Aldznikh, located 
on the east bank of the ArzansO River (modem 
Garzansu) a tributary of the Tigris, at about 
41° 41' E. long. (Greenw.) and 38° N. lat. By 
Islamic authors Arzan is linked with the larger city 
to the west, Mayyafarikln. 

The origin of the name is uncertain but of 
undoubted antiquity; see the discussion in H. 
Hiibschmann, Die altarmenischen Ortsnamen, in 
Indogermanische Forschungen, 16 (1904), 248, 311. 
On the pre-Islamic history of the town, a Syrian 
bishopric, see Marquart, Erdnlahr, 25. 

Arzan surrendered to 'Iyad b. Ghanm in 20/640, 
and the district was included in the territory of 
Djazlra (Baladhuri, 176), later in Diyar Bakr. The 
town was in a rich agricultural district, and the 
average combined revenue from Arzan and May- 
yafarikln in 'Abbasid times was 4,100,000 dirhems, 
according to Kudama (BGA vi, 246). Until the rise 
of the Hamdanids Arzan was ruled by Armenian 
amirs allied by marriage, as well as allegiance, to the 
Arabs. Cf. Canard (below), 472. 

At the beginning of the 4th/ioth century the 
Hamdanid Sayf al-Dawla resided in Arzan when 
preparing expeditions against the Armenians or the 
Byzantine Empire. In 330/942 the Byzantines 
captured and sacked Arzan (Canard, 748). The 
Hamdanids recovered th? t^wn but had to fight 
many times with the Byzantines in the Diyar Bakr 
district. Afterwards the town 'ost its importance 
and in the 12 th cent. A. D. Yakut (ed. Wustenfeld, i, 
205) wrote that it was in ruins. 

Few travellers have visited the site, but it was 
identified by J. G. Taylor in JRGS, 35 (1865), 26, 
where a piaij of the ruins is given. 

One should not conruse Arzan with a smaller 
nearby site also on a rivt \ the Bohtansu, called 
Arzan al-Zarm; see J. Markwart Siidarmenien und 
die Tigrisquellen (Vienna 1930), 4i*,'and 341. Also 
to be distinguished from Arzan is Arzan al-Rum 
(Erzerum*, and nearby Byzantine "Apr^e. 

Bibliography: In addition to references in 

the text cf. Marquart, Die Enh'thung und Wieder- 

herstellung der armenischen Notion, Potsdam 1919, 

33; M. Canard, Histoire de la Dynastic des Ham- 



danides, Algiers 1951, 84, with a bibliography of 
references to Arzan in the Arabic geographers in 
footnote 17. The map on 240 is of special interest. 

(R. N. Frye) 
ARZAN al-RCM [see erzurum]. 
ARZAW (Berb. Arzyu ; modern orthography Arzew 
or Arzeu), town on the Algerian coast situated between 
Oran and Mostaganem, 7 km. E. of the present small 
town of Arzeu. The Muslim town of the Middle Ages 
doubtless occupied "on the littoral of the plain 
of SIrat" the site of the ancient Portus Magnus 
(modern Saint Leu, still called Vieil Arzeu). In the 
5th/nth century, al-Bakri speaks with admiration of 
the Roman town and its ruins, but declares that it 
was completely uninhabited. He notes however, on 
the nearby mountain (the one which dominates the 
present Arzeu), three castles which were used as 
ribd(. This is the more remarkable because fortified 
monasteries were very rare on the northern coast of 
Barbary. The Arzaw region thus appears to have 
played a military and religious role. One assumes that 
maritime activity was, here as in other towns on the 
same coast, carried on not by the Berbers of the 
region but by Andalusian immigrants. In the 6th/ 
1 2th century, Arzaw furnished the Almohad c Abd 
al-Mu'min with ships for the conquest of Ifrikiya. 
About the same time al-Idrisi mentions its economic 
activity. "It is", he says, "large village to which is 
brought the wheat produced in the surrounding 
countryside, which is sought after by merchants who 
export it to numerous countries". In the ioth/i6th 
century Leo Africanus, in his list of the large and 
small towns on this coast, does not mention Arzaw. 
At an unspecified period, probably in fairly recent 
times (18th century?) there arrived in the region an 
important Berber tribe which came from the 
Moroccan Rif, the Bottiwa, among whom the original 
dialect was still spoken forty years ago. 

Bibliography: Bakri, text, Algiers 1911, 70, 

French trans, by de Slane, Algiers 1913, 143; 

IdrisI, ed. by Dozy and de Goeje, 100, trans. 117; 

Gsell, Atlas archiologique, Mostaganem sheet, 5, 6; 

Biarnay, Notice sur les Bettioua du Vieil Arzeu, 

R. Afr. 1910-n, 101 ff.; R. Basset, Loqmdn berbere, 

Paris 1890, 9, 13; idem, Dial. berb. du Rif, 1897, 

168-71. (G. Marcais) 

ARZC KHAN (Siradj al-DIn 'All Khan Arzu) 

1099/1687-8 or 1101/1689-90 — 1169/1756, Indo- 

Muslim scholar and poet in Persian and Urdu. Son 

of Shaykh Husam al-Din Husam, Arzu Khan was, 

according to Shams al- c Ulama Mawlana Muhammad 

Husayn Azad, descended from the family of the 

saint Nasir al-DIn Mahmud Ciragh-i nihil on his 

father's side and from the saint Muhammad C-hawth 

Guwaliyarl on his mother's. 

A native of either Gwalior or Akbarabad (Agra), 
in 1132/1719 he went to Dihll and obtained a 
mansab and a rffagir also receiving patronage from 
Mu'taman al-Dawla Isljak Khan, Khan-saman to 
Muhammad Shah. The former's sons Nadjm al- 
Dawla and Nawwab Salar Djang continued their 
father's favours to Arzu Khan and when Salar 
Djang went to Awadh in 1168/1754-5 Arzu Khan 
accompanied him there and secured a stipend from 
Shudja' al-Dawla, the Nawwab-Wazir of Awadh. 
Arzu died at Lucknow but his body was brought 
back to Dihll for burial. 

In Persian literature Arzu Khan was an important 
commentator on the Gulistan of Sa'di, on the 
Sikandarndma of NizamI and upon the Kasd'id of 
KhakanI and c Urfi. His other Persian writings 
include a lexicon, Sirddi al-Lugkdt, the 'Afiyya-i 



- <ASA 

Kubrd on simile, metaphor and metonymy, the 
ZdHd al-FawdHd, a dictionary of Persian verbs and 
the nouns derived from them, the Tanbih al-Ghdfilin, 
a criticism of the poems of Hazln, and the Madjma'- 
al-Na/dHs, a biography of ancient and modern 
poets with extracts from their works. 

In Urdu literature Arzu Khan was more of an 
influence than a figure. Although he composed a few 
verses in Urdu he is more important as a teacher of 
such luminaries of the Dihll school of Urdu poets as 
Mirza Djan Djanan Mazhar, Muhammad Rafi e 
Sawda, Muhammad Taki Mir and Mir Dard. He also 
composed an Urdu dictionary of mystic words, the 
Ghard'ib al-Lughat and a Hindustani dictionary, the 
Nawddir al-Farz. 

Bibliography: Extensively given in Storey, 
Vol. I, Part 2, 834-840. (P. Hardy) 

<A$A: rod, stick, staff. From LA, xix, 293 ft. 
it is clear that the word was in common use among 
the ancient Arabs for the camel herdsman's staff. 

In the Kur'an it is used of Moses' stick with 
which he beat down leaves for his flock (xx, 18 (19)). 
Later it is the rod that at the Bush became a snake 
(xxvii, 10; xxviii, 31), and in Egypt the rod that 
devoured those of the magicians (vii, 107 (104), 
117 (114); xxvi, 32 (31), 45 (44)- Since the same 
word is used for the rods of the Egyptian magicians 
(xx, 66 (69); xxvi, 44 (43) it is clear that it 
has become his magic wand, so that with it he 
smites the sea to make a crossing (xxvi, 63), and 
smites the rock in the wilderness to procure water 
(ii, 60 (57); vii, 160). All this follows closely the 
Biblical narrative in Exodus, iv to xvii though in 
the Kur'an no distinction is made between Moses' 
rod and that of Aaron. 

In later tradition we are told that it was a rod cut 
from a celestial myrtle bush which Adam brought 
from Paradise. It was inherited by Seth and passed 
to Idris, Noah, Salih, Abraham and his family, and 
finally to Shu'ayb, who is identified with Jethro, the 
father-in-law of Moses. Through his daughter it came 
to Moses, for whom it was not only a shepherd's 
staff but a magic rod whereby he could light his 
way at night, find nourishment in the ground, split 
rocks and mountains, and defend himself from 
animal and human enemies. This material also is 
mostly derived from Rabbinic sources such as those 
we have in Yalkut Shim'oni, Midrash Wayyosha, 
Pesikta de-Rob Kahana, and Midrash Rabba. That 
certain Muslim circles were embarrassed by these 
stories is clear from al-Makdist's, al-Bad' wa 'I- 
Ta'rikK, iii, 42, 55, 112. In popular eschatology this 
rod is one of the things that will reappear in the Last 
Days, for when the Beast (cf. al-dabba) appears as 
one of the greater signs of the approaching Hour, it 
will bring with it the Rod of Moses and the Seal of 
Solomon (al-Tirmidhi in Bab at-Tafsir on Sura xxvii; 
Musnad Ahmad, ii, 295). 

Al-Djahiz in his al-Baydn voa 'l-Tabyin, ii, 49 ff. 
has a chapter on the use of the c oya among the 
Arabs, and Ibn Sida, Mukhasfas, xi, 18 devotes a 
section to its various names. Certain men of letters, 
e.g. Usama b. Munkidh, have written a Kitdb al- 
l Asd. For the 'aya as used in public worship see 

Bibliography: Tabari, i, 460, 461; Tha^abl, 
gifas al-Anbiyd', Cairo 1339, 122, 123; al-Kis&1 
(Eisenberg), 208; the Kur'Sn Commentaries, ad 
loc. ; L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, ii, 291, 393; 
v, 411; vi, 165 ; Grunbaum, Neue Beitrdge, 161 ff.; 
Sidersky, Origines des Ugendes musulmanes, 78-80. 
(A. Jbffbry) 



C ASABA — al-ASAD 



C ASABA [see mIrAth]. 

'ASABIYYA, Arabic word meaning originally 
"spirit of kinship" (the 'afaba are male relations in 
the male line) in the family or tribe. Already used in 
the hadith in which the Prophet condemns 'asabiyya 
as contrary to the' spirit of Islam, the term became 
famous as a result of the use to which it was put by 
Ibn Khaldun, who made this concept the basis of his 
interpretation of history and his doctrine of the state. 
c Asabiyya is, for Ibn Khaldun, the fundamental 
bond of human society and the basic motive force 
of history; as such, the term has been translated as 
"esprit de corps" (de Slane), by "Gemeinsinn" and 
even by "Nationalitatsidee" (Kremer), which is an 
unjustified modernism. The first basis of the concept 
is undoubtedly of a natural character, in the sense 
that 'asabiyya in its most normal form is derived 
from tribal consanguinity {nasab, iltihdm), but the 
inconvenience of this racial conception was already 
overcome in Arab antiquity itself by the institution 
of affiliation (wold'), to which Ibn Khaldun accords 
great importance in the formation of an effective 
'asabiyya. Whether it is based on blood ties or on 
some other social grouping, it is for Ibn Khaldun the 
force which impels groups of human beings to assert 
themselves, to struggle for primacy, to establish 
hegemonies, dynasties and empires; the validity of 
this principle is tested firstly in Arab history, pre- 
Islamic and Muslim, and secondly in the history of 
the Berbers and other islamicised peoples: the Arab 
empire is the product of the 'asabiyya of Kuraysh, 
especially of the Banu c Abd Manaf group, but once 
power (mulk) has been seized, the dominant group 
tends to detach itself from the natural 'asabiyya on 
which it is based, and to substitute for it other forces 
which become the instrument of its absolutism. This 
extraordinary appreciation of a non-religious force 
as the motive power of history (the religious element 
only superimposes itself as a secondary element) 
involved Ibn Khaldun in delicate problems of 
reconciliation with the traditional view of Muslim 
history and civilisation, a view, moreover, which he 
supported with whole-hearted conviction; this effort 
of harmonisation, apparent in more than one page 
of the Mukaddima, prevented him from making a 
deeper examination and rendering fully coherent his 
ingenious theory. 

Bibliography: F. Gabrieli, II concetto delta 
'asabiyyah net pensiero storico di Ibn Haldun, Atti 
delta R. Accad. delle scienze di Torino, lxv, 1930, 
473-512; H. A. R. Gibb, The Islamic Background 
of Ibn Khaldun's political Theory, BSOS, vii, 1933, 
23-31. (F.Gabrieli) 

al-ASAD (a.), plural usually al-usud, al-usud, 
al-usd, the most usual word for lion. It is also fre- 
quently found as a personal or tribal name (see fol- 
lowing article ; concerning the presumable etymology 
and connexions with other roots, see dicussion by C. 
de Landberg, I.e., II/u, 1237-40). The old poetic word, 
which has been more and more replaced by al-asad, 
is al-layth ; this is found not only in Semitic languages 
(Akk. neSu, this, however, generally only in prose: 
Landsberger, I.e., 76), but also, according to Koehler 
(Lex. in VT Libros, 481b), in Greek Xt?, Xet?, where 
it is also used by poets — though rarely — from Homer 
onwards. The same author, 472a, also gives, alongside 
the kindred Akk. labbu etc., the Arabic fem. : labu'a 
(with numerous kindred forms for lioness), and gives 
X£oiv, Xiouvot, leo as an "Asianic" word, referring to 
ZDPV, LXII (1939), 121-4 (with a geographical 
distribution of the words). H. Ostir, in Symb. 
Rotwadowski, I (Cracow 1927), 295-313, derives the 



name of the lion in the Semitic languages (including 
the Arabic forms labu'a and layth), Egyptian Coptic, 
Greek, Latin, German and Slavonic from an original 
Alarodic form and its variants. Recently, Indo- 
Germanic scholars once more refused to admit any 
connexion between the Semitic languages and the 
words for "lion", but they are unable to give any 
Indo-Germanic alternative (Paul Thieme, Die 
Heimat der idg. Gemeinsprache, Wiesbaden 1954, 
p. 32-9; also Walde-Hofmann, Lot. etym. Wb.', 
Heidelberg 1938, I, 785; and Pauly-Wissowa, RE, 
XIII, col. 968). The phonetic difficulties involved in 
the undoubted relationship between the words for 
"lion", "elephant" etc., in the different languages, 
remain a problem. It is noteworthy that all the cases 
concern animals which appear as characters in fables, 
playing a great part both in literature and ornamen- 
tation (see below, and Indogerm. Jahrbuch, XIII 
[1929], 94, No. 85). 

It is a matter of common knowledge that various 
hypotheses have been advanced concerning the 
distribution of the lion in Arabia. M. Griinert, I.e., 
3-4, 11, states that more than two-thirds of the great 
number of words for the lion (3 Arab philologists vie 
with one another in mentioning 600 and more) can 
be found in the ancient poets. In his opinion, the 
"epitheta omantia" which he has collected are 
proof of "such a perceptive way of observing nature" 
that "some ancient Arabic poets really observed the 
lion". Here, however, it is not the great quantity, 
but the significance of these epithets which must be 
the decisive factor: they do not so much give a clear 
picture of the animal itself, but — and this is typical 
in Arabic lexicography — they give a great number of 
synonyms for the general conception, such as "tearer- 
to-pieces, crusher, smasher" etc. (cf. ibid., 15 f.). B. 
Moritz (I.e., 40 f.) is likewise led to accept Grunert's 
view, in the main, because of this wealth of synonyms 
(following Ibn SIda, Kitdb al-Mukhassas, viii, 59-64). 
On the other hand we have the objections by G. Jacob 
l.c, 17; Th. Noldeke, in ZDMG, XLIX (1895), 713; 
H. Lammens, Le Berceau de I'Islam, Rome 1914, I, 
128 f. In addition to these objections, there is, above 
all, the fact that the figure of the lion as the king of 
animals — and hence as a personification of kingly 
power — appears very early in places where the living 
animal never existed (for example in Ceylon, In- 
donesia, and in parts of Europe; cf. M. Ebert, I.e., 
vii, 318a). It was in such places that it could most 
easily turn into a semi-mythical animal, engaging an 
imagination which had already endowed it with 
those ideals which its appearance evokes. This may 
perhaps also serve as an explanation for attributing 
other qualities to it, such as courage, bravery, 
magnanimity and the like, which some experts 
definitely deny to the real animal (cf. R. Lydekker, 
The Royal Natural History, London-New York 1893/4, 
i. 357 i-, as opposed to Brehm, I.e., i, 144, 150). — 
Arabia, which has a predominantly desert character 
is, furthermore, hardly a country for an animal like 
the lion, which prefers a certain amount of vegetation 
(Jacob, I.e., 16). As far as Arabia proper is concerned, 
geographers can only find mention of a few lions' 
dens (ma'sada) in the Yemen, in the ancient poets; 
but the lion is no longer found there today. Some 
others, difficult to localise, were on the northern 
border, especially in the Babylonian marshes [cf. 
al-Batiha], where it is also extinct today (cf. 
M. Streck, I.e., 4 i6f.;0. Reser, Sachindex zu JdqutS 
"Mu'gam", 42 f.; Hommel, I.e., 287 f.; Griinert, l.c., 
13; Landsberger, I.e., 67; Jacob, Lammens, Moritz, 
ibid.). There are different types of lion according to 



the colour of the animal and the growth of its mane. 
Facts for a more detailed description of these (cf. e.g. 
Jacob, ibid, and Moritz, I.e., 41, n. 3) are, however, 
scanty. In Islamic countries today, one finds, 
according to Brehm, I.e., i, 144 ft., the Berber lion, 
the Senegalese lion, the l'ersian lion and the Gudjarat 

The Arabs caught lions in pits, a primitive method 
which is still found in some parts today (Griinert, 
I.e., 14; Ebert, I.e., vi, 146; Brehm, I.e., i, I5if.; 
according to Pliny, this was the method employed 
to catch animals for the circus: RE, XIII, col. 980). 
Following the example of the rulers of the ancient 
Orient, as well as that of the Achaemenids, Sasanids 
and the Caesars, the Caliphs later went on lion- 
hunts themselves and in Islam, too, it became a 
prerogative of the rulers. They kept the lions in 
zoological gardens, trained them as companions, and 
organised shows with them in the Roman manner 
(cf. RE, XIII, col. o8of.; Ebert, I.e., vi, 144-6; 
G. Contenau, La vie quoiid. a Bab. et en Assyrie, 
Paris 1950, T40-3; W. von Soden, Herrscher im AO, 
Berlin 1954, 37, 75, 82, 134; C. de Wit, I.e., 10-4; 
Streck, ibid. ; Mez, Renaissance, 385 f. ; M. F. Kopriilii, 
U-, i, 599 f.)- 

"In Islamic art, the lion is probably the most 
frequently and diversely represented animal. It 
rarely has an apotropaic meaning, it sometimes has 
an astrological or symbolic one, but it is generally 
merely decorative and without any deeper signi- 
ficance. The main forms are : 

r) In the round, as in the Fountain of the Lions 
in the Alhambra, hewn in stone in Konya, in Fatimid 
and Saldjuk metal work, and in Persian ceramics of 
the 12th to 14th century (particularly as pouring 
vessels and censers). 

2) In bas-relief, and also flat, in the various 
spheres of art, and in almost any material, either: 

a) passant, statant, sejant, rampant, either alone 
or paired, in the so-called 'heraldic style'; 

b) either in battle with other animals — such as bulls, 
gazelles or camels — or attacking them (thereby 
going back to ancient Iranian tradition) ; 

c) explicitly heraldic: as in the Persian coat of arms 
(where it appears with the sun) ; as the animal in 
the coat of arms of the Mamluk Baybars and 
perhaps also in that of the Rum Saldjuks of the 
name of Killdj Arslan; also in numismatic 



repre; 



tations 



d) as a lion mask (the head only) on later carpets and 
textiles. 

3) Partial representations are rare; the most 
frequent are: lions' paws, used as ornamental legs; 
lions' heads (modelled fully in the round) as door- 
knockers, as handles and in similar functions, 
usually in bronze. 

There seems to be little direct debt to the ancient 
Orient or Hellenic art; the stylisation of the figure 
of the lion, at least, is nearly always typically Islamic, 
both in details and ornamentation. — There is as yet 
no iconographic study of the lion in Islamic art." 
[Information given in a letter from Professor E. 
Kiihnel]. 

Fr. P. Bargebuhr in the Journal of the Warburg 



I lnstilv 



1957, 1 



where plastic representations of lions are alluded to 
in Arabic literature. According to the results of his 
research, the Alhambra lions are of the 5th/nth 



is in the Iranian Imperial coat of arms [see below], 
which has its predecessor in numismatics. As M. F. 
Kopriilii shows, I.e., i, 609, it dates from the reign of 
Fath 'All Shah (1797-1834). — For Asadi or Arslanlt 



e ibid., : 



615. 



of the lion in all these spheres is 
based largely on astronomical and astrological con- 
figurations. The constellation of Leo "with 27 stars 
and 8 shapeless ones" is, according to L. Ideler, 
Untersuehungen iiber den Ursprung «. die Bedeutung 
der Sternnamen, Berlin, 1809, 154: "a fiction of 
grammarians ignorant of the skies, which owes its 
existence to false interpretations and arbitrary 
changes of the older star-names. It is impossible to 
say in all cases exactly how they arrived at such 
corruptions" (see ibid., 152-5, 159-68, 20-31, 52 f., 
252 f., 272, 279, 317 f., 409 f., 422). The Babylonians 
already saw a heavenly hierarchy of kings in the zodi- 
acal sign of Leo (a leonis = Sarru, later: Regulus = 
malahi, the "royal", also: kalb al-asad "lion-heart" : 
ibid., i64f. and A. Jeremias, Handb. d. ao.Geisteskult.*, 
1929, 203, 218 f., 347), and they put the king of their 
animal kingdom into the place in the zodiac in which 
the summer solstice occurs. Hence it became the 
symbol of the victory of the sun (cf. RE, XIII, col. 
983; Keller, I.e., I, 52). Just as Jesus is called the 
Lion of Judah (comp. the title of the Negus) because 
he triumphed over death (Apoe. V, 5), the Shi'ites 
call c Ali b. Talib the "Lion of God" (cf. Cassel, I.e., 
72, 87-93; Hamza was also called Asad Allah: 
Griinert, I.e., 4). In the Persian coat of arms he 
draws his sword Dhu '1-Fakar [q.v.], and the rising 
sun appears in the background. — When the sun is 
in Leo, on July 20th, the flooding of the Nile begins, 
hence the lions' heads as water spouts and fountain 
heads (cf. Keller, I.e., i, 47 f.; C. de Wit, I.e., 84-90, 
396 ff.). — The apotropaic nature of the lion is of 
considerable significance. With his fierce look, warding 
off all hostile attack, he becomes the guardian of the 
throne (also of the throne of Allah: Griinert, I.e., 5), 
the gate, halls and graves (cf. Keller, I.e., i, 58; 
Bonnet, I.e., 429; like the Sphinx: cf. C. de Wit, 
I.e., 66 f.). — Some representations of lions may, of 
course, have resulted from mere playful joy in 
modelling. However, W. Andrae, Dargestelltes «. 
VerschlusselUs in der ao. Kunst, in Welt d. Or., II/3 
(1956), 250-3, shows that there was often a deeper 
reason behind it, especially when the lion, bull, and 
eagle occur together. Here, Islam took a great deal 
from older cultures without enquiring into its 
significance. Frequently, ancient Egyptian art 
provides the answer in its added explanation of 
what is portrayed (cf. C. de Wit, I.e., especially 78, 
84-90, 159 f., 398 f., 461-8). 

It is impossible here to go further into the part 
played by the lion in the literature of mythology 
(some of this may be found in M. F. Kopriilii, I.e., i, 
601-3), the fable (e.g. of LukmSn; in animal-fables 
he is often called (al-)Usdma, similar to our "noble 
beast"), and the proverb (examples from al-Maydanl 
in Griinert, I.e., 17). 

The description of his biological attributes, too, 
his daring, strength and wildness (especially his roar), 
on the other hand, are repeatedly stressed. Mixed up 
with this, are superstitious ideas concerning him, 
such as the tale that he flees from the (white) cock 

originally shy of the light of day before he himself 
became the symbol for it (see above), according to 
the views held in antiquity (cf. RE, XIII, col. 975 '•; 
Cassel, I.e., 59; Griinert, I.e., 18). The same is true of 
medicinal — made of parts of 



his body: brain, teeth, gall, flesh, fat, etc.; these are 
held to be infallible in their magic effects. The court 
apothecary in Stuttgart sold lions' excrement as late 
as 1561 as a remedy (cf. Keller, I.e., i, 44 ; RE, XIII, 
col. 982; Grunert, I.e., 19 f.). 

Names show most clearly how much the lion 
entered into the cultural history of man. Usd al- 
Qhaba "the lions of the thicket" is what Ibn al- 
Athlr (died 632/1234) calls his biography of the 
companions of the Prophet. The names formed with 
Asad(l), Layth(i) are numerous (sometimes theo- 
phorous: J. Wellhausen, RAH\ 2, 64); in Turkish 
those formed with Arslan (particularly the Saldjuks; 
M. F. Koprulu, l.c., 600-4 deals with personal names, 
place names and titles) ; in Persian, shir, either alone 
or in compounds, such as shirdil "lionhearted", 
fhirmard "hero" (like asad: Landberg, I.e., Il/ii, 
I239f.; Fr. Wolff, Glossar zu FirdosVs Shdhndma, 
1935. 584-7). In the Turkish of today, the word is 
usually aslan, which also means "brave, upright, 
good"; arslanciiim "my little lion", is practically a 
term of endearment for boys. — Thus the likable traits 
of the animal, its traditional virtues, the dignity of 
its appearance, have triumphed everywhere. 

Bibliography: Owing to lack of space, the 
subject can only be roughly sketched. 

Max Grunert, Der Lowe in der Literatur der 
Araber, Prague 1899, is little more than a study from 
a lexicographic standpoint. — M. Fuad Kopriilii's 
article arslan in I A, i, 598a-6oga is hitherto the 
best exposition, not only for Turkish. There is no 
general survey of the Islamic field, nor are there any 
monographs on particular areas. — For comparison 
with antiquity, the following will be found useful: 
the article "Lowe" (by Steier) in Pauly-Wissowa, 
RE, xiii, 1927, col. 968-990; Otto Keller, Die 
antike Tierwelt, i (Leipzig 1909), 24-61; further: 
Max Ebert, Reallex. d. Vorgesch., vi, ii4a-6b, 
VII, 3i8a-9b and especially Paulus Cassel, Lowen- 
kimpfe von Nemea bis Golgotha, Berlin 1875, this 
also for oriental conditions. — For relationship 
with the ancient Orient : B. Landsberger, Die Fauna 
dts alien Mesopotamien, Leipzig 1934; M. Streck, in 
Vorderas.Bibliothek, vii/2 (1916), 416 f.; H. Bonnet, 
Reallex. d. dgypt. Religionsgesch., Berlin 1952, 
articles "Lowe", "Sphinx", and others; especially 
C. de Wit, Le r6le et le sens du lion dans I'Egypte anc., 
Leiden 1951, passim. — Concerning Arabic and 
Semitic matters in general, cf. F. Hommel, DU 
Namen der Sdugetiere bei den sudsemit. Volkern, 
Leipzig 1879, 287-94; C. de Landberg, Etudes sur 
les dialectes de V Arabic meridionale, Il/ii, Leiden 
1909, 1237-40; G. Jacob, Altarab. Beduinenleben 1 , 
Berlin 1897, 16-18; B. Moritz, Arabien, Hanover 
1923, 40-41. — For zoology in general: Brehm's 
Tierleben*, I (1893), 144-152. 

(H. Kindermann) 
ASAD, Banu (later, dialect: Beni Sed), Arab 
tribe. They are a tribe related to the Kinana [q.v.]; 
the awareness of this interconnexion remained 
remarkably alive, though it had little practical 
effect owing to the great distance separating them. 
The homelands of the Asad are in North Arabia, 
at the foot of the mountains formerly inhabited by 
the Tayy [q.v.]. In contrast to the latter, the Asad 
led a mainly nomadic life. Their grazing lands 
extended to the south and south-east of the Nefud, 
from the Shammar mountains [q.v.] to the Wadi 
'1-Rumma in the south, and beyond it in the neigh- 
bourhood of the two Aban in the direction of Rass 
and further eastwards up to Sirr. Here their territory 
overlapped with that of the c Abs [q.v.], in the north 



- ASAD 683 

with that of the Yarbu c [q.v.] of the Tamim [q.v.], 
for there the Asad owned the spring of Line beyond 
the Dahna 5 [q.v.], as well as the adjacent tract of 
Hazn (Hedjera) to the north. 

An important event in the pre-Islamic history of 
the Asad is their revolt in which Hudjr fell, the son of 
the last great ruler of the Kinda and the father of the 
poet Imru' al-Kays [q.v.], and in which they struck 
the disintegrating kingdom of Kinda [q.v.] a mortal 
blow. — The Asad's relationship both with their 
immediate and their more distant neighbours, the 
Tamim and the tribes beyond the Wadi, varied. In 
contrast, at the end of the sixties and the beginning 
of the seventies of the 4th century A.D., a permanent 
alliance with the Tayy and the Ghatafan [q.v.] was 
developped, in which the Dhubyan [q.v.] and finally 
the 'Abs joined. A few decades later, however, a rift 
among the allies occurred, as a result of which clashes 
ensued, particularily between the Asad and the Tayy, 
until Islam established peace among the tribes. 

An Asad family, the Ghanm, who had long been 
settled in Mecca, belonged to the inner circle of 
Muhammad's disciples. But these connexions in no 
way affected the great Asad tribe. At the beginning 
of the year 4 /625, Muhammad sent a raiding expedit- 
ion to the Asad wells at Katan, where were encamped 
the sub-tribe Fak'as, with their chief Tulayha 
(Talha) and who, according to tradition, were con- 
templating an attack on Medina, already weakened 
by the battle of Uhud. It is conceivable that 
Tulayha took part in the siege of Medina, the so- 
called Battle of the Trench (6/627). When, after 
further unsuccessful struggles against Muhammad, 
famine broke out among the Asad, Tulayha appeared 
with other chiefs in Medina at the beginning of 
9/630 to embrace Islam. Though it is uncertain 
that Sura XLIX, 14-17 refers to their emissaries, as 
is maintained by tradition, nevertheless these verses 
undoubtedly reflect their attitude towards Islam. 
However that may be, their leader Tulayha is said 
to have proclaimed himself a prophet even before 
Muhammad's death. During the ensuing wide- 
spread troubles of the Ridda wars, he succeeded in 
re-establishing the alliance with the Ghatafan and 
the Tayy, which was joined by sections of the c Abs 
and Fazara (Dhubyan). After being abandoned by 
the leader of the Fazara [q.v.] at the battle of Buzakha 
against Khalid b. al-Walid [q.v.], he took to flight 
(11/632). This victory of the Muslims broke the 
resistance of the insurgents in North Arabia, who 
then for the first time were converted to Islam, the 

In the ensuing wars of conquest, we find the Asad 
predominantly on the 'Irak front; Tulayha also, 
having in the meantime returned to Islam, fought 
both there and in Persia. — Most of the Asad were 
absorbed by al-Kufa; here in the course of time, 
they evolved from warriors to men of learning; as 
a result many of those who handed down the Shi'a 
tradition, were men of the Asad from al-Kufa. 
Stn; Her groups of the Asad were incorporated in 
the Syrian army and subsequently settled near 
Aleppo and beyond the Euphrates. 

When the withdrawal of the Bakr [q.v.] and 
Tamim left the way to the north open to them, in 
the second half of the3rd/9th century, they extended 
their grazing lands along the Kufa pilgrim road 
from al-Bitan (Btane) in the Dahna 5 as far as 
Wakisa. Later it was extended still further north- 
wards: up to al-Kadisiyya [q.v.] on the frontier of the 
Sawad. In the East the Asad extended right up to 
Basra and in the West to <Ayn al-Tamr [q.v.]. 



68 4 



ASAD — ASAD B. <ABD ALLAH 



In the second half of the 4th/ioth century, the Asad 
penetrated into the settled lands. Shaykh Mazyad 
of the sub-tribe Nashira settled on the Nil canal at 
al-Hilla [q.v.], whilst another chief, Dubays, crossed 
the Tigris and set up his camp in the neighbourhood 
of the later Huweze (Huwayza; see HawIza) (Khuz- 
istan). 

The internal troubles under the Buyids [q.v.] 
favoured the rise of the Banu Mazyad [q.v.]. C A1I b. 
Mazyad was confirmed in his office as a vassal of 
the Buyids in 403/101 2-3. His son Dubays (408-474/ 
1018-1082) and the latter's son Mansur (474-479/ 
1082-1086) were considered to be the ideal type of 
Arab aristocracy. Both were surpassed by Sadaka 
b. Mansur [q.v.] (479-501/1086-1108), in personal 
nobility and political significance. In the struggle 
between Sultan Barkiyaruk [q.v.] and his brother 
Muhammad b. Malikshah [q.v.], he sided with the 
latter and occupied al-Kufa (494/1 101), Hit, Wasit,, 
Basra and Takrit and brought several Beduin 
tribes of 'Irak under his influence ; thus he was well 
justified in calling himself Malik al- c Arab (Prince of 
the Beduin). Later however, he quarrelled with his 
overlord Sultan Muhammad, who defeated him at 
al-Mada 5 in in 501/1108, in which battle he fell. 
Sadaka united in his person the virtues of an old-time 
Arab warrior and those of an Islamic prince. He 
stands on the threshold of the transition from the 
Beduin way of life to that of urban civilisation. 
Though at the outset he still lived in tents, in 495 
(1101/2) he set up his residence al-Hilla. The sons of 
his son and successor Dubays II [q.v.], who led a 
restless and adventurous life and was murdered at 
the court at Maragha of the Saldjuk Sultan Mas c ud 
b. Muhammad [q.v.] in 529/1135, ruled at al-Hilla 
until 545/1150. 

The Asad had followed the Banu Mazyad to al- 
Hilla and remained there after their princely family 
had become extinct. Because they had supported 
Sultan Muhammad II b. Mahmud [q.v.] in the last 
Saldjuk feat of arms in Irak, the unsuccessful siege 
of Baghdad (55i/"57), the Khalifa al-Mustandjid 
[q.v.] determined to expel them from al-Halla (558/ 
1163). They entrenched themselves in the neigh- 
bourhood and were, with the help of the Muntafik 
[q.v.], finally compelled to submit. Four thousand 
of them were slaughtered and the remainder banished 
for ever from al-Hilla. The. victors were perhaps 
induced to adopt this merciless procedure, because 
the Asad belonged to the ShI'a (see above). 

The Asad then dispersed, but must have reass- 
embled again later. In any case, in the 14th and 
15th centuries they lived to the south east of Wasit. 

In the, course of time they finally found a new 
home in al-Djaza 5 ir. The Banu Asad or BenI Sed as 
they are called in dialect, are apparently to be found 
here as early as the ioth/i6th century. 

In the 19th century they found their territory 
round el-Ceba'ish too constricted. In the forties they 
are said to have advanced under Shekh Djenah as 
far as the region east of c Amara and later, under the 
latter's son Khevun. to Little Medjer. 1894-5 they 
were punished by Turkish troops for having set fire 
to Medina (below el-Ceba'ish on the Euphrates) 
under Hasan el-Kheyun. Hasan was driven out of 
el-Ceba'ish and perished miserably in Hor al-Djaza'ir 
(ca. 1903). His son Salim, thanks to the influence of 
the family of Seyid Talib, was appointed to the 
office of Shaykh over the BenI Asad in 1906. After 
the first world war, he remained faithful to Seyid 
Talib and declared himself opposed to the choice of 
Faysal as King of c Irak. In 1924/5 he revolted against 



the Government, was taken prisoner and then exiled 
from his home. He now lives on his estates in 
Beledrtz (North East of Baghdad). 

Bibliography : The best comprehensive hist- 
orical description with source-references is in: 
Max Freiherr von Oppenheim, Die Beduinen, 
vol. Ill/part 2 (= VIII. Section: 'Irak), revised 
and published by W. Caskel, Wiesbaden 1952, 
452-458 (all geographical names mentioned above 
may be found on the appended maps). — For the 
early Islamic period: The Prophet's biographies, 
especially: Frants Buhl, Das Leben Muhammeds, 
German edition by H. H. Schraeder, Heidelberg* 
1955, 261, 271, 277, 321, etc., 352; also L. Caetani, 
Annali, see Index, s.v. (H. Kindermann) 

ASAD, ancient Arab tribe. The Aaa-njvot 
mentioned by Ptolemy VI, 7, § 22 (Sprenger, 206), 
and stated by him to have lived in central Arabia, 
to the west of the ©avouiTai = Tanukh [q.v.]. Like 
them, and perhaps with them, the Asad had emigrated 
to the Euphrates line before the noddle of the 3rd 
century. They appear in the inscription on the 
grave of the second Lakhmid of HIra (in al-Numara, 
328 A.D.), together with the Tanukh. as al-Asadayn, 
"the two Asads". Here the dual a potiori may well 
have been chosen in order to erase, together with 
the name, the memory of the Tanukh rule, whose 
kings had preceded the Lakhm in HIra. It is not 
obvious what this term is based on — possibly on 
some relationship. This is also accepted by the Arab 
genealogists, who say that the core of the Tanukh 
arose from the Asad. The inscription in Numara 
mentions that "he reigned over both the Asad ...... 

and their kings". It is not known for how long the 
Asad were under the Lakhm. Some of their descen- 
dants, the B(anu) '1-Kayn [q.v.], lived until Islamic 
times to the south and south-east of the Hawran on 
the eastern border of the Balka 3 and down to 
Arabia; other branches had joined the Tanukh. 
Bibliography: Ibn al-Kalbi, Djamharat al- 
Ansdb, Ms. Escorial, 450, 490. (W. Caskel) 
ASAD [see nudjum]. 

ASAD b. C ABD ALLAH b. Asad al-Kasr! (of 
the Kasr sept of Badjlla; not al-Kushayri, as some- 
times printed in error), governor of Khurasan, 
106-9/724-7 and 117-20/735-8, under his brother 
Khalid b. c Abd Allah [q.v.], governor of al- c Iraq and 
the East, in the reign of Hisham b. c Abd al-Malik. 
His first period of governorship coincided with 
increasing pressure by Turkish forces against the 
Arabs in Transoxiana, which he was unable to 
counter effectively, although he conducted successful 
raids into the fringes of the Parapomisus. In 107/726 
he rebuilt the city of Balkh (destroyed by Kutayba 
b. Muslim after the rising of Nezak) and transferred 
the Arab garrison troops to it from Barukan. The 
Caliph was forced to remove him from office, 
however, owing to his violence against the local 
Mudarites. But when the disorders in Transoxiana 
and Eastern Khurasan came to a climax with the 
revolt in 1 16/734 of al-Harith b. Suraydj [q.v.], 
supported by the native princes, Asad was reap- 
pointed to the province. He drove the rebel forces 
across the Oxus but in spite of a raid towards 
Samarkand failed to restore the Arab position in 
Sughd. In order to control the disturbed sector of 
jukharistan he established a garrison of 2500 
Syrian troops in Balkh in 118/736. In the following 
year he led an expedition into Khuttal, but the 
local princes called for support from the powerful 
khakan of the Tiirgesh, Su Lu, who drove Asad 
back to Balkh with severe losses (1 Shawwal 719/ 



'ABD ALLAH — ASADl 



I October 737). The joint forces of the Tiirgesh and 
the princes of Sughd, supported by al-Harith b. 
Suraydj, now crossed the Oxus in their turn, to 
make a raid on Khurasan. Asad, with the Syrians 
from Balkh and some local forces, surprised the main 
body at Kharistan, and the remainder were all but 
cut off in their retreat (Dhu '1-Hidjdja no/December 
737)- By this fortunate victory Asad restored the 
Arab power in Eastern Khurasan but himself died 
a few months later (120/738). In his second govern- 
ment, as in his first, he had had to take severe 
measures against the emissaries and local agents of 
the 'Abbasids [q.v., p. 15 above], but he also en- 
deavoured to reform the local administration, and 
gained the friendship of many dihkdns, who applauded 
him as a prudent " steward" (katkhudd) of his province. 
Among other nobles, Samankhudat, the ancestor of 
the Samanid [q.v.] dynasty, was converted by him 
to Islam, and named his eldest son Asad in his 
honour. The village of Asadabad near Naysabur is 
said to have been built by him, and remained in the 
possession of his descendants until the government 
of <Abd Allah b. Tahir. I n Kflfa also, the suburb of 
Suk Asad was established by and named after him. 
Bibliography: Ibn Hazm, Qiamhara (Levi- 
Provencal), 366;Tabari, index; Baladhuri, Futuh, 
index; Narshakhi (Schefer), 57 sq.; Ch. Schefer, 
Chrestomathie persane, History of Balkh; Van 
Vloten, Recherches sur la domination des Arabes 
(Amsterdam 1894), 24-5,30; J. Wellhausen, Arab. 
Reich, 284, 291-5; H. A. R. Gibb, Arab Conquests 
in Central Asia (London 1923), 65-89; F. Gabrieli, 
II Califfato di Hisham (Alexandria 1935). 38-41. 
54-64. (H. A. R. Gibb) 

ASAD b. al-FURAT b. Sinan, Abu e Abd 
Allah, scholar and jurist of the 2nd-3rd/8th-9th 
century, born at Harran (Mesopotamia) in 142/759. 
At the age of two he went with his father to live in 
Ifrikiya. He completed his early studies there, and 
in 172/788 went to Medina, where he received an 
initiation in Malikism from Malik b. Anas himself. 
From there he went to 'Irak, where he profited by 
the teaching of several disciples of Abu rjanifa. The 
lessons he received from Malik provided him with 
the material for his great work, the Asadiyya. On 
his return to Ifrikiya, be established himself as a 
master in the science of hadith and as an eminent 
jurist; he was appointed by the Aghlabid amir 
Ziyadat Allah kadi of al-Kayrawan, jointly with Abu 
Muhriz (203/818), an unusual division of this office 
between two holders. Of a violent nature, he some- 
times quarrelled with his colleague and disagreed 
with the famous Sahnun, a Malikite doctor whose 
Mudawwana outlived the success of the Asadiyya. 
His passionate convictions and perhaps his 
belligerent energy led to the appointment of this man 
of learning as amir, leader of the expedition which 
left Sus in 212/827 to attack Byzantine Sicily. He 
marched at the head of the Muslim troops and took 
the first step towards the conquest of the island by 
the capture of Mazzara. He died of wounds or of 
the plague before Syracuse in 213/828. 

Bibliography: Abu 'l-'Arab, Classes des 
savants de I'Ifriqiya, ed. and trans, by Ben 
Cheneb, 81-3, 153-6; Houdas and R. Basset, 
Mission scientifique en Tunisie (Bulletin de Cor- 
respondance africaine, ii, 1884). Extract from Ibn 
al-Nadji, Ma'dlim al-Imdn; Amari, Bibliotheca 
arabo-sicula, index; idem, Storia dei Musulmani 
ii Sicilia, i, 382 ff. ; Ben Cheneb, in Centenario M. 
Amari, i, 242-3. (G. Marcais) 



ASAD ALLAH ISFAHANl, celebrated Persian 
sword-maker (shamshirsdz) of the time of Shah 
'Abbas I. It is said that the Ottoman sultan presented 
a helmet to Shah 'Abbas, and offered a sum of 
money to anyone who could cleave the helmet in 
two with a sword. Asad made a sword with which 
he achieved this feat, and, as a reward, Shah 'Abbas 
remitted the tax of the sword-makers, who continued 
to obtain exemption until Kadjar times (see A. K. S. 
Lambton, Islamic Society in Persia, London 1954, 25). 
For a description of Asad Allah's work, see Survey 
of Persian Art, iii, 2575. (R. M. Savory) 

ASAD al-DAWLA, a title held by several princes, 
of whom the most important was salih b. mirdas 
[q.v.]. 

AS'AD EFENDl [see es'ad efendII. 
ASADABABH, town in al-Djibal, 7 farsakhs or 
54 kms. southwest of Hamadhan, on the western 
slope of the Alwand Kuh at the entrance to a fruitful 
well-tilled plain (5659 ft. high). As a permanent 
caravan-station on the famous, ancient highway 
Hamadhan (Ekbatana)-Baghdad (or Babylon), it is 
a settlement reaching back into antiquity, and 
(according to Tomaschek) is probably the '^8pa7rdtva 
of Isidor of Charax and the Beltra of the Tabula 
Peutingeriana (cf. Weissbach, in Pauly-Wissowa's 
iii, 264). In the Arab Middle ages, and even into the 
Mongol period, Asadabadh was a flourishing, thickly 
populated place with excellent markets, and its 
inhabitants were considered well-to-do because of 
the rich yield of their domains, to which canals gave 
a plentiful supply of water. In 1872, according to 
Bellew, it was a fine village with some 200 houses, 
some of which were occupied by Jewish families. The 
Persians call it, according to the accounts of European 
travellers, Absadabadh (Petermann, Bellew), also 
Sa'idabadh (Dupree, Petermann) or Sahadabadh 
(Ker Porter). In 514/1120 there was fought at 
Asadabadh a battle between the two Saldjuk sultans 
Mas'fld of Mawsil (Mosul) and Mahmud of Ispahan, 
which resulted in favour of the latter. 3 farsakhs from 
Asadabadh there stood imposing buildings of 
Sasanid times which the Arabs called Matbakh or 
Matabikh Kisra, i.e. the Kitchen(s) of Chosroes; 
for the explanation of this name cf . the legend deriving 
from the Risdla of Mis'ar b. Muhalhil in Yakut, iv, 
593 s.v. Matbakh Kisra. 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 245; Quatremere 
Hist, des Mongols de la Perse, Paris 1836, 1,250, 
264-6, 427 f. ; Le Strange, 196; Weil, Gesch. d. 
Chalifen, iii, 218; Tomaschek, in SBAK. Wien, 
1883, 152; Ritter, Erdkunde, ix, 81, 344; H. Peter- 
mann, Reisen im Orient, 1861, ii, 252; H. W. 
Bellew, From the Indus to the Tigris, London 1874, 
431; de Morgan, Mission seientif. in Perse, Hud. 
giogr., ii, 124, 127 f., 138; Farhang QiughrajyaH 
Iran, v, Tehran 1953, 11. (M. Streck) 

ASADl. This poetical name (takhallus) is probably 
that of two poets born at Tus (Khurasan): Abu 
Nasr Ahmad b. Mansur al-TOsI and his son 'Ali 
b. Ahmad. According to the extremely doubtful 
statement of Dawlatsh,ih, the father was the pupil 
of Firdusi (born ca. 320-2/932-4), while the epic 
composed by 'All b. Ahmad is precisely dated 458/ 
1066; H. Ethe concludes from this that it is impos- 
sible to attribute to the same author the works 
placed under the name of Asadi. Thus Abu Nasr, 
about whom it is only known that he died during 
the rule of Mas'ud al-GJiaznawl, becomes the author 
of the Mundfardt ("Debates"), which show analogies 
with the Provencal tensones, and are consequently 
important from the point of view of literary history. 



apart from their originality of matter and form. On 
the other hand 'All b. Ahmad, situated at the court 
of a prince of Arran, Abu Dulaf composed on the 
advice of a minister, his Gershdsp-ndma, the oldest 
of the epics complementary to the Shdh-ndma of 
FirdusI: this work is remarkable not only for its 
spirited narrative and for its style, but also for its 
supernatural episodes and philosophical discourses 
which foreshadow the later development of the 
Persian epic. The valuable Lughat-i Furs, a dictionary 
of rare words with quotations from Persian poetry, 
was probably written after the epic. A copy of the 
pharmacopoeial treatise of Abu Mansur Muwaffak 
b. c Ali of Harat dated 447/1055-6 one of the oldest 
Persian manuscripts, is in the handwriting of £ Ali 
b. Ahmad, and is dated and signed by him. K. I. 
Tchaikin has tried to show that all these works are 
by one and the same author, Abu Mansur 'All b. 
Ahmad {Iztadehvo Akademii Nauk SSSR, Leningrad 
1934, 119-59; resume by H. Masse in in trod. 
Gershdsp-ndma). 

Bibliography: Le Livre deGerchdsp, published 

and trans, by CI. Huart, i, Paris 1926 (PELOV), 

trans, by H. Masse, ii, ibid. 1950 (with a detailed 

introduction); Lughat-i Furs, ed. by P. Horn, 

Gottingen 1897; Tehran ed. 1941; Codex Vindo- 

bonensis, ed. in facsimile by Seligman, Vienna 1859 

(German trans, by Achundow, Halle n.d.); H. 

Ethe, in V erhandlungen des 5. intern. Orient. 

Congr., ii, 48 ff., Notices: Ethe, Gr. I. Ph., ii, 

125 ff., 243 ff., E. G. Browne, i-ii, index; Dawlat- 

shah, 35 ff. (H. Masse) 

A§AF b. BARAKHYA (Hebrew Asaf b. Be- 

rekhya), name of the alleged wazir of King Solomon. 

According to the legend he was Solomon's confidant, 

and always had access to him. When the royal consort 

Diarada was worshipping idols Asaf delivered a 

public address in which he praised the apostles of 

God, Solomon among them, but only for the excellent 

qualities he had manifested in his youth. Solomon 

in anger at this took him to task, but was reproved 

for the introduction of idol-worship at the court. 

This was then done away with and the consort 

punished; the king became repentant. 

Bibliography : Tabari, Ta'rikh (ed. de Goeje), 
I, 588-91; Tafsir (Cairo 1321), xix, 94 f.; Tha'labi 
Kisas al-anbiyd' (Cairo 1292), 281-3; Kisat, Kisas 
al-anbiya' (ed. Eisenberg), 290-3 ; G. Weil, Biblische 
Legenden der Muselmdnner (1845), 265 f., 270 f.; 
M. Griinbaum, Neue Beitraqe zur semitischen Sagen- 
kunde (1893), 222; J. Walker, Bible Characters in 
the Koran (1931), 37. (A. J. Wensinck) 

AsAF-DJAH, title of the Nizam of Haydarabad 
[q.v.]. 

A$AF KHAN Abu '1-Hasan, second son of 
Djahangir's wakU-i-kul I'timad al-Dawla Ghiyath 
Beg and elder brother of Nur Djahan. 

After Nur Djahan's marriage to Djahanglr in 
1020/1611 Abu '1-Hasan became Khdn-sdmdn with 
the title of I'tikad Khan. In 1021/1612 his daughter 
Ardjmand Banu Begam Mumtaz Mahall married 
Prince Khurram, the future Shah Djahan. He 
himself received the title of Asaf Khan in 1023/1614 
and attained in 1031/1622 the rank of 6,000 dhat 
and suwdr and was appointed subaddr of Bengal 
in 1033/1623. In 1025/1616 the imprisoned Prince 
Khusraw, eldest son of Djahanglr, was delivered 
over to the charge of Asaf Khan, now sharing the 
real power in the empire with Nur Djahan, I'timad 
al-Dawla and Prince Khurram. Despite his negligence 
in allowing Mahabat Khan, the enemy of the NOr 
.Djahan faction, to capture Djahanglr on the banks 



of the Jhelum in 1035/1626, his own flight to Atak 
and eventual seizure there by Mahabat Khan's 
forces, Asaf Khan survived to become governor of 
the Pandjab and wahil. 

Asaf Khan quickly despatched the news of the 
death of Djahanglr in 1037/1627 to Prince Khurram 
in the Dekkan. Always a supporter of the latter"s 
succession, Asaf Khan diplomatically proclaimed 
Dawar Bakhsh as pddshdh at Bhimbar, pending the 
arrival of Prince Khurram. He also placed Nur 
Djahan, who supported Prince Shahriyar, under 
restraint. His services in securing the succession of 
Shah Djahan were rewarded by the title of Yamln 
al-dawla, the rank of 9,000 dhat and suwdr, do-aspa 
sih-aspa and the office of wakll. In 1041/1631-2 Asaf 
Khan was employed as commander of the Mughal 
armies fighting against Muhammad c Adil Shah of 
Bidjapur. 

Asaf Khan died in 1051/1641 and was buried in 
Lahore not far from Djahangir's tomb. A patron of 
Mughal miniature painting and a great builder, he 
left a fortune estimated, in European sources, at more 
than twenty five million rupis apart from his resi- 
dences and gardens. 

Bibliography: Storey, Vol. I, Part 2, p. 1104; 

Nawwab Samsam al-dawla Shah Nawaz Khan, 

Ma'dthir al-umard, Text, Vol. I, Calcutta, 1888, 

pp. 151-160; Tuzuk-i-Djahdngiri (trans. A. Rogers, 

ed. H. Beveridge), Vol. I, London 1909, Vol. II, 

London 1914, indices and I, page 336; Mu'tamad 

Khan, Ikbdl-ndma-ye-Diahdngiri, Vol. Ill, Bib. 

Ind., Calcutta 1865, pp. 267-278, pp. 294-5; c Abd 

al-Hamid Lahauri, Pddshdh-ndma, Bib. Ind., Vol. I, 

Calcutta 1867, pp. 411 et seq., Vol. II, Calcutta 

1868, p. 258; Ed. Sir William Foster, The Embassy 

of Sir. Thomas Roe to India, rev. ed. London 1926, 

index p. 511 ; The Travels of Peter Mundy, Hakluyt 

Society, Vol. II, London 1914, index p. 396; 

Travels of Fray Sebastian Manrique, Hakluyt 

Society, 1927, Vol. II, index p. 443; Beni Prasad. 

History of Jahangir, London 1922, index; Banarsi 

Prasad Saksena, History of Shah Jahan of Dihli, 

Allahabad 1932, index. (P.Hardy) 

al-A?AMM, "the deaf", a soubriquet applied to 

several people, notably: i. Sufyan b. al-Abrad al- 

Kalb!, called al-Asamm, an Umayyad general 

famous for his eloquence, who led several campaigns 

against the KMridjites, the most notable of which, 

about 78/677 or 79/678, led to the crushing defeat 

and death of the AzrakI Kharidjite Katari b. al- 

Fudja'a [q.v]. 

Bibliography: al-Tabari, Annates, ed. by de 

Goeje, ii, ior8 (Cairo ed. v, 126); Djahiz, Baydn, 

ed. by Harun, i, 61, 407 and iii, 264. 

2. Abu 'l- c Abbas Muhammad b. Ya c sub al- 

NIsaburI, called al-Asamm, a celebrated doctor and 

traditionist of the Shafi'I school, born in 247/861, 

died in 346/957-8. A disciple of al-Rabi* al-Muradl 

(d. 270/883) and al-Muzani (d. 264/876) [q.v.], he 

helped to make the latter's Mukhtasar more widely 

known through the medium of a recension which 

attained great popularity; see Fihrist, 212. The 

Shafi'i Sahl b. Muhammad al-Su'lukl (d. 387/997), 

who was a pupil of his at Nisabur, also won great 

Bibliography: Fihrist, 211, 212; Ibn Khal- 
likan, Wafaydt, Cairo 1310, i, 219 and ed. c Abd 
al-Hamid, Cairo, n.d., iii, 154; Dhahabi, Tabakdt 
al-Hiuffdz (Liber Classium, etc.), ed. Wustenfeld, 
Gottingen 1833 fol., ii 94, no. 61. Our edition of 
the Tabakdt of Subkl does not contain any notice 
on him. (R. Blachere) 



ASAS [see isma'Iliyya]. 

C ASAS, the night patrol or watch in Muslim 
cities. According to Makrizi the first to carry out 
this duty was c Abdallah b. Mas'ud, who was ordered 
by Abu Bakr to patrol the streets of Medina by night. 
'Umar is said to have gone on patrol in person, 
accompanied by his mawld Aslam and by c Abd 
al-Rahman b. <Awf. (Khitat, ii, 223, cf. Tabari, i, 
j, 2742; R. Levy, (ed.) Ma'dlim al-Kurba, 216; 
al-Ghazzall, Nasihat al-Muluk (ed. Humat, 13, 58). 
Later the c asas was commanded by a police officer, 
known as the sdfiib al-'asas (Makrizi, loc. cit.; Ibn 
Tagbrlbirdl, ii, 73; Nuwayri, iii, 151). Makrizi says 
that in his day the sahib al-'asas was popularly 
known as the wdli 'l-fawf (Khitaf, ii, 103); a sahib 
al-tawf is reported in Basra in the time of al- 
Hadjdjadj (Baladhuri, Futuh 364. On the Tawf, 
apparently a synonym of the 'Asas, see also Badl< 
al-Zaman, Makdmai, al-Makdma al-Rusdfiyya; 
Kalkashandi, Subh, xiii, 93, citing the instructions 
given to them in 697/1297 by the Sultan). In 
Mamluk times there were also night patrols known 
as ashdb al-arbd 1 , coming under the authority of the 
Wait, or chief of police; in Spain they were called 
darrabun (Makrizi, Suluk, Cairo, ii, 54; Makkarl, 
AnaUcies, i, 135). 

In the East, a diploma issued by the diwdn of the 
Saldjukid Sandjar (d. 552/1157) orders the ndHb of 
Rayy to appoint l asas in the town wherever there 
may be the suspicion of vice and corruption ('Atabat 
al-Katabat, ed. Muhammad I>azwlni and 'Abbas 
Ikbal, Tehran 1950, 44). 

In Ottoman times the commandant of the 'Asas 
('Asesbashl) was a Janissary officer (according to 
'Othman Nfiri the corbadj! of the 28th bdluk, ac- 
cording to Hammer from an unspecified regiment). 
He was in charge of the public prisons and exercised 
a kind of supervision over public executions. He 
attended meetings of the Diwan of the Agha of the 
Janissaries and at the Saray and the Porte, in case 
anyone was to be handed to him for execution. He 
also played an important role in public processions. 
He received one tenth of the fines imposed by the 
Su Bash! for drunkenness and similar offences by 
night, though not by day; in addition the <Asas 
levied a due (Resm-i < Asesiyye) from every shop. 
(Ewliya Celebi, i, 517 = Hammer's translation, i, 
2, 108-9, attributing their foundation to Mehem- 
med II; 'Othman Nun, Medielle-i Umilr-i Belediyye, 
i, 901-2, 954; Omer Lutfi Barkan, Osmanli Impa- 
ratorlugunda Zirat Ekonominin Hukukl ve Mali 
Esaslart I Kanunlar, Istanbul 1943, 69, 70, 134, I39i 
147, 160, 162, 163, 164, 178, 400). 

In Safawid Persia the night patrols were under the 
command of the darugha, and were called ahddth 
[q.v.) and gezme as well as <asas. (Minorsky, Tadhkirai 
al-Muluk, 149). In 19th century Shlraz the head of 
the night watchmen was known as mir ( asas (Ann 
K. S. Lambton, Islamic Society in Persia, Loudon, 
1954, 14-15). 

In Ghardala and in the other cities of the Mzab, 
the organisation of night watchmen not only assures 
public security and morals, but possesses a secret 
and almost absolute authority, superior even to that 
of the Halha of the 'Azzdba and the Djamd'-a of the 
laymen, in the important affairs of the community. 
(M. Vigourous, La garde de nuit a Ghardaia, in 
Bulletin de Liaison Saharienne, no. 9, Algiers 1952, 
9-16). The minaret of the Abadl mosques in the 
Mzab is called c assds, «watchman». (M. Mercier, La 
civilisation urbaine du Mzab, Algiers 1922, 60 f.). 



Bibliography : in addition to sources quoted 
in the article: W. Behrnauer, Mimoire sur Its In- 
stitutions de Police chez les A robes, les Persans et 
les Turcs, J A, June i860, 461 ff.; G. Wiet, Matt- 
riaux pour un Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum, 
Egypte, ii, Cairo 1929-30, Mim. I.F.A.O. vol. Iii, 
61-62; A. Mez, Die Renaissance des I slams, 
Heidelberg 1922, 393-4 ; H. A. R. Gibb and H. 
Bowen, Islamic Society and the West, i/i, 119, 324- 
326; Ismail Hakkl Uzuncarslll, Osmanli Devleti 
teskilatlndan Kapukulu Ocaklarl, i, Ankara 1943, 
170, 358, 370, 397, 421; id. Osmanli Devletinin 
Merhez ve Bahriye Teskilati, Ankara 1948, 21, 124, 
139, 141-2, 283, 285, 286; D'Ohsson, Tableau General 
de V Empire Ottoman, Paris 1788- 1824, vii, 167, 
319; J. Hammer, Des osmanischen Reichs Stoats- 
verfassung und StaatsverwaUung, Vienna 1815, i, 
247, ii, 105-6; Mehmet Zeki Pakalln, Osmanli Tarih 
Deyimleri ve Tcnmleri Sbzliigu, i, Istanbul 1946, 
93-4 ; an example of the use of the term in Morocco 
is given in Archives Marocaines i/ii, 186. 

(Ed.) 
The term c assds is used in North Africa in the 
sense of "night-watchman". R. Brunschvig (La 
Berbirie Orientate sous les Hafsides, ii, 203) uses 

suks at Tunis. It is also found in Budget Meakin 
(The Moors, London 1902, 174) to denote the watch- 
man who keeps guard at night over the caravans 
which have halted in the villages; the same custom, 
but without the word being used, is mentioned by 
M. Rey (Souvenir d'un voyage au Maroc, Paris 1844, 
124). At Fez, the word was used at the beginning 
of the 20th century to denote not only night- 
watchmen, but policemen in general. 

Whether the word c assds is indicated or not, the 
use of guards at night, particularly in the central 
market, at warehouses and on the ramparts, was the 
general practice in North African towns up tc the 
advent of the French. There is evidence of its use 
in Algiers (R. P. Dan, Histoire de Barbare et de ses 
corsaires, Paris 1637, 102), where the mizwdr [q.v.] 
and his agents patrolled the main streets at night, 
and in Fez (Leo Africanus, Description de I'Afrique, 
ed. Epaulard, Paris 1956, i, 206), where "four police 
officers, not more", went the rounds from midnight 
until 2 a.m., and where the central market and 
warehouses were guarded by Berber porters or 
zarzaya (R. Le Tourneau, Fes avant le Protectorat, 
Casablanca-Paris 1949, 196), while the police of the 
ward commanders ( c assdsa) kept watch on the 
ramparts (ibid., 253). At Wazzan, the head of the 
family of the Shorfa of the town paid each night 
58 guards who kept watch over the city (Budget 
Meakin, The land of the Moors, London 1901, 325), 
while at Safi, the Moroccan army took part in 
guarding the city by night (ibid., 200). 

In Spain, the term l assds does not appear to have 
been used. E. Levi-Provencal (X' siecle, 253), mentions 
the use of the word darrdb to denote night-watchmen ; 
the person responsible for nocturnal security was 
sometimes known as sahib al-layl, which is appa- 
rently the equivalent of the term: sahib al-shur\a 
(E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. Mus., iii, 155, fol- 
lowing al-Makkari, Analectes, i, 134). 

(R. Le Tourneau) 

A$FAR (a), yellow: also, in distinction from 
black, simply light-coloured. Some Arab philologists 
and exegetes indeed claim for asfar also the meaning 
"black" ; see the discussions thereon in the Khizdnat 
al-Adab, ii, 465. The Arabs called the Greeks Banu 
'i- Asfar (fern. Banat al-A.: Usd al-Ghdba, i, 274,, ab 



infra) according to Tabari (ed. de Goeje, i, 357, u ; 
354> 15) signifying "Sons of the Red One" (Esau). In 
the Hadith mention is made of the contest of the 
Arabs with the Banu '1-Asfar and of the conquest 
of their capital Constantinople (Musnad Ahmad, 
ii, 174). Muluk Bani 'l-Asfar lAghdni, 1" ed., vi, 
95. is) = the Christian princes, especially those of 
the Rum (ib. 98, , ab infra; cf. Abu Tammam, 
Dlwan, ed. Beirut. 18 ult. in a poem to al-Mu c tasim 
after the battle at 'Ammuriya). Later this designation 
was applied to Europeans in general, especially in 
Spain. Ta'rikh al-Sufr (Spanish Era) can thus be 
best explained; other views in ZDMG, xxxiii, 626, 
637. Many genealogists have explained Asfar as the 
name of the grandson of Esau (Zaxpap in the Septua- 
gint, Gen. 36, 10 ) and father of Rumil (Re'u'el, Gen. 
36, „), ancestor of the Rum. According to the 
explanation of De Sacy (Not. et Extr., ix, 437; J own. 
As., 3. Serie, Pt. i, 94), which Franz Erdmann accepts 
(ZDMG, ii, 237-241), the designation Banu '1-Asfar 
was a literal translation originally referring to the 
Flavian dynasty, then became extended beyond it 
to the western nations. Froir his travels among the 
Nusayris [q.v.] H. Lammens. relates that they 
•designate the Emperor of Russia Malik al- Asfar (Au 
pays des Nosairis in Rev. de I'Or. chretien, Paris, 1900, 
42 of the separate edition). 

Bibliographic : I. Goldziher, Muhammedani- 
sche Studien, i, 268 ff.; Caetani, Annali dell' Islam, 
ii, 242; ZDMG, iii, 363; J A, 10th series, ix, 230; 
10th series, xii, 190. (I. Goldziher) 

ASFAR B. SHlRAWAYHl, (Aspar the son of 
Sheroe), a Daylamite condottiere, to be more exact a 
Gilite, who played an important rdle in the civil 
wars which followed the death in 304/917 of the 
'Alid Hasan al-U?rush [q.v.], the master of Taba- 
ristan, and put an end to the domination of the 
'Alids in this region. He made his appearance with 
another Daylamite condottiere, Mikan b. Kakuy (Ar. 
another Daylamite brigand, Makan b. Kakuy (Ar. 
Kaki), in 311/923, in the struggles which brought 
al-Utrush's son-in-law and successor, Hasan b. al- 
Kasim, surnamed al-ddH al-saghir, "the little mis- 
sionary", into conflict with some of al-Utrush's 
sons, Abu '1-Husayn and Abu '1-Kasim. He revolted 
against Makan or was dismissed from his army by 
the latter for his execrable conduct, and entered the 
service of the Samanid prefect of Naysabur. After 
the death of Abu '1-K5sim in 312/925, Makan pro- 
claimed one of the latter's sons, Isma'il, in opposition 
to one of his nephews Abu C A1I, whom he had 
imprisoned in Diurdian: Abu C A1I succeeded in 
escaping, killing his custodian, Makan's brother, and 
appealed to Asfar (315/927-8). Asfar came to 
Djurdjan and with 'AH b. Khurshld, another Day- 
lamite, the leader of Abu 'All's army, defeated 
Makan and expelled him from Tabaristan. After Abu 
'All's death in the same year, Makan recovered 
Tabaristan and Asfar returned to Diurdian, where 
he was appointed governor by the Samanid amir 
Nasr. Then with the help of the Gilite Mardawidj b. 
Ziyar, he again took possession of Tabaristan. 
Makan had brought the DdH Hasan back to power 
and they then tried to take Tabaristan from Asfar, 
but were routed and the DaH was killed in the 
battle by Mardawidj. In this way the 'Alid dominion 
in Tabaristan came to an end, for Asfar seized the 
other 'Alids and sent them to the Samanid at 
Bukhara (316/928-9). 

Asfar, now master of Tabaristan, extended his 
power over Djurdjan, over Rayy (from which he 
expelled Makan), over Kazwin and the other towns 



of the Djabal. However he lefts Amul to Makan on 
condition that he did not seek to dominate the rest 
of Tabaristan. He proclaimed the sovereignty of the 
Samanid. He removed his family and treasures to 
Alamut (Ibn al-Athir: Kal'at al-Mawt), the famous 
future fortress of the Isma'iUs to the North of 
Kazwin, which he took by a ruse. Within a short 
time, he conducted himself as an independent 
prince, adopted the external marks of sovereignty at 
Rayy (golden throne and crown) and defied the 
Samanid and the Caliph. At this point the Caliph al- 
Muktadir sent an army against him, under the 
command of his maternal uncle Harun b. Gharib. 
which Asfar completely routed near Kazwin. How- 
ever, Asfar found himself the object of the hostility of 
both Makan, who had not renounced his claims to 
Tabaristan and Djurdjan, and the Samanid, who 
marched against him and reached Naysabur. Asfar's 
minister persuaded his master to make peace with the 
Samanid, paying him tribute, and recognising his 
suzerainty. In this manner Asfar avoided war and 
took advantage of the situation to further extend 
his authority by deceit and fraud. He became 
increasingly tyrannical, took the most fearful 
revenge on the people of Kazwin for having helped 
Harun b. Gharib. and, in order to pay the tribute 
to the Samanid, collected a poll-tax of one dinar per 
head on all the inhabitants of his possessions and 
even on foreign merchants in the country, in fact 
the djizya (the word occurs in al-Mas c udi). 

His tyranny caused his lieutenant Mardawidj to 
rebel against him; the latter made an alliance with 
the prince of Shamiran in Tarum, Sallar, and with 
Makan, and wons over a large part of Asfar's troops. 
After fleeing to Ray, where he was only able to 
collect a small amount of money, Asfar wanted to 
set out for Khurasan and reached Bayhak; then he 
turned back towards Ray, his purpose being to 
reach Alamut so a» to regain possession of his 
treasures there, raise new troops and take up the 
struggle again. But on the way, he was overtaken 
by Mardawidj, who cut his throat (there are several 
versions of this occurrence). The chronology of 
events between 316 and 319 is not well established: 
Ibn al- Athlr gives them under 316 and Ibn Isfandiyar 
under 319. The latter is the most likely date for 
Asfar's death. It is with Asfar that the domination 
of the Daylamites in North-West Iran really begins, 
continuing with Makan and Mardawidj, and then 
the Buwayhids. According to al-Mas c udi, who 
stresses Asfar's behaviour at Kazwin (the mu'adhdhin 
thrown from the top of the minaret, the suspension 
of the prayers, the ruined mosques), he was not a 
Muslim. 

Bibliography: Hamza Isfahanl, Ta'rikh Sini 
Muluk al-Ard wa-'l-Anbiya', ed. Djawad al-Iranl 
al-TabrlzI, Berlin 1340, 152-3 (chap, x) ; al-Mas'Odl, 
Murudj, ix, 6-19; Miskawayhi, Tadjdrib al-Umam, 
ed. Margoliouth, i, 161-2; c Arib, ed. De Goeje, 
137; Tanukhl, Nishwdr al-Muhadara, ed. Margo- 
liouth, i, 156; Cf. also ,V. Minorsky, La domination 
des Daylamites, 9; H. Bowen, 'AU ibn '/sa,' 307-9; 
B. Spuler, Iran in friihislamischer Zeit, 89. 

(M. Canard) 
A§Fl, AsafI, (Fr. Safi, Sp. Saff, Port. Cafimor 
preferably Safim), town and port on the Atlantic 
coast of Morocco, a few kilometers to the south of 
Cap Cantin; about 25,000 inhabitants in 1936, and 
about 70,000 in 1953, of whom, in round figures, 
62,000 were Muslims, 3,500 Jews and 4,000 Euro- 



ASFl — a 

Safi does not appear to date from any very con- 
siderable antiquity. Al-Bakri (5th/nth century) 
mentions it, without treating it as a place of any 
great importance. Al-IdrisI in the following century 
considers it to be a relatively busy port, though its 
roadstead was not very safe. According to the same 
geographer, this was the point where the flotilla of 
the "Adventurers", who set out to explore the 
Atlantic Ocean, made landfall on its return (with a 
popular etymology of the toponymic; cf. E. Levi- 
Provencal, Pen. ibir., 24). In the 7th/i3th century 
there was a ribd( there. The history of the town is 
chiefly known since the intervention of the Portu- 
guese, who accepted its submission just prior to the 
death of King Alfonso V (1438-148 1) and who 
occupied it in the first months of 1508. They built 
a great enclosure, which contained a castle called 
"Castle of the Sea" by the sea-shore, and adapted 
the old kasba which they turned into their citadel 
(now Kechla). Almost the whole of these fortifi- 
cations still survive. Safi was the main Portuguese 
stronghold in Southern Morocco. The Portuguese 
made it the centre of the manufacture of the rugs 
called hambels (At. hanbil), which were one of the 
basic articles of their trade with the rest of the 
Barbary States, with the Western Sahara (through 
their trading post at Arguin) and with Negro Africa 
(through their trading post at Mina on the Gulf of 
Guinea). Enterprising and bold captains (governors), 
the most famous of whom was Nuno Fernandes de 
Ataide, working through native notables, especially 
through one man who seems to have been a great 
chief, Yahya b. Ta'fiift, gave Safi a vast rtiilitary and 
political sphere of influence which was expressed 
by at least two expeditions against the town of 
Marrakesh. But this brillant period was of short 
duration: the death of Nuno Fernandes de Ataide, 
killed in a fight in 15 16, then that of Yahya, 
ambushed and killed in 15 18, weakened the Portu- 
guese and forced them to curtail their activity. In 
1534 the Sa'di Sharif of Marrakesh subjected the 
town to a close and dangerous siege. After the fall 
of Santa Cruz do Cabo de Gu£ in March 1541 (see 
Acadir), which jeopardised the whole Portuguese 
position in Southern Morocco, King John III (1521- 
1557) decided to concentrate his forces at Mazagan 
and to evacuate Safi and Azemmur: this operation 
took place towards the end of October 1541 (the 
famous Joao de Castro's participation in this 
operation is a legend). 

Safi became the main port ot the Sa'dl Sharifs, 
owing to its nearness to Marrakesh, the residence 
of the Sul(ans, and played a considerable role until 
the accession of the 'Ala wis; it was one of the 
centres of Christian trading. When the c AlawI 
Sultans transferred their residence to the North 
<Fez and Meknes), the activity of Safi declined to 
the advantage of Rabat; yet European merchants 
were still numerous there at the end of the 18 th 
century. In the 19th century the town's decline 
became increasingly evident. The establishment of 
the French Protectorate gave Safi a new lease of 
life; it is today a busy port, exporting the agricul- 
tural produce of the 'Abda region and the Louis- 
Gentil phosphates. Recently the number of factories 
for producing salted goods has been increased. The 
name of one of the two quarters of the old ribaf 
has been preserved, whilst the other is absorbed in 
the old Portuguese walls. 

From 1487 (?) to 1542, Safi was the seat of a 
bishopric, held by Portuguese prelates, the best 
known of whom was D. Joao Sutil (1512-36); the 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



-A'SHA 689 

remains of a Christian church, which was probably 
the Cathedral, are still to be seen. 

Bibliography: For the Portuguese period, 
see primarily, de Cenival, Lopes et Ricard, Les 
sources inidites de Vhistoire du Maroc, Archives et 
Bibliotheques du Portugal, 5 vols., Paris 1934-53, 
and Ricard, P.tudes sur I'histoire des Portugais au 
Maroc, Coimbra 1955. In addition Durval R. Pires 
de Lima, Histdria da dominacao portuguesa em 
Qalim, Lisbon 1930; D. Lopes, Textos em aljamia 
portuguesa, 2nd. ed., Lisbon 1940; V. MagalhSes 
Godinho, Histdria econdmica e social de expansdo 
portuguesa, I, Lisbon 1947; Terrasse, Histoire du 
Maroc, ii, Casablanca 1950, n 1-25 (several 
printing mistakes in the dates) and 138-78. For 
the period after 1541, de Castries, de Cenival et 
Ph. de Cosse Brissac, Les sources inidites, etc. 
France, I" series, 3 vols. 1905-n, and 2nd. series, 
5 vol. 1922-53 (in course of publication); England, 
3 vol. 1918-35; Netherlands, 6 vols. 1906-23; and 
A. Antona, Ia rtgion des Abda, Rabat 1931. 

(H. Basset and R. Ricard) 
ASFIZAR [see sabzawAr]. 

al-A' SH A. "the night-blind", is the surname ot 
a number of early Arab poets (17 in all; see al-Amidi, 
al-MuHalil, 12 ff.; Aghani, index; L.A., s.v.); each 
of them is connected with a tribe (A'sha BanI Fulan) 
and, apart from the most celebrated of their number, 
al-A'sha of the Bakr (or the Kays) [q.v.] and al- 
A'sha of the Hamdan [q.v.], the following are worthy 
of note: al-A'sha of the Bahila ('Amir b. al-Harith 
b. Riyah) who is included among the ashdb al- 
marathi by Ibn Sallam, Jabakdt, ed. Shakir, 169, 175 
(with refs.); see also al-Buhturi, Hamdsa, index; 
Abu Zayd al-Kurashi, Djamhara. 135; al-Djahiz, 
Hayawan, i, 387; Ibn al-Shadjari, Mukhtdrdt, Cairo 
1306, 9-12; al-A'sha of the Banu Mazin ('Abd Allah 
b. al-A'war), who is reckoned among the Companions 
of the Prophet; see Ibn Hadjar, Isdba, no. 220. Al- 
A'sha of the Banu Nahshal = al-Aswad b. Ya'fur 
[q.v.].— al-A'sha of the Banu Rabi'a ('Abd Allah b. 
Kharidja), a poet of Kufa of the ist/7th century; see 
Aghani, xvi, 155-7; C.A. Nallino, Letteratura, index; 
Brockelmann, S I, 95. — al-A'sha of the BanO 
Shayban, see al-Buhturi, Hamdsa, 156; Ibn Sallam, 
377 and refs.— al-A'sha of the Banu Taghlib (d. 92/ 
710), see Aghani, x, 98-100; Ibn Kutayba, <Uyiln iii, 
263; Brockelmann S I, 95. — al-A'sha of the Banu 
Sulaym, a 2nd/8th century poet, see al-Djahiz, 
Hayawan, index.— al-A'sha of the Tariid (Tirwad), 
Iyas b. 'Amir, see al-Baghdadl, Khizdna, i, 311-2. 
(Ed.) 
al-A' Sh A. Mayhun b. Kays. Prominent ancient 
Arab poet of the tribe of Kays b. Tha'laba of the 
Bakr b. Wa>il [q.v.]. Born before 570 in Duma, a 
place in the Manfuha oasis (south of Riyadh died 
in the same place after 625. As his cognomen indi- 
cates, he suffered from an eye disease, and went 
completely blind whilst still in the prime of life. He 
set out in search of wealth in his youth. For years 
he travelled, probably as a merchant, and visited 
Upper and Lower Mesopotamia, Syria, southern 
Arabia, and Abyssinia in this way. After he became 
blind, he lived by his art, i.e. by writing panegyrics; 
yet he still travelled: to the governor of HIra, Iyas 
b. Kablsa (+ 611), to Hadramawt to see Kays b. 
Ma'dlkariba (the father of Ash'ath), to Hawdha b. 
'All, prince of Djauw a village in Yamama. He had 
already tried his luck as a panegyrist in earlier days. 
But poem No. 1, celebrating the triple victory of 
Prince Aswad of HIra (the brother of King Nu'man), 
does not appear to have been a success. The poet was 



690 



A.'SHA — ASH'AB 



deeply involved in politics. After the fall of King 
Nu'man (in 501 or 502), the Bakr had begun their 
raids into the cultivated land of 'Irak, along the 
Euphrates border where A'sha resided — presumably 
with the powerful ShaybSn b. Tha'laba, who shared 
the area in which they migrated in summer with the 
nomad Kays b. Tha'laba. He threatened to bring 
death and destruction upon the valley of the Euphra- 
tes in an insolent reply to Khusraw II, who had 
demanded hostages. With equal boldness he con- 
fronted Kays b. Mas'ud, the head of the Shayban, 
when the latter — under the impression of the great 
losses he had suffered — went to the court (No. 34; 26). 
Thus the poet may be said to have helped to bring 
about the battle of DM Kar (605). If the stray and 
corrupted verses 5, 32-50 do indeed refer to Iyas b. 
Kablsa, then he was also active in that change which 
soon brought the victors of Dhu Kar under Persian 
influence again. In his home country, he interceded 
in favour of the rightful prince, Hawdha, to whom 
he was indebted, and ridiculed the usurper al- 
Harith b. Wa'la (7, 4-6; 30). Meanwhile he had 
left the Shayban in favour of the Kays b. Tha'laba, 
because he considered that the Shayban had vio- 
lated the honour of his tribe (6; 9). He was there- 
fore deeply hurt, when (a few years later) he was 
accused in his own homeland and lost the case. 
Actually, he had been quite ready to reach an 
amicable solution until his opponent opposed him 
with a poetaster by name of Djihinnam. The two 
met at a fair near Mecca. A mob — stirred up by 
Djihinnam — closed in on him with whips and spear- 
staffs, but was then dumbfounded by his verses, in 
which A'sha allowed Mishal — his demonic alter ego — 
to appear for the first time (14; 38; 15). He had once 
previously had occasion to save himself from great 
danger by means of a hastily improvised poem (on 
Samaw'al [q.v.]). He subsequently, with or without 
their consent, interfered in the quarrel between 
'Amir b. al-Tufayl [ q . v .] and 'Alkama b. 'Ulatha 
(18; 19). He also defended 'Uyayna and Kharidja of 
the Fazara (Ghatafan [q.v.]) against Zabban b. 
Sayyar, a well known chief of the same tribe (20, 
27-37): Oriens 7, 302. This probably took place in 
the beginning of the twenties. As can be seen from 
1. 67; 3, 32- 54; 5, 62-64; 13, 69; 34, 13 al-A'sha was 
a Christian. 

The poet was educated at HIra, where the tradition 
of legend and poetry was broader than that of any 
other individual tribe. His style is rhetorical and at 
times (especially in 1), artificial. Connected with this 
is his preference for sound-effects and for sonorous 
(Persian) foreign words, as well as for effective 
endings. He occasionally treats the traditional 
themes of the kasida with a high-handed indifference. 
He likes many types of allusion. Thus, for instance, 
Hurayrata waddi 1 , 9, 1, prepares one for the recur- 
rence of the theme, only with the motto inverted, in 
No. 6. The praise of Mecca and his panegyric on the 
leaders of the Ghatafan (20, 27-37), both of which 
are otherwise apparently meaningless, indicate the 
whereabouts of A'sha, who had good reason on both 
occasions to avoid his homeland. The first passage 
discloses furthermore the place where he clashed 
with Djihinnam, and the second shows A'sha's 
intention to proceed against Zabban, who is left out 
of the panegyric on leaders of the Ghatafan. 

The immediate impact of the poet seems to have 
been confined to his anonymous (Christian ?) pupils 
and forgers, who counted on gaining the patronage 
of Ash'ath. Their works fill almost the whole of 
the second part of his Diwdn (No. 52-82), although 



the first part, too, contains many a verse which 
is not authentic. 

Bibliography: The Diwan of al-A'sha, ed. 
R. Geyer (Gibb Mem. N. S. VI), London 1928; 
GAL, G 37; S I, 65-67; Muh. b. Sallam, Jabakat, 
18 f.; Caskel, Oriens 7, 302. (W. Caskel) 

A'SHA HAMDAN, properly 'Abd al-Rahmah 
b. c Abd Allah, Arab poet, who lived in Kufa in 
the second half of the ith/7th century. In his early 
career a traditionist and Kur'an reader he was 
married to a sister of the theologian al-Sha'bl, who 
in turn had married a sister of al-A'sha. Later he 
concentrated on poetry, acting on occasion as the 
spokesman of the Yamanite faction. He was active 
in the wars that marked the governorship of al-Hadj- 
djadj and his health appears to have suffered during 
an expedition into Mukran. The role which he played 
under 'Abd al-Rahman b. al-Ash'ath is best known. 
He took part in his campaign against the Turks and 
was taken captive but escaped with the aid of a 
Turkish woman whose passions were enflamed for 
him. When Ibn al-Ash'ath turned against al-Hadi- 
djadj the poet's sharp tongue aided him with satires. 
The decisive battle at Dayr al-Djamadjim resulted 
unfortunately; Ibn al- Ash'ath took to flight, and 
al-A'sha was led prisoner before al-Hadjdjadj, who 
immediately recalled to him some of his malicious 
songs. His extemporaneous flatteries availed him 
no longer: al-Hadjdjadj's sentence of death was 
carried out on the spot (83/702). The poems of 
A'sha Hamdan which have been preserved to us are 
reflexes of his adventures and political sentiments. 
The level of his poetry which remained curiously 
unaffected by the modernism of the Medinese school 
is considerable, both as regards his partisan verse 
and his treatment of the traditional motifs of erotic 
description. The vigour of his diction lends a certain 
attraction even to his handling of conventional 

Bibliography: Aghdni 1 , V, 146ft., 162 ff.; 
Mas'udi, Mutudi, V, 355 ft.; Tabarl, index; The 
Diwdn of al- A'sha, ed. R. Geyer, London: 1928, 
3H-345 (50 pieces); Brockelmann, I, 62, S. I, 95; 
Rescher, Abriss, i, 149-50; Guido Edler von 
Goutta, Der Aganiartikel iiber 'A'fd von Hamdan, 
Diss. Freiburg i. B., 1912, contains translations 
of practically all A'sha's preserved verse. 

(A. J. Wensinck-[G. E. von Grunebaum]) 
ASH'AB, nicknamed "the Greedy", a Medinese 
comedian who moved in the circles of the grand- 
children of the first four caliphs and flourished in his 
profession in the early years of the 8 th century. He 
is said to have survived until 154/771. The historical 
information about him is rather plentiful; though 
contaminated by much legendary material, it per- 
mits us to get a glimpse at the life of a professional 
entertainer in the Umayyad period. The jokes and 
stories connected with his name concern politics, 
religion, and middle-class life. The middle-class jokes 
come last in the chronological development of the 
Ash'ab legend; but then, ever since early 'Abbasid 
times, they have enjoyed the greatest popularity 
in Islam. Among the famous jokes under Ash'ab's 
name, there is a brilliant parody of the foibles of 
hadith transmitters: Ash'ab says that he heard 
'Ikrima (or some other well-known transmitter) 
report that the Prophet had said that two qualities 
characterised the true believer. Asked which they 
were, Ash'ab replied: "'Ikrima had forgotten one, 
and I have forgotten the other." Even more famous 
is the story of greedy Ash'ab who tries to get rid of 
annoying children by telling them that free gifts 



ASH'AB — ASHAB al-KAHF 



691 



are being distributed in some place, and then r 

after them because he thinks his story might be ti 

Bibliography: al-Aghdni l , xvii, 82-105; 

Rescher, Abriss, i, 235-9; F. Rosenthal, Humor 

in Islam and its Historical Development (Leiden 

1956), which centres around Ash'ab. 

(F. Rosenthal) 

A?HAB [see sahaba]. 

A$HAb al-HADIIH [see ahl al-ijadithI. 

ASHAB al-KAHF, "those of the cave". This i; 
the name given in the Kur'an, and further in Arabic 
literature, to the youths who in the Christian Occi- 
dent are usually called the "Seven Sleepers of 
Ephesus". According to a legend, in the time of 
the Christian persecution under the Emperor Decius 
(249-51), seven Christian youths fled into a cave 1 
Ephesus and there sank into a miraculous sleep for 
centuries, awoke under the Christian Emperor 
Theodosius, were discovered and then went to 
sleep for ever. Their resting place and grave was 
considered, at any rate since the beginning of the 
6th century A.D., as a place of worship. The story 
of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus is found in var 
Oriental and Occidental literatures, particularly in 
Greek and Syriac; the Greek version would appear 
to be the earliest one (texts edited by Land, I. Guidi, 
Bedjan, Allgeier). Since Muhammad the legend i 
handed down in Arabic as well. 

Muhammad has got to know the legend, like s 
many other stories of Jewish and Christian origin, 
has assimilated it and put it to edifying use in 
Kur'an (xviii, 9-26; hence the whole sUra is called 
sirat al-kahf). The main outlines are clearly recog- 
nisable: The youths and their flight into the cave, 
so as to be able to remain true to the belief in the 
one God; their miraculous sleep, which lasts 309 
years (v. 25), but which appears to them as at the 
most one day (v. 19); the circumstances of their 
discovery (by means of the ancient coinage, with 
which one of them attempts to buy provisions in the 
city). But some details remain doubtful. Muhammad 
himself points out that the number of the youths is 
variously given as three, five or seven, and that only 
God really has knowledge of the length of their sleep. 
It is strange that the dog who "stretches out 
paws on the threshold" (v. 18), is taken into c 
sideration when the number of the youths is given 
(v. 22) ; thus he also appears to be considered as holy. 
Not quite clear is the hint at the building of a place 
of worship over the resting place of the youths (v. 
21). Particularly disputed is the expression al-ra- 
kim (v. 9: "those of the cave and (of) al-rakim"; 
N.B. the definite article). 

The Arabic commentators and historians have 
attempted to overcome the difficulties in the inter- 
pretation of the Kur'anic text and to fill in gaps, 
making use of much material from the Christian- 
Oriental tradition about the Seven Sleepers. Conse- 
quently their accounts are also of significance for 
the history of the transmission of the legend in 
pre-Islamic times. J. Koch and M. Huber have been 
at great pains to make use of the various reports for 
the history of legend and literature. Here a certain 
amount remains to be done. Huber's monograph Die 
Wanderlegende von den Siebenschldfern (1910), 
and his translation of Arabic texts in Romanische 
Forschungen, xxvi (1909) are however still to-day 
useful as collections of material. 

The expression al-rakim is variously interpreted 
by the commentators. As the name of the dog (to 
whom the name ffifmir is otherwise given); as a 
place name; and as the name for an inscription, 



which is supposed to have been put up in that place 
(cf. Horovitz, Koranische Untersuchungen, 95). 
Torrey suspected here a misreading for Decius, 
such an interpretation can however not be main- 
tained (cf. Horovitz, loc. cit.). 

Once the legend had taken root with the Muslims 
it was connected with various places within the 
Islamic world, so with a cave in Transjordan, in 
Cappadocia, in East Turkistan and in Spain. This 
does not however alter the fact that originally 
it belongs to Ephesus. 

In the course of time the story of "the people of 
the cave" has drifted into the realm of the magical. 
In this way can be explained the custom of hanging 
up leaves on which the names of the sleepers are 
inscribed, for the sake of baraka or for averting evil. 
The name of the dog, Kifmir, plays a special part. 
Among the Turks of East Turkistan, as in Indon- 
nesia it was still customary in recent times to 
inscribe letters which it was desired to protect from 
loss, with the word kitmir instead of "registered". 
In a treatise somewhat overloaded with symbo- 
listic details, L. Massignon has attempted recently 
to do justice to the story of the Ashab al-Kahf, as 
it were from the inside, that is, in the sense in which 
it has become meaningful for Muslim believers. 
Bibliography: I. Guidi, Testi orientali inediti 
sopra i Sette Dormienti di Efeso (= Raccolta di 
scritti, i, 1945, 61-198); Th. NSldeke, in GGA, 
1886, 453-9; P. Bedjan, Acta Martyrum et Sanc- 
torum, i, Paris 1890, 301-25 ; Land, A necdota syriaca, 
iii, 1870, 87-99: A. Allgeier, in Oriens Christianus, 
1914, 279-97; 1915, 10-59. 261-70; 1917, 1-43; 
1918, 33-87; idem, in Byzantin.-Neugriech. Jahr- 
biicher, 1922, 311-31; P. Peeters, Le texte original 
de la Passion des Sept Dormants, A nalecta Bollan- 
diana, 1923, 369-85; Theodosius, De situ terrae 
sanctae (ed. Gildemeister, 1882), 27; I. Keil, in 
Jahreshefte des Oesterr. Archdolog. Instituts, 1926, 
Beiblatt Spalte 286-97; Tabarl, Tafsir, Cairo 1321, 
xv, 121-43; idem, Ta'rikh, i, 775-82; Ibn al-Athlr, 
i, 254-8; BGA, Indices, s.vv. al-Raklm, Absus, 
Afsus, Tarsus; Yakut, s. iisdem voce; Damirl, 
Haydt al-Hayawan, s.v. Kalb; Biriinl, Chronology 
(Sachau), 290; KazwinI (Wiistenfeld), I, 161; 
Tha'labI, Kisas al-Anbiya', Cairo 1292, p. 358-73; 
Huber, Textbeitrdge zur Siebenschlaferlegende, 
Romanische Forschungen, 1909, 462-583, 825-36); 
idem, Die Wanderlegende von den Siebenschldfern, 
Leipzig 1910; J. Koch, Die Siebenschlaferlegende, 
1883; B. Heller, in REJ, 1904, 190-218; MakrizI, 
Hist, des Sultans Mamlouks transl. Quatremere), 
1/2, 142; Usama b. Munkidh, IHibar (Hitti), 15; 
J. M. de Goeje, De Legende der zeven slapers van 
Efeze, Versl. en Meded. Akad. Amsterdam, Letterk., 
4. Reeks, Deel iv 1909, 9-33 ; Clermont Ganneau, 
Etudes d'archlologie orientate, iii, 295; W. Toma- 
schek, Historisch-topographisches vom oberen Eu- 
phrat und aus Ost-Kappadokien, Kiepert-Fest- 
schrift, Berlin 1898 ;G. le Strange, Palestine under 
the Moslems, 1890, 274-86; E. Levi-Provencal, 
La Pemnsule Iberique au moyen-age, 1938, 97% t; 
208 f.; W. Weyh, Zur Geschichte der Sieben- 
schlaferlegende, ZDMG, 1911, 289-301 ; C.C. Torrey, 
in Oriental Studies presented to E. G. Browne, 1922, 
457-9; L. Massignon, Les "Sept Dormants" , apoca- 
lypse de I' Islam, A nalecta Bollandiana, 1950, 
245-60; idem, Les Sept Dormants d'Ephise en Islam 
et en ChritienU, REI, xxii, 1954, 59-112. (The 
Russian study on the Seven Sleepers by Krymsky 
and Attalja, Moscow 1914, mentioned in Islamica, 
1927, 246, was not available). (R. Paret) 



ASHAB al-RASS — ASHAM 



ASHAB al-RASS, "the people of the 
ditch" or "of the well", are twice mentioned in the 
Kur'an (xxv, 38; L, 12), along with c Ad, Thamud 
and other unbelievers. The commentators know 
nothing for certain about them, and so give widely 
divergent explanations and all manner of fantastic 
accounts. Some take al-Rass to be a geographical 
name (cf. Yakut, s.v.); some hold that these people, 
a remnant of Thamud, cast (rassa) their prophet 
Hanzala into a well (rass) and were consequently 
exterminated. It is also related that the mountain 
of the bird c Anka> [q.v.] was situated in their region. 
Al-Tabarl mentions the possibility of their being 
identical with the Ashab al-Ukhdud [q.v.] ; otherwise 
he does not know anything about them; just as 
little do we. 

Bibliography : The Commentaries on the 
verses of the Kur'an in question, esp. Tabarl, 
Tafsir, Cairo 1321, xix, of.; DamW, IJaydt al- 
Bayawdn, s.v. c AnkS>; ThalabI, Kisas al-Anbiyd', 
Cairo 1292, 129-33; J. Horovitz, Koranische 
Untersuchungen, 1926, 94 f. (A. J. Wensinck) 
ASHAB al-RA>Y, also Ahl al-Ra'y, the 
partisans of personal opinion, a term of 
deprecation applied by the ahl al-hadith [q.v.] to their 
opponents among the specialists in religious law. 
Ra'y [q.v.] originally meant "sound opinion", and 
was used of the element of human reasoning, whether 
strictly systematic [see ijiyas] or more personal and 
arbitrary [see istihsan], which the early specialists 
used in order to arrive at decisions on points of 
religious law. The ahl al-hadith, however, who rose 
in opposition to the ancient schools of religious law, 
regarded this as illegitimate; in particular they 
thought it wrong to reject, as the followers of the 
ancient schools used to do, traditions which were 
reported as coming from the Prophet, on account of 
ra'y. As a consequence of the success of this point of 
view in the theory of religious law [see usul], each 
group was apt to qualify those who on any particular 
question gave to personal opinion a wider scope than 
they themselves did, as ashab al-ra'y, and it became 
impossible for those who did, in fact, use ra'y, to 
recognise this and to justify it from Islamic premises. 
There never was a school of thought in religious law 
that called itself, or consented to be called, ashdb 
al-rd'y, and the distinction between ahl al-hadith and 
ashib al-ra'y is to a great extent artificial. From 
the point of view of the ahl al-hadith, both Abu 
Hanlfa and his school and Malik and his school 
belong to the ashab al-ra'y, and they were indeed so 
called by al-Shafi% Ibn Kutayba, and others. For 
adventitious reasons, Abu Hanlfa and his school 
became the principal objects of the attacks of the 
ahl al-hadith, and this gave rise to the erroneous 
opinion that they were the ashdb al-rd'y par excel- 
lence. Warnings against ra'y and its partisans, 
sometimes with explicit mention of Abu Hanlfa and 
his followers, were even put into the mouth of the 
Prophet, his Companious and their Successors, and 
thereby became themselves traditions. 

Bibliography: al-Shafi c I, K. al-Umm, vii, 
passim; al-Dariml, Sunan, introductory chapters; 
Ibn Kutayba, Ma'drif (Wtlstenfeld), 248 ff.; idem, 
Mukhtalif al-Uadith, 62 f f . ; al-Khapb al-Baghdadl, 
Ta'rikh Baghdad, xiii, 323 ft. (attack on Abu 
Hanlfa); Shahrastanl, 161; Sachau, in Sit- 
zungsber. Ak. Wien., Phil.-Inst. Classe, 1870, 
713 ff.; von Kremer, Culturgeschichte, i, 490 ff.; 
Goldziher, Zdhiriten, 2 f f . ; idem, Muh. Stud., ii, 
74 ff. (transl. Bercher, Etudes sur la tradition 
islamique, 88 f f.) ; Santillana, Istituzioni, i, 46 ff . ; 



J. Schacht, Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence 
98 ff. and passim; idem, Esquisse d'une histoire dm 
droit musulman, 53 f. (J. Schacht) 

ASHAB al-UKHDOD, "those of the trench", 
an expression at the beginning of Kur'an, LXXXV, 
which is difficult to understand. The verses 4-7 run : 
"Slain be those of the trench, of the fire fed with 
fuel, (lo) when they are sitting by it (i.e. the fire), 
while they are witnesses of what they do (were 
doing) with the believers!" The ancient Kur'an 
commentators and historians refer the passage inter 
alia to the persecution of the Christians in Nadjran 
under the Jewish king of South Aiabia Dhu Nuwas 
[q.v.] which — as far as is historically established — 
is to be placed in the year 523. It is alleged that 
the Christian martyrs were burnt alive in a trench 
(ukhdud) which had been specially dug for the 
purpose. Occasionally the passage in the Kur'an is 
connected with a story which goes back ultimately 
to Daniel iii ("The men in the firing-oven"). 

In fact however the passage is to be understood 
in an eschatological sense, as Grimme has recognised 
and Horovitz more closely explained. We are dealing 
with a scene of judgement typical of the Ku'ran. 
The afhab al-ukhdud are unbelievers, who will go 
into the hell fire, as a punishment for what they did 
to the believers (verse 7)- The objections, which 
K. Ahrens {ZDMG, 1930, 149) and R. Blachere (Le 
Coran, i, 120) have raised against this interpretation, 
are not decisive. 

There remains the difficulty of explaining the 
expression al-ukhdud. A. Moberg thinks — though 
with. strong reservations — of an influence of the 
Hebrew Ge Hinnom (of Hinnom) in the sense of 
Hell (Legenden, 21; cf. Speyer, 424). According to 
R. Bell, "it may be that in 'the fellows of the pit' 
there is a sub-reference to the Quraysh slain at Badr, 
whose bodies were thrown into a well" (The Qur'dn, 
ii, 646). Both interpretations are questionable. 
Bibliography: The Kur'an commentaries on 
LXXXV, 4-7, especially Tabarl, Tafsir, Cairo 
1321, xxx, 72-5 (cf. Loth, in ZDMG, 1881, 610-22); 
Ibn Hisham (Wiistenfeld), 24 f.; Tabarl, Ta'rikh, 
i, 922-5; Noldeke, Geschichte der Araber und Parser 
zur Zeit der Sasaniden, 1879, 182-7; Mas'udI, 
Murudj, i, 129 f.; Tha'labI, Kisas al-Anbiyd', 
Cairo 1292, 380-2; Caussin de Perceval Essai sur 
I histoire des Arabes, i, 128 f.; Acta Sanctorum, 
Octobris T. X, Bruxelles 1861, 721-62; Fell, in 
ZDMG, i88t, 1-74; I- Guidi, La Lettera di Sitneone 
vescovo di Btth-Arldm sopra i martiri omeriti, 
Raccolta di scritti, i, 1945, 1-60); A. Moberg, The 
Book of the Himyarites, Lund 1924, especially 
p. xliii-xlvii, lvi; idem, Ueber einige christliche 
Legenden in der islamischen Tradition, Lund 1930, 
18-21; Duval, Litterature syriaque, 1907, 136-41; 
T. Andrae, Der Ursprung des I slams und das 
Christentum, Uppsala 1926, 11-3; K. Ahrens, 
Christliches im Qoran, ZDMG, 1930, 148-50; 
J. Horovitz, Koranische Untersuchungen, 1926, 
12, 92 f.; H. Speyer, Die biblischen Erzdhlungen 
im Qoran, Grafenhainichen, 424. (R. Paret) 
ASHAM (Turkish Esham), plural of Arabic 
Sahm (Turkish Sehim), share. In Turkey the word 
was used to designate certain treasury issues, 
variously described as bonds, assignats, and an- 
nuities. The esham are called annuities by Hammer 
(Leibrenten) and also in the Ottoman budget of 
1862-3, where they are mentioned as rentes viageres. 
The description is not strictly accurate, as although 
the esham reverted to the state on the death of the 
holder, they could be sold, the state claiming a duty 



ASHAM — al-ASH'ARI, ABO BURDA 



of one year's income on each such transfer. According 
to Mustafa Nuri Pasha, the eshdm were introduced 
in the early years of the reign of Mustafa III, when 
assignats on the proceeds of the customs of Istanbul 
and other revenues were issued to creditors of the 
state and other applicants, with an annual income 
of 5%. 'Abd al-Rahman Weflk remarks that most 
of the proceeds were spent in the war with Russia 
beginning 1182/1768. The handling of the eshdm, 
he says, ivas at first entrusted to a mukdta'adil, 
and later transferred to a muhasebe. The records of 
the Eshdm Muhdsebesi kalemi in the Istanbul 
archives begin in the year 1189/1775, and end in 
1281/1864. According to Djewdet the eshdm were 
introduced by the finance official PeykI Hasan 
Efendi, who first became bashdefterdar in 1 192/1778, 
after having previously been defter-emini. The 
issue of eshdm on provincial revenues is reported in 
1198-1200/1783-5. The practice of issuing eshdm was 
continued by later Sultans, and Mahmud II used 
them to compensate the timdr-holden dispossessed 
by the land reform of 1831. 

The first regular bond issue in the European style 
dates from 1256/1840, when bearer treasury bonds 
were floated, carrying a high rate of interest. These 
bonds, which circulated like banknotes, were called 
KaHme-i Eshdm and KdHme-i MuHebere-i Nakdiyye 
(see ka'ima). 

In 1864, in the course of the Tanzimdi [f.V] 
reforms, the old Eshdm Muhdsebesi Kalemi was 
abolished. Meanwhile, however, in 1274/1857, a 
new internal loan was floated under the name of 
Eshdm-i Miimtdze, and was followed by a series of 
others — Eshdm-i Diedide. Eshdm-i c Aziziyye, Eshdm-i 
'Adiyye etc. These mid-igth century loans are 
sometimes referred to collectively as Eshdm-i '■Oth- 
maniyye. 

Bibliography: .Mustafa Nuri Pasha, NetdHdi 
iU-Wuku'-dt, iii, 114-5; Ta y rikh-i Lutfi, vi, 127; 
Ta'rikh-i Qiewdet, iii, {1309 A.H.), 101-2, 148-9, 
269; Charles White, Three Years in Constantinople, 
ii, London 1845, 71 ff.; Ubicini, Letlres fur la 
Turquie, letter xiv; Hammer, Des osmanischen 
Reichs Staatsverfassung und Staatsverw.iltung, 
Vienna, ii, 161; [!•". A.] Belin, Essais sur I'histoire 
economique de la Turquie (reprint from J A), 
Paris 1865, 245, 262, 265, 294, 298, 301-2; A. Du 
Velay, Essai sur I'histoire financiire de la Turqtfie, 
Paris 1903, 122 ff., 153 ff-, 269 ft.; C. Morawitz, 
Les Finances de la Turquie, Paris 1902, 16 ff., 20 ff. ; 
A. Heidborn, Les Finances ottcmanes, Vienna- 
Leipzig igiajMehinet Zeki Pakalln, Osmonll Tarih 
Deyimleri ve Terimleri Sozlugii, i, Istanbul 1946, 
552; 'Abd al-Rahman Wefik, Tekalif KawdHdi, 
i, Istanbul 1328, 104-6, 304, 33ft. (B. Lewis) 
A'SHAR [see 'ushr]. 

At-'AgHARA al-MUBASHSHARA, the ten, 
to whom Paradise was promised. The term 
does not occur in canonical hadith, to which however 
the conception goes back. The traditions in question 
usually have the form: "Ten will be in Paradise", 
whereupon the names are enumerated. There are 
differences in the lists. Those who appear in the 
various forms extant are: Abu Bakr, c Umar, 'Uth- 
man, 'All, Talha, Zubayr, 'Abd al-Rahman b. c Awf, 
Sa c d b. Abl Wakkas, Sa c Id b. Zayd. In some traditions 
Muhammad himself is put before these nine (Abu 
Dawud, Sunna, bab 8; Ahmad b. Hanbal, i, 187, 
188 bis). In others Muhammad is absent and the 
tenth place is taken by Abu 'Ubayda b. al-Diarrah 
(Tirmidhl, Mandkib, bab 25; Ibn Sa'd, iii/i, 279; 
Ahmad b. Hanbal, i, 193). Conceptions of this kind 



owe their origin to the hierarchic tendencies that 

were prominent in the Muslim community, and 

that found expression even in the earliest creeds. 

Bibliography: Wensinck, Handbook; Muhibb 

al-DIn al-Tabari al-Makkl, al-Riyad al-Nadira ft 

Mandkib al-Askdb al-'Ashara, Cairo 1327. 

(A. J. Wensinck) 

al-ASB/ARI, ABC BURDA, 'Amir b. Ab! Musa. 
according to the accepted opinion one of the first 
kadis of Kufa. Apart from the fact that he 
was a son of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari [q.v.], little that 
can be considered authentic is known of his life and 
work. As a member of the Islamic aristocracy, it 
was only natural for him to be appointed as an 
official of the treasury (Ibn Sa'd); he also appears 
as one of the notables of Kufa in 51/671, when he 
gave evidence against the followers of Hudjr b. 
'Adi [q.v.] (Tabari, n, 131 f. ; Aghdni, xvi, 7), and 
attain in 76/695-6, when he did homage to the 
Kharidji insurgent Shabib b. Yazld [q.v.] (Tabari, II, 
928). It is generally taken for granted that he was 
kadi of Kufa, but even early sources give contra- 
dictory reports of the circumstances of his alleged 
appointment by al-Hadjdjadj (Mubarrad, Kdmil, 
285, 1. 20 f. ; Waki', ii, 391 f.), of the persons of his 
predecessor (Shurayh, according to Ibn Sa'd, to 
the K. al-Muhabbar, and to Waki c , loc. cit.; 'Abd 
al-Rahman b. Abi Layla, according to Waki', ii, 407) 
and his successor (Sa'id b. Djubayr, according to the 
K. al-Muhabbar; Sha'bl, according to Waki', ii, 
392, 413; his brother Abu Bakr, according to Waki', 
ii, 412 f.), and of the length of his tenure of office 
(a very short time, according to Waki', ii, 392; 
three years, according to Waki', ii, 413; an unspe- 
cified time, between three and eight years, from 
79/698-9 onwards, according to Tabari, ii, 1039, 
1 191). The accounts that Shurayh should have 
recommended Abu Burda and Sa'id b. Djubayr as 
his joint successors to al-Hadjdjadj (Waki', ii, 392). 
or that Mu'awiya on his deathbed in 60/680 should 
have advised his son Ya/.Id to avail himself of Abu 
Burda's good counsels (Ibn Sa'd, iv/i, 83; Tabari, 
ii, 209),* are certainly apocryphal (cf. Lammens, 
Mo'dwia I", 139). Another anecdote (Waki', ii, 
409 f.; Ibn 'Abd Rabbih, al-<Ikd al-Farid, Bulak 
1293, iii, 140) makes Abu Burda peevishly complain 
to Mu'awiya of an attack by a poet. From Ibn 
Khallikan onwards, however, the person of Abu 
Burda is idealised. Abu Burda died in 103/721-2 or 
104/722-3, at the age, it is stated, of more than 
80 lunar years. 

The traditional biography of Abu Burda reflect: 
an absence of positive information, combined with 
the desire of fitting his name into the fictitious 
picture of the development of Islamic law and the 
administration of Islamic justice in the first century 
of the hidjra which came to prevail. He played no 
part iii the formation of the doctrine of the school of 
Kufa, and he does not belong to its authorities. The 
one report on a judgement of his, on the ownership 
of household chattels, that occurs in an early source 
(Waki', ii, 211), represents him as undecided among 
the secondary opinions held in the second century 
(cf. J. Schacht, Origins, 278 f.), and is therefore not 
authentic. In his time, the implications of the prohi- 
bition of ribd were only in the course of being worked 
out in 'Irak rather than in Medina; the anecdotes 
which report that Abu Burda, having been sent by 
his father to Medina for study, was warned by his 
teacher there against the laxness of the 'Irakians 
in matters of ribd, must therefore be later, although 
they bear Basrian isndds (on this phenomenon, see 



694 



L-ASH'ARl, ABO BURDA — al-ASH c ARI, ABU 'l-HASAN 



Schacht, Origins, 130 f.). Abu Burda appeared as a 
transmitter of traditions because his name was used 
in "family isndds", which were meant to authen- 
ticate sayings which his father was claimed to have 
related on the authority of the Prophet. The fact is 
attested already by Ibn Sa'd, but traditions them- 
selves are quoted for the first time only by WakI'; 
some express repugnance for accepting government 
office (WakI', i, 65 ff.; ii, 22), an attitude which 
became fashionable only under the 'Abbasids (cf. 
E. Tyan, Organisation judiciaire, i, 387, n. 2; 
N. J. Coulson, in BSOAS, xviii/2, 1956, 211 ff.); 
another (Waki', i, 100) aims at enhancing the repu- 
tation of Abu Burda's father, Abu Musa, to the 
detriment of that of Mu'adh b. Djabal (it seems to 
presuppose the well-known tradition about the 
instructions of the Prophet to Mu'adh, and could 
then be hardly earlier than the last third of the 
second century of the hidfra) ; there are, finally, the 
alleged instructions of the caliph 'Umar to Abu 
Musa on the administration of justice, which appear 
for the first time in WakI' (i, 70 ff.) ; these are cer- 
tainly not earlier than the third century of the 
hidira (cf. Tyan, i, 106 ff.). Abu Burda's reputation 
as a traditionist in his own right, with a respectable 
number of authorities from whom he was supposed 
to have heard traditions, had been established by 
the time of Abu Hatim al-Razi, and it continued to 
grow, together with the number of authorities from 
whom he was alleged to have transmitted, until 
Ibn Hajar could ascribe to Ibn Sa c d the statement 
that Abu Burda "was reliable and transmitted many 
traditions", although Ibn Sa'd said nothing of the 

A son of Abu Burda, Bilal, became kadi in Basra, 
and authentic, contemporary information on him is 
ample (cf., e.g., WakI', ii, 21 ff.; Pellat, Le milieu 
basrien, 288 f.). 

Bibliography: Ibn Sa'd, vi, 187; Muhammad 
b. Hablb, K. al-Muhabbar, Haydarabad 1361/ 
1942, 378; Ibn Kutayba, K. al-Ma'drif, ed. 
Wiistenfeld, 136; WakI', Akhbar al-Kuddt, Cairo 
1366/1947, ii, 408 ff.; al-Tabari, index; Abu 
Hatim al-Razi, K. al-Qiarh wal-Ta'dti, iii/i, 
Haydarabad 1360, no. 1809; al-Aghani, Tables; 
Ibn al-Qaysaranl, K. al-Qiam', Haydarabad 1323, 
no. 1437; Nawawl, Tahdhib al-Asma>, ed. Wusten- 
feld, 653 f.; Ibn Khallikan, Wafaydt, s.v. 'Amir b. 
Abl Musa; DhahabI, Tadhkirat al-lfuffdz, Hayd- 
arabad 1333, i, no. 86; Yafi'I, Mir'dt al-Diandn, 
Haydafabad 1337, i, 220; Ibn Hadjar, Tahdhib, 
xii, no. 95. (J. Schacht) 

al-ASH'ARI, ABU 'l-BASAN, 'Atf b. Isma'Il, 
theologian, and founder of the school of orthodox 
theology which bears his name. He is said to have 
been born in 260/873-4 at Basra, and was ninth in 
descent from the Companion Abu Musa al-Ash'ari. 
Little is known of his life. He was one of the best 
pupils of al-Djubbal, head of the Mu'tazila in Basra, 
and might have succeeded him, had he not left the 
Mu'tazila for the party of the orthodox traditionists 
{ahl al-sunna). This change or conversion is placed 
in 300/912-3. In later life he moved to Baghdad, 
and died there in 324/935-6. 

The story of al-Ash'ari's conversion is told with 
many variations of detail. Three times during the 
month of Ramadan he is said to have seen Muham- 
mad in a vision, and to have been commanded to 
adhere to true Tradition. He regarded this vision 
as authoritative, and, since the traditionists disap- 
proved of rational argument (kaldm), he gave up 
this also. In the third vision, however, he was told 



to adhere to true Tradition but not to abandon 
kaldm. Whatever be the truth of this story, it is a 
succinct account of al-Ash'ari's position. He aban- 
doned the dogmatic theses of the Mu'tazila for those 
of opponents like Ahmad b. Hanbal, whom he 
professed to follow; but he defended his new beliefs 
by the type of rational argument which the Mu'tazila 
employed. 

The chief points on which he opposed the doctrines 
of the Mu'tazila were: 

(1) He held that God had eternal attributes, such 
as knowledge, sight, speech, and that it was by 
these that He was knowing, seeing, speaking, 
whereas the Mu'tazila said that God had no attributes 
distinct from His essence. 

(2) The Mu'tazila said that Rur'anic expressions, 
such as God's hand and face, must be interpreted 
to mean "grace", "essence" and so on. Al-Ash'ari, 
whilst agreeing that nothing corporeal was meant, 
held that they were real attributes whose precise 
nature was unknown. He took God's sitting on the 
throne in a similar way. 

(3) Against the view of the Mu'tazila that the 
Kur'an was created, al-Ash'ari maintained that it 
was God's speech, an eternal attribute, and therefore 
uncreated. 

(4) In opposition to the view of the Mu'tazila that 
God could not literally be seen, since that would 
imply that He is corporeal and limited, al-Ash'ari 
held that the vision of God in the world to come 
is a reality, though we cannot understand the manner 
of it. 

(5) In contrast to the emphasis of the Mu'tazila 
on the reality of choice in human activity, al- 
Ash'ari insisted on God's omnipotence; everything, 
good and evil, is willed by God, and He creates the 
acts of men by creating in men the power to do each 
act. (The doctrine of 'acquisition' or kasb [q.v.], 
which was in later times characteristic of the Ash'a- 
riyya, is commonly attributed to al-Ash'ari himself, 
but, though he was familiar with the concept, he does 
not appear to have held the doctrine himself; cf. 
JRAS, 1943. 246 f.). 

(6) While the Mu'tazila with their doctrine of 
al-manzila bayn al-mamilatayn held that any 
Muslim guilty of a serious sin was neither believer 
nor unbeliever, al-Ash'ari insisted that he remained 
a believer, but was liable to punishment in the Fire. 

(7) Al-Ash'ari maintained the reality of various 
eschatological features, the Basin, the Bridge, the 
Balance and intercession by Muhammad, which were 
denied or rationally interpreted by the Mu'tazila. 

Al-Ash'ari was not the first to try to apply kaldm 
or rational argument to the defence of orthodox 
doctrine ; among those who had made similar attempts 
earlier was al-Harith b. Asad al-Muhasibi. Al-Ash,'arl, 
however, seems to have been the first to do this in 
a way acceptable a large body of orthodox opinion. 
He had the advantage, too, of having an intimate 
and detailed knowledge of the views of the Mu'tazila 
(as is shown by his descriptive work, Makdldt al- 
Isldmiyyin, Istanbul, 1929; cf. R. Strothmann, in 
Islam, xix, 193-242). His many followers came to 
be known as the Ash'ariyya [?.».] or Asha'ira, though 
they mostly deviated from him on some points. 

To a European reader his argumentation differs 
little at first sight from that of the ultra-con- 
servative followers of Ahmad b. Hanbal, since many 
of his proofs depend on the interpretation of Kur'an 
and Tradition (cf. A. J. Wensinck, Muslim Creed, 
Cambridge, 1932, 91). This, however, was because 
his opponents also, including even the Mu'tazila, 



j.-ASH<ARi, ABU 'l-HASAN — al-ASH c ARI, ABO MUSA 



695 



used proofs of this sort, and he was always arguing 
ad hominem. Yet when opponents would admit a 
purely rational premiss, al-Ash c ari had no hesitation 
in using it to refute them. Once the permissibility 
of such arguments was established, at least for many 
theologians, it was possible for the Ash'ariyya to 
develop this side of his method until in later centuries 
theology became thoroughly intellectualistic. This, 
however, was far removed from the temper of al- 
Ash'ari himself. 

Bibliography: Al-Luma 1 and Risalat Istihsdn 
al-Khawd f\ Him al-Kalam, ed. and tr. by R. C. 
McCarthy, Beirut 1953, The Theology of al- 
Ash'ari; al-Ibana, Hyderabad 1321, etc. and 
Cairo 1348, tr. by W. C. Klein, New Haven 1940 
(cf. W. Thomson in MW, xxxii, 242-60); Ibn 
'Asakir, Tabyin Kadhib al-Muftari, Damascus 
1347 (summarised in McCarthy, op. cit., and 
A. F. Mehren in Travaux of 3rd Internat. Congress 
of Orientalists, ii, 167-332); W. Spitta, Zur Ge- 
schichte ... al- Atari's, Leipzig 1876; Goldziher, 
Vorlesungen', 112-32; D. B. Macdonald, Develop- 
ment of Muslim Theology, New York 1903; A. S. 
Tritton, Muslim Theology, London 1947, 166-74, 
with further references; W. Montgomery Watt, 
Free Will and Predestination in Early Islam, 
London 1948, 135-50; L. Gardet et M. M. Anawati, 
Introduction d la Thiologie Musulmane, Paris 1948, 
52-60; J. Schacht, in Studia Islamica, i, 33 ft. 

(W. Montgomery Watt) 
AL-AgH'ARt, ABC MUSA, Ibn Kays, Com- 
panion of the Prophet and military leader. Bornp 
about 614 A.D., Abu Musa, a native of the Yemen, 
left South Arabia by sea with several of his brothers 
and members of his tribe (the Ash'ar) and joined 
Muhammad at Khaybar at the time of the famous 
expedition against the Jews of that oasis (7/628) to 
swear allegiance to him (the information given in 
some sources [for example Ibn Hadjar, Tahdhib, ii, 
1265] according to which he was one of the emigrants 
who went to Abyssinia, is therefore most unlikely 
to be authentic; Ibn <Abd al-Barr, Isti'ab, Haydar- 
abad 1318, 392, no. 1622; 678-79. no. 678). In 
8/630 iie took part in the battle of Hunayn (al- 
Tabari, i, 1667); in 10/631-2 he was sent to the 
Yemen with Mu'Sdh b. Djabal to spread Islam there 
and was one of th? lieutenants of Muhammad and 
then of Abu Bakr in that region. 'Umar appointed 
him governor of Basra when he recalled al-Mughlra 
b. Shu'ba Iq.v.] from that post in 17/638 (al-Tabarl, 
i, 2529; see also 2388). At the request of the inhabi- 
tants of Kufa, c Umar appointed him governor of 
that town in 22/642-3, but after retaining him in the 
office for a few months, until the reappointment of 
al-Mughira (al-Tabari, i, 2678 f.), he sent him back 
to Basra. 

As governor of Basra, Abu Musa organised and 
carried out the occupation of Khuzistan (17-21/ 
638-42), of which he must be considered the con- 
queror (Caetani, Annali, 16 A.H., para. 261). The 
capital Sflk al-Ahwaz (or simply al-Ahwaz) fell into 
his hands as early as 17/638, but the campaign 
continued and offered many difficulties, for the 
numerous well fortified towns of the region had to 
be subdued one after the other, some of them having 
to be retaken after 21/642, the date of the fall of the 
second capital of Khuzistan, Tustar (= Shustar or 
Shushtar). Abu Musa also took part in the conquest 
of Mesopotamia (end of 18-20/639-41), uniting his 
forces with those of c Iyad b. Ghanm, and in the 
campaign on the Iranian plateau, where he is 



mentioned as being present at the battle of Niha- 
wand; the occupation of several towns is ascribed to 
him (al-Dinawar, Kumm, Kashan, etc.). 

In 23/643-4, in a bloody but indecisive battle, he 
defeated numerous Kurdish tribes which had gathered 
with hostile intentions at Bayrudh (in the province of 
al-Ahwaz) and had attracted many of the inhabitants 
of the territory to their ranks; he laid siege to the 
town, where the survivors of the insurgents had 
found shelter, and took it after having subdued 
the rest of the country. It was on account of the 
distribution of the booty taken on this occasion that 
an accusation was made to the Caliph against him, 
to whom he had to justify his conduct (al-Tabarl, i, 
2708-13). After this success, he advanced into Fars 
(end of 23/644) and, in several expeditions, gave 
support to 'Uthman b. Abi 5 l-'As, who had begun 
the conquest of this province from Bahrayn and 
'Uraita (al-Baladhurl, Fuiub, 387). 

There is an episode showing that discontent 
against Abu Musa was already threatening in 
26/646-7 (al-Tabari, i, 2829, where a movement of 
insubordination amongst his troops is reported under 
the year 29, which in fact took place in 26: Caetani, 
Annali, 26 A.H. para. 38). But the most serious 
protest against the abuses committed by him was 
brought to Medina by a delegation of Basrans in 
29/649-50 (al-Tabari, i, 2830), whereupon the Caliph- 
'Uthman decided to replace him at Basra by c Abd 
Allah b. 'Amir. However Abu Musa had won the 
respect of the inhabitants of Kufa to such an extent, 
that they demanded his reappointment, when they 
drove out the governor Sa'id b. al- e As in 34/654-5, 
(al-Tabari, i, 2930; al-Aghini 1 , xi, 31), and he was 
governor of the town at the time of •Uthman's 
assassination. Upon the election of c Ali, Abu Musa 
took the oath of allegiance to him in the name of 
the Kufans (al-Tabari, i,' 3089; al-Mas c udi, Murudi, 
296 etc.), retaining his office, when the other 
governors of 'Uthman were dismissed (al-Ya'kubi, ii, 
208); but when war broke out between c Ali and 
'A'isha, Talba and al-Zubayr, he called on his 
subjects to remain neutral (al-Tabari, i, 3139; al- 
Dinawari, 153 ff., etc.), and, inspite of pressure, did 
not relinquish this attitude; as a result the partisans 
of <A1I expelled him from the town at the first 
opportunity (al-Tabari, i, 3145-9, 3152-4) and the 
Caliph wrote him a letter of dismissal couched in the 
severest terms (al-Tabari, i, 3173; al-Mas c udI, 
Murudi, iv, 308; cf. alYa'kflbl, ii, 220); yet a 
few months later he granted him amdn (Nasr b. 
Muzahim al-Minkari, Wak'at $iffin, ed. <Abd al- 
Salam Muhammad Harun, Cairo 1365, 572; al-Tabari, 
i, 3333)- 

Abu Musa was one of the two arbitrators appointed 
at Siffln in 37/657 to settle the dispute between 'All 
and Mu'awiya and more exactly the arbitrator 
nominated to represent 'All, whose supporters had 
obliged him to choose someone neutral, so certain 
were they that the decision would be in their favour 
(for the details of the arbitration, see 'An b. AbI 
Talib). After the meeting at Adiruh, Abu Musa 
withdrew to Mecca, but when Mu'awiya sent Busr 
b. AbI Artat to occupy the holy cities (40/660), he 
was afraid of his vengeance, for at Adhruh he had 
opposed his election to the Caliphate, and according 
to some sources, he took to flight; Busr reassured 
him (see Caetani, Annali, 40 A.H., para. 8, note 3 
for the different versions of this episode). After that 
Abu Musi took no further part in politics, as is 
shown by the uncertainty of the date of his death. 
(41, 42, 50, 52, 53; 42 is the most probable date). 



6 9 6 



l-ASH'ARI, ABO MOSA — al-ASH'ATH 



Abu Musa was very highly thought of for his 
recitation of the Kur'an and the prayers, for he had 
a pleasant voice (Ibn Sa'd, Tabakdt, ii/2, 106), but 
above all his name continues to be connected with 
kur'anic studies, for he established a mushaf which 
locally outlived the composition of the vulgate of 
'Uthman (see Ch. Pellat, Milieu basrien, 73 ff.). 
Bibliography: All the chroniclers and histor- 
ians of early Islam, and all the collections of 
biographies of early personalities speak of Abu 
Musa (the main ones have been indicated in the 
body of this article). Numerous quotations are to 
be found in Caetani, Chronographia islamica, 42 
A.H., 479; idem: Annali, Indices and vols, vii-x, 
passim; Ibn Abi 'l-Hadld, Shark Nahdj al-Baldgha, 
Cairo 1329, iii, 287-9, 291. 293 f., iv, 199 f., 237 f. 
On the conquest of KhQzistan: Wellhausen, J., 
Skizzen tind Votarbeiten, vi, Berlin 1899, 94-113. 

(L. Veccia Vaglieri) 
ASH'ARIYYA, a theological school, the 
followers of Abu 'l-IJasan al-Ash'ari [q.v.], sometimes 
also called Asha'ira. (The history of the school has 
been little studied, and some of the statements in 
this article must be regarded as provisional). 

External history. During the last two decades 
of his life al-Ash'ari attracted a number of disciples, 
and thus a school was founded. The doctrinal 
position of the new school was open to attack from 
several quarters. Apart from members of the 
Mu'tazila, certain groups of orthodox theologians 
attacked them. To the Hanballs [q.v.~] their use of 
rational arguments was an objectionable innovation. 
On the other hand, to the Maturidiyya [q.v.], who 
also were defending orthodoxy by rational methods, 
some of their positions seemed too conservative (cf. 
the criticisms made by an early member of that 
school in Sharh al-Fikh al-Akbar ascribed to al- 
Maturidi). Despite such opposition the Ash'ariyya 
apparently became the dominant school in the 
Arabic-speaking parts of the 'Abbasid caliphate (and 
perhaps also in Khurasan). In general they were in 
alliance with the legal school of al-Shafi'i (though 
al-Ash'arl's own school of religious law is not clear), 
while their rivals, the Maturidiyya, were almost 
invariably Hanafis. Towards the middle of the 
5th/nth century, the Ash'ariyya were persecuted 
by the Buwayhid sultans, who favoured a combinat- 
ion of the views of the Mu'tazila and ShI'a. But 
with the coming of the Saldjuks the tables were 
turned, and the Ash'ariyya received official support, 
especially from the great wazir Nizam al-Mulk. In 
return they gave intellectual support to the caliphate 
against the Fatimids of Cairo. From this time on, 
until i»erhaps the beginning of the 8th/i4th century, 
the teaching of the Ash'ariyya was almost identical 
with orthodoxy, and in a sense it has remained so 
until the present time. The Hanball reaction centring 
in Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1327) was of limited in- 
fluence. From about the time of the shaykh al- 
SanusI (d. 895/1490), however, though al-Ash'ari and 
the great names of his school were honoured and 
accepted, the leading theologians no longer regarded 
themselves as belonging to the Ash'ariyya, and were 
in fact eclectic. 

Important members of the Ash'ariyya 
(see the individual articles): al-Bakillani (d. 403/ 
1013), Ibn Furak (Abu Bakr Muhammad b. al- 
Hasan) (d. 406/1015-6), al-Isfara'inl (d. 418/1027-8), 
al-Baghdadl ('Abd al-Kahir b. Tahir) (d. 429/1037-8), 
al-Sumnani (d. 444/1052), al-Djuwaynl Imam al- 
rlaramayn (d. 478/1085-6), al-Ghazali (Abu rlamid 
Muhammad) (d. 505/1111), Muhammad b. Tumart 



(d.c. 525/1030), al-Shahrastani (d. 548/1153), Fakhr 
al-DIn al-RSzi (d. 606/1210), al-ldjl (d. 756/1355), 
al-Djurdjani (d. 816/1413). 

Internal evolution. Little is known about the 
views of the Ash'ariyya in the half-century after 
the founder's death. Al-BakillanI is the first persoa 
whose work is extant and accessible, and by his time 
it is noteworthy that the Ash'ariyya are making 
use of certain conceptions of the Mu'tazila (notably 
Abu Hashim's doctrine of the hdl), and have perhaps 
been influenced by the criticisms of the Maturidiyya. 
One point on which the school was beginning to 
differ from al-Ash'ari himself was in the inter- 
pretation of the corporeal terms applied to God, 
such as hands, face and sitting on the throne. Al- 
Ash'ari had said these were to be taken neither 
literally nor metaphorically but bi-ld kayf, "without 
asking how" ; but al-Baghdadl and al-Diuwavni 
interpreted "hand" metaphorically as "power", and 
"face" as "essence" or "existence"; and the attitude 
of most of the later Ash'ariyya was similar (cf. 
Montgomery Watt, Some Muslim Discussions of 
Anthropomorphism, in Transactions of the CAasgow 
University Oriental Society, xiii, 1-10). Again, while 
al-Ash'ari had insisted that man's acquiring (kasb) 
of acts was created, thus emphasizing God's omni- 
potence at the expense of man's responsibility, al- 
Diuwayni was able to put forward the view that ther 
doctrine of the Ash'ariyya was a via media. 

Towards the middle of the 5th/nth century there 
was a change in method. Ibn Khaldun (tr. de Slane, 
iii, 61) speaks of al-Ghazali as the first of the 
"modems", doubtless because of his enthusiasm for 
the Aristotelian syllogism, but there are already in 
al-Djuwayni traces of methodological advance (cf. 
Gardet and Anawati, op. cit. infra, 73)- It was al- 
Ghazali, however, who steeped himself in the doc- 
trines of Ibn Sina and others of the philosophers 
until he could attack them on their own ground 
with devastating success. Little more was heard of 
the philosophers, but from this time onward their 
Aristotelian logic and much of their Neoplatonic 
metaphysics was incorporated in the teaching of the 
Ash'ariyya. This teaching rapidly became intel- 
lectualised in a bad sense, sometimes even views of 
doubtful orthodoxy were taken over, and the 
philosophical prolegomena occupied more space and 
attention than the strictly theological doctrines 
(notably in al-ldjl and his commentator al-Djur- 
djani). In the end the school may be said to disappear 
in a blaze of philosophy. 

Bibliography: (see also bibliographies for 
al-Ash'ari and individual members of the school): 
Ibn 'Asakir, Tabyin Kadhib al-Muftari, Damascus 
1347, (for trs. by McCarthy and Mehren v. art. 
al-Ash'ari); M. Schreiner, Zur Geschichte des 
As'aritentums, in Actes du 8 e Congr. des Orient., 
i A, 79 it; Carra de Vaux, Les Penseurs de I' Islam, 
Paris 1923, iv, 133-94; L. Gardet and M. M. 
Anawati, Introduction a la Thiologie Musulmane, 
Paris 1948, esp. 52-76. 

(W. Montgomery Watt) 
al-ASH' ATH . Abu Muhammad Ma'dIkarib b. 
Kays b. Ma'dIkarib, of the clan of al-Harith b. 
Mu'awiya, a chief of Kinda in Hadramawt. The 
nickname, by which he is most commonly known, 
means "with unkempt or dishevelled hair"; he is 
also called, but less frequently, al-Ashadj.di, "the 
scar-faced", and 'Urf al-Nar, said to be a South- 
Arabian term for "traitor". In earlier life he led an 
expedition against the tribe of Murad, who had 
murdered his father, but was taken prisoner and 



l-ASH'ATH — 'ASHiK 



697 



had to pay 3000 camels for his ransom. In 10/631 
be was leader of the delegation (wafd) which offered 
the submission of a section of Kinda to the Prophet 
at al-Madlna. It was arranged that his sister Kayla 
should be married to Muhammad, but he died before 
she arrived in al-Madlna. After Muhammad's death 
(11/632) al-Ash'ath rose in revolt with his clan and 
was besieged by Muslim troops in the castle of al- 
Nudjayr; according to the legend he surrendered the 
castle on condition of immunity for himself and nine 
others, but omitted to include his own name in 
the dotument of surrender, and barely escaped 
execution. He was, however, sent to al-Madlna, 
where Abu Bakr not only pardoned him but married 
him to his own sister Umm Farwa or Kurayba 
(according to other reports this marriage had taken 
place already at the time of the delegation to 
Muhammad). He took part in the wars in Syria and 
lost the sight of an eye at the battle of the Yarmuk'; 
he and his tribesmen were sent thereafter by Abu 
'Ubayda to join Sa'd b. Abi Wakkas at Kadisiyya, 
and he commanded one of the Arab forces which 
occupied northern 'Irak. He settled in Kufa as chief 
of the Kindite sector, and appears to have taken part 
in the expedition to Adharbaydjan in 26/646-7. At 
the battle of Siffin he played a leading part both in 
the fighting and in the negotiations, and is represented 
as having forced 'AH to accept the principle of 
arbitration and to agree to the selection of Abu 
Musa on the 'Iraki side (see c alI b. abI talib). 
Pro-Shi'ite tradition accordingly represents him and 
his whole house as inveterate traitors. He died in 
Kufa during the government of al-Hasan b. 'All 
(40/661), to whom one of his daughters was married. 
For his descendants see ibn al-ash'ath. 

Bibliography: L. Caetani, Chronographia Isla- 

mica, A.H. 40, § 29 ; Ibn Sa'd, vi, 13-14 ; Muhammad 

b. Habib, al-Muhabbar, index; Nasr b. Muzahim, 

Wak'at Siffin (Cairo 1365), passim ; general histories 

of the Caliphate. (H. Reckendorf*) 

alASHDAK [see <amr b. sa'Id]. 

(ALj-ASHBJA' b. 'AMR al-SULAMI, Abu 

'1-Walid, Arab poet of the end of the 2nd/8th 

century. An orphan, he settled at an early age at 

Basra with his mother, and, when he showed signs 

of talent, the Kaysites of the town who, since the 

death of Bashshar b. Burd (a mawld of the Banu 

'Ukayl) had not possessed any poet of eminence; 

adopted him and fabricated for him a Kaysite 

genealogy. His formative period at an end, he went 

to al-Rakka to Dja'far b. Yahya al-Barmaki, who 

presented him to al-Rashid, and, from then on, he 

became the panegyrist of the caliph and his entourage 

(Barmakids, al-Kasim b. al-Rashid, al-Amin, al-Fadl. 

b. al-Rabl', Muhammad b. Mansur b. Ziyad and 

others). The greater part of his surviving work consists 

of panegyrics which were assured of the widest possible 

circulation through the agency of the Kaysites of 

Basra; there are also a few funeral orations, notably 

for al-Rashid and al-Ashdja's own brother Ahmad, 

who was also a poet, but confined himself to erotic 

poetry (on him, see SOU, Awrdk, 137-43)- 

Bibliography: Suli, K. al-Awrak, ed. by 
J. H. Dunne, Cairo 1934, i, 74-137, which repro- 
duces an important part of the poet's work; 
Diahiz. Baydn, ed. by Sandubi, iii, 194-5; Ibn 
al-Mu'tazz, JabakU, GMS, N.S. xiii, n 7-9; Abu 
Tanimam, Hamdsa, index; Ibn Kutayba, Shi'r, 
562-5; Aghdni, xvii, 30-51; MarzubanI, Muwash- 
shah, 295 ; Ta'rikh Baghdad, vii, 45 ; Ibn 'AsSkir, 
"i> 59-63; RifSI, c Asr al-Ma'mun, ii, 419-22; 
Brockelmann, S I, 119. (Ch. Pellat) 



C ASHIK, an Arabic word meaning lover, fre- 
quently in the mystical sense. Among the Anatolian 
and Adharbaydjanl Turks, from the late 9th/i5th or 
ioth/i6th century, it is used of a class of wandering 
poet-minstrels, who sang and recited at public 
gatherings. Their repertoire included religious and 
erotic songs, elegies and heroic narratives. At first 
they followed the syllabic prosody of the popular 
poets, but later were subjected to Persian influence, 
both directly and through the Persian-influenced 
Turkish Sufi poets. Kopriilu has argued that they 
represent a social element distinct alike from the 
popular poets, the court poets, and the madrasa or 
convent-educated religious poets, and are the 
successors of the earlier Turkish bards known as 
ozan [q.v.]. They are especially numerous in the 17th 
century, when we find them among the dervish orders, 
the Janissaries, and other branches of the armed 
forces. The most famous among them are Gewheri 
and 'Ashik 'Omer. 

Bibliography: Kopriiliizade Mehnied Fu'ad 
[= M. F. Kopriilu], Turk Sazsairlerine ait metinler 
ve tetkikler, i-v, Istanbul 1929-30; idem, Tiirk 
Edebiyalinda ilk Mutasawwiflar, Istanbul 1918, 
390-2 ; M. K. Kopriilii, Tiirk Sazsairleri antolojisi, 
i-ii, Istanbul 1939-40; numerous other writings 
by M. F. Kopriilu on this subject will be found 
listed in Fuad Kdpriilu Armagani, Istanbul 1953, 
xxvii-1. For an account of the impression made on 
a young Turk in the 19th century by the 'ashik 
poets, see the autobiography of Ziya Pasha, 
translated in Gibb, Ottoman J'oetry, v, 46, 51 2- 
A contest between 'ashiks in Mughla is described 
by H. J. van Lennep, Travels in little-known parts 
of Asia Minor, 1, New York 1870, 253-4. See 
further H. Ritter, Orientalia, i, Istanbuler Mit- 
teilungen, i, Istanbul 1933, 3 ff. (Der Sangerwett- 
streit). (B. Lewis) 

'ASHIK. Muhammad b. 'Uthman b. Bayezid, 
Turkish cosinographer, born about 964/1555 in 
Trebizond, the son of a teacher at the Koran ele- 
mentary school of the Khatuniyya mosque. At the 
age of 20, he left his native town to see the world. 
The geographical part of his writings (mentioned 
below), contains references to his travels covering 
Anatolia and Rumelia. He did, for instance, take 
part in 'Uthman Pasha's (died 993/1585) campaign 
in the Caucasus and southern Russia in the years 
989-992/1581-1584. After 994/1585, the spent several 
years in Salonica, whence he participated — in 
1002-1003/1593-1594 — in Kodja Sinan Pasha's (died 
1004/1596) Hungarian campaign. In 1005/1596, he 
settled in Damascus, where he completed the writing 
of his cosmographic work in Ramadan 1006/April-May 
1598. The date of his death is not known. 

Muhammad 'Ashlk's work, Mandzir al-'-awalim is 
composed of two parts. Part I begins with the 
creation of the world and describes the 'upper' world, 
and something of the 'lower', i.e. the stars, paradise 
and its inhabitants, and hell and its inhabitants. 
Part II treats the 'lower' world in 18 chapters. 
Chapters 1 to 12 are strictly geographical, and 13 to 
18 are of a more general nature. In a final chapter, 
he speaks of the duration and the end of the world. 
The work is a vast compilation of the reports of 
the older Arabic and Persian cosniographers, geo- 
graphers and natural scientists. It is clearly arranged 
under headings and written in Turkish, giving 
precise references to the source in every case. In the 
geographical part, he mentions in addition — again 
with references — what the personal view of each 
author on individual objects was. There are consi- 



69« 



'ASHIK — 'ASHIK PASHA 



•derable additions to the purely traditional geo- 
graphical material where Rumelia and Hungary 
are concerned. Chapter 12, which treats the towns, 
is the most important one. The material is arranged 
according to the Ptolemean climates (akdlim-i 
kakikiyya), and within these, according to the 
districts (akdlim-i c urfiyya) of Abu '1-Fida 3 . Later 
writers on geography, such as Katib Celebi (HadjdjI 
Khalifa) and Abu Bakr b. Bahram frequently based 
their writings on Muhammad 'Ashik, sometimes 
copying parts of his Manazir al- c awdlim verbatim, 
without, however, his clear references. 

Bibliography : Franz Babinger, Die Geschichts- 
schreiber der Osmanen und ihre Werke, Leipzig 
1927, p. 138 f.; Franz Taeschner, Ankara nach 
Mehmed Ashik in Zeki-Velidi Togan Armaganl, 
Istanbul, 1957, 147-156. An edition, with trans- 
lation, of that part of the Manazir dealing with 
Rumelia is being prepared by R. F. Kreutel. 

(Fr. Taeschner) 
<ASHi$ CELEBI, Pir Muhammad b. 'All b. 
Zayn al-'Abidln b. Muhammad Natta' ('Ashik is his 
takhallus), Ottoman man of letters, born at Prizren 
in 926/1520, his father then being kadi of Oskiib, 
died at Oskiib in Sha'ban 979/Jan. 1572. He came 
of a family of sayyids, originally from Baghdad, 
his great-grandfather having come to Bursa in the 
time of Bayezid I. His childhood was spent in 
Rumeli, but after studying in Istanbul (where his 
teachers included Abu '1-Su'ud) he settled at Bursa 
and became mutawalli of the wakfs of Emir Sultan, 
a post hereditary in his family. Dismissed in 953/1546, 
he returned to Istanbul and spent four years there 
as a katib. He then became a kadi, and spent the 
rest of his life, except for a brief period in 'Ala'iyya, 
in a succession of towns in Rumeli. In 976/1568-9, 
tired of repeated changes, he applied in vain for the 
post of nakib al-ashrdf which his great-grandfather 
and grandfather had held. However, through the 
favour of the Grand Vezir Sokollu, to whom he had 
presented his dhayl to the Shakd'ik. he was appointed 
kadi of Oskiib for life, but died there shortly after- 
wards. His tomb was seen by Ewliya (Seydkatndme 
v, 560). 

His most important work is his book of Bio- 
graphies of the Poets, entitled MashdHr al-Shu'ard', 
presented to Selim II in 976. In order of time it is 
the fourth Ottoman tadhkira and contains over 400 
entries. Whereas for the early period 'Ashik adds 
nothing to the information given by his predecessors 
(Sehi, Latlfi, <AhdI), his work is of the first import- 
ance for the poets of the XVIth century, many of 
whom were personally known to him. MSS are 
fairly numerous, but the British Museum's exemplar 
Or. 6434, dated 977, deserves mention. 

His other works are a Diwdn (HadjdjI Khalifa 

ed. Flugel No. 5536) a Shehrengiz for Bursa (ibid. 

No. 7697), a Sigetvdr-ndme in verse (Babinger p. 68f.), 

a translation of Tashkopriizade's al-ShakdHk al- 

Nu'mdniyya, and a dhayl in Arabic to the same 

work. c Ata1 attributes to him a Madimu'-a-i Sukuk. 

He also translated a number of works into Turkish 

(cf. H. Kh. Nos. 2366, 6558 and 7303 [but not 4772 

as stated in £/']); his translation of Kemal Pasha- 

zade's Sharh-i hadith-i arba'in has been printed 

(Istanbul 1316; cf. A. Karahan Islam-Turk Edebi- 

yatinda Kirk Hadis, Istanbul 1954, PP- 175-8). 

Bibliography: For his exhaustive article in 

IA (s.v.), on which the above is based, M. Fuad 

Kopriilii has used the primary sources, 'Ashlk's 

MashaHr al-Shu<ard> and 'AtaTs dhayl to the 

Shaka'ik (Hadd'ik al-flakd'ik, Istanbul 1268, 



pp. 161-5). This article gives a detailed biography, 
a complete list of 'A.'s works, and references to 
the secondary sources which it supersedes. A list 
of the poets recorded in 'A.'s tadhkira and speci- 
mens of his poems are given by S. Niizhet in 
Turk §airleri I, pp. 117-121. A satirical poem by 
'A. is quoted by 'Ata 5 ! (p. 153). There is a copy 
of his diwdn in Istanbul (1st. Kit. Turkfe Yatma 
Divanlar Katalogit [1947] I p. 157 f.). 

(V. L. Menage) 

'Ashik pasha, 'Ala> al-din 'Ali (670/1272- 

733/1333). Turkish poet and mystic. The little which 
is known about his life is half legendary. Husayn 
Husam al-DIn, the only author who gives detailed 
information about his life and his family, does not 
mention his sources (Amasya Td'rikhi I, 1327, II, 
1332, III, 1927, IV, 1928). 'Ashik Pasha was the son 
of Baba Mukhlis, whose father the shaykh Baba 
Ilyas migrated from Khurasan to Anatolia and 
founded the Babal sect. A disciple of his, Baba Ishak, 
was the organiser of the famous 13th century religious 
revolt in Anatolia. 'Ashik Pasha, educated at 
Klrshehir [q.v.], then an important cultural centre, 
had a chequered political career, was sent as an 
envoy to Egypt and died at Klrshehir in 733/1333, 
where his tomb sanctuary, of remarkable architec- 
tural interest, has been a place of pilgrimage for 
centuries. A devout shaykh, he seems to have been 
a rich and influential man. One of his sons, Elwan 
Celebi, was a poet of some distinction and his great- 
grandson is the famous 15th century chronicler 
'Ashik Pasha-Zade [q.v.]. 'Ashik Pasha's main work 
is the Qharibndme (630/1330) sometimes wrongly 
called Diwdn-i 'Ashik Pasha or Ma'drifndme. This 
is a mystic-didactic mathnawi of more than 11.000 
couplets in ramal. The work begins with a preface 
in Persian and a long panegyrical introduction, and 
is systematically divided into ten chapters (bob) 
and each chapter into ten discourses (das tan). Each 
chapter treats of a subject in relation to its number 
(i.e. Chapter Four— The Four Elements, Chapter 
Five — The Five Senses, Chapter Seven — The Seven 
Planets, etc.). The whole can be described as a 
collection of moral precepts and exhortations 
illustrated by quotations from the Kur'an and the 
Hadlth and followed by relevant anecdotes. The 
influence of Mawlana Djalal al-DIn's great Mathnawi 
is apparent in the Qharibndme as in most contempo- 
rary mystic works. But 'Ashik Pasha's poetry is 
plain and merely didactic and lacks the lyrical elan 
of both Mawlana and Yunus Emre. The Qharibndme 
represents on the whole Sunni Islam and the question 
how far the heterodox tendencies which were very 
active at the time in Central Anatolia find an echo 
in it has not yet been sufficiently studied. The 
language of the Qharibndme offers interesting 
philological material for the study of old Ottoman, 
since it was written at a period when Turkish was 
struggling with Arabic and Persian to secure its 
place as a written language in Anatolia, and 'Ashik 
Pasha's conscious contribution towards this is not 
unimportant. But his handling of the c arud is less 
secure and skilful than that of his contemporaries 
Gulshehrl and Dehhani. The numerous copies of 
the Qharibndme witness its great popularity as one 
of the main mystic-religious works in Turkish. It 
has not yet been edited. Among dated copies the 
oldest are: Berlin No 259 (840 h), Paris No 313 
A.F. (848 h.), Vatican Turkish 148 (854 h.), Casa- 
natense No 2054 (861 h.), Bayezid No 3633 (861 h.), 
Laleli No 1752 (882 h.). Apart from the Qharibndme 
we have from 'Ashik Pasha a number of poems, 



C ASHIK PASHA — ASHlR 



699 



mostly hymns {ildkis), preserved in certain Gharib- 
■name MSS, or other codices. In recent years some 
minor works by 'Ashlk Pasha or attributed to him 
have come to light. The most important is the 
Fakrndme. This is a short mathnawl (160 couplets) 
in praise of mystic poverty, and is developed, like 
the Gharibndme but on a smaller scale, upon quo- 
tations from the Kur'an and the Hadlth. The com- 
mentary on the well-known hadith "Poverty is my 
pridet introduces the subject. It has been published 
in facsimile and edited in transcription (v. Biblio- 
graphy). 

Bibliography: Tashkoprii-zade, al-ShakdHk 
aINu'mdniyya (trans. O. Rescher, 2); Hammer- 
Purgstall, Oesch. d. Osm. Dichtkunst, i, 54 ff-; 
Gibb, Ottoman Poetry, i, 176 ff. ; Sadeddin Niizhet 
Ergun, Turk Sairleri, i, 129 ff.; I. A., s.v. (by 
M. Fuad Kopriilii); Fr. Babinger, Aiyq Paias 
Ghartb-ndme, MSOS, xxxi, 91 ff.; C. Brockelmann, 
Die Sprache Aiyqpaias und Ahmedis, ZDMG, 
lxxxiii, 1 ff . ; £. Rossi, Studi su manoscritti del 
Qaribndme di Ailq Pala nelle biblioteche d' Italia, 
RSO, xxix, 108 ff.; Agah Sim Levend, Asik 
Pafa'nm Bilinmiyen iki Mesnevisi Fakr-ndme ve 
Vasf-t Hal, Turk Dili Arasttrmalan YMigt 
Belleten 1953. 181 ff.; E. Jemma, II Faqrname 
{tLibro delta Povertdt) di Ailq Paia, RSO, xxix, 

219 ff. (FAHiR Iz) 

'ASHIK-PASHA-ZADE, great-grandson of the 
poet 'Ashlk Pasha, his actual name was Dervish 
Ahmad b. Shaykh Yahya b. Shaykh Salman b. 
'Ashlk Pasha (makhlas 'Ashlkl), one of the oldest 
Ottoman historians. He was born in 803/1400, 
probably in Elvan Celebi near Amasya, and died 
some time after 889/1484. His historical work 
(Taredrikh-i al-i c Uthmdn) has been edited three 
times; by 'All Bey, Istanbul 1332, by Friedrich 
Giese {Die aliosmanischc Chronik des l Aiikpaiazade), 
Leipzig 1929 and by Ciftsioglu N. Atslz in Osmanlt 
Tarihleri, i, Istanbul 1949. In addition to these, 
and to the manuscripts enumerated by Babinger 
(see below), mention must be made of the manuscript 
in the Riwak al-Atrdk of al-Azhar in Cairo, Ta'rikh 
No. 3732 (completed in 1021/1612), a copy of which 
is in my possession (No. 140 of my collection). 

Bibliography: Franz Babinger, Die Ge- 
schichtsschreiber der Osmanen und ihre Werke, 
Leipzig 1927, 35-38; ibid., Wann siarb c Aiyq- 
paiazade? in MOG, ii, 315-318; Paul Wittek, 
Zum Quellenproblem der dltesten osmanischen 
Chroniken in MOG, i, 77-150; ibid., Neues zu 
'■AiikpaSaza.de in MOG, ii, 147-164; also by the 
same author, Die altosmanische Chronik des 
'Aiikpaiazdde in OLZ, 1931, 697-708 (a criticism 
of the edition by Giese); Fr. Giese, Zum l AHk- 
paiazade- Problem, in OLZ, 1932, 7-18 (a reply to 
Wittek's criticism), ibid., Die verschiedenen 
Textrezensionen des t Aiikpaiazade bei seinen 
Nachfolgern und Ausschreibern (Abh. d. Pr. AW 
1936, Phil.-hist. Kl., No. 4, 1-50); Joachim Kiss- 
ling, Die Sprache des ' Aiikpaiazade; M. Fuad 
Kopriilii, AHk Paia-zdde, in I A, i, 706-709. 

(Fr. Taeschner) 
ASHlR. an old fortified town in North Africa 
situated 100 km. SSW of Algiers in the Titeri 
mountains, makes its appearance in history during 
the first half of the 4th/ioth century. It belonged 
to the country occupied by the Sanhadja on the 
western borders of their territory. The founding 
of the town by Ziri b. Manad, chief of the main 
tribe of the Sanhadja, is an episode in the struggle 
which brought these Berber highlanders, the sup- 



porters of the Fatimids of Ifrikiya, into conflict 
with the Zanata of the plains of Oran, adherents 
of the party of the Umayyads of Cordova. 

As a reward for services rendered to the Fatimids, 
especially during the terrible revolt of Abu Yazld, 
"The Man with the donkey" [q.v.], in 324/935 Ziri 
obtained permission from the Fatimid Caliph al- 
Ka'im to found a town, which to a certain extent 
gave this tribal chief the prestige and autonomy of 
a sovereign. However it should be noted that it is to 
ZIrl's son Bulukkln that al-Bakri and Ibn al-Athlr 
attribute the founding of the fortified town of Ashir, 
which the former dates from 364/974 and the latter 
from 367/977. 

The new city was artificially populated by elements 
brought from Tobna, Msila and Hamza (now 
Bouira), and later from Tlemcen, which had served 
as a gathering place for the Zanata. Palaces, -cara- 
vanserais and baths were erected there. Bulukkln, 
after being invested by the Fatimid al-Mu'izz, who 
quitted the government of Ifrikiya for Cairo (363/ 
973), left Ashir and repaired to al-Kayrawan; this 
exodus, however, took place in stages, the chiefs 
family remaining at Ashir. 

The protection of this frontier region of the Zirid 
kingdom was entrusted to the Banu Hammad 
(b Bulukkln), and Ashir was incorporated into their 
territory, when their secession was recognised by the 
arrangement of 408/1017. Possession of Ashir, the 
town of the Banu Hammad, was moreover, disputed 
by members of the family. It was taken by Yiisuf 
the son of Hammad just after 440/1048 and com- 
pletely pillaged by his troops. In 468/1076 it was 
besieged and occupied by the Zanata, being sub- 
sequently retaken by the Banu Hammad. In 495/1 101 
the Almoravid governor of Tlemcen, Tashfln b. 
Tinamer, took and destroyed it. Resurrected once 
more from its ruins by its HammadI masters, it 
fell into the power of GhazI the SanhadjI, ally of 
the Banu Ghaniya. (about 580/1184). After this 
date the name of Ashir disappears from history. 

The uncertainty which surrounds the founding of 
Ashir and its attribution to either Ziri or Bulukkln 
is to some extent illustrated on the actual site, for 
anybody wishing to study what has survived. 

The same region of the Titeri, w hich dominates 
from afar the high plains of Southern Algeria, 
retains traces of three inhabited places, rather 
different in appearance, but all three showing the 
characteristics of Muslim origin. 

1. One of them, called Manzah Bint al-Sultan, is 
a fortified enclosure crowning a rocky eminence 
276 metres in length, surrounded by deep ravines, 
jutting out in a northerly direction from the Kaf 
Lakhdar range. A building — a guard-house or 
storehouse — stood rear the centre. A large cistern 
was intended to assure the temporary food supply 
of the small garrison holding the position. 

2. On the slopes falling away from the same range 
towards the South, there stretches a rectangular 
enclosure, part of the perimeter of which was 
encircled by a rampart two metres thick. Inside it, 
walls appear to mark off terraces at different levels; 
but no other building is visible there. A spring called 
c Ayn Yashlr flows along a ravine which borders on 
the enclosure. According to Rodet, the name Yashlr 
is used to denote the enclosure itself. 

Outside this enclosure, recent excavations by 
M. L. Golvin have revealed the existence of a castle 
built of stone, the plan of which is remarkably 
symmetrical. A projecting porch in the middle of 
the south facade gives access to 



ASHIR — 'ASHKABAD 



closed at the far end by a wall. Two side passages 



building. This entrance shows a clear similarity to 
that of the Fatimid palace of al-Ka^im recently 
excavated at Mahdiyya (see M. S. Zbiss, in J A, 
1956, 79-93). 

3. The site of another fortified town faces Yashir 
and the castle, from which it is separated by a 
distance of two and a half km. and a valley. This 
is Benia (Banya), which covers an area sloping 
down towards the north of Kaf Tsemsal. Near the 
bottom of the slope, the rampart crowns the 
escarpment which borders the valley and a con- 
tinuation of it extends towards the Kaf, against 
which the town rested. At the foot of this rocky 
eminence there used to be a dungeou. Three gates 
are set in the rampart. The ground is covered by 
numerous ruins. Of these the most easily identifiable 
is the mosque. The prayer chamber, which is 
proceeded by the courtyard, had seven naves and 
four bays. Several copious springs discharge thein- 

It is possible to regard these three sites in the same 
region as marking three phases in the history of the 
ZIrid Sanhadja, and to see in them three successive 
foundations. Manzah Bint al-Sultan is not a town, 
but a refuge and an observation post of the Sanhadja, 
and probably preceeded the founding of a real city. 
The affinity between the neighbouring castle of 
Yashir and the palace of Mahdiyya permits the 
identification of the castle and the town with the 
foundation of Zirl (324/934), authorised by al-Ka'im 
and carried out with the collaboration of aii Ifrikiyan 
architect. 

Benia, on the other hand, probably represents the 
city of Bulukkin (364/974), of which al-Bakri gives 
such a remarkably exact description. 

Bibliography: Nuwayri, apud Ibn Khaldun, 
trans, de Slane, ii, 487-93; Ibn Khaldun, text i, 
197 ff., 326, trans, ii, 6 ff., 209; Ibn 'Idhari, 
Bayan, ed. Dozy, i, 224, 248, 258 ff., trans. Fagnan 
', 313. 35o-i, 365, 367 ft.; Ibn al-Athir, viii, 459, 
ix, 24, 38, 47, 90, 107, no, 177, 180, trans. Fagnan 
{Annates du Maghreb el de I'Espagne, 374-5, 394-5, 
397-8, 404-4, 406, 414, 418; Kayrawani (Ibn Abl 
Dinar) trans. Pellissier et Remusat, 124-34; 
Bakri, text, ed. de Slane (1911) 60, trans. (1913) 
126-7; Istibsar, trans. Fagnan, 105-6; al-Idrisi, 
Maghrib, 99; Gsell, Atlas archiologiqxu de I'Algerie, 
folio Boghar nos. 80, 82, 83; Chabassiere et 
Berbrugger, Le Kef el-Akhdar et ses mines, in 
RAfr. 1869, 1 16-21; Capitaine Rodet, Us mines 
d'Achir, in RAfr. 1908, 86-104; G. Marcais, 
Achir (Recherches d' archiologie musulmane) in 
RAfr. 1922, 21-38. (G. Marcais) 

'ASHlRA, usually a synonym of kabila [?.».] 
"tribe", can also denote a subdivision of the latter. 
Thus <Abd al-Djalil Tahir, after using the word in 
the former sense in the title of his lectures on "The 
Bedouin and the Tribes in the Arab Countries" (al- 
Badw wa 'l- t AshdHr fi 'l-Bildd al- l Arabiyya, Inst, 
des Hautes Etudes arabes, Cairo 1955), gives it a 
more technical definition (20, 1. 2-7): "The social 
unit or nucleus of tribal society is the family 'd'ila 
[q.v.]); several families descended from a common 
ancestor,' most commonly of the fifth degree, form 
a fakhdh [q.v.]. The 'ashira comprises several afkhddh, 
and the kabila several ashdHr". The difficulties 
encountered by the author in chapter vii, in an 
effort to give precise definition to "the actual desig- 
nations of these fluid social ideas", are explained 
by the instability of the groups, and are a reminder 



that "Arab authors have experimented with them 
over a period of centuries; from this fact derive the 
contradictory versions of dictionaries .... and, as 
anyone can verify for himself, in al-Mawardi, al- 
A hkdm al-Sulfdniyya, and in Bishr Fares, L'honneur 
Chez Its Arabes", (77-8). Josef Henninger, Die 
Familie bei den heutigen Beduinen Arabiens und 
seiner Randgebiete (Leiden 1943, 134-5), by means 
of the extremely inconsistent extension of the units 
which marks his theory, supported by numerous 
references, gives the same explanation of tribal 
structure in four stages: 1) family, 'ayle; 2) offspring 
up to the fifth degree, dl or ahl; 3) clan; 4) tribe, 
'ashire, kabile, badide, firk*. These last expressions 
are synonymous, but "sometimes c ashlre or badide are 
regarded as subdivisions of habile (134) ... c ashire 
and hamule are often used interchangeably, and ahl 
for a whole people" (135). On the other hand the 
definition of LA (vi, 250, 1. 9) suggests that some of 
these fluctuations may be accounted for by the 
normal conflict between the proper meaning and the 
ordinary, less precise, usage: "The c ashira of a man 
is constituted by the nearest male offspring of his 
father" (proper meaning) "who are also called the 
kabila" (meaning altered by synecdoche). Comparison 
with other Semitic languages gives no clue, because 
Arabic is alone in affording, from the 10th root, a 
small group of apparently isolated derived forms 
with the dominant idea of "direct, intimate, relation- 
ship", and this etymological problem has only been 
touched on, as far as is known, by Marcel Cohen 
(Essii comparat:/ . . , chamito-slmitique, Paris 1947, 



. The n 



s of nur 



:r do n 



3, apart from a few obscure names of animals or 
plants, derived forms without semantic connexion 
with their number, and it is perhaps not impossible 
that the original idea was one of a group of about 
ten persons. This would still be an extremely flimsy 
basis of evaluation, because the additional remark 
of LA (ibid., 19): "The c ashira consists exclusively 
of men" (also valid for ma'shar, nafar, kawm, raht 
and '■dlam) can equally well support a contrario a 
current use of the term which is considered corrupt, 
as give an indication of its social and juridical value, 
as a group consisting only of warriors. 

Bibliography: The work first mentioned, 
edited by the Arab League, gives much infor- 
mation. The work of J. Henniger, which is 
absolutely fundamental for all these problems, 
ought also to have appeared in the bibliography 
of the article c a'ila. (J. Lecerf) 

'ASHKABAD (properly 'Ish^abad; according to 
the Turkish pronounciation of the Arab word Sshk, 
"love", called by the Russians since 1924 Ashkhabad, 
previously till 1921 Askhabad, 1921-4 Poltorack), 
a town, since 1924 the capital of the SSR of Turk- 
menistan. It lies in an oasis south of the desert Kara 
Kum and developed out of a Turcoman awl with 
(1881, time of the Russ. conquest) 500 tents. Already 
in the year 1897 it had, as capital of the district 
Transcaspia (Zakaspiyskaya Oblast'), 19,428 inha- 
bitants, chiefly merchants and officials. The city- 
developed rapidly, and possessed already before 
19 14 a museum (which contained inter alia objects 
of interest for the ethnology of the Turkmen) and 
a library (with some Persian manuscripts). After 
1917 in spite of the difficulty of maintaining a 
sufficient water supply the city became an important 
industrial centre in this district (woven wares, silk 
factories, foodstuffs, building materials), possessing 
also cultural significance (since 1950 Gor'kiy- 
University and four other higher schools, a branch 



'ASHKABAD — ASHRAF <ALl 



of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and other 
research institutes). The number of inhabitants rose 
(1926) to 51.593 and (1939) 127,000; no information 
in particular concerning their nationality has been 
given. Doubtless however numerous Russians live 



The place has been very frequently (i7-xi-i8g3, 
i7-i-i895, 1929) struck by earthquakes and possesses 
since 1947 a Soviet seismic observatory. A parti- 
cularly destructive earthquake took place on 
6 October 1948. Numerous buildings were destroyed 
and many people lost their lives. (The centre of the 
earthquakes is mostly fifty miles south in the Kopet 
Dagh.) 

The district of 'Ashkabad is notable for its cotton 
and corn cultivation; vines, melons and vetegables 
are cultivated here. It contains the foothills of the 
Kopet Dagh, the oasis Tedjen and the central parts 
of the desert Kara Kum [q.v.]. Minerals: zinc, lead, 
sulphur, barytus. 

Four-five miles west of c Ashkabad lie the ruins 
of the city of NasS [q.v.]; six-seven miles east the 
ruins of the city of Anaw with the remains of a 
beautiful mosque with an inscription by its builder, 
Abu '1-Kasim Babur (d. 861/1456-7) where during 
excavations (1904) a rich neolithic culture of the 
time 3000-500 ( ?) B.C. came to light. 

Bibliography: S. A. Balsak, W. F. Vasyutin 

and J. G. Feigin: Wirtschaftsgeographie der USSR, 

x: Die Republiken Mittelasiens, German edition, 

Berlin 1944, 44 f. (together with maps at the end 

of the book); W. Leimbach, Die Sowjet-Union, 

Stuttgart 1950, 52 f., 226; T. Shabad: Geography 

of the USSR, New York 195 1; Brockhaus-Efron 

Entsikl. Slovar 1 , ii, 405 f.; Bol'shaya Sovetskaya 

Entsiklopediya 1 , iii, 583-90 (with map of the 

district and ill.). (B. Spuler) 

al-ASHMCNAYN [see ushmunayn]. 

ASHRAF [see sharIf]. 

ai-ASHRAF, al-MALIK [see ayyubids]. 

ASHRAF. town in the Persian province of 

Mazandaran, and chief town of a district (buluk) of 

the same name, situated 36° 41' 55" N, 53° 32' 30" E, 

five miles from the shore of the Caspian Sea, 35 miles 

E. of Sari and 43 miles W. of Astarabad on the road 

between these two towns. The town lies at the foot 

of wooded spurs of the lofty Alburz range, and 

commands a fine view northwards over the bay of 

Astarabad. Although the approaches to Ashraf are 

fertile and produce excellent cotton and wheat, the 

plain of Ashraf itself tends to be marshy. The 

cypress, the wild vine, the citron and the orange 

grow in profusion. 

Formerly an unimportant town named Khar- 
kuran, the new town of Ashraf dates from its foun- 
dation by Shah <Abbas I in 1021/1612-3. Intended 
by 'Abbas to be a rural retreat, Ashraf at first con- 
sisted of a group of large farmhouses surrounding 
the royal palace and scattered along the Sari road, 
but eventually the royal residences extended over 
a considerable area, and comprised six separate 
establishments, each with its gardens. According to 
Fraser five of these, the Bagh-i Shahi, the 'Imarat-i 
Sahib-i Zaman (used as a banqueting hall), the 
Haram, the Khalwat, and the Bagh-i Tappa, were 
enclosed by one wall, while the sixth, the 'Imarat-i 
Cashma, lay outside. Spacious accommodation was 
provided for guests and travellers. Great skill was 
employed in the construction of the palaces and of 
the famous causeway, large blocks of stone and 
marble being brought from Baku, and joined by 
iron clamps cemented with lead. 



The gardens were laid out with walks bordered 
by pines, and by orange and other fruit trees, and 
were watered by an elaborate system of reservoirs, 
cisterns and channels, fed by a spring which also 
supplied numerous fountains and cascades. On the 
hills above were situated the observatory known as 
Safrabad, and a dam which controlled the water 
supply to the rice fields round Ashraf. 

At the beginning of the 18th century, the power 
of the Safawl dynasty declined, and Ashraf suffered 
heavily in the ensuing civil wars, and from Turcoman 
invasions from the N-E. It was plundered by the 
Afghans and again by the Zand armies. The great 
aywan called Cihil Sutun was burnt down in the time 
of Nadir Shah, and Nadir's replacement was a much 
meaner edifice. Muhammad Hasan Khan Kadjar 
carried out certain repairs, but what remained of the 
imperial residences was destroyed by Muhammad 
Khan of Sawadkuh, Governor of Mazandaran, and 
Ashraf remained virtually uninhabited until Aka 
Muhammad Khan Kadjar escaped from Zand 
captivity at Shiraz and, making Mazandaran his 
base, rebuilt the town in 1 193/1779-80. Though 
making a slow recovery — in 1826 it numbered 500 
houses,, in 1859 845, and in 1874 over 1200 — Ashraf 
has never regained its former prosperity, nor can 
its ruined palaces do more than hint at their former 
magnificence. 

Bibliography: Iskandar Munshi, Tarikh-i 
.'■Alam-Ara-yi 'Abbasl Tehran 1897, 655-6; J. 
Hanway, An Historical Account of the British 
Trade over the Caspian Sea etc., London 1753, i, 
292 ff.; J. B. Fraser, Travels and Adventures etc. on 
the Southern Banks of the Caspian Sea, London 
1826, 12-30; G. C. Napier, Collection of Journals 
and Reports, London 1876; H. L. Rabino, Mazan- 
daran and Astarabad, London 1928; Haentzsche, 
in ZDMG, xviii, 672-9; K. Ritter, Erdkunde, viii, 
523-7. (R. M. Savory) 

A&HRAF <ALl b. <Abd ai-Ha?? al-FarO&I, 
was born at T'hana Bhawan (Muzaffarnagar district, 
India) on 12 Rabl c I, 1280/19 March 1863 and died 
on 6 Radjab 1362/9 July 1943. He received his 
education at his home-town and at Deoband [q.v.]. 
Leaving Deoband in 1301/1883-4 he started life as 
a teacher at Cawnpore. The same year he performed 
the pilgrimage to Mecca where he met HadjdjI 
Imdad Allah al-Hindi al-Muhadjir al-Makki with 
whom he was already in correspondence. He renewed 
his bay'a, contracted in absentia, and formally 
became his disciple. In 1307/1889-90 he again left for 
Mecca and stayed there for a number of months with 
Imdad Allah. He left Cawnpore in 1315/1897-8 and 
settled down at T'hana Bhawan for the rest of his 
life. 

An eminent scholar, theologian and sufi, he led 
a very busy life, teaching, preaching, writing and 
lecturing, and making occasional journeys. A 
prolific writer, his works exceed one thousand in 
number. These are mostly on tafsir, hadlth, logic, 
kaldm, l akaHd and tasawwtif. His first work, a 
Persian mathnawi entitled "Zir o-Bam", was written 
while he was still a student; hi« last is al-Bawadir 
al-Nawadir, published in 1 365/1945-6, being a 
selection of his innumerable writings. His most 
famous works are: i) Bayan al-Kur'dn, a com- 
mentary of the Kur'an, in 12 vols, in Urdu, comp- 
leted in 2'/ 2 years and first published at Delhi in 
I 334/ I 9 I 6-7. A revised and enlarged edition was 
published at T'hana Bhawan, in 1 353/1934-5 and 
at Delhi in 1349-2. Since then several editions have 
appeared; (ii) Bihishti Zewar, in 10 vols., also in 



7oa 



ASHRAF <ALl — ASHRAF OGHULLARI 



Urdu, a compendium of Islamic teachings meant 
for women. The nth vol. "Bishti Gawhar" for men, 
was added much later. It has been frequently 
printed in India and Pakistan and is still in great 
demand. A collection of hisfatdwd in 8 vols., compiled 
posthumously, is in process of publication. 

Bibliography: 'Aziz al-Hasan, Ashraf al- 

Sawdnih, 4 vols, i-iii, Lucknow 1357/1938, iv 

called Khdtimat al-Sawdnih, (which also contains 

a full list of his works written up to the year 

1354/1935 6). appeared in 1362/1943, also from 

Lucknow; c Abd al-Madjid Daryabadi, Hakim al- 

Ummat, A'zamgarh, 1371/1951; c Abd al-Rahman 

Khan, Sirat-i-Ashraf, Multan 1375/1956; Al- 

Isldm, (Karachi) July 1953, 56; c Abd al Ban 

Nadwl, Didmi 1 al-Mudjaddidin, Lucknow 1950; 

idem, Tadidid-i Tasawwuf o-Suluk, Lucknow 

1949 ; idem, Tadidid-i TaHim o-Tabligh, Lucknow 

(n.d.); idem, Tadidid-i Ma'dshiyydt, Lucknow 

1956; Sulayman Nadwl, Ydd-i Raftagdn, Karachi 

1955. 283-301; Ghulam Muhammad, ffaydt-i 

Ashraf, Karachi 195 1. (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

ASHRAF <ALt KHAN, foster-brother of Ahmad 

Shah, King of Delhi (1161/1748-1167/1754) was born 

in Delhi c. 1 140/1727. His father Mirza c Ali Khan 

"Nukta" was a courtier of Muhammad Shah [q.v.]. 

His uncle lradj Khan was the ndzim of Murshidabad 

during the reign of Ahmad Shah. A composer of 

poetry in both Urdu and Persian, he wrote under 

the pen-name of "Fughan" (Fighan) and enjoyed 

the title of "Zarif al-Mulk Kokalta'sh Khan Bahadur", 

conferred on him by Ahmad Shah. 

He lived in Delhi till the dethronement of Ahmad 
Shah in 1167/1754, when he left for Murshidabad. 
He seems to have been unfavourably received by 
his uncle and after a brief stay with him returned 
to Delhi. In 1174/1761 when the Durranis again 
attacked India he left Delhi for good and went to 
Faydabad. He, however, soon fell out with his 
patron Shudja 1 al-Dawla [q.v.] and left for 'Azlmabad 
(Patna) where he was well received by Radja Shi tab 
Ray J , Governor or Bengal and Bihar and a great 
patron of learning. Offended by an unkind remark 
of ghitab Ray 5 he decided to leave him. But soon 
after he somehow came into contact with officials 
of the East India Company and appears to have 
entered their service. Thereafter he led a comfortable 
life and died at 'Azlmabad in 1186/1772-3. 

A good poet, his compositions are, however, 

marred by biting satire and lampoon. His Urdu and 

Persian diwdn was published at Karachi in 1950. 

Bibliography: Garcin de Tassy, Historic de 

la Literature Hindouie d Hindoustanie', Paris 

1870, i, 765-6, Kudrat Allah Kasim, Madimu'a-i 

Naghz, Lahore 1933, ii - 72-6; Fath C A1I Husaynl 

Gardlzi, Tadhkira-i RekMaguydn, Awrangabad 

1933, 121; Ghulam Hamadani Mushafi, Tadhkira-i 
Hindi, Delhi 1933, 159-65; idem, Riyd4 al-Fusahd y , 
Delhi 1934, 246-7; idem, c Ikd-i Thurayyd, Delhi 

1934, 44; Mir Hasan, Tadhkira-i Shu'ard'-i Urdu, 
Delhi 1940, 115-8; Mir TakI Mir, Nikdt al-Shu l ard?, 
Awrangabad 1935, 74-98; Kiyam al-DIn Ka'im, 
Makhzan-i Nikat, Awrangabad 1929, 41-3; Laihmi 
Narayan Shaflk, Camanistdn-i Shu'ard', Awrang- 
abad 1928, 482-3; Mirza 'All Lutf, Gulshan-i Hind 
(in Urdu), Lahore 1906, 130-1; Mustafa Khan 
Sheftah, Oulshan-i Blkhar, Delhi 1843, 220; <Abd 
al-Ghafur Khan "Nassakh", Sukhan-i Shu'ard', 
Lucknow 1291/1874, 369; Muhammad Husayn 
"Azad", Ab-i Haydt, Delhi 1314/1896, 113-7; 
Ma'drif (A'zamgarh), ix/4 (April 1922) ; Preface to 
his dlwan, ed. Sabah al-DIn <Abd al- Rahman; Ram 



Babu Saksena, A History of Urdu Literature, 
Allahabad 1940, 52-3, 173; 'All Ibrahim Khan. 
Gulxdr-i Ibrahim, Aligarh 1 352/1934, 184-5, 207, 
244-5 ; A. Sprenger, Oudh Cat., Urdu trans. Yddgdr-i 
Shu'ard', Allahabad 1934, 157-8. 

(A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
ASHRAF DJAHANGlR b. S. Muhammad 
Ibrahim was born in 688/1289 at al-Simnan (Khu- 
rasan), the principality of his father. His mother, 
Khadidja, was a grand-daughter of Ahmad Yasawt 
[q.v.]. A hdfiz of the Kurgan, with its seven readings, 
he completed his education at the age of 14. His love 
for mysticism took him to c Ala' al-Dawla al-Simnanl 
[q.v.], a leading ?«*/» of his days, whose company he 
frequented. Succeeding his father, on the tatter's 
death in 705/1305-6, to the principality he soon 
abdicated in favour of his brother Muhammad and 
set out for India having been told to do so in a 
dream. Passing through Ma wara' al-Nahr, he visited 
Bukhara and Samarkand and then left for Uchch 
[q.v.] where he met Djalal al-DIn al-Bukharl, sur- 
named Djahaniyan Djahan Gasht [q.v.]. After a 
long series of travels covering Delhi, several places 
in the Indo-Gangetic plain, Bihar and Bengal, in- 
cluding Sunarga'on, near Dacca, he finally settled 
at Ruhabad (an old name for Ka£haw£ha, a village 
53 miles from Faydabad), where he died on 27 
Muharram 808/July 6, 1405 and was buried in his 
own Khdnakdh. 

A short time after having settled at Ka£haw£ha 
he again left on his global travels, this time visiting 
Mecca (twice), al-Madlna, Karbala', al-Nadjaf, 
Turkey, Damascus, Baghdad, Kashan, al-Simnan, 
Meshed, Ghazna and Kabul, returning to Ruhabad 
via Multan, Pakpattan and Delhi. On his first voyage 
to Mecca he was accompanied by Badi c al-Din Shah 
Madar [q.v.]. 

The statement in the LafdHf-i Ashrafi (ii, 105-6) 
that Sultan Ibrahim Shark! (804/1401-848/1444) was 
introduced to him by Kadi Shihab al-DIn Dawlata- 
badi early on his arrival in India is apparently wrong 
as the Sultan succeeded to the throne in 804/1402 
while the saint died four years later in 808/1405. The 
meeting, therefore, must have taken place during 
the closing years of the life of Ashraf Djahanglr. 
He is the author of Bashdrat al-Muridin and 
Maktibdt-i Ashrafi, the latter is highly spoken of 
by <Abd al-Hakk Dihlawl [q.v.]. His shrine is visited, 
in thousands, by persons possessed and patients 
suffering from mental derangement in the hope of 
obtaining a cure. 

Bibliography: Nizam al-Yamanl, LafdHf-i 
Ashrafi, 2 vols. Delhi 1 298/1 880-1 ; Ghulam Sarwar 
Lahorl, jOtazinat al-Asfiyd', Cawnpore 1914, i 
371-77; c Abd Allah Kh'eshgl, Ma'dridi al-WOdyat 
(Punjab University MS.); c Abd al-Rahman 
Cishtl, Mir'dt al-Asrdr, Dar al-Musannifln, 
A'zamgarh MS. fol. 529; Salah al-Din 'Abd al- 
Rahman, Bazm-i Sufiyya (in Urdu), A'zamgarh 
1369/1948, 441-82; c Abd al-Hakk Muhadditti 
Dihlawl, Akhbdr al-Akhydr, Delhi 1332/1914, 156; 
c Abd al-Hayy Nadwl, Nuzhat at-Khawdfir (where 
a large number of his works is enumerated), 
Haydarabad (Dn.) 1371/1951, ni, 32-4; Muhammad 
Akhtar, Tadhkirat-i Awliyd'-i Hind, Delhi 1950, 
ii, 177-9. (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

ASHRAF OGJHULLARi, march-wardens of the 
Saldjuks in Anatolia during the second half of the 
13th century. Members of a Turkoman tribe which 
had been settled by the Anatolian Saldjuk state on 
its western frontiers, they embellished the town of 



ASHRAF OGHULLARf 



Gorgurum, and subsequently Beyshehri, and esta- 
blished a principality in that region. 

The first of the family who is known to us is the 
Saldjuk amir Ashraf-oghlu Sayf al-DIn Sulayman 
Bey, who played an important part during the reigns 
of Ghiyath al-DIn Kaykhusraw III and Ghiyath al- 
DIn Mas'ud II. After the Mongols of the west, the 
Ilkhanids, had put Kaykhusraw III to death, they 
ordered Mas'ud II to rule in his stead (RabI' I 
682/June 1283), but Kaykhusraw's mother, who was 
at Konya, proclaimed his sons as his successors, 
with the approval of the Ilkhanids, thus declaring 
herself against Mas'ud. She invited the Ashrafid 
Sulayman Bey to Konya and appointed him regent 
to these infant sovereigns (8 RabI' 1 684/14 May 1285). 
With assistance from the Mongols, Mas'ud II, who 
was at Kayseri, disposed of the two children and 
seized power, whereupon Sulayman Bey withdrew 
to Beyshehri. Subsequently (687/1288) he made 
submission to Mas'ud and came to Konya. 

Mas'ud II wished to have his brother Siyawush, 
whom he regarded as a rival, placed under restraint. 
He therefore sent him to Beyshehri, ostensibly for 
the purpose of bringing back the Ashrafid's daughter 
as a bride for himself. By prior arrangement the 
Ashrafid arrested and imprisoned Siyavush, but 
was compelled to release him and send him to 
Konya by the threats of the Karamanid Giineri Bey, 
who was favourably disposed towards Siyavush 
(Seldiukndme, Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, Persian 
MS no. 1553). 

By this time the Saldjuk state had lost its 
authority, and Sulayman Bey was in perpetual 
conflict, sometimes with his neighbours and some- 
times with the Saldjuk governors: at one point he was 
even in danger of falling into the hands of the 
Karamanid, who was attacking Beyshehri, but he 
later gained the victory. He also suffered considerably 
at this period from assaults on this territory by the 
Ilkhanid Gaykhatu. 

Sayf al-Din Sulayman Bey died on Monday 
2 Muharram 702/27 August 1302, and was buried in 
the mausoleum he had had constructed a year 
before beside his mosque in Beyshehri. Sulayman 
had embellished Beyshehri, which he called Sulay- 
manshehri, with a number of foundations, and had 
repaired the fortress, placing his inscription over the 
fortress gate in 689/1290. He built his mosque, a 
distinguished work of art, in 696/1296, and his 
mausoleum in 1302. In his wakfiyya he appointed 
his sons Muhammad and Ashraf as mutawallis of 
these foundations (Khalil Edhem, Anadoluda isldmi 
kitdbeler, TOEM year 5, 139-44; Yusuf Akyurt, 
Beysehri kitabeleri ve Esref oglu camii ve tiirbesi). 

He was succeeded by his elder son Mubariz al-Din 
Muhammad Bey, who added the towns of Akshehir 
and Bolvadin to his domains. The Ashrafid aiclr 
Piya' al-DIn Shikari built the market mosque in 
Akshehir in 720/1320 (I. H. Uzuncarsili, Kitabeler, 
ii, 36). When the amir Coban, the Ilkhanid governor- 
general, visited Anatolia in 1314 there was an 
Ashrafid among the Anatolian beys who came to 
offer him their obedience {Musdmarat al-Akhbdr, 
311); this must have been Mubariz al-DIn Muhammad. 

Muhammad Bey died after 1320 and was succeeded 
by his son Sulayman II, whose reign however was of 
short duration. The influence of the Ilkhanids in 
Anatolia having begun to wane, Demirtash, son of 
the amir Coban, was appointed governor of Anatolia. 
In his efforts to subdue the Anatolian beys, who had 
grown accustomed to acting independently and 
rebelliously, he first took Konya (1320), which had 



703 

come under Karamanid control. A few years later 
he marched on Beyshehri, seized Sulayman Bey, 
killed him, and threw his corpse into the Beyshehri 
lake (the Masdlik al-Absdr records that he was 
tortured to death: his eyes were put out, his nose 
and ears cut off, and his severed testicles were hung 
about his neck) on n Dhu '1-Ka'da 726/9 October 
1326 (this is the date shown in the Paris MS of the 
Seldiukndme; the Takwim-i Nudf&mi gives the year 
of his death as 722/1322-3. 

With the murder of Sulayman II the principality 
of the Ashrafids came to an end. After Demirtash's 
time, their territories fell into the hands partly of the 
Hamldids, partly of the Karamanids. No coins of the 
Ashrafids have yet come to light, but is possible 
that coins of Muhammad Bey exist. 

In his Masdlik al-Absdr, Shihab al-DIn 'Umari 
says that the Ashrafids possessed almost 70,000 
cavalry, 60 towns, and 150 villages. 

It is evident from the titles used by Sayf al-DIn 
Sulayman Bey in his inscription which he placed 
over the gate of the fortress of Beyshehri (which he 
called Sulaymanshehri) in Djumada I 689/May 1290 
(Amir-i Mu'azzam), and on his other inscriptions 
(al-Amir al- c Adil: see Halil Ethem and Yusuf 
Akyurt) that he was an amir of the Seldjuks. 

The mosque of Sulayman Bey, its minbar and 
mihrdb, are choice works of art. The ornate ceiling of 
the mosque, which is rectangular in shape, is sup- 
ported on 48 wooden pillars, decorated with stalactites. 
The mihrdb is adorned with porcelain mosaics, 
Kur'anic verses and hadiths. The minbar is a master- 
piece of the woodcarver's art, made of jointed sections- 
of ebony. Around the front of the door to the minbar 
is inscribed the Throne-verse, in Saldjuk naskhi 
script, while above the doorway are seen the names 
of the first four caliphs, in Kufic lettering. The 
mausoleum of Sulayman Bey, though most artistic, 
has become dilapidated with age. 

There exists a philosophical work in Arabic, in 
9 sections, entitled al-Fusul al-Ashrafiyya ft Usui 
aUBurhdniyya wa 'l-Kashfiyya, written for the 
Ashrafid Mubariz al-DIn Muhammad Bey by 
Shams al-DIn Muljammad Tushtari. The author's 
autograph copy, written at Konya in 710/1311, i>= 
in the library of St. Sophia (no. 2445). 

The Ashrafid family: 



S | ra 
Sayf al-DIn Sulayman I 



Sulayman II 

Bibliography: I. H. Uzuncarsili, Anadolu 
Beylikleri, Karakoyunlu ve Akkoyunlu Devletleri* 
Ankara 1937; Kitdbeler ii, Istanbul 1929; Anadolu 
Turk tarihinde tie miihim sima: Demirtas, Ersdna 
ve Kadi Burhanettin Ahmed, TTEM, 7. I93T 
Seldiukndme in Persian: Paris, Bibliotheque 
Nationale, Persian MS no. 1553, and text and 
translation by Dr Feridun Nafiz Uzluk, 1952;. 
Mandkib al-'Arifin, Suleymaniye library MS 
Halet Efendi no. 321, and annotated Turkish 
translation by Tahsin Yazici, 1954; Khalil Edhem, 
Anadoluda isldmi kitdbeler, TOEM year 5; Yusuf 
Akyurt, Beysehri kitabeleri ve Esref oguUari camii 
ve tiirbesi, in Tiirk Tarih, Arkeolojya ve Etnografya- 
Dergisi year 4, 1940; Khalil Edhem, Duwal-i 



ASHRAF OGHULLARl — ASHTURKA 



Isldmiyya, Istanbul 1927; Musdmarat al-Akkbdr, 

ed. Osman Turan, Ankara 1944 ; Masdlik al-Absdr, 

ed. Fr. Taeschner, Leipzig 1929. 

(Ismail Hakki Uzuncarsili) 

AgHRAFl [see sikka]. 

ASHRAFIYYA. Dervish-order (according to 
d'Ohsson), which takes its name from e Abd Allah 
Ashraf (Eshref) Rumi, died 899/1493 in Cin Iznik. 

al-'A&H&HAB (a.), the gatherer or vendor ot 
herbs, from the Arabic 'ushb, a word which means a 
fresh annual herb which is afterwards dried. In 
medical literature, the word is chiefly used to 
denote simples, and consequently al-'ashshdb means 
a vendor of or authority on medicinal herbs. Thus 
for example the celebrated physician Ibn al-Suwaydi 
(d. 690/1291), in a note preserved in his own hand 
on the title-page of Ms. No. 371 1 of the Aya Sofya, 
calls his teacher, the famous pharmacologist Ibn 
al-Baytar [q.v.], al- l ashshdb al-mdlafti, "the herbalist 
of Malaga". In this connexion it should be noted that 
the word al-shadjdidr , which is lacking in most 
dictionaries, means an authority on plants or a 
botanist; it is derived from shadjar, which is used 
for tree, bush, shrub or any plant with a strong 
woody stem, and also for plants in general. 

(M. Meyerhof) 

al-ASHTAR. Malik b. al-Harith al-Nakha'I, 
warrior and political agitator of the time of the Caliph 
'Uthman and supporter of 'All. He was surnamed 
al-Ashtar, "the man with inverted eyelids", as the 
result of a wound received at the battle of the 
Yarmuk (15/636). He distinguished himself by his 
boldness in the campaign against the Byzantines 
and even dared to venture beyond Darb in enemy 
territory (see Caetani, Annali, index). He was one 
of the most persistent agitators against the Caliph 
'Uthman and the ruling class of the period and 
defended the rights — or the claims — of the warriors 
to the fay* (booty consisting of landed property). 
After a violent scene in the presence of 'Uthman's 
governor at Kufa, Sa'Id b. al- c As (33/653-4), he was 
banished from Kufa to Syria together with ten other 
agitators; Mu'awiya subsequently sent him back to 
'Irak, but Sa c Id sent him on to the governor of 
Hims. As the agitation persisted in Kufa, he lost no 
time in returning and stirring up the masses (al- 
Tabari, i, 2907-17, 2921, 2927-31). He is to be found at 
the head of the band of seditious elements who pre- 
vented the return of the governor Sa'Id b. al- c As and 
who took upon themselves to obtain the appointment 
by the Caliph (34/654-5) of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari 
[?.».] (al-Tabari, i, 2927-30; al-Mas'Qdl, Muridj, iv, 
362-5). At the time of the insurrection in Medina, 
which ended with the assassination of the Caliph 
'Uftman (35/656), he brought two hundred men 
from Kufa (Ibn Sa'd, iii/i, 49) and was one of those 
who besieged "the House" (al-nuffdr) (al-Tabari, i, 
2989 f., etc.); his name is even cited among the 
murderers of the Caliph (Ibn 'Asakir, in Caetani, 
Annali, 35 A.H., paras. 137 and 169; Ibn 'Abd 
Rabbih, Hhd, (Bulak 1293), ", 278 etc.). 

His violence came to the fore also during the 
election of 'AH, for he threatened several recalcitrants, 
forcing them to swear the oath of allegiance to him 
(al-Tabari, i, 3068-9, 3075-77: al-Dinawari, 153). He 
then attached himself to 'All, but was often among 
those ot his supporters who presumed to impose 
their own will on him. 

During 'All's campaign against 'A'isha, Talha 
and al-Zubayr, he was sent to Kufa with other men 
of importance to persuade the inhabitants to take 
'All's side, and after succeeding in this objective, 



he brought reinforcement to his master. He took 
part in the battle of the Camel (36/656); the sources 
mention a duel which he fought with 'Abd Allah b. 
al-Zubayr, and other brave deeds. At the head of the 
vanguard of 'All's army in the campaign against 
Mu'awiya, he obliged the inhabitants of Rakka to 
build a bridge of boats over the Euphrates to enable 
the troops to cross (al-Tabari, i, 3259-60). At the 
battle of Siffin in which he commanded the right 
wing of the army, he displayed zeal and bravery 
(al-Tabari, i, 3283, 3284, 3294-300, 3327, 3328; al- 
Dlnawari 194-8; al-Mas'udl, IV, 343-9). 

'Ali wanted to have him as an arbitrator at the 
time when the famous arbitration between himself 
and Mu'awiya was proposed (see 'AlI b.AbITamb), 
but his supporters refused, well aware that such a 
choice would mean the continuation of the war; 
when al-Ashtar was informed that a truce had been 
decided upon, he wanted to go on fighting, for he 
thought that victory was near and the speech which 
he delivered on this occasion has come down to us 
(Nasr b. Muzahim al-Minkari, Wak'at Siffin, 562 f.; 
al-Tabari, i, 3331 f.; cf. al-Dinawari, 204); he then 
tried to avoid signing the agreement. It was probably 
because of his uncompromising attitude towards the 
truce with Mu'awiya, that 'AH got rid of him, by 
appointing him firstly governor of Mawsil (as well 
as of other towns of 'Irak and Syria which were in 
his possession, but al-Ashtar encountered opposition 
from al-Dahhak b. Kays al-Fihri, appointed governor 
by Mu'awiya, and had to withdraw to Mawsil) and 
then governor of Egypt; it is not known precise y 
whether this took place immediately after the recall 
of Kays b. Sa'd or after the dismissal of Muhammad 
b. Abi Bakr who had proved himself a bad politician 
(al-Kindi, Governors 22-4; al-Makrizi, ii, 336; al- 
Tabari, i, 3242; al-Ya'kubi, ii, 227; al-Mas'udi, 
Murudi, iv, 492; Caetani, Annali, 37 A.H. paras. 
221-3). However that may be, al-Ashtar never 
reached the seat of his appointment, for when 
he arrived at al-Kulzum (37/658 or 38?) he was 
poisoned by the local didyastdr (not the quaestor 
but the logistarius, see J. Maspero, in BIFAO, 
xi, 155-61), (al-Tabari, i, 3392-5)- On hearing of his 
death, 'All and Mu'awiya are said to have spoken 
the words which have subsequently become famous: 
— the former: li 'l-yadayn wa li 'l-fam "[fallen] 
hands and mouth [to the ground]" an expression 
indicating the pleasure felt on seeing someone fall 
(Maydani, Amthdl, ii, 475; cf. Caetani, Annali, 
37 A.H. para. 224, n. 1); the latter: "God even 
has troops >n the honey". Mu'awiya has been 
suspected of being the instigator of al-AsJktar's 
assassination; more certain is the fact that Mu'awiya 
considered al-Ashtar one of the "arms" of 'All, the 
other, according to him, being 'Ammar b. YSsir. 
From the physical point of view, al-Ashtar was a 
giant ; his sword bore the name al-ludidf "the sheen 
of running water" (TA, ii, 93). 

Bibliography: Information on al-Ashtar is 
to be found in all the chronicles and histories 
dealing with the early period of Islam as well as 
in the collections of biographies of early per- 
sonalities; Caetani, Annali, Index and vols, vii-x 
passim; several quotations "f sources, ibid. 37 A.H. 
paras. 332-9; Nasr b. Muzahim al-Minkari, Wafr'at 
Siffin, ed. 'Abd al-Salam M. Harun, Cairo 1365, 
Index; Ibn Abi 'l-Hadld, Shark Nahdj al-Balagha, 
Cairo 1329, i, 158-60, ii, 28-30, 8o, iii, 416, 417. 

(L. Veccia Vaglieri) 
ASHTURKA [see supplement]. 



'ASHCrA', name of a voluntary fast-day 
which is observed on the ioth Muharram. 

I. — When Muhammad came to Madina he adopted 
from the Jews amongst other days the 'Ashura 3 . The 
name is obviously the Hebrew c dsor with the Aramaic 
determinative ending; in Lev. xvi, 29 it is used of 
the great Day of Atonement. Muhammad retained 
the Jewish custom in the rite, that is, the fast was 
observed on this day from sunset to sunset, and 
not as in other fasts only during the day. When in 
the year 2 Muhammad's relations with the Jews 
became strained, Ramadan was chosen as the fast 
month, and the c Ashura'-f ast was no longer a religious 
duty but was left to the option of the individual. 
— On which day of the Arabian year the fast was 
originally observed cannot now be ascertained owing 
to our defective knowledge of the calendar of the 
period; naturally its observance coincided with the 
Jewish on the ibth Tishri, and so fell in the autumn. 
The ioth Muharram finds early mention as the 
c Ashura 3 ; probably the tenth day of the first 
Muslim month was selected to harmonise with the 
tenth day of the first Jewish month. From the cal- 
culations which have already been made, it does 
not seem possible that it could have been originally 
celebrated on the ioth Muharram (see Caetani, 
Annali, i, 431 f.). 

Presumably for the sake of distinguishing them- 
selves from the Jews some fixed the 9th Muharram 
either along with or in place of the tenth as a fast 
day with the name Tdsu'a'. 

The Jewish origin of the day is obvious; the well- 
known tendency of tradition to trace all Islamic 
customs back to the ancient Arabs, and particularly 
to Abraham, states that the Meccans of olden time 
fasted on the 'Ashura 3 . It is not impossible that the 
tenth, as also the first nine days of Muharram, did 
possess a certain holiness among the ancient Arabs ; 
but this has nothing to do with the 'Ashura 5 . 

The fast of the 'Ashura 5 was later and is still 
regarded by Muslims as commendable; the day is 
kept by the devout of the entire Sunni world; it 
is holy also on "historical" grounds: on it Noah 
left the ark, etc. In Mecca the door of the Ka'ba 
is opened on the day of the 'Ashura 5 for visitors (see 
Snouck Hurgronje, Mekka, ii, 51). In lands which are 
Sht'ite or come under Sht'ite influence quite different 
usages have become associated with the ioth Muhar- 
ram; in this connexion see muharram. 

Bibliography: The Chapter $awm 'Ashura' 
in the Collections of Traditions, and the approp- 
riate sections in the Fikh-books; Goldziher, Usages 
juifs d'apres la litterature des musulmans, in Rev. 
des Etudes juives, xxviii, 82-84; A. J. Wensinck, 
Mohammed en de Joden te Medina, 121-125; 
Th. W. Juynboll, Handbuch des islamischen 
Gesetzes, 115 f.; Noldeke-Schwally, Geschichte des 
Qorans, i, 179, note; Sprenger, Das Leben und die 
Lehre des Mohammad, iii, 53, note; Buhl, Das 
Leben Muhammeds, 214, 226; Lane, Modern 
Egyptians, Ch. xxiv. (A. J. Wensinck) 

II. — 'AshOrA 3 (Ashura) in the Maghrib. In practice 
a distinction is usually made between l Ashur, the 
name given to the month of Muharram, and ' Ashura, 
the name of the feast celebrated on the tenth of that 
month. The supererogatory fast enjoined on that day 
-seems to be unevenly kept, whilst alms-giving is a 
ore usual practice. Perhaps this is why children 
from the kur'anic schools, at l Ashura, go from door 
to door, singing and making collections for their 
masters. The dead are also honoured by visits to 
their tombs, which are copiously watered, and 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



IRA' 70S 

branches of myrtle are placed on them. The feast is 
celebrated by eating special dishes (fritters, flat 
cakes and gruel*, and especially, eggs and poultry. 
Popular manifestations of l Ashura vary according 
to the region and are at times on an extraordinary 

Three essential elements can be distinguished in 
the practices in use: 1) Fire and water rites. A bonfire 
of branches, leaves and grasses is built; this is very 
frequently lit by a person of repute, who is possessed 
of baraka [q.v.]. Whilst the bonfire bums, those 
present jump over it C-ammi l 6f of Takrouna). Also 
very common practices are throwing burning faggots 
from the bonfire into the river, mixing water with 
the ashes, bathing and sprinkling oneself with water. 
2) Marriage rites (when a sacrificial animal is some- 
times slaughtered). These are especially observed 
in Morocco: Douzrou ceremony (Tafilalet); the 
making of dolls and puppets representing l Ashur 
and his fiancee 'AshHra, in the Region of Agadir, in 
the Sus and the Middle Atlas, etc. ,3) Carnival rites, 
mainly in Morocco, in Western Oran, all along the 
edge of the Sahara, in the Sahara, Tunisia and 
Libya. The Maghrib! carnival (faria), with numerous 
almost always includes a trial, an 
ad a funeral; the victim is usually an 
old man or an old woman, dressed up in a burlesque 
costume, at times wearing animal skins or pelts or 
a tunic made of plaited plants (shdyb l ashura at 
Ouargla, bu-lifa at Biskra, bu-jlud in Morocco and at 
Tlemcen, bu-heremma in Southern Morocco and 
Oran, bu 'l-fddm, bdbd <-lsh6r elsewhere, etc. . . .). 
One of the figures in the faria is usually that of an 
enormous beast, a lion, a mule or a camel, which 
both delights and terrifies the spectators. 

It is generally agreed that the complex customs of 
Ashura in the Maghrib reflect the survival of very 
ancient agrarian rites, in fact the celebration of the 
death of the year coming to its end and the birth of 
their popular aspects, which are both sad and joyful. 
The traditional Muslim Shi'ite mourning has, in all 
likelihood, become grafted on to this magico-religious 
substratum, whilst the lunar calendar has taken over 
a solar year cult, subjecting it to a temporal dis- 
placement. Through these superimpositions, remains 
of this ancient disrupted ceremonial have, here and 
there, become haphazardly attached to Muslim 
feasts (the two 'ids and mawlid [qq.v.]) and to the 
various periods and holidays of the agricultural year 
(rds el- l dm, enndyr, rbi', l ansara [qq.v.].) 

Bibliography: Gaudefroy-Demembynes, La 
flu de Achoura d Tunis, in Revue des Traditions 
populates 1903, 11; E. Doutte, Merrakech, Paris 
r9<>5, 371-2; Biarnay, Etude sur le dialecte berbere 
de Ouargla, Paris 1908, 212; A. Bel, La population 
musulmane de Tlemcm, in Revue des Etudes ethno- 
graphiques et sociologiques 1908, 8-9; S. Boulifa, 
Textes berberes en dialecte de I'AUas marocain, 
Paris 1908, 146-67; E. Doutte, Magie et religion 
dans I'Afrique du Nord, Alger 1909, 526-40; 
Monchicourt, La fUe de Achoura, in Revue 
tunisienne 1910, 299-324; Castells, Note sur la 
fUe de Achoura i Rabat, in Archives berberes 1916; 
E. Laoust, Noms et ctrimonies des feux de joie chei 
Us Berberes du Haul et de I'Anti-AUas, in tjetfins 
1921; W. Marcais et A. Guiga, Textes arabes de 
Takrouna, Paris 1925, i, 347 ff. (copious biblio- 
graphy); E. Westermarck, Ritual and belief in 
Morocco, London 1926, ii, 58-86; Godard, Croyan- 
c?s et coutumes du Eezzan: la file de Achoura d 
Edri, in Bulletin de liaison saharienne, Algiers 
1956, 79-84. (Ph. Marcais) 

45 



706 al-'ASI - 

al- c A$1 is the name in use among the Arabs for 
the Orontes. The classical name of this river, the 
most important in northern Syria, is preserved in 
Arabic literature as al-Urunt, al-Urund. Presumably 
the origin of the word c Asi, like that of the Greek 
Axios, must be sought in an ancient native name. 
The common explanation of al-'AsI = "the rebel" 
is a popular etymology with no actual foundation, 
and the name al-nahr al-maklub = fluvius inversus 
is probably a scholarly invention. 

The river-system of the 'Asi begins to the north of 
the watershed formed by the highland-valley of al- 
Bika c not far from Ba'albakk, but really only 
obtains its volume of water farther north near al- 
Hirmil from a spring, generally called simply the 
Orontes Spring, which wells forth in a strong stream 
from the rock. Following the line of the Syrian canal 
to its northern end, the river flows through several 
lakes or marshes (those of Kadas and of Famiya = 
Kal'at al-Mudlk) ; on its banks are situated the most 
important towns of central Syria, Hims and Hamat. 
At the point where the Syrian buttresses rejoin the 
faults of Armenia and Asia Minor the river turns 
away from the north and flows towards the south- 
west, receives the streams which, rising in the most 
northerly regions of Syria, discharge into the marshes 
of al-'Amk, and reaches the sea below Antakiya, to 
the south of the Amanus, at a point where the coast 
is flat and devoid of natural harbours (Seleucia and 
al-Suwaydiyya were artificial harbours). 

The geographical peculiarities of the course of the 

Orontes, and its comparatively abundant flow, have 

long permitted the traditional use of its waters for 

irrigation. But the favourable conditions which it 

presents for large-scale modern development have 

as yet only given rise to partially realised projects. 

Bibliography: Yakut, iii, 588; Abu '1-Fida', 

Takwtm, 49; G. Le Strange, Palestine under the 

Moslems, London 1890, 59-61; R. Dussaud, 

Topographie historique de la Syrie, Paris 1927, 

-index; CI. Cahen, La Syrie du nord A Vipoque des 

Croisades, Paris 1940, index; J. Wellhausen, 

ZDMG, Ix, 245-6; J. Weulersse, UOronte, Tours 

1940. (R. Hartmann *) 

A$lLA (now Arzila in Fr. and Port., Arcila in 

Span.), town and port on the Atlantic coast of 

Morocco, situated about 50 kms. S.S.W. of Tangiers 

and not far from the mouth of al-Wadl al-Hulw 

(Oued el-Helou). According to Spanish statistics, 

the population rose from slightly over 6,ooo 

inhabitants in 1935 to just under 16,000 in 1949, 

with a majority of Muslims, a negligible Jewish 

minority and a small number of Europeans, mainly 

Spaniards. 

The name Aslla seems to derive from the forms 
ZijXis (Strabo), Zilis (Itinerary of Antoninus and the 
Anonym us of Ravenna) or Zilia (Ptolemy and 
Pomponius Mela); but the ancient authors tell us 
hardly anything about the town, which may have 
originally been a Phoenician trading-post. In 
contrast, it is frequently mentioned and described 
by the Arab historians and geographers, among 
others by Ibn Hawkal and al-Bakri. According to the 
latter, Aslla was twice visited by the Normans in 
the 3rd/9th century. In the 6th/i2th century, al-ldrisl 
describes it as a small town in complete decay. But 
trade must have enjoyed a certain prosperity there 
in the 9th/i5th century, because at the time of the 
disaster suffered by the Portuguese before Tangiers 
(1437). Jewish merchants and Genoese and Castilian 
business men were to be found there; the Wattasid 
sultans of Fez seem also to have made Aslla on 



their principal bases. However, the history of the 
town is only really well known in the period during 
which it was occupied by the Portuguese (1471-1550). 
They took it, partly with a view to taking Tangier 
in the rear, on 24th August 1471, under the command 
of King Alfonso V, called "the African" (1438-81), 
with the aid of his son, the future John II. The 
almost immediate result of the fall of Aslla was 
the fall of Tangier, which the Portuguese entered 
without striking a blow. The new masters built a 
strong citadel at Aslla with a dungeon and a vast 
walled enclosure, which contained the whole town; 
the whole of these fortifications still survive today. 
The Portuguese garrison, in conjunction with the 
garrisons of Ceuta, al-Kasr al-Saghlr and especially 
of Tangier, had constantly to contend with the 
hostility of the marabouts, of local chiefs (Djabal 
Harub), of the Raids of al-Kasr al-Kablr, Larache, 
Tetuan and Chechaouen (Mawlay Ibrahim) and of 
the Wattasid sultans of Fez, especially Muhammad 
al-Burtukall: they endured several sieges; the most 
serious was that of 1508; the Portuguese lost the 
town and only retained the citadel; they were saved 
by the intervention of a squadron which arrived 
from Portugal, which was soon after reinforced by 
the Spanish fleet of Pedro Navarro. Furthermore, 
the fortress was handicapped by the insecurity of its 
port, which was blocked by a reef. In August 1550, 
King John III of Portugal (1521-57) had it evacuated 
— a few weeks after al-Kasr al-Saghlr — with a view 
to concentrating all his forces in Northern Morocco 
at Tangier and Ceuta. In 1577, Aslla was reoccupied 
by King Sebastian (1557-78), as the price of his 
alliance with the Sa'did prince Muhammad al- 
Maslukh and with a view to the expedition in which 
he lost his life, at the battle of the Three Kings, or 
the battle of al-Kasr al-Saghir (4th August 1578): it 
was at Aslla that the Christian army landed and it 
was from Aslla that it set out on 29th July 1578 to 
meet the Moroccan army. Philip II, King of Portugal 
since 1580 following the death of Cardinal Henry, 
gave the town back to the Sa'did sultan al-Mansflr 
in 1589. From this date onwards, Aslla has led a 
quiet and obscure existence. It formed part of the 
region subject to the authority of the Sharif 
RaysunI, when it was occupied in 1912 by the 
Spaniards, who incorporated it in their zone. 

Bibliography: All the requisite information 
on Aslla prior to 1589 is collected together in 
David Lopes, Histdria de Arzila durante o dominio 
portuguts, Coimbra 1924-5 (based strictly on the 
sources, especially Bernardo Rodrigues, Anais de 
Arzila, ed. David Lopes, 2 vols., Lisbon 1915-9); 
see also Adolfo L. Guevara, Arcila durante la ocupa- 
cidn portuguesa, Tangier 1940, and Pierre deenival, 
David Lopes and Robert Ricard, Les Sources in- 
idites de I'histoire du Maroc, Portugal, 5 vols., Paris 
1934-53, and the bibliography of the article 
Asfi concerning the Portuguese period. For 
recent events: Tomas Garcia Figueras, Miscelanea 
de estudios histdricos sobre Marruecos, Larache 1949, 
421 ff. (R. Ricard) 

C A$IM, AbO Bakr 'Asm b. Bahdala Abi 
'l-NadjdjOd al-AsadI, a mawla of the Bant 
Djudjjayma of the Asad. Some say Bahdala was his 
mother's name and his father's name c Abd Allah, 
though he was known Abu 'l-Nadjdjud. He is said 
to have been a dealer in wheat (hannaf) who suc- 
ceeded as-Sulaml as head of the Kufan School of 
Kur'an Readers, where his preeminence in Kur'anic 
studies secured him a place as one of the Seven 
Readers whose systems became canonical. Indeed 



'ASIM - 



707 



through his pupil Hafs [q.v.] his system of pointing 
and vowelling the Kur'anic text has become the 
Uxtus receptus in Islam. He is classed as a Follower 
and had a small part in transmitting hadith. His 
fame, however, was as a kari' and a teacher of 
hird'it, in which he had the reputation of being a 
hudjdia. In this branch of learning he is said to have 
been the pupil of Abu 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sulaml 
(d. 74/693-4), Zirr b. Hubaysh (d. 82/701-2) and Abu 
'Amr Sa'd b. Iyas al-Shaybanl (d. 96/714-5), through 
one or other of whom his readings may be traced 
back to all the most famous names in Kur'anic 
learning among the Companions. He had a large 
number of pupils who transmitted his system, but 
his two rdwis in the canonical list are Abu Bakr b. 
'Ayyish (d. 194) and Hafs b. Sulayman (d. 190). He 
died late in 127 or early in 128/745. 

Bibliography : Ibn Khallikan. i, 304, 305 
(no- 314); Ibn Kutayba, Ma'drif, 263; Ibn al- 
Nadlm, Fihrist, 29; Ibn al-'Imad, Shadhardt i, 
174; Ibn al-Djazarl, Ghaya, no. 1496; idem, 
Ntisbr, i. 156; al-Dani, Taysir, 6; Ibn Hadjar, 
Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, v, 38-40 ; al-Dhahabl, Mizan 
al-IHiddl, ii, 5 no. 26. (A. Jeffery) 

'ASIM, Ahmad, imperial historiographer of the 
Ottoman empire, born in 'Ayntab (the modern 
Gaziantep) in south-eastern Anatolia about the 
year 1755. He was the son of Seyyid Mehmed, a 
clerk of the court, who became famous as a poet 
under the name of Djenanl. His family was one of the 
old-established ones in the place. In his early youth 
he acquired an equally fluent knowledge of Arabic 
and Persian, and this helped him in later years to 
achieve his fame as a translator (miiterdiim) of well- 
known dictionaries. To begin with, Seyyid Ahmed 
was the secretary of the law-court of his home town, 
and later in nearby Kilis. In 1790 he went to 
Istanbul, where he gained the sultan's favour with 
a translation of the Burhdn-i Kd(i c which was 
dedicated to Sellm III. He subsequently became a 
professor. In 1802 he was sent to the Hidjaz, and 
on his return he brought his whole family from 
'Ayntab to Istanbul. In 1807 he became imperial 
historiographer (wak'a-niivis) ; as such he compiled 
a history of the Ottoman empire (later printed in 
two volumes) from the peace treaty of Sistova 
(4 August 1791) to the accession of Mahmud II 
(28 July 1808). Later, he translated the Kamus al- 
Muh(( (which was reprinted several times) into 
Turkish. In later years he returned to his calling as 
a teacher, then as judge (Mulla of Selinlk, Feb. 18 14), 
and died on 28 Sept. 18 19 in Skutari, where he owned 
a house near the well of Nuh (Nuh kuyu). He lies 
buried in the Karadja Ahmed cemetery, and the in- 
scription on his tomb is in l Othmdnli Muellifleri i, 375. 
In his capacity as imperial historioriographer, 
he surpasses his predecessors in a presentation 
which is at the same time a fluent day-to-day 
chronicle, yet also critical in its treatment of events. 
Finally, he translated the Cairo chronicle of the 
French occupation, by al-Djabartl — which became 
known in Europe too (French ed. by A. Cardin, 
Paris 1838) — from Arabic into his mother-tongue. 
This version is preserved in manuscript form in 
Paris (Bibl. Nationale s.t. 1283; cf. E. Blochet, 
Catal., ii, 221) and in Cairo. It was never printed 
because the Cairo chronicle was soon afterwards 
translated again by the court-physician Mustafa 
Behdjet Efendi, and then printed (as Te'rikh-i 
Mifr, 260 Ss. 12 , Istanbul 1282) after having 
previously appeared as a feuilleton in Diertde-i 
hawddUh (cf. J AS, 1868, i, 477 f.). 



Bibliography: Sidjiil-i 'Othmdni, iii, 283; A. D. 
Mordtmann, in Augsburger Allgem. Zeitung of 
29 June 1875, supplement no. 180; Fattn, tedhkire, 
226; GOW, 339 f. with further bibliographical 
details; 'OthmSnll Muellifleri, i, 375 f.; Turk Mef- 
hurlarl (Istanbul, n.d., ca. 1946) 47 f. (with a 
picture which pretends to be a portrait). 

(Fr. Babinger) 
'A§IM EFENDI ISMA'lL [see celebi-zade]. 
ASlR, the takhalluf of MIrza Djalal al-DIn 
Muhammad b. MIrza Mu'min, Persian poet and 
pupil of FasujI Harawl. Born at Isfahan: probable 
date of death 1049/1639-40, though some sources give 
later dates. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he 
did not migrate to the Mughal court, but became a 
boon companion and close relative (according to one 
account the son-in-law) of Shah 'Abbas I. He 
composed most of his poetry under the influence of 
alcohol, from an excess of which he died. His diwdn, 
comprising kafidas, mathnawis, tard^-bands and 
ghazals, was lithographed at Lucknow in 1880. 

Bibliography: The MSS. Catalogues of Rieu 
(British Museum), ii, 681, and Pertsch (Berlin), 
no. 938. A-»>aj al-Khdkdni, i6 3l >.; Ethe, in Gr. I. 
Ph., ii, 311. (R. M. Savory) 

c ASlR, a region in Western Arabia named after 
a confederation of tribes in al-Sarat [q.v,]. The 
concept of a separate region intervening between 
al-Hidjaz and the Yaman developed in the 19th 
century and is now sanctioned by official Saudi 
Arabian practice, which uses the name 'Asir for the 
highlands southwards from al-Nimas to Nadjran, 
and Tihamat 'Asir for the lowlands bordering the 
Red Sea between al-Kahma and the Yaman frontier. 
From al-TS'if to the Yaman there is no gap in the 
bold range of al-Sarat. The core is crystalline rock, 
but in certain fault zones volcanic activity has 
produced lava fields, one. of which, reaching the Red 
Sea just south of Haly, used to form the natural 
boundary between al-Hidjaz and the Yaman. The 
main drainage divide, some 50 to 75 m. (80 to 120 km.) 
inland, rises abruptly to heights of over 6000 ft. 
(2,000 m.), with peaks over 9000 ft. (3,000 m.). 
Streams fed by rain from the fringe of the monsoons 
have carved great gorges in the steep seaward 
flanks. Drainage on the gentler eastern slope follows 
fracture zones northwards, creating the major wadi 
systems of BIsha and Tathlith, which eventually 
turn eastwards to empty their flood waters into 
Wadi al-Dawasir. Along these wadi systems Philby 
traces the Road of the Elephant (Darb al-FU). 

The highland capital is Abha [q.v.], the centre of 
the confederation of 'Asir, which consists of BanI 
Mughayd, BanI Malik, 'Alkam, and Rabl'a wa-Ru- 
fayda. Other important tribes are Ridjal Alma' on the 
western slopes, Ridjal al-Hidjr and Shahran north of 
Abha, and elements of Kahtan, including 'Abida, 
from Abha south to Zahran. 

Along the reef-lined coast of Tihamat 'Asir are 
the little ports of al-Kahma, al-Shukayk, and 
Pjayzan (classical Djazan), the last being the capital 
of the district, which also embraces the Farasan 
Archipelago. Inland from Djayzan is an extensively 
cultivated area surrounding Umm al-Khashab 
(Baysh), Sabya, and Abu 'Arish. Among the larger 
wadis debouching on the plain of Tihamat 'Asir are 
those of 'Itwad, Baysh, and Pamad. 

Terracing is widely practiced in the highlands, 
where rainfall of c. 12 ins. (30 cm.) a year provides 
for the cultivation* of grains and fruits. Coffee is 
grown near the Yaman border, and kdt on the slopes 
of Djabal Fayfa. Grains and vegetables are raised 



in Tihama, and some indigo around Sabya and Abu 
'Arish. The dawm palm is cultivated for its fruit 
and leaves, which are woven into baskets and mats, 
but almost all dates come from BIsha or by sea. 

The ways of the mountaineers tend towards those 
of Nadjd, while the ways of the lowlanders indicate 
the closeness of their contact with Africa. Dwellings 
vary from mud-brick buildings with projecting stone 
tiles in the mountains to thatch huts on the coast. 
There are virtually no tent-dwellers in the mountains 
or on the coast plain, the nomads using a mat 
shelter. The isolation of mountain towns and ranges 
has contributed to the complexity and fragmentation 
of the tribal system. The Arabic speech of some of 
the tribes is held to be remarkable for its purity and 
freedom from outside influence, but kashkasha and 
other dialectal deviations are not uncommon. 

The name 'Aslr was originally borne by several 
Kahtanite tribes centred on Abha who had attached 
themselves to the 'Adnanites of 'Anz b. Wall. 
Among the early divisions of 'Anz were Rabi'a, 
Rufayda, and Malik. Other old tribes in the region 
were Khath'am (including Shahran and Aklub) and 
al-Azd (including al-Hidjr, Alma', and Azd Sjianu'a, 
among whose branches were Ghamid and Zahran). 
Sections of Kinana were established along the coast. 

In the time of the Ziyadids [q.v.] in the Yaman 
(204-409/819-1018), the lord of 'Aththar, Sulayman 
b. jarf al-Hakaml, held Tihama from al-Shardja to 
Haly (Mikhlaf Ibn Tarf or al-Mikhlaf al-Sulaymanl, 
a name still used on occasion by the inhabitants). 
In 460/1067-8 the Sulayhid C A11 b. Muhammad 
defeated a Tarfid and his Abyssinian allies at al- 
Zaralb, 'Umara al-Hakami's birthplace. 

The Tarfids gave way as rulers of the Mikhlaf in 
the 5th/nth century to the Sulaymanid Sharifs, 
who after a passing hegemony in Mecca had been 
supplanted there by the Hashimids (see Makka). 
The principal Sulaymanid capital was Djayzan while 
lesser Sulaymanid dynasties arose in Sabya, Pamad, 
etc. One of the Sulaymanids, c Ulayy b. 'Isa Al 
Wahhas, taught al-Zamakhshari in Mecca; many 
others turned to nomadic life in the Mikhlaf. A 
victory of the Mahdids of the Yaman over the 
Sulaymanids in 560/1 164-5 was instrumental in 
bringing about the occupation of the Yaman by 
Saladin's brother Turan Shah. Sulaymanid authority, 
impaired by the advent of the Ottomans, yielded 
to a more vigorous local dynasty. The Khayratids, 
sharifs descended from the House of Katada in 
Mecca, in time installed themselves in the position 
once held by the Sulaymanids as independent rulers 
in the Mikhlaf; the foremost figure among them in 
the early 19th century was Hamud b. Muhammad 
Abu Mismar of Abu 'Arish (d. 1233/1818). 

For centuries intertribal feuds had kept the 
highlands disunited. The missionary zeal of Wah- 
habism, advancing westwards from Central Arabia 
late in the 19th century, provided a basis for unifi- 
cation under Muhammad b. c Amir Abu Nukta al- 
Rufaydl, the first Amir of c Asir al-Sarat under Al 
Sa'ud (1215-18/c. 1801-3). Under the chiefs of 
Rufayda, who held power until 1233/1818, the year 
of the fall of the Saudi capital al-DirHyya, the 
WahhabI tribesmen of 'Aslr came into conflict with 
Sharif Hamud in the lowlands, who, though he 
recognised the authority of Al Sa'ud at times, was 

Muhammad C A1I Pasha's forces from Egypt, which 
had occupied al-Hidjaz as a base for the war against 
Al Sa'ud, carried on campaigns to the south in al- 
Sarat and Tihama on various occasions until 1256/ 



R 709 

1840, the year of their withdrawal from Arabia 
under pressure from the Western powers. In 1239/ 
1823-4 a chief of Ban! Mughayd, Said b. Muslat, 
became the dominant figure in c AsIr al-Sarat, a 
position held by himself and his successors, with 
one main interruption, for the next century. In 1248/ 
1833 'All b. MudjaththU al-Mughaydl cooperated 
with Tiirkce Bilmez and other Albanians who had 
mutinied against the Egyptian authorities; later 
the men of c AsIr broke with the mutineers and 
defeated them. Upon 'All's death in 1249/1833-4, 
the succession fell to 'Aid b. Mar'I al-Mughaydl, 
the first to found a dynasty in the highlands. A new 
advance southwards by Muhammad 'All's com- 
manders, who took control of the Mocha coffee trade, 
coupled with a forward movement in Central and 
Eastern Arabia, prompted the occupation of Aden 
by the British in 1254/1839. The departure of 
Muhammad 'All's troops from Arabia shortly 
thereafter left 'Aid master of 'Aslr al-Sarat and the 
Khayratids masters of al-Mikhlaf al-Sulaymanl as 
well as much of Tihamat al- Yaman. 

Following the death of 'Aid in 1273/1856-7, his 
son Muhammad drove al-Hasan b. Muhammad, the 
last of the Khayratids, out of Abu 'Arish in 1280/ 
1863. The expanding power of Al 'Aid in Tihama 
provoked Ottoman intervention, facilitated by the 
opening of the Suez Canal. In 1289/1872 Muhammad 
Radif Pasha defeated Muhammad b. 'Aid at Rayda 
and put him to death. 'Aslr, established as a 
mutasarrifiyya attached to the wildyet of the Yaman, 
remained under Turkish rule for more than forty 
years, but this rule often extended no farther than 
the towers of the garrison town of Abha. 

Early in the 20th century the place of the Sulay- 
manids was taken by Sayyid Muhammad b. 'All 
al-ldrisl. He was the great-grandson of Ahmad b. 
Idrls, the founder of the Ahmadiyya (Idrlsiyya) 
farika who had migrated from Morocco to Sabya, 
which was to become the Idrlsl capital. Relying on 
his great prestige as a man of religion, al-ldrisl 
brought the lowlands under his sway, negotiated 
with thcltalians on the other side of the Red Sea, 
and laid siege to the Turks in Abha. The Sharif of 
Mecca, al-Husayn b. 'All, led an expedition south- 
wards to relieve the beleaguered garrison of Sulayman 
Shaflk Kamall Pasha in 1329/1911. 

During the First World War, al-ldrisl was the 
first independent prince in Arabia to join the 
British against the Turks by virtue of a treaty 
signed in 1333/1915. After the defeat of the Turks the 
British awarded the port of al-Hudayda to him 
rather than Imam Yahya of the Yaman. An attempt 
to annex the highlands having failed, al-ldrisl 
solicited the mediation of 'Abd al-'AzIz Al Sa'ud, 
but this was rejected by al-Hasan b. Muhammad Al 
'Aid, the lord of Abha since the evacuation of the 
Turks in 1337/1918. An expedition sent by 'Abd al- 
'Azlz occupied Abha in 1388/1920. Al 'Aid later 
revolted and continued the struggle briefly, but in 
1 342/ 1 92 3 the resistance of the dynasty ebbed away 
and the highlands were incorporated in the Saudi 
state. Muhammad al-ldrisl concluded a treaty with 
Ibn Sa'ud in 1339/1920, but the dissensions within 
the Idrisid realm subsequent to his death resulted 
in the establishment of a Saudi protectorate. The 
Imam of the Yaman maintained a claim to the 
Idrisid territories until the Treaty of al-TS'if 
finally determined their appurtenance to Saudi 
Arabia in I353/I934- 

Bibliography : Fu'ad Hamza, Fi Bildd c Asir, 

Cairo 195 1; HamdanI; Ibn Bishr, l Unwdn al- 



c ASlR — <ASKALAN 



Madid, Mecca 1349; Ibn 'Inaba, 'Umdat al-T&lib, 
al-Nadjaf 1337 ; Muhammad b. Muhammad Zabara, 
Nayl al-wafar, Cairo 1348-50; Muhammad { Umar 
Rafl c , Fl /?«&«< c Aslr, Cairo 1373; Sharaf al- 
Barakatl, al-Rihla al-Yamdniya, Cairo 1330; 
<Umar Ibn Rasul, TurfaX al-Ashdb, ed. Zettersteen, 
Damascus 1949; 'Umara al-Hakaml, Ta'rikh al- 
Yaman, ed. Kay, London 1892; Yakut. 

Admiralty, A Handbook of Arabia, London 
1916-17 and Western Arabia and the Red Sea, 
London 1946; E. Driault, L'Egypte et V Europe, 
IV, Rome 1933; H. Jacob, Kings of Arabia, 
London 1923; E.-F. Jomard, Etudes giographiques 
et historiques sur I' Arabic, Paris 1839; F. Mengin, 
Histoire sommaire de I'fcgypte, Paris 1839; B. 
Moritz, Arabian, Hanover 1923; Nallino, Scritti; 
H. Philby, Arabian Highlands, Ithaca, N.Y. 1952 ; 
M. Tamisier, Voyage en Arabic, Paris 1940; 
W. Thesiger, A Journey through the Tihama, the 
'Asir, and the Hijas Mountains, in GJ 1948; A. 
Toynbee, ed., Survey of International Affairs, 
1925, 1928 and 1934, London 1927, 1929, 1935; 
K. TwitcheU, Report of the U.S. Agricultural 
Mission to Saudi Arabia, Cairo 1943 and Saudi 
Arabia*, Princeton 1953. 

(R. Headley, W. Mulligan, G. Rentz) 
ASlRGARH, a fortress situated 21 28' N., 76" 
18' E in the Burhanpur tahsil of the Nimar district 
of Madhya Pradesh, about 2,200 feet above sea level 
and 850 feet high from its base, dominating the only 
route through the Satpura range between the 
Narbada and the TaptI from north west India to the 
Dekkan. 

Probably of great antiquity (see H. Cousens, Lists 
of Antiquarian Remains in the Central Provinces 
and Berar, Arch. Sur. India, 1897, P. 39, A. Cun- 
ningham, Report on a Tour in the Central Provinces, 
Calcutta 1879, 120-1, Gazetteer, (Khandesh) Bombay 
1880, 557-58), Aslrgarh was certainly a stronghold 
of the Tak branch of the Couhan Radjputs from the 
3rd/9th century. It was stormed by c Ala 5 al-DIn 
Khaldil. then mukfa* of Karra, in the winter of 
695/1295-6 on the way back from his Dekkan raid 
(see Tod, Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, ed. 
Crooke, 1920, iii, 1463 and 1467 where the date 
Samvat 1351 is given), but not permanently occupied 
by Muslim forces until about 802/1400 when it was 
seized by Malik Nasir Khan FarukI to become the 
supposedly impregnable stronghold of the FarukI 
sultans of Khandesh. (See Firishta, text, ed. Briggs, 
ii, 544, A'ln-i Akbarl, text, ed. Blochmann, i, 475 
and Bombay Gazetteer, loc. cit.). 

Aslrgarh was captured by Akbar in 1009/1600-1, 
becoming the headquarters of the marzuban of the 
frontier suba of Dandish. (On Akbar's conquest 
see Vincent Smith, Akbar the Great Mogul, Sec. ed. 
1902, 272-286). 

In 1032/1623 Shah Djahan, then in rebellion against 
Pjahangir, took refuge at Aslrgarh and later c. 
1061/1650-1 built a mosque there. In 1132/1720 it 
passed into the hands of Nizam al-Mulk, subaddr 
of Malwa, and was lost entirely to the Mughals in 
1173/1760 when the Mahratta Badjirao Peshwa 
occupied it. Aslrgarh was first captured by the 
British in 1218/1803 and finally occupied by them 
in 1234/1819- 

Bibliography: see text; also Gazetteer of the 
Central Provinces, ed. C. Grant, Nagpur 1870, 
Imperial Gazetteer, vi, Oxford, 1908, and Arch. 
Sur. India Report, 1922-23. (P. Hardy) 

ASITANA [s 



ASIYA. This is the name given by the commen- 
ators to Pharaoh's wife, who is twice (xxviii, 9 and 
lxvi, n) mentioned in the Kur'an. She plays the 
same part as Pharaoh's daughter in the Bible, so 
that there is obviously confusion. In the second 
passage these words are put into her mouth: "My 
Lord, build me a house with thee in Paradise, and 
deliver me from Pharaoh and his doings and deliver 
me from the wicked". In connexion with this 
age it is related that Asiya endured many 
cruelties at the hands of Pharaoh because of her 
faith (she was an Israelite); and finally he even 
caused her to be cast down upon a rock; at her 
prayer God took her soul to himself, so that only 
the body fell on the stone.— It is also related that 
Pharaoh scourged her to death, but on Moses' 
praying to God she did not feel any pain. J. Horo- 
vitz explains the name as a corruption of Aseaath, 
the name of Joseph's wife in Gen. xli, 45. 

Bibliography : The Kur'an commentaries on 
xxviii, 9 and lxvi, n esp. Tabari, Tafsir, Cairo 
1321, xx, 19-21, xxviii, 98; idem, Ta'rikh, i, 444 f., 
448-50; Ibn al-Attilr, i, 119, 121 f., 130; ThaMabl, 
Kisas al-Anbiya > , Cairo 1292, 146-50, 164; Kisal 
(Eisenberg), 199 ff.; G. Weil, Biblische Legenden 
der Muselmdnner, 1845, 138-41; M. Griinbaum, 
Neue Beitrdge zur semitischen Sagenkunde, 1889, 
155 '•» 159 f. ; J- Horovitz, Koranische Unter- 
suchungen, 1926, 86; H. Speyer, Die Biblischen 
Erzdhlungen im Qoran, 281 f. 

(A. J. Wensinck) 
'ASKALAN, a town on the coast of southern 
Palestine, one (Hebrew: 5 Ashkel6n) of the five 
Philistine towns known to us from the Old Testa- 
ment; in the Roman period, as oppidum Ascalo 
liberum, it was (according to Schriirer, Geschichte des 
Judischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu>, ii, 65-7) "a 
flourishing Hellenistic town famous for its cults and 
festal games" (Dercetis-Aphrodite-shrine) ; in the 
Christian period a bishop's see (tomb of the tres 
fratres martyres Aegyptii). 

'Askalan was one of the last towns of Palestine 
to fall into the hands of the Muslims. It was taken 
sulk" by Mu'awiya shortly after the capture of 
Kaysariyya in 19/640, but may have been briefly 
occupied by c Amr b. al-'As before that. It was 
reoccupied for a short time by the Byzantines 
during the time of Ibn al-Zubayr and was sub- 
sequently restored and refortified by l Abd al-Malik 
b. Marwan (Baladhuri, Fufuh, 142-4). According to 
an inscription from a building which was discovered 
by Clermont-Ganneau, the Caliph al-Mahdl in 
155/772 caused a mosque and minaret to be erected 
there (RCEA, i, 32-3). After varied fortunes the town 
passed into the hands of the Fajimids, under whose 
rule, according to MukaddasI and Nasir-i Khusraw. 
it attained some prosperity. It housed a mint, and 
served at times as a secondary naval base. Together 
with some other coastal towns, it was retained by 
the Fatimids, even after the loss of the rest of 
Syria and Palestine to the Saldjttks, though some- 
times this' retention amounted to no more than a 
nominal suzerainty over the local rulers. In 492/1099 
the Egyptian army retreating from Jerusalem entered 
the town, and for a while it seemed that 'Askalan 
itself was about to pass under Frankish rule. It was 
however saved by the internal dissensions of the 
Crusaders, and was retained by the Egyptians. For 
the next century and a half it was a frontier city and 
a key military objective in the struggle between the 
Crusaders and the Muslim rulers of Egypt. For the 
first 53 years after the coming of the Crusaders, it 



'ASKAR MUKRAM 



was held by the Egyptians, and used by them as a 
bridgehead and as a base for raids into Frankish 
territory. With its population swollen by refugees 
from the Frankish occupied areas, and its garrison 
reinforced from Egypt, it became a major military 
centre. Despite the partial resumption of trade with 
Jerusalem, life in this outpost was difficult, and the 
Egyptians found it necessary to send new supplies 
and relief troops several times a year (William of Tyre, 
XVII, 22; Ibn Muyassar, Annates, 92). According 
to William of Tyre, the whole civil population, in- 
cluding children, was on the army payroll. After the 
fall of Tyre to the Crusaders in n 34, the position of 
'Askalan was much weakened. To neutralise the 
threat which it offered to Jerusalem, the Crusaders 
surrounded it with a ring of fortresses, and in 548/ 
1153, after a siege of seven months, Baldwin III got 
possession of the town by a combined land and sea 
attack. It now became the base for Frankish military 
and political adventure in Egypt. After the battle of 
HUtln it had, like most of the Crusader strongholds 
in Palestine, to surrender to Salah al-DIn (583/1187). 
In 587/1 191, after the defeat at Arsuf, the latter 
found himself unable to hold 'Askalan against 
Richard of England and therefore destroyed the 
town. The Muslim population migrated to Syria and 
Egypt, the Christians and Jews moved to Jerusalem. 
A vivid description of the destruction of the town and 
the evacuation of its inhabitants is given in the anon- 
ymous Mamluk chronicle published by K. V. Zetter- 
steen {Bcitragc, 233-5). Richard reached 'Askalan in 
Dhul-Hidjdja 587/January 1192 and rebuilt the 
fortress, but according to the peace terms of August- 
September of the same year, it had again to be demol- 
lished. The rivalries between al-Salih Ayyub of Egypt 
and al-Salih Isma'il of Damascus once more 
let it slip into the hands of the Franks. It was 
garrisoned and refortified by the Hospitallers, who 
successfully defended it against an Egyptian attack 
in 642/1244. After the decisive battle of Ghazza 
(17 Oct. 1244), 'Askalan could, however, no longer 
expect help, and it fell in 645/1247 to Fakhr al-DIn 
Yusuf b. al-Shaykh. In order to make it impossible 
for the Christians to effect a landing, the Mamluk 
Sultan Baybars [q.v.] demolished a number of places 
on the Palestine coast, and in 668/1270 levelled the 
last vestiges of 'Askalan, filling the harbour with 
trees and rubble (MakrizI, Suluk, 1, 590). The town, 
which had never recovered from its demolition by 
Saladin, remained desolate until modern times. Abu 
'1-Fida (239), Ibn Battuta (i, 126), Mudjlr al-DIn 
(432), Piri Re'is (Bahriyye 724, English trans, by 
U. Heyd, A Turkish Description of the Coast of 
Palestine, Israel Exploration Journal, vi, 1956, 205-7) 
and Volney (Syrie, ch. 10) all describe it as ruined. 

In antiquity and the Middle Ages the environs of 
the town were famous for their wine, sycamores and 
henna (Kypros). It has given its name to a species 
of onion (shallot = allium ascalonicum). Mediaeval 
authors, using an expression attributed to the 
Prophet, often call 'Askalan the "Bride" of Syria, 
Sponsa Syriae, '"Ariis al-Sha?m". 

In the period of the ShI'ite supremacy of the 
Fa(imids falls the construction by al-Afdal b. Badr 
al-Djamall (491/1098) of the Mashhad for the 
reception of the head of the Prophet's grandson, 
Husayn. This highly venerated relic was in 548/ 
"53-54 saved from the Franks and carried off to 
Cairo (cf. MakrizI, Khi(af, I, 427; Mehren, Cdhirah og 
Kerdfat, Copenhagen 1870, ii, 61-2; RCEA vii 261-3; 
Ibn Taymiyya (ed. Schreiner, ZDMG, 53. 81-2) dis- 
misses the whole story as a fable). Besides Husayn's 



chapel, later Muslim pilgrims visited, in particular, 
Abraham's Well. 

Bibliography: G. le Strange, Palestine under 
the Moslems, 400-3; A. S. Marmardji, Textes 
geographiques arabes sur la Palestine, Paris, 195 1, 
index; F. M. Abel, Giographie, s.v. ; K. Ritter, Erd- 
kunde, XVI, 66-89; F. Buhl, Geog. desaUen Pal., 
189; P. Thomsen, RLV, i, 1924, 237 ff.; H. Guthe, 
ZDPV, ii, 1879, 164-71; G. Beyer, ZDPV, 1933. 
250-3; V. Guerin, Judie, ii, 133-71; N. G. Nassar, 
the Arabic Mints in Palestine and Transjordan, 
QDAP, xiii, 1948, 121-7; W. J. Phythian-Adams, 
History of Ashalon, «n PEFQS, 1921, 76-80; Y. 
Prawer, Ascalon and the Ascalon strip in Crusader 
Politics (Hebrew with English summary), Eretx- 
Israel, iv, 1956, 231-248; Baladhurl, Futuh, 142 
ff.; MukaddasI 174; Ibn al-Faklh, 103; 'A1I- 
al-HarawI, Kitdb al-Ziydrdt, Damascus 1953, 
32-3 (transl. Sourdel-Thomine, Damascus 1957, 
75-6); K. V. Zettersteen, Bcitragc xur Geschichte der 
Mamlukensultane, Leiden, 1919, 233-5 ; Yakut, iii, 
673 ff.; Abu '1-Fida' (ed. Reinaud), 239; Ibn Ba- 
tata (ed. Defremery), i, 126 ff., tr. Gibb, Cambridge 
1958, 81-2; Mudjlr al-DIn, al-Vns al-DialU, Cairo 
1283, 422 ; The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, ed. 
and tr. A. Asher, New York, n.d., i, 79-80, ii, 99- 
100; William of Tyre, xvii, 22; Nasir-i Khusraw, 
Safar-ndma, (ed. Kaviani) 51; HadjdjI Khalifa, 
QJihan-numd, 562-3. On the excavations at 'As- 
kalan, see PEFQS, 1921-3. 

(R. Hartmann-[B. Lewis]) 
al-'ASKALAnI [see ibn hadjar]. 
al-'ASKAR [see qjaysh]. 
al-'ASKAR [see saharra]. 
'ASKAR MUKRAM ("Mukram's Camp"), for- 
merly a town built on the site of a camp pitched by 
an Arab leader named Mukram whom al-Hadjdjadj 
had sent to Khuzistan to suppress a revolt near al- 
Ahwaz. This camp or cantonment adjoined the ruins 
of Rustam Kawadh (corrupted by the Arabs into 
Rustakubadh), a Sasanian town which the Muslim 
Arabs had destroyed. 'Askar Mukram was situated 
on both sides of the Masrukan canal (the modern 
Ab-i Gargar) just above the point where it now flows 
into the Shatayt (= Shufayt, "the small river"), the 
main arm of the Karun (at the time of which we 
write, the Masrukan canal joined the Shatayt much 
further to the south, near al-Ahwaz); furthermore, 
the Dizful Rud (modem Ab-i Diz) flowed into the 
Shatayt just west of the town. Owing to its 
favourable situation and its relatively good 
climate (see Hamd Allah Mustawfl, Nuxha, 112), 
'Askar Mukram developed into a flourishing town 
and became the chief place on the Masrukan canal; 
two bridges of boats linked the two parts of the 
town. It was a mint-town during the 4th/ioth 
century, under the Buyid ruler Mu'izz al-Dawla; 
cf. ZDMG, xi, 452. The ruins now known as the 
Band-i Kir ("Bitumen Dam") are those of 'Askar 
Mukram; the remains of that town and of earlier 
cities cover an area of nearly 9 sq. m. (see Layard, 
A Description of the Province of Khuzistan, in JR 
Geog. S xvi, 52, 63, 64, 95 and 96). The inhabitants 
of Shushtar (Arab. Tustar) wrongly identify with 
'Askar Mukram some ruins near their city, which 
they therefore call Lashkar (Persian = Arab, al- 
' Askar; according to Hamd Allah Mustawfl, 'Askar 
Mukram was formerly known as Lashkar). 

Bibliography: Baladhurl, Futuh, 383; Yakut, 
iii, 676; Hudud al-'Alam, 130; Le Strange, 236, 
237, 242, 246; K. Ritter, Erdhunde, iv, 164 f., 182 f., 
191-193, 227. (M. Streck-[L. Lockhart]) 



'ASKARI — al- 'ASKARI 



'ASKARl; from 'askar, soldier; in Ottoman 
technical usage a member of the ruling military caste, 
as distinct from the re'dyd — the subject population 
of peasants and townspeople (re'dyd sometimes 
means the subjects generally, sometimes only the 
peasants). The term 'askari denoted caste rather 
than function; it included retired or unemployed 
'askaris, the wives and children of 'askaris, manu- 
mitted slaves of the Sultan and of the c askaris, and 
also the families of the holders of religious public 
offices in attendance (muldzemet) on the Sultan. 

The Ottoman 'askari class comprised both the 
slave military establishment (see kitl) and the feudal 
levies (see SipahI). The latter seem to have originated 
with the ghazls who established themselves in the 
conquered lands. They were further recruited from 
the military landed gentry of the newly acquired 
territories, some of whom retained their Christian 
faith for a generation or two before becoming 
assimilated to Ottoman Islam. 

In matters of personal status the Muslim 'askaris, 
like the Muslim re'aya, were generally subject to 
the provisions of the Shari'a but were under the 
special jurisdiction of the KSdl-'asker [q.v.]; in 
administrative, fiscal, and disciplinary matters they 
were ruled by special codes of regulations issued 1 
by the Sultan — the kdnun-i sipdhiydn. This assured 
them important privileges and exemptions, 
against the re'aya, who were, for example, forbidden 
to bear arms, ride horses, or hold fiefs. The 'askaris 
were in theory not a privileged feudal aristocracy; 
they had no prescriptive or hereditary right to fief, 
office, or status, all of which could be conferred or 
withdrawn at the will of the Sultan. In fact the Sultan 
normally confined these fiefs and offices to members 
of the 'askari class, who were still considered as such 
even when deprived of office or fief. On the other hand 
it was regarded as contrary to the basic laws of the 
Empire to appoint men of peasant stock (apart of 
course from the dewshirme of boys) to 'askarl 
positions; Kocu Bey and later memorialists adduce 
the violation of this rule as one of the causes of 
Ottoman decline. An c askarl could, by decree, be 
demoted to the re'aya class or a raHyya promoted 
as a reward for exceptional services to be an 'askari. 
Both were infrequent in the early period. By the 
early sixteenth century, however, Sultan Suleyman 
found it necessary to issue a decree confirming 
sipahls of peasant descent in their fiefs, and pro- 
tecting them from dispossessment on these grounds. 
In the period of decline the dilution of the military 
caste by the intrusion of peasants and townspeople 
becomes a common complaint. By the 18th century 
the extension of the fiefs to the 'peasantry and of 
Janissary affiliation to the merchants and artisans 
had distributed the status of 'askarl so widely as to 
deprive it of any real meaning. 

Bibliography : Kdnunndme-i Al-i 'Othmdn, 
TOEM supplement; 1329 A.H., 39 H-\ Risdle-i 
Kotu Bey, chapters 7 and 13; Sari Mehmed Pasha, 
Nafd'ih ul-Vuzerd\ ed. and tr. W. L. Wright, 
Princeton 1935, 118; Barkan, Kanunlar, 109-] 
Halil Inalclk, Fatih devri Uzerinde Tetkikler ve 
Vesikalar, Ankara 1954, 168 ff.; id., Ottoman 
methods of Conquest, St. I., ii, 1954, 112 ff.; id., 
Timariotes chrttiens en Albanie au XV siicle, 
Mitteilungen des Osterreichischen Staatsarchivs, 
iv 1952, 118-138; Gibb-Bowen, index; Ismail 
Hakkl Uzuncarsul, Osmanli Devletinin Merkez 
ve Bahrive Teskildtt, Ankara 1948, 230 anc' 
240-1. (B. Lewis) 



al-'ASKARI. Two Arabic philologists of the 
4th/ioth century, both bearing the same name al- 
Hasan b. 'Abd Allah, but of a different kunya, are 
known by this name, a relative noun derived from 
'Askar Mukram in Khuzistan. 

(i) Abu Ahmad al-Hasan b. 'Abd Allah b. Sa'Ii> 
was born in 'Askar Mukram, on 16 Shawwal 293/ 
n August 906 and died there on 7 Dhu '1-Hidjdja 
382/3 Febr. 993. The date 387/940 is less probable. 
He began his studies under his father and the 
traditionist 'Abdan, d. 306/919, and continued 
them at Baghdad, Basra, and Isbahan under Ibn 
Durayd, d. 321/933, and the traditionists al- 
Baghawi, d. 317/929, and Ibn Abl Dawud al- 
Sidjistani, d. 316/929. He also met al-SulI and other 
men of letters. Then he returned to 'Askar Mukram. 
He declined an invitation of the vizier al-Sahib Ibn 
'Abbad, but paid him a visit when the latter came 
to 'Askar Mukram. He went several times to 
Isbahan where his brother, the traditionist Abu 
'All Muhammad had settled, e.g. in 349/960 and 
again in 354/965. He was a scholar of vast erudition 
and wrote a number of books (see Brockelmann S I, 
193) but he was little known outside of Khuzistan: 
Yakut had great difficulties in obtaining information 
about him. His chief work, the Kitdb al-Tashlf, 
contains useful information about rare and difficult 
words and proper names occurring in traditions and 
poems and misunderstood by their transmitters. It 
was utilised by Yakut (Mu'djam, vi, 384) and by 
'Abd al-Kadir al-Baghdadl (see Iklld al-Khizdna, 
31 f.). Much of his learning has been preserved 
through the writings of his pupil Abu Hilal al- 
'Askari. 

Bibliography: Abu Nu'aym, Geschichte Isba- 

hdns, i, 272, ii, 291; Sam'ani, Ansdb fol. 390 b; 

Yakut, Irshdd, iii, 126-135; Ibn KhaUikan, Cairo 

1299, i. 234 f- 

(ii) Abu Hilal al-Hasan b. 'Abd Allah b. Sahl. 
Of his life very little is known. He was a pupil (but 
not a sister's son, for he never calls him khali) of the 
aforesaid Abu Ahmad al-'Askari and owed to him 
the bulk of his learning, as is proved by the numerous 
references in his writings. He wrote amongst other 
works (see Brockelmann, I, 126 and S I, 193 f.) for 
the benefit of budding writers (1) Kitdb al-Sind'atayn 
al-Kitdba wa 'l-Shfr (Istanbul 1320, Cairo 1952 ; cf. P. 
Schwarz, in MSOS ix, 206-230), a systematic hand- 
book of rhetoric. (2) Diwdn al-Ma'ani (Cairo 1352), an 
anthology of the most elegant and original expres- 
sions of ideas met with in poetry and prose. (3) Kitdb 
al-FurUk al-Lughawiyya (Cairo 1353) dealing with 
synonymous words. (4) al-Mu'djam /» Bakiyyat al- 
Ashya* (Cairo 1353; abridged ed. by O. Rescher, in 
MSOS, xviii, 103-130), a list of words meaning 
"remainder". (5) Djamkarat al-Amthdl (Bombay 
1306-7 and on the margin of al-Maydanl, Cairo 1310), 
a collection of proverbs. Not yet published is his 
tafsir whose title Mahasin al-Ma c dni suggests that 
he dealt mainly with the stylistic beauties of the 
Kur'an. The latest known date of his life is the year 
395/1005 in which he finished dictating his Kitdb 
al-Awd'il on the so-called inventors of arts etc. 
(Yakut, Irshad, iii, 138). He is said to have died after 
400/1010. 

Bibliography: Yakut, Irshad, iii, 135-9; 

SuyutI, Bughya, 221; 'Abd al-Kadir, Khizdnat al- 

Adab, i, 112; Zaki Mubarak, La prose arabe au 

IV e siicle; R. Sellheim, Die klassisch-arabischen 

SprichwOrtersammlungen, The Hague 1954, 138-42. 
(J. W. Fuck) 



.-'ASKARI — ASMA 5 



71* 



al-'ASKARI, Abu '1-Hasan c Ali b. Muhammad, 
the tenth Imam of the Twelver ShI'a. He is commonly 
known as al-Nakl and al-Hadi. He was the son of the 
ninth Imam Muhammad b. C A1I al-Rida [q.v.], and 
was bom in Medina. Most syite authorities give the 
date of his birth as Radjab 214/Sept. 829, though 
others say that he was born in Dhu '1-Hidjdja 212 or 
2i3/Feb.-March 828 or 829. His mother, according 
to some sources, was Umm al-Fadl, the daughter of 
al-Ma'mun; according to others she was a Maghrib! 
Umm Walad called Sumana or Susan. The latter 
story seems more likely in view of the statement in 
some chronicles that the marriage between Muham- 
mad b. 'All al-Rida and Umm al-Fadl, though con- 
tracted in 202/817-8, was not consummated until 
215/830. (al-Tabari, iii, 1029, 1102-3; al-Mas c udI, 
Murudi, vii, 61-2; al-Ya 5 kubi, ii, 552-3. Some Shi^te 
traditions say that Umm al-Fadl poisoned her hus- 
band and died childless — al-Madjlisi, Bihar , xii 99 ff.). 
His father died in 220/835, and like him he became 
Imam while still a small child. (Echoes of the doctrinal 
problems which this raised may be found in Shi'ite 
theological works). He lived peacefully in Medina until 
the accession of al-Mutawakkil, whose anti-'Alid 
policy soon brought him into difficulties. In 233/847-8 
or 234/848-9, on the bsais of reports reaching the 
Caliph that Abu '1-Hasan was engaged in seditious 
activities, Yahya b. Harthama b. A'yan was sent to 
Medina to escort him to Samarra (al-Tabari, iii, 1379; 
al-Nawbakhti, 77; Nudium ii, 271). He seems to have 
won the Caliph's respect and, though kept under 
surveillance, was not molested. He was greatly 
esteemed for his piety and modesty. He remained in 
Samarra until his death, which took place in 
Djumada II or Radjab 254/June-July 868. His nisba 
al-'Askari derives from 'Askar Samarra. He was 
buried in his home in that town. According to 
Shl'ite tradition he was poisoned by the Caliph (cf. 
al-Mas'udl, Murudi v i"> 3^3, who already appears to 
know this story). The Makatil al-Tdlibiyyin, 
however, does not include him among the c Alid 
martyrs. His bob was Muhammad b. 'Uthman al- 
c Amri (d. 304 or 305/916-8), whose father c Uthman 
b. Sa'Id had been bib and wakil of the eighth and 
ninth Imams (al-Madjlisi, 150, where his thikdt and 
wukald are also listed; al-Astarabadl, Minhddi al- 
Makal, Tehran 1306, 305). The Twelver Shl'a recog- 
nised his son al-flasan, also called al-'Askari, as 
eleventh Imam. Another group, however, believed 
that his son Muhammad, who predeceased him, was 
the hidden Imam (al-Nawbakhti, 78-9, 83). Possibly 
connected with this group was Muhammad b. 
Nusayr al-Namiri, who attributed divine status to 
'All al-Naki and claimed to be his bob and his 
prophet ; he is regarded as founder of the Nusayriyya 
[q.v.] (al-Nawbakhti 78; al-Ash c ari, Makdldt, i, 15; al- 
Kashshl, RidjM, 323; cf. the Nusayri, Madimu c al- 
A'ydd, ed. R. Strothmann in Isl., 1946, index s.v. 
Abu '1-Hasan Ali al-Askari). 

Bibliography: a full account, with citation 
of sources, of the life, works, miracles, companions, 
and dealings with the Caliphs of the 10th Imam is 
given in Muhammad Bakir al-Madjlisi, Bihar al- 
Anwdr, xii, Tehran 1302, 126-153. Earlier notices 
are contained in al-Mas'udl, Murudi, vii, 206-9, 
379-383; al-Ya c kubI (Houtsma), ii, 614; Ibn Khal- 
likan, i, 445-6 (De Slane's translation, ii, 214-6); 
al-Nawbakhti, Firak al-Shi ( a, ed. Ritter, 77; Mufid, 
al-Irshdd, Tehran 1308, s.v.; In addition to the 
texts cited in the article, reference may also be 
made to al-Shahrastanl, ed. Cureton, i, 128 ff., ed. 
Badran 347-8; Abu '1-Ma'alI, Bay an, ed. Schefer, 



164 ff., ed. Ikbal42; D. M. Donaldson, The ShiHte 
Religion, London 1933, 209 ff.; J. N. Hollister, 
The Shi'a of India, London 1953, 87-89. 

(B. Lewis) 
AL-'ASKARt, al-#ASAN [see al-hasan al- 

<ASKARI]. 

A$L [see usOl]. 

AL-A§LAtf, the most suitable or fitting, 
a term used by theologians in a technical sense. The 
"upholders of the aslah" were a group of the 
Mu'tazila who held that God did what was best for 
mankind. It is nowhere stated who composed the 
group. Abu '1-Hudhayl held that God did what was. 
best for men. Al-Nazziim introduced the refinement 
that there were an infinite number of equally good 
alternatives, any of which God might adopt instead 
of acting as He does; in this way he avoided the 
implication that God's power is finite. Others, 
because of the difficulty of maintaining that the 
actual world is the best possible, said that it was- 
only in religion that God did what is best for men, 
viz. sent prophets to guide them. There was much 
diversity of opinion on this point among the Mu'ta- 
zila. The orthodox later used the story of the three 
brothers to show the absurdity of the view. One 
brother died young and went to Paradise; one grew 
up and was good and went to a higher place in 
Paradise; and one became wicked and went to Hell. 
If one tries to justify the lack of opportunity of the 
first to gain the highest position by saying that God 
knew he would become wicked if he grew up, then, 
on the suppositions of the "upholders of the aslah", 
it is impossible to explain why God did not cause the 
third to die young (cf. al-Baghdadl, Usui al-Din, 
Istanbul 1346/1928, 150 f.). The later Mu'tazila of 
Basra seem to have made similar criticisms of the 
Mu'tazila of Baghdad. 

Divested, however, of the suggestion that a certain 
course of action was obligatory for God, the concept 
of aslah, identified with God's wisdom (hihma), has 
survived in orthodox Islam and found literary 
expression, for instance, in the al-Risala al-kamiliyya- 
of Ibn al-Nafis [q.v.] (cf. J. Schacht, in Homenaje a- 
Millds-Vallicrosa, ii, Barcelona 1956, 325 ff.). 

Bibliography: Ash'ari, Makaldt, Istanbul 

1929, i, 246-51, ii, 573-8; Khayyat, Intisar, Cairo- 

1344/1925, 8 ff., 24 f., 64 f., Baghdad!, Fark, 116, 

167; Djuwaynl, Irshad, Paris 1938, 165 ff. (= tr. 

255 ff.); Goldziher, Vorlesungen', 99; A. J. 

Wensinck, Muslim Creed, Cambridge 1932, 79-82 ; 

on the origin and background of the term, J. 

Schacht, in St. I., i, 29. 

(W. Montgomery Watt) 

ASMA 5 , daughter of the caliph Abu Bakr 
by his wife IJutayla bint c Abd al- c Uzza of 'Amir b. 
Lu'ayy. She was the elder half-sister of c A 5 isha, and 
one of the early converts to Islam in Mecca. At the 
time of Muhammad's flight from Mecca with Abu 
Bakr, she tore her girdle in two to serve for the 
Prophet's provision-bag and the strap of his water- 
skin; this is the traditional explanation of her 
nickname Dhdt al-Nitdkayn, "She of the Two 
Girdles". After the Hidjra she was married to al- 
Zubayr b. al- c Awwam [q.v.], and their son c Abd 
Allah was reputedly the first child born in the 
Muslim community at al-Madina. She is said to have 
had four other sons and three daughters. Apart from 
several anecdotes illustrating her piety and self- 
denial, little more is reported of her except her 
courageous behaviour before and after the death 
of her son c Abd Allah b al-Zubayr [q.v.] ; in connexion 
with this she is credited with circulating a Tradition 



ASMA : — al-ASMA' al-HUSNA 



from the Prophet denouncing the "two liars" (al- 
Jtadhdhdbdni) who should issue from Thaklf (i e. al- 
Mughlra b. Shu c ba and al-Hadjdjadj b. Yusuf). She 
•died in Mecca shortly afterwards, in 73/693. 

Bibliography: L. Caetani, Chronographia 

Islamica, A.H. 73, § 36; Ibn Sa c d, viii, 182-6; Ibn 

Hanbal, Musnad, Cairo 1313, vi, 344-55. 

(H. A. R. Gibb) 

al-ASMA 5 al-HUSNA,— "The most Beautiful 
Names", these being the divine Names. "To God 
belong the most Beautiful Names — pray to Him, 
using (these Names)", Kur'an, vii, 179. Cf. xvii, no; 
xx, 8; lix, 24 etc. Pious Muslims have always 
revered the mystery of the Name, which at one and 
the same time both designates and veils the Named 
(cf. hidjdb al-ism). 

The Theological question. A chapter of "Muslim 
theology" (Him al-tawhid) is devoted to the divine 
Names. Problem stated: can one name God, and 
what, with regard to God, do the Names attributed 
to Him mean? Preliminaries: What is the name 
(ism)1 Is it identical with the named (musammd) 
and with the denomination or definition (lasmiya) ? 
On this problem in general see ism. Application of 
the divine Names. The reply of the narrators of 
Tradition, reiterated by the strict Ash'arites, is: 
the divine Names can only be given to God by 
tawkif, i.e. by preconcerted "determination"; by 
which we understand: as God Himself has "deter- 
mined" it in the Kur'an and secondarily in the 
Sunna. The employment of the latter in this con- 
nexion must be limited to "authentic" (sahih) and 
"good" (hasan) hadlth. Some people admit a possible 
determination derived through idjtnd'. According 
to the Mu'tazilites and the Karramiyya: when l akl 
(Reason) proves that an attribute (either of existence, 
or negative or of action) is suitable to God, it 
is permissible to employ the corresponding Name, 
whether or not it is mentioned by the texts. This is 
a case of attribution of the Name by human reason. 
Al-Ghazzali admits this solution for those attri- 
butes (sifdt) which, he says, designate a significate 
added to the essence; he does not admit it for the 
employment of the Name designating the divine 
essence itself. "Middle" solution of the Ash c arite al- 
BSkillani, followed by many later Ash c arites: if the 
text or the tradition gives an attribute to God or 
speaks to us of an act of God (but in these cases 
only), "according to the rules of the language", one 
may designate Him by the corresponding Name, 
even though the texts do not "determine" it. And 
one should in particular exclude non-scriptural 
names, which would evoke a notion incompatible 
with the absolute divine perfection. (God should not 
be called 'art/, as ma'rifa "presupposes that some 
inattention has been overcome" ; likewise He should 
not be called fakih, c dkil, etc.). According to this 
thesis, which has become current, the Names must, 
therefore, cither be scriptural or at least have a 
scriptural derivation. Two related problems: a) the 
Names are eternal, Ash'arite thesis, in opposition 
to the Mu'tazilite thesis, which holds them to be 
contingent; b) Hanafite-Maturidite line: they are 
equal in importance and excellence (cf. Fikh Akbar , ii, 
26); Ash'arite line: a hierarchy exists among them 
with the Name Allah taking precedence (or, as the 
§ufls are prone to say, with some other Name known 
to the initiated, or even the ineffable Name, only 
attained through initiate experience, taking prece- 



hundred less one; for He, the Odd Number (= the 
Unique) likes (to be designated by these enumerated 
Names) one by one; whosoever knowns the 99 
Names, will enter paradise". The meditated reci- 
tation of these Names became one of the most 
diligent devotions in Islam. The pious Muslim 
repeats them and meditates on them, usually with 
the help of the 99 beads of the subha ("rosary") [q.v.], 
except for the Wahhabls, who object to this custom 
as being a reprehensible bid l a ("innovation"). It 
appears that a Syriac (Christian) custom already 
made use of the subha to count off an enumeration 
of divine Names, which was much shorter than the 
Muslim enumeration. 

In fact, on the one hand, the traditional 99 "most 
Beautiful Names" do not exhaust the list of all the 
Kur'anic Names; on the other hand, some of them 
do not occur ad litteram in the Kur'an. As a result, 
the list was not always absolutely fixed and was 
liable to contain variants. It does not suffice, there- 
fore, to settle the entire question of the divine Names. 
But the place held by this recitation in Muslim 
piety gives it an outstanding importance. It ex- 
presses clearly enough the pious Muslim's faith in 
God, and what the supreme Name Allah, which, in 
itself, recapitulates all the others, means for him. 
We shall reproduce the most usually accepted list., 
in accordance with the hadtih, with a translation 
and a brief commentary. As space does not permit us 
to trace its usage historically, we shall take it in its 
finished form, as given by most of the tafsir to 
Kur'an, xvii, no. Fairly frequently the Name 
Allah is as though set apart, the hundredth Name if 
one so desires (thus the tafsir of the Djalalayn). But 
it is also at times considered as the first of the 
enumeration; in which case the 67th Name al-v>dhid 
is suppressed and joined to the 68 th al-ahad. Main 
references: al-Maksad al-Asnd of Ghazzall (Cairo ed. 
n.d.), especially 23-72; Mawdkif of c Adud al-DIn 
al-Idji, commentary by al-Djurdjanl (Sharh al- 
Mawdkif Cairo ed. 1325/1907 vol. 8 211-17) who 
himself refers to al-Ghazzall and to Sayf al-Din 
al-Amidl. 

The usual order may be established as follows: 
the first 13 Names (or Names 2 to 14 when the list 
starts with Allah) refer to the Kur'anic enumeration 
of verses lix, 22-24. The subsequent order seems to 
be mainly mnemotechnic, governed by assonances, 
associations of verbal forms, doublets having both 
a correlative and paradoxical sense, etc. Connexion 
with the attributes (sifdt), where indicated by us, is 
that put forward by al-Ghazzali or al-Djurdianl. 
Also to be noted: the Arabic root of several of these 
Names expresses different, sometimes opposite 
meanings, which are, therefore, present together in 
the mind of the Muslim reciting and meditating on 
the subha. It is therefore impossible at times to 
translate a Name into a European language by one 
single word. 

List of the "99 most Beautiful Names". 1) Allah, 
name belonging to God, "designates God Himself 
and may not be applied to any other thing"; 2) and 
3) al-rahman al-rahim, the Benefactor (or the Mer- 
ciful), the Compassionate: depend on the attribute 
of will, both connoting the same sense; however 
according to al-Ghazzali, rahmdn, unlike rahim, may 
only be applied to God (reminder of Rahman, 
divine proper Name?); 4) al-malik, the King, 
indicates independence (negative attribute) towards 
all things, the dependence of everything as regards 
God (active attribute), and the perfection of the 
divine power (attribute of power) ; 5) al-kuddus, the 



L-ASMA' al-HUSNA 



Holy, in the sense of Separated (negative attribute), 
indicates: a) the absence of all blemish; b) that 
neither imagination nor sight can penetrate the 
mystery of God; 6) al-saldm, Peace: a) possessor of 
a flawless peace (negative attribute); b) giver of 
peace and salvation at the beginning of the creation 
and at the time of the resurrection (active attribute) ; 
c) will pronounce the benediction of peace over his 
creature (attribute of speech); 7) al-mu'min, the 
Believer: a) with regard to this Name, the doctors 
of kaldm speak of God's "increate faith" in Himself; 
IdjI comments: God is mu'min in as much as He puts 
faith in Himself and in His Messenger, meaning that 
He authenticates Himself and authenticates His 
Messenger by His supreme Veracity; this He accom- 
plishes either by affirming Himself and His Messenger 
(attribute of speech), or by working, by "creating" 
the miraculous proof; b) God may also be called 
mu'min towards his disciples as a source of security 
and protection (amdn); 8) al-muhaymin the Vigilant: 

a) ever present witness, whose cognisance is on 
guard over everything (attribute of knowledge); 

b) to be associated with amln, taken as sincere, 
truthful in His speech (attribute of speech); 9) al- 
l aziz, both the Powerful and the Precious; a) negative 
attribute: means according to al-Ghazzali, rare, 
very precious and difficult to obtain, — God is so 
rare that He is absolutely Unique, so necessary that 
nothing would exist without Him, so inaccessible 
that He alone can know Himself; according to al- 
IdjI: without father or mother, whom no place can 
contain, and nothing resembles Him; b) attribute 
of action: He punishes whomsoever He wishes, is 
the Master of the retribution for actions; 10) al- 
diabbdr, the Very Strong, the "Oppressor", which 
no thing or will may resist; according to another 
sense of the root djbr: who sets to right, who restores, 
according to His Desire, what concerns His creatures. 
Depending on the circumstances: attribute of 
action, or negative and positive together. Synonym: 
c azim, with the sense "all deficiency is diverted 
therefrom"; II) al-mutakabbir, the Haughty; — 
according to al-Ghazzali: everything seems base to 
Him in the sight of His Essence ; al-Idjl— al-Djurdjani : 
meaning also very close to 'azim; 12) al-khdlik and 13) 
al-bdri', according to al-Idjl — al-Diurdianl have a 
single sense: the Producer, the Creator of things; 
14) al-mufawieir, the Organiser, who ordains and 
composes the forms ($uwar) of things. These last 
three Names depend on attributes of action. Al- 
Ghazzall analyses them more closely: all three 
connote the passage from non-being to existence, 
the first towards determination, in accordance with 
the divine decree (kadar); the second towards 
existentialisation properly so called (wudiud); the 
third towards the co-ordination of forms, according 
to the best of ordinances. 

The Names 2 to 14 are given in the same order ap. 
Kur'an, lix, 22-24. Now follow Names grouped in 
preference according to euphony. 

15) al-gha/fdr, the Indulgent, pre-eminently the 
Pardoner, who knows how to remit the sentence of 
punishment even for one who deserves it (al-Ghazzali 
makes it, by participation, the human qualificative 
of Jesus, just as he made al-diabbdr the qualificative 
of Muhammad): attribute of will; 16) al-kahhdr, 
the Dominator, He who always subdues, dominating 
and never dominated (negative attribute of action) ; 

17) al-wahkdb, the constant Giver, who gives abund- 
antly, receiving nothing in return (active attribute) ; 

18) al-razzdk, the Dispenser of all good, who dispenses 
what pleases Him; primarily concerns the physical 



needs of every human being (al-Diurdianl). but also 
the spiritual needs of rational creatures (al-Ghazzali), 
— attribute of action; 19) al-fattdh, (three shades of 
meaning according to the various connotations of 
the root), a) the Victorious, who vanquishes difficul- 
ties and brings about victory (active attribute) ; b) the 
Judge, whether pronouncing sentence (attribute of 
speech), or making known the decision (attribute of 
will); c) the Revealer, who discloses to men that 
which remained concealed from them (al-Ghazzali); 
20) al- c alim, Knowing in a perfect manner everything 
which is knowable: Name directly bound to the 
attribute of knowledge {Him) which is an attribute 
of essence (dhdti) ; a "natural" (*a*»ft«) attribute is 
involved, says al-Djurdjani. 

The six following Names, whilst referring to 
Kur'anic roots, are not to be found ad litteram in 
the Kur'an: they are therefore regarded as "tradit- 
ional". They go in pairs, opposites and correlatives 
at the same time, and express the absolute gratui- 
tousness of God's gift. 21) al-kdbi4, he who restrains, 
and 22) al-bdsi(, he who expands (the lives, the 
hearts of his servants); 23) al-khdfid, who humbles 
and humiliates, and 24) al-rdji 1 , who raises in 
dignity 525) al-muHzz, who gives honour and strength, 
and 26) al-mudhill, who abases and degrades; 

27) al-saml', the Hearer, and 28) al-basir, the 
Seer: God hears and sees all things, according 
to two "attributes of the essence", which the Kur'an 
affirms, and which reason, this time, cannot prove; 
al-hakam, the Judge in his act of sovereign decision ; 
idea of wisdom and providence (al-Ghazzali), at- 
tached to the attributes of knowledge, speech, 
action; 30) al-'adl, the Just, who is supreme 
Justice, — nothing bad can come from Him (negative 
attribute); 31) al-latif, the Benevolent, who creates 
in His servants a grace of benevolence (lu(f), to 
come to their help (attribute of action); 32) al- 
khabir, a) the Sagacious, very close to 'allm, in the 
sense of knowing the intimate secrets of creatures 
(attribute of knowledge) ; b) who choses, who decides 
freely (attribute of speech); 33) al-halim, endowed 
with gentleness, who is slow to punish (negative 
attribute); 34) al- c azim, the Inaccessible (cf. the 
sense given with regard to al-diabbdr) ; according to 
al-Ghazzali: is beyond the limits of human under- 
standing, just as the earth and sky cannot be taken 
in at a single glance; 

35) al-ghafur, the Very Indulgent, who pardons 
much; a) according to al-Idji — al-Djurdjanl : identical 
in meaning to al-gka//dr, just as al-raftmdn and al- 
rahim are identical in meaning; b) according to Ghaz- 
zall: al-gkaffdr stresses that God pardons even repeat- 
ed sins, whereas al-ghafur conveys in an absolute 
manner and without precision the infinite pardon of 
God; 36) al-skakur, the "Very Grateful", in a meta- 
phorical sense, coming from shukr (gratefulness), i.e.: 
a) who gives much as reward for little (attribute of 
action), b) and proclaims the eulogy of whomsoever 
obeys him (attribute of speech) ; 

37) al- c ali, the High; for al-Idjl: synonym of al- 
mutakabbir; for al-Ghazzali: God, primary Cause, 
is on the highest step of the scale of beings; 
38) al-kabir, the Great; for al-Idji: synonym of al- 
mutakabbir and of al-'ali; for al-Ghazzali: synonym 
of al- c azlm, stresses the absolute perfection of the 
being of God, whose eternal existence is the 
source of the being of all creatures; 39) al-frafiz, 
the vigilant Guardian! sense close to c alim ac- 
cording to al-Idji, for vigilance (fta/z) is the opposite 
of negligence and forgetfulness, and therefore has 
its origin in Him; a) God is Vigilant, continually 



in action, by this action watching over the whole 
universe, without having to give His attention to 
things one after the other (negative attribute); 

b) He assures the permanence of created forms, by 
a vigilance which resists depredations (attribute of 
action); 40) al-mukit (four shades of meaning), 
a) the Nourisher, source of strength, for He creates 
nourishment (physical and spiritual): synonym of 
al-razzdk (al-Ghazzali), b) the Determiner, who 
decrees and fixes destiny, attribute of power (kudra) ; 

c) the Witness {shahid), who knows the Mystery 
(al-ghayb), attribute of knowledge; d) the Present; 
41) al-basib, the Calculator, He who settles accounts: 

a) who gives sufficiency, for He creates for His 
servants what is sufficient for them (active attribute) ; 

b) who, by His words, asks of whomsoever is sub- 
missive to the Law, account of what he does of good 
and of evil (attribute of speech); 42) al-Halil, the 
Majestic, worthy of veneration: a) according to 
al-Ghazzali, it is the stress placed on the Beauty of 
the divine Being which distinguishes this Name 
from al-mutakabbir and al- c azim, with their adjacent 
meanings; b) according to al-Idp, synonym of al- 
mutakabbir; c) according to al-Diurdianl. qualified 
by the attributes of majesty (dialdl) and of beauty 
(djamdl): 43) al-karim, the Generous; four shades 
of meaning: a) endowed with liberality (attribute 
of action); b) who fixes the measure of generosity 
(attribute of power); c) from whom comes all 
nobility (attribute of relation); d) who pardons 
faults; 44) al-rakib, the jealous Guardian, sense 
close to hafiz (and thus derived from the sense of 
l allm) ; according to al-Ghazzali, with a stress placed 
on an absolute and jealous vigilance; 45) al-mudjib, 
the Assenter, who grants prayers; al-Ghazzali: who 
hastens to satisfy the needs of creatures, who anti- 
cipates them; 46) al-wdsi 1 , the Omnipresent, who 
embraces and contains all things: He extends His 
generosity to everything which exists, His knowledge 
to everything which is knowable, His power to 
everything which may be determined by it, abso- 
lutely and without His having to pay attention 
successively to things (al-Diurdjanl) ; 47) al-hakim, 
the Wise; a) synonym of al- c alim (al-Idjl), endowed 
with wisdom, i.e. with knowledge of things as they 
come from Him and with the production of actions 
according to what is expedient; b) the Prudent in 
His decisions: which corresponds to the perfect 
soundness of His providence in the guidance of the 
world and to the benefit from the accomplishment 
of His decrees; 48) al-wadud, the Very Loving; 
a) who loves the well-being of His creatures and 
procures it for them gratuitously; b) refers to the 
attribute from which proceeds the praise He bestows 
on the believer and the reward which He gives him; 
49) al-madiid, the Glorious, a) whose actions are 
resplendent, whose favours abound; b) the praise 
due to him belongs to Him alone; 50) al-bdHth, the 
Revivifier, who will revivify every creature on the 
day of the Resurrection (this name has only a 
traditional origin); 51) al-shahid, the Witness, a) 
who knows the Mystery, b) and who is Present (cf. 
3rd. sense of al-mukit) ; 52) al-hakk, the Real, supreme 
Truth, connotes al-'adl (same kind of attribute): 
a) necessary by essence (ontological truth) ; b) per- 
fectly truthful in His speech; c) who makes the 
Truth); manifest; 53) al-wakil, the Trustee, He to 
whom everything is entrusted, who takes care of 
all the needs of creatures; 54) al-kawi, the Strong, 
who has power over all things; 55) al-matin, the 
Unshakable, whose power is without limit; 56) al- 
wali, the Friend, the Protector, in the sense of helper, 



defender; and also: the Holder of authority; 57) al- 
hamid, Worthy of praise (attribute of relation) ; 58) 
al-mufal, the Numberer, who comprehends and knows 
comprehensively all numbered things {al-'dlim) and 
has power over them (al-kddir ) ; 59) al-mubdi', the 
Innovator; a) absolute creator of beings; b) whose 
favours .are purely benevolent ; 60) al-muHd, He who 
resuscitates, who causes the creature to "return" 
after its destruction; 61) al-mutiyi, the Creator of 
life, and 62) al-mumit, the Creator of death, — He 
who causes to live and to die; 63) al-hdyy, the Living, 
one of the "essential attributes", "in the obvious 
sense" (al-Idjl) : God is always acting and watching, 
whereas none can act upon Him in any way and 
none can perceive Him without dying; He is Living 
in the highest and most perfect degree of life, by 
reason of the absolute perfection of His Activity 
and His Knowledge (al-Ghazzali); 64) al-kayyum, the 
Self -Subsisting: a) who subsists in Himself and by 
Himself, without any reason for being other than 
Himself (negative attribute); b) who rules and 
co-ordinates creatures, and none can subsist without 
Him; 65) al-wddiid, the Opulent (the Perfect), to 
whom nothing can be lacking or be needed (negative 
attribute); 66) al-madiid, the Noble, the High (al- 
'ali), attribute of relation; to whom sovereignty and 
power belong (attribute of action). (N.B.-Here the 
majority of the enumerations insert the Name al- 
waisid, the Unique ; al-Ghazzali and al-Idjl, who omit 
it, recall the sense in connexion with the commentary 
on the following Name:) 67) al-ahad, the One, pre- 
eminently essential attribute, the very attribute of 
divine perfection, — differs from al-wdhid as follows: 
al-ahad the One by Essence, absolute simplicity of 
the Essence, insuperability and inimitability of the 
divine attributes; al-wdhid, the One God, there is no 
other God; 68) al-samad, the Impenetrable; a) the 
Master, He who reigns (attribute of relation) ; b) sense 
close to al-halim: whom the acts of His adversaries 
neither trouble nor move (negative attribute) ; c) the 
Very High in dignity; d) He to whom one prays and 
supplicates (attribute of relation) ; e) in whom there 
is no "hollow": negation of all mixture and of all 
possible division into parts ; 69) al-kddir, the Powerful, 
and 70) al-muktadir, the All-powerful; 71) al- 
mukaddim and 72) al-mu'akhkhir, He who brings 
near and sends away: He brings near to Himself 
whomsoever He wishes and shows him his prefe- 
rence; He sends away and sets aside whomsoever He 
wishes; 73) al-awwal and 74) al-akhir, the First and 
the Last (Alpha and Omega) : He is before everything 
and nothing is before Him; He is after everything 
and nothing is after Him (Primary Cause, efficient 
and final, according to al-Ghazzali). — negative 
attributes; 75) al-zdhir and 76) al-bdfin, the Patent 
and the Latent ;— Patent : a) known by decisive 
proof (attribute of relation), b) which manifestly 
dominates all things (attribute of action); — Latent: 

a) screened from the senses (negative attribute), 

b) who knows the hidden things (attribute of 
knowledge) ; 77) al-wdll, the Reigning (al-Idjl) ; 78) al- 
muta'dli, the Very High, the Exalted, synonym of 
al-'dli, the High, but with a supplementary idea of 
triumph; 79) al-barr, who causes piety (birr) to 
function in the heart and is the source of benefits; 
80) al-tawwdb, the "Repentant": God, by pure and 
gratuitous favour, returns to His servants if they 
return to Him, repenting of their faults; 81) al- 
muntakim, the Avenger, chastising whomsoever 
disobeys him; 82) al-'afii, who rubs out the traces 
of faults on the leaves where actions are inscribed; 
83) al-ra'uf, the Merciful, the Compassionate, who 



l-ASMA' al-HUSNA — al-ASMA c I 



717 



wishes to lighten the burdens (sense close to ragman, 
according to Ghazzall) ; 84) mdlik al-mulk, the 
Master (King) of the Kingdom, who possesses in 
complete sovereign independence the world and 
each creature; 85) dku 'l-djaldl wa 'l-ikrdm, the Lord 
of Majesty and Generosity, sense close to al-dfalil, 
observe al-Idji and al-Amidl; 86) al-muksi{, the Just, 
— al-Ghazzall specifies "on the Day of Judgement", 
(al-Djurdianl recalls that the root, according to the 
verbal forms, has both the meaning of "just" and 
"unjust"); 87) al-didmi c , the Assembler: a) who 
assembles beings according to their similitudes, 
their differences, their oppositions (al-Ghazzall) ; 
b) who reunites adversaries on the Day of Judgement 
(al-ldji— al-Djurdianl) ; 88) al-ghani, the Rich, the 
Independent, who lacks nothing; 89) al-mughni, 
the Enricher, who embellishes every creature, from 
whom creatures derive their perfection ; 90) al-mdni 1 , 
(traditional Name only), the tutelary Defender: 
correlative of al-tfafiz, the vigilant Guardian; al- 
tfafiz stresses the idea of guarding, protecting, — and 
al-mdni'- the idea of prohibiting and suppressing 
obstacles; 91) al-ddrr, He who afflicts, and 92) al- 
ndfi', He who favours: two traditional Names only; 
they teach that evil and good, affliction and favour, 
harm and benefit derive only from God; 93) al-nur, 
the Light, — God is Light : a) of a perfect and manifest 
evidence in Himself, b) and He it is who makes all 
things manifest and evident, by causing them to 
pass from non-being to being; 94) al-hddi, the Guide, 
who creates the "right direction" (al-hudd) in 
the hearts of believers; and leads every being, 
rational and irrational, towards its end; 95) al-badi', 
the Creator-Inventor, who is at the beginning of 
everything: a) who creates and invents without a 
model; b) who is Himself First absolutely, and 
nothing is similar to Him; 96) al-bdki, the Eternal, 
who permanes, — without end; 97) al-wdrith, the 
Inheritor, — who continues to exist after the anni- 
hilation (jana?) of His creatures; — to whom returns 
everything which His creatures possess; 98) al- 
rashid, the Leader: who directs with justice; who 
leads on the way of the Good; 99) al-sabur, the 
Very Patient, slow to punish, and who always acts 
in due time: sense close to al-halim (traditional 
Name only). 

Such is the list of the 99 "most Beautiful Names". 
Other lists exist, which sometimes exceed this 
number: one then encounters al-rabb, the Lord, 
al-munHm, the Benefactor, al-mu c ti, He who gives, 
who grants (his gifts), al-sddik, the Sincere, the 
Truthful, al-sattdr, who protects and who veils, etc. 
To conclude, there are numerous studies on the 
divine Names which seek to group them according 
to the attributes( thus, al-Ghazzall, Maksad, 72 it), 
with a predilection for imparting an appearance of 
spiritual meditation to this presentation. There are 
many examples of this in tasawwuf. It is then no 
longer so much a question of providing a com- 
mentary on the 99 "most Beautiful Names", as of 
applying all the rules of tawfrif and of language to 
magnify the divine Mystery. For the use of the 
divine Names in sufi prayers, see the article dhikr. 
Bibliography: I) in addition to the Arab 
authors cited in the body of the article, reference 
should be made to the main Kur'anic tafsirs, and 
the very numerous manuals of kaldm, chapter on 
al-asmd* al-husnd; 2) an example among many 
others of a sufi "meditation": Ibn c Ata> Allah 
of Alexandria, at^Kasd al-Mudiarrad fi Ma'-rifat 
al-Ismal-Mufarrad (Cairo, al-Azhared., 1348/1930) ; 
3) references in European languages: A. J. Wen- 



sinck, Muslim Creed, Cambridge 1932, 196, 239; 
(non-typical) list of the asmd 3 al-husnd ap. J. 
Windrow Sweetman, Islam and Christian Theology, 
I, 1, Lutterworth Press, 1945, 215-216; Miguel 
Asin Palacios, El justo medio ett la Creencia, 
compendio de teologia dogmatica de Algazel 
(trans, of the Iktisdd, followed by fragmentary 
annotated translations of the Maksad), Madrid 
1929, 435-471 ; Y. Moubarac, Les Noms, Hires et 
attributs de Dieu dans le Coran et leurs correspon- 
dents en ipigraphie sud-simitique, in Musion, 
1955, 86 ff. (L. Gardet) 

al-A5MA c 1, Abu Sa'Id c Abd al-Malik b. 
Kurayb, Arabic philologist, d. 213/828 (also 
other dates in Yakut, Irshdd, and later writers). The 
date of his birth, often stated as 123/828, is said not 
to have been known to himself; (see Irshdd, vi, 86). 
The nisba al-Asma c I is derived from one of his 
ancestors, Asma c , that of al-Bahill from the ill- 
reputed Kaysite tribe al-Bahila, a relationship which 
is alluded at in a satirical poem of a contemporary 
poet; (see Ibn al-Mu c tazz, fabakdt al-Shu c ard 3 , 130, 
and al-Sirdfi, 58 f.). In an anecdote he presents 
himself as an offspring of Banu A'sur b. Sa c d b. 
Kays.'Aylan; (see al-Kali, al-Amdli, i, 117). 

This scholar and his contemporaries Abu ; Ubayda 
[q.v.] and Abu Zayd al-Ansari [q.v.] constitute a 
triumvirate to which later philologists owe most of 
their knowledge about Arabic lexicography and 
poetry. They were all of them disciples of the leading 
philologist of Basra, Abu c Amr b. al- c Ala 5 [q.v.]. 
Among their numerous disciples the litterateur al- 
Djahiz has left in his works a monument of their 
learning. An astonishing memory and an unusually 
critical mind distinguished al-Asma c I. From his 
teacher he had taken over also an accurate con- 
sciousness of the limits fixed to philological know- 
ledge; (see an utterance of Abu 'Amr quoted by 
Suyuti, al-Muzhir, i, 323). The method of seeking 
information from the bedouins in matters con- 
cerning grammar and lexicography which seems to 
have been developed in Basra under the stimulus of 
Abu 'Amr was taken over by his dicsiples. A list of the 
bedouin teachers of the Basrans is given in Fihrist, 
43 f. ; (cf. al-Muzhir, ii, 401 f.). In Basra common 
people were familiar with his scholarly interests and 
could suggest to him where he could find a 
shaykh possessing a perfect knowledge of the lugha; 
(see al-Muzhir, ii, 307). Anecdotes tell also of his 
rides into the desert to visit bedouins and collect 
pieces of poetry from their lips. Already as a young 
man he was sought by students who were anxious 
to learn from him, and his madjlis was widely 
known. Of the different branches of philological 
work which had already developed, lexicography 
particularly corresponded to his talent, whereas 
Abu Zayd is said to have been his superior in gram- 
mar and al-Khalll to have been in despair about him 
in metrical matters ; (see Ibn Djinni. al-KhasaHs. 367). 
There are several traditions about the circum- 
stances which brought al-Asma c I to Baghdad and 
the court of Harun al-Rashld. According to a story 
told by al-Marzubani and quoted by al-Yafi c I, ii, 
66, he had met the caliph already in Basra. As a 
crown-prince Muhammad al-Amin summoned him 
and he was introduced to the caliph by the vizier 
al-Fadlb. al-Rabi c ; (see Ta'rlkh Baghdad, x, 411). 
According to al-Diahshiyarl, al-Wuzara', 189, he was 
introduced to Harun al-Rashld by Dja'far b. Yahya 
al-Barmaki. The Barmakids bestowed substantial 
benefits on him; (see Ibn al-Mu c tazz, op. cit, 98). 
This did not restrain him however from satirising 



7i 8 al-A! 

them after they had fallen into disgrace; (see al- 
Ejahshiyiri, 206). As an intimate of Eiafar he was 
himself in fear of his life when he got to know about 
the fall of Dja'f arin 187/803 ; (see al-Diahshiyari, 206). 
In al-Asma'I's opinion, the poet Ishak b. Ibrahim 
al-Mawsill, his rival at the court, was more successful 
in obtaining from the caliph a ready-money con- 
sideration for his wit ; (see Aghdni 1 , v, 77, al-Husri, 
Zahr al-Addb 1 , 1014, and Irshad, ii, 205). The l Ikd 
of Ibn c Abd Rabbih contains a number of the 
"extraordinary tales" {nawddir) and the "amusing 
stories" (mulaih) with which al-Asma'I entertained the 
caliph. After the death of HSrun, al-Asma'I seems to 
have returned to Basra. According to an isolated piece 
of evidence he died in Marw; (see Ibn Khallikan. nr. 
389). 

Among the disciples of al-Asma'I and related 
circles of Basra and Baghdad there circulated 
numerous stories told by him or about him which 
found their way into Arabic literature. Some of 
them certainly catch authentic features of his 
character. Thus we are told that, at the summit of 
his career, though possessing at that time con- 
siderable property, he persisted in living as a poor 
man. As against the luxuriousness of the Persians, 
the plain living ascribed in tradition to c Umar b. 
al-Khattab and al-Hasan al-Basri represented to 
him the pure Arab way of living; (see al-Djahiz, al- 
Bukhald' (al-Hadjiri), 186). The numerous sayings of 
unlearned men and women of the desert told by him 
are certainly meant also to illustrate, not only the 
baldgha but also the sincere piety of plain-living 
people. His predilection for the sentimental and 
pathetic elegy — he is said never to have transmitted 
satirical poetry — is in accordance with his idealisation 
of the Arab race according to his own religious 
feelings. In authentic traditions he relates the sayings 
of al-Hasan al-Basri. Numerous traditions beginning 
with the formula "I heard a bedouin saying in his 
prayer" are in the same spirit. In the works of later 
writers these sentimental features dominate the 
character of al-Asma'I. We find them in the romantic 
story put into the mouth of al-Asma'I in one 
of the fictitious 'traditions' (ahddith) of Ibn Durayd; 
(see al- Kali, al-Amdli\ ii, 7). In the Muhddarat al- 
Abrdr of Ibn al-'Arabl, the learned philogist of 
Basra tells, as did his contemporary the Egyptian 
mystic Bhu'1-Nun, about his meetings with poor 
bedouins and young girls who revealed to him an 
unexpected and extraordinary insight into the 
mysteries of the divine love ; (see op. cit. , i, 8 1 and 133). 
His orthodox contemporaries and later writers 
agree that al-A?ma'i was an orthodox Sunnl. Accor- 
ding to Ibrahim al-Harbi (d. 285/889), there were 
among the philologists of Basra only four definite 
adherents of the sunna, one of them being al-Asma'I, 
(see Ta^rikh Baghdad, x, 418; cf. Ibn al-Anbari, 170). 
As an instance of his piety tradition adduces that in 
order to "avoid sin" he answered with strict silence 
to any philological question which evidently had or 
could have a bearing upon the reading of the Kur'an 
or the wording of tradition. (A list of examples is 
given in al-Muzhir, ii, 325 f .). Whereas for Abu 'Amr 
and Abu 'Ubayda the study of the lugha was depen- 
dent on that of the Kur'an, al-Asma'! thus separated 
in himself the "reader" from the grammarian and 
the transmitter of poetry. In accordance with the 
attitude held by his teacher Nafi' and the readers 
of Medina (see about this subject Two Muqaddimas 
to the Quranic sciences, ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo 1954, 183) 
al-Asma'I consequently abstained also from tafsir; 
(see al-Muzhir, ii, 416, and Irshad, i, 26 f.). In this 



respect he was opposed to people of Mu'tazilite and 
Kadarite outlook who, in his view, commented upon 
the Kur'an according to their "opinion" {ra'y), as 
did Abu c Ubayda in his al-Madidz; (see Irshad, ii, 
389 and vii, 167). 

As a transmitter of poetry al-Asmal and his 
generation were essentially influenced by "the 
great transmitters", HammSd al-Rawiya and 
Khalaf al-Ahmar [??.».]. The inconveniances con- 
nected with the unreliable character of these persons 
were clearly seen by him; (see Irshad, iv, 140 and 
al-Muzhir, ii, 406; cf. Blachere, 99 f.) In order to 
collect in a complete and definite form the odes of 
the great pre-Islamic poets he sought persons known 
to have a reliable knowledge of the tradition. In 
his work he developed a critical method remarkable 
for his time, a deep knowledge of the topography 
of the Arabian peninsula, of the genealogies of the 
tribes and, above all, of lugha and of grammar. 
Handed down by his disciples, these critical remarks 
found their way into the works of later commen- 
tators. On the basis laid by al-Asma'I, his disciples 
Ibn Hablb, 'All b. <Abd Allah al-TusI and, finally, 
al-Sukkarl, prepared the definitive editions of the 

From the 72 pieces or fragments of pre-Islamic or 
early Islamic poets which he collected in an anthology 
called al-AsmaHyydi (ed. Ahlwardt, Sammlungen 
alter arabischer Dichter, i, Berlin 1902), we can get 
an idea of al-Asma'I's literary taste. On the subject 
of criticism (nakd al-shi'r) numerous sayings of al- 
Asma'I are quoted in later writers. In a note-book 
called Fuhulat al-Shu l ard y (ed. Torrey, ZDMG, 19", 
487-516), his disciple Abu Hatim al-Sidjistanl col- 
lected answers given by his teacher to the question 
which poets are to be regarded as fahl. Whereas Abu 
'Amr, according to al-A?ma'I, was never heard 
to quote an Islamic poet (Ibn Rashlk, al- l Umda, i, 
73), his disciple valued the new poets who mastered 
the lugha ; (see for instance Ibn al- Djarrah, a/- Warafai, 
60. For his criticism of the muwattadun, see J. Fuck 
Arabiya, 22 f.). 

Applying to the rich lexicographical materials 
collected by him the systematic methods employed 
by philologists from the very beginning of these 
studies in 'Irak, i.e. of grouping together items of 
similar materials, al-A?ma'i composed a series of 
monographs the titles of which are listed in the 
Fihrist, 55. In his Qiazirat al- l Arab, which is lost 
but is copiously quoted by Yakut in his Mutant, 
he often seems to adduce a first-hand knowledge of 
topography; (see for instance Mu'dxam, i, 705). About 
the size of these treatis.es we know from Fihrist only 
that the Gharib al-Uadith was written in 200 folios. 
A number of them, however, have been preserved; 
(see Brockelmann, I, 104 and S I, 164). That these 
specimens of al-Asma'I's lexical work do not represent 
the final state of his collections seems obvious, if one 
compares for instance the rather meagre text of his 
al-Nabat wa'l-Shaa^ar (ed. Haffner, Beirut 1898) 
with the rich material on the subject quoted from 
al-Asma'I by Abu Hanifa al-DInawari in his Kitdb 
al-Nabat. 

Among the disciples of al-A?ma'I, Abu Nasi 
Ahmad b. Hatim al-Bahill was known to be his 
rawiya. He is said to have transmitted the books of 
his teacher to Tha'lab ; (see Irshad, ii, 140). As a trans- 
mitter of them there is mentioned also Abu 'Ubayd 
al-Kasim [q.v.], who divided the books of al-A?ma'I 
into chapters and added some pieces of information 
to them on the authority of Abu Zayd al-An?arf 
and the philologists of Kufa; (see Irshad, vi, 162 f.). 



L-ASMA'I — ASSAM 



719- 



For later lexicographers the main source of infor- 
mation about materials collected by al-AsmaH was 
the Tahdhib al-Lugha of al-Azharl. In the intro- 
duction (ed. Zettersteen, MO, 1920, 1 f.), al-Azharl 
mentions the direct and indirect sources from which 
he drew these materials. 

Bibliography: Slrafl, Biographies des gram- 
mairiens de Vicole de Basra (Krenkow), Paris- 
Beirut 1936, 58-68; Fihrist, 55-56; al-Rabal, 
al-Muntaka minAkhbar al-AsmaH, ed. al-Tanukhi, 
Damascus 1936; Ta'rikh Baghdad, x, 410-420; 
Yakut, Irshad, passim; Aghani, Tables; Ibn al- 
al-Anbarl, Nuiha, 150-72; Ibn Khallikan. no. 389; 
al-Yafil, Mir'at al-Dianan, ii, 64-77; Suyfitl, 
Muihir*, passim ; idem, Bughya, 313 f. ; many other 
casual references in Arabic works; I. Goldziher, 
Muh. St, i, 195, 199, ii, 171; Brockelmann, I, 
104, S I, 164-165; R. Blachere, Litt. i, 113 1, 
142, 149; C. Pellat, Le milieu basrien et la for- 
mation de Gdhif, 134. (B. Lewin) 
al-ASMA'IYYAT [see al-asma'I]. 
ASPER [see a*ce]. 

'A$R (a), time, age; particularly the early part 
of the afternoon, until the sun becomes red; hence 
soldi al-'asr, the ritual prayer in the afternoon, 
cf. salAt. (Ed.) 

ASRAFlL [see isrAfIl]. 
ASS [see alAn]. 

ASSAB, town and port at the N.W. end of the 
Bay of Assab on the coast of Eritrea. The surrounding 
country is arid and is inhabited by Afar (Danakil). 
Assab is generally identified with the ancient Sabae, 
described by Strabo (xvi, 771) as ir6Xi? tutiey^Oj)?. 
Its importance is due to its position opposite Mukha 
and at the end of a caravan route leading to the 
Ethiopian plateau, both the Red Sea and the coastal 
desert being comparatively narrow at this point. 
In 1936-39 the Italians built a motor road from Assab 
connecting with the main Addis Ababa-Asmara 
road near Dessye. Assab was known to the Jesuit 
missionaries of the early seventeenth century; they 
describe it as Ethiopian territory. It was occasionally 
visited by European voyagers who found it a useful 
place in which to careen their ships. In 161 1 it was 
called "a very good road . . . where you may have 
wood and water freely, and refreshing for your money 
or coarse calicoes". (Sir W. Foster, Letters received 
by the East India Company from its servants in the 
East, i, 131). It is mentioned from time to time in the 
Company's records and is said to have been ruled 
by a Muslim "King". In 1869 it was acquired from 
the Sultan of Rahayta by the Italian traveller, 
ex-missionary and propagandist for colonial expan- 
sion, Giuseppe Sapeto, acting for the Rubattino 
shipping company, by which it was used as a coaling 
station. It became an Italian colony in 1882 and 
with the extension of Italian rule was made the 
capital of a commissariato. In 1928 Ethiopia was 
granted freedom of trade at Assab which became 
increasingly important commercially. 

Bibliography: G. Sapeto, Assab e i suoi 

critici, Genoa, 1879; G. B. Licata, Assab e i 

Danachili, Milan, 1885; A. Issel, Viaggio nel Mar 

Rosso, Milan, 1885; Guida dell' Africa Orientate 

Italiana, Milan, 1938. (C. F. Beckingham) 

ASSAM, name of the easternmost province in 

the Republic of India, situated between East 

Pakistan and Burma, within 22 19' and 28° 16' N. 

Lat., and 89° 42' and 97 12' E. Long. It comprises 

the Brahmaputra valley and the hill ranges enclosing 

small plateaux, the shelter of numerous hill tribes 

and refuge of the Mongol hordes. The province 



covers 85,012 English square miles, and its population 
in 1951 was 9,043,707, of whom 1,996,456 were 
Muslims, three-fourths of these being concentrated, 
in the westerly districts of Goalpara and Kamrup, 
contiguous to North Bengal, and Cachar, adjacent 
to Pakistani Sylhet. Since 1920 their percentage has. 
considerably increased in other neighbouring districts- 
owing to immigration from Bengal, the eastern 
portion of the valley remaining unaffected. 

In Sanskrit records the valley is called "Lawhitya'V 
Prag-jyotisha", or "Kamarupa". The word, Assam, 
(correctly Asama, locally pronounced Ahom), is 
connected with the Shans or Tais, a group of Tibeto- 
Burmans, who settled about 8th century A.D. in 
Siam, Upper Burma, and finally in this province. 
Its derivation from Sanskrit A+sama (= "peerless") 
is unwarranted. The Ahom migrants had a sense of 
history, and produced works called BuraOjis. The 
first king known is Sukapha, who, in 1228, occupied 
a portion of the Upper Valley. His successors 
gradually conquered the neighbouring tribes and 
established the Ahom kingdom. The western valley, 
with the city of GawhatI, which lay outside their 
domains, retained the name of Kamrup, and was 
ruled by petty landlords, collectively called BSra- 
bhuinyas. Twice they were integrated into the 
kingdom of Kamrup-Kamta, first by the Khens, 
and next by the Kochas, northern rival neighbours, 
of the Muslim Sultans of Bengal. 

The Muslim advance into Kamrup falls into 
three stages. The first, which began in A.D. 1206 
with Bakhtiyar KhaldjI, is a period of raid, occasional 
occupation and imposition of tribute. It culminated in 
1357, when Sikandar Shah founded the mint of 
Cawlistan'urf Kamru (possibly GawhatI). It is in. 
one of the neighbouring caves that Ibn Battuta 
possibly met the famous saint Shah Pjalal Tabriz!. 
The second period began with the defeat of Kames- 
vara, the king of Kamta, by Barbak Shah, and the 
final occupation of Kamrup by c Ala> al-DIn Husayn 
Shah after overthrowing the Khen king, NUambar,. 
in 1498. So far the Muslims had not contacted the 
Ahoms, Kamrup being alone mentioned in con- 
temporary Muslim records. The BuraAjis speak of 
a first Muslim invasion in 1532 by Turbak (possibly 
Bahr-bak = "naval officer"), obviously an official 
posted in Kamrup, but the invading forces were- 
utterly routed. With the downfall of the Husayn 
Shahl dynasty in 1538, the Kochas emerged and 
established their kingdom. Oc this period the tomb 
of Sultan Ghiyaflj al-DIn Awliya at Hajo is an 
important memorial. The third period began in 1612, 
when Islam Khan, the Mughal Governor of Bengal, 
subjugated the Kochas and occupied Kamrup once 
again. Hereafter wars with the Ahoms became 
frequent, and Assam loomed large in Persian 
chronicles. In 1662 Mir Djumla finally reduced the 
Ahom king and imposed an annual tribute on him. 
The subsequent weakness of the Mughals encouraged 
the Ahoms, who by 1682 occupied the whole Brahm- 
aputra valley and continued to rule till 1824, when 
the British intervened to check the threat of the 
Burmese and integrated Assam into their territory. 
The Ahoms retained the services of the Muslims for 
their skill in arts and crafts. The Marias (braziers) 
and the Cartas (tailors by profession) are even now 
common in some districts. In the middle of the 19th 
century a large percentage of the Muslims were 
affected by the "Fara'idi" movement. The humbler 
peasants have developed a peculiar local culture, 
combining with their faith in Islam the local rites 
and customs and national festivals of this region. 



720 AS 

Bibliography : E. A. Gait, A History of Assam, 
Calcutta 1906; K. L. Barua, Early History of 
Kdmarupa, Shillong 1933; W. W. Hunter, A 
Statistical Account of Assam, London 1879, 2 Vols; 
B. C. Allen, Assam District Gazetteers, Calcutta & 
Allahabad 1905-1906, 8 Vols. H. Blochmann, 
Koch Bihar, Koch Hajo, and Assam, in JASB, 
1872, 49-101 ; Birinchi Kumar Barua, A note on the 
■word Assam, in Journal of the Assam Research 
Society, Vol. ii/i, Gawhati 1934, 41-2; M. Glanius, 
A relation of an unfortunate voyage to the kingdom 
■ofBengala, London 1682; M. I. Borah, Bahdristdn-i 
Ghaybi of Mirza Nathan, Gawhati 1936; Shihab 
al-DIn Talish, Fath-i Ibriya, MS. in the collection 
of Asiatic Society, Calcutta; S. K. Bhuyan, 
Annals of the Delhi Badshahat, Gawhati 1947; 
idem, Deodhai Asam Buranji, Gawhati 1932 ; idem, 
Tungkhungia Buranji, Oxford 1933; idem, Asam 
Buranji, Gawhati 1930; Golap Chandra Barua, 
Ahom-Buranji, Calcutta 1930. (A. H. Dam) 
'ASSAR, Shams al-DIn Muhammad, Persian 
poet, born in Tabriz, died in 779 or in 784/1382-3; 
he was one of the panegyrists of the prince Uways 
'iq.v.~\ and is chiefly known for his poem Mihr u 
Mushtari, at the end of which he gives the date 
of its completion (10 Shawwal 778/1377); this poem 
consists of 5,120 distichs and was later translated 
into Turkish. In the words of Ethe {Gr. I. Phil.), 
it is "the story of a love, free from every frailty 
and pure from every sensual lust, between Mihr, the 
-son of Shaburshah, and the comely stripling Mush- 
tari". 

Bibliography: Von Hammer. Gesch. d. 
schonen Redekiinste Persiens, 254 (analysis and 
translation of selected passages; the name of the 
poet is erroneously given as c Attar); Peiper, 
Comment, de libro persico Mihr Mushtari, Berlin 
1839; Fleischer, in ZDMG, xv, 389 ft.; Rieu, 
■Cat. Persian MSS. Brit. Mus., 11, 626; Pertsch, 
Ratal. Berlin, 843 ff. (H. Masse) 

ASSASSINS [see nizaris]. 
ASSUAN [see uswan]. 

ASTARABADH, Astarabad, (Istirabad in Sam- 
''ani, Ansdb). 

1. A town in Iran situated ca. 23 m. east of the 
S-E corner of the Caspian Sea at 36° 49' N. lat. and 
.54° 26' E. long. (Greenw.) on a tributary of the 
Karasu. It is 377 ft. above sea level and 3 m. from 
the foothills of a mountain chain, a spur of the 
Elburz. The town lies on a plain which ends in the 
Turkoman steppes to the north. Astarabadh is now 
called Gurgan (not to be confused with medieval 
•Gurgan, Arabic Djurdjan, to the N-E). 

The pre-Islamic history of the town is unknown, 
and it is uncertain whether it existed before Islam, 
although Mordtmann in SB Bayr. AK. 1869, 536, 
identifies it with ancient Zadrakarta. The etymology 
•of the name is also obscure. Folk etymology connects 
the name with the Persian word for "star", or for 
■"mule", and appropriate stories are told of the 
origin of the town. 

Astarabadh was the second city of the province 
of Gurgan in Islamic times and underwent the same 
fortunes as the capital city Gurgan. The province 
was raided by the Arabs in the time of the caliph 
c Uthm5n (al-Baladhuri, Futuh, 334), and again by 
Sa'id b. c Uthman under Mu'awiya, but it was not 
conquered until Yazld b. Muhallab defeated the 
ruling Turks of the area in 98/716. There is a tradition 
that Yazld founded Astarabadh on the site of a 
-village called Astarak. 



x-ASTARABADHi 

There were frequent rebellions in Gurgan during 
both the Umayyad and the 'Abbasid caliphates. 
Astarabadh is rarely mentioned by historians, and 
the geographers also give little information. It was 
a silk centre according to al-Istakhri, 213. The port 
of Astarabadh (and Gurgan) on the Caspian, 
Abaskun, was an important trading centre. The 
Hudud al- c Alam, 134, says the people of Astarabadh 
spoke two languages, one of which is • probably 
preserved in the dialect used by the Hurufi sect. 
After the Mongol conquest of Iran we find Asta- 
rabadh replacing Gurgan as the most important town 
of the area. The province was the scene of strife 
between the last Il-Khans, the Timurids, and local 
Turkish -tribal leaders. Sometime during this period 
the Kadjar tribe of Turkomans became the leading 
power in Astarabadh. Agha Muhammad, first of the 
Kadjar Shahs, was bom in Astarabadh. Shah 
c Abbas I, Nadir Shah, and Agha Muhammad all 
erected buildings in Astarabadh. The town, located 
on the steppes, continually suffered the depredations 
of Turkomans. 

Astarabadh had many mosques and shrines (see 
Rabino, below), and was called ddr al-mu'minin 
probably because of the many sayyids living there. 
The name of the town was changed to Gurgan 
under Rida Shah, and in 1950 it had ca. 25,000 
^habitants. There are few old remains in the town, 
and only two are noteworthy, the Imamzada Nur 
and the mosque of Gulshan. Rabino (below, 73-5) 
lists the shrines of the town as well as the inscriptions. 
2. The province of Astarabadh, as it existed under 
the Kadjars, was bounded on the north by the 
Gurgan River, on the south by the Elburz Mts., on 
the west by the Caspian Sea and Mazandaran, and 
on the east by the district of Djadjarm. The district 
{shahristdn) of Gurgan under Rida Shah was smaller. 
The province could be divided into two parts, the 
mountain area and the plains. The former is well- 
watered with many trees, while the latter is fertile, 
even marshy but becomes desert to the north. 
Wheat and tobacco are grown extensively here. 
The population is mixed, with Persian speakers 
predominant in the mountain area and the towns, 
and Turkomans on the plains. 

Bibliography: A history of Astarabadh was 
written by a certain al-ldrlsl (d. 405/1014) which 
has not survived, (see Brockelmann, S I, 210); 
H. L. Rabino, Mazandaran and Astarabad, London 
1928, 71-5 ; Yakut, i, 242 ; G. Melgunov, Das siidl. 
XJfer des Kaspischen Meeres, Leipzig 1868, 101-24; 
J. de Morgan, Mission scientifique en Perse, i, 
Paris 1894, 82-112; Le Strange, 378-9. For 
recent information on the town and province of 
Gurgan, see Farhang-i Diughrdfivd-yi Iran, ed. 
Razmara, 3, Tehran 1951, 254-5. A plan of the 
town appears in Rdhnumd-yi Iran, Tehran 1952, 
205. See also art. on Astarabad in Dihkhuda, 
Lughat-ndma, Tehran 1952, 2143-6. 

(R. N. Frye) 
al-ASTARAbAQHI. The nisba of several 
Muslim scholars of whom RadI al Din al-Astarabadhi 
and Rukn al-Din al-Astarabadhi (see below) are the 
best known. Yakut describes Astarabadh as a city 
producing scholars proficient in all sciences and 
mentions the kadi Abu Nasr Sa c d b. Muhammad b. 
Isma c il al-Mutrafi al-Astarabadhi (d. circa 550/ 
1155-6), the imam Abu Nu'aym <Abd al-Malik b. 
Muhammad b. 'Adi al-Astarabadhi, author of a 
treatise on the verification of traditions (d. 320/932) 
and the kadi al-Husayn b. al-Husayn b. Muhammad 
b. al-Husayn b. Ramln al-Astarabadhi, a much- 



l-ASTARABADHI — ASTRAKHAN 



travelled scholar who consorted with Sufis (d. in 
Baghdad in 412/1021-2). There were several well- 
known Astarabadhi <ulamd in Safawid times, in- 
cluding Ahmad b. Tadj al-DTn Hasan b. Sayf al-DIn 
al-Astarabadhi, author of a biography of the Prophet, 
c Imad al-Din C A1I al-Sharif al-Kari al-Astarabadhi, 
author of a treatise on the recitation of the recitation 
of the Kur'an, and Muhammad b. <Abd al-Karim 
al-Ansari al-Astarabadhi, who translated an Arabic 
work on ethics. The nisba al-Astarabadhi is given 
also to several lesser known scholars, such as al- 
Hasan b. Ahmad al-Astarabadhi, a grammarian and 
lexicographer, and the traditionist Muhammad b. 
«A1I. 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 242; Storey, 42, 177, 
192; Suyuti, Bughyat al-Wu c dt, Cairo 1326/1908, 
218; Ethe, Catalogue of Persian MSS. in the 
Library of the India Office, Oxford 1903-37, 724- 
826 (1162); Loth, Catalogue of Arabic MSS in the 
Library of the India Office, London 1877 i, 258; 
Muhammad b. Isma c U Abu c Ali al-Halri, Muntaha 
al-Makdl (lithographed Tehran 1302/1885; the 
Manhadi al-Makdl of Muhammad b. c Ali al- 
Astarabadhi is published as a supplement to this) ; 
<Ali Akbar Dihkhuda, Lughat-ndma, Tehran 1332/ 
1953, s.v. Astarabadhi. (A. J. Mango) 

at-ASTARAbADHI. R A pI al-DIn Muhammad 
b. al-Hasan, author of a celebrated commentary on 
the Kdfiya, a well-known grammatical work of Ibn 
al-Hadjib. Al-Suyutl, who praises the commentary 
as unique, admits to knowing nothing of Radi al- 
Din's life, except that the work was completed in 
683/1284-5, and that Radi al-Din was reported to 
have died in 684 or 686/1285-8. He also wrote a 
lesser known commentary on the Shdfiya of Ibn al- 
Hadjib. The kadi Nur Allah Shushtari interprets a 
reference in the introductory prayer as meaning that 
the commentary on the Kdfiya was written in 
Nadjaf, but the term haram which occurs in the 
Arabic edition could refer just as well to Mecca, 
where Suyuti obtained his information on the date 
of Radi al-Din's death. There seems no doubt, 
however, that Radi al-Din was a Shi'i. 

Bibliography: Suyuti, Bughyat aUWu'-at, 

Cairo 1326/1908, 248; Muhammad b. al-Hasan al- 

Hurr al- c Amili, Amal al-AmU, lithographed, 

Tehran 1302/1885, 61; Kadi Nur Allah Shushtari, 

Madialis al-Mu'minin, fifth Madjlis ; Brockelmann 

I, 2i, 303, 305; S. I. 532, 535, 713; M. S. Howell, 

A Grammar of the Classical Arabic Language, 

Allahabad 1894, Introduction, xi. Radi al-DIn's 

commentary on the Kdfiyya was published in 

Cairo in 1358/1939. (A. J. Mahco) 

al-ASTARAbABHI, Rukn al-DIn al-Hasan 

b. Muhammad b. SharafshAh al-'AlawI, known 

as Abu '1-Fada'il al-Sayyid Rukn al-DIn, a Shafi'I 

scholar best known for his commentary on the 

Kdfiya, a grammatical work of Ibn al-Hadjib. This 

commentary, the Wdfiya, is known also as the 

Mutawassif, or "intermediate", as it was the second 

of three commentaries.Al-Suyutl, quoting Muljammad 

b. Rafi's appendix to the Ta'rikh Baghdad (the 

passage is not included in the abridged Baghdad 

edition of 1938) says that he enjoyed the patronage 

of Nasir al-DIn TusI [q. v .] m Maragha where he 

taught philosophy and composed commentaries on 

Tusi's Tadjrid al-'Akd'id and KawdHd al-'Akd'id. 

He accompanied TusI to Bagdad in 672/1274 and, 

after the death of his patron in the same year, 

settled in Mawsil, where he taught in the Nflriyya 

mairasa and composed his commentary on Ibn 

al-Hadjib. From Mawsil he went on to Sultaniyya' 

Encyclopaedia of Islam 



where he taught Shafi'I jurisprudence. He died in 
7I5/I3I5-6 or 718/1318-9 (two MSS. in the Biblio- 
theque Nationale give the date of his death as 717/ 
1317-8 and 719/1319-20). Rukn al-DIn was reputed 
for his modesty as well as for the honour in which 
he was held in the Mongol Court. 

Bibliography: Suyuti, Bughyat al-Wu'-dt, 228; 
Subki, Tabakdt al-ShdfiHyya al-Kubrd, Cairo 1906, 
vi, 86; Ethe, Catalogue of Persian MSS. in the 
Library of the India Office, Oxford 1903-37, 
724-826 (1162); idem, Arabic MSS. in the British 
Museum, London 1894, 946; de Slane, Bibliotheque 
Nationale Catalogue des Manuscrits Arabes, Paris 
1883-95, 2369, 4037; Brockelmann I, 305, SI, 
536; M. S. Howell, A Grammar of the Classical 
Arabic Language, Introduction, v. 

(A. J. Mango) 
ASTARLAB [see asturlab]. 
ASTORGA [see ashturi?a, in the Suppl.]. 
ASTRAKHAN, city and district. The city 
lies on the left bank of the Volga, some sixty miles 
from the point where it runs into the Caspian Sea, 
46 21' N, 48° 2' E, 20.7 m. below normal sea level, 
7.6 m. above the level of the Caspian Sea. Ibn 
Battuta, ii, 410-2, who passed through here in 1333, 
mentions for the first time a settlement supposed to 
have been founded by a Mecca pilgrim, whose 
religious reputation brought the district exemption 
from taxes; this was supposed to explain its name, 
viz. HadjdjI Tarkhan (tarkhan means among the 
Mongols in later times a man exempt from taxes, a 
nobleman). Other forms of the name are Cytrykan 
or Zytrykhan, in Ambr. Contarini's account (1487) 
Citricano, in Turkish-Tatar sources also Azdarkhan 
and Ashtarakan. The settlement lay on the right 
bank of the Volga on the Shareniy (or Zareniy) hill; 
the first coins discovered are from 776/1374-5 and 
782/1380-1. (777/1375-6: Chr. Frahn, Miinzen d. Chane 
etc., St. Petersburg 1832, 22, no. 102 ; idem, Recensio 
etc., St. Petersburg 1826, 300, no. 1 ; A. K. Markov, 
Inv. Katalog, St. Petersburg 1896, 860; 1380-1; 
ibidem, 476; P. S. SavePev, Monety Diu&dov, ii, 
St. Petersburg 1858, 18, no. 416; also the Kaiser- 
Friedrich Museum, Berlin, possessed a specimen.) 
In the winter of 798/1395-6 TImur destroyed the 
city, as well as Saray [?.».] (§haml, Zafar-ndma, ed. 
Tauer, i, 158-62). In contrast to the latter Astrakhan 
rose again and took over eventually its importance 
as a centre of trade; in the course of this it became, 
as earlier the neighbouring Khazar city of I til (A til) 
[q.v.]. eventually the centre of the traffic on the 
Caspian Sea and the lands bordering on it. 

In 871/1466 there was established in Astrakhan, 
during the decline of the Golden Horde [cf . batOids] a 
Tatar dynasty of the Noghay princes stemming 
from the Tatar IQian Kiiiuk Mehmed. The territory 
ruled by the Khans Kasim (871-896/1466-90) and 
his brother 'Abd al-Karim (in Russian and Polish 
Ablumgirym; 896-910/1490-1504) encompassed the 
country as far as the modern Stavropol', Orenburg 
(Ckalov), Samara (Kuyblshev) and Saratov, and 
was divided into various uluses. The population 
supported themselves mainly by cattle raising, 
hunting and fishing. Conflicts with the begs, the 
rapid changes of Khans after 910/1504 and the 
interference of the Crimean Tatars and the Noghays 
brought the Khanate into difficulties; the Khan 
'Abd al-Rahman 941-5/1534-8) sought help against 
these and the Ottomans from the Russian Czar. 
(For a list of the Khans see Zambaur, 247, and for 
a genealogical table ibid., 24 1 .) 



ASTRAKHAN — ASTURLAB 



In 962/1554 the Khanate (since 951/1544 under 
Yamghurcay or Yaghmuril) was conquered by the 
Russians; since the Khan Darwlsh 'All (in Russian 
Derblsh), who was nominated by them, allied 
himself with the Crimean Tatars and the Noghays, 
he was deposed in 964/1556-7 and the Khanate 
incorporated into the Russian state. Apart from the 
Russian there immigrated into the country Kalmucks 
[q.v.], since 1632; those of them who lived east 
of the Volga returned in 1770-1 to the East, while 
those who settled west of the Volga were driven out 
in 1944-5. They were followed with Russian per- 
mission by Kazaks [q.v.] since 1801. As a counter- 
balance 25,000 so called Astrakhan Cossacks were 
settled here in 1750 (new organisation in 1817; their 
corporation dissolved in 1919). In 1717 the Gouverne- 
ment of Astrakhan was established by the Russians; 
1785-1832 the territory belonged to Caucasia. The 
re-established Gouvemement of Astrakhan received 
in i860 new boundaries (208, 159, according to other 
calculations 236, 532 sq.km.). In 1918-20 the territory 
became part of the Russian SSR and forms since 
27 Dec. 1943 (after the dissolution of the Kalmuck 
territory) an oblast' of 96,300 sq.km. 

Astrakhan was rebuilt by the Russians in 1558 
seven miles downstream on the left bank and has 
since then always contained an overwhelmingly 
Russian population; there was a Tatar and an 
Armenian suburb. Indian settlers of the 16th cen- 
tury mixed with the Tatars ("Agryzans"). The city 
was threatened in 1569 by an Ottoman-Crimean 
Tatar army (cf. Ahmed Reflk, Bahr-i Khazer — Kara 
Deniz Kanall we-Eiderkhan Se/eri, TOEM, viii, 1-14; 
Halil fnalcik, Osmanh-rus rekabetinin mensei we 
Don-Volga kanalt tesebbusii, Bell., 1948, 349-402; cf. 
also *azan). Consequently in 1582 the Russians 
built a stone wall and in 1589 a fortress. In spite of 
this the city was repeatedly plundered by Tatars 
and Cossacks (especially Stenka Razin, 1667-8); it 
suffered too from repeated earthquakes and epidemics. 
In 1722-1867 it was the naval port for the Caspian 
Sea (since then Baku); in 1918-21 also, during the 
civil war, a flotilla operated from here. Astrakhan 
had in 1897: 113,001 inhabitants (among them 12,000 
Muslims: Persians, Tatars, etc., and 6,200 Arme- 
nians), six ShI c I mosques and one Sunni, 73 
madrasas and three maktabs. In 1939 the city had 
253.655 inhabitants and possessed over ten Tatar 
schools and several Tatar newspapers. For the Soviet 
Union it is important mainly as a starting-place for 
Caspian ships and because of its fisheries (with 
caviar and blubber factories) and its fishing industry. 
Bibliography: H,s.v.(byR. Rahmeti Arat) ; 
Brockhaus-Efron, Enlsiklop. Slovar, ii/3, 349-66, 
Suppl., i, 168 ;Bol'shayaSovetskayaEntsiklopediya l , 
iii, 651-2, *iii, 278-90; A. N. Shtyl'ko, Illyustri- 
rovannaya Astrakhan. Olerki proshlago i nostoyash- 
tego goroda, Saratov 1896; Astrakhan i Astrakhan- 
skaya guberniya, St. Petersburg 1902 ; Astrakhan. 
SpravoCnaya kniga, Stalingrad 1937; G. Peretyat- 
kovii: Povoll'e v 15-16 vekakh, Moscow 1877; 
P. G. Lyubomirov, Zaselenie Astrakhanskogo kraya 
v XV 11 1 v., in Nash Kray, Astrakhan 1926, no. 4; 
W. Leimbach, Die Sowjetunion, Stuttgart 1950, 
284, 449; T. Shabad, Geography of the USSR, 
New York 1951, 194-203; F. Sperk, Opyt khrono- 
logifeskago ukazatelya literatury ob Astrakhanskom 
krae (1473-1877), St. Petersburg 1892. 

IK) 



judjOm, aijkJ 



L-]. 



ASTURLAB or Asturlab (Ar.; on the vocali- 
sation see also Ibn Khallikan, no. 779; idem, Bulak, 
no. 746), Astrolabe. The word was derived from 
the Greek &OTpoX<x(}o<; or <xaTpoXa(}ov (fipyavov), 
name of several astronomical instruments serving 
various theoretical and practical purposes, such as 
the demonstration and graphical solution of many 
problems of spherical astronomy, the measuring of 
altitudes, the determination of the hour of the day 
id the night, and the casting of horoscopes. In 
rabic the word Asturlab when used alone always 
eans the flat or planispheric astrolabe based 
1 the principle of stereographic projection; it is the 
most important instrument of mediaeval, Islamic 
and Western, astronomy. The linear astrolabe, 
depending on the same principle, is an ingenious 
simplification of the planispheric astrolabe, though of 
little practical interest. The spherical astrolabe 
represents the terrestrial and the celestial spheres 
without any projection. No specimens of linear or 
spherical astrolabes seem to have been preserved. 
N.B. The Ptolemaic astrolabe as described in Aim. 
is an improved armillary sphere, having only 
name in common with the instruments treated 
here; the astrolabe mentioned in Tetrab. 3,3 probably 
refers to the planispheric astrolabe (see below). 
I. The flat (sathi or musaffah) astrolabe, being 
e astrolabe in its stricter sense, Latin (astrolabium) 
planisphaerium, in Arabic called also dhdt al-sa/d'ih 
m safiha = Lat. saphaea, alzafea, etc., "disc"), 
3 instrument having, or consisting of, discs 
(tablets)". Another alleged Ar. synonym: waztdcora 
(also wazzalcora, walzagora, etc.), corresponding with 
Ar. bast al-kura (not wad'- al-kura, see Millas [1], 
169 f.), "the spreading out of the sphere", is known 
only from Lat. MSS. originating from Spain. The 
word appears to refer rather to the principle of 
projection than to the instrument itself, and discloses 
a striking similarity with the original title of 
Ptolemy's Planisphaerium as recorded by Suidas (ed. 
A. Adler, Leipzig 1928-38, iv, 254, 7): cfaXuoic 
4i«9avela<; <j<palpa<;. 

1. History. While the theory of stereographic 
projection (by which circles of the sphere are 
represented again as circles, and angles formed by 
intersecting circles of the sphere remain unchanged 
in the plane of projection) can be traced back to 
Hipparchus (150 B.C.), Ptolemy's Planisphaerium 
(preserved only in a Latin translation made by 
Hermannus Dalmata from Maslama al-Madjriti's 
Ar. version; crit. ed. by J. L. Heiberg, CI. Ptolemaei 
opera quae exstant omnia. Vol. ii, Leipzig 1907, 
225-59; German transl. by J. Drecker: Das Plani- 
sphaerium des CI. Ptolemaeus, in Isis ix, 1927, 
255-78) is the earliest special treatise on the subject. 
The references made there (ch. 14) to the aranea 
("spider") of the horoscopium instrumentum, and 
(Tetrab. 3, 3) to the a<jTpoXdt(}ov wpooxojreiov as the 
only useful instrument for determining the hour of 
birth, can leave no doubt that Ptolemy really knew 
the planispherical astrolabe (Neugebauer [1], 242; 
Hartner [1], 2532, n. 1). For a critical analysis of 
subsequent references to the astrolabe prior to the 
Arabic conquest (Theon of Alexandria, Synesius of 
Cyrene, Johannes Philoponus, Severus Sebokht) see 
Neugebauer [1]. The earliest Ar. treatises mentioned 
in the Fihrist are by Ma sha'a 'Hah (Messahalla, 
d.c. 200/815, Suter no. 8), c Ali b. c Is5 (flor. c. 215/830, 
Suter, no. 23), and Mulj. b. Musa al-Kh w arizmi (d.c. 
220/835). Ever since, the construction and the use 
of the astrolabe remained one of the favourite 
subjects of Islamic astronomers. The earliest Islamic 



s preserved date from the second half of 
the 4th/ioth century. In learned European circles the 
astrolabe and its theory became first known through 
the writings (spurious?, see Millas [i], ch. vi) of 
Gerbert d'Aurillac, the later Pope Sylvester II 
(ca. 930-1003) and Hermann the Lame of Reichenau 
(1013-54); they, as all posterior European composit- 
ions, strictly depend on Islamic models, above all 
Messahalla, whose influence proves particularly strong 
in Geoffrey Chaucer's Conclusions of the astrolabe 
("Bread and milk for children"); see Gunther [2]. 
The earliest European instruments that have 
survived date from c. 1200. After the invention of the 
telescope, the astrolabe fell into disuse in the West, 
whereas, in the East, the tradition was carried on 
till late in the 18th and even the 19th century. As 
is attested by the lakab al-asfurldbi encountered 
since the beginning of Islamic science, the making 
of astrolabes was a handicraft of its own cultivated 
by specially trained craftsmen, but many astrolabes 
prove to have been wrought by other artisans, too, 
as is shown by the sobriquets al-ibari, "the needle- 
maker", al-nadjdjdr, "the carpenter", etc., frequently 
found in colophons. According to Chardin {Voyages 
du chevalier Chardin en Perse, ed. Langles, iv, 
Paris 181 1, 332) the most highly valued instruments 
were manufactured, not by artisans, but by astro- 
nomers. For illustrations of astrolabes (Eastern and 
Western), see Gunther [1]; for the names of astro- 
labe-makers see Mayer [1] and Price [1]. 

2. Description of the instrument. The 
planispherical astrolabe is a portable metal (brass, 
bronze) instrument in the form of a circular disc 
with a diameter varying from 4" to 8" (10-20 cm.). 
The simplest type of this astrolabe, taken over with 
respect to its essential features from Greek and 
Syrian models, consists of the following pieces: 

(A) The suspensory apparatus, which comprises 
three parts: a triangular piece of metal called kursi, 
"throne" (large and richly decorated in the Mashrik, 
esp. Persia, smaller and simpler in the Maghrib), 
which is firmly attached to the body of the instru- 
ment; a handle, 'urwa, habs, L. armilla suspensoria, 
affixed to the point of the kursi so that it can be 
turned to either side in the plane of the latter; a 
ring, halka, L. armilla rotunda, passing through the 
handle and moving freely. When in use, the astrolabe 
is suspended with a cord, Hldka. 

(B) The body of the astrolabe, which has a 
"front", wadjh, L. facies, and a "back", zahr, L. 

(a) The front of the astrolabe consists of 
an outer rim, hadjra, fawk, kuffa, L. limbus or margo, 
which encloses the inner surface, usually depressed, 
called "mother", umm, L. mater. A number of thin 
discs, ?afdHh, L. tympana or tabulae regionum, are 
fitted into the hadjra over the umm; a bit of metal, 
mumsika, projecting from the hadjra and fitting into 
an exactly corresponding indentation on the edge 
of each disc, prevents the discs from turning. A hole 
is bored through the centre of the umm and the 
safdHh; a broadheaded pin, kutb, watad, or mihwar, 
L. clavus, axis, passing through it holds the parts 
together and serves as an axis around which turn 
the two movable parts of the instrument, viz., on 
the front, the "sp der", 'ankabiit (also called "net", 
shabaka), L. aranea or rete, and, on the back, the 
"alidad" (from the Ar. al-'i4dda), L. radius or 
regula. A wedge called the "horse", faras, L. equus, 
caballus, or cuneus, which is fitted into a slit in the 
narrow end of the kutb, prevents the latter from 
coming out. A small ring, fals, placed under the 



horse, protects the spider and ensures a smooth 
turning. N. B. A ruler in the shape of the hand of a 
watch turning on the face of the astrolabe (L. index, 
ostensor) is often found on European, but never on 
Islamic, astrolabes. 

The mathematical divisions of the parts mentioned 
are as follows: 

The hadjra carries a circle graduated from o to 
360°, beginning at the middle point of the kursi, 
i.e., at the top of the astrolabe. 

The umm may either function as one safiha (see 
next section), or carry a list of the geographical 
latitudes of a number of cities. 

The safiha carries on each of its two sides the 
stereographic projection of the equator, the tropics, 
and the horizon for one particular geographical 
latitude, with its parallel circles called "almacantars" 
(from Ar. al-daHra al-mukantara) and vertical 
circles, dawdHr al-sumut. For a northern astrolabe, 
the centre of projection is the South Pole of the 
heavens, and the plane of projection, the equator; 
then the southern tropic constitutes the edge of the 
safiha. For a southern astrolabe, the centre of 
projection is the North Pole, the plane of projection, 
again, the equator; then the northern tropic 
coincides with the edge of the safiha. Most, if not 
all of the astrolabes preserved are northern; only 
for the spider northern and southern projections 
may be used simultaneously (see below, section on 
the 'ankabut). Fig. ia illustrates the face of an 
astrolabe with a safiha constructed for the geogra- 
phical latitude 36° o'. There NS represents the 
meridian, khaff wasaf al-sama?, L. linea tnedii coeli; 
its section CS is called the "line of midday", khaff 
nisf al-nahdr, L. linea meridionalis, and section CN, 
"line of midnight", khatf nisf al-layl, L. linea mediae 
noctis. The diameter EW represents the "straight 
horizon", ufk al-istiwa 1 , also called east-west line, 
khaft wasaf al-mashrik wa 'l-maghrib; its sections CE 
and CW bear, respectively, the names "east line", 
khatf al-mashrik, and west line, khatf al-maghrib. On 
the meridian NS, the following points are marked 
(for their construction, see Fig. ib): C = projection 
of "the North Pole, being the centre of the three 
concentric circles represented, viz., counting from 
within, the northern tropic, maddr ra's al-sarafdn, 
the equator, dd'irut al-i'tiddl, and the southern 
tropic, maddr ra's al-djady (outer rim). The points 
R , R 10 . . . R M mark the centres of the horizon, ufk, 
L. horizon obliquus (meeting NS at <x ) and of the 
almacantars from 10° to 10° (intersecting with NS 

at a, a M ). R, = X, marks the "zenith" (from 

Ar. samt al-ra's). The points 7) , T) 10 . . . . 7),, (= £) 
represent the second intersections of the almacantars 
with NS, south of the zenith. 

The horizon, the equator, and the east-west line 
meet in the east and the west points, from which 
Islamic astronomy counts the azimuths (from 0-90° 
towards N and S). The vertical circles, dawdHr al- 
sumut pass through the zenith and the points o, 10°, 
etc. on the horizon. M marks the centre of the 
"first vertical", awwal al-sumut, through the east 
and west points: For the construction of the other 
vertical circles, see Hartner [1], 2529 and Fig. 846. 

The lines under the horizon indicate the equal or 
unequal hours (sd'dt al-i'tiddl, horae aequales, and 
al-sd'-dt al-zamdniyya, horae inaequales seu temporales), 
to be counted from sunset and sunrise; for their 
construction, see Hartner [1], 2540. The European 
way of counting equal hours from midday and 
midnight was known to Islamic a 
never used in civil life. Therefore the s< 



of the hadira into 2 X 12 hours, starting from o° and 
180°, as shown in Fig. la (outer rim), is often found 
on European, but never on oriental astrolabes. The 
latitude for which a fafifra is designed is usually 
•engraved near the middle of the disc; it may be 
expressed in various ways: by degrees and minutes 
(e.g. "valid for the lat. of 38° 54"'), by the 
name of a particular city ("valid for the lat. of 
Mecca"), or by the duration of the longest day 
("valid for 14" 45 m "). N.B. Astounding errors are 
s found in the descriptions of astrolabes in 



European collections, where abdjad numbers are 
misread for names of (non-existing) places. The 
number of the ja/a'tfc varies ; a good instrument may 
contain nine and even more. Certain astrolabes have 
also a safi^a which gives for a particular geographical 
latitude the projection of the circles of position, as 
required for the calculation of the astrological 
directiones (tasyir); others have a fafifta "for all 
latitudes" (li-didmi* aW-urud) also called the "tablet 
of the horizons" ($afiha dfafyiyya) or "general tablet" 
(didmi'a), which carries only the projection of the 




Fig. la. Face of an astrolabe showing the division of the $afifia. 



meridian and that of the horizon for a number of 
latitudes; the projection of the latter is often 
reduced to one-half of each arc of horizon. This 
disc serves to solve, for any latitude, the problems 
concerning the hour and the azimuths of the rising 
and setting of stars (cf. Michel [i], 91-2). The 
"perfect" (kamil) astrolabe, moreover, bore the 
circle of the sun's equation. Finally, by interchanging 
the four quadrants of a safiha, such fanciful figures 
as the "ogival tablet" are obtained (see Michel [i], 
61 and Fig. 44); although being only a geometrical 
play, they allow the same measurements to be 
carried out as does an ordinary safiha. An astrolabe 
on which all of the 90 almacantars are marked, is 
called "complete" tdmm, L. solipartitum. If only 
every second, third, fifth, sixth, ninth, or tenth, 
almacantar is marked, it is called nisfi (bipartitum), 
thuUhi {tripartitum), khumsi, sudsi, tus% <ushri. 

The '■ankabut represents the vault of the fixed 
stars turning around the earth at rest represented 
by the safiha. In order to allow the diagram of the 
safiha to be seen as clearly as possible it is wrought 
in the shape of an openwork plate, having of course 
due regard to its solidity and the space required for 
attaching the protuberances or pointers (in the sing. 
shatba, shaziyya) indicating the fixed stars. It is 
because of this reticulated form that it has been 
called a "spider", referring of course to the spider's 
web (Gr. &piyy>] and L - ttrtmea may both mean "the 
spider and its web). In designing this "spider", no 
limits are imposed on imagination, and almost every 
conceivable type is found, from the simplest geo- 
metrical pattern to the most beautiful leaf and scroll 
designs. As shown in Fig. 2, its most important 
part is the circle of the zodiac, (minfakat al-burudj), 
which is constructed in exactly the same way as 
all other circles represented on the safifta. It is 
divided into the 12 burudj comprising 30° each, but 
it is well to note that this division, radiating not 
from the pole of the ecliptic, but from that of the 
equator, does not indicate ecliptical longitudes, but 
the points of the zodiac having the right ascensions 
o°, 30 , etc., and their subdivision into degrees 
(mediationes coeli, see Michel [1], 67 f., and Hartner 
M> 2543). At the point of contact with the southern 
tropic, the zodiac carries a little point or hand, A, 
which serves to read the graduation on the hadjra. 
The spider is rotated by means of one or several 
handles, M, called mudir or muhrik. By combining 
parts (halves, fourths, sixths, even twelfths, i.e., single 
signs) of the zodiac represented in northern with 
others represented in southern projection, the 
zodiacal belt assumes more or less fantastic shapes for 
which equally fantastic names were invented: al- 
Biruni and others tell us about tabli, "drum", dsi, 
"myrtle", sarafdni or musarfan, "crab", sadafi 
"shell", thawri, "bull", shahdHhi, "anemone" 
astrolabes, etc. Probably the asturlab zawraki, "boat 
astrolabe" of Ahmad al-Sidjzi (c. 400/1009) belongs 
to this category. For more detailed information, see 
Frank [1], 9 ff. and Michel [1], 69 f. 

Other planispherical astrolabes based on other 
projections than the stereographic are to be regarded 
as theoretical constructions without practical 
significance, e.g. the astrolabe devised by al-Birunl 
and called usfuwdni "cylindrical", because of its 
projection (Ptolemy's "Analemma"), which al- 
Blruni called cylindrical, and which we now call 
orthographic; the circles of the sphere are projected 
there in the form of straight lines, circles and 
ellipses. The mubatfah ("flattened") astrolabe, 
described by al-BIrunl {Chronology, 358-9), appears 



to have been only a stellar chart in equidistant 
polar projection, i.e., the pole of the ecliptic was the 
centre of the projection, the' parallels with the 
ecliptic or circles of latitude (dawaHr al- c ard) were 
represented by equidistant concentric circles and the 
circles of longitude (dawd'ir al-tul; N.B.: in European 





\f 


r 


|A 






^—^r 






\\ 


* 





Fig. 1*. Stereographic projection on the equator. 

astronomy, illogically, these great circles through the 
poles of the ecliptic are called "circles of latitude") 
by equidistant radii. The other projection mentioned 
on 359 f. is a peculiar variant of the one devised by 
al-Zarkall (see below). 

(b) The back of the astrolabe is nearly 
always divided into four quadrants. The outer rim 
of the two upper are graduated from 0-90°, starting 



726 ASH 

from the horizontal line; the altitude of the sun or 
a star, taken with the aid of the alidad, is directly 
read on this graduation. Although the rules for the 
arrangement of the designs on the back are less 
strict, it can be said that the distribution of the 
diagrams in most cases is as follows: The upper left 
quadrant carries horizontal and/or vertical lines 
representing sines and cosines; the upper right, 
several sets of curves, one of which indicates the 
altitude of the sun when standing in the azimuth 
of the (tibia, valid for a number of cities and for 
any position of the sun in the zodiac, — while another 
set indicates the altitude of the sun at midday for 
various geographical latitudes at all seasons of the 
year; the lower two quadrants contain the shadow 
squares, one devised for a gnomon of seven "feet" 
(kadam), the other, for a gnomon of twelve "fingers" 
(asba 1 ). As these divisions, which were first introduced 
by al-Zarkali (hence lacking only on the very oldest 
instruments, such as the one made by Ahmad and 
Muhammad, the sons of Ibrahim of Isfahan, in 374/ 
984-5, Oxf. Lew. Evans Coll.), may be interpreted 




Fig. 2. Spider of an astrolabe. 

as the tangents and cotangents of the altitudes 
measured, it can be said that the back of the 
astrolabe offers a graphical demonstration of the 
main four trigonometrical functions. — Apart from 
these divisions, all kinds of calendaric, astrological, 
and religious information can be found. Characteristic 
differences must be noted here: Spanish-Moorish 
astrolabes always have a Julian calendar, Egyptian, 
a Julian or Coptic, while Persian never have any 
solar calendar. Similarly, the lines indicating the 
times of prayer are apparently found only on 
Maghribi (including Spanish : Moorish) astrolabes 
(according to a personal communication from 
M. Henri Michel). 

The alidad is a flat ruler turning around the 
ftu(b on the back of the astrolabe. Figs. 3 a and c 
show the two principal types employed, Fig. 3b 
being a drawing in perspective of 3a. The straight 
line A B passing through the centre is called ftu(r, 
L. linea fiduciae or fidei. The two arms of the alidad 
are sharpened to a point {shafba, shaziyya) and each 
has a rectangular plate (libna, daffa, hadaf) standing 
at right angles to the plane of the alidad itself, 
through which a hole (thukba) is bored above the 
linea fiduciae. 



The inconvenience that a special safiha is required 
for each latitude was remedied by the Spanish Arab 
al-Zarkali (Azarquiel, Arzachel) who made the vernal 
or the autumnal point the centre, and the solstitial 
colure (i.e. the meridian passing through the 
solstitial points) the plane, of projection. In its 
final form, which al-Zarkali called aW-abbddiyya in 
honour of al-Mu c tamid b. 'Abbad, king of Sevilla 
(461-84/1068-91), the entire instrument consists of 
a single tablet with two small subsidiary pieces. On 
the face of the tablet in stereographical "horizontal" 
(as opposed to the ordinary, "vertical") projection 
the equator is represented with its parallels (maddrdt) 
and its circles of declination (mamarrdt), and the 
ecliptic with its circles of latitude and longitude; the 
projections of the equator and the ecliptic, then, are 
straight lines through the centre. Then evidently the 
tablet is valid for any geographical latitude; more- 
over, since the projections of the two hemispheres 
exactly coincide, it suffices to add the principal stars, 
to make it replace the "spider" of an ordinary 
astrolabe. A rod (ufk nuVil) "oblique horizon", with 
an attached perpendicular ruler, both turning about 
the centre of the graduated face, fulfils the functions 
of the safd'ih of the common astrolabe; by inclining 
it at an appropriate angle to the line of the equator 



.*£- 



^2t 



IP" 



^2= 



<& 



Fig. 3. Types of alidads. 

we obtain the horizon of the place of observation, 
and can then deduce from its divisions the eastern 
and western amplitudes or else solve any other 
problem of spherical astronomy. On the back of the 
tablet are the alidad and the markings found on the 
back of the common astrolabes; but al-Zarkali 
further added the "circle of the moon", which 
enabled him to follow also the course of our satellite. 
— This simple and perfected astrolabe was called by 
the other Arabs al-safiha al-zarkdliyya, "the tablet 
of al-Zarkali". As mentioned above, the idea of 
making the solstitial colure the plane of projection 
appears to have been first conceived by al-BIrunl, 
whose Chronology was composed 30 years before 
al-Zarkali was born. But curiously enough, he there 
(359 f.) acquiesces in devising a purely schematical, 
not projective, diagram, with the circles of longitude 
and latitude drawn through equidistant parts of the 
radii. It is, therefore, really al-Zarkali who must be 
credited with the invention of this new type of an 
astrolabe. Through the Libros del Saber (Vol. 3. 
Madrid 1864, 135-237: Libro de le afa/eha) the 
instrument became known and famous under the 
name Saphaea. It is practically identical with 
Gemma Frisius's Astrolabum (sic) Catholicum of 1556; 
the astrolabe of Gemma's pupil, D. Juan de Roias 
Sarmiento (published 1550) is a variety of it, where 
the stereographic is replaced by orthogonal pro- 
jection (cf. above, al-BIruni's "cylindrical" pro- 



jection). Another early variety of al-Zarkall's 
astrolabe is the safiha shakdziyya (or shakdriyya), 
about which we do not yet possess any accurate 



For the difficult problem of deriving the date of 
manufacture of an astrolabe from the astronomical 
data on which it was based (position of the vernal 
point, longitudes of stars and, in some cases, the 
longitude of the perihelion), see Michel [i], 133 ff. and 
Poulle [1] ; for a demonstration that the application of 
modern astronomical methods necessarily leads to 
false conclusions, see also Hartner [2] 104, 135-8. 
No conclusions whatever can be drawn from the 
(extremely slow) variation of the obliquity of the 
ecliptic; astrolabists nearly always assume it to be 
23'/;" sharp. 

II. The linear (hha((i) astrolabe, also called 
'asa 'l-Tusi, "the staff of al-Tusi", after its inventor 
al-Muzaffar b. Muzaffar al-Tusi (d.c. 610/1213-4) 
consists of one single piece, viz., a rod, with a 
plumb-line attached to its mid-point (i.e. the 
projection of the North Pole) a second thread 
fastened at its lower end, and a third thread, which 
is freely movable. The rod represents the NS line of 
an ordinary safiha; its main divisions are those 
points in which the horizon, the almacantars, etc. 
meet the NS line. In the upper part are marked, 
moreover, the centres of the horizon and the 
almacantars, in the lower, the points in which each 
of the 12 burudj and its subdivisions, as repres- 
ented on the "spider", intersect with the NS line, 
in the course of one complete revolution of the latter. 
Another graduation, serving for measuring angles, 
indicates the cords of the angles 0-180 , where the 
cord of 180° equals the length of the whole rod. For 
further information, see Michel [1], 115-22, and 
Michel [2] ; a first description was given by Carra de 
Vaux, L'astrolabe liniaire ou bdton d'Et-Tousi, in 
J A, 9th series, v, 464-516. 

III. The spherical (hurt, ukari) astrolabe, 
called astrolabio redondo in the Libros del Saber 
(Vol. 2, Madrid 1863, 113-222, text compiled by Isaac 
b. Sid (Isaac ha-Hazzan, called Rabbi Zag), exhibits 
without projection the diurnal movement of the 
sphere relatively to the horizon of the place of 
observation. Its history is at least as long as that 
of the flat astrolabe. P. Tannery, Recherches sur I'hist. 
de Vastronomie ancienne, Paris 1893, 53 ff., in dealing 
with the principle of the latter, demonstrates how 
easily the idea of a globe carrying the main con- 
stellations, surrounded by a hemispherical "spider" 
carrying the horizon and the hour lines, could have 
been derived from the hemispherical sundial, oxaipY) 
(called apixv>) by Eudoxus). The Fikrist (trans, by 
Suter in Abh. z. Gesch. d. math. fViss., Vol. 6, 19, 
1892) mentions Ptolemy as the first manufacturer 
of a spherical astrolabe, but this is evidently due to 
a confusion with the AoTpoXijlov Spyavov described 
in Aim. 5, 1 (see introduction to the present article). 
Neither can the instrument devised by al-Battanl 
(Op. astr., ed. Nallino, Vol. i, 319 ff.) be called a 
spherical astrolabe, as it is a combination of a 
celestial globe with an armillary sphere which lacks 
the essential characteristics of the astrolabe, above 
all the "spider". The main steps in the development 
of the spherical astrolabe before Alphonse X are 
marked by the treatises of Kusta b. Luka (d.c. 
300/912), Abu 'l- c Abbas al-Nayrizi (d.c. 310/922), 
al-BIrunl (K. ft Isti'db al-Wudjuh al-Mumhina /» 
San'at al-Asturldb), and al-Hasan b. C AU c Umar al- 
Marrakushi (d.c. 660/1262, see L. A. Sedillot's trans, 
of the section on the spherical astrolabe in Mem. sur 



tLAB 727 

les instruments astron. des arabes, Vol. i, Paris 1834). 
The spherical astrolabe serves the same purposes 
as the planispherical astrolabe. Its main disad- 
vantage is, that it is considerably less handy than 
the latter and yet does not yield better results. The 
instrument as described in the Libros del Saber 
consists of the following pieces: (a) a metal globe on 
which are engraved three complete great circles 
representing the horizon, the meridian, and the first 
vertical; furthermore, in the upper hemisphere, the 
almacantars and the halves of the vertical circles 
that lie between the horizon and the zenith. The 
lower hemisphere, as on the flat astrolabe, carries 
the lines of the unequal hours (the equal hours can 
be read directly on the equator). On the meridian 
a number of pairs of diametrically opposite holes 
are bored so as to make the instrument adjustable 
to any geographical latitude; (b) the openwork 
"spider" containing the ecliptic, the equator, a 
number of fixed stars, a quadrant of altitude, and 
(only on the Alphonsine astrolabe) a shadow quadrant 
and a calendar; (c) a narrow semicircular strip of 
metal fitting closely to the surface of the "spider" 
and fastened with its centre to the pole of the 
ecliptic, about which it can be turned freely; 
together with the two diopters (tangent to the globe 
and parallel to one another) fastened at either end 
of it, it forms the alidad of the spherical astrolabe; 
(d) an axis passing through the appropriate pair of 
holes on the globe and through the equatorial pole 
of the "spider". — On the Alphonsine astrolabe, the 
equator, otherwise always represented as a half 
great circle, is given the shape of a small (!) circle 
parallel to the equator proper. The astrolabe of 
al-Marrakushi, instead of the alidad, has a metal 
strip (safiha) turning about the pole of the equator, 
with a small gnomon fixed at right angles to it, 
which can thus be set orr any point of the equator. 
For detailed information, see Seemann [1]. 

Bibliography: Frank [1] = J. Frank, Zur 
Geschichte des Astrolabs (Habilitationsschrift), Er- 
langen 1920; Frank [2] = idem, Die Verwendung 
des Astrolabs nach al-Chwdrizmt, in Abh. z. G. d. 
Natw. u. d. Med., Heft 3, Erlangen 1922; Frank 
[3] = J. Frank and M. Meyerhof, Ein Astrolab aus 
dem indischen Mogulreiche, in Heidelb. Ahten d. 
von Portheim-Stiftung, 13, Heidelberg 1925; 
Gunther [1] = R. T. Gunther, The astrolabes of the 
world, i-ii, Oxford 1932 (the text contains many 
errors) ; Gunther [2] = idem, Chaucer and Mes- 
sahalla on the astrolabe, in Early science in Oxford 
(ed. Gunther), v, Oxford 1929; Hartner [1] = 
W. Hartner, The principle and use of the astrolabe, 
in Survey of Persian art (ed. A. V. Pope), Vol. iii, 
2530-54 (Plates Vol. vi, 1397-1402), Oxford 1939; 
Hartner [2] = idem, The Mercury horoscope of Mar- 
cantonio Michiel of Venice, in Vistas in Astronomy 
(ed. A. Beer), Vol. i, London 1955,84-138; Mayer 
[1] = L. A. Mayer, Islamic astrolabists and their 
works, Geneva 1956; Michel [1] = H. Michel, 
Traiti de l'astrolabe, Paris 1947 (important); 
Michel [2] = idem, L'astrolabe lineaire d'al-TOsi, 
in Ciel el Terre, Brussels 1943, no. 3-4; Millas 
[1] = J. Millas-Vallicrosa, Assaig d'historia de 
Us idees fisiques i matemdtiques a la Catalunya 
medieval, Vol. i, Barcelona 1931; Morley [1] = 
W. H. Morley, Description of a planispheric 
astrolabe, constructed for Shah Sultan Husain 
Safawi, London 1856 (reprinted in Gunther [1], 
Vol. i, 1-49; one of the best and the most compre- 
hensive studies in existence); Neugebauer [1] = 
O. Neugebauer, The early history of the astrolabe 



ASTURLAB — ASYOT 



[Studies in ancient astronomy IX), in Isis, Vol. 40, 
1949, 240-56; Poulle [1] = E. Poulle, Peut-on 
daier les astrolabes mlditvaux., in Revue d'hist. d. sc, 
Vol. IX, 301-22 ; Price [1] = D. J. Price, An intern, 
checklist of astrolabes, in Arch, intern, d'hist. d. sc, 
1955. 243-63, 363-81; Schoy [1] = C. Schoy, MS 
b. 'Isd, Das Astrolab und sein Gebrauch, in Isis, 
Vol. 9, 1927, 239-54 (trans, from the Ar. text ed. 
by P. L. Cheikho, in al-Mashrik, Beirut 1913. 
(W. Hartner) 
al-ASWAD B. Ka'b al-'Ansi, of the tribe of 
Madhhidj, leader of the first ridda in al- 
Yaman. His proper name is said to have been 
c Ayhala or 'Abhala, and he was also known as 
Ph u '1-Khimar, "the veiled one" (or Dhu '1-Himar, 
"the man with the donkey"). After the murder of 
Khusraw II Parwiz (Ar. Abarwiz) in 628, but possibly 
not before the capture of Mecca in 630, the Persians 
in al-Yaman, under Badham (or Badhan), made an 
alliance with Muhammad, since they realised that 
they could obtain no further aid from Persia. The 
Arabic sources say they also became Muslims, but 
some European scholars place their conversion to 
Islam after the ridda (or "apostasy"). Whatever the 
date of conversion, the alliance meant that the part 
of al-Yaman controlled by the Persians had become 
part of the Islamic political system. After the death 
of Badham Muhammad seems to have recognised 
a number of local leaders as his agents in different 
parts of the region, besides sending some agents 
from Medina. The neighbourhood of San'a 3 remained 
under Badham's son, Shahr. About the end of 10 
(March, 632) men of the tribe of Madhhidj under al- 
Aswad al-'Ansi expelled two of Muhammad's agents 
(Khalid b. Sa c id and <Amr b. Hazm) from Nadjran 
and the surrounding district, defeated and killed 
Shahr, occupied San'a', and brought much of al- 
Yaman under the authority of al-Aswad. Kays b. 
al-Makshuh al-Muradl acted in concert with al- 
Aswad against his rival for the leadership of Murad, 
Farwah b. Musayk, who had been recognised by 
Muhammad. Al-Aswad's movement was thus 
directed against the political system established by 
Muhammad, not against the Persians as such, since 
some of them retained important positions in 
San'a 3 . The religious aspect is not as evident as in 
the ridda elsewhere, but al-Aswad increased his 
influence by claims to be a soothsayer (kahin), 
speaking in the name of Allah or al-Rahman, and 
by practising sleight-of-hand. His monotheism is 
probably derived from the Christianity or Judaism 
of al-Yaman, not from Islam, since there is no 
record of his having become a Muslim. Al-Aswad's 
rule lasted only a month or two, for his death is said 
to have been before that of Muhammad (in Rabi c I 
11/ June 632). He was killed by some of those who 
cooperated with him, namely, Kays b. al-Makshuh 
and the Persians Fayruz (or Firuz) al-Daylami and 
Dadhawayh, assisted by the widow of Shahr whom 
al-Aswad had married. Muhammad is said to have 
instigated this movement against al-Aswad, but 
this report is perhaps only a later reconstruction of 
the events. 

Bibliography: al-Tabari, i, 1795-99, 1853-68; 
al-Baladhuri, Futuh, 105-7; J- Wellhausen, 
Skizzen und Vorarbeiten, vi, Berlin 1899, 26-34; 
Caetani, Annali, ii/i, 672-85; W. Montgomery 
Watt, Muhammad at Medina, Oxford 1956, 
128-30, etc.; W. Hoenerbach, Watima's Kitab 
ar-Ridda, Wiesbaden 1951, 71 f., 100-2, gives 
excerpts from Ibn Hadjar's Isdba about men who 
opposed al-Aswad. (W. Montgomery Watt) 



al-ASWAD b. YA'FUR (also called Yu'fur and 
Yafir) b. c Abd al-Aswad al-Tamlml, Abu '1-Djarrah, 
pre-Islamic Arab poet who lived probably at the 
end of the 6th century A.D. He is said to have 
travelled about among the tribes, composing eulogies 
or satires in verse, and was for some time the 
companion of al-Nu c man b. al-Mundhir. He is 
sometimes called al-A c sha of the Banu Nahshal, 
because he was night-blind, but he lost his sight at 
the end of his life, which is thought to have been 
extremely long. Of the poems which have come 
down to us, the most celebrated are a kasida in ddl 
dating probably from his later years and containing 
the usual commonplaces on life's difficulties, the 
approach of death, the flight of youth, the infirmities 
of old age, etc. 

Bibliography : His poems have been collected 

by L. Cheikho, Shu'ard' al-Nasrdniyya, 475-85; 

two kasidas figure in the Mufaddaliyydt, i, 445-57, 

846-9; Ibn Kutayba, Shi'r, 134 f.; idem, Ma'drif, 

Cairo 1353/1934, 282; Djumahi, Tabakdt, 33-4; 

Buhturi, IJamdsa, index; Ibn Durayd, Ishttkdk, 

149; Aghani, xi, 134-9; Baghdad!, Khizana. i, 

193-6; Abkaryus, Rawia, 44«-; O. Rescher, 

Abriss, i, 178. (Ch. Pellat) 

ASYCT. town in Upper Egypt. Asyut, the 

largest and busiest town of Upper Egypt, is situated 

Lat. 27 11' N. on the west bank of the Nile. Owing to 

its situation in one of the most fertile and sheltered 

districts of the cultivable Nile valley, and also to its 

being the natural terminus of great desert highways 

it was in antiquity an important town (Syowt, Greek : 

Lykopolis) and the chief town of a Nomos. Under 

Islam Asyut remained the chief town of a kilra 

(modern markaz, "district"), and on the inauguration 

of the division into provinces became the capital of 

a province ( c amal, now mudiriyya). 

Asyut is the colloquial form of the literary Usyut. 
Both are Arabisms for the Coptic Siout, to which in 
the land registers of the Middle Ages the form Suyut 
or Sayut corresponded. But as early as the time of 
al-Kalkashandi (d. 821/1418) the popular pronun- 
ciation was Asyu^. 

A history of Asyut cannot be written for the 
reason that we scarcely find any mention of it in 
the historians, and only towards the end of the 
Mamluk period, under l Ali Bey, did it play any 
historical part, viz. in the year 1183/1769-70, when 
it was for a time the centre of revolt. From the 
accounts of geographers and travellers we ascertain 
that it enjoyed unbroken prosperity throughout the 
entire Islamic period. At the end of the 19th century, 
it gained considerably in importance, especially after 
it became linked by rail with Cairo (in 1292/1875). Its 
population has risen from 28,000 in 1293/1876 to 
42,000 before the first world war and about 
120,000 at the present time. 

In the Middle Ages Asyut was famed for its 
agricultural products, its industry and trade. Besides 
corn and dates, quinces of an exceptional size were 
found here. The main industries were the weaving 
of woollen, cotton and linen goods. Owing to the 
alum and indigo obtained from the adjacent oases 
dyeing was extensively carried on; e.g. the materials 
manufactured for export to Dar Fur were dyed here. 
Its specialities were fine linen goods, called dabiki 
after their chief place of production Dabik in Upper 
Egypt, and fine woollen goods and carpets modelled 
on the classical Armenian products. Today Asyut 
still manufactures black and white tulle shawls 
with silver applique- work, which are much sought 



ASYOT — 'ATA 5 



after in Europe, and represent the last remains ot an 
industry once very famous throughout the Orient. 
Further Asyut was engaged in the preparation of 
opium and in the making of high-quality pottery 
which, with its antique patterns, is still much in 
demand as black and red "Asyut-ware". 

There was a brisk trade in all these products 
throughout Egypt and abroad. The direct trade 
with the Sudan is specially famous. The annual 
Dar Fur caravans (numbering about 1500 camels) 
brought slaves, ivory, ostrich-feathers and other 
products of the Sudan, and received in exchange the 
products of Egypt's industries, especially stuffs. The 
scholars of Napoleon's expedition made careful 
investigations into this trade which has now so 
much declined. 

Like all the industrial towns of Egypt, Asyut had 
a large Christian population — 60, according to others 
as many as 75, churches and chapels — , but no Jews 
at all, a fact explicitly stated. 

Caravanserais, bazaars, baths — one of the latter 
famous and very ancient — , mosques and other 
public buildings adorn the town to-day as formerly. 
In one of the mosques stood a minbar which at 
certain seasons was filled with corn and carried 
through the streets as a mahmal (Ibn Dukmak). 
Like all the flourishing towns of modern Egypt, 
Asyut has a strong admixture of Levantines. 
Asyut is the birth place of Plotinus, the Coptic 
Saint John of Lykopolis and of several Arab scholars 
named al-Suyuti, of whom the versatile historian 
Djalal al-DIn (d. 911/1505) is the best known. 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 272; iii, 222; al- 

Idrisi, al-Maghrib, 48 ; Kalkashandi, Daw 3 al-Sabh 

al-Musfir, 235 (trans. Wustenfeld, 106); Ibn 

Dukmak, v, 23; Abu Salih, fol. 87b; 'All Mubarak, 

al-Khitaf al-Djadlda, xii, oSff.; Ibn Dji'an, 184; 

Nasir-i Khusraw, Safar-nama, 61 (trans. 173); 

Quatremere, Mtmoires glograph. et histor. sur 

I'fcgypte, i, 274 ff. ; Amelineau, La giographie de 

Vigypte a Vipoque copte, 464 ff . ; Boinet Bey, 

Dictionnaire geographique, 88; Marcel, Hisicire de 

I'Egypte, Chap, xvi (ed. l'Univers, 236);Baedeker, 

Egypt, s.v.: Description de. I'Egypte', The modern 

state, xvii, 278 ft.; J. Maspero and G. Wiet, 

Matiriaux pour servir a la giographie de V&gypte, 16 ; 

Aly bey Bahgat, Un dlcret du Sultan Khoshqadam, 

in BIE, 5th series, v, 30-5; Guide Bleu, Egypte, 

1956, 258 ff. (C. H. Becker) 

ATA. A Turkish word meaning "father", and also 

"ancestor" (cf. the expression ata s6zii "proverb"). 

Among the Oghuz, the qualifier ata was appended 

to the names of people who had acquired great 

prestige ; this term can also bear the derived meaning 

of "wise", and even of "holy", "venerated". 

C ATA J , "gift", the term most commonly employed 
to denote, in the early days of Islam, the pension 
of Muslims, and, later, the pay of the troops. It is 
impossible to give here the history of the system of 
pay throughout the Muslim world, and this article 
will be confined to a general outline. 

The traditional starting-point is the organisation 
of the pensions by c Umar b. al-Khattab. The first 
Muslims had derived no material advantage except 
their share of the booty from successful expeditions. 
The flow of taxes into the coffers of the nascent 
caliphate enabled a better regulated form of reward 
to be envisaged, which the traditionists and jurists 
explain in connexion with the organisation of the 
first diwdn and within the framework of then- 
theories, subsequently evolved, on the utilisation of 
fay 3 ; the various versions which they give accord ill 



with one another, because they all reflect the desire, 
conceived at a later date, to find in the decisions of 
c Umar a precedent which did not exist. The main 
outlines, however, are clear: according to a hierar- 
chic order which took into account kinship with the 
Prophet and especially seniority as regards admis- 
sion to Islam, graduated pensions were distributed 
to the whole Muslim population which had been 
displaced from its homes by the holy war (the 
muhddxirun and ansdr of the early days, together 
with the fighting men of a later date), women, 
children, slaves and clients (still not numerous and 
not by definition foreigners), but excluding, of 
course, the Bedouin and others who remained, in 
Arabia and elsewhere, unaffected by the military 
expansion of Islam. The amount ranged from 200 
to 12,000 dirhams, the great majority of the men 
receiving from 500 to 1,000 dirhams annually. The 
registration and classification of those eligible 
necessitated the organisation of a service which 
constituted the first diwdn, and the division of the 
beneficiaries into groups, Hrdfa, under the control 
of an 'arif [q.v.]. All the quotations relevant to these 
questions are given with a commentary in Caetani, 
Annali, iv, 368-417, to which should now be added 
Abu c Ubayd Ibn Sallam, Kitdb al-Amwal, 223-71, 
and the references in Tritton, Notes on the Muslim- 
system of pensions, in BSOAS 1954, 170-2, which 
also deals with the century following. 

This system, conceived in terms of conditions at 
the time of c Umar, obviously could not continue 
unchanged. The ramification of family trees, con- 
version on a large scale, the slowing-up of the rate 
of the conquests, and the reduction in the benefits 
derived from war, the increasing complexity and 
specialisation, of military techniques during the 
Umayyad period, and later, during the 'Abbasid 
period, the increasing professionalism and progressive 
"de-arabicisation" of the army, led, after many 
tentative procedures and irregularities, to a distinct- 
ion between, on the one hand, civil pensions, 
reserved for the descendants of the Prophet's family 
( c Alid and c Abbasid branches) and in general more 
of an honorary than concrete nature (we are, of 
course, not discussing here the salaries of officials, 
cf. kizk), and on the other hand military pay; as 
regards the army, a distinction was made between 
the class of professional soldiers, registered in the 
diwdn and entitled to regular pay, and occasional 
volunteers, not registered in the diwdn, who received a 
smaller allowance confined to their period of 
effective service. On the other hand, whereas under 
the Umayyads, in spite of the ephemeral effort of 
c Umar b. <Abd al- c Az!z (cf. Wellhausen, Arabische 
Reich, 186-7), the mawdli, who were by that time 
numerous and were for the most part Iranians, 
were virtually excluded from the benefit of pay, 
under the 'Abbasids, it was the Khurasanls. and 
later the other elements, Turks, Daylamites, etc., 
who, as professionals, were almost the only persons 
to receive pensions, and the Arabs in the end were 
systematically removed from the registers in the 
course of the 3rd/gth century, at least in the East. 
In the early days, payment was made principally 
on a provincial basis, or, in Syria and Spain, on the 
basis of military districts called djund [q.v.], as a 
charge on the local taxes; but 'Abbasid centralisation 
made the majority of these payments a charge on, 
or placed them under the direct control of, the 
Treasury (bayt al-mdl [q.v.]). 

Although the amount of the payments seems to 
have been subject to considerable fluctuation, the 



■annual pay of a foot-soldier, in the second century of 
'Abbasid rule, can be estimated to be of the order 
of 1,000 dirhams = 70 dinars, or three times the 
pay of a Baghdad journeyman, and that of a caval- 
ryman twice as much. Commanders and specialised 
corps naturally received more. tCudama describes 
in detail the functioning of the system, the diffe- 
rences between the various categories, the minute 
detail of the rolls, the different intervals at which 
different payments were made (W. Hoenerbach, 
Zur Heeresverwallung der Abbasiden, in J si., 
1949). But, dating from before his time, ad hoc 
payments were made, especially on the occasion of 
an accession, in addition to the regular pay; and it 
seems that there had always been, in addition to pay 
proper, distributions of provisions and equipment. 
Arms vere a charge on the Treasury. The army was 
therefore always expensive, and became increasingly 
so as military technique became more complex and 
heavy cavalry and siege operations played a greater 
part in it. Disturbances prevented the government 
from reducing the number of its effectives; and the 
troops, realising that they were indispensable, 
increased their demands; the Treasury found it 
increasingly difficult to maintain regular payments, 
and the discontent of the troops could only be 
appeased by increases in lieu of arrears, thus 
creating a vicious circle. 

From the 4th/ioth century onwards, the control 
exercised by the military over the political authority 
caused the replacement of payments by fiscal 
assignments which the interested parties collected 
from a domain the revenue of which was the equi- 
valent of the amount of pay due (see hjta']. 

Bibliography: In the article; cf. also djaysh. 

On the pay of the Ottoman forces, see 'ulufa. 
(Cl. Cahen) 

'ATA' b. AbI Rabah, a prominent representa- 
tive of the ancient Meccan school of religious 
law. Born in Yaman of Nubian parentage but 
brought up in Mecca, he was a mawld of the family 
of Abu Maysara b. AbI Khuthaym al-Fihri. He died 
in Mecca in 114 or 115 (732 or 733) at a very old age 
(88 or even 100 years are mentioned). 'Ata' is the 
only ancient Meccan jurisconsult who is more than 
a name to us; an analysis of the doctrines ascribed 
to him enables us to separate an authentic core from 

to his contemporaries, he did not hesitate to use his 
personal opinion (ra'y). both in its disciplined and 
in his arbitrary form (kiyds and istihsan, respecti- 
vely) ; statements which, reflecting a later fashion of 
thought, make him reject ra y y, are therefore spurious. 
The extent to which 'Ata' may have used traditions 
from the Prophet and from the Companions as 
legal arguments, is difficult to ascertain; if he did 
so, he presumably made use of mursal [q.v.] traditions. 
Owing to the rapid development of Islamic law at the 
beginning of the second century of the hidjra, some 
of the distinctive opinions of 'Ata' seem to have 
become unfashionable already towards the end of 
his life; this is probably reflected in the statement 
that some younger contemporaries of his ceased 
attending his lectures, and that the mursal traditions 
transmitted by him are weak. This was more than 
compensated by attributing to him, when the attitude 
to traditions had changed, personal contact with an 
ever increasing number of Companions of the Prophet, 
though some Muslim critics themselves point out 
that he did not hear traditions from c Abd Allah b. 
'Umar, Umm Salama and others, and express doubt 
concerning his direct contact with 'A'isha. At the 



beginning of the second century, the interest of the 
specialists in Islamic law had already spread from 
purely religious problems to more technically legal 
questions; the authentic doctrines of 'A$a' bear 
this out, and he did not specialise in the ceremonies of 
hadidi as some sources assert in deference to the 
fiction that this was the favourite subject of the 
scholars of Mecca. Already during the life-time of 
'Ata', his reputation spread far beyond Mecca, and 
Abu Hanifa states that he was present at his lecture 
meetings ; this is perhaps the earliest authentic piece 
of evidence on technical instruction in Islamic 
religious law. 

Bibliography: Ibn Sa'd, v, 344ft.; Abu 
Hatim al-RazI, K. al-Qiarh wa 'l-Ta c dil, iv„ 
Haydarabad 1360, 330 f.; Abu Nu c aym, tfilyat 
al-Awliyd', iii, Cairo 1933, 310 ff.; Abu Ishaq 
al-ShlrazI, Tabakdl al-Fukahd', Baghdad 1356, 
44 f-; Ibn Kathlr, al-Biddya wa 'l-Nihdya, Cairo 
1351-8, ix, 306 ff.; Ibn Hadjar al-'Asqalanl, 
Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, vii, Haydarabad 1326, 199 ff.; 
J. Schacht, The Origins of Muhammadan Juris- 
prudence', Oxford 1953, 250 f. (J. Schacht) 
'ATA' BEY, Tayyarzade 'Ata' Allah Ahmad, 
known as 'Ata' Bey, Ottoman historian. He was 
born in Istanbul in 1225/1810, the son of a palace 
official. He himself wai educated in the palace, and 
held various official positions. In 1293/1876 he went 
to the Hidjaz to take up an appointment as admini- 
strator of the sacred territory (haram) of Mecca, and 
died in Medina in 1294/1877 or 1297/1880. His most 
important work is his five volume history, known as 
Ta'rikh-i '■Atf' (Istanbul 1291-3/1874-6). Its chief 
interest derives from his intimate knowledge of the 
organisation, customs, personalities, and affairs of 
the Imperial household in the 19th century. An auto- 
graph copy of his diwan is preserved in the Millet 

Bibliography: Babinger 366-7; Sidj.ill-i <Oth- 

mdni iii, 481-2; 'Othmdnlf Muellifleri iii, 108. 

(Ed.) 

Mehmed 'ATA' BEY, (1856-1919), Ottoman 
scholar, journalist, and public official. After the 
revolution of 1908 he became a member of the 
Financial Reform Committee and was for one week 
Minister of Finance. He published many articles in 
journals and periodicals, under the names of 
Mefkhari and 'Ata', and also produced a literary 
anthology called Iktitdf, which was extensively used 
as a school text-book. His most important under- 
taking was the Turkish translation of Hammer's 
History of the Ottoman Empire. This version, based 
on the French translation of J. J. Hellert, began to 
appear in Istanbul in 1329/1911. Of the fifteen 
volumes that were planned, only ten actually 
appeared, the last in 1337/1918. 

Bibliography: Babinger 400-1; 'Othmdnli 

MiUUifleri iii, 110-1. (Ed.) 

'ATA' ALLAH EFENDI [see shAnizade]. 

'ATA' MALIK EJUWAYNl [see al-djuwaynI]. 

'ATABA, modern Arabic four line verse, 
common in Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia and 
'Irak. The first three lines not only rhyme, but 
generally repeat the same rhyming word with a 
different meaning (tadjnis tamm). The last line 
rhymes with the paradigm 'atdba ("lovers' reproach"), 
the last syllable of which is often supplied without 
making sense. The metre is a sort of wdfir. A peculiar 
form common in 'Irak is called {a)biidhiyye ("man 
of sorrow") or lami and ends with iyya (eyya), 
Bibliography: E. Sachau, Arabische Volks- 

liederaus Mesopotamien, Ab.Pr.Ak. W, 1889, 17 ff.; 



C ATABA — ATABAK 



G. H. Dalman, Palistinischer Diwan, Leipzig 1901, 
passim; B. Meissner, Neuarabische Gedichle aus 
dent Irdq, ii, in MSOS As., 1903, 65-75, 96-124, i". 
in MSOS As., 1904, 268-9; P. Kahle, Zur Herkunft 
der'Atdba-Lieder.inZDPV, 1911, 242-4; H. Ritter, 
Mesopotamische Studien, ii: Vierzig arabische Volks- 
lieder, in Isl., 1920, 120-33; W. Eilers, Arabische 
Lieder aus dent Irak, in ZS, 1935, 234-55; idem, 
Zwdlf irakische Vierzeiler, Leipzig 1942. 

(H. Ritter). 
ATABAK (Atabeg), title of a high dignitary 
under the SaldjQkids and their successors. The term 
is Turkish and first makes its appearance in Muslim 
history with the Saldjukids; it is therefore reasonable 
to enquire whether any precedents exist in the 
Turkish societies of Central Asia. So far no occur- 
rence of the actual word seems to have been reported 
and the fact that in the Orkhon civilisation there is 
apparently a person called ata, father, acting as a 
tutor to a young prince, is too vague to enable one 
to affirm a connexion; the same is true of similar 
cases existing in other civilisations («ee for example 
Harun al-Rashid and Yahya al-Barmakl) ; moreover 
no such office has so far been noted even under the 
Karakhanids. The term atabeg, therefore, seems to be 
more precisely characteristic of the Oghuz or the 
Saldjukids. Even under these latter, the first definite 
indication of the title, which was subsequently to 
make history as the title of Turkish military chiefs, 
applies to an Iranian "civilian": Malikshah, who 
was very young when he came to power, added the 
term atabeg to the lakab of his wazir Nizam al-Mulk, 
thereby indicating that he conferred upon him the 
entire delegation of his own authority, as though 
he were his father (Ibn al-Athlr, ed. Tornberg, x, 54; 
RCBA, vii, no. 2734-2737). Nevertheless the fact 
that from the death of Malikshah the title is to be 
met with in all branches of the Saldjukid dynasty, 
including that of Asia Minor, which has a specific 
evolution, prompts one to admit its existence 
already at the origin of the regime. In these circum- 
stances there is no reason to reject the evidence, not 
apparently previously adduced, of the Akhbdr al- 
Dawla al-Saldiukiyya, ed. Muh. Nazim, 28-29, which 
places a Turkish atabeg beside the young Alp Arslan 
during his father's lifetime in the person of a certain 
Kutb al-DIn Kulsari' (Kizil Sari'?). The honour 
conferred on Nizam al-Mu!k, a non-Turk and wazir, 
appears to have been something of an exception, 
all the more characteristic of his ascendancy. 

However that may be, from the death of Malik- 
shah, the atabegs appear more and more regularly, 
whilst the role played by them increases, favoured 
by princely minorities and strife between pretenders. 
Henceforth only Turkish military chiefs are involved, 
corresponding to the growing influence acquired by 
this element during the period of the Saldjukid 
regime's decay. Malikshah's son Barkyaruk, appar- 
ently during his father's lifetime, had the djanddr 
Giimushtakin as "preceptor (murabbiy") and 
atabeg" ('Imad al-DIn al-Isfahanl, abridgement by 
Bundarl, ed. Houtsma, 83; cf. al-Rawandi, Rahatal- 
Sudur, ed. Muh. Kazwlnl, 140). He, in turn, created 
others for his young brothers Sandjar and Muhammad, 
when he accorded them autonomous appanages, and 
on his death-bed, also for his son Malikshah, who was 
still a child. At the same time, on the death of 
Malikshah's brother Tutush, whose appanage was in 
Syria and who was the unfortunate rival of Bar- 
kyaruk, we find an atabeg with each of his sons 
Rudwan and Dukak. Henceforth every Saldjukid 
prince seems to have had an atabeg, at least if he 



was endowed with an appanage whilst still a minor ; 
in other words, wherever there were several sons, 
there were also several atabegs. As they now issued 
exclusively from the category of military chiefs of 
servile origin, their function may in a way be 
associated with the duty of every slave or manumitted 
slave to guard the interests of his master's family 
to which he himself belonged. Furthermore the 
atabeg frequently made his position as a "father" 
complete by marrying his pupil's mother, when the 
latter became a widow (for example early on, 
Tughtakin at Damascus, the mother of Dukak). 
As for his authority, this consisted in his sharing 
in the unrestricted power of the prince and therefore 
it cannot be defined by precise attributions, as in 
the case of ordinary functions. However, he could 
be dismissed by another atabeg; in any case, when 
the prince grew up, the atabeg's authority naturally 
disappeared, only leaving room for his influence as a 
counsellor, who had the prince's ear; if the atabeg 
assumed more than that, a rupture with the prince 
followed (for example, Rudwan and Dukak), or even 
the atabeg's execution (Kutlughtakin by Barkyaruk's 
brother Muhammad). 

This, at least was the initial state. But relatively 
soon the atabeg's position was consolidated at the 
expense of that of the prince. The office of atabeg 
gave its holder great authority, which he was 
normally tempted to perpetuate. But in addition, 
from the second generation of Malikshah's heirs, 
the respective roles of prince and atabeg were 
reversed. The starting point now was that either 
willingly or under duress the sultan would bestow 
a major governorship on a powerful amir and, in 
order to safeguard the formal dependence of the latter, 
he attached one of the Saldjukid children to him, 
whose atabeg he became. For a while the young 
prince continued to serve as a cloak beneath which 
the chief concealed his own ambitions; such was the 
case in the disputes which brought Sultan Mas'fld 
into conflict with various of his relatives, each of 
whom was urged on by his atabeg. Thus Fars, 
Adharbaydjan and, at one time, Mawsil, each had 
their respective atabeg and their claimant to the 
Sultanate. A corresponding evolution took place in 
the case of the minor Saldjukid dynasty of Kirman 
(Muh. b. Ibrahim, Histoire des Seldjukides du 
Kirman, ed. Houtsma, 35-132 passim and index, 
especially under Kutb al-DIn Muh. b. Buzkush). 

A further new stage was reached when the atabeg 
succeeded in making hereditary, in addition to 
his office, possession of the governorship, which in 
theory constituted his reward for it. This was 
accomplished after the middle of the 6th/i2th 
century by the family of the atabegs of Adharbaydjan. 
who were descended from Ildegiz, the atabeg of 
Sultan Arslan. Lastly at the beginning of the 
century, the death of Dukak without heir at 
Damascus, far away from the centres of the Sal- 
djukids, enabled the atabeg Tughtakin to found a 
dynasty which was both autonomous and in his own 
name. Elsewhere all-powerful atabegs reached the 
same results by suppressing their sultans, who were 
completely devoid of resources : this was accomplished 
at Mawsil on the death of the atabeg Zangi by his 
heirs in 539/1144 and was similarity achieved against 
the last Persian Saldjukid, with the help of the 
Caliph, by the heirs of Ildegiz, who summoned the 
Kh'arizmshah into central Iran (588/1192). Moreover 
the sultan's disapperance did not hinder the masters 
of Adharbaydjan and of Mawsil from continuing to 
have themselves called atabegs; the word, hence- 



732 ATABAK 

forth, had in practice the exclusive sense of 
territorial prince. Thus it seems that from the middle 
of the 6th/i2th century the title in Fars had been 
adopted by the Salghurids, the vanquishers ol the 
real atabegs, without their having any longer a 
sultan under their tutelage. The most famous of 
the Atabeg dynasties is that of Mawsil, by reason of 
the work devoted to them by their historian and 
subject Ibn al-Athlr. A further new dynasty of 
pseudo-atabegs was to appear in the 7th- 13th 
century in Luristan (Hamd Allah Mustawfi Kazwlnl, 
Ta'rikh-i Guzida). 

The title atabeg was still to be met with among the 
successors of the Saldjukids, in particular under the 
Khwarizm-shahs, who did not allow those who bore 
it, exclusively tutors of young princes, to acquire 
much influence (Djuwaynl, ii, 22, 33, 39, 209). Later 
on, in all those states which derived from the 
Mongol conquest, the appellation atabeg is to be 
met with upon occasion fortuitously, applied to 
indefinite princely tutors or as one of a number of 
simple honorific titles inherited from the past (see 
references in M. F. Kopriilu, art. Atabeg in IA). 
More remarkable is the penetration of this title, 
attributed to military and feudal leaders, into 
Christian Georgia, which had borrowed other in- 
stitutions from neighbouring Adharbaydjan, with 
whom they were alternatively at war or in matri- 
monial relationship (J. Karst, he code giorgien du 
rot Vakhtang, Commentaire, i, 211 ff.; M. F. Brosset, 
Histoire de Giorgie, 1/2, passim; Allen, A History of 
the Georgian People, 1932, chap, xxiii). 

Among the Saldjukids of Asia Minor, the atabeg 
is attested from the beginning of the reign of Ktlldj 
Arslan I, in the person of Khumartash al-Sulaymani 
(consequently a manumitted slave of his father 
Sulayman b. Kutlumush) (Ibn al-Azrak, quoted in 
a note by Amedroz to the History of Damascus of 
Ibn al-Kalanisi, 157). Shortly afterwards the mother 
of the young Saldjukid of Malatya, to protect him 
against his brother of Kunya, gave him a series of 
atabegs, whom she took in marriage, the last of them 
being the neighbouring Artukid Balak [q.v.] (Michael 
the Syrian, trans. Chabot, 194. and 200). In the main 
branch, atabegs are also reported in the 6th/i2th 
century (RCEA, no. 3376-3377), and then in the 
7th/i3th century; the power of the sovereigns 
prevented them from expanding and it is only after 
the disaster which ended in the Mongol protectorate 
that the title occurs borne by men with a decisive 
influence on the regime, such as Dialal al-Din 
Karatay. However, in Asia Minor the actual condi- 
tions of the evolution had given the power to a team 
of high dignitaries, friends or enemies according to 
the case, rather than to a single individual, and the 
atabeg was not the most important. In this area he 
does not appear to have survived the Ilkhanid 
regime and he was unknown to the Ottomans. 

The title of atabeg, however, still had a fairly long 
independent career in the Mamluk state. The 
Ay yubids had made it known in their realms ; it may 
perhaps have found expression in the ephemeral 
tutelage which al-Afdal exercised in 595/1198 over 
his young nephew, the son of al- e Aziz in Egypt; in 
any case it was used more permanently and formally 
during princely minorities in the Yemen and parti- 
cularily at Aleppo (History of Aleppo of Ibn al- c AdIm, 
passim). This is the way in which it reached the 
Mamluks. The founder of the regime, 'Izz al-Din 
Aybak, bore the title, not as tutor to a prince, but as 
regent-spouse of the famous heir and widow of al- 
Salih Ayyub, Shadjarat al-Durr; and the title, 



sometimes accompanied by considerable power, at 
other times devoid of it, survived down to the end 
of the dynasty. If one may believe al-Makrfzi (Suluk, 
trans. Quatremere i/i, 2), Aybak bore the title of 
atabeg of the armies; but no contemporary author 
has attributed it to him and one must perhaps 
envisage a confusion in al-Makrizi's mind with the 
title of atabak al-'asdkir [?.».], which was usual in his 
time. In effect it then corresponded with a kind of 
supreme military command, though it only acquired 
this extended meaning apparently under the Cir- 
cassians, following the suppression of the office of 
ndHb. 

Bibliography: The only general study is by 

M. F. Kopriilu, op. cit., where detailed references 

and additional information will be found. For the 

sources and other materials, apart from those 

already cited in the article, see below the articles 

mamluks and saljjjukids. On the Great Saldjuks 

and their Irano- c Iraki successors, the information 

used here has been taken mainly from Ibn al- 

Athlr, c Imad al-Din al-Isfahani, and Rawandi. 

See also Sanaullah, The decline and fall of the 

Seldjukid Empire, Calcutta 1938; M. A. Koymen, 

Biiyiik Selcuklu Imparatorlugu Tarihi, ii, Ankara 

1954; I. H. Uzuncarslll, Osmanll Devleti teskilatina 

medhal, Istanbul 1941, 50-1. For Asia Minor, see 

principally the chronicles of Ibn BIbi and Aksarayi, 

passim. For the Mamluks, see the following 

article.. (Cl. Cahen) 

ATABAK al- c ASAKIR. After the decline of 

the office of the viceroy {NdHb al-Salfana) the 

Atabak al- c Asakir (Commander-in-Chief) of the 

Mamluk Army became the most important amir in 

the Sultanate. His functions were much broaderthan 

the name of his office indicates. For all intents and 

purposes he had become the sultan's viceroy. Very 

frequently the title mudabbir al-mamalik or mudabbir 

al-mamalik al-isldmiyya was appended to his name. 

It was common, especially in the Circassian period, 

for him to succeed the sultan on the throne. (See 

D. Ayalon, Studies on the Structure of the Mamluk 

Army, in BSOAS, 1954, 58-59, and references on 

p. 59, n. 6). (D. Ayalon) 

ATABEG [see atabak]. 

ATABEG al-'ASAKIR [see atabak al-'asakir]. 
'ATA'l. <Ata' AllAh b. Yahya b. PIr «AlI b. 
NasOh, known as New'I-zade c Ata'I, prominent 
Ottoman poet of the early 17th century and con- 
tinuator of Tashkoprii-zade's biographical work on 
the Ottoman 'ulamd' and dervishes. (Muhibbi, 
Khuldsa, iv, 263, incorrectly gives his ism as 
Muhammad). He was born in Istanbul in Shawwal 
991/1583, where his father (who, under the makUas, 
New% enjoyed high esteem as a poet and scholar — 
from 998 to 1003, he was tutor to the ill-fated sons 
of Murad III) was at this time professor of the 
Dja'far Agha madrasa ; his mother was the daughter 
of the famous Nishandjt Mehmed Pasha (Sidjill-i 
'■Othmdni, iv, 131). Having studied under Kaf-zade 
Fayd Allah Ef. (the father of the anthologist Faydi) 
and Akhi-zade 'Abdulhallm Ef., he began his career 
as professor of the Dianbazivve madrasa in Istanbul 
(Safar 1014/1605), but was soon to be transferred to 
the judicial class by his appointment as kadi of 
Lofdja in Sha'b. 1017. He held a number of such 
posts in RumUi (Shaykhi gives the most detailed 
information about these), the last of which was 
Oskiib, whence he was dismissed at the end of 
1044/1635. He returned to Istanbul where he died 
in Djumada I, 1045 ( e Ushshaki-zade, f. 26b and 



Hadjdji Khalifa, i, 724, et al., id., Fadhlaka, ii, 168 
erroneously give the year 1044; characteristically 
unreliable, Rida gives 1046) and was buried beside 
his father in the court-yard of the Shaykh. Wafa 
mosque. He was survived by a son, Mehmed, who 
-was also of the '■ulamd? (Fadhlaka, loc. cit.). 

The most famous and valuable of his works is the 
ZadaHk al-HakdHk ft Takmildt al-ShakdHk (com- 
pleted in Rabi c II, 1044 and printed in Istanbul, 
1268), in which he brings down to his own day the 
biographical sketches of the Ottoman c ulama> and 
dervishes begun by Tashkopriizade in his Arabic 
al-ShakdHk al-Nu'mdniyya (Brockelmann, ii, 425). 
Like the latter, it is organised according to the reign 
in which the individual died, the last being that of 
Murad IV, but the language is now Turkish and the 
notices are far more precise in detail and frequently 
contain c Ata1's personal remarks and reminiscences. 
The style is similar to that used by Medjdi in his 
ion of the ShakdHk, and, while to the taste 
it generations almost intolerably elegant, was 
greatly admired by his contemporaries; and, indeed, 
it is this alone which redeems the work from being a 
mere statistical summary. The popularity of his 
poetry, too, has not survived (cf. Gibb, Ottoman 
Poetry, iii, 232 ff. for the 19th century Ottoman 
critics), though at least one modern scholar, M. F. 
Kdprulii, has found his mathnawl works deserving 
of study. These latter are included in his khamsa, 
of which the fifth portion, entitled Hilyat al-Afkdr, 
was until recently regarded as lost or non-existent. 
For a full analysis of the other four works and a 
short account of his divan, all still unpublished, cf. 
Hammer-Purgstall, Gesch. osman. Dichtkunst, iii, 
244-283. (It should be remarked that the chronogram 
given here for the date of completion of the Nafhat 
al-Azhdr is 1020, while that given by A. S. Levend 
is 1034). The only other work ascribed to him is a 
legal monograph, al-Kawl al-Hasan ft Djawdb al- 
Kawl Liman . . . (Brockelmann, ii, 427), which, from 
its title, appears to be a reply to an unfinished work 
by his contemporary Molladjlk Ahmed Ef. (cf. 
Ifad&Hk, 667). 

Bibliography: To the works mentioned by 
Babinger, 171 and Brockelmann, II, 427, should 
be added those given by Behcet Gonul, Istanbul 
Kiituphanelerinde al-ShakdHk al-Nu'mdniyya Ter- 
ciime ve Zeyilleri, Turkiyat Mecmuasl, vii-viii, 
cttz 2 (1945), 161; Shaykhi, Waka'P al-Fudald?, 
(SiUeymdniyye, Beshlr Aga, 479), f. 3a; Riyadl, 
Riyd4 al-Shu'ard', (Nuruosmaniye, 3724), f. 116b. 
'Ushshakizfide's Dhayl-i ShakdHk was used in the 
Murad Molla MS., nr. 1432, f. 26a. Sadeddin 
Nuzhet Ergun, Turk Sairleri, ii, 541-550, gives the 
most extensive selection of his verse and repro- 
duces in his article the statements of Shaykhi, 
Riyadl and Rida, as well as the opinions of 
M. F. Koprulu. On the Khamsa, cf. Agah Slrrl 
Levend, Atayi'nin Hilye-tiil-EfkarH, (Ankara, 
1948); however, his argument in support of 1046 
as the year of 'AtaTs death is unconvincing. 

(J. Walsh) 
ATAK (Attock), a fort in West Pakistan 33 53' N, 
72" 15' N, commanding the passage of the Indus just 
below the junction with the Kabul river. Atak was 
founded by Akbar in 989/1581 (under the name 
Atak-Banaras) to defend the main invasion route 
from Kabul via Peshawar against the incursions of 
his brother MIrza Hakim. For contemporary ex- 
planations of the name see Firishta, i, 502 and 
Abu '1-Fadl, Akbar-ndma, Bib. Ind. Text, iii, 
Calcutta 1881-87, 355; for a comment on its possible 



historical derivation s 



ningham, Arch. Sur 



Coming into British occupation at the end of the 
second Sikh war, Atak lost some of its military value 
with the opening (1300/1883) of the combined road 
and rail bridge to carry the Grand Trunk road and 
the North-West railway. 

Bibliography: see text; also Gazetteer of 

Rawalpindi District, (rev. ed.), 1893-4, Lahore 

1895, 260 and Imperial Gazetteer VI, 138. 

(P. Hardy) 

ATALIK. A term synonymous with atabeg, used 
not only among the Turks, but also in the Caucasus, 
Turkistan, and by the Timurids and the Turkish 
dynasties of India. It was still used in the 19th 
century by the amirs of Bukhara and Khiva, and the 
amir of Kasfcghar, Ya c kub Bey, bore the title of 
atallk ghdzi. 

Bibliography: See the article, with a very 

full bibliography, by M. F. Koprulu in I A, s.v. 
(R. Mantran) 

C ATAMA (a.), the first third of the night, accord- 
ing to the lexica, from the time of waning of the 
shafak (the red colour of the sky after sunset). This 
definition covers exactly the right time for the 
saldt al-'ishd', which is therefore often called soldi 
al-'atama, even in quite large a number of traditions. 
But later on, pious circles rejected this name, since 
the saldt al-Hshd' is expressly called thus in the 
Kur'an. A tradition appeared which declared the 
use of 'atama with regard to the prayer to be charac- 
teristic of Bedouins, who used to milk their camels 
at that time and call the milking itself '■atama. 
Muslims are requested to use the name which Allah 
himself used in the Holy Book. 

Bibliography: Wensinck, Handbook, s.vv. 

'■atama, 'isha'. (M. Plessner) 

ATAR, town in Mauritania, chief place of the 
Circle of the Adrar, situated at a height of 230 m., 
on the route Saint-Louis to Tindouf, about 420 km. 
to the east of Port-Etienne. The Ksar has 4500 
inhabitants belonging for the most part to the 
Smacids, a tribe of marabouts. According to local 
tradition Atar was founded in the 16th or 17th 
century. At this period the pilgrims' caravan to 
Mecca was organised each year by the Idau c Ali of 
Chinguetti (Shinkitl) who used to give the imamate 
to a distinguished member of the Smacids. It 
happened that they broke with this tradition in 
favour of a Ghellawi. Outraged, a group of the 
Smacids left the town in protest and arrived at an 
important settlement of the Azougui which has now 
disappeared, but was then rich enough for the 
Portuguese to have established a factory there in 
the 15th century. So this display of temper gave 
birth to Atar. 

Although Chinguetti has remained the spiritual 
and religious capital of the Adrar, Atar is now the 
principal commercial centre, providing a market for 
the great nomads and the southern outlet for the 
products of Moroccan workers. It is here that 
graziers come to sell their camels and sheep and to 
stock themselves up with tea, sugar, indigo, oil etc. 
It is also to its important palm-grove that they 
come to perform the process known as getna, the 
cleaning of the dates, which brings in great wealth 
at the time of the date-harvest. 

When, at the beginning of the 20th century, 
Coppolani and his successor, Colonel Montane- 
Capdebosc, extended French influence to the north 
of Senegal, they were soon forced to the conclusion 
that no peace was possible in Mauritania while the 



- ATATURK 



mountainous range of the Adrar provided an ideal 
centre for armed malcontents. 

It was Atar, capital of the Adrar, "the Key to the 
Situation", that Colonel Gouraud chose as the 
objective for his column in 1908. 

After defeating the Emir's warriors and the 
(dlibs of Shaykh Ma al-'Aynayn at the pass of 
Hamdoun, he entered the Ksar on 9 January 1909 
and received the submission of the chief of the 
Smacids, Sidia Ould Sidi Baba. 

Since then Atar, linked by road and air to Senegal 
and Morocco has considerably increased its economic 
and commercial importance. 

Bibliography: Gouraud, Mauritanie- Adrar, 
Paris 1945; Psichari, Les Voix qui orient dans le 
disert (Complete works, vol. ii), Paris 1948; Cdt. 
Modat, Portugais, Arabes et Francais dans I' Adrar 
mauritanien, in Bull, du Comitl d' Etudes historiques 
et scientifiques d'A.O.F., 1922, 550; R.M.M. xix, 
1912, 260; Etudes mauritaniennes (IFAN no. 5) 
Ahmed Lemine ech Chinguetti. 

(S. d'Otton Loyewski) 
ATATCRK (Mustafa Kemal), the founder and 
first President of the Turkish Republic, was born at 
Salonica 1881 and died at Istanbul on 10th November 
1938. He lost his father, c Ali Rida, whilst still very 
young, so that it was his mother, Zubeyde Khanlm, 
who saw to his education. When twelve years of age, 
he entered the military preparatory school at 
Salonica, where one of his teachers made him take 
the name of Kemal in addition to Mustafa. In 1895 
he entered the Military School of Monastir, then in 
1899 that of Istanbul, where he started to take an 
interest in political life and to play an active part 

despotism of Sultan c Abd al-Hamid [q.v.) had called 
into being. He obtained the diploma of the Academy 
of War of Istanbul in 1905, and was then sent to 
Damascus as a Captain, where he founded the Wafan 
we Hiirriyet (Fatherland and Freedom) group. 
Upon his return from Salonica, he only took part 
from a distance in the activities of the ltlihid we 
Terakki (Union and Progress) movement. He took 
part in the defence of Tripolitania, when it was 
invaded by the Italians (1911-2), was appointed 
Military Attache in Bulgaria and, during the first 
world war, distinguished himself in the Dardanelles' 
fighting (1915) and, as an Army Commander, in the 
fighting in the Caucasus (1916) and in Palestine 
(1917). After a short visit to Germany, he reassumed 
command of the 7th Army in Palestine, with which 
he retreated as far as the area north of Aleppo, 
where he was at the time of the Mudros Armistice 
(30th October 1918). Mustafa Kemal did not agree 
with the Draconic terms of the Armistice and came 
into conflict with Sultan Mehemmed VI. Recalled 
to Istanbul, where his national feelings were severely 
tested, he was then appointed Inspector of the Army 
of the North at Erzurum on 30th April 1919. On 
19th May, he landed at Samsun with his mind made 
up to fight for the total independence of Turkey, 
threatened by the designs of the Allies, by relying 
on the troops which had remained faithful to him. 
On 22nd June he issued a circular from Amasya 
condemning the government of the Sultan and of 
the Grand Vizier Damad Ferid Pasha. Through the 
medium of the congresses which he assembled at 
Erzurum (23rd July) and at Sivas (4th September) 
he launched the demand for the independence and 
unity of Turkey. On 23rd April 1920, having won a 
certain number of political and military personalities 
to his cause, he assembled the first Great National 



Assembly (Biiyiik Millet Medjlisi) at Ankara, which 
elected him President. The struggle had begun 
against both the Government of Istanbul and the 
Allies, more particularly the Greeks (1920-2). His 
decisive part in the campaigns conducted against the 
latter caused the Assembly to bestow on him the 
title of Ghcui ("The victor"). 

The Armistice of Mudanya (n October 1922) set 
the seal on Mustafa Kemal's victory, and on 1st 
November 1922 he obtained the vote abolishing 
the Sultanate. The Lausanne Conference (November 
1922-July 1923) gave complete independence to 
Turkey as well as national frontiers. The second 
Great National Assembly, the majority of whose 
members belonged to the People's Party (Khalk 
Firkasi, modern Tk. Halk Firkasi), founded by 
Mustafa Kemal (subsequently the People's Repu- 
blican Party: Ciimhuriyet Halk Partisi), on 29th 
October 1923 proclaimed the Republic; Mustafa 
Kemal was elected President — an office to which 
he was constantly re-elected until his death — whilst 
'Ismet Pasha (Ismet Inonii) was appointed Prime 
Minister and Ankara became the capital of Turkey. 
The abolition of the Caliphate was voted on 3rd 
March 1924. 

The first years of the Turkish Republic were 
marked by the fierce determination of Mustafa 
Kemal to modernise the country, to free it from 
foreign economic tutelage and to secularise it. 
Relying on a single absolutely devoted party, he 
imposed a Constitution which virtually placed all 
power in the hands of the President of the Republic 
(30th April 1924). Secularisation, marked by the 
suppression of the religious courts, Kur'anic schools 
and dervish orders, the prohibition of the wearing 
of the fez, the abolition of the article of the Con- 
stitution declaring Islam the state religion, brought 
about local risings (Kurdistan and the Izmir region) 
and reactions in some political circles, which were 
swiftly suppressed. Modernisation and turkisation 
proceeded hand in hand through the nationalisation 
of foreign companies, the impulse given to agricul- 
ture and industry, the creation of national banks, 
the development of means of communication, the 
reform of the alphabet, the vote for women and the 
introduction of new civil, criminal, and commercial 
codes. Mustafa Kemal's decisions, sanctioned by the 
Assembly without opposition, were disseminated 
throughout the country by the local sections of the 
People's Party and by the Halk evleri (Houses of the 
people); the whole nation was affected and impreg- 
nated by the new ideas. In November 1934, a law 
required all citizens to use family names; the 
Assembly accorded Mustafa Kemal that of Atatiirk. 
In foreign policy, he showed himself to be pacific, 
though determined to protect the independence of 
his country: he concluded treaties of friendship or 
alliance with the neighbouring states and with the 
Great Powers. He signed a pact with Greece, 
Rumania and Yugoslavia, "the Balkan Entente" 
(9th February 1934), which was extended east- 
wards by the Pact of Sa'dabad (Turkey, 'Irak, 
Iran and Afghanistan, July 1937). 

Mustafa Kemal died on 10th November 1938 at 
Istanbul, mourned by a whole nation, who saw in 
him the liberator and the renovator of their country. 
A provisional tomb was erected at the Ethnographic 
Museum in Ankara; on 10th November 1953, his 
remains were solemnly transferred to the vast 
mausoleum erected in his honour in the capital. 

Mustafa Kemal was a man uncompromising by 
nature, impatient of opposition, exacting in his 



ATATORK — ATFIH 



73S 



demands both upon himself and others, his sole 
objective being the restoration of his country and 
the promotion of its greatness. Opposed to the 
Sultanate and to Islam, he strove relentlessly to 
suppress them both, for he considered them respon- 
sible for the decay of the Ottoman Empire. His 
passionate love of his country led him into the 
severe treatment both of ethnic minorities long 
settled in Turkey and of prominent Turks whose 
crime was that they did not subscribe to all his 
political ideas. Yet Ataturk has imparted to the new 
Turkish regime the deep imprint of his personality. 
There could be no question for his successors of 
going back on his work, except in the matter of 
religion and in the democratisation of the regime. 
Bibliography: A complete bibliography of 
works dealing with Ataturk will be found in I A, 
vol. i, fasc. 10, Istanbul 1949. Additional biblio- 
graphy: Ataturk, Nutuk (1919-27), vols, i and ii, 
Istanbul 1934 (English translation: A Speech 
delivered by Ghazi Mustapha Kemal, Leipzig 1929); 
Atatiirk'un S6ylev ve Demecleri (1919-38), Istanbul 
1945 ; Burhan Cahit, Gazi Mustafa Kemal, Istanbul 
1930; Ziya Sakir, Atatiirk'un hay all, Istanbul 1938; 
Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu, Ataturk, Istanbul 
1946; J. Deny, Souvenirs du Gazi Moustafa Kemal 
Pacha, in REI, 1927, i, 119-36; ". 145-222; 
P. Gentizon, Moustafa Kemal ou I'Orient en 
marche, Paris 1929; H. E. Wortham, Mustapha 
Kemal of Turkey, New-York and Boston 1930; 
H. Armstrong, The Grey Wolf, Mustafa Kemal. 
An intimate study of a dictator, London 1932, 
New- York 1933; H. Melzig, Kemal Ataturk, 
Frankfurt a.M. 1937; Enver Ziya Karal, Turk 
Inkildbinin Mahiyeti ve Onemi, Istanbul 1937; 
Gotthard Jaeschke-Niyazi Recep Aksu, Turk 
Inkildbi Tarihi Kronolojisi, vol. i-ii, Istanbul 
I 939-4'. To the detailed bibliography published 
in IA, vol. i, fasc. 10, 800-4, should be added: 
Tarih Vesikalari, new series, vol. i, fasc. I (16), 
August 1955, 1-15; Harp tarihi vesikalari dergisi, 
nos. 1-10, September 1952-December 1954; 
Belleten, vol. xx, no. 80, October 1956. 

(R. Mantran) 
ATBARA, a tributary of the Nile, known 
to the ancients as Astaboras. It rises in Abyssinia 
not far from Gondar and, entering the Sudan near 
Gallabat (Kallabat) is joined lower down by the 
Salam and Setlt; it joins the Main Nile at a point 
about 200 miles north of Khartum. During the 
flood season (end of May to end of September) it 
contributes a considerable amount of silt-laden 
water to the Nile; for the rest of the year it dries up 

The town of Atbara near the river mouth is 
important as the headquarters of the Sudan railways 
(population of the Municipal council area 36,143), 
and as the junction for the Red Sea line. In the 
battle of the Atbara fought on 8 June 1898 at 
Nakhayla, a short distance upstream from the river 
mouth, the Anglo-Egyptian forces under Sir Herbert 
(later Lord) Kitchener destroyed a Mahdist army of 
12,000 infantry and 4,000 horsemen commanded by 
the Darwlsh amir Mahmfld Ahmad. 

Bibliography: Sudan Almanac I Khartum. 

annually); H. E. Hurst, The Nile, London 1952; 

A. B. Theobald, The Mahdiya, London 195 1. 
(S. Hillelson) 

'ATEIBA [see c utayba]. 

ATEK, district in Soviet Turkmenistan 
on the northern slope of the frontier-mountains of 
Khurasan (Kopet Dagh), between the modern railway- 



stations Gjaurs and Dushak. The name is really 
Turkish, Etek, "edge border" (of the mountain-chain), 
and is a translation of the Persian name given to this 
district, viz. Daman-i Kuh, "foot of the mountain"; 
but the word is always written Atak by the Persians. 
During the Middle Ages no special name for Atek 
appears to have been in use; being a district of 
the town of Abiward [q.v.] it belonged to Khurasan. 
In the ioth/i6th and nth/i7th cents, it fell into, 
the power of the Khans of Kh w arizm, and later 
into that of the Turkomans; before the appearance 
of the Russians the frontier with Persia was never 
clearly defined. Previous to the delimitation of the 
borders in 1881 a part of Atek with Abiward belonged 
to the principality of Kalat, which was subject to the 
overlordship of Persia. (W. Barthold*) 

'ATF (= connexion), an Arabic grammatical 
term denoting a connexion with a preceding word- 
Two kinds of 'off are distinguished: 'a(f al-nasak or 
a(f properly so-called, and 'off al-baydn: 

1. The simple co-ordinative connexion ('off al- 
nasak) consists of the co-ordination of a word with a 
preceding word by means of one of the ten particles 
of connexion, e.g.: kama Zayd wa-'Amr. The co- 
ordinative particles (al-'awdtif or huruf al-'aff) are 
distinguished according to their degree of strength: 
wa is used for the simple co-ordinative relationship 
(li 'l-dfam'); fa, thumma and hattd express relation- 
ships of governance and subordination (li 'l-tartib); 
aw, immd, or am express a fluctuation between these 
two terms (li-ta'lik al-hukm bi ahadi 'l-madhkurayn), 
and la, bal, or lakin an antithesis (li 'l-khildf). c A(f 
can connect words (mufrad '■aid mufrad) as well as 
clauses (diumla 'aid djumla). According to Ibn 
Ya'Ish, nasak is a term belonging to the terminology 
of Kufa, 'at/ to that of Basra. 

2. The explicative connexion ('atf al-bayan) is an. 
apposition, which however cannot be an adjective, 
and which, in contrast to badal, explains the preceding 
word (mudih li-matbu'ihi), e.g.: d£d y a akhilka Zayd, 
or aksama bi'Udh Abu Hafs 'Umar. From this point 
of view 'atf al-bayan has exactly the same value as- 

In both kinds of 'atf, the second word is called 
al-ma'tuf, and the preceding al-ma'(iif 'alayhi. 

Bibliography: See the works on grammar, 

especially Zamakhshari, Mufassal, 50, 2 -5i, a ; 140,"- 

142,"; Diet, of Techn. Terms, 1007-10. 

(G. Weil) 

ATFltf, town in Middle Egypt. Atfih (also 
written with t instead of t) is a small town of 4,3°° 
inhabitants on the east bank of the Nile at the 
latitude of Fayyum. The name of the town in 
old Egyptian was Tep-yeh or Per Hathor nebt Tep- 
yeh, i.e., "house of Hathor, lady of Tepyeh". The 
Copts changed this name to Petpeh, the Arabs to 
Atfih. The Greeks, identifying Hathor with Aphro- 
dite, called the town Aphroditopolis, abbreviated to 
Aphrodito. The town must still have possessed 
importance in the Christian period, for it had over 
twenty churches, of which ten were still standing 
in the 13th century. The ancient vo(x6?, later known 
as Kurat Atfih, was also called al-Sharkiyya by 
reason of its position on the east bank. On the 
occasion of the division of Egypt into provinces, 
towards the end of the Fatimid period, a whole 
province, Itfihiyya, was named after the town of 
Atfih. Not until the year 1250/1834-5 was the 
region of Atfih reunited to the province of Djiza, of 
which it constituted a district (markaz). 

Information about Atfih is very scanty. There is 
no doubt that at the time of the Mamluks the town 



736 



ATFlH - 



l-ATHAR al-'ULWIYYA 



was already in a state of complete decay. It was 
only under the Khedives that the government again 
began to do something for this region. The incessant 
raids by Bedouins and Mamluks came to an end; 
canals were built or restored. Atfih is to-day a port 
of no more than local importance importance; trade 
is only on a small scale. 

Bibliography: Kalkashandl, Daw' al-Sabk 
al-Musfir, (trans. Wustenfeld, 93, 104); Makrizi, 
Khitat, i, 73; 'All Mubarak, al-Khi(a( al-Qiadida, 
viii, 77; Ibn Dukmak, iv, 133; Yakut, i, 
Abu Salih, 56a ff.; Ibn Khurradadhbih. 81 : Ame- 
lineau, Geographic de I'Egypte a I'ipoqueCopte, 326; 
Boinet, Dictionnaire giographique de I'Egypte, 86; 
Baedeker, tgypte, s.v.; Makrizi, Khitat, ed. IFAO, 
i, 312; J. Maspero and G. Wiet, Materiaux pour 
servir a la geographic de I'Egypte, 21. 

(C. H. Becker *) 
ATFIYASH. Muhammad b. YOsuf b. <Isa b. 
Salih, called Kutb ai-A'imma, Ibadi scholar and 
author of Beni Isguen (arabicised: Banu Yasdjan) 
in the Mzab, d. 1332/1914, 94 years old. Descendant 
of a family of scholars, he brought about, by his 
«xtensive literary activity (of which the few items in 
Brockelmann, S II, 893, cannot give an adequate 
idea), a real renascence of Ibadi religious studies in 
the West. This went parallel with an increasing 
strictness in religious practices and in social life, 
the effects of which, seen through the eyes of the 
women of the Mzab, have been described by A. M. 
Goichon (REI, 1930, 231 ff.). Shaykh Atfiyash 
was in close relations with his coreligionaries in 
the East, where another great Ibadi scholar, 'Abd 
Allah b. Humayyid al-Salimi (Brockelmann, S II, 
523), was his contemporary. Whilst defending his 
point of view vigorously, he did much to make the 
Ibadis known to and respected by the other Muslims, 
and this brought him into contact with sultan 'Abd 
al-Hamid II. The leading Ibadi scholars in the 
Mzab in the present time are his disciples. His 
library, a unique collection of Ibadi and other 
works in manuscripts and in printed and litho- 
graphed editions, is a wakf in Beni Isguen ; it contains 
many of his autograph manuscripts. 

His main works are: commentaries on the 
Kur'an : Himydn al-Zdd ild Ddr al-Ma c dd, 14 vols., 
Zanzibar 1350; Taysir al-Tafsir, 6 vols., Algiers 
1326; traditions: Wafa* al-Pamdna, 3 vols., Cairo 
1306-26; religious law: Sharh al-Nil (commentary 
on the K. al-Nil of 'Abd al-'Aziz b. Ibrahim al- 
Mus'abi, d. 1223/1808; Brockelmann, S II, 892), 
Cairo 1305-43; Shdmil al-Asl wal-Far c , 2 vols., Cairo 
1348; Sharh Da'dHm Ibn al-Nazar (on this author, 
see Brockelmann, II, 538), 2 vols., Algiers 1326; 
Tatm al-Ghdmir, Algiers 1319; dogmatics: 
Sharh Risdlat al-Tawhid (commentary on the 
'akida of Abu Hafs 'Umar b. Djami'; Brockelmann, 
S II, 357), Algiers 1326; al-Dhahab al-Khdlis, Cairo 
1343; also works on grammar and philology, some 
poetry, and writings on various subjects. 

Bibliography: biographical notice in Abu 
Ishak Ibrahim Atfiyash (nephew of the author), 
al-Di'dya ild Sabil al-Mu'minln, Cairo 1342/1923, 
100-9; J- Schacht, Bibliothiques et manuscrits 
abadites, in R. Afr., vol. 100, 1956, 373 ff. 

(J. Schacht) 
ATJJAR (A.), pi. dthdr, literally "trace" ; as a tech- 
nical term it denotes: 1) a tradition [see hadIth];2) 
a relic: al-athar al-sharif (pi. al-dthdr al-sharif a), relics 
of the Prophet, hair, teeth, autographs, utensils al- 
leged to have belonged to him and especially im- 
pressions of his footprints [see ijadam] ; these objects 



are preserved in mosques and other public places for 

the edification of Muslims. Relics are also called, both 

by Christians and Muslims, dhakhira ("treasure"). 

Bibliography: I. Goldziher, Muh. St, ii, 356-68. 

For a description, with illustrations, of the sacred 

relics preserved in Istanbul see Tahsin Oz, Hirha-i 

Saadet Dairesi ve Emanet-i Muhaddese, Istanbul 

1953- (!• Goldziher) 

3) Athar is also used as a technical term in the 

theory of causality, although it is less commonly 

used than fi c l, Hlla and sabab with their derivatives 

[qq.v.]. From the mu*aththir, i.e. from a higher, 

active being or thing, (for example, God), emanate 

ta'thirat, "influences", to which correspond under 

certain conditions dthdr, "impressions", in lower 

beings or things. In contrast to the higher beings, 

the latter behave in a passive (or better: receptive) 

manner. This use of the word is most frequently found 

in the astrologers and natural philosophers, with 

reference to the influence of the stars (considered as 

higher beings possessing a soul) on the terrestrial 

world and on men. In addition, the atmospheric 

phenomena, which are also under the influence of 

the stars, are called al-dthdr al- c ulwiyya [q.v.]. The 

Meteorology of Aristotle was translated into Arabic 

under this title. Athar fi 'l-nafs (7ra0^(xaToc rij? 

(JiuX^S) k tne name given to the emotions and ideas of 

the sentient soul, because the soul experiences the 

impressions of things. (Tj.de Boer*) 

al-AXHAR al-'ULWIYYA, "The meteorological 
phenomena", title used by the Arabs to designate 
the Meteorology of Aristotle and that of Theo- 
phrastus. 

1. In his Risdla fi Kamiyyat Kutub Aris(u(dlis wa 
ma yuhtddju ilayhi fi Tafoil al-Falsafa, al-Kindi 
mentions, in fourth place among the books of 
physical sciences (al-(abi c iyydt). The Book of the 
phenomena of the air and of the earth (Kitdb 
Ahddth al-Qiaww wa 'l-Ard); (see M. Guidi and 
R. Walzer, Uno scritto introduttivo alio studio di 
Aristotele, Studi su al-Kindi, i, Atti della R. Acad, 
dei Lincei, Mem. della classe di scienze morali, 6 : 6, 
1 937)- The same division of the (abi'iyydt occurs in 
al-Ya'kubi, i, 149, who cites the book Fi 'l-ShardH'- 
wa huwa Kitdb al-Manfik fi 'I- Athar al- l Ulwiyya; 
(see also Klamroth, Vber die Ausziige aus griechischen 
Schriftstellem bei al-Yaqubi, ZDMG, 41, 1887, 
415-42). The title al-Athdr al-'-Ulwiyya also appears 
in the Fihrist, 251, and Ibn AM Usaybi'a, 58. In 
Djabir's work Kitdb al-Bahth, the Meteorology 
belongs to the middle books, i.e., the physical 
writings; (see P. Kraus, Jdbir b. ffayydn, i, 322 ff. 
Mlm. de I'Institut d'Egypte, 45, 1942). 

The first attempts to make Aristotle's works on 
the physical and biological sciences accessible in 
Arabic are represented by the paraphrases translated 
by the Melchite Yuhanna (Yahya) b. al-Bitrik, 
mawld of the Caliph al-Ma'mun. His translation of 
the Meteorology, clearly made on the basis of a 
Syriac original, has come down to us in two manu- 
scripts, one of which is preserved at Istanbul (Yeni 
1179), and the other at Rome (Vat. hebr. 378). The 
first three books of Ibn al-Bitrik's work were 
translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona; (see 
Lacombe, Aristoteles latinus, i, 56). Of the fourth 
book, the Treatise on Chemistry, three versions of 
the Arab-Latin type have been indicated by Fobes ; 
(see Classical philology, 10, 1915, 297-314)- One of 
these texts, contained in the ms. cod. Bibl. Nat., lat. 
6325, represents a version made on the basis of the 
work of Ibn al-Bitrik. 



C ATHR 



737 



Among the works of Abu '1-Khayr al-Hasan b. 
Suwar (bom 331/942), the Fihrist, 265, mentions the 
translation of a Kitdb al-Atkdr al-'Ulwiyya, but 
whether this title in fact refers to the Meteorology 
of Aristotle is uncertain. On another meteorological 
work of Ibn Suwar, see also Ibn Abl Usaybi c a, i, 323. 

The great commentary of Olympiodorus on the 
text of Aristotle was translated, according to the 
Fihrist, 251, by Abu Bishr Matta b. Yunus (died 
328/940), and that of Alexander of Aphrodisias by 
Yahya b. <Adi (died 363/973). None of these trans- 
lations has come down to us. On the commentary of 
al-Farabl see Ibn al-Kiftl, 279, and Ibn Abl Usaybi'a, 
i, 138. In the Kitdb al-£kifd> of Ibn Sina, the Mete- 
orology and the Geography form part of the fifth 
fann; that part of it dealing with the halo and the 
rainbow has been translated by Horten and 
Wiedemann (Meteorologiscke Zeitschr., 30, 1913, 
533-544)- In the Kitdb al-Nadidt (Cairo ed. 1938, 
152-7), Ibn Sina gives the extract of the detailed 
account of the Kitdb al-Skifd'. Of Ibn Rushd's 
commentaries on the Meteorologies, we possess 
the Arab text of his abridgement (ed. Haydarabad 
1365). 

The ideas expounded by Aristotle in the Meteoro- 
logy, especially those of the fourth book, have played 
an important r61e in the history of physical ideas in 
Islam. At the beginning of the third century of the 
Hidjra, the Mu'tazilite theologian al-Nazzam [q.v.], 
criticised the doctrine expounded by the dahriyya 
of the four elementary qualities (kuwa gkariziyya): 
this he considered to be arbitrary, since it was based 
only on the sense of touch (lams, malsama = t6 
dbmxiv). He knew the fundamental theory of the 
two exhalations (bukkdr ardi, bukkdr mdH = 
ivaOOjifadK;, aT[i£<;) and expounded an opinion on 
the saltness of the sea; (see the fragments of his 
writings cited by al-Djahiz, Kitdb al-ffayawdn, v). 
In Diabir's system, the doctrine of the elements is 
clearly based on that of Aristotle; (see Kraus, op. cit., 
163 ff.). In the Arab tradition of the Meteorology, 
starting from Ibn al-Bitrik, down to Ibn Rushd, the 
doctrine vaguely indicated by Aristotle (339a 20 f.) 
of the influence of the Spheres on the sub-lunar 
world is interpreted in conformity with the astro- 
logical theory expounded for example in the Book 
of the Treasure of Alexander, the Arabic text of 
which is cited by Ruska, Tabula smaragdina, 80. 
According to this theory, "the world below follows 
the world above, and the individual bodies of the 
former are subject to those of the latter, because 
the air is contiguous (muttasil) to the exterior of 
all the bodies and to the Spheres as well". In 
the Sirr al-Khalika. a hermetic work attributed to 
Balinas (Apollonius of Tyana) (see Kraus, op. cit., 
147, n. 2), the idea of the influence of the Sphere 
is presented under the form of a cosmogony, ac- 
cording to which the successive development of 
minerals, plants and animals is due to the increas- 
ingly rapid motion of the Sphere. This idea is also 
present in Ibn al-Bitrik's paraphrase of Meteor., i, I : 
"The movement of things directed (by the celestial 
bodies) belonging to the earth such as plants, the 
•creation and production of animals, minerals, etc. 
taking into account their transformation and 
mutation, is produced by the celestial influences". 
This theory is also expounded by the Ikkwdn al- 
Safd* in the chapter on al-Atkdr al- c Ulwiyya, 
RasdHl, ii, 54 ft. It is explicitly attributed to 
Aristotle by C A1I b. Rabban al-Tabari, Firdaws al- 
Ifikma, 21. See also Ibn Rushd, al-Athdr al- 
'Ulwiyya, 6. 

clopaedia of Islam 



2. The Meteorology of Theophrastus (Ilept 
(leTapattov), the Greek original of which is lost, was 
partly translated by the celebrated lexicographer 
Abu '1-Hasan b. Bahlul al-Tirhani (this is how it 
should be read, Ibn Abl Usaybi c a, i, 109); see 
Bergstrasser, Neue meteorologiscke Fragmente des 
Theopkrast (Sitzungber. der Heidelb. Akad. der 
Wiss. Pkil.-kist. Kl., 1918:9). The Syriac text 
translated by Bar Bahlul has come down to us; see 
Drossaart Lulofs, Tke Syriac translation of Tkeo- 
pkrastus's Meteorology (Autour d'Aristote. Recueil 
d'itudes offert d A. Mansion, Louvain 1955, 433-49). 
(B. Lewin) 
ATHENS [see atina]. 

'AXHLllH. formerly a harbour on the coast 
of Palestine between the promontory of Carmel 
and al-Tantura (Dora), on a little tongue of land 
which lies to the north of a small bay and is 
washed on three sides by the sea. According to 
the Itinerarium Burdigalense there was a mutatio 
Certha there, but the name 'Athlith appears to 
be ancient. c Athlith appears in the light of history 
in the period of the Crusades. In 583/1187 it 
fell into Saladin's hands. In 1218 the Castellum 
Peregrinorum, as the Franks called it was recon- 
structed as a powerful Templar-fortress. Along 
with Districtum-Delroit (Khirbet Dustrg) it had to 
guard the passes of Carmel leading south. In 
690/1291 it was conquered and demolished by 
the Mamluk Sultan al-Ashraf Khalll. In the late 
14th century al- c UthmanI speaks of 'Athllth as the 
southernmost wildya of the mamlaka of Safad 
(BSOAS, xv, 1953, 483). 

Bibliography: Yakut, iii, 616; Kalkashandi, 
MukUasar Subh al-A'shd (Cairo, 1906), i, 306; 
K. Ritter, Erdkunde, xvi, 612-619; G. Key, Etude 
sur Us monuments de I' architecture militaire des 
croisis en Syrie, 93-105 ; E. von Mulinen, Beitrdge 
zur Kenntnis des Karmels, 258-277 (= Zeitsckr. d. 
Deutsck. Paldsiina-Vareins, xxxi, 167-186); A. S. 
Marmardji, Textes geographiques arabes sur la 
Palestine, Paris 1951, 137; reports byC. N.Johns 
on excavations at the Pilgrims' Castle will be found 
in QDAP, ii, 1933, 41-104; iii, 1934, 145-164; vi, 
1938, 121-152. (R. Hartmann) 

C AJJJR or 'Aththar (both pronunciations are 
well attested, the second one mostly in poetry, cf. 
LA, TA s.v.). 

(1) Mountain not far from Tabala [q.v.], known 
as a haunt of lions (ma'sada), like c Itwad, Shara etc. 
(cf. HamdanI, 54, 127, tr. Forrer 222; KaT) b. 
Zuhayr, Bdnat Su'dd, 46; c Urwa b. al-Ward, ii, 6). 

(2) District in NW Yaman on the Red Sea, 
between Djazan (Djizan) and Hamida (al-Hamdanl), 
or Shardja and Haly ('Umara). Main towns: 'Athr 
(see below), Baysh, Djurayb, ijaly, Sirrayn. Wddis: 
al-Aman, Baysh, Rim, 'Iramram, Zanif, al-'Amud. 
Having united 'Attir, Shardja, Haly and Zara'ib 
(= al-Mikhlaf al-Sulaymanl) under his dominion, 
Sulayman b. Tarf, the viceroy of the Banu Ziyad in 
Zabld, made himself actually, although not formally, 
independent of Abu '1-Djaysh ca. 350/960, and the 
territory enjoyed great prosperity until the expulsion 
of Banu Tarf in 453/1061. The annual revenue of Ibn 
Tarf from the trade is given by 'Umara as 500,000 
( athrl dinars (= 2/3 of a miikkal, just as the mu- 
(awwak of Mecca: al-MakdisI 99). With the succession 
of the Sulayman! sharifs from Mecca there was a rapid 
decline, until Yaman was conquered by the Ghuzz. 
the mercenary troops of the Ayyubids, ca. 560/1165. 

(3) The capital of the district and a seaport of 
importance. It was situated on the pilgrim road 



738 



'ATHR — ATlNA 



from San'5 5 , between al-Hadjar (= Djazan) and 
Bayd, and is quoted already in the year 11/632 as 
belonging to the insurgent al-Aswad [?.».]. Scarcity 
of water and the silting up of the bay brought about 
the decline of the town in the 6th and 7th/i2th-i3th 
centuries. In the time of al-Djanadi (ca. 700/1300) 
it was since long in ruins. According to him (MS Paris 
2127, fol. 153b, in the biography of Salih al-'Athri) 
the name 'Athr also was transferred to the opposite 
island(s), usually called Farasan [?.».]. The name is not 
on the maps; the closest correspondents would be 
Khor Abu es-Seba, or Qawz (al-Dja'afira) 32 km. N 
of Djizan. 

(4) A small place on the maritime road 'Adan- 
Mekka, between 'Ara and Sukya ('Umara, 8), three 
farsakhs from the former village (Ibn al-Mudjawir, 

Bibliography : Hamdani, tr. Forrer, 47-51; 

Yakut, iii, 615; Makdisi, 53) 70, 86; Kay, Yaman 

7, ii, 141 ff., 240 f.; Ibn al-Mudjawir, 54 (batnl 

khabt ( Athr), 100; Sprenger, Post- u. Reiserouten, 

150; idem, Die alte Geographic Arabiens, 45-54, 197; 

on the orthography of the nispa: Ibn al-Athir, 

Lubdb, ii, 122 and Dhahabi, Mushtabih, 377 f. 

(0. Lofgren) 

'ATIKA, Meccan lady, the daughter of the 

hanif Zayd b. 'Amr and sister of Sa'd b. Zayd, of 

the clan 'Adi b. Ka'b. She embraced Islam early 

and took part in the hidjra. She was married first 

to 'Abd Allah, a son of Abu Bakr, then after his 

death to 'Umarb. al-Khattab (in 12/633 according to 

al-Tabari, i, 2077), whom she bore a son 'Iyad(Ibn 

Sa'd iii/1,190). When *Umar was killed, she married 

al-Zubayr b. al-'Awwam, whose death she lamented 

in a much quoted elegy (Ibn Sa c d iii/1,79 etc.). The 

sad story of this beautiful woman and her husbands 

whose lives ended so tragically was soon turned into 

a fanciful romance and embellished with spurious 

love-poems and elegies. 

Bibliography: Ibn Sa'd viii, 193-5; ii/2,97; 
Ibn Kutayba, c Uyun al-Akhbar, iv, 114 f.; 
Hamasa (Freytag), 493 «•; AghanV, xvj, 133-5; 
'Aynl, ii, 278 f.; Khizanat al-Adab, iv, 351 f., etc. 

(J.W. FOck) 
ATIL, or I til, sometimes Atil (Itil)-Khazaran, 
also Khazaran Atil, the Khazar capital, a double 
town on the lower Volga, itself called Atil, Itil [q.v.] 
in the early mediaeval period. The exact site is 
unknown. According to al-Mas'Qdi (Murudj, ii, 7), 
the capital was transferred to Atil from Samandar in 
the neighbourhood of the Caucasus in the time of 
Sulayman (Salman) b. Rabi' a al-Bahili, i.e. about 
30/650, though elsewhere (Tanbih, 62) he says that 
Balandjar, also in the Caucasus region, was the 
original Khazar capital. Already at this date the 
Arabic sources speak of al-Bayda', 200 parasangs 
from Balandjar (al-Tabari, i, 2668), by which doubt- 
less the later capital is intended. Ibn Rusta (139) 
gives what are apparently the earlier Khazar names 
for the double town on the Volga. According to 
al-Istakhrl (220), the west part, which was the 
larger, was a straggling town of felt tents with a 
few clay houses, several miles in extent and sur- 
rounded by a wall. The Khazars proper, i.e. the 
Judaised ruling class, as well as the army and the 
royal castle, built of brick, were on this bank. Most 
of the Muslims, estimated in all at 10,000, lived on 
the east bank, which was the commercial part of 
the town. Markets, baths, mosques, etc. are mentio- 
ned. There was also a considerable Christian popu- 
lation, and a colony of pagan Sakaliba and Rus 
(Murudj, ii, 9, 12). The correct naming of the double 



town appears to be: west bank, Khazaran; east 
bank, Atil (cf. Ibn Hawkal, 389 note). Like 
its modern counterpart Astrakhan, it was an 
important entrepdt of trade. The products of the 
north, especially furs, passed through the Khazar 
capital, while contact was made with Kievan Russia 
to the west and with Kh'arizm to the east. The 
slave-trade seems to have been of importance. In 
the sixties of the 10th century the Khazar capital 
was destroyed by the Rus (Ibn Hawkal, 15, 
392; Russian Chronicle, anno 965) and never 
recovered its former prosperity, though the Rus 
withdrew and attempts were made to rebuild it 
(Ibn Hawkal, 398; cf. al-Makdisi 361). The Khazar 
state appears to have drawn out a precarious 
existence for some time afterwards, but Khazaran 
Atil ceases to be mentioned. 

Bibliography: Hudud al- c Alam, 452 ff.; D. 
M. Diinlop, History of the Jewish Khazars, 91 n., 
106, 217 n. (D. M. Dunlop) 

ATlNA, Athens, capital of Greece. The history 
of Athens in pre-Islamic times will not be treated 
here. The first closer — admittedly hostile — contact 
with the Muslims was made in 283/896 , when 
Saracen pirates occupied the town for a short time 
(cf. D. G. Kambouroglous, 'H 4Xwat? 'AOtjvuv urco 
Ttov SapaxTfjvuv, Athens 1934). Certain Arabic 
remains, and influences on the ornamental style in 
Athens, have been traced back to this event (cf. 
G. Soteriou, Arabic remains in Athens in Byzantine 
times, in: Praktikd {Proceedings) of the Academy of 
Athens, iv (Athens 1929), reproduced by D. G. 
Kambouroglous, I.e., 160; cf. also Byzant.-Neugriech. 
Jahrbiicher, xi (Berlin and Athens), 233-69)- The 
whole question still appears to be in need of clari- 
fication (cf. K. M. Setton, On the raids of the Moslems 
in the Aegaean in the ninth and tenth centuries and 
their alleged occupation of Athens, in: American 
Journal of Archaeology, vol. LVIII (1954), 3U-9)- 
Shortly after the time of Justinian I, Athens had 
sunk to the level of a provincial town, and apart 
from its great buildings, there was nothing left of 
its ancient cultural importance. During the period of 
western rule in Greece, Athens became (1205) the 
capital of a duchy which was successively held by 
the Burgundians and the Catalans, who occupied it 
in 131 1, bringing it under the sovereignty of the 
kings' of Aragon (cf. Kenneth M. Setton, Catalan 
Domination of Athens 1311-1388 (Cambridge, Mass., 
1948 with excellent bibliography on pp. 261601). 
From 1388 to 1458 the Florentine house of the 
Acciajuoli ruled in Athens. In 1397 it wa«. tempo- 
rarily taken by sultan Bayazld I. In some Turkish 
sources this capture is mentioned as taking place 
before the battle of Nicopolis (which took place on 
28 Sept. 1396); after the conquest of Salonica (which 
is mentioned as having taken place in the previous 
year) (Neshri, ROM) ; in others, as taking place after 
that battle (Sa'd al-DIn and his plagiarists, Solakzade 
and HadjdjI Khalifa as well as Munedjdjim-bashl). 
The later date seems preferable, as Timurtash is men- 
tioned as the conqueror of Athens, and the Chronicum 
breve mentions a raid by Ya'kQb-Pasha and 'Mour- 
tasis', MoupT(xaY)<; = Timurtash against Morea in 
summer 1 397. Doubtlessly it was only a temporary 
occupation of the town, perhaps no more than a raid, 
so that Greek sources do not mention the event ex- 
plicitly (cf. Sa'd al-Din, Tddj al-Tawdrikh, i, 149 f. 
also Neshri in ZDMG, XV (1861), 344;and concerning 
the whole question J. H. Mordtmann, Die erste 
Eroberung von Athen durch die Tiirken zu Ende des 
14. Jahrhunderts, in: Byx.-Neugriech. Jahrbiicher, IV, 



ATlNA — ATjfcH 



346-350). It was not until Mehemmed II, that 
Athens, "the city of wise men" {madinat al- 
hukamd') finally came under Ottoman rule, when 
the Conqueror personally made his triumphal entry 
in the last week of August, thus beginning nearly 330 
years of Turkish occupation. Concerning this event 
and all its details, cf. F. Babinger, Mehtned der 
Eroberer und seine Zeit, Munich 1953, 170 f. ; 
(Italian edition, Maometto II il Conquistatore ed 
il suo tempo, Turin 1956, 246). In the following 
centuries, Athens sank into insignificance, as one 
can gather clearly from reports of western travellers 
(cf. in particular Comte de Laborde, Athenes aux 
XV, XVI' et XVII' silcles, Paris 1854, 2 vols.). 
The Parthenon had been converted into a mosque, 
and barracks were built in the Propylaea. Turkish 
domination meant a time of decadence for Athens, 
which sank to the status of a small country town. 
In autumn 1687, it was besieged by a Venetian 
admiral, Francesco Morosini (subsequently Doge), 
and on this occasion the Parthenon was largely 
destroyed (on Sept. 26th) by a bomb which hit the 
ammunition stored there. The two mosques of the 
city were turned into places of Catholic and Pro- 
testant worship (the latter because a considerable 
number of German mercenaries were present) by 
the Venetian Provveditore Daniele Dolfin. Shortly 
afterwards, however, on April 9th 1688, Athens was 
abandoned by the occupying troops (which were 
much reduced by an epidemic) and the Turks re- 
entered. A city-wall — built largely from the remains 
of ancient monuments — was erected in 1777. From 
the 17th century onwards, there was great interest 
in the monuments of Greek antiquity in Athens, 
hence there are detailed descriptions dating from 
that time, especially in French (e.g. J. Spon (1678) 
and G. Wheler (1682); cf. also Sh. H. Weber, 
Voyages and Travels in Greece, the Near East and 
adjacent Regions made previous to the Year 1801, 
Princeton, 1953. These describe vividly to what a 
pitiable state Athens had sunk. The Greek fight 
for liberation increased this devastation. In 1822 
Athens was conquered by the Greeks, but had to be 
ceded to the Turks again no later than 1826 (the 
Acropolis in 1827). It was only after the London 
Conference (1830), that Athens was incorporated 
into the new kingdom of Greece. It became the 
capital of the country at the end of 1834, and soon 
developed into an intellectual and cultural centre. 
Owing to the quick economic and political develop- 
ment there was a steep rise in population. Today, 
Athens has about one million inhabitants. The 
university was founded in 1835. 

Bibliography: The best bibliography of the 
history of Athens during the periods of Catalan and 
Florentine rule is found in Kenneth M. Setton, 
Catalan Domination of Athens 1311-1388 (1948) 
in chapter XII, from 261 onwards. Concerning 
the Turkish rule cf. Th. N. Philadelpheus, 'Ioxopia 
Ttov A9t)v<ov M Toupxoxparla; (Athens 1902, 2 
vols.) A detailed description of Athens in the 17th 
century is found in Ewliya Celebi, Seydhatndme, 
viii, Istanbul 1928, 249-67; in connexion with 
this, see also short notices by HadjdjI Khalifa, in 
J. v. Hammer, Rumeli und Bosna, Vienna 1812, 
109-10. There is a thorough study of Athens in 
the Middle Ages and in modern times by Wm. 
Miller, The Latins in the Levant, London 1908, 
335 ff., with numerous further bibliographical 
details. Ferd. Gregorovius, Die Geschickte der 
Stadt A then im Mittelalier, Stuttgart 1889, 2 vols. 
See also G. C. Miles, The Arab Mosque in Athens 



739 

in Hesperia, Journal of the American School of 
Classical Studies at Athens, xxv (Athens 1956), 
329-44 (with plate 49)- (Franz Babinger) 

'ATlRA (pi. c atdHr) denoted, among the Arabs of 
the didhiliyya, a ewe (and by extensions its sacrifice) 
offered as a sacrifice to a pagan divinity, either as a 
thanksgiving following the fulfilment of a prayer 
(concerning in particular the increase of flocks), or 
when a flock reached the total of a hundred head 
(cf. the word fara c a) ; the head of the idols before 
which the sacrifice was performed was smeared with 
the blood of the victims. If one bears in mind on the 
one hand that these sacrifices (which were also 
called radfabiyya ; hence the phrase radidjaba 
< atirat an ) took place in the month of radjab (i.e., in 
the spring), and on the other hand that in principle 
the first born were used for the sacrifice, a close 
connexion will be established with the sacrifice which 
took place during the 'urnra [q.v.], and also with 
the Jewish Passover and the magic rites which 
introduce a scapegoat. It seems that the Prophet 
forbade these sacrifices (cf. the hadith: Id fara'-aV 
(sacrifice of firstlings) wa la 'atirat"). 

Bibliography: LA, s.vv. 'atira, radiabiyya; 

Wellhausen, Reste', 118; J. Chelhod, La Sacrifice 

ckez les Arabes, Paris 1955, 151 and refs. quoted; 

cf. Jaussen, Moab, 359; see also Djahiz, Hayawdn 1 , 

i, 18, v, 510. (Ch. Pellat) 

ATJfcH 1 ) (Atchin, Achin), the most northerly 

part of the island of Sumatra. Here flourished the 

once powerful Muslim empire of Atjeh, which is 

now a province of the Indonesian Republic. The 

southern limit was, under Dutch rule, formed by 

the residencies of Tapanuli and "Sumatra's Oost- 

kust", now the province Sumatra Utara. In earlier 

times the province (or at least the sphere of political 

sovereignty) of Atjeh extended much farther towards 

the south. A considerable part of both the east and 

west coasts of Sumatra was subject to the authority 

of Atjeh, and even pagan chiefs in the Batak regions 

received their rank at the hands of the princes of 

AtjeTi. 

Great- Atjeh. Only the district to the north- 
west with the Atjeh river and the port Atjeh, the 
former residence of the princes of Atjeh, was from 
the first reckoned as Atjeh proper. The Dutch named 
it Great-Atjeh and the capital Kuta Radja (i.e. fort 
of the prince). The port of Sabang situated on the 
island of Pulo We (to the north-east of Kuta Radja) 
only dates from the beginning of the present century. 
The inhabitants of the littoral (Baron) are distin- 
guished in many respects from the population of 
the highlands of the interior (Tunong); the customs 
and speech of the former (who live of course in the 
vicinity of the residence) are always considered to 
be the more refined. 

The Dependencies. The other districts situated 
on the west, north and east coasts were under Dutch 
rule usually referred to as the Dependencies. Among 
the important towns are : on the west coast : Meulaboh, 
Tapa 5 Tuau and Singkil; on the north coast: Sigli 
in the region of the former empire of Pidie (Pedir), 
Meureudu, Bireuen, Peusangan, Lho'Sukon and Lho 5 
Seumawe. In the region between the latter place 
and the river Djambd Aye stood the flourishing 
empire of Pase, which Ibn Battuta (ed. De- 
fremery and Sanguinetti, iv, 228 ff.) visited in 

1) In this article tj is retained in deference to the 
official orthography in Indonesia; I = closed, e = 
open e; 6 — open, 6 = closed 0; eu is one vowel 
(not a diphthong). 



740 

the year 746/1345. On the east coast are situated 
among others: Idi, Langsa and Kuala Simpang. 
steam tramway joins the east and north coasts wii 
Kuta Radja. A part of the population has migrated 
thither from Great- Atjeh; many Malays have also 
settled here from the neighbouring districts. 

With an estimated rice export surplus of 45,000 
tons in 1942, and an important export of betel nuts, 
patchouli, copra, rubber and live-stock, Atjeh 
developed under the Dutch government into a 
thriving country, in spite of the ruin of the tradi- 
tional pepper culture, to which the settlements in 
one part of the Dependencies had owed their original 
existence. Large irrigation works were completed 
or were under construction. The road system was 
extended. In addition on the West and East Coasts 
of Atjeh extensive acreages of waste ground were 
cleared by Western estate companies for the 
planting of rubber, oil-palms and fibres. The BPM 
(Bataafse Petroleum Maatschappij) had fields in 
operation in Rantau (Kuala Simpang), and Peureula' 
(Langsa); whilst in Meulaboh 
granted to a gold mining concern. 

Gayo and Alas-Countries. High 
chains overgrown with virgin forest separate the 
littoral from the Gayo-country; transverse chains 
divide the region of the Gayos into four tablelands. 
The most northerly (containing the great Tawar lake 
and the sources of the river Peusangan) is occupied 
by the so-called "Urang Laut" (i.e. people of the 
lake), the plain to the south of it is occupied on the 
other hand by the "Urang Dorot" (i.e. people of the 
land); to the southeast lies the table-land of S6r- 
bodjadi containing the sources of the river Peureula' 
which flows in an eastly direction. The fourth table- 
land, situated in the south and containing the bed 
of the river Tripa which discharges its waters on the 
west coast, is called Gayo Luos (i.e. the wide, 
spacious Gayo-countries). The Alas-countries lie 
south of this. The population of these regions, who 
differ in many respects from that of Atjeh, have 
from the first recognised the authority of Atjeh. The 
four chiefs appointed by the princes of Atjeh in the 
several parts of the Gayo-country (the so-called 
"Kedjuruns") were the mediators between the Gayos 
and Atjeh. Two of these Kedjuruns had their sphere 
of influence in the region of Lake Tawar (then- 
distinctive titles were Rodjd Bukit and Siah Utama), 
one among the Dorot (with the title Rddjo Linggo), 
and the fourth in Gayo Luos (Kgdjurun Pgtiambang). 
SerbSdjadi was formerly without inhabitants; later 
its most eminent chieftain was also called Kgdjurun 
(K6djurun abuk). In the Alas countries the authority 
of Atjeh was represented by two Kedjuruns. 

The most important administrative centres are 
Takengon, on Lake Tawar, and Blang Kgdjeren, in 
Gayo Lu6s. In the sub-district of Takengon, which 
has an area of 70,000 hectares under fir trees, an 
important government resin and turpentine industry 
has developed. Plans for the establishment of a 
paper factory were in an advanced state of prepa- 
ration at the time of the Japanese invasion in 1942. 

For accurate information about the people of 
Atjeh we are indebted above all to C. Snouck 
Hurgronje, who (first in the years 1891-1892) 
investigated the previously but little known social, 
political and religious conditions of this nation 
{De Atjihers; Batavia 1893-1894; cf. the English 
translation of this work which is provided with 
a new introduction and some additions by the 
author: The Achehmse, Batavia-Leiden 1906; 
Ambtelijke advieien I, The Hague 1957, 47-438), 



and later described at length the land and customs 
of the Gayos (Het Gajoland en zijne bewoners, 
Batavia 1903). A wealth of ethnographical details 
was collected by J. Kreemer and published in his 
work Atjeh, 2 vols., Leiden i922-'23, which also 
includes the Alas region. 

Population and Language. Little is known 
about the origin of the people of Atjeh. Linguistically 
they belong to the Malay-Polynesian peoples. Slaves 
(from the island of Nias, etc.) and other foreigners 
(e.g. merchants from Hindustan) have influenced to 
some extent the composition of the population. 
Atjeh has many dialects, and each dialect again 
many variants ; the literary language has in general 
closest affinity with the idiom of the Baroh-district. 
For the literature of Atjeh see Snouck Hurgronje, 
The Achehnese, ii, 66-189. Gayo is an independent 
language, whilst Alas is a Northern-Batak dialect. 
In the 19th century Malay was almost unknown in 
Atjeh except among a portion of the inhabitants of 
the sea-ports, but formerly it was the language of the 
court and from earliest times in Atjeh letters, 
official documents and many works on theology 
were written in Malay. The earliest Achehnese 
adaptations of Arabic and Malay works date from 
the 17th century. Now Indonesian is the official 
language. For further details see C. Snouck Hurgronje, 
Studien over Atjihsche klanken schriftleer, in TBG, 
xxxv (1892), 346-442, also Atjihsche Taalstudien, 
ibid., xlii (1900), 144-262; K. F. H. van Langen, 
Handleiding voor de beoefening der Atjihsche Taal, 
The Hague, 1889; H. Djajadiningrat, Atjihsch-Neder- 
Umdsch Woordenboek, Batavia 1933-1934; P. Voor- 
hoeve, Three old Achehnese MSS., in BSOS 14 (1952), 
335-345; G. A. J. Hazeu, Gajosch-Nederlandsch 
Woordenboek met Nederl.-Gajosch register, Batavia 
1907. 

Tribes and Families. There are still preserved 
traces of a division of the population of Atjeh into 
4 tribes. The members of such a tribe or family — 
Achehnese: kawom (from the Arabic kawm, 
people) — regard themselves as blood-relations in the 
male line, and have (especially in regard to blood- 
feud and the payment of blood-money) common 
rights- and obligations. The members however of the 
various kawoms are scattered throughout the 
country; only where many kinsmen dwell together 
are they wont to choose a chief to represent their 
common interests. The Gayos are divided into 
families who dwell together under their chiefs 
(Rodjos). When Rddjds disagree decision rests with 
the KSdjurun. 

Administration of the Villages. In Atjeh 
the Keutjhi' (i.e. the elder) is the head of the 
Gampong — i.e. the village, also a quarter of a town 
(Mai. kampung) ; in case of necessity he consults the 
"eldest" (i.e. the people who have had experience 
of life). The religious affairs of the Gampong, e.g. 
leading the community in the Salat, are the concern 
of the Teungku meunasah. The title teungku is borne 
in Atjeh both by people whose functions are con- 
nected with religion, and by those who have acquired 
some acquaintance with the sacred law. The 
Gampong-Teungkus or Teungku meunasah are not 
men of learning. Their rank has become hereditary, 
and in Snouck Hurgronje's time the ignorance of 
many Teungkus was so great that they were scarcely 
able to administer their office without the help of 
other people. 

The Princes, Uleebalangs and Sagi-chiefs. 
In historical times Atjeh has always been divided 
into many small districts, whose hereditary chiefs — 



the so-called Uleebalangs (i.e. commanders-in-chief) 
— lived in constant feud with each other. They paid 
homage however to the prince of the port of Atjeh 
as their common over-lord. The latter had the title 
of Sultan in official (Malay) documents, but was 
usually called by the Achehnese Radja or Pdteu (i.e. 
"our master"). Whilst the Sultans and their male 
relatives bore the title tuanku, the male members 
of the Uleebalangs families bore the title teuku. 

The power and dignity of the Achehnese princes 
and the riches and splendour of their court, which 
are mentioned both in the earliest Malay and 
European accounts, depended on the tribute of 
the neighbouring regions on the coasts and the 
harbour-dues of the capital Atjeh. The bold 
Achehnese mariners were master of sea and harbours; 
if they demanded tribute few dared resist. The 
interior of the country possessed little interest for the 
prinees. Even when the empire was flourishing 
(2nd half of the 16th cent, and particularly during 
the 1st half of the 17th) the authority of the Sultan 
was confined to the immediate vicinity of the capital. 

By the end of the 17th cent, the princes had 
become quite dependent on the Uleebalangs in 
Great-Atjeh. The latter had at that time apparently 
on the ground of common interests formed them- 
selves into three federations, the so-called Sagis, 
"sides", i.e. of the triangular-shaped Great-Atjfch. 
Each Sagi had an overlord (Panglima-Sagi), wfiose 
authority however did not extend beyond the 
common Sagi-interests. (In the Dependencies also 
such federations are found). The Sulian chosen by 
the three Sagi-chiefs used to pay to them a certain 
sum. He usually belonged to the family of the 
previous ruler, but strangers, e.g. Sayyids, who 
dwelt in Atjeh, were sometimes elected to the 
Sultanate. In the course of time other chiefs obtained 
a voice in the choice of a ruler; according to tradition 
at one period 12 chiefs (including the 3 Sagi-chiefs) 
formed a kind of electoral college. 

The majority of the Uleebalangs in Great-Atjeh 
and the Dependencies later received their authority 
from the Sultan's hand and in witness thereof were 
given a document bearing the ruler's seal (a so-called 
Sarakata; on the Hindustani origin of this seal see 
G. P. Rouffaer, in BTLV, Series 7, v, 349-384; cf. 
C. Snouck Hurgronje, ibid., Series 7, vi, 52-55). N[ot 
all the UleSbalangs thought it worth while ' to 
go to the expense involved in the acquisition of a 
sarakata or deed of recognition; more important 
than the "tjab sikureulng" (the nine-fold seal of 
the sultan) was the "tjab timing" (the five-fold 
seal, i.e. signifying the hand as a symbol of power, 
meaning the ability to protect one's own interests). 
The Kgdjuruns of the Gayo and Alas peoples on 
the other hand usually received a kind of dagger as 
symbol of their rank. 

Division into Mukims. The Friday-service 
according to the Shafi'ite doctrine is only valid if 
40 Mukims are present. A Muklm is a person 
domiciled in the place and satisfying the stipu- 
lations of the law. Since the population of most 
of the Gampongs was not numerous enough to 
be able to hold a regular Friday-service with 40 
participants, it became the custom to group to- 
gether several Gampongs and as near the centre 
as possible of such a district to construct a mosque 
for the Friday-service. Hence Muklm (here pro- 
nounced Mukim) acquired, not only in Atjeh but 
also in some other Malay regions, the meaning: 
department, circle. Each Uleebalang was lord over 
several of these Mukims. Further the names of 



EH 741 

the 3 Sagis have been derived from the original 
number of their Mukims; i.e. they are called: 
the Sagi "of the 22 Mukims" (in the south), the 
Sagi "of the 25 Mukims" (in the west) and the 
Sagi "of the 26 Mukims" (in the east of the 
triangular-shaped Great-Atjeh). These ancient names 
were preserved even after the number of the Mukims 
in the Sagi of the 25 Mukims and especially in that 
of the 22 Mukims had mounted up owing to the 
increase in the population. 

The chiefs of the Mukims bore the title of Imeum. 
This word denoted originally the leader of the 
Friday-service (Arab. Imam). The Imeums became 
however gradually hereditary, secular chiefs, who 
transferred the leadership of the Friday communal 
prayer to special officials. 

Administration of Justice. Laws. As a 
general rule the chiefs themselves were wont to 
fulfil the functions of judges; they based then- 
decisions on the unwritten law of custom ( c Adat). 
There are indeed some statutes (Sarakata), which 
tradition credits Meukuta c Alam and other famous 
rulers with having issued, and the Achehnese, 
who know these laws only by name, ordinarily 
assume that they contain an exact statement of 
their law; they really consist however only of 
brief regulations regarding matters of administration, 
court-ceremonial (including the homage to be ren- 
dered to the ruler by the uleebalangs), the division 
of the harbour-dues and the fulfilment of several 
religious obligations. These regulations date from 
the time when the princes attempted, without 
permanent result however, to centralise their im- 
perial administration; Muslim scholars at the court 
also left their impress on these laws (for fuller 
information see C. Snouck Hurgronje, The Achehnese, 
i, 4-16; K. F. H. van Langen, De inrichting van het 
Atjehsche staatsbestuur onder het suUanaat in BTLV, 
Series 5, iii, 381-471; Translations from the Majeltis 
Ache [by T. Braddell] in Journal of the Indian 
Archipelago, V (1851), 26-32; an edition of the 
Malay text by G. W. J. Drewes and P. Voorhoeve is 
in the press). Further both the Sultan and the 
Panglimas had their Kali (= Kadi), but these 
ecclesiastical judges only took a share in the ad- 
ministration of justice on certain special occasions 
(e.g. in the division of an inheritance, in some 
forms of divorce, in contracting marriages, and in 
other cafes where the religious law was usually 
followed; on other occasions only if the chiefs 
expressly took them into council). The judge of 
the sultan bore the title Kali Malikon Adi = 
Kadi Maliku 'l-'Adil; his hereditary office dege- 
nerated in course of time; he became the peculiar 
chief of several Gampongs within the sultan's realms. 
Also the rank of the other Kalis became hereditary, 
and if those people who were Kali in virtue of 
their hereditary right possessed the knowledge 
requisite for' this office it was by a rare chance. 

Religion. From earliest times there existed 
trade relations between Atjeh and Hindustan. The 
civilisation and language of Atjeh were at first 
subject to Hindu influence; later Islam reached 
the shores of Atjeh, probably conveyed thither 
by Hindustani merchants. When Ibn Battuta visited 
Pase in 1345 Islam held the field; the ruler of 
the country warred against his unbelieving neigh- 
bours. The Achehnese are orthodox Muslims, but 
Islam as it exists in Atjeh and elsewhere in 
Indonesia has some peculiar features which are 
to be explained by its Indian origin. Such are, 
the existence of a heterodox 



mysticism and some characteristics distinctively 
Shi'ite. The first month, e.g., is in Atjeh always 
called Asan Usin, obviously from the two 
martyrs Hasan and Husayn who are held in special 
honour in Shi'ite countries. The representation on 
a captive standard of 'All's sword Dhu '1-Fakar with 
a Shi'ite marginal inscription has formerly led some 
scholars to the false opinion that the Achehnese 
were partly Shi'ite (cf. A. W. T. Juynboll, Een 
Atjineesche vlag met Arabische opschriften in Tijd- 
schrift voor Ned.-Indii, 1873, ii, 325-340; 1875. ', 
471-476; M. J. de Goeje, Atjeh in De Nederl. Spectator, 
1873, 388). The Achehnese in general were lax in 
the fulfilment of many religious duties. The Soldi 
for instance was usually neglected by the majority. 
On the other hand many Achehnese are wont 
annually to join in the IfadiM- Further the Kitdb-s 
(Malay, Arabic and Achehnese) were studied in 
various places under the guidance of masters learned 
in the law (cf. C. Snouck Hurgronje, Eene verzameling 
Arab. Mai. en Atjehsche handschriften en gedrukte 
boeken in NotuUn van het Batav. Genootschap van 
Kunsten en Wetensch., xxxix (1901), n°. vii; also The 
Achehnese, ii, 1-32). The students who mostly came 
from remote districts lived in a common residence 
(rangkang). Whilst yet the Empire flourished the 
splendour of the court not rarely induced foreign 
scholars from India, Syria and Egypt (including a 
son of the! celebrated Ibn Hadjar al-Haytami) to 
settle in Atjeh. 

Many Achehnese pilgrims became members in 
Mecca of one of the orthodox mystic brotherhoods 
(especially the Kadiriyya or Nakshbandiyya) but 
these Tarika-s did not have in Atjeh the same 
importance as in many other parts of Indonesia. 
Formerly there were prevalent in Atjeh the forms of 
pantheistic mysticism which at that period were 
generally spread throughout Hindustan. The most 
famous representatives of this heterodox tendency 
in Atjeh were Shams al-Dln al-Samatral (i.e. of Pase; 
d. 1630) [q.v.] and his predecessor Hamza Fansuri 
[q.v.]. Its chief opponents were RanW [q.v.] and 
c Abd al-Ra'uf al-Sinkill [q.v.]. Certain forms 
of the ancient heterodox mysticism have been 
preserved till recent times, but such differences 
from the orthodox teaching, which are based on 
ignorance, are gradually disappearing before the 
increasing communication with the centre of Islam. 
(Fuller information in Snouck Hurgronje, The 
Achehnese, ii, 13 f.). Veneration of saints has still an 
important place in the popular faith of the Achehnese. 
The pilgrim visits the tombs of illustrious saints and 
seeks by gifts and vows to secure their favour and 
intercession. Some of the most celebrated Achehnese 
saints were foreigners, as e.g. the Arab Teungku 
Andjonp, who died in 1782, ar.d the Turkish or 
Syrian "saint of Gainpong Bitay", who according 
to tradition came to Atjeh in the 16th cent. 

At the summit of religious 'life stood the ulama 
(Arab, 'ulama', used as a singular in Achehnese) 
the supreme authorities in the field of religious law 
and doctrine, who were- held in great respect by 
the people. They ranked much higher than the 
alim, who however learned was not considered 
as a real authority, any more than was the ess 
scholarly malim or the leube, as anyone would 
be described who — even though he was quite 
unlearned — carried out his religious duties more 
or less faithfully. The ulamas were much more 
respected too than the village religious functionary, 
the teungku meunasah. In the same way that the 
uliibalangs were the exponents of the adat, so were 



the ulamas the champions of the hukom, although 
the uleebalangs, in accordance with the huknm, were 
at the same time the religious head of their own 
territory. The essential co-operation of hukom and 
adat, described by Snouck Hurgronje as the basis 
of Achehnese society, must — as this author 
observed — be seen in this light: 

'the adat assumes the part of mistress, and the 
hukom that of her obedient slave. The hukom, 
however, revenges herself for her subordination 
whenever she sees the chance; her representatives 
are always on the look-out for an opportunity to 
escape from this servile position.' {The Achehnese, 
i, 153). 

History. The province of Atjeh was the first part 
of Indonesia where Muslim kingdoms were founded. 
The first mention of such a kingdom is by Marco 
Polo; when he visited Atjeh's north coast in 1292, 
there was a Muslim king in Ferlec, i.e., Perlak (Ach. 
Peureula'), whilst two other countries, Basma or 
Basman and Samara, were still heathen. These last 
names cannot be identified with Pase and Samudra, 
as the first Muslim king of Samudra-Pase, al-Malik 
al-Salih, died in 1297, so that it seems unlikely that 
in 1292 the people of Samudra were still 'wild 
idolaters' and 'brutes of man-eaters' (H. K. J. 
Cowan in Djawa 19 (1939), 121 ff). For some 
centuries the port of Samudra, afterwards called 
Pasai (Ach. Pase), remained an important centre for 
the diffusion of Islam in the Indian Archipelago. 
Its dynastic history may one day be reconstructed 
from the inscriptions on tomb-stones and coins, 
Malay chronicles (Sldiarah Melayu and Hikayat 
Radia-radia Pasai, ed. from the unique MS. R. A. S. 
Raffles Mai. 67 by E. Dulaurier, Chroniques Malayes, 
1849; romanised ed. J. P. Mead, in J SB R AS 66 
(1914)), Chinese, Arabic (Ibn Battuta, see above) 
and European sources; until now, much material 
has been collected but a publication of the inscript- 
ions is still lacking. (Reports on the work of the 
Archaeological Survey in: Oudheidkundig verslag, 
1912 ff.; cf. Encyclopaedic v. Ned. Indil, I, 1917, 
s.v. Blang Me). Many of the tomb-stones were 
imported from Cambay in Gudjarat (J. P. Moquette 
in TBG 54 (1912). 536-548); one tomb, dated 781 
A.H., has inscriptions in Arabic and in Old-Malay 
(W. Stutterheim, AO 14 (1936), 268-279; cf. G. E. 
Marrisson, JMBRAS 24 (1950), pt. i, 162-165); 
another stone, dated 823 A.H., on the grave of an 
Indian immigrant, is inscribed with a Persian ghatal 
by Sa'dl (H. K. J. Cowan, TBG 80 (1940), 15-21). 
The kingdom lasted until the 16th century. It was still 
independent when Tome Pires collected information 
for his Suma Oriental in Malacca, I5i2-'i5 (ed. A. 
Cortesao, Hakluyt Soc. 2nd Ser. 89, 90 (1944)), and its 
trade profited greatly by the decline of Malacca after 
its capture by the Portuguese. This prosperity was 
not to last long. Though Pase's traditional enemy 
Pedir (Ach. Pidie) was at that moment in decay 
owing to the death of its king Madaforxa (Muzaffar 
Shah ?) and its being at war (apparently with 
Atjeh), the rising power was not Pase but Atjeh. 
Pires describes its ruler as a pirate-king, 'a 
knightly man among his neighbours'. He had 
already subdued the adjoining country of Lambry 
(Lamuri, Lambri) and the land of Blar, between 
Atjeh and Pedir (Ach. Biheug). This prob- 
ably refers to Sultan 'All Mughayat Shah, the 
first sultan in Djajadiningrat's list, whose date of 
accession is uncertain. Tomb-stones of some of his 
predecessors have been found after H. Djajadiningrat 
compiled his list from Malay chronicles and European 



sources (BTLV 65 (1910), 135-265), but the exact 
relations between these predecessors are still un- 
explained, and Sultan 'AH Mughayat Shah, by 
conquering Daya to the west and Pidi§ and Pase to 
the east, became the real founder of the empire of 
Atjeh. Leaving aside, for the time being, the data 
on the earlier sultans, we reproduce Djajadiningrat's 
list of the princes of Atjeh with only a few modifi- 
cations in the dates: 

I. C AU Mughayat Shah (?-i53<>). 
II. Salah al-Din (i530-± 1537)- 

III. 'Ala 1 al-DIn Ri'ayat §hah al-Kahhar 
(± I537-I57I). 

IV. C A1I Ri'ayat Shah or Husayn (1571- 
± 1579)- 

V. Sultan Muda (a child, reigned only some 
months in 1579). 
VI. Sultan Sri c Alam (1579)- 
VII. Zayn al-'Abidln (1579)- 
VIII. 'Ala 1 al-DIn of Perak or Mansur Shah 
d579-± 1586). 
IX. 'All Ri'ayat Shah or Radja Buyung 

(± 1586-i 1588). 
X. 'Ala 1 al-DIn Ri'ayat Shah (± 1588-1604). 
XI. 'All Ri'ayat Sh3h or Sultan Muda (1604- 

1607). 
XII. Iskandar Muda (posthumous name: mar- 
hum Makota 'Alam) (1607-1636). 

XIII. Iskandar Than! 'Ala 1 al-DIn Mughayat 
Shah (1636-1641). 

XIV. TSdj al-'Alam Safiyyat al-Din Shah (1641- 
1675). 

XV. Nur al-'Alam Nakiyyat al-Din Shah (1675- 

1678). 
XVI. 'Inayat Shah Zakiyyat al-Din Shah (1678- 

1688). 
XVII. Kamalat Shah (1688-1699). 
XVIII. Badr al-'Alam Sharif Hashim Djamal al- 
DIn (1699-1702). 
XIX. Perkasa 'Alam Sharif Lamtuy b. Sharif 

Ibrahim (1702-1703). 
XX. Djamal al-'Alam Badr al-Munlr (1703- 
1726). 
XXI. Djawhar al-'Alam Ama 1 al-DIn Shah 

(reigned only a few days). 
XXII. Shams al-'Alam or Wandi Tebing (reigned 
only a few days). 

XXIII. 'Ala 1 al-DIn Ahmad §hah or Maharadja 
Lela Mglayu (i727-i735)- 

XXIV. 'Ala 1 al-Din Djohan Shah or P6tjut Auk 
(i735-i76o). 

XXV. Mahmiid Shah or Tuanku Radja (1760- 
1781). 
[XXVI. Badr al-DIn (1764-1765)]. 
[XXVII. Sulayman Shah or Radja Udahna Lela 

(1773)]. 
XXVIII. 'Ala 1 al-DIn Muhammad Shah or Tuanku 
Muhammad (1781-1795). 
XXIX. 'Ala 1 al-DIn Djawhar al-'Alam Shah 

(1795-1824). 
[XXX. Sharif Sayf al-'Alam (1815-1820)]. 
XXXI. Muhammad Shah (1824-1836). 
XXXII. Mansur Shah (1836-1870). 

XXXIII. Mahmud Shah (1870-1874). 

XXXIV. Muhammad Dawud Shah (1874-1903). 

'All Mughayat Shah's two sons Salah al-DIn and 
more especially 'Ala 1 al-Din Ri'ayat Shah al-Kahhar 
increased the importance of the new kingdom. 
From Turkish archive documents we learn that 
the latter sent an embassy to Constantinople in 
973/1563 asking for help against the Portuguese and 



EH 745 

saying that several of the heathen rulers of South 
East Asia had promised to embrace Islam if the 
Ottomans would save them. The arrival of the 
embassy coincided with the Szigetvar campagn and 
the death of Sulayman. The embassy therefore 
waited two years in Constantinople and then a 
naval expedition was prepared under the command 
of the Admiral of Suez, Kurdoghlu Khizir Reis, 
consisting of 19 galleys and some other ships with 
guns, supplies, etc. This expedition was however 
diverted to deal with an insurrection in the Yemen 
and instead two ships with supplies and military 
technicians were sent to Atjeh. It would seem that 
they entered the service of the Sultan of Atjeh and 
stayed there. (See Saffet, TOEM, 10, 604-614; 11, 
678-083; I. H. UzuncarsIU, OsmatUi Tariki, ii, 1949, 
388-389, and iii/i, 1951, 31-33)- In the first half 
of the seventeenth century Atjeh reached its 
greatest prosperity, attaining its zenith during 
the reign of Iskandar Muda, honoured after his 
death by the title of Meukuta 'Alam, i.e., Crown 
of the World (supra n°. XII). The dominion of the 
Achehnese was extended far to the south during his 
reign. Iskandar's expedition with a great fleet 
against Pahang and Malacca forms the subject of 
an inportant Achehnese epic the Hikayat MaUm 
Dagang (ed. H. K. J. Cowan, The Hague, 1937). 
In 1638, during the reign of his successor (Iskandar 
Than!, supra n°. XIII) a Portuguese embassy came 
to Atjeh and tried in vain to win over the Sultan 
to their side in the war against the Dutch (see: 
Agostino di S. Teresa, Breve racconto del viaggio . . . 
al regno di Achien, Roma 1652; Ch. Breard, Histoire 
de Pierre Berthelot, Paris 1889). Four princesses 
ruled over Atjeh in the second half of the seven- 
teenth century (1641-1699). This period of femin- 
ine rule was naturally much to the advantage 
of the Uleebalangs whose power and authority 
were thereby increased; but on the other hand 
many disapproved of this state of affairs and 
declared on the authority of a fatwd received 
from Mecca that it was forbidden by law for a 
woman to rule. Thereupon at the beginning of the 
eighteenth century arose a series of dynastic 
wars. Some of the princes who contended for 
the throne were Sayyids (i.e. descendants of 
Husayn) born in Atjeh. The best known among 
these was Djamal (supra n°. XX). After he was 
deposed in 1726, he held out for a considerable 
time against the later Sultans, amongst others 
against Ahmad (supra n°. XXIII, a man of Bu- 
gis descent, ancestor of the last dynasty of 
Achehnese princes) and his son Djohan Shah (supra 
n°. XXIV). The contest between Djamal and Djohan 
Shah and the death of the former are the subjects of 
another great Achehnese epic, the Hikayat Pitjut 
Muhamat (still unpublished; cf. Snouck Hurgronje, 
The Achehnese, ii, 88-100). Even after the authority 
and wealth of the court had gradually become 
insignificant, there survived, indeed till quite recent 
times a great reverence among the Achehnese for 
their rulers whom they honoured as the represen- 
tatives of a glorious past. 

(Th. W. JUYNBOLL-fP. VoORHOEVE]) 

The Atjeh War. In the 19th century the 
piracy and slave trade of the Achehnese and their 
raids on neighbouring territories constituted a 
constant danger. The Dutch government were at 
first not in a position to put a stop to this evil as 
they had pledged themselves to England in 1824 
not to extend their dominion in Sumatra to the 
north, but this obligation was removed by a new 



744 AT. 

treaty with England in 1871. The landing of Dutch 
troops in 1873 was the beginning of a war (the Atjeh 
War), which lasted — with several pauses — from 1873 
until 1910, in which year the pacification was con- 
sidered complete. 

Broadly speaking the three components inspiring 
this unexpected opposition were the ulamas, the 
uliebalangs, and the sultanate. Of these three the 
ulamas were the strongest, and the sultanate the 
weakest component. This last fact is understandable, 
since — as we have seen above — the influence of 
the sultan was very limited. With the capture of 
Kutaradja, the sultan's stronghold, the Dutch con- 
sidered the sultan's government as at an end, and 
the Dutch administration took over his position and 
rights. Meanwhile, after the death of Sultan Mahmud 
Shah, the six-year old Muhammad Dawud, grandson 
of Sultan Mansur Shah (supra No. XXXIII), was 
elected sultan. The "pretender-sultan" Muljammad 
Dawud, who had taken refuge with his court at 
Keumala in Pidie, hunted by Dutch troops from 
hiding place to hiding place, finally made his sub- 
mission in 1903. In 1917, because of underground 
activities, he was banished from Atjeh. The ulU- 
bakings, the secular authorities or "lords of the 
country" {The Ackehnese, i, 88), so far as they 
were not willing to accept Dutch authority, had to be 
subdued one by one. One of the most influential of 
them was Teuku Panglima P61em Muhammad Dawud, 
the chief of the sagi of the XXII Mukims. Now that 
the sultan's government had lapsed the Dutch recog- 
nised the uliebalangs — with the exception of those 
in Great-Atjeh, which was regarded as the personal 
domain of the sultan — each as independent rulers 
in their own right, whose relationship with the 
Dutch government must be determined by treaty. 
On the advice of Snouck Hurgronje the form of 
treaty selected from 1898 onwards was the so-called 
korte verklaring [short contract]. In this the rulers 
recognised that their territories formed part of 
Netherlands India, and undertook not to have any 
kind of political contacts with foreign powers, to 
follow and maintain all the regulations, and to 
obey all the orders given them by the Civil and 
Military Governor of Atjeh. The ulamas, the spiritual 
leaders of the people, were the real inspirers of the 
struggle. Here we can mention only one well-known 
family, the Tird-teungkus, of whom Tjheh Saman 
(d. 1890) was the best known. They were named 
after the gampong Tir6 in Pidie, an important 
centre of Islamic scholarship. The ulamas went 
throughout the land preaching the holy war; their 
war-chest was the zakdt-tax levied on the people. 
The native chieftains were ignominiously thrust into 
the background. The long duration of the war and 
the fanaticism with which it was fought are explained 
by the character of a holy war which it assumed. 
From this period comes the Hikayat Prang Sabi 
(ed. H. T. Damste, BTLV, 84, 1928, pp. 545 «). 
in which the faithful were called to a holy war. 
After the submission of the "pretender-sultan" 
the ulamas and some ulilbalangs conducted a guer- 
rilla warfare, though Panglima Polem also submitted a 
few months after the sultan. In 191 1 Teungku Ma'at, 
the last survivor of the Tird-teungkus, was killed. 

It was a long time before the Dutch government 
came to comprehend the full significance of these 
three fundamental components in the Atjeh War, and 
to adapt their policies and tactics accordingly. The 
investigations of Snouck Hurgonje were the first 1 
provide the political insight upon which the military 
campaigns of Governors J. B. van Heutsz (1898- 



1904), G. C. E. van Daalen (1905-1908), and H. N. A. 
Swart (1908-1918), could be based (cf. K. van der 
Maaten, Snouck Hurgronje en de Atjih-Oorlog, 2 vols., 
Oostersch Instituut, Leiden 1948, and the literature 
listed therein). Governor Swart was the last governor 
to be charged both with the civil government and 
the military command in Atjeh. 

The Dutch administration. Since the 
sultanate was swept away by the Atjeh War, the 
highest authority was considered to have passed 
to the "regents" of the sultan, the uliebalangs. 
This administrative institution which drew its 
sanction from c ddat (local customary law) was 
fitted into the Dutch administrative system in 
the following way. The uliebalangs' territories were 
recognised as "native states" (zelfbesturende land- 
schappen), and their relationship with the Dutch 
government was regulated by the korte verklaring. 
Exceptions to this were the district of Great-Atjeh, 
and the sub-district of Singkel, both of which were 
classed as "directly ruled territories" (rechtstreeks 
bestuurd gebied). Great-Atjeh, the territory of the 
three sagis, was included in this category because 
after the conquest it had wrongly been assumed 
that here, in contrast to the rest of Atjeh, the 
chiefs were dependent officials of the sultan. The 
border territory of Singkel was included on historical 
grounds. A section of this district had been brought 
under Dutch rule earlier, forming part of the resi- 
dency of Tapanuli, and therefore in determining 
the form of administration the system in force 
elsewhere in that residency was followed. But here 
too the existing administrative frame-work based on 
l adat law was maintained, so that the panglimas. 
sagi, the uliebalangs, and so on, as 'native chiefs' 
were made government officials. 

The l ddat system which was thus embodied in the 
administration presented a picture of infinite 
diversity. It embraced about 100 uliebalangs acting 
as independent rulers, and about 50 panglimas sagi, 
uliebalangs and local chiefs with various other titles 
in the directly ruled territories. The size of each 
territorial unit varied from a village to the equivalent 
of a Dutch province, the populations from a few 
hundreds to more than 50,000, and the educational 
background of the rulers from a simple primary 
school course to training at the Civil service college 
(Bestuursschool) in Batavia. 

Over this Indonesian administrative framework 
extended the Dutch administration ; its task was the 
creation and enforcement, through these institutions, 
of peace, order and the rule of law, and the economic 
and cultural development of the land. The Govern- 
ment (later Residency) of Atjeh and Dependencies, 
administered by a Governor (later a Resident), was. 
for these purposes divided eventually into four 
districts, each administered by an Assistant Resident. 
These were the district of Great-Atjeh, and the 
districts of the North Coast, the East Coast, and the 
West Coast. They in their turn were subdivided into 
a total of 21 sub-districts, each administered by a 
Controleur (District Officer). 

The policy of government was consistently 
directed towards promoting a larger measure of 
personal initiative on the part of the chiefs, and 
bringing the Indonesian administration into line 
with Western standards. So the old type of chief, 
ruling like a patriarchal despot, gradually made way 
for more progressive younger men. 

Thus under the Dutch regime the administration 
remained wholly in the hands of the hereditary 
uligbalang caste, a caste consolidated on the one hand 



by intermarriage between families already related 
to each other in a variety of ways, and divided 
on the other hand through the operation of historical 
feuds. The hegemony of this caste, moreover, was 
not confined to the sphere of government. In accor- 
dance with the c ddat the administration of justice 
was also in the hands of the uligbalangs, whilst in 
accordance with the frukom they were the religious 
leaders of their own territory. In addition they had 
often important trading and other economic in- 
terests, and usually disposed of extensive estates, 
particularly in Pidie, where a medieval system of 
feudal holding still prevailed. Finally — their sons 
being considered first for all forms of education and 
training — they had in a certain sense also an in- 
tellectual monopoly. 

When the Japanese War broke out there were 
three ul&ebalangs of outstanding importance. Teuku 
Nja> Arif, the chief of the sagi of the XXVI Mukims, 
had represented Atjeh in the Volksraad until 1931. 
Teuku Muhammad Hasan, ruler of Glumpang 
Payong (PidiS), had previously been employed in 
the Residency offices at Kutaradja, where he 
exercised a great influence on political policy. 
Teuku Hadji Tjhi 3 Muhammad DjShan Alamsjah 
was the ruler of Peusangan (Bireuen). 

Whilst the uliebalang group thus linked itself 
increasingly closely with the Dutch regime, amongst 
the ulatna group, taken as a whole, the anti-Dutch 
tradition was maintained. The predominant position 
which the ulamas had attained during the Atjeh 
War was lost again with the return of peace, and 
the traditional superiority of the uleibalangs was 
restored. So there developed gradually between 
these two groups, which had co-operated during the 
war, an antipathy — a recurring theme in the history 
of Atjeh — as the result of which the ulamas regarded 
the uliebalangs as traitors. 

Religious life itself was left to develop freely, in 
keeping with the tradition of the Dutch regime. 
At first Tuanku Radja Keumala (whose father was 
a great-grandson of Sultan Muhammad Shah, supra 
XXXI), acted as adviser on religious affairs. But 
after his death this office was not refilled, whilst the 
advisory council on religious affairs established in 
1919 under the title "road ulama" ["Council of 
'Ulama 3 "], of which this learned descendant of the 
sultan formed the central figure, was discontinued. 
For this reason the Dutch authorities were sub- 
sequently dependent for their information about 
developments in the religious sphere upon the 
uUibalangs, who were considered legally the religious 
leaders of their own territories. Ultimately, just 
before the Japanese invasion, another descendant 
of a former sultan, Tuanku c Abd al-'AzIz, Imeum of 
the great mosque at Kutaradja, was made unofficial 
religious adviser. He was not an ulama in the sense 
which was attached to that word in Atjeh, and 
although known as alim (see above) he did not enjoy 
anything like the prestige of his eminent predecessor. 

Religious instruction retained an important place 
next to secular education. Besides elementary 
religious education Atjeh possessed a large number of 
so-called religious secondary schools in which 
geography, history, economics, etc., were also taught. 
Many uliibalangs, made a point of having one or more 
religious schools in their territory, which through 
the fame of the ulamas trained in Egypt, Minang- 
kabau, or in Atjeh itself who taught in them, would 
enhance their own reputations. That these ulamas 
were often more or less openly anti-Western in 
outlook they accepted as part of the bargain. 



As for the third component in the struggle against- 
the Dutch — the Sultan's party — its r61e was played 
out. The "pretender-Sultan" died in exile in 1939 in 
Batavia. His son was allowed to return to Atjeh. The; 
other descendants of the sultanate remaining in 
Atjeh wielded little influence. An exception was 
Tuanku Mahmud, an important political figure, who- 
had been trained at the Civil service college in 
Batavia. He held a government post in Celebes for 
some years before returning to Atjeh as senior native 
official in the service of the resident there. In 1931 
he succeeded Teuku Nja 5 Arif as a member of the 
Volksraad, and after the death of the "pretender- 
Sultan" became undisputed head of the sultan- 
family. A campaign started in 1939 by some: 
Achehnese merchants for the restoration of the 
sultanate met with little response; there was practi- 
cally no support for it from the uliebalangs, who saw- 
in it a threat to their own position. 

The political situation itself developed favourably „ 
The last resistance incident took place in 1933, and 
the military garrison was gradually reduced. The 
fca/»>-hate and the idea of a holy war — negative- 
expressions of the religious consciousness — gave way 
to a positive local Achehnese patriotism, which 
expressed itself in the normal impulse to be master in 
one's own house, or more specifically to get an. 
increased number of posts in the administration 
occupied by one's fellow countrymen. 

Modern nationalist ideas had as yet hardly any- 
hold on the Achehnese people. The same was true 
of the Muhammadiyya movement, which originated, 
in Java. Though it fixed as its target the advancement 
of religious life, and had its connexions over the: 
whole of Indonesia, it struck no responsive note in 
Achehnese religious life. It remained — despite its. 
Achehnese leadership — a distinctly non-Achehnese= 
movement, which attracted mainly non-Achehnese 
elements, or locally the militant part of Achehnese 
society, which in the absence of a purely political 
movement sought in it satisfaction for their political, 
and social aspirations. The religious ideas of this, 
young Islamic modernist movement were quite alien 
to the more conservatively orientated religious life 
of the Achehnese. 

As a counter-weight to the modernist ideas of the 
Muhammadiyya, the PUSA or Persatuan Ulama- 
ulama Seluruh Atjeh was founded at Bireuen in 1939, 
under the influential patronage of the ruler of 
Peusangan. Under the direction of Atjeh's most 
prominent ulamas it was to be the vehicle of that 
typically Achehnese strictly orthodox religious life. 
Its membership was not necessarily limited to- 
ulamas. Anyone else who could identify himself 
with its aims could join it, and its most prominent 
leader was Teungku Muhammad Dawud Beureu'eh 
from Keumangan (Pidie). The movement seemed 
to fulfil an important need. Through it both con- 
servative and progressive ulamas were brought 
together, and branches were set up throughout 
Atjeh. To have assumed a political, let alone an anti- 
Dutch, character, would have been inconsistent with 
the aims of the movement. Its attitude towards the 
government and the uliebalangs was completely- 
correct, and many uleibalangs accepted the position 
of adviser to their own local branch. The position of 
patron was offered to Tuanku Mahmud. A youth 
movement was founded under the name Pemuda 
Pusa, with its headquarters at Idi. The more 
advanced and militant elements, reacting against 
the pressure of the adat authorities, sought within 
refuge, and a means of expressing 



7*6 Al 

their own ideas. As a result the youth movement 
quite quickly began to take on. a more militant 
and subversive character. So the Pusa itself gradually 
■developed into a new and potent weapon in the 
.hands of the ulamas in their struggle against the 
Dutch regime and the uliibalangs. 

We have already dealt briefly with economic 
developments in this period, and with education 
in its religious aspect. Secular education expanded 
-steadily. At the time of the Japanese invasion Atjeh 
had one higher grade school, thirteen schools giving 
Western elementary education, 348 elementary 
vernacular schools, 45 vervolgsckolen or advanced 
-vernacular schools and one trade and handicraft 
centre, founded either by the Dutch government or 
the native states. There were besides a number of 
private schools giving elementary Western education, 
supported by the Muhammadiyya and Taman Siswa 



The Japanese occupation. Even before 
Japanese troops occupied Atjeh in March 1942 
rebellions against the Dutch government broke out 
in Great-Atjeh and in the North and West Coast 
-districts. These took on the character of a national 
rising, particularly in the sag* of the XXII Mukims 
and in the sub-district of Tjalang, on the West 
-coast. After the Japanese troops had landed the 
rebellion spread quickly. As during the Atjeh War 
the most important component of the rising was 
formed by the ulamas. It was led by Teungku 
Muhammad Dawud Beuereu'eh at the head of the 
Pusa and the Pemuda Pusa, which provided a single 
organisation spread over the whole of Atjeh, 
admirably suited for the preaching of the holy war. 
The participation of the uliebalangs was at first 
limited to a number of discontented political 
elements of purely local importance. That the 
rebellion in the sagi of the XXII Mukims was able 
to assume the character of a national rising is 
explained by the support which the ulamas ex- 
perienced from the chief of the sagi, the son of the 
great resistance leader of the Atjeh War, Teuku 
Panglima P6lem Muhammad Dawud, who had died 
shortly before the outbreak of the war. In Tjalang 
the participation of Teuku Sabi of Lageuen, one of 
the only two native rulers who had earlier supported 
the movement for the restoration of the sultanate, set 
its stamp on the nature of the rising there, so that 
the third component from the Atjeh War, that of the 
sultanate, re-appears at this time too. The movement 
was stimulated from the Japanese side, for immedia- 
tely after the fall of Penang in December 1941 a fifth 
column organisation was formed from the Achehnese 
colony there, which sent its agents back to Atjeh 
as "refugees" from Japanese violence. Shortly before 
the Japanse landing Teuku Nja> Arif, the chief of 
the sagi of the XXVI Mukims, joined the rebellion, 
whilst later Teuku Muhammad Hasan of Glumpang 
Payong also declared that he had already been in 
contact with the Japanese before their attack. 

From the beginning the Japanese stood in a 
different relationship vis a vis the uliebalangs and 
the ulamas than had the Dutch. From the outset 
they received support from the ulamas more perhaps 
than from any one else. An attempt by the Pusa 
to take over power locally from the uliibalangs, 
however, was not sanctioned by the Japanese, 
since they could not allow the existing social order 
to be dislocated by the sweeping aside of the govern- 
ment machinery based on the l adal. It would have 
undermined their own military strength. Instead 
Japanese policy was aimed at linking both of these 



political forces, that of '■idol and that of kukom, in 
order to obtain the co-operation of the people as a 
whole in their war effort. The Japanese tried there- 
fore just like the Dutch to keep a balance between 
both groups. The fact that the uliibalangs too had 
taken an important share in the rising made this 
policy acceptable. 

The rule of the uliebalangs was thus maintained. In 
the sphere of government the position of the ulti- 
balangs was even strengthened. Dutch government 
officials made way for Indonesian gun-ckos who 
were chosen, with a single exception, from leaders 
of the uliibalang families. Two uliebalangs represented 
Atjeh in the delegation from Sumatra which visited 
Japan in 1943, one — Teuku Muhammad Hasan — 
being designated as its leader. In the advisory 
Council for Atjeh created at the end of 1943, Teuku 
Nja' Arif was appointed chairman, and Teuku 
Muljammad Hasan deputy chairman. As it was 
first constituted, the majority of its members 
belonged to the uliibalang class; but this was no 
longer the case when it was re-constituted in 1945. 

Nevertheless the position of the ulamas was 
considerably strengthened, at the expense of the 
ulilbalangs. At the beginning of 1943 Tuanku 'Abdul 
,Azis was appointed adviser for religious affairs 
for the whole of Atjeh, and some months later he 
was made chairman of the newly created advisory 
council on religious affairs. Teungku Muhammad 
Dawud Beureu'eh was appointed deputy chairman 
of this council, which had branches throughout Atjeh, 
and he quickly became the leading figure in it. The 
principal object of this and similar organisations 
was to bring religion into the service of the Japanese 
war effort. In 1944 a court was established to hear 
religious cases under the name skukyo-koin, and in 
this too Teungku Muhammad Dawud Beureu'eh and 
his Pusa predominated. Eventually one of the 
members of the executive committee of Pusa was 
appointed inspector of religious education. Teungku 
Muljammad Dawud Beureu'eh and a number of 
other ulama were members both of the first and 
of the second Council for Atjeh. 

The administration of justice too was re-organised, 
and largely withdrawn from the control of the 
uliebalangs. In the magistrates courts (ku-koin) in 
particular a large number of those appointed as 
members were supporters of Pusa, leaders of the 
resistance movement, and other enemies of the 
uliebalangs. 

This policy of holding a balance between both 
groups could satisfy neither the uliebalangs, nor the 
ulamas. To be sure, the l adat was no longer the 
mistress and the kukom her obedient slave-girl. But 
the ulamas would only be satisfied with a position 
in which the kukom would be mistress and the '■adat 
the slave. So both groups conducted a remorseless 
struggle over the heads of the Japanese. 

Meanwhile the pressure on the Japanese was 
growing from day to day. The Japanese army of 
occupation was dependent on what the country 
itself could provide both for its food and for the 
labour supply needed for the construction of roads, 
airfields and fortifications. To provide this, an 
almost intolerable burden was through the agency 
of both the uliebalangs and the ulamas imposed 
on the people. Increasing discontent was the result. 
More and more uliebalangs refused to provide the 
services of their men for the use of the occupying 
forces, whilst it became ever harder for the ulamas 
too co-operate in satisfying the Japanese demands. In 
September 1943 mass arrests took place throughout 



ATjfcH - 

Atjeh and amongst those arrested were several ulii- 
balangs. In August 1944 .the ruler cf Glumpang 
Paydng, who was suspected of underground activities 
and of conspiring with the Dutch, was arrested with 
some other uliebalangs, and executed shortly after- 
wards. At the moment of these mass arrests the 
ruler of Peusangan was already for some months 
in prison. The possession of a copy of the Hikayat 
prang sabi ("Summons to the Holy War") or Us 
recitation was made an offence. In two instances 
there was open resistance. As early as 1942 there 
was an insurrection in Bayu, in the sub-district of 
Lho' Seumawe. There an ulama Teungku c Abd al- 
Pjalil who, despite his youth, was already head 
of a large religious school, is said to have preached 
the prang sabi against the Japanese. He and his 
followers were killed in the bloody conflict which 
followed. In 1945 there was another insurrection 
in Pandralh, in the sub-district of BireuSn. Here 
the heavy economic burden of compulsory deliveries 
and "voluntary" labour produced an outbreak which 
was savagely repressed. 

The Japanese invasion brought at first a revival 
of the negative element of kdfir hatred. But as 
Japanese pressure increased the positive element of 
local patriotism grew, stimulating the urge to take 
control into Achehnese hands. In the end, as the 
result of the Japanese promise of independence, this 
developed into the idea of a unity, based on religion, 
which would embrace the whole of Indonesia. 

Indonesian Independence. The Japanese 
surrender in August 1945 did not bring any resto- 
ration of the Dutch regime in Atjeh and only the 
island of Sabang was occupied by Dutch troops. The 
way was thus open for a final reckoning between 
the ulamas and the uliebalangs. In December 1945 
a civil war broke out which ended in February 1946 
with the annihilation of the power of the uliebalangs. 
A number of uliibalang families were massacred to 
the last male child. Hundreds of members of ulii- 
balang families disappeared into republican intern- 
ment camps as "enemies of the Republic", and 
their property was confiscated. Amongst them were 
the chief of the sagi of the XXVI Mukims and the 
ruler of Peusangan. 

This annihilation of the power of the uliebalangs 
cannot be viewed solely as a result of the antithesis 
between 'ddat and hukom. Social, political and 
economic factors were also involved. Religion played 
the part of the instrument of a social revolution 
against the position which the ulilbalang class held 
in society as a whole, a position which has been 
described at some length above. 

Soon after the Pusa emerged victorious from the 
civil war, its leader Teungku Muhammad Dawud 
Beureu'ih became military governor of Atjeh. His 
adherents filled those posts in the administration, 
the police and the judicature which had formerly 
been occupied by the uliebalangs. The lack of ex- 
perience, high-handedness and corruption of the new 
rulers, who in fact were supported by only a minority 
of the population, soon led to increasing unrest, and 
in 1948 there was an abortive insurrection in Kuta- 
radja. But so long as the central government of the 
Republic had not reached a settlement with the 
Dutch, its hands were full elsewhere and there was 
no question of its intervening in Atjeh. The common 
struggle for the recognition of Indonesian indepen- 
dence was in these years the only aim; Achehnese 
local patriotism and the idea of Indonesian unity 
for the moment coincided. 



After the transfer of sovereignty from Holland to 
the Republic of Indonesia at the end of 1949 the 
intervention of the central government could no 
longer be avoided. For administrative purposes 
Atjeh was included in the province of North Sumatra, 
so that Teungku Muhammad Dawud Beureu'eh lost 
his position as governor. Achehnese military units 
were gradually replaced by non-Achehnese troops, 
thus depriving the Pusa of their military support. 
In 195 1 a large number of Pusa leaders were arrested 
under cover of the general round up of Communist 
leaders, undertaken throughout Indonesia at this 
time, and inefficient Pusa adherents in official 
positions were removed from their posts. But the 
expectation of the central government that they 
could in this way gradually steer the government 
in Atjeh back into normal channels, was not realised. 
In September 1953 Teungku Muhammad Dawud 
Beureu'6h and his followers launched a rebellion 
against the central government. A bloody guerrilla 
warfare followed, which lasted until the middle of 
1957 when an informal truce was reached between 
Teungku Muhammad Dawud Beureu'^h and the 
local authorities. The year before, in October 1956, 
Atjeh was again granted the status of an autonomous 
province. (A. J. Piekaar) 

Bibliography: Besides the works already 
mentioned: Encyclopaedic van Ned.-Indil, i (1919), 
s.v. Atjeh; P. J. Veth, Atchin en zijne betrek- 
kingen tot Nederland (Leiden, 1873) ; J. A. Kruyt, 
Atjih en de Atjehers. Twee jaren blokkade op 
Sumatra's N. 0. Kust (Leiden, 1877); Mede- 
deelingen betreffende de Atjihscke onderhoorig- 
heden in BTLV, Ser. 7, ix, 138-171; J. L. J. 
Kempees, De tocht van overste van Daalen door 
de Gajo-, Alas- en Bataklanden, Amsterdam, 1904; 
C. Snouck Hurgronje, Een Mekkaansch gezantschap 
naar Atjih in 1683 in BTLV, Ser. 5, "i, 545-541 
W. Volz, Nord-Sumatra II, Die Gajoldnder, 
Berlin 1912; P. Voorhoeve, Critical survey of 
studies on tht languages of Sumatra, The Hague 
'955. 5-8; J. Hulshoff Pol, De gouden munten 
{mas) van Noord-Sumatra in Jaarboek voor munt- 
en penningkunde xvi (1929); T. J. Veltman, Nota 
over de geschiedenis van het landschap Pidit, in 
TITLV 58 (1919), 15-160; G. L. Tichelman, Een 
marmeren praalgraf te Koeta Kareueng, with useful 
bibliographical notes, in Cultured Indie 2 (1940), 
205-n (Tichelman, in his earlier articles in De 
Javabode. May 1933, mentions tombstones dated in 
the first half of the 7th/i3th century, but the source 
of this information has been proved to be unre- 
liable); P. Voorhoeve, Iskandar Muda, zoon van 
c Alif, BTLV 107, 364/5; J- Jongejans, Land en 
Volk van Atjih vroeger en nu, 1939; A. J. Piekaar, 
Atjih en de oorlog met Japan, 1949; S. M. Amin, 
Sekiiar peristiwa berdarah di Atjeh, 1956. 
al-'ATK, a valley in Nadjd, the northernmost 
of those cutting through the western wall of the 
cuesta of Tuwayk. it i s a true wadi with a strong 
flood whenever there is enough rain. The valley forms 
the dividing line between the district of Sudayr to 
the north and the district of al-Mahmal to the 
south. Its head (far'a) is in the low ground west of 
Tuwayk in the vicinity of the oasis of al-IJasab, south 
of which there is a large salt pan (mamlaha or 
sabkha). After passing north of the hills of al-Bakarat 
(pi. of bakra = she-camel 3-5 years old), the valley 
goes through the escarpment of Tuwayk by a narrow 
passage. Just east of this passage, the valley of Urat 
descends from the uplands of Sudayr and the valley 
of Thadik comes up from the south to join al-'Atk. 



748 



,-<ATK - 



Farther on, the main valley of Sudayr — in which 
lie Dialadiil. al- c Awda, and other oases — and the 
valley of c Ushayra come together and then empty 
into al- c Atk from the north, as does the valley of 
al-Hisy (a settlement of the WahhabI Ikhwan be- 
longing to the tribe of Subay') from the south. After 
passing south of Khashm Abu Rukba and north of 
Ruwayghib (a settlement of the Ikhwan belonging 
to al-Suhul), al-'Atk cleaves through the escarpment 
of al-'Arama. The valley runs by a few kilometres 
north-west of the wells of Hafar al-'Atk and comes 
to an end at Rawdat al-Tanhah just west of the 
sands of al-Dahna'. This basin also receives the 
waters of the valleys of al-Shawkl and al-Tayri, the 
latter of which runs only c. i km. west of Hafar 
al-'Atk. 

The sweet water wells of Hafar al-'Atk (25° 57' 
04" N, 46 30' 28" E) are over a dozen in number, 
all lined with stone, with a depth of c. 23 6a c (c. 40 m.). 
Each well has its own name; those with the most 
water are al-Ghabbashiyya and Sudayra. These 
wells mark the western end of Darb al-Kunhuri, a 
well beaten desert trail coming from the town of 
al-Djubayl ('Aynayn) on the Persian Gulf coast. 
From the wells the traveller may ascend the valley to 
Sudayr or al-Mahmal or proceed westwards to the 
district of al-Washm lying beyond Nafud al-Baladin. 
Popular tradition has it that the first wells here were 
dug by the chiefs of Banu Khalid, masters of Eastern 
Arabia until its conquest by the rising WahhabI 
state of Al Sa'ud at the close of the 18th century. 
During the summer several thousand Bedouins may 
congregate at Hafar al-'Atk, their tents filling the 
depression in which the wells lie and lining the edges 
of the circumambient hills. 

The valley is regarded as lying within the range 
of the tribes of Subay* and al-Suhul, while the wells 
belong to al-Khudran, a group consisting of al- 
Nabata and al-'Uraynat, both sections of Subay c . 
Members of these tribes, like most of the townsfolk 
of Nadjd, pronounce the name 'aits, while other 
Bedouins in Nadjd and the east say 'atsh, associating 
the name with the word 'atsha = having many bushes 
and trees. The pronunciation l aih is seldom if ever 
heard, but the written form Batn al-'Atk is in al- 
Hamdani, i, 141, who also mentions al-Bakarat and 
Batn Dhi Urat. Ibn Bishr, 'Unwan al-Madid (Mecca 
ed.), i, 44, 72, 108; ii, 26, speaks of al-'Atk and 
Hafar al-'Atk, and Ibn Bulayhid, Sahi(i al-Akhbdr, i, 
137, identifies al-'Atk as one of the two places called 
al-'Itkan or al- c Atkan in early Arabic poetry. 



(Gec 



tz) 



ATLAS, general name for the 
North Africa (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia), 
which give it its originality and variety in contrast 
to the monotonous Sahara platform. Although this 
name, of unknown origin, was already used by the 
Greeks, the classical authors, Strabo (Book xvii) for 
example, give us few details. The Arab geographers 
lack precision and, like Strabo, often apply the name 
to the mountain chains otherwise called Adrar 
n-Deren, a term in fact reserved for the High 
Moroccan Atlas and the Saharan Atlas of Algeria 
(al-Bakri, trans, de Slane, 2nd. ed., 281, 295); some 
authors (al-Bakri, 303-4, al-ldrisl, al-Maghrib 73-4, 
Ibn Khaldun, Hist, des Berbbres, trans, de Slane, i, 
158) erroneously extend it as far as the Nefusa, to 
Egypt and even beyond. The Northern chains — the 
Rif and Tell Atlas— were known to Strabo (xvii), and 
the Rif, to al-Bakri (214); according to Ibn Khaldun 
(i, 128) the Deren chains form "a girdle enclosing 
the Maghrib al-Aksa from Asfi to Taza", including, 



therefore, the Middle Atlas. Leo Africanus (Descript- 
ion de I'Afrique, trans. Epaulard, Paris 1956, 4 and 
49-50), rather more exact, distinguishes the northern 
chains from the Atlas in the strict sense extends 
the latter right into Egypt. Marmol (Africa, i, 5) 
distinguishes between 'la Sierra menor' and 'la Sierra 
de Athalante mayor 1 in the south, which will 
henceforth be referred to as the Little Atlas and the 
Great Atlas. French geologists and geographers, 
above all in the last half century, have determined 
their characteristics and various aspects. 

The chains of the Atlas are structurally folded 
mountains, related to the Tertiary chains of Europe ; 
like these, they have been rejuvenated by Pliocene 
and Quarternary upheavals, which raised them 
considerably above the Mediterranean and this 
rigid Sahara platform. The Sahara begins to the 
south of the Southern Atlas accident (fault, flexure, 
abrupt straightening out of the strata), which extends 
from Agadir to Gabes. The Dahar of Southern 
Tunisia and the Nefusa, therefore, do not form part 
of the Atlas. As for the Anti-Atlas of Morocco, of 
which the Dj. Saghro is merely an extension, this 
stands on its own: it is only the raised edge of the 
Sahara platform. It is a great asymmetrical massif, 
reaching 2,531 metres at the Dj. Akhni, and consists 
of consolidated rocks of the Pre-Cambrian and 
Primary ages. It falls away to the depressions of the 
Sus and the Dades (which the great granitic and 
volcanic mass of the Sirwa, 3,304 metres, separates) 
and runs down to the plains of Dra (Dar c a) and 
Tafilalet, intersected by the wrinkle or scarp of the 
Dj. Bani. 

In the "Atlas regions" a first complex, and the 
most extensive, contains both moderately folded 
mountains, often of considerable height, and 
relatively low zones: plateaux and high plains. The 
High Atlas is a huge "fundamental fold", a chain 
750 kms. in extent, which rises to 4,000 metres and 
over (4,165 m. at the Tubkal, 4,070 at Mgun); in 
spite of its latitude, it bears traces of quarternary 
glaciation, though it no longer retains everlasting 
snows. Hemmed in to the west between the Sus and 
the Hawz of Marrakesh, it breaks up, despite 
several considerable peaks, into ridges and deep 
transverse valleys, and may only be crossed by 
high cols, historical routes to the Sus (Tizi n-Test) 
and the High Dra (Tizi n-Tishka). In the centre and 
the East it becomes primarily calcarious (liassic and 
Jurassic), with narrow faulted anticlines and broad 
synclines; after the Dj. 'Ayyashi (3,751 m.), the 
chains lose height and peter out in the South of 
Eastern Morocco. The "wadls" Dades, Gheris, Zil 
(the route from Fez to Tafilalet) and Guir break 
away from it by majestic cross valleys — the Saharan 
Atlas of Algeria continues the High Atlas. Its 
massifs, the mountains of the Ksiir, of the c Amur 
(Dj. 'Amur), of the Ouled Nail and of the Zab loose 
height progressively from the South-West (2,236 m. 
at the Dj. Aissa) to the North-East (less than 
1,000 m.). These are remains of folded mountains, 
ridges isolated by broad pediments, which the nomads 
easily cross in spite of their elevation above the 
Sahara. On the further side of the Biskra depression, 
rises the Aures (Awras), the only massif of the 
Saharan Atlas and the highest mountain in Algeria 
(2,329 m. at the Chelia). Its majestic chains with 
their very broad folds lying S.-W./N.-E., are separated 
by the deep vallies of the "wadls" Abdi, el-Abiod and 
el-Arab: these "wadls" flow through savage gorges 
to reach the "southern Aures depression", which 
sinks down to below sea level. The Nememcha 



ATLAS - 



:o the East of the Aures tower above this 
depression and then subdivide northwards into 
isolated ridges, the remains of broad domes. In 
Tunisia, the chains deriving from the Saharan Atlas 
cover the entire mountain country, except the 
north-west. The structure of domes, frequently 
faulted, and of broad basins, to be observed in the 
Tebessa mountains, is continued in the Dorsal range 
of Tunisia. Its anticlines, generally calcarious, 
(1,154 m. at the Pj. Chambi) and separated at times 
by broad transverse rift valleys, rendering com- 
munications easy, converge towards the N.E. to 
form one single chain bristling with sierras (Dj. 
Zaghwan, 1,298 m.) extending as far as the Gulf of 
Tunis North of the Dorsal range, the High Tell and 
the Medjerda regions are composed of compressed 
folds, which, however, only produce mountains of 
moderate height, separated by broad basins, by 
the deep depression of the Middle Medjerda and by 
its tributary valleys: the "wadis" of Mellegue, 
Tessa and Siliana. In the south the anticlinal chains 
of limestone or sandstone rise among broad plains, 
generally synclinal and covered by alluvium: from 
a W.-E. direction on the parallel of Gafsa, they are 
turned back in a S.-N. direction, bordering the plains 
of Eastern Tunisia. 

North of the High Atlas and of the Sahara Atlas 
of Algeria, extend vast regions of low relief, which, 
however, are twice intersected by transverse chains: 
the Middle Atlas and the mountains of the Hodna. 
The Middle Atlas has the same rocks and the same 
style as the central High Atlas with narrow faulted 
anticlinal folds (Dj. Ben Nacer, 3,354 m.) and 
broad synclinal depressions. But in the N.W. it 
descends in step plateaux; the faults separating 
them are covered with volcanic cones and coulees. 
Heavily watered, it gives birth to the principal 
rivers of Morocco: Oum er-Rebia [Umm ai-rabi c ), 
Sebou, Moulouya. The Middle Atlas separates the 
rigid block of primary terrains of the Moroccan 
"meseta" (central plateau, hills of the Rehama and 
of the Djebilet, sedimentary phosphate plateau, 
alluvial plains of the Tadla, the Bahira and of the 
Hawz of Marrakesh) from that of the Oran-Moroccan 
borders, which is almost completely concealed by 
secondary sediments. The Rokam, to the East of the 
Moulouya, is extended by the Debdou and Djerada 
plateaux, in Morocco, and by the undulating and 
faulted plateaux of the Tell Atlas of Oran: the 
mountains of Tlemcen, of the Mekarra, of Saida and 
Frenda. North of the Sahara Atlas, the High Algero- 
Moroccan plains, rising to 1,200 metres in the West 
and 800 metres on the meridian of Algiers, are 
structurally similar, consisting of simple exhausted 
folds, which, however, are three quarters buried 
beneath considerable old alluvial deposits (basins of 
the Chott Gharbi and Chott Chergui and of the 
Zahrez) ; only the Oued Touil (Upper Chelif) reaches 
the sea. Further to the E., the narrow chain of the 
Hodna mountains and the Belezma massif, separate 
the very low lying basin of the Hodna (400 m.) from 
the high plains of the eastern and Constantine regions 
of Algeria (800 to 1,050 m.). The W.-E. secondary 
chains of which they are made up, calcarious domes 
or ridges, leave gaps between them and continue, 
intermittently spaced out, across the high Constan- 
tine plains, which they dominate, rising to several 
hundred metres. The so-called region of the Sebakh 
in the south escapes the drainage of the Rhumel, the 
Seybouse and the Meskiana (Mellegue). As for the 
plains of Eastern Tunisia, these are incompletely 
drained behind the camber of the Sahel. 



Bordering the Mediterranean, a second complex 
is formed, extending from Tangiers to Bizerta, by 
the chains of the Rif and the Tell Atlas. They are 
very complex in structure. The cemented and loose 
sediments of the Secondary and Tertiary have on 
several occasions been heavily folded. They have 
been pushed and overlapped southwards by the 
primary eruptive massifs of the "coastal belt", 
which only subsist still South of Ceuta and Kabylia; 
these massifs dominate in the south the lofty calca- 
rious sierras of the Djebala and the Bokkoya 
(Morocco), the Djurdjura and the chain of Numidia. 
All the rest is formed of a thick and plastic mass of 
clay, sandstone and schistous sediments, usually 
discharged in "slip sheets" and, in Morocco, clearly 
carried down in a southerly direction. These struc- 
turally very complex mountains have been cut and 
broken up by transverse gorges and longitudinal 
valleys due to the vigorous erosion caused by 
Mediterranean torrents. The chain of the Rif, from 
Ceuta to Melilla, forms a crescent of mountains 
(2,450 m. at the Dj. Tidighine), which is enlarged in 
the south by a variety of hills carved by the tributary 
rivers of the Ouergha and Sebou in the Rif and 
Pre-Rif sheets. From the Melilla peninsula to the 
Trara massif, the heavily folded zone narrows and 
follows the hills of the Low Moulouya, the Beni 
Snassen mountains and the Tell plateaux of Oran. 
Then it bifurcates, continuing on both sides of a long 
depression, running from the sebkha of Oran to the 
elbow of the Middle Chelif; to the North are the hills 
of the Sahel of Oran, which are succeeded by the 
Dahra and Miliana mountains (Zaccar, 1,579 m -)> 
and to the south, the Tessala and the Ouled AH and 
Beni Chougrane mountains, which border the inland 
plains of Sidi Bel Abbes and Mascara, giving way in 
the East to the great Ouarsenis massif (1,985 m.), 
which directly dominates the high plains. The 
longitudinal depression recommences East of Medea 
and runs down by the valley of the wadi Sahel- 
Soummam as far as Bougie (al-Bidjaya) ; along its 
northern edge runs the Mitidja Atlas, rising above the 
alluvial plain of the Mitidja and the hills of the 
Sahel of Algiers, after which it is bordered by the 
Djurdjura Kabylia, culminating in the Lalla 
Khasidja peak (2,308 m.); to the south rise the 
Titeri mountains and the long Biban chain. East 
of Bougie, the Babor (2,004 m.) and the chain of 
Numidia are contiguous to Eastern Kabylia and 
directly dominate the softer reliefs of the Ferdjioua 
and Constantine mountains. The crystalline terrains 
of Eastern Kabylia are partly obscured by oligocene 
clays and sandstones, bearing cork forests. These 
same sandstone? form the mountains encircling the 
littoral plain of B6ne and, in Tunisia, Khroumiria 
and the Mogod regions. 

The Atlas makes North Africa a country of 
mountain chains encircling plains, which are often 
both elevated and arid. The relief accentuates and 
diversifies the climatic contrasts due to the proximity 
of the Mediterranean and the Sahara. Dominating 
the Tell regions, the steppe areas of the high plains 
and the desert of the Saharan Piedmont, the principal 
massifs are original geographical environments, which 
have played a considerable though mainly negative 
r61e in the history of the Maghrib. 

Bibliography: See the articles morocco, 

ALGERIA, and TUNISIA. (J. Despois) 

ATOM [see al-djuz' alladhI lA yatadjazza 3 ]. 

ATRABULUS [see tarabulus]. 

ATREK, a river in the north of Khurasan, 
which has its source on the mountain of Hazar 



750 ATREK — A' 

Masdjid on the Gulistan ridge of the Kopet Dagh, 
37° 10' N, ca. 59 E, NE of Kocan (Kucan), 3,975 ft. 
above sea level. The Atrek has a course of some 
320 miles (Mustawfl: 120 farsakhs), running mainly 
westwards and runs, being some 32 ft. wide, 2-3 ft. 
deep, into the bay of Hasan Kuli in the SE of the 
Caspian Sea. On its upper reaches lie the fertile 
districts of Kocan and Budjnurd (in the Middle Ages 
Ustuwa), which are inhabited by Kurds since about 
1600 A.D. From its junction with the SImbar 
(Zumbar) coming from the right (by the village of 
Cat or Catll), the Atrek has been since 1882 the 
frontier between Russia (or the Turkmen SSR) and 
Iran. Below Kharaki the Atrek flows through a 
region which is occupied only by a few Turkmen 
settlements and is almost deserted; yet there are 
many signs of Middle Ages irrigation and near 
Gudrl there has been constructed by means of a 
dam a northern canal wholly on Russian (Soviet) 
territory. The river is described by Mustawfl as 
scarcely permitting a crossing. — The name Atrek 
cannot be found in the works of the geographers of 
the 4th/ioth century (al-Mukaddasi, 354, 367) ; they 
speak in general of the numerous rivers of the 
district. It Occurs for the first time in Hamd Allah 
Mustawfl (212, transl. 205) and was later in popular 
etymology explained as the plural of Turk (Atrak). 
— In the Middle Ages the district of Gurgan 
(Djurdjan, Hyrcania) bounded on the Atrek in the 
south, that of Dahistan [q.v.] in the north. 

Bibliography: C. E. Yate, Khurasan and 
Sistan, Edinburgh-London 1900; Le Strange, 377; 
Brockhaus-Efron, Entsiklopediieskiy Slovar 1 , ii, 
438; Bol'shaya Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya', iii, 
473 f. (W. Barthold-[B. Spuler]) 

ATSlz B. Muhammad b. ANCSHTIGIN, 
Kh'arizmshah [q.v.] from 521-2/1127-8 to 551/1156, 
b. around 1098, followed his father as vassal of the 
Saldjuk sultan Sandjar in 521/1127 or 522/1128. All 
through his life it was his desire to make himself 
independent of this ruler, to maintain his position 
also with respect to the newly founded might of the 
Kara Khitay and to bring under his domain the 
districts in the north which in earlier centuries had 
been temporarily connected with the Kh'arizm 
state in order thus to achieve an expansion of it. In 
effect he was able (according to Djuwayni partly 
still during his father's lifetime) to subject the lands 
between the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea with the 
peninsula of the Min Ktshlak (Russian: Mangyshlak), 
as well as the country up to the Jaxartes (down- 
wards from about Otrar) having Djand for its centre; 
since 536/1141 he secured the latter territory against 
the Kara Khitay by the payment of tribute in kind 
and in money (30,000 gold dirhams p.a.). After a first 
rebellion against Sandjar, the latter was able, after 
initial hesitation, to drive off Atstz by means of the 
bloody victory at Hazarasp, 10 Rabi' I 533/15 Nov. 
1 1 38 (Atslz's son was taken captive and executed). 
Sandjar put in his own nephew Sulayman b. Muham- 
mad (thus Djuwayni) as Kh'arizmshah. But already 
in the following year Atstz was able with the help 
of the inhabitants to drive him out again and to 
capture Bukhara. Nevertheless Atslz now saw fit 
to submit again to Sandjar (middle of Shawwal 
535/end of May 1141); but after the latter's defeat 
at the hands of the Kara Khitay in the steppe of 
Katwan (5 Safar 536/9 Sept. 1141) he fell away 
again and took Marw (17 Rabi' II/19 Nov. 1141) and 
Nlshapflr (Shawwal 536/May 1142). However, by 538/ 
1 1 43-4 Sandjar by a campaign forced him again to 
recognise his authority. In spite of a third defection 



accompanied by the murder of Sandjar's envoy, the 
latter allowed Atstz to retain his position, after the 
capture of Hazarasp (Jan. 1148) and the siege of 
Gurgandj, and in the course of a meeting (Muljarram 
543/June 1 148) where Atslz showed little submission. 
Yet Atstz now remained loyal to Sandjar even after 
the latter's capture by the Oghuz (548/1153) and 
obtained from Sandjar for his support the promise 
to receive — though only at a later date — the fortress 
of Amul (modern Cardjuy) and other fortresses. 
After Sandjar's escape from emprisonment Atstz 
sent him a high-flown message of congratulation 
and appeared (551/1156) before him at Nasa, but 
died shortly afterwards at Khabushan on the Atrek 
(9 Djumada II 551/30 July 1156). 

Despite his own reverses he secured the power of 
the Kh'arizmian state by his stand against the 
Saldjuks and the Kara Khitay (to both of whom 
he had eventually to pay tribute), as well as by 
the expansion of his territory northwards, and so 
layed the foundation stone of its position as a great 
power which lasted up to the Mongol invasion. 

Bibliography: Djuwayni. ii, 3-14, and 
following him Mirkh"and. Histoire des Sultans du 
Kharezm, ed. C. Defremery, Paris 1842, 5-11; 
Ibn al-Athir, x, 183, 476, xi, 44-63, 118 f., 138 
(both following Abu '1-Hasan al-Bayhakl's lost 
Masharib al-Tadjarib; Rawandi, Rahat al-Sudiir, 
169, 1 74, 370 ; Bundari, Zubdat al-Nusra (Houtsma), 
281; W. Barthold, Turkestan, Russian ed., i, 26-27 
(official documents concerning the dispute between 
Atslz and Sandjar) ; Yakut, iv, 70. — W. Barthold, 
Turkestan, Engl, ed., 33, 323-31; idem, 12 Vor- 
Usungen zur Gesch. der Tiirken Mittelasiens, 
Berlin 1935, 122 f.; S. P. Tolstow, Auf den Spuren 
der alt-choresmischen Kultur, Berlin 1953, 295 f. 
(with map, 297); Mehmet Altay Kdymen, Der 
Oghusen-Einfall und seine Bedeutung im Rahmen 
der Geschichie des grossen Seldschukenreiches, 
Ankara Vniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Cografya Fakiil- 
tesi Dergisi, v, 1947-8, 621-60 (Turkish, 563-620). 

(W. Barthold-[B. Spuler]) 
ATSfz B. UVAK (and not Abak), was one of the 
chiefs of the Turkomans (perhaps of the tribe of the 
Iwal and perhaps at the beginning of the Saldjikid 
expansion established in Khwarizm), who in 1070 
had followed Erisgen (?), husband of a daughter of 
Alp-Arslan, into Asia Minor in his flight to Byzantine 
territory; but he refused to take service in the 
Christian army, and had responded to the appeal 
made to him by the Fatimid government, requesting 
him to come and bring some of the Palestine 
Bedouin to heel (1071). An initial appearance which, 
if one calls to mind the orthodox anti-Fatimid 
position of the Saldjukids, adequately discloses the 
extent to which the brief traditional version, 
portraying Atstz as one of their lieutenants, is 
inaccurate. However Atsiz did not consider himself 
adequately paid and occupied Jerusalem, Palestine 
and Southern Syria on his own account and he then 
made an attempt at reconciliation with Malikshah, 
Alp-Arslan's successor. It was in vain that the 
government of Cairo obtained the help against him 
of his own lieutenant at Acre, then that of the Sal- 
djukids, the descendants of Kutlumush, who were 
engaged in establishing themselves in Asia Minor: 
Atsiz defeated them (1075), conquered Damascus 
(1076) and attacked Egypt itself (1077)- There, 
however, he was defeated, and was then confronted 
by a revolt of the pro-Egyptian elements in Palestine, 
which he drowned in blood (1078). He was unable to 
prevent the Egyptian army coming to threaten him 



ATSIZ B. UVAK - 



in Syria proper, and appealed to Malikshah, who 
decided to make Syria an appanage for his own 
brother, Tutush. Atslz may perhaps have hoped to 
be able to retain a territory as a vassal, but in the 
interview which took place between the two chief- 
tains, Tutush rid himself of Atstz by assassination 
(1079). 

The episode of Atslz is interesting as the first 
successful attempt to establish a Turkoman princi- 
pality on the Western confines of the Saldjukid 
empire. As such it is directed against the Saldjukid 
regime. Naturally the Turkomans made themselves 
felt by their ravages in the surrounding countryside, 
as everywhere else; but once he had subdued the 
country, he took care to restore agriculture; the 
townspeople, in contrast, complained that he showed 
no interest in them. The episodes narrated above 
are sufficient evidence of his religious indifference; 
the hostility shown to him by the urban aristocracy, 
both pro-Saldjukid and pro-Fatimid, doubtless 
explains in part his evident good relations with the 
Christians, especially the Monophysites, who, 
in spite of what has been said on the subject, were 
spared at the time of the Jerusalem massacre in 
1078. It is therefore wrong to consider him, as one 
of those responsible, by repercussion, for the 
preaching of the crusade in Europe. 

Bibliography: Claude Cahen, La premiere 
pinitration turque en Asie.-Mineure, in Byzantion 
xviii, 1946-48; Mukrimin Halil Yinanc, Tiirkive 
tarihi i, 2nd. ed. 1944; Faruk Siimer, Yiva Oguz 
boyuna ddir, in Tiirkiyat Mecmuasi, IX, 1951; 
CI. Cahen, En quoi la conquite turque appellait-elle 
la Croisade ? in Bulletin de la Faculti des Lettres de 
Strasbourg, xxix-2, 1950; E. Cerulli, Gli Etiopiin 
Palestina, i, Rome 1943. 

The sources are indicated particularly in the 

first of these works; much the most important 

is the Mir'dt al-Zamdn of Sibt Ibn al-Djawzi. 

(Cl. Cahen) 

•ATTAB b. asId b. abi'l-'Is b. umayya al- 

UMAwI, a Companion of the Prophet, who was 

converted on the day of the capture of Mecca; 

shortly afterwards, during the battle of Hunayn 

(8/629), he was appointed governor of Mecca by 

Muhammad, and continued to hold this post under 

Abu Bakr. He agreed to marry Djuwayriya bint 

Abi Djahl in order to prevent C A1I b. Abi Talib from 

taking a second wife in addition to Fatima. The 

date of his death varies between 12 and 23/634-44. 

Bibliography : Ibn Hadjar al-'Askalani, Isaba, 

no. 5391; Mus'ab al-Zubayri, Nasab Kuraysh, 

index ; Muhammad b. Habib, Muhabbar , index ; al- 

Jabari, index; Ibn al-Athlr, ii, index; Nawawi, 

Tahdhib, 405; Ibn Kutayba, Ma'drif, Cairo 1353/ 

1934, !23; idem, 'Uyun al-Akhbar, i, 230, ii, 55; 

al-Mas c udi, Murudi, ix, 54; al-Baladhuri, Ansdb, 

ivB, 150. (Ed.) 

al-'ATTAb! (Abu "Amr) Kulthum b. <Amr b. 

Ayyub, letter-writer and poet, died at the beginning 

of the 3rd/9th century. A descendant of the pre- 

Islamic poet 'Amr b. Kulthum, al-'Attabi belonged 

to a sub-group of the Arab tribe, the Taghlib (cf. Ibn 

Hazm, 287), from the neighbourhood of Kinnasrin 

in Northern Syria. The date of his birth and of his 

appearance in Baghdad are unknown. According to 

an indication by Ibn Tayfur, Ta'rikh Baghdad, ed. 

Kelley, X, 157-8, taken up again by A. Amln, he 

stayed for a while at Marw and at Nishapur, for 

the purpose of consulting Persian (sic) manuscripts. 

In so far as this indication is valid, al-'Attabl had, 

therefore, a dual culture, Arab and Iranian. He held 



an office in the administration. Anecdotes show 
him as being attached to the Barmakid family. 
Their disgrace, moreover, was almost fatal for him, 
and as he was furthermore accused of zandaka [q.v.], 
he was obliged to flee to the Yemen to escape Harun 
al-Rashid's punishment; see Yakut and especially 
al-Marzubanl, Mu'dj[im, 351. By his cleverness, al- 
'Attabl was nevertheless able to regain the Caliph's- 
favour. He was also well regarded by the general 
Tahir b. al-Husayn [q.v.] and al-Ma J mun. According 
to one indication, he seems likewise to have been 
protected by his patron, the general Malik b. Tawk 
(died 259/873). In his last years, al-'Attabi is said 
to have done penance. He is thought to have died 
about 220/835 (date given by Kutubi, i, 139, whe- 
follows Ibn al-Nadim, but there is a lacuna here in 
the Flugel edition). Al-'Attabi has left the reputation 
of being a witty and brillant courtier, though not 
always scrupulous, as is borne out by the rdle he- 
played at the court of Harun al-Rashid to bring 
about the fall of a rival poet; (see Ibn Hazm, 285). 
Ibn al-Nadim, Fihrist, 121 and also 316-18 
(reproduced by al-Kutubl and Yakut) gives a list 
of six works written by al-'Attabi ; to judge from the 
titles, these were probably works on philology and 
adab. To assess al-'Attabl's merits as a prose writer, 
one must turn to the citations made by al-Djahiz. 
and Ibn 'Abd Rabbih. Al-'Attabl's poetical writings 
seem to have been considerable (the Fihrist, 163, 
speaks of a collection of 100 folios) and Ibn Abi 
Tayfur, d. 280/893, gave a selection from them; 
see ibid., 146 in fine. Today they are only known to us. 
by the quotations from them by al-Djahiz, Ibn 
Kutayba, Ibn 'Abd Rabbih and al-Isfahani. These 
fragments have been collected together by F. Rifa'i. 
His work is that of a court poet ; free in style, it seems 
to bear the imprint of the influence of Abu 'l-'Atahiya 
and Abu Nuwas, whom al-'Attabi admired (see 
Aghdni', iv, 39); a panegyric on al-Rashid enjoyed 
considerable fame (see the quotation by al-Djahiz, 
iii, 353 and the note by the ed.). With the exception 
of al-Marzubanl, this poet was greatly esteemed by 
the men of the Islamic Middle Ages. As regards 
literary history, al-'Attabi represents the beginning 
of the neo-classical current, which started in Northern 
Syria and was later represented by Abu Tammam 
and Buhturi [q.v.]. 

Bibliography: Fihrist, 121; 125 in fine; 
Kutubi, Fawdt, Cairo 1299, i, 139; Aghdni, xii, 
2-10; Yakut, Irshad, vi, 212-5, Cairo ed., xvii, 
26-31; Ibn Kutayba, Shi'r, 549-51 and 'Uyuu al- 
Akhbar, index; Ibn Hazm, Diamharat al-Ansdb, 
ed. Levi-Provencal, 285, 287; Djahiz, al-Bayan 
wa> l-Tabyin, ed. Harun, index; Ibn c Abd Rabbih, 
<Ikd, ed. al-'Uryan, index; al-Marzubanl, Mu'djam 
al-Shu'ara', ed. Krenkow, 351-2 and Muwashshah, 
Cairo 1343, 293-5; A. Amln, Duha' l-Isldm, Cairo 
1351, 180-1; Rifa'i, c Asr al-Ma'mun, Cairo 1340/ 
1928, iii, 249-54; Brockelmann, S I 120. 

(R. BLACHERE) 

al-'ATTAR, like al-saydaldni, primarily meant a 
perfume merchant or druggist; but as most scents 
(Htr, pi. l u(ur) and drugs (usually 'akkdr, pi. l akdkir) 
were credited with some healing properties, 'attar 
also came to mean chemist and homoeopath (muta- 
tabbib). His activities combine commerce with science 
and medicine. He has to know "the diverse drugs, 
curatives, drafts and scents, their good and bad 
varieties, as well as what is fraudulent; he must 
know which things change quickly or go bad, and 
which do not, and what means there are for their 
preservation or reconstitution. Finally, he must 



752 



.-'ATTAR — C ATTAR 



know the mixing of drafts and potions, powders and 
spices" (al-Dimashkl, Kitdb al-Ishara ild Mahdsin 
al-Tid£dra; cf. H. Ritter, in Isl. 7, 59). Today 
the term also sometimes includes dyers and dye- 
merchants, although the perfume merchants are the 
noblest and wealthiest of the 'offardn. As in the 
Middle Ages, herbal remedies — that is to say, the 
greater part of the medicines offered — are still sold 
dry (i.e., roots and wood chopped small; herbs, 
leaves, and flowers whole or crushed; and fruit or 
seed just dried). The containers were generally 
provided by the bazaar druggist (Nasir-i Khusraw, 
Safar-nama [ed. Ch. Schefer], Paris 1881, 53). The 
plants and animals which a druggist used, and the 
methods of obtaining his raw materials, are parti- 
cularly vividly presented in the illuminated Persian 
Dioscorides-manuscript Topkapl Saray Ahmed III. 
2147 f. 204-475 (written in the year 867/1463 
Medicines were usually given in simple form (adwiya 
mufrada, SimpHcia), but they were sometimes 
•compounded (adwiya murakkaba, Composita) by the 
c aftdr in the presence of the patient, who, if need be, 
was given a dose right away. Compare with this the 
'miniatures in H. Buchthal, The Journal of the 
Walters Art Gallery 5 (1942), 24-33; Bishr Fares, 
Le Livre de la Theriaque in Art Islamique, vol. ii, 
Cairo 1953, plates XI and XII. 

The professional knowledge of the bazaar druggist 
is usually scanty, and his medicines are often com- 
pletely spoilt by storage under unsuitable conditions 
for excessive periods. Druggists have always been 
known for their cheating in measures and general 
quackery, as is attested to both by specialised works 
•on fraudulent practices, (such as Kitdb al-Mukhtdr 
.ft Kashf al-Asrdr wa-Hatk al-Astdr of Djawbari 
[7th century A.H. ; cf. E. Wiedemann, Sitzungs- 
JSerichte der Physikalisch-medizinischen Sozietdt in 
Erlangen 43, 206-32], which is still much read in the 
Orient) and by treatises on the duties of a market 
-superviser (muhtasib). M. Meyerhof reports, for 
instance, how French perfumes are diluted and 
tampered with in the bazaar, bottled in oriental 
flasks, and then sold to the Europeans as genuine 
■oriental scent and to the local inhabitants as 
improved Parisian products. Concerning weights, 
measures, and vessels used by the 'aftdrun, more 
information can be found in G. C. Miles, Early 
Arabic Glass Weights and Stamps, Supplement, New 
York 195 1 (illustrated) ; for a container for measuring 
•cf. F. E. Day, Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum 
of Art 11, 259. In Der Bazar der Drogen und 
Wohlgeriiche in Kairo, Archiv fiir Wirtschafts- 
jorschung im Orient 3 (1918), 1-40, 185-218, M. 
Meyerhof describes how the druggists worked in 
mediaeval and more modern times. The best 
known druggists' quarter (suk al- c at(drin) of ancient 
times was in al-Fustat (E. J. Worman, JQR 
8, 1906, 16-18), which was burned down almost 
completely in 563/1168 (but was, according to 
Ibn Dukmak, rebuilt under the Mamluks), also 
referred to in documents from the Geniza. The 
suk al-Htr of Damascus is also worthy of note (H. 
Sauvaire, in J A 9th series, vol. vii, 1896, 381, 404). 
A woodcut in E. W. Lane, An Account of the Manners 
and Customs of the Modern Egyptians ii, facing p. 9, 
gives a vivid picture of a druggist's shop in the 19th 
century. Original bills for medicines, prescriptions, 
and similar texts from a druggist's practice, exist 
in considerable numbers on papyrus. The fact that 
this particular calling was very widespread is borne 
out by the frequency with which the term al- c a((dr 
appears as a cognomen, especially amongst poets and 



scholars for whom this calling may well have served 
as an additional source of income. The best known 
instance is Farid al-DIn 'AUar. 

The same word is used in India to denote an 
alcohol-free perfume-oil produced by the distillation 
of sandalwood-oil through flowers (for instance, 

Bibliography: (Apart from works already 
mentioned in the text) : A. Dietrich, Zum Drogen- 
kandel im islamischen Agypten ( Verdffentlichungen 
aus der Heidelberger Papyrus-Sammlung, N.F. 
no. 1), Heidelberg 1954; G. Wiet, Les marchands 
d'ipices sous les sultans mamlouks (Cahiers d'His- 
toire Egyptienne), Cairo 1955. (A. Dietrich) 
'ATTAR, FarId al-DIn Muhammad b. IbrAhIm. 
Persian mystical poet. The dates of his birth and 
death cannot be fixed with any certainty. According 
to Dawlatshah, he was bom in 513/1119 and the 
general belief is that he was killed by the Mongols in 
Nishapur in the year 627/1230. This would mean 
that he lived to the age of 1 14, which is improbable, 
and besides, Nishapur was conquered by the Mongols 
as early as 617/1220. According to a ta'rikh verse in 
some manuscripts (e.g. Ibrahim Ef. 579), in other 
sources (Said Naflsl, DJustudiii, 607), and according 
to the inscription on the tomb erected by Mir 'AH 
Shir, he died as early as 586/1190, that is to say, 
three years after writing Manfik al-Tayr (Said 
Nafisi 129). Said Nafisi adheres to 627 as the date 
of his death, but he bases this assumption on the 
spurious book Miftdh al-Futuh and on the statement 
of Pjaml that 'Attar had given the Asrdr-ndma to 
Djalal al-DIn RumI who had emigrated from Balkh, 
with his father in 618/1221. This emigration, how- 
ever, probably took place as early as 616/1219 
(Ritter in Isl. 26, 1942, 117-8). Nothing definite 
concerning the dates of his life can be got from 
'Attar's own works. The one which seems to contain 
most biographical information, Mazhar al- c Adid'ib, 
is a forgery, which unfortunately misled MIrza 
Muhammad Kazwlnl as well as the author of this 
article. 'Attar was a pharmacist and doctor, and 
whilst not actually a Sufi, he admired the holy men 
and was edified by the tales told about them, from 
his youth onward. — When attempting to compile a 
list of 'Attar's works, one meets with a peculiar 
difficulty: the works attributed to him fall into 
three groups which differ so considerably in content 
and style that it is difficult to ascribe all three to the 
same person. The main works of the first group are 
Manfik al-Tayr, Ildhi-ndma and M us ibat-ndma ; 
those of the second group are Ushturnama and 
Diawhar al-Dhdt; and those of the third Mazhar al- 
'AdidHb and Lisan al-Ghayb. There is, in addition, 
a fourth group of works which can — on the basis of 
internal evidence — be proved not to be by 'Attar. 
With the exception of Asrdr-ndma, the epics of the 
first group consist of a clear, well-constructed main 
story, which is interspersed with numerous — gene- 
rally short — subsidiary tales. These tales reflect a 
wealth of religious and profane life. Told with 
masterly skill, these subsidiary tales are richly 
varied in subject, and they are the main charm 
of the works of this group. In the second . group 
the number of tales is much reduced, and the 
interest is withdrawn from the external world and 
all that occurs in it. A limited number of ideas 
are pursued with intensity and great emotion, and 
with many repetitions. The recurring themes are: 
complete fand, even through physical death, monistic 
pantheism (there is nothing other than God, and 
all things are of one substance), the knowledge 



of one's self as everything, as God, as identical 
with all prophets. People are repeatedly recognised 
as God by others, and addressed as such. The 
presentation is broad and ill-ordered, and full of 
tiresome repetitions. Frequently one does not know 
who is speaking or who is being addressed. Anaphora 
is used excessively: on occasions a hundred con- 
secutive lines begin with the same words. Sa c id 
Naflsi considers the works of this group as spurious, 
and attributes them to the writer of the third group, 
a man from Tun who lived in Tus for a long time, 
who was undoubtedly a ShI'ite and must have lived 
in the oth/i5th century. He considers the change of 
style, which had been accepted both by Muhammad 
Kazwinl and by the author of this article, to be 
impossible. One might object that a change of style 
and a limitation of the field of interest are not out 
of the question in a poet; that the beginnings of 
the use of anaphora can be found in the works of 
the first group; and also that some of the themes 
frequent in the second group are traceable in the 
first. I therefore do not regard it as utterly impossible 
that the works of the second group should be genuine, 
though it is rather doubtful. In the time of Djaml — 
that is to say in the 9th century — at least, these 
works were considered genuine, because Di ami's 
remark in the Nafahdt al-Uns that the light of 
Halladj had manifested itself after 150 years in 
'Attar, can be based only on the works of the second 
group, in which Halladj plays an extensive part. 

The epics of the third group, on the other hand, 
have been conclusively proved to be spurious. In 
the Mazhar al- c Adid 3 ib the poet asks the reader to 
read Hafiz (died 791 A.H.) and Kasim-i Anwar (died 
837 A.H.) and prophesies the appearance of Djalal 
al-Din Rural (Sa'Id NafisI 146 ff.). I find such a 
difference in style and content between the works 
■of the second and those of the third group, that — 
unlike Said Naflsi — I should not ascribe them to the 
same poet. With regard to the probable chronology 
of the works (on the basis of self-quotation), see 
my Philologika X, in Isl. 25, 1939, 144-156. The 
conclusions drawn in that article from the statements 
in the Mazhar al-'Adjd'ib (whose author has the 
audacity to claim all 'Attar's genuine and famous 
works as his own) as also in my own article "AttSr" 
in I-Ar, are now superseded. 

Individual works: First group: 

1) Diwdn: apart from love poems, this contains 
the exposition of the same religious thoughts as 
govern the epics. Printed in Tehran, but not in a 
critical edition. 

2) Mukhtdr-ndma: a collection of quatrains 
arranged according to themes, with an elucidatory 
prose introduction describing the origin of the work 
— which originally formed part of the Diwdn — and 
the destruction of the two works Diawdhir-ndma 
■and Star* al-Kalb (Ritter, Philologika X, 152-155). 
Incomplete publication, Teheran 1353. 

3) Mantik al-Tayr (Makdmdt al-Tuyur): grandiose 
poetic elaboration of the Risdlat al-Tayr of Muham- 
mad or Ahmad Ghazzall. The birds, led by the 
hoopoe, set out to seek Simurgh, whom they had 
elected as their king. All but 30 perish on the path on 
which they have to traverse seven dangerous valleys 
(Haft wddi: this part appears as an independent 
work in some manuscripts). The surviving 30 even- 
tually recognise themselves as being the deity (si 
murgh = Simurgh), and then merge in the last fand 
in the divine Simurgh. Inadequate edition by Garcin 
de Tassy, Paris 1857; Mantic uttair ou le langage 

des cnseaux par Farid-uddin Attar; Traduction 

Encyclopaedia of Islam 



AR 753 

francaise and La poisie philosophique el religieuse 
chez les Persans d'apris le Mantic uttair, ou le langage 
des cnseaux de Farid-uddin Attar, 3rd edition, Paris 
i860; on the translation by Baron E. Hermelin, 
Stockholm 1929, see Jan Rypka in Archiv Orientalni 
4. 1932, 149-160. The best edition known to me 
is the one which appeared in Bombay in 1313 A.H., 
published by Cooper and Cooper. For other 'itions 
of Manfih al-Tayr and for works of 'Attar in g. . eral, 
see E. Edwards, A Catalogue of the Persian ptnted 
books in the British Museum, London 1912; A. J. 
Arberry, A Catalogue of the Library of the India 
Office, Vol. II, Part IV. Persian Books, and the 
catalogues of manuscripts. A Turkish commentary 
was written by Shem'I in 1005/1596-7 (MS. Carullah 
1716). For Turkish translations and studies, cf. my 
article on "Attar" in I A. 

4) Musibat-ndma: a sufi disciple (sdlik), in his 
helplessness and despair, is advised by a pir to visit 
successively all mythical and cosmic beings: angel, 
throne, writing tablet, stilus, heaven and hell, sun, 
moon, the four elements, mountain, sea, the three 
realms of nature, Iblis, the spirits, the prophets, 
senses, phantasy, mind heart and soul (the self). 
In the sea of the soul, in his own self, he eventually 
finds the godhead. The tale may have been inspired 
by the hadtth al-shafd'a. Printed in Tehran 1298 
A.H. 

5) Ildhi-ndma: a king asks his six sons what, of 
all things in the world, they wish for. They wish 
in turn for the daughter of the fairy king, the art 
of witchcraft, the magic cup of Djam, the water of 
life, Solomon's ring, and the elixir. The royal father 
tries to draw them away from their worldly desires 
and to inspire them with higher aims. Edition by 
H. Ritter, Istanbul-Leipzig 1940, Bibliotheca Islamica 
12. Concerning a Turkish version, cf. the article 
Attar in I A. 

6) Asrdr-ndma: it has no framework-story, and 
repeatedly mentions the gnostic motif of the entan- 
glement of the pre-existing soul in the base material 
world. 'Attar is supposed to have given a copy of 
this book to the young Djalal al-DIn Ruml. Printed 
in Tehran 1298/1880-1 Cf. H. Ritter, Das Meer der 
Stele, Mensch, Gott und Welt in den Geschichten des 
Farlduddin c A((dr (Leiden 1955) for content and 
ideas of Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 6. 

7) Khusraw-ndma: a romantic novel of love and 
adventure, concerning Khusraw, the son of the 
emperor of Rum, and Gul, the daughter of the king 
of Khuzistan, with many adventures, befalling 
above all the faithful Gul, who is besieged by a 
succession of suitors. Synopsis in Philologika X, 
Isl. 25, 160-173. Printed in Lucknow 1295/1878. 

8) Pand-ndma: a small moral treatise which en- 
joyed great popularity; it has been printed in Turkey 
alone at least eight times (1251, 1252, 1253. "57, 
1260, 1267, 1291). Concerning further editions see 
Sa'Id NafisI 109-10 and the above mentioned cata- 
logues. It has been translated into several languages 
(compare Geiger-Kuhn, Grundriss der Iranischen 
PhUologie, ii, 603 and Sa'Id NafisI 108-10). As early 
as 1809 it was published in London by J. H. Hindley, 
then by de Sacy together with a French translation: 
Pandnameh ou Livre des Conseils, Paris 1819. For 
the Swedish translation by Baron Erik Hermelin, 
see Jan Rypka in Archiv Orientalni 4, 1932, 148 ft. 
The Turkish translation, completed in 964/1557, was 
by Emri, who died in 988/1580, and it was repeatedly 
printed in Turkey together with the Persian text 
(1229, 1266, 1280, 1282). Turkish commentaries: 
Shem'I (died 1009/1600-1), Sa'ddat-ndma; Shu'uri 



754 *A1 

(died 1105/1693-4 autograph of 1083 A.H. Istanbul, 
Dariilmesaevi 185; 'Abdl Pasha (died 1113/1701-2), 
Mufid; Bursall Ismail Hakk! (died 1137/1724-s), 
in great detail, printed Istanbul 1250; Mehmed Murad 
(died 1264/1849) Mdkadar, Istanbul 1252, 1260. 

9) Tadhkirat al-Awliyd: an extensive prose work 
which contains the biographies and sayings of 
Muslim mystics. It ends with a biography of Halladj, 
who plays such an extensive part in the works of 
the second group. Other biographies — over 20 in 
number — have been added in some manuscripts. 
In these, as also in his epics, c At(ar has treated his 
sources freely, and has often altered them in the 
light of his own religious ideas. For the numerous 
Turkish studies and translations, see the article 
Attar in I A; in addition Sa'Id Naflsl 110-112. The 
text of the edition by R. A. Nicholson, The Tadh- 
kiratu 'l-awliyd of Shaykh Faridu'd-din <A((dr, 
London-Leiden 1905-1907, Persian Historical Texts 3 
and 5, is not always trustworthy. Other editions in 
Sa'Id Naflsl 112 and in the above mentioned cata- 

10) Bulbul-ndma: the birds complain to Solomon 
about the nightingale which, they say, disturbs them 
with her song to the rose. The nightingale is called 
upon to defend herself. Eventually Solomon orders 
that she be left in peace. Sa'Id Naflsl (106-7) regards 
this book as spurious. Printed in Tehran 1312. 

n) Mi'-rddi-ndma: could well be an excerpt from 
the naH of any mathnawi. In the only manuscript 
which I have seen, it covers a mere two pages. 

12) Diumdiuma-ndma : a rather short story which 
might come from any of 'Attar's epics. Jesus resur- 
rects a skull in the desert; the dead man, who had 
been a great king, tells Jesus about the torments of 
the grave and of hell; he then embraces the true 
faith and dies for a second time. For Turkish 
editions of this little work, see I A : Attar. 

The works of the second group (described above): 

13) Ushtur (Shutur)-ndma: the central figure of the 
first part of this work is a Turkish puppet player, 
who appears as a symbol of the deity. He has seven 
curtains to his stage and has seven assistants. He 
breaks the figures which he himself had created and 
tears the curtain. He sends his assistants in all 
directions and himself withdraws in order to guard 
his secret. A wise man asks him for the reason for 
his actions. By way of a reply, he is sent in front 
of seven curtains. There he beholds a strange, 
fantastic series of events, the meaning of which is to 
be understood symbolically. He is always sent on 
by a plr without any clear information, and on his 
arrival at the 7th curtain he is asked to fetch from 
a grave some writing written on silk in green letters. 
On this God has revealed matters concerning Him- 
self, the way towards Him, the creation, and the 
prophet Muhammad. There is repeated mention of 
decapitation as a means of reaching God, and Halladj 
is repeatedly pointed to as the great example. The 
fruitless wandering from one curtain to another is 
reminiscent of the cosmic journey of the sdlik in 
the Musibat-ndma. The second part deals almost 
exclusively with Halladj. On the scaffold he has 
talks with Djunayd, Shaykh-i Kabir (Ibn al-Khaflf), 
Bayazid and Shibll, and in these, as God, he develops 
a monistic-pantheistic theology. In spite of its 
length, the Ushtur-ndma is an important and 
interesting work which deserves closer study. Metre : 
Ramal. 

14) Djawhar (Djawdhir) al-Dhdt: this epos was 
written after the Ushtur-ndma, because the latter 
(as well as the Musibat-ndma) is quoted in it. In this 



work, too, Halladj is continuously presented as a 
model of the fand and of becoming God. Among 
other stories, it contains the one of 'AH whispering 
the divine secrets into a cistern. These secrets are 
then betrayed by a reed which had grown in the 
cistern and had been cut into a flute. The connexion 
with the 18 introductory lines of the Mathnawi, by 
Djalal al-Din Rflml, is obvious. My assumption is 
that it is this story (which goes back to Midas' 
donkey-ears via NijamI) which has inspired Djalal 
al-DIn; Said NafisI, who considers the work a later 
forgery, assumes the reverse to be the case (p. 114) 
(H. Ritter, Das Prooemium des Mathnawi-i Mauiawi, 
in ZDMG 93, 169-196). The epic also contains the 
story of the youth who went on a sea voyage with his 
father, recognised himself as God and jumped into 
the sea in order to lose himself completely in the 
divine nature. The youth is also recognised as God 
by a fellow-passenger. The motif of the recognition 
of a man as a God by another man also appears in 
other works of this group. This work was printed in 
Teheran in 1315/1355. 

15) Haylddi-ndma: a poor imitation of the second 
part of the Ushtur-ndma. Metre: Hazadi. Litho- 
graphed, Tehran 1253. 

16) Mansur-ndma: a short tale in the metre Ramal, 
beginning: Bud Man fur ay ^adjab shurida hdl. It is a 
short description of the martyrdom of Halladj. 

17) Bisar-ndma: a short Mathnawi, the centre of 
which consists of self-deification (Man khuddyam 
man khuddyam man khudd) and fund by decapitation. 
It contains verses from other mathnawis of this group. 
Its content is connected with the second part of 
the Ushtur-ndma. Lithographed, Tehran 1319 and 
several times in Lucknow. 

The works of the third group (undoubtedly by 
another hand): 

18) Mazhar al-'Adid'ib (the "place where miracles 
appear") is an honorary name for 'All, to whose 
glorification this work is dedicated. He is the divine 
man, the bearer of divine secrets, the Shah of all 
beings, prophets and angels. Legends about 'All 
play a large part. The author claims all the works 
of 'AttSr as his own, and gives great biographical 
detail, including the meeting with Nadjm al-DIn 
Rubra. Lithograph, Tehran 1323. Sa'Id Naflsl 136 ft 

19) Lisdn al-Qhayb: again a ShI'ite work by the 
same poet, who explicitly renounces Abu Bakr and 
'UthmSn. Sa'Id Naflsl 122-3. These two works have 
no literary value. 

Works of the fourth group (demonstrably 
spurious on the basis of internal evidence): 

20) Khayydf-ndma: for contents see E. Berthels, 
Faridaddin l A((df's Khayydf-Ndma, in Bull, de I'Ac. 
des Sc. de L'URSS, Classe des Huraanites 1929, 
201-214. HadjdjI Khalla attributes the work to a 
certain Khayyat-i Kashanl. Berthels considers it 
genuine. 

21) Waslat-ndma: the poet is a man called Buhlul. 
Sa'Id Naflsl 131-132. 

22) Kanz al-Asrdr (= Kara al-Bahr = Tardjamat 
al-Ahddith): compiled 699/1299-1300. Philologika X, 
157; Said Naflsl 120. 

23) Miftdh al-Futuh: compiled 688/1289-90, ac- 
cording to other manuscripts 587/1 191-2, by a 
man from Zandjan, Philologika X, 157; Said Naflsl 
127-128. 

24) Wasiyyat-ndma: compiled 850/1446-7. PUhf 
logika X 158. Perhaps = Waslat-ndma} 

25) Kanz al-flakd'ik: contains a panegyric to a 
prince by name of NIku Ghazl. Concerning the 
possibly corrupt name of this prince see Sa'Id Naflsl 



'ATTAR — AVARS 



121, Ritter, Philologika X, 158. Concerning four 
other spurious works, compare ibid., 154. 

Bibliography : Works other than those 
mentioned in the text: Mirza Muhammad Kazwlnl, 
Introduction to E. G. Browne's edition of the 
Tadhkirat al-Awliyd; H. Ritter, Philologika X in 
IsL 25, 1939, 134-173; idem, the article in IA. 
(All three articles still take Mazhar al- c Adid'ib to 
be genuine and use it as a source for biograph- 
ical matter); Sa'id Nails! , Qxustudju dar Akwdl 
u Athdr-i Fariduddin <A((ar-i Nishdbiiri, Tehran 
1320. Apart from these, histories of literature 
and catalogues of manuscripts. 

(H. Ritter) 
al- c ATTAR, Hasan b. Muhammad, Egyptian 
scholar of Maghribine origin, born in Cairo after 
1180/1766. He studied at al-Azhar, and was one of 
the few 'ulamd* who, after the occupation of Egypt 
by Bonaparte, entered into relations with the 
French scholars and took an active interest in the 
new learning. He then spent many years in Syria and 
Turkey, and on his return to Egypt was employed 
as editor of the Official Journal {al-Wakd'i 1 al- 
Mifriyya) founded by Muhammad c Ali (1244/1828). 
In 1 245/1 830 he was installed as Shaykh al-Azhar 
by Muhammad c Ali, with whose programme he was 
thought to be in sympathy, and died in office in 
1250/1835. He was probably most influential as the 
teacher of Rifa'a Rafi 1 al-TahtawI [q.v.], but his 
handbook of correspondence (InsM? al- l A((dr) 
enjoyed a wide vogue, and was frequently reprinted 
at Cairo and in India. 

Bibliography: 'All Pasha Mubarak, at- 
iam al-Qiadida, iv, 38-40; Ph. TarrazI, Ta'rikh 
al-$ahdfa al-'Arabiyya, i, Beirut r9i3, 128-30; 
Brockelmann, II, 473; S II, 720; E. W. Lane, 
Modern Egyptians, chap, ix; J. Hey worth- Dunne, 
Hist, of Education in Modern Egypt, London 1940, 
154. 263, 397; Sulayman Rasad, Kanz al-Diawhar 
fl Ta'rikh al-Azhar, Cairo 1320, 138-41. 

(H. A. R. Gibb) 
ATTACK [see atak]. 
ATTRIBUTE [see sifa]. 
AURES [see awras]. 

AVARS (Awar, from Adhart Turkish avarali: 
"unstable", "vagabond") Ibero-Caucasian people, 
inhabiting the mountainous part of the autonomous 
Soviet Socialist Republic of Daghistan (basins of the 
riveirs Koysu of Andi, Koysu Awar, Kara- Koysu and 
Tleyserukh) and the northern part of the Soviet 
Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan. The Avars are 
SunnI Muslims of the Shafi'i rite. In 1955 their 
numbers were estimated at 240,000, of whom 
40,000 approximately were in the BelokanI and 
Zakatall districts of Azerbaijan. 

The Avars are divided into two major groups — 
formerly federations of tribes {bo), which are sub- 
divided into clans (ft c tfrt'/ c ) : the Maarulal group (from 
maar "mountain" in Avar, in Russian tawlinsti from 
the Kumlk taw: mountain) to the North of the 
plateau of Khunzak, and the Bagaulal (in Avar: 
rough men), composed of the southern clans. The 
Avars claim to have been converted to Iflam by 
the Arabs. According to a legendary tradition, 
Islam is said to have been introduced to Khunzak 
by the Amir Abu Muslim, and his tomb and sword 
are still shown there. In point of fact, this 
tradition confuses Amir Abu Muslim, who never 
went to Daghistan, and the Shaykh Abu Maslama, 
who is reputed to have lived there in the 5th/nth 
century. In point of fact, when the Arabs arrived in 
Daghistan, Christianity and even Judaism had 



755 

already taken root in the Avar country and Islam 
only penetrated very slowly, since Christianity in 
the Georgian rite survived at Kakhib until the 
ioth/i6th century. However, in the 5th/nth 
century, the Tanush aul, capital of the Avar prin- 
cipality of the Nutsal, originally a vassal of the 
Kazi-Kumuk (see lak), was already a Muslim 
stronghold and one of the principal centres of Arab 
culture of Upper Daghistan. The islam isation of 
the country was completed during the brief period 
of Ottoman domination (965-1015/1558-1606), that 
is to say at the time of the formation of the Avar 
Khanate, whose rulers claimed (legendary) descent 
from the Arab governors of Khunzak. 

In the nth-i2th/i7th-i8th centuries, the Avar 
Khanate dominated Upper Daghistan culturally 
and politically, especially with Ummu-Khan Avar 
(died 1634), who codified the Avar/ 'ddat, and his 
successors who received tribute from the King of 
Georgia and from the Khans of SJjirwan, Shekkl 
and Darband. However, the lords of" Khunzak were 
never able to completely unite AJvaristan, which 
remains divided amongst a multitude of clans, 
some grouped in free federations {bo) and others 
tributary to the Khanate. 

In 1727 the Avar Khanate accepted the Russian 
protectorate for the first time, but soon rejected it. 
It was again imposed for a second time on 'Umar 
Khan in 1802, then once more in 1803 on his son 
and successor Sultan Ahmad Khan. 

In 1821, after the revolt of Sultan Aljmad Khan, 
Avaristan was occupied by Russian forces which, 
without assuming power directly, were content to 
provide the ruler with military advisers. From that 
time, the plateau of Khunzak served the Russians as 
a springboard for the conquest of Upper Daghistan. 
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Avar 
country became the field of activity of the initiates 
of the Nakshbandiyya order, who in 1830 instigated 
a popular movement there directed both against the 
Khanate, which was in alliance with the Russians, 
and against the "infidels". The Khanate was over- 
thrown in 1834 by the Imam Hamza Beg [q.v.] and 
the Russians were shortly afterwards expelled from 
Avaristan. The surrender of the Imam Shamil [q.v.] 
on 25 August 1859 Put an end to the imamate; the 
Russians re-established the Avar Khanate, placing 
Ibrahim Khan of Mehtulin at its head. However, 
on 22 February 1863, Ibrahim Khan was arrested 
and sent into exile; on 2 April 1864, the Khanate 
was finally suppressed and its territory annexed 
to the Avar okrug administered directly by the 
Russian authorities. 

After the October Revolution, the Avar territory 
became part of the autonomous Soviet Socialist 
Republic of Daghistan, attached to the Russian 
Soviet Federative Socialist republic (decree of the 
Supreme Soviet of January the 20th 1921). 

The Avar language belongs to the North-Eastern 
branch (DaghistanI) of the Northern group of Ibero- 
Caucasian languages. Its sphere extends from the 
aul of Cirinot to Novo-Zakatali in Azerbaijan, 
170 km. further to the South; it is subdivided into 
numerous dialects (almost one to each clan) forming 
two main groups: the Northern (or Khunzak) 
dialects and the Southern dialects (Antsukh, Cokh, 
Gidatli and Zakatali). The literary language was 
formed from the Bolmats ("language of the army"), 
the vehicle of inter- tribal relations from the 16th 
century onwards. In the middle of the 17th century, 
Avar was endowed with an Arabic alphabet (com- 
pleted by numerous signs for the transcription of 



756 AVARS - 

Ibero-Caucasian phonemes), (called "Old 'Adjam") 
which was finally perfected by Dibir, kadi of 
Khunzak (1747-1827). Avar literature was born at 
the same period with Muhammad b. Musa of Kudatli 
(died 1708), who wrote in Arabic, and Dibir, kadi of 
Khunzak, who translated Kalila wa Dimna into 
Avar. At the beginning of the 19th century, it was 
enriched by a spate of religious and didactic works, 
then, in Shamir's time, by satricial and lyrical works, 
the chief representative of which was the poet 
Mahmfid of Betl-Kakhab rosso (1873-1919). This 
literature first of all found expression in Arabic and 
then in Avar. In 1920 the old alphabet was replaced 
by a simplified Arabic alphabet of 38 letters (called 
"New 'Adjam"), for which in 1928 a new Latin 
alphabet was substituted and then in 1938 a Cyrillic 
alphabet. 

At the present time (1957), the Avars are numeri- 
cally the largest nationality in Daghistan (200,000 
for a total population of one million) and the most 
advanced. They have a literature of their own, the 
most famous representative of which is Hamzat 
Tsadasa (1873-1951), Lenin Prize winner in 1950, an 
Avar language press and a well developed network 
of schools, where instruction is given in the national 
language up to the 5th class, and in Russian in the 

The literary Avar language is used by the Ar&i 
[q.v.] and by the thirteen small, Andi [q.v.] and 
Dido [q.v.] nationalities which have no written 
language and are rapidly becoming absorbed into 
the Avar nationality; it also serves as a secondary 
language for certain other peoples of Upper Daghi- 
stan, who are subject to the cultural influence of the 
Avars (Dargin, Laks [q.v.]). Russian, however, 
continues to be the administrative language of 
Daghistan. The Avars of Azerbaijan are losing the 
use of their mother tongue, which is being replaced 
byAdhari Turkish. 

In the territory of Avaristan occupying the 
mountainous and little accessible region of Central 
Daghistan, the Awars remain essentially nomadic 
sheep breeders, and in the valleys horticulturists 
on a small scale (terraced orchards). Traditional 
crafts are very much developed: woven woollen 
goods, carpets, copper work (aids of Yotsatl' and 
Cicali), work on leather, work in gold, artistic work 
on wood (auls of Untsukul and Batsada), wrought 
iron work (auls of Sogratl', Golotl', Kakhih). The 
industrialisation of the country, which was started 
about 1936, is still in the initial stages. 

Bibliography : Kozubskiy, Pamyatnaya kniika 
Ddghestdnskoy oblasti, Temir- Khan-ShOra 1895; 
idem, Sbornik Materyalov dlya opisaniya mest- 
nostey i piemen Kavkaza, Tiflis 1909, vol. 40; 
P. K. Uslar, Avarskiy Yazik, in Ethnografiya 
Kavkaza, V, Tiflis 1892; Z. A. Nikol'skaya, 
Avarsti, in Narodi Ddgkestdna, Moscow 1955; 
idem, Istorileskie predposilki natsional'noy kon- 
solidatsii avartsev, in Sovetskaya Etnografiya, no. i, 
Moscow 1953; A. G. Peredel'skiy, Avarskiy Okrug, 
in Kavkaz, no. 6-7, 1904; Kh. M. Khashaev. 
Kodeks Ummu Khdna avarskogo, Moscow 1948; 
Nazarevi6, Avarskaya literatura i Gamzat Tsadasa 
Makhai-Kala 1947; Bokarev, Kratkie Svedeniya 
yazikakh Ddgkestdna, Makhai-Kala, 1949; 
Meshcaninov and Serdii&enko, Yaziki Severnogo 
Kavkaza i Ddgkestdna, Moscow 1949 ; A. Bennigsen 
and H. Carrere d'Encausse, Vne ripublique 
soviitique musulmane, le Ddghestdn, Apercu 
dimographique, in R.E.I. 1955. 
(H. Carrere d'Encausse and A. Bennigsen). 



AVENPACE [see ibn baf^dja]. 
AVENZOAR [see ibn zuhr]. 
AVERROES [see ibn rushd], 
AVICENNA [see ibn sina]. 
AVROMAN [see hawraman]. 
AWA (Avah, Aveh), the name of two towns in 
central Iran. 

1) A town of Awa, at present called Awadj, lies 
70 m. (in km.) S.-W. of Kazwin on the road to 
Hamadan, ca. 35 35' N. lat. and 49 15' E. long. 
(Greenw.). The town is reckoned in the cold zone 
(sardsir) because of its altitude. In 1950 it had 
ca. 1800 Persian and Turkish speaking inhabitants. 

There are only short notices of the town in medieval 
geographers. Yakut, i, 387, mentions a savant called 
AwakI from there. The only old building in the 
vicinity is a caravanseray from the time of Shah 
c Abbas. 

2) Another town, also called Abeh, is now a 
village in the Dja'farabad county of the Sawa 
district, ca. i8»/, m. (30 km.) west of Kumm on the 
usually dry Gawmaha River, 34° 45' N. lat and 
50 20' E. long (Greenw.). The medieval geographers 
mention it together with Sawa. It was plundered 
by the Mongols but apparently regained importance, 
if this is the Awa where Il-khanid coins were minted 
(see B. Spuler, Die Mongolen in Iran, Berlin 1955, 
129). 

The present village had 885 inhabitants in 1950, 
ardent Shi'ites as in the past of the town. There are 
many ancient artificial mounds in the vicinity of 
Awa, and an old imdmzdda in the village. 

Bibliography: Le Strange, 196, 211; P. 
Schwartz, Iran im Mittelalter, 5, 549, 542; Hamd 
Allah Mustawfi, Nuzha, 60, 221 (only the second 
Awa); Razmara, Farhang-i Diughrdfiyd-yi Iran, 1, 
Tehran 1950, 26-7; P. Schwartz, Drei Ortslagen 
in Nord-Iran, in Isl. 8, 1918, 18, (only the first 
Awa = Ud?). (R. N. Frye) 

AWADH (Oudh), a tract of country comprising 
the Lucknow and Faydabad divisions of the Indian 
State of Uttar Pradesh. It has an area of 24, 168 
square miles and a population of 15, 514, 950, of 
which 14, 156, 139 are to be found in the rural 
districts. (Census of India, 1951). From very early 
times Awadh, which forms part of the great alluvial 
plain of northern India, has been the peculiar home 
of Hindu civilisation. It corresponds roughly to the 
Middle Country, the Madhya-desha of the sacred 
Hindu writings, where dwelt the gods and heroes of 
the Epic Period whose deeds are recorded in the 
Mahdbhdrata and the Ramdyana. Here too arose a 
number of religious reactions against the sacerdo- 
talism and the social exclusiveness of Brahmanism. 
Apart from marauding expeditions, such as 
Mahmud of Ghazna's attack upon Manaii and the 
doubtful exploits of Salar Mas'ud GhazI recorded in 
the Mir'dt-i Mas'udi of c Abd al-Rahman Cishtl, it 
was not until the last decade of the twelfth century, 
in the days of Kutb al-DIn Aybak, that the Muslim 
invaders established themselves in Awadh and 
annexed it to the Dihll Sultanate. It formed a 
province of Muhammad b. Tughluk's extensive 
empire, but towards the close of the fourteenth 
century was absorbed by the Shark! kingdom of 
Djawnpur, of which it remained an integral part 
until reconquered by the Lodi sultans of Dihli In 
the reign of Akbar it was annexed to the Mughal 
empire. According to Abu '1-Fadl it was divided into 
five sarkdrs and thirty-eight parganas. It extended 
from the Ganges on the south-west as far as the 
Gandak on the north-east; and from the river Sai in 



the south to the Tarai of Nepal in the north. (A'in-i 
AkbaH, ii, 170-7- Jarrett, H.S., Bib. Ind., 1891). 
Local traditions in Awadh, however, conflict with 
the Muslim accounts and suggest that the Radjput 
chiefs maintained their authority practically intact 
throughout the Mughal period. (W. C. Benett, The 
Chief Clans of the Roy Bareilly District, 1895). The 
weakness of the central government after the death 
of Awrangzlb gave the nawabs of Awadh an opport- 
unity of asserting their independence, although 
nominally they still acknowledged the authority of 
the Mughal emperor. 

Sa'adat Khan Burhan al-Mulk, the founder of the 
Awadh dynasty, was descended from a respectable 
Sayyid family of Ntshapur (Muntakhab al-Lubdb of 
Khafi Khan, ii, 902). During his nawabship (1722-39) 
Benares, Ghazipur. Djawnpur and Cunar were 
annexed to his dominions. His successor, Safdar 
Djang (1739-54), was appointed wazir of the empire 
in 1748. He invited the Marathas to assist him 
against the Bangash Pathans of Farrukhabad who 
were supported by the Rohillas. The engagements 
entered into at that time formed the basis of later 
Maratha claims on Rohilkhand. Safdar Djang's son 
and successor, the nawdb-wazir Shudja' al-Dawla 
(1754-75), came into conflict with the rising power 
of the English East India Company and was totally 
defeated at Baksar in 1764 This left Awadh at the 
disposal of the Company By the treaty of Allahabtfd 
(1765) Clive restored Awadh to Shudja' al-Dawla 
with the exception of Kora and Allahabad, which 
were handed over to the emperor for the upkeep 
of his dignity and expenses. This alliance with 
Shudja al-Dawla was purely defensive. It was the 
germ of all subsequent subsidiary alliances with 
Awadh because the extraordinary expenses of all 
troops supplied by the Company were to be defrayed 
by Shudja' al-Dawla. By these means Awadh was 
converted into a buffer state against Maratha 
encroachments. In the main this was a sound policy. 
Its chief weakness from a strategical point of view 
was the handing over of Kora and Allahabad to the 
Mughal emperor as the defence of Awadh necessitated 
the defence of these districts. The reinstatement of 
Shudja' al-Dawla was a wise move as the Company 
at that time were in no position to annex and 
administer Awadh. By the treaty of Benares (1773) 
Warren Hastings placed the Company's relations 
with this important buffer state between Bengal and 
the Marathas on a firmer footing. In future its ruler 
had to defray all the expenses of the Company's 
troops required for the defence of his country, 
namely 210,000 rupees a month. Because the 
emperor had deserted the Company and become a 
puppet in the hands of the Marathas, Kora and 
Allahabad were sold to the ruler of Awadh for 
fifty lakhs of rupees. (For these negotiations see 
The Benares Diary of Warren Hastings, ed. C. Collin 
Davies, Camden Miscellany, Royal Historical 
Society, vol. lxxix, 1948). 

The accession of the incapable Asaf al-Dawla 
(1775-97) enabled the hostile majority on Warren 
Hastings' council to alter his policy towards Awadh. 
By the treaty of Faydabad (1775) the subsidy for 
the use of the Company's troops was raised to 
260,000 rupees per mensem and the new nawab was 
forced to cede Raja Chait Singh's zaminddri of 
Benares, Djawnpur and Ghazipur in full sovereignty 
to the Company. By the treaty of Cunar (1781) 
Hastings, who had regained control over his council, 
proposed to reform Asaf al-Dawla's administration 
by reducing the number of English troops stationed 



in his territories. Unfortunately the weakness of the 
nawab's government prevented this and Hastings 
was forced to retain both the permanent and temp- 
orary brigades. His share in the resumption of the 
dfdgirs and in the sequestration of the treasures of 
the begums of Awadh, the mother and wife of Asaf 
al-Dawla, formed one of the charges against him on 
impeachment. Certain conclusions may be drawn 
from Hastings' conduct of the Company's relations 
with Awadh. His object was to prevent any develop- 
ment which would impair the efficiency of the 
buffer state and weaken the Company's defences. 
He therefore contended that the Company had a 
right to dethrone a disloyal or unsuitable ruler. He 
also insisted on ministers favourable to the British 
connexion. The trouble he experienced in controlling 
the English Residents in Awadh, both Middleton and 
Bristow, illustrates the difficulty of formulating 
written instructions which were not liable to 
misinterpretation. Because of the close connexion 
between Awadh and Bengal a policy of non-inter- 
vention was impossible. Under the incapable Asaf 
al-Dawla Awadh could not have preserved its 
independence without the Company's assistance. It 
certainly would not have been free from Maratha 
depredations. In the main Hastings' policy was 
followed by Lord Cornwallis and Sir John Shore. 
Cornwallis reduced the Company's demands on 
Awadh to fifty lakhs of rupees a year, but, on the 
accession of Sa'adat C A1! Khan (1798-1814) Shore 
raised the subsidy to seventy-six lakhs. In 1801 
Lord Wellesley forced Sa'adat 'All Khan to cede 
Rohilkhand. Farrukhabad. Mainpuri, Etawah, Cawn- 
pore, Fatehgarh, Allahabad, Azimgarh, Basti, and 
Gorakhpur. This meant that Awadh ceased to be a 
buffer state, for, except where it was bounded by 
Nepal, it was entirely surrounded by British territory. 
Its weakness as a buffer state had been Wellesley's 
excuse for these annexations. Sa'adat 'All Khan was 
succeeded by his eldest son, GhazI al-DIn Haydar, 
who was the first ruler of Awadh to assume the title 
of king. The remaining kings of Awadh were Nasir 
al-DIn IJaydar (1827-37), Muhammad 'All Shah 
(1837-42), Amdjad 'Alt Shah (1842-47) and Wadjid 
'AH Shah (1847-56). 

It was a provisior of the treaty of 1801 that the 
ruler of Awadh should introduce into his country 
a system of administration conducive to the prospe- 
rity of his subjects and calculated to secure their 
lives and* property . In spite of repeated warnings 
nothing was done and mispovernment continued 
unchecked. On these grounds Awadh was annexed by 
Lord Dalhousie in 1856. Wadjid 'All ghah received 
a pension and was allowed to reside at Calcutta 
where he died in 1887, his title expiring with him. 
The annexation of Awadh was one of the causes of 
the 1857 Mutiny. Some of the fiercest fighting during 
this uprising took place at Lucknow and Cawnpore. 

After its annexation Awadh was controlled by 
a Chief Commissioner, until, in 1877, both Agra and 
Awadh were placed under the same administrator, 
who was known as the Lieutenant-Governor of the 
North-Western Provinces and Chief Commissioner 
of Awadh. The title of Chief Commissioner was 
dropped on the formation of the United Provinces 
of Agra and Oudh in 1902. It was not, however, 
until 1921 that this administration was raised to the 
status of a Governor's province. 

The first land revenue settlement after annexation 
was carried out with a lack of consideration for the 
great talukddri families of the province, who were 
ousted from the greater part of their estates. This 



758 



AWADH — AWA'IL 



was reversed after the Mutiny when Lord Canning 
reverted to a talukddri settlement and confirmed the 
rights of the talukddrs by sanads. 

To-day in Awadh Muslims are to be found chiefly 
where they held sway in the past, their preference 
for urban life explaining their presence in the chief 
towns. The old talukddri system has been abolished 
and a new rural hierarchy of officials and village 
organisations has sprung up as a result of the Uttar 
Pradesh Village Panchayat Act of 1947. Villages or 
groups of villages with a population of 1,500 have 
been constituted into a gaon sabha with certain 
powers of local administration. Groups of gaon 
sabhds are controlled by panchayat 'addlats with 
judicial powers extending to civil, criminal and 
revenue cases. There are about 9,466 gaon sabhds 
and 2,180 panchayat 'addlats in Awadh. 

Bibliography: (For the Persian authorities 
on the history of Awadh see Storey, i, 703-13); 
C. U. Atchison, Treaties, Engagements and Sanads 
i, Calcutta 1909; P. Basu, Oudh and the East India 
Company 1785-1801, Lucknow 1943; W. Crooke, 
The Tribes and Castes of the North-Western 
Provinces and Oudh. 4 vols., Calcutta 1896; 
C. C. Davies, Warren Hastings and Oudh, Oxford 
1939; The Benares Diary of Warren Hastings, 
Royal Historical Society, vol. lxxix 1948; D. 
Dewar, Handbook of the Records of the United 
Provinces, 1919; C. A. Elliott, Chronicles of Oonao, 
Allahabad 1862; M. R. Gubbins, The Mutinies in 
Oudh, London 1858; Tafdih al-Ghafilin, transl. 
W. Hoey, Allahabad 1885; Muhammad Fa'iz 
Bakhsh, Ta'rikhi Farabbakhsh (transl. W. Hoey, 
Memoirs of Dehli and Faizabad, 2 vols., Allahabad 
1888-9) I H. C. Irwin, The Garden of India, L9ndon 
1880; W. Knighton, The Private Life of an 
Eastern King, Oxford 192 1; Khayr al-DIn Muham- 
mad, Tuhfa-i Tata (Balwantnama); W. Oldham, 
Historical and Statistical Account of the Ghazeepoor 
District, Allahabad 1870; Papers relating to Land 
Tenures and Revenue Settlement in Oudh, Calcutta 
1865; Papers respecting a reform in the admini- 
stration of the government of the Nawab- 

Waiir, London 1824; Parliamentary Papers, Oudh, 

vol., xliii, 1857-8; Report on the United Provinces 

of Agra and Oudh, Allahabad, published annually; 

W. H. Sleeman, A Journey through the Kingdom 

of Oudh in 1849-1850, 2 vols., 1858; A. L. Sriva- 

stava, The first two Nawabs of Oudh, Lucknow 

1933; idem, Shuja-ud-Daulah, 2 vols., Calcutta 

I Q3945- (C. Collin Davies) 

AWAQHILA (see 'awdhila]. 

AWA'IL. Plural of awwal "first", technically 

used to denote various ideas such as the "primary 

data" of philosophical or physical phenomena; the 

"ancients" of either pre-Islamic or early Islamic 

times; and the "first inventors" of things (or 

the things invented or done first). 

In the last mentioned connotation, the term 
characterises a minor branch of Muslim 
literature with affinities to adab, historical, and 
theological literature. Among the Muslims them- 
selves, only the ioth/i7th-century HadjdjI Khalifa 
(Fliigel), i, 490; Istanbul 1941-3, col. 1996, defines 
the aw&Hl as a separate "science" relating to history 
and adab. 

Curiosity about the origin of things was deeply 
rooted in the historical consciousness of the ancient 
Semites and reached the Arabs through such literary 
media as the Bible. The Hellenistic world possessed 
a literature on the first inventors {Peri Heurtmatdn, 
cf., most recently, A. Kleingiinther, Prttos Heuretls, 



in Philologus, SuppUmentband XXVI, i, 1934), the 
history of science, such as the origins of medicine, 
became known in Islam directly through translation 
(cf. Ishak b. Hunayn, Ta'rikh al-Atibbd', in Orient, 
1954, 55-80, whose source was Ps.-Galen's Commen- 
tary on the Hippocratic Oath, or, more generally, the 
ample material preserved in the introduction of Abu 
Sulayman al-Sidjistanfs Siwdn al-ffikma). For the 
Muslims, the knowledge of the "firsts" connected 
with the history of Muhammad and the beginnings 
of Islam was a matter of far-reaching legal and 
practical importance in many respects, and already 
the earliest known literature on the biography of Mu- 
hammad pays attention to it. Muslim customs, such 
as clipping the moustache, using the toothpick, etc., 
were justified by ascribing their first use to the great 
religious leaders of the past, in this case Abraham 
(cf. al-Tha'alibl, Lafd'if al-Ma'drif (De Jong), 6). 
With the growing historical interest of the Muslims 
not only in political history but also in the history 
of civilisation and science (cf., especially, the intro- 
ductory remarks to each chapter of the Fihrist, on 
the origin of the science treated in that particular 
chapter), the question: Who was first ?, was soon 
asked in connexion with every conceivable subject 
and always answered, though often in a rather 
fanciful manner. Nevertheless, the awdHl works are 
brilliant expressions of the cultural outlook and 
historical sense of their authors, and they are full of 
valuable material and interesting insights. The wide 
intellectual appeal of the subject shows itself in the 
fact that since the beginning of our era, the Chinese 
also had a literature on the origins (cf. J. Needham, 
Science and Civilization in China I, 51 ff., Cambridge 
1954) and again in late medieval Europe, successful 
works on the first inventors were produced, such as 
the alphabetically arranged chapter on the inventors 
from De viris illustribus by the fourteenth-century 
Guglielmo da Pastrengo (published in Venice 1547, 
under the title of De originibus rerum fols. 78a-8ga) 
and the famous, widely read De originibus rerum, 
by Polydore Vergil which first appeared in 1499. 
Our oldest known representative of the Muslim 
awdHl literature dates from the beginning of the 
3rd/9th century. The large Musannaf of Abu Bakr 
b. Abl Shayba (d. 235/849; Brockelmann, S I, 215) 
is said to contain, at (or rather, near) the end, a 

al-Shibll, Mahdsin al-WasdHl ild Ma'rifat al- AwdHl. 
It appears to deal with the awdHl of early Islam 
and the origins of Muslim history and customs. The 
end of the section is preserved in MS Berlin 9409; 
the large sets of the Musannaf could not be consulted. 

At the same period, works entitled Kitdb al- 
AwdHl were composed by Hisham b. al-Kalbl 
(Yakut, Irshdd, vii, 252); al-Mada>inI {Fihrist, 104); 
al-Hasan b. Mahbub {Fihrist 221), whose list of 
works is duplicated in Yakut, Irshdd, ii, 32, under 
the name of Ahmad al-Rakkl; and a certain Sa'ld 
b. Sa'dun al-'Attar {Fihrist 171) of unknown date. 
Since none of these works is preserved or quoted 
in the later awdHl literature, it remains extremely 
doubtful whether they dealt with awdHl in the sense 
discussed here (or, at any rate, contained some 
awaHl material). According to the description given 
in Fihrist 133, the Kitdb al-AwdHl by the 4th/ioth- 
century al-Marzubanl appears to have dealt not 
with first inventors but with the history of the 
ancient Persians and the Mu'tazila. 

Late in the 3rd/gth century, Ibn Kutayba, 
Ma'-drif (Wustenfeld), 273-7, devoted to the awdHl 
a chapter in a historical context (cf. also the later 



AWA'IL — 'AWAMIR 



759 



al-Tha'alibt, op. tit., 3-17). In an adab context, a 
chapter on awd'il appears in the early 4th/ioth 
century in al-Bayhakl, Mahdsin (Schwally), 392-6. 
Theological awd'il works were written at about that 
time by Abu 'Aruba [q.v.] and al-TabarSnl (d. 360/ 
971; Brockelmann, SI, 279). 

Adab literature provided its first monograph 
treatment of the subject in the Kitdb al-Awd'il of 
AbQ Hilal al- c AskarI (d. 395/1005), who claims to 
have had no predecessors. He restricts himself to 
material derived from Arab and Muslim history, 
with the inclusion of some Persian and biblical 
references, and ignores 'Greek' cultural and scientific 
data. He succeeds in clearly underscoring the view 
of Muslim historians that every important and good 
invention dates back to the pre-Islamic and early 
Islamic period while subsequent ages as a rule 
produced insignificant and undesirable inventions. 
Al-'Askari's book remained a much quoted standard 
work which served as a basis for later efforts, such as 
the awa'il works of the 8th/i4th century al-'Ata'iki 
and al-Suyuti (cf. Brockelmann, I, 132; S I, 193 f.). 

There appears to have been a gap of about two 
centuries in the awa'il literature. From the early 
7th/i3th century, we then have the Ghdvat al-Wasd'il 
ild Ma'rifat al-Awd'il by al-Mawsill (cf. Brockelmann, 
SI, 597 f-; H. Ritter, in Oriens, 1950, 80 f.). A 
historical handbook based on the awa'il scheme is the 
above-mentioned Mahdsin by the 8th/i4th century 
Shibli (cf. Brockelmann, II, 90 f.; S II, 82; F. 
Rosenthal, A History of Muslim Historiography, 
129, fn. 1), a highly informative work. Al-Shiblfs 
literary effort appears to have been continued by the 
poet Ibn Khatlb Dirayya (cf. Brockelmann, II, 17; 
S II, 7; HadjdjI Khalifa (Flugel), i, 490). On the 
other hand, the theological inclination of some 
9th/ 15th-century scholars finds expression in their 
awd'il works, which might have followed the lead of 
Ibn Hadjar's Ikdmat al-Dald'il 'aid Ma'rifat al- 
Awd'il (which has not yet been recovered, cf. 
HadjdjI Khalifa, loc. cit.). Abu Bakr b. Zayd al- 
Ejira'l (form uncertain, d. in 883/1478, cf. al- 
Sakhawl, Daw', xi, 32 f.) thus arranged his Kitdb 
at- Awd'il (Ms. Berlin 9368) more or less according 
to the chapters of the science of traditions, and the 
same was done by al-Suyuti, in his instructive 
Wasd'il ild Ma'rifat al- Awd'il which was based to 
some degree upon al-'Askari. In turn, al-Suyutl's 
work was used by 'All Dede al-BosnawI (d. 1007/1598, 
cf. Brockelmann, II, 562 f.; S II, 635) who, as was 
the custom among certain later authors, also included 
the "last things (awdkhir)" that happened (cf., in 
this connexion al-SakhawI. IHdn, Damascus 1349/ 
1930-1, 13; F. Rosenthal, op. cit., 214 f. For a further 
user of al-Suyuti, cf. G. Vajda, in RSO, 1950, 3). 
Another great historian of that time, Ibn Tulun 
(d. 953/1546), wrote 'Unwdn al-Rasd'il ft Ma'rifat 
al-Awd'il (Ms. Cairo, Taymur, Ta'rikh 1467; cf. Ibn 
Tulun, al-Fulk al-Mashhun, Damascus 1348/1929-30). 

The subject was also versified in a work entitled 
Wasd'il al-Sd'il ild Ma'rifat al-Awd'il (cf. HadjdjI 
Khalifa (Flugel), vi, 435) which appears to have 
been preserved in MS. Cairo, Madjamf 474, fols. 
28b-36b. In the Cairo manuscript, the author is 
called Shams al-DIn Muhammad b. Muh. b. Muh. b. 
(Abi) '1-Lutf, apparently either the father or the 
son, who died in 971/1564 and 993/1585, respectively 
(cf. Ibn al-'Imad, Shadhardt; Brockelmann, II, 367; 
S II, 394). The active literary interest in the subject 
continued into modern times (cf. M. al-Tihranl, al- 
DJtari'a ild Tasdnif al-Shfa, ii, 481). 

Bibliography: R. Gosche, Die Kitdb al-awd'il. 



Eine literarhistorische Studie, Halle 1867, which 
includes the edition of a small portion of al-Suyuti. 
Al-Suyuti, al-Wasd'il ild Ma'rifat al-Awd'il, Cairo 
1950. None of the independent awd'il works has so 
far been edited in its entirety. Brockelmann, 1, 132, 
S I, 193 f., S III, 1265; SI, 279 f.; SI, 597 f.; 
II, 90 f., S 11,82; II, 203. S II, 197; II, 562.SH, 
635; A. J. Wensinck and others, Concordance, i, 
134L; Ahlwardt, Catalogue Berlin nos. 9368-76 
(most of the works cited under no. 9376 are, 
however, no awd'il works) ; MMIA, 1941, 357-9, 
on the section dealing with awd'il in <Abd al- 
Rahman al-Bistaml (Brockelmann, II, 300 f.; 
S. II, 323 f.), al-Fawd'ih al-Miskiyya. The awd'il 
are treated as part of the historical equipment 
of the government secretary by al-Kalkashandl, 
Subh, i, 412-36. A short Syriac text of the Muslim 
period in E. Sachau, Verzeichniss d. syr. Hss., 331. 
Berlin 1899. (F. Rosenthal) 

<AWAXIS [see c awla*!]. 

'AwAMIR, al- (sg. 'Amirl), a tribe of Bedouins 
and villagers in Southern and Eastern Arabia. 
The tribe is split into three main groups living in 
the following areas: (1) al-Kaff between the southern 
edge of al-Rub' al-Khall and WadI Hadramawt, 
(2) southern al-?afra between Kafar and al-Burayml, 
and (3) c Uman. The groups are completely separate 
and have little intercourse with each other, though 
they recognize their common kinship, and the two 
main divisions of the tribe, Al Badr and Al Lazz, 
exist in all three groups. The southern group, whose 
range abuts on that of al-Say'ar at the well of Tarals 
in the west and on that of al-Manahll at the well of 
Thamud in the east, is mainly nomadic, though its 
members are not accustomed to pasturing their 
herds in the sands of al-Rub' al-Khall, as is done 
by most of the Bedouin tribes in this region. The 
chief (tamima) of this group is Ibn al-Tabaza of 
Al Badr. Like most of the Arabs in this part of 
Arabia, the southern 'Awamir are Shafi'is. The 
central group consists entirely of nomads, who are 
among the hardiest sand-dwellers of eastern al- 
Rub c al-Khall, moving about so much that they 
have no claim to a range of their own. The shaikhly 
clan headed by Ibn al-Rakkad of Al Badr is said 
to have had an origin outside the tribe. Some of 
these 'Awamir are Hanballs, the rest Shifi'Is. The 
eastern group is found almost entirely in villages 
in the area between WadI Halfln and WadI 'Andam 
south of the Samall pass through the mountains of 
al-Hadjar, with some offshoots in al-Bafina, al- 
?Shira, and the vicinity of Muscat. There are two 
principal chiefs in this group, Ibn Khamls of Al 
Badr in Kal'at al- c Awamir and Ibn Sulayman of 
Al Lazz in al-Humayda. As Ibadls the eastern 
c Awamir recognise the IbadI Imam of c Uman and 
the temporal authority of his lieutenant in al- 
Sharkiyya, Salih b. 'Isa al-Harithl. These c Awimir 
have a tradition of having emigrated long ago from 
Nadjd, and their war-cry of Yd awldd 'Amir b. 
Sa'sa'a indicates their claim to a descent from the 
famous tribe of ancient times (see c amir b. Sa'sa'a). 
Certain smaller elements in Eastern Arabia such as 
Al Silm and Bayt Kay'al tend to associate themselves 
with the 'Awamir; in some cases this may be due 
to the attraction of a glorious name. 

Bibliography: Arabian American Oil Co., 
Oman and the Southern Shore of the Persian Gulf, 
Cairo 1952; S. Miles, The Countries and Tribes of 
the Persian Gulf, London 1919; Memorial of the 
Government of Saudi Arabia [Buraimi Arbitration], 
195;. (R. L. Headley) 



76o 



C AWANA B. al-HAKAM al-KALBI - 



<AWANA b. al-QAKAM al-KALBI, Arabic 
historian, d. 147/764 or 153/770. His genealogy 
and descent are disputed. His father's name is 
given as al-Hakam b. 'Awana b. 'Iyad b. Wizr 
(Yakut, vi, 93; cf. Djamhara (Levi-Provencal), 
428, and Fihrist 134); Abu 'Ubayda, however, 
asserted that al-Hakam's father was a slave tailor 
(Yakut, ibid., citing verses by Dhu '1-Rumma, for 
which cf. Ibn Sallam, Tabakat al-Shu'ard' (M. 
Shakir), 482, and Aghinl, xvi, 121). Al-Hakam was 
the lieutenant of Asad al-Kasri in Khurasan in 109/ 
727 (Tabari, ii, 1501; Baladhuri, Futuh, 428) and 
later governor of Sind, where he founded al-Mahffl?a 
and al-Mansura (Baladhuri, 444). According to Ibn 
al-Nadim, 'Awana was a blind Kufan narrator and 
scholar in poetry and genealogy, and compiled two 
historical works, on the life of Mu c awiya and the 
Umayyads. The latter are known only from citations 
in later works; al-Tabari quote-., 'Awana in 51 pas- 
sages, all of which (except for one passage relating 
to 'Umar and another to the battle of « the Camel ») 
relate to events from Mu'awiya to c Abd al-Malik; 
al-Baladhuri cites him frequently for the same 
events, and in Futuh adds further citations relating 
to the conquest of al- c Irak, also to the conquest of 
Tabaristan under Sulayman. He is thus one of the 
chief authorities for the earlier Umayyad period. 
He seldom cites his own sources, but shows some 
care in fixing the dates of events; his style is clear 
and lucid, and his narratives are often detailed. He 
is also interested in poetry and literary events (for 
which he is often cited in the Aghdni and in other 
literary works), as well as in social life and admini- 
stration. Although he is charged with partiality 
towards the 'Uthmaniyya and the Umayyads 
(Yakut, vi, 94), the quotations from his works show 
little evidence of prejudice, whether for the Umay- 
yads, or for Kufa, or for Kalb. They are transmitted 
chiefly through Hisham b. al-Kalbl, al-Mada'inl, 
and al-Haytham b. c Adi, but occasionally also by 
other scholars; he is not, however, as is asserted by 
one of Yakut's authorities, the source of most of 
al-Mada'im's information. 

Bibliography : In addition to works mentioned 
in the article: Zubaydl, Tabakat al-Nahwiyyin, 
246; Ibn al-Kiftl, Inbdh al-Ruwdt, ii, 361-3 (bio- 
graphy of his son 'Iyad); D. S. Margoliouth, 
Arabic Historians, Calcutta 1930, 83; J. Well- 
hausen, Arab. Reich, Intro, vi; Atimad Amin, 
Duhd al-Isldm; F. Wustenfeld, Die Geschichts- 
schreiber der Ataoer, GOttingen 1882, no. 27; F. 
Rosenthal, A History of Muslim Historiography, 
Leiden 1952, ii;dex. (Saleh El-Ali) 

AWAR [see avars]. 

c AWARip. A term used under the Ottoman regime 
down to the second quarter of the nineteenth century 
to denote contributions of various types exacted by 
the central government in the sultan's name, and 
hence often referred to as 'awarid-i diwaniyye. The 
Ottoman fief-system dispensed the central govern- 
ment from the collection of revenues lor the payment 
of the feudal militia and many officers and officials, 
while the institution of wakf likewise relieved it of 
responsibility for the initiation and upkeep of public 
works of all kinds. But both deprived it of vast 
revenues, and those that remained to it, whose 
collection was sanctioned by the shari'a, often 
proved insufficient for its needs. At first only 
in emergencies, but later annually, therefore, it 
resorted to the exaction, by the sultan's 'urfi, or 
customary, authority, of money payments, of 
unpaid services, or of contributions in kind, either 



from the generality of tax-payers, or from those of 
particular areas; and it was to these demands that 
the term 'awarid was applied, apparently because 
the total exacted varied according to the govern- 
ment's need and was hence regarded as 'arid, 
"accidental". 

'Awarid were imposed, not directly on individuals, 
but on what were called 'awdrid-khdnes, which, 
however, were not actual "households", but rather 
"contribution units", so that a whole village or 
quarter of a town, for instance, might constitute 
no more than a fraction of one of them. Care was 
taken, when 'awarid were first imposed, or at least 
when their imposition was regularised, to ensure a 
just apportionment of the burden amongst all con- 
tributors according to their resources, and if for 
any reason those resources were impaired as time 
', the government's demands were adjusted 



It seems to be uncertain whether 'awarid were 
originally money payments on the one hand, or 
contributions in kind or by way of service on the 
other. Eventually, in any case, units that rendered 
services, or furnished supplies, were exempt from 
payments in cash ('awarid aklesi). As regards these 
latter, when in any emergency it was decided how 
much mony was needed, the total was apportioned 
amongst all the 'awarid- khanes concerned and the 
provincial kadis were instructed to collect a similar 
sum from each. As for persons rendering services to 
the state on the 'awarid principle, typical of these 
were the kiirekHs (oarsmen supplementing the war 
captives and criminals likewise employed in the 
imperial galleys), each of whom was supported 
during his term of tjervice by contributions from the 
other members of his 'awdrid-khdne. Among supplies 
furnished as 'awarid were barley, straw and other 
provisions, together with carts and animals to 
transport them, for troops on campaign; timber, 
pitch, sailcloth, etc. for the admiralty; foodstuffs 
for the imperial kitchens ; and cloth for the uniforms 
of the Janissaries. 

Units that normally performed services or furnished 
supplies might be obliged, if they were unable, or 
were not required, to do so for any reason, to make 
cash payments to the treasury instead. The term 
applied to such payments was bedel (plural bedelat) 
(see badal) ; they became more and more usual from 
early in the seventeenth century, by which date the 
exaction of 'awarid was no longer occasional; and 
that these bedelat were distinguished from the 
'awarid aklesi proper may indicate that 'awarid had 
been in origin cash exactions, from which units 
performing services or furnishing supplies were 
exempted by way of recompense, and that this 
exemption endowed those units with as it were 
an odjak status, which they preserved by paying 
bedelat instead of reverting to the payment of 
'awarid aklesi. 

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 
many fresh 'urfi contributions were exacted from 
tax-payers under a large variety of names; and since 
little care was by that time taken to ensure that 
the tax-payers could meet the demands made upon 
them, many found it hard to do so. It therefore 
became a practice among the charitable, when 
founding wakfs, to devote all or part of the revenues 
so engaged to the assistance jf such needy contri- 
butors; and the term 'awarid iakfi was used of such 
foundations. In course of time, however, the original 
object of such wakfs would often be forgotten; and 
then the revenues in question would be devoted to 



'AWARID — al-'AWASIM 



76r 



other reeds of the village, or the quarter of the 
town, concerned. 

Bibliography: Suleyman SMI, Defter-i Mu%- 

tefid, i, 78, note; Mustafa NQri, NetdHdj al- 

Wuku l at, i, 66; ii, 101; <Abd al-Rahman Wefik, 

Ttkalif KawaHdi, 69-99, '82, 295; Hammer- 

Purgstall, Des psmanischen Reichs Staatsverfassung, 

i, 180, 257, 295, 304; D'Ohsson, Tableau de 

V Empire ottoman, vii, 239; J. H. Mordtmann, 

Die judischen Kira im Serai der Sultane, MSOS 

XXXII/2 1929, 20 ff.; H. A. R. Gibb and H. 

Bowen, Islamic Society and the West, index; 

I.A. s.v. (art. by 6. L. Barkan). (H. Bowen) 

al- c AWA§IM, name of a part of the frontier 

zone which extended between the Byzantine Empire 

and the Empire of the Caliphs in the North and 

North-East of Syria. The forward strongholds of 

this zone are called al-Thughur [q.v.] or frontier. 

strongholds properly so called, whilst those which 

were situated further to the rear, are called al- 

'Awasim, literally "the protectresses" (sing, al- 

'dfima). 

Following their quick successes in Syria and 
Mesopotamia, the Arabs for a while made no attempt 
to extend their conquests and confined themselves 
to making raids into Byzantine territory, on the 
further side of the Amanus (al-Lukam, [q.v.]) and 
the Taurus. In the time of c Umar and 'Uthman, the 
Muslim frontier strongholds were those which were 
later to be called al-'Awdsim, situated between 
Antioch and Manbidj, whilst those which were more 
precisely to bear the name al-Thughur were in a kind 
of no man's land, in the vast region extending to the 
North of Antioch and Aleppo, up to Tarsus and the 
Taurus, where the towns had been purposely depo- 
pulated by Heraclius when he withdrew from Syria, 
and where the Byzantines only left guard-posts 
(masdlih) held by local irregular troops, the Mar- 
daltes; they are perhaps to be identified with the 
Djaradjimafa.v.] who were sometimes on the Byzan- 
tine side and sometimes on the side of the Arabs, 
whom they also provided with masdlih and spies. 
This region, periodically ravaged by Muslim in- 
cursions, was designated by the Arabs by the name 
al-dawdhi, the outside countries, the exterior zone, 
or'dawdhi al-Rum (al-Tabari, ii, 1317; cf. Ibn al- 
-Athfr under 98), an expression still in use in 
'Abbasid times by the poets Abu Tammam and 
Buhturl. The Umayyads began to acquire a footing 
in this zone on the further side of Antioch and to 
occupy the main strategical points situated where 
roads intersected or at the entrance to the moun- 
tain passes. According to Theophanes (ed. Bonn, 
555-6, A. M. 6178), the withdrawal of the Mar- 
daltes, as a result of the treaty of Justinian II 
with <Abd al-Malik, left this whole region un- 
defended, and was subsequently disastrous for the 
Byzantine Empire. 

The whole of this frontier zone in the beginning 
was dependent on the djund of Hims. But from the 
time of Yazld b. Mu'awiya, it was detached and made 
into a special djund, that of Kinnasrin. In 170/786, 
Harun al-Rashld, with a view to ensuring the 
defence of the frontier region exposed to Byzantine 
attacks, rather than with any offensive objective, 
(for he also organised the advanced zone for defence), 
detached from the djund of Kinnasrin a certain 
number of strongholds, Manbidj, Duluk, Ra'ban, 
KGrus, Antioch, TTzin, which he called al-<awdsim, 
because the Muslims protected themselves by them 
and because they afforded them protection and 
defended them when they returned from their 



expeditions and left the frontier (thaghr) (al- 
Baladhuri). Another definition is provided by Ibn 
Shaddad: "because the inhabitants of the frontier 
strongholds (ahl al-thughur) protected themselves by 
them when a danger threatened them from the 
enemy", and al-Kalkashandl gives another: "because 
they protected from the enemy the Muslim territory 
which was behind them (dunahd), for they bordered 
upon the country of the Infidels". The same author 
thinks that the expressions al-thughur and al- c awdsim 
are different names applied to the same thing, 
which is certainly not correct, for they are both 
quite distinct and must have been so at an early 
period. But as, at the time of the creation of this 
province, which from 173 had the 'Abbasid c Abd 
al-Malik b. Salih as governor with residence at 
Manbidj, the advanced strongholds were included in 
it, both expressions must have been used inter- 
changeably (see al-Tabari, ill, 604: Harun al-Rashid 
separated all the frontier strongholds of the Djazira 
and Kinnasrin, made them into a single territory and 
called them al- c awdsim). 

'Awdsim and thughur are often united under a 
single command, at times with the djund of Kin- 
nasrin. At other times the thughur form a separate 
province. The geographers do not agree on the 
number of localities which form part of the c Awdsim: 
Ibn Khurradadhbih also includes al-Djuma, Buka r 
Balis and Rusafat Hisham; Ibn Hawkal: Baiis, 
Sandja, Samosate (Sumaysat), Djisr Manbidj. Ibn 
Shaddad also names Baghras, Darbasak, Artah, 
Kaysum, Tall Kabbasln. Yakut includes other 
localities. In the 10th century, the capital of the 
1 Awdsim was Antioch. 

The region of the ' Awdsim, like that of the 
thughur, was the scene of bloody wars between 
Byzantium and the Arabs; it was reconquered by 
Nicephorus Phocas, who obliged the emirate of 
Aleppo to cede him the whole western and northern 
part of the region. Thenceforth, the word al- c awdsim 
is simply a geographical expression, which continues 
to be used in the period of the Crusades and the 
Mamluks by the Arab geographers. 

We have only sparse information on the economic 
situation of this region, which seems to have been 
fairly prosperous in 'Abbasid times. The sum of the 
taxation of the djund of Kinnasrin and the 'awdsim 
together was 400,000 dinars according to Ibn 
Khurradadhbih. and 360,000 according to Kudama. 
The population was very mixed. It included, besides 
indigenous elements (Christians of the towns and 
settlements, Djaradjima of the Amanus) several 
elements which had emigrated or been transported 
thither: Arab tribes, especially Kaysites, who had 
established themselves there, thf Kilab extending 
up to Duluk, foreign elements coming from India via 
Mesopotamia, such as the Sayabidja [q.v.], brought 
to the region of Antioch by Mu'awiya, and the Zott 
[q.v.], also transported to the same region by 
Mu'awiya, then by al-Walid b. <Abd al-Malik. It is 
known that one of the reasons why the Zott were 
settled in this country (as in Cilicia by Yazld II 
and by al-Mu'tasim), is that this tribe practised the 
breeding of water buffaloes, and the presence of 
buffaloes cleared marshy territories, such as those of 
the c Amk [q.v.] of Antioch, or of Cilicia, of the lions 
which infested them (see al-Baladhuri, 162, 376; 
Wellhausen, Das Arabische Reich, 415; M. Hartmann, 
Das Liwd Haleb. 71). 

Bibliography: Baladhuri, Fuiiih, 132, 144 ff. r 

159 ff. (Djaradjima); Istakhri, 56, 62; Ibn Hawkal, 

108, 119; MukaddasI, 189; Ibn al-Faklh, iii. 



,-<AWASIM — 'AWDHALl 



120; Ibn Khurradarihbih. 75; Kudama, 246; Ibn 
ttusta, ia7; Tabart, i 2396, iii 604, 775, 1352, 
1697, 2187; Abu 'l-Fida>, Takwim, 233; Dimashkl, 
ed. Mehren, 192, 214; Ibn Shaddad, a\-A c ldk al- 
Khatira, ed. Ch. Ledit, in al-Mashrik, xxx°°° (1935), 
179-223; Ibn al-§hihna, al-Durr al-Muntakhab, 
Beirut 1909, 9, 11, 158, 190, 201, 221, etc. (see 
Index); Yakut, i 136, 928, iii 240, 741 and passim 
(see Index); Kalkashandi, $ubh al-A'shd, iv, 91, 
130 ff., 228; G. Le Strange, Palestine under the 
Muslims, 25-7, 36, 39, 42, 45-7; Sachau, in Sitz.- 
Ber. der Berl. Ahad., 1892, 319, 325, 327; Well- 
hausen, Die Kimpfe der Araber mil den Romaern 
in der Zeit der Umaijiden, in Nackr. der Giitinger 
Ges. der Wiss., 1901, 415, 429-31; Gaudefroy- 
Demonibynes, La Syrie a Vipoque des Mamelouks, 
9-10, 31, 95, 217; Honigmann, Die Ostgrenze des 
byz. Reiches, 39-41; M. Canard, Histoire de la 
dynastie des Hamdanides, i, 224 ff. 

(M. Canard) 
'AWAZIM, al- (sg. c AzimI), a Bedouin tribe in 
North-eastern Arabia of reputedly ignoble origin, 
in that its descent is not regarded by other tribes as 
pure (asU). Although Arabs of pure stock do not 
intermarry with the c Aw3zim, the tribe has earned 
their esteem for its desert lore and courage in battle, 
having been one of the most loyal and effective 
supporters of c Abd al-'Aziz Al Sa c ud during 1 
conflicts with other tribes in Eastern Arabia 
1333-48/1915-29. During this period the c Awazim 
broke away from their relationship as clients of the 
powerful tribe of the c Udjman. The 'Awazim range 
through the northern part or the Eastern Province 
of Saudi Arabia, mainly in the areas of al-Suda and 
al-Rada'if, and along the coast of Kuwayt and 1 
the Neutral Zone between the two countries. Although 
the Ruler of Kuwayt has a number of 'Awazim as 
personal retainers, the tribe is officially recognised 
as subject to the authority of Saudi Arabia. Its 
members are preponderantly Malikis. It has hidjras 
at Thadj, al-Hinnah, and c Utayyik. The chief of the 
tribe (1957) is c Id ibn Djami'. 

Bibliography: H. Dickson, The Arab of the 
desert', London 1950; Fu'ad Hamza, Kalb Diazlrat 
■al-'Arab, Cairo 1352; M. v. Oppenheim, W. Caskel, 
Die Beduinen, iii, Wiesbaden 1952. 

(W. E. Mulligan) 
AWDAGHOST (or Awdaghosht) African town, 
now no longer extant. According to al-Bakri, it was 
situated between the country of the Blacks and 
Sidjilmassa, at about 51 days' march from this 
oasis and 15 from Ghana. Barth thinks that it n 
have been situated between long. io°-ii° W. and 
lat. i8°-i9° N., not far from Ksar and Barka, that 
is to say to the South-West of the post of Tidjikja 
in French Mauritania. 

Little is known about this town, which seems to 
have been at the outset a trading colony established 
by the Zenaga (Sanhadja) on the Northern border of 
the Kingdom of Ghana. At the end of the 4th/ioth 
century, after the Zenaga had conquered a large 
part of the Kingdom of Ghana, Awdaghost bee 
the capital of a powerful state. As its sovereign, from 
350-60/961-71, it had a Sanhadji, who numbered 
more than thirty black kings among his vassals and 
whose empire measured sixty days' march in length 
and breadth. In the following century, Awdaghost 
was attacked by Ibn Yasln, the founder of the 
Almoravid dynasty. The town was taken by assault, 
pillaged and its inhabitants massacred (446/1054-5). 
From that time onwards, the power of the Zenaga 
progressively declined; their kingdom was invaded 



by the Susu, at the beginning of the 7th/i3th 
century; they had to abandon it, or were reduced 
to the r61e of tributaries. 

In al-Bakri's time (sth/nth century), Awdaghost 
was still a flourishing city. The population, quite 
considerable in numbers, was composed of Arabs 
from the Maghrib and Ifrlkiya, Berbers (Berkadjenna, 
Lawata, Zanata, Nafusa and especially Nafzawa) 
and doubtless also Blacks. The town, surrounded by 
a suburb of gardens and palm groves, contained 
mosques and schools, sumptuous public buildings, 
elegant houses and busy markets. An important 
trade flourished there in cereals and fruits from the 
Muslim lands, ambergris brought from the Atlantic 
coast, worked copper and gold thread; gold dust 
served as money. Signs of decadence were already 
visible in the time of al-ldrisl (6th/i2th century). 
The population was very scanty, trade exiguous, 
and the inhabitants maintained themselves almost 
exclusively by camel breeding. Doubtless, Aw- 
daghost's disappearance coincided with the ultimate 
destruction of the power of the Zanata. 

Bibliography: Bakri, Description de 1'Afrique 
septentrionale, trans, de Slane, 349 and passim; 
IdrisI, ed. trans. Dozy and De Goeje, 34; Barth, 
Reisen, iv, appendix ix, 602-4 (according to the 
Ta'rikh al-Suddn by Sa'dl); P. Laforgue, Soles 
sur Aoudaghost, in Bull. Soc. Glog. Oran, 1943; 
R. Mauny, Les ruines de Tegdaost et la question 
d'A oudaghost, in Notes Africaines (IF A N), Oct. 1950. 

(G. Yvbr) 
C AWDHAIJ, (pi. c Awadhil, coll. c Awdhilla; cf. 
al- c Awd (with d for dh) in al-Hamdanl, passim), 
dynastic title of (a) tribe, (b) district (ca. 2,000 
sq.km., 10,000 inhabitants) in the Western Aden 
Protectorate. It lies between the Lower Yafil (W), 
Fadll (S) and c Awlaki (E) territories. In the N, be- 
yond the "status quo line" of 1934, are the districts 
PShir (Dahr) (< ?ahir, cf. al-Hamdanl) and Rassis 
(capitals: Bayda' viz. Meswara). Part of pahir 
(with 'Aryab as its centre) and Dathlna (with 
Kulayta) have been incorporated into the 'Awdhilla- 
district. Its N part is dominated by the mighty 
mountain al-Kawr (Kor), serving as a barrier 
between Sarw Himyar and Sarw Madhidj , (al- 
Hamdani 80, tr. Forrer 102: Kur, with erroneous 
vocalisation) ; it is ca. 2,000 m. high. On the terraced 
hill-slopes and in the fertile plateaus round Mukayras 
and Lodar (N respectively S of al-Kawr) fruit and 
vegetables are grown for export. Honey is an essential 
product of the country, the climate of which is near 
tropical. The Sultan belongs to the c Awasidj, a 
branch of the old Haytham tribe, hence the dynastic 
name Ibn al- c Awsadji. His residence is at Lodar (also 
called al-Ghudr). After family feuds at the turn 
of the century (Landberg, Dattna, 1624) the political 
situation was stabilised; a treaty with the British 
was made in 1912 by Salih b. Husayn Djibil. The 
population mostly consists of free tribes, who only 
obey the Sultan in case of war. In the border coun- 
tries (especially Dathina) the local shaykhs are 
almost independent. There is a sftari'a-court at 
Zara, two self-supporting schools and two dispensaries 
in the district. At Lodar and Mukayras are landing- 
grounds for aircraft. 

Bibliography: H. von Maltzan, Reise nach 
Sudarabien, Braunschweig 1873, 275-282 (with 
map); A. Sprenger, Die alte Geographic Arabiens 
1875. 206, 269; C. Landberg, Arabica, iv, 54; idem, 
&tudes, ii, passim (especially indices 1807, 1828, 
1834); Wyman Bury, The land 0/ Uz, 1911, 109 f., 
137 ff. (with map); Doreen Ingrams, A survey of 



'AWDHALl — AWFAT 



ic conditions in the Aden protecto- 
rate, 1949, passim (with map). (O. Lofgren) 
AWQJ [see nudjOm]. 

AWDJILA. This name designates both an oasis 
and a group of three palm groves situated on the 
traditional caravan route, which in the South of 
Cyrenalca and between the 30th and 29th parallels, 
joins Slwa, in Egypt, and Diarabub to Tripolitania 
and Fezzan by Marada and the Djofra. Awdjila has 
been known, since Herodotus (iv, 172, 182) and the 
classical authors, for its abundance of dates and as 
a halting place. Its rdle as a halting place seems to 
have been enhanced by the Arab conquest of the 
Maghrib. Ibn Hawkal (trans, de Slane, J A, 3rd 
series, xiii, 163) describes it in the 4th/ioth century 
as a small town recently attached to the province of 
Barka; likewise, 200 years later, al-ldrisl (trans. 
Jaubert, i, 248); in the 5th/nth century, al-Bakri 
(Description de I'Afrique septentrionale, trans, de 
Slane, 32) speaks of it as an important centre with 
several mosques and bazaars; he notes that Awdjila 
is the name of the district, that of the town being 
Arzakiyya. In the ioth/i6th century, grain was 
imported from Egypt (Leo African us, Description 
de I'Afrique, trans. Epaulard, 4564). Awdjila was 
occupied by the Turks in 1640. It has been visited 
and described by the travellers Hornemann (1798), 
Hamilton (1852), Beurmann (1862) and Rohlfs 
(1869 and 1879) (see the bibliography). The develop- 
ment, from the middle of the 19th century, of the 
intransigeant SanusI order has kept Europeans away, 
except Rosita Forbes and Hassenein-bey (1920). It has 
only been studied during the Italian occupation (1928- 
1943), in particular by the geographer Scarin. Since 
then, it has formed part of the Kingdom of Libya. 
The name Awdjila only designates the most 
westerly oasis whilst that of Djalo (which is applied 
to El-Erg and El-Lebbe, 30 km. to the S.S-E.) has 
imposed itself on a whole area, which also includes 
the mediocre palm grove of Djikerra (or Leshkerreh), 
30 km. to the North. The three oases, which are 
situated in slight depressions with scanty pastures 
in the middle of a vast desolate plain of sand and 
gravel (serir), have a continental and very arid 
climate, with little wind : the annual rainfall between 
1931 and 1940 was n mm. 7. 

Water, which is not far below the surface and is 
fairly copious, is obtained by draw-wells (worked 
by donkeys) and from wells functioning with 
balance-beams. It is used primarily to water the 
palms, occasional pomegranate and fig trees, little 
patches of cereals, lucerne and vegetables. Stock- 
breeding is very poor and trade dwindling, even at 
Djalo, which for a century has taken Awdjila's place 
in the caravan trade with the Sudan and Egypt. This 
economic and demographic decline, due to emigration, 
was halted by the Italians, who established their 
residence at El-Erg (Djalo) and joined the oases to 
Adjdabiya by a track extending for 270 km. (and 
from there a road, 190 km. long, goes to Benghazi). 
Awdjila itself, very much in decay, possessed in 
1934 18,000 palm trees, 170 gardens, and 1,500 
inhabitants, who have remained Berber-speaking 
and are grouped in four divisions, living in four 
adjoining wards: Es-Sobka, Es-Sarahna, El-Hati and 
Ez-Zegagna — plus a small group of Madjabra, Arabic- 
speaking, living dispersed in the palm grove. Djalo, 
which has not declined to the same extent, has 
50,000 palm trees, 123 gardens and 2,700 inhabitants 
divided up into 14 "families". They 'are distributed 
between two villages, one of which, El-Erg, is rather 
dispersed, whilst the other, El-Lebba, is more con- 



centrated, and in a number of dwellings scattered 
throughout the oasis. These are the Madjabra most 
of whom are former nomads who have become 
arabicised and who have a taste for trade. Djikerra 
is simply a palm grove (13,000 palm trees) and not 
systematically irrigated; it is inhabited only by a 
few very poor families (400 inhabitants) and visited 
for the date harvest by the Zuiya nomads of the 
Ouadi Fareg region to the North-West. The houses 
of these settlements, built of large unbaked bricks 
and more rarely of loose stones, have no upper 
storeys, ard are strung out along twisting lanes and 
blind alleys. The dwellings, located apart in the 
gardens, often inhabited by former slaves, are 
usually palm huts (zeriba). The mosques, very 
rustic in character, have multiplied under the 
influence of the Sanusiyy? ; those of Awdjila generally 
have several domes ; the mosque of Djikerra is made 
of palm trees, including the minaret. 

Bibliography: F. Hornemann, The journal 
of Frederick Hornemann's travels from Cairo to 
Mourzouk . . ., London 1802; Pacho, Relation d'un 
voyage dans la Marmarique et la Cyrenaique 
et les oasis d'Audjilah et Maradeh, Paris 1927; 
J. Hamilton, Wanderings in North Africa, London 
1856; Beurmann, Moritz von Beurmann' s Reise 
von Bengasi nach Vdschila und von Vdschila nach 
Murzuk, Petermann Mitt., Erganzungsband II, 
Gotha 1863; G. Rohlfs, Von Tripolis nach 
Alexandrien, Bremen 1871, and Reise von Tripolis 
nach der oase Kufra, Leipzig 1881; Hassenein-bey, 
The lost oases, London 1925; E. de Agostini, 
Notizie sulla zona di Augila-Gialo, Benghazi 1927) ; 
E. Scarin, Le oasi cirenaiche del 29° parallelo, 
Florence 1937. No complete study has yet been 
devoted to the Berber spoken at Awdjila. For frag- 
mentary studies on this dialect see : A. Basset, La. 
langue Berbere, in Handbook of African Languages, 
Oxford 1952, 69-70. (J. Despois) 

AWFAT (or Wafat; in the Ethiopian chroniclers 
Ifat), an Ethiopian Muslim state (1285-1415) 
situated in the plateau region of Eastern Shoa, in- 
cluding the slopes down to the valley of the Hawash. 
At the end of the 7th/i3th century a number of 
Muslim states existed in eastern Shoa; the predo- 
minant one (whose Makhzumid dynasty had been 
founded according to tradition in 283/896) shown 
in a document recently discovered by E. Cerulli to 
be in the last stages of disruption, was conquered in 
684/1285 by the ruler of one of its tributories, whose 
dynastic title was Walasma c . He conducted cam- 
paigns to reduce various Shoan and c Afar regions, 
including the nomad state of Adal. The reconstituted 
state, under the name of Awfat, is first mentioned 
by Ibn Sa c Id, who says that the region was also 
known as Djabara (Djabarta). Awfat seems to have 
been alternately tributary to the powerful pagan 
kingdom of Damot, to the Christian kingdom of 
Abyssinia, and at times independent. The northern- 
most of a number of Muslim states (Hadya, Fatadjar, 
etc.), it became the buffer-state against the advance 
of the Abyssinian power southwards. Hakk al-DIn, 
warring against 'Amda Syon, was overwhelmed in 
1328 and Awfat made tributory to Abyssinia. Al- 
'Umari's important account of Awfat at this time 
shows that its territory extended eastwards to 
include Zayla c . Continually in revolt against Abyssi- 
nia, its last attempt to regain independence was 
under Sa'd al-DIn, with whose defeat and death in 
817/1415 the kingdom came to an end and its original 
territory was annexed to Abyssinia. When the 
Walasma c , after brief exile in Yaman, returned to 



764 



AWFAT — 'AWL 



Africa they formed a new state out of their former 
provinces of Adal-Zayla', and took the title of 
kings of Adal orZayla* [qq.v.] with their capital at 
Dakar and later Harar [q.v.]. 

Bibliography: al- c Umari, Masdlik al-Absar, 
transl. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, 1927, 1-14; Abu 
'1-Fida , Takwim, 161, transl. ii, 229; Ibn 
Khaldun (de Slane), i, 262, transl. ii, 107-9; 
Kalkashandi, Subh, v, 325-332 ; Makrizi, al-Ilmdm 
bi Akhbar man bi-Ar$ al-Habasha min Muluk al- 
Isldm, Cairo 1895; E. Cerulli, Studi Etiopici, I, 
5ff.; idem, Documenti Arabi per la Storia dell 
'Etiopia, Mem. Line., 1931; idem, II Sultanato 
dello Scioa nel Secolo XIII, Rassegna di Studi 
Etiopici, 1941, 5-42; J. Perruchon, Histoire des 
Guerres d'Amda Syon, JA, 1889; J. S. Trimingham, 
Islam in Ethiopia, 1952, 58-60, 67-75. 

(J. S. Trimingham) 
c AWFl, Muhammad b. Muh., SadId al-DIn 
(wrongly called Nur al-DIn) BukharI. renowned 
Persian anthologist. c Awfi traced his descent 
from c Abd al-Rahman b. c Awf, a companion of the 
Prophet, from whom he derived his surname. He 
came from a learned family of Transoxiana, and 
was probably born and certainly educated at 
Bukhara. The exact date of his birth is not known. 
In 597/1201 he went to Samarkand to serve at the 
court of Ilak Mian Sultan Djalal al-DIn Ibrahim b. 
al-Husayn Tamghadj Khan of Samarkand where his 
maternal uncle Sharaf al-Zaman Madid al-DIn 
Muhammad b. 'Adnan al-Surkhakatl was serving as 
a court-physician. In 600/1203, when the tension 
between the Ghurid Sultan Mu'izz al-DIn, or Shihab 
al-DIn Ghurl, and Sultan <Ala 3 al-DIn Muhammad 
Kh'arazmshah had become acute, he went to 
Kh'arazm. Soon afterwards he went to Shahr-i 
Naw and Nasa, and attended some of the meetings 
of Shaykh Madid al-DIn Sharaf Ibn al-Mu'ayyid 
al-Baghdadl. Then he started on his literary tour 
of Khurasan and was in NIshapur in 603/1206, where 
he stayed for a considerable period and made the 
acquaintance of various eminent persons. From 
there he went to Harat and remained in Sidjistan 
till 612/1215. It appears that he returned to Bukhara, 
journeyed through Khurasan and Ghazna, crossed 
the river Indus, and, passing through Sind and 
Gudjarat came for the first time to Lahore to seek 
the patronage of the wazir <Ayn al-Mulk Fakhr al- 
DIn al-Husayn at the Court of Malik Nasir al-Din 
Kabada, to whom he dedicated his famous anthology, 
the Lubdb al-Albdb in 617/1220. He served for a time 
as kadi in Kanbayat or Cambay, where he completed 
his Persian translation of al-Tanukhl's al-Faradi 
ba l d al-Shidda in 620/1223. This period coincides with 
the attack of the Mongols on Kh w arazm and their 
advance towards Multan and Delhi, when Shams 
al-DIn Iltutmish besieged the fort of Bhakkar and 
overthrew Kabaca in 625/1228. 'Awfl changed 
masters and attached himself to the court of Iltut- 
mish, to whose wazir Nizam al-Mulk Muhammad 
ibn AM Sa c d al-Djunaydl he dedicated his famous 
collection of anecdotes, the Diawami 1 al-Hikaydt 
wa Lawami' al-Riwayat in 625/1228. It appears that 
'Awfl lived in Delhi till 630/1232, in the early years 
of Radlyya's reign. 

The Lubdb occupies an honourable place among 
Persian anthologies, but Awfl's magnum opus is 
the Diawami* which contains more than 2000 
historical -ind literary anecdotes relating to various 
dynasties that ruled in Persia before the Mongol 
invasion. Much of the material for this book is drawn 
from rare or lost works, hence its importance as 



an original source. A comprehensive Introduction to 
this work was published in the Gibb Memorial Series 
in 1929. The Persian text, based on the earliest MSS., 
is ready for press, and the first volume is to appear 
shortly. 

Bibliography: c AwfI, Lubdb; Muhammad 

Nizamud-DIn, Introduction to the Jawamf ul- 

Hikdydt, London 1929; Storey, i, 781-4. 

(M. Nizamuddin) 

al-AWHAD [see Ayyubids]. 

AWJJADl, Rukn al-DIn, Persian poet, born 
c. 680/1281-2 at Maragha in Adharbaydjan. The fact 
that he lived for many years in 'Isfahan has led the 
author of the Haft Iklim to state that he was a 
native of that city. Little is known about his life, 
but there is scarcely any doubt that he died in 738/ 
1337-8. He was buried at his birthplace where his 
tombstone is still to be seen. 

Awhadl, who took his takhallus from the name of 
his master, Shaykh Awhad al-DIn of Kirman, was- 
the author of a diwdn which amounts to about ten 
thousand verses. Some of these are eulogies of his 
patrons, Abu Sa'Id, the Ilkhan. and his vizier, 
Ghiyath al-DIn Muhammad, son of Rashid al-Din 
Fadl Allah. In one of his poems he attacks the 
pretensions of a contemporary poet, Salman of 
Sawa. 

As a poet, Awhadl displays little originality. He 
is reckoned by most Persian critics as second L rate 
in view of some weakness which is to be found in 
his poetic diction. Moreover, the greater part of his 
verse, although not without some grace, is often 
laboured and lacks that subtle light and shade in 
bringing his ideas before the reader which is charac- 
teristic of the best Persian poetry. 

Awfcadl's best work is to be found in his two 
mathnawi poems, the earlier of which is entitled 
Dah-nama or, as it is called in some MSS., Mantik 
al- c Ushshdk. This consists of ten letters addressed by 
an imaginary lover to his mistress and is not of 
outstanding poetic merit. It was dedicated to 
Wadjih al-Din, grandson of Nasir al-DIn of Tus, in 
706/1306-7. The other mathnawi, the DJam-i Qjam 
(the goblet of pjamshld), is longer and far better 
known. It displays a more fully developed talent, 
and when it was first composed, achieved a great 
measure of popularity. Like the Hadikat al-Hakika 
of Sanal, it covers the whole field of ethics, with 
advice on moral discipline, the upbringing of 
children, civic responsibilities and so forth; but the 
last part changes its theme and deals with the 
Sufi Path and all that appertains to it. The Djdm-i 
Djam was written in 733/1332-3 and was dedicated 
tb-Ghiyath al-DIn Muljammad. 

Bibliography: Dawlatshah 210 f.; Browne, 

iii, 141-6; Ethe in the G.I. P., ii, 299. Edition 

of the Djam-i Djam, Tehran, 1 347/1928-9, 

and of the Diwdn by A. S. Usha, Madras 1951. 
(G. Meredith-Owens) 

AWSAF [see waijf]. 

'AWL (a., literally "deviation by excess"), the 
method of increasing the common denomi- 
nator of the fractional shares in an inheritance, if 
their sum would amount to more than one unit. 
This has, of course, the effect of reducing each 
individual share. For instance, a man dies leaving 
a widow, two daughters and both parents. The share 
of two daughters would be '/» = "/s4> that of the 
widow >/• = 8 /n. that of the father »/• = */»•> and 
that of the mother >/• = 4 /««i total •'/,,. The denomi- 
nator is therefore increased to 27, and the two 
daughters receive "/„, the widow */»7 = V»> 3Xi ^ the 



C AWL — AWLAD al-SHAYKH 



765 



father and the mother each y l„. This particular 
problem is called al-mas'ala al-minbariyya, because 
C AU is reported to have solved it off-hand when it 
was submitted to him, whilst he was on the minbar. 
The '■awl is accepted by all the Sunni schools of 
Islamic law. The Ibadis, too, recognise it, but they 
ascribe its introduction to 'Umar. The Ithnd- 
c ashariyya or "Twelver" Shi'ites, on the other hand, 
reject it and reduce the share of the daughter (or 
daughters) or that of the full or consanguine (but 
not of the uterine) sister (or sisters) instead. 

Bibliography: c Abd al-Kadir Muhammad, 
(K. al-Nahr al-FdHfl), Der iiberfliessende Strom in 
der Wissenschaft des Erbrechts der Hanefiten und 
Schafeiten, ed. and transl. L. Hirsch, Leipzig 1891, 
96 ff. ; W. Marcais, Des parents et alliis, Rennes 
1898, 74 ff.; E. Sachau, Muhammedanisches Recht 
nach schafiitischer Lehre, Stuttgart and Berlin 
1897, 256 (a special case) ; D. Santillana, Sommario 
del diritto malechita di fjalil ibn Ishdq, ii, Milan 
1919, 829; id., Istituzioni, ii, 512 f.; Sayf b. 
c Abd al- c Aziz al-Ruwahl, al-Nab c al-FdHd, Cairo 
1357. 60 ff.; A. Querry, Droit musulman, recueil 
de lois concernant les musulmans schyites, ii, Paris 
'872, 379; Sir R. K. Wilson, Anglo-Muhammadan 
Law, 6th ed., § 459. (Ed.) 

AWLAD [followed by the name of the eponymous 
ancestor of a tribe, see under the name of that an- 

AWLAD al-BALAD was the term used during 
the Sudanese Mahdiyya (1881-98) to designate 
persons originating from the northern riverain 
tribes, of which the Danakla group and Dja'liyyin 
were the most important. Many awldd al-balad were 
domiciled, temporarily or permanently, away from 
their tribal centres by the main Nile. The Danakla 
were boatbuilders and sailors, especially on the 
White Nile, while both they and the Dja'liyyln 
played an important rdle as merchants and slave- 
traders in Kurdufan, the Bafcr al-Ghazal and Dar 
Fur. The Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad found much 
support among the awldd al-balad, particularly those 
dispersed in the west and south. In general they 
formed the ruling class under him. After his death in 
June 1885, they were gradually displaced from the 
chief offices by his successor, the Khalifa c Abd 
Allah, but clerical and other subordinate posts were 
largely filled by awldd al-balad until the end of 
the Mahdiyya. Chief among the awldd al-balad were 
the Ashraf, relatives of the Mahdi, whose nominal 
leader was the Khalifa Muhammad Sharif. In 1886 
this group attempted to overthrow *Abd Allah but 
failed. The awldd al-balad were seriously weakened 
by the defeat of the Mahdist invasion of Egypt at 
Tushkl in 1889, since they had formed the bulk of 
the expeditionary force and large numbers perished, 
including their leading general 'Abd al-Rahman 
al-Nudjuml. A rising of the Ashraf and Danakla in 
Omdurman in 1891 was foiled by c Abd Allah and 
was followed by repressive measures. In 1897 the 
Dja'liyyln of al-Matamma under their chief, c Abd 
Allah Sa'd, revolted and communicated with the 
Anglo-Egyptian forces under Kitchener. A Mahdist 
army under Mahmfld Ahmad put down the rebellion 
and sacked the town. 

Bibliography: Special allusion to the term 
is made by F. R. Wingate (J. Ohrwalder), Ten 
years captivity in the Mahdi's camp, London 1892, 
many ed. (P. M. Holt) 

AWLAD al-NAS. The mamluk upper class 
constituted an exclusive society. Only a person who 
himself was born an infidel and brought as a child- 



slave from abroad, who was converted to Islam and 
set free after completing his military training and 
who usually bore a non-Arab name, could belong to 
that society. These rules implied that the mamluk 
upper class should be a non-hereditary nobility, for 
the sons of the mamluks and mamluk amirs were 
Muslims and free men by birth, were born and grew 
within the boundaries of the mamluk sultanate and 
bore Arab names. As such they could not belong to 
the upper class and were automatically ejected from 
it. They were joined to a unit of non-mamluks called 
the halka [q.v.] which was socially inferior to the 
pure mamluk units. Within the halka the sons of 
amirs and mamluks formed the upper stratum. 
They were known as Awldd al-Nds 'children of the 
people', i.e. 'of the best people, of the gentry', for 
the 'people' were the mamluks, the members of the 
exclusive society. 

The Awldd al-Nds, but for quite a small number 
of exceptions, attained no higher rank than that 
of Amir of Ten and Amir of Forty. Occasionally the 
Awldd al-Nds were favoured for political reasons. 
Thus sultan al-NSsir Hasan (748/1347-752/1351) 
preferred amirs from Awldd al-Nds to mamluk 
amirs. The privileged position of the Awldd al-Nds 
under sultan Hasan was, however, exceptional, and 
contrasted sharply with their status under other 
rulers. Since theirs was an element which, by its 
very nature, was excluded from the ranks of the 
mamluks, their chances for advancement and for 
attaining key positions were seriously limited. In 
the course of time they declined together with the 
Ifalka, and saw the same restrictions applied to 
them as to the rest of that body, viz. reductions in 
pay, sale of their fiefs, exemptions from military 
expeditions in exchange for cash payments (badil), 
tests in the use of the bow and arrow designed to 
prove that they were badly trained and thus not 
entitled to all the privileges of full-fledged soldiers. 
Toward the end of the mamluk era, the name 
Ifalka fell into disuse, while that of the Awldd al- 
Nds became extremely common. 

There was, both among the Awldd al-Nds and 
the other members of the Ifalka, a strong leaning 
toward piety and pre-occupation with other-worldly 
affairs. Many of them left the military service and 
became theologians or fakihs. (See D. Ayalon, Studies 
on the Structure of the Mamluk Army, in BSOAS, 
1953, 456-58 and references on p. 456, n. 1). 

(D. Ayalon) 

AWLAD al-SHAYKH (Banu Hamawiya) were 
originally an Iranian family of sufis and Shafil 
fukahd, a branch of whom emigrated to Syria and 
became influential under the later Ayyubid kings, 
al-Malik al-Kamil (615-35/1218-38) and his sons. 
The member of the clan earliest known, Abu c Abd 
Allah Muhammad b. Hamawiya (Pers. form Hama- 
wayh) al-Djuwaynl, died in 530/1135-6, was a cele- 
brated sufi, fakih and author of several works on 
mysticism (al-Sam c ani; Ibn al-Athir, xi, 30; Abu 
'1-Faradj Ibn al-Djawzi, al-Muntazam, Haydarabad, 
x, 63-4; Yakut, ii, 425; Hadjdji Khalifa, ed. Fliigel, 
iii, 612, no. 7231). His grandson c Imad al-Din Abu 
'1-Fath 'Umar b. •All, (died 577/1181), went to 
Damascus, and in 563/1167 Nur al-Din, 541-69/ 
1146-74, appointed him inspector of all the sufi 
institutions at Damascus, Hamah, Him?, Ba'albak 
and other places in Syria. Hence he became the 
ancestor of the Syrian and Egyptian division of the 
family; but the connexions with the Iranian branch 
were maintained (Sibt Ibn al-Djawzi, Mir'aX al- 
Zamdn, Haydarabad, 272). Of these his brother 



766 



AWLAD al-SHAYKH - 



«Abd al-Wahid (died 588/1192; Ibn al-Fur&t, cod. 
Vind. iv, 146a), and his grand-nephew Sa c d al-DIn 
Muhammad (died 650/1252; EI ii, 260 & IV, 33; 
Sibt Ibn al-Djawzi, 651) are the best known. — 'Imad 
al-DIn 'Umar had two sons: Shaykh al-shuyukk 
Sadr al-DIn Abu '1-Hasan Muhammad (543-617/ 
1148-1220), was born in Khurasan, came with bis 
lather to Damascus and became his successor. He 
married the daughter of the famous Kadi Ibn Abl 
c Asrun (died 585/1189; Ibn Khallikan. no. 334; 
transl. de Slane ii, 32-5) by whom he had four sons, 
famous as Awlad (Banu) shaykh al-shuyukk. Sadr 
al-Din, a friend of Sultan al-Malik al-'Adil, 595-615/ 
1198-1218, later went to Egypt, where he was 
invested with the same offices as he had held at 
Damascus. He died at Mawsil on the way to Baghdad 
as an ambassador of al-Malik al-Kamil. — His younger 
brother Tadj al-DIn Abu Muhammad <Abd Allah, 
572-642/1 177-1244, went in 593/1196 to the Maghrib 
and served under the Almohad sultans al-Mansur 
Ya'kflb (580-95/1184-98) and al-Nasir Muhammad 
(595-610/1198-1213) for seven years in a military 
capacity. After his return he settled down at 
Damascus and followed his father and brother as an 
inspector of the ?*/» institutions of the Syrian 
capital. He wrote several works on history only the 
titles of which have survived; Ibn Khallikan saw 
the autograph of one of his books about Spain 
at Damascus in the year 668/1269 (Ibn Khallikan, no. 
839, transl. de Slane, iv, 337).— The fame of the 
family rests upon the four sons of Sadr al-Din, es- 
pecially on Fakhr al-DIn Yusuf. Born about 580/1184, 
he entered upon a political career, and al-Kamil 
sent him in 614/1217 as his envoy to the caliph. He 
gained his reputation as a skilled diplomat, being al- 
Kamil's ambassador to the Hohenstaufen emperor 
Frederick II from 624/1229 until the conclusion of 
the treaty concerning Jerusalem, February 18th, 
1 229. During this period he became the friend of the 
emperor who discussed with him even non-political 
problems and wrote him two letters after his return 
to Italy (Ibn Nazlf al-HamawI, Ta'rikk al-Mansuri, 
M. Amari, Bibl. Sic. App. ii, 25). Fakhr al-DIn 
Yiisuf held several high posts during the latter part 
of the reign of al-Kamil and was a member of the 
crown council at Damascus after the king's death in 
Radjab 635/Feb.-March 1238. After his return to 
Cairo al-'Adil II b. al-Kamil (635-7/1238-40) 
dismissed him despite his good services and even 
threw him into prison. He remained out of office 
until 643/1246, when al- c Adil's successor and 
brother al-Salih Nadjm al-DIn Ayyub b. al-Kamil 
(637-47/1240-9) restored him to all his former 
honours and appointed him commander-in-chief of 
the Egyptian army. When in 1249 Louis IX of 
France threatened to attack Egypt, Fakhr al-Din 
Yusuf was entrusted with her defence; but after the 
Frankish invasion of the Nile Delta he sacrificed 
Damietta and retreated with his army southwards 
to al-Mansura. When al-Salih died shortly afterwards 
(Monday 14th Sha'ban 647/22th Nov. 1249) th e 
sultana Shadjar al-Durr made Fakhr al-DIn regent 
in the absence of the new sultan al-Mu c azzam 
Turanshah b. Nadjm al-DIn Ayyiib. In the meantime 
the crusaders slowly advanced towards al-Mansura 
and in a surprise attack crossed the Nile and entered 
the city. In the fighting Fakhr al-Din was killed on 
Thursday 4th Dhu '1-KaMa 647/81I1 Feb. 1250.— 
The three brothers of Fakhr al-DIn, c Im5d al-Din 
c Umar, Kamal al-DIn Ahmad and Mu'In al-DIn 
Hasan started their political activities only in the 
later part of al-Kamil's reign having been before 



engaged in the teaching of the Shafi'I madkkab at 
Cairo. They, too, belonged to the crown council after 
al-Kamil's death at Damascus and thanks to the 
influence of 'I mad al-Din 'Umar the nephew of the 
late sultan, al-Djawwad Yunus b. Mawdud b. al- 
'Adil, died 641/1243 was elected vice-regent of 
Damascus. When he conspired against al-'Adil II, 
the sultan sent c Imad al-DIn back to Damascus in 
order to force the abdication of al-Djawwad. But 
al-Djawwad had him arrested soon after his arrival 
and murdered on Thursday, 26th Djumada I 
636/4th January 1239. — Kamal al-DIn Ahmad, the 
least famous of the four brothers, was appointed by 
al-Salih in 637/1240 as an ambassador to negotiate a 
peace-treaty with Count Theobald of Jaffa and the 
king of Navarre, and afterwards commander-in- 
chief of an army to regain Damascus. But Kamal 
al-DIn was defeated by al-Djawwad and al-Nasir 
Dawiid b. al-Mu c azzam (died 656/1258) in Dhu 
'1-Ka'da 638/May-June 1241, and taken prisoner. 
He died a year later on 13th Safar 640/1 2th Aug. 
1242 at Ghazza. — The youngest brother Mu'In al- 
DIn Hasan was appointed wazlr by al-Salih in 
637/1240 and four years later became his represen- 
tative and commander-in-chief in the campaign for 
the reconquest of Damascus. The siege began at 
the end of 642/May 1245, and six months later 
Mu'in al-DIn forced 'Imad al-DIn Isma'U b. al- 
'Adil (died 648/1250-1) to give up the Syrian capital, 
which he had held since 637/1239, in return for 
Ba'albak, Bosra and some other places. Mu'in al- 
Din survived his triumph for only a few months and 
died of typhoid on Monday 24th Ramadan 643/i2th 
Febr. 1246. 

Of the two sons of Tadj al-DIn Muhammad the 

elder Sa'd al-Din Khidr. 592-674/1196-1246, is 

known as the author of a small chronicle from which 

Sibt Ibn al-Djawzi and al-Dhahabl drew most of 

their information about the Banu shaykh al-shuyukh. 

Bibliography : The chronicles of Ibn al-Athlr, 

Sibt Ibn al-Djawzt, Ibn Wasil, Abu Shama, Ibn 

al-Furat, al-Nuwayrl and al-MakrizI. Al-Makrlzl, 

al-KhiW (Bulak) ii, 33/4; al-Subkl, Tabakdt al- 

ShdfiHyya al-Kubrd.— CI. Cahen, Une source pour 

I'histoire des croisades : Les Mimoires de Sa'd ad-din 

ibn Hamawiya Juwaini, in Bulletin de la FaculU 

des Lettres de Strasbourg, xxviii. (1950), 320-37. 

H. L. Gottschalk, Die Aulad Saik aS-Suyuk 

{Banu IJamawiya), in WZKM Lin (1956), 57-87. 

(H. L. Gottschalk) 
C AWLA*I (pi. c AwAuk, vulg. Mawalek; for the 
etymology, see Landberg, ii, 1684 f.) (a) tribal 
confederation and (b) territory in South 
Arabia, between the Indian Ocean and the desert 
(Ramlat Sabateyn). It is the eastermost district of 
the Western Aden Protectorate. The boundaries are, 
in the W the Fadll, 'Awdhali and BayhanI districts, 
in the E the Dhiebl territory of c Irka, the Wahid! 
sultanate of Bal-Haf and the indeterminate area of 
Djerdan, «Irma ( c Urma) with Shabwa, and Al 
Burayk. This country is divided by Kawr al-'Awd 
(the continuation of Kawr 'Awdhilla) into too 
halves of very different character: 

1. Upper 'Awlaki territory (ca. 100,000 sq. km., 
30-50,000 inhabitants) is by far the richest and most 
powerful. The climate is tropical, the fertile ground 
produces wheat, maize, tobacco and indigo. Ard al- 
Mahadjir in the N belongs to this tribal confederation 
(cf. al-Hamdanl, 89) which comprises the subtribes 
Marazlk, Rabiz, Hammam, Dayyan and Dakkar. 
They inhabit the district round Ansab (Nisab), 
where the Sultan of Upper 'Awalik has his residence. 



'AWLAKl — AWLONYA 



76* 



He also controls the wide plateau Ard Markha, 
where Nisiyyln bedouins live in Wasit, Hadjar and 
Hudjayr. The main wadis are: 'Abadan, pura, 
Khawra. Markha. In the NW, not far from Bayhan 
al-Kasab, are rich salt-mines at Khabt. The other 
great tribal federation, the Ma c n or Ma'an (cf. 
Main, Ma'an "Minaeans"), is grouped round the 
old town (Suk) Yeshbum, in the SE part of the 
territory. Here resides the second chieftain, the 
jkaykh of Upper 'Awalik, who like the Sultan always 
is chosen from the Ma<n. Their sub-tribes are: 
Madhidj, Bu Bekr, Ba Ras, c AUk, Sulayman, 
Tawsala, Mikraha and Jhawban. For the most part 
these tribes are independent kabills, they are fond 
of fighting and often enlist for service abroad. 
Treaties with the British were signed in 1903 by the 
shaykh of Yeshbum, Muhsin b. Farld, and in 1904 
by the Sultan of Ansab, c Awad b. Salih. There is 
an aerodrome at Ansab. 

2. Lower 'AwlakI territory (ca. 80,000 sq.km., 
12-15,000 inhabitants) is for the most part arid and 
barren ; there is seldom rain enough in the mountains 
to make the wadis flow. The most important valley- 
system is that of W. Ahwar (also called 'Uthruto), 
formed by the junction of W. Djahr, coming from 
Dathlna, and W. Deka (Laika), which starts S of 
Habbin [q.v.] and passes through the highland of 
Munka'a. Here live Himyaritic clans (ma^<i\A*), 
the Kumush in W. Labakha and Ahl Sham's in 
Mahfid S of Yeshbum; they exercise a certain 
authority over the primitive bedouins of the tribe 
Ba Kazim, who are scattered all over the W and S 
parts of the territory. Other towns in W. Peka are: 
Khabr, Shadjma and Kulliyya. On the coast are 
small villages, inhabited by fishermen. The Sultan 
resides at Ahwar (Hawar), ca. 5 km from the coast 
and a little E of the wadl. Just as Abyan and Lahdj, 
Ahwar properly denotes the district, then its centre, 
al-Madjabl (ace. to Landberg II, 273, 326, 1834), 
which is a series of villages rather than a town. The- 
population (ca. 5,000) is chiefly agricultural. A 
treaty with the British of 1888 was renewed in 1944 
by Sultan 'Aydarus b. 'All (murdered in 1948). The 
adviser agreement has resulted in better security 
and a revival of agriculture and trade. There is an 
aerodrome and a wireless station. One sub-grade 
and one indigenous school are reported in the 

Bibliography: H. von Maltzan, Reist nach 

Sudarabien, Braunschweig 1873, 239-251 (with 

map); C. Landberg, Tribus du Sultanat des 

l Awdliq superieurs (= Arabica, iv, 37-54); idem, 

Etudes, ii (Dattna), 1735 et passim; Wyman Bury, 

The land 0/ Uz, 1911, 156-230, 280 ft. (with map); 

Amln Rihani, Muluh al-'Arab, i, 1929, 384; 

Doreen Ingrams, A survey 0/ social and economic 

conditions in the Aden Protectorate, 1949, passim 

(with map). (O. Lofgren) 

AWLIYA ATA, (T., "holy father") is the old 

name of the city called since 1938 Djambul after 

the Kazakh poet Diambul Diabaev (1846-1945), 

which lies on the left bank of the Talas i n the 

Kazakh SSR. Until 1917 it was the capital of the 

district of the Sir Darya in Russian Turkistan and 

obtained its name from the grave of the holy man 

Kara Khan (which is mentioned as early as the 

17th century; see Mahmud b. Wall, Bahr al-Asrdr, 

MS India Office 545, fol. ii9r). His mausoleum dates 

from the 19th century and bears no inscription. On 

the other hand the grave of the "little holy one" 

(Kilik Awliya) there is an inscription of 660/1262; 

the grave is that of the prince Ulugh Bilge lkbal 



Khan Da>ud Beg b. Ilyas. (The inscription is published, 
in Zap. Vost. Old. Imp. Russk. ArkHcol. Ob.va, xii.. 
V.) — The city of Awliya Ata which came into being 
only in the 19th century, was conquered by the- 
Russians in 1864, became a fortress,, and contained, 
in 1897, 12,006 inhabitants; it was famous for its- 
fruit growing and its cattle and wool trade. In the 
surrounding district of Awliya Ata (71,097 sq.km., 
with 297,004 inhabitants) ancient Turkish inscrip- 
tions were found in 1896 (Zap. etc., xi). 

The present day city of Djambul lies on the- 
Turksib line just north of the frontier of the Kirgi*. 
SSR, and contained in 1926 19,000 and by 1939 as 
many as 62,700 inhabitants. It possesses, a sugar, a. 
meat processing, and other factories, and is besides 
a centre of trade. The district of Djambul (since 
1936) contains 138,600 sq.km. and is mountainous- 
in the south; in the north there lies the Bad Pak 
Dala steppe. 

Close to AwliyJ Ata — Djambul lay evidently the- 
city of Taraz [q.v.], which may be regarded as. its- 
precursor. 

Bibliography : A. I. Dobromyslov, Gowda 
Syr-Dar'inskoy oblasti, Tashkent 1912; M. Mendi- 
kulov, Nekotorye dannye ob istoriieskoy arkhi- 
tekture Kazakhstana, Izvestiya Akad. Nauk Kazakh- 
skoy SSR, 1950, ii, no. 80; W. Barthold, 12 Vor^ 
Usungen zur Gesch. der Titr/ten Mittelasiens, Berlin 
1935, 206; Wirtschaftsgeographie der UdSSR, x: 
Die Republiken Mittelasiens, Berlin 1944, 113, 
139-41 ; Brockhaus-Efron, Entsiklopediieskiy Slo- 
var 1 ; ii, 467 f ; Bol'shaya Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya*, 
xiv, 1952, 206, 208-10 (with map of the district 
and ill.). (W. Barthold-[B. Spuler]) 

AWLONYA, Alb. Vlora, Valona, town in southern 
Albania, (see Arnawutlujc) Awlonya, usually called 
Valona, is today a town of about 10,000 inhabitants. 
It lies in the bay of the same name, and is some 
2V1 m. (4 km.) inland from the harbour. It played an 
important part in antiquity as Aulon (hence Avlona). 
Concerning its history in the Middle Ages, cf. Konst. 
Jirecek, Valona im Mittelalter, in: Ludwig v. Thall- 
cozy, Tllyrisch-albamsche Forschungen, i, Munich and 
Leipzig 1916, 168/87. In June 1417, the Ottoman 
armies entered the area of Valona, and occupied the 
town, together with the fortress of Kanina and 
Berat. The general Hamza-Beg became commander- 
in-chief of Awlonya, and the Ottomans — who had 
never before possessed an Adriatic port — soon began 
to- build ships there. In 1418, there was a vain 
attempt by the seigniory of Venice to regain 
Awlonya for its former owner Rugina (the widow 
of Duke Mrksa), a citizen of Venice. Awlonya 
remained Ottoman property, admitted Christians as 
iarmers of taxes, and was governed by a Sandjak-Bey ; 
it was an important bulwark against the West. As 
late as the 14th century, the inhabitants (apart from 
Albanians, and Slavs) were mostly Greeks, and 
deuominationally belonged to the autocephalous 
aichbishopric of Ohrid up to the 18th century. 
Awlonya was used twice during the 15 th century 
by the sultan Mehemmed II as a base for a raid on 
Apulia, Italian territory only 47 m. (75 km.) away. 
(Otranto* cf. F.. Babinger, Mehmed II. der Eroberer 
und seine Zeit, Munich 1953, 430 ff. and Hal. transl., 
MaomeUo II il Conquistatore, ed il suo tempo, Turin 
195^ 57o ff.).. As governors, Valona had particularly 
capable civil servants who. were devoted to the 
sultan, as for instance Gedik Ahmed Pasha, who 
maintained this as a base for ambassadors and 
to Italy. In the nearby fortress of 
were the Vloras, who had been there- 



AWLONYA — AWRANGZlB 



since the time of Bayezld II and were related to 
him by marriage (cf. Ekrem Bey Vlora, Aus Berat und 
vom Totnor, Sarajevo 1911, Zur Kunde der Balkan- 
halbinsel. No. 13) and who traced their origin back 
to Ghazi Sinan-Pasha (cf. F. Babinger, Rumelische 
■Streifen, Berlin 1938, 24 f.). In the 17th century, the 
fortress of Awlonya was surrounded by high and 
thick walls with many bastions. Within the fortress, 
there was a mosque endowed by Sulayman the 
Magnificent, and in the middle there was a tower — 
identical with the white tower of Salonica — built 
ior the same sultan, supposedly by the Ottoman 
architect Sinan. There is a clear description by 
Ewliya Celebi of the Awlonya of his day (cf. the 
•German translation by F. Babinger, Rumelische 
■Streifen, 25 f.). The order of the Bektashl appears to 
have been very active around Valona. After 400 
years of Turkish rule, Albanian independence was 
declared in Awlonya in 191 2, and it seceded from 
the Ottoman Empire. From 1914 to 1920, the town 
was occupied by the Italians, and during the First 
World War it formed an important base for military 
■operations in the Balkans. By the Treaty of Rapallo, 
this bridge-head on the Adriatic and barrier in the 
Straits of Otranto had to be returned to Albania — 
with the exception of the island of Saseno. From 
April 1939 to autumn 1943 Awlonya, together with 
the rest of Albania, was once again in the hands of 
the Italians. 

Bibliography: Apart from works mentioned 

in the text of the article, cf. the travels of Pouque- 

ville, W. M. Leake, Lord Holland, L. Heuzey, 

G. Weigand, C. Patsch, which give a description 

of old Awlonya. (F. Babinger) 

<AWNl [see muhammad II]. 

AWRANGABAD, a town and district in the 
■state of Bombay having in 1951 a population of 
1,179,404. During the reign of c Ala> al-DIn Khaldit 
the Hindu rulers of this part of the Deccan were 
forced to pay tribute to the Muslim invaders. In 
1347 it was incorporated in the BahmanI kingdom 
and with the disintegration of that kingdom became 
part of the Nizam §hahl sultanate of Ahmadnagar. 
Under Malik c Ambar, an able Abyssinian minister, 
Ahmadnagar offered a stubborn resistance to the 
Mughal invaders, but, after his death in 1626, it 
was annexed to the Mughal empire. During the 
decline of Mughal power in the first half of the 
eighteenth century Awrangabad was added to the 
dominions of the Nizam of Haydarabad. In 1956 it 
was incorporated in the state of Bombay. 

The town of Awrangabad, previously named 
KhirkI, was the capital of the Ahmadnagar sultanate 
in the days of Malik. c Ambar It was burned to the 
ground by Mughal forces in 161 2, but was rebuilt and 
renamed Awrangabad in honour of Awrangzib, who 
lived there during his second viceroyalty of the 
Deccan. The neighbouring village of Khuldabad 
contains the tombs of Malik 'Ambar, Awrangzib, 
and Asaf Djah, the founder of the Haydarabad state. 
It was once famous for its gold brocade, but this and 
other industries have declined. 

There is another small town of the same name 
in the Gaya district of Bihar. 

(C. Collin Davies) 

AWRANGABAD SAVVID, a small town in the 
Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh, founded in 
1704 by Sayyid c Abd al-'Aziz, a descendant of 
Sayyid Djalal al-Husayn of Bukhara. 

(C. Collin Davies) 

AWRANGZlB, Abu'l-Muzaffar Muhammad 

MUHYI >L-DlN AWRANGZlB 'AlAMCIR BaDSHAH-I 



GhazI (1027-1118/1618-1707), the third son of 
Shahdjahan and Mumtaz Maljall (daughter of Asaf 
Khan) was born at Dhod in Malwa on 15 Dhu 
'1-Ka c da 1027/3 Nov. 1618. 

I. Early Years (1027-68/1618-58). He certainly 
received a very good education according to the 
standards of the day, for throughout his life he could 
hold bis own in disputations with the 'ulama' as 
well as men of letters, and his Persian compositions 
have been regarded with respect. 

In 1044/1635 Awrangzib was made a commander 
of ten thousand and put in nominal charge of a 
successful campaign against Pjudjhar Singh Bundela. 
In 1045/1636 he was appointed Viceroy of the 
Dakhin but resigned in 105 3/ 1644, either owing to 
a fit of religious fervour or on account of his bitter- 
ness against Dara, his elder brother, whom Shahdja- 
han seems to have had chosen as his successor. Never- 
theless he accepted the governorship of Gudjarat 
and was thence transferred in 1055/1646 to the 
command of Balkh, which the Mughal officers had 
conquered under the nominal command of Murad 
Bakhsh. the Emperor's youngest son. But the Uzbegs 
were too strong and Dihli was too far; Awrangzib 
established his reputation as a general and an 
administrator, but he had to give up Balkh to Nazar 
Muhammad Khar and beat a retreat. Appointed 
governor of Multan in 1057/1648, Awrangzib was 
directed by the Emperor to recapture Kandahar 
from the Persians. He besieged Kandahar twice — 
in 1058/1649 and 1061/1651 — but the enterprise was 
too difficult and he had to retreat. Awrangzib can 
hardly be blamed for this, for Dara Shukoh to 
whom the third siege of Kandahar was assigned 
failed even more disastrously. 

Awrangzib was assigned the Viceroyalty of the 
Dakhin for a second time in 1062/1652. His revenue 
expert, Murshid Kull Khar, did much to settle that 
desolated territory by his revenue system (dhara). 
In 1065/1655 Awrangzib laid siege to Gulkunda and 
could have extinguished that kingdom but the 
Emperor ordered him to accept a tribute and make 
peace. In 1066/1657 he attacked Bidjapur and had 
captured Bidar and Kalyanl when orders once more 
came from the Emperor directing him to accept 
peace terms. Soon after that Shahdjahan fell ill 
(27 Dhul-Ka'da 1067/6 Sept. 1657) and his four 
sons prepared to fight for the throne. 

II. War of succession, 1067-68/1658-59. The war 
of succession shows Awrangzib at his best as a 
general and an administrator; he was never to 
attain that standard again. Dara Shukoh, the heir- 
designate at Agra, had the prestige of the imperial 
authority and the advantage of moving on interior 
lines. But he showed himself lacking both in capacity 
of organisation and strategy. Shudja c , the second 
son, who was governor of Bengal, assumed the crown 
(as did the youngest brother, Murad) and moved 
towards the capital. But he was decisively beaten at 
Bahadurpur (n Djumada I 1068/14 Feb. 1658) by 
the imperial army under Radja Djai .Singh and 
Sulayman Shukoh and fled back to Munglr. But 
Dara's southern army, under Djaswant Singh, 
could not prevent Awrangzib and Murad from 
joining their forces near Udjdjain. The two brothers 
crushed Djaswant's forces at Dharmat (12 Radjab 
1068/15 April 1658) and then crossing the Chambal, 
defeated Dara decisively at Samugarh, eight miles 
from Agra (26 Sha'ban 1068/29 May 1658). Awrangzib 
interned his father in the Agra fort and then arrested 
Murad near Mathura and sent him to Gwaliar where 
he was executed in Rabi c II-Djumada I 1072/ Dec. 



AWRANGZlB 



769 



1661. Awrangzlb crowned himself hurriedly at Dihll 
and then pursued Dara as far as Multan. Then he 
had to march eastwards to meet Shudja 5 , whom he 
defeated signally at Khadjwah, near Allahabad 
(10 Rabi' II 1069/5 Jan. 1659). Leaving Mir Djun.la to 
pursue Shudja 5 to Arrakan, where that unfortunate 
prince met his death, Awrangzib once more marched 
west because Dara, supported by Shah Nawaz 
Khan, the governor of Gudjarat, had entrenched 
himself at Deorai, near Adjmer. Dara was defeated 
after a three day battle (28 Djumada II 1069/ 
23 March 1659) and, while he was fleeing towards 
Kandahar, Malik Djuwan, his Baluil host, captured 
him and brought him to Agra, where, after being 
paraded with every disgrace, he was put to death as 
a heretic. Awrangzlb's power was now unchallenged 
and he celebrated his second coronation on 14 
Ramadan 1069/5 June, 1659. 

First half of the reign, 1068-92/ 165 8-81. The 
Mughal Empire during Awrangzlb's long reign was 
really ruined by a series of wars, many of which were 
of his own seeking. His general, Mir Djumla, con- 
quered Kuc Behar and Assam (1071-3/1661-3) with 
a terrible loss of life, including his own, but the 
territory was lost within four years. The Pathans 
rose in revolt — the YOsufzals in 1077/1667 and the 
Afridis in 1083/1672 — but though the Emperor 
stationed himself at Hasan Abdal (Rawalpindi 
district), the efforts of the imperial officers were 
strangely unavailing and peace could not be restored 
till 1085/1675. The death of Maharadja Djaswant 
Singh of Marwar on 25 Shawwal 1089/10 Dec. 1678, 
started the Radjput war. Awrangzlb stationed 
himself at Adjmer for the better conduct of the 
campaign, but his own son, Prince Akbar, rebelled 
against him and fled to Sambhadji. The Emperor 
made peace with Rana Radj Singh in Djumada I or II 
1092/June 1681, but the Rathors of Marwar con- 
tinued their struggle till Adjlt, son of Maharadja 
Djaswant, entered Djodhpur as a victor in n 18/1707. 
Meanwhile a new opponent of the Empire had risen 
in the Deccan, Shiwadji son of Shahdji Bhonsla, a 
first rate diplomat, guerrilla warrior and organiser 
ot victory. Shayista Khan, the Emperor's uncle, 
was sent against him and failed disastrously, but 
Pjai Singh, who succeeded Sh&yista, compelled 
Shiwadji by the treaty of Purandar (Dhu '1-Ka'da- 
Dhu '1-Hidjdja 1075/June 1665) to hand over 23 out 
of his 37 forts. Shiwadji came to Awrangzlb's court, 
found that he would only be given the status of a 
pandi-hazdri (commander of five thousand), and 
pretended to faint owing to a weak heart; he was 
interned by the Emperor's order but succeeded in 
escaping back to his homeland. In 1080/1669 he 
began offensive operations against the Empire, 
plundered Surat for a second time (1081/1670) and 
started a series of plundering raids for the levy of 
tavth (one-fourth) against the imperial territories. 
Though Shiwadji, who had crowned himself in 1085/ 
1674, died in 1091/1680, Mughal administration in 
the Deccan was completely demoralised. Meanwhile 
all the great officers of Awrangzlb, including even 
Radja Djai Singh, had failed disastrously against 
Bidjapttr. In Sha'ban-Ramadan 1092/Sept. 1681 
Awrangzlb decided to march to Burhanpur; he was 
not destined to return to northern India again. 

Second half of the reign, 1092-1118/1681-1707. In 
spite of the increasing inefficiency of the imperial civil 
and military machine, which Persian writers have 
loved to make the object of their humour, the Em- 
peror succeeded in his three immediate objectives. The 
city of Bidjapur, governed by a minor king, Sikandar 

Encyclopaedia of Islam 



c Adil Shah, and torn by internal strife, only sur- 
rendered after it had withstood a siege of sixteen 
months (23 Shawwal 1097/12 Sept. 1686. Gul- 
kanda was conquered after a siege of eight months, 
owing to the treachery of one of its principal 
officers (14 Dhu'l-Ka'da 1098/21 Sept. 1687). 
Lastly, Sambhadji, son of Shiwadji. was captured at 
Sanganeshwar and executed (26 Sha c ban 1100/ 
15 June 1689). But this did not bring the Deccan 
under Awrangzlb's control. The absence of a cen- 
tralised Mahratta power left the field open to Mah- 
ratta captains — half heroes, half bandits — and the 
imperial officers often preferred to make a separate 
peace with them. Forts were captured and lost. "All 
the various tribes residing in central and southern 
India were up in arms with Mahratta aid and concert 
against the officers of the Emperor and the cause 
of law and order in general." In the midst of this 
turmoil Awrangzlb died on 27 Dhu '1-Ka c da 1118/ 

One need not go beyond these exhausting wars to 
discover the reason for the failure of the Mughal 
Empire. The picture left for us by Khafl Khan, a 
historian whose family had been in Awrangzlb's 
service, is one of increasing corruption, harassment 
of the peasantry, neglect of government orders by 
officers in charge and failure of the state's financial 
resources. Whatever the reason, the Emperor was 
lax in the maintenance of discipline and K£afi Khan 
repeatedly tells us that no imperial officer, whatever 
his offences, was seriously punished. Awrangzlb's 
religious policy has been a matter of controversy, 
which will continue to simmer on for some time to 
come. Equally valid evidence seems to be available 
on both sides. Even with reference to his &itya, 
(1090/1679), a retrogressive poll-tax on the higher 
classes of Hindus at the rate of Rs. 3-1/3, 6-2/3 and 
13-1/3 (but not higher) per year, we have Khafi 
Khan's statement that it could not be levied and 
remained largely a tax on paper. To avoid misunder- 
standing it should be added that the term djitya 
was used in a very loose sense in medieval India 
and often meant any tax other than the land-tax 
(kharadi). [See also al-fatAwA al-'AlamoIriyya]. 
Bibliography: A complete list of all the 
available authorities on Shahdjahan and Awrangzlb 
is given in Storey, 564-99. Only the more important 
printed works are listed here: Djalal Tabatabal, 
Pddshdh-ndma, Lucknow 1892; Salih Kanboh 
Lahawrl, 'Amal-i $&lih (Bibliotheca Indica); 
Wdki'-at-i 'Aldmgiri (ed. by Syed Zafar Hasan), 
Aligarh; 'Alamglr-ndma (Bibliotheca Indica); 
WahdH'-i Ni'mat Khan 'All, Lucknow and 
Cawnpore; the Qiung-ndma of Ni'mat Khan <A1I, 
Lucknow and Cawnpore, also English translations 
by Chandra Lai Gupta and Agan Lai Verma 
(Agra 1909) and by Baij Nath Figar (Lucknow 
1928); Ma'dtJiir 'AlamgM (Bibliotheca Indica); 
Ahkdm-i 'Alamgiri, Persian text and English 
translation by Sir Jadunath Sarkar; Khafl Khan, 
Muntakbabul Lubdb (Bibliotheca Indica). Two 
contemporary works — Bemier, Travels and 
Manucci, Storia do Mogor, 1656-1708 (Ed. W. 
Irvine)— are available in English. Among modern 
works, Sir Jadunath Sarkar, History of Awrangzeb, 
5 vols, stands pre-eminent. Reference may also 
be made to Mawlana Sb,ibll, Awrangzlb, 'Alamglr 
(in Urdu); Lane Poole, Awrangzlb; Zaheeruddin 
Faruqi, Awrangzlb (Newal Kishon); Sir J. N. 
Sarkar, Anecdotes of Awrangzeb. 

(W. Irvine-[Mohammad Habib]) 

49 



770 AWI 

AWRAS (Aures; AvSpioiov 6po? in Procopius, 
De bello vand., i, 8, ii, 12-13. 19-20) mountain massif 
of Algeria, forming part of the Eastern Saharan 
Atlas. So far it has not been possible to discover the 
meaning of the word Awras. 

The Awras is a compact massif 8,000 sq. km. in 
area, which extends from the depression leading 
from Batna to Biskra as far Khenchela and the 
valley of the Wadi 'l-'Arab, between the high 
plains of southern Constantino, (Sbakh) and the 
Saharan depression of the Ziban. Its summits 
(Djibal Chelia, 2,327 m., and Kef Mahmel, 2,321 m., 
the highest in Algeria) and its ridges tower nearly 
1,000 m. above the "South-Aurasian" depression. 
The western Awras comprises three long chains 
running S.W.-N.E., separated by the deep valleys 
of the Abdi and al-Abiod Wadis, which discharge 
through narrow gorges into the Sahara. The eastern 
Awras is much more massive. Differences of altitude 
and aspect create a diversity of bio-geographical 
zones. The northern and north-western slopes, short 
and steep, nevertheless have an adequate rainfall and 
can be cultivated without irrigation ; they are covered 
with forests of holm-oak and, on the often snow-clad 
peaks, there are forests of cedar and grassy mountain 
glades. The southern slopes, which are much longer 
and drier, comprise three zones in which crops are 
irrigated in terraced fields : a cool zone, above 
1,500 m., also often covered with snow, and 
characterised by forests of holm-oak, pastures, 
summer crops and walnut-trees ; a middle zone, with 
patches of badly-neglected Aleppo pine and juniper 
forest, and, in the foothills, winter (barley and wheat) 
and summer (maize and sorghum) cereal crops, figs, 
apricots; below 800 m., the first palm-trees appear, 
growing along the wadis, at the foot of slopes on 
which are found only occasional junipers, clumps of 
al/a and extremely poor pasture. 

The inhabitants of the Awras live on cereals, 
which they sow on the mountain and at the foot of 
the northern (Chara) and southern (Sahara) slopes, 
fruit, and a few vegetables, and by stockbreeding, 
in which goats play a greater part than sheep. For 
the cultivation of the crops, the men move from the 
northern slope to the Sahara. The winter migration, 
during which the flocks are moved from the high 
zone to the foot of the mountain, involves families 
in a semi-nomadic way of life. — The inhabitants of 
the Awras are villagers, except in the east, where 
they live in hamlets of gourbis dispersed in the woods. 
Their villages, often built on the hillside, with the 
houses in terraces, are sometimes dominated by ; 
guclla (kal c a, fortified granary). The people of thi 
Awras (115,000) are still Berber-speaking, except 01 
the borders where theie has been penetration by 
arabicised tribes. 

These Berbers are called Shawiya by the Arabs. 
The women continue to speak Berber whilst the men 
adopt Arabic for use outside the family. 

Worked stones show that the Awras has been 
occupied since Old Neolithic times. Roman influence 
is indicated by the ruins of cisterns and irrigation 
ditches, oil-mill grinding stones, etc. The Byzantin 
confined themselves to building a line of forts along 
the foot of the Northern face of the Awras. When 
c Ukba b. Nafi c [q.v.] entered the Maghrib, the 
Berbers inflicted serious losses on him and it \ 
near the Awras, at Tahuda, that he met his death 
when returning from his great expedition towards 
the West. After the destruction of the Kingdom of 
Kusayla [q.v.], the Awras became the centre of the 



resistance offered to the Muslims, who only succeeded 
in suppressing it at the beginning of the 2nd/8th 
century, after the bloody struggles to which the 
legend of the Kahina [q.v.] is attached. Following 
upon these wars, Berbers from Tripolitania and the 
South of Ifrikiya established themselves in the 
Awras; converted to Islam willingly or by compul- 
sion, they retained a spirit of independence which 
was shown by the eagerness with which they adopted 
heretical doctrines, lbadism in the 2nd/8th century, 
the Nakkarl doctrines in the 4th/ioth century; it 
was from the Awras that Abu Yazid appeared, whose 
revolt for a brief moment imperilled the Fatirrid 
Empire. The HUSH invasion contributed to the 
arabisation of the whole area of the mountain 
massif, but the populations succeeded in retaining 
their independence intact, escaping from the autho- 
rity of the Hafsids [q.v.], then from the domination 
of the Turks; the latter, however, set up in the area 
some chieftains devoted to their policy, whose 
authority remained precarious. From the ioth/i6th 
century, preachers from the extreme South of 
Morocco gave the Islam of the Awras the appearance 
which it was to retain until about 1935: a religion 
closely linked with a specific social structure. At this 
last date, the Algerian <ulamd> intervened, especially 
against the cult of Saints. 

The inhabitants of the Awras have always retained 
their old political organisation, of which the village 
remained the basis, a true municipal republic 
administered by the assembly of the people, or 
diamd'a, in conditions analogous to, though rather 
more sketchy than, those which existed in Kabylia. 
The French occupation only superficially put an 
end to this state of affairs. In 1845 the Due d'Aumale 
took Mshunesh, whilst Bedeau made the main 
tribes recognise French authority; further expedi- 
tions, however, were required in 1848-1849 and 1850 
to repress a revolt; French troops had to intervene 
again in 1859 and 1879, when risings had broken 
out. In 1866, the judicial system of the Malikls 
was applied to the Awras and Kadis were sent there, 
but local customary law continued to be applied, 
as a supplement to Islamic Law and the French 
Penal system. 

Bibliography: E. Fallot, Etude sur Us Monis 
Auris, in Bull, de la Soc. de Gtog. de Marseille, 
1886; Col. de Lartigue, Monographic de I'Auris, 
Constantine 1904; C. Latruffe, Les Monts Aouris, 
in the Bull, de la Soc. de Gtog. de Paris, 1880; 
A. Papier, La Ouelda de Kebaich et I'oasis de 
Mechounech, Paris 1894; M. Besnier, La Plaint 
d'Arris, in the Ann. de Gio t ., 1899; H. Busson, 
Les valUes de I'Auris, in the Ann. de Giog. 1900; 
E. Masqueray, De Aurasio monte, Paris 1886; 
idem, Formation des citis chez Us populations 
sidentaires de I'Afrique septentrionale, Paris 1886; 
idem, Documents hist, sur I'Auris, in R. A/r. 1877; 
idem, Voyage dans I'Aouras, in the Bull, de la Soc. 
deGlog. de Paris, 1876; idem, Tradition de I'Aouras 
oriental, in theBull.deCorr.Afr., 1885; Sierakowski, 
Das Schawi, Dresden 1871 ; Lettre du Mai de St 
Arnaud sur ses campagnes dans I'Auris, Paris 
1855; Cne de Margon, Insurrections dans la 
province de Constantine de 1870 d 1880, Paris 1883; 
G. Mercier, Moeurs et traditions de I'Auris, in J A, 
1900; F. Stuhlmann, Ein kulturgeschichtlicher 
Ausflug in den Aures, Hamburg 1912; M. W. 
Hilton Simpson, The Birbers of the Auris Moun- 
tains, in Scottish Geog. Mag., xxxviii, 1922; 
G. Rozet, V Auris, escalier du disert, Algiers 1934; 



G. Surdon, Institutions et coutumes des Berbbres du 
Maghreb; Tangier- Fez 1938, 406-29; M. Gaudry, 
La Femme chaouia de I'Auris, Paris 1929, with a 
bibliography; R. Lafitte, £tude giologique de V Auris 
Algiers 1939; G. Tillion, Les socUtds berberes dans 
I'Auris meridional, in Africa 1938; T. Riviere, 
V Habitation chez les Ouled Abderrahman, in Africa 
1938; G. Marcy, Observ. sur Involution politique 
et sociale de I'Auris, in Politique tlrangbre, 1938; 
idem, Cadre giog. et genre de vie en pays chaouia, in 
£duc. aXglrienne, 1942; T. Riviere, J. Faublee and 
M; Faublee- Urbain in Jour. Soc. 'African. 1942, 
1943, 1951, 1955; P. Rognon, La basse vallie de 
I'oued Abdi, in Trav. de I'Inst. de Rech. Sahar., 1954. 
See also the articles Algeria, atlas and Berbers. 

(G.Yver*) 
al-AWS, one of the two main Arab tribes 
in Medina. The other was al-Khazradj, and the 
two, which in pre-Islamic times were known as Banu 
Kayla from their reputed mother, constituted after 
the Hidjra the 'helpers' of Muhammad or Ansar 
[q.v.\ The genealogy as given by Ibn Sa'd (iii/2,1) 
is: al-Aws b. Tha'laba b. 'Amr (Muzaykiya') b. 
c Amir (Ma 5 al-Sama 5 ) b. Haritha b. Imri 5 al-Kays 
b. Tha'laba b. Mazin b. al-Azd b. al-Ghawth b. 
Nabt b. Malik b. Zayd b. Kahlan b. Saba 3 b. Yash- 
djub b. Ya'rub b. Kahtan. The following table'gives 
the genealogical relationships of the chief divisions 
of the tribe: 



al-AWS 771 

the genealogies lead one to suppose, since the genea- 
logies, which are later compilations, are entirely 
patrilineal, whereas there are many indications that 
matrilineal kinship was important in Medina. The 
feuds at Medina in the decades before the hidjra are 
commonly said to be between the two tribes, but 
the sources speak of fighting between clans and 
groups of clans; and even in the Constitution of 
Medina the units responsible for blood-money, 
which are apparently independent political entities, 
are single clans or groups of clans, like al-Nablt, 
which consisted of the clans of 'Abd al-Ashhal, 
Zafar and Haritha. It is probable that the con- 
ception of the Aws and the Khazradj as tribes was 
fostered in order to create closer ties between the 
clans in alliance with one another, and that this was 
happening shortly before the hidjra and more 
particularly after it. 

In the generation before the hidjra the leading 
man among the Aws was Hudayr b. Simak, who by 
genealogy belongs to 'Abd al-Ashhal, but appears at 
one point as leader of the clan of 'Amr b. c Awf against 
the Khazradji clan of al-Harith, while the chief of c Abd 
al-Ashhal was Mu'adh b. al-Nu'man. Another leader 
was Abu Kays b. al-Aslat of the clan of Wa'il, but 
on several occasions when he was in command of a 
party his followers fled, and latterly he yielded the 
supreme command to Hudayr where both were 
present. During this period various small feuds 



al-Nablt 
1 


'Awf 
Jmr 


Imru> 


al-Kays 

1 


1 

al-Khazradj 

1 


1 

Silm 

1 

Ghanm 


Wakif 
(=Salim) 


al-Harith Zafar 

1" 

Diusham 

1 




1 1 

'Abd al-Ashhal Haritha 





The name al-Aws probably means 'the gift' and 
seems to be a contraction for Aws Manat, 'the gift 
of Manat' (the goddess whom they worshipped). 
The fuller form tends to be restricted to the clans of 
Wikif, Khatma, Wall and Umayya b. Zayd, and 
was changed in Islamic times to Aws Allah; but 
these four clans seem to be called simply 'Banu '1- Aws' 
in the Constitution of Medina (Ibn Hisham, 341-3). 

The traditional story is that, some time after the 
emigration from the Yaman led by 'Amr Muzay- 
kiya', his descendants quarrelled, and al-Aws and 
al-Khazradj separated from Ghassan and settled in 
Yathrib or Medina, which was then controlled by 
Jewish clans. For a time Banu Kayla were subordinate 
to the Jews, but under the leadership of Malik b. 
al-'AdjUn of the Khazradji clan of Salim (Kawakila) 
they became independent and obtained a share of 
the palm-trees and strongholds ((dtdm, sing. u(um) 
A contemporary and rival of Malik was Uhayha b. 
al-Djulah, chief of B. Djahdjaba, a branch of the 
Awsl clan of 'Amr b. 'Awf. 

It is to be doubted whether there was at this time 
any conception of the Aws (or the Khazradj) as a 
unity. The effective units seem to have been the 
subdivisions of these two tribes, here called 'clans'. 
Even the clans may not have been constituted as 



'Amir 

Kays 



Wa'il Umayya 

became linked with one another, until there was a 
conflagration in which most of Medina and some 
of the surrounding nomads were involved. After a 
serious defeat the clans of 'Abd al-Ashhal and Zafar 
had withdrawn from Medina, while 'Amr b. 'Awf 
and Aws Manat had made peace. The oppressive 
policy, however, of the Khazradji leader, 'Amr b. 
Nu'man of Bayada, drove the Jewish tribes of 
Kurayza and al-Nadlr into alliance with the two 
exiled clans, and enabled them to fight back. They 
were also helped by the nomadic clan of Muzayna, 
and the other clans of the Aws joined in, with the 
exception of Haritha, which had been driven from 
its lands by 'Abd al-Ashhal. The ensuing battle of 
Bu'ath went in favour of the Aws and their allies, 
but their leader Hudayr was killed. Peace was not 
made after this battle, but there was no further 
large-scale fighting. 

Such was the situation when Muhammad com- 
menced negotiations, first with the Khazradj and 
then with the Aws also. While nearly all the 
Khazradi entered into agreement with Muhammad, 
many of the Aws held back, viz. the clans of Khatma, 
Wall, Wakif and Umayya b. Zayd, and some of 
'Amr b. 'Awf. Nevertheless the conversion of Sa'd 
b. Mu'adh b. al-Nu'man, chief of 'Abd al-Ashhal, 



772 



L-AWS - 



was a decisive event in the growth of Islam in 
Medina, and from the battle of Badr until his death 
in 5/627 he was the leading Muslim of the Banu 
Kayla or Ansar [?.».]• The enmity between the Aws 
and the Khazradi died away gradually, and is not 
heard of after the institution of Abu Bakr as caliph. 
Bibliography: SamhudI, Wafd? al-Wafd', 
Cairo 1908, i, 116-40 (summarised in F. Wtisten- 
feld, GeschichU der Stadt Medina, Gottingen i860, 
32-40); idem, Khuldsat al-Wafd', Mecca 1316; Ibn 
al-Athlr, i, 492-511; J. Wellhausen, Skizzen und 
Vorarbeiten, Berlin 1889, iv/i, 'Medina vor dem 
Islam'; A. P. Caussin de Perceval, Essai sur 
I'histoire des Arabes avant I'Islamisme, Paris 1847, 
ii, 202, 212, 646-90. (W. Montgomery Watt) 
AWS b. HAPJAK. the greatest pre- Islamic 
poet of the tribe of Tamlm ; al-Asma'I frequently 
praises and comments on his poetry; in contrast 
the early anthologies, except the ffamdsa of al- 
Buhturl, do not mention him at all. Whether al- 
Farazdak, when he boasts of having "inherited 
from the family of Aws a tongue like poison", 
means our poet, cannot be ascertained. Fragments 
of some length do not appear before the time 
of Ibn al-Sikklt, who probably wrote a commen- 
tary to his diwdn, and quotes him in his lexico- 
graphical work. 

With the early critics Aws was famous for his 
description of the (wild) ass, the bow, and "noble 
virtues". He exhorted the Lakhmid king 'Amr b. 
Hind to avenge his father al-Mundhir III, who was 
murdered in 544, and mentions the battles of al-Ka c 
and al-Su'ban in which his tribe was involved. A 
charming anecdote tells the story of his acquain- 
tance with Fadala b. Kalada of the Banu Asad to 
whom he dedicated a well-known elegy. Aws seems 
to be earlier than al-Nabigha. 

Tradition relates that Zuhayr was the trans- 
mitter (rawi) of both Aws and Tufayl al-GhanawI. 
Krenkow makes Aws the rawi of Tufayl without 
indicating his source. 

Bibliography : R. Geyer, GedichU und Frag- 
ment des 'Aus b. Harar (SBAk. Wien, phil-hist. 
CI, 13, 13-107) ;cf. GGA 1895, no. 5, 371 t.;ZDMG 
1893, 323 f. ; 1895, 85 f. ; 297 f. ; 673 1 ■ ; 1910, 154 f • ; 
ZA, 1912, 295 f.; TSha Husayn, Ft 'l-Adab al- 
Dfdhili, 296 f.; Brockelmann, I, 27, S. I, 55; G. E. 
von Griinebaum, in Orientalia 1939, 328 f.; Im- 
portant additional material in: Djarir and al- 
Farazdak, Nakd'id, al-Asma c I, Fuhula (ZDMG, 
191 1), 492, 493 ; Ibn Kutayba, al-Ma'dni al-Kabir; 
Ibn Durayd, Diamkara ; Ibn Maymun, Muntahd al- 
Talab, cf. JRAS, 1937, 433 f- 

(S. A. BONEBAKKER) 

AWTAD (At., sing, watad), literally "pegs", the 
3rd category of the hierarchy of the Ridjal al-Qhayb, 
comprising four holy persons, also called al- e Umud, 
"the pillars" [see abdAl]. Each of them is charged 
with the surveillance of one of the four cardinal 
points, in the centre of which they have their 
dwelling-place. (I. Goldziher) 

al-'AWWA' [see NudjOm]. 

AWWAL (fem. uld, plur. awdHl), first. — I. As a 
philosophical term, awwal was brought into Muslim 
thought by the Arab translators of Aristotle and 
Plotinus as the equivalent in Arabic of the Greek 
words npSyzoi and ipxocl. Thus in the Pseudo- 
Theology of Aristotle, that is to say, in the Arabic 
translation of the last three Enneads of Plotinus, 
awwal indicates either the First Being or the First 
Created. Similarly, in the Ikhwan al-Safa we already 
find the expression al-kasd al-awwal to express the 



first causality derived from God, the same expression 
being again found in the Budd al-'-Arif and the 
Sicilian Questions of Ibn Sabln. The word awwal is 
likewise used by the MuHazilites, al-Kindl and al- 
Farabl; but it was Ibn Sina who systematised its 
use in philosophical terminology. The word awwal 
subsequently became customary among those 
Eastern and Western thinkers familiar, either 
directly or indirectly, with the thought of Avicenna. 

II. Used in the singular, awwal indicates among 
the philosophers God in the sense of First Being. 
With the expression the Necessary Being, it is the 
name of God most frequently employed by Muslim 
philosophers; in this sense it is usually employed 
alone, though at times such reiterative expressions 
as al-mabda i al-awwal, First Principle, are to be 
encountered. 

III. In several compound expressions, awwal 
indicates essentially causal priority, and secondarily 
temporal priority, as in the terms al-maHul al-awwal 
(First Caused), al-adisdm al-uld (First or Elementary 
bodies), al-haraka al-uld (First movement). 

IV. Used in the plural, awdHl [q.v.] indicates the 
first ones in date and, in philosophy, the thinkers of 
former ages. 

V. Likewise in the plural, awdHl also indicates the 
first principles in the order of being and knowledge; 
for example: al-mabddi al-uld, the First Principles 
in the order of Being or Separate Intelligences, or 
al-ma c k(Udt al-uld, the First InteUigibles that is to 
say, the First Principles of Knowledge. 

VI. From awwal is derived the abstract noun 
awwaliyya (plur. awwaliyydt), which in the Philo- 
sophers indicates the essence of that which is first. 

VII. In the plural, awwaliyydt translates tix TtpwTa 
and &px<*.i indiscriminately and means the First 
Principles in the order of knowledge, that is to say, 
the propositions and judgements immediately 
evident by themselves. 

Bibliography: RasdHl Ikhwan al-Safd', Cairo 
1374/1928, iv, 14-18; Farabi, Risdla ft Ard> AM 
al-Madma al-Fddila (ed. Dieterici in Al Fdrdbis 
Abhandlung der Musterstadt, Leiden 1895), 17-23, 
27-29; idem, l Uyun al-MasdHl (ed. Dieterici in 
Al' Fdrdbis philosophischen Abhandlungen, Leiden 
1890) 57-6o; Ibn Sina, Shifd* (lith. ed. Tehran 
1303/1886), i, 292-293; ii, 439, 581, 589, 605-608, 
620-625; idem, Nadidt, Cairo 1331/1913, 100-103, 
233, 270, 355. 404, 424, 451-453, 46i,479; idem, 
Kitdb al-Ishdrdt wa 'l-Tanblhdt (ed. Forget, Leiden 
1892; trans. A.-M. Goichon), 55-59, 167-169; idem, 
Tafslr al-Samadiyya (ed. Diami< al-BadaV, Cairo 
1335/1917), 19; idem, Risdla fi 'l-'Ishk (same 
editor), ii, 72; Ibn Hazm, Kitdb al-Fisal, Cairo 
1321/1903, i, 21-25; Ibn al-SId al-Batalyawsi, 
Kitdb al-fladd'ik (ed. Asln, in Andalus, v, 1940) 
63-154; Ibn Rushd, D£dmi i de la M&aphysique 
(ed. Quiros, Madrid 1919), 131-154; A.-M. Goichon, 
Lexique de la langue philosophique d'Ibn Sina, 
Paris 1938, nos. 33, 34, 35, 39, 91, 99, 143, 443, 
450, 572; idem, Vocabulaires compares d'Aristote 
d'Ibn Sina, Paris 1939, 2; M. Cruz Hernandez, 
Historia de la filosofla hisparto-musulmana, Madrid 
1957, i, 83, 87, 89, 131, 260, 317; ii, 150, 154, 
302, 307. (M. Cruz Hernandez) 

al-AWZA'I, AbO c Amr <Abd al-Ra?mAn b. c Amr, 
the main representative of the ancient 
Syrian school of religious law. His nisba is derived 
from al-Awza ( , a suburb of Damascus, so called after 
a South Arabian tribe, or an agglomeration (awzi ( ) 
of clans, who lived there (Ibn 'Asakir, Ta'rikjt 
Dimashk, ed. al-Munadjdjid, it, 1954, 144; Yakut, 



al-AWZA<I — AYA 



773 



i, 403 f.). An ancestor of his had been made a 
prisoner in Yaman (al-Mas e udi, Murudi, vi, 214). 
He seems to have been bom in Damascus, and he 
did part of his studies at least in al-Yamama, where 
he went in Government employment. Later, he 
moved to Bayriit where he died, about 70 years old, 
in 157 (774) ; he is buried in the village of Hantus, 
near Bayriit, where his tomb is still visited by 
pilgrims (Heffening, 148, n. 4). 

Al-Awza e i's writings, which he dictated 
disciples and of which the Fihrist, : 
Kitdb al-Sunan fi 'l-Fikh and a Kitdb al-MasdHl 
fi 'l-Fikh, have not been preserved in their original 
form. His Musnad (HadjdjI Mialifa, ed. Flugel, 
no. 12006) was presumably composed at a later date, 
as were the other works of this kind. Al-Awza c i's 
opinions, however, are extensively quoted (1) in 
Abu Yusuf's al-Radd '■aid Strut al-AwzdH (Cairo 1357 ; 
also, with comments by al-Shafil, in his K. al-Umm, 
vii, Bulak 1325, 303-336; cf. Hadidji Mialifa, ed. 
Flugel, no. 251), a refutation of al-Awza'I's criticisms 
of the opinions of Abu Hanlfa; an original version of 
al-Awza c i 5 s K. al-Siyar, by one of his immediate 
disciples, was still in existence in the nth/i7th 
century (Heffening, 149 f.); (2) in al-Tabari's K. 
Ikhtildf al-Fukahd* (ed. F. Kern, Cairo 1902, and 
J. Schacht, Leiden 1933). 

Al-Awza'I's opinions, as a rule, represent the 
oldest solutions adopted by Islamic jurisprudehce. 
The archaic character of his doctrine makes it 
likely that he, who was himself a contemporary of 
Abu Hanlfa, conserved the teaching of his predeces- 
sors, who are nothing more than names for us, in 
the generation before him. His systematic reasoning, 
though explicit, is on the whole rudimentary; it is 
overshadowed by his reliance on the "living tradit- 
ion". By this he understands the uninterrupted 
practice of the Muslims, beginning with the Prophet, 
maintained by the first Caliphs and by the later 
rulers, and verified by the scholars; this is the 
"surma of the Prophet", even though it may not 
be expressed in formal traditions going back to him. 
Al-Awza'I opposes this idealised concept of sunna 
to the actual administrative practice, and he makes 
the "good old time" last until the killing of the 
Umayyad Caliph al-Walid (II) b. Yazid (II) in 126 
(744) and the civil war which followed it, so that 
it includes most of the Umayyad period. In this 
concept of sunna and in other respects, al-Awza c I 5 s 
doctrine comes nearest to that of the ancient 
'Irakians. 

Al-Awza'I shows as yet no trace of the anti- 
Umayyad feeling which became fashionable under 
the 'Abbasids, and it is likely that his attitude to 
the 'Abbasids was cool (this is reflected by an 
anecdote about his meeting with the 'Abbasid 
conqueror c Abd Allah b. C A1I, though the story itself 
seems to be legendary; cf. Barthold, in Isl., xviii, 
244). Nevertheless, he succeeded in gaining the 
respect and esteem of the new rulers, and in parti- 
cular of the future Caliph al-Mahdi as a prince, 
whom he seems to have met. The applications which 
al-Awza'I addressed to this prince, to the Caliph al- 
Mansur, and to influential persons at the Court, on 
behalf of political prisoners, the public of Bayriit, 
and others (Ibn AM Hatim, Takdimat al-Ma<rifa, 
187 ff.), are doubtless genuine. The statement that 
Ibn Suraka (governor of Damascus on behalf of the 
Umayyad al-Walid II and of the 'Abbasid <Abd Allah 
b. C A1I; cf. al-Safadi, Umard 3 Dimashk, ed. al- 
Munadjdjid, Damascus 1955, 55) made al-Awzal 
come from Bayriit to Damascus (Ibn Abl Hatim, 



ibid., 187), is difficult to fit into what little is known 
of al-Awza c I's biography. 

A number of al-Awza'I's disciples, amongst whom 
al-Walid b. Mazyad (d. 203) is prominent, are 
mentioned by Yakut (i, 785 f., s.v. Bayriit). Similarly 
to what happened in the other schools of religious 
law, the ancient school of the Syrians transformed 
itself into the personal madhhab [q.v.] of al-Awza e i. 
It prevailed not only in Syria but in the Maghrib, 
including al-Andalus (Islamic Spain), before it was 
superseded by the madhhab of Malik, in the Maghrib 
about the middle of the 3rd (9th), in Syria towards 
the end of the 4th (10th) century (J. Lopez Ortiz, 
La recepcidn de la escuela maltqui en Espana, Madrid 
1931, 16 ff.; R. Castejon Calderon, Los juristas 
hispano-musulmanes, Madrid 1948, 32, 43 ff.; 
Heffening, 148; Barthold, ibid). The anecdotes on 
how al-Awza c i overcame Malik in disputation (Ibn 
Abi Hatim, ibid., 185 f.), reflect the struggle between 
the two schools. 

Bibliography: Ibn Sa'd, vi/II, 185; Ibn 
Kutayba, Ma'drif, ed. Wustenfeld, 249; al- 
Tabari, iii, 2514; Ibn Abi Hatim al-Razi, Takdimat 
al-Ma'rifa, Haydarabad 1952, 184 ff.; idem, K. al- 
Qiarh wa 'l-Ta'dil, ii/II, Haydarabad 1953, 266 1, 
Abu Nu'aym, IfHyat al-Awliya*, vi, Cairo 1936; 
135 ff.; al-Sam'anl, 53r; Ibn c Asakir, TaViftA 
Dimashk (in MS; cf. Yusuf al- c Ishsh, Fihris 
Makhfmt Oar al-Kutub al-Zahiriyya (Ta'rikh). 
Damascus 1947, 113); al-Nawawi, Tahdhib al- 
Asmd\ ed. Wustenfeld, Gottingen 1842-47, 382 ff.; 
Ibn Khallikan, Wafaydi al-A'ydn, s.v. e Abd al- 
Rahman; al-Dhahabi, Tadhkirat al-tfuffdz, i, 
Haydarabad 1333, 168 ff.; Ibn Kathlr, al-Biddya 
wa'l-Nihdya, Cairo 1351-8, x, 115 ff.; Ibn Hadjar 
al-'Askalani, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, vi, Haydarabad 
1326, 238 ff.; Anonymous, Mahdsin al-MasdH, 
ed. Shakfb Arslan, Cairo 1352 (cf. O. Spies, in ZS, 
I 935» 189 ff.); W. Heffening, Das islamische 
Fremdenrecht, Hanover 1925, 148 ft.; O. Spies, 
Beitrdge zur arabischen LiteraturgeschichU, Leipzig 
1932, 52 f.; J. Schacht, The Origins of Muham- 
madatt Jurisprudence 2 , Oxford 1953, index, s.v. 
Auza'I. (J. Schacht) 

AY A— plu. dyat, a sign, token, miracle, 
verse of the Kur'an. The original meaning is a 
sign or token and as such is found in the pre-Islamic 
poetry (plur. ay and dyat, with plur. of plur. dyd, cf . 
N6ldeke\Belegw0rterbuch, sub. voc), where it is the 
equivalent of the Hebrew otjt, Aramaic dthd; Syriac 
dtha, the plur. othoth occurring in the Lachish Letters 
(iv, n) for the fire-beacons used for signalling. This 
original meaning occurs in the Kur'an, where the 
ark is called the token of Saul's kingship (ii, 248/ 
249), and the sun and moon are signs of day and night 
(xvii, 12/13). The wonders of nature are also tokens 
of Allah's presence and power (xxx, 20/19 ff- ; *"> 
105 etc.), but such are also portents from which men 
should take warning (ii, 164/159, 266/268; xxvi, 
67 ff. etc.). It is the duty of the Messengers whom 
Allah sends to rehearse to men these demonstrations 
of Allah's, power, or wisdom, or judgment as they 
appear in nature or in history, and it is the con- 
demnation of communities that they reject the signs 
of Allah that are rehearsed to them (ii, 61/58; x, 
73/74; xxvii, 81/83 ff.; vii. 182/181). From wonder 
to miracle is an easy step (xliii, 47 ; iii, 49/43 ; xiii, 38 ; 
xxvi, 154), and by a further step the accounts telling 
of such portents or tokens of Allah's might could be 
called His signs (ii, 252/253; xii, 7; xv, 75; xxxiv, 19/ 
18; v, 75/79). By a final step each verse of such an 
account becomes a sign (vi, 124; xxviii, 87; iii, 



774 



- AYA SOFYA 



108/104 etc.). In the Massorah to the Kur'an aya 
(plur. ay) always means verse, and there was con- 
siderable discussion as to verse-endings (ru'us al-dy), 
verse-numbering, and the faddHl of certain verses 
such as the "Throne Verse" (ii, 255/256), the "Light 
Verse" (xxiv, 35), the final verses of sura ii, etc., 
which brought peculiar blessings to such as recited 
them in specified ways. These various meanings 
of aya, save the last, correspond closely with Jewish 
and Christian usage, where the particular religious 
use of the word is for the signs that attest the divine 
presence and which accompany and testify to the 
work of the Prophets. 

Bibliography: Kurtubl, al-Didmi c /» Ahkatn 
al-Kur'dn, i, 57 ff. ; Ibn Manzur, Lisdn al- c Arab, 
xvi'ii, 66 ff. ; SuyutI, Itkdn, ch. i, xix, xxviii, lix, 
lxii, lxiii; Fleischer, KUinere Schri/ten, i, 619 no. 2 : 
Jeffery, Foreign Vocabulary of the Kur'dn, 72, 73: 
A. Spitaler, Die Verszdhlung des Qorans, 1935: 
C. A. Keller, Das Wort Oth als Offenbarungs- 
zeichen Gottes, 1946; R. Bell, Introduction to the 
Qur>dn, 153-4. (A. Jeffery) 

AYA SOFYA, the largest mosque in Constanti- 
nople (Istanbul), and at one time the leading Metro- 
politan Church of Eastern Christendom. It was 
known generally as <H MeYaXi) 'ExxXijota up to 
1453, having been called Eo<pta (without the article) 
around 400 A.D., and since the 5th century, C H ' Ayta 

According to the most recent research, the original 
Aya Sofya was not built by Constantine the Great, 
but, in accordance with his last wishes, by his son, 
Constantius, after the latter's victory over his 
brother-in-law Licinius. It was then built in the 
shape of a Basilica, and consecrated on 1 5 February 
360 (cf. A. M. Schneider, Die vorjustinianische 
Sophienkirche, in BZ, 1936, 36). This" Great Church" 
met with frequent and diverse changes. There were 
fires and earthquakes which ravaged it (the first 
wooden-roofed basilica went up in flames on 20 
June 404 on the occasion of the expulsion of Bishop 
John Chrysostom). Reopened on 8 October 415, 
it remained undamaged for over a century until the 
night of the 13th of January 532, when once again 
it went up in flames (as did the greater part of the 
city, including the imperial archives) during the 
fight between the rival hippodrome factions. 

The emperor Justinian immediately made known 
his decision to rebuild the church in such splendour 
as had never been seen before. Even before this, 
Justinian had already ordered that valuable 
materials from old monuments in the provinces of 
his vast empire (where heathen works of art were 
deliberately left to decay) were to be sent to the 
imperial residence, and after the fire these materials 
were largely used to rebuild Aya Sofya. Two of the 
greatest architects of all times, Anthemius of 
Tralles and Isidore of Miletus, were placed in 
charge of the reconstruction. Since the emperor had 
ordered that the new building must be proof against 
both fire and earthquake, they decided to use a 
dome-and-cupola design as being the surest means 
of escaping these dangers. The opening of this 
magnificent building took place on 27 December 
537 with enormous pomp, and the proud Justinian 
could exclaim "Solomon, I have surpassed you!" 
Even during his own reign, however, the eastern part 
of the dome collapsed in an earthquake (on 7 
May 558) and the ambo, tabernacle, and altar were 
smashed. The dome had been designed too flat, and 
it was now raised by more than 20 feet, whilst the 
supports of the big pillars were strengthened. It was 



ready for reopening on 24 December 562. The 
church has an enviable position: to the south there 
is the Augusteum, with an equestrian statue of 
Justinian, meant for national festivities; to the 
north (well within the Saray walls of today) are 
court churches, noble monasteries and the palaces 
of the court officials; and to the east, that is to 
say towards the sea, stands the imperial palace. 

The west presented a court-yard called the Atrium, 
flanked by open halls, to the visitor. From here, a 
number of doors (perhaps four or five) led into an 
enclosed hall (Exonarthex) which still belonged to 
the Atrium. From this, five doors led to the actual 
Narthex (Esonarthex), in addition there is a door at 
the extreme north and south ends. Further passages 
branch off, and nine rectangular openings from the 
entrances to the inner part of the church. The 
centre one of these was elaborately coloured and 
used to be the king's door. 

The area covered by the church is almost square: 
the internal length is about 75 metres (excluding the 
main apse to the east) and the breadth is about 
70 metres. The floor is shaped in the form of a cross, 
and above it the almost hemispherical pendentive 
dome rises to a height of 56 metres. Since the outside 
walls alone could not have carried it, it had to be 
supported in addition by four pillars, and these in 
turn are supported by small but structurally 
important arches and their corresponding pillars. To 
the east and west of the dome, there are two further 
semi-circular chambers, each of which has three 
semi-domes over it. Of greatest importance for the 
shaping of the interior was the two-storey arrange- 
ment of all the side-chambers adjacent to the centre 
aisle, where the galleries (as was customary in 
Byzantine churches) were reserved for women. 
The weight of the building is carried by 107 columns 
(40 below and 67 above), usually monoliths of 
coloured marble (verde antico), but in some cases of 
red porphyry. An overwhelming impression was 
created for the mediaeval spectator by the wealth of 
ornament: the lavish use of marble everywhere, the 
pictures of Christ and of the Mother of God, the 
Prophets, Apostles, and other saints which turn the 
walls into a sea of colour, not to mention the mighty 
Seraphim (in the spherical triangles of the main 
dome), and the gold-mosaic which adorned the dome 
and walls with such a splendour as had never been 
seen before. The mosaic ornamentation was pro- 
bably not finished until the last years of Justinian, 
■and during the reign of Justinos II. 

The original walls and vault of the original building 
consist of brick throughout. The sanctuary (P>j|xa) 
lay to the east of the central part of the church and 
was divided from it by an iconostasis of considerable 
height, adorned with pictures and open-work pillars. 
It contained the altar and the ciborium and led into 
the main apse. There were 425 priests (who admit- 
tedly also served three other churches) and 100 
doorkeepers in the days of Justinian. Shortly before 
the collapse of the Byzantine Empire, the number 
of church officials in the Aya Sofya was estimated 

The first major repairs to Aya Sofya were made 
in the time of the emperor Basil II. A part of 
the dome collapsed during an earthquake , on 
26 October 986. The emperor had the damage 
repaired (the clumsy flying buttresses on the 
western facade probably date from that time; cf. 
A. M. Schneider, Die Grabungen im Westhof der 
Sophienkirche, Berlin 1941, 32 ff.). In 1204 the 
church was severely damaged during the Latin 



AYA SOFYA 



775 



sack of Constantinople, when it was ruthlessly 
plundered, the holy vestments and vessels even being 
used to clean, and feed the invaders' horses; yet it 
became, nevertheless, the chief church and place of 
coronation for the new dynasty. The most extensive 
changes still undertaken in Byzantine times were 
made in the 14th century. In the first half, the walls 
were strengthened on all sides, the eastern wing in 
particular being buttressed from outside by high 
and broad supports. 

We have no description of the interior of Aya 
Sofya in Byzantine times from Muslim reports. The 
first Muslim who mentions the cathedral in detail 
is Ahmad b. Rusta (124 ff . ; trans. G. Wiet, Cairo 
'955, '39 ff-); tne author lived around 290/ 
902-903 but derives his description from Harun 
b. Yafcya, who was a prisoner of war in Con- 
stantinople some time during the ninth century. 
Harun does not really describe the building, which 
he calls al-Kanisa al-'Uzma (i.e. MryiiXTj 'ExxXTjota), 
but he does describe in vivid detail a feast-day 
procession, to the church of the Byzantine emperor. 
On this occasion, the Muslim prisoners of war were 
led to the church (this might perhaps mean to the 
atrium of it), and there they greeted the emperor 
with the cry "May God preserve the king for many 
years" (ibid. 125). One detail is of particular im- 
portance: he mentions that beyond the Madjlis (by 
which he presumably meant benches) there were 
24 small doors with openings a span square, at the 
western gate (these are not mentioned anywhere 
else). One of these little doors opened automatically, 
and closed again of its own accord, at the end of 
each of the 24 hours. With the decline of the Cali- 
phate, the Muslims after Ibn Rusta grow more and 
more silent about far-away Constantinople. Only 
four centuries later, after Asia Minor had been 
occupied by Turkish tribes, Shams al-Din Muhammad 
al-Dimashkl (ed. Frahn and Mehren, St. Petersburg, 
1865, 227) — who, however, is dependent on the work 
of the slightly earlier paper-merchant Ahmad {ibid., 
vm) — mentions the Aya Sofya in a few lines. The 
one remarkable thing is his statement that the 
church harboured an angel whose home was sur- 
rounded by a barrier (darabazin), presumably 
meaning the area of the altar and ciborium together 
with the iconostasis itself. 

A few decades later, Muhammad b. Battuta (ed. 
Defremery and Sanguinetti, ii, 434) is the first to 
ascribe the erecting of Aya Sofya to Asaf b. Barakhya 
[q.v.], supposedly a cousin of king Solomon. Ibn 
Baftuta's main merit is the detailed description of 
the atrium. As he stresses, he was not allowed to 
enter the church itself, possibly because he would 
not comply with the order (mentioned by him) to 
kneel before the cross at the entrance. 

When the Turks conquered Constantinople (29 
May 1453), crowds of the defenceless population fled 
into the church, in the firm belief that an angel 
would appear in the sky and drive the victors 
forever back into their Asiatic home-country after 
they had advanced as far as the column of Constan- 
tine the Great. However, the Turks came on, 
smashed the doors of the house of God, and dragged 
the frightened people — both men and women — 
away to slavery. Eye-witnesses do not, however, 
mention any blood-bath in the holy place, as was 
often stated to have been the case. After this wild 
spectacle of loot and plunder, the ruler himself — 
though not seated upon a horse, as it was usually 
stated— entered the church. His mu'adhdhin spoke 
> prayer which contains the con- 



fession of faith, and he threw himself down — 
together with his followers — before the one God, 
and thereby the temple of Constantius and Justinian 
was dedicated to Islam. 

There are very considerable changes in the 
interior resulting from the rules of the victorious 
religion. The mosaics which had formerly adorned 
the walls and vaults, and which had seemed to 
their Greek creators to have been fashioned for 
eternity, were hidden under a grey lime-wash 
(since Ewliya Celebl, Seyafutfndme i, mentions the 
mosaics, a few must still have been visible in his 
time, that is to say, in the 17th century)- The 
iconostasis between the priests and the lay folk was 
torn down, and the rich decorations of the east wing, 
the Bhna, were stripped. As the ancient Byzantine 
churches faced Jerusalem, whilst the Salat had to 
be performed facing Mecca, the Turks have prayed 
more towards the south, and not towards the eastern 
wing of the mosque, ever since the days of the 
conquest. From the time of Mehemmed II, the 
preacher — bearing a wooden sword — ascended the 
pulpit on Fridays, on every afternoon of Ramadan, 
and on Bayram festivals (see the article c anaza and 
Juynboll, Handbuch des islam. Gesetzes, 84, 87) ; and 
there were always two flags by the side of the pulpit. 
Furthermore, we know that Mehemmed II erected 
the mighty buttresses against the south wall, where 
he also built the first of those high, slim minarets. 
Selim II erected the two buttresses in the north 
and the second minaret on the north-east comer. 
His son, Murad III, was responsible for the other two. 

Sultan Murad III undertook thorough repairs of 
the mosque. In the first place, this meant the 
correction of minor defects which had come to light 
as time went on, but he also contributed considerably 
to the embellishment of the bare chamber. He placed 
the two huge alabaster urns on the inside near the 
main entrance; each of which holds 1250 litres; he 
also donated the two large estrades (masfaba). On 
the right hand one, the r>ur'an was recited during 
most of the day in that chanting intonation which is 
peculiar to the oriental liturgy of all denominations, 
whilst the other was meant for the prayer leaders. 
At great expense, Murad III also gilded the half- 
moon which crowned the dome. This had a diameter 
of 50 ells, and had replaced the cross. Thus the 
Muslim subjects of the Porte could behold the 
emblem of their faith from as far off as the summit 
of Bithynian Olympus. 

In the second half of the 16th century, the con- 
version of the churchyard immediately to the south 
of the mosque into a mausoleum for the sultans was 
begun. The oldest tomb is that of sultan Selim II. 
His son Murad III and his grandson Mehemmed III 
are also buried there. Sultan Mehemmed Ill's 19 
brothers, whom he had killed on his accession to the 
throne, are also entombed here. A few decades later, 
the dethroned sultan Mustafa I suddenly died, and 
a suitable grave could not be found immediately; 
the old baptistry (on the southern side of the 
narthex), which the Turks had used for oil storage 
since their conquest, was taken over for the pur- 
pose. Later on, the nephew of Mustafa I, Sultan 
Ibrahim, was likewise buried there. Since then, the 
large oil stores have been kept in the hall and 
courtyard on the north side of the baptistry. 

Sultan Murad IV (1623-1640), whose wign saw 
a certain measure of general revival, had the bare 
walls embellished in a memorable way by the great 
calligrapher Bicakdji-zade Mustafa Celebl, with 
large gold-lettered quotations from the r>ur'an. Some 



AYA SOFYA 



of these letters, such as Alif, are as much as ten ells 
long. These beautifully painted and often inter- 
twining verses are, however, dwarfed by the clear 
and boldly drawn names of the first four Caliphs 
(these are written by Teknedji-zade Ibrahim Efendi, 
cf. Ifadikat al-Djawdmi' , i, 4). There is a magnificent 
minbar dating from those days. It is also known 
that it was Ahmed III who erected the enclosed 
raised throne for the ruler, the maksira, on the 
north side of the main apse. Mahmud I (1730-1754) 
donated the large sultan's loggia on the first floor 
in the gallery and also a charming fountain and a 
school (both in the courtyard on the southern side), 
the large eating-house (Hmaret) in the north, and 
above all the valuable library in the mosque itself. 
There is, however, indubitable proof that this last 
was built on an older foundation already in the 
mosque. All of this is essentially part of the House 
of God in the Orient. 

From the time of Murad IV, the conqueror of 
Baghdad, there was a perceptible decline in the 
maintenance of the mosque, which coincided with the 
general decline of the empire. In 1847, Sultan c Abd 
al-Medjid commissioned the Italian brothers Fossati 
as architects to renovate the building in order to 
avoid the threatened collapse of some parts, as well 
as to give the whole a more dignified appearance. 
The work took two years. The lime-wash was only 
left in the places which depicted human forms; 
apart from this, the walls came back into prominence 
with the disclosure of their old splendour. The red 
and yellow striped paint on the outside dates from 
the restoration. The way in which the sultan showed 
his veneration for the great deeds of his forbears is 
somewhat strange: all the minarets were repaired 
with the exception of that of Mehemmed II, who 
had dealt the final and decisive blow against the 
Byzantine empire. The Italian architects, however, 
were eventually allowed to make this minaret as 
high as the others. The eight round tablets inscribed 
by the calligrapher Mustafa 'Izzet Efendi were put 
into Aya Sofya under Sultan «Abd al-Medjid. 

It is fortunate indeed that the mosque has not 
suffered from earthquakes since the 10th century. 
It must be admitted that it is largely thanks to 
the buttresses which the last Byzantines and the 
Turks put up against three sides of the walls that 
this gigantic building (standing, as it does, on 
seismic ground) has served mankind longer than any 
other building in Europe. The storms which blow 
from the Balkans or from the sea, on the other hand, 
seem to be increasingly dangerous to the mosque. 

In summer 1906 the Minister of Education 
ordered thorough repairs in the library building, 
which was looked after by 5 Khodias who officiated 
one day of the week each. 

In Ramadan, the mosque made an interesting 
picture when princes and officials assembled for 
afternoon prayers. At the tardwlk prayers (said an 
hour and a half after sun-down) there was less cere- 
mony. The dome was lit by innumerable lamps 
which were arranged in a circle. The greatest 
splendour of all was to be seen during the 27th night 
or the Laylat al-Kadr (Turk. Kadlr gecesi), in which 
the Kur'an descended from heaven to earth. The 
earlier rulers frequently attended the ceremony, but 
Sultan c Abd al-Hamld II only honoured the mosque 
with his presence (if at all) in the middle of Ramadan, 
when he came by boat to do honour to the relics 
of the Prophet in the ancient castle of his ancestors 
during a short visit (Yawm-i Ziydret-i KMrka-i 
Sa'ddet). 



Immediately after the conquest, the Turks took 
over the many legends which had grown up 
concerning the origin and the excellence of the 
church during the last years of Byzantine rule, 
refurbishing them in Muslim terms. A history of 
Aya Sofya (library of Aya Sofya, No. 3025) was 
written very shortly after the victorious entry, by 
Ahmad b. Ahmad al-GUanl (in Persian, on a Greek 
model) at the order of Mehemmed II. This was later 
translated into Turkish by Ni'mat Allah (died 969/ 
1561-2). According to Katib Celeb! (ed. Fliigel, II, 
116) there was a second Persian work written for 
the same ruler by the astronomer and cosmographer 
'AH b. Muhammad al-r>ushdjl [?.«.]. This work, 
however, can apparently no longer be identified. 
There is another version of the year 888/1483-4, 
by an anonymous author, which is now in the 
Staatsbibliothek Berlin (MS. Orient. 8°. 821) as an 
appendix to an Ottoman history (the Tawdrikh-i 
Kosfanfiniyya [Fleischer, Kat. Dresden, No. 113; 
Pertsch, Turkische Hss. zu Berlin, no. 231] written 
three years later) which is more interesting but other- 
wise similar in thought and sources. According to the 
Tawdrikh-i Kosfanfiniyya the story is that Asaiiyya, 
the extremely wealthy wife of the great Konstanfin 
b. 'Alaniyya, died very young and ordered in her last 
testament that a church should be built which 
should exceed all other buildings of the world in 
height. An architect is said to have arrived from 
Firangistan. He is reported to have begun by digging 
down 40 ells, in order to reach water; then, having 
built the church with the exception of the dome, he 
is said to have fled. The building then stood un- 
touched for 10 years, until he returned and put on 
the dome. It is also stated that the particular marble 
— otherwise only known by the Diws (it is actually 
a "marble metal", Mermer Ma'deni) — was brought 
from many countries. The "metal" for the four 
mottled (somdki) pillars (in fact, of course, they are 
simply of the hardest marble) is said to have come 
from Mount Kaf, and the large doors are alleged to 
have been made from planks of Noah's ark and 
already used by Solomon for his buildings in 
Jerusalem and Kyzikos (Aydlndjlk). The total 
expenditure is said to have come to 360,000 gold 
bars (each of 360,000 filori). In the time of the 
grandson of Constantine the Great, emperor Heraclius 
(a contemporary and secret follower of the Prophet), 
the dome is said to have crashed down, but the 
pious ruler rebuilt it immediately. The Tawdrikh-i 
Kosfanfiniya wa Aya S6/ya of £ Ali al- c ArabI IlySs, 
who was then in the service of the Grand Vizier C AU 
the Fat (died 28 June 1565) and was a teacher 
(Fliigel, Kat. der Kais. Hofbibl. Vienna, iii, 97), 
dates from the time of Suleyman the Great. The 
earliest edition belongs to the year 970/1562-3. Two 
years later, the author added a few insignificant 
details to the work and brought it out under a 
different title (Tawdriklt-i Bind-yi Aya $ofya, in 
the Bibl. Nationale in Paris, Turkish MSS. Suppl., 
no. 1546; Tawdrikh-i Kosfanfiniya wa Aya $6fya wa 
ba ( d-i Hikdyat, in Pertsch: Catalogue of Turkish 
manuscripts of the Kgl. Bibl. Berlin, no. 232. Fourmont 
has a further manuscript, Cat. cod. man. Bibl. Reg., 
319, no. 147, I). According to this, Aya Sofya was 
built under the emperor Ustuniano by the architect 
Ignadus (as also in Mehmed { Ashik). Generally 
speaking, the author of this is more plausible. He 
also gives far more detail than his predecessor of the 
15th century, because he gives various versions. 
Thus, he must be regarded as the best Turkish 
authority on the history of their greatest mosque, 



AYA SOFYA — AYA SOLOK 



although he is utterly unreliable from our point of 

The contents of the legends which continue to be 
woven around Aya Sofya change from one epoch 
to the next. They seem to have their spiritual peak 
in the 17th century, a time when the Ottomans in 
general also appear as the greatest despisers of this 
world. At that time the place was shown on which 
the Arabic heroes of the first century A.H. were 
said to have prayed on the occasion of their siege 
of Constantinople; the place in the centre of the 
nave, from which Khidr supervised the building of 
the church. In the southern gallery a hollowed stone 
is pointed out as having been the cradle of Christ. 
One of the anecdotes which one could still hear 
told by young theologians in much later years 
mentioned Husayn-i TabrizI and the way in which 
he is supposed to have got his professorship in the 
mosque: the mystic [Sufi) Sultan Mehemmed II the 
Conqueror had held out his hand to him so that 
he had to kiss the inside (dyd), instead of the back 
of the hand, whereupon he promptly asked for the 
appointment as mudir of the Aya Sofya. The so- 
called "Damp Pillar" (yash direk) and the "Cold 
Window" (so'uk pendjere) near the Kibla gained 
great fame as places of pilgrimage where miracles 
happened within the holy walls in the time of c Abd 
al-Hamld II. The window was the place where 
Shaykh Ak Shams al-DIn (whose words had a truly 
rousing influence on the men of his time, amongst 
them Mehemmed the Conqueror himself) first 
expounded the Kur'an. Until very recently, everyone 
was still convinced that the blessings brought by 
the currents of fresh air which entered through this 
"Cold Window" were of beneficial influence to the 
depth of theological knowledge. 

In 1934, President Kemal Ataturk decreed that 
Aya Sofya was to cease being a place of Islamic 
worship, and put it under a museum administration. 
Subsequently, the lime-wash which had covered the 
figures in the mosaics was removed, and amongst 
others the following pictures reappeared in 1936: 
a beautiful representation of an enthroned Madonna 
and Child, surrounded by the emperors Constantine 
(with a model of the town he founded) and Justinian 
(with a model of the church of St. Sophia) above the 
southern narthex door; and over the central door, 
leading from the narthex to the church (the old 
Emperor's Door), a representation of Christ enthro- 
ned, with an emperor (Leo VI ? or, more likely, 
Basil I, cf. A. M. Schneider in Oriens Christianus 
1935, 75-79) at his feet in adoration; and, finally, a 
Madonna in the curve of the apse. 

'Bibliography: Procopius, Agathias, and 
Paul us Silentiarius are the most trustworthy of 
the Byzantine sources of the time of Justinian. 
Of the more recent ones, there are above all: 
Pierre Gilles, De topographia Constantinopoleos 
Ubri iv (Lyons, 1561 and repeatedly after that 
date) ; idem, De Bosphoro Thracio Ubri tres (Lyons 
1561, and repeatedly after that date); Charles du 
Fresne, sieur du Cange, Historia Byzantina, 
Paris 1680; J. von Hammer, Constantinopolis und 
der Bosporus,!, Pesth i822;ZxapXiTO<; A. Bu£dtv- 
Tio?, K<owTavTivou7toXi<;, i, Athens 1851; C. Fos- 
sati, Aya Sophia of Constantinople as recently rc- 
stortd, London 1852 ; W. Salzenberg, Altchristliche 
Baudenkmaler von Konstantinopel, Berlin 1854; 
Auguste Choisy, L'art de bdtir chez les Byzantins, 
Paris 1883; J. P. Richter, Quellen ier byzantini- 
schen Kunstgeschichte, special number of Quellen- 
schriften fur Kunstgeschichte und Kunsttechnik des 



Mittelalttrs, Vienna 1897, by Eitelberger von 
Edelberg and Ilg; W. R. Lethaby and Har. 
Swainson, The Church of Sancta Sophia, Con- 
stantinople; a study of Byzantine building, London 
and New York 1894; Heinr. Holtzinger, Die 
Sophienkirche und verwandte Bauten der byzantini- 
schen Architektur (in Die Baukunst, edited by 
R. Borrmann and R. Graul, no. 10, Berlin and 
Stuttgart 1898) ; Euf^vux; MixorijX ' Avt<ovii48t]<;, 
'Ex9paai? -rijs'AYfoci; Soloes (in: Bi pXuofWjxr) 
Mapao-Xrji 3 vols., Athens and Leipzig, 1907-1909) ; 
Alfons Maria Schneider, Die Hagia Sophia zu 
Konstantinopel, Berlin n.d. (1938); a Turkish 
account, giving the inscriptions and a description 
of the additional buildings in Turkish times: 
Hafiz Hiiseyn, Ifadikat al-Djawdmi' ; Istanbul 
1 281/1864, i, 3-8; further bibliography in I A, ii, 
47-55 (Arif Mufid Mansel). On the description of 
Harun b. Yahya see M. Izzedin, Un prisonnier 
arabe a Byzance . . ., in REI, 1941-6, 41 ff., where 
earlier studies are cited; on the Muslim legends 
see F. Tauer, Notice sur les versions persanes de 
la Ugende de V edification d'Aya Sofya, in Milanges 
Fuad KSprulii, Istanbul 1953, 487 ft.; idem, Les 
Versions persanes de la Ugende sur la construction 
d'Aya Sofya, in Byzantinoslavica xv/i, 1954, 1-20. 
Not far from the Great Sophia, there is the 
Small Aya Sofya (Kticuk Aya Sofya) near the 
Pjundl square. It was built by Justinian, and was 
formerly dedicated to Saint Sergius and Saint 
Bacchus. A cupola rose from an octagonal base 
(which was extended by four apses). The guardian 
of the harem of Mehemmed II (Ktzlar Aghast) 
changed it into a mosque, and since then it has 
been fully equipped for Muslim teaching and 
worship. The porch, and the five flat cupolas 
rising from it, are of Turkish origin. 

(K. Sossheim-[Fr. Taeschner]) 
AYA SOLUK, Ayasuluk, Ayasulugh, Ayatholflgh 
(from "Ayios OeoXofoi;, i.e., the apostle and evan- 
gelist John, who lived and died there). In mediaeval 
western (Latin) sources, the town is referred to as 
Altoluogo, today (since 1914) it is known as Selcuk. 
It is a small town on the western coast of Anatolia, 
37° 55' north, 27 20' east, on the site of the Ephesus 
of antiquity (still referred to as Afsus or Ufsus by 
Arabic geographers) in the plain which surrounds 
the mouth of the river Kiicuk Menderes (the Kaystros 
of antiquity), at the foot of the Biilbul Daghl (Kores- 
sos), and now on the railway between Izmir and 
Aydln. It is the capital of the ndhiye of AklncUar in 
the haza of Kusadasi (wildyet of Izmir). At the end 
of the 19th century it had 2,793 inhabitants (ac- 
cording to V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, iii, 505), in 
1935 it had 4,025 (the kaza of Kushadasi had 17,819). 
In the Middle Ages, Aya Soluk was a town of 
considerable importance. Ibn Battuta, who visited 
it in 733/1333 (ii, 308 f.), describes it as having 15 
gates, and tt was an important commercial centre 
on the banks of the river Kaystros, where gardens 
and vineyards flourished. The harbour, which had 
been the source of the town's prosperity, was silted 
up with deposits from the river Kaystros as early 
as the Middle Ages. Instead of Ephesus, the harbour 
of Kushadasi, some 15 kms. to the south-east (referred 
to as Scala nova in western mediaeval sources) began 
to flourish; this had 5,442 inhabitants in 1945. 

The advance of the Arabs to Ephesus was only a 
temporary one (182/798). Similarly, the occupation 
by Turkish troops after the victory of Melazgerd 
(1071) — under the Saldjuk sultan Alp Arslan — came 
to an end with the victory of the crusaders of the 



778 



AYA SOLOK — AYAS 



first Crusade near Dorylaeum (1097). When the 
Rum-Saldjuk Empire fell into decline, Turkish 
troops again penetrated western Anatolia as far as 
the Aegean coast. Under their leader, they founded 
principalities, and then Ephesus/Aya Sol Ok came 
under the principality of Aydtn. Here Ibn Battuta 
met the Aydln-oghlu Khlzlr Beg as the local prince. 
He was in contact with the Italian Republics, and 
there was a Venetian and a Genoese consulate in 
Aya Soluk. In 1391, when Bayazld II absorbed the 
principality of Aydln, Aya Soluk came under 
Ottoman rule for the first time, but after his defeat, 
it was returned to the princes of Aydln by TImur in 
1402. Under Murad II, Aya Soluk finally became 
part of the Ottoman Empire in 1425, and henceforth 
it was a £u<2a of the sandialf of Aydln (cydlet of 
Anadolu, later wildyet of Aydln). The fortress, 
however, was under the Kaptan Pasha, being a part 
of the sandjak of Sughla (Izmir). Aya Soluk gradually 
fell into decay, and is now little more than a village. 
This is due in part to the changes at the mouth of 
the river Kaystros, where the plain is now a fever- 
infested swamp, and in part to the growth of the 
neighbouring Kushadasl. 

Noteworthy monuments include the ruins of the 

ancient Ephesus, the remains of the Basilica of St. 

John, and the imposing Mosque of Aydln-oghlu 

'Isa Beg I (towards the end of the 14th century) — 

built on the same plan as the Umayyad Mosque in 

Damascus. At the foot of the fortress hill, the 

Panaylr Daght (the ancient Pion), one can see the 

cave in which the Seven Sleepers are said to have 

slept. Up on the Biilbiil Daght, there is a small early 

Christian building, in which the Virgin Mary is said 

to have lived and died (Panaya Kapulu). In recent 

times, this has developed into a place of pilgrimage, 

and the Turkish government has built a road to it. 

Bibliography: Le Strange, 155; W. Heyd, 

Geschichte des Levantekandels, cf. index; Ewliya 

Celebi, Seydhat-ndme ix, 137 ff.; Sdlndme of the 

Wildyet of Aydln 1324/1908; Ch. Texier, Asie 

Mineure, 310 ft.; A. Philippson, Reisen und 

Forschungen itn westlichen Kleinaslen iii, 87 ff. ; 

A. Grund, Vorldufiger Bericht iiber physiogeogra- 

phische Untersuchungen im Delta-Gebiet des kleinen 

Maunder bei Ajasolug (Ephesus) {SBAW), (SBAW, 

Vienna 1906, cxv 241-62, 1757 ff.); Besim Darkot, 

Coiraft arastlrmalari,i, 39 ff.; I A, ii, 56 f. (Besim 

Darkot) ; L. Massignon, Les Fouilles archiologiques 

d'Ephese et leur importance riligieuse, in Les Mardis 

deDar El-Salam, Cairo 1951, 1 ff., the same (and 

others), Les Sept Dormanls d'Ephese. . ., in REI, 

1954, 59-"2, 1955, 93-io6, 1957, i-ii. 

(Fr. Taeschner) 
AYA STEFANOS ]see Yeshilkoy]. 
A'YAN. Plural of the Arabic "-Ayn in the sense of 
'notable person' and often used to denote the 
eminent under the caliphate and subsequent Muslim 
regimes (cf. the celebrated Wa/aydt al-A'ydn — 
'Obituaries of Notable Men'— of Ibn Khallikan). 
Under the Ottoman regime, from having at first 
denoted merely the most distinguished inhabitants 
of any district or town-quarter, the term, often used 
as a singular, acquired a more precise significanc 
coming, in the eighteenth century, to be applied 1 
those among such persons as then first exercised 
political influence and were accorded official status. 
A factor in their rise to such influence 
the institution by the Porte, during the 17th 
century, of Mdlikdne tax-farms — that is to say of 
farms leased to holders for life. For many of these 
were taken up by such local notables, who not only 



prospered financially thereby, but also came virtually 
to control the districts to which these tax-farms 
related. During the Russo-Ottoman war of 1767-1774 
it was largely to a'yans all over the country that the 
Porte resorted in order to raise funds and recruits for 
the army; and in due course they were accorded 
official recognition as the chosen representatives of 
the people vis-a-vis the government, the provincial 
walls furnishing them with documents known as 
a'ydnllk buyuruitusu on payment of a fee called 
a'ydniyye. In 1779 this right of appointment was 
transferred from the waits, who had abused it, to 
the Grand Vizier; and in 1786 it was decided to 
abolish a'ydnllks altogether. On the outbreak of war 
again in the following year, however, the Porte, as 
before, found itself unable to dispense with the aid 
of these local notables; and in 1790 a'-ydnliks were 
duly revived. Many a'ydns in both Rumelia and 
Anatolia came during the reigns of Selim III, 
Mustafa IV, and Mahmfld II, to play a part in 
Ottoman affairs very similar to that of the dere-beyis 
[q.v.], often defying the Porte for long periods and 
managing the districts over which they had extended 
their control in virtual independence, although often 
providing contingents for the Ottoman army in time 
of war. Among these the most celebrated were 
perhaps Paswan Oghlu [q.v.] (who, if not strictly 
speaking an a l ydn himself, was the son of one), the 
Bayrakdar Mustafa Pasha [q.v.] (who became one 
early in his career), and IsmaHl Bay of Serez. It was 
chiefly to breaking the power of the a ( ydns (and 
dere-beyis) in the provinces that Mahmud II success- 
fully devoted the first half of his reign. 

Bibliography: I.A. s.v. (article by I. H. 

UzuncarsllI); Mouradjea d'Ohsson, Tableau de 

V Empire Ottoman, vii, 286; Aljmed Djewdet, 

Ta>rlkh, x, 87, 116-118, 147, 191, '94, 197, 209, 

216; Lutfl, Ta'rikh, i, 11-12; Mustafa Nuri, 

NetdHdi al-Wukii'at, iii, 74, iv, 35-6, 42, 71-2, 

98-9; Ahmed Rasim, 'Othmdnll Ta'rikhi, iii, 1029, 

iv, 1663-4, 1714; 'Othman Nuri, MeditlU-i UmUr-i 

Belediyye, 1, Istanbul 1922, 1654 ff.; A. F. Miller, 

Mustafa Pasha Bayraktar ; Ottomans-kaya Imperia 

v Nalale XIX veka, Moscow 1947, 363-5; I. H. 

UzuncarsllI, Alemdar Mustafa Pasa, Istanbul 1942, 

2-7; H. A. R. Gibb and H. Bowen, Islamic Society 

and the West, i, Oxford 1950, index. (H. Bowen) 

AYAS, town on the coast of Cilicia, on the 

western shore of the gulf of Iskenderun, to the east 

of the mouth of the river Djayhan (Pyramos), 

36 53' north, 35 46' east, capital of the ndhiyt of 

Yumurtallk in the (tadd of Ceyhan (wildyet Seyhan/ 

Adana). In antiquity it was known as Aigai (Ramsay, 

Historical Geography 0/ Asia Minor, 385 f.). Italian 

seamen and merchants in the Middle Ages knew it 

as Ajazzo or Lajazzo. In 1935 it had 667 inhabitants 

(the ndhiye 11,024) (Pauly-Wissowa, i, 945). 

The harbour of Ayas (which at that time formed 
part of the Christian principality of Little Armenia) 
only became important in the second half of the 
13th century. As a result of the withdrawal of the 
Franks from the lands of the Crusaders on the 
eastern shores of the Mediterranean, and also of the 
silting up of the harbour of Tarsus, the whole of 
the trade between the West and the Orient was 
concentrated in this harbour, which was also con- 
nected by good overlai.d routes with Syria and 
Mesopotamia, as well as with Iran via eastern 
Anatolia. It was from here that Marco Polo started 
out on his journey across country through Asia in 
the year 1271. At the end of the 14th century, the 
Florentine Pegolotti describes the caravan route to 



AYAS — AYAS pasha 



Tabriz which began here (La pratica delta Mercatura 
scritta da Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, vol. iii of 

Delia Decima e deUe altre Gravezze de 

Fiorentini fino al Secolo XVI, Lisbon and Lucca 
1766^ 9-1 1 [critical edition by Allan Evans, Cam- 
bridge Mass. 1936, index s.v. Laiazol ; cf. W. Heyd, 
Geschichte des Levantehandeh, index). Ayas was the 
seat of a Venetian Bailo. 

The town was plundered by Muslim armies in 
665/(266 and 674/1275. conquered in 722^322 by 
the Mamluk sultan al-Nasir Muhammad, and 
rebuilt by the Christians after the peace treaty of 
1325; it finally fell into the hands of Egyptian 
MamlOks in 748/1347. It then began to decline, and 
the process was accelerated by the fact that sedimen- 
tation broadened the mouth of the river Djayljan, 
until the whole area around Ayas became a fever- 
infested swamp. It is, however, still mentioned in 
1400 as the administrative 'centre of the province of 
Halab. After the .con,(juBg^.i)f the Mamluk Empire 
by the Ottoman SetnV&TS$5i7), Ayas became a 
kada in the eydlet of Adsfaa. Today, Ayas/Yumur- 
tallk is an, impoverished coastal town with a great 
numbered rutins. 

Bibliography: Dimashkl (ed. Mehren), 214; 
Abu 'l-'fcda', Takwim, 248 f.; Kalkashandi, $ubh 
al-A c sha, xii, 169; Mukhtasar S. al-A'sha, Cairo 
1906, i, 297; K. Ritter, Erdkunde, xix, I.e., 115, 
126; W. Heyd, Geschichte des Levantehandels ii, 
79 ff. ; F. X. Schaffer, Cilicia, (Petermanns Mit- 
teilungen, Ergdnzungsheft 141), 97; Hadjdji Khalifa. 
Dxihdn-niimd, 603; Ch. Texier, Asie Mineure, 
729 f.; Sdlndme of the WUdyet of Adana, 12th 
year, 1319/1903; V. Cuinet. La Turquie d'Asie ii, 
107 f.; IA, ii, 42 f. (Besim Darkot). 

(Fr. Taeschner) 
AYAS PASHA (886-7 ?-946/i482?-i539), Otto- 
man Grand Vizier. Ayas Pasha was an Albanian born 
in the region of Cimera (Himara) not far from Valona 
('All; Bragadino (9 June 1526); Geuffroy). According 
to Bragadino, Ayas Pasha was 44 years old in 932/ 
1526, had three brothers ("tre fradelli": not, as in 
Hammer, "tre fratelli monachi") and sent each month 
100 ducats to his mother, "Christiana monacha a la 
Valona". The inscription on the gravestone of Ayas 
Pasjja at Istanbul refers to him as Ayas b. Mehmed. 
Recruited through the devshirme in the reign of Baya- 
zld II (886-918/1481-1512), Ayas Pasha went out from 
the Palace with the rank of agha (<Ali). He fought at 
the battle of Caldiran (920/1514) as Agha of the Janis- 
saries (Shukri; Ewliya Celebl) and also in the war 
(921/1515) against 'Ala' al-Dawla, prince of Albistan 
(Ewliya Celebl). Holding the same office, he served 
throughout the Syrian and Egyptian campaigns 922/3 
1516-1517) of Selim I and, according to one version 
of the events, had a considerable share in the ultimate 
defeat and capture of Tuman Bay, the last Mamluk 
Sultan of Egypt (Suhayli). At the time when Sultan 
Sulayman ascended the throne (September 1520) 
Ayas Pasha seems to have been Beglerbeg of 
Anatolia, a new Agha of the Janissaries having been 
appointed in 925/1519 (Mustafa Celebl; Solak-zade). 
After helping to crush the revolt of Djanberdi 
al-Ghazall in Syria (1 520-1521) (Suhayli), Ayas 
Pasha became governor of Damascus, an appoint- 
ment that he held from Rabl c II 927 to Muharram 
928/ March-December 1521 (Laoust; Nadjm al-DIn 
al-GhazzI; Ibn Iyas). He fought, as Beglerbeg of 
Rumeli, at the siege of Rhodes (928/1522) (Mustafa 
Celebl; Feridun) and, rising thereafter to the rank of 
third and, later, of second vizier, served in the cam- 
paigns of Mohacs (932/1526), Vienna (935/1529), Guns 



(938/1532) and 'Irak (94I-2/I534-I535) (Mustafa Ce- 
lebl; Feridun; Pecewl; Solak-zade; Kemal Pasb,a- 
zade). On the death of Ibrahim Pasha (22 Ramadan 
942/15 March 1536) Ayas Pasha became Grand Vizier 
and retained this rank until his own death in 946/ 
1539. The main events which occurred during his 
tenure of the office were the war against Venice 
(944-7/I537-I540), the Austrian raid on Eszek (944/ 
1537). the Moldavian campaign (945/1538) and the 
expedition of Sulayman Pasha, governor of Egypt, 
against Diu in India (945-6/1538-1539). In the course 
of the Corfu campaign (944/1537) Ayas Pasha brought 
under Ottoman control the Albanians settled in the 
neighbourhood of Valona, a new sanjak of Delwlne 
being now created in this region (Mustafa Celebl; 
'All; Pecewl). Ayas Pasha died on 26 Safar 946/13 
July 1539. In the eyes of his contemporaries he had 
the reputation of being an illiterate man endowed 
with no great political talent ('All; Bragadino ; Gevay). 
Of his daughters one was married to Guzeldje Rustem 
Pasha, who became Beglerbeg of Buda (Sidjill-i 
'Othmdni), while another (or perhaps the same?) 
daughter is mentioned as having married the 
sandjak beg of Silistria (Gevay). A brother of Ayas 
Pasha, Ahmed, was governor of Karaman and, 
later, of Damascus, according to the information 
given in Ibn Tuhin (Laoust). 

Bibliography: Djalal-zade Mustafa Celebl, 

Tabakat al-Mamalik (Brit. Mus. Ms. Add. 

7855), 3ir, 65V, 73V, i58r, 2nv; 'All, Kunh al- 
Akhbdr (unpublished section: Brit. Mus. Ms. Or. 
32), 8iv, i87v-i88r; Shukri, Selim-ndme (Brit. 
Mus. Ms. Or. 1039), 93V ; Ewliya Celebl, Siydhat- 
nime (Istanbul 1314 A.H.-1938), i. 416, 443, iii. 
175, vi. 135, ix. 388, x. 676; Suhayli, Ta'rikh-i 
Misr al-Diadld (Istanbul 1142), 28 v, 391-, 42r, 
5or-5iv; Pecewl, Ta'rikh, i, Istanbul 1283. 20-21, 
132 (Mustafa Pasha as second vizier: 935 A.H.), 
153 (Ayas Pasha as second vizier: 936 A.H.), 196; 
Solak-zade, Ta'rikh, Istanbul 1297, 414, 475, 489; 
Kemal Pashazade, Histoire de la Campagne de 
Mohdcz, ed. Pavet de Courteille, Paris 1859, 158; 
Feridun, Munsha'dt al-Sald(in', i, Istanbul 1274. 
533. 547, 57o, 577, 592; Ibu Iyas, BaddH 1 al- 

Zuhur ed. P. Kahle and M. Mustafa, v, 

Istanbul 1932. 386, 388, 394, 426; Nadjm al-DIn 
al-Ghazzi, al-Kawahib al-S&Hra . . . ., ed. Djibrall 
S. Djabbur (Or. Ser., no. 20, Amer. Univ. of Beirut), 
ii (1949), 125-126; H. Laoust, Les Gouverneurs de 
Damns .... (658-1156/1260-1744): Traduction des 
Annates d'Ibn Tiilun et d'Ibn Gum'a, Damascus 
'952, 159-160, 167, 174, 183; Relazione di Piero 
Bragadino, in M. Sanuto, Diarii, xli, Venice 1894. 
528 (reproduced in E. Alberi, Relazioni degli 
Ambascialori Veneti al Senato, ser. 3, iii. 104-105. 
Cf. also ibid., iii. 96) ; A. Geuffroy, Briefve Descrip- 
tion de la Court du Grant Turc, in J. Chesneau, Le 
Voyage de M. d'Aramon, ed. Ch. Schefer, Paris 
1887, Append. XI, 238; A. von Gevay, Urkunden 
und Actenstiicke .... ii, Vienna 1838-1841: 
Gesaudtschaft (1534), 53, m and Gesandtschaft 
(1536), 115-116 (letter of Ayas Pasha (1536) to 
Ferdinand of Austria); c Othm5n-zade Ta'ib, 
Hadikat aX-Wuzara', Istanbul 1271, 26-27; 
Koprulu-zade Mehmed Fu'ad, Lutfi Pasha, in 
Tiirkiydt Mejmu'asl, i, Istanbul 1925. 125, 
note 1 (on the date of Ayas Pasha's death); 
I. H. Uzuncarsill, Osmanll devleti zamantnda .... 
bazl miihurler hakklnda bir tetkik, in Bell., iv, 
no. 16 (1940), 506 and plate XC, no. 3 (seal of 

Ayas Pasha) and Tugra ve Penleler He ferman , 

in Bell., v, no. 17/18 (1941), 137 and plate XXXVI, 



78o 



ayAs pasha - 



no. 26 (pence of Ayas Pasha) ; M. Tayyib Gokbilgin, 
XV-XVI aslrlarda Edirne ve Pasa Livasi, Istanbul 
1952, 75, 81; L. Fekete, Einfuhrung in die 
Osmanisch-Tiirkische Diplomatik ..... Budapest 
1926: Documents, 3-5 and Plate I (letter of Ayas 
Pasha (1536): the same document as in Gevay); 
Hammer-Purgstall, iii (1828), 52, 211, 629, 647, 
652, 685, 686; Sidjill-i '■Othmdni, i. 446-447 ; Arfiv 
KUavuzu, fasc. I, Istanbul 1938, 48; Istanbul An- 
siklopedisi, iii, s.v. Ayas Pasa Tiirbesi (the inscrip- 
tion on the gravestone of Ayas Pasha); IA, ii 
(1949), s.v. Ayas Pasa (M. Cavid Baysun). 

(V. J. Parry) 
AYAT [see Aya]. 

AYAZ, Abu 'l-Napjm, favourite slave of Sultan 
Mahmud of Ghaznln. Details of the life of the histo- 
rical Ayaz are difficult to discover, but he was a 
Turkoman and, if the tradition utilised by Djalal 
al-DIn Rumi, iv, 887, is accepted, of humble origin 
also. The Ta'rikh-i Bayhaki reports Mahmud's 
successor Mas'ud as describing Ayaz as his father's 
'sneeze' and as unsuitable for appointment to the 
governorship of Ray because of his lack of expe- 
rience of life outside the court. His death is recorded 
by Ibn al-Athlr under 449/1057-8. According to the 
Cahdr MakdU, Ayaz was not remarkably handsome 
but possessed a sweet expression and olive complex- 
ion, and was greatly endowed with the arts of 
pleasing, in which respect he had few rivals in his 
time. This tradition is also found in Sa'di. 

In Persian literature Ayaz appears as a symbolical 
figure under many guises. In the Gulistdn and 
Bustdn of SaMl he appears as a symbol of true love, 
in the Mathnawl of Pjalal al-Din Rumi he figures as 
a type of the Perfect Man, in 'Awfl's Diawdmi 1 al- 
Ifikdydt as a model of loyalty and sagacity and as 
a fit brother-in law to Mahmud. In the Cahdr 
Makdla the cutting off of Ayaz's locks in a fit of 
passion by Mahmud is made the occasion of a 
display of poetical skill by c Unsuri; in the Tadhkirat 
al-Awliyd an unsuccessful attempt by Mahmud to 
pass off Ayaz as sultan before Shaykh Abu'l-Hasan 
KhurkanI is used as proof of that saint's sagacity. 
In his Mahmud u Ayaz, ZulatS has woven romance 
around the relationship of the sultan and his catamite. 
Bibliography: Abu '1-Fad'l Bayhaki, Ta'rikh-i 
Bayhaki, ed. Tehran 1324/1945, i, 82, 264; Ibn al- 
Athlr, ix, 439; Nizaml al- c Arudi, Cahdr Makdla, 
Gibb Mem Series, London & Leiden, 1910, 34-6; 
Farid al-Din 'Attar, Tadhkirat al-Awliyd, ed. 
R. A. Nicholson, London & Leiden 1907, ii, 208; 
Sadid al-Din Muhammad al- c Awfi, Diawdmi' al- 
Uikdydt, British Museum MS., Or. 2676, fol. 95a 
& 173b; Sa c dl, Gulistdn, 122, Bustdn in 2 in 
K ulliydt, Tehran 1320/1942; Hafiz, Diwdn, Tehran, 
1320/1942, 29, 175. 230; Abu '1-Hasan Farrukhi, 
Diwdn, India Office Library, Ethe 1841, fol. 
I48b-i49b; Djalal al-Din Rumi, Mathnawl, ed. 
R. A. Nicholson, Gibb Mem. Series, London 1925- 
1933, ii, verse 1049, iii, 3337, v, 1858 ff.,3251 ff., 
3351 it, 3635 ff., 37o8 ff., 4054 ff-, vi, 385 ff.; 
Abu '1-Hasan Zulati, Mahmud u Ayaz, SO AS 
Persian MS. 42625; Amln RazI, Haft Iklim, SOAS 
Persian MS. 19618, fol. 231b; Ch. Schefer, Chresto- 
mathie Petsane, Paris 1883, i, 110-1; Browne, ii, 
38, 119, 140; Ferdinand Justi, Iranisches Namen- 
buch, Marburg 1895, 10. (P. Hardy) 

AYAZ, the Amir, lord of HamadhSn, played an 
important r61e in the struggles for the throne between 
the rival Saldjuk princes Barkiyaruk and Muham- 
mad I. After having first taken the side of the latter, 
in 494/1100 he went over to the side of Barkiyaruk, 



and, after the latter's death, became the Atabeg of 
his son Malikshah, who was a minor. He could not, 
however, hold his own against Muhammad, and was 
treacherously murdered by him in 499/1105. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Athlr, x, 199 ft.; 
Houtsma, Receuil, ii, 90 ; see also barkiyaruk and 

MUHAMMAD B. MAUKSHAH. (Ed.) 

AYBAK (Turkish pronunciation Aybeg), properly 
called <Izz al-DIn Abu 'l-Mansur Aybak (Aybeg) 
al-Mu c azzamI (as a mamluk of al-Malik al-Mu c az- 
zam) Sharaf al-DIn c Isa, who was first (597-615/1200- 
1218) governor of Damascus and then (615-624/1218- 
1227) sultan of the empire of Damascus after the death 
of his father al-Malik al- c Adil. In 608/121 1-2, Aybeg 
received the town of Salkhad in the Hawran and the 
adjacent lands as a fief and was appointed major- 
domo (ustddh-dar). When al-Malik al-Nasir Dawud 
succeeded his father on the throne of Damascus, 
Aybeg even became regent of Damascus and had the 
entire political administration in his hands. Shortly 
afterwards, however, al-Malik al-Ashraf, Dawud's 
uncle, took possession of Damascus; Aybeg was 
deprived of the office of regent, but retainedhis. 
fiefs in the Hawran. In 636/1238-9, he wasstill 
called "Lord of Salkhad and of Zur'a". Hewas 
subsequently suspected of treason and lost his 
political standing; he died in Cairo in 646/1248-9. 
His remains were taken to Damascus and placed in 
the mausoleum built for him. The districts dependent 
on Aybeg were indebted to him for buildings of 
various types which he undertook. He erected three 
Hanafi academies at Damascus and one in Jerusalem. 
As major-domo, it fell to him especially to attend to 
the building of khans: as governor of Salkhad, he 
sought to render flourishing that part of the trade 
route from Northern Arabia and from Babylonia to 
Damascus which crossed his territories; he built the 
desert fortress, I£al c at al-Azrak and repaired the 
great reservoir (matkh; elsewhere birka) at c Inak 
and had a great khan set up at Sala. His zeal for 
building communicated itself to his subordinates, 
especially to his mamluk 'Alam al-DIn Kaysar. 
Among the buildings which he erected in his fiefs, 
the following are especially worthy of mention; a 
khan at Salkhad (611/1214-5); a tower in the fortress 
of Salkhad (617/1220-1); arcades and a tower 
(minaret) in the mosque of Salkhad (630/1232-3); a 
fort in the Kal'at al-Azrak (634/1236-7); a khdn at 
Zur'a (636/1238); a reservoir at c Inak (636-637/ 
1238-1240); a mosque at al- c Ayin (638/1240-1). The 
mosque and khdn of Sala must have been built about 
630/1232-3. The exact date cannot be established 
because of the fragmentary state of the inscriptions. 
Sharaf al-Din <Isa and his mamluk Aybeg are both 
known at the time of the Crusades. 

Bibliography: Ibn Khallikan, see under al- 

Mu'-azzam c Isd; van Berchem, in ZDPV, xvi. 

84 ff.; E. Littmann, Semitic Inscriptions, 204ft.; 

Dussaud and Macler, Missions dans les regions 

disertiques de la Syrie moyenne, 326 ff., 336 ff. 
(E. Littmann) 

AYBAK KUTB AL-DlN [see Delhi, Sulta- 

c AYDARCS ( c EdrOs, often misunderstood as 
Idris; etymology obscure, cf. Shilll. Mashra', ii, 152) 
a family of learned sayyids and su/is in South 
Arabia, India and Indonesia, belonging to the 
Sakkaf branch of the Ba 'Alawl [?.«.] and still 
playing an important r61e in Hadramawt. Wiistenfeld 
(Qufiten, 29 ff.) quotes from al-Muhibbl the details 
on more than thirty members of the family down to 
the n/i7th century. In the 19th century there 



were in Hadramawt five 'Aydarus manfabs, at Hazm, 
Bawr, SalUa, ThibI and Ramla. Among the numerous 
members of the clan, known for its literary activity, 

i. The ancestor, e Abd Allah b. Abu Bakr (al- 
Sakran) b. c Abd al-Rahman al-Sakkaf (811-865/ 
1408-1461) of Tarim, who was called by his father 
al- c Aydarus. He received the khirka from his uncle 
'Umar al-Mihdar and succeeded him at his death 
(833/1430) as nakib (man$ab) of the BS 'Alawl. By 
that time he had already won a reputation for piety 
by means of severe asceticism. He taught tafsir, 
hadiih and fikh, but had a predilection for the 
mystics (al-Ghazzall). Writings: (a) al-Kibrtt al- 
Akmar; (b) Mandkib of his shaykh Sa'd b. C A1I (i.e. 
al-Suwaynl Ba Madhidj, d. 857/1453); (c) Rasd'il. 
'Umar b. c Abd al-Rahman Sahib al-Hamra' wrote 
his biography: Fath al-Rahim al-Rahman etc. See 
Sakhawi, Daw', v, 16 (without lakab'.) ; Mashra', ii, 
152 ff.; Wust., Qufiten 5, 29; Brockelmann, S II, 566. 

2. His son, Abu Bakr b. c Abd Allah al-'Aydarus, 
Fakhr al-DIn (b. 851/1447 in Tarim, d. 914/1508 in 
'Adan), the patron saint of c Adan, where he spent 
his last 25 years and won great fame for piety and 
hospitality. He was initiated into Sufism by Sa'd 
b. C A1I Ba Madhidj (cf. above) and others. Among 
his disciples were Husayn b. Siddik al-Ahdal [q.v.], 
Pjar Allah b. Fahd and Muh. b. c Umar Bahrak 
(d. 930/1524) who wrote Mawdhib al-KuddUs / 
Mandkib Ibn al- c Aydarus. Writings: (a) al-Diuz' 
al-Lafif fi <Ilm al-Tahkim al-Sharif (on Sufism) cf. 
Serjeant, Mat., 581; (b) three litanies (awrdd); 

(c) Diwan (a muwashshah was commented upon by 
c Abd al-Kadir, below, no. 4). His mausoleum, built 
by the amir Murdjan, who also was buried there in 
927/1521, and his mosque are in the Aden Crater, 
where the ziydra of the saint is celebrated on the 15th 
RabI' II. Al-GhazzI in his chronicle (see below) has 
the curious tradition, taken over by Ibn al-'Imad, 
of Ibn al-'Aydarus having introduced the habit of 
drinking coffee into Arabia. The nisba al-Shadhill 
is perhaps due to some sort of confusion with the 
famous shaykh of Makha' (Mokha) C A1I b. 'Urnar 
(d. 821/1418), cf. kahwa. The non-ascetic attitude 
of Ibn al- c Aydarus is in harmony with a trend of 
the Shadhiliyya, but the 'Aydarusiyya is reckoned 
as a branch not of this order, but of the Kubrawiyya 
(see tarIka). See Ibn al-'Imad, Shadhardt, viii, 39 f. 
(s.a. 909! an error of the compilator, repeated in 
Brock.), 62 ff.; Ghazzi, Kawdkib, i, 113 f.; NUr, 
81 ff.; Mashra', ii, 34 ff.; al-Sakkaf, Ta'rikh, i, 
105 ff.; Brockelmann II, 181, S II, 233. 

3. Shaykh b. <Abd Allah b. Shaykh b. c Abd Allah 
(no. 1), b. 919/1513 in Tarim, d. 990/1582 in Ahmad- 
abad (Gudjarat). After studies in Mecca, Zabld and 
Shitr he removed to India, where he had many 
disciples and entered the service of the vizier ^Imad 
al-DIn. Writings: (a) al- l Ikd al-Nabawi wa 'l-Sirr 
al-Mustafawi; (b) al-Fawz wa 'l-Bushrd; (c) Tuhfat 
al-Murid (kasida) with commentaries: IJakaHk al- 
Tamhid and Sirddi al-Tawhid (cf. Brockelmann); 

(d) Diwan. Aljmad b. C A1I al-Baskarl wrote Nuthat 
al-Ikhwdn wa '1-NufUs fi Mandkib Shaykh b. <Abd 
Allah al-cAydarus. See NUr, 372 ff.; Afas*ra c , ii, 
119 ff.; al-Sakkaf, Ta'rikh, i, 171 ff. 

4. <Abd al-JKadir b. Shaykh (no. 3) al-Hindl, 
Muljyi '1-Din (978-1038/1570-1628) of Aljmadabad, 
Sufi scholar, author of numerous works on mysticism 
and biography. He was initiated into Sufism by his 
brother c Abd Allah (945-1019) and Hatim al-Ahdal 
[q.v.], in whose memory he wrote al-Zahr (al-Darr) 
al-Bdsim min Rawd al-Ustddh Ualim. He made wide I 



iRUS 781 

travels for the sake of study and collecting books. 
Among his disciples was Ahmad Ba Djabir al- 
Hadraml, on whose premature death in 1001 he 
wrote Sadk al-Wafd' bi-ffakk al-Ikhd'. On his 
father's mystic ode Tuhfat al-Murid he wrote the 
commentary Bughyat al-Mustafid. Other works: 
(a) al-Futuhdt al-Kuddusiyya fi 'l-Khirka al-<Ayda- 
rUsiyya; (b) al-Nur al-Sdfir etc. (see below); 
(c) Ta'rif al-Ahya? biFadd'il al-Ihya' (Cairo 131 1, 
in the margin of Ithdf al-Sdda by Murtada al- 
Zabldi). For further details see Nur 334-343 (auto- 
biogr.); Mashra<, ii, 148 ff.; Wiist., Quf. 31 ff.; 
Brockelmann ii, 418 f., S II, 617; Sarkis 1399 f. 

5. Shaykh b. e Abd Allah b. Shaykh (no. 3), b. 
993/1585 in Tarim, d. 1041/1631 in Dawlatabad. 
After studies in his native town, in Yaman and 
Hidjaz he sailed for India in 1025, visited his uncle 
c Abd al-Kadir in Aljmadabad and was taught by 
him. From there he went to Deccan and was favour- 
ably received by Sultan Burhan Nizam Shah and 
his Grand Vizier, Malik c Anbar (Ambar). After a 
rupture he entered the service of Ibrahim II 'Adil 
Shah at Bldjapur. He held a privileged position with 
this sultan, whom he had cured from a disease. 
After the death of c Adil Shah he returned to Daw- 
latabad and was in high favour with the vizier Fath 
Khan, the son of 'Anbar. He wrote a book on 
Sufism called al-Silsila but it fell into oblivion. See 
Mashra', ii, 117 ff.; Wust., Quf., 39 f. 

6. <Abd Allah b. Shaykh (no. 5),b. 1017 (?)/i6o8 
in Tarim, d. 1073/1662 in Shihr. He was educated by 
his uncle C A1I Zayn al- c AbidIn (no. 7) and his cousin 
c Abd al-Rahman al-Sakkaf, whom he succeeded in 
the dignity of a manfab. After two visits to Mecca 
and Medina he went to India, visited his cousin 
Djafar al-Sadik (no. 8) in Surat, a disciple of his 
father, the Grand vizier Habash Khan, and Sultan 
Mahmud b. Ibrahim Shah at Bldjapur. Back in 
Arabia he spent his last years in the seaport of Shihr, 
where his grave and mosque are venerated and 
visited by pilgrims. See Afa^kra', ii, 177 f . ; Wust., 
Quf. 40 f.; Berg, Hadhramout, 85, 94. 

7. C A1I b. 'Abd Allah b. Shaykh (no. 3), called 
Zayn al-'Abidln and Tadj al- e Arifln (984-1041/ 
1577-1632) of Tarim. He had many disciples, and 
won great influence at the court of the Kathlri 
sultan. His literary production is restricted to a 
collection of Rasd'il, among them one sent to the 
Zaydl Imam al-Husayn b. al-Kasim in answer 
to his claim for obedience from the people of 
Hadramawt. See AfosJraS ii, 221 ff.; Wiist., Quf. 58. 

8. Dja'far al-Sadik b. 'All Zayn al- c Abidin (no. 7), 
t>- 997/1589 in Tarim, d. 1064/1654 in Surat. Having 
finished his studies in Arabia he migrated to the 
Deccan in India, where he had a hight position a the 
court of the Grand Vizier Malik 'Anbar. During his 
stay there he learnt Persian and translated al- c Ikd 
al-Nabawi (above, no. 3} into that language. After 
the fall of Fath Khan in 1038 he continued his 
literary activity at Surat: He translated the Persian 
work of Dara Shikuh (ca. 1065/1655) into Arabic 
with the title Tuhfat al-Affiya' bi-Tardjamat Safinat 
al-Awliya>. See Mashra 1 , ii, 85 ff . ; al-Sakkaf, Ta'rikh, 
i, 214 and (enlarged) ii, 9 ff.; Wiist., Quf. 37 f ; 
Brockelmann, S II, 619. 

9 Dja c far b Mustafa b. C A1I Zayn al- c AbidIn 
(no 7), b. 1084/1673 in Tarim, d. 1 142/1729 in Surat. 
In 1 105 he left his home and sailed from Shihr to 
India, where he witnessed the conquest of Surat by 
Bahadur Shah, and found favour with the sultan. 
Writings: (a) Kashf al-Wahm 'an ma Ghamada min 
al-Fahm; (b) Mi^radj al-Vakika; (c) al-Fath al- 



'AYDAROS — AYDIN 



Ifuddusi fi 'l-Naftn al-'-Aydarusi (comm. on a 
muwashshah of Abu Bakr, no. 2) ; (d) <Ard al-La'dli 
(on a bifida by 'Umar Ba Makhrama, [q.v.]); 
(e) Diwan. See al-Sakkaf, Ta'rikh, ii, 78 ff. 

10. <Abd al-Rahman b. Mustafa b. Shaykh b. 
Mustafa b. c Ali Zayn al-'Abidin (no. J), b. 1135/1723 
in Tarim, d. 1 192/1778 in Cairo, the most extensive 
traveller and most productive writer among the 
Ba 'Alawl. Having spent the years 1151-1155 in 
India (Surat, Bharuc) he returned to Arabia, stayed 
for some time in Talf, then settled in Cairo (1174)- 
After a visit to Damascus (1182) he returned to 
Egypt. The long series of his travels in the Near 
East was concluded by a visit to Istanbul in the 
year before his death. He had numerous disciples 
from all parts of the Islamic world, among them 
Sulayman al-Ahdal, his son c Abd al-Rahman and 
Muhammad Murtada al-Zabidi [q.v.], who wrote al- 
Nafahdl al-kuddusiyya (cf. Brock.) on the principles 
of the (arika. His literary production comprises more 
than sixty works, the titles of which are given by 
al-Sakkaf and Brockelmann. Only two collections 
of poetry have so far been published: (a) Tarwih 
al-Bal wa-Tahwidi al-Balbdl, Bulak 1283; (b) Diwan 
(1304) in three parts: Tanmik al-Asfdr, T. al-Safar 
and Dhayl. Among the remaining titles the following 
categories can be distinguished: (a) treatises on 
Sufism, e.g. Mir'dt al-Shumus (on the c Aydarusiyya), 
al-Irshdddt al-Saniyya (on the Nakshbandiyya), al- 
Nafhat al-'Aliyya (on the Kadiriyya); (b) commen- 
taries, e.g. al-Fath al-Mubin (on a muwashshah by 
Abu Bakr, no. 2, with the supercommentaries 
Tashnif al-Ku'us min Uumayyd Ibn al-'Aydarus 
and Tarwih al-HumUs min Fay4 Tashnif al-Ku'us), 
Shark al-Rahman bi-Sharh Saldt Abi Fitydn (i.e. al- 
Badawl, cf. Brockelmann I, 450) and a comm. on 
a poem by 'Umar Ba Makhrama [q.v.] ; (c) mandkib 
works, e.g. Uadikat al-Safa' (on <Abd Allah al- 
Bahir b. Mustafa), Tanmik al-Turus (on Shaykh b. 
<Abd Allah, no. 3). Tashnif al-Sam 1 bi-ba'4 La\dHf 
al-Wa4 c , listed by al-Sakkaf among his works, is 
accord, to Brockelmann, S III, 1290 a comm. on his 
Risdla fi 'l-Wad<- by <Abd al-Rahman al-Udjhuri, 
who also commentated al-Istighdtha al-'A ydarusiyya. 
In his poetry this author also used the special 
Hadrami form called humayni (see Serjeant, 
Poetry 5). His grave with a monument is in an open 
place close to the mausoleum of Zaynab bint Fatima 
in Cairo. His biography (mandkib) was written by 
his son Mustafa with the title Fath al-Kuddus. See 
MuradI, Silk al-Durar, ii, 328; DjabartI, 'Adid'ib 
al-Ath&r, ii, 27-34; c Ali Mubarak, al-Kh'W al- 
Diadida, v, n-14; al-Sakkaf, Ta'rikh, ii, 183-214; 
Sarkis, 1398 f.; Brockelmann, II, 352, S II, 478 f. 

11. Husayn b. Abu Bakr al-'Aydarus (d. 1798 in 
Batavia), Indonesian saint. His grave and big mosque 
at Luar Batang constitute one of the most frequented 
goals of pilgrimage in the Indian Archipelago. 

On the 'Aydarus dynasty of Kubu (Borneo), 
founded ca. 1770 by a sayyid of that name, see Berg, 
Ifadhramout, 202; cf. 'awlaki (Lower). 

'Aydariis as an individual name is rather common ; 

the Hadrami sayyid 'Aydarus b. 'Umar b. 'Aydarus 

al-Habshl (d. 1314/1895 in al-Ghurfa) wrote <Ikd 

al-Yawdkit al-Djawhariyya fi Dhikr Tarikat al-Sdda 

al-'-Alawiyya (Sarkis, 1399; Brockelmann, S II, 812). 

Bibliography: F. Wustenfeld, Die Qufiten in 

Siid-Arabien im XI. (XVIII.) Jahrhundert, 1883 

(from Muhibbi, Kh"ldfat al-Athar); al-Ghazzi, al- 

Kawakib al-SdHra bi-(Mandkib) A'ydn al-Mi'a 

al-'Ashira, ed. Dj. S. Djabbur, 1 et 2, Beirut 1945- 

49; <Abd al-Kadir b. Shaykh al-'Aydarus, al-Nur 



alSdfir 'an Akhbdr al-Karn al- ( Ashir, Baghdad 
1353; Muhammad b. Abu Bakr al-Shilll, a- 
Mashra* al-Rawi fi Mandkib (al-Sdda al-Kiram) 
Bani (al Abi) '■Alawi, 1-2 (1319); c Abd Allah 
al-Sakkaf, Ta'rikh al-Shu'ara' al-Uairamiyyin, 
(1353/6); L. W. C. van den Berg, Le Uadhramout 
et les colonies Arabes dans I'archipel Indien (1886); 
R. B. Serjeant, Materials for South Arabian 
history, in BSOAS, 1950, 281-307, 581-601; idem, 
South Arabian Poetry, I : Prose and poetry from 
Ifadramawt (1951). (O. Lofgren) 

'AYfiHAB, harbour on the African coast of the 
Red Sea, the ruins of which still exist on a flat and 
waterless mound 12 miles N. of Halayb, at 22° 20' N., 
36 29' 32" E. It is mentioned already in the 3rd/9th 
century as a port used by pilgrims to Mecca and 
merchants from al-Yaman (Ya'kubl 335; cf. BGA 
iii, 78), and was linked to the Nile valley by caravan 
roads from Aswan (15 days) and Kus (17 days). 
Originally a small village of huts, it grew in im- 
portance from the 5th/ nth century in consequence 
of increasing Egyptian commerce with al-Yaman, 
and was especially flourishing in the period of the 
KarimI merchants, when it is described by Ibn 
Battuta (i, 109-n) in 7251325 as a large town. The 
local population was formed mainly of Muslim 
Budjah (Bejas), whose ruling family, called by the 
Arabic name of al-Hadrabi (or Hadrubi) frequently 
clashed with the Egyptian representatives over their 
share in the control and revenues of the port. It was 
destroyed during the reign of the Mamluk sultan 
Barsbay (825-42/1422-38), allegedly in retaliation 
for the pillage of a caravan proceeding to Mecca, 
and its place was taken by Sawakin [q.v.]. 

Bibliography: Kalkashandi, iii, 468; Ibn 
Djubayr, Travels (ed. Wright and De Goeje), 69 ff.; 
Leo Africanus, Desc. de I'Afrique, It. M. Epaulard 
(Paris 1956), ii, 484-5; M. Couyat, Les Routes 
d'Aidhab, BIFAO viii, 1911; G. W. Murray, in 
Geographical Journal, lxviii, London 1926, 235-40; 
and works mentioned in the article. 

(H. A. R. Gibb) 

AYDIN, also known as Guzel Hisar ("Beautiful 
Fortress"), formerly Traileis, a town in western 
Anatolia 60-80 m. above sea level, 37 50' north, 
27 48' east. It lies at the foot of the Gevizli Dagal 
(Messogis), which forms the northern boundary of 
the valley of the Biiyiik Menderes (in antiquity the 
Maeander), on the little river Tabak Cay (formtrly 
Eudon) which flows thence to the Menderes. It is 
surrounded by fields and gardens, and the railway 
line from Izmir (via Dinar) to Afyon Karahijar 
passes through it. It is the capital of the wilayet of 
the same name and has 18,504 inhabitants (1945; at 
the end of the last century there were, according to 
Cuinet, 36,250 inhabitants with a strong Greek mi- 
nority) ; the vilayet (with 294,407 inhabitants) consists 
of the following kazds: Aydln (105,155 inhabitants), 
Bozdogan, Cine, Karacasu, Nazilli and Soke. 

Traileis was occupied by the Turks for the first 
ime after the victory of the Saldjuk sultan Alp 
Arslan over the Emperor Romanus IV at Malazgerd 
1071. It was surrendered, however, after the 
crusaders' victory at Dorylaeum in 1098. It was 
occupied by the Turks for the second time — together 
with the Maeander valley — in 1176, after Sultan 
Kilic-Arslan II's victory over the Emperor Manuel; 
the Emperor succeeded in winning it back before 
long. The sahil begi Amir Menteshe brought it 
finally under Turkish rule in 1280, in the time of 
Ghiyath al-DIn Kay-Khusraw III, and henceforth it 
became known as Guzel Hisar. In 1310, another 



AYDIN — AYLA 



783 



Turkish prince took possession of the town, Aydln- 
oghlu Mehmed Beg, whose family name was hence- 
forth added to that of the town; the actual capital 
of the principality of Aydtn was, however, generally 
Birgi. The Ottoman Sultan Bayazld I absorbed the 
principality of Aydtn, but Timur re-established it. 
In 806/1403 both town and principality finally came 
into Ottoman possession, and from then on formed a 
sandjak of their own (with Tire as capital) within the 
eydlet of Anadolu. In the 18th century, the sandjak of 
Aydln and the sandjak of Saruhan together formed 
the hereditary governorship of the family of the Kara- 
'Uthman-oghullart; it was not until 1249/1833 that 
Mabmud II brought it again under the direct 
administration of the Porte, when it again became a 
wildyet in its own right. In 1850, however, it was 
brought under the wildyet of Izmir as a sandiak. 
Kemal Ataturk re-instituted it as a wildyet in 1924. 
In the war between Turkey and Greece, the town 
of Aydin was burnt down on 7th September 1922. 
Historical buildings of the town are the Uways 
Djami' (before 998/1589), Ramadan Pasha Djami' 
(1000/1594-95), Suleyman Bey Djami c (1005/1683) 
and Djihanzade Djami 1 (built in 1170/1756 by 
Djihanzade c Abd al- c Aziz Efendi). 

Bibliography: A. Philippson, Reisen und 
Forschungen im westlicken Kleinasien, ii, 78 ff . ; 
E. Chaput, Voyages d'Etudes geologiques et gio- 
morphogtniques en Turquie, 214-8; Ch. Texier, 
Asie Mineure, 279 ff . ; E. Banse, Die Turhei, 
139 ff.; V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie iii, 591 ff.; 
W. J. Hamilton, Recherches in Asia Minor i, 535; 
W. Heyd, Geschichte des Levantehandels, see index ; 
E. Reclus, Nouvelle geographic universale ix, 634; 
R. M. Riefstahl, Turkish Architecture in South- 
western Anatolia, Cambridge 193 1; Ta'rikh-i 
Munedidiim-bashi iii, 32; Hadjdji Khalifa, Djihdn- 
niimd, 636-8; Ewliya Celebi, Seydhat-ndme, ix, 
150-9; Sdlndme of the wildyet of Aydtn 1326/ 
1908; IA, ii, 61 f. (Besim Darkot). 

(Fr. Taeschner) 
AYDIN-OfiHLU, a Turkoman dynasty which 
reigned from 708 to 829 (1308 to 1425) over the 
emirate of the same name. Aydtn-oghlu Mehmed 
Beg (708-734/1308-1334), subashl of the emir of 
Germiyan, separated from him in the early years 
of the 8th/i4th century and started to make war on 
his own account, associating himself with Sasa Beg, 
son-in-law of the emir of Menteshe. After having 
conquered Birgi, Ayasoluk and Keles, Sasa turned 
against his former ally and was defeated and put to 
death by him in 708/1308. Mehmed Beg added to 
his conquests those of the acropolis of Izmir, Tyre, 
Sultan-Hisarl and Bodemya. His son Umur Beg 
(734-748/1334-1348) added to the glory of the 
dynasty by his victories which were celebrated in a 
destdn. He took possession of the fortress of the 
port of Izmir, held by the Genoese Martin Zaccaria, 
and organised a fleet, with which he proceeded to 
lay waste the islands of the Archipelago, even 
extending his incursions into Greece. On the death 
of Andronicus III, John VI Cantacuzenus, who a 
few years previously had succeeded in winning the 
emir's friendship, appealed to him for help in his war 
against the supporters of the rightful heir, John V 
Paleologus. Umur Beg proceeded to Rumelia in 
743/1342, 744/1343 and 745/1345 and helped 
Cantacuzenus to subdue Thrace. But whilst he was 
engaged in making his contribution to the triumph 
of his friend, Pope Clement VI preached a Crusade 
against him, in which Venice, Genoa, the King of 
Cyprus, the Knights Hospitallers of Rhodes and the 



Duke of Naxos participated and which culminated 
in the taking of the fortress of the port of Izmir 
in October 1344. Shortly afterwards, the leaders of 
the Crusade perished in a fight against the emir, who 
also, in 746/1346, repulsed the Crusade of the Dau- 
phin, Humbert II le Viennois. Umur, however, was 
killed in the spring of 1348 whilst attempting to 
retake the fortress of Izmir. The immediate result of 
his death was the treaty of 18 August 1348 which 
gave the Latins great advantages. During the reigns 
of his brothers, Khidr 748-760/1348-1460) and <Isa 
(760-791/1360-90), the emirate lost its importance 
and was finally annexed by Bayazld I, who in 1390 
ratified the treaty of commerce of 1348, to the 
Venetians' advantage. In 1402, after the battle of 
Ankara, Timur restored their principality to 'lsa's 
two sons, Musa and Umur II. After the death of 
these princes, the power passed to their cousin 
Djuneyd (808-828/1405-25), the son of Ibrahim 
Bahadur b. Mehmed, well known for his intrigues 
against the Ottomans. He supported the claims of 
Diizmedje Mustafa and his son, but was defeated 
by Murad II and took refuge in the fort of Ipsili, 
from whence he sought unsuccessfully to obtain the 
assistance of Karaman-oghlu and of Venice. He was 
besieged by the Sultan, taken prisoner and executed 
together with all the members of his family in 
829/1425-6. This was the end of the Aydln-oghlu, 
and the emirate was finally annexed by the Ottomans. 
Bibliography: Cantacuzenus, ii, 28 ff.; iii, 7, 
56, 63 ff., 86, 89, 95 ; Miikrimin Halil, Dusturnamei 
Enveri, Medhal, Istanbul, 1930; Himmet Akin, 
Aydln Ogullari Tarihi hakkinda bir Arastlrma, 
Istanbul 1946; I. Melikoff-Sayar, Le Destdn 
d'Umur Pacha, Paris 1954. (I. Melikoff) 

al-AYKA [see Madyan]. 

AYLA, seaport at the north end of the Gulf of 
'Akaba, now succeeded by al-'AJcaba [q.v.]. 

Nelson Glueck, who excavated the site of Biblical 
Ezion-geber (Tall al-Khulayfa) near the shore of 
the Red Sea about three kilometres north-west of 
al-'Akaba, has concluded that the original sites of 
Biblical Ezion-geber and Elath (the predecessor of 
Ayla) are identical. The Biblical narrative some- 
times distinguishes the two (Deut., ii, 8, I Kings, 
ix, 26, II Chron., viii, 17), while at other time it 
gives the impression that they were one (II Kings, 
xiv, 22, 16: 6). The Old Testament name Elath, 
of doubtful etymology, is the ancestor of the Arabic 
Ayla. 

Judaean control of Elath-Ezion-geber, esta- 
blished since the time of Solomon, was finally lost 
to the Edomites in the reign of Ahaz (735-15 B.C.), 
and the site remained occupied until the 4th century 
B.C. In the following century the town-- was trans- 
ferred, probably by the Nabataeans, a short distance 
to the south-east, where it was situated at the time 
of the Islamic conquest. 

During the Ptolemaic period (when it was known 
for a time as Berenike), Ayla continued as a port 
for trade with Arabia and Ethiopia. Under Roman 
rule it was garrisoned by the 10th Legio Fretensis 
and constituted the southern terminus of the road 
built by Trajan (A.D. 98-117) to connect the port 
with the important/ commercial centre of Bostra 
(Busra) in Syria. AUeady in A.D. 325 Ayla was the 
seat of a bishopric And four capitals of its Byzantine 
church were to be seen in the courtyard of the 
customs house it al- c Akaba in 1940. Just prior to 
Islam, Ayla lay in the territory controlled by the 
Ghassanid phylarchs on behalf of Byzantium. 
Ayla first makes its appearance in the Islamic 



period in the year 9/630-1, when the town under its 
bishop Yuhanna b. Ru'ba made peaceful sub- 
mission to the Prophet during his Tabuk campaign. 
Under Islam Ayla became an important meeting- 
place for Mecca-bound pilgrims coming from Egypt 
and Syria, and trade flourished. Although the town 
stood at the meeting-point of Egypt, Syria, and the 
Hidjaz it was generally considered as belonging to 
Syria and is described by al-Mukaddasi (178), writing 
in 985-6, as "the port of Palestine." The 4th/ioth 
century marked the height of its prosperity under 
Muslim rule, as is clear from the account of al- 
Mukaddasi. In 415/1024-5) Ayla was sacked by <Abd 
Allah b. Idris al-Dia c fari and some of the Banfl 
al-Djarrah, while in 465/1072-3 it is said to have 
been destroyed by an earthquake (Ibn Taghribirdi, 
Nudjum (Popper), ii, 239). 

The Crusading period brought a long era of strife 
to Ayla and at the end of it the town lay largely 
in ruins. Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem, took Ayla 
(Helim) in 1116 and it became incorporated into 
the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem under the barony 
of al-Karak and Montreal. In 1171 the Franks were 
driven out by Saladin, who left a garrison in the 
town. Frankish control was briefly reasserted by 
Renaud de Chatillon, lord of al-Karak, in 1182-1183 
during his remarkable but foolhardy campaign 
against the coast of the Hidjaz and the Red Sea. 
With the destruction of Renaud de Chatillon's fleet 
by Saladin's commander Husam al-DIn Lulu' in 
1 183, Ayla passed permanently into the hands of 
Islam, but in a depleted condition. Abu J l-Fida 5 
(i273-r332) states that in his time nothing was left 
of the town but the stronghold near the shore 
(Takwim, 86-7). 

This stronghold, which probably was the predeces- 
sor of the still-standing late Mamluk fortified 
caravanserai in al-'Akaba [?.«.], does not represent 
the original fortification of Ayla. The original fort 
that protected Ayla lay on the island now known 
as Diazirat Fir'awn, which lies on the opposite side of 
the Gulf of the coast of Sinai but within sight of the 
town. This island was already occupied in Byzantine 
times. It was this island fort which was besieged by 
Renaud de Chatillon in 1182, and the first fort on 
the mainland appears to have been built by Renaud 
de Chatillon in 1182 or 1183. In Abu'l-Fida's day 
this mainland stronghold was the residence of an 
Egyptian governor. 

Bibliography: N. Glueck, The Other Side of 
the Jordan, New Haven 1940, 89, 105, 107-108, 
1 r 2-1 13; Ph. Schertl, Ela-Akaba, Orientalia 
Christiana Periodica, 1936, 33-77; A. Musil, 
Arabia Petraea, ii/i, Vienna 1907, index; MakrizI, 
Khi(<*t (Wiet), iii, 228-35; H. Lammens, V Arabic 
occidentale avant VHigire, Beirut 1928, index 
under Aila; H. W. Glidden, A Comparative Study 
of the Arabic Nautical Vocabulary from al-'Aqabah, 
Transjordan, in J ADS, 1942, 68-9; C. Leonard 
Woolley and T. E. Lawrence, The Wilderness of 
Zin, London 1936, 145-7; E. Robinson, Biblical 
Researches in Palestine, London 1856, 161, 163. 

(H. W. Glidden) 
AYLUL [see Ta'rI™]. 

AYMAK, Mongol and Eastern Turkish word 
meaning "tribe" and "group of tribes" (= Turkish 
il) ; in Modern Mongolian, "province", in the USSR, 
"rayon". In Afghanistan the four nomadic tribes of 
partly nomad origin: Diamshldi, Hazara, Flruzkuhl 
and TaymanI, are called the "Four Aymaks" (Car, 
or Cahar. Aymak) [see cahAr aymak]. 

(B. Spuler) 



AVMAN b. BHURAYM B . FAtik b. al-Akbram 

al-AsadI, Arab poet of the Umayyad period, son 
of the Companion of the Prophet Khuraym al- 
Na'im, whose kadiths he has handed down. After 
settling at Kufa, he composed, like many of the 
poets of that town gkazal poems, but also panegyrics 
on the Umayyad princes c Abd al- c Aziz and Bishr, 
son of Marwan; although he contracted tubercular 
leprosy (abras), his poetry allowed him to enjoy 
their intimate friendship, and this favour won him 
the surname of khalU al-khulafa? (the friend of 
caliphs). In some of his poems he touches on political 
matters; he ventures to compose a panegyric on the 
Banu Hashim, and manifests his desire not to take 
up arms against other Muslims (particularly against 
c Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr, with regard to whom he 
wished to remain neutral); on the other hand, he 
is hostile to the Kharidjites and the murderers of 
'Uthman, so that, contrary to the Aghdni which 
makes him a Shi'i, he must rather be considered a 
partisan of 'Uthman. 

Bibliography: Djahiz, Baydn, ed. Sandubl, 
1366/1947, 138, 258; idem, Hayawdn', vi, 318, 
462; Mubarrad, Kdmti, index; Ibn Kutayba, 
Shi'r, 345-7; idem, Ma'drif, Cairo ed. 1353/1934, 
85, 148, 252; Aghdni, xxi, 7-13; Ibn 'Asakir, 
Ta'rikh Dimashk, iii, 185-9; 'Askalanl, Isdba, 
no. 393, 2246; Ibn c Abd al-Barr, Isti ( db, in the 
margin of the If aba, i, 89-90; Yakut, index; 
C. A. Nallino, Scritti, vi (= Letteratura, mdex; 
French trans., index). (Ch. Pellat) 

C AYN [see HipjA 3 ]. 

C AYN in its basic sense signifies the eye, the organ 
of sight, acquires then the meaning of the function 
of sight, the seeing, and as is frequent in semantics 
compare e.g. khalk, creation, and fiH action, which 
can mean in Arabic as in English the acting and the 
effect of the acting — can also denote the effect of 
the function of sight, the aspect, the thing viewed, 
and especially in the plural, a'yan, the particular 
things that are perceived in the exterior world. It 
is therefore not astonishing when we read in Kh"a- 
rizml's Mafdtih al- l Ulum (ed. van Vloten, 143) that 
in an old translation of Aristotle's Categories which 
he ascribes to c Abd Allah b. al-Mukaffa', the first 
category, oualcc, substance, which signifies a parti- 
cular concrete individual, e.g. a particular horse or 
a particular man, was rendered by ( ayn. However, 
in a later translation of the Categories by Ishak b. 
Hunayn the word c ayn is replaced by the Persian 
word ajawhar and this word becomes the technical 
term in all later philosophy for all the meanings of 
oualcc, substance. But in a less technical sense to 
express the concrete things the philosophers still 
frequently use the term 'ayn. When e.g. Avicenna 
in his Nadiat repeats the Aristotelian statement at 
the beginning of the Hermeneutics that the written 
words are the signs of the spoken words, the spoken 
words the signs of what is in the soul, i.e. its repre- 
sentations and concepts, and these representations 
and concepts in the soul the signs of the things in 
the exterior world, he uses for the things in the 
exterior world (in Greek t& 7tpiY|*aTa) the term 
a'ydn. It is interesting to note that Ishak b. Hunayn 
in his translation of the Hermeneutics translates t& 
7tpiY|xaTa by the term al-ma l dni, a literal translation 
of the Stoic term o*Y]|Xatv6|xeva or XexTdt, "meanings" 
(these "meanings" are called by the Stoics Ttpdcyiwra 
— see Sextus Empiricus, adv. log. II. 12 — but in 
another sense than that which the term 7tpdtYH«Ta 
has in Aristotle). The Muslim philosophers accept 
from the Stoics the division of the "something", tL in 



Arabic shay', (i.e. anything that can be thought of) 
into two classes, things that exist in the exterior 
world, and things that exist in the mind, and they 
use for the former the expression fi 'l-a'-ydn, for the 
latter /*' 'l-adhhdn (adhhdn is the plural of dhihn, mind) 
and it is in this opposition of the exterior world to 
the purely mental entities that the term a l ydn is 
specially used by the philosophers. In this sense <ayn 
is synonymous with shakhs, individuum, and it can 
express also the identity of the individual thing. But 
a common word denoting a concrete individual, like 
"horse", can signify both a particular horse, e.g. the 
horse in my stable, and the class "horse", when you 
say "this is a horse", meaning that this is an animal 
which possesses the nature, the general characte- 
ristics of a horse (according to the Arabian gram- 
marians an ism <ayn, a word denoting a concrete 
individual is an ism djins, a generic word). The 
philosophers give to this universal character of a 
thing the name of mdhiyya, quiddity, or dhdt, 
essence, but in theology and mysticism the term 
( ayn is frequently used to express this meaning. And 
since according to the neoplatonising mystics and 
philosophers the universals exist eternally in God's 
mind, these eternal ideas are called by the mystics 
a'ydn or a c ydn thabita (thabita means stable or 
eternal), whereas the philosophers use different 
other terms like hakdHk and ma l dn in (some Mu c ta- 
zilites too employ the terms a'ydn or hdldt to express 
the eternal ideas in God). Now, since for the neopla- 
tonising mystics our world is but a dream — world 
and true reality lies in a world beyond and God is 
the one truly Real and the ultimate source from 
which all being and all beings spring, c ayn in its 
double sense of the real and of source — for in Arabic 
c ayn can mean also source — is used by the mystics 
to indicate the super-existence of God's deepest 
essence. In this sense it is rare in philosophy, but we 
find it in A vice on a, for instance when he speaks in 
the Ishdrdt (ed. Forget 205) of those mystics who 
penetrate to the l ayn, the contemplation of God's 
inner nature. Finally it may be remarked that the 
term 'ayn al-yakin, the contemplation of the evident, 
can be used in the double sense of "intuition", i.e. 
the pre-rational sense of intuitive understanding of 
the philosophical first principles, and the post- 
rational sense of the intuitive understanding of 
super-rational mystical truth. 

Bibliography: see anniyya; for the mystical 

use of the term see R. A. Nicholson, Studies in 

Islamic Mysticism. (S. van den Bergh) 

'AYN in the medical terminology of the Arabs, 

like "eye", "oeil", "Auge" etc. in that of the 

Europeans, not only refers to the bulb or eye-ball, 

At. mukla, kurat aW-ayn, but also to the whole of 

the organs which make up the apparatus of vision, 

&ami c Slat al-basar. 

The study of the human eye, for the doctors cf 
medicine and those who wrote on the subject in the 
Islamic world, constituted one of the most remark- 
able branches of their science. This branch of know- 
ledge, which is the equivalent of the ophthal- 
mology of the West at the present day, has borne 
different names at various periods. Thus it was 
called huhl, a word which originally designated 
collyrium (black) of antimony — the pre-eminent 
medicine and cosmetic in the East — , which was 
subsequently used in a much wider sense for the 
"science and art of caring for the eyes"; — kahhdla, 
from the same root and used in the same wide 
sense;— fibb al-'ayn, (ibb al-'uyan, an expression 
still in use; — fibb ramadi and Him al-ramad, where 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



N 785 

this latter term, which originally only meant "con- 
junctivitis", now embraces eye diseases of all types. 
From the point of view of the history of medicine, 
this branch synthesises and reflects the evolution of 
Arab Medicine as a whole. Thus it is that two periods 
are distinguishable here: the initial period of 
formation, when the scholars of the East, for the 
most Christians, translated Greek ophthalmological 
science into Arabic and used it as it stood; and 
secondly, the period of development, during which 
other scholars systematised this material, perfected 
it and enriched it by their original contributions. 
Among the former must be mentioned Yuhanna b. 
Masawayh, a native of Djundlshapur and the author 
of the Kitdb Daghal al- l Ayn, and rjunayr, b. Ishak 
of HIra (194-264/809-877), to whom the Kitdb al- 
c Ashr Mdkdldt fi 'l-'Ayn has been attributed; and 
among the latter, C AH b. c Is5 [q.v.], also a Christian, 
of Baghdad (first half of the 5th/nth century), 
author of the celebrated Tadhkirat al-Kahhdlin, and 
his great contemporary 'Ammar b. 'All [q.v.], a 
Muslim of Mawsil who practised in Cairo, author of 
the Ki*db al-Muntahhab fi 'Ilddf Amrdd al- l Ayn. 
The works of these four authors must be considered 
as the cornerstones of Arab ophthalmology. 

To give an idea of the originality of Arab thought 
on this subject, it is sufficient to recall the relation- 
ships of cause and effect, which C A1I b. c Isa was the 
first to discern, between trachoma (djarab al- ( avn, 
today ramad hubaybi, tardkHma, tardkhUma) and the 
acute conjunctivitises which precede it, on the one 
hand, and the "cornea pannus" (sabal) and "entro- 
pion-trichiasis" (inkildb al-sha'ar) wnich follow it, on 
the other hand; and in the operation of cataract 
(ma', ma' ndxil fi 'l- c ayn and in the modern language 
katdrakta) the astonishing suction of the (soft) 
crystalline lense performed by al-Mawsill, which 
eight centuries later, was to be adopted in the West 
and continued down to the the present day. New 
contributions in this special field are to be sought 
in the treatises on general medicine, like the Kdnin 
of Ibn SIna, where, for example, we find the first 
"anatomical" description of the eye motor muscles, 
as well as of the lachrymal ducts ; also in the works of 
non-medical authors, such as the famous *re?tise on 
Optics, the Kitdb al-Mandfir, of Abu 'All b. al- 
Haytham, of Basra (died ca. 431/1039), in which this 
great scholar put forward his rational theory of 
vision, refuting that of the Greeks' "sight-spirit", 
inherited by the Arabs (ruh al-basar, rah basari, rih 
nuri etc.). Neither should the numerous minor works 
on ophthalmology be neglected which appeared 
everywhere and with great frequency in Islamic 
countries, some of which are in dialogue form (see 
the Kitdb al-MasdHl fi 'l-'Ayn of tfunayn) and even 
in poetic form (see the ManzHma fi 'l-Kuhl, author 
unknown, Vat. Borg. 87/3). Finally it should not be 
forgotten that there were oculists who enjoyed great 
fame, none of whose works on the subject have yet 
come to our knowledge. Such is the case, for example, 
of Ishak al-Isralll (3rd/9th century), who practised 
in Cairo before moving to al-JCayrawan, where he 
became one of the most enlightened masters and 
authors on general medicine of the Middle Ages. 
Bibliography: (confined to works by oculists 
who were themselves Arabic scholars, or who 
worked in collaboration with Arabic scholars) : J. 
Hirschberg, Geschichte der AugenheUkunde bei den 
Arabern, Leipzig 1908; M. Meyerhof, The Booh 
of the Ten Treatises on the Eye escribed to Hunain 
ibn Ishaq, Cairo 1928, and the whole of his 
valuable series of studies and original memoranda 
50 



786 



AYN - 



on Arab Ophthalmology; A. Casey A. Wood, 
Memorandum Book of a Tenth-Century Oculist 
(•All b. 'Isa), Chicago 1936. (T. Sarnelli) 
'AYN, "evil eye". Belief in the evil eye is well 
established in Islam. According to Abu Hurayra, the 
Prophet said al-'ayn" haW* "The evil eye is a 
reality" (al-Bukhari, commentary of al-Kastallanl 
on the Sahih, viii, 390, 463) ; it is the evil action of 
an envious glance which is envisaged by the recom- 
mendation given in the Kur'an, cxiii, 5. Orthodoxy, 
however, makes the Prophet condemn this belief 
(Muntakhab Kanz al-'Ummdl, iv, 22; Nihdya fi 
Gharib al-ffadith, iv, 202). This superstition, univer- 
sally current, dates from before Islam in the Muslim 
countries, where it continues to be prevalent. It 
frequently finds expression both in religious traditions 
and in popular folklore: "the majority of human 
beings die as victims of the evil eye", "the evil eye 
empties the houses and fills the graves", etc. The 
effect of the evil eye, if aba bi 'l- l ayn, lak 1 , shawba, etc. 
is generally instigated by a desire to harm transmitted 
by a look pregnant with hate or envy, ndfis, nadiu' 
or nadji', but it can be involuntary and result from 
the naturally injurious power of a strange or staring 
look masfu 1 (Ibn al-Sikkit, Takdhib al-Alfaz, ed. 
Cheikho, 545-46; al-Mubarrad, Kamil, 329). Deep-set 
eyes, blue eyes or eyebrows which meet are reputed 
to be baneful. Some animals, such as the viper (al- 
Damlrl, Hayat al-Uayawan, i, 24) are considered as 
having a poisonous glance. The eye suffices to 
disseminate the evil. Its power, however, may be 
coupled with that of the spoken word: evil eye, 
fascinum oculo, and evil mouth, fascinum lingua, 
frequently go together. An unfortunate word or 
misplaced praise is capable of harming the person 
to whom they are addressed and of releasing the 
malefic action. Of all people suspected of possessing 
the evil eye, the most feared are women, especially 
old women or those who are unmarried or sterile. But 
likewise equally all who are ill-favoured or consider 
themselves placed at a disadvantage by nature. As 
a corollary, pregnant women, small children and, 
generally speaking, everything which is beautiful, 
happy, or precious, is liable to the assaults of envy, 
and certain circumstances augment the vulnerability 
of persons and things which are enviable: pregnancy, 
childbirth, marriage and in general, feasts and 
celebrations. Illness, debility, death of those con- 
cerned ; loss of livestock, deterioration or destruction 
of objects or situations; the consequences feared 
from the evil eye are innumerable. People strive to 
protect themselves against it or to remedy its 
calamitous effects. Whether preventative or curative, 
the prophylaxis of the evil eye is varied (al-Suyuti, 
Rahma, 56-58): use of formulas, gestures; fire rites, 
fumigations; use of salt, alum, horn, metal, etc.; 
the wearing of phylacteries, amulets, jewels; tat- 
tooing. Originally, doubtless the veil worn over the 
face was one of these means of prophylaxis. The 
most effective protective symbol is the number five, 
khamsa [q.v.] and the figuration of the five-fingers 
of the hand spread out (Lefebure, in Bull. Soc. 
giogr. Alger, 1907, 411-417). The ritual attaching to 
the evil eye, like the belief itself, is very much more 
a matter of magic and superstition than of religion, 
even where the formula is derived from orthodox 

Bibliography: Hartland, Legend of Perseus, 
see evil eye in the index; Chauvin, Bibl. ouvr. ar., 
v, 161; Blau, Altjud. Zauberw., 152-56; Canaan, 
Aberglaube und Volksmedizin im Lande der Bibel, 
30-31, 48; I. Goldziher, Einige arab. Ausrufe und 



Form, in WZKM, xvl, 140 and 59; idem, in ARW, 
1907, 41-46; 1910, 35; A. von Kremer, Kultur- 
geschichte or., ii, 253; Wellhausen, Reste, 196; 
L. Einzler, Dos bdse Auge, in ZDPV, 1889, 200-22; 
Lane, Modern Egypt, 1895, 71, 160; Vassel, in RT, 
1905, 549-5i'» idem, in RI, 1907, 323-5; Desparmet, 
Coutumes, institutions et croyances, passim ; A. Bel, 
La Djdzya, in J A, 1903, 359-365; E. Westermarck, 
in JAnthr. I, 1904, 211-3; idem, Ritual and belief 
in Morocco, I, chap, viii; idem, Survivances 
paiennes dans la civilisation mahomilane, 34-75; 
Legey, Essai de Folklore marocain, passim; A.-M. 
Goichon, La vie fiminine au Mzab, passim; 
Mathea Gaudry, La femme chaouta de I'Auris, 
passim, Dubouloz-Laffin, Le Bou-Mergoud, 149-64; 
W. Marcais et A. Guiga, Textes arabes de TakroAna, 
323-4, 371-2, 396 (with copious references); 
E. Doutte, Magie et religion dans I'Afrique du Nord, 
317-27 (good synthesis). (Ph. Marcais) 

'AYN DILFA is a spring in the north of Syria 
which is of some importance on account of its 
situation on the road between Antioch and Aleppo, 
somewhat west of the large ruins of the monastery 
of Kasr al-Banat. Its source is on the northern slope 
of the Djabal Barlsha and it runs through a narrow 
channel cut out in the rock into a well-house {stbtt). 
According to an Arabic inscription, this well- 
house was built in 877 (1472-1473) by an in- 
habitant of the neighbouring village, of the name 
of Mahmud b. Ahmad. It is highly probable that on 
account of the spring a settlement already occupied 
the spot in ancient times. A few remains of buildings 
from the Christian era, still more from Islamic times, 
can yet be seen. There are also a few inscribed 
Muslim tombstones. The place is nowadays unin- 
habited; it belongs to the people of Sermeda. From 
time to time nomadic Turcomans or Kurds used to 
camp there in their tents. The spring was of impor- 
tance for the caravans between Antioch and Aleppo, 
which often used to rest there. 

Bibliography: Syria. Publ. of the Princeton 
Univ. Arch. Exp. to Syria in 1904-5 and 1909. 
Division IV, Section D: Arabic Inscriptions (by 
E. Littmann), Leyden 1949, 88 f. 

(E. LittmanH) 
C AYN DJALCT, spring of Goliath, mentioned by 
the mediaeval geographers as a village between 
Baysan and Nabulus, in the Djund of Filastln. It 
stood at the head of the Wadi Djalut, and is said to 
have owed its name to a tradition that by it David 
slew Goliath (cf. A. S. Marmardji, Textes giographi- 
ques arabes sur la Palestine, Paris 1951, 152; G. Le 
Strange, Palestine, 384, 461). In the chronicles of 
the Crusaders the neighbourhood is called Tubania 
or Tubanie. It first achieves mention in Djum. 
II 578/Sept. 1 183, when the armies of Saladin and 
of the Franks camped there face to face and then 
separated without an engagement (W. B. Stevenson, 
The Crusaders in the East, Cambridge 1907, 232-3; 
R. Grousset, Histoirc des Croisades, ii, Paris 1948, 
724: S. Runciman, A History of the Crusades, ii, 
Cambridge 1952, 439; K. M. Setton (ed.), A History 
of the Crusades, i, Philadelphia 1955, 599). 

c Ayn Djalut is chiefly known as the site of the 
famous battle, fought or. Friday 25 Ramadan 658/ 
3 September 1260, in which a Mongol army, com- 
manded by Kitbuga Noyon, was defeated by a 
Mamluk army from Egypt, led by the sultan Al- 
Malik al-Muzaffar Kutuz. The vanguard of the 
Mamluk army was commanded by Baybars [q.v.]. 
The strength of the Mamluk force was estimated at 
120,000; that of the Mongols at 10,000 horsemen 



<AYN DjALOT — AYN al-DJARR 



787 



(thus the Syriac and Arabic texts of Bar-Hebraeus ; 
Rashld al-DIn speaks of "a few thousand"). The 
Mongol forces and their Christian auxiliaries, after 
at first sweeping the Mamluk left wing (or, according 
to others, vanguard) before them, were set upon 
and annihilated by the main body of the Mamluk 
army. The Mongol general Kitbuga was captured 
and put to death. Hulekii, infuriated by the defeat, 
prepared to send a punitive expedition to Syria, but 
was prevented from doing so by the inner struggle 
within the Mongol Empire following the death of 
Mongke Kaan (Mangu Khan) in September 1259 
(cf. Rashid al-DIn, 359)- 

The Arabic and especially the Egyptian chroniclers 
regard the battle of 'Ayn pjalut as a decisive 
victory, which saved the Syro-Egyptian Empire and 
indeed Islam itself from the Mongol menace. For the 
first time, a Mongol army had been defeated in 
pitched battle; the fact that the victors were 
largely Turkish, and overcame the Mongols by 
using their own methods of warfare against them, 
if anything added to the significance of the victory, 
for it meant that the vitality and energies of the 
steppe peoples were now being harnessed to the 
service of Islam (see for example the remarks and 
verses of Abu Shama, Taradiim, 208 and Yunlni 367; 
D. Ayalon, in his The Wafidiya in the Mamluk 
Kingdom, IC, 1951, 90, has drawn attention to the 
highly significant comments of Ibn Khaldun. al- c Ibar, 
v, 371, on the rdle of the steppe peoples in rejuvenat- 
ing and renewing Islam). The Persian and other 
sources sympathetic to the Mongols tend rather to 
present the battle as an inconclusive engagement in 
which a small Mongol force was overwhelmed by 
vastly superior numbers, who were saved from 
retribution only by Hiilekii's preoccupation with 
other and more important matters. 

The victory by no means ended the danger from 
the Mongols, who continued to hold Mesopotamia 
and 'Irak and to threaten Syria from both north and 
east! In the event, however, <Ayn Djalut was the 
high water mark of Mongol advance, though it 
seems likely that the ebbing of the Mongol tide was 
due to events in the East at least as much as to 
Mamluk resistance. 

Bibliography: the contemporary Egyptian 
accounts of the battle are those of the two bio- 
graphers of Baybars, Ibn Shaddad and Ibn <Abd 
al-Zahir, whose narratives seem to underlie those 
of most subsequent Egyptian historians. Ibn 
Shaddad's account of c Ayn Djalut is unfortunately 
not included in the surviving fragment of his 
work (MS. Selimiye 1507, Edirne; published in 
Turkish translation only: M. Serefuddin Yaltkaya, 
BayPars Tarihi, Istanbul 1941). which, however, 
contains several allusions to the victory. A 
probably abridged version of Ibn c Abd al-?ahir's 
narrative was published from the B. M. manuscript 
by S. F. Sadeque, Baybars I of Egypt, Dacca 1956 
(13 ff., and index). A fuller text of the same book 
is to be found in Istanbul (MS. Fatih 4367). Ibn 
<Abd al-?ahir is at some pains to emphasise 
Baybars' vital contribution to the victory. Of the 
later Egyptian accounts, the most accessible are 
those of Makrlzi (Sulik, i, 430 ff. = Quatremere, 
Sultans Mamelouks, 1, i, 104-6) and Abu '1-Mahasin, 
Cairo ed., vii, 79. There are also Syrian (Abu 
Shama, Taradiim Rid±dl al-fCarnayn al-Sadis wa 
'l-Tdsi c , Cairo 1948, 207-9; Yuninl, Dhayl Mir>at 
al-Zamdn, i, Haydarabad 1954, 360 ff-. citing Ibn 
al-Djazarl, etc.) and 'Iraki (Ibn al-Fuwatf, Al- 
Hawadith al-Djdmi'a, Baghdad 1351, 344) ac- 



counts, as well as brief allusions in Frankish and 
Eastern Christian sources (Erodes, ii, 444; Wm. 
Tyre Cont. ed. Migne 1044; the Armenian chronicle 
of Grigor of Akanc 5 , ed. R. P. Blake and R. N. Frye, 
HJAS, xii, 1949, 349; Mufaddal b. Abi '1-Fada' 
il, ed. and tr. E. Blochet, Pair. Or. xii, 417; Bar- 
Hebraeus, Chronographia, Oxford 1932, 439-40; 
Abu '1-Faradj, Ta'rikh Mukhtasar al-Duwal, Beirut 
1890, 489; al-Makin b. al- c Amid (ed. CI, Cahen), 
BEt. Or. xv, 1955-7, 175). The chief Persian source 
is Rashld al-DIn (ed. and tr. E. Quatremere, Paris 
1836, 349-352). See further B. Spuler, Die Mongolen 
in Iran, Leipzig 1939, 57; H. H. Howorth, History 
of the Mongols, iii, London 1888, 167 ft.; R. 
Grousset, Croisades, iii, 603 ff. ; Runciman, Crusades, 
iii, 312-3; Stevenson, Crusaders, 334; A. Waas, 
Geschichte der Kreuzziige, i, Freiburg 1956, 317; 
CI. Cahen, La Syrie du Nord, Paris 1940, 710-1. 
(B. Lewis) 
AYN al-DJARR. an ancient and important site 
in the Bika 1 [17.1;.] and an Umayyad residence, the 
Arab name of which, now pronounced 'Andjar, 
corresponds to the Greek and Syriac Gerrha and c In 
Gero. The main source of the Litani, which comes 
forth at the foot of the Anti-Lebanon, not far from 
the modern road from Beirut to Damascus, for a 
long time formed a swampy lake there stretching to 
Karak Nulj, which was only finally drained in the 
Mamluk period. The remains of a temple, later 
converted into a small fort (hence the expression 
hisn Madjidal used at the period of the Crusades), 
which still dominate the present-day village of 
Madjdal 'Andjar, doubtless mark the site of ancient 
Chalcis of the Lebanon, the capital of a state which 
extended from Coelesyria to Ituria, before being 
annexed to the Roman Empire. In contrast, the 
archaeological remains which exist not far away, 
in the interior of a vast enclosure furnished with 
towers, and which the excavations now being under- 
taken will make better known to us, have been 
identified by J. Sauvaget with the Umayyad town 
founded about 95-96/714-715 by the Caliph al- 
Walld b. <Abd al-Malik and built, as is attested by 
inscriptions and the Aphrodito papyri, with stones 
from the quarries of Kamid in the Bika' and by 
the use of forced labour. Its character as an 
agricultural settlement has been inferred from the 
existence of hydraulic works, contemporary with 
the ruins, but at what period it was completely 
abandoned is not known. The Arabic texts, which 
first speak of the victory there of Marwan b. Muham- 
mad, in Safar 127/November 744, over the troops of 
Sulayman b. Hisham and the passage of the 'Abbasid 
forces when they occupied Syria, continue in fact to 
mention it incidentally without giving any precise 
information as to the actual condition of the old 
Umayyad town at the time. 

Bibliography: R. Dussaud, Topographie 
historique de la Syrie, Paris 1927, esp. 400-02; 
J. Sauvaget, Les ruines omeyyades de 'Andjar, in 
Bull, du Music de Beyrouth, iii, 1939, 5-1 1; idem, 
in Syria, xxiv, 1944-45, 102; M. Chehab, in Actes 
du XXIV congris int. des Orientalistes, Munich 
1957; G. Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, 
London 1890, 463; Ibn Khurradadhbih. 219; 
Yakut, ii, 57; L. Caetani, Chronographia islamica, 
1617; Ya'kubi, ii, 403; Tabari, ii, 1876-77; »i, 48; 
Ibn al-'Adlm, Zubda, ii, ed. Dahan, 263 ; Ibn al- 
Kalanist, ed. Amedroz, 184, 314; M. Canard, 
Algiers 1951, 203 and n., 243- 
(J. Sourdel-Thomine) 



788 



<AYN MOSA - 



C AYN a 



,-TAMR 



<AYN MOSA: (i) A spring at the entrance of 
the Sik at WadI Musa (Petra). It was a source of 
water for a large Edomite site now known as fawllan, 
occupied in the I3th-6th centuries B.C. (Nelson 
Glueck, The Other Side of the Jordan, New Haven, 
1940, 24). Islamic tradition associates this spring 
with Ku'ran 2 : 57, where Moses strikes a rock with 
his staff and brings forth twelve springs. This 
appears to represent a blending of the twelve springs 
of Elim (Exodus 15 : 27) with the striking of the rock 
at Horeb in Exodus 17: 6. Yakut (s. v. WadI 
Musi) gives the same story repeated later by al- 
Baydawl (Tafsir, commentary on Ku'ran 2 : 60 ac- 
cording to the Egyptian verse numbering) that the 
twelve springs burst forth from a stone that Moses 
had carried with him and set down on this spot. 
William of Tyre (A History of Deeds Done Beyond 
the Sea, tr. E. A. Babcock and A. C. Krey, New 
York, 1943, ii, 144) associates the spot with 
Exodus 17 : 6, which probably represents the then 
current Crusader tradition. Musil (Arabia Petraea, 
iii, Vienna 1908, 330) reports that in his day the 
spring was venerated by the Liyathina Arabs because 
of its association with Moses. 

(2) A spring north of al-Kafr in Hawran, in 
Syria (Rene Dussaud, Topographic historique de 
la Syrie antique et midiivale, Paris 1927, 349; 
Baedeker, Palestine and Syria, Leipzig 1912, 165). 

(3) A small spring near the foot of Djabal al- 
Mukattam east of Cairo (Les Guides Bleus, Egypte, 
Paris 1950, 253). 

'Uyun Musa: (i) A group of springs rising 
near Mt. Nebo north of MaMaba' in Jordan. They 
give their name to the WadI c Uyun Musa, which 
drains into the Dead Sea. The springs, which are 
now used as a water supply for the town of Ma'daba 5 , 
probably were associated with Moses already in 
Byzantine times (F.-M. Abel, Geographic de la 
Palestine, i, Paris 1933, 460). The local Arabs are 
reported to believe that the springs are inhabited by 
spirits, to whom the Arabs annually make a sacrifice 
(Archimandrite Bulus Salman, Khamsat A c wdm (I 
Shark al-Urdunn, Harisa (Lebanon) 1929, 185). 

(2) A group of about a dozen springs approxi- 
mately 12 km. SE of Suez, near the shore of the Gulf 
of Suez. Al-MakdisI (2nd ed. de Goeje, Leiden 1906, 
67) mentions them by name, but says nothing 
further about them. At this spot there exists a small 
settlement, which formerly carried on trade in 
turquoise with the Bedouin from Sinai (T. Barron, 
The Topography and Geology of Sinai (Western 
Portion), Cairo 1907, 36-37, 101, 212; Lion Cart, 
Au Sinai et dans I'Arabie Pitrie, Neuchatcl 1915, 
15-16). (H. W. Glidden) 

C AYN SHAMS is a town in Egypt. <Ayn Shams 
is the Arabic name of the ancient Egyptian town of 
On, which the Greeks called Heliopolis because of 
its famous sun-temple. A recollection of this cult is 
contained in the Arabic name ("the spring, or the 
eye, of the sun"), which must be a popular arabicised 
form of an old name. In the first centuries of Islam 
c Ayn Shams was still, according to some autho- 
rities, an important town, and the capital of a 
district (kira), but according to others, a collection of 
ruins used as a public quarry. The Fatimid al- c Aziz 
built castles on the spot but afterwards the 
buildings fell completely into ruins. The extensive 
ruins, especially the two obelisks (misaUatdn) of the 
temple, stirred the imagination of the Arabs. One of 
them has been preserved until the present day; the 
other fell down in 656/1258. It is said to have 
contained over 200 kinfdrs (quintals) of brass. During 



the Arab period a statue of a beast of burden with a 
man on its back still stood between the two obelisks. 
The other curiosity of c Ayn Shams was its balsam- 
garden, which was cultivated under the supervision 
of the government. During the Middle Ages the 
balsam-tree is said to have grown only here, though 
formerly it had also been a native plant in Syria. 
According to a Coptic tradition known also by the 
Muslims, it was in the spring of c Ayn Shams that 
Mary, the mother of Jesus, washed the clothes of 
the latter on her way back to Palestine after her 
flight to Egypt. From that time onwards, the spring 
was beneficent, and during the Middle Ages balsam- 
trees could only produce their precious secretion on 
land watered by it. 

Bibliography: MakrizI, Khi(a( i, 228 ff.; de 
Sacy, Relation de I'Egypte 20 ff., 86 ff. ; al-Idrisi, 
al-Maghrib, 145; BGA, i, 54; viii, 22; Kalkashandl 
Daw* al-Subh al-Musfir (trans. Wiistenfeld) 13, 96; 
Yakut, iii, 763, iv, 564; Ibn Dukmak, v, 44; 
Baedeker, Egypt; Casanova, Les Noms Copies du 
Caire et Localitis voisines 40 ff.; W. Heyd, Levante- 
handel, ii, 566 ff.; MakrizI, Khifat, ed. IFAO, iv, 
89-102; J. Maspero and G. Wiet, Materiauxpour 
servir d la giographie de l'£gypte, 131. 

(C. H. Becker) 
C AYN al-TAMR, a small town in 'Irak in a 
fertile depression on the borders of the desert between 
Anbar and Kufa. It is 80 miles west of Karbala*. 
The Arabic name means fountain of dates. It was 
probably called so because of an abundance of palm 
trees (Yakut, iii, 759). 

According to Ibn al-Kalbl, it was part of the 
HIrite kingdom of Djudhayma al-Abrash (al-Tabarl, 
750; Yakut, ii, 378). There Shapur is said to have 
married Na<jira, the daughter of the King of Hatra. 
(Al-Tabari, i, 829; Yakut, ii, 283; al-Hamdanl, cl- 
Bukidn, 130). It was probably also a tassudj of the 
astdn of Bihkubadh al-A c la, as it was in the 'Abbasid 
period (Ibn Khurradadhbih, 8; Kudama, 236; Yakut, 
i, 241, 77i). 

When the Muslim commander Khalid b. al- 
Walid attacked it in the year 12 A.H., c Ayn al-Tamr 
was a military post (al-Tabarl, i, 2057; al-Baladhurl, 
246) with a fortified citadel (al-Tabarl, i, 2064, 
al-Baladhurl, 246-7). Khalid defeated and massacred 
the garrison (al-Tabari, i, 2064; al-Baladhurl, no; 
Yakut, iii, 759; Caetani, Annali, ii, 261, 940, 991). He 
captured and enslaved some of its non-combatant 
inhabitants. These were the first enslaved captives 
to arrive in Medina (al-Tabari, i, 2076). The sons and 
grandsons of many of these captives became promi- 
nent figures in the military, administrative and 
intellectual life of Islam (cf. their names in al- 
Tabari, i, 2064, 2121, 3472, ii 801 ; al-Baladhurl, 247, 
230, also 14, 142, 352, 367; Yakut, iv, 807; Aghanl, 
iv, 3256). 

Scanty information about the Muslim conquests 
indicates that c Ayn al-Tamr had a Christian popu- 
lation and a church (al-Tabari, i, 2064; al-Baladhurl, 
247; Yakut, iv, 807), and also a Jewish Community 
and a synagogue (al-Ya c kubI, ii, 151). But probably 
the majority were Arabs from the tribes of Tagblib, 
Namlr and Asad, who were sedentary agriculturists. 
c Ayn al-Tamr preserved its importance in the 
Islamic period, not only for its products by which 
the nomads of Arabia and 'Irak were supplied, but 
also for its geographical situation on the routes of 
communication between the fertile centre of 'Irak 
and the Syrian desert. It also commanded the 
military approaches from the western desert to 
'Irak and especially to Kufa (cf. al-Tabari, i, 2069, 



C AYN ZARBA 



2072, 2121, ii, 946, 1352; al-Baladhuri, 62; Yakut, iv, 
137; Ibn Khurradadhbih, 97; Ibn Hawkal, i, 34; 
A. Musil, Middle Euphrates, 41, 295-311). 

Its importance led the governors of Kufa to 
station in it a military force to protect one of the 
approaches to their Misr (cf . al-Tabarl, i, 3444 : ii, 773, 
1352. I 945, 1946, « 21; al-Baladhuri, Ansdb, v, 295). 

Its rather isolated position induced some of the 
Kharidjites to make it a centre for grouping revo- 
lutionary forces (al-Tabari, ii, 183, 773 ; al-Ya'kubi, ii, 
228, 387; al-Baladhuri, Ansdb, v, 45; Yakut, iii, 759). 

By the end of the 3rd/gth century c Ayn al-Tamr 
was inhabited by the Ban! Asad (al-Tabari, iii, 225). 

c Ayn al-Tamr was a fortified town (al-Mukaddasi, 
117) in the 4th/ioth century, a tassudi of the astdn of 
Bihkubadh al-A c la. At this time its products included 
14 baydar, 300 kurr of wheat, 400 kurr of barley and 
45,000 dirhems per year (Ibn Khurradadhbih. 10; 
Kudama, 237). Its lands were considered c ushri (al- 
Baladhuri, 248). 

For the period of the decline of 'Irak from the 
6th/i2th century onwards, information on c Ayn al- 
Tamr is scanty and it is confused with Shthatha, a 
neighbouring village. It was captured and looted by 
the Mongols who captured Baghdad ('Azzawi, Ta'rikh 
al-'-Irdk bayn Ihtilalayn, i, 357). During the turbulent 
ioth/i6th century some of the Bedouins used it for a 
refuge ('Azzawi, op. cit., v, 182). 

Gertrude Bell visited c Ayn al-Tamr and described 
it as a walled village with a citadel. She mentioned 
its sulphurous waters, cereals and 170,000 palm trees 
(Amurath to Amarath, London 1924, 139). 

At present c Ayn al-Tamr is the centre of a district 
(n&hiya). It has four quarters: Albu Hardan, Kasr 
Jjiamir, Kasr al- c Ayn, and Kasr Abu Hwaydi. The 
sedentary population numbers 2144, and the rural and 
nomadic population is 3183 (1947 Census of 'Irak). 
Bibliography : quoted in the article. 

(Saleh A. El-Ali) 

<AYN TEMUSHENT, a town in Algiers situated 
45 m. (72 km.) S-W of Oran, on the road to Tlemcen, 
and on the site of the Roman city of Albulae and 
of Kasr Ibn Sinan, mentioned by al-Bakri in the 
5th/nth century (de Slane's trans, 1913, 146, 160) 
to the S-E of the plain of Zidur. A redoubt, erected 
by the French in 1839 near the spring called Am 
Temouchent (French orthography), and unsuccess- 
fully attacked by the troops of <Abd al-Kadir in 
1845, is the source of a centre of colonisation which 
has grown into a town with now more than 20,000 
inhabitants, one-third of whom are Europeans. It 
is the market for the rich agricultural region of 
Crania; its black, fertile soil, of volcanic origin, is 
used primarily for the cultivation of the vine, and 
also for market gardening and the cultivation of 
citrouf, fruits, cereals and pulses. (J. Despois) 

C AYN al-WARDA is a locality which, according 
to Yakut, is identical with Ra's c Ayn [?.».]. It owes 
its fame to the great battle of 24 Djumada I 65/ 
6 Jan. 685, in which the Shi'ites of Kufa were 
slaughtered by the Syrians. See Weil, ChaUfen, i, 
360 f f . ; Miiller, Der Islam im Morgen- und A bend- 
land, i, 374; al-Tabari, index and especially i, 
257 and ii, 554 f. (Ed.) 

<AYN ZARBA, deserted town of Anatolia, 
situated to the south of Sis and to the north of 
Misflsa (the former Mopsuestia), a little to the 
north of the confluence of the Sombaz Cay with the 
Diavhan. built on an isolated hill in the middle of 
the plain, on top of the ruins of an ancient town 
which was called Anazarba (cf. Hirschberg in 
Pauly-Wissowa, i, col. 2101). The Arabs took 



the first element of the name Ana for Myn, spring; 
cf. Sachau, in ZA VIII, 98. It acquired a certain 
importance from the time of Harun al-Rashid who 
organised the frontier for defence. In 180/796 he 
rebuilt and fortified it, and settled people from 
Khurasan there (al-Baladhuri, 171; Ibn al-Faklh, 
113; Ibn Shaddad, in Ibn al-Shihna, al-Durr al- 
Muntakhab, 185). In 212/827 'Abd Allah b. Tahir, 
governor of the region between Rakka and Egypt, 
settled Africans from Egypt in the town (Michael 
the Syrian, iii, 60). In 220/835 al-Mu c tasim brought 
in some Zott (al-Baladhuri, loc. cit., al-Mas'udi, al- 
Tanbih, 355) were the object of a Byzantine attack 
in the same year, and of another in 241/855 when 
they were captured with their families and their 
buffaloes and carried off to Constantinople (al- 
Tabari, iii, 1169 and 1426; cf. Vasiliev, Byzance et 
les Arabes, Fr. edit., i, La dynastie d'Amorium, 126 
and 224). In 287/900, the eunuch Waslf, who wanted 
to cross from c Ayn Zarba into Byzantine territory 
was captured by the troops of al-Mu'tadid to the 
north of the place. 

c Ayn Zarba is included by the Arab geographers 
among the frontier towns of the Thughur (Ibn 
Khurradadhbih, 100, Kudama, 229, 253, Ibn Rusta, 
107, al-Ya c kubi, 362 etc.). It flourished mainly in 
the 4th/ioth century. In his book on the Thughur. 
Ibn Hawkal, 121, described it as a town like those 
of the Ghawr (probably because of the similarities 
of climate and products), in the middle of a plain 
where palms grow, and surrounded by fertile lands 
(cf. al-Istakhri, 55, 63). It was fortified by the 
Hamdanid Sayf al-Dawla who, says Yakut, iii, 761, 
spent 3 million dirhems on it. Nevertheless it was 
taken by Nicephorus Phocas, to whom it sur 
rendered at the end of the year 350/962 (see the 
detailed description of the siege and the ravages 
of the Byzantines, particularly the felling of 50,000 
palm trees, in Ibn Miskawayh, ii, 190-1 ; for other 
references see M. Canard, Hist, de la dynastie des 
Hamdanides, i, 806-8). The Muslims were expelled 
and emigrated to Syria. The town remained in 
Byzantine hands until the time when the Armenians, 
expelled from Armenia, occupied it together with 
the other towns of Cilicia, and it became part of the 
territories belonging to Philaretus. But, a little 
before the arrival of the First Crusade the Saldjuks 
took Tarsus, Misslsa and c Ayn Zarba (Michael the 
Syrian, iii, 173, 179). Tancred, nephew of Bohemond, 
conquered Cilicia in 1097 and Bohemond, installed 
in the principality of Antioch, took possession of it 
and also of Tarsus, Adana and Missisa in 1098. 
These places, the object of a dispute between 
Bohemond and the Byzantines, were recaptured 
by the latter, but the Armenian Thoros I, a descen- 
dant of Roupen, who was established in the mount- 
ains to the north of Sis, and who reigned from 1100 
to 1 129, took Sis and Anazarba from the Byzantines 
(RHC Arm. I, 499). During the reign of Leo I, 
brother of Thoros, Bohemond wanted to establish 
himself again in Cilicia and marched on c Ayn Zarba, 
but he came into conflict with the Danishmandid of 
Cappadftcia who also wanted the country, and was 
killed in 11 30. After Leo had conquered Tarsus, 
Adana and Misslsa in 1132-33, the Byzantines 
invaded Cilicia in 1137 and John Comnenus recap- 
tured c Ayn Zarba and took Leo prisoner (Kamal al- 
Din, ed. S. Dahan, ii, 263), but in 1151 Thoros II, 
son of Leo, regained c Ayn Zarba as well as the other 
large towns in Cilicia. Kilidj Arslan II of Konya, at 
the instigation of his ally Manuel Comnenus, 
attacked c Ayn Zarba without success. In n 59 



790 



<AYN ZARBA - 



Manuel reoccupied it with the other places in Cilicia, 
but Thoros II took it again in 1162 (cf. concerning 
these events, F. Chalandon, Les Comnenes, ii, 115-6, 
426-30 and R. Grousset, Hist, des Croisades, ii, 51, 
86, 333, 399, 566). 

The Rupenians kept Cilicia until the 14th century. 
From 1266 the Mamluks of Egypt made numerous 
invasions into the kingdom of Little Armenia (see 
the articles Armenia, Cilicia, MissIsa, Sis) ; during 
one of them the region of c Ayn Zarba was pillaged 
(in 1279, Bar Hebraeus, Chronography, 462). Finally 
in 823 Arm. = 776 A.H. = 1374 A.D., in the reign 
of Malik Ashraf Sha'ban. Cilicia was conquered, c Ayn 
Zarba destroyed, and Leo led into captivity in 1375 
(see RHC Arm. i 686 and 719)- After this the town 
lost all importance. Like the rest of Cilicia it passed 
into the hands of the Turkoman family of Ramadan- 
oghlu in the 15 th century and then to the Ottomans 
in the 16th. 

In the 14th century the name of the town was 
corrupted intoNawarza (cf. Abu '1-Fida', ii, 2nd part, 
29). To-day the place is in ruins and is known as 
Anavarza. 

Bibliography: In addition to the sources 
mentioned in the course of this article, see Le 
Strange, 129; Ritter, Erdkunde, xlx, 56; G. 
Schlumberger, Un empereur byzantin au X me 
siecle, Niciphore Phocas, 191 ff. (M. Canard) 
AYNABAKHtI. Turkish name for Lepanto, or 
Naupaktos, in Greece. It is on the Gulf of Corinth, 
has a picturesque position, but is — these days — an 
impoverished small town, called Epaktos by the 
people and Lepanto by the Italians. It is surrounded 
by crumbling walls which date from the times of 
Venetian rule, and is dominated by a fortress. In 
the Middle Ages, Aynabakhtl ruled over the Gulf 
of Corinth, and in 1407 it came under Venetian rule 
(cf. Vitt. Lazzarini, L'acquisto di Lepanto, 1407, in: 
Nuovo Archivio Veneto, XV (Venice 1898), 267-833; 
in 1483 it was unsuccessfully besieged by the 
Ottomans, but was taken by them in 1499. Don 
Juan of Austria (at the age of 26) won a victory 
near the Oxia islands on 7 Oct. 1571 in a very bloody 
sea-battle, in which he commanded 250 ships (partly 
Venetian, partly Spanish), supported by the Pope, 
and met a Turkish fleet of equal strength of which 
he sank 200 vessels. The town remained the seat of 
a Turkish Sandjak-Bey until it was once more 
conquered by the Venetians in 1687, who retained 
it until the Peace of Karlovac (26 Jan. 1699). After 
this it became Turkish again, and on 12 March 
1829 it became Greek. Opposite the Bay of Ayna- 
bakhtl, the Gulf of Corinth narrows to a width of 
i'lt m. (2 km.). The fortifications erected here by 
the Venetians, called Kastro Moreas in the south, 
and Kastro Roumelias in the north, were formerly 
known as the Small Dardanelles, but have long 
fallen into ruins. Today, the town has about 2000 
inhabitants and is the seat of a bishop. 

Bibliography: Ewliya Celebi, Seydhatndme, 
viii (1928), 6i2ff.; J. v. Hammer, Rumeli und 
Bosna, Vienna 1812, 125-7 (with the strange 
statement that Aydln-oghlu Umur-Beg trans- 
ported ships overland with the aid of machines) ; 
Hadjdji .Khalifa, Tuhfat al-Kibar /« Asfdr al-Bihar 
(incunabulum 1141 A.H., Istanbul) 42-3. Con- 
cerning the sea-battle of Lepanto, cf. the bib- 
liography in H. Kretschmayr, Geschichle von Ve- 
nedig, iii, Gotha 1934, 579 ff. and the older one in 
Hammer-Purgstall, iii, 787 f . ; as well asC. Manfroni, 
Storia delta Marina Italiana, iii, Rome 1897, 437-5 1 ; 
F. Hartlaub, Don Juan d' Austria und die Schlacht 



bei Lepanto (1940) ; and R. C. Anderson, Naval Wars 
in the Levant 1559-1853, Princeton 1952, ch. 2. 
Further bibliographical notes can be found in W. 
Miller, The Latins in the Levant, London 1908, 
passim (cf. 670b), idem, Essays on the Latin Orient, 
Cambridge 1921, passim (cf. 568a). 

(F. Babinger) 
'AYNl, Hasan Efendi al-Savyid Hasan b. 
Hasan al-'Ayntabi, one of the most celebrated 
poets of the reign of Mahmud II, born at 'AyDtab 
in 1 180/1766 and died at Constantinople in 1253/ 
1837. Of very humble origins, he left his native town 
in 1780, travelled about Anatolia for ten years and 
settled in Istanbul, where he studied at the madrasa 
of Sultan Ahmad ; after holding various appointments 
in the offices of the administration, in 1831 he 
became professor of Arabic and Persian in the 
Chancellery of the Sublime Porte. His poetry 
caused Sultan Mahmud II to look on him with 
particular favour, and to grant him pensions and 
honours. On his death he was buried at the Mawlawi 
monastery at Galata. His contemporaries did not 
have a very high opinion of him, and have left us 
a picture of him as having been very much a courtier 
in outlook, with a love of luxury and money, and 
profoundly egoistical. Though belonging to the 
Mawlawi sect, he was in constant communication 
with members of the Nakshbandi sect, who exerted 
a strong influence over him. 

Works: Nazm al-Qjawdhir (1236/1820-1), Turkish, 
Arabic and Persian dictionary; Nusrat-nima, 
a mathnawi on the destruction of the Janissaries; 
KuUiyydt (1258/1842), comprising the Divan, 
which contains kasidas and encomia written for the 
Sultans Selim III and Mahmud II, ghazah, stanzas, 
chronograms and mathnawis, and the Sdki-ndtna, a 
resume of his philosophical reflections on the life of 
man from the Creation. It cannot be said that 
c AynI displayed either great poetic temperament or 
great literary culture. 

Bibliography : c Arif Hikmet, Tedhkire-i 
Shu'ard; Es'ad Efendi, Bdghle-i $afd-anduz; Fatln, 
Tedhkire; c Asim, Ta'rikh, i, 121; Lutfl, Ta'rikh, i, 
173; v, 27, 42; Pjewdet, Ta'rikh, v, passim; vi, 
211, 273; ix, 39, 71; J. von Hammer-Purgstall, 
Geschichle d. osman. Dichtkunst, iv, 502; Gibb, 
Ottoman Poetry, iv, 336 ff.; I A, s.v. (article by 
Fevziye Abdullah). (R. Mantras) 

al- c AYNI, Abu Muhammad Maijmud b. A^mad 
b. Musi Badr al DIn, was born 17 Ramadan 762/ 
21 July 1361, at 'Ayntab, a place situated between 
Aleppo and Antioch. He belonged to a family of 
scholars (his father was a kadi) and began his studies 
at an early age, first in his birthplace and then at 
Aleppo. When he was 29 years old, he visited Damas- 
cus, Jerusalem and Cairo. He was initiated into the 
mystical doctrines of Sufism in the latter town and 
for a time entered the darwlsh monastery of the 
Barkukiyya, which had recently been founded. 
After making several journies to Damascus and to 
the town of his birth, he established himself finally 
in Cairo, where he was appointed muhtasib in 801/ 
1398-1399, during the reign of the Sultan al-Malik 
al-Zahir; he was several times dismissed and re- 
appointed, and, in 803/1 400-1, he succeeded in 
obtaining the much envied post of inspector of 
pious foundations {ndcir al-ahbds). On the accession 
of the Sultan al-Malik al-Mu>ayyad Shaykh (815/ 
1412), he was disgraced. However, shortly after he 
was again in favour and was again appointed to the 
office of muhtasib. His knowledge of the Turkish 
language, moreover, contributed to making him 



il-'AYNI — 'AYNTAB 



persona grata with the rulers of his time, the Sultans 
al-Mu'ayyad, al-Malik al-Zahir Tatar and al-Malik 
al-A§hraf Barsbay. He translated al-r>uduri's legal 
treatise into, Turkish for Tatar; he read his Arabic 
chronicle,' translating it orally into Turkish as he went 
along, to the Sultan al-Malik al-Ashraf in the long and 
frequent interviews he had with him. For the rest, 
the one-time $ufl of the Barkukiyya, now become a 
perfect courtier, composed panegyrics in honour of 
his masters (a Life of Mu'ayyad, a Eulogy of al- 
Malik al-Ashraf). Appointed in 829/1425-6 chief 
kadi of the Hanafls, he occupied this post for 12 
consecutive years. In 846/1442-3, he even succeeded 
in combining the offices of muhtasib, inspector of 
pious foundations and chief kadi of the Hanafls, a 
unique achievement according to his biographers. 
In addition he was professor at the Mu'ayyadiyya 
madrasa. He lost favour in 853/1449-50 and died two 
years later (4 I)hu 'l-Hidjdja 855/28 December 1451). 
He was buried in the 'Ayniyya madrasa, which he 
had founded and where, later on, another com- 
mentator of al-Bukhari, al-Kastallanl, also found his 
resting place. 

The life of al- c Ayni affords a most interesting testi 
mony on the relationships of the scholar class with 
the Mamluk Sultans. This scholar took an active part 
in the intellectual movement of his century and was 
in contact, though on rather bad terms, with two 
of the most outstanding men in Muslim science of 
the period, al-Makrlzi and the Shaykh al- Islam Ibn 
Hadjar al-Askalani ; he supplanted the former in the 
office of muhtasib, thus incurring his hatred; he sus- 
tained a very lively argument against the latter con- 
cerning his commentary on the Sahih of al-Bukhari. 
Al'Aynl's works are very numerous; some of 
them are in Turkish, though thi majority are in 
Arabic. The three best known art: (1) his general 
history called 'Ikd al-Qiumdn ft Ta'rikh AM al- 
Zamdn (an extract in Recueil des historiens des 
croisades. Hist, or., II 4 , 183-254); (2) his commentary 
on the poetical examples cited in four commentaries 
of the Alfiyya of Ibn Malik, entitled al-Makdsid al- 
Nakwiyya fi Shark Shawdkid Skuriih al- Alfiyya 
(printed on the margin of the Khizanat al-Adab of 
al-Baghdadl, Bulak 1299, 4 volumes); (3) his great 
commentary on the Sahih of al-Bukhari, entitled 
l Umdat al-Kari fi Shark al-Bukhari (printed in 
Cairo 1308, and Constantinople 1309-1310, n volu- 
mes); in this last work, al-'Aynl shows proof of a 
certain method, which contrasts with the usual 
confused disorder prevalent in the work of Muslim 
exegetes; in the study of each hadith he proceeds in 
the following order: connexion between the hadith 
and the chapter heading; study of the isndd, of its 
peculiarities and its authorities; enumeration of 
other works or other chapters of the Sahih where the 
hadith occurrs; study of the literal sense; study of 
the juridical or ethical rules which can be deduced 
from the hadith. 

Bibliography : Quatremere, Histoire des Mam- 
buks, I", 219 if.; Wiistenfeld, Die Geschichts- 
schreiber der Araber, 489; Brockelroann, II, 52, 
53, S II 50-1 ; on the al- c AynI and Ibn Hadjar con- 
troversy: Goldziher, Abhandlungen tur arabischen 
PhUologie, II, xxiv. (W. Marcais) 

'AYNTAB (Arm. Antaph, Lat. Hamtab, to-day 
Antep or Gaziantep since 1921: ethnically l ayni and 
also 'antabl, see 1001 Nights, Night 864, Cairo 
edition) important town, chief place of a vilayet in 
the south-east of Anatolia, with 50,965 inhabitants 
(1935). The vilayet has five kazas: Gaziantep, Kilis, 
Nizip, Islahiya and Pazarcik. 



791 

The town is situated on the upper Sadjur, a 
tributary of the Euphrates, near the junction of 
two important roads, one running north-south from 
Mar'ash to Aleppo, with a fork just south of Mar'ash. 
to Malatya; the other east-west; the latter runs from 
Diyarbakir, Urfa (Edessa) and Biredjik on the 
Euphrates, and, after following a short section of 
the Mar'ash road just outside Gaziantep, branches 
off towards Adana. Secondary roads also diverge 
from Gaziantep, one to Besni (Bahasna) to the north- 
east, the other to the Syrian frontier in the south- 
east. A new railway line links, through Gaziantep, 
the Adana-Malatya line to the Baghdad line, thus 
avoiding the detour into Syrian territory via Aleppo. 
Gaziantep is 55 km. from Biredjek, 45 from the 
Syrian frontier and 100 from Aleppo. 

The region of 'Ayntab has always been the hub 
of important routes, but it was Doliche (Duluk, now 
Diilukbaba), a little to the north-east, which in 
ancient times took the place of 'Ayntab, and the 
latter, which was probably the Diba of Ptolemy, the 
Tyba of Cicero, was only a dependency of it. It was 
not until Duluk had been taken by the Byzantines 
in 351/962 under the Hamdanid Sayf al-Dawla that 
'Ayntab began to assume the importance lost by 
Duluk, with which Yakut wrongly identifies it. On 
the eve of the First Crusade it was part of the domain 
of the Armenian Philaretus. It was allotted in fief, 
with Tell Bashir, to Joscelin of Courteney, vassal of 
Baldwin of Le Bourg, count of Edessa, then to his 
son Joscelin II. After the capture of Joscelin II by 
the troops of Nur al-DIn in 1150, it was ceded by the 
Franks, together with the rest of the region, to the 
Byzantine emperor Manuel Comnenus, but in 1151 
the Saldjuk of r>onya, Mas c ud, annexed it. After 
his death in 1153, it was taken by Nur al-DIn. It 
was from then on part of the province of Aleppo and 
was an advance post, first for the Ayyubids and 
then the Mamluks, against the Saldjuks and the 
Armenians. It was temporarily occupied by the 
Mongols in the course of their expeditions against 
northern Syria in 1271 and 1280. Taken in 1400 by 
Timur, it was then annexed by r>ara Yusuf of the 
Turkoman dynasty of the Kara-KoyunlQ, master of 
the two 'Iraks, and then it passed to the Turkoman 
dynasty of the Dhu'1-Kadr. who submitted to the 
Ottomans in the 16th century. It was from then 
on part of the Ottoman empire, and was only 
temporarily detached to Egypt in the time of 
Muhammad 'All, between 1832 and 1840. At the end 
of the First World War, 'Aynfab was occupied by 
the English in 1919, then by the French until 1921. 
Before the First World War 'Ayntab contained a 
large proportion of Armenians, nearly a third of its 
total population. It was also the centre of an 
American mission which had a college there. The 
region is also the centre of the preserve or must of 
grapes called pekmez. It was a stronghold with its 
citadel towering on a great mound of which the 
ruins are still visible. 

Bibliograpky. Yakut, iii, 759; Dimashkl, 
Cosmograpkie, ed. Mehren, 205 ; Abu '1-Fida', ii/2, 
45; Ibn Shaddad.oJ-^'W* al-Khafira, MS. in the 
Vatican, f. 156 r., (cf. A. Ledit, in Mashrik, xxxiii 
1935, 21 1-2 under Duluk); Ibn al-Shihna, al-Durr 
al-Muntakhab, Beirut 1909, 171-2 and passim; 
Kamal al-DIn, Ta'rikh fjaiab, Damascus, 1951-4, 
ii, 302-311; RHC, Or. I and III in the index; Bar 
Hebraeus, Chronography, Oxford 1932, i 277, 281, 
315, 372-3, 400; GhazzI, al-Nakr al-Dhakab fi 
Ta'rikk Halab, Aleppo 1927, i, 416-55; Ritter, 
Erdkunde, 1034 ft.; Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, ii. 



792 



C AYNTAB — AYYAM al-'ADJUZ 



188 ff.; G. Le Strange, Palestine, 42.386; Honig- 

mann, Hist. Topographie von Nordsyrien im 

Altertum, in ZDPV, 1923-4 no. 160; Dussaud, 

Topographie hist, de la Syrie antique et midieval,i 

Paris 1927, 299, 434. 472 and passim; R. Grousset, 

Hist, des Croisddes, 1934-6, i, 49, 392, ii, 192, 

296-7, 299 ff., 302 ff., 306-7, iii, 661, 697; CI .Cahen, 

La Syrie du Nord a I'ipoque des Croisades, Paris 

1940, 115 ff., 118, 388, 405, 705. For the fighting 

round 'Ayntab in 1920, see Andrea, La vie militaire 

au Levant, Paris 1923, — see also the article 

Ayintab in I A , which lists the Turkish monographs 

on the town. (M. Canard) 

AYT, a Berber word meaning "sons of", the 

singular of which, w (and var.: u, aw, sg, ag(g), i) 

appears in compounds and before proper nouns. 

A yt consists of a suffix of number t, a complementary 

element a and the radical velar sonant w palatalised 

as the second element of a diphthong; it is known to 

most of the Berber dialects, which use it either in 

compounds (thus: ayt-ma "sons of mother = 

brothers"), or before a proper noun to indicate a 

tribe (Ayt Izdgg, Ayt Warayn, etc.), in the same 

conditions as the Arabic Banu (>Bni) or Awlad 

(> Olad); in the more evolved dialects, Ayt tends 

to be replaced by these Arabic terms, but it is still 

very prevalent in the more conservative dialects 

(particularly in Morocco, where, however, in the 

Sus, it is challenged by a composite id-aw: Id-aw 

Samlal) ; in the spirant dialects (Rif, Kabylia, etc.), 

the evolved form Ath, from which the actual radical 

has disappeared, has replaced Ayt (Ath Iznasan, Ath 

Iratan, etc.). In Touareg, ayt is very prevalent in its 

primary function (see Ch. de Foucauld, Diet, touareg- 

francais, Paris 1951, iii, 1440 ft.), but in the names 

of tribes, although it is known, it disappears before 

Kgl (Ch. de Foucauld, Diet, abrigi touareg-francais 

des noms propres, Paris 1940, passim). 

(Ch. Pellat) 
AYWALIK (Greek Kydonia), small town on the 
Aegean coast of western Anatolia. Situated on a 
peninsula in the gulf of Edremit, 39° 18' north, 
26 40' east, opposite the island of Mytilene 
(Midilli). It is the capital of a hadd of the same name 
in the wildyet of Balikesir [q.v.]. In 1945 it had 
13,650 inhabitants (V. Cuinet gives the number 
20,974 — largely Greek Orthodox — for the end of the 
last century), and the kadd 24,742. There is a small 
group of islands in the gulf, called the Yund Adalarl, 
in antiquity known as Hekatonnesoi. 

Aywallk was completely destroyed in the Greek 
War of Independence (1236/1821), but soon regained 
its former prosperity. Following the agreement 
between Turkey and Greece (30th January 1923) to 
exchange minorities, the Greek population — which 
had hitherto formed the greater part of the inhabi- 
tants — left, and was replaced by returning Turks 
from Midilli, Crete and Macedonia. Today the 
population is exclusively Turkish and Muslim. 
Bibliography : Pauly-Wissowa, vii, 2799 
(Hekatonnesoi); ix, 2307 (Kydonia); A. Phi- 
lippson, Reisen und Forschungen im westlichen 
Kleinasien i, 31 and 86 ff.; Ch. Texier, Asie 
Mineure, 207; V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, iv, 
268-71 ; Djewdet Pasha, Ta y rik&, xi, 283-5 (details 
concerning the reasons for the destruction of the 
town); IA, ii, 78 (Besim Darkot). 

(Fr. Tabschnbr) 
AYWAN [see Iwan]. 

AYWAZ, £ AYwAp. (1) A term applied to the 
footmen employed in great households in the later 



Ottoman Empire. They were generally Armenians 
of Van, sometimes Kurds. A hukm-i sherif to the 
cavushbashl, dated RabI' I n 64/ January- February 
1751, speaks of "the Armenian dhimmis who have 
for some little time been employed in the houses 
of the ridjal-i dewlet-i 'aliyye" and who drink wine 
and steal in their places of employment and evade 
payment of d[izya: henceforth Armenian and Greek 
dhimmis are not to be employed in the houses of the 
great, but are to be replaced by Muslims (Ahmet 
Refik, Hicrt on ikinci asirda Istanbul hayatl, 
Istanbul 1930, 171). To what extent Greeks were in 
fact so employed is not clear. This order could have 
had no lasting effect, for an aywaz called Sergis, an 
Armenian of Van, is one of the stock figures in the 
Karagoz shadow-plays: in modern Arabic he is 
known as 'eywdz, and has a wife, Umm Ma'waza 
(A. Barthelemy, Dictionnaire Arabe-Franfais, Paris 
1935-54, 562, 567). 

The duties of the aywaz included waiting at table, 
lighting and stoking the mangals, filling and cleaning 
the lamps, and doing the shopping for the household 
(bazara giden in the hukm quoted above). There is 
reason to suppose that this last duty was sometimes 
a source of profit to both servant and tradesman: 
ayvaz kasap hep bit hesap ("aywaz and butcher; it 
all amounts to the same") is still a Turkish saying 
used of two identical things. A senior aywaz who 
acted as steward was entitled aywaz kythya 
(ketkhudd). 

The usual dress of an aywaz was a purple jacket, 
waistcoat and trousers, variously coloured woollen 
stockings and black shoes, with a white towel over 
the shoulders, a broadstriped apron, and a fez 
surrounded by a turban. 

Pakalln (see Bibliography) states that certain 
men-servants in government offices were also called 
aywaz, and that there was an aywaz in the Foreign 
Ministry "till recently", whose job was to clean the 

The origin of the word is dubious: it is thought 
to be a corruption of the Arabic Hwa$ (so I A : see 
Bibliography) : the plural ahead would seem a more 
likely etymon, on formal grounds, though 'ayvaz is 
the form taken by the Arabic Hwad in the dialect of 
Gaziantep (Omer Astm Aksoy, Gaziantep agzi, 
Istanbul 1945-6, iii, 60). Either way, the connexion 
of ideas is hard to see. 

(2) Ayvaz ( c Aywad or c Iwad Khan) is the name 
of a leading character in the Koroghlu folktales: he 
is the son of a butcher (from Georgia, Urfa, or 
Oskudar in the several versions), who is kidnapped 
by Koroghlu and eventually becomes his most 
valiant follower (see Pertev Naili, KOroglu destanl, 
Istanbul 1931, passim; and Pertev Naili Boratav, 
Hoik hik&yeleri ve hoik hikdveciliii, Ankara 1946, 
Index s.v. Ayvaz). 

Bibliography: IA, article Ayvaz, by Sabri 

Esat Siyavusgil, from which the present article 

is largely drawn, as is the article Ayvaz in M. Z. 

Pakalln, Osmanli tarih deyimleri ve teritnleri 

sOzlugtl, Istanbul 1946-56. (G. L. Lbwb) 

AYYAM al-'ADJCZ "the days of the old 

woman". In the Islamic countries bordering on or 

near to the Mediterranean, certain days of recurrent 

bad weather, generally towards the end of winter, 

are called "days of the old woman". This expression, 

which is old, is also to be met with in contemporary 

folklore. It refers to a period of variable duration, 

from one to ten days, though more frequently of one, 

five or seven days duration. Its place in the yearly 

cycle varies according to the country. There is only 



AYYAM al- c ADJOZ — AYYAM al- c ARAB 



793 



one reference mentioning the winter solstice (see 
R. Basset). It often involves the last four (or three) 
days of February and the first three (or four) days 
of March (months of the Julian calendar or their 
equivalents): this is the case with the Turks, in 
Syria and the Lebanon and in Egypt. These seven 
days each have a special name: $inn, Sinnabar, 
Wabr, Amir, Mu'tamir, Mu'allil, Mutfi 5 al-Djamr 
(var. Mukfi al-Za c n) ; if there are five days, the fourth, 
fifth and sixth names are omitted : the study of these 
eight names has still to be undertaken (see an 
interpretation in R. Basset). In the West, this seven 
day period at the end of February and the beginning 
of March bears another name, and it is the last day 
of January or the first of February which is connected 
with the legends about the "old woman", though it 
is rarely called "day of the old woman". In point 
of fact, this appellation, even in the East, has 
numerous variants based on Arabic, to which must be 
added, for the West, the Berber variants: i. — "days of 
the old women" ; or indeed "cold of the old woman" 
(Turkey, Persia, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt); "the old 
woman" (Berber Morocco); 2. — "the borrowed day 
or days" (Syria, Lebanon, Kabylia, Northern 
Morocco). 3. — "cold or bad weather or period of the 
goat" (Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco). These 
various expressions are almost always connected 
with a legendary commentary in which an old 
woman is the main actor; an old woman dead from 
cold, an old woman predicting a cold spell, an old 
woman killed by the wind when the people of 'Ad 
were exterminated, in the case of the old texts, and, 
as regards contemporary folklore, in the majority of 
cases, a story about the old woman and her calf, her 
goat or her flock, combined with the legend of the 
borrowed days, explaining why February has only 
28 days (hence the expressions 2 and 3 above). This 
legendary old woman seems to come from remote 
ages. No doubt this tradition should be linked with 
those existing in the countries of Europe and which 
concern certain meteorological phenomena, certain 
place names and perhaps certain themes of folklore 
involving an old woman. 

Bibliography : Ibn Kutayba, Kitdb al-Anwd', 
ed. Hamidullah-Pellat, Haydarabad 1956, para. 
73, 130; Mas'udi, Murudi, vol. iii, 410-1; Calendria 
Cordova, 26th February-2nd March ; Kazwini, Kitdb 
'Ad£ab al-Makhlutdt, ed. F. Wustenfeld, Gottingen 
1848-9, 77; idem, Calendarium syriacum . . ., 
ed. Volck, Leipzig 1859, 4, 13, 27 n. 42 (text and 
translation and notes in Latin with references to 
old variants of the legend); Hariri, Stances, ed. 
Silvestre de Sacy, Paris 1822, 256; 1853, i, 295, ii, 
1 3 1 ; Le calendrier d'Ibn al-Bannd' de Marrahech ..., 
ed. H. P. J. Renaud, Paris 1948, 15, 33, 35, Lane; 
Lexicon 1961 ; R. Basset, Les jours d'empruni chez 
les Arabes in Revue des traditions populaires, 1890, 
151-153 ; Westennark, Ritual and belief in Morocco, 
London 1926, ii, 161-2, 174-5 ; idem, Ceremonies and 
beliefs connected with agriculture . . . in Morocco, 
Helsingfors 1913, 71; H. Basset, Essai sur la 
litUrature des Berberes, Algiers 1920, 295, 301; 
E. L6vi- Provencal, Textes arabes de VOuargha . . ., 
Paris 1922, 101, 151 and n. 1; P. Galand-Pernet, 
La vieille et la llgende des jours d'empruni au Maroc, 
in Hesperis, 1958/1-2, 29-94). 

(P. Galand-Pernet) 
AYYAM al- c ARAB, "Days of the Arabs", is 
the name which in Arabian legend is applied to 
those combats (cf. Lisan, s.v. yawm xvi, 139, 1 ac- 
cording to Ibn al-Sikklt) which the Arabian tribes 
fought amongst themselves in the pre-Islamic (some- 



times also early Islamic) era. The particular days are 
called for example YawmBu'dth = "Day of Bu'atti", 
or Yawm Dhi Kar = "Day of DhQ Kar". Their 
number is considerable. Many of them however are 
not commemorative of proper battles like the "Day 
of Dh u Kar", but only of insignificant skirmishes 
or frays, in which instead of the whole tribes, 
only a few families or individuals opposed one 
another. The Arabs themselves sometimes noticed 
this fact. Al-Zubayr b. Bakkar for example, when 
speaking of the combats between the Aws and 
Khazradj tribes, observes that only on the day of 
Bu'ath a proper battle had been fought, and that 
on the remaining days the fight had been limited 
to throwing of stones and beating with sticks 
(Aghanl, ii, 162, 1. 12; this passage was evidently 
derived from Zubayr's account of the combats be- 
tween the Aws and Khazradj, which is mentioned 
in the Fihrist i, no). The number of these com- 
bats, handed down by tradition, has moreover been 
increased by the fact that a great many were 
called by different names after the settlements, 
well-springs, hills etc., near which they took 
place. Consequently one and the same occur- 
rence has been recorded in various places under 
different names. 

The course of events on each individual day 
follows a somewhat similar pattern. In this respect 
what has been said by Wellhausen {Skizzen und Vor- 
arbeiten, iv, 28 ff.) about the particular combats 
between the Aws and Khazradj, applies to the 
Ayyam in general. At first only a few men come 
to blows with one another, perhaps in conse- 
quence of a border dispute, or some insult of- 
fered to the proteges of a man of influence. 
Then the quarrel of a few grows into the hosti- 
lity of whole races or even of entire tribes. They 
meet in battle. Bloodshed is generally followed 
by the intervention of some neutral family. Peace 
is soon restored. The tribe which has lost fewer 
men, pays to the adversary the price of blood for 
the surplus of dead bodies. 

The accounts of the Ayyam, written in good 
old prose, together with the ancient poems, sup- 
ply excellent information concerning conditions 
before Islam. They especially afford us an insight 
into the chivalrous spirit, by which the old 
Arabian warriors were inspired. Popular memory 
kept the recollection of these heroes alive for 
centuries. Hence similar subject-matter to that 
found in the Ayyam often recurs in later popular 
romances, drawn out, it is true, in legendary 
fashion. One example may suffice: Zlr, a hero of 
the Siyar Bani Hildl is none other than Muhal- 
hil, brother to Kulayb Wa>il, who acts a leading 
part in the Basus war between the Bakr and 
Taghlib tribes (Muhalhil is already called al-ZIr 
= "the visitor of women" in AghanViv, 143, 13). 

Tradition affirms (cf. Ibn c Abd Rabbihi, c Ikd, 
Cairo 1302, iii, 61 towards the end), that Mu- 
hammad's companions already discussed the events 
of the Didhilivva in their assemblies (madialis). 
Consequently the Ayyam al- c Arab afforded at an 
early period a favourite subject of study to the 
Akhbariyyun, i.e. traditionists, who were engaged 
on the Ahhbar al-'Arab, the old Arabian tales, 
amongst which the Ayyam are included. In the 
Fihrist (makdla iii, fann i) several of these authors 
are mentioned as having written narratives of 
particular battle-days or of all of them. None of 
these works on the Ayyam has come down to us 
in its original form; but considerable extracts by 



794 



AYYAM al-'ARAB — al- c AYYASHI 



subsequent writers are extant. Most of these have 
borrowed from Abu *Ubayda (d. 210/825). Of his 
work on our subject only the title is mentioned in 
the Fihrist (i, 53 ff.). Something more concerning 
him is reported by Ibn Khallikan (ed. Wiistenfeld, 
no. 741, who is foUowed by HadidjI Khalifa, i, 499 
no. 1513 s.v. l Ilm l Ayydm al-'Arab). According to 
these authorities Abu 'Ubayda wrote two books on 
the Ayyam, a shorter one describing 75 days, and 
a more extensive one, in which he treats of 1,200. 

The information concerning the Ayyam which 
later writers have preserved, is partly given in 
scattered bits, and partly in entire chapters in 
proper sequence. Instances of the former are 
found in al-TibrizI's Hamdsa commentary, in the 
Kitab al-Aghani, where they are inserted by way 
of explanation of events alluded to in the ancient 
verses, in the collections of proverbs, and in the 
works on geography (al-Bakrl, Yakut). Examples of 
the latter are contained in the 'Ikd al-Farid of Ibn 
<Abd Rabbihi (iii, 61 ff.), in al-Nuwayri's ency- 
clopaedia Nihdyat al-Arab fl Funin al-Adab (fann 
v, kism iv, kitab v) and in Ibn al-Athlr's historical 
work al-Kdmil fi 'l-Ta'rikh (i, 367-517). 

The account in the 'Ikd was probably based 
on the minor work of Abu 'Ubayda. It is very 
concise, often to such an extent as to obscure 
the meaning, which can only be ascertained by 
comparison with more detailed accounts by other 
writers. Al-Nuwayri has — apart from details — 
copied the whole chapter on the Ayyam from the 
'Ikd. Ibn al-Athlr has tried to arrange the separate 
"Days" in chronological order, in accordance with 
the character of his history. His account goes 
into greater detail than that of the 'Ikd. A 
great deal of it must doubtless be traced back, 
either directly or indirectly, to the larger version 
of Abu 'Ubayda's work; much also to other sources 
all of which cannot be retraced. 

Finally, it should also be noted that al-Maydanl 
treats of the Ayyam al-'Arab in the 29th chapter of 
his Madima' al-Amthdl. His narratives are extremely 
short, but very useful for quick orientation. He 
restricts himself as a rule to giving the pronunciation 
of the name, explaining its meaning and enumerating 
the tribes which engaged in the battle. In this way 
132 pre- Islamic days are dealt with by al-Maydanl. 
In addition to those, 88 Islamic days are moreover 
enumerated in a second section of that chapter. 
For further bibliography cf. E. Mittwoch, Proelia 
Arabum paganorum (Ajjdm al-'Arab) quomodo litteris 
tradita sint (Diss.) Berlin 1899; C. I. Lyall, Ibn al- 
Kalbi's account of the First Day of al-Kuldb, in Orien- 
talische Studien (Ndldeke-Festschrift) 127-154; W. 
Caskel, Aijim al-'Arab, in Islamica, iii, Suppl. (1930), 
1-99; I. Lichtenstadter, Women in the Aiyam al- 
Arab, London 1935. (E. Mittwoch) 

AYYAR [cee TA'Rljg}]. 

c AYYAR, literally 'rascal, tramp, vagabond'; 
Arabic pi. 'ayydrun, Persian pi. 'ayydrdn. From the 
9th to the 12th century it was the name for certain 
warriors who were grouped together under the 
futuwwa [q.v.] in 'Irak and Persia, and gradually 
also in Transjordania, similar to the ahddth [q.v.] in 
Syria and Mesopotamia, and to the rinddn (v. AkhI) 
in Anatolia. Occasionally, the term is used to mean 
the same as fitydn (v. fata). Thus one of their leaders 
might sometimes be referred to as sar-'ayydrdn, and 
sometimes as ra'is al-fitydn. On occasions they 
appeared as fighters for the faith in the inner Asian 
border regions, on others they formed the opposition 
party in towns and came into power at times of 



weakness of the official government, when they 
indulged in a rule of terror against the wealthy part 
of the population, as they did, for instance, in 
Baghdad in the years 1135-44. 

It is perhaps of interest, concerning the attitude 
of the 'ayydrdn, that in the Kdbus-ndma (written 
in 475/1082), or Andarz-ndma, ed. R. Levy, 142,11. 
13-143, 1. 4; trans. 248, there is mention of rivalry 
between the 'ayydrdn of Marw and those of Kuhistan 
over the futuwwa (djuwdnmardi) being resolved by 
virtue of "juridical expedients" (hiyal [q.v.]). In Sufi 
literature there is mention of a Sufi by the name of 
Nuh al- c Ayyar al-NIsaburi as a representative of the 
futuwwa (cf. R. Hartmann in ZDMG 72, 1918, 195; 
and idem, in Der Islam. 8, 1918, 191 ; Fr. Taeschner 
in: Der Islam, 24, 1937, 50 f.). At any rate, a distinc- 
tion was made between the 'ayydrdn and the Sufis 
as far as the futuwwa was concerned. In this con- 
nexion, the following remark is of some interest: 
Hudjwiri (d. 465/1072) mentions that this very Nuh 
al- c Ayyar has said that the futuwwa of the 'ayydrdn 
consisted in their wearing the murakka'a of the 
Sufis, in other words that they behave like Sufis and 
keep the holy law, the shari'a, whereas the futuwwa 
of the Sufis of the MalamatI persuasion (see malAma- 
tivva) consisted not in wearing any external marks, 
but in keeping the mystical spirit {hakika). (The Kashf 

al-mahjiib by 'All .... al-Hujwirf, transl 

by R. A. Nicholson, Leiden and London 1911, 
183; Kitdb-i Kashf al-mahdiub, ed. V. Schukovskij, 
Leningrad 1926, 228. lines 10-18; Farid al-DIn 
c Attar, Tadhkirat al-Awliya', ed. R. A. Nicholson, i, 
332, lines 9-16). The same Nuh al- c Ayyar defines 
the difference between these two futuwwa by 
saying that , the one of the 'ayydrdn consists in 
faithfulness to the spoken word, whilst that of the 
gnostics ('drifin, i.e. the Sufis) consists in faith- 
fulness to the spirit. This report first appears in 
Ibn Dja'dawayhi (5th/nth century) (Fr. Taeschner 
in: Documenta Islamica inedita, Festschrift R. Hart- 
mann, Berlin 1952, Sentence No. 19, 113 and 118). 
Bibliography: Apart from works already 
mentioned in the article: Compilation of excetpts 
concerning the 'ayydrun ('ayydrdn) by Fr. 
Taeschner in: Die Welt als Geschichte, iv, 1938, 
390-392 ; idem, in : Beitrdge zur Arabistik, Semitistik 
und Islamwissenschaft, ed. R. Hartmann and H. 
Scheel, Leipzig 1944, 348-352 ; idem, in Schweize- 
risches Archiv fur Volkskunde 1956, 132-135. Con- 
cerning the rule of the 'ayydrun in Baghdad 
between 1135 and 1144, compare my review of 
Gerard Salinger's essay, Was the Futuwwa an 
Oriental form of Chivalry? in: Oriens 5 (1952), 332- 
336, where the relevant passages are translated. 

(Fr. Taeschner) 
AL-'AYYAfiHl, Abu 'l-Nasr Muhammad b. 
Mas c Od b. Muhammad b. 'AyyAsh., a Shl<ite writer of 
the 3rd/9th century. He was a native of Samarkand, 
and was said to have been descended from the tribe 
of Tamlm. Originally a SunnI, he was converted 
while still young to ShIHsm, and studied under the 
disciples of 'All b. al-Hasan b. Fadd&l (d. 224/839- 
al-TusI 93) and of <Abd Allah b. Muhammad b. 
Khalid al-TayalisI (al-Astarabadl, 211). He spent his 
patrimony of over 300,000 dinars on scholarship and 
tradition, and his house was a centre of Shllte 
learning. He is credited with the authorship of over 
200 books. Though accused of relating traditions on 
weak authorities, he is often cited by later ShI'ite 
writers. Muhammad b. 'Umar al-Kashshl, author of a 
well-known ShI'ite biographical work, was his pupiL 



al-<AYYASHI — AYYOB 



795 



Bibliography: al-Kashshi, Rididl, Bombay 
1 317, 379;al-T\isl,FihristKutubal-Shi c a(Bibl. Ind. 
no. 60) 317-320; Ibn Shahrashub, Ma l dlim al- 
<Vlama>, ed. 'Abbas Ikbal, Tehran 1934, 88-9; 
al-Nadjashl, Rididl, Bombay 1317, 247-50; al- 
Astarabadl, Minhddi al-Makdl, Tehran 1306, 319- 
310; Ibn al-Nadlm, Fihrist (ed. Fluegel) 194-6; 
Biockelmann, S.I. 704; W. Ivauow, The Alleged 
Founder of Ismailism, Bombay 1946, 15, 95. 

(B. Lewis) 
ai,- c AYYASH1. AbO SAlim <Abd AllAh b. Mu- 
Uammad, man of letters, traditionist, lawyer and 
Sufi scholar, born in the Berber tribe of the Alt 
(Ayt) 'Ayyash of the Middle Moroccan Atlas at the 
end of Sha'ban 1037/AprU-May 1628, died of 
plague in Morocco on 10 Dhu '1-Ka c da 1090/13 
December 1679. After having travelled through 
Morocco "in search of knowledge" and obtained an 
idi&xa from c Abd al-Kadir al-Fasi [q.v.], in 1059/1649 
he made his first pilgrimage to Mecca going via 
Touat, Ouargla and Tripoli; then, in 1064/1653-4 
he made a second pilgrimage, on returning from 
which he wrote his Rihla, called Ma 1 al-Mawd'id 
(Fez 1316/1898, 2 vols). This is one of the most 
important travel accounts for information on the 
road taken by caravans going from the Maghrib to 
Mecca, in spite of the fact that the author attaches 
less importance to describing the countries through 
which he passed than he does to the enumeration 
of the celebrated men whom he met, especially 
scholars and Sufis; the style of the Rihla is faitly 
simple when al-'Ayyashi is not speaking of Sufism, 
though it is lacking in colour and vivacity. This 
work, which enjoys great popularity in the Maghrib, 
has only been partially translated into French (see 
A. Berbrugger, Voyages dans le Sua" de VAlgerie . . ., 
in Exploration scient. de I'Algerie, ix, 1846, and 
Motylinski, Itintraires entre Tripoli et I'Egypte, 
Algiers 1900). Another travel account, composed in 
letter form, has been translated into French by 
M. Lakhdar (Les itapes du pelerin de Sidjilmasa a 
la Mecque et Midine, in 4e Congris Fldir. Soc. saw., 
Algiers 1939, ii, 671-88). 

Al- c AyyashI is, moreover, the author of several 
further works: Manzuma fi 'l-Buyu 1 , a treatise in 
verse on sales, with a commentary; 2) Tanbih 
Dhawi 'l-Himam al-'Aliya 'ala 'l-Zuhd fi 'l-Dunyd 
al-ft&niya, treatise on Sufism; 3) a study on the 
particle law, 4) al-Hukm bi 'l-'Adl wa 'l-Insdf al- 
Ddfi< li 'l-Khildf fi-md waka'a bayn Fukahd* Sidjil- 
massa min al-Ikhtildf; 5) Iktifd* al-Athdr ba'-d 
Dhahdb AM al-Athdr, biographical collection; 
6) Tuhfat (Ithdf) al-Akhilld' bi-Asdnid al-Adiilld', 
biographies of his masters (these last two works 
probably forming his Fahrasa). 

Bibliography: IfranI, §afwat man intashar, 
191; Kadiri, Nashr al-Mathdni, ii, 45; Yusi, 
Muhddardt, 76, 150; DjabartI, 'Adfd'ib al-Athdr, 
Bulak 1297/1880, i, 65 (Cairo 1323/1905, i. 68); 
Ibn Zakur al-Fasi, Nashr Azhdr al-Bustdn, Algiers 
1902, 60; R. Basset, in Recueil de mimoires . . . 
XIV e Congris Orient., Algiers 1905, 31 ; E. Fagnan, 
Cat. mss Bibl. Nat. d' Alger nos. 1670, 1902; 
E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Chorfa, 262-4 and index; 
R. Blachere, Extraits Giog. arabes, 369 ff . ; M. 
Hadj-Sadok, in Bull. Et. Ar., Nov.-Dec. 1948, 
204-5; Brockelmann, II, 464, S II, 711. 

(M. Ben Cheneb-[Ch. Pellat]) 
AYYIL. The word, for which different pronun- 
ciations are transmitted (also uyyal and iyyal, the 
latter being considered as the best one), is commonly 
explained by Arab lexicographers as meaning the 



mountain-goat {waHl). This identification, however, 
is not fully borne out by the descriptions of the 
ayyil which are given by Muslim zoologists. Here, 
the properties and ways of behaviour ascribed to the 
animal only partly apply to the mountain-goat, 
while, in the main, they rather point to the deer, 
which is also in keeping with the meaning commonly 
attributed to corresponding forms in other Semitic 
languages. This conclusion, moreover, gets support 
by a comparison of the terms used in earlier foreign 
sources and in the respective accounts as transmitted 
in Arabic zoological literature. However, in pre- 
Islamic and early Islamic poetry (see, e.g., Ntldeke's 
BelegwOrterbuch, 53, and TA, ii, I2i„; against 
Hommel, 279) ayyil may actually mean the 
mountain-goat, since the deer probably never 
existed in the Arabian peninsula. 

These facts can serve as an illustration of the 
inconsistencies in medieval zoological terminology, 
which not infrequently denotes different animals 
by one name and vice versa. For this reason, too, 
part of the information given by several writers 
with regard to the ayyil is to be found, e.g., in 
KazwinI under the heading bakar al-wahsh. Comp. also 
Djahiz, iv, 227 with vii, 30 f. (on waHl). Because of 
the graphic similarity of ayyil and ibil both words 
have sometimes been confused through mistran- 
scription, and the accounts on either animal became 
transferred to the other. 

A considerable part of the information on the 
ayyil contained in Arabic works goes back to foreign 
sources, such as Aristotle's Historia Animalium 
(quoted, e.g., by Djahiz) and the ancient Physiologus 
literature. The latter, especially, contributed a 
number of fabulous accounts. 

According to Arab pharmacologists certain parts 
of the ayyil's body and in particular its horns can 
be put to various medicinal uses. 

Al-Damlri does not indicate the r61e of the ayyil in 
the interpretation of dreams, which is pointed out, 
e.g., in <Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi's Ta'fir al-Andm 

(S.V.). 

Bibliography : Abu Hayyan al-TawljIdl, 
Irntd' i, 166, 167, 170, 172, 176, 184, 185 (transl. 
Kopf, Osiris xii [1956], 463 [index]); DamW, s.v. 
(transl. Jayakar i, 222 ff.) ; DJabU, Hayawdn 1 , 
index; Hommel, SHugethiere, index s.v. Steinbock; 
Ibn al-Baytir, Qidmi', Bulak 1291, i, 72-73! Ibn 
Kutayba, c UyHn al-Akhbar, Cairo 1925-30, ii, 
99, 100 (transl. Kopf, 75, 76); KazwinI (Wiisten- 
feld), i, 386-87; Ibn Sida, Mukhassas vii, 32; 
A. Malouf, Arabic Zool. Diet., Cairo 1932, index; 
Nuwayri, Nihdyat al-Arab, ix, 324 ff.; Dawud al- 
Antaki, Tadhkira, Cairo 1324; i, 58-59; al-Mustawfl 
al- KazwinI (Stephenson), 12-13; E. Wiedemann, 
Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Naturwiss., liii, 236, n. 1. 

(L. Kopf) 
AYYOB, the Biblical Job. The name apparently 
occurs in pre-Islamic Arabia but only as a name 
derived from the Biblical story. Job is mentioned 
twice in the Kur'an in lists of those to whom Allah 
had given special guidance and inspiration (iv, 
163/161 ; vi, 84), and fragments of his story are given 
in xxi, 83-84; xxxviii, 41/40-44, Muhammad being 
expressly bidden to make mention of him in his 
preaching. These fragments merely tell of his suffering 
affliction at the hands of Satan, crying unto his 
Lord for relief, and being healed, so that his case 
becomes an admonition for men. In the story of the 
miraculous spring by which he was healed there 
seems to be a confusion with the Naaman story of 
II Kings v, and in the obscure verse about his 



796 



AYYUB — AYYOBIDS 



taking a bundle in his hand and striking with it, 
there may be a similar confusion with the story in 
II Kings xiii, 14 ft. (See Bell, Qur'an, 454 and 
Introduction to the Qw'dn, 162, 163). 

Later Muslim writers greatly amplified this 
meagre Kur'anic account, drawing partly on the 
Biblical Book of Job, (which Ibn c Asakir actually 
quotes), partly on Rabbinic tales from Talmud 
and Midrash (for which cf . Encyclopedia Judaica, 
s.v. Job) and the Greek Testament of Job, but also 
exercising pious imagination in developing various 
details of the story. That Job was a descendant of 
Abraham through Isaac is generally agreed, though 
there is great confusion in the names which appear 
in his genealogy. His mother was a daughter of Lot. 
His wife, who figures so largely in the story, is 
generally called Rahma, daughter of one of the sons 
of Joseph, though some said she was Leah the 
daughter of Jacob (obviously a confusion of Leah 
with Dinah, who in Rabbinic sources is said to have 
been Job's wife). His great wealth is described in 
detail, and his unparalleled kindness and generosity 
to the poor, the unfortunate, the guest and the 
stranger. This piety excited the enmity of Iblis who 
challenged Allah to let him test Job. The testing is 
permitted in three stages, against his property, his 
family and his body, Iblis being assisted in the 
afflicting of Job by the '■afdrit under his command. 
Job is abandoned by all save his faithful wife, who 
continues to tend him even when he is cast out on the 
dunghill, and to his bodily afflictions is added that 
of lack on understanding on the part of his friends. 
Failing to move Job by these afflictions Iblis attempts 
to seduce him through his wife as he had formerly 
seduced Adam through Eve. Job, however, 
through his stratagems and takes an oath that he 
will beat his wife for having listened to Satan. The 
exegetes are obviously puzzled by Allah's granting 
permission for His faithful servant to be so afflicted 
and so are at pains to suggest a variety of explana 
tions, the favourite being that Job's pride in hi 
piety needed a lesson. Finally Gabriel brings hin 
news of his release from his sufferings by the water 
of a miraculous spring from which he drinks 
and in which he bathes and so is restored. His 
wealth, his property, his children are also restored 
to him double and he dies at the age of seventy- 
three in the place where he had lived. 

Since he was a prophet {nabP) we are told that he 

came after Joseph in the prophetic series (though 

Ibn al-Kalbl placed him after Jonah), that he had 

a risala and preached to his own community in the 

Hawran, being peculiar in that he was a prophet 

whom no one ever treated as false. Job will appear 

in the events of the Last Day, for at the Accounting 

Allah will use him as an example to answer those 

who seek to excuse their negligence in religion on the 

ground of their ill health, and he will be the leader 

of "those who patiently endured" as the various 

groups make their way to Paradise. Al-MasSldi, 

Murudi, i, 91 reports that the shrine over his grave 

was a place of visitation at Nawa near Damascus, 

where people were still shown the rock on which 

he sat during his affliction and the spring in which 

he bathed and was healed (Cf. also Yakut, ii, 645). 

Bibliography: The Commentaries on Kur'an, 

xxi and xxxviii; Tabari, i, 361-364; Tha'labI, 

Kisas al-Anbiyd', Cairo 1339, 106-114; Kisal 

(Eisenberg), 179-90; Ibn c Asakir, al-Ta'rikJi al- 

Kabir, iii, 190-200; Ibn Kathlr, al-Bidaya 

'l-Nihdya, i, 220-225; Pseudo-Balkhi, Le Livre de 

la Creation (Huart), iii, 72-5; M. Griinbaum, 



Neue Beitrdge zur semitischen Sagenkunde, 262 ff. ; 
D. Sidersky, Origines des ligendes musulmanes, 
69-72; J. Horovitz, Koranische Unterschungen, 
100-1. (A. Jeffery) 

AYYCB KHAN, the fourth son of Shir 'All, 
Amir of Afghanistan, and brother of Ya'kflb Khan. 
Like all rulers of Afghanistan, Shir c Ali had trouble 
with his sons. When, in 1873, he nominated his 
favourite son c Abd Allah PJan as his heir-apparent, 
Ayyub Khan fled to Persia. In 1879, when Ya'kflb 
Khan succeeded Shir c Ali as amir, Ayyub Khan 
returned to Afghanistan and was appointed governor 
of Harat. Towards the end of the Second Afghan 
War (1878-80) Lord Lytton's government selected 
a Sadozai prince, named Shir c Ali, as the wali of 
Kandahar. From this position he was ousted by 
Ayyub Khan, who also decisively defeated a British 
army under General Burrows at Maiwand, on 27 
July 1880. The situation was retrieved by Sir 
Frederick (afterwards Lord) Roberts, who marched 
rapidly from Kabul to Kandahar, routing Ayyub's 
troops and forcing him to retire on Harat. When 
c Abd al-Rahman Khan became Amir of Kabul, his 
first task was to extend his control over the country. 
In July, 1881, Ayyub Khan, who was in possession 
of Harat, declared a djihdd against <Abd al-Rahman 
because he was a British nominee, and occupied 
Kandahar. Towards the end of 1881, he was crush- 
ingly defeated by c Abd al-Rahman, who also 
expelled him from Harat and forced him to seek 
refuge at Mashhad in Per.-ia. Once more, in 1887, 
during the Ghalzai rebellion, he attempted to regain 
his position in Afghanistan but was defeated and 
compelled to flee to India. Here he remained until 
his death on 6 April 1914. 

Bibliography: S. Gopal, The ViceroyaUy of 

Lord Ripon, 1953; S. M. Khan, Life of Abdur 

Rahman, 1900; and Lord Roberts, Forty-One 

Years In India, 1897. (C. Collin Davies) 

AYYCB SABRl PASHA, Ottoman naval 

officer and author. A graduate of the naval college, 

he held various appointments, and served for a while 

in both the Hidjaz and Yemen. He died in Istanbul 

in 1308/1890. He was the author of a number of 

historical and descriptive works on Arabia, including 

an account of Mecca and Medina {Mir'dt al-IJara- 

mayn, 3 vols., Istanbul 1301-6), and a history of the 

Wahhabis {Ta'rikh-i Wahhdbiyydn, Istanbul 1296). 

Besides these he wrote a biography of the Prophet 

called Mahmud al-Siyar (Edirne 1287). 

Bibliography: Babinger 372-3; Sidjill-i 'Oth- 
mani, i, 451; Othmanli Muellifleri, iii, 26-7. 

(B. Lewis) 
AYYCBIDS. Name of the dynasty founded by 
Salah al-Din b. Ayyub, which, at the end of the 
6th/i2th century and in the first half of the 7th/i3th 
century, ruled Egypt, Muslim Syria-Palestine, the 
major part of Upper Mesopotamia, and the Yemen. 
The eponym of the family, Ayyub b. Shadht b. 
Marwan, bom in the village of Adjdanakan near 
Dvin (Dabil) in Armenia, belonged to the RawwadI 
clan of the Kurdish tribe of the HadhbanI, and, at 
the beginning of the 6th/i2th century, had been in 
the service of the Shaddadid dynasty, likewise 
Kurdish, which had been installed in the government 
of this region by the Saldjukid Sultan Alp Arslan in 
the middle of the preceding century. Gradually, 
however, all the Kurdish princes and lords were 
eliminated by the Turks, many of them, to avoid 
losing everything, entering the service of the latter, 
with whom their Sunn! ardour and taste for war 
provided a close affinity. When in 524/1 130, the Shad- 



dadids lost Dvin, Shadhi entered the service of the 
Saldjukid military governor of 'Irak, Bihruz; 
Bihruz, who held Takrit as an ifta', made Shadhi 
governor of that town, a post in which his son 
Ayyub soon succeeded him (V. Minorsky, Prehistory 
of Saladin, in Studies in Caucasian History, Cam- 
bridge 1953, 107-129). It was in this capacity that 
Ayyub earned the gratitude of the master of Mawsil 
and Aleppo, ZankI (Zangi), who after being defeated 
by the Caliph, was able, with the help of Ayyub, to 
cross the Euphrates and withdraw without a disaster. 
In the country behind Mawsil, ZankI first of all adopt- 
ed a systematic policy of subduing and then of recruit- 
ing the Kurds. In 532/1138, Ayyub entered his service. 
He was at once used by him in Syria, being ap- 
pointed governor of Ba'lbak, opposite Damascus. On 
Zankl's death, Ayyub placed himself under the 
Burid prince of Damascus, who gave him the 
governorship of that town, whilst his brother 
Shlrkuh, followed Zankl's son, Niir al-DIn, the 
master of Northern Syria, who gave him Hims as 
an ift(d c . However, the trend of public opinion in 
Damascus finally led to the unification of Muslim 
Syria, with a view to the more effective prosecution 
of the war against the Franks, under the command 
of the prince with the most power and the greatest 
enthusiasm for the diihdd, Nflr al-DIn ; in the surrender 
of Damascus the activities of the two brothers 
Shlrkuh and Ayyub played a major rdle, and Ayyub 
chose the side of Nut al-DIn, the governor of the 
Syrian capital. 

It is impossible to describe the activities of 
Shlrkuh in Nur al-DIn's service in detail here. The 
family fortunes began, when he was chosen, rather 
against his will, by Nur al-DIn to lead the army 
to Egypt, which, at the request of the wazir Shawar, 
was to intervene in that country against his ad- 
versaries. The result of several years of difficult 
fighting was the assassination of Shawar and the 
proclamation of Shlrkuh as his successor to the 
wazlrate. It is true that he died a few weeks later 
(564/1169), but his nephew, Salah al-DIn b. Ayyub, 
was with him, and quickly succeeded in getting 
himself recognised by the occupying troops as his 



Salah al-Din (known in Europe as Saladin) is the 
real founder of the dynasty. Its history can be divided 
into three periods: that of Salah al-DIn himself, a for- 
mative period bearing the imprint of his personality, 
the strongest in the family, to which, however, the 
policy of his successors was opposed on many 
points; the period of his early successors, a period of 
organisation, up to the death of al-Malik al-Kamil 
(635/1238); lastly, the period of long-drawn-out 
decline. Under the second period it will be con- 
venient to group together the study of several 
problems of interior organisation, which are common 
to the whole history of the regime. 

I. The detailed history of the reign of Salafc al-DIn 
cannot be given here, but will be given in the article 
concerning him; an attempt will only be made to 
reveal those features which are indispensable for the 
understanding of the following period, which one 
has especially in mind when speaking of the Ayyubids. 

Although the assumption of power by Shlrkuh and 
Salah al-Din took place in Egypt with much the 
same forms as in the case of the preceding wazirs 
of the Fatimid regime, by the conferring of a diploma 
by the Caliph al- c Adid, they were none the less the 
representatives of the orthodox militant tradition 
inherited from the Saldjukids, more or less common 
to all the Turkish princes of Muslim Asia at that 



3IDS 797 

time, and especially typified by Nur al-DIn. In 
566/1171, Salah al-DIn considered he was able to 
suppress the Fatimid Caliphate and proclaim the 
return of Egypt to the family of states owing 
allegiance to the 'Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad. For 
the first time in two centuries, Egypt became 
officially SunnI again; in point of fact, the majority 
of the population had never been won over to the 
Isma'Ilism of the Fatimids, and although those 
elements which were most strongly attached to the 
regime, and which were, moreover, partly of foreign 
origin, attempted to re-establish their position by 
revolts, the advent of the new regime was received 
among the masses with the same passivity which 
they had shown to its predecessor. 

Invested by the Fatimid Caliph, then by the 
'Abbasid Caliph, and at the same time a vassal of 
Nur al-DIn, Salah al-Din found himself in an equi- 
vocal position vis-a-vis the latter, which would 
doubtless have led to conflicts, had Nur al-Din not 
died in 569/1174. Disagreements and the weakness 
of his successors produced the immediate result that 
the dominant military power in the neighbourhood 
of the "Latin Orient", which for fifty years had 
resided in Northern Syria, now passed to Egypt. 
Whilst Nur al-DIn's successors dropped the policy 
of the holy war, which had given the former his 
prestige and strength, Salah al-DIn adopted the 
idea, though it is not possible to discern to what 
extent ambition was combined with undoubtedly 
sincere conviction. (H. A. R. Gibb, The Achievement 
of Saladin, in Bull, of the John Rylands Library, 
xxxv-i, 1952, 46-60). However that may be, this 
idea led him to claim for himself the unified command 
of the Muslim armies, to win a large share of public 
opinion for his cause and, ultimately, to constitute to 
his own advantage a state, in which the heritage 
of Nur al-DIn, including Egypt, Muslim Syria and 
a part of the Diazlra. was regrouped and extended, 
in a more solid manner than that of his predecessor's 
kingdom, at the time of its brief and final apogee; 
this was an accomplished fact in 1183. At the same 
time, relatives of his established themselves in the 
Yemen and one of his generals, Karakush, on the 
borders of Tunisia. 

The power formed in this way enabled Salah al-DIn 
to utilise the internal crisis of the Kingdom of 
Jerusalem, the difficulties of the Byzantine Empire 
and the tension which had arisen since 1180 between 
himself and the Latins, to undertake to drive the 
latter out of Palestine and Syria. His success was 
his main title to glory among his contemporaries 
and posterity; in 583/1187 the Franks were crushed 
at Hattln, Jerusalem became Muslim again after 
eighty years, and in the ensuing months, almost all 
the Christian territories fell, including a large part 
of the coast, where only Tyre, Tripoli and Antioch 
still held out against him. 

Salah al-DIn's power was founded on the strength of 
the army, and his whole policy required a strong army. 
This was no longer, with the exception of a few 
contingents of irregulars, the army of the Fatimids. 
It was the Kurdo-Turkish army, completely alien 
to the Egyptian population, inherited from Nur 
al-DIn and developed by Salah al-DIn by means of 
the resources of Egypt. In 577/1181, the Egyptian 
army amounted to in amirs, 6,976 (awdshi (caval- 
rymen with full equipment) and 1,153 baraghul&m 
(second grade cavalrymen), without mentioning the 
Arab frontiersmen, unfit for foreign campaigns 
(H. A. R. Gibb, The armies of Saladin, in Cahiers 
d'Histoire &gyptienne, iii/4, 1951, 304-320). To this 



798 AYY 

army must be added the Syro-Djazlran contingents, 
including those of Mawsil, which the treaty sub- 
sequent to the hostilities of 1174-1183 allowed 
Salah al-DIn to call together in case of need: a little 
over 6,000 men in all. It was with almost his entire 
forces, some 12,000 horsemen, that Salah al-Din won 
the victory at Hattin and his later successes. But, as 
was the case with the European armies, such an 
assembly of troops could not normally be kept on 
campaign for a protracted period, owing to the 
revictualling requirements of the soldiers (cf. infra). 
And considerable efforts and conviction would be 
required to maintain the indispensable effective 
strength over the whole of the time which the 
struggle against the Third Crusade lasted. Campaign 
and siege equipment, which had probably increased 
in quantity and quality, was also the object of 
attention, as is shown by the treatise on gun-making 
of Murda (or Mardl) b. 'All, which has come down 
to us (ed. CI. Cahen, iaB. Et. Or., xii, 1948, 108-163). 

In the first years of his rule, Salah al-DIn had been 
threatened by the Byzantine, Norman and Italian 
fleets, using the bases in the Latin Orient. He made 
a great effort to reconstitute the Mediterranean navy 
of the Fatimids, which had deteriorated in the 
6th/i2th century as the result of internal troubles 
and the progress of the Crusaders and the Italians. 
By this means he was even able to carry out offensive 
operations against the nearest Frankish ports. The 
possibility cannot be excluded that the expansion 
of Karakush along the African coast had as its aim, 
at the same time as providing an outlet for turbulent 
Turkomans, the control of the shores along which 
Muslim vessels were able to range, and a closer 
approach to the source of supplies of wood and 
sailors. The Crusade put an end to this effort, which 
was weakened by Egypt's inferiority in these last 
two respects, and it does not seem to have been 
repeated by his successors (A. S. Ehrenkreutz, The 
place of Saladin in the naval history etc., in JAOS., 
LXXV-2, 1955, 100-116). 

There is no doubt that it was partly the need to 
procure the raw materials required by his armament 
on land and sea, and not only preoccupation with 
commercial interests, that led Salah al-DIn, very 
soon after he came to power, to renew and increase 
the connexions which had existed under the Fatimids 
with the Italian trading cities, including Pisa, which 
had gone furthest in encouraging the Franks to 
attack Egypt. Pisans, Genoans and Venetians 
flocked to Alexandria, where the Venetians found, 
more than at Acre, compensation for the impossi- 
bility of trading at Constantinople, a situation in 
which the Byzantine government placed them from 
1 171 to 1 184 (CI. Cahen, Orient Latin et commerce du 
Levant, in Bull, de la Fac. des Lettres de Strasbourg, 
xxix-8, 1951, 332). Salah al-DIn could boast in his 
letters to the Caliph that Franks themselves were 
delivering arms to him which were destined to be 
used against other Franks (Aku Shama, i, 243). 

Saladin also took advantage of political develop- 
ments in Byzantium and Cyprus to negotiate, un- 
beknown to either of them, with their princes 
against the Franks. When he felt the approach of the 
European menace, he attempted, after having been, 
via Karakush, the ally of the Almoravid Banu 
Ghaniya of the Balearic Islands against the Normans 
and the Almohads, to draw near to the latter to 
form an alliance, mainly maritime, against the 
Crusaders: this attempt, however, met with no 
success (ct. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, in Melanges 
Reni Basset II, and Sa'd Zaghlul <Abd al-Hamid, 



in Bull, Fac. Arts Univ. Alexandria, vi-vii, 1952-3, 
24-100). The same reasons explain his negotiations 
with the Saldjukids of Asia Minor. 

A war policy, naturally, was expensive and all 
the evidence goes to show that Salah al-DIn was a 
bad financial administrator, always on the point of 
going bankrupt. In necessary conformity with the 
religious ideal with which he infused all his propa- 
ganda, he everywhere suppressed the taxes deemed 
by fikh to be illegal. Similarly, his desire to eliminate 
all traces of the Fatimid regime, led him to replace 
the coinage by a new one, of variable weight, in the 
case of both gold dinars and dirhams, which could 
no longer be obtained at a fixed value; but the burden 
of expenditure, the decline in income, especially to 
begin with, as the result of disorders, the exhaustion 
of Egyptian gold, the precariousness of the routes 
towards Sudanese gold, which were controlled by 
the Almohads, even caused instability in the standard 
of the dinar, the minting of dirhams containing 
variable quantities of alloy in addition to the legal 
Egyptian dirham, (which contained 30 % silver, 
worth i/40th. of a dinar), and, as a natural con- 
sequence, the disappearance of sound coinage. 
Salah al-Din, and after him, al-'Aziz, lived on loans 
from the merchants and amirs, which were never 
repaid. Of course, it could be maintained that the 
profits derived from the war would make it possible, 
in the long run, to restore financial stability. But 
this calculation, if ever made, turned out to be 
wrong, as the result of the Third Crusade (cf. A. S. 
Ehrenkreutz, Contribution to the knowledge of the 
fiscal administration of Egypt . . . ., in BSOAS, xv-3, 
1953 and xvi-3, 1954; The standard of fineness of 
gold coins in Egypt ... in JAOS.. llxiv/3, 1954; 
The crisis of the dinar in the Egypt of Saladin, ibid., 
LXXiv/3, 1956. 

One of the results of Saladin's policy was the 
formation of a coalition, for the salvation of the 
Latin Orient, of the western forces, which was even 
joined by the Italian towns, adversely affected by 
the loss of the Syrian ports. In the end, even if the 
Franks did not retake Jerusalem, at least they 
recovered the major part of the Syro-Palestinian 
coast; moreover, they laid hands on Cyprus, which 
henceforth provided a secure naval base and a 
position to which they could withdraw. Salah al-Din 
was by no means defeated. But the formidable 
effort which he had had to sustain for two years, 
convinced him that it was fruitless to wish to expel 
the Franks, and made a period of ditente and recovery 
a matter of urgency. It is impossible to know what 
Salah al-DIn might have done, for he died a few 
months after the conclusion of peace (589/1193). 

II. The period of the reigns of al-Malik al-'Adil 
and al Malik al-Kamil (died in 635/1238) appears 
essentially as one of ditente and organisation after 
the disorders which followed the death of Salah 
al-DIn. 

The first eight years which followed the disap- 
pearance of the founder of the dynasty put to the 
test the conception of family unity which he had 
entertained as regards his monarchy and succession. 
He had granted, either in the form of fiefs during 
his lifetime or as shares in his inheritance, in addition 
to the Yemen, where two of his brothers reigned in 
succession, Central and Southern Syria to his son 
al-Mdal, Egypt to his other son al-'Aziz, Aleppo to 
a third son, al-Zahir GhazI, whilst Haroa passed to 
his nephew TakI al-DIn 'Umar, Hims to his cousin, 
Shlrkuh's grandson, al-Mudjahid, and lastly the 
Djazlra to his brother al-'Adil Abu Bakr. The 



latter, who had played an important rdle during the 
reign of Salah al-DIn as a diplomat and administrator, 
was now the eldest member of the family and in- 
disputably the most eminent of its surviving 
members. The sons of Salah al-DIn, who were 
incapable of doing anything but amuse themselves 
or wrangle among themselves, upon several occasions 
sollicited his alliance or his arbitration. Whether 
or not al- c Adil was an ambitious man, it was be- 
coming clear that the security of the Ayyubid 
monarchy required him to take over its destinies. 
In 597/1200, he had himself proclaimed Sultan in 
Cairo, distributed the governments of Damascus and 
Pjazira among his sons, and after the last hostilities 
in i?oi, of the other former princes, he only permitted 
those of Aleppo, Hims and Haraa, who were forced 
to do homage to him, to continue to exist. Naturally, 
after al-'Adil's death, similar problems again arose. 
The presence at that moment (615/1217) of a Crusade 
at Damietta maintained solidarity for a time around 
his eldest son, al-Kamil, who, like him, governed 
Egypt, and was moreover an imposing personality. 
Once the Frankish danger was removed, the agree- 
ment between him and his brother al-Mu c azzam of 
Damascus, who died in 625/1228, and then the tetter's 
son and successor, al-Nasir Da c ud, was disrupted. 
Al-Kamil was helped by the loyalty of his other 
brother Al-Ashraf, to whom he gave Damascus in 
exchange for Diyar Mudar, whilst Da'Od was rele- 
gated to Karak. Then, for a few years, al-Kamil 
was the undisputed head of the family; however, a 
coolness was making itself increasingly felt between 
al-Ashraf and himself, when the former died (635/ 
1237); al-Kamil then took Damascus away from the 
other brother, al-Salih Ismail, whom al-Ashraf had 
designated as his successor, but he himself died at 
the beginning of the following year; he was the last 
Ayyubid who might have been able to unite the 
whole Ayyubid family behind him. One should not 
be misled by the disagreements; up till then there 
had always been a majority of members of the 
family willing to place solidarity in the face of their 
common enemies above their individual interests, 
and, in one way or another, solidarity had always 
been restored for half a century or so; after the 
death of al-Kamil the situation changed. 

\yyubid rivalries with neighbouring princes, 
however, interfered with their dissensions among 
themselves. In 604/1207, the troubles at Akhlat 
provided al-Awhad, the son of al-'Adil and at that 
time governor of Diyar Bakr, with the possibility of 
annexing to Ayyubid territory the inheritance of the 
Sljah-Armin (upon al-Awhad's death, he was suc- 
ceeded there by al-Ashraf). Other annexations were 
carried out in Diyar Bakr and Diyar Rabl'a, and 
lastly, in 631/1233, that of Amid and Hisn Kayfa; 
only a single branch of the old Artukid dynasty 
subsisted, that of Mardln. Thus it was that the Ayyu- 
bids emerged from these wars increased in stature. 

However, from about 1225, Mesopotamo-Iranian 
politics were dominated by the approach of Djalal 
al-Din Manguberti, who at the head of his Khwariz- 
mians fleeing before the Mongol invasion, was 
putting Iran and its borders to fire and sword. Al- 
Mu'azzam and the Djaziran opponents of al-Ashraf 
and al-Kamil adhered to him, and he was eventually 
able to take Akhlat, which was pillaged in terrible 
fashion (1229). The Khwarizmshah then invaded 
Asia Minor, where the Saldjukid Sultan was rein- 
forced by al-Ashraf: this time the invade, was 
crushed near Erzindjau (628/1230). 

There were more lasting causes of friction between 



799 



the Saldjukids and the Ayyubids. The ii 
the two dynasties had already clashed at Diyar 
Bakr in the time of Salah al-DIn, and in the 13th 
century the development of the Saldjukid power 
made conflicts inevitable. The Saldjukids sought to 
spread from their mountains over the Arab plains, 
from Northern Syria to Diyar Bakr. According to 
circumstances, they achieved this either by attacking 
the Ayyubid territories or by posing as the sovereign- 
protectors of the Aleppo branch against their 
Egyptian cousins. Al-Ashraf's expedition to the 
assistance of Kaykubadh gave al-Kamil the impres- 
sion that the conquest of the Eastern part of the 
Saldjukid territory would be an easy matter: in 
1233, a coalition of all the Ayyubid forces invaded 
it. Ignorance of the country and the lack of enthu- 
siasm of some of those taking part led to failure of 
the enterprise. Later, the Saldjukid army took 
Amid from al-Kamil's successors (1241). It had 
already taken the ruins of Akhlat from the lieutenants 
of al-Ashraf. 

Finally, there were the Christian enemies: the 
Georgians, whom it had been necessary to fight in 
the vicinity of this same Akhlat, and, naturally, the 
Franks themselves. In the latter case, the Ayyubids 
drew from the Third Crusade a moral diametrically 
opposed to the policy of Salah al-Din. Their aim 
was to preserve the peace, by avoiding any hostile 
action, on the one hand in view of the economic 
advantages of peaceful relations, and on the other 
hand to avoid giving any pretext for further crusades. 
Further crusades did in fact take place, but their 
immediate initiative came entirely from Europe, 
rather than from the Franks of the East. Naturally 
the Ayyubids took every precaution in their power 
to resist them, and there was no question of military 
negligence. The fall of Byzantium and the decline 
of the Almohads deprived them of the possible allies 
which Salah al-DIn had endeavoured to obtain, and, 
having relinquished the maintenance of a large and 
vulnerable fleet, they afforded Egypt protection by 
the land army,, by fortifications, sometimes by 
destroying coastal installations (Tinnis), and by 
espionage. However, with the Crusaders, even al- 
'Adil and al-Kamil had tried as far as possible to 
replace the costly chances of war by diplomacy. 

In accordance with the tendencies of this policy, 
in 1204 al-'Adil restored to the Franks the coastal 
places which he was occupying, which reconstituted 
the continuity of the Frankish territories, with the 
exception of the enclave of Ladhikiya, which 
belonged to the principality ot Aleppo. At the time 
of the Fifth Crusade, his successor al-Kamil, whilst 
calling his brothers in Asia to his assistance, offered 
to restore Jerusalem to the Franks, who refused it, 
in exchange for the evacuation of Damietta, and took 
care to avoid any real battle. It was especially at 
the time of the Crusade of Frederick II that this 
attitude was disclosed in a manner most calculated 
to affect public opinion. Al-Kamil's desire for 
peace with the Franks was then strengthened by 
the menace of al-Mu'azzam, the ally of the Khwariz- 
mians. Aware of circumstances which predisposed 
the Emperor for his part to negotiations, he finally 
granted him Jerusalem, with the reservation that it 
should not be fortified and freedom of worship 
should be maintained; pious Muslims and pious 
Christians were equally scandalised. A real friendship 
arose between the two sovereigns, which was to 
continue even between their successors. 

The principality of Aleppo was confronted by 
slightly different local problems. These princes, 



disturbed at being the only direct descendants of 
Saladin to confront the family of al- c Adil, sought 
both to ally themselves with them by marriage and 
to guard themselves against the masters of Egypt, 
sometimes through the Ayyubids of Djazira, Hims 
and Hama, and at other times through the Saldjukids 
of Rum, and naturally also, at times, with the ones 
against the others who had encroached too far. 
The ambitions of the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia 
also troubled them, and they several times inter- 
vened, with the Saldjukids against it, giving assis- 
tance to the Frankish princes of Antioch, who were 

A normal and intended consequence of the peace 
policy adopted towards the Franks was the resumpt- 
ion and intensification of commercial relations with 
the Italians (and now, to a lesser extent the Southern 
French and the Catalans). Even before formal 
treaties had been concluded once more, as is shown 
by the private documents in the Venetian and 
Genoan archives, Genoan, Pisan and Venetian ships, 
after the Third Crusade, were once again going to 
Alexandria, and, to a lesser extent to Damietta. 
Under al- e Adil, a series of agreements confirmed 
their rights, a reduction in customs' dues and 
administrative and judicial facilities. Furthermore, 
the accessibility of the principality of Aleppo to the 
sea had the result that even in Syria, Italian 
merchants were to be seen no longer confining 
themselves to Frankish ports, but were also disem- 
barking at Ladhikiya and regularly visiting the 
markets of Aleppo and Damascus. An important 
personage of Genoa, William Spinola, seems at one 
time to have enjoyed al-'Adil's special favour, 
accompanying him on his journeys through his 
estates (this can be seen from a comparison between 
the Annals of Genoa used by Schaube, Handels- 
geschichte der Mittelmeer-Romanen 121, and Ibn 
Natif, cited in Amari, Biblioteca arabo-sicula, ii, 
Appendix, 35, which was unknown to Schaube). 
Egypt sold to Europe, besides the products of the 
Indian Ocean which passed through its territory in 
transit, native resources, the chief of which at this 
time seems to have been alum. Naturally the Cru- 
sades, or the fear of surprise attacks, were liable to 
provoke crises, as for instance the day in 1215 when 
three thousand merchants assembled at Alexandria 
were temporally arrested. But even after the 
Damietta Crusade, relations were resumed (as is 
shown among other things by a document of im- 
munity in Arabic from al-Kamil to the Venetians 
which is to be published by Subhl Lablb) and lasted 
in the main without undue interruption until the 
middle of the century. 

But, though the Italians were the masters in the 
Mediterranean, and Egypt played a purely passive 
rdle in trading with them, only making a profit 
from the taxes and commissions, they were prevented 
from access to the Red Sea, and the commerce of the 
Indian Ocean remained exclusively in the hands of 
the subjects of Muslim (or Hindu) states. We are 
not in a position to determine exactly what rdle the 
Egyptians played, or that of the Yemenites or other 
more easterly peoples. The exact nature of the 
merchants called Kariml, specialists at Aden and 
in Egypt in the trade in products brought from the 
Indian Ocean and especially spices, still remains 
obscure; they appear to have existed since Fatimid 
times, but it is in the Ayyflbid period that they 
really make their appearance in the rdle which was 
to be more especially theirs in the following century 
(cf. the elucidations of Goitein and Fischel in the 



press for the Journal of the Economic and Social 
History of the Orient, 1958, and G. Wiet, Les 
marchands d'£pices ... in Cahiers d'Histoire 
£gyptienne, 1955). The occupation of the Yemen 
may have had as its primary motive the hemming 
in of the supporters of a Fatimid restoration or the 
formation there of an eventual refuge for the 
Ayyubids; but its object was doubtless also the 
improvement, which in any case occurred,' of com- 
mercial relations, of primary importance for both 
parties, between the Yemen and Egypt, with whom 
Yemenite currencies and some measures were 
aligned (Ibn al-Mudjawir, ed. Lofgren, 12 ff.). 

The almost complete internal peace which Egypt 
enjoyed, and the relatively long periods of peace 
from which Syria profited, certainly had a favourable 
influence, though it is difficult to give precise indi- 
cations, on their economy, which was also stimulated 
by the possibilities of trade and which the Ayyubids 
deliberately strove to promote, even though only 
for their fiscal interests. For Syria and the Djazira 
we are able to gain a certain idea of their resources 
through the A l lak of Ibn Shaddad, who describes 
the situation on the eve of the Mongol assault ; more 
precisely, for the crafts of Damascus, much in- 
formation is to be found in the treatise on hisba 
composed about 600/1200 by c Abd al-Rahman b. 
Nasr al-Shayzari (ed. c ArInI, Cairo 1946, trans. 
Bernhauer, Les institutions de police etc. in J A, i860, 
where the author is called Nabrawl), apparently 
the prototype of all successive treatises of this kind 
in Syria and Egypt. For Egypt, besides the infor- 
mation preserved by al-MakrizI, many indications 
are to be found in the treatises of Ibn al-Mammatl 
and al-Nabulusl (cf. infra); the latter especially 
attests al-Kamil's interest in the maintenance of 
forests, irrigation works, state cultivation of sugar 
cane etc. In general, Egypt, in contradistinction to 
the other Ayyubid states, remained, as always, the 
country par excellence with a partly nationalised 
economy, especially for mining and forest production, 
trade in metals and wood, certain means o f transport 
and tools, arms etc. The Lam c of al-Nabulusl, a 
pamphlet composed after the disorders which 
followed al-Kamil's death, stresses the harm done 
by the interference of private undertakings with 
those of the State, and by the frauds perpetrated 
by officials at the first relaxation of control. 

Under al- c Adil and al-Kamil, in addition to the 
attention paid to economic matters, a strict financial 
policy was maintained. Al- c Adil's great minister, 
Ibn Shukr, made himself famous by his competence 
combined with intractable behaviour towards 
everyone, including his own sovereign. After him, 
al-Kamil maintained an equally energetic control 
over expenditure and resources (including the ibt& c 
of the amirs) and on his death left a treasure almost 
equivalent to a year's budget. For Egypt, the 
inquiry carried out by al-Nabulusl in the Fayyum, 
although relating only to 642, shows the minuteness of 
the cadastral survey and accounts (cf. CI. Cahen, Le 
rigime des impdts dans le FayyUm ay y abide, in A rabica 
iii/i, 1956). For the northern states, Ibn Shaddad has 
left us lists of taxes for the towns of Aleppo, ManbicJi, 
Sarudj and Balis. The care taken with the finances 
and the economy also made possible the resumption 
of the large-scale minting of dinars at the standard 
normal before Salah al-DIn. Nevertheless, it seems 
to have been difficult to check the flight of silver 
coinage before that of copper (De Boiiard, L'ivolution 
tnontStaire de I'Egypte medievale, in L'£gypte Con- 
temporaine, 1939). 



The internal history of the Ayyubid states has 
been the subject of few studies. Yet it is essential 
that it should be known, especially for Egypt, since 
it is at this period, by means of a partial break with 
the Fatimid past and the introduction of Saldjukid 
and Zankid traditions from further Asia, but also 
inevitably with some retention of the Egyptian 
heritage and with innovations and adaptations, 
that the foundations were laid of the regime which, 
to a large extent, the Mamluks, for two centuries, 
simply prolonged and completed in detail. Naturally 
only a few rather incidental allusions can be made 

The Ayyubid regime, approximately up to the late 
years of al-Kamil, was a semi-feudal family federa- 
tion, as, for example, had been that of the BQyids 
and, to a lesser extent, of the Saldjukids and 
Zankids. Under a sovereign to whom all owed 
allegiance, a certain number of territories were 
distributed to vassal "princes of the blood" who, 
apart from the limitations imposed by their primarily 
military allegiance to the ruler, enjoyed complete 
autonomy in administering them (cf. for example, 
the diploma of investiture of a prince of Hama by 
al-Kamil preserved at the end of the Chronicle of 
Ibn Abi '1-Damm, Oxford Bodl. Marsh 60). Within 
these great appanages, there were lesser ones, 
likewise distributed to princes of the blood of second 
rank or to a few great officers, whose loyalty was 
to the vassal prince, and whose effective indepen- 
dence was naturally more restricted. It was only still 
lower down the scale that the military *#a c properly 
so-called, of which we shall speak later, were to be 
found. However, towards the end of al-Kamil's reign, 
this regime began to undergo certain modifications; 
the aggravation of family conflicts obliged the 
Sultan, who during his absence in Egypt had himself 
represented by a ndHb, sometimes belonging to his 
family and sometimes not, to replace the princes 
in the Asiatic provinces also by governors, taken 
from among their domestic attendents, as for 
example at Diyar Bakr, Shams al-DIn Sawab, either 
standing beside a young prince or not, and whose 
title of ndHb also stressed his dependence better than 
any other title would have done. The conditions in 
which, after al-Kamil, al-Salih Ayyub reconstituted 
Ayyubid unity, led to the triumph of this centralist 
conception; moreover, in Egypt, there had never 
been autonomous appanages, except as a quite 
exceptional and temporary measure (for example in 
Fayyum). In Asia, on the other hand, all the auto- 
nomous princes, like the sovereign in Egypt, now 
bore the title of Sultan, which Salah al-DIn had 
never officially made use of, perhaps because of its 
connexion, in the Fatimid heritage, with that of 
wazir; and even the subordinate Ayyubids bore that 

The organisation of the Ayyubid states, as a 
natural result of the preceding considerations, was 
never unified. In general, leaving aside the Yemen, 
there can be distinguished on the one hand the 
territories of Asia, which perpetuated Zankid in- 
stitutions without any great modifications, and on 
the other, Egypt, where newer institutions were 
introduced, or at least newer as regards Egypt. As 
is normal, the central organs of government there 
were transformed to a greater extent, in relationship 
to the Egyptian past, than the fundamentals and 
rules of local administration. An attempt to adjust 
matters was made, once the initial troubles were over, 
during the lifetime of Salah al-DIn himself, as is 
shown by the description of Fatimid institutions 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



composed for the new regime by Ibn al-Tuwayr 
(extracts in al-MakrizI and Ibn al-Furat), the treatise 
of the kadi Abu '1-Hasan on kharddj (extracts in 
al-Makrizi) and the famous Kawdnin al-Dawdwin of 
Ibn al-Mammatl, which have been preserved; others 
could be added, as, for example, a little later the 
more literary work of Ibn Shit al-Kurshl on the 
diwdns. As the counterpart of and a contrast to 
these methodical accounts, there appeared at the 
end of the Ayyubid regime the various treatises, 
preserved or known only through quotations, of 
'Uthman b. Ibrahim al-NabulusI, which are a vivid 
witness of his concrete experience. 

The central government was naturally directed, 
more or less effectively according to temperament, 
by the Prince himself; most of the princes holding 
appanages had a wazir, that is to say, an official who 
ensured in the Prince's name the unity of direction 
of the whole administration. But the institution was 
less usual in Egypt; whatever prestige the kadi al- 
Fadil may have enjoyed in Salah al-DIn's eyes, he 
certainly never, despite what has been said, bore 
the title or fulfilled the functions of wazir, first 
because this sovereign himself performed the func- 
tions of government, and second because it was as 
wazir that he had originally come to power in Egypt 
in accordance with the late Fatimid practice endowing 
the wazirate with plenary authority. For quite a 
long time his brother al-'Adil had the redoubtable 
Ibn Shukr as his wazir, whom he had learned to 
value as his associate in directing Salah al-DIn's 
navy; al-Kamil took him back for a time, but then 
subsequently assumed the direction of the admi- 
nistration himself, with the help of high officials, to 
whom he sometimes, but not always, gave the 
title of ndHb of the wazirate. After him, al-Salih 
Ayyub had as his wazir one of the "Sons of the 
Shaykh", of whom we shall speak again later. 
Princes who were minors and orphans had an 
atabeg [?.».]. The ustddhddr, a kind of intendant of 
the Sovereign's "Household", played an important 
political r61e. 

Below the prince and the wazir, the central 
administration was divided between the diwdns, 
the names and attributions of which no longer 
exactly corresponded to those of the Farimid period. 
It was essentially the army for which the regime 
still operated, hence the importance of the Diwdn 
al-Djuyush, a section of which dealt with the Ufa' 
and, in this respect, possessed a competency which 
in part coincided with that of the Diwdn of Finance ; 
on this latter were dependent all questions of taxa- 
tion, income and expenditure, and the Treasury, 
with a section devoted to the finances of 'the Gate' 
itself; it is described in detail, with the exclusion 
of the others, in the treatise of Ibn al-Mammatl. 
The third great Diwdn, which in certain respects 
was pre-eminent among those just mentioned, was 
the Diwdn al Inshd', the Chancery, entrusted with 
correspondence and the composition of diplomas; 
of this the director enjoying the greatest reputation 
was al-Fadil, who had been taken over from the 
Fatimid regime ( c Imad al-DIn al-Isfahanl, who 
emulated him in belles-lettres, was private secretary 
to Salab al-DIn). Finally, marginal, though of no 
less importance, was the Diwdn of the bubus, in- 
dicated by al-NabulusI, which naturally enjoyed 
complete autonomy as against those just 
mentioned. The Ayyubids adopted the Saldjukid 
(ughm*, which they distorted (CI. Cahen, in BSOAS, 
xiv/i, 42). The work of these offices involved large 
numbers of documents and employees supervising 



one another. The most staking institution of the 
Ayyubid regime seems to have been the shadd, the 
office of the mushidd. The administration was 
dependent, naturally, on a native personnel, fre- 
quently Copts, who alone possessed the requisite 
traditional training; but either because it did not 
inspire sufficient confidence or because on its own 
it had insufficient power to make its decisions 
effective against powerful, especially military 
officials, there was attached to each Diwdn and also, 
perhaps, to the Diwdns as a whole, a mushidd, that 
is to say an amir entrusted with the supervision of 
the ordinary civil administration, which he supported 
with his own military contingents. 

The army seems to have had contingents at least 
equal to those of Salah al-DIn's time and, in case of 
need, it could of course be temporarily augmented 
by the distribution of new provisional ik(d l . Though 
pay or direct distribution did not entirely disappear, 
the ik(d c , however, was the main source of revenue 
for the army, or at least for the amirs. The Ayyubid 
ik(d c was connected with both the Fatimid and 
Saldjukid traditions, but, especially in Egypt, did 
not exactly correspond to either of these models. 
It was freer, economically, than the Fatimid iktd', 
in the sense that it was no longer subject to tithes; 
but, compared with the Zankid iktd 1 , which con- 
ferred on the holder a kind of seigneurial autonomy 
over his territory, it was much more closely incor- 
porated in the State administration: although the 
mukfd' was responsible for some items of expenditure, 
in reality he possessed no actual administrative 
rights, being merely the assignee of a definite revenue, 
the composition of which did not depend on him, 
and which could be withdrawn from him or trans- 
ferred elsewhere at any time. This revenue was 
calculated according to an estimate, Hbra, in a unit 
of account, the dinar djayshi, which was made up 
of a specific combination of payments in cash and 
in kind from the crops; however, generally speaking, 
it was the interested party who, at the time of the 
harvest, was obliged to go and supervise the levying 
of the tax due to him (hence the difficulty of 
maintaining an army in the field for any considerable 
time). The ik(d c of the great amirs were, generally 
speaking, made up of parcels of land at a distance 
from one another. The number of men, which the 
muhfd 1 could and had to maintain on them, was 
stated precisely (likewise in the Ayyubid territories 
in Syria), and it became the custom, unknown 
until then, to speak of amirs of 10 men, ioo men etc. 
(Cf. CI. Cahen, Vivolution de l'ik(a<, in Annates ESC, 
1953)- 

One of the weaknesses of this army lay in the fact 
that the various corps of which it was constituted 
were lacking in unity and were mutually jealous. 
A few traces of ethnic hostility can be found between 
Kurds and Turks. It does not appear to be attri- 
butable to any great extent to the fact that the 
former were apparently free men and the latter, at 
least prior to their promotion to the amirate, slaves. 
The most seriously significant factor was that each 
ruler tended to form a body of troops of his own, 
acquired by him individually and therefore person- 
ally devoted to his cause; the disappearance of a 
ruler, however, did not entail that of the body or 
bodies of troops formed by him, within which there 
prevailed a vigilant solidarity, arising out of fear of 
the new bodies of troops. The rivalries between 
asadiyya (from Asad al-DIn Shtrkuh), saldhiyya, 
'ddiliyya, kdmiliyya, ashrafiyya etc. play a great part 
in the quarrels between Ayyubid pretenders. 



The military policy of the Ayyubids was com- 
pleted by the construction of impressive fortresses 
both urban (Aleppo, Cairo etc.) and rural, which they 
matched especially against those of the Crusaders. 

At times there has been speculation as to the 
extent to which certain characteristics of the Ay- 
yubids can be attributed to their "Kurdism". 
Considerations of this kind too often derive from 
gratuitous prejudices and falsified information. It 
does not seem that the presence of Turks beside 
Kurds in the Ayyubid regime differed profoundly 
from that of Kurds beside the Turks in the Zankid 
regime, and both institutionally and intellectually 
the two regimes are related, allowance being made 
for the consequences of environmental conditions. 
Yet it is probably not a matter of chance that the 
Ayyubids sought to expand to Diyar Bakr and 
Akhlat, that is to say towards their country of 
origin, or at least into Kurdish territory, so as to 
ensure the continuity of Kurdish recruitment. 
However, within the actual dynasty, in the course 
of successive generations, Turkish and Kurdish 
blood was mixed; and we shall see that in its last 
days the regime divested itself of its Kurdish aspect. 

The Ayyubids in any case, like the Zankids and 
their other contemporaries, were staunch SunnI 
Muslims, working, under the aegis of the sovereign, 
to promote Orthodox Islam against heresy. This 
attitude was first of all revealed by the reintroduction 
of Egypt into the 'Abbasid family, and more durably, 
at a time when the Caliph al-Nasir had restored a 
certain prestige to the Caliphate, it was manifested 
by an expression of respect, of a concordance of 
opinions which, whilst naturally not diminishing the 
autonomy of the Ayyubids, were not however purely 
verbal, authorising, for example, in the settlement 
of disputes, the frequently effective mediation of 
such caliphal ambassadors as Ibn al-Djawzi. Further- 
more, the Ayyubids, like other rulers of their times, 
entered the kind of futuwwa order by which al- 
Nasir tried to take in hand the lower classes of 
Baghdad and at the same time consolidate his 
administration and reassert his moral authority 
among the aristocracy; he hoped to associate the 
princes with himself in this undertaking, both in 
order to attach them to himself and to enable them 
to conduct a similar line of action among their 
own people (cf. the latest assessment of this question 
by Fr. Taeschner, Die Futuwwa etc., in Schweize- 
risches Archiv fiir Volkskunde, mi, 1956). 

The orthodox attitude of the Ayyubids is also 
shown in the concrete encouragement which they 
and their high dignitaries gave, after the Saldjukids 
and Zankids, to increasing the numbers of madtasas 
in Syria and the Djazira, and to their introduction 
into Egypt. Al-Salih Ayyub appears to have been 
the initiator of a new form, the madrasa for the four 
rites including in its buildings the tomb of the 
founder. On the other hand, the Ayyubids welcomed 
the mystical orders, often originating in the East, 
for whom they founded various khdnakdhs, under 
the direction of a shaykh of shaykhs. More generally 
evident is the fact that quite a few immigrants of 
recent or remote Iranian origin are to be found 
surrounding them, as with the Saldjukids and 
Zankids, especially in the controlling spheres of 
intellectual life; there seems also have been a 
tendency for them to associate the kadis and religious 
circles more extensively with the government. 
Especially remarkable under their rule was the 
so-called family of the Sons of the Shaykh, of 
Khurasanian origin (see AwlAd al-Shaykh), who, 



contrary to the almost universal particularisation 
between the military, religio-legal and admini- 
strative castes, succeeded in being eminently 
represented in all three, especially in the case of 
the wazir Ma'in al-Din and his brother the amir 
Fakhr al-DIn who, for a short time before his death 
in the battle of Mansura, acted as regent of the 

Nevertheless, if one compares the behaviour of 
the Ayyubids with that of the Great Saldjuks, a 
greater flexibility is certainly to be observed. This is 
doubtless connected with the general aim of relaxing 
tension which we have noted, moreover, in the 
policy adopted towards the Franks. But it must 
also be said that the heretics of Syria had been 
sufficiently weakened by the Zankids for it to be 
no longer really necessary to fight them, and that 
in Egypt Isma'ilism seems hardly to have left any 
regrets. At Aleppo, however, the government of al- 
Zahir Ghazi was stained by the blood of the Iranian 
mystic Suhrawardl Maktul, executed during the 
lifetime of Salah al-Din; but it must be said that 
this was a very special individual case, and that this 
measure was demanded by pietistic circles of Aleppo. 
The majority of the Ayyubids were Shafi'is, in 
contradistinction to the Turks who were Hanafis; 
and although doctrinally this does not impute to 
the latter a stronger degree of intolerance, the 
result may nevertheless have been that the Ayyubids 
had a less intimate contact with the pietists, devoted 
to the militant spiritual mission of the Saldjukids. 
However, al Mu'azzam and his son Da'fld were 
Hanafis, and this perhaps partly explains their 
conflicts with al-Kamil; they certainly appear, for 
example, at the time of the dealings with Frederick 
II, doctrinally to represent the intransigent party. 

Christians and Jews, generally speaking, likewise 
appear to have had no grounds for complaint against 
the dynasty. As is almost always the case, when an 
exception occurs, the motive is political and not 
confessional. There is no doubt that the Ayyubid 
occupation impaired the exceptionally favourable 
conditions enjoyed by the Armenians under the last 
Fatimids (see ArmIniva). But it was the Copts who 
profited from these confiscations and not the Mus- 
lims. Similarly, when Salah al-Din retook Jerusalem, 
he favoured such of the native Christian com- 
munities there as could not be suspected of coven- 
anting with the Franks (cf. inter alia CI. Cahen, 
Indigines et Croists, un mddecin d'Amaury et de 
Saladin, in Syria 1934, and E. Ce.rulli, Etiopi in 
Palistina, i, Rome 1943). The Ayyubid period in 
Egypt was one of vitality for the Coptic Church. 
When moments of tension arose, it was generally as 
a counter effect of Crusades, in so far as collusion 
might be-feared, for example, between Melkitis and 
Latins. That it was not considered necessary, 
however, in normal circumstances, to prohibit 
intercourse between indigenous and Latin Christians 
is shown by the permission accorded by the Ayyubids 
for Dominican and Franciscan missionaries to enter 
their kingdom, provided that no attempt was made 
to convert Muslims. It is true that the traditional 
discriminatory measures in respect of non-Muslims 
were from time to time revived, always with the same 
ineffectiveness. The Jews were also passably well 
treated, even being invited to return to reconquered 
Jerusalem, and refugees from Spain, such as Mai- 
monides, were favourably received (see E. Ashtor- 
Strauss, Saladin and the Jews, in Hebrew Union 
College Annual, 1956, 305-26). 



The climate certainly offers a partial explanation 
for the intensity of cultural life in the Ayyubid 
domains. Syria in the 13th century was truly the 
heart of Muslim culture in the Arabic language. 
Egypt was soon to rival her, but had not as yet 
quite achieved a synthesis between the survivals 
from her own past and the imported elements 
favoured by the Ayyubids. All the credit for this 
flowering cannot indeed be claimed by the Ayyubids, 
but it would be in just to deny any credit to princes 
who were themselves frequently men of letters and 
scholars, and who in general sought to protect and 
attract the representatives of all disciplines com- 
patible with orthodoxy. The economic progress and 
the general advance of Muslim recovery in the 
area which the Crusades had involved most directly 
in the struggle, must have accomplished the rest. 
There is little object in giving a list of names of men 
of letters and scholars. The names of the historians 
and geographers will be found in the bibliography 
of sources; Ibn al-Kiftl (wazir of Aleppo) and Ibn 
Abl c Usaybi c a, biographers of scholars and physi- 
cians, draw our attention to the importance of the 
support given to these latter in the hospitals; among 
the poets (some of whom were studied by Rikabi, 
La Poisie profane sous les Ayyubides, 1949), the 
historian will perhaps more especially note al- 
Amdjad BahramshSh, himself an Ayyubid, or a 
man of the suks such as Ibn al-Djazzar (cited in the 
Mughrib of Ibn Sa'id). Furthermore, emphasis 
should be laid on the many Spanish refugees who 
established themselves in the Ayyubid domains, 
men as diverse as the historian-geographer Ibn 
Sa c Id, the grammarian Ibn Malik, the botanist Ibn 
al-Bayfar and the mystic Ibn al-'Arabf. 

It is not possible to speak at length here of the 
Ayyubid principality of the Yemen; Ayyubid 
intervention here certainly had the same importance 
for the country as was the case in Egypt. Ayyubid 
rule to a certain extent restricted the quarrels of 
sects and princelings who divided the country 
among themselves, and brought about a political 
unity which was to survive them; although, from 
629/1232, the Ayyubids were supplanted by the 
Rasulids, the latter had their origins in their officer 
milieu and continued their traditions. The Ayyubid 
regime reintroduced Sunni Islam to the Yemen and 
linked it more closely to Egypt, politically, econo 
mically and institutionally. The persistence of 
religious divisions in the population may have been 
the origin of the strange attempt on the part of the 
third Ayyubid to pass himself off as an autonomous 
Umayyad Caliph; after his overthrow, al-'Adil and 
al-Kamil stressed their intention of not allowing the 
Yemen to escape from their hands by sending one 
of the sons of the latter to take over the succession. 
Al-Kamil, however, was unable to prevent the 
accession of the Rasulids, but the latter were at 
pains to show themselves, at least at the outset, as 
allies of the Ayyubids; later there arose conflicts 
of influence between them at Mecca; commercial 
relations, however, seem never to have been 
broken off. 

III. The death of al-Kamil marks the end of the 
true Ayyubid regime, with the reservation that the 
resulting degradation was, in a large measure, implicit 
in its very constitution. Al-Kamil had relegated his 
eldest son al-Salih Ayyub to the government of 
Hisn-Kayfa and designated His youngest son al- 
c Adil to succeed him; al- c Adil /made himself disliked 
and his opponents appealed to al-Salih. The latter, 
in the course of fierce struggles, accompanied by 



many reverses, conquered his throne and restored 
the unity of command of the Ayyubid states (a unity 
rendered ephemeral by his death), not only at the 
expense of his younger brother, but also of the 
majority of the Ayyubids of Syria, especially al- 
Salih Isma'U, who had become master of Damascus. 
It is true that there had already been conflicts 
between Ayyubids, but these conflicts did not prevent 
either of the protagonists from in the first place 
receiving the territories which they governed from 
the Sultan, the head of the family, or family solidarity 
from keeping the harmful effects of these conflicts 
within definite limits. This time, the adversaries 
viewed one another as usurpers, and it was naked 
strength which gave the victory to al-Salih. Never- 
theless, this strength was no longer derived from the 
old Kurdo-Turkish army; during al-Kamil's lifetime, 
the disgrace of al-Salih had been due to the fact that, 
as his father's lieutenant in Egypt, in his distrust of 
the Kurds, he had carried out a large scale" recruit- 
ment exclusively of Turkish slaves. The army which 
he organised on becoming master of Egypt was 
exclusively Turkish. But, in the meantime, his 
successes had been due to an even more disquieting 
element: the Khwarizmians who, after the defeat 
and death of Dialal al-DIn, had been driven back 
from Asia Minor where for a time they had served 
the Saldjukids, and were seeking an employer and a 
territory. He invested them with Diyar Mudar and 
summoned them to fight against his enemies in 
the Djazira and in Syria; it was partly due to them 
that these wars were of so devastating and ruthless a 
character, until at last al-Salih, having no further 
need of them, caused them to be annihilated by his 
cousins of southern Syria. Furthermore, though the 
previous Ayyubids had kept the peace with the 
Franks, and at one point al-Kamil had even enter- 
tained an alliance with Frederick II against his 
brothers, such plans had never been actually realised. 
This time, the Franks appeared in alliance with 
al-Salih Isma'll and with al-Nasir DS'ud of Karak 
himself against al-Salih Ayyub and the Khwariz- 
mians, which resulted in an irreparable disaster for 
both of the former. This marks the appearance in 
al-Salih of a warlike spirit against the Franks which 
was unknown to his predecessors, and the ordeals 
of the Franks gave rise to a new Crusade, that of 
St. Louis, at the beginning of which the Ayyubid 
ruler died. 

In effect, he was the last Ayyubid. His son 
Turanshah was massacred after a few months by 
his troops, and even though several child puppets 
still carried on the name of the Ayyubid dynasty 
for a time, it was in fact from 647/1249 that the 
establishment of the new so-called Mamluk regime 
dated. Al-SaM? was the real creator of this regime. 
The well-knit and well-disciplined army of Turkish 
slaves, called the Bahriyya from the name of the 
barracks on an island in the river (Bahr), was the 
real arbiter of the situation; neither al-Salih nor 
Turanshah were military leaders. The dynasty 
might have lasted longer if the latter had not been 
unbalanced; it was inevitable that sooner or later the 
Bahriyya would supplant him by a leader promoted 
from among themselves, which they in fact did 
when, on the death of Turanshah, they raised the 
Turkoman c Izz al-DIn Aybak to power, first as 
atabeg and then as sultan. The "Kurdish" dynasty 
was succeeded by the "Turkish" regime, in the words 
of contemporaries. 

The Northern Ayyubids continued for a little 
while longer, but without further success. Their 



lives were spent under the shadow of the terror 
caused by the approach of the Mongols. They 
hesitated between submission which they feared 
might be annihilation, and armed resistance of 
which they despaired in advance. However, al- 
Nasir of Aleppo, with the advent of the Mamluk 
regime, had become the standard-bearer of the 
Ayyubid cause, and it required the mediation of the 
Caliph in face of the Mongol danger to bring about an 
agreement that all Syria belonged to him, the 
Mamluk Sultan being satisfied with Egypt. But in 
1258 Baghdad fell and, in 1260, Aleppo, Damascus 
and Mayyafarikin were either taken or capitulated of 
their own accord before the invader, who seemed to 
be invincible. The unfortunate al-Nasir, who unlike 
others did not dare to seek refuge in Egypt, was 
finally captured by the Mongols and, well treated 
at first, paid with his life when news arrived of the 
defeat of a Mongol army by the Mamluks at 'Ayn 
Djalut [q.v.] in Syria at the end of the same year. In 
the ensuing conquest of Syria by the Mamluk sultan 
Baybars, the principality of Karak (which moreover 
had been lost to the family of Da'ud in 1248), 
which was of great strategic importance, was 
subjugated; the principalities of Aleppo and Hims 
had disappeared of their own volition; that of 
Hamah alone, made illustrious by its writer-prince 
Abu '1-Fida 5 , was restored, and existed (with one 
interval) until 1342, by reason of its absolute 
docility. 

There was however another branch which survived 
for more than two centuries under the Mongols and 
their successors, in the vicinity of Hisn Kayfa; 
reduced to the level of a local seigniory, it re- 
turned in a rather odd way to its origins, in that 
it drew a large part of its strength from the Kurdish 
tribes who had become powerful in the region and 
among whom it attempted to play an ever-repeated 
role as arbiter. It succeeded in surviving the TImurid 
catastrophe, preserving a centre of culture, but in 
the end succumbed to the Ak Koyunlu; never- 
theless several of its members regained a minor 
local importance at the time of the Ottoman con- 
quest (cf. Claude Cahen, Contribution d I'Histoire 
de Dfydr Bakr au XIV siicle, in J A, 1955)- 

Bibliography: A. Sources. A number of 
archival documents of the Ayyubid period have 
been preserved; official documents, reported in 
Sinai (A. S. Atiya, The Arabic MSS. of Mt. Sinai, 
Baltimore 1955), or discovered in the Italian 
archives and published (M. Amari, Diplomi arabi 
del Archivo Fiorentino, 1863-67; Tafel and Thomas, 
Urkunden zur dlteren Handelsgeschichte Venedig, 
3 vols. 1856-7); cf. also Subhl Lablb cited above); 
private documents, in the collections of papers 
of Cairo, Vienna, etc. (cf. for example A. Dietrich, 
Eine Eheurkunde aus der Aiyubidenzeit, in Doc. 
islam, ined., Berlin Akad. Wiss. 1952)- Moreover 
partial collections have been preserved of copies 
of the correspondence of the Kadi al-Fadil (on 
whom see A. N. Helbig, Der Kadi al-Fadil, 1909, 
inadequate), of the Ayyubid al-Nasir DS'ud 
(Brockelmann, I, 318, and CI. Cahen, REI, 1936, 
341), and of al-Afdal's wazlr, Diva al-DIn b. 
al-Athlr (analyses of MSS. by Margoliouth, 
Xth Congress of Orientalists, Hablb Zayyjit, in 
Machriq xxxvii/4, 1939; and CI. Cahen, in BSOAS, 
xiv/i); numerous extracts of the first also occur 
in Abu Shama cited infra; various Jewish docu- 
ments in the collections of the Cairo Genlza. 



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ABRIDGED GENEALOGICAL TABLt 
[$ dttiJM UWm in Jwntnorf 



On the whole, the essential sources for us 

several comprehensive studies are to be found 
in the Introductions of CI. Cahen, La Syrie du 
Nord a Vipoque des Croisades, 1940, and H. Gott- 
schalk, al-Malik al-Kdmil (in the press); for the 
times of Salah al-DIn, H. A. R. Gibb, The Arabic 
Sources for the Life of Saladin, in Speculum, xxv/i, 
1950. For this first period, the main source is 
£ Imad al-DIn al-Isfahani, al-Barft al-Shdmi, of 
which only two fragments exist, at Oxford (cf. 
H. A. R. Gibb, in WZKM, lii, 1953), but of 
which more or less complete summaries are given 
in all the subsequent literature and especially in 
Abu Shama, K. al-Rawdatayn, Cairo ed. 1287/1872, 
2 vols, (the first part of a new critical edition by 
Hilmy M. Ahmad appeared in Cairo in 1956; it 
goes as far as 558/1163); extracts in Hist. Or. 
Crois., iv and v) ; it should be completed by 
al-Fath al-Kussi, idem, ed. C. Landberg, devoted 
to the events of 1187 (cf. J. Kraemer, Der Sturz 
des KOnigreichs Jerusalems in der Darstelling des — , 
Wiesbaden 1952). The other important Arabic 
sources are Ibn Shaddad, Life of Saladin, in Hist. 
Or. Crois. iii; Ibn Abl Tayyi quoted in Abu Shama, 
op. cit. ; the Bustdn al-Di&mi'- , ed. CI. Cahen, in 
BEO, Damascus 1937 and the Christian Abu 
Salih the Armenian, Churches, etc., ed. Evetts. 
For the beginning of the 7th/i3th century, the 
Kdmil of Ibn al-Athir becomes the main Arab 
source, to which must be added the last pages of 
Ibn AM '1-Damm (Oxford MS. Marsh 360), Ibn 
Natlf (MS. Leningrad IM 159 ed. in preparation 
by H. Gottschalk: a few extracts in Amari, 
Bibliotheca Arabo-Sicula, ii, Appendices; con- 
tinually utilised in Ibn al-Furat, infra), the ex- 
tracts from the Memoirs of c Abd al-Latlf preserved 
in the Ta'rikh al-Isldm of Dhahabi and the 
authors quoted for the following period. For the 
7th/i3th century of the Ayyubids as a whole and 
especially from about 1220, the fundamental 
source is the Mufarridx al-Kurub of Ibn Wasil 
(ed. undertaken by al-Shayyal, who so far has 
published the first two volumes stopping at 
the death of Saladin ; extracts quoted in the 
Bibliotheque des Croisades of Michaud, iv (by 
Reinaud) and in the comments on the translation 
of Makrizi by Blochet in ROL, ix-xi); this work 
and the Mir'dt al-Zamdn of Sibt Ibn al-Djawz! 
(facsimile ed. Jewett, on which is based that of 
Haydarabad, ii, 1952, inadequate, cf. Arab. 1957/2 
review by CI. Cahen), especially important for 
Damascus, are the two sources used almost 
exclusively for the whole of subsequent historio- 
graphy; the overrated Abu '1-Fida' in the main 
only reproduces the work of his less noble com- 
patriot for this period; Ibn Wasil had previously 
written a more concise Ta'rikh Sdlitii, based on 
different sources of information (unpublished). 
To these authors must be added especially Abu 
Shama, Dhayl c ala 'l-Rawclaiayn, Cairo ed. 1366/ 
1947, the Christian al-Makln b. al-'Amid 
(edition in BEt.Or., 1958, by CI. Cahen), the 
History of the Partiarchs of Alexandria (this 
part unpublished, quotations, among others, in 
Blochet-Makrlzl loc. cit.), the extracts of Sa c d 
al-DIn (CI. Cahen, Une source pour I'Histoire des 
Croisades, les Mimoires de — , in Bull. Fac. Lettres 
Strasbourg, xxviii-7, 1950) ; for Northern Syria, the 
Zubda of KamSl al-DIn Ibn al- c Adim (ed. under- 
taken by Sami Dahan; meanwhile, Blochet trans. 
in ROL, iv-vi) and the Bughya by the same author 



(unpublished), and <Izz al-DIn Shaddad, cf. infra; 
the 'Iraki point of view is to be found in Ibn 
al-Fuwati, al-Hawddith, etc., ed. Must, pjawad; 
the Khwarizmian in Nasawl, Vie de Djaldl al-din, 
ed. trans. Houdas; the Saldjukid (of Rum) in Ibn 
Bibl, ed. Houtsma (somewhat abbreviated: in 
Persian). See also the historians of the Mongols and 
of the first Mamluks. Among later Arab historians 
who have preserved some original materials, Djazarl 
(CI. Cahen, in Oriens, iv/i, 1951, 151-3), DhahabI 
(ed. in preparation), Nuwayri (Cairo ed.), Ibn 
al-Furat (this part unpublished), Makrizi (Suluk, 
ed. Must. Ziada; Khitat, Bulak ed. and, for the 
beginning, ed. Wiet, the only good edition). For 
the Yemen under the Ayyubids, better than the 
celebrated KhazradjI (ed. trans. Gibb Mem. Ser.), 
of late composition, the contemporary Ibn 
Mudjawir (ed. Lofgren) and Hamdani (Brockel- 
mann, I 323, unpublished). For the principality 
of Hisn Kayfa, the anonymous Vienna manuscript 
studied in CI. Cahen, Contributions etc. cited above. 
A general history of the whole Ayyubid family 
was composed at the beginning of the gth/isth 
century by an anonymous Syrian (Brit. Mus. Add. 
731 1, unpublished). On the whole, too many 
important sources are still in manuscript form and 
their publication (at least photographically) is a 
pressing desideratum. Translated extracts from 
the Arabic historians will be found in F. Gabrieli, 
Storici arabi delle Crociate, Rome 1957. and 
J. 0strup, Atabiske Kreniker til Korstogenes 
Periode, Copenhagen 1906. 

To the historians must be added the biographers, 
not only Ibn Khallikan, but also Ibn al-Kifti (ed. 
Lippert) and Ibn Abl c Usaybi c a (ed. Aug. Muller), 
and the geographers, Yakut, Ibn Sa'Id (unpubli- 
shed), and especially c Izz al-DIn b. Shaddad 
(Northern Syria, ed. Ledit in Machriq, 1935 ; 
Aleppo, ed. Sourdel, Damascus 1958; Damascus, 
ed. Dahan 1957; Djazlra, analysis by CI. Cahen in 
RE I, 1934; further extracts by Sobernheim in 
Centenario di Amari, ii, (Ba c lbak) and in the 
Corpus Inscriptionum Arab, passim), historical and 
administrative, to be completed by Sibt Ibn al- 
'Adjaml, Les Trisors d'Or, analysis and trans. 
Sauvaget, 1950, and c UlaymI, Description de 
Damas, ed. Sauvaire, in J A, 1894. 

As administrative treatises must be cited 
(besides the extracts preserved by Makrizi) Ibn 
al-Mammati, Kawdnin alDawdnin (ed. Atiya, 
1943), Ibn Shit al-Kurshi, Ma'dlim al-Kitdba, 
ed. Khuri I^ustantin Pasha, 1913; and the 
tracts of Nabulusi, Akhbar al-Fayyiim, ed. 
B. Moritz, cf. CI. Cahen, Les Impdts, etc., quoted 
above, and Lam' al-Kawdnin, ed. CI. Cahen to 
appear shortly, extracts by C. Owen in JNES, 
1935; finally the Nihdyat al-Rutba of al-Shayzari 
and the technical treatises like the treatise on 
gun-making, and the monetary treatise of Ibn 
Ba c ra analysed by Ehrenkreutz in Contributions 
etc. quoted above; I do not know the Tadhkira fi 
'l-Hiydl al-Harbiyya dedicated by 'All al-HarawI 
to al-?ahir GhazI (Rescher in MFOB, v, 191 2, 
495 ed. in preparation by J. Sourdel-ThDmine). 
The diwdns of the poets should not be neg- 
lected. 

Naturally non-Arab and non-Muslim literature 
must also be consulted, which cannot be given in 
detail here: especially the Latin and French 
historians of the Crusades and of the Latin 
Orient, and Syriac literature (Michael the Syrian, 
ed. and trans. Chabot; Bar-Hebraeus, ed. and trans. 



AYYUBIDS — AZAD 



Budge; Chronique anonyme syriaque, ed. Chabot, 
in Corpus Script, or., iii, 14-15). 

The epigraphical material has been collected in 
the RCEA, vii-ix; the inscriptions of Salah al-Din 
studied by Wiet .in Syria, iii. To the numismatic 
material provided by the usual catalogues, should 
be added the recent studies of Balog, Minost and 
Jungfleisch in MIE since 1950. 

B. Modern Works. There is no complete general 
study on the Ayyubids. The two best general 
accounts, though short, are those of G. Wiet in 
the Histoire de la Nation Egyptienne edited by 
Hanotaux, iv, and of H. A. R. Gibb in History of 
the Crusades (Philadelphia), i, (Saladin) 1955 and, 
ii (The Ayyubids after Saladin) in the press. 
There is not even a serious biography of Saladin; 
the latest is that of A. Champdor, Paris 1956, and 
the least bad still that of Lane- Poole, New York 
1898. Of the rest of the Ayyubids, al-Kamil alone 
has just been the subject of an important work, 
by H. Gottschalk (in the press; the same author 
has given notice of an article on Ayyubid Yemen). 
The studies on various special problems have been 
quoted in the article. For trade, hardly anything 
new has been added from our point of view to the 
two old classical works of W. Heyd, Histoire du 
Commerce du Levant, i, 1882, and of Schaube, 
Handelsgeschichte der M ittelmeerromanen, 1906, 
which view matters from the Western point of 
view. Some information on institutions is contained 
in W. Bjorkman, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Stoats- 
kanzlei im islamischen Agypten, Hamburg 1929. 
See also the general histories on the Crusades and 
the Latin Orient; F. Butcher, The history of the 
church of Egypt, 1897; and supra and infra the 
articles devoted to the individual rulers, as well as 
the section on madrasa in the article Masdjid. 

(Cl. Cahen) 
al- c AYYCS [see nudjOm]. 

C AZAB. An Arabic word meaning "an unmarried 
man or woman", "a virgin", applied to several types 
of fighting men under the Ottoman and other 
Turkish regimes between the 13th and the 19th 
centuries. The soldiers of various Ottoman format- 
ions, notably all those recruited by dewshirme [?.».], 
were forbidden to marry before retirement; and it 
may be assumed that the earliest 'azabs we read of 
— those employed as marine troops by the Aydln 
Oghullari in the 13th century — were bachelors 
recruited from coastal villages. The term was 
probably used likewise for marines both in the 
Saldjukid state of Konya and in those of its smaller 
successor states that were possessed of seaboards. 
Presumably because the men concerned were 
again unmarried, the term c azab was also applied 
from early Ottoman times to the light archers, 
recruited ad hoc for campaigns in whatever numbers 
were considered necessary, whose office in battle it 
was immediately to face the enemy from a station 
in front of the artillery and the Janissaries and to 
open the fight with a hail of arrows. These 'azabs were 
drawn one from every twenty or thirty "khdnes" in 
the provinces, and supported whilst on service from 
the contributions of those khdnes., which stood in 
lieu of tax payments (cf. 'awArid]. 

From the middle of the 14th century, further, 
there were 'azabs employed in the garrisons of 
Ottoman fortresses. These kal'e 'azablart, as they 
were called, were organised more or less like the 
Janissary and other oajahs recruited by dewshirme 
(though not so recruited themselves) and paid in 
cash by the Treasury. Though they may all have 



started their service as bachelors, these men must 
have been permitted eventually to marry, since 
places in these corps were heritable by competent 
sons. After the 16th century the kal'e 'azablart were 
sometimes employed as bridge-builders and sappers 
{laghlmdiUar). It is perhaps these 'azabs of whom 
D'Ohsson states (Tableau, vii, 309) that they were 
charged with the care of munitions and were incor- 
porated in the corps of the d±ebed±is, and again 
(Tableau, vii, 363) that though really djebedjis, they 
were often called 'azabs, particularly in Egypt. This 
"incorporation" presumably took place after the 
diebediis ceased being recruited by dewshirme. 
Another late reference to "frontier" c azabs is made 
by Juchereau de Saint-Denys (Revolutions i, 90). 
Writing of the second decade of the 9th century 
(between the collapse of the Nizam-i Qiedld and the 
abolition of the Janissaries), he lists the 'azabs, 
under Serhadd fCullari, as elite infantry stationed on 
the frontiers. 

Finally, the Ottomans continued the tradition of 
the Aydln Oghullari in employing '■azabs at sea, as 
Treasury-paid musketeers, organised in companies 
under officers (reHs) who might rise either to the 
command of galleys or to some of the chief posts at 
the Admiralty (next to which there was an c azab 
barracks), as for instance its kdhyaltk. The men of 
the Admiralty odjak were indeed also known as 'azabs, 
who, like those employed at sea, were Treasury-paid. 
Their duty was to guard war-ships whilst in dock. 
Bibliography: Mustafa Nuri, Netd'idj at- 

Wuku'at, i, 144; d'Ohsson, Tableau de V Empire 

Ottoman, vii, loc. cit.; Hammer, Des osmanischen 

Reichs Staatsverfassung, etc. ii, 280, 287-8; 

Zinkeisen, iii, 202; EI 1 art. Lewend (Kramers); 

I A art. 'Azab (Uzuncarslll) ; Gibb and Bowen, 

Islamic Society and the West, i (part I) index. 
(H. Bowen) 

AZAD, Abu'l-Kalam [see Supplement]. 

AzAD, Muhammad Husayn, an Indian Muslim 
writer and poet, who wrote in Urdu and is noted for 
the unique charm of his agreeable and picturesque 
style and for the important rdle he played in the 
field of literature and education. He was born in 
Delhi about 1834, being the son of Mawlawl Muham- 
mad Bakir, himself a pioneer of journalism in 
Northern India. After the political upheaval of 1857, 
he left Delhi and after several years' wandering 
arrived in Lahore in 1864. He spent the rest of his 
life there in the service of the education department 
of the Government of the Pandjab, writing among 
other things text-books for students of the Urdu 
and Persian languages. He also made journeys 
to Persia and Central Asia. He died at Lahore in 1910. 

His principal works are: Ab-i Haydt, a history of 
Urdu poetry, with an introduction on the history 
of the Urdu language; it is his greatest and best- 
known work, which is celebrated and highly prized 
not only for its subject-matter but also for its vivid 
and graphic style; Sukhandn-i Pars, on Persian phil- 
ology and the development of Persian prose style; 
Nigdristdn-i Pars, dealing with Persian poets of 
India and Persia; Nayrang-i Khaydl, a collection of 
allegorical essays, translated or adapted from the 
English; Darbdr-i Akbari, which deals with the 
reign of the Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great and 
his brilliant court, and Kisas-i Hind, or stories from 
Indian history. He also collected and edited the 
poetical compositions of his master, Muhammad 
Ibrahim Dhawk. 

He used Azad as his pen-name; and along with 
Altaf Husayn Hall [q.v.] he is regarded as a pioneer 



8o8 



AZAD — AZALAY 



of the new school of Urdu poetry, which is charac- 
terised by naturalness and greater breadth of subject 
and treatment and also by increased attention paid to 
thought and matter as opposed to language and form. 
Bibliography : B R. Saksena, A History of 
Urdu Literature, Allahabad 1927; M. Bakir in 
Supplement to the Oriental College Magazine 
(Lahore) for Feb., 1939; Muhammad Sadik, 
Muhammad Husayn Azdd, his Life, Work and 
Influence, Doctoral Dissertation in the Pandjab 
University, 1939; S. M. Husayn Ridawl, Ab-i 
Haydt ka Tankidi Mutdla'a, Lucknow 1953. 

(Sh. Inayatullah) 
AZAD BILGRAMI, MIr Ghulam <AlI b. Nuh al- 
HusaynI al-Wasiti, b. at Bilgram on 25 Safar 1116/ 
29 June 1704; he received his early education from 
MIr Tufayl Muhammad Bilgrami (Subhat al-Mardj.an 
99-4) and later studied with MIr c Abd al-Djalll Bilgra- 
mi (Mahathir al-Kiram, i, 257-77). In 1151/1738 he 
performed the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina and 
learnt hadith from Shavkh Muhammad Hay at Sindl 
al-Madani and <Abd al-Wahhab Tantawl (Ma'dthir 
al-Kiram, i, 162). He returned to India in 1 152/1739, 
and settled at Awrangabad where he died in 1200/ 
1786; he was buried at Khuldabad (Deccan) (T. W. 
Haig, Historic Landmarks of the Deccan, Allahabad 
1907, 58). 

When his friend Samsam al-Dawla Shah Nawaz 
Khan [?.».], dlwdn of Haydarabad, was murdered and 
his house plundered (1171/1758), Azad recovered most 
of the dispersed fragments of the unfinished MS. of 
the tetter's Ma'dthir al-Umara', which he re-arranged 
and edited. The works of Azad himself cover 
hadith, belles-lettres, history, biography and poetry. 
His Arabic kasd'id in praise of the Prophet have 
earned him the title of Hassan a]-Hind, after the 
Prophet's panegyrist Hassan b. Thabit [?.».]. 

His notable works are: In Arabic: (1) Subhat al- 
Mardjdn ft Athdr Hindustan (lith. Bombay 1303/ 
1886), incorporating two independent works by the 
author: Shammamat al- c Anbar and Tasliyat al-Fu'dd, 
the former containing references to India in Kur'anic 
commentaries and hadith and the latter on biogra- 
phies of Indian scholars and t ulama > . The chapter 
on rhetorical figures was later translated into Persian 
by the author himself under the title of Qhizldn al- 
Hind (MSS. Asafiyya, i, 169 ; Ethe, 21 35 ; Berlin 105 1) ; 
(2) Dlwdn in 3 vols. (Haydarabad 1300-1/1882-3) 
containing more than 3000 verses; a selection from 
his seven other diwans entitled al-Sab'a al-Sayyara 
was published at Lucknow, 1328/1910; (3) Daw'al- 
Dardri Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari, an incomplete 
commentary on al-Bukhari (MS. Nadwat al-'UlamS 5 , 
Lucknow, 99); In Persian: (4) Khizdna-i 'Amira, 
alphabetically arranged notices of some 135 ancient 
and modern Persian poets with a brief history of 
the Marathas, (Cawnpore 1871, 1900); (5) Ma'dthir 
al-Kiram, on the pious and learned men of Bilgram 
(lith. Agra 1910); (6) Sarw-i Azdd, biographies of 
143 Persian and Urdu poets of India (Lahore 1913); 
(7) Yad-i Baydd', alphabetically arranged lives of 
532 poets, originally compiled at SlwastSn (i.e. 
Sihwan, in Sind, where he was nd'ib WakdV-nigar) 
in 1145/1732 (MS. Asafiyya, iii, 162; Ind. Off. 
3966 (b) ; (8) Rawdat al-Awliya?, a short compendium 
on the saints of Deccan (lith. Awrangabad 1310/1892). 
For a detailed list of his works see GJASB (L), 1936, 
119-30; Shams Allah Kadirl, Ramus al-A'ldm i, 
32-5; Storey, i/2, 855-66. 

Bibliography: Autobiography in Subhat al- 
Mardjan 118-23, Khizdna-i * Amir a 123-45, 
Ma'dthir al-Kiram 161-64, 303-n; Siddlk Hasan 



Khan, Ithdf al-NubaW, 530; idem, Abdfad al- 
'Ulum, 920; HaddHk al-Hanafiyya, 454; Tadhkira 
'Ulamd-i Hind 154; Wadjih al-DIn Ashraf, Bthr-i 
Zakhkhar (MS), fol. 315; Rieu, Pers. Cat., i, 373 b, 
iii, 976 b ; Asiatick Miscellany, Calcutta 1785, i, 494- 
511 ; Shibll Nu'manl, Makdldt (in Urdu), v, 118-35 ; 
Brockelmann, S II, 600-1; Makbul Ahmad Sam- 
danl, Haydt-i DjalU Bilgrami (in Urdu), Allahabad 
1929, ii, 163-77; Ibrahim KhalU, Suhuf-i Ibrahim, 
s.v.; Zubayd Ahmad, Contribution of India to 
Arabic Literature, index; Lacmi Narayan 
Shaflk: Gul-i Ra'nd, s.v.; Muhyl'1-Din Zor, 
Ghulam C AH Azdd Bilgrami, Haydarabad. 

(A. S. Bazmee Ansabi) 
AZAK, Russian Azov; called Tana by the 
Italians after the ancient Tanais (the Old-Tana 
of Jos. Barbaro) is first found on an Italian map of 
1306. The Turkish name Azak has appeared on 
coins since 717/1317. First the Genoese around 1316, 
then the Venetians in 1332, established trade 
colonies in Azak. It appears, however, to have 
remained essentially a Muslim-Tatar city which was 
administered by Tatar governors such as Muhammad 
Kh w adia about 1334, Sichi-beg in 1347 and 1349, 
Tolobey about I3<8. A mint of the khans was 
active there as late as 1411. An emporium of the 
East-West trade in the 14th century, Azak declined 
perhaps more from the competition of the Genoese 
Kaffa than Djani-bek's hostile policy toward the 
Italian colonies (1343-1358) or TImur's depredations 
(September 1396). Conquered by the Ottomans in 
1475, Azak is described as a kadd of the sandjak of 
Kaffa in the defter of 1545. The town consisted of 
three parts: 1. Venedik-kal'esi (in Ewliya Celebi, 
Frenk-hisari) with 198 Muslim families including 
garrison; 2. Dieneviz-kal'esi (later Orta-hisar) with 
109 Muslim families including garrison; 3. Toprak- 
kal'e with 500 Tatar aklndjl and 104 families of 
fishermen and 57 Greek families. Extensive fisheries 
and large production of caviar as well as slave-ti"ade 
were the chief economic resources in this period. 
Later when the Cossacks, Cerkes and Russians began 
threatening it Azak was transformed into the niain 
Ottoman bastion in the North. The first serious 
siege was attempted by Dimitrash, a chief of the 
Cossacks, in 1559. They eventually captured it in 
1637, but had to abandon it in 1642. As the atUcks 
were renewed in subsequent years especially in 1656 
and 1659, the Ottomans made it stronger man 
ever (in 1666 Ewliya Celebi saw a garrison of 13 
thousand men and numerous cannons in it) and 
later erected new fortifications around it such as 
Sedd-i Islam. After an unsuccessful attack in 1695, 
Peter the Great captured Azak on August 6, 1696. 
Compelled to surrender it at the treaty of the 
Prut (1711), he only evacuated it two years later. 
The Russians recaptured it in 1736. 

Bibliography: A. S. Orlov, Skazotnia povsti 
ob Azov, Warsaw 1906; Ewliya Celebi, Seydhat- 
name, vol. II and VII; I. Bykadorov, Donskoe 
Voisko. . ., 1540-1646, Paris 1937; B. H. Sumner, 
Peter the Great and the Ottoman Empire, Oxford 
1949; W. Heyd, Hist, du Commerce du Levant, vol. 
II ; A. Refik, in TOEM, vol. 16, pp. 261-275 ; A. N. 
Kurat, Isvec Klralt XII. Karl . . ., Istanbul 1943; 
C. Baysun, Azak, in I A. (H. InalcIb) 

AZAL [see $idam.] 

AZALAY (current orthography: azalai), a term 
for the great caravans made up of several thousand 
camels (or to be more precise, dromedaries), which 
in the spring and autumn carry the salt from the 
salt deposits of the Southern Sahara to the tropical 



AZALAY — AZAMMUR 



809 



regions of the Sahel and the Sudan. This salt, which 
used to be exchanged by the Blacks against its 
weight in gold, if one is to believe al-Bakri (trans, 
de Slane, 2nd. ed., 327), is exchanged today for 
food-stuffs : rice, millet, sugar, tea . . . The salt from 
Idjil, to the West, which has perhaps been known 
since the 6th century A.D. (Anonymus of Ravenna), 
is collected by manumitted slaves of the Kounta 
(Moors) of Chinguiti and transported by the Moors 
to the markets of the Western Sudan. The salt 
deposits of Taoudenni have replaced those of 
Teghaza, a source of wealth of the kings of Mali 
and of Gao (i4th-i5th centuries), and have been 
worked since 1585 ; the salt, after being collected by 
sedentary miners, is taken to Timbuctoo by the 
Kounta and by a few small Touareg caravans; it is 
distributed throughout the whole of the Central 
Sudan and the Upper Volta. To the East, the salt 
deposits of Bilma, Seguedine and Fachi are worked 
by the Kanouri and the salt transported by azalay 
by the Touareg of Air and Damergou; it is sold in 
Nigeria and in the Niger Colony. The salt of Borkou 
(Faya) and of Ennedi furnishes supplies to the 
blacks of the plains of French Equatorial Africa. 
As regards the salt of Amadror, to the North of 
Tamanrasset, this is collected and transported by 
the Kel Ahaggar and the Kel Ajjer. 

The azalai is the only type of great caravan which 
has survived. The salt trade has always been a source 
of wealth to the nomads of the Southern Sahara. 
It persists, in spite of the competition from salt 
from Europe and of the sea salt deposits of Kaolak. 
Bibliography : Capot-Rey, Le Sahara francais, 

Paris 2 ed. 1959 (with bibliog.). (J. Despois) 

AZALl, name given to those Babis [q.v.] who 
followed Mirza Yahya, called Subh-i Azal [q.v.], 
after the death of the Bab. 

A C £AMGARH, town and head-quarters of the 
district of the same name in the province of Uttar 
Pradesh (India), situated in 26° 5' N. and83° 12' E. 
on the river Tons, notorious for its frequent and 
devastating floods; it was founded in 1076/1665-6 by 
A'zam Khan I, a scion of an influential Radjput 
family, whose head Abhlman Singh, embraced Islam 
during the reign of Djahangir (1014/1605-1037/1627) 
and was named Dawlat Khan. Population U11951: 
26,632; district: 2, 102,423. A series of battles 
between the successors of A'zam Khan I and the 
Nawabs of Awadh for political supremacy culminated 
in the battle of Diawnpur in 1175/1761-2, which 
resulted in the death of both the Radja of A'zamgarh 
and the 'dmil (revenue collector) of Nizamabad 
(Awadh). A'zamgarh was then occupied by Fadl-i 
'All Khan, ruler of Ghazipur. On the defeat of 
Shudja' al-Dawla at Buxar in 1178/1764-5 at the 
hands of the British, A'zam Khan II returned to 
his ancestral estate. On his death in 1185/1771-2 the 
entire estate was annexed to the kingdom of Awadh. 
In 1216/1801-2 it was ceded by Sa'adat 'All Khan. 
Nawab of Awadh, to the East India Company. 
The town was badly disturbed during the Mutiny 
of 1857 when the local prison was stormed and the 
inmates were set free. 

The dilapidated fort built by A'zam Khan I and 
a temple erected towards the close of the I2th/i8th 
century are the only buildings of note. A'zamgarh 
has been frequently visited by serious floods causing 
widespread damage. The floods of 1871, 1894, 1896, 
1898 and 1956 were particularly heavy. It has 
earned a bad name for Hindu-Muslim riots, which 
frequently took place. 

A'zamgarh is now famous as a centre of cultural 



activity, being the seat of the Dar al-Musannifln 
(Shibli Academy) and its Urdu organ the "Ma'drif". 
Bibliography: Azamgarh District Gazetteer, 
r 935, 39ff-; Imp. Gazetteer of Ind. 1908, vi, 155-6, 
162-3; Sulayman Nadwi, Ifaydt-i Shibli, A'zam- 
garh 1362/1943, 50-5; Gird'harl (Lai), Intizdm-t 
Rddj-i A'zamgarh, (Edinburgh Univ. MS. No. 237) ; 
Amir C AU Ridawl, Sargudhasht-i Rddjahd-i A'zam- 
garh, (Edinburgh Univ. MS. No. 377); Anon., 
Td'rikh-i A'-zamgarh (I.O. MS. 4038); Sabah al- 
Din «Abd al- Rahman, A History of A'-zamgarh 
(in the Press). (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

AZAMMtjR (Fr. Azemmour, Span, and Port. 
Azamor), town on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, 
about 75 km. South-West of Casablanca and 10 km. 
North-East of Mazagan, on the left bank and some 
3 km. from the mouth of the WadI Umm al-Rabiy c 
(Oum er-Rbi c a). It possessed approximately 15,000 
inhabitants in 1953, mostly Muslims, with a small 
Jewish minority (melldh) and a very small number of 
Europeans. The name is connected with the Berber 
azemmur (wild olive tree). The town is famous for 
shad fishing, which is one of the population's 
principal means of livelihood and takes place 
each year from December to March. Its patron saint 
is a sayyid who lived at the time of the Mu'minid 
dynasty: Mulay Bush'ib (= Mawlay Abu Shu'ayb). 
The history of Azammur remains obscure until 
the time of its contacts with the Spanish and Portu- 
guese. The former, setting out from the maritime 
coast of Lower Andalusia, appear to have made 
several incursions, between a date which it has not 
been possible to fix and the ratification at Toledo 
in 1480 of the Hispano- Portuguese treaty of Alca- 
covas, which abandoned the Atlantic part of Morocco 
to Portugal. In i486, the town appears under the 
sovereignty of the King of Portugal, who was then 
John II (1481-1495). Twenty years later, doubtless 
at the instigation of a party formed among the local 
chieftains, the Portuguese wished to occupy it 
effectively; in August 1508, during the reign of 
Manuel the Fortunate (1495-1521), they made 
an unsuccessful attempt to carry this out; they 
repeated their efforts at the beginning of September 
1513, under the command of the Duke of Braganza, 
and this time their efforts were completely successful. 
As in their other places in Morocco, the Portuguese 
built strong fortifications at Azammur the whole 
of which still exists. When their positions in Southern 
Morocco were shaken by the fall of Santa Cruz do 
CabodeGue in March 1541 (see art. agadir), King 
John III (1521-7) decided to concentrate all his 
forces at Mazagan, and had Azammur evacuated at 
the same time as Safi, towards the end of October 
1541 (see asfI). Azammur, which thus became a 
centre of the holy war, from then onwards lived in 
a state of permanent hostility with Mazagan, until 
the Portuguese abandoned the latter place in 1769. 
Azammur was first occupied by French troops in 
1908 and was incorporated into the French Protec- 

Azammur is probably the home of Estebanico de 
Azamor, a Moroccan negro, celebrated in the history 
of the exploration of the American continent, who 
took part in 1528 -1536 in the great trek of the 
Spaniard Cabeza de Vaca across the southern part 
of the present-day United States. 

Bibliography: See the works listed under 
the article, ASFI, especially Sources inidiies, etc., 
and Ricard, fctudes, etc. In addition: Villes et 
tribus du Maroc, xi, Region des Doukkala, ii, 
Azemmour et sa banlieue, Paris 1932 (the historical 



AZAMMOR — AZARIKA 



part is rather uncertain), and Ch. Le Coeur, Le 
rite et I'outil, Paris 1939. (R. Ricard) 

AZAR, the commonly accepted name of Abra- 
ham's father, based on Kur'an, vi, 74 "When 
Abraham said to his father, Azar: 'Dost thou take 
idols as gods?'", where Azar is taken as a proper 
name, in apposition to "father", though some of the 
commentators, aware that the name of this father was 
Terah, explain Azar as an exclamation of disgust, 
an abusive epithet, or the name of an idol. The 
majority opinion, however, is that it is the name 
of Abraham's father, either a second name for 
Terah, as Israel was for Jacob, or a title. In any 
case it was recognised as a foreign word and is listed 
among the mu'arrabdt of the Kur'an. There can be 
little doubt that it is a deformation of the Hebrew 
Eleazar, the name of Abraham's faithful servant in 
the Genesis story which, as that story came to 
Muhammad, was mistaken for the name of his 
father. [Cf. also ibrahim]. 

Bibliography: The commentaries on the 
passage: Ibn Manzur, Lisdn al- c Arab, v, 76; 
Tabari, AnnaUs, i, 253ft.; Tha'labl. Ki?a$ al- 
Anbiyd', Cairo 1339, 51; SuyutI, Itkdn, 318; Ibn 
Kathir, ai-Biddya wa 'l-Nihdya, i, 142; Ibn 
'Asakir, al-Ta'rikh al-Kabir, ii, 134; S. Fraenkel, 
in ZDMG, vi, 72 ; A. Jeffery, Foreign Vocabulary of 
Qur'dn, 53-55; J. Horovitz, Koranische Unter- 
suchungen, 85, 86. (A. Jeffery) 

AZARIKA, One of the main branches of the 
Kharidjites [q.v.]. The name is derived from that of 
its leader Nafi' b. al-Azrak al-Hanafi al-Hanzali, 
who, according to al-Ash'ari, was the first to cause 
disputes among the Kharidjites by supporting the 
thesis according to which all adversaries should be 
put to death together with their women and children 
(isti'rad). As regards the man himself, it is known 
that he was the son of a manumitted blacksmith of 
Greek origin and that in 64/683 he came to the aid 
of 'Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr, beseiged in Mecca by the 
troops of the Syrian general Husayn b. Numayr al- 
Sakuni. Once the seige was raised, Nafi' with other 
Kharidjite leaders, including Nadjda b. 'Amir and 
c Abd Allah b. Ibad, returned to Basra, where he 
at once took advantage of the disturbances which 
had broken out on the announcement of the death of 
Yazld b. Mu'awiya. It was the Kharidjites under his 
orders who assassinated the governor nominated by 
'Ubayd Allah b. Ziyad, Mas'ud b. 'Amr al- c Ataki, 
and who subsequently refused to recognise the 
governor sent by 'Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr, 'Umar 
b. 'Ubayd Allah, so that the latter was obliged to 
use force to gain possession of the town; in this 
he was helped by the inhabitants, who found it 
difficult to tolerate the Kharidjites' importunities. 
Expelled from Basra, Nafi' encamped at the gates 
of the town and, after collecting reinforcements, 
succeeded in defeating c Umar b. 'Ubayd Allah in the 
course of fierce fighting and in retaking the town. 
To re-establish the situation, Ibn al-Zubayr dispat- 
ched an army under the command of the general 
Muslim b. 'Ubays. It is probable that it was on this 
occasion that the opposition between the moderate 
elements and the extremist elements arose in Basra 
which led to the division of the Kharidjites into 
Ibadites and Azarika, an event placed by tradition in 
that year (65/684-5). Whilst the former, less coura- 
geous, preferred not to fight Muslim and remained in 
Basra, the latter, resolved to fight to the end, left 
the town and under the leadership cf Nafi' withdrew 
to Khuzistan (al-Ahwaz). Muslim caught up with 
them at Dulab: in the severe fighting which ensued, 



both Nafi' and the Zubayrid general met their 
deaths (65/685). The Azarika, however, reorganised 
themselves under the command of 'Ubayd Allah b. 
al-Mahuz and continued the struggle until the 
enemy troops, exhausted and discouraged, withdrew 
to Basra. For several months the region between 
Basra and a-Ahwaz was the scene of massacres, 
looting and arson, the Azarika massacring all who 
refused to recognise their sect. The population of 
Basra in alarm called upon al-Muhallab b. AM 
Sufra, who agreed to lead the struggle against the 
Azarika. After dislodging them from the Tigris, he 
inflicted a severe defeat on them near SiUabra to the 
East of Dudjayl, (66/686), following which they 
withdrew into Fans. 'Ubayd Allah b. al-Mahuz was 
killed in the fighting and the command passed to his 
brother Zubayr, who, having reorganised his sup- 
porters within a short space of time, again set out 
on a campaign. Descending once more into 'Irak, he 
advanced as far as al-Mada'in, which he sacked, mas- 
sacring the inhabitants. But, faced by an army from 
Kufa, he turned about and attacked Isfahan, which 
was governed by 'Attab b. Warka 5 . In an engagement 
near the town, the Azarika suffered a reverse and, 
on the death of Zubayr b. al-Mahuz, they fled in 
complete disorder into Fars and thence into the 
mountains of Kirman (68/687-8). It was a warrior 
from Luristan, Katari b. al-Fudja'a, who, combining 
fierce energy with exceptional gifts as an orator and a 
poet, succeeded in rekindling their enthusiasm 
and reorganising their ranks. After a period of time, 
he became active and, having occupied al-Ahwaz, 
descended once again into 'Irak and advanced towards 
Basra. The new governor of the town, Mus'ab b. 
al-Zubayr, convinced that only al-Muhallab would 
be capable of opposing the Azarika, recalled him 
from Mawsil. where he had sent him as governor, 
and entrusted him with the direction of the campaign. 
But, although al-Muhallab succeeded in launching 
a wide offensive against the Azraki condottiere, the 
latter succeeded in keeping him in check for a long 
time and in holding his position on the left bant of 
the Dudjayl, even after 'Irak had fallen into the 
hands of 'Abd al-Malik following the defeat of 
Mus'ab at Maskin (71/690). The situation did not 
change until al-Hadjdjadj b. Yusuf, having completed 
the pacification of Western Arabia, took over the 
government of 'Irak (75/694). The latter confirmed 
al-Muhallab in his command of the operations and 
ordered him to go over to the attack at once. Then it 
was that there started a long series of campaigns, con- 
ducted by al-Muhallab against the Azarika, which led 
to their being increasingly relegated to the periphery 
of the Empire. For, in spite of their fierce resistance, 
they were compelled to abandon Dudjayl, retreat 
to Kazirun and finally to evpcuate Fars and with- 
draw into Kirman. Having established their head- 
quarters in the town of Djiruft, they managed to 
hold their positions for a few years until the diver- 
gencies which arose in their army between Arabs and 
mawdli led to a split. Whilst Katari with the 
Arabs was compelled to abandon the town and to 
take refuge in Tabaristan, the mawdli continued 
to hold Djiruft under the command of 'Abd Rabbih 
al-Kablr (in addition to whom the sources speak of an 
'Abd Rabbih al-Saghir, who is supposed to have 
commanded a second group of dissidents). Whilst 
al-Muhallab was easily able to deal with the Azarika 
remaining in Kirman and massacred them all, the 
Kalbi general Sufyan b. al-Abrad, who had joined 
the governor of Tabaristan, caught up with Katari 
of this region and inflicted a 



AZARIKA — AZD 



decisive defeat on him. The brave condottiere, 
having fallen from his horse and been abandoned 
by his own men, was discovered and killed (78-79/ 
698-99). His head was taken to Damascus to be 
shown to the Caliph. The remnants of the Azarika 
who, under the leadership of c AbIda b. Hilal, had 
barricaded themselves in at Sadhawwar, near 
Kumis, after a prolonged siege were exterminated 
in an attempted sortie. In this manner the revolt, 
which of all the Kharidiite disturbances was un- 
doubtedly the most dangerous to the unity of the 
Muslim Empire and the most terrible by reason of 
its savage fanaticism, came to an end. 

Doctrine: The principal religious theses which 
separate the Azarika from the other Kharidjites are, 
according to al-Ash c ari: 1. The exclusion from Islam 
(bard'a) of the quietists (al-ka'ada) ; 2. The examina- 
tion (mihna) of all who wished to join their army ; 3. 
Regarding as unbelievers (takfir) those Muslims who 
did not make the hidjra to them; 4. The slaughter of 
the women and children of their adversaries (isti'rad) ; 
5. The exclusion from Islam (bard'a) of those who 
recognised takiyya either in word or deed: 6. The 
children of the mushrikun are in Hell, as are their 
parents. Further, according to al-Shahrastanl and al- 
Baghdadi: 7. Suppression of the stoning of adulterers 
which is not prescribed by the Kur'an; 8. The 
possibility of God's sending a Prophet, whom He 
knows will of necessity become impious or who was so 
before Sis mission; further, according to Ibn Hazm: 
9. Amputation of the thief's hand, i.e. arm, from the 
humerus; 10. Women during the menses must 
perform 1 the prayers and observe ritual fasting; 
11. Bari on killing those who acknowledged that 
they we're Jews, Christians or Zoroastrians (evidently 
becausi they enjoyed the dhimma). 

Bibliography: al-Ash c ari, Makdldtal-Isldmiy- 
yin, led. Ritter, Istanbul 1929, 86 ff. ; c Abd al- 
Kahit: al-Baghdadl, Kitdb al-Fark DaynaH-Firalf, 
Cairo 1328, 62-67; Ibn Hazm, Kitdb al-Fisal wa 
'l-MUal wa 'l-Nihal, Cairo 1321, iv, 189; al- 
Shahrastanl, ed. Cureton, 89-91; al-Baladhuri, 
Futuh, 56; idem, Ansdb, iv, 95-96, 98, 101-102, 
H5; ; xi, ed. Ahlwardt, 78 ff., goff., g6ff., 122-25; 
Abu' Hanifa al-Dinawari, ed. Guirgass and 
Kratchkovsky, 265-66, 278, 279, 281. 282, 284, 285, 
288, '289, 310, 311, 319, 342; al-Tabari, index ; al- 
Mubarrad, al-Kdmil, ed. Wright, index ; al-Ya c kubi, 
ii, 229-30, 317, 324; Ibn Kutayba, Kitdb al-Ma c drif, 
ed. Wustenfeld, 126, 210; al-Mas'udi, Muridi, v, 
229; A ghdni 1 , i, 34, vi, 2-5; Yakut, ii, 574, 575, 
623, iii, 62, 500; Ibn al-Athir, index; Ibn Abi 
l-Hadld, Shark NahU al-Baldgha, Cairo 1329, i, 
388 ff.; Ibn Khallikan, 555; al-Barradl, Kitdb al- 
Qiawdhir, Cairo 1302, 155, 165; M. Th. Houtsma, 
De Strijd over het Dogma in den Islam, Leiden 1875, 
28 ff. ; Wellhausen, Die religiis-politischen Oppo- 
sitionsparteien, in Abh. G. W. GMt., N.S., v, 2, 
1901, 28 ff.; R. E. Briinnow, Die Charidschiten 
unter den ersten Umaiyaden, Leiden 1884; Caetani, 
Chronographia islamica, iii, 731, 753, 762; iv, 768, 
782, 840, 860; Weil, Chalifen, index; Ch. Pellat, Le 
milieu basrien et la formation de Gdhiz, Paris 1953, 
209 ff.; R. Rubinacci, II califfo <-Abd al-Malik b. 
Marwdn e gli Ibdditi, in AIUON, N.S., v (1954), 
101. (R. Rubinacci) 

AZARQUIEL [see al-ZarijalI]. 
'AZAZlL, fallen angel or Djinn in the legendary 
tradition of Islam (does not occur in the Kur'dn). 
He gets his name from the biblical 'Azazel (Leviticus 
xvi, 8, 10, 26), perhaps demon of the desert (see 
L. Koehler, Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros, 



693). In point of fact the Muslim tradition extends 
and develops that of some of the Apocrypha (Enoch 
and the Apocalypse of Abraham) and of Jewish 
texts, in which 'Azazel if more or less connected with 
the fallen angels 'Uzza and 'Aza'fil (in Muslim 
tradition, Harut and Marut, [?.».]); the hadith, 
however, would appear to innovate in considering 
'Azaz'el as the name of Iblis [q.v.] before his fall, a 
tradition which is traced back to Ibn 'Abbas and which 
is even repeated in al-Insdn al-Kdmil of al- Djill. 

Bibliography: the article Asasel in the Ency- 
clopaedia Judaica iii, 418-421 (Jehoschua Gut- 
mann) gives the previous bibliography ; L. Ginzberg, 
The Legends of the Jews, passages indicated in the 
index (Philadelphia 1946, 52) s.v. Azazel; Hans 
Bietenhard, Die himmlische Welt im Urchristentum 
und Spdtjudentum, Tubingen 195 1, especially 69 
and 114; B. J. Bamberger, Fallen Angels, Phila 
delphia 1956, passages indicated in index s.v. 
Azazel; Tabari, i, 83; idem, Tafsir, on ii, 34 [32], 
Cairo 1321, i, 173; Tha<labl, l ArdHs al-Mad[dlis, 
32; H. Ritter, Das Meer der Seele, Leiden 1955, 
539; M. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Mahomet, Paris 
1957, 347- (G. Vajda) 

AZD (by assimilation from Asd, both spellings 
are current), name of two ancient Arab tribal 
groupings in the highlands of 'Aslr (Azd Sarat) and 
in 'Uman (Azd c Uman), which united in Basra and 
Khurasan in Islamic times. Hence the later reports 
that the Azd were a tribe in Yaman, of whom part 
migrated to the north and part to the east, after the 
breach of the Ma'rib dam. One cannot, however, 
prove any basic relationship between these two 
tribes of the same name. In the genealogical system 
(al-Azd b. al-Ghawth b. Nabt b. Malik b. Zayd b. 
Kahlan b. Saba', where al-Azd is the surname of 
the tribal ancestor Dir'/Darra' b. al-Ghawth) there 
is a fusion not only of the Azd Sarat and the Azd 
c Uman, but also the • Ghassan, Khuza'a, al-Aws 
and Khazradi appear as part of the Azd in it. 
The name Azd, however, can only be applied to those 
tribes who derive from Nasr b. al-Azd (in Sarat and 
c Uman), to the Barik and Shakr (Sarat), derived 
from 'AdI b. Haritha b. 'Arar Muzaykiya 5 , to the 
al-<AtIk and al-Hadjr ( c Uman), derived from c Imran 
b. 'Amr Muzaykiya', and to the tribes of al-Hinw b. 
al-Azd, Karn b. 'Abd Allah b. al-Azd, 'Arman, 
Alma' and Hidjina b. 'Amr b. al-Azd (Sarat). 

The Azd Sarat, who were well known as weavers, 
were largely settled, hence their homes remained 
essentially static. The tribes of Daws (Sulaym b. 
Fahm, Tarlf b. Fahm, Munhib b. Daws) and the 
Banu Masikha were the ones furthest north, parts 
of them as far as north-east of Ta'if, most of them 
on the upper Wadi Dawka. To the east and south- 
east of them were the tribes of Zahran (Salaman, 
Kadada, 'Ubayd b. 'Ubra); further east, in the 
Sarat Ghamid were the Namir b. 'Uthman, al- 
Ghatarif, Zara, Athbab, Lihb, Thumala, Ghamid, 
Karn b. Ahdjan and others. Their area reached from 
the upper Wadi Kanawna eastwards. These tribes 
were separated from their relatives living further 
east by the Khath'am. To the east of the 
Khath'am were the al-Bukura (from Hawala b. 
al-Hinw) in Turaba, the Banu Shakr (Banu Walan) 
were to the north-west and the Karn b. c Abd Allah 
to the south of Tabala. Further south, still in the 
Sarat al-Hadjr, were the numerous branches of al- 
Hadjr b. al-Hinw (the most important were the 
Banu Shahr with the Bal-Asmar) who were in the 
area round Halaba in the north and reached as 
far as the areas south of the Wadi Taniima/Wadl 



812 



Bal-Asmar. Their main centres were: Halaba, al- 
Khadra'. Nimas, Tanuma. Some few lived further 
south still, towards the WadI Ibil, as neighbours of 
the c Anz. The Barik lived in the area of the WadI 
Bank to the west, enclosing the Khath'am enclave 
from the south. On the whole they lived in the 
valleys, whilst the Khath'am inhabited the highlands. 
A few groups of the Azd (Alma', Yarfa b. al-Hinw 
and parts of the al-Hadjr b. al-Hinw) were 
settled as neighbours of the Kinana on the 
coast around Haii. Originally, the Azd Sarat 
had been much further south, and only in compara- 
tively recent times did they penetrate to their later 
region, after continuous battles against the Khath'am. 
Remnants were still living under the Banu Ma'afir 
in Islamic times, south-west of TaHzz, and under the 
Banu Awd in the Dathlna. The frequent term 
Shanu'a remains obscure. As the name appears as 
a war-cry in a poem by the poet Hadjiz b. c Awf, one 
may suppose that it is a genealogical rather than a 
geographic term. The current explanation (Shanu'a 
= al-Harifl! b. KaTi b. e Abd Allah b. Malik b. Nasr 
b. al-Azd) is obviously erroneous; which individual 
tribes belonged to the Shanu'a can no longer be 
ascertained. 

The Azd 'Uman consisted of those tribes which 
derived from Malik b. Fahm in genealogy (Huna'a, 
Farahld, Djahadim, Nawa, Karadls, Djaramlz, 
'Uk&'a, Kasamil, Sulaymi, Ashakir), some descended 
from Nasr b. Zahran (Yahmad, Huddan, Ma'awil) 
and those descended from 'Imran b. 'Amr Muzay- 
kiya', that is, the al-'Atik and al-Hadjr b. 'Imran 
(it is probable that the link with 'Imran, which 
made them brother tribes of the Ansar, was postu- 
lated in honour of the Muhallabids; the true link 
was preserved in the genealogy al-'Atik b. al-Asd 
b. 'Imran). There is little information concerning 
the sites on which the individual tribes lived. The 
Ma'awil were in and around Suhar; the Yahmad and 
the Huna'a in the neighbouring coastal areas. The 
Humaym (from Ma'n b. Malik b. Fahm) were in 
Nazwa; al- c AUk in Daba and al-Hadjr nearby; the 
Huddan were in the hinterland of the Pirate Coast. 
In between, there were some non-Azd tribes, parti- 
cularly the Sama b. Lu'ayy, who were later collec- 
tively known as the Nizar. The Banu Djudayd (from 
Ashakir) advanced in Islamic times to the west as 
far as Zufar Hadramawt, where they captured the 
sea-port of Raysut after battles against the Mahra. 
Even in pre-Islamic times, parts of the Azd 'Uman, 
such as the Salima b. Malik b. Fahm, migrated to the 
islands in the Persian Gulf and to Kirman. As 
fishermen, sea-farers and merchants, the Azd 'Uman 
did not enjoy a good reputation among the other 
Arabs. The term Muziin, occasionally applied to 
them, seems to have been a nickname. It may be 
supposed that they immigrated from the north and 
imposed themselves on the previously settled non- 
Arab inhabitants. The tradition which identifies 
them with the Asad (2), [q.v.] mentioned in inscript- 
ions, and which makes them the allies of the Tanukh, 



Little is known of the Azd Sarat in pre-Islamic 
times, as there are hardly any poetic writings; the 
only well-known poet was Hadjiz b. 'Awf (Banu Sala- 
man). There is mention of battles against Khath'am 
and Kinana, and fights by some tribes against the 
powerful clan of the Al Ghitrif (in the WadI Kanaw- 
na) at the beginning of the 7th century. Members of 
that clan are said to have been the keepers of the 
shrine of Manat in Kudayd. It is possible that the 
name Ghitrif in the genealogical lists of Medina from 



came that quarter. The following are mentioned as 
deities of the Azd Sarat : Dhu '1-Shara, Dhu '1-Khalasa 
(shrine in Tabala), Dhu '1-Kaffayn and 'Aim. Still 
less is known of the early history of the Azd 'Uman. 
Apart from mythical fights against Persians and 
Mahra, there is mention of one against the 'Abd al- 
Kays. Badjar/Nadjir is mentioned as their deity. 

The Azd Sarat accepted Islam in T0/63T. Small 
risings during the ridda were quickly put down in 
IT/632 by 'Uthman b. al-'As, the governor of Talf. 
As early as 13/634, there were a few Azd in the 
contingent which 'Umar sent to the Euphrates. 
Some Azd Sarat were amongst the first settlers in 
Basra and Kufa and some went to Egypt. On the 
whole, however, there was little emigration. Islam 
had already entered 'Uman a few years before. This 
jwas due to a difficult situation into which the 
brothers Djayfar and 'Abd — heads of the ruling 
group, the al-Djulanda (from Banu Ma'awil in 
Suhar) — had got themselves in relation to al-'Atik 
and other tribes of the inland regions under the 
leadership of Laklf b. Malik al-'Atiki. 'Amr b. al- 
'As was sent to Suhar in the year 8/629, and with 
his assistance, the brothers managed to recover 
their power completely. Lakit tried his luck once 
more during the ridda and 'Amr had to flee, but 
in the year 1 1/632 the rising was finally put down 
by 'Ikrima b. AM Djahl. The Banu '1-Djulanda 
remained practically complete rulers in 'Uman for 
many years. 'Abbad b. 'Abd b. al-Djulanda took 
over the rule in the time of 'Uthman. He was killed 
in battle against the Khawaridj of the Yamama in 
67/686. His sons Sa'Id and Sulayman succeeded him. 
It was not until the time of al-Hadjdjadj that the 
two brothers could finally be ousted from 'Uman, 
and the territory re-incorporated. A great number 
of Azd 'Uman had emigrated to Basra in 60-61/ 
679-680. In the process, some of them remained in 
eastern Arabia, where an Azd emirate was founded 
in Zara in the 3rd/9th century. They united them- 
selves with the Azd Sarat who were already settled 
in Basra, made an alliance with the Rabi'a and 
thereby became the opponents of the Tamim. As early 
as 38/658, the Azd Sarat of Basra had protected the 
governor Ziyad b. Abihi against the Tamim. Simi- 
larly, 'Ubayd Allah b. Ziyad got assistance from the 
Azd, when, after the death of Yazid I (64/683) the 
Tamim rose against him. The subsequent tribal 
warfare, in the course of which Mas'ud b. 'Amr al- 
'Atikl, the leader of the united Azd and Rabi'a 
was killed, with be settled by al-Ahnaf, the leader 
of the Tamim. The enmity, however, remained and 
spread to Khurasan, especially when the Azd there 
(again in league with the Rabi'a) became the leading 
tribe under the Muhallabids after 78/697. They were 
greatly offended at the removal of the Muhallabids 
and were largely responsible for the events which 
led to the defeat and death of Kutayba b. Muslim in 
96/715. The Azd remained the leading group up to 
the beginning of the reign of Yazid II in 101/720. 
The subsequent systematic extermination of the 
Muhallabids brought for them a time of subjugation 
by Kaysid governors. Their enmity against these 
contributed greatly to the fall of the Umayyads. 
During the troubled times at the end of the reign 
of the Umayyads, the Azd — apart from a few 
short-lived alliances — remained in opposition to the 
governor Nasr b. Sayyar, a fact which considerably 
facilitated the advance of Abu Muslim. In Basra 
too, the Azd followed the 'Abbasids, having risen 
against Umayyad rule and having been beaten by 
Tamim and Syrian troops. IbadI teaching, brought 



8i3 



over from Basra, began to be accepted in c Uman 
atba out the same time. In 132/749. al-Djulanda b. 
Mas c Qd, a member of the old ruling house of the 
Bami '1-Djulanda, was elected the first Imam. He 
was killed in 134/751, fighting against Khazim b. 
iChuzayma, general of Abu 'l- c Abbas. The subsequent 
years were very troubled ones for the country. 
Nominally, it was under an 'Abbasid governor, 
but there were constant battles, usually between the 
Banu '1-Diulanda — who were trying to re-establish 
their former rule — and the Ibadls. It was not until 
J 77/793 that the latter gained the upper hand and 
elected a new, rightful Imam. Henceforth, Nazwa 
became the seat of the IbadI Imams, who were, 
almost without exception, of the Yahmad tribe. 
After 230/844 troubles broke out again. In addition 
to the activities of the Banu '1-Djulanda, there was 
tribal warfare between the Azd and the Nizar. The 
Banu Sama b. Lu'ayy applied for assistance to the 
caliph al-Mu c tadid in 277/890, to help them against 
the Ibadls. The last independent Imam, 'Azzan b. 
Tamim fell in 280/893, fighting against Muhammad 
b. Nut, the 'Abbasid governor of Bahrayn. After 
282/875, there were again IbadI Imams in Nazwa, 
but their powers remained limited. 

Bibliography: Akhbar Ahl 'Umdn min awwai 
iidmihim ild 'khtildf kalimatihim, Chap. 33 of 
tie anonymous Arab Chronicle Kashf al-ghumma, 
ed. H. Klein, Hamburg 1938; Ibn al-Kalbi, al- 
Djamhara fi 'l-Nasab, MS. Escorial 1698, 237, 
314 ff., 325 ff.; Ibn Durayd, Ishtikak (Wiistenfeld), 
287 ff.; Hamdanl, 51-52, 2"; Yakut, i, 463-64, ", 
148, 187, 377-78, 387, 543, 746, 886, iii, 67, 330, 
iv, 386, 522, 654; Ibn al-Kalbi, al-Asndm (Klinke- 
Rosenberger) 22, 24, 25; Tabari, i } 74 6, 750, 1729, 
1977, 1980, 1985, 2187, 2378, 2490; Aghdni', xii, 
47-50, 50-54; Ibn Sa c d, i/2, 71, 76, 80 ff.; L. 
Forrer, Siidarabien nach al-Hamdani' "Beschrei- 
hmg der arabischen Halbinsel", Leipzig 1942; 
J. Wellhausen, Reste altarabischen Heidentums, 
Berlin 1897, 26, 64; idem, Skizzen und Vorarbeiten 
iv, Berlin 1889, 102, vi, Berlin 1899, 24 ff. idem, 
Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz, Berlin 1902, 
63, 130 ff., 140 ff., 248 ff., Max Freiherr v. Oppen- 
heim, Die Beduinen, ii, Leipzig 1943, 441, 442, 
iii., ed. W. Caskel, Wiesbaden 1952, 15, 98. 

(G. Strenziok) 
Al-AZDI, AbO ZakariyyA* YazId b. Muh. b. 
Iyas b. al-KAsim, historian of Mosul, who died 
in 334/945-6. While the work on Mosul by Ibrahim 
b. Muh. b. YazId al-Mawsill, who lived a generation 
before Al-Azdl, appears to have been concerned 
only with the biographies of religious scholars, al- 
Azdl wrote both on the "Classes of Mosul hadtth 
Scholars" and on the political history of Mosul, 
either in one combined or in two separate works. 
His treatment of hadtth scholars is known only from 
quotations and seems to have been restricted to the 
limited information usually found in rid±dl works. 
The political annalistic history of the city, the first 
work on this particular subject, is preserved for the 
years 101/719-20 — 224/838-9. It treats the history 
of Mosul in the framework of general contemporary 
history and is a highly creditable achievement of 
early Muslim historiography. 

Bibliography: DhahabI, Tabakai al-Huffdz, 
12th fab., no. 14; Brockelmann, S I, 210; F. 
Rosenthal, A History of Muslim Historiography, 
107, 132-4, 405, fn. 1, 465; M. Canard, Histoire 
Ac la Dynastic des Wamd&nides, Algiers 1951, i, 17- 

(F. Rosenthal) 
AZEMMCR [see azammur]. 



AZERBAYD.jAn [see AdharbaydjAn]. 
AZERl [see AdharI]. 

AZFARI, Muhammad ZahIr al-DIn MIrzA <AlI 
Baiojt BahAdur GurgAnI, a lineal descendant of 
Awrangzib and a grandson of 'Iffat Ara' Begum 
(daughter of Muhammad Mu'izz al-DIn Padshah 
(i.e. Djahandar Shah), son of Shah c Alam (Bahadur 
Shah I), was born in the Red Fort at Delhi in 
1172/1758 and educated within the fort. Like 
other princes of the line of Timur, Azfarl was in 
receipt of an allowance from the East India Company. 
Azfarl decided in 1202/1789 to escape from the 
fort. Passing through Djaypur and Djodhpflr, Azfarl 
reached Lucknow where he was received with 
open arms by Asaf al-Dawla, the ruler of Awadh. 
For seven years he stayed there and then left for 
Patna en route to Maksudabad, (an old name for 
Murshidabad [q.v.]) where he arrived in 1211/1797. 
After a stay of some ten years he left for Madras, 
where he stayed until his death in 1234/1818. 

Azfari was polyglot and spoke Arabic, Persian, 
Turkish and Urdu fluently; during the closing years 
of his life he also learned a little English. He was 
well-versed in different sciences such as medicine, 
astrology, prosody, geomancy and metrics, but was 
more attracted by poetry. In addition to an Urdu 
diwan he left behind a large collection of verses in 
Persian and Turkish. These Persian and Turkish 
collections as well as some of his works enumerated 
at the end of his memoirs (a Caghatay grammar, 
Tenkari-Tar—a Turkish-Hindi compilation) are, 
however, lost. 

His chief work is the Waki'at-i Azfari (MSS Berlin 
496, Rieu, iii, 1051 b; Madras, i, 450, 451) com- 
menced in Murshidabad in 1211/1797 and completed 
at Madras in 1221/1806. It is an account of his 
wanderings and personal experiences in addition to 
being a valuable historical sketch of the ephemeral 
rise of Ghulam Kadir Rohilla [q.v.], who captured 
Delhi in 1 203/1 788 and blinded the Emperor Shah 
c Alam I. This work is also of great geographical value. 
At the end of his above-noted memoirs Azfarl 
mentions 7 of his works, in addition to an earlier 
one: (i) Lughat-i Turki-i CaghatdH (compiled during 
his stay in Lucknow); (ii) A Persian translation in 
rhymed prose of C A1I Shir Nawal's [q.v.] Turkish 
work Mahbub al-Kulub; (iii) Nisab-i Turki, (in verse) ; 
(iv) Tenkari Tar, a Turkish-Hindi compilation on 
the lines of Khdlik-bari, erroneously ascribed to Amir 
Khusraw: (v) A Persian metrical translation, from 
Arabic, of the Risdla-i (fabriyya, a supposed treatise 
by Hippocrates on the signs of approaching death; 
(vi) Nuskha-i Sanihdt, detailing his experiences and 
tribulations. It contains 109 anecdotes; (vii) A 
metrical grammar of Caghatay Turkish (com- 
posed at 'Azlmabad (Patna) on the request of Rayl' 
TIka Ram, a hereditary bakhshi [?•«•] of his family; 
(viii) FawaHd al-Mubtadi. 

Bibliography: Muh. Ghawth Khan, Subh-i 
Wafan, Madras 1258/1842, 35; Garcin de Tassy, 
Hist, de la litt. Hindouie et Hindoustanie 1 , Paris 
1870, i, 265 ; Elliot and Dowson, History of India 
as told by its own Historians, viii, 234; A. Sprenger, 
Oudh. Cat. 208; Berlin Pers. Cat. No. 496; Sabah 
al-DIn c Abd al- Rahman, Bazm-i Timuriyya (in 
Urdu), A c zamgarh 1948, 426-7; Storey 642-3, 
1322; OCM (Lahore), xi/4 (Aug. 1935), 41-8; 
Wal?i<-at-i Azfari, (Urdu trans. c Abd al-Sattar), 
Madras 1937. (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

al-AZHAR (al-Djami c al-Azhar). This great 
mosque, the 'brilliant one' (a possible allusion to 
Fatima al-Zahra 5 , although no ancient document 



confirms this) is one of the principal mosques of 
present-day Cairo. This seat of learning, obviously 
Ismalll from the time of its Fatimid foundation (4th/ 
9th century), whose light was dimmed by the 
reaction under the SunnI Ayyubids, regained all its 
activity — Sunni from now on — during the reign of 
Sultan Baybars. Its influence is due on the one hand 
to the geographical and political position which 
Cairo occupies in the Muslim world (especially since 
the downfall of the Baghdad 'Abbasids), attracting 
scholars and students and accommodating many 
MaghribI pilgrims on their way; on the other hand 
it is due to the situation of this capacious mosque 
itself in that quarter which was up to the 19th 
century the epicentre of the town of Cairo. One 
institution of learning among many others in the 
Mamlflk era, it benefited from the almost complete 
disappearance of all the Cairo colleges under Ottoman 
domination, and became the only stronghold in the 
capital where the study of the Arabic language and 
religious learning could be maintained. From the 
18th century, in spite of the decadence of its intellec- 
tual methods, its organisation, becoming consolidated, 
gained for it the dignity of a harmonious whole, at 
once a school and a university; and it can be con- 
sidered from that time as the principal religious 
university of the Islamic world. In the 20th century 
al-Azhar, outgrowing the framework of its mosque, 
began to acquire a whole network of establishments 
of Islamic education. With its faculties in Cairo of 
university status, and with the various primary and 
secondary institutions in Egypt which are directly 
connected with it, its strength in 1953 was a total of 
30,000 pupils and students, 4,500 of whom were 
foreigners. Some institutions situated outside Egypt, 
moreover, function within its orbit. Its work is at 
present carried out by its teachers, a certain number 
of whom are sent out to different Muslim countries ; 
it makes its influence felt by its monthly journal and, 
in a special way, through the foreign pupils and 
students who come to take its courses in Egypt. A 
few of the latter remain in Cairo, but the majority 
return to their native lands, thus contributing to 
the propagation of the knowledge of the Arabic 
language and Muslim political and religious ideas. 
I. Buildings and furnishings. The mosque of 
al-Azhar was conceived as the place of worship of the 
capital al-Kahira which the conquering Fa timid 
general Djawhar al-Katib al-Sikilli established as an 
entity, and where his master, the Fatimid Caliph 
Abu Tamim Ma'add al-Mu c izz li-DIn Allah, his 
entourage and his troops, were intended to reside. 
The construction of the mosque, situated at the 
South and in the neighbourhood of the palace, began 
on 24 Djumada I 359/4 April 970, and lasted for two 
years. It was inaugurated immediately, on 7 Ramadan 
361/22 June 972, cf. the text of an inscription, now 
disappeared, on the cupola, with the date 360 (in 
al-Makrlzi, KhiW, Cairo 1326, iv, 49 ft.). It was 
frequently referred to as the 'mosque of Cairo', Qidmi' 
al-Kahira, and indeed played the same rdle in 
Fatimid Cairo as the mosque of 'Amr at Misr- 
Fustat or that of Ibn Tulun at al KataV. All three 
of these were the religious centres of their respective 
quarters, at that time small, independent, neigh 
bouring towns; the Friday prayer was conducted in 
these three mosques, and the Caliph from time to 
time caused the khulba to be read in them. After 
380/990 the new al-Diami' al-Anwar (al-Hakimi), 
which was built on the Northern side of Fatimid 
Cairo, enjoyed the same privileges as al-Azhar. 
Many Fatimid Caliphs worked for tl 



h gifts and endow- 



of al-Azhar and enriched it wit 
ments. The original roof, which w 
raised, at an unknown date (Kkitat. iv, 53). Al-'AzIz 
JTrear (365-86/976-96) — who perhaps added the two 
(North and South) lateral (toxins of three bays — 
and al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (386-41 1/996-1020) made 
some improvements there. A deed of waty dating 
from the year 400/1009-10 throws light on the 
organisation of its personnel and on its apparatus 
of worship (but none on the teaching; text in Khitat. 
iv, 49 ff.). From this epoch dates the appearance of 
the vast central courtyard surrounded by porticos 
with Persian arches, as does that of the prayer hall 
of five parallel bays on the kibla wall. The con- 
struction is of brick rendered with either plain or 
chased plaster; the arches of the courtyard, of the 
prayer-hall and of the lateral liwdns are supported 
by slender columns which have been used for a 
second time. One must mention the work of the 
Caliphs al-Mustansir, al-Hafiz (improvements, rear- 
rangement of the Fatimid maksura from beside the 
west door) and al-'Amir (wooden mikrab now in 
the Cairo museum). During the whole of this epoch 
al-Azhar, by its teaching, played an important role 
in Fatimid propaganda, which explains why it 
suffered from the Sunni reaction of the Ayyubids 
(rulers of Egypt from 567/1171-2 on). Salah al-Din 
had certain ornaments torn down (silver band from 
the mifirdb), and took to himself the privilege of the 
kkutba; the Friday prayers in al-Kahira took place 
only in the al-Hakimi mosque. This mosque had 
been restored to Muslim worship by Salah al-Din 
after having been used by the Franks as a church. 
Al-Azhar continued to exist, although on the decline 
( c Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi taught medicine there at 
the end of the 6th/i2th century: see Ibn AM Usaybi'a, 
ii, 207), but the buildings were very neglected. With 
the Mamluk sultans the situation changed. The amir 
<Izz al-Din Aydimur al-Hilli, residing in the neigh- 
bourhood, was so distressed by the dilapidation of 
al-Azhar that he financed some works with the help 
of sultan al-Zahir Baybars, who amongst other 
things permitted the khufba to be read again in 
665/1266 (Corp. Inscr. Arab. Egypt, i, no. 128). 
Some wakfs were allocated to provide for Sunni 
teachers. Once again vigorous life returned to it, 
never to cease up to the present day. Badly damaged 
(sakata) by the well-known and disastrous eartquake 
of 702/1302-3, it was restored by the amir Salar. 
Marble made its appearance, discreetly, in the 
undated repairs of the mifirdb (beginning of the 14th 
century), though it was used with magnificent effect 
in the mifirdbs of the three small new erections of 
fine stone built against the exterior of the mosque, 
which were later to be incorporated with it: the 
madrasa of the amir Taybars, founded in 709/1309 
to the right of the west door; that of the amir 
Akbugha «Abd al-Wahid in 740/1339-40 to the left 
of this door; and the charming madrasa founded by 
the eunuch Djawhar al-Kankaba% who was buried 
here in 844/1440-1, at the eastern corner of the 
mosque. In 725/1325 some constructions are recorded, 
and about 761/1360 the maksuras were rebuilt, some 
improvements were made, funds for feeding the poor 
and for teaching were established, e.g., a sabil for 
water, and teaching the Kur'an to orphans. A 
minaret which was at a dangerous angle was demo- 
lished and then rebuilt on three occasions for the 
same reason (800, 817, 8*7/1397-8, 1414-5, 1423-4). 
On this last date, a cistern (sahridf) with a wash- 
basin {mida'a) was built in the middle of the 
mosque, and an unsuccessful attempt was made to 



establish four trees in the courtyard. The sultan 
K&ytbay was responsible for much work: for the 
west door, which he demolished, he substituted an 
elegant doorway with minaret attached (873/1469; 
Corp. Inscr. Arab, i, no. 21), had a host of little 
dwellings, which were excrescences on the terraces, 
cleared away (881/1476), and ordered a general 
restoration (901/1496). Kansuh al-Ghurl bestowed 
on al-Azhar another minaret, thanks to which it 
can today be recognised from afar among the 
assembly of minarets in Cairo (915/1510). Funds for 
teaching continued during this period. At the time 
of the Ottoman conquest the sultan Sellm looked 
with favour on al-Azhar. The 18th century was, in 
the history of al-Azhar, as important as the Fatimid 
era; possessing from that time on the monopoly of 
religious studies in Egypt, the mosque was consi- 
derably enlarged. A chapel for the blind (Zawiyat 
al-'Umyan) was built by 'Uthman Katkhuda al- 
Kazdoghll (Kasid Oghlu), who died in 1 149/1736. 
But its greatest benefactor was c Abd al-Rahman 
Katkhuda or Kihya (died 1190/1776, buried in the 
mosque), who caused the following constructions, 
which lack the beauty of the ancient works, to be 
carried out: demolition of the kibla wall of the 
prayer-hall except for the original mihrdb which 
remains, the addition at the rear of four new bays 
of stone arches on slightly raised ground, a new 
mihrdb, a minbar, his tomb, a cistern, and a Kur'anic 
school for children. Victuals and gifts in kind were 
provided for poor students. A new enclosure, with 
doorway, brought in on the west the two madrasas 
of Taybars and Akbugha, whose facades were 
rebuilt (1167/1753)- 

The Azharis, like students of all countries, came 
out into the streets from time to time. Al-DjabartI 
indicates that there were some troubles in the 
quarter, in which they took part. He makes mention 
of the rising against the French under Bonaparte 
who were occupying Cairo (10 Djumada I 1213/20 
October 1798); the immediate repression found in 
al-Azhar and its neighbourhood the last bastion of 
resistance. The mosque suffered from the final 
bombardment, and was profaned by the troops. The 
restoration of autonomous rule, under Muhammad 
'Ali, was scarcely favourable to al-Azhar, whose 
wafijs were misused. Later the Khedives and then 
the kings of Egypt became its benefactors, reserving 
to themselves the upper hand in its affairs, and 
hoping in return for the tractability of its shavkhs. 
a hope which was generally realised except in a few 
cases of proud and sudden boldness which even 
today form a topic of conversation. 'All Pasha 
Mubarak (Khitat Dj'., iv, 14-26) gives a minute 
description of the buildings and of Azhari life about 
1875. The great wretchedness and decay of so many 
mcsques in Cairo in this period had not left al-Azhar 
untouched. The Khedives Tawflk and 'Abbas 
Hikni had important restorations carried out. That 
of the courtyard and of the porticos which surround 
it date from 1890-2. At the western corner of the 
mosque, on the site of 'Abd al-Rahman's Katkhuda's 
minaret which was demolished, 'Abbas Hilml had the 
riwdk built which bears his name, a vast building with 
lodgings for students and an oratory (inaugurated 
in 1315/1898). The participation of the Azharis in 
the risings of 1882 ('Urabi Pasha) and 1919 (against 
the British) did not entail any material damage to 
the buildings, but only a temporary suppression of 
the courses at the time of the second incident. The 
number of students lip to 1935 caused al-Azhar to 
conduct part of its courses in the neighbouring 



HAR 813 

mosques, which were used as annexes. In 1930 the 
separation Of the three faculties of higher study had 
as a necessary consequence the taking over of lay 
buildings in Cairo, to house these faculties outside 
the mosque. These places were given up when a new 
area was built behind al-Azhar (modern installations, 
classrooms with desks and benches, chemical labo- 
ratory, etc.). There were erected in 1935-6 a general 
administrative building, on the site to the north 
of al-Azhar, and three more four-storied buildings 
intended as the primary and secondary institutes, 
and medical block with boarding infirmary. In 
1950, again to the east, a building was constructed 
for the Aula Magna with room for 4,000, with a 
high minaret, and a building for the faculty of sharPa 
law; in 1951 came the building for the faculty of the 
Arabic language. In 1955, again on the East, some 
old houses were pulled down, in order to prepare a 
site for the future faculty of theology (still housed in 
the Shubra quarter). At the present time the prin- 
cipal library (of manuscripts, etc.) is housed in 
Akbugha's madrasa (rebuilt by the Khedive Tawflk). 
A citi universitaire for foreign Azharis is in con- 
struction (1956-1957) on the site of the ancient 
MIdan al-Ghafir at 'Abbasiyya, in conformity with 
the social policy of the new Egyptian Republic. 
This will allow for the rehabilitation of students, 
who were overcrowded in the precincts of the 
mosque itself, or were sleeping in the town in 
properties belonging to the trustees cf the wakfs, or 
with private families. The courtyard and the prayer- 
hall of the mosque are still used for certain courses for 
foreigners, and for exceptional private lessons. Some 
young Azharis do come here to go over their books 
again; walking up and down, or even seated on the 
ground, they still keep up the old tradition and thus 
help to maintain the ever busy appearance of 
the mosque. In addition, the Azharis have modern 
installations everywhere; likewise in the provinces, 
the local institutions have special buildings outside 
the mosques. 

Bibliography: Texts, among which the most 
important are those of MakrizI (Khitat, iv, 49-56, 
60-2, 223-4), I2iabartl, 'All Pasha Mubarak, and 
for the modern period Van Berchem and Flury, 
are collected with references in Creswell, The 
Muslim Architecture of Egypt, i, Oxford 1952, 
36-64, with plates and plan. See also Hautecoeur 
and Wiet, Les mosquies du Caire, Paris 1932, 
2 vols; Hasan 'Abd al-Wahhab, Ta'rikh al- 
Masddjid al-Athariyya, i, Cairo 1946. See also EI 1 , 
tto S I. 



II. 1 



nd hoi 



:. Like all mosques, al-Azhar 
dual function. The regular prayers were said here, as 
well as those on exceptional occasions. Its history 
from this point of view is linked with that of Egypt : 
people collected here in times of catastrophe (such 
as epidemic, famine, or war) to call upon God, and 
to hear special readings from the Kur'Sn or from 
al-Bukhari; it was also a place of refuge for fugitives 
(see Ibn Iyas, ii, 177, 264, iii, 106, 132, 167). In 
modern times also, some events of national signifi- 
cance have been organised there. The spaciousness 
of its buildings, and the constant presence of 
students, were appropriate for large meetings, e.g., 
that of 1919 (see Madjallat al-Azhar, xxvn, 396-400). 
Here they exalted the Mud±dhidHn or combatants 
during the Palestine war (1948), and at the time 
of the guerilla warfare against the British in the 
Suez Canal in 195 1-2. Al-Azhar i 
'people's house' for those poor mei 



AL-AZHAR 



foundation, have found there either a temporary or a 
permanent shelter: many have spent the night there, 
as al-Makrizi points out with regard to the inter- 
vention of the amir Sudub, nazir of al-Azhar, who in 
818/1415-6 wished to free the mosque of all who 
were dwelling therein, whether students or otherwise. 
His intervention was the occasion for pillage, and 
opinion turned against him. Some inhabitants of 
Cairo, even the well-to-do, would pass the night 
here, specially in Ramadan, at the beginning of the 
15th century (Khitat, iv, 54-5). At the present time, 
among the poor pilgrims coming on foot from as far 
as North Africa and the Atlas Mountains (1400 in 
1952), many stay at al-Azhar during the month of 
Ramadan before setting off for the Hidjaz. Many 
Azhari students give them moral and material help 
(in the middle ages the MaghribI pilgrims camped 
at Ibn Tulun — Khi(a(, iv, 40). Countless gifts have 
been made by rich Muslims at all times for the poor 
of al-Azhar, In the middle ages al-Azhar was open to 
Sufis also, although its tendencies were predomi- 
nantly juridical. 'Umar b. al-Farid chose to live 
there towards the end of his life (Ibn Iyas, i, 82, 3). 
One text mentions the dhikrs which took place there 
(Khitat, iv, 54). Akbugha's madrasa is also said to 
have had a permanent group of Sufis (ibid., iv, 225). 
The mosque of al-Azhar was above all a "people's 
house" for the teachers and the pupils whom it 
housed under its arcades, and its history here again 
is inseparable from that of Islamic teaching in Egypt 
(see Ibrahim Salama, L' enseignement islamique en 
Egypte, Cairo 1939). Teachers found within it peace 
and adequate quarters; sometimes, however, their 
position there was not official: at times we hear of 
passing scholars supported by a sovereign during 
their stay. There were above all the wakfs main- 
taining what could be described as chairs of learning, 
and others again for the maintenance of certain 
categories of students. 

III. Teaching in the mediaeval and post- 
mediaeval periods. Information on the situation 
in early times is both fragmentary and incomplete. 
Under the Fatimids in 365/975 the great official prop- 
agandist C AU" son of al-Kadi alNu'man taught Is- 
ma c ili law at al-Azhar, and dictated the Mukhtasar, a 
work of his father's {Khitat. iv, 156; Brockelmann, 
SI, 325). After having been named wazir, Ya'kub b. 
Killis held in his own home meetings of litterateurs, 
poets, jurists and men of the kaldm (theologians), to 
whom he gave a pension, and who thereafter taught 
the Isma'ill doctrine in the mosque of 'Amr, Al-Azhar 
profited by this trend. In 378/988-9 al- c Aziz assigned 
to 35 jurists a house near to al-Azhar, with provision 
for their support. On Fridays, between midday and 
the c asr prayers, they held meetings, and their chief, 
Abu Ya'kub Kadi al-Khandak, was responsible for 
the teaching. (Khitat, iv, 49; al-Kalkashandl, III, 
367). Al-Makrizi, writing of the al-Anwar (al- 
Hakimi) mosque only recently inaugurated, notes 
that in Ramadan 380/991 'groups of listeners followed 
courses there given by the teachers who instructed 
in the mosque of Cairo, that is to say, al-Azhar* 
{Khitat. iv, 55), which implies that it must have 
always had a stable organisation. It is known, 
moreover, that Ibn al-Haytham elected to live at 
al-Azhar (Ibn Abl Usaybi'a, ii, 90-91). But the 
remarkable effort of the Fatimids in both sacred 
and secular culture is specially evident in the Ddr 
al-hikma founded by al-Hakim in 395/1005, which 
became the real cultural centre of Cairo at this 
period (Khitat, iv, 158). Under the Ayyubids the 
Shi'ite teaching was swept away. Al-Azhar had 



always opened its doors to scholars {e.g., for c Abd 
al-Latif al-Baghdadl), but it was supplanted by the 
official Sunnite madrasas recently created. Under 
the Mamluks al-Azhar regained its position. 

In 665/1266 the amir Bilbak al-Khazindar in- 
stalled a vast maksura and provided it with a fund 
in order that a group (djama'-a) of jurists might 
teach Shafi'I law there. He appointed a teacher of 
hadith and spiritual doctrine (hakdHk), seven 
people to 'read' the Kur'an, and a tutor (mudarris) 
(Khitat. iv, 52). In 761/1359-60 a course of Hanafi 
law was started, at the same time as a Kur'Snic 
school for orphans. In 784/1382-3 a decree of Sultan 
Barkuk provided that students should inherit ther 
property of those of their friends who died without 
heir (see Tritton, Education 123, for a discussion of 
arrangements of this kind). Al-Makrizi, on the events 
of 818/1415-6, mentions 750 provincial or foreign 
inhabitants, ranging from Maghribis to Persians, as 
residing in the mosque, grouped according to strict 
riwdks. They read the Kur'&n and studied it. They 
devoted themselves to law (fifth), to tradition 
(hadith), to commentaries on the Kur'an, to grammar 
(nahw), to meetings devoted to preaching and to 
dhikr (Khifat, iv, 53-4). It is often said nowadays that 
al-Azhar was always the Egyptian Muslim university 
par excellence ; in fact, in the Cairo of the Mamluks, 
bursting with life, it was an important centre of learn- 
ing, but a centre among many others (see Masqiid). 
Al-Makrizi, writing in the 15th century, makes men- 
tion of more than 70 madrasas in Cairo (Khitat. iv, 
191-258). He points out the intellectual activity within 
the mosques: in that of 'Amr, before the great 
plague of 749/1348, he mentions forty-odd courses 
or halka (ibid., iv, 21) ; in that of Ibn Tulun, at the 
beginning of the 14th century, courses in the law 
of the four schools and a course in medicine (ibid., 
iv, 40-1); in that of al-Hakim, in the same period, 
law courses in the four schools (ibid., iv, 57). There 
was moreover still sufi teaching in the convents or 
khdnkdhs. Ibn Khaldun, for example, from the time 
of his arrival in Cairo in 784/1383, taught at al- 
Azhar, which he later left in order to teach elsewhere 
(Ibn Khaldun, Ta'-rif, 248). The Ottoman era was 
a time of decadence for learning in Cairo. Ibrahim 
Salama, V enseignement, 111-121, has enumerated 
the causes of this: economic unrest, the impoverish- 
ment of Egypt, the devaluation of the wakfs or the 
perversion of these latter to other purposes (the 
Hanafi law administered by the Ottomans permitted 
a judge to modify the provisions of a wakf), and 
finally the triumph of the Sufi khdnkdhs in tending 
to replace the madrasas. All that obtained of non- 
mystical teaching activity was concentrated in al- 
Azhar. One could name the titles of a good thousand 
works preserved in this era in the library of al-Azhar 
and those of the neighbouring mosques, from 
HadjdjI Khalifa, ed. Fliigel, vii, 3-22. A catalogue of 
more than 2000 works belonging to the 'riwdk of the 
Syrians', probably at al-Azhar, exists in a manuscript 
of the 18th century (no. 4.476, Slane. Bibl. Nat. 
de Paris). (On the Ottoman period see further 
H. A. R. Gibb and Harold Bowen, Islamic Society 
and the West, i/2, London 1957, index). 

But henceforward, and up to the end of the 19th 
century, scholarship consisted of learning by heart 
a traditional corpus of material, encumbered by all 
that successive generations had added to it. Instead 
of the direct study of those great texts which were 
capable of engendering noble thoughts, there were 
substituted the studies of manuals, of commentaries 
(shark), of marginalia on the commentaries (hawdshi), 



and sub-commentaries on these glosses (takarir). 
All the energy of the students was absorbed by the 
effort of memory necessary to retain by heart this 
complicated learning, which was presented with no 
pedagogical method whatever. General culture was 
non-existent. Arithmetical studies were limited to 
that elementary technique necessary for apportioning 
an inheritance, and astronomy to that which allowed 
the times for prayer, or the beginning of the lunar 
months (al-mil$at), to be determined. But one 
should not judge the mediaeval intellectual activity 
of Cairo by this period of post-mediaeval decadence. 
In the middle ages, the office of superintendent 
(ndzir) of al-Azhar was held by a person of high rank. 
Moreover, each riwalf, a group analogous to the 
'nations' of the mediaeval universities of Europe, 
as well as each faculty, had its own head {shaykh, 
nahib). From Ottoman times al-Azhar had its rector 
(shaykh al-Azhar), who remained in office until his 
resignation, dismissal or death. The shaykhs of the 
different departments were subordinate to him, and 
he was directly responsible to the government. Al- 
Djabarti gives us a partial roll of these from the 
beginning of the 18th century (see § V, below). 
C AU Pasha Mubarak has described {Khifaf &., iv, 
26-30) life at al-Azhar as it was in 1875 at the dawn 
of the modern reforms. This picture gives an idea of 
the ancient customs: the students were grouped in a 
'circle' (halka, literally 'circle', extended to mean 
'course'), seated on the mats (haslra) of the mosque 
around the teacher, who himself was seated Turkish- 
fashion on a low wide armchair placed at the foot 
of a pillar, each pillar having its own accredited 
holder and being, moreover, up to 1872 the undis- 
puted property of one juridical school. Morning 
lectures were reserved for the most important 
subjects, that is to say successively tafsir, hadith, 
/»'£*, then at noon the Arabic language; other subjects 
were kept over for the afternoon. At the end of each 
class the students kissed the hand of their teacher. 
The Azharl lived meagrely on the regular issues of 
food (diardydt), supplemented by that which came 
from his family, and would often work in order to 
earn a little more, by giving readings from the 
Kur'an, copying manuscripts, etc. He lived in the 
mosque or in the town. There was no examination 
at the end of the course of study. Many of the students 
were well advanced in years. Those who left al-Azhar 
obtained an idjaza or licence to teach; this was a 
certificate given by the teacher under whom the 
student had followed courses, testifying to the 
student's diligence and proficiency. Teacher-pupil 
relationships had a rather patriarchal aspect, 
disturbed only by rather rare rebellions. Quarrels 
between rival cliques of students were more frequent. 
A proctor (djundi) was responsible for the admini- 
stration of the rules, for the care of the books, and 
for distributing the provisions in kind; he had a 
staff of some size under his command. In 1293/1876 
the distribution of the 361 teachers and 10,780 
students according to schools was: Shafils: 147 
teachers, 5,651 students; Malikls: 99 teachers, 3,826 
students; Hanafls: 76 teachers, 1,278 students. The 
Hanbalis were poorly represented: 3 teachers, 25 
students. There were in addition some non-registered 
students. The students were grouped into 15 haras 
and 38 riwate (KhiUtf &., iv, 28). There were 
numerous foreign students (see list of riwdks, EI 1 , 
s.v. Azhar, § II, VI). The vacation began in the 
month of Radjab and ended in mid-Shawwal ; there 
was in addition the twenty days leave for the great 
Bayram (festival of sacrifices), the same for the 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



1AR 817 

mawlid of the saint of Tanta, Ahmad Badawl, 
etc {KhM Di; iv, 28). 

IV. The reform of al-Azhar. The shock that 
Bonaparte's expedition gave to Egypt, and the efforts 
of Muhammad 'All and his successors to modernise 
the country, left al-Azhar indifferent or hostile. 
There were individual sympathisers, but they were 
immobilised by the unshakable apathy of the major- 
ity. Al-Azhar rightly feared the influence of certain 
European ideas; but very few understood how to 
draw the line between the contributions which were 
acceptable to Islam and those which were inadmis- 
sible. Others became obdurate in passive resistance. 
It was, however, from among the Azharb (there was 
no other intellectual group at that time) that the 
activist element of the new Egypt was recruited. 
(Educational mission of Egyptians sent to Paris 
with Rifa'a al-TahtawI in 1825-31; journey of Muh. 
c Ayyad al-Tantawi to Russia; later Sa'd Zaghlul, 
Muhammad 'Abduh, and others. But these people 
were always at cross purposes with the conservative 
element of al-Azhar, since they emerged and acted 
in a way which was not that of the traditionalists. 
Al-Azhar at the beginning of the 19th century could 
well have been called a religious university; what it 
was not was a complete university giving instruction 
in those modem disciplines essential to the awa- 
kening of the country. However, it seems that the 
conservative section of al-Azhar did not appreciate 
at the time either the necessity of creating new 
academic branches (in al-Azhar or outside it) or that 
of reforming the organisation and programmes of 
religious teaching in al-Azhar. The fear of being 
contaminated by imitating Europe paralysed 
everything. 

Al-Azhar had nevertheless to take the path of 
reform. The interference of the government in its 
affairs, an everyday phenomenon which was some- 
times suffered with some resentment, proved decisive 
at this juncture. When authority had opposed reform 
(for example during the last years of Muh. 'Abduh) 
the conservative forces, having no counterweight, 
paralysed everything. Nothing less than the full 
Khedival (later the royal) power was necessary 
to impose reform. The principal stages of reform 
were these: in 1288/1872, a decree instituting a 
diploma at the end of the course of study; a maximum 
of six students would each year sit for a long and 
exacting examination in eleven subjects. Success 
would obtain for them the title of 'Slim (1st, 2nd or 
3rd class, according to their ability), would assure for 
them material advantages, and would give them the 
right to teach in al-Azhar. This measure was still 
clearly inadequate (Khitat Di., iv, 27-8 ; the news- 
paper Wadl al-NU, 26 Feb. 1872).— In 1872, the 
creation of the higher school of Dar al- c ulHm where 
a certain number of Azharls could specialise and 
prepare themselves for teaching in the new schools. 
(Muh. <Abd al-Djawwad, Takwim Dar al-'UlUm, 
Cairo 1952; resume in MI DEO, I, 160-2).— In 
1312-3/1895 the Khedive 'Abbas instituted an 
advisory council (madilis idarat al-Azhar) consisting 
of members outside al-Azhar as well as others from 
al-Azhar itself. This institution, demanded by Muh.. 
c Abduh [?•«•], was the prelude to the reform of 1896. 
Muh. 'Abduh, as a member of the council, was its 
inspiration.— In 1312 3/1895 the institutes of Tanta, 
Damietta and Dasuk became affiliated to al-Azhar. 
— A decree on the salaries of teachers, some of 
whom had only very meagre salaries. — A law of 
20 Muharram 1314/1 July 1896, inspired by Muh. 
'Abduh, decreed that the council of al-Azhar should 

53 



consjst of three 'ulamd from al-Azbar and two 
official 'ulamd from the government; it fixed the 
minimum age for the admission of pupils at 15; 
declared that conditions of admission were to be 
able to read and write, and to know half the Kur'an 
by heart; it reorganised the programmes, forbade 
the teaching of glosses to new pupils and restricted 
it for the older ones. Two examinations led, either 
after a minimum of 8 years study, to the diploma of 
ahliyya, or after 12 years, to the diploma of 'dlimiyya 
(with three honour classes). Modern subjects were in- 
troduced, either obligatory (such as elements of arith- 
metic, algebra) or optional (such as the history of 
Islam, composition, elements of geography, etc). The 
length of the vacations (summer, Ramadan, festival 
of sacrifices) was fixed. A medical officer was ap- 
pointed to be in charge of health and hygiene. A list 
of prescribed texts for the syllabus was drawn up. The 
implementation of this law came up against fierce 
resistance, which was likewise expressed in the press. 
— In 1903 came the foundation of the institute of 
Alexandria, affiliated to al-Azhar. — In Muharram 
I325/Feb.-March 1907 came a law instituting the 
kadis' school (for the skar'l tribunals) within the 
orbit of al-Azhar.— The law of 2 Safar 1326/6 March 
1908 set out the studies in three standards, primary, 
secondary and higher, each of four years' duration 
with a certificate given after each final examination. 
The optional subjects of 1896 were made compulsory. 
This law was regarded as a blow to the autonomy 
of al-Azhar, and provoked an outcry. There was a 
serious student revolt in Cairo, and in Tanta (quickly 
put down), but nowhere else. It was decided to 
apply this law only gradually. — In December 1908 
came the foundation of the Free University of Cairo, 
the embryo of the four present State universities, 
and of the western type. This was the origin 
of a competition that was painful for al-Azhar. — 
The law of the 14 Djumada I 1329/13 May 1911 
harked back to that of 1908: it laid down that the 
rector was to be nominated by the Khedive, enlarged 
the advisory council (the rector, the skaykks of the 
four schools, the director-general of the wak/s, and 
three members nominated by the decision of the 
council of ministers), created the tribunal of the 
30 chief 'ulamd who were incumbents of the 30 
special chairs, from among whom the rector was to be 
elected. In the conditions of entry for pupils, the 
age limit was from 10-17 years; other provisions 
were as in 1896. Modern studies were slightly 
augmented, etc. This law was still the subject of 
opposition. One interesting problem arose, in that 
the graduates of the Ddr al-'ulim and of the school 
of the kadis obtained situations more easily than the 
Azharls, and earned more. — In 1921 the conditions 
for entry required the knowledge of the whole of 
the Kur'an, no longer just half. — In the law of 13 
Muharram 1342/26 August 1923 the highest standard 
was renamed 'specialisation' (takkassu?) and com- 
prised many branches. The school of the kadis, 
which since 1907 had been bandied about between 
different ministries, was at last affiliated to al-Azhar 
and abolished as such, becoming simply a branch of 
specialisation (1923-5). In this period several missions 
from al-Azhar were sent to study in Europe before 
returning to teach at al-Azhar. — In 1925 the State 
University of Cairo (Fu'ad al-Awwal University) 
replaced the Free University. — A law of the 24 
Djumada II 1349/16 November 1930 laid down that 
the Tribunal of the chief 'ulamd was competent to 
judge whether any 'Slim was guilty of any act not 
in conformity with his dignity. It enlarged the 



advisory council of al-Azhar (Grand mufti; the 
shaykks of the three faculties instead of the skaykks 
of the four schools, etc.), and stipulated that students 
should be under 16 years of age on admission (18 in 
the case of foreigners, who were exempted from 
knowing the whole Kur'an by heart). The primary 
course was 4 years, the secondary 5 years, the 
higher 4 years, in one of the three faculties con- 
stituted by this law (Islamic law or skarl'a, theology 
or usul al-dln, the Arabic language or lugka 'arabiyya), 
and in appropriate cases more specialisation or 
takhassus, in those faculties which existed only in 
Cairo, was allowed. The programme of the higher 
standard {'dlimiyya) was completed by the special 
mention of those who had attained distinction in 
their specialist studies, for example the grade of 
ustddk in such and such a subject, etc. A 'general 
section' was created for those unable to take, the 
normal courses. The vacations were to be fixed 
each year. — The law of the 3 Muharram 1355/ 
26 March 1936, still in force in 1955, provided that 
the age of entry be from 12-16 years; duration of 
specialisation, 2 years. The regulations concerning 
the subjects to be taught (these were to be still more 
detailed in the individual syllabuses printed later) 
make this law the real charter of present-day teaching. 
Apart from the traditional subjects, the following 
should be noted: English or French language 
(compulsory for the usul al-dln faculty, optional for 
the two others) ; rudiments of philosophy, history of 
philosophy, etc., for the usul al-dln and lugka 
'arabiyya faculties; common international law, and 
comparative law, in the shart'a faculty. Certain 
branches of takkassus had in addition a compulsory 
Oriental language (section of wa'z wa irskad), or the 
elements of Hebrew and Syriac (sections of nahu and 
baldgha), the history of religions, etc. The normal 
programme {nizdml) of the secondary course had as 
modern subjects the rudiments of logic and the art 
of rhetoric, of medicine (with the use of the micro- 
scope), of chemistry, zoology, botany, history and 
geography. The primary course comprised history, 
geography, arithmetic, algebra (up to simple equ- 
ations with one unknown), and hygiene. The kism 
al-buttk, reserved for foreigners who were unable 
to follow the normal courses, comprised 12 years' 
study divided into three courses of four years, with 
an easier syllabus. Of modern subjects they had 
only arithmetic, history, geography and logic. It 
must not be forgotten that all these modern subjects 
take a secondary place in the teaching, and that 
little time is given to them. — In 1945 the ddr al-'*lum 
was affiliated to the University of Cairo, with the 
status of Faculty. In 1952 the ddr al-'ulum ceased 
to be reserved for Azharls, and admitted candidates 
coming from Government schools. A women's 
section was opened in 1954. — About 1954 there was 
a slight alteration of the programmes at al-Azhar; 
a foreign language became compulsory in the 
faculty of lugka 'arabiyya. The retirement age for 
teachers was fixed at 65 ; this applied equally to the 
chief 'ulamd, who previously had been appointed for 
life. — In 1955 came the abolition of the skarH 
tribunals, thus doing away with the chief outlet 
for the Azharls of the skarl'a faculty. There was talk 
of opening a women's section at al-Azhar; by the 
end of 1957, everything was ready, only budge- 
tary credit was lacking. 

In 1953, the faculties comprised respectively 
1,603 sharl'a students, 1,655 'or lugka 'arabiyya, 
707 for usul al-dln. The institutes had 12,398 primary 
students, 6,559 secondary, and 3,703 in the attached 



alAZHAR 



sections; the free institutes had 2,458. At the end 
of 1955 there were in Egypt some institutions 
directly affiliated to al-Azhar (nizdmi) in the 
following towns: (a) primary and secondary, Cairo, 
Tanta, Mansura, ShJbin al-K6m, Kena, Suhadj, 
Girga (Djirdja), Asyut, Minya, Fayyum, Manuf, 
Samannud, Zakazlk, Dasuk, Damiette (Dumyat), 
Alexandria, Damanhur; (b) primary only, BanI 
Suwayf, Banna, Kafr al-Shaykh; (c) free institutes 
supervised (tahi ishrdf) by al-Azhar, primary only, 
Tahta, Balasfura, Ban! 'Adi, Mallawl, Abu Kurkas, 
Abu Kabir, Fakus, Minshawi, Cairo ('Uthman Mahir). 

In 1953 the number of foreign students was as 
follows: Sudan, 2,634; Nigeria, Gold Coast, Senegal 
141; Abyssinia, Eritrea, Somaliland, Zanzibar, 309; 
French Sudan, 57; Uganda and South Africa, 37; 
India and Pakistan, 46; China, 8; Java and Sumatra, 
80; Afghanistan, 13; Kuwayt, 6; 'Irak, Bahrayn, 
Iran (riwdk al-Akrdd) 21; Turkey, Albania, Yugo- 
slavia (f. al-Alrdk), 206; Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, 
Palestine (r. al-Shawwdm), 724; Yemen, 20; North 
Africa and Libya (r. al-Maghdriba), 267; Hidjaz, 17; 
total, 4,586. 

In 1953 the group of 'ulamd at al-Azhar had 112 
teachers or preachers on missions in the following 
countries: 'Irak, 2; Kuwayt, 16; Sudan (the Umm 
Durman Institute), 23; the Muslim School of the 
Philippines, 2; Eritrea (the Asmara Institute), 7; 
Malakal, 5; Barka, 3; Gaza, 1; Hidjaz, 40; Lebanon, 
5; the Islamic Cultural Centre, London, 1; the 
Islamic Cultural Centre, Washington, 1; Equatorial 
Africa, 1; Syria, 3; the School of Djuba, 3. (1953 
statistics from al-Sidjill al-thakd/i sanat 1953, Cairo 
1955 1 473-4 ; Sa(i' al-Hujri, IJawliyyat al-thakdfa al- 
'arabiyya, iv, Cairo 1954, 301). 

Until the Law no. 15 of 1927 was promulgated, 
al-Azhar was directly responsible to the King. The 
Council of Ministers had until then to consider his 
opinion in the matter of appointing rectors, etc. Its 
budget was submitted for Government approval, 
and increased continually (£E 136,000 in 1919; in 
1954, £E 1,617,200, of which only £E 94,380 was 
provided by the wafts, the rest furnished by the 
Ministry of Finance.) All the scholars and students 
benefited from the gratuity, and received a grant 
for food, and a lodging allowance, if they found no 
rooih in the official quarters. For the primary and 
secondary grades this was about 50 piastres per 
month in 1955, plus school books and gifts from 
Egyptian charitable societies. There was a minimum 
of £E 2 1 /, for foreigners in lodgings For students 
of the faculties, help was available, and could 
exceed £E 5. The Sudanese, who were favoured, 
received in all £E 8. Certain countries added a 
supplementary lodging allowance for their nationals. 
The Islamic Congress, dating from 1953, has 
aided certain Azharts (MIDEO, iii, 471-8). The Ddr 
al- c ulum, likewise, gave help to students (disconti- 
nued for those who entered after 1953). These 
material advantages made al-Azhar, and still makes 
it, the only place for higher studies open to poor 
families (except for the bursaries of the State Uni- 
versity). There is now a medical service for Azharls. 

The well-organised library of the mosque contains 
upward of 20,000 manuscripts, and has a printed 
catalogue. The libraries of some riwdks have inter- 
esting manuscripts, but still uncatalogued in 1955. 
Each establishment has in addition a library for its 
students. Since 1 349/1930 al-Azhar has had its 
monthly review, the official organ of its teachers, 
and whose title NUr al-Isldm was changed to 
Madjallat al-Azhar at the end of its sixth year. A 



second monthly review, the organ of the wa c z wa 
irshdd section, has retained the name of Nur al- 
Isldm. In addition, certain courses are printed, and 
many Azharls contribute to the literary productions 
of present-day Egypt. To answer numerous juridical 
questions addressed to al-Azhar, a commission, 
Ladjnat al-fatwd, was set up in 1354/1935 (having a 
president and n other members, at the rate of 3 per 
school); this is not to be confused with the Ddr 
al-iftd?, dependant on the Grand Mufti of Egypt. 
V. List of Rectors. The chronicle of al-Djabartl 
has preserved for us the names of the shaykhs (plural 
mashdyikh) of al-Azhar since the year 1100 A.H. 
The rectorship (mashyakha) was a coveted post 
which was occupied by the most prominent scholars, 
and which gave rise to long disputes between the 
schools. The rectors came from the most varied 
social strata: there were members of the landed 
aristocracy, as well as simple men who had done 
copying to earn a living at the beginning of their 
careers. Most of them, in the 18th and 19th centuries, 
composed commentaries or other works, as their 
biographers have noted. In 1954 the budget of al- 
Azhar provided £ E 2,000 for the rector per annum 
(see list and references in al-KhafadjI, al-Azhar fi 
alf 'dm, Cairo 1374, i, 147-96). It is, incidentally, 
with regard to the biographical notice of a third 
party, that al-Djabartl mentions the name of a 
rector, the earliest that is known to us. 1, Muh. b. 'Abd 
Allah al-Khirshl, d. 1101/1690; 2, Muh. al-Nashratl, 
d. 1120; 3, 'Abd al-Bakl al-Kallnl, whose nomination 
was the occasion of a battle, and some firing, within 
the mosque; 4, Muh. Shanan, one of the richest men 
of his time, d. 1133; 5, Ibrahim b. Musa al-Fayyuml, 
d. 1 1 37; 6, 'Abd Allah al-Shabrawi, poet and wit, 
frequented and defended the Sufis, d. 1171; 7, Muh. 
b. Salim al-Hifnawi al-Khalwatl, Sufi and jurist, 
author of glosses, d. 1181, perhaps poisoned by the 
amirs; his tomb became an object of veneration 
(Brockelmann, II, 323; S II, 445); 8, 'Abd al-Ra'uf 
al-SadjInl, d. 1182; 9, Ahmad b. c Abd al-Mun'im al- 
Damanhurl, d. 1192; 10, c Abd al- Rahman al- 
'Arlshi, of the Hanafi school, who had been 
initiated into Sufism by the Shaykh al-Hifnawi, and 
was rapidly dismissed under Shafil pressure; n, 
Ahmad al-'ArusI, Sufi and commentator, d. 1208/ 
1793-4; 12, 'Abd Allah al-SharkawI, whose rector- 
ship saw the expedition of Bonaparte, a scholar 
whose works were very widely read in their time, 
d. 1227/1812; 13, Muh. al-Shanawanl, who supplanted 
a rival, al-Mahdl, who was rector only in name, 
d. 1233; 14, Muh. al-'ArusI, d. 1245; '5, Ahmad b. 
'All al-Damhudji, d. 1246; 16, Hasan b. Muh. al- 
'Attar [q.v.] who had associated with Bonaparte's 
French and had been a supporter of the reforms, 
d. 1250; 17, Hasan al-Kuwaysnl, d. 1254; 18, Ahmad 
al-Sa'im al-Saftl, d. 1263; 19, Ibrahim b. Muh. al- 
Badjuri, d. 1277, known as a theologian (Brockel- 
mann, II, 487; S II, 741); 19a, an interregnum of 
four years during which a council of four curators 
conducted al-Azhar's affairs; 20, Mustafa al'Arusi 
(to 1287/1870-1), paved the way for the reforms 
which his successor introduced; 21, Muh. al-'Abbas! 
al-Mahdl al-Hanafl, temporarily replaced by Muh. 
by Muh. al-Anbabl during the uprising of 'Urabl 
Pasha (1299/1882), ceded his place in 1304/1886; 
22, Muh. al-Anbabl, a scholar but opposed to all 
innovations, who had to be pressed for a long time 
before his retirement in 1313/1895 (Brockelmann, S II, 
742); 23, Hassuna al-NawawI, a man of character, 
admired by the Egyptians, had had in the law school 
an influence on his disciples, who played an im- 



portant part in Egyptian politics; he had presided 
over the Governing Body of al-Azhar, was chosen to 
supervise the 1896 reforms, and resigned in 1317/1899; 
24, 'Abd al-Rahman Kutb al-NawawI, his brother, 
d. the same year: the rapid resignations of his 
successors show the unrest that the reforms had 
provoked; 25, Salim al-Bishrl, a pious man who had 
known poverty, the last in date of the muhaddithun 
(he knew the very authorities for the traditions), 
fiercely opposed to Muh. 'Abduh and to the reforms 
which he instigated, resigned in 1320; 26, C A1I al- 
Biblawi, resigned in 1323; 27, 'Abd al-Rahman al- 
Shirbinl. greatly esteemed for his piety and integrity, 
resigned 1324; 28, Hassuna al-Nawawi, for the 
second time, resigned in 1327/1909 consequent on 
the 1908 law. 29, Salim al-Bishri, for the second 
time, d. 1335; 30, Muh. Abu '1-Fadi al-Dyzawi, 
d. 1346/1928; 31, Mustafa al-Maraghi, disciple 
of Muh. 'Abduh, resigned in 1348/1929; 32, 
Muh. al-Ahmadi al-Zawahiri, resigned in 1354/ 
1935; 33> Mustafa al-Maraghi, second time d. 1364/ 
1945 ; 34> Mustafa 'Abd al-Razik, a very cultured 
man, admirer of Muh. 'Abduh, had taught Arabic 
at the University of Lyons (France), and later 
Muslim philosophy at the Egyptian University. He 
was nominated by King Faruk although he was not of 
the body of the chief c ulamd, and was at al-Azhar the 
victim of such hostile demonstrations that he died of 
a heart attack in 1366/1947; 35, Muh. Ma'mun al- 
Shinnawi, d. 1 369/1950. The brief duration of the 
following rectorships corresponds to the political 
undercurrents of Egypt: the struggle against the 
British in the Canal Zone, the Cairo riots of 26 
January 1952, the coup d'itai of 23 July 1952. 
In several cases, the Government brought pressure 
to bear on the rectors in order to secure their depar- 
ture. 36, 'Abd al-Madjid Salim, resigned, 4 September 
195 1 ; 37. Ibrahim Hamrush, resigned 10 February 
1952; 38, 'Abd al-Madjid Salim (second time), 
resigned 17 September 1952; 39, Muh. al-Khidr 
Husayn, resigned at the beginning of January 1954; 
40, 'Abd al-Rahman Tadj, docteur is lettres of the 
University of Paris, nominated 8 January 1954. 
VI. Results of the reform. It is difficult for 
those who are neither Muslims nor Egyptians to assess 
these; one requires to know in what spirit the pro- 
grammes were implemented, and in each case the 
portion of them which is made effective in the 
classes. From the outside it can only be assumed 
that, in spite of the significant improvements 
referred to above, all is not well. Further signs, 
indicated by the Egyptians themselves, are revealing. 
Many teachers of al-Azhar send their sons to Govern- 
ment schools and not to their own establishment. The 
Government has not accepted the principle of equality 
between the teachers of the State Universities and 
those of the higher standard at al-Azhar. Outside 
their functions as teachers in their own establishment, 
as imams, and as preachers, which are theirs by law, 
the Azharls have positions in life inferior to those 
of their colleagues in the State universities. The 
recent suppression of the sharH tribunals has abolished 
a traditional outlet for Azharis. The channel of 
Azharl study to which one is committed at the age 
of 6 on entry into a Kur'anic school, and that of 
normal secular study, are poles apart. Entry as a 
student into the State Universities is refused to 
Azharls. If the latter wish to be admitted as teachers 
of Arabic into the cadre of the Ministry of National 
Education they have to pass through the Ddr al- 
l ulHm or through the Institute of Education. 
Furthermore, al-Azhar feels that she is criticised by 



the State Universities, and suspects certain opponents 
of resenting her autonomy, and of wishing to 
abolish the primary and secondary institutes, 
perhaps even of wanting to tamper with the faculties 
(see MadiaUat al-Azhar, xxvii, no. 4, Rabi' II 1375/ 
1955, entirely devoted to defending herself against 
such attacks). The question becomes complicated 
when one sees, among the Egyptians who desire 
more far-reaching reform, not only atheists but 
also sincere Muslims, even members of the Muslim 
Brotherhood. For sixty years the question of al-Azhar 
has from time to time been a vexed one. Fundamen- 
tally it is a question of knowing what exactly al- 
Azhar's real mission is with respect to the needs of 
the Muslim community of the twentieth century, and 
further whether the intellectual and moral instruc- 
tion that she provides is adapted to these needs. 
Al-Azhar has laid great stress on the place that 
her teachers and former pupils have held, and 
continue to hold, in the life of Egypt and the Islamic 
countries. She has asked for recognition of the 
fact that she has deserved well of scholarship. 
This scholarship, in fact, presents many aspects. 
First of all stands that knowledge of the great 
Muslim values that her students absorb by 
the very atmosphere of their place of study 
as much as through the intellectual medium of 
the courses. Al-Azhar has in this way continued 
to maintain Islamic ideas in traditional circles, both 
rural and urban. She has upheld those virtues which 
make up her appeal: a religious and serious attitude 
to life, hospitality, respect of parents and teachers, 
and the duty of almsgiving. She recalls the finest 
aspects of the Kur'an and of the hadiths that are 
traditionally stressed. Some of her teachers, specia- 
lists in the Arabic language and in law, have again 
taken up the traditional subject-matter and restated 
it in simpler forms, without, however, modifying the 
basic assumptions and principles, except on a few 
points (polygamy, etc.). In history, certain modern 
monographs (for example, on al-Azhar itself) fulfil the 
same function as the mediaeval works, and use the 
same methods (compilation of documents, bio- 
graphies, etc.). Other teachers, who are conversant 
with an impressive number of ancient linguistic 
or religious treatises, have been able to produce 
editions of texts invaluable to scholars. Such 
scholarship as a whole is adapted to the needs 
of millions of Muslims whose peaceful and untroubled 
faith has not been touched by foreign ideas, or 
even to those people 'nearer to nature', as the present 
rector calls them, among whom, as in Africa, Islam 
does not cease to make progress. Azharls agree, 
however, that there is a decline in the Muslim faith 
in many universities, and that the West is impervious 
to the message of Islam. As a counter-measure, they 
teach their pupils to answer this by short composi- 
tions, rather stereotyped, educational or apologetic, 
which are taught in the inskd' or essay classes of the 
primary and secondary courses (e.g., personal 
hygiene, the use of the ritual alms or zakdt, the evils 
of wine, the wisdom of polygamy, etc.). Reviews and 
sermons continually give examples of these apolo- 
getics. But more vital problems are not considered 
in them. Some of the Muslim brotherhood in their 
exhortatory efforts, while developing this sort of 
stereotyped apologetics, have seemed more aware of 
modern difficulties. In 195 1 one of them urged al- 
Azhar to speak of such topics as the dignity of 
labour, of social questions, of Capitalism, of Marxism, 
etc. (Sayyid Kutb, in the review al-Risdla, 18 June 
195 1). The MadiaUat al-Athar followed this with 



several replies (among others, xxiii (1371), 89-95). 
But the substance of these replies is very brief, and it 
does not appear that the defenders would have recog- 
nised themselves in the picture that has been drawn 
of them, elementary as it is. — Such a conception of 
scholarship has given and still gives service, but 
those Westerners who are in the best position to 
observe events are struck by its limitations, which 
Egyptians educated by modern methods also 
perceive. There is as yet no question at al- 
Azhar of studies profiting by modern historical 
methods or broadening themselves under the in- 
fluence of modern trends of thought. Learning by 
heart, and storing up pages of texts in the memory, 
seems to be the essential requirement of students. 
Some would wish to attribute the cause of this 
limitation to a withering casuistry in which vital 
subjects, e.g., divorce, are taken as subjects for 
abstract logical exercises, wholly oblivious of their 
human repercussions (see the daily al-DiumMlrivva 
from 9 to 17 January 1954). Others reproach al- 
Azhar with having always put a brake on any 
reforms, and of posing as the only defender of Islam, 
although Islam is a religion based on equality, 
refusing clericalism, and one in which every intel- 
ligent believer has a voice in affairs. Some bodies, 
such as the State Universities, which have their own 
courses of Kur'anic exegesis, of Islamic law, of 
Arabic, etc., would wish to be their own matters 
and the only judges of such culpable deviation 
among their students or their teachers as is a matter 
for internal discipline (case of Muh. Ahmad Khalaf 
Allah, 1947-51, seeMIDEO, i, 39-72). Recently two 
censures made by al-Azhar have been quashed by 
the civil tribunals (judgment of 27 May 1950 
permitting the reprinting of the proscribed book M in 
hund nabda' of Muh. Khalid Muh. ; the case of Shay kh 
Balthlt in 1955 (MIDEO, iii, 46, 8). The Grand 
National Assembly at Ankara has likewise dis- 
cussed the question of al-Azhar with regard to 
according or refusing student status to Turkish 
subjects who are students there: the final vote was 
negative (13-16 February 1954). 

But, in their turn, Azharis reproach their adver- 
saries with forgetting the needs of the Muslim 
community. Few Azharis would willingly consent 
to a reduction of their establishment to the status 
of a Faculty of Higher Religious Studies as was 
the case with the ZaytOna at Tunis a short while 
ago. On the contrary, although the prestige as- 
sociated with the name of al-Azhar has been 
much diminished in Egypt, it is still as strong 
as ever abroad. For many Muslims throughout 
the world, al-Azhar is Egypt. Perhaps the exi- 
gences of foreign policy will help to moderate the 
current of opposition to al-Azhar which exists at 
the present time in Egypt. 

Bibliography : See particularly Ibrahim Sa- 
lama, Bibliographic analytique et critique touchant 
b question de V enseignement en Egypte depuis la 
firiode des Mameluks jusqu'a nos jours, Cairo 1938. 
Besides the references given above, see: Makrizi, 
ghitat, Cairo 1326, iv, 49-56; SuyutI, Husn al- 
Muhddara, 1299, ii, 183-4; the chronicle of DjabartI 
and al-Khiiat al-Diadlda, iv, 19-44, of 'All Pasha 
Mubarak. For the third quarter of the 19th century, 
see: Sulayman Rasad al-Hanafi al-Zayyatl, Kan* 
al-Qxawhar fi Ta'rikh al-Azhar (Cairo, c. 1322), 
and Mustafa Bayram, Risdla fi Ta'rikh al-Azhar, 
Cairo 1321. For the modern period: Mahmud Abu 
'l- c Uyun, al-Didmi' al-Azhar, Nubdha fi Ta'rikhihi, 
Cairo 1 368/1949, and especially the indispensable 



Muh. <Abd al-Mun c im Khafadii. al-Azhar fi Alf 
'Am, Cairo 1374 (1955), 3 vols., which likewise 
deals with the ancient documents, and c Abd al- 
Mut'al al-Sa^dl, Ta'rikh al-Ifldh fi 'l-Azhar, 
Cairo, n.d., which ends with the end of 1950. This 
last historical work is one of the most interesting 
among the abundant literature occasioned by the 
reforms at al-Azhar ; it contains the titles of works 
studied at al-Azhar since the end of the 19th 
century. For the organisation of studies, see 
Vollers, EI 1 , s.v., E. Dor, L 'instruction pu- 
blique en Egypte, 1889, 34 ff., 205ff.; P. Arminjon, 
V enseignement, la doctrine et la vie dans les uni- 
versitis musulmanes, Paris 1907; also Johs. 
Pedersen, Al-Azhar, et Muhammedansk Universitet, 
Copenhagen 1922; A S. Tritton, Materials on 
Muslim Education in the Middle Ages, London 1957; 
J. Heyworth-Dunne, An Introduction to the History 
of Education in Modern Egypt, London 1939; 
Ibrahim Salama, V enseignement islamique en 
Egypte, Cairo 1939; 'All c Abd al-Razik, Min Athar 
Mustafa c Abd al-Razik, Cairo 1957. The French 
translation of official texts, laws, etc., concerning 
al-Azhar since 1911, is to be found in REI, 1927, 
95-118; 465-529; 1928, 47-165, 255-337, 401-472; 
1931, 241-276; 1936, 1-43 ; all preceded by a study 
by A. Sekaly. The official syllabuses of the different 
degrees, in conformity with the law of 1936, are 
printed in separate brochures by the press at al- 
Azhar (a first series in 1938-45; a reissue with 
slight modifications in 1953-6). The annual budget 
is likewise printed; I have consulted Mizdniyyat 
al-Di&mi 1 al-Azhar wa 'l-Ma'dhid al-Diniyya li- 
Sanat 1953-4 al-Mdliyya, giving the number of 
teachers distributed according to establishments, 
standard of courses, etc. (J. Johier) 

al-AZHARI, an ethnic appellation which, in general 
denotes a person who has studied at the al-Azhar 
[q.v.] University at Cairo. 

al-AzharI, Ahmad b. 'Ata' Allah b. Ahmad, 
author of a work on rhetoric, written in 1161/1748 
and entitled Nihdyat al-I'-djaz fi 'l-Hakika wa 
'l-Madjiz. This work, with a commentary by the 
author's son, is known through the medium of a 
manuscript which has been described by Ahlwardt; 
see Brockelmann, II, 287. (C. Brockelmann *) 

al-AzharI, IbrahIm b. Sulayman al-HanafI, 
wrote about the year 1 100/1688 al-Risala al- 
Mukhtdra fi Mandhi 'l-Ziyara, in which he shows 
that it S contrary to the law, when visiting graves, 
to touch or kiss them, or lie on them (see Ahlwardt, 
Verzeichniss der arab Hss. der Kgl. Bibliothek zu 
Berlin, no. 2694). He is also the author of a monograph 
on the ordinances of fikh concerning expectoration, 
and kissing and embracing, entitled Rahlk al- 
Firdaws fi Huhm al-Rih wa 'l-Baws (ibid., 5596). 
Bibliography: Brockelmann, II, 410. 

(C. Brockelmann •) 
al-AzharI, Khalid b. c Abd Allah b. AbI Bakr, 
Egyptian grammarian, bom at Djardja in Upper 
Egypt (whence is derived the ethnic appellation al- 
Djardjawt which is sometimes applied to him), died 
at Cairo in 905/1499. He is the author of a gram- 
matical treatise known by the title of al-Mukaddima 
al-Azhariyya fi c Ilm al-'Arabiyya (ed. Bulak 1252, 
with a commentary by the author; new eds. Bulak 
1287 and Cairo 1307, with glosses by various 
schoolmen). Al-Azhari is also the author of a certain 
number of manuals of grammar, of a commentary 
on the commentary of Ibn Hisham on the Alfiyya 
of Ibn Malik [q.v.], and of commentaries on the 
Burda of al-BusIri [q.v.] and the Djarrumiyya. Al' 



L-AZHARI — 'AZlMA 



Azharl enjoyed great renown in his time. Al-SuyutI 
is reckoned as one of his pupils. 

Bibliography: Brockelmann, II, 27; Sarkls, 
Mu'djam al-Mafbu'dt al-'Arabiyya .811. 

(C. Brockelmann *) 
al-AZHARI, Abu MansOr Muhammad b. Ahmad 
b. al-Azhar, Arab lexicographer born in 
282/895 at Harat, died in the same town in 370/980. 
Al-Azharl was a pupil of his compatriot, the 
lexicographer Muhammad b. Dja'far al-Mundhirl 
(329/940), who was himself a disciple of Tha'lab 
[q.v.] and al-Mubarrad [q.v.] (see Yakut, Irshdd, vi, 
464 = Cairo ed., xviii, 99 ff.), and seems to have 
come to 'Irak whilst still fairly young. At Baghdad 
he received instruction in grammar from Niftawayh, 
according to Yakut, but came only slightly under 
the influence of al-Zadjdjadj and Ibn Durayd. If 
one relies on the lists of Shafi'I jurists, given by 
Yakut, who are supposed to have been al-Azhari's 
masters, he must have had a thorough knowledge of 
Shafi'I law. In 312/924, he was returning from Mecca 
to Kufa with the pilgrim caravan, when they were 
attacked by the Karamita [q.v.] at al-Habir and 
partly massacred or taken prisoner. Al-Azharl spent 
two years as a prisoner of the Bedouins of Bahrayn 
who were converted to Carmathianism. In a passage 
cited by Yakut and Ibn Khallikan, he describes how 
he took advantage of his sojourn among these 
nomads to study their language, which according 
to him, was very pure. The rest of his life remains 
a mystery for us and seems to have been spent in 
his birthplace in study and retirement. 

Al-Azhari's work is known to us by a list containing 
fourteen titles provided by Yakut and Ibn Khallikan 
(reproduced in part by al-Suyiitl, Bughyat al-Wu c dt, 
8); with the exception of his commentaries on the 
Mu'allafrdt and the Diwdn of Abu Tammam, these 
are lexicographical studies. Among these works, a 
dictionary has come down to us (ten volumes in Ibn 
Khallikan's time) entitled Tahdhib al-Lugha. The 
work has still not been edited; there are MSS. of it 
in London, Istanbul and in India ; see list in Brockel- 
mann. This is a compilation made by means of the 
materials, which al-Azhari received from his master 
al-Mundhirl; Yakut, Irshdd, loc. cit., even speaks of 
a riwdya of a dictionary of al-Mundhiri. The essential 
feature of the work is that it continues the tradition 
initiated by Khalil in his Kitab al-'Ayn; the roots 
are not arranged in the usual alphabetical order, but 
in accordance with a phonetic classification, commen- 
cing with the "gutturals" and ending with the 
labials. The Tahdhib was copiously used by Ibn 
Manzur in his Lisdn al-'Arab. 

Bibliography: Yakut, Irshdd, vi, 197-9 = 
Cairo ed., xvii, 164-7; Ibn Khallikan, Cairo ed., 
1310, i, 501 = ed. Muhyi '1-DIn, Cairo 1948, iii, 
458-62; Zettersteen, in MO, xiv (1920), 1-106; 
Kraemer, in Oriens, vi (1953), 213; Brockelmann, 
i, 129, S i, 197. (R. Blachere) 

'AZiM ALLAH KHAN, said to have been the 
brain of the political upheaval (known as the Mutiny) 
of 1857 in India, came of a poor Pathan family which 
had settled in Cawnpore long before the famine of 
1837-8 (George Dunbar, A History of India from the 
Earliest Times to the Present Day, London 1943', ii, 
483). An orphan, saved from starvation by a Christian 
missionary, he began life as a hhidmatgdr in an Anglo- 
Indian family of Cawnpore (Mowbray Thompson, The 
Story of Cawnpore, London 1859, 54 ; G. O. Trevelyan, 
Cawnpore, London 1907, 58), who sent him to 
school, where he learnt English and French, and 
acquired high proficiency in both. Soon after com- 



pleting his education he joined the same school as a 
teacher. On the request of Nana Sahib, adopted son 
of Badji Rao II, the last of the Peshwas, he entered 
his service as a private tutor and English secretary. 
He soon found favour with Nana who appointed 
him as his political adviser. Following the death of 
Badji Rao II in 1851, Nana Sahib succeeded to his 
title, pension and estate but the Governor-General 
of India, Lord Dalhousie, discontinued his pension 
and refused to recognise him. Thereupon 'Azim 
Allah Khan prepared a memorial for his master 
which was submitted to the British authorities in 
1852. It was, however, rejected by the Court of 
Directors of the East India Company. In 1853 
'Azim Allah Khan left for England to plead Nana's 
case personally. Here he failed in his mission, but 
through the charm of his personality he won the 
heart of many ladies who continued to write , him 
scores of letters even after his return to India in 
1855. These letters were later published in two vols., 
The Indian Prince and the English Press and Love 
Letters, which were soon proscribed (Trevelyan, 59). 
On his way back from England, 'Azim Allah Khan 
visited Paris, Constantinople, Sebastopol and the 
theatre of war in the Crimea (Russell, My Diary 
in India, London i860, 165-7). 

A frustrated and disillusioned man, having spent 
£50,000 on his fruitless mission to England , and 
anxious to continue in the favour of his master, 
'Azim Allah Khan suggested to Nana the over- 
throw of the British power in India through a 
military coup d'etat. With this aim in view he visited, 
early in 1857, along with Nana, military stations in 
northern India but met with little success. Some 
Indian princes falsely promised help to Nana's 
emissaries sent out at the instance of 'Azim Allah 
Khan, who himself took part in many of the lost 
actions which his master subsequently fought 
against the British. On the fall of Bithur, Nana's 
stronghold near Cawnpore in Dhu '1-Ka'da 
Dhu '1-Hidjdja 1273/July 1857, he disappeared from 
the scene, never to be heard of again. He is said to 
have died in Rabi' MI 1 276/October, 1859 a * 
Bhutwal (Nepal) where he had fled along with the 
other leaders of the Revolt. His end, however, like 
his origin, still remains shrouded in mystery. 

Bibliography: J. W. Kaye, A History of the 
Sepoy War in India, London 1870, i, 109-110, 
648-9 and index; G. B. Malleson, History of the 
Indian Mutiny, London 1879, ii, 251-52 and index; 
Lord Roberts, Forty-one Years in India, London 
1897, i, 293, 377, 427-9 ; V. D. Savarkar, The Indian 
War of Independence, 1857, Bombay 1947, 28-9; 
Ghulam Rasul Mihr, 1857 he Mud£dhid, Lahore 
1957. 43-6o; Intizam Allah Shihabi, Mashdhlr-i 
Pjang-i Azddi, Karachi 1957, 153-60; S. Lutfujlah, 
The Man Behind the War of Independence 1857, 
Karachi 1957; R. C. Majumdar, The Sepoy Mutiny 
and Revolt of 1857, Calcutta 1957, 164-5 and index; 
W. J. Shepherd, A Personal Narrative of the 
Outbreak and Massacre at Cawnpore, Lucknow 
1879, 14-5; W. Forbes Mitchell, Reminiscences of 
the Great Mutiny, London 1893, 185-6 and index; 
M. R. Gubbins, An Account of the Mutinies in 
Oudh, London 1858, 32; Surendra Nath Sen, 
Eighteen Fifty-Seven, Delhi 1957, 126-9, 138, 145! 
150, 368, 406 (this work also contains a very 
comprehensive bibliography) ; Earl Roberts, Letters 
written during the Indian Mutiny, London 1924, 
120. (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

'AZlMA (a.), literally: "determination, reso- 
lution, fixed purpose"; thence: 



>'AZlZ BI'LLAH 



883 



1. In religious law, an ordinance as inter- 
preted strictly, the opposite of rukhsa, an 
exemption or dispensation (e.g. the dispensation 
from observing the dietary laws, if there is danger to 
health or life). 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani, in 
his Kitab al-Mizan al-Kubra, consistently explains 
the divergent opinions of the several schools of 
religious law as expressing these two complementary 
tendencies. Cf. Goldziher, in ZDMG, 1884, 676 f.; 
idem, Die Z&hiriten, Leipzig 1884, 68 f. 

2. In magic, an adjuration, or the application 
of a formula of which magical effects are expected. 
Cf. Goldziher, in Orientaliscke Studien Tkeodor 
NSldeke . . . gewidmet, Giessen 1906, i, 307. 

(I. Goldziher*) 
AZIMECH [see nudjOm]. 

al-'AZImI (Muh. b. 'All b. Muh., Abu 'Abd 
Allah al-Tanukhi, called~) (483/1090-post 556/1161), 
chronicler of Aleppo. A full but dry universal 
history — mainly Syrian — by him, which extends to 
the year 538/1143-44 (published by me — from the 
year 455/1063— in J A, 1938, 353-448), has come down 
to us, but in addition, he composed above all a 
great History of Aleppo which was used copiously 
especially by Kamal al-DIn b. al-'Adim and Ibn Abl 
Tayyl (the latter up to 556/1161). The interest of the 
portions of al-'Azimi's work which have been 
preserved does not reside in their intrinsic value, 
but rather in the fact that they are the only texts 
which escaped the destruction of North Syrian 
historiography between the middle of the 5th/9th 
century and that of the 6th/i2th century; they thus 
enable us, to a certain extent, to complete or criticise 
the great works of the following century, on which 
we are dependent for the history of this period, by 
bringing us closer to their sources: a necessary test 
in view of the changes which had taken place in the 
meantime in the Syrian moral and social climate. 
Bibliography: Mukrimin Halil (Yinanc), 
XII aslr tarihcileri ve muverrihi Azimi, in Ikinci 
Turk Tarih Kongressi Nesriyatl, 1937; CI. Cahen, 
preface to the edition cited above, and La Syrie du 
Nord d I'tpoque des Croisades, 1940, 42-3. 

(Cl. Cahen) 
AZIMUT [see al-samt]. 
al-'AZIZ [see ayyubids]. 

al-'AZIZ BI'LLAH Nizar Abu Mansur, fifth 
Fatimid Caliph and the first whose reign began 
in Egypt. He was born on 14 Muharram 344/10 May 
955 and had been designated as his successor by his 
father al-Mu c izz after the death of his brother 'Abd 
Allah in 364/974. He succeeded his father on 11 
RabI' II 365/18 December 975 (or 14 RabI' 11/ 
21 December) after the latter had had him recognised 
as his successor by his family and dignitaries on the 
preceding day. The official proclamation, however, 
only took place on 10 Dhu 'l-Hidjdja 365*9 August 
976. 

The sources describe him as tall, with red hair and 
Hue eyes, generous, brave, fond of horses and 
bunting and very humane and tclerant in disposition. 
He was an excellent administrator, subjected the 
State finances to a rigorous supervision, introduced 
the system of fixed salaries for officials, whom he 
forbade to accept bribes and presents, and issued 
an order that no payments should be made except 
on the production of written documents. He was the 
first to assign fixed rates of pay to his troops and 
palace personnel. He was, moreover, the first of the 
Fatimid Caliphs to employ Turks in the army, a 
practice which was later to be fraught with serious 
consequences. 



He was well supported by his minister Ya'kub b. 
KiUis, the director of taxation, to whom in 368/979 
he gave the title of wazir, previously unknown to 
the Fatimids, and who remained wazir until his 
death in 380/991, with two short periods in disgrace, 
one because he was accused of having had the Turk 
Alptakin (Alptegin; see below) poisoned ^368/979, 
and the other in 373/984 when he was imprisoned and 
had his possessions confiscated, perhaps because of the 
famine which broke out in that year, but two months 
later he recovered his liberty, possessions and 
offices. It was to Ibn Killis that al- 'Aziz's finances 
owed their prosperity. He also played an important 
literary rdle, according pensions to the men of 
letters, lawyers and poets whom he gathered round 
himself, and composed a book of Isma'IlI Law based 
on pronouncements by al-Mu'izz and al- c AzIz. 

The wazirs who succeeded him did not remain as 
long in office. These were 'All b. 'Umar al-'Addas, 
Abu '1-Fadl Dja'far b. al-Furat in 381/992, al- 
Husayn b. al-Hasan al-Baziyar, Abu Muhammad b. 
'Ammar, al-Fadl b. Salih, who had been a colla- 
borator of Ibn Killis, and lastly in 385-386/995-996, 
the Christian 'Isa b. Nesturus, formerly Secretary for 
Finance. Another important officer of al-'Aziz was 
the Jew Manashsha (Manasseh), Secretary for Syria. 
The employment of a Christian and a Jew in high 
offices was in keeping with the spirit of toleration 
of the Fatimids in matters of religion and race. Al- 
'Azlz was still further inclined to toleration, being 
influenced by his Christian wife, the mother of his 
son and successor al-Hakim. This Princess's two 
brothers were indebted to his influence and to the 
Caliph's recommendation for being appointed, the 
one, Orestes, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and the other, 
Arsenius, Metropolitan of Misr and Cairo in 375/986. 
The Christians, throughout his reign, enjoyed great 
freedom. The Coptic Patriarch Ephraim, in spite of 
strong Muslim opposition, obtained permission to 
rebuild the Church of Abu 'ISayfayn (St. Mercurius) 
near al-Fusta{. The Caliph looked favourably on the 
controversies between the Bishop of Asjimunayn, 
Severus b. al-Mukaffa' and the kadi Ibn al-Nu'man, 
president of the Court of Mazdlim. He refused to 
take action against a Muslim who had become a 
Christian convert. This policy was bound to cause 
considerable discontent among the Muslims, and 
tracts were circulated against Manasseh and Ibn 
Nesfurus. To appease the Muslims, the Caliph had 
the Jew and the Christian imprisoned, but as it was 
difficult to do without their services, they soon 
re-established their position. In 386/996, this dis- 
content provoked a popular movement against the 
Christians, following the burning of the fleet, of 
which some merchants from Amalfi were accused; 
the latter were massacred and several churches were 
looted. 

Though al-'Aziz was tolerant towards Christians 
and Jews, he was less so towards the Sunnl Muslims. 
He followed a strict Isma'lll policy (defamatory 
inscriptions for the companions of the Prophet; 
suppression of the soldi al tarawih of Ramadan in 
372/982; the punishment in 381/991 of a man who 
had in his possession the Muwatfa' of Malik). In 
366/976, he inaugurated in Cairo the mourning 
ceremonies on the feast of the 'Ashura'. On the 
other hand, however, the holding of solemn proces- 
sions on the Fridays in Ramadan and the distribu- 
tions of sweetmeats at the feast ending the fast 
(fifra) are due merely to his love of display. 

The reign of al-'Aziz was in fact a period of 
luxury. His fondness for precious stones, cut glass 



82 4 



L-AZlZ BI'LLAH 



ware, rich materials of dabiki and of sihlafun, rare 
animals, truffles and sea fish etc. (once cherries 
from Ba'albakk were brought to him by carrier 
pigeons), involved great expenditure which made 
necessary the rigorous handling of the finances 
referred to above, but at the same time it contributed 
to the economic resurgence of Egypt. Ibn Killis his 
wazir, who received a salary of 100,000 dinars, also 
lived in great style. Al- c Aztz also spent a great deal 
on buildings like the Kasr al-Dhahab, the Kasr al 
Bahr, parts of the group of buildings known under the 
name of Great Palace, the Mosque of al-Karafa and 
that called the Mosque of al-Hakim, which however 
was started by al-'AzIz. 

The foreign policy of al-'AzIz was really only 
active in Syria. In North Africa, he confirmed 
Yusuf Bulukkin in his office. The tetter's son, al- 
Mansur (373-386/984-996), however, likewise con- 
firmed by the Caliph, was by no means docile; he 
did not hesitate to go to war against the Kutama, 
in spite of the Caliph's disapproval, and progres- 
sively detached himself from Egypt. Similarly in 
Sicily, the Caliph confined himself to bestowing the 
investiture, after the event, on amirs of the Kalbite 
family. He entertained diplomatic relations with 
the Buwayhid 'Adud al-Dawla who, according to 
Hilal al-Sabi' (in Sibt Ibn al-DjawzI) u sa id to have 
taken the initiative in the matter. The letter of 
'Adud which has been preserved, seems to indicate 
that he recognised the Fatimid's sovereignty, but 
this seems doubtful, for, according to Ibn Zafir, 
'Adud al-Dawla disputed the official Fatimid 
genealogy. 

Al-'AzIz's principal aim was to ensure his posses- 
sion of Southern and Central Syria, and latterly that 
of the Amlrate of Aleppo, so as to realise his dreams 
of expansion at the cost of Byzantium and the 
'Abbasids. In Southern Palestine, the Bedouin chief 
Mufarridi b. Daghfal al-Tal, master of Ramla, was 
not readily submissive to the Caliph's orders. In 
Damascus, the Turk Alptakin, who came from 
Baghdad, had installed himself in 364/975 and 
had proclaimed the sovereignty of the 'Abbasids, 
whilst al-MuIzz had been unable to expel him from 
the city. Al- c AzIz determined to retake Damascus from 
Alptakin, who had allied himself with the Karamita, 
the enemies of the Fatimids. In 365/976, he sent an 
army against him under the command of Djawhar. 
After two months of fighting before Damascus, 
however, Djawhar, faced by the arrival of the 
Karamita, had to withdraw towards Tiberias and 
then to Ramla and 'Askalan. Here he was besieged, 
had to negotiate, cede the territory from Damascus 
to 'Askalan to Alptakin, and suffer the humiliation 
of making his exit from the place passing beneath 
a sword and a lance hung over the gate (367/978). 
The Caliph reacted and marched in person against 
Alptakin, whom he defeated and captured (Muharram 
368/August 978). But he was obliged to pay an 
annual tribute to the Karamita to secure their 
withdrawal. Against all expectations, he showed 
Alptakin every consideration, took him into his 
service with his Turks and covered him with honours. 
However, Alptakin died shortly after from the 
effects of poison, a victim of Ibn Killis's hate. 

In spite of this, Damascus did not remain in the 
possession of the Caliph, for shortly after it fell into 
the hands of one of Alptakln's former auxiliaries, 
Kassam, a navvy by origin. An army, commanded 
by one of Ibn Killis's favourites, Fadl b. Salih, was 
sent against him, but proved useless and Fadl had 
to return to Palestine. At that time, the Hamdanid 



Abu Taghlib, who had been evicted from Mawsil, 
and had got into communication with the Caliph, 
was in Palestine after having tried unsuccessfully to 
take Damascus, and was regarded with hostility by 
Mufarridi b. Daghfal. The latter, fearing lest al- 
c Aziz might give his favour to Abu Taghlib at his 
expense, launched an attack against him, and the 
Hamdanid fell into his hands and was put to death 
in 369/979- The Fatimid general played an equivocal 
r61e in the affair. Kassam and Mufarridi successfully 
resisted further Fatimid expeditions, notably that 
led by Salman b. Dja'far b. Falah, and it was only 
in 372/982 that the Turkish general Yaltakln 
mastered the two of them. Mufarridi, defeated, fled 
to Hims, and from there he made for Antioch, where 
he placed himself under the protection of the 
Byzantines. Kassam surrendered and was sent to 
Cairo at the beginning of 373/983. 

Al- c AzIz, however, was still attracted by the idea 
of taking Aleppo, although Ibn Killis, consi- 
dering a nominal recognition of Fatimid sovereignty 
by the Hamdanid as sufficient, persuaded him 
against it, and thought he could make the Hamdanid 
governor of Hims, Bakdjur, the instrument of his 
ambitious designs. He offered him the government 
of Damascus and the support of his troops in his 
rebellion against the amir of Aleppo, Sa'd al-Dawla. 
Bakdjur proceeded to invest Aleppo in 373/983. 
However, the Byzantine general Bardas Phocas came 
to the assistance of Aleppo. Mufarridi, who was in 
the Byzantine army and in correspondance with 
Bakdjur, gave him warning. The latter fled, not 
stopping at Hims, which was entered by Bardas 
Phocas and halted at the frontiers of the Fatimid 
territory. The Caliph, faithful to his promise, gave 
him the government of Damascus. He was joined by 
Mufarridi. The intrigues of Ibn Killis, who distrusted 
Bakdjur and Mufarridi, and who made several 
attempts to rid himself of Bakdjur, led finally to 
his being expelled from Damascus by a Fatimid 
army in 378/988. He took refuge at Rakka. After 
the death of Ibn Killis in 380, Mufarridi obtained 
the Caliph's pardon and Bakdjur once again won 
al-'Aziz over to the idea of a conquest of Aleppo. The 
Caliph promised him the support of the garrison of 
Tripoli. However, at the instigation of the secretary 
Ibn Nesturus, whom Bakdjur had made ill-disposed 
toward himself, the Fatimid general abandoned 
Bakdjur at the decisive moment in the fighting 
against Sa c d al-Dawla, so that he was defeated and 
handed over to the Hamdanid in 381/991, being 
then put to death. After his victory, Sa'd al-Dawla 
threatened to invade al- 'Aziz's realm. Death 
prevented him from putting his plan into execution. 

The Caliph was once again urged to undertake the 
conquest of Aleppo by the former secretary of 
Bakdjur, 'All b. al-Husayn al-Maghribl, who had 
taken refuge in Egypt, as well as several amirs who 
had left the Hamdanid Abu 'l-Fadall. From 382/992 
until his death, al-'AzIz methodically pursued bis 
attempts to take Aleppo, but without any success, 
owing to the support given by the Byzantines to 
their dependant, the amir of Aleppo. The first 
attempt, led by the Turkish general Mangutaldn, 
supported by Ibn al-Maghribl, was marked by an 
unsuccessful siege of Aleppo, though there were 
successful engagements fought to the north of 
Aleppo against the Byzantine governor of Antioch, 
Burtzes (al-Burdjl), whom the Emperor Basil II, 
informed by Hamdanid messengers when in Bulgaria, 
had instructed to intervene. At the end of 382 (end 
of 992 or beginning of 993), Mangutakln, without 



il-AZIZ BPLLAH - 



825 



authorisation from the Caliph and at the instigation 
of al-Maghribi, who was dismissed for that reason, 
raised the siege and returned to Damascus. After the 
consolidation of Fatimid territorial gains south of 
the amlrate of Aleppo, a second attempt took place 
in 384/994. There was a first period of siege lasting 
two months, then Mangutakln was obliged to march 
against Burtzes, and routed him at the ford of the 
Orontes in September 994, after which he resumed 
the siege, which lasted until May 995 and was only 
lifted on the arrival after forced marches of the 
Emperor Basil II in person, whom the Hamdanid 
messengers had again gone to summon from the 
Bulgarian front. The Emperor saved Aleppo, but 
did not succeed in adequately ensuring the defence 
of the advance positions of the amlrate of Aleppo 
against the Fatimids, for though he placed a garrison 
at Shayzar, he was unable to take Tripoli. Al- c Aziz 
resolved to intensify the struggle and the close of 
the year 385/995 and the beginning of 386/996 were 
marked by great military and naval preparations in 
Egypt. 

The navy built by Ibn Nesturus having been 
accidentally set on fire (see above), a new navy was 
immediately called into existence and sent against 
Antartus, a Byzantine stronghold, to which Man- 
gutakln, after having executed in the spring of the 
year 996 several incursions in the direction of 
Antioch and Aleppo, was laying siege. The inter- 
vention of the Byzantine troops from Antioch caused 
the operation to fail, but the southern region of the 
amlrate of Aleppo remained under Fatimid influence. 
The Caliph decided to take the field in person, and 
set out to place himself at the head of his armies, 
accompanied by the coffins of his ancestors, like 
al-Mu c izz on his departure from Africa. However, 
he fell ill and died at Bilbays on 28 Ramadan 386/ 
14 October 996. 

Al- c Aziz was certainly the wisest and the best of 
all the Fatimid Caliphs of Egypt. Though he did 
not realise all his aims, it was, nevertheless, during 
his reign that the domination of the Fatimids 
reached, at least nominally, its greatest extent, for 
the khufba was read in his name from the Atlantic 
Ocean to the Red Sea, in the Yemen, in Mecca and, 
on one occasion, even at Mawsil under the 'Ukaylid 

Bibliography: Miskawayh, K. Tadx&rib al- 
Umam, ii, 402 ft.; Yahya b. Sa £ id al-Antakl, 
Annates, ed. Cheikho, 146-180, ed. and trans 
Kratchkovsky and Vasiliev, in Pair. Or., xxiii, 2, 
371 (i63)-450(242); Abu Shudja c al-Rudhrawarl, 
Dhayl K. Tadiarib al-Umam, 208 ff.; Ibn al- 
Sayrafl, K. al-Ishdra ild man ndla 'l-Wizdra, in 
BIFAO 25 (1925), 19-26 (87-94); Ibn al-Kalanisi, 
Dhayl Ta>rikh Dimashk, 14-44; Abu Salih, 
Churches and Monasteries of Egypt, ed. and trans. 
Evetts, see index; Ibn Haminad, Hist, des rots 
Obaidides, ed. and trans. Vonderheyden, 48-49 
(73 75); Ibn Zafir, K. al-Duwal al-Munkati'a, 
Br. Mus. MS. Or. 3685, f. 50V ff.; Ibn al- 
Athlr, ed. Tornberg, index; Sibt Ibn al-Djawzi, 
Mir'dt al-Zamdn, Paris MS. 5866, f. 54v-i54r; 
Kama al-Din Ibn al- £ AdIm, Ta'rikh Halab, ed. 
S. Dahhan, i, 176 ff.; Ibn Muyassar, Annates 
d'EgypU, in BIFAO 1919, 47-52; Ibn Khallikan. 
no. 769; idem, Bulak, ii, 199-201; Ibn 'Idhari, 
al-Baydn al-Mughrib, ed. Dozy, i, 237 ff., 255, 
257, 297; Abu '1-Fida', ed. Reiske and Adler, 
index; Ibn Kathlr, al-Biddya wa 'l-Nihdya, xi, 
280-2, 292, 320; Ibn Dukmak, ed. Bulak, 1309- 
1314, index; Ibn Khaldun. al- c Ibar, iv, 51 ff.; 



Kalkashandl, Subh al-A e shd, iii, 358, 364, 367. 
369, 430, 483, 489, xiv, 391 (ii 93); Calcashandi's 
Geographie und Verwaltung von Agypten, 78, 
80, 83, 133, 181, 188; MakrizI, Kh'W, Bulak, 
i. 379-80, 408, 451, 457, 468, 470, ii, 157, 268, 
277, 284-5, 318, 341, 366; Abu '1-Mah5sin b. 
TaghribirdI, al-Nudjum, ed. Popper, ii, 2, 1-60, 
Cairo ed., iv, 1 12-176; Suyutl, Husn, Cairo 
1321, ii, 14, 44, 129, 146, 155; Ibn Iyas, BaddH* 
al-Zuhur, Bulak, 1312-1314, i, 48-50. (The great 
Isma'fll history of the Fatimids c Uyun al-A khbdr 
of Idris b. al-Hasan has not yet been edited and 
could not be consulted). 

Di Gregorio, Return arabicarum quae ad hist. Sic. 

spectant collectio, Panormi 1790, 20, 65, 85, 

99; Amari, Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia, 2nd. 
ed., iii, 386-7; S. Lane- Poole, A History of Egypt in 
the Middle Ages, index; V. Rosen, The Emperor 
Basil Bulgaroctonus, (in Russian), St. Petersburg 
1883, 14-15, 17-19, 34-36, 244-250, 301-304 and 
see index; A. Mviller, Der Islam im Morgen- und 
Abendland, i, 625 f.; G. Wiet, Precis de I' Hist, 
de 1't.gypte, index; idem, Histoire de la Nation £g., 
iv, L'EgypU arabe, 188-195 ; P. K. Hitti, History of 
the Arabs, index; Hasan Ibrahim Hasan, al- 
Fdtimiyyun /» Misr, index; idem, Ta'rikh at- 
Islam, 1948, iii, 165 ft. and index; Khattab 
'Atiyya 'Ah", al-Ta'-lim fi Misr fi'l-'Asr al-Fatiml 
al-Awwal, Cairo 1947, index; Muhammad Kamil 
Husayn, Fi Adab Misr al-Fdtimiyya, 1950, index; 
M. Canard, Histoire des Hamddnides, i, 677 ff., 
681 ff., 696 ff., 853 ff. (M. Canard) 

'AZlZ EFENDl [see <alI f Aziz giridlI]. 
c AZlZ MI$K, the mighty one of Egypt. In the 
Kur J an (xii, 30, 51) the title al- c AzIz is given to the 
unnamed Egyptian who buys Yusuf. In later legend 
and commentary he is called Kitfir [q.v.], from the 
Biblical Potiphar. The title al- c Aziz seems to 
connote the office of chief minister under Pharoah, 
as the same title is applied to Yusuf himself when 
he reaches that position (Kur'an, xii, 78, 88). In 
some of the Arabic dictionaries the term is defined 
as meaning the ruler of Egypt (Mi$r) and Alexandria 
(Lane, s.v.). In Ottoman texts the epithet 'Aziz 
Misr is sometimes applied to the Mamluk sultans 
of Egypt (e.g., in the headings of the Munsha'dt-i 
Saldtm of Feridun), but does not appear to have 
formed part of their official titles. An attempt was 
made to bring the title into official use during the 
negotiations between Isma'U Pasha, the viceroy 
of Egypt, and Sultan c Abd al- c Aziz, which culmi- 
nated in 1867 with the granting by the Sultan to the 
pasha of the title of Khedive. Isma c fl, who already 
enjoyed hereditary status by virtue of the ferman 
of 1841, was anxious to obtain a special title which 
would indicate his superiority to the other pashas 
of the Ottoman Empire, and proposed the title 
•Aziz Misr. According to the Ottoman Minister of 
Internal Affairs of that time, Memduh Pasha, this 
proposal was not acceptable, in part because the 
suggested title coincided with the Sultan's own name. 
Bibliography: Memduh Pasha, Mir'dt-i 
Shu'undt, Izmir 1328, 34-5; E. Dicey, The Story 
of the Khedivate, London, 1902 38. (B. Lewis) 
c AZlZl, Ottoman poet, died in 993/1585. His name, 
according to some, was Mustafa, according to others, 
Mehemmed. He lived in Istanbul, near the Castle of 
the Seven Towers (Yedi Kule), as a bookbinder and, 
presumably later, as the warden of the guards of 
the castle. He died there and was buried in the large 
cemetery outside the city walls, near Yedi Kule. 
His portrait in 'Ashik Celebi's Udhkire ('All EmM 



'AZlZl — al-AZRAKI 



no. 772) shows him with a white beard. Among the 
poets his contemporaries who used the nom de 
plume c AzIzI he was the most famous. 

All his biographers found it noteworthy that, in 
contrast to the works of most of the other poets of 
his time, his poetry was inspired not by boys, but 
by women. This reputation seems to have derived 
from his most famous poem, a shehrengiz on the 
courtesans of Istanbul, entitled Rengln-name, which 
is remarkable for its lively style and bold use of 
idiomatic expressions and proverbs; each of the 
49 beauties is described, in a set of three couplets, 
with images befitting her name or nickname. Other 
poems by him are found scattered in tedhkires and 
anthologies. 

Bibliography: Gibb, Ottoman poetry, iii, 
179-86 (1904), with English translation of 12 
stanzas of the shehrengiz; Sadeddin Niizhet Ergun, 
Turk sairleri, ii, 632-37 (about 1938), containing 
passages on 'Azizi from various tedhkires, and 
several of his scattered poems; Istanbul Oniversite 
KiitUphanesi, Turkish MSS. no. 9492, is a complete 
copy (dated 1304/1886-87) of the Rengln-name; 
article in I A. (A. Tietze) 

'AZlZl [see karaceledi-zade], 
C AZL, coitus interruptus. According to the hadith 
this practice was not unknown to the ancient Arabs, 
and the Messenger of God did not declare it to be 
hardm. The doctors of the Law agree that the master 
can practise it with his slave concubine uncondition- 
ally, and the husband with his wife ; in the latter case, 
however, there is controversy on the question 
whether the wife's permission is necessary. According 
to al-Ghazali, although <azl is not in conformity with 
the general spirit of marriage, it is not forbidden, 
and is at the most only mildly reprehensible : it may 
also be practised with a view to ensuring, for example, 
that the consequences of a confinement do not 
imperil the husband's "continued enjoyment of 
marital rights"; with greater justification, and 
although it is preferable to leave the matter trustingly 
in God's hands, "the fear of incurring great financial 
hardship on account of the size of one's family" 
renders this contraceptive practice admissible. 

Bibliography: Malik, Muwatta', chap, al- 
kadd 3 fi ummahdt al-awldd; Abu Yusuf, Athar, 
Cairo 1355, nos. 710-712, 807; al-Shaybanl, M«- 
waffa', lithogr. Lucknow 1297 and 1306,239,248; 
the same, Athdi, lithogr. India 1312, 68; Ibn al- 
Kasim, Mudawwana, Cairo I323f., viii, 23, 26; 
Shaft"!, Umm, Bulak 1321-6, vii, 160, 213; 
Wensinck, Handbook, s.v. "Intercourse"; Ghazall. 
Ihya', book xii, chap, iii, part 1, no. 10: "Good 
manners concerning coitus". Book xii, "On 
Marriage", has been translated into German by 
Bauer, and into French by Bercher and Bousquet. 
See also G. H. Bousquet, La Morale de Vlslam 
et son Ethique sexuelle, 137-140. 

(G. H. Bousquet) 
C AZL, dismissal [see supplement]. 
'AZMl-ZADE Mustafa, Ottoman poet and 
stylist, as a poet known under the name of Haletl. 
Born in the so-called laylat al-berdt in Istanbul on 
15 Sha'ban 977/23 Jan. 1570. He was the son of 
c AzmI-Efendi, who was the well-known and well- 
respected tutor of Murad IV as well as a poet, 
writer, and translator (died 990/1582). As a pupil of 
Sa c d al-Dln [q.v.] who became famous as a historian, 
he studied law, and to him he owed his special love 
for historical investigation. He became miiderris at 
the madrasa of HadjdjI-Khatun in Istanbul, but in 
ion/1602-3 he was transferred to Damascus as a 



judge. Two years later he went to Cairo in the s: 
capacity. When Damad Ibrahim-Pasha (cf. H 
Purgstall, iv, 136 ff.) the governor of Egypt, was 
killed in a military rising in Cairo, 'Azmi-zade 
(who had occasionally represented him) was dismissed 
because of his lack of prudence, and soon afterwards 
(1015/1606-7) he was moved as Mulla to Brusa. As 
a reward for his good services in the fight against 
the c Alid rebel Kalender-oghlu, he became Mullah 
of Adrianople in 1020/1611-2. His behaviour when 
a judge was punished for wrong-doing led to his 
transfer to Damascus where, however, he remained 
only until 1023/1614, to go from there to Istanbul 
as a judge. This important office he held for four 
years. Subsequently he was sent to the provinces 
once again, this time to Cairo. In Rabl c II 1030/ 
Feb. -March 16.21, he next became a military judge 
in Anatolia and in Rabi c I 1037/Nov. 1627, in 
Rumelia, after he had again been without office 
{ma'zOl) since Dhu '1-Ka c da 1032/Sept. 1623. This 
last post, too, he held only for a short time. He was 
dismissed in Ramadan 1038/April-May 1629, and 
moved to the school attached to the Sulaymaniyya 
mosque (ddr al-hadith) in Istanbul. He died soon 
afterwards (26 Sha'ban 1040/30 March 1631), and is 
buried in the courtyard of his school, not far from 
his house in Sofular Carshusu. 

As the poet Haletl, c Azmi-zade achieved fame 
because of his diwdn, his Sdki-ndme, and his 
quatrains (rubdH), and he was known as the Turkish 
c Umar Khayyam by his successors. He was very 
widely read and left a library of manuscripts of some 
4000 volumes, all of which are annotated in his own 
hand. The library was dispersed. None of his works 
has yet been printed, and his poetry deserves a 
fuller critical appreciation. c AzmI-zade's Sulaymdn- 
ndme would appear to have nothing to do with the 
sultan Sulayman the Magnificent; the contents 
stands in need of an examination (there is a manu- 
script in the Es'ad-Efendi library in Istanbul (No. 
2284, cf. GOW, 76)). The best example of his skill in 
prose is his Munsha'dt, of which there is a manuscript 
in the Hamidiyya library in Istanbul (No. 599)- 
There is another one in London, in the British 
Museum (Or. 1169, cf. Rieu, 96b.) with a reference 
to a further manuscript in Vienna (National- 
bibliothek) containing only 13 letters (cf. G. Fliigel, 
catalogue I, 265), Cf. also Hammer Purgstall, iv 
(1828), viii. 

Bibliography : New'I-zade 'Atal, HadaHk al- 
HakdHk, Istanbul 1268, 739ft. ; Sidiill-i 'Othmdni, 
ii, 103 f.; HadjdjI Khalifa. Fedhleke, ii, Istanbul 
1267, 135; J. v. Hammer, GOD, iii (1837), 214 ff.; 
Gibb, Ottoman Poetry, iii, 221 f f . ; Brflsall Mehmed 
Tahir, <VthmanU MuellifUri, ii (1333), 3" f. Briet 
notices in Hammer- Purgstall, iv(i82g), 629, based 
on <Ata1. (F. Babinger) 

al-AZRAKI Abu 'l-WalId Muhammad b. c Abd 
Allah b. Ahmad, historian of Mecca and of 
its sanctuary. The ancestor of the family was a 
Byzantine (Rumi) slave of Kalada or al-HariUi b. 
Kalada in al-Ta'if , called al-Azrak on account of his 
blue eyes. According to Ibn c Abd al-Barr (Isti'db, 
s.v, Sumayya), he married Sumayya, the mother of 
Ziyad b. Ablhi. During the siege of al-Ta 5 if in 8/630 
al-Azrak went over to Muhammad, was freed, and 
settled at Mecca. His descendents rose to power and 
influence and married into the Umayyad aristo- 
cracy. In order to obliterate their humble origin 
they pretended to belong to the clan of 'Ikabb of 
the Band Taghlib (Ibn Sa c d, iii/i, 176) but later, 
when the antagonisms between - Kays and Yaman 



l-AZRAKI — AZURDA 



8a7 



became prominent, they were persuaded by the 
Khuza'a to join the Yamanite camp by maintaining 
that al-Azrak was the son of 'Amr b. al-HariUi b. 
AM Shamir and hence a member of the royal family 
of the Ghassanids (Ibn Sa c d, I.e.; see also al-Azrakl 
458, and 460). 

A great-great-grandson of al-Azrak was Ahmad 
b. Muh. b. al-Walid b. c Ukba, d. 222/837 (Ibn SaM 
v, 367; al-Subki, Jabakdt al-ShafiHyya, i, 222; 
Ibn Hadjar, Tahdhib, i, 79)- He was interested 
in the history of Mecca and its sanctuary and 
gathered from Sufyan b. c Uyayna, the mufti Sa'Id 
b. Salim, the fakih al-ZandjI, Dawud b. c Abd al- 
Rahman al- c Attar and other Meccans a huge mass 
of relevant information. His materials were utilised 
and considerably enlarged by his grandson Abu 
'1-Walid, the author of Akhbdr Makka. The tradi- 
tions collected in this book go back in the main to 
the so-called school of Ibn c Abbas and represent its 
doctrines and Kur'anic exegesis. With regard to 
the legendary history of Mecca in pre-Islamic times 
Ibn Ishak, al-Kalbi and Wahb b. Munabbih are also 
quoted. The topographical description is in the main 
the work of Abu '1-Walld. Abu '1-Walld transmitted 
the book to the "reader" Abu Muhammad Ishak b. 
Ahmad al-Khuza c I (a descendent of 'Ulnar's governor 
of Mecca Nafi c b. c Abd al-Harith) d. 308/921, who 
made many additions, especially about the reno- 
vations of the Ka c ba in 281-4/894-7, and transmitted 
the book to his grand-nephew Abu '1-Hasan Mu- 
hammad b. Nafi' al-Khuza% d. after 350/961 (who 
made only three additions). This is the text that was 
printed by Wustenfeld, Die Chroniken der Stadt 
Mekka, i, Leipzig 1858. 

Azrakl's book was plagiarised c. 272/885-6 by 
Muhammad b. Ishak al-Fakihl (see Wustenfeld, op. 
cit., i, xxiv-xxix and ii, i). It was also utilised by Sa'd 
al-Din Sa'd Allah b. 'Umar al-Isfara'ini c. 762/1361 
in his Zubdai al-A'-mdl (see Rieu, Supplement, nr. 
575). Al-KirmanI wrote in 821/1418 a Mukhtasar 
Ta?rikh Makka (autograph in Berlin, Ahlwardt 
no. 9752). 

Bibliography : For Azrak see also Ibn Kutay- 
ba, Handbuch, i3i;TabarI, iii, 2315, 2 and Isaba 
s.w. al-Azrak and Sumayya Umm 'Ammar. For 
Abu '1-Walid al-Azrakl see Fihrist, i^iSam'anl 
28a; Brockelmann, S I, 209. J. W. Fiick, Der Ahn 
des Azraqi (Studi Orientalistici in onore di G. Levi 
Delia Vida, i, 336-40). (J. W. FCck) 

AZRAKl, Zayn al-DIn Abu Bakr b. IsmA'Il 
al-Warrau, Persian poet who, according to 
Ethe, died in 527/"32-33 or in 524/1130; but Mirza 
Muhammad KazwinI has shown (Cahar Makdla, 
175 ff.) that he died certainly before 465/1072-3. 
He wrote a Diwdn which, among other poems, 
contains panegyrics on Tughanshah b. Alp Arslan, 
the governor of Harat (not, as is often stated, of 
Nishapur), and on Amiranshah, the son of Kawurd 
[q.v.], the first Saldjukid sultan of Kirman. His 
verses comprise outstanding kafidas and kit'as; he 
excels in descriptive poetry but is sometimes exag- 
gerated in his praise, and he is not free from far- 
fetched and affected comparisons. It seems impro- 
bable that he is also, as Hadjdji Khalifa and others 
assert, the author of the Sindbad-ndma and of an 
obscene book entitled Alfiyya wa-Shalfiyya. 

Bibliography : <Awfi, Lubdb, ii, 86 ff.; Dawlat- 
shah, 72 ff.; Nizaml-i 'ArudI, Cahar Manila (ed. 
KazwinI), 44, 170 ff. (trans. Browne, 123-125 and 
index); DiamI, Bahdristdn, chapter vii (trans. 
Masse, 172) ; Houtsma, Recueil, i, 14 ff.; Ethe, Or. 
I. Phil., ii, 258; Browne, ii, 323. (H. Mass£) 



AZRAKJTES [see azArika]. 
AZULEJO [see Khazaf]. 

AZURDA, Sadr al-DIn KhAn b. Lut* AllAh, 
Indian writer of Kashmiri extraction, was bom 
in Delhi in 1204/1789. He learnt the traditional 
sciences from Shah c Abd al- c AzIz and Shah c Abd al- 
Kadir [qq.v.] and the rational sciences from Fadl-i 
Imam of Khayrabad, whom he succeeded in 1243/ 
1827 as the last grand mufti and fadr al-fudur of 
Imperial Delhi. In addition to his proficiency in 
various branches of knowledge he was a great 
authority on the Urdu language, and celebrated 
poets like Ghalib and Mu'min often invited his 
opinion on their compositions. Before the Mutiny 
his house in Matya Mahall, Delhi, was the favourite 
meeting-place of scholars and poets. (He was the first 
to prescribe the diwan of al-Mutanabbl as one of the 
courses of study in India.) Suspected of complicity 
in the Mutiny of 1857, he was gaoled. His property, 
including his large private library, was confiscated 
and auctioned. After his release his property, but 
not his library, was restored to him. He had many 
pupils. Before his appointment as $adr al-sudur he 
served as a tutor to Yusuf C AH Khan, ruler of 
Rampur (1855-65). His other pupils included: 
Siddlk Hasan Khan [q.v.]; Fakir Muhammad 
Lahorl, author of fladdHtt al-Ifanafiyya, and Abu 
'1-Khayr, father of Abu '1-Kalam Azad. He was 
struck with paralysis in 1862 and died six years later 
on 24th Rabi' I I28s/i5th July, 1868 and was 
buried in Delhi. 

Among his works, some of which perished during 
the Mutiny, are two tracts in Arabic: Muntaha 'l- 
Makdl fi Shark Hadith Id Tashudd al-Rihdl, in 
refutation of the arguments of Ibn Taymiyya and 
others to prove that visits to the shrines of saints 
and divines are unlawful; al-Durr al-Mandud /* 
Ifukm Imra't al-Mafltud. He is also the author of 
a short biographical work on Urdu poets entitled 
Tadhkira-i Mukhtafar 'dar Ifal-i Rekhtaguyan-i 
Hind (Browne, Suppt., 304). Some of his poems were 
reproduced by (Sir) Sayyid Ahmad Khan in the 
Athar al-Sanddid 1 , Delhi 1846, 72-114. 

Bibliography: Fakir Muhammad Lahori, 
Hadd'ik al-Hanafiyya', Lucknow 1906, 93-4; 
Siddlk Hasan Khan, Abdiad al-'Ulum, Bhopal 
1295, 917; Muzaffar Husayn "Saba", Ruz-i Raw- 
shan, Bhopal 1297, 70-3; Rahman 'All, Tadhkira-i 
c Ulamd'-i Hind', Lucknow 1914, 93-4; Mustafa 
Khan Shefta, Gulshan-i Blkhdr, Delhi 1846, 10-1; 
Ghawth Muhammad Khan, Sayr-i Muhtasham, 
Delhi 1851, 247-8; Nur al-Hasan Khan, Tadhkira-i 
Tur-i Kalim, Agra 1298, 6; <Abd al-Ghafur Khan 
"Nassakh", Sakhun-i Shu'-ara', Lucknow 1291, 23; 
Imtiyaz 'AH '"ArshI", Makdtib-i Ghalib. Bombay 
1937, 62; Ghulam Rasul Mehr, Ghalib', Lahore 
1947, 278-85; 'Abd al-Ha'iy Lakhnawl, Nuzhat 
al-Khawd(ir (MS), vii, s.v.; idem, Gul-i Ra'nd, 
A'zamgarh 1364, 327-8; A. Sprenger, Oudh Cat., 
s.v. Azurda; Storey, i/2, 922; Kadir Bakhsh Sabir, 
Gulistan-i Sakhun, (MS.), s.v.; Karim al-DIn and 
Fallon, Tabakdt al-Shu'ara', Delhi 1848, 446-8; 
Muhammad b. Yahya al-Tirhuti, al-Yani 1 al- 
Qiani fiAsanid al-Shaykh <-Abd al-Ghani, lith. on 
the margin of al-Astdr 'an Rididl Ma'-anial- Athar, 
Deoband 1344, 77; Sri Ram, Khum-khana-i 
Djdwid, Lahore 1908, i, 53-61; Asad Allah Khan 
"Ghalib", Kulliyat Nathr Ghalib, Cawnpore 1871, 
101, 123; Siddlk Hasan Khan, Ithaf al-Nubala', 
Cawnpore 1288, 260; Altaf Husayn "Hall", Hayat-i 
Djdwid, Delhi 1939, i, 29, ii, 253, 380; Fadl-i 
Husayn, al-Haydt ba'd al-Mamdt, Agra 1908, 44; 



AZURDA — BA c ALAWI 



Ma'drif (Urdu monthly), A'zamgarh, vii/5-6 (1921) ; 

Garcin de Tassy, Histoire de la litteratnre*, Hindouie 

et Hindoustanie, Paris 1870, i, 272; K. Ahmad 

FarukI, Kaldsiki Adab (in Urdu), Delhi 1956, s.v. 

Azurda. (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

'AZZA [see kuthayyir]. 

'AZZA AL-MAYLA 5 , "'Azza with the graceful 
walk", celebrated singer and lute player of Medina, 
mawlat of the Ansar, died probably before the end 
of the ist/7th century, after a long career. A pupil 
of Sa'ib Khatir and Nashlt, singers of Persian origin, 
then of Ra'ika and Djamlla [q.v.], she in her turn 
numbered among her pupils such famous singers as 
Ibn Muhriz and Ibn Suraydj [q.v.], but, unlike 
Pjamlla, she did not form an actual school. She 



differed from the latter, too as regards her practice 
of giving recitals in aristocratic households, but she 
also used to receive in her own home poets ('Umar b. 
Abl Rabl'a, Hassan b. Thabit whom she used to 
move to tears) and important personalities (Mus'ab 
b. al-Zubayr, Said b. al-'As, and others). Greatly 
beloved for her art and, it is said, for her excellent 
morals, 'Azza was a popular figure in ist/7th century 
Medina. 

Bibliography: Aghdni, index (particularly 
xvi, 133 ff.); Ibn Khallikan, no. 557; Caussin de 

Perceval, Notices anecdotiques Paris 1874 

(= JA, 1873), 55; 'AmrusI, al-Djawdri al-Mughan- 
niydt, Cairo n.d., 74-85- (Ch. Pellat) 



B 



BA (cf. Bu), genealogical term used in 
S. Arabia, especially among the sayyids and 
mashdHkh of Hadramawt, to form individual and 
(secondarily) collective proper names, e.g., Ba 
'Abbad, Ba 'Alawi, Ba Fadl, B5 Fakih, Ba Hasan, 
Ba Hassan, Ba Hurmuz, Ba Wazir (see special 
articles and the lists of Nallino (in Gabrieli, Nome 
proprio, 88) and van den Berg (Ifadhramout, 51-61)). 
Ibn al-Mudjawir (my ed., 254) gives details on this 
Hadrami nomenclature, which seemed so strange to 
the custom-house officers at Aden that they refused 
to register these names. While he and al-Shardji 
{Tabak&t al-Khawdss, passim) use the archaising 
form 'aba, other authors have Abu/I/a, or simply 
omit Ba. Hence the same person is cited as Ba 
Hassan, Aba Hassan, Abu Hassan and Hassan (for 
Ibn Hassan, see below). 

The genuine Ba thus would be identical with 
indeclinable Aba "father" forming individual 
(pseudo) kunyas, with the actual function of a nisba 
in -I, or of dhu in western Yamanite tradition. This 
is the view of Ibn al-Mudjawir, al-ShilU (Mashra', 
28), al-Sakkaf (Ta'rikh al-Shu'ard? al-ffadramiyyin, 
i, 53 n.) and Flflgel (ZDMG, ix, 227) In order t 
denote the tribe or family } dl or 'awldd is prefixed t 
Ba, e.g., Al Ba 'Alawi, Awlad Ba Kushayr; this may 
have caused the equation Ba = Banu found in al- 
Muhibbi (Khuldsa. i, 74) and approved of by Wiisten- 
feld (Geschichtsschreiber, 256; Qufiten, 4 n. 1). 

From this primary Ba-fonnation must be distin- 
guished another with Bal- (sometimes Bil-) < bin al-, 
e.g., Bal- Fakih (not identical with the Ba Fakih 
cited above) = Ibn al-Faklh (al-Sakkaf, op. cit. 
54 n. 2), Bal-Hadjdj (surname of members of the Ba 
Fadl) = Ibn al-Hadjdj. The use of Bin, along with 
the nisba in -I, as a nomen unitatis of Ba-names, 
attested by van den Berg {loc. cit.), as also that of 
Ibn Hassan for Ba/Abu Hassan (cf. MO, xxv, 131 
and BSOAS, xiii, 291/299), may reflect different 
local habits or even some uncertainty on the part c " 
native authorities. 

Bibliography: van den Berg, Le Ifadhramout 
et ses colonies Arabes, Batavia 1886; G. Gabrieli, 
// name proprio arabo-musulmano, Rome 1915; 
al-Muhibbl, Khuldsat al-Athar, 1-4; al-Shilli, al- 
Mashra' al-Rawl, 1-2; R. B. Serjeant, The Saiyids 
of Ifadramawt, London 1957. (O. LSfgken) 



BA c ABBAD, a family of Hadrami mashdHkh and 
scholars, associated with the shrine of the prophet 
Hud. Among its members were (1) 'Abd Allah b. 
Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Rahman Ba 'Abbad al- 
Hadraml (d. 687/1288) and (2) Muljammad b. 'Umar 
b. Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Rahman (d. 721/1321) 
both of them buried in Shibam (al-Shardji, TabaUt 
70, 139). For two mandkib-vrorks on this family, 
see Serjeant, The Saiyids of Ifadramawt, 6, n f. 
(O. Lofgren) 

BA 'ALAWI (more precisely : Al Ba 'Alawi, cf. 
art. BA; according to al-Shilli [Mashra c , i, 31] 'alawi 
is "a well-known bird"; nisba: al-'Alawi [also al- 
Ba'alawi], not to be confounded with the usual 
nisba belonging to C A1I), a large and influential 
clan of S. Arabian sayyids and Sufis, for the most 
part living in Hadramawt, in or near the town of 
Tarim [q.v.'], and buried in the Zanbal cemetery 
there. The noble descent of the Ba 'Alawi sayyids 
is said to have been checked in the sixth century by 
the traditionist 'Ali b. Muhammad b. Ahmad b. 
Djadid (d. 620/1223; Ta'rikh thaghr c Adan, ii, "157; 
Mashra 1 , ii, 233) by means of trustworthy witnesses. 
Special works on S. Arabian sdda are: al-Diawhar 
al-Shaffdf by 'Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad al- 
Khatib (d. 855/1451); al-Barka al-mushika by 'All b. 
Abu Bakr al-Sakkaf [q.v.] ; Ghurar al-Bahd' al-dawH 
by Muhammad b. 'All Kharid (below no. 10); al- 
Tiryak al-wdf by 'Umar b. Muhammad b. Ahmad 
Ba Shayban (below no. 9) ; aUManhal al-sdfi by 'Abd 
Allah b. 'Abd al-Rahman Ba Harun. From these 
sources and general biographical works Muhammad 
b. Abu Bakr al-Shilli (d. 1093/1682) brought together 
more than 280 biographies in his al-Mashra' al-Rawi 
fi Mandkib al-S&da Al AM 'Alawi (Masr 1319); see 
art. al-Shilli. The valuable study of Wustenfeld, 
Die Qufiten in Sud-Arabien (1883), being based on 
al-Muhibbi's Khuldsat al-Athar, only covers the 
uth/i7th century, but gives useful genealogical 
tables of different branches of the Ba 'Alawi sayyids 
(to be used with caution as to details). Much material 
is to be found in the Ta'rikh al-Shu'ara? al-lfafra- 
miyyin by 'Abd Allah b. Muhammad b. Hamid al- 
Sakkaf (1353/55). Here only the most prominent mem- 
bers of the main line can be listed ; for the branches 
'Aydarts, Ba Fakih, Bal-Faklh, al-Djufri, al-Habshl, 
al-Haddad, al-Sakkaf, al-Shilli, see separate articles. 



1. Eponymous ancestor: c Alawi b. 'Abd/'Ubayd 
Allah b. Ahmad b. 'Isa al-Muhadjir b. 'AH al-'Uraydl 
b. Dja'far al-Sadik b. Muhammad al-Bakir b. 'A 
Zayn al-'Abidln b. al-Husayn b. 'All b. Abu Talib. 
On this senior 'Alawi and his brothers Basri and 
Djadld (Djudayd) see art. Aijmad b. 'Isi al- 
Muhadjir. Biogr.: Mashra', i, 30. 

2. 'AH b. 'Alawi b. Muhammad b. 'Alawi (no. 1), 
known as Khali 1 Kasam (village east of Tarim), 
was the first one of this house who settled in Tarim, 
in 521/1127; he died there in 527/1133. Mashra', ii, 
230, cf. Wiistenf., Qufiten, 4. 

3. Muhammad b. c Ali (no. 2), called Sahib 
Mirbat, settled in this famous seaport (= Zafar 
al-kadlma) and died there after 550/1155. Mashra', i, 
198. From his great grandson Aljmad b. c Abd al- 
Rahman b. 'Alawi al-Fakih (Mashra', ii, 62) 
come the families Ba Fakih and al-Haddad. 

4. Muhammad b. c Ali b. Muhammad (no. 3), 
called al-Ustadh al-a'zam, "the great Master", 
and al-Fakih al-mukaddam (574-653/1178-1255), 
was a central figure in S. Arabian mysticism and the 
founder of the special 'Alawi farika. He became 
familiar with Sufyan al-Yamanl of Lahdj (Ta'rikh 
thaghr 'Adan, ii, 93), when this Sufi visited Hadra- 
mawt and brought about rainfall after a long drought. 
Apart from risdlas sent to Sufyan and to Sa'd al-DIn 
b. 'All al-Zafarl (d. 607/1210) no writings are 
ascribed to him. By the medium of 'Abd Allah al- 
Salih b. c Ali al-Maghribl and 'Abd al-Rahman al- 
Muk'ad b. Muhammad al-Hadraml he was impressed 
with the doctrines of Abu Madyan Shu'ayb b. al- 
Husayn al-Tilimsanl, and was the first one to 
introduce special Sufistic discipline (tahkim) into 
Hadramawt (cf. Wiist., Qufiten, 5). al-Shilll (Mashra 1 , 
ii, 260) traces the spiritual farika of the Ba 'Alawi, 
alongside with the genealogy (farikat al-dbd') 
mentioned above. Five sons: 'Alawi (junior), 'Abd 
Allah, 'Abd al-Rahman, 'All and Ahmad (ancestor of 
the Bal-Faklh branch [q.v.]). Biogr.: Mashra', ii, 2-11. 

5. 'Alawi b. Muhammad (no. 4), d. 669/1270, and 
his son 'Abd Allah Ba 'Alawi (638/1240-731/133°). 
both of them renowned Sufis, introduce the line Ba 
'Alawi, strictly speaking. For details on their life see 
the full biographies in Mashra 1 , ii, 211, esp. 184 ft. 

6. Muhammad b. 'Ali b. 'Alawi (no. 5), b. 705/1305 
in Tarim, d. there 765/1364. Having performed the 
pilgrimage he settled in a place near the tomb of 
Hud called Yabhar, hence his surname Mawla 
1-DawIla "patron of the old town (sc. Yabhar)". 
His son is 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sakkaf (739-819). 
ancestor of the important branches Sakkaf and 
'Aydariis (see these arts.). Mashra 1 , i, 1998.; al- 
Sakkaf, Ta'rikh, i, 7i. 

7. 'Umar b. 'Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad b. 
'All b. Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Muhammad (no. 4), 
called Sahib al-Hamra', b. 823/1420 in Tarim, 
d. 889/1484 in Ta'izz. After visiting Mecca, Aden, 
Lahdj he settled down in the village al-rjamra'. 
Beside poetry and minor risdlas he wrote Fath Allah 
al-Rahim al- Rahman fi mandkib 'Abd AUdh b. Aba 
Bakr b. 'Abd al-Rahman (i.e., al-'Aydarus, q.v.). 
Mashra 1 , ii, 240; al-Sakkaf, Ta'rikh, i, 86. 

8. Ahmad b. 'Abd Allah b. 'Alawi b. Hasan b. 
Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Hasan b. 'Ali b. Muhammad 
(no. 4), called Shanbal, d. 920/1514. He compiled 
an historical work, Ta'rikh Shanbal, on which see 
Serjeant, Materials, 291 f; Mashra', ii, 67. 

9. 'Umar b. Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Abu Bakr 
Ba Shayban b. Muhammad Asad Allah b. Hasan 
b. 'Ali b. Muhammad (no. 4), 881-944/1476-1537. 
He wrote Tirydk al-Kulub al-Wdf bi-Dhikr ffikdydt 



LAWl 829 

al-Sdda al-Ashrdf (cf. supra and Brockelmann II, 
401; Serjeant, Materials, 583), with biographies of 
355 Ba 'Alawi sayyids. Mashra'-, ii, 248 (cf. i, 3); 
Wiistenfeld, Qufiten, 48. 

10. Muhammad b. 'All b. 'Alawi b. Muhammad b. 
'Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad b. 'Abd Allah b. 
'Alawi (no. 5), called Kharid, b. 890/1485, d. 960/ 
1553. He wrote al-Wasd'il (on tradition), al-Nafahdt 
(on Sufism), and Ghurar al-Bahd' al-QawH fi Mandkib 
al-Sdda Bant 'Alawi (var. Bani Basri wa-Diadid wa- 
'Alawi), cf. supra and Mashra', i, 196; al-Sakkaf, 
Ta'rikh, i, 142; Serjeant, Mat., 582. 

n. Salim b. Ahmad b. Shaykhan b. 'AH b. Abu 
Bakr b. 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Abd Allah 'Abbud b. 
'AH b. Muhammad (no. 6), b. 995/1587, d. 1046/1636 
in Mecca. He was introduced into Sufism by Aljmad 
al-Shanawi (d. 1028/1619) and wrote numerous 
works, listed by his son Abu Bakr in a risdla inserted 
by al-Shilll into his biography (Mashra', ii, 104-110), 
among which are: Bulghat al-murid wa-Bughyat al- 
mustafid ; a commentary on parts 4-5 of al-Diawdhir 
al-khams by Muhammad Ghawth Allah b. Khatlr al- 
Din (Brockelmann, II, 418); al-Sifr al-mastur li 
'l-dirdya fi 'l-Durr al-manthur li 'l-wildya; Misbdh 
al-sirr al-ldmi' bi-Miftdh al-dfafr al-didmi'; Ghurar 
al-baydn 'an 'umr al-zamdn; al-Burhdn al-ma'ruf fi 
mawdzin al-huruf etc. Cf. Brockelmann, II, 407, S II, 
565 ; Wiistenfeld, Qufiten, 77. On his son Abu Bakr 
(d. 1085/1674) see Mashra', ii, 26; Brockelmann, 
S II, 566. 

12. 'Akil b. 'Umar 'Imran b. 'Abd Allah b. 
'All b. 'Umar b. Salim b. Muhammad b. 'Umar b. 
'AH b. Ahmad b. Muhammad (no. 4), Abu'l-Mawahib, 
b. 1001/1593 in al-Ribat (near Zafar al-Habudi), d. 
1062/1652 in Zafar and buried in his birth-place. 
Among his writings are: al-'Akida (comm. by Ahmad 
b. Muljammad al-Kashshashi and 'AH b. 'Umar Ba 
'Umar) ; Fath al-Karim al-Qhafir fi Shark ffilyat al- 
Musdfir (comm. on a kasida by Sa'id b. 'Umar 
Bal-Haf). Biogr.: Mashra', ii, 203; Wiist., Qufiten, 
51 ; cf. Brockelmann, S II, 533 (with two more titles). 

13. Muhammad b. Zayn b. Sumayt 'Alawi b. 'Abd 
al-Rahman b. 'Abd Allah b. Muhammad Sumayt, 
b. in Tarim 1100/1689, moved to Shibam in 1135/ 
1723, d. there 1 172/1758. He wrote mana^ift-works 
on his teachers 'Abd Allah b. 'Alawi al-Haddad (d. 
1132/1720) and Aljmad b. Zayn al-Habshi (d. 1145/ 
1732), entitled Qhayat al-Kasd w 'l-Murdd (Bombay 
1885) and Kurrat al-'Ayn resp. ; Bahdfat al-Fu'dd 
(an abridgement of the first-named) ; Lubb al-Lubdb 
(an abridgement of Madfrna' al-Ahbdb); a diwdn of 
poetry. See al-Sakkaf, Ta'rikh, ii, 127-135; Serjeant, 
Mat. 582; Brockelmann, S II, 566. 

14. Among recent members of the clan are: 

a) 'Abd Allah b. Husayn b. Tahir b. Muhammad 
al-Djawi (d. 1272/1855). He wrote Sullam al-tawfik 
ild mahdbbat Allah 'old l-tahkik (comm. Mirkat 
Su'ud al-Tasdik by Muhammad Nawawl al-Djawi) 
and other works, see Sarkis, 518, Brockelmann, 
S II, 820 (814). 

b) 'Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad b. Husayn b. 
'Umar (ca. 1250/1835), mufti of Hadramawt, wrote 
Bughyat al-Mustarshidin fi Talkhis Fatdwi ba'4 al- 
AHmma al-Muta'akhkhirin and Qhayat Talkhis al- 
Murdd min Fatdwi Ibn Ziydd (Misr 1303). Sarkis, 
517; Brockelmann, S II, 817. 

c) Fadl b. 'Alawi b. Muhammad b. Sahl Mawla 
'1-DawUa (d. 1283/1866) wrote Sabil al-Adhkdr wa 
'l-I'tibdr etc. (in marg. of al-Haddad: al-Nasd'ih 
al-Diniyya); 'Ikd al-Fard'id min Nusus al-'Ulamd 3 
al-Amddjid; see Sarkis, 517, Brockelmann, S II, 566. 

d) Abu Bakr b. 'Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad, 



830 



BA c ALAWI — BAB 



called Ibn Shihab (1262-1341/1846-1923), see Sarkis 
140 f. (with titles of nine works, printed in India 
1305-1331). 

e) Muhammad b. c AkIl b. c Ali b. Ya'kQb (1279/ 
1862-1350/1931) wrote al-'Afab al-djamil (pr. 1342); 
Brock., S II, 822. 

Bibliography: R. B. Serjeant, The Saiyids of 

Haframawt, London 1957 ; idem, Materials for South 

Arabian history, inBSOAS, xiii, 1950, 281-307, 581- 

601, and the works cited above. (0. Lofgren) 

BA FAPL [see fadl, ba]. 

BA FAtflH [see fakIh, ba]. 

BAL-FAKlH [see fa?Ih, bal-]. 

BA HASSAN [see hassan, ba]. 

BA HURMUZ [see hurmuz, ba]. 

BA KAXHlR [see kathIrI]. 

BA MADHIDJ [see al-suwaynI, sa'd b. c alI]. 

BA MAKHRAMA [see makhrama, ba]. 

BA 1 [see hieia 1 ]. 

BA 3 [see mawazIn]. 

BAALBEK [see ba'labakk]. 

BAB = Gate. This question is best treated under 
two headings, (i) in mosques, (iij in fortifications. 

(i) In mosques, mausoleums, etc. 

Down to the end of the 3rd/gth century, no 
mosque had a monumental entrance. All mosques, 
large or small, were entered by simple rectangular 
doorways in the enclosure wall, e.g. the Mosque at 
Kasr al-Hayr al-Sharki, 110/729; the Great, Mosque 
at Harr5n, entrance, c. A.D. 744-50; the Mosque of 
Cordova, 170/787; the Mosque of c Amr of 212/729; 
the two entrances which date from 221/836 in the 
Great Mosque of Kayrawan; the Mosque of BO 
Fatata at Susa, 223-6/838-41; The Great Mosque 
at Susa, 236/850-1; the Great Mosques of Samarra 
234-7/848-52, and Abu Dulaf, 247/860-61; and the 
Mosque of Ibn Tuliin, 263-5/876-9. The first mosque to 
have a monumental entrance was the mosque built by 
the Fatimids at the foundation of Mahdiyya on the 
Gulf of Gabes in 308/920-21. It has obviously been 
inspired by one of the Roman triumphal archways, 
which must have been more numerous in North 
Africa in 920 than they are to-day (Plate XXVa). 

This type was brought to Egypt by the Fatimids, 
where it appears in the Mosque of al-Hakim in 
393/1003, but on a more imposing scale (6.16 m. 
projection and 15.50 in width, against 3 m. x 8 for 
Mahdiyya. It also appears in the Mosque of al-Akmar, 
519/1125 on a much reduced scale, and in the 
Mosque of Baybars, 665-7/1266-9 on a very large 
scale (8.86 X 18.83 m.) with its flanks decorated by 
three arched panels, against two in al-Hakim and 
one at Mahdiyya (Plate XXV6). 

But a new type, the so-called stalactite doorway, 
had just appeared in Syria. The earliest example is 
the entrance of the Madrasa of Shadbakht at Aleppo 
(Plate XXVIa), 589/1193- This was foUowed by othar 
fine examples, e.g. the Ribat Nasiri (Plate XXVI b) 
at Aleppo, 635 H. = 1237/8); the Djami' al-Tawba at 
Damascus, 632/1234; etc. 

It was first employed in Egypt in the Madrasa of 
Baybars, 662/1264, and then in the Madrasa-Mauso- 
leum of Zayn al-DIn Yusuf (Plate XXVII a) 698/ 
1299, but it did not become general until the second 
half of the 8th/i4th century, for several early 14th 
century monuments exist in which it is not employed. 

The origin of this beautiful form of monumental 
entrance cannot be demonstrated, for the embryonic 
stages in its evolution appear to have perished, but 
it seems probable that it was derived from portals 
such as the lateral ones of the Bayt al-Khalifa at 



Samarra, where a deep entrance bay is covered by 
a semi-dome on a pair of squinches. Given this 
scheme it is obvious that, on its importation at a 
later date into Syria, the squinches would be replaced 
by the device there in use for supporting domes. 
That this has actually happened may be realised on 
comparing our earliest example, the entrance bay 
of the Madrasa of Shadbakht (Plate XXVI a) with the 
pendentives of the dome in front of the mihrdb of 
the nearly contemporary Mashhad of Husayn at 
Aleppo, 608/1211-12. In both cases we have the 
typically Syrian treatment, a series of horizontal 
courses, decorated with niches, set straight across 
the corner and advancing one over the other. 

In Persia the earliest portals such as that of the 
Mausoleum of Cihil Dukhtaran at Damghan (Sarre, 
DenkmdUr, Abb. 156), 446/1054, the Gunbad-i Surkh 
at Maragha (Pope, Survey, Plate 341 A, and Godard 
in Athar-i Iran, I, fig., 89), 542/1 148, and the Mauso- 
leum of Mu'mina Khatun (ibid, Plate 345 and Sarre, 
op. cit. Taf. 3, reproduced here, Plate XXVII ft) at 
Nakhiivan. 582/1186, consist of a rectangular door- 
way with an arched tympanum above, set in a shallow 
rectangular recess. The next step, apparently, was to 
replace the arched tympanum by a shallow recess 
filled with stalactites, e.g. a tower-tomb at Khiov 
(Pope, op. cit., Plate 343) and another at Salmas (ibid., 
Plate 344. reproduced here, Plate XXVIII a). During 
the XlVth century, portals usually take the form of a 
high arched bay, like a small liwan, covered by a 
semi-dome on stalactite pendentives (quite different, 
however, from the Egyptian variety), e.g. the Khan- 
kah at Natanz (ibid., Plate 367), 704/1304-5, the 
Shrine of Shaykh Bayazld at Bistam (ibid., Plate 
416, reproduced here, Plate XXVIII b), 713/1313, 
the Great Mosque at Varamln (ibid., Plate 406), 
723-6/1323-5, the Mausoleum of B5ba Kasim at 
Isfahan (ibid., Plate 417), 741/1340, the Great 
Mosque at Kirman (ibid., Plate 541 A), 750/1349, 
and the Masdjid-i Pa-Man5r, 794/1391, also at 
Kirman (ibid., Plate 451 B). At the end of the 15th 
century we have the remarkable portal at Balkh 
belonging to the Shrine of Abu Nasr Parsa (ibid., 
Plates 422 and 424), which projects boldly from 
the facade. In the central part is a high arched bay, 
with the entrance at the back as usual, but the 
flanks are bevelled off at 45°, and are in two storeys, 
each with a pointed arched recess. 

This portal may well be the prototype of some 
of the monumental Indian examples such as the 
famous Buland Darwaza at Fathpur Sikri, 1010/1602, 
and the main entrance of the Great Mosque at 
Delhi, A.D. 1644-58. 

At Constantinople mosque entrances are usually 
in the form of a slight salient, in which is set the 
entrance bay, covered by a very high stalactite hood 
composed of very small niches, e.g. the Mosque of 
Sultan Bayazld, 906-11/1500-1505, the Mosque of 
Sultan Selim (Plate XXIXa), 929/1522, the Mosque of 
Shahzade, 955/1548, etc. 

In North Africa the entrances of mosques are 
usually emphasised, not by a vaulted salient (as 
at Mahdiyya), but by an elaborat eawning resting on 
brackets and covered by a sloping roof of tiles, e.g. 
at Fez (see H. Terrasse, La Mosquie des Andalous, 
pi. XV-XVII. 

(ii) In fortifications 
The earliest gateways of Muslim fortified enclo- 
sures were simple "straight-through" entrances 
defended by a machicoulis and a pair of half-round 
flanking towers, e.g. the single gateway of the 



Lesser (Plate XXIX6) and the four gateways of the 
Greater Enclosure of Kasr al-Hayr al-Sharkl, built 
by the Caliph Hisham in no/729. 

But as early as the building of Baghdad by al- 
Mansur in 145-7/762-5 a new type appears — the 
bent entrance— which was employed for the four 
gateways of the outer wall. This is clear from the 
description of al-Khatlb, who says: "When one 
entered by the Khurasan Gate one first turned to 
the left in an oblong passage {dihlti azadj) with a 
vault of brick, 20 cubits wide and 30 cubits long, 
the entrance of which was in the width and the exit in 
the length, and passed out into a rahaba ... at the 
far end of which was the second gateway which was 
that of the city". Only one turn is mentioned, and 
as one then passed into a courtyard at the far end 
of which was the main gateway, it follows that the 
first direction must have been at right angles to 
the direction of exit, so it is obvious that the entrance 
must have been in the flank of the gateway tower. 

It is frequently stated that bent entrances occur 
in Byzantine fortifications in N. Africa. It is not 
going too far to say that not a single example of such 
an entrance is to be found in any work of Justinian's 
reign, or before it, either in North Africa, Rome, 
Constantinople itself, or anywhere else in the Byzan- 
tine Empire (see my art. in the Proc. Brit. Academy, 
xxxviii, 101-5). The first bent entrance in Byzantine 
architecture is the south gate of the inner Citadel 
at Ancyra built, according to an inscription, by 
Michael III in A.D. 859. 

It is probable that the device was brought by the 
•Abbasids (who came from the north-east) from the 
Oxus region, where pre-Muslim fortified enclosures 
have recently been discovered by the expedition led 
by Tolstov. The oldest of them, Djanbas Kal c a, is 
about 50 km. from the river, in a region no longer 
irrigated. It consists of a fortified enclosure of mud 
brick, measuring 200 x 170 m. with walls still 
standing 10 m. high, provided with a bent entrance 
(see Field and Tolstov, in Ars Islamica, vi, 150). 

The Arabic term for a bent entrance is bdshura, as 
is perfectly clear from the passage in which Makrlzl 
describes the Bab Zuwayla of Cairo: ". . . he (Badr 
al-giamall did not make a bdshura, as is the custom 
for the gates of fortresses. This disposition consists 
in arranging a bend ( c atf) in the passageway to 
prevent troops taking it by assault during a siege, 
and to render impossible the entry en masse of 
cavalry" (KhirM, ii, 380, 1. 35, 381, 1. 5). 

Normally, therefore, the bdshura was an integral 
part of the gateway (as in all the examples of a bent 
entrance cited below), but it could happen that 
alterations were made subsequently to an old 
"straight through" gateway to convert it into a 
bent entrance, e.g. the Bab al-Sharki at Damascus. 
This was a triple gateway of the usual Roman type, 
but von Kremer (c. 1850) found that the central and 
southern openings had been walled up and an 
addition (long since removed) built in front of the 
northern one, so as to force people to make a right- 
angled turn to pass through (Topographie von 
Damascus, I, fig. on p. 10). This helps us to under- 
stand what Makrlzl means when he speaks of a 
bdshura at the entrance of the Bab al-Nasr and 
Bab al-Futuh, although they disappeared in the 
xvth century. They must have been additions built 
in front of them subsequently, as at Damascus, to 
remedy the weakness of these "straight through" 
gateways. I say "subsequently" because there is no 
trace on the well preserved masonry of these two 
gates of anything having been torn away. 



B 831 

On the other hand it follows than when a bSshHra 
is mentioned anywhere (e.g. at Subayba near 
Baniyas) and the gateway itself has a right-angled 
turn ( c atf), there is no need to assume that there was 
ever any structure in front of it. 

But in spite of its obvious advantages the bent 
entrance did not become the general rule henceforth; 
it was not even employed by al-Mansur himself 
when he built Rakka a few years later. The architect 
merely adopted the "oblique approach" system (see 
my E.M.A., ii, 38-45). 




Fig. 1. Ukhaypir: plan and 



Nevertheless a very formidable type of gateway is 
employed in the famous Ukhaydir (Plate XXIXa) to- 
wards the end of the 2nd/8th century. The entrance 
arch, which is 3 m. wide, is set back 91 cm. between 
two quarter-round towers. On both sides, close up to 
their inner corners, a deep groove 20 cm. wide runs 
right up, showing that there must have been a 
portcullis here. Behind this entrance arch, at a 
distance of 1.95 m. is another archway, and between 
the two is a vestibule, 3 m. wide and 1.95 deep, 
covered by a tunnel-vault in which there are three 
slits 17 cm. wide running from wall to wall (Fig. 1). 
Now supposing Ukhaydir were about to be attacked, 
the portcullis would be kept in a hauled-up position 



until a party of men entered the outer archway to 
try to break down the door behind the inner archway. 
At a signal, given by men looking through the slits 
in the vault, the portcullis would be released and 
missiles, molten lead, or boiling oil dropped on the 
storming party trapped below. It was impossible 
for a storming party to approach the door without 
exposing themselves to be fatally trapped in this 
fashion. 

The finest gateways of the 5th/nth century are the 
three Fatimid gates of Cairo, the Bab al-Nasr, Bab 
al-Futuh (Plate XXX) and Bab Zuwayla, built by 




Badr al-Djamali in 480-85/1087-92, but they are 
"straight through" and not bent entrances. In each 
case the gateway proper is set back in an arched 
recess between two round-fronted towers, and at the 
back of the arch is a slit whereby missiles could be 
dropped from the platform above on a storming 
party attacking the door with a battering ram. 
But the wars of the Crusades in the two following 
centuries and the great military experience gained 
by both sides soon resulted in the bent entrance 
coming into general use. It was invariably employed 
by Salah al-DIn, e.g. at IJal'at Djindl in Sinai, about 



578/1182, in the three gateways of the Northern 
Enclosure of the Citadel of Cairo, 572-9/1 176-84, 
and likewise the gateways in that part of the Wall of 
Cairo due to him (Plate XXXI6). So thoroughly were 
the advantages of the bent entrance appreciated that 
it had even reached the Far West of Islam before the 
end of the 6th/i2th century, e.g. the gateway of the 
Kasba of the Oudaya at Rabat m Morocco. 

For the 7th/i3th century three typical examples 
of it may be cited: Kal c at al-Nadjm on the Euphrates, 
605-12/1208-15; and two at Baghdad, the Talisman 
Gate (blown up by the retreating Turks in 1918) 
and the Bab al-Wustani. 

The supreme example of a bent entrance is al- 
Malik al-Zahir's gateway in the Citadel of Aleppo 
finished according to Ibn Shaddad in 611/1214. Here 
there are no less than five right-angled turns in the 
passage-way (Plate XXXII and Fig. 2). 

(K. A. C. Creswell) 
BAB, a term applied in early Shllsm to the 
senior authorised disciple of the Imam. The hagio- 
graphical literature of the Twelver Shl c a usually 
names the bobs of the Imams. Among the Ism&lliyya 
[q.v.] bdb was a rank in the hierarchy. The term was 
already in use in pre-Fatimid times, though its signif- 
icance is uncertain (cf. W. Ivanow, The Alleged 
Founder of Ismailism, Bombay 1946, 125 n. 2, citing 
al-Kashshi, Ridjdl, 322; idem, Notes sur I'Ummu 
'l-Kitab, in REl, 1932, 455; idem, Studies in early 
Persian Ismailism'', Bombay 1955, 19 ff.). Under the 
Fatimids in Egypt the bib comes immediately after 
the Imam, from whom he receives instruction directly. 
He in turn instructs the hudjdjas, who conduct the 
da l wa. The term thus appears to denote the head of 
the hierarchy of the daHva, and to be the equivalent 
in Ismail! terminology of the expression ddH al- 
du'dt, which is used in the general historical literature 
but rarely appears in Ismail! texts. Thus, for 
example, al-Mu c ayyid fi '1-DIn al-Shlrazi, who is 
described in Ismalll writings as the bdb of al- 
Mustansir, is called his ddH 'l-du'dt by the historians 
(e.g. Ibn Muyassar, 10) and is actually named as 
such by al-Mustansir in a sidjiU of Ramadan 461/ 
July 1069 addressed to the Sulayhid ruler of the 
Yaman (AUSidjiUat al-Mustansiriyya, ed. l Abd al- 
Munlm Madjid, Cairo 1954, 200). Some indications 
of the status and functions of the bdb in Fa^knid 
Ismailism will be found in Hamld al-DIn al-Kirmanl, 
Rabat aW-Akl, ed. M. Kamil Husayn and M. Mustafa 
Hilml, Cairo 1953, index; cf. R. Strothmann, Gnosis- 
Texte der Ismailiten, Gottingen 1943, index, espec. 82, 
102, 175; W. Ivanow, Studies, 20-23). In the post- 
Fatimid daHva the office dwindled in importance and 
seems eventually to have disappeared. In the 
description of the da c wa organisation at Alamut 
given by Naslr al-DIn al-TusI, (Tasawwurdt, ed. 
W. Ivanow, 97, introduction xliii), there is only a 
bdb-i bdfin, who ranks with the ddH, and in later 
Ismail! writings the term seems to drop out 
altogether. 

In the system of the Nusayriyya [q.v.] the bdb 
comes after the ism and is identified with Salman 
[q.v.]. The bdb is personified in each cycle. (Lists of 
Nusayrl bdbs are given in R. Strothmann, Morgen- 
landische Geheimsekten in Abendldndischer Forschung, 
Berlin 1953 (Abhandlungen der deutschen Akademie 
der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Klasse fur Sprachen, 
Literatur und Kunst, Jahrgang 1952 Nr. 5) 34-5 ; L. 
Massignon, Nusairiya, in EI 1 ; for a similar Ismail! 
list see Djalar b. Mansur al-Yaman, Kitdb al-Kashf, 
ed. R. Strothmann, 1952, 14). 

Bibliography: in the text. (B. Lewis) 



yjpf " \ 1 


* 1 / 


H|" 


^^^. ' 








!. Mahdiyya: Great Mosque 



b. Cairo: Mosque of Baybars, north-w 





i. Aleppo: Madrasa of Shadbakht, entrance. 589/1193. 




>. Aleppo: Ribat Nasiri, entrance. 635/1237-8 




i. Cairo: Madrasa-Mausoleum of Zayn al-Dln Yusuf. 698/1299. 



>. Nakhcivan: Mausoleum of Mu'mina Khatun. 582/1186. (Photo: Sarre) 





>. Bistam: Shrine of Shaykh Bayazld. 713/1313. (Photo: Pope) 



PLATE XXIX 




**i 



. Kasr al-Hayr al-sharqi: entre of Lesser Enclosure. 110/729. 



PLATE XXX 




i. Cairo: Bab al-Futuh. 480/10 




,f the same. (Drawn by Maurice Lyon, M.C.). 



PLATE XXXI 







i. Ukhaydir: eastern gateway. About A.D. 776. 




b. Cairo: The Bab al-Djadid at the Burdj al-Zafar. After 572/1 



PLATE XXXII 




>: The Citadel. 606-8, etc./1209-Ii, etc. 



fe* 






H' 


Xf 1 


-i mi 


, 






1 J>" 







1: The Citadel: bridge across dry n 



BAB, an appellation [see the preceding art.] 
made specially famous by Sayyid 'All 
Muhammad of Shiraz, the founder of the new 
religion of the Babis [q.v.] and, according to the 
Bahals [q.v.] the precursor of the new prophet Baha' 
Allah [q.v.]. He is also called by his disciples Nufrta-i 
Old ('the first point') or tfadrat-i aHd ('the supreme 
presence'). 

Sayyid c Ali Muhammad was born at Shiraz. of a 
merchant family, on i Muharram 1235/20 October 
1819 (but according to other sources, exactly a 
year later, 9 October 1820); becoming an orphan at 
an early age, he was placed under the tutelage of 
his maternal uncle Agha Sayyid c Ali. At the age of 
about 19 or 20 he was sent to Bushahr, on the Persian 
Gulf, to trade there; here, at the same time, he gave 
himself up to earnest religious meditations, as he 
had done before since his childhood. When on a 
pilgrimage to Karbala', he made the acquaintance 
of Sayyid Kazim Rashti [q.v.], the head of the 
religious movement of the Shavkhls. who showed a 
high and unusual regard for him. Sayyid Kazim 
died at the end of 1259/December 1843; before his 
death he had sent disciples into all parts of Persia 
in search of the awaited Mahdl, the $dhib aUzamdn, 
who, according to his prophecies, would not be long 
before manifesting himself. One of the disciples of 
the sayyid, Mulla Husayn of Bushruya, who had 
arrived at Shiraz and had been strongly affected by 
the fascination of the young C A1I Muhammad, was 
the first to recognise him as the 'gateway' to Truth, 
the initiator of a new prophetic cycle, since, during 
the night of 5 Djumada I 1260/23 May 1844, he had 
replied in a satisfactory way to all his questions, and 
had written in his presence, with extreme rapidity 
and all the time intoning what he was writing in 
a very melodious voice, a long commentary on the 
sura of Yusuf; this commentary is known to the 
Babis by the name of Kay yum alrAsnuV, and con- 
sidered as the first 'revealed' work of the Bab. 
The rapidity with which he wrote and the indescrib- 
able charm of his voice seem to have been the 
characteristics which have most impressed Muslim 
as well as BabI writers. In the summer of 1844, the 
Bab, who had been making drastic attacks on 
corrupt Shi'I mullds and mudjtahids with their own 
weapons, quickly collected a number of disciples, 
among whom were 18 called by him the ffurufdt al- 
ffayy ('The Letters of the Living"). Mulla Husayn 
is also known among the Babis by the title of avowal 
man dmana ('the first believer"), and by that of 
Bab al-B&b, which the Bab himself later gave him. 
In the autumn, after the 'Letters of the Living" had 
been despatched to proclaim his mission in the 
various provinces of Persia, the Bab set out on a 
pilgrimage to Mecca. The journey left a bad impres- 
sion on him. This is reflected in several passages in 
the Baydn, where he speaks of the dirt and promi- 
scuity of the boats and of the low moral character of 
the quarrelsome and violent pilgrims. Either during a 
stay in the port of Muscat, or in the heart of the holy 
city of Mecca, the Bab, according to the sources, 
must have declared more openly his mission as 
mahdl, but to no purpose. In the spring of 1261/1845 
the Bab returned to Shiraz, where his preachings 
and public declarations (for during the journey he 
had written another book, $ahifa-i bayn al-lfaramayn 
('book [written] between the two Holy Places') in 
which he lays down the purport of his mission) 
caused some trouble; the Bab's missionaries who, 
on his order, had dared to add to the adhdn [q.v.] the 
phrase 'and I confess that 'All before Nabll (the 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



B 833 

Bab) is the mirror of the breath of God", were 
arrested, brought before the Governor of Shiraz, 
Mirza Husayn Khan Adjudan-bashl, severely 
punished, and expelled from the city. A represen- 
tative of the reigning sovereign (Muhammad 
Shah), Sayyid Yahya-i Darabi, sent to conduct an 
enquiry, was won over by the charm of the Bab, 
and became converted to the new doctrine. Whilst 
all this was going on, Mirza Nun (the future Baha' 
Allah) and his brother Mirza Yahya Nuri (the 
future Subh-i Azal) at Tehran persisted in the new 
faith, after a meeting with Mulla Husayn. At 
Shiraz an epidemic of cholera broke out, and overyone 
from the Governor down prayed for deliverance. The 
Bab remained at Isfahan, where he was protected 
by the governor, the Georgian Manu&hr Khan 
MuHamad al-Dawla. On the death of the latter the 
Bab was called to Tehran by order of the minister 
Hadjdji Mirza Aghasi, but shortly before arriving 
in the city he was arrested and sent as a prisoner 
to the fortress of Mahku in the trackless mountains 
of Adharbaydjan (summer of 1263/1847). In 1264/ 
April 1848, following more serious disorders which 
had broken out in different parts of Iran on account 
of BabI propaganda [see bAbIs], the BSb, whose pow- 
erful religious influence had converted the governor of 
the fortress of Mahku, c Ali Khan, was transferred to 
a more rigorous prison, the remote castle of Cihrik. 
Shortly afterwards, in July, he was removed to 
Tabriz to be questioned by a committee of mudjtahids ; 
it was decided to condemn him forthwith. The 
powerful minister Mirza Taki Khan, who had suc- 
ceeded HadjdjI Mirza Aghasi after the latter's 
dismissal by the new sovereign Nasir al-DIn Shah 
(1848), considered that the death of its founder 
would break up this dangerous movement which 
was continuing to attract new adherents. In the 
spring of 1266/1850 the news of the execution of the 
seven martyrs of Tehran [see ,BabIs], among whom 
was his uncle and well-beloved tutor, reached the 
Bab in the fortress of Cihrik where he had been re- 
imprisoned, and greatly distressed him. He pro- 
phesied that his end was near. He was taken at the 
end of the month of Sha'ban 1266/July 1850 to 
Tabriz, and was condemned to be shot at the same 
time as two of his disciples, Mulla Muhammad C A1I 
of Yazd and Agha Sayyid Husayn. The second, 
during the doleful procession of the three condemned 
men through the streets of Tabriz, under insults and 
blows, made pretence of abjuring the BSbl faith, 
and was released; he had previously been charged 
by the Bab to carry out his last wishes and to 
deposit some of his personal belongings and writings 
in a safe place. (He was, however, killed at 
Tehran shortly after having carried out this mission). 
The Bab was secured with the same ropes as his 
disciples to a pillar in the courtyard of the barracks 
at Tabriz, and the Christian regiment of the Bahad- 
uran, commanded by Sam Khan, fired. The first 
shot, according to the descriptions even in Muslim 
sources and others hostile to the reformer, merely 
severed the ropes, leaving the Bab completely free. 
Sam Mian, terrified, refused to re-open fire, and 
consequently another firing-squad was detailed. On 
9 July 1850, about midday, the Bab pa ; d for 
preaching his doctrine with his life. The mangled 
body was thrown into a ditch in the town and after 
many vicissitudes (disinterred by the Babis, hidden 
for several years at Tehran), it was removed on the 
order of Baha' Allah [q.v.] to 'Akka, where it now 
rests in a large mausoleum on the slopes of mount 
Carmel. 

53 



834 B 

Works.— The works of the Bab, all manuscript- 
some lost, others of doubtful authenticity (partially 
due to unexpected feuds after his death between 
Bahals and Azalls, see BAbIs) — are very numerous. 
In more or less chronological order, and men- 
tioning only the best known, they are: i. The 
Rayy&m al-Asmd' or commentary on the sura of 
Yiisuf, referred to above, of more than 9,300 verses 
divided into 1 11 chapters (one per verse of the 
famous sCra), which opens with the well-known 
apostrophe to the kings of the earth: 'O kings! O sons 
of kings! do not take unto yourselves that which 
belongs to God!'; this work is in Arabic, but has 
been translated into Persian in full by the famous 
Babi heroine Kurrat al- c Ayn Tahira; 2. Epistles 
(aluidli) to various persons, such as Muhammad 
§hah, Sultan <Abd al-MadjId, Nadjlb Pasha, u>dli 
of Baghdad. 3. the $ahi/a-i bayn al-ffaramayn, 
written on his pilgrimage between Mecca and Medina 
(1844-5)- 4- The Epistle to the Sharif of Mecca. 
5. The Kitdb al-Ruh (Book of the Spirit) of 700 
suras. 6. The KhasdHl-i Sab'a (the seven Virtues), 
wherein the modification of the adkdn is set forth. 
7. Risdla-i Furu l -i l Adliyya (treatise on the divisions 
of justice). 8. Commentaries on the suras al-Kawthar 
(cviii) and Wa 'l- c asr (ciii), and other small treatises 
and epistles all of which date from the beginning 
of his imprisonment at Mahku. 9. Nine commen- 
taries (ta/sir) on the entire Kur'an, now lost, written, 
according to the testimony of his copyist Shavkh 
Hasan-i Zunuzi, in the castle of Mahku. 10. Various 
epistles to leading §hi c I theologians and to Muham- 
mad Shah, written in the same fortress, n. The 
Arabic (shorter) Bayfin and the Persian Baydn, the 
sacred books par excellence oi the new reievation; 
the former divided into 1 1 wdfiids (units) of I7chapters 
{bdbs) each, the latter into 9 wdltids of 19 bdbs each 
except the last wdliid, which has only 10 bdbs. 
12. The Dald'U-i Sab'a (the seven Proofs), the most 
important of the polemical works of the Bab. 13. The 
Lawh-i Huri/dt (Table of the Letters), a semi- 
cabalistic writing addressed to the Believer (dayydn) 
from the castle of Cihrik, etc. Although the Babis 
are also called ahl-i Baydn (the people of the Baydn), 
one must understand by Baydn in this sense, 
according to the explicit declaration of the Bab 
himself (Persian Baydn, 3rd wdhid, chapter 17), 
everything which issued from his pen. 

The Doctrine of the Bab. The contents of the 
Baydn can perhaps be reduced to four fundamental 
points: (a) the abrogation of sundry laws and 
pronouncements of the Kur'anic shari'a regarding 
prayer, fasting, marriage, divorce, and inheritance, 
but nevertheless upholding the truth of the pro- 
phetic mission of Muhammad, whose prophetic cycle 
ends with the year 1260/1844; (b) the spiritualistic 
interpretation of the eschatological terms which 
appear in the J£ur J an and other sacred works, such 
as 'Paradise', 'Hell', 'Death', 'Resurrection', 'Return', 
'Judgment', 'Bridge' ($ird(), 'Hoar', etc., all of 
which allude not only to the end of the physical 
world but also to that of the prophetic cycle. From 
certain passages it seems that it must be understood 
that the true world being that of the spirit, of which 
the material world is nothing but an exteriorisation, 
God effectively destroys the world at the end of 
each prophetic cycle in order to re-create it by the 
Word of the subsequent prophet; the creative 
worth of the Word is given great importance in the 
Baydn; (c) the establishment of new institutions: 
a new Ifibla (towards the abode of the Bab), a new, 
and rather complicated, devolution of inheritance, 



etc.; (d) a continuous and powerful eschatological 
tension towards man yu?kiruhu alldh ('the One 
whom God will manifest'), the future prophet. It 
could thus be upheld that the expectation of the 
'Promised One' is the essence of the Baydn; indeed, 
the most banal precepts are set forth in an eschato- 
logical light. For example, having stated that the 
Babi should possess no more than 19 books, and all 
these on the Baydn and the knowledge of the Baydn, 
it adds: 'All these commands are for this reason, 
that nothing be put in the presence of Him Whom 
God Shall Manifest, unless it be the Baydn itself 
(Arabic Baydn, trans. Nicolas, 223). 

With regard to the precepts concerning travelling, 
it is laid down that journeys shall not take place 
at the time when the 'Promised One' towards 
whom alone all must travel, will be made manifest 
{ibid., 166). The care for property, particularly 
recommended by the Bab, is justified eschatological- 
ly, in order that the eyes of 'Promised One' shall not 
look upon anything unclean (159). As well as the 
familiar passage (166) 'All of you get up from your 
seats when you hear the mention of the name of Him 

W .urn God Shall Manifest And in the ninth 

year you shall attain to perfect Good', which the 
Bahals interpret as predicting the prophetic vision 
of Baha> Allah [q.v.] in the Tehran prison in the 
year 9, i.e., 1269/1852-3, various other passages of 
the Baydn effectively suggest that the Bab believed 
the Future Manifestation possible at a nearer date. 
Particularly interesting is the fine chapter XI of the 
IVth wdhid of the Arabic Baydn (138-9): 'Be not 
the instruments of your misfortunes, for not to be 
grieved is one of the greatest commands of the 
Baydn. The fruit of this command shall be that you 
shall not grieve Him Whom God Shall Manifest'. 

The metaphysics of the Bab is similar in certain 
ways to that of the Isma'ills. It sets out, in essence, as 
opposed to the unitary conception of existence as in 
Pantheism and to the dual conception (divine/ 
human) of orthodox Islam, a division of Being into 
three parts: the World of the Essence of God, 
absolutely unattainable and transcendent, the World 
of Nature and of Man, and the World of the Mani- 
festation, that very pure mirror in which alone God 
can see himself. The Bab's doctrine seems to attach 
very great importance to this invisible world which 
is concealed behind and between visible things: thus, 
all the eschatological terms, such as beatific vision, 
death, eternity, paradise, etc., being solely in 
accordance with the vision of the prophet, there 
remains only very little room in which to interest 
oneself in the life of the other world, which has led 
certain authors, perhaps wrongly (see E. G. Browne 
in the Preface to M. H. Phelps, Abbas Effendi, 
London 1912), to believe that the Bab denies the 
immortality of the individual soul, at least in the 
traditional sense of the word. In the same way, his 
conception of the return of Muhammad, of the 
imams, etc., in its actual presentation has led some 
writers wrongly to believe that he subscribes to the 
doctrine of reincarnation. On the contrary, the Bab 
in his original conception of the novelty of the 
different 'worlds' of the successive prophetic cycles, 
besides denying the Islamic and Christian dogmas 
of the resurrection of the body, denies as well the 
reincarnation of the soul in another body; when 
he writes (Arabic Baydn, wdhid I, chapter 2 ff.) 
'Those (our lieutenants) are, firstly Muhammad, the 
prophet of God, then those who are the witnesses 
(the imams) of God for his creatures . . .', he means 
to say that they 'have been created in another 



BAB — BAB al-ABWAB 



835 



world', i.e., that God has re-created them ex novo in 
the world of the Baydn after having created them 
in the world of the Kur'an. It is easy to deduce from 
such a 'bookish' conception of the worlds of nature 
and of the spirit that letters, the written word, and 
the corresponding numerical values have enormous 
significance for the Bab. The love of calligraphy 
(according to tradition, his own writing was superb) 
is for him a feature of religion, and more than once, in 
the Baydn, he commands that copies of the Holy 
Book should be conserved in the most elegant writing 
possible. The number 19, for instance, has great 
importance in Babi numerology; having abolished 
the 'natural' calendar, the Bab substitutes for it a 
purely spiritual and mental calendar of 19 months 
each of 19 days, each one bearing the name of an 
an attribute of God. The last month (that of 'Ala') 
is that of fasting, effective from dawn to sunset. 
This calendar, with some minor modifications, has 
been adopted by the Bahals also. The Bab took 
pleasure also in writing the most complicated 
hayakil (pi. of haykaX, 'temple' or "shape"), a kind 
of talisman in an obscure shikasta script, which he 
considered to be the most acceptable to God. 

It would be difficult to put into order the very 
varied moral and juridical precepts contained in the 
Bay an. Beside such excellent verses as 'Each day 
recalls my Name. And if each day my thought 
penetrates into your heart, then are you among 
those who are always in God's thoughts' (Arabic 
Baydn, wdhid V, chapter 9), one finds prescriptions 
which seem not alittlestrange, such as the injunction, 
already quoted, not to possess more than 19 books, 
or discursions on the correct way to eat eggs. The 
extreme leniency of the penalties, which are reduced 
to fines and to the prohibition of sexual relations 
with one's own wife, is characteristic. The greatest 
penalty is incurred by the homicide: the culprit is 
condemned to pay 11,000 mithkdls of gold to the 
heirs of the victim, and to abstain from all sexual 
activity for 19 years. Some penalties are likewise 
inflicted not only on those who strike their fellow- 
creatures, but also on those who lift their voices 
against them. Certain passages seem, however, to deal 
with relations between believers and unbelievers (it 
is only in the Bahal doctrine that Holy War and the 
confiscation of the goods of unbelievers have been 
definitely abrogated). There exist, moreover, regula- 
tions concerning taxes on benefits, on capital, etc. 
Divorce is allowed, but discouraged. Widowers and 
widows are obliged to remarry, the first after 90 
days, the latter after 95. Ritual purity and seclusion 
of women are abolished. Public worship is abolished, 
except for the rites of the dead. The Bab's birth- 
place, the places of his imprisonment, etc., are 
recommended as places of pilgrimage. Every 19th 
day one should invite 19 persons, giving them 'if 
only a glass of water*. All alcoholic drinks are 
forbidden, and it is as strictly forbidden to beg as 
it is to give individual alms to beggars. 

Bibliography: A. D. M. Nicolas, Seyyed Ali 
Mohammed dit le Bab, Paris 190J ; Nabll Zarandl, 
Ta'rfkfri Nabil (trans. Shoghi Effendi, The Dawn- 
Breakers. Nabil's Narrative of the early days of the 
Baha'i Revelation, New York 1932, with numerous 
photographs of places, buildings and relics relating 
to the life of the Bab); Seyyed Ali Mohammed 
dit Le Bab, Le Blyan person, trad, par A. L. M. 
Nicolas, Paris 1911-14 (4 vols.) ; the same, Le Blyan 
arabe, le livre sacrt du Babysme, same translator, 
Paris 1905; E. G. Browne, A traveller's narrative 
written to illustrate the Episode of the Bab, Persian 



original and translation, Cambridge 1891 (2 vols.); 
Cte. de Gobineau, Les religions et les philosophies 
dans I'Asie centrale, Paris 1865, 141 ff. ; E. G. 
Browne, Materials for the study of the Babi religion, 
Cambridge 1918; MIrza Kazim Beg, Bab et les 
Babis, in J A, 1866-7; CI. Huart. La Religion de 
Bab, Paris 1899; Muh. Iqbal, The development of 
metaphysics in Persia, London 1908; A. Bausani, 
// Martirio del "Bab" secondo la narrazione di 
Nabil Zarandi, in OM, 1950, 199-207; see also 
bibliography to the article BabIs. 

(A. Bausani) 
BAB al-ABWAB, 'Gate of the Gates', in the 
older texts al-Bab wa'l-AbwAb, 'the Gate and the 
Gates', and often simply al-Bab, the Arabic desig- 
nation of a pass and fortress at the E. end of the 
Caucasus, in Persian Darband, later under Turkish 
influence 'Iron Gate', mod. Derbent. The 'Gates' 
are the mouths of the E. Caucasus valleys (Ibn 
Khurradadhbih, 123-4; cf. Yakut, i, 439), al-Bab 
itself ('the Gate') in the main pass being the most 
important. It was originally fortified against 
invaders from the N. at some date not determined, 
traditionally by Anushirwan (6th century A.D.), 
who is said to have built a wall seven farsakhs in 
length from the mountains to the sea (Kazwlnl, 
Cosmography, 341). The present remains of forti- 
fication extend from Derbent to the Kara Syrt. 

When the first Muslims reached Darband in 
22/643, a Persian garrison was in possession, but we 
have no description of what the place looked like. 
During the fighting of the next decade between the 
Arabs and the Khazars, at this time the principal 
power N. of the Caucasus, Bab al-Abwab is frequently 
mentioned, and so also in the following century. 
Maslama b. c Abd al-Malik in a spectacular retreat 
from Khazaria in n 3/731 reached the neighbourhood 
of al-Bab with his troops at their last gasp. In 119/ 
737 Marwan b. Muhammad (later Caliph as Marwan 
II) assaulted the Khazars simultaneously from Bab 
al-Abwab and Darial (Bab al-Lan, [q.v.]), and for a 
short time was master of the country to the Volga. 
The Khazars gradually ceased to be dangerous. Their 
last great invasion of the lands of Islam via Bab al- 
Abwab took place in 183/799. 

According to the description of Bab al-Abwab 
given by al-Istakhri (circa 340/951) there was a 
harbour for ships from the Caspian inside the town. 
The oblique harbour-entrance between the two 
sea-walls was narrow and further defended by a chain 
or boom. These arrangements, like the wall mentioned 
above, and the city-wall, no doubt mostly went back 
to Sasanid times, but owed improvements to the 
Arabs, e.g., under the celebrated vizier C A1I b. al- 
Furat (after 296/908) (Hilal al-Sabi', Kitdb al-Wutard', 
ed. Amedroz, 217-218). Al-Istakhri adds that Bab 
al-Abwab was a principal port of the Caspian in his 
time, and larger than Ardabll, the capital of Adhar- 
baydj&n. It exported linen garments, of which it had 
practically a monopoly in these parts, also saffron, 
and slaves from the infidel lands lying to the N. 
Writing about the same time, al-Mas'udl mentions 
as imported to Bab al-Abwab the black fox -skins of 
Bursas (on the Volga) which were the best in the 
world (Tanbih, 63). For al-Mas'udl Bab al-Abwab, in 
spite of earlier attempts to plant Arab colonies there 
(cf. Bal'amI, ed. Dorn, 538) and in spite of its name, 
was evidently no Arab town. 

Recent investigations have brought to light the 
existence of a dynasty in Bab al-Abwab, the 
Hashimids, having connexions with the neigh- 
bouring Shirwan Shahs, as early as the 4th/ioth 



836 



BAB al-ABWAB — BAB-I HUMAYUN 



century (Hudud al-'Alam, 411). The principal 
source of information about them is an anonymous 
nth century Ta'rikh al-Bdb, which is quoted by 
Ahmad b. Lutf Allah Munadjdjim (Miineccim) Bashl 
(17th century) in his Didmi' al-Duwal. This source 
also adds considerably to our knowledge of the 
movements of the Rus, e.g., it mentions that in 
423/1032 the ghdzis of al-Bab caught and destroyed 
a party of Russian raiders in a defile of the Caucasus 
(Minorsky, Studies in Caucasian History, 77). 

The period of Turkish predominance at al-Bab, in 
common with the neighbouring provinces, begins in 
the time of the Saldjuks (cf. A. Zeki Velidi Togan, 
Umumt Turk tarihine giris, i, 190, 411). Under the 
Mongols al-Bab figured in the march of Subutai 
northwards through the Caucasus (1222). Timur 
and Djaba (Jebe) campaigned more than once in 
the neighbourhood. The general effect of the Mongol 
period was to confirm the Turkification of the N.-W. 
provinces of what had formerly been the Caliphate. 
The most detailed account of Bab al-Abwab 
comes from al-KazwIni (674/1275), who describes the 
place as a thriving Muslim town, built of stone, its 
wall washed by the waters of the Caspian. In length 
it was about 2/3 of a farsakh and in breadth a bow- 
shot. There were towers on the city-wall, at each of 
which was a mosque, to serve the neighbourhood 
and those occupied with the religious sciences. 
Guards were constantly maintained upon the wall, 
and a beacon-fire on an adjoining peak was kept in 
readiness against the danger of invasion from the 
N. Al-KazwinI mentions what he calls talismans set 
up to keep back the Turks, probably remains of 
sculpture from the pre-Muslim period. He speaks of 
a cistern outside the city with steps descending to 
the water. Outside the city also was a mosque, said 
to contain the sword of Maslama b. c Abd al-Malik. 
Already when al-KazwIni wrote al-Bab had 
ceased to be the frontier of an empire. Its history 
henceforward resembles that of other semi-indepen- 
dent Caucasian principalities, sometimes enjoying 
independence, at other times annexed to a more 
powerful neighbour. Having previously belonged to 
Persia, it became Russian in 1806. Since last century 
its population has shown a slight increase, but 
evidently it is of much less relative importance than 
formerly. 

Bibliography: Istakhri, i, 184 (some details 
different in Ibn Hawkal, BGA, ii, ed. De Goeje, 
241-242, and 2nd ed. by J. H. Kramers, Leiden 
1938-9, ii, 339-340); Kazwinl, Cosmography, ed. 
Wustenfeld, ii, 340-342, cf. Yakut, i, 437-442 ; v - 
Minorsky, Studies in Caucasian History, London 
1953; idem, A History of Sharvdn and Darband 
in the ioth-nth centuries, Cambridge 1958; D. M. 
Dunlop, History of the Jewish Khazars, Princeton 
1954, index. For the archae- ology: V. Minorsky, 
Dicouverte d' inscriptions pehlevies a Derbend, in J A, 
1929, 357-8; M. I. Artamonov, 'Drevnii Derbent', 
in Sovetskaya Arkheologiya, Vol. viii, 1946, 121-44. 

(D. M. Dunlop) 
BAB-I 'ALl (modern orthography Babi dli), less 
frequently Bdb-i dsafi, the (Ottoman) Sublime Porte, 
former ministerial department of the Grand Vizier, 
originally called Pasha (or Vezir) Kapusu. 

The custom of calling the palace, court or 
government of a ruler "porte" or "doorstep" was 
very prevalent in ancient times (Iran of the SSsanids, 
Egypt of the Pharaohs, Israel, Arabs, Japan). The 
term returned to Isfahan in the more Turkish form 
of '■Ali Kapu (Chardin). 

The "Porte", which at the same time was the 



personal dwelling of the Grand Vizier and at the 
outset tended to be rather mobile, gradually lost the 
character of a semi-private residence and became 
finally established, under what was henceforth to be 
its official name, from 1718, when the Grand Vizier 
Newshehirli Ibrahim Pasha returned with his 
father-in law, Sultan Ahmad III, from Adrianople 
to Istanbul, after the peace of Passarovitz (Sidjill-i 
'Othmdni, iv, 755). Prior to this date the term Bdb-i 
'dli denoted rather the palace of the Sultan or the 
Imperial diwan. The same confusion arises in 
Byzantine and European usage with the terms 
Porta, Porte, Pforte, tcuyt), 6upai, which moreover 
corresponded to the Turkish Kapu (Lowenklau alias 
Leunclavius and Dukas, in the gth/isth and 10th/ 
1 6th centuries, etc.). 

' Up till the end of the Empire, the Sublime Porte 
also housed the Ministry of the Interior (Ddkhiliyye 
Nezdreti), the former offices of the Ketkhudd (Kahya, 
Kehaya, Kihaya) Bey, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
(Khdridjiyye Nezdreti), the former department of the 
Reis iil-kuttdb (Reis-kitap), literally "Chief of the 
Secretaries", the Council of State (Shurdyi Dewlet), 
without counting two more modern commissions 
which were suppressed by the Young Turks. 

Five days after the abolition of the Sultanate 
(1 November 1922), the premises, prior to becoming 
the seat of the wildyet of Istanbul, served as the 
offices of the Delegation of the Government of 
Ankara (Refet Pasha, soon replaced by Rauf Bey 
and Adnan Bey Adivar, all three of whom later 
belonged to the opposition). 

The road formerly called Bdb-i 'dli dfdddesi, which 
climbs northwards from the station of Sirkedji and 
circles round the enclosure (which also contains a 
mosque), has been renamed Ankara di&ddesi (cad- 
desi). It is lined with bookshops and runs into the 
Souk Ceshme road, passing between this enclosure 
and that of the Top Kapl Saray. It is in this 
latter road that the main entrance is to be found, 
opposite the gate of the Saray, which is called the 
Souk Ceshme gate ; at a short distance from this is 
to be found a huge belvedere, called Alay kdskkii, 
incorporated in the same wall, which was built by 
Mahmud II in 1235/1819-20, so that he could be 
present at official "processions". 

Bibliography : Ad. Joanne and Em. Isambert, 
Itineraire, Paris 1861, 365; A. Ubicini, La Turquie 
actuelle, Paris 1855, chap. VI; c Abd al-Rahman 
Sheref, in TOEM, 1911, 446-50; Mehmet Zeki 
Pakalln, Osm. tarih deyimleri . . ., 1946-1956; 
Istanbul Ansiklopedisi by Resad Ekrem Kocu; I A 
(article by Tayyib Gokbilgin) ; Indnii Ansiklopedisi. 

(J. Deny) 
BAB-I HUMAYCN, the "Imperial Gate", the 
principal entrance in the outer wall of the Sultan's 
New Serail or Tof-hapu Sardyi [q.v.] at Istanbul. 
Situated behind the Aya Sofya mosque, the massive 
rectangular building gives access to the first court 
of the Serail through a high, double-arched portal. 
On either side of the passage between the outer and 
the inner door are the rooms of the Kapudjls who 
guarded the gate. In or near the deep niches in the 
facade the heads of political delinquents used to be 
exposed. Over the doorway is a beautiful Kur'an 
inscription and, below it, an Arabic inscription 
referring to the erection of the Serail wall by Sultan 
Mehemmed II in Ramadan 883/Nov.-Dec. 1478. The 
tughras of Mahmud II and c Abd al- c Aziz on the gate 
commemorate some of its later restorations. Origi- 
nally the gateway was surmounted by an upper 
storey (destroyed in the last century). At one time 



BAB-I HUMAYON — BAB-I MASHlKHAT 



837 



the effects of those who died without known heirs 
were deposited here; at others it served as archives 
of the Treasury or for other purposes. 

Many European writers, especially in the 19th 
century, ignoring Hammer {Staatsverfassung, ii, 95) 
and D'Ohsson (Tableau, vii, 158), asserted that 
Bdb-i Humdyun meant "Sublime Porte" (the 
Western name for the Ottoman Government), while 
in fact the latter denoted the Grand Vizier's residence 
[see bab-i c ali]. There is even no reason to assume 
that the term "Porte", which until the 18th century 
signified the Sultan's Court, originated from this 
gate, as some travellers (e.g., Tournefort, Voyage du 
Levant, Paris 1717, i, 496) believed (cf. dergah, 

KAPu). 

Bibliography: Hezarfenn, Telkhis ul-beydn, 
Paris, Bibl. Nat., A. F. turc, no. 40, 15 v.; c Abd 
al-Rahman Sheref, in TOEM, i, 272-6; B. Miller, 
Beyond the Sublime Porte, New Haven 1931, 42-3, 
141-2 (with pictures); Istanbul Miizeleri, Guide to 
the Museum of Topkapu Saray, Istanbul 1936, 1-2 ; 

T. Oz, Topkapl Sarayinda Mehmet II . ye 

ait eserler, Ankara 1953 (photos, of inscriptions) ; 
Ekrem Hakkl Ayverdi, Fdtih Devri Mimarisi, 
Istanbul 1953, 303-15 (with plans); I. H. Uzun- 
carsfll, OsmanU devletinin Saray Teskil&H, Ankara 
1945, index. (U. Heyd) 

BAB al-LAN (Bab Allan), 'Gate of the Alans',, 
Persian Dar-i Alan, mod. Darial (Dariel), a pass^n 
the middle Caucasus, E. of Mt. Kazbek and S. of 
Vladikavkas. It is described as a magnificent gorge 
through which the Terek rushes between granite 
cliffs rising to heights of from 4,000 to 5,000 ft., and 
was apparently known to the ancients as the Cau- 
casian Gates (cf. Pauly-Wissowa, XXXII, i, col. 325). 
It lay in the territory of the Alans, in the early days 
of Islam and later a national group of hardy moun- 
tainers, distinct from and usually independent of 
their neighbours N. and S. cf the Caucasus. Their 
present-day representatives, the Ossetes, live athwart 

Bab al-Lan was scarcely reached by the first wave 
of Muslim conquest. It is mentioned in 105/724, when 
al-pjarrah b. <Abd Allah al-Hakaml invaded 
Khazaria by this route. Next year al-Djarrah is said 
to have received the djizya and kharddj. from the 
Alans (Dhahabi, Ta'rikh al-Isldm, ed. Cairo, iv, 
88), but Maslama b. <Abd al-Malik in 109/727 
had to occupy Darial (Ya'kubi, ii, 395)- It was 
perhaps at this time that Maslama placed an Arab 
garrison, mentioned by al-Mas'udl (MurudJ, ii, 44), 
in the fortress which defended the pass. This fortress 
was built on a massive rock overlooking a bridge 
across the ravine and was, says al-Mas'udl, one of 
the most famous in the world. Yet in 112/730 the 
Khazars marched through the pass, defeated al- 
Pjarrah in a pitched battle and captured Ardabil, 
before retiring with their booty (Tabari, ii, 1530- 
1531). In the operation of Marwan b. Muhammad 
against Khazaria in 119/737, he himself advanced 
through the Darial pass to a rendez-vpus with Abu 
Yazid al-Sulami advancing from Bab al-Abwab. 
This was the beginning of a highly successful cam- 
paign north of the Caucasus, but Marwan did not 
attempt any permanent occupation. The Arabs made 
sporadic attempts to hold Darial, e.g., again under 
Yazid b. Usayd al-Sulami circa 141/758 (Baladhuri, 
209-210). But no great fortress-city developed here 
as at Bab al-Abwab [q.v.]. Al-Mas'udI states that in 
his time (4th/ioth century) there was still in the pass 
an Arab garrison, provisioned from Tiflis, at five 
days' distance through infidel country (ibid.). The 



Darial pass is mentioned repeatedly in the Mongol 
period, and later retained its importance. 

Bibliography: Mas'udi, MurudJ, ii, 43-45; 
Hudud al- l Alam, 446; D. M. Dunlop, History of 
the Jewish Khazars, Princeton 1954, index. 

(D. M. Dunlop) 
BAB al-MANDAB, the straits between the Red 
Sea and the Gulf of Aden. They are divided by the 
volcanic island of Mayyun [q.v.], called Perim by 
Westerners, into Large Strait, c. 14 km. wide, and 
Small Strait, c. 2.5 km. wide, the former being 
generally used by large vessels. Water runs out of 
the Red Sea during the south-west monsoon from 
June to September and into it during the north-east 
monsoon from November to April, causing currents 
which make the passage dangerous for sailing craft. 
The hill of al-Manhali (270 m.) on the Arabian shore 
rises east of Small Strait, and just north of this 
strait is the site of al-Shaykh Sa'Id [q.v.], from which, 
as from Mayyun, entrance into the Red Sea can be 
controlled. 

Arab tradition holds that Asia and Africa were 
joined together until Dhu '1-Karnayn split them 
asunder here and created the Red Sea. Yakut 
associates the origin of the name al-Mandab ("place 
of lamentation for the dead") with a crossing of the 
Abyssinians over the sea to the Yaman, and al- 
Hamdanl applies it to a not clearly identified portion 
of the southern Yaman coast, which lay within the 
territory of Banu Madjid and Farasan. Amber 
(called hashish al-bahr) used to be collected in al- 
Mandab. 

Two Sabaean inscriptions of the early 6th 
Christian century (Ry 507 and 508) mention silt 
(or sslt) mdbn (= silsiUU al-Mandab) in connexion 
with the conflict between Yusuf As'ar Dhu NuwSs 
and the Abyssinians; this may have been a chain 
stretched across the very narrow and shallow mouth 
of the inlet at al-Shaykh Sa c Id, if al-Mandab lay as 
far south as that, as its appearance in the name of the 
straits would suggest. Such a barrier may well have 
been the source of the implausible tradition of a 
chain across the straits themselves. 

The variant Bab al-Mandam, probably to be 
explained by no more than the not unusual sub- 
stitution of m for b, is especially current among 
seafaring Arabs, who often refer to the straits 
simply as al-Bab. 

Bibliography: In addition to al-Hamdanl 

and Yakut, G. Ferrand, Instructions nautiqu.es, 

Paris 1921-5; <Isa al-Kutami, Daltt al-Muhtdr fl 

Him al-Bihdr>, Cairo 1950; Ibn al-Mudjawir in 

O. Lofgren, Arabische Texte, Uppsala 1936; idem, 

ed. Lofgren, Leiden 1951; al-MukaddasI, A hsan al- 

Takdsim', ed. M. de Goeje, Leiden 1906, 12, 91. 

W. Caskel, Entdeckungen in Arabien, Cologne 1954; 

G. Ryckmans in Le Musion, txvi (1953); J- 

Ryckmans in Le Musion, txvi (1953); idem, La 

persecution ' des Chretiens himyarites au sixiime 

siecle, Istanbul 1956; U.S. Hydrographic Office, 

Sailing Directions for the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden', 

Washington 1943. (G. Rentz) 

BAB-I MASHlKHAT, (also Shaykh al-IslAm 

KapIsI, Bab-i Fetwa and Fetwakhane), a name 

which became common in the Ottoman Empire 

during the 19th century for the office or department 

of the Shaykh al-Islam [q.v.], the Chief Mufti of 

Istanbul. Until 1241/1826 the Chief Muftis had 

functioned and issued their rulings from their own 

residences or, if these were too distant, from rented 

quarters. In that year, after the destruction of the 

Janissaries, Sultan Maljmud II gave the former 



8 3 8 



BAB-I MASHlKHAT — BABA AFDAL 



residence of the Agha of the J a 
Siileymaniyye Mosque, to the Chief Mufti, who thus 
acquired a permanent establishment. This step, 
taken simultaneously with the creation, of an In- 
spectorate of wakf to centralise the supervision and 
control of wakf revenues, prepared the way for the 
bureaucratisation of the 'ulamd'. Deprived of both 
their financial and their administrative autonomy, 
the 'ultima' were gravely weakened as against the 
sovereign power, and were unable to resist effectively 
successive diminutions of their competence, author- 
ity, and status. In the course of the 19th century, 
they lost control of education and justice to the new 
Councils and Ministries created for these matters, 
and even the drafting of fetwds was entrusted to a 
committee of legal specialists in the Chief Mufti's 
office. The Chief Mufti himself became a government 
office-holder, a minister or head of department and 
a member of the cabinet. Eventually a point was 
reached when his term of office ended automatically 
with the fall of the cabinet. Unlike the other 
ministers, he was appointed by the Sultan and 1 
by the Grand Vizier, with whom he was theoretically 
equal (cf. Art. 27 of the 1876 constitution). The 
office however declined steadily in influence and 
importance, especially after the Revolution of 1 
Finally, on 3rd March 1924, the day the Caliphate 
was ended, the office of Shaykh al-Islam, which had 
lapsed with the Sultanate in 1922, was replaced by 
a department of religious affairs attached 
office of the Prime Minister in Ankara. The head 
of this department (Diyanet I fieri Re'isi) is the chief 
religious functionary of the Turkish Republic, with 
responsibility for mosques and mosque personnel, 
but not for wakf, law, or education. 

Bibliography: Hlmiyye Sdlndmesi, Istanbul 
1334; Mehmed Es'ad, Uss-i Zafer, Istanbul 1243, 
190-2 (cf. Caussin de Perceval, Precis historique 
de la Destruction du Corps des Janissaires, Paris 
1833, 293); c Abd al-Rahman Sheref, Ta'rikh 
Musdhabalarl, Istanbul 1339, 299-313; G. Jaschke, 
Der Islam in der neuen Tiirkei, in Wl, n.s. i 
1951, 88 ff. (B. Lewis) 

BAB-I SER'ASKERI or Ser'asker kapIsI, the 
name of the War Department in the Ottoman 
Empire during the 19th century. After the destruction 
of the Janissaries in 1241/1826, the Agha of the 
Janissaries was replaced by a new commanding 
officer, the Ser'asker [q.v.]. The title 1 
given to army commanders in former times. As 
applied by Mahmud II, it came to connote an 
officer who combined the functions of commander- 
in-chief and minister of war, with special respon- 
sibility for the new style army. In addition, he 
inherited from the Agha of the Janissaries the 
responsibility for public security, police, fire- 
fighting, etc. in the capital. In a period of growing 
centralisation and enforced change, 
function came to be of increasing importance and 
the maintenance and extension of the police system 
one of the chief duties of the Ser'asker. In 1262/1845 
the police were taken from the jurisdiction of the 
Ser'asker and placed under a separate departtr 
called Zabtiyye (see dabtiyya) Mushlriyyeti. 

Mahmud II at first lodged the Ser'askerate in the 
old Saray, from which a few remaining parts of the 
Imperial Household were transferred to 
Saray. Later, in 1282/1865, new buildings were 
provided for the Ser'asker and his staff. For a short 
time in 1297/1879-90, and then permanently in 
1324/1908, the old name of Ser'askerate was replaced 
by Ministry of War (Uarbiyye). These buildings 



remained the seat of the Ministry until the time of 
the transfer of the capital to Ankara, when they 
were handed over to the University of Istanbul. 
BibliograpJty: Mehmed Es c ad, Uss-i later, 
Istanbul 1243, 192 ff- (cf. Caussin de Perceval 
Precis historique de la Destruction du Corps des 
Janissaires, Paris 1833, 294-5) ; c Abd al-Rahman 
Sheref, Ta'rikh-i Dewlet-i 'Othmdniyye, Istanbul 
1309, ii, 475 ff.; Mehmet Zeki Pakalln, Osmanll 
Tarih Deyimleri ve Terimleri SOzluiu, Istanbul 
1946 ff., s.v. Serasker. (B. Lewis) 

BABA, (Turkish and also Persian) "father"; in 
East Turkish it also denotes "grandfather" (Vambery, 
Cagat. Sprachstudien, 240; Siileyman Efendi, Lughat-i 
diagkatay, 66). Baba, put after the name, is used in 
various ways as an honorific for older men, and in 
Turkey it is used as a form of address even today. 
As part of a name, it is best known from the story of 
"Ali Baba and the 40 thieves" in The Thousand and 
One Nights. As a cognomen, it was used particularly 
in Dervish circles (e.g. Geyikli Baba, who is said 
to have accompanied Orkhan Beg in the siege of 
Brusa), and there particularly with the Bektashi. 
Akhi Baba [q.v.], in corrupt form also Ahii Baba 
and similar forms) was the title of Akhi Ewran's 
[q.v.] successor in his Tekke in Ktrsehir (Anatolia) 
and master of the leather guilds (tanners, saddlers, 
and shoemakers), in which he held the privilege of 
inducting apprentices into the guild. There was a 
movement of dervishes who called themselves Baba'Is 
[q.v.] under the Rum Saldjuk Sultan Kaykhusraw II. 
The epithet Baba also occurs with non-religious civil 
servants in the ancient Ottoman Empire, e.g. Agha 
BabasI (Barbier de Meynard, Supplement, i, 257), 
the leader of the 40 guardians (kapldil) of the 
imperial harem, who were white eunuchs. In Iran 
the epithet Baba precedes the name, again frequently 
in the case of dervishes (e.g. the dialect poet Baba 
Tahir c Uryan [see baba-tahir]). Occasionally, Baba 
appears in its own right, e.g. a member of the Khan 
family Giray on the Crimea, Baba Giray, son of 
Muhammad Giray, who, after the death of his father, 
succeeded him as Kalgha, but was murdered six 
months later (929/1522); as also the Ozbek prince 
Baba Beg [q.v.]. 

As part of a place name, Baba indicates that the 
place had dervish associations. Thus, for example, 
Baba Daghl [see babadaghT), in the Dobrudja, where 
the tomb of the famous saint Sari Salttk Baba is; 
there is another Baba Daghl near Denizli in Anatolia, 
and foothills called Baba Burnu (formerly Assos) 
in western Anatolia, a part of mount Ida in Troas, 
at the foot of which lies the harbour Baba Limanl. 
In eastern Thrace there is a small town called 
Babaeski [q.v.]. 

Bibliography: Barbier de Maynard, Supple- 
ment aux dictionnaires turcs, s.v.; c Ali Diewad. 
Dioehrdfivd lughqtl, 143; Sdlndme of Edirne (1325), 
906, 980; Texier, Asie Mineure, 20; I A, ii, 165 f. 
(by M. Fuad Kopriilii). (F. Taeschner) 

BABA AFPAL AL-DIN MutfAMMAD B. HUSAYN 

KashanI (or KashI), generally called Baba Afdal, 
a Persian thinker and the author of poems in 
quatrains, born in Marak near Kashan, where he is 
also buried. His dates are still rather uncertain. 
According to Sa'id Naflsl he was born around 582/ 
1186-7, or 592/1195-6, and died after 654/1256 or 
664/1265-6; the date given as the date of his death 
by Brockelmann, II, 280, viz. Radjab 666/March-April 
1268, is near to this. According to M. MInovI, Baba 
Afdal died considerably earlier, at the beginning 
of the 7th/i3th century; the date of death given by 



BABA afdal — BABA-TAHIR 



839 



E. G. Browne and others, 707/1307-8, is certainly 
incorrect. There is scant information on his life, and 
that of little importance. Thus, for example, the 
relationship between Baba Afdal and Naslr al-Dki 
Tusi [?.».], which has been accepted by some, proves 
on closer examination to have been impossible. 
Admittedly Naslr al-DIn Tusi had a teacher named 
Kamal al-DIn Muhammad Hasib, who had been a 
pupil of Baba Afdal. Of the two quatrains in praise 
of "Afdal" ascribed to Naslr al-DIn Tusi, one is not 
definitely his whilst the other is in self-praise. The 
assertion that Naslr al-DIn had protected Kashan 
from Hulagu to please Baba Afdal is a fiction. It is 
hardly possible that there was ever a meeting 
between Baba Afdal and Sa'di. Baba Afdal's thought 
was influenced by the Batiniyya and Avicenna, 
whom he resembles also in his attempts tc substitute 
Persian technical terms for Arabic ones. His writings 
comprise 16 treatises, a posthumous book of quest- 
ions and answers, some 40 short essays, 6 letters, a 
collection of quatrains, some ghazals and kit c as. 
These figures, especially where the short essays and 
letters are concerned, must not be regarded as final, 
because — though most of his treatises had already 
been printed individually before — scientific and 
systematic research into his works has only recently 
commenced. He wrote chiefly in Persian, though 
occasionally also in Arabic (cf. primarily the 
Maiaridi al- Kamal, which he later translated into 
Persian- by request). His prose works are concerned 
with philosophy, theosophy, ethics, and logic; they 
are partly original, partly editions or translations, 
and are distinguished by their simple, clear and 
readily intelligible style, which follows that of the 
ancients closely. M. Bahar regards his translation of 
the Kitab al-Nafs of Aristotle as exemplary. Baba 
Afdal's logic al-Minhddj, ai-Mubin is based on al- 
'Ilm wa 'l-Nutfr of Aristotle though it is not identical 
with its model, but has independent developments 
of its own. Baba Afdal's Cahdr 'Unwdn gives a 
selection from Ghazzall's Kimiyd-i Sa'ddat, which 
consists partly of selected pieces from the Persian 
text of Ghazzall, partly of translations of the Arabic 
parts of the book, which Ghazzall had not included 
in the Persian version. Baba Afdal's quatrains are 
extremely attractive, and their occasionally shrill 
note has already been remarked on by E. H. Whin- 
field. It is no wonder that several of them have 
achieved currency as works attributed to 'Umar 
Khayyam. 

Bibliography: Muhammad TakI Danish- 
puzhuh lists all of Baba Afdal's prose works so 
far identified, their manuscripts, all printed and 
lithographed editions, translations, etc. in his essay 
Niwisktahd-i Bdbd Afdal, in Mihr 1331 AH solar, 
viii, 433-6, 499-502. For special mention here: 
Musannafdt I: Maddridi al-Kamdl (see above), 
Rdh-andidm-ndma, Sdz u Pirdya-i Shahdn-i 
Pur-mdya, Risdla-i Tuffdha, "-Ard-ndmOr Dldwiddn- 
4dma, Yanbi* alif ay at (translated by Baba 
Afdal), ed. Mudjtaba Mlnovl and Yahya Mahdawl, 
Tehran 1331 AH solar (Publications of the Uni- 
versity, no. 138, vol. II, including a biography and 
assessment, indices and vocabulary in preparation). 
The Book of the A pple [Kitab al-Tuffdha, Sib-ndma], 
ascribed to Aristotle, edited in Persian and English 
by D. S. Margoliouth, in JRAS 1892, 187-252 
(no attempt being made to identify the Persian 
translator of this dialogue); Tard£ama-i Rawdn- 
Mndsi yd Risdla-i Nafs-i Arista, ed. M. Bahar 
Malik al-Shu'ard, Tehran 1316 AH solar (Baba 
Afdal's Persian translation is based on the Arabic 



rescension by either Abu Zayd Hunayn b. Ishak 

'IbadI [who died in 264/877-8] or by his son 

Ishak [who died in 298/910- 1]); RttbdHyydt-i 

Bdbd Afdal-i Kdshdni (483 items); Tehran 1311 

AH solar, with critical biography and survey of 

the whole work by Sa'id Naflsl (also with a French 

title on the cover). There is a selection of 

quatrains with a sensitive prose translation in 

Host'yne-Azad, La Roseraie du Savoir, Choix de 

Quatrains mystiques, Leiden 1906. Concerning 

Baba Afdal: H. Ethe, Neupersische Literatur, Gr. 

I. Ph., ii, 277; Browne, ii, no; Brockelmann, S II, 

280; J. E. Bertel's, Avicenna i persidskaya litera- 

iura, in Izvestija AN SSSR. Otdel. obshestv. nauk. 

1938, numbers 1-2, 84-6; Dtjiny perski atddticki 

literatury, edited by J. Rypka, Prague 1956, 178, 

150, 179; Muh. TakI Bahar Malik al Shu'ard, 

Sabk-shindsi, iii (1319 AH solar), 163-6; Ma&ima 1 

al-Fusahd, i, 98 etc. (J. Rypka) 

BABA BEG, an Ozbek chief of the family of the 

Keneges, who was till 1870 prince of Shahrisabz. 

This town having been conquered by the Russians, 

he fled with a small body of those faithful to him. 

Finally he was seized in Ferghana and obliged to 

reside at Tashkent. In 1875 he entered Russian 

military service and took part in the campaign 

against Khokand. He died about 1898 at Tashkent. 

(W. Barthold-[B. Spuler]) 

BAbA DAGhJ [see BabadaghI]. 

BABA ESKISI [see Babaeski]. 

BABA FlfiHANl [see fighan!]. 

BABA ISHAK [see babaT]. 

BAbA-TAHIR, a mystic and poet who 

wrote in a Persian dialect. According to Rida 

Kull Khan (19th century), who does not give his 

source, Baba-Tahir lived in the period of DaylamI 

rule and died in 401/1010. Among his quatrains 

there is an enigmatical one: "I am that sea (bahr) 

which entered into a vase; that point which entered 

into the letter. In each all ("thousand", .».«, of 

years?) arises an alif-kadd (a man upright in 

stature like the letter alif). I am the alif-kadd who 

has come in this alf. Mahdl Khan in the JASB 

has given an extremely curious interpretation of 

this quatrain: the letters alf-kd have the value 

215, the same as the letters of . the word daryd 

(Persian equivalent of the Arabic bahr "sea") and 

those of the name of the poet Tdhir. If we add 

alf-kd (215) to alf (in) we get 326 (the same value 

by the way as the Persian word hazdr, "thousand", 

if we spell it ha, zd, alif, rd). In this way the phrase 

"an alif-kadd came into the alif would give the 

date (326) of the birth of Baba-Tahir who may 

well have lived till 401. 

In spite of the ingenuity of this explanation, it is 
nevertheless true that the only historical evidence 
that we possess about Baba-Tahir is that of the 
Rdhat al-Sudur (c. 601/1204, GMS, 98-99), the 
author of which "had heard" that when the Saldjuk 
Sultan Tughrtl entered Hamadan (in 447/1055), Baba- 
Tahir addressed an admonition to him ("O Turk, 
how are you going to act towards the Muslims?") 
which much impressed the conqueror. The anecdote 
suggests for the death of Baba-Tahir a date later 
than 447/1055 but is in no way contradictory to the 
statement that Baba-Tahir flourished under the 
Daylamls, i.e. under the BQyids and their relatives, 
the Kakoyids, whose rule in Hamadan lasted till 
the expedition of Ibrahim Yinal in 435/1043-4. Baba- 
TShir may well have been the contemporary of 
Avicenna (Ibn Staa) who died at Hamadan in 418/ 
1037, but the legends which make him a witness of 



the execution of the mystic c Ayn al-Rudat of Hama- 
dan in 533 and the contemporary of Naslr al-DIn 
Tusi (d. 672) are pure inventions. 

The sources sometimes call Baba-Tahir Hamadani 
(cf. the Arabic MS. 1903 of the Bibl. Nat. Paris, 
the Sarandidm, etc.), sometimes Lurl (Luri). This 
latter form — in place of Lur [q.v.] — is somewhat 
puzzling: does it mean some other connexion than 
that of origin between Baba-Tahir and Luristan? 
It is certainly well to remember that in the 5th/ 
nth century there were very close links between 
Hamadan and Luristan and the poet may have 
spent his life between the two places. In Khurram- 
abad there is a quarter bearing the name of 
Baba-Tahir (cf. Edmonds, Geogr. Journ., June 
1922, 443). The association of Baba-Tahir with 
Luristan in the beliefs of the Ahl-i Hakk [see below] 
is also significant. In the quatrains of Baba-Tahir 
(cf. nos. 102, 200, 274 of the Diwdn), Mount Alwand 
[q.v.] overshadowing Hamadan is frequently mention- 
ed. The tomb of Baba-Tahir lies on a little hill to the 
north-west of the town in the Bun-i bazar quarter; 
beside the tomb of Baba-Tahir are those of his 
faithful Fatima [see below] and Mirza c Ali Nakl 
Kawthari (19th century); the building is a humble 
one and of no interest. The tomb is mentioned in 
Hamd Allah Mustawfl, Nuzha (740/1340), 75; cf. 
the photograph in Minorsky, Matdriaux, Moscow 
1911, xi, and Williams Jackson, A visit to the Tomb 
of Baba Tdhir at Hamadan, in A Volume presented 
to E. 0. Browne, Cambridge 1922, 257-260. 

The stories one hears in Mazandaran about Baba- 
Tahir's connexion with that province have no 
foundation and may have been brought by immi- 
grants from Luristan (the Lak). Besides, all the 
nomads of Persia like to claim Baba-Tahir as a 
compatriot. 

The language of Baba-Tahir. Since all the 
facts and traditions connect the poet with Hamadan 
and Luristan, it is reasonable to expect to find 
in his dialect traces of a dialect of this region of 
Persia. But as this dialect was very close to Per- 
sian and as so many different mouths have been 
trying to render more comprehensible the verses 
transmitted orally, there is little hope of re-estab- 
lishing the text in its dialectic purity. It is not 
an improbable suggestion that Baba-Tahir simply 
wanted to imitate the dialects of his adepts. In 
our own day a Kurd Christian claims to have 
made verses in the Gurani dialect, quite distinct 
from his own, in order to "transmit the message" 
to the Ahl-i Hakk (Dr. Sa c id Khan, in MW, Jan. 
1927, 40). 

The country between Hamadan and Khurram- 
abad still has many dialects, but that of Baha-Tahir 
is not connected with any definite one and seems 
to borrow from all. The closeness of the present 
text of Baba-Tahir to literary Persian is undeniable; 
on the other hand changes like nam > num "name", 
dastam > dastum ("my hand"), raftam > raftum ("I 
have gone"), d«r > dlr (cf. Huart, xiv = Diwdn, 
no. 82) are typical of the Lur dialects; the stems 
vddi "to speak", kar "to do" are common to the 
Kurdish and central dialects; the forms mi-kar-u 
"he does" and ay-u "he comes" recall particularly 
the Gurani spoken much farther to the west. For 
certain peculiarities (ddram > +d&om) we only find 
analogies at Kazrun (near Shlraz). 

Hadank's detailed analysis has plainly proved 
this mixture of dialects (DiaUktgemisch) in the 
quatrains, at least as we know them now. The 
term "Muhammadan Pahlavi" proposed by Huart 



(1885) for the language of Baha-Tahir has not 
been accepted by scholars. 

The metre of the quatrains of Baba-Tahir and of 
his ghazals is almost exclusively hazadj musaddas 

mahdhuf ^ |^ |^ which has made 

the new editor call the quatrains du-bayti (distichs) 
instead of rubdH, the last term being too closely 
associated with the metre hazadi makfuf rnaksUr 

^^ J 0^1 I ^^ I -. The authenticity 

of some regular rubdH attributed to Baba-Tahir seems 
doubtful. The metre of Baba-Tahir is also found in 
popular songs (Mirza Dja'far [Korsch], Gramm. Pers. 
Yazlka, Moscow 1901, 308). 

Baba-Tahir— poet. Down to 1927, all that 
was known of his poems was a rather small number 
found for the most part in anthologies of the 
18th and 19th centuries. Huart's researches 
produced in 1885, 59 quatrains, and in 1908, 
found 3 new quatrains (they are moreover very 
doubtful). Leszczynski (who used the Berlin manus- 
cripts) has translated 80 quatrains and one ghazal 
(a different one from Huart's). Finally Husayn 
Waljid Dastgirdi Isfahan!, editor of the Persian 
review Armaghdn, published in 1306/1927 at 
Tihran a Diwdn of Baha-Tahir containing 296 
du-bayti and 4 ghazals of this poet; as an appendix 
the editor gives 62 du-bayti found in the "different 
collections" and the 3 rubdH added by Heron 
Allen. The quatrains of the Diwdn are arranged 
in the alphabetical order of the rhymes. The editor 
unfortunately gives no details of the manuscript 
of the Diwdn reproduced in his edition. The new 
quatrains several of which mention Tahir's name, 
the mountains of Alwand and Maymand ( ?) etc., 
confirm the characteristics already known of 
Baba-Tahir, while' making them a little more 
banal by the inevitable repetitions. The dialectical 
flavour of most of the quatrains is in favour of 
their authenticity, although an imitation of the 
peculiarities of the language of Baba-Tahir would 
really not be a very difficult matter. The question 
of the authenticity of the quatrains of Baba-Tahir 
certainly arises, as it did in the case of those of 
'Umar Khayyam. 2ukowski says that quatrains 
of Baba-Tahir are found in the Diwdn of Mulla 
Muhammad $ufi Mazandaranl (5th/nth cent.). A 
certain Shatir Beg Muhammad, a modern poet of 
Hamadan, claimed to be the author of several "Kurd! 
(Pahlawi)" quatrains attributed to Baba-Tahir (cf. 
Diwdn, 21). 

The choice of subjects in Baba-Tahir is very 
restricted, but the poet's work bears the stamp of 
a distinct personality. We give an analysis of the 
59 quatrains published by Huart to enable the 
reader to judge. As usual it is difficult to draw 
a rigid distinction between the expression of 
mystical and that of profane love; 34 quatrains 
are almost equally divided between two categories 
of lyric poetry. Two quatrains are simple hymns 
to God. The rest is more individual and charac- 
teristic. Baba-Tahir often refers to his life as a 
wandering darwish-kalandar, without a roof above 
his head, sleeping with a stone for a pillow, 
continually harassed by spiritual anxieties (nos. 
6, 7, 14, 28). Cares and melancholy torment him; 
the "flower of grief" alone flourishes in his heart; 
even the charms of spring leave him still unhappy 
(34, 35. 47, 54)- Baba-Tahir professes the philosophy 
of the true $ufl, confesses his sins, implores pardon 
for them, preaches humility, invokes nirvana (fani') 
as the only remedy for his misfortunes (1, 13, 
45. 50, 58). One human failing is especially 



characteristic of Baba-Tahir: his eyes and his 
heart do not readily detach themselves from the 
things of this world; his rebellious heart bums 
within him, leaves him no rest for a moment and 
the poet cries in anguish: "Art thou a lion, a 
panther, O my Heart, thou who art continually 
struggling with me. If thou fallest into my hands, 
I shall spill thy blood to see what colour thou art, 
O my heart" (3, 8, 9, 26, 36, 42). 

Baba-Tahir's psychology shows striking contrast 
to that of 'Umar Khayyam. Baba-Tahir shows no 
trace of the hedonism of the latter (d. 517/1123?) 
nor of his serenity in face of the changes brought 
by death, while 'Umar Khayyam lacks the mystic 
fire of Baba-Tahir (cf. Christensen, Critical Studies 
in the Rv.bd.Hydt of <Umar-i Khayyam, Copenhagen 
1917, 44). 

What pleases in Baba-Tahir is the freshness of. 
his sentiments which Sufi routine had not yet 
stereotyped, the spontaneity of his images, the 
naivete of his language, with the local tang. 

Baba-Tahir— mystic. The Persian dervishes 
with whom Zukowski talked about Baba-Tahir 
knew that he was the author of 22 metaphysical 
treatises (cf. also Rida Kull Khan) but it is only 
from Ethe and Blochet that we have learned in 
Europe of the existence in Oxford and Paris of 
commentaries on the maxims of Baba-Tahir. The 
complete treatise [al-]Kalimat [al]-kisdr ("The 
brief sayings") has now been published in the 
edition of the Armaghdn. This treatise consists 
of 368 Arabic maxims divided into 23 bdb dealing 
with the following subjects: knowledge [Him); 
gnosis (ma'-rifa) ; inspiration and penetration (ilham, 
firdsa); reason and the soul ^akl, nafs); this world 
and the beyond (dunyd, Htkbd); the musical per- 
formance (sama c ) and the dhikr; sincerity and 
spiritual retreat (ikhlds, iHikaf), etc. 

Here are a few specimens of these maxims: no. 
86: "Real knowledge is the intuition after the 
knowledge of certainty has been acquired" (al- 
haklkatu ' l-mushdhadatu ba c da Hlmi 'l-yalbini); no. 
96: "Ecstasy {wadjd) is the loss (of the know- 
ledge) of existing things and is the existence of 
lost things"; no. 368: "he who has been the wit- 
ness of predestination (coming) from God remains 
without movement and without volition"; no. 300: 
"he whom ignorance has slain has never lived, he 
whom the dhikr has killed will never die". 

The "Brief Sayings" seem to have enjoyed 
considerable popularity among the Sufis. The 
Persian editor mentions the following commentaries 
on this treatise: the Arabic commentary attributed 
to c Ayn al-Kudat al-Hamadanl (d. in 533/"38-9 
but often associated in legends with Baba-Tahir); 
another Arabic commentary by an unknown author; 
the Arabic and Persian commentaries by Mulla 
Sultan C A1I Gunabadi: the Persian commentary 
was printed in 1 326/1906 but is very rare. The 
editor of the Armaghdn expresses the hope of 
being one day able to publish the "Brief Sayings" 
accompanied by one of the commentaries. 

The Arabic manuscript 1903 of the Bibl. Nat. 
contains the first 8 chapters of the maxims of 
Baba-Tahir in an abridged form (fol. ioob-iosb), 
as well as a commentary on them (fol. 74a-iooa) 
entitled al-Futuhdt al-Rabbdniyya ft Ishdrdt al- 
Hamaddniyya. 

The manuscript seems to be in the hand of 
the author of the commentary, Djani Beg al-'AzizI, 
who began his work in Shawwal 889 and ended 
it on 20th Sha'ban 890/1 September 1485. The 



commentary was written at the request of a certain 
Shaykh Abu '1-Baka who had possessed the Ishdrdt of 
Baba-Tahir since 853/1449-50. He had let them fall 
into the well of Zamzam at Mecca but the manu- 
script was miraculously recovered. The Hdamd* had 
dissuaded Abu '1-Baka from writing a commentary 
on the text on account of its profundity and 
obscurity. Finally Abu '1-Baka engaged Djani Beg 
to accomplish this task. The commentary deals 
with the text of the maxims of Baba-Tahir word 
by word. 

Baba-Tahir— saint. As is the case with 
the majority of the mystical poets ( c Attar, Djalal 
al-DIn Rumi, Hafiz), there are numerous legends 
of the life and miracles of Baba-Tahir. It is 
related that when Baba-Tahir had asked the 
students of the madrasa of Hamadan to show him 
the way to acquire knowledge, the students as a 
joke told him to spend a winter night in the 
icy water of a tank. Baba-Tahir carried out the 
advice and next morning found himself enlightened 
and exclaimed: Amsaytu Kurdiyyan wa-asbahtu 
'Arabiyyan ("last night I was a Kurd and this 
morning I have become an Arab"). This story 
was heard by Zukowski in Tehran and by Heron 
Allen's informant at Bushlr; it is widely current 
in Hamadan (cf. the preface to the Diwdn, 17 
and the manuscripts from Hamadan). This Arabic 
utterance is found in the preface to the Mathnawl 
of Djalal al-Din Rflmi, where however it is referred 
to an unknown (mystic?) ancestor of Ibn AlchI, a 
Turk of Urmiya. In the Nafahdt al-Uns of DjSml, 
ed. Nassau Lees, 362-363, the phrase is attributed to. 
Abu c Abd Allah Babuni (a GuranI tribe, see Ibn 
Athlr, ix, 247). 

Other pious legends represent Baba-Tahir as 
making the snow on Mount Alwand melt by the 
ardour of his spiritual fire, tracing with the point 
of his great toe the solution of an astronomical 
problem which had been put him, etc. (Zukowski, 
Heron Allen, Leszczynski, preface to the Diwdn, 
manuscripts from Hamadan). 

Gobineau, Trois ans en Asie, Paris 1859, 344, 
already knew that the adepts of the Ahl-i Hakk 
sect were in the habit of "praising exceedingly 
and giving pride of place to the names of famous. 
Sufis, notably of Baba-Tahir whose poems in the 
Lur dialect are highly esteemed, and of his sister 
Bibi Fatima" etc. The discovery of the religious 
work Sarand£dm has enabled us to locate Baba- 
Tahir in the theogony of the sect. The Ahl-i Hakk 
[q.v.] believed in 7 manifestations of the divinity, 
each of which was accompanied by a retinue of 4 
angels, each of whom had special duties. Baba- 
Tahir is regarded as one of the angels of the third 
period and the incarnation of Azrall and Nusayr. The 
mystic stage to which the period of Baba Khoshin 
generally corresponds is the ma'-rifa. The events of 
this cycle take place in Luristan and Hamadan. The 
manuscript of the Sarandidm recounts the visit of 
the "King of the World" to Baba-Tahir in Hamadan. 
Baba Khoshin is meant by the "King of the World" 
but the legend seems to be inspired by memories 
of the episode of Tughrfl (see above). Baba-Tahir 
and Fatima Lara ("the thin") of the tribe of Bara 
Shahi (of the Guran country?), who was in his 
service, fed the whole army of the King with a lar-yah 
of rice. The latter tempts Baba-Tahir with all the 
treasures of the world but he only desires the "beauty 
of the King". Fatima wants to follow the King of the 
World; she lays her head on his knees and gives up 
the ghost. The King consoles Baba-Tahir for his loss 



BABA-TAHIR — BABADAGHI 



and promises that on the day of the Last Judgement 
he will reunite him to Fatima so that they shall be 
like LaylS and Madj'nfln. 13 poetical fragments 
(mutilated but" in the style of Baba-Tahir) are 
scattered through the text (cf. Minorsky, 29-33, 
99-103; these facts have been utilised by Leszczynski, 
op. cit., 18-25). Fatima Lara, who is mentioned in 
the text is buried beside Baba-Tahir. According to 
the custodians of the tomb of Baba-Tahir, she is 
not to be confused with another Fatima also buried 
in the same buk'a ( ?). Gobineau and A. V. W. 
Jackson mention the sister of Baba-Tahir, BIbi 
Fatima or Fatima Layla. Azad-i Hamadani (Diwdn, 
16-21) speaks of the tomb of the ddya "nurse" of 
Baba-Tahir: everyone seems to endeavour to translate 
intc the language of everyday life the mystic relations 
of Baba-Tahir to Fatima. 

The quatrain already quoted at the beginning 
of this article (alt, alif-kadd) may reflect some high 
aspiration of Baba-Tahir. 

Bibliography: The MSS. containing the 
quatrains of Baba-Tahir are as follows: Konya 
Museum no. 2547 (848/1444) : 2 Kifas, 8 du-bayti, 
see M. MInuwI, Madjalla-yi Ddnishkada-yi Adabiy- 
ydt, Tehran, iv/2, 1325, 54-9; Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 
Pers. no. 923, Catal. Ivanow, 424 (a madjmu'a of 
1000 [1592]); Preuss. Staatsbibl., Catal. Pertsch, 
727, no. 697 (written in 1820 and used by 
Leszczynski): 56 quatrains; Bibl. Nat. de Paris, 
pers. 174, Cat. Blochet, ii, 290-292 (collection made 
by Bakhsh 'All Karabaghl, dated 1260 [1844]): 
174 quatrains and a ghazal. In the library of the 
mosque of Sipahsalar in Tehran, Zukowski found 
a manuscript, lidldt-i Baba-Tahir bd-indimdm-i 
ash'drash, but the title does not correspond to the 
contents of the MS. The MSS. of the mystical 
treatises of Baba-Tahir are as follows: Bibl. 
Nat. de Paris, Arab 1903 (Blochet, o.l., ii, 291) 
and the Oxford MS. Ethe, Cat. Pers. Mss. 
Bodleian Lib., no. 1298, fol. 302b-343. The 
anthologies which mention the poet are: C A1I 
Kuli Khan Walih, Riydd al-Shu'-ara' , 1161/1748, 
cf. Leszczynski, 10; Lutf C A1I beg, Atashkada, 
"93/1779, Bombay 1277, 247 (25 quatrains); 
C AU Ibrahim Shah, Suhuf-i Ibrahim, 1205/1791, 
unique MS. in the Preuss. Staatsbibl., Pertsch, 
627, no. 663 (utilised by Zukowski and Leszczyn- 
ski); Rida Kull Khan, Mad[ma< al-Fusahd, Tehran 
1295, i, 326 (10 quatrains); idem, Riydd al-'-drifin, 
Tehran 1303, 102 (24 quatrains); 57 quatrains of 
Baba-Tahir were published at Bombay in 1297 
and 1308 (with those of 'Umar Khayyam); 32 
quatrains (with the Munddjdt of AnsSri) at 
Bombay 1301; 27 quatrains (with those of 
Khayyam) at Tehran 1274; the ghazal of Baba- 
Tahir is given in the appendix to the Diwdn of 
Shams-i Maghribi, Tehran 1298, 158, in the 
appendix to the Munddfdt of Ansari etc.. The 
Diwdn of Baba-Tahir (cf. text) with the Kalimdt-i 
kisdr, a preface by the editor, a biography by 
Mahmud c Irfan, a description of- the tomb-' of 
Baba-Tahir by Azad-i Hamadani, etc. were 
published as a supplement to the 8th year of the 
magazine Armaghdn, Tehran 1306/1927, 1-124. — 
Huart, Les quatrains de Bdbd-Tdhir 'Urydn en 
pehltvi musulman, in. J A, series viii, vol. vi, Nov.- 
Dec. 1885, 502-545; Zukowski, Koye (to o B. 
Tdhirl GoUshl, Zap., 1900, xiii, 104-108 (biblio- 
graphy, 3 anecdotes, 2 new quatrains one of which 
= no. 146 of the Diwdn), cf. also Zap., ii, 12; 
E. Heron Allen, The Lament of Baba-Tahir, 
London 1902 (text of 62 quatrains, transl. by 



the editor and verse by Elisabeth Curtis 
Brenton); Browne, i, 83-87, ii, 259-261; Mlrza 
Mahdl Khan (Kawkafc}; The quatrains of Baba- 
Tahir, in JASB, 1904, no. 1, 1-29 (new edition 
of the quatrains of Heron Allen [-f- 1 quatrain] 
with important corrections and a very interesting 
commentary) ; Huart, Nouveaux quatrains de Bdbd 
Tdhir, in Spiegel Memorial Volume, ed. J. J. Modi, 
Bombay 1908, 290-302 (28 quatrains and 1 ghazal) 
completing the collection of 1885 recently disco- 
vered: in an extract from the Kashkul al-Fukard* 
of which the original is in the Muhammadiyya 
mosque (Fatih) of Constantinople, in the Diwdn 
of Maghribi and in an album (djung): This 
second collection of quatrains published by 
Huart contains sundry pieces, the translation 
of which is not certain; Minorsky, Materiali 
("Materiaux pour servir a l'etude des croyances 
de la secte persane dite les Ahl-i Haqq ou 'Ali- 
Ilahl"), vol. xxxiii, of the Trudi Lazarew. Institute, 
Moscow 1911, 29-33 (transl. of the passages from 
the Sarandidm), 99-103 (Persian text of the 
intercalated poems and notes) ; G. L. Leszczynski, 
Die Rubd'iydt des Baba-Tahir '■Urydn oder Die 
Gottestrdnen des Herzens, aus d. west-medischen 
[sic\\ Originate, Munich 1920 (biographical and 
bibliographical, verse transl.); K. Hadank, Die 
Mundarten v. Khunsdr, etc., in Kurd.-pers. Forsch. 
v. O. Mann, series iii, vol. i, Leipzig 1926, intro- 
duction, xxxvii-lv (complete study of the question 
of the language of Baba-Tahir, bibliography); 
A. J. 'Arberry, Poems of a Persian Sufi, being the 
quatrains of Baba-Tahir, Cambridge 1937, (60 du- 
bayti translated into excellent five-lined stanzas 
in the style of A. E. Housman). (V. Minorsky) 
BABADA£Hf, a town in the Dobrudja, now 
part of Rumania. Its Turkish name refers to the 
semi-legendary dervish (Baba) Sari Saltlk, who is 
said to have led a number of Anatolian Turcomans 
to the Dobrudja in the mid-thirteenth century, and 
to have settled with them in the neighbourhood of 
Babadaghl. (On this settlement see Paul Wittek, 
Yazijioghlu "-All on the Christian Turks of the Dobruja, 
in BSOAS, 1952 xvi, 639 ff.). There are several tombs 
of Sari Saltlk in various towns; the most generally 
accepted is that of Babadaghl. What appears to be- the 
first reference to it occurs in a passage in the travels 
of Ibn Battuta, who mentions 'Baba Saltuk* as the 
furthermost outpost of the Turks, and briefly 
describes the saint that is buried there. Though Ibn 
Battuta' s 'Baba Saltuk' cannot be located with 
certainty, it seems likely that it is the place later 
known as Babadaghl. He passed that way in about 
1332-3. 

According to EwliyS Celebi, the town was first 
conquered for the Ottomans by Bayezld I, and was 
consecrated by Bayezld II as a wakf for Sari Saltlk 
and his followers. Two documents relating to the 
wakf of Bayazld, of 1078/1667 and 1111/1699, are 
listed in the catalogue of the Topkapl Sarayl (Arsiv 
KUavuzu, Istanbul 1938; i, 52}. The area was no 
doubt occupied by Bayezld I in the course of his 
Danubian campaigns, but its final annexation by 
the Ottomans would seem to date from the year 
819/1416-7, ('Ashikpashazade, chapter 75; Neshrl, 
ed. Unat Koymen, Ankara 1957, ii, 534 ft.; SaM 
al-DIn, i, 284; cf. Osman Turan, Tariht Takvimler, 
Ankara 1954, 21, 57). The region was settled by 
Bayezld with Tatar colonists (Hadjdji Khalifa :cf. 
Hammer- PurgstaU , 1 i, 629). 

In 945/1538 Sultan Suleyman stayed there for four 
days, during his Rumanian campaign, and visited 



BABADAGHI — BABA'I 



843 



the tomb of Sari Saltlk (M ohatndme ; Hammer- 
Purgstall*, ii, 152). At this time it seems to have been 
included in the sandiak of Silistre, though it was not 
large enough to be listed as a town (M. Tayyib 
Gokbilgin, Kanunt Sultan Siileyman devri bastarlnda 
Rutneli cyalcti, livalarl, fehir ve kasabalari,BeUeten, xx, 
1956, 254-5, 266-7). In the late '6th and early 17th cen- 
turies the town and district suffered greatly from the 
depredations of the Cossacks and even, on occasions, 
of the Crimean Tatars. As a result many of the Turkish 
population left and migrated southwards. During the 
reign of Murad IV the construction of a fortress was 
begun, under direction of Kodja Ken'an Pasha, but 
by the time that Ewliya Celebi wrote (ca. 1652) the 
fortress was not manned and only the foundation 
walls and towers were standing. During the 17th 
century Babadaghl became the concentration point 
for Ottoman armies marching north, and in war-time 
served as winter quarters for the Grand Vizier. The 
town, which from 1001/1593 constituted a voyvodaUk 
in the eyalet of Ozii, was described by Ewliya as a 
flourishing commercial centre, with 3000 houses, 
380 shops, and many gardens (but no closed market — 
bezzdzistdn). Its status was that of a pasha's appanage 
(pasha khdssi). Ewliya names three large mosques 
(diami'-)— Ulu Djami c , built by Bayezid II, near the 
convent of Sari Saltlk; c Ali Pasha Djami'i, in the 
market place; Defterdar Derwlsh Pasha Djami'i; 
and three hammdms including those of Bayezid II 
and C AH Pasha. (HadjdjI Khalifa reports 5 mosques 
and only 2 baths). There were also several masdjids, 
three madrasas, 20 boys' schools (mekteb ^ibydni) 
8 Khans and n dervish convents (tekke) of which 
the largest and most prosperous was that of Sari 
Saltlk. His tiirbe was a place of pilgrimage. It was 
built by Bayezid II (or, according to another 
version, by the Crimean Khan Mengli Giray). The 
chief industries, according to Ewliya Celebi, were 
cloth, bows, and arrows; its specialities were grapes, 
white bread, yoghurt, and grape-juice. 

In 1809, during the Russo Turkish war, the town 
was occupied by the Russian general Pozorovsky. 
It was returned to Turkey in 1812 but was ceded to 
Rumania in 1878. At the time of its transfer Baba- 
daghl was a kadi' in the sandiak of Tulca in the teildyet 

Bibliography: Ewliya Celebi, Seyahat-ndme, 
iri, 362-70; Hadjdji Khalifa, tr. Hammer, Rumeli 
und Bosna, Vienna 1812, 27;; Ibn Battuta, ii, 416; 
Hasluck, Christianity and Islam under the Sultans, 
Oxford 1929, i, 368-9; Kemalpashazade, Mohdt- 
name, ed. and tr. Pavet de Courteille, Paris 1859, 
80 ff., 177; Hammer-Purgstall, index; Hurmuzaki, 
Documente privitoare la Istoria Romdnilor, Bucarest 
1889-1939 index ; I A s.v. Dobruca (by Aurel Decei). 
See also bughdan, dobrubia, sarI saltIk. 

(B. Lewis) 
BABAESKI (Baba-yi c atik) or Babaeskisi, a small 
town in eastern Thrace, situated 50 km. S.E. of 
Edirne, on the railway line which links KIrklareli to 
the Edirne, Istanbul main line. At the time of the 
Byzantine empire it was called Bulgarophygon; its 
present name is derived from the Turkish dervishes 
(baba) who settled there, 4s at other places, during 
the Ottoman expansion in the Balkans. 

Babaeski was a kada' of the sandjak of Viza in the 
17th century, and was later attached to the sandiak 
of KIrkkUise (Kfcklareli). Taday it is one of the 
kadds of the wildyet of KIrklareli; its population in 
1945 was 5,936. The population of the whole region, 
numbering 37,607 (1945), is mainly occupied in 
agriculture. 



The town has two mosques, one dating from the 
time of Mehemmed II, and the other built by the 
architect Sinan in the name of the Grand Vizier 
C A1I Pasha Semiz [q.v.].A stone bridge, built during 
the reign of Murad IV on the river Ergene, to the 
wfst of the town, also deserves mention as a historic 
monument. 

Bibliography: Sami, KdmVs M-A'lam, ii, 
1178; article Baha in IA (by M. Fuad Kopriilu); 
Turk (Indnii) Ansiklopedisi, s.v.; Ewliya Celebi, 
Siydhat-name, iii, 480 ff.; T. Gokbilgin, XV. ve 
XVI. aslrlarda Edir"ne ve Pasa livasl, Istanbul 1952, 
207 ff., 502 f. (E. Kuran) 

BABA1, the name of a religio-social movement 
which disturbed the Turkoman centres of Asia Minor 
a few years before the Mongol invasion, and which 
seems to have been of great importance in the 
general history of the social and cultural development 
of the Turkish people. It can only be understood by 
reference to certain general features of the develop- 
ment of the Saldjukid state of Rum. By the 7th/i3th 
century, the latter had become a state with a strong 
administrative and cultural framework, the product 
of Iranian influence, based on the Muslim and 
mainly Sunni population of the towns ; the Turkoman 
element of the rural areas and the frontiers, which 
had remained far more faithful to the old Turkish 
traditions and had been penetrated to a much 
greater extent by heterodox doctrines, was thus 
becoming more and more isolated. At the very 
moment when the rift between the State and the 
Turkoman element was widening in this way, the 
Turkomans, as the result of the influx of their 
Turkoman cousins who had been pushed back first 
by the Khwarizmians, then by the Mongols, received 
simultaneously reinforcement in numbers and the 
seeds of future troubles, in the form of doctrines 
stemming from Central "Asia. This was the environ- 
ment in which shortly before 638/1240 a baba 
(popular preacher), Ishak, better known under his 
self-assumed title of «rasul (Allah) », who came from 
the Kafarsud region on the Syrian border, began 
preaching to the Turkomans both of the region south 
of the eastern Taurus, and 4f the region of Amasya, 
and then of all the intervening and surrounding 
districts. In 638, taking advantage of the fact that 
the breach between Kav-Khusraw and the Khwarizi- 
mians, the remnants of whom, after finding a 
temporary home in Asia Minor, had taken refuge 
in Djazlra, had weakened the regime, Baba Ishak 
raised the standard of revolt. He successively defied 
several large Saldjukid armies, and was only finally 
defeated and captured by the employment of 
«Frankish» mercenaries; even then the movement 
was not completely suppressed. 

Little is known of the distinctive features of the 
movement. The adepts wore a red cap (as did, later, 
the klzll-bash), black robes, and sandals. Ishalf 
called himself a prophet, and allied himself to the 
extremist forms of Shi'ism which were prevalent in 
Irano-Turkish popular circles; his precise relations 
with- another Baba, of Khurasanl origin, Ilyas, and 
with the kalandars (Djawaliki) of Asia Minor, are yet 
to be established. At all events, the movement was 
fundamentally opposed to the aristocratic movement 
of Djalal al-Din Ruml and the Mawlawis. 

Although so little is known about it, the Babal 
movement must have been of great importance, 
since it is mentioned, apart from the Saldjukid 
chronicler Ibn BibI (phot. MS. ed. 498-502, Houtsma's 
summarised ed. 227-231), by the contemporary Arab 
from Damascus Sibt Ibn al-DjawzI (ed. Jewett 845), 



BAbA'I — BABALYON 



the Franciscan missionary Simon of St. Quentin (in 
Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum, xxxi, 139-40), and, 
a little later, by the Syriac historian Bar Hebraeus 
(ed. trans. Budge, 405-6). The basic problem is to 
establish the connexion between this movement and, 
on the one hand, the creation of the Karamanid 
principality of Taurus, and, on the other hand, in the 
second half of the century, the religious group of 
HadjdjI Bektash; Eflaki (amend Huart's trans., i, 
296, following Koprulii, Orig. (see bibl. below), 407) 
explicitly connects the latter, which was destined to 
have such important developments, with the Baba 5 ! 
movement. There are doubtless other popular creeds 
of the period of the Mongol Protectorate which are 
worthy of consideration. Although the texts are so 
vague, there is little doubt that the Babal movement 
was at the head of currents which the dislocation of 
the Saldjukid state later rendered irresistible, and 
it is this which gives it its importance. 

Bibliography: The sources are quoted in the 
article. The principal modern works are those of 
M. Fuad KSpriilii, Turk Edebiyatlnda Ilk Mutas- 
awwlflar, Anadoluda Islamiyet (Edebiyat Fak. 
Mecm. ii, 1922), Les Origines du Bektachisme 
(Internat. Congress on the Hist, of Religions, 
1923), Anadolu Beylikleri Tarihine Aid Notlar 
(Tiirkiyat Mecm. ii), and Les Origines de I'Empire 
Ottoman, Paris 935. For more recent works, see 
A. Golpinarll, Mevlana Celaleddin 1 , 1952, and O. 
Turan, Selcuk Turkiyesi Din Tarihine Dair Bir 
Kaynak, in' Fuad K6priUii Armaianl, 1953. 

(Cl. Cahen) 
BABAK, head of the Khurraml sect [see rauR- 
RAMls] ; his name is an arabicised form of the Iranian 
Papak. The son of an oil-merchant from al-Mada'in 
(or, according to some, the descendant of Abu Muslim) , 
he was following an obscure calling in Adharbavdjan 
when he was noticed by Djawidhan b. Sahl, head of 
the Khurramls, who died shortly afterwards. Babak 
claimed that the spirit of Djawidhan had entered 
into him, and began to stir up the people living in 
the region of al-Badhdh. a place, not extant to-day, 
situated in the mountainous region of Arran, not 
far from the Araxes [s«b adharbaydjan, map]. He 
imparted new vigour to this religious and social 
movement, derived in part from Mazdakism, and 
employed particularly violent methods. It appears 
that his operations date from 201/816-7, and that 
they were assisted by the rebellious schemes of the 
governor of Armenia, Hatim b. Hartama, and facili- 
tated by the various difficulties in the eastern 
province which followed al-Ma'mun's return to 
Baghdad. 

In 204/819-20, al-Ma'mfln sent against Babak 
Yahya b. Mu'adh, who attacked him without 
success on several occasions, as did other commanders 
whose efforts were attended by no better fortune. By 
the end of al-Ma'mun's caliphate the revolt had 
spread as far as the Djibal, and first concern of al- 
Mu'tasim was to exterminate the insurgents in this 
region. In 220/835, he placed al-Afshin [q.v.~] in 
charge of operations against Babak. This commander 
rebuilt the fortresses on the al-Badhdh road which 
Babak had destroyed, and, despite the defeat suf- 
fered by Bugha the Elder at Hashtad-Sar, succeeded 
in surprising one of the rebel leaders, Tarkhan. Then, 
reinforced by troops under Dja'far al-Khavvat and 
by Abu Dulaf's volunteers, he established in 222/837 
a camp, protected by mountain scouts, from which 
he harassed the fortress of al-Badhdh. After an 
unsuccessful attack by the volunteers, al-Badhdh 
was taken and sacked on 9 Ramadan 222/15 August 



837 as the result of an assault by the troops from 
Farghana. Babak fled, and after being handed over 
to al-Afshin by the Armenian elder Sahl b. Sunbat, 
with whom he had taken refuge, was sent to Samarra 
where he arrived on 3 Safar 223/4 January 838. A'- 
Mu'tasim had him paraded on an elephant and 
executed with extreme cruelty; his body remained 
hanging on the gallows, which gave its name to a 
quarter of the town. 

The capture and execution of Babak did not put 
an end to the Knurr ami movement, which continued 
to give evidence of its existence during the 3rd/gth 
century; the devotees of the former rebel, calling 
themselves Babakiyya, continued in the 5th/nth 
century, at al-Badhdh, to wait for the Mahdi and 
to practise certain special rites. 

Bibliography: Dinawari; Ya'kubi; Tabarl 
(English tr. by Elma Marin, The Reign of al-MuHa- 
sim, New Haven 1951, index); Mas'udi, M urudj, 
index; Tanukhi, Nishwdr, I.e., 75; al-Fihrist, 
342-44 (and G. Fliigel, in ZDMG, 23, 1869, 531- 
42); Ibn al-Athir, index; Ibn Khaldun, al-'Ibar, 
iii, 256-262; Ni?am al-Mulk, Siydsat-nama (ed. 
Schefer), 200 ff.; Schwarz, Iran, viii, 1127-34; G. 

H. Sadighi, Les mouvements religieux iraniens , 

Paris 1938, 229-80; B. Spuler, Iran in friih-isla- 
mischer Zeit, Wiesbaden 1952, 61-4 and 201-3; IA, 
s.v. (by Osman Turan). . (D. Sourdel) 

BABALYCN (Babylon), a town in Egypt. The 
name Babylon, denoting the mediaeval Egyptian 
town in the neighbourhood of the modern Cairo, 
is, according to Casanova, the Graecised form of an 
ancient Egyptian Pi-Hapi-n-On through assimilation 
to the Asiatic (3ix(3uXciv which was familiar to the 
Greeks. This etymology is not quite free from ob- 
jections but there is no doubt that some ancient 
Egyptian place-name underlies it. By the name is 
meant the ancient town and fortification of the 
Greeks which — situated on the borders of Upper 
and Lower Egypt — commanded the interior. Even 
to the present day portions of the ancient fortifica- 
tion have survived in the Kasr al-Sham'a. Babylon's 
position was much more favourable, and its impor- 
tance greater, in ancient times, as the Nile then 
flowed further to the East. At the time of the 
conquest of Egypt by 'Amr, the decisive battles 
were fought here. With the fall of Babylon (21 
Rabl c II 20/9 April 641) the fate of Egypt 
was settled. The Arab military camp which later 
developed into the city of Fustat-Misr was then 
pitched near this place, important from the mili- 
tary point of view, and the remains of the old 
fortress were used in its construction. As far 
as we know from papyri, a distinction was still 
made between Babylon and Fustat at the end of 
the ist/7th century. In Fustat lived the Muhadjirun 
where their khifaf were marked out. In Babylon 
were the great corn-merchants and the seat of 
the administration. The arsenal on the island of 
Roda which is also mentioned in papyri, was 
closely connected with the fortress. The original 
distinction between Fustat and Babylon was nat- 
urally soon lost. The name Babylon fell out of use 
among the Arabs and only survived among the 
Copts, its application by them being being extended, 
for the Copts occasionally used Babylon to de- 
scribe the whole of the great series of towns from 
£asr al-Sham c a through Fustat and Cairo to 
Matariyye-Heliopolis. This usage then spread to 
western writers. This is why Babylonia, with 
varying orthography, appears as a name for Cairo 
commercial treaties between 



BABALYON — 

Egypt and Western States, written in Latin and 
published by Amari. The name may also be found 
in the contemporary literature of Europe as well 
as. in charters; for example in the works of 
the traveller Mandeville and of Boccaccio who 
calls Saladin "Soldano di Babilonia". 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 450; Makrizi, KhiM, 
IFAO ed., v., 6-13; Abu Salih (ed. Evetts and 
Butler), fol. .23 11 ; Casanova, Les Noms Copies du 
Caire et des Localitis voisines, in BIFAO, i, 26; 
Amelineau, Giographie de I'Egypte a Vipoque 
copte, 75 and passim ; Quatremere, Mimoires 
sur I'Egypte, ii, 45; Papyri Schott-Reinhardt, 98; 
Zeitschr. fur Assyr., xx, 84, 91; Caetani, An- 
nuls iv, A.H. 21 § 143; A. R. Guest, The 
Foundation of Fuslat, in JRAS 1907, 49 ff . ; Michele 
Amari, I Diplomi Arabi del R. Archivio Fiorentino, 
Florence 1863; U. Monneret de Villard, Recherche 
sulla Topografia di Qasr eS-Sam', Bull. Soc. Royale 
de Gtog. d'Egypte, xii-xiii. (C. H. Becker) 

BABAN, the name of an important family and 
dynasty of 'Iraki Kurdistan. It rose early in the 
nth/i7th century from an obscure origin in the 
Hshdar country in the person of one Ahmad al- 
Fakih, whose son became a power, and his grandson 
Sulayman Beg a major power, in the Shahrizur 
area. They made their home at Kara Colan, which 
remained the Baban head-quarters until the foun- 
dation of Sulaymaniyya [q.v.] in 1198/1783; and 
in spite of an unsuccessful invasion of Persia, and 
chequered fortunes in his own newly-created prin- 
cipality, Sulayman Beg gained a measure of recogni- 
tion from the sultan and transmitted a princely 
position (or at least princely pretensions) to 1 ' 
sons. Under his grandson Bakr Beg, early in t 
I2th/i8th century, Baban rule, always insecu 
and unaccompanied by any regular administratic 
stretched from the Lesser Zab to the Sirwan (Diyala). 
(n spite of the violent fall of Bakr Beg and the 
re-assertion of Turkish authority, the Baban prince 
of the time (Khana Pasha) gave important military 
help to the wAi of Baghdad in the struggle against 
the Persians (1136-1160/1723-1747). Under his nephew 
Sulayman Pasha (1167/1754) Baban rule covered 
the sandjak of Koy, Khanikln and wide areas of 
Western Persia; but it remained precarious, resented 
by the Turkish authorities in the 'Iraki wilayets, 
threatened by rivals in the same family, and weak- 
ened by ceaseless intrigues with (and by) Persian 
supporters of this or that candidate. In these con- 
ditions, even valuable services rendered from time 
to time to the pashas of Baghdad could not secure 
consistency in Turkish policy towards the Kurdish 
principality, nor a respectful attitude by the latter; 
even the greatest of the Babans — notably c Abd al- 
Raljman Pasha, in power (with interruptions) from 
1204/1789 to 1227/1812 — fell victims every few 
years, or months, to the constant vicissitudes of 
frontier warfare and intrigue, and the rivalries 
among their brothers and cousins. Their territory 
was more than once occupied by Persian or Turkish 

The final eviction of the Baban rulers, which \ 
anyhow inevitable under the modernising policy of 
the Turkish Government after 1246/1830, was 
easier since the appearance of signs of Turko-Persian 
accord — frontier agreements were reached between 
the two powers in 1239/1823 and 1264/1847 — and 
the destructive rivalries of the sons of c Abd al- 
Rahman Pasha. In spite of a brief "Indian summer" 
when new weapons and modern military methods 
were introduced in the Baban armed forces, the 



l-BABBAGHA' 845 

centralising efforts of the mid-century walls of 
'Irak prevailed finally in 1267/1850, when the last 
of the Baban princes left Sulaymaniyya. Numerous 
descendants of the family survive. 

Bibliography: S. H. Longrigg, Four Cen- 
turies of Modern 'Iraq, (Oxford, 1925). 'Abbas al- 
'Azzawi, '■AshdHr al-Hrak, vol. II, (Baghdad, 
1366/1947). Muh. Amui Zaki, Ta'rihh al-Sulay- 
maniyya wa-anha'iha (Baghdad 195 1). 

(S. H. Longrigg) 
BABAR [see Babur] 

BABBAG_HA> (and also babgha>) «parakeet(s)i 

«parrot(s) ». The form is the same for both the male 

and the female, and represents the singular or the 

collective. Etymologically, according to Diahiz. the 

name is derived from the bird's cry. It occurs in 

languages of Romance origin, for example the 

Provencal papagai, Spanish papagayo and Old 

French papegai (and the papagan of the Roman de 

la Rose). In the 3rd/9th century, 'Irak only knew 

those varieties of psittacids which were native to 

the Indian Archipelago; al-Danuri mentions in 

addition to green and red parrots, a white crested 

species. Poets, in the Orient, sometimes describe this 

gorgeous bird; the silence of their rivals in Spain 

is noticeable at least until the 5th/nth century. 

Bibliography: Diahiz, IJayawan*, iii, 516, 

vii, 170; Damlri, If ay at al-Ifayawdn, Cairo n.d., i, 

166; H. Peres, La Poisie andalouse, en arabe clas- 

sique, 2nd ed., Paris 1953, 242-6. 

(R. Blachere) 
al-BABBAGHA j "the Parrot", the soubriquet 
under which is celebrated the Arab poet and letter- 
writer Abu '1-Faradj <Abd al-Wahid b. Nasr, born 
313/925, died 397/1007. The ethnic appellation al- 
Makhzumi which was given to him implies fictitious 
Arabian descent. A native of Naslbin, al-Babbagha' 
seems to have attached himself to the entourage of 
the Hamdanid amir Sayf al-Dawla, when the latter 
was established at Aleppo, and therefore after 333/ 
944. He sang the praises of this amir, and achieved 
prominence in the literary milieu which existed in 
this town. A fervent admirer of al-Mutanabbl [q.v.], 
he met the latter again at Baghdad; after residing 
for a short time at Mosul, he himself settled at 
Baghdad, where he eventually died. 

At the end of the 4th/ioth century, the poetical 

works of al-Babbagha', according to Ibn al-Nadim, 

comprised a collection of three hundred pages; of 

these poems, only the extracts selected by al- 

Tha'alibi are known to us. The same anthologist 

also quotes long and significant passages from his 

letters. As a panegyrist, al-Babbagha 5 belongs to 

the neo-classical school, such as is represented by al- 

Buhturl or al-Mutanabbi. In his elegaic or bacchic 

pieces, on the other hand, al-Babbagha 5 is not without 

a certain distinctive charm. He is however, chiefly 

remarkable for the virtuosity and richness of his 

letters in rhymed and cadenced prose. In this genre, 

and in his own period, he stands out as a master. 

Bibliography: Fihrist, 169; Khatlb Baghdadl, 

Ta'rikh Baghdad, xi, 11; Ibn Khallikan, Cairo 

1 310, i, 298; Sam'anI, Ansdb, 64"; Badi% al-Subh 

al-Munabbi *an Ifaythiyyat al-Mutanabbi, Cairo 

1308, in the margin of 'Ukbari's comm. on the 

Diwdn of Mutanabbi), 73 ff.; Jha'alibl, Yatimat 

al-Dahr, Damascus 1903, i, 11 ff., 173-204, 220, 

ii, 158, 291 ; R. Blachere, Un poHe arabe du IV'/X' 

s.: al-Motanabbi, Paris 1935, 134, 141, 155; 

Z. Mubarak, La Prose arabe au IV s.H., Paris 1931, 

129 ff.; idem, al-Nathr al-Fanni, Cairo 1934, i, 

286-96, ii, 226-42; for the rest of the bibliography, 



84b 



al-BABBAGHA 1 — BABlS 



see Brockelmann, I, 90, S I, 145; M. Canard, 

Receuil de textes relatifs d Vtmir Sayf al-Daula, 

Algiers-Paris 1934, 300-1 and n. 1. 

(R. Blach&re) 

BABIL. Ancient Arab writers used to give the 
name "Babil" to the city of Babylon as well as to the 
country of Babylonia. The city's ruins lie some 54 
miles due -south of Baghdad on the Baghdad-Hilla 
road. Those writers differed, however, in determining 
the boundaries of the country. Some of them 
extended its limits over a vast area, whereas others 
restricted it to a lesser area. According to Muslim 
historians and geographers, the original city of 
BSbil had been devastated long before the Islamic 
conquest, and there was then in its place a small 
village which had the name of Babil. This village is 
reported to have existed down to the c Abbasid 
epoch in the 4th/ioth century. For instance, Ibn 
Hawkal mentions that, in his time, Babil was a 
small village. He also remarks that "Its buildings 
are considered the most ancient ones in 'Irak and 
the city itself was founded by the Canaanite kings 
who adopted it as their state seat, and it was settled 
by their successors as well. The remains of its 
imposing buildings speak of its past grandeur". 

Abu '1-Fida', who cites the above-mentioned 
account of Babil by Ibn Hawkal, adds: "It was in 
it that Ibrahim was thrown into the fire. And in 
these days it is no more than desolate ruins on 
which stands a small village". 

In the 7th/i3th century, Al-I£azwlnl described 
the ruins of BSbil and mentioned the quarrying of 
its bricks by people for building their houses — a 
practice which has continued until recent years — . 
In this connexion, he states: "Babil: the name 
of a village which formerly stood on one of the 
branches of the Euphrates in c Irak. Currently, 
people carry off the bricks of its ruins, and there 
exists a well known as 'the Dungeon of DanyaT 
which is visited by Jews and Christians on certain 
yearly occasions and on holidays. Most of the popu- 
lation hold the opinion that this dungeon was the 
well of Harut and Marut". 

Al-Bakri refers to the Tower of BSbil, which he 
designates as Al-Madjal. He says, following earlier 
writers, that this tower (identified by modern 
archaeologists as a ziggurat) was built by Namrud 
in Babil and that it rose some 5000 cubits aloft in 
the sky, and that this building is the authentic 
tower referred to in the J£ur c an, xvi, 26, the relevant 
text of which appears hereunder: 

"Those before them did indeed devise plans, but 
Allah demolished their building from the foundations, 
so the roof fell down on them from above them, and 
the chastisement came to them from whence they 
did not perceive". 

There has been much controversy among Muslim 
writers about the history and authenticity of 
Babylon. Yakut al-Hamawi, however, summarises 
the various notions and legends prevailing among 
them on this city. For instance, it is said that Noah 
was the first to build and settle in this city after the 
Deluge. The Persians say, as related by Yazdidjird 
b. MihmSndar, that it was the king al-Pahhak who 
has built this city. Ibn al-Kalbl says that the city's 
area was 12 X 12 farsakhs, that the Euphrates 
flowed beneath its walls until Bakhtanassar (Nebu- 
chadnessar) diverted its waters to their present 
course, as a precaution against the possible collapse 
of the city walls, and that Babil continued 
prosper until it was destroyed by Alexander t 
Great. 



The information previously possessed on Babylon's 
history and culture, following its downfall, was in 
a state of confusion and contrasts, as set forth above. 
Actually, they had no other established reference on 
this subject but the relevant accounts mentioned in 
the Old Testament, statements related by some of 
the ancient Greek historians of the classical period 
and sagas transmitted by uninformed people. 

The real facts about this city were not discovered 
until the arrival of archaeologists at its ruins early 
in the 19th century A.D.; they brought to light 
innumerable relics and artifacts, among which were 
tablets with cuneiform inscriptions. Upon deciphering 
these writings, practically all of the facts about this 
city were set in the right order, thus putting an end 
to the numerous previous legendary and unfounded 
accounts; these are now replaced by established 
facts, which are found in the many works on this 
city in various European languages. 

Bibliography: al-Tabari, i, 229, ii, 277, 1056; 
Ibn al-Athlr, ii, 307, 395, 397, 398, 400, 401 ; iv, 
35'. 372; v, 438, 439; al-Ya'kflbl, i, 235, 321; 
al-Mas c udi, Murudf, ii, 186; al-Tanbik, 35; al- 
Istakhri, 10; Ibn Hawkal, 244; Abu '1-Fida', 
Takwim, 303; al-Kazwinl, Athar, 202; al-Bakri 
(ed. al-Sakka), i, 218; Yakut, s.v. BSbil; Ibn c Abd 
al-Hakk, Mar&fid, Cairo 1954, i, 145; al-BIrunl, 
Sifat al-Ma'-mura (ed. Togan), 23; G. Awad, Athar 
al-'Irdfr, in Sumer v, 1949; 72-3; R. Koldewey, 
The Excavations at Babylon (trans, by A. S. Johns, 
London 1914); A. H. Layard, Discoveries in the 
Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, London 1J53; 
S. Lloyd, Ruined Cities of Iraq, O <f ord 1942, 11-20: 
A. Parrot, The Tower of Babil (trans, by E. 
Hudson, London 1955); C. J. Rich, Memoirs on 
the Ruins of Ancient Babylon, London 1818; 
E. linger, Babylon (ReaUexikon dcr Assyriolog.it, 
i, 330-69). (G. Awad) 

BABlS, followers of the religion founded by the 
Bab [j.o.l. The history of the Babis has been and 
still is, at least in the East, one of persecution. It can 
be divided into two phases: the first, from the 
foundation of the new faith (1 260/1844) up to the 
persecutions following the attempt on Nasir al-Din 
Shah (1268-9/1852-3), which seemed as though they 
would crush the new movement for ever, a period 
characterised by a frequently violent attitude on 
the part of the Babis themselves; the second, which 
might be called 'pacifist', from that date to the 
prrsent day, a period which has seen the schism of 
the Babis into two factions of unequal numbers and 
importance. After the first dissemination cf the faith 
following the declaration of the founder's mission 
(sae Bab) and the first persecutions, which the 
Babis in various localities resisted with force, the 
most important event in the history of the com- 
munity is the convention of Badasht (1264/1848), 
at which the Babis, abandoning their initial pre- 
cautions, openly declared their total secession from 
Islam and the shari'a; in this a major r61e was 
played by the famous Babi heroine, the beautiful 
and cultured poetess Zarrin-Tadj, better known by 
the names of Rurrat al- c Ayn and DjanSb-i Tahira 
('H. H. The Pure'), bom at Kazwin, the daughter of 
the erudite theologian Mulla Salih- There, first 
among Persian women, she dared to show herself 
unveiled to her brothers of the Faith, a living 
example of the abrogation of the Islamic sAari'a. 
After the convention, in which many of the principal 
Babis, among them the future Baha> Allah [q.v.l, 
took part, MullS Husayn of Bushruya (see Bab) 
ensconced himself with a small troop of Babis in the 



BABlS — BABUR 



sanctuary of Shaykh TabarsI near Barfurush, where 
with another 'Letter of the Living", Mulla Muhammad 
C A1I BarfurushI called Kuddus, he resisted heroically 
the troops of Nasir al-Dln Shah (shortly afterwards 
succeeded by Muhammad S_hah), even making 
succesful sorties; but eventually Mulla Husayn was 
lulled, and Kuddus and the other survivors sur- 
rendered when it was promised that their lives would 
be spared, though they were in fact vilely and cruelly 
massacred ( Ramadan 1 265/ July-August 1849). Shortly 
afterwards, at Nayriz in Fare, another heroic BabI 
insurrection took place, led by one Sayyid Yahya-i 
Dftrabl, who had been converted by the Bab at 
Shlraz (see BAb) and who had assumed the name 
of Wahid; the Babls, barricaded within the old 
citadtl of the town, defended themselves bravely, 
with the sympathy of the population, for several 
days until they were all massacred (January 1850). 
Almost at the same time there occurred an insurrec- 
tion of even greater magnitude at Zandjan. The Babls, 
under the leadership of Mulla Muhammad 'All-i Zan- 
djanl surnamed Hudjdjat ('the Proof), barricaded 
themselves in the citadel called Kil c a-i 'All Mardan 
Khan. After various turns of fortune the Babls, who 
numbered more than 3,000, were cruelly massacred 
(February 1850). Four months prior to the execution 
of the Bab, Tehran also had her heroes, the so-called 
'seven martyrs of Tehran', one of whom was the 
tutor and uncle of the Bab; their heroic conduct in 
the face of most horrific punishment is a glorious 
chapter in the history of the BabI faith. The unsuc- 
cessful attempt on Nasir al-DIn Shah (28 Shawwal 
1268/16 August 1852) by two Babls maddened 
by the persecutions led to a new reign of terror, 
to which numerous personalities of the BabI faith 
fell victims. Among these was the poetess Kurrat 
al- c Ayn, strangled after long imprisonment. The 
principal Babls, among whom were Baha' Allah 
(Mirza Husayn <A1I Nuri) and his half-brother 
Subh-i Azal (Mirza Yahya Nuri) were banished to 
'Irak. The persecutions continued, however, spora- 
dically throughout Persia. The Banal tradition 
speaks of about 20,000 martyrs, including those 
killed in battle. After the declaration of the Garden 
of Ridwan and, later, that of Adrianople (see bahA' 
ali,Ah), dissensions arose between, those who were 
henceforth called Baha 3 ! [?.w.l and the followers 
of Subh-i Azal, who adhered to the letter of the 
Baydn and maintained that the Bab had nominated 
Mirza Yahya as his successor. The Bahals, on the 
other hand,' maintained, and still maintain, that it 
was a question of only a temporary nomination 
and pro forma, and that, in any case, Subh-i Azal 
never had the right to oppose 'Him Whom God 
Shall Manifest, who is', according to them, Mirza 
Husayn 'AH Nuri, Baha 1 Allah. The Azalls remained 
always in the minority, however, and even the 
number of 50,000 which some authorities have 
ascribed to them seems in fact to be somewhat 
exaggerated. 

Bibliography : Besides the works quoted in the 
article BAb, see: Hadjdji Mirza Djani of Kashan, 
Kitab-i Nuqfatu 'l-Kaf . . ., ed. E. G. Browne, 
Leiden 1910 (Gibb Memorial Series XV); E. G. 
Browne, Ta'rikh-i Qiadid, Cambridge 1803; <Abd 
al-Husayn Awara, al-Kawdkib al-Durriya fi 
Mahathir al-BahdHyya, Cairo 1342/1923-4; Shoghi 
Effendi, God Passes By, Wilmette 1950; 'Abd al- 
Baha>, Tadhkirat al Wafd, Hayfa 1924 (accounts 
and different traditions of BabI and Bahat 
martyrs); Hadjdji Muhammad Tahir Malmlrl, 
Ta'rikk-i Siuhadd i Yazd, Cairo 1342/1923-4 



(history of the BabI and Bahal martyrs of the 
town of Yazd) ; M. S. Ivanov, Babidskie Vosstaniya 
v Irane, Leningrad 1939 (contains part of the very 
interesting correspondence of the Russian Ambas- 
sador Prince Dolgorouky, with the St. Petersburg 
court concerning the BabI insurrections). — On 
Kurrat al- c Ayn Tahira: Martha Root, Tdhirih 
the Pure., Iran's greatest woman, Karachi 1938 
(with Persian text of numerous-poems) ; A. Bausani, 
Un "gaial" di Qurratu 'l- l Ain, in OM, xxix, 1949, 
190-2.— On BabI and Bahal literature, see 
Browne, iv, 194-221. (A. Bausani) 

BABUR, £ah!r al-DIn Muhammad, soldier of 
fortune, first of the Mughal rulers in India, diarist 
and poet, was descended on his father's side in the 
fifth generation from TImur and through his mother 
Kutluk Nigar Khanum in the fifteenth degree from 
Cingiz Khan. He was born on 6 Muharram 888/14 
February 1483: and succeeded his father c Umar 
ghaykh as Mirza of Farghana in Ramadan 899/ June 
1494. 

Babur inherited his father's struggle with his 
kinsmen for the towns and fertile areas of Central 
Asia. By Rabl c I 003/November 1497 he had 
fended off the attempts by his elder paternal uncle 
Sultan Ahmad Mirza of Samarkand and by his 
elder maternal uncle Sultan Mahmud of Tashkent 
to deprive him of his father's position in Farghana, 
and using quarrels among his cousins had occupied 
Samarkand. Four months later lack of booty and 
conspiracy at Andldjan, his headquarters, forced him. 
to let Samarkand go. Andldjan he soon recovered 
and then as soon lost to the Mughals under Tanba' 
who nominally were supporters of -his brother 
Djahanglr. In 905/1498-99 Babur divided Farghana 
with his brother, married and was forestalled in a 
race for Samarkand by Shaybanl Khan Uzbak 
(Ozbeg). Next year he took the city by surprise, only 
to be starved out by Shaybanl Khan after losing 
the battle of Sar-i Pul in Ramadan 906/April-May 
1 501. Babur, having lelinquished Andldjan to his 
brother when he took Samarkand, now became a 
fugitive nomad, dependent for his personal safety 
on ties of kinship. 

His uncles, grudging hosts, the Khans of Tashkent 
and northern Mughalistan, furnished him with troops 
against Tanbal and finally marched to his support. 
Tanbal however appealed to Shaybanl Khan who 
routed and executed the Khans at Arciyan in 
Dhu '1-Hidjdja 908/June 1503. 

For nearly a year Babur wandered with a small 
following among the nomads of remote Sukh and 
Hushyar, safe in their hospitality. But Shaybanl 
Khan's continuing success decided Babur to seek a 
headquarters outside the main area of Uzbak 
interest. In Muharram 910/June 1504 he turned for 
Kabul, an uncle's possession until 907/1501, but then 
in Arghun hands. Joined by other refugees from the 
Uzbaks, Babur, with his brother, Secured Kabul and 
successfully asserted his claims t$ tribute from the 
surrounding Afghan tribes. By 911/1506 Babur 
could leave Kabul for Herat, in response to Sultan 
Husayn Mirza Ba|ykara's appeal for aid against the 

The death of Silltan Baykara and the ineffective- 
ness of his sons allowed Shaybanl Khan to conquer 
most of KhurasaL so that Babur recrossed the 
Hindu Kush emrlty-handed. In 913/1507 he took 
Kandahar from thLj Arghuns, but withdrew towards 
India rather than defend it personally when Shayban i 
Khan besieged thfe new acquisition. But Shayban 
Ktjan came mto cbnflict with Shah Ismail Safawl, 



who defeated and slew him at Marw on I Ramadan 
916/2 December 1510. 

Babur thereupon occupied Samarkand for the 
third time, in Radjab 917/October 1511, but as a 
client of Shah Isma'il, making an outward profession 
of Shi'ism and probably striking coins in the name 
of his Safawid overlord. (The numismatic evidence 
on this is equivocal. See bibliography). His acceptance 
of Shl'ism cost him popular support, and when 
defeated by the Uzbaks at Kul-i Malik in Safar 918/ 
May 1512, he could not hold the city. On the defeat 
At Ghudiuwan on 3rd Ramadan gi8/i2th November 
1512 of the brutally intolerant Safawid general 
Nadjm-i Than!, whom Babur hastily abandoned, 
Babur's last attempt to win the city nearest his 
heart ended. 

After two years adventuring in the Kunduz area 
Babur returned to Kabul, his centre thenceforth for 
enterprises to the more promising east and south. 
Several attempts to retake Kandahar from the 
Arghuns ended in its occupation by negotiatioi 
Djumada II 928/May 1522. This secured, Babur 
turned more vigorously towards Hindustan, probed 
by minor expeditions since 922/1516. 

The victor at Kandahar was invited into Hindu- 
stan by Dawlat Khan LodI of Lahore and c Alam 
Khan, uncle of Ibrahim LodI, sultan of Delhi, 1 
help them against Ibrahim. On his second advano 
having dispossessed Dawlat Khan and utilised 
'Alam Khan to attract Afghan support, Babur 
destroyed the forces of Ibrahim LodI at Panlpat ii 
Radjab 932/April 1526. He occupied Delhi and 
Agra and his forces pressed as far eastwards d< 
the Ganges as Djawnpur and Ghazipur. Babur's 
victory at Khanua over Rana Sanga of Citoi 
Djumada I 933/March 1527 seemed the RadjasthanI 
flank, while victory over the eastern Afghans i 
Sha'ban 935/May 1529 at the junction of the Gogra 
and Ganges extended his paramountcy in Hindustan 
up to Bengal. He died on 6 Djumada I 937/2f 
December 1530, at Agra. Several years later hi; 
body was moved to its present grave in one of th< 
.gardens of Kabul. 

Babur had been born a member of a class of 
political entrepreneurs, some still semi-nomad, who 
competed within Central Asia for the power to 
draw revenue from herdsmen and agriculturalists and 
from the craftsmen and traders of an area enriched 
by the caravan traffic between China, India and 
'Irak. His career, like that of his rivals and enemies, 
was based upon the loyalties and antagonisms of 
family and clan rather than those of linguistic 
national states. His birth gave bim entry to 1 
ruling elite; his tournament successes depended 
upon his attractive personal qualities — resilience 
and resource, courage, a cheerful and cultivated 
humanity — and the qualities of his partners. He was 
a cautious general who learnt much from the great 
Uzbak commanders, and applied the lessons of 
organised discipline and the techniques of field 
defences and entrenchment, musketry and artillery, 
and of the encircling movement with telling effect 
in his Indian career. His experience enabled him to 
hold together small collections of defeated but sti" 
personally ambitious Tlmurids, and the even le< 
reliable Mughals, who had gathered around him i 
Kabul, until success gave him the undisputed 
power to command. 

Bibliography: Zahir al-DIn Babur, Bdbur- 

noma, facsimile of the Haydarabad Turk! text, 

ed. A. S. Beveridge, Leiden & London 1905: 

English trans., London 1921; For bibliography on 



the establishment of the text of Babur's 'Memoirs' 
see Storey, i, 530-5 ; also, H. Beveridge, TheBabar- 
nama Fragments, in J A SB, New Series IV, 1908; 
A Dubious Passage in the Ilminsky edition of the 
Bdburndma, in JASB, N.S. VII, 191 1; Obscure 
Passages in Bdbar's Memoirs, in JRAS, 1910, 
1917; A. S. Beveridge, Anfrage nach dem Verbleib 
eines verlorenen MS des Bdbamdma, in ZDMG, 58, 
1904; On the authenticity of a wasdyd-ndma 
attributed to Babur, cf. A. S. Beveridge, Paternal 
Counsels attributed to Babur in a Bhopal MS, in 
JRAS, 1923, and N. C. Mehta, Babur's Last 
Testament, Twentieth Century, Jan. 1936, and 
S. K. Banerji, Babur and the Hindus, Journal of 
the United Provinces Historical Society, ix, 2, 
July 1936: On the spelling of Babur's name, see 
Abdul Wali, The Spelling of Babur's Name, in 
JASB, NS.. xiv, 1918; MIrza Haydar Dughlat, 
Ta'rikh-i RashUi, an English version trans. E. 
Denison Ross, ed. N. Elias, London, 1895. (No 
complete edited Persian text available; see 
Storey, i, 274-5) ; Ghivath al-DIn b. Humam al-DIn 
Muhammad Khwandamlr, Habib al-Siyar,, lith. 
Bombay 1857, iii, 3, 304-310, 320; iii, 4, 65 ft.; 
Sayyid Muhammad Ma'sum Bakkari, Ta'rikh-i- 
Ma'sumi; ed. U. M. Daudpota, Poona 1938, index 
324-5; Iskandar Munshl, Ta'rikh-i c Alam-drd-yi 
l Abbdsi, lith. Tehran 1313-14/1896-7, i, 30; Hasan-i 
Rumlu, Ahsan al-Tawdrihh, ed. C. N. Seddon, 
Baroda 1931, 49-51, 86, 91-2, 127-130, 169-170, 
194-195; Muhammad Salih, Shaybdni-ndma; ed. 
P. M. Melioransky, St. Petersburg 1908, index, 10; 
Gul-badan Begam, Humdyun-ndma, a text and 
trans, by A. S. Beveridge, London 1902, index, 
306; Nizam al-DIn Ahmad, Tabakdt-i Akbari; ed. 
B. De, Calcutta 1931, ii, 1-27; Abu '1-Fadl, Akbar- 
ndma, ed. Calcutta 1877, index, 4; MIrza Barkh- 
wurdar Turkman, Ahsan al-Siyar, see Storey, 
i, 535-6; On Babur's relationship to Shah Ismail 
Safawi and profession of ShI'ism (glossed over by 
Mughal writers in India) see: Habib al-Siyar, iii, 
4, 65-67, Ta'rlkh-i-Rashidi, (trans.), 246, 259, *6i ; 
Fadl Allah RQzbihan, Sulak al-Muluk, Rieu, ii, 
448, Or. 253, fols. 3b-8b; Ahsan al-Tawdrihh, 128; 
Firishta, i, 372; R. S. Poole, British Museum 
Catalogue of the Coins of Persia, London 1887, 
xxiv-xxix, 210-211 ; S. Lane-Poole, British Museum 
Catalogue of the Coins of the Mughal Emperors, 
London 1892, 5-6. But see: Sir Richard Burn, 
Numismatic Chronicle, xviii, London 1938, 176-8, 
195; S. H. Hodiwala, Historical Studies in Mughal 
Numismatics, Calcutta 1923; On the story of 
Babur's death, see S. R. Sharma, Studies in 
Medieval Indian History, Poona 1956, 158-166; 
W. Erskine, History of India under the First Two 
Sovereigns of the House of Taimur—Baber and 
Humayun, Vol. I, London 1854; S. Lane Poole, 
Babar, Oxford 1899; L. F. Rushbrook Williams, 
An Empire Builder of the Sixteenth Century, 
London 1918; S. M. Edwardes, Babur: diarist 
and despot, London 1926; F. Grenard, Baber, 
Paris 1930; ed. Sir Richard Burn, Cambridge 
History of India, iv, 1937, The Mughul Period, 
Ch. 1 ; Ghulam Sarwar, History of Shah IsmPti 
Safawi, Aligarh 1939, index 118. 

(J. B. Harrison and P. Hardy) 
Literary Works, i. Bdbur-ndme. In this famous 
autobiography, written in Caghatay Turkish, Babur 
tells his story from childhood to the last years 
of his life, with no attempt to conceal his weak- 
nesses, his mistakes, or his defeats. It is in no 
sense an apologia pro vita sua; indeed, so matter- 



of-faot and unemotional is the tone of the work 
that the casual reader might not recognise it as the 
memoirs of a skilful and valiant soldier and the 
founder of a dynasty, which closer study reveals it 
to be. It cannot be said that Babur is impartial in 
his picture of himself, his friends, or his enemies. For 
example, we can see that his feelings got the better 
of him in his evident desire to belittle the important 
and worthy ShaybanI Khan. But despite occasional 
injustices of this nature, the Bdbur-ndme is far more 
reliable than the general run of such works. The 
author's keen powers of observation and his analy- 
tical mind are apparent in his descriptions and 
explanations of works of art, of flora and fauna, of 
the group-psychology of peoples, and the characters 
of individuals. As a literary work, the simple and 
chaste language of the Babur-name, its natural 
style, its colourful and lively descriptive passages, 
are some of the reasons which justify our regarding 
it as one of the finest examples not only of Caghatay 
but of Turkish prose generally. 

2. 'Arud risdlesi. It was known that Babur had 
written a Caghatay treatise on prosody, from the 
Babur-name, certain copies of his Diwdn, and the 
Muntakhab al-Tawdrikh of Bada'uni (Calcutta 1868, 
'> 343); but the work did not come to light till 1923, 
when it was discovered by M. Fuad Kopriilii in a Paris 
manuscript (E. Blochet, Cat. des MSS turcs, Paris, 
Bibl. Nat. Supp. no. 1308). It does not differ greatly 
from similar works in Persian; its chief importance 
is that on certain 'arud verse-forms used by the 
Turkish poets its information is fuller than that 
given by Nawal in his Mizdn al-Awzdn. Babur gives 
both Persian and Turkish examples of metres in 
general use, including some from his own poems, but 
only Turkish examples of metres of his own invention. 
At the end of his Diwdn he states that the 'Arud 
risdlesi was finished 2 or 3 years before the com- 
pletion of the conquest of India; i.e., between 932 
and 934/1525-8. 

3. Mubayyan. A mathnawi in khafif trimeter 
catalectic (faHlatun mafd'ilun fa'ilun), completed, 
according to a reference in the 'Arud risdlesi, in 
928/1521-2. It deals with some problems in Hanafl 
law, together with some matters relating to cam- 
paigning. This simple didactic work is of no artistic 
impertance, but it does show that Babur was 
interested in fifth and was a sincere Hanafi. Till 
recently it was known to Orientalists as Mubin; 
A. S. Beveridge so refers to it, even though she 
mentions that the Indian historians Abu '1-Fadl and 
Bada'uni read the title as Mubayyan (and that 
Sprenger called it Fikh-i Bdburi). Mubin is in fact 
the name of a commentary on this work, written 
by Babur's secretary, Shaykh Zayn. 

4. Translation of Risdle-i Wdlidiyya. The author 
of this work on Sufi ethics was Kh»aja c Ubayd 
Allah Ahrari, the' great Central Asian Sufi and 
spiritual aide of the Timurids. As the title implies, 
he wrote it at his father's insistence. Babur's 
Caghatay translation was made in 935/1528-9, and 
forms part of his Diwdn. It is a mathnawi of 243 lines 
in Ramal trimeter catalectic (faHlatun faHlatun 
faHlun). Though pleasantly and simply written, it 
has no aesthetic merit, but is of interest as showing 
Babur's Sufi leanings. 

5. The Diwdn. The bulk of this is in Turkish, but 
some of the poems are in Persian. The verse-forms 
represented include the ghazal, mathnawi, rubdH, 
kif'a, tuyugh, mu'ammd, and mufrad. We find in it 
the various verses whose composition lie : 
in the Bdbur-ndme. The existing copies 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



JR 849 

arranged in the classical Diwdn manner; the poems 
are set down in no apparent order. In the technique 
of versification Babur was not inferior to any of the 
15th-century Caghatay poets, not even Nawa 5 !, and 
he expresses his thoughts and feelings in an unaf- 
fected language and style. Side by side with Sufi 
songs of love and wine there are poems on everyday 
themes. Signs of the influence of earlier poets, 
especially Nawal are not wanting, but there are no 
slavish imitations. Though Babur had a taste for 
literary artifices and poetic tours de force (there are 
29 of the latter in the Diwdn), and though, in 
obedience to the fashion prevailing at the time in 
both Persian and Turkish literature, he wrote 
numerous mu'ammds (the Diwdn includes 52), the 
greater part of his work is simple, sincere, and 
natural. He wrote a number of tuyughs, a verse-form 
peculiarly Turkish, as well as some rubdHs of great 
beauty. Among his turkiis, which belong to popular 
poetry, we find one poem in syllabic metre (cf. 
MTM, i, 27). He was capable of writing Persian 
poems — there are over 20 in the Diwdn — but his 
affection for his mother-tongue is evident in the 
preponderance of Caghatay. Further, in his poems he 
often refers to the valour of the Turks, and the fact 
that he is one of them. In this respect he was following 
the intellectual and literary trend which had begun 
with Nawal in the previous century and which 
prevailed not only in Khurasan but at all the 
Timurid courts. The literary influence of Babur was 
responsible for the subsequent rise of poets writing 
in Caghatay both among his descendants and among 
their courtiers. Certainly the literary historian must 
assign Babur a leading position among the Caghatay 
poets after Nawal. 

Bibliography: (1) Bdbur-ndme. First printed 
by N. Ilminski : Baber-Nameh (Diagataice ad fidem 
codicis petropolitani), Kazan 1857. A facsimile of 
the Haydarabad MS. forms the basis of A. S. 
Beveridge's The Bdbar-ndma, GMS 1905. A Persian 
translation was made at the end of the 16th 
century by Khan Khanan c Abd al-Rahlm Mlrza, 
son-in-law of Bayram Khan [q.v.\, and this was 
translated into English by J. Leyden and W. 
Erskine, Memoirs of Zehir-ed-Din Muhammed 
Baber, London 1826; and into French by Pavet de 
Courteille, Mimoires de Baber, Paris 1871. A. S. 
Beveridge, The Memoirs of Babur; a new trans- 
lation . . . incorporating Leyden and Erskine's of 
A.D. 1826, London 1912. Idem, TheBdbur-ndmain 
English, London 1922, a splendid 2-volume trans- 
lation of the original, with introduction, notes, etc. 
A second Persian translation was made by Hasan 
Payanda. Bada'uni states that Shaykh. Zayn 
translated the Bdbur-ndme into Persian, but his 
Wdki'dt-i Bdburi is not in fact a translation. 

(2) 'Arud risdlesi. Text not yet published. For 
the information it affords on Turkish verse-forms, 
see M. 1-uad Kopriilii, Turk dili ve edebiyatl hak- 
klnda arasth malar, Istarbul 1934, 40-44. 

(3) Mubayyan. A long extract based on a 
defective MS is contained in I. N. Berezin 
Turelskaya chrestomatui, Kazan 1867. See Kopriilu, 
op. cit., 244-6, for details of a full and accurate MS. 
of 937/1530-1, in his private collection. 

(4) Translation of the Risdla-i Wdlidiyya. Text, 
extracted from the Istanbul copy of the Diwdn, 
published by Kopriilii in MTM, i, 113-24. 

(5) E. Denison Ross, Divdn-i Babur Padishah, 
in JASB 1910, contains a facsimile of a meagre 
Rampur MS, at that time the only one known. 
A fuller copy discovered some years later (Paris, 



BABUR — BADA' 



Bibl. Nat. Supp. turc. 1230) fonned the basis for 
A. Samoylovich, Madimi'a-i Ash'-dr-i Bdber 
Padishah, Petrograd 1917. A number of additional 
poems were published by Koprulii in MTM for 
1331/1913 (nos. 2, 3, 4) from a MS. now in Istanbul 
University Library (no. 3743). Although the end 
is missing, this MS. has almost twice the content 
of Samoylovich's edition, including, inter alia, 
118 ghazals and 104 rubdHs in Turkish, and 3 
ghazals and 18 rubd'is in Persian. 

(M. Fuad KoprClC) 
BABYLON, Egypt [see bAbalyun]. 
BABYLON, Mesopotamia [see babil]. 
BAD-I HAW A, literally 'wind of the air'; in 
Ottoman fiscal usage a general term for irregular 
and occasional revenues from fines, fees, registration 
charges, and other casual sources of income. The 
term does not a appear in the Kdnuns of the 9th/ 
15th century, but is found in a Kdnunndme of 
Gelibolu of 925/1519, where mention is made of 
penalties and fines, bride-tax, fees for the recapture 
of runaway slaves, 'and other bdd-i hawd' (Barkan 
236). It also appears, in similar terms, in Kdnun- 
names of Ankara (929/1522-Barkan 34), Hamld 
(935/1528-Barkan 33), Aydln (935/1528-Barkan 14), 
Malatya (937/1530-Barkan no), and of the Gypsies 
of Rumeli (937/1530-Barkan 248). In the two last- 
named it is included among the Rusum-i 'urjiyye. 
During the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries it is found 
in Kdnuns and registers from all over the Empire. 
In free timars (Serbest timdr) the bdd-i hawd belonged 
to the timar-holder. In other timars it was either 
shared by the timar-holder with the Khdss \g.v.] or, 
more frequently, reserved entirely to the Khdss, in 
which case it might be either retained as Imperial 
Khdss or granted as Khdss to the governor (see 
bayt al-mal). The name, which seems to convey the 
same meaning as the English word windfall, may be 
connected, as Inalclk suggests, with the much dis- 
puted Byzantine aerikon. 

Bibliography : Kdnunndme-i Al-i 'Uthmdn, 
TOEM, Suppl., Istanbul 1329, 38-9; Omer Lutfi 
Barkan, Osmanll Imparatorlulunda Zirai Ekono- 
minin Hukukt Ve Mall EsaslaH, I. Kanunlar, 
Istanbul 1943 ; Haul Inalclk, Suret i Defter i 
Sancak-i Arvanid, Ankara 1954, xxvii-xxviii, 
xxxii-xxxiii; (Inalclk mentions a detailed kdnun 
on bdd-i hawd in a manuscript in the library of 
the Turkish Historical Society, No. 34, p. "7l- 

(B. Lewis) 
BADA' (Ar.), appearance, emergence; in theology : 
the emergence of new circumstances which cause a 
change in an earlier divine ruling. (Dozy, Essai sur 
I'Histoire de Vlslamisme, 223, gives the term too 
wide a meaning, as "mutabiliU de Dieu"). There are 
three sorts of badd' as it refers to the knowledge, 
the will or the command of God (Shahrastani, no). 
The possibility of badd'' is, in opposition to the 
divergent SunnI doctrine, always treated in the 
chapter on the divine knowledge in the textbooks of 
Shi'ite theology, but without reaching a definitive 
formula. In its extreme form which assumes the 
mutability of God's will it is taught in the ultra- 
Shl'ite sects (Bada'iyya); the moderate Imamiyya 
school is careful to use words which exclude or at 
least minimise the possibility of change in God's 
knowledge (see below). The former could employ 
the doctrine of the Shi'ite theologian Hisham b. 
al-Hakam [q.v.] that God's knowledge does not 
exist till the object of it exists; what does not yet 
exist (ma'dum) cannot be known and therefore His 
knowing follows His not-knowing as soon as things 



exist ('Abd al-£ahir al-Baghdadl, Kitdb al-Fark bayn 
al-Firak, Cairo 1328/1910, 49), subtleties which appear 
in modern times in the Shi'ite Shaykhl sect (RMM, 
xi, 435 ff.). This idea allows for a knowledge in God 
corresponding to fresh phenomena and a change of 
mind determined by them. Muslim historians of the 
sects agree that the idea of badd 1 was first suggested 
by Mukhtar [q.v.] and then became part of the creed 
of the Shi'ite Kaysaniyya (al-Fark bayn al-Firak, 
36; cf. Ahmad b. Yahya b. al-Murtada in M. Horten, 
Die philos. Probleme der spek. Philosophic in Islam, 
Bonn 1910, 124). The origin of this idea is also 
ascribed to 'Abd Allah b. Nawf (Tabari, ii, 732). 
When Mukhtar had to fight the decisive battle of 
his career against the superior force of Mus'ab b. 
al-Zubayr, he (or 'Abd Allah b. Nawf) announced 
that God had revealed to him that victory was 
certain. When the alleged oracle was proved false 
by his defeat, one of the two said, referring to Sura 
xiii, 39, that something had intervened (badd lahu) 
which had made God change His mind. 

During the calamities which befell the Shi'ite 
community this idea was accepted as a convenient 
explanation of the failure of the hopes and prophecies 
of the defeated imams. It had been God's purpose 
that the deliverance (faradj) and victory of the 
lawful imamate should take place at a certain 
moment; He had however changed His plan on 
grounds of expediency. His promises were an 
encouragement; had the Shi'a known that victory 
would come only after one or two thousand years, 
they would have lost heart. This principle also 
serves to explain the change in the legitimate 
succession of the imams when, in place of the 
predestined Isma'il, his brother Musa al-Kazim 
succeeded Dja'far as the seventh imam. They 
ascribe to Dja'far the words, "God has never been 
led by a new consideration (to change His mind) as 
in the case of my son Isma'il" (md badd Wild hi 
kamd badd ji IsmdHl ibni). To many Shi'ite theolo- 
gians this crass application of badd' might have 
seemed discreditable; so the speech of Dja'far has 
been made more tolerable by changing ibni to obi; 
God's change of mind is hereby transferred from 
the son to the ancestor of the imam, to Isma'il the 
son of Abraham, the expected dhabih; God released 
Abraham from offering the sacrifice which He had 
originally ordered. 

The most important arguments adduced by the 
ShI'a in support of badd 3 are : A) passages in the 
Kur'an: xiii, 39; xiv, n/iob (these are the strongest 
proofs); lv, 29b; the frequent assertion that God 
will change His resolve to punish sinners when they 
repent vii, 152/153; stories like the sparing of the 
people of Yunus x, 98; the sacrifice of Isma'il 
xxxvii, 101/102-107; Moses' talk with God prolonged 
from 30 to 40 nights, vii, 138/142 ; B) traditions telling 
that by the practice of certain virtues (e.g., honouring 
one's parents) the allotted span of life might be 
lengthened and the appointed destiny (ai-kadd' 
al-mubram) might be changed; the prayer of 'Umar 
that "God might strike his name out of the book 
of the damned and write it in that of the blessed" 
Ibn Kutayba, Ta'wU mukktalif a~l-tfadtth,~Cam3 132*. 
7); C) pious legends from which it is plain that 
misfortunes threatening individuals may be averted 
by acts pleasing to God; D) the doctrine of the 
abrogation of divine laws (nas*A) which is a tenet of 
Sunni doctrine; badd' is creative cancellation and 
cancellation is legislative badd'. 

As Shi'ite theology in general is influenced by 
Mu'tazilite speculation, so the Mu'tazilite argument 



- BADAKHSHAN 



8s i 



based on al-aslaht (the most expedient) is connected 
with bada', that God in His dealings with men is 
guided by expediency and the common good. 
Accordingly it considers bads' from the point of 
view that divine decrees may change with changes 
in the demands of the general good (takdirat al-umUr 
tatabaddal bi-tabaddul al-masdlih).. Moderate Shi'ites 
had to exercise much ingenuity in evading the 
theological antinomies which this conception implies 
in order to reconcile the assumption of the appearance 
of new determining moments in God's knowledge, as 
expressed by bada', with a belief in His absolute 
omniscience, in the eternity of His knowledge which 
is identical with His being, as most MuHazilites 
believed; and to meet the objection of the orthodox 
to the assumption that God might be ignorant of 
the end of things ('awdkib al-umur) which the 
admission of bada} implies (cf. Djurdjanl on Idji, 
Mawdkif, Leipzig 1848, 346). The effort to meet the 
objections raised from this angle led them, in spite 
of their protests against the Jews and Sunnites who 
denied bada', to devise formulae which would meet 
these objections and to accuse their Sunnite oppo- 
nents of crediting them with a false idea of bada' 
which was invented by the Sunnites. Their contention 
is that the term bada 1 is not be understood in its 
literal meaning but metaphorically (madidz") ; they 
reject the view that bada 1 implies a change in the 
divine knowledge or regret for what has happened. 
God does not will absolutely what He has announced 
but only so far as it is determined by the common 
good. In fact, the difference between the Shi'ite and 
Sunnite theologians is only an idle war of words for 
the former explain that a future bada' is decreed in 
the eternal foreknowledge of God which includes all 
particulars {'aid wadih al tafsil). A remarkable way 
of reconciling bada' with the doctrine of the 
Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-maftfuz, Sura lxxxv, 22) 
is the assumption of two tables of fate, one on 
which the unalterable decrees of fate are set out and 
a lawh al-mahw wa 'l-ithbdt (cf. Sura xiii, 39) which 
contains those decrees which may be altered by the 
emergence of new causes (Dildar C A1I, i, 114 foot), a 
view which has also penetrated into SunnI circles 
and given rise to esoteric mystic subtleties (kalimdt 
l adjiba wa asrdr ghamida, Fakhr al-DIn al-Razi, 
Mafdtih al-Ghayb, 5, 310). Therefore two kinds of 
divine knowledge must be distinguished ; Him mahtum, 
the unalterable knowledge the details of which God 
makes known to prophets and angels, and Him 
makhzun, the knowledge entrusted by God to no one, 
which concerns matters in suspense (umur mawkufa 
Hnd alldh) (Kulini 85). Thus God knew that He 
would not punish the people of Yunus but did not 
tell him so that he might worship God whole- 
heartedly while in the fish. A contrary view is that 
"angels write on lawh al-mahw wa 'l-ithbdt". 

The Shi'a lays great stress on the concept of 
bada'; <Abd al-Muttalib was the first to teach it; 
an imam is made to say, "none can serve God 
better than by acknowledging bada'" for repentance, 
prayer and humbling oneself before God to get 
forgiveness of sins or change of destiny have no 
meaning if bada' it not real. Yet this doctrine is 
always the object of attack by opponents. Even 
Sulayman b. Djarir, one of the ShI'ite Zaydi sect, 
reproached the Imamites with embracing two 
errors, takiyya [q.v.] and bada' (Shahrastani, 119 
foot). The bitterest opponents of bada' were the 
Jews who based their rejection of the abrogation of 
divine law (naskh al shari'-a) on the fact that this 
proposition implies the recognition of bada' as was 



shown by the Jewish theologian Yahya b. Zakariyya 
al-Katib al-Tabaranl in his controversy with al- 
Mas'iidi (al-Tanbih, 1 13, 1. 15 ; for liA*t! read *^XJ0- 
In the 3rd/9th century bada' seems to have been one 
of the problems for testing sagacity and shrewdness 
because of the difficulties it raised which could only 
be resolved by hair-splitting. This can be inferred 
from Djahiz, TarbV- (ed. Pellat, §§74, 189; however 
see ibid., index, s.v. RFD). 

Bibliography: Al-Ash c arf, Makdldt al-Isld- 
miyyin, Istanbul 1929, 39; Abu Dia'far Muham- 
mad al- Kulini, al-Usul min al-Qidmi' al-Kdfi, 
Bombay 1302 A.H., 84-6; Dildar 'All, Mir'dt al- 
'Ukul 1i '■Hm al-Usul, Lucknow 1318-19 A.H., i, 
110-121 (the utterances and definitions of the 
most moderate Shi'ite authorities on bada' are 
quoted in full; I. Friedlander, The Heterodoxies of 
the Shiites according to Ibn Hazm, Newhaven 1909 
= JAOS xxix, 2, 72. 

(I. GOLDZIHER-[A. S. TRITTON]) 

BADAJOZ [see batalyaws]. 

BADA KHSH AN. also frequently written Badha- 
khshan and sometimes in the literary language (with 
the Arabic plural inflection) BadakhshAnat, a 
mountainous region situated on the left bank of the 
upper reaches of the Amu-Darya or more accurately 
of the Pandj, the source of this great river; the 
adjective derived from this noun is Badakhshdnl or 
Badakhshi. J. Marquart (Erdnshahr, 279) gives this 
name the meaning of "region of Badhakhsh or 
Balakhsh, a type of ruby, which, it is said, is only 
found in Badhakhshan, on the Kokca". It is more 
probable, however, that the word Balakhsh (whence 
the French Balais, the English Balas) is a dialectal 
form which originally denoted the region and which 
only later came to be used to denote the type of 
ruby in question. Yakut (j ( 528) gives the form 
Badakhshan as the one most popularly used for the 
name of the region. Marco Polo also gives the same 
form. The mines from which the rubies were ex- 
tracted were situated, as is already asserted by 
Marco Polo, outside Badakhshan proper — in Shugh- 
nan on the right bank of the Amu-Darya ; during the 
historical period, however, the country was usually 
subject to the same power as Badakhshan. The 
rubies (Ar. laH, Pers. Idl) of Badakhshan were famous 
in the Middle Ages throughout the Muslim world. 
In Persian poetry, the expression "lal-i badakhshi" 
or "lal-i badakhshdnl" often denotes in a figurative 
sense wine or the lips of the Beloved. In Central Asia, 
this expression is today in universal popular use. 
The region which contains the mines in question is 
at present a dependency of the territory of Bukhara, 
which is subject to Soviet rule. Nevertheless the 
mines are worked with the same primitive methods 
as before, and still have not acquired any importance 
for the European precious-stone market. 

The Kokca or Kokce, called Khirnab in the Hudud 
al 'Alam (written in 372/982-3), a tributary of the 
Amu-Darya, waters Badakhshan. From the economic 
point of view, the valley of the Kokca and its 
tributaries alone have always played an important 
part for the region. In this area were situated the 
towns of Badakhshan — doubtless near the present 
capital of Faydhabad — Djirm and Kishm. The last 
two, which are mentioned in the earliest Arab 
documents, have preserved their names to this day. 
The lapis lazuli of Badakhshan, equally famous in 
the Middle Ages, came from mines situated on the 
upper reaches of the Kokca. The trade in these gems 
is at present a monopoly of the Afghan government, 



BADAKHSHAN 



and they are only exported to India. In addition, 
Badakhshan possesses iron and copper mines. 

The first mention of the name of Badakhshan 
occurs in the Chinese documents of the 7th and 8th 
centuries A.D., in Huan cuang in the form Po-t c ot- 
coangna, the ancient pronunciation of which, 
according to Schlegel, was Pat tok-ts c ong-na, in 
T c ang-shu in the form Paat c o-shan, in the Ency- 
clopaedia Ce-fu-yeun-koci in the form Pu-t c o-shan. 
The Chinese described the country as forming part 
of Tuho-lo (Tukharistan). The Arabs also gave two 
meanings to the word Tukharistan; in the strict 
sense, Tukharistan was only the region situated 
between Balkh and Badakhjhan, in the wide sense, 
it comprised all the regions east of Balkh and 
on both banks of the Amu-Darya. The name 
clearly derives from the Tokharians who made 
their appearance in the 2nd century A.D. and 
conquered the Graeco-Bactrian empire. In the 
5th century A.D., these same territories were 
occupied by the Haytal (the Hephthalites of the 
Byzantines); in c Awfi"s Anthology, compiled in the 
7th/i3th century, we find a story which describes 
how a king of the Haytal conferred on his son the 
domain "of Djirm and Badakhshan" (Barthold, 
Turkestan, i, 91). Ill the 6th century A.D., the Turks 
put an end to the empire of the Haytal; at the time 
of the first Arab incursions the ruler of Tukharistan 
(in the wide sense) bore, according to Arabic and 
Chinese documents, the Turkish title of Yabghu [q.v.] 
(in Arabic Djabghuya) ; the princes of every country, 
including also the prince of Badakhshan, were his 
vassals. We have no precise information on the date 
of the conquest of Badakhjhan by the Arabs and 
the manner in which Islam was introduced there. 
Al-Tabari only mentions tne name of the country 
once. Among the events of the year 118/736, he 
describes a campaign against "Kishm in the country 
of Djabghuya" and against more distant places. 
According to al-Ya'kubi (Bulddn, 288), Djirm in 
Badakhjhan was the city which marked the frontier 
of Islam on the trade route to Tibet via Wakhan. 
In the same passage, a Turkish prince, otherwise 
unknown, called Khumar Beg (this is the correct 
form of the name), is described as "king of Shikinan 
and Badakhjhan". Al-Istakhri (278) describes 
Badakhjhan as the "territory of Abu '1-Fath"; this 
is doubtless a reference to the prince Abu '1-Fath 
al-Yaftall, whose son AbO Nasr, according to Sam'anI 
(W. Barthold, Turkestan, i, 69) and Yakut (iv, 1023), 
fought against Kara-Tegin, the lieutenant of the 
Samanids (d. 340/951-2, cf. lbn al-Athlr, viii, 157, 
370). Apart from these facts, we know nothing of the 
political situation of Badakhjhan during this period. 
In the 5th/nth century, the poet Nasir-i Khusraw 
brought Isma'IlI doctrine to Badakhshan and 
preached it there with success. His tomb on the 
upper reaches of the Kokca is still shown today. 
His teachings have been preserved to this day in 
Badakhshan and the frontier regions. In the 
second half of the 6th/i2th century, Tukharistan in 
the wide sense (with Badakhjhan) came under the 
rule of a side branch of the house of Ghur, which 
resided at Bamiyan and which, like the other 
branches of this dynasty, was dispossessed at the 
beginning of the 7th/i3th century by the Kh'arizm- 
shah Muhammad. 

Badakhjhan escaped the fury of the Mongol 
invasion and remained up to the 9th/i5th century 
in the hands of its national dynasty. The legend 
which traces the descent of this royal family from 
Alexander the Great was first quoted by Marco Polo, 



and is subsequently frequently mentioned by the 
Muslim historians. Muhammad Haydar (Ta'rikh-i 
Rashidi, trans. E.D. Ross, 203) attributes to the 
daughter of the last ruler the statement that her 
ancestors had been kings of Badakhshan for 3,000 
years. Timur himself and his successors only suc- 
ceeded after hard battles in obtaining recognition 
of their suzerainty, and the country was only 
annexed to the TImurid empire by Timur's great- 
grandson, Abu Sa'id. The last prince, Shah Sultan 
Muhammad BadakhshI, had previously renounced 
obedience to the ordinances (Dastur al- c Amal) left 
by Alexander the Great, in order to compose, under 
the pseudonym of Lali, a Persian diwdn (Ta'rikh-i 
Rashidi, 147). He submitted without resistance to 
the army sent by Abu Sa'id, and went to Harat; 
his son fled to Kashghar; MIrza Abu Bakr, son of 
Abu Sa'id, was named prince of Badakhshan. 
Shortly afterwards, the prince returned from 
Kashghar; Abu Bakr was driven out, and Badakh- 
shan had to be conquered afresh. With this object, 
Abu Sa'Id had Shah Sultan Muhammad executed in 
871/1466-7 (Dawlatshah, 453). It follows that, on 
the inscription discovered in 1885 by the British, 
according to which this Muhammad constructed a 
stone bridge in 884/1479-80 (Ta>rikh-i Rashidi, 221), 
the date has doubtless been misread. Abu Bakr was 
later driven out of Badakhshan by his brother 
Sultan Mahmud, prim e of Hisar. Up to the conquest 
of His3r by the Ozbegs (beginning of the 16th 
century), Badakhshan continued to form part of its 
territory. A national movement arose in Badakhshan 
against the Ozbeg conquerors. At the head of this 
movement were Mubarak Shah and Zubayr RSghi. 
It is said that they took as their base a fortress 
situated on the left bank of the kokca, which still 
today bears the name of Kal c a-i Zafar ("Victory 
Fort") given to it by Mubarak Shah. The Ozbegs 
were driven back; the TImurid Nasir MIrza (brother 
of Babur), whose aid had been invoked by the 
insurgents, was proclaimed ruler of Badakhshan (end 
910/February 1505), but, unable to come to terms 
with the leaders of the rebellion, was driven out two 
years later. In 913/1507-8, Sultan Ways MIrza, son 
of Sultan Mahmud MIrza, went to Badakhshan 
with the consent of Babur and was received at 
Kal'a-i Zafar. Shortly before, Mubarak Shah had 
been killed by his comrade Zubayr. The latter, who 
tried to keep power in his own hands even after the 
arrival of the new sovereign, was removed by 
assassination. Shortly afterwards, Shah RadI al-DIu, 
leader of the Isma'Ilis of Kuhistan, made his appear- 
ance in Badakhshan, gathered round him the fol- 
lowers of this sect, and subjugated part of the 
country. However, he was put to death in the spring 
of 1509, and his head taken to Kal'a-i Zafar and 
presented to Mlrza-Khan. The latter died in 926/1520 
on the throne of Badakhshan. Babur summoned 
Sulayman the son of Mirza-Khan, who was still a 
minor, and replaced him in Badakhshan by his own 
son Humayun. In 935/1528-9, Humayun was 
recalled by his father and sent to India. After an 
unsuccessful attempt by Sa £ Id Khan, ruler of 
Kashghar, to seize possession of the country, Sulay- 
man was recognised as prince of Badakhshan both 
by Babur and by Sa'Id Khan (1530). Sulayman 
reigned until 983/1575; driven out in the first half 
of that year by his grandson Shahrukh, he retired 
to India and thence to Mecca, but later returned to 
his own country. In 1584, Badakhshan was conquered 
by the Ozbegs under <Abd Allah Khan. Sulayman 
and Shahrukh were forced to flee to India, but 



BADAKHSHAN 



853 



returned later and made several attempts to repel 
the conquerors. At the beginning of the 17th century 
there occurred another insurrection, provoked by 
Badl c al-Zaman, son of Shahrukh. In 1665, the 
Timurids occupied both Balkh and Badakhshan, but 

finally ceded to the Ozbegs. 

The Ozbeg empire in the 17th century was still 
divided into several independent states. In Badakh- 
shan, a dynasty was set up founded by Yar Beg, 
who built the town of Favdhabad. The representa- 
tives of this dynasty also, claimed descent from 
Alexander the Great, a claim which they still main- 
tained in the 19th century. Like the other Ozbeg 
princes in present-day Afghanistan, these princes bore 
the title of Mir, an abbreviation of Amir. In 1822, 
Mir Muhammad Shah was dethroned by Murad Beg, 
ruler of Kunduz. Mirza Kalan, a dependant of 
Murad Beg, was despatched as prince of Badakhshan. 
After the death of his sovereign, he declared himself 
independent and even became for a time master of 
Kunduz. His son and successor, Mir Shah Nizam al- 
Dln, died in 1862. The latter's son Djahandar Shah, 
from 1867 onwards had to contend for his throne with 
another prince of the same dynasty, Mahmud Shah. 
In 1869, Djahandar was decisively repulsed and, 
after one last effort, he withdrew in 1872 to 
Russian territory, and Uckurgan in Farghana was 
allotted to him as his place of residence. An annual 
pension of 1500 roubles was assigned to him. In 
1878, however, he was assassinated at Uckurgan by 
unknown assailants. In 1873, the Afghan government 
deposed Mahmud Shah; he was sent to Kabul, 
where he remained until his death. His territory was 
annexed to Afghanistan, and formed part of the 
province of Turkistan. 

From 1725 onwards, there are reports in Russia 
of the rubies and lapis lazuli of Badakhshan and 
also of its alleged gold and silver mines. In 1735, 
"the conquest of the rich country of Badakhshan" 
is mentioned as one of the aims of Russian policy in 
Central Asia, but Russian penetration only really 
began after 1876. In 1885, Post Pamirskii was 
founded on the Murghab, and in 1891-2, after an 
armed encounter at Yeshil-Kul, the Russians 
occupied the whole of eastern Pamir, which became 
the "district of Pamir" of the region (oblast*) of 
Farghana, administered by the leader of the Russian 
military detachment in Pamir. 

On 11 March 1895, an exchange of notes between 
the British and the Russians in London delimited 
the frontiers of Pamir between Afghanistan and the 
principality of Bukhara under Russian protectorate ; 
Badakhshan proper was left in the hands of the rulers 
of Afghanistan, while the territories of western 
Pamir lying north and est of the Pandj returned to 
Bukhara. 

The revolution of 1918 abolished the principality 
of Bukhara, but Soviet power did not become firmly 
established in Pamir until 1925, after four years of 
fighting between the "White" elements and the 
basmaiis [q.v.]. 

Autonomous region of Soviet Gorno-Badakhshan. 

On 2 January 1925, the two parts of Pamir (east 
and west) were reunited in a "Special Region of 
Pamir", attached administratively to the Central 
Executive Committee of the Soviet Socialist Republic 
of Turkistan (founded on 14 October 1924), in 
December of the same year its name was changed 
to the Autonomous Region of Gorno-Badakhshan, 
forming part of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist 



Republic of Tadjikistan (which on 5/12/1929 became 
the Soviet Socialist Republic of Tadjikistan). Its 
capital is Kharogh (Khorog). 

Gorno-Badakhshan comprises all the territory of 
Soviet Pamir; it is bounded in the north by the 
Trans-Alai chain, in the east by Chinese Sinkiang, 
in the south by the Afghan possessions and in the 
west by the Pandj and by the Darwaz and Academy 
chains. Its area is 61,800 sq. km. — In 1951, the 
Autonomous Region was divided into 7 districts 

1. Shughnan (administrative centre Kharogh). 
comprising the Ghund valley. 

2. Ishkashim (administrative centre Ishkashim), 
comprising the upper vallay of the Pandj and the 
former territories of Wakhan, Ishkashim and 
Gharan, up-stream from the confluence of the 
Pandj and the Shakh-dara. 

3. Rosht-Kal'a (administrative centre Rosht- 
Kal'a) in the Shakh-dara basin. 

4. Roshan (administrative centre Roshan) in the 
Pandj valley downstream from Kharogh. 

5. Bartang,- comprising the basin of the Bartang 
river and its tributary the Kudara, as far as Lake 
Sarez. 

6. Murghab (administrative centre Murghab, the 
former Post Pamirskii) comprising the whole of 

7. Wane (administrative centre Wane), comprising 
the Wane and Yaghulam valleys. 

In 1954, the Bartang district was abolished, and 
its territory incorporated in the Roshan and Wane 
districts. 

At the beginning of the 20th century, the total 
population of Pamir (Russian and Bukharan) did 
not exceed 20,000: since 1925, as the result of im- 
proved communications and the introduction of new 
agricultural techniques, it has increased appre- 
ciably. At the 1926 census, there were 28,924 
inhabitants, and at the 1939 census, 41,769. In 
1956 the total population was in the region of 
62,000. 

EthnicaHy, Gorno-Badakhshan comprises two 
quite distinct regions: 1) the high plains of eastern 
Pamir are inhabited by a small number of Kirghiz 
nomads. In 1926, there were 2,660 belonging to the 
Ickilik tribes, made up of the following clans: Kesek, 
1,400: Teit, 800: Kipcak, 300: Naiman, 100. In 
1939, their number did not exceed 5,000, or about 
11% of tne total population of the region. These 
Kirghiz are nominally Sunnis of the Hanafi rite. 
2) In the valleys of western Pamir live Iranian 
peoples whom their Tadjik neighbours call "Ghal£a", 
and the Russians "Gornyje tadjiki" (an inaccurate 
term, which causes confusion with the Tadjik of the 
mountainous regions of Darwaz, Karategin and 
Zarafshan), or "Pamirsku Narody" ("Peoples of the 
Pamir"). The inhabitants themselves call themselves 
"tadjik", a term which also leads to confusion, and call 
their neighbours in Darwaz who speak Tadjik, people 
who speak Persian" (parsi-guy). Their total number 
is estimate^ at more than 50,000 or 85% of the 
total population of the Autonomous Region. They 
are for the most part Nizari Isma'ilis [q.v.], apart 
from a small number of the Bartang, the majority 
of the Yazghulami, and all the WancI, who are 
Hanafi Sunnis. 

The people of the Pamir constitute several groups: 

1. The Shughndno-Rdshdn group, numerically the 
most important (35-40,000 people), comprising: 
a) the Shughni (Hugni), numbering 20-30,000, in the 
districts of Shughnan [q.v.] and Rosht Kal'a (valleys 



854 



BADAKHSHAN 



of the Ghunid. Pandj and Shakh-dara); b) the 
RoshanI: about 8,000 in the Roshan district north 
of the ShughnI (Pandj valley); c) the Bartang: about 
2,000 in the Bartang district (valley of •the river 
Bartang), and d) the Oroshor (300 in 1925). These 
four peoples speak closely-related dialects. 

2. The Wakhi (Wukh, Wakhagd) [q.v.], numbering 
6-7,000, living in the district of Ishkashim situated 
in the southern part of Soviet Pamir, the high 
valleys of the Pandj and the Wakhan-Darya (a 
similar number of Wakhi live in Afghanistan). 

3. The Ydzghulami (Yuzdom, Zgamik), whose 
number does not exceed 2,000, distributed among 
13 villages situated in the valley of the river 
Yazghulam (Wane district). 

4. The Ishkashimi (Ishkashumi), numbering 400 
in Soviet Badakhshan (1,500-2,000 of their brothers, 
who speak the Z§bakl and SanglicI dialects, live in 
Afghanistan), living in one village only, Rym, on 
the upper Pandj (Ishkashim district). 

Finally, in the extreme north of the Autonomous 
Region, in the valley of the river Wand, live the 
Wand, who are completely tadjikised and whose 
language has not been in use for more than a century. 

The peoples of the Pamir belong to the eastern 
Iranian linguistic group; none of the languages is 
fixed by writing, despite an abortive attempt by the 
Soviet authorities in 1931 to give the ShughnI a 
Latin alphabet and make it a literary language 
(in 1931 a ShughnI primer for children was published 
in Stalinabad (A. Djakov: Xugnoni alifba Kudaken 
Cat, and in 1936 Tadjikistan State Publications 
published the first works in ShughnI: cf. Revolutsia i 
Natsional'nosti, No. 4/1936, 92). 

Tadjik! is the language of civilisation (admini- 
stration, courts, schools, the Press), and bilingualism 
(local dialect -+- Tadjlkl) is general. Some languages, 
such as Ishkashimi, are fast disappearing and only 
survive as "domestic languages", others (BartangI, 
RoshanI . . . .) are strongly tadjikised; on the other 
hand YazghulamI, which is extremely isolated, and 
Wakhi are putting up a more effective resistance. 

In 1954, Gorno-Badakhshan possessed seven 
newspapers; two of these were regional organs 
appearing at Kharogh: Krasnyj Badakhshan (in 
Russian) and Badakhshdn-i Surkh (in Tadjlkl) ; four 
were local papers in Tadjlkl, namely the Rdshdn-i 
Surkh (at Roshan) ; flakikat-i Want (at Wane) and 
the Bayrak-i Surkh and a Kirghiz paper at Murghab. 

Tadjik influence was also exerted through teaching. 
In 1954, there were in the region some 200 schools, 
of which n were secondary (decennial schools, and 
a teaching institute at Kharogh with a total of 

Formerly extremely isolated, Gorno-Badakhshan 
has since 1934 been connected with the Farghana 
valley by a motor road (the Osh-Murghab- Kharogh 
road, 740 km. in length), completed in 1940 by the 
Kharogh-Stalinabad road which follows the Pandj 
valley. The economy of the region nevertheless is 
still of a traditional type: nomadic stock-breeding 
(ovines, caprines), terrace horticulture, and silk 
production in the western part of the region. The 
country is rich in deposits, some of which have been 
exploited for a very long time: lapis lazuli and 
malachite in the Shakhdara valley, precious stones, 
gold and copper (near Porshniv). 

The capital of the region, Kharogh (927 inhabitants 
in 1926, 2-3,000 in 1954) has a few small industrial 
undertakings. 



Bibliography: Cf. especially Ta'rikh-i Rashidi, 
trans. E. D. Ross, ed. N. Elias, London 1895, and 
Bdbur-ndma, ed. Beveridge, in Gibb Memorial 
Series I, London and Leiden 1905; the passages 
dealing with Badakhshan are indicated in the 
index. Of the MS. works, the Mafia* al-Sa'dayn 
of c Abd al-Razzak al-Samarkandi [q.v.], is especially 
useful. On the Ghurid empire, cf. The Tabakdti 
Ndsiri of Aboo-Omar . . . al-Jawzjdni, Calcutta 
1864; Raverty, The Tabakat-i Ndsiri, London 1881. 
Information concerning the regions situated on the 
upper reaches of the Oxus in the 19th century has 
been collected with the greatest care, based on the 
accounts of English travellers, by J. Minajew, 
Swjedjenija stranach po verchovjam Amu Darji, 
St. Petersburg 1879. Barthold was in addition able 
to consult the narratives of two Russian travellers 
of the year 1878, which are not generally available. 
On the state of these regions, on the eve of the 
Revolution, cf. especially Count A. Bobrinskoj, 
Gortzy verchovjev Pjandza, Moscow 1908, partly 
based on R. Leitner, Dardistan in 1866, {1889 and 
1893), and idem, Dardistan in 189$. In 1957 the 
Academy of the sciences of the Tadjik SSR pub- 
lished an excellent work by A. M. Mandel'stam; 
MateryaU k Istoriko-geografileskomi obzaru Pamira 
i pripamirskich oblastec, Stalinabad 1957 (voL liii 
of the proceedings of the Inst, of hist., arch, and 
ethnology of the Acad. Sci. Tadjik SSR), con- 
taining the descriptions of the Pamir by Greek, 
Chinese and Arab historians and geographers to 
the 10th century. 

On Gorno-Badakhshan: General works: B. 
Morozov, Gorno-Badakhshanskij Vilayet, in Bulletin 
de I'UniversiU d'Asie Centrale, xvi, Samarkand 
1927; M.N., Zaterennyj Krai (Pamir), in Nouyj 
Vostok, no. 3; Kisljakov, Istorija Karategina, 
Darwazari Badkhshdna, Stalinabad 1945 ; Bolshaja 
Sovetskaja Entsiklopedia>, Moscow 1952, xii, 118-27, 
Gorno-Badokhshanskaya Astonomnaya Oblost. Eth- 
nographic: Monogarova, Yazgulemtsy Zapadnogo 
Pamira, in Sovetskaja Etnografija, No. 3/1949; 
A. A. Bobrinskoj, Gortsky Verkhov'ev Pond£a 
(Wakhantsy i Ishkashimtsy) (Zemlevedcnie, No. 1, 
1909) Moscow; L. M. Oshanin, Iranskie plemma 
Zaperdnogo Pdmira-Sravintelnye Antropologiceskie 
issledovanije, in Travaux de I'Institut Uzbek de 
midicine experimental, Tashkent, i, 1937; L. N. 
Oshanin and V. I. Zezenkova, Voprosy Etnogeneza 
Narodov Srednej Azii v Svote dannykh antropologi, 
Tashkent, Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences, 1953; 
M. E. Masson, Tadjiko-Pdmirskaja Ekspeditsija 
1933. Moscow 1934. Language: I. I. Zarubin, 
Spisok pdmirskikh Yazykov, in Doklady Rossijskoj 
Akademii Nauk, B series, April-June 1924; V. S. 
Sokolova, Olerki po fonstike iranskikh yazykov, ii, 
Moscow-Leningrad 1953; M. S. Andreev, Yazghu- 
lemskij Yazyk, Leningrad 1930; Yazghulemtsev, in 
Trudy tadfikskogo filiala Akad.-Nauk SSSR, ix, 
Stalinabad 1940; W. Gauthiot, Notes sur It 
Yazgoulami, dialecte iranien des confins de Pamir, 
in JA, xi, Paris 1916; G. A. Guerson, Ishkashimi, 
Zebaki and Yazgulami, London 1920; G. Morgen- 
stierne, Indo- Iranian frontier Languages, vol. i-ii, 
Oslo 1929-38; idem, Notes on Shugni, in Norsk 
Tidskrift Sprogvidenskap, i, Oslo 1928; A. N. 
Boldyrev, Badakhshdnskii fol'klor, in Sovetskow 
Vostokovedenie, v, 1948. Texts: I. I. Zarubin, 
Trudy Pamirskoj EkspedUsii, vi, Leningrad 1936 
(Oroshor texts and vocabulary , idem, Bartangskie 
i Rushanskie Teksty i Slovar', Moscow-Leningrad 
1937; S. I. Klimcitskij, Wahhdnskie teksty, in 



BADAKHSHAN — BADA'ON 



855 



Trudy Tadjikskoj busy Akad. Nauk SSSR, 

Stalinabad, No. 3/1936; D. L. R. Lorimer, The 

Wakhi Language, London 1958. 

(W. Barthold-[A. Bennicsen and 
H. Carrbre-d'Encausse]) 

BAD AT (Turk. Bedel: plural bedeldt), a term 
used under the Ottoman regime to denote a con- 
tribution made by a tax-payer in lieu of his per- 
forming some service for the government or fur- 
nishing it with some commodity. Certain categories 
of the sultans' subjects were excused payment of 
dues and taxes on condition of their discharging 
such duties. If they failed to fulfil their obligations, 
however, or if the government forwent its rights in 
this regard, instead of again becoming liable to 
ordinary taxation, they were required to make 
special "substitute" contributions; and it may have 
been in description of these that the term bedel first 

From the end of the 16th century, when the 
Ottoman central treasury was frequently short of 
funds and generally pursued short-sighted policies, 
harassed Defterddrs were often tempted to forgo 
services or supplies from those bound to render or 
furnish them — even though these might later have 
to be bought at equal cost — in order to exact such 
cash contributions in lieu. By the middle of the 
17th century quite half the cash revenues accruing 
to the Miri were obtained from bedeldt of many 
different kinds (see the "budget" of Tarkhundju 
Ahmed Pasha in the Tekdlif KawaHdi of <Abd al- 
Ratiman Wefik, i, 327 ff., and the 'OsmanU Ta'rikhi 
of Ahmed Rasim, ii, 214 ff., notes). Of these one of 
the best known, from its being of wide-spread 
application, was the bedel-i niizul, apparently 
exacted in lieu of the supplies and accommodation 
with which, according to an original arrangement, 
inhabitants of places through which travelling 
officers and officials passed were obliged to furnish 
them free. This became so general a contribution 
that it is linked in some accounts with the 'awdrid 
It.'.]. 

Two or three other "old-rtgime" bedels may be 
mentioned as of particular interest. One is the 
bedel-i d±izye paid by the Hospodars of the Danubian 
principalities and the republic of Ragusa. This was a 
contribution received in lieu, not of any service, but 
of the payment of djizya [q.v.] by the individual 
Dhimmls [q.v.] of those territories. A second was 
called bedel-i timar. It was first exacted in 1069/1659 
— apparently from itmnr-holders who were no longer 
performing the military duties in return for which 
they held their fiefs, to the extent of as much as half 
theii revenues, and even if it did not become a 
permanent impost was still in force five years later. 
Another levy on fief-holders was first imposed 
somewhat later and long continued, viz. the bedel-i 
diebeli, which, as its name indicates, was paid by 
those of them whose revenues exceeded a certain sum, 
originally 40,000 akles a year, in lieu of their maint- 
aining and appearing in the field accompanied by 
one or more armed and mounted retainers. 

Although many ancient usages were abandoned 
under the new regime of Mahmud II and his succes- 
sors, recourse was still had to bedels in several 
connexions during the second half of the 19th 
century. Thus in 1272/1856 what was later usually 
referred to as the bedel-i 'askerf was instituted under 
the name of i'dne-i 'askeriyye. By the famous 
Kkaff-i Humayun of that year [see art. c Abd al- 
MadjId] the Ottoman reformers sought to abolish all 
legal distinctions between the sultan's Muslim and 



his Dhimml subjects, and to this end both abrogated 
the collection of djizya from the Dhimmls and 
declared them now for the first time liable for 
military service. In practice, however, the Porte did 
not wish to employ Dhimmls as soldiers, any more 
than the Dhimmls wished so to be employed them- 
selves ; and it was decided that the Dhimmls should 
instead pay this bedel, which thus became to all 
intents a substitute for the djizya. At first collected 
by government agents from individuals, its collection 
was later delegated, until its abolition in 1907, to 
the leaders of each religious community concerned. 

Two other late contributions of this kind were alike 
called bedel-i nakdi, "cash payment in lieu". The 
first was instituted by a decree of 1302/1886, from 
which date it might be paid by men conscribed by 
lot for military service by way of exemption either 
from serving altogether or else from serving more 
than a shortened term. The sum payable for total 
exemption was then fixed at 50 Ottoman gold 
pieces. By another decree of 1332/1914 those paying 
this bedel (still of the same amount) were obliged to 
perform six months' service and were then relegated 
to the reserve. The practice of selling exemption was 
even continued under the republican regime, a 
decree of 1346/1927 fixing the payment for a shortened 
term of service at 600 liras. 

The second bedel-i nakdi was a payment accepted 
from persons in the provinces who were obliged by 
roads in their area in lieu of this 



Bibliography: Sari Mehmed, Nasd'ih al- 
Wttzerd, trans, and ed. Wright, Ottoman Statecraft, 
index; D'Ohsson, Tableau, vii, 258; Siileyman 
Sudi, Defter-i Muktasid, i, 123-142; <Abd al- 
Rahman Wefik, Tekdlif KawaHdi, i, 332; Mustafa 
Nuri, Netd>idj al-Wuku'dt, ii, 101 ; Ahmed Rasim, 
l Osmanll Ta'rikhi, i, 380, note, ii, 214, note, iii, 
1156, note, 1158, note; IA, arte. Bedel-i Askert and 
Bedel-i Nakdt (both by S. S. Onar); Gibb and 
Bowen, Islamic Society and the West, i (part 2), 
index. (H. Bowen) 

BADAL [see abdAl and nahw]. 
BADAN [see pjism]. 
BADARAYA [see badrA]. 

BADA'CN (Buda'un or Badayun), an ancient 
town, about a mile east of the river Sot and head- 
quarters of the district of the same name in India, 
situated in 28 2' N. and 79° 7' E. ; it is variously 
spelt by native historians as BEdama'On, BhadA'Gh 
and BadAwah. Population (1951) was 53,521. 

Little authentic is known about the town before 
the advent of the Muslims towards the end of the 
6th/i2th century when rvu{b al-DIn Aybak [q.v.], 
the wall c ahd of Mu'izz al-DIn b. Sam in India, 
invaded and captured it in 594/1 197-8 (Fakhr-i 
Mudabbir, ed. Ross, 24). Tradition, however, 
ascribes its fall in 421/1030 to the pseudo-historical 
figure, Ghazl Mas'ud Silar [q.v.], said to be a nephew 
of Mahmud of Ghazna. Tadj al-DIn Yildiiz, after his 
defeat by Iltutmish near Lahore in 612/1215, was 
sent to Badafin as a captive where he died in 
628/1230. It served as a military station during the 
KhaldjI period. In 690/1291 Djalal al-DIn KhaldjI 
came to Bada'un with a large army in order to 
quell the revolt of Malik Cadjdju. Muhammad b. 
Tughluk, however, did not favour the idea of 
retaining it as an army base. Consequently the 
refractory tribes all round rose in revolt. FIrflz 
Tughluk marched down to Bada>un in 787/1385, 
crushed the revolt, appointed Kabul JJhin §h.irward 
as the military governor and retired. 'Ala 1 al-DIn, the 



856 



BADA'ON — BADA'UNi 



last king of the Sayyid dynasty, abdicated from the 
throne of Delhi in 855/1451 (Ahmad Yadgar, Ta'rikh-i 
Shdhi, Bibl. I nd. 257, 10) and passed the rest of 
his life in Bada'un where he died in 883/1478. 

Under Akbar the town was formed into a sarkdr 
of the suba of Delhi in 964/1556; and a mint was 
established where only copper-coins were struck. 
In 979/1571 a great fire broke out, consuming the 
entire town, in which a large number of the residents 
perished. 

The town lost its importance during the reign of 
Shahdjahan when the sarkdrs of Bada'un and 
Sambhal were amalgamated under the new name of 
Katehr with head-quarters at Bareilly. With the 
decline of the Mughal power the town lapsed to the 
Rohillas. After the rout of the Rohillas under c Ali 
Muhammad Khan, it was possessed by the Nawabs 
of Awadh in 1192/1778 from whom it was wrested 
by the British in 1216/1801. During the Mutiny of 
1857 the town was seriously disturbed; the central 
prison was raided and the European quarter burnt. 
Bada'un is the birth-place of the historian c Abd 
al-Kadir Bada'uni [q.v.] and the famous Indian 
divine Nizam al-DIn Awliya' [q.v.]. Radi al-DIn 
Hasan al-Saghanl [q.v.] is also said to have been bom 
here but this statement is debatable. The old town 
contains several buildings of archaeological interest: 
the old fort, now in ruins, Masdjid Kutbi, the 
Djami c Masdjid Shamsl, built by Iltutmish in 
620/1223 and, numerous other mosques and tombs, 
including the mausoleum of 'Ala' al-DIn, the run- 
away Sayyid king of Delhi. 

Bibliography: Tabakdt-i Ndsiri (ed. c Abd 
al-Hayy Habibi), i, Quetta 1949, ii, Lahore 1954, 
al-Bada 5 uni, Muntakhab al-Tawdrikh, (Eng. trs.), 
Calcutta 1898, 1924, 1925, AHn-i Akbarl, (Eng. 
trs.) Calcutta 1927, 32; Hasan NizamI, Tddj al- 
Md'dthir (MS), passim; Gaz. of the BudcPun District 
(1907); Imp. Gaz. of Ind. IX (new ed.) 34-6, 41-3; 
Epigraphia Indica, 163; JASB (Proceedings) XLI/ 
1872, 199; Tddj al- c Arus s.v.BVn; Amir Hasan 
Sidjzi, Fawd'id al-Fu'wdd", Lucknow 1312/1894, 
103-4; Ikram Allah Mahshar, Rawda-i Safd? (MS) ; 
c Abd al-Wali, Bdkidt al-Salihdt (MS); c Abd al- 
Karim, Td'rikh-i Baddyun (MS) in 3 vols.; <Abd 
al-Hayy Safa 5 , 'Umdat al-Tawdrikh, Muradabad 
1297/1879; Radi al-DIn "Bismil", Kanz al- 
TaMkh, Badayun 1907; idem., Tadhkirat al- 
Wdplin, Badayun 1317/1899, 1945'; idem, Ansdb-i 
Farshuri (MS), Muh. Ya'kub Husayn "Diya*", 
Akmai al-Td'rikh, 2 vols. Badayun 1333/1914; 
idem.Madjmu'a-HIaftAhmad, Badayun 1364/1944; 
Nizam al-DIn Husayn, Baddyun Kadim-o Djadid, 
Badayun 1338/1920; Bakhtawar- Singh, TdMkh-i 
Baddyun, Bareilly 1285/1868; Muh. Fadl-i Akram, 
Athdr-i Baddyun, Badayun 1915; Anwar al- 
Hakk 'UthmanI, TawdW al-Anwdr, Sitapur 1880; 
Abrar Husayn Kadirl, Ifaydt-i Shaykh Shdhi, 
Badayun 1349/1930; Shah c Abd al-Kadir, Td'rikh-i 
Baddyun (MS); Sultan Haydar "Djosh", Nawdb 
Farid, Badayun 1917; 'Ali Ahmad Khan "Asir", 
Hay at l Abd al-Kddir Baddyuni (MS); DhuH 
Jfarnayn (Urdu weekly), Badayun, special issue 
(April 1956). (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

BADA'tjNl, c Abd al-Kadir, scholar and historian 
at the court of Akbar the Mughal. Born at Toda 
(in the old princely state of Diavrur) in 947/1540, 
Bada'unI spent his early life at Basawar about 18 
miles to the north east of Toda, being taken to 
Sambhal in 960/1553 to pursue his studies under 
Shaykh Hatim Sanbhali and Shaykh Abu '1-Fatlj. 
In 966/1558-9, Bada'unI went with his father Muluk 



Shah to Agra and continued his education there 
under Shaykh Mubarak Nagawri, father of Abu 
'1-Fadl and Faydl. He also read Hanafi jurisprudence 
under Kadi Abu '1-Ma c all. After the death of his 
father in 969/1562, Bada'unI moved to Bada'un and 
thence, in 973/1565-6 to Patiyala where he entered 
the service of Husayn Khan as the latter's sadr. He 
remained with Husayn Khan for 9 years, moving 
with him to Lucknow and Gant u Gola. In 981/1574 
they quarrelled and parted. During the intervening 
years Bada'unI continued his religious education 
by visiting such saints as Shaykh Nizam al-Din of 
AmbethI, Shaykh Aban of Amroha, Shaykh Allah 
Bakhsh of Garmaktesar and Shaykh Muhammad 
Husayn of Sikandra. 

In 981/1574 Bada'unI was presented to Akbar 
through the good offices of Djalal al-DIn Kurchl a 
mansabddr of 500 and Hakim c Ayn al-Mulk a court 
physician. Impressed by Bada'unl's ability as a 
controversialist, in 982/1574-5 Akbar appointed him 
an imam and ordered him to bring horses to the 
brand as a mansabddr of 20. Bada'unl's failure to 
match Abu '1-Fadl's efforts in this sphere (the 
latter had come to court about the same time as 
Bada'uni) embittered him and led him to accept a 
madad-i ma'dsh of 1,000 bighds (originally at Basawar 
but transferred in 997/1588-9 to Bada'un). Bada'uni's 
failure after this error of judgment to gain the 
preferment he considered he deserved, undoubtedly 
influenced his view of events at Akbar's court and 
of the religious activities in which Abu '1-Fadl was 
prominent. For absenting himself from attendance 
on Akbar, Bada'unI nearly forfeited his grant, 
being saved largely by the good offices of Khwadia 
Nizam al-DIn Ahmad, author of the Taba^dt-i 
Akbari, whom he fiad met at Agra in 967/1559. 
Akbar continued however to employ Bada'unI on 
literary work from 982/1574 onwards. His date of 
death is variously given, (see Storey, 1/1 437) but 
as Storey points out (i/2, I30g)"i024/i6i5 must be 
nearest to the truth, if the reference to the death of 
"Zuhurl" and "Malik" Kumml is not a later 
insertion in the notice of "?uhurl" in the Muntakhab 
al-Tawdrikh, iii, 269". 

Bada'unl's literary work comprised: (1) Kitdb al- 
Ifadith, now lost, a collection of 40 traditions on 
the merit of waging holy war, presented to Akbar 
in 9S6/1574; (2) Ndma-yi Khirad-afzd, a translation 
of the Sing' hdsan battisi, a collection of 32 tales 
about Radja Bikramadjlt of Malwa, ordered by 
Akbar in 982/1574; (3) Razm-ndma, a translation of 
the Mahdbhdrata, undertaken at Akbar's request in 
990/1582; (4) A translation of the Rdmdyana begun 
at Akbar's command in 992/1584 and submitted to 
him in 997/1589; (5) Part of Ta'rikh-i Alfi, a general 
history of Islam down to the thousandth year, com- 
missioned by Akbar in 993/1585 the first two 
volumes of which were revised by Bada'unI in 
1000/1591-2; (6) Nadidt al-Rashid, a work on Sufism, 
ethics and the Mahdawl movement of Bada'uul's day; 
(7) A rewriting and abridgement of a translation by 
Mulla Shah Muhammad ShahabadI of a history of 
Kashmir (probably the Rddia-tarangini) ; (8) A part 
of a translation into Persian of Yakut's Mu'djam 
al-Bulddn; (9) A translation in epitome of Rashid 
al-DIn's Djdmi 1 - al-Tawdrikh, requested by Akbar in 
1000/1591-2; (10) The completion of Bahr al-Asmdr, 
a translation into Persian of a Sanskrit tale, appar- 
ently the Kathdsarit-sdgara, made earlier for Sultan 
Zayn al-'Abidln of Kashmir. Akbar ordered this 
task in 1003/1595; (n) Muntakhab al-Tawdrikh, a 
general history of the Muslims in Hindustan from 



BADA'UNl — BADI< 



857 



Subuktigia to 1004/1595-6, commenced in 999/1590, 
followed by biographies of shavkhs. scholars, 
physicians and poets. Until 1002/1593, the Munta- 
khab al-Tawdrikh is based largely on Khwadia Nizam 
al-DIn Ahmad's Jabakdt-i Akbari, with characteristic 
asides by Bada'unl. The work is noted for its 
hostile comments on Akbar's religious activities. Its 
existence was apparently kept secret until at least 
the tenth year of Djahangir's reign, (Mulla c Abd 
al-Baki Nahawandl, author of Ma'dthir-i Rahimi, 
did not know of it when he completed his work 
in 1025-1616). According to the Mir'dt al-'Alam, by 
Shaykh Muhammad Baka Saharanpuri, composed 
in 1 087/1 667, Bada'unl's children asserted to 
Djahangir that they did not know of the existence 
of the work (British Museum Add. MS. 7657, folio 
452 a-b). Bada'uni himself hints at an intention to 
conceal the work (M. al-T., iii, 398). 

Bibliography: Storey, i/i, 435-40 and i/2, 
1309. For another copy of the Razm-ndma see 
G. Meredith-Owens, British Museum Quarterly, xx, 
3, 62-63. Muhammad Husayn Azad, Darbdri-i 
Akhari, Lahore 1939, 412-462. (P. Hardy) 

BADAWl [see Ahmad al-badawI and badw] 
al-BADAWIYYA [see ahmad al-badawI[ 
BADAWLAT, a title of the chief Ya c kub-Beg of 
Kashghar [?.».]. 

BAnGHlS or BA DHGH tS. a district in the 
north-western part of modern Afghanistan, in the 
province of Harat; the name is explained as being 
derived from the Persian badkhiz ("a place where 
the wind rises") on account of the strong winds 
prevailing there. By the geographers of the 4th/ioth 
century only the district to the north-west of Harat, 
between this town and Sarakhs, is called Badghls. 
The author of the Hudud al-'Alam, probably writing 
from personal knowledge, describes it as a prosperous 
and pleasant place of three hundred villages. Later 
the name was extended to the whole country 
between the Harirud and the Murghab ; at any rate 
it is used in this sense as early as the 4th/i3th 
century by Yakut. There have never been any 
cities in Badghls and its small towns and fortresses 
have never been of great importance. At the time of 
the Arab conquests Badghls became known as a 
Hephthalite stronghold and it is said that Nizak 
Tarkhan the Haytal [q.v.] retreated there after the 
loss of Harat. Yakut writes of it as ddr mamlakat al- 
Haydtila, but this can only refer to the very end of 
the period of Hephthalite power. Even under the 
Tahirids and the Samanids Badghls remained a 
hotbed of sedition. 

At the present day Kal c a-i Naw is regarded as 
the chief town. The rivers, including the tributaries 
of the Murghab, still contain, as a thousand years 
ago, only small streams of brackish water; for the 
irrigation of the cultivated fields the people are 
dependent on wells and rainfall. The soil is noted 
for its fertility and the pistachio woods mentioned 
by the Arabs have survived to a certain extent to 
the present day. Besides these the excellent pastures 
of the country are famous; Ferrier (1845-6) describes 
the pastures of Kal'a-i Naw as the best in all Asia. 
The wars between the Persians and the Mongols of 
Central Asia in 678/1270 arose out of a dispute for 
the possession of the pasture grounds of Badghls. 
The modern population consists mainly of Tadjiks, 
Djamshids and Hazaras, and of nomadic tribes from 
the surrounding country who bring their flocks for 
seasonal grazing. 

Bibliography: W. Barthold, Istorisho-geo- 
graficeskij obzor Iran, St. Petersburg 1903, 33 ff.; 



idem, Turkestan, 198, 349; Le Strange, 412 (with 
list of authorities); J. Marquart, ErdnSahr, 
Berlin 1901, index; idem, Wehrot und A rang, 
Leiden 1938, 39 ff-. for the Hephthalite con- 
nexion; Hudud al-'Alam, 104. 

(W. Barthold-[F. R. Allchin]) 
BADl c is an Arabic adjectival noun which denotes 
the idea of originality. In the active sense it means 
Creator or Originator, hence its use as an Attribute 
of God. In the passive sense it means 'discovered' or 
'invented', and from this, it became a name for the 
innovations of the 'Abbasid poets in literary figures, 
and later for trope in general ; Him al-badi' was that 
branch of rhetorical science which dealt with the 
beautification of literary style. Some 'Abbasid poets 
of the 2nd/8th century, like Bashshar, Muslim b. 
al-Walld, and al- c Attabi, tended to depart in certain 
respects from the established ways of the classics and 
especially in the use of poetical artifices, such as 
metaphors and similes, on a scale unprecedented in 
pre-Islamic poetry. Hence, there arose among some 
'Abbasid circles of critics, the idea that this art was 
a badi', an innovation or a new creation. The word 
began to be used in that wide undefined sense in the 
critical writings of the 3rd/gth century. It occurs in 
more than one place in the writings of al-Diahiz: 
in one of them the author quotes a line of poetry 
containing a figurative expression and says: "and 
this is what rdwis call badi"' (Al-Baydn waH-Tabyin, 
Cairo 1948, i, 51, iv, 55). The first author to attempt a 
treatment of badi' as a literary art and to define 
what he took to be its principal categories, was the 
caliph-poet Ibn al-Mu c tazz (247-296 : 861-908). In a 
book entitled Kitdb-al-Badi', Ibn al-Mu c tazz tried to 
show — by quoting copious examples from the 
Kur'an, the Traditions, speeches of Bedouins, and 
early classical poetry, that what the moderns called 
badi'- was not a creation of Bashshar and his con- 
temporaries. These merely extended the already 
known art of literary figures in their poetry until it 
became widely used, and was given the name badi'. 
Then came the poet Abi Tammam (d. 231/850) who 
was very fond of this art and used it extravagantly 
with varying results. The author treats of badi' in 
five principal categories: metaphor, alliteration, 
antithesis, conformity of ends with beginnings, and 
order of discourse. Having explained them and 
quoted illustrative examples of good and bad in 
each, Ibn al-Mu c tazz points out that badi' as a term 
for poetical artifices, is known to poets and critics, 
but that philologists and scholars of ancient poetry do 
not use the term. He then asserts that nobody before 
him had treated the art of badi', nor anticipated him 
in his work, which he completed in the year 247/861. 
He was, however, aware that the artifices of badi' 
could be reduced to less, or extended to more than 
the above five categories. For this reason, and to 
increase the instructive value of his book, he went on 
to add twelve more artifices of the embellishment 
of speech. Kudama b. Dja'far (275-337/888-968, a 
contemporary of Ibn al-Mu c tazz and the author of 
probably the first Arabic book bearing the title of 
Nakd al-Shi'r, i.e. "The Criticism of Poetry", dealt 
with twenty qualities of poetical art, including some 
of Ibn al-Mu c tazz's categories, without mentioning 
the technical term badi'. But a century later another 
critical writer, Abu Hilal al- £ Askari (d. 395/1004) 
carried the development of badi' a step further by 
augmenting the number of its categories to thirty-six, 
making use of the seventeen of Ibn al-Mu'tazz. In 
his book K. al-Sind'atayn, i.e. "The Two Arts (of 
Prose and Poetry)", perhaps the first systematic 



8 5 8 



BADI' ■ 



book on the whole field of Arabic rhetoric, al- 
^Askarl devoted a long section to the explanation of 
bad* 1 and the enumeration of its kinds and categories. 
Al-RummanI (296-386/908-996), a Mu'tazill rhetori- 
cian, considers baldgha [q.v.) or eloquence as one of 
seven directions in which kur'anic »' c df<ur can be seen, 
and without mentioning badi', he includes some of the 
figures of speech as categorie of baldgha. But the 
Sunnite al-Bakillani (d. 403/1013) in his Fdjdz al- 
Kur'dn, devotes a long chapter to the bad? of 
speech, maintaining that badi' could help to appre- 
ciate, but could not sufficiently explain i'djaz. Ibn 
Rashlk, the author of al-'Umda, "On the Excellencies 
and Requirements of Poetry", illustrates in his book 
more than sixty categories under the heading 'The 
Invented and the badi°. Ibn Khaldun points out 
that Ibn Rashlk's c Umda had a great influence in 
the Muslim West, in North Africa and Spain, where 
the use of badi' was highly appreciated and practised. 
The turning point however in the history of Arabic 
rhetoric in general, and of bad* 1 in particular, as a 
separate science of stylistics came at the hands of 
al-Sakkakl (555-626/1160-1228), who in his book 
Miftdh al-'Ulum built a logical system for the 
classification of the instrumental sciences of literature, 
making use in the section on rhetoric of the solid 
philosophical foundations laid down earlier by c Abd 
al-Kahir al-pjurdianl (d. 471/1078). From al- 
Sakkaki's time down to the present, books on Arabic 
rhetoric have revolved round the compact text of 
his book, its abbreviations and the long and detailed 
commentaries on those texts. Notable among the 
epitomisers and the commentators of the Miftdh 
were al-Khatlb al-Kazwlnl (666-739/1267-1338) and 
al-Taftazanl (722-793/1322-1390). This period was 
characterised in literature by ingenuity in using 
ornaments of style and by love for the art of badi'. 
Some poets of the period delighted in using all kinds 
of figures of speech in one and the same poem. 
Such poems, called badiHyya, were composed by 
SafI al-DIn al-Hilll and others. In that period, the 
sciences of rhetoric were clearly and rigidly deline- 
ated. Thus, aspects of literary structure became the 
domain of the science of ma'dnl or "Concepts", 
while figures such as metaphor and simile, having 
to do with ways of literary expression, were relegated 
to the science of baydn or "Exposition". The artifices 
of the ornamentation and embellishment of speech 
remained the instruments and categories of badi'-. 
Bibliography : A. F. Mehren, Die Rhetorik der 
Araber, Copenhagen- Vienna 1853; Amjad Trabulsi, 
La critique poitique des Arabes, Damascus 1956; 
Abu Hilal Al- c Askari, K. Al-Sind'atayn, Istanbul 
1320; Abu Bakr Al-Bakillani, I'djdz al-Kur'dn, 
Cairo 1349; [The sections on poetry were discussed 
and translated by G. E. von Grunebaum in A Tenth- 
Century Document of Arab literary Theory and 
Criticism, Chicago 1950]; Al-Djahiz, K. Al-Baydn 
wa 'l-Tabyin, Cairo 1948; c Abd al-Kahir Al- 
Diurdjanl, Asrdr al-Baldgha, Ed. H. Ritter, 
Istanbul 1954; Cairo 1320; A. M. Al-Maraghl, 
Ta'rikh 'UlUm al-Baldgha, Cairo n.d.; Al-Khatlb 
Al-Kazwlnl, Talkhis al-Miftdh and K. Al-lddh 
(together with al-Taftazanl's MukUasar), Cairo 
1342/1923; Abu Ya'kub Al-Sakkakl, K. Miftdh 
al-'UlUm, Cairo n.d.; Sa'd al-DIn Al-Taftazanl, 
Al-Sharh al-Kabir, Istanbul; idem, Al-Sharh al- 
Saghir, Cairo and Calcutta; c Abd Allah Ibn al- 
Mu'tazz, Kitdb al-Badi 1 , ed. I. Kratchkovsky, 
London 1935; Kudama b. Dja'far, Nakd al-Shi'r, 
ed. S. A. Bonebakker, Leiden 1956; Ibn Khaldun. 
Mukaddima, book vi, § 371 section on Him al- 



baydn; Ibn Rashlk al-Kayraward, Al-'Umda, 

Cairo 1353/1934- (M. Khax.afax.LAH) 

al-BADI' al-ASTTJRLAbI, Hibat AllAh b. 
al-Husayn b. Ahmad (also YOsuf), Abu 'l-Kasim, 
illustrious Arab scholar, physician, philosopher, 
astronomer and poet, who distinguished himself 
particularly for his knowledge and construction of 
the astrolabe and other astronomical instruments. 
The date of his birth is not known. In 510/1116-17, 
we find him at Isfahan in intimate contact with the 
Christian physician Amln al-Dawla Ibn al-Tilmldh. 
Later he lived in Baghdad, where the exercise of 
his art, so it is said, brought him a considerable 
fortune under the Caliph al-Mustarshid. According 
to Abu '1-Fida', astronomical observations were made 
under bis direction in 524/1130 in the palace of the 
Saldjukid sultans at Baghdad. It is probable that 
the tables of Mahmud composed by him and dedicated 
to the Sultan Abu 'l-Kasim Mahmud b. Muhammad 
(1118-31) are the result of these observations. 
He died at Baghdad in 534/1139-40 and it is said 
(Abu '1-Faradj is the sole source of this tradition) 
that he was buried in a state of coma. As regards bis 
poetical works, Ibn al-Kiftl maintains that they were 
"beautiful and excellent", Ibn KhaUikan that they 
reached the limits of lechery and obscenity. Ibn 
KhaUikan and Ibn Abl Usaybi'a give examples of 
his best pieces. In addition to a Diwan of his own 
poems, al-Badi c al-Asturlabi published a selection of 
the poems of Ibn Hadjdjadj in one volume, divided 
into 141 chapters and entitled Durrat al-Tddf min 
shi'-r Ibn Hadididdi (Brockelmann, S I, 130). The 
praise which the Arab biographers liberally bestow 
on al-Badi' al Asturlabi, should not lead us to place 
his merits too high. The historians and biographers 
of the 7th/i3th century possessed too little mathe- 
matical and astronomical knowledge to enable them 
properly to appreciate the really eminent services 
which the scholars of the 3rd-5th/gth-nth centuries 
rendered these sciences. They thus frequently fell 
into the error of extolling to excess the work of 
scholars closer to them in time, to the detriment of 
the works which mark the zenith of Arab science. 
Nowhere are the praises of al-Battanl, Abu 'l-Wafa' 
and al-Biruni sung so eloquently as those of al-Badi' 
al- Asturlabi, though the former axe scholars of much 
greater distinction than the latter. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Kiftl, 339; Ibn Khal- 

likan, Cairo 1310, ii, 186 (trans, de Slane, iii, 580); 

Ibn Abl Usaybi'a, i, 280; Abu '1-Faradj (ed. 

SalhanI), 366; Abu '1-Fida', Annales (ed. Reiske 

and Adler), iii, 441-483; Hammer, LUeraturgesch. 

d. Araber, vi, 431; H. Suter, Abhandlungen zur 

Gesch. der mathem. Wissensch., x, 117; Yakut, 

Irshdd, vii, 241-242; Sarton, Introduction to the 

History of Science, ii, 204; F. Rosenthal, Al- 

Asfurldbi and as-Samaw'al on Scientific progress, 

in Osiris 1950, 555-564. (H. Suter) 

BADI' al-DIN, surnamed Kutb al-Madar (axis 

of the Universe) and popularly known as Shah 

Madar, is the Methuselah of Indian hagiological 

literature and one of the most celebrated saints of 

India. He is said to have been born at Aleppo in 

250/864, and to have been descended from Aba 

Hurayra [?.«.], one of the companions of the Prophet. 

The statement in the Mir'dt-i Maddri that he was 

a Jew and embraced Islam at al-Madlna is not 

supported by other authorities. Like his descent, 

his date of birth is also controversial, the Tadhkirat 

al-Muttakin gives it as 1 Shawwal 442/16 Feb. 1051; 

the Mir'dti Maddri has 715/1315, which is most 

probable. According to the Kitdb-i A 'rds and Mihr-i 



BADl c al-DIN — BADIS 



859 



Qiakdntdb his father Sayyid 'AH w; 
of Muhammad al-Bikir [q.v.]. 

Among his numerous spiritual mentors was 
Tayfur al-Din, a Syrian mystic. He received a good 
education but was specially well-versed in various 
occult sciences such as alchemy and natural magic. 
A widely-travelled person, Shah Madar performed 
the pilgrimage to Mecca several times, once in the 
company of Ashraf Djahanglr al-Simnanl [q.v.]. 
During his travels he visited al-Madina, Baghdad, 
Nadjaf and Kazimayn before sailing for India when 
he met with a shipwreck. In India he travelled from 
place to place and ultimately settled at Makanpur, 
a village 40 miles from Cawnpore, where he died on 
10 PJumada 1, 844/7 October, 1440. 

In spite of the bitter controversy that kddi Shihab 
al-Din DawlatabadI [q.v.] carried on with him, Shah 
Madar was held in great esteem by Ibrahim Shah 
Shark! (804/1401-848/1444), the sultan of Djawnpur, 
patron of the kddi. 

He was a person of great beauty and kept his face 
veiled foi fear that people, dazzled by his appearance, 
would prostrate themselves before him. To this day 
his imposing mausoleum built by Ibrahim Shark!, 
attracts a very large number of people who, from all 
parts of India, march to Makanpur, on the ocoasion of 
his c urs, carrying tall bamboos draped with colourful 
bunting and rags called "Shah Madar hi lariydn". 
Strange and supernatural feats, are ascribed both 
to the saint and his followers, known as Madaris, 
who are generally seen performing in the streets 
and lanes of every city and village in- the Indo- 
Pakistan sub-continent. A Mad'ari now, in common 
parlance, has come to mean a street-performer. 

Bibliography: c Abd al-Hakk Muhaddrfo 
Dihlawi, Akhbdr al-Akhydr, Delhi 1332/1914, 164; 
Muhammad GhawthI, Gulzdr-i Abrdr, no. 60; Dara 
Shukoh, Safinat al-Awliya>, 187-8; Ghulam Sarwar 
Lahorl, Khazinat al-Asfiyd', Lucknow 1913, ii, 
310-2; Abu '1-Fadl, AHn i Akbari (trans. Jarrett), 
iii, 370; Amir Hasan Madari Fansuri, Tadhkirat 
al-Muttakin, Cawnpore i 1315/1898, ii, 1322/1905; 
Dabistan-i Madhdhab, (Eng. trans.) New York 
1937, 307; Zahir Ahmad Zahlri, Siyar ai-Maddr 
(in Urdu), i, Lucknow 1900, ii, Badayun 1920; c Abd 
al-Rahman c Abb5sI, Mir'dt-i Maddri (in Persian, 
still in MS) Urdu trans, by c Abd al-Rashld 
?ahur al- Islam, Thawdkib al- Anwar bi-MatdW- 
Ku(b al-Maddr, Farrukhabad 1910/1328; Muhani- 
piad Nadjib Nagawri, Kitdb-i A 'rds, Agra 1 300/- 
1883; <Abd al-Hayy Nadwi, Nuzhat al-Khawdtir, 
Haydarabad (Dn), 1371/1951, iii 36-42; Garciii de 

Tassy, Mimoire sur la religion Musul- 

mane dans I'Inde, Paris 1869, 52-9; Ghawth 
Muljammad Khan, Sayr al-Muhtasham, Djawara 
1268/1852, 288-92; Shu'ayb Firdawsi, Mandkib 
al-Asfiyd>, Calcutta 1895; Aftab Mirza, Tuhfat 
al- Abrdr, Delhi 1323/1905, vi, 28; Diya J al-Din, 
Mir'dt al-Ansdb, Djaypur 1335/1916, 157; Cawn- 
pore District Gazetteer, Allahabad 1909, 309-10; 
H. A. Rose, A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes 
of the Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province, 
i (Lahore 191 1), index, iii (Lahore 1926), s.v., 
"Madaris" ; Muhammad Sadik Kashmiri HamdanI, 
Kalimdti Sddikin (Bankipur MS.), no. 2i;'Abd 
al Basit KannawdjI, Ddr al-Asrdr ft Khawdrik 
Shdh BadV- al-Din Madar, (Peshawar MS. no. 
1957 [9])- (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

BADl ( al ZAMAN [see al-hamadhanI]. 
BADlHA [see irtidjal]. 
BADlL [see abdal]. 
BADINAN [see bahdInan]. 



BADIS, a town (now in ruins) and anchorage on 
the Mediterranean coast of Morocco. It is 68V4 m- 
(no km.) south-east of Tetuan, between the territory 
of the Ghumara [q.v.] and the Rif [q.v.] properly so- 
called. It is situated on the territory of the Banu 
Yattufat (vulgo: Bni Yittoft) near the mouth of a 
torrent named Tala-n-Badis [vulgo: Talembades). 
An attempt has been made to identify it with the 
Paridina of the Itinerary of Antoninus; but this 
ancient place-name could equally well refer to the 
more sheltered cove of Yalllsh (= Iris on our maps) 
which is only 7 km. to the south-west. 

The town of Badis and its port formed part of the 
kingdom of Nukur, and later of the Idrisid princi- 
pality of the Banu c Umar. The Almoravids, the 
Almohads and the Marinids used it as a naval base 
and devoted their energies to fortifying it. 

The author of the Maksad (end of the 7 th/ 13 th 
century) and especially Leo Africanus (beginning of 
the ioth/i6th century), describe Badis as a township 
of 600 households. Under the Marinid Abu Sa'Id 
(709-31/1310-31), it paid 1000 dinars in taxes, as did 
Melilla and Larache. The port possessed an arsenal 
where foists and other kinds of galleys were built 
of cedar- wood from the neighbouring mountains; 
it was frequented by Venetian merchantmen, and 
was the terminus of the shortest route from Fez to 
the Mediterranean, via the mountain of the Banu 
Khalid. The population devoted themselves to trade, 
fishing (sardines) and also to piracy on the coasts 
of Spain. The governor of the Rif had his residence 
there; his authority extended over thecoastal towns 
from Yallish to Wadi Nukur, and also over certain 
tribes of the interior: Bukkuya, Banu Mansur, Banu 
Khalid, Banu Yadir. 

Less than 100 metres out to sea there were two 
small rocky islands, the larger of which was called 
Hadjar Badis, the Pefion de Velez of the Spanish. 
In 1508 the latter, in order to put an end to the 
activities of the pirates, occupied it and fortified it. 
In 1520, however, they lost it as the result of 
treachery. In 1526, the Wattasid sultan Abu Hassun, 
deposed by his brother, received as an appanage the 
Rif, with his seat at Badis, whence he acquired his 
surname of al-Badisi [q.v.. No. 3]. In 1554, he ceded 
the town and the Pefion to his Turkish allies from 
Algiers : the latter made it a lair for corsairs operating 
in the region of the Straits of Gibraltar. The Sa c did 
sultan c Abd Allah al-Ghalib bi'llah was alarmed by 
this activity, and feared that the Turks might use 
Badis as a base from which to undertake the conquest 
of Morocco. In 1564, he forced the Moroccans to 
evacuate the town and the Pefion, which he handed 
over to the Spanish. The Moroccan population 
retired into the interior, to the kasba of Snada. 

The old town of Badis is now in ruins. After the 
Rif war (1927), the Spanish attempted, without much 
success, to establish nearby a small settlement called 
Villa Jordana. The Pefion still belongs to Spain and 
constitutes a sovereign territory: Pefion de Velez de 
la Gomera. The Spanish corruption of the name of 
the town, Velez, perhaps has its origin in the 
existence, opposite, on the European coast, of a 
town called Velez (de) Malaga (Ar. Balish). 

Badis in Morocco must not be confused with 
Badis in Algeria, no longer extant, which lay to the 
south of Awras [q.v.]. 

Bibliography: Badisi, Al-Maksad, 245; Leo 

Africanus, Description de I'Afrique, ed. Schefer, ii, 

272, French trans. Epaulard, Paris 1956, 274-6 and 

index; R.Afr., 1872, 119-24; A. Moulieras, Le 

Maroc inconnu, i, 87-9; A. J. Onieva, Guia 



BADIS — BADJ 



turistica de Marruecos, Madrid 1947, 506; for the 
detailed history of the town and the Pe&on in the 
16th century, consult the Sources inidites de 
Vhistoire du Maroc, 1st series, (Sa c did dynasty) 
archives of Spain, France and Portugal. 

(G. S. Colin) 
BADlS b. JIABCS [see zIrids of spain]. 
BADlS b. al-Mansur b. BulufjfjIn B. ZfRf, alias 
Abu Manad BAdIs NasIr al-Dawla, third Zirid of 
Ifrikiya, enthroned on 16 Rabi c I 386/8 April 996. 
Entrusting eastern Ifrikiya to a devoted Arab vice- 
amir, he set about containing a powerful Zanatan 
offensive which, from 386/996 onwards, pushed 
forward from Tiaret to Tripoli. In 389/999, he faced 
the amir of the Maghrawa, Ziri b. c Atiyya, who had as 
allies Fulful b. Sa'id, chief of the Zanata, and his own 
great-uncles. He finally defeated them (391/1001), his 
triumph being mainly due to his great-uncle Hammad 
b. Bulukkln. From 395/1004-5 onwards, the latter 
repelled a new Zanatan offensive. From 390 to 406/ 
999-1016, the Zirid also fought in Tripolitania against 
FStimid intervention and against Yanis, Fulful b. 
Sa c id and Warru b. Sa c id. While the Zanatan menace 
gradually abated in the south-east, in the west he 
had to suppress the revolt of Hammad, founder of 
Kal'a in 398/1007-8. In the course of this campaign, 
which commenced at the r nd of 405/May 1015, after 
having won a decisive victory at Chelif (1 Djumada 
406/17 October 1015), but failed to take Kal c a which 
had been beseiged for six months, Badis died on 
30 Dhu '1-Ka c da 406/10 May 1016. The creation of 
the Ham madid state had begun, and the anti- 
Shi'ite disturbances at Tunis (406/1015-6) portended 
the break with the Fatimids which occurred under 
his son and successor al-Mu'izz b. Badis. 

Bibliography: Ibn 'Idhari, i, 239, 247-66 
(French trans. Fagnan, i, index); al-Nuwayri, ed. 
G. Remiro, ii, 122-33, 138; Ibn al-Athir, Cairo 1353, 
vii, 182, 198-200, 218, 276-77 (French trans. 
Fagnan, index); Ibn Khaldun. c Ibar, vi, 17, 40-1, 
145, 157-9, 171-2, 179. vii, 33, 41 {Histoire des 
Berberes, iv, index); Ibn Khallikan, Cairo 1310, i, 
86-7; Abu'1-Fida 5 , Ta>rikh, ii, 131-2; Ibn al- c Imad, 
Shadhardt, iii, 179 ; Mafdkhir al-Barbar, 33-42 ; Ibn 
Abi Dinar, Mu'nis, 76, 78-9; Ibn al-Khatib. 
A c mdl, in Centenario M. Amari, ii, 454, 460, 461; 
Ibn Nadji, Ma c dlim, iii, 175-6; H. R. Idris, Sur 
le retour des Zirides d Vobidience idtimide, in AIEO, 
Algiers 1953, 27; idem, La Berbdrie orientate sous 
Us Zirides (in preparation). (H. R. Idris) 

al-BADISI, ethnic adjective referring to the town 
of Badis [q.v.], and borne by three notable Moroccan 
personalities: 

1. Abu Ya'kiib Yusuf al-Zuhayll al-Badisi, saint 
and savant of the 8th/i4th century, who is buried 
outside the town. The author of the Maksad (cf. 
infra, 2) devoted a notice to him (cf. trans,, 
146 and 218). Ibn Khaldun regarded him as 
the last of the great Moroccan saints (cf. Prolegomena, 
trans., ii, 199; Histoire des Berberes, i, 230). Leo 
Africanus (ed. Schefer, ii, 273; ed. Epaulard, Paris 
1956, 274) speaks of his shrine which is still venerated : 
Sidi Bu Ya'kub. 

2. c Abd al-Hakk al-Badisi, still living in 722/1322. 
He is the author of a collection of the lives of the 
saints of the Rif entitled Al-Maksad al-Sharif fi 
Dhikr Sulahd* al-Rif, which has come down to us in 
two editions which differ appreciably from the point 
of view of vocabulary; annotated trans, by G. S. 
Colin in Archives marocaines, vol. 26 (1926). 

3. c Ali, son of Muhammad al-Shaykh al-Wattasi. 



His normal kunya was Abu '1-Hasan, but he is known 
by the hypocoristic name of Abu Hassun. His father, 
while still young, was entrusted with the government 
of the Rif, with his residence at BSdis, and, when 
he was deposed, he received the same province as an 
appanage. He lived there from 1526 to 1549; hence 
his surname al-Badisi, and title "king of Velez" 
given to him by European chroniclers. 

Bibliography: See the article Wattasids. 
(G. S. Colin) 

BADIYA [see Supplement]. 

BADJ. the Arabicised form given to the Persian 
bdzh in the Islamic period (al-Sayyid Add! Shir, Kitdb 
al-Alfdz al-Fdrisiyya al-Mu c arraba, Beirut 1908). 
From the 10th to the 14th century bdzh is more 
common ; thus it is the usual form in the Shdh-nama 
(though badi occurs too), and the phrase bazk u saw 
is not infrequent, while the expression bdzh-i rum is 
used there with reference to the tribute and indem- 
nity paid to the victorious Persians by the rulers 
of the Eastern Roman empire (Fritz Wolff, Glossar zu 
Firdosis Schahname, Berlin 1935). The Ghaznawid 
poet Bahrami uses bazh, whereas the 15th-century 
poet Baba Fighani uses bddj (see Amin Ahmad Razi, 
Haft Iklim, Bibl. Indica, Calcutta 1939, i, 267), and 
it was in the latter form that the word entered 
Turkish. After the Ottoman occupation of the 
Balkans the word was borrowed by the Bulgars and 
Serbs (Karl Lokotsch, Etymolog. Worterbuch, 
Heidelberg 1927), and it is used in Armenian with 
the same form and meaning (Horn, Grundriss der 
Neupersischen Etymologie, Strassburg 1893, 34). 

Asadi, in his dictionary (Lughat-i Furs, ed. P. 
Horn, Berlin 1894), defines the word simply as 
kharddi. c Abd al-Kadir Baghdad! {Abdulqddiri 
Bagdddensis lexicon Sahndmianum, ed. Salemann, St. 
Petersburg 1895) explains it as meaning 'customs- 
dues, tithe, and tax' : the words bdzhbdn, bdzhhV'dh 
and bdzhddr he explains as 'desiring toll, customs- 
officer', and bdzhgdh as 'place where customs- 
dues are levied' (all four words occur in the 
Shdh-nama). In the Turkish translation of the 
Burhdn-i Kdfi', in addition to the meanings 'tithe, 
tax, customs-dues',' it is stated that the word 
was also applied to money and gifts received by 
suzerains from vassal rulers. In Turkish texts 
generally, as in Persian, the meaning is 'tax'. The 
word became current as a fiscal technical term among 
the Turks, because a number of Turkish states were 
founded in the Persian area, beginning with the 
Ghaznawids and Saldjuks, and because the Saldjuk 
administration preserved Samanid and Ghaznawid 
traditions. It will also be recalled that Persian was 
the official language of Asia Minor under both 
Saldjuks and Ilkhanids. A study of the available 
documents shows that as well as being used for 'tax' 
in general, the word was applied to various forms of 
tax. The poet Nasir-i Khusraw, describing Aleppo 
in his Safar-ndma (ed. Ch. Schefer, Paris 1881, 10), 
says that it was a bddjgdh (i.e., customs-post) 
between the cities of Syria, Rum, Diyarbakr, Egypt, 
and 'Irak. Nasir al-Din Tusi, in a risdla containing 
his views on politics and finance, presented to the 
Ilkhanid Abaka (Serefeddin Yaltkaya, Ilhantler 
devri iddrt teskildtina ddir Nasireddin T&st'nin bir 
eseri, in Turk hukuk ve iktisat tarihi mecm., ii, 13; 
M. Minovl and V. Minorsky, Nasir al-Din Tusi on 
Finance, in BSOS x, 3, 1941, 763), uses it in the 
general sense ; Yaltkaya translates it as 'customs-dues' 
in this somewhat ambiguous passage, but as customs- 
dues had been levied from ancient times it is certain 
that there would be nothing shameful in a ruler's 



exacting them. As the context indicates, and as 
Minorsky rightly shows, the bddi here referred to 
must be the rdhddri ('traveller's protection tax') 
levied in the Ilkhanid dominions in return for main- 
taining peace and security on caravan-routes and 
lakes. The historian of the Ilkhanid period, Rashld 
al-DIn (Ta'rikhi Mubdrak-i Qhdzdni, ed. Karl Jahn, 
GMS, London 1940, 280 ff.), when describing 
measures taken to safeguard the great caravan- 
routes in Ghazan's time, speaks of bddx taken from 
travellers at certain specified places, according to a 
fixed scale. He also uses the word of a tax of one- 
third, when discussing Ghazan's agricultural reforms. 
A century later, the historian Sharaf al-Din Yazdi 
uses bddj. together with saw, kharddi, and diizya, i.e., 
loosely in the sense of 'tax, impost' (Zafar-ndma, 
Bibl. Indica, Calcutta 1888, ii, 378). At the end of 
that century the historian Kh'andamlr (Dastiir al- 
Wuzard 3 , ed. Sa'id Nafisi, Tehran 1317/1938-9, 463) 
mentions bddx along with the tamgha taken from 
merchants, zakdt, and kharddi, but apparently as a 
general term only, for he gives no information about 
its nature. The early Safawid historian Hasan 
Rumlu states that some neighbouring tribes had 
long paid bddx t0 tne rulers of Harat (Ahsan al- 
Tawdrikh, ed. C. N. Seddon, Baroda 1931, i, 337. 
To establish the sense of such a word, legislative 
texts are clearly of more use than historical texts, 
but the oldest relevant ones, those of the Ak 
Koyunlu, have not come down to us in their original 
forms. Thanks however to the tenacity of tradition, 
common in medieval Turkish and Muslim bureau- 
cracies, we find Ak Koyunlu laws surviving, at most 
slightly altered, in Ottoman kdniins (as is expressly 
stated in the Ottoman fiscal kdniins for the eastern 
Anatolian wildyets, formerly subject to the Ak 
Koyunlu), and in them the word bddx occurs frequ- 
ently (cf. W. Hinz, Das Steuerwesen Ostanatoliens im 
15. und 16. Jahrhundert, in ZDMG, 1950, 177-201). 
These laws were first discussed by I. H. Uzuncarslli 
(Osmanli devleti te$kildtina medhdl, Istanbul 1941, 
213, 276, 302),) who sets out to explain such express- 
ions as bddx-i tamgha and bddi-i buzurg. He states, 
on the basis of the Farhang-i Shu c uri and the Sharaf- 
ndma, that the tamgha was branded on animals and 
that bddx was a tax peculiar to land customs, and he 
notes that bddx-i buzurg was the name of two taxes, 
one levied on subject rulers and princes, the other on 
commercial goods in transit and articles brought 
from village to city. He explains bddiddr as 'a 
guardian of roads, taking money from caravans in 
return for maintaining the security of the roads, in 
the Ilkhanid period'. But in this he is incorrect: the 
bddiddr was a tax collector, in the Ilkhanid and 
Djala'irid periods, who collected tolls at certain 
places, according to a tariff fixed by the central 
government (this tariff is mentioned in Italian 
sources for oriental trade in the Ilkhanid period: 
see G. I. Bratianu, Recherches sur le commerce 
gituris dans la Mer Noire au XIII' siecle, Paris 1929, 
184, 189). The 'guardian of roads' was quite distinct; 
he was the tutkavul (Persian rdhddr), paid by the 
central government and under the orders of a 
senior military commander. At times when the 
central government was weak, however, lawless men 
assumed this title and took protection-money 
arbitrarily from caravans, thus combining the 
functions of rdhddr and bddxddr. The vagueness of 
I. H. UzuncarsM's explanation of the terms bddi-i 
tamgha and bddx-i buzurg is due to his reliance on 
dictionaries rather than on kdnunndmes. It is possible 
to get a clearer and more accurate picture from a 



set of kdniins of the Ak Koyunlu period, published 
by Omer Lutfi Barkan (Osmanli devrinde Akkoyunlu 
hiikiimdari Uzun Hasan Beye ait kanunlar, in Tarih 
vesikalari i, no. 2, 91-106; no. 3, 184-97). These 
kdniins, termed yasa under the influence of the 
Ilkhanid administrative tradition, relate to the re- 
gions of Diyarbakr, Mardin, ErghanI, al-Ruha' (Urfa), 
Erzindjan, Kharpurt (Harput), Cermlk, and c Arabkir, 
and are mainly of the time of Uzun Hasan. From a 
study of them the following facts emerge: bddx * s 
generally used for 'tax', as in the expression bddx-i 
tamgha. The meaning of tamgha is quite plain; it is 
the tax levied on all kinds of goods bought and sold in 
cities, on woven stuffs and slaughtered animals, and 
is normally referred to as 'black tamgha' (tamgha-i 
siydh). Bddx-i buzurg was the customs-duty levied on 
goods in transit through or imported into the 
country; such goods, when sold in the market, were 
also liable to 'stamp duty' (bddx-i tamgha). It is 
expressly stated in the kdnun of ErghanI that 
tamgha was levied on the buying and selling of 
immovable property; i.e., the word is here used in 
the general sense of 'tax'. It is apparent that bddx in 
these kdnunndmes is not a technical term. 

This observation is confirmed by the use of the 
word in Ottoman literary texts. Sa'd al-Din uses it 
in the general sense when he says that the bddx an< i 
kharddi in 14th-century Rum were not onerous as 
they were in Persia (Tddi al-Tawdrikh, i, 214). So 
too a number of Ottoman poets use it as synonymous 
with kharddi in the phrase bddi u kharddi. On tne 
other hand, the word is used as a technical term in 
some historical texts and above all in the early 
kdnun-ndmes. 'Ashikpashazade (Ta'rikh 19; ed. 
F. Giese, 21), remarking that in the time of c Othman 
Ghazi bddi to the amount of 2 akcus was levied on 
every load of goods sold in the market of Karadja- 
hisar, explains that this was in the nature of a muni- 
cipal tax peculiar to large towns; it was in fact 
identical with the tamgha which, as we have Seen, 
was levied under the Ilkhanids and in the various 
states which carried on their fiscal tradition. In the 
kdnunname of the Conqueror, apart from the non- 
technical use, we find bddi applied to a sales-tax 
confined to large towns. This kdnunname lays down 
that bddi is not levied on immovable property such 
as land, houses, shops, and mills, but on goods sold 
in markets ; not howevei on anything sold in villages. 
It specifies the amount of bddi to De levied on tne 
sale of all sorts of goods, including slaves (who in 
the eyes of Islamic law are movable property), and 
makes it clear that sometimes only one party is 
liable to pay, sometimes both. It also prescribes the 
amount of bddi — generally 20% — to be levied on 
goods from abroad (e.g., from 'Frenk' and 'Dobro- 
venedik' = Dubrovnik = Ragusa), but there is a 
clause which states that this will depend on the 
terms of contracts made with these countries. The 
text however is a little doubtful and corrupt, so 110 
positive conclusions can be drawn (F. Kraelitz, 
Kanunname Sultan Mehmeds des Eroberers, in MOG, 
Vienna 1921, i, 26, 30 ff.). But it is safe to say 
that the reference here is not to customs-duly 
levied on goods coming across the frontier, for the 
term giimriik occurs in numerous official documents 
of the period, and customs-duties seem not to be 
described as bddi (idem, Osmanische Urkunden in 
tiirkischer Sprache, Vienna 1922, no. 2, 4). It may 
therefore be conjectured that when goods entered 
the Ottoman dominions they paid customs-duty 
(giimriik), and when they were brought to a city 
and sold, they paid a separate bddi ■ 



862 



BADJ — BADJA 



The word is used in the kanunname of Suleyman 
just as it was during the 15th century; indeed, some 
paragraphs concerning bdd± are taken unaltered from 
the kanunname of the Conqueror (cf. Kdnunndme-i 
Al-i 'Othmdn, Supplement to TOEM, Istanbul 1329. 
21 ff., with the kanunname of the Conqueror, 30 ff.), 
though there are some additional ordinances too. 
It is clear from these two kdnunndmes that bddi 
meant both a specific municipal tax (ihtisdb resmi) 
and 'tax' in general: the latter meaning being seen 
in such expressions as bddj-i bazar, badf-i aghndm, 
bddj i tamgha. 

It is still in use among the Turkish people of eastern 
Turkistan in the general sense (cf. F. Grenard, Le 
Turkestan et le Tibet, Paris 1898, 263, 265. In the 
dialects of Kashghar and Yarkand the meaning is 
'customs-duty' (G. Raquette, English-Turki Dict- 
ionary, Lund-Leipzig 1927, 24, 119). 

Bibliography: Sources have been shown in 
the text, in default of a full study of the word. 
Osman Nuri, when dealing with the ihtisdb taxes 
(Medjelle-i Umur-i Belediyye, Istanbul 1922, i, 
364-70) confines himself to quoting relevant 
passages from 'Ashikpashazade, Neshri, the 
kdnun-ndme of Suleyman, and another kanun- 
name of unspecified date. (M. Fuad KoprOlu) 
BADJ. the birthplace of Firdawsl, a small village 
in the vicinity of Tus. The name is not found in any 
of the Arab geographers, and is mentioned only by 
'Arudi-i Samarkand! (Cahdr Makdla, ed. Mirza 
Muhammad KazwinI, GMS i, 47, 190). 

# (M. Fuad KoprOlO) 

BADJA, a town and district, of Muslim Spain, 
modern Beja in S. Portugal, the classical Pax 
Julia. The Roman origin of Badja is referred to 
by the geographer al-Razi [q.v.], who speaks of its 
fine wide streets. Abundant honey was obtained 
there, and its water was specially suitable for 
tanning (E. Levi- Provencal, 'La ..Description de 
l'Espagne" d'Ahmad al-Razi", in Al-Andalus, 
XVIII, 1953, 87). Badja is frequently mentioned 
from the time of the Arab conquest. When Seville 
fell, its defenders withdrew to Badja, whence they 
later returned and gained a temporary advantage 
(Akhbdr Madjmu'a, 16, 18). Badja became one 
of the militarised zones (kuwar mudjannada) of 
Muslim Spain. In 146/763 at Badja the commander 
of the Egyptian djund, al-'Ala' b. al-Mughith 
revolted, donning the black dress of the 'Abbasids 
and displaying a black banner sent from the East 
by al-Mansur (Akhbdr Madjmu'a, 101-102; Ibn al- 
Kutiyya, 32-33). In 230/844 Badja is said to have 
been attacked by Norse Vikings (Makkari, Ana- 
lectes, i, 223). At Badja later, local chiefs disputed 
the authority of the central government (cf. Levi- 
Provencal, Histoire de l'Espagne musulmane, ed. 
Cairo 1944, 1, 271, 298), and eventually the Tayfurids, 
a local family of notables, enjoyed independence for 
a time (Ibn Sa'id, Mughrib, ed. Cairo 1953, I, 403). 
At another time Badja was ruled from Silves, till 
about 432/1040, when it passed to the 'Abbadids of 
Seville (Ibn Irthari, Baydn, iii, 192-193). The town 
was probably more important in early times than 
afterwards. It is not described by al-ldrisl (548/1154). 
Its most famous son was the theologian Abu '1-Walid 
al-Badji [q.v.]. Badja in Spain is sometimes called 
BSdjat al-Zayt (see below). 

Bibliography: E. Levi-Provencal, La pinin- 
sule iberique au Moyen-Age d'apres le Kitdb ar- 
Rawd al-MiHar, Leiden 1938, 45-46; Arabic text, 
36-37. (D. M. Dunlop) 



BADJA (ai.cient Vaga; modern orthography: 
Beja), important town in Ifrikiya, situated about 
100 km. west of Tunis. Its population at the present 
time is nearly 23,000. Resting against the fertile 
slopes of the valley of the Medjerda, it constitutes 
"the most considerable town of the region, which 
existed in ancient times and has continued to exist 

down to our time its strategic position, of 

supreme importance, on the road from Tunis to 
Algeria, was constantly emphasised throughout the 
Muslim period" (R. Brunschvig, Jfafsides, i, 300). 

Capital of the province richest in cereal crops, it 
was for this reason called the "granary (hurt) of 
Ifrikiya", just as it was called, throughout the 
Middle Ages, Badjat al-Karah ("Badja of the corn") 
to distinguish it from the other towns, in Africa land 
Spain, which bore the same name (see below). 

The celebrated geographer al-Bakri gives an exact 
and detailed description of the town which is still 
valid today, apart from certain changes in place 
names which took place at a later date. "Badja", 
he says, "is three days" journey from al-Kayrawan. 
A large town, encircled by several streams, and built 
on a high cowl-shaped hill named <Ayn Shams ("the 
spring of the sun")". This spring still feeds the town 
and bears the same name. The other important 
monuments which he mentions are: the ramparts, 
which were later augmented by a second, exterior 
wall enclosing new quarters of the town ; the citadel 
(still to-day al-Kasaba) "an ancient building, solidly 
built of great blocks of stone" (a Byzantine fortress, 
built by Count Paulus at the time of Justinian, as is 
indicated by a Latin inscription of that period. It 
was frequently repaired during the Plafsid, Turkish 
and Husaynid periods); and the Great Mosque 
which, "solidly built, has the city walls for the 
kibla". The town also possessed "five baths (hammdm), 
a large number of caravanserais (funduk), and three 
open spaces (rihdb) where food markets were held". 
The environs of the city were, he says, "full of 
magnificent gardens watered by streams". 

At the time of the siege of Carthage by yassan b. 
al-Nu'man, about 76/695 part of the Byzantine 
garrison took refuge at Badja and entrenched itself 
there. After its capture by the above-mentioned 
Umayyad general, Badja subsequently became .an 
important strategic centre for the Arab djund. Al- 
Harawi states that Ma'bad b. al-'Abbas b. 'Abd al- 
Muttalib, the cousin of the Prophet, died there, and 
that his tomb is to be found in the meadow (mardj) 
of the town. 

Al-Ya'kubi, who visited Ifrikiya in the 3rd/9th 
century, tells us that "the population of Badja is 
descended from the soldiers of the old 'Abbasid 
army and from non-Arab autochthonous elements". 

Al-Kalkashandi, quoting an ancient source, notes 
that the tribe of the Banu Sa'd, among whom the 
Prophet was brought up, had been scattered across 
many lands, and that in his own time there only 
remained a small group of them, who lived at Badja 
in Ifrikiya alongside the 'Abbasid troops. 

Under Aghlabid dominion, the city became the 
important capital of the whole North-Western district 
of Tunisia. Powerful officials, belonging to the 
family of the waiirs, the Banu Humayd, relations 
and allies of the amirs, succeeded one another as 
heads of its government, and strove to preserve it 
as a rich and lucrative fief; kadis, chosen from among 
the most famous jurists of the capital, were nominated 
to this high office; exptrienced generals assumed 
command of the militia and the Aghlabid allies. And 
there is reason to think that the veterans of this 



BADJA — al-BADJALI 



863 



militia, who continued to dwell in this region, gave 
the name of their tribe, Kuda'a, to an important 
commune (dtaykha) of Badja, which retains this 
name to the present day. 

During the Fatimid period, the town was sacked, 
pillaged and partly burnt by the Berber troops of 
Abu Yazld [q.v.], "the man with the ass", in 335/946. 
But it quickly recovered its prosperity, by virtue of 
its agricultural products. At the time of the Hilall 
invasion (5th/nth century), it received groups of 
the Riyahi tribe, which settled in the surrounding 
countryside, and the town passed successively from 
the hands of nomad chiefs to the Zirid princes of 
Bougie (al-Bidjaya). With the advent of the IJafsids, 
the town recovered a measure of its former prosperity 
and frequently served as a refuge for rebels against 

During the Turkish period (ioth-nth/i6th-i7th 
centuries), Badja had a garrison of janissaries who 
left their posterity there. A HanafI mosque was built 
inside the town. From the time of the Husaynids, 
Badja became once more a large semi-Bedouin 
agricultural market town, where a governor ( l dmil) 
represented the authority of the Beys. Certain 
monuments were built, notably a citadel 1 km. west 
of the town, called "Bdrdo" after the name of the 
famous palace of the Beys on the outskirts of Tunis. 

Badja was the birthplace of a number of scholars, 
jurisconsults, poets, and local historians. Reference 
will only be made here to the al-Kalshani family, 
which supplied 9th/i5th century Tunisia with seven 
or eight eminent kadis and jurists, and to Muhammad 
al-Saghir b. Yusuf, who wrote an eye-witness account 
of the history of the first four Husaynid Beys (from 



1705 1 



1768 A 



bibliography. Ya'kubi, Bulddn, ed. Nadjaf 

1918, 107 (French trans. G. Wiet, Cairo 1937, 211); 

Bakri, Ar. text 59, French trans. 119; Yakut, 

Cairo ed, ii, 25; Idrisi, Ar. text 115, French trans. 

134; Harawl, Guide des lieux de pilerinage, ed. 

J. Sourdel-Thomine, Damascus 1953, 53; Kal- 

kashandi, Subh al-A'-shd, i, 340; Leo Africanus, 

iii, 119; Muhammad Saghlr b. Yusuf, Akhbdr 

Awldd c Ali Turk* (ms. coll. Abdul-Wahab), French 

trans. V. Serres and Lasram, Tunis 1897. 

Two other Tunisian centres were also named 

Badja: Badjat al-Zayt ("Badja of the oil"), so 

called in order to distinguish it from its homonym 

in the north. It a was town in the district of Rusfa (the 

ancient Ruspae of the Romans and Byzantines), 

situated, in the heart of the olive-tree forests of the 

Tunisian Sahel, on the road from Mahdiyya to al- 

DJan, 13 km. east of the latter centre. The commune 

{sjaykha) in which it was located still bears the name 

of Wadi Badja (governorate of Mahdiyya) It seems 

that it prospered up to the time of the Hilali invasion, 

and then declined and completely disappeared during 

the IJafsid period. Its site, however, with its numerous 

ruins, notably of a vast hydraulic installation 

(fuskiyya), still exists. It is mentioned several times 

by al-Malikl and Yakut, who quote passages from 

Ibn Rashlk in his anthology of the poets of al- 

Kayrawan. 

Bibliography: MalikI, Riyad al-Nufus, ii, 
79-81 (MS. coll. Abdul-Wahab); Yakut, Cairo 
1 323/1906, ii, 25; Safadi, al-Wdfi bi 'l-Wafaydt, 
iii, (Zaytuna MS.). 

Badja al-KadIma ("the ancient"), a hamlet no 
longer in existence today, but whose ruins are still 
visible. It was situated near the present-day town 
of Mannuba north-west of Tunis. It possessed a 
mosque, a school (hultdb), a market and a certain 



number of dwellings. Its chief claim to fame was that 
it was the birth-place of a great Tunisian mystic 
(wdli), Abu Said fOialaia b. Yahya al-Tamlml al- 
Badji, born in 551/1156, died 6 Sha'ban 629/8 June 
1231, the pupil of Abu Madyan Shu'ayb of 
Tlemcen; he was buried in the village of Djabal al- 
Manar, and has since become known from Marsa to 
Carthage as SayyidI Abu Said (Sidi Bou Said). 

Bibliography : Abu '1-Hasan al-JJawwarl, 
Manakib Abi Sa'id al-Bddji (MS. coll! Abdul- 
Wahab). (H. H. Abdul-Wahab) 
BADJADDA, in the Arab middle ages, a small 
strongly fortified town in Mesopotamia, south 
of IJarran, a short distance east of Ballkh, situated 
on the road to Ra's al- c Ayn, with famous gardens. 
It is no longer mentioned by the geographers of 
the 3rd-4th/9th 10th centuries. The Aramaic name- 
(NTJ ""S) denotes "house of fortune" ; cf. perhaps, 
an c Ayn-gadda = "source of fortune" in the Da- 
mascene and theGadda of the Tabula Peutingeriana in 
Syria. See thereon Noldeke in the ZDMG, xxix, 441. 
Bibliography : Yakut, i, 453; Baladhuri, 
Futah, 174, 72, where Badjadda, not Badjudda. 
is to be read; Le Strange, 105. (M. Streck) 
BADJALAN. Both surviving branches of this, 
formerly larger tribe are now settled in 'Irak. The 
main branch occupies the area of Bin Kudra and 
Kuratu, north of Kbanakin. An offshoot, known 
variously as Badjlan, Badjwan or Bedjwan, is to be 
found in the Shabak [q.v.] area on the left bank of 
the river Tigris opposite Mawsil. Although the tribe 
has always been known as a Kurdish one this is only 
so in the wide sense that all nomads of the Zagros. 
area, including the Guran [q.v.] and the Lurs, are 
considered by their neighbours to be Kurds. In fact, 
all Badjalanis appear to speak a dialect of the 
(Iranian, but not Kurdish) GuranI language — a 
pointer, failing evidence to the contrary, to their 
GuranI origins. 

A great number of Badjalan nomads paid homage 
to the Ottoman Grand Vizier at Mawsil in 1039/1630- 
(Nalma, Ta'rikh, s.a.). For a time the tribe gave its. 
name to a sandidk, BadjwanU, between the two 
rivers Zab (HadjdjI Khalifa, Qiihan-numd, 435). The 
present Bedjwan community may stem from this, 
section. According to their own traditions (Raw- 
linson, in Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 
1839, ix, 107; Minorsky, in EI 1 , s.v. Lak) part of the 
tribe retired from the Mawsil area in the I2th/i8th 
century to Luristan (Pish-i Kuh), where it became 
assimilated to the Lakkl Kurds. Another group had 
settled in the plain between Gilan and Kasr-i Shlrln, 
the chieftains residing first in Zuhab and, after its. 
decline, in Khanakin. Early in this i4th/2oth 
century the two main sections of the Badjalan were 
astride the Turco- Persian frontier, the Djumur in 
the Zuhab area and the Kazanlu near Bin Kudra. 
The Persian sections seem since to have concentrated 
on the Kuratu area. 

Bibliography: K. Hadank, Mundarten der 
Gurdn, besonders das . . . BddscMldnt, bearbeitet 
von . . ., Berlin, 1930; D. N. MacKenzie, Bdjaldni,. 
in BSOAS, 1956, xviii, 418. 

(D. N. Mackenzie) 
al-BADJALI, al-IIasan b. «AlI b. Warsand, 
founder of a sect among the Berbers of Morocco, 
whose adherents are called Badjaliyya. Al-Bakrl 
states that he appeared there before Abu 'Abd 
Allah al-Shil [q.v.] came to Ifrikiya (before 
280/893). Al-Badjall came from Nafta (Nefta> 
and found many adherents among the Banu La- 



mas. His teaching agreed with that of the Rawafid, 
but he asserted that the Imamate belonged only 
to the descendants of al-Hasan. So al-Bakii and 
Ibn Hazm state, in opposition to Ibn Hawkal (ed. 
de Goeje, 65), who says that he was a Musawi 
i.e. he recognised the Imamate of Musa b. Dja'far, 
a descendant of Husayn. The Badjaliyya were after- 
wards conquered and exterminated by c Abd Allah 
b. Yasln. 

Bibliography: Ibn Hazm, Milal wa Nihal, 

iv, 183; Bakri, Description de I'Afrique Septen- 

trionale (ed. de Slane), 161; Friedlander, in JAOS, 

xxix, 75- (Ed.) 

BABJARMA, or Badjarmak, under the 'Abbasid 

Caliphate was the name of a district east of the 

Tigris between the I-esser Zab in the North and the 

Djabal Hamrin in the South. The chief town in the 

middle ages was Kirkuk (Syr. Karkha de Beth 

Slokh). It formed a district of the province of Mosul 

(cf. Ibn Khurradadhbih, 97, 7)- Badjarma is an 

Arabic rendering of the Aramaic Beth (Be) Garma 

while Badjarmak goes back to some Middle Persian 

form of the name of the district, like Garmakan. 

The latter word comes from the Gurumu, a nomadic 

people mentioned in cuneiform inscriptions, the 

r<xpa(i.aTot of Ptolemy. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Faklh, 35, 2i;i79, 5; 
Ibn Khurradadhbih, 94; Baladhuri, Futuh, 265, 
333; Yakut, i, 454; G. Hoffmann, Ausziige aus 
syrischen Akten persischer Martyrer, Leipzig 1880, 
44, 45, 253; M. Streck, Art. Garamaioi in Pauly- 
Wissowa, s.v. (where further references are given). 

(M. Streck*) 
BADJARWAN, (i) A town and fortress in 
Mukan (Adharbaydjan) lying S. of the river Aras 
(Araxes), between Ardabil and Bardha'a in Arran. 
Badjarwan is mentioned several times in the accounts 
of the Muslim conquest. Its capture by al-Ash c ath b. 
Kays al-Kindi seems to have been the signal for the 
final collapse of resistance throughout the province 
(Baladhuri, Futuh, 326). It was occupied by Sa'id b. 
'Amr al-Harashi during his campaign against the 
Khazars in 112/730 (D. M. Dunlop, History of the 



h Khaza 



, Princ 



1954, 



2-74). • 



Umayyad period Badjarwan is seldom mentioned. 
It is still named by Hamd Allah Mustawfi in the 
8th/i4th century as a stage in the road to the N.W. 
frontier, though it was then in ruins. (2) A town of 
Diyar Mudar in al-Djazira, near the R. Balikh, 
between Hisn Maslama and al-Rakka. 

Bibliography : Le Strange, 105, 175-176, 
230-231. (D. M. Dunlop) 

BAEJAWR, tract of mountainous country in 
the L-ir, Swat, and Citral agency of the Peshawar 
division, West Pakistan. It is bounded on the north 
by DIr; on the east by DIr and Swat; on the south- 
east and south by the Utman Khel and Mamund 
territories; and on the west by Afghanistan. It has 
an area of about 5,000 square miles and is intersected 
by five valleys — the Caharmung, Babukara, 
Watalai, Rud, and SGr Kamar. In the absence of 
any census the population has been estimated at 
100,000. Badjawr is the home of the Tarkanri 
Pathans who claim to be akin to the Yfisufzais. They 
are divided into four sections: the Isma c Ilzai, 'Isazai, 
Salarzai, and Mamunds. The Salarzai and Mamunds 
are also found across the Durand boundary in 
Afghanistan. Like the tribes of DIr, they are SunnI 
Muslims but are unusually susceptible to the 
influence of their mullahs. The Khan of Nawagai 
claims to be the hereditary chief of all the Badjawri 
tribes. The history of this area is almost inextricably 



with that of DIr and Swat. The fort 
of Badjawr was taken by Babur in 15 19 (vide 
A. S. Beveridge, Bdbur-ndma, 367-73). Akbar's 
forces were cut to pieces by the Yusufzais in 1585. 
In the reign of Awrangzib they constantly attacked 
the Mughal frontier outposts. They fought against 
the British in the Ambeyla campaign of 1280/1863 
and during the frontier conflagration of 1314-15/ 
1897. (C. Collin- Da vies) 

BADiIDjANA, (Sp. Pechina), ancient Spanish 
town which is to-day no more than a small country 
town. The Rio Andara (Wadi Badjdjana), which 
descends from the southern watershed of the Sierra 
Nevada, flows through Badjdjana and discharges 
itself into the sea 6o'/« m. (10 km.) lower down, near 
the watch-tower (Mdriyyat Badjdjdna), the site of 
the town which, under the sole name of al-Mariyya 
(Sp. Almeria), became the most active and flourishing 
Mediterranean port in al-Andalus. The groups of 
sailors settled between Alicante and Aguilas were in 
the habit of proceeding in the autumn towards the 
African coast, where they passed the winter, and of 
returning in the spring to the Peninsula, with huge 
cargoes; a number of them settled in the North 
African ports and founded, inter alia, the new Tenes, 
in 262/875. The canton of Pechina was then occupied 
by the Arabs of the Yemen, who had been charged 
by c Abd al-Rahman II with the task of maintaining 
a ribat to protect the coast against possible attack by 
the Madjus [q.v.]; in return, he had granted them 
possession of the fertile valley of the Andarax. 
Andalusian sailors returning from Tenes came to 
terms with these Arabs in order to found a sort of 
maritime republic, and made Badjdjana the capital 
of a small state. A large mosque built by the Arabs, 
and the ramparts erected by the sailors, made it a 
town which, as a result of the trade of its fleet, which 
anchored at Almeria, rapidly increased in size and 
prosperity. But after thirty-seven years of semi- 
independent existence, during which it was threat- 
ened by the Arab league at Elvira, it was incor- 
porated in 310/922 in the Umayyad community; it 
maintained its prosperity during the first half of the 
4th/ioth century, until c Abd al-Rahman III, in 
344/955, made Almeria the capital of the region and 
put in hand important town-planning schemes there. 
During the reign of al-Hakam II, the importance of 
Badjdjana declined still further, and in the 5th/nth 
century it was no more than a humble village, while 
Almeria became the capital of one of the kingdoms 
of the taifas. 

Bibliography: Bakri, Descr. de VAfr. sept., 
text 81, French trans. 163; Idrisi, text 200, French 
trans. 245; Yakut, i, 494-5; Simonet, Descripcidn 
del reino de Granada, 136-7; E. Levi- Provencal, 
Pininsule ibhique, 45-8; idem, Hist. Esp. mi*s., 
i, 348 ff. ; E. Levi- Provencal and E. Garcia G6mez, 
Una Crdnica (minima de c Abd al-Rahman III al- 
Ndsir, Madrid-Granada 1950, § 44. 

(A. Huici Miranda) 
AL-BAlill, Abu 'l-Walld Sulayman b. Khalaf, a 
distinguished theologian and literary figure in nth- 
century Spain. Born in 403/1012 of a family from 
Batalyaws (Badajoz) which had emigrated to Badja, 
modern Beja in S. Portugal (Ibn Bassam, cited 
Makkari, Analectes, i, 511), he frequented the schools 
at Cordova, gained some success as a poet and in 
426/1035 travelled to the East. He was absent from 
Spain for 13 years, three of which he spent at Mecca, 
in the service of the hdfiz Abu Dharr al-Harawi, who 
had been educated at Harat, Balkh and other places 
in Khurasan, and with whom al-BadjI now studied 



I.-BADJI — BADJISRA 



865 



Malik! fikh and hadith, accompanying him regularly 
to his home in al-Sarawat, i.e., the mountainous 
country between al-Tiharoa, Nadjd and al-Yaman. 
Later al-Badji passed to Baghdad, where for another 
three years he continued his studies, though so poor 
that he is said to have been obliged to earn his 
living as a night-watchman. We hear of him also 
at Mawsil, where according to one account (Makkari, 
i, 507, cf. Ibn Bashkuwal, i, 200, no. 449) for a year 
he applied himself to the recently-invented kaldm 
(scholastic theology), at Aleppo and Damascus, and 
in Egypt. He returned to Spain in or about 439/1047 
as poor as when he left it, but with greatly extended 
views. About this Hire, at the instance of the Spanish 
fakihs, he disputed in the island of Majorca with the 
celebrated Ibn Hazm, who in the sequel withdrew 
into private life and according to Ibn Sa'id (Mughrib, 
ed. Cairo 1953, i, 405) had to suffer the burning of his 
books. Even after his return al-Badji worked at a 
trade (gold-beating). At other times he acted as 
notary, or as kadi in provincial towns. But gradually 
his reputation established itself, and he died a rich 
man. His relations with the then holders of power, 
i.e., since the fall of the Umayyad Caliphate the 
Muluk al-JawaHf ('Party Kings'), attracted comment 
at the time and appear to have been principally due 
to al-Badji's desire to induce them to unite and live 
at peace among themselves (Makkari, i, 511). His 
proposals to this eDd, made in person, were on the 
whole badly received, except at Sarakusta (Saragossa) 
on the N.E. frontier, where the strength of the 
Christian kingdoms was fully appreciated. Al-Muk- 
tadir b. Hud of Saragossa (reigned 1046-1081) sent 
for al BadjI, and evidently he remained with al- 
Muktadir for a considerable time, since it was at 
Saragossa that his works appeared (Ibn Khakan. 
Roland, ed. S. al-Hara'iri, 215). Al-Badji died at 
Almerfa in 474/1081, i.e., in the same year as his 

If the main political purpose of his life remained 
unrealised, al-Badji was a prolific author of books, 
including a Commentary {shark) on the Muwatfa? of 
Malik, which especially in its short form, entitled 
al-Muntakd, enjoyed high estimation. Of his other 
works there have been printed (1) a Reply (Djawab) 
to the so-called Letter of the Monk of France {Risdlat 
al-Rdhib min Ifransa), for which see D. M. Dunlop, 
A Christian Mission to Muslim Spain in the nth 
Century, in Al-Andalus, xvii, 1952, 259-310. The 
Reply shows much dialectical ability, and repeatedly 
refers to kaldm. (2) The Epistle on Definitions 
(Risdla fi 'l-ifud&d), principally in fikh and hadith, 
edited by Djawda Hilal in Revista del Instituto 
Egipcio de Estudios Islamicos en Madrid, {Sahifat 
al-Ma'had al-Misri), Vol. ii, Madrid 1954, Arabic 
section, 1-37. 

Bibliography: Brockelmann, I, 419, and SI, 
743-744; M. Asin Palacios, Abenhdzam de Cordoba, 
i, Madrid 1927, 200-208. (D. M. Dunlop) 

BADJlLA. an Arab tribe, reckoned along with 
Khath'am as a subdivision of Anmar; the nisba is 
Badjall. Badjila is sometimes said to be a woman, 
but her place in the genealogy is vague (cf. F. 
Wiistenfeld, Register zu den genealogischen Tabellen, 
101-3; also Die Chroniken der Stadt Mekka, Leipzig 
1858, ii, 134). Some genealogists held that Badjila 
was a Yemenite tribe; others made Anmar the son 
of NIzar b. Ma'add b. <Adnan (Ibn Hadjar, Usd al- 
Ghdba, i, 279, art. 'Djarir b. c Abd Allah' ; Ibn Durayd, 
ed. Wiistenfeld, 101 f.). The tribe was sometimes 
taunted with this uncertainty about their ancestry 
(41-Mas c udI, Murudi, vi, 143). Along with Khath c am, 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



Tamlm, Bakr and c Abd al-Kays they raided c Irak 
under Shahpur II (c. 310-379), but suffered severely 
when he counter-attacked. In Muhammad's, time 
they were found in a part of the mountain chain 
of the Sarat some distance south of Mecca. As a 
result of feuds with neighbouring tribes and between 
the clans of Badjila (such as Ahmas, Kasr, Zayd b. 
al-Ghawth, 'Urayna), the tribe became scattered, and 
many parts of it had to seek protection (djiwdr) from 
stronger tribes (cf. Mufaddaliyat, ed. C. J. Lyall, 
i, 115 f.). Towards the end of Muhammad's life 
Djarir b. £ Abd Allah al-Badjali came to him with 
150 men professing Islam, and was sent to destroy 
the idol Dhu '1-Khalasa at Tabala, which was wor- 
shipped by Badjila and Khath'am. Djarir performed 
various other commissions efficiently, and under 
Abu Bakr and 'Umar was an important military 
leader. He and the men of Badjila who followed him 
seem to have been independent allies of the caliph 
for a time, and by treaty with c Umar were to receive 
a quarter of what was captured, that is, presumably 
of the lands in the Sawad (al-Baladhuri, Futuh, 253, 
267), but three years later they were persuaded to 
give up their lands and to receive instead a stipend. 
c Umar ordered sections of Badjila which were under 
the protection (dfiwdr) of other tribes to attach 
themselves to Djarir (Mufaddaliyat, I.e.; also Usd 
al-Ghaba, I.e.). It is stated that at this time c Arfadja 
b. Harthama of Barik, a part of the Azd, though only 
a halif of Badjila, was its sayyid. Khalid b. c Abd 
Allah al-Kasri, who was prominent in the later 
Umayyad period, belonged to Badjila, though his 
adversaries questioned this (cf. I. Goldziher, Muham- 
medanische Studien, i, 205). 

Bibliography : in addition to the sources 

mentioned in the article, A. P. Caussin de 

Perceval, Essai sur I'Histoire des Arabes avant 

I'Islamisme, Paris 1847; AghdnP, xiii 4 f.; ZDMG 

xxii, 667; Farazdak, Diwdn (ed. Boucher and 

Hell), nos. 82, 256, 279, 644. 

(W. Montgomery Watt) 

BADJIMZA or Bagimza, in the time of the 
c Abb5sid Caliphate, was a village north-east of 
Baghdad, some 8 miles from Ba'kubS, where the 
caliph al-Muktafi bi-Amr Allah put to flight the 
troops of the Saldjuk Sultan Muhammad II under 
Alp Rush Kun-i Khar in 549/1 154. 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 497, 706; Ibn al- 

Athir, xi, 129; Houtsma, Recueil, ii, 237 ff. 

(Ed.) 

BADJISRA. This was a small town in c Ir&k, 
situated some 10 farsakhs to the north-east of 
Baghdad and a short distance due south of Ba'kuba 
on the left bank of the Nahraw&n river, which 
attained the name of Tamarra on its arrival at 
Badjisra. The town is described by the Arab geo- 
graphers as being a prosperous and pleasant recreat- 
ional centre with many date groves and a consider- 
able population, but it was laid waste in the time of 
Ibn c Abd al-Hakk, author of the Mardsid, who died 
in 739/1338. The name Badjisra, which is derived 
from Syriac, means "house of the bridge" i.e. the 
location of the bridge. 

The modern village named "Abu pjisra", however, 
is not the same town. Apparently, the name of this 
village is inferred from the ancient nomenclature of 
Badjisra. Modern Abu-DjisrS is one of the larger 
villages in the MikdSdiyya (Shahraban) kada> in 
the DiySla liwd' of c Ir5k. According to the 1947 
census, its inhabitants totalled 768 in number. 

There are various references to Badjisra in the 
histories. It is mentioned by Ibn al-Athir in the 

55 



BADJISRA — BADJKAM 



annals of the years 68/688, 334/945-6, 439/'047, 
488/1 095 and 496/1 102-3. During the last three of 
these, the town was subjected to plundering. In the 
annals of the year 597/1201, Ibn al-Sal mentions 
the death of Mithkal, an attendant of the daughter 
of the 'Abbasid caliph Al-Mustandjid, al-FIruzadjiyya, 
who was the administrator of the prefecture of 
Badjisra. Badjisra is the birth place of a number of 
poets and men of letters, and some of them are 
mentioned by Yakut. 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 454; Ibn c Abd al- 
Hakk, Mardsid, Cairo 1954, i 147; Ibn Serapion 
(ed. Le Strange), in JRAS, 1895, 19; Ibn Khurra- 
dadhbih, 175; Ibn Kusta, 90; al-Mukaddasi, 115; 
al-Mas c udi, al-Tanbih, 53; Miskawayh, Tadidrub 
(Amedroz), ii, 84; Ibn al-Athlr, iv, 242, viii, 337, 
ix, 367, x, 166, 244; idem, al-Lubab ft Tahdhib 
al-Ansdb, i, 82; Hamd Allah Mustawfi, Nuzha, 
43 ; Le Strange, 59 ; Sumer, viii, 1952, 249 ; A. Sousa, 
Rayy Sdmarrd, Baghdad 1948, 363. 

(G. Awad) 
BADJKAM (Abu '1-Husayn), properly Backam 
(an Iranian word which passed into Turkish, meaning 
the tail of a horse or yak, see Benveniste in J A, 
1948, 183), name of a Turkish amir who was 
initially a ghuldm in the service of Makan and 
subsequently in that of another Daylamite, Marda- 
wldj, master of Gilan, Tabaristan and the Djibal. 
When Mardawldj's Turkish ghuldms, provoked by 
his bullying, killed their master in 323/935, Badjkam 
placed himself at their head and fled with them. 
After offering his services to Hasan b. Harun, the 
ephemeral governor of the Djibal appointed by the 
wazir Ibn Mukla, he directed his steps towards 
Baghdad, in the expectation of being taken into the 
Caliph's army. He was rejected, however, owing to 
the jealousy of the Hudjari guards. Ibn Ra'ik, who 
was then governor of Wasit and Basra, took him 
into his service with his Turks, and he was henceforth 
called Badjkam Ra'iki. He became the leader of a 
large band consisting of his ghuldms and other 
Turks and Daylamis who came from the Djibal at 
his summons. 

When, at the end of 324/beginning of November 
936, Ibn Ra'ik was appointed by the Caliph al-Radi 
to the office of amir al-umard', Badjkam became his 
chief lieutenant both in his struggle against the 
undisciplined guards of the Caliph, Sadjis and 
Hudjaris, and against the ambitious governor of 
al-Ahwaz (Khuzistan), Abu «Abd Allah al-Baridl. 
Upon his arrival in Baghdad, Ibn Ra'ik at once 
proceeded to take rigorous measures against the 
Sadjis; then at the beginning of 325/end of November 
936, having gone down to Wasit with the Caliph, 
with the effective help of Badjkam he rid himself of 
the Hudjaris who had accompanied the Caliph. 
Badjkam and Ibn Ra'ik then returned to Baghdad 
where Badjkam was appointed Prefect of Police and 
governor of the Eastern provinces (February 937). 
Ibn Ra'ik had been unable to come to terms with 
al-Baridl, whose aim was to seize Lower 'Irak and 
then to take the place of the amir al-umard', and 
it was therefore decided to institute military 
operations against him. Though Ibn Ra'ik suffered 
defeat and was unable to prevent al-Barldi's entering 
Basra, Badjkam enjoyed greater success; after 
two brillant victories over al-Barldl's troops, who 
considerably outnumbered his own, he took the 
whole of Khuzistan and al-Baridl was obliged to 
flee to Basra. Then, recalled by Ibn Ra'ik, he 
rejoined the latter on the Basran front where 
they were both nearly taken prisoner. Al-Baridl, 



however, had gone to Fars to ask the help of the 
Buyid 'All ('Imad al-Dawla), who sent his brother 
Ahmad (Mu'izz al-Dawla) to recover Khuzistan. At 
the request of Ibn Ra'ik, Badjkam agreed to return 
thither, provided he might enjoy full sovereignty 
there. However fortune changed and he had to 
retreat before the Buyid and return to Wasit, 
whilst Ibn Ra'ik left for Baghdad to find the money 
requested by Badjkam to pay his troops (326/ 
beginning 938). Badjkam remained at Wasit, 
without attempting to recover Khuzistan from the 
Buyid, as was Ibn Ra'ik's wish. 

Henceforth it was Badjkam's idea to revolt 
against Ibn Ra'ik and take his place. Perturbed by 
developments, Ibn Ra'ik had just become reconciled 
with al-Baridi. So as to detach the latter from Ibn 
Ra'ik and make sure of his support, Badjkam now 
promised that once he became master of the capital, 
he would give him the governorship of Wasit 
which, shortly before, al-Baridl had unsuccessfully 
attempted to take from Badjkam by force. An 
agreement to this effect was concluded. Moreover 
the former wazir Ibn Mukla, wishing to revenge 
himself on Ibn Ra'ik, who had confiscated his 
property, started to correspond with Badjkam, 
encouraging him in his resolve, and recommended 
him to the Caliph al-Radi as a successor to Ibn 
Ra'ik. Al-Radi adopted Ibn Mukla's views and 
secretly encouraged Badjkam, as can be seen from 
an account given by the historian al-SulI, a confidant 
of the Caliph and of Badjkam (42-44, trans, i, 89-90), 
though he nevertheless handed Ibn Mukla over to 
Ibn Ra'ik. In Dhu '1-Ka«da 326/September 938, 
Badjkam, who had marched on the capital on the 
pretext of coming to ask for the pay for his troops, 
entered Baghdad, in spite of the efforts of Ibn Ra'ik, 
who had tried to stop him on the Nahr Diyala by 
flooding it with the waters of the Nahrawan canal 
and destroying a bridge. At Baghdad, whilst Ibn 
Ra'ik sought refuge in flight, the Caliph at once 
appointed Badjkam amir al-umard'. 

Badjkam, the amir al-umard', had to contend 
with the Hamdanid of Mawsil, Hasan b. <Abd 
Allah, who was not fulfilling his financial obligations. 
At the beginning of the year 327/October-November 
938, Badjkam marched against him with the Caliph, 
and entered Mawsil after having crushed Hamdanid 
resistance below the town, but was unable to 
take Hasan, who fled into the Djazira, where 
Badjkam pursued him to no avail. Badjkam's troops 
were unremittingly harrassed at Mawsil. Thereupon, 
as Ibn Ra'ik had taken advantage of these circum- 
stances to make a sudden irruption into Baghdad, 
Badjkam negotiated with the Hamdanid and 
likewise with Ibn Ra'ik. A treaty was concluded at 
the end of 938 with the Hamdanid who offered to 
pay over an initial sum as part of the tribute. Ibn 
Ra'ik agreed to leave Baghdad and to accept as 
compensation the governorship of the Tank al- 
Furat, the Diyar Mudar, the djund of Kinnasrin and 
the 'awdfim [q.v.]. He left Baghdad on the 28th of 
January 939 and the Caliph and Badjkam returned 
to the capital at the beginning of February 939. 

Badjkam then had to parry the menace from the 
Buyids which overshadowed Lower 'Irak, and this 
led to a closer though ephemeral understanding 
between Badjkam and al-Baridl. The latter received 
the governorship of Wasit and carried out a successful 
operation against the Buyid in Susiana. He then 
obtained the office of wazir, but remained at Wasit, 
his functions at Baghdad being performed only by 
a delegate. In 328/939-940, Badjkam married one 



BADJKAM — BADR 



of his daughters. The Buyid had not relinquished 
his ambitions and had obtained the support of 
another of his brothers, Hasan (Rukn al-Dawla), 
master of the Djibal. The latter marched on Wasit 
and set up his camp on the left bank of the Tigris 
opposite the town, though he was obliged to with- 
draw, when the arrival of Badjkam and the Caliph 
was announced. On the other hand, the army sent 
against the same Hasan in the Djibal by Badjkam 
was defeated. 

It was not long, however, before dissension arose 
between Badjkam and al-Baridi, who did not 
conceal his intention of becoming amir al-umard' 
and who was very careful not to support the expe- 
dition sent by Badjkam into the Djibal. At the end 
of 328/August 940, Badjkam removed him from the 
office of wazir and decided to carry out an expedition 
against Wasit. For some time he had been worried 
by the behaviour of al-Baridi and, in July, he 
abandoned the plan he had formed of going to fight 
the Buyid in the Djibal and returned hastily to 
Baghdad. Then he marched against Wasit and 
entered the town abandoned by al-Baridi. Badjkam 
remained there until his death. He was there when 
the Caliph al-Radi died in Rabi' I 329/December 940. 
The Caliph al-Muttaki confirmed him in the office 
of amir al-umard'. In April 941, Badjkam left Wasit 
at the request of his lieutenants, who were operating 
against the forces of al-Baridi in the region of 
Madhar to the south-east of Wasit, and who had 
suffered a reverse. It was his intention to join them, 
but upon arriving at Badhbln, he received the news 
that al-Baridi had been defeated. He decided to go 
back. On the way, whilst hunting, he met a party 
of Kurdish brigands, whom he engaged in combat. 
He received a blow from the lance of a Kurd who 
struck him from behind, and died on the 21 Radjab 
329/21 April 941. 

Badjkam, the Turkish slave, had received his 
training at the hands of Makan, to whom he was 
always very grateful. He understood Arabic, though 
he hesitated to speak it for fear of making mistakes, 
and employed an interpreter. He was, however, 
respected by men of letters, and enjoyed the company 
of men like al-Suli and the physician Sinan b. 
fhabit, who have left us invaluable recollections of 
him- and to whom he granted generous pensions. 
Covetous of power and money, he did not hesitate to 
resort to dissimulation and ruse, corruption and 
torture to attain his ends; he was at times cruel, 
though his bravery was legendary, and was more 
upright in character than Ibn Ra'ik: so it was that 
the Caliph al-Radi preferred him to Ibn Ra'ik. He 
was attentive to the well-being of his subjects and 
had gained the affection of the people of Wasit, 
though those of Baghdad held him of less account. 
He founded a guest-house (ddr diydja) at Wasit at 
a time of famine and a hospital at Baghdad. He 
offered the Karamita large sums of money to restore 
the Black Stone to Mecca, but without success. At 
the request of the Shl c is he had the mosque of 
Baratha, which had been destroyed on al-Muktadir's 
order, rebuilt. From the time he spent in Iranian 
lands, he retained the custom of celebrating the 
Iranian feasts such as the Sadhak and the Nawruz. 
On the coins struck in his effigy, see al-Mas c udI, 
Murudj, viii, 341. 

Bibliography: Mas'udI, Murudi, viii, 340, 
341, 375,433, ix, 2°-1i - , Sull, Akhbar al-Radi wa 
'l-Muttaki, see index to trans. M. Canard, 2 vol., 
1946-50; Miskawayh, Tadi&rib al-Umam, ed. 
Amedroz and Margoliouth, i, 331-332, 351, 35°"357, 



361, 365, 370-374, 375 i; 378-379, 382-386, 391, 
393-396, 397-398, 405, 410, 411-416, 417-420, ii, 
9-12; Tanukhl, al-FaraH ba'd al-Shidda, ii, 131, 
133, 136; Ibn al-Athir, viii, 225 f. (Cairo ed. 1303/ 
1885-6, viii, 103 f.); Yakut, i, 532, ii, 213, iv, 
849; Ibn Khaldun, al-Hbar, iv, 432 ff.; Abu 
'1-Fida', ed. Reiske, ii, 400 ff.; Abu '1-MahSsin, 
Nud[um, Cairo ed., iii, 262-264, 266, 270, 272, 3or ; 
Defremery, Mimoire sur les Emirs Al-Omera, 129, 
133-155; Weil, Chalifen, ii, 664 f.; MWler, Der 
Islam im Morgen- und Abendland, i, 566; Mez, 
Renaissance, 25-26 and index; H. Bowen, The 
Life and Times af 'All ibn f Isd, Cambridge 
1928 ; M. Canard, Histoire de la dynastic des Hamd- 
dnides, i, 416-421; Hasan Ibrahim Hasan, 
Ta'rikh al-Isldm, iii, Cairo 1949, 44, 46, 47-48, 
275, 431- (M. Canard) 

BADjCRl (or BaydjurI), IbrahIm b. Muhammad, 
a §hafi c I scholar and author. Bom in 1 198/1783 in 
Badjflr, a village in the Manufiyya province of 
Egypt ( C A1I Pasha Mubarak, al-Khifat al-D£adida, 
Bulak 1306, ix, 2), he studied at al-Azhar, became 
a very successful teacher there, Rector (shaykh al- 
Azhar) in 1263/1846, and died in 1276/1860. The 
most popular items in his very extensive but wholly 
derivative literary production are: (1) a Risdla ft 
l llm al-Tawhid; (2) al-Mawdhib al-Laduniyya, a 
commentary on the K. al-Shamd'il of al-Tirmidhl : 
(3) a gloss on the commentary of Musannifek on 
the Burda of al-BusIrl; (4) a gloss on the Fath al- 
Ifarlb of Muhammad b. al-Kasim al GhazzI, a com- 
mentary on the Takrib or Mukhtasar of Abu Sh,udja c 
(transl. by E. Sachau, Muhammedanisches Rtcht, 
Stuttgart and Berlin 1897; cf. C. Snouck Hurgronje, 
367 ff.); (5) a commentary on the 'Akida al-$ugjtrd 
or Umm al-Bardhin of al-SanusI; (6) a gloss on a 
commentary on the Diawharat al-Tawhid of Ibrahim 
b. Ibrahim al-Lakanl; (7) a gloss on the commentary 
of al-Shinshawrl on the Urdjuza of al-Rahbl, known 
as Ibn al-Mutakkina (transl. by J. D. Luciani, Traiti 
des successions musulmanes, Paris 1890); (8) a gloss 
on al-Akhdari's commentary on his own al-SuUam 
al-Murawnak; (9) a commentary on the K if dyat al- 
'Awdmm of his teacher al-Fadall; (10) a commentary 
on the Mawlid of al-Dardlr; (11) a commentary on 
al-Tarsif /» c Ilm al-Tasrif by c Abd al-Rahman b. 
'Isa al-Murshidl; (12) a gloss on a commentary on 
the Fard'id al-FawdHd fi 'l-Isti'dra of al-Laythl al- 
Samarkandl; (13) a commentary on a versification 
of the Adiurrumiyya of Ibn Adjurrum. 

Bibliigraphy: Brockelmann, 11,639; S II, 
741; Sarkls, Mu'diam al-Mafbii'dt al-'Arabiyya, 
Cairo 1928, 507 f.; A. von Kremer, Aegypten, 
Leipzig 1863, ii, 322 f.; C. Snouck Hurgronje, 
Verspreide GeschrifUn, ii, Bonn and Leipzig 
1923, 367 ff., 415 ff- (Th. W. Juynboll*) 

BADR, or Badr Hunayn, a small town south- 
west of Medina, a night's journey from the coast, 
and at the junction of a road from Medina with the 
caravan route from Mecca to Syria. It lies in a plain, 
5 m. (8 km.) long and 2 1 /, m. (4 km.) broad, surrounded 
by steep hills and sand-dunes, and was a market 



Here occurred on 17 (or 19 or 21) Ramadan, 2 A.H. 
(= 13 or 15 or 17 March, 624) the first great battle 
of Muhammad's career. Though there is a wealth of 
detail in the early sources, it is difficult to give a 
clear account of the battle and the events which led 
up to it. It is generally held that the earliest and 
most reliable version is that contained in a letter 
from c Urwa b. al-Zubayr to the caliph «Abd al-Malik 
(preserved in al-Tabari, i, 1284 ff.), though even this 



has some material which seems to be legendary. 
Muhammad received information that a rich caravan 
was returning from Syria to Mecca, led by Abu 
Sufyan b. Harb, chief of the clan of Umayya. He 
collected a force of slightly over 300 men (about 
80 Emigrants, the rest Ansar), and marched to the 
neighbourhood of Badr in hopes of intercepting the 
caravan. Abu Sufyan on his side had sent a request 
to Mecca for a force to protect the caravan while it 
traversed the region easily accessible from Medina. 
Since the Meccans are said to have spent over a week 
on the way from Mecca to Badr, Abu Sufyan must 
have sent his request some time beforehand, though 
the sources assert that he only did so after hearing 
of Muhammad's preparations. 

The Meccan force, commanded by Abu Djahl of 
the clan of Makhzum, consisted of about 950 men 
from all the clans of Kuraysh. Before they reached 
Badr they received a message from Abu Sufyan to 
say that, by forced marches along a route closer to 
the coast than the usual one, he had eluded the 
Muslims. Abu Djahl, however, despite the disap- 
proval of some senior men and the withdrawal of 
the contingents from the clans of Zuhra and c Adi 
decided to go forward to Badr and make a display 
of strength. He and his supporters doubtless con- 
sidered that they were so strong that Muhammad 
would not venture to attack (cf. Kur'an viii, 47/49)- 

Muhammad does not appear to have known of 
the expedition under Abu Djahl until the evening 
before the battle when some of his men captured a 
Meccan water-carrier at the wells of Badr. The camp 
of the Meccans was still out of sight behind a hill. 
This fortuitous encounter may have made it easier 
for Muhammad to persuade all his followers to fight, 
since in the circumstances it would have been 
dishonourable to withdraw. On the following 
morning Muhammad moved quickly and seized the 
wells, filling all with sand except that nearest the 
enemy, where he stationed his men. The enemy was 
thus forced to fight for his water supply willy-nilly. 
All that can be said of the course of the battle is that 
there appear to have been some single combats 
followed by a general melee. What is certain is that 
the Meccans suffered a catastrophic defeat. Nearly 
seventy of them were killed (including Abu Djahl 
and a dozen of their leaders) and nearly seventy 
taken prisoner and later ransomed for considerable 
sums; only about fifteen Muslims were killed. 

This was a disaster for Mecca, but not a crippling 
one. The loss of many leading men was grave, but 
perhaps the most serious aspect was the loss of 
prestige. To recover prestige it was essential that 
they should punish Muhammad. For the Muslims it 
seemed a vindication of their faith, brought about 
for them by God (cf. Kur'an viii, 17, 42/43) ; they 
believed that He had sent his angels to their 

Muhammad spent much time in prayer and received 
assurances that he would be victorious (viii, 7, 9). The 
Muslims looked on this as the punishment long 
foretold for the unbelievers. According to a probable 
suggestion (R. Bell, The Origin of Islam in its 
Christian Environment, London 1926, 118 ff.; In- 
troduction to the Qur'dn, Edinburgh 1953, 136-8), 
the word furkdn applied to Badr means 'deliverance 
from judgement' (cf. Kur'an, viii, 29, 41/42). The 
Muslims were thus confirmed in their faith and led 
to exaggerate their own importance — an exag- 
geration which resulted in a spiritual crisis after the 
reverse at Uhud (Kur'an, viii, 65/66; contrast 66/67). 
Muhammad himself from this time onward was in a 



much stronger position in Medina. The self-con- 
fidence induced in the Muslims by their victory, and 
the prestige they thus acquired, were factors without 
which Islam could hardly have developed as it did. 
Those who had fought at Badr as Muslims — the 
Badriyyun — came to be regarded as an aristocracy 
of merit, and in most versions of the diwan of c Umar 
are said to have constituted the highest class of 
Muslims. 

Muhammad undertook a second expedition to 
Badr in Sha'bSn or Dhu '1-Ka c da 4 A.H. (= Jan. or 
April 626) in accordance with a promise given to 
Abu Sufyan as he retired from Uhud. Both Muham- 
mad and the Meccans had much larger forces, but 
there was no fighting, though the Muslims did good 

Badr is mentioned by the geographers of Arabia; 
e.g., Yakut,!. 524 t; al-Bakri, i 4 if.; al-MukaddasI, 
82 f. ; al-Mas c udi, 237. The traveller J. L. Burckhardt 
examined the site with the battle in mind (Reisen 
in Arabien, 1830, 614-19). 

Bibliography (battle): Ibn Hisham, 427-539; 
al-Wakidi (tr. J. Wellhausen), 37-90; al-Tabari, i, 
1281-1359; Caetani, Annali, i, 472-518; Fr. Buhl, 
Das Leben Muhammeds, Leipzig 1930, 238-45; 
W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at Medina, 
Oxford 1956, 10-16; M. Hamidullah, The Battle- 
fields of the Prophet Muhammad, Woking 1373/ 
1953, n-17. (W. Montgomery Watt) 

BADR (PIr), Shayioj Badr al-DIn Badr-i c Alam, 
a saint of the Djunaydiyya order, venerated by the 
people of Bihar and Bengal. In Bengal he enjoys the 
reputation of sharing with PanC Pit of Sonargaon 
the dominion of the waters. While putting to sea 
the sailors of Bengal utter the invocation: "Allah, 
Nabi, Panl Pir, Badr, Badr" PIr Badr originally 
belonged to Meerut (in Uttar Pradesh) where his 
great grandfather, Shaykh Fakhr al-DIn Zahid 
(d. 704/1304) had established a great mystic centre. 
His grandfather, Shaykh Shihab al-DIn Hakk-gu was 
killed by Muhammad b. Tughluk (725-752/1325-1351) 
for criticising his religious views. PIr Badr received 
his spiritual training at the feet of his father, Fakhr 
al-DIn II, and the Suhrawardl saint, Sayyid Djalal 
al-DIn Bukhari. Shaykh Sharaf al-DIn Yahya 
invited him to Bihar but he reached there after the 
former's death in 782/1380. He first married into a 
Hindu family of Bihar and later entered into 
matrimonial relationship with the ruling house of 
Djaunpur. During his travels in East Bengal he 
converted a large number of Hindu sailors to Islam. 
He also helped in the establishment of Muslim power 
at Sonargaon. He sojourned for sometime in Cit- 
tagong where his (ilia, in the western quarter of 
Bakhshl Bazar, is regarded as the palladium of the 
city and is visited by Hindu and Muslim sailors 
alike. Authority over the seas and rivers is considered 
a special spiritual attribute of his family. Fakhr 
al-DIn Zahid is reported to have rescued a party 
from sinking into the river Yamuna. It is said that 
PIr Badr reached Cittagong 'floating on a rock'. He 
died on 27 Radjab 844/22 December 1440 in Bihar 
where his mausoleum is known as ChotI Dargah (the 
mausoleum of Sharaf al-DIn Yahya Maneri being 
known as Ban Dargah). 

Bibliography: c Abd al-Hayy, Nuzhat al- 
i£hawd(ir, Haydarabad 1951, iii, 36. 'Ubayd 
aJ-Hakk, Tadhkira-i Awliya'-i Bangdla, Noakhali 
1931, 64-72; JASB, Part I, No. 3, 1873, 302-3. For 
his ancestors: Muljammad Ghawthi. Oulzdr-i Abrdr 
(As. Soc. Bengal, Ivanow 97, f. 14) ; 'Abd al-Hakk 



BADR — BADR al-DJAMALI 



869 



Dihlawl, Akhbdr al-Akhydr, Delhi 1891, 129; 
Ghulam Mu'In al-DIn, Ma'aridf al-Wildya (Per- 
sonal collection) ii, 536. (K. A. Nizami) 
BADR b. tfASANWAYH [see ijasanwayh, 
banu]. 

BADR al-DAWLA [see artuicids]. 
BADR al-DIN [see lu'lu 1 ]. 
BADR AL-DlN b. $Apl SAM AWN A, eminent 
Ottoman jurist, Sufi and rebel. Badr al-DIn 
Mahmud b. Kadi Samawna was born in 760 AH/3 
Dec. 1358 in Samawna (which corresponds to the 
former Greek e£? 'A|i|i6(3oi>vov near Adrianople). 
He was the eldest son of the judge GhazI Israll, 
who was one of the oldest fighters for the faith of his 
time, and traced his ancestry back to the Saldjuks. 
His mother was Greek, and took the name Melek 
after her conversion to Islam. Badr al-DIn spent his 
youth in Adrianople (which had been conquered in 
spring 1361). He was taught the basis of Islamic 
religion and law by his father and, later on, by the 
jurists Yusuf and Shahidi. His subsequent studies 
took him to Brusa, in the company of his friend 
Musa Celebi, better known as Kadlzade-i Rumi, a 
brilliant mathematician and astronomer. Up to 
1381, he studied logic and astronomy in Konya 
under a certain Fayd Allah. After that, Badr al-DIn 
went to Jerusalem, where he worked under the 
otherwise not particularly well known Ibn al- 
'Askalanl (not the famous Ibn Hadjar al- c AskalanJ>, 
then he went to Cairo, attracted by the teaching of 
such famous scholars as Mubarakshah al-Mantikl, 
the physician HadjdjI Pasha, the philosopher and 
lawyer 'All b. Muhammad al-Sayyid al-Sharlf al- 
Diurdianl. and a certain c Abd al-Latlf. In about 
1383, Badr al-DIn went on the pilgrimage to Mecca. 
After his return to Cairo, the Mamluk sultan Barkuk 
appointed him as tutor to his son Faradj, who was to 
succeed him. By some fateful chance, Badr al-DIn 
met the Sufi Shaykh Husayn Akhlatl at the Mamluk 
court, and under his overpowering influence he 
(a former opponent of the Sufis) himself accepted 
Sufism. After some years of monastic life in Cairo, 
Badr al-DIn travelled to Tabriz in 1402-3 — possibly 
attracted by the fame of the Safawiyya in Ardabll — 
and there he came to the notice of TImur Lang, who 
had just returned from Anatolia and attempted to 
take Badr al-DIn with him to Central Asia. This 
he avoided by fleeing. He became Shaykh of his 
monastery and successor to Husayn Akhlatl (who 
had died in the meantime), but as a result of dif- 
ferences with his brethren he decided to leave Cairo 
and undertake a missionary journey to Asia Minor 
and Rumelia. He succeededfin gaining the sympathy 
of the princes of Konya and Germiyan, and also in 
attracting Hamid b. Musa al-Kaysari, a member of 
the Safawid order and later teacher of HadjdjI 
Bayram Wall [q.v.]. Following the success of his 
Sufi convictions, Badr al-Din gradually developed 
into an open heretic: he propagated the idea of 
common ownership, and developed in a consistent 
and daring way the ideas of the heretic Muhyl 
al-DIn b. al-'Arabi [q.v.]. The crowds of impoverished 
people whom he attracted in Asia Minor must 
have been considerable. Christians, too, came over 
to him, and it is said that he was in touch with 
the Genoese ruler of Chtys. Finally, Badr al-DIn 
landed again in Adrianople, Iwhere he retired for seven 
years to lead a life of solitude and study. Around 
1410, and against his will, he was made military 
judge by the claimant to the Sultanate, Musa, but 
after the victory of Sultan Mehemmed I near 
Camurlu (1413), he was dismissed from his pest and 



banished to Iznik under rather humiliating circum- 
stances. There he wrote and taught, and Ak Shams 
al-DIn [q.v.] — who later became famous as Shaykh of 
the Bayramiyya — is said to have been one of his 
pupils for a short time. It was probably there, too, 
that he became connected (in ways which are not 
yet clear) with the communist underground move- 
ment of a certain Biirkludje Mustafa, and a certain 
Torlak Hu Kemal, which led to the extensive 
rebellion in 1416, as whose ideological head Badr 
al-DIn appears. Whilst on the one hand the biography 
of Badr al-DIn (which was written by his grandson 
Khalll) asserts his complete innocence in all these 
events, the official Ottoman historians, on the 
other hand, accuse him of active participation — even 
of leadership in the rebellion. At the time when 
Burkludje Mustafa and Torlak Hu Kemal started 
their attack in western Asia Minor (where, to begin 
with, they had considerable success), Badr al-DIn 
left Iznik and reached Rumelia with the secret help 
of the discontented prince of Sinope. After the 
rebellion of Burkludje Mustafa and Torlak Hu 
Kemal had been most cruelly suppressed, the revolt 
in Rumelia also collapsed and Badr al-DIn was 
caught by troops of the Sultan and dragged to 
Serres in Macedonia, where Sultan Mehemmed I 
was fighting the "false Mustafa" (Duzme Mustafa 
[q.v.]). After a somewhat questionable trial, Badr 
al-DIn was publicly hanged as a traitor in Serres on 
18 Dec. 1416. The r61e played by Badr al-DIn in 
this rising is still by no means clear. It is certain, 
however, that his ideology was in sympathy with it, 
and that his ideas did have an enduring influence. 
There is documentary evidence that there were 
followers of the Badr al-DIn movement in Rumelia 
even under Suleyman the Magnificent. After the 
death of their hero, many of them turned to the 
now politically active Safawiyya, whilst others 
merged into sundry sects, especially the Bektashiyya. 
The most famous of Badr al-DIn's descendants — 
beside his three sons Ahmad, Isma'Il and Mustafa — 
was his grandson Khalll (the son of Ismail) who was 
Badr al-DIn's biographer. 

As a writer, Badr al-DIn was extremely prolific. 
He wrote close on 50 extensive works, most of them 
on matters of law. His most important Sufi works 
are the Wdriddt and the Nur al-^ulub. 

Bibliography: F. Babinger, Schejch Bedr ed- 
Din, der Sohn der Richters von Simdw in : Der Islam, 
xi (1924, iff- and the supplements in: Der Islam, 
xvii (1928), 100 ff., and Beitrdge zur Fruhgeschichte 
der Tiirkenherrschaft in Rumelien (14th- 1 5th century) 
Siidosteurop&ische Arbeiten No. 34, Briinn-Munich- 
Vienna 1944, 80 ff.; M. Serefeddin [Yaltkaya], 
Simavna Kadlsl Oghlu Sheykh Bedr al-Din, 
Istanbul 1925 ; idem, article Bedreddin in I A (with 
details concerning Badr al-DIn's religious views); 
H. J. Kissling, Das Mendqybndme Scheich Bedr 
ed-Din's, des Sohnes des Richters von Samdvnd, in 
ZDMO, C (1950) 1 12 ff. (based on the Mendkibndme 
of Khalll, edited by F. Babinger 1943) ; idem, Zur 
GeschichU des Derwischordens der Bajrdmijje in: 
Sudostfotochungen xv (1956) 237 ft. (concerning the 
connexions between Badr al-DIn and the Safa- 
wiyya, Khalwatiyya and Bayramiyya). Further 
matter in the above-mentioned works. 

(H. J. Kissling) 
BADR al-DJAMALI, a Fatimid commander- 
in-chief and vizier. The formerly brilliant Fatimid 
empire was on the verge of downfall under the 
incapable Caliph Mustansir (427-487/1036-1094). The 
Saldjuks were pressing forward into Syria, in Egypt 



BADR al-DJAMALI — BADRA 



the Turkish slave-guards were fighting with the 
negro-corps, a seven years' famine was exhausting 
the resources of the country; all state authority had 
disappeared in the general struggle; hunger and dis- 
ease were carrying off the people, licence and violence 
were destroying all prosperity and it appeared as if the 
Fatimid kingdom must disappear in a chaos of 
anarchism. Then, on the call of the Caliph, the 
Syrian general Badr al-Djamali took command of 
the government as well as of the army and with 
great though brutal vigour brought order into affairs 
again and indeed a second period of splendour to the 
Fatimid empire. 

Badr was an Armenian slave of the Syrian amir 
Djamal al-Dawla Ibn 'Ammar, whence his name al- 
Djamall. He must have been born about the beginning 
of the 5th/uth century, for at his death in 487/1094 
he was over 80 years old. Even before he became 
vizier he had made a great name for himself in Syria. 
He was twice appointed Governor of Damascus, but 
fell into difficulties each time on account of his 
stringent measures with the pampered troops. He 
then became commander-in-chief of c Akka and in 
this capacity had to fight against the troops of Malik- 
shah. He had an Armenian bodyguard for himself 
and the soldiers he commanded were also to be 
relied on. He took them with him on being 
summoned by the Caliph in 466/1073 to deliver 
him out of the hands of the despotic Turkish 
officials. The latter never suspected the reason of 
Badr"s coming to Egypt, fell into the trap pre- 
pared for them and were all murdered in one night. 
Badr thereby became master of the situation. Now 
followed his appointment as commander-in-chief or 
Amir al-Dpiyush (in the popular language Mir- 
gush), as chief justice, chief preacher and vizier. 
The most popular of these titles was the first; 
the Djabal al-pjuyushi is still a common appel- 
lation of the Mukattam commanding Cairo on the 
spur of which Badr built a mosque, a maskhad 
in which according to popular belief at the present 
day the SidI Djuyushi lies buried. After quieting 
the capital he re-established order to the east 
then to the west of the Delta. Alexandria had 
to be taken by storm. The task of conquering 
Upper Egypt was also difficult as the Arab tribes 
had set themselves up as independent there. In 
Syria he was not so fortunate. Affairs were mis- 
managed here, and Damascus fell into the hands 
of the Saldjuks about the end of the year 468/ 
1076. The Fatimids were never to regain it. In 
the following year the victorious Saldjflk general 
Atslz appeared before Cairo itself, but Badr had 
time to collect his troops and drive back the 
Saldjuks. In spite of repeated attempts in the 
years 471/1078-9, 478/1085-6, and 482/1098-90, he 
was not successful in regaining Damascus and Syria, 
and at his death only a few towns in the South of 
Syria were still in the possession of the Fatimids. 
His strength in Syria was weakened by unrest 
constantly breaking out in Egypt, inspired by one 

Of his activity as a governor we know little, 
but it is praised on all sides. Under his rule the 
annual revenue of Egypt from taxation was in- 
creased from about 2 to about 3 million dinars. 
These large receipts enabled him to put into 
practice the lessons learned from the Saldjulj 
invasion. Cairo was invested by him with its 
second wall, and the three strong city gates which 
are admired to this day, the Bab Zawlla (Zuwayla), 
the Bab al-Nasr and the Bab al-Futub, were built. 



In Rabi' I 487/March-April 1094 Badr"s active 
and successful career came to its close, after he 
had arranged that his son al-Afdal Shahanshah 
[q.v.] should succeed him in all his offices. The 
Caliph Mustansir, who had then been reigning for 
60 years, died a few months later. 

Bibliography : Ibn al-KalanisI; Ibn Muyassar; 
Ibn TaghribirdI, Nudjfim (Cairo) v, index; Ibn al- 
Sayrafl, Al-Ishdra ila man ndla 'l-Wizdra, Cairo 
1924 ; Makrizi, Khitaf, i, 380 ff. ; Ibn Khaldun, al- 
l Ibar, iv, 64; Ibn al-Athlr, 19,40, 60, 68 ff.; 151 ff.; 
160 ff. ; M. van Berchem, Corpus Inscript. Arab., 
I'Egypte, No. n, 32, 33, 36-39; 5i6, 518 and the bi- 
bliography cited there ; Djamal al-Din al-Shayyal, 
MadjmU'-at al-Watha'ik al-Fdfimiyya, i, Cairo 
1958, index; F. Wiistenfeld, Geschichte der Fati- 
miden-Chalifen, 264 ff.; S. Lane- Poole, History 
of Egypt, 150 ff.; Marcel, Histoire de l'£gypte, 
period of Mustansir; Quatremere, Mtmoires sur 
I'Egypte, ii, index; K. M. Setton (ed.), A History 
0/ the Crusades, Pennsylvania 1955, i, index; 
G. Wiet, L'Egypte arabe (vol. iv of G. Hanotaux, 
Histoire de la Nation egyptienne), Paris n.d., 245- 
54; idem, Matiriaux pour un Corpus inscriptionum 
arabicarum, Egypte, MIFAO, lii, 132-158; idem, 
Pricis d'Histoire d'Egypte, ii, 186-188. 

(C. H. Becker) 
BADR al KHARSHANl, amir, probably a 
native of Kharshana in Cappadocia, sometimes 
designated (through a factitious genealogy?) by 
the name of Badr b. 'Ammar al-Asadi. Chamberlain 
to the caliph al Kahir and in high favour under 
al-Radl, he followed the amir al-umara Ibn Ra'ik 
([q.v.]; Canard, Histoire de la dynastie des Ham- 
ddnides, Algiers 1951, 411-24), when the latter was 
charged with the government of Djazira and Syria- 
Palestine. Badr became lieutenant of Ibn Ra'ik, 
received the government of the djund of Jordan, and 
resided at Tiberias (beginning of 328/end of 939); 
about this time he was extolled by the panegyrist 
al-Mutanabbi [q.v.]. During the conflict between Ibn 
Ra'ik and the Hamdanid amir of Mawsil Nasir al- 
Dawla, Badr too returned to 'Irak, won short-lived 
favour under the caliph al-Muttaki, but had to flee 
as the result of intrigues and take refuge at al- 
Fustat, in Egypt, with Muhammad the I khsMdid 
[q.v.]. He died there at the end of 330/942. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Attilr, Kdmil, Xaxro 
1301, viii, 119, 139; Mishkawayh, Todidrib al- 
Umam, in GMS, v, 84, 405, 509; R. Blachere, Un 
PoeU arabe du IV/X' silcle, Abou t-Tayyib al- 
Motanabbi, Paris 1935, 95-105. (R. Blachere) 
BADRA, a small town of east-central 'Irak 
(43°53'E, 33° 7' N), near the Persian frontier, with 
a population of 6000, practically all ShI'i Muslims 
of mixed Arab and Lurish blood. It is the head- 
quarters of a ka4d> (with dependent ndhiya of 
Zarbatiyya) in the liwd' of Kut al-Amara. Apart from 
one new official quarter, Badra shows little modern 
development, with narrow streets, poor houses, and 
salty water. Grain cultivation and fruit and date 
gardens are extensive, and the "Baydraya" date 
famous; irrigation is from the Gallal stream, rising 

The town has continuity with medieval Badaraya 
(that is, Bayt Daraya, a tribe-name), which is 
frequently mentioned in Syriac literature and by 
the Arab geographers; with Bakusaya it fell in the 
district of Bandanldjln, east of the Nahrawan [q.v.] 
canal-system and on the borders of Djibal province. 
It had greater medieval than modern development, 
was considered a seat of learning, and was the 



BADRA — BADOSBANIDS 



scene of a settlement by Khusraw I Anusharwan of 
captives from northern Syria. Mounds near and in 
modem Badra represent the older city, which was 
ruined by floods, pestilence or war. 

Bibliography : Bibl. Geogr. Arab., ed. de Goeje, 
passim; Yakut, i, 459; G. Hoffmann, Ausziige aus 
syr. Akten pers. Mdrtyrtr, Leipzig 1880, 69; 
Nfildeke, in ZDMG, 1879, 101 ; the same, Gesch. 
d. Araber una" Perser zur Zeit der Sasaniden, 1879, 
239; Le Strange, 63 f., 80; E. Herzfeld, in Memnon, 
1907, 126, 140; c Abd al-Razzak al-Hasanl, al- 
l Irak kadfm*" wa-hadith", Sayda 1948. 

(S. H. Longrigg) 
BAORSHAnI, Thurayya (1883-1938) and Pja- 
lAdat (1893-1951), sons of Amir Amln C A1I, eldest 
son of Badr-khan (died 1868), Prince of Bohtan 
(Djazlrat Ibn *Umar) of the 'Azizan family, who 
fought against the Turks for the independence of 
Kurdistan (1836-1845). The two brothers, born at 
Maktala (Syria) died, the first in Paris and the 
second, as the result of an accident, in Damascus. 
Both devoted their lives to the Kurdish national 
cause, Thurayya i n the sphere of organisation and 
political propaganda and Djaladat mainly in the 
cultural field. 

ThurayyS, after having obtained the Diploma in 
Agronomical Engineering at the University of Con- 
stantinople, began to lead a turbulent life, in which 
is mirrored the history of the national struggle of 
his people. In 1904 he was found guilty of plotting 
against the security of Turkey and sent to prison. 
He spent two and a half years in prison and in exile. 
After the Young Turks' coup d'ttat, he returned to 
Constantinople and started his newspaper "Kurdis- 
tan" in Kurdish and Turkish. In 1919, the newspaper 
was suspended and he was again thrown into prison, 
and condemned to death for having taken part in 
the preparation of a military revolt. He was par- 
doned and in 1910 banished. In 1912, however, he 
returned to the capital, where he organised a secret 
Kurdish revolutionary committee. He was con- 
demned to death, and for the third time saw the 
inside of a prison. He made his escape and finally 
left Turkey in 191 3. During the 1914 war, Thurayya 
recommenced the publication of his newspaper in 
Cairo, where he also organised a Committee for 
Kurdish independence, which played a r61e in the 
drawing up of the Treaty of Sevres (1919-20). As 
this diplomatic instrument, which envisaged an in- 
ternational Kurdish statute, remained a dead letter, 
Thurayya resumed his revolutionary activities after 
the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), and 
in 1927, together with his supporters, he joined the 
National Kurdish League Khoybun, which had just 
come into being. He returned to Syria in 1929, but 
in 1930 (the year of the great Kurdish revolt in 
Turkey) he was prohibited from living in the terri- 
tories under French mandate and was obliged to 
expatriate himself to Paris, where he represented 
the Khoybun. Among other things, the Kurdo- 
Armenian reconciliation dates from this period, and 
found in him a convinced and clever architect. In 
general terms, Amir Thurayya was the first 
Kurdish patriot to conduct a campaign in accor- 
dance with a programme and with modem political 
arguments, both by word of mouth and in print. 
Several pamphlets by him in various foreign lan- 
guages are known. 

Djaladat's career was less eventful than that of 
Thurayya. He held a master's degree in Law of the 
University of Constantinople and completed his 
studies in Munich. In 1927, he was elected the first 



president of the JChoybun. In 1930, he took part in 
an attempted Kurdish rising in Turkey, which he 
entered with Hadjo Agha. After the failure of this 
undertaking he settled in Damascus. There he de- 
voted himself to literary work and from 15 May 
1932 to 1935, and again in 1941-43, published the 
review Hawdr (Summons), in French and Kurdish. 
(Djaladat produced a Kurdish alphabet in Latin 
characters, which began the work of unification of 
Kurmdndji Kurdish). Furthermore, the review con 
tributed to the rebirth of the popular literature, 
sought to reconcile the tribal chieftains and the men 
of letters, whom the former held in suspicion, and 
prepared educational material, publishing "booklets" 
(spelling-books, readers and books on religion; in 
all 12 appeared). During the last war, Djaladat also 
published the review Rundhi (Light). 

Bibliography : autobiographical notice of the 

Amir Thurayya ; W. G. Elphinston, The Emir Jaladet 

Aali Bedr Khan, in RCAS, 1951, 91-3; M. Shailta 

and Y. Malik, Dhikri al-Amir Qialddat Badr Khan 

(1897-1951), n.p.ord.; P. Rondot, Les Kurdes de 

Syrie, in France Mlditerranlenne el Africaine, i, 

1939; Sharaf-ndma, Cairo ed., 156-191; Muh. 

Amin ZakI, Ta'rikh al-Duwal waH-lmdrit al- 

Kurdiyya, Cario 1945, 363-6; B. Nikitine, Les 

Kurdes, s.v. (B. Nikitine) 

BAdCRAYA, under the 'Abbasid Caliphate a 

district south-west of Baghdad, the land south of 

the Nahi Sarat, a branch of the Euphrates canal 

Nahr 'IsS [q.v.]. The Sarat separates it from the 

Katrabbul district ; the southern part of the western 

half of Baghdad (the so-called town of al-Mansur) as 

well as the suburb of Karkh were situated within 

the bounds of the district of Baduraya; the latter 

formed, like the district of Katrabbul, a subdivision 

of the circle of Astan al-'AlI. 

Bibliography: MukaddasI, iii, 119, 120; Ibn 
Khurradadhbih, 7, 9, 235, 237; Baladhurl, Futuh, 
250, 254, 265; Yakut, i, 460; Streck, Babylonien 
nach den arab. Geogt. (1900), i, 16, 10, 25; G. Le 
Strange, Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate 
(1900), 50-1, 315; Le Strange, 31, 66, 67, 80, 82. 

(M. Streck*) 
BADOSBANIDS (PAdusbAnids), minor Caspian 
dynasty, noteworthy for its longevity (45-1006/665- 
1599) as well as for that of its princes, some of whom 
reigned for 50 years. Its power in Tabaristan 
(Mazandaran) extended to Rustamdar, Ruyan, Nur 
and Kudjur. Its origins are traced to Gawbara who 
came from Armenia in the time of Yazdigird III, 
who appointed him governor. He had two sons, 
Dabuya and Badusban, established respectively in 
Gllan and Tabaristan, the former being the epony- 
mous ancestor of the Dabuwand dynasty (40-144/ 
660-701), and the latter that of the Badusbanids. 
The history of this latter dynasty is given in an 
excellent resume by Rabino [see afrAsiyabids], 
including a genealogical table with some forty 
names with numbers indicating their order. There 
exists, furthermore, a Tarikh-i Ruyan (T.R.) by 
Mawlana Awliya Allah of Amul, written foi Fakhr 
al-Dawla Shah Ghazl b. ZIyar (died 786/1384) which 
does not cover the whole of the period of the dynasty 
as described ia Rabino. On the other hand, it 
contains abundant details on the internal life of the 
dynasty, so that these two sources, therefore, 
admirably complement each other. We learn, for 
example, that two major revolts took place in 
Tabaristan against the Arab occupation; one in the 
time- of 'Umar b. al-'Ala, was the joint work of the 
isfahbad Shahrwln Bawand and Sh.ahrfyar BadusbJn 



BADOSBANIDS — BADW 



with Wandad Homrizd of th° SukhrS clan (T.R., 46) ; 
the other broke out at Djalus (Calus) and was 
savagely repressed (T.R. 52). These risings appear 
to have been provoked by the burden of excessive 
taxation. 

In some cases, for example the revolt of Mazyar 
[?.».], religious movements have served as a pretext. 
Shi'ism was only imposed as late as the middle of 
the 9th/i5th century by Kayumarth (no. 36 in 
Rabino). The resistance opposed by Iranian national 
feeling to all foreign usurpation is less evident in 
respect of the Ilkhans. Their reign is portrayed as a 
period of well-being {T.R., 122). Nevertheless, the 
destruction caused by the Mongols (T.R., 130) and 
by Timur (Rabino) is not passed over in silence. 

The protection of the Saldjukids was sought from 
time to time: Hazarasp sought that of Toghrul, for 
example (T.R., 103). Kh w arizm {T.R., 106, 107), 
the Saffarids (T.R., 70) and the Samanids (T.R., 
74, 76) are mentioned in various episodes, the latter 
for the most part in connexion with the 'Alid Sayyids. 
As for the internal struggles, which are purely of 
local interest, the Badusbanids were sometimes in 
alliance with their neighbours and sovereigns, the 
Bawand, and at other times were against them. 
After a number of conflicts with the Buwayhids, a 
modus vivendi was found which maintained the peace 
(nos. 13, 14 in Rabino). 

The Isma'ilis, heretics {maldfiida), are the object 

of violent diatribes (T.R., 90), but when needed, 

their help was sought (T.R., 100, 10). Both the 

Bawand (Shams al-Muluk) and the Badusbanids 

(Shahrakim b. Namawar) contributed to their final 

defeat by the Mongols at the siege of Gird-i Kuh 

(T.R., no). Other characteristic features are the 

Iranian custom of wearing the hair long (curled or 

plaited) and special head-dresses {T.R., 135) as well 

as non-Muslim personal names: Shirzad, Bahman, 

Ruzafzun, Faridun, Gudarz, Pashang, Iridj, etc. 

The name Badusban should be connected with 

Bawand and Baharb. Note awlad-i dusbdn (T.R., 

35)- There are verses cited in the Tabari dialect 

(T.R., in, 114), Arabic (T.R., 121, 129) and Persian 

(T.R., 74, 75, 77, 108). The Muslim aspect appears 

in the names of pious men (T.R., 7, 54, 93, 112, 116) 

and of religious foundations. As regards geography, 

there is ample toponymic data. Attention must be 

drawn to the old name of Mazandaran, farshwdd- 

djard (T.R., 27, 28) (V. Minorsky disputes this). 

Bibliography: Cf. the art. AfrasIyab, Banu, 

and: Awliya- Allah Amull, Ta'rikh-i RHydn, ed. 

'Abbas Khalili, Tehran 1313/1934 (cf. pages given 

in parentheses); B. Dorn, Muhammedanische 

Quellen zur Geschichte der Sudlithen Kustenlander 

des Kaspischen Meeres, 4 parts, St. Petersburg 

1850-58; V. Minorsky, La domination des Daila- 

mites, Paris 1932; idem, The Guran in BSOS, 1943 

(on the Guran gd (») bdra (ft) ; Djalal Al-i Ahmad, 

Awrdidn, Tehran 1333/1954 (for the Talikan 

dialect) ; Mahdi Muhakkak, Ismd'iliyya, in Yaghmd, 

1337, no. 2. (B. Nikitine) 

BADW. I. Pastoral nomads of Arabian blood, 

speech, and culture are found in the Arabian 

Peninsula proper and in parts of Iran, Soviet 

Turkestan, North Africa, and the Sudan. This 

article is limited to their way of life in their home 

territory. Unlike primitive hunting and gathering, 

pastoral nomadism is a sophisticated system of 

exploiting land incapable of cultivation. Later to 

arise than agriculture, pastoralism utilises seven 

species of domestic animals: the sheep, goat, and 

ox, domesticated in Neolithic times as part of the 



herding and sowing complex of Western Asia ; the 
ass, domesticated by early Bronze Age times for 
transport; and the camel, horse, and water buffalo, 
introduced during historic times. 

Hunting peoples living off gazelle, oryx, ibex, 
ostrich, bustard, and quail were probably the 
desert's sole occupants until about 5,000 < B.G As 
Neolithic cultivators began to settle the edges of 
the waste, its seasonal wealth of herbage enticed 
shepherds and goatherds to lead their flocks out a 
certain distance djuring the winter and spring. After 
the camel had bien introduced around 1 100 B.C. 
full-time nomads found it possible to live out on 
the desert throughout most of the year, summering 
at wells or on ^he edges of oases and perennial 
streams. With the riding horse, introduced after 
500 B.C., and peijhaps as late as the time of Christ, 
Arabian camel nomads acquired an animal from 
whose back theyi could fight each other efficiently, 
and the golden age of Arabian life on the desert 
could begin. 

The enormous number of unexplored archaeolo- 
gical sites in the Arabian desert, the advance of 
dessication since the introduction of the camel, 
and historical references in pre-Islamic literary 
sources indicate that the Arabian nomads for the 
most part are descended from farmers, traders, and 
caravan men who took to pastoralism during the 
early centuries of this era, as both business and 
the landscape deteriorated, just as cowboys and 
pastoralists in the United States, Canada, and 
Australia are descended from agricultural and 
urban peoples who took advantage of newly opened 
territories. The period during which Arabian nomadic 
life developed and crystallised lay between the time 
of Jesus and that of Muhammad. 

Four kinds of, nomadism are practised in Arabia. 
In the Djibal jal-Kara, in ?ufar, on the Indian 
Ocean, peoples who speak Semitic languages of the 
Mahri-Socotran group graze hump-backed cattle on 
grass provided by the abundant rainfall of the 
summer monsoon. In cultivated regions of southern 
'Irak special families of herdsmen raise water- 
buffaloes, pasturing them in reaped and fallow 
fields. These people live in semi-cylindrical houses 
of poles and matting, which they move about 
seasonally over short distances. On the desert 
fringes, and particularly in the neighbourhood of 
Kuwayt, whole clans and tribes of shepherds 
mounted on donkeys drive their sheep and goats from 
pasture to pasture. Out in the middle of the desert 
the Bedouin proper herd their camels, migrating 
to the areas of recent rainfall in winter and spring 
and remaining near sources of permanent water in 

These four kinds of nomadism are dependent on 
the different physiological needs and capacities of 
the animals herded. Humped cattle need green 
grass and daily water, water-buffalo streams or 
irrigation ditches to wallow in. While sheep and 
goats can graze on died vegetation part of the year, 
they move slowly and cannot be kept more than a 
day or two from water. Camels can go as long as 
seventeen days without water in 100° F. heat, and 
can drink 30; gallons at a time. Their ability to 
withstand thfe rigours of the desert are due not 
only to their Rapacity for holding water but also to 
their ability to preserve it: a camel can tolerate an 
increase of up to eleven degrees F. over normal body 
temperature without much water loss through 
sweating. They also store energy in the form of fat 
in their humps. The Arabian horse, when it is kept 



on the desert, is watered on transported water, and 
fed grain, being treated with the same solicitude as 
human beings. Sheep, goats, cattle, water-buffaloes, 
and camels all produce milk. Goat hair is used for 
tents, sheep and camel wool for clothing. All these 
animals are eaten, except horses. The horse provides 
nothing but the kinds of transport directly concerned 
with warfare and prestige. As social status combined 
with independence is the most important of all 
considerations to a desert Arab, the horse is honoured 
accordingly. 

The most ancient dwellers on the desert are the 
Sulaba [q.v.], probably descended from early hunters, 
and representing a phenotypically homogeneous 
desertadapted Mediterranean racial strain. In nor- 
thern Arabia they dwell among the noble Bedouin, 
whom they serve as guides, tinkers, and workers in 
wood. At times they also hunt. Their women provide 
entertainment. Second in probable antiquity are the 
shepherd tribes, as for example the Shararat and the 
Muntafik confederations. These are in the most part 
dependent on the camel nomads because of their 
relative immobility and hence defencelessness. 
Individuals of these tribes serve the camel nomads 
as hired herdsmen. Members of the noble tribes own 
camels, drive and ride them on migrations, and 
guard and defend them while grazing. In the heat of 
summer they sometimes pick dates in oases, or even 
go pearl-fishing. 

These tribesmen are also served by blacksmiths, 
mostly negroid, who come out from the settled 
places, and by Negro slaves. Shopkeepers from the 
towns sometimes set up special tents in the Bedouin 
camps to vend their wares, while travelling agents of 
large camel-purchasing companies buy up young 
camels which will be collected upon reaching the 
desired state of maturity. Much of this business 
takes place at camel markets like that of Burayda 
in Nadjd. Members of the noble tribes- often visit 
the cities of Sa c udi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, 'Irak and 
Kuwayt where some of them maintain town houses. 
Many have taken to settled life, and some have 
risen to high offices in the various Arab countries. 

The material culture of the Bedouin is designed 
around mobility. The black tent of goat-hair is 
loosely woven, to permit circulation of air, yet its 






;tok< 



it the ti 



it provides an area of much-needed shade, open 
the sides to the breeze; in winter, with sides and rear 
closed it is warm. Except for special tents used only 
as diwdns, or reception halls, it is divided by a 
curtain into a family section, occupied by women 
and children, and the guest section in which the 
head of the household receives his male friends. 
Kitchen utensils are of metal and wood, but each 
family usually owns a set of small porcelain coffee 
cups carefully packed in a compartmented wooden 
box. Arab clothing, loose and flowing, is warm in 
winter and cool in summer, as it protects the skin 
both from the cold and from the hot, dry wind; the 
man's headcloth, and the woman's headdress and 
veil, also help to keep dust and sand out of the eyes, 
nose, and ears. Most of the Bedouin's outfit is pur- 
chased, including the cotton cloth for his under- 
clothing, his tools, and his containers. So is much 
of his food, including wheat, rice, dates and coffee. 
Only milk and meat are produced locally. 

Like other Semites, the Bedouins lay great stock 
in genealogies, and consider kinship of paramount 
importance in human relations. The preferred mating 
being with the father's brother's daughter, descent 
is patrilineal. Divorce is easy, polygyny both serial 



>W 873 

and contemporary. Bedouin women, often unveiled, 
in many cases married more than once, have more 
freedom than their sisters of the towns and oases. 
Beyond the immediate family is a group of kin 
which usually goes out to pasture together; several 
such groups will spend the hot season together; this 
is usually the limit of the kin responsible for mutual 
vengeance. Beyond this is the tribe, finally the 
confederation. Among the Bedouin proper, also called 
A'rab, two main lineages are recognised, those 
descended from Kahtan, who lived before Abraham, 
and the 'Arab al-Musta c riba, descended from 
Ishmael, son of Abraham and Hagar, who was 
daughter of a king of Hidjaz. The Bedouin proper 
include the c Anaza confederation, of which the 
Ruwala is the best known tribe, the Shammar, the 
Al Murra in and on the borders of the Empty 
Quarter, the 'Udjman, and the Banu Khalid. All 
of these tribes follow a strict code of chivalry when 
fighting one another. 

Being mobile camel-owners, these aristocrats are 
concerned chiefly with the use of winter and spring 
grazing lands, the locations of which vary from year 
to year with the whim of the rains. In each camp 
the work is done mostly by dependents — slaves, 
Sulaba, hired herdsmen, and blacksmiths, all of whom 
are considered non-combatants. A Bedouin shavkh 
entertains lavishly in a large tent where food is 
always available to his followers and guests. The 
ritual of coffee drinking is highly formalised and 
nearly always in progress. Members of other tribes 
fleeing vengeance seek the protection of his "face". 
Travellers cross his territory under the protection 
of his guards. In inter-tribal warfare, which most 
frequently arises over pasture rights, he will often 
lead his men into battle in person. Bravery, genero- 
sity, and good judgment are the qualities traditional 
in such a leader, who does not inherit his office 
directly, but is chosen, often after a sharp contest, 
from the paramount family. Before trucks, buses, 
railroads and airplanes took over the desert carrying 
trade, the Bedouins guided, protected, and raided 
caravans, including the huge pilgrim processions. 

The Bedouins are Muslims, characteristically 
Sunnite. Many (especially in Eastern Arabia) follow 
the Maliki code, but the Wahhabis universally 
follow the Hanbali. The Bedouins generally are said 
to spend less time and effort in religious devotions 
than townsmen but the conditions are sometimes, 
reversed. In some of their rituals can be seen a 
survival of veneration for ancestors. 

The political situation of the Bedouins varies from 
period to period. When the central governments to 
which the tribal territories are officially assigned are 
weak, the paramount Shaykhs rule virtually as kings, 
and even cities have paid them tribute. At times 
when the central governments are strong, their 
authority becomes purely local. At the present 
time Bedouins are found within the political 
boundaries of Sa'udi Arabia, Yaman, Aden Pro- 
tectorate, Maskat, Trucial Oman, Kuwayt, 'Irak, 
Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Egypt and the 
North African states. For the most part these 
governments endeavour to keep their nomads at 
home. In some countries this effort has been 
implemented by programmes to settle some of them 
on newly irrigated land, and new water-tanks along 
the Tapline are used by a number of tribes, including 
the Ruwala. 

Part of one tribe, the Dawasir, whose home in 
southern Nadjd, moved to the Persian Gulf and 
onto the island of Bahrayn. In 1923 they crossed 



8 74 BA 

back to the mainland, and settled in al-Khubar and 
Dammam. During the last three decades some of the 
Dawastr, having worked for the Arabian American 
Oil Company, have set up in businesses of their 
own, including construction and transportation. 

Today the Bedouins are in a state of transition. 
Some still concern themselves with camel breeding 
for the meat, skin, and wool markets; others are 
truckers, machinists, and skilled operators of oil 
producing machinery, and are sending their children 
to school and college. They are showing themselves 
just as adaptable to the machine age as they were 
to life on the desert when an earlier opportunity 
called them. 

Bibliography: Works on Nomads in 
particular: Aref el Aref, Bedouin love, law, and 
legend, Jerusalem 1944; T. Ashkenazi, Tribus 
semi-nomades de la Palestine du Nord, Paris 1938; 
Lady A. Blunt, Bedouin tribes of the Euphrates, 
London 1897; J. C. Burckhardt, Notes on the 
Bedouins and Wahabys, London 1831; W. Caskel, 
The Bedouinization of Arabia, Amer. Anthropo- 
logist, Memoir 76, 1954, 36-46; H. Charles, Les 
tribus moutonniires du Moyen Euphrate, Beirut 
1939; L. F. Clauss, Als Beduine unter Beduinen, 
Freiburg i.B. 1954; G. Levi Delia Vida, Pre-Islamic 
Arabia, in The Arab Heritage, Princeton 1944, 
25-57; H. R. P. Dickson, The Arab of the Desert, 
London 1949; R. P. Dougherty, The sealand of 
Ancient Arabia, Yale Oriental Series, Researches 
vol. xix, New Haven; Chas. M. Doughty, Travels 
in Arabia Deserta; C. G. Feilberg, La tente noire, 
Nationalmuseets Skrifter, Etnografisk Raekke, ii, 
Copenhagen 1944; H. Field and J. B. Glubb, The 
Yezidis, Salubba, and other tribes, Gen. Series in 
Anthrop., no. 10, Menasha Wis. 1943; T. E. 
Lawrence, The seven pillars of wisdom; R. Mon- 
tagne, La civilisation du disert : nomades d'Orient et 
d'Afrique, Paris 1947; A. Musil, Arabia Deserta, 
New York 1927; idem, Manners and customs 
of the Rwala Bedouins, Am. Geog. Mem. VI; 
D. L. O'Leary, Arabia before Muhammad, London 
1927; M. von Oppenheim, Vom Mittelmeer zum 
Persischen Golf, Berlin 1899-1900; idem, Die 
Beduinen, 2 vols., Leipzig 1939 and 1943; C. R. 
Raswan, Tribal areas of the north Arabian Bedouins, 
Am. Geog. Rev. 1930; idem, Drinkers of the 
wind, London 1940; idem, Black tents of Arabia, 
New York 1947. 

General Works: The Arabian peninsula, a 
selected annotated list of periodicals, books, 
articles in English, Library of Congress, Wash- 
ington 1 951; Thos. Bertram, Arabia Felix, New 
York 1932; Sir R. Burton, Personal narrative of 
a pilgrimage to al-Madinah and Meccah, London 
1898; R. E. Cheesman, In unknown Arabia, 
London 1926; C. S. Coon, Southern Arabia, a 
problem for the future, Peabody Museum papers, 
xx, 187-220, Cambridge Mass. 1943; idem, 
Caravan, the story of the middle east, New York 
1951; G. de Gaury, Arabian journey and other 
desert travels, London 1950; V. H. W. Dowson, 
The Date and the Arab, in J. R. Cent. A. S. 1949, 
34-41 ; J. Heyworth-Dunne, Bibliography and 
reading Guide to Arabia, Cairo 1952 ; D. G. Hogarth, 
The Penetration of Arabia, New York 1904; idem, 
Arabia^ Oxford 1922; H. Ingrams, Report on 
the social economic and political conditions of the 
Hadhramaut, H. M. Stationery Office, London 
1936; idem, A Journey in the Yemen, in J. R. 
Cent. A. S. 1946, 58-69; A. Jaussen, Coutumes 
des Arabes au pays de Moab, Paris 1908; R. 



Lebkicher, G. Rentz, and M. Steineke, Saudi 
Arabia, New York 1952; L. Lockhart, Outline 
of the history of Kuwait, in /. R. Cent. A. S. 1947; 
D. van der Meulen, Aden to the Hadramaut, a 
journey in South Arabia, London 1947; S. B. 
Miles, Countries and tribes of the Persian Gulf, 
London 1919; H. St J. Philby, Heart of Arabia, 
London 1923; idem, The Empty Quarter, London 
1933; idem, Arabian Highlands, Ithaca N. Y. 1952; 
G. Rentz, Literature on the Kingdom of Saudi 
Arabia, in Middle East Journal, 1950; idem, 
Recent literature on Hadramaut, ibid. 1951, 371-77; 
R. H. Sanger, The Arabian Peninsula, Ithaca 
N. Y. 1954; K. S. Twitchell, Saudi Arabia, etc., 
2nd ed., Princeton 1953; F. S. Vidal, Datecuture 
in the Oasis of al-Hasa, in Middle East Journal, 
1954; A. J. Villiers, Sons of Sinbad, New York 
1949. (Carleton S. Coon) 



(a) Goat and Sheep Nomadism. 

(b) The Nomad on Horseback. 

(c) Bedouin Nomadism in Arabia. 

(d) The Appearance of Camel Nomadism in 
North Africa. 

(a) Goat and Sheep Nomadism. 

The expressions "nomad" and "nomadism" lose 
their scientific practicability, if they are not used 
in their restricted meaning: "roaming from place 
to place for pasture" (Concise Oxford Dictionary). 
Nomadism is unsettled roaming, pasturing herd 
animals. Roaming gatherers and hunters as well 
as a population with a shifting agriculture (ladang, 
milpa, see Gourou) should not be called nomadic. 
If we follow the succession of "agricultural origins" 
of the Old World in C. O. Sauer's conception (1952) 
taken over and elaborated by the authors in two 
papers (1956, 1957), nomadism in this restricted 
sense began much later than planting and breeding 
"household animals", i.e. dog, pig, and fowl. (Sauer 
distinguishes between household animals and herd 
animals). 

The still hypothetical sequence of creative centres 
of domestication and cultivation, according to 
Sauer's interpretation, began along the river banks 
and coasts of moist tropical forest round the Bay of 
Bengal, where a rather sedentary fishing folk, which 
in addition hunted and collected plants and mussels, 
began to breed these "household animals" (dog, pig, 
fowl) and to plant tubers and fruit shrubs and trees 
(cf. also E. Hahn, Hettner, Menghin, Werth 1950, 
1954, Dittmer, Smolla). 

Cultivation of seed plants ("millets" — this is a 
term including the diverse species of small seed 
cereals — as well as pulse and oil plants) was then 
added in the winter-dry forest, which is easily burnt 
down, and in the wooded steppe, at first in India. 
These plants supply proteins and oil, making man 
more independent of animal food, especially of fish. 

In this progressive succession of cultures, in 
which man became "the lord of creation", the next 
step seems to have b?en the breeding of goats aad 
(then) sheep in the mountain areas north-west of 
India, round the Hindukush. This was probaHy 
incited by a near contact between seed-planters 
and . 1 • 'intain hunters, among whom the wild goat 
or sheep was holy animal. A culture thus resulted 
in which herding was added to seed-planting and 
hunting. It may be regarded as a primary stage of 



farming, as a goat and sheep farming culture 
("Kleinvieh-BauertUum"), if we understand the 
meaning of farming to be a combination of tilling 
and herding. 

Results of the ethnological expedition of A. 
Friedrich (Jettmar 1957b) strongly support this 
hypothesis, especially for the goat. In the remote 
valleys of the Shin of Gilgit, the markhor, the wild 
goat with screw-shaped horns, and the ibex are holy 
animals, "herded by goddesses". The domestic goat, 
an offspring of the wild goat of the same region, 
partakes in this holiness. The economy of the Shin 
consisted in a scanty growing of millet, but an 
intensive breeding of goats and an important 
hunting of the markhor and ibex. Jettmar brings 
several indications for the thesis that the domesti- 
cation of the goat took place in these regions. The 
experience of domestication — of this tremendous 
intervention in the balance of nature — must have 
always implied a profound religious emotion. 
Jettmar calls this a religious shock of domestication 
<cf. E. Hahn). 

The growing of the two-rowed barley (Hordeum 
spontaneum) as the first large seed grain ("Halm- 
getreide") may have already been developed in that 
region. Probably in this stage, if not earlier, small- 
scale irrigation was started. 

But only the thesis of the following gn.at step, 
which largely diversified social and economic modes 
of living, is more or less archaeologically proved up 
to now: in the highlands and the mountains of 
Western Asia, somewhere between Western Iran and 
Syria, cattle were bred and primitive wheat (emmer, 
Triticum dicoccum; einkorn, T. monococcum; and 
possibly spelt, T. spelta) was grown as an addition 
to the basic goat and sheep farming. It was the 
foundation of a complete farming culture {"Voll- 
bauerntum"), which later became the basis of early 
civilisation in Mesopotamia and Egypt. 

These four main nuclei of creative cultures which 
reared animals and plants were based on one another. 
They may be looked at as only one moving centre, 
appearing near the Bay of Bengal and progressing 
finally to the highlands and mountains round 
Mesopotamia. Each of these four stages sent out 
waves of dispersion over large parts of the world. 
In comparison with these creative centres, all other 

areas, where elements of those waves were taken up 
or transformed or rejected, according to cultural or 
climatic circumstances. 

The first data we can use for inserting this suc- 
cession into a frame of absolute time are the radio- 
carbon data for the pre-pottery settlements with 
complete farming near Kal c at Djarmo in the hills 
east of Kirkuk, c. 4750 B.C., a settlement without 
irrigation (Braidwood), and those of the fortified 
irrigating settlement of Jericho, in the 7th millen- 
nium. W. F. Albright doubts the latter date (oral 
communication). The emmer grown at Kal'at 
Djarmo was still nearer to the wild form than to 
the later cultivated form (Helbaek, Schiemann by 
letter). This might show that no very long time 
had passed since the beginning of emmer cultivation. 
The oldest strata of oasis settlement known in 
Jericho are said to go back into the early 7th 
millennium B.C., but we are not yet informed 
by Kenyon and Zeuner about the domesticated 
animals (except the goat) and cultivated seed plants 
there. The Natufian culture of Palestine (Garrod, 
Bate) is probably older than the oldest strata of 
Jericho. Like Sauer and Albright (1949, 129), we 



suppose that seed agriculture, probably growing 
some species of millet, was already carried out 
during the Natufian stage (cf. Clark, Narr 1956). 

On the other hand we now know with consi- 
derable certainty that the 9th millennium B.C. 
was a very cold period globally (glacial advance 
of "Salpausselkae" in North rn Europe, of 
"Schlern" in the Alps, of "Mankato" in North 
America as far as the Great Lakes, of the moraines 
round the piedmont lakes of East Patagonia), in 
which the snow line was about 800 metres and more 
lower than at present (Caldenius, Firbas, Deevey, 
Gross, Rathiens, Butzer). But from about 5500 to 
2500 B.C. temperatures were higher all over the globe 
than they are now, so that the snow line, timber line 
and potential cereal line were situated about 400 
metres above the present ones (Thermal Maximum, 
Mitttere Warmezeit). It seems improbable to me 
that a herding culture took its origin in the mountains 
north-west of India in a time of glacial advance or 
of very heavy glaciation. I suppose that this 
happened in the period of glacial retreat, perhaps 
in its first half. This glacial retreat took place 
throughout the whole period from 8100 to 5500 B.C. 
Temperatures rose rather quickly, and the timber 
line and cereal line climbed up to those high elevations 
mentioned above. But natural oases in the deserts 
round the mountain chains of Central Asia always 
became smaller and scarcer, as they were fed by 
rivers derived from retreating glaciers continually 
diminishing in size. Towards and during the Thermal 
Maximum, a sheep breeding culture was able to spread 
over Tibet, where the climate was much more favour- 
able then. This culture was not purely nomadic (cf. 
Hermanns, Kussmaul). It probably began to grow the 
sixrowed barley (Hordeum vulgare, i.e., hexastichum), 
the wild form of which probably is Hordeum agrio- 
crithon, which has been found round Lhasa and in 
Eastern Tibet, (Freisleben, Schiemann 1948, 1951). 
It seems that the cultivated varieties of six-rowed 
barley all derive from this form. They spread over 
China and India; and from India they seem to have 
taken their way to South Arabia and Abyssinia 
(which became a secondary centre of variation) and 
thence to Upper Egypt, where cultivated emmer 
had entered from Syria and was grown in Upper 
Egypt beside six-rowed barley in the late 5th 
millennium B.C. (Caton Thompson and Gardner, 
Brunton, Libby, Arnold, Kees). 

It seems that the route from the Hindukush and 
Eastern Iran by South Arabia to Africa has been 
of great importance for the spreading of cultures — 
and also of tribes (Poech) — during long periods, and 
especially during the periods of the spreading of 
early seed planting as well as of goat and sheep 
farming. There are no wild goats in Arabia and 
Abyssinia. But the veneration and ritual hunt of 
of the ibex was also spread in these countries. The 
idolisation of the ibex was common in South Arabia 
in the last millennium B.C. The ibex god Ta'lab was 
protector of goats and sheep (Beeston, HSfner). Up 
to date; ibex hunting has been a ritual act in rladra- 
mawt (van der Meulen-von Wissmann 177 f.). The 
ibex seems to have had a similar position in the 
Badarian and early Nakada cultures of Upper 
Egypt after 4000 B.C. (Brunton, tables), in the 
latter beside the bull. We must also mention that 
Agatharchides (about 130 B.C.; C. Miiller, Geogr. 
Grace. Min., i, 153) describing the nomadic Troglo- 
dytes near the western coast of the Red Sea (known 
as Blemmyes and Bedja), writes that they call bulls 
and rams their father, cows and sheep their mother. 



876 BA 

The early cultures of goat and sheep farming 
with millets and of a complete cattle farming 
with large-seed cereals were more or less restricted 
to the climates and vegetations from light forest and 
wooded steppe to semi-desert as well as to the 
natural and artificial oases. All of these mostly 
have a light and rich soil, which is easily cultivated 
(map i). The wooded steppe is good for both 
agriculture and pasture. The dry steppe is a rather 
good pasture. It is arable, but agriculture depending 
on rainfall is endangered in dry years. The desert 
steppe or semi desert is too dry for this kind of 
agriculture. It can be used, however, as a meagre 
pasture for goats and sheep, but not for cattle. 
Good pasture is also found in highlands above the 
cereal line. 

In areas of desert steppe where oases do not 
exist or are scarce, pastoral folk herding sheep 
and goats, but not cattle, could branch off from the 
steppe-farming tribes and become independent 
nomads. However, such nomadic people breeding 



had either to depend on oases or other settled areas 
or to herd in tillable regions of the Fertile Crescent. 
On the attitude of the Egyptians towards this 
roaming population and on their frontier control 
in the East cf. Kees, 64 ff., 106 f., esp. papyrus 
Petersburg 1116A, 1. 51 f. "He (the Asiatic) never 
lives in the same place and his feet are wandering 
since the time of Horus, he fights and is neither 
victor, nor is he defeated". The difference between 
nomads, semi-nomads, partial nomads, steppe 
farmers and farmers of small oases was much 
smaller and occupational overlapping was more 
common than in later periods (see W. F. Albright, 
1946, 181 ff., esp. 1949, 239 ff. on the Israelites 
in the desert, the patriarchs and the 'Apiru or 
Khabiru). In many of these cases, it is better to 
speak of pastoralism than of nomadism. 

In no part of Asia does there ever seem to have 
spread any complete cattle nomadism, such as 
exists in parts of Africa south of the Sahara, except 
yak nomadism in the highlands above the timber line 





^P ; HS1SPP^ * 


r¥^#^^ 




' WW \ ft 




Hi^^^y^yh^^f^w l 




"r^Sr^l J? 



iE3 2@ 3 \zm 



1 -highland desert; 2-desert, semi-desert; 3-forest; 4-oasis, steppe and wooded steppe; 5-steppe with cool 

summer and cold winter; 6-oasis and steppe with long, hot summer; 7-steppe, tropical, no frost; 

8-mountain chain. 



ghanam in the semi-desert must always have lived 
an impoverished life compared with tribes of moister 
zones or of regions interspersed with oases. In 
these latter regions, parts of a tribe may have been 
agricultural, other parts pastoral ("partial no 
madism"). Thus a pure nomadism was carried out by 
a branch of a steppe-farming or even oasis-farming 
clan or social unit. (This way of living somewhat 
resembles South-European transhumance.) W. F. 
Albright (1946 a, b, 1949, 147, 154, 162 f., 257) sup- 
poses that the Semitic neighbours of the Sumerians 
were such pastoral tribes, partly nomadic, when the 
Sumerians, at the outset of civilisation, began to 
irrigate Lower Mesopotamia. The western Semites 
(Amorites) pressed on the Babylonians mainly from 
2100 to 1900 B.C. These ancient nomads differed 
from any modern form of society in Arabia, Bedouin, 
semi-nomad or Slaib (Sulaba). They possessed 
goats, sheep and donkeys. Hunting and robbing the 
harvest were important for them. They travelled and 
attacked on foot. This made a complete crossing of 
the desert impossible for them, except in spring. 
They did not dare to move more than a day's journey 
(30 km.) from a watering place. In summer they 



in Tien-shan and Tibet. Cattle are not fitted for semi- 
desert grazing. They also find difficulty in grazing 
in winter in a steppe with a frozen snow cover, as 
in West Siberia (cf. Potapov, and Hangar, 390). 

We have recognised that pastoral life has been an 
essential part of the farming cultures since their 
origin. We saw that the earliest domestication of herd 
animals and pasturing was probably developed in the 
Hindukush area by seed planters surrounded by 
mountain hunters of ibex and wild goat (and perhaps 
sheep), and that this was an invention correlated with 
deep religious emotion, an invention by which these 
seed planters became steppe farmers. Because of the 
pastoral branches of their clans, these steppe farmers 
must have been of greater mobility and more migra- 
tory than the seed planters had been. But only in 
places, where herdsmen of sheep and goats entirely 
split off from their kinship or group and gave up 
agriculture, may we speak of complete nomadism. 

When an oasis became more extensive and its 
settlement larger, its population became increasingly 
sedentary. The new excavations of pre-pottery 
Jericho show that such irrigating villages were 
fortified like towns very early, in Jericho perhaps 



in the 7th millennium (Kenyon, Zeuner). This 
may have been the first germ of what became early 
civilisation in the 4th millenium B.C. in the delta 
oases of Mesopotamia, where large irrigation schemes 
needed collaboration, centralisation and the for- 
mation of states, where mass labour was required 
as well as division, specialisation and intensification 
of labour, and where technical inventions sprang up 
< wheel, cart, plough). As a result of this development, 
the intensity of contrast between steppe farming and 
oasis civilisation was continually growing, while the 
common offspring is displayed by the Magna Mater 
and bull idols worshipped in both of them. 

Meanwhile steppe farming with all its pastoral 
traits had spread via Asia Minor to south-eastern 
Europe and to the light oak forests of Central 
Europe (Danubian culture, since c. 4000 B.C., 
according to radiocarbon data). And since the 
3rd millennium it began to infiltrate from the 
Tripolye culture (west of the Dnieper river) into the 
wooded steppes of Russia and Siberia, which then 
were occupied by an advanced hunting population 
(Hancar). All these regions were unfit for oasis 
economy because of their cool or short summers 
<map 2). 

I think it is a quality of the largely hypothetical 
sequence of creative centres, which step by step gain 
and enlarge the domination by man of other organ- 
isms, that it corresponds excellently with the suc- 
cession of cultures presented by several ethnologists, 
e.g., by Dittmer. It also has the advantage of making 
parallel inventions largely unnecessary (Sauer). 

We cannot treat here the hypothesis of Flor, 
W. Schmidt, Pohlhausen and others, in which the 
reindeer represents the earliest domesticated herd 
animal, so that nomadism begins among hunters 
breeding the dog, in the boreal conifer forest (taiga, 
muskeg) of Eurasia and spreads to the south. Since 
lately Jettmai (1952/3) and others have shown that 
impulses for reindeer domestication came from 
horse breeding, which itself was a rather late acquire- 
ment (compare below), the number of adherents of 
this hypothesis became small. The foundation of 
HanSar's suggestion that the reindeer was employed 
as a trailing and riding animal about 5,o°o B.C. 
(547 and table 63) has broken down too. Jettmar 
(1957a) and Okladnikov show that the finds in the 
Lena region manifesting the riding of the reindeer 
are not from the 2nd millennium B.C., as Handar 
supposed, but from 700-500 B.C. (cf. below). 

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and W. F. Libby, Radiocarbon dates II, Science 117, 
1951, 291; D. M. A. Bate, The fossil antelopes of 
Palestine in Natufian times with description of 
new species, in Geolog. Mag. 77/1940, 418-43; 
A. F. L. Beeston, The Ritual Hunt, in Musion 61, 
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Braidwood, The Near East and the Foundation 
of Civilization (Condon Lectures No. 5) Eugene, 
Oregon 1952; R. J. Braidwood, Ch. A. Reed, The 
Achievement and Early Consequences of Food Pro- 
duction, in Cold Spring Harbour Symposion on 
Quantitative Biology, xxii, 1957, 19-31; G. Brunton, 
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N 877 

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E. W. Gardner, The Desert Fayum, 2 vols., London 
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F. Valjavec (ed.), Historia Mundi, 1952, 318-45; 

E. S. Deevey, Palaeolimnology and Climate, in 
H. Shapley (ed.), Climatic Change, Harvard 1953, 
273-318; K. Dittmer, Allgemeine Vdlkerkunde, 
Brunswick 1954; H. Field, Ancient and Modern 
Man in Southwestern Asia, Miami Press, 1956; 

F. Firbas, Spat- und nacheiszeilliche Waldge- 
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100; idem, Archdologische Hinweise zur Frage 
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Goats of Early Jericho, in Palestine Exploration 
Quarterly, April 1955; idem, The Radiocarbon Age 
of Jericho, in Antiquity 30/1956, 195 ff. 

(b) The Nomad on Horseback. 

Among the Equines, the African donkey (Equus 
subgen. Asinus) and the South-West and Central 
Asiatic onager (Equus subgen. Hemionus) were 
early in use as transport animals. Hancar's opinion 
is that the find of bones of one onager in Kal'at 
Djarmo (about 4750 B.C.) is important in this 
connexion. According to Hancar, a subordinate 
breeding of the horse (Equus subgen. Cabattus), 
which was wild in the steppes and light forests of 
the North, can be recognised in the early 3rd 
millennium B.C. in the Tripolye farming culture 
in the wooded steppe between the Carpathians and 
the Dnieper river. 

A decrease of temperature and probably an 
increase of precipitation (cf. Tolstow, and Butzer's 
different view) since about 2400 B.C. depressed 
the snow line in Central Asia and thus considerably 
enlarged the oasis areas of Turin, so that farming 
and herding as well as oasis civilisation could expand 
in that region (which before had been a desert of 
greater aridity). At least for some centuries, this 
desert seems to have lost its function as a strong 
barrier (Wissmann 1957). The advanced hunters of 
the North and the farmers and the oasis civilisation 
of the South came into contact along an extensive 
border. It seems that by this meeting an amal- 
gamation took place, and a new vital and vigorous 
culture was growing, in which, since the early 2nd 
millennium, the horse, the war-chariot (with its 
origin probably some re in the South-West 
Asiatic highlands round Armenia), and Indo- 
European peoples played an important r61e. During 



this process, the veneration of the deer, which had 
had a central position in the religious perceptions- 
and the myths of the northern hunters, was replaced 
by that of the horse, which was also brought into 
contact with the old South-west Asiatic chthonic 
fertility and bull (bucranion) worship (Kussmaul 
i953b). 

If we take this broad cultural process as a whole, 
we may say that by it civilisation was often relieved 
from oasis seclusion, where it had been in danger of 
stagnating and of becoming barren. Here also, we 
can distinguish steppe-farming and oasis-farming 
branches. When the Shang, who belonged to this 
cultural complex (Kussmaul 1953a), occupied China 
from Central Asia about 1500 B.C. and became its 
ruling class, they had been mainly oasis farmers 
(Eberhard, Franke, Bishop, Wissmann and Kussmaul 
1956, 1957). The Aryans however, when destroying 
the Indus civilisation in about the same period, must 
have been steppe farmers, but cannot be called 
nomads. 

According to excavations, the breeding of the 
Bactrian camel as a transport animal seems to have 
been started in Turan in the second half or the 
last quarter of the 3rd millennium B.C. (Walz, and 
especially Hancar). This is a few centuries earlier 
than the time in which we know of horse breeding 
in this region. Even in Mesopotamia, reliable proofs 
of horse domestication only begin about 2000 B.C. 
or shortly before (Boessnek, Hancar). 

In the northern wooded steppe and marginal light 
forest with its rich black soil (chernosem) from. 
Russia to Siberia, agriculture gradually became 
important beside hunting and herding. In the middle 
of the 2nd millennium, even Western Siberia was 
inhabited by a comparatively dense farming popu- 
lation (Andronovo culture). In such a region without 
oases, pure steppe farming with large herds offers 
good conditions for a social gradation as well as 
the formation of clans, of a warlike nobility and of 
dynastic leadership (Kussmaul). This fanning in the 
black soil belt was then penetrating more and 
more into the open steppe, where inevitably its 
pastoral and migratory branch was increasfd and 
strengthened (Hancar). 

However, the first people to find out that fighting 
on horseback was of great advantage were probably 
that kind of farming tribes with a strong pastoral 
branch, which lived in highlands and mountain 
basins, where the war chariot must have been of 
comparatively little use. This perhaps took place 
in Transcaucasia or even in the Carpathians (Kuss- 
maul, Jettmar). Probably, these tribes still remained 
what we have called steppe-farmers. Hancar con- 
siders the northern border of the Tien-shan Mountains 
and the Altai Mountains as the regions of origin of 
horse riding (397). But Jettmar 1957 shows clearly 
that Hancar's main argument in this question broke 
down (cf. above). Reindeer riding was begun later 
than horse riding. In most other questions, Hancar's 
important basic work remains untouched. 

Only when horse-riding spread into the open 
steppe of the North, that incisive revolution sprang 
up which we may call equestrian nomadisation. 
Once aware of the great superiority of fighting on 
horseback over the older ways of fighting, especially 
in war chariots, "North Iranian" tribes, probably 
between the rivers Volga and Irtysh, the Scythians 
and their neighbours, the Sakians, gave up steppe- 
farming life entirely and specialised in the breeding 
of herd animals, especially horses. Perhaps about 
900 or 800 B.C. they became the first horse-ridin g 



nomads, the first archers on horseback (Haniar, 
390 f.). They were the first to break into the 
neighbouring countries, disseminating panic among 
sedentary populations. When we use the word 
nomad, we usually think of this equestrian 
type. This disastrous transformation overwhelmed 
not only the open steppe but also the wooded 
steppe with its dense farming population. It 
even attracted hunting tribes of the taiga forest 
to join the new way of life. The distinct social 
gradation of the steppe farmers now became 
the base for the appearance of leaders of high 
political and military ability in assembling 
hordes of growing size. The poorer farmers and 
hunters were probably forced to join the "aristo- 
cracy" of horse-breeders, so that a horde organi- 
sation, unknown before, was brought about which 
grew by raiding, sacking, killing and enslaving other 
populations, and by winning over vassals, especially 
other hordes of horsemen, owing to admiration 
or fear. The warm climate and the refined oasis 
civilisation of the South, known to some returned 
men through their service as mercenaries, as well 
as the mild climate and open plains of the West, 
ending in Roumania and Hungary, attracted in- 

It is improbable that the predecessors of the 
Scythians in Southern Russia, the Cimmerians, 
were completely nomadic already. They seem to 
have been steppe fanners with a strong pastoral 
branch and with dangerous mounted warrior bands 
(Kussmaul 1953a, ii 302, Hancar 101). Perhaps the 
early Medes can be mentioned in this connexion, at 
the time when they superseded the highland farmers 
of Iran (cf. von der Osten). Even the Achaemenids 
did not abandon knightly ideals, "horse-riding, 
archery, and love of truth". 

Eastward, through the gap of Dzungaria along 
the foot of the Altai Mountains, nomadisation 
worked like a chain-reaction of explosions. The 
"North Iranians", especially the Scythians, were 
followed by the Wu-sun, who probably lived in 
Central and Eastern Tien-shan. We may suppose 
that in this period herdsmen, hunters and farmers 
of the open and wooded steppes surrounding Mon- 
golia were forced to take up nomadic life. It is 
possible that the pressure of the Wu-sun against 
the population of the oasis chain of Kan-su caused 
the last invasion of a farming people into China, 
the Zhung, which led to the breakdown of the 
dynasty of the Western Chou (770 B.C.). The first 
nofoadism to be traced in Chinese reports is that 
of the Hsiung-nu from about the 5th century B.C. 
These were neither Iranians nor "Proto-Turks". 
According to Ligeti, their language seems to have 
been isolated. The Yenissei-Ostyaks may have taken 
over features of the Hsiung-nu language, when both 
were neighbours. In their habitat between ancient 
China and the Gobi Desert, the Hsiung-nu had 
taken over en bloc a considerable group of elements 
of the culture of the North Iranian nomads. Some 
of the traits of the life of the Hsiung-nu prove their 
former dependence on China. Others show their old 
cultural relations to the non-nomadic primitive 
tribes of Manchuria (Kussmaul). During centuries 
of fierce wars, in which the Chinese defended them- 
selves against the Hsiung-nu and built the Great 
Wall, again the Chinese took over a part of the cul- 
tural elements derived from the North Iranians, 
e.g., iron, cavalry, trousers, the concept of heaven 
as a tent. There is an old Chinese proverb : Horseback 



Map 3 shows how the spark of nomadisation caught 
one tribal organisation after the other along the 
borderland between forest and desert north-east of 
China during and after the time of the Hsiung-nu 
empire. Agrarian and urban China, itself in a country 
of loess and steppe, counterbalanced or endured the 
pressure or became vassal or partly subdued or even 
marginally transformed into pasture, all this during 
long periods of alternate defence and retreat and of 
regaining ground for agriculture. As the object of 
this article is a synopsis of the history of the origin 
of nomadism, we cannot deal with the growth of 
more or less short lived nomadic realms and empires, 
which in their tendencies saw a model in the uni- 
versalistic and cosmological state doctrine of the 
Chinese Empire. Nor can we deal with those tremen- 
dous migrations and invasions into the West, during 
which the Dry Belt served as a corridor, through 
which the invaders broke into the countries of old 
oasis civilisation in South-west Asia or into the 
beginnings of forest civilisation in mediaeval Central 
and Western Europe, where they were one cause of 
the Migration of Nations (Grousset, Spuler). 

All these movements destroyed what had been 
left of steppe farming in the plains of the open and 
wooded steppe. The hilly and mountainous regions 
surrounding Mongolia in the north, however, with 
a pattern of steppe, meadow and forest, became 
areas of retreat and regeneration of a population 
which made its living by hunting, by cattle-breeding, 
and also by farming (cf. Lattimore). The ruins of a 
defence wall cutting off the north-eastern comer 
of the steppes of Mongolia near the Gan and Argun 
rivers (Plaetschke) show that such a farming 
population must have been quite numerous some- 
times. We may trace on map 3 how again and again 
in such hilly border regions of the forest new nuclei 
of horde formation -sprang up among hunting, 
herding and farming groups, who led a simple life 
under hard conditions. In these we find some able 
man, endowed with the gifts of leadership, organising 
a heterogeneous horde by raiding, robbing and 
winning vassals. Sometimes the name of a clan, 
little known before, became the name of a growing 
power or even of a vast empire. By some lucky 
chance, a Secret History of the Mongols has been 
preserved (Haenisch), which is the story of the life 
of Cingiz Khan and his clan, and of how he 
founded the Mongol Empire. It was written by a 
Mongol in A.D. 1240 as a plain first hand report. 
In the time of his forefathers, the semi-sedentary clan 
living in the Kentei Mountains owned but a few 
horses, cattle and sheep. There was some scanty agri- 
culture. Wild vegetables were collected. Hunting on 
horseback was important. However, the neighbours 
in the open steppes outside the mountains were true 
horse-riding nomads with large flocks and herds. 
Some had become sated with raiding and addicted 
to the luxuries of civilisation with which they had 
become familiar during their raids. From hiding 
places in the valleys and forests of the Kentei hills, 
the incipient clan of Cingiz Khan robbed among the 
rich nomads of the plains. The booty consisted of 
horses, cattle and sheep, women, children and 
servants. Thus the clan turned entirely nomadic, 
growing by the acquisition of new vassals, an 
association taking its name from the leader's clan, 
growing in strength according to the looting ability 
of the leader. Finally, well-known tribes and peoples 
lost their independence as well as their name and 
merged with the great "Mongol" unit. 

Virtually no region on the margin of the dry belt 



of Mongolia, which once had been the cradle of such 
a fast growth of nomadism and then had been 
thoroughly nomadised, ever repeated the formation 
of a new nomadic aggregation. 

The empty spaces of the Dry Belt were terribly 
enlarged by the destructive incursions and migrations 
of the mounted nomads. Steppe farming was anni- 
hilated in Eurasia except in mountainous regions, if 
we do not include in this term the agriculture of 
North China and parts of India. Oasis civilisation 
-was disastrously weakened and reduced. It is I 
that the larger nomadic states contributed to 
interchange of materials and ideas across the ( 
tinent. But this interchange would certainly 1) 
been stronger in a peaceful development. Yet 
■do not know to what extent suffering may be 
necessary to save from degeneration and decay that 
■which is sound and good in man's mind. 

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maul, On the Rile of Nature and Man in Changing 
the Face of the Dry Belt of Asia, in W. L. Thomas 
(ed.), Man's R6U in Changing the Face of the 
Earth, Chicago 1956, 278-303. 

(H. von Wissmann and F. Kussmaul) 

(c) Bedouin Nomadism in Arabia. 

There are indications that the wild one-humped 
camel (the wild dromedary) lived in North Africa and 
the Near East until the 3rd millennium B.C., and 
that it became extinct later on except in Arabia. 
We do not know when this process of extermination 
ended in North Africa. 

A cord made of camel hair has been found from the 
3rd dynasty in Egypt. An Egyptian relief published 
by James (1955) shows the dromedary among wild 
animals. Judging from its style, it belongs to the 
New Kingdom. The camel was domesticated neither 
in the valley of the Nile, where the local climate is 
detrimental for its health, nor in any desert region 
of North Africa. This question is treated thoroughly 
by Walz (1951). 

Agatharchides (in two versions, cf. C. Muller, 
Georgr. Grace. Minor, i, 179) and Artemidorus (Strabo 
xvi, 4, 18) give reports of the Red Sea coast of 
Arabia which inspire confidence. In these reports they 
also write that, in the hinterland of the coast of 
present Northern Hidjaz, there are herds of wild ani- 
mals, of "cattle", onagers (fiXX<ovf)m6v<ov; 4hij6y)- 
to; dtpt6n6s ?)Hi°v<ov xal (3ocov), wild camels 
(xa(iT)X<ov drfpUov), deer and gazelles, and also nu- 
merous lions, "panthers" and wolves. All three de- 
scriptions were probably taken over from one original 
perhaps of Ariston, c. 280 B.C. (cf . Tarn, op. cit. report, 
later, 14). Musil (1926, 302 ff.) believes that these 
camels probably were not really wild ones. (He mis- 
takes onagers, "half-asses", for mules, and is right 
in saying that mules cannot be wild.) Littmann 



THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ISLAM 




iimn 



■ dry steppe, good pas- 
I ture, rain-agriculture 
1 endangered 



, f. : : . . . 71 =emi-d«ert, n 
* I I pasture 

a ■ 



in ;i:ul if'n- iiawsuf tin- Dry Be;t of Inner 




THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ISLAM 



art. BADW (II) 



m rain-agriculture. 




'SH$ h *«*vi Recent names it given in par- 
'" r *\ entheses. The broken lines are: 
roads from 
?afir (Dufar) and Sana' via 
Ghazza and Da- 
and to Gerrha, (s), the 
roads from the Nile near 
Koptos to the Red Sea har- 
bours, (3) the "Darb al-FU" 
(3rd to ?th century A.D.) from 
?afir and San ! a J to Banat 
Barb and Sam al-Manazil 
(and Mecca), (4) t 



(i940, 3) has demonstrated that the rock-drawings 
which are found in connexion with Thamudean (cf. 
below) graffiti show — besides domesticated animals: 
camels, horses and dogs — hunted animals in great 
quantities: gazelles, "wild cattle" (oryx), ibexes, wild 
boars, hares, ostriches, lions, wolves, hyenas. Only 
once is a goat shown. No sheep and no domesticated 
cattle are drawn. The nomads between Midian and 
the Hawran must have been fervent hunters, but not 
much interested in sketching their ghanam (goats and 
sheep). Also Xenophon (Anabasis, i, 5, 1 ff.) speaks 
of onagers, wild cattle (oryx), ostriches and bustards, 
and he describes the hunting of onagers on horseback. 
So perhaps there still were also wild dromedaries in 
desert Arabia in the 3rd century B.C. 

We cannot tell where in Arabia the one-humped 
camel was first domesticated. Albright supposes that 
this was done in South Arabia, somewhere round 
the great southern desert (1958, note 5). Nothing 
is known about the dromedary as a domesticated herd 
animal before the nth century B.C. (Albright, Walz 
i95i» 1956. against Dussaud 207): Judges, 6-8 says 
that Midianites, Amalekites, and the sons of the east 
made ingressions on camel's back into Palestine across 
the Jordan river. This was about in the first half of 
the nth century B.C., and, according to Albright 
and Walz, is the earliest date for a mention of the 
domesticated dromedary. It is the time when iron 
was introduced into Palestine. Albright (Arch. 1953, 
227, note 31) is of the opinion that the dromedary 
was effectively domesticated in Arabia between the 
i6th/i5th and the I3th/i2th centuries B.C. The 
spreading of Semites to South Arabia goes probably 
back to a still earlier time: the reliefs of the Punt 
expedition of Hatshepsut (about 1495 B.C.) show 
that the Orientalid sub-race of the Mediterranean 
races (Mediterranean sensu stride- — OrieDtalid — 
Iranian — Indid — Gondid; cf. von Eickstedt, Biasutti, 
Coon, Field 1956, Poch), which must have been a 
very old race among the North Arabian Semites 
(Moscati), was already represented then in South 
Arabia, at least among the reigning class (Dr. Hella 
Poech, oral comm.). This agrees with the supposition 
of Conti Rossini (101, cf. 47) that the names of the 
chiefs of Punt mentioned by Hatshepsut and by 
Ramses II were Semitic (Parihu — fatty; Nahas — 
nahhds; cf. Brunner-Traut, 307; Wissmann 1957). 
That Punt was located at least partly on the Arabian 
side of the sea also becomes probable, I think, when 
we draw conclusions from the somatical features of 
people of Punt in Egyptian reliefs as early as the 
jth dynasty (Sahure, cf. Kees, 59). These features 
are similar to those of the Egyptians (cf. Poch 1957). 

W. F. Albright estimates that, in the desert climate 
-along the interior foot of the highlands of Yaman, 
civilisation was beginning about the 15th century 
B.C. He assumes that this was due to an immigration 
from the north. His dating is partly based on the 
fact that the excavation in Hajjjar b. Humayd (cf. 
below) has shown that 4-5 metres of probably agri- 
cultural (irrigational) silt had been deposited before 
the foundation of that settlement. This foundation 
took place c. 1000 B.C. While 8 metres of silt were 
deposited during the existence of the settlement 
from c. icoo B.C. to c. 200 A.D., the lower 4-5 metres 
may represent about half a millennium (R. Le Baron 
Bowen, 67, 117; Albright 1958). 

It is peculiar that camel-riding and horse-riding 
both seem to have begun to spread in the second 
half of the 2nd millennium B.C., camel-riding from 
Arabia, horse-riding probably from the mountains of 
Transcaucasia. Hancar suggests that an increasing 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



demand for sumpter animals for the transport of 
metals may have been a stimules to the intensi- 
fication of horse breeding in mountain regions (397). 
Also the breeding of the one-humped camel in Arabia 
must have been accelerated in connexion with a 
growing demand for transport between South Arabia 
on one side, the Mediterranean lands and Mesopo- 
tamia on the other, a transport of frankincense, 
myrrh, precious stones and gold from South Arabia, 
of Indian and East African goods from the South 
and of cloth, products of civilisation and objets 
d'art (Segall 1957) and perhaps iron wares from 
the north. The introduction of waterproof plaster 
for irrigation works and cisterns in South Arabia, 
which had spread before in Syria since about 1200 
B.C., must have impelled agricultural development 
"probably not before the 10th century B.C." (Al- 
bright 1958). 

While the excavations of N. Glueck in Ezion- 
Geber (Smithson. Inst., Ann. Rep. 1941. Publ. 3651, 
1942) prove that the reports of the navigation of 
Solomon and Hiram to the gold land of Ofir refer to 
historical facts, the story of the queen of Saba' 
(Sheba), which is told in relation with the Ofir 
expeditions in 1 Kings 9-10, must also have some 
historical background (cf. Albright 1958, 3). At least 
it shows that camel caravans were travelling between 
South Arabia and Palestine in the 10th century B.C. 
Saba 1 , Ofir and Hawila are namtd one after the other 
as brothers in Genesis 10 (9th or 8th century, cf. 
Albright, Arch. 1953, 327), beside Hasarmaweth, 
among the sons of Yokfan, son of 'fiber. I can 
support the hypothesis that the gold-land of Ofir 
(1 Kings 9-10, 22"; 1 Chron. 29*; 2 Chron. 8", 
9"; Job 22", 28"; Psalms 45"; Isaiah 13") was in 
south-west Arabia on the Red Sea coast: in 'Astr 
round Dhahaban (Sprerger, Moritz, Delbrueck 12, 
Wissmann 1957, 1959; cf. Glaser 357-384, Albright 
Arch. 1953, 212, note 14). In Somaliland, where 
some authors put Ofir, the outcrop of crystalline 
rock and of its dikes, the matrix of gold, is much 
smaller than in 'Astr (cf. Carte Giol. Aft. 1952). On 
Saba 1 sending gold cf. 1 Kings 10, Isaiah 60*, Ezech. 
27", Psalm 72" (but cf. J. Ryckmaos 1958). 

The most plausible identification of the gold-land 
of Hawila of Gen. 2", io', io«», 25", 1. Sam. 15' 
in my opinion as well as that of Niebuhr, C. Ritter, 
Sprenger, Moritz and others, is that with Khawlan. 
This name is known from inscriptions, from al-Ham- 
danl, and is still used today. North Khawlan bordered 
on Ofir. South Khawlan adjoined Saba'. That North 
Khawlan was highly renowned in Greece for its rich 
gold mines, probably at about 400 B.C., is expli- 
citly stated by Agatharchides (C. Miiller, Geogr . Grate. 
Minor., 184 f; Wissmann 1957, esp. 1959). 

In the genealogy of Genesis 10, the South Arabians 
are considered as being descendants of both Ku§h, 
and 'fiber. The descendants of 'fiber and his son 
YoktJn were settled as far as "SefSr, the mountain 
towards the East". Commonly, this Sefir is thought 
to be ?afir, the capital of the Himyar in Yaman. 
But this town was probably founded about 109 B.C. 
(cf. below), when the Himyar had occupied this re- 
gion. It lay on a hill in the highlands of south-west 
Yaman and is not "a mountain towards the east". 
Fresnel, C. Ritter, Rodiger, Tkac and others suppose 
—and I believe they are right— that Sefir was ?af Sr 
(or Pufar), a town and region east of Hadramawt and 
Mahra-Land, which, however, is not known by this 
name in pre-Islamic inscriptions or literature, but 
only since the early Arab geographers. It is the best 
frankincense region of South Arabia. The eastern 



882 



mountain promontory and cape of this region is 
really the last region from which in antiquity ships 
left the coast to use the monsoon in the direction 
of India (Schoff, Frisk, I.e. later). It is also the last 
area of South Arabia towards the East with a settled, 
non-nomadic population. East of it, the great desert 
touches the sea as far as <Uman (cf. Lagarde 61, note; 
Vollers, Ztschr. f. Assyr. 22, 223 f. is of the opinion 
that Sefar of Gen. 10 is to be identified with Safari 
in Bahrayn. But this "balad" [Yakut 3, 96, citing 
Ibn al-Faklh] was neither frontier place nor moun- 
tain.) 

I think one may conclude that the "Table of 
Peoples" (Yahwist") means by the "sons of Yoktan" 
the agricultural peoples of South Arabia (map 4); 
and I suppose that in Gen. 25", the camel nomads 
of central and north-west Arabia were comprehended 
as the sons of Yishma'51, and in Gen. 37"' •• and 
Judges 8" as Yishmi'elites. Gen. 25": "And they 
(the sons of Yishma'el) lived from Hawfla as far as 
Shur, which is east of Egypt, on the way to Ashur". 
They lived, it seems, in the triangle of desert -steppe 
between the agricultural countries of South Arabia 
(Khawlan), Egypt and Assyria (cf. Skinner, Internal. 
Crit. Comment., and Kautzsch-Bertholet). 

Certainly, troops mounted on an animal so well 
adapted to the desert, capable of enduring thirst 
so well and of travelling long distances so quickly, 
as is the camel, must have enjoyed great superiority 
when fighting against war-chariots drawn by horses. 
Albright says [Stone Age 1946, 120; Arch. 1953. 97): 
"Arab nomadism is conditioned by the domestication 
of the camel, which makes it possible for Bedu to 
live entirely on their herds of camels, drinking their 
milk, eating camel curds and camel flesh, wandering 
through regions, where only the camel can subsist, 
and making rapid journeys of several days, if need 
be, through waterless desert. The camel eats desert 
shrubs and bushes, which even sheep and goats will 
not touch". — Over long distances a riding camel is 
three times as quick as a horse. It can cover 300 km. 
in one day. The load of a caravan camel may weigh 
as much as 200 kg., that of a horse up to 150 kg. 
Arabia has not only bred races of transport camels 
and of riding camels of the lowlands but also stocks 
of mountain camels capable of going on fairly 
steep paths, as in 'Aslr (Tamisier ii, 31, 47, 197) or 
in 'Awalik country and Hadramawt (own experience). 
When coming from the plains to an 'akaba (pass) 
of the mountains, the camels of a caravan must be 
changed near the foot of the 'akaba from one breed to 
an other. In Arabia, only the western slope of the 
Yaman highlands seems to be too moist for camel 
breeding. We must consider that, before the time of 
camel domestication, the donkey (and perhaps the 
onager) was the only transport animal in Arabia 
(cf. above). It is peculiar that the Bactrian camel, 
which had been domesticated in TurSn about a 
millennium earlier than the time when the domes- 
tication of the calmer dromedary must have taken 
place in Arabia, never became important for riding 
but only for transport. 

It looks as if the domestication of the dromedary 
went hand in hand with its employment for riding. 
This cannot be said of any other animal. Since 
excavations in Arabia did not go down to strata of 
early periods, our knowledge is based only on 
historical data. We are not yet able to see the source 
of an impulse for this domestication. Walz (1956) 
opposing Wiesner (1955) insists on the statement 
that the domestication of the one-humped camel was 
totally independent of the breeding of the Bactrian 



camel and the horse. It seems, however, that parallel 
inventions are rare in prehistory and history (Sauer 
I.e., 2). The horse was in use in Mesopotamia since at 
least about 2000 B.C.; but troops riding on horse- 
back are not mentioned there before 1130 (Nebuchad- 
nezar I of Babylonia; Thomson in Pauly-Wissowa, 
vii, 109 ff.). As the Bactrian camel was bred in 
southern TurSn since at least about 2100 B^., it 
is improbable that it was not brought to Mesopo- 
tamia and farther south now and then in those 
turbulent periods of the early and middle 2nd 
millennium B.C. This may have given an impulse 
for the domestication of the one-humped camel. 

A camel's head, part of a pottery jar found in the 
excavation of Hadjar b. Humayd in Bayhan (ancient 
Kataban) in South Arabia by W. F. Albright, was 
approximately dated by him to belong to the 8th 
(or 9th) century B.C. (van Beek 1952, 17, Walz 1956, 
footnote 54, Albright, letter 1957). The publication 
of a radiocarbon date for a low stratum of Hadjar b. 
Humayd (van Beek 1956) shows that Albright's 
preliminary palaeographical dating of a monogram 
found during this excavation is not too early but 
may be perhaps even a century late. 

A relief of a dromedary rider from Tell Halaf is 
from the 9th century (Walz). The first cuneiform 
records of camel-riding nomads seem to be the 
"Aramaean Bedouins" fighting against a vassal of 
Assur Nasirpal in 880 B.C. A little later, 854 B.C., 
"Gindibu the Arab", from an Aribi district, fought 
against Salmanassar III, leading a troop of thousand 
camels. The article al-'Arab (1) by A. Grohmann 
contains a summary on the Aribi country and the 
Arabs in the 9th to 7th centuries B.C. from cuneiform 
data. In this period, Aribi is the northernmost part 
of Arabia between Syria and Mesopotamia, including 
the Palmyrene and WSdl Sirhan. The Arabs are its 
nomadic and oasis inhabitants. The central oasis 
Adummatu is, according to Grohmann and Musil 
(1927 531 f). Dumat al-Djandal in the Djawf. 
The "kings" are chiefs partly of oasis settlements, 
partly of nomadic tribes. This state of affairs is also 
meant in Jeremiah 25": "The kings of Arabia 
and all the kings of the Arabs who live in the desert". 
(The first mention of 'Arab in the Bible is in Isaiah 
in the late 8th cent. B.C.). Bazu, against which 
Assarhaddon undertook a long expedition in 676 
B.C., is, according to Weidner's latest discoveries, 
in Ej stern Arabia, in the hinterland of Dilraun 
(Bahrayn), not as Musil (1927, 482 f.) thought, in 
WadI Sirhan (Albright, letter). 

It is evident that the caravan roads, especially the 
"incense road" from Ghazzat on the Mediterranean 
and from Damascus by Ma'an (Musil 1926, 243), 
Daydan (al- c Ula>) and Yathrib (al-Madlna) to Ragmat 
(Nadjran), Ma'In and Saba> (cf. Albright 1953, Wiss- 
mann 1957, Segal 1 1957) played an important po- 
litical rdle, e.g., when in 732 B.C. queen Sams! of 
Aribi joined a great coalition including the state 
of Saba 1 , the king of Damascus, the import ?nt oasis 
of Tayma' and tribes near Tayma* and Daydan 
against Tiglath-Pilesar III. The first sovereign of 
Saba' named in cuneiform inscriptions, probably a 
mukarrib (priest-king), brings tribute to Sargon II 
in 715 B.C. (cf. Albright, in BASOR 143, 1956, 10; 
idem, 1958; Wissmann 1957). The tributes received 
by Assyrian kings in this period from different 
queens and kings of the northern half of Arabia 
show that long-distance caravan traffic must have 
been considerable. Cattle, gold, silver, lead, iron, 
elephant skins, ivory and cloth were transported 
(Caskel 1954). 



It must be emphasised that South Arabia, which 
was represented by Saba' since at least the ioth 
century (cf. Albright, inBASOR, 1952, note 26, 1958), 
was a country with a numerous and farming popu- 
lation and with but little and unimportant noma- 
dism, a country producing aromatic goods, especially 
frankincense (Exodus 30", 1 Kings 10, Isaiah 6o', 
Jer. 6", cf. J. Ryckmans 1958). South Arabia cer- 
tainly introduced Indian and East African wares 
to its ports, and it must have already monopolised 
the traffic on the "incense roads" to the north-west 
and by central Arabia to the north-east (map 1) 
in this period to some degree. (On the strength 
of Saba' in the 8th to 6th centuries, cf. von Wiss- 
mann 1957). Perhaps the Chaldaeans lived in 'Uman 
in those periods and mediated between Saba' and 
Mesopotamia (and India?), before they occupied 
Mesopotamia, where Chaldaean kings begin in 625 
B.C. (cf. Albright, in BASOR, 1952). 

Albright suggests (cf. van Beek 1952) that no 
time was more opportune for the commercial expan- 
sion of Saba' westwards into Ethiopia than about 
the ioth century B.C. "Egypt, which previously 
enjoyed exclusive trading rights in Ethiopia and 
Punt by land and by sea, was unable to maintain 
i*s commercial relations with the south after the 
fall of the New Empire." According to Albright, 
boustrophedon Sabaean inscriptions in the temple 
'Awa' or modern Yeha on the plateau of northern 
Ethiopia east of Aksum (Littmann 1913, Nos. 27-32 
and D. H. Miiller, Epigraph. Denkmdler, Yeha 5) 
palaeographically belong to the 5th century (letter- 
from W. F. Albright, March. 1957, cf. Conti Rossini 
102). An inscription on the base of a rather archaic 
statue recently found in Makalle (Caquot and 
Drewes) seems to be somewhat earlier. So, even in 
the new chronologies of A. F. L. Beeston (in BSOAS 
1954) and Pirenne (1956 b), who emphasise a 
"rejuvenation" of the early South Arabian chrono- 
logy, the 5th century B.C. would not be too early. 
Sabaean colonisation was already firmly established 
in this region at that time. The probable name of 
the temple of modern Yeha, 'Awa", was also the 
name of the great oval temple of the state god of 
Saba' near Marib. In a remarkable boustrophedon 
inscription on an incense altar of Makalle in Abys- 
sinia (Caquot and Drewes, 30-32), a "mukarrib of 
Da'mat (place near later Aksum) and Saba"' dedi- 
cates (the altar?) to Almakah, which was the main 
state god of South Arabian Saba'. J. Ryckmans 
suggests that, in a period before the first known 
Sabaean inscriptions of Marib and Sirwah (which 
probably date, from the 8th century B.C.; Wiss- 
mann 1957), the centre of Saba 9 was in the moun- 
tains and highlands of present southern Yaman, 
round Djabal Ba'dan and pjabal Humaym ( — Dhat 
Ba'dan and Dhat Humaym were the most important 
sun goddesses of Saba' — ), and that the region of 
Marib in the north-east as well as North Abyssinia 
in the West were both colonised from this area (J. 
Ryckmans 1958; cf. Albright 1958). 

Glaser (387 ff.) and von Wissmann-Hdfner suppose 
that Kana' and c Adan, ■ the best natural ports of 
South Arabia on the Indian Ocean, are named as 
Kanne and 'Eden in Ezekiel 27" (early 6th cent. B.C.). 
Ezekiel says: "Haran and Kanne and "Eden" (M:) 
"merchants of Sheba" or (S:) "they were thy mer- 
chants". Mostly all three places are identified in 
Northern Mesopotamia, where an ancient Haran is 
well known (cf. Cooke, Int. Crit. Comment.). Isaiah 
37" and 2 Kings 19" mention this northern Haran 
ilong with the Ben« 'Eden: "Gozan, HSran, Resef 



W 883 

(in Palmyrene) and Ben€ 'Eden in Tel'assar". But 
al-ldrlsl mentions Haran al-Karln in South Arabia 
between North Khawlan and "BIsJiat Bu'tan", 
(which name is a mistake for Baysh; Grohmann ii, 
1933. 131)- The location is in the Tihama lowlands 
north of the present northern frontier of Yaman, 
somewhere near present Abu 'Arish. Ritter (Arabien 
i, 189, 193) and Biisching supposed that this is the 
Haran mentioned in Ezekiel. The difficulty is that 
Kudama and Ibn Khurradadhbih do not mention 
a place of this name on that route, but al-'Urshsh 
(Abu 'Arlshsh) instead. I suspect that there is some 
mistake in al-Idrisfs text. But there are different 
places named HRN in Ancient South Arabian in- 
scriptions: Hirran near Ka'taba north of 'Aden, 
Hirran south-west of Ma'in and . Hirran north of 
Dhamar (on the last cf. W. B. Harris, 272 ff.). 
Perhaps the Septuagint (S) translators changed the 
text from "merchants of Sheba" into "they were 
thy merchants", because they knew the northern, 
but not the southern Haran and 'Eden and there- 
fore could not understand the meaning. In connexion 
with "merchants of Sheba", one should consider 
that Saba' (Sheba) was a state, not a town, and that 
the three places mentioned may have belonged to 
this state. 

Ezekiel 38": "Sheba, Dedhan, merchants of Tar- 
shlsh" (Tartessos or Sardinia) shows opposite out- 
posts of Ezekiel's terra cognita. (Dedhan is the Day- 
dan of South Arabian inscriptions.) 

Considering this important position of South 
Arabia in this period and its central place in the 
oldest seafaring area, that of the Indian Ocean, we 
must keep in view that the North and Central 
Arabian home of camel nomadism was surrounded 
by civilised agrarian countries, on all sides where it 
was not touched by the sea. 

The difficulties of crossing the desert with long 
distances between watering-places could only be 
mastered after the domestication of the camel. The 
desert routes of greatest importance for traffic were 
those between Mesopotamia and Syria. But also the 
difficulties in crossing Arabia from Mesopotamia and 
from the Mediterranean coasts to the fertile highlands 
of South Arabia could more easily be overcome by 
camel caravans. The springs and wells of the northern 
part of Arabia became important as resting places of 
caravans and as commercial and political centres. 
As the nomads were breeding the camels needed 
for the caravans, their tribes were interested in a 
peaceful traffic and it was expedient for them to join 
coalitions among each other and with the oasis 
town kingdoms on the main routes. 

Since Tiglath-Pilesar III (748-725), north-western 
Arabia, including the northern part of the incense 
road from Daydan to Ghazzat may have become more 
tightly bound to Assyria, and later to Nee-Baby- 
lonia, after each conquest. It seems to be of great 
importance for the cultural and religious develop- 
ment of the "Arabs", that Nabuna'id (Nabonidus) of 
Babylonia conquered Tayma' in 550 B.C. and that 
he reigned there for eight years and made an 
expedition as far as Yathrib. He built a palace and 
temple in Tayma' and made this place the centre 
of an archaistic religion and cult round the Aramaean 
moon god Stn, perhaps with the sun disc resting in 
the crescent as the main symbol of this religion 
(Musil, 1928, 224 ff., Moortgat, Segall). There 
should be investigations on the close resemblances 
between this cult and that of South Arabia and 
Ethiopia. SYN was the state god of Hadramawt 
since the earliest inscriptions of this state. (Albright 



884 Bf 

1952, note 8, brings reasons for an early introduction 
of this god into Hadramawt). c Ez4na of Abyssinia 
changed the crescent and disc for the cross on his 
coins when he turned to Christianity (4th cent. 
A.D.) (Littmann 1913, i, 60). 

The exceptional temporary position of Tayma' 
may have stimulated the other town states of the 
oases of Arabia Deserta to partake to some degree 
in the civilisations of the surrounding countries in 
the north-east, the north-west and the south, while 
trying to preserve or to re-establish always again a 
certain an-ount of independance. Different scripts 
were us'd aad developed. Evfn the clansmen 
of the nomadic tribes knew how to write. Never- 
theless, pure camel nomadism was common. Aga- 
tharchides and Artemidorus (Diod. in C. Miiller, 
Geogr. Graec. Minor. 184, Strabo xvi, 4, 18) in their 
accounts on the tribe of the Debai in the lowlands 
(Tihama) of 'Aslr write: "They live merely from 
their camels. From these they fight, on these they 
travel. Their food is camel milk and camel meat". 

The scripts of the rock graffiti of the nomads of 
Arabia Deserta, which are spread from near the 
Safaitic area south of Damascus and from the Sinai 
peninsula to the borders of Nadjran in South Arabia, 
form a unit though with strong regional (and 
probably temporal) variations. They have been 
classified as Thamudean scripts, although but a part 
of these graffiti have been written by the tribe of 
Thamud in its area round Daydan (Littmann 
1940, van den Branden, J. Ryckmans 1956). In 
many respects these scripts are (and remained?) 
more archaic than the scripts of the settled popula- 
tions, which were altered by their adaptation for 
monumental inscriptions (cf. J. Pirenne 1955, 
44 ft-)- Related graffiti are even found in South 
Arabia especially along the desert margins (cf. 
Hofner, and Jamme 1955). That all "Thamudean" 
inscriptions seem to have been written by nomads 
shows that the nomadic tribes must have had some 
awareness of interdependence and a certain spirit 
of solidarity and that their life was separated and 
rather independent from the oasis town states. 

It is evident that this situation of camel nomadism 
in Arabia was very different from what we know of 
horse-riding nomadism in the northern steppes of 
Eurasia. One main reason for the strong difference 
certainly is that the long and hard winters of the 
north do not permit more than one extensive crop 
and hinder the development of oases, although 
humidity is greater. Where the sub-tropical desert 
is dotted with oases of restricted size as in many 
parte of Arabia north of the line from WadI Baystj 
to Nadjran and to the Rub' al- Khali, it seems that 
a balance of power could result there to some degree 
between the nomadic tribes on the one hand and the 
merchant town states on the other, while probably 
the farmers of the oases had often to live in bondage 
to townsmen or to nomads. 

The history of nomadism in Arabia is closely 
connected with the word A<rab. In Semitic languages 
and pre-Islamic times, this word was only used for 
inhabitants of the Bedouin and oasis regions north 
of the Rub 1 al Khali. It especially meant the camel 
nomads but also included the oasis dwellers. Even 
Muhammad used the word a<r&b only for Bedouin. 
Only the Greeks have transmitted this name to the 
whole peninsula, probably already after the expedi- 
tions of Darius (Scylax). Theophrastus (372-287) 
calls Arabia t<Sv ' Apipwv xepp6v»)oo<; (Hist. Plant. 
ix, ch. 1, § 2). Eratosthenes (late 3rd century B.C., 
Strabo XV, 4, 2) gives its division into Arabia 



Eudaimon and Arabia Eremos (Arabia Felix and 
Arabia Deserta of the Roman period). But already 
Euripides mentions "Arabia eudaimon" in his 
Bacchae (16-18), and Aristophanes (Aves 144 f.) a 
"polis eudaimon on the Erythraean Sea", both in the 
late 5th century B.C. The South Arabians never 
called themselves 'AVab. 

We have no knowledge about the pre-Islamic 
history of the nomadic tribes south of the Rub c al- 
Khall. north and east of Hadramawt and west of 
c Uman. To day, they are genuine camel nomads 
possessing some ghanam, just as those of the North. 
They still have holy rocks and holy places near wells, 
where they bury their dead (van der Meulen, own 
experience, Thesiger). But they do not live in tents. 
They have tropical clothing and south-semitic 
dialects. In mountain regions they use caves for 
shelter. They do not possess horses. Unlike the 
northern badw they have stayed outside of known 
coalitions. 

The fate of camel nomadism in Arabia was closely 
connected with that of caravan trade. So the decline 
of this trade must have been of great importance for 
the nomad. This decline slowly set in in the 4th or 
3rd century B.C., when the tolls, which had to be 
paid on the road were constantly increased because of 
the political division of South Arabia into different 
states (Pliny xii, 14, 65). It became stronger when, 
from round 115 B.C., the straits of Bab al-Mandab 
were opened for direct traffic from Egypt to India. 
The overland incense traffic almost vanished, 
when this oversea traffic from the Roman Empire 
to India became important from about 48 B.C. 
(Strabo, ii, 5, 12, ibid., xvii, 1, 13, Pliny, vi, 23, 104). 
This must have been a hard blow for the kingdoms 
of South Arabia and even more for the Bedouins 
who took part in the overland traffic and sold camels 
for this. 

The name Arrhabitai (A c rab) was used by the 
great Abyssinian (Aksum) king who erected the 
Monumentum Adulitanum (cf. below, section d), 
of which we know the Greek version, probably be- 
fore the middle 2nd century A.D. This is in his 
account of the submission of the Hidjaz and 'Aslr 
north of the Sabaean and south of the Roman 
frontiers. Here "Arrhabitai" seems to signify the 
population of the hinterland of the Kinaidokolpitai 
who, according to CI. Ptolemy, lived on the coast 
of Hidjaz and of 'Asir. 

A'rab Bedouins had begun to interfere in the 
conflicts in South Arabia towards the 2nd cent. 
A.D. (J. Ryckmans 1951, 215 f., 1956). In the 
inscription Nam! 71 to 73, 'AVab and Kh-m-y-s are 
mentioned together several times. Perhaps Kh-m-y-s 
(Khumays ?, probably derived from khums) means 
the regular army (M. Homer, letter), while A«rab 
means contingents of northern Bedouins on camels 
and on horseback. The inscription NamI 71 to 73 
belongs to the third century A.D. (king Alhan 
Nahfan; cf. Mordtmann-Mittwoch 218-220). The in- 
scription "Ryckmans 535", belonging to the same 
period, shows that camels and horses were used in 
the South Arabian armies (G. Ryckmans, in Musion, 
I93 6 , 154 !•; on the chronology of this period, cf. v. 
Wissmann 1957). It should be investigated if there 
are earlier convincing indications of camel troops 
in South Arabia (cf. v. Wissmann-Hofner, 10, 46). 
(The inscription "Ingrams 1" does not point to 
such conditions. The preliminary translation we 
used in v. Wissmann-Hofner, 333, was wrong; ci. 

In 328 A.D., the inscription of al-Namara, east of 



Djabal Hawran, in the Syrian desert (RES 483), tells 
us: "This is the grave of Imra 1 al-Kays (mr'/Kys) b. 
'Amt, the king of al the A'rab, who and ad- 
vanced successfully ( ?) to the siege of NadjrSn, the 
capital of SJjammar" (Lidzbarski). We see that Imra 1 
al-Kays calls himself king of all A "Tabs, although he 
is not in possession of Nadjran on the north-eastern 
margin of agricultural South Arabia, but perhaps 
king of most of those Bedouin tribes who live in 
tents, i.e. A<rab. Nadjran is at that time a town of 
"Shammar", probably Shammar Yuljarlsh (cf. 
Pirenne 1956, Jamme 1957, J. Ryckmans 1957, 23, 
note, Pirenne 1957, 59, note 4), who assumed the 
title of "King of Saba 1 and Dhu Ray dan and of 
Uadramawt and of Yamnat" [Dhu Ray dan stands 
for the Himyar, Yamnat probably is a name of 
the coastal region south of Hadramawt; Wissmann 
1959). This title means that Shammar was or claimed 
to be king of the entire agricultural country of 
South Arabia. 

In the early 5 th century, when great parts of 
Northern Arabia belonged to the domain of the South 
Arabian king Abikarib As'ad, who according to 
tradition undertook a campaign into Persian terri- 
tory, the title was enlarged and now was worded as 
follows: "King of Saba 1 and Dhu Raydan and Ha- 
dramawt and Yammat and of their {pluralis tnajes- 
tatis] ' A'rab in the highlands [Central Arabia) and 
the Tihama (lowlands of Hidjaz and c Asir)". Ag*n 
only inhabitants of Desert Arabia are meant by 
a'rab (cf. map 4). 

The constant wars between Rome and Persia and 
between Ethiopia and Saba 1 and the economic 
decline of the Mediterranean regions, the rising 
competition of sea traffic— from which South 
Arabia had become eliminated — against overland 
traffic and trade, the decay of feudalised South 



in the 3rd to 6th centuries A.D. gave rise to great 
insecurity in Arabia (cf . Beeston r954, Sidney Smith, 
J, Ryckmans 1956 b). In the regions of steppe climate 
in the fertile cresent, nomadic tribes intruded into 
country of rain agriculture. Even oasis areas decayed 
or were given up entirely, especially i u South Arabia 
along the borders of the desert, and in Hadramawt 
(cf. v. Wissmann-Hdfner, 121 f, Le Baron Bowen), 
where camel nomadism penetrated from the north 
by invasions as well as by gradual infiltratiorf. 
A renowned example is the neglect, bursting and 
dilapidation of the dam of Marib, the old capital 
of Saba 1 , and the total breakdown of this town and 
its oasis. In Yam an and c Um3n, the strong feudal - 
isation of the highland farmers, the kabaHl, in their 
fortified castle-like dwellings, led to an extreme 
dissipation of power and even to anarchy, as well 
as to tribal organisation and to feuds similar to 
those of the barbarised camel nomads. Gradually 
the nomadic population became more and more 
migratory over long distances in Arabia, Such mi- 
grations of entire tribes were mainly directed from 
South to North. In the South a part of the farming 
population became nomadic, while in the north the 
wars between Rome and Persia probably attracted 
such nomads, as could not sell their camels for the 
declining caravan trade, to serve in camel troops on 
the side of one of the two opponents. The Arab 
proverb: "Al-Yaman is the womb (the cradle) of 
the Arabs, and al-'trafc is their grave", already 
suits this period. Nevertheless there have also been 
migrations in the opposite direction, like that of 
the Kindites into Hadramawt in the 6th century 
A.D. which according to al-Hamdanl amounted to 



)W 885 

more than 30,000 men (Fqrrer, r34 ff.). With the 
decline of power of the surrounding states, which 
were based on agriculture and had a much higher 
population density, Bedouin influence was rising. 
Caskel (rgsj) demonstrates that, before this period 
of barbarisation, the social and economic way of 
living, which we call Bedouin, did not fully obtain 
the character familiar to us by the descriptions of 
Doughty, v. Oppenheim and Lawrence. Writing 
now disappeared among the nomads, but oral tra- 
dition flourished. 

It would be interesting to know when the combined 
use, during a ghaim, of the camel for the riding over 
long distances and of the horse for final attack, was 
employed for the first time, a skilful practice 
which was still carried out by 'Abd al-'Aziz b. 
Su'fid. King Maichus (Malik) II of the Nabataeans 
(al-Anbat) sent 1000 horses and 5000 foot for the 
assistance of Titus in his attack on Jerusalem about 
67 A.D. (Hitti, 68). The rock-drawings accompa- 
nying the Safaitic inscriptions in the Han a south-east 
of Damascus (and to 4th centuries or longer; cf. 
Littmann rQ4o) show that these true Bedouins made 
their razzias combining horse and camel. We also 
hear from Ammianus Marcellinus (4th cent. A.D.) 
that the Blemmyes made their raids in that way 
(*iv, +, 3). 

In South Arabia, the horse seems to have been 
always of smaller importance than in the north. 
Nevertheless we hear that among the presents sent 
by Yith'a 1 amar of Saba J to Sargon in 715 B.C. there 
were horses. The Periplus Maris Erythraei (until 
80 A.D.) tells that horses were shipped from Egypt 
to Mouza (Maushidj; cf. Wissmann rgsg) by the 
Greek merchants. Strabo (XVI, 4, a and 36), when 
giving a short but good report on the agriculture of 
South Arabia, says that horses were lacking, and that 
their functions were carried tut by camels. We have 
but few presentations of horses from South Arabia, 
which seem to be importations or copies from the 
north or to belong to late periods. Probably the horse 
only became of greater importance in South Arabia 
since Bed»uin troops were used, i.e., since at least 
the 3rd century A.D. The inscription G. Ryckmans 
535 (in Muston, 1956, 140 ft.) from the late 3rd century 
A.D. tells us that horses and camels were used in 
South Arabian armies, and that there were horsemen 
beside the regular troops. 

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penetration des Arabes en Syrie avant I' Islam, Paris 
1955 ; E. von Eickstedt, Rassenkunde und Rassen- 
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schreibung der Arabischen Halbinsel", Deutsche 
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1942; N. George, The camel in Ancient Egypt, 
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286; W. B. Harris, A Journey through the Yemen, 
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Beduinen, vol. 1-2 Leipzig 1939, 1943, vol. 3, part 
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des Inscriptions Sud- Arabes I, Verhandl. Vlaamse 
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ihre Verbreitung, Anthropologischer Anzeiger, 21, 
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geographische Verbreitung des Kamels in der Alten 
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im Alten Orient, Der Alte Orient, vol. 38, 2, 1939; 
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Lichte neuer Forschung, Actes 4? Congres Internal, 
des Sciences Anthropologiques et Ethnologiques, 
des Sciences Anthropologiques et Ethnologiques, 
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London 1958, with papers of both authors in 

Geograph. Journal, 124, 1958, 163-171. 

d) The Appearance of Camel Nomadism in- North 

It is surprising that the state and civilisation of 
the great river oasis of Egypt blocked for so long a 
period the spread of camel breeding and camel 
nomadism. It exercised a strong frontier control and 
showed an aversion against the Asiatic nomad. There 
is do specifically Egyptian word for "camel" (Al- 
bright 1950; cf. Preaux). 

It has been supposed that the Sabaeans introduced 
the camel into the lowlands of North Ethiopia, when 
they colonised this country, perhaps some time in the 
beginning of the last millennium B.C., bringing with 
them the plough, terracing, and artificial irrigation. 
We have mentioned above that the colony was firmly 
established and probably old in the 5th century B.C. 
Even Conti Rossini supposed such an early introduc- 
tion of the camel (103, 106). Yet he did not find any 
proof. There is no mention of the camel in the 
"Sabaean" inscriptions of Ethiopia (cf. above) ; but 
this again does not mean much, as the number of 
these inscriptions is still small. However, we may not 
forget that even today the camel has not been in- 
troduced into the highlands of Ethiopia, but has 
only spread in the lowlands and on the lower slopes. 
Near the harbours of northern Ethiopia, this area 
is a narrow strip of land, just as in Western 

There is one piece of information and one linguistic 
fact from which we may probably conclude that the 
Sabaeans did not introduce the camel to the African 
side of the Red Sea: Agatharchides (perhaps about 
130 B.C.) gives a good and detailed description of 
the nomadic Troglodytes behind the African coast 
of the Red Sea north of Ethiopia (the later Blemmyes 
or Bedja). He does not mention any breeding of 
camels but only of cattle and goats (Diodor., cf. 
C. Miiller, Geogr. Grace. Minor, i, 153). Probably 
Agatharchides has taken over his story from a much 
earlier description (cf. von Wissmann 1957). 

The linguistic fact is that the name of the camel in 
the Ge'ez language as well as in all the Semitic 
languages of Ethiopia is gamal as in the North 
Semitic languages and in Egypt, while ancient South 
Arabia merely used the word "Hbil" for it (Hofner 
by letter). It is only in one single inscription of the 
3rd century A.D. (G. Ryckmans, Nr. 535) and then 
in the 6th century A.D. (Yusuf Dhu Nuwas, G. 
Ryckmans, Nr. 507) that the word "gamal" turns 
up in South Arabian inscriptions. The first known 
mention of the camel in the Ethiopic language is 
in the 4th century A.D. in Littmann, Aksum 9 (1913). 

We do not hear anything of the presence of the 
camel from hieroglyphs or from Greek or Roman 
authors or any sculpture or rock drawing either in 
Egypt or in any part of North Africa in the Helle- 
nistic period. There is one exception, however: When 
Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246) repaired the 
old roads from Koptos on the Nile to the Red Sea 
(173 km.) and opened a longer road from the same 
place to his new harbour town Berenike Troglodytike 
(380 km.) by founding eleven stations, he did this 
not only for foot passengers but also for merchants 
travelling on camels (Strabo XVI, 4, 24, XVII, 1, 
45, 65. Pliny, h.n. VI, 102, 168; Berenike Troglodytike 
in 23° 51 in the Bay of Sikhat Bandar al-Kablr). 
Strabo says that Koptos became a town belonging 
to Arabs as well as Egyptians, and that Arabs 
worked in the mines between Koptos and Myos 
Hormos. Pliny also mentions Arab tribes in the 



IW 887 

region of Berenike. Philadelphus had reopened the 
canal between the Nile and the Red Sea. He founded 
naval bases along the western coast of the Red Sea 
(cf. below). It is probable that the caravan camels 
and their Arab owners were introduced by Phila- 
delphus and were transported by him to Philotera, 
to Myos Hormos and to Berenike Troglodytike over 
sea from the coast of Northern Hidjaz (Ritter II, 
703). Ptolemy II seems to have put this coast 
of Northern Hidjaz under his influence by esta- 
blishing friendly relations with Daydan on the 
incense road, thus being able to divert the inconse 
traffic which until that time had followed the road 
from Saba' and Ma'In to Ghazzat on the Mediter- 
ranean, from Daydan to a new harbour on the Red 
Sea (T-sh-y-t ?) and then by boat to Egypt (cf . Tarn, 
appendix by Sidney Smith; Delbrueck). As Daydan 
was a colony of the kingdom of Main, which had 
developed north of Saba', the sarcophagus inscription 
of an incense trader of Main, living in Memphis, 
probably of 264 B.C. (Albright 1953, note 12), 
confirms this connection. This trader brought 
myrrh and other wares to Egypt on his own ships, 
and he brought byssos clothes to Arabia (Rhodo- 
kanakis, Kortenbeutel). As Ptolemy II and his 
successors were able to transport elephants on large 
boats on the Red Sea, they were easily able to 
transport camels. The Arabs who were brought to 
Egypt with their camels probably knew how to 
write the so-called Thamudean script of northern 
Hidjaz. Numerous Thamudeaa inscriptions have 
been found in the eastern desert of Egypt, especially 
along the roads (Littmann 1940, 3, Green, J. Pirenne 
by letter). 

We now may ask again, how the camel was 
brought to Ethiopia. There are two possibilities, I 
think. It was introduced either by Ptolemy II or 
his successors, or by the kings of the Habashat, of 
Aksum, in about the 2nd century A.D. 

Ptolemy II founded the fortified town of Ptolemafe 
Theron on the northernmost part of the Ethiopian 
coast (cf. the stele of Pithom in Egypt 1 . One of the 
stelae fouad in Adulis south of modem Masawwa* by 
Cosmas Indicopleustes (Winstedt) reported that 
Ptolemy III Euergetes (246-221) and his father 
hunted elephants in that region. We do not know 
when Berenikl hi kata Sabas (Strabo xvi, 4, 10, 
Berenike Epidires of Pliny VI, 29, 170; Conti 
Rossini against Kortenbeutel) was founded near 
modern 'Assab, and when this southern Berenike 
was replaced by a colony called Arsinoe (Conti 
Rossini 60 ff., map, Strabo xvi, 4, 14, Pitschmann, 
Arsinoe, Pauly-Wissowa). We only recognise that 
the Ptolemies put the whole African coast of the 
Red Sea more and more under their naval influence 
and power. Ptolemaic shipping and trade were under 
strict state control. Before this time, Saba' may 
have had still influence in its old Ethiopian colony, 
especially on the coast, in spite of its difficult 
position in South Arabia between the new strong 
states of Ma c In in the North and Kataban in the 
South, Kataban reaching as far as Aden and the 
Bab al-Mandab straits. There was a Sabaltikon Stdma 
south of Ptolemals Theron (Artemidorus according 
to Strabo), there was a place called Sabat (Shabat ?) 
opposite the island of Masawwa 1 (Strabo, Pliny, CI. 
Ptolemy), and there was "the wealthy town of 
Sabai", probably in the bay of modem 'Assab 
(Strabo xvi, 4, 8-10, cf. Conti Rossini, Map pi. 16). 
On account of the internecine wars in South 
Arabia, the Ptolemies must have found it rather 
easy to interfere on the Ethiopian coast. As they 



transported elephants in large boats from this coast 
to Egypt, they may have brought camels to the 
inhabitants of this coast from Northern Hldjaz. 
Before about 115 B.C., the Katabanian harbour of 
•Aden was an important place of trans-shipment, 
where freights came from Egypt and India (cf. von 
Wissmann 1957). When at that time the new state 
of Himyar replaced Kataban in 'Aden and 'Aden 
was destroyed, Ptolemaic ships were more and more 
successful in sailing directly to India. 

It seems that the kingdom of Aksum (Ethiopia), 
which is for the first time mentioned in the Periplus 
of the Erythraean Sea (about 82-96 A.D.), was a 
powerful state already at that time and learned 
much from Graeco-Roman navigation in the Red 
Sea. Then a king of Aksum, who probably lived in 
the mid 2nd century A.D. (Winstedt; Mommsen, 
ROmische Geschichte V, 599; Mordtmann-Mittwoch 
6) according to the Monumentum Adulitanum, which 
he erected, built a great empire from the frontiers 
of Egypt to Somaliland (cf. Dittenberger, 287-296; 
Littmann 1913, i, 42 ff.). He conquered the coast 
ot Arabia and its hinterland from Leuke Kome in 
Northern HIdjaz as far south as the frontier of the 
Sabaean kingdom (WadI Baysh in southern 'Aslr; 
Wissmann I.e., 1959). He mentions that he used a 
navy for this conquest. His name is not known. The 
Monumentum shows that Aksum had become a sea 
power at that time, perhaps supported by Rome. 
The Monumentum was written in the Greek language 
and script. Already in the first century A.D. (Periplus) 
Aksum had cultivated the Greek language. So it 
may also have been the king of the Monumentum 
Adulitanum, who introduced the camel to Ethiopia 
from his colony in Northern Hidjaz. That period 
must have been a time of quickly rising national 
consciousness in Ethiopia, in which an official 
Ethiopian script was probably developed, based on 
the monumental and cursive Sabaean scripts and 
influenced by the Greek (left to right, numerals) 
and the "Thamudean" script (cf. J. Ryckmans 1955, 
Ullendorff, Drewes). In the third century, the South 
of the Red Sea seems to have been under Ethiopian 
supremacy, while direct trade between the Roman 
Empire and India had become reduced (Sir M. 
Wheeler, Wissmann 1957). 

The first African people who became camel 
breeders after those Arab tribes, which had been 
probably introduced to Berenike Troglodytike and 
Myos Hormos by Ptolemy II, seem to have been 
the Blrnvmyes or Bedja (Pauly-Wissowa, "Blem- 
myes", by Sethe). According to Strabo xvii, 786, 
819, and Ethiopian inscriptions, they lived south-east 
of Syene between the Nile and the Red Sea. In 
Strabo's lime they were "not very numerous or 
warlike" (xvii, 1, 53), breeding sheep, goats and 
cattle. They were no danger for the Empire then. 
In the following centuries, however, they must have 
learned camel breeding from their Arab neighbours 
to such a degree that they became real, and "excel- 
lent", raiding camel nomads. Under Decius (249-231 
A.D.), their camel razzias became difficult for the 
Roman Empire. Twenty years later, they were 
already completely masters of the roads between 
the Nile and the Red Sea. The trade from Egypt to 
India on that route had become totally dependent 
on the good will of the Blemmyes (cf. Bensch, 264 f.). 
Under Probus (276-284) the Blemmyes temporarily 
occupied Koptos and Ptolemais. Diocletian had to 
pay tributes to them in 296 on the frontier near 
Syene. This emperor had called the "Nobatae" 
(Nobades, i.e. Nubians ?) for help against the Blem- 



myes and had given them the Dodekaschoinos as 
a base of settlement (Procopius, Persian War XIX. 
Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. "Nubai"). 

In the fourth century A.D., the Blemmyes and the 
Arab tribes of Egypt with their camels and now 
also horses became always more dangerous to the 
Empire by their raids (Ammian. Marcellin. xiv, 4, 3). 
The Empire had to draw up troops of camel riders 
against them. At the time of emperor Valens (rd. 
370), new Arab tribes migrated across the Isthmus 
of Suez and occupied the northern part of the 
"Arabian" Desert east of the Nile, probably as far 
as the latitude of Thebes. They must have reinforced 
camel nomadism and fighting on camel's back in 
the regions round Egypt. 

On the rock drawings he discovered in the "Ara- 
bian" Desert east of the Nile, H. A. Winkler recog- 
nised a "Blemmyan" group, in age between that of 
cattle breeders and that of the Islamic era. That 
this group must be dated in this period seems to be 
certain (Greek and Coptic letters, Hellenistic in- 
fluence, typical brands). It mostly shows armed 
people (with bow, spear, sword and rectangular 
shield) riding on camels or also on horseback. Here, 
the camel is the main livestock, shown beside 
horse, donkey and cattle. Winkler says (1938, 41): 
"In all the former rock drawings peace prevails. In 
the pictures of the camel-owners all is war. And war 
they brought, wherever they went". 

The author of this article is no 
describe the development of nomadism in the dry 
belts of Africa. When taking the rock drawings as 
a basis, it looks as if there has been an early period 
of cattle-breeders, not only in the steppes of the 
Sudan and East Africa, but also in the regions of the' 
Sahara. Even if we admit that the climate may have 
periodically been a little moister than at present, 
it may be doubted whether horned cattle wereUhe 
main livestock in those desert regions, for which 
they are not well fitted, although it may be that 
cattle were introduced earlier than sheep and goats. 
It seems probable to me that, when nomadic life 
was completely installed, cattle as holy animals 
were represented on the rocks although they were 
of secondary importance in the nomadic economy 
compared with the goats and the sheep. We may 
remember that the "Thamudean" rock drawings in 
Western Arabia show the hunted animals and the 
camel, but very little of goats and sheep, although 
we can be sure that the nomads of those regions 
then possessed flocks of these aniirals. 

According to Lhote 1953, rock drawings show 
that in the area of Ghadames, Fezzan, Tasili and 
Ahaggar, the horse and a war chariot were introduced 
in an early period, according to Lhote's hypothesis 
about 1200 B.C. by "Sea Peoples" from the Aegaean 
region. Among those war chariot people riding was 
developed at some time later on without rein and 
snaffle, just in the way ancient authors describe 
horse riding of the North African nomads of their 
own time (Strabo, Polybius, Silius Italicus). In the 
middle of the 3rd century B.C. riding had fully 
replaced the use of the war chariot in North African 
wars. Nomadic razzias were carried out on horseback. 

It is curious that we know nothing about the ways 
the camel was introduced into North-West Africa 
and the Sahara. In literature the camel appears for 
the first time there in Caesar's De bello Africano 
(c. lxxiii, 4) for the year 46 B.C., when 22 camels 
were among the booty taken from king Juba. But 
Juba was a man with wide and varied scientific, 
especially geographical, interests, and a collector in 



the Hellenistic style. It seems probable that he had 
imported these animals to try out their usefulness 
in North Africa. Only in Cyrenaica the camel may 
have been bred in greater numbers in that period: 
It is shown on coins of the mint of L. Lollius, a 
commander in Cyrenaica under Pompey. Then 
there is a hiatus. From the 2nd or perhaps 3rd 
century, a statuette of a camel rider and a relief 
showing a hippodrome with a race of chariots 
drawn by camels were found in the necropolis of 
Hadrumetum (Sousse, Tunisia). The next indication 
in literature, however, is for the year 363 A.D. The 
Roman comes of the province of Africa demands 
4000 transport camels from the inhabitants of 
Leptis Magna on the Syrte (Ammian. Marcellin. 
xxviii, c. 6, 5, xxix, 5, 55). About 400 A.D. there 
is the report of Synesius that herds of camels and 
horses then formed the wealth of the inhabitants of 
Cyrenaica. In the 5 th century reports on camel 
breeding become always more abundant in North 
Africa, mainly in the regions round the Syrtes. 

Most authors, especially Gautier (190 ff.), Gsell 
and others have concluded from these rather meagre 
sources that the camel was eventually introduced 
to North Africa across the Mediterranean Sea. 
When, however, we consider the position of the 
Blemmyes in Upper Egypt in the 3rd century A.D. 
(cf. above), the chain of oases west of Egypt also 
seems to be a probable route. Besides, we must not 
forget that any way south of the Libyan Desert re- 
mained outside the area of which we have historical 

Perhaps future linguistic research as well as 
excavations may give us help in solving these 
questions. In the language of the Bedja( Blemmyes) 
the main name of the camel is kdm (kdm), in 
northern Nubia it is kam (kamti) (Professor Dr. O. 
ROssler by letter). The Tibbu call the camel gdni, 
and this name seems to have been spread by them 
far over the eastern part of the Sudan, where Tibbu 
are told to have introduced the camel (Bensch 171 
according to Barth). So in the Mandara Mountains 
(northern Cameroons) the camel is called gome, 
the male camel elde gome (Barth, ii, 534, footnote). 
Even the Masai call the camel en-tomes (Nandi, 
totnbes). In the Berber languages including that of 
the Taw&rik, a main designation of the camel is 
algham or alem. From alghDm the Haussa name 
rakumi and the Nupe name fi»A«m are certainly 
derived (O. Rossler). All these names do not seem 
to be derived from Arab names, but there are other 
names showing such an etymology. 

Bibliography: W. F. Albright l.c; idem, 
Minaean Kings, BASOR, 129, 1953; H. Barth, 
Reisen und Entdeckungen in Nord- und Central- 
Afrika, 1857 f f . ; R. Basset, Le nom du chameau chez 
les berberes, Actes du XIV. Congris des OrientaUstes, 
1905, sect. VII, 69-82; P. Bensch, Die Entwicklung 
des Nomadentums in Afrika, Diss, phil., type- 
written, Gottingen 1949 (important); A. Caquot 
and A. J. Drewes, Les monuments recueillis a 
MaqalU (Tigri), Ann. d'Ethiopie, i, 1955, 16-41 ; C. 
Conti Rossini, Storia d'Etiopia, i, Milano 1928; 
R. Delbrueck, Siidasiatische Seefahrt im Altertum, 
Bonner J ahrbiicher, 155/56, 1955/56; A. J. Drewes, 
Problemes de Paiiographie ithiopennes, Ann. 
d'Ethiopie I, 1955, 121-126; E. F. Gautier, Le 
passi de VAfrique du Nord, Paris 1937; F. W. 
Green, Notes on some inscriptions in the Etbai 
District, PRAS, xxxi, 247-254, pi. 32, 36; S. 
Gsell, Histoire ancienne de VAfrique du Nord, 
Paris 1923 ff.; A. Jamme, Chart of South Arabian 



)W 889 

Letters, in: W. Phillips, Qataban and Sheba, London 
1955, 55; H. Kortenbeutel, Der dgyptische Siid- 
und Osthandel in der PoUtik der Ptolemder und. 
rOmischen Kaiser, Diss. Berlin 19.31; H. Lhote, 
Le cheval et le chameau dans les peintures et 
gravures du Sahara, Bull, de I'institut Francais 
d'Afrique Noire, xv, 3, Dakar, IFAN, 1953, 
1138-1228; E. Littmann, I.e.; R. Mauny, Pri- 
histoire saharienne, Bull, de Corresp. Saharien, i, 
Dakar 1948; J. H. Mordtmann and E. Mittwoch, 
Sabdische Inschriften, Vol. i of: Rathjens-v. Wiss- 
mann'sche Siidararbienreise, Hamburg Univer- 
sity, Abh. a.d. Gebiet d. Auslandskunde Vol. 36, 
1931; C. Preaux, Les raisons de I" originality de 
I'Egypte, Mus. Helvet. x, fasc 3-4, 1953; C. 
Rathjens and H. v. Wissmann, Landeskundliche 
Ergebnisse, Vol. iii of R.-v. W'sche Siidarabienreise, 
Hamburg University, Abh. a. d. Gebiet d. Aus- 
landskunde Vol. 40, 1934; N. Rhodokanakis, Die 
Sarkophaginschrift von Gizeh, Zeitschr. f. Semi- 
tistik, ii, 1924, S. 113-133; C. Ritter, l.c; G. Ryck- 
mans I.e.; J. Ryckmans, Inscriptions historiques 
sabe'ennes de I'Arabie centrale, in Museon 66, 1953, 
1-24; idem, L'origine et I'ordre des lettres de 
I'alphabet ithiopien, Bibl. Orient., 12, 1955, 2-24; 
idem, La persecution des chritiens himyarites au 
sixieme siecle, Nederl. Histor. Archaeol. Inst, in 
het nabije Oosten, Istanbul 1956; W. H. Schoff, 
The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, New York 
19 12; A. Staff e, Zur Frage der Herkunft des 
Kamels in Afrika, Zeitschr. f. Tierziichtung und 
ZiUhtungsbiologie, 46, 1940, i35tI4i; W. W. Tarn, 
Ptolemy II and Arabia, in Journ. of Egypt. Archaeo- 
logy, 15, 1929, 9-25; J. H. Thiel, Eudoxus van 
Cyzicus, Mededeel. Nederl. Akad. Afd. Letter- 
kunde N.R. 2, 8, 1939; E. Ullendorf, The Origin of 
the Ethiopic Alphabet, Bibl. Orient. 12, 1955, 
217-219; Sir M. Wheeler, Rome beyond the Imperial 
Frontiers, London 1954; H. A. Winkler, Rock 
Drawings of Southern Upper Egypt, London 1938; 
idem, VOlker und VOlkerbewegungen im vorgeschicht- 
lichen Oberdgypten im Lichte neuer Felsbilderfunde, 
Stuttgart 1937; E. O. Winstedt, The Christian To- 
pography of Cosmos Indicopleustes, Cambridge 1909 ; 
H. v. Wissmann, Arabien und seine holonialen Aus- 
strahlungen, Lebensraumfragen europaischer V61- 
ker II, Leipzig 1941, 374-448; H. v. Wissmann 
and M. Hofner l.c; H. v. Wissmann, De Mari 
Erythraeo, Lautensach-Festschrift, Stuttgarter 
Geograph. Studien 69, Stuttgart 1957, 289-324; 
D. J. Wolfel, Nord- und Weissafrika, in: H. A. 
Bernatzik, Die Grosse VOlkerkunde I, Leipzig 1939, 
243; L. G. A. Zohrer, La population du Sahara 
anterieure d I'apparition du chameau, in Bull. Soc. 
Neuchdteloise de Geographic, 51, 1952/53. 

(H. von Wissmann) 

III. Pre-Islamic Arabia 

(a) Sources. 

(b) History. 

(c) Political Relationships. 

(d) Moral Outlook. 

(e) Religion. 

(a) Sources. Our knowledge of the Bedouin in pre- 
Islamic Arabia is derived mainly from two sources. 
Firstly, there has been preserved a certain amount 
of pre-Islamic poetry. Secondly, there are commen- 
taries on this poetry and on old Arab proverbs, 
composed by Muslim scholars of the second Islamic 
century and later, and containing much traditional 
material about events in pre-Islamic times; this 



8go BA1 

material was also collected by other scholars in 
special works. The authenticity of pre-Islamic 
poetry has been denied by modem scholars, notably 
by D. S. Margoliouth and Taha Husayn, but their 
theories have not been accepted by the majority of 
scholars who, while admitting some falsifications, 
consider that on the whole pre-Islamic poetry has 
been faithfully transmitted (cf. A. J. Arberry, The 
Seven Odes, London 1957, 228-45). Similarly, the 
historical traditions, though once regarded by 
Western scholars as worthless, are now mostly held 
to have some factual basis and to reflect the con- 
ditions of life in the Djahiliyya, even though they 
are insufficient for a proper history. In certain 
points this traditional material is confirmed by 
statements of the Kur'an or inferences from these, 
and is both confirmed and supplemented by the 
numerous inscriptions found in Arabia by modem 
archaeologists. 

(b) History. From the dawn of history nomads 
from the Arabian steppe have been pressing on the 
surrounding lands of settled civilisation. At some 
periods the pressure has been greater and the 
penetration of the settled lands deeper, and the 
nomads have been said to come in "waves". In 
pre-Christian times Hebrews, Aramaeans, Arabs and 
Nabataeans entered Syria and 'Irak, while in the 
six centuries before the Hidjra there was further 
pressure from Arabs and Palmyrenes. The nomads 
would come first of all to raid, but frequently they 
would themselves settle (e.g., the Tanukh, in 'Irak 
about 225 A.D.). Close relations between, settled 
nomads and those still in the desert facilitated trade. 
Only nomads could conduct caravans of merchandise 
across deserts, and only strong bodies of nomads 
could guarantee the safe transit of such caravans. 
Thus in the history of the Byzantine and Sasanian 
empires the nomads appear in the two r61es of raider 
and trader. 

The two empires tried in various ways to defend 
themselves from the hostile and predatory incursions 
of nomads. The most effective way was found to be 
the employment of semi-nomadic rulers on the 
imperial frontiers to ward off from the settled lands 
raiding parties from the heart of the steppes. In 
'Irak this rdle was played by the Lakhmid kings of 
al-HIra from about 300 A.D. to the end of the 
dynasty in 602. On the Byzantine frontier the 
corresponding rdle was played by the Ghassanids, 
but they were later in attaining importance (it was 
in 529 that Justinian granted certain titles to the 
Ghassanid king), and apparently had only a camp 
for capital, not possessing any city comparable to 
al-HIra. This system of defence was altered shortly 
before the Muslim invasions. In al-HIra a Persian 
resident controlled the Arab chief who succeeded the 
Lakhmids, while the Byzantine subsidies to the 
Ghassanids seem to have ceased with the Persian 
invasion (613-629) and not to have been restored 
afterwards. 

While it is clear that the nomads of Arabia were 
extensively involved in commerce, the details have 
not yet been closely studied. The nomads were in 
contact not only with the Byzantine and Persian 
empires, but also with the Himyarite kingdom in 
South Arabia (until it was overthrown by the 
Abyssinians about 525). The prosperity of South 
Arabian civilisation was dependent on trade, and with 
a decline in its trade (perhaps through the loss of 
control of the Red Sea) the civilisation declined. Arab 
tradition speaks of the bursting of the dam of Ma'rib 
as marking the break up of South Arabian culture, 



but archaeological discoveries point to a series of 
breakdowns of the irrigation system, and the 
presumption is that these are symptonrs-<of the 
decline of South Arabia and not its cause. Arab 
tradition further connects with the bursting of the 
dam o( Ma'rib the northward movement of many 
nomadic tribes (together with their abandonment of 
a settled life, it would seem). At the same time 
overland trade by camel caravan between the Yemen, 
Syria and c Irak began to flourish, and by 600 A.D. 
this was largely under the control of the Kuraysh of 
Mecca. The Kuraysh themselves had the city of 
Mecca as headquarters and to this extent were no 
longer nomads, but their commerce required alliances 
and other relationships with many nomadic tribes. 
The convoying and guaranteeing of caravans thus 
made important contributions to the livelihood of 
the nomads, and the fairs at which the merchandise 
brought by the caravans changed hands enabled the 
nomads to obtain many goods not produced in the 
steppe. Altogether the nomadic economy of pre- 
Islamic Arabia was far from being insulated and 
autarkic. 

(c) Political Relationships. The social and political 
units among the Arabian nomads were groups of 
varying sizes. Western writers usually refer to these 
as 'tribes' or, in the case of the smaller groups and 
subdivisions, 'sub-tribes' and 'clans', but those 
terms do not correspond exactly to Arabic terms. 
There are a number of words in Arabic for such 
social and political units, but the commonest usage 
is to refer to a tribe or clan simply as Banu Fiian 
('the sons of so-and-so'). 

The structure of these pre-Islamic tribes has not 
yet been adequately studied in the light of recent 
advances in social anthropology. They are presented 
in Arab tradition as being primarily constituted by 
kinship in the male line, though there are certain 
exceptions to this. A person not related to a group 
by blood (not a fahih or samim) could enjoy some of 
the privileges of membership, above all protection. 
He might do so as an 'ally' (halif), a 'protected 
' neighbour" (djdr), or a 'client' (mawld). The parties 
to an 'alliance' (hilt) were formally equal, but when 
a singb individual lived as an ally among a tribe or 
clan, he tended to fall into a subordinate or dependent 
position. 'Neighbourly protection' (diiwdr), on the 
other hand, implied some superiority, at least of a 
temporary kind, in the person granting it; it could 
be either temporary or permanent. The status of 
'client' was acquired by a slave on his emancipation. 
Attached to the tribe were slaves; male Arabs 
could become slaves through being captured in raids 
when children; and there were also Abyssinian 
slaves. A man could be expelled from his tribe for 
killing a kinsman or for conduct harmful to the tribe, 
and might wander alone (as a suHah) or else attach 
himself to another tribe as di&r, etc. 

There are strong reasons, however, for thinking 
that the traditional view that the members of the 
tribe or clan in the strict sense were patrilineally 
related is not a complete account of the matter, even 
though some tribes were so constituted. Firstly, 
there are numerous traces of matriliny among certain 
Arab tribes in Muhammad's time, and also some 
facts which suggest that it was being superseded by 
patriliny. Though it is uncertain how extensive 
matriliny was and what it involved in practice, there 
is sufficient evidence to cast doubts on the value of 
the purely patrilineal genealogies found in the works 
of the later Muslim scholars. It seems possible that, 
in some cases where matriliny prevailed, the later 



scholars, finding no patrilineal genealogy for 
member of the group, argued that he must have been 
a halif; perhaps this is how to explain the fact that 
the head of the clan of Zuhra et Mecca was a ballf 
(al-Akhnas b. Sharlk). 

Secondly, it has been argued that some of the 
tribal names were originally the names of groups 
with a local or political basis, and did not indicate 
common descent (cf. Nallino, RaccoUa di Scritti, '" 
72-79). This has probably happened in some cas 
and it is then the later genealogists who have trai 
formed group names into eponymous ancestors; but 



Some of the weaker tribes near Mecca had thus 
become largely dependent on Ruraysb,. Some still 
weaker ones had banded themselves together and 
were known as the Ahablsh, probably meaning 
"mixed muttitndes" (the view of Lammens that the 
Ahablsh were Abyssinian slaves contradicts state- 
ments in Ibn Hisham, 245, and IbnSaM, i/i, 81 and 
has little to recommend it; cf. Montgomery Watt, 
Muhammad at Medina, 81 and M. Hamidullah in 
Studi OrientaUstici in Onore di Giorgio Levi delta 
Vida, i, 434-47). 
The affairs of a tribe were usually settled in an 




TRIBAL ARABIA 



Prepared by P. Cachia 



it would be hazardous to explain all genealogies in 
this way. What may be taken as certain is that the 
structure of desert tribes was constantly changing. 
Some tribes would prosper, would become too 
numerous to function effectively as a unit, and would 
split up into two or more sub-tribes. This is probably 
the explanation of the fact that the Arabs of 
Muhammad's time had names for certain groups 
consisting of several tribes (cf. Nallino, op. cit., 76). 
On the other hand, where a tribe did not prosper, 
it dwindled in number, and then had a choice between 
becoming dependent on some stronger tribe, allying 
itself with other weak tribes or simply disappearing. 



assembly or meeting (ma&lis) of all the members. 
All might speak, but most weight attached to the 
words of men of recognised authority. The leader or 
chief of the tribe, the sayyid, was appointed by 
acclamation in the assembly. He usually came from 
the family considered most honourable, but there 
was no law of primogeniture. In the harsh conditions 
of the desert it was essential that the chief should 
himself be able to lead effectively and a minor could 
not have done this. The sayyid had certain duties, 
especially in respect of the relations of the tribe 
(or clan) to other tribes (or clans). He could make 
treaties which bound the tribe, and was responsible 



8 9 2 



g prisoners and for seeing that blood-wit 
was paid. He usually also claimed the right of 
entertaining strangers, and he was expected to help 
the poor of his tribe. In return for these duties he 
had the privili ge of receiving a fourth part of any 
spoils taken in laids. Disputes between members of 
a group would normally be referred to their say y id. 
Disputes betwf en members of groups which had no 
common sayyid often led to fighting, but sometimes 
were referred to an arbiter (hakam); there were one 
or two men in different parts of Arabia who were 
outstanding for their wisdom and impartiality, and 
these were frequently asked to arbitrate. Apart from 
such voluntary submission to the decision of an 
arbiter and from membership of an alliance of tribes, 
each main tribe was an independent political unit. 
Occasionally the sayyid of a strong tribe through the 
force of his personality and through military prowess, 
established his ascendancy over a number of other 
tribes, so that they entered into alliance with him 
and carried out his orders; but this was resented, 
and the alliance broke up on the removal of the 
forceful personality. 

(d) Moral Outlook. The life of the Badw was set 
in natural conditions of great harshness. At most 
times the means of sustenance were less than suf- 
ficient for the population. There was therefore a 
constant tendency for the strong to seize the means 
of sustenance, especially the cam; Is, of the weak. 
This led to the organisation of the nomads into 
tribes and clans with a high degree of group soli- 
darity. The larger groups were stronger, but the 
need to scatter at certain times to find pasturage for 
the camels made it difficult for groups beyond a 
certain size to act effectively as units. Hence, as 
noted above, the tendency of large and prosperous 
tribes to split up. 

The razzia (ghazw, ghazwa) or raid to capture 
camels was almost a sport with the Badw, and 
bloodshed was avoided. When hostility deepened, 
however, raiding changed its character; adult males 
were killed, and women and children captured and 
then held to ransom or sold as slaves. The lex talionis 
was universally recognised, and served to check 
wanton and irresponsible killing, since it was a matter 
of honour for a tribe to protect or avenge its members 
and those attached to it. In the older days a life 
had to be avenged by a life, but in Muhammad's time 
there was a tendency, which he tried to develop, of 
substituting for the life the payment of a blood-wit 
(diya), normally a hundred camels for an adult male. 
It was sometimes felt, however, to be unmanly thus 
'to substitute milk for blood'. 

The qualities admired by the Badw were those 
required for success in the hard life of the steppe. 
Loyalty to the kinship-group had a high place, and 
involved readiness to help one's kinsman against a 
stranger on any occasion. With this was coupled 
fortitude or manliness (hamdsa), which denoted 
'bravery in battle, patience in misfortune, persistence 
in revenge, protection of the weak and defiance of 
the strong" (R. A. Nicholson, A Literary History of 
the Arabs, Cambridge 1930, 79). 

The poets played an important r61e in the life of 
the pre-Islamic Arabs. The ode (kasida) usually 
contained either mafdkhir, boastings, that is, praise 
of one's own tribe for its fortitude and other virtues, 
or mathdlib, revilings (also hidja?, satire), that is, 
dispraise of one's enemies. It was held that human 
excellence or the lack of it was to a large extent 
inherited. A hero's deeds showed the heroic qualities 
of his family, clan and tribe. Great store was thus 



- BAEZA 

set on the reputation of the group. The power of the 
poet to convince his tribe of its own worth and to 
lower the morale of the enemy was very great. 
Poets had probably more power in pre-Islamic 
Arabia than the press in modern times. The Arabs 
felt there was something supernatural or magical 
about them. 

Although descent counted for so much, it is not 
clear (as noted above) to what extent this was 
reckoned patrilineally and to what extent matrilineal- 
ly. Four types of pre-Islamic marriage are described 
by al-Bukhari (67, 37, 1 ; translated in Montgomery 
Watt, Muhammad at Medina, 378); two of these, 
though provision for determining paternity is 
described by al-Bukhari, seem to belong to a 
primarily matrilineal system. The sources, moreover, 
suggest that al-Bukhari's account is not exhaustive. 
Certainly it was common for the woman to live with 
her kinsmen, and for her husband merely to 'visit' 
her fer short periods — for example, when their tribes 
happened to be camped close to one another. 

(e) Religion. Pre-Islamic poetry suggests that for 
the nomadic tribes a quasi-religious dynamic was 
produced by a belief in the human excellence of the 
tribal stock. Regard for honour or reputation (hasab) 
was the driving force in much of their activity. In 
this sense it may be said that the real religion of the 
Badw was a tribal humanism. The widespread belief 
in fate among the Arabs was not so much a religious 
belief as a factual belief, viz. a belief that the world 
was so constituted that, as often as not, human 
efforts to avert disaster would be thwarted by 
circumstances. Fate was not worshipped as a deity. 
Apart from this there were a number of cults 
observed by the Arabs, each centred at a particular 
shrine (see arts. Al-lat, Mahat, etc.). Some of 
these were of social importance, since round the 
shrines was a sacred area {haram), while the insti- 
tution of the sacred month was administered from 
the Ka c ba at Mecca. Such sacred times and places, 
in which blood feuds temporarily ceased, made it 
possible for many Badw to come together for trade 
and other purposes. On the whole, however, these 
cults seem to have little religious importance, 
properly speaking, in the life of the Badw. 

Christianity had spread widely in Arabia when 
Muhammad began to preach, and some nomadic 
groups were at least nominally Christian. Judaism 
was also found, and some of those called 'Jews' in the 
records were probably Arabs who had adopted 
Judaism; but, though they had close relations with 
Badw, none of them appears to have been nomadic. 
Bibliography: (besides works mentioned in 
the text): H. Lammens, V Arabic Occidental 
avant VHlgire, Beirut 1928, esp. 100-294; idem, 
Le Berceau de L' Islam, Rome 1914; F. Buhl, Das 
Leben Muhammeds, Leipzig 1930, esp. 21-100; 
M. Guidi, Storia e Cultura degli Arabi, Florence 
1951, esp. 122-143; W. Robertson Smith, Kinship 
and Marriage in Early Arabia, 2nd ed., London, 
1907; B. Fares, L'Honneur chez les Arabes avant 
I' Islam, Paris 1932; De Lacy O'Leary, Arabia 
before Muhammad, London 1927; G. Levi della 
Vida, 'Pre-Islamic Arabia', in N. A. Faris (ed.), 
The Arab Heritage, Princeton, 1944; I. Goldziher, 
Muhammedanische Studien, i, 1-100; idem, Abhand- 
lungen zur arabischen Philologie, Leiden 1896, i, 
1-121. Further references in J. Sauvaget, Intro- 
duction d I'Histoire de I'Oricnt Musulman, Paris 
1943, etc., 103-110. (W. Montgomery Watt) 
BAENA [see bayyana], 
BAEZA [see bayyasa]. 



BAGGARA — BAGHCE SARAY 



BAGGARA [see basuAra]. 

BAGH [see bustan]. 

AL-BAGHAWl. AbO Mi 
Mj»s c ud b. Muij. al-Farra 5 (or Ibn al-FarrA'), 
doctor of the Shali'I school, traditionist, and con 
mentator on the Kur'an. His lakabs were Rukn al- 
Din and Mnhyi '1-Sunna. He came from the village 
of Bagh or Baghshur near Harat (cf. al-Sam c ani, 
f. 86a). Al-Farra 5 (furrier) comes from his father's 
occupation. He studied fikh under the H4* al- 
Husayn b. Muhammad al-Marw al-Rudhl, becoming 
his favourite pupil; and heard traditions from a 
number of traditionists. He was noted for piety and 
asceticism, and observed ceremonial purity while 
teaching. Although he wrote on various subjects, 
the work for which he is most famous is his Masabih 
al-Suntta (or al-Dudia), which consists of a collection 
of traditions arranged according to their subject- 
matter. In each chapter he first gives traditions 
■which are sound (sahih) meaning by these traditions 
from the Sahihs of al-Bukharl and Muslim; then 
traditions which are good (hasan), meaning traditions 
which he has taken from the books of Abu Da'ud, 
al-Tirmidhl, and other imams. In many chapters he 
also includes traditions which have only one authority 
at some stage of the isnad (gharib), and even 
traditions which are weak (daHf). But he claims that 
he includes none which are rejected (munkar), or 
spurious (mateda'). The isndds are dispensed with, 
but the arrangement according to the degree of 
authority is a sufficient guide to what is accepted. 
Al-Baghawi declares that his purpose was to provide 
material for religious people which would help them 
to live a life pleasing to God. Editions have been 
published in Bulak, 1294, and Cairo, 1318. This 
work has been very popular, especially in the 
edition arranged by Wall al-DIn (d. 743/1342) with 
the title Mishkat al-Mafdblh. It has frequently been 
printed; an English translation was published by 
A. N. Matthews (Calcutta 1809-10), and another, 
with some arrangement of the text, by Maulana 
Fazlul Karim with the Arabic and English in 
parallel columns (Calcutta 1938-9). Al-BaghawTs 
other extant works are listed in Brockelmann. He 
died in Marw al-Rudh in 516/1122, but Ibn Khallikan 
mentions also 510/1117. Al-DhahabI says he may 
have been eighty years of age, but al-Subki suggests 
that he may have been nearly ninety. 

Bibliography: DhatabI, Tadh. al-huffdf, iii, 

52 f.; Subkl, Tababdt al-ShdfiHyya al-kubra, iv, 

214ft.; Ibn Khallikan, No. 177; Yakut, passim; 

Ibn al- c Imad, Shadhardt al-dhahab, iv, 48 f.; 

Brockelmann, I, 447 ff.; S. I., 620 ff.; Sarkis, 

Diet, encyc. de bibl. arabe, J 73 f.; Goldziher, Muh. 

Stud., ii, 263, 270 f. (J. Robson) 

BAGHBOR [see FAGH.FUR]. 

BAGJiCE SARAY (Turkish: «Garden Palace*), 
in Russian orthography : Bakjjci-Saray, the capital 
of the Krim Tatar state throughout the entire 
(including the dependent) rule of the Giray dynasty 
[q.v.] from about 1423 to 1783, lies in lat. 44 45' N. 
and long. 33 55' E., 32 km. south-west of Simferopol', 
in a narrow, 7 km. long, gorge of the Ciiruk Su 
("Foul Water"). Baghie Saray arose between the 
old administrative centre of the Crimea, Eski Yurt, 
in the west, where the Krim Khans were buried 
until the roth/i6th century and the ancient Karaite 
settlement, Cufut Kal'e ("fort of the Jews") in the 
east (in Karaite: Kirk Yer, "40 Places") ; it developed 
from an extensive burial ground that the most 
important of the Krim Khans, MengU Giray [q.v.] 
began in 1503-1504 (909 A.H., according to an 



inscription) with the building of a "Garden Palace", 
completed in 1519. Around this palace there developed 
gradually a new settlement which was named after 
it Baghce Saray and was constructed in a loose and 
haphazard fashion, a characteristic that has remained 
true of the site even down to the present time. The 
remnants of older Christian buildings are said to have 
been used for the construction of a stone mosque and 
a dervish cloister. The Zindjirli ("Chains") madrasa, 
established at that time, has survived even until 
today {grym Medj[mu l asl, Istanbul 1918, no. i, 16-19 
and no. x, 188 ff.; Bodaninskij, 19 ft.; Seydamet, 
36-40). Thereafter the two neighbouring settlements 
fell gradually into decay. Yet the name Kirk Yer was 
still retained on the coinage; only from 1644 does the 
name Baghce Saray appear on coins, that town 
continuing to be thereafter the sole mint in the land. 
A peace was concluded at Baghce Saray in 1092/1681 
between the Krim Tatars, the Turks and the Rus- 
sians, the Dnieper being recognised as the frontier 
between their respective dominions. By this peace 
the Krim Tatars and the Turks at last agreed to the 
incorporation of the Ukraine territories on the left 
bank of the river and the Cossack lands into the 
Muscovite state. 

When Baghce Saray was devastated in the course 
of a Russian incursion (1736), a quarter of the 
town, including the palace, the chief mosque and the 
precious library that Sellm Giray I (four times Khan 
between 1671 and 1704) had founded, suffered 
destruction. Only 124 bound volumes of documents 
survived; they were later deposited at St. Petersburg 
by V. D. Smirnov (cf. K. Inostrancev, in Zapiski 
Vost. otd. Arkh. ob-va, vol. xviii, p. XVIII). The 
town was rebuilt, however, in the following years, 
during a period of renewed cultural efflorescence in 
the Crimea. The palace arose once more and was 
extended (I737-I743); it is now surrounded on three 
sides by a wall surmounted with various buildings. 
A new Council Hall (Diwdn) was erected in 1743, 
adorned with rich decoration, sculptures, arcades 
and paintings. The library was revived with the 
aid of bequests from Istanbul. 

As a consequence of the peace of Kiicuk Kaynardja 
[q.v.) in 1774 the numerous Greek-Orthodox and 
Armenian elements in the population of the town 
(about one third of the inhabitants) were resettled in 
1779, against the wish of the Tatars, on territories 
already at that time under Russian rule, i.e., north- 
ward on the Sea of Azov and in the region of Rostov 
on the Don (New Nakhdjovan: Nakhicevan, in 
Russian). The result was that Baghce Saray became 
an almost exclusively Tatar town and this distinctive 
character was expressly confirmed after the incor- 
poration of the Crimea into Russia by Catherine II 
in 1783. Baghce Saray, in 1787, numbered 5,776 
inhabitants (3,166 of them, men; the women, as it 
would seem, being in part passed over in silence in 
the census) living in 1561 dwelling-houses; there were 
also 31 stone mosques, one Orthodox and one 
Armenian-Gregorian church, two synagogues, two 
baths and 16 caravanserais, no wells were fed, 
through underground canals, from 32 springs in the 
mountains. In 1794 Cufut Kal c e still had 1162 
Karaites, with two synagogues and a school; only 
in the 19th cent, did this town become almost 
wholly deserted. Baghce Saray, in 1881, numbered 
13,377 inhabitants, amongst whom were 697 
Karaites and 210 Rabbanite Jews, together with a 
very small number of Greeks, Armenians and 
Gipsies; the population had fallen by 1897 to 12,955. 

The town retained its importance even in the 



894 



BAGHCE SARAY — BAGHDAD 



19th century. It developed a great craft activity 
(famed morocco leather in red and yellow, candles, 
soap, agricultural implements, shoes, treatment of 
sheepskins, and, in the 20th cent., essential oils). 
Baghce Saray was, moreover, the centre of national 
and cultural aspirations in the Crimea. Here, from 
1883, the notable Russo-Turkish pioneer Ismi'Il Bey 
Gasptrall (Russian: Gasprinsky, 1851-1914) published 
the important paper Terdjiimdn ("Interpreter"), the 
language of which was intended to form a compromise 
between the various Turkish dialects and thus to 
further co-operation between those who spoke them; 
in actual fact the language of the paper was very 
largely Ottoman (cf. G. Burbiel, Die Sprache Ism&Hl 
Bey Gaspyralys, Thesis, Hamburg 1950 (typescript); 
G. von Mende, Der rationale Kampf der Russland- 
tiirken, Berlin 1936 (Index); Cafer Seydamet, 
Gaspiralt Ismail Bey, Istanbul 1934). In the following 
year Gasptrall founded at Baghce Saray a model 
school which became, until 1903, the pattern for 
some 5000 Muslim primary schools in Russia. The 
palace of the Khans, on the occasion of a visit of 
Catherine II, bad already been restored by G. Ye. 
Potyomkin and was thereafter maintained, on 
archaeological grounds, as the "sole great example of 
Tatar building within the Russian state". 

Baghce Saray became once more an administrative 
centre in the time of Crimean independence (1918- 
1920). During the German occupation of 1941-1944 
it attained, however, no political importance. None 
the less, Baghce Saray suffered heavily, when Soviet 
troops retook the town in April 1944; the palace of 
the Khans was damaged, but is now restored (in 
part?) and serves both as an Oriental Museum and 
(since 1950) as a monument in honour of the Russian 
general Suvorov, who had his headquarters here. 
As a result of the forcible "re-settlement" of the 
Krim Tatars (1944-1945) Baghce Saray has wholly 
lost its former character. The present number and 
composition of the inhabitants are no longer given 
in the Bol'shaya Sovyetskaya Enciklopediya, iv (1950), 
333; nor are details to be found there on the other 
conditions now prevailing in the town. 

Bibliography: F. Dombrovskij, Olerk Bakh- 
Usaraya (Sketch of Baghce Saray), Odessa 1848; 
U. Bodaninskij, Arkheologiceskoye i £tnografice- 
skoye Znabeniye Tatar v Krimu (The archaeological 
and ethnographical importance of the Tatars in the 
Crimea), Simferopol' 1930; Brockhaus-Efron, End- 
Moped. Slovar, iii/i (= 3), St. Petersburg 1891, 
214-215; Encyclopaedia Judaica, iii, Berlin 1929, 
cols. 937-938. 

Inscriptions: A. Borzenko and F. Dombrovskij, 
in Zapiski Odesskago Ob-va 1st. i DrevnosUy, ii, 
489 ff . 

Travel Accounts: M. Broniovius, Tatariae 
Descriptio, Cologne 1595 and Leiden 1630; N. E. 
Kleemann, Reisen . ... in die Crim, Leipzig 1773; 
P. S. Pallas, Bemerkungen auf einer Reise in die 

sudl. StatthaUerschaften des Russ. Reickes 

i793-i794t 2 vols., 'Leipzig 1803; M. Guthrie, 
A Tour performed .... 1795-1796 through the ... . 

Crimea London 1802; E. D. Clarke, Travels 

in Various Countries: Pt. I, Russia, Tartary and 

Turkey , London 1810-1823; L. d'Asfeld: 

Haslem .... Voyage en Crimie Paris 1827; 

M. Holderness, Notes relating to the Crim 

Tatars , London 1821, and New Russia. 

Journey .... to the Crimea . . . ., 'London 1827; 

J. B. Telfer, The Crimea 2 vols., 'London 

1877. 
Cufut Kal'e: A. Harkavy, Die att-jUdischen 



Denkmaler auf der Krim (1871); Zapiski Odessk. 
Ob-va 1st. i. Drevn., XII. 

V. D. Smirnov, Krymshoye Khanstvo . . . ., 

2 vols., St. Petersburg 1887, Odessa 1889; Diafer 

Seydamet, Krym, Warsaw 1930; B. Spuler, Die 

Krim, Berlin 1944. Cf. also the bibliographies to 

the articles Giray and Crimea. (B. Spuler) 

BAfiHDAD. Baghdad is situated on both banks 

of the Tigris, at 33 26 18" Lat. N. and 44° 23 9" 

Long. E. respectively. Founded in the 8th century 

A.D. it continued to be the centre of the 'Abbasid 

Caliphate till its fall, and the cultural metropolis of 

the Muslim world for centuries. After 1258 it became 

a provincial centre and remained under the Ottomans 

the centre of the Baghdad wildyet. In 1921 it became 

the capital of modern c IrSk. 

The name Baghdad is pre-Islamic, related to 
previous settlements on the site. Arab authors 
realise this and as usual look for Persian origins (cf. 
Makdisi, al-Bad', iv, 101; Ibn Rusta, 108). They 
give different hypothetical explanations, the most 
common of which is "given by God" or "Gift of God"' 
(or the Idol), (see Khatfb, i, 58-9 (Cairo) ; Yakut, i, 
678-9; Abu '1-Fida', i, 292; Ibn al-DjawzI, Manakib, 
6; Bakri, i, 169; Ibn al-Faklh, Mashhad MS. f. 29 b). 
Modern writers generally tend to favour this Persian 
derivation (cf. Salmon, Introduction, 23-4; Le 
Strange, Baghdad, 10-11; Streck, Landschaft, i, 
49-50; Herzfeld, Paikuli, 153; W. Budge, By Nile and 
Tigris, i, 178; JRIA., i, 46-94)- Others tend to give 
the name an Aramaic origin meaning, "the home or 
enclosure of sheep" (Y. Ghanima and A.- Karmali in 
Lughat al-'Arab, iv, 27; vi, 748. Note Tabari's 
reference to Suk al-Bakar, "the cow market", on the 
site of Baghdad (iii, 277). Delitzsch favours an 
Aramaic origin without explaining the meaning 
(Delitzsch, Parodies, 206, 238). 

A legal document of the time of Hammurabi 
(1800 B.C.) mentions the city of Bagdadu (Schorr, 
Altbabylonische Rechtsurkunden No. 197 1. 17.) This 
indicates that the name was in use before Hammurabi 
and definitely before any possible Persian influence. 
Bag and Hu are rendered by the same sign. However 
a boundary stone from the time of the Kassite King 
NazimaruttaS (1341-1316 B.C.) mentions the city 
Pilari on the bank of "Nah. Sharri" in the district of 
Bagdadi (De Morgan, Delegation en perse, i, 86-92). 
This with the mention of Bagdatha several times 
in the Talmud makes Bag the more acceptable 
reading (Obermeyer, Landschaft Babylonien, 1929, 
147 ff.; Jewish Encyc, Baghdad). Another boundary 
stone of the reign of the Babylonian king Marduk- 
apaliddin (1208-1 195 B.C.) mentions the city Baghdad 
(DOigation en Perse, iii, 32-39)- 

Adad-nirari II (911-891 B.C.) plundered places 
amongst which was Bagda(du) (Synchronistic 
History, iii L. 12 = K BI, 200). In the 8th century 
B.C. Baghdad became an Aramaean settlement. 
Tiglatpilasser HI (745-727 B.C.) mentions Bagdadu 
in connexion with an Aramaean tribe (Delitzsch, 
Parodies, 238). 

From this it is only fair to admit that the origins 
of the name are not clear. The fact that Bag was 
adopted by the Iranians about the 8th century B.C. 
to denote "God", and that it figured in personal 
names does not change the situation (ReallexikoM, i, 
34i). 

Al-Mansur called his city Madlnat al-Salam (city 
of peace), in reference to paradise (Kur'an, vi, 127; 
x, 26). This was the official name on documents, 



coins, weights etc. Variations of the name, esp. 
Bughdan and appelations such as Madlnat Abl 
Dja'far, Madlnat al-Mansur, Madlnat al-Khulafa' 
and Al-Zawra 1 were used (Ibn al-Faklh, f. 296; 
Yakut, i, 678; Ibn Rusta, 108). Zawra* seems to be 
an old name as the Fakhri states (al-Fakhri, 145 ; cf. 
Mustawfl, Nuzha, 41). For later explanations see 
Mas'udI, al-Tdnbih (Cairo), 312; Yakut, ii, 954). 
Arab authors state that al-Mansur built his city 
where many pre-Islamic settlements existed, the 
most important of which was the village of Baghdad, 
(see Tabari, ii, 277; and i, 2067; Ibn Djawzl, 
Mandkib, 7; Ya'kubi, Buldan, 237), on the west 
bank of the Tigris north of Sarat (Tabari, iii, 277)- 
Some consider it of Badurya and refer to its annual 
fair (Khatlb, i, 25-7; Ibn Djawzl, Manakib, 6; 
Ya'kubi, Buldan, 275) and this would help to 
explain why Karkh was later the quarter for 
merchants. A number of old settlements, chiefly 
Aramaean, were on the western side in the vicinity of 
Karkh. Among these is Khattabiyya (by Bab al- 
SJjam), SJiarafaniyya, and north of it Wardaniyya 
which became within al-Harbiyya quarter, Sunaya 
near the junction of Sarat with the Tigris (later al- 
'Atlka) Katufta at the corner where the Rufayl canal 
flows into the Tigris, and Baratha where the Karkhaya 
canal branches from the 'Isa canal. Three small 
settlements were between the Karkhaya canal and 
Sarat, i.e., Sal, Warthala (later Kalla'In quarter) and 
Banawra. Karkh. itself (Aramaic karkha meaning a 
fortified town) takes its name from an earlier village, 
which Persian traditions attribute to Shapur II 
(309-379 A.D.) (Mustawfl, 40; see Tabari, iii, 278 9; 
Khatlb, 27, 33. Ibn al-Athir, ii, 342-3, Yakut, iii, 
613 and Ibn al-Djawzi, Mandkib, 7). 

According to Xenophon the Achaemenids possess- 
ed vast parks in the district of Baghdad (at Sittake). 
Arab authors refer to two such gardens (cf. Khatlb. 
28; Mustawfl, 40). Near the mouth of the 'Isa canal, 
there was a Sasanian Palace (kasr Sdbur) where al- 
Mansur later built a bridge. The old Kantara (al- 
kanfara al-'atlka) across the Sarat canal, south-west 
of the Kufa gate, was Sasanian. On the eastern side, 
Suk al-Thalatha' and Khavzuran cemetery were pre- 
Islamic. There were some monasteries in the area 
which are pre-Islamic like Dayr Marfathion (al-Dayr 
al-'AUk) where al-£huld palace was built, Dayr 
Bustan al-Kuss, and Dayr al-PJaQjallk near which 
Siaykh Ma'ruf was buried. (Tabari, iii, 274. 277; 
Ibn al-Faklh-, f. 36-378; Khatlb, 46, 28; Mas'Odl, al- 
Tanbih, 312; DhahabI, Duwal, i, 76; Mustawfl, 40). 

None of these ancient settlements attained any 
political or commercial importance, so that the city 
of al-Mansur may be regarded as a new foundation. 
Baghdad is very often confused with Babylon by 
European travellers in the middle ages and sometimes 
with Seleuc'a, and appears in their accounts as Babel, 
Babellonia, etc. The erroneous application of the later 
name to Baghdad is likewise common in the Talmudic 
exegetic literature of the Babylonian Geonim (in the 
'Abbasid period) as well as in later Jewish authors. 
Pietro della Valle who was in Baghdad (1616-7) was 
the first to refute this error, widely spread in his 
time. Down to the 17th century the name Baghdad 
was generally known in the West in the corrupted 
form Baldach (Baldacco) which might be derived 
from the Chinese form of the name (cf. Bretschneider, 
Medieval Researches, i, 138; ii, 124; Travels of Marco 
Polo, ed. Frampton, 29, 126). 

The 'Abbisids turned to the east and looked for 
a new capital to symbolise their dawla. The first 
caliph, al-Saffab, moved from Kufa to Anbir. Al- 



Mansur moved to Hashimiyya near Kufa, but he 
soon realised that the turbulent pro-'Alid Kufa was 
a bad influence on his army, while Hashimiyya was 
vulnerable as was proved by the Rawandiyya rising 
(cf. Yakut, i, 680-1 ; Tabari, iii, 271-2 ; Fakhri (Cairo), 
143). He looked, therefore, for a strategic site. 

After careful exploration, he chose the site of 
Baghdad for military, economic and climatic con- 
siderations. It stood on a fertile plain where culti- 
vation was good on both sides of the river. It was 
on the Khurasan road and was a meeting place of 
caravan routes, and monthly fairs were held there, 
and thus provisions could be plentiful for army and 
people. There was a net of canals which served 
cultivation and could be ramparts for the city. It 
was in the middle of Mesopotamia, and enjoyed a 
temperate and healthy climate and was fairly safe 
from mosquitoes (Ya'kubi, 235-8; Tabari, iii, 271-5; 
Yakut, i, 679-80; Mandkib, 7-8; MukaddasI, Ahsan 
al-Takdslm, 1 19-120; Ibn al-Athir, v, 426-7; Ibn 
al-Djawzi, 7 ; Ya'kubi, ii, 449 ; Fakhri, 143-5). Apo- 
cryphal stories about its merits and al-Mansur's 
destiny to build it found circulation later (cf . Ya'kubi, 
Buldan, 237; Fakhri, 144; Tabari (Cairo), vi, 234-5; 
Ibn al-Djawzi, Mandkib, 7-8). 

Baghdad was to succeed Babylon, Seleucia and 
Ctesiphon and to outshine them all. 

Ya'kubl (278-891), and Ibn al-Faklh (290/903), 
give early detailed descriptions of Baghdad by quar- 
ters, while Suhrab (c. 900 A.D.) describes the net of 
canals in the area. The city with its fortifications and 
its inner plan looks like a big fortress. There was first 
a deep ditch, todhird* (= 20.27 m.7wide,-stirnjunding 
the city, then a quay of bricks, then the first wall 
18 dhird' ( = 9 m.), at the base, followed by a space 
56.9 metres in width (= 100 dhird', see for measures 
Rayyis, Kharddi) left empty for defensive purposes. 
Then came the main wall of sun-burnt bricks — 34.14 
metres high, 50.2 metres wide at the bottom and 
14.22 metres at the top — with great towers numbering 
28 between each two gates except those between the 
Kufa and Basra gates which numbered 29. On each 
of the gates a dome was built to overlook the city, 
with quarters below for the guards. Then came a. 
space 170.70 metres wide where houses were built. 
Only officers and loyal followers (mawali) were 
allowed to build here, and yet each road had two 
strong gates which could be locked. Then came a 
simple third wall enclosing the large inner space 
where only the caliph's palace (Bab al-Dhahab), the 
great mosque, the diwdns, houses of the sons of the 
caliph, and two sakifas, one for the chief of the guard 
and the other for the chief of police, were built. 
To ensure control of the city and to facilitate com 
munications internally and with caravan routes 
externally, the city was divided into four equal parts 
divided by two roads running from its equidistant 
gates. The Khurasan gate (also called Bab al-Dawla) 
was to the N.E., the Basra gate to the S.W., the 
Syria gate to the N.W. and the Kufa gate to the S.E. 
To get to the inner circle, one had to cross the ditch 
and to pass five doors, two at the outer wall, two huge 
doors at the great wall and one door at the inner 
wall (see Ya'kubl, Buldan, i, 238-242; Tabari, iii, 
322-3, Ibn al-Djawzi, Mandkib, 9-10; Khatlb, 9-12; 
Ibn al-Athir, v, 427-8, 439; Ya'kubl, ii, 449; Ibn 
al-Faklh, MS, f. 33 a). 

Ancient imperial traditions are also noticeable in 
the plan. The seclusion of the caliph from his people, 
the grandiose plan of the palace and the mosque 
to show the greatness of the new dawla, the division 
of the people in separate quarters which could be 



locked and guarded at night — all testify to that. 

Al-Mansur granted some devoted followers and 
captains ti acts of land by the gates outside the city, 
and gave his soldiers the outskirts (arbdd) to build 
and granted some of his kinsfolk outlying places 
(afrdf) (Ya'kubl, ii, 449-50 ; cf. Ibn Hawkal, i, 240). 

The glory of the Round City was the Green Dome, 
48.36 metres high, towering over the palace with a 
mounted horseman on top. It fell in 329/941 on a 
stormy night, probably struck by a thunderbolt (Sflli, 
Rddi, 229, Ibn al-Djawzi, Muntazam, vi, 317-18; 
Mand&b, n; Abu '1-Mahasin, iii, 270; Khatib, „). 
However its walls lasted much longer, and they 
finally crumbled in 653/1255 A.D. (Ibn al-Fuwati, 
303, Sibt Ibn al-Djawzi, Mir'dt al-Zamdn, viii, 67). 
Marble and stone were used in the building of the 
Bab al-Dhahab, and gold decorated its gate. It 
continued to be the official residence for about half 
a century, and though Rashid neglected it, Amin 
added a new wing to it and built a "mayddn" around 
it. During the siege of Baghdad in 198/814 it suffered 
much damage. Then it ceased to be the official 
residence and was neglected (cf. Ibn al-Fuwati, 303). 

The mosque (Djami' al-Mansur) was built after the 
palace and thus was slightly divergent from the 
Kibla (cf. Tabari (Cairo), vi, 265, Ibn al-Athlr, v, 439). 
In 191/807 Rashid demolished it, and rebuilt it with 
bricks. It was enlarged in 260-1/875 and finally in 
280/893. Mu'tadid added another court to it and 
renewed parts of it (Muntazam, v, 21, 143). The 
mosque had a minaret (Khatib, v, 125) which was 
burnt in 303/915 (Muntazam, vi, 130), but was 
rebuilt again (cf. Ibn al-Djawzi, Muntazam, vii, 284). 
It continued to be the great mosque of Baghdad 
during the period of the caliphate. It was flooded 
in 653/1255 and survived this and the Mongol 
invasion. 

The plan of Baghdad reflects social ideas. Each 
quarter had a responsible personage, and generally 
had a homogeneous group, ethnically (Persian, 
Arabs, K^warizmians), or by vocation. Soldiers had 
their homes outside the walls, generally north and 
west of the city, while merchants and craftsman had 
their centres south of the Sarat in Karkh (see Ibn 
al-Fakih, MS. f. 37b; 33b, 29b). 

Markets play a prominent part in the plan of 
Baghdad. Initially, along each of the four ways from 
the great wall to the inner wall were high arched 
rooms (fd^dt) where shops were put, thus consti- 
tuting four markets (cf. Tabari, iii, 322). Besides, 
the Caliph ordered that each of the four sections 
outside the wall should have ample space for 
markets, so that each section should have a great 
market (Ya'kubl, Bulddn, 242). Safety considerations 
prompted al-Mansur in 157/773 to order the 
removal of markets from the Round City to Karkh. 
He wanted to keep the turbulent populace away 
from the city and to ensure that gates of quarters 
are not left open at night for the markets, and to 
guard against possible spies infiltrating into the city. 
He drew a plan for the markets to be built between 
the Sarat and 'Isa canals (Tabari, iii, 324-5; Ibn 
al-Djawzi, Mandlfib, 13-4; Yakut, iv, 254). 

Each craft or trade had its separate market or 
road (darb). Among the markets of Karkh, were the 
fruit market, the cloth market, the food market, 
the money — changers' market, the market of book- 
shops, the sheep market (Ya'kubl, Bulddn, 241, 245. 
246, 253; Istakhrf, 84, Ibn Hawkal, 242; K£atlb, 
22, 31, 67, Ibn al-Djawzi, Mand&b, 26-28). With the 
growth of the city we hear of merchants from 
Khurasan and Transoxania, Marw, Balkh, Bukhara, 



Khwarizm, and they had their markets at Harbiyya 
quarter, and each group of these merchants had a 
leader and a chief (Ya'kubl, Bulddn, 246-248). It 
seems that each craft had its chief chosen by the 
government (see Duri, Ta'rikh al-Hrdb al-Iktifddi. 
81). 

There is a tradition that al-Mansur wanted to 
pull down a part of the white Palace in Ctesiphon to 
use the bricks in his buildings, but that he stopped 
because expenditure did not justify the operation. 
Another report attributes to al-Mansur the idea of 
repairing that palace, but says that he did not have 
the time to carry it through. Both traditions are 
reminiscent of the Shu'ubiyya controversy. The city 
was built mainly of sun-burnt bricks. 

Ya'kubl reports that the plan was drawn in 141/ 
755 (Ya'kubl, Bulddn, 238) but work started on 
1 Djumada 145/2 Aug. 762 (Khwarizml's report in 
Khatib 2 ; cf. Wiet, Ya'kubl, n, n. 4). Four architects 
worked on the plan of the city. Hadjdjadi b. Artat 
was the architect of the mosque (Tabari (Cairo), 
vi, 265, 237; Ya'kubl, 241). Al-Mansur assembled 
100,000 workers and craftsmen to work in the con- 
struction (Yakubi, 238, Tabari, iii, 277). A canal was 
drawn from Karkhaya canal to the site to provide 
water for drinking and for building operations 
(Ya'kubl, 238). It seems that in 146/763 the palace, 
mosque and diwans at least were completed and al- 
Mansur moved to Baghdad (Tabari, iii, 313, Khatib, 
2). By 149/766 the Round City was completed 
(Tabari, iii, 353; Khatib, 2-3). 

The 'Round City" of al-Mansur is a remarkable 
example of town planning. It was circular so that 
the centre was equidistant from the different parts 
and could be easily controlled or defended. Arab 
traditions consider this design unique (Ya'kubl, 238; 
Ibn al-Fakih, f. 33b; Khatib, 67; Dhahabi, Duwal, 
i, 76). However, the circular plan is not unfamiliar 
in the Near East. The plan of Uruk is almost 
circular (V. Christian, AUertumskunde, ii, table 13). 
Assyrian military camps are circular enclosures. 
Creswell enumerates eleven cities that were oval or 
circular, amongst which are Harran, Agbatana, 
Hatra and Darabdjird. Darabdjird bears a remarkable 
resemblance to the city of Mansur in its plan (Cres- 
well, Early Muslim Arch, (short), 171-3; Meissner, 
Babylonien und Assyrien, i, table 161). 

It is likely that the architects of the Round city 
knew of such plans. Ibn al-Fakih indicates that the 
choice of the plan was between the square and the 
circle and that the latter is more perfect (Bulddn, 
MS, f. 33b). It is however more probable that the 
idea of the circular fort was responsible for the plan. 
Tabari states "al-Mansur made four gates (for the 
city) on the line of military camps" (Tabari (Cairo), 
vi, 265). 

There are different reports on the dimensions of 
the city of al-Mansur. A report makes the distance 
from the Khurasan gate to the Kufa gate 800 dkira* 
( = 405.12 metres) and from the Syrian gate to the 
Basra gate 600 dhird', ( = 303.12 metres), (Khatib. 
9-1 1 ; Ibn al-Fakih, MS, f. 33b). Another report from 
Wakl c makes the distance between each two- gates 
1200 dkir&< (= 608.28 m.) (Khatib. 11). Both reports 
underestimate the size of the city. A third report 
given by Rabah, one of the builders of the city, gives 
the measurement as one mile between each two gates 
(or 4000 dhira c mursala or 1848 metres: D. Rayyis, 278 ; 
Khatib, 8. Th>s estimate is given in Ibn al-Djawzi, 
Mandkib, 9; Yakut, i, 235; Abu '1-Mahasin, i, 341; 
Irbilll, Tibr, 54). This is confirmed by the measure- 
ment carried by the orders of Mu'tadid and reported 



by Badr al-Mu'tadidl (Khatib, 5 ; Abu 1-Maljasin, i, 
341). This makes the diameter of the city 2352 metres. 
Ya'kubi's estimate of the distance between each 
pair of gates outside the khandafr as 5000 black dhird 1 
(or 2534.5 metres) becomes probable in this light 
(Bulddn, 238-9). 

Various reports are given of al-Mansur's expendi- 
ture on the city. One report makes the cost 18 
million, understood to mean dinars (Khatib, 5; 
Ibn al-Djawzi, Mandftib 34; Yakut, i, 683; Irbilli, 
Tibr, 543). A second puts it at a hundred million 
dirhams (Abu '1-Mahasin, i, 341). However the 
official report based on caliphal archives states that 
al-Mansur spent on the Round City four million, 
eight hundred and eighty three dirhams (Tabari, iii, 
326; MukaddasI, Ahsan al-Ta^dsim, 121; Khatib, 
5-6; see also Ibn al-Athlr, v, 419; Ibn al-DjawzI, 
Manilfib, 34). This is understandable if we take into 
account the low cost of labour and provisions and 
the strictness of al-Mansur in supervising his accounts. 

In 157/773 al-Mansur built a palace on the 
Tigris below the Khurasan gate, with spacious 
gardens, and called it al-Khuld. The place was free 
of mosquitoes and noted for the freshness of its air. 
The name was reminiscent of paradise (Tabari, iii, 379 ; 
Khatib, 14; Yakut, ii, 783; Ibn al-Djawzi, Mandfrb, 
12; Ibn al-Athlr, vi, 71; Ibn al-Faklh f. 37b). 

Strategic considerations, al-Mansur's policy of 
•dividing the army, and lack of space soon led the 
•caliph to build a camp for his heir al-Mahdi on the 
East side of the Tigris. The central part was the 
camp of al-Mahdi (later called Rusafa after a palace 
built by al-Rashid), where his palace and the mosque 
were built, surrounded by the houses of officers and 
followers. The commercial side was soon expressed 
in the famous suks of Bab al-Tak. The military side 
is shown by a wall and a ditch surrounding the camp 
of al-Mahdi. Work started in 151/768 and ended in 
157/773- Rusafa was almost opposite the city of 
al-Mansur ( Ya'kflbl, Bulddn, 251-3; Istakhri, 83-4; 
Khatib. 23-5; Ibn al-Djawzi, Mandfcb, 12-13; Mukad- 
dasI,' 121; Abu '1-Mahasin, ii, 16; Yakut, ii, 78). 

Baghdad expanded rapidly in buildings, commerc- 
ial activities, wealth and population. People crowded 
into east Baghdad, attracted by al-Mahdl's gifts, 
and later by the Barmakids who had a spf cial quar- 
tet at the Shammasiyya gate (Ya'kfibl, Bulddn, 251 ; 
Aghdni (Bulak), vi, 78, v, 8; Ibn .Khallikan (BQlak), 
ii, 311). Yahya the Barmakid built a magnificent 
palace and gave it the modest name Kasr al-TIn 
(Aghdni, v, 8). Dja'far built a great luxurious palace 
below eastern Baghdad, which was given later to 
al-Ma'mun. At the time of al-Rashid, the eastern 
side extended from the Shammasiyya gate (opposite 
the Katrabbulgate) to Mukharrim (itssouthemlimitis 
the modern Ma'mfin bridge) (Ya'kubl, Bulddn, 253-4). 
On the other side al-Amin returned from the Khuld 
palace, where al-Rashid resided, to Bab al-Phahab, 
renewed it and added a wing to it and surrounded it 
by a square (cf. Djahshiyari, Cairo 1938, 193, Ibn 
al-Athlr, xi, 152). Queen Zubayda built a mosque on 
the Tigris (called after her) near the Royal palaces 
and another splendid mosque at her Katf'a north 
of the city (Yakut, iv, 211; Ibn Khallikan, 188; 
Musta(raf (Bulak ed.), i, 289). She also built a palace 
•called al-Karar near al-Khuld (cf. Khatib, i, 87). 
The western side expanded between the Katrabbul 
gate in the north and the Karkh quarter, which in 
turn extended as far as great <Isa canal (this flowed 
into the Tigris at the present Tulul Khashm al- 
Dawra); to the west it almost reached Muhawwal 
.(Mashrih, 1934, 89; cf. poem in Yakut, i, 686; 
.Encyclopaedia of Islam 



DAD 897 

Mas'udi, vi, 454, Tabari, iii, 874, 876). Poets extol 
the beauty of Baghdad and call it "paradise on 
earth". Its wonderful gardens, green countryside, its 
splendid high palaces with sumptuous decorations 
on the gates and in the halls, and their exquisite rich 
furniture were famous (cf. Tabari, iii, 873, 874; 
Kali, Amdli, ii, 237; Yakut, i, 686). 

Baghdad suffered a severe blow during the conflict 
between al-Amin and al-Ma'mun. War was brought 
to the city when it was besieged for fourteen 
months (Mas'udi, vi, 456). Exasperated by the stub- 
bornness of the defence, Tahir ordered the destruction 
of the houses of the defenders, and many quarters 
"between the Tigris, Dar al-Rakik, (north of the 
Khurasan gate), the Syrian gate, the Kufa gate up to 
Sarat, the Karkhaya canal and Kunasa" were devas- 
tated (Tabari, iii, 887). The work of destruction was 
completed by the rabble and the lawless volunteers 
and the 'ayydrim. The Khuld palace, other palaces, 
Karkh. and some quarters on the east side suffered 
heavily. "Destruction and ruin raged until the 
splendour of Baghdad was gone", as Tabari and 
Mas'udi put it (see Tabari, iii, 870-879, 925-6; Mas'udi, 
vi, 454-459 ; Ibn al-Athlr, vi, 188 ff.). Chaos and trouble 
continued in Baghdad until the return of al-Ma'mun 
from Marw in 204/819. Al-Ma'mun stayed at his 
palace, enlarged it considerably to add a race-course, a 
zoo, and quarters for his devoted followers (Yakut, i, 
807). Then he gave this palace to Al-Hasan b. Sahl 
— to become al-Hasanl palace — who bequeathed it 
to his daughter Buran. Baghdad revived again under 
al-Ma'mun. Al-Mu'tasim built a palace on the eastern 
side (Ya'kubl, 225 ; cf. Khatib 47). Then he decided to 
look for a new capital for his new Turkish army. 
Baghdad was too crowded for his troops and both the 
people and the old divisions of the army were antag- 
onistic to his Turks and he feared trouble. During 
the period of Samarra (836-892) Baghdad missed the 
immediate attention of the caliphs (cf. Ya'kubl, ii, 
208; Irbilli, 161) but it remained the great centre 
of commerce and of cultural activities. 

Baghdad also suffered from Turkish disorders, when 
al-Musta c in moved there from Samarra and was be- 
sieged by the forces of al-Mu c tazz, throughout the 
year 251/865-6. At this period, Rusafa extended to Suk 
al-ThalStha' (up to modern Samaw'al St.). Al-Musta c in 
ordered the fortification of Baghdad ; the wall on the 
eastern side was extended from the Shammasiyya gate 
to Suk al-Thalatha', and on the western side from 
Katl'at Umm Dja'far around the quarters up to Sarat, 
and the famous Tahir Trench was dug around it 
(Tabari, iii, 1851). During the siege, houses, shops 
and gardens outside the eastern wall were devastated 
as a defensive measure (Tabari, iii, 15 71) and the 
eastern quarters of Shammasiyya, Rusafa and 
Mukharrim suffered heavily. 

In 278/892 al-Mu c tamid finally returned to Baghdad. 
He had asked Buran for the HasanI palace, but she 
renewed it, furnished it to suit a caliph and handed 
it to him (cf. Ibn al-Djawzi, Muntafam, v, 144). Then 
in 280/893, al-Mu'tadid rebuilt the palace, enlarged its 
grounds and added new buildings to it, and built 
prisons on its grounds (ma(dmir). He added a race- 
course and then surrounded the area with a special 
wall. It was to be Dar al-Khilafa and remained, with 
additions, the official residence (Khatib, 52; Ibn 
al-Djawzi, Munia;am, vi, 53; Mandfrib, 15; Tanflkhi, 
Nishwdr, viii, 15; Abu '1-Mahasin, iii, 85; Irbilli, 173). 

Then he laid the foundations of the Tadj palace 
on the Tigris nearby, but later saw much smoke from 
the city. He decided to build another palace, two 
miles to the north-east. He built the magnificent and 

57 



898 BAG 

lofty al-Thurayya, linked it with an underground 
passage to the Kasr (al-Hasani), surrounded it with 
gardens, and brought water to it from the Musa 
canal (see the description of Ibn al-Mu'tazz, Diwdn 
(Beirut ed. 1913), 138-9). He also ordered, in order to 
keep the air pure, that no rice and palm trees be cultiv- 
ated around Baghdad (see Ibn al-Diawzi. Muntafam, 
v, 142). The Thurayya lasted in good condition till 
469/1073-4 when it was swept by the flood and ruined 
(Ibn al-Diawzi, Mandkib, 15 ; Yakut, i, 808). The ruin 
of the Round City started now. Al-Mu'tadid ordered 
the demolition of the City wall ; but when a small 
section was pulled down, the Hashimites complained, 
as it showed 'Abbasid glory, so al-Mu'tadid stopped. 
People however gradually extended their houses at 
the expense of the wall and this led ultimately to 
the demolition of the wall and the ruin of the City 
(Tanukhl, Niskwdr, i, 74-5). 

Al-Muktafl (289-295/901-907) built the Tadj with 
halls and domes, and a quay on the Tigris. He built a 
high semi-circular dome on its grounds, so that he 
could reach its top mounted on a donkey. (Khatib, 48 ; 
Irbilll, 175, Yakut, i, 80; Ibn al-Djawzi, Muntazam, 
v, 144). In 289/901 al-Muktafi pulled down the palace 
prisons and built a Friday mosque (Djami c al-Kasr) 
which became the third Friday mosque, until the 
time of al-Muktadlr (Ibn al-DjawzI, Muntazam, vi, 3, 
Kljatlb, 62). 

Al-Muktadir (295-320/908-932) added new buildings 
to the Royal palaces and beautified them fabulously; 
he paid special attention to the zoo (hayr al-wuhush) 
(cf. Khatib, 48, 53). Khatib's detailed description 
for the year 305/917-18 is striking. The strong wall 
surrounding the palaces and the secret passage from 
the audience hall of al-Muktadir to one of the gates 
were necessary defensive measures (see Khatib, 51) 
Among the wonders was ddr al-shadiara, a tree of 
silver, in a large pond with 18 branches and multiple 
twigs, with silver or gilt birds and sparrows which 
whistled at times. On both sides of the pond were 
15 statues of mounted horsemen which moved in 
one direction as if chasing each other (54). There 
was a mercury pond 30 x 20 dhird' with four gilt 
boats and around it was a fabulous garden. The zoo 
had all sorts of animals. There was a lion-house 
with a hundred lions. There was the Firdaws palace 
with its remarkable arms. Twenty three palaces were 
counted within the Royal precincts (cf. Khatib, 
53-55; Ibn al-Djawzi, Muntazam, vi, 144). 

Baghdad reached its height during this period. 
The eastern side extended five miles (1 mile = 
1848 m.) from Shammasiyya to Dar al-Khilafa in 
the 4th/ioth century (Istakhri, 83). Tayfur (d. 893) 
reports that al-Muwaffak ordered the measurement of 
Baghdad before 279/892 ; its area was found to be 43,750 
diarib cf which 26,250 diarib were in east Baghdad and 
17,500 diarib in west Baghdad (Ibn al-Fakih, f. 44b; 
cf. Ibn Hawkal, i, 243). Another version of Tayfur 
makes eastern Baghdad at the time of al-Muwaffak 
16,750 diarib (1 diarib = 1366 sq.m.) and western 
Baghdad 27,000 diarib; this is more probable, as 
west Baghdad was still more important then. Another 
version puts the area at 53,750 diarib, of which 
26,750 diarib were east and 27,000 diarib west 
(Khatib, 74). It is more likely that the last figure 
represents the period of al-Muktadir when much 
expansion took place in east Baghdad. In all these 
reports the length of Baghdad on both sides was 
almost the same. For the first figure, considering the 
length of Baghdad as stated by Istakhri and by 
Tayfur, Baghdad was, in 279/892, about 7'/ t km. in 
length and 6 1 /, km. in width, while under al-Muktadir 



(320/932) it was about 8 1 /, km. in length and 7'/, km. 
in width. 

Baghdad's geographical position, its active people 
(cf. Djahiz, Bukhald', 39, Tanukhl, Faradj, ii, n), 
the encouragement of the state to trade (cf. Ya'kubl, 
590) and the prestige of the caliphate, soon made 
Baghdad the great centre of commerce (see Duri, 
Ta'rikh al- l Irdk aPIktifadi, M3-I57). Markets 
became an essential feature of its life, in Rusafa and 
esp. in Karkh. Each trade had its market, and 
among those were the fruit market, the cloth 
market, the cotton market, the market of booksellers 
which had more than a hundred shops, the money- 
changers' market and the 'atfdrin market in Karkh. 
Markets for foreign merchants were at Suk Bab 
al-Sham. On the eastern side, there was a variety of 
markets including Suk al-Tib for flowers, a food 
market, the goldsmiths' market, the sheep market, 
a booksellers' market, and a market for Chinese 
merchandise (Ya'kubi, Bulddn, 241, 246, 248, 254; 
Istakhri, 48, Khatib, 22, 65 ff., 36, 69; Ibn al-Djawzi, 
Mandkib, 26, 27-8; Ibn Hawkal, 242). Since the time 
of al-Mansur a muhtasib was appointed to watch over 
markets, to prevent cheating and to check on 
measures and weights (cf. Khatib, 20; Sabi, RasPU, 
114, 141-2; Mawardi, 141-2). The muhtasib also 
supervised baths and possibly watched over mosques 
(Khatib, 78). He also prevented subversive activities. 

Each market or craft had a chief appointed by the 
government. In a craft there were the £<)»»' and the 
Usiadh (cf. Ikhwan al-Safa, i, 255 ; cf. Essays of Djahiz 
(ed. Sandubl), 126). Baghdad exported cotton stuffs 
and silk textiles esp. kerchiefs, aprons, turbans, 
crystals turned on lathes, glazed-ware, and various 
oils, potions and electuaries (Hudiid aW-Alam, na; 
Mukaddasi, 128). Baghdad manufactured shirts of 
different colours, turbans of thin texture and 
celebrated towels (Dimashki, Tidi&ra, 26). Its thin 
white cotton shirts were peerless (Ibn al-Fakih, 254). 
The saklatun (silk stuff), the mulham and '■attabi 
stuffs (of silk and cotton) of Baghdad were famous 
(ffudiid al- l Alam, 38; Nuwayri, i, 369; Abu '1-KSsim, 
35; Mukaddasi, 323; Ibn Hawkal, 261). Excellent 
swords were made at Bab al-Tak ('Arib, 50). It was 
famous for its leather manufacture and for the 
manufacture of paper (cf. Ibn al-Fakih, 251). 

A great incentive to commerce and industry was 
the development of the banking system in Baghdad 
as shown in the activities of the sarrdfs and djahbadhs. 
The farrd/s had their own markets esp. in Karkh 
(cf. Pjahshiyari, 228) and primarily served the people, 
while djahbadhs served mainly the government and 
its officials. 

Baghdad grew international in population. Its 
inhabitants were a mixture of different nations, 
colours and creeds, who came for work, trade, as 
recruits for the army, slaves, and for other careers. 
It is noticeable that the populace began to play an 
important part in its life (see Ibn al-Athir, viii, 
85-6; Miskawayh, i, 74-5; Isfahan!, Ta'rikh (Berlin), 
130). On their revolt against the rise in prices in 307/ 
919. and their efforts to keep order in 201/816 during 
the confusion which followed the murder of al-Amln 
(see Tabari, iii, 1009-1010; Ibn al-Athir, vi, 228-9 and 
vii, 13-14). The activities of the 'ayydrin and 
shuffdr began at this period (see Tabari, iii, 1008, 
1586; Mas'udi, vi, 457; 461 ff.). 

It is difficult to give an estimate of the population 
of Baghdad. Estimates of mosques and baths are 
obviously exaggerated (300,000 mosques and 
60,000 baths under al-Muwaffak, 27,000 baths under 
al-Muktadir, 17,000 baths under Mu'izz al-DawIa, 



5,ooo under Adud al-Dawla, 3,000 baths under 
Baha' al-Dawla; Khatlb, 74-6; Ibn al-Fakih, f. 59b; 
Hilal al-Sabl, Rusum Dar al-Khildfa, MS. 27-30). 
Baths were counted in 383/993 and found to number 
1500. Traditions stress that each bath serves about 
200 houses (Ibn al-Fakih f. 59b, 60a; Hilal al-Sabl, 
MS. 29). If the average number in a house was five, 
then the population of Baghdad was about one 
million and a half. Al-Muktadir ordered Sinan b. 
Tha'bit to examine doctors and to give licences only 
to those qualified, and the result was that 860 
doctors were given licences (Ibn al-Athlr viii, 85 ; 
Ibn AW Usaybi c a i, 221 f., 224, 310; al-Kifti, 
194 f.). If we add doctors serving in government 
hospitals and those who did not have licences, the 
number would probably reach a thousand. The 
number of people who prayed on the last Friday of 
the month at the mosque of Mansur and that of 
Rusafa were judged by measuring the area for 
prayer to be 64,000 (Ibn al-Fakih, f. 62a; see 
also Tabarl, iii, 1730). The number of boats about 
the end of the 3rd/9th century was calculated to be 
30,000 (Ibn al-Djawzi, Mandbib, 24). From those 
figures and the area of Baghdad we can estimate 
the population of Baghdad in the 4th/ioth century 
at a million and a half. Itlidl, a contemporary, gives 
this estimate too. 

There were aristocratic quarters such as Zahir, 
Shammasiyya, al-Ma'muniyya and Darb 'Awn. 
There were poor quarters like Katl'at al-Kilab, and 
Nahr al-Dadjadj (Abu '1-Kasim al-Baghdadi, 23, 106). 
Houses were of two stories, and those of the common 
people were of one storey. Those of the rich had 
baths and were usually divided into three quarters 
surrounded by a wall — the ladies' quarters, the 
reception rooms, and the servants' quarters. Special 
attention was paid to gardens (Agjidni, ii, 73, iii, 31, 
ix, 144, v, 38, xvii, 129; Hilal al-Sabi, Rusum, 32). 
Carpets, divans, curtains and pillows were noted 
items of furniture (Abu '1-Kasim, 36). Fans and 
specially cooled houses and sarddbs were used in 
summer (see Dj. Mudawwar, Hadaral al-Isldm, 117, 
30).. Inscriptions and drawings of animals and plants 
or human faces decorated entrances (ibid., 29; Abu 
'1-Kasim, 7, 36). 

A special feature of the life of Baghdad is the vast 
number of mosques and baths as indicated. 

Baghdad was the great centre of culture. It was 
the 1 home of HanafI and Hanball schools of law. It 
was the centre of translations, in Bayt al-Hikma and 
outside, and of some scientific experimentation. Its 
mosques, especially Djami c al-Mansur, were great 
centres of learning. The large number of bookshops 
which were sometimes literary salons, indicates the 
extent of cultural activities. Its poets, historians, and 
scholars are too numerous to mention. One can refei 
to the History of Baghdad by Khatlb to see the vast 
number of scholars, in one field, connected with 
Baghdad. Not only caliphs, but ministers and 
dignitaries gave every encouragement to learning. The 
creative period of Islamic culture is associated with 
Baghdad. Later in this period, public libraries as 
centres of study and learning were founded, the most 
famous being the Dar al-'Ilm of Abu Nasr Sabur b. 
Ardashlr. When the madrasa appeared, Baghdad 
took the lead with its Nizamiyya and Mustansiriyya 
and influenced the madrasa system both in pro- 
gramme and architecture. 

Much attention was paid to hospitals, especially 
in the 3rd/9th and 4th/ioth centuries. Of these, the 
BImaristan al-Sayyida (306/918), al-BIraaristan al- 
Muktadiri (306/918) and al-BImaristan al-<AdudI (372/ 



DAD 899 

982) were famous. Ministers and others also founded 
hospitals. Doctors were at times subject to super- 
vision (see above). 

Under al-Rashid there were three bridges in 
Baghdad (Ya'kubl, ii, 510). The two famous ones were 
by Bab lOmrasan, and at Karkh (cf. Ya'kubl, ii, 542, 
Pjahshiyari, 254; Tabarl, iii, 1232). Al-Rashid built 
two bridges at Shammasiyya, but they were destroyed 
during the first siege (Ibn al-Djawzi, Mandkib, 20; 
Ibn al-Faklh f. 42a). The three bridges continued to 
the end of 3rd/gth century (Ibn al-Faklh, f. 42a). It 
seems that the northern bridge was destroyed and 
Isfakhri talks of two bridges only (Ibn al-Djawzi, 
Mandkib 20, Istakhri, 84). In 387/997 Baha 1 al-Dawla 
built a bridge at Suk al-Jhalatha' (Mishra'at al- 
Kattanin) to become the third bridge. This indicates 
a shift of emphasis from N. Baghdad to Suk 
al-Thalatha' (Ibn al-Djawzi, Muniafam, vii, 171; cf. 
Ibn al-Djawzi, Mandkib, 20; Khatlb, 71-2). 

Life in Baghdad was stable until al-Amln. The 
first siege brought out turbulent elements in the 
'dmma. Flood and fire also began to play their r61e 
from the last quarter of the 3rd/9th century. Flood 
in 270/883 ruined 7,000 houses in Karkh. In 292/904 
and 328/929 Baghdad suffered considerably from 
flood (Tabarl, iii, 2105; Ibn al-AtMr, viii, 371, 
Abu '1-Mahasin, iii, 157 and 266). In 373/983 flood 
swept beyond the Kufa gate and entered the city 
(Suli, Rddi, 278 ; Khatlb, 16). The neglect of canals, 
especially during the 'Amir al-Umard' period (324 
334/935-945), was responsible for floods and for the 
ruin of the Baduraya district (Miskawayh, ii, 1.9; 
Suli, Rddi, 106, 225, 137-8). Consequently, whereas 
scarcities and plague were rare before 320/932 they 
were recurrent after that (cf. Ibn al-AtMr, vii, 177, 
187, 338). The scarcity of 307/919 was a result of 
monopoly and was quickly overcome. Scarcities 
occurred in 323/934, 326/937, 329/94° (w'th plague), 
330/941, 331/942 (with plague), 332/943, 337/948 
and life became unbearable (Suli, Rddi, 61, 104, 236, 
251; Ibn al-Athlr, viii, 282, 3"; Ijfahanl, Ta'rikk, 
135; Abu '1-Mahasin, iii, 270, 274). 

In 308/920 and 309/921 Karkh suffered consider- 
ably from fire (Ibn al-Athlr, viii, 89, 95). In 323/934 
the fire of Karkh swept over the quarters of the 
'atfdrin (the drug sellers), the ointment sellers, jewel- 
lers and others and its traces could be seen years 
after ($011, Rddi, 68). 

The Buwayhid period was rather hard for Baghdad. 
Mu c izz al-Dawla (in 335/946) first repaired some canals 
at Baduraya and this improved living conditions 
(Miskawayh, ii, 165). A period of neglect followed and 
many canals which irrigated west Baghdad were in 
ruins. c Adud al-Dawla (367-372/977-982) had them 
cleared up, and rebuilt bridges and locks (Miskawayh, 
ii, 406; iii, 69; Ibn al-Athlr, viii, 518). Then we hear 
no more of such activities. 

Building activities were limited. In 350/961 
Mu c izz al-Dawla built a great palace at the Sham- 
masiyya gate with a large Maydan, a quay, and 
beautiful gardens. For this palace he took the seven 
iron doors of the Round City and spent about a 
million dinars (11 million dirhams). However, it 
was pulled down in 418/1027 (Tanukhl, Niskwar, 
i, 70-1; Ibn al-Athlr, viii, 397-8; ix, 256). c A$ud al- 
Dawla rebuilt the house of Sabuktakln, chamberlain 
of Mu'izz al-Dawla, at upper Mukharrim, added 
spacious gardens to it, and brought water to it by 
canals from Nahr al-Khalis at great expense. It 
became the Dar al-Imara or official residence of the 
Buwayhids (Khatlb, 58-9; Ibn al-Djawzi, Muntatam, 
vii, 77-8; cf. Miskawayh, iii, 124). 



900 BAG] 

c Adud al-Dawla found Baghdad in bad shape. He 
ordered that its houses and markets be renewed and 
spent much money in rebuilding its Friday mosques ; 
he repaired quays by the Tigris, and ordered the 
wealthy to repair their houses on the Tigris and to 
cultivate gardens in ruined places which had no 
owners. He found the central bridge narrow and 
decayed and had it renewed and broadened (Ibn 
al-Athir, viii, 558; Ibn al-Djawzi, Muntazam, vii, 
114; Miskawayh, ii, 404-406). In 372/982 he built the 
c Adudi Hospital, appointed doctors, supervisors, 
storekeepers to it, and provided it with plenty of 
medicines, potions, instruments and furniture. 
Wattfs were allotted to it for its upkeep (Ibn al- 
Diawzi. Muntazam, vii, 112-114). 

However, Baghdad declined under' the Buwayhids 
(Tanukhi, Nishwdr, i, 66 makes it in 345/956 one tenth 
of its size under al-Muktadir). The city of al-Mansur, 
was neglected and had no life then (MukaddasI, 120). 
Most of the quarters of W. Baghdad were in bad shape 
and had shrunk. The most flourishing section of 
W. Baghdad was Karkh, where the merchants had 
their places of business Thus the western side is now 
called Karkh (Ibn Hawkal, i, 241-2 ; MukaddasI, 120). 

The eastern side of the city was more flourishing, 
and dignitaries generally resided there (cf. Ibn 
Hawkal, 240). Here, the bright spots were the Bab al- 
Tak where the great market was, the Dar al-Imara at 
Mukharrim and the caliph's palaces at the southern 
end (cf. MukaddasI, 120; Ibn Hawkal, i, 240-1; 
Istakhri, 84). Odd houses reached Kalwadha. Ibn 
Hawkal saw four Friday mosques: the mosque of 
al-Mansur, the RusSfa mosque, the Baratha mosque, 
and the mosque of Dar al-Sult&n (241). Then in 379/ 
989 and 383/993, the Katl'a mosque and the Harbiyya 
mosque became Friday mosques (Ibn al-Djawzi, 
Munta?am, vii, 671, Khatib, 53-4, Ibn al Djawzl, 
Mandftib, 21-2, Ibn al-Athir, ix, 48). 

Ibn Hawkal saw two bridges, one out of order 
(i, 241). It seems there were three bridges at the time 
of Mu'izz al-Dawla (one at the Shammasiyya gate 
(near his palace), the other at Bab al-Tak and the 
third at Suk al-Thalatha'. The first was transferred 
to Bab al-Tak, making two there, then one went out 
of order (cf. Ibn al-Djawzi, Mana.li.ib, 20). 

Baghdad suffered much from the turbulence of 
the '■dmma, from sectarian differences encouraged 
by the Buwayhids, and from the 'ayydrHn. Our 
sources talk much of the ignorance of the l dmma, 
their readiness to follow any call, their good nature 
and their lawlessness (cf. Mas'udI, v, 81, 82-3, 85-7^ 
Ghazall, FaidHh, 53, Ibn al-Djawzi, Mand&b, 31-2; 
BaghdadI, Firak, 141). In 279/892 al-Mu c tadid for- 
bade ku}}d$ and fortune-tellers to sit in the streets or 
mosques, and forbade people to congregate around 
them or to indulge in controversies (Ibn al-Djawzi, 
Muntazam, v, 122, 171). Before the Buwayhids, the 
Hanballs were the source of trouble. They tried at 
times to improve morals by force (cf. Ibn al-Athir, 
viii, 229-30, 84-5, 157-8; Suli, Rddi, 198). At this 
period, sectarian troubles multiplied and caused 
much loss in property and people. The Buwayhids 
made the 10th of Muharram a day of public mourning, 
ordered the closing of markets, and encouraged the 
populace to make processions with women beating 
their faces (cf. Ibn al-Djawzi, vii, 15). On the other 
hand, the Ghadlr on 18 Dhu '1-Hidjdja was made 
a day of celebrations. This led the Sunnls to choose 
two different days, each eight days after the ones 
mentioned (cf. Ibn al-Athir, ix, no). Conflicts 
between the Shl'Is and the Sunnls became usual 
at this period, starting from 338/949 



when Karkh was pillaged (Ibn al-Djawzi, Muntazam, 
vi, 363). In 348/959. «ghts between the two groups 
led to destruction and fire at Bab al-Tak (ibid, 390). 
In 361/971 troubles in Karkh led to its burning and 
17,000 people perished, 300 shops, many houses and 
33 mosques were burnt down (Ibn al-Athir, viii, 207; 
cf. Ibn al-Djawzi, Muntazam, vii, 60). In 363/973 fire 
burnt much of Karkh (Miskawayh, ii, 327). In 381/991 
troubles broke out and fire recurred in many quarters 
(Ibn al-Athir, ix, 31). In 1016 the Nahr Tabik, Bib 
al-Kutn and much of the Bab al-Basra quarters were 
burnt (Ibn al-Athir, ix, 102; see also viii, 184, ix, 
25-6, 32. 58). In 422/1030 many markets were ruined 
during the troubles (Ibn al-Djawzi, Muntazam, viii, 
55). More damage and confusion was caused by the 
'ayydrun who were especially active throughout the 
last quarter of the 4th/ioth cent, to the end of this 
period (on their activities during the two sieges of 
Baghdad see Tabari, iii, 877, 1008-1010, 1552, 
1556-7; Mas'udi, vi, 450 ff.). Historians misunder- 
stand their activities and show them as robbers and 
thieves. But their movement is a product of their 
hard living conditions and of political chaos. Their 
rise was against the wealthy and the rulers, and this 
explains why their activities were directed primarily 
against the rich, the markets, the police and the 
dignitaries (cf. Tanukhi, Faraii, ii, 106, 107-8; Ibn 
al-Djawzi, Muntazam, vii, 174, 220; Ibn al-Athir, ix, 
115). They had moral principals such as honour, and 
help to the poor and to women, co-operation, patience 
and endurance. The Futuwwa later was somewhat 
related to their movement (cf. Ibn al-Djawzi, Talbis 
Iblis, 392; Kushayrl, Risdla, 113-4; Ibn al-Djawzi, 
Muntazam, viii, 77; Tanukhi, Faraii, "> 180). In the 
4th/ioth century they were organised, and among the 
titles of their chiefs were al-Mutakaddim, al-Ka 3 id, 
and al-Amir, and they had special ceremonies for 
initiation (see Muntazam, viii, 49, 151, 78, Miskawayh, 
ii, 306, Kushayrl, op. cil., 113; Tanukhi, Faraii, ii, 
109). However they were divided into Shl'Is and 
Sunnls (Ibn al-Djawzi, Muntazam, viii, 78-9). 

The 'ayydrun kept people in constant terror for 
life and property. They levied tolls on markets and 
roads or robbed wayfarers and constantly broke 
into houses at night. They spread havoc by sword 
and fire and burnt many quarters and markets esp. 
Bab al-Tak and Suk Yahya (in east Baghdad) and 
Karkh, as those were the quarters of the wealthy. 
People had to lock the gates of their streets, and 
merchants kept vigil at night. Disorder and pillage 
made prices high (Ibn al-Djawzi, Muntazam, vii, 151, 
220, viii, 21-2, 44, 47-50, 54-5, 60, 72-5. 79. 87, 142, 
~t6i). A preacher prayed in 421/1030 "O God! Save 
the state from the populace and the rabble" (Ibn al- 
Djawzl, Muntazam, viii, 44). BurdjumI, a notorious 
'ayydr leader, practically ruled Baghdad for four years 
422-425/1030-1033, and spread havoc (ibii, 75-6). The 
government was powerless (cf. 49) and they were left 
to levy taxes and tolls to avoid their terror {ibid., 78). 
Many people left their quarters and departed for 
safety {ibii., 142). Their terror continued till the 
advent of the Saldjuks (ibid., 161). 

In 447/1055 Tughril Bey entered Baghdad, and 
the Saldjuks reversed Buwayhid policy and en- 
couraged the Sunnls (cf. Abu '1-Mahasin, v, 59). In 
450/1058 Basastri, a rebel, seized Baghdad in the name 
of the Fatimids (cf. Abu 'l-Fida J , ii, 186; Ibn al- 
KalanisI, 87). He was defeated and killed by the 
Saldjuk forces in 451/1059 (Abu 'l-Fida J , ii, 187-8). 
During this period Baghdad assumed a shape which 
thereafter changed but little. 

In 448/1056 Tughril Bey enlarged the area of Dar 



al-lmara, pulled down many houses and shops, 
rebuilt it and surrounded it with a wall (Ibn al-DiawzI. 
viii, 169). In 450/1058 it was burnt down and rebuilt 
again (Ibn al-Djawzi, Muntazam, vii, 778). It became 
known as Dar al-Mamlaka. It was rebuilt in 509/1115, 
but was accidentally burnt in 515/1121 and anew 
palace was built (Ibn al-Djawzi, Mandfrib, 16; 
Muntazam, ix, 233). Malikshah enlarged and rebuilt 
the mosque of Mukharrim, which was near the palace, 
in 484/1091 and was hence called Djami' al-Sultan. 
It was repaired in 502/1 108 (Ibn al-Djawzi, Muntazam, 
ix, 159), and was finally completed in 524/1129 (Abu 
'1-Fida 1 , ii, 211; Ibn al-Djawzi, Mandftib; 23; Abu 
'1-Mahasin, v, 135). 

life centered in E. Baghdad around the caliphal 
palaces. Al-MuktadI (467-487/1074-1094) encouraged 
building; and the quarters around the palaces — 
such as Basaliyya, Kap'a, Halaba, Adjama, etc. 
flourished. He also built the Riverain-palace (Dar 
ShatPiyya) by the old Tadj palace (Ibn al-Djawzi, 
Muntazam, viii, 293; Ibn al-Athlr, x, 156; cf. Le 
Strange, 253; cf. Ibn al-Fuwatl, 21). In 524/1129 the 
Tadj palace was pulled down and rebuilt (Ibn al- 
Pjawzi, Muntazam, x, 14). These quarters were not 
walled and they suffered much from the flood in 1070. 
In 488/1095 al-Mustazhir built a wall around the so 
called Harim quarters. Then in 5 17/1 123 al-Mustarshid 
rebuilt it with four gates and made it 22 dhird 1 in 
width. The flood of 554/1159 surrounded the wall, 
made a breach in it, and ruined many quarters. The 
breach in it was repaired and a dyke was begun, and 
completed later around the wall (cf. Ibn al-Djawzi, 
M andfyb, 34; idem, Muntazam, x, 189-190). Other 
attempts to rebuild the wall or repair it took place 
under al-Nasir and al-Mustansir (Ibn Fuwati, 16, 
in). This wall set the limits of East Baghdad till 
the end of Ottoman period. 

Baghdad was in decline during this period and 
lived on its past glory. From the 2nd half of the 
5th/nth century, there were many changes in its 
topography. Many quarters in western Baghdad 
were ruined, and waste land replaced previous 
gardens or houses (cf. Khatib, 67 and Tanukhi, 
Nishwdr, i, 74-5). This probably explains the 
increase in the number of Friday mosques. The 
old quarters of Shammasiyya, Rusafa and Mu- 
kharrim were neglected (cf. Ibn Hawkal, 241). 

Benjamin of Tudela, who visited Baghdad around 
567/1171, talks of the greatness of the caliphal 
palace, with its wall, gardens, a zoo and a lake. He 
speaks highly of the 'AdudI Hospital with its sixty 
doctors, and a sanatorium for the mad. He found 
40,000 Jews in Baghdad with 10 schools for them 
(Itinerary, ed. and tr. A. Asher, New York, 1840-2, 
i, text 54-64, tr. 93-105 ; Arabic tr. by E. H. Haddad, 
Baghdad 1945, 131-8). Ibn Djubayr described Baghdad 
in 581/1185. He noticed the general decline, and 
criticised the arrogance of its people (218). Much of 
the eastern side was ruined, yet it had seventeen 
separate quarters, all with two, three or eight baths 
(225). The caliphal quarters, with magnificent 
palaces and gardens, occupied about a quarter or more 
of the area (226-7). This side was well populated and 
had excellent markets (228). Kurayya was the largest 
quarter, (very likely between the modern al-Ahras 
bridge and Ra's al-Karya) and near it the suburb 
(rabd) of Murabba c a (probably by Sayyid Sultan 
'All now). It had three Friday mosques, Djami c al- 
Sultan, north of the wall, and the Rusafa mosque 
about a mile north of the latter (228-9) and Pjami c 
al-Khalifa. There were about thirty madrasas 
(colleges), all housed in excellent buildings with 



plenty of wahf and endowments for their upkeep and 
for the students' expenses. The most famous madrasa 
was the Nizamiyya which was rebuilt in 1110 (229). 
He describes the wall, built by al-Mustarshid, sur- 
rounding Sharkiyya as having four gates — 1. Bab al- 
Sultan to the north (later called Bab al-Mu c azzam). 

2. Bab al-?afariyya (N.E.), later, Bab al-Wastani. 

3. Bab al-Halaba (E.), later Bab al-Tillisim. 4. Bab 
al-Basaliyya (S.), later al-Bab al-Sharki. The wall 
surrounded Sharkiyya in a semi-circle reaching the 
Tigris at both ends (229). He talks of the populous 
quarter of Abu Hanlfa, while the old quarters ol 
Rusafa, Shammasiyya. and most of Mukharrim 
were ruined (cf. 226; Ibn Hawkal, 241). In western 
Baghdad ruin spread everywhere. Of quarters here, 
he mentions Karkh as a walled city, and the Bab 
al-Basra quarter which contained the great mosque 
of al-Mansur and what remained of the old city (225). 
By the Tigris was the Shari' quarter which constituted 
with Karkh, Bab al-Basra and Kurayya the largest 
quarters of Baghdad (225). Between al-Shari c and 
the Bab al-Basra was the quarter of Suk al-Maristan, 
like a small city, with the famous 'AdudI hospital 
which was well staffed and provisioned (225-6). Of 
other quarters he noticed the Harbiyya quarter as 
the northernmost, and the 'Attabiyya, famous for its 
silk-cotton c attdbi cloth (226). Ibn Djubayr (229) talks 
of 2000 baths and eleven Friday mosques in Baghdad. 

At the time of al-Mustarshid (512-29/1118-1134) 
there was one bridge near the c Isa canal, later moved 
to Bab al-Kurayya. During the period of al-Mustadl 
(566-575/1 170-1 179) a new bridge was made at Bab 
al-Kurayya, and the old one was returned to its place 
by the 'Isa canal. Ibn Djubayr saw the first bridge 
only, but confirms that there were usually two 
bridges and Ibn al-Djawzi, who wrote just before 
the fall of Baghdad, confirms this (Ibn al-Djawzi, 
Manafrib, 20; Ibn Djubayr, 225). 

Half a century later, Yakut (623/1226) gave some 
useful data. He shows western Baghdad as a series 
of isolated quarters each with a wall and separated 
by waste land of ruins. Harbiyya, al-Harim al- 
Tahiri jn the north, Cahar Sudj with Nasiriyya, 
'Attabiyyln and Dar al-Kazz south-west, Muhawwal 
to the west, Kasr 'Isa to the east, and Kurayya and 
Karkh in the south are the noted quarters. 

In East Baghdad, life centered in the quarters 
around Harim Dar al-Khilafa which occupy about 
a third of the area enclosed in the walls. Of the large 
flourishing quarters were Bab al-'Azadj with its 
markets, al-Ma'muniyya next to it, Suk al-Thalatha 1 , 
Nahr al-Mu c alla and Kurayya (Yakut, i, 232, 441, 
444, 534, 655, ii, 88, 167, 234, 459, 512, 783, 9'7, "i, 
193-4, 197, 231, 279, 291, 489, iv, 117, 252. 255, 385, 
432, 457, 713-4, 786, 841, 845). 

Friday mosques increased in Gharbiyya (W. 
Baghdad) at this period, indicating the semi-in- 
dependent status of quarters. Ibn al-Djawzi mentions 
six between 530/1135 and 572/1176 in addition 
to Djami c al-Mansur (Ibn al-Djawzi, Matidkib, 23, 
see also Ibn al-Fuwati). The mosques of Karkh were 
repaired by Mustansir (Ibn al-Fuwatl, 15), and 
Djami' Jl-Kasr was renewed in 475/1082, and again by 
al-Mustansir in 673/1235 (Ibn al-Djawzi, Muntazam, 
ix, 3; Le Strange, 269). The Kamariyya mosque (still 
present) was built in 626/1228 (Ibn al-Fuwati, 4). 

The strength of Sufism is shown by the large 
number of Ribd(s [q.v.] built during the last century 
of the caliphate. They were built by the caliphs 
or their relatives (cf. Ibn al-Fuwati, 2, 74, 75, 79, 
80, 87, 117, 261, Ibn al-Djawzi, Muntazam, ix, 11, 
Ibn al-Athlr, xi, 77, 33, xii, 27, 67-8). 



Much attention was given to the founding of 
madrasas (colleges). This movement could be 
explained initially by the religious revival among 
§h,afi1s, and by political and administrative needs; 
but it was continued as a cultural movement. Ibn 
Djubayr saw thirty madrasas in east Baghdad (Ibn 
Djubavr. 229; see also M. Djawad, in Review of the 
Higher Teachers' College, Baghdad, vol. v, no ff., vol. 
vi, 86 ff.). Other madrasas were founded after Ibn 
Ejubayr's visit (cf. Ibn al-Fuwatf, 24-5, 53, 128, 308, 
Ibn al-Athlr, xi, 211). The most famous were the 
Nizamiyya founded in 459/1066, the madrasa of Abu 
Hanlfa founded in the same year (Ibn al-Djawzi, 
Muntafam, viii, 245-6, still existing as Kulliyat al- 
Shari'a) and al-Mustansiriyya, founded by al-Mustan- 
sir in 631/1233 and continued till the 17th century. All 
those madrasas specialised in one of the four schools 
of law, except the Mustansiriyya and the Bashiriyya 
(founded in 653/1255) which taught the fikh of the 
four schools (see Ibn al-Fuwafcl, 308; Ibn al-Diawzi. 
Muntazam, viii, 245-6, 246-7; Ibn al-Athlr, x, 38; Ibn 
al-Fuwatl 53-4, 58-9; cf. c Awwad in Sumer, i, 1945). 
There was a maktab (school) for orphans established 
by Shams al-Mulk (son of Nizam al-Mulk) (IsfahanI, 
Seljuks, 124-5). In 606/1209 guest-houses (ddr diydfa) 
were built in all quarters of Baghdad to serve the poor 
in Ramadan (Ibn al-Athlr, xii, 286 ; other references, 
ibid. 184; Ibn al-Fuwatl, 94). 

Baghdad suffered at this period from fire, flood and 
dissension. In 449/1057 Karkh and Bab Muhawwal 
quarters and most of the markets of Karkh were burnt 
down. In 451/1059 much of Karkh and old Baghdad 
was burnt (Ibn al-Djawzi, Muntazam, viii, 81 ; Ibn al- 
Athir, x, 5). The quarters and markets near the 
Mu'alla canal and Dar al-Khalafa were burnt more 
than once (Ibn al-Athlr, x, 35, 67, 318; Ibn al- 
Diawzl. Muntazam, viii, 241, ix, 61, 148, 184, x, 35). In 
551/1156 fire spread from neighbouring quarters to 
Dar al-Khilafa and neighbouring suks (Ibn al- 
Athlr, xi, 143; there were other fires in those quarters 
in 560/1164, 569/1173, 583/1187 Ibn al-Athlr, xi, 270, 
372; Muntazam, x, 212). 

The 'ayydrun were fairly active in Saldjuk days. 
They pillaged shops and houses and caused insecurity 
(see between 449/1057 and 537/1142 Ibn al-Djawzi, 
Muntazam, viii, 139, 234; Ibn al-Athlr, x, 204,383, 
xi, 29, 26, 59, 63). 

The troubles of the 'dmma and their sectarian 
fights (Hanballs against Shafi'Is and Sunnls against 
§hi c is) continued to give rise to much bloodshed and 
destruction. Ibn al-Athlr reports a temporary con- 
ciliation in 502/1108 and adds "Evil always came 
from them (i.e., the 'dmma)" (x, 329; see also x, 80, 
259, 104, 108-109, 112, "7-8). This was short-lived, 
and quarrels and fights continued and became 
terrible under al-Musta'sim (Ibn al-Athlr, x, 360, xi, 
27i> 344, xii, 133, 216). In 640/1242 fights took place 
between the Ma'mOniyya and Bab al-Azadj quarters 
which involved the Nizam iyya market, and between 
Mukhtara and Suk al-Sultan quarters, and between 
Katufta and Kurayya (in W. Baghdad) quarters; 
many were killed and shops pillaged (Ibn al-Fuwatl, 
175-7; cf. Ibn Abi '1-Hadid, ii, 554). By 653/1255 
things had deteriorated considerably. Fights took 
place between Rusafa (SunnI) and Khudayriyyin 
(Shi'i), and soon people of Bab al-Basra supported 
Rusafa while Karkh supported the others (Ibn 
al-Fuwatl, 298-9). These quarrels also indicate the 
spirit of competition between quarters which 
increased by the lack of government control. When 
fights renewed between Karkh and Bab al-Basra, 
the soldiers sent to stop it, pillaged Karkh and that 



>e (ibid., 267-277)-The climax 
came in 654/1256, when someone was killed by the 
people of Karkh, and the soldiers, sent to keep order, 
were joined by crowds of the '■dmma and pillaged 
Karkh, burnt several places in it, killed many and 
took away women. Reprisal followed, but the 
tragedy was not forgotten (ibid., 314-315). The 
'ayydrUn were very active at this time. They pillaged 
shops, robbed houses at night and even the Mustan- 
siriyya was twice robbed (Ibn al-Fuwatl, 378, 254, 
260, 262). 

The government was too weak to keep order. 
Floods recurred, indicating the weakness of govern- 
ment and the neglect of irrigation. In 641/1243 floods 
reached the Nizamiyya and its neighbourhood and 
ruined some quarters. In 646/1248 floods surrounded 
east Baghdad, destroyed a part of the wall, and 
reached the quarters of Harim. It also flooded Rusafa 
and many of its houses fell. West Baghdad was sub- 
merged, and most houses fell except part of Bab 
al-Basra and Karkh. Houses on the river collapsed. 
Floods entered Baghdad in 651/1253, and again in 
653/1255 when a great number of houses collapsed and 
cultivation was damaged. Thr worst flood was in 654/ 
1256 when both sides were surrounded by water and 
the flood even entered the markets of east Baghdad, 
Dar al-Khilafa -and the Nizamiyya (Ibn al-Fuwa^I, 
186-7, 267, 229-233, 277, 304, 317-19). Thus nature 
and man joined hands to eclipse Baghdad. 

Two years later, Baghdad was invaded by the 
Mongols. On 4 Safar 656/10 Feb. 1258 the Caliph 
al-Musta c sim made an unconditional surrender. Its 
people were put indiscriminately to the sword, for 
over a week. Large numbers of the country people 
who flocked to Baghdad before the siege shared its 
tragic fate. Estimates of the number killed vary 
between 800,000 and two million, the estimate 
mounting with the lapse of time (Fakhri, 130; Ibn 
al-Fuwati, 281 ; Dhahabi, Duwal, ii, 121 ; Ibn Kathlr, 
Biddya, xiii, 202). The Chinese traveller Ch'ang Te 
states (1259) that several tens of thousands were 
killed; his information is obviously from Mongol 
sources (Bretschneider, Medieval Researches, i, 138 9). 
It is thus difficult to give any figure, but it probably 
exceeded a hundred thousand. Many quarters were 
ruined by siege, looting or fire, and the mosque of 
the caliphs, and the shrine of Kazimayn were burnt 
down (Ibn al-Fuwati, 327-330; Ibn al-'Ibri, 27). 
Baghdad was however spared from complete 
devastation, and the fatwd exacted from the 'ulamd y 
that a just kdfir is better than an unjust imam 
probably helped. Before leaving, Hiilegvi ordered the 
restoration of some public buildings. The supervisor of 
wakf rebuilt the Djami' al-Khulafa' and saw to it that 
schools and the ribdts were reopened (Ibn al- c lbrl, 
475; Ibn al-Fuwatl, 337). Culture suffered much, but 
it was not uprooted. Baghdad became a provincial 
centre in all respects. 

Until 740/1339-40 Baghdad remained under the 
Ilkhanids and was administered by a governor with a 
SAiAna and a military garrison (cf. Ibn al-Fuwatl, 331). 

The Mongols registered the population of Baghdad 
in tens, hundreds, and thousands for the sake of 
taxation. A poll-tax was imposed on all except the 
aged and children; it continued to be levied for 
about two years (Ibn al-Fuwafcl, 339; cf. DiuwavnI. 
(trans. Boyle), i, 34). Baghdad began to revive 
gradually, as its administration was chiefly entrusted 
to Persians; much of this is due to the policy of 
c Ata' Malik al-Djuwaynl, governor for about 23 
years (657/1258-681/1282). Under him, the minaret 
of Djami c al-Khulafa' and the Nizamiyya market 



were rebuilt, and the Mustansiriyya was repaired 
and a new water system added (Ibn al-Fuwatl, 371). 
The mosques of Shaykh Ma'ruf and Kamariyya 
were repaired (ibid., 408; c AzzawI, Ta'rikk al- ( Irdk, 
i, 267, 296). 

Some of the old schools resumed work, especially 
the Nizaroiyya and Mustansiriyya, the Bashiriyya, 
the Tatashiyya and Madrasat al-Ashab (cf. Ibn 
Battuta, Cairo 1918, i, 140-1 ; Ibn al-Fuwati, 182, 385, 
396; c AzzawI, Ta'rikk, i, 318). Djuwaynl's wife 
founded the 'Ismatiyya school for the four schools 
of law, and a ribdf near it (Ibn al-Fuwatl, 377). The 
Ilkhan Takudar (881/1281) sent a message to 
Baghdad asking for the return of endowments to 
schools, and mosques, as under the 'Abbasids, 
probably a pious wish (Karmall, al-Fawz, 12). The 
Ilkhans' policy led to outbreaks against non-Muslims. 
They patronised Christians, and exempted them 
from the djizya. They rebuilt churches and opened 
schools. This led to an outbreak against them 
in 665/1263. The Jews rose to prominence under 
Arghun (683-690/1284-1291) through Sa<d al-Dawla 
the Jewish finance minister, who appointed his 
brother governor of Baghdad. In 690/1291 Sa'd al- 
Dawla was killed and the populace in Baghdad fell 
on the Jews. Under Ghazan, non-Muslims suffered 
through dress distinctions, the reimposition of the 
poll-tax and the attitude of the mob, and many 
adopted Islam (cf. c Amr Ibn MattI, Kitdb al-Madjdal, 
120-122, 125; Ibn al-Fuwati, 354; 465-6; 483; Wassaf, 
ii, 238; Karmali, op. cit., 14-15, 21; 'Azzawl, i, 349, 
513). Uldjaytu stirred up trouble when he vascillated 
between Shi'ism and Sunnism. The Ilkhans tried to 
impose the Cao (paper money) [q.v.], but it was very 
unpopular in Baghdad and was finally abolished by 
Ghazan in 697/1297 (Ibn al-Fuwati, 477, 492). 

During this period we have the accounts of three 
geographers: Ibn *Abd al-Hakk (c. 700/1300), Ibn 
Battuta (727/1327 and Mustawfl (740/1339)- 

The author of the Mardsid states that nothing 
remained of western Baghdad except isolated 
quarters, the most populated of which was Karkh 
(201). He mentions the Kurayya quarter, the 
populous Ramliyya quarter, the Dar al-Rakik 
market, Dar al-Kazz standing alone where paper was 
manufactured, and the Bab Muhawwal quarter which 
stood as an isolated village (Mardsid (Cairo ed.), 
146, 201, 507, 773, 1088). He refers to the <Adudi 
hospital, and indicates that nothing remained of 
al-Harim al-Tahiri, Nahr Tabik and KaU'a quarters, 
while Tutha quarter looked like an isolated village 
(Mardfid, 280, 837, 397, 1403)- Of East Baghdad, the 
Mardsid states "when the Tartars came, most of it 
was ruined. They killed its people and few were left. 
Then people from outside came" (201). He states 
that the Halaba, Kurayya and KaM'at al- c Adjam 
were populous quarters (Mardsid, 417, 1088, 1110). 

Ibn Battuta follows very closely after Ibn 
Djubayr. However he mentions two bridges in 
Baghdad and gives new details about the excellent 
baths in the city (Cairo ed. 1908, i, 140-1). He states 
that mosques and schools were very numerous, but 
they were in ruins (ibid, i, 140). 

Mustawfl's data is significant. His description of 
the wall of East Baghdad agrees with that of Ibn 
Djubayr. It had four gates, and encloses the city 
in a semi-circle with a circuit of 18,000 paces. 
Western Baghdad, he calls Karkh; it was, surrounded 
by a wall with a circuit of 12,000 paces. He found life 
easy in Baghdad and people pleasant, but their 
Arabic was corrupt. He found Shafi'is and Hanbalis 
dominant in Baghdad, though adherents of other 



903 

were numerous. Madrasas and ribd(s were 
but he noted that Nizamiyya was "the 
greatest of them all" while Mustansiriyya was the 
most beautiful building, (Nuzha, 40-42). It is possible 
that the Sitt Zubayda tomb belongs to this period, 
and the lady concerned could be Zubayda, the grand- 
daughter of the eldest son of Musta«sim ( c Azz5wI, 
i, 406). 

In 740/1339 Hasan Buzurg established himself 
in Baghdad and founded the Djalayirid dynasty 
which lasted till 813/1410. The Mardjan mosque 
dates from this period. From its inscriptions, we 
know that Mardjan, a captain of Uways, started 
building the madrasa with its mosque under Hasan 
Buzurg and finished the building under Uways in 
758/1357. This madrasa was for the Shafils and 
Hanafls (text of inscriptions in AlusI, Masdapd, 
45 ff.; Massignon, Mission, ii, 1 ff.). Only the gate 
of the madrasa — or mosque later — remains now. 

Beyond this we hear of flood, siege or troubles 
which caused much damage and loss. 

Baghdad was twice taken by Tlmur, first in 795/ 
1 392-1 393 when the town escaped with little damage, 
and second in 803/1401 when its population was 
indiscriminately put to the sword, and many of its 
public ( c Abbasid) buildings and quarters were 
ruined. This was the devastating blow to culture in 
Baghdad. In 807/1405 Ahmad the Djalayir returned 
to Baghdad, restored the walls destroyed by 
Timur, and tried to repair some of the buildings and 
markets, but his time was short. 

In 813/1410 Baghdad passed to the Kara Koyunlu 
Turkomans who held it till 872/1467-8, to be followed 
by Ak Koyunlu Turkomans. Baghdad sank still 
deeper under the Turkomans and suffered conside- 
rably from misrule. Many of its inhabitants left the 
city, and the ruin of the irrigation system accounts 
for the recurrence of flood, with consequent devasta- 
tion. Under the year 841/1437 Makrlzi says "Baghdad 
is ruined, there is no mosque or congregation, and no 
market. Its canals are mostly dry and it could 
hardly be called a city" (MakrizI, Suluk, iii, 100. 
see 'Azzawi, iii, 79 ff.; Karmall, 61 ff.). In addition, 
tribalism spread and tribal confederations begin to 
play their turbulent rdle in the life of the country. 

In 914/1507-8 Baghdad came under Shah Isma'fl 
Safawi, and a period of Perso-Ottoman conflict for 
the possession of Baghdad opened, typified in the 
Baghdad! song "between the Persians and the Rum, 
what woe befell us". On Shah Isma'il's orders, many 
Sunni shrines, esp. those of Abu Hanifa and c Abd al- 
Kadir Gilani, were ruined, and many of the leading 
Sunnis were killed. However, he started building a 
shrine for Musa al-Kazim. He appointed a governor 
with the title Khali/at al-Kk*ty°? ('Azzawi, iii, 336- 
343). Many Persian merchants came to Baghdad and 
increased commercial activity. After a brief space in 
which the Kurdish chief Dhu '1-Fakar seized Baghdad 
and announced his allegiance to Sultan Sulayman 
KanunI, Shah Tahmasp seized the town again in 936/ 
1530. In 941/1534 Sultan Sulayman entered Baghdad. 
He built a dome on the tomb of Abu Hauifa, with 
the mosque and madrasa, rebuilt the mosque, tekke 
and tomb of Gilani and had guest-houses for the 
poor at both mosques. He also had the shrine and 
mosque of Kazimavn, started by §hah Isma'il, 
completed (Sulaymdn-ndma, 119, Ewliya Celebi, iv, 
426; Alusl, Masddiid, 117; 'Azzawi, iv, 28 ff.). He 
ordered landed property to be surveyed and registered, 
and organised the administration of the province 
(Ewliya Celebi, iv, 41). The administration was 
entrusted to a governor (pasha), defterddr (for 



904 BAGI 

finances), and a Kadi. A garrison was stationed in 
Baghdad with the janissaries as its backbone. 

Few buildings were erected during the following 
period. In 978/1570 Murad Pasha built the Muradiyya 
mosque in the Maydan quarter. The Gilani mosque 
was rebuilt. Cigalazade built a famous inn, a 
coffee house and a market. He also built Diami' 
al-Sagha or Djami c al-Khaffafin, and rebuilt the 
Mawlawl tekke, known now as the Asafiyya mosque 
('Azzawl, iv, 116, 128-132; cf. Alusi, Masddjid, 30-1, 
62-4). Hasan Pasha built the mosque known after 
him, also called Djami c al-WazIr (Gulshan-i Khulafd 
66; Ewliya Celebi, iv, 419). He also made a rampart 
and a ditch around Karkh to protect it from Bedouins. 
Europeans travellers begin to visit Baghdad at 
this period. They speak of it as a metting place of 
caravans, and a great centre of commerce for 
Arabia, Persia and Turkey. Caesar Frederigo (1563) 
saw many foreign merchants in the city. Sir Anthony 
Sherley (1590) saw "excellent goods of all sorts and 
very cheap" (Purchas, viii, 384). It had a bridge of 
boats tied by a great chain of iron and when boats 
passed up or down the river, some of the boats of the 
bridge were removed until the traffic had passed 
(Ralph Fitch in 1583, Hakluyt, iii, 282-3). Rauwolf 
(1574) saw streets narrow and houses miserably built. 
Many buildings were in ruins. Some public buildings 
like the Pasha's residence and the great bazaar or 
exchange were good. Its baths were of low quality. 
The eastern side was well fortified with a wall, and a 
ditch, while the western side was open and looks like 
a great village (Rauwolf, Travels, in Ray's col- 
lection, London 1605, i, 179 ff.). The city walls were 
built of bricks and had subsidiary works including 
four bastions on which heavy bronze guns in good 
conditions were mounted (Texeira, Travels, Hakluyt 
ed., 31). The circuit of the walls is given as two to 
three miles. John Eldred (1583) noticed that three 
languages were spoken in Baghdad, Arabic, Turkish, 
and Persian (Hakluyt, iii, 325). Ralph Fitch (1583) 
found Baghdad not very great but very populous. 
The Portuguese traveller Pedro Texeira (1604) 
estimated houses in east Baghdad at twenty to 
thirty thousand. There was a mint in Baghdad in 
which gold, silver and copper coins were struck. 
There was a school of archery and another of 
musketry maintained by the government (Travels, 
Hakluyt ed., 31). 

Following the insurrection of Bakr the Subashi, 
Shah 'Abbas I conquered Baghdad in 1032/1623. 
School buildings and Sunnl shrines, including the 
mosques of Gilani and Abu Hanifa, suffered destruct- 
ion. Thousands were killed or sold as slaves and 
others were tortured (Katib Celebi, Fadhlaka, ii, 50; 
Khuldsat al-Athdr, i, 383; c Azzawi, iv, 178-182). In 
this period the Saray (government house) was built 
by Safi Kuli Khan, the Persian governor. Baghdad 
was regained by the Ottomans in 1048/1638 under 
the personal command of Sultan Murad IV. He had 
the shrines, especially the tombs of Abu Hanifa and 
GilanI, rebuilt. On his departure, the Bab al-Tillisim 
was walled up and continued thus until it was blown 
up by the retreating Turks in 1917. His Grand Vizier 
put the Kal'a (castle) in good repair. 

Further information comes from travellers of 
this period, like Tavernier (1652), Ewliya Celebi 
(1655) and Thevenot (1663). The wall around east 
Baghdad was almost circular in shape. It was 60 
dhird c high and 10-15 dhird' broad, with holes for 
guns. It had large towers at the principal angles, of 
which four were famous at this period — and smaller 
towers at short distances from each other. On the 



large towers brass cannons were planted. The wall 
:he river side for proper defence 
of Nasuh al-Silahi drawn for Sultan 
Sulayman in 1537 already shows this wall. A. Sousa, 
Atlas of Baghdad, 12). There were 118 towers in the 
wall on the land side and 45 on the river side (HadjdjI 
Khalifa (1657), Qiihdn-niimd, 457 ft.; Ker Porter 
(1819) reports 117 towers of which 17 were large 
(Travels, 265); cf. Buckingham, Travels, 372). The 
wall had three gates on the land side, (as the Tillisim 
gate was walled up) : Bab al-Imam al-A c zam in the 
north at 700 dhird c from the Tigris, Karanllk Kapu 
(Bab Kalwajha) or the dark gate in the south at 
50 d/tird* from the Tigris, and Ak Kapu (al-Bab al- 
Wastanl) or the white gate in the east. The fourth gate 
was at the bridge. Ewliya Celebi measured the length 
of the wall and found it 28,800 paces in slow walking 
or seven miles (1 mile = 4,000 paces), while HadjdjI 
Khalifa makes its length 12,200 dhird c or two miles 
(Niebuhr and Olivier consider the length of East 
Baghdad two miles). Wellsted thought the circuit of 
the walls 7 miles. Felix Jones, who surveyed Baghdad 
in 1853, gives the circuit of the walls of East Baghdad 
including the river face as 10,600 yards or about 
6 miles (Olivier, Voyage, ii, 379-80; Wellsted, 
Travels, i, 255; Felix Jones, 318; cf. Rousseau, 
5 and Tavernier, 84). 

The wall was surrounded by a ditch, sixty dhird' 
in width, with water drawn from the Tigris. At the 
north-western corner of the wall stood the Kal'a 
(inner castle), from the Bab al-Mu c azzam to the 
Tigris; it was encompassed by a single wall with 
little towers upon which cannon were planted. 
Barracks, stores of ammunition and provisions as 
well as the treasury and the mint were there. The 
Saray, where the Pasha resided, stood below the 
castle; it had spacious gardens and fair kiosks. On 
the other end of the bridge at Karkh stood a castle 
called Kushlar Kal'asI or Birds' castle, with a gate 
on the bridge (Ewliya Celebi, iv, 416; HadjdjI 
Khalifa, Diihdn-Niimd, 457-50; Tavernier, 64; 
Thevenot, Voyage, ii, 211). Ewliya Celebi refers to 
the numerous mosques of Baghdad and mentions 
nine important mosques. Of the schools, two were the 
largest, the Mardjaniyya and Madrasat al-Khulafa' 
(Mustansiriyya). Of the many inns two were good. 
He mentions eight churches and three synagogues, 
and gives exaggerated figures for tekkes (700) and 
hammdms (500). The bridge of boats had 37-4° boats 
according to the height of the river, and some boats 
in the middle could be removed either for safety at 
night, or for river traffic, or as a military precaution. 
The main languages of the city were Arabic, Turkish 
and Persian. Baghdad had the best carrier-pigeons. 

However Baghdad was still in decline; its popu- 
lation was at the low figure of 15,000 (Tavernier, 
Travels, London 1678, 85-6; Ewliya Celebi, Siydhat, 
iv, 420 ff.; Thevenot, Voyage, ii, 211). 

Baghdad was governed by 24 pashas between 
1048/1638-1116/1704 and there was no room for real 
improvement. The pashas were semi-autonomous, 
and the power of the janissaries was great. The 
power of the tribes rose and gradually became a 
threat to the life of the city. 

Little was done beyond repairs to the city walls or 
mosques. Kiiciik Hasan Pasha (1642) built three 
towers near Burdj al- c Adjam. Khassaki Muhammad 
Pasha rebuilt Tabiyat al-Fatih and repaired the walls 
after the flood of 1657. Ahmad Bushnak repaired 
the towers especially Burdj al-Djawish (Ca'ush) and 
built Burdj al-Sabuni (1687). Mosques received some 
Deli Husayn Pasha (1644) rebuilt the 



Kamariyya mosque. KhassakI Muhammad (1657) 
built the KhassakI mosque at Ra's al-Karya. 
Silihdar Husayn Pasha (1671) rebuilt al-Fadl mosque 
which became known as Djami' Husayn Pasha and 
surrounded the shrine of 'Umar Suhrawardi by a 
wall and brought water to it by a canal. 'Abd al- 
Rabman Pasha (1674) repaired the Djami 1 Shaykh 
Ma'ruf and completed the dam started by his 
predecessor to protect A'zamiyya from flood. 
Kaplan Mustafa (1676) rebuilt Djami' al-Shaykb al- 
Kuduri which became known as Djami' al-Kapla- 
niyya. 'Umar Pasha (1678) repaired the mosque of 
Abu Hanifa and allotted new wakfs to it. Ibrahim 
Pasha (1681) renewed Djami' Sayyid Sultan C A1I, 
and Djami' al-Saray. Isma'il Pasha (1698) rebuilt 
Diami' al-Khaffafin ('Azzawl, iv, 27, 64, 109, 116, 
143, Gulshan-i Khulaid. 102, 103, 105, 106, Alflsi, 
Masddjid, 37, 57-8). Ahmad Bushnak (1678) built 
the famous Khan Ban! Sa'd, while Silihdar Husayn 
Pasha built a new bazaar near the Mustansiriyya. 
The beginning of the 18th century saw the eyaXet 
of Baghdad terribly disorganised, the janissaries 
masters of the city, the Arab tribes holding the 
surrounding country, and peace or security for trade 
non-existent. The appointment of Hasan Pasha in 
1704, followed by his son Ahmad, inaugurated a new 
period for Baghdad. They introduced the Mamluks 
(KSlemen) to check the janissaries and laid the 
foundation for Mamluk supremacy which lasted 
till 1831. The janissaries and Arab tribes were 
controlled, order was restored and the Persian 
threat averted. Hasan Pasha rebuilt the Saray 
Mosque (Djadld Hasan Pasha). He abolished taxes 
on firewood and on foodstuffs, and relieved 
quarters from exactions following murders (Gazetteer 
of the Persian Gulf, vol. i, pt. I, 1 193-4; Sulayman 
Fa'ik, HurAb al-Irdniyyin, MS. f. 18-19; idem, 
Td'rikh al-Mamdlik, MS. f. 4; Hadikat al-Zawrd' 
(abridged), MS. 9; Gulshan-i Khulafa, 225). Ahmad 
Pasha continued on the lines of his father and enhanced 
greatly the prestige of Baghdad. Nadir Shah besieged 
Baghdad twice, in 1737 and 1743, and though the 
city suffered much in the first siege, Ahmad Pasha 
held out and saved the city. When Ahmad Pasha 
died in 1747, Constantinople tried to reimpose its 
authority on Baghdad but failed, because of Mamluk 
opposition. In 1749 Sulayman Pasha was the first 
Mamluk to be made governor of Baghdad. He was 
the real founder of Mamluk rule in 'Irak. Henceforth 
the sultan had to recognise their position and 
generally to confirm their nominee to the gover- 
norship. Hasan Pasha, who was brought up at the 
Ottoman court (slave household), wanted to follow 
its example ; he established houses and initiated the 
training of Circassian and Georgian Mamluks and 
sons of local magnates in them. Sulayman now 
expanded this and there were always about 200 
receiving training in the school to prepare officers 
and officials. They are given a literary education 
and training in the use of arms, the art of chivalry 
and sports, and finally some palace education, to 
create an elite for government (Sulayman Fa'ik, 
Ta'rlkh al-Mamdlik; Dawhat al-Wuzard', 8). A 
governing class was formed, trained, energetic, and 
compact. But their weakness came from jealousies 
and intrigues. Sulayman Pasha subdued the tribes 
and assured order and security, and encouraged trade. 
'All Pasha followed in 1 175/1762 and 'Umar Pasha in 
1177/1764 (Ta'rikh-i Diewdet*,i, 339-40). In 1766 the 
establishment of a British residency in Baghdad 
was sanctioned by Bombay (Gazetteer, i, 1225). In 
ir86/i772 a terrible plague befell Baghdad and 



DAD 905 

lasted six months; thousands perished, others- 
migrated, and commercial activities came to a 
standstill (Gazetteer, i, 324). 

Security made Baghdad a great commercial 
centre. An eye-witness wrote in 1774, "this is the- 
grand mart for the produce of India and Persia, 
Constantinople, Aleppo and Damascus; in short it 
is the grand oriental depository" (Gazetteer, i, 1243). 

Dissension and weak leadership among the Mamluks. 
led to a period of troubles, of tribal chaos, and the- 
Persian conquest of Basra. It ended when Sulayman 
Pasha the Great became governor (1193/1779) and 
combined Baghdad, Shahrizur and Basra. The tribes, 
were checked, peace was restored and Mamluk power 
revived (Ta'rikh-i Djewdet', ii, 146, 157, 158; Sufi, 
Ta'rikh al-Mamdlik, 19 ff., 54 ff., S. Fa'ik, Ta'rikh 
al-Mamdlik, f. 16-7). 

Sulayman Pasha repaired the walls of east 
Baghdad, and built a wall around Karkh and 
surrounded it with a ditch. He rebuilt the Saray. 
He also built the Sulaymaniyya school and renewed 
the Kaplaniyya, Fadl and Khulafa 5 mosques. 
In addition, he built the Suk al-Sarradjin. His kahya 
started building the Ahmadiyya mosque (Djami' 
al-Maydan) to be completed by the kahya's brother 
('Uthman b. Sanad, (abridg. ed.), 70-73, 76-7). His 
last year (1802) saw a plague in Baghdad (Gazetteer, 
i, 1285; Yasin Efendi al-'Umari, Ghard'ib al-Athar, 
64). Kiicuk Sulayman (1808) abolished execution 
except when religious courts decided it, and forbade 
confiscations and cancelled dues to courts, and 
allotted salaries to judges (S. Fa'ik, Ta'rikh 
al-Mamdlik, f. 16; Dawhat al-Wuzard', 250). 

Dawud Pasha came (1816) after a troubled period. 
He controlled the tribes and restored order and 
security. He cleared up some irrigation canals, 
established cloth and arms factories, and encouraged 
local industry. He built three large mosques, the 
most important being the Haydar-Khana mosque. 
He founded three madrasas. He also built a suk by 
the bridge. He organised an army of about 20,000 
and had a French officer to train it. His energetic 
and intelligent administration brought prosperity to 
the city. However, he had to impose heavy taxes in 
Baghdad. Dawud's fall and the end of the Mamluks. 
came about as a result of Mahmud II's centralising 
and reforming policy, aided by a terrible plague, 
scarcity, and flood, which affected most of the city 
population (1247/1831) (Hadikat al-Zawrd' (abridg. 
ed.), MS. f. 43-44, 53, 55-56; A. R. Suwaydi, Nuzhat 
al-Udabd', MS. f. 41-42; Mir'dt alZawrd', 59; 
S. Fa'ik, Ta'rikh al-Mamdlik, MS. f. 39-52 ; Gazetteer, 
i, 1316; Frazer, Travels, i, 224-5; Handbook of 
Mesopotamia, i, 80-1). 

The administrative system of Baghdad was copied 
on a small scale from that of Constantinople. The 
Pasha held supreme military and administrative 
power. As the head of the administration was the 
katkhudd (or kahya) who was like a minister. He 
was assisted by the defterddr, who was director of 
finances, and by the diwdn efendisi or chief of 
the chancellery. There was the commander of the 
palace guards and the agha of the janissaries. 
There was the kadi as the head of the judiciary. The 
Pasha called the diwdn which included the kahya, 
the defterddr, the kadi, the commander and other 
important personages, to discuss important issues. 
In the palace there were houses, with teachers 
and instructors (Idldt) to educate the Mamluks 
(Djewdet, ii, 287, iii, 204, 'Uthman b. Sanad, 31-2, 
56, 39; Rousseau, 25 ff.). The Mamluk army was of 
12,500 and in case of need it could be raised to 



■906 BAG1 

30,000 by local levies and contingents from other 
parts of the wildyat (S. Fa'ik, Mamdlik, f. 51-2). 

European travellers of this period give some data 
on Baghdad. Some notice that the walls were con- 
structed and repaired at many different times, the 
old portions being the best (Buckingham, Travels 
(1827), 332; see Felix Jones, Memoir, 309). The 
•enclosed area within the walls (east) according to 
Felix Jones' measurement was 591 acres (cf. Dr. 
Ives, Journey, London 1778, 20; Rousseau, De- 
scription, 5). The wall on the river seems to have 
been neglected and houses were built on the bank 
(Olivier, Voyage (1804), ii, 379). A large part of the 
city within the walls, particularly in the eastern side, 
was not occupied. The section near the river was 
well populated but even there gardens abounded so 
that it appeared like a city arising from amid a grove 
of palms (Niebuhr, ii, 239; Buckingham, 373, 
Wellsted, Travels (1840), i, 255). The Saray was 
spacious, enclosing beautiful gardens, and was 
richly furnished (Rousseau, 6; Ker Porter, 263). 

The western side Karkh, was like a suburb 
with numerous gardens. It was defenceless at first, 
(Rousseau, 5; Ives, 28), until Sulayman Pasha the 
Great built its wall. It had four gates — Bab al-Kazim 
(N.), Bab al-Shaykh Ma'riif (W.), Bab al-Hilla 
(S.W.), and Bab al-Kraimat (S.). The walls were 
5,800 yards long, enclosing an area of 246 acres 
(F. Jones, 309). (Ker Porter (1818) found it well 
furnished with shops along numerous and extensive 
streets (Ker Porter, ii, 255; al-Munshi* al-Baghdadl, 
Rihla, 31). Moreover it was not so populated as the 
eastern side, and generally inhabited by the common 
people (Niebuhr, ii, 244; Rousseau, 4). The bridge 
of boats was 6 ft. wide and people use it or use 
"guffas" to cross the river (Ker Porter, ii, 255; 
Niebuhr, ii, 243; al-Munshl' al-Baghdadl, 243)- 

The population gradually increased in this period. 
Rousseau (c. 1800) estimates it at 45,000, Olivier at 
80,000, while the inhabitants put the figure at 
100,000 (Rousseau, 8; Olivier, ii, 385); Buckingham 
(1816) made the estimate 80,000 (Travels, ii, 380)). 
Ker Porter (1818) puts the figure at 100,000 (Travels, 
265). Al-Munshi' al-Baghdadl echoes local views in 
saying that there were 100,000 houses in Baghdad 
of which 1,500 were Jewish and 800 were Christian 
(Rihla, 24). By 1830 the estimate is brought to 
120,000-150,000 (Frazer, i, 224-5 and Wellsted). 
There was a mixture of races and creeds. The 
official class was Turkish (or Mamluk), the merchants 
primarily Arab, and there were Persians, Kurds and 
some Indians (Buckingham, 387; Niebuhr, ii, 250; 
Ker Porter, ii, 265; Wellsted, i, 251). There were 
numerous bazaars in Baghdad especially near the 
bridge, and the grand ones were vaulted with 
bricks, while the others were covered with palm 
trees. There were many khans, 24 hammdms, five 
great madrasas, and twenty large mosques and many 
small ones (Buckingham, 378-9; Ives, 273; al- 
Munshi 1 al-Baghdadi, 31; Niebuhr, ii, 230; Wellsted, 
i, 257; Olivier, ii, 382). 

The streets were narrow, and some had gates 
closed at night for protection. Houses were high, 
with few windows on the streets. The interior consists 
of ranges of rooms opening into a square interior court 
usually with a garden. Sarddbs were used to avoid 
heat in summer, while open terraces were convenient 
for the late afternoon. In summer people slept on 
the roof (cf. Buckingham, 380). Baghdad had some 
industries especially tannery and the fabrication of 
cotton, silk and woolen textiles (Rousseau, 9-10). 

From 1831 to the end of the Ottoman period, 



Baghdad was directly under Constantinople. Some 
governors tried to introduce reforms. Mehmed 
Rashld Pasha (1847) was the first to try to improve 
economic conditions. He formed a company to buy two 
ships for transport between Baghdad and Basra, the 
success of which led to the corresponding British pro- 
ject. Namik Pasha (1853) founded the damir-khdna 
which could repair ships (Chiha, 54, 58-9; Gazetteer, i, 
1360, 1365-6, 1372). Midhat Pasha (1869-1872) in- 
troduced the modem wildyet system. The wait had a 
mu'dwin, or assistant, a mudir for foreign affairs, and a 
ma'mun or secretary. The wildyet was divided into 
seven sandjaks headed by mutasarrifs, Baghdad 
being one of them (Gazetteer, i, 1442, 1447-8). He 
abolished some obnoxious taxes — the ihtisdb (octroi 
duty) on all produce brought to the city walls for 
sale, the tdlibiyya, a tax on river crafts, khums hatab, 
or 20% on fuel, and rus 'bkdr, a tax on irrigation 
wheels for cultivation, and replaced it by a '■ushr on 
agricultural produce (Gazetteer, i, 1442). In 1870 
Midhat founded a tramway linking Baghdad with 
Kazimayn, and it continued for 70 years ('All 
Haydar Midhat, Life, 51). He established (1869) the 
first publishing house, the wildyet printing press in 
Baghdad, and founded al-Zawrd', the first newspaper 
to appear in 'Irak as the official organ of the provin- 
cial government; it continued until March igi7asa 
weekly paper ('Azzawl, vii, 241 ; Ali Haydar Midhat, 
The Life of Midhat Pasha, London 1 903 , 47 ff. ; TarrazI, 
Arabic Press, i, 78; Handbook of Mesopotamia, i, 81). 
With the exception of a few French Missionary schools, 
there were no modern schools in Baghdad. Between 
1869-1871, Midhat established modern schools, a 
technical school, a junior (Rushdi) and a secondary 
(I'dadi) military schools, and a junior and secondary 
civil (Mullti) schools (Zawrd' No. 182; 'Azzawl, viii, 
21; Sdlndme-i Baghdad (1900), 454; Chiha, 100-102). 
Midhat pulled down the city walls as a step towards 
its modernisation. He completed the Saray building 
started by Namik Pasha (Chiha, 66). 

The education movement started by Midhat 
continued after him. The first junior girls' school was 
opened in 1899 (Sdlndme, 1318). Four primary 
schools were opened in 1890, and a primary teachers' 
school in 1900 (Sdlndme-i Ma'drif, Istanbul 1900; 
S. Faydl, Niddl, 58-9). By 1913 there were 103 
schools in 'Irak, 67 primary, 29 junior (Rushdi), 
5 secondary and one college, the law college (Lughat 
al-'Arab, 1913, 335). Five printing presses were 
founded between 1884-1907. Newspapers appeared 
in Baghdad after 1908 and by 1915, 45 papers were 
issued by different people. 

Walts followed Midhat in quick succession and 
little was achieved. In 1886 conscription was estab- 
lished (for Muslims only). In 1879 the hospital built 
by Midhat was finally opened (Zawrd', No. 810). In 
1902, a new bridge of boats, wide enough for vehicles 
to pass, and with a cafe on the south side, was con- 
structed (Alusi, 25; Handbook, ii, 374). In 1908 
Baghdad sent three representatives to the Ottoman 
Parliament ('Azzawl, viii, 165). In 1910 Nazim 
Pasha constructed a bund surrounding east Baghdad 
to protect it from floods ('Azzawl, viii, 200-1). He 
was the last energetic wall. 

Administration was headed by the wall assisted 
by a council, about half of which consisted of elected 
members, and the rest were appointed (ex-officio). 
About two of the elected members were non-Muslims. 
The wall was assisted by a kd'im makdm (Zawrd', 
No. 1369; Sdlndme 1292 A.H.). Among important 
offices were the Ma'arif directorate, the Tapu 
directorate, the registration office, and the civil 



{Sdlndme (1300), 82-96). UntU 1868, 
i the centre of the three eydlets of 
Mawsil, Basra and Baghdad. In 1861, Mawsil became 
separate and in 1884 Basra was separated and 
Baghdad became the centre of three MutasarrifliH 
(Chiha, Province, 85). 

The plague and flood of 1831 left terrible marks on 
Baghdad. Most of the houses of East Baghdad were 
ruined and two thirds of th< space within the walls 
was vacant, while most Karkh was ruined. The walls 
on both sides had great gaps opened by the flood. The 
city was in a miserable state compared to the days 
of Dawud Pasha (Frazer, Travels, i, 269, 233-4, 252). 

Southgate (1837) noticed that the city was slowly 
recovering from the calamity, and put the population 
at 40,000. But he saw the madrasas neglected and 
their allowances not properly used (Southgate, 
Narrative, 2 vols. 1851, II, 180, 165-6; Handbook of 
Mesopotamia, i, 80-1). 

When Felix Jones surveyed Baghdad (1853-4) things 
had improved. He mentions 63 quarters in East 
Baghdad, 25 quarters in Karkh, most of which still 
retain their names (Memoir, 339; cf. Frazer, 233-4). 

The population of the city increased steadily after 
the middle of the 19th century. In 1853 they were 
about 60,000 (Felix Jones, 315, 329). In 1867, the 
male population of Baghdad is given as 67,273 
(Lughat al- l Arab, 1913). In 1877 they were all 
estimated at 70 to 80 thousand (Persian Gulf 
Gazetteer, 8; Geary, Through Asiatic Turkey, 1878, i, 
126). In the 1890s the estimate was 80 to a 100 
thousand (Harris, From Batum to Baghdad, 299; 
Cowper, Through Asiatic Turkey, 270). In 1900 they 
were put at 100,000 (Chiha, Province, 165; see Sdl- 
ndme (1320 A.H.), 136-7, 181). 

Another estimate for 1904 is given at 140,000 
(Handbook of Mesopotamia, i, 89). By 1918, the 
population is given as 200,000 (Handbook, ii, 334; 
Alusi, Akhbdr Baghdad, 280-1; cf. R. Coke for the 
figure 185,000 in 1918, Baghdad, 298). Travellers 
were impressed with the great admixture of races, 
the diversity of speech and the rare freedom enjoyed 
by non-Muslims and the great toleration among the 
masses (Jones, 339; Olivier, ii, 388-9). This mixture 
left its imprint on the dialect of Baghdad ('Abd al- 
Latlf, Ramus Lahdjat Baghdad MSS.). 

However, Arabic was the common language. The 
Arab population was increased by the advent of tribal 
elements (Geary, op. cit. i, 136, 214). Usually people 
of one creed or race congregated in a particular 
quarter (cf. F. Jones, Memoir, 339). The Turks 
generally occupied the northern quarters of the 
city, while Jews and Christians lived in their ancient 
quarters north and west of Suk al-Ghazl respectively. 
Most of the Persians lived on the west side but 
Karkh was mainly Arab (F. Jones, 339; Persian Gulf, 
9; 79-8o; Handbook, ii, 381; Southgate, ii, 182). 
Though people of the three religions spoke Arabic 
their dialects differed (Lughat al- l Arab, 1911, 69-71). 

At the turn of the century there were still some 
industries. Among the textiles of Baghdad were silk 
stuffs, cotton fabrics, stuffs of wool-silk mixture, 
striped cotton pieces, and coarse cotton cloth for 
head-scarves and cloaks, sheets and women outer 
garments. The silk fabrics of Baghdad were famous 
for their colour and workmanship. An excellent 
dyeing industry existed. Tanning was one of the 
principal industries, and there were about 40 tan- 
neries at Mu'azzam. Carpentry and the manufacture 
of swords were advanced. There was a military 
factory for textiles (Handbook, i, 231; Sdlndme 
(1300), 79, 136). 



907 



The Baghdad bazaars were covered 
like Siik al Ghazl. At the eastern bridgehead was 
the chief place for trade in the bazaars of the Saray, 
Maydan, Shordja and the cloth bazaar rebuilt by 
Dawud Pasha. Some bazaars had crafts with their 
own guilds and usually the bazaar was named after 
it, such as Suk al-Safaflr (coppersmiths) Suk al- 
Sarradjln (saddlery), Suk al-Sagha, (silversmiths), 
Suk al-Khaffafln (shoemakers) etc. (Ewliya Celebi, 
iv, 22-,M.G.T.B.,i, 22-3). 

There were two important streets, one from the 
North Gate to near the bridge, and the other from 
the South Gate to the end of the main bazaar. In 
1915 the North Gate was connected with the South 
Gate by a road, now known as Rashjd street 
(Handbook, i, 377; Sdlndme (1318 A.H.), 599-600). 

In 1922 Namik Pasha tried to repair some of the 
streets (Sdlndme (1318 A.H.), 60). In 1307/1889 
Sirri Pasha transfered the Maydan to an open 
square with a garden (see Sdlndme (1321), 76). 

In 1285/1869 Midhat formed a municipal council 
by election and orders were issued to clear the 
streets. In 1879 municipalities were formed and 
orders were issued for achieving cleanliness and 
drainage (Zawra', No. 231, No. 878, No. 817, No. 
1774, Lughat al-'Arab, i, 17; Sdlndme (1300), 136). 
Lighting with kerosene lamps was adopted and given 
to a contractor, but in fact only streets with notable 
residents were lit (Zawra'', No. 490, no. 837) (see 
further baladiyya.) 

At the beginning of the 20th century the city of 
Baghdad covered an area of about four sq. m. The 
remains of the city wall on the East side demolished 
by Midhat formed with the river a rough parallelo- 
gram about 2 miles long with an average width of 
over a mile. About a third of this area was empty 
or occupied by graveyards or ruins, and towards the 
south much space was covered by date groves. 
Karkh began further upstream than East Baghdad 
but it was much smaller in length and depth (Hand- 
book, ii, 276). In 1882 there were 16,303 houses, 
600 inns, 21 baths, 46 large mosques (djami 1 ) and 
36 small mosques (masdjid), 34 children's maktab 
and 21 religious schools, 184 coffee-shops and 3,244 
shops (Sdlndme (1300), 136). In 1884 the figures 
were: 16,426 houses, 205 inns, 39 baths, 93 djami 1 
and 42 masdjids and 36 children's maktabs (Sdl- 
ndme (1302), 335). 

In 1903 Baghdad had 4,000 shops, 285 coffee- 
shops, 135 orchards, 145 djdmi', 6 primary schools, 
8 schools for non-Muslims and 20 convents (tekke), 
12 bookshops, one public library, 20 maktabs for 
boys, 8 churches, 9 tanneries, one soap factory, 129 
workshops for weaving, 22 textile factories (Sdlndme 
(1321), 179). By 1909 houses reached 90,000 in 
number. There were 3 private printing presses, 
6 churches and 6 synagogues (Sdlndme (1324), 223). 

Shukri al-AlusI described 44 mosques in East 
Baghdad and 18 in Karkh (Alusi, Masddfid; Mas- 
signon, Mission, ii, 63-5). 

The temperature in Baghdad ranged from 114 to 
121° F. in summer, and from about 26 to 31 F. 
in winter, but it sometimes rose to 123° F. in summer 
and fell to 20° F. in winter. 

Baghdad produced some distinguished poets during 
the Ottoman period, like Fudull [?•»•]. Dhihni 
[q.v.], Akhras and <Abd al-Bakl al-'Umari; histo- 
rians like MurtadS, Ghurabl and M. Shukri Alusi; 
jurists like c Abd Allah Suwaydl and Abu '1-Jhana 
al-Alusi (see Alusi, al-Misk al-Adk/ar, Baghdad 1930). 

Modern Baghdad has changed considerably, 
especially since the thirties. It has expanded to link 



BAGHDAD — BAGHDAD KHATON 



up with A'zamiyya and Kazimayn to the north, 
with the eastern bund to the east, with the great 
bend of the Tigris to the south, and with the al- 
Matar al-Madani and with nearby suburbs like Mansur 
and Ma'mun cities. There are 76 quarters in Karkh 
and Rusafa, 8 in A'zamiyya, 4 in Karradh Sharkiyya 
and 6 in Kazimayn (Sousa, Atlas Baghdad, 21-5). 
The population of the Baghdad municipality in 
1947 was 466,733 ; it had mounted to 735,°°° by 1957. 
Traditional styles of building gave way to houses, 
built on western lines, in areas beyond the old city, 
while the old sections are being gradually trans- 
formed. The bridge of boats is gone, and four 
permanent bridges have been constructed. 

The process of modernisation, both material and 
social, is too rapid to be recorded here. 

Bibliography: The sources have been ment- 
ioned- in the article. In addition to the major 
works of historians like Tabari, Mas'udI, Ya'kubl, 
Ibn al-Athlr, geographers like Ibn Rusta, Ibn al- 
Faklh (Mashhad MSS.), Ibn Hawkal, Ya'kubl, Muk- 
addasl, Yakut, Mardsid al-I(tild l , ifudud al- c Alam 
and Mustawfi, and travellers like Ibn Djubayr, Ibn 
Battuta and Benjamin of Tudela, the following 
should also be mentioned : Ibn al-Sa'I, A l-Didmi l 
al-Mukhtasar, ed. Mustafa Djawad, Baghdad 1934; 
Ibn al-Djawzi, Mandkib Baghdad, Baghdad 1921; 
idem, al-Muntazam, Haydarabad, Deccan, 1357-9 
A.H. ; Miskawayh, Tadjdrib al-Umam, vols i-vii (ed. 
and transl. by Amedroz and Margoliouth, 1920-1 ; 
SuhrSb, '■Adja'ib al-Akdlim al-Sab'a, ed. Hans 
von Mzik, Leipzig 1930; al-Shabushti, Kiidb al- 
Diydrdt, ed. Gurgis 'Awwad, Baghdad 1951; Hilal 
al-Sabi, Rusum Ddr al-Khildfa, Dept. of Ant. 
Library MS. no. 2900; Ibn al-Fuwati, al-Hawddith 
al-Qidmi'a, ed. by Mustafa Djawad, Baghdad 
1351 A.H.; Sull, Akhbdr al-Rddi wa 'l-Muttaki 
Bi'lldh, Cairo 1935 ; Tanukhl, Nishwdr al-Muhddara, 
vol. i, Cairo 1921, vol. viii, Damascus 1930; 
M.Sh. al-AlusI, al-Misk al-Adkfar, i, Baghdad 
1930; Ewliya Celebl, Siyahat-name, vol. iv, Con- 
stantinople 1314 A.H.; al-Munshl al-Baghdadl, 
Rihla, trans. 'Abbas 'Azzawi, Baghdad 1948; 
Sdlndmes of Baghdad for the years 1299 A.H., 
1300 A.H., 1301 A.H., 1312 A.H., 1317 A.H., 
1318 A.H., 1321 A.H., 1324 A.H.; W. B. Harris, 
From Batum to Baghdad, Edinburgh 1896; Al- 
Husayni, Akhbdr al-Dawla al-Saldjukiyya, ed. by 
Muh. Ikbal, Lahore 1933; Chiha, La Province de 
Baghdad, Cairo c. 1900; HadjdjI Khalifa, Djihdn- 
nUtnd, Const ntinople 1145 A.H.; Yasin al-'Umarl, 
GhardHb al-Athar, ed. by M.S. Djalill, Mawsil' 
1940; 'Abbas al-'AzzawI, Ta'rikh al-Hrdk bayn 
Ihtildlayn, 8 vols., Baghdad 1936-58; 'Uthman 
b. Sanad al-Basri, Ma(dli i al-Su'-ud fi Akhbdr al- 
Wdli Ddwud, D. of Ant. Library NS. no. 233 
(abridged by A.H. MadanI), Cairo 1371 A.H.; 
Salman Fa>ik, Ta'rikh al-Mamdlik fi Baghdad, 
(MS. Lib. Dept. of Ant. Baghdad no. 1227); 
Salman Fa'ik, Hurub al-Irdniyyin fi 'l-"-Irdk 
(Lib. of D. of Ant. Baghdad no. 1952); Hadikat 
al-Zawrd, abridged by Abdul-Rahman al-Suhra- 
wardi (MS.); 'Abd al-Rahman al-Suhrawardi, 
Nuzhat al-Vdaba' fi Tarddjim 'Ulamd' wa Wuzard' 
Baghdad (MS.) ; A. M. Karmali, al-Fawz bi 'l-Murdd 
fi Ta'rikh Baghdad, 1329 A.H.; Fertdun Bey, 
Munsha'dt al-Saldtin, Istanbul 1274 A.H.; Katib 
Celebi, FadUaka, ii, Istanbul 1297; Murtada, 
Gulshan-i Khulafd; Muh. Amin, Baghdad we son 
hddithe-i DiydH, Istanbul 1338-41 A.H. ; Djewdet 
Pasha, Ta'rikh*, Istanbul 1301-9; Al-Azdi, ffikdyat 
Abi 'l-Kdsim al-Baghdddi, ed. A. Mez, Heidelberg 



1902; al-Zawrd (Gov. Gazette, Dept. of Ant. 
Library) ; A. Q. ShahrabanI, Tadhkirat al-Shu'ara', 
ed. A. M. Karmali, Baghdad 1936; Alusi, Masddiid- 
Baghdad, Baghdad 1346 A.H.; Ibn Tayfur, Ta'rikk 
Baghdad, vi, Leipzig 1908; CI. Huart, Histoire de 
Baghdad dans les temps modernes, Paris 1904 ; 
J. R. Wellsted, Travels in the city of the caliphs, 
2 vols. London 1840; Rousseau, Description du- 
pachalik de Baghdad, Paris 1809; Sarre and 
Herzfeld, Archdologische Reise im Euphrat uni 
Tigris-Gebiet, Berlin 1900; Rev. H. Southgate, 
Tour through Armenia, Kurdistan, Persia and 
Mesopotamia, 2 vols., London 1850; M. de 
Thevenot, Relation d'un voyage fait au Levant, 
2 vols., J. S. Buckingham, Travels in Mesopotamia, 
London 1827, Felix Jones, Memoir on Baghdad, 
Bombay 1857; C. Niebuhr, Voyage en Arabic, 
vol. ii, 1780; Ker Porter, Travels in Syria, Persia, 
Armenia, Ancient Babylonia, 2 vols., London 
1817-20; J. G. Lorimer, Gazetteer of the Persian 
Gulf, vol. i, pts. I and II, Calcutta 1925; Handbook 
of Mesopotamia, 4 vols., London 1917; Olivier, 
Voyages, 2 vols., Paris 1804; S. H. Longrigg, Four 
centuries of Modern Iraq, Oxford 1925 ; Reallexikon 
der Assyriologie, Berlin 1928; L. Massignon, 
Mission en Mesopotamie, vol. ii, Cairo 1912; 
E. Ives, Journey from Persia to Baghdad, London 
1778; Map of the Iraq Academy by A. Sousa and 
M. Djawad, with its Dalil Mufassal, Baghdad 1958; 
G. Le Strange, Baghdad during the AbbasidCaliphate, 
Oxford 1924; R. Levy, A Baghdad Chronicle, Cam- 
bridge 1929; A. Abel, Les Marchis de Baghdad, in 
Bulletin de la SociiU beige d' Etudes geographiques, 
1949, 148-164 ; D. S. Sassoon, History of the Jews in 
Baghdad, Letchworth 1949; I. A., art. Bagdad, (by 
M. Cavid Baysun) ; R. Coke, Baghdad the City of 
Peace, London 1927; M. Streck, DieAlte Landschaft 
Babylonien, i, Leiden 1900 ; A. Sousa, Atlas Baghdad, 
Baghdad 1952. (A. A. Duri) 

BAGHDAD KHATON. daughter of the amir al- 
umard Amir Cuban, niece of the Ilkhanid ruler of 
Persia Abu Sa'id (regn. 717-736/1317 1335) (her mo- 
ther was Abu Sa'id's sister), and wife of Amir Hasan 
the Djala'irid, commonly known as Shaykh Hasan 
Buzurg, whom she married in 723/1323- In 1325 
A.D. Abu Sa'id, quoting as precedent the ydsd of 
Cingiz Khan, attempted to force Shaykh Hasan to 
divorce Baghdad Khatun in order that he nu>ht 
marry her himself, but was frustrated by Amir 
Cuban. In October or November 1327 A.D. Amir 
Cuban was treacherously put to death at Harat by 
Ghiyath al-DIn the Kurt at the instigation of Abu 
Sa'id, who was then able to carry ou* his design and 
marry Baghdad Khatun. Baghdad Khatun attained 
a position of great influence, and was given the 
lakab of Khudawandigar ("sovereign"). In 732/1331-2 
Shaykh Hasan was accused of conspiring with his 
former wife Baghdad Khatun to murder Abu Sa'id. 
This caused an estrangement between Abu Sa'id 
and Baghdad Khatun, but the following year, when 
the accusation was proved to have been false, he 
restored her to favour. In 734/1333-4 Abu Said 
married Baghdad Khatun's niece Dilshad Khatun. 
and promoted her above his other wives. This aroused 
the jealousy of Baghdad Khatun, and, when Abu 
Sa'id died suddenly on 13 Rabi' II 736/30 November 
1335. Baghdad Khatun was suspected of having 
poisoned him, and was put to death by the amirs. 
Another version is that she was put to death be- 
cause she had corresponded with Ozbek, khan of the 
Golden Hord;, and had incited him to invade Persia. 
Bibliography: Hafiz Abrii, Dhayl-i DJdmi' 



THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ISLAM 




BAGHDAD KHATON — BAGHRAS 



al-Tawdrikh-i Rashidi (ed. K. Bayani), Tehran 
1317/1938, index; Ibn Battuta (ed. Defremery and 
Sanguinetti), Paris 1854, ii, "7 «.; Ta'rikh-i 
Shaikh Uwais (ed. J. B. van Loon), The Hague 
1954, 57. 59! C. D'Ohsson, Histoire des Mongols, 
The Hague and Amsterdam 1835, iv, 667 ff., 
714 f., 720; H. Howorth, History of the Mongols, 
London 1876-1888, iii, 605 ff., 622 ff.; 'Abbas 
al- c Azz§wi, Ta'rikh al-Hrdk ..., Baghdad 1935, 
493-6, and index; B. Spuler, Die Mongolen »i 
Iran*, Berlin 1955, index. (R. M. Savory) 

al-BASJHDAd!, 'Abd al-Kahir b. TAhir, Abu 
Maksur AL-Sh afi% d. 429/1037. His father took him t 
Nlshapur for his education and there he made his 
home. Most of the scholars of Khurasan were his 
pupils and he could teach 17 subjects, especially law, 
principles, arithmetic, law of inheritance and 
theology. He left Nishapur because of rioting by 
Turkmens and went to Isfara'in where he soon after 
died. He was learned in literature as well as in law, 
was rich, helped other scholars and his books on 
law, arithmetic (one survives) and the law of 
inheritance were highly praised. He wrote several 
books on theology; Kitdb ai-Milal wa 'l-Nihal is lost; 
Usui al-Din, a systematic treatise, beginning with 
the nature of knowledge, creation, how the Creator 
is known, His attributes, etc. is rather like al- 
muhassal of Muhammad b. 'Umar al-Razi, but 
gives the views of the sects on each subject. It 
cannot be identified with any of the books named by 
al-Subkl. The tone throughout is objective, unlike 
that of his other book al-Fark bayn al-Firak. This 
takes each sect separately, judges all from the 
standpoint of orthodoxy and condemns all which 
deviate from the strait path. It is not a plain tale 
of facts, like Shahrastanl's Kitdb al-Milal wa 'l-Nihal, 
but a polemic. In spite of a chapter heading "Soc- 
rates and Plato" it deals only with Islam though it 
brands some aberrations as unworthy of the name. It 
ends with an exposition of orthodox belief. Two books, 
which presumably went into greater detail, The 
Errors of Abu 'l-Hudhayl and the Errors of Ibn 
Karrdm, are lost. It is fair to say that he draws 
from doctrines, which he condemns, conclusions 
never envisaged by their authors. 

Bibliography : Al-Subkl, Tabakdt al-ShdfiHyya 
iii, 238 ff. Ibn Khallikan, § 402; ZDMG 65, 349 ff., 
MO 19, 187ft.; Brockelmann, I. 385, SI 666. 

(A. S. Tritton) 
al BAJJHDAdI, al-ioiatIb [see al-khatib, al 

BAGHDAD!]. 

BA GH L. mule (pi. bighdl, fern, baghla; but some 
think that bagU denotes the hybrid without distinct- 
ion of sex, and that baghla is a singulative form 
which applies both to the male and female) ; the 
same word denotes both the hinny, the offspring of 
a stallion and a she-ass (cf. however kawdar in al- 
Mas'udl, ii, 408; contra: al-Djahiz, Bighdl 120; al- 
Daniri, s.v.; cf. al-Djahiz, Tarbi', ed. Pellat, index, 
s.v.), and the mule, the offspring of a he-ass and 
a mare, the morphological characteristics of the 
two varieties being midway between those of the 
he-ass and those of the stallion, with however a 
tendency to be influenced by the mother's side. 
Karun (Korah; see al-Darolri) or Tahmurath (see 
al-Tabari/Bal'aml, trans. Zotenberg, i, 101) was the 
first to bring about this cross-breeding, but the 
Kur'an (xvi, 8) naturally attributed the creation of 
the mule to God. Muhammad himself possessed 
mules (notab'y Duldul, which lived up to the time 
ol Mu'awiya), so that although the hadiths forbidding 
the consumption of the flesh of the mule (like that 



909 

of the ass) may be authentic, those concerning the 
interdict on the mating of asses and mares have less 
chance of being so ; at all events, it was not observed, 
and the mule industry did not suffer by reason of it. 
The postal service used these animals, and eminent 
men and women of noble birth did not disdain to 
ride on them, in spite of their stubbornness and 
obstinacy, because their even gait and surefootedness 
made them valued mounts. 

Men of an inquiring mind have been espicially 
interested in this hybrid and its sterility; the Arab 
zoologists, however, thought that the she-mule was 
by nature fertile, but that it could not retain the 
male (Id ta'-lak), or that it was too small-boned to 
give birth without losing its life; in order to prevent 
accidents of this sort it was sometimes "sewn up" 
(maktuba). But al-Damiri relates that in 444/1052 a 
she-mule gave birth to a black filly and a white mule. 
The size of its head and penis, its longevity (due to 
continence), its sterility, its obstinacy and other 
characteristic traits of the mule are proverbial, and 
the words baghl and baghla enter into a large number 
of everyday expressions (for an account of the she- 
mule of Abu Dulama, which became proverbial by 
reason of its defects, see M. Ben Cheneb, Abu 
Doldma, Algiers 1922 ; al-Djahiz, Bighdl, 100 ff.). 
Certain parts of the body of the mule, notably its 
teeth, hair, hooves, and blood, were used in the 
preparation both of drugs, and of charms and 
amulets. To see a mule in a dream was interpreted 
as a sign of a voyage, or of longevity, degeneracy, 
sterility, etc. 

In addition to the other meanings collected by the 
Arabic dictionaries and Dozy, it is worth noting 
that the word baghla (pi. baghaldt) denoted in Egypt 
female slaves born of unions between Sakaliba and 
another race (see al-Djahiz, Bighal, 66). 

Bibliography: In addition to the usual 
works on zoology (in this category the dictionary 
of Damiri is a fundamental work), pharmocopoeia, 
oneiromancy, etc. (see for example the bibliography 
of the article af c a), which give a certain amount 
of information, particular attention is drawn to 
the fact that mules, doubtless because of then- 
curious origin, prompted DjShiz to write a special 
study, al-Kawl fi 'l-Bighdl (ed. Ch. Pellat, Cairo 
1375/1955), which is a sort of supplement to the 
K. al-Bayawdn, and in which the author quotes 
chiefly anecdotes and verses illustrating the 
character and usefulness of these animals. 

(Ch. Pellat) 
BAGHLl [see dirham]. 

BACHRAS, the ancient Pagrae, guarded the 
Syrian end of the Baylan pass on the road from 
Antioch to Alexandretta across the Amanus, and 
was thus a place of transit and a strategic position of 
importance. This region, which had been laid waste 
at the time of the first wars between the Arabs and 
the Byzantines, was furnished with colonists by 
Maslama; this initiated a recovery, and Hisham 
built a small fort there; it was naturally included in 
the region of the '■awdfim [q.v.) organised by Harun 
al-Rashld behind the Syro-Cilician thughur, and there 
existed there at the time of al-Balkhi a hospice for 
travellers, which is said to have been founded by 
Zubayda. The actual fortification of Baghras was the 
work of Nicephorus Phocas who had reconquered 
Cilicia and was planning the reconquest of Antioch 
(357-8/968), and Michael Bourtzes set out from 
Baghras when the following year he in fact occupied 
Antioch. Baghras was occupied, without striking a 
blow, by Sulayman b. Kutlumish and then by the 



910 BAGHRA 

Crusaders. About the middle of the 6th/i2th century 
it was captured by the Templars, but in 1188 was 
seized for a short time by Salah al-Din, in 119 1 was 
taken by the Armeno-Cilician Leo, and was only 
surrendered by the latter to the Templars in 1216. 
The Templars evacuated the town in 1268 following 
the capture of Antioch by the Mamluk sultan 
Baybars. From then onwards Baghras protected 
the frontier of the Mamluk state against the Armeno- 
Cilician kingdom, as long as the latter continued to 
exist, and formed a special military command 
depending on the province of Aleppo. Baghras is 
still mentioned incidentally in the operations 
conducted by the Mamluk sultans for the protection 
of their northern frontier up to the time of the 
Ottoman conquest, after which it fell into ruins. 
Only a small village exists there to-day. The fortress, 
which has never been the object of a proper archaeo- 
logical investigation, was of average importance, 
and seems to have been the work of the Byzantines 
and Mamluks rather than of the Templars or 



Bibliography: Baladhuri, Futuh, 148, 164, 

167; Istakhri, i, 65; Yahya of Antioch, Patrol. Or., 

xviii, 816; <Izz al-Din b. Shaddad, al-AHak etc., 

in al-Mashrik, 1935, in fine; Abu '1-Fida' (Reinaud), 

258; Ibn Battata (Defremery) i, 163 (= Gibb 

104-5); al-'Umarl, Ta'rif (Cairo ed.), 181; Pauly- 

Wissowa, xviii-2, 2315 ; M. A. Cheira, La lutte entre 

Us Arabes et Us Bytantins, Alexandria 1947, index ; 

M. Canard, Les Hamdanides, i, 228; Dussaud, 

Topographic etc., 433-34; CI. Cahen, La Syrie du 

Nord, 1940, index; M. Hartmann, in ZGErdk. 

Berl., xxix, 170, 513; Guides BUus, Syrii-Palestine, 

189; P. Jacquot, Antioche centre de tourisme, ii, 

194 ff. (Cl. Cahen) 

BAGIRMI, name in the 19th century of a 

negro Muslim State, situated on the right bank of 

the Shari, S.E. of lake Chad. In Barth's time (1852) 

the capital was Massenya. There were a certain 

number of tributary regions within its orbit, lying 

between io° and 12" N. and 15 and 18° E. This 

historical name is no longer in official use to-day; 

only a district of Massenya exists, the other tributary 

regions having been either attached to the district 

of Bousso or to that of Melfi. 

The regions which once bore the name Bagirmi 
form a vast plain at an elevation of 1000 ft., sloping 
gently away towards Lake Chad. The level expanse 
of alluvial soil is only broken by barren dunes and 
in the East, in the canton of Bekakire, by isolated 
rocks. These regions are situated at the extreme limits 
of the Sahel and Sudan savannah zones. The year 
is divided into two seasons, a dry season, cold in 
winter, very hot in the spring and autumn, and the 
other, the summer, hot and damp. Rainfall fluctuates 
around 700 mm. (28 ins.), but there is excessive evap- 
oration. The Shari is the only permanent river; the 
others (Bahr Errguig, Bahr Nara) only flow from 
August to December. 

The region's economy is based on cultivation and 
stock breeding. The main crop is millet (bulrush 
millet and guineacorn), which forms the basic food; 
maize, cultivated around the oases, provides a com- 
plementary crop in the intervening periods. In ad- 
dition, peas, manioc, gombo, sesame and peanuts 
are also grown. Cotton growing has been introduced 
in the S.E. part of the region, along the river Shari. 
Pasturage, though of mediocre quality, makes 
possible the breeding of cattle, sheep and goats. 

The population is made up of very diverse elements : 
negroes (Bagirmese, Bomuese, Sara, Massa), Arabs 



(Yessie, Dekakire, Ouled Moussa), Fulani and Bororo 
Fulani ; in 1956, the total number of the inhabitants 
of the region amounted to 70,500 with a population 
density of 6.4 per sq. m. 

The sedentary negroes (with the exception of the 
Massa, cattle herdsmen) live by crop raising, food 
gathering and fishing. The nomadic Fulani migrate 
as far as the Logone and Lake Chad, the Bororo 
Fulani as far as the Ati and Musoro districts. The 
semi-nomadic Arabs move between their villages, 
where in the rainy season they cultivate the ground, 
and the banks of the Shari, to which they resort at 
the end of the dry season. 

With the exception of the Massa and the Sara, who 
have remained animists, these peoples were converted 
to Islam three hundred and fifty years ago under 
the influence of Fulani missionaries and Hausa 
merchants. Islam, however, has only made a 
somewhat superficial impression. 

The state of Bagirmi, founded in the 16th century, 
at the outset enjoyed considerable prosperity; then, 
at the beginning of the 19th century, as the result 
of wars with the Wadai, it began to decline. In 1870 
the Sultan of the Wadai took Massenya and expelled 
the Sultan Abu Sekkine. The latter's successor, 
Gaourang, threatened by Rabah (see Bornu), placed 
himself under the protection of France (1897), which 
resulted firstly for the Bagirmi in the terrible 
reprisals of Rabah, then, when the latter had been 
defeated and killed at Kousseri (22 April 1900), in the 
final pacification under French administration. The 
Sultan was retained for outward appearances, but 
his authority limited to the Massenya canton. 
Massenya, the capital, was an important town in 
Barth's time, enclosed by walls 7 miles in circum- 
ference. It was partly destroyed in 1870 and then 
abandoned at the time of Rabah's invasion. It was 
rebuilt once more 20 km. (i27,m.) to the S.E. It is, 
however, no more than a large village with a popu- 
lation of 1,700 inhabitants. Indeed the whole district 
lies remote from the main currents of trade. Only a 
small proportion of the local produce — ground-nuts, 
butter, skins — , is taken to the markets at Bongor, 
Bokoro and Fort Lamy. 

Bibliography: Mohammed el Tounsi, Voyage 
au Wadai, trans. Perron, Paris 1852, v and vi; 
H. Barth, Reisen itnd Entdeckungen, Gotha 1858, 
iii, xi-xv; G. Nachtigal, Sahara und Sudan; 
E. Gentil, La chute de I'empire de Robah, Paris 
1902 ; A. Foumeau, Deux annies dans la rigion du 
Tcliad, in Bulletin du Comiti de I'Atrique franfaise, 
1904, Renseignements coloniaux, no. 5; Lt.-Col. 
Largeau, L' occupation du Wadai, in Revue de 
Paris, i/January 1910; Ferrandi, la colonie du 
Tchad, Paris-Nancy 1930; L. Massignon, Annuoire 
du monde musulman*, 360. (R. Capot-Rey) 

BAH , one of a number of terms in the Arabic 
language denoting coitus. Fikh, in the main, uses 
the term waf. In principle, bah is hardm (as well 
as sexual indulgences of a minor character) if the 
partners are not married to each other, or united 
by the bond of ownership (master and slave- 
concubine); if this is not the case, the penal law 
intervenes to punish tind* — most commonly by 
death (see hadd, zina>, muhsan), at least in 
theory. On the other hand, according to a ce- 
lebrated hadith, waC performed in a legal manner 
is an "alms" in the eyes of God. Fikh considers most 
practices permissible for the married couple, with 
perhaps a restriction regarding waf ft duburihi. 
Bah is, in principle, permitted at all times, except in 
certain circumstances of a ritual character (by day 



BAH — BAHA 1 ALLAH 



91 r 



during the month of Ramadan, or when one is in 
ihrdm during the hadiii [q.v.]. On the other hand, 
a well-known text of the Kur'an says: "Your wives 
are a tilth for you, so go to your tilth as you will" 
(ii, 231), and the Kur'anic prohibition (ii, 230) of 
intimate relations during the menstrual period is 
not enforced by penalties, at least not in this world. 
Fikk does not forbid the sight of the partner's 
nakedness, but on the other hand, according to 
tradition, the Prophet in the matter of wap behaved 
with the greatest modesty, both in this respect and 
in others. As regards the legality of contraceptive 
practices, see the article c Azl. Fikh does not place 
any interdict on relations with a partner who has 
not reached the age of puberty provided that the 
act is physically possible. The schools are not in agree- 
ment on the question whether the wife can demand 
the performance of the conjugal duty: in the Malikl 
school, the forsaken wife has the right to claim a 
divorce. On the other hand, the husband can always 
require his wife to be at his service, because waf con- 
stitutes the very essence of nikdh [?.».]; fikh is 
here in agreement with etymology (nikdh — marriage, 
and coitus). 

Bibliography: See bibliography to the article 

'Azl; add: O. Pesle, La femme musulmane. 

(G. H. Bousquet) 

BAHA> ALLAH. — Founder of the new religion 
which took the name of Baha 1 ! from his own name 
(literally, 'Glory, Splendour, of God'). In Persian 
it is known commonly as Amr-i BahdH, 'Bahal 
Cause', or Amr AUdh, 'Cause of God'; the adjective 
amri is used of publications, matters and facts 
pertaining to the Cause, e.g., nashriyydt-i amri 'reli- 
gious publications', etc. Baha 1 Allah is generally 
called by his disciples Djamdl-i Mubarak, 'The 
Blessed Beauty' and Qiamdl-i Kidam, 'The Ancient 
Beauty'. His name was originally Mirza Husayn <Ali 
Nuri (from Nur, in Mazandaran, the place of origin 
of his family). He was born at Tehran on 2 Muharram 
1233/12 November 1817 of a noble family which had 
given several ministers to the Persian court. 
According to the Baha 9 ! tradition, and to what he 
himself declares in his writings, he never attended 
any school. His was a profoundly religious person- 
ality, and he relates in one of his works (Lawh-i 
Ra'is) how, right from his infancy, he was moved to 
religious thinking after a performance of puppets 
which, after the show with all its ostentation was 
over and they had been redisposed in their box, 
suggested to him the thought of the fallibility and the 
vanity of human power. After the declaration of the 
Mission of the Bab [q.v.] in 1260/1844, he was one 
of his first disciples, and shared the fatf of the Babis. 
Baha 1 Allah never knew the Bab personally and, to 
judge by a phrase in the Kitdb al-Shaykh, 122, he 
had never even read the Bay an, which he knew by 
heart. In 1852, after the attempt on Nasir al-DIn 
Shah, he was arrested and thrown into the prison 
at Tehran known as Siydh Cdl ('the black hole'), 
where he stayed from August of that year until 
12 January 1853. In his work Kitdb al-Shavkh 
('book of the Shavkh'. known also as Lawh-i Ibn-i 
Dki'b, 'Epistle of the Son of the Wolf) he narrates 
the story of his journey, fettered, from Niyawaran 
to Tehran, and his interesting mystical experience 
in the prison in the long nights he passed without 
sleep on account of the heavy chains which fastened 
his neck, hands and feet. It seemed to him, he tells 
us, that he heard a voice which cried to him, 'Truly, 
We shall succour Thee, by the means of Thee 
Thyself and Thy pen. Be not afraid . . . Thou art in 



security. Soon God will raise up the treasures of the 
earth, namely those men who shall succour Thee 
for love of Thee and Thy name, by which God shall 
bring to life the hearts of the Sages'. At other times 
it seemed to him that a great torrent of water was 
running from the top of his head to his chest 'like 
a powerful river pouring itself out on the earth from 
the summit of a lofty mountain'. The Bahals con- 
sider this experience as the first beginnings of the 
prophetic mission of their founder. Banished with 
all his family to 'Irak after all his possessions had 
been confiscated, he dwelt at Baghdad, where his 
spiritual influence over the Babi exiles continued 
to increase, whereas that of his half-brother Mirza 
Yahya — known by the name of Subh-i Azal, which 
the Bab had given him [v.s.v. bab]— was on the 
decline. From 1854 to 1856 Baha' Allah took himself 
to Kurdistan, where he lived as a nomadic dervish 
on the outskirts of Sulaymaniyya. When he returned 
to Baghdad, his growing influence, and the numerous 
visitors he received even from Persia, caused the 
Persian consul to request his immediate exile to 
Constantinople. A short while before his departure 
on 21 April 1863, in the garden of Nadjib Pasha 
near Baghdad — called by the Bahals bdgh-i ridwdn — 
Baha' Allah declared himself, to a select number of 
his followers, to be He Whom God Shall Manifest 
(man yufhiruhu Hldh) as predicted by the Bab. The 
exiles arrived at Constantinople in August, and 
after some months were sent to Edirne where they 
arrived in December. At Edirne Baha' Allah openly 
declared his prophetic mission, sending letters 
(known, like all Baha 3 Allah's letters, by the name 
of lawh, pi. alwdh, 'tablets') to various sovereigns, 
inviting them to support his Cause. At this time the 
great majority of Babis came out in his favour. The 
dissensions with the minority, who followed Subh-i 
Azal, gave rise to some incidents, which impelled 
the Ottoman government to banish those who 
henceforth called themselves Bahals to Acre ( c Akka), 
and the others to Cyprus. In August 1868 Baha' 
Allah and his family arrived at c Akka. A stricter 
imprisonment in the fortress lasted until 1877, after 
which Baha 1 Allah was authorised to transfer 
himself to a country house which he had rented at 
Mazra'a. From 1288/1871 to 1200/1874 Baha 1 Allah 
was engaged on writing the fundamental book of 
his religion, Kitdb-i Akdas, the "Most Holy Book". 
About 1880 he was allowed to transfer to the neigh- 
bourhood of BahdjI, not far from c Akka, where he 
died, after an illness lasting some days, on 29 May 
1892. In 1890 he had received at BahdjI Professor 
E. G. Browne, the only European who met him 
personally and on whom Baha 1 Allah made a deep 
impression. For the doctrine of Baha 1 Allah see 

Bibliography: Principal works of Baha 1 
Allah: Kitdb ai- Akdas, in Arabic, ed. and Russian 
tr. by A. Tumanski in Zapiski Imp. A had. Nauk, 
Hist.-Phil. Class, series VIII, Vol. vi, St. Peters- 
burg 1899; Kitdb-i Ikdn, in Persian, Tehran n.d., 
Fr. trans, by I. Dreyfus, Le Livre de la Certitude, 
Paris 1904, Eng. trans, by Shoghi Effendi, The 
Book of Certitude, Wilmette 1943; Haft Wddi ('The 
Seven Valleys'), in Persian, al-Kalimdt al-Maknuna 
('The Hidden Words') in Persian -and Arabic, 
Mathnawi (Persian), Cairo 1332/1914 (containing 
also the Cahdr Wddi 'Four Valleys'), Fr. trans. 
I. Dreyfus, Les Sept ValUes, Paris 1905, Eng. 
trans. C A1I Kuli jgian, The Seven Valleys, Wilmette 
1948; Shoghi Effendi, The Hidden Words, London 
1944, Germ. Tr. Braun, Die verborgenen Wortc, 



BAHA' ALLAH — BAHA 5 , 



912 

Stuttgart 1916; Madimu'-a-i Mafbu'a-i Alwdh-i 
Mubdraka-i Hadrat-i Bans' Allah, Cairo 1338/1920 
(containing important short works of Baha 5 
Allah); Kitdb al-Shaykh, Cairo 1338/1920; Kitdb 
Baha> Allah ila 'l-Sultdn Ndsir al-Din Shah, Cairo 
1330/1912; Sitra-i Mulitk, n.p., n.d. ; AdHyya-i 
Jfadrat-i Mahbub, Cairo 1339/1921 (various 
prayers written by Baha 5 Allah, including the 
Obligatory Prayers). English anthologies: Shoghi 
Effendi (tr.), Gleanings from the writings cf 
Bahd'u'lldh, New York 1935; idem, Prayers and 
meditations, New York 1938. Selected Writings 
■of Baha'u'Mh, Wilmette 1942; idem, Bahd'i 
World Faith, Wilmette 1943 (containing the 
translation of numerous minor works of Baha 5 
Allah and c Abd al-Baha 5 ).— On his life to 1853: 
Nabil Zarandi, Ta'rikh-i Nabil, Eng. trans, by 
Shoghi Effendi, The Dawn-Breakers. History of the 
*arly days of the Bahd'i Revelation, New York 
1932; for the following years, Shoghi Effendi, 
<}od passes by, Wilmette 1945. The death of 
Baha 5 Allah is described in Nabil Zarandi, 
Ta'rikh-i Su c ud-i Hadrat-i Baha? Allah, Cairo 
1 342/1924 (with a Mathnawi of the same author 
on the Baha 5 ! history; containing also Baha 5 
Allah's testament, Kitdbu l Ahdi). 

(A. Bausani) 
BAHA 5 al-DAWLA [see buwayhids], 
BAHA 5 al-DIN al- c AMILI [see al-'amilI]. 
BAHA 5 al-DIN ZAKARIYYA, commonly known 
as Baha 5 al-Hakk, a saint of the Suhrawardi order, 
was born at Kot Karor (near Multan) in 578/1182-83 
according to Firishta. He was one of the most 
distinguished khalifas of Shaykh Shihab al-Din 
Suhrawardi [q.v.] and is the founder of the Suhra- 
wardi order in India. After completing his study of 
the Kur 5 an according to its seven methods of 
recitation at Kot Karor, he visited the great centres of 
Muslim learning in Khurasan, at Bukhara and 
Medina, and in Palestine — in order to complete his 
-study of the traditional sciences. While in Medina 
he learnt hadith with an eminent traditionist, Shaykh 
Kamal al-Din Yamani, and spent several years in 
religious devotions at the mausoleum of the Prophet. 
After visiting the graves of the Israelite prophets in 
Palestine, he reached Baghdad and became a disciple 
•of Shaykh Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi. At this time 
he was, as his master said, 'dry wood ready to catch 
fire', and so after seventeen days' instruction, the 
latter appointed him his successor and ordered him 
to set up a Suhrawardi khanakdh in Multan. He 
lived and worked in Multan for more than half a 
century and his khanakdh — a magnificent building 
where separate accomodation was provided for all 
inmates and visitors — developed into a great centre 
of mystic discipline in medieval India. He died in 
Multan on 7 Safar 661/21 December 1262. 

Shaykh Baha 5 al-DIn's order flourished most 
vigoriously in Sind and the Pandjab, though he had 
attracted some disciples from Harat, Hamadan and 
Bukhara. As a mystic teacher he was known for his 
nafs-i gird (intuitive intelligence) which helped him 
in apprehending and controlling the minds of his 
disciples. He differed from contemporary Cishtl 
mystics in several matters: (i) He did not allow all 
■sorts of people to throng round him. The DJawdliks 
and Kalandars seldom obtained access to him. "I have 
nothing to do with the generality of the public", 
he is reported to have remarked, (ii) He lived in an 
aristocratic way and had granaries and treasuries in 
his khanakdh. (Hi) He did not observe continuous 
iasts but ate and drank in the normal manner. 



(iv) While among the Cishtls the custom of zamin-bus 
prevailed, he never permitted anybody to bow 
before him. (v) He believed in keeping close contact 
with the rulers and the bureaucracy, (vi) He did not 
believe in mystic songs (samd t ). 

Baha 5 al-DIn exercised great influence on mediaeval 
politics. He helped Iltutmish (607-633/1210-1235) in 
establishing his hold over Multan and accepted irom 
him the honorific title of Shaykh al-Islam* In 644/ 
1246 when the Mongols besieged Multan and the 
ruler of Harat joined them, the Shaykh offered 
100,000 dinars to the invaders and persuaded them 
to raise the siege. 

The Shaykh lies buried in Multan in an imposing 
tomb, surmounted by a hemispherical dome and 
decorated with fine enamelled tiles. 

Bibliography: No Suhrawardi accounts of 
Shaykh Baha 5 al-Din Zakariyya were available 
even in the early 16th century when Shaykh 
Pjamall brought into his Siyar al-'-Arifin, Delhi 
1311 A.H. all he could get from the Cishtl sources. 
For originals see, Hasan Sidjzl, FawdHd al-Fu'dd, 
Newal Kishore 1302 A.H., 5, 6, 10, 29 ff.; Hamld 
Kalandar, Khayr al-Madidlis (ed. K. A. Nizanil), 
Aligarh 1956, 131, 137, 283; Mir Khurd, Siyaf al- 
Awliyd, Delhi 1302 A.H., 77, 91, 158; Sayf b. 
Muhammad, Td'rikh-ndma-i Hardt, Calcutta 1943, 
159-58; Diami, Nafahdt al-Uns, Newal Kishore 
1915, 452. See also, c Abd al-Hakk Muhaddith, 
Akhbdr al-Akhydr, Delhi 1309, 26-7; M. GhawthI, 
Gulzdr-i Abrdr (As. Soc. Bengal, Ivanow 98 f 18); 
c Abd al-Rahman Cishtl, Mir'dt al-Asrdr (MS. 
personal collection 494-97) ; Ghulam Mu c in al-DIn, 
Ma'dridi al-Wildyat (Personal collection) Vol. i, 
389-98; E. D. Maclagan, Gazetteer of the Multan 
District, Lahore 1902, 339 f. (K. A. Nizash) 
BAHA 5 al-DIN ZUHAYR, Abu 'l-Fadl b. 
Muhammad b. «AlI al-MuhallabI al-Azdi (gene- 
rally known by the name of al-Baha 5 Zuhayr 1 , 
celebrated Arab poet of the Ayyubid period, born 
5 Dhu 5 l-Hidjdia 581/27 February 1186 in Mecca. 
Whilst still very young, he went to Egypt, where 
at Kus (Upper Egypt) he studied the Kur'an and 
letters, finally settling at Cairo towards 625/1*27. 
Al-Baha 5 Zuhayr was in the service of al-Salih 
Ayyub, son of the sultan al-Kamil, and in 629/1232 
accompanied him on an expedition to Syria and 
Upper Mesopotamia. In 637/1239, whilst returning 
to Egypt after his father's death, al-Salih was 
betrayed by his troops at Nabulus and handed over 
to his cousin al-Nasir Dawud, who imprisoned him. 
The poet remained faithful to his master in adver- 
sity and spent sometime at Nabulus. When al- 
Salih ascended the throne of Egypt, he appointed 
him wazir and showered honours upon him. In 
646/1248, he is to be found at al-Mansura at the 
side of his sovereign, who was fighting against the 
seventh Crusade (St. Louis). As the result of a mis- 
understanding, the poet fell into disgrace, and, in 
the death of his master, went to Syria, where he 
addressed his best panegyrics to the sovereign of 
Damascus, al-Nasir YOsuf, but without success. He 
returned to Cairo a disappointed man; there he 
experienced solitude and poverty, and died in 656/ 
1258. 

His Diwdn, preserved in Paris (MS 3173 of the 
B.N.) and elsewhere, and edited in Cairo (1314), 
is known. Palmer produced a fine edition with an 
English translation. In this Diwdn he is shown 
as being a poet very often sincere and a true musi 
cian in verse. His choice of words, of form, manner 
and metre, the effects of rhythm and harmony, 



BAHA> al-DIN ZUHAYR — BAHADUR SHAH I 



everything shows a very mature taste. Without 
rejecting the poetics of his time or his rhetoric with 
its numerous figures, the poet in him scarcely allows 
a glimpse of the rhetorician. 

Bibliography: Ibn Khallikan, Bfllak, 1299, i, 
345; Ibn al-'Imad, Shadhardt, Cairo 1351, v, 276; 
SuyutI, Muhddara, Cairo 1299, i, 327; MakrizI, 
Suluk, Cairo 1934, 334; E. H. Palmer, The Diwdn 
of Baha? al-Din Zuhayr, Cambridge 1876; S. 
Guyard, he Diwdn de Bahd' ad-Din Zoheir, Varian- 
ts au texte arabe, Paris 1883; Mustafa al-Sakka, 
Tardjamat Bahcf al-Din Zuhayr, Cairo 1 347/1929; 
Mustafa c Abd al-Razzak, al-Bahd' Zuhayr, Cairo 
1935; Jawdat Rikabi, La polsie profane sous Us 
Ayyubides, Paris 1949; Brockelmann, I, 264, S I, 
465. (J- Rikabi) 

BAHA> al-HA|£$ [see baha 5 al-din zakariyya 5 ]. 
BAHADUR. A word common to the Altaic lan- 
guages, equally well represented in Turkish, Mongol 
and Tunguz dialects. Its adjectival meaning is 
"courageous, brave", but it is universally used as 
a substantive with the meaning "hero". It also fre- 
quently occurs as a surname and an honorific title. 
The earliest occurrence is in the Chinese history 
of the Sui Dynasty, written in the early 7th century. 
The Chinese transcription ^ ^ Rjjj mo-ho-to 
suggests a trisyllabic 'bayatur which, transcribed 
PocYOtToiSp, was in use also among the Proto-Bul- 
ghars in the 9th century. An Uyghur runic ms. 
which could originate in the 8th-ioth centuries has 
bdtur and it is this bisyllabic form which is general 
in Turkish dialects, e.g. Osmanli batur, Kazakh, 
Bashkir batir, Ozbek botir, Tuvin mddir, Chuvash 
pattar, etc. Some Turkish dialects have the trisyl- 
labic form, e.g., Coman bayatur, but it is possible 
to see in them borrowings from Mongol. Beside the 
form already mentioned, Ozbek has also baqodir. 
The word is attested in the earliest Mongol docu- 
ments (13th century), always in the trisyllabic form, 
though the Chinese sources of the Mongol epoch 
usually transcribe ^ ^ pa-tu for bddu[r]. 
Classical Mongol has bayatur, and variants exist 
probably in all the dialects, e.g. Kalmuck bdtr, 
modern literary Khalkha bataar, Monguor Bdthif. 
Among Tunguz forms one could mention Manchu 
baturu, Evenki bahatir, Even bdgtir and bukalir. 

It is impossible to state the directions in which 
borrowings were made, but it seems probable that 
either the Turkish or the Mongol trisyllabic forms 
were original, and that the Tunguz forms are, ori- 
ginally, Mongol loan-words. Inter-borrowings within 
the same group must have b«>en frequent. 

Bahadur is, clearly, a word of civilisation. It tra- 
velled far into the north and can be met in various 
Samoyede and Finno-Ugrian languages, in Siberia 
as well as in Europe, e.g. Ostiak matur, Hungarian 
bitor (nth century). These, and some of the Sla- 
vonic forms, e.g. Russian bogatir are borrowings 
from Turkish or Mongol. Persian bahddur, borrowed 
from Mongol, had a wide-spread use as a title or 
a surname among Muslim dynasties. As it was also 
used by the Great Mughals, it penetrated into Anglo- 
Indian, in the stnse of a "haughty or pompous per- 
sonage, exercising his brief authority with a strong 
sense of his own importance" (Yule, Hobson-Jobson). 
The word found its way into Western European 
sources. Roger, Canon of Varad, writing in 1244, 
gives Bochetor as the name of one of the Mongol 
generals taking part in the campaign against Hun- 
.Encyclopaedia of Islam 



giry. The Portuguese ambasador to Timur, Clavijo 
(1404), has Bahadur. (D. Sinor) 

BAHADUR KHAN [see farukI]. 
BAHADUR fiHAH [see nizah shah]. 
BAHADUR SHAH I. Muhammad Mu'azzam 
was the second son of the Emperor Awrangzib 
c Alamgir by his second wife Rafcmat al-Nisa', 
Nawab Bal, daughter of Radja Radju of Radjawri in 
Kashmir. She was also the mother of Prince Muljam- 
mad Sultan, who died in prison, 1087/1676, and 
Badr al-Nisa 1 Begum (1647-1670), who was a tfdfiz. 
She died in 1691. Mu'azzam was born at Burhanpur 
in the Deccan on 30 Radjab 1053/14 October 1643. 
His full titles were: Abu Nasr Sayyid Kutb al-DIn 
Muhammad Shah c Alam Bahadur Shah Badshah. 
From the time of his elder brother's defection to 
Shah Shudja 5 in 1068/1658 he was the prospec- 
tive heir apparent, and was regarded as such on 
Muhammad Sultan's death in 1087/1676 In Sha'ban 
1086/October i675 he received the title of" Shah 
c Alam. 

From 1663 he was actively employed by his 
father in the Deccan and against the Kingdom of 
Bidjapur. In 1093/1683-4 he led an army through 
the Konkan to Goa, then being besieged by the 
Maratha radja Shambadji. But having fallen out with 
the Portuguese, he found his supplies cut off and 
made a disastrous retreat. He was then employed 
against Bidjapur and the Kutb Shahi dynasty of 
Golkonda. Awrangzib, already suspicious of Prince 
Mu'azzam's lack of rancour against his rebel son 
Akbar, interpreted an attempted mediation between 
his father and Abu '1-Hasan of Golkonda as a plot 
against himself. Mu c azzam, now known as Shah 
'Alam, was arrested with his sons on 4 March 1687. At 
first treated with great rigour, the Prince found the 
severity of his treatment gradually relaxed, until in 
April 1695 he was released and appointed §ubaddr 
of Agra. In 1699 he became governor of Kabul 
province which he held at the time of his father's 
death, his eldest sons holding Tattha and Mulfan. 
On receiving the news of his father's death on 
18 Dhu '1-Hidjdja 1118, 22 March 1707, Prince 
Mu'azzam moved with great speed. He proclaimed 
himself by the title of Bahadur Shah when near 
Lahore, offered to honour his father's will by leaving 
his brother A'zam Shah the Deccan provinces, and 
arrived near Agra on June 12. On 18 Rabi c I 1119/ 
18 June 1707, A'zam Shah and his son Bldar Bakht 
were killed in a great battle near Jajau and Bahadur 
Shah was master of the empire. Kam Bakhsh, the 
youngest son of Awrangzib, was defeated and killed 
near Haydarabad, Deccan, on 3 Dhu '1-ka'da 1120/ 
13 January 1709. 

The short reign of Bahadur Shah was occupied 
by three problems, the Marathas, the Radjputs and 
the Sikhs. On the advice of Dhu '1-Fikar Khan. 
Shahfi, the grandson of ShiwadjI, was released and 
sent back to Maharashtra with a Mughal mansab 
of 7000. His arrival there provoked a civil war 
between his supporters and those of Tara Bal, the 
regent widow of his uncle Radja Ram. 

In the cold weather of 1707-8 Bahadur Shah 
regulated the succession of Amber and reduced the 
Radjput Radja of Jodhpur to submission. But while 
campaigning against Kam Bakhsh the revolt flared 
up again. On his return in 17 10 the emperor found 
himself confronted with a Sikh rebellion and had to 
make a compromise settlement with the Radjputs. 
The last Sikh giru, Govind Singh, was a supporter 
of Bahadur Shah, but was murdered in the Deccan 
in 1708. The Sikh revolt in the north was then 



BAHADUR SHAH I — BAHADUR SHAH GUDJARATI 



revived by a man known as Banda who killed Wazlr 
Khan, seized Sirhind and terrorised the east Pandjab. 
Bahadur Shah stormed Lohgarh and defeated but 
did not capture Banda in 1710-11. The last few 
months of his life were spent in Lahore where he died 
on 20 Muharram 1124/27 February 1712. The 
throne was immediately disputed between his four 
sons, Mu'izz al-Din Djahandar Shah, 'Azim al-Shan, 
Rafl c al-Shan and Djahan Shah, the first of whom 
was successful. 

Irvine describes Bahadur Shah as "although not 
a great sovereign .... a fairly successful one". He 
was courteous, learned, pious, brave, capable and 
equable in temper. He was generous and found it 
difficult to refuse a request, a trait which earned him 
the nickname of bi-hhabar or heedless one. Not much 
is known of Bahadur Shah's family life, but the 
names of three wives have survived: Mihr al-Nisa 
Begum, who accompanied her husband's body to 
Delhi, 'Aziz al-Nisa Khanum and Nur al-Nisa 
Begum. 

Bibliography: 'Abd al-Hamid Lahurl, Pad- 
shdh-ndma (in the Bibliotheca India, Calcutta 1878) ; 
Muhammad Sakri Musta c idd Khan, Ma'dsir-i 
'Alamgiri, (in the Bibliotheca Indica, Calcutta 
1871); Danishmand Khan 'All, Qiang-ndma, 
lithographed, Naval Kishor Press; Danishmand 
Khan, Bahadur Shdh-ndma, Brit. Mus. Or. Ms. 24; 
Bhlm Sen, Dilkusha, Brit. Mus. MS. Or. 23; 
Kamradj, A Ham al-Hanb, Brit. Mus. MS. Or. 1899; 
Djagdjiwan Das, Muntakhab al-Tawdrikh, Brit. 
Mus. MS. Add. 26, 253; Iradat Khan Wadhih, 
Memoirs, in Jonathan Scott, History of the Deccan 
(1794), Vol. ii, part 4; Muhammad Kasim Lahori, 
'Ibrat-nama, Brit. Mus. MS. Or. 1934; Kamwar 
Khan, Tadhkira-i Sald(in-i Caghatdy, vol. ii, Roy. 
Asiatic Soc. MS. xcvii; Khafl Khan, Muntakhab 
al-Lubdb (Bibliotheca Indica); Khushhal Cand, 
Nadir al-Zamani, Konigliche Bibliothek, Berlin 
MS. 495 ; Muhammad 'All Khan, Ta'rikh-i Muzaf- 
fari, Brit. Mus. MS. Or. 466; Warid, Muhammad 
Shafl', Mirdt-i Wdriddt, Brit. Mus. MS. Add. 6579; 
W. Irvine, The Later Mughals, vol. i, Calcutta 1921 ; 
V. Sarkar, History 0/ Awrangzib, vol. iv, 2nd ed., 
Calcutta 1925; The Cambridge History of India, 
vol. iv, ch. ix, Cambridge 1931. 

(T. G. P. Spear) 
BAHADUR SHAH II, the last Mughal Emperor 
of India. He reigned as titular sovereign from 1253/ 
1857 toi274/i857Hewasin fact, a pensionary of the 
East India Company, his actual authority being 
restricted to the limits of the Red Fort or Kal'-a-i 
mu'-alld of Delhi. Mughal authority, by virtue of 
which the British held Bengal from 1765, was never 
formally disowned by them, but the Charter Act of 
1833 asserted British sovereignty over British held 
territories in India. On May n, 1857, Delhi was 
seized by mutinous troops from Meerut who 
compelled the unwilling Bahadur Shah, then nearly 
82, to accept nominal leadership of the revolt. After 
four months of unenthusiastic headship he retired to 
HurnSyun's Tomb on the assault of Delhi by the 
British in September. With his favourite wife Zinat 
Mahal and their son MIrza Djewan Bakht he sur- 
rendered to Lieut. Hodson on a promise of his life. 
After much indignity and a trial of doubtful legality 
he was exiled by the British Government to Rangoon 
in Burma, where he died on 13 Djumada I 1279/ 
7 November 1862. Descendants of his are still to 
be found there. 

Bahadur Shah was born on 27 Sha'ban 1189/24 
October 1775. He was the second sou of Akbar 



Shah II (1221-1253/1806-1837) and Lai Bai. 
He was eleventh in direct succession from the 
emperor Babur. In 1827 he was described as "the 
most respectable, the most accomplished of the 
Princes" by Charles Metcalfe, then Resident of Delhi. 
He had a tall spare figure, a dark complexion 
with strongly marked aquiline features. Like his 
grandfather Shah 'Alam, he was a poet of some 
note, using the pen-name of Zafar. The poet Dhawk 
was his literary preceptor and Ghalib attended his 
Court. His plaintive ghazals were long current in 
Delhi. He was also a calligrapi.er and musician of 
merit, and showed taste in repairing buildings and 
laying out gardens. His full title was Abu '1-Muzaffar 
Siradj al-Din Muhammad Bahadur Shah. 

Bibliography : Parliamentary Return No. 162 
of 1859, East India (King of Delhi); Evidence 
taken before the Court appointed for the Trial 
of the King of Delhi, London 1859; J. W. Kaye 
and G. B. Malleson. History of the Indian Mutiny 
ed. 1897, vols ii and iv; M. Garcin de Tassy, 
Histoire de la Litterature Hindouie et Hindoustanie, 
Paris 1871, vol. iii, 317 ff.; R. B. Saksena, History 
of Urdu Literature, Allahabad 1927, 96-7; T. G. P. 
Spear, Twilight of the Mughuls, Cambridge 1951. 

(T. G. P. Spear) 
BAHADUR SHAH GUDJARATt, sultan of 
Gudjarat 932/1526-943/1537. Second son of Muzaffar 
Shah II (917/1511-932/1526), Bahadur Shah, on bad 
terms with his elder brother Sikandar, left Gudjarat 
in 931/1525 and, travelling via Citor and Mewat to 
the court of Ibrahim Lodi was present, as an 
onlooker, at the battle of Panipat between the 
sultan of Dihli and the Mughal Babur. 

Hearing of the death of his father and the accession 
of Sikandar, Bahadur Shah hastened towards 
Gudjarat to be greeted at Citor with the news of 
the assassination of Sikandar by Khwush Kadam, 
'Imad al-Mulk. Rapidly gaining support from the 
Gudjarati Muslim nobles, Bahadur Shah asrumed 
the insignia of the sultanate at Anhalwara-Patan on 
26th Ramadan, 932/6th July 1526. 

Bahadur Shah was the last vigorous sultan of 
independent Gudjarat. In 935/1528 he attacked 
Burhan Nizam Shah of Ahmadnagar in alliance 
with Muhammad II of Khandesh and 'Ala al-DIn 
'Imad al-Mulk of Berar occupying Ahmadnagar in 
936/1529. The Nizam Shah appears to have accepted 
the overlordship of Gudjarat until 938-9/1532 at 
least, but statements in the Arabic and Perrian 
histories that he read the khufba and struck coins 
in the name of the Gudjarat sultan have not found 
corroboration in the discovery of such coins. 

In 937/i53i Bahadur Shah attacked Mahmud II 
of Malwa, occupying Mandu. In 938/1532-3 he 
captured the Radjput strongholds of Ujjain, Bhilsa 
and Raisin together with their chief Silhadi. In 
Ramadan 941/March 1535 Gudjarat forces, at the 
second attempt, captured Citor. 

Meanwhile ' however, in the autumn of 941/1534 
war had broken out between Bahadur Shah and the 
Mughal Humayiin; Bahadur Shah had given refuge 
to the Lodi Afghans and to Muhammad Zaman 
MIrza son-in-law to Babur, who had escaped from 
confinement by Humayiin in the fort of Bayana. 

Defeated by the Mughals at MandasSr and Mandu, 
and with much of his treasure captured by HumayQn 
at the fall of Campanir in Safar 942/August 1535, 
Bahadur Shah turned to the Portuguese for help. 
In 937/1531, the Portuguese, under Nuno da 
Cunha, governor of Goa, had been defeated in their 
attempt to capture DIw. In Djumada II 941/ 



BAHADUR SHAH GUDJARATl — BAHA'IS 



915 



December 1534, however, in return for a promise to 
aid Bahadur Shah against the Mughals, the Portu- 
guese obtained Bassein and in Rabl c II/October 1535 
the right to build a fort at DIw where Bahadur 
Shah himself had taken refuge. The nominal Portu- 
guese assistance to the Gudjarat sultan did not 
prevent Humayun from capturing Bahadur Shah's 
capital of Ahmadabad. 

Humayun's withdrawal from Gudjarat in 942/1536 
to face the threat from Sher Khan enabled Bahadur 
Shah to recover most of his dominions from the 
now disunited, dispersed and disaffected Mughal 

Bahadur Shah then turned to recover the rights 
surrendered to the Portuguese at DIw. In an 
atmosphere fraught with mutual suspicion of bad 
faith, Bahadur Shah rashly visited Nuno da Cunha 
on his flagship at DIw and, hurriedly returning to 
the shore after sensing treachery, was slain by the 
following Portuguese forces. His death occurred on 
3 Ramadan 943/13 February 1537. 

Bibliography: Firishta, ii, 203-n, 416-7, 
420-43; Abu '1-Fadl, Akbar-nama, i, 126-46; 'Abd 
Allah Muhammad b. 'Urnar al-Makki al-Asafl 
Ulugh KhanI, gafar al-Walih bi muzaffar wa 
Alih, 3 Vols. ed. E. D. Ross, London, 1910-1928, 
iii, index, xxxiv; Sikandar b. Muhammad Man- 
djhu, Mirat-Sikandari, Bombay (lith.) 1890, 
188-259; Mir Abu Turab Wall, Ta'rikh-i Gudiardt, 
ed. E. D. Ross, Calcutta 1909, 1-35; Nizam al-DIn 
Ahmad, Jabaltdt-i Akbarl, iii, Calcutta 1935, 
193-234; C A1I b. 'Aziz Allah Tabataba, Burhdn-i 
Ma'dthir, Haydarabad (Delhi printed) 1936, 
270-281 ; HadjdjI Khalifa, Tuhfat al-Kibdr fi Asfdr 
al-Bihdr, trans. J. Mitchell, London, 1831, 65-66; 
Caspar Correa, Lendas da India, 4 vols., Lisbon 
1858-1864, index, 10 under Badur (Sultao, rei de 
Cambaya) ; Fernao Lopez de Castanheda, Historia 
da descombrimento e conquista da India pelos 
Portuguezes, Lisbon 1833, Bk. viii, Chs. xxix- 
xxxiii, 69-85, lxxii, 180, lxxxiiii, 204, xciii-cii, 
225-246, cxxi, 285, cli-cliiii, 349-357, clxiiii-clxv, 
384-390; Jo3o de Barros, Decadas da Sua Asia, 
Lisbon 1777-8, index under Badur Chan ou 
Soltao Badur, 26; Diogo de Couto, Da Asia, 
Lisbon 1779-1788, index under Badur (Soltao), 47; 
Bombay Gazetteer, (Gudjarat) I, i, Bombay, 
1896, 347 If.; M. S. Commissariat, History of 
Gujarat, i, 1938. On the embassy which he sent in 
1536 to Istanbul, accombanied by the Lodi prince 
Burhan Beg, see Hammer-Purgstall*, ii, 156-7. 

(P. Hardy) 
BAHA'I MEtfMED EFENDI, Ottoman jurist 
and theologian. Born in Istanbul in 1004/1595-6, 
he was the son of e Abd al-'Aziz Efendi, a Kadl- 
'asker of Rumelia, and the grandson of the historian 
Sa'd al-DIn. Entering upon the cursus honorum of 
the religious institution, he became mudarris and 
molla and was appointed kadi first in Salooica and 
then, in 1043/1633-4, in Aleppo. A heavy smoker, 
ho was reported by the Beylerbey Ahmed Pasha, 
with whom he was on bad terms, and in 1044/1634-5 
was dismissed and exiled to Cyprus as a punishment 
for what was then regarded as a serious offence. 
Towards the end of 1045 (early 1636) he was par- 
doned and in Muh. 1048/May-June 1638 appointed 
Molla of Syria; in Safar 1054/April 1644 he was 
transferred to Edirne, and in Rab. I 1055/May 1645 
became Kadi of Istanbul. After brief terms as 
Kadl-'askcr of Anatolia and of Rumelia, he was 
appointed Shaykh al- Islam for the first time in 
Radjab 1059/July-Aug. 1649. According to the pre- 



judiced evidence of his rival Karacelebizade, he was 
chosen because he was so enfeebled by excessive 
indulgence in narcotics that the Grand Vezir and 
the Sultan Walide thought they would be able to 
do as they pleassd with him. His subsequent vigour, 
and his firmness in resisting certain of their demands, 
give the lie to this accusation. The favour which 
he showed to the Mewlew! and KhalwatI orders soon 
brought hur into conflict with the orthodox religious 
party, which also objected to his approval of tobacco 
and coffee and his toleration of the dervish list of 
music and dancing. His fall, however, was due not 
to their efforts but to other causes. In Djum. I 
1061/April-May 165 1, in the course of a dispute 
which arose out of a question of jurisdiction involving 
the British Consul and the Kadi of Izmir, Baha'I 
Efendi placed the British ambassador in Istanbul 
under house arrest. For this breach of diplomatic 
usage he was dismissed and exikd to Midilli. He 
remained, however, at Gelibolu and Lampsaca, and 
was reinstated in Uam. 1062/Aug. 1653; he continued 
in office until his death, of .1 quinsy, on 13 Safar 
1064/3 Jan. 1654. He was buried in Fatih. 

Baha'I was known both as a poet and as a scholar, 
and left a number of poems and fetwas. His best- 
known ruling was that in which he pronounced smok- 
ing lawful, thus ending the prohibitions and re- 
pressions of the early 17th century. He was himself 
a heavy smoker, and his contemporary HadjdjI 
Khalifa remarks of him that had it not been for this 
self-indulgence he might have become one of the 
most eminent scholars of the country. Baha'i's 
authorisation of smoking, however, was due, ac- 
cording to HadjdjI Khalifa, not to his own addiction 
but -to a concern for what was best suited to the 
condition of the people, and to a belief in the legal 
principle that the basic rule of law is licitness (Ibdha 
asliyya). 

Bibliography: Na'Ima, years 1059, 1061, 1062, 
1064. HadjdjI Khalifa, Milan al-Hak$, Istanbul 
1290, 42-3 (= The Balance of Truth, tr. G. L. 
Lewis, London ^57, 56-7) ; Ahmed Rif'at, Dawhat 
al-MashdSkh, Istanbul n.d., 55-7; Hlmiyye Sdlnd- 
nusi, Istanbul 1334, 458 (with specimens cf his 
handwriting; 'Othmdnli Mu'ellifleri ii, 101; 
Sidjill-i 'Othmdni, ii, 29; Hammer-Purgstall, in- 
dex; I. H. Uzuncarslli, Osmanli Tarihi, iii/i, 
Ankara 1951, index; Gibb, Ottoman Poetry, iii, 
294-7. A rumber of his rulings are included in the 
Ottoman frdnilns published in MTM i. 

(B. Lewis) 
al BAHA'I [see al-'amil!]. 

BAHA'IS, adherents of the new religioi which 
was founded by Baha' Allah [?.».], and of which 
the forerunner, according to Bahal doctrine, was 
the B3b [?.».]. The foremost authority on the Bahal 
religion, and its disseminator in Europe and America, 
was e Abb5s Efendi, the eldest son of the founder, 
better known among the Bahals as e Abd al-Baha' 
(Servant of Baha'). Born on 23 May 1844 at Tehran, 
he accompanied his father on bis journeys and in 
his exile, and at his death was recognised by the 
great majority of the Bahals as the authorised 
exponent and interpreter of his father's writings 
Centre of the Covenaut and "Model of Bahal Life", 
in accordance with Baha' Allah's will (Kitdb MWi); 
this will, however, was contested by 'Abd al-Baha''s 
brother Muhammad 'All, who stt up a rival group 
within the Baha 3 ! organisation and contrived to 
compromise his brother with the Ottoman authorities, 
who were hostile to the Bahals. He was released 
frorr prison in 1908 under the amnesty granted by 



916 BA 

the new Ottoman Government of the Young Turks, 
and in 1910 began his three great missionary journeys. 
The first was to Egypt (1910), the second to Europe 
(Paris and London, 1911), and the third to America 
and Europe (1912-1.3). From New York he made 
his way across the entire United States in eight 
months to Los Angeles and San Francisco, stopping 
in the main towns and preaching in evangelical 
churches, synagogues, masonic halls, etc. In Sep- 
tember 191 2 he returned to Europe, and from Eng- 
land went again to Paris, then to Germany, Austria 
and Hungary. Finally at the end of 1913 he returned 
from Paris to Palestine. The first Banal group in 
America had formed as early as 1894, and on 10 
December 1898 the first American Bahal pilgrims 
arrived at Acre. 'Abd al-Baha>'s journey, one of 
the objects of which had been to counter the pro- 
paganda of his brother's supporters, also notably 
strengthened the community of American adherents. 
In addition to this he formed Banal groups in the 
European countries he passed through. In 1920 the 
British Government appointed him Knight of the 
Order of the British Empire. He died on 28 Novem- 
ber at Hayfa and was buried beside the Bab, in 
the great mausoleum which was completed in 
1957. In his will he had appointed Shoghi Efendi 
(Shawki Efendi) Rabbani, the oldest of his grand- 
sons (the eldest son of bis eldest daughter) as "Guar- 
dian of the Cause of God" (Wali-yi Amr Allah). 
Shoghi Efendi, who died on 3 Nov., was born at 
Hayfa in the last years of the last century. He stu- 
died at Oxford and in 1936 married the American 
Mary Maxwell, who took the name Ruhiyye Kha- 
num. From 1923 onwards he lived in Hayfa in Israel, 
the world administrative centre of the faith. 

The Bahal religior, while it claims to be "scienti- 
fic" and opposed to dogma, has more clearly de- 
fined theological, philosophical, and social doctrines 
and forms of worship than some Orientalists have 
thought. I give them briefly below on the basis of 
the sources cited in the bibliography. 

Religious doctrines. 1. God. A completely trans- 
cendent and unknowable entity. "Every road to 
Him is barred". The Bahals are opposed to mystic 
pantheism. Mystics have only given form to their 
own imaginings. "Even the loftiest souls and the 
purest hearts, however high they may fly in the 
realms of science and mysticism, can never pass 
beyond that which has been created inside them- 
selves" (ma khulifia fi anfusihitn bi-anfusihim) 
(Lawh-i Salman). 

2. Creation. The unknowable essence of God 
makes itself manifest and creates that which is not 
God. The Bahal idea of the beginning of things 
falls between that of creation and that of emanation. 
We could speak of eternal creation-, seeing that the 
Banal texts tend to keep the term khalk (crea- 
tion), but at the same time maintain that since 
the attribute of khdlik (creator) is co-eternal with 
God, there has never been a time when the 
world did not exist. Thus the world is eternal 
(Lawh-i Ifihmat). 

3. A special form of the manifestation of God is 
that which features in the Prophets (The Bahal 
technical term is ma?dhir-i ildhiyya, divine mani- 
festations, rather than rusui or anbiyd). Thus the 
concept of hulul (incarnation in the full sense of 
the word) is not accepted. In this connexion the 
letter of Baha> Allah to Nasir al-DIn Shah (Lawh-i 
Sul(dn) is particularly interesting, as is the Kitdb 
al-Shaykh, in which he describes his own mystic 
experience in the prison of Siyah Cal at Tehran. 



The Prophet has two differing conditions: he is a 
man, but also a very clear mirror in which God is 
reflected. Thus in a certain sense it is not wrong 
to call him God, by way of abbreviation. The status 
of such a being as could be called "prophetic" is 
radically different from that of man ; it falls between 
man's status and that of God. According to Baha>I 
doctrine no man, however perfect he may become, 
will be able to attain prophetic status (or better, 
that of "manifestation"), just as no animal, perfect 
as it may be of its kind, can aspire to human status. 
The manifestation of God through the Prophets 
never ceases. The manifestations of the Divine are 
successive. The first prophet is Adam, then come 
the traditional prophets of Judaism, Christianity 
and Islam. Zoroaster also is considered a true pro- 
phet, though the Buddha and Confucius are seen 
rather as great masters of the spiritual life. After 
Muhammad come the Bab (considered by the Bahals 
as a true independent manifestation of God whose 
specific mission lasted only nine years), and Baha 5 
Allah. The Bahals allow that other prophets better 
adapted to advanced stages of human progress may 
come after him, but "not before a thousand years" 
(Akdas). The prophetic periods are grouped together 
in larger cycles; with the Bab the cycle begun by 
Adam ends and the Bahal cycle begins. The latter 
is destined, according to doctrine, to last at least 
500,000 years. It is thus inexact to consider the 
Bahal religion as syncretistic. Although it accepts 
all the prophetic religions as essentially true, it 
claims that it is the one best adapted to the present 
time, and that it includes in itself all its predecessors. 

4. Man. Bahal psychology is somewhat complex. 
'Abd al-Baha 1 (Mufdwidat) distinguishes five types 
of "spirit": animal spirit, vegetable spirit, human 
spirit, the spirit of faith, and the Holy Spirit. The 
spirit of faith is given by God, and alone confers 
true "eternal life" on the human spirit (we are thus 
a long way from a purely philosophical conception 
of the immortality of the soul). "Faith" is essential 
to Bahal spiritual life. The text of the first verse 
of the A kdas runs as follows: "The first commandment 
of God to his servants is knowledge of the Dawn 
of His revelation, and the Dayspring of His Decrte 
(i.e., of the Prophet), who is his appointed Represen- 
tative in the created world (fi '■Ham al-amr w^'l. 
khalk). He who has attained this knowlege has at- 
tained all good. He who knows it not is of the world 
of error, even though he performs all (good) works". 
Faith in God (which, God being by definition un- 
knowable, can only be faith in His manifestation, 
the Prophet) confers immortality on the believer, 
who continues in the worlds beyond his eternal 
journey towards the unknowable Essence of God 
(excessive interest in these worlds on the p?rt of 
Bahals is discouraged; they are explicitly forbidden 
to take part in spiritualist meetings). Paradise and 
Hell are symbols, the first of which stands for the 
true believer's journey towards God, and the second 
the fruitless path towards annihilation of him who 
knowingly rejects the Faith and performs evil works. 
In the context of this progressive view of the world 
beyond Bahals are allowed, and advised, to pray 
for the dead. Equally, the idea of reincarnation in 
this world is firmly rejected. 

On the phenomenon of man Bahal doctrine ac- 
cepts the theory of evolution, not, however, as pro- 
pounded by Darwin, but rather in the traditional 
mystic sense already present in the mathnawi of 
Mawlana Djalal al-DIn Rumi [?.».]. "Man was al- 
ways man throughout his evolution", even though 



he may have passed through a series of stages of 
development. 

Moral and social principles. The Baha'is accept 
the ancient formula attributed to 'All: "All private 
matters belong to the human sphere, all concerns 
of society to the divine". Hence the great emphasis 
in Bahal doctrine on the improvement of society, 
a task which is the charge of the Bahal world 
administration (see below). 

The moral and social tenets of the Bahals are 
classified by 'Abd al-Baha J under the following 
twelve headings: I. Unity of the human race. 2. 
Need for an independent search for Truth. 3. Essen- 
tial unity of all religions. 4. Need for religion to pro- 
mote unity. 5. Need for science and religion to be 
in harmony. 6. Equal rights and duties for the two 
sexes. 7. Opposition to all kinds of prejudice: national, 
religious, political, economic, etc. 8. Attainment of 
world peace. 9. Obligation to provide universal edu- 
cation, accessible to all. 10. Solution on a religious 
basis of the social problem, with the abclition of 
the extremes of excessive wealth and degrading 
poverty. 11. Use of an auxiliary international lan- 
guage. 12. Constitution of an Internationa] Tribunal. 

The forms of administration and organisation which 
we now describe in brief conduce according to the 
Bahals to the realisation of these aims: 

The Baha r i religion has no public ritual, nor any 
sacraments or private rites of a sacred character. 
The only religious duties of the BahSts are: 1. To 
assemble every 19 days on the first day of each Babi 
month (the Bab's calendar was adhered to by 
Baha' Allah) for a communal celebration, called 
by the Western Bahals the "19th day's Feast", 
and by the Persians diydfat-i riiz-i nUzdahum. It 
consists of readings of prayers and sacred texts 
(and even of passages from the Bible, the Rur'an, 
and other sacred texts if desired), followed by deli- 
berations more properly administrative in character, 
when the community's financial affairs are reviewed, 
important announcements are made, etc. A small 
meal is then taken together, "even if nothing more 
than a glass of water", in accordance with the Bab's 
decree. 2. To fast 19 days, i.e., the entire Babi month 
of •Ala 5 , from 2 to 21 March, the Baha 5 ! New Year's 
Day. The fast is of Islamic type, requiring abstention 
from all food and drink, etc., from dawn till sunset. 
3. To practise complete abstention from all alco- 
holic drink. 4. To pray three times a day, morning 
noon, and evening, according to short, set formulae. 
The obligatory prayers (written in Arabic by Baha' 
Allah) may be recited in any language. Some are 
preceded by ablutions, which are much simpler than 
Islamic ablutions, consisting only of washing the 
face and hands and reciting two very short prayers. 

Apart from this the Afrdas lays down precise rules 
for the division of inheritances (a portion of which 
falls to the teachers), levies a tax of 19 per cent on 
revenues, and prescribes numerous other rules and 
penal, civil and religious laws, which are followed 
in part only by the eastern Bahals. Marriage is 
monogamous: although the Aftdas allows bigamy, 
the provision was cancelled by c Abd al-Baha 5 
("Model of Bahal Life", on the basis of an explicit 
declaration by Baha 1 Allah). For a marriage to be 
valid the onsen t of the couple's parents is required. 
Divorce is allowed, but discouraged. 

The controlling bodies of the Baha 1 ! community 
are of two kinds, administrative and instructional, 
the first being made up of elected councils and the 
second of persons and associations appointed from 
above. The two types come together at the summit 



.'IS 917 

of organisation in the person of the Guardian (Wali-yi 
Amr Allah). The administrative bodies are as follows: 
1. The local spiritual assembly (Bayt al-'Adl-i Ma- 
halli). These are formed wherever there are at least 
nine Bahals. They are of nine members elected by 
universal suffrage. Election is considered as an 
act of worship, and the Bahal concept, unlike 
that underlying the electoral system of the parlia- 
mentary democracies, does not imply responsibility 
of the elected towards their electors, since the latter 
are merely instruments of the will of God. Elections 
are held each year during the period from 21 April 
to 2 May (Ridwan festival). At the present time there 
are local assemblies in more than 200 countries 
throughout the world. 2. Where there is a sufficient 
number of local assemblies a "Convention" of 19 
members elected by universal suffrage elects a na- 
tional spiritual assembly (Bayt al-'Adl-i Milli or 
Markazl) also of nine members, not necessarily from 
among its own members but from all adherents of the 
faith. There are at the present time more than twenty 
of these. 3. When sufficient national assemblies have 
been formed their members will elect a universal 
spiritual assembly (not necessarily from among 
themselves but from all adherents). 

This assembly will be calledBay* al-'Adl-i 'Urniimi, 
Universal House of Justice. Its president will be the 
Guardian, by virtue of his office, and for the term 
of his life. The task of the Universal House of Justice 
will be to function as supreme administrative body 
and court, and in addition to frame in accordance 
with the needs of the time laws not laid down by 
the Afrdas or the other writings of the Founder; 
these laws it will have the power to abrogate should 

The jurisdiction of the different Assemblies is ab- 
solute within their sphere of competence and fully 
binding on all believing Bahals, who should in 
theory bring before their Assembly even their pri- 
vate affairs and differences (in the first instance the 
local Assembly would be concerned, subsequently 
the national if the question proved insoluble). 

Alongside these elected administrative systems, 
which are graded from the bottom up, is the in- 
structional system, graded from the top down and 
made up of appointed members. At its head is the 
Guardian, whose powers, however, are interpretative 
only and not legislative. He has legislative powers 
only as a lawful member of the Universal House 
of Justice, on the same basis as the other members. 
The Guardian's position is hereditary, but his eldest 
son is not necessarily appointed his successor. He 
names his successor in his life-time from among' 'he 
members of his family. Immediately below the Guar- 
dian in the instructional order come the "Hands 
of the Cause of God" (Ayadl-yi Amr Allah), of 
whom he appoints a varying number. The "Hands 
of the Cause" elect among themselves a Council 
of nine members whose duty is to assist the Guardian 
and confirm his choice of successor. The Hands of 
the Cause appoint their own subsidiaries in their 
turn, who assist them in their work of instruction 
and dissemination of the doctrine and spirit of the 
Faith ("Auxiliary Boards"). 

The Bahals consider such a complex administra- 
tive system as of divine origin. This system is in 
fact outlined in the Ahdas, with additions and im- 
provements by 'Abd al-Baha 5 , and by the present 
Guardian, Shoghi Efendi, in the matter of appointing 
assistants for the Hands of the Cause. For the Baha'is 
such a system is not merely a means of internal 
administration of the Community's affairs, but the 



9i8 



BAHA'IS — BAHAR 



prototype of the ideal world government of the future, 
which will eventually arise after a long process of 
peaceful evolution. The Bahals do not accept the 
separation of Church and State, but maintain that 
in the absence of priests and sacraments the Bahal 
fusion of religion and administration will take on 
a different character from that of the traditional 
theocracies. Every Bahal is thus formally forbidden 
to belong to a poli'ical party or to secret societies 
and obedience to due authority is obligatory. The 
Bahal religion having a strong pacifist trend, mem- 
bers of the Bahal community are advised to avoid 
military service, at least in lands where conscientious 
objection is recognisul by law. We could also speak 
of a strong trend towards vegetarianism, based on 
a short speech made by c Abd al-Baha', during his 
stay in America, in which he states that he favours 
the creation of a way of life in which it would no 
longer be necessary to kill other living beings for 
food; but he would not force others to accept his 
view. Likewise he speaks critically of hunting. He 
advises strongly against smoking, without formally 
forbidding it. 

Although the Bahals have no public form of wor- 
ship the Akdas recommends the erection of Mash- 
rib al-Adhkdr (literally "place where the uttering 
of the name of God arises at dawn"), a kind of temple 
of circular plan surmounted by a dome cf nine sec- 
tions, and open to the faithful of every creed, all 
being free to pray there as and when they wish. 
'Abd al-Baha 1 emphasises that to every temple 
there should be attached a high school for giving 
instruction in the different sciences, a hospital, an 
orphanage, a dispensary, and other institutions useful 
to society. On 10 May 1912 he himself laid the first 
stone of the Mashrik al-Adhkdr at Wilmette (Illinois), 
on the shore of Lake Michigan hear Chicago. This 
impressive structure cost more than two million 
dollars and was officially consecrated in the presence 
of the Guardian's wife in June 1953. Long previously, 
in 1902, another Mashrik al-Adhkdr had been erected 
at'Ishkabad in what is now Soviet Turkmenistan 
but we have no exact information on the present 
state of this building. Other Bahal buildings are the 
Hazirat al-Kuds (literally Enclosures of Holiness), 
which are administrative centres of no sacred cha- 
racter, and finally the tombs of the Founders, all 
grouped together at the world centre of the Faith 
near Mount Carmel in Israel. The tomb of Baha' 
Allah is at Bahdji and the bodies of the Bab and 
'Abd al-Baha' rest in the great mausoleum called 
Makdm-i A'ld, on the slopes of Mount Carmel. The 
Bahils also consider as sacred localities the Ridwdn 
garden near Baghdad (see Baha' Allah), and the house 
of the Bab at Shlraz, etc. The mausoleum of the 
Bab (Makdm-i A'ld), surrounded by splendid gar- 
dens, is the goal of frequent pilgrimages by European 
and Eastern Bahals. 

It is very difficult to give figures for the numbers 
of professing Bahils in their communities in the 
different countries of the world. The central core is 
in Persia, where different estimates of their number 
vary from more than a million down to about five 
hundred thousand. In the C'ty of Tehran there are 
about thirty thousand. The United States of America 
come next (about ten thousand), and in Europe, 
Germany (one thousand) ; Bahals in other countries 
can be counted in hundreds. In Iran even now (1958 
they are not a recognised religious minority and 
often suffer persecutions of varying severity. Among 
other things they are forbidden to print books and 
newspapers. All official Bahal publications in Persia 



are cyclostyled. Recently (1955-58) great progress 
has been made in Africa (especially Uganda) where 
the number of Bahals exceeds three thousand. 

Bibliography: Apart from the works cited 
under Baha' Allah, see; On 'Abd al-Baha': S. 
Lemaitre, Une grande figure de I' Unite", 'Abdu 
H-Bahd', Paris 1952 ; M. H. Phelps, Lift and tea- 
ching of Abbas Kffendi, London 1912 (German 
trans. Abdu 'l-Baha Abbas, Leben und Lehre, 
Stuttgart 1922); Lady Blomfield, The Chosen 
Highway, London 1940; M. Hanford Ford, The 
Oriental Rose, or the Teachings of Abdul Baha, 
New York 1910. Account of his journey to Europe 
and America: Mahmud Zarkani, Kitdb Badd'i' 
al-.ithdr ft Asfdr Mawld al-Akhyar . . . , Bombay 
1914-1921 (2 vols.). His chief works: Makatib-i 
'Abd al-Baha', Cairo 1910-1921 (3 vols.); al-Nur 
al-Abha fi Mufiwiddt Hadrai 'Abd al-Baha' (re- 
cords of conversations, collected by Laura Clifford 
Barney in Acre), Cairo 1920; (English trans, by 
L. Clifford Barney, Some answered questions, Lon- 
don 1908 ; French trans, by I. Dreyfus, Les Lefons 
de Saint Jean d'Acre, Paris 1929); Khi(abdt-i Mu- 
bdraka-yi Hadrat-i 'Abd al-Baha'' dar Awrupd 
wa-Amrikd, Tehran 99 (Bahal era)/i942; al-Risdla 
al-Madaniyya, Cairo 1329/1911 (a works written by 
'Abd al-Baha' before 1292/1875, English trans, 
by Dawud, The Mysterious forces of civilization, 
Chicago 1918); Djavdb-i Professor-i Almdnl Dr. 
Forel (Reply to Professor Forel), Cairo 1922; Al- 
wdh wa Wasdyd-yi Mubdraka-yi Hadrat-i 'Abd al- 
Baha', Cairo 1 342/1924 (important on the question 
of the succession). — Anthologies: Tablets of 
'Abdu 'l-Baha' ed. Windust, New York 1930 (3 
vols.); The wisdom of 'Abdu 'l-Baha', New York 
1924; 'Abdu 'l-Baha' on Dwine Philosophy, ed. 
Chamberlain, Boston 1918; Selected writings of 
'Abdu 'l-Baha', Wilmette 1942. 

Of the works of Shoghi Effendi, who writes in 
English as well as in Arabic or Persian, the most 
important in English is God passes by, Wilmette 
1945. Noteworthy for its rich and elegant Perso- 
Arabic style is the Lawh-i Karn, Bombay n.d., 
a letter sent to the eastern Bahals on the occasion 
of the first centenary of the foundation of the Faith 
(1944). 

On Bahal doctrine: J. E. Esselmont, Bahd'- 
ulldh and the New Era, London 1923 (with several 
other enlarged editions, the last printed at Wil- 
mette in 1946) ; R. Jockel, Die Glaubenslehren der 
Bahd'i-Reli&on, Darmstadt 195 1 (cyclostyled), 
containing a very large bibliography of eastern 
and occidental works; Abu 'l-Fada'il Gulpava- 
ganl (or Abu '1-Fadl Djarfadhkant) has produced 
interesting and stimulating controversial work in 
Arabic and Persian. We may cite from his writings: 
al-Hudjadj al-Bahiyya, Cairo 1 343/1925 (English 
trans, by 'AH Kuli Khan, The Bahd'i proofs); 
Madjmu'a-yi Rasd'il, Cairo 1 339/1920. 

The Md'ida-yi Asmdni, Tehran 104 (Bahal 
era/1947, (6 vols.), is a vast anthology of the 
Founders' doctrinal writings. 

Miscellaneous statistics and information on the 
life of Bahal communities throughout the world 
are given in the biennial publications sumptuously 
edited in America, The Bahd'i World (12 volumes 
published up to the present time, from 1925 to 
1957). (A. Bausani) 

BAHAR [see kayl]. 

BAHAR, Muh. TaicI (1885-22 April 1951), 
Persian poet and politician, born at Masfehad of a 
family originating from Kashan. In 1904, on the 



BAHAR — BAHDAL 



919 



death of his father, the poet Saburi, Muzaffar al-DIn 
Shah conferred upon him the lahab borne by his 
father, Malik al-Shu'ard'-i Astdna-i Bajawi-i 
Mashhad. From 1906 Bahar joined the camp of the 
Liberals (ahrdr) and his first works appeared in 
al-Habl al- Matin, published in India; moreover he 
very soon started his own review Now Bahar (1909), 
which quickly became famous, firstly at Mashhad 
and then in Tehran, where he established himself 
permanently after a short exile in Constantinople 
(1915-6). Upon his return, he founded a club 
(andjuman) bearing the name Ddnishkada, with the 
review of the same name. He was several time 
deputy in the Madjlis, but retired from political life 
after the coup d'itai of 25 February 1921 and devoted 
himself to the study of the old poets. After teaching 
the science of style at the Teachers' Training College 
and then at the University, he returned to political 
life and was Minister for National Education in an 
ephemeral cabinet (1946); he was also elected 
President of the national section of the Stockholm 
Peace Movement. 

He is considered in Persia to be the greatest poet 
of his time. He is extolled for the charm of his 
intellect, his brilliant qualities as a conversationalist 
and for his gift of impassioned oratory. He 
succeeded in reviving Persian poetry, dormant 
since the Mongols, and in discovering the masters 
of the Saffarid and Samanid periods. He knew only 
his mother-tongue, but that he knew to perfection. 

The work left by Bahar is rich and varied (his last 
works were published in the review Yaghmd 
between 1946 and 1951). It is greatly to be regretted, 
however, that his work on prosody, Tafawwur-i 
Nairn, was not completed and that his diwdn, 
written in his own fine calligraphy, has only been 
printed in part. His main work deals with style and 
was published in 3 volumes from 1942 to 1948. He also 
composed rtsdlas on Firdawsl, Man! and al-Tabarl; 
mantumas (cahdr khifdba, kdrndma-i zanddn); 
translations from Pahlawi and a novel. In addition, 
he wrote a brief history of the political parties, of 
which the first volume alone has been published. 
Finally he collaborated in publishing linguistic works 
and manuals (dastur-i iabdn-i tarsi, 2 vols.) as well 
as in the edition of certain books, {Ta'rikh-t 
Sistdn, Mu&mal al-Tawdrikh via 'l-Kisas, etc.). 
Bibliography: Notice by M. 'All Mazahiri 

giving a resume of his lecture on Bahar; Iradj-i 

Af shar, Nathr-i fdrsi-i mu'dsir, 1 330 ; Sir E. Denison 

Ross, La Prose per sane, la poisie per sane, 1933, Soc. 

des Et. Iran.; T. Rypka, Dljiny Perski . . 

literatury, Prague 1956, index. (B. Nikitini 

BAHAR-! DANESH [see 'inAyat allah $anbO]. 

BAHARISTAN [see njAuI]. 

BAHARLO, name of a Turkish tribe in Pei 
In particular, the name refers to the ruling family of 
the Kara-Koyunlu federation of Turkmen tribes 
(also called BaranI). It is most probable that the 
name ("those of Bahar") is connected with the vil- 
lage of Bahar (Ibn al-Athlr, x, 290: W. hdn, ' read 
Vahir) situated at 13 kms. north of Hamadan. Ac- 
cording to Hamd Allah Mustawfl, Nutha, 107 (Eng. 
transl. 106) the castle of Bahar served as residence 
to Sulayman-shah b. Parcam Iwal, who later be- 
came one of the three chief ministers of the caliph 
al-Musta'sim and was executed by the Mongols of 
Hulegtl khan (2 Safar 656/Feb. 8 1258), cf. Djuwaynl, 
(Annex), iii, 290. See especially the excursus on 
family of Sulayminsfaah by M. QarwtnL ibid., iii, 
453-64- The nisba Iw»1 clearly points to Sulavman- 
Sfaah's connexion with one of the basic Ogfeuz 



tribes: Ivd (or Ivd), see Mahmud Kashgharl, Diwdn 
Lughat al-Turk, i, 56. The reasons of Sulayman- 
shah's expatriation from his principality of Bahar 
to Baghdad are unknown, but there are definite 
indications that even before the arrival of the Mon- 
gols the Iva had spread northwards towards Erbil 
and Maragha. The Khwarazm-shah DjaUl al-DIn 
had to repress their depredations on the roads 
leading to Tabriz (winter 623/1226), see Ibn al- 
Athlr, xii, 302; Nasawl, 126. The presence of an 
Ival is mentioned even in Khilat (627/1230). These 
stages lead us to the region where the Kara-Koyunlu 
federation of tribes wa9 formed. Even the emblem 
on some Kara-Koyunlu coins reminds one of the 
tribal tamghd of the Iva, On the other hand the 
connexion of the Kara-Koyunlu rulers with Hama- 
dan is confirmed by the survival of their epigons in 
those parts. For a long time the region of Hamadan 
was called Kalam-raw-i '■All Shakar, after the name 
of the important Kara-Koyunlu amir. 

At present splinters of the Baharlu tribe are scat- 
tered throughout southern Persia, see Sykes, Ten 
thousand miles, 81, 302. 

Bibliography: See V. Minorsky, The clan of the 
Qara-qoyunlu rulers in Melanges F. KOpriilii, 1953, 
391-5, and BSOAS, 1955, xvii/i, 69-71. 

(V. Minorsky) 
BAHAWALPOR, a town in West Pakistan with 
a population of 60,000, situated near the left bank 
of the river Sutledj, at a distance of about 500 
miles north of Karachi, with which it is connected 
by means of a railway. It has a museum, a library 
and several educational institutions, and is the ad- 
ministrative, commercial and educational centre of 
the region in which it lies. 

Formerly, it was the capital of the Bahawalpur 
state, which was founded by the DaMdpota family 
of Sind. The town itself was founded by the second 
ruler of the dynasty, Muhammad Bahawal Khan, 
in 1748. The ruling dynasty has sometimes been 
called 'Abbasiyya after a certain local ancestor 
'Abbas; the name has nothing to do with the c Ab- 
bSsids of Baghdad or Egypt. The ruling family be- 
came independent of the Afghan kings towards the 
end of the 18th century, and made a treaty with 
the British in 1838. The state had an area of 15.918 
square miles, and stretched for about 300 miles 
along the left bank of the Sutledj, the Pandjnad 
and the Indus, extending into the desert for a mean 
distance of 40 miles. The chief crops were then, as 
now, wheat, rice, cotton and millet, which were 
entirely dependent on irrigation from the boundary 
rivers. According to the census report of 1941, the 
total population of the state was 1,341,209, and the 
majority of the people were Muslims — Pjats, Radj- 
puts and Balucls. The state of Bahawalpur ceased 
to exist as a separate political entity in 1955, when 
it was incorporated in West Pakistan. 

Bibliography: Shahamet 'All, The History of 

BahdwalpUr, London 1848; Bahawalpur State 

(Panjab States Gazeteers, vol. xlv) Lahore 1935; 

Dawlat Ram, Mir'dt Dawlat 'Abbasiyya, Amrit- 

sar 1851; M. 'Aziz al- Rahman, $ubk Sddik 2nd 

ed., 1943 ; M. A'zam Hishiml, Djawdkir 'Abbasiyya 

(Persian; still in MS); C. H. Aitchison, Collection 

of Treaties, Engagements and Sanads relating to 

India, ix, Calcutta 1892. (Sh. Inayatullah) 

BAQDAL b. Uhayf b. Waldja b. Kunafa 

belonged to the clan of the Band rjaritha b. pjanib, 

which was also called al-Bayt or the aristocracy of 

Kalb. A Christian like the great majority of his tribe, 

his chief claim to fame is that he was the fatker of 



BAHDAL — BAHILA 



Maysun, mother of Yazid I. His nomad clan lived 
to the south of the ancient Palmyra, whither Maysun 
afterwards brought the young Yazid, and where the 
Umayyads reunited after the congress of Diabiva and 
the battle of Mardj Rahit. Bahdal was thus the 
founder of the great prosperity of the Kalbites while 
the Umayyad dynasty lasted, though he did not 
himself take an active part in politics. As one of his 
sons was accused of being a Christian under the 
caliphate of Yazid I, Bahdal must have died a 
a Christian, probably before the battle of Siffin, 
in which one of his sons commanded the Kuda'a 
of Damascus, and at an advanced age. His sons 
succeeded him and became the first persons in 
the state; in consequence the partisans of the 
Umayyads were called Bahdaliyya. His grandson 
Hassan, guardian of the sons of Yazid I, after 
the death of Mu'awiya II even dared to cherish 
the project of succeeding him. The undue pre- 
ponderance of the Bahdalites and the Kalbites 
contributed largely to the division of the Arabs 
into two parties, that of Kays and that of Yemen, 
after the battle of Mardj Rahit. 

Bibliography: Tabari, ii, 204, 468, 471, 577; 

Ibn Durayd (ed. Wustenfeld), 316; Hamdsa (ed. 

Freytag), 261, 318-319, 659; Ibn *Abd Rabbihi, 

c Ikd, ii, 305; Dinawari (ed. Guirgass), 184, 275; 

Mas'udi, al-Tanbih, 305 ; A. Musil, Kusair 'A mrd, 

151. (H. Lahmens) 

BAHDlNAN, BadInan, the Kurdish territory to 

the north and north-east of the Mawsil plain. From 

the latter years of the 'Abbasid Caliphate, circa 

600/1200, until the middle of the I3th/i9th century 

the area was a principality ruled from 'Amadiya 

([?.».], Kurdish Amedi). It included c Akra (Kurd. 

Akri), Shush, and the Zebari lands on the Great 

Zab river to the east and Dahuk, and occasionally 

Zakhu, to the west. The principalities of Bohtan 

and Hakari bounded it in the north, and that of 

Soran in the south. 

The eponymous Baha 5 al-DIn family came origi- 
nally from Shams al-DInan (Kurd. Shamdindn. [q.v.]). 
Sharaf al-DIn Bitlisl, Sharaf-ndtna, i, 106 ff., relates 
the history of the principality for two centuries 
from the time of the Timurid Shahrukh to 1005/1596. 
The Amir Hasan, under the aegis of Shah Isma'il 
Safawi, extended his rule to Dahuk and the Sindi 
area north of Zakhu. His son Sultan Husayn was 
confirmed in authority by Sultan Sulayman the 
Magnificent. Husayn's son Kubad was deposed and 
killed by a Mizuri tribal force, but his son Saydi 
Khan regained power with Turkish help. At tl 
beginning of the nth/ 17th century the ruler of A 
dalan, under Shah c Abbas, placed a governor 
'Amadiya for a short time. There is then little record 
of the state for another century. Under Ottoman 
suzerainty the family appears to have reached its 
zenith with the reign of Bahram Pasha the Great, 
1138-81/1726-67. Bahrain's son Isma'il Pasha, 
1181-1213/1767-97, had to cope with his rebellious 
brothers, who established themselves at various 
times in Zakhu and 'Akra. Murad Khan, son of 
Isma'il, was driven from 'Amadiya by his cousin 
Kubad, with the help of the Baban pasha of Sulay- 
maniya. Once again the Mizuri tribe rose to bring 
about the downfall of a Kubad in 1219/1804 and 
c Adil Pasha, son of Isma'U, was confirmed in power 
by the Djalall pasha of Mawsil. He was succeeded 
in 1223/1808 by his brother Zubayr. In 1249/1833 
Muhammad Pasha Kora, the "Blind Pasha" of 
Rawandiz, captured c Akra and 'Amadiya, deposing 
the ruler Sa'id Pasha, and proceeded to take Zakhu. 



Although his sway only lasted a few years the 
Bahdinan family never fully recovered its power 
and in 1254/1838 the area was finally incorporated 
in the sandjak of Mawsil. 

The name Bahdinan is still applied to the area 
occupied by the following great Kurdish tribes: 
Barwari, DdskI, Gulli, Mizuri, RaykanI, SilayvanI, 
Sindi, and Zebari. 

Bibliography: S. H. Longrigg, Four Centuries of 

Modern Iraq, Oxford 1925; Siddik al-Damludji, 

Imdrat Bahdinan al-Kurdiyya, Mosul 1952. 

(D. N. Mackenzie) 

BAHILA. A settled and semi-settled tribe in 
ancient Arabia. The centre of their territory, Sud 
Bahila (Saud? — "corrected" in Hamdani by an 
uninformed copyist into Sawad), extended on both 
sides of the direct route (described by Philby in 
The Heart of Arabia, vol. ii) from Riyad to Mecca. 
It is sufficiently well defined by the localities al- 
Kuway', Djazala = Juzaila, al-Hufayr = Hufaira 
and the mountains al-Katid = al-Djidd and (Ibna) 
Shamami = Idhnain Shamal. The clan Pji'awa 
(Djawa) lived further westward at the western 
foot of the Thahlan = Dhalan and in the south- 
east corner of the later Hima Dariya near the 
Ghani, another group further to the south in the 
oasis of Bisha. To this group may have belonged 
the Banu Umama, guardians of the sanctuary of 
Dh u '1-Khalasa near the neighbouring Tabala. An 
old verse ( c Amir b. al-Tufayl, Suppl. 16.2) runs: 

" I will .... not visit the fair, even though 

Jasr and Bahilah journey thereto to sell their 
wares" (Jasr also in the oasis of Bisha). What kind 
of wares ? Pottery ? — clay was rare in Arabia. 

The genealogy of the tribe is somewhat compli- 
cated: Bahila is 'the mother of one son of Malik b. 
A'sur and, through nikdh al-makt with the other son, 
Ma c n by name, the mother of two of the latter's 
sons and foster-mother of ten other sons. These 
other sons stem from two different mothers. Such 
artifices are familiar to the genealogists. Here only 
their accumulation is remarkable. This accumulation 
points indeed to the local separation of the groups 
of the Bahila and also to a political opposition 
between the two greatest of their clans, the Kutayba 
and the Wa'il. The connexion with A'sur makes of 
the Bahila, who are also called, moreover, Bahila b. 
A'sur, brothers of the Ghani. As we have seen above, 
they were in fact neighbours, of the Ghani. Unfor- 
tunately, the period when the sobriquet Ibna Dukhan 
for both these tribes originated is not certain. The 
Bahila stood partly under the protection of the Kilab 
and partly under that of the Ka'b branch of the 
'Amir b. Sa c sa c a. Only one warrior from amongst 
them is known, al-Muntashir, and this one because 
A'sha Bahila (no. 4) made an elegy over him. We 
know of another episode from ai-Nabigha al-Dia'di, 
no. ix. Both instances lie shortly before the rise of 
Islam. Two documents of the Prophet have been 
handed down in Ibn Sa c d, i. n, 33, the first for 
the Bahilites in Bisha, the second for a chieftain of 
the Wa'il. 

The history of the tribe becomes clear for the 
first time under Islam. Their exodus from Arabia 
was directed predominantly towards Syria (even the 
Bahila in Khurasan came there mainly with troops 
from Syria) and, for the rest, towards Basra. Bahila 
(and Ghani) tribesmen had a substantial share in 
the war of revenge fought by the Kays against the 
Kalb after the battle of Mardj Rahit (cf. Wellhausen, 
Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz, 126). The 
Bahila also developed an abundance of talents of 



all kinds. The most important are the philologist 
al-Asma c I and the general Kutayba b. Muslim. A 
second exodus of the Bahila from Arabia is to be 
distinguished from that of the muhadjiritn — an 
exodus which brought a part of those who had re- 
mained behind in Arabia to the lower Euphrates, 
firstly towards al-Hufayr a short distance before 
Basra; from there they penetrated into the sandy 
tract of al-Taf f, which was situated over against 
the Bata'ih, and after the Zott had settled [in the 
Bata'ih] in 837, they began to infiltrate into the 
Bata'ih. In 871 the Bahila there suffered punishment 
from troops which were on the march to meet the 
Zandj. The result was that the Bahila took the side 
of the Zandj. Nothing more is known about them. 
Hamdani (p. 164) is the last who mentions the 
Bahila in their native territory; yet this passage is 
hardly earlier than the parallel passage about Sud 
(Saud) Bahila (ibid., 147 ff.), the original source of 
which is set by de Goeje in about the year 250/864. 
Before that time there occurred the over-running of 
central Arabia by the Numayr. Only vague traces of 
a change of dwellings the Bahila in central Arabia are 
found in the literature. 

Bibliography: A'sha Bahila, in The Diwdn of 
al-A c shd, ed. R. Geyer; Ibn al-Kalbi, Kitdb al 
Asndm, 36; Ibn al-Kalbi, Djamharat al-nasab, 
Brit. Museum MS, fol. i84r-i86r; NakdHd Djarir 
waH-Farazdak, ed. Bevan, 23,9 and 1028,1 and 
3; M. Frh. von Oppenheim, Die Beduinen, vol. 
iii, Wiesbaden 1952, 14 and 184. (W. Caskel) 
BAHDJAT MUSTAFA EFENDI, Ottoman 
scholar and physician, grandson of the Grand Vezir 
Khayrullah Efendi and son of Kh w adja Mehmed 
Emin Shukuhi. Born in 1188/1774, he entered upon 
the ladder of the religious institution, becoming a 
mtdarris in 1206/1791-2. Specialising ill medicine, 
he rose rapidly, and in 1218/1803 became chief 
physician to the Sultan (HeklmbashI or, more for- 
mally, Re'is-i Etibba-i Sultdni). In 1222/1807 he was 
dismissed from this office, but was reappointed in 
1232/1817. In 1237/1821 he was disgraced and banish- 
ed, but was reinstated in the same year. In 1241/1826, 
after the destruction of the janissaries, he served 
as a member of the palace council presided over by 
Mahmud II. Besides these he also held a series of 
important religious and legal appointments, inclu- 
ding those of Molla of Izmir (1221/1806) and of Egypt 
(1236/1820-1), Kadl- C asker of Anatolia (1237/1821-2) 
and of Rumelia (1247/1831-2). He died in Dh u 
'1-Ka c da 1249/March-April 1834 and was buried at 
(Jskudar. 

Bahdjat Efendi was one of the last physicians of 
the old school, who combined the study of medicine 
with those of theology and law, and its practice with 
an Hlmiyye career. At the same time he was one of 
the pioneers of the new medicine, of European type, 
in Turkey. It was under his supervision, and that 
of his brother the HeklmbashI c Abd al-Hakk Molla, 
that a new hospital and also a new medical school 
were opened, with imported European teachers. He 
is said to have studied European languages under 
the chief dragoman Yahya Efendi, and although 
his own medical work, as exemplified in his Hazdr 
Asrdr, remained largely traditional, he was respon- 
sible for a number of important translations of Wes- 
tern medical and scientific books, including Jenner's 
booklet on vaccination, Buffon's Natural History, 
and other works on cholera, syphilis, and milk-scab. 
His interest in the West was also shown by his Tur- 
kish translation of the history of the French occu- 
pation of Egypt by Al-Djabarti. 



al-BAHILI 921 

Bibliography: Sidfill-i 'Othmdni, ii, 31; '■Oth- 
mdnlt Mii'elli fieri, iii, 209 f; Fatln, Tedhkire 29 f; 
A. Suheyl (Jnver, Osmanli Tababeti ve Tanzimat 
hakkinda yeni Notlar, in Tanzimat, i, Istanbul 
1940, 936-9; A. Adnan-Adlvar, Osmanli Tiirk- 
lerinde Ilim, Istanbul 1943, 194 5; Osman Ergin, 
Tiirkiye Maarif Tarihi, ii, Istanbul 1940, 280 ff^ 
For a contemporary impression see Adolphus 
Slade, Record of Travels in Turkey etc., i, London 
1832, 332-3. (B. Lewis) 

al-BAHILI, c Abd al-Raijman b. RabI c a, i.e. ol 
the Bahila tribe, Arab general, called Dhu '1-Nur 
(Tabari, i, 2663) or, according to Ibnal-Athir {Kdmil, 
ed. Cairo, A.H. 1303, iii, 50), Dh u '1-Nun, from the 
name of his sword. He commanded the van of 
Suraka b. e Amr, who was directed to Darband (Bab 
al-Abwab) by c Umar in 22/642 (Tabari, loc. cit.). 
The main incident reported in the proceedings of 
the Muslims, now in force at the Caucasus for the 
first time, was an interview between c Abd al- 
Rahman b. Rabi'a al-Bahill and the Persian 
commandant at Darband, who made his submission 
(Tabari, i, 2663-2664; cf. 2667, 2669-2671). A treaty 
granted to him, together with 'the inhabitants of 
Armenia and the Armans', witnessed by c Abd al- 
Rahman and Salman b. Rabi'a al-Bahili, his 
younger brother (Ibn l Abd al-Barr, JsW-db, 400), 
is cited by Tabari (i, 2665-2666). On the death of 
Suraka in the same year c Abd al-Rahman succeeded 
to the chief command and received instructions from 
c Umar to proceed northward against the Khazars. 
He advanced through the passes at the east end of 
the Caucasus as far as Balandjar, which seems to- 
have been raided repeatedly within the next few 
years (Tabari, i, 2667-2668; 2890). In 32/652 he was 
again in Khazaria, besieging Balandjar (Tabari, 
i, 2889 ff. ; also 2668 ff.). After sharp engagements 
round the city, the Khazars made a sortie and were 
joined by their other forces. The ensuing battle 
was a total Muslim defeat. c Abd al-Rahman was 
struck down as he tried to rally his men. His 
brother Salman b. Rabi c a took up the standard and 
managed to lead off some of the survivors to Bab 
al-Abwab. The Khazars are said to have preserved 
the body of l Abd al-Rahman and made use of it in 
prayers for rain (Tabari, i 2669, 2890). His defeat and 
death mark the end of the first Arab-Khazar war- 
According to some (Balacihuri, Futuh, 204; Ibn 
Kutayba, Ma'drif, ed. Wustenfeld, 221) Salman b. 
Rabi'a al-Bahili was the Arab general killed at 
Balandjar. 

Bibliography: D. M. Dunlop, The History 
of the Jewish Khazars, Princeton 1954. 47-57- 

(D. M. Dunlop) 
al-BAHILI, Abu Nasr A^mad b. Hatim al- 
Bahili, Arab philogist and author, a pupil 
of al-Asma c I, Abu 'Ubayda and Abu Zayd, belonging 
to the school of Basra, lived first in Baghdad, then 
in Isfahan and finally settled in Baghdad again 
where he died in 231/855. As a rule he followed in 
his works the footsteps of his predecessors and like 
them wrote a book on trees and plants, camels, 
cereals and palm-trees, horses, birds and locusts, of 
which latter he was the first to treat. His works 
on proverbs, on proper names, and on the errors in 
the language of the common people, must also have 
contained many notes of great value to us, but 
unfortunately like all his other writings they have 
perished. 

Bibliography: G. Fliigel, Die grammatischen 
Schulen der Araber, Leipzig 1862, 81; Fihrist, i, 56; 
ZDMG, xii, 595. (J. Hell) 



L-BAHILl — BAtflRA 



al-BAHILI, AL-mjSAYN [see al-susayn al- 

KHALl<]. 

BAQlRA [see bu?ayra]. 

BAJHlRA, a she-camel or a ewe with slit 
ears. The IJur'an and ancient poetry (cf. Ibn 
Hisham, 58) show that the ancient Arabs used to 
carry out certain religious ceremonies with respect 
to their cattle; which consisted firstly in letting 
the animal go about loose without making any 
use of it whatever, and secondly in limiting to 
males permission to eat its flesh (after it had 
died). In the various cases the animals bore spe- 
cial names {Bahira, Sd'iba, WafUa, If ami; on 
these names cf. Wellhausen as cited below). The 
lexicographers are not quite agreed on the point 
in which cases a camel or sheep had its ear slit. 
According to some, it was after it had borne ten 
young ones, according to others when its fifth 
young one was female etc. — The Kur'an abol- 
ished these customs and stigmatised them as 
arbitrary inventions, Sura v, 102: "God has made 
neither bahira nor sdHba, nor wasila, nor hdmi; 
but the unbelievers have invented lies against 
God, and the greater part of them do not under- 
stand"; Sura vi, 139: "and they say: these cattle 
and fruits of the earth are sacred; none shall eat 
thereof but whom we wish (so they say); and 
[there are] cattle on whose backs it is forbidden 
{to ride] etc."; verse 140: "and they say: that 
which is in the bellies of these animals, is only 
for our men and forbidden to our wives; but if 
it be bom dead then both partake of it. He will 
reward them for their attributing [these things to 
him] for He is wise and knowing". 

Bibliography: The commentaries on the 
JCur'anic passages quoted above; Liidn al-'Arab, 
v. 105 ff.; Freitag, Einleitung i. d. Studium d 
arab. Sprache, 238 ff.; Wellhausen, Reste arab. 
Heidentums', 112 ff.; Rasmussen, Additamentn, 66 
of the Arab, text, 60 trans. (A. J. Wensinck) 
BAHlRA. the name of a Christian Monk. 
Ibn Sa'd and Ibn Hisham offer two parallel 
traditions, confirmed by al-Tabari (i, 1123 ff.), 
according to which Muhammad, when either nine 
or twelve years old, whilst accompanying the Mec- 
cans' caravan to Syria, in the company of Abu 
Bakr or Abu Talib, found himself in the presence of 
a Christian monk or hermit, who is said to have 
revealed the young man's prophetic destiny, either 
by finding on him the stigmata of prophecy, or by 
noting the miraculous movement of a cloud, or the 
behaviour of a branch, which persisted in affording 
him shade, irrespective of the course of the sun. The 
recluse acquainted Abu Bakr (or Abu Talib) with 
these marvels, admonishing him to preserve the child 
from the malice of the Jews (Ibn Sa c d) or from the 
violence of the Rum (al-Tabari, third tradition, 
1123). The monk, says Ibn Sa'd, was called Bahira 
(Aram. Bakhira, the elect). Though Ibn Sa'd, coin- 
ciding with al-Tabari, declares that the monk knew 
Muhammad because he had found the announcement 
of his coming in the unadulterated [tabdil) Christian 
books, which he possessed, (this myth in another 
later form in the Pseudo-Wakidl, Kitab Futuk al- 
Shdm, Cairo 1954, 16, 1. 9-12), the Mafdtik al-Qhayb 
of al-Razi (iv, 436, i 30 ff.) says, commenting on the 
word Kasslsin, (Kur'an v, 82), that it meant the 
"Chiefs of the Christians" and that according to 
'Urwa b. Zubayr, it was one of these who remained 
in the authentic tradition of the Gospels, inspite of 
the corruption introduced into them by the other 
Christians, by effacing the announcement of Mu- 



ammad's mission (cf. the long polemic on the word 
faraklif). In 851, in his Risdlat fiH-Radd l ala H- 
Nasdrd, Djahi? (cf. Pellat, in RSO, 1952, 57-8) 
stresses (Finkel, Three Essays, Cairo 1924, 14, 1. 17) 
that the Christians, of whom the passage of the 
Kur'an (v, 82) speaks with benevolence, are not 
members of the Byzantine Church, either Jacobite or 
Melkite, but merely those of the type of Bahira 
or of "the monks who served Salman al-FarisI". 
The outcome of all this was that, both at the end 
of the 2nd/8th century and in the first part of the 
3rd/9th century, the tradition, as it then stood, 
concurred in recognising in the monk Bahira, the 
witness, chosen at the heart of the most important 
scriptural religion, of the authenticity of the Pro- 
phet's mission. Thus Islam provided a remedy for 
the absence of a textual promise concerning its 
founder, and this point, as is known, formed one of 
the essential arguments of the Christian polemic. 

The tradition assumed a material form to the 
extent that the town of Bosra, where the meeting 
is said to have taken place, at a very early date 
showed the "monastery of Bahira", and still con- 
tinues to do so (al-HarawI, Guide des lieux de Pile- 
rinage, ed. J. Sourdel-Thomine, Damascus 1953. 
17; (transl. 43) H. C. Butler, Ancient Architecture 
in Syria, Bosra, 265-270). 

Djahi?'s attitude shows that, for a Muslim of the 
3rd/9th century, Bahira was a historical personage, 
in spite of all the objections raised (Sprenger, ZDMG, 
xii, 238-249). The age at which Muhammad met 
this witness, 12 years of age, is the same as that of 
Jesus at the time of his first supernatural under- 
taking, the discussion with the doctors (Luke ii, 
42-49), and here can be seen an attempt at polemical 

Whilst Bahira is a witness and a guarantor in the 
Muslim tradition, for the Christian polemic against 
Islam, both in Arabic and in Greek, he is the heretical 
monk, whom Muhammad met at the beginning of his 
career, and who became his inspirer and involuntary 
accomplice [Anon, contre Mahomet, in Pair. Graeca, 
civ, 1449b) in the composition of the Kur'an, this 
"false Scripture". The name given him varies ac- 
cording to the authors' sources of information and 
according to their allegiance. c Abd al-MasIh b. Ishak 
al-Kindl calls him Sergius and says that he subse- 
quently had himself called Nestorius (ed. Anton 
Tien, 76-77). Further on, in what appears to be an 
interpolation of the primitive "apologia", this per- 
sonage is duplicated: "Sergius surnamed Nestorius 
and John surnamed Bahira". It must be noted that 
al-Mas'udl {Murudf, i, 146) on the other hand, makes 
a synthesis of the two names Sergius and Bahira. 
The Byzantine polemists after the 3rd/9th century 
knew the name Bahira, which they wrote Baeira 
or Pakhyras (Bart. d'Edesse, in P.G., civ, 1429 ff.). 
Whilst for c Abd al-MasIh b. Ishak al-Kindl he is 
a Nestorian, he is an iconoclast (Ann. de I'Inst. 
de Philologie et Hist. Or., Brussels, iii, 1935, 9) in 
the famous "Apocalypse of Bahira" (R. Gottheil, 
A Christian Baftira Legend, in ZA, 1898-1903). As 
a heretic, he is referred to both as a Jacobite (Ano- 
nymus, in P.G., civ, 1446) and as an Arian (Const. 
Porphyr. De A dm. Imp., in P.G., cvih, 192 = Euth. 
Zigab., P.G., cxxx, 1333 c. Sometimes bis allegiance 
is not specified (Theophanes, in P.G., cviii, 685, b-c = 
Cedrenus, P.G. cxxi, 809 a-b). For all the Christiaa 
authors, his work coincides with what is veracious in 
the Kur'an, whilst all the erroneous statements 
derive from subsequent compilers, such as 'Uthmin 
(Barth. of Edessa, in P.G. en, 1428-32) or even 



BAHlRA — BAHMANIS 



9*3 



contemporaries, perverse Jews ( c Abd al-Mastt), ed 
A. Tien, 77-8, ci. ZDMG, xii, 699-708). 

The Apocalypse of Bahlri, which exists in Syriac 
and Arabic, the textual history of which still re- 
mains to be established, and the chronology of which 
is disputed (cf. G. Levi della Vida and J. Bignami- 
Odier, (see bibl.), 132, no. 3 and 133 no. 1, with 
A. Abel, Ann. Inst. PhU. et Hist. Or. Brussels 1935, 
,iii, 7-9 and Studio. Islamica, ii, 1934, 29 and n.), 
l places the monk in the centre of a pamphlet, which 
assembles the indications of the ancient Danielesque 
apocalypse of the Pseudo-Methodius (Kmosko, in 
Bytantion, 1931, 273-296), and cleverly combines 
them with the Christian arguments on the apocry- 
phal origin of the Kur'an and with the various as- 
pects of the doctrine of the Mahdl (Graf, Gesch. der 
Arab. Christ. Lit., Studi e Testi, Roma, 133, 147-9). 
This work met with success in the Christian circles 
of the Orient, and up till the period of the Crusades, 
which even resulted in its being translated into 
Latin (Levi della Vida and Bignami-Odier, op. cit. 
132-3 and 139-48, M.-T. d'Alverny and G. Vajda, 
in al-Andalus, xvi, 1951, i, 118, 130 ft.). But even 
before the Crusades, the main theme of the false 
prophet inspired by a "wise man" was known in the 
West, as is attested by the work in verse, directed 
against Islam, under the name of Historia Machu- 
meti, attributed to Hildebert (Guy Cambier, Embricon 
de Mayence (1010-1077) est-il I'auteur de la Vita 
Machumetif, Pair. Lot., cxxii, 1343-1366, Latomus, 
3, Brussels 1957 and U. Monneret de Villard, Lo 
Studio dell' Islam in Europa nel xii t xiii secolo, 
Studi e Testi, no, 34-5). 

Bibliography: to be added to the references al- 
ready cited: Sprenger, Ueber eine Handschrift des 
ersten Bandes des Kitdb Tabaqdt al Kabyr vom 
Sekretdr des Wa'qidy, in ZDMG, iii, 453 ff. ; von 
Erdmann, Schreiben des Staatrathes Dr. von Erd- 
mann an Prof. Fleischer, in ZDGM, viii, 557 ff.; 
NSldeke, Hatte Mohammad chrisMche Lehrerl, in 
ZDMG, xii, 699 ff . ; Sprenger, Muhammads Zu- 
sammenkunft mit dem Einsiedler Bahyra, in ZDMG, 
xii, 238 ff.; Carra de Vaux, La Ligende de Bahira, 
ou un moine chrttien autour du Coran, in Revue 
de VOrient Chritien, ii, 1897, 439 ff.; A. Abel, 
L' Apocalypse de Bahira et la notion islamique du 
Mehdi, in Ann. de I' Inst, de PhU. et Hist. Or. 
(Brussels) iii, 1-12; J. Bignami-Odier and G. Levi 
della Vida, Une version latine de V Apocalypse 
syro-arabe de Serge-Bahira, in Melanges d'Archeo- 
logie et d'Histoire (Ec. Franc, de Rome), 1950, 125 ff. 
(remarkable bibliographical information). 

(A. Abkl) 
BAHISHl [see Pjanna], 

BANtZAT al-BADIYA [see Malik HifnI 
NAsif]. 

BAHLtJL (Amir), the name of three notable 
Kurdish figures, according to M. E. ZakI (Mashahir, 
144): 1. A member of the Sulaymaniyya family, 
amir of the Mayyafarikln branch, son of Alwand 
Bey b. Shaykh Ahmad. He was for a long period 
in the service of Iskandar Pasha, the wdli of Diyar- 
bakr. Subsequently, he was for a time in command 
of the fortress al-Iskandariyya (between al-Hilla and 
Baghdad), and after that the sultan Yawuz Sellm 
entrusted to him the stronghold of Mayyafarikln. 
A man of great personal bravery, he perished in a 
fight with §hahsuwar Bey. 2. Son of Amir Djamshld, 
chief of the Dunbull, tribe and resident at Tauris. 
Died in 760/1359. 3. Son of Amir Farldun, also a 
chief of the Dunbull, governor of Tabaristan and 
Daghistan. A contemporary of Shaykh Haydar 



Safawi, and one of his most loyal supporters, he 
fell in the battle between Haydar and Sj[ah J&aUl 
Ak Koyunlu in 880/1475-6 .—There is also a Bahlul 
Pa§ha who was the Turkish governor at Bayazld 
up to 1 236/182 1. He was dismissed in that year, and 
died four years later. Wagner (ii, 297 ff.) devotes 
several pages to him in a commendatory vein. 
Bibliography: M. E. ZakI, Mashahir al-Kurd 
wa Kurdistan, Baghdad 1945; M. Wagner, Reise 
nach Persien und dem Lande der Kurden, Leipzig 
1852. (B. Nikitime) 

BAHLCL LODl [see Delhi Sultanate]. 
BAHMAN [see Ta'rIkhJ. 

BAHMANIS. A line of eighteen Muslim sultans 
who ruled, or claimed to rule, in the Deccan from 
748-933/1347-1527, after a group of Muslim nobles 
led by Ismail Mukh had successfully rebelled against 
the sultan of Dihll, Muhammad b. TugbJuk. The 
more vigorous Hasan Gangu supplanted Isma'Il and 
was proclaimed Sultan 'Ala al-DIn Hasan Bahman 
Shah. (On the latter"s origin see Major W. Haig, 
Some Notes on the Bahmanl Dynasty, ASB LXXIII 
Pt. 1 (Extra No.) 1904, 463; Proceedings of Indian 
History Congress, 1938, 304-8; H. K. Sherwani, 
Gangu Bahmani, in Journal of Indian History, xx, 
Pt. 1, April 1941, 95 ff.). 

Table of the Bahmani sultans. 

(a) Sultans with their capital at Ahsanabad- 
Gulbarga: 

c Ala> al-DIn Hasan Bahman Shah 748/1347 
Muhammad I 759/1358 

«Ala» al-DIn Mudjahid 776/1375 

Dawud I 779/1378 

Muhammad II 780/1378 

Ghiyath al-DIn Tahamtan 799/1397 

Shams al-DIn Dawud II 799,'i397 

Tadj al-DIn FIruz 800/1397 

(b) Sultans with their capital at Muljammadabad- 



Shihab al-DIn Ahmad I 


825/1422 


c Ala> al-DIn Ahmad II 


839/1436 


c Ala> al-DIn Humayun 


862/1458 


Nizam al-DIn Ahmad III 


865/1461 


Shams al-DIn Muhammad III 


867/1463 


Shihab al-DIn Mahmud 


887/1482 


Ahmad IV 


924/1518 


'Ala 1 al-DIn 


927-1521 


Wall Allah 


929/1523 


Kallm Allah 


932/1526 



(Coins and inscriptions suggest the last named roi 
faineant may have lingered in exile claiming the 
throne until 943/1536-7. See E. E. Speight, Coins of 
the Bahmani Kings of the Deccan, in IC, ix, 1935, 
168 ff.; and Inscriptions of BididpUr, Mem. Arch. 
Sur. of India, No. 49). 

During most of its history the Bahmani Kingdom 
was limited to the table-land of the Deccan. Geogra- 
phically, the Vindhya range may be said to be the 
northern edge of Southern India with the Narbada 
river flowing almost parallel to it. But the country 
south of this quasi-barrier may be divided into 
three distinctive parts: (i) Malwa, with its general 
slope towards the West; (ii) the Deccan table-land 
proper which, along with Berar, forms the pivot of 
the lavaic crescent where the ancient undisturbed 
rock begins to extend over the centre of the peninsula ; 
and (iii) what is called "South India" which extends 
from the northern edge of the Mysore plateau and 
the line of the Tungabhadra southwards. The lavaic 
uplands end abruptly in the Western Ghats which 



924 BAH 

have always tended to form a natural limit to the 
ambitions of the rulers of the Deccan table-land. 
Although the Bahmanls early managed to reach the 
sea at Dabul and Cowl they could never rule the 
coastal plain beyond the Ghats effectively, and the 
south-western extremity of this lavaic country, Goa, 
had to be conquered and reconquered a number of 
times. While the table-land has a sheer fall of nearly 
4,000 feet in the West, it has a very gentle slope 
eastward, and it takes more than 300 miles to reach 
the same level as the eastern coast line. It may be 
mentioned here that the importance of Golconda, 
which played such an important part during the 
later medieval period of Deccan history, and with 
it, of Haydarabad, lies in the fact that Golconda 
and a part of Greater Haydarabad stand on the last 
prominent spurs of the table-land before the undulat- 
ing plain begins. The effective southern limit of the 
Bahmani kingdom was the river Tungabhadra, the 
natural geographical limit of the Deccan, but it 
should be remembered that the Krishna — Tungab- 
hadra Doab was always a bone of contention between 
the Bahmanls and their southern neighbours, the 
Rayas of Vidjayanagar in much the same way as it 
had been a bone of contention between the Western 
Calukyas and Rashtrakutas, and between the 
Yadavas and Hoysalas in ancient times. 

The Bahmani sultans continually struggled to 
extend the area of their military and revenue 
paramountcy and this involved them in war 
against the sultanates of Malwa and Gudjarat 
in the north and Vidjayanagar in the south and 
in efforts, complicated by the intervention of 
Vidjayanagar and the Hindu chiefs of Orissa, to 
assert their suzerainty in Telangana, south and east 
of the Godavari. 

In the north, a successful war between Shihab al- 
Dln Ahmad I and Hushang Shah of Malwa over 
Kherla in 832/1428 followed in 834/1430-31 by an 
unsuccessful war against Gudjarat in alliance with 
the Radja of JhalawSr ended in stalemate. In 866/ 
1461-2, Mahmud Khaldji of Malwa, in alliance with 
the Gadjapati Radja of Orissa, Kapilendra, suc- 
ceeded in occupying BIdar itself; the Bahmanls 
were saved by the intervention of Mahmud Shah 
Begada of Gudjarat. War again occurred in 872/1468 
over Mahur and Ellichpur, but although Kherla 
was temporarily occupied by the Bahmani forces, 
a peace, which proved to be lasting, restored the 
status quo ante, between Malwa and the Bahmanls. 

In the south, confict over the fertile Krishna- 
Tungabhadra Doab with Vijayanagar was endemic. 
War occurred in 750,1349. 755/1354, 767/1365, 
800/1398, 808/1406, 823/1420, 825/1422, 847/1443 
and 886/1481 with varying fortunes, and the Doab 
region remaining a no-man's-land between the two 
powers, until after the accession of the Vidjayanagar 
ruler, Krishna Deva Raya in 915/1509, when the 
region was virtually incorporated into the Vidja- 
yanagar dominions. 

In the west, despite Bahmani claims to Dabul and 
Cowl, the Bahmanls were unable to control the 
coastal region west of the Ghats and were impotent 
to prevent continuing depradations by the Radjas 
of Khelna and Sangameshwar, until the wazir, 
Mahmud Gawan, succeeded in occupying Sanga- 
meshwar and Goa in 876/1471 and 876/1472. 

In the east, the Bahmanls raided Telangana 
successfully in the reign of Muhammad I and again 
in 820/1417 and 827/1424 when Warangal was 
captured, and a Bahmani governor established, but 
the local Hindu chiefs could usually rely upon help 



from Orissa. The Orissan general Hamvlra captured 
Warangal in 864/1460, but succession troubles in 
Orissa enabled the Bahmanis in campaigns between 
882/1477-8 and in 885/1480, to extend their hegemony, 
though briefly, to the Bay of Bengal. Telangana was 
then divided into two provinces centring on Warangal 
and Rajahmundry. 

While c Ala> al-DIn Hasan Bahman Shah was the 
founder of the dynasty it was Muhammad I who 
organised it. The central Government was divided 
into three main departments dealing with civil, 
military and judicial matters respectively. The civil 
department was centered in the wakil-i salfanat or 
Prime minister who was assisted by wazirs or 
ministers and dabirs or secretaries. In the same way 
the judiciary consisted of the frddis or judges and the 
muftis or interpreters of law, while peace and 
security of the cities was kept by the kotivdl or 
Commissioner of Police and mufrtasib or the censor 
of public morals. On the military side the Com- 
mander-in-Chief had a number of subordinate 
officers at headquarters such as the officer at the 
head of bdrbarddrdn who mobilised irregular forces 
in times of emergency, the bakhshi or the paymaster, 
the officer in charge of the khdssa khll or the body- 
guard of the sultan, a well-equipped and well-drilled 
force of 4,000 soldiers, and the officer in charge of 
200 yakka-djawdndn or sildhddrdn who handled the 
sultan's personal arms. 

The whole kingdom was divided into four a(rdf or 
provinces and each (araf or province was placed 
under a tarafddr or governor. The (arafddr was 
originally responsible both for the civil and the 
military administration of the province and the 
kil'addrs or commanders of the forts were placed 
under him. The four provinces of the Kingdom were 
centered round Dawlatabad, Berar, Ahsanabad — 
Gulbarga and Muhammadabad — Bidar (which in- 
cluded the small part of Telangana which was under 
the Bahmanis in the beginning). Out of these the 
province of Gulbarga, which was centered round 
the capital of the state, was naturally regarded as 
the most important and its tarafddr was generally 
one who enjoyed the fullest confidence of the ruler. 

The century which followed the establishment of 
the dynasty saw a great expansion of the kingdom 
which finally extended from sea to sea, and 
Mahmud Gawan, who was now wazir, set to work 
not only on the redivision of the kingdom but also on 
the reform of the whole provincial administration. 
Firstly he redivided the kingdom into eight in place 
of four atrdf. Berar was divided into two charges, 
namely Gawil and Mahur, part of the area sur- 
rounding Junnar was removed from Dawlatabad 
province and formed into a separate (araf, Radja- 
mandri was created a province distinct from the 
rest of Telangana and Bidjapur was carved out of 
the old province of Gulbarga. The power of the 
(arafddr was also greatly curtailed. A tarafddr was 
previously supreme in both civil and military affairs 
of his province and could not only appoint Itil'addrs 
but also increase or decrease the number of soldiers 
on permanent duty according to his will and thus 
spend or save as much money as he liked out of the 
ijdgir set aside for military expenses. Mahmud 
Gawan curtailed the power of the (arafddrs consi- 
derably. It was decreed that in future kil'addrs 
would be appointed by the central government and 
a (arafddr was entitled to have only one fort under 
his direct command. Moreover every person who was 
responsible for the payment of salaries of soldiers 
was made accountable for the money he drew 



from the djdgir or mansab as the case may be. 
Another method by which the sultan was brought 
in direct relationship with the work of the provinces 
was that under which a large tract of land was set 
aside in every province as the royal demesne. 
Orders were also issued for a systematic measurement 
of land, fixation of boundaries all over the state and 
a general enquiry about the record of rights and 
assessment of revenue. 

All these schemes however, proved to be still-bom 
when Mabmud Gawan was murdered. Another attempt 
in the same direction was made twenty years later in 
901/1495-96 by the minister Kasim Band, the 
progenitor of the Barid-shahis of Bidar [q.v.]. Under 
these reforms the smallei mansabddrs were ordered 
to enrol themselves in the royal bodyguard and were 
henceforth called sdrkarddrs or hawdladdrs. This was 
only a half-hearted measure and affected only the 
small djdgirddrs and mansabddrs while the great 
nobles were left untouched. The great power and 
authority which the (arafddrs were left to enjoy 
after the nullification of earlier reforms was one of 
the causes of the disintegration of the Kingdom and 
its resolution into five succession states, namely 
Bidjapur, Abmadnagar, Golconda, Berar and 
Bidar [q.v.]. 

The large influx of Persians and others from 
overseas created a peculiar political problem in the 
Deccan, for it divided the Muslim population of the 
State into two contending groups, viz. the dakhnis 
or the older colonists and the dfdkis (some- 
times called the gharib al-diydr) or the new settlers. 
Their struggles were largely responsible for the 
downfall of the Bahmani Kingdom. 

Bibliography: Storey I, 1, 7391 J- S. King, 
History of the Bahmani dynasty, founded mainly 
on Burhdn-i Ma'dthir; Firishta, Gulshan-i Ibrdhimi, 
in; T. W. Haig, Some Notes on the Bahmani 
Dynasty (Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 
lxxiii, Extra No. 1904^ I); E. E. Speight, Coins 
of the Bahmani Kings of the Deccan, in IC, 
Haydarabad Deccan, ix, 1935, 168 ff.); Mabmud 
Gawan, Riydd al-Inshd, Haydarabad Deccan, 
1948; H. K. Sherwani, MahmOd Gdwdn, the 
great Bahmani Wazir; idem, The Bahmanis 
of the Deccan: An Objective Study. 

(H. K. Sherwani) 
Monuments. •Ala' al-DIn Hasan Bahman Shah's 
new kingdom at Gulbarga was open to attack 
from all sides, by the Radjas of Vidjayanagara, 
Telangana and Orissa, by the G6ndhs, and by 
the rival sultans of Khandesh, Malwa and 
Gudjarat; the first buildings of the new regime 
are consequently entirely military, surrounding 
the kingdom: to the north, Elicpur, Gawilgafh, 
Narnala (Bahmani inscriptions, T. W. Haig, EIM 
1907-8, 11) in Berar, also MShur; on the west, 
Parenda, Naldrug, PanhalJ and Gulbarga itself; in 
the centre, Bidar, Golkonda and Warangal; on the 
south-west, Mudgal and RSyciir. Many of these were 
existing Hiudu, often Gdndh, fortifications hastily 
occupied and modified; some were rebuilt later by 
Ahmad Shah Wall al- Bahmani after his trans- 
formation of Bidar [q.v.] fort, and during the reign 
of Muhammad III in consequence of Mahmud 
GawSn's policies. (References in Ferishta, passim). 
Gulbarga; The fortifications are well preser- 
ed, with double walls 16 m. thick, surrounded by 
moat often 30 m. wide, well provided with bastions 
-many with barbettes added later for the use of 
artillery — and hornworks, large and compound 
crenellations, machicolations and barbizans. The one 



major structure standing intact within the walls is 
the Pjami c Masdjid, built 769/1367 by a hereditary 
Persian architect, Rafi c b. Shams b. Mansur al- 
Kazwlni (inscr., Haig, EIM 1907-8, 2), of a type 
unknown elsewhere in India, without open sahn but 
completely roofed over forming a pillared hall whose 
only illumination comes from the open side aisles 
and the clerestory of the central dome. The side 
aisles are characterised by their very wide span with 
unusually low imposts, an arch pattern used else- 
where in Gulbarga. Two mosques of nearly the same 
period at Delhi [q.v.] are partially covered; but this 
type was not imitated, presumably since the liwdn 
and minbar were obstructed from the view of most 
of the congregation. The other Bahmani monuments 
at Gulbarga are the two groups of tombs. The 
first, near the south gate of the fort, includes those of 
c Ala 5 al-DIn (759/1358), Muhammad I, to whom the 
Shah Bazar Masdjid, an unpretentious building in the 
contemporary Tughlukian style of Delhi, is attri- 
buted (776/1375), and Muhammad II (799/ r 397); 
the first two of these show the battering walls and 
weak semicircular dome of the Delhi Tughlakian style ; 
that of Muljammad II shows a similar dome, stilted 
below the haunch, to that of the Djami* Masdjid. 
To the east of the city is the Haft Gunbad, including 
the tombs of Mudjahid and Da'ud c. 781/1380, 
Ghiyath al-DIn (c. 799/1397) and FIroz (c. 823/1420); 
some of these are two adjacent domed chambers on 
a single plinth. That of Ghiyath al-DIn shows some 
Hindu influence in the mihrdb, and that of Flriiz 
in the carved polished black stone exterior pilasters, 
the dripstones and brackets; the interior of the 
latter is quasi-Persian in its paint and plaster deco- 
ration similar to the contemporary Sayyid and LodI 
tombs at Delhi. Of other buildings, the dargdh of 
Banda Nawaz (Rawda-i Buzurg), c. 816/1413, shows 
the characteristic wide arch with low imposts. 

Bidar. The Bahmani tombs at Ashtur, i 1 /, miles 
east of the town, are on a larger scale, with loftier 
and sometimes more bulbous domes, than those at 
Gulbarga. None of these has battered walls, and none 
is double. The finest, that of Ahmad Shah Wall 
(d. 839/1436), shows the characteristic later Bah- 
mani arch, stilted above the haunch, and is of great 
importance on account of its superb calligraphic 
decoration which includes two shadjrds of the saint 
Ni'mat Allah al-Kirmanl [q.v.]. That of 'Ala 5 al-DIn 
II (862/1458) has striking encaustic tile- work and, 
unusually, some arches struck from four centres. 
That of Mahmud, 924/1518, has its walls decorated 
with arched niches one above the other, more 
characteristic of post- Bahmani architecture. The 
PJ5mi c Masdjid, called also Solah Khamba 
(= 'sixteen pillar') masdjid and ZananI masdjid 
(827/1423-4), of the reign of Aljmad I but erected 
during Prince Muhammad's viceregency before the 
transfer of the capital — the earliest Muslim building 
at Bidar — and the royal palaces (Takht Mahal, 
etc.; cf. Sayyid C A1I Tabataba, Burhdn-i Ma'dthir, 
Persian MSS. Soc. ed., 70-1), and the madrasa of 
Mahmud Gawan, all works executed under the 
Bahmanis, are, in view of their subsequent rede- 
coration and rebuilding by the Barldls [q.v.], described 
under Bidar [q.v.]. The Cdnd minor at DawlatSbad 
[q.v.] dates from the- time of 'Ala' al-DIn, and it may 
be observed that the earliest 'Adil ShShI building 
at BldjSpur [q.v.], Asen Beg^ masdjid (918/1512-3) 
bears an inscription indicating Mahmud Shah 
Bahmani as ruler — presumably still acknow- 
ledged as paramount in spite of YQsuf's recent 
independence. 



The walls of BIdar fort are Bahmani ; those of the 
town date from the Band Shahls. 

Bibliography: For the Deccan plateau forts, 
see G. Yazdani in Hyderabad Archaeological 
Department Annual Report, 1331-3F./1921-4 A.D., 
2; ibid., Appx. A, 17-27, "Parenda: an historical 
fort" ; Mahur fort, Hyd. Arch. Dept. Report, 1327F./ 
1917-8, 8; Yazdani, Note on the antiquities of 
KalyanI, Hyd. Arch. Dept. Report, 1334F./1934-5 
A.D., Appx. A, 19-23. also EIM 1935-6; Warangal 
fort, ibid., 6.; Yazdani, Note on the survey o. 
Mudgal fort, Hyd. Arch. Dept. Report, 1345F1/ 
1935-6 A.D., 25-7. See also Sir John Marshall, The 
monuments of Muslim India, Chap, xxiii in 
Cambridge History of India, 1928, 630 ft. For 
Gulbarga see J. Fergusson, History of Indian 
and Eastern Architecture, revised edition; E. B. 
Havell, Indian Architecture, 1913, 60-3; Percy 
Brown, Indian Architecture (Islamic Feriod), 
Chap, xiii; Hyd. Arch. Dept., Report for 1915-6; 
for inscriptions, T. W. Haig, Inscriptions at 
Gulbarga, EIM 1907-8. For BIdar see bibliography 
under that head, specially G. Yazdani, Bidar: its 
history and monuments, OUP 1947 (full references 
and extensive plates, plans, inscriptions, etc.). 
For BIdar as a fortified city, see S. Toy, The 
strongholds of India, London 1957. 

(J. Burton-Page) 
BAHMANYAR. Abu 'l-Hasan Bahmanyar b. 
al-Marzuban, a famous pupil of Avicenna, died in 
458/1067. Avicenna's K. al-Mubdhathdt mainly con- 
sists of philosophical questions raised by Bahmanyar 
and answered by the master. Since he was a Zoro- 
astrian, Bahmanyar's acquaintance with Arabic was 
imperfect. His Ma ba'd al-Tabi'a and K. fi-Mardtib 
al-Wudjiid were published in Leipzig in 1851 (and 
in Cairo in 1329 A.H.). His comprehensive inter- 
pretation of Avicenna's philosophy called K. al- 
Tahsil (or al-Taksilat) and consisting of logic, 
metaphysics and physics plus cosmology, was also 
published in Cairo in 1329 A.H. An extract (fast) 
also exists (see Brockelmann, SI, 828) from his 
work on the existence of souls and active intelligences. 
BayhakI (Tatimma, 91) also mentions a K. al-Zina 
on logic by him, a work on ultimate happiness, and 
one on music, and adds that he wrote many other 

Bibliography: Besides references given in 

this article, see also Nizaral Samarkandl, Cahdr 

Makdla (ed. liazwlnl), 252, and Ibn Abl Usaybi'a, 

e Uyun al- Anbd'. (F. Rahman) 

al-BAHNASA, a famous town in mediaeval times, 

in Middle Egypt, situated between the Bahr Yusuf 

and the foothills of the Libyan range, 15 km. west 

of BanI Mazar, a railway station 198 km. south of 

Cairo. It is the ancient Oxyrhynchus, in Coptic 

During the Byzantine period it was a flourishing 
city, renowned for its churches and numerous 
monasteries. According to a Coptic legend, the 
Virgin and the Child Jesus are supposed to have 
stayed there during the Flight from Egypt. Certain 
Muslim exegetes have found a verse of the r^ur'an 
(xxiii, 52), to corroborate this* tradition, which 
is of Christian origin. 

At the time of the Arab invasion, it was a fortified 
place with thick walls; the Greek garrison seem to 
have exhibited dauntless courage in its defence, 
which was long remembered, since their resistance 
inspired a popular romance, the Conquest of Bahnasa. 

At first the capital of a pagarchy (kura), the 
place enjoyed an astonishing prosperity in the 



— BAHR 

Middle Ages. Bahnasa gave its name to a province 
at the time of the administrative reorganisation 
carried out at the behest of the Fatimid wazir Badr 
al-Djamall at the end of the 5th/nth century. Ibn 
Battuta describes it as a great city surrounded by 
numerous gardens. Khalil Zahiri still speaks of it 
as a large town, but it is already suggestive to note 
that Ibn al-Dji'an, who knew the province, passes 
the town over in silence. Henceforth it was never 
anything more than an insignificant township, which, 
in the 19th century was included in the province 
of BanI Suef (Suwayf), before belonging to that of 
Minya. The sands had covered it: about the year 
1890, debris of all kinds, granite columns, fragments 
of capitals, of sculpture, pottery and bricks could 
be seen lying on the ground there; it is now no more 
than a confused heap of ruins, according to a 
recently published guide-book. 

This lamentable situation may well be the result 
of the progressive deforestation of the region. Under 
the Fatimids and the Ayyubids, the forests, classed 
as domain, were exploited by a State administration 
to furnish wood for naval construction: Makrizi is 
here relying on an account by Ibn MammatI, but 
adds: "This has all completely disappeared and one 
no longer hears anyone speak of this organisation, 
as private persons have had the trees cut down." 
The town's prosperity was above all assured by 
its woven products. All kinds of cloths were manu- 
factured there, from the most precious fabrics, 
such as silks figured with gold, down to the most 
ordinary wares: curtains, tent coverings, ships' 
sails. Fabrics of great size were woven there in wool, 
linen and cotton, with pictures in fast colours, 
portraying all kinds of beasts, "from the insect to 
the elephant". According to Idrlsl, fabrics originating 
from Bahnasa bore the name of the town and it is 
a fact that in the Museum of Muslim Art in Cairo 
there is preserved a piece of multi-coloured wool, 
with pictures of small hares framing a human head 
on which the name of Bahnasa can be read. Ibn 
Battuta still praises its excellent woollen cloth in 
the middle of the 8th/i4th century. 

Bibliography: In addition to the authors 
cited in J. Maspero and Wiet, Materiaux pour 
servir a la giographie de l'£gypte, 51, 173-191, see 
Ibn Hawkal*, 159; Idrlsl, al-Maghrib, 50-51; Ibn 
Mammati, 81, 344-345; Ya'kubl, trans. Wiet, 
186; Makrizi, ed. Wiet, i, 92-93, 307, 310, 312; 
ii, 103, 108-109; iv, 126; Jean Maspero, Histoire 
des patriarches d'Alexandrie, 55 ; idem; Organisation 
militaire de I'Egypte byzantine, 40, 140; Harawl, 
Ziydrdt, ii, 43; trans. Sourdel-Thomine, 26, 101; 
Kalkashandl, iii, 381, 397; Zahiri, 32; trans. 50; 
Isambert, Itineraire de I'Orient, Egypte, 467; 
Baedeker Guidebook, Fr. ed., 1908, 199-200; 
'All Pasha Mubarak, x, 2-5 ; £/», Fr. ed., supple- 
ment, 267; RCEA, iii, no. 939. (G. Wiet) 
BAHR [see c ARup]. 

BAHR (Ar.), sea and also large perennial river. — 
The articles which follow treat of the principal seas 
known to the Arabs, but it is convenient to note 
here that in Islamic cosmology, on the basis of a 
conception generally related on the authority of 
Ka<b al-Ahbar [q.v.], the mountain Kaf [q.v.], which 
encircles the terrestial sphere, is itself surrounded by 
seven concentric intercommunicating seas; these 
seas bear respectively the following names: MJas 
(or Baytash), Kaynas (or Kubays), al-Asamm, al- 
Sakin, ai-Mughallib (or al-Mu?lim), al-Mu>annis (or 
Mannas) and finally al-Baki. But it is probable that 
these names correspond to geographical realities; 



BAHR — BAHR FARIS 



in fact Kitas (and its variant form) is an orthogra- 
phic corruption of Bunt us {= 7t6vTO?= the Black 
Sea); and Kaynas (and its variant) derives from 
Ukiyanus (= ixeavd? = the [Atlantic] Ocean); for 
the other names, a tentative identification will be 
found in P. Anastase-Marie de St. Elie, Nushu' 
al-Lugha al-'Arabiyya, Cairo 1938, 83-4, and al 
Djaljiz. Tarti' (ed. Peilat), s.v. Buntus. 

Bibliography: Kazwinl, Cosmog., 104: Kisal, 
Kifaf al-Anbiy'd, Leiden 1922-3, 9; see also the 
bibliography to the article £AF. (Ed.) 

al-BAHR al-ABYAP [see bahr al-rumj. 
BAHR ADRIYAS, name of the Adriatic in 
Arabic geographical works. (Ed.) 

al-BAHR al-ASWAD [see bahr buntus, kara 

BAHR al-BANAT i.e, "the Maidens' Sea", 
a name given by the Arabs to the Archipelago 
off the west coast of the Persian Gulf. Idrisi calls 
it Bahr al-Kithr. 

Bibliography: Ritter, Erdkunde, xii, 390, 589ft. 

BAHR BUNTUS, the Pontus Euxinus, or Black 
Sea, for which Bahr NItas (NItash) is a stereotyped 
error (same ductus of letters with different pointing 
and vocalisation). From the names of adjacent 
peoples or cities it was also called Bahr al-Khazar 
or Sea of the Khazars (Ibn £hurradadhbih, 105, 
perhaps by confusion with the Caspian, Bahr al- 
Khazar, [?.«.]), Bahr al-Rus (Sea of the Russians), 
Bahr al-Burghar or Bahr al-Burghaz (Sea of the 
Bulgars), Bahr Tarabazunda (Sea of Trebizond), 
Bahr NItash al-Armani (the Armenian Pontus), 
Baljr al-Kustantiniyya (Sea of Constantinople) and 
Darya-yi Gurziyan or Sea of the Georgians (only in 
Ifudud al-'Alam). The name al-Bahr al-Aswad 
(Black Sea) appears only in later times. 

According to Mas'udI (Tanbih, 66-67), writing in 
345/956, it extends from Lazika (Greek Lazike) in 
the E. to Constantinople, a distance of 1300 miles, 
with a breadth of 300 miles. It is connected with the 
lake or sea of Mayutis (Sea of Azov, [see bahr 
mAyutis]). Among the rivers which flow into it are 
the Tariais (Don) and the Danube. From Bahr 
Buntus issues Khalldi al-Kustantiniyya (Strait of 
Constantinople), i.e., Bosporus, Sea of Marmora and 
Dardanelles, which issues in Bahr al-Rum or Sea 
of the Greeks (Mediterranean). The length of the 
strait is 350 miles. In a parallel account written 
earlier (MurAdi, i, 260-262) Mas'udI gives the length 
of Bahr Buntus as 1100 miles and the course of the 
Don as about 300 'arsakhs. The same general account 
is found in Ibn Rusta, 85-86 (about 290/903). It 
was thought by some, e.g., Ibn Khurradadhbih (103) 
that Babr Buntus issued from Bahr al-Khazar 
(Caspian). Mas'udI denies this {Muriidi, i, 273), 
saying simply that the two seas are connected 
{Tinblh, 67). According to Muriidi, ii, 18 ff., the 
route from Bahr Buntus to Bahr al-Khazar was via 
Khalldj Nitas (Strait of Kertch), the Don and the 
Volga, using the Don-Volga portage, i.e., the route 
called elsewhere the 'Khazarian Way'. Mas'udI 
himself, who shows much greater interest in Bahr . 
Buntus than geographers of the BalkhMstakhrt 
school, speculated on a direct connexion between 
the Black Sea and the Atlantic. This view was later 
held by al-Birunl (Kazwlnl, 'Adid'ib, 104). 
apAs time passed new place-names on Bahr Buntus 
Mipear, e.g., after the Saldjflk conquest of Asia 
Sanor the cities, formerly Greek, Sinub (Sinope) and 
msun (Amisus) mentioned "by Abu '1-Fida>. 
Similarly Nuwayri can mention the Kipchak cities, 
Sudak and Krim, the first of which, built in the 



7th/i3th century, for a time gave its name to the 
sea (Baljr Sudak). For Ottoman times, see Kara 

Bibliography : In addition to the references 
in the article, Yakut, i, 306-307, 401, 499, 746: 
Abu '1-Fida', Tatcwim, 13, 392-393; Nuwayri, 
Nihdyat al-Arab, i, 246-247; Jfudud al-'Alam, 
32, 181-183. (D. M. Dunlop) 

BAHR FARIS, the Persian Gulf, in which. 
Mas'udi includes the Gulf of 'Uman; Istakhri and 
Ibn Hawkal apply the name to the whole Indian 
Ocean (Bahr al-Hind). The Vudud al-<Alam distin- 
guishes the Khalidj-i 'Irak, the Persian Gulf, from 
the Khalidj-i Pars, the Gulf of 'Uman and the 
Arabian Sea. Mas'udI gives its width at the narrowest 
place as 150 mil; the Strait of Hormuz is actually 
some 29 miles across. In the Muslim geographers the 
modern al-Ahsa' was called Bahrayn, the name Uwal 
being given to onr of the islands now called Bahrayn, 
Hindarabi was Abriin, Kishm was Laft, Djazlra. 
Bani Kawan, or Barkawan, and Shaykh Shu'ayb 
was La wan, Lan or Lar. 

Mas'udI relates that one <Abd al-MasIh, aged 350, 
told Khalid b. al-Walld that he had seen al-Nadjaf 
covered by the sea, and ships sailing to the mouth of 
the Euphrates below al-HIra. Mas'udi evidently 
believed the geographical fact if not the story. Most 
scholars have assumed that silt brought down by the 
rivers has been gradually filling up the Bahr Faris. 
The history of 'Abbadan seems to support this. 
MukaddasI and the Hudud al-'Alam speak of it as on 
the coast, Nasir-i Khusraw as 2 leagues from the sea at. 
low tide, and Ibn Battuta as 3 miles from the sea^ 
it is now over 30. It has, however, been claimed 
(G. M. Lees and N. Falcon, The Geological History 0/ 
the Mesopotamian Plains, GJ, 1952) that, though the 
level of the land has risen locally and though rivers- 
have changed their courses, (see Didjla, FurAt, 
KarOn), the area between the Arabian massif and. 
the Persian mountains is one of tectonic subsidence, 
mitigated but -not counteracted by the deposit of 
silt. The Tigris and Euphrates leave most of their silt 
in the marshes above al-Kurna and the Bahr Faris. 
is materially affected only by the silt carried by the- 
Karun. There is no geological evidence that the 
head of the Bahr Faris has been N.W. of its present 
position since the Pliocene Age; it is even possible 
that it has been further to the S.E. in historical 
times. (See also correspondence in GJ, 1954). 

The position of the Bahr Faris. has given it great but 
varying importance. Its history is very imperfectly 
known. A number of local chronicles are still in MS. 
and the story of the competition of the alternative 
trade routes through the Red Sea and across Central 
Asia has yet to be studied. Only the salient facts are 
given here; for further details see the articles on 
individual ports. Commerce was flourishing before 
the Arab conquest and Persians were already 
engaged in trade with China. The identification of 
the "Po ssu" of Chinese records with Persians has 
been questioned, as the name can also refer to a 
Malayan people. It is, however, established by a 
reference (Chou T'ang Shu, viii, 19) to a Po ssu 
embassy of 103-4/722, which brought lions as a gift; 
the lion is not found in Malaya. The revolt of Huang 
Ch'ao and his sack of Canton (264-5/878) dislocated 
the trade. Voyages from Persia to China appear 
to have ceased in the 4th/ioth century. There is no 
indisputable evidence that Chinese ships came to 
the Bahr Faris. before the Ming voyages of the early 
gth/isth century. In early Muslim times the chief 
port was SIraf, near Tahirl. It declined under the 



•928 BAHB 

later Buyids and hegemony passed to the Arab Banu 
Kaysar of Kays (originally KIsh, KIs), afterwards 
■subject to the Salghurid Atabegs of Fars. In 626/1229 
the ruler of Hormuz, a vassal of Kirman, captured 
Kays. The Banu Kaysar then came to an end and 
in the next century the primacy of Hormuz was 
unchallenged. Following an attack by Cagatay 
bands in 699/1300, the capital was moved from the 
mainland to the island of Djirun. Thus, as the com- 
mercial importance of 'Irak declined, the trading 
■contre of the Bahr Faris was displaced to the south. 
The importance of Hormuz, which was visited by 
Odoric of Pordenone and Marco Polo, among many 
others, was well known in mediaeval Europe. About 
^93-4/1488-9 it was visited by Covilha, the agent of 
the King of Portugal, who was collecting information 
about the trade routes of Asia. It is not known 
•whether his report reached Lisbon (see Bahr al- 
Kulzum). The Portuguese were more successful in 
the Bar Fahris than in the Red Sea, partly because it 
was nearer to their base in India, and partly because 
neither Persia nor the Ottoman empire controlled 
its coasts effectively. Even Basra was often semi- 
independent under Muntafik shaykhs. Albuquerque 
received the submission of Hormuz in 913/1507, but 
the disaffection of his captains forced him to with- 
draw. He established effective control in 921/1515 
when he murdered the powerful wazir, Rats Hamid, 
and built a strong fort. The Portuguese intermit- 
tently held Bahrayn and intervened in the affairs of 
Basra. After the Ottoman capture of Baghdad 
{941/1534) Turkish influence began to be felt in al- 
Ahsa', esptcially at al-Katif. 'Abbas I encouraged 
potential rivals to the Portuguese, and English and 
Dutch factories were founded during his reign. In 
1031/1622 he constrained an East India Company 
fleet to assist him in taking Hormuz. The Shah then 
founded Bandar 'Abbas, known to Europeans as 
Combroon, and Hormuz decayed rapidly. The 
Portuguese still visited Basra and for a time held a 
tort at Pjulfa (Ra's al-Khayma), but they practically 
■disappeared from the Bahr Faris when they lost 
their foothold in 'Uman in the middle of the 
century. At this time the Dutch enjoyed com- 
mercial supremacy which they began to lose to 
the English under the last Safawids. In the 
anarchy of Husayn's reign the 'Umanls captured 
Bahrayn and Kishm, from which Nadir Shah 
expelled them; his own intervention in 'Uman ended 
in disaster (1157/1744). In 1179/1766 the pirate chief 
of Bandar Rig captured the last Dutch stronghold 
in the Bahr Faris, Kharak. Towards the end of the 
century Arab dynasties, the Al Khalifa and Al 
■Sabbat respectively, established themselves in 
Bahrayn and Kuwayt; the latter profited commer- 
cially from the Persian occupation of Basra (1190/ 
1776-1193/1779). The influence of the French, now 
the only rivals of the British, was eliminated when 
they lost Mauritius (1225/1810). 

British intervention in the politics of the Bahr 
Faris. aimed at suppressing the slave trade and the 
piracy which became better organised with the exten- 
sion of WahhabI influence. The principal pirates 
were Rahma b. Djabir of Kuwayt, and Sultan b. Sakr 
of the Kawasim ( Djawasim) ; this tribe held what 
came to be called the Pirate Coast. The pirate fleet 
came to include 63 large ships and was able to 
threaten Bushlr, which had now displaced Bandar 
■•Abbas as the chief port of the Bahr Faris. In 1224/ 
1809 the Indian Government sent a force which bom- 
barded Ra's al-Khayma and drove the Kawasim in- 
land. They returned about a year later and resumed 



their depredations. In 1235/1819 a strong force from 
Bombay, joined by an 'Umani contingent, again 
captured Ra's al-Khayma. and destroyed the forts 
and shipping along the coast. The chiefs and the 
Shaykh of Bahrayn then (1235/1820) signed a treaty 
renouncing piracy and slave-raiding. This was 
followed by supplementary treaties and in 1269/1853 
they accepted maritime peace in perpetuity under 
British protection. At first the most important state 
was the Kawasim principality of Ra's al-Khayma 
with which al-Sharika (Shardja) was closely con- 
nected and at times united. In the half century after 
the permanent treaty the dominant personality on 
the coast was Zayd b. Khalifa, the Banu Yas Shaykh 
of Abu Zabi; commercially the most prosperous 
port became Dubayy, belonging to the cognate Al 
Bu Falasa. The other states were 'Adjman, Umm 
al-Kuwayn, and after 1285/1868 Katar. Kalba and 
Fudjayra on the coast of the Gulf of 'Uman were 
for a short time recognised as having separate status; 
the former was incorporated in al-Sharika in 1951. 
In recent years the presence, or suspected presence 
of oil on land or under the sea bed has given signif- 
icance to frontiers which have rarely been defined 
with precision. 

Bibliography: The bibliography of the Bahr 
Faris is very large and cannot be given in detail. To 
the Muslim geographers summarised by le Strange 
and Schwarz, Iran, should be added the Hudud al- 
'Alam. On sources for the mediaeval history of the 
Bahr Faris, W Hinz, Quellenstudien zur Geschichte 
der Timuriden, in ZDMG, 1936, 361-3, 379-81; J. 
Aubin, Les Princes d'Ormuz au XV siecle, in J A, 
I953,withmany further references and someextr acts 
from the Madjma 1 al-Ansdb of Muhammad Shaban- 
kara 3 !. The principal European travellers are 
mentioned in A. T. Wilson, The Persian Gulf, 
Oxford 1928, which summarises, rather inaccu- 
rately, the modern history of the region. For trade 
and navigation, G. Ferrand, L'iliment persan dans 
les textes nautiques arabes, J A, 1924; Instructions 
nautiques et routiers arabes et portugais; Hadi 
Hasan, History of Persian Navigation; G. F. 
Hourani, Arab Seafaring. The chief Portuguese 
sources are Barros, Couto, Castanheda, Correa, 
Barbosa, the letters of Albuquerque, the Comen- 
tarios of Albuquerque the younger, Tome Piles, 
and (written in Spanish) Teixeira and Faria y 
Souza. On the Dutch, H. Terpstra, De Opkomst 
der Westerkwartieren van de Oost-Indische Com- 
pagnie; H. Dunlop, Bronnen tot de Geschiedenis 
der Oostindische Compagnie in Perzi'e. On pearling 
and modern sailing conditions, A. Villiers, Sons of 
Sinbad. For general description in modern times, 
S. B. Miles, Countries and Tribes of the Persian 
Gulf, and Wilson, op. cit. On the first English 
traders, Sir W. Foster, England's Quest of Eastern 
Trade, and much source material in The English 
Factories in India. On the period of British power 
two valuable sources which have been somewhat 
neglected are Selections from the Records of the 
Bombay Government, New Series, no. xxiv, and 
the Annual Report on the Administration of the 
Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat 
Political Agency; the published reports cover the 
years 1874/5-1904/5. Subsequent reports were not 
made available to the public. For laws and 
treaties, C. U. Aitchison, A Collection of Treaties, 
Engagements and Sanads relating to India and 
neighbouring countries, vol. xii, 137-186; Persian 
Gazette, vol. 1 no. 1, supp. no. 1, Oct., 1953. Some 
further geographical books in the Bibl. of al- 



BAHR FARIS — BAHR al-GHAZAL 



'Arab, DjazIrat. (Cf. ra's al-jojayma, al-sha- 

RlkA,- DUBAYY, ABU ZABl) (C. F. BeCKINGHAM) 

BAHR AL-fiHAZAL: (i) A tnbutary of x the 
Bahr al-Djabal (upper White Nile) forming an 
outlet-channel for an extensive swampy area. The 
swamps are fed by numerous rivers (e.g. Tondj, 
Djur) originating in the Nile-Congo divide, and by the 
Bahr al- c Arab which forms the southern limit of 
Bakkara [17.11.] nomadism. The Bahr al-Ghazal channel 
extends 144 miles from Mashra 1 al-RIk (the name 
is variously spelt and derived) to its confluence 
with the Bahr al-Pjabal at Lake No, which it enters 
from the west at lat. 9° 29' N. 

(2) The region formed by the basin of the streams 
which ultimately supply the Bahr al-Ghazal channel. 
This is a rough triangle bounded on the north by the 
Bahr al-'Arab, on the south-west by the Nile-Congo 
divide and on the south east by the river Rohl or 
Na'am. The permanent swamp (Ar. sadd) in the lower 
courses of these streams (as in the Bahr al-Ghazal 
channel and the Bahr al-Diabal) forms a barrier, as 
the Arabic implies, which long sealed the region from 
access by the Nile. The western part of the region 
consists of ironstone plateau, between which and the 
sadd lies an area of flood-plain. The indigenous pagan 
negroids are, in the north and east, mainly semi- 
nomadic, cattle-herding Dinka. Tribes of the plateau 
include, in its northern portion (Dar Farit), the 
Farukl and the Kreish; further south and now 
divided by the frontier of the Belgian Congo are the 
Azande (Niam-Niam; Ar. Namdnim). 

(3) A province of the Republic of the Sudan, 
approximating to the above region, with an area 
of 82,530 sq. miles and a population of 991, 022. 
It is divided into four districts and has its capital 
at Wau. History of the region: Burckhardt (1814) 
mentions Dar Fartlt as an area supplying the Dar Fin- 
slave-trade. Penetration of the Bahr al-Ghazal from 
the Nile began after the expeditions of Sallm Kabudan 
to the Bahr al-Djabal (1839-42). Traders, including 
Europeans, entered the Bahr al-Ghazal from the Nile 
in the 1850s seeking ivory, but as this became difficult 
to obtain, slave-raiding proved a profitable alter- 
native. The penetration of ivory-traders into Dar 
Fartlt helped the slave-traders (djaUdba) from 
Kordofan and Dar Fur. The slave-trade grew after 
i860, when the Europeans sold their stations to 
their "Arab" assistants. These men, Saldls, Copts, 
and others, who came by the Nile {al-Bahr) were 
known as Bahhdra. They had armed retainers, 
usually Danakla recruited in the north or slave- 
troops (bazinbir), and fortified stations {zaribas). 
They were virtually sovereign in the areas where 
they held a monopoly of trade. 

The leading figure in the western Bahr al-Ghazal 
was the Sudanese, al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur. Setting 
up as an independent trader in 1858, he moved 
westwards into unexploited country, ultimately 
reaching the Niam-Niam, where he formed a private 
army. Expelled from their territory, he established 
his rule over Dar Fartlt (1865). In 1866 he made an 
agreement with the Rizaykat Bakkara in the north 
which opened the trade-route to Dar Fur via Shakka. 
Khedive Isma'Il was now seeking to suppress the slave 
trade and to bring both the Bahr al-EJabal and the 
Bahr al-Ghazal under Egyptian control. In 1869 the 
administration at Khartoum authorised an expedition 
under an adventurer from Dar Fur named Muham- 
mad al-Bulall (or al-HilaU), which was defeated by 
al-Zubayr. His prestige grew and the importance 
of the north-western outlet which he controlled 
increased as a result of Sir Samuel Baker's expedition 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



to the Bahr al-Djabal (1869-73). However, while al- 
Zubayr was fighting the Niam-Niam (1872), the 
Rizaykat attacked traders on the Shakka route, 
Al-Zubayr's consequent hostilities against the 
Rizaykat led to an embroilment with their suzerain. 
Sultan Ibrahim of Dar Fur. Al-Zubayr thereupon 
concerted plans with the Egyptian authorities to 
attack Dar Fur. He was appointed governor of the 
Bahr al-Ghazal and Shakka. In 1874 Dar Fur was 
conquered. 

The next year al-Zubayr went to Cairo, where he 
was detained by the Khedive. His son, Sulayman, 
remained in the Bahr al-Ghazal, where Egyptian 
authority was ineffective. In 1877 C. G. Gordon, the 
governor-general, appointed Sulayman governor of 
the Bahr al-Ghazal. A quarrel with a rival resulted in 
Sulaymau's revolt. He was defeated and killed in 1879 
by Gordon's Italian assistant, R. Gessi, who succeeded 
him as governor and strove to pacify the province 
until his recall in 1880. Gessi's successor, the English- 
man, F. M. Lupton, was confronted with the reper- 
cussions of the Mahdist revolt. After the Mahdi's 
capture of al-Ubayyid and victory at Shaykan 
(1883), he was cut off from assistance. Many of his 
officers were northern Sudanese who sympathised 
with the Mahdi. In April 1884 Lupton surrendered 
the provincial headquarters, Daym al-Zubayr, to a 
Mahdist force under Karam Allah Kurkusawi. No 
effective Mahdist administration was established 
and Karam Allah withdrew his army to Dar Fur 
in 1886. 

The Bahr al-Ghazal then became an object of 
European imperial expansion. Two expeditions from 
the Congo Free State entered Dar Fartlt in 1894 and 
the chief of the Farukl tribe accepted Congolese 
protection. Thereupon the Mahdist governor of Dar 
Fur, Mahmiid AJimad, sent al-Khatlm Musa to expel 
the Europeans, who had however already withdrawn 
since the Franco-Congolese agreement of August 
1894 brought the Bahr al-Ghazal within the French 
sphere of expansion. A French expedition under J.-B. 
Marchand crossed the region and reached the 
White Nile at Fashoda in July 1898, whence they 
withdrew in December in consequence of the Anglo- 
Egyptian reconquest of the Sudan. An Anglo- 
French agreement (21 March 1899) marked the re- 
linquishment of French claims to the Bahr al-Ghazal, 
the Congo-Nile watershed being the dividing-line 
between the two spheres of influence. The frontier 
was defined finally in 1924. 

The re-establishment of administration began 
with the arrival of an expedition under W. S. Sparkes 
at Mashra c al-RIk in December 1900. The following 
years saw the opening of communications as the 
sadd was cleared and roads made. Patrols for 
exploration and pacification were sent out and 
government posts established. Roman Catholic 
missionary activity began in the western Bahr al- 
Ghazal in 1903; the Anglicans started work in the 
eastern areas in 1905. The missions laid the founda- 
tions of an educational system, which has been in- 
creasingly subject to governmental control since 
1925. Sporadic tribal troubles occurred for many 
years, otherwise the recent history of the Bahr al- 
Ghazal has been uneventful. 

Bibliography: See R. L. Hill, A Bibliography 
of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, London, for 
material to 1937, and A Biographical-Dictionary of 
the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Oxford, 1951, for 
short notices of leading personalities. There are 
numerous articles, especially on tribes, in Sudan 
Notes and Records, Khartoum, 1918 — . Annual 

*" 59 



BAHR al-GHAZAL — BAHR al-HIND 



bibliographies appear in this periodical from 1948. 
Al-ZubayVs life in Na'flm Shukayr, Ta'rikh al- 
Siddn, Cairo 1903, iii, 60-88, has been translated 
and annotated by M. Thilo, Ez-Ziblr Rahmet 
Paschas Autobiographic, ein Beitrag zur Geschichte 
des Sudan, Bonn and Leipzig, 1921. On the 
Belgian penetration, see L. Lotar, "La Grande 
Chronique du Bomu", Memoires, Section des 
Sciences Morales et Politiques, Institut Royal 
Colonial Beige, Brussels, and A Abel, Traduction 
de documents arabes concernant le Bahr-el-Ghwal, 
Bull, de I' Acad, royale des Set. coloniales, xxv, 
1954, 1385 1409. A useful general work is M. F. 
Shukry, The Khedive Ismail and Slavery in the 
Sudan, Cairo 1938. (P. M. Holt) 

BAQR al-HIND is the usual name amongst the 
Arabs for the Indian Ocean, which is also called 
Bahr al-Zandj from its W. shores or — the part for 
the whole — al-Bahr al-Habashi. The expression Bahr 
Firis also sometimes includes the whole ocean. 

According to Ibn Rusta, 87, its E. shores begin 
at Tiz Mukrin, its W. at c Adan. Abu 'l-Fida', Takwim, 
transl. ii. 27 = text, 22, gives Bahr al-SIn as its 
E boundary, al-Hind as the N. and al-Yaman as 
the W., while the S. is unknown. 

The various parts of the ocean bear special names 
derived from various lands and islands. If we 
neglect the N. arms, Bahr al-Kulzum and Bahr 
Firis in the narrower sense, which are dealt 
with in separate articles, we have first Bahr al- 
Yaman stretching along the S. coast of Arabia with 
the Khuryan Muryan (Kuria Muria) islands and 
Sukutra. On the African coast we have, beginning at 
the strait of Bab al-Mandab, first the land of Barbara, 
i.e. Somaliland to the harbour of Marka, then the 
land of the Zandi [see baijr al-Zandj] with the 
towns of Barawa, Malinda, Munbasa and the island 
of Zanzibar, i.e. roughly Kenya and Tanganyika 
Territory as far as the island of Kanbalu. Sufala is 
joined tc Kanbalu, and finally at an uncertain 
distance is al-Wakwik (Madagascar). 

If one sets out from Baljr Faris at Tiz Mukran, 
one comes to the coast of al-Sind with the delta of 
the Indus (Mihran) and the commercial town of 
al-Daybul. On the shores of Bahr Larawl {i.e. 
the sea of Lar or Gudjarat on the W. coast of India) 
lie the towns of Kanbaya (Cambay), Subara, Saymur 
and Sindabura (Goa). The archipelago of al-DIbadiat 
(the Laccadives and Maldives) separates Bahr 
Larawl from Bahr Harkand (Bay of Bengal with 
the waters to the S.). 'Harkand' has been explained 
as a miswriting in Arabic for Tamralipti (Reinaud) 
or Harikel (Marquart, cf. Ifudud al-'Alam, 241). 
Idrlsl simply notes that the name is Indian (Jaubert, 
i, 63). 

The last port on the Malabar coast is Kulam Mall 
(Quilon), the outermost of its islands is Sarandib 
(Ceylon). The route to the E. Indies appears to have 
lain straight across Bahr Harkand to the island 
of al-Ramni which is washed by the waters of 
Bahr Harkand and the Bahr Shalihit. Al-Ramni 
(al-Raml, al-Ramin = al-Lamarl, whence the sea 
there is called Bahr Lamar!) is Sumatra, to be more 
accurate N. W. Sumatra (Cf. J. Sauvaget, Relation 
de la Chine et de I'Inde, 34), while Shalahit is S. 
Malacca. Voyagers sailing to China must have kept 
somewhat further N., for they touched at the islands 
of Lankabalus or Landjabalus (the Nicobars) to the 
N. of which are placed the Andaman islands, and from 
there reached Kalah Bar (Kedah) on the Malay 
peninsula. The strait of Malacca is therefore called 
Bahr Kalah (Kalah Bar), while Bahr §hal5hit, 



when it is distinguished from it, appears to be the 
sea adjoining it on the S. We have now reached the 
land of the Maharadj, the centre of which L the land 
of al-Zabadj. This name originally denoted Central 
and S. Sumatra, where Snbuza (Ferrand's reading) = 
Palembang is to be sought for, then its use was 
extended to include Java (Djaba) and in its political 
application it includes a series of smaller islands and 
the coast of Malacca. Beyond these islands is Bahr 
Kardandj or Kadrandj, the GuH of Siam, which is 
continued on the coast of Kimar (KhWr„= Cambodia) 
in Bahr Sanf (Champa), the sea of Ann£i and the 
waters adjoining it on the S. Passing tfle> island of 
Sundurfulat ( ?Hai-nan), we reach the Bahr Sankhay 
(China Sea), where Khanfu (Hang-Chu, Canton) is 
the great emporium for the trade with the West. 
The knowledge of the Arabs concerning al-Shila, 
al-Sila (Korea) and the W&kwak islands ( ?Japan) 
was vague and limited. 

The notions of the Arabs of the 10th century 
concerning Bahr al-Hind become more and more 
vague as one goes to the E. and S. and the inter- 
pretation of their statements more uncertain. In 
many cases they have merely followed their Greek 
predecessors. They have in addition utilised the 
accounts of their own voyages. Details from different 
sources were never properly assimilated to form a 
uniform picture. Sometimes Bahr al-Hind ap- 
pears to pass into the 'Sea of Darkness', in which 
mariners driven out of their course are said to be 
tossed about for ever. Sometimes it is believed that 
it joins the 'Black Sea' or 'Sea of Pitch' (al-Bahr 
al-Ziftl) on the N.of Asia. Sometimes again E. Asia 
and S. Africa appear to be connected, as the use of 
the name al-Wakwak [q.v.] for Japan (or Sumatra, 
cf. Ifudud al-'Alam, 228) as well as for Madagascar 
shows. This idea is supported by Idrlsl, according 
to whom the Zabadj islands are opposite to the land 
of the Zandi. 

The voyages of the Persians and Arabs, who 
availed themselves of the monsoons, had as their 
starting-place the Persian Gulf. SIraf and Suhar are 
important harbours there. The most important 
commercial centres appear to have been the land 
of the Zandj, to which merchants sailed even from 
al-Zabadj — Madagascar was ultimately colonised 
from the Malay islands — and al-Zabadj itself, which 
had relations with China. The commerce of the 
Muslims with China came to a standstill in 264/878 
after the sack of Canton?in the course of a rebellion 
(Abu Zayd al-Hasan al-SIrafl in G. Ferrand, Voyage 
du marchand arabe Sulaymin, 75 ff. ; cf. Mas'udI, 
Muridi, i, 302-308). But trade relations seem to 
have recovered to some extent, and became active 
again under the Mongols, as Ibn Batata's account 
of his voyage shows. 

Bibliography: BGA, i, 28-36; ii«, 35-41; ii«, 
41-59; iii, 10-19 ; v, 7, 9-16; vi, 60-72 (transl. 40-53) ; 
vii, 83 ff., 86 ff.; viii, 51-56; Ya'kubl, i, 207 ft.; 
Mas'udI, Murudj, i, 230-44, 325-95; Buzurg b. 
Shahriyar, 'Adjd'ib al-Hind, (ed. van der Lith, 
with French transl. by M. Devic, Leiden, 1883- 
1886); Kazwinl, ed. Wiistenfeld, i, 106-123; 
Reinaud, Introduction to Abu 'l-Fidi', Takwim, 
trad., ccclxxvii-cdxlv; G. Ferrand, Relations de 
voyages et textes geographiques arabes, persans et 
turks relatifs d I'Extrlme-Orient du viii' au xviif 
siicles, i-ii, Paris, 1913-4 («U pobti*hed>,- idem, 
Voyage du marchand arabe Sulay'mdn en Inde et 
en Chine, rldigl en 851, suivi de remarques par Abu) 
Zayd Hasan (vers 916), Paris 1922 (ed. and transl. 
J. Sauvaget, Relation de la Chine et de I'Inde, 



BAHR al-HIND — BAHR al-KULZUM 



931 



Paris 1948, index); idem, Le Tub/at al-Albdb de 
Abu If amid al-Andalusi al-Garnd(i, in J A 1925, 
91-m, 257-68; idem, Instructions noutiques et 
routiers arabes et , portugais des XV et XVI' 
sied.es, vols, i-iii, Paris 1921-8; HadI Hasan, 
Persian Navigation, London 1928, 95-164; Hudud 
al-'Alam, especially Index A; G. F. Hourani, 
Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean in Ancient 
and Early Medieval Times, Princeton Oriental 
Studies, Princeton 1951, 61-122 ; T. A. Shumovsky, 
Tri neizvestnie lotsii Akhmada ibn Mddzhida, 
arabskogo lotsmana Vasko da Gamii, Moscow 1957. 

(R. Hartmann-[D. M. Dunlop]) 
BAHR KHWARIZM [see aral sea]. 
BAHR al-BHAZAJR, 'the Sea of the Khazars', 
the common Arabic designation for the Caspian, 
which was also called al-Bahr al-Khazari, 'the 
Khazar Sea', and has had a number of other names, 
al-Bahr al-Khurasanl. 'the Khurasanian Sea'; Bahr 
Pjurdjan, 'Sea of pjurdjan'; Bahr Tabaristan, 'Sea 
of Tabaristan', etc., local names often being applied 
to the whole (cf. al-Mas c udi, Murudi, i, 263). Al- 
Dimashkl mentions that in his time (circa 723/1320) 
the Turks called it Bahr Kurzum, 'Beaver Sea' 
(ed. Mehren, 147), hence as we learn from Hamd 
Allah Mustawfl (Nuzha, 239, transl. 231) some people 
misnamed the Caspian Bahr al-Kulzum, which pro- 
perly signifies the Red Sea (Sea of Clysma). AJ- 
MukaddasI refers to the Caspian simply as al-Bu- 
hayra, 'the Lake' {BOA, iii, 353, 361), perhaps iden- 
tifying it with the Aral Sea (Buhayra Khwarizm). 
The prevailing designation, Bahr al-Khazar, refers 
to the kingdom of the Khazars, who in the early 
Middle Ages occupied the shores of the sea N. of 
the Caucasus to the mouth of the Atil (Volga) and 
yet further N. and E. Geographers of the school of 
al-Balkhi devote the greater part of their account 
of Bahr al-Khazar to a description of the Khazar 
kingdom. 

Under the Caliphate the Muslim possessions on 
Bahr al-Khazar never extended beyond the Cau- 
casus in the W. and Diurdjan in the E. and included, 
as one travelled S. then E. from Bab al-Abwab 
[?■»•]. Shirwan, Adharbaydjan with Mukan, Djllan 
(Dili), Tabaristan (later called Mazandaran) and 
Diurdjan. N. of the Atrak which marked the boun- 
dary of the last-named province lay the desert of 
the Ghuzz Turks, and beyond that again, perhaps on 
the other side of the Ust Urst plateau, were the lands 
of the Khazars. 

The principal rivers entering Bahr al-Khazar were 
the Pjam (Pjim, Emba) and Djaykh (Ural) in the 
N., the Atil (Volga) in the N.-W., and the combined 
stream of the Kur (Cyrus) and Aras (Araxes) in the 
W., with the Pjurdjan and Atrak in the S.-E. corner. 
It is a remarkable fact, apparently well established 
(cf. Le Strange, 455-8), that from the time of the 
Mongol invasion of Khwarizm in 617/1220 for several 
centuries the main stream of the Pjayhun (Oxus, 
Amu Darya), which till then had flowed into the 
Aral Sea, passed t& the Caspian. The river thus 
resumed its ancient course, known from accounts 
of the campaigns of Alexander the Great. Since some 
time in the 16th century it has changed course once 
again, and now flows into the Aral Sea as formerly. 
The principal islands of the sea, as given by Ibn 
Hawkal and the Hudud al-'-Alam, were Siyahkuh or 
Siyahkuya, usually taken as present-day Mangishlak, 
and the 'Island of Bab al-Abwab', which cannot now 
be: identified with certainty (cf. Hudid al-'-Alam, 
193). With the exception of its S. and part of its 
W. shores the coast-line of Bahr al-Khazar is generally 



low. The ranges of the Great Balkhan and little 
Balkhan E. of Krasnovodsk, though not very high, 
are a conspicuous feature on the landward side. A 
modern estimate of the length of the Caspian is 
760 miles. Al-Mas'udI gives 800 miles in length, in 
breadth 600 miles or more {al-Tanbih, 60), but the 
latter figure is greatly exaggerated. Al-Mas c udl is 
well aware of the fact that Bahr al-Khazar j s „„. 
connected with Bahr Mayutis (Sea oIAzqv) and Bahr 
NItas (Black Sea) (Murudi, i. 273-4). 

For a long time the Khazars served as middlemen 
between the peoples of the North and the inhabitants 
of the lands of Islam. There is plenty of evidence 
of mercantile activity in both directions, for which 
the water-way was the Atil (Volga) and Bahr al- 
Khazar itself. Eventually Russian warships began 
to make the descent of the Atil through Khazar 
territory to the Caspian, and the presence of these 
marauders is a feature of the history of this part of 
the world for a considerable period from before 
A.D. 900. The Mongol invasions brought about the 
rise of new Muslim dynasties N. as well as S. of 
the Caspian. It is long since the Russian advance 
put an end to the power of the Khanates of the step- 
pes, and at present Russia controls more of the coast- 
line of the sea than did the Khazars at the zenith 
of their power. 

Bibliography: Istakhrl, 217-27; Ibn Hawkal, 
ed. De Goeje, 276-87 and ed. Kramers, 386-98; 
Mas'udi, al-Tanbih, 60-66; Idrlsl, transl. Jaubert, 
". 332-43; Ifudud al-'Alam, index; A. Zeki Validi 
Togan, Ibn Fadlan's Reisebericht,A.K.M.,xxiv, 3 
Leipzig, 1939 (conditions E. of the Caspian in the 
4thyioth century); D. M. Dunlop, History of the 
Jewish Khazars, Princeton 1954, index. For Russ- 
ian raids on the Caspian littoral: Ibn Miskawayh, 
Tadidrib al-Umam (in H. F. Amedroz and D. S. 
Margoliouth, The Eclipse of the Abbasid Caliphate, 
Arabic text, ii, 62-67'; transl. v, 67 ff.) ; V. Minorsky, 
Studies in Caucasian History, London 1953, index; 
idem, A History of Shaman and Darband, Cam- 
bridge 1958, index. (D. M. Dunlop) 
BAHR al-KULZUM, formerly much the com- 
monest Arabic name for the Red Sea, from Kulzum 
[q.v.], the ancient Clysma, near Suez; the article is 
usually omitted when the name of the town is 
written alone, but retained when the sea is mentioned. 
It was also called Bahr al-Hi&az, a common name 
which survived to modem times, al-Khalldj al- 
'Arabl, and, in Turkish, Shab deflizi (Sap denizi), 
"the Coral Sea". The names Khalldj Ayla, strictly 
the Gulf of c Akaba, and Bahr al-Yaman, properly 
applicable to the southern part of the Red Sea orly, 
were at times used for the whole sea. It was some- 
times considered to end at the strait of Bab al- 
Mandab, and sometimes, as by Yakut, to include the 
Gulf of Aden, known as Khalldj Barbara or al- 
Khalldi al-Barbari. Owing to European influence it 
is now almost always called al-Bahr al-Ahmar or an 
equivalent (KIzll Deniz, etc.). 

The Bahr al-Kulzum presents great difficulties to 
the navigator because of contrary winds, currents and 
submerged reefs. The northern part was considered 
more dangerous than the southern, the neigh- 
bourhood of Ra's Muhammad, the southern tip of 
the Sinai peninsula, being" especially feared because 
of the meeting of winds from the Gulfs of Suez and 
c Akaba. It has always been customary for local 
shipping to sail close to the shore and anchor at 
night. Because of these difficulties and the conse- 
quent risk of missing the monsoon that would take 
them home, ships from India rarely ventured as far 



932 BAHR A 

north as Suez, but generally unloaded their goods at 
Aden, Djidda or, in the nth/i7th century, at 
Mukha. It was the caravan trade with Djidda that 
gave Mecca its commercial importance in the 9th/ 
15th century. Much merchandise, however, was 
merely transshipped to smaller vessels; according 
to Abu Zayd the local craft used for this at Djidda 
were known as Kulzum ships. Arab navigators thus 
had wide experience of the Bahr al-Kulzum and their 
nautical treatises show sound practical knowledge; 
Ferrand considered the relevant sailing directions 
in Ibn Madjid's Kitdb al-faw&Hd to be unsurpassed, 
except for their errors of latitude, by any European 
directions for sailing ships for the area. The Muslim 
geographers give the length of the Bahr al- Kulzum as 
30 days' sail, or as from 1400 to 1500 mil ; this figure is 
fairly accurate, but their estimate of the maximum 
breadth, 700 mil, is more than three times too 
great. 

The whole area within the strait of Bab al-Mandab 
was thought to have once been a fertile country, 
until a certain king cut a channel through which the 
ocean could flow and destroy his enemy's territory. 
Another legend connected with the Bahr al-Kulzum is 
that there is a magnetic mountain south of Kulzum, 
because of which local ships had to be constructed 
without any iron parts. This is perhaps a fanciful 
explanation of the fact that the local craft of the 
Bahr al-Kulzum and the western part of the Indian 
Ocean used to be made of planks, sewn, not nailed, 
together; this practice is now confined to small craft 
in the more remote places. The Bahr al-Kulzum was 
also believed to contain an island inhabited by al- 
Djassasa, "the spy", a creature which collected in- 
formation for al-Djadjdjal. The sea in which Pharaoh 
and his army were drowned was assumed to have 
been some part of the Baljr al-Kulzum. According 
to Yakut the incident took place at Kulzum, accord- 
ing to others, including Kalkashandi, at Birkat al- 
Gharandal, on the coast between Kulzum and al-Tur, 
known as Surandala or Arandara to mediaeval 
Christian pilgrims. 

In spite of difficulties to navigation, the lack of 
good harbours and the aridity of the littoral, the 
position of the Bahr al-Kulzum ensured its commerc- 
ial importance. It must have been crossed in the 
south by the Semitic invaders of northern Abyssinia 
and again, some centuries later and in the reverse 
direction, by the Abyssinian invaders of S.-W. 
Arabia. In early Muslim times piracy was rife in 
this region. Under the Banu Ziyad of Zabld, 
according to Mas'udI, there was constant trade 
between the Arabian and African shores and there 
were Muslim settlements in Africa paying tribute 
to native rulers. Communication between the Bahr 
al-Kulzum and the Nile valley and the Mediterranean 
was at one time facilitated by a canal, sometimes 
called the Pharaonic, or Trajan's canal, known to 
the Arabs as Khalidj Amir al-Mu'minln, which 
entered the sea at Kulzum. Part of this canal, the 
Wadl Jumllat, had once been a natural branch of 
the Nile extending to Lake Timsah; as the level of 
the land rose it became useless for navigation. It 
was cleared several times in antiquity and again 
by 'Amr b. al-'As, who used it to send corn ships 
to al-Dj&r, then the port of al-Madlna, in the time 
of c Umar b. al-Khattab. The Khalifa is said to have 
refused to let c Amr dig a canal from Lake Timsah to 
the Mediterranean lest it should enable Byzantine 
ships to enter tht Bahr al-Kulzum 'Aim's canal was 
navigable only when the Nile was high ; it was again 



cleared in the time of al-Mahdi, but fell into disuse 
soon after, though water sometimes flowed along 
it when there was aii exceptional flood. 

The trade of the Bahr al-Kulzum benefited from the 
increased power of Egypt under the Fatimids and 
the corresponding decline of 'Irak. The Crusades, 
stimulated the demand for oriental products in 
Europe, and this transit trade became a factor of 
great importance to Egyptian prosperity. In 578-9/ 
1 182-3 Renaud de Chatillon conveyed prefabricated 
ships from the Mediterranean coast to Ayla where 
they were assembled and launched to harry this 
commerce. The Franks attacked 'Aydhab [q.v.] but 
were defeated at sea by Husam al-DIn Lu'lu' and 
those who contrived to land in the Hidjaz were 
annihilated. According to Abu Shama, Salah al-DIn 
ordered that no prisoner should be allowed to 
survive, so that there should be no one who could 
give information about the passage of the Bahr al- 
Kulzum. Later, attempts were made in Europe to 
ruin this trade by an embargo, but in spite of Papal 
injunctions, it was never applied effectively. In the 
early 8th/i4th century Guillaume Adam advocated 
that a Christian naval force should occupy Sukutra 
[q.v.] and blockade the entrance to the Bahr al- 
Kulzum. About 893/1488 Pero da Covilha, who 
sailed from al-Tur to Aden and later visited Mecca 
and al-Madina, collected information about the trade 
route for the King of Portugal; he was himself 
detained in Abyssinia and it is not known whether 
his report ever reached Lisbon. Having reached India 
by sea in 903/1498, the Portuguese attempted 
forcibly to divert the entire transit trade of the Bahr 
al-Kulzum and the Persian Gulf to the Cape route 
for their own profit. In the ensuing war against first 
the Egyptians and then the Ottoman Turks they 
secured naval supremacy in the Indian Ocean. In 
919/1513 Albuquerque, who hoped to join the Abys- 
sinians in an attack on Mecca, unsuccessfully besieged 
Aden and then entered the Bahr al-Kulzum. His 
fleet was becalmed at Kamaran and suffered very 
heavy casualties. His successor had the same ex- 
perience and, although in 947-8/1541 D. Estevao da 
Gama sailed within sight of Suez and landed a small 
force' at Masawwa' (Massawa) to assist the Abyssinians 
against the Somali Muslim invader, Ahmad Gran, the 
Portuguese never seriously challenged Turkish domi- 
nation within the strait of Bab al-Mandab. After the 
middle of the ioth/i6th century Portuguese ships did 
not often visit the Bahr al-Kulzum and Portuguese 
travellers, mostly missionaries going to Abyssinia, 
usually sailed in disguise on native ships. Early in 
the nth/ 1 7th century English (1018/1609) and Dutch 
(1025/1616) ships began to trade at Mukha; they did 
not often sail further north. Though Mukha [q.v.] 
attained temporary importance as an outlet for the 
coffee of al-Yaman (see kahwa) the Indian and Far 
Eastern trade now mostly followed the Cape route. 
In the next century the need for rapid communi- 
cation between London and Paris and the growing 
European possessions in India resulted in renewed 
interest in the Bahr al-Kulzum route, of which a very 
early example is the journey of Daniel. A general 
realisation of its strategic and commercial significance 
may be said to date from Napoleon's Egyptian 
campaign and to have culminated in the opening of 
the Suez Canal (1286/1869). 

Bibliography: Ibn Khurrad&dhbih, i53;Mukad- 
dasi,ii;Mas c QdI, MurAdi, i, 237; iii, 34 , 35;ff«*W 
al-'Alam, 52; IdrisI, 164; Yakut, i 503; iv, 158; 
Kalkashandi, paw 1 al-$ubk, 224; Makrtzl, Kim, 
Cairo 1324-26, i, 24-26; Ibn al-Wardl, Kharidat id- 



BAHR al-KULZUM — BAHR MAYUTIS 



933 



'A&a'ib, Cairo 1316, 96 fi.; Abu Zayd, Akhbdr 
al-Sin waH-Hind, ed. and tr. J, Sauvaget, Paris 
1948; G. Ferrand, Instructions nautiques et 
routiers arabes et portugais, passim ; Heyd, Histoire 
du commerce du Levant au Moyen-Age; A. Kam- 
merer, La Mer Rouge, I'Abyssinie et V Arabic depuis 
Vantiquiti, Cairo 1929, etc.; G. F. Hourani, Arab 
Seafaring; O. G. S. Crawford, The Fung Kingdom 
of Sennar, Gloucester 195 1, has material on the 
history of the Sudanese coast. On the policy 
of the Fatimids regarding the eastern trade, B. 
Lewis, The Fatimids and the Route to India, in 
Istanbul Iktisat FakiiUesi Mecmuasi, 1950. On 
Renaud de Chatillon, Sir D. Newbold, The Cru- 
saders in the Red Sea and the Sudan, in Sudan 
Notes and Records, 1945, reprinted in Antiquity, 
1946; E. Cerulli, Etiopi in Palestina, i, 20-26; 
G. Adam, De modo Sarracenos extirpandi is 
printed in Recueil des historiens des Croisades, 
Documents armeniens, ii, 1906. Portuguese accounts 
are too numerous to be listed in detail. There are 
important references in the works of Barros, 
Couto, Castanheda, Correa, G6is, Osorio, the 
letters of Albuquerque, the Comentarios by 
Albuquerque the younger, the works of F. Alvares 
and Castanhoso on Abyssinia, the Roteiro of 
D. Joao de Castro and in Beccari's collection, 
Rerum aethiopxcarum scriptores occidentals inediti, 
Rome, 1905-17; annotated English translations 
of Albuquerque's Comentarios, and of Alvares 
and Castanhoso have been published by the 
Hakluyt Society. For the first half of the 10th/ 
16th century, R. S. Whiteway, The Rise of 
Portuguese Power in India, is a convenient guide 
to the material. On the Dutch, P. van den Broecke, 
Korte Historiael ende Journaelsche Aenteyckeninghe 
etc., Haarlem, 1634 (translation and further 
references in JRAS, 1951, 64-81, 170-181); H. 
Terpstra, De Opkomst der Westerkwartieren van de 
Oost-Indische Compagnie. For early English con- 
tacts see Sir W. Foster, England's Quest of Eastern 
Trade, giving many further references. On Daniel's 
journey, A Journal or Account of William Daniel, 
London 1702, reprinted and annotated in Sir 
W. Foster, The Red Sea and adjacent countries at 
the close of the seventeenth century, Hakluyt Soc, 
1049- (C. H. Becker-[C. F. Beckingham]) 

BAHR LCT. "Lot's Sea", is the modern Afab 
name for the Dead Sea which is usually called 
by the Arab Geographers al-buhayra cU-mayyita 
"the Dead Sea", al-buhayra al-muntina "the stink- 
ing Sea", al-buhayra al-makluba "the overturned 
Sea" (because it is situated in al-ar4 al-makluba, 
"the land that has been overturned", the ard kawm 
Luf), buhayrat Soghar (Zoghar) "the Sea of Zoghar", 
also "the Sea of Sodom and Gomorra". The Persian 
Nasir-i Khusraw (5th/nth century) appears to be 
the first geographer to know the name buhayrat Luf. 
The name Bahr Lut refers to the story in Genesis 
xix which is often referred to in the Kur'an though 
the sea itself is not named. 

To the present day, names in the neighbourhood 
of the Dead Sea— e.g. Djebel Sudum (Usdum)— 
and legends current locally, recall the catastrophe 
related in Genesis xix. These are certainly founded 
less on popular than on learned tradition. 

Geography. Between the steep and barren 
slopes of the "desert of Judah" and the moun- 
tainous land of Moab lies the Dead Sea, like a 
blue mirror 11 50 feet below sea-level from north 
to south. Its length is about 50 miles, its mid- 
breadth 8 miles and it has no exit. 



The deepest part of its bottom is 2600 feet 
below sea level. An isthmus (lisan "tongue") run- 
ning out from its east shore separates the southern, 
quite shallow part from the northern basin. While 
on the East and West shores the mountains rise 
up from the shore to a height of over 3000 feet, 
in the north, at the mouth of the Jordan the land 
is low-lying, and in the south, where on the east 
shore of the sabkha Pentapolis (Genesis xiv and 
xix) is to be sought for, it only rises slowly into 
al-Qhawr and al-'Araba. The composition of its 
water, so extraordinarily rich in salt, is unsuited to 
organic life and is even an impediment to navigation. 
On only a few places on the shore, inhabited oases 
of almost tropical character have survived. 

Geology. The Dead Sea fills the deepest part 
of the Great Syrian system of depressions which 
was formed at the close of the Tertiary period. 
In the periods of alternate drought and rain of 
the diluvial epoch, the great floods filled the 
greater part of the Jordan valley and a part of 
the c Araba with an inland sea; this was never 
connected with the Red Sea. There being no 
exit to this basin the water, which, to begin 
with, flowed partly from springs rich in minerals, 
came in course of time, by evaporation to contain 
a high percentage of salt of peculiar composition. 
In the dry period of historic times the sea has 
dwindled into the area it at present occupies. In the 
last century a gradual ri ing of the level of the sea 
has been definitely ascertained. Tectonic distur- 
bances have affected the surrounding district down 
to the present day. It is to one of the most recent 
of these that the origin of the southern basin is due. 

The procuring of asphalt from the Dead Sea, as 
in antiquity (cf. the name locus Asphaltitis) seems 
to have been an important business in the middle 
ages, also. The asphalt was used as a protection 
against insects in vineyards. It was also used for 
many medicinal purposes. To the waters of the 
sea itself, healing powers were also ascribed. 

The rich products of the oasis of Zoghar (near 
the mo<*ern ghawr al-Sdfiya) were borne across 
the Dead Sea. The Frankish Crusaders also sailed 

Bibliography: All earlier material has been 
collected and made use of in Meusburger, Das Tote 
Meer (Programme, Brixen 1907-1909); Arab 
accounts: Istakhrl, i, 64; Ibn Hawkal, 123 ft.; 
MukadidasI, 178, 184 ff. ; Ibn al-Faklh, 118; Ibn 
Khurradadhbih, 79; Ya'kubi, 329; Mas'udI, al- 
Tahbih, 73 ff. ; Mas'udi, Murudj, i, 96; IdrisI, 
ZDPV, viii, 3; Yakut, i, 516, ii, 934; Dimashkl 
(ed. Mehren), 108; Abu '1-Fida 1 , Takwim, 228; 
Ibn Baytar (trans. Sontheimer, Stuttgart 1842), 
ii, 309 ff. ; cf. also the Persian Nasir-i Khusraw 
(ed. Schefer), 17 ff. and the Turkish Ewliya 
Celebi, Seyahat-ndme, ix, 516, 519, and Hadidji 
Khalifa, Djihdn-numd, 555; the Muslim sources 
have been collected and translated in G. Le 
Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, 64-7, 
286-92 «ind A. S. Marmardji, Textes giographiques 
arabes sur la Palestine, Paris 195 1, 15-18. 

(R. Hartmann) 
BAHR AL-MAfiHRIB [see ba^r al-rum]. 
BAHR MAYUT1S or Bu^ayra MAyutis, the 
Classical Lake Maeotis, modern Sea of Azov. Other 
forms of the name are Mawtis (Mawflsh). Bahr 
Mayutis is constantly mentioned with Bahr Nitas, 
i.e., Bahr Buntus, [q.v.], to which it is joined by 
Khalidj Nitas (Strait of Kertch). 

According to Mas c udl (Tanbih, 66), Buhayra 



934 



BAHR MAYUTIS — BAHR AJ.-RUM 



Mayutis is 300 miles long and 100 miles broad. 
These dimensions, which are considerably exag- 
gerated, were earlier given by Ibn Rusta (86). 
Mas'Qdl also states that it lies at the extremity of 
the inhabited world towards the N. in the vicinity 
of Tuliya (Thule). The opinion which places Thule 
N. of the Sea of Azov is shared by Ibn al-Fakih (8), 
according to whom one of the four principal seas 
(cf. article bahr al-rCm, 4th paragraph) is that 
which lies 'between Rome and Khwarizm (as far as) 
the island of Tuliya. No ship was ever placed upon it'. 
(Ibn al-Fakih reckons al-Bahr al-Khazari or Caspian 
separately). Elsewhere Mas'Qdl says that the river 
Tanais (Tanais, Don), which takes it rise in a great 
lake (unnamed) situated in the N„ flows into Bahr 
Mayutis after a course of about 300/afsaAAs through 
cultivated countries (Murudi, i, 261). The great lake 
in the N., with which Bahr Mayutis is evidently 
confused, had already been mentioned by al-Kindi, 
his pupil al-SarakhsI and others (Murudi, i, 27})- 
It came to be identified with Bahr al-Warank, 
properly the Baltic. Hence in a Syriac map of about 
1 150 A.D. the Sea of Azov is called 'Warang Sea' 
(A. Mingana, cited Hudud al-'Alam, 182; cf. 'All 
Kunh al-Akhbdr, i. 100). 

Mas'Qdl, who shows more interest in Bahr 
Mayutis and Bahr NItas than geographers of the 
school of al-Balkhl, [q.v.], maintains that properly 
they form a single sea. He is concerned also to 
refute on the testimony of travelling merchants those 
who say that Bahr al-Khazar, i.e., the Caspian, 
communicates directly with Bahr Mayutis (Murudi, 
i, 273). There is only the river route, via the Strait of 
Kertch, the Don and the Atil (Volga), using the 
Don-Volga portage, i.e., the so-called 'Khazarian 
Way' (cf. Murudi, «, 18 ff.). His own account of 
Bahr Mayutis is by no means free from error, cf. 
above. He also appears to think that its waters are 
of greater extent and depth than those of Bahr 
NItas or Black Sea (Murudi, i, 273), which is the 
reverse of the case. Confusion is also introduced by 
the fact that Mas'Qdl occasionally speaks of Bahr 
Mayutis as Bahr al-Khazar (e.g., Tanbih, 138), 
following popular usage. 

In later times Bahr Mayutis was called Bahr Azak, 
in Ottoman Turkish Azak Denizi. 

Bibliography: In addition to the references 
in the article, Hudud al-'Alam, 180-183, and index. 

(D. M. Dunlop) 
al-BAQR AL-MUfllT. i.e. 'the Encircling Sea', 
also called Bahr Ukiyanus al-Muhlt, or simply 
Ukiyanus, the circumambient Ocean of the Greeks 
('flxeavo?). By some it was named al-Bahr al-Akhdar, 
'the Green Sea'. It was regarded as enclosing the 
habitable world on all sides, or at least on three 
sides, W., N. and E. (Mas'udI, Tanbih, 26), since the 
S. boundary of the inhabited world was the equator. 
According to Ka*b al-Ahbar [q.v.] reported by 
Kazwlnl (Cosmography, ed. Wiistenfeld, i, 104), 
seven seas encircled the earth, of which the last 
enclosed all the others. 

There was general agreement that the principal 
seas were directly connected with al-Bahr al-Muhlt, 
with few exceptions, notably the Caspian (Bahr al- 
Khazar), but not the Black Sea (Bahr Buntus or 
more usually NItas, [q.v.]), which was supposed to 
be an arm or 'gulf' of al-Bafcr at-Muhlt, like Bahr 
al-Maghrib, Bahr al-Rum, Bahr Warank (Baltic), 
Babr al-Zandj, Bahr Faris, Babr al-Hind and Bahr 
al-SIn (the last four corresponding to the Indian 
Ocean and part of the Pacific). In general, these 
arms or 'gulfs' were thought of as forming an Eastern 



and Western system (YUfQt, Bulddn, i, 504), meeting 
or at least approaching each other at the isthmus of 
Suez. There was some doubt as to whether the 'gulfs' 
were supplied from al-Bahr al-Muhlt (the prevailing 
opinion), or vice versa, given that nearly all the 
rivers of the world flowed into it. 

But while in theory al-Bahr al-Muhit. was the 
circumambient Ocean, it frequently signifies simply 
the Atlantic. From another point of view, the 
Atlantic adjacent to Spain and N. Africa formed part 
of Bahr al-Maghrib (Kazwlnl, Cosmography, i, 123). 
In the sense of the Atlantic al-Bahr al-Muhit is 
synonymous with al-Bahr al-Muzlim or Bahr al- 
?ulma or al-?ulumat (Sea of Darkness), applied to 
the N. Atlantic as descriptive of its bad weather 
and dangerous character (Jaubert, Glog. d'Edrisi, 
», 355-356, cf. Dimashkl, ed. Mehren, 124). Con- 
spicuous among the islands of al-Bahr al-Muhlt, 
apart from Thule (usually taken to be the Shetlands), 
which the Arabs knew from translations of Ptolemy, 
were the Fortunate Islands (Canaries) and Britain 
(Bar{aniyya, with variants). A persistent tradition, 
which seems to go back to a Classical source, gives 
the British Isles as 12 in number (Nallino, Al-Battani, 
text, 26; cf. Mas'udI, Tanbih, 68). 

The Arabic authors agree that al-Bahr al-Muhlf is 
impassable for ships (e.g. al-Kindi, cited Yakut, 
Bulddn, i, 500, speaking apparently of the Arctic 
Ocean, cf . Mas'Qdl, Murudi, i, 275 ; Battani, loc. tit. ; 
Yakut, Bulddn, i, 504; Ibn Khaldun, Berbires, T.I. 
Paris 1925, 187-8). Perhaps this assertion is to be 
taken as applying in principle to the mythical circum- 
ambient Ocean. It is in any case certain that Muslim 
ships sailed in Atlantic waters. After a descent of 
the Norsemen on Spain in 229/844 the Atlantic coast 
was patrolled by Umayyad squadrons, perhaps as far 
as the Bay of Biscay. In 355/966 the coast of Spain, 
at Lisbon and Kasr Abi Danis (Alcacer do Sal), was 
attacked by Danish Vikings, who were met and 
defeated at Silves by the Umayyad fleet. In 387/997 
the fleet brought the infantry of al-Mansur [q.v.] from 
the Atlantic port of Kasr Abi Danis already mentioned 
to Burtukal (Oporto) by sea. (For these events, see 
Levi- Provencal, Hist. Esp. Mus., i, Cairo 1944, 157, 
218, 224, 393, 441). 

In these instances coastal operations are presumab- 
ly intended. Therea re also some indications of ocean 
voyages in the Atlantic. Apart from the reported 
journey of Yahya al-Ghazal to the court of the 
'king of the Norsemen' after A.D. 844 — variously 
localised in Jutland or Ireland — (refs. in Brockelmann, 
GAL., Sup. I 148; also H. Munis, Contribution d 
I'ltude des invasions des Normands en Espagne, in 
Bulletin de la SocitU Royale d' Etudes Historiques, 
Egypt*, Vol. ii, fasc. 1, 1950), we read also of Khash- 
khash of Cordova, who embarked in ships upon al- 
Bahr al-Muhlt, and returned with rich booty (Mas'udI, 
Murudi, i, 258, cf. Levi- Provencal, Hist. Esp. Mus. 
iii, 342, n.), and of the Adventurers (al-mugharrirun 
— so read) of Lisbon, who sailed for many days W. 
and S. into the Atlantic and after whom a street was 
named in their native town (Jaubert, Geog. d'Edrisi, 
ii, 26-7, cf. i, 200). An account of whaling in the neigh- 
bourhood of Ireland (Kazwlnl, Cosmography, ii, 388, 
quoting the nth century Spanish geographer al- 
'Udhri) may also be mentioned here. 

(D. M. Dunlop) 

BABR al-RCM, 'the Sea of the Greeks', or 
al-Bahr al-RCmI, 'the Greek Sea', i.e. the Mediter- 
ranean, both names being in use from an early date 
to denote especially the E. Mediterranean, where 
Byzantine fleets were liable to be encountered. As 



BAHR al-ROM 



935 



the Muslim conquests extended, these names were 
applied to the whole Mediterranean, for which Bahr 
al-Rum is still in use. The Mediterranean was also 
called al-Bahr al-Shaml, or Bahr al-Sham, 'the Sea 
of Syria', and Bahr al-Maghrib, 'the Sea of the West'. 

The sea thus variously named began, according to 
Arabic geographers, considerably to the W. of the 
Strait of Gibraltar (al-Zukak) and was a gulf of the 
Western Ocean (al-Bahr al-Muhlf al-Maghribl). 
Legend had it that Bahr al-Rum was originally for- 
med in what had hitherto been dry land, after the 
Strait had been cut, by the Banu Daluka, descen- 
dants of a Queen Daluka who was supposed to have 
ruled Egypt after the Pharaoh of the Exodus (al- 
Mas'Qdi, Murudi, '", 398), in order to interpose a 
barrier between themselves and the king of the Greeks 
(al-KazwIni, 'A&dHb, 123), or the Strait was cut 
and al-Bahr al-Ruml was joined to al-Bahr al- 
Muhlt by Alexander the Great at the request of the 
original Spaniards (Ishban), who wished to be se- 
parated from the Berbers (al-Nuwayrl, Nihdyat 
al-Arab, i, 231-232). A detailed account of the fa- 
bulous bridge which Alexander built on this occasion, 
with diagrams, is actually given by al-Dimashki 
(Cosmographie, ed. Mehren, 137). 

Descriptions of Bahr al-Rum regularly begin in 
the W. and proceed E.-wards, usually along the S. 
shore from Sala or even al-Sus al-Aksa, past Tandja 
(Tangier) and Sabta (Ceuta) to Tarabulus (Tripoli) 
and Alexandria, then past the mouths of the Nile, 
N. along the Syrian coast to Antakiya (Antioch) 
and its harbour al-Suwaydiyya, on to al-Thughur 
(the Frontiers), then continuing W.-wards along 
the coast of Bilad al-Rum (Asia Minor) to Constan- 
tinople, al-Ard al-Saghlra ('the Little Land', i.e., 
mainland Greece), Balbunus (the Peloponnese), 
Kallauriya (Calabria), al-Ankuwarda (Lombardy), 
Ifrandja (France), and S. again towards al-Andalus 
(Spain) (e.g., Ibn Hawkal ed. Kramers, 190-1). It is 
understood that a man could in theory at least make 
the circuit of Bahr al-Rum till he reached a point in 
Spain opposite to where he started from, and that 
the countries lying to the S. of the sea are Muslim, 
while those to the N. are Christian. The dimensions 
of Bahr al-Rum are variously given. Al-Mas'udI 
offers one estimate: length, 5,000 miles, more or less; 
breadth, from 600 to 800 miles, but knows of another, 
said to be that of the celebrated al-Kinrtl and his 
pupil al-SarakhsI: length, 6,000 miles; breadth, 400 
miles (al-Tanbik, 56, cf. MurOdi, i, 259). Ibn al- 
Faklh, 7, estimated the length of al-Bahr al- Rural 
as 2,5 00 /area AAs from Antakiya (Antioch) to Djaza'ir 
al-Sa'ada (the Fortunate Isles, Canaries), breadth 
500 farsakhs, and was quoted to that effect by al- 
MukaddasI, 14. Al-Mas c udl in one place mentions 
that practical sailors disagreed with the philosophers 
and increased the dimensions of al-Bahr al-Ruml 
(MurUdi, i, 282). (The actual length is about 2,400 
miles; greatest breadth, about 1000 miles.) A nearly 
exact estimate of the length of the Mediterranean 
was made by the astronomer al- Marrakushi in the 
7<h/i3th century (Abu 1-Fida', Ta^wim, Introd., 
cclxxvii). 

Bahr al-Rum is always regarded as one of the 
earth's principal seas. Al-Mukaddasl says that he 
knows only two, a Western, i.e., the Mediterranean, 
and an Eastern, i.e., the Indian Ocean, called by 
him al-Bahr al-$ini, 'the Chinese Sea'. He mentions 
that to these al-Balkhl added al-Bahr al-Muhlt, 'the 
Circumambient Ocean', and al-Djayhanl a fourth 
and fifth, viz., Bahr al-Khazar, 'the Sea of the 
Khazars' (Caspian) and Khalldj al-Kustantiniyya, 



'Gulf of Constantinople', i.e., the approaches to the 
Black Sea. Al-Mukaddasl points out that his own 
view corresponds with the Kur'an (Sura lv, 19 ff.) : 
'He has left unconnected the two seas which meet. 
Between them is a barrier which they do not trans- 
gress etc' As al-MukaddasI, 16, puts it, the 'barrier' 
is the isthmus between al-Farama' (Pelusium) and 
al-Kulzum (Clysma, mod. Suez), and it divides 
Bahr al-Rum from al-Bahr al-SInl. He mentions that 
some interpreted another Kur'anic text (Sura xxxi, 
26): 'If the trees in the world were pens, and the sea 
were filled thereafter by seven seas etc' with refe- 
rence to the five already mentioned plus al-Makluba, 
'the Inverted (Lake)' (Dead Sea) and al-Khwariz- 
miyya, 'the Khwarizmian (Lake)'. (Aral Sea). An- 
other more reasonable list of the 'Seven Seas' is: 
Green Sea or Eastern Ocean, Western Ocean, Great 
Sea or Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, Caspian, Black 
Sea and Aral Sea (tfudiid al-'Alam, 51-3). Al-Mas'udI 
in one place follows al-Djayhanl in giving five: In- 
dian Ocean, Mediterranean, Caspian, Black Sea and 
Circumambient Ocean (al-Tanbih, 30-241) and else- 
where says that most people reckon four (Muridi, 
i, 271), Black Sea and Caspian presumably counting 
as one, but cf. Ibn al-Fakih, 4-8. However many 
the seas were taken to be, the general view was 
that the Kur'anic "meeting of the two seas' 
(madima 1 al-bakrayn, Sura xviii, 59/60) was at the 
isthmus of Suez, though some thought in this con- 
nexion of al-Zukak (Strait of Gibraltar). 

The different parts of Bahr al-Rum had special 
names, e.g., Bahr Tiran, 'the Tyrrhenian Sea' (al- 
RazI) ; Djun al-Banadikiyyln, 'the Gulf of the Venet- 
ians' (Ibn Hawkal) or al-Khalidj al-Banadikl, 'the 
Venetian Gulf (al-Idrisi), in effect the whole of the 
Adriatic; Khalldj al-Kustantiniyya, 'Gulf of Con- 
stantinople', the approaches to the Black Sea. The 
Black Sea itself was Nlfas, a stereotyped mistake 
for Buntus (Pontus), which perhaps survived in 
some MSS. The Sea of Azov was Mayutis (Maeotis). 
It was correctly realised that the two last-named 
seas were connected with each other and Baljr al- 
Rum, but uncertainty and error attended the at- 
tempts made to explain the relative positions of the 
Black Sea and the Caspian (Bahr al-Khazar, [q.v.]) 
and a fortiori the Black Sea and the Baltic (Bahr 
al-Warank, 'Sea of the Warangians') or the Arctic 
Ocean, of which the Arabs can scarcely have had 
direct information. The tendency to regard the seas 
last mentioned as connected with Bahr al-Rum is 
illustrated in the maps of Ibn Hawkal. 

Various islands of Baljr al-Rum came to be known 
at an early date. Kubrus (Cyprus) and Arwad (Ara- 
dus), the little island off the Syrian coast, were the 
first to be occupied, under Mu'awiya, and before his 
death (60/680) Rhodes, Crete and even Sicily had 
been attacked. Several other Mediterranean islands 
are mentioned -by Ibn Khurradadhbih, 112. The 
geographers of the tradition of al-Balkhl give few 
islands in Bahr al-Rum. Al-Mukaddasl, 15, in 
375/985 speaks only of the three large islands Sicily, 
Crete and Cyprus. Al-Istakhri, 70, earlier had men- 
tioned the same three, with the addition of a fourth, 
Djabal al-Kilal (cf. Yakut, i, 392), identified by 
Reinaud (Marasid al-Ittild', ed. Juynboll, v, 27) 
with Fraxinetum, now Garde-Freinet on the French 
mainland E. of Marseilles, from which between circa 
894 and 972 the Arabs raided as far as Switzerland 
(cf. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. Mus., chapter 5). 
This identification is confirmed by Ibn Hawkal, ed. 
Kramers, 304, who mentions the place as being 'in the 
of France, in the hands of fighters for 



936 



BAHR al-ROM — BAHR al-<ULUM 



the faith' (bi-nawahi Ifrandja bi-aydi al-mudjdhidin). 
It appears on Ibn Hawkal's map as an island (al- 
ways in ed. 2 Djabal al-Fulal, cf. also Mardsid, 
i, 99) opposite a large river, evidently the Rhone. 
(On the same map Genoa also is shown as an island.) 
Other islands in the sea are mentioned by al-Kaz- 
wlnl {'Adjd'ib, 124-125). The best description which 
we have of them is in the text and maps of al-Idrisl 
(see Bibliography). 

Features of Bahr al-Rum which attracted atten- 
tion were the comparative absence of tides and the 
recession of the coast, both noted by al-Mas c udI 
(al-Tanbih, 70, 132), the latter phenomenon at Ephes- 
us (unconfirmed). Al-Mas c udl notices the volcanic 
activity of Mt. Etna (Djabal al-Burkan, Atma 
Sikilliyya, Murudi, a, 26; al-Tanbih, 59). He also 
tells us that Harun al-Rashld wished to join Bahr 
al-Rum to Bahr Kulzum (Red Sea), but was dis- 
suaded from the attempt by Yahya b. Khalid the 
Barmecide, who represented that if he did so, the 
the Greeks would pass through and interfere with 
the pilgrimage to Mecca (Murudi, iv, 98-99). 

Though at first the Greeks retained command of 
the sea even after their defeats on land, this was 
soon lost to them by a series of Muslim naval 
successes of which the Battle of the Masts (Dhat 
al-Sawari) is the most famous (fought off the Lycian 
coast in 34/655). It appears that former Byzantine 
naval installations in Syria and Egypt, and trained 
personnel, were now employed against them, to 
secure the command of the E. Mediterranean foi the 
Arabs. This they for the most part retained throughout 
the Umayyad and early 'Abbasid period, during 
which Constantinople was attacked repeatedly. 
There appears to have been some resurgence of 
Greek naval power in Harun's Caliphate (cf. supra), 
when the Byzantine warships which brought Muslim 
prisoners for ransom to al-Lamis, Lamus (Cilicia) 
in 189/805 made a considerable impression (al- 
Mas'udi, al-Tanbih, 189). In 311 or 312/923 or 924 
a Muslim fleet with units from al-Basra and Syria 
sailed from Tarsus under an admiral (mutawalli 
al-ghazw fi'l-bahr) and operated successfully in the 
N. waters of al-Bahr al-Rumi, reaching Venetian 
territory and making contact with a detachment 
of Bulgars, some of whom returned with them 
to Tarsus (al-Mas'iidl, Murudi, ", 16-17; Ibn al- 
Athlr, s. anno 311). Yet later under al-Muktadir 
(Caliph 295/908-320/932) Greek ships regularly made 
extensive raids on the coast of Syria, and it was in 
his Caliphate that the command of the E. Mediter- 
ranean was lost (Ibn Hawkal, ed. De Goeje, 131-2; 
ed. Kramers, 197). By 345/956 apparently (al-Mas- 
'iidl, al-Tanbih, 141) the Muslims had no fleet in 
these parts. 

In the W. of Bahr al-Rum, after the invasion of 
Spain in 92/711, some of the most spectacular Mus- 
lim exploits took place comparatively late. Mention 
has been made of the long occupation of Fraxinetum. 
Bari in S. Italy was captured in 226/840-841 by a 
freedman of the Aghlabids of N. Africa, who at this 
time were very active, and was practically an in- 
dependent state for many years (Baladhuri, Futuh, 
234-5, followed by Ibn al-Athlr, s. anno). In 
228/842 during the siege of Massini (Messina) by 
an Aghlabid general the people of Nabal, or Nabul 
(Naples) requested protection, and joined forces 
with the Muslims (Ibn al-Athir, s. anno). Shortly 
afterwards Rome and Venice were threatened, the 
former on more than one occasion. Malta fell in 
255/869 (Ibn Khalduu, iv, 201). As late as 323/934 
Genoa was attacked and taken by an armament from 



Sicily, where the Fa(imids were now in possession 
(al-Dhahabi, Duwal al-Isldm, s. anno). Thereafter 
the Muslim threat to Italy subsided. 

Bahr al-Rum was never a Muslim lake, since even 
at the heyday of their power the Arabs never con- 
trolled its northern shores. From the time of Charle- 
magne onwards there is evidence of Christian mari- 
time enterprise. This gradually increased in impor- 
tance as the centuries passed, in spite of the decline 
of Byzantium and the renewed Muslim advance, 
when the Ottoman Turks in the ioth/i6th century 
came to control the coast of Bahr si-Rum, by them 
usually called the White Sea (Ak Deniz), from the 
Peloponnr se to Algeria. 

Bibliography: Istakhrl 68-71; Ibn Hawkal, ed. 
De Goeje, 128-37, ed. Kramers, 190-205 with the 
maps facing pp. 8 and 66, as well as that on p. 
193; MukaddasI 14-19; Yakut, i, 504-5; KazwinI, 
'Adjd'ib al-Makhlukdt, 123-7; Nuwayri, Nihdyat 
al-Arab, i, 231-236; IdrisI, transl. Jaubert, i, 
5-6, ii, 1-13, 16-19, 35-48, 68-135, 226-304, etc. 
(by far the fullest account, but less useful for the 
early period) ; for Idrisl's maps, K. Miller, Mappae 
Arabicae, Stuttgart 1926 and later; Anonymous 
Chronicle of Sicily in Amari, Biblioteca Arabo- 
Sicula, text 165-176; transl. 70-74; P. K. Hitti, 
History of the Arabs, ed. 6, Princeton 1956, index. 

(D. M. Dunlop) 
In the Ottoman Empire the Mediterranean was 
known as Ak-deniz, the White Sea, whence the 
Persian Bahr-i Safld and Darya-i Safld and, probably 
the colloquial Greek •{) &a7tpir) BaXaaaa. Iu Ottoman 
usage it included — and seems at times to have been 
restricted to — the Aegean sea, the islands of which 
were called Djez^'ir-i Baljr-i Safld. The name, 
which appears to have no Greek, Byzantine, or 
Islamic precedents, is of uncertain origin. It may 
have arisen in contrast to Kara-deniz, the Black 
Sea, on the other side of Istanbul. A full cartographic 
treatment of the Mediterranean Sea will be found 
in the famous Atlas presented in 930/1523 to Sultan 
Sulayman by Phi Re'is [q.v.]. There are also descript- 
ions in the travels of Ewliya Celebi (Seydhatndme, 
i, 40 ff. and viii, passim), in the maritime history of 
HadjdjI Khalifa (Tuhfat al-Kibdr, 3 ff., English 
trans, by J. Mitchell, 3 ff.), and in his Qiihannumd 76. 
[Ed.] 
BAHR al-'ULCM ("Ocean of the Sciences"), 
honorific title of Abu 'l- c Ayyash c Abd al-'AlI 
Muhammad b. Nizam al-Din Muhammad b. Kutb 
al-DIn al-AnsArI al-Lak.nawi, a highly distin- 
guished Indian savant of the 19th century. He 
claimed descent from the famous Khwadia c Abd 
Allah Ansarl Harawi, whose descendant Shaykh 
c Ala> al-Din ( c Abd al-'AU's tenth ancestor) came 
from Harat to India, and now lies buried at 
Barnawa (between Mutiira and Delhi). The next 
generation settled in Sihali, a town near Lucknow. 
Under Awrangzib the family shifted to "FarangI 
Mahall", Lucknow, (for which see Rahman 'All, 
Tadhkira' 168; cf. al-Nadwa). <Abd al- c Ali's grand- 
father Mulla Kutb al-Din (d. 1103/1691) and his 
father Mulla Nizam al-Din (d. 1 161/1748; Azad, 
who met him in Lucknow in 1 148/1736 praises him 
highly, see Subhat al-Mardjdn, Bombay 1303, 94) 
were noted men of learning, and were the real 
founders of the fame of the family in India — a family 
in which learning had flourished for centuries, from 
generation to generation. Bom in FarangI Mahall 
in 1144/1731-32, 'Abd al- c AlI studied with his father, 
and completed the usual course of Islamic studies 
with him at the age of seventeen. After the death of 



BAHR al- c ULOM — BAHR AL-ZANDJ 



his father he continued his studies with Mulla Kamal 
al-DIn al-Sihalawi al-Fathpuri (d. 1175/1761), 
pupil of his father (see Brockelmann S II, 624). He 
started his career as teacher and author in Lucknow, 
but because of a Sunni-Shil dispute, had to quit 
Lucknow, and moved first to Shah-di ahanpur. where 
he stayed for twenty years, then to Rampur (cf. 
Nadjm al-Ghani, Akhbdr al-Sanddid, Lucknow 1918, 
i, 600, 596), where he stayed for four years, later to 
Buhar (in Bardwan, Bengal), and finally to Madras, 
at the invitation of the Nawwab of Karnatak (Naw- 
wab Waladjah Muhammad <Ali Khan (d. 1210/1795), 
originally of Gopamau, near Lucknow). He wen 
Madras accompanied by six hundred scholars (ridj.dl 
al-Hlm). The Waladjah showed him high regard, 
and ' showered favours on him and his compan- 
ions, built a large madrasa for him, and gave stipends 
to his companions and pupils who collected there 
from far and near. The Nawwab's successors con- 
tinued to show him the same favour till the end of 
the rule of Waladjahls and the establishment of 
British rule in Madras, and even then the monthly 
provisions and gifts continued to be offered him, as 
also to the other teachers and students of his madrasa. 
He never returned to Lucknow, and died in Madras 
on 12 Radjab 1225/13 August 1810, and was buried 
close to the Mosque of the Waladjahs in that city. 
(For his children see Altaf al-Rahman, Ahwdl 64 f. 
and for his distinguished pupils, HaddHk, loc. cit.). 
It was the Waladjah who gave him the title of 
Bahr al-'Ulum (as usually stated, but cf. Altaf al- 
Rahman, Ahwdl, 65, where it is stated that Shah 
Wall Allah Dihlawl [q.v.] gave him this title), also 
the title of Malik al-'Ulamd'. The former is better 
known in North India, the latter in South India. 

Apart from teaching him the religious sciences, 
his father had initiated him into esoteric sciences also 
(Altaf al-Rahman). He belonged to the mystic 
school of Ibn al- c ArabI and had complete faith in 
the truth of the Shaykh's expositions as given in 
the Fusils and the Futuhdt. In fact his Sharh 
Mathnawi-i Mawlawi-i Rum (Lucknow 1873, 3 vols.) 
only aims at explaining the "secrets" contained in 
the Mathnawi in the light of the Shaykh's above two 
works (see the Mulla's Arabic introduction to the 
Sharfi). He also wrote a Commentary on a section 
of the Fusils (viz. al-Fass al-Nuhi, Brockelmann S I 
793). Even on his death-bed he stated he was 
realising the truth of the Shaykh's doctrines 
(Aghsdn). 

He is praised for his courage, generosity, self- 
denial and ascetic character. He spent most of his 
long life in teaching and writing, and wielded a 
profound influence on his contemporaries in India, 
whom he excelled in versatility of erudition and 
critical acumen. "The like of him was not to be seen 
in India of the later times" (Nuzha). His fields of 
specialised study were fikh and usul on the one 
hand, and the philosophical sciences on the other. 
He wrote many works in Arabic — unusually good 
classical Arabic, and in Persian. As a rule they are, 
according to the fashion of his time, commentaries, 
glosses and super-glosses on most of the usual text 

Some of his other more important works are given 

a) Philosophy: Sharh Sullam al-'-Ulum (the 
Sullam is a work on logic by Muhibb Allah Bihari, 
(d. 1110/1707), Delhi 1891 ; al-Ta'likdt (or Minhiyya) 
'old Sharh Sullam al-'-Ulum (Zubayd Ahmad, 365); 
al-Hdshiya 'ala 'l-Hdshiya al-Zdhidiyya al-Djaldl- 
iyya, Lucknow 1872, {JASB vii, 695); al-Hdshiya 



937 

'old al-Hdshiya al-Zdhidiyya al-fCufbiyya, Delhi 
1292/1875, Brockelmann S II 293; al-Hdshiya 'ala 
'l-Sadrd (a super-gloss on Sadra al-Shirazi's Commen- 
tary on Abhari's Hidayat al-Hikma), Lucknow 1846 
(Brockelmann S I 840, JASB loc. cit.); Ta'likdt 
c ala al-Ufvk al-Mubin (Brockelmann S II 580); 
al-'Udidla al-Ndfi'a (Brockelmann S II 625 1. 4 
where read 399 instead of 499). 

b) Dogma and Scholastic Theology (Kaldm). al- 
Hdshiya 'ala 'l-Hdshiya al-Zdhidiyya 'ala al-Umilr 
al-'Amma (Zubayd Ahmad, 338); al-Hdshiya 'aid 
Sharh al-'Akd'id al-Dawwdni (ibid.) ; Sharh Makdmdt 
al-Mabddi (ibid.) ; al-Hdshiya 'old Sharh al-Mawdkif 
(ibid.; Brockelmann S II 290) Lucknow 1876. 

c) Principles of Jurisprudence (Usui al-Fikh). 
Fawdtih al-Rahamut (Sharh of the Musallam al-Thubut 
of Muhibb Allah Bihari (d. n 19/1707 (Brockelmann S 
II 624) ; Risdla al-Arkdn al-Arba'a (fikh) (Brockel- 
mann S II 625) ; Tanwir al-Mandr Sharh al-Mandr 
(in Persian) (Brockelmann SII 264) ; Takmila Sharh-i 
Tahrir (a Supplement to his father's Commen- 
tary on Ibn Humam's Tahrir fi Usui al-Din 
(Zubayd Ahmad 283, JASB vii, 695); Sharh Fifth 
Akbar (Rahman 'AW, 123). 

d) Hadith. Risdla fi Taksim al-Hadith (Zubayd 
Ahmad, 262). 

e) Mathematics. Sharh al-Midjisti (Zubayd Ahmad, 
382). 

f) Ethics: Risdla aX-Tawhid al-Kdfiya li 'l-Sufi 
al-Muttaki (in Persian) (Rahman c Ali 123, Kdmus 
al-Mashdhir s.v. <Abd al-'Ali). 

g) Arabic Grammar: Hiddya al-Sarf. 
Bibliography: Wall Allah Farangi Mahalll, 

al-Aghsdn al-Arba'a li 'l-Shadiarat al-Tayyiba dar 
Ahwdl-i 'Ulama'-i Farangi Mahall Kamdl" wa Na- 
sab** wa 'Ilm**, Nadwa MS. (in Lucknow, ff. 50-53) 
(the Lucknow edition of 1298/1881 is not available 
to me); Siddik Hasan Khan, Abd±ad al-'Ulum, 
Bhopal 1295/1878, 927; Fakir Muhammad JhelumI, 
HaddHk al-Hanafiyya, Lucknow 1891, 467; 
Altaf al-Rahman, Ahwal-i 'Ulama'-i Farangi 
Mahall, 1907, 64 f.; c Abd al-Bari, Athdr al-Uwal, 
24 (not available to me); c Abd al-Awwal Djawn- 
puri, Mufid al-Mufti, Lucknow 1326/1908, 135 f; 
Rahman 'All, Tadhkira-i 'ulamd > -i Hind', Lucknow 
1332/1932, 122; c Abd al-Hayy Lucknawi (Hakim), 
Nuzhat al-Khawdtir (notice in the unpublished part 
of the work in the author's family library); al- 
Nadwa (Journal of the Nadwat al-'Ulamd', 
Lucknow, April-June 1907) ; M. Hidayat Husayn, 
The Life and Works of Bahr al-'Ulum, in JASB, 
New Series vii/1911, 693-5; Brockelmann, S II 624 
(and index); Zubayd Ahmad, The contribution of 
India to Arabic literature, Allahabad 1946, index. 

(Mohammad Shafi c ) 
BAHR al-ZANEJ. By the Bahr al-Zandj the 
Arabs mean the W. part of the Indian Ocean, Bahr 
al-Hind [q.v.] which washes the E. coast of Africa 
from the Gulf of Aden i.e., the Khalldj al-Barbari to 
Sufala and Madagascar, which was as far as the 
scanty knowledge of the Arabs extended. The name 
is derived from the adjoining coast, which is called 
the Bilad al-Zandj or Zanguebar, 'land of the Zandj'. 
The name Zandj is applied by the Arabs to the black 
Bantu negroes, who are sharply distinguished from 
the Berbers and Abyssinians. The name Zandj is 
very old, even Ptolemy knows of ZtyY'S ( or ZT)YY t<JQ 
fixptx and Cosmas Indicopleustes of to xaXotinevov 
ixzi Ztfyiov, but Herzfeld's reading in an in- 
scription of the Sasanid Narsi Zhandafrik shah 
(Paikuli, I, Berlin, 1924, 119) is not now accepted 
(cf. W. B. Henning in Studies presented to Vladimir 



938 



BAHR al-ZANDJ — BAHRAM 



Minorsky = BSOAS., Vol. XIV, 195a, Part 3, 
515). The name itself has been explained as from 
Persian Zang, Zangi (Zoroastrian Pahlawi xangik 
'negro'), but perhaps it is of local origin. Nowa- 
days it is applied to the island of Zanzibar 
and to a tributary of the Zambesi which bears 
the name of Zangue. The Arab notices of the 
•coast and sea of the Zandj are more than scanty 
and partly contradictory. The sea was feared 
and avoided. Only the Arab travellers Mas'udI 
and Ibn Batata sailed across it, but they tell 
us more about the land and its people than about 
the sea itself. Whales and whaling are sometimes 
mentioned, and it is remarkable that the word used 
for whale (teal, uwdi) resembles the form of the name 
in the languages of N. Europe (Sulayman the 
Merchant, Arabic text edited by Langles, 4, 138-141, 
in Reinaud, Relation des voyages faits par les Arabes 
et Us Persans etc., Paris 1845, transl. G. Ferrand, 
Voyage du marchand arabe Sulaymdn, Paris 1922, 
30, 132-133; cf. Mas'udI, Murudi, i, 234, 334). It is 
clear that the Arabs imagined the coast to run in 
quite a different direction from what it actually does. 
W. Tomaschek gave reconstructions of their carto- 
graphical notions in his Die topographischen Capitel 
des indiscken Seespiegels Mohit (Vienna 1899). 
Notices by the Arab geographers of the sea and land 
of the Zandj were collected by L. Marcel Devic (Le 
Pays des Zendjs.Paris 1883). See also #udud al- c Alam, 
471 ff., and T. A. Shumovsky, Tri neizvestnie 
Lotsii Akhmoda ibn Midzhida, arabskogo Lotsmana 
Vasko da Gamii, Moscow 1957. Navigation on this 
part of the Indian Ocean is regulated by the 
periodic monsoons, whence the ancient relations 
between S. Arabia and N.-W. India and the 
E. African coast. For further information see the 
articles bahr al-hind and zandj. 

(C. H. Becker-[D. M. Dunlop]) 
BAHR al-ZULUMAT [see al-bahr al-muhIt]- 
BAHRA' (nisba BahranI), a tribe of the Kuda'a 
group, sometimes reckoned a part of Djudham, 
which emigrated northwards to the Euphrates and 
then to the plain of Hims. Like their Euphrates 
neighbours Taghlib and Tanukh, they became Chris- 
tian, but were converted after Taghlib, probably 
about 580. A deputation came to Muhammad at 
Medina in 9/630 and became Muslims; but the tribe 
as a whole remained hostile and attached to Byzant- 
ium. In 8/629 Bahra' had been among Heraclius' 
Arab allies who confronted Muhammad's Mu'ta 
expedition; in 12/633 they were summoned to help 
the people of Dumat al-Djandal when Khalid b. 
al-Walid approached; and they were in the Byzant- 
ine military coalition of 13/634, along with Kalb, 
Sallh, Tanukh, Lakhm, Djudham and Ghassan. 
However, they became Muslims when Syria was 
conquered. 

Bibliography: Hamdaci, 132; Mufaddaliyydi, 

417, 427; 'fabari, i, 1611, 2060, 2081, 2114, 2122; 

WeUhausen, Skizzen, iv, treaty no. 115; WakidI 

(Wellhausen), 235, 311; Ibn Khallikan, no. 46; 

R. Dussaud, Topographie historique de la Syrie, 

Paris 1927, 146. (C. E. Bosworth) 

BAHRAIN [see al-bahrayn]. 

BAHRAJf , Ejamal al-DIn Muhammad b. c Umar 

b. Mubarak b. <Abp Allah b. c AlI al-Himyar! 

al-Haprami al-Shafi'I, S. Arabian scholar and 

Sufi. b. 869/1465 in Saywun, d.' 930/1524 in India. 

After studies in 'Aden and Zabid he was kadi of 

Shihr for some time, then settled in 'Aden and found 

favour with its governor, the Amir Mardjan. After 

the death of his patron in 927/1521 he went to India 



and obtained the patronage of the sultan of Gudjarat 
Muzaffar Shah, but he soon had to leave the court 
and died in Ahmadabad, perhaps poisoned. 

In his great literary production he treats of theo- 
logical as well as profane themes. Apparently ori- 
ginal works are: Mawdhib al-Kuddus fi Mandkib 
Ibn al- l Aydaris (cf. Serjeant, Materials, 5S6; on 
this teacher cf his see art. 'AvdarOs, No. 2); 
Hilyat al-Bandt wa H-Banin fimd yuktddiu ilayhi 
min A mr al-Din ; 'Ibd al-Durar fi 'l-Imdn bi H- If add 
wa KKadar-.al-'Ikdal-numinfi Ibfdl al-Kawl bi >/- 
Takbih wa H-Tahsin; al-Tabsira al-Ahmadiyya fi 
HSlra al-Nabawiyya; Tartib al-Suluk ild Malik al- 
Muluk (cf. Brockelmann, 1, 444) ; al- c Urwa al-Wathika 
kasida (Wuthkd), with comm. al-Uadlka al-Anlka 
(Brockelmann, II, 555). Abridgements: al-Asrdr al- 
Nabawiyya <al-Adhkdr al-Nawawiyya, i.e., Hilyat 
al-Abrdr (Brockelmann, I, 397); Dkakkirat al-Ikk- 
wdn < K. al-Istigknd' bi 'l-Kur'dn(l); Muf-at al 
Asma 1 < al-Imtd' fi Akkdm al-Samd c of al-AdfuwI 
(Brockelmann, S. II, 27); he also abridged al-'As- 
kari's K. al-Awd'il (Brockelmann, S. I, 194), al- 
Sakhawi's al-Makdsid al-Ifasana (Brockelmann II, 
32) and al-Mundhiri's al-Targhib wa H-Tarhib 
(Brockelmann, I, 627). Commentaries': al-'-Aklda al- 
ShafiHyya on al-YSfiVs famous kasida (Brockel 
mann, II, 228); Tuhfat-al-Ahbdb wa-Turfat al-Ashdb 
on al-Hariri's Mulhat al-I c rdb (Brockelmann, I, 489) ; 
Nashr al-'Alam fiSharh Ldmiyyat al-'Adjam (Sarkis, 
533 ; in reality an abridgement of al-Saf adl's comm.) ; 
on Ibn Malik's Ldmiyyot al-Af-dl (ibid., cf. Brockel 
mann, I, 300; S. I, 526). In minor risdlas he treated 
of arithmetic, astronomy and medicine. Specimens 
of his poetry are given by al- c Aydarus and al-Sakkaf 
(v. infra). 

Bibliography: Brockelmann, S. II, 554 f.; 
al- c Aydarus, al-Nur al-Sdfir, 143-151; al-Sakkaf, 
Ta'rikk al-Shu'ard* al-Uadramiyyin, i, 121 ff.; 
Sarkis, col. 532 f. (O. Lofgren) 

BAHRAM (derived, via the Pahlawi varakr'n, 
from the A vest an verethragna), the name of the 
Zoroastrian god of victory (cf. Benveniste and 
Renou, Vrtra et Vroragna, chap. 1, particularly 6 
and 22); from his name' is derived that of one 
of the principal sacred fires of Iran, VarhrSn, or 
(more recently) Vahram (ibid., 72) ; he presides over 
the 20th day of the solar month which bears his name 
and which "has kept it in the Persian calendar 
recorded by al-BIrunl (ibid., 83 ; al-Biruni, Cronol. 53). 
This name Bahrain or Vahram) was that of iivt 
rulers of the SSsSnid dynasty (the 4th, 5th, 6th, 
12th, 14th). Very little is known about the reign of 
Vahram I (273-276 A.D.); he gave the Zoroastrian 
clergy full powers against Man!, who was executed, 
and died in 276 A.D. A bas-relief of Shapur depicts 
the investitute of Vahram (A. Christensen, L'Iran 
sous les Sassanides*, 226-7). Under his son and 
successor, Vahram II (276-93 A.D.), war again broke 
out between Rome and Iran ; the sudden death of the 
emperor Carus, who had reached Ctesiphon, compel- 
led the Romans to retreat; nevertheless Vahram 
ceded to them Armenia and Mesopotamia in order to 
obtain peace (283 A.D.) and free his hands to sup- 
press the revolt of his brother who, as governor 
(kushdnskdk) of Khurasan, had ambitions of carving 
out a great kingdom for himself; Vahram II appears 
on several bas-reliefs (Christensen, op. tit., 228 f.). 
His son and successor, Vahram III, was defeated by 
his great-uncle, during the four months of his reign 
(293 A.D.). Vahram IV (388-99 A.D.), son of the 
great Shapur II, was a feeble prince, like his uncle 
and elder brother who had preceded him on the 



throne; the feudal lords regained the initiative of 
which they had been deprived by Shapur II; under 
Vahram IV, Armenia was partitioned between Rome 
and Iran which kept the larger portion. Vahram V 
(420-38 A.D.), surnamed Gur ("the onager") on 
account of his vigour, after spending his youth in 
the care of al-Mundhir I, the Lakhmid king of the 
Arabs of HIra, had to regain the throne, with the 
aid of this king, from the nobles who had put his 
elder brother to death and proclaimed ruler a prince 
from a side branch of the family; he made himself 
popular by his benevolence to all, his tax remissions 
his bravery, his love-affairs and his hunting exploits 
(commemorated by poets and illuminators of 
manuscripts); he left the great dignitaries a large 
measure of initiative in the direction of affairs 
(notably to Mihr-Narsa) ; he himself led an expedition 
against the barbarians of the Marw district; because 
ot persecution, many Christans took refuge on 
Byzantine soil ; this caused a short war, unfavourable 
to Iran, as the result of which freedom of worship 
was granted to Christians in Iran, by treaty (422 
A.D.); it is not known whether Vahram V died a 
natural death, or as a result of a hunting accident. 
In addition to these five kings, a usurper named 
Vahram Cubin, who claimed to be descended from 
the Arsacid kings, became in 589 A.D. the leader of 
a formidable insurrection, during the reign of 
Hormizd IV, who was a distinguished prince, 
tolerant in matters of religion, but had set the feudal 
lords against him self because he firmly maintained 
his rights against them; Cubin, who had gained 
military successes against the peoples north and 
east of Iran, but had been dismissed after his defeat 
by the Byzantines, rebelled, and seized power after 
the assassination of the king; the latter's son, 
supported by the Byzantines, the Armenians and 
a section of the Persians, broke the long resistance of 
Vahram, who took refuge among the Turks and was 
killed soon afterwards; his powerful personality 
ensured the perpetuation of his name: a popular 
romance, in the Pahlawl language, related his 
exploits, before the historians and poets of the 
Islamic period (see A. Christensen, Romanen om 
Bahrdm TscMbtn, Et Rekonstruktionsfors0g, Copen- 
hagen 1907). Several other personalities have borne 
this name (Christensen, Sassanides, index, s.v. 
Vahram). 

Bibliography : Christensen's book supersedes 
earlier works, which he uses and quotes in the 
notes. For a history of Bahrain Gur in verse, see 
Firdawsi, Le Livre des Rois, trans. J. Mohl, 1878, 
v, 442-558, vi, 1-64; NizamI, The Haft Paikar, 
trans. C. E. Wilson, London 1924; on Bahrain 
Cubin, see Firdawsi, op. cit., vi, 460-568, vi, 
1 1 90. Photographs of bas reliefs in Dieulafoy, 
L'art antique de la Perse, Paris 1884, v; Survey of 
Persian Art, iv, pi. 156, 157, 159, 162. 

(Cl. Huart-[H. Mass*]) 
BAHRAM, Christian Armenian general who 
served the Fatimids in Egypt and was wazir of the 
sword from 529-31/1135-7 to the caliph al-Hafiz 
(5.25-44/ii30-49)- 

The circumstance*- and date of his entry into 
Fatimid service are unknown. Many Armenians, in 
the 5th/nth century, went to Egypt, taking advant- 
age of the fact that the wazirate was on several 
occasions held by men of Armenian origin such as 
Badr al-Djamall (466-87/1074-94), his son al-Afdal 
(487-515/1094-1121), the latter's son (525-6/1 130-1) 
and Yanis (526/1131-2). Perhaps these circum- 
stances brought Bahram to Egypt. According to 



LAM 939 

tradition, he came from a region where an important 
Armenian colony had been established, Tell Basfcir 
north-east of Aleppo. A nobleman of Tell Basjjir, 
he was driven from there by a revolution and had 
to leave the country. It seems that he came from a 
noble Armenian family which claimed to trace its 
descent to the Pahlavuni, and was the brother of 
the Armenian catholicos of Egypt, Gregory, who 
arrived in Egypt and was consecrated there in 1077 
or 1078. At all events, Bahram followed a military 
career, and became commander of an Armenian 
corps, and then governor of the western province of 
the Delta (al-Gharbiyya). 

As a result of the rivalry between the Caliph's two 
sons Haydara and Hasan, and the seizure of power 
by the latter in the capacity of wazir, a military 
revolt broke out, and Hasan, unable to deal with it, 
summoned Bahram to his aid. When Bahram arrived 
with his Armenian troops, Hasan had already been 
assassinated. The Caliph entrusted the wazirate to 
Bahram, although he was a Christian (Djumada II 
529/March 1 135), and the curious situation then 
obtained of a Christian, who was wazir of the sword 
and absolute master in Egypt, bearing the titles of 
Sayf al-Islam and Tadj al-Dawla. The pro-Armenian 
policy of Bahram, who encouraged the immigration 
of his compatriots and secured their installation in 
important posts, provoked a popular reaction and a 
military revolt led by the governor of al-Gharbiyya, 
Ridwan. Bahram, abandoned by the Muslim troops 
in his army, had to leave Cairo (Djumada I 531/ 
February n 37), and marched towards KOs where 
his brother Vasak was governor. Vasak, however, 
had been assassinated by the populace, and 
Bahram, after exacting a bloody revenge for 
murder of his brother, left Kus. Ridwan, who had 
been appointed wazir, sent an army against him, 
but, by an arrangement to which the Caliph was 
doubtless not a stranger, Bahram was allowed to 
retire to a monastery near Ikhmlm where he remained 
until 533/1139. As the Caliph was displeased with 
Ridwan, he recalled Bahram, who was by then a 
sick man, to Cairo, and installed him in his palace; 
he consulted him frequently, but did not give him 
the title of wazir. Ridwan was forced to flee. 

Bahram died in the palace on 24 Rabl* II 535/ 
7 December 1140, mourned by the Caliph al-Hafiz, 
who followed his funeral cortege as far as the 
Monastery of the Ditch, outside Cairo, where he was 

Bibliography: Ibn Muyassar, Ann. d'Egypte, 
78-80, 82-4; Ibn al-KalanisI, Ta'rihh Dimashk, 
262; Ibn al-Athlr, x s.a. 531; Abu Salih, Churches 
and Monasteries, ed. and transl. Evetts, 6a, 
84a; Ibn Mialdun, K. al-'Ibar, iv, 72-3; Ibn 
TaghrlbirdI, Cairo, v, 239-40, 241-2; Makrlzl, 
i. 205, 357, ii, 502; Kalkashandl, Subh al-A'shd, vi, 
457-63, viii, 260-2, xiii, 325-6; Suyfitl, Husn al- 
Muhddara, ed. 1321., ii, 131; Michael the Syrian, 
French transl. Chabot, iii 240; Renaudot, Histoire 
des Patriarches d' Alexandrit, 505-7, 509; Wtisten- 
feld, Geschicbie der Fatimiden-Chalifen, 307; 
S. Lane-Poole, A History of Egypt in the Middle 
Ages, 168-9; G. Wiet, Precis de I' Hist. d'Egypte, 
192-3, 327; idem, L'Egypte arabe (Hist, de la nation 
igyptienne, iv), 273-5; De Lacy O'Leary, A Short 
history of the Fatimid Khalifate, 224; Hasan 
Ibrahim Hasan, Al-Fdfimiyyiln ft Misr, 214-17, 
293; M. Canard, Un vizir chrttien d Vipoqut 
fatimite, VArminien Bahrdm, in AIEO Algiers xii 
(1954), 84-113; idem, Une lettre du calife fatimite 
al-Hafiz . . . . a Roger II, Atti del Convegno Inter- 



940 BAHRAM — 

nazionale di Studi Ruggeriani, Palermo 1955, 
i|6 f.; idem, Notes sur les Armeniens en Egypte d 
Mpoque fdfimite, in AIEO Algiers xiii (1955), 
143-57. (M. Canard) 

BAHRAM SIJAH, sultan of Ghazna, c. 510-552/ 
1117-1157, son of Mas'ud and great-great-grandson 
of Mahmud of Ghazna, was born not earlier than 
477/1084. On the death of his father in 508/1 115, 
Bahrain's elder brother Malik Arslan disposed of 
other claimants to the throne and obliged Bahrain 
to flee first to Tiklnabad, then to Kirman and 
eventually to the court of the Saldjuk Sandjar where 
he found a welcome. Sandjar led an army against 
Malik Arslan, defeating him near Ghazna in Shawwal 
510/February 1117 and forcing him to withdraw 
to the Ghaznawid possessions in Hindustan. In- 
stalled at Ghazna as a tributary by Sandjar, Bahrain 
defeated Malik Arslan, who had gathered forces 
from the Pandjab, imprisoned him and in 512/1118, 
slew him. In 51 2/1 119, Bahrain Shah twice marched 
into the Pandjab to subdue Muhammad Abu 
Hatlm, governor of Lahore. 

As a protege of the Saldjuks and unable to draw 
upon the resources of a Mahmud to enable him to 
mount major expeditions in Hindustan, Bahrain's 
rule appears to have been uneventful until 529/1135 
when he attempted to throw off Sandjar's over- 
lordship only to be compelled to acknow.edge it 
again within the year. 

About 543/1148, a violent quarrel broke out 
between Bahram and the chiefs of Ghflr and 
Flruzkiih. Bahram poisoned the Ghurid Kutb al-DIn 
Muhammad, whereupon the latter's brother Sayf 
al-DIn Surl occupied Ghazna. Bahram recaptured it 
and slew Surl with ignominy. In 546/1 151 the 
latter's younger brother 'Ala 5 al-DIn Husayn 
('Djahan-Suz') defeated Bahram Shah and burnt 
Ghazna. Bahram took refuge in Hindustan and 
although he was able to take advantage of an 
imbroglio between 'Djahan-Suz' and Sandjar to re- 
occupy the remains of Ghazna before his death, 
the descendants of Mahmud of Ghazna were never 
again able to regain and keep their authority in the 
area around their old capital. (For a discussion of the 
chronological problems surrounding the last years 
of Bahrain Shah's reign see Ghulam Mustafa Khan's 
article, named in the bibliography). 

Bahram Shah enjoyed a great reputation as a 
patron of the arts and figures in later adab literature. 
Among the literati who adorned his court were the 
poets Sayyid Hasan Ghaznawl, Sanal, Mas'ud-i 
Sa c d-i Salman and the translator into Persian of 
KalUa wa Dimna, Abu' 1-Ma'ali Nasr Allah. 

Bibliography: Ibn Athir, ed. Tornberg, x, 
353-6, xi, 17-18, 89-90, 108; Minhadj b. Siradj 
DjuzdjanI, Tabakdt-i Ndsiri, Bib. Ind., Calcutta, 
23-24, 112-114; Mir Khwand. Rawdat al-Safd>, 
Lucknow 1874, iv, 748, 797; Firishta, i, 85-89; 
Fakhr-i Mudabbir, Adab al-Harb wa>l-Shudid c a, 
British Museum MS. Add. 16, 853, fols. 19b- 
21b, 23a-23b, io7b-ioga, i7oa-i72b; c Awfl, Lubdb, 
i, index, 382, ii, index, 435; Muhammad Nizam 
al-DIn, Introduction to the Qiawdmi' al-Hikdydt 
wa Lawdtni' al-Riwdydt of Sadid al-Din Muh- 
ammad aW-Awfi, Gibb Mem. Ser., London 
1929, index, 312; Elliot and Dowson, History of 
India as Told by Its Own Historians, ii, London 
1869, 199; Ghulam Mustafa Khan, A HisUny of 
Bahram Shah of Ghaznin, in IC, xxiii, 1 & 2, Jan. 
& April, 1949, 3, July, 1949, Mehmed Altay 
Koymen, Biiyiik Selcuklu Impdratorlugu Tarihi, 
ii, Ankara 1954, 306-10, 361-75- (P- Hardy) 



l-BAHRAYN 

BAHRAM SHAH b. Tughrul ShAk, the 
Saldjuk id, was raised to the throne of Kirman 
by the Atabeg Mu'ayyad al-DIn Rayfcan in succes- 
sion to his father on the latter's death in 565/1170 
but soon afterwards had to make way for his elder 
brother Arslan Shah [q.v.]. The two brothers 
thereupon fought with one another with varying 
success till the death of Bahram Shah in 570/1174-5. 
Bibliography: Afdal al-DIn Kirmanl, BaddH 1 
al-Azmdn ft wakdV Kirman, ed. Muhammad 
Mahdi Balzanl, Tehran 1947, 50 ff. ; Houtsma, 
Receuil, i, 35 ff.; ZDMG, xxxix, 378 ff. (Ed.) 
BAHRAM SQAH, al-Malik al-Amdjad, b. 
Farrukh Shah b. Shahanshah b. Ayyiib, grand 
nephew of Salah al-DIn, was appointed by the latter 
to succeed his father at Ba'lbak when the latter 
died in 578/1182 flmad al-DIn al-Isfahani, al-Bark 
al-Shdmi, Bodl. MS. Marsh 425, 36r°, followed by 
Abu Shama, Rawdatayn 1 , Cairo, 33-4), and kept 
Ba'lbak when the Ayyiibid territories were divided 
up after the death of Salah al-DIn. From then on he 
seems always to have been a faithful vassal of the 
Ayyubid ruling at Damascus (Ibn Wasil, Mufarridj,, 
years 599, 603, 606, 618, 623). At the end of his life, 
however, he was faced with rivals who found support 
in the ambitions of al-Malik al- c Aziz 'Uthman of 
Banyas, son of al-Malik al- c AdU; al-Nasir Da'ud of 
Damascus defended him against them, but, when 
al-Malik al-Kamil and al-Malik al-Ashraf settled then- 
differences in order to seize Damascus from Da'fld, 
Bahramshah was sacrificed; after ten months of 
blockade, al-Ashraf annexed Ba'lbak, and Bah- 
ramshah went to Damascus (626/1228); the following 
year he was assassinated by a slave who bore a 
grudge against him (Ibn Wasil.years 625-627; Sibt 
Ibn al-DjawzI, Mir'dt al-Zamdn, ed. Jewett, 441). 
Among his contemporaries, Bahramshah was 
famous less as a prince than as the most eminent 
man of letters among the Ayyubids; he had a small 
court of scholars, and himself composed a diwdn of 
poetry, which has been preserved but not published 
(J. Rikabi, La poisie profane sous les Ayyubides, 221 
and n. 3). 

Bibliography: For the secondary sources, cf. 

the article Ayyubids. Modern work: H. Gott- 

schalk, al-Malik al-Kdmil, 111 and 129-30, with 

the notes. (Cl. Cahen) 

al-BAHRAYN, "the Two Seas", a cosmographi- 

cal and cosmological concept appearing five timss. 

in the Kur'an (once in the nominative, xxxv, 12). 

The two seas are described as being one fresh 

and sweet, and one salt and bitter (xxxv, 12; xxv, 

53). Fresh meat and ornaments are taken from the 

two seas, and on them boats are seen (xxxv, 12). 

Tabarl (Tafsir, xxv, 55) says the fresh and sweet 

denote the waters of rivers and of rain, the salt and 

bitter the waters of the sea. 

The two seas are divided by a barrier, called a 
barzakh (xxv, 53; lv, 20) and a hddjiz (xxvii, 61). 
Muslim scholars provide several explanations for this 
concept, among which is the view that there is a 
sea in heaven and a sea on earth separated by a bar- 
rier (Tabarl, Tafsir, xxvii, 61). Most views are more 
geographical, with the preponderant number assum- 
ing the two seas to be the Mediterranean and 
the Indian Ocean, including the Red Sea. the 
Kur'an, hcwever, mentions seven seas in xxxi, 27. 
The junction <.f the two seas, madjtua'- al-bahrayn, 
is mentioned only once in the Kur'an (xviii, 60). 
Some commentators regard the location as the meet- 
ing place of the Persian Sea and the Roman Sea 
{v. Baydawi, Tabarl, Nasafi, Zamakhshari, etc.).Others 



have the two seas meeting at Bab al-Mandab [?.«.], 
at the connexion between the Sea of Jordan and the 
Red Sea, or at the Straits of Gibraltar {e.g., Kurtubi). 
As .Wensinck points out in "al-Khadir" in hi 1 , 
■"A far fetched explanation is that the union of the 
two seas means the meeting of Musa and al-Khadir, 
the two seas of wisdom". 

After the capture of Constantinople, Mehemmed 
II assumed the title Sultan al-barrayn wa H-bahrayn, 
"Sultan of the two lands and the two seas", and 
this was among the titles used by succeeding Otto- 
man rulers. 

Bibliography: In addition to the commentat- 
ors, J. H. Kramers. ' Diughrdfivd in EI 1 , Suppl.; 
idem, Geography and Commerce, in The Legacy of 
Islam, Oxford 1947; idem, L'influence de la tra- 
dition iranienne dans la geographie arabe and La 
httirature giographique classique des Musulmans, 
in Analecta Orientalia, Leiden 1954; A. J. Wen- 
sinck, The Ocean in the Literature of the Western 
Semites, Amsterdam 1918. (W. E. Mulligan) 
al-BA^RAYN (officially written Bahrain) is a 
British protected state in the Persian Gulf consisting 
of an archipelago of the same name lying between 
the peninsula of Katar and the mainland of Saudi 
Arabia, as well as another group of islands, of which 
IJuwar is the largest, just off the west coast of Katar. 
The Ruler of al-Bahrayn and the Ruler of Katar 
disagree regarding the status of a small area sur- 
rounding al-Zubara in north-western Katar. 

The variety of explanations, none of them con- 
vincing, of the name al-Bahrayn in the Arabic sour- 
ces indicates that its origin remains unknown. In 
pre-Islamic and early Islamic times the name applied 
to the mainland of Eastern Arabia, embracing the 
oases of al-Katif and Hadjar (now al-rjasa) [qq.v.y, 
later it was restricted to the archipelago offshore 
[cf. History below]. 

The largest island (Uwal or Awal in the older 
Arabic sources; now called al-Bahrayn) is about 30 
miles long and 12 miles at its greatest breadth. The 
capital, al-Manama, on the northeastern coast, is 
connected by a causeway i 1 /, miles long with the town 
and island of al-Muharrak to the northeast. Other 
islands are Sitra, from which an oil loading wharf 
extends to deep water; al-Nabih Salih; Umm al- 
Subban; Djida, once a quarry and now a peniten- 
tiary; and Umm Na'san (also called al-NaSan). 
The climate is hot and humid, though rainfall 
averages only about 7 cm. a year. A number of 
flowing springs ( l uyun) support an arc of relatively 
extensive cultivation along the coast of the northern 
half of the main island from U-Zallak to Djaww, 
as well as on several of the other islands. Sweet 
water also bubbles up through the salt water of the 
Gulf from springs (kawdkib) not far offshore. Dates, 
alfalfa, and vegetables are the principal crops, and 
some cows are kept for milking. 

Geologically the island of al-Bahrayn is an elongat- 
ed anticlinal dome of sedimentary rocks. The centre 
of the island has a basin, 12 miles by 4, out of which 
the hill of al-Dukhkhan rises to a height of about 
450 feet. Oil is produced here by the Bahrain Petro- 
leum Co. (Bapco), owned by American interests. 
Production since 1 367/1948 has averaged approxim- 
ately 30,000 barrels a day, but the Bapco refinery 
processes over 200,000 barrels a day, most of which 
is crude oil shipped by submarine pipeline frorr Saudi 
Arabia. Bapco's offices and residences for foreign 
staff are at al-'Awall. 

Oil has replaced pearling as the principal industry 
of al-Bahrayn. About 500 pearling boats worked 



[RAYN 941 

out of al-Bahrayn annually before the slump in 
pearl prices in 1348/1929 caused by the world-wide 
economic depression and the increasing use of Ja- 
panese cultured pearls. Now only a handful of boats 
are engaged in pearling, though fishing still affords 
a livelihood to many people, with most fish caught 
in tidal weirs. Boat building and repair and sail and 
net making remain minor industries, along with the 
manufacture of pottery, whitewash, and plaster. 

A free port was opened in 1377/1958 to increase 
the entrepot trade fostered by a 5% ad valorem 
customs rate for all but luxury items. An excellent 
natural harbour was created in 1375/^955 when a 
channel was dredged from the deep water of Khawr 
al-Kulay e a to the open sea. The airport on al-Mu- 
harrak is served by scheduled international flights 
and is the headquarters of Gulf Aviation Co., in 
which the Government has an interest, and which 
flies to many points in the Persian Gulf. 

The population of al-Bahrayn in 1369/1950 was 
109,650, with 61% in the towns of al-Manama 
(39,648), al-Muharrak, and al-Hidd. There are Per- 
sian. Indian, and Pakistani communities, as well as 
over 2,000 Europeans and Americans. Muslims com- 
prise 98% of the population, about half being Shi'Is 
(mostly Dja'fari Twilvers, with some Shaykhis) and 
the remainder, including the ruling family, Sunnls 
(mainly Malikis, with some Hanbalis). The Sunnls 
are concentrated in the largest towns, and the Shi'Is 
in the agricultural villages. The Shl'Is here, as in 
al-Katif and al-Basa in Saudi Arabia, are called 
Baharina (sing. Bahrdni). To avoid confusion, Sunni 
residents of al-Bahrayn ordinarily now use the nisba 
Bahrayni for themselves. The Shi'is appear to be 
descendants of early inhabitants of the area, and 
there seems to be no justification for the hypothesis 
that they are of Persian origin. A good number of 
the Sunnls of al-Bahrayn are Arabs or the descen- 
dants of Arabs onze resident on the Persian coast; 
such are known as Huwala. 

For nearly a century investigators have sought 
the secrets of the early history of al-Bahrayn in 
the burial mounds scattered to the number of perhaps 
100,000 over the northern half of the main island. 
In 1 296/1 879 Capt. E. Durand opened one of the 
largest tumuli and several smaller ones; others were 
later probed into by Mr. and Mrs. T. Bent, F. Pri- 
deaux, and P. Cornwall. E. Mackay excavated and 
reported on a series of different types of tumuli. 
Several mounds, one of which was probably a temple 
complex, have been studied by members of a Danish 
archaeological expedition which began work in 
1373/1953 under P. Glob and T. Bibby. The early 
excavators supposed that the tombs were of Phoe- 
nician origin, but this theory is no longer generally 
accepted. Materials found in the mounds, as well 
as those found by the Danish party in other sites 
such as near the ruined Portuguese fort of Kal c at 
c Adjadj and at Barbar, include bronze and iron ob- 
jects, seal stones, alabaster vessels, ivory fragments, 
and bitumen-lined clay coffins. Similar tumuli occur 
in central Nadjd and along the Arabian coast, wh>re 
a large one at Djawan, north of al-Katif, excavated 
in 1371/1952 by F. Vidal, has been dated c. A.D. 
100. The multitude of mounds spread over such 
an area indicates the persistence of mound building 
over a long period of time. Many of the mounds are 
certainly much older than Djawan. 

Various scholars follow H. Rawlinson (JRAS 
1880) in identifying al-Bahrayn with DUmun of 



the Mesopotamian cuneiform records, but this iden- 
tification has not been established with certainty; 
e.g., S. Kramer (BASOR 1944) considers south- 
western Iran the most probable location of Dilmun. 

Greek and Latin sources give meagre information 
on the ancient mainland coast of al-Bahrayn, wheie 
the port of Gerrha lay, the exact site of which re- 
mains undetermined. The few South Arabian in- 
scriptions discovered so far contribute little to ihe 
history of the region before Islam. 

Arab tradition speaks of some of the Lost Arabs 
in al-Bahrayn. Among the early historical tribes 
was al-Azd of Kahtan, many of whose members 
moved on to Oman; other members joined the con- 
federation of Tanukh, said to have been formed in 
al-Bahrayn. Among later emigrants were adherents 
of 'Adnanite tribes such as Tamlm, Bakr, and 
Taghlib, the last two of which were receptive to 
Christianity.' At the time of the Prophet, 'Abd al- 
Kays [q.v.] of 'Adnan had become the dominant 
element in the population. 

The Sasanids, beginning with Ardashir I, inter- 
vened in al-Bahrayn, which was subject to a Persian 
marzbdn when the Prophet sent al-'Ala' b. al 
Hadrarrl eastwards to secure the land. When the 
ridda broke out and a descendant of the Lakhniids 
in al-Bahrayn rejected the Caliphate, many of c Abd 
al-Kays under al-Djarud, a converted Christian, did 
not desert Islam, and al-'Ala' defeated the rebels 
at Djuwatha in al-Hasa. Muslim forces crossed over 
to the island of Darin opposite al-Katif and possibly 
to Uwal as well. 

In the ist/7th century the Khawaridj under 
Nadjda b. 'Amir and Abu Fudayk [qq.v.] maintained 
a bastion of their power in al-Bahrayn. Christianity 
and Judaism had not yet died out completely; the 
Nestorians were still active enough to hold a 
synod at Darin in A.D. 676. 'Abbasid rule was 
introduced during the next century, but the 
Arabic sources fail to tell much about its extent 
or effectiveness. 

'All b. Muhammad, the inaugurator of the revolt 
of the Zand] [q.v.], a man who may have stemmed 
from 'Abd al-Kays, embarked on his career of tur- 
bulence in al-Bahrayn before moving on to 'Irak. 
In 281/894-5 Muhammad b. Nur, the 'Abbasid Gov- 
ernor of al-Bahrayn, led an expedition against the 
Ibadite Imamate of Oman. 

The Karmatians [q.v.] found devoted followers 
among both townspeople and Bedouins in al-Bahrayn. 
In 317/930 the Black Stone was brought from Mecca 
to al-Bahrayn, where it was kept for two decades. 
A victory by al-Muntafik in 378/987-8 revealed the 
weakness of the Karmatians, but they were still 
in control when Nasir-i Khusraw visited al-Bahrayn 
65 years later. In 450/1057-8 Abu '1-BahlQl al-'Aw- 
wam Ibn al-Zadidjadj of 'Abd al-Kays defied them 
by reestablishing orthodox Islam on Uwal in the 
name of the 'Abbasid Caliph. The tribe of 'Amir 
Rabi'a of'Ukayl [q.v.], guardians of the island for 
the Karmatians, suffered defeat in a naval battle 
at Kaskus, an island off al-Katif. Within the next 
few years the final downfall of the Karmatians came 
at the hands of a new dynasty indigenous to al- 
Hasa, the 'Uyunids [q.v.] of 'Abd al-Kays, aided 
by the Saldjuks of 'Irak. 

Although no definite date can be set for the trans- 
fer of the name al-Baljrayn from the mainland to 
the nearby archipelago, from this point on it may 
be convenient to restrict the history of al-Bahrayn 
to the islands bearing this name today. 

In the early period of the 'Uyunids, who at times 



kept their capital at al-Katif, the islands of al- 
Bahrayn came under their authority. When the un- 
ruliness of 'Amir Rabi'a undermined the 'Uyunid 
power, al-Bahrayn became tributary to the Kay- 
sarids of Djazlrat Kays [q.v.] in the eastern Persian 
Gulf. In 633/1235 al-Bahrayn and al-Katif were 
occupied by the forces of Abu Bakr b. Sa'd, the 
Salghurid Atabag of Fars, but in 651/1253 al-Bah- 
rayn regained independence under the 'Usfurids 
[q.v.], a clan of 'Amir Rabi'a. 

The Tfbls, merchant princes of Djazlrat Kays, 
brought al-Bahrayn back within the orbit of then- 
island, but their supremacy soon faded with the 
rise of New Hormuz farther east. About 730/1330 
Tahamtam II of Hormuz annexed both Djazlrat 
Kays and al-Bahrayn, and some 15 years later 
Turanshah of Hormuz came to al-Bahrayn in per- 
son. The first mention of al-Manama, the present 
capital, occurs at this time. 

hi the mid-gth/i5th century 'Amir Rabi'a pro- 
duced a new dynasty, the Djabrids [q.v.], the fore- 
most of whom, Adjwad b. Zamil, incorporated al- 
Bahrayn in his domains and promoted the ascen- 
dancy of the Malik! element over the Shi'i. The 
splendid reign of this Bedouin prince carried the 
fame of al-Bahrayn as far afield as Egypt and Por- 

The Portuguese reached al-Bahrayn from the In- 
dian Ocean as early as 920/1514, but did not seize 
it until a few years later, when in alliance with 
Hormuz they overthrew Adjwad's uncle Mukrim. 
Their fitful rule of about 80 years placed much 
reliance on Persian Sunnls as local governors. In 
the mid-ioth/i6th century the Ottomans challenged 
Portuguese hegemony in the Persian Gulf, but their 
admirals, better corsairs than administrators, won 
no permanent foothold in al-Bahrayn. 

In ion/1602 the Persians under Shah 'Abbas I 
took al-Bahrayn, which they retained, with certain 
interruptions, for over 150 years. Persian sovereignty 
was not always accompanied by strong Persian in- 
fluence, as the instruments of policy were often 
chiefs of the Huwala or other Arabs settled on the 
Persian coast, such as Djabbara of Tahiri and Nasir 
and Nasr Al Madhkur of Bushahr in the I2th/i8th 
century. 

In 1 197/1783 Ahmad b. Khalifa of Banu 'Utba 
(al-'Utub), Arabs who had migrated from Nadjd to 
Kuwayt and thence to al-Zubara in Katar, drove 
Nasr Al Madhkur from al-Bahrayn and inaugurated 
the rule of the House of Khalifa, which has endured 
to the present. The energetic merchants of al-Bahrayn 
with their valuable pearl resources contested the 
primacy recently won by Muscat in the transit trade 
of the Persian Gulf, thus provoking attacks by the 
Ibadite rulers of Muscat during the next 45 years. 
The first attack, in 1216/1801, brought Al Sa'ud 
of Nadjd to the defence of Al Khalifa, but political 
domination by Al Sa'ud was not prolonged and the 
MalikI proclivities of the Sunnls of al-Bahrayn yield- 
ed little to the Haubalism of Muhammad b. 'Abd 
al-Wahhab. 

Al Khalifa in 1235/1820 concluded with the Bri- 
tish Government the firs* of a series of treaties which 
by 1331/1914 placed al-Bahrayn fully under British 
protection, giving the British control of foreign affairs 
and exclusive rights in the development of natural 
resources. The growth of British influence has been 
the subject of repeated Persian protests for more 
than a century, and the Iranian Government still 
presses a vigorous claim to sovereignty over al- 
Bahrayn. Although the Ottomans occupied the Arab- 



iL-BAHRAYN — al-BAHRIYYA 



ian coast and Katar in the second half of the 13th/ 
19th century and thus encircled al-Bahrayn until 
the First World War, the presence of the British 
prevented them from absorbing the islands. 

After an absence of over a millennium, formal 
Christianity returned to al-Bahrayn in 1310/1893 
when missionaries of the American Dutch Reformed 
Church founded a station. In 1351/1932 oil was dis- 
covered on the main island in the first of the prolific 
fields on the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf. 

From 1 354/1935 to 1 378/1958 al-Bahrayn was the 
principal British naval base in the Gulf, and in 1365/ 
1946 the seat of the British Political Residency in the 
Persian Gulf was moved from Bushahr to al-Bahrayn. 
Shaykh Salman b. Hamad, who acceded to the rule 
in 1361/1942, concluded an amicable agreement with 
King Sa'ud of Saudi Arabia in 1377/1958 fixing a 
marine boundary between the two countries, the 
first precisely defined boundary in any of the waters 
lapping the Arabian Peninsula. 

Bibliography: Arabic, Persian, and Turkish 
sources: Baladhuri, F«<«A ; Hamdani; Humayd b. 
Ruzayk, al-Fath al-Mubin, tr. G. Badger, London 
1871; Ibn Battuta, Voyages; Ibn Hawkal; Mas- 
'udi, Murudi; Nasir-i Khusraw, Safar-ndma, ed. 
Schefer, Paris 188 1; Tabari; Tadhkirat al-Muluk, 
«d. V. Minorsky, London 1943; Yakut. 

Amin al-Rihani, Muluk al-'-Arab*, Beirut 1929; 
Hafiz Wahba, Djazirat al-'-Arab, Cairo 1354; Mul) 
■animad Ibn Bulayhid, Sahlh al-Akhbdr, Cairo 
1370-3; Muhammad al-Nabhani, al-Tuhfa al- 
Nabhdniyya, Cairo 1342; Ottoman Empire, Min. 
For. Aff., Bahrayn Meselesi, Istanbul 1334. 

Archaeology: J. and M. Bent, Southern Arabia, 
London 1900; T. Bibby and P. Glob, in Kuml, 
Arhus 1954 ff.; P. Cornwall, in BASOR, 1946; 
idem, in GJ, 1946; idem, in Jour, of Cuneiform 
Studies, 1952; E. Durand and H. Rawlinson, in 
JRAS, 1880; S. Kramer, in BASOR, 1944; E. 
Mackay, in Bahrein and Hemamieh, London 1929; 
A. Oppenheim, The Seafaring Merchants of Ur, 
in J A OS, 1954; F. Vidal, in al-Manhal (Mecca 
periodical), 1375. 

History to the 19th century: R. Aigrain, Arabie, 
in Diet, d'hist. et de giog. eccUs.; J. Aubin, Les 
princes d'Ormuz, in J A, 1953; C. Belgrave, in 
JRCAS, 1935; Caetani, Annali; idem, Chrono- 
graphia Islamica, Paris 1912; W. Caskel, Eine 
'Vnbekannte' Dynastie, in Oriens, 1949; M. de 
Goeje, Mtmoire sur les Carmathes du Bahrain', 
Leiden 1886; idem, in JA, 1895; L. Lockhart, 
Nadir Shah, London 1938; idem, in BSOS 1935-37; 
C. Matthews, in MW, 1954; C. Niebuhr, Beschrei- 
bung v. Arabien, Copenhagen 1772; A. Stiffe, in 
GJ, 1901 ; A. Wilson, The Persian Gulf, London 
1928; F. Wiistenfeld, Bahrein u. Jemdma, in Abh. 
d. K. Ges. d. Wiss. zu G6U., 1874. 

Modern al Bahrayn : Admiralty, A Handbook of 
Arabia, London 1916-7; idem, Iraq and the Persian 
Gulf, London 1944; C. Aitchison, ed., A Collection 
of Treaties 1 , xi, Calcutta 1933; Annual reports of 
the Gov't, of Bahrain and the Bahrain Petroleum 
Co.; C. Belgrave, in JCAS, 1928; J. Belgrave, 
Welcome to Bahrain*, Bahrain 1957; J. Brinton, in 
Revue Egyptienne de Droit International, 1947; 
•O. Caroe, Wells of Power, London 195 1; V. Chirol, 
Fifty Years in a Changing World, London 1927; 
G. Curzon, Persia, London 1892; M. Esmaili, he 
golfe persique et les ties de Bahrein, Paris 1936, 
A. Faroughy, The Bahrein Islands, New York 
195 1 ; For. Off., Handbook on the Persian Gulf,, 
London 1953; L. Fraser, in JCAS, 1908; G. Gooch 



and H. Temperley, eds., British Documents on the 
Origins of the War, x, Part 2, London 1938; R. 
Hay, in ME J, 1955; H. Hazard, Eastern Arabia, 
New Haven 1956; H. Hoskins, British Routes to 
India, New York 1928; idem, in MEJ, 1947; H. 
Liebesny, MEJ, 1947, 1956; S. Longrigg, Oil in 
the Middle East, London 1954; J. Lorimer, Gaz- 
etteer of the Persian Gulf, 'Orndn, and Central 
Arabia, Calcutta 1908-15; C. Low, History of the 
Indian Navy, London 1877; L. Pelly, Remarks 
on the Tribes, Trade and Resources Around the 
Shore Line of the Persian Gulf, in Transactions 
of the Bombay Geogr. Soc., 1863; F. Qubain, in 
MEJ, 1955; A. Rihani, Around the Coasts of Ar., 
Boston 1930; Selections from the Records of the 
Bombay Gov't., n.s., xxiv, Bombay 1906; A. Toyn- 
bee, G.' Kirk, etc , Survey of Int'l. Affairs, London 
1927 ff.; U.S. Hydrographic Office, . Sailing Dir- 
ections for the Persian Gulf, Washington 1952; 
R. Whish, in Transactions of Bombay Geogr. Soc, 
1860-2; S. Zwemer, Arabia, New York 1900. 

Iranian claim: F. Adamiyat, Bahrein Islands, 
New York 1955; J. Kelly, in Int'l. Affairs (Lon- 
don), 1957; M. Khadduri, in Amer. Jour, of Int'l. 
Law, 1951; Sa c id Nafisi, Bahrayn, Tehran 1333; 
G. Scarcia, in OM, 1958. 

(G. Rentz and W. E. Mulligan) 
al-BAHRIYYA. a Mamluk regiment in 
Egypt. Most of the Ayyubid sultans had mam- 
luks in their service, but it was only Sultan al- 
Salifc Nadjm al-Din Ayyub (637-47/1240-9) who 
recruited them in very great numbers. He seized the 
opportunity of the influx in the Muslim markets 
of Turkish slaves from the Kipcak steppe and 
neighbouring areas who were uprooted from their 
homelands by the Mongol advance and created from 
amongst them a regiment of picked bodyguards 
numbering between 800 and 1000 horsemen. He 
called this regiment al-Bahriyya because he stationed 
its members on the island of al-Rawda on the Nile 
river (Bahr al-Nil). 

The Bahriyya displayed at a very early date all 
the positive and negative characteristics of a mamluk 
military society, viz. exceptional military ability and 
valour and unity against outsiders on the one hand, 
and internal dissension on the other. It was they who 
won the battles of al-Mansflra (647/1249) and <Ayn 
Pjalflt (658/1260), but six years before the last-named 
battle a split tore their ranks which threatened their 
very existence. A short time after Aybak, one of 
their number, became sultan they tried to dethrone 
him, but failed. As a result their leader, Aktay, was 
killed and some 700 of them had to escape from Egypt 
and entered the service of various Ayyubid rulers in 
Syria and of the Saldjuk ruler of Asia Minor. 

After the death of Aybak group after group ol the 
exiled Bahriyya returned to Egypt, but they never 
regained their early position because of the ageing of 
their members and the thinning of their ranks. The 
last one of them died in 707/1 307. The name Bahriyya, 
however, persisted up to the gth/isth century, for it 
was applied to various garrisons of the Syrian 
fortresses, the reason being that the original Bahriyya 
performed garrison duties, especially in the reign of 
the Sultan Kala'un. 

The importance cf the Bahriyya regiment lies in 
the fact that its formation had ultimately led to the 
creation of the Mamluk sultanate. It is wrong, 
however, to call the early part of Mamluk rule 
(648/1250-784/1382), in which the KipcakI element 
was predominant, by the name of "the Bahri period". 
The common name in Mamluk sources for that period 



AL-BAHRIYYA — BAHRIYYA 



945 



is Dawlat al-Turk, to distingviish it from the Circassian 
period (784-922/1382-1517) which they call Dawlat 
al-Djarkas (see D. Ayalon, Le rtgiment Bahriya 
dans I'Armie Mamelouke, in REI 1952, 133-41). 
(D. Ayalon) 
BAHRIYYA, a group of oases in the Lyb- 
ian desert. The Bahriyya is the most northerly 
of the Lybian desert. The Wahat Bahriyya (also 
singular), i.e., the northern oases, are distinguished 
from the Wahat Kibliyya, the southern oases, i.e., 
the Dakhla [q.v.~] and Kharga [q.v.]. Between 
these two groups lie the little oases of Farafra 
(included in the Dakhla by some), or al-Farafira, 
called al-Farfarun by al-Bakri and al-Ya c kubI. The 
three large oases are also distinguished as inner, 
middle and outer; the inner is the Bahriyya which 
is also called the small. It is sometimes also called 
the Bahnasiyya as it used to be visited by the people 
of Bahnasa. Bahnasa al-Sa'id and Bahnasa al- Wahat 
are distinguished as early as al-Bakri (Mughrib, 14). 
According to Boinet Bey's Dictionnaire Gdogra- 
phique, the Bahriyya is a district of the province of 
Miuia. It contains about 6000 inhabitants, and 
consists of four townships: al-Bawif (1), al-Rasr, 
Mandlsha, and al-Zabu. 

The Bahriyya, like the other oases, has the repu- 
tation of being exceedingly fertile and in the 
middle ages its dates and raisins were famous. 
Cereals, rice, sugar-cane and especially indigo 
were also cultivated there, and alum and green 
vitriol found, though the latter ,is not specially 
mentioned as being found in the Bahriyya, since all 
the notices of this sort refer to all the oases together. 
The fertility of the oasis is due to hot springs 
containing various chemicals. 

Only scanty information is available for the history 
of tne Baljriyya. In the year 332/943-4 the 
oases are said to have been under the rule of a 
Berber prince c Abd al-Malik b. Marwan and to 
have been independent. Under the Fatimids we 
hear of an Egyptian governor Abu Salih. In the 
time of al-Makrizi andal-Kalkashandl, thatis, under 
the Mamluks, they were not governed directly by 
the state but by feudal tenants. At all periods the 
oases have suffered from the predatory raids of 
Arab and Berber nomads while the more southern 
ones (perhaps also the Bahriyya?) were sometimes 
the object of forays by the Kings of Nubia. 
It is only in modem times that they have been 
placed in closer relationship to the Egyptian 
government. In the seventies they were visited by 
Schweinfurth and since then European travellers 
have often gone there. 

In earlier times the oases must have been very 
much more important than they are now, as witness 
the remains of several ancient temples, built by the 
Romans, and of a church of the 6th century A.D. 
The Coptic Church appears to have been in a 
flourishing condition till a late period. We hear of 
solemn processions with the body of one of the 
disciples which was carried through the streets in 
a shrine (tdbut) by a team of oxen. No doubt St. 
Bartholomew is meant (al-Bakri, 14 should no 
doubt thus be emended,) or perhaps also St. George 
or both. 

Bibliography: al-Bakri, Description de 
I'Afnque (ed. de Slane), 14 <* seq.; IdrisI, al- 
Maghrib, 44; Abu Salih (ed. Evetts), fol. 93*, 
75 m ; MakrizI, Khifat, i. 234 f.; Kalkashandl 
(trausl. by Wustenfeld), 102; Ibn Dukmak, v , 
11 f.; 'All Mubarak, Kh*W Biadida, xvii, 29 f.; 
Baedeker, Egypt*, 207; Amelineau, Giographie 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



de I'Egypte, 290; Schweinfurth, Prof. Dr. Ascher- 
sons Reise nach der kleinen Oase {Petermanns 
Geogr. Mitteil., vol. xxii, 264); Guides Bleus, 
tgypte, Paris 1956, 507-8. (C. H. Becker) 

BAHRIYYA, I. The navy of the Arabs until the 
time of the Fatimids [see Supplement]. 

II. The navy of the Mamluks. The Mamluk 
sultanatt came into being a long time after Christian 
Europe had established its uncontested naval 
supremacy in the Mediterranean. Throughout that 
sultanate's existence this supremacy had been 
much strengthened. Under such circumstances there 
was little chance for Mamluk sea power to demonstrate 
its existence. Mamluk naval activities occupy a 
prominent place in the sources, mainly in connexion 
with Sultan al-Zahir Baybars' ill-fated expedition 
to Cyprus in 669/1270, with Sultan Barsbay's ex- 
peditions to the same island and to Rhodes in the 
years 827-829/1424-6, 847/1443, and with the ex- 
peditions against the Portuguese in 913/1507 and 
921/1515. Otherwise such activities are mentioned 
only on very rare occasions. Thus it is impossible 
in the present state of our knowledge to write the 
history and describe the structure and functioning 
of whatever navies the Mamluks possessed. Source 
references to some technical aspects of Mamluk nav- 
al power will be given in the bibliography. 

The deficiency of Mamluk sources in technical 
information on the navy is, however, largely com- 
pensated for by the insight they give us into the socio- 
psychological factors which dictated the Mamluks' 
attitude towards the navy. As these factors have 
by no means been limited to Mamluk society alone, 
their examination might be of benefit to the general 
history of Islam in the Middle Ages. 

The two following and closely connected subjects 
will be briefly discussed here: (a) the attitude of 
the Mamluks towards the navy and its consequences; 
(b) their policy towards their ports and coastal forti- 
fications. 

(a) As might be expected from a military society 
of horsemen the attitude of the Mamluks towards 
the sea was extremely negative. Even Baybars I 
was no exception to this rule, in spite of his unusual 
grasp of wide strategical problems and in spite of 
the fact that he cared for the navy more than any 
other Mamluk sultan and that in his days Mamluk 
sea power had reached its peak. After the disaster 
which his flotilla suffered in 1270 off the coast of 
Limasol, he wrote a letter to the king of Cyprus 
in which he stressed the superiority of a victory on 
land won by horsemen over a victory on the sea 
won by oarsmen, and then he succinctly defined the 
essential difference between the might of Islam and 
the might of the maritime powers of Christian Europe 
as follows: "Your horses are ships, while our ships 
are horses" (antum khuyulukum al-mardkib wa nahnu 
mardkibund al-khuyul) (Suluk, i, 594, note 3). Not 
less illuminating was his reaction immediately on 
receiving the tidings about that disaster. He thanked 
God for the light punishment He allowed the evil 
eye to inflict upon him after having won so many 
victories. For all he had to sacrifice in order to save 
his land army from the evil eye was a certain number 
of ships and their crews, which were composed of 
fellahin and of common people (al-falldhin wa 
•l-'awdmm) (KhiM, ", 194, "• 24-29; SulSk, i, 594, 
11. 2-3; al-Nahdi al-Sadid, in Pairologia Orientalis, 
xii, 542, 11. 2-5). There can hardly be any doubt 
that elements of higher social status than the two 
above-mentioned ones served in the navy as well 
60 



946 bah: 

but in all probability they did not include the Mam- 
luks, who occupied the highest rung in the social 
ladder. When Baybars' flotilla was wrecked off 
Limasol, the Franks succeeded in capturing the 
whole naval command of the Mamluk sultanate, 
including the captains (rayyis) of all the three 
Egyptian ports : Alexandria, Damictta and Rosetta. 
A very long list of the prisoners' names had been 
preserved in Ibn Sfcaddad al-Halabi's famous bio- 
graphy of Baybars (Edirne, Selimiye, 1557, chro- 
nicle of the year 673 A.H. cf. the Turkish trans- 
lation by Serefiiddin Yaltkaya, Istanbul 1941, 46, 
where however the list of names is omitted). This 
list does not contain a single name of a Mamluk. 
Of all the prisoners not even one was considered 
important enough to be honoured with a bio- 
graphy. Nor is that all: Mamluk historical liter- 
ature contains many thousands of biographies, 
none of which is dedicated to a naval commander. 
Al-MakrM's statement that the designation usfuli 
("man of the navy") was considered an insult in the 
Ayyubid period after Saladin's reign (Khifat, ii, 
197, 11. 2-2) is trus for the Mamluk period as well. 

The scarcity of wood and metals also greatly con- 
tributed to the weakness of Mamluk sea power. 
The "forests" of Egypt, always covering only a 
small area, practically disappeared under Mamluk 
rule as a result of neglect. In north-western Syria 
and in the vicinity of Beirut there were small forests 
which supplied wood for shipbuilding. From about 
the middle of the gth/i5th century the Mamluks 
imported great quantities of timber from Ildjun in 
south-eastern Anatolia, which they carried in their 
own ships under the protection of heavy escorts 
of Mamluk soldiers. The contemporary sources hard- 
ly mention imports of timber from Europe, which 
must however, have been considerable. 

The only source of iron-ore in the whole Mamluk 
sultanate was a small mine located near Beirut, the 
output uf which was mainly absorbed by the local 
shipyard. Other metals were not to be found at all 
within the sultanate's boundaries. 

Yet in spite of the great handicap caused to ship- 
building by the scarcity or absence of raw materials, 
this factor was only of secondary importance com- 
pared with the Mamluks' aversion to the sea. 

As a matter cf fact a permanent Mamluk navy 
did not exist at all. Whenever a flotilla was construc- 
ted, it was only to exact reprisals for a very 
damaging and humiliating act of aggression by 
the Frankish corsairs. When a new flotilla was 
built, the oldtr one had already ceased to exist 
for a very long time. Under such circumstances 
it was impossible to maintain a naval personnel wor- 
thy of its name. No wonder, therefore, that thr 
Franks attacked the coasts of Islam at will and got 
away unscathed. The attacks usually caught the 
Muslims unawares, and when they did sound the 
alarm it was, in most cases, a false one. 

With the advance of the years Mamluk sea power 
became even more insignificant, not only because 
of the general decline of the realm, but also — and 
mainly — because of the increasing employment of 
firearms in sea warfare. In the Mediterranean, the 
pressure of the Franks on the Muslim shores was 
greatly intensified. In the Indian Ocean small squa- 
drons of a new type of ocean-going Portuguese ships 
armed with superior artillery easily annihilated the 
Mamluk warships sent against them, and thus paved 
the way for European domination of the sea routes 
to India and the Far East for many centuries. 

(b) The steadily deterioratirg naval power of 



Islam drove the Muslims after many hesitations 
to the destruction of the Syro-Palestinian ports and 
coastal fortifications. As a result of the Crusades, 
the Muslims came slowly to realise that this was 
their only alternative. The destruction was started 
by the Ayyubids, but was mainly accomplished by 
the Mamluks. The turning-point was the battle 
of Hattln (583/1187) and the events which followed it 
in the next few years. These proved to the Muslims 
that however decisive their victory over the Franks 
might be on land, the Franks could always easily 
turn the tables upon them by means of their naval 
supremacy. 'Askalan, destroyed by the personal order 
of Saladin in 587/1 191, was the first victim of that 
policy, which was followed up after that with un- 
swerving determination. 

When the Mamluks rose to power, they wiped 
out one after the other the fortifications of the Syro- 
Palestininian coast, and destroyed many of its ports 
from about the middle of the 13th century and up 
to the year 722/1322, in which Ayas near Alexandret- 
ta had been conquered. Of the numerous coastal 
fortresses (ft*W c , sing, bal'a) none was left. A few 
towers (burUdi, sing. burdi) were constructed on the 
ruins of some of them, mainly in order to keep watch 
on the sea and resist the first onslaught of a possible 
Frankish attack. 

In addition, the Mamluks tried to strengthen their 
coastal defences by settling near the coast Kurds, 
Khwarizmians, Turcomans, Oirats, etc., who 
sought refuge in the sultanate and were called Wd- 
fidiyya. This attempt, however, failed, generally 
speaking, for the Wafidiyya soon assimilated with 
the local population and disappeared as a separate 
entity. Only the Turcomans are mentioned for quite 
a long period as guardians of the coast. 

The port-towns of the Syro-Palestinian coast 
declined very greatly. Some of them entirely disap- 
peared, others became small fishing ports and 
only very few recovered fairly quickly. 

The most thoroughly destroyed and the most 
desolate part of the coast was the section stretching 
from the south of Sidon and up to al- c Arish, i.e., 
roughly speaking the shores of Palestine. 'Askalan, 
Arsuf, Caesarea and 'Athllth, remained in ruins up to 
recent times. The revival of Haifa started many 
years after Mamluk reign, whereas Jaffa and Acre 
were only insignificant hamlets under Mamluk and 
early Ottoman rule. The nearness of that part of 
the coast to Jerusalem and the flatness and com- 
parative wideness of the plain adjoining it — which 
make it an ideal area for landing troops from the 
sea— were undoubtedly the main reasons for its 
thorough destruction. 

The only towns which recovered from the blow 
fairly quickly were Beirut and Tripoli, but their 
defences were far weaker than those which they 
had had in the past. Thanks to the historian Salib 
b. Yahya, we know much more about Beirut's 
system of defence than about that of any other 
Syro-Palestinian port. The picture revealed of the 
weakness of that system is very depressing indeed 
{Ta'rlkh Bayrut, 28-42, 45. 67-9, 9°"4. 100-112, 134, 
168, etc.). 

The Egyptian coast, on the other hand, was left 
almost intact. In the first half of the 13th century 
Tinnls was permanently destroyed, but Damietta was 
very soon rebuilt after having been destroyed. The 
reason for the preservation of the Egyptian ports 
and coastal fortifications were : first, that Egypt was 
invaded by the Crusaders only for very short periods; 
second, that trade with the outside world was vital 



for the country's existence (economic considerations 
undoubtedly played a decisive rdle in the revival 
of Beirut and Tripoli as well); third, all the picked 
units of the Mamluk army were concentrated in 
Egypt (or more precisely in Cairo). They could easily 
be rushed from the capital to any point on the 
Egyptian coast. 

From the above it should not be concluded that 
the Mamluks devoted much of their attention to the 
Egyptian coast. Alexandria and the other Egyptian 
ports were garrisoned by third-rate troops, including 
members of the declining non-Mamluk regiment of 
the halka and Bedouins of the neighbourhood, equip- 
ped with most primitive weapons. When the Royal 
Mamluks were forced to garrison these ports in times 
of great danger, they stayed there only for very 
short periods. Even the most severe blow which 
the Franks inflicted on Alexandria in 1365 did not 
bring about any substantial change in its system of 

In the inner parts of their realm, and I mean mainly 
the mountain region of Syria and Palestine, the 
Mamluks pursued a totally different policy. There 
they rebuilt systematically the fortresses which were 
damaged or destroyed either by the Mongols or as 
a result of the fighting with the Crusaders. The term 
kal'a, which has entirely disappeared from the coast, 
is encountered very frequently in the interior even 
in remote and little known places. 

Bibliography: Studies: I. H. Uzuncarslll, 
OstnatUi Devleti Teskilatina Medhal, Istanbul 1941, 
463-465; M. M. Ziada, The Mamluk Conquest of 
Cyprus in the Fifteenth Century, in Bulletin of the 
Faculty of Arts, University of Egypt, vol. i (1933), 
90-104, vol. ii(i934), 37-57; cf. also the rich bib- 
liographical notes in this article; D. Ayalon, 
The Wafidiya in the Mamluk Kingdoms, in Islamic 
Culture, vol. xxv, 1951, 89-104; idem, Gunpowder 
and Firearms in the Mamluk Kingdom, London 
1956, 77-82 (on the naval struggle between the 
Mamluks and the Portuguese). Sources: on the 
Egyptian (including Mamluk) navy and ship- 
yards, al-Makrizi, Khifat, ii, 189-197. On the ex- 
peditions to Cyprus and Rhodes, in addition to 
notes in Ziada, op. tit. : Ibn TaghribirdI, Nudjum 
(ed. Popper), vi, 590 if., vii, 122 ff.; al-SakhawI, 
Tibr, 61 ff., 87 ff.; Ibn Hadjar al-'Askalanl, B. 
M. MS. Add. 2321, f. 36ib-364b. On terminology 
connected with the navy, the crews, ship con- 
struction, numbers of ships, etc.: Ibn MamatI, 
ICawdnin al-Dawawin, 339-40; Zettersteen (ed.), 
Seitrdge cur Geschichte der Mamlukensultane, 56, 
11. 12-24; al-Mufaddal b. AM al-Fada'U, al-Nahaj 
al-Sadid (in Patrologia Orientalis), vol. xiv, 628, 

I. 6, 629, I.4; Abu'l-Fida», A'. al-Mukhtafar, iv, 
6, U. 26-29; Ibn Kathlr, al-Biddya, xiv, 320, U. 
12-19; al-Makrizi, al-Suluk, i, 56, 11. 6-13, 77, U. 
16-17, 80, 11. 9-10, 102, 11. 14-15, 203, 11. 12-13, 
354, U. 12-14. 451, 11. "-13. 594, U. 2-4, 615, 11. 
4-10, 875, H. 6-10, 928, 11. I, 8, 17, ii, 33. U. 4-5; 
idem, Nudjum (ed. Cairo), vi, 38, 11. 6-7, 369, 11. 
ko-11, vii, 157, 11. 8-10, 226,1. 8; ibid. (ed. Popper), 
v, 199, 11. 18-20, vi, 402, 590, 11. 20-28, 591, 1. 9, 
507, 1. 18, 608, 1. 1, 615, 1. 18, vii, 134, H. 12-13, 
ao8, 1. 12, 210, 1. 13, 548, 11. 4-7, 725, in the notes; 
Ibn TaghribirdI, Manhal, ii, f. 56a; idem, Hawd- 
dith, 341, 11. 4-15, 346, 1. 11, 347, 1. 15; idem, 
Tibr, 47, 11. 15-16; Ibn al-Furat, TaMkh al-Duwal 
wa 'l-Muluk, ix, 265, 1. 16; Ibn Iyas, BaddV 
al-Zuhur (ed. Kahle), iv, 103, 11. 1-6, 212, 11. 2-4, 
215, 1. 19, 216, 1. 1, 238, 11. 8-9, 243, 11. 18-19, 246, 

II. 10-11, 276, I. 16, 366, 11. 9-10, 466, 11. 18-21, v, 



81, 11. 19-24; Salih b. Yahya, Ta'rikh Bayrilt, 
31, 1. 16, 33, 11. 14-15, 34. I- 1, 34. I- 8, 35, 1. 7, 
36, 11. 1-3, 36, 11. 20, 38, 1. 12, 38, 11. 16-19, iox, 

I. 14, 102, 1. 1, 181, 238; Ibn Hadjar al-'Askalani, 
al-Durar al-Kdmina, iv, 438, 1. 18, 439, 1. 1; al- 
Kalkashandl, $ubh al-A c shd, iv, 63, 1. 18; idem, 
Khifaf, i, 26, 11. 1-18, ii, 189, 11. 12-15, 195, 11- 6-8; 
al-Zahiri, Zubda, 139-140, 142, U. 2-7; Ibn Hadjar 
al- c Askalani, Inba>, BM. MS. Add. 7321, f. 362, 

II. 8-10. On the sources from which shipbuilding 
timber was supplied: Khifaf, i, no, 1, 37, in, 
1. 7, 204, 272, 11. 7-9, ii, 185, 11. 5-8, 194, 11. 10-13; 
Nudjum (ed. Popper), vii, 486, 1. 7, 487, 1. 4, 492, 11. 
14-16; Hawddith, 96, 1. n, 97, 1. 4, 115, 11. 10-n, 
129, 11. 8-11, 255, 11. 3-5, 301, 11. 4-5, 470, 11. 2-9; 
Ibn Kathlr, xiv, 315, 11. 23-25, 320, 11. 12-19; Ibn 
Iyas, ii, 54, 11. 19-20, 59, 11. 11-12, 63, 11. 17-26, 
iii (ed. Kahle), 141, iv, 163, 164, 183, 1. 21, 184, 1. 
1, 185, 191; Paw' al-$ubh, 295; $ubh, iv, 124, 11. 
3-7, viii, 226, xii, 172, xiv, 68; al-Suyup, ifusn 
al-Muhddara, ii, 234, 11. 20-21. (D. Ayalon) 
iii. The Ottoman navy. From the foundation of the 

Ottoman state to the time of Bayazld I (1389- 
1402), the sea of Marmara and part of the Aegean 
seaboard lay within its boundaries. For the crossing 
into Rumelia, use had been made of transports 
belonging to the principality of Karasi, stationed 
on the coast of the Kapldaghl peninsula. The need 
for a fleet was felt in the first years of Bayazld's 
reign, when by occupying the principalities of 
Sarukhan, Aydin, and Menteshe, which held the 
coast-lands of western Asia Minor, he reached 
the Mediterranean. The fleets of the occupied prin- 
cipalities were utilised, and at the same time an 
arsenal was established at Gallipoli, and naval ac- 
tivity began in the Aegean. Gallipoli was ranked as 
a sandjak and became the centre of the Ottoman 
admiralty. Subsequently a number of other sandjaks 
were added to it, to form the eydlet of the Kaptan 
(Kapudan) Pasha. Ships were built not only at 
Gallipoli but also on the shores of the sea of 
Marmara, the Aegean and at some points on the 
Black Sea coast, and naval activity increased. 

The first Ottoman sea-battle occurred in 819/1416, 
against the Venetians, the Ottoman Kaptan Pasha 
being Call Bey, sandiak beyi of Gallipoli. In this 
battle, which took place between the island of 
Marmara and Gallipoli, the Ottoman navy was 
defeated and Call Bey was killed, while the Venetian 
admiral Pietro Loredano was wounded in the eye. 
The following year peace was made, through the 
mediation of the Byzantine emperor. 

After this the Ottoman navy steadily progressed. 
First it brought under its influence some off-shore 
islands in the Aegean that had been colonised by the 
Genoese, and later, in 860/1456, it took the harbour 
of Enez and the islands of Imbros, Thasos, Samo- 
thrace, and Lemnos, and in 866/1462 Lesbos. Shortly 
after this date there began the series of hard-fought 
battles with Venice. The island of Euboea, an im- 
portant Venetian base, was taken in 815/1470, and the 
Ionian islands in the last years of the reign of Meb- 
emmed II. 

The Ottoman empire was already making its naval 
strength felt when IJhayr al-DIn ('Barbarossa'), the 
Bey of Algiers, entered its service. His skill brought 
it to the highest degree of maritime power, and with 
the battle of Preveza (4 Djum. I, 2 September 1538) it 
won the mastery of the Mediterranean. Defeat at Le- 
panto (979/1571) cost the Ottoman empire its fleet, 
but thanks to the odjaklik system (whereby a given 
region was responsible for supplying an arsenal with 



948 BAH] 

one particular ship-building commodity; e.g., the 
island of Thasos had to provide pine-wood for the 
ship-yards of Lemnos: see I. H. Uzuncarsili, Osmanli 
devletinin merkez ve bahriye teskildll Ankara 1948, 
especially footnote to p. 449), a new fleet was crea- 
ted in so short a time as five months, and with the 
help of this the Venetians were compelled to make 
peace and sign a — for them — inglorious treaty. 

Towards the end of the 16th century, the Ottoman 
fleet was weakened by the haphazard appointment 
of men with no naval experience to the kaptan- 
pashalik, the command of the naval forces. From 
the beginning of the 17th century the Venetian fleet 
replaced its oar-driven galleys by sailing galleons, 
while the Ottoman navy persisted in the use of oars. 
Partly for this reason and partly because the ships' 
crews were pressed men with no interest in seafaring, 
it had so little success that the islands of Tenedos 
and Lemnos fell into enemy hands. 

Eventually, in 1682, during the grand vizierate 
of Kara Mustafa Pasha of Merzifon (1676-83), the 
principle was accepted that sailing galleons should 
form the basis of the fleet (a principle that had long 
been applied by the navy of Algiers, an Ottoman 
dependency). Thus a balance was achieved with the 
Venetians in the Mediterranean, and in 1106, 1695 the 
island of Chios was recovered from them. A kdnun 
relating to galleons, their commanders and crews, 
was promulgated in 1701. 

During the 2nd half of the 18th century no battle 
was fought against the Venetians, whose power had 
weakened, but the main naval activity in the western 
Mediterranean passed to the French and English 
fleets. In the course of the Russo-Turkish war which 
began in 1182/1768, the Russian fleet, which the 
English had developed in the Baltic, entered the 
Mediterranean and in 1 184/1770 succeeded in vir- 
tually annihilating the Ottoman fleet in the harbour 
of Ceshme. After the treaty of Kiiciik Kaynardja in 
1188/1774, prominence was given to naval matters, 
and a school of engineering was opened in the Arsenal, 
staffed by experts brought from Europe. In the reign 
of Selim III (1789-1807) great importance was at- 
tached to equipping the fleet by up-to-date methods, 
as a result of the zeal of Kiiciik Husayn Pasha. The 
school of naval engineering was enlarged, and a school 
of military engineering founded. In the reign of 
Mahmud II (1808-39) the navy was not neglected, 
but a variety of causes, internal and external, im- 
peded its development. Nevertheless training was 
given at the school of naval engineering to com- 
manders and naval architects. As a result of the 
revolt of the Peloponnese, and the help afforded to the 
rebels by Britain, France, and Russia, the Ottoman 
fleet was destroyed in Navarino Bay in 1243/1827. 
Despite this disaster naval activity did not cease, and 
in 1244/1828 a naval academy was opened on Hey- 
beliada. The Ottoman navy attained a position of 
strength during the reign of c Abd al- c AzIz (1861-76), 
in consequence of the importance attached to it, 
as also to the army, by this sultan. In the time of 
<Abd al-Hamid II (1876-1909) however, the fleet, 
that had been built up with great enthusiasm, fell 
into neglect, as part of the prevailing remissness; 
in the result, the Ottoman empire, which had long 
coastlines on three continents, suffered severe terri- 
torial losses. 

In the period of oared vessels, the principal types 
of Ottoman ships were the kddlrgha (galley), kdllte 
(galliot), and firkate (frigate). The individual com- 
manders were known as reHs, squadron-commanders 
as kaptan, and the commander-in-chief of the fleet 



as Kapuddn-i deryd. The great galley of the Kapu- 
ddn-i deryd or Kaptan Pasha was called bashtarda. 
The kddlrghas were of two classes: khdssa kadlr- 
ghalarl and bey kddlr ghalari. The former were con- 
structed by the government, the latter by the 
sandjak beyis of the eydlet of the Kaptan Pasha. 

After the introduction of sailing vessels as the 
basis of the fleet, it was entrusted to three admirals 
under the Kapuddn-i deryd. They were, in order of 
seniority, the kapuddna (Admiral), the patrona 
(Vice- Admiral), and the riydle (Rear Admiral). The 
principal sailing vessels, in descending order of size, 
were the kurvet, the firkateyn, and two kinds of gal- 
leon known as the iH ambarli kapak and the ui 
ambarli. The crews of galleons were called kalyond±u, 
and included aylakdils (temporary sailors), marinars 
(who were prisoners of war), ghabyars (who attended 
to the sails), san'atkdrs (craftsmen: painters, car- 
penters, blacksmiths, caulkers), and sudaghabos 
(gunners). 

Next in rank to the Kaptan Pasha in the Istanbul 
arsenal came the iersdne ketkhuddsl and the tersdne 
emini, and after them officers of the second and 
third rank. The accountant of the arsenal had the 
title of Djdnib efendi. Till the introduction of sail, 
the tersdne ketkhudast ranked as Vice Admiral and 
occupied himself with the discipline of the arsenal. 
The tersdne emini was trained at the Bab-i 'All 
and had control of supplies, income, and expenditure 
for the fleet and arsenal. This office was abolished 
in 1830 and its duties were entrusted to the Kaptan 
Pasha. 

In 1841 new ranks were instituted for both army 
and' navy. In 1851 the Navy Ministry (bahriyye 
nezdreti) was created, with charge of the financial 
and administrative functions formerly exercised by 
the tersdne emini. The title of Kapuddn-i deryd 
was abolished and a fleet command council was 
set up. In June 1876 the title of Kapuddn-i deryd 
was restored. Finally, in 1881, the offices of minister 
and commander-in-chief of the navy were combined 
in one man, of the rank of miishir. This arrangement 
continued till the end of the Ottoman empire. 

In 1922, after the establishment of the government 
of the Grand National Assembly in Ankara, the 
Navy Ministry (bahriyye vekdleti) was formed. In 
1927, when this ministry was abolished, naval affairs 
were made the responsibility of the Ministry of 
National Defence, and have since been administered 
by a department headed by a permanent under- 
secretary (musteshar). 

Bibliography: Fevzi Kurtoglu, Turklerin deniz 
muharebeleri, Istanbul 1935-40; I. H. Uzuncar- 
stll, Osmanli devletinin merkez ve bahriye tefkiUUl, 
Ankara 1948, and Osmanli larihi, i and ii, Ankara 
1949-54; Katib Celebi, Tuh/at al-kibar fi asfdr 
al-bihdr, Istanbul 1728 and 1914 (English trans- 
lation of chaps. 1-4 by J. Mitchell, History of the 
Maritime Wars of the Turks, London 1831; M. 
Shiikrii, Esfdr-i bahriyye-i 'Othmdniyye, Istanbul 
1306; Suleyman Nutfcl, Kdmus-u bahri, Istanbul 
19 17; V. Mirmir oglu, Fatihin Donanmasi ve Deniz 
SavaslaH, Istanbul 1946; Ali Haydar and F. 
Kurdoglu, Turklerin deniz harp sonatina hizmeti, 
Istanbul 1934; Basvekalet arjivi: Miihimme defter- 
leri nos. 112, 120, 121, 126, and Bahriye documents 
in Mu'allim Cevdet's tasnif; Khaft-i humdyHns; 
Deniz mektebi tarihfesi. Sir Adolphus Slade, Records 
of ^Travel in Turkey, Greece, etc., London 1833; 
R. C. Anderson, Naval Wars in the Levant, Prin- 
ceton 1952; H. A. von Burski, Kemal-Re'is: t,n 
Beitrag zur Geschichte der tiirkischen FMte, Bonn 



BAHRIYYA — BAHW 



949 



1928; P. Wittek, Das Fiirstentum Mentesche, 

Istanbul 1934, index (s v. korsaren) ; J. Deny, 

Riyala, in EI 1 ; Ubicini, Lettres sur la Turquie, 

letter 20. (I. H. UzuncarsuJ) 

RAHSHAL. Aslam B. Sahl al-WasIt! al- 

Razzaz, author of a History of Wasit. Nothing is 

known of his life except the names of some of his 

authorities, among them Wahb b. Bakiyya (155-239/ 

772-853). supposedly his maternal grandfather (but 

cf. al-Khatlb al-Baghdadi, Ta'rikh Baghdad, xiii, 

488,-,), and the approximate date of his death, 

between 288/901 and 292/904-05. 

The History of Wasit has come down to us in 
an incomplete manuscript in Cairo (Taymur, ta'rikh 
no. 1483) which had an interesting history and 
possesses considerable association value. It is the 
oldest preserved history intended to serve as an aid 
for hadith scholars in evaluating the reliability of 
transmitters. Starting with a rather brief discussion 
of the early history of Wasit and its environs, it 
deals with the religious scholars who had some 
connexion with Wasit and were also linked to the 
author by an uninterrupted chain of transmitters. 
The biographies are arranged chronologically 
according to generations of scholars (here barn, 
for the more common (abulia "class"). They contain 
little personal information but restrict themselves 
as a rule to the name of the scholar, his authorities 
and students, and one (and, occasionally, more, than 
one) of the traditions he transmitted. The work 
represents, if not the beginnings, at least an early 
simple stage of what was soon to become one of the 
most elaborate types of historico-biographical 
literature in Islam. 

Bibliography: Yakut, Irshdd, ii, 256; Dha- 

habi, Mizdn, Cairo 1325, i, 98; SafadI, Wdfi; Ibn 

Hadjar, Lisdn, i, 388, cf. also his Mu c d±am al- 

Mufahras, MS. Cairo, mutf. al-hadith no. 82, 

102; Brockelmann, S I, 210; F. Rosenthal, A 

History of Muslim Historiography, Leiden 1952, 

83, 144 f., 406. (F. Rosenthal) 

BAHXH, infinitive of the Arabic root b.h.th; 

from its original meaning, "to rake, to dig, to turn 

over soil (in order to search for something)", there 

later developed its meaning of "to look for, examine, 

consider", in the intellectual and speculative sense. 

Bahatha became in this respect almost a synonym 

of uazara, and, in fact, the two terms bak^-and 

nazar are often found in association (e.g., Mas'fldl, 

Murud±, vi, 368; ahl al-bahth waH-nazar, "specialists 

in philosophic inquiry and controversy"). A Kitdb 

al-Bahth formed part of the corpus of writings 

attributed to Djabir b. Hayyan, who dates from the 

3rd/9th century (cf. Brockelmann SI, 429). Since that 

time, bahth, with its plural abhdth, appears in the 

titles of numerous works precisely in the sense of 

"study, examination, inquiry" (also in the form 

mabhath, pi. mabdhith, which denotes not only the 

object of the inquiry but the inquiry itself) and in 

this strengthened form it is often used in modern 

Arabic, in the technical and scientific sense of 

"study": e.g., Mabdhith 'arabiyya of Bishr Faris, 

Cairo 1939. (F. Gabrieli) 

BAHlTRASlR [see al-mada'in]. 

al-BAHOTI. SHAYjra Mansur b. Yunus al- 

BahutI, frequently referred to by the name of al- 

BahutI al-MisrI, is usually considered as one of the 

most eminent doctors of Hanbalism in the first half 

of the nth/i7th century, and also as the last major 

representative of this school in Egypt. A native of 

the village of Bahut in the Mudiriyya Gharbiyya, 

al-Bahiiti belonged to a family which gave several 



other Sdama', who enjoyed a certain notoriety, to 
Hanbalism. The following are cited among the best 
known of his teachers: Muhammad al-Mardawi 
(died 1026/1617) Mukhtasar, 96), also an Egyptian 
Hanball, and the traditionist and lawyer c Abd al- 
Rahman al-Bahuti (Mukhtasar, 104), who was reputed 
to be well versed in the four major schools of fikh. 
Mansur al-Bahuti also counted a Shafi'i among his 
teachers, c Abd Allah al-Danawshari. Little is known 
of his life, except that he devoted himself in Cairo 
to teaching fikh and that he gave numerous legal 
opinions (fatdwd). His biographers praise his devotion 
and his charitable disposition. His teaching appears 
to have enjoyed great success; numerous students 
came to him for their training, in fact not only from 
Egypt, but from Syria and Palestine as well. Among 
his chief disciples two members of his own family 
are cited, Muhammad al-Bahuti and Muhammad b. 
Abi'l-Surur al-Bahuti, and the Syrian Abu Bakr b. 
Ibrahim al-Salihi. He died in Cairo in Rabi c 11/ 
105/July 1641, apparently at a very advanced age, 
and was buried in the turba of the Mudjdwiriin. 

Mansur al-Bahutl's work, which is still used today 
in Egypt for teaching Hanbalism, is devoid of any 
great originality on the part of the author. It stands, 
in the history of Hanbalism, as a prolongation of the 
work of Musa al-Hudjawi (died 968/1560) (cf. 
Brockelmann, II, 325 and S II, 447) and that of 
Shaykh Taki al-Din al-Futuhl, better known under 
the name of Ibn al-Nadjdjar (died about 980/1572) 
(cf. Brockelmann, S ii, 447). The Palestinian al- 
Hudjawi, who was mufti in Damascus where he 
taught at the 'Umariyya and at the Mosque of the 
Umayyads, had composed a resume of the Mukni' 
of Muwaffak al-Din b. Kudama (died 620/1222), 
under the title of Zdd al-Mustanki c , and a manual 
of Law, the Iknd c , which has become a classic in 
Hanbalism of the late period. Muhammad al- 
Bahuti wrote a commentary on the first of these 
works with the title al-Rawd al-Murbi* bi-Sharh 
Zdd al-Mustanki' (Cairo 1352, 2 vols.). He also left 
a commentary on the Iknd c (published at Cairo in 
three volumes). Shaykh Tadj al-Din al-Futuhl, who 
receive'd his training in Cairo, combined the Mukni c 
of Muwaffak b. Kudama and the Tankih of Hasan 
al-Mardawi (died 910/1 504-5; Mukhtasar, 77-78), in 
a single manual entitled al-Muntahd, which speedily 
achieved considerable success. We are also indebted 
to Mansur al-Bahuti for a sharh on the Muntahd 
(Cairo,.3 vol.) and for a hdshiya, gloss on the same 

He also wrote a commentary on the Mufraddt of 
Muhammad b. c Ali al-Makdisi (died 820/1417; 
MukhXasar, 65), a long poem in which the points of 
doctrine peculiar to Hanbalism are expounded. This 
commentary was published at Cairo, by the Salafiyya 
press, in 1 343/1924 (and the actual text was again 
reprinted by the same publishers the following year, 
with brief notes taken from al-Bahuti's commentary). 
Lastly, a commentary on the Mukni c is attributed 
to him (cf. RAAD, xii, 631). 

Bibliography: In addition to the references 
give* in the body of the article: MuhibbI, Khuldsat 
al-Athar ft A'-ydn al-liam al-Hddi <-Ashar, Bulak 
n.d., iv, 426; Djamil al-Shatti, Mukhtasar Jabakdt 
al-Handbila, Damascus 1339, 104-106; Brockel- 
mann, II, 447; H. Laoust, LePricis de droit d'Ibn 
Quddma, Beirut 1950, liii. (H. Laoust) 

BAHW, an Arabic word primarily designating 
an empty and spacious place extending 
between two objects which confine it, has acquired, 
in the architecture of the Western Muslim World, 



9JO 



BAHW — al-BA'ITH 



somewhat varied meanings, which are, however, 
related to the intial meaning of the word. 

To this primary sense of the term, the Lisdn al- 
'Arab adds the following apparently derivative 
meaning: bahw is a tent or pavilion chamber situated 
beyond the rest, which suggests the idea of a pavilion 
differing from that which it preceeds both in situation 
and by its spaciousness and height. 

One of the first examples of the use of the word 
which enables us to determine its meaning, is to be 
found in the description of the great mosque of 
al-Kayrawan by al-Bakri. He speaks of the Kubbat 
bob al-bahw, which de Slane translates: "Cupola of 
the door of the pavilion". We have no difficulty in 
identifying this cupola as the one which rises before 
the hypostyle chamber, in the middle of the narthex 
gallery opening on to the courtyard; it would, 
however, seem more appropriate to translate: 
"Cupola of the door of the central nave" and to 
recognise in bahw the term designating the axial nave 
leading to the mihrdb, which differs clearly from the 
others by its spaciousness, its being closed by the 
largest door and preceded by the cupola. 

The arrangement of the naves at right angles to 
the wall of the kibla and the adoption of a main nave 
occupying the centre, an arrangement which we are 
amply justified in considering as being inspired by 
pagan and Christian basilicas, is mainly encountered 
in the West, which explains why bahw almost 
exclusively belongs to the vocabulary of Western 
Muslim Architecture. Attested in al-Kayrawan in 
the 5th/nth century, the term is still used at Tunis 
to designate the central nave of the great mosque. 
The name Bab al-buhur given to the door preceding 
this nave is a most likely corruption of the original 

In Spain, the term bahw seems to be less strictly 
used. It is to be found in the description given by 
al-Makkari of the Umayyad palace built by c Abd 
al-Rahman III at Madinat al-Zahra'. The main 
building of the palace comprised 5 naves extending 
lengthways. The central nave, larger than the other 
four, was closed by a door called bab al-bahw. The 
throne of the sovereign was situated at the end of 
this nave and there he f;ave audience. There it was 
that al-Hakam II received King Ordono IV and 
caused him to be seated before him. However, the 
adjoining naves, also comprised in the ceremonial 
chamber, seem to have been to some extent confused 
with the central nave and are also at times referred 
to by the term bahw. 

This confusion is emphasised by Ibn Bashkuwal, 
quoted by al-Makkari in relation to the great 
mosque of Cordova. Ibn Bashkuwal applies the word 
bahw to the 19 naves of the great mosque as an 
exception, being careful to add that they are nor- 
mally called baldt, which is in fact the term most 
usually applied to the naves of a mosque. Al- 
Makkari, describing the mosque of Ucles, refers to 
the central nave by the expression al-baldf al-awsaf. 

The sense of a nave extending lengthways and 
playing the role of a ceremonial chamber, as sug- 
gested by the description of the Umayyad palace, 
explains the use of bahw to indicate an audience 
chamber. There were two such chambers in the 
palace of Cordova to which Ibn al-Khatlb applies 
this term. According to al-Tidjani, at Gabes, in the 
castle built by Ibn Makki, an audience chamber was 
provided with a bahw where the master of the palace 
was seated. We naturally identify this place of 
honour with the twin, the central alcove, of Meso- 
potamian o.-'gin, which is to be encountered in the 



houses of Fustaf of the Tfllunid period and which 
was likewise known to Eastern Barbary from the 
4th/ioth century. This deep recess, the place of 
honour, set into the back wall of a large chamber, 
still exists in Tunisian and Algerian houses: in 
Tunisia it bears the name hbu, in Algeria, however, 
the name bahw seems to be not unknown. 

Bibliography: See especially the very com- 
plete work by A. Dcssus Lamare, £tude sur le 
bahwu, organe d' architecture musulmane, in J A 
1936, ii, 529-547. Main sources: Bakri, Description 
de I'Afrique septentrionale, ed. and trans, de Slane, 
1912-191; Makkarl, AnaUctes, ed. Dozy, Dugat, 
Krehl and Wright, i, 1251 ff.; Ibn al-Khatib, 
al-Ihd(a, Cairo 1319/1901-2. (G. Marcais) 

BAIKAL, in eastern Turkish (by folk-etymology) 
Bai kill, 'the rich lake'; in Mongolian Dalai nor, 'the 
ocean lake'; the deepest lake (1741 m.), and the 
largest mountain lake in the world, between 51° 29' 
and 55 46' north, and 103° 44' and no 40' east, 
surrounded by high mountain ranges, 635 km. long, 
and varying from 15 to 79 km wide, with an area 
of 31,500 sq. km. Flowing into it are the Selenga, 
the Barguzin and the upper Angara, and flowing 
out is the Angara at Yenisey. The Lake Baikal rail- 
way (307 km. long, with 40 tunnels) — a branch of 
the Trans-Siberian railway — was completed round 
the southern part of it (between the Angara exit 
and the Selenga delta) in autumn 1904. 

It appears that Lake Baikal was not known to 
Muslim geographers in Mongol times. It is men- 
tioned only by Rashid al-DIn, Q£ami c al-Tawarikh 
(ed. Berezin iii 180) (Trudl Vost. otd. Imp. Arkheol. 
Ob-va XIII). Here, the people living on its shores 
are called Barkut (-t is the Mongol plural ending), 
and the region around it Barkudjin (Tukum), which 
is recalled by the river Barguzin. The lake became 
known in Russia in the first half of the 17th century, 
and in western Europe shortly afterwards. 

Bibliography: Brockhaus- Ef ron, Enciklop. Slqvar* 
IIA (= 4) 71517; Bol'shaya Sovetskaya Enci- 
klopeaiya ', IV (1950) 49-52 (both geographical, 
with further geographical bibliography); H. 
Johansen: Der Baikal-See in Mitt. Geogr. Ges. 
Miinchen xviii/I, 1925, 1-202; W. Leimbach: 
Die Sowjetunion (1950), 1 16-18; Th. Shabad: 
Geography of the USSR (1951), Reg. Map: Bol'- 
shaya Sov. Encikl. and Leimbach. (B. Spuler) 
BAILO [see balyos]. 

al-BA'IIH, nickname of a satirical poet of 
Basra named Khidash b. Bishr al-Mudjashi c I. 
Though held to be the greatest orator of the TamTm, 
Ibn Sallam places him in the second class of the 
great Islamic poets. The critics, however, consider 
that his relative obscurity was only due to the 
renown of Djarir; al-Ba c Ith's activity is in fact 
associated with that of the two rivals Djarir and 
al-Farazdak: for many years he exchanged invec- 
tives with the former, but was obliged to call the 
latter to his assistance, who, moreover, does not 
always treat him gently (he also refers to him by 
the nickname Ibn hamrd* al-Hajdn "son of the 
woman with the red perineum", an allusion to his 
mother's humble origin; she was a slave from 
Sidjistan). Yakut places his death in 134/752, but 
as he adds: "during the Caliphate of al-Walld b. 
c Abd al-Malik" (who reigned from 88 to 98/705-15), 
this date cannot be given credence. 

Bibliography : Djahiz, Bayan and Ifayawdn, 
index; Ibn Kutayba, Shi'r, ed. Shakir, 472-3; 
Nak&Hd Djarir wa 'l-Farazdak, passim; Diwdns 
of Djarir and Farazdak, passim; Ibn Sallam, 



L-BA'ITH — BAKARGANDJ 



951 



Tabakdt, index; Ibn Durayd, Ishtikdk, 147; Ibn 
<Asakir,v, 122-4 ;AmidI, Mu'talif, 56, 108; Yakut, 
Udabd', xi, 52-5; C. A. Nallino, Letter atur a, index. 

(Ch. Pellat) 
BAKA> wa-FANA'. The Sufic terms fand' 
(passing-away, effacement) and bakd' (subsistence, 
survival), refer to the stages of the development of 
the mystic in the path of gnosis. These categories, 
partly antithetical and partly complementary, are 
more or less equivalents of such other pairs as sukr 
(intoxication) and sahw (sobriety), djam 1 or wahda 
(unity) and tafrika or kathra (separation, plurality), 
and nafy (negation) and ithbdt (affirmation). 

The doctrine has been developed especially since 
the execution, in Baghdad in A.D. 922, of al-Halladj 
who declared "I am God", when the Sufis turned to 
the task of a more sober description of the mystic 
experience in an effort to exonerate al-Halladj from 
the un-Islamic idea of identifying the human ego 
with God and to demonstrate that Sufism was not 
only truly Islamic but is the true Islam. Even 
though some Sufis, in their moment of ecstasy, have 
not been able to guard against utterances similar 
to that of al-Halladj, especially in their poetry, they 
have usually categorically denied both the incar- 
nation of God in man and the total mergence of the 
individual and finite human ego in God. Two allied 
definitions have been offered of fand': (1) the 
passing-away from the consciousness of the mystic 
of all things, including himself, and even the absence 
of the consciousness of this passing-away and its 
replacement by a pure consciousness of God, and (2) 
the annihilation of the imperfect attributes (as 
distinguished from the substance) of the creature 
and their replacement by the perfect attributes 
bestowed by God. It is quite obvious that fand*, 
unlike the Indian Nirvana, is not a mere cessation 
of individual life, but the development of a more 
ample and perfect selfhood, thanks to the utter 
change of attributes wrought by the influence of 
God, and is more like the Greek JxoTaoti;, provided 
one guards against the total fusion of man and God. 
Accordingly, bakd', keeping the two definitions of 
fand' in view, means (1) persistence in the new 
divinely bestowed attributes {bakd' bi'lldh), and (2) 
a return to the mystic's consciousness of the plurality 
of the creaturaly world. The second follows from the 
first, since being with God means also being with 
the world which has been created by God and in 
which He is manifested, however imperfectly. The 
Sufis generally regard this state of bakd' as being 
more perfect than that of mere fand' and this is the 
meaning of their dictum that sobriety supervenes 
on intoxication. This "return" to the world— which 
is, they emphatically state, not a simple return to the 
pre-/ana' state of the mystic, since his experience 
has given him an altogether new insight — means to 
perceive its inadequacies and to endeavour to make 

The doctrine of bakd' throws into bold relief the 
distinction between the mystic and the prophetic 
consciousness. Whereas the ordinary mystic stops 
at fand' and does not even wish to return to the 
world, it is the function of the prophet — the mystic 
par excellence, — to be constantly both with God and 
with the world, to transmute the course of history 
through the implementation of the religio-moral 
divine Truth. 

Bibliography: Besides the works of the 
Sufis— of which the K. al-Luma c of Abu Nasr 
al-Sarradj and the Kashf al-Mahdjub of al-Hudj- 
wirl, are the most important on the subject, the 



most helpful account in any Western language is 
in R. A. Nicholson's The Mystics of Islam, 
London 1914, especially the last chapter. 
According to al-HudjwIrl, the author of the 
doctrine was Abu Sa'id al-Kharraz. but it was 
further developed by Djunayd and others no 
doubt under the criticism of the orthodoxy. A 
radical, forceful and lucid statement was developed, 
as a criticism of Ibn al-'Arabi, by the 17th century 
Indian Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindl whose Persian 
Maktubdt have not been studied at all in the West. 

(F. Rahman] 
al-BAK'A [see AL-BUfA 1 ]. 
BAKALAMCN [see abu ualamun]. 
BAKAR. In medieval Arabic literature, the term 
is not confined to the prevalent meaning of cattle 
(bos), in contrast to more recent usage and to the 
application of corresponding forms in other Semitic 
languages. Arab authors distinguish between the 
domestic kind, bakar ahli (= cattle), and the wild 
kind, bakar wahshi, the latter being variously 
identified, either with the mahd (Oryx beatrix; 
Nuwayrl, ix, 322) or the ayyil {[q.v.]; so according 
to the description in Kazwini) or with a group of 
animals (referred to by Lane, 234, as bovine antelopes) 
which comprises, according to Damlrl, in addition 
to these two species, also the yahmur (roedeer) and 
the thaytal (bubale antelope). The distinctive 
epithet, however, is not always added, so that 
bakar alone (or its nom. unit, bakara) may also 
stand for several wild animals. This applies, for 
instance, to ancient Arabic poetry (see, e.g., Djahiz, v, 
2i8») and its commentaries, to the respective data 
in the dictionaries (Ibn SIda treats bakar in the 
Kitdb al-Wuhush\) and even to zoological writings 
{e.g., Djahiz, ii, 1999; iv, 3993). In works on the 
solution of dreams, where bakar holds an important 
place, it is difficult to determine the exact meaning 
in every case. Different traditions seem to have been 
intermingled also in pharmacological works. Here, 
the horns of bakar are frequently mentioned, while 
some Arab authors describe the bakar ahli as a 
hornless animal. In the Kur'in, where the term 
mainly occurs in biblical tales, the meaning is 
always cattle or cow. In addition, the term is found 
in ancient proverbs and in the hadith. 

Bibliography: c Abd al-Ghani al-NabulusI, 
Ta'fir al-Andm, s.v.; Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi, 
Imtd < , i, 160, 164-66, 169-70, ii, 30 (transl. L. Kopf, 
Osiris xii [1956], 463 [index]); C A1I al-Tabari, 
Firdaws al-tfikma (Siddiqi), 421 ii.; Damlrl, s.v. 
(transl. Jayakar i, 315 ff , 327 ff); 12iaW?. 
tfayawdn*, index ; Hommel, Saugethiere, index s.v. 
Rindvieh; Ibn al-'Awwam, Fildha (transl. Clement- 
Mullet), ii/b, 1 ff.; Ibn Kutayba, 'Uymn al-Akhbdr, 
Cairo 1925-30, ii, 70, 75, 81, 94 (transl. Kopf, 43, 
50, 57, 7o); Ibn al-Baytar, Djdmi', Bulak 1291, 
105 ff.; Da'ud al-Antakl, Tadhkira, Cairo 1324. i, 
74 f.; Ibn SIda, Mukhassas, viii, 32 ii.; Ibn Slrta, 
Muntakhab al-Kaldm, bab 33; Ibshlhl, Mustafraf, 
bab 62, s.v.; Kazwini (Wustenfeld), i, 380 ii.; 
Malouf, Arabic Zool. Diet., Cairo 1932, index; 
Mustawft Kazwini (Stephenson), 4f.; Nuwayrl, 
Nihdyat al-Arab, ix, 322, x, 120 ff., A. D. Car- 
ruthers, Arabian Adventure to the Great Nafud in 
Quest of the Oryx, London 1935. (L. Kopf) 
BAKAR, c lD [see bayram and «Id]. 
BAKARGANDJ (Backergunge), formerly a 
district in East Pakistan with headquarters at 
Barlsal, (now itself a district comprising Bakargandj), 
lying between 21° 54' N and 91 2' E; Area: 4,091 sq. 
m., of which 51 sq. m. are covered with water. The 



952 



BAKARGANDJ - 



population in 1951 was 3,642,185, of whom 2,897,769 
were Muslims. The area was known as Bakla 
(Isma'ilpur) and constituted a sarkar in Mughal 
times prior to its occupation by Agha Bakar, a 
prominent person at the Mughal Court at Dacca, 
owing allegiance to the Nawab of Murshidabad, and 
a land-owner of Buzurgummldpur, in 11 54/1 741 
when he successfully suppressed a revolt of the local 
Hindu landlords. He took as his headquarters a 
flourishing market-town which he named Bakargandj 
(mart of Bakar) 13 miles to the south-east of 
Barisal. On his death in 1167/1753 the entire estate 
passed on to Raja Ballabh Ray' of Bikrampur, a 
diwan [q.v.] of the Naib Nazim of Dacca. The area was 
several times raided by the Maghs, a predatory 
Burmese tribe, during the I2th/i8th century. The 
Marat'has penetrated into Bakargandj in 11 62/1 747-9 
but were repulsed with the aid of Portuguese settlers. 
An agriculturally rich area, it supplied Murshidabad 
with rice during the terrible famine of 1 184/1770. It 
is also famous for its fruit orchards. In 1238/1828-9 
the district was visited by Karamat C A1I Djawnpuri, 
a follower of Sayyid Ahmad Brelwl [q.v.], who along 
with HadjdjT Shari'at Allah and his son Dudu Mia 
preached djihdd against the Feringhees (Europeans). 
The movement collapsed with the death of Dudu Mia 
in 1279/1862. The bulk of the population speaks a 
form of Bengali, known as Musalmani, with a 
preponderance of Arabic and Persian words. 

The district, in addition to being subject to heavy 
floods and cyclones, is noted for a strange atmos- 
pheric phenomenon, the "Barisal Gunds", sounds 
resembling the discharge of cannon and occuring at 
regular intervals. The occurrence still remains 
unexplained. 

Bibliography: Imperial Gazetteer of India, 
vol. vi, (1908) 167 ff.; A. H. Beveridge, Backer- 
gunge, Calcutta 1876; Bengal District Gazetteer, 
(Bakarganj), Calcutta 1918, 16-27, 32-3, 124, 
W. W. Hunter, Statistical Account of Bengal, 
Calcutta 1875; Settlement Reports of the Dakhin 
Shahbazpur and Tushkhati Government Estates, 
Calcutta 1896, 1898; Syed Muhammed Taifoor, 
Glimpses of Old Dhaka, Dacca 1952, 131-2, 147; 
Ahmad Hasan Dani, Dhaka, Dacca 1957, index. 

(A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
BAKHAMRA, a place in medieval 'Irak, the 
exact situation of which cannot now be fixed. 
According to al-Mas c udI it belonged to the Taff 
[q.v.], the frontier district between Babylonia and 
Arabia, and was 16 parasangs (about 60 miles) from 
Kufa. Yakut says it was nearer to Kufa than to 
Wasit. Bakhamra is famous in the history of the 
'Abbasids for the decisive battle which took place 
there in 145/762 (while the Caliph was designing the 
new city of Baghdad) between the army of al- 
Mansur, commanded by c Isa b. Musa, and the 
troops of the c Alid Ibrahim b. c Abd Allah in which 
the latter, after initial success, fell by an arrow- 
wound. The campaign thus terminated had repres- 
ented a severe danger to al-Mansiir's position. The 
Aramaic place-name means "wine-vaults", and 
recalls the analogous name of Karyat al- c Inab 
(grape-town) of a place in Palestine, North West of 
Jerusalem. Bakhamra has no other claim to interest. 
Bibliography: Yakut, i, 458; al-Mas c udi, 
Murudi, vi, 194; Weil, Chalifen, ii, 55 (wrongly 
vocalised Bachimra) ; Sir W. Muir, The Caliphate 
(ed. T. H. Weir 1915), 456- 

(M. Streck-[S. H. Longrigg]) 
BAKHARZ (also known as GuwakJiarz), a region 
in Khurasan between Harat and Nlshapur (south of 



Pjam on the river Harat), regarded as being particu- 
larly fertile-; famous in the 10th century for its 
export of grain and grapes (and in the 14th cen- 
tury for its particularly good water melons as 
well). Malta (variants: Malin and Malan) was the 
capital of the region, and in the 10th century it 
had a population of considerable size. According to 
descriptions of that time, it was situated on the 
site of the Shahr-i Naw of today. The region included 
128 villages, Djawdhakan among them. Yakut ex- 
plains the name (probably on the basis of folk-ety- 
mology) as Bad-har-rah ('wind in all places'), al- 
Bibliography: MukaddasI 319; al-Faklh 278 
Hamadhanl3i8; Ibn Rusta 171; al-Ya'kubl airo 
(= BGA III, V, VII twice); Yakut, i, 458 (= Cbier 
edition 1906: ii, 28), ii, 145, iv, 398 (= Bar 
de Meynard, Diet, de la Perse 74 f .) ; Muhammad 
Hasan Khan, MWat al-Bulddn i, 150; 'Awfi, 
Lubdb, i, 68, ii, 156; Le Strange, 357. 

(B. Spuler) 
al-BAKHARZI, Abu'l-Hasan (orAbu'l-KAsim) 
c AlI b. Hasan b. <AlI b. Abi 'l-Tayyib, Arab poet 
and anthologist, a native of Bakharz. After receiving 
a good education in his father's house, he studied in 
particular Shafi'I fikh and, at Nlsabiir, attended the 
lectures of al-Djuwayni ( ( Abd Allah b. Yusuf [q.v.], 
where he made the acquaintance of al-Kunduri [q.v.]; 
the latter, when he became wazlr, took him to 
Baghdad as a secretary; previously, he had for some 
time been an official at Basra. Subsequently, he was 
admitted to the chancellery, and later returned to 
his native place, where he was killed by a sabre 
stroke in Dhu '1-Ka c da 467/June-July 1075. 

The most famous work of al-BakharzI is a letter 
of solace addressed to his benefactor al-Kunduri, 
on the subject of his castration. His diwan is lost, 
and only a few mukat(a c dt have been published as 
an appendix to his Dumyat al-Kasr tea l Usrat AM 
al-'Asr (Aleppo 1349/1930); the latter work is an 
anthology which is a continuation of the Yatima f 
al-Tha ( alibI [q.v.] and comprises seven sections: 
Bedouin poets and poets of the Hidjaz; Syria, 
Diyarbakr, Adharbaydj&n, Djazlra and Maghrib; 
'Irak; Rayy and Djibal; Djurdjan, Astarabadh, 
Dihistan, Kumis, KhTarizm, Transoxania; Khurasan, 
Kuhistan, Sidjistan, Ghazna; adab authors. Another 
selection of his poems, entitled al-Ahsan, is preserved 
in MS. in London. His poetry, which was but little 
appreciated at Baghdad despite the flattering 
opinions of the critics, is on the whole mediocre and 
artificial. 

Bibliography: Introd. of the Dumya ; Sam'anI, 
Ansdb, 57b; Yakut, s.v. Bakharz; idem, Irshad, 
v, 121-28 = Mu'djatn, xiii, 33-48; Ibn Khallikan, 
Cairo 1899, ii, 58-9; Browne, ii, 355 ff.; Brockel- 
mann, S I, 466; c Ali Al Tahir, La p i s ie arabe en 
Irak et en Perse sous les Seldjoukides, Sorbonne 
thesis 1954 (unpublished,) index. 

(D. S. Margoliouth*) 
al-BAKHrA'. ancient site of Palmyrena, well 
known in the Umayyad period. Al-Walid II is 
known to have stayed there on several occasions and 
died there in 126/744. The Arab sources describe 
the military camp (fustdt) which the Persians are 
said to have erected there in former times and the 
inner castle [kasr) where the Companion al-Nu'man 
b. Bashlr lived and in which the Caliph, besieged by 
the rebels, took refuge. The site has been identified 
with the ruins of al-Bkhara, standing 25 km. to the 
south of Palmyra, visited and described by A. Musil 
in 1908, and, although the name is frequently 
deformed in the Arabic texts (especially into al- 



al-BAKHRA' — BAKHT KHAN 



953 



Bahra' or al-Nadira'), the reading al-Bakhra' is not 
open to doubt since it is "guaranteed by the etymo- 
logical speculations of the chroniclers, who derive it 
from the root bakhara" (H. Lammens). The traces 
of a vast walled enclosure, furnished with towers 
159 m. by 105 m., are accompanied to the north and 
the south by remains of dwellings around numerous 
wells, bearing testimony to the fact that from 
Roman times here was to be found, if not an "ancient 
castle of the limes" as H. Lammens maintained, at 
least a "fortified watering place" (A. Poidebard) on 
the Bosra-Palmyra desert road, which subsequently 
became an Umayyad palace. It was not long before 
the site was abandoned and those mediaeval authors 
who still indicate the existence of a fortress (hisn) 
of al-Bakhra', are no longer able to place it exactly. 
Bibliography: A. Musil, Palmyrena, New 
York 1928, 88, 141-43. 234, 286-87, 290-96, fig. 38 
(plan) ; A. Poidebard, La trace de Rome dans- le 
desert de Syrie, Paris 1934, 52, 59, 66-67; L- 
Caetani, Chronographia islamica, 1595; Tabari, 
index; Aghdnl, Tables; Mas'udi, al-Tanbih, 324; 
idem, Murudj, vi, 2; Yakut, i, 523; BakrI, Das 
geographische WOrterbuch, ed. Wiistenfeld, 141. 
(J. Sourdel-Thomine) 
HAKHSHt a word figuring from Mongol times 
(13th century) in Iranian and Turkish literature, 
particularly in historical literature. Like the Ui- 
ghuric original, it begins by denoting the Buddhist 
priest or monk (= Thibetan: Lama). During the 
time when the Ilkhans (q.v.) were favourably dis- 
posed to, or gallawers of, Buddhism, the number 
and influence of the bakhshi in Iran was considerable. 
In Iran, central Asia, India and the Crimea — after 
the suppression of Buddhism in Iran (in 1295) — 
bakhshi denotes only a scribe who wrote Turkish 
and Mongol records (which were kept to begin with 
in Uighur script = generally bitikct). In the 16th 
century doctors (surgeons) were called by that name. 
Where lamas exist, i.e., among the Kalmucks, Mon- 
gols, and Mandjurs, the name bakhshi retained its 
original meaning of 'Buddhist priest' up to the 20th 
century. Amongst the Turkomans — and in the 
15th and 16th centuries also amongst the Anatolian 
Turks — the name bakhshi came to mean a wande- 
ring minstrel; in Kirghiz it came to mean conjurer 
(Shaman), as also in the dialect forms baksi and 
baksa. 

The etymology of the word bakhshi is disputed: 
it used to be almost generally accepted (e.g., by W. 
Barthold and E. Blochet) as deriving from the 
Sanskrit word bhikshu, but this view has been op- 
posed by P. Pelliot and others, who would derive 
it "almost certainly" from the Chinese po-che 
(po-shi 'wise', 'well read*). 

Bibliography: Cf. excursus in Rashid al-DIn, 

Histoire des Mongols de la Perse, edited by M. 

E. Quatremere, i (1836), 184-99; M. F. Kopriilii 

in I A II (1944-49), 233-38 (with bibliography); 

B. Spuler, Die Mongolen in Iran ', Berlin 1955, 

J 84, 547 (with a bibliography concerning the 

etymology) ; W. Radloff, Proben der Volksliteratur 

der tiirkischen Stamme Sudsibiriens, vol. in/text, 

46 ff . ; R. Karutz, Unter Kirgisen und Turkmenen, 

Berlin, no date (1928 ?). (B. Spuler) 

BAKHSHISH, or bakhshish, verbal noun from 

the Persian bakhshidan, 'to bestow', and used not 

only in Persian but also in Turkish and post-classical 

Arabic to denote a gratuity bestowed by a superior 

on an inferior, a 'tip', or a 'consideration' thrown 

into a bargain, and also, though improperly, of 

bribes, particularly those offered to judges or 



officials. A notable application of the term under 
the Ottoman regime was to the gratuity bestowed 
by a sultan at his accession on the chief personages, 
of state and the Janissaries and other troops of the 
standing army — the djulus bakhshishi. This involved 
the Ottoman central treasury in vast expenditure, 
which in the period of Ottoman decline it could ill 

Bibliography: Seyyid Mustafa Nurl, Netd'idj 
al-Wuku'dt, ii, 98; Ahmed Rasim, '■Othmdnll 
Ta'rikhi, i, 359"36i, notes. (H. Bowen) 

BAKHT KHAN, Commander-in-Chief of the 
'rebel' native forces, with the unusual and pompous 
title of 'Lord-Governor Bahadur General Bakht 
Khan', during the military uprising (also known as 
the Mutiny) of 1857 in India, was born at Sultanpur 
(Awadh) C. 1212/1797, where his father c Abd Allah 
Khan, a lineal descendant of Ghulam Kadir Rohilla, 
had settled after the dispersal of the Rohillas 
following the death of Hafiz Rahmat Khan [}.».]. 
c Abd Allah Khan had married a princess of the 
deposed Awadh ruling family and thus claimed close 
relationship with Royalty (C. T. Metcalfe, Two- 
Native Narratives of the Mutiny in Delhi, London 
1898, 146). At the age of 20 (c. 1233/1817) he joined 
the 8th Foot Artillery, better known as the Bareilly 
Brigade, as a Subdddr, in which capacity he served 
continuously for forty years until the outbreak 
of the Mutiny. He has been described as "a most 
intelligent character" always very "fond of English 
society". The field-battery, of which he was the 
Commander, had served at Djalalabad during the 
First Afghan War, winning many distinctions and 
decorations for outstanding service. 

He leapt into prominence after the sudden and 
carefully planned sepoy-rising at Bareilly on 31 May 
1857, when all British resistance collapsed and Khan 
Bahadur Khan, a grandson of Hafiz Rahmat Khan, 
was proclaimed the ruler of Rohilkhand as a viceroy 
of the Mughal Emperor. Bakht Khan then marched 
to Delhi at the head of his artillery brigade and 
practically assumed all power. It was at his instance 
that a fatwd declaring a djihdd against the British 
was signed by the leading <ulamd> of the capital 
including Sadr al-DIn Azurda [see azurda, sadr 
al-dIn] and Fadl-i Hakk of Khayrabad fo.v.]. 
During the siege of Delhi he had some sharp and 
bitter encounters with the British and loyal forces, 
which ultimately succeeded in driving the rebels 
out of the city. With the fall of Delhi in September 
1857, Bakht Khan left the town in disgust, failing 
to persuade the effete emperor Bahadur Shah II 
[q.v.] to accompany him and his battered battalion ' 
to Awadh. His movements thereafter have not been 
precisely recorded. He is reported to have camped 
first at Djalalabad (Distt. Hardoi), then at Bilgram 
[q.v.] and Mirza Ghat. He is finally reported to have 
joined the forces of Begam Hadrat Maljall at 
Lucknow, and was killed in action on 10 Ramadan 
1275/13 May 1859. According to another version 
he fled to Nepal, disguised as a religious mendicant, 
and perished with other leaders of the revolt, 
now described by patriotic authors as the First 
War of Independence. 

Bibliography: Charles Ball, History of the 
Indian Mutiny, London n.d., 508; T. Rice 
Holmes, A History of the Indian Mutiny, London 
1898, 352-3 ; J. W Kaye, History of the Sepoy War 
in India, London 1870, iii, 643; Punjab Government 
Record Office Publications: Monograph no. 15; 
Parliamentary Papers, London 1859, xviii, 22; In- 
surrection in the East Indies presented to both Houses 



?54 



BAKHT KHAN — BAKHTIYAR 



of Parliament, London 1858, 104; Nadjm al-Ghani 
Rampuri, Akhbdr al-Sanddid, Lucknow 1904, vol. 
ii; Sayyida Anis Fatima Barelwl, 1857 kl hiro, 
Aligarh 1949, 65 «.; V. D. Savarkar, The War of 
Independence 1857, Bombay 1947, 295 and index; 
Surendra Nath Sen, Eighteen Fifty-seven, Delhi 
*957. 83-4, 101-2, 371 and index; Ghulam Rasul 
Mihr, 1857 ki Mudi&hid, Lahore 1957, 104-120; 
Intizam Allah ShihabI, Mashdhir-i Qiang-i 
Azddi, Karachi 1957, 242-45; ?ahlr Dihlawi, 
Ddstdn-i Ghadr', Lahore 1955, 135, 140-3; Shams 
al- c Ulama» Munshl Dhaka' Allah, 'Urudj-i 'Ahd-i 
Salfanat-i Inglishiya, Dihli 1904, 676, 686, 696; 
Hasan Nfzaml, Dihli hi djdnkani, Dihli 1925; 
F. Cooper, The Crisis in the Punjab, London 1858, 
201 ; G. Bourchier, Eight months' Campaign 

against the Bengal Sepoy Army London 

1858, 44; Kamal al-DIn Haydar, Kaysar al- 
Tawdrikh, Lucknow 1896, ii, 312; Rals Ahmad 
Dja'farl, Bahadur Shah Zafar awr unkd l ahad, 
Lahore n.d., 835-53; Sir William Muir, Intelligence 
Records of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, (ed. Cold- 
stream), Edinburgh 1902, ii, 311. 

(A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
BAKHTAWAR KHAN, a favourite eunuch, 
■confidant and personal attendant of Awrangzib 
[q.v.] who entered his service in 1065/1654 while the 
latter was still a prince. In 1080/1669 he was 
appointed Daroghd-i Khawdssdn. He died after a 
short illness at Ahmadnagar on 15 Rabi c I, 1096/1685 
after faithfully serving Awrangzib for 30 years. His 
death was personally mourned by the Emperor who 
led the funeral prayers and carried the bier for some 
paces. His dead body wa brought to Delhi where 
he was buried in a tomb that he had built for him- 
self in a township, named after him Bakhtawarpura. 
now called Basti NabI Karim. 

Bakhtawar Khan was a great patron of art and 
learning. It was through his good offices that, 
among others, Shaykh RadI al-Din of Bhagalpur, 
one of the compilers of the Fatdwd 'Alamgiriyya 
[?.».], gained access to the Court. 

From his early youth he was an ardent student of 
history and had cultivated an elegant style of 
writing. The author of the Md'dthir-i 'Alamgiri, 
Muhammad Saki Musta c id Khan, was in the service 
of Bakhtawar Khan as his private secretary and 



It wa.< Bakhtawar Khan who was entrusted in the 
year 1085/1674 with the task of ensuring, through 
legal rules, that the royal astrologers would not 
prepare horoscopes and almanacs any more. 

Towards the end of the Mir>dt al-'Alam (1078/ 
1667), a general history rich in biographical material, 
the writer, who is none other than Bakhtawar Khan, 
gives a detailed account of his achievements. He 
claims the authorship of the following: (i) Car 
AHna or AHna-i Bakht (1068/1657), containing an 
account of the four battles fought by Awrangzib 
which won him the throne (Browne, Suppt. 145); 
(ii) Riydd al-Awliyd' (1090/1679), lives of Muslim 
saints and notables in four camans (Rieu iii, 985a; 
Asafiyya 1:320 No. 115; Browne Suppt. 728 
(Corpus 126); (iii) Selections from: Hadika of Sanal, 
Mantik al-Tayr of c Attar, Mathnawi of RumI and 
Td'rikh-i Alfi. His baydd, which contains select verses 
of eminent poets with their biographies and extracts 
from the writings and compilations of celebrated 
divines and mystics, is preserved in the Archaeolo- 
gical Museum of the Delhi Fort. He is also the author 
of Ta'rikh- Hindi, a history of India from Babur to 
Awrangzib (Princeton 468, Storey 517). A book of 



Fatawa, a compendium of Hanafi law and a 
literary pot-pourri, called Hamdam-i Bakht; were 
compiled for him by different authors. 

Among the works of public utility founded and 
erected by him, he mentions the township of Bakht- 
awarpura, a number of mosques, caravanserais, 
including that of Bakhtawarnagar, on the way to 
Faridabad), some bridges and cubicles for students. 
He also laid out gardens, one in Lahore near the 
Shalimar and the other in Agharabad, three miles 
from Shahdjahanabad (Dehli). 

Bibliography : Ma'dthir-i 'Alamgirt {Bib. Ind.) 
253 and index; Mir'dt al-'Alam, last afzdyish, 
namud iii (as reproduced in OCM(S) Feb.-May, 
1954); Nuzhat al-Khawdfir v, 89; Storey 132-33; 
Bindraban Das: Tadhkirat al-Umard' (s.v.); 
Rieu, i 125-6; Banklpur Cat. vi 477; Elliot and 
Dowson, vii 150-3; OCM, Nov. 1928. 

(A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
BAKJUTl, Pen-name of Sultan Ahmad 1; cf. Gibb, 
Ottoman Poetry, iii, 208. 

BAKHTIGAN, the largest salt lake in the 
province of Fars, Iran. It is located ca. 50 km. east 
of Shiraz at an altitude of ca. 1550 m. The size of 
the lake varies with the seasons, but at the greatest 
it is ca. 100 km. N-S, and 30 km. E-W. The water 
is very salty and the lake is exceedingly shallow. 
The lake is the basin of the Kurr or Band-i Amu- 
River. 

In mediaeval Arabic geographical literature we 
find scant mention of Lake Bakhtigan. Ibn Khur- 
radadhbih. 53, refers to it as Lake Djubanan, Is- 
takhri, 122, gives a variant Badjakan, and an alter- 
nate name Badjfuz, while Ibn Hawkal (ed. Kramers), 
277, has al-Bakhtikan. The five lakes (buhayrit) 
of Fars province are listed by Istakhri, Ibn Hawkal 
and Mukaddasi, 446, as follows: r. Bakhtigan, be- 
longing to the district (kura) of Istakhr; 2. Dasht 
Arzan in the district of Sabur; 3. Tawwaz in the 
Sabur district at Kazarun; 4. Djankan near Shiraz, 
Lake Mur in Ibn Hawkal; 5. Basfahuya (Muk.- 
Bashfuya, Ibn Hawkal has al-Basfariyya) in the 
Istakhr district. 

At the present Lake Bakhtigan is called Niriz. 
The other lakes have been identified by Herzfeld 
as: 2. Lake of Dasht-i Ardjan; 3. the Lake of Famur 
or ShMn or Kazarun; 4. the Lake of Shiraz or Ma- 
harlu. The name Basfuya is probably the name of 
part of Lake Bakhtigan and perhaps identical with 
Badjfuz. This lake has always had several sections 
connected by narrow arms of water, and the northern 
part was called Basfuya or Djubanan, while the 
south was properly Bakhtigan or Niriz. The lake 
has been surveyed by Capt. H. L. Wells. 

Bibliography: In addition to the geographers 
above, cf. Yakut (ed. Wiistenfeld), 3. 838; H. 
L. Wells, Surveying Tours in Southern Persia, 
Proceedings RGS, 5 (1883), 138; Le Strange, 
277-9; Mas'ud Kayhan, Djughrdfyd-yi mufassal-i 
Iran, i, Tehran 1932, 89-92. (R. N. Frve) 

BAKHTlSHC [see bukhtIshu c J. 
BAKHTIYAR, prince, son; heir apparent (344/ 
955) and successor (356/967) of Mu'izz al-Dawla in 
'Irak, with the lahab of c Izz al-Dawla. He appears 
to have had little talent for government, which, 
unlike his father, he entrusted to wazlrs (chosen 
without any great discernment) so as to be free to 
amuse himself, though he still impeded the conduct 
of affairs by his impetuous verbal or active inter- 
vention. At the beginning of his reign he continued 
his father's policy of hostility to the Hamdanid Abu 
Taghlib of Mawsil and to the autonomous chieftain 



BAKHTIYAR — BAKHTIYARl 



9S5 



of the Batlha, 'Iraran h. Shahln. Furthermore, 
confronted with the new problem of Fatimid 
expansion in Syria, he drew close to the Karamita, 
who now sought to counter it. Bakhtivar. however, 
was incapable of maintaining discipline among his 
troops, a prerequisite for the stability of the regime. 
Quarrels between the Daylamites and Turks became 
embittered and ended in an open breach between 
Bakhtiyar and the latter, which was further com- 
plicated by popular struggles in Baghdad between 
Sunnls and Shi'is, in which the 'ayydrUn [q.v.] 
intervened. He was then obliged to appeal to his 
cousin in Fars, 'Adud al-Dawla, who noting the 
incapacity of the prince whom he had saved, con- 
ceived the idea of taking his place and was only 
temporarily prevented from doing so by the oppo- 
sition of his father, Rukn al-Dawla, head of the 
Buyid family; upon the latter's death, he was able 
to revive his plan and Bakhtiyar, who had ranged 
himself with Abu Taghlib and 'Imran b. Shahln 
against him, was defeated and slain (366-7/967-8); 
the account of their struggles has been given in 
the article c Adud al-Dawla. During the course of 
the struggle, the Caliph al-Muti c had been replaced 
by al-TaV, a protege of the Turks, for which 
reason he did not support Bakhtiyar in earnest. 
Bibliography :cf. the articles Buwayhids and 
"Adud al-dawla. The chief source is naturally 
Miskawayh, Tadjdrib al-Umam, which is based on 
the lost History of Hilal al-Sabi; among the 
secondary chronicles, special mention must be 
made of Yahya of Antioch, Patrol. Or. XXIII, 
especially 354 f. An exceptional place, further- 
more, is also occupied in our documentation by 
what has been preserved of the letters of al- 
Sabl (Abu Ishak), partial ed. Shakib Arslan, 
Caliphal point of view) and of 'Abd al-'Aziz b. 
Yusuf, analysed by CI. Cahen in Studi Orien- 
talistici . . . Levi delta Vida, i, 83-98 (point of view 
of c Adud al-Dawla); cf. also that of Ibn 'Abbad, 
ed. c Abd al-Wahhab 'Azzam and Shawkl Dayf, 
1947, i, no. 7. (Cl. Cahen) 

BAKHTIYAR KJJALDJl[see muhamhad baiojt- 

IYAR KHALDjt]. 

BAKHTIYAR-NAMA, also known as the 
History of the ten Viziers, Muslim imitation of 
the Indian history of Sindbad or of the seven 
viiiers [see Sindibdd]. Like its prototype, the book 
consists of a story in the framework of which other 
tales are inserted, which are here closely connected 
with the basic story. The subject is brief; the son 
of King Azadbakht is abandoned on the road, 
shortly after his birth, by his parents, who are 
fleeing; found and brought up by brigands, in the 
end he is taken prisoner by the king's soldiers. The 
King, who likes him, takes him into his service 
under the name of Bakhtiyar. When finally he has 
raised him to a high position, the King's viziers who 
are jealous, take advantage of an accident to slander 
him before the King; whereupon Bakhtiyar and the 
queen are thrown into prison. To save herself, the 
queen explains that Bakhtivar wanted to seduce her. 
For ten days each of the ten viziers in turn tries to 
persuade the King to have Bakhtiyar executed; the 
latter, however, is constantly able to gain respite 
fr6m execution by means of a story appropriate to 
his situation. As finally it is to take place on the 
eleventh day, the leader of the brigands who had 
reared Bakhtiyar, appears and informs the King 
that Bakhtiyar is his son. Thereupon the viziers are 
executed and Bakhtiyar becomes king in his father's 
place, who abdicates in his favour. 



Originally the work was composed in Persian. 
Noldeke (see Bibliography), in the course of examining 
the various versions and their chronology, which had 
already been established by R. Basset, published and 
translated extracts from the oldest known Persian 
version (MS. dated 695/1296) — composed in a mast- 
erly and resounding style, the author of which 
asserts that he composed the work for a prince of 
Samarkand, not so far identified, but who lived, 
according to Noldeke, during the second half of the 
6th/i2th century. The later versions, Arabic (one of 
which is inserted in the One Thousand and One 
Nights) and Persian, more simplified in style, differ 
in the order of the stories and the narrative details. 
With these can be placed the Uygur version (ms. of 
838/1435) and the Persian versian in verse by 
Panahi (9th/i5th century; see Bibliography: Bertels). 
The Malay version and the Persian version in verse 
by Katkhuda Marzuban (1210/1795; Ethe, Cat. 
Persian MSS. India Office, no. 1726) are more recent. 
The purpose of the stories, taken as a whole, is to 
demonstrate the disadvantages and dangers of 
hasty decisions. Magical factors and the super- 
natural make virtually no appearance. The prose is 
generally free from excesses and prolixity. 

Bibliography: Chauvin, Bibliographie, viii, 
13-17 (editions and translations) viii, 78-89 
resumes of the stories); A. Jaubert, Notice et 
extrait de la version turque du Bakhtyar Name, 
d'apris le ms. en caractires ouigours (J A 1872); 
Ethe, Gr. Ir. Ph., ii, 323-325 ; Noldeke, in ZDMG, 
xlv, 97-143 ; G. Knoes, Historia decern Veiirorum 
et filii regis Azad Bacht (Arab text, 1807); R. 
Basset, Histoire des dix vizirs; Bakhtidr-Ndmeh, 
1883 French trans, with important introduction: 
". . . this recension agrees absolutely with the 
addition given by Habicht in the 1000 and 1 
Nights" vi, 191-343); Ouseley, The Bakhtiyar 
ndmeh . . . . ; Persian text with English trans- 
lation, 1801 (trans, re-edited with introduction 
and notes by Clouston, 1883); Lescallier, Bakhtyar 
Nameh ou le favori de la fortune, trans, from 
Persian, 1805 (more extensive text and of greater 
literary merit; a pleasing trans.); J. E. Bertels, 
Bakhtidr-Ndme, persidskij teksti Slovar, Leningrad 
1926 (ed. of a popular version with vocabulary); 
idem, Novaja versija Bachtidr Name, in Ixvestija 
Akademii Nauk SSSR 1929, 249-276; M. Fuad 
Koprulu.in I A (s.v.). (J. Horovitz-[H. Masse]) 
BAKHTIYARl. The Bakhtiyaris are a con- 
glomeration of mixed races who migrated in the 
10th century A.D. from Syria to Iran, where up to 
the 15 th century they were known as the "Great 
Lurs"; they assert that they are not Iranian by 
origin. Although it is presumed that their ancestors 
migrated from Bactria, whence the word Bakhtivarl. 
there is no confirmation of this hypothesis. They are 
probably of Kurdish descent. 

By persuasion they are ShI'I Muslims and then- 
language is of Iranian origin, yet they speak a patois 
of their own. Their population has almost reached 
the 400,000 mark. 

Their land is called the Bakhtiyar! country, and 
extends from Isfahan to Maydan-i Naf tun in Khfiz- 
istan, a mountainous region, where rich oil fields 
are situated. 

The Bakhtiyaris are divided into two major groups, 
the Haft-Lang and the Cahar-Lang. The most 
important, the Haft-Lang, consists of 55 sub- 
tribes, while the Cahar-Lang group has 24 sub- 
tribes. There is a sprinkling of Lurs and Arabs 
among them, for example: Mowri, Taliki, BawadI, 



956 



BAKHTIYARl — BAgI B. MAKHLAD 



Gandall, Carburi, MIrzawand, Livissi, Kutekl, etc. 

Being a gregarious people, they live "on the coun- 
try," trekking long distances twice a year in search of 
grass, and hence they are called also the grass-folk. 

The wealthy khans or chieftains have their own 
residences in town. They possess also summer 
resorts where they live during the hot season. 
Although destitute of any bookish education, they 
maintain their mirzds or clerks. Nevertheless, they 
have recently awakened to the great importance of 
education, and are now sending their sons to Europe 
for an academic education; this tendency seems to 
be growing. 

The Bakhtiyari woman is unveiled and goes 
about freely within the tribal area. As a khan's wife, 
she will attend to certain tribal cases during the 
khan's absence, and her findings and decisions are 
lawful and binding. 

The tribeswomen weave their tents and also 
kilims, while their characteristic foot-gear, called 
giwa, is made by the tribesmen. Each tribal sub- 
division has its own so-called "healing man", who 
administers some herbs and in certain cases has 
recourse to incantations. 

The Bakhtiyaris have their own customs relating 
to birth, marriage, and death; divorce is practically 
unknown to them. They have their own particular 
poems, love songs and dirges, and also interesting 
games and a great variety of delightful folk-stories. 
Bibliography: V. Melkonian, The Bakhtiaris, 

2nd ed. Basra 1954 ; D. L. R. Lorimer, The Popular 

Verse of the Bakhtidri of S. W. Persia, in BSOAS, 

xvi, 1954, 542-555, xvu, 1955, 92-no. 

(V. Melkonian) 

BAgI, Mahmud c Abd al-, Turkish poet. Born 
in Istanbul of modest family (933/1526). His father 
Mehraed was a mii'adhdhin at the Fatih mosque. 
After working as an apprentice to a saddler, BakI 
began his regular studies in a madrasa where he had 
the good fortune to have as teachers some of the 
leading scholars of the time and many brilliant 
fellow students, including the historian Sa'd al-Din. 
He greatly profited from these invigorating sur- 
roundings, and the appreciation and encouragement 
of the old poet Dhati whose shop was a sort of literary 
club for men of letters. In 962/1555 the sultan 
Suleyman returned from his Persian campaign and 
the young poet submitted a kasida to him. This gave 
him an entree into the court and upper-class circles 
of the capital. His rapid and brilliant academic 
career and the favour of the Sultan who sent his own 
poems to BakI to be corrected and asked him to 
write naziras to them aroused the jealousy of even 
his best friends and soon he found himself involved 
in the intrigues of the court. The death of Suleyman 
to whom he was deeply attached moved him 
profoundly and he wrote the famous elegy which is 
his masterpiece. After a temporary eclipse, Baki 
continued his rise in the ^ulamd' career, thanks 
partly to Sokullu's protection, and won the favour 
of Selim II and his successor Murad III. On his 
return to Istanbul after a period of office as kadi of 
Mecca then of Medina, he was made, with intervals 
of disgrace, successively kadi of Istanbul, kadPasker 
of Anadolu and later of Rumeli, and then was retired 
without becoming Shaykh al-Isldm, a hope which he 
had long cherished. The new sultan Mehemmed III 
appointed him again kadV-asker of Rumeli, recognising 
thus his long services and his great reputation as the 
most distinguished poet, the Sultan al-Shu'ard y , of 
his time. The aging poet, whose ambition grew at the 
chance of reaching his goal, the highest office of his 
profession, took part in embittered court intrigues. 



The Grand Vezir Khadim Hasan Pasha strongly- 
recommended Baki for the office of Shaykh al-Isldm, 
but the Sultan preferred his own tutor Khodja Sa c d 
al-Din. Bakl's death in 1008/1600 was widely 
mourned and he was given a State funeral, the 
Shaykh al-Isldm leading the funeral prayer. 

Serious, dignified and with a keen sense of justice 
in his professional career, Baki was, in his private 
life, a man of the world, gay, a bon vivant, sociable, 
extremely witty, fond of jokes, repartee and the 
exchange of satire, even with friends. These charac- 
teristics made him many enemies and rivals, but also- 
secured many powerful friends and protectors, thus 
smoothing the way to rapid progress in his career. 
Apart from a few treatises, mostly on religious 
matters, Bakl's main work consists of his diwdn. 
Unlike most poets of the classical period he wrote 
no mathnawis. The easy and happy life of the upper 
classes of the 16th century Istanbul, the colourful 
landscape, the gay and picturesque scenes of the 
pleasure resorts in and around the Capital are vividly- 
reflected in Bakl's poems, in his ghazals, minutely 
tooled with the care of a jeweller, he turns constantly 
to a favourite theme of diwdn poets: In this dream- 
like and swiftly changing world all is ephemeral: 
The beauties of nature, youth, happiness, high 
estate are all doomed to perish. So, love, drink, and 
be merry while you can. "Forgo not this opportunity, 
for the pleasures of this world are as fleeting as the 
season of roses". Unlike Fudull, Bakl's temperament 
was not inclined towards religious enthusiasm and 
his lyrics do not lend themselves to mystical inter- 
pretation, although he often makes use of Sufi 
terminology. Baki is the unequalled master of form. 
His perfect versification, meticulous choice of words, 
skilful use of onomatopoeic effect achieve a fascinating 
musicality which caused him to be recognised, by 
both his contemporaries and successors as the 
greatest ghazal writer of Turkish literature. In his 
hand the Turkish of Istanbul found its best expression 
in classical poetry. His great popularity and influence 
never diminished, and his pure and fluent style paved 
the way for Yahya and Nedlm. In his prose works 
BakI avoided fashionable precious and ornate 
language, producing some of the best specimens of 
natural, unadorned, well-balanced style. 

Bibliography: The tedhkires of c Ahdi, c Ashik. 
Celebi, Kinall-zade Hasan Celebi, and the biogra- 
phical section in c Ali's Kunh al-Akhbdr, s.v.; 
Pecewl, Ta'rikh, passim; Katib Celebi, Fedhleke, 
passim; Na c ima, Ta'rikh, passim; Hammer- 
Purgstall, Gesch. d. Osm. Dichtkunst, ii, 360; idem, 
Baki's des grSssten tiirkischen Lyrikers, Diwan, 
Vienna 1825; Gibb, Ottoman Poetry, iii, 133 - r 
R. Dvorak, BAki's Divan, Ghazalijjat, 2 vols, 
Leiden 1908-1911 ; J. Rypka, Baki als Ghazeldichter r 
Prague 1926; idem, Sieben Ghazele aus Bdki's 
Divan iibersetzt und erkldrt, in AIUON, N.S. 
1940, 137-148 M. Fuad Koprulii, Divan Edebiyati 
Aniolojisi, Istanbul 1934, 259-320; idem in IA, 
s.v. (with critical bibliography) ; Sadeddin Niizhet 
Ergun, Baki Divani, Istanbul 1935; idem, Tiirk 
Sairleri, Istanbul 1936, II, 714-797; A. Bombaci, 
Sioria della letteratura turca, Milan 1956, 337- 



346. 



(FAHiR tz) 



BA$I B. MAKHLAD, Abu £ Abd al-Rahman, 
celebrated traditionist and exegete of Cordova, 
probably of Christian origin, born in 201/817, died 
in 276/889. Like many Spanish Muslims, he visited 
the principal cities of the Orient, where he frequented 
the society of representatives of various maghdhib, 
in particular Ibn Hanbal; on his return to Cordova, 
he displayed such independence in doctrinal matters 



BAKI B. MAKHLAD — BAKI' al-GHARKAD 



957 



<some count him however as a Shafi'I and he is 
regarded as having introduced the Zahiri doctrines 
into Spain) and opposition to taklid, that he soon 
found' himself regarded with hostility by the Malikl 
Jukahd' ; he was even nearly condemned to death on 
a charge of heresy, and owed his escape solely to the 
intervention of the amir Muhammad I (238-73/852-86), 
who allowed him freely to dispense his eclectic 
teaching. His chief works, all of which are lost, are a 
commentary on the Kur'an, which Ibn Hazm consid- 
dered superior to that of al-Tabari, and a musnad in 
which the traditions were classified according to their 
subject under the names, themselves arranged in 
alphabetical order, of the Companions who had 
handed them down. Baki, whose biography was 
written by the prince c Abd Allah al-Zahid, enjoyed 
at the end of his life a reputation for piety bordering 
on holiness, nd Ibn Hazm considered him, in the 
sphere of the Traditions, the equal of al-Bukhari and 
other illustrious traditionists. 

Bibliography: Ibn Bashkuwal, no. 277; 
Dabbi, no. 584; Ibn al-Faradi, no. 281; Ibn 
'Asakir, Ta'rikh Dimashk, iii, 277-82; Ibn Hazm, 
Risdla (French trans. Pellat in al-Andalus, 1954, 
§5 17, 35); Ibn 'Idhari, Baydn, ii, 112 ff.; Nubahi, 
Markaba, passim; Khushani. Kuddt, index; Mak- 
kari, Analectes, index; I. Goldziher, Muh. St., ii, 
260; idem, gdhiriten, 115; M. Asin Palacios, Aben- 
masarra y su escuela, 29, n. 2, 4;E. Levi-Provencal, 
Hist. Esp. Mus., index; Brockelmann, S I, 271, and 
the references in H. Laoust, La profession dejoi 
d'lbnBafta, Damascus 1958, xx, note. 

(Ch. Pellat> 
Kh»a£ta bAkI BPLLAH, Abu 'l-Mu'ayyid 
RApl al-Din, also called 'Abd al-Baki or Muhamma 
Baki b. 'Abd al-Salam Uwaysl Nakshbandi, was born 
at Kabul on 5 Dhu '1-Hidjdja 971/16 Dec. 1563 and 
died at Delhi on Saturday, 25 Djumada II 1012/2 
July, 1603. He received his early education from 
§adik Halwal, in whose company he went to 
Samarkand to pursue his studies further. It was 
during his stay there that he cultivated a taste for 
iasawwuf. On the invitation of some of his friends, 
who held high posts in India, he left for that 
country, but instead of entering the Imperial army, 
as intended, he began to search for mystics and 
?Hfts. After a short sojourn in India he returned 
to Ma Wara' al-Nahr to receive formal initiation into 
the Nakshbandi order from Kh'adja Muhammad 
Amkangl, a great sufi of his times. Back in India 
again in 1008/ 15 99 he decided to settle down at 
Delhi. His influence soon spread and Ahmad 
Sarhindi [q.v.] and c Abd al-Hakk Dihlawl [q.v.] 
accepted him as their teacher. 

He is the author of: (i) Silsilat al-Ahrdr, a col- 
lection of his rubdSyydt, which have been commented 
upon by Ahmad Sarhindi (Oriental College Magazine, 
viii/4, 41); (ii) Kulliydt, a collection of his poems, 
including a mathnawi, which has been partially 
reproduced in the Zubdat al-Makdmdt (p. 66), (MS. 
in the I.O., D.P. 1095). A collection of his letters 
(I.O. D.P. 1058*) has been published: (Maktabdt-i 
Sharif-i Hadrat-i Kh'ddja Baki biHl&h Dihlawi, 
Lahore 1923). A commentary on the Kur'an is also 
attributed to him, but no MS. seems to exist. 
Bibliography : Muhammad Hashim Kishml, 
Zubdat al-Makdmdt, Lucknow 1307/ 1890; Garcin 

de Tassy, Mtmoire sur la religion 

Musulmane de I'Inde, Paris 1869 s.v.; Badr al-DIn 
Sarhindi, Hadardt al-Kuds (still in MS.) Urdu 
trans. Lahore 1923; Dara Shukoh, Safinat al- 
Awliyd', 85; Ghulam Sarwar Lahawrl, Khazinat 
al-Asfiyd', Cawnpore 1333/1914, i 605-7; Sadik | 



Kashmiri, Kalimdt-i Sddikin No. 120; Muhammad 
Ghawttil, Gulzdr-i Abrdr, No. 520; Muhammad 
Baka, Riydd al-Awliyd y (MS); Muhammad 
Husayn, Anwar al-'Arifin, Lucknow 1293/1876, 
430; T. W. Beale, An Oriental Biographical 
Dictionary, under Muhammad Baki; 'Aziz Hasan 
Baka*!, Haydt-i Bdkiyya, Delhi 1323/1905, v 
12; Muhammad Hasan Mudjaddidi, Hdldt-i 
MashdHkh-i N akshbandiyya Mudjaddidiyya, Lah- 
ore n.d., 131; Muhammad (Ahmad) Akhtar, 
Tadhkira-i Awliyd'-i Hind, Delhi 1950, iii, 90; 
Muhammad Habibullah Akbarabadi, Dhikr-i 
Diami-i Awliyd-i Dihli, (MS. Asafiya) ; Bashir al- 
Din Ahmad, Wdki'-dt-i Ddr al-Hukumat-i Dihli, 
Delhi 1337/1919, 513-6; c Abd al-Hayy, Nuzhat al- 
Khawdtir, Haydarabad (Dn) i375/i955> v 196-200; 
Fakir Muhammad, Hada>ik al-Hanafiyya', Luck- 
now 1324/1906, 398-9; Sayyid Ahmad, Yddgdr-i 
Dihli, Delhi 1903, 177-9; c Ali Akbar Husayni, 
Madima* al-Awliyd' (MS.); Wali Hasan, Tadh- 
kira-i Awliyd'-i Hind o-Pdkistdn, Karachi n.d., 
139-145; Muhammad Ikram, Rud-i Kawthar, 
Karachi n.d., 126-145; Khalik Ahmad Nizami, 
Haydt-i Shaykh c Abd al-Haklf Muhaddith Dihlawi, 
Delhi- 1953, 136-142; Rahman 'All, Tadhkira-i 
c Ulamd'-i Hittd', Lucknow 1332/1914, 106-7; 
(Shah) Wali Allah, Anfds al-'Arifin, Delhi 1335/ 
1917, 18-9 and passim. (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
BAgl' al-GHARKAD (also called Djannat al- 
Baki' or simply al-Bakl'), is the oldest and the first 
Islamic cemetery of al-Madina. The name denotes 
a field which was originally covered with a kind of 
bramble called al-gharkad; there were several such 
Baki's in al-Madina. The place is situated at the 
south-east end of the town, at a short distance from 
the Prophet's tomb, outside the town-wall, now 
demolished, through which a gateway, Bab al-Baki' 
gave admittance to the cemetery (see the map of 
Madina in Caetani, Annali, ii, 173). The first to be 
buried in al-Baki', from among the muhddiiriin, was 
'UUiman b. Maz'un (a Companion of the Prophet) 
who died in 5/626-7. The bramble-growth was 
cleared and the place consecrated to be the future 
graveyard of the Muslims who died at al-Madina. 
The Prophet's daughters, his infant son Ibrahim, his 
wives (ummahdt al-mu'minin) and his descendants, 
with the exception of al-Husayn are also buried here. 
The burial-place of Fatima al-Zahra 3 [q.v.] is, 
however, disputed. Among the other notables buried 
here are 'Uthman b. 'Affan, Malik b. Anas [qq.v.], 
his teacher Nafi c , Halima al-Sa'diyya (the Prophet's 
wet-nurse) and al-'Abbas, an uncle of the Prophet. 
It gradually became an honour to be granted 
a last resting-place here among the ahl al-bayt 
[q.v.] the Imams and Saints. The graves of the 
famous dead had grand cupolas and domes built 
over them; the domes of Hasan b. 'AH and al-'Abbas 
for example, rose to a considerable height, as Ibn 
Pjubayr tells us. When Burckhardt visited the place 
after the invasion of the Wahhabis, he found it one 
of the most wretched cemeteries of the East. Like 
the grave of Hamza at Uhud and the first mosque in 
Islam at KubS', a Medinese suburb, al-Baki' is one 
of the sacred places which the pilgrims to al-Madina 
consider it an act of piety to visit. 

During the life-time of the 'Prophet al-Baki' was 
a very small place ; the graves of 'Uthman b. 'Affan 
and Halima al-Sa'diyya not being within its pre- 
cincts. 'UUiman b. 'Affan was buried originally in 
Hashsh. Kawkab, which was included in al-Baki' by 
the Umayyads much later. Even the enclosure where 
some of those killed during the Umayyad occupation 
of al-Madina were buried fell outside its present 



958 



BAKI' al-GHARKAD — al-BAKILLANI 



boundaries. The domes and mausolea destroyed by 
the early Wahhabls in 1221/1806 were restored by 
«Abd al-Hamld II [?.».], sultan of Turkey, to be 
destroyed again in 1926 by 'Abd al-'AzIz Al 
Su c ud. This action of the Sa<udl monarch gave 
rise to a serious agitation in India, and a 
-deputation was sent to Mecca to lodge a strong 
protest. The king, however, did not yield and the 
graves are still without any tombs; they have 
insignificant head-stones without any inscriptions 
or epitaphs. Rutter, who saw it in 1926, shortly after 
the second WahhabI occupation, compares it with 
the ruins of a town affected by an earthquake. In 
1954 cemented paths were laid, by the orders of 
King Sa c ud b. 'Abd al-'AzIz, all over the cemetery 
for the use and convenience of visitors. 

Bibliographiy: Nur al-DIn 'All al-Samhudl, 
Wafd* al-Wafa>, Cairo 1326/1908, 78-104 (Wusten- 
feld, Geschichte der Stadt Medina, Gottingen i860, 
140 ff.); c Abd al-Hakk Muljaddrtti Dihlawi, 
Diadhb al-Kulub ila Diydr al-Mahbvb, Cawnpore 
1311/1893, 149-173; R. F. Burton, Pilgrimage to 
el-Medinak and Meccah, London 1855, ". 300-320; 
Ibn Djubayr (ed. de Goeje), 195 ff. ; Burckhardt, 
Travels in Arabia, London 1829, ii, 222-26; A. J. 
Wensinck, Mohammed en de Joden te Medina, 
Leiden 1908, 15; Ibn al-Nadjdjar, Akhbdr Madinat 
al-Rasul, Mecca 1366/1947, 127-30; Ahmad b. c Abd 
al-Hamld al- c AbbasI, 'Umdat al-Akhbdr fi Madinat 
al-Mukkt&r; Damascus 1371/1951. 93-102; E. 
Rutter, The Holy Cities of Arabia, New York 1928, 
ii, 256 ff.; Lablb al-Batanunl, al-Rihla al-Hidia- 
tiyya, Cairo 1329, 256-7; c Abd al-Salam Nadwl, 
Ta'rikh al-Haramayn al-Sharifayn (in Urdu), Pindl 
Baha' al-DIn 1342/1923, 209, 218; Yusuf 'Abd al- 
Razzak, Ma'dlim ddr al-Hidjra, Cairo n.d., 297-99; 
al-Maraghl, Tahkik al-Nusrat, al-Madlna 1374/ 
1955, 1^3-9 a nd index; Muhammad b. Ahmad 
al-Matarl al-Ta'rlf bi ma anasat al-hudjrat mm 
ma'dlim ddr al-Hidjra, Damascus 1372/1952, 
36-40; <Abd al KuddQs al- Ansarl ; Athdr al-Madina, 
al-Kunawwara, Damascus I353/I934- 

(A. J. Wensinck-[A. S. Bazmee Ansari]) 
BAKtKHANLf, c Abbas-Kuli AghA, better 
known under the Russian form of the name, Bakl- 
khanov, and his literary pseudonym Kudsl, Adhar- 
baydjanl historian, poet and philosopher, son of Mirza 
Mamed Khan, ruler of Baku, driven from his throne by 
his brother Muhammad Kull Khan. He was bom on 
10 June 1794 in the village of Emir-Hadjian in the 
Khanate of Baku, and died in 1847 at Kflba. A 
a thorough education in Persian and Arabic, in 
1820 Bakikhanli was appointed officer interpreter 
at Tiflis in the headquarters of General Ermolov, 
Commander in Chief of the Russian armies in the 
Caucasus. There he learned Russian, through which 
language he became well acquainted with western 
literature. Shortly afterwards, he undertook a long 
journey which led him to Shlrwan, Armenia, 
Daghistan, Georgia, Turkey and Persia. During the 
Russo-Turkish and Russo-Persian wars, Bakikhanli, 
who was a convinced advocate of rapprochement 
with Russia, was a staff officer at General Paskievid's 
headquarters. In 1833 he made a second journey, 
visiting the Northern Caucasus, Russia, the Baltic 
States and Poland. From 1834 onwards, he devoted 
himself to literature and published a large number 
of works in Adharl, Persian and Arabic. His 1 
important work is : Giilistdn-i Irem (1841) which 
traces the history of Daghistan and Shlrwan from 
ancient times down to the treaty of Gulistan. 
Russian translation of this valuable work w 



published in 1926 by the Association for the Study 
of Adharbaydjan in Baku, with a preface by S. 
Stsoev and a biography of the author by M. G. 
BakharnI; the Adharl text appeared in 195 1 at Baku 
(Edition of the Academy of Sciences of the Adhar- 
baydjan SSR). 

His other works are: Riydd al-Kuds (in Adharl), 
abridged biography of the principal Saints of 
Islam; Kdnun-i-Kudsi, Persian grammar; Kashf al- 
Qhdrd'ib (in Persian), containing a description of the 
discovery of America; Tahdhib-i AkUdk (in Persian), 
treatise on Ethics and Moral Philosophy according 
to Arab, Greek and European authors; l Ayn al- 
Misdn (in Arabic), treatise on scholasticism and 
logic; Asrdr al-Malakut (in Persian and Arabic), 
treatise on astronomy, published at Tiflis; Nasihat- 
ndma (in Persian), collection of moral precepts. 

Finally several poems in Arabic, Adharl and 

Persian, some of which have been published in the 

newspaper Feyuzat of Baku (no. 28 of 1907), as well 

as a translation of Krllov's fables into Adharl. 

Bibliography: Djeyhoun bey Hadjibeyli, Un 

historien Azerbaidjanian au dibut du XVIII* 

siicle 'Abbas Kouli Agha Bakhikhanoff, in JA, 

ccvii, July-September 1925; Bulletin de la classe 

historico-philosophique de I'Acadimie des Sciences 

de St. Pitersbourg, ii, St. Petersburg 1845. 

(A. Bennigsen) 
al-BAKILLANI (i.e. the greengrocer), the kadi 
Abu Baku Muhammad b. al-Tayyib b. Muhammad 
b. Dja'far b. al-Kasim, in most of the sources Ibn 
al-Bakillanl, but in popular usage (and Ibn Khal- 
likSn) simply al-BA*illAnI, Ash'ari theologian and 
MalikI jurisprudent, said to have been a major 
factor in the systematising and popularising of 
Ash'arism. 

The date of his birth is unknown. He died on 
23 Dhul-Ka'da 403/5 June 1013. Bom in Basra, he 
seems to have spent most of his adult life in Baghdad. 
Visits to Shlraz and the Byzantine court are menti- 
oned, and for a time he exercised the office of kadi 
outside the capital. He studied usM al-din under 
disciples of al-AsJ^ari and is said to have attracted 
many to his own lectures. Various anecdotes are re- 
lated to illustrate his skill in disputation. Kadi, writer, 
disputant, lecturer — these headings sum up his life as 
we know it from our rather inadequate sources. 

A list of his works (to which the editors add three 
titles) is given by the kadi c IySd. Six of these 
fifty-two works are known to be extant. The I'djax 
al-Kur*dn, printed several times, is regarded as a 
classic work on the subject. The Tamhid is the 
earliest example we have of a complete manual of 
theological polemic. The Insdf contains two parts: 
a version of the SunnI creed with brief explana- 
tions, and a detailed discussion of the increation of 
the Kur'an, the kadar, the vision of God, and 
intercession (shafd'a). The Manakib (incomplete) is 
a defence of the SunnI position regarding the 
Imamate (Caliphate). The Intisdr (incomplete) is 
chiefly concerned with textual integrity of the 
Kur'an. The theme of the Baydn (incomplete) is the 
apologetic miracle which vindicates the claim to 
prophethood. 

Study of these works does not enable us to define 
precisely the author's contribution to the develop- 
ment of Ash'ari kalam. For we do not know enough 
about the work of his contemporaries and predecess- 
ors, e.g. Ibn Furak, Abu IshSk al-Isfaralnl, and 
al-Ash'ari himself. Thus it is now clear that much 
of what once might have been attributed to al- 
Bakillanl already existed in al-Ash c ari's Kitdb al- 



l-BAKILLANI — BAKKA' 



959 



luma 1 . Ibn Taymiyya called al-Bakillini "the best 
of the Ash'arl mutakaUimun, unrivalled by any 
predecessor or successor" (Shadkardt, iii, 169), but 
this praise is not disinterested. Ibn Khaldun's 
assertions (Mukaddima, iii, 40), and the affirm- 
ations of Macdonald (Development of Muslim 
Theology etc., 200-201), seem to be unwarranted, 
since al-Bakillanl certainly did not introduce the 
doctrines of atomism and accidents. There is evidence 
of some originality in his discussion of the apologetic 
miracle. But the main virtues of his works appear to 
be those proper to careful and industrious compila- 
tion. His metaphysic is not profound, but he was 
clearly aware of the cardinal apologetic importance 
of such questions as the validity of tradition and the 
possibility of the apologetic miracle. Undoubtedly 
he did much to propagate Ash'arism, and he is 
mentioned fairly frequently by later writers. 

Bibliography: I. Biography — al-Khatlb, 
Ta'rikh Baghdad, v, 379-383; al-Kadl c Iyad, 
Tartib al-maddrik etc., in Cairo ed. of Tamhid, 
242-259; al-Sam c 5ni, 6ib-62a; Ibn 'Asakir, 
Tabyin kadhib al-muftari etc., Damascus 1347/ 
1928-9, 217-226; Ibn Khallikan. 580; Ibn Farfcun, 
K. al-dibddj, 244-5; Ibn al- c Imad, Shadhardt, a. 
403 (III, 168-170). II. Extant Works — 1) K. al- 
Tamhid. Cf., Brockelmann, S I, 349 (and read: 
'Atif 1223); ed. by al-Khudayri and Abu Ridah, 
Cairo, 1366/1947, based only on Paris ms., omits 
several important chapters found in both Istanbul 
mss. 2) al-Insaf. Ed. by Shaykh al-Kawthari, Cairo, 
1 369/1950. 3) I'djdz al-Kur'dn. Cf. loc. cit., for mss. 
and editions. 4) Manakib al-AHmma. Damascus, al- 
Jahiriyya, no. 66 under 7aV»AJ. 5) al-Baydn *an 
al-Farkcic. Tubingen, M a VI 93. 6) al-Intisdr 
UH-Kur'an. Kara Mustafa Pasa, Istanbul; and cf. 
Cairo ed. of Tamhid, 258, note 6. There is an 
annotated English translation of the parts of the 
I'4idz which deal with poetry: G. E. von Grune- 
baum, A Tenth-Century Document of Arab Literary 
Theory and Criticism, Chicago, 1950. III. General — 
Tritton, Muslim Theology, 177-182; Anawati et 
Gardet, Introduction d la theologie musulmane, 
154-6; R. J. McCarthy, The Theology of al- 
Ash'ari, references passim, and useful for com- 
parative study. A full-length study of al-Bakillani 
is being prepared for publication. 

(R. J. McCarthy) 
al-BAKIR (a.) the Splitter, i.e. the Investigator, 
a name of the Imam Muhammad b. C AU [q.v.]. 

BAKKA 1 , pi. bahhd'un, buhhd', "weepers", 
ascetics who during their devotional exercises shed 
many tears. Older Islamic asceticism and mysticism 
are characterised by a strong consciousness of sin, 
by austere penance, humility, contrition and 
mourning. Laughter was denounced. An outward 
sign of this attitude is the act of weeping. The 
Kur'Sn (Sura xvii, 109: "and they fall down on their 
chins, weeping", and Sura xix, 58: "when the signs 
of the Merciful were recited before them, they 
fell down, prostrating themselves, weeping"), and 
then, above all, the hadifh acknowledge and com- 
mend the shedding of tears during devotional 
exercises. The Prophet Muhammad is said to have 
wept audibly at times in the course of the ritual 
prayers. A similar behaviour is reported of the first 
Caliphs Aba Bakr and c Umar. Of weeping ascetics 
or those who at least commended the practice of 
weeping, a long list might be compiled from the 
Vilyat al-Awliyd' of Abu Nu'aym. To this class 
belonged such well-known names as Hasan al-Basrl, 
Ibn SMn, Malik b. Dinar, Abu '1-Darda» (who even 



wrote a special work called Kitdb al-Rikka ma 
7-BuW), Ibrahim al-Nakha% Abu Sulayman al- 
Daranl, Fudayl b. c Iyad, Hablb al-'Adjaml, c Abd 
al-Wahid b. Zayd, Sufyan al-Thawrl, Dhu '1-Nun 
al-Misri, Yaljya b. Mu c adh al-RazI, etc. Yet there 
were but few who in fact bore the by-name of 
al-bakka} or were at least designated as weepers,, 
amongst them being Yahya al-Bakka' (in Basra;. 
fjilya 2,347), Abu Sa'Id Afcmad b. Muhammad al- 
Bakka' (Wya 7,385). Mutarrif b. Tarlf, Muhammad 
b. Suka, <Abd al-Malik b. Abdjar, Abu Sinan Dirar 
b. Murra (these four in Kufa: ffUya 5, 4 and 5, 91), 
Sayyar al-NabadjI (designated as bdki; &ilya 
10, 166), Haytham al-Bakka', Safwan b. Muhriz 
(Pjabiz, Buk£ald>, 5), Hisham b. Hassan (Wensinck, 
Some Semitic Rites of Mourning, 85 f.), Ibrahim 
al-Bakka' (SulamI, Tabakdt, 87). Famous for their 
weeping are also Salih al-Murrl, Ghalib al-Djahdaml, 
Kahmas, Muhammad b. Wasi<. These bakkd'un did 
not, however, represent a special "class", as R. A. 
Nicholson {E.R.E. 2, 100), A. J. Wensinck {Some- 
Semitic Rites, 86), L. Massignon {Essai, 167), H. 
Lammens (VIslam, 152), Ch. Pellat (Le milieu 
basrien et la formation de Gdhiz, 94) and R. Dozy 
(Suppl., s.v. bakkd*) seem to suppose. Bakkd' con- 
tinued rather to be an appellative term applicable 
to all those who wept copiously, and given to an 
individual only occasionally as a by-name; it is- 
comparable to some degree with the term hammdd 
found in IJilya 5, 69 as a designation for one who in 
joy and sorrow sings the praise of God. Therefore 
mention is also made of bakka'un amongst the- 
ancient Israelites (Ibn Kutayba, <Uy*n al-Akhbdr, 
2, 284; HUya, 5, 164). Muhammad b. Wasi c , himself 
a great weeper, deemed it absurd -to call himself 
bakkd' (Vilya, 2,347). 

Abu '1-Darda' gives three reasons for his weeping: 
fear of the fate that awaits us directly after death, 
the impossibility of striving further towards one's. 
own salvation, and the uncertainty as to the verdict 
that will be made on the Day of Judgement (Djahiz, 
Baydn, 3,151; var. Ibn Kutayba, l Uyun, 2, 359).. 
Yazld b. Maysara enumerates in general seven 
reasons for weeping: joy, sorrow, anguish, pain,, 
hypocrisy, gratitude to and fear of God (tfilya, 
5, 235). Abu Said al-Kharraz even names eighteen 
reasons, all of them subordinate, however, to three 
kinds of weeping: away from God, towards God, 
and with God (Sarradj, al-Luma' ft 'l-Tasawwuf, ed. 
Nicholson, 229). 

In the centre of the weeping of the bakk&'&n are 
the fear of God {kkashyat Allah), the Day of Judge- 
ment, doubt as to the verdict of God, the tortures of 
Hell. Often there is weeping over one's own sins, 
over specific personal weaknesses, over the wasted 
bygone years or the irrevocable past during the 
period of probation on earth ; it can also arise from 
compassion for others, for those who err in their 
religion and for the dead who are no longer able to 
better their fate, or it arises from yearning for one's 
abode in Heaven, for God, and so on. They often 
wept in the expectation — and here too the kaditji, 
in a certain measure, could be adduced as an author- 
ity — of God's indulgence and kindness, of His 
protection on the Day of Judgement, of safeguard 
from Hell, of remission of one's own or even of 
other people's sins, of the attainment of Paradise, 
and of reward. Just as the beggar who can weep has 
a greater chance of success (Karl Hadank, Die 
Mundarten von Khunsdr, etc., cix), so too the 
spiritual beggar, through weeping, hopes to arouse 
the compassion of God and thus, perhaps, to undergo- 



here and now some part of his future punishment. 
"Between Hell and Paradise", one text has it 
{Ifilya, 7, 149), "there lies a vast desert that only 
the bakkd' traverses". 

Prayer (including ritual prayer), thinking of God, 
reciting Rur'an and hadith, sermons, edifying 
stories, pious discourses, meditative contemplation 
— these constitute the occasions for weeping. We 
learn that the pious Muslim would pass the night 
and weep until morning in solitary meditation over 
one or the other of those passages of the Kur'an 
that deal mainly with the punishment of the sinner. 
At times there is weeping in prayers of supplication, 
often at the Ka'ba, clinging to the kiswa or before 
the Black Stone, frequently too in burial grounds at 
the sight of the tombs. I£ur 5 an-readers (kurrd'), 
reciters of the hadith preachers and narrators of 
edifying stories (kussds, sing, bass) during their 
performance give free course to their tears, and 
often incite their audience to weep, or they just 
make them shed tears. One kdss is said to have 
asked his audience, before each discourse: "Lend 
me your tears!" (Ifilya, 5, 112). Special gatherings 
{mahddir, sing, mahdar) were held, in which there 
was much weeping, followed by a meal (Ifilya, 
2, 347). Two pious Muslims, encountering each 
other, might enter into a discourse about religion 
and shed tears over it. Muhammad b. Suka and 
Pirar b. Murra are said to have met regularly each 
Friday for this purpose {Ifilya, 5, 4 and 5, 91). Badil, 
Shumayt and Kahmas came together on one occasion 
in the house belonging to one of them and said: 
"Let us weep today over the cool water (that we 
shall be lacking on the Day of Judgement)!" (Ifilya, 
6, 213). The long lament of a weeper (with the 
characteristic wayhi) can be found in pilya, 4,255-260, 
the much shorter lament of a supposed Israelite in 
^■Uyun, 2, 284, and a religious discussion between 
three weepers in ffilya, 10,163. 

The most incredible stories are reported concerning 
the amount of tears that a weeper was able to 
shed: one of them wept at times for three days and 
nights on end, others cried until their beards or 
their cushions were soaked, others again drenched 
■entire-saek's of sand with their tears. The tears of 
one weeper were heard splashing on his feet; another, 
after weeping, sat in such a puddle that he was 
thought to have carried out his ablutions there. One of 
them, pouring out tears on the gremtd, caused grass 
to sprout; another wept on purpose into a drain 
{sardb). In some weepers the flow of tears furrowed 
deep lines in their cheeks, others had their eyelashes 
and eyelids fall off, others again had their ribs 
deformed, and their eyes became weak-sighted or 
blind. Cases of fainting and even of death are 
mentioned. 

The ability to weep was held to be a special 
privilege (fadtta) and a sign of true religious fervour 
and divine grace. "Not every seeker can weep" 
< c Abd Allah Ansarl Harawl, Rasd'U, Tehran 13 19, 
51). Abu Bakr, at the sight of some Yemenites who 
were weeping at a recital of the JKur'an, called out: 
"Thus were we too, until our hearts were hardened" 
<Pjabiz, Baydn, 3, 151). c Amir b. c Abd Kays once 
struck himself in despair on the eyes and exclaimed: 
"Dry, paralysed, never to be wet again!" (BuMuM*, 
5). For DaranI, the inability to weep is a sign of 
abandonment by God (Sularal, Tabaidt al-Sufiyya, 
Cairo 1953, 81). Yusuf b. Husayn al-RazI saw in 
the fact that he no longer wept during the reading 
of the Kur'an a sign that his countrymen might 
perhaps be right to call him a zindik (Ifilya, 10, 240). 



On the other hand, Thabit al-Bunanl regards the 
gift of weeping as a sign that God grants his prayers 
(Ifilya, 2, 323). Muhammad is said to have entreated 
God to grant him "two raining eyes that weep a flood 
of tears" (Ifilya, 2, 296 f. and 2,280; Wensinck, 
Some Semitic Rites, 89). In this connexion, the 
hadith al-tabdki: "Weep or at least attempt to weep 
(or: at least pretend to do so)!" enjoys general 
acceptance. 

Among the ascetics four objections or, at least 
reservations have been raised against the practice 
of weeping. First of all, weeping was not an action. 
Secondly, it could be considered as relieving the 
load of grief and an unburdening of the heart and 
as such was rejected. In this .connexion Sufyan b. 
c Uyayna is said to have developed the technique of 
holding back the tears in his eyes by raising his head 
and thus, he said, retaining his sorrow longer within 
him (ffilya, 9,327). Thirdly, weeping was something 
outward and could therefore be simulated. The 
false tears of Joseph's brothers (Sura 12,16) are 
mentioned as an example of this danger. Reference 
was also made to the supposed hadith: "The believer 
weeps in his heart, the hypocrite in his skull". Since 
weeping is an outward manifestation, it never 
receives in the Sufi manuals a chapter to itself, but 
is treated only in passing in the chapters on sadness 
(huzn), contrition (khushu 1 ) and the like. The 27th 
chapter of 'Attar's Mukktdrndma (dar sifat-i giristan) 
is a special case, which does not necessarily belong 
here. Fourthly, many later Sufis have held it to be 
a sign of weakness to let themselves be overpowered 
by their feelings to the point of weeping. 

This is not the place for a full account of the 
weeping of the Sufis in the samd 1 and at the tombs 
of saints, the shedding of tears amongst pilgrims at 
the sight of Mecca, in 'Arafa and at the tomb of the 
Prophet in Medina, the weeping of the Shi'ites over 
their Imams or at their tombs, the weeping of the 
tawwdbun (those addicted to repentance) or of the 
Khawaridj, etc. But it may be indicated here that 
the weeping of the bakkd'Un is one of the most 
evident links that bind together the pious asceticism 
of the Muslims with that of the Christians. From the 
early-Christian gratia lacrimarum, through the 
Coptic and Syrian monks (Shenute, Ephraem, John 
of Ephesus, Isaac of Nineveh, etc.), a direct line 
runs to the Islamic bakkd'un — an instance of the 
well-known bifurcate development: a common root 
in early Christianity, with, thereafter, one branch 
in Western Christendom (Augustine, Cassian, etc.), 
and the other in the East. The eastern current divides 
thereafter into three branches: one represents the 
Eastern Christian con- tinuation through Thomas of 
Marga down to Barhe- braeus, etc., the other is the 
Jewish offshoot (Wensinck) and the third constitutes 
the weeping in Islamic asceticism. Islam has, it is true, 
overlaid and indeed absorbed within itself other orien- 
tal forms of weeping (cf . the "weeping of the Magians" 
over Siyawush, in Narshakhl's Ta'rikh-i Bukhara, 
ed. Schefer, 21; the weeping over Taromuz ?). 
Nonetheless, the Muslims themselves were well 
aware that their pious weeping had its origin in the 
Jewish-Christian sphere and illustrated it with such 
examples as the tears of Adam, Noah (Nuh : etym- 
ology ndha), Jacob, David, Solomon, John the 
Baptist, Jesus and numerous monks. The hadith al- 
tabdki might even go back to an utterance of Isaac of 
Nineveh (translated by Wensinck, 235): "If thou 
art no mourner in thy heart, let at least thy face 
be clad with mourning". 

The bakkd'Hn mentioned by Ibn Hisham, Sir a, ed. 



BAKKA' — BAKKAR 



Wiistenfeld, 2,895 f., do not fall into the category of 
the weepers discussed in this article. 

Bibliography : Djahiz, al-Bukhald*, ed. Hadjiri, 
v, trans. Pellat, 8-9; and al-Baydn wa 'l-Tabyin, 
ed. <Abd al-Salam Harun, 3, 149 ff. ; Ibn Kutayba, 
c Uyun al-Akhbdr (Cairo 1928), 2, 261 ff.; Khaffl b. 
Aybak al-Safadi, Tashnif al-Sam* fi 'nsikdb al- 
Dam'-, Cairo 1321, 34. Abu Nu'aym Ahmad al- 
Isbahani, Hilyat al-Awliya 1 , Cairo 1932, passim; 
Ibn al-DjawzI, sifat al-Safwa, and other Sufi 
manuals and biographies. A. J. Wensinck, Hand- 
book of the Early Muhammadan Tradition, s.v. 
Weeping ; also Concordance et Indices de la Tradition 
Musulmane, s.v. bakd; Some Semitic Rites of 
Mourning and Religion (Verh. Ak. Wetenschappen 
it Amsterdam, Letterkunde, N.R. 18, no. 1, 1917) 
and Mystic Treatises by Isaac of Nineveh (ibid. 23, 
no. i, 1923); R. Dozy, Suppl., s.vv. bakkd* and 
rikka. R. A. Nicholson, Asceticism (Muslim), in 
E R.E., 2. 100. Eduard Sachau, Der erste Chalife 
Abu Bekr, in Sb. preuss. Ak. Wiss., 1913, i, 21 ff.; 
J. H. Palache, Ueber das Weinen in der judischen 
Religion, in ZDMG 70 (1916), 251 ff.; L. Massignon 
Essai sur Us origines du lexique technique de la 
mystique musulmane, 2nd ed. (1954), 166-7; H. 
Lammens, V Islam, Croyances et Institutions, 2nd 
ed., Beirut 1941, 152-5; H. Ritter, Studien sur 
islamischen FrSmmigkeit I, in Der Islam 21 (1933). 
G. Zappert, Ueber den Ausdruck des geistigen 
Schmerzes im Mittelalter, in Denkschr. d. Ah. Wien, 
v (1854), 73 ff.; W. Heifening, Die griechische 
Ephraem-Paraenesis gegen das Lachen in arabischer 
Uebersetzung, in Oriens Christianus, xi (1936), 54 ff. ; 
J. Balogh, Unbeachtetes in Augustins Konfessionen, 
iiiDidaskaleion,iv (1926), 10 ff. (imber lacrimarum) 
and Das "Gebetweinen" , in ARW 27 (1929), 365 ff-, 
and ARW 29 (1931), 201 ff.; F. Meier, in Oriens, 
•x, (i956), 323. K. Meuli, Das Weinen als Sitte 
<a work as yet unpublished, which I was permitted 
to see). (F. Meier) 

BAKKAL, etymologically "retailer of vege- 
tables", this word has become the equivalent of the 
present English "grocer" taken in its widest sense. 
With the latter significance it has passed into 
Persian and Turkish, and, from Turkish, into the 
Balkan languages. 

In its etymological meaning, the word was known 
in the Spanish Arabic of Valencia in the 7th/i3th 
century, glossed by olerum venditor. But in the 
dialect of Granada (end of the 9th/i5th century), 
it corresponded to the Castilan regaton ( = regrattier) 
"retailer of foodstuffs in general", which was also 
rendered by khaddar. 

At the beginning of the 20th century, the bakkdl 
of the Moroccan towns was essentially a retailer of 
fats: oil, preserved butter, meat preserved in fat; 
he sold, in addition, honey, soft soap, olives in 
lemon juice, tea sugar and candles. 

It is doubtful whether this extension of the word 
takkdl is of long standing. Nearly everywhere, before 
the 20th century, the grocer (sensu lata) was named 
•either after the basic foodstuff which he sold (with 
or without vegetables), or after certain methods of 
his trade. 

Algiers had its sakdkirl "sugar-seller"; Tunis its 
*at(dr [q.v.], literally "perfume-seller". As regards 
the Cairo of the first half of the 19th century, E. W. 
Lane only knew the zayydt "seller of oil, butter, 
cheese, honey, etc.". In Syria, the usual term was 
sammdn "seller of preserved butter". 

Elsewhere, the grocer of the towns (sensu lato) was 
often considered as being the "shopkeeper", the 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



fundamental "seller". At Granada, bakkdl and 
khaddar were equivalent to suki "market seller"; 
and the feminine sikiyya had as its Arabic synonym 
khadddra and as its Castilian equivalent: havacera 
"seller of beans". In earlier days, in Constantine 
and Tunis, the suki used to sell oil, preserved butter, 
honey, dates, pickled olives, etc. 

Considered as being the "shopkeeper" par excel- 
lence, the grocer also received the name of hawdniti 
(with variants) among the rural populations of 
Algeria and Constantine. The East, sporadically, 
used the terms dakdkini and duhhdndji. 

Arabic-speaking Spain had mu'-dlidj, lit. "treating, 
developing", with the sense of "retailer of fruit and 
vegetables". Dozy's translation, in his SuppUment, 
should be corrected on this point. 

The retailer of vegetables is called, according to 
the country, kluidddr, khudri or khuddri. Spices are, 
in general, sold by the 'a(tdr, in addition to perfumes 
(Htr) and drugs; his trade comprises also small items 
of stationery, haberdashery and hardware. 

For various reasons, the calling of grocer is often 
followed by people having the same ethnic origin. 

In the towns of Morocco (except at Tetuan, until 
recently), the bakkdl is almost exclusively a Berber 
(pi. shuluh) of Sus, of the Ammeln tribe. In Algeria, 
the people of the Mzab enjoy the same de facto 
monopoly. In the East, the modern bakkdl is often 
a Greek. 

Bibliography: W. Marcais, Textes arabes de 

Tanger, 233; Dozy, Suppl., under words mentioned 

in the article. (G. S. Colin) 

BAKKAM (a.) Sappan wood, an Indian dye-wood 
obtained from the Caesalpinia Sappan L. Al-DInawarf 
remarks that the word frequently occurs in ancient 
Arabic poetry, although the tree concerned (in 
Lewin's ed. read khashab shadjar instead of shadjar 
according to later quotations) is not found in Arabia. 
It is a native of India and the country of the Zandj. 
Its stem and branches are red being used, in decoct- 

The word is said to derive from Sanskrit pattanga 
and probably entered Arabic through the Persian. 
Its foreign origin was recognised by the Arab philo- 
logists who based their view on the assertion that 
the paradigm concerned was not otherwise attested 
in the language. As an Arabic equivalent they 
generally indicate l andam which, however, rather 
denotes the dragon's-blood, a red gum exuding from 
certain trees. The wrong identification can be 
attributed to the fact that both bakkam and l andam 
were used as a red dye. 

Muslim pharmacologists indicate several medicinal 
applications of the sappan wood. It brings about the 
cicatrisation of wounds, desiccates ulcers and stops 
bleeding. Its juice makes the skin tender and 
embellishes its colour. The root yields a poison 
which works quickly. 

Bibliography: Abu IJanifa al-DInawari, The 
Book of Plants (Lewin), no. 80 and p. 23; Da'ud al- 
Antaki, Tadhkira, Cairo 1324, i, 74; GhafikI 
(Meyerhof-Sobhy), no. 123; Ibn al-Baytar, Djdmi c , 
Bulak 1291, i, 103; Ibn SIda, Mukhassas xi, 212; 
L6w, Aram. Pflanzennamen, index s.v.; idem, 
Die Flora der Juden iii, 128 f.; idem, ZS I (1922), 
145 f.; Tuhfat al-Ahbdb (Renaud-Colin), 1391. 

(L. Kopf) 
BAKKAR, a fortified island in the river Indus 
lying between the towns of Sukkur and Rohri. Its 
importance was noted by Ibn Battuta who visited it 
during the reign of Muhammad b. Tughluk. In 1522, 
Shah Beg, the founder of the Arghun dynasty, made 
61 



962 



BAKKAR — BAKR B. WA'IL 



it his capital. When, in 1540, his son, Shah Husayn, 
refused to grant an asylum to the fugitive emperor 
Humayun the latter unsuccessfully attempted to 
capture this island fortress In 1574, in the time of 
Akbar, it was annexed to the Mughal empire. The 
best and fullest account of the Mughal conquest of 
Sind is to be found in the Ta'rikh-i Ma'sumi of Mir 
Muhammad Ma'sum, an inhabitant of Bakkar. In 
1736 Bakkar was captured by the Kalhora rulers of 
Sind. It later fell into the hands first of the Afghans 
and then of the ruler of Khayrpur. It was occupied 
by the British in 1839 and became their chief arsenal 
in Sind during the First Afghan War (1839-42). 
From 1865 to 1876 it was used as a jail. 

Bibliography: A. W. Hughes, Gazetteer of 
Province of Sind (1876); E. H. Aitken, Gazetteer of 
Province of Sind (1907). (C. Collin Davies) 
BAKKARA. Arabic-speaking nomads of the 
Sudan, occupying territories from Lake Chad to the 
White Nile between 9° and 13° N. Their livelihood is 
the herding of cattle (bakar), whence their name. The 
dry season is spent in the southern river-lands. With 
the rains, they move northwards to the seasonal 
grasslands. Grain sown on this journey is harvested 
on the return. Bakkara origins are obscure; the 
genealogies reflect existing groupings rather than give 
evidence of descent. They are probably connected 
with the "Djuhayna, who irrupted into Nubia from 
Egypt in the 14th century. From the Nile, nomadic 
groups apparently made their way by the 17th 
century to the lands between Waddai and Lake Chad. 
Fusion with other elements from North Africa may 
account for the tradition of a Hilali origin among 
some Bakkara. Penetrating southwards into regions 
unsuitable for camel-breeding, they turned to cattle. 
Groups pushing eastwards, to the south of the 
cultivated areas of Waddai, Dar Fur and Kordofan, 
(which were under Islamised dynasties) formed an 
Arab wedge between these sultanates and the pagan 
tribes who retreated southwards. The Bakkara were 
uneasy vassals of these sultanates to which they paid 
tribute, migrating on occasion beyond the power of 
their overlords. Slave-raids on the southern pagans 
and consequent intermarriage have affected the phy- 
sical type of the Bakkara. During the 18 th and 
19th centuries, the powerful Rizaykat Bakkara were 
under the suzerainty of Dar Fur. Their quarrel with 
the Sudanese slave-trader, al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur, 
led to the Egyptian conquest of Dar Fur in 1874. 
The Bakkara assisted Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdl 
[q.v.] to overthrow Egyptian rule but proved refrac- 
tory to the Mahdist administration. The Khalifa 'Abd 
Allah b. Muhammad [q.v.], himself a Bakkari of the 
Ta'aisha tribe, used the Bakkara as troops and 
selected from them his chief assistants. In 1888-9 
he compelled the Bakkara of Dar Fur to migrate 
to Omdurman and its vicinity, both to support his 
power against the awldd al-balad [q.v.] and to bring 
them under closer supervision. This migration and 
their losses in fighting and epidemics weakened the 
Bakkara. During the Reconquest (1896-8) many 
regained their old homelands as broken tribes. They 
gave little trouble to the Condominium government 
(1899-1955) and this regime saw the gradual reset- 
tlement of the Bakkara and their integration into 
the administrative system. 

Bibliography: G. Nachtigal, Sahara und 
Sudan, Leipzig 1889, iii. 206 ff., 453 f f. ; R. C. 
Slatin, Fire and Sword in the Sudan, London 1896, 
45 ff. ; H. A. MacMichael, The Tribes of Northern 
and Central Kordofan, Cambridge 1912, 140-55. 
and A History of the A rabs in the Sudan, Cambridge, 



1922, i, 271-306, (see also Index.) Articles in 
Sudan Notes and Records, Khartoum, 1918-, 
include K. D. D. Henderson, "A Note on the 
Migration of the Messiria Tribe into South West 
Kordofan", SNR, 1939, xxii/i, 49-77, and I. 
Cunnison, "The Humr and their Land", SNR, 
1954, xxxv/2, 50-68. (P. M. Holt) 

BAKLIYYA, name given to a group of Muslim 
dissenters in the Sawad of lower 'Irak, associated 
with the Karmatians. A certain Abu HStim, about 
295/907-8, is said to have forbidden them garlic, 
leeks, and turnips, as well as the slaughtering of 
animals, and to have abolished religious observances. 
They rose in the area of Kufa and Wasit under 
several leaders, notably Mas'ud b. Hurayth and 
'Isa b. Musa nephew of 'Abdan, at the time of Abu 
Tahir's Euphrates expedition in 316/928-9. Their 
white banners bore Kur'anic inscriptions recalling 
the liberation of the Israelites from Pharaoh's op- 
pression. After initial successes they were put down 
by Muktadir's general Harun b. Gharib. They were 
evidently also called Buraniyya. 

Bibliography: al-Mas'udi, al-Tanbih, 391; 
'Arib al-Kurtubl, Tabari continuatus, ed. M. J. de 
Goeje, Leiden 1897, 137; Ibn al-Athir, viii, 136; 
Nuwayri, in Silvestre de Sacy, Exposi de la 
religion des Druzes, Paris 1838, Vol. i, Intro- 
duction, ccx; I. Friedlander, Heterodoxies of 
the Shiites, in JAOS, xxix, no-n (referring to 
Ibn Hazm on a certain Bawari); M. J. de Goeje, 
Memoire sur les Carmathes de Bahrain el les 
Fatimides, Leiden 1886, 99-100. 

(M. G. S. Hodgson) 
BAKR, the SO BashI. A military commander and 
district-governor in central 'Irak, Bakr achieved by 
1029/1620, by unscrupulous brutality, an out- 
standing personal military and civil position under 
a weak Pasha of Baghdad. Successful in the field, 
he replied to a conspiracy of his enemies in the 
capital by strong counter-action, established effective 
control of the province, and petitioned the Sultan for 
official investiture as Beylerbeyi, which title he now 
assumed. It was refused, and an army from the 
nearest loyal province, Diyarbakr, marched or. 
Baghdad to restore legitimacy and order. Fierce 
exchanges took place for some weeks between the 
loyalist and the usurping forces, after which Bakr 
decided, with cynical treachery, to invite Shah 
c Abb5s of Persia to re-occupy 'Irak, thus compelling 
Hafiz Ahmad, of Diyarbakr, with great reluctance, 
to confirm him as Pasha of the province, since he 
alone could now prevent a shameful cession of 
Ottoman territory. The loyalist forces withdrew, those 
of Persia approached the city. Bakr refused to open 
the gates, and after negotiations full of callous duplic- 
ity the Shah reduced it by siege. This was ended by 
the treacherous surrender of the city by the Su Bashi's 
own son. Baghdad was sacked, hundreds massacred 
and Bakr put to a terrible death; 'Irak remained 
under Persian rule until its reconquest by Sultan 
Murad in 1048/1638. 

Bibliography: S. H. Longrigg, Four Centuries 

of Modern l Iraq (1925), 51-7, and authorities 

quoted by him (p. 51 footnote): especially 

Murtada Nazmizada, Gulshan-i Khulafa (Longrigg, 

327). (S. H. Longrigg) 

BAKR b. WA'IL, ancient Arabic group of tribes 

in Central, East, and (later) Northern Arabia. The 

Bakr belonged to the same people — later known as 

Rabi'a — as the c Abd al-Kays [q.v.]. Their place in 

the tribal genealogy is three grades lower than that 

of these. The Tha'laba (b. <Ukaba) are to be re- 



BAKR B. WA'IL 



963 



garded as the core of the Bakr. Joshua Stylites 
(§ 57) mentions them under the year 503 as being 
the leading tribe of the northern Arabian Kinda 
Empire, and shortly afterwards they appear in a 
South Arabian inscription (Ryckmans 510, Le Musion 
1953). In the genealogy ol Bakr, the Tha'laba are on 
a level with the tribes of c Idjl and Hanlfa b. Ludjaym, 
with the Yashkur b. Bakr three grades above them. 
The Tha'laba were themselves subdivided into the 
Banii Shayban, Dhuhl. Taymallat (Taymallah), and 
Kays. The Bakr tribes lived in the area of al- 
Yamama. At that time, this embraced al-'Ird = Wadl 
Hanlfa, and its tributaries Luha (Shaib Ha on the 
maps), Nisah, and al-Sulayy, the district of al- 
Khardi to the south, and the district of al-Witr with 
its tributaries north of the watershed. Al-Hadjr, 
the capital of al-Yamama (near al-Riyad of 
today) was originally in the hands of the Hanlfa. 
Later on, members of other Bakr tribes settled 
there too. The second largest town, Diaww (Diaww 
al-Yamama, later al-Khidrima), south-east of al- 
Hadjr, was also largely inhabited by the Hanlfa, who 
likewise owned the oases Kurran and Malham on 
the far side of the watershed. Colonies of the 
Hanlfa could be found further to the north-west in 
the regions of al-Washm and al-Sudayr. The Dhuhl 
b. Tha'laba lived, in (Karyat Bani) Sadus, named 
after one of their sub- tribes, on a wddi which 
runs into the Witr, the Kays b. Tha'laba among 
other places, in Manfuha, to the south of Riyad. 
There is also evidence of villages of the Yashkur, 
c Idjl and Shayban. Djaww and al-Hadjr were sites 
of an ancient culture, which is linked with the 
vanished tribes of Tasm and Djadis in later legends, 
epics. Baityles (obelisks) could still be seen in 
Hadjr in early Islamic times, but in Djaww these 
had been destroyed during the raid by a member of 
the southern Arabian dynasty of Hassan (al-A c sha, 
no. 13, 16-21). 

Date palms were cultivated in all oases, but in the 
l Ird valley and in al-Khardi grain was grown. In 
good years corn was sent to Mecca, but in bad years 
it was not even sufficient for local consumption 
(Mutalammis, ed. Vollers, no. 5, 8: al-A'sha, no. 19, 
24; 23, 22-23; Ibn Hisham, 997 f.). As the Bakr 
villages were rather close together, there were 
sometimes feuds between them during which the 
palm groves were burned down (al-A c sha, no. 15, 
56-57; 38, 9-1 1 ; Yakut, s.v. al-Muharraka, (below 
Sadus). Some Bakr escaped these conditions by 
leaving and becoming mercenaries (Aws b. Hadjar, 
ed. Geyer, no. 14; Mufaidaliyyat, ed. Lyall, no. 
119), many took up the nomadic life — which was 
later on embraced by considerable parts of their 

It is possible that this movement was started by 
the appearance of the Kinda in the second half of 
the 5th century (amend art. c abd always, line 13: 
from 6th to 5th century). We have no definite 
information about the routes which the nomadic 
Bakr followed at that time, although later sources 
(Ryckmans 510; MufadJaliyydt, 430, 13) indicate 
that they went to the west (and east ?) of al-Yamama. 
During this period there was a long feud between 
the Bakr and their brother tribe, the Taghlib, 
which only came to an end in the middle of the 6th 
century, in a peace concluded under the patronage 
of Mecca, in Dhu '1-Madjaz, outside the Haram 
(al-HariUi b. Hilliza, Mu'allaba, ed. Arnold, 66). The 
Yawm Kulab I (a battle between two heirs of the 
Kinda empire, in about 530, at Thahlaa, S.-W. of 
DuwadamI) is rightly regarded as an episode in 



that feud. Shortly afterwards, the Taghlib— whose 
zone of migration was then from Sadjir in the 
upper Sirr, to Nata'i near the Persian Gulf (Mufa4- 
daliydl, 430, 13; Harith, Mu c ., 79) — left central 
Arabia, and settled in the steppes on the near 
side of the lower Euphrates, where, possibly, 
some of them had already settled earlier on. The 
Bakr followed them, but they stopped before 
Batn Faldj. Place names mentioned then and after- 
wards by the poets seem to show that the routes 
taken by the nomadic Bakr in the following decades 
ran from north to south. The area which was later 
vacated by the Taghlib and Bakr on the near side 
of the Tuwayk bend was probably before 530 inter- 
spersed with Tamlm, whose home was along both 
sides of the Tasrir. After 530, they spread over the 
Tuwayk to eastern Arabia. Since the nomadic routes 
of both groups crossed, peace had somehow to be 
maintained, and there is in the next decades in fact 
little mention of fights between the Bakr and the 

A number of outstanding Shaykh families emerged 
in the period in which the changing relationships 
between the Bakr and the Taghlib, the Tamlm, and 
the kings of the Kinda and of al-Hira, demanded 
leaders of political experience. The hero of E. Braun- 
lich's Bistam ibn Qais (Leipzig 1923) is a member 
of one of these families, the Dh u '1-Djaddayn. 
Connexions with al-Hira were responsible for an 
early development of poetry, especially amongst 
the Kays b. Tha'laba, as witness the works of al- 
Murakkish (the legend concerning him appears for 
the first time in Tarafa, Six Poets, no. 13, 14-19. 
an imitation by a later poet of al-HIra; N.B. the 
'younger Murakkish' never existed, as is evident 
from al-Farazdak, Nafrd'tf, 200, 15, to mention 
only one witness), those of <Amr b. KamPa [?.».], 
who never journeyed to Byzantium with Imra 1 
al-Kays, those of Tarafa, and those of al-A c shi, 
who lived on into the 7th century. Poetry also 
flourished among the Yashkur, to whom al- 
Harith b. Hilliza belonged. 

The nomadic Bakr entered a new period when the 
Taghlib vacated the steppes on the lower Euphrates, 
migrating up the river, after their chief, 'Amr b. 
Kulthum had lulled the king of al-HIra, 'Amr b. 
Hind in 569-70. About 580, a poet says (M«/., no. 41, 
n): "And Bakr— all 'Irak's broad plain is theirs : but 
if so they will, a shield comes to guard their homes 
from lofty Yamama's dales". Some ten years later, 
the Tamlm, and especially the Yarbu', began to press 
forward, in order to pitch their tunts in al-Ha/n 
during the spring. This gave rise to mutual 
raids, some of which, taking place between 605 and 
61 5) have been described by Braunlich (in the above 
mentioned book). A great deal is known concerning 
the tribes of the nomadic Bakr at this period, and 
also something about the area they covered. The 
tribes concerned were the Shayban, 'Idjl, Kays, and 
Taymallat b. Tha'laba. The 'Idjl went as far as 
what later became the Kufan pilgrim route in the 
west, and as far as Tukayy:d in the east; the 
Shayban pitched their tents to the north and south 
of the line al-Kizima (near the Bay of Kuwayt) — 
Ra's al- c Ayn = al-Busayya ( ?)— Salman, and the 
Kays b. Thanaba south-east of these, between al- 
Musannah (Yakut, erroneously al-Muthannah) and 
Ra's al-*Ayn (al-A'sha, no. 14, 20; 29, 24). The Tay- 
mallat, Kays and c Idjl formed the confederation of 
Lahazim, in order not to be overwhelmed by the 
Shayban. It is not exactly known where the northern 
Bakr wintered, but the Kays b. ThaTaba appear 



964 



BAKR B. WA'IL — t 



to have alternated — at least in the eighties — between 
al-Yamama and the north (al-A c sha, no. 32, an 
early poem, especially v. 48). The Shayban occa- 
sionally went as far as the oases of Bahrayn in 
eastern Arabia, whilst the c Idjl appear to have 
remained in the north. During the summer, the 
tribes congregated where water could be found on 
this side of the Taff between c Ayn Sayd and Abu 
Ghar. It is in this area that the famous battle 
of Dhu Kar, in which the Dhuhl b. Shayban 
repelled the advance guard of the Persian knights 
of Hamarz [q.v.] was fought around the year 605 (al- 
A'sha, no. 40). In spite of this, the Bakr soon came 
under Persian influence again. At the same time, 
the hostility between Bakr and Tamim in the north 
spread to Central Arabia, where the prince of Djaww, 
Hawdha b. C A11, of the Banu Hanlfa, a vassal 
of the Persians, was hard pressed by the Tamim. 
until the Persian governor of Bahrayn drastically 
broke their valour (see al-A £ sha, no. 13, 62-69). 
This brings us up to Islamic times. 

Christianity was accepted by some of the Bakr in 
the north as well as in the south, particularly among 
the 'Idjl, and (within the Shayban) among the Dh u 
'l-Djaddayn. Al-A c sha and Hawdha b. 'All were 
also Christians. The adherence of Yamama to 
Musaylima [q.v.] shows that Christianity had not 
taken root there, but the position in the north 
was quite different: the case of the former Ghazu 
leader, Abdjar b. Djabir, who died a Christian in 
Kufa in 641, can hardly have been exceptional 
among the c Idjli. The Dhu 'l-Djaddayn also re- 
tained their Christian faith. The paganism, about 
which there is an interesting passage in c Amr b. 
Kami'a, no. 2, 9-15, is hardly mentioned by the 
later poets, unless one counts al-A c sha, no. 39, 47, 
whilst the idol Muharrik in Salman (Yakut iv, s.v. 
Muharrik) is not mentioned in Ibn al-Kalbi's K. 

Muhammad had tried to get in touch with Hawdha 
b. C A1I even before the conquest of Mecca, but his 
message met with a cool and haughty reception. His 
successor in al-Hadjr was Musaylima. Thumama b. 
Uthal of the sira and the ridda is, strangely enough, 
missing in the genealogy of Ibn al-Kalbl, which is 
based, in this respect, on a Bakrite authority. In- 
formation on the ridda in eastern Arabia, which 
spread from the Rays b. Tha'laba. can provisionally 
be found in Wellhausen, Skizzen und Vorarbeiten, vi, 
20 ff. Meanwhile the Bakr in the north had taken 
advantage of the disputed succession in Ctesiphon 
(628-632) in order to raid the cultivated land 
(as they had done before Dh u Kar). A leader of 
the Dhuhl b. Shayban, al-Muthanna b. Haritha, 
distinguished himself on this occasion, and when 
he heard of the defeat of the ridda, he joined 
Islam, thereby consolidating his leadership. Together 
with Khalid b. al-Walld he brought about conditions 
which later led to the capitulation of al-Hira. When 
the Muslims were placed on the defensive, after 
Kh.alid's departure to Syria early in 634, he covered 
the retreat in the Battle of the Bridge, in the autumn 
of 634. His last great deed took place a year later 
at Buwayb, after which he succumbed to his 
wounds. Bakr (and Tamim ?) also prepared the 
ground for the conquest of what later became the 
province of Basra. 'Idjl and Hanlfa took part in the 
battle of Nihawand in 642. The Bakr reached 
Khurasan with troops from Basra, and in 71 5 there 
were 7000 of them there (Tabari, ji, 1291). In both 
places they were partly responsible for the extension 
of the ancient tribal feuds, which continued there 



on a larger scale. Together with the c Abd al-Kays, 
they formed the Rabi'a group in Basra, and later 
they joined the Azd c Uman who immigrated around 
680. As the Tamim in Basra were associated with 
the Kays group (ahl al- £ Aliya), a rift again occurred. 
Hostility subsided, however, after some fighting 
between the two parties on the occasion of the 
death of Yazld I in 684; and after Malik b. Misma c 
(a member of the leading family of the Kays 
b. Tha'laba) had declared himself in favour of 
the caliph c Abd al-Malik, in 690, the Bakr kept 
the peace. The position was rather different in 
Khurasan, where a bloody feud broke out in 684 
between Bakr and Tamim, followed by permanent 
friction between the Rabl c a-Azd and the Kays- 
Tamlm, which continued until here, too, the Bakr 
produced a sensible leader (Yahya b. Hudayn). 
Their last remarkable personality was the general 
and statesman Ma c n b. Za'ida [q.v.], of the Dhuhl 
b. Shayban. 

Whilst the Bakr disappeared early from the 
steppes of Basra, they remained for a longer 
time near Kufa. The 'Idjl retained their nomadic 
area, and later extended it towards the north- 
east; the Shayban, however, migrated towards the 
north-west, as far as the waters of al-Lasaf, not 
far from Kufa, and later moved largely to the area 
of Mosul, in the north, where they settled along 
both banks of the Tigris. Three verses that have 
strayed into the diwdn of 'Amr b. Kaml'a (no. 16) 
describe the homesickness of a girl on this trek into 
foreign lands, to thejSatldama (possibly the Djabal 
Maklub, opposite the town); and reports of Abu 
Mikhnaf (Tabari, ii) concerning the noble leader of 
the Kharidjites, Shablb b. Yazld (of the Dhuhl b. 
Shayban ; killed in 697) describe the curious vacillation 
between Bedouin life and urban civilisation at that 
time. The Bakr spread thence to the north as far 
as Diyar Bakr (a late name) and Adharbaydjan. 
The Shayban developed once again into a large 
nomad tribe. In spring and summer, they pitched 
their tents between the Upper and the Lower Zab, in 
winter they moved as far as the area below Kufa. 
During the 9th century, they carried out frequent 
raids into the plain of Mosul, which resulted in a 
campaign against them in 893, led by the caliph 
al-Mu'tadid. In the nth century, they advanced 
into the cultivated land of 'Irak, but disappeared 
at the beginning of the next century. The name 
Rabi'a began to supplant the tribal names Bakr 
and 'Abd al-Kays in Basra and in Khurasan . and 
the names Bakr and Taghlib in the eastern Djazlra = 
Diyar Rabl'a. This also happened in Arabia. The 
royal family of Al Su'iid traces its family tree back 
to the Rabl'a. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Kalbl, Qiamhara, MS. 
London, i93a-226b; MS. Escorial, 1-49; Tabari, 
see indices; Nakd'id Diarir wa 'l-Faraxdak, ed. 
Bevan, see indices; the Arabic geographers; 
M. Frh. von Oppenheim, Die Beduinen, iii, Wies- 
baden 1952, 211 f., 351 f.; Ulrich Thilo, Di* 
Ortsnamen in der altarabischen Poesie, Wiesbaden 
1958 (= Schriften der Frh. von Oppenheim- 
Stiftung, no. 3). (W. Caskei.) 

al-BAKRI [see ba^riyya and siddI^T). 
al-BAKRI, C ABD ALLAH [see abO 'ubayd]. 
al-BAKRI, Abu 'l-Hasah Ahmad b. 'Abd 
AllAh b. Muhammad, appears to be the most 
acceptable form of the name of the alleged author, 
or final rami, of historical novels dealing with the 
early years of Islam, who also is credited with a 
mawlid and a fictional life of Muhammad. The 



earliest biography devoted to him is to be found in 
al-Dhahabi, Mizdn, Cairo 1325, i, 53. Al-Dhahabi 
indignantly describes al-Bakrl as a liar and inventor 
of untrue stories, whose books were available at the 
booksellers (and, presumably, enjoyed good sales). 
Considering the additional facts that a MS. of one 
of his works (Vatican Borg. no. 125) is dated in 
694/1295 and that authors who lived as late as the 
end of the thirteenth century are quoted in the 
biography of the Prophet (Ahlwardt, Verzeichniss 
der arab. Hss. . . . zu Berlin, no. 9624), al-Bakri 
would seem to have lived in the latter half of the 
thirteenth century. While this conclusion must 
remain highly speculative for the time being, there 
exist no cogent reasons for doubting the historicity 
of al-Bakri's elusive personality. If the occasional 
epithet of "Basran Preacher" can be relied upon, 
he was active in 'Irak. 

It is by no means certain that all the works 
attributed to al-Bakri go back to one and the same 
author. For instance, the biography of Muhammad 
quotes actual books and authors, while the other 
works are vague and confused in their references to 
sources and prefer fictitious names in the rare cases 
where transmitters are mentioned. Furthermore, it 
apparently was not yet known to al-Dhahabi, and 
a reference to it was added by Ibn Hadjar, Lisdn, 
i, 202, in the biography he copied from al-Dhahabi. 
The relationship of the various works or recensions 
to each other has not yet been investigated, and in 
order to reach safe conclusions, it will be necessary 
to study all the numerous MSS. preserved in widely 
dispersed libraries. 

Bibliography: Knowledge of al-Bakri in the 
West begins with L. Marracci, cf. C. A. Nallino, 
Raccolta di scritti, ii, 115. Cf., further, R. Paret, 
Die legenddre Maghazi-Literatur, Tubingen 1930, 
155-58; Brockelmann, I, 445; S I, 616 (basic but 
disfigured by many mistakes). Afatwa forbidding 
the reading of his biography of Muhammad, by 
Ibn Hadjar al-Haythami, al-Fatdwi al-IJadithiyya, 
Cairo 1353/1934, 116. See further MaghAzI and 
Ta'rIis. (F. Rosenthal) 

al-BAKRI, B. Abi 'l-Surur, name of two Arab 
historians of the notable family of Egyptian 
shaykhs of the Bakriyya tarika (of the Shadhill 

t. Muhammad b. Abi 'l-Surur b. Muhammad 
b. c AlI al-SiddIkI al-MisrI, d. 1028/1619. His 
works include, in addition to a universal history in 
two parts {'Uyun al-Akhbdr, Nushat al-Absdr, also 
abridged under the title of Tuhfat (or Tadhkirat) 
al-Zurafd'), several histories of the Ottoman Turks 
(Fay d al-Manndn, al-Durar al-Athmdn fi A si Manba 1 
Al c Uthmdn, and al-Minah al-Rahmdniyya with 
an appendix on Egypt entitled al-Lafd'if al-Rab- 
bdniyya), one on the Ottoman conquest of Egypt 
(al-Futuhat al- c Uthmdniyya), and a work on the 
attempt of Muhammad Pasha, wait of Egypt, in 
1017/1608-9 to suppress the tax called halik al-tarik 
{al-Tafridi al-Kubrd fi Daf (or Rap) al-Talba). 
Bibliography: Brockelmann, II, 388; S II, 

412; Wustenfeld, Geschichtsschreiber, no. 552; 

Babinger, 147; Hadjdji Khalifa, ed. Fliigel, nos. 

2619, 4981, 8458, 9325, 13152; Isma'il Pasha 

Baghdad!, Hadiyyat al- c Arifin, Istanbul 1955, ii, 

216. For his father Abu '1-Suriir (d. 1007/1598-9). 

see MuhibbI, Khuldsa, i, 117. 

2. Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Abi'l-SurOr, 
Shams al-DIn Abu c Abd Allah, son of the above, 
b. ca. 1005/1596, d. Ca. 1060/1650. In addition to a 
universal history (Samir al-Ashdb) and two general 



KRI 963 

histories of Egypt (al-Rawda al-Ma'nusa, and al- 
Rawda (or al-Nuzha) al-Zahiyya fi Wuldt Misr al- 
Kdhira al-MuHzziyya), a third history of Egypt 
entitled al-Kawdkib al-Sa'ira covers in fuller detail 
the Ottoman period down to 1045/1634. This work, 
unpublished as yet, was translated by S. de Sacy 
(Le Livre des itoiles errantes) in Notices et Eztraits des 
Manuscrits de la Biblioth&que du Roi, i, 1788, 165-280 
(a German translation from the French was published 
by G. Hanisch, Hildburgshausen 1791), and was used 
extensively by J. J. Marcel for his Histoire d'Egypte 
(Paris 1848), together with a continuation of the 
work to 1 168/1754 by Mustafa b. Ibrahim (cf. 
Marcel, op. cit., XXV). His other works include a 
history of the Ottoman conquest of Egypt (al- 
Tuhfa al-Bahiyya), an abridgement of al-Makrizi's 
Khitat entitled fCatf al-Azhdr (this work is sometimes 
attributed to his uncle Muhammad b. Zayn al- 
'Abidln b. Muhammad b. C A1I, Shams al-Din Abu 
'1-Hasan, d. 1087/1676: cf. Muihbbi, Khuldsa, iii, 
465), a biography of the Sufi shaykh al-'Adjami al- 
Kuranl (al-Durr al-Qiumdni) and a Sufi treatise 
(Durar al-A'-dll). 

Bibliography: Brockelmann, II, 383; S II, 
409; Wustenfeld, Geschichtsschreiber, no. 565; Ba- 
binger, 188; works mentioned in the article. 
(Stanford J. Shaw) 
al-BAKRI, Muhammad b. c Abd al-RahmAn 
al-SiddIkI al-ShAfi'I al-Ash c arI Abu 'l-MakArim 
Shams al-DIn, Arab poet and mystic, born 
898/1492, lived a year alternately in Cairo and a 
year in Mecca, and died in 952/1545. Besides his 
Diwdn (Bibl. Nat, Paris, Catalogue des mss. ar. by 
de Slane, no. 3229-3233; Descriptive Catalogue of the 
Arabic, Pers. and Turk. Mss. in the Library of Trinity 
College, Cambridge, 1870, no. 55-7), a collection of 
mystical poems entitled Tardiumdn al-Asrdr (Vollers, 
Katalog der islam, usw. Hass. der Universitatsbiblioth. 
zu Leipzig, no. 573; Derenbourg, Les mss. ar. de 
I'Escurial, no. 439), and several small Sufi trea- 
tises (of which the MS. Gotha no. 865 contains 
a collection) he composed a romantic history of 
the conquest of Mecca in verse, called al-Durra 
al-Mukallala fi Fath Makka al-Mubadjdjala, 
(Cairo 1278/1861, 1282/1865, 1293/1876, 1297/ 
1879, 1300/1882, 1301, 1303, 1304); as well as 
a work of sukstantially historical content en- 
titled Dhakhirat al- c Ulum wa Natidiat al-Fuhum 
(Pertsch, Die ar. Hdss. zu Gotha, no. 1578). 

Bibtiography: C A1I Pasha Mubarak, al- 
Khitat al-Tawfikiyya al-Djadida, Bulak 1306. 
iii, 127; Wustenfeld, Die Geschichtsschreiber der 
Araber, no. 520; Brockelmann, II, 334, 382, 
S II, 481-2. (C. Brockelmann) 

al-BAKRI, MustafA b. KamAl ai.-D!n b. 'AlI 
al-SiddikI al-HanafI al-KhalwatI Muhyi 'l-DIn, 
Arab author and mystic, born in Dhu '1-Ka c da 
1099/Sept. 1688 at Damascus, being left an orphan 
at an early age, was brought up by his uncle and 
entered the Dervish order of the Khalwatiyya. In 
the year 1122/1710 he made his first pilgrimage to 
Jerusalem^ there he wrote his prayer-book al-Fath 
al-Kudsi and procured a certificate from C A1I Kara- 
bash of Adrianople, that it was not a bid'a, as one 
of his opponents had said, to read this book aloud at 
the end of the night. He returned in Sha'ban of the 
same year (October 1710) to Damascus, but repeated 
this pilgrimage more frequently in succeeding years 
and made the acquaintance in Jerusalem of the 
vizier Raghib Pasha, whom he accompanied on a 
journey to Cairo. Under the protection of this 
patron he set out from Jerusalem early in 11 35 



(Oct. 1722) to Istanbul and reached it on 17 
§ha'ban/24 May 1723. Four years later he re- 
turned to Jerusalem. After making the pilgrimage 
to Mecca in 1 148/1735 which he had planned as 
early as 1129/1717 but had given up on account 
of a quarrel with his uncle, he went to Istanbul for 
the second time in 1 148/1735. From there he 
returned by ship, via Alexandria and Cairo. In the 
following year, in connexion with a second pilgrimage, 
he went to Diyar Bakr where he stayed eight months. 
After spending other eleven months in Nabulus, he 
again returned to Jerusalem in Shawwal 1152/Jan. 
1740. He died on 18 Rabl< II 1162/8 April 1749 in 
Cairo when on his third pilgrimage. His numerous 
mystic treatises, prayers and poems which are given 
by Brockelmann (see infra, cf. also al-ljikam al- 
Ilahiyya wa'l-Mawdrid al-Bahiyya, see Vollers, Kola- 
log der islam, usw. Hdds. der Universitdtsbibliotkek zu 
Leipzig no. 850 ii, and al-Wasiyya al-QialUa UP- 
Sdlikin Tarikat al-Khalwativva. ibid, iv; E. Littmann, 
A List of Arabic Mss. in Princeton University 
Library, no. 351 b.) are all still unprinted except a 
Madimu 1 Salawdt wa' Awrdd (Cairo 1308). He also 
wrote an account of his first journey from Damascus 
to Jerusalem in n 22/1710 entitled al-Khumra al- 
ffasiyya fi 'l-Rihla al-gudsiyya (Ahlwardt, Ver- 
zeichnis der Hdss. zu Berlin, no. 6149). A journey to 
Damascus and his stay there were described in his 
al-Muddma al-Ska'mivva fi 'l-Makdma al-Sha'miyya 
(ibid. 6148). 

Bibliography: al-Muradi, Silk al-Durar fi 
A < ydn al-Karn al-Thani 'Ashar, Cairo 1291- 
1301, iv, 190-200; al-Djabarti, '■A&ia'ib al- 
Atkdr fi 'l-Tard&iim wa'l-Akhbdr, Bulak 1297, 
i, 125-126; c Ali Pasha Mubarak, al-Khi(at «'- 
Tawfikiyya al-Qiadida, Bulak 1306, iii, 129; 
Brockelmann, II 348, s II, 477. 

(C. Brockelmann) 
BAKRIYYA, a Dervish order which, according 
to d'Ohsson, took its name from PIr Abu Bakr Wafal, 
who died in Aleppo in 902/1496 or 909/1503-4. 
According to Rinn, Marabouts et Khouan, 271, they 
are a branch of the Shadhiliyya [q.v.]. 

BAKRIYYA, a collective noun denoting all 
those who claim descent from Abu Bakr. In Egypt, 
the head of this family, the Shaykh al-Bakrl, has, 
since 1811, been the nakib of the descendants of the 
Prophet (ashrdf), and, since 1906, the shaykh al- 
mashdyikh, that is to say, the shaykh of all the 
religious orders. See RMM, iv, 241 ff.; L. Massignon, 
Annuaire du Monde musulman', 1954, 274. 

BAKT, lat. pactum, hell. Ttaxfov. In the Hellenistic 
world used both for a compact of mutual obligations 
and its connected payments. The Arabs designated 
with this expression what they regarded a tribute 
yielded by Christian Nubia. This country, because 
of its geographical situation and the bellicosity of 
its inhabitants, withstood the first impetus of the 
Muslim conquest, and after hard fighting under 
c Amr b. al-'As (20 or 21/642-3), who ultimately had 
to recall his troops, his successor, c Abd Allah b. Sa'd 
b. Abi Sarh, c Uthman's governor over Egypt, made 
a treaty with Nubia (31/652) on a bilateral basis, 
falling outside the normal sulk treaties known by 
the jurists. The two contracting parties agreed on 
bestowing free passage through the respective 
countries, while the right to take up fixed abode 
was to be prohibited. The Nubians bound themselves 
to repatriate fugitive coloni, slaves, and poll-tax 
paying dhimmis. Besides they agreed to defray the 
costs of the maintenance of a mosque to be built in 
Dunkula (Dongola). Moreover they were to deliver 



annually 360 slaves, originally at least their own 
prisoners of war, and the custom developed that 
they paid a further 40 head for the Arab officials 
taking care of the transaction. The Muslims, on the 
other hand, were obliged to yield a corresponding 
amount of wheat and other cereals, and textiles. The 
Muslim jurists of a later time could not fit this into 
the frame of the system, and a tradition — or at least 
an interpretation of an existing one — sprang up that 
the Muslim quota originated from the restitution of 
the 40 slaves, after having been exchanged for wine 
and other supplies, as appears from the exposition 
of Ibn c Abd al-Hakam {Futuh Misr, ed. C. C. Torrey, 
189). The political state is otherwise called a hudna, 
truce. Malik b. Anas thought it a juridical sulk, 
but a majority of his colleagues knew that it was 
only a treaty of non-aggression, and that the Muslims 
were not bound to defend Nubia against any third 
party. The treaty was confirmed by subsequent 
rulers; al-Tabari makes special mention of c Umar II 
{Annates, Ser. 1, v, 2593). Later the Nubians seem 
not to have paid their part very punctually, probably 
because of lack of prisoners of war, with the con- 
sequence that they had to replace the wanting 
number with their own countrymen. The animals 
for zoological gardens and for medical experiments 
which are included in the quota in later times may 
have made up for such deficiencies. Under al-Mahdl 
and al-Mu c tasim we hear of readjustments; under 
the latter, when Nubia was on the verge of breaking 
the contract, it was found out that the tribute of 
the Nubians fell below what was paid by the Arabs. 
That the latter could not muster the force for 
altering this radically is seen from the fact that a 
lenient course was followed, allowing the Nubians 
to pay the stipulated quota every third year only. 
On the other hand, the request to have the garrison 
in al-Kajr on Nubian territory withdrawn was not 
granted. That was the place where the quotas were 
handed over. It was only under Baybars al-Bun- 
dukdari (674/1276) that Nubia was subjugated for 
good, and part of it came fully under Muslim rule, 
while native petty princes maintained a more or 
less free position. After that time Islamisation went 
on rapidly, and no doubt the term bakt fell into 
desuetude, having lost its meaning under the altered 



Bibliography: Makrlzi, al-Khifat, Bulak 1270 
i, 1991-. Cairo 1324, i, 322 ff.; Baladhuri, Futuh, 
236 ff.; E. M. Quatremere, Mlmoires giographiques 
et kistoriques sur l'£gypte, ii, 42 ff. ; C. H. Becker, 
Zeitsckrift fur Assyriologie, xxii, 141ft.; Pauly- 
Wissowa, new ed., 1942 s.v. pactum. 

(F. Lokkegaard) 
BAkC, a town and district on the W. shore of the 
Caspian Sea, on the peninsula of Apsheron (Absha- 
ran). The name is currently said to be from Persian 
bddkuba, 'wind-beaten', which is appropriate to the 
local conditions, but this derivation is not certain. 
The form Baku appears already in the 4th/ioth 
century [ljudud al-'-Alam). Another early, authentic 
pronunciation is Bakuyah (Abu Dulaf, al-BakuwI). 
Other forms (Bakuh, Bakuh) are found in the 
Arabic geographers. 

The early history of Baku is obscure, though the 
locality seems to be mentioned in antiquity (cf. J. 
Marquart, Erdniakr, 97). It is perhaps to be iden- 
tified with the Gangara or Gaetara of Ptolemy 
[Geographia, ed. C. Miiller, I, ii, 929). Baku is not 
apparently mentioned in accounts of the early Mus- 
lim conquests, nor by Ibn Khurradadhbih (3rd/9th 
century), but thereafter it comes fairly into view 



BAKO — BA'KUBA 



967 



and is known by name to the 10th century Muslim 
geographers, being mentioned by Abu Dulaf in his 
Risila al-Thaniyya (cf. V. Minorsky in Oriens, v, 
1952, 25). Abu Dulaf claims to have reached Bakuyah, 
as he calls it, from the S. and found there a spring 
of petroleum, the lease (kabdla) of which was 1000 
dirhams a day, with another well adjacent producing 
white petroleum, which flowed unceasingly day and 
night and whose lease (daman) was also 1000 dirhams. 
These details are repeated in several much later 
accounts, notably those of Yakut, i, 477, and al- 
Kazwlni, Athdr al-Bildd, 389. About the same time 
as Abu Dulaf, al-Mas'udi several times mentions 
Baku. He gives an account of a Russian raid on the 
Caspian littoral circa 301/913-914, in the course of 
which the invaders reached 'the naphtha (or petro- 
leum) coast in the country of Shirwan, which is 
known as Bakuh' (Murudi, ii, 21). Al-Mas'udi also 
speaks of Baku as a place to which ships went back 
and forward from Djll (Djllan), Daylam, etc. on 
the Caspian, if not also from Atil [g.v.], the Khazar 
capital on the Volga [ibid., 25). In the Tanbih, a later 
work (written in 345/956) he again speaks of Baku, 
its 'white naphtha' and its volcanoes (dfdm) (BGA., 
viii, 60). 

The fludud al-'Alam (written in 372/982 but 
making use of earlier sources) knows of Baku as a 
borough or small town, lying on the sea-coast near 
the mountains. All the petroleum in the Daylaman 
country came from there (fludud al-Alam, 145, cf. 
411: the Daylamites used it for a kind of flame- 
thrower). In another passage (ibid., 77) the waters 
of the Kur and Aras rivers are said to 'flow between 
Mukan and Baku to join the Khazar sea (Caspian)', 
where regions rather than cities are perhaps intended. 
Since it lay N. of the Aras, Baku was usually reckoned 
as in Shirwan, but according to al-MukaddasI, 376, 
m 375/989, who appears to be the first to mention 
its excellent harbour, Baku was distinct from Shirwan 
and both were included in Arran, to which al-Mukad- 
dasl gives a much greater extension than most 
Muslim writers (ibid., 51, 374). Al-Istakhri (circa 
340/951) mentions Baku and already knows of its 

troleum (190). 

The best description of mediaeval Baku is by a 
uative of the place, c Abd al-Rashid b. Salih al- 
Bakuwi, who wrote in 806/1402, shortly after the 
campaigns of TImur in this quarter. The town was 
built of stone, actually on rocks, close to the sea, 
which at the time of writing had carried away part 
of the walls and reached the vicinity of the prin- 
cipal mosque. The air was good, but there was shor- 
tage of water. Since in consequence the district was 
infertile, provisions had to be brought from Shirwan 
and Mflkan, though there were gardens situated at 
a distance from the town, producing figs, grapes 
and pomegranates, to which the inhabitants went 
in summer. There were two well-built fortresses in 
the town, of which the larger, on the seaward side, had 
resisted the attacks of the Tatars, although the other, 
which was very high, had been partially destroyed 
during the sieges. Day and night, in winter, high winds 
blew, sometimes so strongly as to sweep men and 
animals into the sea. At Baku there were petroleum 
wells from which daily more than 200 mule- loads were 
drawn. A by-product in the form of a hard yellow 
substance was used as fuel in private houses and 
baths. At a farsakh from the town was a perennial 
source of fire, said to be a sulphur-mine, near which 
was a village inhabited by Christians, who made 
and sold lime. There were also salt-mines, the produce 
of which was exported to other countries. Nearby 



was an island to which people went to hunt sharks. 
The skins when suitably prepared were filled with 
petroleum, after which they were loaded on ships 
to be taken to the different countries. There was 
also a considerable trade in silk. In some years a 
great fire was seen emerging from the sea, visible 
for a day's journey. The inhabitants were SunnI 
Muslims. 

Politically, Baku at most times appears to have 

been subject to the Shirwan Shahs. The last dynasty 

of Shirwan Shahs came to an end only in 957/1550, 

when the Safawid Shah Tahraasp occupied Shirwan. 

After vicissitudes in the course of which it belonged 

for a short time (1583-1606) to the Ottoman Turks, 

Baku finally became a Russian possession in 1806. 

Bibliography: V. Minorsky, Abu Dulaf Mis'ar b. 

al-MuhalhU's Travels in Iran (containing the Arabic 

text and translation of his Second Risdla), Cairo 

'955. 35, cf. 72; al-BakuwI, Talkhis al-Athar wa- 

'Adjd'ib al- Malik al-Kahhdr, transl. De Guignes, 

Notices et extraits, ii, 509-510; Le Strange, 180-1. 

(D. M. Dunlop) 
Baku under Russian domination, was at first 
very slow to develop. In 1807 the town had only 
5,000 inhabitants, grouped in the old citadel. 

The naphtha deposits, the exploitation of which 
was a monopoly of the former masters of Baku, 
became Crown property and the first drilling took 
place in 1842 on the Apsheron peninsula. In 1872 
exploitation became free and the deposits were 
sold by auction. 

This periods marks the beginning of the town's 
rapid growth. This development was favoured by 
the building in 1877-78 of the pipe-line connecting 
Baku with the oil fields of the Apsheron peninsula. 
In 1883 the town was connected by railway with 
Transcaucasia and the interior of Russia. Finally 
in 1907 the pipe-line was completed linking Baku 
with Batum on the Black Sea. In 1859 Baku had 
still only 13.000 inhabitants, but in 1879 the "oil 
rush" brought the number up to 112.000. On the 
eve of the Revolution, Baku, which provided 95% 
of all Russia's oil, had already a population of 
300,000. 

During the Revolution, Baku achieved the 
status of capital of independent Adharbaydjan 
(31 July 1918 to 28 April 1920). Taken by the Red 
Army on 28 April 1920, it was henceforth the capital 
of the Adharbaydjan Soviet Socialist Republic. Under 
the Soviet regime, the town continued to grow. In 
1939 it was the fifth town of the Soviet Union with 
809,300 inhabitants (abouc a third of whom were 
Russian and a third Armenians). It is now a great 
modern industrial city, centre of the oil industry. 
Baku is also an important University centre, the 
seat of the State University and of the Adharbaydjan 
Academy of Sciences. (A. Bennigsen) 

BA'KUBA, more correctly (but not now currently) 
Ba'kuba, from the Aramaic Baya'kuba, or Jacob's 
House, a town situated 40 miles N.E. of Baghdad 
(40° 37' E, 33 45' N), on the site of a very ancient 
pre-Islamic settlement, was in Caliphate times 
described as on the west bank of the Nahrawan- 
Diyala (q.v.) main canal. It formed an important 
station on the Baghdad- Khurasan trunk road, and 
served as chief town of the Upper Nahrawan 
district. Under 'Abbasid rule the place was highly 
prosperous, its date and fruit gardens famous, and 
the surrounding country fertile and populous, with 
scores of villages. 

Modern Ba'kuba is an 'Iraki provincial town with 
an Arab mixed SunnI and Shi'i population of some 



968 



BA'KOBA — BA'L 



8,000. It is the headquarters of the liwd of Diyala 
with dependent kadas of Mandali, Khalis, KhSnikin, 
and Ba'kuba itself; the last-named kadi contains 
the important ndhiyas of Kin c an and Makdadiyya 
(formerly Shahruban). The town is prosperous, 
partly transformed by modern buildings, streets and 
services, and good communications; the Baghdad- 
IrbU line of c Irak Railways here crosses the Diyala 
by a high-level bridge. 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 472, 672; Abu 

'1-Fid5 5 , Takwim, 294; the same, Annal. moslem., 

ed. Reiske, iv, 690; Rashld al-Din, Hist, des 

Mongols, ed. Quatremere, 278 ff. ; V. Cuinet, La 

Turquie d'Asie, iii, 119; (Rousseau), Descr. du 

Pachalik de Bagdad, 80; Binder, Au Kurdistan, 

en Mdsopotamie et en Perse, Paris 1887, 319 ft.; 

G. Le Strange, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, 

Cambridge 1905 ; E. Aubin, La Perse d'aujourd 'hui, 

1908, 357 ff.; S. H. Longrigg, 'Iraq 1900 to 1950, 

London 1953. (S. H. Longrigg) 

BAKUSAyA, a town and lesser administrative 

district under the c Abbasids. With four others it 

formed part of the rich and populous circle (astin) 

east of Tigris, that of Bazlyan Khusraw, in which 

the town of Bandanldjln (now vanished without 

trace) was a principal headquarters. Bakusaya is 

usually grouped with the adjacent district of 

Badaraya [q.v.] (the modern Badra) by the Arab 

geographers, and like it enjoyed good water from 

the hills which mark the present Persian frontier. A 

modern village, within Persia, known as Baksaiyyeh, 

a few miles S.E. of Badra, almost certainly marks 

the site of Bakusaya. The latter name strongly 

suggests the Syriac Ba-Kussaye, and would indicate 

the home or district of the Kussaye, the Greek 

xoaaaioi and the KaSSu (modernised into Cassites) 

of the Babylonian inscriptions. The domicile of 

these people was entirely in the Zagros range, and 

this identification is tempting. Nothing remarkable 

is recorded regarding the town or its inhabitants, in 

which (as in modern Badra) Lurish or other Iranian 

strains doubtless prevailed. The district is malarial, 

but in modern times produces a race of famous 

weight-lifting porters. 

Bibliography: BGA, passim; Yakut, i, 477; 
M. Streck, Babylonien nach d. Arab. Geog., i, 15; 
G. Hoffmann, Ausziige aus Syrischen Akten 
persischer Martyrer (Leipzig, 1880), 61, 91; 
Noldeke in ZDMG, xxviii, 101; idem, Geschichte 
der Perser u. Araber zur Zeit der Sassaniden (1879), 
239; G. Westphal, Untersuch. iiber die Quellen u. 
die Glaubwiirdigkeit der Patriarchenchronihen Atari 
ibn Sulaiman etc., Strassburg 1901, 121; Le 
Strange, 63, 80. 

(M. Streck-[S. H. Longrigg]) 
BA'L is an old Semitic or even Proto-Semitic 
word with the central meaning of "master, owner" 
and has been widely used in the sense of "local god" 
(fertiliser of the soil) and "husband" (in a society 
predominantly masculine). In the last century 
attention was vigorously drawn to the importance 
of this last meaning by W. R. Smith, Kinship and 
Marriage in early Arabia, Cambridge 1885 (2nd. ed. 
London 1903); but his thesis that the term itself 
had been borrowed by the Arabs from the Northern 
Semites could not be substantiated. The various 
meanings of the word have continued to exist in 
Classical Arabic with, however, a very variable 
vitality according to sense, period and area. 

1. — In the sense of "master (of)", baH was ousted 
in Arabic by various synonyms, so that, unlike the 
Hebrew ba'al, it does not make an appearance in 



compounds. It has survived better in the 
sense of "husband, spouse (of)", thanks most probably 
to the use made of it in three Kur'anic passages (ii, 
228; xi, 72; xxiv, 31 twice) in the singular and in 
the plural (bu'ula; subsequently Classical Arabic 
usually uses bu'ul or bi'il). The meaning "master" 
"was still strongly felt: baHi "my spouse", in xi, 72, 
renders the Biblical adoni (in the mouth of Sarah, 
Genesis, xvii, 12; Targum Onkelos: ribboni). For the 
feminine, Classical Arabic has the forms baH or 
ba'lat. Several verbal forms developed from this 
connubial meaning. 

2.— The Kur'an, xxxvii, 125 (story of Elijah; cf. 
I Kings xviii, and the art. Ilyds) has contributed 
still more definitely to perpetuating the memory in 
Islam of BaH as a pagan deity, in spite of all the 
confusion and reticence of the commentators. This 
meaning of the word, it is true, could not hope to 
enjoy much success in Muslim thought as such; it 
is to be encountered incidentally in the medieval 
authors in connexion with the etymology of Ba'al- 
bakk [q.v.] with fictitious details concerning an 
ancient idol at this place. What is more remarkable 
is the unconscious survival of the idea of the god 
Baal in the two following cases: 

a) The verb ba'il" and the adjective baHl, "(to be) 
lost in astonishment", that is to say originally, as 
Noldeke has shown (ZDMG, 1886, xl, 174), "(to be) 
possessed by Baal". 

b) The terms baH and baHi to convey the idea of 
unwatered tillage: in a verse attributed to c Abd 
Allah b. Rawaha, a Companion of the Prophet, 
(LA, xiii, 60), we read: hundlika la ubdli nakhla 

baHin, wa la sakyin In an expression of this 

kind, baH may retain something of the original 
meaning, not understood by the author of the 
Lisin: that of the god (male) fertilising the land 
(female) by rain or sub-soil water. The contrast 
between watered land (with terms from the same 
root as sky) and "dwelling or field of Baal" is well 
attested in the Targum and the Talmud (Jastrow, 
Diet, of the Talmud, b H and sh k y ; W. R. Smith, 
Lectures on the Religion of the Semites', London 1927, 
see Index; G. Dalman, Arbeit und Sitte in Palastina, 
Gutersloh 1932, ii, 32-33)- 

In Classical Arabic of the early centuries of the 
Hidjra, however, the term baH is to be encount- 
ered on several occasions meaning on its own 
— and not in a compound expression open to sev- 
eral interpretations — "unwatered cultivated land". 
In the works on jurisprudence, it is to be found with 
this meaning, mainly in relation to the prescribed 
tithe (zakdt, sadaka) on agricultural produce. Muslim 
Law, both Shi'i and Sunni, does in fact reduce this 
impost to a half tithe or a twentieth where the crop 
is dependent on artificial irrigation requiring some 
exertion; in contrast, the zakdt is actually a tenth 
when the produce of a baH is involved. In this 
connexion, the term appears in various recorded 
hadiths from the Muwatta' of Malik (2nd/8th century) 
onwards (see Badji, Muntakd, ii, 157-158), repeated 
in the 3rd/9th century in works on fikh, such as the 
Shafi'i K. al-Umm (ii, 32) and the Maliki Mudawwana 
of Sahnun (ii, 99, 108). In an almost identical form, 
these hadiths are to be found in Abu Dawud (Sunan, 
no. 1596-1598) and in the early specialists on fiscal 
and land law (3rd-4th/9th-ioth centuries) : Yahya b. 
Adam (K. al-Kharddi. Cairo ed. 1347 AH., no. 364- 
395, where an illuminating variant, no. 381, has 
"that which Ba c l has watered", thus reproduced in 
Baladhuri, Futuh, 70), Abu 'Ubayd b. Sallam 
(K. al-Amwal, Cairo ed. 1353 AH., no. 1410-1421), 



BA C L — BALA 



969 



Rudama b. Dja'far (K. al-Kharddi, part 7, ch. VII, 
apud DeGoeje, Glossaire to Baladh.uri, Futuh, 14; 
the Mafdtih al-'-Vlum of al-Kh w arizmI on that point 
is merely a resume of this work). Likewise in the 
Fatimid fikh already established in Ifrikiya Uth/ioth 
century) : kadi al-Nu'man, Da'-dHm al-Isldm, Cairo ed. 
I 95i. i> 316; and naturally also in many later books. 

These texts evoke, as regards the use of baH, the 
two ensuing comments: a) the word seems to be 
linked with Madinese and perhaps also Yemenite 
traditions, but appears to be unknown to the oldest 
'Iraki traditions (probably because 'Irak is primarily 
a land of irrigation) ; Hanafism, of 'Iraki origin, does 
not normally employ the word, though on this point 
it states the same rule as the other madhdhib. 

b) The hadiths containing this term insert it in an 
enumeration in which the baH appears to be distinct 
from lands watered by spring water, rain or surface 
drainage. Among the commentators and lexico- 
graphers, some nevertheless maintain that baH 
applies to all unwatered cultivated lands; others, 
influenced by the letter of the hadiths and perhaps 
by dialectal usages, offer a series of rather more 
restrictive interpretations revolving round the idea 
of unwatered land under dry cultivation: for some, 
it only applies to cases where plants obtain water 
through their roots beneath the surface alone 
(detailed argument in LA, loc. cit.; see also W. R. 
Smith, Lectures . . ., 98-99 and Lokkegaard, Islamic 
Taxation, Copenhagen 1950, 121). 

Among words possessing the same or an adjacent 
meaning which frequently replace or accompany 
baH in the enumeration mentioned above, particular 
attention should be paid to the term 'aththari (for 
example in the Sahih of al-Bukhari, K. al-Zakdt, 
chap. 55), which it would be difficult to refrain from 
explaining by the name of the deity 'Athtar 
(= Astarte, Ishtar): a male stellar god in the 
Arabian and South Arabian pantheon, 'Athtar 
exercised an influence on the fertility of the land and 
was at times qualified by the name ba'al (Lagrange, 
£tudes surles religions simitiques, Paris 1903, 133-136; 
Nielsen, Handbuch der altar ab. Altertumskunde, 
Copenhagen 1927, i, index; Jamme, in Le Musion 

1 947, 85-100; G. Ryckmans, in Atti Accad. Lincei 

1948, 367; idem, Les religions arabes priislamiques, 
2nd. ed. Louvain 1951, 41 and passim; Jamme, in 
Brillant and Aigrain, Hist, des Religions [1956], iv, 
264-5). The assimilation tht > thth is attested in 
Classical Arabic and the semantic parallelism with 
baH here is striking. 

The occurrence of baH, still with the same meaning, 
must also be noted in some versions of the stipulat- 
ions which the Prophet is stated to have imposed as 
a land code in the year 9 AH., either on the oasis of 
Dumat al-Diandal (through its leader Ukaydir b. 
'Abd al-Malik), or on the neighbouring Kalbite 
tribes (through their leader Haritha b. IJatan) ; see 
Caetani, Annali, ii, 1, 259-269 (event discussed by 
Musil, Arabia Deserta, New York 1927, appendix 
VII, and by W. M. Watt, Muhammad at Medina, 
Oxford 1956, 362-5). 

It is again to be met with, in connexion with the 
land tax (kharddj), in the great treatises on public 
law of the 5th/nth century: al-Ahkdm al-Sulfdniyya 
by the Hanbali Abu Ya'15 (Cairo ed. 1938, 151) and 
by the Shafi'i Mawardi (trans. Fagnan, Algiers 191 5, 
314). In calculating this tax, they recommend that 
account be taken of the source of the water: this 
envisages four categories of cultivated land, among 
which the baH is very closely defined, approximately 



as above, in contrast to land irrigated or ade- 
quately watered by rainfall. 

The geographer al-Mukaddasi, in the 4th/ioth 
century, uses the term on three occasions (BGA, iii, 
197, 474), dealing with agricultural production near 
Ramla, Alexandria and in Sind, always in the 
phrase fala'l-baH; this, however, does not suffice as 
a proof of the use of the term outside Syria-Palestine, 
the author's country of birth. In this geographical 
area where, "in spite of the the illusion of an 
abundance of water, dry cultivation constitutes 
the basis of traditional agricultural exploitation" (J. 
Weulersse, Paysans de Syrie, Paris 1946, 144), at 
the present day we find: ard baH contrasted as in 
former times with ard saky (G. Dalman, op. cit., 30; 
already mentioned by E. Meier in ZDMG, 1863, 
xvii, 607). 

Here is a special case of the use of this term in 
medieval Egypt: in Cairo under the Mamluks, 
perhaps already under the Fatimids, a park near 
the Khalidi. which subsequently became a public 
promenade, was called bustdn al-baH, then ard al-baH; 
see Makrizi, Khitat, Bulak ed. 1270 AH., ii, 129, who 
takes baH here expressly in the geographical sense. 

The Muslims of Spain, "exactly like the Spanish 
peasants of today . . . made a distinction between 
secano (Ar. baH) land and regadio (Ar. saky) land, 
the former being especially reserved for cereal 
cultivation" (Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. mus., 
Paris 1953, iii, 270). The famous agronomist of 
Seville Ibn al-'Awwam (6th/i2th) confirms this 
distinction (K. al-Fildha, ed. Banqueri, Madrid 1802, 
i, 5). It appeared in contracts, especially those of 
plantation leases or mughdrasa: the notarial formula 
of Ibn Salmun for example, K. al-'-Ikd al-Munazzam, 
Cairo ed. 1302 AH., ii, 21-22, in the 8th/i4th century, 
has the two adjectival forms baHi and sak(a)wi. 

These two forms do in fact appear to have had a 
tendency in modern times to become nouns, perhaps 
in certain regions because of the model provided by 
'aththari. BaHi has been noted alongside 'aththari in 
the dialects spoken in Southern Arabia: Landberg, 
Glossaire Datinois, Leiden 1920, i, 186, where 'athari 
must almost certainly be emended to <ath(th)ari. At 
a first glance it is not always easy to determine 
whether baHi is at present used as an adjective or 
a noun in the East and in North Africa. It is frequ- 
ently attached — more so than its opposite sakwi — 
to the name of a vegetable or a fruit.: in such a 
case it stresses the good quality. At Fez, the feminine 
baHiyya is applied to a succulent fig, whereas baHi 
describes a man, avaricious, dry and hard as the 
land bearing the same name (information by L. 
Brunot). 

As in the case of so many other elements of the 
vocabulary of spoken Arabic, it is to be regretted 
that we are far from knowing with sufficient 
exactitude the areas in which the words baH and 
baHi, unknown to extensive Arabic speaking districts, 
are in fact used. The precise distribution of these 
words would be informative from various points of 
view. (R. Brunschvig) 

BALA (Persian "height, high") I.— Since 1262/ 
1846 the term for a grade in the former Ottoman Civil 
Service, to which the Secretary of State (mustashdr) 
and other senior officials belonged; he was addressed 
in correspondence as c u(ufetlii efendim hadretleri 
(Further details in the article by M. Cavid Baysun 
in I A, ii, 262 ff.). 

Bibliography: in M. C. Baysun (see above). 
(Fr. Taeschner) 



970 

II. — Originally the name of a baqld in the 
witdytt and sandjah of Ankara (Central Anatolia) 
with the village of Karall (Kara 'All. now written 
Karaali) as its centre. It is now the name of 
the new chief town of the *Offa\ 39° 35' N. Lati- 
tude, 33 4' E. Longitude and is situated +8 kms. 
south east of Ankara on a ridge of hills called Kartal 
Dagl, between two valleys, through which flow 
tributaries of the Klztt Irmak (Halys), at the point 
where the road from Ankara branches off in one 
direction to Kirsehir and Kayseri, and in the other 
to Aksaray and Konya. Population 1142 (1943); 
that of the kadd, 37,096. The inhabitants of the 
kadd are principally Yiiriiks and refugees {imthddjir) 
from the Caucasus and the Balkans. 

Bibliography: Ali Cevad, Cografya L&$ati, 

149; %amtis ul-aHdm II. 1206; Salndme of the Vil. 

Ankara 1325/1907;/^. ii. 263 (by Besim Darkot). 
(Fr. Taeschner) 

BAlA-GHAT ("above the ghats or passes"), a 
name given to several elevated tracts in central and 
southern India. It was usually applied to the high- 
lands above the passes through the Western Ghats. 
On the east side of the Indian peninsula it was the 
term used to distinguish the Cam a tic plateau from the 
Camatic Pa'Inghit or lowlands. In Berar it was the 
name of the upland country above the Adjanta pass, 
the most northerly part of the table-land of the 
Deccan. It was also applied to the hilly country of 
western Baydarabad. In 1867, the name was given 
to a newly formed district of the Central Provinces. 
To-day it forms a district of Madhy a- Pradesh 
(area: 3,614 square miles; population (1951) 693,379). 
Bibliography: Imperial Gazetteer of India; 

C. E. Low, Balagkai District (1907). 

(C. Collin Da vies) 

BALA yi$AR ("High Castle"), in the popular 
tongue Balll Hi$Sr ("Honey Castle"), village in 
Central Anatolia, in the Sivrihisar fradd, wiidyet of 
Eskisehir, 14 kms. south of Sivrihisar, having only 
363 inhabitants in 1935. Ruins of Perssinus in the 
neighbourhood with 3 Roman temple to Cybele. 
Bibliography : Ch. Texier, Asit Mineure, 

473-479; G. Perrot, Souvenirs d'un voyage en Asie 

Mineure, 198 ff. ; I, A. ii, 368 f. [by Besim Darkot). 
(Fr. Taeschnbr) 

BALA HlfjAR, a general term applied, in 
Pakistan and Afghanistan, to citadels built on 
archaeological mounds and often commanding a 
panoramic view of the settlement, whether town, 
city or village, around. Among the most famous are 
the fort at Peshawar (Pakistan) and that in Kabul, 
the capital of Afghanistan. 

The fort at Peshawar, lying on the northern 
outskirts of the present city and covering an area of 
44,000 sq. yds., with double thick walls and strong 
bastions, is of considerable antiquity. It was first built 
on the present site in 925/1519 by Bab ur during his 
incursions into India through the Khyber Pass. It 
served as a halting-place for the Mughal Emperors 
on their way to and from Kabul, where another 
fort of the same name already existed. Soon after 
its construction by Babur the fort was destroyed 
by the neighbouring wild Afghan tribes, who con- 
sidered it a threat to their age-long freedom. It was, 
however, rebuilt by Humayun in 960/1553 under the 
supervision of Pah i a wan Dost, the Superintendent of 
Lands, and Sikandar Khan Uzbeg was appointed as 
its commander. It was, the same year, attacked by 
the Dalazak Afghans but they were repulsed by 
Sikandar Khan. In 994/1586, during the reign of 
Akbar, it was the scene of a great fire which consumed 



- BA'LABAKK 

a huge quantity of merchandise. It remained in the 
possession of the Mughals till 1079/ 1668 when it was 
captured by the Afghans under Aymal Khan, but 
they were soon expelled by the Imperial forces and 
the fort was regarrisoned. 

It was captured by Nadir Shah Afshar [q.v.] in 
"51/1738 but on his death in 1 160/1747 the Sad62als, 
under Ahmad Shah Durrani [q.v.'], became its master. 
His son TlmGr Shah made the fort his place of 
residence. When the Sikhs captured Peshawar in 
1 240/ 1 8 24 the fort was dismantled and the rubble 
was sold. Harl Singh Nalwa, the Sikh general, 
realising its strategic importance rebuilt, it in 1834 
with cob and mud and named it SumSrgarh. In 
1848 the British occupied Peshawar and constructed 
a stronghold in its place. It is now garrisoned by 
Pakistan troops. 

Bibliography: Memoirs of Babur, Eng. trans. 

Leyden and Erskine, London 1831, i, 254, ii, 111, 

158-60; W. Erskine, History of India tinder Babur 

and Humayun, London 1854, ii 420-1 ; A kbar-ndma, 

Eng. trans. Blochmann, i 608, iii 528; 725-33, 750, 

800, 803, 812, 850, 867, 956-57, 984; Nizam al- 

Dln Ahmad, 7*6ttfc<tt-» Akbari, Eng. trans. 

B. De, Calcutta 1936, ii 130, 602; al-Bada'unl, 

Muntakhab al-Tawdrikh, Eng. trans., Calcutta 

192+, ii 366; Gopat Das, Td'rikh-i Peshawar (in 

Urdu), Lahore c. 1870, 53, r53; Gazetteer of the 

Peshawar District, Lahore, 1897-8, 56-7, 3&4-*3; 

S. M. J afar, Peshawar: Past and Present, Peshawar 

1946, 95-r03. (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

BA'LABAKK, a small town in inland Lebanon, 

situated at about 3,700 ft. on the edge of the high 

plain of the Bika' [q.v.], surrounded by an oasis of 

gardens watered by the large spring of Ra's al-'Ayn, 

which emerges at the foot of the Anti-Lebanon 

range. The freshness of its climate and the beauty 

of its vegetation have won the admiration of Arab 

authors, who have always extolled its ghufa as 

reminiscent of that at Damascus. Various hypotheses 

have been made as to the etymology of its name, in 

which the Semitic Baal [see Ba c l] can be seen, but 

none seems entirely satisfactory. 

Ba'labakk is chiefly famous for the ancient ruins 
still visible on its site, which was doubtless occupied 
from a very early date. It was particularly flourishing 
at the time the locality was given the Greek name of 
Heliopolis, when the vogue of the cult there celebrated 
of Lin: HfihopoliUn 'r;i;i[v [/.fins, Aphmfiit and 
Hermes, avatars of Syrian gods) led to the construc- 
tion of imposing sanctuaries, to be attributed in the 
Middle Ages to the strength of Solomon. Even today 
the main group of monuments impresses us with its 
two temples of colossal dimensions, its two court- 
yards preceded by large gateways and its perimeter 
with its massive foundations. During the Arab 
period these buildings were made into a strong 
fortress, the lay-out of which was established by 
the German archeological expedition of 1900-1904, 
but certain parts of this have since been sacrificed 
in restoring the earlier condition of the site or in 
carrying out new excavations. 

Commanding both the surrounding districts and 
the main road from Damascus to Him?, the town 
of Ba'labakk had an eventful history. Its importance 
was chiefly military from the time when Christianity 
dealt the prosperity of its sanctuaries a mortal blow, 
and the Arabs, after their conquest, began to use its 
"acropolis" as a citadel or seat of the master of the 
region. In 16/637 the Muslims commanded by Abu 
l Ubayda annexed it after the conquest of Damascus 
and iust before conquering Hims, under the terms of 



BA'LABAKK — 

a treaty we know of from al-Baladhuri, and it later 
became part of the Umayyad diund of Damascus, 
then passed into 'Abbasid control until the Fatimid 
caliph al-Mu c izz installed a governor in 361/972. 
Temporarily occupied by the Byzantine emperor 
John Tzimiskes in 363/974, and by the prince of 
Aleppo, Salib b. Mirdas, in 416/1025, it fell into the 
hands of the Saldjukid Tutush and his sons in 468/ 
1075, and during the domestic struggles of the 
Burid period belonged in turn to the governor 
Gumushtakin, Burl and his son Muhammad, then 
finally to the celebrated Onor, from whom Zenki 
seized it for a time and entrusted it to Ayyub, the 
future father of $alah al-Din. Nur al-Din succeeded 
in reconquering it in 549/1154, and had to rebuild 
its walls after the devastation caused by the terrible 
earthquake of 565/1170. Salah al-Din in his turn 
seized the fortress from his old master's successors, 
in 570/1174, and gave it in fee successively to 
various members of his court or family, notably to 
his grand-nephew al-Malik al-Amdjad Bahram-shah, 
who held it from 578/1182 until 627/1230, in which 
year it was seized from him by al-Malik al-Ashraf 
MQsa, the master of Damascus. After various 
Ayyubids had again contended for its possession, it 
was conquered by the Mongols before passing into 
Egyptian control in 658/1260. Then, under the 
Mamlflks, it became the chief town of an area in the 
third northern border district of the province of 
Damascus, and its governor, whose authority did not 
extend over the entire Bika c , was in a position of 
direct dependance on the na'ib of Syria, who himself 
confirmed his appointment. The town seems to have 
become less important from that time onward, and 
the main Mamluk mail routes, Damascus-Hims and 
Damascus-Tripoli, thenceforward passed it by in 
favour of the Kalamun route, as the commercial 
roads of the modern era were also later to do. In 
922/1516 it passed under Ottoman control, together 
with the whole of Syria, and remained in the hands 
of petty rulers, notably of the Harfush family, 
until the Porte set up a regular administration in 
1850. 

The struggles for its possession in the Burid, Zengid 
apd Ayyubid periods, when to hold the town seems 
to have been the pre-requisite for control of southern 
Syria, explain why Arab building there consisted 
chiefly in continually improving a system of defences 
set up mainly to fill the original gap at the south- 
west corner, between the podia of the two ancient 
temples. Of the four periods of work which have 
been distinguished, the second is characterised by a 
shifting of the fortified entrance from the west side 
to the south, and can be dated either in the reign of 
Muhammad b. Biiri, who effectively defended 
Ba c labakk, or in that of Zenki, who according to 
inscriptions and written documents took measures 
to improve the state of the citadel. In the reign of 
Bahram-shah new towers reinforced the new facade. 
Lastly the time of Rala'un was marked by work in 
a more advanced style, in particular the massive 
tower at the south-east corner of the small temple 
and the barbican round the old south gate. 

Inscriptions, studied in conjunction with the 
archeological remains, allow us to date with certainty 
various features of an ensemble which must be con- 
sidered among the most interesting relics of Arab 
military architecture of mediaeval Syria. From the 
same period date also the small mosque at Ra's 
al-'Ayn and notably the large mosque in the town, 
built not far from the citadel with materials from 
an older building, and characterised by its prayer 



AL-BALADHURI 971 

hall with its four naves and its imposing minaret. 
Both mosques are inscribed with texts from Mamluk 
decrees. Other monuments which have now disap- 
peared, madrasas, ribdfs, hospices, convents and 
hadlth schools, are mentioned in earlier descriptions 
of the town. 

Bibliography: R. Dussaud, Topograph** 
historique de la Syrie, Paris 1927, 397, 403-04; 
G. Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, 
London 1890, 295-298; M. Gaudefroy-Demom- 
bynes, La Syrie d I'ipoque des Mamelouks, Paris 
1923, 70-73 and 181; Baladhuri, Futuh, 129-130 
(cf. D. C. Dennett, Conversion and the Poll Tax, 
Cambridge (Mass.) 1950, 55-64); BGA, indices; 
Yakut, s.v.; Ibn Shaddad, al-A'ldk al-Khatira, 
MS, Leiden 800, 8sb-88b and apud M. Sobern- 

heim, Centenario Amari, Palermo 1910, 

ii, 152-163; Hist. Or. Cr., index; Th. Wiegand, 
Baalbek, Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen und Unter- 
suchungen in den Jahren 1898 bis 1993, Berlin- 
Leipzig 1921-25, vol. iii (where the Arabic 
inscriptions are published and the mediaeval 
texts taken account of, by M. Sobernheim); for 
the ancient period see also Pauly-Wissowa, s.vv. 
Heliopolis and Heliopolitanus, and the articles by 
R. Dussaud and H. Seyrig published chiefly in 
Syria; for the Arabic inscriptions see also G. Wiet, 
Notes d'ipigraphie syro-musulmane, in Syria, 1925, 
150 ff.; J. Sauvaget, Notes sur quelques inscriptions 
arabes de Baalbekk et de Tripoli, in Bull, du Music 
de Beyrouth, vii-viii, 1949, 7-1 1. 

(J. Sooruel-Thomiwe> 
al-BALAEHURI, Aiimad b. Yavya b. Djabir 
b. Dawud, one of the greatest Arabic historians of 
the 3rd/gth century. Little is known of his life. 
Neither the year of his birth nor that of his death is 
directly attested. From the dates of his teachers, it 
is evident that he cannot have been born later than 
the beginning of the second decade of the 9th cen- 
tury A.D. ; for the date of his death, Muslim authors 
suggest, as the latest and most likely date, ca. 
892 A.D. As he is said to have been a translator 
from the Persian, Persian origin has been arbitrarily 
assumed for him, but already his grandfather was a 
secretary in the service of al-KhasIb in Egypt 
Djahshiyari, fol. 162 a). He probably was born, and 
certainly spent most of his life, in Baghdad and its 
environs. His studies led him to Damascus, Emesa, 
and Antioch, and in 'Irak he studied, among 
others, with such famous historians as al-Mada'inl, 
Ibn Sa'd, and Mus'ab al-Zubayrl. He was a boon 
companion of al-Mutawakkil ; his influence at the 
court appears to have continued under al-Musta'In, 
but his fortunes declined sharply under al-Mu'tamid. 
The statement that he was a tutor of the poet, Ibn 
al-Mu'tazz, appears to be the result of a confusion 
of our historian with the grammarian, Tha'lab, and 
the story that he died mentally deranged through 
inadvertent use of balddhur (Semecarpus Anacardium 
L., marking-nut), a drug believed beneficial for one's 
mind and memory, is meant to refer not to him but 
to his grandfather, but even so, it constitutes a 
puzzle for which no satisfactory explanation is 
offered by the sources. 

The two great historical works that have survived 
have won general acclaim for al-Baladhuri's reli- 
ability and critical spirit. 

1. His History of the Muslim Conquests (Futuh al- 
Bulddn) is the short version of a more comprehensive 
work on the same subject. The work begins with the 
wars of Muhammad, followed by accounts of the 
ridda, the conquests of Syria, the .Djazira, Armenia, 



972 al-BALADHUR] 

Egypt, and the Maghrib, and lastly, the occupation 
of 'Irak and Persia. Remarks of importance for the 
history of culture and social conditions are inter- 
woven with the historical narrative; for instance, 
al-Baladhurl discusses the change from Greek and 
Persian to Arabic as the official language in govern- 
ment offices, the quarrel with Byzantium concerning 
the use of Muslim religious formulas at the head of 
letters originating in Egypt, questions of taxation, 
the use of signet-rings, coinage and currency, and the 
history of the Arabic script. The work, one of the 
most valuable sources for the history of the Arab 
conquests, was edited by M. J. de Goeje, Liber 
expugnationis regionum, Leiden 1863-66, and re- 
printed repeatedly later on. English translation by 
P. K. Hitti and F. C. Murgotten, The Origins of the 
Islamic State, New York 1916 and 1924; German 
translation (continued to p. 239 of de Goeje's 
edition) by O. Rescher, Leipzig 1917-23. 

2. His Ansdb al-Ashrdf, a very large work which 
was never completed, is genealogically arranged and 
begins with the life of the Prophet and the biogra- 
phies of his kinsmen. The 'Abbasids follow the 
'Alids. The <Abd §hams, among whom the Umay- 
yads claim a disproportionate amount of space, 
follow the Banu Hashim. Next, the rest of the 
Kuraysh and other divisions of the Mudar are dealt 
with. The Kays, in particular the Thaklf, occupy 
the closing portion of the work; the last biography of 
any size is that devoted to al-Hadjdjadj. Though a 
genealogical work in outward form, the Ansdb are 
really tabakdt in the style of Ibn Sa c d, arranged 
genealogically. This method of arrangement is not 
rigidly adhered to; for the most important events 
of the reigns of individual rulers are always added 
to the corresponding chapters. The Ansdb thus are 
one of the most valuable sources for the history of 
the Khawaridj, A portion of the work was discovered 
in an anonymous MS. and identified and edited by 
W. Ahlwardt. Anonyme arabische Chronik, Bd. XI, 
Leipzig 1883. A complete MS. of the work was 
discovered by C. H. Becker in Istanbul, MS. c Ashir 
Efendi 597-98 (table of contents by M. Hamidullah, 
in Bull. d'£t. Or. xiv, Damascus 1954, 197-211). Of 
the edition of the work sponsored by the Hebrew 
University in Jerusalem, Vol. ivB (ed. M. Schloss- 
inger, 1938-40) and Vol. v (ed. S.D. Goitein, 1936, 
with an important introduction) have been published. 
O. Pinto and G. Levi Delia Vida have translated II 
Califfo Mu'dwiya I secondo il "Kitdb Ansdb al- 
ASrdf", Rome 1938. Cf. also F. Gabrieli, La Rivolta 
dei Muhallabiti nel l Irdq e il nuovo Bal&duH, in 
Rendiconti, R. Accad. dei Lincei, CI. sc. mor., stor. e 
ilol., vi, 14, 1938, 199-236. 

In spite of all al-Baladhuri's merits, his value as 
a historical source has been occasionally overesti- 
mated in certain respects. It is not correct to say 
that he always gives the original texts, which later 
writers embellished and expanded; it may be with 
much more truth presumed, from the agreement of 
essential portions of his works with later more 
detailed works, that al-Baladhuri abridged the 
material at his disposal in a number of cases, though 
he often remained faithful to his sources. Al- 
Baladhuri's style aims at conciseness at the expense, 
at times,- of the artistic effect. We seldom meet 
with fairly long stories, though they do occur. In 
the Futuh, al-Baladhurl continued the old method 
of dividing up the historical narrative and presenting 
it in separate articles, and in the Ansdb, he attempted 
to combine the material of the books of classes (Ibn 
Sa c d) and of the older chronicles (Ibn Ishak, Abu 



- BALADIYYA 

Mikhnaf, al-Mada'inl), with a third sort of style, 
namely, the genealogical literature (Ibn al-Kalbl). 
Bibliography : The oldest biographical source 
is the historian of Baghdad, c Ubayd Allah b. 
c Abd Allah b. Abi Tahir Tayfur (not preserved). 
'Ubayd Allah and all the other old Arabic sources 
were utilised by Yakut, Irshad, ii, 127-32; some 
additional references can be found in the late 
compilation published in the introduction of de 
Goeje's edition of the Futuh. Cf. Brockelmann, I, 
147 f.; S I, 216. 

(C. H. Becker-[F. Rosenthal]) 
BALADIYYA, municipality, the term used in 
Turkish (belediye), Arabic, and other Islamic langu- 
ages, to denote modern municipal institutions of 
European type, as against earlier Islamic forms of 
urban organisation [see hadInaj. The term, like so 
many modern Islamic neologisms and the innovations 
they express, first appeared in Turkey, where 
Western-style municipal institutions and services 
were introduced as part of the general reform 
programme of the Tanfimdt [q.v.]. 

(1) Turkey. 

The first approaches towards modern municipal 
administration seems to have been made by Sultan 
Mahmud II, among the reforms following the 
destruction of the Janissaries. In 1242/1827 an 
inspectorate of ihtisdb (Ihtisdb Ne?dreti) was set up, 
which centralised certain duties, connected with the 
inspection of markets, weights and measures, etc., 
hitherto performed by members of the 'Ulama 5 class 
(see muhtasib); in 124 5/1829, with the same general 
aims of centralising control and ending the laxness 
of the Imams (in Lutfi' s words: "we-imdmlartn 
musamaha edememesi iliin"), the system of headmen 
(Mukhtdr [q.v.]) was introduced in the town districts 
of Istanbul. Until then, there had been headmen in 
villages (KOy Ketkhuddsi in Muslim villages, Kodja 
baM among the Christians), but not in towns, where 
the duties of keeping the registers of the male 
population and recording movements, transfers and 
the like were the responsibility of the fcadls and their 
deputies, or the Imams. Under the edict of 1245/1829, 
these duties were transferred to the mukhtdrs, of 
whom two, first and second, were to be appointed to 
every town quarter {mahalle). Lutfi tells us that 
this innovation aroused some comment among the 
populace of Istanbul, who said: "Village headmen 
have been set up in the quarters of the town. Next 
thing we shall have sdlydne registers:" (Lutfi, ii, 
173). A little later, the mukhtar was reinforced by 
committee of elders {Ikhtiydr Hey'eti) of 3-5 persons; 
in time, this system was extended to other cities of 
the Empire. 

In 1247/1831 the office of Commissioner of the 
City (Shehremini [q.v.]) which had existed since the 
Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, was abolished ; 
some of its functions, relating to the care of public 
buildings, were transferred to the newly established 
Directorate of Buildings of the Domain (Ebniye-i 
KMssa), (Lutfi, iii, 165; Med[elle-i Umur-i Belediyye 
i, 980 and 1365, quoting the decree in the official 
gazette, Takwim-i Wakd'i* vii, 1247, no. 2). 

The next phase began in the year 1271/1854, when 
two changes were initiated. The first of these was 
the creation of a new Shehremdnet for Istanbul. 
Despite the name, this bore little resemblance to the 
earlier institution; it was rather an adaptation of the 
French prefecture de la ville and was chiefly concerned 
with the supervision of the markets, the control of 
prices, etc. The prefect was to be assisted by a City 



BALADIYYA 



973 



Council (Shekir Medjlisi) drawn from the guilds and 
merchants. The Ihtisdb Nezdreti was abolished and 
its duties handed over to the prefecture. This change 
in nomenclature seems to have had little immediate 
effect, and complaints were made about official 
neglect of municipal problems. A few months later, 
therefore, another decision was taken by the High 
Council of Reform {Medjlis-i '■All-i-Tanzimdt), to 
establish a municipal commission (Intizdm-i Shekir 
Komisyonu). A leading spirit in the commission was 
Antoine Allion, a member of a rich French banking 
family that had settled in Turkey at the time of the 
French Revolution. The other members were drawn 
chitfly from the local Greek, Armenian and Jewish 
communities, together with some Muslim Turks, 
including the flekimbashl Mehmed Salih Efendi, 
one of the first graduates of Sultan Mahmud's 
medical school. The Commission was instructed to 
report on European municipal organisation, rules 
and procedures, and to make recommendations to 
the Sublime Porte. 

A number of factors had combined to induce the 
Ottoman government to take these steps. European 
financial and commercial interests in Istanbul had 
been growing steadily, and a new quarter was 
developing in Galata and Beyoghlu (Pera), with 
buildings, apartment houses, shops, and hotels, in 
European style, and with increasing numbers of 
horse-drawn carriages of various kinds (see araba). 
All this created a demand, which was put forward by 
the European residents, with the support of the 
Europeanised elements among the local population, 
for proper roads and pavements, street-cleaning and 
street-lighting, sewers and water-pipes. The presence 
in Istanbul of large allied contingents from the West 
during the Crimean War gave a new impetus and a 
new urgency to these demands, and in the new 
phase of reform that began in 1854 some attention 
was given to the problems of municipal organisation 
and services in the capital. A good example of the 
attitude of the Turkish reformers to these questions 
will be found in an article, published in the newspaper 
Ta?wir-i Efkdr, by the poet and publicist Ibrahim 
ShinasI [q.v.] on the lighting and cleaning of the 
streets of Istanbul (reprinted in Abu '1-diya [Ebuz- 
ziya] Tewfik, Numune-i Edebiyydt-i '■Othmdniyye, 
[1st ed. Istanbul 1296/1878], 3rd ed. Istanbul 1306, 
227-235- 

The record of the proceedings of the High Council 
of Reform on these matters reflect clearly the 
various preoccupations of the Ottoman government. 
The creation of a city prefecture, under the recently 
created Ministry of Commerce, was in part an 
attempt to meet a real need by installing the relevant 
European apparatus. There was also the usual desire 
to- impress Western obsevers. 

The Commission sat for four years, and reported 
to the High Council of Reform. Its chief recommen- 
dations were for the construction of pavements, 
sewers, and water-pipes, regular street-cleaning, 
street-lighting, the widening of the streets where 
possible, the organisation of separate municipal 
finances, the imposition of a tax for municipal 
purposes, and the appointment of the commission to 
apply municipal laws and regulations (madbafa of 27 
Safar 1274/17 Oct. 1857, in Med±. Urn. Bel. i, 1402-3). 

In 1274/1857 the High Council decided to accept 
these recommendations, but to limit their application 
for the time being to an experimental municipality, 
to be established in Beyoghlu and Galata. This 
district, though the first to be organised, was offi- 
cially named the sixth district (attfndji dd'ire), 



possibly, as c Othman Nun suggests (Med£. Urn. Bel. i, 
1415, n. 93), because the sixth arrondissement of 
Paris was believed to be the most advanced of that 
city. The reasons for this step are set forth in a 
madbata of 21 Rabi c I 1274/9 Oct. 1857 (Medj. Um. 
Bel. i, 1416-8). Municipal services and improvements 
were badly needed, and should be provided; the cost 
should not fall upon the state treasury, but should be 
met by a special levy from the townspeople who 
would benefit. It would be excessive and impractic- 
able to apply the new system to the whole of Istanbul 
at once, and it was therefore decided to make a 
start with the sixth district, consisting of Beyoghlu 
and Galata, where there were numerous properties 
and fine buildings, and where the inhabitants were 
acquainted with the practice of other countries and 
were willing to accept the expense of municipal 
institutions. When the merits of these institutions 
had been demonstrated by this example and had 
been generally understood and recognised, a suitable 
occasion would be found to apply them generally. 
The madbata refers explicitly to the large number of 
foreign establishments and the preponderance of 
foreign residents in the district. 

The constitution and functions of the municipality 
of the sixth distict, also known as the model district 
(num&ne ddHresi) were laid down in an trade of 24 
Shawwal 1274/7 July 1858. The Municipal Council 
was to consist of a Chairman and twelve members, 
all appointed by Imperial irdde, the Chairman 
indefinitely, the others for three years. The Council 
would elect two of its members as vice-Chairmen and 
one as treasurer. All were to be unpaid. The perma- 
nent officials were to be an assistant to the Chairman, 
a Secretary-General, two interpreter-secretaries, a 
civil engineer, and an architect. All these were to 
be appointed by the Council and receive salaries. 
The terms of reference of the Council were defined 
generally as "all that concerns cleanliness and 
public amenities (neddfet we nuzhet-i <umumiyye)" , 
and more specifically as roads and streets, sewers, 
pavements, street-lamps, sweeping and watering the 
streets, widening and straightening the streets, 
water-supply, gas, inspection and condemnation 
of ruinous and dangerous buildings, inspection and 
control of food supplies, control of prices, inspection 
of weights and measures, supervision of public places 
such as theatres, markets, hotels and restaurants, 
schools, dance-halls, coffee houses, taverns, etc. The 
Commission was further given the right to assess, 
impose, and collect rates and taxes, and raise loans, 
within limits laid down, and also to expropriate 
property in certain circumstances. The Chairman was 
to submit his budget to the Commission for discussion 
and inspection, and then to the Sublime Porte for 
ratification, without which it would not be valid. 

From this it will be seen that the measures of 
1271-4/1854-8, while accepting and providing for the 
discharge of certain new responsibilities in relation 
to the town, hardly represent an approach to the 
European conception of municipal institutions. 
There is still no recognition of the city as a corporate 
person, for such an idea remained alien to Islamic 
conceptions of law and government; nor was there 
any suggestion of election or representation. What 
was created was a new kind of administrative 
agency, appointed by and responsible to the sovereign 
power, but with specified and limited tasks and with 
a measure of budgetary autonomy. Such special 
commissions were by no means new in Ottoman 
administration (see emin). The novelty lay in the 
kind of function entrusted to it. 



BALADIYYA 



The municipal commission of the model sixth 
district seems to have done good work. Among 
other achievements, it made a land survey of the 
district, laid out two municipal parks, opened two 
hospitals, and introduced many improvements for 
the health, security and convenience of the residents. 
All of which did not prevent the official historio- 
grapher Lutfl Efendi from condemning it in the 
most scathing terms (cited by 'Othman Nuri in 
Sehircilik, 127). The movement towards the intro- 
duction and extension of Western-style municipal 
services continued, however. In 1285/1868 a muni- 
cipal code of regulations (belediyye nizdmndmesi) 
was issued, the intention of which was to extend the 
commission system to the rest of the 14 districts of 
Istanbul. Each was to have a municipal committee 
of 8-12 members, who would choose one of their selves 
as Chairman. A general assembly for all Istanbul 
(DiemHyyet-i 'Umumiyye) of 56 members was to be 
formed, consisting of 3 delegates from each district, 
as well as a Council of the Prefecture (Medjlis-i 
Emdnet) of six persons, appointed and paid by the 
Imperial government. These two bodies were to 
function under the Prefect (Shehremini), who was to 
remain a government official. The elaborate provisions 
of this code seem to have remained a dead letter until 
1293-4/1876-7 when, under the impetus of the con- 
stitutional movement, new codes were issued for the 
capital and for provincial towns. The Istanbul code 
of 1293/1876 was in effect a rearrangement of the 
earlier one, with a few changes, the most important 
of which were the increase in the number of districts 
from 14 to 20, and the change in the property 
qualification of members from an annual income of 
5,000 piastres to an annual tax payment of 250 
piastres. Perhaps the most significant innovation in 
the new code was less in its provisions than in the 
fact that it was promulgated, not by the Sublime 
Porte, but by the short-lived Ottoman parliament. 
However, the wars and crises that followed caused it 
to be as ineffectual as its predecessors. (An exception 
was the Princes Islands, where a seventh district was 
constituted: Sa'id Pasha, Khd(irdt, Istanbul 1328, 
i, 5; Med±. Urn. Bel. i, 1457). Finally, in 1296/1878, 
a new and more realistic version was published, 
which in time was put into operation. This divided 
the city into ten municipal districts. The elaborate 
apparatus of councils and committees provided by 
the earlier codes was abolished. What was left was 
an appointed Council of Prefecture to assist the 
Prefect, and a government-appointed director (mudiir) 
for each of the 10 districts. This system remained 
in force until the revolution of 1 324/1908. 

In the provinces the policies of the reformers 
were much the same. The earlier authority of the 
a'ydn and the Shehir ketkhudasi [qq.v.] had been 
abolished. The mukJUdr system, inaugurated by 
Mahmud II, was introduced into the urban districts 
of most of the larger towns, and the wildyet law of 
1281/1864 laid down regulations for their election 
(chapters iv and v). In the wildyet law of 1287/1870, 
provision was made for the establishment of muni- 
cipal councils in provincial cities, along the same 
general lines as in the code for Istanbul. There is no 
evidence that anything much was done about this. 
Some attempt, however, seems to have been made 
to implement parts of the provincial municipal code 
(wildydt belediyye kdnunu) of 1294/1877. According 
to the law, every town was to have a municipal 
council, consisting of 6 to 12 members, according to 
the population. They were to sit for four years, with 
elections every two years to choose half the members. 



The doctor, engineer, and veterinary surgeon of the 
region were ex officio advisory members. Member- 
ship was restricted to those paying 100 piastres a 
year in tax. One of the members of the Council 
became mayor (belediyye reisi), not by election but 
by government appointment. The budget and 
estimates were to be approved by a municipal 
assembly (Diem'ivvet-i Belediyye) meeting twice 
yearly for this purpose. This assembly was respon- 
sible to the General Council of the province (Medilis-i 
<-Vmumi-i Wildyet) (Medi. Urn. Bel. i, 1664 ff.). 

After the Young Turk Revolution a new attempt 
was made to introduce democratic municipal in- 
stitutions. The law of 1293/1876, with some amend- 
ments, was restored, and a serious attempt made to put 
it into effect. The experiment was not very successful. 
The personnel of the district committees, though 
enthusiastic, were inexperienced, and there was 
little co-operation between districts for common 
purposes. In 1328/1912 a new law finally abolished 
this system. In its place a single Istanbul munici- 
pality, called Shehremdnet, was established, with nine 
district branch offices {Shu'be), each directed by a 
government official. The Prefect was assisted by a 
54 man general assembly, to which 6 delegates were 
elected from each of the nine districts. In this as in 
so many other respects, the new regime was returning 
to a more centralised system of government. Despite 
many difficulties, some important progress was made 
by the Young Turks in improving the amenities of 
Istanbul. A new drainage system was planned and 
constructed, improvements were in policing and fire- 
prevention, and the famous packs of dogs that had 
for long infested the Turkish capital were finally 
removed. 

The first municipal measure of the republican 
government was a law of 16 Febr. 1924, setting up 
a prefecture (Shehremdnet) in Ankara (Kawdnin 
Medimii'asl ii, 218). The first prefect was Ali Haydar, 
and he was assisted by a general assembly of 24 
members. The constitution followed broadly that 
of Istanbul, but with some changes, the general 
purport of which was to restrict the autonomy of the 
municipality in financial and security matters and 
place it more strictly under the control of the 
Ministry of the Interior. 

On 3 April 1930, a new law of municipalities was 
passed (Resmi Gazete 1471, 1580; OM, 1930, 551). 
The old names of Shehremdnet and Shehremini were 
abolished, and replaced by Belediye and Belediye 
reisi, usually translated mayor. Under Sultan <Abd 
al-HamW, the offices of Prefect and Governor of 
Istanbul had in fact been exercised by the same 
person. The Young Turks, by a law of 1325/1909, 
had formally separated the prefecture from the 
governorship. The new law laid down that in 
Istanbul, though not elsewhere, the office of mayor 
should be combined with that of Vali, the vilayet 
and belediye administrations, however, remaining 
separate. Under the law, municipalities, like villages, 
have corporate legal identity and legally defined 
boundaries. The 165 articles of the law provided a 
systematic code of rules for the election and func- 
tioning of municipal bodies, and with some modi- 
fications remained in force to the present day. 
Under these rules, municipalities are administered 
by a Mayor, a Permanent Commission, and a Muni- 
cipal Council. The Mayor is elected by the Council, 
which itself is elected directly by universal suffrage 
for a term of four years. Towns with from 1,000 to 
20,000 inhabitants are called kasaba, those with 
more than 20,000 are called fehir. The sire of the 



BALADIYYA 



975 



Council depends on the number of inhabitants, the 
minimum being 12 members, for fewer than 3,000 
inhabitants. The Council meets three times a year, 
at the beginning of February, April and November. 
At other times it is replaced by a permanent com- 
mission (daimi encumen) consisting of three of its 
own members reinforced by the permanent officials 
of the municipality. The functions of the municipality 
include public health {hospitals, dispensaries, pre- 
ventive medecine, sanitary and food inspections, etc.), 
public services (trams, buses, gas, electricity), town 
planning and engineering (roads and bridges within 
the town, public parks and g£--dens, street-lighting 
and cleaning, sewage, water-supply, etc.); in times 
of shortage, it is also entrusted with the distribution 
of commodities in short supply. It has its own 
enforcement agency (zabita). The municipality im- 
poses taxes and has its own budget; its permanent 
staff, however, are civil servants. 

Bibliography: the richest collection of 
material for the history of municipal institutions 
in Turkey will be found in 'Othman Nuri (= Osman 
Ergin), Medielle-i Umur-i Belediyye, 5 vols., 
Istanbul 1330-1338; the first volume contains 
an elaborately documented history of municipal 
institutions in Islam and in Turkey, the second 
reproduces the texts of Ottoman laws and edicts 
on municipal matters, the remaining three deal 
with specific topics such as municipal contracts 
and privileges, health, public works, etc. For a 
brief general introduction to the subject by the same 
author, see Osman Ergin, Tiirkiyede Sehirciligin 
Tariht lnkisafi, Istanbul 1936. The texts of laws 
relating to municipal matters will be found in the 
Destur, Istanbul 1872-1928, in the Kawdnin Medi- 
mu'asi and Kanunlar Dergisi (1920 ff.), and in the 
Resmi Gazete. (French translations in G. Young, 
Corps de droit ottoman, Oxford 1905-6; Aristarchi, 
Legislation ottomane, Constantinople 1874-8; La 
Legislation turque, Istanbul 1923 ff.). Descriptions 
of the organisation of the Shehremdnet and the 
provincial municipalities will be found in the 
general and provincial yearbooks (sdlndme) of 
the Ottoman Empire, the last of which appeared 
in 1328/1912. On the municipal laws of the 
republic see La Vie Juridique des Peuples, vii, 
Turquie, Paris 1939, 57 ff ; Albert Gorvine, An 
Outline of Turkish Provincial and local Govern- 
ment, Ankara 1956. (B. Lewis) 

(2) Arab East. 

Town councils of the earlier period of reform, such 
as the madjlis Dimashk which Ibrahim Pasha 
established during the Egyptian occupation of 
Syria, 1832-40 (A. J. Rustum, al-Mahfuzdt al-Mala- 
kiyya al-Misriyya: Baydn bi-rVathaHk al-Shdm 
Beirut 1940-43), and a council appointed by Nur 
al-DIn Pasha, a reforming muhdfiz, at Sawakin 
in 1854 (J. Hamilton, Sinai, 1857), were unrelated 
to any legislative policy and were short-lived. 

The Ottoman municipal legislation of 1281-94/ 
1864-77 was applied throughout the Arabic-speaking 
provinces of the Empire except in certain frontier 
regions and in Egypt where municipal development 
was following a different course. The new municipal- 
ities flourished where the wall of the province was 
sympathetic to the tanzimat, and languished where 
he was not. Thus, under the guidance of Ahmad 
Midhat Pasha, Baghdad in 1869-72 and Damascus 
in 1878-80 experienced an intensive if brief period of 
urban development involving the demolition of city 
walls, re-alignment of streets and construction of 



covered markets and other public buildings. Parti- 
cipation of public-spirited local notables furthered 
urban reform. Mosul under its seigniorial families 
has had a continuous municipal history since 1869. 
Sectarianism hindered the smooth working of 
several municipalities in the communes (ndhiya) of 
the autonomous sandjak of Mt. Lebanon, and in 
Jerusalem where the complicated religious situation 
demanded that the chairman of the municipal 
council should be a Muslim. A weakness in all 
Ottoman provincial municipalities was the ineffect- 
iveness of the municipal police (belediyye la'ushlari. 
At. shurtat al-baladiyya). 

In spite of its shortcomings, which the consuls of 
the Powers were quick to report in their despatches, 
the Ottoman municipal organisation showed a 
remarkable ability to survive the disintegration of 
the Empire after the world war of 1914-18 when the 
withdrawal of Ottoman rule left a vacuum in local 
government in the Arab lands. To preserve conti- 
nuity during the transitional period, the British in 
c Irafc, Palestine and Transjordan, and the French 
in Syria and Lebanon, continued to administer the 
Ottoman municipal code for several years until they 
introduced changes which reflected the influence of 
the Mandatory Powers. In 1922 a muhdfiz was 
appointed for Baghdad who was at once executive 
head of the liwa' of Baghdad and chairman of the 
city municipal council ; the two offices were separated 
in 1923. The Ottoman Law (wildydt Belediyye 
Kdnunu) of 27 Ramadan 1294/1877 was not however 
repealed until the promulgation of Law no. 84 of 
1931 (Iddrat al-baladiyydt). The Palestine Govern- 
ment did not finally break with the Ottoman system 
until the issue of the Municipal Corporations 
Ordinance of 1934. Conditions in Transjordan 
limited the councils to consultative functions, and 
the Municipalities Law of 1925 permitted the head of 
the municipality of the capital to be appointed from 
outside the municipal council, a situation existing 
also, and more recently, at Damascus. 

In Lebanon the Ottoman Law of 1877 was replaced 
by a Municipal Decree of 1922 under which the 
minister of the interior took over the supervisory 
duties of the former Ottoman wall. In 1924 Beirut 
was given special status as a capital city and an 
organisation based on that of Paris though, from 
that year until the end of the French mandate, 
chairman and council continued to be appointed by 
the minister. By Legislative Decree no. 5 of 1954 
the special status of Beirut was abolished and a 
municipal council of twelve members, of whom half 
were elected, was set up. The chairman, appointed 
from its members, is head of the municipal legislature, 
the muhdfiz, representing the state, is head of the 
city executive. The Syrian municipalities, including 
that of Damascus, are governed by a Kdnun 
al-baladiyydt promulgated by Decree no. 172 of 
1956. 

The chairmen of the municipalities of Damascus, 
Beirut, Baghdad and Amman are styled amin al- 
'dsima to emphasise their particular importance in 
relation to the seat of the government; elsewhere 
the original designation, ra'is al-baladiyya, is 
retained. In the capitals the chairman is appointed 
by the council of ministers. In other municipalities 
he is chosen either by the municipal council or by the 
minister of the interior who usually has a department 
(maslaha, mudiriyya) in his ministry which supervises 
municipal affairs. In Egypt and the Sudan special 
ministries of town and rural affairs have been 



976 



BALADIYYA 



Egypt developed its own local government 
tradition. Owing to the presence of the European 
consuls and a European merchant community, 
Alexandria possessed the beginnings of municipal 
government as early as about 1835 when a consul- 
tative matjilis al-tan^im (conseil de I'ornato in Levan- 
tine parlance) was formed. This was followed in 
1869 by a municipality having an appointed president 
and a partly elected council. The Khedive Isma'il and 
his successors witheld municipal privileges from 
Cairo until 1949, though municipal commissions 
with restricted powers had long existed in the 
Egyptian provinces. 

An ordinance of 1901 empowered the governor- 
general of the Sudan to establish municipal councils, 
but this measure was not implemented. In 1921 a 
consultative council was founded in the neigh- 
bouring towns of Khartoum, Omdurman and 
Khartoum North, with regional committees in each 
town. The formation in 1942 of the first municipal 
council at Port Sudan was followed in other towns. 
In 1945 the three regional committees at the capital 
were replaced by municipal councils, and a bill 
containing provision for further decentralisation 
became law in 1951. 

In Arabia municipalities were established by the 
Ottoman Government in Madlna, Jedda, Ta'if and 
Yanbu 1 about 1870. In Mecca the maintenance of the 
simple public services was divided between the £ Ayn 
al-Zubayda water board (ta'-mirdt komisyonu) and 
a general-purposes council. These institutions had 
no roots in the Hidjaz and disappeared in the war 
of 1915-19. In 1926 the Saudi Goverment issued an 
administrative instruction providing for elected 
municipal councils of notables and merchants in 
Mecca, Madlna and Jedda, with technical manage- 
ment boards in each of these towns composed of 
the director of the municipality and his heads of 
department. 

A municipal authority was in existence in Aden 
by I 855, and an Aden local authority was established 
in 1900, though the elective element was not admitted 
to the Fortress until 1947. In 1953 the Fortress 
township authority was reconstituted as the Aden 
municipality with an appointed president and an 
official majority on the council, but with a broadened 
electoral basis and control over its own budget. 
Bahrayn municipalities have each a rd'ls madjlis 
al-baladiyya appointed by the Ruler, a partly- 
elected council, and a permanent director (mu'd- 
win, sihritayr). Kuwayt municipality is managed 
by a mudir responsible to the ra'is al-baladiyya, 
a member of the ruling family. The Arabic-speaking 
communities of Musawwa 1 and Harar have taken 
only a small part in town management. By decree 
of 1893, rescinded in 1901, the Italian Government 
instituted a municipal board at Musawwa 1 with an 
insignificant representation of appointed natives 
and a narrowly limited competence. Two meas- 
ures passed by the Ethiopian Government: Ad- 
ministrative Decree no. 1 of 1942, extended by 
Municipalities Proclamation no. 74 of 1945, provided 
for elected town councils. 

Municipalities in the Arab East do not usually 
exercise direct control over electricity and water 
supply, and rarely over urban transport, under- 
takings which are operated either by concessionary 
companies, now mostly in process of nationalisation, 
or by boards under the authority of the central 
government, with or without municipal representa- 
tion. Municipal councillors are chosen by direct 
suffrage of the electors, not by inferior councils in 



town wards as in two-tier systems of municipal 
representation. Municipalities vary in the degree of 
publicity in which they pursue their activities. Those 
in the more politically advanced centres, such as 
Damascus, Beirut, Baghdad, Cairo and Alexandria, 
disclose their budgets and explain their policies; 
others are less communicative. The press is excluded 
from council meetings, and the somewhat negative 
attitude of the citizens to local, in comparison with 
national, affairs results in relatively small polls at 
council elections, though the inhabitants of Palestine 
under British mandate, denied an active part in 
national affairs, frequently vented their feelings in 
municipal politics. Municipalities also differ in the 
strictness with which they enforce building restric- 
tions and traffic control, and in the importance which 
they attach to welfare and public amenities. Only 
in Egypt have women the right to be municipal 
electors and to be elected on municipal councils; 
women municipal employees are everywhere few. 

In no state is there a nation-wide local government 
service with its own traditions existing parallel with 
the national civil service. Local government is con- 
sidered as a regional branch of the central govern- 
ment, having no juridical or real financial indepen- 
dence. Yet the growing wealth and technical com- 
plexity of the larger municipalities, as well as 
their record of administrative maturity and good 
government, have in practice increased their civic 
autonomy. 

Bibliography: A. Enactments in Ottoman 
Egypt: Organisation du conseil de I'ornato d 
Alexandrie, n.d.; Reglements de la municipaliti 
d'Alexandrie, Alex., 1869; Rapport de la commission 
... municipale provisoire, 188 1-2; Lois, dicrets, 
arretis et reglements intiressant la municipaliti 
d'Alexandrie, 1906, supplt., 1913. 

B. Legislation since 1918: Municipal enactments 
of the various states are promulgated in the 
national official gazettes and usually reprinted in 
codified form, e.g., Syria: Kdnun al-Baladiyydt 
al-Suri ma c Ta'dildtihi al-Akhira bi Mudjib 
Marsum 172, 1956; Lebanon: Madjmu'at al- 
Kdwdnin, 1948, II, pt. 2, Baladiyydt; Jordan: 
Madjmu l at al-lfdwdnin wa 'l-Anfima . . . 1918-46, 
iii; Cairo: al-Kdnun rakam 145, 1949 b'inskd' 
Madjlis Baladi li Madinat al-Kdhira wa 'l-Ta'dildt. 

C. Other references: Annual reports on Egypt, 
1891-7 (on Egypt and Sudan, 1898-1919) by 
British Agent and Consul-General (after 1913 by 
High Commissioner); annual repts. to League of 
Nations: Syria and Lebanon, 1920-39, 'Irak, 
1925-33, Palestine and Transjordan, 1917-47; 
annual reports of municipalities to the governments 
of Aden, Bahrayn and Kuwayt; Municipaliti de 
Damas, exposi des operations effectives de 1920 a 
1924 (Ar. and Fr.), Damascus, n.d.; W. H. 
Ritsher, Municipal government in the Lebanon, 
Beirut 1932; [G. L. Bell], Review of the civil 
administration of Mesopotamia. Cmd. 1061, 1920; 
O. Colucci, De I'uti'iti de la creation d'une munici- 
paliti d Alexandrie. Project d cet igard; raison de sa 
divergence avec V institution analogue . . . d Con- 
stantinople, BIE no. 8, 1864; A. T. Cancri, La 
Ville du Caire . . . Essai sur la criation d'une 
municipaliti, Alexandria 1905 ; R. Maunier, La vie 
municipale en JEgypte (Congr. internat. des villes, 
Gand), 1913; M. Delacroix, L'institution municipale 
en Egypte, Egy. contemporaine, xiii, 1922; A. H. 
Marshall, Rept. on local government in the Sudan, 
1949; N. Marein, The Ethiopian Empire . . . laws, 
Rotterdam 1954. (R. L. Hill) 



BALADIYYA 



(3) North Africa — (i) Tunisia 
In Tunisia the first baladiyya appeared in the 
reign of Muhammed Bey, whu set up by a decree of 
30 August 1858 a municipal Council to administer 
the affairs of the town of Tunis, composed of a 
president, a secretary and twelve members chosen 
from among the foremost people in the land, a third 
of whom gave up their seats each year. The chief 
responsibilities of this council were to do with public 
moneys, roads, the acquisition for the public benefit 
of land needed for widening roads, and the issuing 
of building permits. The council received its admi- 
nistrative authority, which was only vaguely defined, 
from the sovereign. The constitution of the Tunis 
municipal council was altered after the setting up 
of the French protectorate, by a decree of the bey 
dated 31 October 1883. Two years later a decree of 
1 April 1885 promulgated a municipal charter for 
the whole of Tunisia, and was soon followed by 
another decree (10 June 1885) which determined 
that all municipal councillors in Tunis were to be 
appointed by the government, listed the matters the 
municipal councils were competent to deal with, 
and organised the administration of the country 
through these bodies. Two subsequent reforms have 
been made, one by a decree of 10 August 1938 which 
relaxed the rule whereby consent had to be granted 
for all deliberations by the municipal councils, and 
the other by a decree of 15 September 1945, which 
provided for an elected municipal council in Tunis, 
composed of an equal number of Tunisians and 
Frenchmen. 

But the institution as a whole was profoundly 
modified by the bey's decree of 20 December 1952, 
which defined the commune: a collective body under 
public law, with civil status and financially auto- 
nomous, responsible for the conduct of municipal 
affairs. The deliberating body of the commune is 
the municipal council, elected for six years by direct 
suffrage by two electoral bodies, who appoint the 
Tunisian and the French councillors respectively. 
Half the members vacate their seats every three 
years. Of 64 communes in all, 39 appoint an equal 
number of Frenchmen and Tunisians to their muni- 
cipal councils, the others appointing a majority of 
Tunisians, or Tunisians alone. The elections are 
held on a general basis of universal suffrage, with 
the proviso that Tunisian women, unlike French- 
women, do not have the right to vote. The municipal 
council holds four ordinary sessions annually. Its 
competence is restricted and does not extend to all 
the business of the commune. There is still admini- 
strative supervision centrally by the Minister of 
State and locally by the Kd'id, who has now taken 
the place of the French civil inspector. The executive 
body of the commune is made up of a president 
appointed by decree from among the KdHds other 
than the KdHd responsible for the commune con- 
cerned, and a vice-president and deputies elected 
by the municipal council from among its members. 
This arrangement preserves the earlier relationship 
vis-a-vis the Tunis municipal council, elected for 
six years. The executive body of the commune is 
the Shaykh al-Madina, president appointed by the 
municipal council of the town of Tunis, and assisted 
by two vice-presidents, one French and one Tunisian. 
Tunisia's communal organisation was changed 
after it became independent, under the municipal 
law of 14 March 1957. This new statute raised the 
number of communes to 94. The municipal councils 
are now elected directly in one ballot from a list of 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



candidates, for three years, the electors being 
Tunisians of both sexes aged twenty and over. The 
minimum age for candidates is 25. Frenchmen can 
no longer be members of the municipal councils, but 
the law provides that Frenchmen and foreigners 
who have the right to vote may be appointed by the 
Tunisian government, which will fix the number of 
such persons for each commune. 

Administrative supervision is exercised by the 
Minister of the Interior, and by the governors 
centrally and locally. 

Two other important innovations must be menti- 
oned: the president and deputies are now elected by 
the council. But the president of the commune of 
Tunis is still appointed by decree of the Prime 
Minister, the president of the council, on the nomi- 
nation of the Minister of the Interior. On the other 
hand the municipal councils now deal with all the 
business of the commune. (Ch. Samaran) 

(3) North Africa — (ii) Morocco 

Before 191 2 there were no municipalities nor 
municipal life in Morocco in the sense these words 
have had in some European countries since the 
Middle Ages, a sense inherited from Roman tradition. 
The towns had no finances of their own ; the expense 
of public services was met in large measure by the 
revenue of religious foundations or hubus, and 
building or improvements were dependent on the 
good will of the prince, who would levy the required 
sums on the public treasury. Nor were there any 
representative assemblies of citizens; the governor 
or c dnUl held his power directly from the sultan, 
and the muhtasib was not "the merchants' provost", 
as is often stated, as they did not elect him. A wise 
governor would take the advice of prominent 
people in his area, but was not bound to do so. 

The first modern municipal body set up by the 
French Protectorate was that of Fez (al-madjlis al- 
baladi), instituted by the dahir of 2 September 191 2. 
It comprised a council of fifteen members with right 
of vote, seven officials appointed on special grounds 
and eight other prominent men elected for two 
years. This organisation survived until the municipal 
charter of 1917. 

A dahir of 1 April 1913 set up "municipal com- 
missions in the ports of the Sharifian empire". It was 
recapitulated and clarified by the dahir of 8 April 
1917. Nineteen towns were given the status of 
municipalities (1,822,746 inhabitants according to 
the census of 1951-52). The dahir determines the 
municipal authorities: the pasha or governor, still 
appointed by the central authority, and under the 
direction of a senior municipal services official, then 
from 1947 of an urban affairs delegate; and a 
municipal commission with right of discussion only, 
appointed and not elected, and made up of one 
French and two Moroccan sections (one Muslim', 
one Jewish). The municipalities provide services 
under the direction of the Head of municipal services: 
administrative, public works, sanitary and fiscal. 
They have budgets drawn from their own resources 
(direct and indirect taxes, revenues from land and 
excise, a share in the profits from services given). 

Casablanca, like Fez, was given a special organi- 
sation, but only in 1922. The municipal commission, 
though still appointed, now had power to vote, and 
the French section now elected a French vice- 
president with special powers. 

The system of municipalities was reformed in 1953 
by the dahir of 18 September, which abolished the 
special organisations at Fez and Casablanca. The 



978 



BALADIYYA 



main change it introduces is to set up elected, not 
appointed, municipal commissions, still of Moroccans 
and Frenchmen equally. The commission manages 
the affairs of the city, though approval of its decisions 
by the central supervising authority is required. 

The administrative provisions of this statute have 
been given effect, but not those relating to elections. 
This was. prevented by the political crisis of 1953. 
The old appointed commissions remained, and were 
dissolved when Morocco became independent. 

The government of independent Morocco has 
made no change in the legislation on municipalities. 
Only French control and the commissions have 
gone, naturally enough. A new representative 
system is being prepared. It will relate not only to 
the towns, but envisages the setting up throughout 
the country of rural communes which would replace 
the old tribes or divisions of tribes, and would be 
run by elected councils. At the time of writing this 
law has not yet been promulgated. It seems to be 
inspired in large measure by the dahir of 6 July 
1951, which set up elected "diamd'as" with power 
of vote, usually within the framework of the tribe 
or tribal division. 

In Algeria, the municipal organisation reproduces, 
in the towns and villages, the system in force in 
France. The old "mixed communes" administered 
by officials appointed by the government and 
subordinate to the sub-prefects have everywhere 
been replaced by "communes with full powers". 
Bibliography: Emmanuel Durand, Traiti de 

droit public marocain, Paris 1955. (A. Adam) 

(4) Persia 
In the 19th and early 20th century the chief city 
official after the governor was the beglerbegi; under 
him were the ddriigha and kaldntar; and over each 
of the quarters in the larger cities was a kadkhudd. 
In the bazaar the craft guilds enjoyed a considerable 
degree of autonomy in internal affairs. The streets 
of the city were narrow, mostly unpaved, muddy in 
winter, dusty in summer, and unlit at night. There 
was, however, little demand for municipal reform 
and even after the grant of the constitution in 1906 
scant attention was paid to the establishment of 
municipalities on modern lines. A Municipal Law 
was passed on 20 Rabl< II 1325/2 June 1907 but 
remained largely in abeyance owing to the fact that 
inadequate financial provisions had been made for 
municipal development. In 1919 during the premier- 
ship of Sayyid Diya> al-Din Tabatabal a commission 
was set up to evolve a scheme for a municipality 
for Tehran on modern lines but proved abortive 
(J. M. Balfour, Recent Happenings in Persia, London 
1922, 240). In 1922 Dr. Ryan, an American, was 
engaged as municipal adviser to Tehran; he died in 
1923 and was not replaced (A. C. Millspaugh, The 
American Task in Persia, New York and London 
1925, 21, 212). During the reign of Rida Shah 
(1925-41) considerable development took place in 
municipal affairs, and by 1927-8 there were some 
134 municipalities in existence. By the Municipal Law 
of 1309 P./1930 the head of the municipality (ra'is-i 
iddra-i baladiyya) was designated by the Ministry 
of the Interior. He was responsible for the execution 
of projects for municipal development and municipal 
administration; his duties included the supervision 
of weights and measures, control of the guilds, and 
the regulation of food supplies, prices and rents. 
The law also provided for an elected municipal 
council of 6-12 members. Its term of office was two 
years; its duties were to supervise the activities of 



the municipality, approve the municipal budget, 
and propose through the head of the municipality 
to the Ministry of the Interior the levy of municipal 
dues. Much progress was made in the field of town 
planning under Rida Shah but the high degree of 
centralisation and the close control of the Ministry 
of the Interior over municipal affairs meant that the 
local communities had little real responsibility for 
or control over municipal affairs. In 1328 P./1949 new 
legislation increased the size of the municipal 
council so that it was composed of 6-30 members and 
extended its term of office to four years. Its main 
functions were unchanged but its powers were 
somewhat increased. The head of the municipality 
was appointed by the Ministry of the Interior from 
among three candidates submitted by the council; 
he was dismissed in the event of the municipal 
council passing a vote of no confidence in him. The 
increase in the power of the municipal council was, 
however, offset by the fact that in the event of a 
disagreement between the governor-general and the 
municipal council the former could have recourse to 
the Ministry of the Interior whose decision in such 
a case was final. Subsequently modifications were 
made in the position of the municipality and the 
municipal council by Administrative Orders (ldyika-i 
kdniini) dated n Aban 1331 P./1952 and 25 Khurdad 
1332 P./1953 issued during the premiership of Dr. 
Musaddik, and the Law of 1 1 Tir 1334 P./1955. Insome 
respects the position of the municipal council was 
strengthened, but its freedom of action was limited 
by the fact that its dissolution could in certain 
circumstances be demanded by the Ministry of the 
Interior; in the event of there being no municipal 
council the Ministry of the Interior was deemed the 
council's successor. Under the Second Seven- Year 
Plan Law, approved in March 1956, Persia was 
divided into three areas for municipal development, 
for each of which a firm of consultants was allotted 
responsibility (F. C. Mason, Iran, Economic and 
Commercial Conditions in Iran, August 1957, HMSO 
'957, 74-5). The baladiyya became known during 
the reign of Rida Sh.ah as the shahrdari and the 
raHs-i baladiyya as the shahrddr. 

(A. K. S. Lambton) 
(5) India 
The indigenous village communities of India 
controlled by village councils or panidyats re- 
presented a form of local self-government but 
they had practically ceased to function during 
the anarchy accompanying the decline of the 
Mughal empire. Albuquerque, the Governor of the 
Portuguese possessions in India between 1509 and 
1515, had retained the existing village communities 
in his administration of Goa. In 1674 Gerald Aungier 
had also made use of the ancient panl&yats in 
Bombay. To a certain extent the panldyat system 
had survived in the territories of the Maratha 
Peshwa and traces were discernible elsewhere. This 
led Mountstuart Elphinstone in Bombay and 
Thomas Munro in Madras to advocate the preser- 
vation of these village councils where possible. 
Their representations however were little attended 
to and the institutions of local self-government 
introduced by the British in the middle of the nine- 
teenth century were of a foreign type. Until the 
introduction of the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms in 
1919 they resembled the French rather than the 
British system, for the district officer of British 
India like, the French prefect of a department, 
rigorously controlled the provincial authorities. 



BALADIYYA 



979 



There was far too much official interference and 
British administrators aimed more at efficient local 
government under official control than any genuine 
system of local self-government under popular 
control. 

The development of municipal institutions under 
British rule began in the three Presidency towns 
of Madras, Bombay and Calcutta. As early as 1687, 
by order of the Court of Directors of the East India 
Company, a municipal corporation and mayor's 
court were established in Madras. Similar bodies 
were set up in Calcutta and Bombay in 1726. These 
courts however were intended to exercise judicial 
rather than administrative functions. By the 
Charter Act of 1793 the governor-general was author- 
ised to appoint justices of the peace for the municipal 
administration of the Presidency towns. In addition 
to their judicial duties they were to appoint watch- 
men and scavengers and levy a sanitary rate for this 
purpose. This worked with a certain amount of 
success in Bombay but not in Calcutta or Madras. 
The justices of the peace were government nominees 
and it was not until 1872 that the ratepayers of the 
Presidency towns were allowed to elect their own 
representatives. 

Between 1842 and 1863 a series of regulations 
extended municipal institutions to other towns. 
After the 1861 Councils' Act municipal government 
was remodelled by the local legislatures. The need 
for associating Indians in local self-government was 
laid down by a resolution of Lord Mayo's govern- 
ment. The governor-generalship of Lord Ripon 
(1880-84) witnessed a great extension of local self- 
government which it was hoped would be a means 
of political education for Indians. At the same time 
rural boards, similar to the municipal boards, 
extended the system to the rural areas. It was not 
until the introduction of dyarchy under the Montagu- 
Chelmsford reforms that local bodies were handed 
over to popular control and elected ministers became 
responsible for the administration of local self- 
government. 

Bibliography: J. G. Drummond, Panchayats 
in India, Bombay 1937; W. S. Goode, Municipal 
Calcutta, Edinburgh 1916; Imperial Gazetteer of 
India, vol. iv, Ch. ix (1909); J. H. Lindsay, 
Cambridge History of India, vol. vi, Ch. xxviii 
(1932); R. P. Masani, Evolution of Local Self- 
Government in Bombay, Bombay 1929; K. P. K. 
Pillay, Local Sclf-Government in the Madras 
Presidency 1850-1919 in Journal Local Self- 
Government Institute Bombay, 1951-52; H. 
Tinker, The Foundations of Local Self-Government 
in India, Pakistan and Burma, London 1954. 
(C. Collin Davies) 
(6) Malaya and Singapore 
The municipalities in Malaya, as in other parts of 
the British Commonwealth, are adapted from the 
local government system of England. The first ap- 
pearance of such institutions in the area took place 
in the Straits Settlements of Malacca, Penang and 
Singapore. In 1827 the genesis of municipal insti- 
tutions in the Straits Settlements was introduced 
in the form of a Local Committee concerned with 
the management of roads and drainage in Penang. 
This was soon followed by similar Committees in 
Singapore and Malacca. In 1856 the Government of 
India (East India Co.) enacted a law for the esta- 
blishment of Municipal Commissions of the three 
'stations' of Singapore, Malacca and the Prince of 
Wales Island (Penang). In 1858 the meetings were 



held twice monthly and were open to the public. The 
Municipal Commissions of the station of the Prince 
01 Wales Island (Penang) became the Municipal Com- 
mission of George Town in 1888. By the turn of the 
century there were three Municipal Commissions for 
the town of Singapore, George Town in Penang and 
the town and fort of Malacca. Each Commission had 
a full time president appointed by the governor and 
a number of official members and non-official mem- 
bers who were chosen in the early stages by electoral 
procedure. This procedure was later restricted to 
only half the commissioners leaving the other half 
to be nominated by the governor. By 1913 when the 
Municipal Ordinance of the Straits Settlements was 
enacted electoral procedure was completely aban- 
doned and all the commissioners were nominated to 
represent local opinion, business associations and 
religious or racial groups. The system of nomination 
continued until after the Second World War when 
the electoral procedure was re-introduced first in 
Singapore (1949) and later in Penang and Malacca. 
At this stage only two thirds of the commissioners 
were elected by general adult suffrage. By 1957 the 
Municipal Commissions became City Councils 
(Madilis Bandar Ra'aya) in Singapore and George 
Town which had become cities with fully elected 
councillors who in their turn elected their president 
who is styled 'mayor' (dato' bandar). 

The Municipal Ordinance of the Straits Settle- 
ments stipulated that a member of a Municipal 
Commission must be able to speak and read English 
since it was the language officially recognised. This 
stipulation together with the system of nominating 
commissioners tended to reduce public interest in 
the affairs of the Council. After 1957 the Chinese, 
Tamil and Malay languages were recognised as offi- 
cial languages together with English for the purposes 
of the Sintapore Council meetings. In Malacca and 
Penang Malay, the national language of the Fede- 
ration of Malaya, was also recognised with English. 
This helped to break the barriers between the pu- 
blic and the Council and it opened the door to 
the non-English educated members of the community 
to stand for election with accompanying tendencies 
towards radicalism. 

The Municipalities of Singapore, George Town and 
the town and fort of Malacca have always exercised 
all functions expected of a local authority. In ad- 
dition to this they were allowed to own undertakings 
for the supply of water, gas and electricity. 

With the spread of British administration into 
the Malay States and the peninsula another type of 
local government emerged. This was called the Town 
Board. It was first established in the Federated 
Malay States of Perak, Negri Sembilan and Pahang. 
The non-federated Malay States adopted similar 
institutions with local modifications in nomenclature 
and powers. It must be noted that the Town Boards 
were less of a local government and more of a central 
government functioning locally. They were totally 
dependent upon the authority of the State and all 
their employees were officers of the State. Unlike 
the Municipal Commission they were not legally 
independent of the central government but agents 
of it. The president and the members were appointed 
by the central authority for an indefinite period 
and not for four years as was the case with the Muni- 
cipal Commission. Again at variance with the Muni- 
cipal Commissions Town Boards extended their 
authorities beyond the boundaries of the towns to 
the neighbouring villages. 

The first attempt at the creation of municipalities 






BALADIYYA 



in the true sense within the Malay States came after 
the establishment of the Federation of Malaya in 
1948. The Municipal Ordinance of the Straits Settle- 
ments was enacted for the whole Federation which 
by now comprised the nine Malay States together 
with the Settlements of Penang and Malacca. Singa- 
pore was left out of the Federation. In the same 
year the Town Board of Kuala Lumpur, the Federal 
capital, was transformed into a municipality. It re- 
tained its former responsibilities including those of 
the administration of the outlying villages around 
it. A distinction however was made between an inner 
municipal area and an outer municipal area. The 
former referring to the town proper and the latter 
to the villages around it. From then onwards changes 
began to take place. Town Boards became Town 
Councils (Madjlis Bandaran). Electoral Procedure 
was introduced. Greater authority was vested in 
these Councils and great interest in local affairs 
became apparent. In fact local elections in Malaya 
have become equal in importance to their counter- 
parts in other highly developed countries in the sense 
that they have become a testing ground for the op- 
posing national political parties. 

At present Municipalities (Berbandaran) in the 
Federation of Malaya are still in a state of transition. 
The Municipal Ordinance is not fully implemented 
all over the Federation. (Apart from George Town 
City Council and the Municipalities of Kuala Lumpur 
and Malacca 27 of the larger towns in the Federation 
have elected Town Councils, 12 of which are finan- 
cially autonomous and the others are moving in the 
same direction.) It is expected that the Ordinance 
will be emended to give greater scope for local varia- 
tions retaining however the basic essentials of a 
modern municipality. 

Bibliography: For the origin and early deve- 
lopment of municipalities in Malaya see Buckley, 
C. Burton, History of Singapore, Singapore 1902; 
Records of the East India Co., especially B. Pub., 
Range 12, Vol. 69, 30 Oct. 1832, B. Pub., Range 
13, Vol. 27, 2 May 1838, B. Pub., Range 13, Vol. 
77, 13 June 1849, B. Pub., Range 13, Vol. 79. '7 
Oct. 1849, P.P. Command Papers 3672, Vol. LII, 
1866. For information relevant to the develop- 
ment and working of municipal institutions up 
to 1948, see W. C. Taylor, Local Government in 
Malaya. This book gives invaluable information 
as to the working of the Municipal Commissions, 
particularly that of Penang and other local govern- 
ment institutions in Malaya up to the time of 
its writing. See also: D. K. Walters, Municipal 
Ordinance of the Straits settlements (Annotated); 
Report of the Committee on local Government 1956 
(Colony of Singapore); Report on the reform of 
local Government 1952 (Colony of Singapore) ; 
Report on the introduction of elections in the munil 
cipality of George Town, Penang, 195 1; Annua- 
reports of the straits settlements and the Malay 
States, prior to 1948. For references relevant to 
the present functioning and structure of munici- 
palities in Malaya see Fact sheets on the Federa- 
tione of Malaya, No. 5, Nov. 1957; Colony of Sin- 
gapore Government gazette supplement, No. 23 and 
No. 24, 1957; Singapore legislative assembly select 
committee on Local Government Bill, Report NO. 
L.A. 10, 1957; Municipal ordinance (extended ap- 
plication) ordinance 1948 (Federation of Malaya). 
Secondary sources: S. VV. Jones, Public admini- 
stration in Malaya, Oxford. 

(M. A. Zaki Badawi) 



(7) Indonesia 

We do not know much about political life or the 
kind of government in the ancient pre-Islamic cities 
and towns of Indonesia, either in such royal centres 
as the capitals of old Mataram or later Modjopahit, 
or in commercial urban centres like Tuban, Gresik 
or Palembang. 

There is no evidence, up to now, that there ever 
was any form of really local government or auto- 
nomy vested in locally-rooted public institutions. 
When, from the 7th/i3th century onwards, Islam 
gradually penetrated almost the whole of Sumatra 
and Java and in many other regions of the archi- 
pelago, this lack of local public institutions in the 
towns and cities (neither big nor numerous) conti- 
nued. Both European and non-European sources of 
the 16th and 17th centuries tell us that the inhabi- 
tants of cities or urban emporia were ruled by ser- 
vants of the sultans or princes and that their towns 
never were considered to be a juridical entity. 
Neither in remote past nor in more recent times 
did the indigenous towns of Indonesia have any 
creative influence on the development of law as did 
the towns and cities of Western Europe, through 
their law-giving authorities or special municipal 

In towns that came to be ruled by the Dutch 
East Indian Company or were founded by this 
chartered body (as Batavia) some urban institutions 
of 17th century Western type were created, of which 
the weeskamer (council for the affairs of orphans) 
perhaps may be mentioned because it has survived 
the Company itself. It reappears in the general legis- 
lation of the 19th and 20th century on the civil 
law of Europeans and non- Indonesian inhabitants 
of the archipelago. 

When after the downfall of the Company and 
after the end of the British interregnum these islands 
became a part of the new kingdom of the Netherlands 
(1816) a highly centralised and exclusively official 
system of government was introduced. This system 
remained unaltered until the end of the 19th century, 
when under the influence of prominent colonial spe- 
cialists some ideas of "decentralisation" began to 
carry the day. Though in 1894 and in following years 
several bills were conceived — which did not pass the 
parliament — it was not before 1903 that the so-called 
Indische decentralisatiewet (Act for decentralisation) 
was promulgated. 

This act had a double aim: first, to pave the way 
for the creation of local and regional public councils ; 
secondly to procure the financial means to be used 
by these councils. (The regional councils will not be 
dealt with here). So this act did not aim at reforms 
in the great diversity of Indonesian rural and truly 
indigenous institutions: in that field everything 
continued to be founded on customary law ('ddat) 
and special legal regulations made' for it. This new 
chapter of the legislation prescribed (inter alia) how 
to set up urban municipalities. 

Large cities, like Batavia (now Jakarta, Djakarta), 
Surabaya, Semarang, Bandung and many other 
places of urban character as well, were westernised 
in many respects. The great majority of Europeans 
and Chinese, and several other non-Indonesian groups 
lived there; even the Indonesian inhabitants often 
were of different origin, l ddat and language. Western 
business and industrial activity had its headquarters 
there. In these great half-western, half-eastern ag- 
glomerations the usual problems that are to be found 
in big cities everywhere were encountered. They 



BALADIYYA — BALAGHA 



981 



could be better served and solved by municipal 
authorities and services than by the general civil 
service officials of the central government. Further 
legislative measures, issued by the governor general 
in 1905, carried out what the fundamental act aimed 
at, and Batavia became a municipality. In its ini- 
tial phase the members of its municipal council 
were appointed by the governor-general and not 

The resident of Batavia wis officially the council's 
chairman. Meester-Cornelis and Buitenzorg (now 
Djatinegara and Bogor) also obtained municipal 
councils in 1905. This new system gradually deve- 
loped so that all the cities and big towns in Java 
as well as many towns elsewhere (Medan, Pama- 
tangsiantar, Padang, Makassar, Menado, etc.) be- 
came municipalities, while since 1918 the members 
of these councils could be elected by qualified in- 
habitants. 

Since 1925 every male citizen of an urban muni- 
cipality in Java who had attained his majority, had 
a yearly income of at least 300 guilders, and could 
read and write in Dutch, Malay or any vernacular, 
was given the vote. In the outer provinces other 
rules might be in force. These new urban munici- 
palities were made corporate bodies. The rather limi- 
ted activities of urban municipalities comprised such 
items as roads, streets, parks, sewage-systems, fire- 
service, public utility works, public health service 
and so on. Municipal regulations could be made. 
In 1916 a new ordinance enabled the government 
to appoint burgomasters (burgemeesters) for those 
cities or towns that were deemed to need such an 
official (as in the Netherlands, the burgomaster was 
to be appointed by the central government). Their 
salaries were paid by the central government; a 
percentage of it was to be reimburred by the muni- 
cipal treasury. As these urban municipalities were 
considered western- type enclaves in the territory 
of 'ddat law it seemed convenient, at least during 
the first two decades of their existence, to appoint 
only European burgomasters. The wethouders (alder- 
men) were chosen by the council from among its 
own members. They formed under the chairman- 
ship of the burgomaster the executive committee 
of the council. Only in the last decade before the 
second world war did the government start appoin- 
ting Indonesians as burgomaster. • ■■' 

In the present Republic of Indonesia the prin- 
ciple of decentralisation as well as that of autonomy 
and local government is maintained in article 131 
of its provisional constitution. New legislative mea- 
sures however to give practical effect to this prin- 
ciple are not yet in force. For Java at least, an act 
of 1948 (nr. 22) promulgated by the former republic 
of Indonesia (vulgo: the Jogja-republic) has syste- 
matised the autonomous parts of the territory in 
three ranks: 1) provinces, 2) kabupaten or regencies 
and big cities 3) small urban municipalities and rural 
unities. As a consequence of article 142 of the above- 
mentioned provisional constitution (undang-undang 
dasar Republik Indonesia, promulgated 17 August 
1950) all earlier regulations not explicitly abolished 
or altered are to be considered as decrees or regu- 
lations of the republic. So the essentials of the pre- 
war legislation as to urban municipalities are still 
in force, although the burgomasters are now offi- 
cially called walikota, and the municipal council 
has influence on the appointment of these magistrates 
while the members of the councils are to be elected 
by all inhabitants of both sexes who have passed 
their 18th birthday or married at an earlier date. 



(The special and temporary situation in Jakarta 
where the 24 members of the council are appointed 
by the government, need not be discussed here). 
Bibliography: Ph. Kleintjes, Staatsinstellingen 
van Nederlands-Indie, 5th edition (1929), vol. ii, 
chapter XIX; H. Westra, De Nederlandsch-In- 
dische staatsregeling, 2nd edition (1934) 218 ff. ; 
J. H. Logemann, Het Staatsrecht van Indonesia, 
1954, 158-192; A. A. Schiller, The formation of 
federal Indonesia, 1955, 138-147. (J. Prins) 

BALAGHA (>.), Abstract noun, from baligh 
effective, eloquent (from balagha "to attain some- 
thing"), meaning therefore eloquence. It presup- 
poses fasdha, purity and euphony of language, but 
goes beyond it in requiring, according to some of the 
early definitions, the knowledge of the proper 
connexion and separation of the phrase, clarity, and 
appropriateness to the occasion. Even though those 
definitions are not infrequently attributed to foreign 
nations such as the Persians, Greeks or Indians, 
the demand for skill in improvisation and the recur- 
ring references to the khafib (or orator) in connexion 
with the discussion of the concept make it abund- 
antly clear that it originated in the Arabian milieu. 
The transfer of the concept to the written word and 
hence to literary criticism and, beyond this, its 
widening to denote a three-pronged science are the 
essential facts in the rather complicated history of 

Grammar and lexicology, the primary concerns 
of the early critic, became in the course of the ninth 
century, when stylistic perfection had been accepted 
as a desideratum in official pronouncements, integral 
parts of the education of the kdtib. The period 
appreciated systemisation not excluding the analysis 
of aesthetic experience. Acquaintance with the 
conceptual apparatus of Greek thought assisted 
in the articulation of critical insights even though 
the impulse toward a theory of balagha, or aesthetic 
effectiveness on the verbal level, seems to have been 
germane to the Arab tradition which was then 
stimulated by an increased interest in structure and 
development of poetry and by the need to rationalise 
the aesthetic implications of the theological postulate 
of the uniqueness (i'Udx) of the Kur'an. The motivat- 
ion for the first work exclusively devoted to certain 
formal characteristics of artistic expression, the 
Kitdb al-Badi 1 of Ibn al-Mu c tazz (written in 887/88 ; 
ed. I. Kratchkovsky, London 193s), was the justi- 
fication of the 'new' or 'modem' style, al-badl c [q.v.], 
of which the second half of the ninth century had 
witnessed the victorious surge. This justification Ibn 
al-Mu c tazz sought to accomplish by means of the 
proof that the figures of speech whose generous 
employment appears to have been the most promi- 
nent (and hence the most frequently criticised) 
feature of the modernistic style in the eyes of the 
public, were without exception traceable in the Holy 
Book as well as in classical literature. The reason 
why Ibn al-Mu c tazz divided the eighteen figures of 
which he furnishes examples into the two categories of 
badi' (fivj kinds) and mahdsin (thirteen) still eludes 
us. We know, however, that the second part of his 
work (which deals with the mahdsin) was added by 
the author after the first had encountered a certain 
amount of criticism. (W. Caskel, in OLZ, 1938, 146-47, 
sees the rationale for the distinction in the fact that 
it was only in the employment of the badi 1 figures 
that 'modem' poetry differed from the classical 
tradition.) 

The use of the notion of the 'rhetorical figure' in 
the interpretation of the Kur'an antedates the work 



of Ibn al-Mu c tazz; the method is fully developed in 
Ibn Kutayba's (d. 889) Ta'wil mushkil al-Kur'dn 
(ed. A. Saqr, Cairo 1373); this fact may help us to 
understand why the doctrine of tropes and figures 
was the earliest aspect of baldgha to attract syste- 
matic investigation. 

Kudama b. Dja'far's (d. 922 ?) Nakd al-ShiH- is 
inspired by another tendency; Kudama searches for 
an objective standard in the evaluation of poetry. 
Rhetorical figures are only one of the elements 
with which the poet and his critic have to deal. 
Like many of his Arab and Greek predecessors 
Kudama was led, especially in his discussion of the 
defects of poetry, into problems that to our mind 
come within the purview of grammar and logic. 
The orderly fashion in which he coordinates the 
several viewpoints may have contributed to the 
three-fold structuring of the Him al-baldgha at 
which the scholastic age of Muslim critical thought 
was to arrive. Not much later than Kudama one 
Ishak b. Ibrahim b. Wahb, a kdtib, wrote (in or after 
335/946-7) the Kitdb al-Burhdn ft teudjuh al-bayan 
(identical with the Kitdb Nakd al-nathr that had 
been attributed variously to Kudama and to Abu 
'Abdallah Muhammad b. Ayyub al-Ghafikl, d. 1262; 
it awaits publication; it is known only through an 
article of 'AH Hasan c Abd al-Kadir, RAAD, 1949, 
73-81; cf. the discussion of the problem by S. A. 
Bonebakker in the introduction to his edition of 
Nakd al-Shi<r, Leiden 1956, 15-20). Isfcak continues 
the discussion of 'the various ways of expressing 
things which Djahi?, Kitdb al-bayan wa'l-tabyin, 
had initiated; he criticises the limitations of his 
predecessors and, from our point of view,, indicates 
one of the directions in which the final systemisation 
of baldgha was to occur. This system slowly takes 
shape in works like the Kitdb al-sind'atayn of Abu 
Hilal al- c Askari (d. 1005). 

The struggle between the Ancients and the 
Moderns which dominates literary life from the 
middle of the ninth to the close of the eleventh 
century kept the interest in stylistic analysis alive. 
Toward the end of this period, c Abd al-Kahir al- 
Diurdiani (d. 1078) refined to a degree never reached 
by any Arab (or Persian) critic before or after him 
the comprehension of the psychological roots of the 
aesthetic effect. In his Asrdr al-Baldgha (ed. H. 
Ritter, Istanbul 1954) his principal concern is with 
simile, metaphor and analogy — later to become the 
domain of the Him al-bayan. Diurdiani succeeded in 
explaining the (logical and) psychological foundations 
of the aesthetics implicit in the aspirations especially 
of the later phases of Arabic (and Persian and 
Turkish) poetry. His is the merit of having been the 
first to investigate the 'fantastic aetiology', the very 
life of Persian poetry in particular (although its 
technical designation, husn al-taHil, is found only 
more than a century later in Sakkaki). Djurdjanl's 
other important work, DaldHl al-i'-dxdz, unquestion- 
ably spurred the rise of the Him al-ma c dni as an 
integral part of rhetoric. 

After Djurdjanl the scholastics hold the field. In 
the third part of his encyclopaedia of the sciences, 
Miftdh al-Htlim, Sakkaki (d. 1226 or 1229), gives the 
Him al-baldgha the organisation which it was to retain 
to the present. In his treatment it comprises three 
branches: the Him al-ma'-dni, 'notions', dealing with 
the different kinds of sentence and their use; the 
Him al-baydn, 'modes of presentation', with the art 
of expressing oneself eloquently and without 
ambiguity — both are concerned with the relation of 
thought to "xpression and with the different ways to 



express the 'same' idea which the poet or writer has 
at his disposal; one must never forget that the Him 
al-baldgha as all Arab literary theory is primarily a 
Kunsttehre, an ars dicendi, and not an aesthetics in 
Plato's or our own sense, i.e., a SchSnheitslehre. (At 
this point a distinct analogy may be drawn to Muslim 
treatment of political theory which, conspicuous 
exceptions such as Mawardl's (d. 1058) al-Ahkdm 
al-sul(dniyya notwithstanding, is concerned with the 
conduct of the ruler and his administrators rather 
than with the nature of kingship and administration). 
The third branch is the Him al-badi ( which deals 
with the embellishment of speech and defines a 
large number of tropes classifying them in general 
on the ancient model in cx^aTix Stavota?, ma'nawl, 
and X££eco<;, lafzi. 

A tendency to proliferation of the figures identified 
is unmistakable. Where Sakkaki (and his comment- 
ators al-Kazwinl, better known as khafib Dimtshk 
(d. 1338), and al-Taftazani (d. 1389), whose, works 
Talkhis al-Miftdh, and Mukhtasar al-Talkhls, have 
come to supersede Sakkaki's as the standard text- 
books of rhetoric) list thirty ma'nawi figures (some 
subdivided further) and seven laffi, Ibn Kayyim al- 
Djawziyya (d. 1350), Kitdb al-FawdHd has eighty- 
four maHtawi alone. 

The Mu'djam ft ma'-dyir ash'dr al-'Adjam of the 
Persian ghams-i Kays (//. 1204-30) is the first and a 
fairly successful attempt to apply Sakkaki's system 
to a literature other than Arabic. 

A contemporary of Sakkaki's commentators, 
Safl al-DIn al-HUH (d. 1349), inaugurated the 
fashion of the so-called badiHyya, a poem composed 
to illustrate the various figures of speech. The genre 
whose most celebrated representative is perhaps the 
BadiHyya of Ibn Hidjdja al-HamawI (d. 1434) has 
been cultivated down to quite modern times. 

It is difficult to find the Hellenising strain in the 
theory of baldgha its proper place in this presentation ; 
for with the significant exception of Kudama (cf. 
Bonebakker, op. cit., 36-44) it has always remained 
on the edge of the developmental sequence. Both the 
Poetics and the Rhetoric of Aristotle found trans- 
lators; the translation of the Poetics by the Nestorian, 
Abu Bishr Matta b. Yunus (d. 940), has found three 
editors (Margoliouth, Oxford 1887; Tkatsch, Vienna 
1928-32; <Abd al- Rahman Badawl, Cairo 1953), that 
of the Rhetoric has remained unpublished. Concern 
for these works has been confined to the faldsifa. 
Avicenna included an abridgement of the Rhetoric in 
the section on logic of his Shifd' (ed. S. Salim, Cairo 
1954) and Averroes summarised the Poetics (edd. F. 
Lasinio, Pisa 1872; c Abd al- Rahman Badawl, Cairo 
1953)- But the literary background that served as the 
vantage-point for Aristotle's ideas remained alien to 
the mediaeval Muslim. Respect for the protophilo- 
sopher rather than a desire to influence Arab lite- 
rature or the reduction to theory of its techniques 
and aspirations motivated such occasional studies 
as were accorded those much-ijksunderstood works. 
What Averroes observed with regard to Greek epic 
narrative in metrical form (in connexion with 
Poetics xxiii), that "all this is peculiar to them (i.e., 
the Greeks) and nothing like it is to be found among 
ourselves", could fairly be extended to the tradition 
of Greek literature and its theory as a whole — even 
though a good many motifs, conventions and 
definitions of tropes did find their way (in contrast 
to other Greek bequests apparently not through the 
mediation of the Syriac tradition) into Arabic 
literature and theory. 

Bibliography : A. F. von Mehren, Die Rhetorik 



- BALAKLAVA 



983 



der Arabcr, Copenhagen and Vienna 1853, with 
extracts from al-Suyups (d. 1505) versified 
presentation ( Ukud al-Diumdn; Bonebakker's 
introduction to his ed. of Nakd al-Ski'r; Ritter's 
introduction to his ed. of Asr&r al-Baldgha; 
HadjdjI Khalifa, Kashf al-Zunun (Fliigel), ii, 
34-39; G. E. von Grunebaum, A Tenth-Century 
Document of Arabic Literary Theory and Criticism, 
Chicago 1950; JNES 1944, 235-53; Journal of 
Comparative Literature 1952, 323-40 (German tr. 
Kritik und Dichtkunst, Wiesbaden 1955, 101-29. 
130-50); Indiana University Conference on Oriental- 
Western Literary Relations, Chapel Hill., N.C., 
1955. 27-46; J. Kraemer, ZDMG 1956, 259-316 
(where most of the older literature on the 'Hel- 
lenisers' is referred to; additions, ZDMG 1957, 511- 
518. (A. Schaade-[G. E. von Grunebaum]) 

BALAK, NCR al-Dawla Balak b. BahrAh b. 
Artus, one of the first Artukids, known chiefly as a 
tough warrior. He appears in history in 489/1096 as 
commander of Sarudj on the Middle Euphrates. This 
locality being taken from him by the Crusaders in 
the following year, and his uncle IlghazI having been 
appointed governor of 'Irak by SulfSn Muhammad, 
he accompanied him, and is found in the following 
years struggling vainly for the little towns of 'Ana 
and Haditha, against Arabs, or protecting the 
Baghdad-Iran road from the attacks of Kurds and 
Turkomans. After Ilghazi's disgrace in 498/1105 he 
returned to Diyar Bakr, the headquarters of the 
family, as did his uncle, and in 11 10 accompanied 
him on an expedition in Syria in which Sukman al- 
Kutbl of Akhlat also took part. On IlghazI and 
Sukman's quarrelling he was carried off a prisoner by 
the latter. He was soon set free on the death of 
Sukman, and in 1113 took advantage of the death 
of the Turkoman chief Djabuk to occupy Palu on 
the eastern Euphrates (Murad Sfl). The princess 
mother of Tughril-Arslan, the young Saldjukid of 
Malatya, who had need of a protector against the 
Saldjukid of Konya Mas'ud, married Balak, making 
him the young prince's atabeg. Strengthened by this 
alliance, Balak was now able to take the Khanzit 
with its chief settlement the stronghold of Khartpert, 
which remained his chief residence (about 1115). 
The encroachments which he made on the territory 
of Mengiidjek in the north led him into a war against 
the latter and his ally Gavras, the Byzantine duke 
of Trebizond; with the help of the Danishmandid 
Giimushtakin he crushed them (1118), and incorpor- 
ated in his principality the little tributary valleys 
on the right of the Murad SO as far as Tshimishkezek 
and Mizgard, while in the meantime his protegi 
Tughril-Arslan had taken the province of Djahan, 
towards Mar'ash, from the Armenian vassals of the 
Franks of Edessa. In 516/1122 he attacked Gerger 
on the Euphrates, and won military glory by 
capturing in quick succession Count Joscelin of 
Edessa and King Baldwin II of Jerusalem who 
had hastened to its relief. After the death of IlghazI, 
who had become master of Aleppo, one faction in 
this town considered Balak a better man to oppose 
the Franks than the sluggish Badr al-Dawla Sulay- 
man, the dead man's son; Balak laid claim to the 
succession, by a combination of plunder and cunning 
occupied the town, and at once attacked the 
Frankish territories east of the Orontes. He then 
learnt that with the help of local Armenians his 
Frankish prisoners at Khartpert had risen and 
seized the fortress; hastening back he recaptured it 
and executed them without mercy, with the except- 
ion of Joscelin, who escaped, and Baldwin, whom 



he held for ransom. It seems that the Shl'Is of 
Aleppo then tried to shake off his overlordship in 
his absence; he took measures against them, and 
exiled their chief Ibn al-Khashshab. To strengthen 
his hold on the district of Aleppo he attacked the too 
independent Turkish governor of Manbidj, who 
called on Joscelin for assistance. He defeated Joscelin, 
but was killed by an arrow during the siege (518/1124). 
After his death Khartpert soon passed into the 
control of his cousin Da'ud of Hisn-Kayfa, whose 
son married Balak's daughter and only heiress. 

Balak is hardly known except for his martial 
exploits. The most one can add is that he lessened 
the effect of his depredations on enemy lands by 
making forced transplantations of peasants, who 
brought the conquered lands back to productivity 
again. He was still basically a Turkoman chief, but 
endowed with a striking personality which made 
him in his last days one of the first champions of 
the Muslim revival against the Crusaders. 

Bibliography: The sources are the same as 
those for the general history of Syria and Meso- 
potamia in the period in question, and more 
particularly for Irak Ibn al-Attilr, for Upper 
Mesopotamia the same writer and Ibn al-Azrak 
(unpublished), for Syria Ibn al-KalanlsI and Ibn 
Abl Tayyi (in Ibn al-Furat, unpublished); apart 
from these, the Frankish historians of the Crusade, 
Orderic Vitalis (ed. le Prevost), the Armenian 
Matthew of Edessa and the Michael the Syrian 
(ed. trans. Chabot). Among modern works see 
the histories of the Crusades, esp. Grousset, i; 
C. Cahen, Syrie du Nord a I'ipoque des Croisades, 
1940 (with study of sources), and by the same 
scholar, Diyar Bakr au temps des premiers Urtukides, 
in J A, 1935. See also J. Sauvaget, La tombe de 
I'Artukide Balak in Ars Islamica v-2, 1938, and the 
article Artukids. (Cl. Cahen) 

BALAK b. §AfCN. [sx c upj b. 'ana*]. 
BALAKLAVA, in the Tatar language BaUklava 
(with the folk -etymological meaning of "fishery", 
"fishing-place"), a small port in the Crimea, on a 
deep inlet of the Black Sea. Balaklava, which is not 
visible from the open sea, lies 16 km. south of 
Sevastopol'. 

The town was known to the Greek geographers 
(Strabo, etc.) under the name of Palakion on the 
sea-inlet 2ufi[i6>.cov AtfiTjv and was inhabited by 
Taurians, who used it also as a place of refuge. It 
came later under Roman and Byzantine rule and 
during the 9th-i3th centuries acted as the centre of 
a modest exchange-trade with the Russians. The 
Genoese settled here in about 1360 and founded a 
Roman Catholic bishopric; the entire southern shore 
of the Crimea as far as Kaffa (Feodosiya) was made 
over to them by Byzantium in 1380. The town, at 
that time, bore the name of Cembalo (probably from 
Symbolon) and was strongly fortified; remnants of 
the walls were still to be seen in the 19th century. 
An attempt of the Greek inhabitants, in 1433-1434. 
to rid themselves of Genoese rule miscarried. 
Balaklava fell in 1475 under the control of the 
Crimean Tatars and remained so until 1783, forming 
the southern limit of their lands over against the 
territories under direct Ottoman rule (cf. Muhammad 
Rida, ed. Kazem-Beg, 92: with reference to a date 
c. 1540). The town, during this period, was only 
of commercial importance. The Tatars, who had 
gradually settled in the town, left it after its sub- 
jection to Russia (1783) and were replaced by 
Greeks from the Aegean Islands who, in the war of 
1768-1774, had joined the Russians. These people 



984 



BALAKLAVA — BAL'AMI 



formed a battalion of their own from 1795 to 1859. 
An engagement was fought near Balaklava on 25 
October 1854, during the Crimean War. Today 
Balaklava is a small market-town occupied with 
fishing and vine-growing. 

Bibliography: P. Koppen, Krimskiy Sbornik, 
St. Petersburg 1837, 210-227 (with a plan); V. 
Smirnov, KHmskoye Khanstvo ..... St. Petersburg 
1887, index; E. S. Zevakin and N. A. Pencko, Iz 
isiorii social' nikh otnosheniy v genuezskikjt koto- 
niyakh Sev. Priiemomofya v XV veke, in Istoriles- 
kiye Zapiski, 1940, no. 7; Brockhaus-Yefron, Enci- 
klopediieskiy Slovaf, vol. 4 (II A), St. Petersburg 
1891, 783 ff.; Bol'shaya Sovetskaya Enciklopediya", 
iv (1950), 102 ff. Cf. on Balaklava in ancient times 
Pauly-Wissowa, xvm/2 (1942), col. 2498 (Ernst 
Diehl) and 2nd Ser., vol. iv A I (= 7), (1931), col. 
1097 (E. Oberhummer — with a full discussion 
about the site). Cf. on Balaklava under Genoese 
rule B. Spuler, Die Goldene Horde, Leipzig 1943, 
240 ff., 267, and 395 ff. (with further biblio- 
graphical references). (B. Spuler) 
BAL'AM b. Ba'Or(a), Bil'am b. Be'or of the 
Hebrew Bible. The IJur'an does not mention him, 
unless perhaps in an allusion in vii, 175 [174]. 
r 76 [175]. The commentators and historians keep the 
main elements of the Biblical story in their ac- 
counts of him (Numbers xxii-xxiv, xxxi, 3) and 
following the Jewish Aggada which likewise has 
given other features of his portrait, make him 
responsible for the fornication of the Israelites with 
the daughters of Moab and Midian (Numbers xxv) ; 
note that he tends to absorb the figure of Balak, 
who appears rarely in the Muslim sources. Some 
traditions deviate from the Hebrew sources in 
making Bal'am an Israelite or in dating him in the 
time of Joshua, an anachronism which despite 
Sidersky does not go back to a Samaritan tradition. 
— The statements of the tafsir on Kur'an vii, 
175 [174] are used by the mystics, at least since 
MuhasibI, to make of Bal'am the prototype of the 
spiritual man led astray by lust and pride. — The 
Ps.-Balkhi attributes to Bal'am somewhat confused 
philosophical views on the eternity of the world. — 
On the identification of Bal'am with Lufcman 
(a tradition taken up by Petrus Alphonsi) see EI 1 , 

Bibliography: R. Blachere, Le Coran, 649-650 ; 

Ibn Kutayba, Ma'arif, 21; MuhasibI, Ri'-aya, 

256 ff., 282; Tabari, i ( 508-510; idem, Tafsir, ix, 

76 ff.; Mas'udI, Murudf, i, 99-100; Ps.-Balkhi, al- 

Bad> wa 'l-Ta'rikh, i, 51/53, 75/77, 91/90, 141/130, 

145/134; Tha'labi, Mrd'ts al-Madj.dlis, 133, 196; 

Kisal, Vita Prophetarum, 227;- Ghazzall, lhya>, 

iv, 293; Petrus Alphonsi, PL, clviii, 673; 

Sidersky 104-108 (on the Samaritan connexion, 

Chronicon Samaritanum, ed. Th. W. J. Juynboll, 

Leiden 1848, 3/133-8/138). (G. Vajda) 

BAL'AMl, the nisba, *.«., generic name, of two 

Samanid wazirs, father and son, of whom the latter, 

as translator of the famous History of Tabari, is 

at present better known. The reference of the name 

is uncertain. Sam'ani {Kitab al-Ansab, fol. 90 r.) 

mentions the explanation of Ibn Makula (Brockel- 

mann, I, 354) that it is from Bal'am, 'a town in the 

land of the Greeks' (balad min diydr al-Rum), not 

otherwise known, but which is perhaps the same as 

'Balaam', mentioned by Priscus (Excerpta de 

Legationibus, ed. Bonn, 165) in A.D. 472, or that it 

is from Bal'aman, a locality at Balashgird near Marw, 

the opinion of al-Ma'dani (cf. Sam'ani, fol. 536 r.). 

Both authorities indicate that the ancestor of the 



Bal'amls was an Arab tribesman of Tamlm in the 
early days of Islam, but by the former he is said to 
have accompanied Maslama b. 'Abd al-Malik and 
by the latter, Kutayba b. Muslim. 

(1) The father; Abu 'l-Fadl Muhammad b. 'Ubayd 
Allah (sometimes 'Abd Allah al-Bal'am! al-Ta- 
mIhI, is said by Sam'ani more than once (fols. 90 r. and 
262 v.) to have been wazir to the Samanid Ismail b. 
Ahmad (279-295/892-907), but there appear to be no 
notices of his activity until the reign of Nasr II b. 
Ahmad (301-331/913-942). He became wazir to Nasr 
probably about 310/922 (cf. Barthold, Turkestan, 241), 
his immediate predecessor having been, according to 
MukaddasI (337), Abu 'l-Fadl b. Ya'kub al-Naysaburi. 
In this year he was at Astarabad (Ibn al-Athir, 
viii, 96), and is thereafter mentioned repeatedly (Ibn 
al-Athir, viii, 196, 207, of. MukaddasI, 317), till he 
was replaced by the younger DjayhanI in 326/937-938 
(Ibn al-Athir, viii, 283, but cf. MukaddasI, 337). 
Istakhri (260) mentions his houses at Marw, and a 
gate in Bukhara was named after him, Bab al- 
Shaykh al-DjalU {ibid., 307), the same apparently 
as that which in later times was called 'Shaykh 
Djalal'. The sources agree as to his capacity, and he 
was a patron of men of learning. He is said by 
Sam'ani (fol. 262 verso) to have considered the poet 
RudagI without a peer among the Arabs and 
Persians. He died, according to Sam'ani (fol. 90 r.), 
in the night of 10 Safar 329/14 November 940. 

(2) Abu 'AlI Muhammad b. Muhammad al- 
Bal'amI, son of the foregoing, was appointed wazir to 
'Abd al-Malik I b. Nuh (343-350/954-961) towards the 
end of his reign through the influence of the hddjib 
Alptagin (Gardlzl, Zayn al-Akhbdr, ed. M. Na?im, E. 
G. Browne Memorial Series, 1928, 42). He did not 
inherit his father's* practical ability. MukaddasI (338) 
calls him Amlrak Bal'amI, with the diminutive, and 
mentions that he was twice wazir to 'Abd al-Malik's 
successor al-Mansiir I b. Nuh (350-366/961-976), from 
whom he received instructions in 352/963 (cf. Rieu, 
Catalogue of the Persian MSS. in the British Museum, 
i, 69) to compose the translation of Tabari which has 
made him famous. This is one of the earliest prose 
works in modern Persian and inaugurates the long 
and brilliant series of Persian historical writings. 

Bal'amI did not attempt to bring the history 
down to his own time. He omits the isndds (chains 
of authorities) and alternative versions of the same 
event characteristic of Tabari, presenting a conti- 
nuous account derived from these. The same method 
was followed by later Arabic historians such as Ibn 
al-Athir (cf. G. Weil, Geschichte der Caliphen, iii, 
X ff.). The result is a work substantially shorter than 
the original (4 volumes in Zotenberg's French 
translation and one volume in the Lucknow edition, 
as against the 15 volumes of the Leiden Tabari). Yet 
Bal'ami's History is not simply an abbreviation of 
Tabari. Occasionally he gives substantial additional 
information, as in the case of a series of episodes in 
the fighting between the Arabs and Khazars from 
104/722 onwards (text in B. Dom, Nachrichten 
uber die Chasaren, see Bibliography), the source of 
which appears to be the Kitab al-Futuh of Ibn 
A'tham al-Kufi (cf. Akdes Nimet Kurat, Abu Mu- 
hammad Ahmad bin A'sam al-Kuft'nin kitab al- 
futiihu, Ankara Oniv. Dil ve Tarih-cog. Fak. Der- 
gisi, 1949, 255-282; D. M. Dunlop, History of the 
Jewish Khazars, 58). Most surviving MSS. of Bal'amI 
represent a later redaction, the approximate date of 
which is indicated by a short appendix, giving a 
cursory account of the 'Abbasid Caliphs down to 
the death of al-Mustazhir and accession of al- 



BAL'AMI — BALANSIYA 



985 



Mustarshid (512/1118). According to B. Spuler (The 
Evolution of Persian Historiography), the translation 
of Tabari into Persian under the Samanids served 
no mere cultural purpose, but was intended to show 
the Persians that the destiny of their nation was 
linked with orthodox Islam. 

Bal'ami died, according to Gardlzi (ed. M. Nazim, 
46), in Djumada II, 363 (February 27th-March 27th, 
974). The much later date for his death indicated by 
c Utbi (Ta'rikh-i Yamini, ed. Cairo, A.H. 1286, i, 170), 
who says that he was appointed waiir by Nuh II b. 
Mansur for a short time after the fall of Bukhara in 
Rabi c I/382 May 992, seems less likely. 

Bibliography: Storey, 61-65, 1229; W. 
Barthold, Turkestan, index; Ta'rikh-i Jdbari, 
lithographed Lucknow, 1291/1874 (other Indian 
editions in Storey); B. Dorn, Beitrdge zur Ge- 
schichte der Kaukasischen Lander und VOlker, iv: 
Tabary's Nachrichten uber die Chasaren (text of 
Bal'ami with German translation and notes), 
Mem. Russ. Acad., 6th Series, Political Science etc., 
St. Petersburg, 1844, vi, 445-601; H. Zotenberg, 
Chronique de . . . Tabari traduite sur la version 
persane d'Abou-'-Ali Mo'-hammed BeV-ami, 4 vols., 
Paris, 1867-1874 (reprinted Paris, 1958). 

(D. M. Dunlop) 
BAL-'ANBAR. [see tamIm]. 
BALANDJAR. an important Khazar town, lying 
on a river of the same name, N. of the pass of Dar- 
band, i.e., Bab al-Abwab [q.v.], at the E. extremity of 
the Caucasus. Its site is probably to be identified 
with the ruins of Endere near Andreyeva. Balandjar 
appears to have been originally the group-name of 
its inhabitants (cf. Tabari, i, 894-896, and 'Barandjar' 
below). According to Mas'udi (al-Tanbih, 62), 
Balandjar was the Khazar capital before Atil [q.v.] 
on the Volga, but in the accounts which we have 
there is no evidence that this was so. Balandjar was 
the subject of repeated attacks by the Arabs in the 
first Arab-Khazar war, and in 32/652 underwent a 
full-scale siege, which ended disastrously for the 
assailants. It was again besieged by the Arabs under 
Pjarrah b. c Abd Allah al-Hakami in 104/722-723, 
and this time was captured. Most of the inhabitants 
are said to have emigrated. It is readily under- 
standable that many of them moved N. Two hundred 
years after this the traveller Ibn Fadlan (310/922) 
came across thousands of 'Barandjar' among the 
Volga Bulgars. According to the figures given by 
Ibn al-Athir (sub anno 104) for the amount of the 
booty distributed after the siege — 300 dinars per 
horseman in an army of 30,000 — Balandjar at the 
time of its fall must have been a place of great 
wealth. From this point its importance appears to 
have declined, and after the close of the second 
Arab-Khazar war in 119/737 it is scarcely mentioned. 
Bibliography: Hudud al- c Alam, 452-454; 
A. Zeki Validi Togan, Ibn Fadldn's Reisebericht, 
AKM, XXIV, Leipzig 1939, 191-193, 298-299 nn.; 
D. M. Dunlop, -The History of the Jewish Khazars, 
Princeton 1954, index, s.v. Balanjar; M. Arta- 
monov, Ocherki drevneishei istorii Khazar, 93. 
(D. M. Dunlop) 
BALANSIYA (Valencia), a town in Spain, 
the third in size as regards population, which 
exceeds 500,000, lying on the east of the Peninsula, 
3 miles from the Mediterranean and from its port, 
el Grao. It is connected with Madrid by two railway 
lines, one via Albaceta, 306 m. (490 km.) in length, 
the other via Cuenca, 251 m. (402 km.) in length, 
and by road (218 m. = 350 km.); the distance 
as the crow flies is however only 188 miles. 



Valencia is the capital of the province of the same 
name and the diocese of an archbishop. Its situation 
is a striking one, in the centre of the fertile Huerta de 
Valencia, which is watered by the Turia or Guadala- 
viar (Ar. Wadi 'l-abyad, the "White River") and 
is the site of part of the lake of Albufera [see 
buijayra]. Unlike Cordova or Toledo, the old capital 
of Valencia has seen its importance grow with the 
years and it remains the capital of the Spanish 
I-evante, the Shark al-Andalus of the Muslim 
period. It is still known officially as Valencia 
del Cid in memory of the part played in its 
history by the celebrated Castilian hero. 

Valencia was founded by the Romans in 138 B.C. 
After the death of the rebel Viriathus, the consul 
D. Junius Brutus established a colony there of 
veterans who had remained faithful to Rome. The 
inhabitants later took the side of Sertorius and in 
75 B.C. Pompey partially destroyed the town which 
began to return to prosperity under Augustus. It was 
taken by the Visigoths in 413 and became Muslim 
in 714, when Tarik [q.v.] established himself there 
and at Saguntum, Jativa and Denia. 

In the political history of Umayyad Spain, Valencia 
seems only to have been a place of minor importance. 
The country of which it was the capital soon became 
arabicised by the settlement of Kaysl colonies: the 
capital of Spanish Levante thus was one of the most 
active centres of Arab culture throughout the whole 
period of the Muslim occupation; on the other hand 
in the mountains along the Valencian littoral there 
were little islands of people of Berber origin. Valencia 
at this time was the capital of a province or 
kura, as we know from the eastern writer al-Mukad- 
dasi and the Spaniard al-RazI (see Yakut, s.v.) 
and the residence of a governor (wait) appointed by 
the caliph of Cordova. It is only from the 5th/nth 
century, with the break up of the caliphate, that, 
becoming the capital of an independent Muslim 
state and very soon one of the principal objectives 
of the Christian reconquista, Valencia began to 
occupy a more and more important place in the 
Spanish and Arabic chronicles of the mediaeval 
history of Spain that have come down to us. 

The Muslim kingdom of Valencia was founded 
in 401/1010-1 1 by two enfranchised 'Amirids, 
Mubarak and Muzaffar, previously in charge of 
the irrigation system of the district who declared 
themselves independent and shared the power. 
After a very short reign Mubarak died and Muzaffar 
was driven from Valencia; the inhabitants of this 
town then chose another "Slav" [cf. saijaliba] to 
rule them, called Lablb, who placed himself under 
the suzerainty of the Christian count of Barcelona. 
The principality of Valencia soon passed into the 
hands of a grandson of al-Mansur Ibn Abi 'Amir 
[q.v.], c Abd al- c Az!z b. c Abd al- Rahman who, like his 
grandfather, assumed the lakab of al-Mansur; he 
had previously been a refugee at the court of the 
Tudjlbid Mundhir b. Yahya at Saragossa. The reign 
of c Abd al- c AzIz, which lasted till his death in 452/ 
1061 brought an era of peace and prosperity to 
Valencia. He recognised the authority of the caliph 
of Cordova, al-Kasim b. Hammud, who gave him 
the right to bear the titles al-Mu 3 tamin and Dh u 
'1-Sabikatayn, and kept on good terms with the 
Christian kingdoms of Spain. His son <Abd al-Malik 
succeeded him and took the title al-Muzaffar. He 
was still a youth at his accession and the vizier 
Ibn <Abd al-'Aziz acted as regent. Very soon 
afterwards, Ferdinand I of Castile and Leon at- 
tacked Valencia and almost captured the town, after 



986 



BALANSIYA - 



inflicting a severe defeat on the Valencians who 
made a sortie to attempt to drive off the besiegers. 
<Abd al-Malik sought the assistance of the king 
of Toledo al-Ma'mun b. Dhu '1-Nun [q.v.] but 
the latter came to Valencia and soon dethroned 
the young king (457/1065). The principality of 
Valencia was then incorporated in the kingdom 
of Toledo and al-Ma 5 mun left the vizier Abu 
Bakr b. c Abd al- c AzIz there to govern it. When 
al-Ma'mun died in 467/1075 he was succeeded 
by his son Yahya al-Kadir, whose great incapacity 
soon became apparent. Valencia then gradually 
recovered its independence; al-Kadir sought the 
help of Alfonso VI, king of Castile, to bring the 
town under his authority again but he ended by 
having to surrender his own capital to him in 478/ 
1085. For the course of events and part played in 
them by the great Castilian hero Rodrigo Diaz de 
Vivar, the Cid of history and legend, cf. the article 

On their arrival in Spain, the Almoravids tried 
to regain the kingdom of Valencia for Islam but 
their efforts against the Cid were fruitless. When 
he died in 492/1099 his widow Ximena was 
still able to offer some resistance to the attacks 
of the Almoravids, led by Mazdall. But in the 
end she abandoned Valencia after first of all setting 
it on fire and the Muslims entered it on 15 Radjab 
495/5 May 1 102. 

Governors appointed by the Almoravids succeeded 
one another at Valencia until the middle of the 
6th/i2th century when the town gradually began to 
resume its independence in the troubled period 
which preceded the coming of the Almohads into 
Spain, and it linked its fortunes with those of 
Murcia whose series of ephemeral rulers it recog- 
nised. In 542/1147, Ibn Mardanish was proclaimed 
king of Valencia but four years later his subjects 
rebelled against him. Under the nominal suzerainty 
of the Almohads, Valencia continued in the hands 
of local princes until it finally fell into Christian 
hands, two years after Cordova, when James I of 
Aragon took it on 28 Sept. 1238. 

Bibliography: All the Arab geographers who 
have dealt with Muslim Spain devote more or less 
attention to Valencia: cf. al-ldrisl, Sifat al- 
Andalus, ed. Dozy and De Goeje, text 191, transl. 
132; Yakut, i, 730-732; Abu '1-Fida', text 178, 
transl. 258; Ibn c Abd al-Mun c im al-yimyarl, al- 
Rawd al-Mi'fdr, s.v. — On the Muslim history of 
Valencia, cf. Ibn 'Idharl, ii, in; Ibn Khaldun, 
Histoire des Berbires and < Ibar, iv; Ibn Abi Zar 1 , 
Rawd al-Kirtds; the biographers of the Bibliotheca 
Arabico-Hispana. Cf. also F. Codera, Decadencia 
y desaparicidn de los Almoravides en EspaHa, 
Saragossa 1899; Gonzalez Palencia, Historia 
de la Espana musulmana, Barcelona 1925; E. 
Levi-Provencal, Inscriptions arabes d'Espagne, 
Leiden-Paris 1931, idem. L'Espagne Musulmane 
du X° m * siecle, Paris 1932; idem, Hist. Esp. 
mus., index ; R. Menendez Pidal, La Espana del 
Cid, Madrid 1929 (very important); A. Prieto 
Vives, Los Reyes de taifas, Madrid 1926; E. Tormo, 
Levante (Guias Calpe), Madrid 1923. 

(E. LtVI-PROVENCAL) 

BALARM, Palermo, surrendered to the Arabs 
after a short siege in Radjab 2 16/ August-Sept. 831, 
four years after their arrival in Sicily, and straight- 
away it appears as the strong point of Muslim 
domination in the island. It was there that the 
governors made their seat in the name first of the 
Aghlabids, and then of the Fatimids of Africa, who, 



however, had to send expeditions more than once 
to re-establish their authority over the rebel colony; 
such were the expedition of c Abd Allah b. Ibrahim 
b. al-Aghlab in 287/900, sent by his father, and that 
of Abu Sa'id in 304/916-17, which was sent by the 
Fatimid Mahdi, who built the citadel of Khalisa 
(Calsa) opposite the old town. In 336/948 the Fatimid 
governor al-IJasan b. 'All al-Kalbi seized power at 
Palermo, and established a genuine local dynasty 
under Fatimid suzerainty, which lasted till about 
442/1050. The period of Kalbite supremacy is for 
Palermo as for the whole of Sicily the most brilliant 
of the Arab era. In 445/1053 the last Kalbite, 
Samsam, who had climbed to power after a period 
of turbulence and unrest and a direct intervention 
by the African Zlrids, was driven from the town, 
which thenceforward managed its affairs through 
its djama'a or municipal council. During this time the 
ties between the capital and the rest of the country 
loosened, and finally disappeared. It was thus that 
Palermo played no special part in the defence of 
Muslim Sicily against the Normans, and awaited 
more or less in apathy the arrival of her conquerors 
beneath her walls, where, however, she defended 
herself vigorously. She surrendered at last to Robert 
and Roger d'Hauteville after a five months' siege, 
at the beginning of Rabi c II 464/January 1072, thus 
becoming Christian again after one hundred and 
forty years of Muslim domination. But the Arab 
character of Palermo was only very gradually 
obscured ; although the great mosque was straightway 
given over to Christian worship and the Muslims 
lived from then on as subjects of the Normans, it 
was more than a century before every trace of an 
Arab population and Arab monuments and customs 
disappeared. As late as 580/1184 the traveller Ibn 
Djubayr saw at Palermo districts reserved for 
Muslims, and mosques, schools and markets fre- 
quented by them, and heard much Arabic spoken. 
The condition of these Muslims in the capital of 
the Norman kingdom, which had been reasonable 
enough under the tolerant rule of the two Rogers, 
grew worse under their successors (there was an 
anti-Muslim riot or pogrom in 556/1161) and became 
intolerable in the disturbances which followed the 
death of William II (1190). By the end of the 6th/ 
1 2th century the Arab colony in Palermo had almost 
ceased to exist, although some Muslims of rank 
managed to remain there in the court of Frederick II. 
For the description of Arab Palermo we have the 
precious account of Ibn yawkal, who visited the 
town in 361/972, and those of Ibn Djubayr and al- 
Idrisi, two centuries later during the period of 
Norman supremacy. The Kalbid capital as Ibn 
IJawkal knew it was divided into five parts: the 
Kasr (Cassaro), that is the old town surrounded by 
walls, the Khalisa (Calsa), founded by the Fatimids 
and also walled, and the open districts of the IJarat 
al-Masdjid and the Harat al-Pjadida in the south, 
and the IJarat al-Sakaliba in the north. The popu- 
lation of Palermo in the days of the Kalbites is 
estimated by Amari at three hundred or three 
hundred and fifty thousand. The remains that we 
have from the period of Arab domination (not 
counting the famous monuments of Norman- 
Saracenic art) are very scanty: the site of a mosque 
beside the church of S. Giovanni degli Eremiti, and 
some old work inside the royal palace (Torre pisana) 
which has recently been brought to light. 

Bibliography: M. Amari, Storia dei Musul- 
mani di Sicilia, Catania 1933-38, passim; Ibn 
Hawkal, ed. De Goeje, BGA, I, 82-87 ; Ibn Djubayr 



B ALARM — BALAT 



987 



ed. Wright-De Goeje, GMS, v, 331-333! Idrlsi, ed. 

Amari and Schiaparelli, L' Italia nel libro del Re 

Ruggero, Rome 1883, 22-23 (text), 25-27 (trans.); 

G. M. Columba, Per la topografia antica di Palermo, 

in Centenario Amari, Palermo 1910, ii, 395-426; 

U. Rizzitano, Vltalia nel Kitab ar-Rawd al- 

mi'tdr (Arabic text), Cairo 1958, 146-8. 

(F. Gabrieli) 

BALAsAGHCN or BalAsakun, a town in the 
valley of the Cu, in what is now Kirghizia.. The 
medieval geographers give only vague indications as 
to its position. Barthold, Otcet poyezdke v Sredniya 
Aziyu, St. Petersburg 1897, 39, suggests its identity 
with Ak-Peshin in the region of Frunze. A. N. 
Bernshtam, Cuyskaya dolina in Material* i issle- 
dovaniya arkheologii S.S.S.R., No 14 (1950), 47-55. 
agrees with Barthold and gives a description of the 
site. The town was a Soghdian foundation and in 
Kashghari's time, i.e., in the second half of the nth 
century, the Soghdian language still survived along- 
side Turkish. According to Kashghari Balasaghun 
was also known as Kuz-Ordu or Kuz-Ulush. The 
former name is also found in the Chinese account 
of the Kara-Khitay, and a variant of Kuz-Ulush 
— ■ Kuz-Baligh or Ghuz-Baligh, baligh like ulush 
meaning "town" — was according to Diuwavni 
still current in the 7th/i3th century. 

According to a story in the Siydsat-ndma (ed. 
Schefer, 189) a religious war was planned about 
330-1/942-3 against the "infidel Turks" who had 
conquered Balasaghun. These must have been the 
Kara-Khanids immediately prior to their conversion 
to Islam. Balasaghun afterwards became the head- 
quarters of the first Kara-Khanid invasion of Ma 
wara 5 al-Nahr under 'Bughra Khan b. Musa (d. 
382/992-3). Shortly after 416/1025-6 the ruler of 
Balasaghun, Toghan Khan, brother of the Kara- 
Khanid ruler of Ma wara 1 al-Nahr, 'All Tegin, was 
driven out of his territory by other members of the 
dynasty ruling in Kashghar (Bayhaki, ed. Morley, 
98 and 655, ed. Ghani and Fayyad, 91 and 526). 
Balasaghun seems afterwards to have belonged to 
the same ruler as Kashghar. The poet Yusuf Khass- 
IJadjib, author of the Kutadghu Bilig, the oldest 
poem in the Turkl language, was born in Balasaghun 
(462/1069-70) ; the Bughra Khan to whom it is dedi- 
cated must be Bughra Khan Harun, who ruled over 
Kashghar, Khotan and Balasaghun, first with his 
brother Toghrll Khan and then, for 29 years till 
496/1 102-3, alone. 

About 1 1 30 Balasaghun was conquered by the 
Kara-Khitay [q.v.] and the ruler of the town, who 
had appealed to their leader (the Gur-Khan) for 
help against the Kanghll and Karllgh nomads, was 
deposed. The real seat of the Kara-Khitay still re- 
mained the territory on the Cu while native princes 
ruled as vassals of the Gur-Khan in Ma wara' al- 
Nahr and Kashghar as well as in the districts of 
Semirechye north of the Hi. 

When the army of the Gur-Khan was defeated 
by Muhammad Khwarazm-Shah in Rabi c I 607/ 
August-September 1210, on the Talas, the inhabi- 
tants of Balasaghun, expecting the speedy arrival 
of the victor, refused the defeated army admittance 
to the town. After a 16 days' siege it was taken by 
the Kara-Khitay and plundered for three days, du- 
ring which time, according to DjuwaynJ, "47,000 
of the chief notables were counted among the slain." 

Balasaghun is seldom mentioned during the Mon- 
gol period. Barthold's assumption that it was taken 
without resistance by Cingiz-Khan's general Djebe 
in 1218, in the course of his operations against 



Kuilug, the Nayman ruler of Kara-Khitay, is based 

on a misreading of the name Ghuz-Baligh as ghp 

baligh "good town". In the account of Timur's 

campaigns Balasaghun is never mentioned; like all 

the towns on the Cu, Hi and Talas it must have 

been destroyed during the endless wars and struggles 

for the throne in the 8th/i4th century. Muhammad 

IJaydar, writing about the middle of the ioth/i6th 

century, knew about Balasaghun only from books; 

of the town itself no trace was then to be found. 

Bibliography: In addition to the works quoted 

above: W. Barthold, Turkestan; idem, Histoire des 

Turcs d'AsieCentrale, Paris 1945 ; Kashghari, Divanii 

Ligat-it-Turk Terciimesi, transl. B. Atalay, 3 vols., 

Ankara 1939-41; Djuwaynl, The History of the 

World-Conqueror, transl. J. A. Boyle, 2 vols., 

Manchester 1958; Muhammad rjaydar, The 

Ta'rikh-i Rashidi, ed. N. Elias, transl. E. Denison 

Ross, London 1895. 

(W. Barthold-[J. A. Boyle]) 
BALAT (Ar.), a word with a number of varied 
meanings due to its dual etymology, Latin or Greek 
as the case may be. Deriving from palatium it 
means "palace" (Mas'fldl, al-Tanbih, 167; Ibn al- 
c Adim, Zubda, ed. Dahan, i, 14a and 145; Mu- 
kaddasi, 147, and Ibn Uawkal 1 , 195, mentioning 
theDar al-Baldt at Constantinople; cf. M. Canard, 
Extraits des sources arabes, ap. A. A. Vasiliev, 
Byzance et les Arabes, ii/j, Brussels 1950, 412, 423 
and n. 2). Deriving from 7tXaTeTa (through the inter- 
mediary of Aramaic), it has two principal meanings 
corresponding to those of the Greek term, denoting "a 
paved way", an old Roman road for example (see 
Ibn al-'Adim, Zubda, i, 164), "flagging" or, in the 
form of the noun of unity baldta, a "flag-stone" of 
any kind of material serving to pave the ground or 
to bear a monumental or memorial inscription (see 
for example, Mudjir al-DIn al- c Ulaymi, al-Ins al- 
Dialil. Cairo ed. 1253 AH., 372), whence the meaning 
of "stele", or "portico" or "colonnaded gallery", 
more especially the "nave" of a mosque (see for 
example Ibn Djubayr, Rihla, ed. de Goeje, 190). 

The word baldf occurs in various rural and urban 
toponyms, both in the Muslim West (see infra) and 
East, where it is especially frequent in Syria- Palestine. 
The following are the main occurrences: the town of 
al-Balat in Northern Syria, which was adjacent to a 
Roman highway (M. Canard, Histoire des Hamdanides, 
i, Algiers 195 1, 218), — the al-Balat quarter of Aleppo, 
the name of which recalled the old monumental 
thoroughfare (J. Sauvaget), — the former village of 
Bayt al-Balat in the ghuta of Damascus,— the village 
of Balafa or Bulata in Palestine (the name of which 
could also derive from the Latin platanus), — the 
Bab al-Balat in Jerusalem (cf. J. Sauvaget, Les 
perles choisies, Beirut 1933, 99 n. 1), — the paved 
square of al-Balat in Medina, — the quarter of Balat 
in Istanbul [q.v.], — the village of Balat, adjacent to 
the ruins of ancient Milet in Asia Minor and corre- 
sponding to the Saldjukid town of Palatia (see Pauly- 
Wissowa, under Miletos). 

Bibliography: E. Quatremere, Histoire des 

sultans mamelouks, ii/i, Paris 1845, 277 n. 3, to 

be supplemented by J. Sauvaget, Alep, Paris 1941, 

n. 112 and La mosqule omeyyade de Mldine, 

Paris 1947, 69, n. 2. For the toponyms, see 

Yakut, i, 709. (D. Sourdel) 

BALAT, now a small village on the site of the 

ancient Miletos in Caria. The word Balat derives 

from "IlaXaTta", the name used for this locality at 

least from the first years of the 13th century. Balat 



988 



BALAT — BALAT al-SHUHADA 3 



came under the control of the Begs of Menteshe 
[q.v.] towards the close of this century and, because 
of its favourable situation near the mouth of the 
river Maiandros (Biiyiik Menderes), served them as 
a point of departure for their raids into the Aegean 
Sea and, later, as a commercial centre of some 
importance. The Venetians had a church and a 
consulate there by 1355. Balat flourished at this time 
on the traffic in such commodities as saffron, sesame, 
wax, alum from Kutahya, slaves from the islands of 
the Archipelago, etc. The Ottoman sultan Bayazid I 
confirmed to the Venetians their privileges at Balat, 
when, in the winter of 791-2/1389-90, he took over 
the coast-lands of Menteshe. Timur Beg, after his 
defeat of the Ottomans at Ankara in 804/1402, set 
on the throne Ilyas, a member of the local dynasty. 
This prince was forced, however, to become a 
vassal of Sultan Mehemmed I in 818/1415 and by 
829/1425-6 Menteshe had been absorbed once more, 
and this time definitively, into the Ottoman state. 
Balat, during the course of the 15th century, began to 
sink into a long and slow decline, due in no small 
measure to its fever-ridden climate and to the gradual 
silting of the river estuary. None the less, an active, 
although no doubt diminishing commerce was still 
associated with Balat, when Ewliya Celebi passed 
through this region in 1671-1672. Balat, now 
assigned to the kaza of Soke in the province of 
Aydfn, lies today approximately 9 km. from the 
sea and had in 1945 a population of about 700 

Bibliography: Pauly-Wissowa, xv, Stuttgart 
1932, cols. 1619-1621, s.v. Miletos; W. Heyd, 
Histoire du commerce du Levant, Leipzig 1923, i, 
544 ff. and ii, 353 ff. ; P. Wittek, Das Furstentum 
MenUsche (Istanbuler Mitteilungen, Heft 2), 
Istanbul 1934, 185 (index); K. Wulzinger, P. 
Wittek, F. Sarre, Das Islamische Milet (Staatliche 
Museen zu Berlin), Berlin and Leipzig 1935 (cf. 
also F. Taeschner, in OLZ, vol. 39, Berlin 1936, 
no. 10, cols. 621-623); 'All Djawad, Dioghrdfiyd 
Lughdti, Pt. i, Istanbul 1313 A. H., 191; Ewliya 
Celebi, Seydhat-ndme, ix, Istanbul 1935, 146 ft.; 
IA, s.v. Balat (Besim Darkot). (V. J. Parry) 
BALAT- In Spain, of the various meanings of 
the word baldf, the most general seems to be "pave 
ment" ; it was thus used to denote the Roman roads 
of the Peninsula, as witness the vocabulary attri- 
buted to Raimundo Martin. The now ruined town 
of Albalat, on the border of Romangordo, adjoining 
a ford across the Tagus, near the Almaraz bridge, 
must take its name from one of these roads. Thr 
battlefield of Tours and Poitiers, called Balat al- 
Shuhada' [q.v.] after the Roman road, would seem 
to confirm this meaning. But it is extremely doubt- 
ful whether such a concrete meaning applied to the 
whole iklim which, according to al-ldrisl, comprised 
a large part of present-day Spanish Estramadura, 
with Alange, MedelUn, Trujillo and Caceres, in ad- 
dition to the Albalat already mentioned. On the other 
hand, the numerous Spanish place-names, Albalat, 
Albalate and their derivatives and diminutives, Al- 
badalejo, Albalatillo, could better be explained by 
al-balad, or al-baldd "place, terrain or locality" ; thus, 
Albalat de la Ribera, near the river Jucar, Albalat 
dels Sorells, near Valencia, and Albalat dels Tarongers, 
in the Sagunto region, do not seem to have any 
connexion with Roman roads, and seem only to be 
names of hamlets or villages; the numerous Albalates 
which exist in the provinces of Teruel, Huesca, 
Guadalajara, Ciudad-Real, Toledo and the Ajarafe 
of Seville, must be interpreted in the same way. The 



derivation from platea or palatium, applicable to 
place-names in Jerusalem, Syria and Medina, is not 
found in al-Andalus. 

In addition to the iklim of al-Balat in Muslim 
Spain, there was another iklim in the Portuguese 
zone, al-Balata, situated in the Fahs Balafa, a huge 
plain between Lisbon and Santarem; this iklim con- 
tained, apart from these two towns, the town of 
Cintra, and its territory corresponded to present-day 
Ribatejo. The name given to it by al-ldrisl coincides 
with that of Vallada, a small town in the commune 
of Azambuja; el-Campo de Vallada, a translation of 
Fahs Balata, is also quoted, although its extent is 
less than that attributed to it by al-Idrisi; its ety- 
mological derivation from plata or valiata appears 
to be neither well-founded nor acceptable. 

Bibliography: IdrisI, text: 175-8, translation: 

211, 225-6; Yakut, i, 709; E. Saavedra, La Geo- 

gratia de EspaHa del Edrisi, 51-2; David Lopes, 

Estudo dos names geographicos do territorio muiul- 

mano, que depots foi portuguts, 47. 

(A. Hoici Miranda) 

BALAT al-SHUHADA': an expression used by 
the Arab historians for the Battle of Poitiers, 
which was fought between Charles Martel, at the 
head of the Christian Frankish armies, and the 
governor of Muslim Spain e Abd al-Rahman b. c Abd 
Allah al-Ghafikl in Ramadan 114/October 732. 

Neither the name of Poitiers nor that of Tours 
are mentioned by the Arab authors of the Middle 
Ages. As for the expression Baldf al-shuhudd', its 
occurrence is only recorded from the 5th/nth cen- 
tury onwards and only in Andalusian historians: 
Ibn Hayyan (died 469/1075), quoted by al-Makkari, 
Nafh al-Tib, Leiden, ii, 9, 1. 15-16; Cairo 1949, iv, 
15, 1.4 (the same author also called it Wak'at al- 
Baldf: Leiden, ii, 9, 1.4; Cairo 1949, iv, 14, 1.9); 
the Anonymous Chronicle entitled Akhbdr Madimu'a, 
which dates from the 5th/nth century (ed. Lafuente 
y Alcantara, Madrid, 1868, text, 25; Spanish trans. 
36 and no. 2); and subsequently in Ibn Bashkuwal 
(died 578/1183), quoted by al-Makkari, op. cit., 
Leiden, ii, 9, 1. 16-17; Cairo, iv, 15, 1. 5, but with 
the variant: Ghazwat al-Baldf; Ibn 'Idharl (died end 
of the VI/XII century), al-Baydn al-Mughrib, ed. 
Dozy, i, 37; ed. Colin and Levi-Provencal, i, 51; 
trans. Fagnan, i, 49, but the historian dates the event 
from 115, instead of from 114; Ibn Khaldun (died 
808/1406), aW-Ibar, Bulak, iv, 119, 1. 6, with lacunae 
which can be supplemented from the MSS. of the 
Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris and from the in- 
tegral quotation by al-Makkari, op. cit., Leiden, i, 
146, 1. 3; Cairo, 1949, i, 220, 1. 15; al-Makkari 
(died 1041/1632, supra under Ibn Bashkuwal and 
Ibn Khaldun: the first passage has been translated 
by Lafuente y Alcantara, Apendices to Ajbar Mach- 
m&a, 198, and the second by Pascual de Gayangos, 
The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, 
vol. ii (London 1843), 37 and note 27. 

In the other Arab historians of the Middle Ages, 
a simple allusion is made to the effect that the Mus- 
lims and their leader c Abd al-Rahman "died a 
tyr's death there [for Islam]" (yustashhadu < 
tushhida): Ibn <Abd al-Hakam (died 257/871), Fu- 
tuh Ifrikiya wa 1 l-Andalus, ed. A. Gateau', Algiers 
1948, text 120, 1. 11; French trans. 121, 1. 2 
Dabbl (died 599/1202), Bughyat al-Multamis, ed. 
Codera and Ribera, Madrid 1885, no. 1021, 353. 1- a 
(with 115 as the date); Ibn al-Athlr (died 630/1233), 
v, 130 and 374; transl. Fagnan, Annates, Algiers 
1901, 60, 1. 6 and 94, 1. 1-2. 

The task confronting the modern historians, both 



BALAT al-SHUHADA 5 



989 



Arab and especially European, has mainly been to 
explain the termBaldf [al-Shuhada'] and to determine 
the exact site of the battle. Baldf [q.v.] is borrowed 
from the Graeco-Latin and appears to render both 
platea: "wide paved road, paved public square", 
and palatium: "palace". It has been rendered, as 
regards the Battle of Poitiers, by "pavement" and 
by "highway". Pave" [of the martyrs]: Reinaud, 
Invasions des Sarrazins en France, et de France, en 
Savoie, en Piemont et dans la Suisse, pendant Us 
**, 9' et 10' siecles de noire ire., Paris 1836, 49; Pascal 
de Gayangos, op. cit., ii, 33 and 37: "pavement of 
the martyrs"; CI. Huart, Histoire des Arabes, 1913, 
ii, 138; H. Fournel, Les Berbers . . . , i (1875), 280, 
n. 3; M. Mercier and A. Seguin, Charles Martel et 
la Bataille de Poitiers, 1944, 17, 19, 26, 27, 39; C. F. 
Seybold, in EI, i, 55 (S.V. 'Abd al-Rahmdn . . . al- 
GhiMi). Chaussee[of the martyrs]: Dozy, Histoire 
des Musulmans d'Espagne, 1861, i, 252; 2nd. ed. 
by E. Levi- Provencal, 1932, i, 158 and n. 1 ; Lafuente 
y Alcantara, op. cit., 36: Calzada; Fr. Codera, Nar- 
bona, Gerona y Barcelona..., 1909-1920, 191: 
Calzada; Ballesteros y Beretta, Historia de EspaAa. . , 
ii (1920), 9-10: Calzada; G. Marcais (and Ch. Diehl), 
Le monde oriental de 395 a 1081, 1936, 340 and n. 1; 
E. IA vi- Provencal, Hist. Esp. Mus., 1950, 62: 
"Highway" (or Roman road) of the Martyrs for the 
Faith". 

Study of the texts and examination of the terrain 
in the region lying between Poitiers and Tours have 
led the investigators to the largely concurrent con- 
clusions, admirably summed up by Professor Levi- 
Provencal in the following words: [the battle 
took place] "near to a Roman road which linked 
Chatelleraut with Poitiers, about twenty km. 
north-east of the latter town, probably at a place 
which is today still called Moussais-la-Bataille . . . 
in October 732 or Ramadan 114 .. . more exactly . . . 
between the 25th and the 31st of October 732" 
(Hist. Esp. Mus., i, 61-62). 

Bibliography: In addition to the works and 
studies mentioned in the body of the article, the 
references should be consulted which are given 
by E. Levi- Provencal in the 2nd. ed. of the Histoire 
des Musulmans d'Espagne by Dozy, Leiden, 1932, 
i, 158, note i, and in his own Hist. Esp. Mus., 
Paris-Leiden 1950, i, 59-62. To this may be added: 
H. Zotenberg, Note sur les invasions arabes dans 
le Languedoc d'apres les sources chriiiennes et les 
historiens musulmans, in Dom CI. Devic and Dom 
J. Vaissette, Histoire glnirale du Languedoc, Tou- 
louse 1875, ii, 549-558 (Christian sources: 549-554; 
Arabic sources: 555-558). The bibliography given 
by M. Mercier and A. Seguin, at the end of Charles 
Martel et la Bataille de Poitiers, Paris 1944, 93-99, 
containing 135 references, should also be consulted. 
See also the following modern Arab authors who 
base their studies almost exclusively on Reinaud, 
Invasions des Sarrazins . . . (Paris, 1836; English 
tr. by H. K. Sherwani in IC iv/1930 and v/1931), 
which is well over a century old: Shakib Arslan, 
Ta'rikh Qhazawai al-'Arab fi Faransd wa Suwisard 
wa Ifdliyd wa DjazdHr al-Bahr al-Mutawassit, 
Cairo 1352/1933, 48, 56, 57. 84, 85, 92-103: Wdfti- 
'at Baldf al-S&uhada' ; M. <Abd Allah c Inan, Ta>- 
rikh al-'Arab fi Isbdniyd . . . , Cairo 1924, 55-591 
idem, Mawdkif hdsima fi ta'rikh al-Isldm, Cairo 
1347/1929, 16 and 114; idem, al-'Arab fi Ghdlis wa 
Suwisard, in the Cairo review al-Risala, no. 72 
(19 November 1934), no. 73 (26 November 1934), 
and no. 74 (3 December 1934); Hasan Murad, 
Ta'rikh al-'Arab jiH-Andalus, Cairo 1348/193°. 27 



(does not use the Arabic term) ; Butxus al-Bustani, 
Ma'drifr al-'Arab ftf-Sharb waH-Qharb, Beirut 
1944, 55-56; Husayn Mu'nis, Athdr Zuhur al- 
Isldm fPl-Awdd' al-Siydsiyya wa'l-I^tisddiyya 
waH-IdJtimd'iyya fPl-Bahr al-Abyad al-Muta- 
wassit, in al-Madjalla al-Ta'rikhiyya al-Misriyya, 
published by the Societe Egyptienne d'Etudes 
Historiques, Cairo, lv, fasc. I (May 1951), 67-68, 
with Bibliography, 68, n.l. 

Lastly, the following two works should be noted: 
the Arabic translation by c Ali al-Djarim, under 
the title of: al-'Arab fi Isbdniyd, Cairo 1366/1947, 
27-28, of S. Lane-Poole's The Moors in Spain, 
London 1887, 2nd. ed. 1920; and the historical 
romance of Pjurdji Zaydan (d. 1332/1914), Sharl 
wa 'Abd al-Rahmdn: Riwdya Ta'rikhiyya Ghara- 
miyya, Cairo 1904, 4th. ed. 1926, 181, 185, 218, 
218, 223, 230. 

In conclusion, it is perhaps of interest to note 

that al-Tabarl (d. 310/923), is absolutely silent 

on the Battle of Poitiers (there is nothing in his 

Ta*rikh al-Umam waH-Muluk (Annates), sub anno 

114, or in the two or three preceeding or following 

years); likewise Ibn al-KOtiyya (died 367/977), 

in his Iftitdh al-Andalus. (H. Pints) 

BAJLATUNUS, mediaeval name of a Syrian 

fortress now in ruins and called Kal'at al-Muhaylba, 

which was built on one of the first spurs of the 

Djabal Ansariya, and, with the castle of Sahyun, 

commanded the plain of al-Ladhikiva and guarded 

the road from the Orontes to Djabala, "its port" 

according to al-Dimashki. 

According to the Arabic sources, it is supposed to 
have been begun by the clan of the Banu '1-Ahmar, 
then continued by the Byzantines who obtained 
possession of it and, in the time of Basil II, based 
the protection of the coastal region, in which they 
had taken up their quarters, partly upon it. It again 
passed under Arab control, but after the First 
Crusade, was to fall into the hands of Roger of 
Antioch, who bestowed it on the lord of Sa6ne as 
a fief, and it remained in the hands of the Franks 
from 512/1118 to 584/1188. At this latter date, 
Salah al-DIn made himself master of it and in the 
ayyubid period it became temporarily part of the 
Kingdom of Aleppo of al-Malik al-Zahir. After the 
Mongol invasion which had encouraged the efforts 
of a local family to establish their independence, it 
was obliged to surrender to Baybars in 667/1269 and 
became in the Mamluk period the centre of one of 
the six districts of the niydba of Tripoli. 

It is not known when it fell into ruins and relin- 
quished its ancient name (derived from the Latin 
Platanus) for the present term, which for a long time 
prevented its identification. 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 710; M. Hartmann, 
Das Liwa el-Ladkije, in ZDPV, xiv, 180; M. van 
Berchem and E. Fatio, Voyage en Syrie, Cairo 
1914-15, 283-88; R. Dussaud, Topographie histori- 
que de la Syrie, Paris 1927, 150; G. Le Strange, 
Palestine under the Moslems, London 1890, 416; 
M. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, La Syrie a Vtpoque 
des Mamelouks, Paris 1923, 113 and 226; CI. Cahen, 
La Syrie du Nord, Paris 1940, index; J. Weulersse, 
Le pays des Alaouites, Tours 1940, index. 

(J. Sourdkl-Thomine) 
BALAWAT. This is a small village lying some 
16 miles south-east of Mawsil on the Dayr Mar 
Bihnam-Kara Kosh road. It is mentioned by Yakut 
under "Balabadh", which he describes as follows: 
"It is a village situated east of Mawsil in the province 
of Nineveh and can be reached by a short journey 



9$<> 



BALAWAT — BALDJ B. BISHR 



from Mawsil. It is frequented by caravans and there 
exists in it a Khan for travellers. It lies between 
Tigris and the Zab rivers". Balawat is one of the 
villages in the Hamdaniyya ndhiya in the Mawsil 
Liwd* of 'Irak. The majority of its inhabitants are 
of the Shabak faith (cf. Ahmad Hamid al-Sarraf, 
al-Shabak, 10). Balawat's only claim to fame is the 
existence of a historical mound some few steps from 
it. This mound is known as "Tell Balawat", and is 
one of the Assyrian historical sites excavated in the 
19th century; Hormuzd Rassam, of Mawsil, discov- 
ered there in 1878 the bronze gates of the palace of 
the Assyrian king Shalmanessar III (859-824 B.C.). 
These gates were taken to the British Museum, 
London. The inscriptions and scenery contained 
thereon illustrate the first third of the reign of this 
king, and also clarify some of the conditions prevailing 
in the 9th century B.C. From some of the Assyrian 
texts, it appears that the ancient name of Tell 
Balawat was Imgur-Enlil. 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 707; Ibn <Abd al- 

Hakk, Mara fid, Cairo 1954, i 214; E. Abdal, al- 

Lu'lu' al-Nafid, Mosul 1951, 213; Pinches, Trans. 

Soc.BM. Arch., vii 1882, 83-118; Birch & Pinches, 

The Bronze Ornaments of the Palace Gates of 

Balawat (1880-1902); H. Rassam, Asshur and the 

Land of Nimrod, New York 1897, 200 ff.) ; Biller- 

beck & Delitzsch, Die Palasttore Salmanassars II, 

Leipzig 1908; King (L.W.), Bronze Reliefs from 

the Gates of Shalmanesar King of Assyria, London 

1914. (G. Awad) 

BALAWHAR [see bilawhar wa yOdasaf]. 

al-BALAWI, AbO Mug. c Abd Allah b. Moh. al- 

MadInI, Egyptian historian ; the dates of his birth and 

death are not known, but we can reasonably assume 

that he lived in the 4th/ioth century. He belonged 

to the Arab tribe Baliyy, a branch of the Kuda'a, 

who were scattered in different parts of the Hidjaz, 

Syria and Egypt. 

The earliest biographical notice is that given 
in the Fihrist, which names several books. AU of 
them are lost, but Al-Balawl's Sirat Ahmad b. 
falUn was discovered in about 1935 by the late 
Muh. Kurd <Ali. He edited it with a long intro- 
duction and useful commentary (Damascus 1939). 
Kurd-'AlI took al-BalawI for an Isma'UI writer, a 
point of view which has been proved wrong by 
Ivanow, by Abu c Abd-Allah al-Zindjanl, and by 
the late <Abd al-Hamld al-'Abbadl. 

There are other short biographies of al-Balawi in 
the later books of biography such as al-TusI's al- 
Fihrist, al-Nadjashi's Kitdb al-Rididl, al-Dhahabi's 
Mizdn al-IHiddl and Ibn Hadjar's Lisdn al-Mlzdn. 
These all agree in saying that he was a 'liar' (in 
relating hadith) and that he cannot be relied upon 
because he forges hadith. Ibn Hadjar adds that he is 
"the author of al-Shafi'f s journey which was elabor- 
ated and beautified by him, but most of its contents 

His book Sirat Ibn Julin is now considered the 
most important source for the study not only of the 
history of this great ruler but also of the history of 
Egypt, the 'Abbasid Caliphate and the Near East 
in general in the second half of the 3rd/9th century. 
It is more detailed than other sources on the same 
subject, such as Sirat Ibn JUlin by Ibn al-Daya 
(abridged by Ibn Sa c Id in al-Mughrib), Kitdb al- 
Mukdfa'a by the same author, Akhbdr Sibawayh al- 
Misri by Ibn ZOlSk and Kitdb al-Wuldt wa 'l-Kudat 
by al-Kindl. 

Al-Balawi says in the introduction that he was 
asked to write a history of the Tuliinids i n greater 



detail than the earlier work by Ahmad b. Yusuf Ibn 
al-Daya, but he does not name the person who asked 
him to write this book. There are indications, 
however, that he was a statesman or a man of 
letters of the Ikhshidid period. For instance, al- 
Balawi mentions in his book the 'Abbasid Caliph 
al-Muktadir, who was killed in the year 320/932, and 
this means that the book must have been written 
after this year (al-Ikhshid began his rule in Egypt in 
in the year 323/934-5). It is obvious too that al- 
Balawi wrote his book after the death of Ibn al- 
Daya, and we know that the latter died after the 
year 330/941-2. The manuscript which was disco- 
vered by Kurd <Ali bears the title Kitdb Sirat Al 
Tulun, but only contains the biography of Ahmad 
b. Tulun. 

There is great resemblance between al-Balawi's 
work and that written by Ibn al-Daya, although 
the former is more detailed. Kurd 'All says that 
al-Balawi copied from his predecessor but it 
seems more likely that both of them depended 
mostly upon the same main source, which was the 
official documents preserved in the first chancery 
office (Diwan al-Inshd') founded in Egypt by 
Ahmad Ibn Tulun (see the Sirat of al-Balawi, 
100-1, in, 122, 224, 228-9). 

The Sirat ot al-Balawi is an invaluable source for 
many reasons. One of the oldest Muslim historical 
works written in Egypt, it sheds new light on 
the history of institutions, such as the kharddj, the 
police, justice, espionage, the post, etc. It also 
contains a number of official documents relating 
to that period. 

Bibliography: Ibn Sa c id al-Andalusi, al- 
Mughrib ft Hula al- Maghrib, vol. i of the part 
concerning Egypt, ed. Zakl Muh. Hasan, Shawkl 
Dayf and Sayyida Ismail Kashif, Cairo 1935; 
Ibn al-Nadim, al-Fihrist, Cairo (no date); al- 
TQsi, Fihrist Kutub al-Shi c a, Calcutta 1853; al- 
Nadjashl, Kitdb al-Rididl, Bombay 1317/1899- 
1900; al-Dhahabl, Mizdn al-IHiddl ft Nakd al- 
Rididl, Lucknow 1884; Ibn Hadjar, Lisdn al- 
Mizdn, Haydarabad 1329-31 A.H.; <Abd al-Hamid 
al-'Abbadi, Sirat Ahmad b. T*l** W-.46I Muh. 

'Abd Allah al-Balawi (review in Bulletin 

of the Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University, 
vol. i, 1943, 1-9). (G. E. Shayyal) 

BALBAN [see dhlhi sultanate]. 
BALDJ b. BISHR b. c Iyap al-KushaybI, an 
Arab military leader, of a brave but haughty 
disposition, commanded the Syrian cavalry in the 
army sent against the Berbers in 123/741 by the 
Caliph Hisham b. 'Abd al-Malik, under the leader- 
ship of Kulthum b. 'Iyad, Baldj's uncle. After their 
arrival in Ifrikiya (in Ramadan 123/20 July-18 
August 741), the violence and arrogance Baldj and 
his Syrians earned them the bitter hostility of the 
African Arabs, especially the Ansar, who had fled 
westwards in a body after the battle fought in the 
Harra in 63/683. So it was that when near Tilimsan 
the Syrian army was united with the African army 
(together amounting to some 60,000 men), they all 
but came to blows through the arrogance of the 
Syrians and a quarrel which arose between Baldj 
and the commander of the African troops Habib b. 
Abi 'Ubayda. The Berbers, however, so as to 
exhaust the enemy, withdrew right up to the river 
Sebu, at the extreme limit of the Maghrib. Just 
before the encounter with the Berber army, Kulthum 
withdrew the command of the African contingent 
from Habib, who was well-versed in Berber fighting 
methods, but whose counsel was arrogantly rejected 



BALDJ B. BISHR — BALI 



by Baldj, and entrusted it to two Syrian officers, a 
measure which still further increased the resentment 
of the Africans. As a result, the Arabs suffered a 
complete defeat at Bakdura (or Nabdura on the 
Sebu to the North of Fas, comp. Fournel, Les 
Berbers, i, 294, rem. 1). Bald] himself, by his over- 
confidence and the impetuosity of his attack, which 
resulted in his becoming separated in the action 
from his foot-soldiers, was the real cause of the 
disaster (in Dhu '1-Hidjdja 123/17 October-14 
November 741). At the head of some 7,000 horsemen, 
he fought his way through to Ceuta, where he with- 
stood a protracted siege by the Berbers, until the 
day when the governor of Cordova, c Abd al-Malik 
b. Katan [q.v.], an Ansari, brought him over to Spain 
with his Syrians to use him against the Berbers 
who were in revolt there. Precautions, moreover, 
were taken on both sides: Bald] undertook to leave 
Spain as soon as the Berber revolt had been repressed ; 
he was to give hostages as a guarantee. On his part, 
the governor c Abd al-Malik promised the Syrians 
that when the time came for them to depart, they 
would be taken back to North Africa all together 
and not in separate groups, which would make them 
extremely vulnerable; and that, furthermore, they 
would be landed at a point on the coast of the 
Maghrib, where the hinterland was effectively under 
Arab control. The intervention of Bald] and his 
horsemen was decisive; the Berber rebels had 
formed themselves into three columns. Bald] count- 
ered swiftly and scattered the first group in the 
direction of Medina-Sidonia. The second band was 
dispersed in the Cordova region. The third and most 
numerous column, engaged in laying siege to Toledo, 
was severely defeated at the battle of WadI Sallt, 
(the arroyo of Guazalete, a small tributary of the 
left bank of the Tagus). Thenceforth, the governor 
c Abd al-Malik's only desire was to send bis too 
burdensome auxiliaries bank to Africa. But he did 
not adhere to his word, and tried to interpret the 
stipulations of the agreement contracted with him in 
the manner least favourable to the Syrians. When 
he sought to re-embark them for Ceuta the enraged 
djundis swiftly surprised the weak garrison of 
Cordova, expelled the governor c Abd al-Malik from 
his palace and installed Bald] in his place. In spite 
of his predecessor's advanced age, he made the 
mistake of having him put to torture. An encounter 
between the two parties took place a little later, 
in Shawwal 124/August 742, at Aqua Portora, a few 
leagues to the north of Cordova, where the Syrians 
were the victors, in spite of the bravery of the 
governor of Narbonne, who mortally wounded 
Baldj with his own hand. 

Bibliography : Ibn Khaldun. Hist, des Berb., 

i, 137 if., 151 French trans., i, 217, 238 ff.); Ibn 

'Idharl, i, 41-43. ". 30-32; Makkarl, ii, 11-13; Ibn 

al-Athlr, index; Dozy, Hist, des Musultnans 

d'Espagne, i, 244-265; Fournel, Les Berbers, i, 

291-297, 302-306; Muller, Der Islam, i, 449-450; 

Mercier, Hist, de I'Afrique septentr., i, (1888), 

231-232, 234-235; F. Gabrieli, // Califfato di 

Hisham, 114-117; Livi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. Mus., 

i, 44-47. (M. Schmitz-[A. Huici-Miranda]) 

BALEARIC ISLANDS [see mayurka], 

BALFUROSH [se« barfurOsh], 

BALHARA (al-Balharay or Ballahara < Ballaha- 

rSya, Prakrit form of 'Vallabha-raja', meaning 'the 

beloved king') represents the title of the kings 

belonging to the Rashtrakuta dynasty of the Deccan 

(c. A.D. 753-975), whose capital was at Mauyakheta, 

now Malkhed (Ar. Mankir), south of Gulbarga 



99* 

(Mysore). Ibn Khurradadhbih and Ibn Rusta's 
information that Balhara meant 'the king of kings' 
or 'the king of the kings of India' is incorrect. Ibn 
Khurradadhbih's Balhara almost certainly pertains 
to Govinda III (A.D. 793-814); Sulayman's to the 
same prince or to his son Sarva or Amoghavarsha. 
(A.D. 814-878); al-Mas'udi's to Indra III (A.D. 
914-922) ; and that of Ibn Hawkal also to Amogha- 
varsha. The later references are mostly repetitions of 
the information supplied by the earlier authorities. 
Arab writers generally acclaim these rulers as 'the 
greatest king of India' or 'the most illustrious', and 
epithets like 'the king of kings' or 'the supreme king 
of India' seem to reflect the glory and political 
supremacy of princes like Govinda III or Indra III. 
However, some authors present an exaggerated 
account of the extent of the Rashtrakuta kingdom 
(e.g., Akhbdr al-Sin 'beginning from the sea-coast 
called Kumkam (Konkan) and continuing overland up 
to China' ; some authors 'have somewhat misunder- 
stood Sulayman [i.e. the Akhbar al-$in] in saying that 
Kumkam was the name of Ballah-ra's country', see 
Hudud al-'Alam, 238 n. 2). But generally the descrip- 
tions of the kingdom are confined to the coastal towns 
of Bombay, with which Muslim merchants and travel- 
lers were familiar, and in which large numbers of 
Muslims had settled. Arab writers are unanimous 
in stating that the Balharas loved the Arabs more 
than any other prince of India did, and that Islam, 
was protected and openly practised in their kingdom. 
They even appointed Muslims as governors or heads 
of Muslim communities living in their kingdom. 
From their accounts it appears that the Arabs 
were aware, though not fully, of the sanguinary 
wars that took place between these princes, "the 
Gurjara-Pratiharas (al-Qiurz) of the North and the 
Palas (D.Amy) of Bengal. The love of the Rashtra- 
kutas for the Arabs and their liberal attitude 
towards Islam, as well as the immense praise and 
glorification of the Rashtrakutas by the Arabs, 
must have arisen from the Rashtrakutas' considering 
the Muslims as allies against the Gurjara-Pratiharas, 
who were inimical to the Arabs of Sind, and from 
the presence of large numbers of Muslims living in 
their kingdom. 

Bibliography: Ibn Khurradadhbih, 16, 67; 
Sulayman the Merchant, Ahbar as-sin wa 'l-Hind, 
Relation de la Chine et de I'Inde, ed. Jean Sauvaget, 
Paris 1948, 12, 23; Mas'udi, MurOdi, i, 177-8, 382-3, 
253-4; ". 85-6; Ibn Hawkal, 320; Ibn Rusta, 134-5; 
HudUd al-'-Alam, 238 ; The Age of Imperial Kanauj, 
R. C. Majumdar (General Editor), BVB, Bombay 
1955, 16-17; Collected Works of Sir R. G. Bhan- 
darkar, iii, ed. N. B. Utgikar, Poona 1927, 106-7. 

(S. Maqbul Ahmad) 
BAL-HARITH [see harith b. ka'ab]. 
BALI, one of the Muslim trading states 
in southern Ethiopia. It lay to the east of 
Lake Awasa and the Ganale Doria, and extended 
to the Webi Shabelle near longitude 40 E., with a 
narrow piece stretching north of the Webi Shabelle 
to the edge of the Danakil lowlands, the railway 
marking approximately the northern boundary. The 
first mention of Bali seems to be in the epinikia in 
honour of 'Amda Syon king of Ethiopia, 1312-42 
(I. Guidi, Rend Lin, 1889, nos. viii and ix) where 
Bali is described as part of the king's dominions. In 
the middle of the 14th century al-'Umari described 
Bali as being 20 days' journey in length and six days 
in breadth, under a king who was tributary to the 
king of Ethiopia and possessed an army of 40,000 
horsemen. A century later al-Makrlzt repeats al- 



992 



- BALIABADRA 



'Umari's account, including the statement that the 
people of Bali were Hanafis. Till about 1542 the 
state remained tributary to Ethiopia, when 'Abbas 
the ruler made himself independent of Galawdewos 
king of Ethiopia. 

Bibliography: 'Umari, Masalik aUAbsar, tr. 
Gaudefroy-Demombynes, 1927, 2, 18; MakrizI, ed. 
Rinck, Leyden 1790, p. 15; Perruchon, Les Chro- 
niques de Zar'a Ya'eqSb el de Ba'eda Mdry&m, 
Paris 1893; Conzelman, Le Chronique de Galdw- 
dlwos, Paris 1895. (G. W. B. Huntingford) 
BALI [see djawaJ. 

BALIABADRA, Turkish name for Patrai, Patras 
(fourth largest town on the Greek mainland and the 
largest on the Morean peninsula), situated on the 
gulf of the same west of the entrance to the Gulf of 
Corinth (Turkish Kordos, [?.v.]), capital of the 
Nomos Achaia, seat of a bishop. It had about 
85,000 inhabitants in 1951. The name Baliabadra 
comes from IlaXoaal nixpat, or rather IlaXaia II <i- 
xpa (Pdtra is even today the colloquial name for the 
town), i.e., Old Patra(i), apparently because from 
the 14th century onwards New Patra(i) denoted the 
fortress under whose protection the old settlement 
was. Nikiphoros Gregoras (IV.9.4) describes it 
explicitly as ippouptov to tcov NIcov IlaTpcov l7uxe- 
xXt)|jl6vov. The adjective would not, therefore seem 
to have been added to distinguish Old Patra(i) 
from N£<xi IldiTpai, a place near Lamia (Turkish 
Zitun , conquered by the Ottomans in 1393, which 
was itself more usually known as Patratzik (IlaTpa- 
-r£bc, from the Turkish Badradjik) although today, 
as in antiquity, it is once again known as Hypati. 
In the west, Old Patra(i) is known as Patras (from 
'S t<x<; IlaTpai;, compare the Italian Patrasso). 

Additional data concerning its pre-Ottoman 
history can be found in the works of A. Bon, ~ 
Gerland, Wm. Miller, D. A. Zakythinos, cf. biblio- 
graphy at the end of the article. Only the following 
facts need be mentioned here: at the division of the 
Byzantine Empire in 1204, the town became the 
seat of the Latin duchy of Achaia, and also the seat 
of an archbishop. In 1408, it became Venetian. On 
1 July 1428, the town was threatened — but not 
captured — by Palaeologue princes who were quar- 
relling amongst themselves. On 20 March 1429, the 
despot Constantine repeated the attack on the to 
During the course of this attack, the population 
turned away from the Latin archbishop Pandolfo 
Malatesta, and their notables swore an oath of 
allegiance to the Greek despot on June 5th in tl 
Church of St. Andrew. The fortress continued 1 
hold out, and did not surrender to the Greeks until 
May 1430 (Zakythinos, i, 206 ff.). At the time, 
Sultan Murad II objected to the taking of Patrai, 
asking the Greeks to refrain from occupying it, as 
the inhabitants desired to pay their tribute to him. 
Sphrantzis, the first governor of Patrai (later a 
historian), negotiated with the Porte, and eventu- 
ally succeeded in obtaining the Sultan's consent 
(Sphrantzis, 152-3). It was, apparently, not until 17 
years later that Murad II made an attempt to gain 
Patrai for himself. According to Dukas (ed. Vas. 
Grecu [Bucharest 1958], 278,"), he advanced in the 
winter of 1446/7 "as far as Patrai and Klarentza" 
(the Kylllni of today), on which occasion he may 
have succeeded in taking the open town by a surprise 
attack, but it is hardly likely that he also overcame 
the almost impregnable fortress above. Cf., however, 
Hammer-Purgstall, i, 473. The country all around 
was laid waste at the time, and some 60,000 people 
were led off into slavery. When the despot Constantine 



became Emperor of Byzantium in 1448, his brother 
Thomas took possession of north-western Morea, 
that is to say, of the whole of Achaia, including 
Patrai and Klarentza, where he may well have held 
court (cf. Zakythinos, i, 242). Mehemmed II, the 
Conqueror, went in person to Patrai, in summer 
1458, arriving from Mouchli (cf. E. Dark6 in the 
ITpaxTixdc of the Academy of Athens, vi, Athens 
1931, 22-29). He found it deserted and derelict. The 
inhabitants had fled to Venetian possessions on the 
Morean peninsula. This time, the fortress surrendered 
after a short resistance (cf. Kritoboulos, in the 
edition of C. Muller, FHGraec, V, Paris 1870, 123, 
also F. Babinger, Mehmed der Eroberer und seine 
Zeit, Munich 1953, 176 ff. (French edition 1954, 
Italian edition 1957). The sultan considered Patrai 
a suitable place for his commerce with the West, and 
he therefore invited the population to return, 
granting special privileges and tax reductions (cf. 
Kritoboulos, in the above mentioned book, 123; and 
Zakythinos (see above), i, 258). Later, early in 1459, 
there were Greek attempts to regain the town, but 
these failed (cf. Chalkokondyles, ed. I. Bekker, 
457 f.). Patrai remained, now as Baliabadra, an 
Ottoman possession for more than 350 years, without, 
however, regaining the great position it had once 
held in the times of the Roman Emperors, when 
there was a flourishing trade with Italy. Baliabadra 
became a Turkish provincial town and administrative 
centre, but was without any commercial significance. 
Attempts made by Venice to regain the town 
repeatedly failed. In summer 1464, Iacopo Barbarigo, 
Provveditore of Morea, made an ill-fated attempt on 
the town, which was successfully repulsed by 
Turakhan-oghlu c Umar-Beg (cf. s.v. and also 
Hammer-Purgstall, ii, 84 f.). In September 1532, 
however, the imperial admiral Andrea Doria captured 
the practically unprotected Patrai without fighting, 
but the re-occupation was only temporary (cf. 
J. W. Zinkeisen, Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches, 
ii> 734 f.). In 1685, the Venetian general landed in 
Patrai (with an army which largely consisted of 
German mercenaries) in order to drive the Turks 
from Morea. On 24 July 1687, Baliabadra (abandoned 
by the Ottomans and partly blown up by them) fell 
into the hands of F. Morosini's troops, after a heated 
battle (cf. Zinkeisen, v, 132); but this reoccupation, 
again, did not lead to any permanent re-establishment 
of Venetian rule in Morea. In the middle of April 
1770, the town was taken by surprise by a horde of 
Greeks, who were shortly afterwards either killed or 
taken as slaves by the Albanians and Turks. At that 
time, Baliabadra once again went up in flames, and 
only a few families saved themselves and their 
possessions, fleeing to the Ionian islands (cf. Zink- 
eisen, v, 931). The first big Greek rebellion against 
Turkish rule in Patrai started on 6 April 1821. On 
this occasion, the archbishop of Patrai (since 1806) 
Germanos (1771-1826) led the battle for liberation. 
On 15 April 1822, the Ottomans stormed the town 
for the last time under the leadership of Yusuf 
Mukhlis Pasha (from Serres), who razed the town 
to the ground. French troops came to the assistance 
of the Greeks and took possession of Patrai in 1828, 
being relieved by the Bavarians in 1833. Since then, 
the town has been rebuilt in a regular checkerboard 
plan and has once again developed into a flourishing 
port, linked more recently with Athens (cf. atina) 
overland by the Peloponnesian Railway (230 km.). 
Until the middle of the 18th century, whilst 
Baliabadra was under Ottoman rule, it had only 
a western traveller, viz. 



BALIABADRA - 

Master Thomas Dallam (1599-1600), see Early 
Voyages and Travels in the Levant, ed. by I. 
Theod. Bent (London 1893; Hakluyt Society, 
vol. lxxxvii), 86. The first such description dates 
from 1740, when Richard Pococke (A Description 
of the East, ii/2, London 1745, 176 f.) mentions 
it as an unhealthy town in a swampy plain, 
seat of a Greek archbishop, with 12 parish 
churches, each with 80 Christian families, some 
10 Jewish families and roughly 250 Turkish ones 
"who are not the best sort of people". At that time 
there were an English Consul General, a French Vice- 
Consul (the Consulate was in Modon), and a Venetian 
and a Dutch Consul in Patrai. The description of the 
town by Dr. Richard Chandler (Travels in Greece, 
Oxford 1776) in 1764, is much the same. The descrip- 
tion by the Ottoman globe-trotter Ewliya Celebi 
(Seyahetname, viii, Istanbul 1928, 288-292), who was 
there in 1080/1669, is much more extensive. He 
noted a mosque near the market (larshu), donated by 
Mehemmed II, and one of Bayazld II in the citadel 
(if kal'a), also the mosque of the Kyaya (Ketkhuda 
Pj.), and not far from this, the mosque of Sheykh- 
Efendi, that of Ibrahim Cavus, and finally the 
mosque at the Dabbagh-khane {i.e., tannery). 
Furthermore there were at that time three smaller 
houses of prayer (masdiid), four Dervish monasteries 
(that of Shevkh-Efendi amongst them), and three 
baths (hammdm). Ewliya Celebi mentions places of 
pilgrimage near Baliabadra, amongst these the one 
of Sari Saltlk Baba [q.v.], i.e., 'Sveti Nikola', and the 
one of 'Jovani-Baba' — doubtless old Christian 
places of pilgrimage. In his description, Ewliya 
Celebi calls Baliabadra "ballu (ball!) Baliabadra", 
i.e., "Baliabadra rich in honey"; compare "ballu 
Badra" {'Anonymus Giese', I4i,»). Hadjdji Khalifa 
(Rumeli und Bosna, translated by J. v. Hammer, 
Vienna 1812, 124 f.) gives only a few details con- 
cerning the port and administration in Baliabadra. 
The fever-ridden, swampy plains to the north, 
east and south-east of the town (cf. R. Pococke, in 
the above mentioned book, ii/2, 176), have long 
since been dried up. Commerce is largely concerned 
with currants, oil, and wine, as well as silk (which was 
already cultivated in Ottoman times, as is also 
described by Pococke), and this has made Patrai into 
a flourishing trading centre. According to Ludwig 
Steub, Bilder aus Griechenland, Leipzig 1885, 230, in 
1822, Patrai consisted solely of the ruins of five 
mosques, fallen down churches, derelict houses, and 
only a few repaired and inhabited dwellings. 

Bibliography: E. Thomopoulos, 'Ioxopia 
tjjs 7t6Xeco<; LTaxpipv, Athens 1888; E. Gerland, 
Neue QueUen zur Geschichte des lateinischen Erz- 
bistums Patras, Leipzig 1903; Emile de Borchgrave, 
Croquis d'Oriens: Patras et I' Achate, Brussels 1908; 
Wm. Miller, The Latins in the Levant, London 1908, 
passim, especially 289 f., 363 ff., 388 ff.; 434 ff.; 
Wm. Miller, Essays on the Latin Orient, Cambridge 
1921, passim, especially 40 ff., 53 f., 100 ff., 
418 ff.; D. A. Zakythinos, Le Despotat Grec de 
Morie, I/II, Paris 1932/1953; Ant. Bon, Le 
Peloponnese Byzantin jusqu'en 1204, Paris 1953; 
concerning frequent descriptions of the town in 
the 19th century, cf. S. H. Weber, Voyages and 
Travels in the Near East made during the XIX 
century, Princeton 1952, 245, Patras. L. Steub, 
see above, gives a vivid picture of Patrai and its 
inhabitants in the year 1846 on 209-249. 

(Fr. Babingbr) 
BALIGH (a), major, of full age; bulilgh, 
puberty, majority; opp. saghir, minor, sabi, boy, 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



- BALI KESRI 993 

sughr, minority. Majority in Islamic law is, generally 
speaking, determined by physical maturity in either 
sex (the Shafi'Is explicitly lay down a minimum 
limit of nine years); should physical maturity not 
manifest itself, majority is presumed at a certain age : 
fifteen years according to the Hanafis, Shafi'is and 
Hanbalis, eighteen years according to the Malikls 
(various other opinions are ascribed to the old 
authorities). Within these limits, the declaration of 
the person concerned that he or she has reached 
puberty, is accepted. Majority is one of the conditions 
of full legal capacity; the minor is subject to a legal 
disabUity (hadxr) and to the guardianship of his 
father or other legal guardian [cf. wilaya]. The 
major who is of sound mind {'dkil), is mukallaf, i.e. 
obliged to fulfil the religious duties, and therefore 
also responsible in criminal law. But majority 
(together with soundness of mind) does not by itself 
produce contractual capacity, the capacity to 
dispose of one's own property; in order to have this 
effect, it must be accompanied by rushd, discretion 
or responsibility in acting. The father or other legal 
guardian must not only encourage the minor to 
fulfU his religious duties regularly, but test his 
rushd when he approaches puberty, and hand over 
his property to him only when he shows that he 
possesses it (cf. Kur'Sn iv, 6). The other schools of 
religious law do not lay down a time limit for this, 
but the Hanafis fix the age at which his property must 
be handed over to him in any case, at 25 years, an 
obvious adoption of the legitime, aetas of Roman law. 
The Malikls, in the case of a woman, make this kind 
of capacity dependent, in addition to majority and 
rushd, either on the consummation of marriage, 
or on a formal act of emancipation by the father or 
other legal guardian, or on becoming an "old 
spinster" ( c dnis); a somewhat similar opinion is 
also held by some Hanbalis. Islamic law envisages a 
gradual transition from the status of minor to that 
of major, as exemplified by the mumayyiz, the 
"discerning minor", and the murdhifr, the "minor 
on the point of reaching puberty". 

Bibliography : Santillana, Istituzioni I", I26ff.; 
G. BergstrSssers Grundzugr, ed. J. Schacht, 35 f.; 
L. Milliot, Introduction, 415 ff.; the works on 
fikh and ikIUildf, in the section on hadjr ; A. von 
Kremer, Culturgeschichte, I, 517 f., 532 f.; O. Pesle, 
in Revue Algerienne, 1934/7, 94 f. R. Brunschvig, 
in Revue Internal, des Droits de I'AntiquiU, II, 
157 ff.; the same, in Studia Islamica, III, 64. 

(Ed.) 
BALIK, Turko-Mongol word for "town" = or 
"castle" (also written Balik and Baligh); appears 
frequently in compound names of towns, such as 
Blshbalik ("Five Towns", at the present day in 
ruins at Gucen in Chinese Turkestan), Khanbalik 
(the "Khan's Town"), Turko-Mongol name for 
Pekin (also frequently used by European trav- 
ellers in the middle ages in forms like (Cambalu), 
Ilibalik (on the River Ili, the modern Iliysk) etc. 
As the town of Bashbalik is mentioned as early 
as the Orkhon inscriptions (2nd/8th century), 
Balik, in the meaning of town, is one of the oldest 
of Turkl words, as is the word Balik "fish", which 
is similarly pronounced and is common to all Turk! 

Bibliography: R. Rahmeti Arat, IA (s.v.). 

(W. Barthold.) 

BALIKESRl, Balikesir, a town of north-western 

Asia Minor, in the region known in ancient times as 

Mysia. The name Balikesri derives from the Greek 

"LTaXaioxdtaTpov". Al- c UmarI, in his Masalik al- 

63 



994 



BALI KESRI — BALlNOS 



Abfdr.xeiersto this locality as"Akira" (= '"Oxuptx", 
a name current in the period of the Comneni). The 
Roman Hadrianuthera is believed to have been 
situated in this same district. Balikesri was one of 
the chief towns in the emirate of Karasi [q.v.], 
which came into being when the Turks wrested this 
area from the Byzantines in the years around 699-700/ 
1 300. Ibn Battuta, who travelled through Asia Minor 
c. 730-1/1330, judged Balikesri to be a beautiful and 
well-populated place. The amlrate of Karasi was soon 
absorbed into the Ottoman state, a process which 
began in about 735-6/1335 and appears to have been 
gradually completed during the reign of Orkhan 
Ghazl. Karasi, under Ottoman rule, long remained 
a satujiak in the eyalet of Anadolu, until in the 
reign of MahmQd II it was attached to the wildyet 
of Khudavendigar. It is now a separate province 
with Balikesri as its administrative centre. Balikesri, 
situated at the foot of the YUan-dagh ("mount of 
the serpent"), confronts a fertile plain noted for its 
production of cereals, vegetables and fruit. Its 
population was estimated in 1945 to be a little less 

Bibliography: W. Tomaschek, Zur histori- 
schen Topographic von Kleinasien im Mittelalter, in 
SB. Ah. d. W. Wien, Ph.-Hist. Classe, cxxiv, 
1891, 95-96; F. Taeschner, Das anatolische 
Wegenetz nach osmanischen Quellen, i, Leipzig 1926, 
175; V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, iv, Paris 1894, 
262-267; Ibn BaHuta, ed. Defremery and Sangui- 
netti, ii, Paris 1914, 316-317; F. Taeschner, Al- 
'Umari's Berichl iiber Anatolien, Leipzig 1929, 43; 
<A1I Djawad, Qioghrdfiyd Lughatl, Pt. i, Istanbul 
1313 A.H., 151; K. Su, XVII ve XVIII inci 
YuzyUlarda Balikesir Sehir Hayati {Baltkesir 
Halkevi Yaylnlarlndan, no. 14), Istanbul 1937; 
J. Mordtmann, Vber das tiirkische Furstengeschlecht 
der Karasi, in SB. Ak. d. W. Berlin, Ph.-Hist. 
Classe, Erster Halfband, Berlin 1911, 2-7; Ahmad 
Tawhid, Bdlikesride Karasi Oghullarl, in TOEM, 
part ix, 1327, 564 fl.; ^4r}»i> KUavuzu, i, Istanbul 
1938, 58; I A, s.v. Balikesir (Besim Darkot). 

(V. J. Parry) 
BALlNCS. SUvestre de Sacy was the first to 
state that this name means Apollonius. The above 
form and Ballnas are the most frequently used ones. 
Other forms are Abulluniyus {Fihrist, 266, Ibn al- 
Kiftl, 61), Abuluniyus (Cheikho's personal MS. of 
Ibn Sa<id, Tabakat al-Umam, 1912, 28, 16), Aful- 
luniyus {ibid., 29,1), Afuluniyus (Barhebraeus, ed. 
Salhani, 118), Ablinas {Fihrist, I.e.), c lusus {ibid., 
263, 21, cf. Plessner, Der oixovo|itx6? des Neupy- 
thagoreers 'Bryson', 1928, 4 f. ; P. Kraus, Jdbir ibn 
Ifayyan, Contribution, ii, 273 n. 3), Abulus (Ya'kubi, 
i, 165) Ablus (Ps. Madjriti, Gh&yat al-tfakim, ed. 
H. Ritter, 1933, 107 ff.; the meaning Apollonius is 
proved by the fragment of a Hebrew translation in 
Cod. Adler 1920). For other forms see Kraus, op. cit., 

In Islam, two persons named Apollonius are 
known, the famous mathematician Apollonius of 
Perge in Pamphylia (ca. 200 B.C.) and a sage whose 
personality is based on the Greek tradition about 
Apollonius of Tyana in Cappadocia (1st cent. A.D.). 

Apollonius of Perge appears in the biographical 
sources (not in the MSS. of his works) almost invari- 
ably with the epithet al-Nadjdjar (the carpenter), 
the origin of which has not yet been explained 
satisfactorily. Since G. Fliigel, al-Kindi, 1857, 53 
it has been customary to render this by "the 
geometer", and as a matter of fact, Apollonius was 
already in antiquity called "the great geometer". 



Also Euclid was called the geometer, and Ibn al 
Kifti, 62 (E. Kapp's quotation al-muhandis, in 
Isis, xxii, 1934, 161 n. 20 is wrong) calls him al- 
Nadjdjar in the heading of his article, but states 
afterwards that Euclid was a carpenter by vocation. 
However, no other place is known where al-naajdjdr 
appears as the translation of geometer, and no 
dictionary gives this translation. 

A detailed discussion of the Arabic translations of, 
and commentaries on, Apollonius' famous Conica 
and his other works has been given by M. Stein- 
schneider, in ZDMO, 1, 1896, 180-187; cf. also 
G. Sarton, in IHS, i, 173-175 and indexes of all 
three volumes; Brockelmann, S, index s.v. Apol- 
lonios v. Perga (instead of 852 read 856); M. Krause, 
Stambuler Handschriften islamischer Mathematiker, 
1936. 

With regard to Apollonius of Tyana, there are 
considerable contradictions in the various sources, 
and the tradition about the sahib al-(ilasmdt, as he 
is usually called (beside al-hakim) has even, to a 
certain degree, influenced the reports concerning 
Apollonius of Perge. Our oldest source, Ya'kubl, i, 
165 rightly relates that Apollonius lived under the 
reign of Domitian (81-96), and the same is related 
by Ibn Abl Usaybi c a, i, 73, and Barhebraeus, I.e. 
But the same Ya'kubi speaks on p. 134 of "Ballnus 
al-nadjdjar who is called the orphan, and he is the 
sahib al-filasmdt, etc.". The confusion lies not only 
in the use of the epithets of both Apollonius for one 
and the same person, but also in the addition "the 
orphan" : in the preface of the Sirr al-Khalika (see 
below) Ballnus calls himself "an orphan inhabitating 
Tyana" (cf. Kraus, op. cit., 273 n. 3). In the Dhakhirat 
al-Iskandar (see below) Aristotle tells Alexander 
that he had received the book from Apollonius (the 
text in J. Ruska, Tabula Smaragdina, 1926, 72). 
Here Apollonius appears as a contemporary of 
Philip and his son Alexander, and so he does 
in al-Bal'aml's Persian version of Tabari ( c f. 
Zotenberg's French translation, i, 510 f.; the whole 
passage is missing in the Arabic Tabari) and in 
Nizaml's Ishandar-nama (cf. W. Bacher, Nizami's 
Leben und Werke, 1871, 67 ff. and Persian text, 28; 
W. Hertz, Gesammelte Abhandlungen, 1905, 45). This 
anachronism with regard to Apollonius the talisman- 
maker has, in its turn, influenced Ibn al-Kifti's 
dating of Apollonius of Perge; his article about the 
latter begins (p. 61): "Apollonius the carpenter, 
mathematician of ancient time, much earlier than 
Euclid; he wrote the book Conica". And in his 
article on Euclid, 63, Euclid, a carpenter of Tyre, 
explains and accomplishes for an unnamed Greek 
king two books of Apollonius on irregular polyeders 
(this is in fact the subject of Euclid's Elementa). 
On 65 he speaks, on the contrary, of a commentary 
on Euclid's 10th book by an ancient (kadim) Greek 
man named Balis (the variant readings show with 
almost absolute certainty that he speaks of Apol- 
lonius). Now, Apollonius of Perge lived about 80-100 
years after Euclides. (Kapp, op. cit., 163-168 does 
not even point out this confusion!). 

In Hunayn b. Ishak's Addb al-Faldsifa, an 
Apollonius appears in two places: in part i ch. 5 the 
saying engraved on his seal is reported, and of part ii 
the whole ch. 17 is dedicated to his apophthegms. 
None of these dicta is characteristic of either of the 
two Apollonius; but Abu Sulayman al-Mantfkl 
points to Apollonius of Tyana, when he, in the first 
paragraph of ii, 17 ("The pen is the most powerful 
sorcerer") substitutes "talisman" for "sorcerer". 

Also the six sermones in the Turba Philosophorutn 



BALINOS — BALIS 



993 



attributed by Steinschneider (Europ. Uebers. aus 
dem Arab., II, SBAk. Wien, 1905, 67 ff.) and Ruska 
(T. Ph., 1931, 23 ff.) to Apollonius of Tyana are no 
more characteristic of him than do the other 
alchemistic sermones of their respective orators. 

Of the Arabic books connected with the name of 
Apollonius of Tyana the following are preserved in 
this language either in full or partly or in quotations 
of some length: 

1. K. al-'-llal or Sirr al-Khalika, parts of which 
were edited and translated by Sivestre de Sacy 
(Notices et Extraits, iv, an. 7/1798-99, 108 ff.) and 
J. Ruska (Tab. Sm., 124-163). The latter also proved 
that the famous alchemist text known as Tabula 
Smaragdina has its original place at the end of this 
book; and P. Kraus, op. cit., 303 has shown that 
whole book is to be a commentary of that ti 
About the Latin translation by Hugo Sanctalliensis, 
cf. Ruska, 177 ff. The analysis of the book by Kraus, 
270-303 led to its dating in the time of the Caliph 
al-Ma'mun and shew its close relation to the Syriac 
Book of Treasures by Job of Edessa (ca. 817 A.r ;. 
ed. Mingana, 1935, as well as to the Greek nepi 
^UCTCto? dtvGptoTrou by Nemesiusof Emesa (5 th o 
A.D.). Cf. now also L. Massignon, in A.-J. Festugiere, 
La Rlvllation d'Hermis Trismigiste, i, 1944, 395 f., 
and the additions in the 2nd ed., 1950: A. E. Affifi, 
in BSOAS, xiii, 1949-51, 847 ft- Kraus also showed 
the great influence of this book on Djabir Ibn 
Hayyan; the latter wrote a considerable number of 
books on different subjects '■aid ra'y Balinds, cf. 
Kraus, i, index, s.v. Balinds; J. W. Fuck, Ambix, iv, 
1951, § 12 and Commentary), parts of them were 
edited by Kraus, Jdbir Ibn Hayyan, Textes choisis, 
1935. 

2. Risdla fi TaHhir al-Ruhdniydt fi 'l-Murakkabdt, 
MS. Istanbul, As'ad 1987 (Plessner, in Islamica, i 
1931. 55i f.), Wehbi 892 (courtesy of H. Ritter), 
Chester Beatty (cf. J. Bowman, Glasgow Univ. 
Or. Soc., Transactions, xiv, 1950-52); for other 
MSS., see Kraus, ii, 293 n. 5. 

3. al-Mudkhal al-Kabir ild c Ilm Af-dl al-Ruhdniydt, 
in all MSS. following no. 2, Hebrew translation in 
Paris, MS. Hebr. 1016 and Steinschneider MS. 29 
(cf. Steinschneider, Hebr. Ubersetzungen its Mittel- 
alters, 846 f. and Plessner, I.e.). 

4. K. Taldsim Balinds al-Akbar H-Waladih l Abd 
al-Rahmdn ('.), Paris MS. 2250, fol. 84-134, identical 
with K. Balinds li-Ibnih fi 'l-Tilasmdt, Berol. Pet. 
I 66, fol. 41V-72V (Ahlwardt 5908). 

5. A Kitdb Ablus (vocalisation uncertain) al-Hakim 
is one of the sources of the lists of images to 
engraved on the stones of the planets, Ghdyat al- 
Ifakim, 107-124. Whether this book is the Liber de 
imaginibus quoted by Albert us Magnus, De libris 
licitis (cf. F. J. Carmody, Arabic astronomical and 
astrological sciences in Latin translation, 1956, 58 ff.), 
is still an open question. 

6. The Hermetic book Dhakhirat al-Iskandar given 
to Alexander by Aristotle who received it from 
Apollonius has been elaborately discussed and 
partly edited and translated by Ruska, Tab. Sm., 
68-107; it contains also some of the talismans 
located by Apollonius in several towns. The connexion 
between the prologue and the Babylonian report c 
the Flood has been stated by Plessner, in Studia 
Islamica, ii, 1954, 52 ff. 

(For the Arabic texts belonging to the above 
nos. 1 and 6 as published by Ruska, cf. Plessner, in 
Islamica, xvi, 1927, 83 ff.). 

7. In no. 3, the author alludes several times to his 
Risdlat Sal-sihr, which is as yet unknown in Arabic; 



but perhaps the Hebrew Mlekhet muikelet (Stein- 
schneider, Hebr. Ubers., 848, cf. also ZDMG, xlv, 
1891, 444) has something to do with it. 

8. AI-KazwInI quotes in many places of his 
'Adfd'ib al-Makhlukdt (see the list in Bacher, op. cit., 
70 n. 26) a Kitdb al- Khawdss by Ballnas, which has 
not yet been traced, Steinschneider judges the title 
to be a fiction (Hebr. Ubers., 845 n. 7). 

The vast number of medieval Latin and vernacular 
texts ascribed to Ballnus (Belenus and the like) 
cannot be dealt with here, cf. Steinschneider, Europ. 
Ubers., Index, and Carmody, op. cit., index. But 
there is no doubt that some of the authors whose 
books are published or analysed in the Lapidario del 
rey D. Alfonso X, reproduced and partly edited by 
J. F. Montana, 1881, are translations of Arabic 
books attributed to Apollonius; cf. the full list in 
Sarton, ii, 837. Here belong: 1. Abolais (never 
deciphered, cf. G. O. S. Darby, in Osiris, i, 1936, 
251 ff.), 4. Yluz, 5. Belyenus and Ylus, 6. Plinius 
and Hermuz (Hermes). A comparison of these names 
with the forms of the name of Apollonius in Arabic 
at the beginning of this article will furnish sufficient 

The Greek Apotelesmata ApoUonii Tyanensis, 
simultaneously edited by F. Nau, Patrologia, 
Syriaca, I 2, 1907, 1363 ff., and F. Boll, Cat. Codicum 
astrologorum Graecorum, vii, 1908, 175 ff. contains 
passages of which the Latin translation from the 
Arabic can be traced in Brit. Mus. MS. Royal 12 
C XVIII (Carmody, 73). and even an English trans- 
lation in Sloane 3826. For another Latin (Vatican) 
MS. cf. Carmody, I.e. Similar texts, also translated 
from Arabic, in Sloane 3848. The name of the 
disciple of Apollonius to whom the Greek text is 
dedicated has been identified with that of the 
author of a text edited in Syriac and Arabic by 
G. Levi Delia Vida, La Dottrina e i Dodici Legati di 
Stomathalassa, Atti Ace. Naz. Lin., CI. Sci. mor. stor. 
fil., viii/iii, fasc. 8, Rome 1951. 

Another pupil of Apollonius is the famous Artefius 
(not Arletius, as in Brockelmann, S I, 429, nor 
Atrefius, as in the additions in vol. iii, 1208), the 
author of Clavis sapientiae, the Arabic original of 
which, Miftdk al-Hikma, has been discovered by 
Levi Delia Vida, and described in Speculum, xiii, 
1938, 80-85; cf. Kraus, 298 f. 

Bibliography: On Apollonius of Perge, see 
also H. Suter, Die Mathematiker und Astronomen 
de* Araber und ihre Werke; M. Krause, StambnUr 
Handschriften islamischer Mathematiker; M. Stein- 
schneider, Euklid bei den Arabern (Zeitschrift fur 
Mathematik und Physik, Historisch-Literarische 
Abteilung, vol. xxxi, 1886). (M. Plessner) 
BALIS, former town in northern Syria, which 
was both a port on the Western bank of the Euphrates 
and an important stage, 100 km. from Aleppo and 
at the entrance to the pjazira, of the road from 
Antioch and the Mediterranean leading, via al- 
Rakka, to Baghdad and 'Irak. The commercial and 
agricultural prosperity of the town was doubtless 
due to its situation at a point of intersection of river 
and land highways, and in a warm valley where the 
irrigation possibilities favoured the development of 
husbandry. 

Known in antiquity under the Aramaic and 
Greek names of BYT BLS and Barbalissos, indicated 
both in the Table de Peutinger and the Notitia 
Dignitatum and, after the administrative division 
of the province of Syria which took place towards 
the middle of the nth century A.D., belonging to 
the Augusta Euphratensis, it played the role of a 



BALIS — BALISH 



frontier town which was to continue in the Byzantine 
period, when it was several times pillaged by the 
Persians. It suffered particular damage during the 
campaign of Khusraw II Anushirwan and was 
rebuilt by the efforts of Justinian. Previously, the 
hagiographers had made it the site of the martyrdom 
of Bacchus, a famous saint of the area, whose relics 
are said to be preserved there. 

Occupied by the Arabs as the result of a treaty 
concluded with Abu c Ubayda after the capture of 
Aleppo and abandoned at that time by certain 
elements of the population, in the Umayyad period 
Balis formed part of the djund of Kinnasrin and was 
subsequently, under al-Rashld, attached to the 
territory of the c Awasim [q.v.]. It continued to retain 
its strategical importance for a long time in the 
vicinity of the Byzantine territories. The famous 
general Maslama b. 'Abd al-Malik took an interest 
in it to the extent of having a canal excavated and 
improving the production of the land. He established 
himself there and it was to remain the property of 
his descendants. In 245/859 the town suffered from 
an earthquake which affected the whole of Northern 
Syria; subsequently it shared the fate of the cities 
of the area, escaping from Caliphal control and 
entering the orbit of the Tulunids, then that of the 
Hamdanids, until the Saldjukids, in their turn, 
extended their authority to the region. Its economic 
decline, according to Ibn Hawkal, who, however, still 
mentions rich grain harvests, dates apparently from 
the end of the reign of the Hamdanid Sayf al-Dawla; 
but the brief information given by the geographers 
should not make us forget the signs of prosperity, 
borne out by archaeological remains, right into the 
Ayyubid period. At the time of the Crusades, it was 
subject especially to indecisive incursions by the 
Franks,, after which it continued to pass from hand 
to hand of various Muslim masters, among whom 
can be cited at the end the Ayyubids al-Malik al- 
Zahir Ghazi and al-Malik al-<Adil Abu Bakr (who 
seems to have held it at least from 607/1210-11, the 
date inscribed on the minaret which he had erected). 
At this time various indications seem to show thot 
the population of Balis, where several mashhads were 
venerated in connexion with the memory of 'All and 
al-Husayn, was mainly §hl c ite. Subsequently the 
destruction wrought by the Mongol invasion 
destroyed the locality, which did not even appear in 
the administrative organisation of Mamluk Syria. 
At the present day the ruins of Balis lie five km. 
from the small modern village of Meskene on a 
plateau overlooking the valley of the Euphrates 
which flows at quite a distance from the site. The 
fortified enclosure can still be identified, with its 
monumental doors, the remains of a brick praetorium 
doubtless dating back to the times of Justinian and 
the site of the great mosque, indicated by the 
beautiful octogonal brick minaret, erected on a 
rectangular base and bearing four series of ornamental 
inscriptions. The numerous mounds where abundant 
potsherds are to be found, have never been 
systematically excavated, but trial soundings 
carried out about 1925 revealed interesting sculptured 
plaster decorations with inscriptions dated 464/1072 
and 469/1076-77. 

Bibliography: Pauly-Wissowa, see Barbalis- 
sos; R. Dussaud, Topographic historique de la 
Syrie, Paris 1927, part. 452-53; A. Musil, The 
Middle Euphrates, New York 1927, part. 314-20; 
CI. Cahen, La Syrie du nord, Paris 1940, index; 
M. Canard, Histoire de la dynastie des Ham- 
danides, ' Algiers 1951, 88 and 226; F. Sane 



and E. Herzfeld, ArcMologische Reise im Euphrat- 

und Tigrisgebiet, Berlin 1910-n (with an epigra- 

phical contribution from M. van Berchem), i, 2-3, 

114 and 123-29; G. Salles, in Mimoires du llle 

Congris int. d'art et d'arch. iraniens, Leningrad 

1935, 221-26; Repertoire chr. d'ipigraphie arabe, 

no. 2678, 2712 and 3828; J. and D. Sourdel, in 

Annates arch, de Syrie, iii, 1953, 103-105; G. Le 

Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, London 

1890, 417; Baladhuri, Futuh, 150-51; BGA, 

indices; Tabari, iii, 52, 1440, 2028, 2200; Yakut, 

i, 477 ff. ; Ibn al-'Adlm, Zubda, ed. Dahan, i and 

ii, index; Ibn Shaddad, Description d'Alep (ed. 

Sourdel), index; al-HarawI, K. al-Ziydrdt, ed. 

Sourdel-Thomine, 61. (J. Sourdel-Thomine) 

BALISH (Persian: "cushion"), Turkish: yastuk, 

a 13th century Mongolian monetary unit, which was 

in use particularly in the eastern part of the Empire. 

It is, however, also mentioned frequently by the 

1 1 khans [q.v.] in Iran. In China it appears as late as 

the 14th century. The balish was coined in gold and 

in silver, and (according to Djuwaynl, GMS i, 16, 

and Wassaf, lith. Bombay, 22), corresponded to 500 

mithkdl (according to W. Hinz, Islamische Masse und 

Gewichte, Leiden 1955, 1-8, on the basis of numismatic 

observations: 4. 3 g. each; Djuwaynl, trans. J. A. 

Boyle, i, 22, writes loc. cit. of 50, instead of 500 

mithkdl). According to this assessment, a balish 

would weigh 2.15 kg., and this would agree with a 

Western report by William of Rubruquis, ed. 

Rockhill, 156, which states that one silver bdUsh 

corresponds to 10 (Cologne) marks, i.e., 2.338 kg. 

W. Hinz assesses the gold value (taking 1 g. of 

gold at a price of 2.88 gold marks) at 6,192 gold 

marks. If we assume the relative value of gold to 

silver (according to Ahmet-Zeki Validi (now Togan), 

Mogollar devrinde Anadolun'un iktisadt vaziyeti, in 

Tiirk hukuk ve iktisat tarihi mecmuasl, i, 1931, 1-42), 

to be 12 : 1 (cf. also B. Spuler, Die Mongolen in Iran', 

1955, 556 corresponding to 303'), then one silver 

balish corresponds to 516 gold marks. 

According to Djuwaynl (loc. cit.) a silver balish 
has the value of 75 Ruknl dinars of 2/3 standard 
(so-caUed after the Buyid Rukn al-Dawla, 934-976) ; 
thus the value of such a dinar would be 6.88 DM.). 
Other statements of the same period do not 
indeed agree with Djuwaynl, but this may be 
due partly to fluctuations in value. According 
to Djuzdjanl (DjawzadjanI), fabakdt-i Nasiri, 
trans. Raverty, mo, the balish corresponded to 
60 1/3 dirhams; Wassaf, lith. Bombay, 22, quotes 
the gold balish at 2,000, the silver bdUsh at 200 dinars 
(which corresponds to a proportion of 10 : 1 for gold : 
silver at that time). One balish in paper money (too) 
was worth 10, or (according to Wassaf, 506) only 
6 dinars (this is an indication of the rapid fall in value 
of the too). W. Barthold assumed that here the silver 
dinar worth 3 mithkil is meant (cf. also d'Ohsson, 
Histoire des Mongols, iv, 464). 

Bibliography: Rashid al-Din ed. Quatremere, 
i, 320 f., note 120 (compilation of relevant parts 
of sources, although seen from the erroneous point 
of view that the balish does not denote a definite, 
sum of money but a "great quantity" of money) ; 
B. Spuler, Die Mongolen in Iran', Berlin 1955, 
304 f. with notes; W. Barthold/W. Hinz, Die pars. 
Inschrift . . . . zu Ani, in ZDMG, 101 (1951), 241- 
269; W. Hinz, in Islam, xxxii (1959) (note on 
Boyle's translation of Djuwaynl); concerning 
yastuk, cf. P. Pelliot in T'oung-Pao, no. 27 (1930), 
190-2, ibid, 32 (1936), 80; idem, Notes sur . . . la 
Horde d'Or, Paris 1950, 8. (B. Spuler* 



BALISH — 

BALISH, Belesh, Span. Velez, a toponymic of 
Berber origin encountered on the coast of the Rif 
and at various places in the_Iberian peninsula with 
the spellings ij&-JL> 'iji-u and (j£Jj- Al-BakrI 
mentions the port of Balish after those of Badis and 
Bukuya, opposite Peiion de Velez de la Goraera, 
on the Rif coast. Another Balish, unidentified, is 
to be found beside the Guadalquivir after leaving 
Cordova in the direction of Tudmir and Murcia. 
Al-Idrlsl gives the name Balish to the Mar Menor of 
Murcia, a large lake formed by the waters brought 
down by various swift streams, situated 57 miles 
from Alicante and which is navigable by shipping. 
The Velez, which the same author includes in the 
iklim of Badjdjana (Pechina), with Almeria, Berja 
and Purchena, is Velez-Rubio, 105 km. from Almeria 
and 42 from Lorca, in the valley of the Guadalentln, 
a tributary of the Sangronera. A prehistoric cemetery, 
rock paintings and numerous coins, art objects and 
Roman inscriptions have been found amongst the 
ruins of its fortifications. It formed part of the 
kura of Tudmir and revolted with Ibn Hafsfln [q.v.] 
against the amir <Abd Allah, being subsequently 
subdued by c Abd al-Rahman III in 313/925. When 
the Infante, the future Alfonso X the Wise, took 
Lorca, it marked the frontier of the Kingdom of 
Granada. It was taken by Alonso Yafiez Fajardo in 
1437, but again passed into the hands of the rulers 
of Granada in 851/1447, and the Nasrid ruler al- 
Za^all Abu c Abd Allah Muhammad XII resided 
there; it was finally taken by Ferdinand III in 
893/1488, who, at the beginning of the ioth/i6th 
century, ceded his overlordship to Pedro Fajardo, 
the first Marquis of both the towns of Velez, el- 
Rubio and el-Blanco. Situated 5 1 /, km. from Velez- 
Rubio is Velez-Blanco, a town of some 10,000 
inhabitants, belonging to the same marquisate of 
the Velez; on the ruins of the Roman citadel and the 
Moorish alcazaba rising on the hill above the two 
towns of Velez, Pedro Fajardo erected a magnificent 
castle of imposing proportions and elaborateness, 
the shell of which is still preserved. 

Another Velez is that of Benaudalla (Ibn c Abd 
Allah), in the province of Granada (ward of Motril), 
on the left bank of the Guadalfeo river, on the side 
of a small hill called el-Castillo, and possessing some 
5,000 inhabitants. 

Finally in the province of Malaga, 34 km. from 1 ' the 
capital and three km. from the sea, on the left 
bank of the river Velez or Benamargosa, is the town 
of Velez-Malaga, with some 30,000 inhabitants. 
Very little is known to us, however, of its history 
in the Muslim period. Alfonso el Batallador, in his 
expedition through Andalusia in 519/1126, after 
reaching Granada and crossing the Sierra Nevada, 
advanced up to Velez-Malaga, without being able 
to take it. 

When in 283/896, the amir c Abd Allah was 
besieging one of these Velez — it is not known which 
one — a number of infantrymen and cavalrymen of 
the regular Umayyad army, attracted by the 
inducement of better pay held out to them by Ibn 
Hafsun, went over to the rebel's service. Dozy, who 
refers to this event without citing his source, con- 
fuses Bildj (now Vilches) with Belesh (Velez), and 
situates it at Velez-Rubio. The toponymic has 
passed to Latin America and is to be found at various 
places in Colombia, Uruguay and the Argentine; it 
is also a fairly common surname in Spain. 

Bibliography: IdrisI, 175, 194 of the text, 

209, 235 of the trans.; Bakri*, 90; Makkari, 

Analectes, i, 103, 843; Ibn 'Idhari, Bay an*, ii, 



■l-BALKA' 997 

185; al-Hulal al-Mawshiyya, 78 of the text, 114 
of the trans. Huici; F. Palanques, Hist, de Velez- 
Rubio. (A. Huici Miranda) 
BALIYYA (Ar. pi. baldya), a name given, in the 
pre-Islamic era, to the camel (more rarely the mare) 
which it was the custom to tether at the grave of 
its master, its head turned to the rear and covered 
with a saddle-cloth (see al-Djahjz, Tarbi 1 , ed. Pellat, 
index), and to allow to die of starvation ; in some cases, 
the victim was burnt and, in other cases, stuffed with 
thumam (Ibn Abi» 1-Hadid, Shark Nahdi al-Baldgha, 
iv, 436). Muslim tradition sees in this practice proof 
that the Arabs of the didhiliyya believed in the 
resurrection, because the animal thus sacrificed was 
thought to serve as a mount for its master at the 
resurrection, while those who rose from the dead 
without a baUyya, and were therefore of inferior 
status, went on foot. According to another tradition, 
however, the same term also denoted a cow, a camel 
or a ewe which was hamstrung at the grave of the 
deceased and allowed to die of hunger; in this way, 
it appears, the primitive symbol of belief in the 
resurrection seems to have become a funeral sacri- 
fice, which paved the way for the funeral feast 
(wadima). 

Bibliography : L.A., s.v.; Shahrastani, ii, 
439 f.; Alusi, Bulugh al-<Arab, ii, 307 ft.; G. W. 
Freytag, Einleitung in das Studium der arab, 
Sprach, 368; Wellhausen, Reste', 180 f.; G. Jacob, 
Altarabisches Beduinenleben, 141; H. Lammens, 
L'arabie occidentale avant Vhlgire, Beirut 1928, 176; 
idem, Moawia, 341; J. Chelhod, Le Sacrifice chez 
les Arabes, Paris 1955, 117. 

(J. Hell-[Ch. Pellat]) 
al-BAL&A,', name given by the Arab authors 
either to the whole of the Transjordanian territory 
corresponding approximately to the ancient countries 
of Ammon, Moab and even Gilead, or to the middle 
part of it, having, depending on the period, 'Amman, 
[q.v.], Husban or al-Salt as its chief town. Although 
a certain lack of precision still persists to-day in the 
use of the term, its geographical meaning is usually 
restricted to the limestone plateau (average altitude 
from 700 to 800 m.), comprised between the Wadi 
'1-Zarka' (or Jabbok) in the North and the Wadi 
'1-Mudjib (or Arnon) in the South. This is a region 
of tabular relief on the desert side, but the ground is 
considerably broken along the subsidence zone of the 
Dead Sea and the Jordan (peak of Nabi Usha c 
(1,096 m.) near al-Salt in the North, Mount Nebo 
(835 m.) in the vicinity of Madaba), where the 
erosive action of rain has promoted the escarping 
of especially deep ravines; as a whole it is an arid 
land, but at the bottom of depressions and on the 
plains it affords possibilities of cultivation, which 
explain the praise bestowed on its fertility and the 
abundance of its villages in bygone times. 

In the Hellenistic period the principal divisions 
were Peraea, on the Western fringe, with Gadara 
(near al-Salt) as its metropolis, the territory of 
Philadelphia ('Amman), a >own attached to the 
Decapods, and the northern end of the Nabatean 
kingdom. Under Trajan, in 106 AD., the new 
province of Arabia extended over it, taking in 
Nabataea, which had also extended northwards to 
Bostra. On the other hand in the Byzantine period, 
the Arnon acted as the boundary between the 
province of Arabia, which then included the bishop- 
rics of Philadelphia, Esbus (Husban) and Madaba, 
and the new Palestina Tertia, created in the Southern 
part of the country. 

This region, conquered by Yazld b. Abi Sufyan 



aL-BALKA' — BALKAN 



shortly after the fall of Damascus and the peaceful 
surrender of 'Amman, retained its former prosperity 
under the Umayyads, and numerous caliphal and 
princely residences were situated there (al-Mshatta, 
al-ZIza, al-Kastal, Umm al-Walld, for example, 
without counting the castles scattered- further 
towards the East such as Kusayr 'Amra, al-Kharane, 
Kasr al-Hallabat or Kasr al-Tuba). At this period 
the term al-Balka' had a wide connotation, still 
attested later by Yakut, and the reports of the 
chroniclers also included in it towns of the 'Adjlun 
like Arbad (Irbid), where Yazid II died (al-Tabari, 
ii, 1464), or of the Ma'ab like al-Mu'ta [?.».]; the 
corresponding administrative district was provided 
with its own 'dmil and was in direct dependence 
on the d±und of Damascus before experiencing a 
variety of fortunes throughout the Middle Ages. The 
testimony of al-Ya'kubl, who distinguishes two 
sections, the Ghawr (main town: Jericho) and the 
Zahir (main town: 'Amman), in this "canton of the 
colony of Damascus", may in fact be contrasted 
with that of al-Mukaddasi, a century later, for 
whom al-Balka' is dependent on the territory of 
Filastln; likewise, in the Ayyubid period, Abu 
'1-Fida' connects it with the Sharat, whilst al- 
Harawi deals separately with this country and the 
Balad Ma'ab. Finally, during the period of Mamluk 
domination, the district of al-Balka' (main town: 
Husban) belonged in principle to the southern 
march of the province of Damascus, though some- 
times it was recognised as possessing a second 
wildya, that of al-Salt, and it appears to have 
depended temporarily, in entirety or in part, on the 
niydba of al-Karak. 

The favourite etymology of the Arab geographers, 
who link the name of al-Balka', in which, however, 
the feminine of the adjective ablak "variegated" can 
be perceived, with that of an eponymous hero, a 
descendant of the Ban! 'Amman b. Lut, evokes the 
Ammonites of Biblical tradition and the memories 
of Lot, localised in a region where the "town of the 
Giants" of the Kur'an, v, 25/22, (identified with 
'Amman) and the Cave of the Ashdb al-Kahf [?.».], 

Bibliography: F. M. Abel, Giographie de la 
Palestine, Paris 1933-38, i, 68, 90, 277-281, 379-84, 
ii, passim; G. Le Strange, Palestine under the 
Moslems, London 1890, 35; A. S. Marmardji, 
Textes giographiques . . ., Paris 1951, 22; M. 
Gaudefroy-Demombynes, La Syrie a I'ipoque des 
Mamelouks, Paris 1923, part. 67-68 and 180; 
Baladhuri, Futuh, 113 and 126; Tabari, index; 
Ya'kubi, i, 47; BGA, indices; Yakut, i, 728; 
Bakri, Das geographische Wdrterbuch, ed. Wusten- 
feld, i, Gottingen 1876, 160; Harawi, K. al- 
Ziydrdt, ed. Sourdel-Thomine, 18; Abu '1-Fida', 
Takwim, 227. (J. Sourdel-Thomine) 

BALKAN, the Balkan peninsula. The word Balkan 
means mountain or mountain range and, in the 
form of Balkanllk, rugged zone in Turkish. The 
etymology of the word is now linked with balk, mud, 
and the diminutive suffix, -an in Turkish (according 
to H. Eren). There is a mountain called Balkhan in 
Turkmenistan. The word Balkan was used first by 
the Ottomans in Rumeli in its general meaning of 
mountain, as in Kodja-Balkan, Catal-Balkan, and 
Ungurus-Balkanl (the Carpathians). But specifically 
it was applied to the Haemus range of the ancient and 
mediaeval geographers, who thought that it separated 
the barbaric north from the civilised south. When con- 
sidered as a historical and cultural entity the Balkans 
can be given different boundaries in the north. The 



Romans built their main defence line on the Danube 
with the extension of Trajan's walls between Cerna- 
Voda and Constanza in the Dobruja. The boundary 
of the Byzantine empire in the north reached as far 
as the Danube and the Drava rivers (under Justinian I 
and BasU II). Finally by the treaty of 848/1444 the 
Ottomans and the Hungarians agreed reciprocally 
not to cross over the Danube, and up to the 17th 
century this river remained as the northern boundary 
of the Ottoman province of Rumeli, which included 
the whole peninsula south to this river. Both the 
Roman and Ottoman empires tried also to establish 
their control over the flat country on both sides of the 
Danube. Its lower part always became a passage for 
the Turco-Mongol peoples who invaded the Balkans 
one after another from the 5th up to the 13th 
century A.D., namely the Huns., Avars, Bulgars, 
Peceneks, Kuroans and Tatar-Ktpcaks. The Avar 
invasions are thought responsible for the penetration 
and settlement of the Slavs in the Balkans in the 
6th century. Then the native Vlachs and Albanians 
bad to retire to tht mountains and lived there a 
pastoral life for many centuries to follow. Toward 
680 a. d. tht Bulgars, a Turkish people from north of 
the Black Sea, settled on the lower Danube and, as a 
military aristocracy ruling over the Slavs, they 
created the first powerful state to rival the 
Byzantine empire in the Balkans. Their conver- 
sion to Christianity (864) had far-reaching conse- 
quences for the history of the peninsula because 
the Byzantine church and the Byzantine concept of 
the state gave definitive shape not only to Bulgarian 
Czardom but also through it to the states that 
emerged subsequently in the Balkans (see F. Dolger, 
Byzanz und europ&ische Staatenwelt, 261-282). 

The first Muslim geographers who spoke of the 
Balkans are contemporary with these important de- 
velopments. Ibn Khurradadhbih. whose information, 
like that of others, was derived from the reports of 
the three observers of the the end of the 3rd/9th and 
the middle of the 4th/ioth centuries (see Z. V. Togan, 
Balkan, in I A) said that the country west of the 
Byzantine themes of Tafia, Trdkiyya and Ma\a- 
doniyya was the bildd al-Sakdliba and that in the 
north the ard Burdjan (Bulgars). In the Hudud al- 
l Alam the Danube is called Rud-i Bulghari and the 
Balkan range KUh-i Bulghari). 

It seems that Islam first appeared in the Balkans 
with the Anatolian saint Sarl-Saltuk [?.».], in 662/ 
1264. After the incursions of the Anatolian Turks 
of the GhazI principalities in Western Anatolia in 
the first half of the 8th/i4th century, the Ottomans 
finally settled firmly on the European shores of 
the Dardanelles in 755/1354- Even in the first 
period of the Ottoman expansion distinction must 
be made between the activities of the GhazI 
leaders who made continuous warfare in the Udj, 
the frontiers, and the Ottoman central government 
which was also concerned with the welfare of its 
subjects. 

Perhaps the most important factor of the Ottoman 
conquest was the strong immigration movement in- 
to the Balkans from Anatolia in the 14th century 
which turkicised Thrace and Eastern Bulgaria (see 
Studia Islamica, ii, 103-129). At that time the small 
Ottoman state was regarded rather as a useful 
adjunct in the complicated struggle among the 
small Balkan states, but, growing in power, the 
Ottoman sultan soon became the suzerain of his 
former allies. When later these attempted to form a 
common front or called on Western Christendom for 
help, they were disappointed (Cermanon 773/1371, 



Kossova 791/1389). Bayezid I inaugurated a new 
policy by establishing direct control over the vassal 
countries. He had the ambition of establishing a 
unified empire in the Balkans. He conquered the 
whole of Bulgaria, Macedonia and Thessaly between 
1393 and 1396, and attempted to seize Constantinople, 
the traditional capital. The victory of Tunur over 
Bayezid (804/1402) had important consequences fur 
the Balkans. Abandoning most of their Anatolian 
possessions, the Ottomans then considered the 
Balkans as their real home, and, Adrianople (Edirne) 
became the real capital city of the sultans from then 
on. A fresh exodus of the Anatolian Turks into the 
Balkans followed Ttmur's invasion. The successors 
of Bayezld I abandoned his imperial policy and 
Serbia and Byzantium enjoyed some freedom of 
action until Sultan Mehemmed II conquered Con- 
stantinople (857/1453), and resumed the policy of 
unification with energy and success. In 864/1459 
Serbia, in 864/1460 Morea and in 867/1463 Bosnia 
came under direct Ottoman rule. But these Otto- 
man successes were due to more important factors 
than the military ones. 

In the struggle against the Ottoman conquest and 
centralisation policy, the feudalised princes and 
local lords in the Balkans had turned their eyes to 
the West, with a readiness to make concessions not 
only from their territories but also on religious 
matters. Thus in the first half of the 15th century, 
while Hungary was establishing its suzerainty over 
Bosnia, Serbia and Wallachia, Venice had seized the 
most important points on the Albanian coasts, in the 
Aegean Sea and the Morea, and, after taking Salonica, 
she coveted Constantinople. Representing Catho- 
licism and seeking political and economic domination, 
the Western powers and their feudal sympathisers in 
Byzantium and the Balkans were regarded with 
hostility by the masses at large and by the Orthodox 
clergy. The Ottomans profited from the alienation 
of the common people from their Western or native 
lords. They assumed the role of protector of the 
Orthodox church and tried to drive Catholicism out 
of the Balkans. Even before the installation of 
Gennadius as oecumenical Patriarch in Constanti- 
nople in 1454, the Orthodox priests were recognised 
and granted pensions and even Kmdrs by the Ottoman 
state everywhere. On the other hand when the 
Latins were driven out of the Balkans in the second 
half of the 9th/i5th century the native merchants, 
Muslims, Greeks and Ragusans, as well as Jews, 
replaced them in trade and finance. Ragusa under 
Ottoman protection surpassed its mediaeval im- 
portance in the Balkan trade. Perhaps most im- 
portant of all was the fact that the Ottoman land 
and tax system (see Daftar-i KhakanI) brought 
about a real change in the life of the Balkan peas- 
antry. The Byzantine emperors in the 10th century 
had made great efforts to uphold the central power 
by protecting the peasantry against the magnates 
in the provinces who were constantly trying to 
enlarge their lands and power. With the Comneni, 
this struggle had ended in favour of the landed 
aristocracy, and under the Palaeologi, the central 
government had lost all its authority. But with the 
Ottoman state a strong centralised government was 
established again in the Balkans and this government 
tried to abolish feudal practices and to prevent any 
local control over the peasantry. For example the 
old feudal services such as three days of forced labour, 
and the obligation to provide wood, hay and straw 
for the seigneur, were all converted by the Ottomans 
to one simple tax called Cift-resmi [q.v.]. As the 



AN 999 

direct agents of the sultan, the k&4H [q.v.] and the 
kapi-kulus [q.v.] in the provinces secured the strict 
application of the laws. Thus it was no wonder that 
the Christian peasantry remained indifferent to the 
fate of their lords in their struggle against the 
Ottomans and until the nth/i7th century no serious 
rebellion is recorded among the Balkan peasants. It 
must also be noted that the Ottomans followed a 
conservative policy towards the previous social 
classes in the Balkans by adapting their status to 
the Ottoman system. The pre-Ottoman upper 
aristocracy, who mostly possessed pronoia, were 
included by the Ottomans in the timdr system or, 
later, taken into the sultan's court to become high 
officials. The members of the lower aristocracy, 
especially voiniks (in Turkish voynuk), who previ- 
ously were the backbone of the empire of Stephan 
Dushan, were reorganised in bifliiks [q.v.] in the greater 
part of the Balkans by the Ottomans and formed 
a section of the Ottoman army up to the 16th century, 
when they lost their usefulness and were made 
simple re'dyd. Other military groups, nomad Eflaks, 
and Martolos were incorporated into the Ottoman 
forces in the provinces (see my Fatih Devri, i, 
Ankara 1954, 145-184). Even the re'dyd bad access 
to the ruling class through the Devshirme institution. 
In the classification of the re'dyd [q.v.] — that is, 
the peasants, Muslim or Christian, a system similar 
to the pre-Ottoman system seems to have been 
followed and the Byzantine paroikoi, who were 
divided into zeugarate and boldion as well as the 
eieutheroi, appear to have survived under the Otto- 
mans with different names, and several Byzantine 
taxes actually continued in the Ottoman taxation 
system as rusum-i l wfiyya or l ddei-i kadima. These 
taxes were assigned to the Hmar-holders, and the 
Ottoman timdr system which was the foundation- 
stone of the empire in the first period acquired its 
final form in the Balkans. In conclusion we can 
speak of a continuity of Balkan history in its basic 
forms under the Ottomans. It was true that national 
cultures lost their former centres of development, 
but the peasantry and the church remained in 
existence and became the foundations of the national 
states in the 19th century. 

During the ioth/i6th century the Balkan peninsula 
enjoyed one of the rare periods of peace and pros- 
perity in its history; everywhere new lands were 
brought under cultivation, the population increased 
(5 million about 1535), cities developed, as we can 
observe in the regular Ottoman land and population 
surveys, defters, preserved in the Turkish archives 
(see Iktisat Fakiittesi Mecmuasi, Istanbul, no. 4, n, 
15). After Greek, Turkish became a common language 
of civilisation in the Balkans. 

As Sir T. W. Arnold has already emphasised (The 
Preaching of Islam, London [1" ed. 1896] 3 rd ed. 
"935. 145 ff.) conversions to Islam in the Balkans 
were not in general the result of a state policy or 
the use of force. However, three periods in this 
respect should be distinguished. Up to Bayezid II's 
time the Ottoman state followed a very liberal 
policy in the matter of religion. In this period 
voluntary conversions took place among the nobility 
incorporated in the Ottoman 'askari [q.v.] class 
especially among the Bogomils in Bosnia. After 
Bayezld II, the Ottoman state became more conscious 
of being a Muslim state and more careful in the ap- 
plication of the shari'a. From the nth/i7th century 
onwards, to begin with as a result of the activities 
of the Franciscan missions in the Balkans, which 
were supported by the Hapsburgs and the Venetians 



- BALKH 



for political purposes, the Ottomans had recourse to 
certain coercive measures against the Christians in 
Serbia, Albania and Danubian Bulgaria. This 
brought about some mass conversions in these 
countries. In 1690 the Patriarch of Pe6 took refuge 
in southern Hungary with 37,000 Serbian families. 
Large-scale conversions took place among the Al- 
banians during the subsequent centuries [see arna- 
wutluk]. The third important islamised area is found 
on the Rhodope region where Bulgarian-speaking 
Muslims are called Pomaks [q.v.]. 

For further developments in the Balkans under 
the Ottomans in the subsequent periods see Rumeli. 
Bibliography: J. Cvijic, La Pininsule bal- 
canique, Paris 1918; J. Ancel, Peuples et nations 
des Balkans, Paris 1930; A. Boue, La Turquie 
d'Europe, Paris 1840; F. Ph. Kanitz, Donau- 
Bulgarien und der Balkan, Leipzig 1875-79; 
N. Jorga, Formes byzantines et rialitis balkaniques, 
Paris 1922; — , Histoire des Etats balkaniques 
jusqu'd 1924, Paris 1925; W. Tomaschek, Zur 
Kunde der H&mus-Haibinsel, Sitz. Berich. der 
Akad. Wien, hist.-Klas. 1887; G. Stadtmiiller, 
Geschichte des Sudosteuropas, Munich 1950; C. 
Jirecek, Stoat und Gesellschaft im mittelalterlichen 
Serbien, Vienna 1912-19; — , Die Heerstrasse von 
Belgrad nach Constantinopel und die Balkanpdsse, 
Prague 1877; M. Braun, Die Slawen auf dem 
Balkan bis zur Befreiung von der tiirkischen Herr- 
schaft, Leipzig 1941; G. Ostrogorsky, History of 
the Byzantine State, trans. J. Hussey, Oxford 1956, 
and IA (s.v.). (Halil InalcIk) 

BALKAR, a Muslim people of the Central 
Caucasus, whose origins are the subject of contradict- 
ory hypotheses. For some the Balkar are descendants 
of Bulghar driven back towards the mountains in 
the I2th-i3th century; according to others, then- 
ancestors were the Khazar pushed back towards the 
upper Terek in the nth century; finally, others see 
in the Balkar Ibero-Caucasians or indeed Turkicised 
Finns. The Balkar traditions say that their ancestors, 
once living on the steppes of the Kuban, were driven 
back towards the mountains by the Cerkes tribes 
(Adlghes), whence in turn they drove away and 
partially absorbed the Ossets. 

Prior to 1946, the habitat of the Balkar, on the 
northern slopes of the main range of the Caucasus, 
included the high valleys of the tributaries of the 
Terek lying between the Elbruz to the West and the 
Ossete country to the East. The Balkar people 
(numbering 33,307 in 1926, of whom only 2% were 
urban dwellers, 42,666 in 1939), are divided into 
5 tribes. 

In the 16th century the Balkar were subdued by 
the Kabard and thenceforth adopted the forms of 
material civilisation of their sovereigns, copying 
their feudal structure, which persisted practically 
intact until the Russian conquest. It had five 
classes: 1. the princes, tawbii (analogous to the 
pshj of the Adlghes); 2. the nobles, uzden (uorkh 
among the Adlghes); 3. the free peasants, karakash 
(tPfakashaw among the Abaza) ; 4. the serfs liable to 
corvee duties, (agar {og among the Kabard) ; and 
5. the slaves, kazakh {unawt among the Kabard). 

SunnI Islam of the Hanafl rite was introduced 
among the Balkar at the end of the 18th century 
by the Crimean Tatars and the Nogai of the Kuban, 
but pre-Islamic survivals (Christian and animist) 
still persisted at the beginning of the 20th century. 
Russian penetration of the high valleys of the 
tributaries of the Terek, begun at the end of the 
18th century, was completed in 1827 by the conquest 



of the Balkar country, but was not followed, as in 
the case of the Adlghes, by rural colonisation; the 
Russian authorities preferred to favour the setling 
up of villages of Kumlk, Ossets and mountain Jews 
in the midst of the Balkar country. 

Soviet Balkaria. — The Soviet regime, temporarily 
proclaimed in December 1918, was finally established 
in March 1920. By a decree of the Ail-Union Central 
Executive Committee dated 21 January 1921, the 
Balkar okrug was attached to the Soviet Socialist 
Republic of Mountain-dwellers (Gorskaya ASSR). On 
1 September 1921, the Balkar country, joined to 
the Kabarda, became the Autonomous Kabardino- 
Balkar Region of the RSFSR, and on 5 December 
1936 became the Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous 
SSR. Balkaria was briefly occupied by the German 
armies during the second world war, was sup- 
pressed as an administrative formation by decree 
of the Praesidium of the Supreme Soviet of the 
USSR of 25 June 1946, and the Balkar people 
was deported to Central Asia. A part of it (the 
valley of the Baksan) was attached to the Georgian 
SSR and the remainder to the Kabardinian Auton- 
omous SSR. A new decree of the Supreme Soviet of 
the USSR of 9 January 1957 re-established the 
Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous SSR and authorized 
the deported Balkars to return to their country. 
The Balkar language, which is simply a dialect of 
Karacay [q.v.], belongs to the Kip6ak group of 
Turkish languages. It has been strongly influenced 
by Ossetic and the neighbouring Ibero-Caucasian 
languages: Kabard, Cecen and Abaza. 

Balkar-Kara6ai, previously not a written language, 
was endowed in 1920 with a slightly modified Arabic 
alphabet (^s = 1 5 = 6), replaced in 1925 by the 
Latin alphabet; the first works were published in 
Balkar- Karacay in the following year: a collection 
of poetry by c Umar c Aliev and a Chrestomathy 
(Bilim) by Askhat Bidjiev. Also in 1926 the first 
newspaper, Karakhalk, of the Kabardino-Balkar 
Autonomous Region made its appearence at Nal6ik, 
with alternate pages in Adlghe and Balkar-Karacay. 
In 1931 the first daily, Tawlu-Djashaw, in Balkar- 
Karacay was published at Mikoyan-Shakhar, the 
administrative centre of the Karacay Autonomous 
Region (now Klukhori). Finally in 1938 the Latin 
alphabet was replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet. 

Bibliography: S. S. Anisimov, Kabardino- 
Balkariya, Moscow 1937; Ibrahimov, Les Balkars, 
Bulgares musulmans du Caucase, in RMM, viii, 
June 1909, 206-218; L. Dobruskin, Kabarda i 
Balkariya v proSlom, in Revolyutsionnyi Vostok, 
no. 3-4 of 1933, 196-222; c Umar c Aliev, Natsio- 
naPnyi vopros i natsionaPnaya kultura v Severo- 
Kavkazskom Krae, Rostov on Don, 1926; Kore- 
nizatsiya Aparata v Kabardino-Balkarii, in Revo- 
lyutsiya i NatsionaPnosti, no. 6, 1936, 37-91; 
A. Karaulov, Kratkii ocerk grammatiki i yazyka 
balkar, and Kratkii slovar* balkarskogo yazyka in 
Sbornik materialov dlya opisaniya mestnostei i 
piemen Kavkaza, Tiflis 1912, xiii; Saadet Cagatay, 
Karaiay'ca bir kal metin, Ankara Oniversitesi 
Dil-Tarih Cografya Fakultesi Dergisi, 1951, 277-^ 
300 (where further references are given). 

(A. Bennigsen) 
BALfcAYN [see ?ayn]. 

BALKjJ, an important city in ancient and 
mediaeval times, now a villfge, located in what is 
today northern Afghanistan, ca. 67° E. Long. 
(Greenw.) and 36° 45' N. lat. It was located on the 
Balkh river, now dry. 



Ancient Bactria was the name of a province of 
the Achaemenid Empire as well as its chief city. 
In the Old Persian inscriptions of Darius we find 
the form Baxtris, in the Avesta Ba^Sl, and in Greek 
BdbtTpa. Perhaps the original form was *B5)(drI, 
from the name of the river (cf. Markwart, Catalogue, 
34). Balkh after the conquests of Alexander the 
Great was a centre of the Greco-Bactrians, then 
of the Kushans and Hephthalites. In pre-Islamic 
times the city was a Buddhist centre with a famous 
cloister, the Nawbahar, the head of which, Barmak 
[q.v.\, seems to have exercised political control over 
the city. Balkh was also famous in Zoroastrian 
tradition and there must have been five temples 
there before Islam. The city, at least from the time 
of Alexander the Great, was protected by great 
walls. The various traditions on the founding of 
Balkh, as found in Arabic and Persian sources, are 
discussed by Schefer and Schwarz (refs. below), 
where it is apparent that the Arabs knew of the 
antiquity of the city. 

In 32/653 the Arab commander al-Ahnaf b. 
Kays [q.v.] raided Balkh and obtained tribute 
(Baladhuri, 408). The area was not conquered 
until the war between c Ali and Mu'awiya was 
decided in favour of the latter. In 43/663-4 Balkh 
was reconquered by Kays b. al-Haytham or c Abd 
al-Rahman b. Samura (cf. J. Marquart, ErdnSahr, 
Berlin 1901, 69). On this expedition, or the first one 
of al-Ahnaf, the Nawbahar shrine is said to have 
been destroyed by the Arabs (Le Strange, 422). 
During part of this period a local prince, called 
Nezak Tarkhan, occupied Balkh and caused much 
trouble to the Arabs (cf. Markwart, Wehrot und 
Arang, 41-2). Unfortunately, the events and chro- 
nology of this area under the early Umayyads are 
confused in the Arabic sources. There were frequent 
revolts against Arab rule and it is not until the time 
of Kutayba b. Muslim (d. 96/715) that Balkh could 
be considered subdued. The city seems to have 
suffered considerably from warfare, and there are 
indications in Tabari that the city was in ruins 
about 705 A.D. (Schwarz, 436). The Arabs did not 
reside in Balkh but maintained a garrison at 
Barukan, two farsakhs from Balkh until the governor 
of Khurasan Asad b. c Abd Allah al-Kasri moved the 
garrison to Balkh rebuilding the city in 107/725. 
In 118/736 Asad transferred the capital of Khurasan 
from Marw to Balkh with the result that Balkh 
prospered. Abu Muslim had to capture and recapture 
Balkh from the Syrian troops of the garrison loyal 
to the Umayyads who were helped by local troops, 
but his lieutenant Abu Da'ud al-Bakri finally 
secured Balkh and Tukharistan for the 'Abbasids. 

Under the 'Abbasids the governors of Khurasan 
became practically independent, and in Balkh the 
descendants of the princes of Khuttal held sway 
(cf. ErdnSahr, 301). One of them, Da'ud b. 'Abbas 
al-Banldjuri, succeeded his father as governor of 
Balkh, and was driven from his capital by Ya'kub 
b. Layth in 256/870. In 287/900 'Ami b. Layth was 
defeated and captured near Balkh by Isma'il b. 
Ahmad, and Balkh passed under Samanid rule. It is 
Balkh in the 4th/ioth century which is described by 
the geographers in Arabic as umm al-bildd "the mother 
of cities". The later Samanid governors of Balkh such 
as Fa'ik, Alptakin and Subuktakin were virtually 
independent. During the rule of Mahmud of Ghazna 
387-421/997-1030, Balkh was captured once by Ilak 
Khan in 397/1006, but Mahmud shortly recaptured it. 
Although Balkh was in the centre of the arena of 
warfare between the Saldjuks and the Ghaznawids. 



and was threatened with capture by the former after 
their victory at Dandankan in 431/1040, it was not 
until 451/1059 that they definitely occupied the city. 
The city changed rulers several times during Saldjulj: 
rule and at the end of Sandjar's reign it fell into the 
hands of the Ghuzz Turks, and was destroyed by 
them in 550/1155. The Kara Khitay rulers then 
included Balkh in their domains from about 560-1/ 
1 165 A.D. In 594/1198 Baha J al-DIn Sam of Bamiyan 
occupied Balkh for the Ghurids and in 603/1206 Mu- 
hammad Kh w arazmshah captured it. Shortly there- 
after, in 617/1220, although Balkh surrendered to 
Cingiz Mian, the city was destroyed and its inhabit- 
ants massacred. It took long to recover from this 
blow, for Ibn Battflta in the early 8th/i4th century 
describes the ruins of the city. 

Balkh regained some of its past splendour under 
the TImurids, and some of the masterpieces of 
Timurid architecture were erected in Balkh. The 
citadel of Balkh which had been razed by TImur was 
rebuilt by this son Shah Rukh in 810/1407. The end 
of Balkh as a great centre, however, was forecast 
by the discovery (ca. 1480 A.D.) of the "so-called" 
grave of 'Aliin the vicinity of Balkh. In 886/1481 a 
shrine was erected at the site ca. 20 km. to the east. 
By the 19th century around this shrine had developed 
the present city of Mazar-i Sharif at the expense of 
Balkh. In 912/1506 Shlbanl Mian of the Ozbeks 
conquered Balkh. Babur held the city for a short time 
as did the Safawids under Shah Isma'Il, but most of 
the time Balkh remained in Ozbek hands. The 
Ozbeks controlled the area until the rise of Nadu- 
Shah, except for a short period when Shah c Abbas 
and the Safawids obtained the allegiance of tin- 
local khan, and from about 1641 to 1647 when the 
Mughals occupied it. In 1737 Nadir Shah suppressed 
a revolt against his rule by the Ozbeks of Balkh, but 
after Nadir's death the district passed again under 
local Ozbek rule. This was soon followed by sub- 
mission to Ahmad Shah Durrani and the Afghans 
about 1752. In the early 19th century the area of 
Balkh was raided several times by the Ozbek Mian 
of Bukhara, but from 1841 it remained in Afghan 

The importance of Balkh came in great measure 
from its geographical position on a fertile plain, the 
meeting place of trade routes from India, China, 
Turkistan, and Iran. It was natural that a great 
centre should exist between the Oxus River and the 
Hindu Kush Mountains. At the present time the ruins 
of Balkh occupy a large area, and the site of so much 
promise actually has been very disappointing to 
archeologists. At the present day the village of Balkh 
has only a few thousand inhabitants. The visible 
monuments of Balkh include the ruins of extensive 
walls (ca. 10 km. perimeter) enclosing the modern 
village, and two shrines on the square of the present 
village. One is the Green Mosque in Timurid style but 
probably built at the end of the 16th century A.D. 
by an Ozbek Mian, c Abd al-Mu'min. Facing it is 
the tomb-shrine of Kh"aja Abu Nasr Parsa, a Sufi 
of the 16th century. A nearby madrasa, erected by 
Sa'id Subhan Kuli Mian (d. 1702), has only one 
arch left. In the northeast section inside the walls, 
are the ruins of the shrine of Kh'aia 'Akkashah 
Wall from the late Timurid period. In summer the 
area of Balkh is very hot and dusty, in the winter the 
area is almost a swamp. 

Bibliography: The information of the Arabic 
geographers is gathered by P. Schwarz, Be- 
merkungen zu den arabischen Nachrichten iiber 
Balkh, in Oriental Studies in Honour of C. E. Pavry, 



BALKH — al-BALKHI 



London 1933, 434-43. The text of a Persian 
history FaddHl-i Balkh with historical notes is given 
by Ch. Schrefer, Chrestomathie Persane, i, Paris 
1883, 56-94. 65-103; Le Strange, 420-3; Uudud 
al- l Alam, 337; Barthold, Turkestan, 76-9. For the 
history of Balkh under the Ozbeks see A. A. 
Semenov, Mukim-Khanskaya Istoriya, Tashkent 
1956, passim. For photographs and a plan of the 
present site see A. Foucher, La vieille Route de I'Inde 
de Bactres a Taxila, i, Paris 1942, 59, and O. von 
Niedermeyer, Afganistan, Leipzig 1924, 48, 64. 
For a summary of the monuments see E. Caspani, 
Afghanistan Crocevia dell' Asa, Milan 1951, 240-2, 
and further D. Wilber, Annotated Bibliography of 
Afghanistan, New Haven, Conn., 1956, 177-8. 

(R. N. Frye) 
BAL KH AN. two mountain ranges east of the 
Caspian Sea, which enclose the dried-out river-bed 
of the Ozboi (cf. Amu Darya). To the north of this 
river lies the Great Balkhan, a high plateau of 
limestone, difficult of access, with steep slopes; the 
highest elevation is at the Duinesh Kal'e, about 
1880 metres. The Little Balkhan, south of the Ozboi 
and cut with numerous ravines, attains (in the west) 
a height of no more than 800 metres. These mount- 
ains, where according to MukaddasI, 285, 1. 14 ff., 
wild horses and cattle lived, were searched for iron 
by the surrounding peoples. The area became, in 
about 420-2/1029-31, a place of retreat for 
Turkmen tribes coming from Khurasan (cf. Ibn 
al-Athlr, ed. Tornberg, ix, 267). During the following 
centuries the region was thickly settled with Tiirk- 

tance. The establishment of Russian harbours on 
the Balkhan inlet of the Caspian Sea (after 1869) 
and the construction of the Trans-Caspian railway 
(after 1881) restored to this area a certain importance, 
which declined, however, after the building of the 
Orenburg-Tashkent line (1905). 

Bibliography : Brockhaus-Yefron, Enciklo- 
pedileskiy Slovaf, vol. 4, St. Petersburg 1891, 834; 
Bol'shaya Sovetskaya Enciklopediya 1 , iv (1950), 
167 ff. (W. Barthold-[B. Spuler]) 

BALKHASH, after the Aral [q.v.], the largest 
inland lake of Central Asia (18,432 sq. km.), into 
which the Hi and several other less important rivers 
flow. The lake's existence was unknown to the Arab 
geographers of the Middle Ages. The anonymous 
author of the IJudud al-'Alam (372/982-983; comp. 
J. Marquart, Osteuropdische und ostasiatische Streif- 
zuge, xxx, makes the Hi (Ila) flow into the Isslk-Kul. 
Of all the Muslim authors, Muhammad Haydar is 
the only one, to our knowledge, who, towards the 
middle of the ioth/i6th century (Ta'rikh-i Rashidi, 
trans, by E. D. Ross, 366) describes lake Balkhash. 
The author gives the lake, which then marked the 
boundary between the country of the Ozbegs 
(Ozbegistan) and that of the Mongols (Mughalistan), 
the name of Kdkca-Tefliz or blue lake, and describes 
it as a body of fresh water. But he greatly exaggerates 
its length and breadth and considers the Volga (Itil) 
as a derivative of Balkhash. Nevertheless, Muham- 
mad Haydar's statement on the taste of the waters 
of the lake is important. In point of fact, all the 
modern geographers have looked upon Balkhash as 
a salt lake. It was only in 1903 that the investi- 
gations undertaken by the Turkistan section of the 
Imperial Russian Geographical Society, completed 
in 1931 by the works of the State Institute of 
Hydrology and in 1941 by those of the Institute of 
geological Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the 



USSR, established that a part of the waters of the 
lake is fresh water. 

The Kalmuks were the first to give the lake its 
Mongol name of Balkhash. They did in fact dominate 
in these regions in the 17th and the first half of the 
18th century. The name "Balchas" occurs with a 
reproduction of the lake, very exact for the period, 
on a map by the Swedish non-commissioned officer 
J. G. Renat, who spent seventeen years in the 
country of the Kalmuks, from 1716 to 1733. Comp. 
Carte de la Dzoungarie dressie par le suldois Renat 
pendant sa captiviU chez les Kalmuks de ijij i IJ33, 
ed. Russ. Imp. Geog. Society, St. Petersburg 1881. 
The appearance of the neighbourhood of Balkhash 
is extremely desolate and arid and until the October 
Revolution the lake had never played a role of any 
economic importance. Its development began in 
1936 with the building of a large industrial city, 
Balkhash, on the bay of Bertis on the Northern 
shore of the lake. (W. Barthold-[A. Bennigsen]) 

al-BALKHI, Abo'l-Kasim (<Abd Allah b. 
Ahmad b. MahmOd), also known as Abu'l-Kasim 
al-Ka c bi al-Balkhl, the Mu'tazilite. Born at Balkh, 
he lived for a long time at Baghdad, where he was 
the disciple of the MuHazilite Abu'l-Husayn al- 
Khayyat. He founded a school at Nasaf, converted 
to Islam a number of the inhabitants of Khurasan, 
and died at Balkh at the beginning of Sha'ban 
319/August 931. Among his disciples were Ibn Shi- 
hab (Abu'l-Tayyib Ibrahim b. Muhammad), who 
died after 350/962, and al-Ahdab (Abu'l-Hason). 
Among his works are mentioned the Kitdb al-Ma- 
kdldt and the K. Mahdsin Khurasan, in which he 
speaks of Ibn al- Raw audi. 

He defended the optimistic MuHazilite thesis 
which states that God cannot abandon the better 
for that which is less good. Man, he says, can and 
must do that which is better, whereas God cannot, 
because there is nothing superior to Him to oblige 
Him to do better than that which He has done. In 
agreement with the Mu'tazila, he did not recognise 
in God attributes distinct from His essence. He 
held that non-existence capable of existing is a well- 
determined thing outside existence, namely a simple 
essence. He considered the atom as inextensive and 
devoid of qualities of its own ; the qualities of the body 
derive from the aggregate of the atoms, which are 
therefore not essential but accidental. He distinguish- 
ed between sensation and impression: man, he says, 
perceives by his reason the sensible objects which 
affect his different senses; but the senses by them- 
selves can perceive nothing; they are the routes 
by which organic impressions reach the reason. The 
voluntary act, he says, presupposes hesitation and 
decision, which are characteristic of Man, an im- 
perfect being, whereas in God such an act is totally 
absent. — The imamate, he says, must return to 
the Kuraysh, but if a conspiracy is suspected, a 
non-Kuray shite can be elected imam. 

Bibliography: Al-Ash c ari, Makdldt al-Isld- 
miyyin, Istanbul 1929, 314, 555; al-Baghdadl, 
al-Fark, (Cairo 1328/1910, 93, 163, 166, 167; al- 
Idji, al-Mawdkif, Cairo i357/'939', al-lsfara > uil, 
al-Tabsir fi'l Din, Cairo 1940, 52; al-Khayyat, 
al-Intisdr, Cairo 1925, passim; al-Malati, Kitdb 
al-Tanbih (edited by Dedering); al-Ras'anl, 
Mukhtasar K. al-Fark, Cairo 1924, 119, 120; al- 
Razi, Muhassal Afkdr al-Mutakaddimin wa'l 
Muta'akhkhirin, Cairo 1323/1905, 37; al-Shahra- 
stani, al-Mil&l waH Nihal, in the margin of Ibn 
Hazm, Cairo 1 347/1928, vol. i, 62, 82; Nihdyat 
al-Ikdam edited by A. Guillaume, Oxford 1934, 



L-BALKHI — BALTADJI 



1003 



238, 240, 343; Ibn al-Murtada, Xl-Munya waH 
Amal, Haydarabad 1316/1902, 45-51; Ibn al- 
Nadlm, al-Fihrist, Cairo 1929, 4, 247; Ibn Hazm, 
al-Fisal, Cairo 1347/1928, vol. iv, 154; Pjalabi, 
Shark al-Mawdkif, Istanbul 1286/1867, 312; 
Ahmad Amin, Duha al Islam, Cairo 1360/1941, vol. 
iii, 141; Brockelmann, I, 343; A. N. Nader, Le 
Systime philosophique des mu'tazila, Beirut 1956, 
Djar' Allah Zuhdl, al-Mu c tazila, Cairo 1 366/1947, 
153. (Albert N. Nader) 

al-BAL KH I. Abu Zayd Ahmad b. Sahl, a famous 
scholar known today principally for his geographical 
work, was born at Shamistiyan, a village near Balkh 
in Khurasan, about 236/850. He died upwards of 
80 yeards old in Dhu '1-Ka'da 322/October 934. His 
father was a schoolmaster from Sidjistan. As a young 
man, wishing to study the doctrine of the Imamiyya 
sect to which he belonged, al-Balkhi travelled on 
foot to 'Irak with the pilgrim caravan. He remained 
there for eight years, becoming a pupil of the cele- 
brated al-Kindl and visiting the neighbouring lands. 
In later life he refused to cross the Djayhun (Oxus) 
to go from Balkh to Bukhara, when invited by the 
amir of the latter place. 

During the years which al-Balkhi spent in 'Irak his 
studies included philosophy, astrology and astronomy, 
medicine and natural science (Yakut, Irshdd, i, 145-6). 
For a time he was torn between his earlier sectarian 
religious allegiance and the tenets of judicial astrology, 
then much in vogue, but he finally became strictly 
orthodox in his opinions, and pursued the study of 
the religious sciences side by side with 'philosophy'. 
He is cite d as an almost unique example of one who 
was equally expert in both, and he is named by 
Sljahrastani (Milal, ed. Cureton, 348) among the 
philosophers of Islam. He himself relates that he 
lost his patron, the general Husayn b. c Ali al-Marw- 
al-RQdi, through the publication of onf of his books 
and Abu 'All al-Diavhanl. also his patron, the wazir 
of the Samanid Nasr b. Ahmad, through the publi- 
cation of another, though the general was a Karmatian 
and the wazir a Dualist. (This Abu c Ali was the son 
of Abu c Abd Allah al-Djayhani, [q.v.], the geographer, 
who is perhaps here meant, cf. Barthold, Turkestan, 
12). Yet the works of al-Balkhi on religious subjects 
were much praised by competent judges, especially 
his Nazm al-Kur'dn, evidently a wcrk of tafsir 
(Irshdd, i, 148). Yakut (Irshdd, i, 142-3, cf. 150) 
gives the titles of 56 out of 'about 60' works of al- 
Balkhi, i.e., he adds 13 titles to the 43 listed in the 
Fihrist (ed. Fliigel, 138). Of these Hadjdji Khalifa 
mentions less than half-a-dozen, and in our own time, 
apart from a Kitdb Masdlih al-Abddn wa 'l-Anfus 
(for which see Brockelmann, S I, 408), al-Balkhi is 
known by a single work, apparently no longer 

This is the so-called Suwar al-A^dlim, otherwise 
Tafiwim al-Bulddn (neither title in the list of his 
works in Yakut), which is generally admitted, since 
De Goeje's monograph appeared (see Bibliography), 
to be the basis of the geographical works of al- 
Istakhri and Ibn Hawkal, and thus to mark the 
beginning of what has been called the classical 
school of Arabic geography. It seems to have been 
a world-map divided into 20 parts, with short 
explanatory texts (Mukaddasi, 4). It has been 
suggested by Barthold (IJudud al-'-Alam, preface, 
18, n. 5, cf. V. Minorsky, ibid., xv) that al-Balkhi 
in his book may simply have added an explana- 
tion to maps by Abu Dja'far al-Khazin (Brockel- 
mann, SI, 387). Al-Balkhi's fame as a geographer 
depends solely on this work, which in any case 



can scarcely be said to have been completely 
original, in view of the sura Ma'muniyya, also 
apparently a series of maps, mentioned by Mas'udI 
tempore al-Ma'mun (Caliph 198-218/813-833) (Tan- 
bih, 33). Al-Balkhi's interest in geography may 
have been due to his teacher al-Kindl, for whom a 
translation of Ptolemy's treatise on the subject was 
specially made (Fihrist, 268), and another of whose 
pupils, Ahmad b. al-fayyib al-SarakhsI, wrote a 
Kitdb al-Masdlik wa 'l-Mamdlik (Tanbih, 67), 
apparently the first of several geographical works in 
Islam with that title. Though Mukaddasi (68, 260) 
observes that al-Balkhi did not travel widely, he 
admits that he was an expert, especially for his own 
province, mentioning in particular his familiarity 
with the diwdns (i.e., registers of taxes) of Khurasan 
(ibid., 307). This is consistent with what we read 
elsewhere of al-Balkhi having acted as a secretary 
(kdtib) to one of the Samanids (Irshdd, i, 147). His 
work is cited also by MakrizI (KhiM, ed- Bulak, i, 115). 
Bibliography: Yakut, Irshdd, i, 125, 141-152; 
al-Bayhaki, Tatimma Siwdn al-Ifikma, ed. Mu- 
hammad Shafi c , 26-27; M. J. de Goeje, Die 
Is(ahr(-Balh( Frage, ZDMG, xxv, 42-58; J. H. 
Kramers, La question Balhi-Istahri-Ibn Hauqal et 
I' Atlas de VI slam, in Acta Otientalia, x, 9-30; 
Hudud al- l Alam, Preface, 15-23; V. Minorsky, 
A False Jayhdni, in BSOAS, xiii (1949), 93-94. 
(D. M. Dunlop) 
BALKUWArA [see samarra]. 
BALTA LiMANi, situated on the European 
shore of the Bosphorus between Boyaci-Koyu and 
Rumeli Hisarl, takes its name from Balta-oghlu 
Sulayman Beg, the commander of the Ottoman 
fleet at the time of the conquest of Constantinople 
in 1453. It is in fact the ancient Phaidalia and was 
also known as Gynaikon Limen (Portus Mulierum). 

Gyllius (mid-i6th cent.) refers to it as the " sinum 

Phidaliae, et portum mulierum ", which the 

Greeks called Sarantacopa from the wooden bridge 
there across the marshlands (". . . . quem Graeci 
nostrae aetatis appellant Sarantacopam .... ita 
nuncupatus a ponte ligneo .... quo paludes transe- 
untur cannis plenae . . . ."). Balta Limani, in the 
18th and 19th centuries, was a resort popular with 
the wealthier classes of Istanbul. Several international 
treaties were signed at Balta Limani in the first half 
of the 19th century: the Anglo-Turkish agreement 
of 16 August 1838, which accorded to England large 
commercial privileges with a most-favoured nation 
clause and also decreed the abolition of trade 
monopolies in all the territories under Ottoman 
suzerainty, the pact of friendship, commerce and 
navigation (3 August 1839) between Belgium and 
the Porte, and the Russo-Turkish convention of 
1 May 1849, which modified the organic regulations 
of 1831 relating to the Danubian principalities of 
Wallachia and Moldavia. 

Bibliography: Pauly-Wissowa, V, Stuttgart 
1897, s.v. Bosporos, col. 748; P. Gyllius, De 
Bosporo Thracio Libri III, Lugduni 1561, Lib. ii, 
cap. XIII, 121, 124; J. von Hammer-Purgstall, 
Constantinopolis und der Bosporus, ii, Pesth 1822, 
227-229; Hammer-Purgstall, i, 528 and 670; G. F. 
de Martens, Nouveau Recueil de TraiXls, Gottingen 
1817-1842, xv, 695-702, xvi, 958-964 and Nouveau 
Recueil General de Traitis, Gottingen 1843-1875, 
xiv, 278 ff.; Arsiv Kilavuzu, i, Istanbul 1938, 58; 
I A, s.v. Bo&azici (M. Tayyib Gokbilgin: Tarihte 
Boiazici). c (V. J. Parry) 

BALTADJI: a name given to men composing 
various companies of palace guards under the Otto- 






BALJADJI — BALTISTAN 



man regime down to the beginning of the nineteenth 
century. The term was used alternatively with the 
equivalent Persian tabarddr, both words meaning, 
literally 'axe-man', and hence 'woodcutter', 'pio- 
neer", 'halberdier". 

It would appear that originally the balfadjls, 
whose corps was recruited from the l Adjemi Oghlans 
[q.v.], were employed in connexion with the army 
in the felling of trees, the levelling of roads, and the 
filling of swamps, but that even before the conquest 
of Constantinople some of them were posted as 
guards to the imperial palace at Adrianople. There- 
after, with the foundation at Istanbul in turn of 
the 'Old' and 'New' Sarays, Galata Sarayl, and the 
saray of Ibrahim Pasha, other companies of bal- 
(adjls were formed for each. The men of all these 
companies except that of the New, later called the 
Topkapt, Saray, were admitted, after a certain length 
of service, to the odjak of the Janissaries, whereas 
those of the Topkapt Sarayt enjoyed the privilege 
of entry into the Sipdh and SUdhddr bMks [q.v.] 
of the standing cavalry. The men of this privileged 
company were known as ziiluflii baltadjUar — that 
is to say "blinkered" baltadiis — for the curious rea- 
son that, since one of their duties was to carry the 
wood required for heating the imperial harem into 
that forbidden precinct, on the occasions of their 
performing this duty, in order to prevent their in- 
advertently catching sight of the ladies of the esta- 
blishment, they wore "blinkers" made of cloth or 
gold lace hanging down on either side of their faces 
from their tall pointed caps (the Persian zulf signi- 
fying 'a lock of hair"), as well as special jackets fur- 
nished with exceptionally wide upright collars. 

Upon the closure in 1675 of the sarays of Galata 
and Ibrahim Pasha, their bal^adjl companies were 
abolished. By this time also recruitment by dewshirme 
had all but ceased. The remaining companies were 
mostly recruited therefore from free-born Anatolian 
Muslims, though the relatives of palace servants 
were also sometimes admitted into them. The 
Ziiluflii Baltadjla were suppressed by Mustafa III 
but revived by 'Abd al-Hamld I, and remained in 
being until the palace service as a whole was reor- 
ganised by Mahmud II. They were commanded by 
a kdhya (hedhhudd) responsible to the sultan's prin- 
cipal page, the SUdhddr Agha. 

Twelve kalfas of the Ziiliiflii Baltadjis, distinguished 
by their literacy, had various special duties. Thus 
they would bring out, and stand behind, the sultan's 
throne at his accession and upon bayrams [q.v.]; 
guard the Prophet's Standard (sand[agh-l sherif) 
and read the Kur'an beneath it on campaign; take 
charge of the belongings of the frarem ladies every 
year when they and the sultan removed to one of 
the summer kOshks; and — from the seventeenth 
century — present officiants of the Sultan Ahmed 
mosque with sherbet, rose-water and incense at 
the yearly celebration of the Prophet's Birthday 
(Mewlud). 

Each of the chief officers of the palace, moreover, 
had one or more Ziiliiflii Baltadjis in attendance on 
him; and two important offices in the palace service 
were filled by kalfas of the corps: that of the head 
cook of the Kush-khdne (the imperial kitchen) and 
his second in command. 

The Balfadxls of the Old Saray, which from the 
late fifteenth century was the residence of the sul- 
tans' mothers, were responsible down to the seven- 
teenth century to the Kapl Aghast [q.v.] and there- 
after to the Klzlar Aghasl [q.v.], to whom those who 
could acquire enough learning in the Bayazld me- 



dreses might act as confidential secretaries or as 
clerks for the awkdf of the Holy Cities, whereas other 
senior members of this corps might serve the Walide 
Sultan and other princesses as chief coffee-makers 
(kahwedii-bashl). 

A number of Grand Viziers were former baltadiis, 
of whom perhaps the best known are Baltadjl Meh- 
med Pasha, who defeated Peter the Great on the 
Pruth in 1711, and Newshehirli Ibrahim Pasha.the 
last minister of Ahmed III. 

Bibliography: Kocu Bey, Risdle (Istanbul, 

1303) 26; D'Ohsson, Tableau de I'Empire Ottoman, 

vii, 30-3; Tayyarzade Ahme( j 'Ata, Ta'rikh-i 

l Atd, i, 290-293, 297, 299, 305-7; I A, art by I. H. 

Uzuncarslll; Gibb and Bowen, Islamic Society and 

the West, I, part i, index. (H. Bowen) 

BALTISTAN, known to Muslim writers as 

Tihbat-i khurd or Little Tibet, lying between 34° and 

36° N and 75° and 77° E between Gilgit and Ladakh, 

extends some 150 miles on either bank of the Indus, 

covering an area of 8,522 sq. miles. A mountainous 

country, it has some of the highest peaks in the world: 

Godwin Austen (K 2), 28,250 ft., conquered in 1953; 

Gasherbrum, 26,470 ft., conquered in 1958, and 

Haramosh, 24,000 ft. Skardu the chief town, was 

electrified in 1951. It has an airstrip, a modern 

hospital and a number of schools. A new bazar has 

been recently built. 

The Baltis were converted to Islam in the 8th/i4th 
century partly by Sayyid 'All HamadanI of Srinagar 
(Kashmir) and partly by his khalifa, Sayyid Muham- 
mad Nut Bakhsh. They are polygamous and of the 
ShI'ite persuasion. Their neighbours, the Hunzas, 
are followers of the Agha Khan. The language 
used by the Baltis is a mixture of Ladakh! and 
Tibetan but has a sprinkling of Arabic and Persian 
words, indicative of the influence of Islam. 

The old rulers of Baltistan are known as Radjas 
or Gialpos, the most famous being 'All Shir Khan 
who flourished in the ioth/i6th century and also 
built a fort at Skardu. His expeditions to neigh- 
bouring regions still form the theme of many a 
native folk-song. In the early uth/i7th century 
another Gialpo, 'All Mir, chief of Skardu, invaded and 
conquered the home-land of the Baltis. The last of 
the Gialpos, Ahmad Shah, lost his independence to 
the Dogra general, Zorawar Singh in 1840, when 
Baltistan was annexed to the Kashmir State, then 
ruled by Gulab Singh. It came under the British 
sway in 1846 by the Treaty of Amritsar when it was 
placed under the Wazir Wizarat of Ladakh. 

In February 1948, the people of Baitistan 
rejected the suzerainty of the Maharadja of Kashmlr 
and requested the Pakistan Government to take over 
control of the area. Since then it is being administered 
by the Chief Adviser, Kashmir and Baltistan. It has 
made general progress; almost the entire area now 
has a net of pony tracks. Skardu is linked with 
Rawalpindi by air. An airmail service has also 
been introduced between Baltistan and Pakistan. 
Improved educational, medical and other facilities 
have been provided raising the standard of living 
of the people. Large amounts have also been sanc- 
tioned for the economic development (specially the 
construction of roads) of the area. 

Bibliography: Imp. Gaz. of India (new ed.) 
vi 261-5; R. C. Arora, The Land of Ladakh, 
Kashmir and Gilgit, Aligarh 1940, 194-218; 
Kashmir Gazetteer, Calcutta 1909; G. M. D. Sufi, 
Kashmir, Lahore 1949, i, 219, ii, 562, 764, 777; 
A. H. Francke, History of Western Tibet, London 
1907; I. Stephen, Horned Moon, London 1953, 



BALTISTAN — BALOClSTAN 



183-8 and passim; Bulletin No. 9 of the Pakistan 
Society, London, July 1957, 21-23; G. T. Vigne, 
Travel in Kashmir, Ladab, Jskardu, London 
1892. (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

BALCC (Baloc) of the USSR, elements who emi- 
grated from Khurasan at the end of the 19th and 
the beginning of the 20th century, whose emigration 
in fact continued after 1918. They are sometimes 
erroneously confused with the Gipsies of Central 
Asia (see LulI]. At the 1926 census, 936 BalQc were 
counted; this figure underestimates their true 
number, as some of them were reckoned with the 
Turkmen and others with the Cinganes; on the other 
hand, the estimate made by Grande {Spisok narod- 
nosiey SSSR, in Revolyutsiya i Natsional'nosti, no. 4 
of 1936, 74-85). who assessed them at 10,000 in 1933, 
is excessive. The Baluc inhabit the SSR of Turk- 
menistan, in the region of Marl. They are Sunni 
Muslims of the HanafI rite and speak the Makranl 
dialect of Balflci; this, however, is disappearing, 
gradually ceding ground to Turkmen, which is used 
as the literary language, and to Tadjik. Until 1928, 
the Baluc were nomads, but between 1928 and 1935 
they were settled and grouped in stock rearing 
Kolkhozes. Their carpets, the manufacture of which 
is a craft, are justly famous. (A. Bennigsen) 
BALCCISTAN (Balo6istAn), land of the Baloc. 
A. Geography and History. The exact bound- 
aries of Balocistan are undetermined. In general it 
occupies the S.E. part of the Iranian plateau from 
the Kirman desert east of Bam and the Bashagird 
Mts. to the western borders of Sind and the 
Pandjab. This arid and mountainous country with 
a predominantly nomadic population is divided 
between Iran and Pakistan. At present Baloc are 
also found in Sind and the Pandjab, in Sistan 
and a few nomads in the USSR near Marw, [see 
above]. 

The rivers of Balocistan are small and unimpor- 
tant. One may consider the country a plateau with 
the rugged Sulayman range in the East and several 
mountain ranges in the West, the most spectacular 
peak of which is the volcano Kiih-i Taftan (13,500 ft.). 
The town of Iranshahr (formerly Fahradj) is the 
capital of Persian Balocistan with Kalat the most 
important centre in the East. The seaports, such as 
Tiz, Pasni and Gwadar, formerly active, now have 
lost their importance. 

The population of the area, including Brahols, 
is uncertain, hardly more than two million today. 
Although the Baloc are the majority of the popu- 
lation, with the Brahols the largest minority, there are 
also Djats and other Indian elements on the eastern 
coast, and negroid people in the port towns especially 
in Persian Balocistan. The Baloc are divided into 
two groups separated from each other by the Bra- 
hols in the Kalat area which accounts for the two 
major dialects. 

The earliest mention of the area, called Maka, 
is in the Old Persian cuneiform inscription of Darius 
at Behistun and Persepolis. Other names occur in 
classical sources, but very little is known of the coun- 
try in pre-Islamic times. It is probable that Iranian 
speakers were late in coming to Balocistan and the 
southern and eastern parts of Balocistan were pre- 
dominantly non-Iranian until well after the Islamic 
conquests. The Bal66 probably entered Makran (i.e., 
western Balocistan) from Kirman about the time 
of the Saldjuk invasion of Kirman. 

Kirman was conquered by the Muslims in 23/644 
in the caliphate of c Umar. In the mountains of Kir- 
man they met Kufs or K66 and Balus or Baloc 



who were marauding nomads. At this time the Zutt 
or Djats were in Makran, which was not conquered 
by the Arabs. In the time of Mu'awiya, ca. 44/664, 
the towns of Makran were occupied and war was 
waged with the Meds of the coast, while raids ex- 
tended as far as Sind. 

In the time of al-Hadjdjadj b. Yusuf (86/705) in 
the inter-Arab struggles the 'Alafi Arab faction was 
driven into Sind to be followed in 89/707 by Muh. 
b. Kasim with an Arab army. It is difficult to ident- 
ify the places he captured but Muslim rule was 
extended by him through Balocistan to Sind. It is 
probable that the Arabs maintained their influence 
only on the coast, but we have very little information 
about the entire area throughout the 'Abbasid cali- 
phate. Mahmud of Ghazni maintained authority over 
Kusdar (the Kalat plateau) ace. to the Tabakdt-i 
Ndsiri. 

The Baloc and the Koc tribes during the Umayyad 
and c Abbasid caliphates raided from Kirman, spread- 
ing into Sistan and Khurasan. According to Yakut the 
Baloc were decimated by c Adud al-Dawla the Buyid 
(338-372/949-982). They continued their depre- 
dations until Mahmud of Ghazni sent his son Mas c Qd 
against . them, who defeated them near Khabis. 
Shortly after this time the eastward movement of 
the Baloc began, for they left Kirman and went into 
Makran. It is possible that the strong centralised 
government of the Saldjuks made raiding unpro- 
fitable for the Bal66 who consequently moved east- 
ward. Two centuries later the Baloc are found in 
Sind. In the Kalat highlands the Brahol confederacy, 
including some Baloc and Afghan tribes, kept the 
main body of Baloc from inundating the area, and 
the Baloc then moved into Sind and the Pandjab. 
No permanent kingdom was established but each 
tribe was under its own chief and inter-tribal fighting 



The first tribes of which any records have survived 
are the Rinds under Mir Cakur and the Dodals 
under Mir Sohrab who appeared at the court of 
Shah Husayn Langah at Multan, who ruled from 
874-908/1467-1502. The tradition is that Mir Cakur 
and his Rinds came from Sibi and took service with 
Shah Husayn. Other Baloc followed and, according 
to ballads, there was war between the Rinds and 
Dodals. In these legends the memory of the migra- 
tion of the Bal64 to India is preserved. 

The Dodals and Hots, another Baloc tribe, spread 
up the Indus valley and Babar met them as far 
north as Bhera and Khushab in 1519. The towns 
of Dera lsma'Il Khan and Dera GhazI Khan were 
founded by the sons of Sohrab Dodal in the time 
of Sher Shah, who confirmed their possession of the 
lands of the lower Indus valley. According to tra- 
dition these Baloc aided Humayun in his reconquest 
of Dihll and were in the good graces of the Mughal 

The only history we have of Balocistan in the later 
period concerns the Brahol confederation. The Bra- 
hol confederation began to expand in the 17th 
century under the Kambaranl chiefs. At the end of 
the century one of these rulers, Mir c Abd Allah 
extended his power west throughout Makran and 
south to the sea. Nadir Shah of Persia regarded 
the Brahol Khans with favour, for after his Indian 
conquests he awarded them lands in Sind taken 
from the Indian Kalhdras. 

A^mad Shah Durrani established his authority 
over Makran, and the Brand! Khan recognised him 
as his suzerain. This Brahdi, Naslr Khan, extended 
his rule over Las-Beia including Karaci. He organised 






BALOCISTAN 



the Brahois into the two main groups of Sarawan 
and Djahlawan. Each tribe had to supply the Khan 
with troops at the Khan's request but were otherwise 
free from taxes. 

Nasir Khan became so powerful that he defied 
his suzerain Ahmad Shah who defeated him in 1172/ 
1758 and besieged him in Kalat. Peace was made on 
condition that Nasir Khan retain his independence 
but agree to render military service to Ahmad 
Shah, which he did. Nasir died in 1210/1795 and was 
succeeded by his son Mahmud Khan who was un- 
able to retain the extensive dominions of his father. 
Western Makran was lost and some Balo£ tribesmen 
took Karacl. Mahmud died in 1821 and was succee- 
ded by his son Mihrab Khan. The latter mixed in 
Afghan affairs which brought him in conflict with 
the British. In 1838 a force under Gen. Wiltshire 
was sent against Kalat which was stormed and 
Mihrab Khan was killed. After much confusion and 
a second occupation of Kalat by the British, the son 
of Mihrab was recognised as Khan at the end of 
1841 with the name Nasir Khan II. In 1854 the Khan 
signed a treaty, accepting a position of subordination 
to the British Government, but his authority over 
the tribes declined. He died in 1857, and the dis- 
orders and revolts which followed his death filled 
the years until 1876 when Capt. Sandeman brought 
about a treaty which recognised Kalat as a protected 
state in the India Empire. The establishment of Quetta 
as a military centre and the building of a railroad 
in Balficistan in- the 1880's kept the country pacified. 
The boundary between Kalat and Persia was laid 
down in 1872 and revised in 1895-6, but for the most 
part the Baloc tribes disregarded the frontier. 

Much less is known of Persian Baloiistan. Although 

the Balo£ tribes owed allegiance to the Safawids 

and Kadjars in fact they were independent. Raiding 

parties of BalcVS terrorised the settlements of Kirman 

and Khurasan until the 1930's. TheNahroi tribe today 

is perhaps the most important in Persian Balocistan 

and SIstan, but it is difficult to obtain information 

about the various tribes, who perhaps know very little 

themselves about their history and present status. 

There are many ballads and stories on Baloi 

history, many apocryphal, though some, telling of 

eponymous ancestors, may contain actual history. 

Bibliography: For travellers' accounts, see 

the literature in A. Gabriel, Die Erforsckung 

Persiens, Vienna 1952, 137-140, 175, and passim. 

On ethnography, cf. M. Longworth Dames, The 

Baloch Race, London 1904, and Mockler, The Origin 

of the Baloch, in JRASB, 1895. History is poor; 

for the early periods the sources are only scattered 

notices in the standard Arabic histories and 

geographies; for later history see Elliot and 

Dowson, The History of India, London, 1867-77, 

esp. vols. 1, 2 and 5 ; H. Raverty, Tabakdt-i Ndsiri, 

transl. and notes, London 1881; Thornton, Life of 

Sir R. Sandeman, London 1895. (R. N. Frye) 

B. Language. — §1. Linguistic history. 

Within the main division of Iranian languages, 
based on the treatment of the simple I(ndo)-E(uro- 
pean) palatals *A and *g into a Western, Persic, 
and an Eastern group, Bal(uCi) belongs to the latter, 
cf. dsk 'gazelle': N(ew) P(ersian) aha; zdn- 'to know": 
NP dan-; burx 'high': NP buland. The Balucls are 
thought to have migrated to their present habitat 
from the shores of the Caspian Sea. One therefore 
looks for orientation on the ancestor of Bal. to the 
two of the known Middle Iranian languages which 
are nearest to that area, viz. M(iddle) P(ersian) 



(belonging to the Western group) and P(arthian) 
(belonging to the Eastern group), whose meeting 
point lay to the South of the Central Caspian region. 

Bal. ranges with P not only in the treatment of 
the simple IE palatals (cf. also the special develop- 
ment of IE *ku in dsin 'iron': P»swn: MP "htm), 
but also, e.g., of O(ld) Ir(anian) / {fan- 'to strike' : 
P jn-: MP zn-), -d- (pad 'foot', giddn 'tent': P p>d, 
wd'n: MP p'y, wv'n), -rd- {zirdl 'heart': P zyrd: 
MP dyl), -si- (pai-tara 'later' : P pi: MP pi), du- (ipti 
'other': P bdyg: M.P dwdyg), and xwa- (w(h)ai 'sweet, 
happy': P wxi: MP xwi); % it agrees with MP e.g., 
in the development of Olr. y- (Jitd 'separate' : MP 
jwd: P ywd; fuz- 'to move': P ywz-), -zg- (majg 
'brain': MP mgj, cf. NP mayz), and Or (sai 'three', 
pusay 'son' : MP sh, pws : P hry, pjihr) ; % and differs 
from both MP and P, e.g., in the treatment of Olr. 
x- (kand- 'to laugh': MP xn-: P xnd-; sotka 'burnt': 
MP, P swxt; bakS- 'to give': MP, P bx!-), f (hapt 
'seven': MP, P haft; kopag 'shoulder", cf. MP, P 
kof 'mountain'), -9- (mltag 'house', cf. P myh: 'va- 
cillating'), -k- (gokurt 'sulphur*: MP gwgyrd; makask 
'fly": P mgs), -t- (at 'from': MP >z: P >l),jp- (dp 
'water': MP, P >6), -t- (gwdt, v. below), wa- (gwdt 
'wind', gwarak 'lamb': MP, P w'd, wrg), wl- (gist 
'twenty': MP, P wyst; giddn, v. above), xwai- (hid 
'sweat', cf. MP xwybi, P wxybyh 'own'), -im- (lamm 
'eye' : MP, P dm), -In- (tunnag 'thirsty' : MP tying, 
cf. P tiynd 'thirst'), and the preverb fra- (ia-: MP, 
P fra-). 

Apart from phonological matters, Bal. agrees with 
P against MP in avoiding the Idafat construction, 
and using, e.g., kap- for 'to fall' (P kf-: MP y wpt y d-), 
gwai- for 'to say' (P w>c-: MP gw-), dtka for 'gone' 
(P >gd: MP >md), and girdk for 'lightning' (cf. P 
wrwc: Pahlavl rwc'k); however, the Bal. presents 
'to do' is kan- (MP kwn-, against P kr-), and while 
MP has rw-jrp(<.)-, P iw- for 'to go', Bal. uses the 
former stem in the present, the latter in the past; 
for the present of 'to sit' (MP niyy-, P niyd-) and 
'to see' (MP, P wyn-) Bal. goes its own way with 
nind- and gind-; on the other hand the passive con- 
struction of transitive verbs in the past tensesis 
characteristic of all three languages. 

The ancestor of Bal. was thus neither P nor MP, 
but a lost language which, while sharing a number 
of characteristic features with either, and some with 
both, had a pronounced individuality of its own. 
This language may have been a variaty of Median 
speech since the Kurdish dialects, which have a 
noteworthy affinity with Bal. (v. P. Tedesco, in 
Monde Oriental, xv, 252), are to be traced, in V. 
Minorsky's opinion (Travaux du XXe Congris des 
Orientalistes, 143 ff.) to ancient Median. However, 
such distinctive straits of Bal. as are also met with 
in Ormurl (e.g. ia- < fra-, and gwa- < ua-, the latter 
development to be found also in Khuri, seeV. Mi- 
norsky in BSOAS xix, 61, n.l. and, according to I. 
Gershevitch, in the dialects of Rudbar, Rudan, and 
parts of Baskard), may have been borrowed from an 
Iranian substratum in territories to which the 
BaluCIs had moved, see G. Morgenstieme, Indo- 
lranian Frontier Languages, i, 316 f. Moreover, since 
Middle Iranian times Bal. has borrowed on a con- 
siderable scale from Persian. At a more recent stage 
loanwords from SindhI, Brahul, and Pasto have 
penetrated into Bal. 

For a different classification of Iranian dialects, 
using different criteria, see now W. B. Henning, 
MUteliranisch (Handbuch des Orientalistik), 89 ff.; 
note I&warizmian ia- < fra-, ibid., 114. 



BALOCISTAN — BALYEMEZ 



§2. Dialects. 

Bal. dialects are divisible geographically and 
linguistically into two great groups: Western and 
Eastern, separated from each other by a strip of 
territory inhabited by Brahui-speakers, extending 
from Quetta in the North to Las Bela in the 
South. 

A) Western. The Western dialects (also called 
'Southern' or 'Makram') are spoken principally in 
the Makran, their territory extending from Biyaban 
north of Cape Jask in Persian BalucistSn (abt. long. 
57°) eastwards to Ras Malan in the Sind (abt. long. 
66°), thence northwards to the Afghan frontier, and 
thence along this frontier westwards into Kirman. 
The map in the LSI, x, 327 (v. bibl.) shows a territory 
where there live mixed Balucls and other language 
speakers, extending from the north-west corner of 
the Makran along the Persian-Afghan frontier north- 
wards into Russian Turkestan, in the province of 
Marw. Details of these Marw Balucls remained ob- 
scure until 1927-28, when I.I. Zarubin first investi- 
gated their language. They number about 10,000 
(mainly in the rayons of Yolotan, Bairam 'All, and 
Kuibyshev.) 

B) Eastern. The Eastern dialects (also called 
'Northern') are spoken by tribes in an area extending 
from KaracI northwards through the Sulayman 
mountains approx. to Dera IsmS'il Khan. 

C) The principal dialect differences are given by 
Geiger, in Gr. I. Ph., I*, 232. It may be noted further 
that: 

1. The W(estern) stops k p t g b d and the af- 
fricates I, J are changed in the E to the corresponding 
spirants x f 8 y (3 8 and $ , t when following a vowel, 
except in pre-consonantel position (for examples, 
v. LSI, x, 338). 

2. W u {buta 'was', nun 'now', malum 'known') 
becomes E i (biOa, nin, malim). 

3. The W pronouns hamd 'same', Sumd 'ye', are 
in E hated, Sawd. Further dialect subdivision: 

A) Western. Information regarding the distri- 
bution and character of these dialects is too scanty 
to permit of more than broad outlines. 

I. Keel dialects, spoken in the district of Kec, 
in South-Central Makran and west of a line from 
K6c to Gwadar on the coast. A variety of this dialect 
is also spoken by about 10,000 Balutis in KaracI, 
who are probably recent emigrants. 

II. Panjguri dialects, spoken in the district of 
Panjgur in NE Makran, and east of a line from Kec 
to Gwadar. 

III. The dialect of the Marw province. 

There are many similarities, both lexical and gram- 
matical, between the Panjguri and Marw dialects. 
Comparison of P(anjguri), M(arw) and K(6ci) shows: 

1. P, M a (P huk, M uk 'swine') becomes K i (hik); 

2. Olr -xt- becomes K -tk- « -*kt-) but P -xt-, 
■ht-, and M -t- (< *-ht- : M drops h in all positions) ; 

3. Gen. sing, of nouns: in K -a, -Ig, -ig or no ending: 
P, M -I, -at; 

4. Voc. sing.: in K -a or no ending; P, M -I, -». 

5. 1st sing, pres-fut. in K -an: P, M -in; 

6. K pit, mat, brat ('father, mother, brother') corres- 
pond to P, M pis, mas, bras; 

7. The 1st sing, of the suffixed verb 'to be' is K 
-an, but P, M -un. 

Lexically, we have K log 'house', but P, M gis; 
K as 'fire', P at, M atii; K haik 'egg*, but M d(murg); 
especially characteristic of M and P are the verb 
di- 'to strike' and the adverbs in -ingo, -ango. K 
and P have many more SindM loanwords, but rather 
less Persian than has M. 



B) Eastern. 

I. The purest E. dialects are spoken in an area 
stretching from Quetta through Loralai to include 
Dera Ghazi Khan and south to include Marri and 
Bugtl territory, into the Upper Sind Frontier. 

II. The Kasranl dialect, north of Dera GhazT 
Khan up to Dera Isma'il Khan. This dialect has 
been strongly influenced by neighbouring Indian 
languages: cerebralisation is common, normal E 
9 becomes 8, -pt'- becomes -U- (k'-atta 'fallen'), gw- 
becomes gu-; and it has a large number of Indian 
loanwords (principally Sindhi and Lahnda). 

III. The dialects of Sind, south of Jacobabad. 
These are much more mixed with and influenced 
by Sindhi than the others; typical of them is the 
Kacc'eJI-BolI, spoken by about 100,000 in a district 
north of KaracI. In it all E 9, 8 become s, z; cere- 
bralisation is a general rule, voiced stops are usually 
aspirated, and final vowels are affixed to words 
ending in a consonant. 

The E dialects have been much better studied 
than the W, and reference to the bibliography must 
suffice here for them. 

Bibliography: G. A. Grierscn, Linguistic Sur- 
vey of India, Vol x, 327 ff. The bibl. given on p. 
335 is complete up to 1921. See, on E dialects, 
especially Gladstone, Dames, and Mayer. 
Add to the LSI list: 

G. Morgenstierne, Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprog- 
videnskap, v (1932), 36-53; idem, in Acta Orientalia, 
xx (1948), 253-292; idem, Report on a Linguistic 
Mission to North-Western India, (1932), 9-10; 
G. W. Gilbertson, The Balochi Language, Hert- 
ford 1923; idem, English-Balochi Colloquial Dic- 
tionary, Hertford 1925 ; I. I. Zarubin, K IzuCeniyu 
' Baludlskogo Yazyka i Fol'klora, in Zapiski Kollegii 
Vostokovedov, v (1930), 653 ff. ; idem, Baludlskiye 
Skazki, part i (1932I and part ii (1949) (Akademiya 
Nauk, SSSR); V. S. Sokolova, Beludiskii Yazyk, 
in Olerki po Fonetike Iranskikh Yazykov, i, 1953, 
7-77 (Akademiya Nauk, SSSR); S. N. Sokolov, 
Grammatiieskii OCerk Yazyka Beludlei Sovetskogo 
Soyuza, in Trudy Instituta Yazykoznaniya, vi 
(1956), 57-91 (Akademiya Nauk, SSSR). 

(J. Elfenbein) 
BALYEMEZ, the name given to a large calibre 
gun. The term is encountered in Ottoman chronicles 
and other works and is still to be found occasionally 
in relatively late sources (down to the 19th century). 
Balyemez cannon were first introduced into the 
Ottoman army in the time of Sultan Murad II. 
Meljemmed 1 1 the Conqueror, who undertook regular 
large-scale military operations, made great use of 
such guns. He caused the Transylvanian Urban, a 
noted cannon-founder, to construct a special siege 
gun of the Balyemez type, for the purpose of 
breaching the walls of Constantinople. The technique 
of gun-casting became available to the Ottomans 
through Western and, above all, German specialists. 
The production of a Balyemez gun was described 
in some detail by Kritobulos, the Greek panegyrist 
of Mehemmed II. Since guns were at that time 
employed only ir siege warfare, the Turks, as a rule, 
used to cast them on the spot; there is but seldom 
any reference to the transport of guns already cast. 
The name Balyemez ("that eats no honey") is in 
all probability a jesting and popular transformation 
of the German "Faule Metze" (the famous cannon 
of the year 141 1 which, together with the "Faule 
Grf te", altered the entire conduct of war, as it stood 
at that time). The word came to the Ottomans, as a 
technical term, through the numerous German gun- 



founders in the Turkish service. It passed also, 
from the Turkish, into various languages of south- 
east Europe. The nickname Balyemez, occasionally 
o Ottoman army commanders, is a secondary 






e of tl 



! gun. 



Bibliography: H. J. Kissling, Baljemez, in 
ZDMG, 101 (1951), 333-34°, where further 
bibliographical references will be found [see also 
marud and Top]. (H. J. Kissling) 

SALVOS, Balyoz (originally Baylos), the Turkish 
name for the Venetian ambassador to the Sublime 
Porte — in Italian, bailo (Venetian ambassadors at 
Byzantium had borne this title since 1082; other 
baili were at Tyre and Lajazzo/Payas near Alexan- 
•dretta). The Venetians, immediately after the con- 
quest of Constantinople, sent off as bailo Bartolom- 
meo Marcello, who on 18 April 1454 made with the 
Porte a commercial treaty which renewed the 
agreement already existing with the Ottomans 
since 1408. Under this new treaty Venice had the 
right to maintain at the Sublime Porte a bailo with 
his seat in Pera and with the power to issue passes 
lor Venetian merchants and to exercise in relation to 
those merchants certain legal functions. The repre- 
sentatives of Venice sat in Constantinople, except in 
time of war, until the fall of the Republic in 1797; 
their tenure of office lasted, during the 17th and 18th 
centuries, in principle for three years. There were 
moreover special ambassadors to the Porte who 
also bore the name of bailo. The baili played, in the 
16th and 17th centuries, an important role politically; 
several amongst them, in times of tension or of war, 
were thrown into prison (as a rule in Yedikule). The 
reports (relazioni) which they submitted to the 
Signoria bear witness to their perspicacity. These 
reports have been published in two series: (i) E. 
Alberi, Relazioni degli Atnbasciatori Veneti al Senato, 
ser. iii: Turchia, 3 vols., Florence 1840-1855; and 
<ii) N. Barozzi and G. Berchet, Le Relazioni degli 
Stati Europei lette al Senato dagli Atnbasciatori 
Veneti ne' secolo decimosettimo, ser. V: Turchia, 
Venice 1866, 1872. 

List of the Baili: Cf. (i) Barozzi and Berchet, op. 
cit., i, 9 ff. ; and (ii) B. Spuler, Die europ&ische 
Diplomatic in Konstantinopel, Pt. iv, in Jahrbiicher 
fiir Geschichte Osteuropas, i, (1936), 229-247 (with 
additional references). 

With the generalised meaning of European 

diplomatic or consular agent, the word is also 

encountered in some Arabic dialects and in Swahili. 

Bibliography: W. Andreas, Staatskunst und 

Diplomatie der Venezianer im Spiegel ihrer Ge- 

sandtenberichte, Leipzig 1943; H. Kretschmayr, 

Geschichte von Venedig, 3 vols., Vienna 1905-1934; 

M. L. Shay, The Ottoman Empire from 1720 to 

1734 as revealed in despatches of the Venetian 

Baili (Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences, vol. 

xxvii, no. 3), Urbana, Illinois 1944. Cf. also the 

standard works on Ottoman history and, in 

addition, M. Cavid Baysun, article in I A, ii, 

291-295. (B. Spuler) 

BAM (Arab. Bamm). District and town in the 

VHIth ustdn of Persia. In the middle ages the district 

was one of the five into which the province of Fars 

was divided. The town is situated in an oasis on the 

south-western fringe of the great desert of the Dasht-i 

Lu{. Bam is 1257 km. from Tehran and 193 from 

Kirman ; Zahidan, on the further side of the Dasht-i 

Lut, is 324 km. distant. Standing at an altitude of 

1,100 metres, Bam is hot in summer, but the winter 

climate is temperate. Situated as it is on the most 

practicable of the routes linking south-west Persia 



- BAMAKO 

with Sistan, Afghanistan and Baldcistan, the town 
has, ever since its foundation in Sasanid times, 
been a place of some strategic and commercial im- 
portance. Since the 4th/ioth century Bam has been 
noted for its citadel, which was for long regarded 
as impregnable; this citadel has often served as a 
bastion against invaders and marauders from the 
east. During the war between the Saffarid Ya c kub 
b. Layth [q.v.] and the Tahirids in 260/873, the fort- 
ress was used as a prison. The Hudud al- c Alam, 
125, describes Bam as it was in the latter part of the 
4th/ioth century: "Bam, a town with a healthy 
climate ... in its shahristdn stands a strong fortress. 
It is larger than Jiruft and possesses three cathedral 
mosques .... one belongs to the Kharidjites, another 
to the Muslims, and the third is in the fortress. 
From it come cotton stuffs (karbds), turbans { c amdma), 
Bam-turbans (or kerchiefs, dastdr-i bami) and dates". 
Similar details are given by Istakhri, Ibn IJawkal 
and al-Mukaddasi. In those days the citadel, which 
was in the centre of the town, contained part of the 
bazaars. The houses were of sun-dried brick. There 
were a number of baths, the best known being in 
the street or lane of the willows (zukdk al-bldh). 
In ii3i/i7igMahmud, the Ghalzav leader, captured 
Bam, but abandoned it some months later owing to 
a revolt in Kandahar. In 1134/1721 he captured the 
town again and it remained in Afghan hands until 
their power was shattered by Nadir [q.v.] in 1142-3/ 
1729-30. It was doubtless in order to guard against 
possible future attack from the east that Nadir 
greatly strengthened the defences of the town. 

It was at Bam that Agha Muhammad Khan cap- 
tured the gallant Lutf c Ali Khan, the last of the 
short-lived Zand dynasty, in 1210/1795 : in order to 
celebrate his success the Kadjar erected a pyramid 
there consisting of the skulls of 600 of his adversary's 
followers (R. G. Watson, A History of Persia from 
the beginning of the XIXthCenturytotheYear 1858,75). 
In 1256-7/1840-1 Bam came into prominence again, 
when Agha Khan MahallatI occupied it during his 
revolt. In the old town, which is now almost entirely 
in ruins, the only building of interest, apart from 
the striking citadel, is the shrine of the Imam Zayd 
b. c A]i Zayn al- c AbidIn. The modern town, which 
is some 500 metres to the south-west of the old one, 
has a population of 13,500; it is divided into four 
quarters by two broad avenues (khiydbdn) which in- 
tersect in the centre. As in former times, the principal 
products of Bam and the surrounding district are 
dates and cotton-stuffs. 

Bibliography: In addition to works mentioned 
in the article: Istakhri, 166; Ibn IJawkal, 223; 
Mukaddasi, 465; Ibn al-Fakm, 206 and 208; Ibn 
Khurradadhih, 49, 54, 196, 242; Ibn Rusta, 106, 
286, 308; al-Bakri, 162 ff.; Yakut, sub verbo; 
Abu 5 l-Fida, 336; Hamd Allah Mustawfl, Nuzha, 
76; E. Pottinger, Travels in Beloochistan and 
Sinde, London 1816, 192-204; K. E. Abbott, in 
Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, xxv, 
42-3; Sir F. J. Goldsmid, in the Journal of the 
Royal Geographical Society, xxxvii, 284-5; O. B. 
St. John, in Eastern Persia, London 1876, I, 
85-86; E. Smith, in Eastern Persia, I, 241-244; 
G. N. Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question, 
ii, 252-4; Le Strange, 312; Razmara and Naw- 
tash, Farhang-i Qiughrdfiyd-yi Iran, viii, 51-2; 
A. Costa and L. Lockhart, Ptrsia, London 1957, 
38-9 and plates 75-78. (L. Lockhart) 

BAMAKO, chief town of the territory of the 
Sudan (French West Africa), on the Niger, at the 



- BAMIYAN 






junction of the two navigable stretches of the river, 
at the end of the Dakar-Niger railway, served by an 
important aerodrome. Formerly a trading post on 
the routes between the Sahel and the Southern region, 
and between the Sudan and Senegal, Bamako oc- 
cupies a central position in French West Africa which 
is the reason for its flourislrng state: the population 
of the town, numbering 800 in 1883, hid risen to 
37,000 in 1945, and today (1958) has reached 100,000 
(of whom 4,000 are Europeans), It owes its impor- 
tance to its administrative and political r61e. 

Bamako was founded by a Bama hunter and named 
by his Niare successor, who came from Kaarta, 
Bama-ko = "after Bama" (the etymclogy "river of 
the crocodiles" is incorrect). The size of the original 
village increased as there came to it first fishermen, 
and then men from Draa (the Drave) and Touat 
(the Toure) who brought with them Islam; the town 
thus comprised four quarters: Niarela, Tourel?, 
Bozola, and Dravela, the basis of the present city. 

In a short time Bamako, a bridgehead on the 
Niger, became a French political objective; after 
the war of 1870, a move was made in its direction, 
and it was occupied in 1883 by Col. B'orgnis-Des- 
bordes. From then on, as a base for French operations 
in the Sudan, its population was constantly swelled 
by groups of Senegalese and Sudanese. In 1904, 
the railway reached the town, which became in 1907 
the chief- town of Upper Senegal and Niger: a large 
administrative, military and medical (Institutes of 
Leprosy and Tropical Ophthalmology) centre grew 
up, and the town also tended to become a uriversity 
(Federal School of Public Works) and cultural 
(French Institute of Black Africa) centr.. 

Bamako is an Islamic city, but its Islam is afri- 
canised, lax, and often taiuted with animist survivals. 
Far from being a centre of religious expansion, the 
city has always been under the influence of the an- 
cient Muslim towns in the region and of families of 
Moorish marabouts. The Kadiriyya and the Tldjaniy- 
ya have long been established there; at first in the 
majority, the Kadiriyya were supplanted by the 
'Umariyya; between the two wars, Hamallism, in 
a more sober form, developed there; at the present 
time there has come into being a reformist group 
which proposes to purify the local form of Islam. It 
is possible to foresee Bamako, following its present 
bent, seeking to assume a leading r61e in an Islamic 
revival. In conclusion, it should be noted that Ba- 
mako has a small Christian community and is the 
seat of an archbishop. 

The town, originally built of mud, does not possess 
any ancient historical monuments. 

Bibliography: Scanty. Information should be 

sought in official publications and in historical 

works on the Sudan. (M.Chailley) 

BAMBARA [see mande and Sudan]. 

BAMIYAN, in the Arabic sources frequently 
ai-BAmiyan, a town in the Hindu-Kush north of 
the main range in a mountain valley lying 8,480 
feet above sea level, through which one of the most 
important roads between the lands of the Oxus 
watershed and the Indus leads; the town is therefore 
naturally important as a commercial centre and was 
important in the middle ages as a fortress also. Al- 
though the valley, that of the Kunduz river, really 
belongs to the Oxus watershed and is separated from 
Kabul by high mountain passes, e.g., the Shibar 
and Unnai, its political association has often shifted 
from north to south. In recent centuries Bamiyan 
has tended to belong to Kabul and Ghazna rather 
than to the Oxus territories, and the pass of Ak- 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



ribat to the north-west of Bamiyan has marked 
the boundary between KSbulistan and Afghan 
TurkistSn. 

The early history of Bamiyan is obscure. Rare 
coins of the Kushans have been reported there but 
no monuments or other remains of that period have 
been discovered (J. Hackin, in J A 1935, 287 ff.). The 
Chinese sources, of which the earliest are scarcely 
earlier than the 6th century A.D., century, usually 
transcribe the name Fan-yen-na or Far-yanh (see J. 
Marquart, £rdnshahr, 215 ff.; and P. Pelliot's note in 
J. Hackin, Les Antiquitis Bouddhiques de Bamiyan, 
Paris 1928, 75). According to Marquart the "Older 
Middle Iranian" form was Bamlkan. The valley and 
town at this date are described by the Chinese pilgrim 
Huan-Cuang who found there a great centre of 
Buddhism with more than ten monasteries and over a 
thousand monks. He noticed that the language, coin- 
age, script and religious beliefs current differed but 
little from those of Turkistan. The royal town was on 
the cliff above the valley, south-west of the great 
Buddha figures. These two colossal figures, which 
have for centuries excited the wonder of travellers, 
both Arab (cf. especially Yakut, i, 481) and European, 
have recently been described in detail, together with 
many of the associated caves and fresco paintings. 
Their age is still uncertain but the weight of evidence 
indicates that the early work, including the two 
great figures, dates from the latter half of the 6th 
or early 7th century A.D., and that the excavation 
and painting of caves continued well into the 8th. 
During this period Bamiyan appears to have been 
ruled by a dynasty, perhaps of Hepthalite origin, 
but certainly subject to the prince (Yabghu) of the 
Western Turks. This dynasty was still ruling in the 
first quarter of the 2nd/8th century and still professed 
Buddhism (cf. E. Chavannes, Documents sur les 
Tou-kiue (Turcs) occidentaux, St. Petersburg, 1903, 
291-2, and Hackin, loc. cit. 1928, 83). 

The prince of Bamiyan bore the title Shir (written 
Shir or Shdr) which Ya'kubl (Buldan 289) erroneously 
translates "lion"; the word means "king" and is 
to be derived from the old Persian khskathriya 
(Marquart, loc.cit.,). Islam was first adopted by these 
princes in the time of the 'Abbasids, according to 
Ya'kubi's geography {loc.cit.) in the reign of al- 
Mansur, according to the same author's history (ed. 
Houtsma, ii. 479) in that of al-Mahdl. The relations 
of this dynasty to the lands south and north of the 
Hindu-Kush are not quite clear. According to Ya- 
'kubi Bamiyan belonged to Tukharistan, i.e., the 
lands of the Oxus territory, which is probably con- 
firmed by Tabari's statement (ii. 1630.1) that 
about 119/737 a foreigner from Bamiyan ruled in 
Khuttal (north of the Oxus); on the other hand 
Istakhri (277) says that the district {'amal) of Ba- 
miyan only included the lands south of the Hindu- 
Kush with the towns of Parwan, Kabul, and Ghazna. 
Under the later c Abbasids the members of the 
dynasty of Bamiyan, like many Central Asian prin- 
ces, held influential positions at the court of Baghdad; 
Tabari (iii, 1335) tells us that a Sher of Bamiyan 
was appointed governor of Yaman in 229/844. There 
was still a large Buddha temple in Bamiyan in which 
there were also idols in the 3rd/gth century. This 
temple was destroyed by the Saffarid Ya'kub and 
the idols brought to Baghdad in 257/871 (cf. the 
comparison of Tabari, iii, 1851 and Fihrist, 346, by 
Barthold in Oriental. Stud. (NBldeke-Festschrift), 



1 to have been finally 



187). 

The native dynastie: 



BAMIYAN — BANAKAT 



le by the Ghaznawids. A branch of the house 
of the Ghurids ruled in Bamiyan for half a century 
(550-609/1144-1212). Bamiyan was then the capital 
of a kingdom which conjprised all Tukharistan and 
some districts north of the Oxus, and stretched to 
the north-east as far as the borders of KSshghar. 
Like the other lands of the Ghurids, this kingdom 
also was incorporated in the kingdom of Muhammad 
Shah of Khwarizm in the beginning of the 7th/i3th 
century; Bamiyan was granted with Ghazna and 
other lands to Djalal al-DIn the eldest son of the 
Khwarizmshah (Nasawi, ed. Houdas, text 25, transl. 
44). Soon afterwards followed the destruction of 
the town by the Mongols (618/1221). Mutugen, a 
grandson of Cingiz Khan, fell at the siege of the town ; 
in revenge for his death the conqueror razed the 
town to the ground and exterminated its inhabitants; 
the place received the name of Mo-balik (evil town) 
or, according to Rashld al-DIn, Mo-kurghan (evil 
fortress) and was still uninhabited 40 years later in 
the time of the historian Djuwayni. For the past 
few centuries Bamiyan has always been combined 
with Ghazna and Kabul; like these towns it belonged, 
down to the I2th/i8th century, to the empire 
of the Mughals, and afterwards to the newly formed 
Afghan kingdom of which it is still a part. 

At present Bamiyan is a district town connected 
by motorable roads with both Kabul and Kunduz. 
The population of the valley belongs mainly to the 
Hazara stock, but there are also villages of Tadjiks. 
The inhabitants speak two languages, Persian and 
Pashtu (Afghan), but the former is the more widely 
spoken. The modern settlement lies immediately 
beneath the cliff with the great images. About two 
miles south-east lies the ruined fortress of Gulgula, 
situated on a prominence on the south of the valley. 
This has been generally recognised as the town built 
on a hill which Cingiz Khan destroyed, and is pro- 
bably also the strong fortress referred to by Yakut 
and Ya'kubi. Whether it is also the site of Hiian- 
Cuang's royal town is not clear, as the pilgrim states 
that it lay on the cliffs south-west of the images. 
No remains have been reported in this direction. 
Bibliography: The geographical position is dis- 
cussed by A. Foucher, La Vieille Route de I'Inde, 
Paris 1942. The Buddhist monuments are des- 
cribed by J. Hackin and A. & Y. Godard in Les 
Antiquitis Bouddhiques de Bamiyan, Paris 1928; 
and J. Hackin and J. Carl, Nouvelles Recherches 
a Bamiyan, Paris 1933. Hackin's views on the 
dating should be compared with those of B. Row- 
land, Wall Paintings in India, Central Asia and 
Ceylon, Boston, 1938, particularly when corrected 
by Bachhofer, Art Bulletin, 1938, 230 ft. Hackin 
(loc.cit. 1928) includes most of the Chinese and 
European travellers' reports, but Marquart (loc. 
cit.) andChavannes (loc.cit.) are still indispensable. 
The Hepthalite connections are discussed by R. 
Ghirshman, I.es Chionites-Hepthalites, Paris 1948. 
For the later history see Barthold, Turkestan, 2nd 
ed., London, 1928. On the Ghurids of Bamiyan 
see Tabakdt-i Ndsiri (ed. Nassau Lees), 101 ff. ; 
ibid, transl. Raverty, 142 ff. On the Mongol con- 
quest, see the text of Djuwayni {Ta'rikh-i DJ,ahdn- 
Kushdy) in Schefer, Chrestomathie Persane, ii. 
142 ff.; and d'Ohsson, Histoire des Mongols, i, 
294 ff. (W. Barthold-[F. R. Allchin]) 

BAMPOR, a district and small town in the 
VHIth ustdn of Persia (corresponding approximately 
to the province of Kirtnan and Persian BalWistan). 
For administrative purposes, Bampur and its 
district come under Iranshahr (formerly Fahradj), 



situated 23 kilomet 
has a population of 
its citadel which c; 
height. The inhabitants, who are Sunnls and are 
Bal66I-speaking, are mostly engaged in agricultural 
and pastoral pursuits. The surrounding district, 
which is well supplied with water, is very fertile and 
produces corn and dates. 

After the assassination of Nadir Shah in 1160/1747, 

Nasir Khan, the Governor of Balofistan, transferred 

his allegiance to Ahmad Shah Durrani [q.v.], of 

Afghanistan, but later became independent. Persian 

authority over Bampur was not restored until 1849. 

Bibliography: H. Pottinger, Travels in 

Beloochistan and Sinde, London 1816, 330; 

Eastern Persia, by O. St. John, B. Lovett, E. 

Smith and Sir F. Goldsmid, i, 76, 206-7; Le 

Strange, 330; Sartip H. A. Razmara and Sartip 

Nawtash, Farhang-i Qjughrafiya-yi Iran, Vol. 

viii, 47. (L. Lockhart) 

BAN (A. and P.), the ben-nut tree (Moringa 

aptera Gaertn.). Dioscorides knew of its existence 

in Arabia and other neighbouring countries. Galen, 

speaking of a remedy obtained from the tree, says 

that it was imported from the Arabs. Abu Hanlfa 

reports that the fruit, called shii c , was a commodity 

greatly in demand which was bought and paid for 

in advance even before being ripe. The wood, 

because of its lightness, was used for tent-poles. On 

account of the high and slender growth of the ban 

and the softness of its wood, Arab poets used the 

word as a simile for a tender woman of tall stature. 

The fruit, known to the Greeks as piXavo? 

(iopetjiiXY) and to the Romans as glans unguentaria, 

was put to various medicinal uses. Especially the 

fine oil, extracted from the seeds, was applied against 

several skin diseases. The juice of the fruit, mixed 

with vinegar and water, was given to horses as a 

remedy for cardialgia. In addition to its application 

in medicine, the oil of the ban was much used in the 

manufacture of perfumes. 

Bibliography: Abu Hanlfa al-DInawari, The 
Book 0/ Plants (Lewin), no. 75; Achundow in 
Hist. Stud, aus d. pharmakol. Inst, zu Dorpat, iii, 
165, 349; Da'ud al-Antaki, Tadhkira, Cairo 1324, 
i, 61 f.; Ghafiki (Meyerhof-Sobhy), no. 118; Ibn 
al-'Awwam, Fildha (transl. Clement-Mullet), ii/b, 
145 f-; Ibn al-Baytar, Djdmi', Bulak 1291, 79 f.; 
Kazwlnl (Wustenfeld), i, 249; Kindi, Kimiya' al- 
c I(r (transl. Garbers), 59 ff., 181 ff.; Low, Die 
Flora der Juden, ii, 124, 525, iv, 525; NuwayrI, 
Nihdyat al-Arab, xi, 215 f., xii, 78 ff. (cf. Wiede- 
mann in Arch. f. d. Gesch. d. Naiurw. u. d. Techn., 
iv, 419 ff.); Tuhfat al-Ahbab (Renaud-Collin), 
no. 382. (L. Kopf) 

BANAKAT, more correctly B/Pinakath (thus in 
Mukaddasi, 277, 1. 1; in Sogdian: Bi/unekath, 
"chief town", "capital"), but in Djuwayni, i, 47 
Fanaka(n)t— a small town at the confluence of the 
Ilak (today the Ahangaran/Angren), flowing from 
the right, with the Jaxartes (Iranian: Khashant — 
cf. Hudud aW-Alam, 118, 210 ff., and also ibid., 72, 
where it is named Ozgand). It lies almost south-east 
of Tashkent (Cac/Shash) and was once a flourishing 
place {Hudud al-'Alam, 118), possessed however no 
walls and had its mosque in the bazaar (Mukaddasi, 
277; cf. also al-Kh w arizmi, in C. A. Nallino, ai- 
Huwdrizmi e il suo rifacimento dtlla geografia di 
Tolomeo, Rome 1895, 36, and Yakut, i, 740). Th« 
town was conquered in 616/1219 by a Mongol force, 
5000 strong according to the sources, under the 
command of Ulagh Noyon and Siiktur, its inhabitants 



BANAKAT — BANBALONA 



being either slain or else carried off to serve as 
assault troops in further sieges; there is no mention 
that its buildings were destroyed (Pjuwayni, i, 70-74 ", 
Mlrkh'and, ed. Jaubert, 140). 

It is clear that, during the following centuries, 
Banakat fell into decline, for in 794/1392 it was 
"rebuilt" by Timur and named, after his own son, 
"Shahrukhiyya" (Sharaf al-Din c Ali Yazdi, Zafar- 
ndma, ed. Ilahdad, Calcutta 1885-1888, ii, 636). The 
place is mentioned in the period from the 15th to 
the 17th century as a strong fortress, but later it sank 
once more into decay. Ruins (now bearing the name 
"SJiarkiyya") are still to be seen and were examined 
for the first time in 1876 by a Russian expedition. 
Bibliography: Barthold, Turkestan, 169; 
Le Strange, 482 (with a wrong date for the rebuild- 
ing of the town) ; B. Spuler, Die Mongolen in Iran', 
Berlin 1955, 28, 417 ff. On the name itself, cf. 
J. Markwart, Wehrot und Arang, Leiden 1938, 
162-163, note; and V. Minorsky, in BSOAS, 
xvii/2 (1955), 262. (B Spuler) 

BANAKITl, (for the vocalisation, see the prece- 
ding article), Fakhr al-dIn Abu Sulayman Dawud 
b. Abi'l-Fadl Muhammad, Persian poet and historian 
(d. 730/1329-30). According to his own account, he 
was made malik al-shu c ard 3 , or "king of poets", in 
701/1 301-2 by the Mongol ruler of Persia, Ghazan 
Khan. Dawlatshah (Tadhkira, ed. Browne, 227) 
records one of his poems. His historical work, 
entitled Rawdat uli 'l-Albdb fl Tawdrikh al-Akdbir 
wa 'l-Ansdb, was written in 717/1317-8, under the 
Ilkhan Abu Sa'Id; the preface is dated 25 Shawwal 
717/31 Dec. 1317. Apart from a few very brief 

of ,the Dfamt 1 al-Tawarikh of Rashid al-Din, the 
arrangement of the subject matter being different. 
According to E. G. Browne (iii, 101), the range of the 
second half of the work affords evidence not only of 
a wider conception of history (probably under the 
influence of Rashid al-Din), but also of a spirit of 
real tolerance towards non-Muslim peoples and of a 
real knowledge of these peoples, doubtless promoted 
by; the position which the author held at the court 
of the Tlkhan. Blochet (Introduction a I'Histoire des 
Mongols . . ., Gibb. Mem. Series, xii, 98) seems to 
assert that the Chinese sources of the Dfdmt* al- 
Tawarikh are indicated only by BanakitI and not 
by Rashid al-Din; Rashid' s text which contains 
these indications was, however, published as early 
as " 1886 by V. Rosen (Collections Scientifiques de 
I'Institut des langues orient, du Ministere des Aff. 
Strang., iii, MSS. persans, St. Petersbourg 1886, 
106-107). The Rawdat is divided into nine parts: 
prophets and patriarchs; ancient kings of Persia; 
Muhammad and the Caliphs; Persian dynasties 
contemporary with the 'Abbasid caliphs; the Jews; 
the Christians and the Franks; the Indians; the 
Chinese; the Mongols. The eighth part (China) was 
published in 1677 (Berlin; then, in 1679, at Jena) 
by A. Muller, in Persian and Latin, under the 
erroneous title of A bdallae Beidawaei Historia Sinen- 
sis (later translated into English by S. Weston: A 
Chinese Chronicle, by Abdallah of Beyza . . ., London 
1820); Quatremere, however, proved that it be- 
longed to the Rawdat of Banakiti. 

Bibliography: Quatremere, Histoire des Mon- 
gols de la Perse ...par Rashid al-Din, Paris 1836, 
lxxxv, lxxxvi and 425 ; H. M. Elliot, The History 
of India as told by its own Historians, iii, 55 ff. ; 
Rieu, Cat. Pers. MSS., i, 79 ff. Other references 
in Storey, section ii, fasc. 1, 80-81. 

(W. Barthold-[H. MasseI) 



BANAT [see temesvar], 
BANAT NA'fiH [see nudjCm]. 
BANAT SU'AD (Su'ad has departed) are the 
opening words of a kasida or ode, composed by Ka'b 
b. Zuhayr [q.v.] in praise of the Prophet Muhammad. 
The events which led to its composition may be 
briefly stated as follows. After the fall of Mecca 
in 8 A.H., Ka'b's brother Budjayr, who had embraced 
Islam, warned him of the fate which had overtaken 
some of the poets there, and urged him to come in 
to Medina or seek asylum elsewhere. Ka'b replied 
in verses disapproving of his brother's conversion. 
Threatened by the Prophet, Ka'b in despair came 
to Medina at last and presented himself before the 
Prophet, who was then seated in the mosque after 
the morning prayers surrounded by his companions. 
Ka c b succeeded in obtaining the Prophet's pardon; 
and in token of his gratitude recited in public his 
famous poem, in which he lauded the generosity of 
his benefactor. The Prophet was so pleased with it 
that he bestowed his own mantle (burda) on the poet. 
The poem is, therefore, often called kasidat al-burda. 
The poem consists of 58 verses, and in its general 
features conforms to the usual pattern of the pre- 
Islamic Arabian ode. Numerous commentaries have 
been written on it. It was first published by Lette 
at Leiden in 1740, and subsequently by Freytag 
with a Latin translation (Halle 1823) and also by 
Th. Noldeke in his Delectus Veterum Carminum 
Arabicorum, Berlin 1890, no ff. R. Basset edited it 
with a French translation and two commentaries, 
Algiers 1910. An English translation will be found 
in R. A. Nicholson's Translations of Eastern Poetry 
and Prose, Cambridge 1922. There is also an Italian 
translation by G. Gabrieli (Florence 1901) and a 
German translation by O. Rescher (Istanbul 1950). 
The poem of Ka'b inspired another famous hymn 
in praise of the Prophet, viz., the kasidat al-burda 
("Mantle Ode") of al-BusIrt [q.v.]. 

Bibliography: Ibn Hisham, 67 ff., 887-93 
(= A. Guillaume, The Life of Mohammad, Oxford 
1955, 597 ff-, and Weil's translation ii, 255 ff); 
Ibn Kutayba, al-Shi'r, ed. De Goeje; ed. A. M. 
Shakir, Cairo 1364 A. H., 104-107; Aghdni, 
xv, 147-51; Ibn Hadjar, Isdba, s.v.; W. Muir, 
Life of Mohammad' 436-7; Caetani, Annali, ii, 
223-4; G. Gabrieli, al-Burdatdn, Florence 1901; 
J. E. Sarkis, Dictionnaire de Bibliographie Arabe, 
col. 1562; Brockelmann, I, 32-33; S I, 68-70, 
where other editions, translations, and commen- 
taries are listed. (Sh. Inayatullah) 
BANBALONA, Pampeluna, Span. Pamplona, 
a town in the north of Spain, chief- town of the 
province of Navane, with a present population of 
about 80,000. No Arab geographer has left us an 
accurate descriptijn of Pampeluna in the late 
Middle Ages. The Rawd al-Mifdr, which devotes 
most space to it, depicts the town as the capital of 
the land of the Basques (Vascones, Ar. Bashkunish 
[q.v.]), a group of mountain tribes established on 
the southern slopes and at the western end of the 
Pyrenees, not far from the Atlantic Ocean. Their 
territory bounded, in the West, the land called al- 
Alaba wa 'l-Kild' [q.v.], i.e., of Alava and the Castles 
(the original Castille); in the East, it reached the 
mountainous regions inhabited by the Gascons (Ar. 
Glashkiyun) and the people of Cerretania or Cerdagne. 
Pampeluna was taken by the governor 'Ukba b. al- 
Hadjdjadj in 121/739; it rebelled against Cordova 
and, in 161/778, was taken by the Franks in the 
course of Charlemagne's expedition. It passed under 
the sway of the Franco-Gascons for a number of 



- BANDA NAWAZ 



years and, from about 825 A.D. onwards, became the 
capital of an independent principality with Ifiigo II 
in close connexion with the powerful Musa b. Musa, 
who was his maternal uncle and at the same time 
his brother-in-law and father-in-law. In 227/842, 
<Abd al-Rahman II' led the Umayyad forces as far 
as Pampeluna, which was sacked. In 245/859, bands 
of Scandinavian pirates, the Norsemen, penetrated 
as far as Pampeluna and took prisoner the king 
Garcia Iniguez. <Abd al-Rahman III succeeded in 
taking possession of the town for a time in 312/924, 
in the course of his campaign against Navarre, and 
demolished it. Other attempts by Muslim armies 
against Pampeluna were made in 322/934 and 
during the dictatorship of the two 'Amirid hddiibs 
al-Mansur [q.v.] and al-Muzaffar [q.v.]. 

Bibliography: Idrlsl, ed. and Span, trans, by 
Saavedra (La Espaiia de Edrisi), 59-73; Abu 
'1-Fida 3 , Takwim, ii, 180/259-60; Ibn c Abd al- 
Mun'im al-Himyari, al-Rawd al-Mi'fdr, Spain, 
no. 51; Ibn 'Idharl, al-Baydn al-Mughrib, ii, 
index; Dozy, Histoire des Musulmans d'Espagne, 
new ed., Leiden 1932, index; Levi-Provencal, Du 
nouveau sur le royaume de Pampalune au LX' 
siicle, in Bulletin hispanique, lv, no. 1, 1953. 

(E. Levi-Provencal-[A. Huici Miranda]) 
BAND ("bond"), a Persian word denoting 
anything which is used to bind, attach, close or limit, 
both literally and figuratively (e.g. sadness, preoc- 
cupation),; it has also passed into Arabic and 
Turkish. In Persian, it has various meanings when 
used in compounds (e.g., band-i angusht, the phalanx; 
band-i pa, ankle-bone; dar-band, defile, inlet; dast- 
band, bracelet; ru-band, head- veil; band-i shahrydr, 
the name of a musical air). It denotes in particular 
dams (band-i db) built for irrigation purposes: for 
instance, the Band-i Kaysar, built across the river 
Karun at Shustar by order of the Sasanid king 
Shapur I (3rd century A.D.), several arches of which 
were carried away by floods about 1880; on the other 
side of Shustar, on the way from Ahwaz, the Band-i 
Gargar (the Mashrukan of the Arab geographers), 
on a lateral drain of the Karun, which was excavated 
during the Sasanid period; the Band-i Miyan ("middle 
dam"), constructed during the same period and 
several times restored, notably at the beginning of 
the 19th century by a son of Fatlj c Ali Shah (hence 
its other name: Band-i Muhammad <Ali MIrza); some 
40 kms. downstream from Shustar, near Band-i 
Kir ("bitumen dam"), are the ruins of a great dam 
of the same period (on these dams, see EI 1 , s.v. 
Kdrun, 8252-826, and Guide Bleu, Moyen-Orient, 
1956, 718-721). In addition to these, the Band-i Amir 
(or Band-i 'Adudi) on the Kurr (formerly the Cyrus; 
Barbier de Meynard, Dictionnaire de la Perse, $yy, 
n. 2), about 80 km. north of Shlraz, was constructed 
in the 4th/ioth century at the order of the amir 
'Adud al-Dawla of the Buyid dynasty; on the same 
river were built the Band-i Ramdjird and the Band-i 
Kassar ("the fuller's dam"), which were restored by 
Fakhr al-Dawla Cawli, atabak of Fars under the 
Saldjuks (on these three dams, cf. the interesting 
passage in Ibn al-Balkhl, Fdrs-ndma, Gibb. Mem. 
Series, 151-152). Near Kashan, in a mountain gorge, 
is situated the Band-i Kuhrud, built under the 
Safawids (Hamd Allah Mustawfl, Nuzha, 72; de 
Sercey, La Perse en 1839, 230). In Turkey, nine dams 
contribute to Istanbul's water supply : on the heights 
overlooking Buyukdere (on the European side of 
the Bosphorus), north of Bahcekoy, the bend of 
Mahmud I (Mahmut bendi), built in 1732, and the 
bend of the mother of Selim III (Valide bendi), 1796; 



some five km. further away, in the neighbourhood 01 
the forest of Belgrat, four other bends from which 
water flows, as required, into the Bash Hawz (Bas 
Havuz) or cistern of Pyrgos, and thence towards the 
city via two aqueducts— the most notable being the 
Biiyiik bend ("great dam") built in the 6th/i2th 
century by Andronicus I and restored by several 
sultans, and the Pasaderesi bendi, the work of the 
same Byzantine Emperor (details of these dams: 
Guide bleu: Turquie, 1958, 171-2). 

Bibliography: Dieulafoy, L'art antique de la 
Perse, 105-112, fig. 97 and 98 (Shustar, Dizful); 
Survey of Persian Art, i, 570 (bridges), and ii, 1226 
(id.) ; Polak. Persien, i, 161 ; E. G. Browne, A 
year among the Persians, 186; Binning, A Journal 
of ... Travel in Persia, ii, 365-6; R. Walsh, Voyage 
en Turquie, 16 (map of the reservoirs) ; Andreossy, 
Constantinople et le Bosphore de Thrace, 416; P. de 
Tchihatchef, Le Bosphore et Constantinople, 49. 

(Cl. Huart-[H. Masse]) 
BANDA, town in Uttar Pradesh (India), situated 
in Lat. 25 28' N and Long. 80° 20' E; headquarters of 
the district of the same name. Pop. (1951) 30,327. 
The town, otherwise unimportant, attracted notice 
during the Sepoy Revolt of 1857 when its last ruler, 
Nawab 'All Bahadur II, put up a hard fight against 
the British. The town, however, finally surrendered in 
April 1858. A mere village till the end of the I2th/i8th 
century, it began rapidly to expand when Shamshlr 
Bahadur, said to be a natural son of the Peshwa 
Badji Rao I (1139-53/1726 40), by one of his con- 
cubines who had adopted Islam, made it the chief 
town of his estate conferred on him by the Peshwa. 
Shamshlr Bahadur, who fought on the side of the 
Marathas in the Third Battle of Panipat (1175/1761), 
was seriously wounded and subsequently died at 
Bharatpur. His son, 'AH Bahadur I, subjugated many 
places in Bundhelkhand, with the help of the Sindhia 
of Gwalior. He was succeeded by his son, Dh u 
'1-Fakar Bahadur, who entered into an agreement 
with the British in 1227/1812 and was awarded the 
title of Nawab and confirmed into his djagir of 
Bands. An ill-built town, it has a very large number 
of places of worship, both Muslim and Hindu. The 
congregational mosque, the largest in the town, was 
built by the last Nawab, 'AH Bahadur II. A patron 
of learning, he has been praised by the Indian poet 
in Urdu and Persian, MIrza Ghalib. 

Bibliography: Imp. Gaz. of Ind., s.v. Banda; 
Ghulam Rasul Mihr, 1837 Ke Mudjdhid, Lahore 
'957. 168-171 ; District Gaz. of the United Provinces, 
Banda, Vol. XXI, Allahabad 1909. 

(A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
BANDA ISLANDS, a group of small islands in 
Indonesia, Long. 130 E., Lat. 4° 32' S., inhabited 
by less than 10,000 people of mixed origin who are 
partly Muslims. From the view point of institutions 
these Muslims are not different from those in other 
parts of Indonesia [q.v.]. The islands, however, played 
an important part in the history of the struggle 
between Islam and Christendom, as the nutmeg 
trees which are grown there attracted the Portuguese. 
They arrived in 151 1 in Malacca whence they sailed to 
the Banda Islands a year later, thus transplanting the 
Iberian war, which had ended a few years earlier, 
to South and South-East Asia. The Dutch appeared 
on the scene in 1599. From 1619 to 1942 the islands 
were under Dutch control, from 1942 to 1945 
occupied by the Japanese. (C. C. Berg) 

BANDA NAWAZ, SAYYID MUHAMMAD 



M>]. 



BANDAR — BANDAR PAHLAWI 



BANDAR (Bender), a Persian word which has 
passed into Turkish, denoting a seaport or port on a 
large river; it has passed into the Arabic of Syria 
(Barth&emy) and Egypt in the sense of market- 
place, place of commerce, banking exchange (Bocthor, 
Vollers) and even workshop (Cuche). Shah-bandar. 
in Persian, means customs officer, collector of taxes ; 
in Turkish, it means consul and, formerly, a 
merchants' syndic. In compounds, it occurs in 
Persian geographical nomenclature: on the Caspian 
Sea (southern shore), Bandar-Pahlawl (formerly 
Enzeli); Bandar-Gaz, the safest harbour in the 
region; some 50 kms. to the north, Bandar-Shah, 
is of the Trans-Iranian railway — the other 
; being Bandar-Shahpur, on the Persian 
Gulf; other ports on the shores of the Gulf are: 
Baadar-Daylam, Bandar-Rig, Bandar-Bushir [see 
bushahr], Bandar-Makam, Bandar-Linga, Bandar- 
' Abbas (see fo]lowing article). 

Bibliography : P. Schwarz, Iran in Mittelalter 
(index: bandar). On the places mentioned: Guide 
bleu: Moyen-Orient (index: Bandar); R. Vadala, 
Le golfe Persique, Paris 1920, passim. 

(Cl. Huart-[H. Mass£]) 
BANDAR 'ABBAS, a Persian port situated in 
the VHIth. ustdn (which comprises part of Fars and 
Kirman). The town, which is on the coast of the 
mainland 16 km. north-west of the island of Hormuz 
[?.».], stands on bare, sandy ground rising gradually 
to the north; it has a frontage of 2 km. along the 
shore. The position of Bandar 'Abbas at the entrance 
to the Persian Gulf and the fact that it is the terminal 
point of trade-routes from Yazd and Kirman to the 
north and Lar, Shiraz and Isfahan to the north west 
have made it a place of some strategic and commercial 
importance. Owing to the shallowness of the sea, 
large vessels cannot berth alongside the quay or 
jetty and have to anchor some distance offshore 
and load or discharge their cargo by means of 
lighters. 

There are grounds for believing that the town is 
situated on or near the site of the small fishing 
village of Shahru (see Istakhri, 67) or Shahruva (see 
the Ifudud al- c Alam, 124 and 375). When the 
neighbouring island of Djarun (or Djarrun) ceased to 
be so called and was given instead the name of 
Hormuz at the b' ginning of the 8th/i4th century, 
the former name was transferred to Shahru.. When 
Hormuz developed into a great commercial centre, 
the importance of Djarun as the point cf transhipment 
for goods in transit between the island and the 
mainland gradually increased. Early in the 10th/ 
1 6th century the Portuguese established themselves 
on Hormuz and subsequently also on the adjacent 
stretch of mainland, and Djarun, or Gamru, as it 
then came to be called, thus passed into Portuguese 
hands. In 161 5 the Persians recovered Gamru from 
the Portuguese and seven years later, with the 
naval aid of the English East India Company, they 
also drove the Portuguese out of Hormuz. In 
gratitude for its services, Shah 'Abbas I allowed the 
Company to set up a factory in Gamru (or Gombroon, 
as the English usually called it) and not only 
exempted it from customs dues there, but also gave 
it the right to leceive half the customs dues. An 
additional reason for the granting of these privileges 
was the Shah's desire that the town should become 
the chief port in his realm: it was in token of this 
desire that he named the port Bandar 'Abbas after 
himself. The Shah's hopes were soon realised; with 
the advent not only of the English East India 
Company, but also of the Dutch East India Company 



and the French, the port became the most important 
in Persia. When Chardin was there in 1674, he 
stated that the town contained between 1,400 and 
1,500 houses; he also remarked upon the bad climate 
and its deadly effect upon the European residents 
[Voyages, Paris 1811, viii, 508, 511-512). 

The overthrow of the Safawid monarchy by the 
Ghalzay Afghans in 1722, followed by the Russian 
and Turkish invasions and numerous internal 
revolts, paralysed the trade of the country and 
brought stagnation to Bandar 'Abbas. The expulsion 
of the Afghans led to a temporary revival of prospe- 
rity, but this was soon nullified by Nadir's exorbitant 
tax-collectors. Furthermore, his creation of a naval 
base at Bushahr [q.v.] dealt another blow at the 
supremacy of Bandar 'Abbas, and it was not long 
before the former port became the leading one of the 
country. When Plaisted was at Bandar 'Abbas in 
1750, he found that nine out of every ten houses 
were deserted [Journal from Calcutta . ... to Aleppo 
in the Year MDCCL, London 1758, n). A few years 
later the Dutch and English East India Companies 
abandoned Bandar 'Abbas, thus causing it to 
decline still further. 

In 1793 the town, together with a coastal strip 
150 km. in length, was leased to the Sultan of 'Uman, 
in whose hands and those of his descendants it re- 
mained until its reversion to Persian control in 1868. 
In recent times Bandar 'Abbas has recovered 
something of its former prosperity, thanks to the con- 
struction of motor roads from Kirman and Yazd 
and also from Shiraz. The modern town has a popu- 
lation of some 11,500 (this total undergoes quite 
considerable seasonal fluctuations). Living con- 
ditions have improved with the provision of a piped 
water supply from 'Isin, 16 km. to the north-west. 
The main thoroughfare, the Khiyaban Rida Shah-i 
Kabir, runs through the town approximately 
parallel with the shore, at a distance of some 200 m. ; 
the governmental and most of the municipal 
buildings are in the central part of this avenue. The 
chief mosques are the Masdjid-i Djami' (for the Shi'a) 
and tne.Masdjid-i Galla-Dari (for the Sunnis). Modern 
industry is represented by a fish-canning plant. 

Bibliography: In addition to the works 
mentioned in the article, F. Valentijn, Oud en 
Nieuw Oost-Indien, Amsterdan 1725, v, 202; 
C. de Bruyn, Travels into Muscovy, Persia and 
Parts of the East-Indies, London 1737, ii, 73-75, 
132-153; English East India Company, the 
Gombroon Diary [Persia and the Persian Gulf 
Records, India Office Library, I-VI); F. Savary des 
Bruslons, Dictionnaire Universelle de Commerce, 
Paris 1741, i, 405; E. Ives, A Voyage from 
England to India .... also a Journey from 
Persia to England, London 1773, 197-202; C. 
Ritter, Erdkunde, iii, 739-49; E. Reclus, Nouvelle 
Geographic Universelle, Paris 1884, ix, 276-7, 286; 
W. Tomaschek, in the SBAK Wien, cxxi, part 
viii (1890): Curzon, Persia and the Persian 
Question, London 1892, ii, 41826; J. de Morgan, 
Mission scientif. en Perse, Paris 1895, ii, 290-1, 
295; L*e Strange, 292, 295, 319; Sir A. T. Wilson, 
The Persian Gulf, Oxford 1928, n, 140, 146, 
151-2, 160-7, 173-9, 188-9, 2 3 2 . 2 59. 283: Razmara 
and Nawtash, Farhang-i Djughrdfiyd-yi Iran, 
viii, 56-7: L. Lockhart, The Fall of the Safavi 
Dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of Persia, 
Cambridge 1958, 372-9, 403-6. (L. Lockhart) 
BANDAR PAHLAWl, principal port [bandar) of 
Iran on the Caspian Sea, situated at 37 28' N and 
49° 27' E. Formerly called Enzeli, the town was 






BANDAR PAHLAWI — BANDJARMASIN 



renamed in honour of the Pahlawi dynasty by its 
founder Rida Shah who came to the throne in 1926. 
Bandar Pahlawi itself lies on a tongue of land to 
the west of an inlet between the Caspian Sea and 
a freshwater lake called Murdab. To the east of the 
inlet is the older settlement of Ghaziyan. From 
Bandar Pahlawi a bridge carries the motor road 
across the inlet and into Ghaziyan, from there the 
road proceeds to Rasht, the principal commercial 
town of the Caspian littoral region, and then on to 
Tehran, a total distance of 364 km. 

In the early 19th century there were only 
a few hundred houses at the site, in the first decade 
of this century about 9,000 people, and the present 
population is given at 48,500. Persian, GllakI 
(a local dialect) and some Turkish are spoken. The 
inhabitants are ShlHs. There are no monuments of 
any interest or real antiquity in either Bandar 
Pahlawi or neighbouring Ghaziyan. 

During the second quarter of this century the 
inlet mentioned above has been developed into a 
shallow, but sheltered, harbour. In the period March 
1951-March 1952 some 298 ships entered or left the 
port. Between 1930 and 1940 there was considerable 
transit traffic of goods and passengers from Bandar 
Pahlawi through the USSR and to Europe, but in 
recent years nearly all the trade has been directly 
with Russia. 

Owing to its proximity to Russia the port town 
has been the scene of international incidents. In 
1722 Russian troops landed on the south side of 
the Murdab and again in 1804 another force landed 
at Enzeli. In March 1920 Soviet troops, following 
a British force retreating from Baku, landed at 
Enzeli and later gave support to the establishment 
of a short lived Soviet Republic of Gllan. During 
the Anglo-Soviet occupation of Iran Bandar Pahlawi 
sheltered a Soviet garrison from 1941 until May 
1946. 

Bibliography: Ritter, Erdkunde, viii. 652 ff.; 
Mas'ud Kayhan, Djughrafya'-i Mufassal-i Iran, 
Tehran 1932, ii, 276-7; Rdhnamd-i Iran, Dd'ira-i 
Djughrdfyd-i Sitid-i Artash, Tehran 1951, part 3, 
50; Annual Account of Trade between Iran and 
Foreign Countries. Year 133011951 (in Persian), 
Tehran 1952. (D. N. Wilber) 

BANDIRMA, a port on the Sea of Marmara, near 
the site of the ancient Cyzicus. The mediaeval Greek 
name for the town was Panormos. Villehardouin 
mentions a castle called "Palorme", which the Latin 
Crusaders fortified in 1204. It was used thereafter 
as a base for their operations against the Greeks 
in north-west Asia Minor. Under Ottoman rule 
Bandirma was included in the sandjak of Karasl 
[q.v.]. According to the evidence of travellers who 
visited the town in the i6th-i7th centuries, most of 
its inhabitants seem to have been not of Turkish, 
but of Greek or Armenian descent. Much of Bandirma 
was burnt down in 1874. It now forms part of the 
province of Baltkesir and is an active commercial 
centre, exporting the varied products of the hinter- 
land — cereals, sheep and cattle, boracite, sesame, etc. 
The population of Bandirma in 1950 stood at a 
little less than 19,000. 

Bibliography: P. du Fresne-Canaye, Voyage 
du Levant, ed. M. Hauser, Paris 1897, 153-154; 
S. Gerlach, Tagebuch, Frankfurt-am-Main 1674, 
43. 255-256; V. de Stochove, Voyage du Levant, 
Brussels 1650, 183; W. Tomaschek, Zur historischen 
Topographic von Kleinasien im Mittelalter {SBAk, 
Wien, phil.-hist. Classe, Bd. CXXIX, 1891), 14; 
V. Cuine*. La Turquie d'Asie, iv, Paris 1895, 



285-295; R. Fitzner, Aus Kleinasien und Syfien, 
Rostock 1904, 70-72; F. W. Hasluck, Cyzicus, 
Cambridge 1910, 50-51 and also 310-321 (biblio- 
graphical section), passim; C A1I Djawad, Ta'rihh 
wa Djoghrdfiya Lughdti, Pt. i, Istanbul A.H. 1313, 
151-152- (V. J. Parry) 

BANDJ, an arabicised Persian word, originally 
from the Sanskrit, denoting a narcotic drug, 
more exactly the henbane (hyoscyamus). The 
meaning of the Sanskrit bhangd is really "hemp" 
(cannabis saliva L.), i.e., the variety which grows in 
southern climes which contains in the tip of its 
leaves an intoxicating resinous substance (Arabic 
hashish), whence the Zend banha "drunkenness". 
In Persian the loanword bang was applied to the 
henbane and for this reason Hunayn b. Ishak, in his 
Arabic -translation of the Materia medica of Diosco- 
rides, (c. 235/850) equated it with the Greek uoaxiSoc- 
|i0?. With this meaning, the word bandj is found in 
the early Persian medical writers who, as a rule, 
write in Arabic (al-Razi, Ibn SIna) and in more 
modern Persian medicine in Abu Mansur Muwaifak 
b. C A1I (4th/ioth century), while it appears to 
be unknown in the old Arabic poetry, as al-Biruni 
in the chapter on bandj in his pharmacology (MS. 
in the Bursa library) gives no quotations from 
the poets, which he would not otherwise have 
omitted to do. The early physicians of western 
Islam (Ishak b. 'Imran, Ishak b. Sulayman, Ibn al- 
Djazzar and others) also identified bandj with hen- 
bane and called it in Arabic saykardn, which how- 
ever Ahmad al-Ghafikl (an Arab physician of Spain 
of the 6th/i2th century) in his pharmacology considers 
wrong. Shakhrond is however the Syriac term for 
henbane and the Arabic saykardn, sikrdn, shukrdn 
etc. is derived from it; but the later Arab botanists 
used the name for another henbane (hyoscyamus 
muticus) which drives the taker mad, and also 
for the hemlock (cicuta). In modern times the 
word bandj (in the popular dialect of Egypt bing) 
is used for every kind of narcotic and the verb 
bannadja, "to narcotise" and also to "send to sleep, 
to anaesthetise", infinitive tabnidj, "narcosis" etc. 
is derived from it. 

Bibliography: Ibn Sida, Mukhassas, xi, 
162; TA, ii, 10; Ibn SIna, Kanun, Bttlak, 
i, 273; Ibn al-Baytar, al-Djdmi' li-Mufraddt 
al-Adwiya, Bulak, i, 117; L. Leclerc, Traitt 
des simples par Ibn el-Beithar, Paris 1877, i. 
271 ; Lane, Lexicon, i, 258 ; Low, Flora der Juden, 
iii, 359; Meyerhof and Sobhy, The Abridged Version 
of "the Book of S.mple Drugs" by Ahmad ibn 
Muhammad al-Ghafiqi, fasc. ii, Cairo 1933, 324 //; 
Renaud and Colin, Tuhfat al-Ahbdb, Paris 
1934. 35; Dymock, Warden and Hooper, Phar- 
macographia Indica, London-Bombay-Calcutta 
1890-1893, ii, 626 and ii, 318//; E. G. Browne, 
A chapter from the History of Cannabis Indica, in 
St. Bartholomew's Hospital Journal, March 1897. 

(M. Meyerhof) 
BANDJARMASIN, town on the southern coast 
of Kalimantan (Borneo, Indonesia), at Lat. 3° 18' S. 
and Long. 114° 35' E. It has been known from the 
14th century onwards as a centre of inter-island 
trade and capital of a small principality. It was the 
capital of a residency in the Dutch period (1859-1942) 
and during the Japanese occupation. The population 
of approximately 300,000 is Muslim, though the 
influence of the Javanese civilisation is considerable, 
especially among the members of the nobility. 
(C. C. Berg) 



BANGALA — BANHA 



BANGALA, a geographical term, derived from 
the word Bang, originally denoting a non-Aryan 
people of this name and later applied to their 
homeland in the southern and eastern parts of 
Bengal, now in East Pakistan. Abu '1-Fadl, in his 
AHn-i Akbari, remarks "The original name of 
Bengal was Bang. Its former rulers raised mounds 
measuring ten yards in height and twenty in breadth 
throughout the province called Al (Sanskrit — Alt). 
From this suffix the name Bengal took its rise and 
currency". But both the words, Bang and Bangala 
(or sometimes Bhangalah) were used in Sanskrit 
records. It is generally supposed that Bangala was 
a smaller division, limited to the southern districts 
of East Bengal, while Bang was a wider unit. This 
distinction is purely hypothetical. Among the early 
Muslim historians, Minhadj al-Siradj, in his Jabakdt-i 
Ndsiri, uses Bang, and Diya al-DIn Barani, in his 
Tdrikh-i Firuzshdhi, employs Diydr-i Bangala, or 
'Arsa-i Bangala, for the same region of East Bengal — 
a geographical division which maintained its integrity 
till about the middle of 14th century A.D. 

Shamsl Sir&dj 'Afif, in his Tarikh-i Firuzshdhi, 
gives to Shams al-DIn Ilyas Shah the titles of Shah-i 
Bangala (the king of Bangala), and Shah-i Bangaliydn 
(plural of Bangall) meaning the king over the people 
of Bengal. As Ilyas Shah united for the first time 
both the kingdoms of eastern and western Bengal 
under him, he well deserved the titles, given by 
'Afif, and it is after him that Bangala came to denote 
a wider geographical region, comprising the whole 
Gangetic Delta; and this is the sense in all subsequent 
writings, Persian chronicles, Chinese travel accounts, 
and European works. But the Hindus began to use 
the older term Gawda for this whole region. 

From the middle of 16th century A.D., the city 
of Bangala is mentioned in some of the European 
accounts, and also marked in their maps. But no 
local tradition or record speaks of such a city. Its 
position in the old maps is never identical, nor do 
the descriptions of different authorities tally with 
one another. Probably the important ports, or the 
capitals, visited by the Europeans, were variously 
called the city of Bangala by different authorities. 
The mint "Gawr-Bangdla" , occurring in the coins 
of the Mughal emperor Akbar, may refer to the city, 
or the country, of Gawda in Bangala (or c «r/ 
Bangala), more probably the latter. 

The kingdom of Bangala grew out of the original 
Muslim conquest of Lakhnawti (north-west Bengal) 
to which were added Satgaon (part of south-west 
Bengal) and Sonargion (east Bengal). Ilyas Shah 
integrated these three regions into an independant 
Muslim Sultanate in A.D. 1352. His descendents 
ruled, with occasional revolutions, till A.D. 1484, 
when they were supplanted by their Abyssinian 
guards and officers. Within about ten years the 
oppressive Abyssinian rulers were overthrown by 
their own popular minister C A13 al-Din Husayn 
Sh5h, an Arab of noble lineage, who ushered in an 
age of peace and prosperity for the kingdom. The 
independence of Bangala was finally crushed in 1538 
when Shir Shah annexed it into his Indian Empire, 
but its unity continued as a siiba (province) even 
under the Mughals, from 1576 onward. 

The political unity of Bangala led to the cultural 
cohesion of the people who were called Bangall, a 
term also applied to the local language which 
developed its literature in this period. 

Bibliography: S. H. Hodivala, Bangala, in 

JASB, Vol. xvi/1920, 199-212; R. C. Banerji, The 

Vangdlds, in Indian Culture, Calcutta 1935-6, 



Vol. ii 755-60; R. C. Majumdar, Lama Taranatha's 
account of Bengal, in Indian Historical Quarterly, 
Calcutta, Vol. xvi/1940, 219-38; D. C. Ganguli, 
Vangdla-desa, in Indian Historical Quarterly, 
Calcutta, Vol. xix/1943, 297-317; A. H. Dani, 
Shams al-Din Ilyas Shdh, SJidh-i Bangdlah, in Sir 
Jadu Nath Sarkar Commemoration volume, to be 
published by (East) Panjab University. 

(A. H. Dani) 
BANGANAPALLE, a small state in south India 
prior to its merger in the Madras State in 1948. It 
had the distinction of being the solitary State south 
of the Tungabhadra ruled by a Muslim chief, in 
this case belonging to the ShI'I persuasion. In 1948 
it had an area of 275 sq. m. and a population of 
44,631. The State lay between latitudes 15° 3' and 
1 5 29' N. and longitudes 77° 59' E. and 78° 22' E. 
Banganapalle has had a chequered history. The 
ruling family claims descent from a minister of Shah 
'Abbas II of Persia on the paternal, and from a 
minister of the Emperor 'Alamglr on the maternal, 
side. The ancestor of the family, Mir Tahir <A11, 
migrated from Persia to BIdjapur. A number of 
family quarrels arose there resulting in his murder. 
His widow and four sons sought refuge with the 
Mughal fawdiddr of Arcot. One of these sons married 
the grand-daughter of the djdgirddr of Banganapalle, 
and thus came in contact with what was to be the 
home of the family. 

Banganapalle itself changed hands a number of 
times. In 1643 it became subject to BIdjapur along 
with a large part of the Vijayanagar territory; but 
soon the BIdjapur hegemony gave place to Mughal 
rule and the rule of the Asaf Djahs. The djdgirddr, 
Husayn c Ali, paid allegiance to Haydar 'All of 
Mysore and fought many a battle under his banner. 
But when Tipu Sultan succeeded his father he 
resumed the djdgir on a mere pretext. On Husayn's 
death his widow took refuge with the Nifam of 
Haydarabad, and one of the representatives of the 
family is said to have defeated TIpQ's fawdiddr in 
1790 and taken possession of the town. The djdgir 
came under British supremacy by the Treaty of 
Seringapatam in 1800. It remained under the 
Madras Presidency till 1839 when it was taken over 
directly by the Government of India. 

By the sanad of 1862 the British Government 

guaranteed succession according to Muslim Law in 

case a ruler died childless. In 1867 the hereditary 

title of Nawdb was conferred on the djdgirddr. In 

1897, on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of Queen 

Victoria's reign, the Nawab was addressed as 'Your 

Highness'. The last ruling Nawab, Mir Fadl-i 'All 

Khan, died soon after the merger, and the title now 

devolves on his eldest son Mir Ghulam C A1I Khan. 

Bibliography: A. Vadivelu, The Aristocracy 

of Southern India, Madras 1903 ; Imperial Gazetteer 

of India; The Indian Year Book and Who is Who, 

1948; Banganapalle State, its Ruler and Method 

of Administration. (H. K. Sherwani) 

BANGKA, island in Indonesia near the East 

coast of southern Sumatra, between Lat. 1° and 4° S. 

and at Long. 106° E. It owes its fame to its tin mines 

and tin trade which attracted foreign merchants 

from early times. The economically weaker part of 

the population is Indonesian and Muslim of the 

normal Indonesian type. The most important part 

of the population consists of Chinese immigrants. 

(C. C. Berg) 

BANHA, a town in the Nile Delta, situated 

on the Damietta branch, one of the main stations on 

the railway between Cairo and Alexandria and 



BANHA — BANIYAS 



45 kilometres north of Cairo. In mediaeval times, it 
formed part of al-Sharkiyya province and is today 
the chief town of al-FCalyubiyya province, with 
some thirty thousand inhabitants. The Arabic name 
is a transcription of Coptic Panaho. 

The locality occupies a place in the traditional 
history of the diplomatic relations between the 
Prophet and the enigmatic Mukawkis, the so-called 
sovereign of Egypt. Among the presents which the 
latter sent to Muhammad, honey from Banna is 
mentioned, and it is the recollection of just this 
detail which its nickname Banha al-'asal, "Banha 
of the honey", is supposed to evoke. The story may 
also well be an embellished explanation of an actual 
fact, for one of the earliest geographers, al-Ya c kubI, 
states plainly that the village of Banha produces 
famous honey. Yakut, in turn, extols the quality of 
this honey, which was one of the glories of Egypt. 
The description given by al-Idrisi seems to allow 
of the following translation: "Banha al- c asal forms 
an extensive domain, its lands planted with trees 
and producing much fruit; the cultivated fields 
succeed one another without a break; opposite, on 
the Western bank of the Nile, stands the main 
centre, which has given it its name". 

Banha does not appear to have played a rdle in 
history. At the end of the last century, "it was 
exporting considerable quantities of the commodity 
to which it owed its name, as well as oranges and 
mandarins, which were highly esteemed". 

Bibliography: Ibn <Abd al-Hakam, 48, 50; 

Ya'kubl, 337 (trans. Wiet, 193); Ibn al-Fakih, 67; 

Idrisi, ed. Dozy and De Goeje, 152; Ibn Mammati, 

no; Yakut, i, 748; Chauvet and Isembert, Guide 

de V Orient, Malte, Egypte, 293; J. Maspero and 

G. Wiet, MaUriaux pour servir d la giographie de 

I'Egypte, 50. (G. Wiet) 

BANl SUWAYF (Beni Suef, Beni Souef) a town 

in Egypt, on the west bank of the Nile, 75 m. 

(120 km.) south of Cairo. According to al-Sakhawi 

(902/1497) the old name of the town was Binum- 

suwayh, from which popular etymology derived the 

form BanI Suwayf (the ZJ.y~aXA of Ibn Dji'an, al- 

Tuh/a al-Saniyya, 172, and the s-^flix of Ibn 

Dukmak, Intisdr, v, 10, ought probably to be read 

tuy~+jj). In still more ancient times the capital of 

this district was Heracleopolis Magna, 10 m. (16 km.) 

west of Bani Suef, which only attained importance 

under Muljammad C A1I. 

From the time of the division of Egypt into 
provinces (mudiriyya) , Beni Suef became the chief- 
town of the second province of Upper Egypt, 
comprising three districts {markaz), and gave its 
name to this province. The town, numbering to-day 
70,000 inhabitants, is an agricultural centre of 
considerable importance, with a certain amount of 
commercial and industrial activity. Situated on the 
railway and the main road which follow the Nile, 
it is linked by a track to the Coptic monasteries on 
the Red Sea. The makdm of the Shaykha Huriyya, 
situated in the oldest mosque, Djami' al-Bahr, is 
venerated locally. 

Bibliography: c Ali Pasha Mubarak, al- 
Khitat al-Djadlda, ix, 92 ff. ; A. Boinet Bey, 
Diet. giog. de I'Egypte, Cairo 1899, 120; Guides 
Bleus, Egypte, 1956, 251. (C. H. Becker*) 

BANllCA, (plur. bana'ik), an Arabic word which 
has been subject to considerable semantic evolution. 
In early Arabic, its meaning is disputed by the 
lexicographers (cf. Ibn SIda, Mukhassas, iv, 84-85; 



TA, s.v.). The primitive meaning seems to have 
been "any piece inserted (ruk"-a) to widen a tunic 
{kamis) or a leather bucket (dalw)". In the case of 
the kamis, according to some authorities, bandHk 
were "snippets" of material, in the form of very 
elongated triangles, inserted vertically below the arm- 
holes, along the lateral seams of the garment, to 
give greater fullness. According to others, they were 
pieces inserted on both sides of the fore-part of the 
collar (fawk) to take the buttons and button-holes. 
As equivalents, the dictionaries give libna, dikhris and 
di.r.bdn; banika (and its variant binaka), like the 
two latter words, may be of Persian origin. 

In the Arab West, banika is at times employed 
for a kind of man's tunic, though more frequently it 
is applied to an element of women's hair-covering. 
Spanish has retained albanega "a hair-net for 
gathering and covering the hair" and the Arabic of 
Tetuan still uses the word with a very similar 
meaning. At Algiers, it is a kind of square head- 
dress, provided with a back flap, which women use 
to cover their heads to protect themselves against 
the cold when leaving the hammdm (= bnika). 

In its final development, the word, in the towns 
of Morocco, has come to mean "a small cell, a closet 
serving as an office for a "minister", in the old 
makhzen [q.v.]; a dark padded cell (in a prison for 
the insane) ; a small room or lumber-room (in a flat)". 
According to oral tradition, the banika was originally 
a silk scarf in which all ministers coming to the 
Council carried their documents. 

For the semantic evolution, compare with that 
of the French "pointe" and also (ministerial) portfolio 

Bibliography: For the Moroccan ministerial 
bnikas, cf. Aubin, Le Maroc d'aujourd'hui (= 1903), 
chap. XI. (G. S. Colin) 

BANIYAS (or Buluniyds), the ancient Balanea, 
which also bore the name of Leucas; attempts have 
several times been made to identify it with an "Apol- 
lonia which never existed on this site" (R. Dussaud). 
It is today a small township on the Syrian coast 
situated some fifty kms. to the south of Latakiya. 
This ancient Phoenician settlement, which became 
a Greek city minting its own coinage and, later, the 
seat of a bishopric, was incorporated in the djund 
of Hims at the time of the Arab conquest. It was, 
however, especially at the time of the Crusades, 
that its small harbour, protected by a fortress 
and dominated by the mighty castle of Markab 
[q.v.] on its rocky spur, was for a long period a scene 
of activity. Occupied by the Franks in 503/1109, 
Valenia, the position of which was strengthened by 
the taking of Markab in 512/1118, was one of the 
important fiefs of the principality of Antioch, at 
the extremity of the county of Tripoli and, after 
it was entrusted together with Markab to the Hos- 
pitallers in 572/1186, remained one of the last centres 
of resistance to the Muslim conquest. The attacks 
to which it was subjected, especially by Salah al- 
Diu, until its conquest by Kala'un in 684/1285, so 
completely ruined it that during the Mamlflk period 
it entirely lost its administrative role to the advan- 
tage of Markab, and its site and gardens alone re- 
tained the attention of the Arab geographers. The 
present town does not even possess archaeological 
remains evocative of its ancient prosperity. 

Bibliography: R. Dussaud, Topographie de la 
Syrie, Paris 1927, especially 127-29; Pauly-Wis- 
sowa, s.v. Balanaia ; CI. Cahen, La Syrie du Nord, 
Paris 1940, index (see under Boulounias); J. 
Weulersse, Le pays des Alcouites, Tours [940, 



BANIYAS — BANJALUKA 



index (see under Banyas) ; G. Le Strange, Palestine 

under the Moslems, London 1890, especially 424 

and 504; Baladhuri, Futiih, 133; BGA, indices; 

Ibn al-Athir, x, 334 (which already has Baniyas); 

Yakut, i, 729. iv, 500; Abu J l-Fida', Takwim, 255; 

Dimashki, ed. Mehren, 209. 

(J. Sourdel-Thomine) 

BANIYAS, the ancient Paneas, owed its name to 
the prestnce in the vicinity of a sanctuary of Pan, 
established in a grotto and sanctifying one of the 
main sources of the Jordan. The present place, 
situated 24 km. north-west of al-Kunaytra, on the 
road running along the southern frontier of the Syrian 
Republic, occupies a pleasant site, wich plentiful 
water and rich vegetation, in a smiling valley of 
Mt. Hermon. Its neighbourhood, moreover, has al- 
ways been praised by Arab writers for its fertility, 
and especially for its lemons, cotton and rice culti- 

The town, though doubtless possessing an older 
history, is only mentioned since the Hellenistic 
period. It was embellished by Herod the Great and 
especially by his son Philip, who bestowed on it 
the name of Caesarea in honour of Augustus. It was 
then called Caesarea Philippi (to distinguish it from 
Caesarea in Palestine), then Caesarea Paneas. Later 
on the second part of the name survived alone. In 
the 4th century A.D. it became the seat of a bishop- 
ric, dependent on the province of Phoenicia, and the 
Arab conquest, when it is known to have served 
the army of Heraclius as a base before the battle 
of the Yarmuk, made it the chief town of the district 
of al-Djawlan. Somewhat later al-Mukaddasi em- 
phasises the prosperity of the township and the 
surrounding villages, into which inhabitants of the 
thughur had emigrated. At the time of the Crusades, 
however, when the position of Baniyas, lying at 
no great distance from Tyre, between Damascus and 
the Kingdom of Jerusalem, acquired strategic im- 
portance, its history became more eventful and 
its successive masters applied themselves to forti- 
fying the castle of al-Subayba, whose ruins still 
dominate the town today. 

Ceded in 520/1126 by Tughtakin, Atabek of Da- 
mascus, to Bahram, leader of the Isma'ills, who 
were then active in Syria, it was handed over to 
the Franks in 524/1130, following the death of Bah- 
ram and the violent action undertaken at Damascus 
against the followers of the sect. Recovered by force 
of arms by Burl in 527/1132 and delivered up to 
Zanki, it was then besieged by the Franks who, with 
the help of the Damascenes, reincorporated it in 
their possessions in 534/1140. Nur al-DIn, after being 
repulsed twice in succession, Baldwin III and his 
army coming to the assistance of the threatened 
garrison on each occasion, finally made himself 
master of Baniyas and its citadel in 559/1164 and 
his adversaries, in spite of their efforts, never 
succeeded in setting foot there again. 

Baniyas then played the role of a frontier strong- 
hold between the countries of Islam and the terri- 
tory of the Franks who, in Ibn Djubayr's time (580/ 
1 184), peacefully shared the exploitation of the sur- 
rounding plain with the Muslims. It was presented 
by Salah al-DIn to his son al-Afdal and then passed 
into the hands of various Ayyubid princes, who im- 
proved its defences, as is still born out by several 
extant inscriptions. Baybars, in his turn, was to 
carry out the restoration of a fortress, the con- 
tinued importance of which is emphasised by the 
Mamluk authors, who even make it the residence of 
an amir, independent of the governor of the place. 



At this period, Baniyas was the chief town of a 
wildya forming part of the niydba of 'Adjlun, in the 
south of the province of Damascus. It was, however, 
soon to decline to its present state of a small town- 

Bibliography: R. Dussaud, Topographic his- 
torique de la Syrie, Paris 1927, especially 390 f.; 
Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. Paneas; F. M. Abel, Gio- 
graphie de la Palestine, Paris 1933-38, i, 161-62, 
476-78, ii, 297-98; M. van Berchem, Le chdteau 
de Bdniyds et ses inscriptions, in J A, 1888, 440 f.; 
M. G. Hodgson, The Order of the Assassins, The 
Hague 1955, 104-07; G. Le Strange, Palestine under 
the Moslems, London 1890, especially 418-19; A. 
S. Marmardji, Textes giographiques, Paris 195 1, 
13-14; K. M. Setton (ed.), A History 0) the Crusades, 
i, Pennsylvania 1955, index; L. Caetani, Chrono- 
graphla islamica, 1 79 ; BGA , indices ; Ibn Djubayr, 
Rihla, ed. De Goeje, 300; Abu 5 l-Fida J , Takwim, 
249; Dimashki, ed. Mehren, 200; M. Gaudefroy- 
Demombynes, La Syrie a Vipoque des Mamelcuks, 
Paris 1923, especially 65 and 179; Ibn al-Athir, x, 
xi and xii, index; Ibn al-Kalanisi, ed. Amedroz, 
index; Ibn al-'Adim, Zubda, ed. Dahan, index. 

(J. SOURDEL THOMINE) 

BANJALUKA (alternative spelling Banja Luka), 
a town in Yugoslavia, in the north-western part of 
Bosnia, situated on both sides of the river Vrbas. 
It is a centre of culture and commerce of considerable 
importance in the district, has been on a railway line 
since 1873, and had 42,233 inhabitants in 1956, of 
whom about one third were Muslims (in 1948 the 
number of inhabitants was 31,223, of whom 9,951 
were of "unspecified nationality" {i.e., Serbo-Croat 
speaking Muslims who did not declare themselves 
as either Serbs or Croats). Apart from the quarter 
called "Novoselija" which developed in the 12th/ 
18th century, and more modern parts ("Varos" and 
"Predgradje"), the town consist of two other parts 
— an upper city, ("Gornji Seher") — where a fortress, 
or settlement, existed before the Turkish conquest 
(1527 or 1528)— and a Lower City ("Donji Seher") 
which was built in the second half of the ioth/i6th 
century. Both these parts contain survivals of the 
Ottoman rule. Of the 27 mosques of the town, two 
should be especially mentioned: the oldest of them, 
built immediately after the Turkish Conquest, stands 
in the Upper City and is called the Emperor's Mosque 
("Hunkarija" or "Careva diamija"), which was sub- 
sequently repaired and rebuilt three times (the 
building to be seen at the present day is said to date 
from the year 1824/25). The most beautiful one in the 
Lower City is the Mosque "Ferhadija diamija" built 
in 1579 by Ferhad Sokolovi<5, governor of Bosnia at 
the time. The mahallas {i.e., quarters) of "Gornji 
Tabaci" and "Donji Tabaci", in the Upper City, 
recall the tanner's trade — the principal trade in 
nearly all Balkan towns in the ioth/i6th and nth/ 
17th centuries. In the Lower City, on the banks of the 
Vrbas, there is a citadel ("Kaitel") which was built 
during the reign of Murad III (1595-1603) as the 

The statement which is found first in Ewliya 
Celibi, that the first part of the name "Banjaluka" 
is the Serbo-Croat word "Banja" (bath), is merely 
an example of folk-etymology, based on the fact 
that there are hot sulphur springs in the town. The 
name is actually formed from the archaic possessive 
adjective of the noun "Ban" (a governor, in this case 
of the Hungarian King), and the word "Luka" 
(meadow by the river). Mil t thus means the meadow 
of the Ban. 



ioi8 BANJALUKA - 

After the fall of the kingdom of Bosnia (in 1463) 
the Hungarians acquired the area of Jajce. It is 
probable that Banjaluka was built at that time (it 
is mentioned for the first time in 1494) to serve as a 
fortress for the newly built Jajce-Banates. Immedi- 
ately after the fall of Jajce, Banjaluka was conquered 
by the Turks (in 1527 or 1528). Under Turkish rule 
Banjaluka gained in importance, especially after 
the residence of the governor of the sandjak of 
Bosnia was moved from Sarajevo to Banjaluka in 
the middle of the ioth/i6th century. The quick rise 
of the town was largely due to the merits of the first 
governors who resided in Banjaluka, in particular 
Ferhad Sokolovi<5, a cousin of the Grand Vizier 
Mehmed Pasha Sokolovi6 (Sokolli). Ferhad Sokolovi6 
was governor of Bosnia from 1574, and became 
Beglerbeg of the newly formed Pashalik of Bosnia in 
1580. Banjaluka remained the seat of the Beglerbeg 
of Bosnia until it was moved to Sarajevo in 1638. 
In 1661, when Ewliya Celebi visited Banjaluka, it 
was a flourishing town with two fortresses, 45 
mahallas, 43 mosques, and several madrasas and 
baths, with 300 shops and a Bezistan. The town 
itself (which numbered 3,700 houses) was then the 
seat of the representative (KdHm-makdm) of the 
Vizier of Bosnia. 

Banjaluka was conquered for a short time in 
1688 by the Austrians under the Margrave of Baden, 
and they burnt down some parts of the town in their 
retreat. During the 1737 war, Banjaluka was 
besieged by the Prince of Hildburghausen, but was 
relieved by the Bosnian Vizier c Ali Pasha Hekimoghlu 
as the result of the victory of August 4th. This war 
was described by 'Omar Efendi of Novi (Babinger, 
276-277). Since then, Banjaluka has developed more 
or less unhindered, although it could not regain its 
former greatness until the end of Turkish rule. There 
were 37 mahallas and 1,126 houses liable to taxes in 
Banjaluka in 1851. From then on it was the capital 
of one of the six Bosnian sandjaks (districts). 

At the time of the Austrian occupation of Bosnia 

(1878), Banjaluka capitulated (without offering 

resistance) as early as 31st July. Nevertheless, there 

was a battle with the Bosnian Muslims on 14th 

August. Thf town remained under Austrian rule 

until 1918, when it became part of Yugoslavia. 

Bibliography: H. Kresevljakovid, Start bos- 

anski gradovi (Old Bosnian castles), NaSe Starine I, 

Sarajevo 1953, 26-27; A. Bejti6, Banja Luka pod 

turskom vlaSdu (Banja Luka under Turkish rule), 

NaSe Starine I, Sarajevo 1953, 91-116; Article 

Banjaluka in Enciklopedija Jugoslavije I, Zagreb 

1956 (the geographical part by S. Sinikovid, the 

historical part by H. Kresevljakovic). 

(B. Djurdjev) 
BANKING [see djahbadh and sayraf!]. 
BANKIPOR, the Western suburb of the city of 
Patna, the 'Azimabad of the Muslim historians, 
situated in 25 37' N. and 85° 8' E. on the right bank 
of the Ganges. The great landmark of Bankipur is 
the brick-built beehive-shaped silo or grain store- 
house constructed by Warren Hastings after the 
terrible famine of 1769-70. In Oriental circles the 
town is famous for its fine collection of Arabic and 
Persian manuscripts, some of which are extremity 
rare. The Bankipur library, called in the Trust 
Deeds "The Patna Oriental Public Library", and 
also known as the "Khuda Bakhsh Library", 
contains many valuable books on Islamic literature. 
The founder, Mawlawi Khuda Bakhsh, (d. 1908) an 
advocate by profession, was a native of Chapra 
(Bihar) who dedicated his entire life to the collection 



of rare manuscripts from such ancient centres of 
culture as Cairo, Damascus, Beirut and places in 
Arabia, Egypt and Persia. It was Lord Curzon, 
Governor-General of India (1899-1905) who commis- 
sioned Sir Edward Denison Ross to reorganise the 
Library and to prepare a systematic catalogue. So 
far 31 volumes, describing some 4,000 MSS. outof 
a total number of over 6,000, have been published, 
as a result of sustained and patient collaboration 
between Sir Edward Denison Ross, 'Abd al-Muk- 
tadir, c AzIm al-DIn Ahmad, 'Abd al-Hamid and 
Mas'ud c Alam Nadwi. 

Bibliography: V. C. Scott O'Connor, An 
Eastern Library, Glasgow 1920; Catalogue of the 
Arabic and Persian manuscripts in the Oriental 
Public Library at Bankipur, Calcutta 1908-1939; 
Imperial Gazetteer of India, Oxford 1908, vi, 382-3. 

(A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
BANNA 5 [see bina']. 

AL-BANNA', AHMAD B. MUHAMMAD [see AL- 

al-BANNA', Hasan, founder and Director- 
General of al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun, was born in the 
year 1906, the son of Ahmad b. c Abd al-Rahman b. 
Muhammad al-Banna' al-Sa'atl. In addition to 
carrying on his trade of watch-maker, his father was 
a keen student of the traditional Islamic sciences 
and the editor of the Musnad of Ibn Hanbal. 

Paternal influence was of the greatest significance 
in shaping the formative years of Hasan al-Banna 1 
and his early education followed the ancient pattern 
of that of the sons of the 'ulamd' — the memorising of 
the Kur'an and the study of hadiih, fikh and lugja. 
In addition to his conservative religious upbringing 
he appears to have possessed an innate spiritual bent, 
for at an early age he became drawn towards Sufism 
and was initiated into the Hasafiyya order when he 
was fourteen years of age. 

After a period at the Junior Teachers' School at 
Damanhur he entered the Dar al- c Uluro in Cairo, at 
that time an independent teachers' training College. 
Even at Damanhur his precocious capacity for 
organisation and impulse towards active proselytising 
had shown themselves in his founding of al-Diam c ivva 
al-Hasafiyya al-Khayriyya. At the Dar al-'Ulum he 
developed further his thesis that the sicknesses of 
Islamic society could only be cured by a return to the 
regenerative springs of the Kur'an, hadith and sira. 
Together with a group of fellow-students he began 
to spread the Islamic mission by preaching in the 
mosques and meeting-places of Cairo. 

On completing his course of training in 1927 he 
was posted to Isma'iliyya as a government school- 
teacher and in the following year founded the Muslim 
Brotherhood. He remained at Ismalliyya until 1933, 
preaching, lecturing, pamphleteering and perfecting 
the organisational structure of his movement on the 
cell principle. During this period he travelled inde- 
fatigably up and down the Canal Zone and off- 
shoots of the Isma'iliyya headquarters sprang up 
between Port Sa'id and Suez. 

Following upon his transfer to a teaching post in 
Cairo, Hasan al-Banna' entered upon a period of 
intense activity and the movement rapidly gained 
ground throughout Egypt. Subsequent to 1936, 
when he espoused the cause of the Palestine Arabs, 
he became increasingly involved in the political 
arena, lobbying successive prime ministers with 
pleas for action and reform. The years of the Second 
World War saw a hardening of the attitude of the 
government towards Hasan al-Banna'. Under both 
Sirri Pasha and al-Nukrashi he was arrested for 



- BANNANI 






brief periods and the activities of the Brotherhood 
severely curtailed. In the immediately post-war 
period tension between them and the government 
increased, culminating in their suppression following 
the murder of al-Nukrashl in December 1948. A few 
months later, in February 1949, Hasan al-Banna' 
was himself assassinated. 

Bibliography : Ishak Musa Husaynl, al-Ikhwdn 
al-Muslimun, Beirut 1952, (English translation 
with additional material, Beirut 1956) ; J. Hey- 
worth-Dunne, Religious and political trends in 
modem Egypt, Washington 1950; Jean and 
Simonne Lacouture, Egypt in transition, London 
1958; Tom Little, Egypt, London 1958. For a 
further bibliography see article al-Ikhwan al- 
muslimun. (J. M. B. Jones) 

BANNA'I, Kamal al-Din Shir <Ali BannaI 
HarawI, Persian poet, the son of a mason (bannd') 
of Harat, hence his choice of the pseudonym 
"Bannal". He spent his youth in the entourage of 
the famous poet and Maecenas of the period c Ali- 
Shir Nawal [q.v.], but fell into disgrace on account 
of his bitter jests, and had to take refuge at the 
court of the Ak IJoyunlu [q.v.] prince Sultan Ya'kub 
(884-896/1429-1491), at Tabriz. After a reconciliation 
with C A11-Shir, he returned to Harat, but he had to 
leave his company once more in order to go to 
Samarkand, to the court of the Tlmurid prince 
Sultan 'All (902-953/1497-1546), son of Sultan 
Ahmad (823-899/1468-1494), son of Sultan Abu 
Sa'Id (855-873/1451-1468), who ruled over Trans- 
oxania. He composed in his favour a kasida in the 
dialect of Marw, with the title of Madjma 1 al- 
Kardyib. He was also the court poet of Sultan 
Mahmud, who ruled over this region between 899 
and 900 (1494-5). In 906/1500-1, when Abu '1-Fath 
Muhammad Shaybanl Khan [q.v.] (Shaybak Khan: 
Shahl Beg Ozbek) occupied Samarkand, he remained 
for a time in prison and later became the official 
poet of his court and chief military judge {kadi 
l askar), and at the same time one of the favourites 
of his son Muhammad Timur. After the death of 
Shaybanl Khan on 30 Sha'bln 916/2 December 1510, 
he returned to Harat, his native town, but he was 
slain during the massacre at Karshi. perpetrated in 
918/1513 by Nadjm al-DIn Yar Ahmad Isfahan!, 
known as Nadjm-i Thani, on the orders of Shah 
Ismail the Safawid. Bannal tried his hand at all 
types of poetry. He wrote at first under the pseudo- 
nym Hall, and in addition to his diwan, still 
unpublished (in which he constantly tried to imitate 
Hafiz), he has left two epics: 1) Shaybdni-ndma, on 
his patron's campaigns; 2) Bdgh-i Iram or Bakrdm-u- 
Bihruz, a poem several times incorrectly attributed 
to the great Sufi poet Sanal (as a result of the word 
Bannal being corrupted to Sanal) and published 
in a collection with the works Afdal al-Tidhkdr 
Dhikr al-Shu'ard wa 'l-Ash'dr and the Tadhkira of 
Nawal, at Tashkent in 1336/1918. He was also a 
musician, a composer, the author of two small works 
on music and a fine calligraphist. 

Bibliography: Mir 'All-Shir Nawal, Madidlis 
al-Nafd'is, two 16th century. Persian translations, 
edited with an introduction and annotations etc. 
by 'All Asghar Hikmat, Tehran 1945, 60, 232-3; 
Sam Mirza Safawl, Tuh/a-i Sdmi (section v), ed. 
in the original Persian, with index, Persian and 
English prefaces, variants and notes by Mawlawi 
lkbal Husayn, Patna 1934, 27-30; ibid., complete 
Tehran edition 1314/1936, 98-100; Said Naficy, 
Ta'rikhca-yi Mukhtasar-i Adabiyydt-i Iran, in 
Sdl-ndma-yi Pars, 1326, 12-13. (Said Naficv) 



BANNANI (also al-BannanI), name of a family 
of Jewish converts to Islam of Fes (Fas), which from 
the I2th/i8th century has produced a number of 
eminent religious scholars and still belongs, together 
with a few other families of Jewish extraction, to 
the aristocracy of Islamic learning in Fes. Its most 
important members are: 

(1) Abu c Abd Allah Muhammad b. c Abd al- 
Salam b. Hamdun (d. 1 163/1750). He is considered 
the last great representative of the older school of 
Fes in which he occupies a key position, uniting in 
his person the main traditions of Maliki scholarship 
in the Maghrib (cf. J. Berque, in Revue historique 
de droit franfais et ttranger, 1949, 88), combining 
with them the Maliki traditions of the East where he 
also studied, and forming a great number of disciples. 
His Fahrasa [q.v.] is an important source on the 
legal studies in Fes in his time. His commentary on 
the al-hi'b al-kabir of al-ShadhUl [q.v.] testifies to the 
lasting connection of his family with the Shajhill 
(arika. His main work is a commentary on the K. al- 
Ikti/d 3 of al-Kala% on the military expeditions of the 
Prophet and of the first three Caliphs. His son c Abd 
al-Karim composed a biography of him. 

Bibliography: Muhammad b. al-Tayyib al- 
K5diri, Nashr al-Mathdni, ii, 257; Muhammad b. 
Dja'far al-Kattani, Salwat al-Anfds, i, 146-148; 
Muhammad c Abd al-Hayy al-Kattani, Fihris al- 
Fahdris, i, 160-162; Muhammad b. Muhammad 
Makhluf, Shadiarat al-Niir ai-Zakiyya, i, 353 ; Levi- 
Provencal, Hist. Chorfa, 312 f. ; Brockelmarm, S 
II, 686. 

(2) Abu c Abd Allah Muhammad b. Hasan b. 
Mas'ud (d. 1 194/1780). He wrote a gloss (completed 
in n73/i759-6o) on al-Zurkanl's [q.v.] commentary 
on the Mukhtasar of Khalil b. I shaft, a commentary 
on the Mukhtasar al-Manfik of al-SanusI [q.v.], a 
commentary on the Suttam of al-Akhdarl [q.v.], often 
printed, and a reputed Fahrasa. 

Bibliography: al-Kadirl, Nashr al-Mathdni, 
ii, 257 ; Muhammad b. Dja'far al-Kattani, Salwat 
al-Anfds, i, 161-163; Muhammad c Abd al-Hayy 
al-Kattani, Fihris al-Fahdris, i, 162 f.; al-Naslrl 
al-Salawi, al-Istiksd', iv, 129; Muhammad b. 
Muhammad Makhluf, Shadiarat al-Nir, i, 357; 
Sarkis, i, 590; Levi-Provencal, Historiens, 146, 
n. 7; Brockelmarm, II, 325, 615, S II, 98, 355, 706. 

(3) Mustafa b. Muhammad b. c Abd al-KhalIk. 
wrote in 1211/1796 a gloss on the Mukhtasar of al- 
Taftazani [q.v.] on rhetoric, printed several times, 
also with notes of Muhammad b. Muhammad al- 
Anbabl (d. 1313/1895). 

Bibliography : Sarkis, i, 590; Catalogue Cairo', 
ii, 181; Brockelmann, i, 355, S i, 518. 

(4) Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Muhammad al- 
'ArabI b. <Abd al-Salam b. Hamdun (d. 1245/ 
1829-30), a grand-nephew of no. 1, became Maliki 
mufti of Mecca. 

Bibliography: Muhammad c Abd al-Hayy al- 
Kattani, Fihris al-Fahdris, i, 163 f. 

(5) Muhammad, called Fir'awn (d. 1281-82/1865), 
author of a K. al-WathaHk which was printed several 
times, also with the commentary of 'Abd al-Salam 
b. Muhammad al-Hawari (d. 1 328/1910). 

Bibliography: Berque, in Revue historique de 
droit francais et ttranger, 1949, 102; Sarkis, i, 590. 

(6) For other members of the family BannanI, see 
Ben Cheneb and Levi-Provencal, Essai de repertoire 
chronologique des Editions de Fes, in if. Afr., 1921 and 
1922 (index by H. Peres and A Sempere, in Bull. 
Etudes Arabes, no. 32, 1947, s.v. BannanI) ; Sarkis, 
Mu'djam al-Ma(bu c dt, i, 589-591 ; Muhammad b. 



BANNANl — BANO isrA'Il 



Muhammad Makhlub. Shadiarat al-Nur, i, 431; c Abd 
al-Hafiz al-FasI, Riydd al-Qianna, ii, 20 ff., 100 f. 

(7) Not to the family BannanI belong <Abd al- 
Rahman b. Djad Allah al-Bannani (d. 1198/1784), 
who derives his nisba from a village in the neigh- 
bourhood of Monastir (Muhammad b. Muhammad 
Makhluf, Shadjarat al-Nur, i, 342; Sarkis, i, 591; 
Brockelmann, II, 109, S II, 105), and Abu '1-K5sim 
Ibrahim al-Warrak (earlier than 900/1495), whose 
nisba is uncertain (Brockelmann, S I, 585). 

(J. Schacht) 

BANNC, town and headquarters of the district 
of the same name in West Pakistan, situated in 
33° o' N. and 70 36' E. Population in 1951 was 
27,516 for the town and 307,393 (district). 

The present town was founded by Lt. Edwardes 
Herberts in 1848 on a strategic site and named 
Edwardesabad. The name, however, did not become 
popular and soon fell into disuse, giving place to 
Bannu, the old name of the valley derived from the 
Bann'ucls, an Afghan tribe of mixed descent. The 
valley, strewn with ruins of great antiquity, was, 
according to local tradition, overrun by the armies 
of Mahmud of Ghazna, who razed all Hindu strong- 
holds to the ground. A century later the valley was 
peopled by the surrounding hill-tribes, the Ban- 
nucls, the Marwats and the Niazais. For two cen- 
turies thereafter it remained under the loose sway 
of the Mughals. It was conquered in 1738 by Nadu- 
Shah Afshar and subsequently over-run by Ahmad 
Shah Durrani. In 1823, the Sikh ruler of Lahore, 
Randjit Singh, occupied the valley to be constantly 
harried by the Afghans. It was, however, formally 
ceded to the Sikhs in 1838. After the first Sikh War 
(1845-46), the valley came under the British influence. 
In 1847/48, Lieut. Edwardes, as a representative of 
the Sikh Durbar of Lahore, marched on the valley 
along with a large army under Gen. van Cortlandt. 
In 1849 with the annexation of the PandjSb, Bannu 
passed on to the British. Contrary to expectations, 
it remained absolutely peaceful during the'military 
uprising of 1857. 

The valley has yielded finds of great archaeological 
value, among them being coins with Greek or pseudo- 
Greek legends. The Akra mound near the town is 
reputed to be of great antiquity. 

After its construction in 1848 the Bannu fort 
was named Dalipgarh, after Maharadja Dalipsingh, 
a grandson of Randjit Singh. As usual a town soon 
grew up around the fort. It is now the centre of 
considerable trade. The town is expanding fast and 
large sums have been recently sanctioned by the 
Government for the economic development of the 



Bibliography: S. S. Thorburn, Bannu or Our 
Afghan Frontier, London 1876; Imperial Gazetteer 
of India, Oxford 1908, vi, 392-402; Bannu Gazet- 
teer, Peshawar 1907; T. L. Pennell, Among the 
Wild Tribes of the Afghan Frontier; E. Herberts, 
Punjab and the Frontier, 2 vols., London 1851; 
H. L. Nevill; Campaigns on the North-West 
Frontier, London 1912, index; George Dunbar, 
Frontier, London 1912, 49-69 ; Bdbur-ndma (transl. 
A. S. Beveridge), index. (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
BANTAM or BANTEN [see djawa]. 
BANC, followed by the name of the eponymous 
ancestor of a tribe, see under the name of that 



BANC ISRA'lL, "the Children of Israel". 

1. This designation of the Jewish people occurs 
in the Kur'an about forty times. The terms Yahud, 
Jews, and its derivatives as well as Nasdra, Christians, 



appear only in the Medinese period, although they 
had been widely used in pre-Islamic poetry and cer- 
tainly were familiar to every Arab townsman (Joseph 
Horovitz, Koranische Untersuchungen, 144 ff. and 
153 ff.). On the other hand, Banu Isrd'il never occurs 
in authentic pre-Islamic poetry {ibid., 91). It would 
therefore seem to follow that the exclusive use of 
this term during the Meccan period has something 
to do with the Prophet's original knowledge of, and 
attitude towards, the monotheistic religions prece- 
ding him. 

In most of the Meccan verses, the Banu Isrdll. 
appear in connexion with Moses and the stories which 
are paralleled in the Biblical book of Exodus or its ag- 
gadic amplifications ; they are, in chronological order 
according to Noeldeke-Schwally : xx, 47, 80, 94 (dis- 
sensions among the Banu Isrd'il, see below) ; xliv, 30; 
xxvi, 17, 22, 59; xvii, 2, 103; xl, 53; xxxii, 23-24; 
x, 90; vii, 105, 134, 137, 183. This explains also the 
form of the name: "the Children 0/ Israel", as in 
the book of Exodus, and not "Israel", as was com- 
mon usage in Jewish literature in the period pre- 
ceding Muhammad (with few exceptions; see Tarbiz 
3(1932), 413, n. 15a.) 

However the Banu Isrd'il were more than the 
"people of Moses" (vii, 147, 158. ; xxviii, 76). In Sura 
xvii, which bears the name of Banu Isrd'il (but also 
al-Isrd'), 4-8, the destruction of the First and the 
Second Temple is described as the fulfilment of a 
heavenly decree included in the "Book" (perhaps an 
allusion to Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28), while 
liii, 59 makes Jesus appear among the Banu IsrdHl. 

Finally, there are a number of Meccan passages 
which clearly indicate that the Banu Isrd'il were also 
understood to denote persons living in Muhammad's 
own time. Doubtful is xlvi, 10: "If a witness from the 
Banu Isrd'il testified about (a message) similar to this 
[Revelation (Muhammad's or another part of the 
Kur'an ?)] and believed" — a verse generally regarded 
by Muslim tradition as alluding to the Jewish con- 
vert c Abd Allah b. Salam (see the sources collected 
in Tabarl's commentary, vol. 26, 6-9). For as the 
word "(a message) similar" shows, the reference is 
probably to "the book of Moses" (xlvi, 12), as indeed 
Tabari himself thought possible, although he re- 
jected that interpretation. 

However xxvi, 197 "Is it not a proof for them (the 
Meccans) that the scholars (or: knowledgeable men) 
of the Banu Isrd'il know it (the content of Mu- 
hammad's message) ?" hardly makes sense without 
the assumption that the persons referred to were 
known to his hearers; the more so as the following 
verses, xxvi, 198-9, allude to missionary activities 
of non-Arabs. Likewise xvii, 101 "Ask the Banu 
Isrd'il" is to be compared with such passages as x, 94 
"If you (M.) are in doubt concerning what We sent 
down to you, ask those who read the Book before 
you," cf. xxi, 7; xvi, 43; xxv, 59; ii, 211 (xliii, 45 
is no proof to the contrary, as in xxi, 7 and xvi, 34 
the Meccans are addressed). 

In any case, the Banu Isrd'il must be regarded as 
contemporary with Muhammad in those Meccan verses 
in which reference is made to their dissensions, which 
will be settled either by the Kur'an xxvii, 76, or 
on the day of resurrection, xxxii, 23-5 ; xlv, 16-17; 
x, 93. This use of the term is even more evident ia 
al-Madina, where the Banu Isrd'il are admonished 
to believe in Muhammad's message and warned of 
the consequences of their disbelief (ii. 40 f.), or 
where they are censured for their behaviour, ob- 
viously actually observed (ii, 83-85 : they fight one 
another, but ransom those that were taken captives). 



BAND ISRAEL 



In order to establish which group of contemporary 
monotheists were meant by Banu Isrd'U, one has to 
bear in mind that already in the Meccan Sura xliii, 59 
{see dbove) Jesus appears among theBanu Isrd'U. and 
does so rather frequently in Medinese passages iii, 49; 
v, 72-74, 78; lxi, 6. In lxi, 14 it is said explicitly 
that one group of the Banu Isrd'U believed in him 
and another did not. Cf. also v, no, where God 
protects him against the Banu Isrd'U. 

However, when in v, 12-13 the Banu Isrd'U are 
opposed to "those that say we are Christians", v, 14; 
or are censured in v, 70 together with "Those that say 
the Messiah, son of Maryam, is God", v, 72, it seems 
indeed that the Kur'an, where addressing Muham- 
mad's contemporaries asBanu Isrd'U, meant Jews. To 
this interpretation point also the references to the die- 
tary laws in iii, 93 and the quotation from the Mishna 
(Sanhedrin 4, 5), which is introduced as an injunction 
imposed by God on the Banu Isrd'U. The Muslim 
commentators indeed explained the Kur'anic diatribes 
against the Banu Isrd'U as directed against the Jews 
of al-Madina, with whom Muhammad had so many 
dealings. 

From this use of the name Banu Isrd'U it does not 
follow that the word or the ideas connected with it 
had come to Muhammad from Jews. On the other 
hand, the form of the word [Isrd'U, not Yisrd'U) does 
not prove that it is derived from Syriac, for the 
Hebrew spelling with Y and Sin was merely tradi- 
tional, while the pronunciation of initial yi as i was as 
common among Jews as among some other Aramaic- 
speaking peoples. 

In any case, it is most likely that the term Banu 
Isrd'U became known to Muhammad together with 
the general ideas on revelation and prophecy cen- 
tering around it: there was only one true religion 
laid down in a heavenly book; that book had been 
"sent down" through Moses "before Muhammad" 
xlvi, 12, 29; xi, 17. However, instead of uniting the 
Banu Isrd'U, its very revelation caused dissension 
among them xxxii, 23-25 ; xlv, 16-17 ; x, 93. The same 
happened to the followers of Christ xlii, 13-14- Finally, 
Muhammad's own mission, which was destined to 
settle "most" of the dissensions of the Bdnu Isrd'U 
xxvii, 76, was not recognised by Jews and Christians 
ii, 120 (see ib. in, 113), so that it, too, had the effect 
of dividing humanity xcviii, 3. This tragic discord 
was explained as brought about by God's own in- 
scrutable decree xli, 45; xi, no (Moses' book); x, 
19 (humanity originally was one umma or religious 
community) ; xvi, 93 (God could unite humanity in 
one umma, but He "chooses" whom He likes xlii, 
13). This conception was in a way reminiscent of 
the Midrash applied to the history of the ancient 
Banu Isrd'U. Aaron, when rebuked by Moses for 
making the Golden Calf, excuses himself by ex- 
plaining that he did so in order to avoid the Banu 
Isrd'U becoming divided xx, 94. 

Muhammad, as the son of a caravan city, knew 
of course about Jews and Christians. However, the 
idea that these two had their common origin in the 
Band Isrd'U, the numerous stories about them and the 
belief that the various religions should rightly be one, 
are too specific to have come from this source. As only 
the teimBanii Isrd'U or other general designations for 
the earlier book religions occur during the whole of his 
Meccan period, it seems most probable that this use 
of the term is to be traced to a monotheistic tradition 
which emphasised the common rather than the divid- 
ing aspects of the monotheistic religions. 

2. In the hadith, Banu Isrd'U denotes both the old 
Israelites, e.g., when 'Umaris compared to a king of 



theBanu Isrd'U (Hezekiah), Ibn Sa c d iii, I, 257, 1. 2 ff., 
or when David's Araonah (Samuel II 24, 21) is refer- 
red to, Ibn Sa'd iv, I, 13, 1. 23, and also the Jews 
and Christians in general, e.g., in the chapter "What 
was said about the Banu Isrd'U" in Bukhari (60) 
Anbiyd', 50. Although, by chance, only Jews are 
mentioned there separately, Chustians are referred 
to by implication in a story about a rdhib, which 
normally denotes a monk. A story about Djuraydj, 
"who was a monk among the Banu Isrd'U" is re- 
ported by Abu'l-Layth al-SamarkanuI in his Tanbih 
al-Ghd/ilin 260. 

The question why the ancient Banu Isrd'U, the 
chosen people, Sura ii, 2, 47, 122; xliv, 32; xlv, 16, 
should have disappeared, considerably occupied the 
mind of the Muslims. Their answers to this question 
echoed of course their own tribulations, such as 
deviations in the fields of theology and religious law 
("the Banu Isrd'U" perished, because they practised 
Ra'y [see As^ab-al-Ra'y]), or public morals "because 
their women indulged in wigs" (Bukhari (60) Anbiyd' 
54) or "in high heels" (Fa'ik, ii, 366, quoted by Dozy, 
Suppl. ii, 391 a). 

For the Muslims regarded those Banu Isrd'U as 
their brothers, as in the famous hadith Farkad-Hu- 
dhayfa: "What excellent brothers are the Banu 
to you: They (experienced) the bitterness and you the 
sweetness," quoted e.g., by Abu Nu'aym, Hilyat al- 
Awliyd' iii, 50, 1. 5. The saying obviously refers to 
"the burden and the chains", i.e., the many religious 
obligations which were incumbent on the Banu 
Isrd'U (both Jews and Christians according to Sura 
vii, 157), cf. Ibn Kutayba, Mukhtalaf al-Hadith 

In a hadith quoted by Sahl al-Tustari in his Tafsir 
al-Kur'dn, 57, the Muslims even identify themselves 
with the Banu Isrd'U: "We are theBanu Isrd'U, we, 
the sons of Nadr b. Kinana. We do not follow our 
mother (who was the wife of both Kinana and his 
father Khuzayma, see Ibn Hisham 1-2) nor our 
fathers {i.e., Nadr, Kinana, Khuzayma); with "we" 

However, as in the Kur'an, Banu Isrd'U denotes in 
the hadith also contemporary Jews and Christians and 
is thus synonymous with Ahl al-KUdb and similar 
expressions. Cf. the very often quoted saying of 
Muhammad: "haddithu c anBani Isrd'U wald haradf' 
"Relate traditioas which come from the Banu Isrd'U 
without scruples", cf. Concordance el Indices de la 
Tradition Musulmane, i, 445 b, s.v. hrdj_, and Wen- 
sinck, Handbook, 231a; al-Shafi% Risdla, Cairo 1310, 
101 (1312, 105). 

Again, as in the Kur'an, when used of contempo- 
raries, Banu Isrd'U mostly means Jews. Cf. the 
characteristic story about the wigs of the women 
6f the Band Isrd'U which is given in Bukhari (60) 
Anbiyd' 54, the first time (ed. Krehl ii 376) with a 
general reference to the Banu Isrd'U but a second 
time (Krehl ii 380, 1. 10) in a detailed story about 
the Caliph Mu'awiya, who, while visiting al-Madina, 
was disgusted to find the women there wearing wigs 
(a habit which they might have adonted from their 
Jewish neighbours). "I have nobody seen doing this", 
the old Caliph said, "except the Jews". Thus the 
familiar picture of the Habr min ahbdr Bant Isrd'U 
(e.g., Abu Nu'aym, HUya ii, 372, 1. 22 = Ibn 
Kutayba, c Uyun a-Ahhbdr ii, 359, 1. 13) is to be 
understood as describing a rabbi; and when Madjd 
al-Din Ibn al-Athlr, Nihdya, s.v. thny I 136 refers 
to "the rabbis, ahbdr, of the Banu Isrd'U, after 
Moses "who compiled the Mishna (al-mathndt)" he 
means of course Jews. 



BANO ISRA>IL — al-BANORI 



It is from this usage of Banu IsrdHl that the word 
IsriHli, Israelite, was derived as a more polite 
designation for a Jew than Yahudl. We find this 
term already in full use in the third/ninth century, e.g. 
Mas'udi, Tanbih 79, 7 (the Israelites in 'Irak); 113, 3 
(Israelite translators of the Bible); 219, 9 (Israelites 
divided into three sects), cf. also ibid., 105, 7 ; 1 12, 18 ; 
alongside with Yahud 113, 9; 184, 14. Similarly, 
Muslim scholars and men of letters refer in this way 
to their Jewish colleagues, e.g., Ishak al-Isralll, the 
famous doctor and author (M. Steinschneider, Arab. 
Lit. d. Juden, Frankfurt 1902, 38-45); Jewish 
converts to Islam also, such as the poet Ibn Sahl 
al-Isralll of Seville (Brockelmann S. I, 483) were 
styled thus. 

A later, scientifically minded, age tried to distin- 
guish with more precision between BanU Isrd'U and 
Yahud. Al-Kalkashandl xviii, 253, quoting 'Imad 
al-DIn (i.e. Abu'1-Fida), states that BanU Isrd'U are 
the ancient Jews by race, while the term Yahud in- 
cludes also the many converts to Judaism from Arab, 
Rum and other stocks. This statement is not without 
foundation in the usage of ancient sources. Thus Ibn 
Sa'd, viii, 85, 1. 27 says with regard to Safiyya, the 
Jewish wife of Muhammad, that she was from the 
BanU Isrd'U i.e., from pure Jewish stock, a 
descendant of the high priest Aaron. 

As is natural, to an ancient people such as the Banu 
Isra'U things were ascribed which originally had no- 
thing to do with them. Thus a Maghribi handbook 
on agriculture advises against doing farmwork on 
certain days, because they were the days of punish- 
ment (ridiz, cf. Sura 7, 162) inflicted on the BanU 
Isrd'U, see J. M. Millas-Vallicrosa, in Andalus 19 
(1954), 132- 

The most important aspect of the image of the 
Banu Isrd'U in Muslim literature is the piety attrib- 
uted to them. "The pietists (Hbdd, muta l abbidun) of 
the Banu Isrd'U" is a common expression, cf, e.g., 
'Abd al-Kadir Djllani, Qhunya ii 62, Abu Nu'aym, 
Ifilyat al-Awliyd' ii 373, '• 4 ft Of a man who devoted 
himself to worship and ascetism it was said that he 
was like the BanU Isrd'U, Sakhawi (d. 902/1497), at- 
Paui> al-Ldmi'- vi, 146, 20-22. Many of the stories 
about the pious men of the BanU Isrd'U — quite 
a number of which have found their way into Alf 
Layla wa-Layla — can be traced in the Talmud 
and the Midrashim, such as the beautiful parable 
about the pious Hayy of the Banu IsrdHl in Ibn 
'Asakir's Ta'rikh Dimashk, v, 23, which is an 
almost literal rendering of Babylonian. Talmud, 
Ta'anith 23. Cf. Isra'IliyyAt, where also an 
attempt is made to explain, why pietism was con- 
nected with BanU Isrd'tt. 

Bibliography:— in the article. See also S. D. 

Goitein, The BanU Isrd'U and their Controversies, 

a study on theQoran (in Hebrew), Tarbiz iii, (1932), 

410-422 ; J. Horovitz, Enc. Jud. 8, 569 ff. and the 

literature noted there. (S. D. Goitein) 

BANGR, an ancient town (East Pandjab, India) 

situated in 30° 34' N. and 76° 47' E., 9 miles from 

Ambala and 20 miles from Sirhind. The old Sanskrit 

name was Vahniyur which became, during the course 

of centuries, Baniyur and finally Banur. The ruins 

extend right up to Chat [q.v.] (another ancient town, 

now in ruins) 4 miles away. It was first mentioned by 

Babur when it was, and still continues to be, famous 

for its white jasmine flowers and the otto distilled 

from them. 

Another ancient name of Banur, according to 
tradition, was Pughpa Nagarl or Pushpawati (lit. 
city of flowers) but it bears no resemblance to its 



present name. During the rule of the Sayyid dynasty 
(817-55/1414-51) the town seems to have gained in 
importance and even just before the establishment 
of Pakistan (1947) was peopled mainly by sayyid* 
who, like the sayyids of Bilgram, trace their descent 
to Abu '1-Farah of Wasit, said to have migrated to 
India after Hulagu's sack of Baghdad (656/1258). 
The tomb of Malik Sulayman Khan, father of the 
Sayyid ruler Khadir Khan (817-24/1414-21) existed 
till 1947 when the local Muslims migrated en masse 
to Pakistan. Sayyid Adam al-Banuri, [q.v.] (d. Madina, 
1053/1643) one of the leading khula/d' of Ahmad 
Slrhindi [q.v.] was a native of this town. It was 
overrun early in the I2th/i8th century by the Sikh 
adventurer Banda Bayragi, and passed into the 
possession of the Singhpuriya Sikhs. It was occupied 
in 1177/1763 by Ala Singh, the chief of Patiala and 
remained in the possession of his descendants till 
1956 when the State was eventually merged into 
thf new province of East Pandjab. It was defended 
by two forts, Mughal and Sikh, which are still 
extant as ruins. 

Bibliography : Memoirs 0/ Baber, trans. 
Leyden and Erskine, 301; Imp. Gaz. of India, 
1909, vi, 414; 'Alamdar Husayn Wasiti, Ifadika-i 
Wdsifiyya (MS. Rampur State Library); A'in-i 
Akbarl (transl. H. Blochmann) i, 393-4. 

(A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
al-BANORI, Mu'izz al-Din Abu 'Abd Allah 
Adam b. S. Isma'il, one of the premier khulaja' of 
Ahmad Sirhindl [q.v.], was a native of Banur [q.v.]. 
He claimed descent from Imam Musa al-Kazim [q.v.], 
but it was disputed on the ground that his grand- 
mother belonged to the Mashwani tribe of the 
Afghans and he too lived and dressed after the 
fashion of the Afghans. His nasab was again questi- 
oned when in 1052/1642 he was in Lahore accom- 
panied by 10,000 of his disciples, mostly Afghans, 
by 'AllamI Sa'd Allah Khan Chinyoti, the chief 
Minister of Shahdjahan, and by 'Abd al-Hakim al- 
Siyalkotl [q.v.], who had been deputed by the 
Emperor to ascertain from the saint the reason of 
his visit to Lahore in the company of such a large 
force. Not satisfied with the explanation of the 
Shaykh, the emperor ordered [him to quit Lahore, go 
back to Banur and proceed on pilgrimage to Mecca 
and al-Madina. 

During the early years of his life he served in the 
Intelligence branch of the Imperial army but gave 
up service after some years having felt a strong 
urge to take up a life of piety and spirituality. He 
first became a disciple of Hadjdji Khidr RughanI 
Buhlulpurl and on his advice later contracted his 
bay'a with Ahmad Sirhindl. During the transition 
period he visited a number of places including 
Multan, Ambala, Panlpat, Shahabad, Sirhind, 
Lahore and Samana in search of derwishes and 



There are conflicting statements in the Nikdt at- 
Asrar, a collection of his maljuzat, and the Mandkib 
al-Hadardt, his authentic biography, regarding his 
educational attainments. While the Nikat describes 
him as an "ummi < dmmi" the Mandkib records that 
he read primary books like the Mizdn al-Sarf and 
Munsha'ib with Mulla Tahir Lahawri, a well-known 
scholar of his days. His military assignment, however, 
suggests that he was fairly well educated. 

He died at al-Madina on Friday, Shawwal 13, 
1053/December 25, 1643 and was buried in al-Baki' 
near the tomb of 'Uthman b. 'Affan. During his 
life-time he wielded great influence and at the time 
of his death more than 400,000 persons owed spiritual 



al-BANORI — BANZART 



allegiance to him. His meagre religious education, 
rigid attitude and contempt for State dignitaries 
was constantly criticised, but he remained steadfast 
in his mission and won over to his side both scholars 
and laymen like Muhammad Amln BadakhshI, c Abd 
Khalik Kasuri, Shaykh Abu Nasr Ambalawl, his 
brother Mas'ud and Shaykh Muhammad also of 
Ambala. Among his khulafd* are counted more than a 
hundred persons, including Hafiz c Abd Allah of Akbar- 
abad, spiritual guide of Shah c Abd al-Rahlm, father 
of Wall Allah al-Dihlawi [q.v.[ and Sayyid 'Alam 
Allah, one of the ancestors of Ahmad Barelwi [}.».]. 
An incidental reference in the Nikdt al-Asrdr 
reveals that he was 46 when the book, as internal 
evidence shows, was compiled during his sojourn 
in the Hidjaz in 1052-3/1642-3. This means that he 
was born c. 1005-6/1506-7. His youngest son, 
Muhammad Muhsin, was born at Gwalior in 1052/ 
1642, while he was on his way to Mecca, a fact 
which further supports the view that he died at no 
very advanced age. 

He is the author of: i) Nikdt al-Asrdr, dealing with 
abstruse mystical problems and their $ufic expo- 
sition, interspersed with personal experiences of the 
author in the spiritual field and casual biographical 
references; ii) Khuldsat al-Ma l drif (in 2 vols.) is 
more or less a continuation of the former. The 
entire work is in Persian and is still in MS. He is 
also the author of a commentary on al-Fdtiha which 
forms the first part of the Natd'idj al-Haramayn, 
compiled by Muhammad Amln BadakhshI, who 
claims to have lived for fifty years in the Hedjaz 
and also accompanied Adam al-Banurl on his 
pilgrimage to the holy cities. 

Bibliography: Badr al-DIn Sirhindl, Hadardt 
al-Kuds (in Persian, still in MS.), Urdu trans. 
Lahore 1923; Muhammad Amln BadakhshI, 
Mandkib al-Hadardt, (being the third part of 
Natd'idi al-Haramayn), (MS. in Persian in the 
possession of Shaykh Yusuf al-Banurl of Karachi) ; 
Adam al-Banuri, Nikdt al-Asrdr (MS. in the 
possession of Yusuf al-Banurl); Mazhar al-DIn al- 
Farukl, Mandkib-i Ahmadiyya wa Makdmdt-i 
Sa'diyya, Dihli 1847; Gulzdr-i Asrdr al-Sufiyya 
(Ethe 1901); Wadjlh al-Din Ashraf, Bahr-i 
Zakhkhdr (MS.); <Abd al-Khalik Kasuri, Tadhkira-i 
Adamiyya (extensively quoted by Ghulam Sarwar 
Lahorlin the Khazinat al-Asfiya', Cawnpore 1333/ 
1914; 630-5); Muhammad c Umar Peshawar!, 
Diawdhir al-SardHr (Asrdr) (MS.); Mu'diam al- 
Musannifin, Beirut 1 344/1925, iii 10-14; Sadr 
al-DIn Buhari, KawdHh al-Musfafd, Cawnpore 
1305/1889; Shah Wall Allah, Anfds al-'Arifin, Dihli 
1315/1897, 13-4; Muhammad Sharaf al-DIn 
Kashmiri, Rawdat al-Saldm (MS.); c Abd al-Hayy 
Nadwl, Nuzhat al-Khawdtir, Haydarabad (Dn.), 
1375/1955, > v . i-3 ; Muh. Baka 1 Saharanpuri Mir'dt-i 
Diahdn-numd, (Nat. Mus. of Pakistan MS. fol. 
437); Muli. Miyan, l Vlam£>-i Hind kd shdnddr 
mddi, i, Delhi 1361/1942, 356, 362,497-9; Muham- 
mad Akhtar Gurganl, Tadhkira-i Awliyd'-i Hind 
o-Pdkistdn, Delhi 1370/1950, iii, 103-4; Muhammad 
b. Fadl Allah al-Muhibbi, Kh^afd al-Athar (MS.); 
'■Um&at al-Makdmdt, (Peshawar No. 2569); 
Tadhkira-i Kh'ddjgdn-i Nakshbandiyya (Peshawar 
No. 2606); Shams Allah Kadiri, Kdmus al- 
A'ldm, Haydarabad 1935, col. 12; S. M. Ikram, 
Rudi Kawthar (in Urdu), Karachi (n.d.), 190-1, 
217-18; Muh. Ihsan, Rawdat al-KayyUmiyya 
(MS.), vol. ii. (A. S. Bazmei: Ansari) 

BANYAR, a confederation of South Arabian 
tribes, mainly Banu 'Amir, Banu Yuh ( k yyub), Al 



'AzzSn and Al 'Umar, living north of Kawr 'Awdhilla 
(cf. art. 'Awdhall) in al-Dahir, Markha and WadI 
Ma'fari (also called W. Banyar). The Banyar once 
belonged to the Sultanate of al-Rassas in Miswara; 
their chief town is al-Bayda' [cf. art. bayhAn]. Here 
is the residence of the common head fdkil) of all 
Banyar, while the Banu Yub in the north are said to 
have an 'dkil of their own in al-Farsha. The Banyar 
territory corresponds, roughly speaking, to that of 
the MDHY in inscriptions (cf. art. Madhhidj). 
Bibliography: C. Landberg, in Arabica, v, 
3, 33. 58; idem, Etudes, ii, 262, 597, 1351, 1817, 
1843; H. von Wissmann and H6fner, Zur histori- 
schen Geographic des vorislam. Siidarabien, Wies- 
baden 1952/3. 48, 51. 58 ff., 62, 83. 

(O. Lofgren) 
BANZART, (Bizerta), a town on the Northern 
coast of Tunisia. It stands on the site of the ancient 
town of Hippo Diarrytus, the memory of which is 
perpetuated in the modern name. Phoenician, 
Carthaginian, Roman and Byzantine in succession, 
it was taken by Mu'awiya b. Hudaydj in 41/661 and 
again occupied, simultaneously with Carthage, 
by Hasan b. Nu'man. In the 4th/ioth century, it is 
mentioned by Ibn Hawkal as the capital of the 
province of Satfura (north of Tunis), although at 
the time it was practically deserted and in ruins. 
It recovered from this decline. In the 5th/nth 
century, al-Bakrl speaks of the stone wall surrounding 
the town, as well as of its great mosque, bazaars, 
baths and gardens. Fish is cheaper there than 
elsewhere. The lake (buhayra) offers wonderful 
fishing, different kinds of fish stocking it in turn. 
Not far from the roadstead, called the Marsd al- 
kubba, and from the town, there are -some -forts 
{fCild* Banzart), which served as a ribdf, a place of 
retirement for men of piety and a refuge for the 
local people, when they feared a Christian landing. 
Following the invasion of the nomadic Hilal and 
the abandonment of al-Kayrawan by the Zirid 
sultan al-Mu'izz, Banzart became virtually inde- 
pendent ; soon, however, it was forced to pay tribute 
exacted by the Arabs holding the countryside, as a 
guarantee against being pillaged by them. Taking 
advantage of the rivalries which reft the population, 
the Arab chieftain al-Ward al-Lakhmi entered 
Banzart and there set himself up as the ruler. He 
endowed his capital with the requisite institutions 
and made the town relatively prosperous. His son 
succeeded him and the Banu '1-Ward dynasty 
continued in Banzart until the Almohad invasion 
(554/II59)- The seventh of this line, the amir c lsa, 
made his submission to 'Abd al-Mu'min. 

At the beginning of the 7th/i3th century, Banzart 
was occupied by the Banu Ghaniya Almoravids and 
from that time entered on a decline, confirmed at 
the beginning of the 16th century by Leo African us. 
However, it received some Muslim emigrants from 
Spain, who founded the "suburb of the Andalusians" 
and, like all ports of the Barbary coast, it turned its 
attention to privateering. Having repudiated the 
authority of the Hafsids of Tunis, in 240/1534 it 
submitted to Khayr al-DIn, the master of Algiers. 
Charles V took it in the following year and it remained 
in the hands of the Spaniards until 280/1572. Banzart 
having once again become a Turkish town, its 
corsairs became an ever increasing danger. Their 
depredations provoked reprisals on the part of the 
Christian powers, namely naval expeditions by the 
Knights of Malta and bombardments, that of 1122/ 
1785 by the Venetians almost completely destroying 
the town. The suppression of privateering and the 



1024 BANZART 

silting up of the harbour brought about Banzart's 

ruin. Bizerta, now no more than a wretched village, 

was taken by the French in 1881. Considerable 

works were undertaken, which made it a great port, 

accessible to the largest ships, equipped with a 

military arsenal and defended by modern forts. 

Bibliography: Bakri, Descript. de I'Afrique 

septentrionale, Algiers 1911, 57-58; trans. Algiers 

1913, 121-123; Idrisi, al-Maghrib, 114; trans. 

I33 _I 35; Ibn Khaldun, Hist, des Berberes, i, 218, 

trans, ii, 39-40; Leo Africanus, Descript. de 

I'Afrique, trans, fipaulard, ii, 375-376; R. 

Brunschvig, La Berbirie orientate sous les Hafsides, 

i, 299; G. Marcais, Les Arabes en Berberie, 121-22; 

Hannezo, Bizerte, in R.Afr., 1904-1905. 

(G. Marcais) 
BA'OLf, Urdu and Hindi word for step-well, 
of which there are two main types in India, the 
northern and the western. The northern variety is 
the simpler, consisting essentially of one broad flight 
of stone steps running from ground level to below 
the waterline, the whole width of the site ; subsidiary 
flights may run opposite and at right angles to these 
below water-level, thus constricting the cistern 
itself into successively smaller squares, and these may 
be supplemented by cross-flights reducing the final 
cross-sectional area of the cistern to an octagon. The 
sides other than that composed of the main flight are 
vertical, of stone or, less commonly, of brick. The 
whole site is usually rectangular — the bd'oli outside 
the Buland darwaza at Fatehpur [sic] SIkri, associated 
with Shaykh Salim Ciihtl is a notable exception, the 
nature of the terrain having made an irregular 
polygon the only shape possible — with apparently 
no consistency in orientation: e.g., the ba'oli at the 
dargdh of Nizam al-DIn Awliyya, near Humayun's 
tomb, Delhi, runs north and south in alignment 
with the shrine, while that at the dargdh of Khwadia 
Kutb al-DSn Bakhtiyar KakI at Mahrawli, near 
Lalkot, Old Delhi, runs east-west and is not aligned 
with any major structure. Such bd'olis are functional 
structures, from which water may be drawn and 
in which ablutions may be carried out, and into 
which men dive, often from a height of 20 metres, 
to recover alms cast in by pilgrims. They are 
usually unadorned, but often of a monumental 
beauty on account of their size: e.g., that of Nizam 
al-DIn is 37.4 m. long by 16.2 m. broad, and some 
20 m. deep from ground level to average water-level. 
Bd'olis are found at the principal shrines associated 
with Cishtl pirs; besides the examples already noted, 
a fine rock-cut ba'oli is at the dargdh of Shaykh 
Mu c in al-DIn Cishtl at Ajmer. The reason for this 
particular association is not clear. Other ba'olis, 
smaller but of similar type, are not uncommon at 
other Islamic sites in N. India, concerning which 
th<re is no reason to suppose any Cishtl connexion. 
Pre-Islamic examples are not recorded. 

The western variety, generally known by the 
Gudjarat! word vdv, is of high artistic and archi- 
tectural merit as well as functional; it is more 
elaborate than its northern counterpart, consisting 
of two parts: a vertical circular or octagonal shaft, 
from which water may be drawn up as from an 
ordinary well, and a series of galleries connected by 
flights of steps, with pillared landings on the lower 
galleries supporting the galleries above; passages 
from each landing run to the shaft, where there 
are frequently chambers which form a cool retreat 
in the hot season. Such structures are known in 
Gudjarat from pre-Muslim times: Mata Bhavanl's 
vdv near Aljmadabad, the best preserved Hindu 



prototype, is probably nth century A.D. (Burgess, 
ASWI, viii, 1-3); Bal Harlr's vdv in Ahmadabad, 
which bears a Sanskrit inscription of A.D. 1499 and 
an Arabic one of 8 Diumada I 906/30 Nov. 1500, 
has ornament very similar to that of the tracery 
in the niches of the minarets of local mosques. The 
vdv at Adaladj (ibid., 10-13) is cruciform, with three 
main flights down to the first landing. Other vdvs 
occur scattered throughout Gudjarat from Barawda 
(Baroda) northwards; one of these, at Mandva on 
the left bank of the Vatruk, is of peculiar construc- 
tion, having a brick circular shaft with chambers 
in three storeys on one side reached by spiral stairs 
within the wall of the shaft itself. 

The northern bd'olis are not dated; that at the 
dargdh of Nizam al-DIn is said (Sayyid Ahmad Khan. 
Athdr al-Sanddid, Lucknow edition 1900, 42) to 
have been built by the Shaykh (636-725/1238-1325) 
himself, and it is probable that other examples date 
from the same approximate period. 

Bibliography: For the north, specially 
Maulvi Zafar Hasan, A guide to Nizdmu-d Din, 
MASI, x, Calcutta 1922, 7; H. C. Fanshawe, 
Delhi: Past and Present, London 1902. For 
Gudjarat, J. Burgess, The Muhammadan Archi- 
tecture of Ahmadabad, ASI, NIS, xxxiii (= ASWI, 
viii), London 1905, 1-6, 10-14; J- Burgess and 
H. Cousens, The Architectural Antiquities of 
Northern Gujarat ... ASI, NIS, xxxii, (= ASWI, 
ix), London 1903, 37, 101, 112-3, 116-7; both the 
latter with many plates and measured drawings. 
For a general outline of the period in which vdvs 
are built in Gudjarat, Percy Brown, Indian 
Architecture (Islamic Period), 3rd edition Bombay 
n.d. (1957?), 56-61. (J. Burton-Page) 

BAONl, formerly a petty Muslim state in the 
Bundelkhand Agency of Central India, is now 
administered as part of Madhya Pradesh (area: 122 
square miles; population: 25, 256, of which only 12% 
are Muslims). Its rulers were descended from 'Imad 
al-Mulk GhazI al-DIn, the grandson of Asaf Djah, the 
Nizam of Haydarabad. About 1784 GhazI al-DIn came 
to terms with the Marathas who granted him a 
djdgir of 52 villages, the name BaonI being derived 
from bdwan (fifty-two). This grant was later recog- 
nised by the British. Because of his loyalty during 
the 1857 revolt, the nawab was granted a sanad 
1862 guaranteeing the succession. In 1884 the nawab 
ceded lands for the Betwa canal and received the 
usual compensation. There is little else of historical 
importance to record. 

Bibliography: C. U. Aitchison, Treaties, 
Engagements and Sanads, v (1929); Imperial 
Gazetteer of India. (C. Collin Davies) 

al-BARA, place in northern Syria, belonging to 
what is called the region of the "dead towns", in 
the centre of the limestone plateau, some fifteen kms. 
west of the important township of Ma'arrat al-Nu'- 
man. In the Middle Ages, as attested by the Arabic 
and Western texts, it served as a fortified cathedral 
town and its site is still marked today by extensive 
ruins, among which the modern villages of al-Kafr 
and al-Bara (names corresponding to the ancient 
Greek and Syriac terms, Kaprop/ra and kpr'd Brt") 
rise on both sides of a wddi. In bygone days, local 
trade as well as the olive oil and wine industries 
ensured the growth of this "town of Apamea, situ- 
ated between the two dominant massifs of the 
Djabal Zawiya, at a point which had to be passed 
through" (G. Tchalenko) and, in the Byzantine period, 
contained a complex assembly of churches, monaste- 
ries and living quarters. It continued to flourish 



l-BARA — BARA sayyids 






after the Arab conquest. But at the time of the Cru- 
sades, it was coveted from many sides, being taken 
in succession by Tancred and Raymond of Saint- 
Gilles in 492/1098, reconquered by Ridwan in 496/ 
1 102, then left to the Franks by the treaty of 514/ 
1120, to be reoccupied in 516/1123 by Balak and 
again by Nur al-DIn in 543/1148. Sorely tried by 
these struggles and by the ravages of the Turko- 
mans, it declined in the 6th/ 12th century, and thence- 
forth no longer appeared in the lists given by the 
Arab geographers. The importance of its medieval 
fortress, known under the name of Kal'at Abi 
Safyan (see Abu Safyan), has already been noted 
but other remains, inscriptions and small mosques 
likewise bear witness to its persistent vitality at 
the beginning of the 5th/nth century when, from 
various indications, it has been concluded that its 
Muslim population were for the most part Shi c is. 
Bibliography: E. Littmann, Semitic Inscrip- 
tions, in Publ. of an Amer. Arch. Exp. to Syria, 
iv, New York 1904, 191 f., no. 11 and 16; Arabic 
Inscriptions, in Publ. of the Princeton Un. Arch. 
Exp. to Syria, iv D, Leiden 1949, no 108; M. van 
Berchem and E. Fatio, Voyage en Syrie, Cairo 
1914-15, 196-200; R. Dussaud, Topographie histo- 
tique de la Syrie, Paris 1923, index; CI. Cahen, 
La Syrie du nord, Paris 1940, index; G. Tchalenko, 
Villages antiques de la Syrie du nord, ii, Beirut 
1953, pl- xxxviii, cxxxvii to cxxxix, cl, clii, civ, 
iii, 1958, 109-12, 1 14-16; G. Le Strange, Palestine 
under the Moslems, London 1890, 420; Ya c kubi, 
Bulddn, 324; Ibn Khurradadhbih, 76; Ibn al- 
'Adlrn, Zubda, ed. Dahan, ii, index; Ibn al-Ka- 
lanisl, ed. Amedroz, 134, 209; Yakut, i, 465. 
(j. sourdel thomine) 
al-BARA' b. c Azib b. al-Harith al-Aws! al- 
Ansari, a Companion of the Prophet. He was too 
young to take part in the Battle of Badr, but he 
accompanied Muhammad on numerous other 
expeditions and later took part in the wars of con- 
quest; he brought Rayy and Kazwin under Muslim 
dominion. He later espoused the cause of C A1I b. 
Abi Talib and fought under his banner at the Battle 
of the Camel [see al-djamal], at Siffln [q.v.], and 
at al-Nahrawan [q.v.]; the famous hadith of Ghadir 
Khumm [q.v.] was related on his authority. After his 
retirement to Kufa, he lost his sight towards the 
end of his life, and died about 72/691-2. 

Bibliography: Baladhuri, Futuh, 3i7ff.;Ibn 

Sa<d, iv/2, 80 ff.; Tabari, i, I35 8, 1371-2; Ibn al- 

Athlr, Kdmil, ii, 106, 117, iii, 17, iv, 278; idem, 

Usd al-Ghdba, i, 171-2; Nawawl, Tahdhib, 172-3; 

SafadI, c Umydn, 124; Ibn Hadjar, Isdba, no. 618; 

I. Goldziher, Muh. St., ii, 116; Caetani, Annali, 

index. (K. V. Zettersteen) 

al-BARA 5 b. Ma'rOr, a Companion of the 

Prophet. Among the seventy-five proselytes who 

appeared at the c Akaba in the summer of 622 at 

the pilgrims' festival to enter into alliance with the 

Prophet, the aged Shaykh al-Bara' b. Ma'Tur of 

Khazradj was one of the most important, and when 

Muhammad declared he wished to make a compact 

with them that they should protect him as they 

■would their wives and children, al-Bara 3 seized his 

hand, promised him protection in the name of all 

present, and sealed the compact. In the same 

assembly, the so-called second c Akaba, twelve men 

were chosen as preliminary representatives {n&frib) 

of the new community in Yathrib, and on this 

occasion al-Bara' was appointed chief of the Banu 

Salima. He is also famous in the history of Islam, 

for having changed the direction of praying, even 

-Encyclopaedia of Islam 



before Muhammad, by turning towards the sanc- 
tuary of Mecca. When Muhammad reproved him, 
saying that Jerusalem was the true Ifibla, he 
obeyed him, but on his deathbed ordained that 
his corpse should be turned towards Mecca. He 
died in Medina in Safar, a month before Muham- 
mad's arrival there, after bequeathing to the Pro- 
phet one third of his estate. 

Bibliography : Ibn Sa'd, iii, Part 2, 146ft.; 

Ibn Hisham, i, 294 ff.; Tabari, i, 1217H.; Ibn 

al-Athir, ii, 76-78; idem, Usd al-Ghaba, i, 173 ff.; 

Miiller, Der Islam im Morgen- und A bendland, i, 89 ; 

Caetani, Annali, index. (K. V. Zettersteen) 

BARA SAYYIDS, the descendants of Sayyid Abu 
'1-Farah of Wash near Baghdad, who with his twelve 
sons emigrated to India in the 7th/i3th century and 
settled in four villages near Patiala in the sarkdr of 
Sirhand in the siiba of Dihli. The four main branches 
of the family were named after these four villages. 
Sayyid Da'ud settled in Tihanpur; Sayyid Abu 
'1-Fadl in Chatbamir or Chatrauri; Sayyid Abu 
'l-Fada'il in Kundll; and Sayyid Nazm al-DIn 
Husayn in Jagner or Jhajari. From this area they 
later migrated into the Muzaffarnagar district of 
the Ganges-Jumna dodb. The Kundllwal branch 
settled in Majhera; the Chatbanurl branch near 
Sambalhera; the Jagneri branch in Bidaull and Patri; 
and the Tihanpuri branch in Dhasri and Kumhera. 

The derivation of the term bdrha is uncertain. 
Some derive it from bdhir (outside), because the 
Sayyids, disgusted with the debaucheries of the 
Mina bazar at Dihli, preferred to live outside the 
city. Others derive it from the fact that the Sayyids, 
being Shl'is, were followers of the twelve (bara) 
Imams. The authors of the Tabakdt-i Akbari and the 
Tuzuk-i Diahdngiri derive the name from the twelve 
villages in which they settled in the district of 
Muzaffarnagar. This is the most probable explanation. 
The contention of H. M. Elliott and M. Elphinstone 
that one of the Sayyid settlements was named 
Bara has been shown to be incorrect (see W. Irvine, 
in JASB 1896, 175)- 

Sayyid settlements in the district of Muzaffarnagar 
can be traced back to the middle of the 8th/i4th 
century. From the reign of Akbar onwards the Bara 
Sayyids took part in every important campaign and 
became renowned for their courage. The Tihanpuri 
branch was the most important. To this branch 
belong the famous Sayyid brothers, Hasan C AII and 
Husayn C A1I, the king-makers of the first two decades 
of the 1 8th century. They rose to prominence in the 
service of c AzIm al-Shan, the son of Mu c azzam al-Din 
who became the emperor Bahadur Shah. For their 
gallantry at the battle of Jajau (1707), which gave 
the throne to the father of their patron, the elder 
brother, Hasan C AII, afterwards known as 'Abd 
Allah Khan, was entrusted with the government of 
Allahabad and the younger brother with that of 
Patna. On the death of Bahadur Shah in 1712, 
distrustful of the power of their enemies at Dihli, 
they overthrew Djahandar Shah and replaced him 
by Farrukh-siyar. As his ministers they enjoyed the 
highest dignities that the emperor could confer. 
c Abd Allah Khan was appointed wazir of the empire 
with the title of Kutb al-Mulk. Husayn 'All became 
first bakhshi with the title of amir al-umard. They 
are generally given the credit for being the first to 
abolish the djizya after the death of Awrangzlb, but 
the latest researches disclose that they were merely 
continuing the policy already introduced by the 
wazir Dhu '1-Fikar Khan (see Jizyah in the Post- 
Aurangzeb Period by S. Chandra, in Proceedings of 

65 






BARA SAYYIDS — BARA'A 



the Indian History Congress, Ninth Session, 320-326). 
Farrukh-siyar was an ingiate who plotted against 
his benefactors. His efforts came to naught and 
eventually, in the seventh year of his reign, he was 
deposed, blinded, and finally executed by the in- 
furiated Sayyids. The Sayyids next raised two 
miserable puppets to the throne, Rafl c al-Daradjat 
and Rafl c al-Dawla, both of whom were consumptive 
youths who died in the year 1719. In the same 
year the Sayyids crowned Muhammad Shah as 
Emperor. The administration of the six Deccan 
provinces was entrusted to Husayn 'All, the younger 
Sayyid brother, but he was soon recalled to Dihll 
by l Abd Allah, whose position was being under- 
mined by court conspiracies in which the Emperor 
was involved. It was at this juncture that Ni?am 
al-Mulk, leader of the Turanl nobles and for that 
reason opposed to Sayyid predominance at Dihll, 
deemed it advisable to abandon Malwa, of which 
he was governor, and establish himself in the Deccan. 
This naturally alarmed the Sayyids who took 
immediate steps to coerce him, but before their 
forces had marched many miles beyond Agra, 
Husayn 'All was assassinated and in a very short 
time 'Abd Allah was overthrown by a powerful 
combination of Turanl and Irani nobles at Dihli. 
This took place in 1720. In 1737 the descendants of 
the two brothers were slaughtered or dispersed when 
the Rohillas sacked Jansath. From this date their 
power rapidly declined. After the establishment of 
British paramountcy many Sayyids returned to 
their former villages only to fall victims to the wily 
money-lenders. 

Bibliography: Abu '1-Fadl-i 'AllamI, A'in-i 
Akbari, translated by H. Blochmann, vol. i, 
Calcutta 1873. Blochmann used the family 
history, the Sdddt-i Bdrha, written 1864-69 by 
one of the Sayyid family; E. T. Atkinson, Statis- 
tical, Descriptive and Historical Account of the 
North-Western Provinces of India, vol. iii, Allah- 
abad 1876; S. Chandra, Early Relations of Farruhh 
Siyar and the Sayyid Brothers, in Aligarh Medieval 
Indian Quarterly, vol. ii, nos. 1 and 2, 1954; C. C. 
Davies, The New Cambridge Modern History, vol. 
vii/1937, Ch. xxiii, Rivalries in India; W. Irvine, 
The Later Mughals, in JASB 1896: this contains 
detailed references to the original Persian sources; 
H. R. Neville, District Gazetteer of the United 
Provinces, vol. iii, Muzaffanagar, Allahabad 1903, 
reprinted 1922. (C. Collin Davies). 

BARA WAFAT is a term used in India and 
Pakistan for the 12th day of Rabi c I, observed as 
a holy day in commemoration of the death of the 
prophet Muhammad. It is compounded of bard 
(in Urdu = twelve) and wafat, death. On this day, 
portions of the Kur'an (Sura Fdtiha) and other 
works in praise of the Prophet's excellences are 
read in private houses and mosques, and sweet dishes 
are prepared, partaken of and also given away along 
with fruit as alms. Most of the ceremonies described 
in Herklots' Islam in India in connexion with Bara 
Wafat are now things of the past. It is now a day 
of rejoicing rather than mourning for the Muslims, 
who consider 12th Rabl c I at the same time as the 
birthday of the Prophet. As such it is known as 
c Id MUad al-Nabi and is observed as a public holiday 
in Pakistan. 

Bibliography: Islam in India, composed 
under the direction of G. A. Herklots; revised 
edition by W. Crooke, OUP 1921, 188. 

(Sh. Inayatullah) 



BARA'A. I. — This substantive is derived from 
the Arabic root br', which is frequently used to denote 
the general idea of "release, exemption" (from a 
duty, from an accusation — therefore "innocence" — , 
from risk, from responsibility), a meaning to be found 
repeatedly in the Kur'an. With this is connected the 
notion of "freedom from disease, cure", which is 
equally expressed by this root in classical Arabic. 
There is undoubtedly good reason to distinguish, 1 as 
a borrowing from North-Semitic, the meaning, also 
Kur'anic, of "create", when speaking of God 
(Jeffery, Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'dn, Baroda 
1938, 76). 

The word bara'a itself occurs twice in the sacred 
book. In Sura liv, 43, it means without doubt 
"immunity, absolution". On the other hand its 
interpretation, when it occurs as the first word of 
SOra ix (and one of the titles given to this Sura) is a 
matter of some difficulty: "Bard'at" of Allah and 
his prophet towards those polytheists with whom 
you have concluded a treaty". The following verse, 
which accepts a sacred truce of four months, might 
give rise to the supposition that the reference here is 
to an immunity. But the traditional interpretation 
explains this bara'a on the basis of verses 3-5, 
according to which Allah and his prophet will be 
"unbound" (bari') in regard to the unbelievers, whom 
the Muslims will then be able to kill with impunity 
(see the translation and notes of Blachere). The bard'a, 
refers then to the "breaking of the ties" — the religious 
and social ties — , a kind of dissociation or excommuni- 
cation, the dire consequences of which are exactly the 
opposite of an immunity. Bart', indeed, is the term 
used for a person or persons who have broken off all 
relations with an individual or a group, mainly with 
fellow-tribesmen; the term bard'a enters into those 
phrases which mean "to exile or to remove from the 
protection of the law" (for the tabri'a, an Ibadl penal 
sanction, see below), and the yamin al-bard'a is the 
oath, condemned by the hadith (notably Abu 
DSwud, Sunan, no. 3258), but still in evidence 
today, by which a person renounces on his own 
behaH, if he should swear falsely, adherence to Islam 
or the protection of God. The Shi'is advocate the 
"repudiation" [bard'a) of the enemies of C A1I and 
his descendants, as opposed to the "attachment" 
due to this line; contra the whole practice of 
bard'a-waldya, see the condemnation of the Hanbajl 
school apud H. Laoust, La profession de foi d'Ibn 
Batta, Damascus 1958, 162. The evil implications 
of the bard'a, thus understood, justify, in the view of 
certain Muslim scholars, the exceptional absence of 
basmala at the begining of Sura ix. 

In legal terminology, bard'at al-dhimma, or 
simply bard'at is the "absence of obligation". Bay' 
al-bard'a, for example, is the sale without guarantee 
wherein the seller is freed from any obligation in 
the event of the existence, in the sale-object, of 
such a defect as would normally allow the sale to be 
rescinded (see Santillana, Instituzioni, ii, 149, for a 
striking resemblance of formulae in this regard 
between Muslim Egypt and Christian Tuscany). 
Hence the term tabri'a is variously used for all 
sorts of declaratory or constitutive acts which absolve 
from responsibility. One may cite the tebriya of the 
present-day Moroccan Bedouin. This is an "indem- 
nity paid by the parents of the murderer to those of 
the victim for continuing to live within the tribe" 
(Loubignac, Textes arabes des Zaer, Paris 1952, 
359) ; see the similar use of bara'a < bardh noted 
in the Bethlehem region (Haddad, in ZDPV, 1917, 
233). 



The following derived technical terms may be 
noted here. 

i. Mubdra'a: a form of divorce by mutual agree- 
ment where husband and wife free themselves by a 
reciprocal renunciation of all rights (Bergstrasser- 
Schacht, Grundzuge, 85; Santillana, Istituzioni, i, 
272; cf. Averroes, Biddya, ed. Cairo 1935, ii, 66, who 
gives an accurate definition by way of comparison 
with some similar forms of (ald^). 

2. Istibrd' or "confirmation of emptiness", with 
two quite distinct connotations: a) temporary 
abstention from sex-relations with a slave-girl, in 
order to verify that she is not pregnant, on the 
occasion of her transfer to a new master or a 
change in her circumstances [see c abd], and b) an 
action of the left hand designed to empty completely 
the urethra, before the cleaning of the orifices or 
istmdjd' which must follow satisfaction of the natural 
needs (LA, i, 25; Abu '1-Hasan on the Risdla of 
Ibn Abl Zayd, ed. Cairo 1930, i, 144). 

Proceeding now to the general theory of law as 
found in the classical works, the notion of bard'a is 
there to be found in the maxim, generally accepted 
by orthodoxy and vindicated by Ash'ari doctrine: 
al-asl bard'at al-dhimma, "the basic principle is 
freedom from obligation". This means, according to 
the standpoint one adopts: "The only obligations to 
which man is subject are those defined by God", 
or: "In the absence of proof to the contrary the 
natural presumption is freedom from obligation or 
liability". 

In its first sense this bard'a afliyya embodies a 
theological notion: it contradicts the MuHazilite 
thesis which is founded upon the rationality of the 
legal values (ahkdm) of a certain number of human 
acts, and which holds that, before the promulgation 
of the revealed law, all those other acts which do 
not admit of a rationalist assessment are all illicit 
(according to some) or all permissible (according to 
others) or unqualified (according to a third group). 
See GhazalT, Mustasfd, ed. Cairo 1937, i, 40-42. 
127-132; or better: AmidI, Ikkdm, ed. Cairo 1914, i, 
130-135. Both these works refute the MuHazilite 
thesis. But for almost the totality of the orthodox 
scholars (two exceptions are indicated, for the 
Malikis, by Badtf, Ishdrdt, ed. Tunis 1351 A.H., 123, 
130-131; — the work of Lapanne-Joinville in Travaux 
Semaint Intern. Droit musulman, Paris 1952, 85, 
calls for certain corrections), the legal values are 
based, absolutely and exclusively, upon the revealed 
law; before this law and outside it, human acts have 
no hukm; and this kind of fundamental indifference, 
which must not be confused with permissibility, 
denies the notion of any obligation. 

In its second sense, which, however, the authors 
do not attempt to distinguish from the first (the 
confusion is obvious in the Shafi'I and HanafI works 
entitled al-Ashbdh wa 'l-Nazd'ir: Suyutf, ed. Cairo 
1936. 39. Ibn Nudjaym, ed. Cairo 1298 A.H., 29), 
the bard'a asliyya, whether combined or not 
with the principle of the "continuance of facts" 
(istishdb kdl), comes to support in theory innumerable 
solutions— whether strict legal rules or legal pre- 
sumptions — throughout the whole field of fikh 
(Lapanne-Joinville, op. cit., 82-88; Brunschvig, in 
Studi . . . Levi Delia Vida, i, 75). 

However, the word bard'a has been increasingly 
employed in a concrete sense to denote written 
documents of various kinds (pi. bard'dt or barawdt) 
by virtue of a semantic development which starts 
from the idea of "discharge", or doubtless, to be 
more precise, "financial, administrative discharge" 



(Khwarizml, Mafdtlh al-'Ul&m, ed. Cairo 1930, 37; 
Lekkegaard, Islamic Taxation, Copenhagen 1950, 
159; Spuler, Iran in friihislam. Zeit, Wiesbaden 1952, 
338, -458). This first sense is to be found, in the 
context of transactions concerning customs duties, 
in the treaties concluded with the Christian powers 
since the Middle Ages, notably by the Hafsids 
(i4th-isth centuries); the Latin or Roman versions 
have: albara, or arbara (Mas-Latrie, Traitis de 
paix et de commerce, Paris 1866-72: refer to the 
glossary). Equally, one can see there the sense of 
"official licence" which the word had come to 
acquire. It was by now quite readily applied to what 
we would term a "licence, certificate, diploma", to 
various written documents originating from admi- 
nistrative bodies or addressed to them : for example 
"a demand for payment or a billeting order", "a 
passport" (Dozy, Suppl., i, 63), "a label to be 
attached by the amin" to a piece of merchandise 
(Sakati, Manuel de tfisba, ed. Colin and Levi- 
Provencal, Paris 1931, 61), "a request or petition to 
the sovereign" (Brunschvig, Berbirie Orientate, ii, 
144, n. 3). The languages of the Iberian peninsula 
have collected and preserved meanings of the same 
kind: the Catalian albard, the Castillian albald, the 
Portuguese alvari. 

Neo-classical Arabic knows the term bard'at al- 
tanfidh for the consular exequatur, and bard'at al- 
thika for the diplomatic "credentials" (the dictionaries 
of Bercher and Wehr). 

In the colloquial Arabic of N. Africa, bard'a > bra 
is widely used, often in the diminutive form brtyya, 
with the meaning of a simple "letter, missive, note", 
(whence the Berber brat, with the same meaning). 
At Fez, semantic development has led to the name 
of brtyya being given, in Arabic, to a pastry con- 
sisting of a pate enclosed in a pastry-case which is 
folded in the same way as a letter ( Bruno t, T exits 
arabes de Rabat, ii, Glossary, Paris 1952, 40). 

Finally we must note the expression, very common 
in the East, "night of the bard'a" (Arabic: laylat al- 
bara'a, Turkish: berat gecesi, Persian: shab-i bardt) to 
describe the night of mid-Sha c ban, a religious festival 
(see the paper by H. H. Erdem, Berat Gecesi hakktnda 
bir tedkik, Ankara 1953). Here the precise meaning of 
bard'a escapes the author, since none of the ex- 
planations offered by traditional interpretation or 
by Western scholarship are convincing: "immunity" 
(for those beings whose lot is favourably cast on that 
night), "revelation" (to Muhammad of his prophetic 
mission by the archangel Gabriel), "creation" (of the 
world: referring to the Hebrew beri'a, Plessner, art. 
ramadAn in EI'). It would first be expedient, in 
order to orientate etymological research, to deter- 
mine, with such precision as is possible, the antiquity 
of the expression and the circumstances of its origin, 
for it is not commonly encountered in the mediaeval 
texts which deal with the mid-Sha c ban celebration. 

Under the Ottoman Turks the administrative use 
of the term was particularly developed in the form 
berat [q.v.] (berdt), which they distinguished from 
berdet, (berd'et). 

Bibliography : in the text of the article. 

(R. Brunschvig) 

II. — The theme of the bard'a was particularly 
developed by the Kharidiites with their religious zeal 
and their emphasis on separatism. In opposition to 
the wildya, which is the dogmatic duty of solidarity 
and assistance to the Muslim, the bard'a was for 
them the duty to repudiate all those who did 
not deserve this title. Throughout the heresiologists 
can be found the particular applications given by 



BARA'A — BARABRA 



only by ri 



to the principle of bara'a. It is 
the Ibadi catechists that we 
;t and full exposition. The oldest 
text which has come down to us, that of Abu Zaka- 
riyya 5 al-Diannawuni(6th/i2th century), imposes on 
a man who has reached puberty, and is in his right 
mind, repudiation of a) all the h&firun of both worlds, 
living and dead, known or unknown; b) the unjust 
imam; c) those who are censured (madhmumun) in 
the Kur'an and acknowledged rebels (mawsufun bi 
'l-ma'-siya) ; d) the man who, personally known, has 
committed a grave sin. 

A decision concerning the children of persons 
subject to the bara'a was postponed until they at- 
tained their majority. The bara'a was cancelled in 
respect of the sinner who had carried out the tawba. 
Bibliography: Abu Zakariyya 5 al- Djannawunl, 

Kitdb al-Wad c fi 'l-Furu c , Cairo 1303, noff.; E. 

Sachau, t'ber die religibsen Anschauungen der Iba- 

ditischen Muhammedaner in Oman und Ost-Afrika, 

in MSOS As. 1899, 67 ff . ; A. de Motylinski, L'Aqida 

des Abadhites, in Rec. XIV' Congr. des Or., 409 ff. 
(R. Rubinacci) 

BARABA, steppe of Western Siberia, situated in 
the oblast' of Novosibirsk of the Russian Soviet Fe- 
deral Socialist Republic, between lat. 54 and 57 
North, and bounded on the East and West by the 
ranges of hills which skirt the banks of the Irtish 
and the Ob'. This steppe, which extends for 117,000 
sq. km., has numerous lakes, most of which are 
salt; the biggest is Lake Can!. The ground, which 
is partly marshland, also has some fertile zones, 
but it is essentially a cattle-rearing region. It has 
a cold continental climate. 

The population (over 500,000 inhabitants in 1949) 
is unequally distributed; its density, which reaches 
6 to 9 inhabitants per sq. km. in the central and 
southern part, does not exceed 1 to 1.8 in the North. 
It is made up of a majority of Russian and Ukrainian 
colonists, with a Tatar minority, some of whom have 
emigrated from the Volga at a recent period, whilst 
others are autochthonous. 

The latter, whom the Russians call "Baraba 
Tatars" or Barabintsl, form a small community near 
to the other Tatar groups of Western Siberia (Tobol 
Tatars, Tiimen Tatars [q.v.]), which, however, shows 
signs of disappearing. Their very complex ethno- 
genesis gives rise to contradictory hypotheses. It 
appears that they issued from autochthonous Ugrian 
peoples who became partly turkicised when they 
made contact with the Turkish tribes who emigrated 
at the time of the foundation of the Siberian Empire. 
This turkicisation, which continued during the 
i6th/i7th centuries, was completed in the 19th 
century with the large-scale influx of Tatar immi- 
grants from the Middle Volga. 

From the conquest of the Siberian Empire by the 
Russians under Ivan IV until the time of Peter the 
Great, the Baraba steppe separated Russia from the 
Empire of the Kalmuks. The frontier region contained 
between the towns of Tara (on the Irtish) and Tomsk 
(to the East of the Ob') was then called "Baraba 
district" (Barabinskaya volost'); the indigenous po- 
pulation, in addition to speaking their own language, 
spoke Kazan Tatar and Kalmuk, and initially paid 
tribute to the Russians and the Kalmuks, though later 
to the Russians only. In the 18th century a large 
number of exiles from European Russia were settled 
in the Baraba as colonists. At the end of the 19th 
century, when the Trans-Siberian railway had been 
built, the steppe was systematically developed 



le help of 



)f Russian and Ukrainian 



The autochthonous Tatar population, which in 
the 17th century was established in villages, was 
pushed back at the end of the 18 th century towards 
the sterile zones of the steppe. Since then, its nume- 
rical importance has steadily declined. According to 
the data collected by Radlov in 1865, there were 
then 4,635 "Baraba Tatars" in existence. At the 
census taken in 1897, 4,433 were counted and, in 
1926, only 39, the remainder having had themselves 
re-classified as "Kazan Tatars". 

The Baraba Tatars at present occupy a small 
number of villages (wholly Tatar or Tatar- Russian) 
near the lakes Sabrali, Yurtush and Mangish and 
in the basin of the river Om', especially in the Kuy- 
bishev district (formerly Kainsk), along the Trans- 
Siberian railway. 

The islamisation of the Baraba, which commenced 
in the ioth/i6th century with Central Asia (Khwa- 
rizm and Bukhara) continued as the result of the 
activities of the Tatar merchants and missionaries 
of Kazan, who made their way up the Irtish. How- 
ever, it seems most probable that it was only in the 
19th century, after the Kazan Tatar colonists had 
established themselves in Western Siberia, that the 
majority of the autochthonous Tatars adopted SunnI 
Islam of the Hanafi rite. 

Radlov saw several old men who remembered their 
fathers making pagan sacrifices in the manner of 
the inhabitants of the Altai and being dressed diffe- 
rently from the Muslims. 

The Baraba Tatar dialect, which has not been 
studied much as yet, possesses certain phonetic pe- 
culiarities: (ts in the place of £ for example). It has 
almost entirely given way to Kazan Tatar and 
Russian. 

Like the Russians, the Baraba Tatars live by 
agriculture, stock breeding and fishing; trapping 
animals for fur has greatly diminished. 

Bibliography: W. Radlov, Obraztsi Narodnoy 
Literaturl Tyurkskikh Piemen, iv, St. Petersburg 
1878; idem, Phonetik der ndrdlichen Turken- 
sprachen, Leipzig 1882 ; idem, Nareciya Tyurks- 
kikh Piemen 2ivush£ikh v Yuinoy Sibiri i Djun- 
garskoy Stepi, i-x, St. Petersburg 1866-1907; 
S. K. Patkhanov, Statistiieskie Dannie Pokazi- 
vayushiiya Plemmenoy Sostav Naseleniya Sibiri, 
Yazlki i Rodi Inorodtsev, in Zap. Imp. Rus. Geog. 
ObsM. po Otdelu Statistiki, St. Petersburg 1912, 
xi/i; idem, Spisok Narodnostey Sibiri, St. Peters- 
burg 1923; N. A. Aristov, Zametki ob Etnileskom 
Sostave Tyurkskikh Piemen i Narodnostei, Svede- 
niya ob ikh Cislennosti, in Zivaya Starina, St. 
Petersburg 1896, fasc. iii-iv; N. Kostrov, Kains- 
kaya Baraba, Tomsk 1874; A. v. Middendorf, 
Baraba, St. Petersburg 1871; S. P. Suslov, Zapad- 
naya Sibir, Moscow 1947. 

(W. Barthold-[A. Bennigsen]) 
BARABRA (for Barabira; sing. Barbari): Nubian- 
speaking Muslims inhabiting the Nile Banks between 
the Fiist and Third Cataracts. The term includes 
the Kunuz, Sukkflt and Mahas. The name Barabra 
is not commonly used by these peoples of them- 
selves, and is stated by Lane (i, 177, col. 3; to 
be a late and modern application of the term 
used by earlier writers for the Berbers of the 
Maghrib. The Danakla [q.v.], who live aboye 
the Third Cataract, are linguistically and physically 
allied to the Kunuz but do not regard them- 
selves as Barabra. The territory now inhabited 
by the Barabra formed the northern part of 



BARABRA — BARADA 



the Christian Nubian kingdom of Makurra, which 
entered into treaty-relations with <Abd Allah b. 
Sa'd in 31/652. Arab settlement began with a 
migration of Rabi'a into the Aswan region in 869. 
After the defeat of Abu Rakwa (396/1006), the 
Fatimid al-Hakim is said to have conferred the 
title of Kanz al-Dawla on the Shaykh of Rabl'a 
at Aswan (al-Makrizi, al-Baydn waH-Frdb < ammd 
bi-ard Misr min al-A'rdb, ed. and tr. F. Wusten- 
feld, "El-Macrizi's Abhandlung iiber die in Aegypten 
eingewanderten arabischen Stdmme", Gottinger Studien, 
ii, vii, 434-5, 475, Gottingen 1847), whence the 
Barabra of the vicinity, resulting from Arab-Nubian 
intermarriage, are known as BanI Kanz or Kunuz. 
In the 8th/i4th century the kingdom of Makurra 
disintegrated under Arab pressure; ii termarriage 
took place and Islam superseded Christianity. After 
Selim I's conquest of Egypt, garrisons of Bosniak 
troops (locally called Ghuzz) were established at 
Aswan, Ibrim and Say, while the Barabra territory 
was placed under a kdshif. In spite of intermarriage 
and the adoption of Nubian speech, the Ghuzz re- 
mained a distinct group until the 19th century. In the 
18th century the northern Barabra were under the 
suzerainty of Humam Abu Yflsuf , the powerful shaykh 
of the Hawwara. On the eve of Muhammad C A1I 
Pasha's invasion of the Sudan, the Barabra Kdshiflik 
was held jointly by three brothers whose headquarters 
were at Darr. The Ghuzz enclaves of Aswan, Ib^tn 
and Say were under their own dghds. Muhammad 
'Uthman al-MIrghani, the founder of the Khatmivva 
order, travelled from Aswan to Dunkula a few years 
before Muhammad 'Ali's conquest and won many 
adherents. The poverty of the Barabra territory has 
been a stimulus to emigration. In the 16th century 
Mahasi colonies were formed on the Blue Nile by 
immigrants who had a reputation as holy men and 
established Kur'anic schools. From the 18th 
century travellers have noted the "Berberine" 
servants in Cairo. 

Bibliography: H. A. MacMichael, A History 

of the Arabs in the Sudan, Cambridge 1922, i, 

12-34, I 55-i9<> and Index; J. S. Trimingham, 

Islam in the Sudan, London 1949. Both these 

works contain extensive bibliographical references. 

The condition of the Barabra in the early 19th 

century is fully described in J. L. Burckhardt, 

Travels in Nubia, London 1819. (P. M. Holt),- 

BARADA, referred to by Na'aman the leper 

(Kings, ii, 5, 12) by the name of Abana, and by 

Greek and Latin authors called Chrysorrhoas, is the 

most important perennial river of the eastern slopes 

of the Anti-Lebanon. It has determined the site of 

Damascus and permitted the development of the 

Ghuta. 

It owes its existence to the high peaks which do- 
minate the gap between ZabadanI and Sarghaya. 
At the foot of a limestone cliff over 1,000 m. high, 
a copious Vauclusian spring forms a vast lake on 
the Western side of the Zabadani hollow at the foot 
of the Djabal Shaykh Mansur. It is the overflow 
from this lake which gives birth to the Barada, 
which meanders over the gentle slope of the Zaba- 
dani plain, receiving the waters from many springs 
in the area. After setting out peacefully on its course, 
the Barada turns eastwards, following the axial 
change of direction Of the eastern branch of the Anti- 
Lebanon. At Takiyya (hydro-electric station), it 
starts upon its fall. It then assumes the aspect of 
a racing torrent bounding through an enclosed gorge, 
the walls of which are formed of pliocene and eo- 
cene conglomerates. At Suk WadI Barada (ancient 



Abila) the gorge widens a little and then, 30 km. 
from its source, c Ayn Fldja empties into it. This 
spring, situated only a few metres above the level 
of the Barada, almost doubles the volume of the 
river. It is an overflow spring with a large and very 
regular flow of water, welling up in the cretaceous 
limestone; above the grotto is a Roman temple. At 
low-water, it brings down 5 cub. m. of water per 
second and without this influx the Barada might 
well dry up during the summer. Part of this spring 
is harnessed and piped down to provide Damascus 
with drinking water. Though the Barada races im- 
petuously towards Damascus, man's intervention 
checks its impetus and brings it under control. With- 
out the skill of man, the Barada would have hollowed 
out a sluggish bed through the centre of the Damas- 
cus depression; its valley would have been no more 
than a narrow ribbon of greenery in the midst of 
parched steppes, finally loosing itself in swamps. 
Through the ages, man has diverted the river into 
successive channels, flowing at different levels pa- 
rallel to the main bed of the river, before reaching 
the outskirts of Rabwa. There, at the foot of the 
Kasyun, the six main canals, called nahr, fan out. 
By means of manifold ramifications, their waters 
carry life-giving moisture to the arid land, trans- 
forming an area of over 25 km. in length by 15 km. 
in breadth in the basalt depression of Damascus, 
filled with marl brought down in the form of depo- 
sits by the river, into a fertile oasis. The Barada, 
which irrigates nearly 10,000 hectares of orchards 
and gardens, has pushed back the desert to a distance 
of 20 km. from the mountains; beyond the Ghuta. 
the Mardj is covered by extensive cultivation and 
from December to June displays a carpet of green 
meadows. 

Water not absorbed by irrigation passes on to- 
wards the steppe where, in a trough devoid of out- 
let, it becomes stagnant in the marshes of 'Utayba. 

Going downstream the following canals lead out 
of the Barada: at Hama, on the left bank, the Nahr 
Yazid, of Nabatean origin, restored by the Caliph 
Yazid I,, goes to swell the Nahr Thawra. At 
Dummar, on the right bank, N. Mizzawl carries 
water to the market- town of Mazza; then, still on 
the same bank, the Darani which supplies Kafar 
Sus and Daraya; after that, on the left bank, the 
N. Thawra, of Aramaean origin, which by itself 
irrigates nearly half the oasis. On the threshold of 
Rabwa, two canals, in the main urban, diverge: the 
Kanawat, of Roman origin and restored by the 
Umayyads, swells the older watercourse: the N. 
Banas (literary form) or Baniyas, an Aramaean 
creation. About 670, Arnulf mentions magna IV 
flumina, which are those existing in 724 under 
Hisham b. <Abd al-Malik: Yazid, Thawra, Banas 
and Kanawat, and in the 6th/i2th century, in Ibn 
c Asakir's time. According to a plan of Damascus 
prepared by German travellers in 1572, the Barada 
is shown as a navigable waterway. 

In the town, the Kanawat, the Banas and the 
Barada itself provide water for hammams, mosques, 
fountains and houses (drinking water has only re- 
cently been piped from c Ayn Fidja) to pass on again 
into the countrydise. A most ingenious system of 
irrigation has made possible the creation of an arti- 
ficial oasis of exceptional fertility. The manifold 
canals diverted from the Barada weave a close net- 
work watering the villages and the vegetation of the 
Ghuta. The Barada plays a major r61e, making up 
for the lack of adequate regular rainfall (Damascus 
receives only about 200 mm.). It imparts humidity 



1030 



BARADA — BARADOST 



to the atmosphere, gives rise to the autumnal and 
and spring mists and renders plant and animal life 
possible and thus, the human habitat. 

Yakut (i, 389) indicates a village with the name of 
Barada to the East of Halab. Lammens recognised 
it as Barad in the Djabal Sim c an. He also indicates 
(iii, 69) a canal called Barada, excavated at al-Ramla 
by the Umayyad SulaymSn b. c Abd al-Malik. 

Bibliography: Ibn 'Asakir, Ta'rikh Madlna 

Dimashk, PAAD, 1951, 145-148; Yakut, Mu'djam 

al-Bulddn, ed. Beirut, i, 378-79; Kurd C A1I, Ghufa 

Dimaskk, PAAD, 1952, 114-119; P. Geyer, Itinera 

Hierosolumitana, 276; Le Strange, Palestine under 

the Moslems, 1890, 57-59, 265 f.; Wultzinger and 

Watzinger, Damaskus, 1924, ii, 37; R. Dussaud, 

Topographic historique de la Syrie, 1927, 287 f.; 

R. Trejse, Irrigation dans la Ghouta de Datnas, in 

REI, ^529, 459-533; L. Dubertret, L'hydrologie 

. . . . de la Syrie et du Liban . . . , in Rev. Giogr. 

Phys. et Giol. dyn., 1933, vi, 439; J. Sauvaget, 

Esquisse d'une histoire de la ville de Damas, in 

REI, 1934, 427; R. Thoumin, Giographie humaine 

de la Syrie Centrale, 1936, 52-90; M. Ecochard and 

and CI. Le Coeur, Les Bains de Damas, in PIFD, 

1942 ; L. Dubertret, Apercu de Geographic Physique 

sur le Liban, I'Anti-Liban et la Damascene, Notes 

et Mimoires iv, 1948, 191. (N. Elisseepp) 

BARADA or baradan, the ancient Cydnus, 

now Djayhun, a river rising in Cappadocia, which 

flows towards the West, irrigates the gardens near 

Mar'ash and those of Tarsus, brings down alluvial 

deposits to the low-lying plain of Cilicia and empties 

into the sea on the Western side of the Gulf of Alexan- 

dretta. In ancient times, small ships sailed up it 

as far as Tarsus. 

Bibliography: Mas'udl, Mur&di, i, 264; 
Yakut, i, 389, iii, 526; Le Strange, Palestine under 
the Moslems, 63, 378, 419; CI. Cahen, La Syrie 
du Nord, 146-151. (N. Elisseeff) 

BARADAN, a town in 'Irak in 'Abbasid times. 
According to the Arab geographers it was situated 
some 15 miles north of Baghdad on the main road to 
Samarra and at some distance from the east bank of 
the Tigris, a little above the confluence of the Nahr 
al-Khalis and the latter. The Kh&lis canal, a branch 
of the Nahrawan (or Diyala) flowed immediately 
past Baradan. The caliph al-Mansur held his court 
here for a brief period, before he definitely resolved 
on building a new capital on the site of the modern 
Baghdad (cf. Ya'kubl, Bulddn, 256). There was a 
bridge in Baghdad, a street and a gate (after this a 
cemetery also) in the eastern half of the town called 
after Baradan which was two post stations distant; 
cf. Le Strange, Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate 
(1900), 360 (index). When the author of the Mardsid 
made his extract from Yakut (about 700/1300), 
Baradan was quite desolate and unknown. It is 
doubtless to be sought for in the present mound of 
ruins at Badran, the position of which agrees admi- 
rably with the statement of Arab authors. Arab 
sources suggest that the name Baradan is arabicised 
from the Persian bar da-dan ("the place of the 
prisoners"), which suggests the possibility of a 
Jewish colony settled here presumably by Nebu- 
chadnezar. 

Bibliography :BGA, passim; Yakut, i, 551 ff.; 
Mardsid, Lex. geogr. (ed. Juynboll), i, 168; M. 
Streck, Babylonien nach den arab. Geographen, ii, 
230 ff.; Le Strange, 50; Weil, Chalifen, ii, 569; 
H. Petermann, Reisen im Orient (1861), ii, 311; 
Cemik, in Petermann's Geogr. Mitteil., Erg.-Heft 
44, 34, 36*. 38. (M. Streck-[S. H. Longmgg]) 



BARADOST (Bradust), name of two Kurdish 
districts. The first in the south, between Usluiu, 
Rayat and Rawanduz, with Kani Resh as its chief 
town, perched on a crag, at an altitude of 4,372 feet. 
In the north it borders on Girdi (Shamdlnan), in the 
West on Shirwan and in the East on Bilbas. The 
massif of Kandll (C. J. Edmonds, 244, n.) consti- 
tutes the framework of the district. The sources of 
the Little Zab (Laven, then Kalu in the Persian 
section) are situated in this region. The famous Ur- 
art;i stele of Kel-i Shin is likewise situated there, 
on the pass of the same name. There is another 
Baradust, called Sumay Baradust, lying to the 
North, between Targavar and Kotur, with Cehrlk 
Kal'a as the principal residence (B. Nikitine, 79, 
263). It was there that Bab was held before his 
execution at Tabriz. The early history of Baradust 
is not well known to us. According to M. E. ZakI 
{Ta'rikh, 388, 389). the founders of this principality 
were the Hasanwayhids (348-406/959-1015) in the 
person of Nasir al-Dawla Badr and his three sons. 
Ghazi Kiran b. Sultan Ahmad was the most famous 
amir of this line. At the outset he opposed Shah 
Ismail, but subsequently his relations with him 
improved. The Shah bestowed the lakab of GljazI 
Kiran on him and gave him the districts of Tar- 
gavar, Sumay and Dul as an ik(d'. Thus it was that 
this valiant amir remained independent as regards 
internal affairs until the famous battle of Caldiran 
(920/1514), after which, like others of the Kurdish 
amits, he rallied to the Ottoman sultan. The latter 
recognised his worth and gave him numerous dis- 
tricts, nawdhi, in the wildyets of Arbil, Baghdad 
and Diyarbakr. The amirate of Sumay was founded 
by Shah Muhammad Bek b. Ghazi Kiran, whose 
descendants ruled it down to the extinction of this 
branch. In 395/1005, the amir of Sumay was called 
Awliya Bek. As for Targavar, the amirs of this branch 
likewise derived from the Baradust tribe. Sharaf 
Khan says that Nasir Bek b. Kharin Bek b. Shaykh 
Hasan was amir of this region in his time (ioth/i6th 
century). The amir Khan Yakdas was the most fa- 
mous representative of this branch. He had defend- 
ed himself in the fortress of Dimdim, which became 
one of the main themes of Kurdish folklore. He was 
amir at the beginning of the reign of Shah 'Abbas 
I, against whom he revolted, shutting himself up 
inside the fortress. These events took place in 1017. 
Among the other Kurdish chieftains of Baradust, 
may be mentioned in the south Fayd Allah Bey, 
referred to by Layard (373, 374). and Yusif Bek > 
who made himself famous by his fight against Mir 
Muhammad of Shamdinan. In spite of their being 
bound by an agreement, he killed him treacherously, 
whence is derived the saying "Baradust bir ay dust. 
(Baradust friend of a month . . .). In the north, 
there was Sadik Khan, who played a r61e in the ac- 
cession of the Kadjar dynasty. Later, he rose against 
Fath "All Shah (1211/1796). Closer to us in time, 
Isma'il Agha SImfco 'Abdoy must be mentioned, well 
known during and on the morrow of the first world 
war on the Russo-Turkish front and in 'Irak. In 
February 1918, SImko lured the Nestorian Patriarch 
Benyamln Mar Shim'fin into a trap and had him 
assassinated. For a while, SImko remained master 
of the whole region West of Lake Urmiya, but in 
1922 a Persian punitive expedition expelled him 
from the region. He sought refuge near Rawanduz 
and a few years later tried to return to Persia and 
re-establish his position, but was killed near Ushnu 
(C. J. Edmonds, 252, 305, 313, 315, 365)- Among 
the main tribes of Baradust, that which bore this 



BARADOST — BARAK BABA 






name has lost its importance. At present, the Balakl 
tribe is the most powerful in the South, numbering 
some ten thousand families. Their territory in the 
massif of Kandil is difficult of access. Its centre is 
the township of Rayat. Formerly, the amir Sohran 
was dominant there; it was his custom to take a 
man from each family to incorporate in his army. 
When Sohran's line died out, the tribe regained its 
independence, which it still retains down to the 
present time (1956). Its present chief is 'Aziz Bek 
(M. E. Zakl, Khuldsa, 392). In the north, the 
Shikak constitute the main tribe, who number some 
2,000 families (M. E. Zakl, Khuldsa, 413). According 
to the Ta'rikh-i Qiewdet, quoted by M. E. Zakl 
(ibid., 238), both they and the Haydaranlu shared 
a common origin. Their original habitat was in the 
neighbourhood of Mayyafarikln. 

Bibliography: H. C. Rawlinson, Notes on a 

journey through Persian Kurdistan, in JRGS, x, 

20; Layard, Niniveh and Babylon, London 1853, 

373-374; Binder, Voyage au Kurdistan, 1887, 103; 

F. Millingen, Wild Life among the Kurds, 1870, 

345 ff.; O. Mann, Die Mundart der Mukri Kurden, 

1906, ii, 1-4, 19-48 (Dimdim), 24 n. 17 (Kani Resh); 

Westarp, Unter Halbmondn. Sonne, 1912, 211-225; 

M. E. Zakl, Ta'rikh al-Duwal . . . al-Kurdiyya, 

Cairo 1945; Khuldsat Ta'rikh al-Kurd, Baghdad 

1936, 200-206 (Dimdim); C. J. Edmonds, Kurds, 

Turks, Arabs, OUP 1957; Folklora Kyrmanca, 

Erivan 1936, 567-578 (Dimdim); Erivan 1957, 

106-125 (Dimdim); B. Nikitine, Les Kurdes, 1956, 

79, 80, 263 (Cehrik Kal'a). (B. Nikitine) 

BARAHIMA (Brahmans). The Arabs' knowledge 

of the Brahmans and Brahmanism was, with the 

exception of al-BIrunl, very scanty (probably 

their acquaintance with Buddhists, called Sumaniyya 

— cf. the term Samanaioi applied to them by later 

Greeks like Alexander Polyhistor — was more direct 

since these were spread in Persia and eastern 'Irak). 

In Muslim theological works, the doctrine most 

persistently attributed— from Ibn Hazm to Taha- 

nawl (in his Dictionary of Technical Terms) — to the 

Brahmans is a denial of Prophecy. The accounts 

given in Ibn Hazm and al-Shahrastanl are probably 

versions of the same argument. According to the 

former, the Brahmans say that if God wanted to lead 

people aright through the prophets, why does He 

Hot compel the reason of each individual to the 

truth?. According to the latter, they base their 

denial of prophecy on the self-sufficiency of the 

human reason. Al-BIrunl (ed. Sachau, 51-2) says 

that the Hindus deny the need of prophets in 

connexion with the Law and Ritual which they 

regard as having been established once and for all 

by the Rishls, their wise and holy men, — but affirm 

their need for the spiritual weal of mankind at 

special times when evil becomes rampant. 

As for the derivation of the word Brahman, Ibn 
Hazm says that they claim descent from an ancient 
king called Barahml (or Barhaml) ; al-Mas'fldl thinks 
they have descended from Brahman, a king who, 
with the help of sages, founded the Hindu religion, 
astronomy and other sciences. Al-BIrunl refers to 
the Hindu myth that the Brahmans have originated 
from the head of Braham (or Brahim) which signi- 
fies Nature and that they are thus regarded as the 
choicest part of mankind. Tahinawl, op. cit., asserts 
that they claim descent from Ibrahim, the Prcphet, 
a doctrine which possibly reflects a much later 
Hindu opinion which wanted to claim this Judaic- 
Christian- Islamic figure as its own. 

The only authentic source is undoubtedly al- 



Blrunl, who, although he wrote his work in -ihazna 
(about 1030 A.D.), had stayed in the north-western 
part of the Indian sub-continent, learnt Sanskrit, 
translated many works from that language and had 
acquired an intimate knowledge of Hindu philo- 
sophy, religion, law, literature, society and sciences, 
such as astronomy. In the preface he complains that 
no reliable work on Hindu India existed, that even 
Abu' l-'Abbas al-Iranshahrl who had written accur- 
ately about Judaism and Christianity had failed to 
do so with regard to Hinduism and that he 
himself undertook to write this work at the insti- 
gation of his master Abu Sahl 'Abd al-Munlm b. 
'All b. Nuh. (Al-Mas'udI mentions the works 
of Abu '1-KSsim al-Balkhl and al-Hasan b. 
Musa al-Nawbakhtl). Al-BIrunl first narrates the 
difficulties which beset a foreign student: the 
difficulty and artificiality of the written Sanskrit, 
the utter difference between Hinduism and Islam 
and the almost total social Hindu taboos against 
foreigners, etc. Then follow six sections on Hindu 
Religion and Metaphysics and so on. The author 
gives a detailed description of the manners of the 
Brahmans their way of life, etc. 

In the works of Muslim travellers in India it is 
usually the Yogis, thtir practices and way of life 
that gains prominence; there is little about Hindu 
philosophy or the Brahmans. The practices of 
Yoga, as a way of attaining spiritual bliss or know- 
ledge, have sometimes aroused curiosity, but have 
generally been regarded as suspect if not altogether 
damnable. (F. Rahman) 

BARAHCT [see barhut]. 
BARAK [see Supplement]. 
BARAK BABA, a Turkish dervish who acquired 
some celebrity in the time of the Il-Khans. He is 
said to have been a disciple of the famous Sari 
Saltuk [?.d.], and is mentioned in connexion with the 
Babal, Bektashi, and Mewlewi movements. His 
followers were called Barakls; his Khalifa was 
Hayran Emirdji. A story preserved by Yazldjloghlu 
'All makes him a Saldjuk prince, converted to 
Christianity by the Greek patriarch and then 
reconverted to Islam by Sari Saltuk, who transmitted 
his supernatural powers to him and gave him the name 
Barak. The Arabic sources describe him as a native 
of Tokat (the Bukdt in the printed text of Ibn 
Hadjar should be amended accordingly), and say 
that his father was a high officer and his uncle a 
well-known scribe. From Turkey he travelled to 
Iran, where he is said to have exercised some influence 
on Ghazan and Oldjaytu. In Djum. I 706/Nov. 1306 
he arrived with a party of disciples in Damascus, 
where his dress and behaviour were sufficiently 
remarkable to win him a place in the Arabic 
chronicles of the Mamluk Empire. He visited Jeru- 
lem, but was prevented from visiting Egypt, and 
then returned to Iran. In 707/1307-8 he prevailed on 
Oldjaytu to send him on a mission to Gaylan, where 
he was killed. 

The Turkish name Barak is sometimes, by con- 
fusion with the Arabic Burdk [?.«.], misspelt thus. 
The form berrdk, given by Huart, is also mistaken. 
The name is in fact a Turkish word for a special kind 
of dog, identified by Koprulu as a 'hairless dog* 
(Chamanisme 14-15, n. 26) and by Pelliot as a 'long- 
haired, more or less fabulous dog* (Notts sur Vhisioire 
de la Horde d'or, Paris 1950, 57-8). The name is 
not infrequent among Mongols and Turks in the 
I3th-i5th centuries (for some examples see G. 
Moravczik, Byzantinoturcica, Budapest 1942-3. s.v. • 



1032 



BARAK BABA — BARAKAT 



Papaxo? and mxpax; see also burak hadjib and 
burak khan). 

Bibliography : Aflaki, Mandkib aV-Arifln, tr. 
CI. Huart, Les saints des derviches tourneurs, Paris 
1918-22, ii, 324; MakrizI, Suluk, ii, 28-9 (Qua- 
tremere, Mamlouks, ii, 267-8) ; Ibn Hadjar, al-Durar 
al-Kamina, i, 473-4; Ibn TaghribirdI, Nudjum, 
Cairo, viii, 169-70; Manhal Safi (Wiet, n. 638); 
c Ayni, c Ikd al-Qiuman, cited by Husayn Husam 
al-Din, Amasya Ta'rlkhi, 460-4. Barak Baba has 
been studied by M. F. Koprulu, who sees in his 
teachings and conduct an expression of the influence 
of Turco-Mongol Shamanism on Islam. See his 
Turk Edebiyyatlnda ilk Mutasawwifler, Istanbul 
1918, 235 and n. 1; Anadoluda Isldmiyyet, Ddr 
al-Funiln Edebiyydt Fakultesi Medjmu l asl, ii, 1922, 
392-4; Anadolu Selcuklulari tarihinin yerli Kaynak- 
lari, Belleten, vii, 1943, 431 n. 1.; Influence du 

Chamanisme lurco-mongol Istanbul 1929, 

14-17. See further P. Wittek, Yazljloghlu l AU on 
the Christian Turks of the Dobruja, BSOAS, xlv, 
I952> 650, 658-9; Abdulbaki Golpinarh, Yunus 
Emre hayati, Istanbul 1936, 38-49 (not seen). 

(B. Lewis) 
BARAKA, blessing. In the Kur'an, the word is 
used only in the plural: barakdt, like rahtna and 
saldm, are sent to man by God. It can be translated 
by "beneficent force, of divine origin, which causes 
superabundance in the physical sphere and pros- 
perity and happiness in the psychic order". Naturally, 
the text of the Kur'an (kaldmu-lldh) is charged with 
baraka. God can implant an emanation of baraka 
in the person of his prophets and saints: Muhammad 
and his descendants are especially endowed there- 
with. These sacred personages, in their turn, may 
communicate the effluvia of their supernatural 
potential to ordinary men, either during their life- 
time or after their death, the manner of transmission 
being greatly varied, sometimes strange. God, how- 
ever, can withhold his baraka. 

Among agricultural peoples, a baraka is recognised 
in cereals, causing them to multiply miraculously. 
Baraka is to be met with, here and there, attributed 
to the most diverse objects. Already in the Kur'an, 
the olive tree and the 27th Ramadan are mubdrak. 
In practice, the word ended up by taking the 
secular meaning of "very adequate quantity": 
ma fihi baraka. It is used in the vocabulary of the 
Almohads in the sense of "gratuity which is added 
to a soldier's pay". The MaghribI dialects have va- 
rious uses of the word in the adverbial sense of 
"enough". 

Derivatives of the word BRK occur in numerous 
formulas of politeness: expressions of thanks, com- 
pliments, euphemisms; they are often associated in 
the context with derivatives of the root S'D. The 
rather obscure iabdrakalldh (Kur'an, lxvii, 1) is 
commonly used as a prophylactic against the "evil 
eye". 

Bibliography : Wellhausen, Reste arab. Heiden- 

tums 2 , 139; E. Westermarck, Ritual and Belief in 

Morocco, i, 35-261 ; M. Cohen, Genou, famille, force 

dans le domaine chamito-simitique, in Memorial 

Henri Basset, Paris 1928, i, 203; J. Chelhod, La 

Baraka chez les Arabes, RHR, 1955; I A s.v. 

Bereket (by Kaslm Kafrall). (G. S. Colin) 

BARAKA KHAN [see berke khan]. 

BARAKAT, the name of four Sharifs of Mecca. 

(1) Barakat I b. Hasan b. <Adjlan belonged to the 

seventh generation after Katada b. Idris [see 

al- c arab, djazirat; makka], the founder of the last 

line of Sharifs. As a youth Barakat was associated 



with his father in the rule (809-21/1407-18), which 
was challenged by several cousins. The father 
abdicated because of his age in 821/1418, though he 
lived on until 829/1426. After being confirmed in 
office by Barsbay, the Mamluk sultan of Egypt, who 
had made himself the supreme authority over Mecca, 
Barakat reigned until 845/1442 in the face of 
opposition by his brothers. Unseated then by other 
members of the line, he returned to power in the last 
years of his life (851-9/1447-55). During Barakat's time 
the Mamluk sultan Cakmak appointed an Inspector 
(ndzir) for the Holy Cities and established a garrison 
of 50 horse in Mecca. A noteworthy increase in 
Indian trade and the number of Indian pilgrims 
went hand in hand with greater Egyptian control in 
the Red Sea. Barakat visited Cairo in 851/1447. He 
was succeeded by his son Muhammad (regn. 859-903/ 
1455-97). 

(2) Barakat II b. Muhammad, a grandson of 
Barakat I, shared the rule with his father from 878 
to 903/1473-97. From 903 on he struggled against 
his brothers Hazza' and Ahmad Djazan. In 908/15*03 
Barakat was sent to Cairo in chains, leaving the 
way open for another brother, Humayda, to become 
Sharif. Restored in 910/1504, Barakat remained the 
lord of Mecca until his death in 931/1525. From 910 
to 918/1504-12 his brother Kaytbay was associated 
with him, and thereafter his young son Muhammad 
Abu Numayy II. The new threat of the Portuguese 
prompted the Mamluk sultan Kansuh al-Ghuri to 
delegate Husayn al-Kurdi with a military force to 
protect Djidda, which he enclosed with a wall and 
towers. Upon the entry of Selim Yavuz into Cairo, 
Barakat sent Abu Numayy (aet. c. 12) in 923/1517 
to wait upon him, and the Ottoman conqueror 
recognised the status quo in Mecca. For some reason 
Selim did not take advantage of this opportunity to 
make the pilgrimage, though the first Ottoman 
mahmal was sent out in 923 and the first shipment 
of wheat for the population of Mecca went by sea 
from Suez to Djidda. Barakat was succeeded by 
Abu Numayy (regn. 931-74/1525-66), from whom all 
the subsequent Sharifs of Mecca were descended. 

From the first half of the nth/i7th century to the 
i4th/2oth century, three clans among the progeny 
of Abu Numayy II contended with each other over 
the Sharif ate: Dhawu Zayd, Dhawu <Abd Allah, and 
Dhawu Barakat. The eponym of Dhawu Barakat 
was Abu Numayy's son Barakat, who never held the 
office of Sharif himself. 

(3) Barakat III b. Muhammad b. Ibrahim, a 
great-grandson of the eponym of Dhawu Barakat, 
was the first of this clan to wear the dignity, 
acceding in 1082/1672. His installation was the work 
of a North African, Muhammad b. Sulayman al- 
Rudanl, an enemy of Dhawu Zayd and an intimate 
of the Ottoman Grand Vizier, Ahmad Koprulu. 
During the first part of Barakat's tenure Muhammad 
b. Sulayman instituted a number of radical reforms 
designed to improve the lot of the foreign elements 
and the poorer classes in Mecca at the expense of the 
old aristocracy. With the death of Koprulu in 1087/ 
1676 the reformer's star declined. Barakat stayed 
on as Sharif until his death in 1093/1682, being 
succeeded by his son Sa c Id (regn. 1093-5/1682-4). 

(4) Barakat IV b. Yahya, a grandson of Barakat 
III, ruled less than two months (1135-6/1723)- After 
the abdication of his father, he was defeated by 
Dhawu Zayd, whereupon he and his father fled to 

The last Sharif of Dhawu Barakat was <Abd 
Allah b. Husayn, a nephew of Barakat IV, whose 



BARAKAT - 



reign was almost as brief as his uncle's. Placed in 
power in 1 184/1770 by Muhammad Abu Dhahab. 
the general sent to the Hidjaz by C A1I Bey [q.v.] of 
Egypt, he lacked the strength to maintain himself 
after Abii Dhahab's withdrawal. From then on the 
Sharifate remained the exclusive property first of 
Dhawii Zayd and then of Dhawii <Abd Allah. 

Bibliography: F. Wustenfeld, ed., Die 

Chroniken der Stadt Mekka, Gottingen 1857-61; 

Ahmad b. Zayni Dahlan, Khul&sat al-Kaldm, 

Cairo 1305 ; Ahmad al-Siba% Ta?rikh Makka, 

Cairo 1372; C. Snouck Hurgronje, Mekka, The 

Hague 1888-9. (G. Rentz) 

BARAKZAY [see Afghanistan]. 

al-BARAMIKA or Al Barmak (Barmakids), an 
Iranian family of secretaries and wazirs of the early 
'Abbasid Caliphs. 

1. Origins. — The name Barmak, traditionally 
borne by the ancestor of the family, was not a propel 
name, according to certain Arab authors, but a word 
designating the office of hereditary high priest of 
the temple of Nawbahar, near Balkh. This inter- 
pretation is confirmed by the etymology which is 
now accepted, deriving the term from the Sanskrit 
word parmak — "superior, chief". The term Naw- 
bahar, moreover, likewise derives from Sanskrit 
(nova vihdra — "new monastery") and evokes the 
name of the famous Buddhist monastery, visited 
in the ist/7th century by the Chinese pilgrim Hiuan 
Ts'ang, at Po-Ho, another name for Balkh (Hiouen 
Thsang, Mtmoires, trad. St. Julien, i, Paris 1857, 
30-32). Furthermore, some of the Arab geographers 
likewise affirm that the Nawbahar was dedicated to 
the worship of idols (Hbddat al-awthdn) ; the des- 
cription of it left by Ibn al-Fakih (322-25) also cor- 
responds in the main with that of a vihdra and des- 
cribes a monument, which can be recognised as the 
characteristic Buddhist stupa, in spite of the distortion 
of its name. The later authors (Yakut, iv, 819; Ibn 
Khallikan, Cairo 1948, iii, 198), who make this sanc- 
tuary a Zoroastrian Fire-Temple, were doubtless in- 
fluenced by the tradition which envisaged the Bar- 
makids as the descendants of the ministers of the 
Sasanid Empire (see especially Nizam al-Mulk, 
Siydsat-ndma, trans. Schefer, 224). It is difficult 
to ascertain when these imaginary interpretations, 
universally disseminated in subsequent literature 
(especially local literature, see Fadd'il Balkh, ap. Ch. 
Schefer, Chrestomathie persane, i, Paris 1883, 71), 
which have been accepted for too long by modern 
scholarship, arose. The view has sometimes been 
held that they may have seen the light of day 
in al-Mansur's reign. It would, however, be more 
accurate to consider them as being much later than 
that period. 

We possess little precise information on the Naw- 
bahar and its high priests during the first century of 
Islam. The lands attached to the temple, amounting 
to some 1,500 sq. km., are known to have been the 
property of the family, who appears subsequently 
to have retained them, at least in part, whilst the 
rich village of Rawan, near Balkh, belonged to Yahya 
b. Khalid personally (Yakut, ii, 742). 

According to al-Baladhuri (Futuh, 409), the Naw- 
bahar, centre of national resistance, was attacked 
and damaged under Mu c 5wiya, probably shortly 
after 42/663-64; al-Tabari (a, I2 o5) says the native 
prince NIzak still prayed there in 90/708-09. In 
107/725-26, under Hisham, according to al-Tabari, 
Balkh was raised from its ruins by the efforts of 
Barmak on the order of the governor Asad b. c Abd 
Allah ; what had happened to the temple is not known, 



but there are no grounds for supposing that it was 
rebuilt as a Fire-Temple, as is sometimes assumed. 
As for the last Barmak, the father of Khalid, he is 
a figure known to us by information which is to a 
large extent legendary. 

Thus it is that he is held to have possessed medical 
knowledge and to have treated, among other patients, 
the Umayyad prince Maslama b. c Abd al-Malik 
(Tabari, ii, 1181). One tradition, moreover, intended 
perhaps to benefit the sons of c Abd Allah b. Muslim, 
makes the latter, who with his brother Kutayba had 
participated in the repression of the revolt of Balkh 
in 86/705, and not Barmak, the real father of Khalid 
(Tabari, lob. cit.). Furthermore we do not know 
whether Barmak, who was again in Balkh in 107/ 
725-26, had previously gone to the Court of the 
Caliphs, as has been maintained, and had there em- 
braced Islam. However that may be, his sons left 
Khurasan for 'Irak, where they settled at al-Basra 
and there became clients of the Azd tribe (L. Massig- 
non, in Westdstliche Abh. Tschudi, Wiesbaden 1954, 
159 and 168). There Khalid seems to have been the 
first to be converted, followed by his brothers Su- 
layman and al-Hasan. 

Bibliography: L. Bouvat, Les Barmecides, 
Paris 1912, 25-36; S. Nadvi, in Isl. Culture, vi, 
1932, 19-28; H. W. Bailey, in BSOS, xi, 1943, 3 
(on the word barmak) and the references given 
above. (W. Barthold-[D. Sourdel]) 

2. Khalid b. Barmak.— Practically nothing is 
known of Khalid's activities until the moment he 
appeared, towards the end of the Umayyad period, 
in the ranks of the Hashimite movement; he was 
then entrusted with the distribution of the plunder 
in Kahtaba's army. Shortly after that, the new 
Caliph al-Saffah entrusted the management of the 
diwdns of the army and land-tax (al-diund waH- 
kharddi) to him, and then the control of all the 
bureaux, so that, as one chronicler says, he played 
the role of a wazir; attached to the personal service 
of the Caliph, he had the honour of seeing his own 
daughter suckled by al-Saffah's wife whilst his own 
wife acted as foster-mother to his sovereign's daugh- 
ter. Under al-Mansur, Khalid continued to play an 
important role, without however being, as is too 
frequently averred, the right hand of the Caliph. 
He seems to have remained for at least a year direc- 
d taxation, though he w 



lasted fi 



by t; 



intriguer Abu Ayyub. Appointed governor of Fars, 
he appears to have stayed there for about two years. 
Later we see him at Baghdad persuading the Caliph, 
according to a well known tradition, to refrain from 
destroying the Iwan Kisra, participating in 147/ 
764-65 in the manoeuvres which led to c Isa b. Musa 
agieeing to renounce his rights to the succession, 
proffering advice to Abu c Ubayd Allah Mu'awiya, 
who was returning from al-Rayy. Subsequently 
appointed governor of Tabaristan, he remained there 
for about seven years (coins struck in his name be- 
tween 150/767 and 154/771 are known), took pos- 
session of the fortress of Ustunawand near Dama- 
wand and made himself popular with the inhabitants 
of these regions, where he founded the new town 
of al-Mansura. It was probably about this time that 
his grandson al-Fadl b. Yahya became the "foster- 
brother" of Harun, the son of al-Mahdi. Finally in 
158/775, shortly before al-Mansur's death, a heavy 
fine seems to have been imposed on Khalid, but he 
was pardoned and appointed governor of the pro- 
vince of al-Mawsil, where a Kurdish revolt had 
broken out. At the beginning of the Caliphate of al- 



1034 



al-BARAMIKA 



Mahdl, we find him in Fars and, in 163/779-80, he 
appears to have further distinguished himself, at 
the same time as his son YahyS, during the siege of 
Samalu in Byzantine territory, though he died short- 
ly afterwards in 165/781-82, approximately in his 
75th. year. 

Bibliography: L. Bouvat, Lcs Barmecides, 
37-43; Tabarl, index; Djahshiyarl, K.at-Wuzara*, 
index; Mas'udI, Murudj, v, 444; Ibn al-Faklh, 
314; Yakut, i, 224; Ibn Khallikan, Cairo ed. 1948, i, 
295-96; J. Walker, Arab-Sassanian Coins, London 
1946, lxxvi. 

3. The Wizdra and the fall of the Banna- 
kids.— When Yahya b. Khalid was chosen as 
wazir by Harun al-Rashld, he already had a fairly 
long career behind him. After assisting his father in 
his various governorships, Yahya had been appointed 
iu 158/775 governor of Adharbaydjan. He was still 
at Khalid's side in Fars at the beginning of al- 
Mahdl's Caliphate, and in i6i/778 he had became 
secretary tutor to Prince Harun, in the place of 
Aban b. Sadaka, and had accompanied the Prince 
on the Samalu expedition, on which he had been 
especially entrusted with the commissariat of the 
army. A little later, when his pupil had been ac- 
knowledged as the second heir and appointed gover- 
nor of the western provinces as well as of Adhar- 
baydjan and Armenia, Yahya had administered this 
part of the empire. After the death of al-Mahdi, 
though he was confirmed in his office, he found him- 
self the object of the hostility of the new Caliph al- 
Hadi, who accused him of supporting Harun against 
him and of encouraging him to maintain his rights 
to the succession, which very nearly brought about 
his downfall. The very night, however, when Yahya, 
who had been thrown into prison, was, we are told, 
to have been executed, al-Hadl was found dead and 
certain reports suggest that the Queen-mother al- 
Khayzuran, who supported Harun, was not uncon- 
nected with the occurrence. 

In any case, as soon as Harun had been hailed as 
Caliph, he hastened to summon Yahya and entrusted 
him with the direction of affairs, investing him, 
according to tradition, with a general delegation of 
authority. The able secretary received the title of 
wazir and from the outset associated his two sons 
al-Fadl and Dja'far with his administrative and go- 
vernmental duties. They frequently presided with 
him and also appear to have been styled wazir. 
Yahya remained in office for seventeen years, 
from 170/786 to 187/803, this period being referred 
to by some authors as "the reign of the Barmakids" 
(sultan Al Barmak). Engaged in "righting wrongs" 
in the name of the Caliph, he was likewise empowered 
to chose his own secretaries, who acted as his dele- 
gates, and was in practice head of the administration ; 
even the office of the Seal, initially withheld from 
him, was soon placed under his control. Tradition 
likewise has it that al-Rashid handed his personal 
seal over to him, a symbol of the new authority en- 
joyed by the wazir. This seal, entrusted to Dja'far, 
subsequently returned to Yahya, who relinquished 
it when he set out to stay in Mecca in 181/797; it 
was then entrusted to al-Fadl and afterwards to 
Pja'far, being taken back by Yahya after his return. 
Yahya's two sons, al-Fadl and Dja'far, were not 
satisfied with merely seconding their father. They 
likewise enjoyed important responsibilities. Al-Fadl 
who was the eldest and, moreover, Harun' s "foster- 
brother", played a major rdle in the early years. 
In 176/792 or perhaps even earlier, he was placed at 
the head of the Western provinces of Iran and was 



sent by the Caliph against the c Alid Yahya b. 'Abd 
Allah, who had revolted. He obtained the tatter's 
submission by negotiation. In the following year he 
was appointed governor of Khurasan, where he 
played the role of a conciliator and a builder. He 
pacified the country of Kabul and recruited a local 
army, part of which, we are told, was sent to Bagh- 
dad. Upon his return to Court, he left a deputy in 
his province, which he retained until 180/796. In 
181/797, he appears to have been in charge of the 
government during his father's absence. Never- 
theless, he was the first to lose the Caliph's favour. 
He gravely displeased Harun and was deprived of 
all his offices, except his appointment as tutor to 
Prince Muhammad al-Amln, for whom he had ob- 
tained recognition as heir-apparent in 178/794. 

As for Dja'far, whose eloquence and legal eru- 
dition the authors are fond of stressing, in 176/792 
he received the governorship of the western pro- 
vinces, though he remained at Court, which he only 
left in 180/796 in order to suppress the risings in 
Syria. He was next appointed temporarily governor 
of Khurasan and was placed in charge of the caliphal 
bodygard as well as befog entrusted with the direc- 
tion of the Post Office and of the offices of the Mint 
and textile manufactures (in fact his name appears 
on the coins struck in the East from 176/792 and, 
subsequently, also on those of the West). He was 
likewise tutor to Prince 'Abd Allah al-Ma'mQn, 
who was proclaimed second heir in 182/798. But 
above all he was the Caliph's favourite, if not his 
Ganymede as has often been supposed, and willingly 
took part in his pleasure parties, of which his brother, 
on the other hand, disapproved. 

Thus with Yahya's two sons entrusted with the 
tutelage of the two princely heirs-apparent, between 
whom an actual division of the empire was con- 
templated, power might have remained in the hands 
of the Al Barmak for a long time, had al-Rashid 
so permitted. The Caliph, however, on returning 
from the Pilgrimage which he accomplished with 
his suite in 186/802, suddenly decided to put an 
end to their domination ; during the night of Satur- 
day the 1 Safar 187/28-9 January 803, he had 
Dja'far executed, al-Fadl and his brothers arrested, 
Yahya placed under observation and the property 
of all the Barmakids (with the exception of Mu- 
hammad b. Khalid) confiscated. Dja'far's remains 
were left exposed in Baghdad for a year. Al-Fadl 
and Yahya himself, whose wish had been to share 
his sons' fate, were conducted to al-Rakka as pri- 
soners; there Yahya died in Muharram 190/Novem- 
ber 805, 70 years of age, and al-Fadl in Muljarram 
193/November 808, aged 45 years. 

The brutal fall of the Barmakids came as a sur 
prise to their contemporaries, who had no satis- 
factory explanation to account for it and therefore 
invented various fictitious reasons, such as the story 
of 'Abbasa [q.v.], which have too lorig been given 
credence. The origin of their fall still remains partly 
a mystery for modern historians; but it can hardly 
be seen as the result of a sudden caprice on the part 
of the Caliph. Even if it was not "prepared well 
beforehand", as W. Bart hold said, it was at least 
contemplated long in advance by a sovereign who 
had come to endure the tutelage of his ministers with 
increasing impatience and who at times accused them 
of pursuing a policy contrary to his own interests. 
The vizierate of the Barmakids was not really the 
period of perfect harmony which came to be por- 
trayed in later legend. In spite of what has been 
said on the matter, causes for disagreement did exist 



al-BARAMIKA 



1033 



between the Caliph and his former tutor, whose 
hands were never completely free to govern. 
Not only was he obliged in the early years, as 
W. Barthold has already pointed out, to render 
account to al-Khavzuran. who, nevertheless, con- 
stantly gave him her support as long as she lived, 
but later he was often forced to come to terms with 
al-Rashid's wishes and to resort to that cleverness 
for which he was so highly reputed. In some cases 
he was not even successful in imposing his views, 
and the man appointed to replace al-Fadl in Khura- 
san in 180/796 was appointed against his advice. 
At other times he found himself having to plead 
highly compromised causes. Thus we see him haste- 
ning from Baghdad to al-Rakka in 183/799 to divert 
the sovereign's ire from al-Fa<U and succeeding only 
at the cost of condemning his son's behaviour. Very 
early on also, intrigues had contributed to weaken 
his position and the Caliph, upon the death of his 
mother, had been eager to bestow honours on the 
accomplished courtier al-Fadl b. al-Rabi', in whom 
he had for long begun to take an interest and whom, 
furthermore, he appointed hddjib in 179/795 in the 
place of the Barmakid Muhammad b. Khalid; the 
new dignitary exercised a growing influence at Court, 
where he stigmatised the shortcomings of his enemies 
anji provoked the resentment of al-Rashid against 

The Caliph's relationships with YahyS's sons were 
similarly not always harmonious. Al-Rashid did not 
think well of the pro- c Alid policy of al-Fadl, who 
does not seem to have been endowed with the same 
flexibility as his father. He was removed from power 
in 183/799, four years before the final disgrace of 
his family. Even Dja'far, who apparently enjoyed 
the Caliph's complete confidence, retaining his in- 
fluence with him the longest, was not secure from the 
suspicions of a restive master and was reproached 
upon occasion for abusing his powers. 

It was, of course, quite normal for the attitude of 
al-Rashid towards the Barmakids to become modi- 
fied during the seventeen years of their supremacy. 
The Caliph, at his accession, when he was 23 years 
old, was content to follow his mother's advice and 
to relieve himself of certain responsibilities, by en- 
trusting them to Yahya. Later, however, this humili- 
ating situation began to weigh upon him, the more 
so since the desire to impose his own will increased 
with the years, whilst the Barmakids, filling the most 
important posts with their relatives and clients and 
preparing themselves to institute some kind of here- 
ditary vizierate, constituted an actual State within 
the State. At the same time, they had amassed great 
wealth, which excited the cupidity of the sovereign 
and to which their proverbial generosity con- 
tinually called attention. Yet if the different reasons 
are adequate to explain their fall, nevertheless the 
brutality of the treatment inflicted on Dja'far was 
doubtless the ransom for the affection which was 
bestowed on him by the Caliph and which may per- 
haps have postponed the inevitable outcome. 

On the other hand, imputations of impiety, which 
are sometimes levelled at the Barmakids during the 
period of their ascendency, do not seem to have 
contributed to the disgrace which befell them. Such 
accusations do not even appear to have had any 
basis in fact. These secretaries of Iranian origin did, 
it is true, display a special interest in the literary 
masterpieces which came from Iran and India, as 
well as in the various philosophical and religious 
doctrines, which they liked to hear discussed; but 
these were tastes widely disseminated 



society of the period and were not necessarily ac- 
companied by heterodox opinions. The Barmakids, 
moreover, had completely adapted themselves to 
the usages of the 'Abbasid Court at which they lived; 
they thought highly of Arabic poets and writers and, 
like so many other mawdli, displayed an ostentatious 
generosity, inspired by ancient Bedouin traditions. 
Though they frequently assumed a conciliatory at- 
titude towards the inhabitants of the provinces or 
of certain tributary states, they appear to have made 
no attempt to favour al-Ma>mun, the "son of the 
Persian woman", at the expense of his brother. They 
seem primarily to have served the Caliphate effec- 
tively and loyally, pacifying Eastern Iran, repressing 
the risings in Syria and even Ifrlkiya, obtaining the 
submission of rebels, including 'Alids, directing the 
administration in an orderly fashion, guaranteeing to 
the State important resources, undertaking works 
of public interest (canals of Kaful and SIhan), setting 
wrongs aright with equity in accordance with the 
requirements of Islamic law and reinforcing the 
judicial administration by the institution of the 
office of the great kadi. Doubtless by their behaviour 
they accentuated the process of iranisation which 
became evident from the beginning of the 'Abbasid 
regime, imparting to the vizierate a style which did 
not fail to attract subsequent imitators; in spite of 
their new prerogatives and exceptional prestige, how- 
ever, their influence was a highly personal thing, as 
was the tragedy which terminated it. It does not 
appear that they ever sought to transform the vizierate 
in accordance with a hypothetical Sasanid model. 

The activity of the Barmakids was not merely 
political and administrative. An important cultural 
and artistic achievement is also due to them. Indeed 
they acted as patrons of poets, distributing rewards 
for their panegyrics through the intermediary of a 
special office created specifically for the purpose, the 
diwdn al-shi'r; they favoured scholars and gathered 
theologians and philosophers in their home, in as- 
semblies (maijdlis) which have remained famous. 
They encouraged the arts, and as great builders, 
left numerous palaces in Baghdad, the most famous 
of which, that of Dja'far, subsequently became the 
Caliphal residence. 

Neither did the influence of the Barmakids dis- 
appear with their fall. It continued to be exerted 
during the ensuing years through the medium of 
the wasirs and secretaries who came to power under 
al-Ma'mun and who, for the most part, were their 
former clients and dependants, as in the case of the 
famous al-Fadl b. Sahl. It is actually known that, 
at the time of their ascendency, the ministers of al- 
Rashid had gathered around themselves a group 
of especially competent kuttdb, whom they had 
trained in their methods, and the following Caliphs 
were unable to dispense with them. 

Finally adab literature laid hold of the Barmakids, 
stressing their edifying and remarkable traits of 
character, often with some exaggeration (YaljyS's 
"wisdom" and his gift for foretelling events, al- 
Fadl's haughtiness and ostentatious generosity, the 
elegant language of Dja'far) whilst some stories, 
such as those later to be incorporated in the collec- 
tion of the Thousand and One Nights, popularised 
the figure of Djaf ar, the wazir and intimate com- 
panion of al-Rashid. 

Bibliography: L. Bouvat, Les Barmecides; D. 

Sourdel, Le vizirat 'abbdside (appearing shortly); 

Djahshiyari, Kildb al-Wuzard', index; Ibn 'Abd 

Rabbih, al-'Ikd, Cairo ed. 1945-53, i". 26-34; Ta- 

bari, Ya'kubi, Mas'udI, index; Ibn Khallikan, s.v. 



al-BARAMIKA — BARANl 



4. Oth 



lakid fi 



— Yahya had a brother, Muhammad b. Khalid, who 
was hddiib from 172/788 to 179/795 and was the only 
one spared by the Caliph when they fell. 

In addition to al-Fadl and Dja'far, he had two 
other sons, Muhammad and Musa, who though less 
brillant, nevertheless played a role at Court. The 
latter, known for his military bravery, was governor 
of Syria in 176/792. They were thrown into prison 
in 187/803 with their father and brother, but were 
released by al-Amln who showed himself generous 
towards them. Musa remained in 'Irak and fought 
in the Caliphal army, subsequently rallying to al- 
Ma'mun, who later appointed him governor of Sind. 
He died in 221/835, leaving a son c Imr5n who suc- 
ceeded him and distinguished himself in several ex- 
peditions. Muhammad, on the other hand, had joined 
the Court of al-Ma'mun at Marw, where he had been 
preceeded by his son Atimad and his nephew al- 
'AbbSs, the son of al-Fadl. 

Of the numerous descendants of the Barmakids, 
one especially was famous as a musician and man 
of letters: Ahmad b. Dja'far, surnamed Djahza 
[q.v.], grandson of Musa b. Yahya and intimate com- 
panion of the Caliph al-Muktadir. 

Bibliography : L. Bouvat, Les Barmecides, 101 

ff.; Djahshiyari, K. al-Wuzard 3 , Cairo ed., 297-98. 

5. The nisba al-Barmaki.— This nisba was also 
born by persons not belonging to the Barmakid 
family. A first category comprises their clients and 
their manumitted slaves with their descendants. 
Others were natives of the quarter of Baghdad 
which had received the name of al-Bardmika. They 
included the singer Dananir, the man of letters 
Muhammad b. Djahm, an astrologer who was pre- 
sent at the siege of SamalQ, a wazir of the Samanids 
and an envoy of the Ghaznawids. 

A number of dynasties, both in Iran and North 
Africa, were later to claim descent from the Bar- 
makids (Sarbadaran in Khurasan, Boramik at Touat). 
Finally a tribe, from whom the dancing-girls called 
GhawazI were recently still being recruited in Egypt, 
claimed to be descended from them; doubtless the 
reputation of these dancing-girls has imparted to 
the word barmaki the pejorative sense which it 
sometimes assumes in modern Egyptian. 

Bibliography: L. Bouvat, Les Barmecides, 

105 ff. (D. Sourdel) 

BARAN, an old name for Buland-Shahr [q.v.]. 

BARANl, piya 3 al-Din, historian and writer on 
government under the Delhi sultanate. Born not 
later than 684/1285, (and probably earlier as he was 
old enough to remember witnessing convivial parties 
and to have read the whole of the Kur'an in the reign 
of Djalal al-Din KhaldjI (689-95/1290-6), Barani was 
well connected with Delhi ruling circles. His father, 
Mu'ayyid al-Mulk, was naHb to Arkall Khan, 
second son of sultan Djalal al-Din KhaldjI, becoming 
naHb and khwdd±a of Baran in the first year of the 
reign of 'Ala' al-Din KhaldjI. Barani's paternal 
uncle, Malik 'Ala 5 al-Mulk was kotwdl of Delhi under 
'Ala 5 al-DIn KhaldjI and a prominent royal counsellor. 
His maternal grandfather, sipah-sdldr Husam al-Din, 
wakil-i ddr to Malik Barbak, was appointed to the 
shahnagi of Lak'hnawti by Sultan Balban. 

Barani himself became, for seventeen years and 
three months, a nadim of Sultan Muhammad b. 
Tughluk (725/1325-752/1351)- The Siyar al-Awliyd' 
describes him as an entertaining conversationalist 
5 having been a friend of the poets Amir 



Khus 






r Has 



At the beginning c 



; reign of FIruz Shah 



Tughluk (752-90/135T-88) Barani was banished from 
court and, according to his own statement in the 
NaH-i Muhammadi, was imprisoned for a time in 
the fortress of Pahtez. It is a possible hypothesis that 
he was associated with the attempt of Khwadia- 
Djahan Ahmad Ayaz to place a minor son of 
Muhammad b. Tughluk on the throne while FIruz 
Shah Tughluk and the army were extricating them- 
selves from Muhammad b. Tughluk's expedition 
against Thatta in Sind. 

Barani spent his remaining years in penurious 
exile, writing both in the hope of being restored 
to favour and of atoning for the sin to which 
he ascribed his misfortunes. He died not long 
after 758/1357 and was buried near the grave of 
Nizam al-Din Awliya' at Ghiyathpur. Four of Ba- 
rani's works, the Ta'rikh-i Firiiz Shdhi, the Fatdwd- 
yi Diahdnddri. the NaH-i Muhammadi and his 
translation of anecdotes on the Barmakids, the 
Akhbdr-i Barmakiyydn, are known at present to be 

Barani is a significant (though in the total context 
of medieval Islam, not original) figure in Indo- 
Muslim thought on government. Holding the first 
four caliphs to have been the only truly godly 
rulers in the history of the community, Barani 
aimed in the Fatdwa-yi Diahdnddri. a work of 
the Furstenspiegel type, and in the Ta'rikh-i Firiiz 
Shdhi, to educate the de facto rulers of the day, 
the sultans, in their duty towards Islam in a corrupt 
age. In the form of dicta by Sultan Mahmud of 
Ghazna, the Fatdwa-yi Diahdnddri advises sultans 
to enforce the shari'-a, to curb unorthodoxy 
(set/, especially falsafa), to abase the infidel, to 
employ only pious servants and to remain inwardly 
humble towards God though governing with the 
pomp and circumstance of pre-Muslim Persian 
kings, that is, in opposition to the ascetic sunna 
of the Prophet and the orthodox caliphs, as Barani, 
under Sufi influence, conceived them. 

The avowedly didactic Ta'rikh-i Firiiz Shdhi, 
dedicated to Firuz Shah Tughluk, shows what 
happens in history when the precepts in the Fatdwa-yi 
Djahdnddri are disregarded. It covers the period 
from the beginning of the reign of Balban (664-86/ 
1266-87) to the sixth year of Firuz Shah Tughluk. 
The account of each sultan of Delhi is treated as a 
parable in which success or failure is explicable in 
terms of the sultan's adherence to or deviation from 
Barani's politico-religious theories. For example, 
Sultan 'Ala' al-Din KhaldjI is depicted as a successful 
sultan in so far as he subjugated the Hindus, 
overcame sedition, forbade strong drink tnd 
reduced the cost of living, but as an impious one 
since, Barani says, his motives were worldly, he 
neglected his own religious observances, wished to 
become a prophet, appointed low men to office and 
avoided the company of the religious — in particular 
of Shaykh Nizam al-DIn Awliya' whose maydmin 
and barakdt were the true cause of the glory of the 
reign. Thus 'Ala' al-Din KhaldjI dies of suspected 
poisoning and within four years his family is 
exterminated. Barani's Ta'rikh-i Firiiz Shdhi is not 
an annal or chronicle; it is an important example 
of didactic historiography in Islam. (See further 
Ta'rikh). 

Bibliography: Storey, I, 1, 505-9 and I, 2, 

1311; Fatdwd-yi Diahdnddri. Ethe No. 2563; 

NaH-i Muhammadi, Rida Library Rampur, 

MS. No. Ta'rikh 127; Akhbdr-i Barmakiyydn or 

TaMkh-i Al-i Barmak, lith. Bombay 1889; S. H. 

Barani, Ziauddin Barani, in IC, Jan. 1938, 76-97; 



- BARANTA 



I037 



SJjaykh c Abdur Rashid, £id ud-din Barni, in 

Muslim University Journal, Aligarh 1942, 

248-78 ; A. B. M. Habibullah, Re-evaluation of the 

Literary Sources of Pre-Mughal History, in IC, 

April 1941, 209-13; S. Nurul Hasan, Sahlfa-i 

NaH-i Muhammadi of %ia al-din Barni, in 

Medieval Indian Quarterly, I, 3 & 4/1954, 100-05 ; 

S. Moin ul-Haq, Some Aspects of Diya al-din 

Barni's Political Thought, in Journal of Pakistan 

Historical Society, iv/i, Jan, 1956, 3-26; P. Hardy, 

The Oratio Recta of Barani's Ta'-rikh-i Firuz 

Shdhi — Fact or Fiction?, in BSOS, xx/ig57, 

315-21. (P. Hardy) 

al-BARANIS, name of one of the two 

groups of tribes which together constitute the 

Berber nation [q.v.], that of the other being the Butr. 

It represents the plural of the name of their common 

eponymous ancestor: Burn us; for a possible origin 

of this name see Butr. 

According to Ibn KhaldQn, the Baranis comprised 
five great peoples: Awraba, 'Adjisa, Azdadja, 
Masmuda-Ghumara, Kutama-Zawawa, Sanhadja, 
Hawwara. Whether, however, the last three belong 
to this group is a matter of controversy; they are 
considered by some to be descendants of Himyar and 
therefore non-Berbers. Neither they nor the Mas- 
miida will be dealt with here. 

The most ancient habitat of the Baranis in the 
true sense of the term is the massif of the Awras, 
the northern province of Constantine and the two 
Kabylias where they used to live as sedentary 
mountain dwellers. At the time of the first Arab 
invasion, in the first quarter of the ist/7th century, 
the Awraba of the famous Kusayla [q.v.} had to 
abandon the Awras, after the defeat and death of 
their chief. They went to northern Morocco, where 
they established themselves from the massif of the 
Zarhun to the river Wargha; the names of some of 
their old tribes are to be met with today along the 
banks of this river: Ludjaya, Mazyat(a), Raghlwa. 
The role they played in connexion with Idris I 
[q.v.'] is known. 

We possess no information on the conditions in 
which some of the Baranis arrived and established 
themselves to the North of Taza. At all events, 
al-Bakri indicates some of the Baranis and Awraba 
in contact with the kingdom of Nukfir [q.v.]. In the 
present tribe (in dialect '1-BrSnes, ethnic '1-Barnosi) 
which contains a sub-group called the Werba, the 
memory of the prince of the Awraba who received 
Idris I (at Wallla!) has been retained and even the 
remains of his palace are shown there? 

The Baranis-Awraba participated in the expedi- 
tions launched from Morocco against the Iberian 
Peninsula; some of them settled there and be- 
queathed their name to the Djabal al-Baranis, now 
the Sierra de Almaden, to the North of Cordova. 
Some of the Baranis (from the North of Taza) 
formed part of the "Rif" contingents who took 
Tangier (1684). A village of the fahs of this latter 

As for the Azdadja (and Misittasa) Baranis, 
lothing is known of the reasons for their establishing 
hemselves in the region of Oran ; some of the Misit- 
;asa still live in the region of Badis [q.v.]. There is 
:he same lack of information concerning the Kutama 
)f Morocco. 

Bibliography : Ibn KhaldOn, Histoire des 
Berberes,' i, 169-170 and 272-299; E. F. Gautier, 
Les siicles obscurs du Maghreb, 1927, 21 1-2 14; 
Anon., Fragments historiques sur les Berberes au 
Moyen-Age, trans. E. Levi- Provencal, 64, 80; 



Leo Africanus, trans. Epaulard, 305; Trenga, Les 
Branis, in AM, I, 3 and 4; G. S. Colin, Le parler 
arabe du Nord de la rigion de Taza, in BIFAO, 
xviii (1920), 33; idem, Sayyidi Ahmad Zarruq al- 
Burnusi, in Rivista delta Tripolitania, 1925. 

(G. S. Colin) 
BARANTA, a term used in the eastern portion 
of the Turkish world (Teleut, Kirgiz, Kazak etc.) 
though today regarded as old-fashioned (for the 
forms of the word cf. baramta, barimta, barumta, 
parinti; the forms barumtav and barumtay, encoun- 
tered in some sources, are not yet fully understood, 
while Seykh Suleyman's barant and H. K. Kadri's 
baratta must be mistakes), generally with the 
meanings 'foray, robbery, plunder, pillage, looting'; 
'for one who is owed money or has been wronged 
to get his own back by raiding his adversary's 
livestock'; hence 'cattle-lifting'. For related terms, 
cf. barimtatH {-H), 'cattle-lifter, marauder' {parintidH, 
'robber') ; barimtala-, 'to get one's own back by 
driving off other people's livestock, to capture on 
foray'; barlmtalaS-, 'to quarrel together about 
property' (diardl menen djoldas bolgonto, bay menen 
barimtalas, 'rather than be friendly with a poor man, 
quarrel with a rich'). 

The term has passed into Russian with the same 
meaning: baranta, 'revenge, retaliation; taking 
reprisals for a robbery by driving off cattle; foray, 
incursion' etc., and the derivatives barantar", 
barantovilik, 'participant in a hostile incursion, 
robber' ; barantovly, 'pertaining to a foray' ; baran- 
tovat", 'to raid' etc. 

M. Vasmer (Russ. etym. Wb., Heidelberg 1950), 
noting that the Russian baranta is used in eastern 
Russia and the Caucasus, indicates that it has been 
taken from Turkish, into which language it has 
passed from Mongol. See in the Mongol dictionaries 
barim, barlmda, 'clutching with the hand', barim- 
dalagu, 'to be seized, held fast, to preserve, to keep' ; 
barimdalal, 'the act of holding fast, of tightening' etc. 
Cf. in particular G. J. Ramstedt, Kalm. Wb. 
(Helsinki 1935): barmta 'to seize, hold fast, assault, 
attack' ; b. kej3, 'to go on a foray in order to take 
from one's adversary a surety for future engage- 
ments'; bdrmtlyv, 'to take, hold fast' (cf. bdrd, 
bdrdtl, etc.). " ' * 

It is clear that among the nomad Turkish peoples 
this term once represented a specific legal concept; 
in Turkish as in Mongol it involves the notion of 
'pledge, surety', and our sources show that baranta 
was done only with a specific purpose and subject 
to certain rules. It is baranta when a man who has 
been wronged appropriates a quantity of his 
adversary's property in order to recover his due; 
the return of the property depends on the result of 
ensuing litigation between the parties. It is likely 
that reciprocal barantas sometimes covered a wider 
group. The rule demanded that the use of baranta 
to redress a wrong should be in daylight and with 
prior notice. Baranta at the same time afforded an 
opportunity for young men in the nomad society 
to display their bravery, skill and resourcefulness; 
to earn the appellation of 'hero', and to be held in 
honour. With the changing bases of social life, and 
changing economic conditions, baranta, like many 
another institution rooted in customary law, has 
lost its importance: the term has suffered a gradual 
diminution and has come to mean simply 'theft'. 
In the limited areas where the old customs are 
still preserved, however, the baranta system survives, 
and the laws of the land feel the need to take cogni- 
sance of it. E.g., on 16 October 1924 the Russian 



1038 



BARANTA — BARBA 



central administrative organ (VTSIK) studied the 
system of baranta in connexion with offences against 
the customary law in x the Republic of Kazakstan 
and the Oyrat Autonomous Region, under three 
heads: simple, armed, and tribal. 

Bibliography : Apart from works mentioned 
in the text, see V. Barthold and A. Inan in IA 
(art. Baranta) ; Radloff, Wb. (1893-1911), Budagov, 
Sravn. slov. tur.-tat. nar., Petersburg 1869; Bukin, 
Rus.-Kirg. slov., Tashkent 1883; Ganizade, 
Rus.-tat. slov., Baku 1902; K. K. Yudaxin, 
Kirgut sSzlugu (Turk. tr. by A. Taymas), Ankara 
1945; A. N. Cudinov, Sprav. slov., Petersburg 
1901; N. V. Goryaev, Sravn. etimol. slov. russ. 
yaz., Tiflis 1896; I. Y. Pavlovsk, Russko-nemetsk. 
slov., Leipzig 191 1; Kovalevskly, Mong.-russ.- 
frans. slov., Kazan 1846; I. J. Schmidt, Mong.- 
Deutsch-Russ. Wb., Petersburg 1835; F. Boberg, 
Mong.-Engl. Diet., Stockholm 1954; Sibirsk. 
sovietsk. entsikiop., (1929) ; Entsiklop. slov., Peters- 
burg, 1801 and 1805 ; Der Grosse Brockhaus, 
Leipzig 1929. (R. Rahmeti Arat) 

BAR ATH A. the name of a residential quarter 
on the western side of ancient Baghdad to 
south of "the quarter of Bab Muhawwal, originally 
some 3 kms. from ancient Baghdad. There used to be 
in Baratha a mosque, designed for the prayer of the 
ShI't sect, which Yakut (d. 626/1228) mentions as 
being totally demolished. He also remarks that the 
quarter itself was destroyed without trace. This 
mosque was built in 329/941; later on it was 
pulled down by the 'Abbasid Caliph Al-Radl Billah; 
later still, it was reconstructed and maintained its 
normal function until after 450/1058, when it was 
finally abandoned. 

Prior to the building of Baghdad, Baratha was a 
village where, as the Shi'ls claim, c Ali b. Abl 
TJlib passed by and performed prayers on the site 
of the mosque. The name Baratha, derived from the 
Syriac word Baraytha, has the meaning of "outer". 
Bibliography: Yakut, i, 532-4; Mardsid, 
Cairo 1954, i, 174; Al-Sull, Akhbdr al-Rddl wa 
'l-Muttaki (ed. Dunne), Cairo 1935, 136, 192, 198, 
285 (French transl. by M. Canard, Algiers 1946-50, 
index), Al-Khatlb al-Baghdadl, Ta'rikh Baghdad 
(the topographical introduction) (ed. Salmon), 
Paris 1904, 116-7, 148-51, 168; Ibn Hawkal, 241; 
Ya'kObl, Buldan 244; Ibn al-DjawzI, Mandkib 
Baghdad (ed. al-Atharl), Baghdad 1342 A.H., 21, 
22; Ahmad Hamid al-Sarraf, Al-Shabak, Baghdad 
1954, 270-81; C A1I b. al-Hasan al-Isbahanl, 
Ta'Hkh. Masdiid Bardthfi, Baghdad 1954, «; 
G. Le Strange, Baghdad during the Abbdsid Cali- 
phate, Oxford 1900, 153-6, 320; Streck, Baby- 
lonien nach den Arab. Geographen, i, 52, 71, 90, 
94-5, 152-3; Frankel, Die Aram. FremdwSrter im 
Arab., xx. (G. Awad) 

BARAWA (Brava), a coastal town of Italian 
Somaliland. The inhabitants, c. 9000, are mostly of 
the Tunni tribe of the Digil Somali, who displaced 
the Adjuran and are mingled with Boran Galla. The 
soil is comparatively fertile; skins, grain and butter 
are marketed and leather is worked. Barawa is perhaps 
Yakut's Bawarl, which exported amber, and Idrist's 
B'rwa (var. M*rwa) on the pagan frontier; other 
Islamic geographers do not mention it. Barros, 
following a Kilwa chronicle now lost, says Zaydls 
from Al-Ahsa' founded it soon after Makdishu; 
Stigand's informant attributed it to the Khalifa 
c Abd al-Malik b. Marwan in 77/696-7. In the 8th/i4th 
century it was subject to Pate. The Chinese visited 
"Pu la wa" about 821/1418. In 908-9/1503 12 shaykhs 



captured by Rui Lourenco Ravasco made Barawa 
tributary to Portugal. In 912/1507 Tristao da Cunha 
and Albuquerque stormed and burnt it; Barawa 
mustered 4-6000 defenders and afforded rich booty. 
It recovered temporarily but decayed after the rise 
of the Galla. Portuguese suzerainty was recognised 
intermittently. Portuguese writers describe it as a 
republic, governed by 12 shaykhs: Guillain mentions 
a council constituted by the heads of 5 Somali and 2 
Arab tribes with a monarch elected for 7 years, whom, 
he was told, it had once been the custom to kill after 
that time. Barawa was nominally subject to the 
Al Bu Sa'id [q.v.] who asserted their authority against 
the Mazrui c. 1238/1822, but tribute was sometimes 
paid to Somali chiefs. For about 2 months in 1292/ 
1875-6 it was occupied by the Egyptians. The Anglo- 
German declaration of 1303/1886 recognised BuSa'Idl 
rule. Three years later Italy announced a protectorate 
over the coast and Barawa was subsequently leased 
to her (see somaliland). Harbour works were begun 
in the hope of making it the port of the Djub (Juba) 
region but were later abandoned. 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 485; Idrisi, 1st 
climate, pt 7; Storbeck in M SOS 1914; J.Afr.S. 
1914-15, 158; Ming Shih ch. 326; T'oung Poo 1933, 
297 and 1938-9, 354; J. Strandes, Die Portugiesen- 
zeit von Deutsch- undEnglisch Ost-Afrika, gives the 
important Portuguese references; Beccari, Rerum 
Aethiopicarum Scriptores vol. x, 382; C. Guillain, 
Documents sur Vhistoire, la giographie el le commerce 
de I'Afrique orientate torn, i, 572-3 torn, iii, 
158 fl.; C. H. Stigand, The Land of Zinj; R. 
Coupland, East Africa and its Invaders and The 
Exploitation of East Africa; G. Piazza, La regione 
di Brava nel Benadir; Guida deW Africa Orientate 
Italiana. (C. F. Beckingham) 

BARBA, a name given by the Egyptians to all the 
temples and ancient monuments. This statement by 
Ibn Djubayr is corroborated by Yakut, according 
to whom barbd, "which is a Coptic word", is applied 
to solidly constructed ancient buildings of pagan 
times, which served as laboratories for magic: they 
were wonderful buildings, full of paintings and 
sculptures. <Abd al-Latlf, in turn, noted the excel- 
lence of the construction of these temples, the 
balanced proportions of their forms, the prodigious 
volume of the materials employed, end was astounded 
by the great multitude of inscriptions, figures, sunk 
carving and relief sculpture. In the eyes of some 
Arab writers, these various representations served 
a utilitarian purpose, namely to reproduce the 
techniques and tools of various crafts and to 
preserve a description of the sciences for future 
generations. 

The Christian historian of the Patriarchs of 
Alexandria, Severus of Ashmunayn, employs the 
word barbd in the very precise sense of pagan temple, 
in contrast to the buildings of the Christian cult. 
The Arabic word barbd is, in fact, a transcription 
of the Coptic p'erpt — "temple", and usage has 
endowed it with a classical plural bardbi. The 
expression barbd is also reported by Leo Africanus. 
Many authors recount impossible stories concerning 
these temples, either that they tell of the means of 
defending the country against external enemies by 
means of talismans or that these talismans help in 
discovering treasures, which they take a greater 
delight in elaborating. 

The only relatively serious description, from the 
pen of Ibn Djubayr, concerns the temple of Akhmlm, 
which no longer exists. 

Bibliography: Fihrist, i, 353; ii, 188; Sa'id, 



BARBA — al-BARBAHARI 



Tabakdt al-Umam, trans. Blachere, 85; Ibn 

Djubayr, 6i, trans. Broadhurst, 53 ff. ; c Abd al- 

Latff, 182; Yakut, i, 165, 531; Leo Africanus, ed. 

fipaulard, ii, 537; MakrizI, ed. IFAO, i, 162; S. de 

Sacy, Observations sur le nom des Pyramides, in 

Bib.desarabisantsfranfais, i, 243-250; Quatremere, 

Recherches dur la langue et la littirature de VEgypte, 

278-280; L'Egypte de Murtadi, Introduction by 

G. Wiet, 98-114. (G. Wiet) 

al-BARBAHARI, al-Hasan b. c AU b. Khalap 

AbO Muhammad al-Barbahari, a famous Hanball 

theologian, who died at Baghdad at a great age. 

He was both a traditionist ('dlim), and a jurist 

(fakih), being, above all, one of those popular 

preachers (w&Hz), who, in the history of the Caliphate 

during the 4th/ioth and 5th/nth centuries, played 

so important a rdle in the struggle of Sunnism 

against the Shll missionaries (du'dt) and who, 

without exhibiting the least spirit of compromise, 

successfully managed to oppose the progress of 

Mu'tazilite and semi-Mu'tazilite-inspired theology 

{kaldm). 

Al-Barbahart was schooled in Hanball doctrine 
by Abu Bakr al-MarwazI (died 275/888) [?.».] (cf. 
TaMkh Baghdad, iv, 423-425 ; Jabakat al-Banabila, 
i» 56-63; Ikhtisdr, 32-34) who was supposed to have 
been one of Ibn Hanbal's favourite disciples and one 
of the most assiduous reporters of the great imam's 
responsa, both in the field of jurisprudence (fikh) and, 
more generally, in that of moral theology (akMdk), 
the rules of . civility (adab) and of religious beliefs 
fakdHd). The famous mystic Sahl al-Tustarl (died 
283/896), who founded the Salimiyya school (cf. EI 1 , 
iv, 119) and who was to exert an influence on several 
other major representatives of Hanbalism, was 
likewise his teacher. 

Al-Barbahari is the author of a profession of faith, 
the Kitdb al-Sunna, the text of which has been 
transmitted to us in great measure by the kadi 
Abu '1-Husayn in his Tabakdt (ii, 18-43), and which 
recalls that composed by Ahmad Ghulam Khalll 
(died 275/888), an opponent of the extremist $ufisra 
of Abu Hamza and al-Nuri (died 297/910) and 
himself an author with Hanball affinities (cf. L. 
Massignon, Textes inidits, 212-213). Abu '1-Hasan 
al-Ash c ari (died 329/941) is held to have composed 
his own Ibana after a discussion with al-Barbahari, 
an assertion which a comparative study of the two 
professions of faith does not show a priori to be 
inadmissible. 

Al-Barbahari's profession of faith is primarily a 
polemic work denouncing the multiplication of 
suspect innovations (bidta) and energetically en- 
joining a return to the precepts of the "old religion" 
(din 'atik), as it was understood at the time of the 
first three Caliphs, before the schism which followed 
the assassination of 'Uthman b. c Affan and the 
succession of 'All b. AM TSlib. The principle under- 
lying this restoration resides in imitation (taklid) of 
the Prophet, of his companions and their pious 
successors, among whom al-Barbahari frequently 
cites, with Ibn Hanbal, Malik b. Anas (died 179/795), 
<Abd Allah b. al-Mubarak (died 181/797), Fudayl 
b. <Iyad (died 187/803) and Bishr b. al-Harith 
(died 227/842). Al-Barbahari does not condemn the 
use of reason ( c akl); on the contrary he perceives 
therein a grace diversely distributed by God among 
his creatures and necessary to final salvation. 
Neither does he entirely reject what is bdfin as 
opposed to what is zdhir, that is to say, what is 
inward and profound in contrast to what is outward 
and in conformity with the letter of the text, 



provided this bdfin has its basis in the Kur'an and 
the Surma. What he condemns above all else are 
the pernicious deviati6ns, which result from the 
personal and arbitrary use of reasoning (tahvil; 
ra'y; kiyds) in the domain of religious beliefs. His 
theodicy, on the problem of the divine attributes 
(si/dt)\ is limited to an attempt to reproduce the 
data of, the Kur'an and the Sunna. 

Politically, he appears as an energetic defender 
of the rights of Kuraysh to the Caliphate, though 
he none the less reminds believers of the duty 
incumbent on them to obey all established authority, 
except where disobedience to God is involved. He 
is particularly severe in his condemnation of all 
attempts at armed revolt (khurQdi bi 'l-sayf), con- 
sidering in fact that the re-establishment of the Law 
should be effected by appeal to public opinion, by 
the duty of missionary preaching (da^wa), of enjoining 
the Good (amr bi 'l-tna^rHf) and of proffering good 
counsel (nasiha). This re-establishment of the Law, 
in a world in which Islam had split up into numerous 
sects, was incumbent especially on the "people of 
the hadith", on the ahl al-sunna wa 'l-djamd'a, 
whose triumph God had definitely assured. True to 
his doctrine, al-Barbahari conducted so vigorous a 
personal action against bid'a and against the sects 
(firka), especially against Mu'tazilism and ShlSsm, 
that he was at times accused of entertaining political 
ambitions. 

Indeed, al-Barbaharl's influence is to be discovered 
behind several popular demonstrations and insur- 
rections which broke out in Baghdad between 
309/921 and 329/941. He was not unconnected with 
the opposition encountered by al-Tabarl who, in 309, 
was invited by the wazir C A1I b. c Isa to come to 
discuss with his Hanball opponents points of 
doctrine which separated them and who, in 310, 
had to be buried at night in his own house because 
of the hostility of the mob (cf. on these incidents, 
especially Biddya, xi, 132 and 145-146). 

In 317/929 there was a brawl in Baghdad involving 
considerable bloodshed between al-Barbaharl's follow- 
ers and their adversaries, arising from the inter- 
pretation given to verse xvii, 81/79: "Perchance thy 
Lord will send thee to a sojourn worthy of praise 
{makam mahmiid)". Al-Barbaharl's disciples main- 
tained that this was to be interpreted as meaning 
that on the Day of Resurrection, Gold would seat 
the Prophet on His throne, whilst, for their adver- 
saries, who followed the doctrine of al-Tabarl and 
Ibn Khuzayma, this was merely a question of the 
great intercession (sAa/a'a) of the Prophet in favour 
of believers culpable of grave faults on the Day of 
Judgement (cf. Biddya, xi, 162-163). 

In 321/923, during the Caliphate of al-Kahir, 
when the question arose of having Mu'awiya cursed 
from the pulpit, a measure aimed directly at Hanball 
doctrine, the hadiib C A1I b. Yalbak ordered a search 
to be made for al-Barbahari, who managed to 
conceal himself, though a number of the Hanball 
theologian's disciples were exiled to Basra (Kamil, 
viii, 204; Biddya, xi, 172). The measures then taken 
by the Caliph al-Kahir for the re-establishment of 
morality were designed in some degree to appease 
the Hanball critics. 

Although the supporters of al-Barbahari do not 
seem to have played a direct rdle in 322/934 at the 
time of the trials of al-Shalmaghanl and of Ibn 
Muksim, nevertheless the Kur'an reader Ibn Shan- 
nabudh, likewise accused of publicly teaching 
Kur'anic readings divergent from those of the 
recension of 'Uthman, was brought to trial by the 



L-BARBAHARl - 



■wazir Ibn Mukla and sentenced (cf. al-Suli, trans. 
M. Canard, i, 109 and 145), apparently as the result 
of a noisy demonstration by the Hanballs of Baghdad. 
The agitation by al-Barbahari's supporters 
reached its apogee in 323/935, at the beginning of 
al-Radi's Caliphate, still under the vizierate of Ibn 
Mukla, on the eve of Ibn Ra'ik's appointment as 
amir al-umard'. Muslim historians (al-Suli, i, 114; 
Kdmil, viii, 229-231; Biddya, xi, 181-182) depict the 
Hanballs looting shops, intervening in commercial 
transactions to impose the prescriptions of the Law, 
attacking the wine-sellers and singing-girls, smashing 
musical instruments, pushing their way into private 
dwellings and denouncing to the Prefect of Police 
any man found in the street with a woman, not 
being her mahram (cf. K. V. Zettersteen, EI 1 , iii, 
1 169, s.v. RadI). The Caliphal authorities then 
prohibited al-Barbahari's supporters from meeting 
and teaching and the Muslims from praying behind 
an imam following the Hanbali doctrine. As the 
ardour of al-Barbahari's supporters did not diminish, 
a decree by the Caliph al-Radi (text in Kdmil, viii, 
230) was issued in 323, condemning Hanbalism and 
excluding it from the Muslim community ; it accused 
it of developing an anthropomorphist theodicy 
(tashbih) and of forbidding the visiting of the tombs 
of the great imams (ziydrat al-kubur). This condem- 
nation only prevented Hanbali demonstrations for 

Al-Barbahari's supporters resumed their agitation 
with violence in 327/939 under the amirate of 
Badjkam; they molested people going to the mahyd 
festival, that is to say the ceremonies organised in 
some mosques during the night of the I4th/i5th 
Sha'ban (cf. al-Suli, i, 204 and 205). The Prefect of 
Police issued orders for al-Barbahari to be found, but 
once again he concealed himself, though one of his 
lieutenants, a certain Dalla', was executed. 

The likelihood of disarming the hostility of al- 
Barbahari's supporters was further diminished by 
the fact in 328/940 the amir Badjkam had the mosque 
of Baratha rebuilt. This mosque had been demolished 
under the Caliphate of al-Muktadir and was con- 
sidered by Sunnls as the "nest of Shi'ism" (cf. 
al-Suli, i, 142 and 208). When in 329 the amlr 
Badjkam was assassinated by a band of Kurdish 
brigands, the Hanballs noisily gave vent to their 
satisfaction, attempted to demolish the mosque of 
Baratha and also attacked the quarter of the money- 
changers and bankers, in the Darb 'Awn, which was 
at the heart of the financial and commercial life of 
the c Abb5sid metropolis (al-Suli, ii, 16 and 19). The 
Caliph al-Muttak! was obliged to have a number of 
Hanballs arrested and to place the Shi'i mosque 
under a heavy guard. 

At this juncture, in Radjab 329/April 941, al- 
Barbahari died in the house of Tuzun's sister, where 
he had hidden himself and where he was buried 
(fabakdt al-Bandbila, ii, 44-45; Biddya, xi, 201). 

Al-Barbahari's influence also manifested itself in 
several contemporary Hanbali doctors, especially 
Ibn Batta al- c Ukbari (died 387/997), who met him 
at Baghdad on a number of occasions and who drew 
inspiration in his Ibdna from his '■akida. His influence 
is likewise to be encountered, through the medium 
of Ibn Batta, on the kadi Abu Ya'la b. al-Farra 3 
(died 458/1066) and several of his disciples, especially 
the Sharif Abu Dja'far al-Hashimi (died 471/1078), 
who instigated several violent popular demon- 
strations against bid'a. 

Bibliography: Abu '1-Husayn b. al-Farra 5 , 

Tabakdt al-Ifandbila, Cairo 1371/1952, ii, 18-45; 



Ibn Kathir, Biddya, xi, 201-202; NabulusI, 

Ikhtisdr fabafrdt al-Bandbila, Damascus 1350, 

299-309; Ibn al- c Imad, Shadhardt, ii, 319-323; 

H. Laoust, La profession de foi d'Ibn Ba(ta, in 

PIFD 1958, xxviii-xli and index. 

(H. Laoust) 

BARBAROSSA [see iojayr al-dIn]. 

BARBASHTURU, an ancient city on the R. 
Vero, a tributary of the Cinca, N.E. of Sarakusta 
(Saragossa), in the approaches to the Central 
Pyrenees (modern Barbastro). It lay 50 km. almost 
due E. of Washka (Huesca). Barbashturu is stated by 
Ibn Hayyan to have become Muslim at the time of 
the conquest of Spain, and to have remained iu 
Muslim hands continuously thereafter for upwards 
of 360 years. It became a bastion of the defences of 
al-Thaghr al-A c 15 (the 'Upper Frontier'), in which 
sytem it formed a link between Sarakusta and 
Larida (I^rida). 

In an account of the expedition of c Abd al-Malik 
al-Muzaffar in 396/1006 against Pampeluna, Bar- 
bashturu is mentioned as the last place in the lands 
of Islam (Ibn 'Idhari, iii, 12). At the time of its 
capture in 456/1064 (see below) it belonged to the 
Banu Hiid of Sarakusta, and evidently contained a 
large population and substantial wealth, though the 
figures given by the Arabic historians who, following 
Ibn Hayyan, describe this event, appear to be 
exaggerated. In the summer of 1064, a Christian force 
estimated at 40,000 men presented itself before 
Barbashturu. These included Normans under 
Robert Crespin — the name is given by a Latin 
chronicler — and others, who with Papal support were 
engaged in what has been described as una cruzaia 
antes de las cruzadas, 'a crusade before the Crusades'. 
After a siege of more than a month they succeeded in 
taking the town. Though the part played by the 
Christians of Spain is obscure, and though Barbash- 
turu was retaken after a year, its fall marked a stage 
in the reconquest of the country. It was spoken of by 
contemporaries as an event without parallel, the 
greatest disaster which had ever happened in Muslim 
Spain, and Ibn Hayyan's painful reflections on the 
state of al-Andalus were prompted by what had 
taken place there (cited in Ibn 'Idhari, iii, 254-255). 

It was characteristic of the disunity among the 
Spanish Muslims that the 'Abbadid al-Mu c tadid 
sent only 500 horsemen to al-Muktadir b. Hiid of 
Sarakusta, his nominal ally, then assembling forces 
for a counter-stroke, though urged to march in 
person by al-Hawzani, a noble of Seville (Ibn Sa c id, 
Al-Mughrib fl huld al-Maghrib, ed. Sh. Dayf, I, 234). 
Thanks to a corps of crossbowmen, al-Muktadir b. 
Hud succeeded in retaking the town. Yet Barbash- 
turu was not destined to remain much longer in 
Muslim hands. It was finally taken for the Christians 
by Pedro of Aragon in 1101, an event which seems to 
have been known to Yakut (cf. Mu'-djam al-Bulddn, 
s.v.). 

Bibliography: Ibn 'Idhari, Al-Baydn al- 
Mughrib, iii, 225-228, 253-255; al-Makkari, Ana- 
lectes, ii, 749 ff. ; R. Dozy, Recherches sur I'histoire 
et la litUrature de I'Espagne 3 , ii, 335 ff.; R. 
Menendez Pidal, La Espana del Cid, Madrid 

1929, i, 163 ff. (D. M. Dunlop) 

BARBAT [see c ud]. 
BARCELONA [see barshaluna]. 
BARDASlR [see kirman]. 
BARDESANES [see daysaniyya]. 
BARDHA'A, Armenian Partav, modem Barda, 
a town S. of the Caucasus, formerly capital of Arran, 
the ancient Albania. It lies about 14 miles from the 



BARDHA'A — BARDJAWAN 



R. Kur (2 or 3 farsakhs according to the Arabic 
geographers; Mas'Qdi says inaccurately 3 miles, 
Murudj, ii, 75) on a river of its own (Mukaddasi, 375), 
the modern Terter (Tharthur, Yakut, Bulddn, i, 560). 
It was built, according to Baladhuri (194), by the 
Sasanid Kubad (ruled A.D. 488-531). This is varied 
by Dimishki (Cosmographie, ed. Mehren, 189), who 
mentions as founder a mythical Bardha'a b. 
Armlnl ( ?), earlier than Kubad. The Arabs attempted 
to explain the name as from Persian barda-ddr, 
'place of captives', from the original purpose to which 

Bardha'a served the Sasanids and the Arabs 
later as a frontier fortress against invasion from the 
N. and W. At the time of the Arab conquest it was 
taken after a short resistance by Salman b. Rabl'a 
al-Bahili (Baladhuri, 201), probably before 32/652, 
the date of the Arab debacle at Balandjar [?.«.]. 
Thereafter Arran, the province of which Bardha'a 
and its territory formed part, was usually joined 
with Armenia, sometimes with Armenia and Adhar- 
baydjan, under a single governor. In the Caliphate 
of c Abd al-Malik its fortifications were reorganised 
by 'Abd al- c Aziz b. Hatim (Dhahabi, Duwal al-lsldm, 
i, 40, sub anno 86/705) and perhaps further improved 
by Muhammad b. Marwan a little later (cf. Baladhuri, 
203). After this Bardha'a was well fitted to be 'the 
spearhead of Muslim domination and policy in those 
parts' (V. Minorsky) and is mentioned repeatedly 
during the second Arab-Khazar war and later under 
the 'Abbasids. As late as the 10th century the 
population retained their own Arran dialect 
(Istakhri, 192). 

When Istakhri wrote (circa 320/932), Bardha'a 
was at the height of its prosperity, though decline was 
soon to set in. It covered an area of several miles 
in length and breadth in a fertile and wtll-watered 
region, and in mere size challenged comparison with 
Rayy and Isbahan. In the district of Andarab, 
beginning a mile or two from the town, gardens and 
orchards extended continuously in every direction 
for a day's journey or more. Hazel-nuts and chest- 
nuts of the finest quality and a local fruit resembling 
that of the service-tree were to be found in abundance. 
Bardha'a also produced superior figs, and especially 
silk, the latter exported to Khflzistan and Fars. The 
mulberry- trees on which the silkworms fed were 
public property and according to Ibn Hawkal (see 
below) most of the population had a hand in silk- 
production. Of several kinds of fish caught in the 
R. Kur was one called sarmdhi or shurmdhi (Persian 
«= 'salt-fish'), which when salted was also exported. 
The mules of Bardha'a mentioned by Mukaddasi 
(380) were appreciated as far away as Central Asia 
(at Samarkand in 416/1025, Barthold, Turkestan, 
283). These and other commodities, such as the furs 
from the North mentioned by Mas'udi (Tanbih, 63), 
madder and caraway-seeds (Hudud al-'-Alam, 143), 
were no doubt mostly offered for sale at the Sunday 
market (sub al-kuraki, from Kupiaxr), the Lord's day, 
reflecting the Christian religion of the inhabitants 
earlier), situated in the suburbs outside the Gate of 
the Kurds (Bab al-Akrad), to which visitors came 
even from 'Irak. The public treasury at Bardha'a 
dated from Umayyad times (Ibn Hawkal), and 
according to the older fashion was in the Friday 
Mosque, beside which stood the palace of the governor. 

This description serves also as the basis of Ibn 
Hawkal's account nearly 50 years later (367/977), 
the chief difference being that Ibn Hawkal knows 
of the capture and occupation of Bardha'a by the 
Russians in 332/943. A notice of this remarkable 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



event is given by Ibn al-Athir (viii, 308-10) and in 
greater detail, evidently from eye-witnesses, by Ibn 
Miskawayh (The Eclipse of the Abbasid Caliphate, ed. 
D. S. Margoliouth, ii, 62-67; English translation, v, 
67-74, reprinted in N. K. Chadwick, The Beginnings 
of Russian History, Cambridge 1946, 138-144). The 
Russians, whose number is not given but who must 
have numbered at least several thousand, appeared 
in the Caspian, undoubtedly from the Khazar 
country on the Volga, as on other occasions (cf. 
D. M. Dunlop, History of the Jewish Khazars, 209 ff.; 
238 ff.), and having sailed up the R. Kur, defeated 
the forces of al-Marzuban b. Muhammad, the 
Musafirid ruler of Adharbaydjan, and gained posses- 
sion of Bardha'a. The Russian occupation continued 
for many months (a year according to Yakut, ii, 834), 
and they were only dislodged with the greatest 
difficulty, after an epidemic had decimated their 
numbers. 

Ibn Hawkal mentions the ill effects of the Russian 
invasion but, as is now clear from the second edition 
of his work (see Bibliography), he does not ascribe 
the catastrophic decline of Bardha'a in his time, 
illustrated by a report that there are now only five 
bakers in the town where formerly there were 1200, 
mainly to devastation caused by the Russians. 
Rather this was due, he tells us, to 'the injustice of 
its rulers and the management of lunatics' (i st ed., 
241), phrases which are amplified and explained in 
his second edition (336) as fiscal molestations which 
have 'eaten up it and its people', and to 'the neigh- 
bourhood of the Georgians (al-Kurdj)' (2nd ed. 337, 
339). The latter appears to have reference to inter- 
ference from the direction of Gandja (Djanza), 
later Elizavetpol, only 9 farsakhs distant from 
Bardha'a (Yakut, i, 559), where the Shaddadids 
ruled in the 2nd half of the 4th/ioth century. 
Otherwise the misgovernment and excessive taxation 
of which Ibn Hawkal speaks must probably be 
ascribed to the Daylamite Musafirids, unwilling to 
see Bardha'a recover its former position to the 
detriment of Ardabil. Bardha'a may have revived 
somewhat, since an attack upon it by a king of the 
Abkhaz is said to have provoked reprisals by the 
Saldjuk Alp Arslan in 461/1067. But it is scarcely 
mentioned in the Mongol period, and in the long, 
interval which has elapsed since then can hardly 
have been much more than it is today, a village in 
the midst of ruins. 

Bibliography : Istakhri, 182-184; Ibn Hawkal, 
ist ed. (De Goeje) 240-1, 2nd ed. (Kramers), 336- 
339; Mukaddasi, 375; Yakut, i, 558-561; Kazwlnl, 
Athdr al-Bildd, 344; Hudud al-'-Alam, indices; V. 
Minorsky, Studies in Caucasian History, London 
1953, 16-17, 65, 104, 117; D. M. Dunlop, History 
of the Jewish Khazars, Princeton 1954, index. 

(D. M. Dunlop) 
BAR&ZAWAN, Abu 'l-Futuh, a slave who was 
for a while ruler of Egypt during the reign of al- 
Hakim. He was brought up at the court of al- c Aziz, 
where he held the post of intendant (Khitat ii, 3; 
Ibn TaghribirdI, Cairo, iv, 48 ; Ibn Khallikan, ii, 201). 
He was a eunuch, and was known by the title Ustddh 
[q.v.]. His ethnic origin is uncertain — Ibn Khallikan 
calls him a negro, Ibn al-Kalanisi simply a white 
(abyad al-lawn), al-Makrizi either a Slav or a 
Sicilian, the readings SaklabI and Sikilll both 
occurring in the MSS. of the Khitat (cf. S. de Sacy, 
Chrestomothie, i, 130). 

Bardjawan was appointed guardian of the young 
heir to the Caliphate by al- c Az!z, and on the tatter's 
death in Ramadan 386/October 996, he proclaimed 



ARDJAWAN — BAREILLY 



:s and other Easter 
o the general Egyptian 
i in his lot with the 
wrote to Mangutakin, 



his ward as the Caliph al-Hakim. His r61e was at 
first limited to the guardianship of the young 
sovereign, the effective power in the state resting 
with the Wdsita [q.v.] Ibn 'Ammar al-Kutami, the 
leader of the Berber troops and faction. Ibn 'Ammar's 
power was no doubt irksome to the young Caliph 
and his guardian; the supremacy of the Berbers 
undoubtedly angered the Tui" 
in the army, and probably al 
population. Bardjawan thre 
Easterners, and in 386/996 
the Turkish governor of Dai 
come with his army and save Egypt and also the 
person of the Caliph from the tyranny of the Berbers. 
Mangutakin, with Turkish, Daylamite, Negro, and 
local Arab support, advanced against Egypt, but was 
defeated near 'Askalan by a Berber force sent by 
Ibn 'Ammar and commanded by Sulayman b. 
Dja'far b. Fallah. Bardjawan was compelled for the 
moment to submit to Ibn 'Ammar, but a little later 
the support of Djaysh b. Samsama, a disaffected 
Berber officer, enabled him to challenge Ibn 'Ammar 
again, this time successfully. In an open clash Ibn 
'Ammar was defeated and driven into hiding, while 
Bardjawan took his place as wdsita and effective 
master of the state (28 Ram. 387/4 Oct. 997). 
Bardjawan dealt leniently with the defeated Berbers 
in Egypt, but the breaking of their power proved 
to be permanent. In Damascus the Berber governor 
was dismissed and his Kutami troops massacred. 
A period of disorder followed in Syria, which was 
ended by vigorous action on the part of Bardjawan. 
Arab rebels were suppressed in Palestine and Tyre, 
and Byzantine attacks by land and sea repelled. 
Diplomatic negotiations ended with a ten-year truce 
between the Byzantine and Fatimid Empires. In 
the West, Bardjawan conquered Barka and Tripoli, 
both of which were placed under eunuch governors. 
The latter conquest was of brief duration. 

Emboldened by these successes, Bardjawan 
adopted a high-handed attitude to the Caliph, even 
going so far, according to some sources, as to restrict 
his riding on horseback and his expenditure on gifts 
(Nuwayri, Bar-Hebraeus). Nuwayri tells a revealing 
story, according to which Bardjawan used to call 
al-Hakim 'the lizard' {wazgha); this nickname 
rankled, and when al-Hakim summoned Bardjawan 
to his death, the message ran: 'Tell Bardjawan that 
the little lizard has become a large dragon, and 
wants him now". Al-Hakim's resentments were 
encouraged by another slave eunuch, Abu '1-Fadl 
Raydan al-Saklabi, who warned the Caliph that 
Bardjawan was trying to emulate the career of 
Kafur, and proposed to deal with him as Kafur had 
dealt with the Ikhshidids. Bardjawan was stabbed to 
death by the hand of Raydan, and by order of the 
Caliph, in the night between 26th and 27th Rabi' II 
390/5 April 1000 (Ibn al-Sayrafl, who does not, 
however, mention the exact day; Ibn Khallikan: 
?1-Makrlzi; Ibn Muyassar — the reading sab'in, 
instead of tisHn, is an obvious error; Ibn al-Kalanisi, 
followed by Ibn al-Athir, gives the year as 389). 

The killing of Bardjawan aroused the anger of 
both the populace and the Turks, who no doubt 
feared a revival of Berber rule. The Caliph, however, 
appeared to the armed crowd above the door of his 
palace, and defended his action; accusing Bardjawan 
of plotting against him, he appealed for help in his 
youth and inexperience. Letters to the same effect 
were also sent out. In the Druze epistle Al-Sira al- 
Mustakima, by Hamza, there is an interesting 
passage in which the execution of Bardjawan by the 



youthful caliph, without fear of the anger of the 
troops, is presented as an act of unprecedented daring, 
presaging the miraculous quality of al-Hakim's rule 
(al-Muktabas, v. 306). 

Bardjawan is said to have been a man of taste and 
a lover of the pleasures of this world. His house was 
a meeting place of poets and musicians. On his 
death, he astonished his contemporaries by the size 
and variety of the wardrobe, library, stables, and 
establishment which he left. A street in Cairo was 
named after him. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Sayrafi, Al-Ishdra ild 

Patriarchs, ii, 121; Ibn al-Kalanisi, 44-56, 59; Ibn 
Muyassar, 51, 53, 54-5; Ibn Khallikan. i, no 
(Eng. tr. i, 253) and ii, 201 ; Ibn al-Athir, ix, index; 
Ibn Khaldun, c Ibar, iv, 57 ; Bar-Hebraeus, Chrono- 
graphia, Eng. tr. 180, 182; Ibn Taghribirdi, Cairo, 
iv, index; Yahya b. Sa'id al-Antakl, Annates, ed. 
Cheikho, 180, ed. Kratschkovski and Vassiliev, 
453, 462. The fullest account is given by al- 
Makrizi, Khitat, ii, 3-4; cf. ibid. 285 (= Silvestre 
de Sacy, Chrestomathie arabe i, Paris 1826, 52 ff. 
and 94 ff. of the translation). See also Silvestre 
de Sacy, Exposi de la Religion des Druzes, i, Paris 
1838, cclxxxiv-ccxcv; S. Lane- Poole, History 
of Egypt in the Middle Ages, 124-5; G. Wiet, 
L'Egypte arabe, 197-9; M. A. 'Inan, Al-Hakim 
bi'amri'lldh, Cairo n.d., 44-9; I. Hrbek, Die 
Slawen im Dienste der Fdfimiden, Aro, xxi, 1953, 
575-6. (B. Lewis) 

BARDO [see Tunisia]. 

BAREILLY (Barell) a district town in the 
Uttar Pradesh, India, situated in 28" 22' N. and 
79° and 24' E. stands on a plateau washed by 
the river Ramganga. Population (1951): 194,679. 
Founded in 944/1537, the town derives its name, 
according to tradition, from Bas Deo, a Barhela 
Radjput by caste. It is popularly known as Bans 
Bareilly, partly to distinguish it from Rae Barell, 
the birth-place of Sayyid Ahmad Brelwl [q.v.], and 
partly due to the proximity of a bamboo (bans) 

During the reign of Akbar, a fort was built here 
to check the depredations of the Radjput tribes of 
Rohllkhand. As usual a town gradually grew up 
round the citadel, and, by 1005/1596, it had developed 
into a pargana head-quarters. It remained of little 
importance till the reign of Shah Djahan when it 
was made the capital of Ketehr (the old name of 
Rohilkhand). In 1068/1657, a new city was founded 
by Makrand Ray, who was appointed governor in 
place of 'All Kuli Khan, who had held the office 
since 1038/1628. During the Mughal period the city 
was ruled by a governor. After the death of Awrang- 
zib in 1 1 19/1707 the Hindus of Bareilly turned out 
the Mughal governor, refused to pay the tribute, and 
assumed power. They, however, soon fell out among 
themselves, and invited 'All Muhammad Khan, the 
Rohilla chieftain, to assume the reins of power. He 
soon extended his sway right up to Almora in 
Kumaon but in 1158/174& Muhammad Shah, King 
of Delhi, marched against him and took him a 
prisoner to Delhi. He, however, soon won back his 
freedom and returned to the governorship of Bareilly 
in 1 160/1748. On his death in 1 162/1749 he was 
succeeded by Hafiz Rahmat Khan, who after some 
sharp encounters with Awadh forces, strengthened 
by Mahratta contingents, became the unquestioned 
ruler of Rohilkhand. In 1184/1770 Nadjib al-Dawla 
defeated Rahmat Khan with the help of Mahratta 
troops under Sindhia and Holkar. SJiudja' al-Dawla, 



- BARGHAWATA 



however, came to the rescue of the Rohillas but soon 
afterwards fell upon them, killing their chief, Rahmat 
Khan. In 1 188/1774 Sa'adat Yar Khan was appointed 
governor of Bareilly under the Awadh wazlr. In 
1216/1801 the town was ceded to the British, when 
entire Rohilkhand fell into their hands. In 1220/ 
1805 Amir Khan Pindar! raided Bareilly but was 
driven off with heavy losses. In 1232/18 16 the 
residents rose against the imposition of a local tax 
but were dealt with an iron hand. In 1253/1837 and 
1257/1842 serious Hindu-Muslim riots took place. 
The town was badly disturbed during the "Mutiny" 
of 1273/1857 when Khan Bahadur Khan, grandson of 
Hafiz Rahmat Khan, was proclaimed governor. 
After the fall of Delhi in September 1857, Tafaddul 
Husayn Khan, Nawab of Farrukhabad, Nana 
Sahib from Bit'hur and the Mughal prince, Firuz 
Shah, the rebel leaders, made the city their strong- 
hold. They were, however, defeated, and the city 
was re-occupied by the British on 5 May 1857. In 
1287/1871 a Hindu-Muslim riot again took place and 
since then several religious riots have occurred. With 
the establishment of Pakistan in 1366/1947 the bulk 
of the Muslim population migrated from Bareilly. 
'General' Bakht Khan [q.v.] of the Bareilly Brigade, 
who was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 
rebel forces during the "Mutiny", was a native of 
this town. Ahmad Rida Khan (d. 1340/1921), a 
theologian and scholar whose followers formed 
themselves into the Ifizb al-Ahnd), popularly known 
as the Barelwis, also belonged to this town. The 
ffizb al-Ahnd/ is a sub-sect of the Hanafis, who, 
contrary to other Sunnis, believe that the Prophet 
possessed prescience or knowledge of the future. It 
is an article of faith with the Barelwis and has 
occasioned much strife among the c ulama' in the 
Indo-Pakistan sub-continent. 

The only building of note is the tomb of Hafiz 
Rahmat Khan, constructed by his son, Dhu'l-Fakar 
Khan, in 1 189/1775. This tomb has been repaired 
several times, the last in 1891-2 by the British 
Government. 

Bibliography: Gulzari Lai, Tawdrikh-i Bareli 

>(MS) ; Imperial Gazetteer 0/ India, Oxford 1908, 

vii 3-13; Altaf c Ali Barelwi, Ifaydt Hafiz Rahmat 

Khdn. Badayun 1333/1913- JRAS, 1897, 303; 

also see the article Hdjiz Rahmat Khan ; Al-'Ilm 

(quarterly), Karachi, iii/i 28-32; al-Bada'uni 

(Bib. Ind.), index. (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

BARFUROSH, formerly Barfurushdih ("the 

village where loads are sold") and renamed Babul 

in 1927, is the chief commercial town in the second 

Ustan (Mazandaran). It is situated four miles to the 

east of the Babul river, midway between the foot 

of the Elburz range and the coast; it is 12 miles 

from Babul-i Sar (formerly Mashhad-i Sar), the port 

at the mouth of the Babul river. 

The town was founded at the beginning of the 
16th century on the site of the ancient city of 
Mamtir or Mamatir (see Melgunov, Das siidliche 
U/er des Kaspischen Meeres, Leipzig 1868, 177). 
Shah 'Abbas I used to visit the town and he laid 
out a garden to the south-east called Bagh-i Shah 
or Bagh al-Iram. Barfurush remained a place of 
little importance until the reign of Fath c Ali Shah 

In recent years many new buildings, including 
administrative offices, a hospital and a number of 
schools, have been erected. The population in 1950 



> 39,0! 



e produced it 



Bibliography : B. Dorn, Muhammadanische 
Quellen, iv, 99; Le Strange, 375; Curzon, Persia 
and the Persian Question, i, 379, 380; H. L. Rabino, 
Mazandaran and Astarabad, 12, 21, 37, 45, 46; 
Sartip H. A. Razmara and Sartip Nawtash, 
Farhang-i Qiughrd/iyd-yi Iran, ii, 36, 37. 

(L. Lockhart) 
BARGHASJU b. Sa'Id b. Sultan, sultan of 
Zanzibar, succeeded his brother Madjid, 7 Oct. 1870, 
and reigned till his death, 27 March 1888. He tried 
to seize power on his father's death in 1856, and 
again in 1859 when he was defeated by British inter- 
vention and sent to Bombay for two years. The 
British supported his accession but he at once resisted 
their efforts to suppress the Slave Trade, for he relied 
partly on the Ibadi Mlawa faction which was hostile 
to all European intervention in such affairs. In 1873 
Barghash was obliged to suppress all slave markets 
and prohibit all export of slaves, even to other parts 
ited to London. In 



1876 the 1 
forbidden. 



if slave 



a land v 



policy Lloyd Mat 
began training African troops in 1877. The British 
agent Kirk won Barghash's confidence and became 
the dominant personality in Zanzibar till he left 
in 1886. In the African hinterland Barghash had in- 
herited wide claims and some prestige but very 
little power. In 1877 the failure of negotiations 
with Sir Wm. Mackinnon for a concession for the 
development of the country between the coast and 
Victoria Nyanza ruined Barghash's best chance of 
enforcing his authority in the interior. In 1881 his 
proposal that Britain should guarantee the throne 
to his family and should exercise a regency if he died 
leaving a minor as heir was rejected. In 1884 the 
German agent Peters concluded twelve treaties with 
chiefs whose suzerain Barghash claimed to be; their 
territories lay along the trade route to Tabora and 
Ujiji. In 1885 Germany took them and the Sultan of 
Witu under her protection. Barghash's protest was 
met by the visit of five German warships and an 
ultimatum which lack of British support forced him 
to accept. A commission of British, German and 
French representatives then met to determine the 
extent of territory over which his authority would 
be recognised. Under British pressure Barghash 
accepted their decision (for details see bu sa'id). 
His health was now broken and he died immediately 
on his return from a visit to c Uman. Barghash was 
an able and energetic ruler who did much for Zanzi- 
bar, supplied it with pure water, organised the import 
of cheap grain and worked hard to restore the clove 
industry after a cyclone in 1872. Contemporary 
Europeans often called him xenophobe but his position 
was extremely difficult. Britain, whom he was power- 
less to resist, especially after the collapse of France in 
1870, forced him to adopt an anti-slavery policy 
highly unpopular with his subjects and at the same 
time gave him no support against the Germans. 
Bibliography: R. N. Lyne, Zanzibar in 
Contemporary Times, 1905; Emily Riite (Bar- 
ghash's sister who eloped with a German), Memoiren 
einer arabischen Prinzessin, 1886; R. Coupland, 
The Exploitation of East Africa, 1939, giving 
references to British official sources and the 
private papers of British officials. 

(C. H. Becker-[C. F. Beckingham]) 
BARGHAWATA, a Berber confederation 
belonging to the Masmuda group, established in the 
Tamasna [q.v.] province, extending along the 
Atlantic coast of Morocco, between Sale and Safi, 
from the 2nd/8th to the 6th/i2th century. 



1044 



BARGHAWATA 



They were an important confederation, able, 
according to the Andalusian geographer al-Bakrl, 
to put more than 12,000 cavalry into the field 
simultaneously. They appear to have played a 
certain political role up to the arrival of the Almor- 
avids (second half of the 5th/nth century). Prior 
to this time, our information on the Barghawata is 
almost exclusively due to the Eastern traveller Ibn 
Hawkal (second half of the nth/ioth century) and 
the geographer al-Bakri (second half of the 5th/nth 
century) ; several subsequent chroniclers merely 
reproduce the latter's narrative with slight variations 
of detail (see Bibliography). Al-Bakrl says that he 
derived his information from statements, evidently 
preserved in Spain, made by a Barghawata emissary 
to the Umayyad Caliph al-Hakam II, who came to 
Cordova on a mission in Shawwal 352/October- 
November 963. Indications of the role played by 
the Barghawata at the time of the conquest of 
Morocco x by the Almohad <Abd al-Mu'min are to 
be found in the memoirs of al-Baydhak (Doc. mid. 
d'Hist. almohade) and in the History of Ike Berbers of 
Ibn Khaldfin (see bibliography). In addition to the 
political importance of the Barghawata confede- 
ration, they practised a special religion, which was 
nevertheless clearly derived from Islam; al-Bakrl 
alone gives us some meagre information on this 
subject, and the other chroniclers confine themselves 
to reproducing this. 

Undeniably the Barghawata's appearance in 
history is connected with the Kharidjite revolt of 
Maysara; the populations known under the name 
Barghawata (several chroniclers affirm without 
adequate proof that this was not their contemporary 
name) embraced the Kharidjite cause and in 127/ 
744-745, if we are to believe a number of them, 
grouped themselves round an individual called 
Tarif, whose origin is much disputed: some introduce 
him as a chief of the Zanata and Zuwagha Berbers, 
some as deriving from a Berber group in Southern 
Spain (Barbat, the distorted pronounciation of 
which was supposed to give Barghawat), whilst 
others even accord him a Jewish origin. The SunnI 
authors, it should be noted, sometimes display a 
tendency to attribute such an origin to the strongest 
personalities of the dissident sects: e.g. the ShI'i 
Mahdl 'Ubayd Allah (cf. Goldziher, Muh. Stud., i, 204). 
Nobody, however, says that Tarif was descended from 
a family established in the Tamasna in early times. 
Whether or not he was the promoter of a doctrine 
derived from Sunni or Kharidjite Islam, he certainly 
does not seem to have professed it. His son Salih may 
perhaps have been the progenitor of the new belief 
after living and studying in the East. If we accept 
the chronology of al-Bakri, completed by Ibn 
Khaldun, Salih came to power about 131/748-749 
and transmitted it to his son al-Yasa c about 178/ 
794/795. It was only the latter's son Yunus who, 
openly professed and spread the' new doctrine during 
his 43 years reign, from 228/842-843 to 271/884-885. 
We possess no information on the relationships 
which must have existed at this period between 
the Idrisids and the Barghawata; nobody mentions 
any conflict between them. Nevertheless, there is 
an indication of a bloody battle supposed to have 
been won near the Wadi Baht by Abu Ghufayl, 
Yunus's nephew and successor (271-300/912-913). 
The Barghawata would thus appear to have at- 
tempted to take advantage of the decline of the 
Idrisids to extend their domination and propagate 
their doctrine. 

In the m'ddle of the 4th/ioth century, they 



appeared to Ibn Hawkal as infidels against whom 
the Sunnls tended to conduct a holy war from the 
ribdts of the region of Sale. Their economy seems to 
have been prosperous, as they maintained commer- 
cial relations with Fas, Aghmat, Siis, and Sidjilmassa. 
They attempted to open diplomatic relations with 
the Caliphate of Cordova. Soon, however, they 
were subjected to a series of attacks by Dja'far 
al-Andalusi, a client of the Umayyads, in 367/ 
977-978, by Buluggin b. Ziri, viceroy of the Fatimids 
in Ifrikiya, from 368 to 372/982-983, and by Wadih, 
the manumitted slave of al-Mansfir b. Abi 'Amir, 
in 389/998-999. The decline of the Caliphate of 
Cordova enabled them to recover their breath, but 
about 420/1029, they were subjected to attacks by 
Abu '1-Kamal Tamim, chief of the BanQ Ifran, who 
conquered them. His death in 424, gave them a new 
respite until the arrival of the Almoravids in 451/ 
1059. After putting up a fierce resistance, which 
cost c Abd Allah b. Yasin, the spiritual leader of 
the new conquerors, his life, the Barghawata were 
completely defeated and destroyed. Some, however, 
still remained in the Tamasna when the Almohad 
'Abd al-Mu'min undertook the subjugation of 
Morocco after the conquest of Marrakesh (541/1147). 
Since they had embraced the cause of rebels against 
the new authority, the Almohad chief sent several 
expeditions against them and finally got the better 
of them in 543/1 148-1 149. From that date their 
group ceased to exist and gradually their name 
disappeared: Leo Africanus (beginning of the 10th/ 
16th century) no longer quotes their name, though 
he knows that the Tamasna was formerly inhabited 
by "heretics". 

Their doctrine, according to the glimpse which 
al-Bakri affords of it, appears as a Berber distortion 
of SunnI Islam with a number of Shi'i infiltrations 
and an entirely Kharidjite austerity as regards 
morals. Ibn Hawkal stresses the ascetic life and 
good morality of the Barghawata. Moreover, the 
institution of numerous prayers (five during the day 
and the same number at night) frequent fasts, very 
complete ablutions, the harshness of punishments 
inflicted on thieves (death), fornicators (stoning) 
and liars (banishment) can be ascribed to Kharidjite 
strictness. On the other hand, the fact that Salih 
promised that he would return when the seventh 
chief of the Barghawata had assumed power and 
declared that he was the Mahdl who would fight 
against the Antichrist (al-dadjdial) at the coming of 
the end of the world with the help of Jesus, can be 
considered a sign of ShI'i influence. The month's 
fast in Radjab or Shawwal. the communal prayer 
instituted in Thursday, the food taboos (no heads of 
animals, no fish, eggs or cocks), and the rules of, 
marriage are merely distortions of Muslim Law, as 
was the existence of a Kur'an in the Berber language 
of 80 suras, bea»»g names of prophets, animals etc. 
The continual use of the Berber language, the 
frequent resort to astrology and magic (healing by 
means of applications of the saliva of members of 
the family of Salih) bear witness to the influence of 
the Berber milieu on the faith of the Barghawata. It 
is to be regretted that apart from a few ritual 
expressions and the beginnings of a sura cited by 
al-Bakri, we possess no original documents on this 
religion. In such circumstances it is impossible to 

Bibliography: Ibn Hawkal, i, 82-83 (tr. de 
Slane, J. A., 1842, i, 209-212); BakrI, Descr. de 
I'Afr. Sept., ed. de Slane, Algiers 1911, 134-141 
(tr. of idem, Algiers 1913, 259-271); Fragments 



BARGHAWATA — BARlD 



hist, sur les Berb. au Moyen Age, ed. Levi- 

Provencal, Rabat 1934, 15, 18, 36, 47, 52, 58, 

74, 77, 80; Ibn 'Idharl, (tr. Fagnan, Algiers 1901, 

i) 324-331); Doc. inid. d'Hist. almohade, ed. and 

trans. Levi-Provencal, Paris 1928, 106-107, trans. 

176-177; Ibn Abi Zar c , Rawd al-Kirtds, ed. and 

trans. Tornberg, Uppsala 1843-1846, 82-84, trans., 

112-114; Ibn Khaldun, Hist, des Berb., trans, de 

Slane, Algiers 1852, ii, 124-133, iii, 222; Leo 

Africanus, Descr. de VAfrique, trans, Epaulard, 

Paris 1956, i, 157-162; G. Marcy, Le Dieu des 

Abddites et des Bargwdta, in Hesp. 1936, 33-56; 

A. Bel, La religion musulmane en Berbirie, Paris 

1938, i, 170-175 ; G. Marcais, La Berbirie musulmane 

et VOrient au Moyen Age, Paris 1946, 126-128. 

(R. Le Tourneau) 

BARHEBRAEUS [see Ibn al-'IbrI]. 

BARHUT (also Barahut or Balahut), a wddi in 

Hadramawt, in one wall of which is the famous Bi'r 

Barhut, now known to be a cave rather than a well. 

The wddi, which lies east of the town of Tarim, 

empties into al-Masila, the lower stretch of Wadi 

Hadramawt, from the south. At the mouth of 

Barhut is Kabr Hud [see hud], the most sacred 

shrine in southern Arabia, which is the object of a 

ziydra every Sha'ban. 

Early Islamic traditions describe Bi'r Barhut as 
the worst well on earth, haunted by the souls of 
infidels. Barhut probably came to be known 
throughout Arabia because of its association with 
the tomb of Hud, rather than vice versa (cf. Wensinck, 
citing von Kremer, in EI 1 , ii, 328) ; it is unlikely that 
a mere cave would have acquired such notoriety. 
The true nature of Bi'r Barhut was first revealed by 
D. van der Meulen and H. von Wissmann, who 
explored it in 1931. About 300 feet above the floor 
of the valley they found "a typical limestone cave, 
with nothing whatever volcanic about it. The 
curious but innocuous smell inside does not come 
from sulphurous vapour; it is probably due to the 
dust from the weathering of the rock or, perhaps, 
to bats". An examination of the main corridor and 
various side corridors failed to disclose any note- 
worthy remains. 

Bibliography: For the old erroneous beliefs 
regarding Bi'r Barhut, see the references cited 
by J. Schleifer in EI 1 , i, 654, to which should be 
added C. von Landberg, Etudes sur les dialectes'de 
VArabie miridionale, i, Leiden 1901, 432-47, 481-4. 
For the cave, see D. van der Meulen and H. von 
Wissmann, Hadramaut, Leiden 1932. 

(G. Rentz) 
BARlD, word derived from the Latin veredus/ 
Greek beredos (of uncertain origin, perhaps Assyrian) 
"post horse", usually applied to the official 
service of the Post and Intelligence in the 
Islamic states, and likewise to the mount, courier and 
post "stage". The institution of the state postal 
service was known to the Byzantine and Sasanid 
Empires, from which it would appear the first Caliphs 
only required to borrow it, its foreign origin being 
confirmed by a partly Persian terminology. The barid 
operated from the Umayyad period and c Abd al-Malik 
is considered as having strengthened its organisation, 
once he had re-established internal order. From the 
beginning of the 'Abbasid regime, the Post was one 
of the most important governmental services and 
its direction was entrusted to intimates of the Caliph, 
such as Dja'far the Barmakid, or to Palace eunuchs. 
The various Caliphs developed the system of stages 
which, in the middle of the 3rd/9th century, covered 
the whole Empire. 



The actual organisation of the post in the 
c Abb5sid period is sufficiently well known thanks 
to the works of Ibn Khurradadhbih and Kudama, 
composed for the use of the secretaries of state in 
the 3rd/gth and 4th/ioth centuries, which provide 
lists of stages. The Empire contained no less than nine 
hundred and thirty stages (sikka, also called ribdt in 
Iran and markaz al-barld in Egypt), theoretically, 
situated two farsakhs (12 km.) apart in Iran and 
four (24 km.) in the western provinces; officials 
(murattabun) were responsible for ensuring the 
transport of the post (al-khardHt) within the times 
allotted. The messengers {fuyudi, furdnik) used 
mainly mules in Iran and camels in the West, but 
sometimes horses as well. The organisation, however, 
remained flexible and several times a Caliph, a 
wazir and even an ordinary governor were to be 
found temporarily strengthening the postal service 
on a particular route for political or military reasons. 
Pigeons were also employed for sending urgent 
news. The Post being an official service, it only 
transmitted private letters as an exception to the 
rule. The mounts also served to carry men, when 
these were agents of the State, and we even find 
the new Caliph al-Hadi availing himself of the 
services of the barid to return to Baghdad from 
Diurdian after the death of his father (al-Tabari, iii, 
547 and al-Djahshiyarf, K. al-Wuzard 3 , Cairo ed., 
167). 

The Postmasters {ashdb al-barid), who came 
under the authority of the director of the department 
of the Post (sahib diwdn al-barid) were not restricted 
in their duties to the transmission of official letters 
emanating either from local officials or from the 
central services. Thanks to a text of al-Tabari 
relating to the Caliphate of al-Mansur and to a 
diploma of investiture preserved by Kudama, we 
are acquainted with the duties of these officials. 
They had to provide the central government with 
all necessary information on the state of their 
province and agents' activities, on the attitude of 
the commissioners for land taxation and Crown 
lands a»d that of the kadis, and on the monetary 
and economic situation. Their supervision extended 
also to the governor of the district, as is shown by 
the episode of Tahir's [q.v.] autonomy in Khurasan 
and, in some cases, they were also entrusted with 
the duty of redressing grievances (Miskawayh, 
Eclipse, i, 25). In Baghdad the reports assembled by 
the dirfctor of the diwdn were communicated 
directly to the Caliph, at least in the early period. 
In addition, there was a director of intelligence 
(khabar), entrusted with the supervision of the 
officials and officers of the capital, including the 
wazir himself when necessary (Miskawayh, Ec'ipse, 
i, 24); this office, which seems to have been inde- 
pendent of the Postal Service properly so-called, 
was entrusted to eunuchs or amirs enjoying thr 

If we are to credit the account in the Ta'rif 01 
al- c Umari, the Buwayhids "cut off" the barid so as 
to deprive the Caliph of his means of gaining in- 
formation, thus bringing him more surely under 
their tutelage. It was in fact in their time that 
"runners" (su'at) first appear in the East. Gradually 
the postal service seems to have become increasingly 
disorganised until its suppression by the Saldjukids 
(455/1063), after which extraordinary "emissaries" 
alone were used. At the time of the Crusades, the 
Zangids and Ayyubids had no real postal service 
at their disposal, but made use of runners, swift 
cameleers and pigeons. 



1046 BARID — 

In the Mamluk State, the postal service for a time 
recovered its former importance, and its workings 
are known to us through texts and archaeological 
remains. Its reorganisation was the work of Baybars, 
who not only drew upon the example of the 
•Abbasid Caliphs, but also on that of the Mongol 
Empire, with which he had to contend. The Mamluk 
barid, an organ of the State closely linked with the 
Holy War, therefore, assumed primarily a political 
and military r61e, although later it was adjusted to 
favour commercial traffic. Directed initially by the 
sultan himself, it later passed into the hands 
of the secretaries of state, recruited from the 
famous family of the Banu Facjl Allah, who imparted 
to it a bureaucratic character, before passing back 
to the amir dawaddr. In addition to couriers (baridi) 
commanded by a muhaddam al-baridiyya and 
recruited among the mamluks of the sultan's 
household, the personnel included stage grooms 
(sd'is) and "outriders" [sawaidk). The postal service 
first operated in Egypt and on the Cairo-Damascus 
route (a distance normally covered in a week) and 
was subsequently extended to the towns of the 
Syrian coast and the fortresses on the Taurus 
borders. The stages for changing horses, theoretically 
four farsahhs apart, were first established in public 
caravanserais. Then special buildings were erected 
for the purpose, of which the almost universal type, 
apart from architectural improvements, corresponded 
to the requirements of "stabling the sultan's horses 
and housing the small number of men in charge of 
them" (J. Sauvaget). The routes were then adjusted 
to ensure a quicker and more regular service. At 
the same period, the reception of the couriers by 
the sultan was surrounded by a special ceremonial 
and their badge of office, known from its employment 
in Mamluk heraldry, was given a more sumptuous 
appearance. Pigeon post and i system of visual 
signalling were also developed. The invasion of 
Tlmur (803/1400), however, destroyed ihts organisa- 
tion and swift cameleers and runners were again 
used for carrying official mail. 

The institution of the Post existed in the various 
Muslim states, where it met practical requirements 
and harmonised with the ethical principles of the 
IJur'an, the inviolability of letters and state secrets; 
its form, however, was not always very developed. 
In Muslim Spain in the 4th/ioth century, the State 
postal service had not the same importance as it 
possessed in the East; it employed messengers 
mounted on mules and Sudanese runners {rakkds), 
which reveals the sketchy character of the organi- 
sation, and was directed by a sahib al-burud, a high 
official, who seems also to have had a network of 
agents at his disposal to provide intelligence. In 
the Hafsid state in eastern Barbary, the Post 
assumed a more rudimentary aspect; the couriers 
had to provide their own mounts, and there were 
no fixed stages where they could change them. The 
Post also existed in Safawid Iran as well as in the 
Ottoman Empire (see further posta, raijcijcas, tatar, 
ulaij). 

Bibliography. In addition to the occasional 
references in the chronicles of the 'Abbasid period, 
see especially Tabari, m, 435 ; Khwarizml. Ma/dtih 
al-'UlUm, Cairo ed., 4a; Ibn KhurradadJsbih, 
passim; Kudama b. Dja'far, K. al-Kharddi. ed. 
De Goeje, 184, and Kopriilii MS, f. 15-16; N. 
Abbott, The Rurrah Papyri, Chicago 1938, 15-16; 
A. Sprenger, Die Post- und Reiserouten its Orients, 
Leipzig 1864; A. Mez, Renaissance, 464-471; J. 
Sauvaget, r * paste aux chevaux dans I' empire des 



il-BARIDI 

Mamelouks, Paris 1941; E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. 

Esp. mus., iii, 28-29; R- Brunschvig, La Berbtrie 

orientate sous les Hafsides, ii, Paris 1941, 65. 
(D. Sourdel) 

al-BARIdI, nisba made especially famous by 
three brothers, sons of a postmaster of al-Basra, and 
called Banu 'l-Barldi for that reason. They played 
an important rdle at Baghdad and in 'Irak during 
the Caliphate of al-Mansur and his successors. 
ShI'I tax-farmers and military leaders, they distin- 
guished themselves by their ambition and acts 
of prevarication and had eventful careers, very 
characteristic of the period preceding the advent of 
the Buwayhids. 

The eldest of the three brothers, Abu c Abd Allah 
Ahmad, appeared on the political scene during the 
second vizierate of C A1I b. 'Isa (315-316/927-928). 
Dissatisfied with the subordinate offices to which 
he and his brothers were then appointed, he obtained 
from the next vizier, Ibn Mukla, against a gratuity 
of 20,000 dirhams, the tax-farm of the province of 
al-Ahwaz for himself and lucrative appointments 
for his brothers. When arrested two years later, 
upon the fall of Ibn Mukla, these tax-farmers, who 
had rapidly grown rich, were capable .of meeting a 
heavy fine as the price of their liberty. Somewhat 
later, under the following Caliph al-Kahir, Abu 
c Abd Allah again became influential. He financed 
the expedition against the former supporters of 
al-Muktadir and recovered the tax-farm of al- 
Ahwaz, still retaining it, in spite of numerous 
vicissitudes, at the beginning of the reign of al-Radl 
(322/934), after having benefited from Ibn Mukla's 
return to power. Appointed secretary to the 
chamberlain Yakut, he succeeded in getting rid of 
him (324/936), and becoming the sole master of 
al-Ahwaz, where he unscrupulously amassed con- 
siderable wealth, constantly deferring payment of 
the moneys due to the central government, whilst at 
Baghdad he was represented by his brother Abu 
Yusuf Ya'kub. 

The amir al-umard' Ibn Ra'ik soon undertook to 
subdue this undisciplined governor and occupy al- 
Ahwaz, but al-Baridi was astute enough to take 
refuge with the governor of Fars, the amir 'All b. 
Buwayh, whose support he obtained. In 325/937, 
he succeeded in becoming reconciled with Ibn 
Ra'ik, who again granted him the tax-farm of al- 
Ahwaz and the governorship of the province. When, 
subsequently, Ibn Ra'ik was faced with a rival in 
the person of the Turk Badjkam, al-Baridi alter- 
nately allied himself with them both and in 326/ 
938, when Badjkam had prevailed, Abu 'Abd Allah 
obtained the vizierate, at the same time retaining 
his province and paying tribute to the Caliph. He 
was soon deposed, but after Badjkam's death, at 
the beginning of the reign of al-Muttakl (329/941), 
the Barldls entered Baghdad in force and Abu 'Abd 
Allah recovered the vizierate, which he retained 
until a military mutiny obliged him to return to 
Wasit. The following year (330/942), Abu 'Abd 
Allah entrusted his brother Abu '1-Husayn with 
the command of an army which succeeded in 
occupying Baghdad, forcing the Caliph and Ibn 
Ra'ifc to take refuge with the Hamdanids at al- 
Mawsil. Abu '1-Husayn, however, incurred such 
bitter hatred that he was soon hounded from 
Baghdad and Wasit by the Hamdanid troops. The 
three brothers held out at al-Basra in spite of the 
costly war which they had to conduct against the 
ruler of 'Uman, who landed and occupied al-Ubulla. 
These adventures had exhausted Abu 'Abd Allah's 



L-BARlDl — BARlD SHAHlS 



resources and he did not hesitate to have his brother 

Abu Yusuf assassinated in Safar 332/November 943 

for the simple purpose of possessing himself of his 

wealth. However, he himself died shortly afterwards 

in Shawwal 333/June 944 and was replaced by his 

son Abu '1-Kasim. The latter had to protect himself 

against the intrigues of his uncle Abu '1-Husayn 

who, seeking to obtain the governorship of al-Basra 

for himself, was in the end condemned to death and 

executed in Baghdad at the end of 333/944- He was 

then obliged to fight the Buwayhid Mu'izz al- 

Dawla who, in 336/947, expelled him from al-Basra. 

Forced to flee to the Carmathians of al-Bahrayn, 

his political r61e came to an end. He died in 349/960. 

Abu 'Abd Allah had four other sons, to whom 

incidental references are made in the chronicles. 

Bibliography: Buljturl, Diwdn, i, 217; Sull, 

Akhbdr al-Rddi, trans. Canard, Algiers 1946-1950, 

i, 103 n. and ii, 40 n. 4 ; Tanukhl, Nishwdr, i, 88, 

104, 107, 147; idem, Faradi, 1938 ed., i .165; ii, 

119-120 and 164; 'Arm, ed. De Goeje, 138; 

Miskawayh, ap. H. F. Amedroz and D. S. Margo- 

liouth, The Eclipse of the Abbasid Caliphate, 

Oxford 1920-21, index; Ibn al-Athir, viii, index; 

H. Derenbourg in Orientalische Studien Th. 

Ndldeke gewidmet, Giessen 1906, i, 193-196; 

Zambaur, 15; L. Massignon, in ZDMG, 1938, 

380; M. Canard, Histoire de la dynastie des 

Hamddnides, i, Algiers 1951, 440-443 and 510-511. 

(D. Sourdel) 
BARlD SHAHlS. A dynasty founded by Kasim 
Barid, who was originally a Turkish slave sold to 
Muhammad Shah III, the 13th of the line of the 
Bahmanids [q.v.]. A man of outstanding personality, 
a good calligrapher and musician, he also proved 
his mettle on the battlefield and rose to be the 
kotwal in the reign of Mahmud Shah, and after the 
death of Malik Hasan Nizam al-Mulk, arrogated to 
himself the office of chief Minister of the tottering 
Bahmani State. He had often to contend with the 
more powerful fiefholders of the Kingdom who had 
become virtually independent at BIdjapur, Ahmad- 
nagar and Golkonda, but his chief strength lay in 
his being always at the capital, BIdar [q.v.]. Kasim 
died in 910/1504 and was succeeded by his son Amir 
Barid. The authority of the Bahmani Sultans had 
been shattered by Kasim, and what was left of it was 
now put an end to by his successor, till, after the 
flight of the last titular monarch, Kallm Allah he 
became supreme at BIdar. But he had to cope with 
the power of 'All 'Adil Shah of BIdjapur who actually 
occupied BIdar after routing the Baridl ruler. The 
citadel was restored after a while, but only after the 
forts of Kandhar and Kalyanl had been annexed 
to BIdjapur. Amir Barid tried to bring at least the 
small fiefholders under the direct control of the 
centre, much as Mahmud Gawan had done [q.v.] but 
be was not successful. He died in 950/1543 and was 
succeeded by his son 'All. 

'All Barid was a lover of literature, art and 
architecture and the Rangln Mahal within the fort 
at BIdar and his own well-proportioned mausoleum 
are two outstanding monuments to his taste. He 
was blessed with a long reign. He was the first of 
the Baridls who adopted the royal title, although 
he was content with the epithet al-Malik al-Mdlik, 
which appears in beautiful mother of pearl inlay ii 
the Rangln Mahal. He was of the four allied monarchs 
who finally put an end to the power of Rama Raya, 
the regent of Vijayanagar, in 1565 and was pu 
command of the left wing of the allies along with 
Ibrahim Kufb Shah. He died in 987/1579. 



The fortunes of the dynasty came quickly to a 
close after 'All Barid. He was followed by Ibrahim 
and then by Kasim II who was succeeded by his 
infant son known as Mlrzi 'All Barid Shah. A 
relative, known as Amir Barid Shah II put him 
aside and occupied the throne. He was succeeded by 
a ruler who is called in a bilingual inscription MIrza 
Wall Amir Barid Shah. It was in his reign that the 
Baridl dynasty came to an end and BIdar annexed 
BIdjapur in 1028/1619. 

Very few Baridl coins have been found. Although 
Ferishta says that even Kasim Barid struck his 
own coins the only coins known so far are either 
the Bahmani coppers with the punch-marked legend 
Amir Shah, which are attributed to Amir Barid II 
or else copper fits and half fits with "Amir Barid 
al-Sultan" but without any date. These are all in 
the Haydarabad Museum. 

Bibliography: Ferishta, Gulshan-i Ibrdhimi; 
'AH Tabataba, Burhdn-i Ma'dthir; Ta'rikh-i 
Muhammad Ku(b Shah; Zubayri, Basdfin al- 
Sala(tn; G. Yazdani, Bidar, its History and 
Monuments; Sherwani, The Bahmanis of the 
Deccan. (H. K. Sherwani) 

II. — Monuments. All the monuments of this 
dynasty are in the town of Bidar [q.v.'] ; as successors 
to the well established Bahmani dynasty they in- 
herited many fine structures, and their building 
activity was more a matter of adaptation and re- 
building than of the erection of any major struc- 
tures. The progress of the Baridl style is well 
illustrated in their tombs, which form a royal 
necropolis some 6 km. west of the city walls, and 
occupy a large area on account of the vast 
garden-enclosures of each tomb. Page references in 
the following account are to G. Yazdani, Bidar: its 
history and monuments, Oxford 1947. 

The tomb of Kasim I, d. 910/1504, is a small 
insignificant building with a plain conical dome, 
p. 149. That of his successor, Amir Barid I, was left 
incomplete on his sudden death in 949/1542, without 
a dome; there are two storeys of arches on each 
facade, pierced by a central arch running through 
both storeys, all stilted at the apex as in the earlier 
Bahmani buildings (pp. 150-1). The reign of 'All 
Barid (949-87/1542-79) saw much building activity: 
large scale improvements to fort and city fortifi- 
cations, including the mounting of many more 
large guns; rebuilding of the Rangln Maljal, with 
fine mother-of-pearl inlay work and intricate wood- 
carving in which Hindu patterns are mixed with 
Muslim designs (44-9); much alteration of the 
Tarkash Mahal, especially the upper storey, in which 
the chain-and-pendant motif, characteristic of 
Baridl work from now on, is apparent (pp. 57-9); 
and 'All's tomb, very well sited, with an imposing 
gateway having wide arches with low imposts and 
upper rooms decorated with a profusion of small 
cusped niches. Each wall of the tomb consists of one 
open arch, through which the fine sarcophagus of 
polished black basalt is visible; the interior is thus 
very bright and airy, and is embellished with good 
encaustic tile work (verses from 'Attar, Kur'anic 
texts, in Thulth), though not over-elaborated. Since 
the tomb is open on all sides there is no kibla 
enclosure, and attached to the tomb there is a 
separate mosque with slender minarets a vaulted 
ceiling, and fine cut-plaster decoration on the 
facade. Tomb, gateway and mosque have the 
trefoil parapet which originates in the late Bahmani 
period (pp. 151-60). The tomb of Ibrahim (d. 994/ 
1586) imitates that of his father on a smaller scale 



BARID SHAHlS — BARKA 



but is incomplete and presents surfaces of lime-laid 
masonry. Carved corner jambs show the Hindu 
iakra as part of their decoration (pp. 160-1). Both 
these tombs have a large dome, not stilted but 
recurved at the base to form a three-quarter orb, 
which appears somewhat top-heavy for the structure. 
This constriction of the dome is characteristic of the 
contemporary buildings of the Kutb Shahl and 
*Adil Shahl [qq.v.] dynasties at Golconda and 
Bidjapur also. The single opening is reverted to in 
the tomb of Kasim II, which is better proportioned, 
but the open design is apparent in the dome over the 
mihrdb of the Kali ('black') masdjid, pp. 196-7. The 
Djami' Masdjid of the town (see Bidar), a late 
Bahmani building, was restored during the Barldi 
period (chain-and-pendant motif in spandrels of 
the facade), pp. 103-4. 

From the time of 'All Barid the buildings become 
more ornate in their minor detail, and the influence 
of the Hindu mason becomes more apparent; in 
some Baridi buildings — e.g., the Kali mastoid — the 
forms used in stone often seem more appropriate to 
wood-work. Much of the later work shows that 
meretricious character often apparent in the buildings 
of a dynasty in decline. 

Bibliography: Fuller details of many of the 
above buildings'are given in the article on Bidar, 
[q.v.]. See particularly Yazdani, op. cit., for full 
references, extensive plates, drawings, plans, etc, 
and bibliography given in article Bidar. 

(J. Burton-Page) 
BARIH (Ar.), a term applied to a wild animal or 
bird which passes from right to left before a traveller 
or hunter; although opinions differ on this point, 
this is generally interpreted as a bad omen, because, 
it is said, it presents its left side to the hunter who 
does not have time to take aim at it; an animal 
which passes from left to right (sdnih) is on the 
contrary of good omen. The ndtih approaches from 
the front, and the kaHd from the rear. 

Bibliography: Freytag, Einleitung, 163; 
Wellhausen, ResU 2 , 202 ; Doutte, Magic at religion, 
359; Djahiz, Tarbi"; ed. Pellat, index; L.A. s.v.; 
Maydani, under man li bi-l-sdnih ba c d al-bdrih. 
(Ed.) 
BARIMMA [see hamrin, djabal]. 
BARlRA, a slavewoman who had arranged to 
buy her freedom in nine (or five) annual instalments, 
appealed to 'A'isha who agreed to pay the whole 
sum. The owners were willing to sell her, but insisted 
on retaining the right of inheritance from her. When 
the Prophet heard this he told her to buy her, for 
the right of inheritance belonged to the one who 
set a person free. c A J isha therefore paid the money 
and set Barira free. She remained as 'A'isha's 
servant and is said to have died during the Caliphate 
of Yazid I (60-64/680-683). In the tradition of the 
lie she was consulted regarding 'A'isha (cf. Bukhari. 
Shahdddt, 15). Three sunnas are connected with her: 
(1) The Prophet said the right of inheritance belongs 
to the one who sets a person free. (2) She was given 
her choice about staying with her husband Mughlth 
who was a negro slave, and when she refused 
spite of the Prophet's plea for Mughlth she was told 
to observe the Hdda period appropriate for a divorced 
woman. Mughlth is said to have followed her in the 
streets of Medina weeping. (3) Once when 
Prophet came in when meat was being cooked and 
was given something else to eat he asked the re; 
On being told that the meat was sadaka given to 
Barira, he said it was sadaka to Barira but a gift t< 
him, meaning that one who had received sadaki 



could give some of it as a present to another. Barira 
is said to have warned c Abd al-Malik b. Marwan 
that if he became ruler he must avoid shedding 
innocent Muslim blood. 

Bibliography: Wensinck, Handbook, art. 
Barira; Ibn c Abd al-Barr, Isti'db, 708; Ibn 
Hadjar, Isdba (No. 177 in Kitdb al-Nisd>), Tahdhlb 
al-Tahdhib, xii, 403; Ibn al-Athlr, Usd al-Ghdba, 
Cairo 1280/1863-4, v, 409 f. (J. Robson) 

BARKA, a word applied by the Arab writers both 
to a town — now al-Mardj — and to the region which 
belonged to it, that is to say Cyrenaica, a broad 
African peninsula jutting out into the eastern 
Mediterranean between the gulf of Bomba and 
that of the Great Syrtis, situated, therefore, between 
long. 20 and 30 east of Greenwich and the paral- 
lels 30° and 33° of latitude. To the east begins the 
Marmarica, whilst the vast eastern Libyan Sahara 
stretches away to the south. 

The relief is made up of plateaux, resulting from 
the folding, in the Miocene age, of thick layers of 
Cenomanian limestone and lower Tertiary; they 
slope gently towards the south, where the Saharan 
table has not been raised up, giving way to low 
alluvial plains and falling away to the sea in graded 
levels. The high plateau, the Djabal Akhdar (Green 
Mountain) rises from 500 to over 600 metres, 
reaching its highest point at 868 to the south of the 
ruins of Cyrene. An intermediate plateau, from 
250 to 400 metres, narrow in the north, then widens 
out to the west and south-west; it contains al- 
Mardj and dominates the coastal plain of Benghazi, 
which is also of limestone. That Cyrenaica is not 
a desert like its vast hinterland is due to the influence 
of sea and altitude: its temperatures are moderate 
in summer and It enjoys relatively high rainfall. 
January and July-August temperatures are 13.5° C. 
and 25.8° at Benghazi, at sea-level, 10.4° and 23.9° 
at al-Mardj at an altitude of 285 metres, and 8.4 
and 22.3 at Cyrene, situated at 621 metres, where 
snow is not unknown. Rainfall, slight on the 
western littoral (266 mm. at Benghazi) and inadequ- 
ate for almost all cultivation without irrigation as 
the local soils are often heavy, increases in the 
northern parts of the first plateau with 471 mm. at 
al-Mardj, and especially on the second, where more 
than 500 and even 600 mm. fall in the region of 
Cyrene. In contrast, rainfall declines towards the 
east (300 mm. at Derna) and, very rapidly, towards 
the south-east and the south. Likewise, the wddis 
running down towards the Sahara only have water 
after the heaviest rains and end in vast enclosed 
depressions; of the very short and deeply embanked 
Mediterranean tributaries, only the wddi Derna has 
a perennial flow of water. The waters filter away 
into the limestone of the plateaux and only reappear 
in a few "Vauclusian" springs at the base of certain 
escarpments. The plateaux have a "carstic" relief, 
with swallow-holes, sink-holes, extensive areas 
without surface drainage and grottos. The high 
plateau, the Djabal Akhdar. still supports, to the 
south of al-Mardj and Cyrene, several fine forests 
of horizontal cypress Cupressus sempervivens, var. 
horizontalis) , green oaks, Aleppo pines and Phoenician 
junipers; in the main, however, it is covered by low 
forest and a scrub of mastics and wild olives. 
Cyrenaica comprises 110,000 hectares of forest and 
scrub. The clearings, extended by man, afford good 
pasturage and fertile brown and grey land for 
cultivation. This very limited good region quickly 
passes on the coast and to the south into scanty 
heath dominated by a few junipers and broken 



by increasingly extensive stretches of steppe. The 
large rocky outcrops enclose somewhat narrow 
areas of red clay soils, relatively fertile, but for 
the most part requiring too much water for so slight 
a rainfall. 55 kilometres to the south-east of Benghazi 
and 60 to the south of Derna, begins the Sahara, 
with its very scanty pasturages and light soils. 

"Serviceable" Cyrenaica, a narrow fertile region 
and one favourable to sedentary life, isolated by 
the steppes of the Marmarica and Syrtica and by 
the vast Libyan desert, has always been a dependency 
of the East. A land of nomadic Libyans, it became 
the sole African dependency of the Greek world 
with the five colonies of the Pentapolis founded 
between the 7th and 5th centuries B.C.: Cyrene, 
the first to be created, and admirably situated in 
the heart of the Djabal Akhdar, its port Apollonia 
(Marsa Siisa), Barke (al-Mardj), Euhesperidis 
(Benghazi) and Teuchira (Tocra). It was subsequ- 
ently attached to Ptolemaic Egypt, at which time 
Ptolemais (Tolmeta) and Darnis (Derna) originated. 
As a Roman province, it was beset by frequent 
disturbances and was far from prosperous. In the 
4th century A.D., it was attached to the Eastern 
Empire and formed part of the Byzantine Empire 
down to the 7th century, without ever recovering its 
activity of the Greek period. On the eve of the 
Arab conquest, its agriculture was receding before 
the advance of pastoral life. Cyrenacia was occupied 
by the Arabs after two campaigns conducted by 
'Amr b. al- c As in 22/642 and 643. Subsequent 
expeditions crossed it, gradually reaching and con- 
quering the Maghrib. Thus it became a major 
thoroughfare, both military and commercial, from 
Egypt westwards, either via the southern depression 
and oases such as Awdjlla or by the detour of the 
northern plateaux. The Berber tribes, the Lawata, 
the Hawara and the Awrigha, intermingled with 
Arab elements, took increasingly to stock-breeding, 
which spread at the expense of agriculture: exports 
to Egypt then consisted of live-stock, wool, honey 
and tar Bakri, trans, de Slane, 15); Barka remained 
the only considerable centre. The region, linked to 
Egypt, was, like the latter, dependent in turn on 
Damascus, Baghdad and then the Fatimids. The 
BanQ Hilal and BanQ Sulaym invaders, who, in the 
3th/nth century left Egypt and spread over the 
Maghrib, crossed the Barka region, which gradually 
became completely bedouinised. In Ibn Khaldun's 
time, in the 8th/i4th century (Histoire, trans, de 
Slane, i, 164-165), its towns and villages were ruined 
and the population, the c Azza, were shepherds 
leading a nomadic existence from the region of the 
oases in the south to the northern plateaux and 
cultivating barley; Barka and Bernlk (Benghazi), 
however, still continue to be mentioned as well as 
the oases of Awdjlla and Adjdabiya. The region, in 
theory at least, continued to depend on Egypt and, 
like the latter, was occupied by the Turks in the 
ioth/i6th century. It was, however, placed under 
the authority, more nominal than real, of the gover- 
nors of Tripoli, whom the Karamanli dynasty sup- 
planted from 171 1 to 1835. Barka disappeared and, 
at the beginning of the 19th century, Cyrenaica, a 
European term, apart from the southern oases, 
only possessed two centres, which owed their 
existence to foreign immigration: Eenghazi, ancient 
Euhesperidis, originated at the end of the 15th 
century, from an immigration of Tripolitanians, and 
Derna, on the site of ancient Darnis, founded some- 
what earlier by Andalusians, owed its modest rise 
to the Bey Muhammad, who, in the 17th century, 



reorganised the irrigation: it has become a small 
palm oasis beside the sea with pretty gardens. In 
the interior, al-Mardj arose from the construction of 
a Turkish fort in 1840 on the site of Barka. In the 
second half of the 19th century, however, Cyrenaica 
came under the de facto authority of the great 
Sanflsiyya confraternity, an effective politico- 
religious power based on a sound commercial 
organisation. Finally, in 1897, Muslims from Crete, 
fleeing before the Greek conquest, founded the 
modest Marsa Susa on the ruins of Apollonia. 

When the Italians landed at Eenghazi and Tripoli 
in 191 1, they found it, except for these modest 
urban centres, to be entirely a country of Bedouin, 
without a single village outside the oases. The 
population was made up entirely of semi-nomadic 
and nomadic herdsmen, living only in tents. The 
tribes formed two main groups, the Mrabtin (Mura- 
bitfln) and the Sa'adl. The Mrabtin are thought to 
have a Berber origin and comprise two groups: the 
Baraghlth to the west, whose main tribes are the 
Magharba (Syrtic), the c Urfa and the c Abid (al- 
Mardj), and, on the other hand, the Harabi, who 
include the Dorsa, on the littoral, the Hasa, the 
'Aylet Fa'id and the Bra'sa north and south of 
the central Djabal Akhdar and especially the 
c Abeidat on the plateaux south of Derna and the 
Gulf of Bomba. As regards the Sa c adl, they lay claim 
to purely Arab origins: they are the Fwasher and 
the Awaghir on the steppes of the south-west, the 
minor tribes of the Marmarica and the nomads of the 
Awdjila-Djalo region. Outside the urban centres, the 
entire population were Sunni Muslims of the Malik! 
rite; all spoke Maghribi type Arabic dialects, except 
the inhabitants of Awdjlla in the south, the first 
Berber-speaking locality to be encountered going 
westwards. 

It was not until the end of 1931, after determined 
resistance by the Bedouin and Sanflsiyya, that the 
Italians became masters of the whole of Cyrenaica 
with its hinterland. They did their utmost to 
colonise it. The first colonists settled, in rather 
hazardous conditions, on the unpropitious Benghazi 
plain and in the vicinity of al-Mardj. Systematic 
effort, however, was directed towards the exploi- 
tation and settlement by Italians of the Djabal 
Akhdar. where, between 1934 and 1939, a dozen 
villages were founded. "Demographic" and then 

80,000 hectares, producing wine and olive oil. On 
the 9th January 1939, Cyrenaica, like Tripolitania, 
was integrated with its hinterland in Italian territory. 
By this time, the Italians had begun to provide 
Cyrenaica on a large scale with the equipment and 
services of a colonial country in the course of modern- 
isation : a railway line from Benghazi to al-Mardj and 
Soluk (164 km.), a network of roads in the west 
and the north, ports (especially at Benghazi), 
aerodromes, educational establishments and hospit- 
als, postal services, works to supply water, notably 
a pipe-line over 200 km. with pumping stations, 
reservoirs and branch conduits to serve the villages 
of the Djabal Akhdar, etc. Cyrenaica entered the 
war period in full development. But all Italians left 
the country in the face of the final victorious 
offensive of the British Eighth Army in November- 
December 1942 and it then came under British 
Military Administration. The British then placed 
Idris, the leader of the Sanusiyya, at the head of the 
amirate of Cyrenaica and, in 1951, assisted him to 
accede to the throne of the Libyan Federal Union, 
which, with Cyrenaica, comprises Tripolitania and 



1050 BARKA - 

FazzSn. Nothing remains of the agricultural work 
of the Italians; the country has reverted to pastoral 
life, with a little barley being grown, and the villages 
have fallen into ruin. Likewise nothing survives 
of the few industrial undertakings (fish canning- 
factories, breweries and distilleries, boot and shoe 
factories), which they had set up at Benghazi. 
Exports now only include a few products derived 
from stock breeding, salt and sponges harvested by 
the Greeks in the Gulfs of Bomba and the Great 
Syrtis. Cyrenaica, prolonged by its immense Saharan 
hinterland, stretching to lat. 20 and embracing the 
oases of Kufra, covers 855,400 km 1 (out of a total 
of ii759,5°o for the whole of the Federal Union of 
Libya), though it contains only 291,350 inhabitants, 
almost all in the North (out of a total of 1,091, 800). 
Its average yearly production is 360,000 quintals 
of cereals (barley and wheat), and it has a stock of 
between 450 and 500,000 sheep, 350 and 400,000 
goats, 30 and 35,000 head of cattle and 20,000 camels. 
Sparsely populated, very poor in spite of the fertility 
of some of the regions in the north, deficient in 
financial resources and administrative personnel, 
Cyrenaica is dependent on the financial and technical 
help provided by Great Britain, by the United 
Nations and the United States. 

Bibliography: see Libya. Also F. Chamoux, 

Cyrine sous la monarchic des Baitiades, Paris 1952; 

P. Romanelli, La Cirenaica romana, Rome 1943 ; E. 

de Agostini, Le popolazioni delta Cirenaica, Tripoli 

1925 ; G. Narducci, Storia deUa colonizzazione deUa 

Cirenaica, Milan 1942 ; W. B. Fisher and K. Walton, 

The Aberdeen University expedition to Cyrenaica in 

1951, in Scottish geogr. mag., 1952-1953; N. A. 

Ziadeh, Barka, Beirut 1950. (J. Despois) 

BARfcA'lD, in 'Abbasid times one of the 

sequence of small towns on the main route between 

Nisibln and Mawsil, in the Pjazlra province, the 

others being Adhrama to the west, and Ba'aynatha 

and Balad (where the Mawsil-Sindjar road bifurcated 

south-westward) to the east. Barka'id, of which 

the modern Tall Rumaylan, north of the railway 

line (and near to Tall Kochek station thereon) may 

possibly mark the site, was probably just inside the 

Bee de Canard (eastward extremity of the modern 

Syrian province of Djazira), and lay some 50-55 

miles from Nisibln, and 80 from Mawsil. It is 

described by a number of Arab geographers as a 

place of considerable scale, especially in the 3rd/9th 

century, with its walls and three gates, excellent 

springs, 200 shops (largely wine-shops) and busy 

traffic. It was, in its best days, the country-town 

of the district of Baka £ , which covered most of the 

country between Mawsil and Nisibln. It continued 

as a recognised staging-post until the 7th/i3th 

century, but much diminished in scale by reason of 

the natural anxiety of travellers and caravans to 

avoid a place always notorious — indeed proverbial — 

for its population of thieves and robbers; Barka'id 

declined, therefore, to mere village status while its 

better reputed neighbours (notably, it is said, 

Bashazza, on an alternative route) increased. 

Bibliography: BGA, passim, particularly Vol. 
vi, 214, Note f. (also 164); Yakut, i, 571 it, 701; 
Abu '1-Fida', Takwim, ii, 294; Hariri's 7th. 
Makdma; Le Strange, 99; K. Ritter, Erdkunde, ix, 
162-3; F. Tuch in ZDMG, i, 62-64; M. v. Oppen 
heim, Vom MitUlmeer zum persisch. Golf (1900), 
ii, 143-144; 167-8 (de Goeje's Note). 

(M. Streck-[S. H. Longrigg]) 
BARfcCS, al-Malik al-Zahir Sayf al-DIn, 
Mamluk Sultan of Egypt. He was the first of 



a new series of rulers, to whom history refers as 
Circassians in memory of the country where 
they were originally purchased as slaves, and as 
Burdji [see Burdjiyya], because Barkuk was the 
first to have belonged to a regiment with their 
barracks in the dungeons (burdi) of the Cairo Citadel. 

Barkuk provided the link between the two 
dynasties of Mamluk sultans: before ascending the 
throne, he ruled Egypt as Marshal of the Armies, 
atdbak al- c asdkir [q.v.], during the turbulent reigns 
of two sultans, both minors, of the line of KalawQn. 

Purchased in the Crimea, Barkuk, unlike the rest 
of the Mamluks, was no son of an unknown father 
but could state in his monumental inscriptions that 
he was the son of Anas; the latter was invited to 
come to Egypt, where he occupied a position of 
some standing. 

Sold to the all-powerful Ylbugha 'Umari, the 
Marshal who had succeeded in breaking the ill- 
fated Malik Nasir Hasan, Barkuk was for a short 
while imprisoned after the execution of his master. 
He passed into the service of the Court, but was 
soon involved in the conspiracy which ended in the 
assassination of Malik Ashraf Sha'ban in 778/1377. 

He was then promoted to be Marshal of the Armies 
by Malik Mansur 'All, a seven year old child. He had 
to contend with the ambitions of his fellows, and 
there was continual warfare, from which he finally 
emerged the victor. He was then able to gather a 
group of clients round himself and, when the Sultan 
died of plague in 784/1382, Barkuk began by placing 
a brother of the late ruler on the throne, the eleven 
year old HadjdjI. In the end he threw off the mask 
and, on the pretext that an energetic ruler was 
needed for the protection of the country, at the end 
of the same year had the crown offered to himself 
by a council of the magistrates presided over by the 
Caliph. 

Barkuk was soon up against serious difficulties, 
which were momentarily to make him lose power. 
They started with the revolt of the governor of the 
province of Aleppo, Ylbugha Nasiri, who was joined 
by a dismissed Mamluk named Mintash. The rest 
of the Syrian governors joined the movement, 
including the governor of Sis, on the remotest part of 
the frontier. When the Sultan, after causing his 
principal officers to renew their oath to him, made 
up his mind to take action, Ylbugha already held 
the whole of Syria and it was beneath the walls of 
Damascus that he defeated the legitimate army, 
which came to bring him to his senses, in Rabi c I 
79>/March 1389. 

The sultan raised a second army corps, making 
his preparations in some haste, for Ylbugha's troops 
had penetrated into Egyptian territory at Katya and 
were encamped at Salihiyya. The Sultan set out to 
take up his position at Matariyya, but returned to 
Cairo in despair, for the majority of his officers, 
guessing who would win, went over to the enemy 
camp. Nevertheless, he wished the matter to be 
decided by the arbitrament of war and the battle 
was fought to the north of Cairo and beneath the 
city's walls on the 9th Djumada/ist May, without 
any decisive result. Day by day, Barkuk saw the 
devotion of his men vanishing and, in the end, he 
left the Citadel in disguise and went into hiding. 

He was discovered, and sent ofi to prison at Karak 
in the land of Moab, whilst HadjdjI was replaced on 
the throne. As his masters, the latter had the 
factious generals, who proceeded to indulge them- 
selves in the trivial occupation of street fighting. 
Barkuk took advantage of this confused situation 



BARKUK — BARKYARUK 



and, escaping from imprisonment, gathered together 
an army composed in the main of Bedouin Arabs. 
After numerous vicissitudes, some of which read 
like an adventure story, he made his triumphal 
entry into Cairo in Safar 792/February 1390. 

Clearly Hadjdji could do nothing but withdraw, 
but apart from this he was not troubled. Sultan 
Barkuk, moreover, had not disposed of his old 
opponent Mintash and a campaign of two years 
was needed to get rid of him. 

As can be seen, these two reigns of the Sultan 
Barkuk were eventful but contributed nothing 
to the glory of Egypt: the last fifty years of the 
8th/i4th century were indeed lamentable. 

Other events must be noted, though at the time 
the seriousness of their implication was not evident. 
Already in 788/1386, during Barkuk's first reign, 
rumours had been current in Cairo that a certain 
"Mongol rebel named Timur" had marched on 
Tabriz and this was soon confirmed officially by a 
dispatch from the Djala'irid sultan of 'Irak, Ahmad 
b. Uways, who urged Barkuk to be on his guard. 
The Mamluk government then sent one of their 
intelligence agents to conduct an inquiry on the 
spot: in Radjab 789/July 1387, the latter brought 
back somewhat alarming news. Detachments of the 
Mongol army had entered Upper Mesopotamia and 
Asia Minor, at Edessa and Malatya, after having 
scattered the troops of the Turcoman ruler Kara 
Muhammad. 

In the middle of the year 795/1393. Timur 
again made his presence felt; an embassy from the 
Ottoman sultan Bayazid urged the Egyptian govern- 
ment to take military precautions, whilst the Sultan 
of Baghdad, Ahmad b. Uways, expelled from his 
domains by the Mongol hordes, took refuge in 
the Mamluk kingdom. Timur had nevertheless 
approached Barkuk amicably, though the latter, 
casting aside all prudence, had the Mongol ambas- 
sador put to death. 

The Egyptian sultan had left for Syria at the head 
of an army; at that time only a few skirmishes 
occurred. Barkuk made a certain number of appoint- 
ments relating to the Syrian frontier, so that the 
fortresses of Malatya, Tarsus, Edessa and Kal'at 
al-Rum received new commanders. Epigraphy, 
moreover, reveals that works were carried out at 
this time at the citadel of Ba'lbak, the command 
post at the entrance to Coele-Syria. Thus, thanks to 
these meagre indications, we may assume that in 
the course of his passage through Syria, Barkuk saw 
to the defence of the territory ; he was back in Cairo 
on the 13 Safar 797/8 December 1394. 

The end of the reign is devoid of historical signi- 
ficance; the sultan died on the 15th Shawwal 801/ 
20th June 1399, as the result of an attack of epilepsy. 

Barkuk was 63 years of age, and for over twenty 
years had governed Egypt firstly as Marshal of the 
Armies and then as sultan. The disturbances caused 
by the Syrian governors gave him much trouble. They 
can probably be explained by normal feelings of 
jealousy and instinct for intrigue, which at all times 
actuated the Mamluks. Certain synchronisms, 
however, are suggestive and one may well ask 
whether the great Syrian officers were not induced 
to rebel by skilful propaganda conducted by the 
emissaries of Timur, who was to benefit from 
the disorders. 

Bibliography : Manhal Sd/i, Biographies, M.I. 

Egypte, xix, no. 650; Wiet, Histoire de la Nat on 

Egyptienne, iv, 508-520; Ibn Taghribirdl, ed. 



Popper, vols, v-vi; Cairo ed., vol. xi; Hautecoeur 
et Wiet, Les Mosqudes du Caire, index; Ibn 
Furat, Vol. x. (G. Wiet) 

BARKYARCS (Berkyaruk), fourth Saldju- 
kid Sultan, in whose time the visible decline of the 
regime began. Although the eldest of the sons of 
Malikshah. he was only thirteen years old on the 
latter's death (Shawwal 485/November 1092) and, 
unlike his father, who at a similar age had been 
guided by his vizier and atabeg Nizam al-Mulk, 
he lacked a man of undisputed authority in 
his entourage. Moreover, Malikshah's last wife, 
Turkan Khatun, a woman also of the noblest 
birth, had dominated her husband in the latter 
years of his life and now, with the treasury at 
her disposal, she was able to have her four year 
old son Mahmud proclaimed Sultan at Baghdad. 
Already caliphal arbitration seems to have become 
a significant factor in the succession to the sultanate, 
which had previously been decided within the Sal- 
djukid family. Furthermore, Tadj al-Mulk, the enemy 
and successor of Turkan Khatun's counsellor, Nizam 
al-Mulk, had been unable to destroy the considerable 
armed following surrounding the sons of the late 
vizier, and was seeking vengeance. The Nizamiyya 
abducted Barkyaruk from Isfahan and at Rayy, 
their centre, proclaimed him Sultan. Finally, in the 
absence of any law of succession, a vague tribal 
tradition favourable to family sharing and to 
the pre-eminence of the eldest member of the 
extended family encouraged the pretensions of 
Isma'il b. YakutI, Barkyaruk's maternal uncle and 
Malikshah's cousin, of Tutush, the latter's brother, 
who held Syria as his appanage, and of Arslan Arghun, 
another brother, who was active in Khurasan. There 
then began a complex civil war, which was to prove 
much more serious than the skirmishes engendered 
by the accession of Alp Arslan and Malikshah. 
Ultimately Barkyaruk prevailed because, following 
the killing of Tad] al-Mulk by the Nizamiyya, death 
claimed Turkan Khatun and Mahmud; Isma'il, 
who alternatively sought to join with Turkan 
Khatun and Barkyaruk, was likewise killed by the 
Nizamiyya; Tutush, the most dangerous of all of 
them, had succeeded in gaining recognition by the 
whole of Mesopotamia (including Baghdad) and had 
invaded the Iranian plateau, but first his great 
Syrian amirs Aksunkur of Aleppo and Buzan of 
Edessa deserted him and then the amirs of Iran, 
fearing the advent of a new suzerainty, offered 
resistance and Tutush perished in the final battle; 
finally Arslan Arghun, whose limited aim was to 
make Khurasan an autonomous appanage, after 
overcoming Buribars, the last of Malikshah's 
brothers, despatched against him by Barkyaruk, 
likewise died in due course. Thus from 488/1095, 
Barkyaruk was acknowledge by the Caliph in the 
Arab provinces of the Empire and on the Iranian 
plateau and in the following year he was able 
to proceed to Khurasan to receive the submission 
of the province and even to renew the claim to 
Saldjukid sovereignty over Samarkand and Ghazna. 
But the Empire over which he ruled was far from 
resembling that over which his predecessors had 
held sway. 

Alp Arslan and, more clearly, Malikshah had in- 
deed already formed appanages and great commands 
for the benefit of princes of their family and in 
exceptional cases, for high amirs; in the main, 
however, frontier or remote districts were affected 
and, in spite of ominous incidents, they had! not 
seriously compromised the unity of the Empire. 



1052 BARK 

Under Barkyirfik, things developed differently and 
the Empire assumed the guise of a federation of 
autonomous princes. In Syria, the sons of Tutush, 
Dukak of Damascus and Rudwan of Aleppo, 
acknowledged his sovereignty in principle, without, 
however, Barkyaruk ever being able to intervene 
in their affairs. In Khurasan, in the inaccessible 
mountain regions of the East, rebels persisted — a 
cousin of Malikshah, a descendant of Yabghu, 
Tughril Beg's brother, etc., so that Barkyaruk 
deemed it prudent to constitute the whole of 
Khurasan an appanage for his brother Sandjar, 
assisted by a governor whom he appointed. He did 
the same thing for Adharbaydjan (with its frontier 
districts), another of the frontier marches, dangerous 
—as recalled by Isma'il b. Yakuti's attempt— by 
reason of the numbers of Turkomans always ready 
to support any enterprise showing a likely prospect 
of booty. Here Barkyaruk installed his youngest 
brother, Muhammad, accompanied by an atabeg, 
whom he likewise appointed. 

Barkyaruk's difficulties, however, did not end 
there. Muhammad and Sandjar, co-uterine brothers 
(but by a different mother from Barkyaruk's) were 
incited, especially by Nizam al-Mulk's son, Mu'ayyad 
al-Mulk, (who had been dismissed from the vizierate 
by Barkyaruk, in favour of a brother with whom 
he had quarrelled) to throw off all control by their 
elder brother and revolt against him. Subsequent to 
operations which were complicated by several amirs 
constantly changing sides, and in the course of 
which both protagonists were in turn forced to flee, 
an agreement was negotiated by the moderate 
elements of both sides. In accordance therewith, 
Muhammad was given the title of malih and received 
Adharbaydjan with Armenia, under the suzerainty 
of Barkyaruk, the sole sultan. Muhammad, dissatis- 
fied, reopened hostilities, but was forced to flee into 
Armenia. Finally, however, in 497/1104, Barkyaruk, 
ill and weary of the war, agreed to an actual division 
of the sultanate. Though in addition to the Djibal 
with Rayy, he retained Tabaristan, Fars and Khu- 
zistan, Baghdad and the Holy cities, in other words 
the towns of greatest consequence and the core of the 
central territories, he was obliged to acknowledge his 
brother in Isfahan, half of 'Irak, and all the western 
frontier territories from Adharbaydjan to Syria, and 
to accord him the direction of the Holy War. As for 
Sandjar, he was to pronounce the khu(ba for Muham- 
mad and himself simultaneously, disregarding 
Barkyaruk. It is difficult to say what the outcome 
of this agreement might have been, if Barkyaruk's 
death and the provisional reunification of the 
Empire which ensued under Muhammad had allowed 






o fruitio: 



within the territories as attributed to each brother, 
the reality of their authority was far from being 
everywhere assured. 

It had been impossible to keep watch over the 
attempts at regional independence, and the support 
of the amirs, vacillating between the pretenders, 
had had to be purchased. The result was that even 
in Upper Mesopotamia, Kerbugha and especially his 
successor Djekermish were to be found almost 
independent at Mawsil, whilst the Artukids were 
taking the initial steps towards the unification of 
Diyar Bakr to their own advantage. In Armenia, to 
the Turkoman principalities established in former 
Byzantine territory and that of the Rawwadids of 
Ani, which continued to exist, there was added that 
of Sukman al-Kutbl, one of Isma'il's former officers, 
who made himself the Shah-i Armin at Akhlat. On 



the borders of 'Irak, the masters of the Batlha and 
the Mazyadid Arabs became powers to be reckoned 
with. Leaving aside Khurasan and the Caspian 
provinces, where autonomous principalities had 
always been accepted, and the old principalities, 
belonging to ancient Buyid and Kurdish families, had 
similarly been tolerated, the genesis can be observed 
in Iran and even Khuzistan of hereditary feudal 
families, issuing from great Saldjukid officers, the 
best known of them being that of the sons of Bursuk 
at Tustar. The successive viziers of Barkyaruk, the 
three sons of Nizam al-Mulk, <Izz al-Mulk (died 
487/1094}, Mu'ayyad al-Mulk, disgraced after a year, 
and Fakhr al-Mulk (493/1096), then c Abd al-Djalll 
al-Dibistani, who fell in battle, and al-Maybadhi 
(495-498), were doubtless primarily occupied in 
finding money by all possible means (confiscation, 
pressure exerted on the Caliph, harassing the Christi- 
ans, etc.) and in countering the intrigues of hostile 
clans; the difficulty confronting them lay in making 
themselves accepted by the amirs, as is illustrated 
by the assassination of the mustawfi (Director of 
Finances) Madjd al-Mulk al-Balasani, on the pretext 
of Shi'ism. 

It is true that, in comparison with Muhammad or 
the early Saldjuks, Barkyaruk did not enjoy the 
reputation of being a militant defender of orthodoxy. 
The dissensions of his reign benefited the Nizari 
Isma'ilis of Hasan al-Sabbah, who acquired impreg- 
nable fortresses in the mountains of northern Iran 
and around Isfahan, not to mention the former 
Isma'ill seigniory of Tabas in the desert, which went 
over to them. When the Nizamiyya took Muhammad 
and Sandjar's side, Barkyaruk's lieutenant in 
Khurasan was even to be found enlisting considerable 
contingents from Tabas. However at the end of the 
reign, the influence acquired by the Isma c llls and the 
disaffection of Barkyaruk's supporters, due to the 
toleration he had shown them, appeared dangerous 
to him and he encouraged massacres of Isma'ilis at 
Baghdad and in Iran, without, however, anything 
being done to deal with the bases of their power. 
Barkyaruk died in Rabi c II 498/beginning of 1105, 
when 25 years of age. He was certainly not a great 
man and the clumsiness with which he alienated the 
Nizamiyya, for example, was a grave error indeed. 
Yet it must be remembered that he was very young 
and it would be unjust not to recognise that the 
factors of disintegration which manifested them- 
selves in his time were latent even in the regime of 
the Great Saldjuks. 

Bibliography: The sources will be examined 
in the article Saldjuk. The main ones are the 
History of the Saldjukids of c Imad al-Din al- 
Isfahani (ed. in the version of Bundari by Houtsma, 
Recueil, ii, 1888), the relevant part of which is 
based on the Persian memoirs of the vizier 
Anushirwan; the Kdmil of Ibn al-Athlr, x, which 
combines copious information from 'Iraki and 
Khurasani sources etc., with that provided by the 
above work; and the Saldjuk-ndma of Zahlr 
al-Din Nishapuri, ed. of an approximative text 
by Gelaleh Khawar, Tehran 1953, with its 
derivative, the Rahat al-Sudur of Rawandi, ed. 
Muh. Ikbal, GMS 1921. To these may be added, 
for the revolt of Tutush, the Muslim and Christian 
sources of Syrian history, in particular Ibn al- 
Kalanisi, ed. Amedroz. See also the Mudjmal al- 
Tawarikh in Persian, anonymous, ed. Bahar 1938, 
short but contemporary, and the Nestorian 
chronicle of Mari etc. ed. Gismondi. Modern 
works: Defremery, Recherches sur le regne du 



BATKYARUK — BARSBAY 



1053 



sultan Barkyarok, in J A, 1853; Sanaullah, The 
decline of the Seldjukid Empire, Calcutta 1938; 
M. G. Hodgson, The order of the As> 



(Cl. Ca. 



EN) 



BARLAAM and JOSAPHAT [see Bilav 

WA YUDASAF]. 

BARMAKIDS [see Baramika]. 
BARNIS [see Benghazi]. 
BARODA, formerly capital of the Indian State 
of the same name, now merged with Madhya Bharat, 
situated in 22 18' N. and 73° 15' E. on the Vishwa- 
mitri river. Population in rg5r was 2ri,407. It is 
known to the inhabitants as Wadodara, said to be 
a corruption of the Sanskrit word vatodar which 
means 'in the heart of the banyan-trees', and the 
vicinity of the town still abounds in these trees. 
The word bar in Urdu also means a banyan-tree. 
An old name of the town is Virakshetra or Vlrawati 
which means 'a land of warriors' and was used by 
the nth/i7th century GudjaratI poet, Parmanand. 
Early English travellers call the town Barodera. 
The city proper was enclosed by the walls of the old 
fort, which have now been demolished. 

The history of Baroda is closely linked with the 
history of Gudjarat. In 1140/1727 Piladji Gaekwar, 
the founder of the dynasty which ruled over Baroda 
till 1949, when the State was merged with the Indian 
Union, wrested Baroda from Sarbuland Khan, the 
Mughal governor of Gudjarat. In 1144/1731 Peshwa 
BidjI Rao invested the town with the intention of 
turning out Piladji but had to lift the siege on 
hearing that he was about to be attacked by Nizam 
al-Mulk Asaf Djah. But the very next year (1145/1732) 
Piladji was murdered and Abhay Singh, the ruler of 
DjodhpQr, taking advantage of the confusion, 
captured both the fort and the town. Damadji, who 
had succeeded Piladji as the ruler of Baroda, 
recaptured the town in 1147/1734. Thereafter he 
entered into an alliance with Mu'min Khan, the 
Mughal governor of Gudjarat. Damadji was one of 
those Maharatta chiefs who fought against Ahmad 
Shah Durrani in 1175/1761 in the third battle of 
Panlpat. On the death of Damadji, the town was 
occupied by his youngest son Fath Singh, on behalf of 
his insane eldest brother Sayadjl Rao. The House of 
Gaekwar continued to rule the city independently 
till 1273/1856, when along with the State it was 
included in the dominions of the East India Company. 
There are many beautiful buildings in Baroda 
including Lakshml Vilas, the chief palace, built in 
the Indo-Saracenic style at a cost of £ 400,000. 
Among the State jewels is a finely embroidered cloth 
studded with precious stones and seed-pearls which 
was designed as a covering for the Prophet's tomb 
at al-Madlna. Baroda has a fine library and its 
Gaekwar Institute of Oriental Research has published 
a number of Persian works on Indo-Muslim history. 
Bibliography : V. P. Menon, The Story of the 
Integration of the Indian States, Calcutta 1956, 
416-434; Imperial Gazetteer of India, Oxford 1908, 
vii 31-40, 81-4; Sara-Bhay, Uakiftat-i Sarkdr-i 
Gdyakwdr (India Office MS. 4525) ; F. A. H. Elliot, 
Rulers of Baroda; White Paper on Indian States, 
1950; article Baroda in EI 1 . 

(A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
al BARRAdI, Abu 'l-Fadl Abu 'l-HasIm b. 
brahim, a North African Ibadl scholar, who lived 
in the second half of the 8th/i4th century. He was 
a native of Dammar in Southern Tunisia, where 
he studied under Abu '1-Baka* Ya'Ish al-Djarbl. 
Thence he moved on to Yefren, in the Djebel 
Nefusa, to attend the classes given by Shaykh Abu 



Sakin c Amir al-Shammakhl (died in 792^390). On 
completing his studies, he settled in Djerba, where 
for several years he devoted his energies to teaching, 
holding his classes in the Wadl al-Zablb mosque. He 
died at Djerba, leaving several sons. According to 
al-Shammakhl, the most famous of them was c Abd 
Allah Abii Muhammad, who made a reputation 
especially in the science of usul. 

His main work is the Kitdb Qiawdhir al-Muntakdt 
(lithographed at Cairo in 1302^885), which forms a 
complement to the Kitdb Tabakdt al-MashdHkh by 
the 7th/r3th century Maghribl author, Abu 'l-'Abbas 
Ahmad al-DardjInl [q.v.]. The book is divided into 
two categories (tabaka), the first of which reviews 
from the Ibadl point of view the history of the 
early period of Islam, omitted by al-DardjInl, and 
contains the biographies of those famous men, 
whom the latter failed to mention; the second 
subjects al-DardjInl's work to a critical e: 
adding a number of new facts and 
It ends with a catalogue of the books of the sect, 
which has been published and translated by A. de 
Motylinski. 

According to al-Shammakhl, al-Barradl was also 
the author of a Risdla, addressed to Shaykh Abu 
c Abd Allah Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Sadghayanl, 
in which he explicitly states his theories on faith and 
the unity of God; likewise of a Sharh on the Kitdb 
al-Da'dHm by Ahmad b. al-Nazatl and of a Sharh 
on the Kitdb al-'-Adl fi Usui al-Fikh by Abu Ya'kub 
b. Ibrahim al-Sadratl. There is no reference in al- 
Shammakhl to the Siyar al- c Umdniyya, quoted by 
Lewicki (Handworterbuch, s.v. Ibddiyya), a MS. of 
which exists at Lwow. 

Bibliography: Shammakhl, Kitdb al-Siyar, 
Cairo 1301, 574-75; E. Masqueray, Chronique 
d'Abou Zakariya, Algiers 1878, 141; A. de Moty- 
linski, Bibl. du Mzab. Les livres de la secte abadhite, 
in Bull, de corr. afr., iii, Algiers 1885, 43-46; 
C. Brockelmann, S. II, 339; R. Rubinacci, Notizia 
di alcuni manoscritti ibdditi esistenti presso I'Istituto 
Universitario Orientate di Napoli, in AIUON, N.S., 
iii, r949, 434-35 ; idem, II "Kitdb al-Gawdhir" di 
al-Barrddi, ibid., iv, 1952, 95-110; idem, II califfo 
'■Abd al-Malik b. Marwdn e gli Ibdditi, ibid., v, 
1954, 99-121 ; L. Veccia Vaglieri, // conflitto c Ali- 
Mu'-dwiya e la secessione Khdrigita riesaminati alia 
luce di fonti ibddite, in AIUON, N.S., iv, 1952, 
passim; idem, Traduzione di passi riguardanti il 
conflitto '■Ali-Mu'-dwiya e la secessione khdrigita, 
ibid., v, 1954, 1-75. (R. Rubinacci) 

BARSBAY, al-Malik al-Ashraf Abu 'l-Nasr, 
Mamluk sultan of Egypt from 825/1422 to 
841/1438. He joined the Mamluks of Sultan Barkuk, 
received his first promotion during the reign of 
Shaykh and then became governor of the province 
of Tripoli. Like many officers, he did not avoid 
imprisonment, spending some time in the jails of 
Markab and Damascus. Fortune favoured him at 
the accession of Tatar and, in spite of the brevity of 
the latter's reign, he was able to gain the ascendancy 

From the moment Barsbay acceeded to the 
sultanate, he displayed the salient features of his 
nature: greed, bad temper, and cruelty. One of his 
first acts was to renew the ban on Christians and Jews 
which prevented them from entering government 
service. This may have been a tax in disguise, since 
when non-Muslims were the object of such a decree, 
they usually circumvented it by payment of a sum 
of money. But it may also be interpreted as a measure 
of defiance, for European privateers were then very 



1054 BA] 

active in the Mediterranean. Hence the Draconian 
decree: European property was impounded both in 
Egypt and Syria and no European was permitted to 
return to his own country. There then followed the 
temporary prohibition of the circulation of European 
currencies, a measure which had uncertain effects. 

The government of Egypt also took serious 
military precautions, building a number of small 
forts on the coast and fitting out a flotilla of corvettes. 
The sultan, however, continued without respite, his 
preparations for the realisation of his great idea, an 
expedition against the island of Cyprus. After several 
preliminary reconnaissances, a large-scale attempt 
was launched; the only engagement, which was 
particularly bloody, ended unfavourably for the 
Cypriots, whose king, Janus, was taken prisoner and 
brought back to Cairo. He was led through the town 
in fetters; he only recovered his freedom and his 
kingdom on payment of a yearly tribute. A part of 
the booty was devoted to the restoration of various 
monuments in Mecca (830/1427). 

Nevertheless, this relatively easy victory revealed 
a dangerous state of indiscipline among the troops 
and on the occasion of a frontier conflict with the 
army of the White Sheep Turkoman prince, Kara- 
Yuluk, the Mamluks, after taking the town of 
Edessa by storm, perpetrated the most revolting 
atrocities there. This disagreement between neigh- 
bours severely impaired the prosperity of Upper 
Mesopotamia, which was alternately devastated by 
one side or the other. After considerable hesitation, 
Barsbay mobilised a large army, which finally 
proceeded to invest Amid (Diyarbakr). They were, 
however, unable to take the Turkoman capital, to 
Barsbay's great annoyance. Faced with the growing 
discontent of the army, the Sultan was obliged to 
resign himself to negotiate. Kara-Yuluk accepted 
his proposals for peace and, in several vague formulas, 
recognised the sovereignty of the sultan of Egypt. 
The Mamlfik army made its way back to Cairo; 
their progress was the stampede of a discontented 
soldiery. The troops proceeded in the greatest 
disorder, giving the impression rather of the hasty 
retreat of a defeated army (837/1433). The Sultan 
had left half the total strength of his army behind 
in Mesopotamia. 

There then ensued a strange diplomatic struggle 
with the Timurid sultan Shah-Rukh. The Mongol 
ruler claimed the right to cover the Ka'ba with a 
veil. This was, in fact, a privilege of the Egyptians 
consecrated by immemorial custom and Sultan 
Barsbay, supported by his council of chief judges, 
was unwilling to relinquish it. The dispute, fanned 
by lawyers' quibbles and cruelly derisive treatment 
of the ambassadors, gave rise to the exchange of 
pithy diplomatic documents. However, it entailed 
no immediate consequences during the reign of 
Sultan Barsbay. 

No doubt the policy of the ruler of Egypt was 
based on considerations of prestige, but primarily he 
wished to prevent the Mongol sultan from gaining 
a foothold in Arabia through official agents, which 
might possibly endanger Egypt's commercial 
interests. 

Indeed, Barsbay had recently requested those 
merchants coming from India to land their wares at 
Diedda. instead of putting in at the port of Aden, 
as previously. It was a good beginning, but in his 
insatiable greed, Barsbay determined to force the 
merchants to proceed obligatorily to Cairo for the 
purpose of paying taxes. This vexatious regulation 
was soon formally modified, but though the mer- 



- BARSHALONA 

chants were excused from proceeding to the Egyptian 
capital, they still had to pay exorbitant dues at 
Djedda. This port, however, henceforth became a 
commercial mart of the first importance. Half the 
dues collected there went to the Sharif of Mecca 
and half to Egypt. The tax-collectors belonged to 
the Egyptian administration. 

Barsbay's end is a pitiful and tragic tale. An 
epidemic of plague broke out and, fearing lest he 
might catch the disease, he resolved to suppress the 

referred; he proceeded to distribute alms in plenty, 
though at the same time he also had his two physi- 
cians put to death. On the 13th Dhu '1-Hidjdja 
84i/7th June 1438, he fell a victim to the plague. 
To summarise our impressions of Sultan Barsbay, 
we must bear two aspects of his character in mind. 
He was constantly haunted by the morbid fear 
inspired in him by his rival, Djinibak Sufi, whom 
he had imprisoned at his accession and who made 
good his escape. This in itself induced him to make 
haphazard gestures, which, however, were milder 
than those suggested to him by his need of money. 
There flourished a series of practices which led the 
Mamluk regime to disaster: the sale of offices, 
confiscation of fortunes which were too noticeable, 
the unprecedented extension of state monopolies 
and the institution of the compulsory purchase of 
primary commodities, bought up in advance by the 
Government. The Arab historians aver that Barsbay 
was an intelligent administrator, an able and poised 
politician, but the facts speak against this assess- 
ment. All his actions are dominated by the spectre 
of Djanibak and, precisely because of his erratic 
changes of mood, we can scarcely consider him as 
a wise and sagacious statesman. His preparations 
for the Cyprus and Diyarbakr campaigns appear 
to have swallowed up large sums of money and the 
latter was a resounding failure. 

Bibliography: Wiet, Les biographes du 
Manhal Sa/i, no. 644; Wiet, Hisloire de la nation 
igyptienne, iv, 549-576; Wiet, Les marchands 
d'ipices sous les sultans mamlouks, 97-103. 

(G. Wiet) 
BARSHALCNA, Spanish Barcelona, the old 
Iberian town of Barcino (compare Ruscino, from 
which Roussillon is derived), which incidentally 
has no connexion with Hamilcar Barca. Barcelona, 
once the home of the Laeetians, gradually supplanted 
Tarraco-Tarragona, situated to the south-west of 
it, as the capital of north-eastern Roman Spain 
(Hispania-Tarraconensis). From the fragments of 
the works of al-Idrisi and al-Bakri compiled by Ibr 
c Abd al-Mun'im al-Himyari, it is clear that Barcelon; 
in their day was already a large town. It was encirclec 
by a strong rampart and its port was rockbound, sc 
that only captains familiar with the channels coulc 
steer their ships into it. It was in Barcelona, the 
capital of his country, that the 'King of Ifrandja' 
resided. This monarch owned armed ships for travel 
and corsair raids. The Ifrandj (Catalans) were of an 
aggressive temperament which spurred them on to 
great daring. 

The territory of Barcelona produced a great deal 
of wheat and other cereals, as well as honey in large 
quantity. There were as many Jews living there as 
Christians. In 96-98/714-16 it fell to the Arabs under 
c Abd al- c Aziz b. Musa b. Nusayr after a single 
attack. In Arabic the town is called Barshinuna, 
a name derived from the low Latin Barcinona 
(Orosius already has Barcilona, the Geographer of 
Ravenna Barcelona, cf. Hiibner in Pauly-Wissowa, 



BARSHALONA - 



s.v.), but it is still more commonly called Barsha- 
lflna, from which the present Barcelona derives. 
The form Bardjaluna is rarer. This is in the origin 
of the name al-Bardjalunl, the short title which later 
Arab writers often gave to the king of Aragon and 
Catalonia (cf. J A, 1907, ii, 279 ff.). 

In 185/801 Louis, the son of Charlemagne, as 
king of Aquitaine, conquered Barcelona, which from 
that time became the capital of the Spanish border- 
lands of the Frankish Empire, and from 888, of the 
independent counts or marquesses of Barcelona or 
Catalonia. In 242/856, Barcelona was temporarily 
occupied by the Arabs (Al-Baydn al-Mughrib 2 , ii, 
95-6). In 375/985, it was taken by assault in the last 
time by the great Almanzor (Dozy, Histoire des 
Musulmans', ii, 238-9), but in 987, Count Borell I 
reconquered it. In the twelfth»century (1137) it was 
reunited with the kingdom of Aragon. Worthy of 
note is the order given in 450/1058 by the Muslim 
king of Denia, 'All b. Mudjahid al-'Amiri by virtue 
of which the Mozarabic bishoprics of Baleares [q.v.] 
like those of Denia and Orihuela were placed under 
the jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Barcelona 
(Simonet, Historia de los Mozarabes de Espana — 
Memoria de la Real Accidentia de la Historia, vol. 
xiii, Madrid 1905, 651-4; Campaner, Bosquejo 
histdrico de la domination islamita en las islas 
Baleares, Palma 1888, 82-84). 

Bibliography : Mardsid al-Ittild c , Leiden 1859, 
IV, 304; Madoz, Diccionario geogr. estad. hist. Ill, 
582 ff. ; Bofarull, Los Condes de Barcelona vindi- 
cados, Barcelona 1836; Makkari (index), ii, 844; 
Simonet (see above), 929 (index); LeVi- Provencal, 
La Peninsule Ibirique, 53 ; idem, Hist. Esp. Mus., 

(C. F. Seybold-[A. Huici Miranda]) 

BARSbAWlSH [see Nudjum[. 

BAR$1$A, the name of a pseudo-historical 
figure, a recluse, who is to be connected, according 
to a later interpretation, with the Antonian tradition. 
In its folk-lore aspect, the tradition concerning 
Barsisa must have assumed several forms, because 
at a late period Ibn Battuta came across, between 
Tripoli and Alexandria, a kasr Barsisa al-'dbid, a 
name which recalls the career of St. Antony and his 
long period of seclusion in an old castle (sisat). The 
Aramaic etymology of the name Barsisa calls to 
mind the highest sacerdotal office, whether one 
considers the sisd as denoting the pectoral of the 
high priest, or the topknots of the sacerdotal coiffure. 
In Muslim Tradition, Barsisa is the hermit who, after 
a long career of asceticism, succumbs to the successive 
temptations of the Devil who finally induces him to 
deny God, and then abandons him to eternal despair. 

These remarks refers to the commentary on 
IJur'an lix, 16, which deals with hypocrites who 
tempt the faithful . . . "in the likeness of the Devil, 
when he says to Man, 'Disbelieve', but when he 
disbelieves, says, 'I am quit of thee; I fear Allah, 
the Lord of the Worlds'". There are two rival 
interpretations of "Man", and al-Tabari (xxviii, 31 f.) 
sets them before us: is it a question of a particular 
man, or of mankind as a whole? 

The first four traditions which al-Tabari produces 
in the case of "Man" denoting a particular person, 
relate to a recluse, either a monk (rdhib) (Tabari, 
xxviii, 332), or an ascetic (radjul min Bani IsrdHl, 
l ibid), or a Christian priest (fids). The story about 
this pious man is relatively constant; three brothers 
entrust to him their sister, who is ill, while they are 
absent on a journey. The monk, yielding to the 
suggestions of Satan, seduces her, gets her with 



child, and then, in order to get rid of her and thus 
of the evidence of his fall, kills her and buries her in 
a secret place (under a tree, in his house). The 
brothers, on their return, believe at first that she 
died a natural death, but Satan reveals to them in 
a dream the ascetic's crime. The ascetic, panic- 
stricken at the realisation that his crime has been 
discovered, is approached in his turn by Satan, who 
offers to save him if he will prostrate himself before 
him and deny God. When the wretched man has 
stooped to this ultimate degree of sin, Satan mocks 
him, in the terms of the verse in the Kur'an, lix, 16. 
After al-Tabari, Tradition rediscovered the name of 
Barsisa and applied it to the hero of this legend. In 
■EI 1 , Duncan B. Macdonald (s.v. Barsisa) enumerated 
these sources. The first author who seems to have 
mentioned the name of Barsisa is Abu Layth al- 
Samarkandi (d. 985 or 993), in his Tanbih al- 
Ghd/ilin, who was followed by al-Baghawi (d. 1122). 
Goldziher-Landberg, Legende vom Mbnch Barsisa, 
fills in the history of the later development of the 
legend, as narrated in al-KazwInl (ed. Wiistenfeld, 
i, 368), in the Musfatra/ of Ibn Ibshayhi, chap. 64, 
in al-Suyuti, and thence, in the Forty Vezirs, the 
Istanbul edition of which, 1303 A.H., 120-126, 
contains a long account, of greater length than the 
one translated by Petis de la Croix and Gibb. 

This account, either via Spain, or through the 
medium of a translation of the Forty Vezirs, 
must have become the source of the 'Gothic' romance 
of Monk Lewis, Ambrosio or the Monk, in which 
every detail was dealt with at length and adapted 
to the taste of the day. 

Bibliography: Duncan B. Macdonald, in EI 1 , 
and Handworterbuch des Islam, s.v. Barsisa, and 
addenda in I A s.v. Berslsd; Chauvin, Bibliographic 
des Ouvrages arabes, viii, 1 28 f f . ; A. Abel, Barsisa, 
le Moine qui dijia le Diable, Bruxelles 1959, in 
Publications de I'Institut de Philologie et d'histoire 
orientales. (A. Abel) 

BARTANG [see badakhshan]. 

bArCd. 



In Arabic, the word na/t (Persian na/t) is applied 
to the purest form (sa/wa) of Mesopotamian bitumen 
(kir — or kdr — bdbili). Its natural colour is white. It 
occasionally occurs in a black form, but this can be 
rendered white by sublimation. Na/( is efficacious 
against cataract and leucoma; it has the property 
of attracting fire from a distance, without direct 

Mixed with other products (fats, oil, sulphur etc.) 
which make it more combustible and more adhesive, 
it constituted the basic ingredient of "Greek fire", 
a liquid incendiary compound which was hurled at 
people, the various siege weapons which were made 
of wood, and ships. The Muslims of the East, as is 
well known, made spectacular use of it against the 
Crusaders and the Mongols. This new product 
retained the name of na/t. A specialist, naffdf or 
zarrdk, discharged the "Greek fire" in the form of 
a jet, by means of a special copper tube: na//d(a, 
zarrdka, mukhula ; this instrument, the prototype of 
our flame-throwers, seems to have been a sort of 
huge syringe, similar to the "pumps" of the earlier 
firemen of Constantinople. "Greek fire" could also 
be discharged in "pots" (kdrura) hurled by various 
types of ballistic apparatus, or in cartridges fixed 
to arrows, in the "Chinese" fashion {sihdm khitd'iyya). 

With the introduction of the use of salpetre, about 
1230, the word na/t assumed new meanings. Since a 
remote period, the Chinese had known of the 



1056 BAI 

igniting properties of nitre, but they only used it to 
propel rockets used in firework displays or in war. 
Knowledge of the properties of saltpetre (and of the 
procedure for refining it by washing) probably 
passed from China to Persia; in Persian, in fact, in 
addition to the Iranian term shura (archaic: shurag) 
"nitrous earth, nitre", there existed the synonym 
namak-i iini "Chinese salt". In Arabic, in addition 
to shawradi, a loan-word from Iranian, and the 
vernacular forms milh al-ha'ii "sea salt" (cf. infra) 
and milh al-dabbdghin "tanners' salt", one finds 
thaldj sini "Chinese snow", thaldj al-Sin "snow of 
China". One also meets the terms zahrat hadjar 
assiyus, lit. "flower of the stone of Assos" (an 
ancient town of Troas or Mysia), a sort of marine 
saltpetre, a powdery salty efflorescence deposited 
by sea spray on friable rock resembling pumice- 
stone, something like aphronitre. Ibn al-Baytar 
gives bdrud, the history of which will be traced below, 
as the Maghribl equivalent of the last three terms, 
which apply to pharmaceutical saltpetres. 

Saltpetre was at first incorporated in the igniting 
powder of fireworks, which retained the name of 
naft. Shortly afterwards, the same name was used 
for gunpowder. 

As far as our present knowledge goes, the first 
word used by the Arabic-speaking peoples to denote 
the new saltpetre-containing powder, a word of 
universal application, was dawd? "remedy, medica- 
ment, drug". It was in fact the term used by Hasan 
al-Rammah (died 694/1294) to denote the mixture 
used to fill the midfa': 10 parts of bdrud, 2 of charcoal 
and 1.5 of sulphur. This term is still used in Arabic 
(cf. Landberg, Glossaire datinois, i, 895). Semanti- 
cally, it is parallel to the Persian ddru (see infra), 
although it is impossible to determine whether it 
is pure coincidence, or whether it is a case of a 
loan-word transmitted through translation, and in 
what sense the latter could have been effected. 

Far more widespread, at least in the Mamluk 
East, was the term naft, the name of the earlier 
"Greek fire" transferred to the new compound. In 
Muslim Spain, the earliest recorded name (from 
724/1324) is naft. In the Vocabulista (a Latin- 
Spanish Arabic vocabulary compiled in the region 
of Valencia, in the 13th century), one finds opposite 
Ignis and Ignem excutere, the word naft, but its 
meaning is not given with any precision; at all 
events, this term recurs at Beirut in the sense of 
"matches". At Tunis, neffdta is a fire-cracker. In 
many Arabic dialects, words derived from the root 
n-f-t (neftd, neffdta) have the meaning of "ampulla" 
(under the epidermis). This may perhaps be an 
echo of kawdrir al-naft. 

The form of the word bdrud, with d, is not classical. 
It seems to appear for the first time in the Didmi'- 
of Ibn al-Baytar (d. 646/1248). It is stated there that 
it is the name given in the Maghrib by the common 
people and physicians to the "snow of China" or 
"saltpetre", a substance with medicinal properties 
(cf. trans. Leclerc, i, 71). Al-Rammah uses the word 
in this sense in his formula for gunpowder. Again, 
for Ibn al-Kutubl (710/1310, cf. infra), bdrud only 
meant saltpetre. 

In his Ta'-rif (1312 ed., 208), al- c Umari (d. 748/1348) 
twice uses the word bdrud. In one instance, he is 
talking about a substance incorporated in the 
"naphtha pots" (liawarir al-naft), projectiles used in 
naval warfare. In the other, he is talking about 
makdhil al-bdrud, where the word could be taken to 
refer to a propulsive saltpetre compound (see 
infra: ii) 



It is thus difficult to state with any accuracy at 
what date and in what country "gunpowder" 
assumed the name of its principal ingredient. 

In Muslim Spain, the change in meaning took place 
in the course of the second half of the 15th century. 
"Gunpowder" then became bdrud, and "saltpetre" 
malh al-bdrud; naft (pi. anfdt) then denoted "cannon", 
and naffdt "gunner" (see Dozy, Suppl., s.vv.). 

In this new sense of "gunpowder", the word 
bdrud is widespread throughout the Arabic-speaking 
world ; it is in general pronounced with an emphatic r. 
As subsidiary terms, Arabia recognises representa- 
tives of dawd' (cf. supra). Tunisia has kusksi "cous- 
cous", and Kabylia kusksu dberkdn "black couscous", 
names (perhaps euphemistic) deriving from the 
resemblance of the two products, both rolled up 
(maftul) and granulated. In Libya, in addition to 
bdriid, one finds bdrug, which can be connected 
either with the Arabic root b.r.k "to flash (light- 
ning)", or with burdk, the Greek nitron. 

The word is used in Turkish, mainly in the form 
bdrut, a pronunciation which recurs in various 
southern Arabian dialects: 'Uman, Hadramawt 
(and even bdrut, cf. Landberg, Glossaire datinois, i, 
130). The Turkish term has been borrowed by 
Persian and by the Balkan languages: modern 
Greek, Albanian, Serbian, Bulgarian. From Persian, 
the word has passed into Kurdish and Hindustani; 
but in the latter, as in Afghani, it has a rival in the 
Persian ddru, lit. "remedy" (= dawd*). Represen- 
tatives of bdrud recur in several African languages 
in the sense of "gunpowder": Amharic, Swahili, 
Hausa, etc. In addition to the current and popular 
term (X7rapouTi, borrowed from Turkish, modern 
Greek recognises, as a scholarly word, 7tupi-n,<;, 
which has been seen as the origin of bdrild. But this 
etymology is not absolutely certain. 

Al-Kafadji [q.v.], an Egyptian author who died 
in 1069/1659 after a long residence in Turkey, 
devoted to the word bdrud, in his Shifd* al-Ghalil 
(ed. Cairo, 1282, 55), a long notice in which he said: 
"this word is written with a ddl without a dot, and 
bdrut is an erroneous form. In the Ma la yasa c al- 
Tabib Qiahluh (the work of Baghdad physician Ibn 
al-Kutubl, written about 1310), one reads as follows: 
"this is, in the Maghrib, the name of the "flower of 
Assiyus" (cf. supra, the quotation from Ibn al- 
Baytar). In their vernacular dialect, the people of 
'Irak apply this term to saltpetre (milh al-hdHf) 
which appears as an efflorescence on old walls, 
where it is collected. It is used in fireworks (a'-mdl 
al-ndr) which rise into the air and move about; 
thanks to it, the fireworks rise more rapidly and 
ignite more quickly". The Egyptian author resumes: 
"this is a post-classical word (muwallad), derived 
from burdda "iron filings", because of the similarity 
of the two products. At the present time, bdrud is 
applied to a compound of this salt, charcoal and 
sulphur: it has assumed the name of one of its 
components". For the 'Irakis of the beginning of the 
8th/i4th century, bdrud still denoted only saltpetre, 
but was already used in pyrotechnics. 

Equally interesting is the notice devoted to this 
word by Ibn Khalaf al-TibrizI (in his Persian dict- 
ionary Burhdn-i Kdti c (Tehran ed. 1330/1951)): "it 
is the ddru-yi tufang "remedy of collyrium for the 
musket". In the Syp'ac language (surydni) it is the 
name given to shura "nitre, saltpetre", which con- 
stitutes the principal element of bdriid". I do not 
know where the Persian lexicographer got his 
information from. But it is a fact that the Lexikon 
Syriacum of Brockelmann, (2nd. ed. 1928, 95), 



records an instance of bdrud "nitrum", culled from 
an alchemical text. 

From these two indications, the word bdrud 
could therefore have had an Aramaic origin, which 
would correlate well with its morphological pattern 
faVl. 

In Armenian, the name of gunpowder is varod (for 
varawd, with a dotted r) which, for phonetic reasons 
governing word-transference, could not be directly 
connected with bdrud. However, the Armenian word 
appears to have an etymology (popular?) founded 
in Armenian itself: var "to burn" and awd "air". 
Could the Aramaic word be of Armenian origin ? 
(Information supplied by Professor Feydit, Paris). 

De Goeje proposed for bdrud another etymology 
which seems to have been overlooked (cf. Quelques 
observations sur le feu grigeois, in Homenaje a D. F. 
Codera, 1904, 96) : it could stem from barud, in the 
first place "a soothing collyrium (kuhl) used for 
inflammation of the eye", which in the end was 
applied to all powdery collyriums (cf . Ibn al-Hashsha', 
Glossaire sur le Mansuri de Razes, ed. Colin and 
Renaud, 1941, 18). The Baghdadi physician Ibn 
Djazla (d. 493/1100) in his Minhddj heralded the 
use of "flower of the stone of Assiyfls, or marine 
saltpetre, in collyrium to strengthen the sight and 
make it clearer and also to get rid of leucoma. As 
regards the change of quantity in the first vowel, 
other examples of the change a > d are known in 
Maghribi Arabic nouns belonging to the same 
morphological pattern and also denoting medica- 
ments: ghdsul (already in Ibn al-Baytar), fdsukh 
"gum ammoniac", etc. One is encouraged not to 
pass over this hypothesis in silence by the fact that, 
in numerous Arabic-speaking countries, the term 
mukhula "collyrium tube" has been used for 
"musket". Let us not forget that the first Arabic 
word for gunpowder was dawd'' "medicament". In 
the field of Iranian linguistics, gunpowder is some- 
times termed "medicament or collyrium of the 
musket". Finally, in an altogether different field, 
Malay too has obat bedil "medicament of the musket". 
In the case of "gunpowder", as in that of "fire-tube", 
it could have been a case, to begin with, of a euphe- 
mistic name. The Arabic dawa 1 has further other 
senses of the same origin: "poison", "depilatory 
compound" (cf. Dozy, Suppl.). To sum up, the 
origin of bdrud is still obscure. 

On feast days, the rural population of North 
Africa devotes itself to the U l b al-bdrud "gunpowder 
game", with guns charged with blanks, either on 
horseback (H c 6 al-khayl, the "tilting" of Europeans) 
ia which the participants imitate the oldt actic of 
al-farr wa 'l-karr, or on foot ("the musket dance"). 
For an accurate picture (in dialectal Arabic), cf. 
G. Delphin, Recueil de textes . . ., 233, 255 ; V. Loubig- 
uac, Textes arabes des Zaer, 79 ; in French, L. Mercier, 
La chasse et les sports chez les Arabes, 234. 

From bdrud has been formed the derivative 

bdruda "musket" (cf. infra); the Moroccan word 

bdrodiyya "ferrous sulphate", which is used as a 

black dye, is explained by the colour of the powder. 

(G. S. Colin) 

ii. — THE MAGHRIB 

The first firearms which appeared were siege 
■engines. According to Ibn Khaldun (8th/i4th 
century), the Marinid sultan Ya'kub, when besieging 
the town of Sidjilmasa in 672-3/1274, brought into 
action against this town mangonels (madjanilf) and 
ballistas ('arrdddt), as well as a naphtha engine 
{hinddm al-naff) which discharged iron grape-shot 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



UD 1057 

(hasd al-hadtd) expelled from a "chamber" (khazna) 
by the fire kindled in the bdrud (cf. Hbar, BulSk 1284, 
iv, 188, at the bottom). This precise information is 
unfortunately doubtful for such an early period. In 
fact, in his account of the same siege in his history 
of the kings of Tlemcen {ibid., 85), Ibn Khaldun 
speaks only of siege engines (dldt al-fiisdr), without 
any reference to this marvellous invention. On the 
other hand, the source used by the author for his 
account of this siege appears to be the Rawd al-Kirfds 
and its parallel history al- Dhakhira al-Saniyya', 
Fas, 225; ed. Bencheneb, 158; and these two texts 
mention only mangonels and ballistas. 

It is not until the year 724/1324 that one comes 
across an indication of something which appears to 
have been a true firearm. At the siege of Huescar 
(68 m. (no km.) N-E of Granada), which was held 
by the Christians, the king of Granada Isma'il used 
"the great engine which functions by means of 
naft" (al-dla al-'-uzma al-muttakhadha bi 'l-naft). The 
latter hurled a red-hot iron ball (kurat hadid mulfmdt) 
against the keep of the fortress. The ball, when 
discharged, threw out showers of sparks, and landed 
in the midst of the besieged, causing damage as great 
as that caused by a thunderbolt. Several poets 
celebrated this event (cf. Ibn al-Khatib, al-Ihdta, 
Cairo 1319, i, 231; idem, al-Lamfia al-Badriyya, 
Cairo 1347, 72). 

Nineteen years later, at the siege of Algeciras 
(743/1343), the Muslim defenders fired against the 
Christians, by means of truenos (lit. "thunderclaps") 
large thick arrows as well as heavy iron balls (cf. 
Cronica del rey Don Alfonso el onceno, ed. Ribadeneira, 
Ch. 270, 344, and Ch. 279, 352). But what exactly is 
meant by "thunderclaps" ? Actual firearms, or 
machines analogous to the "thunderers" or ra"dddt ? 
It is only during the last years of the Nasrid period 
(1482-1492) that there begin to appear in the sources 
the terms bdrud "gunpowder" and naf( (pi. anfdf) 
"cannon", siege cannon for the Castilians, fort 
artillery for the Granadans. At the siege of Moclin 
(i486), the Castilians employed cannon which hurled 
"rocks of fire" (sukhur min ndr); the latter soared 
into the sky and fell back as a mass of flame (tashtaHl 
ndr"') on the town, killing and burning all on whom 
they fell. It should be noted that, during this period, 
the plural anfdf is in general accompanied by the 
word '■udda, which is properly applied to classical 
engines of the catapult type. In fact, at the famous 
siege of the suburb of al-Bayyazin, at Granada (i486), 
anfdf and mandidnil? were seen in action together 
(cf. Muller, Die letzten Zeiten von Granada, especially 
18 and 20). 

In his Vocabulista of the Arabic spoken at Granada 
(compiled in 1501), P. de Alcala translated artilleria 
by z udda; but artillero is naffdf, derived from naft 
"lombarda"; and trabuco "trebuchet" has as its 
corresponding term mandianifr. He knew in addition 
a sort of culverin: ubrukin, ubrifrin "robadoquin, 
passabolante". But he only mentions the arbalest, 
and does not speak of portable firearms. 

The latter appeared, in the Maghrib, at the 
beginning of the 16th century. It was a Maghribi 
who presented the first arquebus (bundufcyya) to 
the Mamliik sultan Kansuh al-Ghawrl (906-22/ 
1500-16), saying that this weapon, which had 
appeared in the territory of the Ifrandj, was in use 
in all the lands of the Ottomans and of the Gharb 
(cf. Ibn Zunbul, Fatfi, Paris MS. 1832, f. 2 ro.). 

Leo Africanus, who left Morocco in 1516, gives 
us a picture of the army of the Banfl Wat^as [q.v.] 
as furnished with cannon, and arquebuses carried 

67 



by horsemen. In regard to Tunis, at the same period, 
he mentions that the king had a band of footguards 
composed of Turks armed with blunderbusses (cf. 
Description de I'Afrique, trad, Epaulard, 239, 387). 
It was mainly under the Sa'dids [q.v.~\, however, that 
the use and manufacture of firearms was intensified. 
The sultans of this dynasty organised their army on 
the Turkish model; they formed corps of Turkish 
and Andalusian musketeers, and surrounded them- 
selves with more or less renegade Europeans { c uludi) 
who initiated them in new techniques, notably that 
of casting cannon. 

In 1575, the army of the sultan Mawlay Muhammad 
possessed more than 150 cannon, among which was 
one with nine barrels (now in the Musee de l'Armee 
in Paris). In 1578, at the famous battle of Wadi 
'1-Makhazin, the Moroccan army had 34 cannon; 
it also had 3000 Andalusian arquebusiers on foot and 
a thousand arquebusiers on horseback. 

In 1591, the expeditionary force sent against the 
Sudan included 2,000 Andalusian arquebusiers and 
renegades on foot, and 500 renegade horsemen 
armed with blunderbusses; it carried off six mortars 
and numerous small cannon (cf. Hespiris, 1923, 467). 
These firearms facilitated the defeat of the Sudanese, 
who were armed only with assegais, bows and swords. 
At Timbuktu, the — extremely hybrid — descendants 
of the Moroccan musketeers still constitute a sort 
of class: the arma, from the Arabic rumdt. 

In Morocco, during this period, "cannon" was 
nafd (sic), while "musket" was midfa'-. It is only 
later, in the 17th century, that this latter word took 
on the meaning of "cannon", while the new "flintlock" 
took the name mukhula, which came perhaps from 
the East. The following fact is characteristic of the 
date of this change of meaning: in the part of his 
Nafh al-Tib in which he reproduces a Granadan 
Arabic text of 1540, al-Makkarl from Tlemcen 
(d. 1041/1632), who wrote it is true in the East, on 
several occasions substitutes the word maddfi c for 
anfdt (cf. Nafh, Bulak ed., 1279. «. 1265; Muller, 
Die letzten Zeiten von Granada). 

In 1630, a Morisco who had fled to Tunisia wrote 
in Spanish an important manual of artillery, based 
on German techniques. It was translated into Arabic 
(in a popular form) in 1638 by another Morisco who 
had taken refuge at Tunis after having lived for a 
long time at Marrakesh, for the purpose of distri- 
bution to the Ottoman sultan Murad and other 
Muslim rulers (cf. Brockelmann, II, 465; S II, 714. 
A slightly abridged version exists in the Bibliothcque 
generate at Rabat: D. 1342). It is stated in this work 
that midfa 1 - denoted "cannon" at Tunis, but "musket" 
in Morocco; and that conversely, anfdt "cannon" 
in Morocco, denoted "fireworks" at Tunis, which the 
Moroccans called samdwiyydt. 

The bronze cannon cast by the Sa'dids in Morocco, 
in their workshops at Fez, Marrakesh and Taroudant 
(or on their orders, in Holland), are particularly 
graceful. Many of them still exist in the ports of 
Morocco, usually decorated with the '■aldma (or 
fughra) of the reigning sultan. Portable firearms were 
imported from Europe, usually as contraband. 

The artillery of the 'Alawid dynasty comprised 
mainly pieces seized from the enemy, on land or 
sea, and pieces brought as gifts by foreign ambass- 
adors. Otherwise, cannon and mortars were bought 
abroad and then an engraved inscription in Arabic 
was superimposed. On the other hand, it was under 
this dynasty that the manufacture of muskets 
spread in Morocco, especially in the south, but also 
in the north, at Tetuan and Targist. 



However extraordinary it may appear, madj.dni(t 
(accompanied by cannon and mortars) were used in 
only in siege warfare but 









(cf. 



Archives marocaines, ix, 107, 162, 169, 180). 

Throughout present-day North Africa, the general 
word for "cannon" is media'-; kura (class, kura), coll. 
kur, is "cannon-ball, shell"; everywhere the artil- 
leryman is called (obdji. The "mortar" is mihraz ; it 
throws a bomb, bunba, a Latin word received 
through Turkish. In Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, 
the old locally made musket bears names derived 
from mukhula; the two principal types are called: 
bu-shfer "fired by a flint", and bii-habba "fired by 
percussion-cap". Secondary appellations are derived 
from the name of the armourer or from the place 
of manufacture, or even from the length of the 
cannon measured in spans (shibr). The vocabulary 
of the Maghribi dialect preserves the memory of 
earlier portable weapons of European origin: hdbus 
"pistolet" (arcabuz), meshket, (moschetto), shkubbifa 
(escopeta), karrbila (carabina), etc. In Morocco, the 
European breach-loaded military musket is called 
kldta (Spanish culata) ; the different types are named 
after the number of cartridges held by the magazine. 
In eastern Tunisia, in Libya, the local musket is 
called bindga and the rifled carbine: sheshkhdn 
(from Persian, "with a sexangular barrel", received 
through Turkish). 

We have seen that, in the western Maghrib and 
up to the beginning of the 17th century, naft denoted 
"cannon" and midfa 1 "portable firearm". This 
semantic pair has been preserved to the present day 
(with the variant nafd) in the Berber dialects of the 
same region ; it is also found in the Arabic dialect of 
Mauritania. However, among the Twareg Berbers, 
a musket is l-burud. In Amharic, the meanings are 
reversed: naft "musket", madf "cannon". 

For the nomenclature of the Moroccan musket, 
cf. Joly, L'industrie a Titouan, in Archives morac- 
aines, xi, 361; Delhomme, Les armes dans le Sous 
occidental, in Archives Berberes, ii, 123). 

The introduction of portable firearms, their 
employment for the djihdd, and the necessity for a 
period of training in the technique of shooting 
(rimdya), led to the creation of societies of marksmen 
(pi. rumdt) of a religious character (cf. Archives 
Marocaines, iv, 97; xvii, 73; xx, 242; L. Mercier, 
La chasse et les sports chez les Arabes, 134). 

On the other hand, the use of such weapons for 
hunting forced the jurists from the beginning to 
study the question whether prey killed by this 
method was licit (haldl) or not (the ahkdm al-bundukt 
literature). (G. S. Colin) 



In the present state of our knowledge, the earliest 
reliable information on the employment of firearms 
in the Mamluk sultanate is from the mid-sixties of 
the fourteenth century, i.e., some forty years later 
than the corresponding information on the use of 
firearms in Europe. There exist in the source; 
earlier references to these weapons, but then 
authenticity needs further proof. If Ibn Fadl Allar, 
al-'Umari speaks of firearms in his al-Ta'-rif /i 
'l-Musialahal-Sharif, Cairo 1312 A.H., 208, 11. 17-22), 
which he compiled in the year 241/1341, this would 
mean that the Mamluks started to use firearms 
several decades before the mid-sixties. 

Some words may be said about the terms 
by which these weapons were designated. These 
were makdhil (sing, mukhula) al-naft and maddfi c 



(sing, midfa 1 ) al-naff, or simply naff (pi. nufuf). 
Subsequently the first two terms were shortened 
into maddfi'- and makdhil. From the Mamluk sources 
it. cannot be learnt whether mukhula and midfa 1 
designate different types of firearms or not. During 
the first years' following the introduction of the 
weapon one comes across the terms sawd'ik cl-naff, 
sawdrikh al-naft, dldt al-naft, hinddm al-naft, which 
also mean firearms. But all these last-named terms 
soon died out. (For detailed proofs that the above 
mentioned terms mean firearms and not naphtha or 
"Greek Fire", which is also called in Arabic naff, 
see D. Ayalon, Gunpowder and Firearms in the 
Mamluk Kingdom, 9-44). 

In Mamluk historical sources the term bdrud as 
designating the whole mixture of gunpowder is 
extremely rare during the major part of the Cir- 
cassian period (784/1382-922/1517); only during the 
last decades of Mamluk rule do references to it 
become quite frequent. The term naff remains, 
however, dominant until the very end of the Mamluk 
sultarate. It would appear that the final victory 
of bdrud over naff took place after the Ottoman 
conquest. 

Though the use of artillery in the Mamluk sul- 
tanate increased steadily since the closing years of 
the 8th/i4th century, a long time had to elapse 
before they could entirely supplant the veteran 
siege-engine, the mangonel (mandianik, pi. madidnik). 
For many years the midfa' and the mukhula served 
only as auxiliaries to the mandianik, fulfilling but 
minor tasks. The Mamluk sources provide abundant 
information on the negligible damage they caused 
to targets against which they were aimed. At the 
end, however, artillery had the upper hand. The 
mention of mandianiks in action becomes rarer and 
rarer during the second half of the fifteenth century, 
though they manage to survive up to the very end 
of Mamluk rule. 

The Mamluks used their artillery in siege warfare 
only (both as a defensive and offensive weapon), 
consistently refusing until the very end of their 
rule to use it in the battlefield. 

The ever increasing participation of artillery in 
sieges in the Mamluk sultanate on the one hand, 
and its total abseiice on the battle-field on the other, 
can by no means be ascribed to accident. The 
reason for its easy adoption in siege warfare is 
to be found in the fact that it did not, especially 
during its early history, bring about any sweeping 
changes in the traditional methods of siege. Cannon 
was preceded by the mandjanih which performed 
precisely the same function, and which for a long 
period was superior to firearms. In the open, 
however, conditions were entirely different. Here 
artillery constituted a complete innovation, no 
similar weapon having preceded it; here it was 
bound to effect changes in tactics and methods of 
warfare, thus causing the Mamluk military hierarchy 
to adopt a course in sharp contrast to its very spirit. 

Sultan al-Ghawrl did make some concessions to 
the use of firearms which, though on the face of it 
considerable, were in reality not very significant. 
For in all these concessions one condition was 
implied: the existing structure of Mamluk military 
Society should not be subjected to any important 
change. Such an attitude amounted, in fact, to a 
death sentence on the scheme of reorganising the 
Mamluk army and on preparing it for the final test; 
for without transforming Mamluk society, along 
with all the conceptions for which it stood, there was 
no hope of making effective use of firearms. Nor was 



this all: al-Ghawrl made up his mind, side by side 
with his decision to extend the employment of 
firearms, to revive traditional methods of warfare. 
His plan had three main points: first, to increase 
considerably the number of cannon cast; second, 
to renew furusiyya exercises and the traditional 
military training; and third, to raise a unit of 
arquebusiers. Of them, only the first and third 

The Casting of Cannon. A few years after his 
accession to the throne al-Ghawri started casting 
cannon at a rate and on a scale never known before 
in the history of the sultanate. Near his newly built 
hippodrome (mayddn) he established a foundry for 
cannon (masbak) which turned out great quantities 
of artillery at short intervals. Unfortunately our 
source (Ibn Iyas) does not as a rule indicate the 
number of guns involved on each occasion; in four 
cases, however, he does. In one there were 15 guns; 
in another 70; in a third 74; in a fourth 75. 

This huge output of artillery was not intended 
at all to be used against the Ottomans in the open 
field. The bulk of it was directed to the ports of 
Egypt both in the Mediterranean and in the Red 
■Sea in order to strengthen the coastal fortifications 
or to be used on board warships. 

From the dispatch of so much artillery to the 
coast and to coastal fortifications it should not be 
concluded that strategic centres inland were not 
supplied with considerable quantities of cannon. As 
to the interior of Egypt, there is no doubt that both 
in al-Ghawri's time and in the preceding generations 
a very great portion of the total output of cannon 
was allotted to the capital, including the citadel. 
This is first of all bome out by the fact that most 
of our information about the weapon comes from 
Cairo; it is further confirmed by the concentration 
of great quantities of Mamluk artillery in the battle 
of al-Raydaniyya (January, 1517). As for Syria, 
our knowledge of the fortunes of artillery in that 
part of the Mamluk realm is scanty, both in regard 
to the coast and to the interior. From Ibn Tulun's 
chronicle we learn that there were great quantities 
of firearms in Damascus. This leads us to suppose 
that more detailed histories of Syria than those we 
possess might reveal that artillery played there a 
far bigger part than may be concluded from the 
available sources. 

The Creation of a Unit of Arquebusiers. Arquebuses 
(or hand-guns or portable firearms) are referred to 
in the Mamluk sources by the term al-bunduk al- 
rasds ("the pellets of lead"). The later designation 
for the hand-gun, bundukiyya, stems undoubtedly 
from bunduk, while rasasa, the bullet or cartridge, 
is derived from rasas. The fact that a considerable 
traffic of arms was conducted in the period under 
review by Venice (in Arabic: al-Bundukiyya) might 
also have contributed to the choice of the term 
bundukiyya. It would appear that the process of 
transformation from bunduk rasas to bundukiyya 
did not take long. Ibn Iyas himself mentions 
bundukiyya three times, while in the works of his 
contemporaries Ibn Zunbul and Ibn Tulun, who 
died only a few decades after him, bundukiyya, 
bundukiyydt and banddik are already of most 
common occurrence. They also mention bunduft, 
but the combination bunduk rasas is already extinct 
in their works. 

The aversion of the Mamluks to the use of portable 
firearms was far more pronounced than their 
reluctance to employ of artillery in the open 
field. For artillery is the province of specialised 



licians, whose numbers form only a small part 
e fighting force, requiring little change in the 
e of the army. The arquebus, on the other 
hand, is a personal and mass weapon, and its intro- 
duction affects a large number of troops. Hence its 
large scale adoption was bound to involve far- 
reaching changes in the organisation and methods 
of warfare. To equip a soldier with an arquebus 
meant taking away his bow and, what was to the 
Mamluk more distasteful, depriving him of his 
horse, thereby reducing him to the humiliating 
status of a foot soldier, compelled either to march 
or to allow himself to be carried in an ox-cart. 

Any attempt, therefore, to extend the use of the 
arquebus had to be based on non-Mamluk and thus 
socially inferior elements of the army. This is what 
the Mamluk sultans were forced to do from the very 
outset. As a result, a clash between the interests of 
the sultanate and those of the military hierarchy 
ensued. The growing danger from without did, to 
be sure, enable the sultan to widen somewhat the 
very narrow limits imposed on the use of the ar- 
quebus by Mamluk resistance to it and to incorporate 
into the arquebus regiment men from other units 
whose social position had been somewhat higher than 
that of the earlier arquebusiers. But his success did 
not go further than this, and hence the doom of the 
arquebus was inevitable. 

The very date of the introduction of the arquebus 
by the Mamluks is significant. It is mentioned for 
the first time in the sources as late as 895/1490 (the 
rule of Sultan Raytbay), i.e., only twenty-seven 
years before the destruction of the Mamluk sultanate 
and one hundred and twenty five years later than 
in Europe (the hand-gun began to be used in Europe 
in about 1365). Artillery, on the other hand, was 
introduced into the Mamluk sultanate only about 
forty years later than in Europe. The much greater 
time-lag in the adoption of the hand-gun in compa- 
rison with the adoption of artillery is by no means 
accidental. 

The units operating firearms were mainly com- 
posed of black slaves {'abid) and sons of Mamluks 
(awldd nds) [q.v.]. Members of these two categories 
seem never to have served in the same unit. Some- 
times the black slaves constituted the predominant 
element in the firearms personnel and sometimes 
the awldd nds. 

Sultan al-Nasir Abu '1-Sa c adat Muhammad (901/ 
1495-904/1498), IJaytbay's son, who ascended the 
throne at the age of fourteen, made a very serious 
attempt to create a strong unit of arquebusiers 
composed of black slaves, on whom he wanted to 
bestow a higher social status. The Mamluk amirs 
intervened, however, forced him to disband the 
unit and made him promise never to raise it again. 

About twelve years after the murder of al-Nasir 
Abu '1-Sa c adat, in 916/1510, Sultan Ransuh al- 
Ghawri. who enjoyed an incomparably higher 
prestige than the above-mentioned boy-king, and 
in whose time the need for the arquebus was far 
more pressing, made, with much greater caution, 
a second attempt to create a unit of arquebusiers. 
Though it fared better than his predecessor's unit, 
its existence was very precarious, its status very 
low and its achievements quite insignificant. 

It was called al-fabaka al-khdmisa because it did 
not receive its pay together with the rest of the 
army in one of the four official pay days round the 
middle of the month, but separately on a fifth pay- 
day at the end of the month. It was also called al- 
'askar al-mulaffak, i.e., "the motley army" or "the 



patched up army", because it ' 
heterogenous elements which, according to Mamluk 
criteria, were of low origin. It included in its ranks — 
besides awldd nds — Turkomans, Persians and various 
kinds of artisans, such as shoe-makers, tailors and 
meat vendors. Only when Sultan al-Ghawri. in 
Djumada I 921/June 1515, launched his big expe- 
dition against the Portuguese, were Royal Mamluks 
joined to it. It is significant that in spite of its 
heterogenous character al-fabaka al-khdmisa is never 
said to have included black slaves. 

Though the members of this unit occupied a very 
low rung in the socio-military ladder and received a 
much lower pay than the Royal Mamluks, a very 
heavy pressure was brought to bear on the sultan 
to abolish it, on the ground that it was favoured 
over other units and that its creation was the main 
cause for the emptiness of the treasury. The sultan 
gave way, at last, and dissolved it on Muharram 
920/March 1514. This dissolution was, however, on 
paper only. Al-tabaka al-khdmisa continued to 
exist because it was urgently needed on a very 

The fact that the Ottomans adopted firearms in 
the proper way and on a gigantic scale, whereas the 
Mamluks and all the other important rulers of 
Islam neglected them, had a decisive influence on 
the destiny of Western Asia and Egypt. Within a 
matter of two and a half years (August 1514- 
January 1517) the Ottomans routed the Safawids, 
destroyed the Mamluk sultanate and added to their 
realm territories of the old Muslim world which 
they kept up to the very dismemberment of their 
empire in the twentieth century and which were 
far bigger than their combined conquest in Europe 
throughout their history. Without their over- 
whelming superiority in firearms such a swift and 
extensive expansion could never have taken place. 
Bibliography: Reinaud et Fave, Histoire de 
V Artillerie, du feu grigeois, des feux de guerre et 
des origines de la poudre d Canon, 1845, vol. 
and atlas; Reinaud, De I' art tnilitaire chez Us 
Arabes au moyen dge, in J A, 6th series, 12, 1848, 
I 93-237; Reinaud et Fav6, Du feu grigeois, des 
feux de guerre et des origines de la poudre a canon 
chez Us Arabes, les Persans et Us Chinois, in J A, 
1849, 6th series, 14, 257-327; Reinaud, NouvelUs 
observations sur U feu grigeois et les origines de 
la poudre d canon, in JA, 1850, 6th series, 15, 
371-376; Rashid al-DIn, Histoire des Mongols de 
la Perse (ed. Quatremere), Paris 1836, 132-137, 
285-290; Quatremere, Histoire des Sultans Mame- 
louks (trans, of Makrizi), 1837-1845, 112, 148; 
Quatremere, Observations sur U feu grigeois, in 
JA, 6th series, 15, 1850, 214-274; Amari, Su » 
fuochi da guerra usati nel Mediterraneo neW XI 
& XII secoli, Atti delta Reale Academia dei 
Lincei, Roma 1876, 3-17; M. L. de Goeje, Quelques 
Observations sur le feu grigeois, Estudios de Eru- 
dition Oriental, Saragossa 1904, 93-98; G. Wiet, 
NoUs d'£pigraphie Syro-musulmane, Syria, Paris 
1924-1926, 62-66; M. Canard, Les expeditions 
des Arabes contre ConstantinopU, in JA, 1926, 
vol. ccviii, 61-121; Canard, TexUs relatifs i 
I'emploi du feu grigeois chez les Arabes, in BulUtin 
des £tudes Arabes, no. 26, Jan.-Feb. 1946, 3-7 
(bibliography on 7); H. Ritter, La parure des 
Cavaliers und die Literatur Uber die Ritterlichen 
KiinsU, in Der Islam, 1929, 1 16-154; Huuri, Zur 
Geschichte des mittelalterlichen Geschiitzwesens aus 
orientalischen QuelUn, in Studia Orienialia, Helsinki 
1941 ; I. S. AUouche, Un TexU relatif aux premiers 



Canons, in Hespiris, 1945, 81-84; R. Brunschvig, 
La Berberie Orientate sous Us Hafsides, Paris 1947, 
vol. ii, 85-87; C. Cahen, Un traiii d'armurerie 
compost pour Saladin, in Bulletin d'Etudes Orien- 
tates, vol. xii, Beirut, 1947/48 (esp. 20-23) ; Merrier, 
Le feu grigeois; les feux de guerre depuis V antiquiti; 
la poudre d Canon, Paris 1952 (bibliography on 
151-158); D. Ayalon, Gunpowder and Firearms in 
the Mamluk Kingdom-A Challenge to a Mediaeval 
Society, London 1956 (including Appendix by 
P. Wittek, The Earliest References to the Use of 
Firearms by the Ottomans, 141-144); H. W. L. 
Hime, The Origins of Artillery, London 1915 
(bibliography on 221); C. Oman, A History of the 
Art of War in the Middle Ages, London 1924, 
vol. ii; G. Sarton, Introduction to the History of 
Science, ii, 1034-1040, iii, 725-736, 1549; W. Y. 
Carman, A History of Firearms from Earliest 
Times to 1914, London 1955 (bibliography on 
198-199). (D. Ayalon) 



There is no evidence to show precisely when 
the Ottomans first began to use gunpowder and 
fire-arms. A passage in a Turkish register for 
Albania of the year 835/1431 permits, however, 
the inference that cannon had been introduced 
at least in the reign of Mehemmed I (1413-1421) 
and perhaps even somewhat earlier (Inalnk, 
in Belleten, xxi (1957), 509). Other sources men- 
tion the Ottoman use of guns for siege warfare 
in 1422, 1424 and 1430, and again in 1440, 1446, 
1448 and 1450 (cf. the references listed in Wittek, 
142 and in Inalcik, op. cit., 509). It is well known, 
moreover, that Mehemmed II (1451-1481) had a 
large number of cannon, when he besieged Constan- 
tinople in 1453 (Ducas, 247-249, 258, 273 ; Sphrantzes, 
236 ff., passim; Chalcocondylas, 385-386, 414-415; 
Critobulus, bk. I, chapts. 20 and 29 (with additional 
references given in the notes) ; Wille, 10 f. ; Jahns, 
791-792, 1141-1144). Field guns seem to have made 
their appearance amongst the Ottomans not long 
before the battle of Varna (1444), i.e., during the 
course of the Hungarian wars waged in the reign of 
Murad II (1421-1451). The first clear indication that 
the Ottomans employed cannon of this type in a 
major field engagement relates to the second battle 
of Kossovo (1448) (Wittek, 142-143; Inalcik, op.iit., 
509-510), but it was not until considerably later that 
advances in technique rendered possible the emer- 
gence of an effective Ottoman field artillery. The 
arquebus, too, was taken over in about 1440-1443 
during the Hungarian wars under Murad II and its 
use much extended in the reign of Mehemmed II. 
None the less, the change to a more general adoption 
of the new weapon, e.g., within the corps of Janis- 
saries, was a slow and gradual one, destined to 
remain long incomplete (Wittek, 143; Inalcik, op. 
cit., 506, 510-512; Ayalon, 38 (note 89); Jorga, ii, 
228. Cf. also Promontorio, 36 (zerbottaneri) , Chal- 
cocondylas, 356 (zarabotanas), Dolfin, 13 (zarabattane), 
terms uncertain in meaning, but perhaps referring to 
the arquebus? See, in addition, Lokotsch, 172 (Ar. 
iarbatdna) and Ayalon, 61: zabtdna). After the 
reverses which the Ottomans endured in the Cilician 
war of 1485-1491 against the Mamluks of Egypt and 
Syria, Bayazid II (1481-1512) increased the number 
of Janissaries and provided them, and other cate- 
gories of his troops, with arms more efficient and 
of greater offensive power than the weapons 
previously available; the Sultan also spared no 
expense to create a more mobile and more com- 



petently manned artillery force (Alberi, ser. 3, iii, 
21 (a report dated 1503); cf. also Inalcik, op. cit., 
506). The arquebus, slow to load and cumbersome 
to handle, was ill-suited to the needs and capacities 
of horsemen. It found little favour therefore, in the 
15th and 16th centuries, with the Ottoman timariots 
and the Sipahls of the Porte, i.e., the "feudal" and 
the "household" cavalry of the Sultan. The use of 
fire-arms in this field had, in general, to await the 
appearance of new and more manageable types of 
hand-gun, i.e., the earlier forms of the musket and 
the pistol. A corps of mounted "arquebusiers" was, 
however, to be found in Egypt soon after the 
Ottoman conquest of 1517 (Ayalon, 96-97 and 129 
(note 247a); Fevzi Kurtoglu, in Belleten, iv (1940), 
67 and 68: atlu tiifekci ziimresi). 

The troops concerned primarily with gunpowder 
and fire-arms, and with their practical application 
in time of war, can be listed thus: (a) the Qxebediiler, 
i.e., the Armourers, who had charge of the weapons 
and munitions of the Janissaries — bows, arrows, 
swords, etc., but also hand-guns (tufenk), powder 
(bdrut), quick-matches (fitil), lead for bullets 
[frurshun) and the like. Members of this corps served 
both at Istanbul and in the provincial fortresses of 
the empire (Uzuncarsili, Kapukulu Ocaklart, ii, 1-31). 
Venetian reports written between 1571 and 1590 
state that almost all the Janissaries had adopted the 
arquebus, the Ottoman model of this gun being 
made with a longer barrel than was normal amongst 
the Christians and loaded with large bullets, "come 
li (archibugi) barbareschi" (Alberi, ser. 3, i, 421-422, 
ii, 99, iii, 220, 343; cf. also Bombaci, in RSO, xx 
(1941-1943), 296, 299 (hand-guns firing shot which 
weighed 40-50 dirhems) and Uzuncarsili, op. cit., i, 
366 and ii, 8 (note 2 : hand-guns that took shot 4 and 
5 dirhems in weight), 13-14, 28-29). (b) the Topdjular, 
i.e., the Artillerists, who were responsible for the 
actual production of guns and for their maintenance 
and operation in war. These specialised troops had 
as their chief centre the arsenal (Top-khane) at 
Istanbul, but served also in the various fortresses of 
the empire and in provincial cannon foundries and 
munition depots (Uzuncarsili, op. cit., ii, 33-93). The 
Ottomans at first carried into the field supplies of 
metal, rather than complete, but ponderous guns, 
and cast their cannon as need arose during the 
course of a given campaign (Ibn Kemal, Tevdrih-i 
Al-i Osman, 462-463; 462-463 (= 420-421, in 
the transcription); Dolfin, 10-n; Promontorio, 
61, 85; Jorga, ii, 227; Wittek, 142; Inalcik, op. cit., 
509). This procedure, still current during the reign 
of Mehemmed II, fell gradually into disuse as 
further advances in technique and in methods of 
transportation rendered it, in general, superfluous. 
Chemical analysis has shown an Ottoman gun cast 
in 868/1464 to be composed of excellent bronze, 
allowance being made for the imperfections of the 
smelting process in use at that time (Abel, in The 
Chemical News, 1868). A Spanish artillerist, Collado, 
in his treatise of 1592, describes Ottoman cannon 
as ill-prcjportioned, but of good metal (Manual de 
Artilleria, 8 v: "la fundicion Turquesca pot la mayor 
parte es fea, y deffectuosa, aunque es de buena liga"). 
An account of the methods employed in the Top- 
khane at Istanbul for the casting of guns is given 
in the work of Ewliya Celebi (Seydhat-ndme, i, 436 ff. 
= Uzuncarsili, op. cit., ii, 41 ff.). (c) the Top 
"■ArabadiUari, i.e., the corps responsible for the 
transport of guns and munitions (Uzuncarsili, op. 
cit., ii, 95-113). Wagons [ c araba), drawn by horses, 
oxen or mules, carried the cannon, both large and 



small, but much use was also made of camels to 
bear the lighter types of gun, especially in difficult 
terrain (Promontorio, 33; Menavino, bk. v, chapt. 
xxxi: 176; Ibn Tulfln and Ibn Zunbul, cited in 
Ayalon, 125 (note 206) and 127 (note 220); Alberi, 
ser. 3, ii, 432, 438, 452, 456). There is mention, here 
and there in the sources, of guns on wheels, i.e., 
passages which refer perhaps to the " c araba" itself 
or possibly to some form of wheeled gun-carriage 
(Tauer, Campagne . . . contre Belgrade, 48 (Persian 
text: 64); Viaggio et Impresa . . . di Diu, 173 v; 
Giovio, ii, bk. XXX, 104 r). Moreover, the Ottomans 
maintained on the Danube a flotilla which had a 
major r61e in the transportation of the siege artillery, 
field guns and supplies needed for the great campaigns 
in Hungary (cf. Uzuncarsili, Bahriye Teskildh, 403- 
404 (also ibid., 404-405: the arsenal at Biredjik on 
the Euphrates); and Alberi, ser. 3, iii, 153: mention 
of flat-bottomed boats (palandarie) which carried 
horses, cannon, stores, etc.). (d) the Khumbaradjllar, 
i.e., the bombardiers concerned with the production 
and use of grenades, bombs, portable mines, artificial 
fire, etc. (Uzuncarsili, Kapukulu Ocaklan, ii, 1 
127). (e) the LaghlmdjUar, i.e., the sappers who, 
with the aid of the large labour forces set at their 
disposal, prepared the trenches, earthworks, gun- 
emplacements and subterranean mines indispensable 
in siege warfare (Uzuncarsili, op. cit., ii, 129-133). 

The Ottomans, even before the death of Mehem- 
med II in 1481, had acquired the main types of 
weapon and technique involving the use of gun- 
powder, i.e., siege and field artillery, mortars, 
bombs, the arquebus, mines and artificial fire 
(Jorga, ii, 227-228). A large share in the trans- 
mission of these new arms fell to the peoples of 
Serbia and Bosnia. Artillerists and arquebusiers, 
recruited in these countries and still retaining their 
Christian faith, are known to have been in the 
service of Mehemmed II (Inalcik, Fatih Devri, i, 152, 
154-156 and also in Bellelen, xxi (1957), 5"). 
Masters came, too, from still farther afield, e.g., 
JSrg of Nuremberg (Kissling, 336). Reliance on 
specialists of European origin — at first mainly 
German and Italian, but with French, English and 
Dutch elements becoming more numerous in later 
times — was to be henceforth a permanent and indeed 
essential characteristic of the various Ottoman corps 
concerned with gunpowder and fire-arms. 

Information of a technical nature about the types 
of cannon in use amongst the Ottomans can be found 
here and there in the Western sources of the 15 th 
and 1 6th centuries. The guns are of course described 
in accordance with the system of classification then 
current in Europe (and indeed in the Ottoman 
empire too), i.e., in terms of the weight or size of the 
projectile thrown (Promontorio, 61 and 85; de 
Bourbon, i3r-v, with mention of iron and bronze 
cannon, e.g., culverins, basilisks, sakers and also 
mortars firing marble shot and copper or bronze 
"boulletz" filled with artificial fire; Ufano, 40 and 
41). An Italian account of the campaign against Diu 
in 1538 lists some of the guns which the Ottomans 
had with them on that occasion (Viaggio et Impresa 
. . . di Diu, i6gr, i72r; cf. also Sousa Coutinho, 
58v, on the Ottoman basilisks used in the siege. 
The princes of India held the Ottoman artillerists in 
high esteem and welcomed them into their armies: 
e.g., a Mustafa Rural fought under Babur, and a 
Rflml Khan under the Sultan of Gudjarat) 

The tactical use which the Ottomans made of their 
cannon in time of war has not been studied in 
detail. Their normal formation, however, was the 



(dbur, when a field battle had to be fought, i.e., 
the wagenburg with the gun-carts chained together 
and the cannon set between them — a device 
which seems to have been taken over from the 
Hungarians (Inalcik, in Belleten, xxi (1957), 510; 
cf. also von Frauenholz, 234 and Uzuncarsrii, 
Kapukulu Ocaklan, ii, 255-264. A similar type of 
battle order ("in accordance with the custom of 
Rum", i.e., of the Ottoman empire: Rum desturi 
bile) was known in Muslim India and in Persia: 
Babur-Ndma, ed. Ilminski, 341 and 458). The 
method used by the Ottomans to breach the walls 
of a fortress is described in the work of the Spaniard 
Collado: medium guns, e.g., culverins, capable of 
deep penetration and firing along transverse and 
vertical lines, undermined and split the stonework, 
large basilisks which threw heavier and more 
destructive shot, violent in the force of their surface 
impact, being then discharged in salvo to bring 
down the enfeebled structure [Manual de Artilleria, 
I3r, 2or, 32r; cf. also PecevI, ii, 193). 

The Ottomans had of course their own nomen- 
clature for guns and related instruments of war (cf. 
Uzuncarsili, Kapukulu Ocaklan. ii, 48-51). In 
addition to phrases of a mere poetical character 
(e.g., ezhder-dihan and mar-ten: "dragon-mouthed" 
and "serpent-bodied" — cf. Na'ima, i, 148) and 
names given to individual c?nnon (e.g., the "Kocyan", 
i.e., the gun captured from Katzianer, the Imperialist 
general whom the Ottomans defeated in 1537 near 
Eszek on the Danube — cf. Selaniki, 31), terms 
which have a precise technical sense can also be 
found here and there in the Turkish chronicles and 
documents. Among the types of cannon most often 
mentioned in these sources are (i) the badjalushka 
or baddlushka, a large siege gun (perhaps the 
basilisk?): cf. Selaniki, 35, 37, 38, 41; HadjdjI 
Khalifa, Fedhleke, i, 29 (guns of this kind firing shot 
which weighed sixteen okkas each), 31, 33; Collado, 
I3r, 32r; Uzuncarsili, op. cit., ii, 49, 80, 81. (ii) the 
balyemez [?.y.], the name of which derives perhaps 
from the German "Faule Metze" (Kissling) : cf. PecevI, 
i, 202; Ewliya Celebi, viii, 418, 491 (where it is 
described as a menzil (opu, i.e., a long-range gun); 
Silihdar, ii, 46 and 47 (cannon using shot of 10-40 
okkas in weight are here defined as balyemez). 
(iii) the kolonborna (cf. the Italian cclubrina), i.e., 
the culvcrin: cf. Selaniki, 8; PecevI, ii, 198; HadjdjI 
Khalifa. Fedhleke, i, 29 (culverins which fired shot 
weighing eleven okkas each) and i, 33 (lombornu); 
Silihdar, i, 300 and ii, 46 and 47 (cannon throwing shot 
of 3-9 okkas in weight are here classed as kolonborna) ; 
Uzuncarsili, op. cit., ii, 49, 81 ; Viaggio et Impresa . . . 
di Diu, i69r; Collado, i3r; Alberi, ser. 3, ii, 43*- 
(iv) the shakaloz (cf. the Hungarian szakdllas], 
apparently a kind of light cannon which threw 
small projectiles of stone or metal: cf. Selaniki, 37, 
41, 145; PecevI, ii, 242; Siiheyl Unver, in Belleten, 
xvi (1952), 560; L. Fekete, Die Siydqat-Schrift, 1, 
61 and 694, and also in Magyar Nyelv, xxvi (1930), 
264 ; Redhouse, s.v. lakaloz. References to guns that 
fired small shot can be found in Ducas, 211 (cf. also 
Jahns, 811) and in Giovio, ii, bk. xxx, i04r. (v) the 
shdyka (cf. the Hungarian sajka), a name given to a 
certain type of boat, but also used for the guns 
mounted on such craft: cf. HadjdjI Khalifa, FedUeke, 
ii, 320; Ewliya Celebi, viii, 378 (a mention of cannon 
(shdyka (oplari) that fired stone shot weighing 
eighty okkas each), 382 (shdyka nam prdnka (oplari); 
Fevzi Kurtoglu, in Belleten, iv (1940), 68; Uzun- 
carsili, op. cit., ii, 49, 50, 81 (large, medium and 
small shayk* cannon); L. Fekete, in Magyar 



Nyelv, xxvi (1930), 265. On the guns used in the 
boats which the Ottomans maintained on the 
Danube, see Giovio, ii, bk. xxxvi, 1921-. (vi) the 
4arbzan or darbuzan, a gun cast in various sizes (cf. L. 
Fekete, Die Siyaqat-Schrift, i, 694, 695 : small (300 
dirhem shot), medium (I okka shot), large (2 okka 
shot) and also a zarbuzan-i iaika-i biiziirg firing shot 

36 okkas in weight): cf. Ibn Kemal, Tevdrih-i Al-i 
Osman, 464, 509 (= 422, 458 in the transcription); 
SelanikI, 8, 35 (s*«A« darbzan toplart), 37; PecevI, i, 93 
and ii, 140, 147, 196; Du Loir, Voyages, 226-227 (chahi 
zerbuzanlar = "fauconeaux royaux") ; Silihdar, ii, 47 
and 57; Uzuncarsili, op. cit., ii, 49, 50, 76, 79, 81; 
Ayalon, 89, 90, 119 (note 92), 127 (note 220). 

The Ottomans, in their sea warfare, seem to have 
used in general the same types of gun as in their 
campaigns on land. Among the cannon employed 
in the Ottoman fleet can be numbered the kolon- 
borna, the darbzan and the shdyka (Barozzi and 
Berchet, i, 274, ii, 20; Uzuncarsili, Bahriye TeskUdh, 
460, 462, 463, 468, 469, 512-513. Further information 
about the naval armament of the Ottomans is 
available in Albert, ser. 3, i, 68, 140, 292-293, ii, 
100, 150, 342, iii, 223, 354-355; Barozzi and Berchet, 
ii, 165; Marsigli, Pt. I, chapt. lxxiv, 142 and Pt. II, 
chapt. xxvii, 171-172; de Warnery, 115) and also 
the pranghi or pranki (Tauer, in ArO., vii (1935), 
195; Kemalpashazade, Mohadjname, 54 (Turkish 
text); Bombaci, in RSO, xx ^1941-1943), 292 and 
xxi (1944-1946), 190; Uzuncarsili, Kapukulu Ocaklan, 
". 49, 83 and also Bahriye TeskUdh, 462, 468, 469, 
512-513). 

The sources often mention instruments of war other 
than cannon, but based on the use of gunpowder, 
e.g., (i) the havayi (SelanikI, 8 (cf. Hammer-Purgstall, 
iii, 426, note 1); Uzuncarsili, Kapukulu Ocaklan, 
ii, 49) and the havdn (Ewliya Celebi, viii, 407, 419, 
471, 472; Yusuf Nabi, 43; Silihdar, ii, 47). i.e., 
mortars which fired bombs and also shot of stone or 
metal (Promontorio, 61; de Bourbon, 13V; Viaggio 
et Impresa . . . di Diu, i69r; Maurand, 202; Schei- 
ther, 81; Marsigli, Pt. II, chapt. ix, 30-31); (ii) the 
khumbara or kumbara, i.e., bombs (Tauer, Campagne 
... contre Belgrade, 53, 58 (Persian text: 79, 89); 
SelanikI, 40-41; British Museum MS. Or. 1137, 74V 
(bombs made of glass, and of bronze: shishe khumbara, 
tundi khumbara); Ewliya Celebi, viii, 401, 414, 432, 
483 (kazdn (kazghdn) kumbara); Na'ima, i, 304; 
Silihdar, ii, 47 (khumbara hdvdnlart); Scheither, 75, 
Marsigli, Pt. II, chapt. ix, 33; Bigge, 154); (iii) the 
el khumbarasi, i.e. hand-grenades (Ewliya Celebi, 
viii, 414, 432 471 (grenades of glass, and of bronze: 
sirca ve tudf el kumbaralarl) ; Silihdar, i, 467, 484, 
502; Scheither, 77; Marsigli, Pt. II, chapt. ix, 33); 
(iv) the laghlm i.e., explosive mines of various types 
and sizes (HadjdjI Khalifa, Fedhleke, u, 255 and 
Na'Ima, iv, 143 (a large mine containing 150 
kanfdrs of gunpowder); Ewliya Celebi, viii, 424 
(a mine with three galleries and three powder- 
chambers), 425, 432, 495; Silihdar, ii, 55, 56 (a mine 
of the type known as puskurma and holding 30 
kantdrs of powder), 66; Scheither, 72-73; Montecuc- 
coli, iii, chapt. lxvii; Marsigli, Pt. II, chapt. xi, 

37 seq.). Numerous references to mines can be found 
in the Ottoman accounts of the Cretan War (1645- 
1669), e.g., in tfadjdji Khalifa, Fedhleke, ii, 239 ff., 
passim, in Silihdar, i, 409 ff., in Nalma, iv, 116 ff., 
passim, and in Ewliya Celebi, viii, 396 ff. (cf . also ibid., 
viii, 468 ff., enumerating the guns, munitions, etc. 
found in the fortress of Candia after its conquest from 
the Christians in 1669 — an account rich in the military 
terminology used by the Ottomans at that time). 



DD 1063 

The Ottomans drew from the territories under 
their control the indispensable raw materials of 
war — iron, lead, copper and the like. Moreover, the 
mines producing such metals often served as centres 
for the manufacture of munitions, e.g., cannon-balls 
(Alberi, ser. 3, i, 66-67, 146-147, 422. ii. 145. 342. 
iii, 351; Barozzi and Berchet, ii, 165-166, 225, 337; 
Ahmet Refik, Turk Asiretleri, docs. 27, 33. 42, 48, 
86, 106, 112 and Turkiye Madenleri, docs. 2, 6, 7, 14, 
21, 25, 27, 35, 36, 54 and ibid., Perakende Vesikalar, 
docs. 3, 4, 7 and 8; Anhegger, Beiirdge, i, 138-140, 
148-149, 205-206, 210-21 1 and ii, 299, 303-304, 
306-308, also Nachtrag, 492-494; Uzuncarsili, Kapu- 
kulu Ocaklart, ii, 72 ff., passim). There were, in 
addition, mines yielding the saltpetre and sulphur 
which was needed for the production of gunpowder 
[bdr&t-i tufenk and barut-i siydh: cf. X-. Fekete, 
Die Siyaqat-Schrift, i, 696, note 8) at Istanbul and 
in the provinces of the empire (Ewliya Celebi, i, 
483 and 564-565; Uzuncarsili, op. cit., i, 247 and 
335-336; Ahmet Refik, Turk Asiretleri, doc. 53 and 
Turkiye Madenleri, docs, n-13, 16-20, 22-24, 26, 
28-30; Alberi, ser. 3, i, 146, 422, ii, 342, 349-350, 
iii, 398; Barozzi and Berchet, i, 177, 275, ii, 17, 165; 
Montecuccoli, iii, chapt. xxxii; Marsigli, Pt. I, 
chapt. lxxiv, 142). War material also came to the 
Ottomans from Europe. Indeed, supplies obtained 
from the Christians were at times of great importance 
to the armies of the Sultan, e.g., during the long 
wars against Persia (1578-1590) and Austria (1593- 
1606), the one involving the establishment and 
maintenance of numerous fortresses and garrisons 
in the wide mountainous regions to the south of the 
Caucasus, the other developing into a bitter conflict 
of sieges, and both necessitating a vast expenditure 
of guns and munitions. The English, in these years, 
sold to the Ottomans cargoes of tin (essential for 
the making of bronze cannon), lead, broken bells 
and images (from the churches despoiled in England 
during the course of the Reformation), iron, steel, 
copper, arquebuses, muskets, sword-blades, brim- 
stone, saltpetre, gunpowder (Cat. State Papers, 
Spanish: (1568-1579), no. 609 and (1580-1586), 
no. 265; Cal. State Papers, Venetian: (1603-1607), 
nos. 470, 494 and (1607-1610), no. 860; Braudel, 
479 (tin, bell-metal, lead) ; Charriere, iv, 967, note I 
(broken images); Sir Thomas Sherley, Discours, 
7 (the Janissaries have "not one corne of good 
powder but that whyche they gett from overthrone 
Christians, or els is broughte them out of Englande"), 
9, 10 (the English "keepe 3 open shoppes of armes 
and munition in Constantinople . . . Gunpowder is 
solde for 23 and 24 chikinoes the hundred . , . 
Muskettes are solde for 5 or 6 chikinos the peyce" ; 
(chikino = chequin, sequin, i. e., the "zecchine", 
a Venetian gold coin, of which the Ottoman 
equivalent was the gold sultanl: cf. The Travels 
of John Sanderson, Appendix A, 294-295); Cal. 
Salisbury MSS., Pt. XI, in and Pt. XIII, 606- 
607). It was not long before the Dutch entered into 
this traffic, and to the marked advantage of the 
Ottomans, e.g., in the Cretan War of 1645-1669. The 
Western sources dating from the 17th and 18th 
centuries emphasise how much the Ottomans owed 
to this trade in munitions, how great was their 
reliance on European techniques in regard to the use 
of fire-arms and gunpowder, and how numerous 
were the experts of Christian origin enrolled in their 
service as engineers and artillerists — experts of 
Italian, French and German, of English and Dutch 
bu;th (Scheither, 75, 80; Montecuccoli, iii, chapts. 
xxviii and xxx (copper from the Dutch, English, 



io6 4 BAI 

French and also the Swedes); Barozzi and Berchet, 
ii, 166, 173, 222, 231-232; Marsigli, Pt. II, chapt. ix, 
23 (the Ottomans made cannon according to the 
designs of the Italian author Sardi, one of whose 
works had been translated into Turkish — probably 
L' 'Artiglieria di Pietro Sardi Romano, Venice 1621) 
and 33; de Warnery, 92-93)- 

The 16th and 17th centuries witnessed in Europe 
notable changes in the art of warfare (J. R. Hale, in 
The New Cambridge Modem History, ii, 481 ff.; 
O. Laskowski, in Teki Historyczne, iv (1950), 106 ff.; 
M. Roberts, The Military Revolution 1560-1660, 
also Gustavus Adolphus and the Art of War, in 
Historical Studies, i, 69 ff., and Gustavus Adolphus, 
ii, 169 ff.). These changes imposed on the Ottomans 
a constant need to adopt or otherwise to meet in 
an effective manner the innovations made in the 
European practice of war — a process of adjustment 
which was at times slow and difficult. A Muslim 
from Bosnia, writing not long after the battle of 
Keresztes (1596), lamented that the Christians, 
through their use of new types of hand-gun and 
cannon, as yet neglected by the Ottomans, had won 
a definite advantage over the armies of the Sultan 
(L. Thalloczy, Staatschrift, I53-I54; Garcin de 
Tassy, in JA, iv (1824), 284; Safvetbeg Basagic, 
Nizam ul Alem, 13; British Museum MS. Harleian 
5490, 35or-v). None the less, as the appearance of 
new, or the more frequent use of hitherto unusual 
terms in the Turkish chronicles and documents will 
make clear, the Ottomans did in fact assimilate to 
a large degree the latest devices and techniques 
elaborated in Europe at this time (Bombaci, in 
RSO, xx (1941-1943), 303 (sacma toplar, i.e., guns 
firing a form of grape-shot: cf. also Hadjdji Khalifa. 
Fedhleke, i, 34 and ii, 245, 317, 319, 321); Silihdar, i, 
596, 598 (mishet); Petevi, ii, 199 (cf. Na'ima, i, 
164: muskets which fired shot 15-20 dirhems in 
weight); Ewliya Celebi, vii, 179 (mushkdt tufenkleri 
with shot weighing 40-50 dirhems, and kol tufen- 
kleri) and viii, 398, 410, 415, 416, 467 (baddlocka 
nam mushkdt); Inalcik, in Tarih Vesikalan, ii/II 
(i943)» 377 {fifte tabancalu tiifenk); Uzuncarsili, 
Kapukulu Ocaklan, ii, 8, note 2 (atlu tufenkleri); 
Pecevi, ii, 212-213 (cf. Na'Ima, i, 190): an account 
of how an aghddx top, i.e., a petard, was made). 
Further evidence can be found in the Western 
sources (cf. Alberi, ser, 3, ii, 452 (archibugieri 
a cavallo), iii, 391 (a report dated 1594, in which 
it is said that the Ottomans had not yet adopted 
the pistol) and 404 (the increasing use of the 
arquebus in the Ottoman fleet); Barozzi and 
Berchet, i, 265 (the spahi di paga, during the Hun- 
garian war of 1593-1606, had begun to arm them- 
selves with the arquebus and the terzarollo, i.e., a 
short-barrelled arquebus) and ii, 16 and 158; Rycaut, 
349 (the Sipahis of the Porte made use of pistols and 
carbines, but had no great esteem for fire-arms) ; 
Marsigli, Pt. II, chapt. viii, 15 and 16: the Ottomans 
learned new methods from the Christians in the 
Cretan War (1645-1669); the Janissaries and most 
of the Ottoman horsemen carried pistols). It was 
in the time of the Koprulii viziers that this gradual 
transformation attained its full effect. Men well 
qualified to judge like Scheither, Montecuccoli and 
Marsigli, describe in much detail, and often with 
approval, the weapons employed by the Ottomans, 
noting the excellence, for example, of their mortars 
(Scheither, 75), their muskets (Montecuccoli, iii, 
chapt. xiv) and their mines, in the construction of 
which the Armenian laghimdjilar had a pre-eminent 
role (Marsigli, Pt. II, chapt. xi, 37 ff. ; cf. also 



Levinus Warnerus, 69, 101 and Ewliya Celebi, i, 
515 ff.). Montecuccoli (iii, chapts. xxx and xxxi) 
observes, however, that the Ottoman artillery, 
although of notable effect when well served, con- 
sumed large quantities of munitions and was 
cumbersome to handle and transport, and that, in 
respect of the mobility and practical efficiency 01 
their guns, the Christians had achieved an undoubted 
advantage over their Muslim foes. 

The Ottomans failed in the end to keep pace with 
the developments which occurred in Europe. Their 
methods, with regard to fire-arms in general, seem 
to have been, during most of the 18th century, but 
little in advance of the techniques current in the 
time of the first Koprulii viziers (cf. de Warnery, 
34-35, 40-41, 52, 70, 75, 91-94, 103. This author 
states (op. cit., 94) that in 1739 the Ottomans, loath 
to accept good advice, persisted in conducting their 
siege of Belgrade "a leur ancienne mode")- There 
were indeed attempts at reform, e.g., by Khum- 
baradji Ahmed Pasha (i.e., the Comte de Bonneval: 
cf. Uzuncarsili, Kapukulu Ocaklan, ii, 118 ff., and 
122 ff., also British Museum MS. Or. 1131 (Ta'rikh-i 
Subhi), 68v-6gv), by the Baron de Tott (Uzuncarsili, 
op. cit., 40, 56, 67; de Tott, Mimoires, ii, Pt. Ill, 
passim) and by Khalil Hamid Pasha (cf. Ahmed 
Djewdet, ii, 57 ff. (also ibid., ii, 239-240) ; Uzun- 
carsili, Kapukulu Ocaklan, ii, 67-68, 91-93, 120, 
125-127 and also in Tiirkiyat Mecmuast, v (1935), 
225 ff. and 233 ff.), but their efforts had only a 
limited success. The reign of Selim III (1789-1807) 
witnessed, however, the introduction of radical 
measures designed to modernise on Western lines 
the armed forces of the Ottoman state (cf. Enver 
Ziya Karal, 43 ff., and especially 45-49, 59-63 and 
63-71). Ottoman \fire-arms, considered as a whole, 
now begin to lose those features which had given 
them hitherto a distinctive character, their sub- 
sequent evolution becoming more and more iden- 
tified with the general course of technical advance 
and improvement made in Europe. It will suffice 
to note here that the reforms carried out in the 
first half of the 19th century led to the emergence, 
within the Ottoman army, of an efficient and well 
equipped corps of artillerists able to sustain a not 
unfavourable comparison with its European rivals (cf. 
Unsere Tage, Heft XXXVI (1862), 580 and 586 ff.). 
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Paris 1949; Garcin de Tassy, Principes de Sagesse,, 
touchant I'art de gouvemer, in J A, iv, Paris 1824, 
213-226, 283-290; L. Thalldczy, Eine Staatsschrift 
des bosnischen Mchammedaners Molla Hassan 
Elkjdfi "iiber die Art und Weise des Regierens", 
in Archly fur slavische Philologie, XXXII, Heft I, 
Berlin 1910, 139-158; Safvetbeg Basagic, Nizam 
ul Alem, Sarajevo 1919, 1-17; Das Heerwesen des 
osmanischen Reichs, in Vnsere Tage, iii, Heft 36, 
Braunschweig 1862, 577-590; F. A. Abel, On the 
Chemical Composition of the Great Cannon of 
Muhammed II, recently presented by the Sultan 
Abdul Aziz Khan to the British Government, in 
The Chemical News, no. 457 (4 September 1868), 
in-112; J. H. Lefroy, The Great Cannon of 
Muhammad II (A.D. 1464) , in The A rchaeological 
Journal, no. too, London 1868, 261-280; J. 
H. Lefroy, An Account of the Great Cannon of 
Muhammad II, in Minutes of Proceedings of the 
Royal Artillery Institution, Woolwich, VI (1870), 
203-227; Ch. Foulkes, The "Dardanelles" Gun at 
the Tower, in The Antiquaries Journal, X, London 
1930, 217-227; L. Fekete, Az oszmdnli-tOrok 
nyelv hddoltsdgkori magyar jbvevenyszavai, in Ma- 
gyar Nyelv, XXVI, Budapest 1930, 257-265; L. 
Fekete, Die Siydqat-Schrift in der tiirkischen Finanz- 
verwaltung (Bibliotheca Orientalis Hungarica, VII), 
i, Budapest 1955, 57-65, passim and 692-699, 
passim; H. J. Kissling, Bdljemez, in ZDMG, CI 
(= Neue Folge, XXVI), Wiesbaden 1951, 333"34o; 
D. Ayalon, Gunpowder and Firearms in the Mamluk 
Kingdom, London 1956; P. Wittek, The Earliest 
References to the Use of Firearms by the Ottomans 
(in Ayalon, op. cit., Appendix II, 141-144); The 
Travels of John Sanderson in the Levant (1584- 
1602), ed. Sir W. Foster (Hakluyt Society, 2nd 
Ser., no. LXVII), London 1931; Ahmet Refik, 
Anadoluda Turk Asiretleri (966-1200), Istanbul 
1930, and Osmanh Devrinde Turkiye Madenleri 
(967-1200), Istanbul 1931; Talat Miimtaz Yaman, 
Kiire bakir madenine dair vesikalar. in Tarih 
Vesikalan, 1/4 (1941), 269-270; Serif Beygu, Kigi 
demir madenlerinde yapilan top giillelerinin Av- 
rupa seferleri icin Erzurumdan gonderilmesine ait 
Ufvesika, in Tarih Vesikalan, ii/II (1943) 335-337; 
Fevzi Kurtoglu, Hadim Siileyman Pasamn mektu- 
plart ve Belgradm muhasarasi, in Belleten, iv, An- 
kara 1940, 53-87; Enver Ziya Karal, Selim IH'iin 
Hath Humayunlari. N izam-i Cedit. 1789-1807 (Turk 
Tarih Kurumu Yayinlarindan, vii. Seri, no. 14), 



Ankara 1946, 43-93, passim; I. H. Uzuncarsili, 
Sadrdzam Halil Hamid Pasa, in Tiirkiyat Mec- 
muasi, v (1935), Istanbul 1936, 213-267; I. H. 
Uzuncarsili, Osmanli Devleti teskildtmdan Kapu- 
kulu Ocaklan (Turk Tarih Kurumu Yaymlarmdan, 
viii. Seri, no. 12), Ankara 1943-1944; I. H. Uzun- 
carsili, Ostnanh Devletinin Merkez ve Bahriye 
Teskildti (Turk Tarih Kurumu Yaymlarmdan, 
viii. Seri, no. 16), Ankara 1948; A Siiheyl Onver, 
Dorduncii Sultan Muradm Revan Seferi Krono- 
lojisi (1044-1045 = 1635), in Belleten, xvi, Ankara 
I95 2 , 547-576; Halil Inalcik, Fatih Devri iizerinde 
TetkikUr ve Vesikalar (Turk Tarih Kurumu 
Yaymlarmdan, xi. Seri, no. 6), Ankara 1954; 
Halil Inalcik, (review of D. Ayalon, Gunpowder 
and Firearms in the Mamluk Kingdom, London 
1956), in Belleten, xxi, Ankara 1957, 501-512; 
F. Resit Unat, Sadrazam Kemankes Kara Mu- 
stafa Pasa Layihasi, in Tarih Vesikalari, i/6 
(1942), 457-458; H. Inalcik, Saray Bosna Ser'iye 
SiciUerine gdre Viyana bozgunundan sonrapi 
ha'p yillartnda Bosna, in Tarih Vesikalari, ii/II 
(1943), 376-377; Enver Ziya Karal, Nizam-i Ce- 
dide dair Layihalar, in Tarih Vesikalari. ii/II 
<i943), 350-356 and u/12 (1973), 424-427, 430- 
431; Turgud Isiksal, ///. Selimin Turk topcu- 
luguna ddir bir hatt-t humayunu, in Tarih 
Dergisi, viii/12-12, Istanbul 1956, 179-184: J. 
Redhouse, A Turkish and English Lexicon, 
Constantinople 1890; K. Lokotsch, Etymologisches 
Worterbuch der europdischen W&rter orientalischen 
Ursprungs, Heidelberg 1927, no. 2201 ; E. Blochet, 
Catalogue des Manuscrits Turcs de la Biblio- 
theque Nationale, vol. I. Paris 1932, 270-272 
(Supplement: nos. 224, 226, 227); IA, s 
Cebeci (I. H. Usuncarsili), Ahmed Pasha (Bonneval, 
Humbaraci Basi) and Kumbaraci (M. Cavid 
Baysun); EI*, s.v. Ahmed Pasha Bonneval 
(H. Bowen). (V. J. Parry) 



under the Safawids falls under two heads: artillery 
(generic name, tup), and hand-guns; the latter, used 
by both cavalry and infantry, comprised arquebuses, 
muskets and carbines, all of which were termed, 
without differentiation, tufang. 

According to the traditional account of European 
writers, artillery was introduced into Persia during 
the reign of Shah 'Abbas I by the English soldiers 
of fortune Sir Anthony Sherley and his brother 
Sir Robert Sherley, who arrived in Kazwin 
December 1598. Among Sir Anthony's party of 
26 persons (Sir E. Denison Ross (ed.), Sir Anthony 
Sherley and his Persian Adventure, London 1933, 
13 and n. 3) was "at least one cannon-founder" 
(Browne, iv, 105). Sir Anthony's steward, Abel 
Pincon, states that the Persians at that time had 
no artillery at all (Denison Ross, 163), but his inter- 
preter, Angelo, asserts that Shah 'Abbas "has some 
cannon, having captured many pieces from the 
Tartars; moreover there is no lack of masters 
manufacture new ones, these masters have turned 
against the Turk and have come to serve the 
King of Persia" (Denison Ross, 29). Purchas, 
writing in 1624, claims that such progress was made 
under the guidance of the Sherley brothers that 
"the prevailing Persian hath learned Sherleian 
of war, and he which before knew not the use of 
ordnance, has now 500 pieces of brass" (Denison 
Ross, 21). 

There is abundant evidence, however, in both the 



European and the Persian sources, that the Persians 
were familiar with the use of artillery long before 
the time of 'Abbas I. The Venetian ambassador 
d'Alessandri, who arrived in Persia in 1571, states 
that the Ottoman prince BSyazId, who sought 
refuge with Shah Tahmasp in 966/1559, brought 
with him thirty pieces of artillery (A Narrative cf 
Italian Travels in Persia in the 15th and 16th centuries, 
London 1873, 228). Herbert (A Relation 0/ Some 
Yeares Travaile etc., London 1634, 298) states that 
the Persians "got the use of cannon from the van 
quised Portugal", and Figueroa states that the 
Persian artillery was manipulated by Europeans 
"and particularly by the Portuguese" (Tadhkirat al- 
Muluk, 33). We know that in 955/1548 the Portuguese 
furnished Tahmasp with 10,000 men and 20 cannon 
at the time of the Ottoman sultan Sulayman's 
second invasion of Persia (A Chronicle of the Carme- 
lites, i, 29). Direct evidence that artillery was used 
by the Persian army even earlier than this is found 
in the contemporary Persian chronicle Ahsan al- 
Tawdrikh (ed. C. N. Seddon, Baroda 1931). In the 
Safawid army which laid siege to Damghan in 935/ 
1528-9 there was a certain Ustad (i.e., "master" 
[of his craft]) Shaykhi the gunner (tupii) (AT, 211). 
In a pitched battle with the Ozbegs near Mashhad, 
later the same year, Tahmasp stationed in front of 
his army the wagons containing the darbzan (pro- 
bably a type of light cannon, cf. the Mamluk term 
darbzdna; see D. Ayalon, Gunpowder and Firearms 
in the Mamluk Kingdom, London 1956, 127, n. 220) 
and (tup-i) farangi (AT, 214); the gunners and 
musketeers (tuptiyan wa tufangliyan) were, however, 
unable to use their guns because the Ozbegs did not 
approac'.i from the front (AT, 217). In 945/1538-9 
the besieging Safawid forces destroyed the towers 
(burdj) of the fort of Bikrid in Shirwan by artillery 
fire (AT, 287). In 946/1539-40 we hear for the first 
time of a tupll-bishi (commander-in-chief of artillery), 
in an action against Amlra Kubad, the rebel governor 
of Astara (AT, 293). From this time onwards artillery 
was frequently used by the Safawids in siege warfare, 
for instance at Gulistan and Darband (954/1547-8) 
(AT, 321-2). At the siege of KIsh near Shakki in 
958/1551-2 the Safawids used "Frankish cannon" 
(tup-i farangi), and in addition a type of cannon 
called badlidj (cf. P. Horn, Das Heer- und Kriegs- 
wesen des Grossmoghuls, Leiden 1894, 29), and mot- 
tars (kazkdn), which are mentioned for the first time; 
the towers of the fort were destroyed after twenty 
days' bombardment (AT, 350). 

It is clear, therefore, that the claim that the 
Sherleys introduced artillery into Persia is entirely 
without foundation. In fact, artillery was in regular 
use at least as early as 935/1528-9, that is, within 
a few years of the accession of Shah Tahmasp, and 
fifteen years after the Safawid defeat at Caldiran 
[q.v.], a defeat for which the Ottoman artillery was 
largely responsible. It must be emphasised, however, 
that even before Caldiran, the Safawids were familiar 
with the use of artillery, and that consequently the 
Safawid lack of artillery at Caldiran can only be 
attributed to a deliberate policy not to develop the 
use of firearms in the Persian army. The Persians 
had an innate dislike of firearms, the use of which 
they considered unmanly and cowardly (Nasr Allah 
Falsafi, DJang-i Caldiran, in MadjaUa-yi Ddnishkada- 
yi Adabiyyat-i Tihrdn, i/2, 1953-4, 93), and in 
particular they disliked artillery, because it hampered 
the swift manoeuvres of their cavalry (Tadhkirat al- 
Muluk, 33). It is remarkable that, although we have 
frequent instances of the use of artillery in siege 



warfare, little attempt seems to have been made to 
emulate the Ottomans in the use of artillery in the 
field. At the battle of Mashhad in 935/1528-9 (see 
above), the one occasion on which the sources 
specifically record the use of artillery in the field by 
Tahmasp, its immobility rendered it ineffective, 
and we hear no more of field artillery until the time 
of Shah 'Abbas I. Even under the latter, however, 
the use of artillery was still mainly confined to siege 
warfare (Nasr Allah Falsafl, Zindigdni-yi Shdh 
'Abbds-i Awwal, ii, Tehran 1334 solar/1955, 403). 

It seems that in the use of artillery, as in much 
else, the Safawids were the heirs of the Ak Koyunlu. 
Long before the establishment of the Safawid state, 
the Ak Koyunlu rulers of Diyar Bakr and Adhar- 
baydjan had sought to equip their armies with 
artillery: the Venetians sent Uzun Hasan (d. 882/ 
1478) "100 artillerymen of experience and capacity, 
who were immediately sent on to Persia, for in the 
matter of their artillery the Persian armies suffered 
greatly from a paucity of cannon, while on the other 
hand the Turkish armies in Asia were very well 
equipped in this arm, and they could effect much 
damage in their attack" (Don Juan of Persia, ed. 
trans. G. Le Strange, London 1926, 98). When a 
Safawid force of 10,000 men under Muhammad Beg 
Ustadjlu laid siege to Hisn Kayfa in Diyar Bakr 
about the year 913/1507-8, they made use of "a 
mortar of bronze, of four spans, which they brought 
from Mirdin (Mardin) .... This mortar was cast in 
that country at the time of Jacob Sultan (Ya'kub 
Sultan Ak Koyunlu, d. 896/1490), and by his 
orders .... and Custagialu (Muhammad Beg 
Ustadjlu) also had another larger one cast by a 
young Armenian, who cast >t in the Turkish manner 
— all in one piece. The breech was half the length 
of the whole piece, and the mortar was five spans in 
bore at the muzzle" (A Narrative of Italian Travels 
in Persia, 153). About the same time (probably in 
912/1506-7) Isma'il sent a force of 10,000 men under 
Bayram Beg (Karamanlu?) to lay siege to Wan. 
Bayram Beg, "having two moderate-sized cannons 
in his camp, began to batter the castle ; but they were 
able to do no harm, as the walls were too strong and 
the gunners too little skilled". After besieging the 
castle for three months, however, the artillerymen 
succeeded in destroying the source of the defenders' 
water supply, and the castle was thus at their mercy 
{A Narrative of Italian Travels in Persia, 161-3). 
In 916/1510 Isma'il is said to have captured four 
cannon from the Ozbegs after his great victory at 
Marw (Djamil Kuzanlu, Tdrikh-i Nizdmi-yi Iran, 
vol. i, Tehran 1315 solar/1936, 372; no authority is 
quoted for this statement). It seems, therefore, from 
the evidence available, that although the Safawids 
used cannon in siege warfare during the first decade 
of the reign of Isma'il I, the number of guns available 
was small, and the gunners were as yet inexperienced. 

Sir Anthony Sherley has also been given the credit 
for the formation of a corps of musketeers by 
Shah 'Abbas I. In a letter dated 22 April 1619, the 
traveller Pietro della Valle says that the corps was 
created by Shah 'Abbas "a few years ago" on the 
advice of Sir Anthony Sherley (Tadhkirat al-Muliik, 
31). Sir Anthony's interpreter Angelo, however, 
stated in Rome on 28 November 1599 that Shah 
'Abbas could provide horses for 100,000 men, who 
were armed with bows, arrows and scimitars, and 
that in addition he had 50,000 arquebusiers ; "at 
one time the King did not use arquebusiers, but 
now he delights in them" (Denison Ross, 29). Sir 
Anthony's party left Isfahan about the beginning 



OD io67 

of May 1599 (see Denison Ross, 22), and it seems 
unlikely that a corps of 50,000 men could have been 
organised during the five months which Sir Anthony 
spent in the Persian capital. Of the various members 
of Sir Anthony's party who have left a record of 
their travels, not one claims that Sir Anthony was 
responsible for the formation of this corps, and Sir 
Anthony himself, in his own account of his journey 
to Persia, states (with reference to Shah 'Abbas's 
victory over the Ozbegs in Khurasan on 9 Muharram 
1007/12 August 1598) that "thirty thousand men 
the King tooke with him for that warre, twelve 
thousand Harquebusiers which bare long pieces, 
halfe a foote longer than our muskets, sleightly made 

which they use well and certainely" (Purchas 

His Pilgrimes, viii, London 1905, 409-10). 

Apart from Sir Anthony's own testimony to the 
existence of a large and efficient body of musketeers 
in the Persian army before his arrival in Persia, 
there is conclusive evidence, again in both the 
European and the Persian sources, that Persian 
troops were equipped with hand-guns and skilled 
in their use long before the time of 'Abbas I. One of 
Sir Anthony's companions, Manwaring, explicitly 
states that the Persians were already "very expert 
in their pieces or muskets; for although there are 
some which have written now of late that they had 
not the use of pieces until our coming into the country, 
this much must I write to their praise, that I did 
never see better barrels of muskets than I did see 
there; and the King hath, hard by his court at 
Aspahane, above two hundred men at work, only 
making of pieces, bows and arrows, swords and 
targets" (Denison Ross, 222). Even earlier (c. 1571) 
is the valuable account of d'Alessandri: "they use 
for arms swords, lances, arquebuses, which all the 
soldiers can use; their arms also are superior and 
better tempered than "those of any other nation. 
The barrels of the arquebuses are generally six 
spans long (A Chronicle of the Carmelites in Persia, 
London 1939, i, 53, gives "7 palms" = 1.75 m.; 
incidentally this version of the text contains an 
obvious mistranslation), and carry a ball a little less 
than three ounces in weight. They use them with 
such facility, that it does not hinder them drawing 
their bows nor handling their swords, keeping the 
latter hung at their saddle-bows till occasion 
requires them. The arquebus then is put away 
behind the back, so that one weapon does not impede 
the use of another" [A Narrative of Italian Travels in 
Persia, 227). Herbert {op. cit., 298) states that the 
Persians had used muskets "since the Portugals 
assisted King Tahamas with some Christian auxili- 
aries against the Turk (probably in 955/1548) so 
as now {i.e., in 1627) they are become very good 
shots". In the contemporary Persian chronicle 
Ahsan al-Tawdrikh, however, there is direct evidence 
that hand-guns (tufang) were in use in the Persian 
army even before the death of Isma'il I: in 927/ 
1520-1 a detachment of the Safawid garrison at 
Harat drove off the troops of 'Ubayd Kh&n Ozbeg 
with arrows and hand-guns {tir u tufang) (AT, 171). 
This is the first reference to hand-guns in this 
chronicle, and from then on they are mentioned 
frequently. In 930/1523-4, the year of Shah Ismail's 
death and Shah Tahmasp's accession, infantry 
armed with hand-guns (piyadagan-i tufang-andaz) 
constituted part of the Safawid garrison at Harat, and 
reference is made to two successful actions against 
the Ozbegs in which hand-guns were employed 
(AT, 186). In 934/1527-8, when Harat was besieged 
for four months by the Ozbegs, the Ozbeg amir al- 



1068 



umard Yari Be3 was killed by a shot fired from 
a hand-gun by one of the defenders (AT, 206). In 
935/i5 2 8-9 Tahmasp himself led an army to Khurasan 
against the Ozbegs, and laid siege to Damghan; his 
forces included a group of Rumlu tufanglis (AT, 
212). A few months later, the Ozbegs laid siege to 
Mashhad; musketeers (tufangliydn) formed part of 
the Safawid garrison (AT, 221). While the Ahsan 
al-Tawdrikh thus affords positive evidence of the 
use of muskets in the Persian army as early as 
927/1520-1, there is a strong indication in A Narrative 
of Italian Travels in Persia that they were in fact in 
use even before the battle of Caldiran. In the descript- 
ion of the siege of Hisn Kayfa by Safawid forces 
about the year 913/1507-8, there is a reference to 
"guns" which, in the context, can only mean "hand- 
guns", and we are also told that the defenders 
possessed three or four muskets of the shape of 
"Azemi", i.e., of ^Adjami or Persian design; these 
muskets had a small barrel and, with the aid of 
"a contrivance locked on to the stock about the 
size of a good arquebuse", had a good range (op. 
cit., 153). 

It is clear, therefore, that the claim that the 
Sherleys initiated the formation of a corps of 
musketeers, if it has any historical foundation at 
all, can only be true in the sense that Shah 'Abbas 
was the first to create a regular corps of musketeers, 
which formed part of a standing army paid from the 
khdssa revenue, as opposed to the units in existence 
under Isma'U I and Tahmasp, which, like the rest 
of the Persian army at that time, were probably 
raised on a tribal basis and paid from the revenue 
of the diwdn-i mamdlik. There is no doubt, however, 
that the practical advice of the Sherleys was of 
great benefit to Shah 'Abbas, who held Sir Robert 
Sherley in such esteem that, after Sir Anthony's 
departure, he appointed him "Master General 
against the Turks" (G. N. Curzon, Persia and the 
Persian Question, London 1892, i, 574). In addition 
to the corps of musketeers (tufangciydn) , 12,000 
strong (Chardin, Voyages du Chevalier Chardin en 
Perse, ed. Langles, Paris 1811, v, 305), who were 
intended to be infantry but were gradually provided 
with horses, Shah 'Abbas created two other corps 
to form part of the new standing army, namely, 
the artillery (tupfiydn), also 12,000 strong (Chardin, 
v, 312-3), and the "slaves" (kullar, ghuldmdn-i 
khdssa-yi sharifa), a cavalry regiment recruited from 
Georgia and Circassia, armed inter alia with muskets, 
and numbering 10-15,000 (Tadhkirat al-Muliik, 33). 
The Safawid army was at its strongest under Shah 
'Abbas I; its numbers declined under his successor 
SafI (d. 1052/1642) and were reduced still further 
by 'Abbas II (d. 1077/1666), who took the extra- 
ordinary step of abolishing the corps of artillery; 
when the tupii-bdshi Husayn Kuli Khan died in 
1655, no successor was appointed (Chardin, v, 312- 
313), and artillery does not seem to have reappeared 
on the scene until the reign of Shah Sultan Husayn 
(1105-1135/1694-1722) (Tadhkirat al-Muliik, 33). At 
the battle of Gulnabad against the Afghans (8 March 
1722), the Persians had 24 cannon, under the 
command of the tupti-bdshi Ahmad Khan and 
under the supervision of a French master gunner 
named Philippe Colombe (L. Lockhart, The Fall of 
the Safavi dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of 
Persia, London 1958, 135, who quotes Krusinski's 
scathing remarks on the incompetence of the tupli- 
bashi) ; the artillery was overrun by the Afghan 
advance, and both the tupCi-bdshi and Philippe 
Colombe lost their lives (ibid., 142). It is not too 



much to say that the Safawids never really made 
any effective use of artillery in the field. 

Bibliography : in the text. (R. M. Savorv) 



Naphtha (naft) was used by the Muslims in India 
by Muhammad b. Kasim in 93/711 against Radja 
Dahir. Tir-i dtishin (fiery-arrows) were the simplest 
fire missile used by the Muslim Indian rulers in the 
early part of the 7th/i3th century. The department 
of dtish-bdzi (fireworks) was placed under the Mir 
Atish. Firishta's statement that Sultan Mahmud of 
Ghazna employed tup "cannon" and tufang "mus- 
kets" against Anand Pal near Peshawar in 399/1008 
is an obvious anachronism. It may, however, refer 
to his use of a missile carrying naphtha (kdriira-i 
naft) — a weapon mentioned by Firishta in another 
place regarding Sultan Mahmud's campaign in India. 
Saltpetre, an important ingredient of gunpowder, 
is commonly found in India. The word kushk-andjir 
mentioned in the 13th century MSS., Addb al- 
Muliik (f. 118 b) and Tddi al-Ma'dthir (f. 3a), needs 
a minute examination. The Farhang-i Sharaf-ndma-i 
Ahmad Munydri (compiled in 875/1470) gives its 
meaning as: "a perforator, or an instrument for 
throwing stones or a gola (ball) projected by the 
expansive force of combustible substances". Stein- 
gass explains it as a cannon or cannon ball. According 
to the Bdhdr-i *-Ad±am, it is an instrument of war 
worked with gunpowder. From this it would seem that 
a machine which discharged balls by some explosive 
force was used in India by 628/1230. Sang-i Maghribi 
"Western stone", mentioned by both BaranI and 
Amir Khusraw as being used under 'Ala' al-DIn 
Khaldii (695-715/1296-1316) can not be taken as 
denoting "gun". This new implement was borrowed 
from Spain and North Africa — countries which were 
called in Arabic "the West". Generally the besiegers 
employed this machine to bombard a fort. How the 
stones were thrown is not clearly stated, but this 
much is certain, that the stone balls were discharged 
by the force generated by gunpowder. 

It is very difficult to discover the real nature of 
fire-arms used in the 7th/i3th or the beginning of 
the 8th/i4th century in India, as the term dtish-bdzl 
(fireworks) is applied to pyrotechnic displays as well 
to artillery, thus rendering the meaning of the 
passages ambiguous. However tup and tufang are 
mentioned as being in frequent use from the middle 
of the 8th/i4th century. When Sultan Mahmud 
fought against Tlmur at Delhi in 800/1398, the 
former's elephants carried howdahs in which were 
ra'd-anddz "throwers of grenades" and takhsh- 
anddz "throwers of rockets". Artillery was improved 
under the Lodis (855-932/1451-1526). Ibrahim Lodi 
employed tup and darbzan "mortars" against Babur 
at the battle of Panipat in 932/1526. 

In the latter half of the 8th/i4th and beginning of 
the 9th/i5th century, the use of cannon became very 
common in the Deccan. The chief reason was that 
the Deccan States were in contact by sea with 
Arabia, Iran and Turkey, from which they received 
artillery and engineers. Firishta records that Sultan 
Mahmud Shah Bahmani installed a firearms factory 
in 767/1365; he was the first of the Muslim rulers 
of the Deccan to do so. Sultan Mahmud Baykara 
with the help of his Turkish gunners sank with his 
guns a large Portuguese ship at Diu in 915/1509. 
Bahadur Shah of Gudjarat excelled his contempo- 
raries in artillery; his master gunner, RumI Khan, 
cast many cannon. One of the reasons for Bahadur's 
success against the Portuguese was his superior 



artillery. All these facts show that cannon were used 
in India long before Babur employed them at Panipat 
in 932/1526. 

The Mughals paid much attention to the art of 
artillery. Babur had a limited number of heavy 
guns at Panipat. He uses the words degh, firingl and 
tfarbzan, but does not mention their number. He used 
his artillery "chained together according to the 
custom of Rum with twisted bull-hides". Babur's 
gun could be discharged eight to sixteen times a day 
only arid after improvement could cover a range of 
1600 strikes. Rockets became common in India 
after 947/1540. The barrels of Akbar's (963-1014/ 
1556-1605) matchlocks were of two lengths, 66 ins. 
and 41 ins. They were made of rolled strips of steel 
with the two edges welded together. The longer of 
the two weapons could only be used by a man on 
foot. The flintlock was little known to the Mughals. 
The artillery was much improved, and was more 
numerous, in Awrangzib's reign (1068-1118/1658- 
1707). Besides Indians, Turks, Arabs and Portuguese, 
the Dutch were also employed by Awrangzib. There 
was one Dutch artillery engineer who served Awrang- 
zib for sixteen years and went home in 1077/1667. 
Heavy field guns were used both by the Mughals 
and the Deccanis. The haft gazi in Bidar was con- 
structed in 977/i57o. It measures 31 ft. in length. The 
malik-i may dan "king of the battlefield" was built 
in 957/1549 by BurhSn Nizam Shah. The metal is 
an alloy of 80,427 parts of copper to 19,573 parts 
of tin. It weighs 400 maunds and the bore is so wide 
that a man can sit and move about in it easily. The 
weight of its iron shot is ten maunds (Akbar's scale). 
The (tal'a-kushd, used by Dara in 1068/1658 at 
Samugdrh, was made of 80% tin and measured 
25 ft. in length. During the contest for the throne 
between the sons of Bahadur Shah in 1123/1712, 
three large guns were removed from the fort of 
Lahore, each being dragged by 250 oxen aided by 
five or six elephants, and it took ten days to reach 
the camp although it was not more than three or 
four miles distance. 

Tupkhdna-i Zerah or tdpkhdna-i Diambishi was 
light or mobile artillery. The gadpidl or hatkndl was 
fired from the back of an elephant. Shutarndl or 
Shdhln denotes the same weapon, a swivel-gun. 
According to Barani, the zamburak was "a small 
field-gun of the size of a double musket". It threw 
a ball of two or three pounds. The dhamdkah and 
zahkdla were light field-guns. The arghun was com- 
posed of about thirty-six barrels so joined as to fire 
simultaneously. Revolvers with four chambers were 
only in the possession of the nobles. 

Bibliography: Fakhr-i Muddabir, Addb al- 
Muluk, Ind. Office Lib. 647; 'All b. Hamid, 
Chach-ndma, B.M. Or. 1787; Hasan Nizaml, Tddj 
al-Ma'dthir, SOAS London MS 18967; Amir 
Khusraw, Khazd'in al-Futuh, c Aligarh 1927; 
Barani, Ta'rikh-i Firuz-Shdhi, Bibl. Ind., Calcutta 
1862; C A1I Yazdl, Zafar-ndma, B.M. Add. 25024; 
?ahlr al-Din Babur, Tuzak-i Bdburi, B.M. Add. 
24416; Abu '1-FadI, Akbar-ndma, Vol. ii, Calcutta 
1879; Firishta, Ind. Office Lib. 1251; c Abd al- 
Hamid Lahawri, Bddshdh-nama, Calcutta 1867-68; 
Muhammad SakI, Mahathir A ^Alamgiri, Bibl. Ind. 
1871; Sir Henry Eliot, Bibliographical Index to 
the Histories of Muhammadan India, Vol. i, 
Calcutta 1849, 340-58; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 
nth ed. (G.), 4; W. Irvine, The Army of the Indian 
Moghuls, London 1903, 113-50; Journal of Indian 
History, 1937, 185-88; IC, Vol. xii/1938, 405-18. 
(Yar Muhammad Khan) 



al-BARUDI 1069 

al-BArCDI, Mahmud Sami, Egyptian and 
statesman, born 27 Radjab 1255/6 October 1839, 
died in Cairo in 1332/1904; his genealogy went back 
to Nawruz al-Atabakl al-Malakl al-Ashrafl, brother 
of Barsbay (d. 841-1438). "Al-Barudl" is the nisba 
of a small town in the province of Lower Egypt: 
al-Bahlra, called Itay al-Barud. He lost his father, 
then an official in the Dongola, at the age of seven. 
After completing his primary studies, he entered, 
in 1267/1851, the Cairo Military Training School, 
during the reign of the Viceroy c Abbas I (1848-1854), 
and left it in 1271/1855 with the rank of bdshdidwish 
(quartermaster-sergeant), at the beginning of the 
reign of Sa'id I (1854-1863). 

His taste for poetry developed from this time 
onwards; his reading and personal researches, his 
contacts with the men of letters and poets of the 
period, made him, despite his military duties in his 
capacity as an officer which took up most of his time, 
one of the leaders of the literary renaissance in Egypt. 
A return to the true sources of poetry, that is to 
say to the great poets of the djdhiliyya and parti- 
cularly of the 'Abbasid period, seemed to him 
essential; but he wished also to belong to his own 
epoch, . and for this reason he took advantage of 
every opportunity to broaden his knowledge in all 
fields of literature, to begin with, Turkish and 
Persian, and later, French and English. He lived for 
some time in Constantinople, with the title of 
Secretary for Egyptian Foreign Affairs. At the time 
of the visit of the Viceroy Isma c il to the Ottoman 
capital, he brought himself to the notice of the new 
viceroy who had just succeeded Sa'Id (1279/1863): 
al-Barudl thereupon joined the military establish- 
ment of the Egyptian sovereign. Promoted binbdshi 
(battalion-commander) in Muharram 1280/July 1863, 
he assumed command of the Viceregal Guard. He was 
a member of the military mission sent by Egypt to 
Camp de Chalons, in France, and thence to London. 
On his return in 1281/1864, he was promoted hdHm- 
makdm (lieutenant-colonel) of the 3rd regiment of the 
Guard and, shortly afterwards, amir-dldy (colonel) 
of the 4th regiment of the same Guard. 

He took part in the war in Crete in 1282/1865, 
and his services won him the Turkish decoration 
Wisdm '■Uthmdni, 4th class. Isma'Il, who since 
1283/1866 had been Khedive, kept al-Barudl at the 
head of his Guard, and later appointed him private 
secretary and sent him to Constantinople, during the 
Serbo-Bulgarian war, to perform various diplomatic 
missions. At the time of the Russian war in 1294/ 
1877, al-Barudl proved himself a brilliant and 
courageous officer, and as a result was promoted 
amir al-liwd? (brigadier-general). From 1296/1879 
to 1882, al-Barudl busied himself with the reorgani- 
sation of the Egyptian General Staff, under the 
Khedive Tawfik who had succeeded Ismail in 
1296/ 1879. Meanwhile, appointed Minister of 
Wakfs, he tried to clear up the position regarding 
property in mortmain, and used the sums thus 
recovered for the construction of public works: 
mosques and dwellings; he began the construction 
of the Khedivial Library, and proposed the creation 
of a Museum of the Fine Arts. 

Promoted farik (lieutenant-general), and decorated 
with the Nishdn Madjidl, he became, in 1298/1881, 
Minister of War as well as Minister of Wakfs, 
and thus found himself constrained to participate 
in the nationalist movement then in its infancy, 
and to intervene in the serious conflict between the 
locally recruited Egyptian army and the Turko- 
Circassian officers. From then on, al-Barudl found 






l-BARODI — al-BARONI 



himself involved, either as a spectator or as an 
active participant, in what is known as Thawrat 
'Ar&bl Pasha or al-Thawra al-'Arabiyya, "the 
Revolt of c Arabi Pasha" (the name is also pronounced 
<Urabi). Summary of events: fall of the minister 
Sharif Pasha; formation of al-Barudi's Cabinet; 
proclamation of the Constitution of 1200/1882; 
bombardment of Alexandria by the British fleet; 
landing of the British army ; defeat of 'Arab! Pasha 
at Tell-al-Kebir (near Cairo); occupation of Egypt 
by Britain ; exile of the leaders or promoters of the 
"Revolt", among whom were al-Barudi, c ArabI 
Pasha and Shaykh c Abduh. 

For seventeen years, from the end of 1882 until 
the beginning of 1900, al-Barudi was obliged to 
reside in the island of Ceylon. He profited by 
his enforced leisure to study English, to devote 
himself to teaching his compatriots and co-religi- 
onists, and above all to take up again his favourite 
studies in Arabic poetry and to give his inspiration 
free rein to compose the major poems of his diwdn. 

When he returned to Egypt after having been 
pardoned by the Decree of 18 Muharram 1318/18 May 
1900, he had amassed numerous poems selected with 
discrimination from the collections and diwdns of the 
'Abbasid period, and which, arranged in categories, 
constituted the most representative anthology of 
muwaUad or muhdath ("modern") poets. These 
categories are as follows: 1. A dab (moral or ethical); 
2. Madih (panegyric); 3. Rithd* (threnody); 4. Si/dt 
(descriptive); 5. Nasib (erotic); 6. Hidja? (satire); 
7. Zuhd (renouncement of the world). The poets 
quoted, arranged in chronological order, are thirty 
in number, and the total verses quoted under each 
of the above headings are respectively: 1,697, 24,185, 
3.400, 3,393, 4,616, 1,229 and 473, making a grand 
total of 39,593 verses. The number of verses of the 
madih category is particularly remarkable. More 
important, it seems to me, is the importance attri- 
buted to certain poets. Ibn al-Rumi and al-Buhturi 
lead the field with 3,732 and 3,397 verses. Two 
poets have between 2,500 and 3,000 verses: Sibt 
Ibn al-Ta c awidi and al-Sharif al-Radl; four between 
2,000 and 2,500 verses: al-Arradjanl, Abu Tanimam, 
al-Mutanabbi and al-Sari al-Raffa 1 (al-Mutanabbl 
is therefore placed seventh); two between 1,500 and 
2,000 verses: Ibn Nubata al-Misri and Mihyar al- 
Daylami; five, between 1,000 and 1,500 verses: al- 
Abiwardl, al-Ghazzi, Ibn Hayyus, Abu 'l- c Ala 3 al- 
Ma'arri, Surradurr; eight, between 500 and 1,000 
verses: al-Tughra 5 !, Abu Nuwas, c Umara al-Yamanl, 
al-Tihaml, Ibn Hani 5 al-Andalusi, Ibn Sinan al- 
Khafadji, Ibn al-Mu'tazz and Ibn al-Khavvat: 
and, finally, seven, between 90 and 500 verses: 
Abu Firas al-Hamdani, Muslim b. al-Walid, Abu 
'l- c Atahiya, Ibn c Unayn, al- c Abbas b. al-Ahnaf, 
Bashshar b. Burd and Ibn al-Zayyat. 

The Mukhtdrdt of al-Barudi did not appear in any 
bookseller's before the death of the author, but were 
published in Cairo in four volumes, two in 1327/1909 
and two in 1329/1911, through the efforts of the 
scholar Yakut al-MursI. 

Al-Barudi's diwdn, which similarly did not appear 
until after his death, was first published, thanks to 
the scholar and commentator Mahmud al-Imam 
al-Mansuri, in three volumes in two (poems with 
rhymes hamza to lam), n.d., 536 and 631 pages, and 
was published a second time in 1940 with a preface 
by M. H- Haykal and a commentary by C A1I al- 
Djarim and Muhammad Shaflk Ma c ruf; it reveals 
the same eclecticism. Occasional pieces are numerous ; 
accurate descriptions of places enable one to follow 



the poet-statesman through its various Stages; some 
of the poems composed at Colombo (Ceylon) are 
particularly moving. It is not possible, within the 
limits of this article, to go into the detail which would 
be required by a more profound critical appreciation 
of the subject matter, not to mention the form, of 
his poems. Let it suffice to say that al-Barudi 
attained an undisputed mastery of poetic language 
in its purest classical form; vocabulary, figures of 
speech, stylistic devices, held no secrets for him. 
He did not seek to make innovations in the pattern 
of the kasida or in the poetic metres (there is a rare 
exception in the diwdn, i, 63-4), and remained faithful 
to his models. His admiration for the passed led him 
to imitate several famous poems, with resounding 
success. For example, his imitation of the Bur da 
of al-Busiri, using the same metre {basif) and the 
same rhyme (mi), under the title of Kashf al- 
Ghumma /» Madfi Sayyid al-Umma (Cairo 1327/1909, 
8vo, 48 pages, 447 verses, whereas the Burda only 
contains 172). The themes used in his diwdn, 
however, are very modern and, in this respect, al- 
Barudi is justly considered to be one of the mast 
effective pioneers of the renaissance of contemporary 
Arabic poetry. 

Bibliography: The reader is referred to the 
very full references given by J. A. Dagher, in his 
Masddir al-Dirdsa al-Adabiyya, ii/i: al-Rdhtil&n 
(1800-1955), Beirut 1956, 159-162. To these should 
be added, with regard to the Thawra '■Arabiyya, 
the following two works which give all necessary 
documentation: M. Sabry, La genise de V esprit 
national igyptien (1863-1882), Paris 1924, and 
Osman Amin, Muhammad 'Abduh. Essai sur ses 
idies philosophiques et religieuses, Cairo 1944- — 
Cf. also the notice in Brockelmann S III, 7-18. 

(H. PtHfes) 
BARCDJIRD (or BuRuajiRD), a town in the 
Vlth ustdn (Luristan) of Persia, situated on the 
road connecting Hamadan with Ahwaz via Khur- 
ramabad; it is the seat of a farmdnddr (deputy 
governor). The population is 47,000. 

The town stands on an extensive and well- 
cultivated plain that is bounded on the west by the 
Zagros mountains. The climate is temperate ia 
summer, but cold in winter. There are some 900 
shops most of which are in the two large bazaars. 
The Masdjid-i Djami 1 (cathedral mosque) dates 
from the Mongol period. 

It was at Barudjird that the Saldjuk prince 
Barkyaruk [q.v.] in 485/1093 defeated the forces of 
his mother Turkan Khatun who, after her husband 
Malikshah's death, had espoused the cause of her 
younger son Mahmud. 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 288, 289; de Bode, 

Travels in Luristan and Arabistan, ii, 302-7; 

A. H. Layard, Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana 

and Babylonia, London 1887, i, 288-91: Mrs. 

Bishop, Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, London 

1891, ii, 130-2; Sartip Razmara and Sartip 

Nawtash, Farhang-i Qiughrdfiyd-yi Iran, Tehran 

1330 solar 1951, vi, 47. (L. Lockhart) 

al-BArGnI, Sulayman, contemporary Tripoli- 

tanian IbadI scholar and politician, who 

inspired the Arabs of his country in their struggle 

against Italy. He belonged to an old and influential 

Berber family of the Djabal Nafusa (with branches 

at Djado, Kabao and Djerba, where there is a private 

bdruniyya library) and was the son of c Abd Allah 

al-Barunl, the theologian, jurist and poet, who 

taught at the zawiya of al-Bakhabkha. near Yefren. 

Sulayman was suspected by the Ottoman govern- 



l-BArCNI — BARZAKH 



ment of nurturing separatist ideas and plotting the 
founding of an Ibadite imamate. Proceedings were 
instituted against him, but the sentences pronounced 
were not fully executed because of the disturbances 
which they provoked, especially in the Djabal. 
Finally he was granted an amnesty, but upon the 
Ottoman authorities requesting him to present 
himself in Constantinople, he fled to Cairo. 

A man of unusual culture (having studied at 
Tunis, al-Azhar and in the Mzab), he founded a 
printing office, which had the outstanding merit of 
disseminating several old IbadI works. He also 
founded a newspaper, which however only enjoyed 
an ephemeral life, its circulation in the Ottoman 
provinces, Tunisia, and Algeria, being prohibited. 

After the promulgation in Turkey of the consti- 
tution following the Young Turks' revolution, 
Sulayman al-Barunl was elected deputy in the 
liwd' of the Djabal and called to Constantinople; 
thereupon he learnt Turkish in two months of 

When Italy's designs on Libya became evident, 
al-Barunl endevoured to obtain consignments of 
arms from his government. After the Italian landing 
at Tripoli (nth October 1911), he was one of the 
most active promoters of the Arab resistance, which 
made Turkey decide to stand firm, and which 
continued even after the signing of the Turco- 
Italian Peace Treaty at Ouchy (or Lausanne, 18th 
October 1912). In the western Djabal sector, where 
al-Barunl was conducting operations and was aiming 
at the formation of a Berber amlrate, the issue was 
decided at the battle of al-Asabi c a (el-Asab c a) on 
the 23rd March 1913. Upon his return to Constan- 
tinople, al-Barunl was appointed senator, receiving 
the title of pasha. 

When Turkey entered the war on the side of the 
Central Powers (1914), al-Barunl was sent to Solium 
(October 1914) with the brother of Enver Pasha, 
Nuri Bey, to induce the leader of the Sanusis, 
Ahmad al-Sharif, to attack the British from the 
West. His mission failed; the plot to force the 
Sanusi's hand was discovered and al-Barunl arrested. 
Nevertheless he managed to escape (January 1915). 
He resumed his role as an opponent of Italy, when 
the latter entered the war. However it was not 
until the end of 1916, when Turkey had appointed 
him Governor-General and Commander of Tripoli 
and its dependencies, that he landed at Misurata 
from a submarine. The Italians were in a precarious 
situation, having entrenched themselves at Tripoli, 
Horns (al-Khums) and Zuara, but the Arabs also 
were in a state of complete confusion. Their leaders 
had divergent aims and the tribes were fighting 
amongst themselves; al-Barunl restored harmony. 
Nevertheless, he soon lost his pre-eminence; after 
proceeding to western Tripolitania, he was there 
defeated by the Italians (16th and 17th January 
1917). At the end of the same month of January, 
the Turks replaced him by a military man, the 
Nuri Pasha referred to above. In November 1918, 
that is to say after the signing of the Armistice 
between Turkey and the Allies, the nationalists, 
under the influence of the Wilsonian principles, 
established the Tripolitanian Republic (al-Qium- 
huriyya al-Tardbulusiyya) in Tripolitania, to which 
Italy later granted (1st June 1919) the Tripoli- 
tanian Statute. Two movements then manifested 
themselves, one aimed at an agreement with Italy 
which would have meant complete independence, 
and the other, represented especially by the Berbers, 
favourable to collaboration with Italy by the appli- 



cation of the Statute. Al-Barunl, who supported the 
latter course, gave his support to the Italian 
government, though his ultimate aim still remained 
the formation of a Berber amlrate in the Western 
Djabal with access to the sea. The first policy was 
adopted at a gathering at Garian (November 1920), 
where the formation of an amlrate, naturally Arab, 
was demanded in Tripolitania (the idea of uniting 
Tripolitania and Cyrenaica matured later — end of 
1921 — and was given substance by the offer of the 
office of amir to Idris al-Sanusi [spring of 1922]). 
The Berbers, seeking Italian support and accused 
by the Arabs of being heretics because of then- 
position as Ibadi, were expelled from the Western 
Djabal by force and compelled to seek refuge on the 
coast (July 1921). Thus their dreams of independence 
or autonomy vanished. 

Banished from Tripolitania (22nd December 1921) 
because of his equivocal attitude, al-Baruni, after 
spending some time in Europe and the Hidjaz, went 
to Maskat as the guest of the sultan Sa c Id b. Taymur. 
Thence he moved to the interior of c Uman to 
Muhammad b. c Abd Allah al-Khalfli, imam of the 
little Ibadite state (capital Nazwa) which survived 
until recent times [see nazwa] in the Djabal al- 
Akhdar, and there received the title of minister and 
was entrusted with the task of reorganising the 
State. Subsequently he returned to Maskat where, 
in 1938, he was appointed adviser to the Sultan with 
wide powers. He died in Bombay (not Maskat: see 
OM, 1940, 326) in 1940. 

Of his work entitled Al-Azhdr al-Riyddiyya ft 

A'imma wa Muluk al-Ibddiyya, only the second 

volume has been published (Cairo, n.d., [1906-7].) 

Bibliography: R. Rapex, L'affermazione delta 

sovranitd italiana in Tripolitania, Tientsin 1937, 

index; L. Veccia Vaglieri, La partecipazione di 

Suleiman al-Baruni alia guerra di Libia in L'OUre- 

mare, vii, no. 2, Feb. 1934, 70-75; OM, vi, 1926, 

544, xiv, 1934, 392-396, xviii, 1938, 563, xx, 1940, 

326. For a fuller bibliography on events in Libya, 

see R. Ciasca, Storia coloniale deW Italia contem- 

poranea 1 , Milan 1940; Abu 3 1-Kasim al-Baruni, 

Hay at Sulayman, Bdshd al-Baruni' a. p., 1367- 

1948. (L. Veccia Vaglieri) 

BARZAKH a Persian and Arabic word meaning 

"obstacle" "hindrance" "separation" (perhaps 

identical with Persian farsakh [q.v.], a measure of 

distance). It is found three times in the Kur'an 

(xxiii, 102; xxv, 55 and lv, 20) and is interpreted 

sometimes in a moral and sometimes in a concrete 

sense. In verse 100 of Sura xxiii the godless beg 

to be allowed to return to earth to accomplish 

the good they have left undone during their lives; 

but there is a barzakh in front of them barring the 

way. Zamakhshari here explains the word by hdHl, 

an obstacle, and interprets it in a moral sense: a 

prohibition by God. Other commentators take the 

word more in a physical sence; the barzakh is a 

barrier between hell and paradise or else the 

grave which lies between this life and the next. 

In the other two passages of the Kur'an, it 

is a question of two seas, or great stretches of 

water, one fresh, the other salt, between which 

there is a barzakh which prevents their being mixed. 

The same thing is mentioned in verse 61 of Sura 

xxvii, and in this passage the word hadpz or hindrance 

takes the place of barzakh. The commentators say 

that there is here an allusion to the fresh waters of 

the Shatt al- c Arab which flow a great distance out 

into the salt sea without mixing with it; the impedi- 



ment here is the effect of a law of nature established 
by God. 

In eschatology, the word barzakh is used to 
describe the boundary of the world of human beings, 
which consists of the heavens, the earth and the 
nether regions, and its separation from the world of 
pure spirits and God. See the pictures representing 
this conception in the Ma'rifat-ndma of Ibrahim 
Hakki (Buiak 1251, 1255); cf. also Carra de Vaux, 
Fragments d' ' eschatologie musulmane; R. Eklund, 
Life between Death and Resurrection recording to 
Islam, Uppsala 1941. 

The Sufis, too, use the town in the sense of 
■space between the material world and that of 
the pure spirits; hence several shades of meaning; 
cf. C. E. Wilson, The Masnavl, book ii, vol. ii, 

The same expression is also found in the philosophy 
known as "illuminating" {al-hikma al-mashrikiyya). 
It there denotes the dark substances, i.e bodies: the 
barzakh or the body is dark by nature and only 
becomes light on receiving the light of the spirit. 
The celestial spheres are "animated" or "living" 
iarzakhs, inanimate bodies on the other hand are 
"dead" barzakhs (cf. Carra de Vaux, La Philosophie 
illuminative d'apres Suhrawardi Meqtoul, in J A, 
Jan.-Febr. 1902). 

The term barzakh is sometimes rendered by 
Purgatory, on the analogy of the Christian idea 
of Purgatory, but this is inaccurate. It is used in the 
sense of "limbo". See further al-Tahanawi, Diet, of 
Technical Terms, s.v. (B. Carra de Vaux*) 

BARZAN, a Kurdish village on the left (eastern) 
bank of the Great Zab river, approximately 80 km. 
<3ue north of Arbll, in what was formerly the territory 
of the Zebari tribe. Sharaf al-DIn Bitlisi, Sharaf-ndma, 
i, 107, in 1005/1596, numbered it among the posses- 
sions of the Bahdinan princes under the name of 
Bazlran. Since the middle of the I3th/igth century 
Barzan has been the residence of a Nakshbandl 
Shaykh. The Shaykhs and their followers, now 
known as the Barzani tribe, maintained a turbulent 
independence of Ottoman authority until, early in 
1333/1915, the Mawsil authorities captured and 
hanged Shaykh c Abd al-Salam II. His successor, 
Shaykh Ahmad, temporarily declared himself a 
Christian in 1350/1931. This occasioned warfare with 
the neighbouring Bradost tribe, necessitating the 
intervention of the government of c Irak. The 
Shaykh fled to Turkey, where he was arrested. 

In midsummer 1 362/1943 Mulla Mustafa, brother 
of Shaykh Ahmad, escaped from seclusion at Sulay- 
maniyya to Barzan, where he gathered support and 
rebelled against the government. He had some 
initial success against government forces, but was 
finally obliged to retire, early in 1364/1945, to 
Persia. He assisted at the inauguration of the 
Kurdish People's Republic at Mahabad on 10 
Muharram 1365/15 December 1945 and was made a 
Field-Marshal. On the collapse of the Republic 
Mulla Mustafa escaped to Soviet territory, while 
Shaykh Ahmad surrendered to the 'Irak government. 
Bibliography: W. A. & E. T. A. Wigram, 
Cradle of Mankind, 136 ff., London 1922; B. 
Nikitine, Les Kurdes, Paris 1956; S. H. Longrigg, 
c Iraq, 1900 to 1950, London 1953; Siddlk al- 
Damludil, I mar at Bahdindn al-Kurdiyya, Mosul 
1952. (D. N. Mackenzie) 

BARZAND, a village and township (dihistdn), 
in the district (shahristdn) of Ardabil, county 
(bakhsh) of Garml, lying in the mountains over- 
looking the plain of Mughan to the north. The name 



BARZAKH — BARZO-NAMA 



may mean "high place". The village lies ca. 47° 40' E. 
long. (Greenw.) and 39° 20' N. lat. 

A confusion between Barzand and Barzandj (near 
Tiflis) appears in several of the mediaeval geo- 
graphers (cf. Yakut, i, 562; Jfudud al-'Alam, 403). 
This confusion, together with a remark of Mukaddasi, 
378, that Barzand was a market for Armenians, 
helps to explain why several geographers {e.g., 
Yakut) placed Barzand in Armenia. 

We find no notice of the place before the time of 
Afshin [?.«.], who in 220/835 made Barzand one of 
his headquarters in the campaign against Babak 
[q.v.]. Several sources say that Afshin rebuilt 
Barzand after he had found it in ruins (Schwarz, 
1094). Babak may have destroyed the town, since 
it was a strategic point on the main road from 
Ardabil north to the Mughan steppe. After the time 
of Afshin Barzand became a large town with a 
prosperous bazaar, noted for textiles. It may have 
suffered during the Mongol conquests, for Hamd 
Allah Mustawfi, Nuzha, trans. G. Le Strange, 91, 
says the town was in ruins in his time (mid 8th/i4th 
cent.). Later the area was included in the pasture 
land of the Shah Sewan tribe [q.v.], and the people 
spoke Adhari Turkish as they do today. 

At the present the township has a population 
(1950) of ca. 3820, and the central village is called 
Kala c -yi Barzand. 

Bibliography : P. Schwarz, Iran im Mittel- 
alter, 8 (1934), 1094-98, where references to 
Islamic sources are given. Add to these Iludud 
al-'-Alam, 142, 403; Le Strange, 175-6; Razmara, 
Farhang-i Djughrdfiyd-yi Iran, iv, Tehran 1952, 87. 

(R. N. Frye) 
BARZC-NAMA, Persian epic, attributed to 
Abu 'l- c Ala J c Ata> b. Ya'kub, known as Nakiik 
(called c Atal b.Ya'kub, known as 'Ata'i RazI in 
Blochet, Catal. Mss. persons Biblio. Nat. Paris, iii, 
15, no. 1189). According to Rida Kuli Khan Hidayat, 
"some people have wrongly considered these two 
names to represent two poets. This is not so; they 
are the same person" (Madima'- al-Fusahd', i, 342)- 
c Ata 5 was a poet in both Arabic and Persian (see 
his account in Bakharzl, Dumyat al-Kasr) and an 
official in the reign of the Ghaznawid sultan Ibrahim 
(1059-1099) who, dissatisfied with him, ruined him 
and held him prisoner for more than eight years at 
Lahore. c Ata> died in 491/1098, according to Awfi 
(Lubdb, i, 72-75). At the end of a remarkable elegy 
(marthiya) his contemporary Mas c ud-i Sa c d-i Salman 
gave his name clearly: "az wafdt-i 'Afd* ibn-i Ya'-kub, 
tdza-tar shud wakdhat-i '■Slam" (by the death of 
'Ata' son of Ya'kiib the shamelessness of this nether 
world received a new stimulus"). His principal work 
was the Lay of Barzu {Barzu-ndma), the longest and 
one of the most important epic poems based on the 
ancient Persian traditions in imitation of the Book 
of the Kings (Shdh-ndma) oi Firdawsi (from which 
the Barzu-ndma in several parts is directly derived). 
Barzfl, son of Suhrab and grandson of Rustam, was 
born among the Turanians to a woman called Shahru. 
Persuaded by Afrasiyab, leader of the Turanians, 
he went to fight the Persians; at the end of protracted 
hostilities, Rustam recognised him and reconciled 
him to the Persians. Finally he died, killed traitor- 
ously in the course of a war against the Slavs, 
represented as demons {diw) ruled over by the dim 
Siklab. Noldeke, seeing in these adventures (as 
J. Mohl did before him) a variant of those of the 
heroes Suhrab and Pjahangir, assumed that the 
work was one of pure invention. The episode of the 
Turanian singing-girl Susan, who captured the chief 



Persian heroes by a trick, and had decided to send 
them in chains to Afrasiyab, when the Persian hero 
Faramurz came suddenly to rescue them, is one of 
the most brilliant parts of the poem; it may be 
considered as a work of art on its own merits. 
Fragments of the Barzu-ndma (two MSS. in the 
Bibl. Nat. Paris, Blochet, Catal. mss. persans, iii, 
15 and 16) were published by Turner Macan (Shdh- 
ndma, iv, 2160-2296), Kosegarten (Mines de I'Orient, 
V, 309), Vullers (Chrest. Schahnam., 87-99)- Also it 
seems possible to attribute to c Ata> the epic poem 
Bidian-nama, concerning the exploits of another 
Persian hero, the last line of which is : "iu zin 
ddstdn dil bi-parddkhtam, suy-i razm-i Barzu hami 
tdkhtam", "when I had freed my heart of this poem, 
I quickly began the Lay of Barzu" (Rieu, Catal. 
Persian Mss. British Mus., 132-133). 

Bibliography: S. de Sacy, in Journal de 
Savants, 1836, 207 ff. ; J. Mohl, Le Livre des Rois, 
introd. lxiv f f . ; T. Noldeke, in Grundriss der Iran. 
Philologie, ii, 209; Ethe, ibid., 234; V. Rugarli, 
Susen la cantatrice, in Giorn. Soc. Asiat. italiana, xi, 
1897-98; Zabihollah Safa, JJamdsa-sardH dar Iran, 
Tehran 1324/1946, 288-295; idem, Tdrikh-i 
Adabiyydt dar Iran, Tehran 1336/1958, ii, 477 ff. 

(Cl. Huart-[H. Masse]) 
BARZUYA, Arabic name, attested by Yakut, 
of a fortress to which modern writers, following a 
reference to it by Anna Comnena, prefer to apply 
the name Bourzey. The local people call it Kal'at 
Marza. The ruins of this castle, standing on the 
eastern slope of the Alaouite massif, still dominate 
the marshy depression of the Ghab. It had a troubled 
history from Hellenic times, when the impregnable 
position of Lysias was known. At the time of the 
Syrian expedition of the Emperor Tziraisces in 
365/975, it passed from Hamdanid hands into those 
of the Byzantines. Subsequently it was occupied by 
the Crusaders and, forming one of the best defences 
of the principality of Antioch (at which time it 
appears to have born the name Rochefort) was 
retaken by force by Salah al-DIn in 584/1188. From 
the Mamluk period it rapidly lost its importance 
and the chroniclers merely make passing reference 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 565; Abu '1-Fida 5 , 

Tafrwim, 261; Dimashkl, Mehren ed., 205; M. 

Hartmann, Das Lima el-Ladkiji, in ZDPV, xiv, 

174 and 212; M. van Berchem, Inscriptions arabes 

de Syrie, 82; idem, Notes sur les croisades, in J A, 

1902, i, 434; R. Dussaud, Topographie historique 

de la Syrie, Paris 1927, especially 151-53; G. Le 

Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, London 

1890, 421 ; M. Canard, Histoire de la dynastie des 

Hamdanides, Algiers 1951, 215, 843; Cl. Cahen, 

La Syrie du Nord, Paris 1940, index (under 

Borzei); J. Weulersse, Le pays des Alaouites, 

Tours 1940, index (under Bourzey); G. Saade, 

Le chdleau de Bourzey, in Annates Archiologiques de 

Syrie, 1956, T39-62. (J. Sourdel-Thomine) 

alBASASIRI, Abu 'l-Harith Arslan al- 

Muzaffar, originally a Turkish slave, who became 

one of the chief military leaders at the end of the 

Buwayhid dynasty. He owes his nisba al-BasasM 

(al-Fasasiri) to his first master who was from Basa 

(Fasa) in Fars. A mawld of Baha 1 al-Dawla, he 

subsequently rose to the highest rank, though we 

only hear of him from the reign of Djalal al-Dawla 

(416-435/1025-1044), in the struggles which the 

latter was obliged to maintain against his nephew 

Abu Kalidjar and the 'Ukaylids of al-Mawsil. During 

the reign of al-Malik al-Rahlm Khusraw Firuz 

Encyclopaedia of Islam 



(440-447/1048-1055), a period of continuous troubles 
due to the indiscipline of the Turkish troops at 
Baghdad, the struggle between Sunnls and Shi'Is 
in the capital, the ambitions of the 'Ukaylids and 
Buwayhid pretenders, the depredations of the Arab 
and Kurdish tribes, and, finally, the intervention 
of the Saldjukid sultan Toghrul Beg in the affairs 
of Mesopotamia, al-BasasIri came to play a major 
r61e (Anbar taken from the c Ukaylid Karwash, 
441/1050, Basra taken from the brother of Malik 
Rahim, 444/1052, operations against the Arab and 
Kurdish brigands at Bawazidj, 445/1054, assistance 
given to the Mazyadid Shi c I Dubays, who had been 
attacked at al-Djami c an, the future Hilla, by the 
Banu Khafadja, etc.). However in 446/1054, he was 
unable to stop the rebellion of the Turks in Baghdad, 
followed by scenes of pillage and famine and an 
incursion by the troops of the 'Ukaylid of al-Mawsil, 
Kuraysh, to Baradan, whence they carried off the 
camels and horses from his stables. In November 
of the same year, Kuraysh took Anbar, al-Basasiri's 
fief, and, breaking with the Buwayhid, pronounced 
the khutba in the name of Toghrul Beg. 

At Baghdad al-Basasiri had a powerful adversary, 
the Caliph's vizier the raHs al-ru'asd 1 Ibn al-Muslima, 
who, foreseeing the end of the Buwayhids, had 
already formed a connexion with Toghrul Beg, 
because in 446/1054-1055, in which year the Turkish 
leader's quarrel with the Caliph and his entourage 
became effective, al-Basasiri accused him of having 
summoned Toghrul's Ghuzz, who had been at 
Hulwan since 444/1052-3. The vizier prevented al- 
Basasiri from taking action against supporters of 
Kuraysh who had come to Baghdad, to which he 
reacted by impounding one of the vizier's boats, 
withdrawing the monthly pensions paid to the 
Caliph and the vizier, and, in March 1055, retaking 
Anbar by force. Upon his return to Baghdad, he 
refrained from calling to pay his respects to the 

Al-Basasiri probably already had ShI'I leanings. In 
447/1055, at the time of the SunnI demonstrations 
in Baghdad, extremists, doubtless at the vizier's 
instigation, seized a ship carrying wine destined for 
al-Basasiri, who was then at Wasit with al-Malik 
al-Rahim, and broke the wine-jars. As the cargo 
belonged to a Christian, al-Basasiri thereupon 
obtained a fatwd declaring the smashing of the jars 
to be illegal. Thenceforth the vizier sedulously 
denigrated al-Basasiri in the eyes of the Turks of 
the army, and of the Caliph al-KaSm. He accused 
him of being in communication with the Fatimid 
al-Mustansir, caused his house in Baghdad to be 
pillaged and burnt by the Turks, and ordered the 
Buwayhid to send him away. Meanwhile the troops 
of Toghrul Beg, who had announced his intention 
of performing the pilgrimage and of proceeding to 
Syria and Egypt to dethrone the Fatimid, arrived 
before Baghdad. Al-Malik al-Rahlm again set out 
towards Baghdad, whilst al-Basasiri went to his 
brother-in-law, the Mazyadid Dubays; the Turks of 
Baghdad, deceived by the vizier, regretted his 
departure. The Caliph, his vizier, and al-Malik al- 
Rahlm accepted Toghrul's presence, and his name 
was pronounced in the khufba on Friday 15th 
December 1055; on the 18th, he made his solemn 
entry into the capital. Discord however was not 
slow to arise between the inhabitants and the 
Ghuzz of Toghrul. Toghrul held al-Malik al-Rahlm 
responsible for the scenes of pillage which sub- 
sequently occurred, and had him arrested on 23rd 



68 



1074 AL-BA 

On ToghruTs orders, Dubays was obliged to 
break with al-BasasW, who proceeded to Rahba on 
the Euphrates. He wrote to the Fatimid Caliph 
Mustansir asking him to receive him in Cairo. The 
vizier al-Yaziiri did not agree, but the Caliph 
responded to his request for Fatimid aid to conquer 
Baghdad in his name and prevent the Saldjukid from 
marching on Syria and Egypt; he gave him the 
governorship of Rahba and sent him 500,000 dinars, 
clothes of a like value, 500 horses, 10,000 bows, 
1,000 swords, and lances and arrows. 

According to the autobiography of the Fatimid 
missionary al-Mu 5 ayyad fi '1-DIn al-ShirazI, who 
was apparently the instigator of the revolt and a 
real Fatimid plenipotentiary in the affair, al- 
BasasM was not the first to approach Mustansir; 
Mu'ayyad had written to him prior to Toghrul's 
arrival in Baghdad, though the letters did not reach 
him until after the Saldjukid had entered the city. 
It was Mu'ayyad who brought the money and 
supplies sent by Cairo to al-Basasiri at Rahba as 
well as the Fatimid Caliph's patent of investiture. 

The year 448/1056-7 was marked by intense 
Fatimid propaganda, attested by the numerous 
letters addressed by Mu'ayyad to the amirs of 'Irak 
and the Diazlra to win them to the Fatimid cause. 
The excesses of the Ghuzz favoured his success. The 
khufba was pronounced in the name of Mustansir at 
Wasit and other places in 'Irak, and Dubays, who 
had been constrained to do likewise for Toghrul, 
returned to the alliance with al-Basasiri. The latter, 
reinforced by the Arab nomads and the Baghdad 
Turks who had been despoiled by Toghrul, marched 
in Dubays's company with a considerable body of 
troops on the region of Sindjar, where he inflicted 
a bloody defeat on the Saldjukid troops commanded 
by Toghrul's cousin Kutlumush and his ally Kuraysh 
of al-Mawsil. Kutlumush fled to Adharbaydjan ; 
Kuraysh was wounded and captured (29 Shawwal 
448/9 January 1057) and thenceforth made common 
cause with al-BasasM, who proceeded to al-Mawsil 
where the Fatimid Caliph was acknowledged. 

Toghrul's reaction was not long delayed. He left 
Baghdad on the 10 Dhu '1-Ka c da 448/19 January 
1057, and, after receiving reinforcements from 
Persia, marched on al-Mawsil, took the city and then 
proceeded towards Nisibln. Dubays and Kuraysh 
rallied to him, whilst al-Basasiri returned to Rahba 
with the Baghdad Turks and a group of c Ukayl. 
However, after the arrival of the sultan's brother, 
Ibrahim Inal, who heartily disliked the Arabs, 
Kuraysh rejoined al-Basasiri, whilst Dubays regained 
Pjami'an via Rahba. After wreaking his vengeance 
on Sindjar for the affair of 448 and leaving Inal at 
al-Mawsil, the sultan returned to Baghdad, where 
he was solemnly received by the Caliph, who con- 
ferred on him the title of King of the West and the 
East (26 Dhu '1-Ka'da 449/4 January 1058). 

The sultan's brother, Ibrahim Inal, however, who 
coveted the sultanate, got into communication with 
al-Basasiri and sent a messenger to the missionary 
Mu'ayyad, who had come back to Aleppo, with 
a view to obtaining Fatimid support in wresting the 
sultanate from his brother, promising that the 
khufba should be pronounced in the name of the 
Fatimids. He abandoned al-Mawsil, to which al- 
Basasiri and Kuraysh returned. After the taking of 
the citadel, which held out for four months, al- 
Basasiri returned to Rahba. However, Toghrul 
reconquered al-Mawsil and marched on Nisibln, 
whilst, according to Mu'ayyad's autobiography, al- 
Basasiri, undoubtedly alarmed, directed his steps 



towards Damascus. Then it was that Inal rose in 
rebellion and set out for the Djibal. Toghrul left 
Nisibln on the 15 Ramadan 450/5 November 1058 
and set off in his pursuit. 

Now that 'Irak was free of the Saldjukid for a 
time, there was nothing to oppose al-BasasIri's 
return and counter-offensive. News was soon 
received of his arrival at Hit and then at Anbar. 
The Caliph Ka'im hesitated as to the attitude to 
adopt and, in spite of the proposal flt the Mazyadid 
Dubays, who offered him a refugee-stayed on in 
Baghdad, counting on being able to resist. On 
8 Dhu'l-Ka'da/27 December 1058, al-Basasiri entered 
western Baghdad with 400 poorly equipped caval- 
rymen accompanied by Kuraysh at the head of a 
further two hundred. The following Friday. 1 
January 1059, the Shi'i adhdn was heard and the 
khufba was recited in the name of the Fatimids at 
the Mosque of Mansur. Then, re-establishing the 
bridge of boats, al-Basasiri crossed the river and, 
on the 8th of January, ' the name of the Caliph 
Mustansir was proclaimed at 'the Rusafa Mosque. 
The Caliph had his palace fortified, but al-Basasiri 
not only had the Shl'is of the Karkh on his side, 
but also the large numbers of Sunnis impelled by 
hatred of the Ghuzz and the lure of pillage. After 
defeating a group of Hashimites and palace eunuchs 
urged on by the vizier, near the racecourse, al- 
Basasiri attacked the palace on the r Dhu '1-Hidjdja/ 
19 January 1059, entering the harim by the Bab 
al-Nubl. The Caliph, seeing that the game was lost, 
placed himself and the vizier under the protection 
of Kuraysh, who got them away, whilst the palace 
was sacked. Al-Basasiri appropriated the Caliphal 
insignia, mindil (turban), rida* (cloak) and shubbih 
(lattice screen), which were sent to Cairo as trophies. 
He solemnly celebrated the Feast of the Victims 
on 29 January 1059 at the musalld with the Egyptian 
standards. He agreed to leave the Caliph with 
Kuraysh, who placed him in safe-keeping at al- 
Haditha of c Ana with his cousin Muharish, but 
insisted that his enemy, the vizier Ibn al-Muslima* 
should be handed over to him. After parading him 
with ignominy, he had him put to a terrible death 
on 16 February 1059. Al-Basasiri then took possession 
of Wasit and Basra, but was unable to gain Khuzistan 
to the Fatimid cause. 

But already al-Basasiri was virtually abandoned 
by Cairo. Initially great hopes had been raised there 
by his action; Mustansir relied on his bringing him 
the Caliph al-K5 5 im as a captive and had the Little 
Palace of the West at Cairo made ready for him, 
and the was greatly displeased when al-Ka 5 im was 
handed over to Kuraysh. In addition, the vizier 
Yazuri, blamed for ruining Egyptian finances to- 
support al-Basasiri, had been deposed and then put 
to death. From June 1058, Ibn al-Maghribl, a 
former secretary who had fled from al-Basasiri at 
Baghdad, was vizier. When the latter wrote to him, 
he replied in such terms as to leave him no expec- 
tations of support. Toghrul, however, had triumphed 
over his brother in Djumada II 451/July 1059 and 
was preparing to return to Baghdad. He offered to 
leave al-Basasiri in Baghdad, provided he would 
pronounce the khufba and coin money in his name 
and restore the Caliph al-KaHm to the throne. In 
such an event, he himself would not return to 'Irak. 
He asked Kuraysh to leave al-Basasiri in the event 
of his refusing to agree to this proposal. For his part, 
al-Basasiri attempted to negotiate with the Caliph 
to persuade him to break away from the Saldjukid, 
but without success. Kuraysh drew his a 



al-BASASIRI — BASHDJIRT 



1075 



Fatimid ingratitude and let him hope for a pardon 
by Toghrul, but he would not accept the offer and 
Toghrul then started to march on Baghdad. At the 
Saldjukid's request, Muharish freed the Caliph al- 
Kalm, who met the' sultan at Nahrawan on 24 Dh u 
'1-Ka c da 451/3 January 1060, arriving with him at 
his palace on the following day. Kuraysh had 
already left al-BasasIrl, who quitted Baghdad with 
his family on 6 Dhu 'l-Ka c da/i4 December, pro- 
ceeding in the direction of Kufa and leaving the 
Shl'is of Karkh exposed to the reprisals of the 
Sunnls. 

Al-Basasiri was swiftly overtaken by Toghrul's 
cavalry and caught in the company of Dubays. 
Whilst the latter, whose Arabs refused to engage, 
took to flight, al-BasasIrl accepted battle and fell, 
his horse pierced by an arrow. He was killed by the 
secretary of the Saldjukid vizier al-Kunduri on 8 Dh u 
'l-Hidjdja/is January 1060 at Saky al-Furat, near 
Kufa. His head was brought to the sultan. 

Thus ended the adventure of al-BasasIrl. For a 
year he had gained acknowledgement of Fatimid 
sovereignty at Baghdad. The khufba in the name of 
the Fatimids is said to have been pronounced there 
forty times. This episode of attempted expansion, 
Fatimid on the one hand and Saldjukid on the other, 
and more generally the struggle between Sunnis and 
Shi'Is, definitely profited the cause of Sunnism and 
'Abbasid legitimacy, of which Toghrul Beg showed 
himself the interested champion. 

Bibliography: Strut al-Mu'ayyad fi 'l-Din 
DdH al-Du c dt, ed. Kamil Husayn, 1949, see 
introduction, 16-17, 22-23 and index; Khatlb 
Baghdadl, Ta'rikh Baghdad, ix, 399"4°4; Ibn al- 
Sayrafl, K. al-Ishdra ... 69; Ibn al-KalanisI, 
Dhayl Ta'rikh Dimashk, 81-90; Bundari, K. 
Ta'rikh Dawlat Al Saldj.uk, Cairo 1318, 12-17 
(Houtsma, Recueil, ii, 12-18); Yakut, i, 608, iii, 
595, 892; Ibn al-Athir, ix, s.a., 425, 428, 432, 441, 
443, 444, 445-447, 448, 449, 45Q-45I ; Bar Hebraeus, 
Chronography, 210, 213-4, 215; Ibn Khallikan. 
Bulak ed., i, 76; Ibn Muyassar, Annates d'Egypte, 
7-8, io-n, 20; al-Fakhrl, ed. Derenbourg, 394, 
396-8 (tr. Amar, 505, 508-9); Ibn Khaldun, Hoar, 
iii, 454-464, iv, 488-494; MakrizI, Khifat, Bulak, 
i, 356, 439, 457; Abu '1-Mahasin, al-NudjUm, 
Cairo ed., v, 2, 5-12 and see index; Quatremere, 
Mtmoires sur I'EgypU, i, 3a6f.; Weil, Chalifen, 
iii, 92-102; Muller, Der Islam im Morgen- und 
Abendland, i, 636, 639, ii, 81 f.; Wustenfeld, 
Gesch. der Fat. Chalifen, 238-248; Le Strange, 106; 
idem, Baghdad, 36; G. Wiet, Hist, de la Nat. 
Egypt., iv, L'Egypte arabe, 232-236; Hasan 
Ibrahim Hasan, Al-FdfimiyyUn fi Misr, 315. 

(M. Canard) 
BASHA [see pasha]. 
, BAfiHDEFTERDAR [see daftardAr]. 

BA SHDJ IRT (Bashkurt) is the name of aTurkish 
people living in Bashkurdistan in the S. Urals, 
which is now a Soviet republic. Their place of 
origin is doubtful; some evidence says that they 
came from S. W. Turkistan (see Togan, Turk Tarihi 
Dersleri, 1927, 125; Hamilton, Les Uygures, 1955, 3), 
whilst other sources indicate that their present 
habitat is their original home (the nayupiTai, 
rrjoul'voi, TaPivoi, Bopouoxoi and Eou(Jt)voi, 
Ptolemy, iii, 5, 22, 24 and iv, 14, 9, n may be 
identified with "BashYirt" and the tribal names 
"Geyne", "Tabm", "Burud", and "Suvin"; Ibn 
Fadlan, ed. Togan, 187, 327; Rashld al-DIn, Paris, 
Bibl. nat. Suppl. Pers. 1364, fol. 134a). Istakh,rl 
says that the Bashkurts lived i 



and wooded country into which it was difficult to 
penetrate, and that the centre of this region was 
25 days journey from the Bulgars; and al-BIrunl 
calls the Urals "the Bashkurt mountains". Ibn 
Fadlan, who made a personal survey of the country, 
religion, and customs of the Bashkurts in 310/922 
says that he came on their tents after crossing the 
rivers Kinal and Sokh, i.e., on approaching the 
borders of the Bulgars. He also states that they were 
all pagans (i.e., Shamanists). Idrlsl, by combining 
the stories of his contemporaries about this province 
with those found in the Arabic translation of 
Ptolemy, has given rather more complicated details 
about their cities, iron and copper manufactures, 
arms, exports of beaver and squirrel furs, etc., but 
much of this probably refers to the Magyars. Con- 
fusion arose because Muslim sources called the 
Bashkurts "the inner Bashkurts" and the Magyars 
"the outer Bashkurts", while the Bashkurts of the 
Urals divided themselves into "inner" and "outer" 
Bashkurts. To their neighbours the Kazaks and the 
Nogays they were after the 15th century known 
as "Istek", which gave rise to the Ottoman term 
"Heshdek". The Yurmatl and Yenei tribes of the 
Bashkurt were among the Turkish tribes that held 
sway over the Magyars in the 12th century; and 
theories that the Bashkurts were Magyars who did 
not become Turkicised till the time of the Mongols 
(cf. Nemeth, Magna Hungaria, 95; KCA, iii, 73) 
lose their force with the statement of Mahmud 
Kashghari that the Bashkurt and the Yemek, i.e., 
N. Kipcak, dialects were closely connected. Shams 
al-DIn al-Dimashkl (died 1327) and Abu '1-GhazI 
Khan also connect the Bashkurt with the Kipcak. 
In fact the Bashkurts were Muslims long before the 
time of the Mongols. Yakut, who met some Bash- 
kurts from Hungary who came to study at Aleppo, 
relates traditions from them that their ancestors had 
learnt Islam from the Volga Bulgars and states that 
they were Hanafis, that they had 30 villages, spoke 
the "Afrandj" language and served in the army of 
the "Hungar" monarchs, though not taking part 
in expeditions against Muslim countries. The 12th 
century writer Abu Hamid al-AndalusI, who lived for 
some time among the Bashkurts in Hungary, states 
that like the Bulgars they were Hanafls and says that 
there were 78 Bashkurt towns in Hungary, extending 
the name Bashkurt to the non-Muslim Magyars. 

The Bashkurt lands were close to the summer 
camping-grounds of the Mongol Khans ot the Golden 
Horde, and when they came under the Mongols they 
were forced to serve in the Mongol army. They were, 
however, allowed to have a separate Muslim judge. 
Prominent in the service of the Ilkhans were the 
Amir Bashkurt, who put down the rebellion of 
Siilamish in Asia Minor during the time of Ghazan 
Khan, and Sarkan Bashkurt, a lieutenant of Ol- 
djaytu. Bashkurts were also found in the service of 
the Egyptian Mamluks, among them 'Alam al-DIn 
Sandjar al-Bashkurdi, who was Kalawun's deputy 

In the first half of the 16th century the Tura 
(Shlban] Khans held the northern and eastern parts 
of Bashkurdistan under their sway, while the Kazan 
Khan Sahib Gerey won influence over the "Kazan 
Yoll" and the Nogay Princes gained S. Bashkurdistan. 
Two of the Ulu Nogay princes, Ismalloghll Urus 
MIrza and his nephew Ishtirek MIrza, governed the 
"Nogay Yolu", i.e., S. Uralian, Bashkurts on behalf 
of the Kiicumids until 1608. At one time Urus MIrza 
made representations to Sultan Sulayman I urging 
him to annex the Volga basin. He also sent am- 



bassadors to Czar Ivan IV because the Russians | 
occupying Kazan and Astrakhan had pressed on to 
the east of the Volga, had made Samara, Yayitika 
and Ufa into Russian fortresses, and had imposed 
taxes on the neighbouring Bashkurts, and protested 
that the "Bashkurt-Isteks" paid taxes only to him, 
and that by taxing them the Russians were inter- 
fering in the internal affairs of the Nogay province 
(Pekarsky, Kogda ostiovany goroda Ufa i Samara, 
1872, 8). However, despite certain conciliatory moves 
the Russians gradually extended their control. In 
1629 800 Bashkurt families were under the Russians. 
By 1700 the number had risen to 7,000. Under the 
Russians the province was organised very much as 
it had been before. The community was divided into 
several classes: the mirzds (Russian Kniaz) who 
came from the Mongol and Tatar aristocracy; the 
biys (Russ. straskina) and tarkhans who were tribal 
leaders; the asabes (Arabic '■asaba; Russ. votiinnik) 
who held hereditary fiefs and served in the army; 
the yasakl'is who were peasants liable to military 
service, and the tipters who were peasants registered 
in place of fiefholders; the bobils (old Turkish and 
Mongol bogul = captive) who were landless peasants; 
and the tasnaks who were nomads tied to a particular 
village. The mirzds, biys, and tarkhans used to meet 
to discuss general political questions at congresses 
(yayin) held at Khan Tobesi in the neighbourhood 
of what is now the village of HadidjI Yurmatl. 
There were also departments called duvan { = diwdn) 
which dealt with the affairs of the province. The 
territory of the Yurmati tribe was the military centre 
of the province, and the asabes were stationed along 
four military roads leading from there: the Nogay 
road to the south, the Kazan road to the west, the 
Osa road to the north, and the Siberia road to the east. 
There was fierce resistance to Russian annexation 
and risings were frequent. The Kiicumids, the popu- 
larly chosen leaders of the Bashkurts, were generally 
at the head of these movements, which were some- 
times combined with other movements in the 
Ukraine and N. Caucasus and with enterprises of the 
Crimeans, the Kalmuks and the Ottomans, with all 
of whom they had contacts. During the 17th and the 
first quarter of the 18th centuries the Bashkurts 
joined in movements in W. Siberia, the lower 
Jaxartes, Astrakhan, Don and Daghistan regions and 
even in the Debreczen area of Hungary. It was in 
1667, during the reign of Kiicumid Kuiiik Sultan, 
that Ewliya Celebi visited the Bashkurt between the 
Terek and Astrakhan together with the Kalmuks, 
and was greatly impressed by their military ability 
and by their national and religious fervour (Seydhat- 
ndme, vii, 761, 811-25, 835-6). 

The Bashkurts made their risings at times when 
Russia had external difficulties. For example, the 
rising of 1678, during which several Russian towns 
in the Volga and Kama basins basins were burnt, was 
connected with the Turkish victory over the Russians 
at Cegerin and their occupation of the S. Ukraine. 
The Bashkurts were also skilful at making arms, 
and they were able to supply the Karakalpaks and 
the Kazaks as well as themselves. The Russian 
government laid great importance on cutting off 
the Bashkurts' foreign contacts and on closing their 
iron and steel works. In 1675 they issued an edict 
forbidding them to manufacture iron, but this had 
no effect. However, by establishing works at Petro 
in the Urals and by deporting masses of Russians to 
them, they succeeded in increasing the Russian 
element, in spite of external difficulties. 

In 1678 was the Kalmuk Khan Ayuke who was 
responsible for the death of Kiicuk Sultan, and the 



struggle against the Russians was carried on by two 
of his sons, Murad Sultan and Khuzey (Ibrahim) 
Sultan. During the Russo-Swedish wars in the reign 
of Peter the Great these roused the whole of Bash- 
kurdistan to rebellion. They were in close contact 
with the Crimean Khans, the Nogays and the Don 
Cossacks, and Murad Sultan went to the Crimea and 
to Istanbul in an unsuccessful attempt to seek help. 
In 1708 he took part in a joint attempt with the 
Kuban Nogays and the Circassians to occupy the 
Russian fortress of Terek, but he was wounded, 
captured by the Russians, tried and executed. 
According to a Bashkurt envoy who visited Sultan 
Ahmed III in 1716 the Bashkurts together with 
their allies the Karakalpaks and Kirgiz, had raised 
another rebellion in which they attacked Terek as 
a reprisal for the execution of Murad Sultan and 
killed up to 40,000 Russians (Rashid, Ta'rikh, > iii, 
327). They were supported by the Kazaks, for at 
the beginning of the 18th century they had come 
under the suzerainty of the Kazak Khan Tobi'r- 
cikoghll Kayib Khan, whose capital was at Tashkent. 
The correspondence of Kayib Khan with Sultan 
Ahmed III in 1715-6 is preserved in the Ottoman 
archives (Istanbul, Basvekalet Arsivi, Name-i Hii- 
mdyun defterleri, vol. vii, 35i-2). 

The rebellion lasted 17 years and exhausted the 
Bashkurts. At length in 1728 a delegation was sjent 
off to St. Petersburg and a peace treaty was con- 
cluded. However in 1735 there was another rising 
led by Kilmek Ablz and Kusumoghli' Akay against 
Russian efforts to encircle Bashkurdistan and 
isolate it from the Karakalpaks and the Kazaks. This 
was the bloodiest of all the Bashkurt risings. Kilmek 
Ablz and Akay were eventually captured, and taken 
to St. Petersburg and executed, but in 1737 the 
fighting flared up again under the leadership of two 
biys from the Kuvakan tribe, Pepene and Tungevur 
Kosep, with the support of the Kazak Khans. 
Pepene proclaimed Hodja Ahmed Sultan the son 
of the Kazak Khan Abu *1-Khayr as Khan of the 
Bashkurts. The movement was put down only with 
very heavy casualties. 

The fighting was renewed in 1740 under a leader 
known as Karasakal. This was, in fact, Baybulat, 
last of the Kiicumids, who together with a nephew 
had been working with the support of the Crimean 
Khans among the Bashkurts since 1738 {Istor. 
Zapiski. vol. xxiv, 102). After two years fighting 
Karasakal was defeated by the Russians and fled 
to the Ortayuz Kazafc Khans and took refuge with 
Barak Khan. After this nothing more is heard of 
the Kiicumids, but further risings occurred in 1755 






1774. 



In 1798, in accordance with her policy of concili- 
ating the Bashkurts, Catherine the Great divided the 
province into a traditional tribal cantons. She also 
set up Bashkurt regiments, which were armed with 
bows and arrows and wore their national costume. 
These regiments were used in the Napoleonic wars, 
and actually advanced as far as Paris. However in 
1861 the cantons were abolished, as were the regi- 
ments in 1862, though some small units were not 
disbanded until 1882. In 1872 the Bashkurts, who 
had previously been dealt with by the Foreign 
Ministry, were given the same status as other 
Russian subjects, though they had their own 
administrative and land laws. 

The Bashkurts played no important part in the 
1905 revolution. In 1917, in accordance with a 
resolution of "The General Assembly of the Muslims 
of Russia" held on May 1-10, which called for 
autonomy for Muslim Turkish regions, the Bashkurt 



BASHDJIRT — BASHIR B. SA'D 



representatives set up a 3 man central committee | 
(Zeki WelidI, Sa c Id Miras, Allah Berdi Dja'fer) to 
deal with the administrative organisation of their 
provinces. They came to an agreement with the 
Kazak-Kirgiz, and held the first Bashkurt Congress 
which urged that the Bashkurts should join with 
other peoples struggling for autonomy (the Kazaks 
and Uzbegs, etc.) {Bashkurt Aymagi, Ufa 1925, vol. i, 
3). In the autumn they began to form an army, and an 
administrative centre was set up in the Caravanserai 
at Orenburg under Bikbavoglu Yunus. In 1918 this 
government was suppressed by the Russians and 
its members were imprisoned at Orenburg but later 
escaped. In June the Bashkurt rose again, formed 
2 military divisions, and revived the government at 
Orenburg. In order to include Kazak-Kirgiz detach- 
ments the divisions were turned into a separate army 
corps under the command of General Ishbulatov. 
But the Allies, alarmed at the German drive in the 
Ukraine and Caucasus, wanted no national Kirgiz 
and Bashkurt army in the Urals and in the steppes 
and sought its disbandment. In accordance with their 
wishes General Kolcak proclaimed that the army and 
government would not be recognised (21 Nov. 1918). 
On 19 February 1919 the "Bashkurdistan" 
government concluded a peace treaty with the 
Soviets, which protected its army and its autonomy 
in" internal affairs. Afterwards there were efforts to 
unite the Bashkurts with the Kazaks, but they were 
rejected by the Soviets, and Isterlitamak was made 
the administrative centre for Bashkurdistan, and 
Aktube for Kazakistan. This was "Little Bash- 
kurdistan", with an area of 84,874 sq- km. and a 
population of 1,259,059, some 65-72% of whom were 
Turks. The premier was Yumugul-oghlu, afterwards 
Z. V. Togan (Validov). On 29 June 1920 the members 
of the government withdrew from office and went 
to Turkistan to take part in the movement of the 
Basmacls [?.».] against the Soviets. A completely 
Soviet government was formed and the army was 
disbanded. In June 1922 the Soviets united Bash- 
kurdistan with the province of Ufa, which was 
predominantly Russian, as "Great Bashkurdistan". 
According to the 1935 census its area was 151,8 
sq. km. and its population 2,975,400 only 51% 
whom were Turks. 

The Bashkurt dialect occupies an intermediate 
place between the Kazak and Kazan dialect?. 
Under the Soviets it has been reduced to writing 
and books have been printed in it. 

Bibliography: Gyula Nemeth, Magna Hun- 
garica {Beitrdge zur his. Geographic des Orients, ed. 
von Mzik, Vienna 1929, 92-8); Abu Hamid el 
Granadino, Relation de Viaje par Tierras Euro- 
asiaticas, ed. C. Dubler; I. Hrbek, in Archiv 
Orientalni xxiii, Prague 1955, 109 ff.; Feloninko, 
Bashkiriya, Ufa 1912; 'Abdullah 'Ismetl, Bash- 
kurdustan dj.oghrafyasl, Ufa 1924. For the history 
of the risings and rebellions see A. Battal, Kazan 
Tiirkleri, Istanbul 1925, 82-6, 92-5, 100-8, 117-26; 
Culoshnikov, Bashkirskiye vosstanya, 17- * pervoy 
poloviny 18. veka, 1936; Dobrosmislov, Bash- 
kirskiye bunti, 1899; Trudi nautnago obslestva po 
isulenyu bita, istoriyi i kulturi bashkiryi, Ister- 
litamak 1922, I, II; Materialy Obshtestva izucenya 
Bashkiriyi, I; Bashkirski krayovedceski sbornik, 
Ufa 1922; Shemsi Titiyev, Bashkurdustanda 
inkildp tarikhi, Ufa 1926; R. Raimov, Obrazopanje 
Bashhirskoj ASSR. M. 1952, Materialy po istoriji 
Bashkirskoj ASSR. t. I. M.L. 1935, T. III. M.L. 
1949, T. IV Vyp 1. M.L. 1956, Vyp 2 M.L. 1956 
-^ Materialy; N. V. Ustingov, Bashkir. Vosstanje 
1737-9 g- M.L. 1950 zndBashkir. Vosstanje i662-4g. 



M. 1947; Kuzeyev-Osmanov, Olerki istoriyi Bash- 
kirskoi ASSR, Ufa, 1957; Z. V. Togan, Tiirkili 
(Turkistan) Tarihi, Istanbul 1942, 126, 158-173, 
241-243, 300, 360-364, 370-372, 402-405. For eth- 
nography and anthropology see S. Rudenko, Bash- 
kiri, opit etnologoieskoy monografiyi, I. Petrograd 
1916,11 1922 andBashkiry, Moscow 1955 ; Kuzeyev, 
Oterki etnografiyi Bashkir. 18. stoletya; M. 
Youferow, Etudes ethnographiques sur les Bashkirs, 
Paris 1881; J. Wastl, Bashkiren. Ein Beitrag zur 
Kla.rv.ng der Rassenprobleme Osteuropas, Vienna 
1938. Nikolsky, Bashkiry, Petersburg 1899, with 
detailed bibliography: R. Lach and H. Yansky, 
Bashkirische Gesange, Vienna 1939; for the 
Bashkurt dialect see G. Meszaros, Magna Ungaria, 
Budapest 1910, 101-44; Bashkurt Aytnagl, ii, 1926; 
Biyisev, Bashkirsky Literaturny Jazyk i dialekti, 
1955 ; I A , s. v. (by Z. V. Togan). (Z. V. Togan) 
BASHi-BOZUK, a term, meaning 'leaderless', 
unattached', that was first applied late in the 
Ottoman period both to homeless vagabonds from 
the provinces seeking a livelihood in Istanbul and 
to such male Muslim subjects of the sultan as were 
not affiliated to any military corps. From this last 
usage it came to signify 'civilian' (cf. Redhouse, 
Turkish-English Lexicon, s.v.); and for this reason 
individual volunteers forming bodies attached to the 
Ottoman army at the time of the Crimean War were 
called bashi-bozuk c askeri ('civilian' or 'irregular' 
troops). These irregulars, largely recruited among 
Albanians, Kurds, and Circassians, furnished their 
own arms and mounts (some being cavalry) and had 
their own commanders. In the course of the war 
an attempt was made to subject them to normal 
military discipline; but this was not successful; and 
during the next Russo-Ottoman war (of 1877) the 
bashi-bozuk c askeri earned so much opprobrium for 
their savagery and love of loot that their employment 
was thereafter abandoned. 

Bibliography: 1A, art. by Uzuncarsih. 

(H. Bowen) 
BASHIR B. SA'D, Medinese companion of 
the Khaztadj tribe, and an early convert to Islam. 
He attended the second c Akaba meeting with the 
Prophet, and, after the Prophet's emigration to 
Medina, took part in all the ensuing battles and 
himself led two expeditions, one in Sha'ban 7/ 
December 629 against the Ban! Murra at Fadak, and 
the other later in the same year against a force of 
Ghatafan Vhich 'Uyayna b. Hisn was assembling 
between Wadi al-Kura and Fadak in order to attack 
Medina. The first expedition ended in complete 
disaster and Bashir himself fought bravely but was 
wounded and left for dead. During the night, he 
managed to reach the house of a Jew in Fadak where 
he sheltered for a few days before returning to 
Medina. The second expedition, carried out with 
300 men, was successful, 'Uyayna's force was 
dispersed and much booty captured. In the same 
year, when the Prophet visited Mecca for 'Umrat 
al-Kada' in accordance with the agreement of the 
previous year at al-Hudaybiyya, Bashir commanded 
an armed Contingent which escorted him but did 
not enter Mecca. 

On the death of the Prophet, Bashir supported 
the claim of Kuraysh against the Medinese attempt, 
in the Sakifa meeting, to elect an Ansari successor, 
and was the first — or one of the first — to make the 
decisive move of paying homage to Abu Bakr. 
Later he joined the expedition to 'Irak and was 
present when al-Hira was captured by Khahd b. al- 
Walld. He died at 'Ayn al-Tamr in 12/633, though it 
is not certain whether he was killed in the fighting 



BASHIR B. SA'D — BASHlR SHIHAB II 



or died from a wound he had received shortly before. 

Bashir was one of the few who knew the art of 

writing. He was the father of al-Nu'man b. Bashir 

[f.»0. 

Bibliography: Sira, 308, 498, 671-2, 975; Ibn 

Sa'd, iii, 2, 83 ff.; Tabarl, i, 1592-3, 1596-7, 1842; 

1844; Baladhurl, 244, 248, 474; Ya'kubi, ii, 78, 137, 

Ibn al-Athlr, al-Kdmil, ii, 172 ff., 250 f., 303; Usd 

al-Qhdba, i, 195; Nawawi, 174; Ibn 'Asakir, 

Damascus 1331, iii, 261-4; AghSnl, xiv, 119 ff.; 

Caetani, Annali, index. (W. c Arafat) 

BASHlR CELEBI, a physician who flourished 

in the middle of the 9th/ 15 th century. According to 

the little treatise Hikayet-i Beshir Celebi (of which 

one MS. has been published in facsimile by I. H. 

Ertaylan as Tdrik-i Edime : Hikdyet-i Besir Celebi, 

Turk Edebiyatt Ornekleri iii, Istanbul 1946), he was 

summoned from Konya to Edirne by Mehemmed II 

very soon after his accession; he expounded to the 

Sultan the advantages of the climate of Edirne and 

recommended to him the site for the building of the 

New Palace (begun in 855/1451, cf. IA, article 

Ei»iRNE [M. Tayyib Gokbilgin], p. 117b). 

The Ottoman history attributed to him (Tevarih-i 
Al-i Osman, Turk Edebiyatt Ornekleri iv, Istanbul 
1946) is nothing but another MS. of the Giese 
Anonymous Chronicles (as demonstrated by Adnan 
Erzi in Bell. XIII, 1949, 181-5 : the MS. is very 
close to Giese's W(ien), = Fliigel No. 983). Neither 
this History nor the Tdrih-i Edirne is the work of 
Beshir Celebi. 

Bibliography : Osman Nuri Peremeci, Edirne 
Tarihi, 1st. 1940, 167; A. Siiheyl Onver, Fatih ve 
Hekim Besir Celebi in Turk T%b Tarihi Arsivi 
21-22, 1943; idem, Fatih Kulliyesi ve Zamanl llim 
Hayati, 1st. 1946, 167 and 226-7; idem, llim ve 
Sanat Baktmtndan Fatih Devri Notlart I, 1st. 1948, 
13-16; idem, Edirnede Fatih'in Cihanniimd Kasrt, 
1st. 1953, 17-18. (V. L. Manage) 

BASHlR SHIHAB II, Amir of Lebanon, 1788- 
1840. Bom in 1180/1767 in the village of Ghazir. 
Bashir lost his father Amir Kasim in his early years 
and was soon compelled to try his fortune in the field 
of politics in Dayr al-Kamar, the capital of Lebanon. 
Robust, intelligent, and circumspect, he soon 
attracted attention as a possible candidate for the 
governorship of Lebanon. Shaykh Kasim Jumblat, 
a wealthy and powerful feudal lord, was the first to 
appreciate Bashir's gifts and possibilities. His first 
approaches were successful, and Kasim and Bashir 
became friends and allies. Their chance for common 
action came in 1788. Wearied by the heavy exactions 
of the Turkish Pashas of Sidon, Tripoli, and Damas- 
cus, Amir Yusuf Shihab, governor ol Lebanon, 
called the Notables of the Land to a meeting in 
Dayr al-Kamar to discuss the general situation. To 
their surprise, Amir Yusuf confessed his inability to 
come to an understanding with Djazzar Pasha [q.v.] 
of Sidon and called for advice regarding his successor. 
Shaykh Kasim and his supporters suggested young 
Bashir, and Amir Yusuf agreed. Bashir made the 
usual journey to c Akka, Djazzar's fortress, and came 
back Governor of Lebanon. 

A rapacious intriguer, Djazzar Pasha stimulated 
in 1209/1794 a number of Lebanese notables to revolt 
and induced one of the sons of Amir Yusuf to make a 
bid for the governorship of Lebanon. He then 
promised support to Bashir in return for a large sum 
of money. Having satisfied the greed of the Pasha, 
Bashir immediately set himself to the task of 
internal consolidation. In 1794, he permitted the 
Jumblats and the Amads to murder several Nakad 
chiefs in his own reception hall. Then, with the help 



of the Jumblats, he forced the Amad chiefs to leave 
Lebanon and seek refuge elsewhere (1799, 1808, 1819). 
In 1822/1237, he burdened the Jumblats with very 
heavy contributions,; and, in 1824, he defeated them 
in open battle and put them to flight. In the mean- 
time, Bashir strengthened his local levies and made 
of them the strongest military contingent in all 
Syria-Palestine. His fifteen thousand men were more 
than equal to all the soldiers of all the Pashas of 
Syria put together. .In addition, Lebanese levies 
were daring and extremely skilful in the manipu- 

In the meanwhile, Bashir's grants in aid to 
Christian Patriarchs and Archbishops and his acts 
of toleration were winning for him clerical support 
and French consular aid. In 1817, Pope Pius VII 
wrote in person to thank the Amir for his policy of 
religious toleration; and in 1835, Pope Gregory XVI 
addressed the Amir as a faithful son and praised his 
conversion. With his own co-religionists, the Druzes, 
Bashir behaved differently. Until his time the 
Druzes had had only one religious head, the Shaykh 
al-Akl. Bashir introduced a second head and set 
him up against his colleague. 

Bashir's greatest ambition was to ward off local 
Turkish intrigue and protect the historic autonomy 
of Lebanon. Circumspect and foxy, he refused to 
commit himself either for or against Napoleon at 
the time of his advance into Palestine. And, as soon 
as the French forces withdrew into Egypt, Bashir 
went down in person to the Grand Vizier's camp in 
al-Arish, 1799, and procured an Imperial firman 
which tied the Lebanon directly with the Sublime 
Porte. When the Grand Vizier died, this firman 
became null and void, and Bashir had to use other 
means. Djazzar's successor, Sulayman Pasha (1804- 
1819), was more humane; and Bashir courted his 
favour to stem the cupidity and inordinate desires 
of Kandj Pasha of Damascus. In 1810, Yusuf Kandj 
Pasha claimed direct control of the fertile valley 
of the Bekaa. When no amount of persuasion could 
change his desire, Bashir marched on Damascus at 
the head of a force, 15,000 strong, and Kandj fled 
to Egypt. In 1820, Bashir had to march again on 
Damascus and for the same reason. A year later, 
Darwlsh succeeded in gaining the good will of the 
Sublime Porte and marched against Bashir's ally, 
c Abd Allah Pasha, with substantial assistance from 
his colleague the Pasha of Aleppo. c Abd Allah then 
locked himself up in the fortress of 'Akka, and 
Bashir sought help in Egypt (1821-1822). 

Muhammad C A1I Pasha [q.v.] of Egypt was then 
laying the foundation of independence. He. had 
already sensed the hostile intentions of the Sufclime 
Porte and was preparing himself for a war of liberat- 
ion. He realised fully well the military importance of 
Amir Bashir and the strategic significance of Mount 
Lebanon. The two conferred together andf soon 
arrived at a complete understanding of the situation. 
Muhammad C A1I intervened in favour of ; 'Abd 
Allah Pasha at Constantinople and Bashir f came 
back to Lebanon completely victorious. 1 

In 1247/1831, Muhammad 'All decided to strike. 
The Sultan had lost heavily in both the Greek War of 
Independence and in the Russian War and had, in 
1826, dissolved the Janissaries. Emissaries of the 
Porte promised full respect of the privileges of 
Mount Lebanon, but Bashir's answer was, "You 
should not expect help from those whom you have 
always neglected". Lebanese levies fought 'Uthman 
Pasha in Tripoli, joined in the march on Damascus, 
protected the Egyptian commissariat and rear as far 
north as Aleppo. In return, Muhammad 'All Pasha 



BASHIR SHIHAB II — BASHMAKLIK 



1079 



recognised the ancient privileges of Lebanon, and 
promised to eschew direct interference in its internal 
affairs, (1833-40). But as the Sultan could never 
consider the new situation consistent with his 
dignity and honour, Muhammad 'Ali had to remain 
prepared for another trial. This meant more men for 
his army and more money for his growing expenses, 
and actually led to disarmament, compulsory 
military service and increased taxation. Unable to 
understand the Lebanese mentality, he ordered 
application of his new regulations in Lebanon and 
in the Druze Mountain of the Hawran, and had to 
stand the consequences. Troubles flared up in the 
Hawran in the autumn and winter of 1837-1838; 
and several thousand Egyptians perished. In the 
summer of 1253/1838, the Egyptians were routed 
again in the Anti-Lebanon. 

The impending clash between the Egyptian 
forces and the Ottoman Army took place in the 
early summer of 1839 at Nezib on the Turkish 
border. As the Egyptians put the Turks to flight 
and threatened to march on Constantinople, and as 
Russia was bound to come to the help of Turkey by 
the terms of the Treaty of Hunkar Iskelesi (1833), 
and as France had consistently favoured Muhammad 
'Ali Pasha, the Eastern Question was open again 
for discussion. British and Turkish emissaries 
visited Lebanon in disguise trying to win over 
Amir Bashir to their side. Bashir himself procrastin- 
ated, but the Lebanese rushed to arms in open revolt. 
By the summer of 1256/1840, France was isolated and 
the rest of the Big Powers, including Russia, signed the 
Treaty of London. Allied naval units arrived in 
Lebanese waters and a Turkish force was landed oif 
the Bay of Junieh. Lebanese, Turks, and blue- 
jackets defeated Ibrahim Pasha at Bahrsaf, and 
Bashir III was proclaimed Governor of Lebanon. 
Bashir II surrendered to the British in Sidon and 
was carried to Malta in exile. Several months later, 
he was allowed to establish himself in Asia Minor. 
He passed away in 1851, and was buried in the 
Armenian Catholic Church in Galata, Constantinople. 
In 1946, when Lebanon achieved the sort of independ- 
ence Bashir had sought, the Government of the 
Republic brought his remains to Lebanon and 
deposited them in the family vault in Bayt al-DIn. 
Bibliography: a) Documents: A. J.Rustum, 
Corpus of Arabic Documents relating to the History 
0/ Syria under Mehemet Ali Pasha, 1831-1841, 
5 vols., Beirut 1930-4; idem, Calendar of State 
Papers relating to the Affairs of Syria, 1805-1841, 
4 vols., Beirut 1940-3; Correspondence relative to 
the Affairs of the Levant, British Parliamentary 
Papers, 1833-1841, London; G. Douin, La 
Premiere Guerre de Syrie, 2 vols., Cairo 1931; 
E. Driault, L'Egypte et I'Europe, 1839-1841, 
4 vols., Cairo 1930-3. 

b) Narratives: H. Chehab, Le Liban a 
VEpoque des Emirs Chehabs, (Ed. Rustum et 
Boustany), 3 vols., Beirut 1933; Tannus al-CIrid- 
yak, Akhbdr al- A'ydn, Beirut 1859. (repr. 1954). 

c) Memoirs and Notes: R. Baz, Memoires, 
Beirut 1956; H. Guys, Beyrout et le Liban, Paris 
1850; F. Perrier, La Syrie sous le Gouvernement de 
Mehemet Ali, Paris 1842. 

d) Modern Works: H. Lammens, La Syrie, 
vol. 2, Beirut 1922; M. Chebli, Une histoire du 
Liban, Beirut 1955; P. K. Hitti, Lebanan in 
History, London 1957; A. J. Rustum, Bechir II 
entre le Sultan et le Khedive, Beirut 1956-7. For 
further bibliographical references, consult A. J. 
Rustum, Origins of the Egyptian Expedition 
to Syria, Beirut 1936. (A. J. Rustum) 



BASHKIR [see bashdjirt]. 

al BASHKUNISH, the Basques, a people of 
uncertain origin inhabiting the W. end of the 
Pyrenees and the adjacent part of the Cantabrian 
Mountains, with the Atlantic coast to the N. 
'Bashkunish' is evidently from Latin 'Vasc5nes', 
with the phonetic change v < b as elsewhere. The 
Basque language is called al-bashkiyya (Al-Rawd al- 
MiHar, ed. Levi-Provencal, 56). 

This principal centre of the Bashkunish was 
Pampeluna (Arabic Banbaluna, from an original 
Pompeiopolis), which became eventually the capital 
of Navarre. Their territory was invaded by Musa b. 
Nusayr at the time of the conquest of Spain (Kitdb 
al-Imdma wa 'l-siydsa, Coleccidn de Obras Ardbigas, 
ii, 132 ff.), and then or later but in any case before 
100/718-719, as Codera showed, Pampeluna capit- 
ulated to the Muslims. c Ukba b. al-Hadjdjadj 
(Umayyad governor of Spain for five years from 
116/734) settled a Muslim garrison there (Ibn 
'Idhari, ii, 28). A few years later (138/755-756) the 
Bashkunish were in revolt and destroyed a force 
sent to Pampeluna by the amir Yusuf al-Fihri, i.e., 
about the time of the arrival in Spain of c Abd al- 
Rahman I. At the time of the famous invasion of 
northern Spain by Charlemagne (161/778) Pampeluna 
submitted to him, but it was probably bands of 
Basques, joined by the Muslims, who cut his rear- 
guard to pieces at Roncesvalles (cf. Levi-Provencal, 
Hist. Esp. Mus., i, 1944, 89). In 164/780-781, or in 
the following year, towards the close of his long 
reign, c Abd al-Rahman I was obliged to move in 
person against the Bashkunish. 

By 798/182 the Basques of Pampeluna had 
renounced their Muslim allegiance, permanently as 
it turned out, and declared themselves vassals of 
Alfonso II, king of the Asturias. We soon hear of an 
independent Basque chief at Pampeluna, Gharsiya 
b. Wanku (Garcia Ifiiguez), who, as it appears, 
through his granddaughter Ifiiga, married to the 
Umayyad c Abd Allah, became the ancestor of c Abd 
al-Rahman III, al-Nasir. A fresh grouping of power 
among the Bashkunish took place in 905, when 
Sancho Garces I set aside the elder line, and effect- 
ively established the kingdom of Navarre. The western 
Basques continued to be subjects of the king of the 
Asturias. Henceforward what from the point of view 
of Muslim Spain has been called the 'Basque 
menace' (E. Levi-Provencal) is represented by the 
history of Navarre especially. 

Bibliography: F. Codera, Estudios criticos de 
Historia arabe espanola, 101-105, 169-184 (Pam- 
plona en el sigh VIII) ; Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. 
Mus., index. (D. M. Dunlop) 

BASHMAK [see al-na c l al-sharif]. 
BASHMAKLlK, a term applied under the Otto- 
man regime during the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries to fief revenues assigned to ladies of the 
sultan's harem for the purchase of their personal 
requirements, particularly clothes and slippers 
(bashmak or pashma^ meaning 'slipper" in Turkish). 
The word has not yet been found in any document 
earlier than the end of the sixteenth century, and 
ceased to be used from the beginning of the eigh- 
teenth. The ladies who qualified for the receipt of 
bashmaltllks were the sultan's mother (wdlide), his 
sisters, his daughters, his kadlns, and his khds sekis; 
but information is lacking on the different values 
of those assigned to each of these ranks, — if indeed 
there was any fixed scale at all. We know, however, 
that they were assigned for life and that during the 
seventeenth century they were often improperly 
enlarged beyond the usual revenue limit of 20,000 



BASHMAKLIK — BASHSHAR b. BURD 



a%£es a year by the addition to them of military 
fiefs that had fallen vacant. Though from early in 
the eighteenth century the term bashmafrlik fell out 
of use, fief revenues were still assigned to these mem- 
bers of the imperial fiarem, being known thence- 
forward simply as khdss and consisting, since virtually 
all revenues were by that date collected by tax-farm 
(mukatcfa), of the advance payments made by con- 
tractors for certain such farms. Towards the end of 
that century the practice was adopted of granting 
mukdta'as to the ladies concerned on mdlikdne, or 
life, tenures; but in the reform period such grants 
were finally abolished and annual cash allowances 
were paid to them in lieu. 

Bibliography: Kocu Bey, Risdle (Istanbul 

!303), 17, 34; Hammer, Des Osmanischen Reichs 

Staatsverfassung, ii, 34, 159; I. A. art (Gbkbilgin); 

Gibb and Bowen, Islamic Society and the West, i, 

part I, index. (H. Bowen) 

BASHMUflASABA [see maliyya]. 

BASHSHAR b. BURD, Abu Mu'adh, a famous 

'Iraki Arabic poet of the 2nd/8th century. His family 

was originally from Tukharistan or eastern Iran. 

His grandfather had been captured and taken to 

c Irak at the time of the expedition of al-Muhallab 

[q.v.]; his father, who was finally freed by an c Ukayli 

Arab lady of Basra, was a bricklayer of that town. 

Bashshar was born in Basra, the date being uncertain 

but probably about 95 or 96/714-5. For a long time 

he attached himself to c Ukayl as a dependent, 

without forgetting to glorify the memories of ancient 

Iran in accordance with his Shu'ubi leanings; but 

this was equally, no doubt, a good means of turning 

his detractors, attention away from his humble 

origins, which the fiction of his royal ancestry ill 

concealed (v. the naive genealogy of Bashshar given 

in Aghdni 3 , iii, 135). 

The gift of poetry is said to have been revealed 
in Bashshar when he was ten years old (see Aghdni 3 , 
iii, 143, 144: from a Basra source). His Basra environ- 
ment was nothing if not favourable to the growth 
of such a talent; the caravan halt or mirbad which 
was of such importance up to the middle of the 
3rd/9th century (cf. Pellat, Milieu basrien, 158 ff.) 
was for the young artist a kind of school in which 
he must have soaked himself in the poetic tradition 
then in full flower in central and eastern Arabia 
(see the anecdote in Aghdni 3 , iii, 143-5, which recounts 
the meeting of Bashshar with the Tamimi Djarir, 
then at the height of his fame; Brockelmann's 
suggestion, S I, 109, of confusion with a homonym 
of Djarir cannot be accepted). Bashshar's career 
embraces the activities of a writer of panegyric, 
elegy and satire. It is remarkable that blindness 
from birth and exceptional ugliness did not cause 
him to be shunned by women or by the important 
figures of his day. But he knew how to impress and 
to make himself feared by the quality of his praises 
and his epigrams. 

From the fragments or pieces which have come 
down to us Bashshar appears as the court poet of 
Umayyad governors such as Ibn Hubayra [q.v.] 
{see A ghdni 3 , iii, 197, 236) or Salm b. Kutayba (at 
the latest in 132/750) (see ibid., 190), or prince 
Sulayman, the son of the caliph Hisham (see Diwdn, 
i, 291-303); we even have a panegric on the last 
Umayyad ruler, Marwan (see Diwdn, i, 306 ff.). The 
advent of the c Abbasids does not seem to have 
checked the rising career of the poet, who was then 
thirty-seven years old. He was too clever a man 
not to adapt himself to the new state of affairs. It 
is difficult to follow the process in detail, but an ode 
originally in honour of the c Alid Ibrahim b. c Abd 



Allah is said to have been finally dedicated to the 
c Abbasid caliph al-Mansur {Aghdni 3 , iii, 213 bottom; 
cf. al- c Askari, Diwdn al-Ma'-dni, i, 136); if this fact 
is correct it is characteristic. Bashshar lived in 
Baghdad from the time of its foundation in 145/762 
(see al-Marzubani, Muwashshah, 247-8). His pane- 
gyrics were then dedicated either to prominent 
figures in Basra such as Sulayman al- c Absi (governor 
in 142/759-60) or his son (governor about 176/792) 
(see Aghdni 3 , iii, 165-7, 207; Pellat, 166, 280) or to 
such figures as c Ukba b. Salm (governor in 147/764) 
(see Aghdni 3 , iii, 174-5; cf. Pellat, index) or his son, 
Nafi c (governor in 151/768) (see A ghdni 3 , iii, 230; 
cf. Pellat, 281); several anecdotes give the impression 
that Bashshar was much in favour under the caliph 
al-Mansur, whom he probably accompanied on 
pilgrimage to Mecca (see A ghdni 3 , iii, 153, 159, 188, 
212, 239 especially Diwdn, i, 257, 275 {frasida of 
29 verses) and ii, 24) ; later relations between the 
monarch and the poet were to become strained 
(see infra). To these official connexions we owe much 
precious material on the poet's life. But doubtless 
they are not as important as Bashshar's connexions 
with the grammarians of Basra, such as Abu c Amr 
b. al-'Ala', Abu c Ubayda or al-Asma c i [q.v.] or with 
religious folk in that town such as Hasan al-Basri 
[q.v.] (d. 110/228; Aghdni 3 , iii, 169 f.) or Malik b. 
Dinar [q.v.] (d. 131/748; v. ibid., 170). His sarcastic 
remarks on the subject of these last two persons are 
in line with, and confirm, his taste for consorting 
with people ostracised because of their manners or 
religious beliefs. A "literature" more anecdotal than 
valuable gives a picture of this aspect of Bashshafs 
life; his adventures and half -sacrilegious escapades 
(thus A ghdni 3 , iii, 185-6, on a pretended pilgrimage to 
Mecca; and 233, on, his relationship with some Kiifa 
libertines. His diatribes against Hammad 'Adjrad 
show how lively these relations sometimes were 
(see ibid., iii, 137, 205, 223 bottom; al-Diahiz, Baydn, 
i, 30). His caustic temperament, his character and 
above all his sensitivity on the subject of his infirmity 
and lack of inheritance explain in large measure the 
poet's pungent invective against his rivals or 
enemies, though other grounds should not be 
forgotten which explain the rancour of these quarrels 
on the ideological plane. 

Shu'ubism is one of these causes (thus Aghdni 3 , 
iii, 138, 139 and especially 174-5, against the Bedouin 
poet c Ukba b. Ru'ba; v. also ibid., 166 the fragment 
against a Bedouin, and 203-4 m which a nobleman 
reproaches the poet with having stirred up the 
mawdli against their Arab patrons). Bashshar's posit- 
ion on the subject of Mu c tazilism reflects his fluc- 
tuating opinion of Wasil b. c Ata) [q.v.] (d. 131/748-9 
in Basra), whom he satirises, having previously 
flattered him (see al-Djahiz, Baydn, i, 16 ff., and 
again in Aghdni 3 , iii, 145 f. ; v. also the violent 
diatribes against each other of Bashshar and the 
Mu'tazilite poet Safwan al-Ansari of Basra, on which 
see Pellat, Milieu basrien, 175-7 with a translation 
of Safwan's verses). 

Bashshar's religious views remain unclear; they 
seem to have fluctuated, and Bashshar, as an 
opportunist, to have concealed his true mind. The 
reservations he makes on the subject of poets he 
appreciates such as al-Kumayt or al-Sayyid al- 
Himyari who lived in Basra from 147/764 to 157/773- 
4 (cf. Aghdni 3 , iii, 225, VII, 237, but the facts are 
uncertain) would tend to indicate that he was not 
a Shi'I (but see Pellat, 178, who thinks that 
Bashshar brought together the Shi c I views of the 
Kamiliyya, on which see id. 201). The accusation of 
zandaka made against Bashshar and the anecdotes 



BASHSHAR b. burd 



which illustrate it rather than give it substance point | 
to his holding heterogeneous views; among these 
views there are in fact to be found Manichaean 
beliefs strongly tinged with Zoroastrianism (see al- 
Djahiz, Bay an, i, 16: citation of the celebrated verse 
the Earth is dark and the Fire is resplendent and the 
Fire has been worshipped from the time that it existed; 
cf. the reference to this affirmation of Bashshar's 
in the refutation of the Mu c tazilite Safwan, ibid., 
i, 97, line 7; cf. also Fihrist, 338, line 10, which 
puts the poet among the Zindiks-Manichaeans of 
the 2nd/8th cent.). 

But along with these beliefs there would seem 
always to have been a profound scepticism (see 
Aghdni 3 , iii, 227, line 1 ii.-Diwan, ii, 246) mingled 
with a fatalistic outlook leading Bashshar to 
to pessimism and hedonism (ibid., 232, and the 
citation from Ibn Kutayba, c C/ya», i, 40 bottom). 
Like his fellows, Bashshar had to fall back on the. 
takiyya and profess an orthodoxy and a pious zeal 
which was totally opposed to his real convictions 
(thus, his verses against the heretic Ibn al- c Awdja 3 , 
who was executed at Kufa, Aghdni 3 , iii, 147, and 
above all the verse of the Diwdn, ii, 36, line 3, 
showing a strict Islamic orthodoxy). 

His prudence in this respect was not allowed to 
obscure the scandal of his manners, his epigrams 
and his heterodoxy. A plot engineered in Basra 
effected his ruin in the eyes of the caliph al-Mahdi 
(see the anecdotal accounts in Aghdni 3 , iii, 243 ff.), 
impinging as it did on matters of wider import, viz. 
the persecution under that ruler of all those covered 
by the name of zindik [q.v.] (see ibid., 246 bottom 
and ff. ; especially, Gabrieli, Appunti, 158). Bashshar 
was seized, beaten, and thrown into a swamp in 
the Batiha (al-Tabari, Cairo ed., vi, 401; AghdnP, 
iii, 247-8). This occurred in 167 or 168/784-5 when 
the poet was over seventy years of age (not ninety, 
as has been said through an orthographic confusion ; 
cf. AghdnP, iii, 247, 249, giving the two figures, of 
which only the second features in al-Khatib al- 
Baghdadl, Ta'rikh Baghdad, vii, 118 and Ibn 
Khallikan, i,- 88). 

Bashshar was famous in his day as an orator and 
letter- writer or prose- writer (al-Djahiz, Bay an, i, 49), 
but he owes his renown above all to his poetic gifts. 
His work in verse was as abundant as it was varied, 
but unfortunately has not come down to us in its 
original form. Being blind Bashshar was dependent 
on rdwis, of whom we know the names of four, 
notably the notorious Khalaf al-Ahmar (see A ghdni 3 , 
iii, 137, 164 (and ix, 112), 170, 189); but none of 
them troubled to put together the diwdn of their 
master. Occasional pieces, impromptus and epigrams 
were very quickly lost, while at the same time poems 
of more or less doubtful authenticity were attrib- 
uted to Bashshar (see gloss on Diwdn, i, 309). From 
the 3rd/9th century the poet's work was thus known 
only through the collections of the anthologists, 
such as Harun b. c Ali (d. 288/900-1 ; cf. Fihrist, 144) 
or Ahmad b. Abi Tahir Tayfur (d. 280/893), who had 
compiled an Ikhtiydr Shi'r Bashshar (see Fihrist, 147). 
It is known that in the last quarter of the 4th/ioth 
century Ibn al-Nadim consulted a collection of 
selected poems of about a thousand pages (v. 
Fihrist, 159 bottom). No account should however 
be taken of the Ikhtiydr min Shi c r Bashshar of the 
two brothers al-Khalidi of Mosul, which is not 
mentioned among their works by Ibn al-Nadim, 
op. cit., 169. This last work we know only through 
the extracts given by al-TudjIbl (5th/nth cent., ed. 
al-'AlawI, Aligarh 1935). A single manuscript of 
eastern origin (of the 6th/i2th century?), containing 



poems on rhymes from a to z, has been the basis of 
the edition of Ibn 'Ashur (3 vols., Cairo 1950-57), 
which is far from satisfactory. We see that the work 
of Bashshar can be studied only with caution. 

Bashshar writes in formal, tripartite kasidas, in a 
taut style, and though his poems may be conven- 
tional in form and theme they show a break with 
those of the preceding generation. The pithiness of 
his epigrams places him in the Umayyad satirist 
tradition (thus, Diwdn, ii, 66, against Hammad 
c Adjrad; also Aghdni 3 , iii, 188, 202); here also his 
taste for the baroque or for parody leads him to 
make innovations (thus, the prosopopeia on his ass, 
Aghdni 3 , iii, 231 bottom). But it is probably in elegy 
that he has made his name most remembered. 
Frequently, already, his bacchic themes tend 
towards the love-song, which might well be con- 
sidered the abandonment of a tradition of which 
the pastiches attributed to al-A c sha Maymun [q.v.] 
are questionable examples. The amorous elegies make 
up an important part of this work, and are addressed 
mainly to a Basran lady named c Abda, but also to 
other heroines whose names are probably fictitious. 
Now sensual and even realistic (thus Aghdni 3 , iii, 
155. 165, 182, 200 etc.), now suffused with courtly 
ingenuity, these poems seem to give two different 
responses to the eternal conflict within the oriental 
soul. Poems of an intellectual cast are also common, 
and though Bashshar is not really profound he 
avoids triviality and can make acute observations. 

Adaptability is the key-note of Bashshar's 
manner, which can be stylised and archaising in the 
kasida (thus, Diwdn, i, 306 ff.), but loosens and 
becomes delightfully free in the amorous elegies, in 
which the poet allows himself daring licences of 
language (thus Diwdn, ii, 5, line 7; 10, lines 3; 15, 
line 2). The dominant influence on Bashshar was 
indeed always the tradition he inherited from the 
desert poets; in many respects he is close to the 
Hidjaz "school" as we see it in c Umar b. Abi Rabi'a 
[q.v.]. But he contrived to enrich this tradition with 
the wealth of his own interior universe, the hard 
experience born of his physical disgrace and his 
contact with a confusing and turbulent world. 

The importance of Bashshar's place in the transi- 
tional period of poetry in the middle of the 2nd/8th 
century cannot be overestimated. The influence of 
the man and the artist is attested by the enthusiasm 
or hatred he awoke in his contemporaries. All in 
all he was considered one of the glories of Basra. 
His poems, often set to music, delighted the young 
and the feminine public, while the connaisseurs' 
opinion emerges from the "value judgments" 
attributed to such scholars as Abu c Ubayda, al- 
Asma c I, Khalaf al-Ahmar and a host of others 
(see Aghdni 3 , iii, passim). We know on the other hand 
in what esteem al-Djahiz held him (seeBaydn, index). 
Finally, Bashshar profoundly influenced the 
following generation of poets; statements to this 
effect in the biographies of Abu 'l- c Atahiya [q.v.], 
al- c Abbas b. al-Ahnaf [q.v.], Abu Nuwas [q.v.], Salm 
al-Khasir and many others are confirmed by the 
study of their works. At the present day eastern 
critics have readily been able to see in Bashshar 
one of the greatest names in Arab poetry. 

Bibliography: Ibn Kutayba, Shi'-r (ed. De 

Goeje), 476-79 and index; Djahiz, Bayan, ed. 

Harun, i, 49 and index (24 references of Bashshar) ; 

Aghanl 3 , iii, 135-249. iv, 15, 28-29, 33"34, 7o-2, 

vi, 227, 229, 232, 237 and tables; Fihrist 338; 

Khatib Baghdad!, Ta'rikh Baghdad, vii, 112-8; 

Marzubani, Muwashshah, 246-50; Ibn Khallikan, 

Cairo 1310, i, 89-90, ed. c Abd al-Hamid (Cairo), i, 



I0«2 



BASHSAR b. BURD — BASIRI 



245, no. no; for the other secondary biographical 
sources v. Brockelmann, S I, 40. On the back- 
ground, v. A. Mez, Renaissance; G. Vadja, Les 
Zindiq . . . au dibut de la periode abbaside, in RSO, 
xvii (1937), 173-229; Ch. Pellat, Le milieu basrien 
et la formation de Gdhiz, Paris 1953. 176-8, 256-9 
and index. Special studies on this poet by Di 
Matteo, La Poesia arabe nel I secolo degli '■A bbdsidi, 
Palermo 1935, 9-124; F. Gabrieli, Appunti su 
B.i.B., in BSOS ix (1937), 51-63. 

Articles and monographs in Arabic: Mahmud al- 
'Akkad, Murddja'-a fi 'l-Adab, Cairo 1925, 119- 
158; Maghribi, in MMIA, ix (1929), 705-22; 
T. Husayn, Ifadlth al-ArbiW 1 , i, 232-42; Husayn 
Mansur, Bashshar bayna 'l-djidd tea 'l-mudjun, 
Cairo 1930; Hanna Nimr, Bashshar b. Burd, Hims 
I 933> Himsl, Bashshar b. Burd, in al-Ra'd, 
Damascus 1949, 47-76; Alj. Hasanayn, Bashshar 
b. Burd, Shi c ru-hu wa-akhbaru-hu, Cairo 1925, 
109; Nuwayhl, Shakhsiyyat Bashshar, Cairo 1957, 
280. On the text and the diwdn of Bashshar see 
references in the article. (R. Blachere) 

BA SHSHA R al-SHA'IrI. Shl'ite heretic, flou- 
rished in the second century A.H. He lived in Kufa 
and earned his living by selling barley (shaHr), 
whence his name. According to the Minhddj and the 
Muntaha, he was sometimes mistakenly referred to 
as al-Ash'ari, instead of the correct al-Sha'iri. Ac- 
cording to traditions related by al-Kashshi, he was 
repudiated and disowned by the Imam Dja'far al- 
Sadik (Rididl 252-4; cf. 197, where 'Abu Bashshar 
al-Ash'ari 3 is denounced as a liar, together with such 
notorious heretics as al-Mughira b. Said, Bazigh, 
Abu'l-Khattab, Mu'ammar, and Hamza al-Barbarl. 
The passage in the edition is very corrupt). The 
Nusayri al-Khasibi describes Bashshar as a rdwi of 
Mufaddal b. 'Umar al-Dju'fl (Massignon, Salman 
44 n. 4) ; in a Nusayri text published by Strothmann 
he is reported as quoting a conversation with Dja'far 
al-Sadik, who gives the esoteric explanations of the 
basmala. 

A disciple of the Khattabiyya [q.v.] group among 
the extreme ShI'a, Bashshar is said to have preached 
the doctrine that C A1I was superior to Muhammad, 
since 'All was God and Muhammad only a messenger. 
He accepted the teachings of the Khattabiyya on 
four of the five deified persons, namely 'AH, Fatima, 
al-Hasan, and al-Husayn, but demoted Muhammad, 
to whom he assigned the r61e which the Khattabiyya 
assign to Salman al-Farisi. He was also accused of 
preaching libertinism, the denial of divine attri- 
butes, and metempsychosis. His followers were known 
-as 'Ulya'iyya [q.v.], a name that is variously inter- 
preted. One version is that they were so called when 
Bashshar, after teaching these doctrines, was changed 
into a sea-bird C-ulyd). 

Bibliography: Al-Kashshi, Ma'-rifat al-Rididl, 

Bombay 1317, 252-4; Al-Astaribadl, Minhddj al- 

Makdl, Tehran 1307, 68-9; al-Ha'iri, Muntaha 

al-Makdl, Tehran 1302, 65; L. Massignon, Sdlmdn 

Pdk, Tours 1934, 38, 44-5; R. Strothmann, 

Morgenldndische Geheimsekten in abendldndischer 

Forschung, Berlin 1953, 41-2; W. W. Rajkowski, 

Early ShiHsm in Irak, London University Ph. D. 

thesis 1955. (B. Lewis) 

al-BASIR, Abu c AlI al-Fadl b. Dja'far b. al- 

Fapl b. Yunus al-AnbarI al-Nahba'I al-Katib, 

poet and letter-writer of the first half of the 3rd/9th 

century. He was bom in Kufa in a family of Persian 

origin which had been living in al-Anbar, but moved 

to Kufa and settled in the quarter of the Yemenite 

tribe al-Nakha'. On account of his blindness he 



was nicknamed al-Basir and al-Darir (per anti- 
phrasin, see A. Fischer, ZDMG 61, 430). When 
Samarra was built in 221/836 he went to the new 
capital and in spite of his strong and even extreme 
Shl'ite leanings he eulogised al-Mu'tasim and his 
successors. He attached himself to al-Fath b. 
Khakan [q.v.] and his nephew c Ubayd Allah b. 
Yahya (see Ibn Khakan) and praised them in his 
poems (see e.g. Ibn Shadjari, Hamdsa 117; Mubarrad, 
Kdmil 6; Yakut Irshdd vi, 122; Ibn Rashlk, c Umda, 
i 78). He was acquainted with Abu 'l-'Ayna' [q.v.], 
Sa'id b. Humayd, Ibn Abi Tahir [q.v.], Abu Hiffan 
and other men of letters; they addressed to each 
other witty verses and satirical lampoons. He was 
a gifted writer; some of his admirers ranked him even 
higher than Djarir. He had a poor opinion of the 
poetry of Abu Nuwas and Muslim b. al-Walid (see 
Marzubani, Muwashshah 282 f.). Abu '1-Hasan Ibn 
al-Munadjdjim in the appendix to his father's KUdb 
al-Bdhir and Ibn TJadjib al-Nu c man in his Ash'ar 
al-Kuttdb devoted both a chapter to his poems 
(Fihrist 144, 1 ; 166, 23). His Diwdn and the collection 
of his letters are lost. Amongst his verses which ha^e 
come down to us, are some, that can be dated: e.g. 
a poem, composed in 247/861, when al-Mutawakkil 
went from Samarra to his new residence al-Dja c fa- 
riyya (Yakut, ii, 87; read al-Basir instead of al- 
Basri), a few lines of a long poem, urging al-Musta'to 
in 249/863 to appoint his son al- 'Abbas heir-apparent 
(Mas'udi, Murudi vii, 346; read Abu [ C A1I] al-Basir) 
and congratulatory verses on the occasion of the 
accession of al-Mu c tazz to the throne 4 Muharram 
252/25 January 866 (Mas'udi, Murudi vii, 378). This 
shows incidentally that contrary to the statement of 
Marzubani he did not die during the civil war 251/865. 
Ibn Hadjar places his death in the reign of al- 
Mu'tamid (256-79/870-92). 

Bibliography: Fihrist 123; Marzubani, 
Mu l diam al-Shu'ard 3 314 Krenkow; Ibn Hadjai', 
Lisdn al-Mizdn iv, 438; Mas'udi, Murudi vii, 
328 ff., 346. See also Kali, Amdli; Ibn Shadjari, 
ffamdsa (register s.v. a. 'All al-Darir); Tha'alibl, 
Thimdr ai-Kulub 44, 164, 268, 483, 496; Aghdni 1 x, 
108; xx, 41. (J. W. Fuck) 

BASlRl, (c.1465-1535) Turkish and Persian 
poet. Although Latlfl and 'Ali (Kunh al-Akhbdr) 
record that he came to Rum from the realm 
of Persia, it is clearly stated in the tadhkira 
of Riyadi and in the Kashf al-Zunun that he was 
from Baghdad. Because of a diseased condition 
(barash) from which he suffered, he was called 
Aladja ('Blotchy") Basiri. He grew up in the scholarly 
and literary milieu of Harat, and frequented the 
circles of Sultan Husayn Baykara (1438-1507), 
DjamI (1424-92), and Nawa'l (1441-1501). As he is 
not mentioned in the last-named's Madidlis al- 
Nafd'is, he could not yet have won fame in that 
environment, but he is mentioned among the poets 
of Sellm I in the supplement written by Hakim 
Muhammad Shah-i Kazwlnl to his Persian trans- 
lation of the Madidlis al-NafdHs. Basiri left Harat 
for Rum some time before 1492, bringing the books 
and ghazals of Diami and Nawal, and various 
commissions to execute for them. For a while he 
was in the service of the Ak Koyunlu. When Ahmad 
Gode, son of Ughurlu, came to the Ak Koyunlu 
throne (1496), Basiri was sent as his ambassador to 
Sultan Bayazld II, reaching Istanbul in 1496 or 
1497. On Aljmad Gode's death in battle in the 
neighbourhood of Isfahan in the latter year, Basiri 
decided not to return to Persia but to settle in 
Istanbul. He later attached himself to Mu'ayyadzade, 



BASlRl — BASlT WA MURAKKAB 



1083 



ftadi 'asker from 1503 to 1507, and became one of his 
intimates. The testimony of the tadhkiras is that it 
was Basin who brought the dlwan of Nawal to Rum. 
While he wrote Persian poetry, Baslri, being 
brought up in the circle of Husayn Baykara and 
Nawal, had a detailed knowledge of Turkish 
language and literature. After his arrival in Rum, 
he adapted himself to his new literary environ- 
ment with such success, thanks to his power- 
ful intellect, as to win the favourable mention 
of the authors of the tadhkiras. Being an elegant 
and witty versifier he was much in demand in the 
salons of the great. In the reign of Suleyman he was 
one of the associates of the defterddr Iskender 
Celebi, and was given an income from the awkdf of 
Aya Sofya and from the imperial treasury. His 
poems, both Persian and Turkish, show that he had 
a sound knowledge of the sciences which in that age 
were the necessary concomitants of poetry and on 
wbich poetry fed. The chief features of his poetry 
are wit, elegance, and particularly the devices of 
Hinds and ihdm. Although it influenced the local 
literature, his work does not display the charac- 
teristics of 16th-century Anatolian classical litera- 
ture, but is closer to that of 15th-century Persia. 
His neat lampoons and witticisms offended no one. 
Some of these witticisms are quoted in the tadhkiras 
and he himself incorporated them into a risdla. 
Apart from his Turkish diwdn, he wrote a Bengi- 
ndme. He died in Istanbul, in his 70th year. 

Bibliography: Hakim Muhammad Shah-i 
Kazwini's translation of Madidlis al-Nafd'is; the 
tadhkiras of Sehl Bey, Latifi, Hasan Celebi, 
c Ashik Celebi, and RiyadI; Kashf al-Zunun. 

(Ali Nihad Tarlan) 
al-BASIT, Span. Albacete, Spanish town, chief 
town of the province of the same name which 
comprises the north-western portion of the old 
kingdom of Murcia, situated S.-W. of la Mancha and 
New Castile, on the S.E. slopes of the Meseta of 
Central Iberia at an altitude of 700 m. The modern 
name derives from the Arabic al-BasIt ("lugar ancho 
y extendido y llano y raso") and not from al-BasIta 
("the plain") as is still often stated. The place and 
the name are found for the first time in al-Dabbi of 
Cordova and Ibn al-Abbar of Valencia in the 7th/ 
13th century, in connexion with the great battle of 
30 Sha'ban 540/5 February 1146, a date confirmed 
by a laconic passage in the Annates Toledanos 
(ed. Huici Miranda 347, in Las Crinicas latinas de 
la Reconquisia, I): 'C'ahedola [Sayf al-Dawla al- 
-Mustansir Ahmad b. Hud] did battle with the 
Christians, and they killed him in the month of 
February 1184" (Spanish era = n 46 Christian era). 
The battle, which was quite an ordinary engagement, 
was not between Alfonso VII of Castile and his tribu- 
tary, the short-lived king of south-eastern Spain which 
was entirely subject to him, but between the latter 
and the Castilian Counts sent by Alfonso VII to 
subjugate the rebels of Baeza, Ubeda and Jaen, who 
withheld their tribute from Sayf al-Dawla. The rebels, 
seeing their lands pillaged by the Christians, again 
submitted to their amir in order that he might save 
them from the Counts, who refused to suspend 
operations and, when Sayf al-Dawla took up arms 
against them, routed him and took him prisoner. While 
he was being led to their camp, certain soldiers, called 
Pardos, put him to death, much to the regret of the 
Counts and Alfonso VII himself". With him was 
killed his ally the governor of Valencia c Abd Allah b. 
Muhammad b. Sa'd; the latter is for this reason 
known by the Arabs as Sahib al-Basit, "Master 



(martyr) of Albacete". The battle is also called the 
battle of al-Ludjdj (Ibn al-Abbar: bi 'l-mawi}? al- 
ma'ruf bi 'l-ludiH wa bi 'l-basif l ala makraba min 
djindidlla) in the vicinity of Chinchilla. Al-Ludjdj 
the place (and the river) may be identified either 
with Lezura to the west, or with Alatoz to the east 
of Albacete, on the northern slopes of the Sierra of 
Chinchilla (in the latter case it should read Latudjdj). 
It is -not possible to settle the problem; Fahs al- 
Ludjdj is found as early as Ibn al-Kardabus (cf. 
Dozy, Scriptorum arabum loci de Abbadidis, ii, 19), 
Bibliography : Dabbi (ed. Codera and Ribera), 

33; Ibn al-Abbar, al-Hulla al-Siyara' (Dozy. 

Notices, 215, 219, 226); Codera, Decadencia y 

desaparicion de los Almoravides en Espana, 

Saragossa 1899, 86, 109; Gaspar Remiro, Murcia 

Musulmana, Saragossa 1905, 179 ff.; Seybold, in 

ZDMG, lxii. 

(C. F. Seybold-[A. Huici Miranda]) 

BASlT [see c arOd]. 

BASlT WA MURAKKAB. Basif and murakkab 
(simple and composite) are translations of the Greek 
a7tXou<; and cuvdeTO?. In Arabic grammar (but also 
in philosophy and medicine), the term mufrad is 
used for basit. In grammar, mufrad and murakkab 
correspond to simple nouns and their construct 
states, in medicine to constituents and their com- 
pounds. In logic, mathematics and music, again, the 
term mu'allaf is more commonly used for murakkab, 
while it is in physics and medicine alone that the 
term mumtazidi is used sometimes as an equivalent 
of and sometimes as distinguished from murakkab, 
secundum prius et posterius. 

Something can be simple either absolutely or 
relatively: an absolutely simple thing is that which 
cannot be further sub-divided into simpler parts 
either physically or cdnceptually ; an atom is an 
example of the first, a highest genus of the second 
type (for the definition of the simple as indivisible 
see, e.g., Aristotle, Metaphysics, 989b 17). A relatively 
simple thing is a constituent in a further complex 
while in itself it may be divisible. Again, from the 
point of view of the 'composition' of form and matter 
(and the whole of the material world is so composite), 
either purely immaterial entities are simple or the 
primitive matter which is devoid of any form, 
although Aristotle and the Muslim philosophers 
restrict the term metaphysically to the former 
category. 

In the actual material world (for the primitive 
matter does not exist), the four elements, fire, air, 
water and earth are regarded as the basic simple 
bodies by the composition of which every other 
material object comes, into existence. According to 
Aristotle (the chief treatment of the subject is De 
Gen. et Corr, I, ch.io), a form of composition in which 
the constituents retain their identity is oiivdeoK;, 
e.g., when sugar is mixed with sand, while in a real 
composition, called (xei^i?, the parts lose their 
identity and share a common quality which, in many 
cases, may be different from that of the individual 
constituents. The former, kind of 'composition' is 
not mentioned by the Muslim philosophers. They 
say that in certain combinations, e.g., in the case of 
compound numbers, figures or tunes, a certain total 
quality emerges which does not belong to individual 
parts which also keep their identity, while in others 
the parts as such share the quality of the whole 
(e.g., in flesh) which is called mutashdbih al-adizd' 
(6xoiO(jiep£<;). Whereas in the animal organism, each 
part, e.g., flesh, bones etc. is separately constituted 
in this way, but not the total organism, in the case 



1084 



BASlT WA MURAKKAB — BASMALA 



of the heavenly bodies, each body is mutashdbih al- 
adizd'. The final qualitative pattern resulting from 
definite proportions of the constituents of a given 
mixture (i.e., hot, cold, moist and dry) is called 
mizddi, whereas the particular form which a com- 
pound takes on due to this mizddi is called sura 
(or hay'a) tarkibiyya. Thus the mizddi (temperament) 
of a piece of living flesh is the final pattern of the 
mixture of the four primary qualities, while its 
sura tarkibiyya is the form of "fleshiness" (cf. 
Aristotle, De Part. An. 642a 18 f.; De. An, 408a 5 D- 

We said above that pure forms unmixed with 
matter are simple in the real sense. This is patently 
the case with intellect which not only knows pure 
universals but in whose act of knowing the duality 
of subject and object is removed. This kind of 
simplicity again admits of various degrees and 
works upwards from the human mind, through the 
separate intelligences, to God, in whose mind there 
is no multiplicity of objects. According to philo- 
sophers like Avicenna, who believe everything other 
than God to be composed of essence and existence, 
God alone is absolutely simple, not only in the 
operations of His mind but also in the necessary 
fact of His existence (see mahiyya wa wu&jud). 

There is no special treatise on the subject and the 
various application of the term can be studied 
only within the contexts of the special doctrines of 
the philosophers, chiefly in their physical and 
metaphysical works. As a further Gresk source of 
the Muslims' physical doctrine see Alexander of 
Aphrodisias, Scripta Minora II, Trepl xpacetoi; xal 
au^eto?. (F. Rahman) 

BASMAClS (in Ozbek "brigand"), the name 
given by the Russians to a revolutionary movement 
of the Muslim peoples of Turkestan against Soviet 
authority which broke out in 1918 and lasted until 
1930 or even later. See turkistan, Uzbek, ta&jIk, 

KHOKAND. KHIVA, TURKMEN, ENWER PASHA. 

(A. Bennigsen) 
BASMALA is the formula WW Udh' l-rahmdn' 
l-rahim*, also called tasmiya (to pronounce the 
[divine] Name). Common translation: "In the name 
of God, the Clement, the Merciful"; R. Blachere's 
translation: "In the name of God, the Merciful 
Benefactor", etc. The formula occurs twice in the 
text of the Kur'an: in its complete form in Sura 
xxvii, 30, where it opens Solomon's letter to the 
queen of Sheba: "It is from Solomon and reads: In 
the name of God, the Merciful Benefactor"; on a 
second occasion, in its abridged form in Sura xi, 43 : 
"(Noah) said: Ascend into the ark! May its voyaging 
and its anchorage be in the name of God". Finally 
in its complete form, it begins each of the Kur'anic 
Suras, with the exception of Sura ix. 

The invocation of the basmala, at the beginning 
of every important act, calls down the divine 
blessing upon this act and consecrates it. It gives 
validity, from the Muslim point of view, to a very 
widespread custom, invalidating the Arab formulae 
of the didhiliyya: "in the name of al-Ldt" or: "in the 
name of al-'Uzzd" ; and even the formulae where the 
name of a deity did not appear, such as the invitation 
to a wedding feast bi 'l-rifd wa 'l-banin or again 
6* 'l-yumn. The Meccans, when they were not yet 
converted to Islam, protested against the reference 
to al-Rafimdn (see below). At the treaty of Hudaybyya 
(6/628), they succeeded in having bismika AUdhumma 
("in your name, O my God") adopted. 

In writing it is customary to omit the initial alif 
of the word ism "name" (bismi). Tradition rests this 
orthography on the authority of c Umar, who is 



supposed to have said to his scribe: "Lengthen the 
bd', make the teeth of the sin prominent and round 
off the mim." Tradition also indicates that the lam 
of Allah should be inclined. The formula became a 
popular motif of decoration in manuscripts and 
architectural ornamentation. 

The benedictory power of the basmala is widely 
put to work in the composition of the talismans 
admitted by the sihr (lawful magic). It is said 
that the formula was inscribed upon Adam's thigh, 
upon the wing of the angel Gabriel, the seal of 
Solomon and the tongue of Jesus (see Doutte, Magie 
et Religion dans I'Afrique du Nord, 211). 

Problems. 

1) In the Knr'an, Zamakhsharl informs us that 
the readers of the Kur'an and the jurists of Medina, 
Basra and Syria did not count the basmala at the 
beginning of the Fdtiha and the other Suras as a 
verse. In their view its presence in these places 
served simply to separate the Suras and as a 
benediction. This is also the opinion of Abu Hanlfa, 
and explains why those who follow his doctrine do 
not pronounce these words aloud during the ritual 
worship. On the other hand the readers and the 
jurists of Mecca and Kufa did reckon the basmala 
as a verse and pronounced it aloud. This is the view 
of al-Shafi c I. It is founded upon the usage of the 
ancients, for they wrote the basmala on the leaves 
on which they recorded the Kur'anic texts, whereas 
they omitted the word amin. This opinion is followed 
in the current official edition of Cairo. 

2) In the acts of daily life. Acts which are 
classified as obligatory or praiseworthy should always 
be preceded by the basmala unless "the Law-giver has 
decided otherwise", as, for example, in the salat 
which begins with Alldhu akbar; also, according to 
tradition, in the recitation of a dhikr (repeated 
mention of a divine Name). In all other cases the 
basmala must be written or pronounced, ijadith: 
"every important matter which is not begun with 
the basmala will be cut off (or mutilated or amputated, 
according to the different versions)", that is to say 
"will be defective and hardly blessed by God; ap- 
parently complete, it will be spiritually incomplete". 
Al-Badjuri (ffdshiya, 3) comments: "The adjective 
"important" signifies: a thing having a legal value 
(hukm), that is to say having a certain relationship 
with the law. It is not, then, a question of a thing 
which is bad, nor of one which is forbidden or blame- 
worthy". Particular applications. Solemn 
writings or acts ought to begin with the full formula. 
It is required in its abbreviated form before the 
commencement of the approved acts of daily life, 
especially before eating (cf. the Risdla of al-Kay- 
rawani, 236). An act the quality of which may differ 
according to the circumstances will receive divine 
blessing if it is preceded by the basmala: marital 
sex-relations for example (al-Bukhari, wudu 1 , 8). 
Finally the basmala is authorised where it is a question 
of an act which by accident becomes forbidden or 
blameworthy (al-Badjurf, ibid.). 

3) The meaning of "Rahman" [q.v.]. In general 
the Muslim commentators regard rahmdn and rahim as 
two epithets from the root R}fM, whence the trans- 
lations: clement, or benefactor, or most merciful for 
rahmdn, and merciful for rahim. However, contrary 
to the opinion of B. Carra de Vaux {EI 1 , s.v. 
Basmala), it seems certain that Rahmdn was in use 
prior to Islam in southern and central Arabia (Yaman 
and Yamama) as a personal name of God, meaning 
the single and merciful God. On the day following 



BASMALA — A 



the death of the prophet Musaylima still appears 
in the Yamama claiming to receive direct revelations 
from al-Rahmdn. In the Kur'an: i) rahim alone 
appears in the list of the most Beautiful Names 
(adjectives), and it is to be found, in the mass of the 
text, sometimes as al-rahim and sometimes as rahim 
without the article; al-rahmdn on the other hand 
is always preceded by the article; 2) the Meccans 
of the di&hiliyya refused to recognise al-Rahmdn 
as a Name of God (cf. J. Jomier, Le nom divin 
"al-Rahmdn" dans le Coran, 366-367, with references 
to al-Tabari). It seems that this divine Name 
appears in the Kur'anic preaching in order to stress 
more force fully the absolute Mercy of the Single 
God; furthermore "whatever is said in the Kur'an 
about al-Rahmdn is said elsewhere about Allah" 
(Jomier, 370). 

That al-Rahmdn should have been the name of 
the single God in central and southern Arabia is 
in no way incompatible with the fact that, when 
adopted by Islam, it assumes a grammatical form 
of a word derived from the root RffM. The tripartite 
formula which "opens" each Kur'anic sura and 
each consecrated act of Muslim life evokes the 
mystery of the One God who is Lord of the Mercies. 
It is to this mystery that the basmala owes, in the 
eyes of the Muslim who pronounces it, its power of 
benediction. 

Bibliography: The references in the text of 
the article may be supplemented and expanded by: 
Badjuri, Hdshiya . . . 'aid Diawharat al-tawhid, ed. 
Cairo 1352/1934, 2-4; KayrawanI, Risdla, ed. 
Bulak 1319, and the translation of Fagnan, Paris 
1914, 236/251; R. Blachere, Le Coran, Paris 1947, 
i, Introduction, 142-144; J- Jomier, Le nom divin 
"al-Rahmdn" dans le Coran, in Milanges Louis 
Massignon, ii, Damascus 1957, 361-381 (contain- 
ing numerous references to the text and the 
commentaries); Y. Moubarac, Les itudes d'ipi- 
graphie sud-simitique et la naissance de I'lslam, 
second part, REI 1957, 58-61. For extremist 
ShiHe interpretations of the Basmala, see Ivanow, 
Studies in Early Persian IsmaiHsm* Bombay 
1955, 68: and R. Strothinann, Morgenldndische 
Geheimsekten . . ., Berlin 1953, 41-2. 

(B. Carra de Vaux [L. Gardet]) 
al-BASRA (in mediaeval Europe: Balsora; in 
Tavernier: Balsara; orthodox modern European: 
Basra, Basrah, Bassora), a town of Lower- 
Mesopotamia, on the Shaft al-'Arab, 279 m. 
(420 km.) to the south-east of Baghdad. In the 
course of history the site of the town has changed 
somewhat, and we may distinguish between Old 
Basra, marked today by the village of Zubayr, and 
New Basra, which was founded in the nth/i8th 
century in the proximity of the ancient al-Ubulla 
[q.v.] and which is the starting point of the modern 
town of Basra, for the rapid growth of which the 
discovery of oil to the west of Zubayr is responsible. 



I. I 



>nques 



(656/12 

Although probably built on the site of ancient 
Diriditis (= Teredon) and more certainly on the 
site of the Persian settlement which bore the name 
of Vahishtabadh Ardasher, the Muslim town can 
be considered as a new construction. After having 
camped, in 14/635, on the ruins of the old Persian 
post called by the Arabs al-Khurayba ("the little 
ruin"), the Companion of the Prophet c Utba b. 
Ghazwan [q.v.] chose this location, in 17/638, to 
establish, on orders from c Umar b. al-Khattab. the 



military camp which was the basis of the town of 
al-Basra (the name of which is probably derived 
from the nature of the soil). Situated at a distance 
of approximately fifteen km. from the Shaft al- 
'Arab, this camp was destined to afford a control 
over the route from the Persian gulf, from 'Irak 
and from Persia, and to constitute a starting base 
for the subsequent expeditions to the east of the 
Euphrates and the Tigris, while at the same time 
it contributed to the settlement of the Bedouin. 
At the outset the dwelling places were simple huts 
made out of rushes which were easily gathered from 
the neighbouring Bata'ih [see al-batiha] ; they were 
subsequently strengthened with low walls, and then, 
after a conflagration, rebuilt with crude bricks. It 
was only under Ziyad b. Abl Sufyan that the latter 
were replaced by baked bricks and that the town 
began to assume a truly town-like appearance, with a 
new Great Mosque and a residence for the governor; 
the rampart, bordered by a ditch, was not constructed 
until 155/771-2. At all times the supplying of al- 
Basra with drinking water posed a grave problem 
and, in spite of the digging of different canals and 
the utilisation of the bed of the ancient Pallacopas 
to provide the town with a river port, the inhabitants 
were forced to go as far as the Tigris to get their 

This inconvenience, added to the rigours of the 
climate, would have been enough to prevent the 
military encampment becoming a great city, but 
political, economic and psychological factors were 
sufficiently strong to keep the Basrans in the town 
which owed its development to them, until the time 
when other factors intervened — in the first place the 
foundation of Baghdad, and then the degeneration of 
the central power and political anarchy, which ushered 
in a decline as total as the growth had been rapid. 

At the beginning of its existence, al-Basra provided 
contingents for the Arab armies of conquest, and the 
men of Basra took part in the battle of Nihawand 
(21/642), and the conquests of Istakhr. Fars, Khu- 
rasan and Sidjistan (29/650). At this stage the 
military camp was playing its natural rflle, but then 
the booty began to flow in and the men of Basra 
began to be aware of their importance; then it was 
that the pace of events accelerated and the town 
became the stage for the first great armed conflict 
in which Muslims fought against their brother 
Muslims, the battle of the Camel (36/656 [see al- 
Pjamal]). Before the fight the inhabitants had been 
divided in their loyalties, and the victory of £ Ali b. 
Abi Talib served only to increase their disorder, but, 
on the whole, the population remained, and was to 
remain, more Sunni than Shi'i, in contrast to c Alid 
Kufa. In the following year (37/657) men from 
Basra took part in the battle of Siffin [q.v.] in the 
ranks of 'All, but it was, at the same time, also from 
Basra that a considerable number of the first 
Kharidus were recruited. In 41/662 Mu'awiya re- 
asserted the authority of the Umayyads over the 
town, and then sent there, in 45/665, Ziyad, who 
may, to a certain degree, be considered as the 
artisan of the town's prosperity. Basra was 
divided into five tribal departments {khums, pi. 
aftfemas): Ahl al-'Aliya (the inhabitants of the high 
district of Hidjaz), Tamim, Bakr b. Wall, c Abd 
al-Kays and Azd. These Arab elements constituted 
the military aristocracy of al-Basra and absorbed, 
in the rank of mawdli or slaves, the indigenous 
population (undoubtedly relatively few in number) 
and a host of immigrant peoples (Iranians, Indians, 
people from Sind, Malays, Zandj, etc.), who espoused 



the quarrels of their masters, among whom the old 
tribal c asabiyya was slow to lose its force. The local 
situation was aggravated under the rule of the 
governor c Ubayd Allah b. Ziyad, and on his death 
(64/683) serious disturbances broke out; after a 
period of anarchy the Zubayrids seized control of 
al-Basra which remained under their authority 
until 72/691. During the following years the primary 
concern of the Umayyads was to be the suppression 
of a number of uprisings, the most important of 
which was that of Ibn al-Ash c ath [q.v.] in 81/701. 
The period of calm which then prevailed until the 
death of al-Hadjdjadj (95/714) was only to be 
further disrupted by the revolt of the Muhallabids 
in 101-2/719-20 and certain seditions of a minor 
character. The town then passed, without too much 
difficulty, under the control of the c Abbasids, but 
the proximity, of the new capital was not slow in 
robbing al-Basra of its character of a semi-indepen- 
dent metropolis which it had possessed since its 
foundation ; it became henceforth a simple provincial 
town, periodically threatened by revolts of a 
character more social than political; first the revolt 
of the Zott [q.v.], who spread a reign of terror in the 
region from 205 to 220/820-35, then the Zandj [q.v.], 
who seized power in 257/871, and finally the Kar- 
matians who plundered it in 311/923; shortly after 
this it fell into the hands of the Baridids [q.v.], 
from whom the Buwayhids [q.v.] recaptured it in 
336/947; then it passed under the sway of the Maz- 
yadids [q.v.] and experienced a resurgence of 
prosperity, although the new rampart constructed 
in 517/1123, at a distance of 2 km. within the old 
one, which had been destroyed towards the end of 
the 5th/nth century, is sufficient proof of the 
decline of the town. The neighbouring nomads 
(in particular the Muntafik) took advantage of the 
political anarchy to subject the town to their 
depredations; from 537/1142/3, affirms a copyist of 
Ibn Hawkal, a number of buildings were destroyed; 
and in our time there is nothing left of the ancient 
metropolis save a building known by the name of 
Masdjid <A11 and the tombs of Talha, al-Zubayr, Ibn 
Shin and al-tfasan al-Basrt. 

The town reached its zenith in the 2nd/8th 
century and the beginning of the 3rd/gth century. 
At this period it was fully developed and its popu- 
lation had increased to considerable proportions. 
Although the figures given are wildly divergent 
(varying from 200,000 to 600,000), al-Basra was, 
for the Middle Ages, a very great city and, what is 
more, a "complete metropolis": it was at the same 
time a commercial centre, with its Mirbad which 
was halting place for caravans and its river port, 
al-Kalla 1 , which accomodated ships of fairly large 
tonnage; a financial centre, thanks to the Jewish 
and Christian elements and the bourgeois of non- 
Arab stock; an industrial centre with its arsenals; 
even an agricultural centre with its numerous 
varieties of dates ; and finally the home of an intense 
religious and intellectual activity. "Basra, in fact, 
is the veritable crucible in which Islamic culture 
assumed its form, crystallised in the classical mould, 
between the first and 4th century of the hidjra 
(from 16/637 to 311/923)" (L. Massignon). It is, in 
fact, worth remembering that it was here that 
Arabic grammar was born and made illustrious by 
Sibawayh and al-Khalil b. Ahmad in particular, 
and that Mu'tazilism was developed with Wasil b. 
c Ata', 'Amr b. c Ubayd, Abu '1-Hudhayl, al-Nazzam 
and so many others; here also it was that scholars 
such as Abu 'Amr b. al-'Ala, Abu 'Ubayda, al- 



Asma'I and Abu '1-Hasan al-Mada'ini collected 
verses and historical traditions which nurtured the 
works of later writers. In the religious sphere the 
sciences shone with an intense brilliance, while al- 
Hasan al-Basrl and his disciples founded mysticism. 
In the field of poetry al-Basra can claim the great 
Umayyad poets and the modernists Bashshar b. 
Burd and Abu Nuwas; finally it was in this town that 
Arabic prose was born, with Ibn al-Mukaffa c , Sahl 
b. Harun and al-Djahiz. After the 3rd/gth century 
the intellectual degeneration is not so clearly marked 
as the political and economic decline, and, thanks to 
Ibn Sawwar, the town was endowed with a library 
whose fame was to endure; the Ikhwan al-Safa 1 and 
al-Hariri made their contribution to the maintenance 
of the ancient city's prestige, but Arab culture in 
general was already decadent, and Baghdad, as well 
as other provincial capitals, tended to supplant al- 
Basra completely. 

Bibliography: The history of al-Basra was 
written by at least four authors — c Umar b. 
Shabba, Mada'ini, Sadji and Ibn al-A c rabI— , but 
their works have not been discovered and it is 
necessary to refer to the great historical, biograph- 
ical and geographical texts of Balacihuri, Tabari, 
Ibn Sa c d, Ibn al-Athir, Ibn al-Faklh, al-Istakhrl, 
Mukaddasi, Idrisi, Yakut etc. These works have, 
moreover, been used by L. Caetani, Annali, iii, 
292-309, 769-84 (see also the same author's 
Chronographia, passim) and Le Strange, 44-6, 
as well as by Ch. Pellat, Le Milieu basrien et la 
formation de Gdhiz, Paris 1953, where there is to 
found a history of the town from its foundation 
up to the middle of the 3rd/gth century and a 
bibliography, to which might be added particu- 
larly J. Saint-Martin, Recherches sur I'histoire et 
la giographie de la Misene et de la Characene, Paris 
1838, 47 ff., Rawlinson, The five Great Monar- 
chies, iii, 290 and Nasir-i Khusraw, Sa/ar-ndma. 
The ancient topography of the town is the subject 
of a detailed monograph by Salih al- c Ali, Khijat 
al-Basra, in Sumer, 1952, 72-83, 281-303 (see also 
the subsequent numbers of Sumer), and of a 
stimulating paper by L. Massignon, Explication 
du plan de Basra in the Westostliche Abhandlungen 
R. Tschudi . . ., Wiesbaden 1954, 154-74, with two 
sketch maps showing firstly the site of both 
Basras and secondly the location of the akhmds, 
The social and economic institutions of the istf 
7th century have been studied in a most profound 
way by Salih al- c Ali, al-Tanzimdt al-idjtimd'iyya 
wa-l-i&isddiyya /» l-Basra, Baghdad 1953 (with a 
full bibliography). (Ch. Pellat) 

II. Modern Basra 
Basra, already much reduced in size and vitality in 
the 5th-7th/nth-i3th centuries, was further and 
faster debilitated by the destruction, near-anarchy 
and neglect which followed Hiilegii's visit to c IrSk in 
656/1258, and the installation there of an 11 Khan 
government, for which Basra was the remotest 
of provinces, with periods of disturbance, insur 
gence or secession. In the mid-8th/i4th century 
Ibn Battuta found the city largely in ruins, and, 
while some principal buildings (including the great 
mosque) still stood, already tending towards 
transfer from its original site to another (its 
modern location), a dozen miles distant, on or 
near the site of Ubulla : a move dictated by 
reasons partly of security, partly by the deterioration 
of the canals. The great date-belt of the Shatt al- 
'Arab remained the wealth and pride of the Basrans; 



but its cultural and economic life declined throughout 
the Djala'ir and Turkoman periods of 'Iraki 
history — 740/1340 to 914/1508 — and when at last at 
the latter date it fell with all 'Irak to the Persian 
power of Shah Isma'il for a brief generation — 914/ 
1508 to 941/1534 — it was, in its now established new 
position two miles upstream a main canal (the 
modern 'Ashar Creek), a provincial town of little 
interest apart from its sea-port status, its gardens, 
and its predilection for local independence from 
distant suzerains. 

The Ottoman conquest of 'Irak in 941/1534, 
which further strengthened the Sunni elements in 
the population already prevalent, had little other 
effect on its status or fortunes; the Turkish pasha 
of Baghdad was satisfied with a minimum of respect 
and tribute from the marsh-surrounded and tribe- 
threatened city of the far south; and when in 953/1546 
the independent airs of Basra became too offensive, 
two expeditions from central 'Irak succeeded in 
restoring some semblance of the Sultan's authority 
as against powerful local (tribal or urban) candidates 
for power. A longer and more successful attempt at 
quasi-independence, under merely nominal Imperial 
suzerainty, was made by a local notable of now 
unascertainable origins, Afrasiyab [q.v.], and his son 
and grandson 'All Pasha (1034/1624) and Husayn 
Pasha (c. 1060/1650). This interesting dynasty 
opened the gates of Basra and its waterways to the 
representatives and merchant-fleets of the Europeans 
—Portuguese, British, Dutch — then active in the 
a of the Persian Gulf; it survived, with 
> and interruptions, for some 45 years 
against the armed and diplomatic efforts of the 
Pasha of Baghdad, the threats of the Safawid Shah, 
and the intrigues of local rivals and turncoat 
tribesmen. And its restoration to the Empire was 
still incomplete until after a further full generation 
of local uprising and Persian penetration, tribal 
dominance (of the Huwayza tribes and the Mun- 
tafik), and decimation by plague. 

Throughout the two centuries (I2th-i3th/i8th- 
19th) following these events, Basra remained the 
metropolis of southern 'Irak, the country's sole port 
— however primitive and ill-equipped — the base 
for a decayed and microscopic fleet, the centre of the 
date trade, and the gateway to the tribes and 
princes of Arabia, KhQzistan, and the Persian Gulf. 
The city, whose administration evolved only after 
1247/1831 slowly towards modernity, was ever at 
the mercy of tribal marauders and even invaders, 
notably by the great Muntafik tribe-group, and by 
plague and inundation. 

During the campaigns of Nadir Shah in 'Irak in 
the mid-century Basra was threatened and for a 
time besieged, and his withdrawal was followed by 
the usual attempts at secession. Sound and vigorous 
government was witnessed under rare Mutasallims 
of higher quality, including Sulayman Abu Layla 
from 1266 (1749) and Sulayman the Great from 
1282/1765. The establishment of European (British, 
French, Italian) permament trading-posts, consulates 
and missions slowly gained ground, but disorder 
scarcely diminished and tribal threats increased 
with the rise, after 1256/1740, of the powerful 
Sa'dun leadership in the Muntafik. The siege and 
occupation of the city and district in 1189-1194/ 
1775-79 by the Persian forces of Sadiq Khan, 
brother of Karim Khan Zand [q.v.] was a curiously 
detached episode of Basra's history; it was succeeded 
by the return of all the familiar conditions. Threats 
to Basra by the fleet of the Imam of Maskat in 



1 213/1798 came to nothing, though rivals for tribal 
or governmental power in southern 'Irak sought 
him as an ally, for example in 1241/1825. The great 
plague of Baghdad in 1247/1831 did not fail to 
infect the Port also, and increased its weakness and 
disorders. 

The period 1248-1332/1832-1914 was one of slow 
development, improving security and increasing 
commercial links with Europe and America. Basra 
became a wildyet in 1267/1850 and, among its 
eminent families and personalities, a centre of 
nascent Arab nationalism. 

During the British occupation of 'Irak (from 
1333/1914) and subsequent Mandate (1339-1351/ 
1920-32), the transformation of Basra into its most 
modern form was rapid. The port was constructed on 
spacious modern lines and fully equipped, a deep 
channel at the mouth of the Shatt al-'Arab dredged, 
and the town itself and its suburbs improved by a 
variety of new roads, buildings and public services. 
It became the southern terminus of 'Irak Railways, 
and an air centre of increasing importance. Under 
the 'Irak Government it became the headquarters 
of a Uwd which included the dependent fradds of 
Abu '1-Khasib and Kurna. The city, with its suburbs 
of Ma'kil and 'Ashar, contained in 1955 some 
200,000 souls. With improved security and commu- 
nications Basra took its place as by far the leading 
port and entrepdt of the Persian Gulf, and 'Irak's 
indispensable outlet. During the three decades 
preceeding 1377/1957 further important improve- 
ments were carried out to its town-planning, streets 
(including an imposing Corniche road), public 
and commercial buildings, and public services 
and facilities. The vast date gardens (within 
which, however, life remained poor and primitive) 
and the magnificent waterway of the Shatt al-'Arab 
offer a remarkable setting to the modernised city 
of Basra and its spreading suburbs with their 
characteristic mixture of the primitive, the medieval, 
and the fully modern. The date export trade has 
been further organised and centralised under a 
Board located at Basra. Exploration for petroleum 
by a Company of the 'Iraq Petroleum Co. group 
was rewarded by the discovery of an important oil- 
field near Zubayr in 1368/1948, followed by others 
(notably al-Rumayla) in the Uwd. Export of oil, by 
pipelines to Fao, began in 1371/1951. The industry 
developed rapidly and on a major scale, and became 
Basra's greatest source of employment, technical 
education and wealth. A small oil refinery was 
completed at Muftiyya in 1372/1952. Meanwhile the 
city and district continued to benefit greatly, as 
from 1353/1934 but increasingly after 1372/1952, 
from the enrichment of the central government of 
'Irak through its exploited oil-resources. Important 
developments in flood-protection, land reclamation 
and perennial irrigation were planned in the vicinity 
of the city. 

Bibliography: The manuscript and printed 
sources for modfrr Basra his*ory to 1318/1900 
are given h- S. H. Longrigg, Four Centuries of 
Modern 'Iraq, Oxford 1925, 327-40; for the 
period 1318/1900 to 1370/1950 see idem, 'Iraq 
1900 to 1950, London 1953, 401-12. 

(S. H. Longrigg) 
al-BA$RA, a town in Morocco, not extant to-day, 
which owed its name to Basra in 'Irak. Situated 
between two hills of reddish earth (whence its epithet 
al-Hamra 1 ), on a plateau commanding to the east the 
road to Wazzan, to the west the valley of the Wed 
Mda, and to the north-east that of the Wed Lekkus, 



l-BASRA — BAST 



about 12V, m. (20 km.) south of al-Kasr al-Kabir, it 
occupied, according to Tissot, the site of the Roman 
town of Tremulae. Founded about the same period 
as Arzila (Asila [q.v.]), and probably therefore by 
Idris II, at the beginning of the 3rd/gth century, it 
was doubtless intended to be the summer residence 
of the Idrisids of Fas. When Muhammad b. Idris II 
partitioned his kingdom, al-Basra fell to the share 
of his brother al-Kasim together with Tangier and 
its dependencies. In the following century, it became 
the capital of a small state comprising the Rif and 
Ghumaraland. the administration of which was 
entrusted to the Idrisid prince Hasan b. Gennun; 
it was soon afterwards captured (5 Muharram 363/6 
October 973) by the army of the Umayyad caliph of 
Cordova, al-Hakam II; Yahya b. Hamdun set 
himself up there as an independent ruler before being 
driven out by Buluggin b. Ziri, who razed the 
fortifications of the town. These are almost the only 
definite statements we have on the history of al- 

Despite the statement of al-Mukaddasi (ed. trans. 
Pellat, 27) that it was in ruins, the town seems to 
have preserved a certain prosperity in the 4th/ioth 
and 5th/nth centuries, as is asserted by Ibn Hawkal 
and al-Bakri, who speak of its walls pierced by ten 
gateways, its baths, its mosque, and the gardens, 
pastures and fields of corn and cotton which sur- 
rounded it; nevertheless, it rapidly declined and 
eventually fell into complete ruin; at the time of 
Leo Africanus, it was inhabited by no more than 
2,000 households, and its walls stood in the midst 
of deserted gardens; to-day, only the stone wall 

Bibliography: Ibn Hawkal, Desc. de I'Afr. 
et de I'Espagne, trans, de Slane, in J A, 1842, 192; 
Bakri, Desc. de I'Afr. Sept., trans, de Slane, index; 
IdrisI, trans. Dozy and De Goeje, 202; Ibn Abl 
Zar c , Rawd, ed. Rabat 1936, 71 (French trans. 
Beaumier, 62) ; Leo Africanus, trans, Epaulard, 
Paris 1956, 259; Tissot, Rech. sur la giog. comparle 
de la Mauritanie tingitane, Paris 1877, 160 ff.; 
H. Terrasse, Hist, du Maroc, Casablanca 1949-50, 
index; E. Levi- Provencal, Hist. Esp. Mus., index; 
D. Eustache, El-Basra, capitate idrissite, et son 
port, in Hespiris, 1955, 217-38 (with a bibliography 
and a study on Malay BO Selham which was 
probably the port of al-Basra). (G. Yver*) 

BAST (Pers.), "sanctuary, asylum", a term 
applied to certain places which were regarded as 
affording an inviolable sanctuary to any malefactor, 
however grave his crime; once within the protection 
of the bast, the malefactor could negotiate with his 
pursuers, and settle the ransom which would 
purchase his immunity when he left the bast. In 
Persia the idea of bast was connected in particular 
with (1) mosques and other sacred buildings, espe- 
cially the tombs of saints (for example, in 806/1404 
Timur is said to have recognised the tomb (mazdr) at 
Ardabil of Shaykh Safi al-Din, the founder of the 
Safawid order, as constituting a bast), (2) the royal 
stables and horses (the wrong-doer could claim 
sanctuary by standing either at the horse's head or 
at its tail), (3) the neighbourhood of artillery, 
especially in the Maydan-i Tupkhana in Tehran. 
According to Chardin, under the later Safawids the 
royal kitchens, and the gateway of the 'All Kapu 
palace at Isfahan, also constituted a bast. Malcolm 
states that the residences of the mudjtahids in 
general were considered as bast, and that in the case 
of one particularly celebrated mudjtahid, his residence 
continued to be regarded as bast even after his 



death. When telegraphic 
introduced into Persia in the second half of the 
19th century, the telegraph offices were at first 
invested with the status of bast. About 1889 Nasir 
al-Din Shah attempted without success to abolish 
the institution of bast. (For details of the violation 
of the bast of Shah c Abd al- c Azim by Nasir al-DIn 
Shah in 1891, see the article djamal aj,-din al- 

In the present century, the institution of bast 
(also termed tahassun), assumed great importance 
during the events which led to the granting of the 
Persian Constitution by Muzaffar al-Din Shah in 
1906. In December 1905 a group of merchants, 
mullds and students, in order to compel the Shah 
to take note of their grievances, took refuge first in 
the Masdjid-i Djami' in Tehran, and then, after 
having been forcibly expelled from this sanctuary, 
in the shrine of Shah c Abd al- c Azim, 6 miles SSE of 
Tehran. A month later, on the receipt of certain 
promises and assurances from the Shah, the bastis 
left their sanctuary. The "Second Bast" occurred 
in July 1906, when some 12,000 people, led by the 
'ulamd, merchants, and members of the trade guilds, 
took refuge in the garden of the British Legation in 
Tehran, and ultimately (August 1906) succeeded 
in obtaining from the Shah the promise of the grant 
of a Constitution. During the disturbances which 
attended the election of the members of the National 
Consultative Assembly, which sat for the first time 
on 7 October 1906, the constitutionalists again took 
refuge in the British Legation in Tehran; in the 
provinces, British Consulates, notably those at 
Tabriz and Kirmanshah, and telegraph offices were 
used by the constitutionalists as places of refuge. 
In June 1907 a group of mullds and others hostile to 
the Constitution took bast at Shah c Abd al- c Azim 
in an unsuccessful attempt to rally opposition to the 
constitutionalist movement. 

Bibliography: Sir John Chardin, Voyages du 
Chevalier Chardin en Perse et autres lieux de 
VOrient (ed. Langles), Paris 1811, vii, 369-70; 
Sir John Malcolm, History of Persia, London 1815, 
ii, 443-4; G. N. Curzon, Persia and the Persian 
Question, London 1892, i, 154-5, T75. 347. 460; 
E. G. Browne, The Persian Revolution of 1905-9, 
Cambridge 1910, 112 ff.; V. Minorsky, Tadhkirat 
al-Muluk, London 1943, 189-80; Mahdl Malikzada, 
Tdrikh-i Inhilab-i Mashru(iyyat-i Iran, vol. ii, 
Tehran 1329/1951, 41 ff., 140 ff., 190 ff., 259 ff., 
vol. iii, Tehran 1330/1952, 59 ff., 88 ff. 

(R. M. Savory) 
BAST (A.), a technical term of the Sufis, 
explained as applying to a spiritual state (hdl) corres- 
ponding with the station {mafcdm) of hope (radio)*: 
it is contrasted with Ifabd [q.v.]. The Kur'anic author- 
ity generally quoted for these terms is: "And God 
contracts (yakbid) and expands (yabsu{)" (ii, 245). 
As bas( is a hdl, it bears no relation to personal mental 
or spiritual processes, but is a sense of joy and exal- 
tation vouchsafed to the mystic by God. For this 
reason many Sufis accounted it to be inferior to 
kabd, on the ground that, until God is finally at- 
tained and the human individuality is lost in Him, 
any feeling other than that of desolation is inap- 
propriate. The following saying of al-Djunayd illus- 
trates this point: "The fear of God contracts me, 
and the hope for Him expands me . . . When He 
contracts me through fear, He causes me to pass 
away from self, but when He expands me through 
hope, He restores me to myself ( Kushayri, Risdla, 
43). These lines of Ibn al-Farid (al-TdHyya aUkubrd, 



BAST — BASVEKALET ARSIVI 






ii, 646-7) summarise the Sufi theory excellently: "in 
the mercy of expansion the whole of me is a wish 
whereby the hopes of all the world are expanded, 
and in the terror of contraction the whole of me is 
an awe and over whatsoever I let mine eye range, 
it reveres me" (tr. Nicholson, in Studies in Islamic 
Mysticism, 256). Hudjwiri writes (tr. Nicholson, 374); 
"Kabd denotes the contraction of the heart in the 
state of being veiled, and bast denotes the expansion 
of the heart in the state of revelation". The mood 
of bast appears to be similar to that in which Pascal 
cries: "The world hath not known Thee, but I have 
known Thee. Joy! Joy! Joy! Tears of joy!" 

(A. J. Arberry) 
BASTA, Spanish Baza, Basti in ancient geo- 
graphy, now chief town of a partido of the province 
of Granada. It is situated to the north-east of 
Granada, 123 kilometres distant from it by road. 
Al-IdrisI describes it as being of medium size, 
pleasantly situated, flourishing and well populated. 
It was a fortified town and had several bazaars. It 
was a commercial town where local artisans pursued 
a diversity of trades. Mulberry trees were prolific 
in the town and, in consequence, there was a large 
silk industry. Baza was also rich in olive groves and 
all kinds of fruit trees. It was here that the work- 
shops (turuz) for the weaving of prayer carpets 
(musall — called basfis) were located. These carpets 
were made from brocade which had no equal . The 
galena (kuhl or sulphide of antimony) used in eye 
washes was taken from deposists in the mountain 
known as Djabal al-Kuhl which was situated near 
the town. During the Umayyad Caliphate, Baza 
had an important Mozarab community with a 
bishopric subordinate to Toledo. The Baydn in its 
last section, at present in course of publication, 
gives the names of a number of the town's Almohad 
governors. In 635/1237, Baza came under the rule of 
Muhammad b. Yusuf b. Ahmad, founder of the 
Nasrid kingdom (see Nasrids). 

Bibliography: IdrisI, text 202, translation, 
247; Yakut, i, 624; Kazwini, Cosm., ii, 344, 
according to al- c Udhri; E. Levi-Provencal, La 
Peninsule iberique, 56-7. (A. Huici Miranda) 

AL-BASCS BINT MUNKIDH B. SALMAN AL-TAMl- 

miyya, a legendary figure of the pre-Islamic sagas 
(ayydm al-'-Arab), said to be responsible for the murder 
of Kulayb b. Rabi'a al-TagJslibi and the ensuing war 
(harb al-Basus) between the tribes of Bakr b. Wall 
and Taghlib b. Wa'il. For the question of the histo- 
rical background see art. Kulayb b. RabI'a. In the 
legend Kulayb is represented as a tyrant who dis- 
regarded the time-honoured customs of the Bedouins 
and usurped for himself the right of pasture and of 
hunting in his self-chosen preserves. Once al-Basus, 
while staying with her nephew al-Djassas, Kulayb's 
brother-in-law, let her she-camel (var. the she-camel 
of Sa c d al-Djarml, her husband, or according to 
others, her protege) graze on Kulayb's pasture and 
he killed the camel (var. killed her foal and wounded 
her in the udder). Outraged by this violation of the 
host's rights al-Djassas (var. together with his 
cousin) killed Kulayb and this led to the war between 
the two tribes. Kulayb's killing the she-camel and his 
death are alluded to by al-Nabigha al-Dja'di, d. ca. 
65/684 but without mentioning al-Basus (see A ghdni 1 
iv, 127, 140 and M. Nallino, in RSO xiv, 405 f.). 
Her name is given for the first time in the proverbs 
ash'amu min ndkat al-Basus (see, e.g., al-Mufaddal b. 
Salama, Fdkhir, 76). The full story is told on the 
authority of Abu 'Ubayda in the NakdHd Qiarir wa 
l-Farazdak 905-7 and with slight variations by other 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



collectors of the ayydm al-'-Arab. In the Fdkhir, 76, 
in Tibrizl's Commentary on the Ifamdsa 420 (on the 
authority of Abu Riyash 339/950) and elsewhere four 
verses are put in the mouth of al-Basus, addressed 
to Sa c d and indirectly compelling al-Djassas to take 
revenge on Kulayb; they are a fine specimen of 
tahrid "incitement", and are cited in the RasdHl 
Ikhwdnal-Safd, Cairo 1347, i, 133, as an example of 
the tremendous effect which poetry can have on 

The proverb ash'amu min al-Basus was by some 
scholars thought to refer not the pathetic figure of the 
heroic age, but to her namesake, a Jewess, who by 
her stupidity forfeited the three wishes which God 
had granted to her husband. 

Bibliography: In addition to the references 

given in the text: Ibn <Abd Rabbih, <Ikd, Cairo 

13 16, iii, 66 f.; MaydanI, Madjma 1 al-Anthdl (ed. 

Freytag) i, 683-7; Yakut i, 150; Ibn al-Athir i, 

385 f.; Khizdnat al-Adab i, 300 ff.; W. Caskel, 

Aijdm al-'-Arab (= Islamica vol. iii suppl.) 76 and 

97 (German translation of Nak. 905, 10-906, 3) — 

For al-Basus the Jewess see LA and TA s. v. b s s; 

Freytag, Proverbia Arabum I, 687. Damlri s.v. 

Kalb (translated by R. Basset, 1001 contes, ii, 18) 

tells the story but omits the wife's name. For the 

motif of "the three wishes" see J. Bolte and 

G. Polivka, Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- und 

Hausmarchen der Briider Grimm II (1915) 223. 

(J. W. Fuck) 

BASVEKALET ARSIVI, formerly also Bas- 

bakanlik Arsivi, the Archives of the Prime 

Minister's office, the name now given to the central 

state archives of Turkey and of the Ottoman Empire. 

The formation of the Ottoman archives begins with 

the rise of the Ottoman state, but the present 

collection, though containing a number of individual 

documents and registers from earlier times, dates 

substantially from after the Ottoman conquest of 

Constantinople in 1453. The archives became 

really full from about the middle of the 16th century, 

and continue to the end of the Empire. 

The organisation of the Ottoman records in the 
form of a modern archive collection dates from an 
initiative of the reforming Grand Vezir Mustafa 
Reshld Pasha, who in 1262/1846 erected a new 
building for the archives in the grounds of the 
Grand Vezirate, and transferred to it a large number 
of record collections, previously kept in bales and 
boxes in various repositories and offices in different 
parts of the city. The building, designed by the 
famous architect Fossati, was provided with a staff 
and a director. This record office, in Ottoman times 
known as the Khazine-i Ewrak, originally consisted 
of two main groups of documents; the records of 
the Imperial Council (Diwdn-i Humdyun) and of 
the Grand Vezir's office (Bdb-i c Ali or Pasha Kaptsl). 
To this core other collections were from time to time 
added, notably the records of the finance depart- 
ments and the registers of the cadastral survey office. 
From the start, the Khazine-i Ewrak was attached 
to the establishment of the Grand Vezir. Under the 
Republic it was, after a brief period of uncertainty, 
attached to the office of the Prime Minister. The old 
name was replaced by the modern one by a law 

of 1937. 

A new phase in the organisation and study of the 
archives had begun in 191 1, after the formation of 
the Ottoman Historical Society (Ta?rikh-i '■Othmdni 
Endjiimeni). The opening article in the first issue 
of the society's journal, written by c Abd al-Rahm£n 
§heref, the last official historiographer and first 
69 






BASVEKALET AR§IVI 



president of the society, contained a statement of the 
society's aims, the first of which was the classi- 
fication, study, and publication of archive documents 
(TOEM, 1911, 9-19 and 65-9; cf. P. Wittek, Les 
Archives de Turquie, in Byzantion, xiii, 1938, 691-9). 
In the years that followed, Turkish scholars working 
in the archives began to sort and classify the records, 
and also published many individual documents. This 
work was interrupted by the Revolution and war of 
Independence, followed by the transfer of the capital 
and a general mood of revulsion from the Ottoman 
past. In 1932, however, a new start was made, and 
since then work has continued in housing, organising, 
and cataloguing the records. In 1936-7 Professor 
L. Fekete was invited to advise on the methods 
to be followed in these tasks (see L. Fekete, t)ber 
Archivaliei* und Archivwesen in der Ttirkei, AO, 
Budapest, iii, 1953, 179-206). 

The contents of the Basvekalet Arsivi may be 
divided broadly, according to the form in which 
they are preserved, into two groups — ewrdk, papers, 
and de/ters, bound registers. The former, ranging 
from Imperial decrees drawn up in due form to odd 
notes and minutes by minor clerks, are estimated to 
number many millions, of which only a very small 
proportion has been catalogued. A first classification 
of papers was made in 1918-1921 by a committee 
under the direction of Ali Emiri, which sorted 180, 316 
documents in simple chronological order, by reigns 
from 'Othman I to c Abd al-Madjid. The great 
majority are of the 18th and the first half of the 
19th centuries. In 1921 a second committee, under 
Ibniilemin Mahmud Kemal, sorted 46,467 documents, 
from the 15th tq the 19th centuries, into 23 subject 
groups, the largest of which are those of financial 
(12,201) and military (8,227 documents) affairs. 
Within each group the documents are in rough 
chronological order. A third team, under Mu'allim 
Cevdet (Djewdet), worked from 1932 to 1937 along 
much the same lines as Ibniilemin, and sorted 
184,256 documents into 16 subject categories. Here 
the largest groups are military (54,984), wakl 
(33,35!) an d internal affairs (17,468 documents). 
These three classifications are normally cited as the 
tasni/s of the three persons who directed them. 

Since 1937 this kind of pre-scientific classification 
has been abandoned, and a new start made on more 
modern lines. Papers are being completely separated 
from registers, and classified according to the offices 
and departments to which they belonged, as far as 
possible preserving the original order and sequence. 
In addition to the main classification, the archives 
staff has undertaken the preparation of a number 
of special series, such as 'imperial writings' (Khatt-i 
Humdyun), decrees (irdde), treaties, wakj documents, 
etc. A special catalogue is being prepared of the 
papers and records of c Abd al-Hamid II, which 
were transferred to the Basvekalet Arsivi from 
the YUdiz Palace. 

The defters, bound registers, are estimated to 
number about 60,000 in all Turkish collections, the 
great majority being in the Basvekalet Arsivi. They 
are of two basic types: statistical, containing figures 
and other factual information required and collected 
for various administrative purposes; and diplomatic, 
containing register copies of the texts of outgoing 
orders, letters, and other communications. 

The defters may be considered in three main 
groups: a) the Imperial Council and Grand Vezirate. 
The latter, which in the 17th century grew into a 
separate bureaucratic organisation, eventually took 
over most of the functions of the former, and the 



archives of the two together thus record the workings 
of the chief centre of Ottoman Imperial government. 
Of the many series of registers included in this 
section by far the most important is the Miihimme 
De/teri (register of important, i.e., public affairs). This 
consists of 263 volumes, covering the years 961-1323/ 
rSSS-iooS- It is a day by day record of outgoing 
correspondence of all kinds, in simple chronologcal 
sequence. (On the Miihimme see G. Elezovic, It 
Carigradskih Turskih Arhiva Muhimme De/leri, 
Belgrade 1951, and U. Heyd, Documents on Ottoman 
Administration of Palestine 1552-1615, A Study in 
the Muhimme De/teri, Oxford, in the press). In the 
course of time a number of separate series were 
started, dealing with matters formerly included in 
the Muhimme. From 1059 to 1155/1649-1742-3) 
complaints from the provinces and the decrees 
answering them are dealt with in separate 'Complaints 
Registers' (shikdyet de/terleri). These are still in 
purely chronological order, but from 1155 to 1306/ 
1742-3 — 1888-9 ar e replaced by the 'Decrees 
Registers' {ahkdm de/terleri), geographically sub- 
divided into 17 separate provincial series. The 
Complaints and Decrees registers together number 
530 volumes. Other off-shoots of the Muhimme 
include a series on military affairs (68 volumes, 
1196-1326/1781-1908); a series of specially secret 
Muhimme (10 volumes, 1203-1294/1788-1877), and 
a series on Egyptian affairs, the last volume of which 
is secret (15 volumes, 1119-1333/1707-1914). Among 
the numerous other series contained in this section, 
are the Royal Letters {Ndme-i humdyun, 17 vols., 
iin-1336/1699-1917), the Tanzimdt Council registers 
(30 vols., 1271-1333/1854-1914), as well as other 
series dealing with foreign consuls and merchants, 
privileges (imtiydz), legal rulings (muktadd), treaties, 
sentences of confinement to fortresses (kal'ebend), 
ihtisdb, appointments, churches, minority commu- 

b) The Cadaster (tapu), comprising the great 
land and population survey of the Empire. It was 
formerly a separate department of the government 
[see daftar-i khakani], and was housed in the 
Defterkhane, near the Sultan Ahmed mosque. The 
greater part of the registers was transferred to the 
Basvekalet Arsivi, which now reports the possession 
of 1 155 volumes. The remainder, about 250, are in 
the General Survey Directorate (Tapu ve kadastro 
umum Mudiirlugu) in Ankara. The earliest, a register 
of timars in a sandjak in Albania, dated 835/1431, 
was edited by Halil Inalcik {Suret-i Defter-i Sancak-i 
Arvanid, Ankara 1954). These registers, which were 
renewed at frequent intervals, cover almost all the 
provinces of the Empire in Europe and Asia, in- 
cluding parts of Transcaucasia and Western Persia. 
Arabia, Egypt, and North Africa are excluded. 

c) Finance (Mdliyye). The surviving records of 
the Ottoman financial administration are now in the 
Basvekalet Arsivi, and comprise many series of 
registers, as well as vast quantities of papers. They 
include the accounts and records of the Chief 
Comptroller's Department (bashmuhdsebe) from the 
16th to the 19th centuries; of the various special 
commissioners' departments (emdnet) — arsenals, ce- 
reals, meat, artillery depot, mints, kitchens, powder- 
magazines; of provinces, departments, paymasters, 
tax-farms, mines, customs, escheats, etc. A good 
example is the d£izya series (418 vols., 958-1255/ 
1551-1840). Part of the series is sub-divided by 
provinces, and some registers contain copies of 
djizya documents and receipts, with lists of djizya 
payers, sent in from provincial capitals. 



BASVEKALET ARSIVI — al-BATA'IHI 



1091 



Apart from the main collection in the Basvekalet 
Arsivi, there are numerous other smaller collections 
in Turkey. The most important are the palace 
archives preserved in the Topkapl Sarayl [?.«.], the 
records of the General Directorate of wakf in Ankara, 
and the collections of legal documents known as 
sidiilldt-i sherHyye [see sidjillJ. 

Bibliography: For a general survey of the 
archives, with a description and classification of 
the papers and registers, see Midhat Sertoglu, 
Muhteva Baktmtndan Basvekdlet Arsivi, Ankara 
1955. On the history of the collection this may be 
supplemented by Salahaddin Elker, Mustafa 
Refit Pasa ve Turk Arsivciligi, in IV Turk Tarih 
Kongresi, Ankara 1952, 182-9. See further B. 
Lewis, The Ottoman Archives as a Source for the 
History of the Arab Lands, in JRAS, 1951, 139-155; 
idem, The Ottoman Archives, a Source for European 
History, Report on Current Research, Spring 1956, 
Washington 1956, 17-25 (reprinted with minor 
modifications in Archives 1959); idem, in BSOAS 
xvi, 1954, 469-501 and 599-600. A bibliography 
of Ottoman archive studies will be found in 
Ananiasz Zajaczkowski and Jan Reychman, 
Zarys Dyplomatyki Osmahsko-Tureckiej , Warsaw 
1955 (English translation to be published). 

(B. Lewis) 
BASVEKIL (BashwakIl), the Turkish for Prime 
Minister. The term was first introduced in 1254/ 
1838, when, as part of a general adoption of European 
nomenclature, this title was assumed by the Chief 
Minister in place of Grand Vezir or Sadr-i A c zam 
[q.v.]. The change of style was of short duration, 
lasting only for 14V1 months, after which the old 
title was restored. A second attempt to introduce 
the European title was made during the first con- 
stitutional period. Introduced in Safar 1295/Feb. 
1878. it was dropped after 114 days, restored in 
Sha'ban 1296/July 1879, a nd then dropped again, 
after about 3 1 ), years, in Muharram 1300/Nov. 1882. 
Thereafter the title Grand V.,zir remained in official 
use until the end of the Sultanate, when it was 
finally replaced by Basvekil (or, for a while, Bas- 
bakan), in the Republic. 

Bibliography : c Abd al-Rahman Sheref, 
Ta'rikh Musahabalari, Istanbul 1340, 264 s. 

(B. Lewis) 
ai,- BAT Ay IRA (Batharl), a small declasse tribe 
(ghayr asil, daHf) of (approx.) only a hundred males, 
on the south Arabian coast between Ra's Naws and 
Ra's Sawkira facing the Kuria Muria Islands. They 
live mainly by fishing and goat herding but have 
also some camels, frankincense trees, and trading 
boats. Besides Arabic, they speak Bathari {Bafhariy- 
yit), in which c ayn is preserved more than in the 
related southern Semitic oral tongues: 1 ! Mahri of 
al-Mahra, Harsusi of al-Harasis, Shahri of al-Shahra 
and their overlords al-Kara'. and Sukutri (basically 
Mahri but greatly mixed) of the people of Sukuira. 
In religion al-Batahira are Shafi'I Muslims, and in 
political faction they are Ghafiris. 

The main groups (names in Arabic) are: al-Maha- 
bisha (MahbashI), al-Masharima (Mashraml), al- 
Mamatira (Mamtiri), al-Madja c ira (Madj'ari), and 
al-Makadisha (Makdashi). The last named live in 
the mountains of Zufar among al-^ara 3 and 
like them own cows. Of al-Madja'ira only six 
males were left after ten died of "fever" c. 
1376/1957. Al-Mahabisjia have two sections, Bayt 
Hubaysh (Ibn H.) and Bayt Mahdlra (Ibn M.), 
to which latter belonged in 1378/1959 the tribal 
leader, Huthayyith, who succeeded his father, 



Muhammad R5 c i Hamra', c. seven years earlier. 
(The title mukaddam, pi. m'kaddamottn, def. art. a-, 
is now frequently replaced by the Arabic term 
shaykh). Although not subservient to them, the 
leader may confer on important matters with the 
chief men of al-Djanaba and al-Mahra. With 
propinquity overweighing regard for purity of blood, 
the social status of al-Batahira does not preclude 
marriage with any of the neighboring tribes. 

The neighbours nearest to them in their rough 
coastal district — small beside the area of the interioi 
which they claim to have once owned — are al-I£ara : 
and al-Shahra to the southwest, al-Harasis and 
eastern groups of al-Mahra in the interior, and al- 
Djanaba to the northeast. Hence, with regard to 
geographical names in their territory, great variety 
if not confusion exists between forms in non-Arabic 
languages and those in dialectical Arabic — especially 
that spoken by al-Djanaba. Because political and 
economic developments are accelerating the ag- 
grandizement of Arabic, such toponyms may even- 
tually be the principal if not the only surviving 
mementos of historic non-Arabic tongues, both here 
and elsewhere in southern Arabia. 

Bibliography : Bertram Thomas, Four Strange 
Tongues from Central South Arabia . . ., reprint 
from Proc. Brit. Acad., xxiii, London 1937, 231-331 ; 
idem, Arabia Felix, New York 1932, London 1932 
and 1936, 47, 48, 84, 130; idem, Among Some 
Unknown Tribes of South Arabia, in JRAI, 59, 
1929, 97-in. 

For general reference: Youakim Moubarac, 
EUments de Bibliographic Sud-Simitique, in REI 
1955 (pub. 1957); Index Islamicus (1906-1955), 
Cambridge 1958. (Esp. important are newer 
studies by Dr. Wolf Leslau, University of Cali- 
fornia at Los Angeles, and Dr. Ewald Wagner, 
Mainz). (C. D. Matthews) 

al-BATA'UI [see al-batIha]. 
al-BATA 5 IIJ1, Abu c Abd Allah Muhammad b. 
Fatik, called al-Ma'mOn, Fatimid wazir. Born of 
obscure parentage, his father having been an 
Egyptian agent (djdsus) in 'Irak, al-Bata'ilji rose 
to power through the patronage of the celebrated 
Fatimid wazir al-Afdal, hi whose assassination 
he was implicated (515/1121), and whom he 
succeeded as first minister of al-Amir (ruled 495/ 
1101-524/1130). 

The creation of an observatory at Cairo had been 
planned by al-Afdal. Al-Batalhi took up the work, 
in which the Spaniard Abu Dja'far Yusuf b. Hasday, 
a friend of the philosopher Ibn Badjdja, played a 
prominent part, together with other scholars, native 
Egyptian and foreign, till 519/1125. In that year 
al-Bata'ihi incurred the suspicion of the Caliph, and 
fell from power. Among the crimes reckoned against 
him was the construction of the observatory, and it 
was alleged that his naming it after himself 'al- 
Ma'muni' was proof that he aspired to the Caliphate. 
When al-Bata'ihi had been arrested, the Caliph 
refused to go on with the work, and none dared 
mention it to him. He gave orders for its demolition, 
and the materials were removed to the government 
stores. The workmen and experts fled. The latter 
included, as well as Abu Dja'far Yusuf b. Hasday, 
the kadi Ibn Abi 'l-'Ish of Tarabulus the geometer, 
Abu '1-Nadja 1 b. Sind of Alexandria the instrument- 
maker (sd l dti), and the geometer Abu Muhammad 
c Abd al-Karim of Sicily. Al-Bata'ihi himself was 
crucified by the Caliph's orders. His large house in 
Cairo was still used as a residence more than thirty 
years later, but Ibn Khallikan, who gives this 






il-BATA'IHI — BATH 



a (tr. De Slane, ii, 426), adds that in his 
time it had become a HanafI madrasa. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Athir, x, 417, 443-444; 
Makrtzi, Khifat, ed. Bulak, i, 125-128; Ibn al- 
KalanisI, 204, 209, 212. (D. M. Dunlop) 

BATALYAWS, Spanish Badajoz, today the 
fortified capital of the province of the same name, 
the largest in Spain, embracing the southern 
half of Spanish Estremadura. The town, situated 
on the left bank of the Guadiana, before it turns 
south near the Portuguese frontier, has 100,000 
inhabitants. The identification of its name with 
that of Pax (Julia) Augusta or Colonia Pacensis is 
without foundation, based on a false local patriotism. 
In fact, it is not the name of Badajoz which derives 
from that of the Roman colony, but rather, that 
of the Portuguese town of Beja (Arab. Badja = 
BSdja, derived from Pacem). The identification of 
Badajoz with the doubtful Badia of Valerius 
Maximus and of Plutarch is equally uncertain. The 
first time that the name of Badajoz appears indis- 
putably in history is in the Arabic form of Bafalyaws 
(present in the root of the modern Spanish name of 
Badajoz). Batalyaws is of modern foundation, 
having been built by c Abd al-Rahman b. Marwan, 
called al-DjUiki (the Galician), with the authorisation 
of the amir c Abd Allah who put at his disposition for 
this purpose a certain number of masons and some 
capital. c Abd al-Rahman began by constructing the 
mosque-cathedral; he also built a special mosque 
inside the citadel. It was also he who built the baths 
near the gate of the town which had already served 
htm as a point of support and bulwark against the 
Caliph of Cordova Muhammad I. It was not until 
318/930 that this place could be retaken from the 
courageous son of Ibn Marwan, under c Abd al- 
Rahman III {Bayan, 105 ff., 140, 195, 213-14, 216). 
The new town of Arab construction (Abu '1-Fida' 173 : 
wahiya muhdatha isldmiyya), Batalyaws, gradually 
replaced in importance Colonia Augusta Emerita, 
Arab. Marida = MSrida (37 m. = 60 km. east, 
upstream of Badajoz on the north bank of the 
Guadiana) which continued to decline. Indeed, at 
the time of the decadence of the Umayyad Caliphate 
of Cordova, Batalyaws became the brilliant residence 
of the Af (asids [q.v.] who, from 1022 to 1094, reunited 
in a single important kingdom the largest part of 
the north of the former Lusitania. After the disastrous 
defeat of the Christians at al-Zallaka (Sacralias) in 
1086, north-east of Badajoz, the principality of the 
north-west, namely Badajoz, as well as the other 
Reyes de Taifas, became gradually subject to the 
Berber Almoravids [q.v.], who had rushed out of 
Morocco to the aid of their co-religionists, these 
auxiliaries themselves becoming strong enough in 
1094 to take all of the territory which formed a part 
of the Spanish province, or dependency, of the 
Almoravid Empire of North-West Africa, and, after 
its fall, of the Almohad Empire which succeeded it. 
In 1 1 68 Alfonso I Henriques of Portugal took 
Badajoz by surprise, and was expelled at once by 
Ferdinand de Leon. Badajoz became once more 
Almohad. Only in 1230 did Alfonso IX of Castile 
and Leon conquer it finally. Badajoz is the birth- 
place of a number of Arab scholars, among whom 
the most eminent is c Abd Allah b. Muhammad b. 
al-Sid al-Batalyawsi who died in 521/1127 (cf. 
Brockelmann, I, 427: where read 444/1052; Ibn 
Bashkuwal, 639). 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 664; Mar a fid al- 
Iftild', i, 150, iv, 344; Dozy, Histoire des Musulmans 
d'Espagn*, ii, 183 ff., 207, 238, 260; Madoz, 



Diccionario, iii, 256 ff., M. R. Martinez y Martinez, 
Historia del reino de Badajoz; Bakri, Fez MS., 
260; Idrisi, text 180, trans. 260; E. Levi- Provencal, 
La Plninsule iberique, 58; A. Huici, Las Granies 
batallas de la Reconquista durante las Invasioncs 
africanas, 19-82; (see also aftasids). 

(C. F. Seybold-[A. Huici-Miranda]) 
al-BATALYAWSI, Abu Muhammad c Abd Allah 
b. Muhammad Ibn al-Sid, celebrated Andalusian 
grammarian and philosopher, born at Badajoz 
(Batalyaws [q.v.]) in 444/1052, died in the middle of 
Radjab 521/end of July 1127, at Valencia, where he 
had lived after having incurred the disgrace of Ibn 
Razln [see razin, banu] and after having taken 
refuge for a time at Saragossa. Ibn al-Sid who, at 
Valencia, had had a notable disciple in Ibn Bash- 
kuwal [q.v.], is the author of some twenty works, 
including his commentary on the Adab al-Kdtib of 
Ibn Kutayba (under the title of al-I&iddb /» Shark 
Adab al-Kuttdb, ed. c Abd Allah al-Bustanl, Beirut 
1901); Kitdb al-Hadd'ib (ed. trans. Asin, 1940), 
which had some influence on the philosophy of 
religion among the Jews (see the Hebrew trans, 
published by D. Kaufmann, Die Spuren al-Bataljusis 
in der jiidischen Religionsphilosophie, Budapest 1880); 
a Fahrasa; a commentary on the Muwafta' of Malik; 
a commentary on the Sakt al-Zand of al-Ma c arrt, 
which is lost, but the criticisms made by Ibn al- c Arabi 
about this work provoked a counterblast by Ibn 
al-Sid, entitled al-Intisdr mim-man l adala c an al- 
Istibsar (ed. Hamid c Abd al-Madjid [Magued], Cairo 
1955); al-Insdf fi 'l-Tanbih c ala 'l-Asbdb allati 
awdiabat al-Ikhtildf, Cairo 13 19 (cf. Goldziher, 
Vorlesungen Uber den Islam*, 1925, 330, n. 116). 
Bibliography: Ibn Bashkuwal, no. 639; 
Dabbi, no. 892; Ibn al-Kifti; Ibn al- c Imad, 
Shadharat; Ibn Khallikan, i, 332 (trans, de Slane, 
ii, 61); Shakundl, (trans. Garcia Gomez, Elogio 
del Islam espanol, Madrid 1934, 54 and n. 50); 
Pons Boigues, Ensayo, no. 151; Gonzalez Palencii, 
Historia de la literatura ardbigo-espaHola*, 1945, 
229; Sarkis, 569-70; Brockelmann, I, 122, 427, 
S I, 185, 758- (E. Levi-Provencal) 

BATH [see hammam]. 

BA'IH (Ar.), literally "to send, set in motion"; 
as a technical term in theology it means either the 
sending of prophets or the resurrection. 

1. The Mu'tazila [q.v.] said that God could not 
have done otherwise than send prophets to teach 
men religion as He must do the best He can for 
men; orthodoxy denied this but held that the 
sending of prophets was dictated by divine wisdom. 
One of the reasons for condemning Brahmins and 
the Sumaniyya was that they denied the existence 
of prophets. 

2. Philosophy taught that resurrection (baHH, nashr, 
nushUr) was of the soul only so orthodoxy condemned 
it as a heresy, insisting on the resurrection of the 
body. From the first Muhammad preached the 
reality of the after life though he assumed that the 
judgement came with the end of this world suddenly 
(vi, 31), heralded by the sound of a trumpet (lxix, 13 ; 
in xxxix, 68 are two blasts, each introducing a distinct 
stage in the action) the graves open and all hurry 
to appear before the judge (xxxix, 75- lxxxix 23/22) 
and the just will be given their records in their 
right-hands (xvii, 73/71). For the signs which precede 
the end of the world, see dabba, dadjdjal, c Isa. 

The soul is not naturally immortal and its existence 
depends on God's will though some late passages 
(ii, 149/154, iii, 163/168) imply the continuous 
existence of the soul and that those who died for 



BA'TH — AL-BATlrIA 



God's sake are already in bliss. Later reports are 
little more than elaborations of these ideas, and do 
not form a consistent whole. The soul of a good man 
leaves the body easily but that of a bad man has 
to be dragged out painfully (see <adhab al-kabr). 
The body decays in the grave except for the lowest 
bone of the spine to which the essential parts of the 
body will be restored. Most will remain in the grave 
till the judgement but a few are not so bound; some 
are in barzakh [q.v.]. When Israfil [q.v.] blows his 
trump, the world will return to chaos, the sun will 
be darkened and men will rise from the grave as 
they were created, barefoot, naked, uncircumcised, 
and will gather at the place of judgement, a level 
plain with no place in which or behind which a man 
may hide, perhaps it is in this world, perhaps 
specially created. Another version makes the first 
blast kill everyone except Iblis [q.v.] and the four 
archangels; a second blast brings all back to life. 
The heat of the sun is such that all sweat, a flood 
which with some will reach as high as the ears. They 
wait there 300 years or 50,000 without food or drink 
but worse than the physical pain will be the terror 
of the judge ; each one will be so anxious for himself 
that he will pay no heed to others. They will turn 
to Adam to ask his intercession but all prophets in 
turn will refuse and refer them to Muhammad who 
accepts the task and to him God listens. Other forms 
of judgement are the bridge, thinner than a hair ahd 
sharper than a sword, over the fire; believers pass 
over safely but unbelievers fall off; the scales in 
which man's life is weighed and the books in which 
his deeds, good and bad, are recorded. Sinners will 
be accompanied by the tools of their sin, a musician 
will have the instrument which distracted his mind 
from religion; a man's good deeds will become an 
animal on which he will ride to judgement. Some 
believed that all living creatures would rise at the 
last day. It is obvious that much of this is older than 
Muhammad; the ancient Egyptians knew of the 
weighing of souls and the books of record and the 
Persians knew of the bridge. Later ideas are mixed. 
Some men turn to dust in the grave and their souls 
wander in the world of sovereignty (malahut) under 
the sky of this world; some sleep and know nothing 
till the trump wakes them and they die the second 
death ; some stay two or three months in the grave 
and then their souls fly on birds to paradise; sonfe 
ascend to the trump and stay in it for there are as 
many hiding places in it as there are souls. Muhammad 
stayed on earth for thirty years till the murder of 
Husayn [q.v.] when he ascended to heaven in disgust. 
Bibliography: Muhammad b. Abi Sharif, 
Kitdb al-Musdmara, 187 f.; Ghazali, Ihya al- 
'■ulum, vol. 4, ch. 8, part. 2; idem, al-Durra al- 
Fdkhira (La Perle Pricieuse, 1878); TJja'labi, 
'ArdHs al-Maajdlis; Wolff, Muhammadanische 
Eschatologie, 1872. (A. S. Tritton) 

BA'TH [see nab! 3 ]. 

al-BATHANIYYA. district in Syria with 
Adhri'at [q.v.] as capital. It is bounded by the 
Djabal al-Druz to the east, the Ladja 5 plain and the 
Diavdur to the north, the Djawlan to the west, and 
the hills of al-Djumal to the south, where the boun- 
dary is a little imprecise. Also called al-Nukra, "the 
hollow", it corresponds to the ancient Batanaea 
mentioned together with Trachonites, Auranites 
and Gaulanites as part of the old kingdom of Bashan 
and referred to in the Old Testament. The region 
is fertile, as its name derived from bathna (stoneless 
and even plain) indicates. It has from ancient times 
been densely populated; the texts and the 



1093 

extant burial mounds are proof of this. Since then 
its reputation for being the "granary of Syria" has 
been maintained. According to the Arab geographers, 
the area was throughout the Middle Ages dotted 
with villages. It lay on the main route of commun- 
ication connecting Damascus with al-Urdunn, a 
highway which owed as much to the Mamluk barid 
as to the Syrian pilgrim caravans. 

Conquered by the Arabs in 13/635, al-Bathaniyya, 
like IJawran, became kharddi land, and was sub- 
sequently joined to the djund of Damascus although 
more usually connected with the rlawran region. 
During the period of the Crusades it suffered from 
Frankish incursions. Later under Ottoman rule it 
was affected by two important factors: the invasion 
of the nomadic c An5za, followed by the Rwala, 
which introduced a reign of disorder and insecurity 
lasting until the end of the 19th century, and the 
settlement on its soil of the Hawranese hill folk 
expelled from their homes by the Druzes. These 
latter had from the 17th century begun to infiltrate 
into the IJawran, where in 1861 they were joined 
by certain elements from the Lebanon. 

Al-Bathaniyya should be distinguished from the 
small plain situated to the north-east of the Diabal 
al-Druz, called in antiquity Saccea and in the Arab 
period ard al-Bathaniyya. This term has been 
translated to mean the "march of Bathaniyya" but 
one of the local names Butheyne, leads one to 
suppose that the area had been considered rather 
as a "small Bathaniyya". 

Bibliography: Ya'kubl, BtUddn, 326 (trans. 

174); Baladhuri, Futiih, 126; Tabari, index, BGA, 

indices; Harawi, K. al-Ziydrat, ed. Sourdel- 

Thomine, Damascus 1953, 17 (trans. Damascus 

1957, 44 & n. 4); Yakut, i, 493; G. Le Strange, 

Palestine under the Moslems, London 1890, 34; 

A. S. Marmardji, Textes giographiques arabes sur Iv 

Palestine, Paris 1951, esp. 15; M. Gaudefroy- 

Demombynes, La Syrie d I'ipoque des Matnelouks, 

Paris 1923, 66; F. M. Abel, Giographie de la 

Palestine, Paris 1933-38, esp. ii, 155; R. Dussaud, 

Topographic historique de la Syrie, Paris 1927, 

232-327; J. Cantineau, Les parlers arabes du 

Hordn, Paris 1946, 5 ff. ; D. Sourdel, Les cultes du 

Hauran a I'ipoque romaine, Paris 1952, 2; R. 

Grousset, Histoire des Croisades, Paris 1934-36, 

index (s.v. Der'at). (D. Sourdel) 

al-BATJHA, ("the marshland"), the name 

applied to a meadowlike depression which is exposed 

to more or less regular inundation and is therefore 

swampy. It is particularly applied by the Arab 

authors of the c Abbasid period to the very extensive 

swampy area on the lower course of the Euphrates 

and Tigris between Kufa and Wasit in the north and 

Basra in the south, also frequently called al-Bata'ih 

(plural of al-Batlha) and occasionally, after the 

adjoining towns, the Bafihat (Bafd'th) al-Kufa, al- 

Wdsi( or al-Basra. 

The existence of considerable swamps in southern 
Babylonia goes back to high antiquity. The alluvial 
plain is so,ft and almost flat, the river beds are 
shallow and exposed to rapid silting, the banks are 
soft and low, therefore the flood waters overflow 
the banks, causing extensive marches; these would 
normally disappear but for the annual floods, and 
the rivers change their courses which, in turn, leads 
to new marshes. Even in the cuneiform inscriptions the 
agamnU (swamps) and appardtl (reedlands) are often 
mentioned; cf. Delitzsch, Assyr. Handwbrterb., 17, 
115. In particular, the whole country between 
Muhammara in the south, a point beyond Kurna 



1094 

in the north, and beyond the river Karun 
east, must have been covered by 
swampy lake; cf. Delitzsch, 627; Dougherty, The 
Sea land of Ancient Arabia, 1933. 

The Greek and Roman writers are likewise 
acquainted with it (as X(|XW] or chaldaicus locus). 
Nearchus's account is particularly instructive, for he 
crossed this area of water and gave its breadth as 
600 stadia (80 miles). The Tabula Peutingeriana 
also defines the Babylonian swamps; on it, in 
addition to Paludes, is mentioned the name Diotahi, 
probably to be emended to Biotahi = Bafa'ih). On 
the notices in cuneiform inscriptions and classical 
authors, cf. Andreas in Pauly-Wissowa, i, 736, 815, 
1878 ff., 2812; Weissbach, ibid, iii, 2044 vi, 1201 ff.; 
Streck, v. 1147 (s.v. Diotahi); Ainsworth; Researches 
ii, 180 ff. 

Since ancient times the great marshy lake has 
been gradually filled up by the deposits of 
sediment brought down by the rivers, and the 
modem delta has arisen. Some places, however, 
remain under water. These places extend around 
the present Hor (Khawr) al-Huwayza, Hor al- 
Hammar, Hor al-Shamiyya, and probably further 

The origin of the swamp may be a synicline which 
occurred in geological times: parts of it were filled 
by the huge amount of silt, while others remained 
low and were rilled by water; they formed what 
mediaeval Muslims called al-Bata'ih. The synicline 
may have eroded in historic times (cf. G. M. Lees 
and N. L. Falcon, in Bibliography History of the 
Mesopotamean plains in Geographical Journal. On 
the retreat of the sea, cf. De Morgan, i, 4-48; Seton 
Lloyd, 19. 

The Sasanids as a rule devoted a great deal of 
attention to the irrigation system and drainage in 
Babylonia. This should have led to the decrease of 
swamps. Under later kings of this dynasty, however, 
large areas of flourishing country were swallowed up 
by floods, and the region of swamps grew to such an 
extent that the Arabs wrongly date the beginning 
of the Batlha from this period. They claim that 
during the reign of Kubadh Flruz (457-484 A.D.) 
a large breach occurred, near Kaskar, and inundated 
large areas of cultivated lands. It was not until the 
reign of Khusraw I Anusharwan (53'-578) that the 
dykes were partially repaired, and some of the lands 
brought under cultivation. But in the year 6 or 7/627, 
in the reign of Khusraw II Parwlz, the waters of the 
Euphrates and the Tigris rose again, in a flood such as 
had never been seen. Both rivers burst their dykes, 
causing huge breaches. The water reached the places 
of the swamps, inundating the farms of several 
tussudi there. During the succeeding years of anarchy, 
and when the Muslim armies began to overrun 'Irak, 
breaches occurred in all embankments, and the 
Dihkdns were powerless to repair the dykes so that 
the swamps increased in all directions (Baladhurl, 
292-4; Kudama, 240; Yakut, 668-9; Mas'udI, al- 
Tanbih, 53 Ibn Rusta, 98). Under the Sasanids, too, 
the first great shifting of the Tigris occurred from 
the eastern channel (the present course) to the 
western channel (the present Shatt al-Dudjayla). 
This change turned all the country bordering the 
older eastern course into thickets and desert. 

The Umayyads took interest in the work of 
reclamation of the Batiha; Ibn Darradj reclaimed 
for Mu'awiya from the Batlha lands which yielded 
5 millions dirhems annually. He did that by cutting 
the reeds and controlling water with dykes. These 
lands were called al-Djawamid (Baladhurl, 294; 



MurOdi, i, 225-6). In the year 81/701, however, 
they were inundated again, owing to a new burst 
which al-Hadjdjadj deliberately neglected repairing. 

Immediately afterwards al-Hadjdjadj built Wasit 
in the alluvial plain near the Batlha. This should 
have led to restoration of the neglected system of 
canals, the erection of dams and sluices, and to the 
reclamation of lands. He dug the two canals of Nil 
and Zabi to lead away part of the superfluous water 
of these two large rivers before they flowed into the 
Batlha, and at the same time to water and fertilise 
the dry areas above Wasit (Baladhurl, 290-2; 
Kudama, 240; Streck, i, 29-32, ii, 303-304; Le 
Strange, 27). Al-Hadjdjadj also settled in the 
marshes the Zutt [?.».]» an Indian people, with their 
buffalo herds numbering thousands. Maslama, the 
Caliph's brother, spent about 3 millions dirhems on 
repairing the dykes, and in turn obtained vast areas 
of reclaimed land (Baladhurl, 294; Kudama, 240-1; 
Wellhausen, Das Arabische Reich, 1902, 156-8). 

Reclamation of land continued, especially at the 
time of Hisham, and his governor of 'Irak Khalid 
al-Kasrl, who built a dam on the Tigris (Baladhuii, 
293-4; Kudama, 240; Ibn Rusta, 95), dug several 
canals, e.g., the Nahr al-Rumman, and the Nahr 
al-Mubarak; he thus reclaimed large areas of 
lands, which yielded a large income, but resulted 
in the use of a great amount of water, and to a 
decrease in the volume of water available for 

When the 'Abbasids came to power (132/750), new 
bursts occured in the dykes which, in turn, increased 
the swamps. In the Euphrates region, similarly, 
thickets formed, parts of which were reclaimed. 

In the north-west, the Batiha extended nearly to 
Kufa and Niffar, while farther to the east it began 
at a considerable distance from Wasit. This part is 
called by many mediaeval Muslim sources BafdHh 
al-Kufa. Their crude maps (cf. Miller, Mappae 
Arabica) do not show them connected with the 
southern Batiha, not do they mention any dwelling- 
places or cultivation there. Nevertheless 4th/ioth 
century sources assert that the Euphrates discharged 
into the Batlha between Wasit and Basra (Mas'udl, 
MurOdi, i, 215; Suhrab, 118). This suggests that the 
present lower Euphrates region was covered with 
Bata'ih up to the 6th/i2th century, when sources 
mention that the lower Euphrates joined the Tigris 
in Mattara (Yakut, ii, 553). This must have been 
due to hydrographic changes, in the depression of 
Shinafiyya, which must have then been deeper, 
and the reduction of the amount of water and silt, 
owing to the numerous canals which took water 
from the Euphrates to irrigate north and central 
Babylonia (cf. Le Strange, 75 ff.). 

The Tigris, from about the end of the Sasanid 
period to the first half of the ioth/i6th century, 
flowed in the western bed (the modern Shatt al- 
Dudjayla) past Wasit and several towns until, in 
the 4th/ioth century, it joined the Batiha in Katr 
(Murudi, i, 288; Suhrab, 118-9, 135; Ibn Khurra- 
dadhbih, 59 ; Ibn Rusta, 185). According to Mustawfi, 
Katr is 30 parasangs (about 107 m. = 172 kms.) 
south of Wasit {Nuzha, 166), according to Kudama 
(193), 22 parasangs. 

The southern limits of the Batiha border on Basra 
(Baladhuri, 362; Ansdb al-Ashrdf, v. 257). Suhrab 
(135) describes the Batlha as consisting of four 
Hors: Bahassa, Bakamja, Basaryatha and the 
Muhammadiyya. Each Hor had plenty of water, 
with no reeds, but each one was linked with the 
other by a narrow passage of reeds. The Hor of 



Muhammadiyya was the largest, and the reed 
passage extended from it to the Nahr Abl Asad, 
which passes to Hala, Kawanln and then to the 
"one-eyed" Tigris (al-Didjla al-'awra'). Yakut 
mentions the Hors of Shalam, (iii, 311), Djurdjln, 
(ii 56), Gharraf (Ui, 581) and Rabbah, (ii, 134). 

In the flat soft alluvial plain of south Babylonia 
hydrography could not be static, especially since 
the canal and irrigation system was subject to 
change according to the political and economic 
situation. Though these changes have not been yet 
studied in detail, nevertheless one may see an 
indication in the 6th/i2th century, when Yakut 
mentions that the Tigris was divided below Wasit. 
into five arms which, together with the Euphrates, 
joined in Mattara which was a day's journey from 
Basra (ii, 553). The area of the lands covered by the 
Bafiha undoubtedly changed according to the amount 
of control exercised over the flood water and the 
amount of water used for irrigation in the north. 

Although water covered most of the lands of the 
Batlha, nevertheless there were areas of dry land, 
farms, cities and villages as well as rivers and canals 
(Mukaddasi, 119; Sam'ani, Ansdb, s.v. Ba(dHfii; Ibn 
al-Athir, Lubab, i, 129). Ibn Rusta (95) says that "the 
higher places became mounds which are known in 
Bata'ih and are called Sartughan, Tustaghan an( j 
Ukr al-Sayd, places where the Zuf f live". Mukaddasi, 
(134) calls the Batlha a district (nakiya) with 
Sulayk as its chief town, and the further towns of 
Bjamida, Harrar, Haddadiyya and Zubaydiyya. 
Most of these towns were north-west of Wasit. 
Yakut mentions as towns of the BatUja HUla (of 
Dubays) (i, 594, ii, 323) Khaythamiyya (iv, 884), 
Harrar (iv, 970). Mansura (iv, 664) and other places, 
and as its rivers the canals of Abba, Khurz, al-Zutt 
(ii, 930, iv, 840) and Yamma (iv, 1026). 

Of the western marshes of the Euphrates about 
the middle of the 19th century European travellers 
and archaeologists give fairly accurate descriptions. 
The main course of the Euphrates passed through 
Babylon, Hilla and Diwaniyya. Several branches 
and cuts diverged from this branch, many of them 
re-uniting near Al-Karayim, which was at the head 
of the delta. During the season of the floods, water 
spread for about 30 miles in length, 10-14 miles 
west of the main channel and to a much grater 
distance on the east side. This regress forms the 
Lamlum marshes. Thirty years later, the bulk of the 
Euphrates' waters went through the western 
Hindiyya canal which was dug in the 17th century 
by the the Indian Asaf al-Dawla. This emerged into 
the plains further south and created the shallow Bahr 
al-Nadjaf and Shinafiyya marshes, which remained 
even after the erection of the Hindiyya barrage in 
1911 to increase the water of the Hilla branch. 
These swamps are situated in a large depression, 
wider in the mouth, about 40 m. (65 kms.) long 
and 15 m. (25 kms.) wide; the depth of the flood 
water varies from a few centimetres in the north 
to 2-3 metres in the middle. Several sub-Hors branch 
off from it; in the east are the Hors of al-'Odja, 
al-WuridjI, Ibn Nadjim, al-Khabsa, Abu Ghirbal, 
al-Rammah, al-Hawa and Abu Hidjar; to the west 
of the Shamiyya branch are GhadudI, Rughila, Glibi, 
Abu Hillana, Ziyada and Hwiha; near the Kufan 
branch are the Hors of Tubug, Ghazalat and Slib. 
The areas of these Hors shrink after flood, and the 
land becomes excellent for rice cultivation. 

The Tigris below Baghdad flows through a flat 
plain, and the banks are not high enough to retain 
the huge volume of flood water. This leads to a 



TIHA 1095 

number of breaches and levees on both sides of the 
river which produce numerous marches. The largest 
of them between Baghdad and Kut is Hor Shawldja, 
which is a natural depression of land extending 
some 31 m. (50 km.) along the Tigris and 15 m. 
(25 km.) in width. Into this Hor flows the water 
of a number of minor streams from the mountain 
regions of Pusht-i Kuh. The rather narrow Hor 
Huwlsha extends from C A1I al-Gharbl to c Imara 
where it reaches Hor Snafiyya. Near 'Imara 
numerous branches diverge from the Tigris, e.g., 
Musharrah, Cahla, Mushayrih. The waters are 
dispersed in the c Amara rice area, where the flood 
waters are led out of the main channels, but these 
branches are well defined in spite of the Hors they 
form. They empty into the Hor of 'Azem which is 
connected with Hor Huwlza. They receive an inflow 
from the Dwlridj, and Tib rivers as well as from 
a'-Karkha (the ancient Choaspes). The annual intake 
of water of these Hors is estimated at 7 million 
cubic inches. These waters flow back in the summer 
into the Tigris by several channels which begin a 
short distance beyond 'Uzayr. 

On the right bank of the Tigris, the major breach 
below Kut is the Musandak escape, 450 metres wide 
at its head, which expands rapidly to almost lake- 
like proportions and finally branches into a number 
of relatively small, shallow channels into the Hor 
al-Saniyya. This Hor is a large natural depression 
fed by the Musandak escape and several smaller 
breaches and flood irrigation channels which divert 
water from the Tigris during the floods. Water 
passes successively through the Sikhari, al-DuwIma 
Djifafl Shah c Ali, Shattiriya Hors, and Hor Burhan, 
'Oda, Sirimah, Sigal, Ruwida and Saffar, until 
it reaches the Hammar lake near Hammar village. 
During the peak of the Tigris floods, an area of over 
424 sq. km. (noosq. km.) is inundated by the Hor 
al-Saniyya. After the flood recession no water except 
minor amounts of surface drainage from pump 
irrigated fields enter the depression of Hor al- 
Saniyya, which diminishes to an area of less than 
77 sq. m. (200 sq. km.) through seepage and 
evaporation losses. 

The Hammar lake is the largest Hor, covering 
about 2007 sq.m. 5200 sq. km.). It extends from 
the affluents of the Euphrates near Suk al-Shuyukh 
down to Karma c Ali (about 80 m. = 130 km.). 
The southern part of it is called Hor Snaf, which 
receives water from the Euphrates and Gharraf as 
well as the waters coming down from the Musandak 
through the several above-mentioned Hors. The total 
flowing into the Hammar area is about 2540 cumecs 
(cubic metres per second) from all sources. The evap- 
oration and transpiration losses are about 500 cumecs. 
The edge of the Hammar lake has a seasonal low 
water level of 0.6 to 0.8 metres in the late autumn 
and a high water level of from 2.0 to 2.8 metres near 
the end of the flood season in May or June. At low 
water the area is roughly two thirds lake and marsh 
with a few areas of open water connected by a maze 
of narrow channels running in all directions through 
the reeds. The deeper channels (1-2 metres) usually 
run in a north to south or north-west to south-east 
direction. There are also mazes of deep water 
passages (Gawahin) between the reeds which may 
be a few yards wide, but deep enough for boat 
navigation. 

A few very deep channels (10-20 metres) are found 
around the islands in the vicinity of Salayal island. 
Tide effect is felt in the southern parts. There are 
many shallow areas. The southern borders of the 



HammSr are bare, uninhabited land, exposed to 
annual floods from the lake. 

On account of its inaccessibility, the Batlha was 
a hiding place for all sorts of robbers and rebels, 
and an asylum for the discontented. 

The Zutt [q.v.], who were transplanted with their 
vast herds of buffaloes in the marshes by al- 
Hadjdjadj, made themselves, together with some 
other mawali, in the early 'Abbasid period, a 
nuisance to 'Irak by robbing and plundering, and 
disturbing communications and trade with the 
the south. Their effect was felt to a greater extent 
at the time of Ma 3 mfin. It was only after strenuous 
efforts that the Caliph al-Mu'tasim succeeded in 
subduing them, and in removing them to the northern 
Syrian borders (Baladhuri, 171-375; Tabari, iii, 
1044-5, 1167-70; Mas'udI, al-Tanbih, 355). They 
have given their name to the Nahr al-Zutt (Yakut, 
iv, 840). 

Far more dangerous, however, proved the great 
rising of the Zand] [q.v.] who, under the leadership 
of £ Ali b. Muhammad [q.v.], stirred up near Basra a 
formidable rebellion (255-270/869-883) and dominated 
the Batlha for several years (Tabari, iii, 1742 ff.; 
Noldeke, Sketches from Eastern History, 146-175; 
F. al-Samir, Thawrat al-Zandi, Baghdad 1952). 

In the following centuries the Banu Shahin (see 
'Imran b. Shahin) and after them the family of al- 
Muzaffar [q.v.] founded a more or less independent 
kingdom in the swamp lands which they shared at 
a later period with the Mazyadids [q.v.] who ruled 
from 403 A.H. until 448 A.H. in Hilla. After the 
decline of the Mazyadids, the Banu '1-Muntafik 
began to play their part, although the Caliph al- 
Nasir succeeded in destroying their leaders, the 
Banu Ma'ruf, in 617/1220. 

When the Mongols conquered 'Irak (656/1253), 
the Bapha fell in their hands, but the Arab tribes 
remained a source of disturbance. From then on it 
was called al-Djaza'ir ("the islands") or al-Djawazir. 
It was conquered by Tamerlane (795/1338), and then 
by Uways the Djala'irid (826/1423); in the year 
844 A.H. it was conquered by the Musha c sha c [q.v.], 
who remained until the Ottoman sultan Sulayman 
occupied it in 953 A.H. Ottoman rule of the region, 
however, was not firm, and they could not destroy 
the several tribal principalities, e.g., the Al 'Ulyan, 
who ruled over the Hammar until they were destroyed 
in 975 A.H.; the Ban! Lam dominated the lower 
Tigris, until they were challenged by Albu Muham- 
mad and gave the Ottomans a chance to control 
them. The al-Muntafik family ruled over the lower 
Euphrates up to the year 1861, when Midhat Pasha 
was able to establish a mutasarrifiyya under the 
control of the governor of Baghdad (Longrigg, Four 
Centuries of Modern Iraq, Oxford; 'A. c Azzawi, al- 
t Irak bayn IhtilaXayn, 8 Vols, Baghdad 1937-57; 
Field, The Anthropology of Iraq, in Field Museum 
of Natural History, Vol. 30, part i, no. 2, 1949). 

Large numbers of the originally Aramaic (and 
Christian) population of Babylonia (the Nabats of 
Arab writers) remained in Bata'ih for a long time, 
so that many sources call them the swamps of the 
Nabat (L.A., iii, 237; cf. also Mas'udi, al-Tanbih, 
161; Miskawayh, ii, 409 Mukaddasi, 128). Probably 
another ancient remnant is the Mandaeans or 
Subba, the mediaeval Mughtasila, cf. Ibn al-Nadim, 
340; Mas'udi, al-Tanbih, 161); these Subba still 
survive in a few places in the marshes such as Suk 
al-Shuyukh, Kal'at Salih, and in Hor al-Huwayza 
(Hawiza) where the town of Hawiza is their 
chief centre (cf. Drower, in Bibliography). 



Nevertheless some Arabs settled there. Ibn 
Rusta says that Yashkur, Bahila and Banu '1-Anbar 
lived near the Batlha before its formation. Baladhnri 
refers to the Bahili clients who joined the Zutt in 
their disturbances at the time of Ma'mfin. Tabari, 
iii, 1858, 1898, 1903 refers to some of the Bahilis who 
joined the activities of the Zandj in the 3rd/9th 
century. He refers also to 'Idjl in the Batlha (iii, 
1759). The Mazyadid domination must have 
brought Bani Asad [q.v.] until they were destroyed 
by Al-Nasir. Ibn Khaldun mentions Rabi c a who 
dominate this area (vi, 12), by whom he probably 
means the Muntafik [q.v.]. Ibn Battuta mentions 
Khafadia and the Ma'adI (ii, 2, 4). 

The greater part of the modern inhabitants is 
composed of semi-nomads and farmers of Arab 
stock, organised on tribal lines. They are Shi c i 
Muslims except for a few Sunnis, the most prominent 
of whom are the Sa'dun family. 

The most important of these Arab tribes, which 
are themselves divided into a large number of 

(1) The Banu Lam who in the 16th century were 
able to establish their authority over the Tigris 
lands from Hawiza as far as the environs of Baghdad 
in the north, and to the outer spurs of the Pusht-i 
Kuh in the east. Kiit al-Amara was the residence of 
their Shaykh in the early decades of the 19th 
century, but their lands and authority diminished 
in the 19th century and became confined to the 
lands east of Tigris and north of c Imara. They are 
a sheep owning tribe, and are still semi-nomadic. 

(2) The Albu (= Abu) Muhammad. They also 
live east of the Tigris, beside the banks of the 
Cahla and its main tributaries where they settled ten 
generations ago, anil have since expanded over the 
canals and marshes on either side of the Tigris 
between c Imara and c Uzayr. They are mainly 
cultivators but also marshmen, who are occupied 
in breeding buffaloes and making reed mats. 

(3) Rabi'a. To the west of the Tigris. Their sub- 
division al-Mayyah extends along the Gharraf up to 
Shafra, with Hayy as their chief centre. 

(4) Z.ubayd, west of the Tigris. Their lands lie 
between Baghdad on the north and Kut al-Hayy 
in the south-east. In the south they adjoin the land 
of the Khaza'il. 

(5) The Khaza'il, south-west of the Zubayd. They 
dwell from the district between Kefil and the ruins 
of Niffar, and along the Euphrates from Shamiyya 
to the south of Diwiniyya where they border on 
the country of the Muntafik- 

(6) The Muntafik, a loose confederation of tribes 
presided over by the al-Sa' dun who came in the 
15th century from the Hidjaz and were able to 
establish their authority over the tribes of the Lower 
Euphrates, and to expand at times even as far as 
Basra. They retained their semi-autonomous author- 
ity up to 1861, when Midhat Pasha was able to 
abolish their rule and establish a mutasarrifiya in 
Nasiriyya. 

The Muntafik fall into three main divisions: 
1) al-Adjwad, who dwelt from Darradji to the 
vicinity of Suk al-Shuyukh, and on the lower parts 
of the Gharraf; 2) Banu Malik, who live on the 
borders of Al-Hammar; 3) Banu Sa'id, who live 
near Karma ban! Sa c id. 

(7) Al-Djaza'ir. The Djaza'ir ("islands") also 
called Djawazir are the swamp lands as opposed to 
Shamiyya. the dry and desert land). The term has 
given its name to a confederation of tribes which 
are repeatedly mentioned in the Mongol and Ottoman 



L-BATlHA — al-BATIN 



1097 



sources up to the 20th century. Their country was 
part of the Musha'sha' state ('Azzawi, Ta'rikh, iii, 
112, 174, 272) then of Al- c Ulyan ('Azzawl, iv, 107); 
was conquered by the Ottomans ('Azzawl, iv, 
50 quoting Mir'at-i Ka'indt, 127; Ewliya Celebi iv, 
414), at times dominated by the Persians and by 
the Muntafik, until it was finally brought under Otto- 
man control at the time of Midhat Pasha, who made 
attempts to reclaim some of its lands {Al-Zawr, 568). 
The tribes of Al-Djazalr formed a confederation 
composed of (1) Banu Asad [q.v.] who settled between 
Suk al-Shuyukh and Kurna, with their centre in 
Cabayish; (2) Al-Husaynl; (3) Banu Hutayt in 
IJammar; (4) 'Ubada between Suk al-Shuyukh and 
Cabayish (cf. Ibn Khaldun, ii, 310-12); 5) Banu 
Mansur, settled near Kurna. 

(8) The Mi'dan. They are probably the Ma'adi 
who are mentioned by Ibn Battiita as dwelling 
between Kufa and Wasit (ii); Loftus (120-2) 
described their primitive life and conditions. They 
dwell in the marshes, are organised tribally in a 
small way, and have no cohesion on a large scale. 
They are fishermen, reed-gatherers, and breeders of 
buffaloes. The other Arabs despise them for their 
profession and for their moral code, which differs 
slightly from that of the Bedouins. 

The settlements of the inhabitants of the swamps 
are usually on terraces and islands, which are 
entirely submerged by the annual inundation, and 
sometimes form villages. They consist of long huts 
built of reeds and reed matting (sarifa) (Thesiger, 
op. tit.; Shdkir Salim al-Cibdyish, Vol. i, 23-4, 
Baghdad 1957; cf. also Noldeke in WZKM, xvi, 198, 
Note 1). 

The most important product of the marshes is 
rice. Other products are barley, yellow m; 
sorghum, millet, lentils, melons, watermelons, and 
to some degree lady's finger (bdmya, gumbo, okra) 

One source of revenue is the reed, which is used 
for all household purposes and from ancient times 
has been much used for writing implements (see 
OLZ, ix, 190). The reed pens of mediaeval Wasit 
and, in the 19th century, of Dizful were considered 
the best in the east (cf. CI. Huart, Les Calligraphes 
et les miniaturistes de I'Orient Musulm. (1908), 13). 
Even at present 50-70 thousand tons of reeds are 
cut annually in the vicinity of Cabayish {Tarns, 60). 

In addition there is great abundance of fishes, 
which afford a continual food supply to the natives 
or are exported to other districts. Ibn Rusta (94) 
refers to the importance of the Batlha products of 
reeds and fish in mediaeval times. At present it 
produces about 2000 tons of fish annually, employing 
about 500 fishermen. 

Buffaloes are an important source of wealth to 
the marshmen south of 'Imara and of the IJammar. 
The butter from their milk is exported to the sur- 
rounding cities and to Baghdad. Sheep are also 
reared to a moderate extent, while cows are found 
in various places, especially in Kurna. 

As to the remaining fauna of the Batiha, water 
fowl of all sorts are numerous, such as gulls, wild 
duck, geese, swans etc.; there are flocks of cranes, 
pelicans, flamingoes, storks, bustards and bitterns. 
There are also some carnivorous animals. The lion, 
which was known in this country in ancient and 
mediaeval times, was last mentioned in the 19th 
century (Loftus, op. tit., 242 ff.). In addition, 
number of leopards, jackals, wolves, lvnxes ar 
wild-cats have their lairs here. Wild-boar (S« 
scrofa), wallow in large herds in the marshes. 



The countless swarms of mosquitoes and midges 
form a terrible plague, and were a source of endemic 
diseases, e.g., malaria, which must have been an 
important factor in the decline of the district (cf. 
Shdkir Salim al-Cibdyish, Vol. ii). 

Bibliography: On geography and history: 
BGA, passim, in particular vi, 233, 236, 240 ff. 
(Kudama), and vii, 94 ff., 186 (Ibn Rusta); 
Baladhuri, 292-294. Suhrab, Surat al-Akdlim a\- 
Sab c , ed. Mzik, 126, 136; Mas'udi, Murudj; i, 
224 ff. MawardI, Kitdb al-Ahkdm al-Sultaniyya 
(ed. R. Enger), Bonn 1853, 311 ff.; Yakut, i, 
668 ff. (cf. the index) ; Mardsid al-I(tila c (ed. 
Juynboll), (Leiden 1850, i, 160-1, iv, 343, 348 
Juynboll's note). Abu '1-Fida', Takwim, 43, 51; 
Ibn Battuta, Travels (ed. Defremery) Paris, 296; 
M. Streck, Babylonien nach den Arab. Geographen, 
2 vols.; Le Strange, 26-29, 40-43; De Morgan, 
DtUgation en Perse, Memoires, Paris 1900; 
Woolley, Ur of the Chaldees, 1938; Seton Lloyd, 
Twin Rivers, Oxford 1934; G. M. Lee and N. L. 
Falcon, The Geographical History of the Mesopo- 
tamian Plains, in Geographical Journal, cxviii 



4-39, < 



i 399-4, 



4-397- 



On modern conditions: W. F. Ainsworth, A 
personal narrative of the Euphrates, London 1857; 
idem, Researches in Assyria, Babylonia and 
Chaldea, London 1838; W. K. Loftus, Travels and 
Researches in Chaldea and Susiana, New York 1857; 
J. B. Fraser, Travels in Koordistan, Mesopotamia, 
London 1840; Chesney, The Expedition of the 
Survey, London 1850; W. Willcocks, Irrigation of 
Mesopotamia, London 1917; M. G. Ionides, The 
Regime of the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris, London 
1937; Thesiger, The Marshes of Southern Iraq, in 
Geographical Journal, cxx part 3 1954; A. N. 
Sussa, Fi Rayy al-'-Irdk, 2 vols. Baghdad 1945; 
idem, Tatawwur Rayy al-'-Irdk, 1946; idem, 
Khazzan Hor al-Shwaydja, Baghdad; Tigris 
Irrigation Department, Baghdad 1952; Tippetts- 
Abbett-McCarthy-Stratton, Study of the Lower 
Tigris Euphrates Basin, Baghdad 1958. 

On the inhabitants : Von Kremer, in SB A k. Wien 

1850, 250-4; Chiha, La Province de Baghdad, 

Cairo 1908; Sprenger, in ZDMG, xvii, 223 ft.; 

Freiherr von Oppenheim, Vom MilUlmeer zum 

Persischen Golf, ii, 67-76; idem, Die Beduinen, 

iii, Wiesbaden 1952; H. Field, Anthropology of 

Iraq, Part I no. 2 1949; 'Abbas al- c AzzawI, 

'Ashd'ir al-'-Irdk, vols 3, 4, Baghdad 1955; 

Thesiger, op. cit.; Drower, The Mandaeans, 

Oxford 1938; Muhammad al-Bakir al-Djalali, 

Mudjaz Ta'rikh '■AshdHr al-'-Imdra, Baghdad 1947; 

c Abd al-Djabbar Faris, 'Amdn fi 'l-Furdt al-Awsaf, 

al-Nadjaf ; S. W. Hellbusch, Die Kultur der Ma>dan 

in Gegenwart und Vergangenheit, in Siirner, xii, 

1955; Shdkir Salim al-Cibdyish, 2 Vols., Baghdad 

1957. (M. Streck-[Saleh El-Ali]) 

BATIL wa FASID r see Fasid]. 

BAtIN wa ZAHIR [see Zahir]. 

al-BAJIN, a large wddi in north-eastern Arabia, 

formerly the lower course of Wadi al-Rumah [q.v.] 

but now cut off by the sands of al-Dahna' [q.v.]. 

Al-Batin runs north-easterly 385 km., from below 

Khushum al-£humami in al-Dahna 5 to a plain 

15 km. SW of al Zubayr. In width it is unusually 

regular, being 10-13 km. between banks and 2-3 km. 

on the floor. Its only surface water is lateral flow 

from local rains. Most of al-Batin is a channel 

through former deposits of Wadi al-Rumah, as the 

plains of al-Dibdiba [q.v.] on both sides contain 






l-BATIN — BATINIYYA 



gravels from the Arabian Shield [see art. pjazIrat 

AL-<ARAB, (ii) & (Ui)]. 

Al-Batin, though a historic route from al-Basra 
to al-Hidjaz, contains few known archaeological 
remains; the most prominent are the 42 steyned 
wells, which may be Yakut's Hafar Abi Musa, near 
the village of Hafar al-Batin. The only settlement 
in al-Batin, al-Hafar consists of 200 houses and the 
fort of the Amlrate which reports to the Governorate 
of the Eastern Province at al-Dammam. 

At an undefined point at the junction of al-Batin 
and its tributary, al-'Awdja', the boundaries of 
Saudi Arabia, Kuwayt, 'Irak, and the Saudi Arabia- 
c Irak Neutral Zone converge, according to the al- 
'Ukayr agreements of 1922. 

Bibliography: HamdanI; Yakut; Muhammad 
b. c Abd Allah b. Bulayhid, Sahih al-Akhbdr, 
Cairo 1370-3; H. Dickson, Kuwait and her neigh- 
bours, London 1956; J. G. Lorimer, Gazetteer of 
the Persian Gulf, 'Oman, and Central Arabia, 
Calcutta 1908-15. (R. L. Headley) 

al-BAT1NA, a lowland district in eastern Arabia 
lying between the sea coast of the Gulf of Oman 
and the mountains of al-Hadjar. It is bounded on 
the north by the headland of Khatmat Milaha, and 
on the south by the village of Hayl Al 'Umayr, south- 
east of the town of al-SIb and west of the city of 
Muscat. The district varies in width from 10 to 20 
miles. Near the coast the soil is sandy and dotted 
with many shallow wells. Farther inland the soil is 
clay, and then the ground becomes stony as the 
foothills of the mountains are approached. Numerous 
wddis cut across the district and run down to the 
coast, where their beds broaden out. The name al- 
Batina means the low-lying region, in contrast to 
al-?ahira [q.v.], the higher region on the western 
side of al-Hadjar, which is reached from al-Batina 
by two important passes, WadI al-Djizy and Wadi 
al-Hawasina. 

Al-Batina is primarily a region of fishing and date 
culture, though the interior supports a number of 
semi-nomadic folk with their herds. Along the sea 
coast stretches an almost continuous date-palm belt, 
which in places extends inland to a depth of about 
seven miles. Wheat, cotton, barley, sugar-cane, 
lucerne, mangoes, bananas, figs, limes, melons, and 
olives are also grown, being irrigated from the 
copious wells. Domestic animals are sheep, goats, 
donkeys, and especially the Bdtiniyya riding camel, 
which among the three famous breeds of Oman is 
the one most noted for its comfortable gait. Fishing is 
often carried on in the shdsha, a non-sinkable craft of 
palm branches (djarid) similar to the warakiyya of 
Kuwayt. Larger vessels sail to the Persian Gulf, 
southern Arabia, Zanzibar, and Pakistan for trade. 
Al-Batina was first proselytised for Islam in 
8/629 by Abu Zayd al-Ansari and c Amr b. al- c As 
[q.v.], who were welcomed in Suhar [q.v.] by the house 
of al-Diulanda. In the 7th/i3th century the country 
was twice invaded by the Persians, who maintained 
a foothold until finally driven out by the Portuguese 
in 928/1522. Although the Portuguese took the 
tribute formerly sent to the ruler of Hormuz, 
they did not continually, occupy the al-Batina 
coast until 1025/1616. Until the expulsion of the 
Portuguese in 1053/1643 by the dynasty of al- 
Ya'ariba [see ya'rub], Suhar rivaled Muscat and 
Hormuz as a trading port. Persian attempts to 
regain permanent possession of al-Batina during 
the reign of Nadir Shah [q.v.] were beaten off largely 
by the efforts of Ahmad b. Sa c id of Al Bu Sa c Id 
[see bu sa c Id]. His nine-month defence of Suhar in 



1 156/1743 brought him prestige which secured for 
himself the Imamate of Oman and for his descendants 
the Sultanate of Muscat. 

The Sultan of Muscat has wdlis at al-SIb, Barks, 
al-Masna c a, Suwayk, al-Khabura, and Suhar. The 
customs and zakdl revenue from these places seldom 
exceeds the administrative expenses. The settled 
population of al-Batina was estimated by Lorimer 
in 1908 as about 105,000 persons, half of whom were 
living along the coast. The number of Bedouins 
roaming the interior is far less. Among the sedentary 
population, the chief tribes are Al Sa c d and al- 
Hawasina. Many of the Bedouins in the district come 
from the same two tribes and Ban! Khartis. Lesser 
tribes are al-Biduwat, Al Hamad, Al Djarad, al- 
Mawalik, al-Nawafil, Al Bu Kurayn, Al Bu Rushayd, 
and al-SJiubul. The great majority of the people of 
al-Batina are Hinawi in politics and IbadI in religion, 
although the Baluchis and negroes tend to be Sunni. 
Bibliography: Baladhurl, Futuh; Ibn al- 
Athir; Ibn Ruzayk, Fath (ms. Add. 2892, Cam- 
bridge) transl. G Badger, Imams and Seyyids, 
London 1871 ; Ibn Bishr, Ta'rikh, Mecca 1340/ 
1930; Yakut; al-Salimi, Tuhfat al-A c ydn, Cairo 
1332-47/1913-28. 

Admiralty, A Handbook of Arabia, London 
1916-17; Albuquerque, Commentar tes(Hakluyted.), 
London 1875; Caetani, Annali; F. Danvers, The 
Portuguese in India, London 1894; Pietro della 
Valle, Travels, London 1665 ; M. de Faria e Sousa, 
Asia portuguesa, Oporto 1945-47; Ch. Guillain, 
Documents sur I'hist . . . de I'Afrique orientale, 
Paris 1856; L. Lockhart, Nadir Shah, London 
1938; J. G. Lorimer, Gazetteer of the Persian 
Gulf, . . ., Calcutta 1908-15; S. Miles, The countries 
and tribes of the Persian Gulf, London 19 19; 
Niebuhr, Beschreibungen von Arabien, Copenhagen 
1772; Palgrave, Narrative..., London & Cam- 
bridge, 1865-66; R. Said-Ruete, Said Bin Sultan, 
London 1929; idem, in JCAS, xvi, pt. 4, 419; 
Selections from the Records of the Bombay Govern- 
ment, n.s., xxiv, Bombay 1856; B. Thomas, 
Alarms and Excursions in Arabia, Indianapolis 
1931; Wellsted, Travels in Arabia, London 1838. 

(R. L. Headley) 
BATINIYYA, a name given (a) to the Isma'UIs 
in medieval times, referring to their stress on the 
batin, the "inward" meaning behind the literal 
wording of sacred texts; and (b), less specifically, to 
anyone accused of rejecting the literal meaning of 
such texts in favour of the bd(in. 

(a) Among the Isma'ills [q.v.] and some related 
Shi'i groups there developed a distinctive type of 
ta'wil [q.v.], scriptural interpretation, which may 
be called bdtini. It was symbolical or allegoristic in 
its method, sectarian in its aims, hierarchically 
imparted, and secret. All branches of the Isma'Iliyya 
as well as its Druze offshoots have retained the 
bd(ini ta'wil in one form or another. The like system 
of the Nusayris seems to be a survival from bdfini 
circles associated with the later Twelver imams 
[see ghulat]. 

Certain aspects of this type of ta'wil can be 
matched in Jewish and Christian prototypes (for 
instance, in the symbolical exegesis of Origen) and 
other aspects can be matched among the Gnostics. 
Its immediate origins, however, are Muslim. Like the 
symbolical ta'wil ascribed to the imams among the 
later Twelver Shl c a (with which it has in common 
its symbolical and sectarian character and something 
of its secrecy), its beginnings can be traced to the 
Shl c i Ghulat of the 2nd/8th century in <Irak. Thus 



al-Mughlra b. Sa'Id (d. 119/737) is said to have 
interpreted the mountains' refusal to undertake the 
faith (Kur'an xxxiii, 72) as symbolising 'Umar's 
rejection of C A11. Abu Mansur al- c ldjll is said to have 
held that the "heavens" symbolised the imams and 
the "earth" their followers; and is credited with 
the key notion that while it was the Prophet who 
brought the text of the Kur'an, it was the imam 
alone was charged with its interpretation, ta'wil. 
Among the followers of Abu '1-Khattab (d. 138/ 
755-6) such allegoristic ta'wil seems to have been 
especially popular; some of them supposed that in 
each generation there is a speaker, ndtik, to declare 
publicly religious truth, and a silent man, fdmit, to 
interpret it to the elect. Presumably it was from the 
Khattabivva that such elements of the bd(ini ta'wil 
entered the Isma'Ili movement, where the ta'wil was 
elaborated till it became the hallmark of that 



The bd(ini system can be described in terms of four 
essential notions: bdfin, ta'wil, khdfs wa l amm, and 
takiyya, all which were presupposed whatever 
particular doctrine was taught. 

It was held that every sacred text had its hidden 
inner meaning, the bdfin, which was contrasted to 
the zahir, "apparent" or literal meaning. Not only 
in passages which were in any case metaphorical, 
but in historical passages, moral exhortations, legal 
and ritual prescriptions, each person, act, or object 
mentioned was to be taken symbolically. The 
things symbolised often were explained one by one 
as objects of approval, obedience, hatred, and the 
like, according to the passage; but sometimes whole 
anecdotes were read as extended allegories. Number 
and letter symbolism was freely used. The same 
procedure applied to non-Muslim sacred books as 
well; and indeed to the whole of nature. For the 
bdfin represented an esoteric world of hidden 
spiritual reality, parallel to the reality of the zahir, 
the ordinary visible world, which cloaked and con- 
cealed it. The true function of scripture was to point 
to that hidden world even while keeping it disguised 
in symbols. 

Ta'wil, the educing of the bdtin from the zahir 
text, was therefore as fundamental as tanzil, the 
revelation of the literal sacred text itself, and was 
equally dependent upon divine intervention. For 
every prophet who was given tanzil, a revelation to 
be proclaimed publicly to mankind, there must be a 
wa$i, an executor (in the case of Muhammad, this was 
'Ali) who was given the corresponding ta'wil, which 
he propounded privately to the worthy few, that is, 
the members of the sect which accepted his authority. 

Mankind, then, were divided into khdss, the 
elite who know the bdfin, and 'dmm, the ignorant 
generality. The ftAaj? were those who had been 
ceremonially intitiated into the sect, that is, into 
knowledge of and obedience to the imam, repre- 
sentative of 'All and sole authorised source of ta'wil 
in any given generation. Among the Isma'ilts, a 
series of hierarchical ranks (hudUd) of teachers 
mediated between the imam and the simple initiate. 
To the latter the bdtin was imparted only in gradual 
stages (the number of which varied) and in purely 
authoritarian fashion. 

The bdfin was "inward" not only in being unevident 
but also in being secret. Knowledge of it must not 
be imparted to the '■dmm, the ordinary followers of 
the zahir revelation, lest it be misunderstood in an 
unauthorised way and abused. The Shi c ite principle 
of takiyya [?.».], precautionary dissimulation of 
one's faith, was accordingly reinterpreted to imply 



the obligation not to reveal the bdfin to any un- 
authorised persons even apart from any danger of 
persecution. For some, therefore, the practice of the 
zahir ritual of the shari'a even in its frankly Shl'ite 
form came to be regarded as takiyya, in that it kept 
the bdfin concealed. 

Despite an authoritarian hierarchism, the ta'wil 
(as we know it in its Ismail form) never achieved 
any strict uniformity. For any given ritual action 
different authors gave widely differing bdfin inter- 
pretations; even the same author sometimes gave 
multiple explanations in the same book. Thus the 
inner meaning of the obligation of zakdt was held 
to be that the khums or fifth of one's income must 
be given to the imam; or that one should give all 
one's surplus to the poor; or that the only true 
wealth is knowledge. What the ta'wil did accomplish 
was to replace what seemed a "naive" Kur'anic 
world view with a more "sophisticated" intellectual 
system; one which seemed to go beneath the super- 
ficial differences among the quarrelling religious 
communities with their incompatible dogmatic 
claims, to reach a profounder common truth. A 
unity of spirit was given to the ta'wil among the 
IsmaHlis by its being used for three large and 
interrelated purposes. It presented a cosmology 
derived from neo-Platonist sources; it interpreted 
eschatology in terms of cyclicist religious history 
(and sometimes of reincamationism) ; finally, it 
justified the religious hierarchy of the sect, whose 
grades corresponded more or less to the several 
dignities of the neo-Platonist cosmos. 

The desire for sophisticated freedom from com- 
monly accepted dogmas made for a persistent 
tendency toward radical exaltation of the bdfin. In 
official Fatimid Ismallism the zahir and bdfin were 
both held to have their own spheres of relevance, at 
least in matters of ritual and law, in which they were 
binding on the initiate. But there was a frequent 
recurrence among the bdfiniyya of a total rejection 
of the zahir meaning even of the shari'a, or at least 
of its ritual prescriptions, as superfluous for whoever 
knows the imam and hence the bdfin; this happened, 
for instance, among the Nizari Isma'flls after 559/ 
1 1 64. Those who rejected the zahir altogether often 
tended also, consistently, to exalt the waft ( c Ali) to 
a higher rank than that of the Prophet (Muhammad), 
since the ta'wil was worthier than the tanzil; this 
was the attitude of the Nusayrls. 

The bdfiniyya movement seems to have left 
traces among such later groups as the Hurufis, the 
Rawshanls, and the Babls, who also used symbolical 
exegesis, though in somewhat different contexts. 
Its terminology and conceptions, freed of their 
sectarianism, have likewise influenced the symbolism 
of Sufi thought. Perhaps above all, however, the 
radical positions it took had the effect of rendering 
Muslim Orthodoxy all the more suspicious of any 
kind of symbolical ta'wil. Thus Ghazzali used the 
Isma'IlI bdfiniyya, in his al-Kusfds al-Mustakim, as 
point of departure for his analysis of the legitimate 
limits of ta'wil in general. 

(b) Sunni writers have subsequently used the term 
bdfiniyya polemically to condemn any writers who, 
in their judgment, go beyond the recognition of 
a bdfin meaning in scripture, to the rejection of the 
evident meaning of scripture in favour exclusively 
of such a bdfin. Thus Ibn Taymiyya applies the 
term not only to the bdfini Shi'a but to some Sufis 
and to such faldsifa as Ibn Rushd. Sufis commonly 
hold that there are rich bdfin meanings in the Kur'an 
open to the pre perly contemplative spirit ; but they 



BATINIYYA — BATLAMIYOS 



are generally careful to avoid a position which 
could be labelled bd(ini in this sense. Ibn al-'Arabi, 
for instance, whose interpretation of scripture often 
seems particularly free, defends himself against the 
charge of being a bdtini on the grounds that he 
accepts the zdhir alongside the bd(in. 

Bibliography: see the articles isma'iliyya, 
nusayriyya, ghulat. Also: I. Goldziher, Die 
Richtungen der islamischen Koranauslegung, Leiden 
1920, chapters 4 and 5; and H. Corbin, Etude 
priliminaire, in Nasir-i Khusraw. Kitab-e Jami c 
al-Hikmatain, Tehran and Paris, 1953. 

(M. G. S. Hodgson) 
al-BATIYA [see nudjum]. 

BAT JAN, a small island in Indonesia [q.v.], near 
the equator, at Long. 127° E., one of the earlier 
sultanates and centres of Muslim propaganda. It lost 
its importance as a spice-island about 1650 when 
the trees were destroyed as a result of a treaty 
between the sultan and the Dutch East India 
Company. (C. C. Berg) 

BATLAMIYCS, the almost exclusively used 
transliteration of the Greco-Latin Ptolemaeus; 
al-Mas c udI, Tanbih, writes invariably >btlmyws, 
which may be read Ibtulamayus, the truest possible 
Arabic transliteration. In one place, 129, he gives 
the explanation "B(ldmdws bi-lughatihim" . About his 
surname al-Kalud(h)i al-Mas c udI remarks that some 
people believe him to be a son of Claudius, the 
"sixth" Roman emperor (var. led. "second", i.e., 
Tiberius), who was in fact the third. He himself puts 
him in his true time, and so does Ibn Sa'id al- 
Andalusi, Tabakdt al-umam, 29 (Cheikho), and 
already the Fihrist, 267 (Fliigel). Al-Mas c udi, loc. cit,. 
and others also refute the false identification of the 
astronomer with one of the Hellenistic kings of Egypt. 
Since no Greek scientist dominated medieval 
astronomy and geography, and even Weltanschauung, 
as much as Ptolemy, the Western no less than the 
Oriental, we have restricted ourselves to listing some 
books which show his influence on a large scale: 

1. General: G. Sarton, IHS, i-iii, Indices; idem, 
The Appreciation of ancient and medieval science 
during the Renaissance, 1955, ch. iii, 5; idem, Ancient 
science and modern civilization, 1954, ch. ii; L. 
Thorndike, History of Magic etc., i, 1923, 104 ff., 
other volumes see Indices 

2. Astronomy: C. A. Nallino, Him al-Falak, 
191 1, Italian in Raccoltx di Scritti, v, 1944; O. Neuge- 
bauer, The transmission of planetary theories in 
ancient and medieval astronomy, Emanuel Stern 
Lecture, New York, 1956. 

3. Astrology: F. Boll, Kleine Schriften zur 
Stemkunde des Altertums, 1950. 

4. Geography: E. Honigmann, Die 7 Klimata, 
1929. 

5. Harmonics: Ingemar During, Die Harmonie- 
lehre des Klaudios Ptolemaios, 1930; Christ-Schmid- 
Stahlin, Gesch. d. griech. Lit.', ii, 2, 1924, 902. 

6. Optics: Christ etc., ibid. 

Here is a list of Ptolemy's writings in the order of 
the above paras 2-6, as far as they have left an 
impact on Islamic science. Under each item the 
Greek writings appear first, then come the titles 
known only in Arabic or translations thereof. The 
sources are: F(ihrist), (Ibn) S(a<id al-AndalusI), (Ibn 
al-)K(ifti) and (Ibn abi) U(saibi c a), besides Brockel- 
mann and the catalogues of manuscripts. For the 
Western translations, we use, additional to M. Stein- 
schneider, Die europ. Vbersetzungen a.d. Arab., and 



los manuscritos de la Biblioteca Catedral de Toledo, 
1942; F. J. Cannody, Arabic Astronomical and 
Astrological Sciences in Latin Translation, 1956 (not 
throughout reliable) ; L. Thorndike, Notes upon some 
medieval Latin astronomical, astrological and mathe- 
matical manuscripts at the Vatican, Isis, 47, 1956, 
404 ; the same, Notes on some . . . manuscripts of 
the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Journal of the 
Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, xx, 1957, 112-172 
(offprints on sale). 

a. The Almagest. Since Nallino has corroborated 
by new arguments Koppe's suggestion that the word 
is derived from (xeyaXi) avlvra^i? by naht (Raccolta, 
v, 262), the former opinion deriving it from (xeytOTX) 
(Suter, EI 1 , s.v. Almagest), has generally betn 
abandoned. The Arabic form is al-Midiisti (so 
explicitly stated by Hadjdjl Khalifa, v, 385); Bar- 
hebraeus also gives the correct Greek title Suntdksis 
(ed. Salhani, 123). An elaborate survey of the 
contents of books i-iv in al-Ya c kubi, i, 151-154, cf. 
Klamroth, in ZDMG, 42, 17-18. Tashil al-Midiisti by 
Thabit b. Kurra, cf. Brockelmann, I, 384, I, 7a. 
The first translator is not Sahl al-Tabari (and this 
man is not identical with Sahl b. Bishr, as proposed 
by Steinschneider, Arab. Lit. der Juden, 24), as 
stated by Sarton, IHS, i, 562. The whole problem 
has been discussed anew by Nallino, I.e., who also 
gives a new interpretation of the account in Fihrist 
(Raccolta, v, 263), and arrives at the conclusion that 
the first translator is unknown. The MS. Esc. 915 
has been used by O. J. Tallgren, Un point d'astronomie 
grico-arabe-romane, Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 
xxix, 1928, 39-44; cf. also the same, Survivance 
arabo-romane du Catalogue d'itoiles de Ptolemie, Stud. 
Or. Soc. Or. Fenn., ii, 1928, 202-283. A hitherto 
unknown commentary by Abu Dja'far al-Khazin 
(Brockelmann, I, 387) has been discovered by 
G. Vajda (Paris, BN, ar. 4821, 9, cf. RSO, xxv, 8), 
another one by Djabir b. Hayyan is only known by 
name, cf. Kraus, Jdbir ibn Hayydn, i, 1943, no. 2834. 
Ch. H. Haskiris and D. P. Lockwood have stated 
that the first Latin translation has been made 
directly from the Greek, 12 years before Gerard of 
Cremona's version from the Arabic in 1175 (The 
Sicilian Translators of the 12th Century and the first 
Latin version of Ptolemy's Almagest, Harvard Studies 
in Classical Philology, xxi, 1910, 75-102; cf. also 
J. L. Heiberg, in Hermes, xlv, 1910, 57-66, xlvi, 
207-216). See also Carmody, 15, and Millas, ch. xxxv. 

b. The irpd/eipoi xavovee (Tabulae mammies), 
cf. Steinschneider, in ZDMG, 1, 217 and 341. Al- 
Ya'kubi, i, 159 = Klamroth, 25 calls the work which 
he analysed, Kitdb al-Kdnun fi Him al-Nudium wa- 
Hisdbhd wa-Kismat Adizd'hd wa-Ta'-dilhd, but, as 
Honigmann, 118 f. shows, this is not Ptolemy's book. 
This last has already in Greek times been confounded 
with the commentary written by Theo Alexandrinus. 
This was known to some Arabic scholars, as shown 
by Honigmann, 120. Theo's commentaries upon 
Ptolemy influenced al-Kindi, as proved by F. Rosen- 
thal in his analysis of MS. Aya Sofya 4830 (Studi . . . 
G. Levi della Vida, 1956, ii, 436 ff.). 

Special attention must be paid to one of the Tables, 
the xav&v PaaiXeioiv, ed. by C. Wachsmuth in his 
Einleitung in das Studium der alten Geschichte, 1895, 
304-306, reprinted with transliteration in Arabic 
numbers and Christian years for every king in 
F. K. Ginzel, Handbuch der mathematischen u. tech- 
nischen Chronologic, i, 1906, 139. The text is quoted 
by al-Ya c kubi, i, 161, for the Greek and Roman kings. 
In this table Alexander the Great comes after Darius 



Ill, then Philippus (Arrhidaeus) "that one with 
Alexander the Builder", then "the other" Alexander 
(i.e., the posthumous son of Al. the Gr.). During the 
reign of the latter (317-305 B.C.) falls the beginning 
of the Seleucid Aera, which was therefore also called 
Aera Alexandri. This canon has been taken over by 
al-BIrunl, Athdr, 88 ff., as expressly stated 1. 5. On 
89 he calls rightly Alexander the Great al-bannd* 
(Greek XT£aTi}<;), and 92 he calls Alexander's son 
al-thdni. The Arabic tradition, however, calls this 
latter Dhu 'l-Karnayn, apparently because his 
predecessor was also called Philippus. Several 
authors point rightly to the difference of 12 years 
between the death of Alexander the Great and the 
beginning of the Aera allegedly called after him. 
Hadjdii Khalifa, hi, 430, no. 6471 says Ta'rikh of 
Philippus the RumI, the Builder", but adds correctly: 
"the brother of Dh u 'l-Karnayn". Two of the 
Achaeraenid kings are given by al-BIrunl 2 years 
more than by Ptolemy. Nevertheless, from Bukht- 
nassar until Alexander's death also the al-Biruni MSS. 
have Ptolemy's total of 424 years, which number was 
replaced by Sachau, according to arithmetic, by 
428 (89 ult.). Cf. also K., 96 (Lippert), al-Tabarl, 
1357/1939. i, 412 f-; S., 30 (Cheikho). 

c. c T7ro8£o-ei<; tcov nXavcofiivcov, perhaps the book 
named in F 268 k. ft sayr (not siyar\) al-saV-a, cf. 
Steinschneider, Ar. Ob., 211, who rightly states, 
that the real Arabic title is Iktisds ahwdl al-kawdkib, 
as quoted by K. 98, cf. Brockelmann, I, 384, 7b. 
The Arabic text (the number of MS. Leiden is 
1045, not 1044, which contains the Almagest), an 
Isldh by Thabit b. Kurra, is for book 2 the only one 
preserved. Both books have been translated into 
German by L. Nix and printed together with the 
Greek text of book 1 in Claudii Ptolemaei Opera 
astronomica minora, ed. J. L. Heiberg, 1907 (Bibl. 
Teubn.). 

d. (J>dt<rcii; <47cXavtov aaT^ptov, Arabic K. al-anwd' 
(S 29). As for the meaning of this title, cf. Nallino, 
Him al-falak, 133 ft. (= Raccolta, v, 191 ff.), also 
I. Kratchkovsky, in Abu Hanifa al-DInawari, K. al- 
Ahbdr al-Tiwdl, Preface etc., 1912, 40 ff. Description 
of the book in al-Mas'udi, Tanbih, 17. Boll, Sphaera, 
1903, 413 f., does not believe that Abu Ma'shar used 
this book for his list of Paranatellonta, ed. and tr. 
by A. Dyroff, ibid., 490 ft.; he rather supposes a 
falsified book attributed to Ptolemy. 

e. 'Anktoait; £iti9<xveia<; o-9<x£pa<; (Planis- 
phaerium). F 269 mentions under Pappus Tafsir k. 
Baflamiyus ft tasfth al-kura, transl. by Thabit. Al- 
Ya'kubl, i, 154 analyzes the K. ft Dhat al-tfalfr, cf. 
Klamroth, 20 ff. The text of Maslama al-Madjriti's 
Compendium, formerly known in Hebrew and Latin 
translations only, was recently discovered by G. 
Vajda, RSO, xxv, 8 (MS. Paris, Ar. 4821, 10). 
For the Latin translation see Carmody, 18. 

f. Al-Ya c kubi, i, 157 also mentions a book on the 
Astrolabe called K. ft dhdt al-safdHh wa-hiya al- 
Asfurldb, cf. Klamroth, 23 ff. and Steinschneider 
215-216. For editions of the Latin translation see 
Carmody, 18, For Ptolemy's influence on Arabo- 
Spanish astrolabes see J. Millas Vallicrosa, Assaig 
i'hisioria de les idees ftsiques i matemMiques a la 
Catalunya medieval, 1931, ch. vi-vii. 

3. Astrology. 

a. 'A7coTsXeCT(iaTix->) auvTa^iq or TETpdtpipXo; ed. 
and transl. into English by F. E. Roberts, 1940 
( Loeb Class. Libr., together with Manetho), new 
edition by F. Boll & Ae. Boer, "1957, F 268: K. al- 
Arba'-a, S 21: K. al-Makdldt al-Arba 1 (Barh. 123: 
al-Arba ( Makdldt) ft Ahkdm al-Nudium, Latin 



translations Carmody, 18, Millas, ch. XXXVII, 
comm. by <Ali b. Ridwan, ib. ch. XXXIX. The 
quotations from it in Djabir's k. al-bahth collected 
by Kraus, no. 2834 (168, n. 1). For Thabit's compen- 
dium cf. Honigmann, Sieben Klimata, 116. 

b. K<xp7r6<; (fructus or centiloquium), not authentic. 
F268: k. al-Thamara, the commentary by Ahmad 
b. Yusuf al-Misri al-muhandis (the biographer of 
Ahmad b. Tulun) i s also mentioned, cf. Brockelmann, 
I, 229. A new edition of the Greek text by Ae. Boer, 
1952, Latin translations in Carmody, 16, Millas, ch. 
xxxvii-xxxviii. For a and b see also Thorndike, 
Journal of the Warb. etc., and Isis, loc. cit. Ten 
aphorisms are quoted in Ps. Madjriti's Ghdyat al- 
ii akim (Picatrix), ed. Ritter, 1933, 323-324. Ahmad's 
commentary on aph. 9 in exUnso quoted there, 55. 
A new fragment has been discovered by P. Kraus 
in MS. Taimur, Akhldfr, 290, 14, cf. his Dirdsdt, I, 
1939, 6. 

c. The book on Comets quoted by F 268 as 
k. Dhawdt Dhal-awdHb. cf. Steinschneider, Ar. Vbs., 
218, no. 22. Carmody, who discusses the Latin 
translations (16-17), calls the text "an amplification 
of (Centiloquium) prop. 99". 

d. On nativities, F 268: K. al-Mawdlid, quoted 
by Djabir, K. al-Mawdlid al-$aghir, cf. Kraus, 
Jabir, ii, 258, n. 1, who does not believe the book to 
be genuine either. 

e. Another pseudoepigraphic book, K. al-Malhama, 
is known from numerous quotations in Yakut's 
Geographical Dictionary, cf. the collection of place- 
names mentioned in it, and further literature in 
Honigmann, Sieben Klimata, 125-34. The meaning 
of malhama is not quite clear, and the quotations 
do not furnish sufficient evidence as to the real 
character of the book. 

f. Recently, a short text has been edited which 
refers to Ptolemy, namely, Dhikr ma did' ft 'l-nayruz 
wa-ahMmhu mim-md fasarahu Batlamiyus al-hakim 
wa-wadjfldahii '■an Him Ddniydl (!), ed. from 1st. 
Murad Molla 338 by c Abd al-Salam HarQn, ^awddir 
al-Makhtutdt, 5 (ii/i), 1373/1954, 45"48 (information 
from Mr. M. Schwarz of the Hebrew University 
Library). It discusses the significance of the week-day 
on which falls New Year. 

g. A book on the images which rise in the 360 
degrees of the celestial sphere named Liber imaginum 
Ptolemaei and the like, exists in Latin in many MSS. 
cf. Steinschneider, Eur. Obs., no. 177c, Carmody, 20, 
Thorndike, Journ. Warb. Court., 118. An Arabic 
text entitled Risdla ft Suwar al-Daradi ascribed to 
Ptolemy is one of the sources of the Saftnat al- 
Ahkdm by a certain Hadrat al-Nusayri, MSS Berlin 
Pet. I, 676 and Br. Mus. Add. 23,400 (the number 
in the Catalogue, 848, is distorted by Steinschneider, 
Arab. Obs., Philos., 90 and General Index into 1348, 
Math., 217 into 843, and 353 into 874); but the 
identity of the Arabic and Latin texts has not yet 
been examined. For the meaning of the title cf. Boll, 
Sphaera, 426 ff. 

h. The Liber ad Heristhonem or Aristonem de 
iudiciis (Steinschneider, Ar. Obs., 218, no. 11) has 
been analysed by Millas, 175, cf. also for similar 
texts ascribed to Ptolemy, Carmody, 17 and 20. 

i. Messealach (= Ma sha' Allah) et Ptholomeus 
de electionibus, printed Venice, 1 509, cf . Steinschneider, 
Eur. Obs., no. i64d, and Arab. Lit. d. Juden, 22, 
no. 26, has been tentatively identified by Carmody, 
41 with a Kitdb al-Ikhtiydrdt, MS. Esc. 919. Another 
MS. with the same title is quoted in Brockelmann, 
iii, 1205 ad i, 392; it exists in Alexandria, huruf, 12. 
According to Thorndike, The Latin Translations of 



1 102 BATLAMIYUS - 

astrological works by Messahala, in Osiris, xii, 1956, 
69, the work is erroneously attributed to Ma sha' 
Allah, and its author is Sahl b. Bishr. The Venice 
print is not mentioned by him, and consequently 
he does not make clear whether Ptolemy's book is 
supposed to be a different work or whether the 
print points to common authorship. The matter is 
still open for investigation. 

4. Geography. 

J . H. Kramers' account on the Arabic translations of 
the re<i>YP<*<t>iX7) ^KpTjY 1 ) 00 ? and its influence on the 
geographical views of the Muslims (EI 1 , Supplement, 
s.v. Biughrdfiyd) is by no means out of date, cf. also 
his contribution Geography and Commerce in The 
Legacy of Islam, 1931, 79-107. We refer the reader 
to the works quoted in those articles and to Stein- 
schneider, Ar. Obs., para. 119, and Ruska's review 
of H. v. Mzik's publications, in Geographische Zeit- 
schrift, 24, 77-81. For the translation made for 
Mehmed Fatih, the conqueror of Istanbul, preserved 
in MS. AS 2596, cf. Honigmann, 114; Plessner, in 
Islamica, iv, 1931, 547; Ritter, in Isl., xix, 1931, 
52 f., where another MS., AS 2610, is described too. 

5. Harmonics. 

For its influence on al-FSrabi's K. al-Musikl al- 
Kabir cf. P. Kraus, Jdbir, ii, 204, n. 2. 

6. Optics. 

The Arabic title given by S, 29 is K. al-Mandzir, 
Latin translation listed by Carmody, 18. For its 
influence on Ibn al-Haytham see Steinschneider, 
Ar. Obs., para 122. 

7. Alia. 

A book on the properties of stones, K. Mandfi 1 
al-Ahdidr, is contained in MS Paris 2772, cf. J. Ruska 
and W. Harther, Katalog der orientalischen und 
lateinischen Originalhandschriften, Abschriften und 
Photokopien des Instituts fur Geschichte der Median 
und der Naturwissenschaften in Berlin, 1939, 78 
(not in G. Vajda, Index general, 1953). 

Bibliography: In the text, cf. also 'Abdur- 
rahman Badawi's introduction to his Fontes 
Graecae (sic) doctrinarum politicarum Islamicarum, 
1954: L. Thorndike, in Isis, 50. 1959, 33-50. 

(M. Plessner) 
BATMAN [see wazn]. 

BATN, probably the Semitic word for "s t o m ac h", 
with the additional sense in Hebrew of "uterus", 
implied in Aramaic by the verb of the same root 
which means "to conceive", and in Arabic by 
expressions such as dhu batniha "fruit of her bowels", 
as well as by the use of the word to designate 
"a fraction of a tribe", explained as analogous to 
rahim, fakhidh and an entire series as designations 
of a uterine relationship. The distinction between 
awldd al-batn "cognates" and awldd al-fahr "agnates" 
is still used in modern Arabic, according to the 
notations of Wetzstein for Damascus (see also 
Arabica, v, 1, 80-81: M. Canard's review of an 
article by Vinnikov). The interpretation of Arab 
philologists who place batn between fakhidh and 
kabila in accordance with the order in which the 
parts of the body are enumerated, is to be rejected 
according to W. Robertson Smith (Journal of 
Philology, ix, 86) who believes that he has found 
for Hebr. befen that meaning of the Arab, batn, by 
an ingenious exegesis of Job 19, 17, where beney 
bifni baffled the commentators; it would correspond 
to the Ar. bani bafni (Kinship and Marriage in 
early Arabia', 28). For a discussion of his theory 
cf. the articles 'a'ila, 'ashIra, i?abIla, etc. 

Used figuratively, bafn "depression, basin" 
appears in geographical names (cf. Yakut, i, 665 ff.), 



- al-BATTAL 

while in the sense of "interior" there are the 
derivations bdfin and bdtiniyya [q.v.], important in 
Islamology. (J. Lecerf) 

BATRlS [see bitrik]. 

BATRCN (or Bathrun), Graeco-Roman Bostrys 
and the Boutron of the Crusaders; a small town on 
the Lebanese coast, situated 56 kms. north of 
Bayrut; it witnessed the passage of all the armies 
of conquest, covering as it does the Bayrfit- 
Tarabulus road to the south of the precipitous 
promontary of Ras Shakka (Theouprosopon). 
According to a tradition cited by Josephus (Antiq. 
viii, 3, 52), it was apparently founded by Ithobaal, 
king of Tyre. In reality it is of much older origin and 
is mentioned in the Tell al-'Amarna letters (151th 
century B.C.) as a dependency of Byblos (Djubajil). 
At one time it was a nest of pirates, who were dealt 
with by Antiochus III Megas. To judge from the 
remains of a vast amphitheatre, the city, already 
famed for its vineyards, must have been of some 
consequence in Roman times. Like all the coastal 
towns, it was destroyed by the earthquake and tidal 
wave of 16 July 551. 

In the period of the Crusades, Boutron was the 
seat of a bishopric depending on the county of 
Tripoli. It was a port where the Pisans enjoyed a 
number of privileges. For a long while the Provencal 
family of d'Agout were its lords. In 1271, following 
a quarrel among the Franks, the manor was razed 
by the Templars. Sultan Kalawun took Batrun In 
1289 without difficulty. Under the Mamluks of 
Egypt, the town was attached to the niydba of 
Tarabulus. In the 19th century the town enjoyed 
a certain prosperity due to sponge fishing which, 
however, today only occupies a few boats. The 
town now has a population of about 3,000, the 
majority of whom are Maronites. 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 494 (Beirut ed. i, 

338); Idrisi, Syrie (Gildemeister) 17, (Jaubert) i, 

356; Du Cagne, Les Families d'Outre-Mer, 257-259; 

Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, 351-352 ; 

W. Heyd, Histoire du Commerce au Levant, i, 321 ; 

Lammens, La Syrie, ii, 38; Dussaud, Topographic 

historique de la Syrie, 71; Grousset, Histoire des 

Croisades, iii, 688, 745 ; 'Adil Isma'll, Histoire d* 

Liban du XVII' siecle a nos jours, i, 33, 114 
(N. Elisseeff) 

al-BATTAL, 'Abd Allah, famous ghdzt of the 
Umayyad period who took part in several expeditions 
against the Byzantines. His surname means "brave", 
"hero", but has also a pejorative sense (cf. for 
example Ibn Hawkal, 85; and the dictionaries). 
Concerning this person there is a comparatively 
meagre historical tradition, a pseudo-historical 
tradition and, moreover, an Arab romance Sirat 
Delhemma wa 'UBa#dl, and related to it, a Turkish 
romance, Sayyid Baffdl. 

According to the early chroniclers (Al-Ya'kubi, 
Al-Tabari), al-Battal does not appear before the 
year 109/727-28, during the reign of Hisham b. <Abd 
al-Malik (105-125/724-43). Likewise the Byzantine 
historian Theophanes and the author of the Syriac 
chronicle, known as Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell Mahre, 
only mention the year of his death, in 740. However 
a tradition already old, as it appears in the Persian 
recasting of al-Tabari done by Bal c aml who % wrote 
in 352/963, associates al-Battal with Maslama b. 
c Abd al-Malik in his famous expedition against 
Constantinople in 98/717. We are dealing with a 
largely legendary account and we cannot know 
whether it contains reliable historical elements. 

Historically, al-Battal at the head of the vanguard 



of Mu'awiya b. Hisham conquered Gangra in 
Paphlagonia in 109/728. In 113/731-32 he took part 
in the expedition in which another celebrated 
Umayyad ghdzi perished, e Abd al-Wahhab b. 
Bukht. In 114/732-33, or 115, in the course of an 
invasion by Mu c 5wiya b. Hisham of Phrygia in the 
region of Akroinon, he routed and captured a 
Byzantine leader called Constantine. There is no 
further mention of him before his death in 122/740. 
During that year several parts of Anatolia were 
attacked by the troops of Sulayman b. Hisham. 
Al-Battal's detachment, commanded by the governor 
of Malatia, Malik b. Shabib (or Shu'ayb), was 
surprised and routed by the Emperor Leo III and 
his son Constantine near Akroinon. The two leaders 
perished, their survivors fleeing south towards 
Synnada where they managed to rejoin Sulayman. 
The date of al-Battal's death is nevertheless placed 
in 121, 123 or even in 113. 

If the early chroniclers do not appear to have 
attached much importance to his person, his military 
exploits were celebrated early by popular tradition 
in various accounts and anecdotes. In the period of 
al-Mas c udi, the first half of the 4th-ioth century, 
he was known as one of the illustrious Muslims 
whose portrait the Byzantines had hung in their 
churches (Murudj, viii, 74), beside that of the famous 
amir of Melitene, c Amr b. 'Ubayd Allah al-Ak^a', 
defeated and killed in 249/863. It is not impossible 
that the legend of both developed shortly after that 
date, as an after-effect of the first Byzantine success. 
In Bal'anri's account of Maslama's expedition, al- 
Battal is appointed to hold one gate of Constantinople 
open while Maslama entered the city alone on 
horseback, and to enter in force should anything 
befall Maslama. Al-Battal is even associated with 
Maslama in the account of the siege of the Byzantine 
capital in the Kitdb al- l Vyun (sth/nth or 6th/i2th 
centuries), where one finds as well under the year 
115 the romantic account of a single-handed combat 
by al-Battal. The popular account of Maslama's 
expedition by the great Andalusian mystic Ibn al- 
'Arabi (d. 638/1240), related to that of Bal c aml, 
attributes also an important role to al-Battal, 
commander of the contingents of Djazira and Syria, 
chief of Maslama's scouts, and charged with the same 
mission before Constantinople as in Bal'ami's version. 

In a long biographical notice going back to Ibn 
'Asakir (d. 571/1176), a Syrian tradition reproduced 
more or less completely by various historians in- 
cluding Ibn al-Athir, Sibt Ibn al-DjawzI, Ibn Shakir 
al-Kutubi, Ibn Fadl Allah al-'Umari and Ibn 
Kathlr, one finds after a brief allusion to the r61e of 
al-Battal in Maslama's expedition, romantic anec- 
dotes of which certain reappear in the romance of 
al-Battal. These are 1) al-Battal the bogey: he 
appears one night in a Greek village where he hears 
a mother threaten her crying child with giving him 
to al-Battal if he does not stop crying; 2) His 
entrance into a Greek convent: al-Battal, weakened 
by violent abdominal pains, is led by his horse to 
a convent where he is given asylum. He escapes the 
investigations of a Byzantine patrician thanks to the 
abbess, follows him when he leaves, kills him, and 
returns to the convent where he takes captive all of 
the nuns and marries the abbess; 3) His entrance 
into Amorium by a ruse: separated from his com- 
panions he arrives at Amorium where he gains 
access to the patrician by pretending to be a mes- 
senger from the Emperor, and forces him to indicate 
the whereabouts of the Muslim army, which he 
rejoins; 4) His death on the battlefield where the 



1103 



Emperor Leo attends his last moments, looks after 
him and permits his burial by the Muslim prisoners. 
The authors who report these anecdotes distinguish 
them from the "lies" of the Sirat Delhemma wa 
'l-Battdl (see below) of whose existence we know 
already during his period from the Jewish convert 
Samaw'al b. Yahya al-Maghribi, who wrote in 
565/1169-70. 

The early authors say nothing of the origin of al- 
Battal. According to later historians he came from 
Antioch (or from Damascus), lived in Antioch, and 
was a mawld of the Umayyad house, as was his 
companion c Abd al-Wahhab b. Bukht, who also 
plays a major role in the Sirat Delhemma. His 
kunya is sometimes Abu Muhammad, sometimes 
Abu Yahya, sometimes Abu '1-Husayn. His father's 
name is Husayn or c Amr. On the origin of al-Battal, 
such as it is given, whether in the Sirat Delhemma 
or in the Turkish tradition of Sayyid Ba(tdl, see the 
articles on these two romances. 

Bibliography: Ya'kubl, ii, 395; Tabari, H, 
1559. 1561, 1716; Tabari-Bal c anii, trans. Zoten- 
berg, iv, 239 ft.; Kitdb al-'Uyiin, in Fragm. Hist. 
Arab., ed. De Goeje, i, 28 ff., 90, 91, 100; Samaw'al 
b. Yahya al-Maghribi, Ifhdm al-Yahud, in M. 
Schreiner M onatsschrift fur Gesch. u. Wiss. d. Jud., 
N.F. VI (1898), 418; Ibn al-Athir, (ed. Tornberg), 
v, 129, 132, 134, 186-87; Sibt Ibn al-Djawzi, 
Mir'dt al-Zamdn, MS. Paris 6132, fo. 126 r, 156 r, 
160 r, ff.; Ibn Shakir al-Kutubi, <-Uy&n al-Tawd- 
rikh, MS. Paris 1587, fo. 152 v-153 r, I77v-i79r; 
Ibn al-'Arabi, Muhddarat al-Abrdr wa-Musdmarat 
al-Akhydr, Cairo 1906, II, 223-233; Ibn Fadl 
Allah al- c Umari, Masdlik al-Absdr, ed. F. Taeschner 
(Bericht iiber Anatolien), 1929, 64-66; Dhahabi, 
Ta'rikh al-Isldm, Cairo 1367, IV, 227, V, 26; 
Dhahabi, Kitdb al-Hbar, Ms. Paris 1584, fo. 36 r; 
Dhahabi, #>'«* Duwal al Islam, Haydarabad 1337, 
i, 59; Ibn Kathir, Al-Biddya wa 'l-Nihdya, ix, 
33 J -334', Abu '1-Mahasin, al-Nudjiim, Cairo ed., 
i, 272, 274, 286; Suyuti, Ta?rikh al-Khulafd', 
Cairo 1305, 96; Karamani, Akhbdr al-Dawal, in 
the margin of Ibn al-Athir, Bulak 1290, iv, 214-218 ; 
Ps.-Denys of Tell Mahr<§, trans. Chabot, under 
1046/734-5, 25; Theophanes, A.M. 6231, ed. de 
Boor, 411; Ramsay, Hist. Geogr. of Asia Minor, 
87, 322; Le Strange, 152; Weil, Chalifen, i, 638-9; 
A. Lombard, Constantin V, 32; E. W. Brooks, 
The Arabs in Asia Minor, in Journ. of Hell. Stud., 
xciii (1898), 194 ff., 198 ff.; M. Canard, Les expid. 

86 ff., 100 ff., 116 ff.; F. Gabriel!, II Califfato d'i 
Hisham, 1935, 87-91. (M. Canard) 

al-BATTAL (Savvid Battal Ghazi), a champion 
of the Arabs in the wars against Byzantium in the 
Umayyad period, is transformed, in the Turkish 
romance devoted to his adventures, into a here of 
the 'Abbasid period. Al-Battal thus became the 
contemporary of the zmir of Melitene, c Amr b. 
'Ubayd Allah al-Akta 1 (d. 249/863) and was incor- 
porated into the epic cycle of Melitene. After the 
conquest of Melitene by the amir Danishmend in 
495/1102, the Turks adopted the epic of Melitene, 
incorporating it in their own epic cycles and tracing 
their national heroes back to the legendary al- 
Battal. It is a Turkiciscd Battal ennobled by an 
'Alid connexion and answering to the name of 
Dja'far that we find in the Turkish version. The 
Turkish historians who used this epic romance as a 
historical source often took the legendary elements 
for historical facts and were even led to accept the 
chronology of the story. Thus F.wliya Celebi made 



1 104 



l-BATTAL - 



Battal a contemporary of Harun al-Rashid, whose 
reign he transferred to 248/859 — the year in which 
he made him besiege Constantinople. The same 
anachronism exists in the Turkish version of al- 
Tabari; it was made by an anonymous translator 
who introduced into his work accounts taken from 
the Turkish epic tradition. 

Al-Battal appears in two great epic romances: the 
Arabic romance of Dhdt al-himma (Delhemma) [see 
dhu 'l-himma] and the Turkish romance of Sayyid 
Battal. These two works, although related, were not 
subject to reciprocal influences ; they probably both 
go back to an Arabic tradition concerning al-Battal 
of which we possess no written trace, but whose 
existence is confirmed by two pieces of historical 
evidence of the 6th/i2th century (cf. M. Canard, in 
J A, ccviii, 116; id., in Byzantion, xii, 186). 

The Turkish romance. After their conquest of 
Anatolia, the Turks adopted as their own the local 
epic traditions celebrating the Arabo-Byzantine 
Wars. These accounts transformed by the addition of 
Turkish elements and Turkicised Persian elements", 
gave rise to a new Anatolian epic having as its 
subject the conquest of Asia Minor. The romance 
of Battal is the prototype of this literature; however, 
from the first, elements of Turkish folklore crept in, 
containing events which took place in a fantastic 
world peopled with anthropophagous demons and 
supernatural beings, themes taken from Persian 
fairy stories or epic tales, popularisations of the 
Shdh-ndma", motifs from historical romances of 
heterodox ideology, such as the Romance of Abu 
Muslim, a work found all over the Turkish world. 
The Turkish romance of Battal appears as a mosaic 
where the elements of different times and sources 
amalgamated. Among these elements, the book which 
recounts the insurrection and the capture of the 
heretic Babak stands out from the rest of the work 
because of its historical basis, which is evident 
through the trappings of the legend. In this account, 
which takes place in the Caliphate of al-Mu c tasim 
(833-842), Battal has been substituted for the real 
hero of the campaign, Afshln, whose name was 
proscribed after his disgrace and death in 225/840. 
This book is probably one of the Bdbak-ndmas 
whose existence we know about from Ibn al-Nadlm, 
and which is incorporated in the romance of Battal. 
Similarly in the Delhemma the Turkish romance 
contains reminiscences of the time of tht First 
Crusade. It was probably composed during the 
6th/i2th century, or right at the beginning of the 
7th/i3th century, because the Romance of Malik 
Ddnishmend, which celebrates the exploits of the 
first Turkish conqueror of Melitene and which was 
first written down in 643/1245, was conceived as a 
continuation of the romance of Battal; some nar- 
rators of the Saldjuk period added a chapter in which 
they told how the tomb of the hero was discovered 
by the Saldjuks of Anatolia. There exists a version 
of the romance of Battal in verse, attributed to 
Bakal, in the reign of Mustafa III (i757-i774). 
Independently of the epic cycle, the name of Battal 
still lives on in numerous Anatolian legends and 
in particular in the hagiographical stories of the 
c alawi and bektashi sects [see nusayrIs, bektashiyya] 
who have adopted him as one of their heroes. 

Bibliography: Ethe, Die Fahrten des Sajjid 
Batthdl, 2 vols;, Leipzig 1871; M. Canard, Un 
Personnage de Roman Arabo-Byzantin, in Actes du 
llime Congris National des Sciences Historiques, 
Algiers 1932 (see also articles quoted) ; H. Gregoire, 
L'Epople byzantine et ses rapports avec Vepopie 



turque, in Bull. CL. Lettres de I'ARB, XVII, 1931, 
463-481; Boratav, art. Bat(al, in I A, 1943 f. (see 
bibliography); Tahir Alangu, Bizans ve Tiirk 
Kahramanhk Eposlartmn cikisi iizerine, in Tiirk 
Dili, ii, Ankara 1953, 541-557. 

(I. Melikoff) 
al-BATTANI (his full name is Abu <Abd 
Allah Muhammad b. Djabir b. Sinan al-Bat- 
tanI al-Harran! al-Sabi 3 ), the Albategni or 
Albatenius of our mediaeval authors, one of the 
greatest of Arab astronomers, was born before 
244 (858) very probably at Harran or in its 
neighbourhood; the origin of the nisba al-Battani 
is quite uncertain. His family formerly professed 
the Sabian religion, whence the name al-Sabi J 
although our author was a Muslim. He spent 
almost his whole life at al-Rakka on the left 
bank of the Euphrates, where several families 
from Harran had taken up their abode; from 264 
(877) he devoted himself to astronomical obser- 
vations which he regularly pursued for the rest of 
his life. Having had occasion to go on business 
to Baghdad he died on his return journey at Kasr 
al-Djiss, a little to the east of the Tigris and not 
for from Samarra in 317 (929). 

He wrote: 1. Kitdb ma'-rifat mafdW- al-burudi 
fi ma bayna arbd c al-falak, "the book of the 
science of the ascensions of the signs of the zo- 
diac in the spaces between the quadrants of the 
celestial sphere" ; i.e., of the ascensions of the points 
of the ecliptic which are not, at the given moment, 
one of the four "awtdd" or pivots [see the article 
nudjum]; it deals with the mathematical solution 
of the astrological problem of the "direction" of 
the significator. 2. Risdla fi tahkik akddr al-itli- 
sdldt, "a letter on the exact determination of the 
quantities of the astrological applicationes" , i.e., 
the rigorous trigonometrical solution of the astro- 
logical problem of the proiectio radiorum [see the 
article nudjum] when the stars in question have 
latitude (i.e., lie outside the ecliptic). 3. Sharh al- 
makdldt al-arba' li Ba(lamiyus, "commentary on 
Ptolemy's Tetrabilon" . 4. al-Zidf, "Astronomical 
treatise and tables", his principal work and the 
only one that has survived to us; it contains 
the results of his observations and had a conside- 
rable influence, not only on Arab astronomy but 
also on the development of astronomy and spherical 
trigonometry in Europe in the middle ages and 
beginning of the Renaissance. It was translated 
into Latin by Robertus Retinensis or Ketenensis 
(died at Pataplona in Spain after 1143 a. d.; the 
version is lost) and by Plato Tibastinus in the first 
half of the xiith century (an edition of the text 
without the mathematical tables was published at 
Nuremburg in 1537 and at Bologna in 1645). 
Alphonso X of Castile (1252-1282) had it 
translated directly from the Arabic into Spanish 
(incomplete MS. in Paris). Three insignificant 
astrological pamphlets, of which a Latin version 
exists in several manuscripts, which give their 
author's name as Bethem, Boetem, Bereni, Bareni, 
have been wrongly attributed to al-Battani. 

Al-Battani determined with great accuracy the 
obliquity of the ecliptic, the length of the tropic 
year and of the seasons and the true and mean 
orbit of the sun, he definitely exploded the Ptole- 
maic dogma of the immobility of the solar apogee 
by demonstrating that it is subject to the preces- 
sion of the equinoxes and that in consequence 
the equation of time is subject to a slow secular 
; he proved, contrary to Ptolemy, the 



al-BATTANI — BATU 



1 105 



variation of the apparent angular diameter of the 
sun and the possibility of annular eclipses; he 
rectified several orbits of the moon and the planets; 
he propounded a new and very ingenious theory 
to determine the conditions of visibility of the 
new moon: he emended the Ptolemaic value of 
the precession of the equinoxes. His excellent 
observations of lunar and solar eclipses were used 
by Dunthorne in 1749 *o determine the secular 
acceleration of motion of the moon. Finally he 
gave very neat solutions by means of orthographic 
projection for some problems of spherical trigono- 
metry; solutions which were known to and in 
part imitated by the celebrated Regiomontanus 
(1436-1476). 

Bibliography: al-Battani sive Albatenii Opus 

astronomicum Arabice editum, Latine 

versum, adnotationibus instructum a C. A. Nallino, 
Mediolani Insubrum, 1899-1907, 3 vols. in-4°. 
Regarding the misinterpretation of the text of 
al-Battani, i, 31-2, by C. A. Nallino, see 
emendation proposed by J. Vernet and J. J. de 
Orus in Transformacidn de coordenadas astrondmicas 
entre los drabes, in Gaceta Matemdtica, 1st. series, 
ii, no. 3, Madrid 1950, and also J. M. Millas, Una 
nueva obra ostrondmica alfonsl: El Tratado del 
cuadrante "sennero", in al-And., xxi (1956), 65. 
On the influence exercised by al-Battanl's 
work on the Jew of Barcelona Abraham bar 
Hiyya (5th-6th/nth-i2th century), see J. M. 
Millas, in Actes du Congris intern, des Orient., 
Leiden 1931, and La obra "forma de la tierra" de 
R. Abraham bar IJiyya ha-Bargeloni, Madrid- 
Barcelona 1956. (C. A. Nallino) 
BATU (in Arabic script BAtu), a Mongol 
prince, the conqueror of Russia and founder of 
the Golden Horde (1227-1255), born in the early 
years of the 13th century, the second ?on of Dioci 
[see aiuci]. During Cingiz-Khan's lifetime Dioci. 
as his eldest son, had received as his yurt or 
appanage the territory stretching from the regions 
of Kayalik and Khwarazm to Saksin and Bulghar on 
the Volga "and as far in that direction as the hoof of 
Tartar horse had penetrated". The eastern part of 
this vast area, i.e., Western Siberia, the present-day 
Kazakhstan and the lower basin of the Sir-Darya, 
passed upon Djoci's death in 624/1227 to his eldest 
son Orda, whilst to Batu fell the western part, i.e., 
Khwarazm and the Dasht-i Kipiak or Kipcak 
Steppe to the north and north-east of the Black Sea. 
Of the first ten years of Batu's reign we know only 
that he was present at the fruriltay or assembly of 
the Mongol princes held in 626/1229 in Mongolia, 
at which Ogedey was elected Great Khan, probably 
also at the buriltay of 632/1235 at which it was 
decided to renew the war against the Russians and 
neighbouring peoples ; he was never again in Eastern 
Asia. In the army which set out in the spring of 
633/1236 there were also sons of Caghatay, Ogedey 
and Toluy, but Batu was in supreme command. The 
Mongol forces are said to have reached the territory 
of the Volga Bulghars by the autumn of the same 
year, but the destruction of the town of Bulghar 
does not seem to have taken place until the autumn 
of 635/1237, during which year the Mongols were 
engaged in operations against the Kipcak Turks in 
what is now Southern Russia. In Rabl c I-II 635/ 
November 1237 they crossed the frozen Volga and 
attacked the Russian principalities, capturing city 
after city, until by Radjab-Sha'ban 635/March 1238 
the road lay open to Novgorod. The Mongols had 
approached within 65 miles of the town when they 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



suddenly withdrew to the south, evidently fearing 
that the spring thaw would render the roads impas- 
sable. After a long period of rest in the lower Don 
basin and minor campaigns in the Caucasus in 
636-7/1239, the war against Russia was resumed in 
637-1/1240 in a campaign which ended with the fall 
of Kiev on the 6 th of December of the same year. 
From the Ukraine simultaneous attacks were 
launched upon Poland and Hungary. Through 
Poland the Mongols penetrated into Silesia defeating 
Duke Henry the Pious at Liegnitz on the 25 Ramadan 
638/9 April 1 24 1 and then passed through Moravia 
to join the main army, which, led by Batu in person, 
had crossed the Carpathians into Hungary and 
inflicted a decisive defeat on the Hungarians at 
Mohi (27 Ramadan 638/1 1 April 1241). The combined 
Mongol forces passed the summer and autumn on 
the Hungarian plain; and on Christmas Day Batu 
in person crossed the frozen Danube to take the 
town of Esztergom. The last major operation was 
an expedition through Croatia and Dalmatia to the 
shores of the Adriatic in pursuit of Bela IV of 
Hungary. The armies were apparently poised for a 
general assault on Western Europe when news 
arrived of the death of the Great Khan Ogedey 
(5 Djumada II 639/11 December 1241), and Batu 
decided to withdraw his forces. Retiring by way 
of the Balkans he finally reached his encampments 
on the Lower Volga late in 1242. 

It was now that Batu laid the foundations of the 
Golden Horde. Of the lands invaded in the years 
635-9/1237-1241 only Russia had remained subject 
to the Mongols. As early as 639-40/1000-1242 Grand 
Duke Yaroslav I of Vladimir came to Batu's ordu 
to pledge his loyalty and was confirmed by the Khan 
in his rank as "senior of all the princes of the Russian 
people"; in 1000/1245 Prince Daniel of Galicia had 
to be confirmed in the same way and do homage to 
Batu. 

During this period Batu's attention was largely 
diverted to events in the East. Ogedey's eldest son 
Giiyuk, a personal enemy of Batu, had been raised 
to the throne in succession to his father at the 
frurittay of 644/1246. Batu had been represented 
at the ceremony by five of his brothers, excusing 
his own absence, according to Rashid al-DIn, on 
the ground of physical infirmities. Early in 1248 
the new Khan left Kara-Korum in a westerly 
direction. He gave it out, according to Rashid al-DIn, 
that he was proceeding, for reasons of health, to 
his yurt on the Emil in what is now eastern Kazakh- 
stan, but Toluy's widow suspected that his real 
intention was to attack Batu, to whom she accord- 
ingly sent a warning. Giiyiik died suddenly en route 
in a place called Kum-Sengir on the Upper Urungu, 
according to the Yuan shih in the third month 
(27th March-24th April) of 1248. Djuwaynl and 
Rashid al-DIn disagree as to Batu's whereabouts 
at the time of Giiyuk's death. According to Djuwaynl 
he was advancing eastwards to meet the Khan, at the 
tatter's invitation, when he received the news of his 
death in a place called Ala-Kamak, a week's journey 
from Kayalik, probably in the Alatau mountains 
to the south of the Hi. On the pretext that his 
horses were lean Batu summoned the princes to 
meet him in this place. On the other hand, according 
to Rashid al-Din, this meeting took place in Batu's 
own territory; and the sons of Ogedey, Caghatay 
and Giiyiik are represented as refusing to make the 
long journey to the Kipcak Steppe. 

The result of the meeting, wherever held, was that 
Mongke, the eldest son of Toluy, was, on Batu's 



BATU — BATU'IDS 



proposal, acclaimed as Great Khan in succession to 
Giiyiik; and it was decided that his enthronement 
should take place at a kuriltay in Mongolia in the 
following year. The ceremony did not in fact take 
place till the 9 Rabl c II 649/1 July 1251, Batu 
being represented by his brother Berke [g.v.]. A plot 
against the Great Khan was uncovered while the 
celebrations were still in progress; it was headed by 
certain princes of the Houses of Caghatay and 
Ogedey, most of whom were punished by banishment 
to remote parts of the Empire. Yesii, the son and 
first successor of Caghatay, and Biiri, one of his 
grandsons, were handed over to Batu, by whose 
orders the latter, who appears to have been involved 
in Batu's quarrel with Giiyiik, was put to death. 
The whole Empire was now in effect divided 
between MSngke and Batu. William of Rubruck 
quotes Mdngke as saying in 651/1254: "As the sun 
sends its rays everywhere, likewise my sway and 
that of Baatu reach everywhere . . .". The boundary 
between their respective territories lay, according 
to Rubruck, in the steppes between the Talas and 
the Cu, and more respect was shown to Batu's 
people in Mongke's kingdom than vice versa. It is 
certain that Batu, both as the senior Cingizid and 
as the man to whom Mdngke owed his throne, 
enjoyed very considerable prestige. Even in such 
lands as Ma wara' al-Nahr, which lay outside his 
ancestral territories, he exercised certain sovereign 
rights. Thus, according to Djuwaynl, he confirmed 
the son of Temiir Malik, the defender of Khudiand. 
in the possession of his father's estate. 

Rubruck tells us that Batu had twenty-six wives 
and Rashid al-DIn that he had four sons. In the 
latter years of his life he seems to have delegated 
some of his authority to his eldest son Sartak, a 
NestorianChristian: it wasSartak who from 646-7/1249 
onwards received the homage of the Russian princes. 
There is considerable divergence in the sources as 
to the date of Batu's death: it seems most likely 
that he died in 653/1255. From Rubruck's narrative 
it appears that towards the end of his reign he 
lived on the eastern bank of the Volga, ascending 
the river in the summer as far north as Lat. 52 and 
spending the winter near the mouth, where the town 
of Saray was founded by him at this period on the 
Akhtuba, a channel of the delta, 65 miles north of 
Astrakhan. 

Batu, whom the Russians knew only as a cruel 
conqueror, was given by his Mongol contemporaries 
the epithet of sain, i.e., "good" or perhaps "wise". 
He is praised as a just and sagacious ruler even by 
Djuzdjanl, a writer by no means prejudiced in the 
Mongols' favour. According to Djuwaynl, he 
"inclined towards no faith or religion" but recognised 
only "belief in God", i.e., the worship of the Sky as 
practised by his ancestors. 

Bibliography: Djuwaynl, The History of the 
World-Conqueror, transl. J. A. Boyle, 2 vols., 
Manchester 1958; Diuzdjanl, Tabakat-i Ndsiri, 
transl. H. G. Raverty, London, 1881 ; Rashid al-DIn, 
Djami el-T(varikh, ed. E. Blochet, Leiden 191 1; 
Rubruck, The Journey of William Rubruck to the 
Eastern Parts of the World, transl. W. W. Rockhill, 
London 1900; C. d'Ohsson, Histoire des Mongols 
deptiis Tchinguiz-Khan jusqu'd Timour Bey ou 
Tamerlan, 4 vols. The Hague and Amsterdam 
1834-5; V. V. Barthold, Four Studies on the 
History of Central Asia, Vol. i, transl. V. and 
T. Minorsky, Leiden 1956; R. Grousset, L' Empire 
des Steppes, Paris 1939, and L'Empire Mongol 
1" phase), Paris 194 1 ; 13. Spuler, DieGoldene Horde, 



Leipzig 1943; G. Vernadsky, The Mongols and 

Russia, New Haven 1951. 

(W. Barthold-[J. A. Boyle]) 

BATU'IDS, descendants of Batu [q.v.], a grandsoD 
of Cingiz Khan [q.v.], the ruling house of the Golden 
Horde from 1236/40 until 1502. 

After a short-lived advance by Mongol troops in 
1223-24 into what is today the Ukraine (Russian de- 
feat on the Kalka in that year), Batu, the second 
son of Cingiz Khan's eldest son Djoci (who died early 
in 1227), succeeded in subjugating large parts of 
Russia in the years 1236-1241. Only the north west 
(with Novgorod as its centre), was spared, and — 
apart from occasional payments of tribute — it re- 
mained independent. Similarly, the Caucasus (to- 
gether with Georgia; see Gurdjistan) was under Ba 
tu'id suzerainty until about 1260 and Danube- 
Bulgaria until about 1310. Advances into Galicia, 
Moravia, Silesia and Hungary in 1241 had no lasting 

Batu gave the Western Mongolian Empire, thus 
created, a centre in the towns of Old, and later 
New, Saray [q.v.] on the lower Volga, which quickly 
devfloped into important centres of commerce and 
had a very mixed population (including a Russian 
diocese in Saray from 1261). The most extensive 
Mongol settlements were to be found in this area 
and in the Crimea, becoming absorbed into the in- 
digenous Turks as well as into part of the Finnish 
and Eastern Slav peoples. In this way, the new tribe 
of (Volga-) Tatars [q.v.') arose, speaking Turkish 
— also spoken by the population further to the north 
on the Volga, and particularly by a section of the 
Volga Bulgars [q.v.]. The structure of the popu- 
lation remained nomadic until about the middle of 
the 8th/i4th cen'ury. It has been described most 
vividly by John of Piano Carpini (1245-46) and Ibn 
Battuta {[q.v.], 1333)- The new state was called the 
"Golden Horde" by the Russians, and thus also in 
Europe— the corresponding Turkish Alttn Ordu is 
a modern translation. (The name may possibly have 
been given because the ruler's tents were paved with 
golden tiles, or else because of a borrowing of an- 
cient Central-Asian colour symbolism — compare 
kara). In eastern literature, the country is usually 
referred to as the Kipdak Steppe. Orda, Batu's elder 
brother, founded a subordinate state in Western 
Siberia, which is sometimes referred to as the "Blue" 
or the "White Horde". It was under the sovereignty 
of the Golden Horde, but hardly anything is known 
of its history. 

Batu was very much taken up with the affairs of 
the whole Mongol Empire, but refrained from ac- 
cepting the title of Great Khan. He died in 1155-56. 
His brother and successor Berke (1257-67) was the 
first Mongol prince to become a Muslim (Sunni), 
and thereby he began the incorporation of the Ta- 
tars into Islam. By this action he distinguished them 
particularly (in contrast to their tribal brothers in 
Iran, China and Central Asia) from their subjects, 
the Orthodox Russians. A complete amalgamation 
of these two peoples has in consequence (hitherto) 
proved impossible. Berke made a treaty with the 
Mamluk rulers in Egypt, which was primarily direc- 
ted against the Mongol Ilkhans [q.v.] in Iran, who 
were Shamanists or Buddhists and who had already 
roused Berke's bitter hostility by their fight against 
the Caliphate in 1258. This treaty greatly influenced 
the politics of the Golden Horde for the following 
decades, and there were frequent struggles with the 
Ilkhans — especially in the Caucasus and on Lake 
Aral. During this process, the Caucasus came under 



the influence of the Ilkhans. This political treaty 
was followed by a lively commerce with Egypt 
(many of the MamlOk slaves came from the Golden 
Horde). This commerce depended on the continued 
good will of the East Roman Emperor (a Paleologus 
from 1261) and therefore required agreements with 
him. There were also connexions with the Saldjuks 
of Rum [q.v.]. As a result of all this, it was possible 
for Islamic — especially Turkish (Saldjuk and Mam- 
luk) — cultural influences to reach the Golden Horde. 
As a result of excavations, we are fairly well informed 
about the art and implements of the Volga-region 
(see particularly F. A. Balodis: Alt- und Neu-Sarai, 
die Havffsi&dU der Goldenen Horde, in Latvljas Uni- 
vtrsitdtes raksti, xiii, Riga 1926, 3-82). In Russia the 
Tatars confined themselves largely to raising tri- 
bute through Baskaks, and to recognising certain 
,esser princes, whose mutual quarrels were their best 



•IDS 1 107 

into Sunnl-Islamic culture of a particular type found 
in Asia Minor, which was particularly active in 
the Crimea. The new tribe of Ozbegs [q.v.] named 
after Ozbeg, also came under its influence. 

Western attempts at Christianisation at that time 
(in particular under Pope John XXII) proved to 
be of no avail, and religious wars (such as were fought 
in Persia) did not affect the Golden Horde. Certain 
centres resulting from these attempts, however, sur- 
vived for some time; among these were the Ge- 
noese colonies (which began in 1265) (cf. Kaffa) in 
the Crimea [q.v.]. These were also commercially ac- 
tive, as middlemen in the supply of cloth from 
Flanders, ceramics, and jewellery to the Horde. Fur, 
fish and grain were the main articles exported in 







Cing 

Djoci 
1 


ir Khan t 1227 

1 






d. 1227 Ogedey d. 1241 Caghatay 
Great Khan 


Toluy 
, 1 


1 


1 
Batu 
.125 


Berke 
1257-67 


II 1 


Ilkbans 


Orda 

(White/Blue 

Horde) 


Moghol Successors in Transoxania 
1 and Turkestan (cf . also tbe 
1 genealogy of the Cingizids). 

1 generation 

1 

Nokhai 
d. 1299 


in Persia 


1 

6 generations 

1 




1 

Mongke Temiir 
1267-80 

1 




1 

Urus Khan 

1 
3 generations 


1 

Tuli Khodja 

1 

Tokhtamlsh 

I375/7-I395 

d. 1406/7 

1 




Kiiciik 
Mehmed 
ca. 1435- 
ca. 1465 

1 
Ahmed 
ca. 1465-81 

Sayyid Aljmed 


1 

Toktagha 
1291-1312 


1 
ToghrUdja 

Ozbeg 
1313-41 

Djanibeg 
1342-57 

Berdi Beg 





protection. The Russian Orthodox Church, to which 
the Tatars had granted certain privileges, was able 
to maintain its unity before these minor princes, 
and thus became the embodiment of Russian thought 
in general. 

The death of Berke did not altogether put an 
end to Islamic influence, although to begin with all 
his successors were again Shamanists. The strength 
of the state was impaired through civil wars against 
the rising Prince Nokhai, a successful general in 
Poland (1259, "86) and the Caucasus (1261, 1263), 
until Nokhai's death in battle in 1299 (cf. Nogai). 
In the beginning of the 8th/i4th century, the political 
position changed, as the dealings between the Il- 
khans (who were by then Muslims) and Egypt grew 
smoother. In the year 1323 a formal peace-treaty 
was signed. This reduced the commercial connexions 
between the Golden Horde and Egypt. The collapse 
of the Ilkhanid Empire in 1335 brought the Golden 
Horde, under Ozbeg Khan (1313-1341), once more 
into a position of great importance. A Muslim him- 
self, he definitively strengthened the position of 
Islam on the Volga, and thenceforth all the Khans 
adhered to that religion. The greater part of the 
Volga-Tatars was now also more and more drawn 



his grandson, to conquer Ajharbaydjan in 1356-59 
miscarried. It is possible that their aim was to by- 
pass the Dardanelles, which had been in the hands 
of the Ottoman Turks since 1354, and to gain access 
to the Mediterranean through Syria. As this could 
not be achieved, the Golden Horde henceforth be- 
came an Eastern European continental power, thus 
more and more at the mercy of the rising Great 
Powers of Poland-Lithuania and Russia (Muscovy). 
This development was accelerated by the internal 
disintegration caused by the conflict between in- 
numerable pretenders (from 1359), thanks to which 
a Russian army was able to gain a victory over the 
Tatar armies (under Mamay) for the first time, on 
the Field of Snipe (Kulikovo Pole) on the Don in 
1380. Thus the Grand-Duchy of Muscovy — which 
the Golden Horde had finally charged with the col- 
lecting of tribute in 1328, and in which the title of 
Grand Duke had become hereditary — established 
itself as a new power and as a 'Collector of all Rus- 
sian Lands'. 

Towards the end of the 8th/i4th century, Tojch.- 
tamlsji [q.v.] of the "White Horde" attempted to 
unite the whole empire once more, but he was op- 
posed by Timur, who defeated him in 1391, and in 



1395 forced him to flee, and destroyed Saray. General 
Edigii (Russian: Yedigey) emerged as the true ruler 
of the Golden Horde. He had succeeded in holding 
his own and in checking the Lithuanian expansion 
through his victory on the Vorskla in 1399. He 
succeeded in guarding the independence of the state 
until his death in 1419. After this, the final disinte- 
gration started in earnest, and it was speeded by 
the formation of independent Khanates in Kazan 
[i/.v.], Astrakhan [g.v.] and in the Crimea in 1438 
(see Giray). The remainder, now generally referred 
to as the "Great Horde", could only hold its own 
in the region east of Kiev by treaties with Muscovy 
and (from 1466) with Poland-Lithuania, and in 
1480 it was able once more to threaten Moscow. In 
1502, the "Great Horde" was finally beaten; deserted 
by its allies, outlawed by the Ottoman sultan (who 
had been Protector of the Crimea — its main enemy — 
since 1475), it was vanquished by Crimea and Mus- 
covy. The Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan and Si- 
beria also met their doom in the J 6th century. The 
only remaining one was the Crimea, which survived 
until 1783. 

The Golden Horde is the only state which has ever 
actually subjugated Russia (and from the east at 
that). The "Tatar yoke", which lasted for 2 1 /, cen- 
turies, forms an important period in the history of 
Russia as well as in that of Poland-Lithuania, and 
resulted in the settlement of Turkish tribes on the 
Volga and in western Siberia. Even today, scattered 
Tatar remnants can still be found there, and the 
decisive element in their survival was their Islamic 
faith. 

The cultural influence of the Tatars on the Rus- 
sians can be traced for centuries in certain aspects 
of the administration, the army, ceremonial, and 
in the relationship between ruler and subject as well 
as in vocabulary, and in certain respects it makes 
itself felt even today. Furthermore, the fight of the 
Czars against the "Infidel" decisively shaped the 
political and popular consciousness of the Russians 
and of the eastern Slavs in general (concerning this 
cf. also Tatars"). 

Bibliography: B. Spuler, Die Goldene Horde, 
Leipzig 1943; idem, Mongolenzeit, Leiden and 
Cologne 1953 (Handbuch der Orientalistik vi/2); 
B. D. Grekov and A. Yu. Yakubovskiy, Zolotaya 
Orda i yeyi padenie (The Golden Horde and its 
Fall), Moscow and Leningrad 1950: A. N. Nasonov, 
Mongoly i Rus" (The Mongols in Russia), Moscow 
and Leningrad 1940; J. von Hammer- Purgstall, 
Geschichte der Goldenen Horde, Pest 1840 (super- 
seded) ; P. Pelliot, Notes sur I'histoire de la Horde 
d'Or, Paris 1940 (excursus concerning some 20 
personal and place names; not a historical ap- 
preciation) ; W. von Tiesenhausen, Materialy ot- 
nosjaUiesja k istorii Zolotoy Ordt (Materials for the 
History of the Golden Horde), 2 vols., St. Peters- 
burg 1884, 2nd. vol. 1941. C. M. Frahn, Ober die 
Miinzen der Chane vom Ulus Dschutschi's, St. 
Petersburg and Leipzig 1832. Thise works also 
list the original sources and give further biblio- 
graphy. (B. Spuler) 
BATUMI (Batum), port in Soviet Transcaucasia 
on the Black Sea, capital of the autonomous 
Soviet Socialist Republic of Adjaristan, built on the 
site of an old Roman port, Bathys, constructed in the 
reign of Hadrian and later deserted for the Byzantine 
fortress of Petra, founded under Justinian on the site 
of the present Tzikhis-Tziri to the north of Batumi. 
A former possession of the Laz kingdom, the 
region of Batumi (the Adjar district) was occupied 



briefly by the Arabs who did not hold it; in the 
9th century it formed part of the principality of 
Taoklardjeti, and at the end of the 10th century 
of the United Kindgom of Georgia which succeeded 
it. From 1010 it was governed by the eristav of the 
king of Georgia. In the 8th/i4th century, after the 
disintegration of the United Kingdom of Georgia, 
Batumi passed to the princes (tntavar) of Guria. 

In the 9th/i5th century, in the reign of the tntavar 
Kakhaber Gurieli, the Ottoman Turks occupied the 
town and district of Batumi, but did not hold them. 
They returned in force a century later after the 
decisive defeat which they inflicted on the Georgian 
and Immeretian armies at Sokhoista. Batumi was 
recaptured, first by the mtavar Rostima Gurieli in 
1564, who lost it soon afterwards, and again in 1609 
by Mamia Gurieli. From 1627 Batumi was part of 
the Ottoman Empire. 

With the Turkish conquest the islamisation of the 
Adjar region, hitherto Christian, began. It was 
completed by the end of the 18th century. 

Under the Turks, Batumi, a large fortified town 
(2,000 inhabitants in 1807 and more than 5,000 in 
1877) was already an active port, the principle 
centre of the Transcaucasian slave-trade. 

Ceded to Russia by the treaty of San Stefano 
and occupied by the Russians on 28 August 1878, 
the town was declared a free port until 1886. The 
Adjar region at first constituted a self-governing 
administrative unit; on 12 June 1883 it was annexed 
to the government of Kutais. Finally on 1 June 
1903, with the Okrug of Artvin, it was established 
as the region (oblasf) of Batumi placed under the 
direct control of the General Government of Georgia. 

The expansion of Batumi began in 1883 with the 
construction of the Batumi-Tiflis-Baku railway 
completed in 1900 by the finishing of the Baku- 
Batumi pipe-line. Henceforth Batumi became the 
chief Russian oil port in the Black Sea. The town 
expanded to an extraordinary extent and the popu- 
lation increased very rapidly: 8,671 inhabitants in 
1882, 12,000 in 1889, 45,382 in 1926. 

The population of the town is cosmopolitan; the 
Muslims (Adjars, Laz and Turks) are only a minority 
in comparison with the Russians, Greeks, Armenians 
and Georgians, but the region remains purely 
Muslim. In 1911 the oblasf totalled 170,377 people, 
of whom 70,918 were Adjars and 58,912 other 
Muslims (Laz, Turks, Kurds, etc). 

In April 1918, Batumi was occupied by the Turks; 
they were succeeded in the following spring by the 
British, who evacuated it in June 1919. After the 
fall of the Georgian Republic, the treaty of 16th 
March 1921, between the R.S.F.S.R. and Turkey, 
gave the regions of Kars and Ardagan back to 
Turkey, but left Batumi to the Russians. The 
Soviet regime was proclaimed on 18 March 1921 
and, on 16th June in the same year, the region was 
established as the Soviet Socialist Republic of 
Adjaristan, with its capital at Batumi, dependent 
on the RSS of Georgia. 

The Adjars constitute the largest community, 
and in 1926 they were still considered as a separate 
nationality from the Georgians and were registered 
in a separate census. They numbered at that time 
71,390 people, all Muslims (HanafI Sunnls), speaking 
the Gurian dialect, which has a vocabulary strongly 
influenced by Turkish and Arabic. Their material 
culture (the Cadra worn by the women, for example) 
was close to that of the Turks and bilingualism (the 
Gurian dialect and Turkish) was still a wide-spread 
phenomenon. 



BATUMI — al-BA £ ONI 



At the time of the census of 1939, the Adjars, 
considered from then on as a simple, ethnical group 
of the Georgian nation, were registered as Georgians. 
Batumi is at the present time a large oil port, the 
outlet for the Baku pipe-line (refineries) and quite an 
important industrial centre with factories producing 
preserved foods and machine tools. As the beginning 
of 1956 its population reached 77,000, of whom only 
a minority were Muslims. 

The autonomous Adjar Republic (area 3,017 sq. km.) 

comprised 238,000 inhabitants in 1956, of whom the 

majority were Muslims; Adjars and Laz in the valley 

of Corukh (about 2,000), Kurds (3,000 nomads in 

1926 in the high valley of Adjaris-Tzkali) and a 

colony of Abkhaz (5,000 in 1926) near Batumi. 

Bibliography: P-ce Massal'skiy, Olerk Ba- 

tumskoy oblasti, in Izv. Ross. Imp. Geogr. obshl, 

1886; Sbomik Svedeniy Kutaisskoy Gubernii, hi, 

Kutais, 1886 ; Bol'shaya Sovetskaya Entziklopediya' , 

iv, 309-312 (Batumi), and i, 399-406 (Adjarskaya 

Avtonomnaya Respublika) ; Moeddin Surmanidze, 

Sovetskiy Adjaristan, in Noviy Vostok, nos. 20-21/ 

1928; I. Djavakhishvili, Histoire du peuple 

Georgien, i-iv, Tiflis 1928-1943; XX let Adfarskoy 

ASSR, Batumi 1941; V. D. Canturija, Olerki po 

istorii prosveshCenija v Adjarii, Batumi 1940; D. 

Bakradze, Kratkiy olerk Gurii,Ciiruk-sui Adjarii, 

in Izvestiya Kavhazskogo Otdela Imp. Russk. 

Geogr. Obshl., Tiflis 1874, ", no. 5. Sjnasi 

Altundag, Osmanh Idaresi ve GUrciiler, AVDTC 

Fak. Derg., 1952, 78-90. (Ch. Quelquejay) 

al-BA'CnI. This nisba relates either to the village 

of Ba'un (or B5 c una) in Hawran or to the village of 

the same name near Mosul. It is usually associated 

with a particular family descended from one Nasir 

b. Khalifa b. Faradj al-Nasirl al-Ba c uni al-Shafi'i 

who started life as a weaver in the former village 

and left it about 750/1349 to settle in Nazareth 

(Sakhawl, al-Daw' al-Ldmi'- etc., Cairo 1353/1934, », 

232). The following table represents Nasir's descen- 

NSsir 



(3) Ibrahim (4) Muhammad (5) Yusuf 



JT 



(6) A'isha (7) Ahmad (8) Muhammad 

(1) Little is known about him except that he 
became a Sufi, and deputy kadi at Nazareth, engaged 
in commerce and attained prominence (loc. cit. 308). 

(2) Born in Nazareth c. 751/1350; he became 
khafib of the Umayyad mosque and kadi of Damascus, 
hhatib of the Aksa mosque in Jerusalem and (for 
two months) kadi of Egypt. He wrote on tafsir, 
composed a poem on dogma called al-'akida, and 
was an impressive preacher, though he had little 
fikh. For his takhmis of a poem by Ibn Zurayk 
(c. 420/1029) cf. Brockelmann I 82, S I 133. As 
kadi he showed administrative competence and 
integrity, refusing sultan Barkuk a loan out of 
awkaf funds, an action which caused his momentary 
humiliation and imprisonment. He died in Damascus 
in 816/1413 (Ibn al- c Imad, Shadhardt, vii, nS-.Daw', 
ii, 231; Ibn Taghribirdi, vi, 267, 306, 314, 439). 

(3) Born in Safed in 777/1375, he studied in 
Damascus and Cairo. He deputised for his father as 
kadi of Damascus where he became khafib at the 
Umayyad mosque. He also became khafib at the Aksa 
mosque and ndzir al-haramayn in Jerusalem at which 



atter post he showed considerable ability. His literary 
virtuosity is displayed in a treatise in which he em- 
ployed only words without diacritical points and in a 
tadmin of Ibn Malik's Al/iyya. His reputation was 
great, earning him the title of shaykh al-adab fi 
'l-diydr al-shdmiyya, and one of his innumerable 
pupils was the biographer Sakhawl. He died in 
Damascus in 870/1464-5 (Shadhardt. vii, 309; Daw', i, 
26; Suyuti, Nazm al-Hkyan fi A'-yan al-A'-yan, ed. 
Hitti, New York 1927, 13; Ibn Taghribirdi, vii, 808). 

(4) Born in Damascus in 780/1378, he became 
khafib at the Umayyad mosque and was appointed 
ndzir [perhaps of the awkaf of] al-asrd wa 'l-aswdr. 
His works (for which cf. Brockelmann II 41, S II 
38) include a verse summary of Islamic history 
down to the reign of Barsbay (Mukfaraf, 1908). His 
later years he spent in prayer and contemplation. 
He died in Damascus in 871/1466 (Shadhardt, vii, 
310; Daw', vii, 114; 'Ulaymi al-Uns al-Djalil, etc., 
Cairo 1283/1866, ii, 482). 

(5) Born in Jerusalem in 805/1402, he studied in 
Damascus, Hebron, Ramla and Cairo and became 
kadi in Safed, Tripoli, Aleppo and Damascus. In 
Damascus he reorganised the administration of the 
mdristdn of Nur al-DIn, expanded its awkaf and 
added new sections to the building which were called 
after him (Daw 3 , x, 298). His literary output (which 
included the versification of Nawawi's Minhddj) 
was small although he had great facility in both verse 
and prose. He led a life of asceticism and piety and 
died in Damascus in 880/1475 (Shadhardt, vii, 330; 
Nazm al-Hkyan, 178; Ibn Taghribirdi, vii, 223, 
856, 808). 

(6) Born in Damascus, she grew up as a precocious 
child, learning the Kur'Sn by rote at the age of 
eight. In her the literary talents and Sufi tendencies 
of her family reached full fruition. She likewise 
inherited an independence of mind and outlook 
which is seen in her companionship with her men 
contemporaries on equal terms. In Cairo she was 
granted certificates authorising her to lecture and 
give fatwds. A great friend of hers was Abu '1-Thana' 
Mahmud b. Adja, the last sahib dawdwin al-inshd' 
under the Mamluks (whom she praised in a raHyya 
quoted by Ghazzi in al-Kawdkib al-Sd 3 ira etc. ed. 
PJabbur, Beirut 1945, i, 304). She carried on a corres- 
pondence in verse with the Egyptian scholar c Abd 
al-Rahim al-'Abbasi (For selections of which cf. 
op. cit., i, 288) and met Sultan Ghuri in Aleppo in 
922/151*. 

Perhaps her most famous work is her badiHyya 
in praise of the Prophet entitled al-Fath al-Mubin fi 
Madh al-Amin (Brockelmann, II 349 no. 1), to 
which she wrote a commentary, thus following the 
practice first set by Safi al-Din al-Hilli [q.v.] 
though she was probably more immediately under 
Ibn Hidjdja's influence. c Abd al-Ghani al Nabulusi 
[q.v.] read and admired (though not uncritically) 
an autograph copy of her al-Fath al-Mubin and 
was no doubt inspired by it to write his own 
badiHyya, Nasamdt al-Azhdr etc. in his commentary 
on which (Nafahdt al-Ashdr etc., Cairo 1299/1881) 
he mak* a continuous comparison with the cor- 
responding lines in al-Fath al-Mubin. Both al-Fath al- 
Mubin and 'A'isha's commentary on it are published 
in the margin of Ibn Hidjdja's Khizdnat al-Adab, 
Cairo 1304/1915, 310-467. Her original works also 
include Kitdb al-Maldmih al-Sharifa wa 'l-Athdr 
al-Munifa, and al-Fath al-Ifanafi, both on Sufi 
themes (Kawdkib, i, 288). Her Mawlid al-Nabi 
(Brockelmann S II 381, no. i 4 ) is partly prose and 
partly verse and was published in Cairo in 1301/1883 



L-BA'UNi — BAY 



and 1 310/1892 (Sarkls, Mu'djam 1928, 519). 

She also versified SuyuJI's al-Mu'diizdt wa 
'l-fihasaHs al-Nabawiyya (Brockelmann S II i8i 1K ); 
and in an urdfiza, entitled al-Ishardt al-Kha- 
fiyya fi 'l-Mandzil al-'Aliyya (Hadjdji Khalifa, i, 
96) abridged Harawi's Sufi manual Mandzil al- 
Sd'iHn. In another urdjusa she abridged Sakhawl's 
al-fCawl al-BadV fi 'l-Saldt c ald al-ffabib (Hadjdji 
Khalifa, ii, 1362). She was married and had at least 
one son. She died in Damascus in 922/1316 (Shadhardt 
viii, in; Zirikll al-A l ldm, Cairo 1927, ii, 458). 

(7) and (8) were not particularly prominent 
though both produced some poetry, the latter 
mostly in the form of verse summaries of the reigns 
of Mamluk sultans. The former died in 910/1505 
the latter in 916/1510 {Shadhardt, viii, 48 ; Kawdkib, i, 
73, 147; and cf. Brockelmann II 66, S II 53 for 
Muhammad's work). 

After (8) Nasir's line seems to pass out of history 
for there is no reference to it in Muhibbl's Khuldsa. 
(W. A. S. Khalidi) 

BAWAND, (Persian Bawend), an Iranian dynasty 
which ruled in Tabaristan for over 700 years (45-75<V 
665-1349). The centre of the dynasty was the moun- 
tainous area, although they frequently ruled the 
lowlands south of the Caspian Sea. The name is 
traced back to an ancestor Baw who was either 
1) named Ispahbad of Tabaristan by Khusraw 
Parwiz (Rabino, 411), or 2) a prominent Magian of 
Rayy (Marquart, ErdnSahr, 128, where an etymology 
of the name is also given). The several rulers of the 
Bawand dynasty were called ispahbad or malik al- 
djibdl, and they were usually independent, though 
sometimes tributary to caliphs or sultans. 

The dynasty can be divided into three branches: 
1) the Kayusiyya, which ruled 45-397/665-1006, 
when the ispahbad Shahriyar revolted against 
Kabus b. Washmglr, was captured and later put 
to death; 2) the Ispahbadiyya, who ruled 466-606/ 
1073-1210, when Muhammad Kh'arazmshah invaded 
Tabaristan; 3) the Kinakh w ariyya (635-750/1237- 
1349), when the last ruler Fakhr al-Dawla Hasan 
was assassinated. 

The first branch took its name from Kayus b. 
Kubad the Sasanid, possibly the grandfather of 
Baw. The early history of the family is uncertain. 
The ninth ruler Karin b. Shahriyar accepted Islam 
in 240/854 and was called Abu '1-Muluk. The family 
lost its power after 397/1006 but several princes 
continued to rule in localities in the mountains. One 
of them, Muhammad b. Wandarln, had a mausoleum 
erected in 1021, known as the Mll-i Radkan (cf. 
E. Diez, Churasanische Baudenkmdler, Berlin 1918). 

The second branch had their capital in Sari, 
ruling over Gilan, Rayy and Kumis as well as 
Tabaristan, and were vassals of the Saldjuks, then 
of the Kh'arazmshahs. Towards the end of their 
rule the Isma'Uis spread in Tabaristan and obtained 
power at the expense of the Bawand dynasty. 
Finally the Kh w arazmshah assumed the rule when 
Shams al-Muluk Rustam Bawand was assassinated. 

After the Mongol invasion there was anarchy in 
Tabaristan, and finally a member of the Bawand 
family, Husam al-Dawla Ardashir b. Klnakh'ar 
was chosen ruler by the people. He moved his capital 
from Sari to Amul for safety's sake. Under his rule 
(12 or 15 years) the Mongols invaded Tabaristan. 
His son, Shams al-Muluk, was put to death in 663/ 
1264 by Abaka Khan after ruling 18 years. This 
dynasty ruled as vassals of the Mongols but they 
suffered nonetheless from Mongol invasions and 
depredation' 



In 750/1349 Fakhr al-Dawla Hasan, last of the 
Bawand family, was assassinated by members of the 
prominent family of Kiya. 

Bibliography: Sources include Ibn Isfandiyar, 
Ta'rikh-i Tabaristan, ed. c Abbas Ikbal (Tehran 
1942), abridged Engl, transl. by E. G. Browne in 
GMS, Dorn, Quellcn, i, and the general Islamic 
histories Qidmi 1 al-Duwwal by Munadjdjimbashl 
(cf. E. Sachau, Ein Verzeichnis Muhammedanischer 
Dynastien, in Abh. Pr. Ak. W., 1923). The 
chronology of the dynasty has been studied by 
M. Rabino, Les dynasties du Mdzandardn, in J A 
1936, ii, 409-437, where other sources are given. 
G. Melgunoff, Das sudliche Ufer des Kaspischen 
Meeres, Leipzig 1868. (R. N. Frye) 

BAWARD [see abiward]. 

BAWAZlDJ, of Bawazidj al-Malik, in <Abbasid 
times a town in the province of Mosul on the right 
bank of the Lesser Zab, not far from its mouth. 
The name is the Syriac Beth Wazik, "the house 
of the toll-collector". As the Sasanid name, there 
appears occasionally Khunya-Sabur "Shapur's song", 
after the usual style of the poetical names of towns 
common in the Sasanid period. In the older geo- 
graphers and historians the place is only briefly 
mentioned along with Takrit, Tirhan and Sinn. 
Some one with an accurate knowledge of the town 
has, however interpolated a detailed description in 
the text of Ibn Hawkal (ed. De Goeje, 169, note 9). 
The place was notorious in the middle ages as the 
abode of the Kharidjites — the inhabitants say they 
are descended from the troops of 'All b. Abl Talib — 
and as a nest of robbers. The town lived by receiving 
goods stolen by the Band Shayban Bedouins from 
caravans. Yakut however also mentions some 
scholars who were born in Bawazidj. A portion of 
its inhabitants must have been Christian; the 
miracle-working bones of a Syrian martyr Baboye 
were there. There was occasionally a Jacobite 
bishop of Beth Remm3n (i.e., the village of Barimma) 
and Beth Wazik, or a Nestorian of Shenna (i.e., Sinn) 
and Beth Wazik. 

The ruins of the town have not yet been discovered. 

Bibliography: Ibn Khurradadhbih, 94; Ibn 

Hawkal (ed. de Goeje), 169, note g; Bakri, 183; 

Yakut, s.v.; G. Hoffmann, Syrische Akten Persi- 

scher Mdrtyrer, 189; cf. his note on De Goeje, Ibn 

Khurradadhbih, translation, 68; E. Herzfeld, 

Untersuchungen zur historischen Topographic etc. 

in Memmon, i, 1907, 1 and 2; F. Sarre and E. 

Herzfeld, Archaeologische Reise im Euphrat uni 

Tigris-Gebiet (1910-n), chap, iii; Le Strange, 

9! and 98. (E. Herzfeld) 

BAY (Bey), name applied to the ruler of Tunisia 

until 26 July 1957, when the Bey Lamine (al-Amin), 

19th ruler of the Husaynid dynasty, was deposed and 

a Republic proclaimed in Tunisia. 

To discover the origin of this title, we must go 
back to the end of the 16th century. It was at that 
time that the Bey 'Uthman created the Office of 
Bey (in Turkish: beg), without consulting the Porte, 
whose vassal he was. He entrusted the holder of the 
office with command of the tribes, the maintenance 
of public order and the collection of taxes. Equipped 
with these extensive powers, the Bey soon became 
the most important man in the country. This was 
the title which the Agha of the soldiery, Husayn b. 
'All, founder of the Husaynid dynasty, subsequently 
assumed upon receiving the investiture at Tunis on 
10 July 1705. 

It was only later that the order of succession to the 
throne was regulated by a Charter included in the 



BAY- 



Tunisian Constitution of 26 April 1861, article I of 
which decreed: "Succession to the throne is here- 
ditary among the princes of the Husaynid family, 
by order of age, according to the rules in use in the 
Kingdom". This was in fact the codification of a 
traditional rule which, with two exceptions, was 
adhered to in regard to accession to the throne of 
Tunisia from the founding of the dynasty. 

The enthronement of the sovereign was accom- 
panied by a dual ceremony, the first private, in which 
the great men of the Kingdom and intimates parti- 
cipated, the second public, open to the broad mass 
of subjects. This recalled the old dual ceremony of 
doing homage (al-bay'a al-khdssa and al-bay'a al- 
'amma). As a result of the establishment of the 
Protectorate, the representative of France in 
Tunisia became associated with the ceremony of the 
enthronement of the Bey, bestowing on the new Bey 
the "solemn investiture" in the name of the protect- 
ing Power. 

Articles 3 and 4 of the Decree of 26 April 1861 
stated: "The Bey is the head of the State. At the 
same time, he is the head of the ruling family. He has 
full authority over the princes and princesses of his 
family, none of whom may dispose either of their 
persons or of their property without his prior 
consent. He exercises a paternal authority over them 
and is obliged to give them the benefits of such. 
Members of the family owe him filial obedience." 

The titles borne by the Bey contained a number of 
expressions expressly designating his sovereign 
function. In official documents his appellation was: 
Sayyidund wa-mawldna . . ., Basha Bay, sdhib aU 
mamlaka al-tunusiyya (= Our Lord and Master . . ., 
Pasha Bey, possessor of the Kingdom of Tunis". 
This old style, in part dating back to the Hafsids 
and partly to the middle of the 18th century, was 
augmented by a new element, namely Mushir 
(Marshal), bestowed by the Porte about the year 
1839, which however was only borne by three Beys. 
Unlike the Hafsid styles, however, no titles (alkdb) 
of a personal character occur. 

Among the special insignia of sovereignty, 
mention must be made, in addition to the dynastic 
throne, of the ceremonial costume worn by the Bey 
on solemn occasions. These material attributes were 
enhanced by the kissing of hands encumbent on 
Tunisian subjects, and other marks of royalty. The 
Bey had a civil list, a guard of honour (the Bey's 
Guard), a standard, bestowed decorations (Nishdn 
al-dam, 'Ahd al-amdn, Nishdn al-iftikhdr) and 
honorary military ranks. Finally, each Thursday 
there took place the Ceremony of the Seal, at which 
the Bey applied his seal to governmental decisions 
in the form of a decree, thus giving them executive 

The heir apparent bore the title of Bey of the 
Camp (bay al-amhdl). This title originated in the 
duty incumbent on the heir apparent to proceed 
twice a year at the head of a military expedition to 
the south and north of the country both to assert 
the authority of the central government and to 
overawe tribes who might refuse to pay their taxes. 
The Bey of the Camp was head of the army by 
virtue of this institution, but it disappeared with 
the advent of the Protectorate. (Ch. Samaran) 

BAY' (a). Two roots are used ia Arabic to desig- 
nate the contract of sale: b-y-' and sh-r-y; in 
the first verbal form both usually mean "to sell", 
but also "to buy", in the eighth form exclusively 
"to buy"; the function of expressing both sides of 
a mutual relationship is shared by these two roots 



with a number of other old legal terms. Bay' ori- 
ginally means the clasping of hands on concluding 
an agreement, sh-r-y perhaps the busy activity of 
the market. In the technical usage of Islamic law, 
the normal term for selling is bd'a, for the contract 
of sale, the infinitive bay', and for buying, ibtd'a, 
or ishtara. The frequent use of shard for a profitable 
and of ishtara for an unprofitable transaction (in 
the metaphorical sense) in the Kur'an is parallel to 
that of kasaba "to be credited" and iktasaba "to be 
debited" (cf. Schacht, in Studia Islamica, i, 30 f.). 
Commercial law in pre-Islamic Mecca had un- 
doubtedly reached a certain level of development; 
the trade oh which alone the existence of the town 
depended, occupied such a predominant place there 
that the Kur'an not only referred to it often but 
used a number of technical terms of commerce to 
express religious ideas. (On the other hand, the 
importance of the Meccan trade in absolute terms 
ought not to be overestimated; cf. G.-H. Bousquet, 
in Hesp., 1954, 233 f., 238 ff.). To this body of 
ancient Arab commercial law can be traced the ribd 
contracts which the Kur'an was to prohibit, certain 
dealings involving credit and speculation, and 
possibly the khiydr al-madjlis, a special right of 
option, which seems to go back to a local Meccan 
custom (cf. Schacht, Origins, 159 ft.); to all ap- 
pearance the legal construction of the contract as 
being constituted by offer (idjdb) and acceptance 
(kabul), as well as part of the terminology of Islamic 
law and, perhaps, some of its legal maxims, belong 
to this pre-Islamic stratum; the term idfab itself 
seems to reflect another, unilateral, construction of 
the contract (cf. Schacht, in OLZ, 1927, 664 ff.). 
The Kur'an directly envisages commercial law in 
the general exhortations to give full weight and 
measure and to carry out agreements, in the specific 
demand that forward deals should be put in writing 
(Sura ii, 282 f. ; in the system of Islamic law this 
injunction has been deprived of its binding character), 
and above all in the two prohibitions of interest 
{ribd) and of games of chance (maysir), which 
include aleatory transactions (Sura ii, 219, 275 f.; 
v, 90 f.) ; in contrast with the attitude of the contem- 
poraries, bay', i.e. legitimate trade, is sharply 
opposed to ribd. The implications of these prohibit- 
ions have been worked out to their last details in 
Islamic law. Tradition contains a certain number of 
teachings regarding commerce in general and the 
duties of the good and the punishment of the wicked 
merchant (see tidjara); it also elaborates the 
teachings of the Kur'an. As legal principles which 
now appear for the first time may be mentioned: 
the recognition of the right of withdrawal (khiydr), 
unconditional during the negotiation, and under 
certain conditions either agreed or fixed by law 
after the agreement has been made; the legal 
maxim al-kharddi bi 'l-damdn ("profit goes where 
the responsibility lies"); the rule that the produce 
in existence at the moment of sale belongs to the 
vendor, unless the contrary is stipulated; the 
prohibition of a sale the object of which cannot be 
exactly defined (in the case of a sale of ripe fruits on 
a tree etc., the main group of traditions is satisfied 
with an estimate); the prohibition of a re-sale of 
foodstuffs or of marchandise in general before 
possession has been taken (a consequence of the 
prohibition of ribd), or in general of the sale of things 
which are not already the property of the vendor; 
the exclusion of certain things from commerce, 
ritually impure or forbidden as well as things which, 
like surplus water, are common property; finally, 



the special treatment, diverging from the general 
rule, of the case in which the vendor of a milking 
animal, in order to suggest a greater yield, does not 
milk it before the sale. The question whether nascent 
Islamic commercial law was influenced by the law 
and economic life of the peoples incorporated in the 
Muslim empire, has been much discussed in the past 
but can now be definitely answered in the affirmative 
(cf. Schacht, in XII Convegno "Volta", Rome 1957, 
197 ff., and the literature mentioned there). 

The contract of sale forms the core of the Islamic 
law of obligations. Its categories have been developed 
in most detail with regard to the contract of sale, and 
other commutative or synallagmatic contracts, such 
as idjdra and kirp (locatio conductio operarum and 
I.e. rei), and even marriage, although regarded as 
legal institutions in their own right and not reduced 
to contracts of sale, are construed on the model of 
bay' and sometimes even defined as kinds of bay 1 . 
In its narrower meaning, bay 1 is defined as an 
exchange of goods or properties and it therefore 
includes, beside sale proper, barter (mukayada) and 
exchange (sarf). The following is a short account of 
the main provisions of Islamic law, according to 
Hanafi doctrine, concerning bay'-. 

The object of the sale must belong to the goods or 
properties (mdl) which Islamic law recognizes as 
such; these include servitudes on real estate but 
exclude: 1. things which are completely excluded 
from legal traffic, e.g. animals not ritually slaughter- 
ed (maita), blood; 2. things in which there is no 
ownership, e.g. pious endowments (wahf) [q.v.], or 
which are public property, or constituent parts etc., 
in which there is no separate private ownership; 

3. those slaves in whom there is only a restricted 
ownership, particularly the umm al-walad [q.v.] ; 

4. things on the disposal of which there are 
restrictions, e.g. things which are ritually impure, 
such as wine and the pig, and other things without 
market value (mdl ghayr mutakawwim) which are not 
rigorously defined; 5. things which are not in actual 
possession, such as things lost or usurped and run- 
away slaves : here the power to dispose of the prop- 
erty is refused, to exclude the risk. A sale concluded 
with regard to an object of this kind is not valid 
(ghair sahih or ghair djaHz) ; such a sale, according 
to the rjanafls, however, is not necessarily void 
(bdtil, as it is in the cases 1 2, 3), but in certain 
circumstances only voidable (fasid [q.v.] ; in the other 
schools this term is used as a synonym of bd(il); 
even if the two parties have taken possession, a 
fasid sale confers only a "bad ownership" (milk 
khabith) and is liable to cancellation (faskh) until the 
object is re-sold. A stipulation in favour of or 
against one of the parties is invalid and makes the 
contract fasid. Conditional or deferred agreements 
are not admitted in this contract. Legally qualified 
to conclude a sale is a free person who is of age 
(bdligh) and of sound mind ('dkil), also the minor 
with the permission of his guardian and the slave 
with the permission of his master; the master can 
authorize his slave either to conclude an individual 
sale, or generally to engage in trade (this slave is 
called ma'dhun). Representation (wakdla) is possible; 
in this case the agent is regarded as a main con- 
tracting party with corresponding rights and obli- 
gations, but the rights of ownership accrue to the 
principal directly. In common with the other 
contracts, the sale is concluded by offer (idifib) and 
acceptance (kabiil), which must correspond to each 
other exactly and must take place in the same 
meeting (madjlis); the term safka ("clasping of 



hands") for the conclusion of the bargain dates from 
the pre-Islamic period, but Islamic law completely 
disregards the symbolic action which it expresses. 
Ownership (milk) is transferred through the con- 
clusion of the sale, but completed only through the 
transfer of possession (taslim "handing over", kabd 
"taking possession") which, however, is dispensed 
with in the case of real estate; on the other hand, 
the existence of an option or right of withdrawal 
(hhiydr, [q.v.]) prevents the transfer of ownership 
even though possession has been taken. In the case 
of eviction (istihkdk), the vendor is responsible for 
a defect in ownership with the amount of the price 
paid; this is the so-called responsibility for darak or 
tabi'a. On the prohibition of riba, see the art. The 
prohibition of risk (gharar) implies that the obli- 
gations of the parties must be determined (maHum), 
in particular the object of the sale, the price and the 
term or terms. The first requirement is particularly 
strict in the case of goods covered by the prohibition 
of riba, so that here no indefinite quantity (djuzdf) 
is permitted even if a price per unit is mentioned. 
A third prohibition which has far-reaching conse- 
quences, too, is that of selling or exchanging a debt 
(dayn) for another debt. In the field of sale proper, 
one distinguishes the thing sold from the price 
(thaman) or the value (kima). As the price consists 
of fungible things (normally gold or silver), whereas 
the thing sold is, generally, a non-fungible object, 
the rules applicable to both are not quite indentical; 
the vendor, for instance, is permitted to dispose of 
the (fungible) price even before he has taken posses- 
sion. Actually a special kind of purchase, although 
in the opinion of the Muslim lawyers a contract in 
its own right, is the salaf [q.v.] or salam, the ordering 
of goods to be delivered later for a price paid im- 
mediately; the term ra's mdl ("capital") which is 
used for the price here, shows the economic meaning 
of the transaction: the financing of the business of 
a small trader or artisan by his clients. Because of 
its closeness to the subject of the prohibition of 
riba, salam is carefully treated, and is subject to 
numerous special rules. Its counterpart, delayed 
payment for goods delivered immediately, is also 
possible, but this kind of sale plays a minor part 
in Islamic law. The name "sale on credit" (bay'- al- 
Hna) is given a potiori to an evasion of the prohibition 
of riba which is based on this transaction. Barter of 
merchandise (mukayada) is hardly distinguished 
from sale in general; but money-changing and, in 
general, dealing in precious metals receive detailed 
treatment on account of the prohibition of riba; 
these transactions are regarded as sales of "price" 
for "price ' (cf. sarf). 

The actual practice of commerce in the Muslim 
middle ages was controlled not by these theoretical 
rules of Islamic law but by a customary commercial 
law which had been called into being by the normal 
needs of commercial life in the great cities of Islam, 
and was then elaborated by the legal advisers of the 
merchants, who were competent specialists in 
Islamic law. This customary law did not put itself 
into direct opposition to the sacred law of Islam, on 
the contrary, it maintained its main features, such 
as the prohibition of riba, which it never dared 
openly to challenge but only managed to evade, just 
as it evaded, too, most of its rigid, restrictive rules, 
and it is characterized by a greater flexibility, 
accompanied by effective safeguards of fair dealing, 
which were made necessary by the lack of any 
official sanction. A unique source for the knowledge 
of this customary commercial law in 'Irak about 



400/1000 is the younger edition of the Kitdb al-Hiyal 
wal-Makharidj spuriously attributed to al-Khassaf 
(ed. Schacht, Hanover 1923; cf. also the same, in 
7s/., 1926, 218 f.; ibid., 1935, 218 ff.; R.Afr., 1952, 
322 ff.). Similar, independent developments have 
occurred later in the Maghrib (cf. O. Pesle, Le 
contrat de safqa au Maroc, Rabat 1932; J. Berque, 
Essai sur la mithode juridique maghribine, Rabat 
1944, and numerous papers). This customary com- 
mercial law of Islam has, in its turn, influenced the 
law merchant of Europe in the early middle ages 
(cf. A" 77 Convegno "Volta", 215). 

Bibliography: al-TahanawI, Dictionary of the 
Technical Terms, Calcutta 1854 ft., s.v. bay'; 
C. C. Torrey, The Commercial-Theological Terms 
in the Koran, Leiden 1892; Wensinck, Handbook, 
s.v. barter; F. Peltier (transl.), Le livre des ventes 
du Mouwatta de Malek ben Anas, Algiers 191 1; 
I. Dimitroff, in MSOS/ii, 1908, 99 ff.; c Abd ail- 
Rahman al-Diazirl, K. al-Fikh 'ala 'l-Madhahib 
al-Arba'a, ii 2 , Cairo 1933, 192 ft.; Omer Nasuhi 
Bilmen, Huhuhi Isldmiyye ve Istilahah Ftkhiyye 
Kamusu, v. Istanbul 1952, 5 ff. ; Juynboll, 
Handleiding, 3rd ed., 265 ff. ; G. Bergstrdsser' s 
Grundzuge, ed. J. Schacht, 10, 47 ff., 60 ff., 
69 ft.; Santillana, Instituzioni, ii, 112 ff.; O. 
Pesle, La vente dans la doctrine maUkite, Rabat 
1940; Ch. Cardahi, Les conditions generates de la 
vente en droit compari occidental et oriental, 
in Annates de I'Ecole de Droit de Beyrouth, 1945; 
L. Milliot, Introduction, 648 ff. See also art. 'akd. 

(J. Schacht) 
BAY'A, an Arabic term denoting, in a very broad 
sense, the act by which a certain number of persons, 
acting individually or collectively, recognise the 
authority of another person. Thus the bay'a of a 
Caliph is the act by which one person is proclaimed 
and recognised as head of the Muslim State. A 
synonymous expression is that of mubdya'a (cf. the 
verb bdya'a: to make the bay'a). 

I. Etymology. According to a view which has 
become traditional the term bay'-a is derived from 
the verb bd'a (to sell), the bay'a embodying, like 
sale, an exchange of undertakings. This explanation 
seems most artificial. In the view of the author the 
bay'-a owes its name to the physical gesture itself 
which, in ancient Arab custom, symbolised the 
conclusion of an agreement between two persons 
and which consisted of a hand-clasp (cf. the manu- 
missio of the ancient law of certain Western 
countries). Again, in a non-technical sense, "to make 
a bay'a in regard to some matter" (tabaya'a 'ala 
'l-atnr) means "to reach agreement on this matter" 
(cf. saf(ta, lit.: manumissio, — agreement, contract). 
The physical gesture was termed bay'a because, 
precisely, it consisted of a movement of the hand 
and arms (bd'). And since the election of a chief 
(and the undertaking to submit to his authority) 
was demonstrated by a hand-clasp, it was naturally 
described by the very term which denoted this 
gesture. 

The bay'a has two principal aims which differ 
both in their scope and nature. The first is essentially 
that of adherence tc a doctrine and recognition of 
the pre-established authority of the person who 
teaches it. It is in this sense that the bay'a was 
practised in the relations between Muhammad and 
his newly acquired supporters (cf. Kur'an, xlviii, 
10, 18; lx, 13). In the same sense, but with a more 
restricted purpose, the bay'a served simply to 
recognise the pre-established authority of a person 
and to promise him obedience. Such was the case 



with the bay'a effected in favour of a new Caliph 
whose title to succeed had been established by the 
testamentary designation ('ahd) of his predecessor. 

In its second sense the principal aim of the bay'a 
is the election of a person to a post of command 
and, in particular, the election of a Caliph, when a 
premise of obedience is implied. It was thus that the 
first Caliph, Abu Bakr, was designated by the bay'a of 
the so-called assembly of the Sakifa (13 Rabl c I 11/8 
June 632); and the same invariably applied on all 
subsequent occasions that the seat of the Caliphate fell 
vacant and no successor designated by other means 
existed. SunnI doctrine, indeed, specifies the bay'a as 
one of the two procedures for designating the Caliph. 
In Shi'i doctrine the bay'a has never been able to play 
this role, for the Shi'a recognise only one method 
of designating the Imam— namely appointment by 
testament (nass, wasiyya) of one in the legitimate 
line of descent. However the Zaydi branch of the 
Shi'a hold that the Imamate is acquired by election 
from within the c Alid family. Here, then, the bay'a 
was practised in the sense of an act of election. 

II. Legal nature. The legal doctrine analyses 
the bay'a as a contractual agreement: 011 the one 
side there is the will of the electors, expressed in 
the designation of the candidate, which constitutes 
the offer, and on the other side the will of the 
elected person which constitutes the acceptance. 
This analysis may be admitted provided that it is 
not carried so far as to confuse the act of bay'a 
with the legal category of ordinary contracts. For 
the bay'a is a voluntary act sui generis which 
involves the general public. And again it must be 
stressed that the doctrinal analysis, even when so 
regarded, is only fully valid in regard tc the bay'a of 
election and not in regard to the bay'a of simple 
homage. For in the latter case adherence becomes 
obligatory and no room is left for any freedom of 
decision. 

What, particularly as regards the bay'a election, 
is the number of electors (ahl al-ikhtiydr) required 
for the validity of the procedure? On this point 
opinions are numerous and widely varied and range 
from one extreme to the other — from a view which 
requires that the bay'a should emanate from all 
"the upright men of the whole empire" to the 
opinion which is satisfied with the vote of a single 
individual. In fact, however, the body of electors 
was made up of the high dignitaries and notables 
of the State. 

The bay'a is an act perfected solely by agreement. 
Neither the physical gesture of manumissio nor the 
confirmation of the bay'a by an oath is required as a 
condition of validity or even simple proof. No 
sacramental form is imposed for the manifestation 
of will; it suffices that this should be clearly and 
definitely expressed. 

The form of the bay'a remains the same in both 
its r61es — that of election and that of simple offer 
of homage. 

The formalities of a single process of bay'a may be 
split up into two or even several sessions. Thus, as 
far as the Caliphs are concerned, the first step is 
generally what is termed the bay'at al-khdssa 
(private bay'a) in which a very limited number of 
persons, the chief dignitaries of State and Court, 
participate. This is then followed by the bay'at al- 
'dmma (public bay'a). Further, formal sessions for 
the offer of bay'a are held in the centres of the 
different provinces. 

An innovation, which was introduced into the 
procedure from the Umayyad period, is the renewal 



of the bay'a (tadjdid al-bay'a) whereby the Caliph 
or Sultan has recourse, during his reign, to a new 
bay'a in favour of himself or his heir apparent; and 
this may be repeated twice or more. The ruler 
resorts to this to establish the loyalty of his subjects. 
III. Effects of the bay'a. A question peculiar 
to the bay'-a — election is that of knowing whether 
it has the effect of investing the ruler with authority 
or whether it is simply confirmatory. It is in favour 
of the latter notion that the doctrine has generally 
become established, the ruler being held to receive 
his investiture from God. 

Those who perform the bay'-a and, along with 
them, the rest of the community become firmly and 
definitely bound. This binding effect is reinforced 
by the religious character which the bay'a acquired 
from early 'Abbasid times. As a result of the develop- 
ment of the theocratic nature of power the obligations 
undertaken towards the ruler are considered as 
being, in reality, obligations undertaken towards 
Allah. Furthermore the sole earthly sanction for the 
violation of the bay'a is one of extreme severity; in 
principle, it is death. The binding effect of the bay'a 
is personal and life-long; the idea of a bay'a made 
for a limited period is, indeed, unknown. 

This effect, however, is limited by the law. For 
the bay'a is made on condition that its recipient 
remains faithful to the divine prescriptions, which 
means that if the ruler does not abide by these 
prescriptions those who have performed the bay'a 
in his favour are thereby released from their 
obligations. 

Bibliography: Dozy, Suppl., s.v. Bay'; 
Yam', AhkdmSultdniyya,Cairo n.d.; FayruzabadI, 
Al-Kdmus al-Muhif, s.v. Bay'; Ibn Khaldun, 
Mukaddima, ed. Beirut 1900 (Eng. tr. by F. 
Rosenthal, New York 1958, i, 428 ft.); Lane, s.v. 
Bay' ; Mawardi, al-A hkdm al-Sultdniyya, Cairo n.d. ; 
E. Tyan, Institutions du droit public musulman, 
Paris 1954, i, 315 if-, 1957, ", 605, 129 ft. (with 
references). (E. Tyan) 

SAYAN, an Arabic word meaning lucidity, dis- 
tinctness; the means by which clearness is achieved, 
explanation; hence, clarity of speech or expression, 
and the faculty by which clarity is attained. In 
technical language baydn develops from a (near-) 
synonym of baldgha, eloquence, to the designation of a 
particular aspect of it which, within the Him al-baldgha 
is dealt with by the Him al-baydn. Common usage, 
however, continues to emply baydn in a wider variety 
of meanings (cf. also colourless phrases like bdb baydn 
or dar baydn-i, where nothing more than /« or dor 
is intended). Occasionally, tibydn takes the place of 
baydn without suggesting a different shade of 
meaning; e.g., Khattabi (d. 996 or 998), K. Baydn 
I'djdz al-Kur'dn, MS. Leiden 1654 (tod. Warner 
655), 5*-6*: the rank of the various kinds of speech 
differs with regard to their tibydn; ibid., 8": people 
believe of certain near-synonyms that they are 
equal in conveying the baydn of what the presen- 

What seem to be the earliest types of statements 
on the nature of baydn are descriptive aphorisms 
rather than definitions. "Reason is the guide of 
the soul, knowledge, the guide of reason, and 
baydn, the interpreter of knowledge". (Sahl b. 
Harun, the famous Shu'ubi d. 215/830-31, apud Ibn 
'Abd Rabbihi, al-'Ikd al-farid, Cairo 1353/1935, i, 
221; also Abu Hilal al-'Askari, Diwdn al-Ma'dni, 
Cairo 1352, i, 141; similar al-Husri al-Kayrawani, 
Zahr al-Addb (on margin of al-'Ikd al-Farid, Cairo 
1321, i, 134). Ibu al-Mu'tazz (d. 908), Addb, ed. 



I. J. Kratchkovsky, MO, 1924, in, begins a longish 
passage of hymnic praise of baydn by describing it 
as "the interpreter of the heart (quoted Zahr al-dddb, 
i, 114), the polisher (saykal) of the mind, the dispeller 
of doubt". Another saying of this kind is preserved 
in al-'Ikd al-Farid, i, 221: "The soul is the pillar 
(Hmdd) of the body, knowledge, the pillar of the 
soul, and baydn, the pillar of knowledge" (repeated, 
e.g., by Ibn Rashlk, 'Urnda, Cairo i353/i934, i. 213). 

On occasion, baydn is primarily connected with 
fasdha, purity and euphony of language; thus, e.g., 
by al-Djahiz (d. 869), K. al-Baydn wa 'l-Tabyin, ed. 
H. al-Sandubl, 2nd ed., Cairo 1366/1947, i, 32', 
where husn al-baldgha means 'good enunciation, 
"ortholexy" ' ; Abu Hilal al-'Askari, K. al-Sind'atayn, 
Constantinople 1320, 7', where fasdha is referred to 
as the perfect instrument, dla, of baydn; Ibn al- 
Athir, al-Mathal al-SdHr, Cairo 1312, 65: "fasdha is 
making evident, expounding clearly, baydn, not 
obscurity and concealment". In general, however, 
the concept is linked with baldgha. NuwayrI, Nihdyat 
al-Arab, Cairo 1322 ff., vii, 10, quotes an expanded 
version of Sahl b. Harun's dictum: "al-baydn is the 
interpreter of the mind and the training of the 
heart; and baldgha is what the common people 
understand and what gives satisfaction to the 
elite . . ."; Ibn Rashik, op. cit., i, 215-16, reports two 
definitions of baldgha, one identifying it as "the 
power of baydn, clear exposition, together with good 
organisation"; and and the other as "the opposite 
of Hyy; and Hyy is the inability to achieve baydn 
(i.e., to express oneself clearly)". Tawhidl's (d. 1023) 
warning against tahalluf, constraint, Risdla fi 
'l- c ulum in: Risdlatdni, Constantinople 1 301/1884, 
206, uses baydn practically as a synonym of baldgha. 
PJahiz, op. cit., i, 95, puts together on the same level 
bulagkd 3 , khufabd* and abyina* (plur. mult, oi 
bayyin): those elegant and clever in their speech. 
The judgment on the 3rd/gth century MalikI 
jurist and poet Ahmad b. al-Mu'a dhdh al that he 
was equally outstanding in his command of the 
Arab vocabulary, lugha, baydn, literary education, 
adab, and wit, haldwa (Zahr, ii, 276), shows how 
close baydn came to denoting baldgha. Cf. also the 
praise bestowed by al-Hasan b. Wahb (d. ca. 860) 
on Abu Tammam because of the baydn of his com- 
position, nizdm, (ibid., iii 154). As a specimen of 
later non-technical usage cf. Ibn Kayyim al- 
Djawziyya (d. 1350), K. al-Fawd'id, Cairo 1327/1909, 
5, where fasdha, baldgha, djazdla (literary excellence), 
baydn, ghawdmid al-lisdn (subtleties of language) and 
beautiful composition are mentioned on the same 
place as distinctions which God has imparted to the 
Kur'an. 

A definition sensu stricto of baydn is recorded in 
'Ikd, i, 221, and with immaterial variants by Abu 
Tahir al-Baghdadl (d. 1123), Kdnun al- Baldgha in: 
Rasd'il al-Bulagha' , ed. Muh. Kurd C A1I, 3rd ed., 
Cairo 1946, 432. "Whatever lifts the veil from a 
concealed idea, ma'nd, so it comes to be understood 
and accepted by the mind, 'ahl, is baydn". The same 
line of analysis is followed in the more elaborate 
definition ascribed to Dja'far al-Barmaki (d. 803), 
Baydn, i, 118 (also: Ibn Kutayba, 'Uyun al-Akhbdr, 
Cairo 1343-48/1925-30, ii, 173; Zahr, i, 126): Baydn 
means "that the word (ism; later one would have 
used kaldm, discourse) covers your idea completely 
and renders your intention (fully), lifting it from 
ambiguity, shirka, so you do not need the assistance 
of reflection (to understand what is meant); it 
(baydn) must be free from constraint, tahalluf, 
remote from artificiality, san'a, without obscurity, 



ta'kid, and comprehensible without interpretation, 
ta'wil". (Translated from 'Vyin and Zahr; Baydn's 
text is somewhat longer; 'Umda, i, 225, offers a 
definition of kindred intent but different phrasing). 
What to my knowledge may be the first attempt 
to integrate baydn in a system of rhetorical analysis 
is preserved as the statement made by Ibn al- 
IJirriya (d. 84/703) on letter, word and discourse or 
speech, where speech is divided in ten abwdb, seven 
of them 'preliminaries', fawatih, and three, 'com- 
prehensive (qualities)', diawdmi'. In this listing 
baydn al-kaldm figures as the fourth of the fawatih 
among requirements such as "the courage to speak 
up", "refraining from clearing one's throat and 
hemming", being able to begin and end at will 
(quoted Kdnun al-Baldgha, 433). 
■' Djahiz, K. al-flayawdn, Cairo 1325/1907, i, 17, 
notes that both men and animals possess the faculty 
of daldla, the indication of a meaning; but only man 
possesses that of istidldl, the power of inferential 
thinking, along with it. The term baydn, however, 
in Djahiz' view, covers both kinds of daldla. Human 
daldla (or baydn) has five forms: word, writing, 
counting on fingers or knuckles, 'uhad (not 'akd as 
Sandubl vocalises in Baydn, i, 76 10 ), indication, 
ishdra, and nisba, posture or attitude (not nusba as 
ibid., line n); on nisba cf. Nallino, in RSO, 1919-21, 
637-46, who lists, 640-41, later grammarians using 
this term; Djahiz repeats this doctrine of the five 
forms of expression in Hayawdn, i, 23, and Baydn, 
i, 76. Ibn al-Mudabbir (d. 892), Risdlat al-'Adhrd\ 
ed. Z. Mubarak, Cairo 1350/1931, 40, restates 
Djahiz's fivehold division of baydn and adds the 
correct observation that the concept of nisba goes 
back to Aristotle (whose seventh category is to 
xet<j0ai); Husrl (d. 1061), Zahr, i, 123-25, discusses 
Djahiz's view without reference to a possible source; 
Abu Tahir, Kdnun, 424, confines himself to repeating 
it concisely. RummanI (d. 994), K. an-Nukat fi 
I'didz al-Kur'dn, ed. <Abd al- c AHm, Delhi 1934, 26, 
with his division of baydn in kaldm, hdl, the situation, 
ishdra and 'alama, sign, would seem to go back to 
Djahiz, too; the origin of the modifications is as yet 
unexplained. No later references to Djahiz's theory 

Ishak b. Ibrahim b. Wahb, who after 335/946-7 
wrote the K. al-Burhdn fi Wudiuh al-Baydn ("The 
Exposition of the various ways of explaining 
[things]") — until recently wrongly attributed to 
Kudama b. Dja'far and published under the title 
of Nakd an-Nathr by TahS Husayn and C A. H. al- 
c Abbadi (Cairo 1933) — undertook his work to 
correct the insufficiencies of Djaljiz's presentation of 
the subject. Ishak b. Ibrahim distinguishes four ways 
of expression: a. "things may become intelligible by 
their essences, dhawdt [i.e., by the very fact of their 
being as they are], even though the words which 
[commonly] express them are not used; b. they may 
become intelligible by coming into the heart when 
thought and intellect are applied [i.e., presumably 
Djahiz's istidldl] ; c. they may become understandable 
through articulating sounds with the tongue; and, 
finally, d. by writing, which reaches those who are 
far away or do not (yet) exist." (Trans. S. A. Bone- 
bakker, The Kitdb Naqd al-Si'r of Quddma b. Ga'far 
al-Kdtib al-Bagdddi, Leiden 1956, 16; words between 
brackets are the writer's). It can easily be seen that 
Ishak's concept of baydn is very different, and both 
wider and narrower, than that which Djahiz 
endeavored to formulate. Regarding the manner in 
which Ishak applies his concept to his material it 
must suffice here to note that in his discussion 



of c. he lists, 44-64, sixteen aksdm al-Sbdra, 
categories of verbal expression, that include, without 
further classification, figura etymologies, comparison, 
suggestion (ranu), metaphor, parable, enigma and 

A completely different strain of thought is 
represented in Rummanl's division of baldgha in ten 
parts, aksdm: concision, ididz, comparison, metaphor, 
and so forth, of which husn al-baydn, successful 
exposition, is the tenth. In line with this concept, Ibn 
Rashik (d. 1064 or 1070), 'Umda, i, 225-28, has a 
chapter on baydn (with two pertinent quotations 
from RummanI) paralleling, as it were, on the same 
classificatory level his chapters on baldgha, ididz, 
nazm (composition), madidz (transferred meaning), 
isti'dra (metaphor), al-mukhtara' tea 'l-badi' (invent- 
ion and the 'original'), etc. It deserves notice that 
nowhere in the tenth and eleventh centuries is there 
an anticipation of that treatment of the baydn, 
especially in its relation to the badi', that was later 
to become the dominant doctrine. Neither Amid! (d. 
987), who in his K. al-Muwdzana bayna AH Tammdm 
wa 'l-Buhturi, Constantinople 1287, 6, divides badi' 
in isti'dra, tadinis (paronomasy) and (ibdk (anti- 
thesis), nor Abu Hilal al- c Askari (d. 1005), who in 
Sind'atayn, (e.g.) 205 and 290, treats isti'dra and 
kindya (metonymy) on the same level as all other 
tropes, nor again BakillanI (d. 1013), KhafadjI 
(d. 1073) and Abu Tahir, who still subsumes isti'dra 
and kindya under badi', Kdnun, 435-459 (cf. in 
particular the list of forty-two rhetorical figures on 
436), made any contribution to the development of 
the basic organisation of rhetoric, the Him al-balagha, 
or as c Abd al-Kahir al-Djurdjanl (d. 1078), Dald'il 
al-I'didz, Cairo 1331/1913, 4, still prefers to call it, 
the 'ilm al-baydn, to him the greatest of all sciences. 
Djurdjani, to whom we owe inter alia the aesthetically 
most sensitive analysis of the metaphor, notes, 
DaldHl, 349-50, that the development of the 'ilm al- 
fasdha wa 'l-baydn differs in two points from that of 
the other sciences: the early authorities of this 'ilm 
expressed themselves in hints and metaphors rather 
than plainly and directly; and besides, in no other 
area were the opinions of the ancients transmitted 
with as little criticism. But Diurdjani's interest is 
not in the theory of baydn and his innovations are 
made on another plane of literary analysis. This 
fact is reflected in Fakhr al-DIn al-RazI's (d. 1209) 
Nihdyat al-Ididz fi Dirdyat al-I'didz, Cairo 1317. 
which according to the author's statement, 3-5, is 
an attempt to organize Diurdjani's DaldHl and 
Asrdr al-Baldgha (ed. H. Ritter, Istanbul 1954; 
German translation, Wiesbaden 1959), and which 
fails to offer any explicit discussion of baydn. 

When Ibn al-Athlr (d. 1234) writes al-Mathal al- 
Sd'ir fi Adab al-Kdtib wa 'l-Shd'ir thinking on baydn 
has taken a new turn. To what extent it was Ibn 
al-Athir himself who was responsible for this change 
we have no means of deciding. Ibn al-Athlr places, 
p. 2, the 'ilm al-baydn in the same relation to the 
composition of both poetry and prose as the science 
of the usul al-fikh to the individual judicial statutes 
or decisions, ahkdm. (On p. 114, he refers to the rep- 
resentatives of this field of learning as 'ulamd? al- 
baydn). He divides his book in a preface, mukaddima, 
dealing with the foundations, usul 'ilm al-baydn, 
and two sections treating the handling of wording, 
al-sind'a 'l-lafziya, and of content, al-sind'a 
'l-ma'nawiyya, respectively. The subject of the 'ilm 
al-baydn is fasdha and baldgha whose constituent 
elements he investigates in regard to both wording 
and meaning. He shares with the grammarian, 



BAYAN — BAYAN b. SAM'AN al-TAMIMI 



nahwi, his concern for the manner in which words 
indicate meanings; but he goes beyond the gram- 
marian's interest by a concern for the aesthetic 
qualities of the various ways of verbal rendering of 
ideas (p. 3). In the terms of his critic, Ibn al-Hadld 
(d. 1257), al-Falak al-DdHr 'old 'l-Mathal al-Sd'ir, 
Bombay 1308, 41-42 (al-Mathal, 28 22 -2g 8 ), Ibn al- 
Atinr's 'iim al-baydn is basically a "rational" science, 
Him 'akll, that argues from general principles by 
means of 'akl and dhawk, taste; it does not deduce its 
judgments empirically from Arabic literature, 
bi 'l-istikrd'' min ash'dr al- l Arab (for dhawk cf. also 
Ibn Khaldiin, Mukaddima, ed. Quatremere, Paris 
1858, iii, 312-317; 349-50 trans. F. Rosenthal, New 
York 1958, iii, 358-62; 396-98). The heartpiece of the 
Him al-baydn is to Ibn al-Agnr the doctrine of 
hakika and madidz, the proper and the transferred 
use of words (p. 23). It is in the nature of his system 
that he does not differentiate between comparison, 
metaphor and metonymy on the one hand and the 
other tropes on the other — a differentiation which 
was to be one of the principal features of the system 
that was about to become dominant in Arabic 
rhetoric when Ibn al-Athir wrote. 

This doctrine originated with Ibn al-Athir's con- 
temporary, the Khorezmian al-Sakkakl (d. 1229) 
who, according to his own statement, K. Miftdh al- 
c Ulum, Cairo n.d. (ca. 1898), 2-3, set out to treat the 
anwd 1 al-adab, the kinds or elements of literary 
education, with the exception of lugha, lexicology. 
Those "kinds", anwd'-, include a. accidence or 
morphology, Him al-sarf, and b. grammar proper or 
syntax, Him al-nahw, which is defined to comprise (1) 
Him al-ma'-dnl (the different kinds of sentence and 
their use) to which "definition" and "deduction" 
are attached; and (2) Him al-baydn, the art of 
(eloquent) presentation, which requires "prosody" 
and "rhyming" as subsidiary branches of study. The 
Him al-baydn deals fundamentally with three sub- 
jects, «?«/: (1) comparison, tashbih; (2) madidz (and 
hakika) ; (3) kindya, metonymy. The remaining 
tropes are relegated to the end of the book, 224-229, 
under the heading al-badl 1 . 

It is presumably due to Sakkaki's commentator, 
al-Kazwini (d. 1338), and to the mufassir of the 
latter, al-Taftazani (d. 1389), that Sakkaki's 
structuring of rhetoric received the more consistent 
form which has continued to make authority to this 
day. Kazwini no longer wishes to deal with adab. 
To him, balagha is the term for the science of rhetoric 
as a whole which he divides in the three branches of 
Him al-ma'-dnl, Him al-baydn and Him al-badl' (as 
the doctrine of the embellishment of speech) [cf. 
balagha]. Him al-baydn is now no more and no less 
than the science that deals with the various possibi- 
lities of expressing the same idea in various degrees 
of directness or clarity. Since the word used may 
indicate either the concept in its totality or merely a 
part of it, or again point to it through evoking an 
element external to it in which the hearer perceives 
a necessary connection with the concept actually 
intended, a certain number of modes of expression 
are open to the speaker. In their descriptive function 
and power, comparison, metaphor and metonymy 
correspond to those three basic possibilities of word- 
concept- relations. For this reason they are treated 
apart from the other tropes that are dealt with under 
the general category of badl', embellishments. (This 
presentation of Kazwini's views is based in part on 
his Talkhis al-Miftdh, Cairo 1342/1923, iii, 256-290; 
also in A. F. Mehren, Die Rhetorik der Araber, 
Copenhagen and Vienna 1853, 6-7 of Arabic text, 



Trans. 53-54 of German text; and in part abstracted 
from the tenor of the Talkhlf as a whole; a rather 
full summary of Kazwini's doctrine of baydn, ibid., 
20-42). 

While al-Nuwayri (d. 1332), Nihdya, vii, 35, 
already follows the tripartite structure of Htlum al- 
ma'-dnl, baydn and bad? without, however, distri- 
buting the tropes accordingly, Ibn Kayyim al-Djaw- 
ziyya, FawdHd, a work whose purpose is the analysis 
of the uniqueness and inimitability, i'djdz, of the 
Kur'an, still uses Him al-baydn for rhetoric as a 
whole and divides his presentation of it in sections 
(I) on fasdha, balagha, hakika and madjdz, metaphor, 
comparison, tamthll (expression by way of a simile, 
analogy), concision, and reversion of word order; 
and (II) on Him al-baydn proper which he subdivides 
in (a) eighty-four Sinnfiguren (including metonymy 
as no. 17) and (b) twenty-four further tropes; he 
notes, 218, that this second fann of (II) is also 
called al-badl l . Like Ibn Kayyim, Ibn Khaldun 
(d. 1406) sees the value of the Him al-baydn in its 
leading to the understanding of the i'djdz, and like 
him he uses Him t l-baydn, the name of the sub- 
section first to be explored by Arab critics, as the 
designation of the "science of expression" as a whole. 
But the strictness of his systematisation sets hirn 
apart from Ibn Kayyim. Baydn, the manifestation 
of ideas, is achieved either by verbal expression, 
Hbdra, or by writing, kitdba (Mukaddima, iii, 242-43; 
trans, de Slane, Paris 1862-68, iii, 264-65; trans. 
Rosenthal, hi, 281-82). The Him al-baydn consist 
of the three sciences of balagha, in Ibn Khaldun's 
description a combination of grammar and Him 
al-ma'-dnl, baydn and badV-. Ibn Khaldun adds that it 
is the Easterners who give special attention to bayd* 
whereas the Westerners show particular interest in 
the badl"- (Mukaddima, iii, 289-94; trans. Slane, iii, 
324 ff. ; Rosenthal, iii, 332-39). Ibn Khaldun recog- 
nises the importance of Sakkaki and Kazwini, with 
whose works he is clearly familiar and whose au- 
thority had already grown beyond challenge. 
Bibliography: in the article. 

(G. E. von Grunebaum) 

BAYAN b. SAM'AN al-TAMIMI, Shi'i 
leader in Kufa. (Often, improperly, Bandn; in 
Nawbakhti, al-Nahdl). He was a dealer in straw. 
According to Nawbakhti, he was a disciple of Hamza 
b. 'Ammara, disciple of Ibn Karib, men known for 
ghuluww speculation on the imamate of Muhammad 
b. al-Hanafiyya. He accepted the imamate of 
Muhammad's son Abu Hashim (d. ca. 99/717) Iq.v.] 
and was hostile to Muhammad al-Bakir. Bayan 
taught a literalist anthropomorphic interpretation 
of the Kur'an; e.g., God is a man of light, all whose 
parts will finally perish except his face (Kur'an 
xxviii, 88). When on al-Bakir's death al-Mughira 
b. Sa'id fa.v.] left al-Bakir's circle, he and Bayan 
evidently joined forces. After what may have been 
a forced premature rising, they were seized with a 
handful of followers and burned by Khalid al-Kasri, 
Hisham's governor, in 119/737. (There are several 
circumstantial but contradictory accounts of their 
death.) Isfahan! in al-Aghdnl l very improbably has 
the rising be in the name of Dja'far al-Sadik (Vol. 15, 
121 ; but cf. Vol. 19, 58). Wakidi has it be in the name 
of Muhammad b. c Abd Allah, who rebelled against 
al-Mansur twenty-six years later; possibly (cf. 
Tabari and Ibn Hazm) it was connected with the 
c Abbasids, who inherited Abu Hashim's party in 
Kufa in the name of all the family of the Prophet. 

Bayan's followers apparently formed a party, the 
Bayaniyya (or Bananiyya, or the Sam'aniyya), said 



BAYAN b. SAM'AN al-TAMIMI — BAYAZlD I 



to have ascribed to the imams prophecy through an 
indwelling particle of divine light; to have expected 
the return of various religious figures after death; 
and to have discussed the "greatest name" of God, 
Some are said to have regarded Bayan as an imam, 
citing Kur'an iii, 138. Like other Shl'is they 
supported Muhammad b. 'Abd Allah at least after 
the 'Abbasid triumph. 

Bibliography: al-Aghdni, above; Nawbakhti. 
Firak al-Sh?", Nadjaf 1355/1936, 28, 34; Wakidi, 
in the anon. Kitab al- c Uyun wa '1-ffaddHk, ed. 
M. J. de Goeje and P. de Jong, Fragmenta Histo- 
ricorum Arabicorum, i, Leiden 1869, 230-31; Ibn 
Kutayba, c Uyun al-Akhbdr, Cairo 1346/1928, ii, 
148; Kashshi, Ma'-rifa Akhbar al-Rididl, Bombay 
1317/1899, s.v. Abu '1-Khattab. especially 196; 
al-Tabari, ii, i6igf.; Ash'ari, Makdldt al- 
Isldmiyyin, Cairo 1369/1950, i, 66; al-Baghdadi, 
al-Fark bayn al-firak, Cairo 1367/1948, 27, 138, 
145; al-Shahrastani, 113; Ibn Hazm in I. Fried- 
lander, JAOS Vol. 28 (1907), 60-61, Vol. 29 (1908), 
88. (M. G. S. Hodgson) 

BAYAS [see payas]. 

BAYAT, an Oghuz (Turkmen) tribe. The Bayat 
are understood to have taken part in the conquests 
of the Saldjuks in Anatolia. The nickname al- 
Bayatl given to Sunkur, representative in Basra in 
512-3/..119 of the Saldjukid amir Ak Sunkur al- 
Bukharl, is quite probably connected with this 
tribe. There were numerous places called Bayat or 
Bayad in central and western Turkey in the gth/i5th 
and ioth/i6th centuries of which few survive today. 
Most of these place-names, no doubt, belonged to 
the Bayat who participated in the conquest of 
Anatolia. There were Bayat among the Turkmens 
in northern Syria in the 8th/i4th century. An 
important part of these, called Sham Bayadl, used 
to go in the summer like other Turkmen tribes to 
the Sivas and Bozok (Yozgat) regions. From the 
beginning of the 9th/i5th century onwards the 
northern Syrian Bayat began to figure in the 
activities of the Ak-Koyunlu. In the ioth/i6th 
century, there were, besides those around Aleppo 
and Yozgat (Sham Bayadl), small Bayat clans in 
the provinces of Diyarbakr, Kiitahya and Tripoli. 
In the same century they are also seen in Iran, 
particulary around Kazzaz and Karahrud, to the 
south of Hamadan. They numbered about 10,000 
tents, and were perhaps more recently called Ak 
Bayat, probably to distinguish them from the 
rest of the Bayats in the country. The Ak Bayat 
reared some very fine horses known after them as 
Bayati Nizhtid. Shah 'Abbas used to send these horses 
as gifts to the ruler of India. The Bayati mode 
(makdm) found in classical Turkish and Persian 
music has its origin in the songs of this tribe. It 
seems likely that these Bayats went to Iran from 
Syria with the Ak-Koyunlu conquest. Some of the 
Bayat clans in Iran live in Khurasan and these are 
called, to distinguish them from the rest, Kara 
Bayats. One of the clans of the famous Kadjar 
tribe was of the Sham Bayat. In fact, as shown by 
names of its clans, the Kadjar tribe has its origin in 
Turkey. Some Bayat are also found in 'Irak, parti- 
cularly around Kirkuk. The castle called Bayat 
south of Baghdad quite probably takes its name 
from them. This tribe produced a number of famous 
men; Korkut Ata (Dede Korkut), and Fuzuli 
(Fudflli) were of this tribe. Hasan b. Mahmiid Bayati, 
author of Djdm-i Djem Ayin, a work dedicated to 
the Ottoman Prince Diem is, as indicated by his 
nisba, of the Bayat tribe. 



Bibliography: Faruk Sumer, Bayatlar, in 
Turk Dili ve Edebiyatt Dergisi, Istanbul 1952, 
i v '/4, 373-398. (Faruk SOmer) 

BAYAZlD (Dogu-Bayazit), a small town 
belonging to the Turkish Republic and situated a 
little to the south of Mount Ararat (Aghri-Dagh), 
close to the frontier with Iran. It has been suggested 
that the town was named after the Ottoman Sultan 
Bayazld I (791-805/1389-1403), who, according to 
this view, fortified the site as a post of observation 
against Timur Beg. A more recent interpretation 
is that the name derives in fact from a prince of the 
Pjalayirid dynasty, i.e., from Bayazld, the brother 
of Sultan Ahmed (784-813/1382-1410). The Ottomans 
captured the town in 920/1514, but did not obtain 
definitive control over the region until after the 
Persian campaigns of Sultan Sulayman in 940-942/ 
I533-I536, 955-956/1548-1549 and 960-962/1553-1555. 
Bayazid and its adjacent territories formed, under 
Ottoman rule, a sand^ak which was dependent at 
times on the eydlet of Van, but more often on the 
eydlet of Erzurum. The Russians, in the course of 
their wars with the Ottoman Turks, occupied the 
town in 1828, 1854, 1877 and again in 1914. Bayazld, 
now included in the Turkish province of Aghri, (Agri) 
had in 1935 a population estimated at i860 in- 
habitants, the comparable figure for the entire kadd? 
amounting to just over 20,000 people, most of whom 
are of Turkish or Kurdish descent. Sheep and cattle 
rearing, the production of wool, hides and leather 
and the weaving of carpets constitute the main 
economic activities of the area. 

Bibliography: HadjdjI Khalifa, Djihannumd, 
Istanbul 1145/1732, 417 f.; Ewliya Celebl, Seydhat- 
ndme, iv, Istanbul A.H. 1314, 177; Sami Bey, 
Kdmiis al-AHdm, Istanbul 1889-1898, ii, 1234; 
'All Djawad, Ta'rihh ve Djpghrafiya Lughati, Pt. I, 
Istanbul A.H. 1313, 153; V. Cuinet, La Turquie 
d'Asie, i, Paris 1890, 227-233; W. E. D. Allen and 
P. Muratoff, Caucasian Battlefields, Cambridge 
!953. 565 (Index); I A, s.v. Bayezid (Besim 
Darkot). The Western travel literature of more 
modern times contains references here and there 
to the town and district of Bayazld: cf., as a 
general guide, the bibliographical indications 
listed in EI*, s.vv. ArmIniya and Erzurum. 

(V. J. Parry) 
BAYAZlD, (BayezId) I, called Ylldlrlm, "the 
Thunderbolt", Ottoman sultan (regn. 19 Dju- 
mada II 791-13 Sha'ban 805/15 June 1389-8 March 
1403), born in 755/1354 of Murad I and Giil-cicek 
Khatun. In about 783/1381 he was appointed 
governor of the province which was taken from the 
Germiyanids in guise of a dowry from his wife, 
Sultan Khatun. Settled in Kiitahya, he became 
responsible for the Ottoman interests in the East. 
He distinguished himself as an impetuous soldier 
(hence his surname) in the battle of Efrenk-yazlsl 
against the Karamanids (Karaman-oghlu) in 788/ 
1386. The assumption that he also became the first 
governor of Amasya (Kemal Pasha-zade) stems 
from the fact that some territory to the west of it 
came under the Ottomans when they supported 
Suleyman of the Djandar dynasty in Kastamonu 
(KastamunI) against his father 786/790-1384-1388) 
and Aljmed, the Amir of Amasya, who accepted 
Ottoman protection against Kadi Burhan al-Din 
(Bazm u Razm, 302, 308). 

When, in the battle of Kossovo plain (15 June 
1389), Murad I was mortally wounded, he asked his 
pashas to recognise Bayezid, his eldest and dis- 
tinguished son, as sultan (Diisturname, 87; Anony- 



mous Tawdrikh, 27) which they did, and his only 
surviving brother (the others, called SavdjI and 
Ibrahim, were already dead) was immediately put 
to death to prevent a civil war. Lazar, the Serbian 
prince, was also executed on the field. 

The new sultan left hurriedly (Stanojevid, 417) for 
Bursa, his capital, because the vassal princes in 
Anatolia had risen up in revolt. Karaman-oghlu 'Ala' 
al-DIn 'All, their leader, taking Beyshehri, advanced 
as far as Eskishehir, Germiyan-oghlu Ya'kub II 
recovered his patrimony and Kadi Burhan al-DIn 
captured KIr-shehri (Basm u Razm, 387). Bayezid 
reached an agreement with the Serbs who promised 
him Lazar"s daughter Olivera (Despina) as his wife 
and an auxiliary force under Stefan Lazarevid. 
Constantly under Hungarian pressure, Stefan 
remained faithful to Bayezid and accompanied him 
in his expeditions. But Vuk Brankovic in Upper 
Serbia (Prishtina, Skoplje etc.) resisted the Ottomans 
who tried to take possession of the mining towns in 
his territory. Pasha-yigit continued the operations 
against him and later took Skoplje (Uskiib, 793/139') 
and settled it as a Turkish base for his raids into 
Bosnia and Albania. 

Bayezid spent the winter of 792/1389-1390 in 
taking Philadelphia (Alashehir) and annexing the 
Turkish principalities in Western Anatolia, namely 
Aydln, Sarukhan, Menteshe, Hamid and Germiyan. 
Suleyman the Djandarid and Manuel Palaeologus 
were with him during this expedition. In Djumada II 
792/May 1390 he was in Karahisar (Afyon), prepar- 
ing to march against Karaman-oghlu. He recaptured 
Beyshehri and laid siege to Konya. At this time 
Suleyman, back in Kastaraonu, formed an alliance 
with Kadi Burhan al-DIn against Bayezid to help 
Karaman-oghlu. Apparently this threat made 
Bayezid give up the siege of Konya and sign a treaty 
with Karaman-oghlu in which he abandoned the whole 
region west of the Carshanba river. The following 
year (793/1391) Bayezid attacked Suleyman, but 
Burhan al-DIn defied him in support of his ally. 
In the spring of 793/1392 Bayezid made great 
preparations against Suleyman. A Venetian report 
of 12 Djumada I, 794/6 April 1392 stated that as a 
vassal of Bayezid, Manuel Palaeologus was about to 
take part in the naval expedition against Sinop 
(Silberschmidt, 77). This expedition ended with the 
annexation of Siileyman's territory (except Sinope) 
and his death. Then, in spite of Burhan al-DIn's 
protests and threats, Bayezid occupied Osmandjtk. 
But Burhan al-DIn finally attacked Bayezid near 
Corumlu (Corum) and forced him to retreat. Burhan 
al-DIn's raiders reached as far as Ankara and Sivri- 
hisar. Besieged by Burhan al-DIn's forces the Amir 
of Amasya handed over the castle to the Ottomans 
(794/1392). Next year Bayezid came and entered 
the city. Local dynasties such as Tadj al-DIn- 
oghullarl (in Carshanba valley), Tashan-oghullarl 
(Merzifon region) and the lord of Bafra recognised 
Bayezid as their suzerain. Burhan al-DIn harassed 
the Ottoman army on his way back (Bazm u Razm, 
418-20). 

Bayezid then found things more pressing in the 
west. After the victory at Kossovo he had increased 
his control on Byzantium. His support first secured 
the throne to John VII (27 Rabl c II 792/14 April 
1390) and then to John V and his son and co- 
emperor Manuel (16 Shawwal 793/17 September 1391) 
who had showed his faithfulness to the sultan by 
accompanying him in his expeditions in Anatolia 
(Fr. Ddlger, Johannes VII, 27-8). When Anatolian 
affairs kept Bayezid busy in the east, his Udi-beyis 



[q.v.] by their raids held enemies under restraint on 
the western borders: Pasha-yigit submitted Vuk; 
Evrenuz (Ewrenos) [q.v.] conquered Kitros (Citroz) 
and Vodena and advanced into Thessaly; FIruz Beg 
raided in Wallachia, and Shahln was active in 
Albania. But Mircea eel Batran managed to take 
Silistre back and attacked with success, against the 
aklndils in Karln-ovasI (Kamobat) when Bayezid 
was in Anatolia. Venetian activities in Morea, 
Albania and in Byzantium on the one hand, and 
Hungarian attempts in extending influence in 
Wallachia and the Danubian Bulgaria on the other 
made Bayezid decide to concentrate his efforts in 
the Balkans. He first occupied Trnovo (7 Ramadan 
795/i7 July 1393) which had been under Ottoman 
control since 790/1388 and Czar Shishman had to 
move to Nicopolis as an Ottoman vassal. In the 
winter of 796/1393-94 Bayezid summoned all of the 
Balkan princes and the Palaeologi to Serres and 
there attempted to strengthen their ties of vassaldom. 
In particular he wanted Theodore Palaeologus to 
hand over his main cities in the Morea against 
Venice. In despair, the Palaeologi, Theodore and 
Manuel turned against Bayezid and sought help in 
the West, especially in Venice. It seems that Bayezid 
then reconquered Thessalonica (Neshri, 88, gives the 
date as 19 Djumada II 796/21 April 1 394 ; the city 
was taken once in 789/1387 and lost probably in 791/ 
1389). Bayezid also conquered Thessaly, the county of 
Salone, Neopatrai; Evrenuz entered Morea, but 
Theodore had given Argos to the Venetians (27 May 
1394) (J. Loenertz in REB, i, 171-85). Another Otto- 
man division put southern Albania under direct Otto- 
man rule and Shahln exerted pressure on the Venetian 
possessions on the Albanian coasts [see arn awutluu]. 
Bayezid also started the blockade of Constantinople 
(796/Spring 1394) which lasted for seven years. In 
797/1395 he invaded Hungary, and on his way 
attacked the castles of Slankamen, Titel, Becskerek, 
Temeshvar, Carashova, Caransebesh, Mehedia (see 
Actes du X. Congris Int. d'Et. Byz., 220). Defeating 
Mircea on the Argesh river in Wallachia (26 Radjab 
797/17 May 1395) he then put Vlad on the Wallachian 
throne. Bayezid then passed over the Danube to 
Nicopolis and seized and executed Shishman (13 
Sha'ban 797/3 June 1395). 

These bold conquests caused Hungary and Venice 
to conclude at last an alliance (796/1394) and to 
form a crusade in Europe against the Ottomans. 
When in 799/1396 Bayezid was making a major 
effort to take Constantinople the Crusaders under 
Sigismund came to lay siege to Nicopolis. Hurrying 
there, Bayezid inflicted a crushing defeat upon them 
(21 Dhu '1-Hidjdja 798/25 September 1396) and took 
Vidin from Stratsimir, the last independent Bulgarian 
prince. Now the fate of the Balkans and Constan- 
tinople were in Bayezid' s hands. In the imperial capi- 
tal Manuel had to agree to Bayezid's settling there a 
Turkish colony with a b&fi. Evrenuz took Argos and 
Athens (799/1397). Then the sultan went back to 
Anatolia because of the hostile movements of 
Karaman-oghlu during the crisis of Nicopolis. He 
defeated and executed Karaman-oghlu at Akiay and 
incorporated his territory with Konya (800/Autumn 
'397). The following year he incorporated also the 
region of Djanik and the territory of Burhan al-DIn 
[q.v.] and disregarding his alliance with Egypt against 
TImur (Tamerlane) [q.v.] conquered Albistan, Mala- 
ga, Behisni, Kahta and Divrigi. 

Marshal Boucicaut's attack on the Turkish coasts 
and the small force he brought to Constantinople were 
not enough to relieve the city (800/Summer 1399),. 



BAYAZlD I — BAYAZlD II 



so Manuel II went to Europe to ask more help 
(10 Rabl c II 802/10 December 1399). In the Autumn 
of 1399 Tlmur once more appeared in eastern 
Anatolia, and hopes were high in the West as they 
were during his first invasion of eastern Asia Minor 
in 796/1394. From 801/1399 on Tlmur claimed 
suzerainty over all the rulers in Anatolia as the 
representative of the Djengizkhanids whereas 
Bayezid claimed to be the heir of the Saldjuks there. 
Timflr hesitated before attacking the sultan of the 
ghazis. Timur gave refuge to the Anatolian rulers 
expelled by Bayezld who, in his turn, protected 
Kara Yiisuf and Aljmad Djala'ir. This exasperated 
Tlmur. He took and sacked Sivas (802/August 1400), 
to which Bayezld retaliated by capturing the Amir 
of Erzindjan, a protege of Tlmur named Mutahharten 
(803/1401). Finally Tlmur and Bayezld came to 
grips at Cubuk-ovasl near Ankara (27 Dhu '1-Hidjdja 
804/28 July 1402). Defeated and taken prisoner by 
Timur, Bayezld died in captivity at Akshehir 
(13 Sha'ban 805/8 March 1403) Bayezid's hastily 
founded empire collapsed. The Anatolian princes, 
who all regained their respective territories (804/ 
1402), as well as the Ottoman princes, who divided 
the rest of the country among themselves, recognised 
Tlmur as their suzerain. It was not until Mehemmed 
II that the Ottomans again assumed the offensive 
in East. 

Bayezld was responsible for the foundation of the 
first centralised Ottoman empire based upon the Kul 
system and the traditional administrative methods 
perfected under Muslim-Turkish states in the Middle 
East. Popular tradition criticised him as an innovator 
in finances, administration and manners. 

Bibliography: For the Ottoman chroniclers 
(AhmadI, Shukr Allah, Urudj, Enveri, c Ashik 
Pasha-zade, Ruhi, Neshri, Anonymous Tawarikh, 
Hasht Bihisht, Kemal Pashazade) see Fr. Babinger, 
GOW; Ibn Hadjar al-'Askalani, Inbd* al-ghumr, 
excerpts in AVDTC FakulUsi Dergisi, vol. vi, 
no. 3-5 ; Tarihi Takvimler, ed. O. Turan, Ankara 
1954; 'Aziz Astarabadi, Balm u Razm (ed. F. 
Kdpriilu) Istanbul 1928; J. Schiltberger, The 
Bondage and Travels, trans. Telfer, London 1879; 
S. Stanojevi<5, Die Biographie Stefan Lasarevic's 
von Konstantin, Archiv f. Slav. Phil., xviii, 409-28; 
P. Wittek, Das Fiirstentum MenUsche, Istanbul. 
1934; M. Silberschmidt, Das orientalische Problem 

Leipzig-Berlin 1923 ; F. Dolger, Johannes 

VII, BZ, i, 21-36; R. J. Loenertz, Pour I'histoire 
du Peloponese au XIV silcle, in REB, i, 152-196; 
A. S. Atiya, The Crusade of Nicopolis, London 
1938; M. M. Alexandrescu-Dersca, La campagne 
de Timur en Anaiclie, Bucharest 1942; M. Halil 
Yinanc in IA (s.v.). (Hm.il Inalcik) 

BAYAZlD II, Ottoman Sultan (886-918/1481- 
1512), was born most probably in Shawwal or Dh u 
'1-Ka c da 851/December 1447 or January 1448 (some 
sources give the date of his birth, however, as 856 
or 857/1452 or 1453). During the lifetime of his 
father, Mehemmed II, he was governor of the 
province of Amasya and served in the war against 
Uzun Hasan, the leader of the Ak Koyunlu Turco- 
mans, being present at the battle of Otluk Bell in 
878/1473. On the death of Mehemmed II in 886/1481 
a conflict for the throne broke out between Bayazid 
and his younger brother Djem, then governor of 
Karaman, with his residence at Konya. The support 
of the Janissaries and of a powerful faction amongst 
the great officials at the Porte ensured the accession 
of Bayazid to the throne. Djem, defeated in battle 
near Yeni-Shehir in Rabi< II 886/June 148), with- 



1119 

drew to Syria and thence to Egypt. He now gathered 
together new forces with the assent of the Mamluk 
Sultan Ka'it Bay, but, after a fruitless campaign 
directed against Konya and Ankara, despaired of 
success and sought refuge at Rhodes (Djumada II 
887/July 1482) with the Knights of St. John, who 
removed him to France in September of the same 
year. Henceforward, until the death of the unfortu- 
nate prince in February 1495, the Ottomans had 
to face the constant threat that a coalition of 
Christian states, using Djem as their instrument, 
might invade the empire. As long as Djem was 
alive, Bayazid could not take the risk of committing 
his forces irretrievably to a major enterprise, either 
in the East or in the West. 

Herzegovina was brought fully under Ottoman 
control in 888/1483. The fortresses of Kilia on the 
Danube estuary and of Ak-Kerman at the mouth 
of the Dniester fell to Bayazid in the course of his 
Moldavian campaign during the summer of 889/ 
1484 — a success of considerable importance in that 
it strengthened the Ottoman hold over the land 
route to the Crimea, where the Tatar Khan ruled 
as a vassal of the Sultan. A less fortunate issue of 
events awaited the Ottomans in their war of 890-896/ 
1485-1491 against the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria, 
fought to determine which of the rival states should 
exert political dominance over Cilicia and the 
adjacent march-lands along the Taurus frontier. 
The Ottomans met with a number of reverses in 
the field, above all at the battle of Agha Cayrl near 
Adana in Ramadan 893/August 1488. A peace was 
made in 896/1491 which marked in fact the failure 
of the Ottomans to win effective control in Cilicia. 
None the less, it should be noted that, with Djem 
still alive and a captive in Christian hands, Bayazid 
had not been free to use his full resources in this 
war and had chosen therefore to wage a conflict 
limited in its objectives. Moreover, the situation on 
the Taurus frontier in 896/1491 was in no wise more 
favourable to the Mamluks, despite their victories, 
than it had been six years before. 

The ceaseless warfare of Muslim ghdzi against 
Christian marcher lord along the Danube and the 
frontiers of Bosnia flared out with great violence in 
897-900/1492-1495. The Ottoman warriors launched 
massive raids across the Danube and the Sava and 
into the Austrian duchies of Styria, Carniola and 
Carinthia, suffering defeat near Villach in 897/1492, 
but on the other hand almost annihilating the 
Croat forces at Adbina in 898/1493. A truce con- 
cluded for three years with the Hungarians brought 
these hostilities to an end in 900/1495. Conflict 
now arose between the Ottoman empire and Poland. 
The Ottomans and the Krim Tatars formed, as it 
were, a barrier which denied to the Poles access to 
the Black Sea. Poland began in 902/1497 a campaign 
designed to break down this barrier through the 
capture of Kilia and Ak-Kerman and through the 
reduction of Moldavia to a state of dependence on 
Poland. The Moldavian forces, however, with the 
aid of the Ottoman begs along the lower Danube, 
offered a successful resistance, the Poles being 
repulsed before the fortress of Suceava and, in the 
course of their subsequent retreat, beaten at Kozmin 
in the Bukovina (October 1497). Ottoman ghdiis 
from the Danube lands, with reinforcements of 
Moldavian and Tatar horsemen, now laid waste 
much of Podolia and Galicia in the summer of 1498, 
but a second raid directed against Galicia in the late 
autumn of the same year ended in disaster amid 
bitter snowstorms on the Carpathian mountains. 



BAYAZlD II 



Poland, however, made peace with Moldavia in 
April 1499, this agreement being soon followed by 
a renewal of the former truce between the Ottomans 
and the Poles. 

After the reverses experienced in the war against 
the Mamluks, Bayazid sought to provide his troops 
with arms more efficient and of greater offensive 
power than the weapons hitherto available, and also 
to create a more mobile and more competently 
manned artillery force. At the same time efforts were 
made to increase the size and strength of the Ottoman 
fleet, numerous vessels of war being built in the 
ports of the Aegean and the Adriatic. A new war was 
indeed imminent, which would test the worth of 
these armaments and of the much augmented naval 
forces of the Sultan. Friction along the borders of 
the Venetian enclaves on the coasts of the Morea, 
Albania and Dalmatia, where the Ottoman ghdzis 
faced the Greek, Cretan and Albanian mercenaries 
in the service of the Signoria, and also the repeated 
occurrence of "incidents" at sea, induced Bayazid 
to make war on Venice in 904/1499, a decision 
influenced by the fact that, since the death of 
Djem in 1495, some of the high dignitaries at the 
Porte had been urging the Sultan to pursue a more 
aggressive policy towards the Christians. Lepanto, 
lacking all hope of relief from the sea, because the 
Venetian fleet had been driven to take refuge under 
the guns of Zante, fell to the Ottomans in Muharram 
905/August 1499. Meanwhile, the frontier warriors 
of Bosnia carried out a great incursion into the 
Friuli and then, reinforced after the capture of 
Lepanto, ravaged the Venetian lands as far as 
Vicenza. Modon, Coron and Navarino in the Morea 
yielded to the Ottomans in 906/1500, and also 
Durazzo on the Adriatic coast in 907/1501. Venice, 
finding the conflict too expensive, sought peace in 
908/1502 and in the final agreement concluded in 
909/1503 renounced all claim to Lepanto, Modon, 
Coron, Navarino and Durazzo. Bayazid could feel 
well satisfied with the outcome of this war, which 
had brought solid territorial gains in the Morea and 
on the Adriatic shore and, more notable still, had 
underlined the fact that the Ottomans were be- 
coming a formidable power at sea. 

The years 909-918/1503-1512 witnessed the growth 
of a major crisis in the East. Isma'll, the head of the 
religious order known as the Safawiyya, had begun 
in 904-905/1499 a career of conquest which soon 
made him the master of Persia. The Safawiyya had 
long conducted, on behalf of the Shll faith, a vigorous 
propaganda amongst the Turcoman tribes of Asia 
Minor — a propaganda so successful that the armies 
of the new regime in Persia consisted to a large 
degree of warriors drawn from these tribes. As 
orthodox or Sunni Muslims, the Ottomans had 
reason to view with alarm the progress of Shi'I ideas 
in the territories under their control, but there was 
also a grave political danger that the Safawiyya, if 
allowed to extend its influence still further, might 
bring about the transfer of large areas in Asia Minor 
from Ottoman to Persian allegiance. An additional 
threat arose from the fact that Shi'I beliefs flourished 
in those regions along the Taurus frontier which were 
in dispute between the Ottomans and the Mamluks. 
Ottoman intervention here against the adherents of 
the Safawiyya might well drive the Mamluks, 
despite their profession of the Sunni faith, into an 
alliance with the new Shi'I state in Persia. 

Bayazid, aware of the danger, ordered in 907-908/ 
1502 the deportation of numerous Shi'I elements 
from Asia Minor to his recent conquests in the 



Morea. He also garrisoned his eastern frontier in 
force, when in 913/1507-1508 Shah Isma'll, then at 
war with 'Ala al-Dawla, the prince of Albistan, 
occupied Diyar-Bakr and large areas of Kurdistan. 
How critical the situation had become was made 
clear on the outbreak, in 917/1511, of a great Shi'I 
revolt in Tekke, a region of Asia Minor long noted 
as a centre of heterodox religious ideas. The rebels, 
after plundering Kutahya, advanced on Brusa, but 
then, retiring in the face of superior forces, suffered 
a total defeat between Kayseri and Sivas in the 
summer of 917/1511 — a conflict in which both the 
Ottoman Grand Vizier C A1I Pasha and the rebel 
chieftain, Shah Kuli, were slain. 

Meanwhile, the Ottoman empire had come to the 
verge of civil war. The practice that a new Sultan, 
on his accession to the throne, should order the death 
of all his brothers and their male children imposed 
on the sons of an ageing Sultan a dire pressure to 
prepare for armed conflict on, or even before, the 
death of their father. There had been war between 
Bayazid and Djem in 886-887/1481-1482; now, the 
issue was to rest between Ahmed, who was governor 
of Amasya, and Selim, who had charge of the remote 
province of Trebizond (Korkud, the eldest of the 
three surviving sons of Bayazid, enjoyed little favour 
at the Porte and had but a minor r61e in the events 
which now occurred). Selim, in 916/1511, sailed 
from Trebizond to Kaffa in the Crimea and, having 
won the support of the Tatar Khan, moved with his 
forces across the Danube, demanding of his father 
the government of a province in the Balkans. 
Bayazid, reluctant to make war on his own son and 
worried about the revolt of Shah Kuli in Asia Minor, 
yielded to the wishes of Selim and, in a formal 
agreement, conferred on him the great frontier 
province of Semendria. The news that the Grand 
Vizier c Ali Pasha, who favoured the cause of Ahmed, 
had been sent with a strong contingent of Janissaries 
to crush the Shi'I rebellion aroused in Selim the 
fear that, if Shah Kuli should be defeated, 'All 
Pasha might make a bold effort to raise Ahmed to 
the throne. Selim now marched on Adrianople, 
where his father was in residence. Bayazid withdrew 
in the direction of Istanbul, but then stood firm at 
Ughrash-deresi near Corlu. The Janissaries, although 
well disposed towards Selim, remained loyal to the 
old Sultan. Here, on 8 Djumada I 917/3 August 151 1, 
their skill and discipline routed the Tatar horsemen 
of Selim, the prince himself fleeing from the battle- 
field to seek refuge in the Crimea. 

Ahmed, after the defeat of Shah Kuli, advanced 
towards Istanbul, hoping to cross the Straits and 
ensure his own accession to the throne. Disturbances 
amongst the Janissaries at the capital in Djumada I 
917/August 15 1 1 overawed the adherents of Ahmed 
at the Porte. Ahmed, realising that the Janissaries 
had thus declared their support for Selim and their 
intention not to accept himself as Sultan, now used 
armed force to bring much of western Asia Minor 
under his control — a course of action which 
amounted to open rebellion against his father. The 
result was that Bayazid consented to recall Selim 
from Kaffa and to restore to him the province of 
Semendria. There was, however, a growing fear at 
the Porte that Ahmed would make an alliance with 
the Shi'I regime in Persia. This fear, together with 
the demand of the Janissaries that Selim should lead 
them in the now inevitable campaign against Ahmed, 
hastened the issue of events. Bayazid was compelled 
to abdicate in favour of Selim in Safer 918/April 1512. 
The old Sultan had chosen to retire to the town of 



BAYAZlD II — BAYAZlD ANSARl 



his birth, Demotika, but, while travelling to this 
destination, died on 10 Rabl c I 918/26 May 1512. 
Bibliography: To be consulted are (i) the 
Ottoman chronicles, e.g., Die altosmanischen 
anonymen Chroniken, ed. F. Giese, Breslau 1922 
(cf. also Abh.K.M., XVII, no. 1, Leipzig 1925); 
c Ashikpashazade, Ta'rtkh, ed. F. Giese, Leipzig 
1929; Neshrl, DJihdn-niimd, edd. R. Unat and 
M. A. Koymen, Ankara 1949 and ed. F. Taeschner, 
Bde. iii, Leipzig 1951, 1955; Idris BitlisI (Hesht 
Bihisht); Ibn Kemal (i.e., Kemalpashazade), 
Tevdrih-i Al-i Osman, vii. Defter, ed. Serafettin 
Turan, Ankara 1954 (Transkripsiyon, ed. Serafettin 
Turan, Ankara 1957: cf. ibid., xxii, and index s.v. 
Bayezid) ; c Ali (Kunh at- A khbdr) ; Sa c d al-DIn, Tddj, 
al-Tawdrikh, Istanbul 1279-1280. Cf. in general, on 
the Ottoman historians who have described the 
reign of Bayazid II, F. Babinger, Die Geschichts- 
schreiber der Osmanen und ihre Werke, Leipzig 
1927. (ii) the Western sources of the I5th-i6th 
centuries, e.g., Donado da Lezze, Historia 
Turchesca (1300-1514), ed. I. Ursu, Bucharest 
1909; G. A. Menavino, / Cinque Libri delta Legge, 
Religione, et Vita de' Turchi, Venice 1548, Florence 
1551; P. Giovio, Historiarum Sui Teniporis Libri 
xlv, Florence 1550-1552, Paris 1558-1560; T. 
Spandugino, Petit Traicti de t'Origine des Turcqz, 
ed. C. Schefcr, Paris 1896 (cf. also C. Sathas, 
Documents Inidits Relatifs a VHistoire de la Grece 
au Moyen Age, vol. ix, Paris 1890); J. Leun- 
clavius, Annates Sultanorum Othmanidarum, 
Frankfurt am Main 1588, 1596 and Historiae 
Musulmanae Turcorum, Frankfurt am Main 1591; 

E. Alberi, Le Relazioni degli Ambasciatori Veneti 
al Senato, ser. 3, iii, Florence 1855: Relazione de 
Andrea Gritti (1503); M. Sanuto, / Diarii, edd. 
Barozzi, Berchet, Fulin, Stefani, Venice 1879-1903. 
Bf. also T. 0. ZflPAS, XPO NIKON IIEPI 
TiiNTOTPKnN SOTATANfiN(KaT&T6v 
(3ap(3epiv6v £».T]vtx6v KcoSixa iii), Athens 1958, 
123-140. (iii) the standard modern histories of the 
Ottoman empire: Hammer-Purgstall, ii, Pest 1828, 
250-375; J- W. Zinkeisen, ii, Gotha 1854, 473-566; 
N. Iorga, ii, Gotha 1909, 231-314; I. H. Uzun- 
carjih, Osmanh Tarihi, ii, Ankara 1949, 155-242. 
Documents dating from the reign of Bayazid II 
will be found in F. Kraelitz, Osmanische Urkunden 
in turkischer Sprache aus der zweiten Halfte des 
15. Jahrhunderts, SBAk. Wien, Phil.-Hist. Kl., 
Bd. 197, Abh. 3, Vienna 1921 ; P. Lemerle and P. 
Wittek, Recherches sur t'histoire et le statut des 
monasteres athonites sous la domination turque, 
in Archives d'Histoire du Droit Oriental, iii, 
Wetteren 1948, 420-432: G. Elezovic, Turski Spo- 
menici (Srpska Akademija 1st Ser., vol. i), i/i, 
Belgrade 1940, 187-555 (Nos. 56-151), and 1/2, 
Belgrade 1952, 58-108. (cf. also A. Bombaci, 
II "Liber Graecus", un cartolario veneziano com- 
prendente inediti documenti ottomanni in greco 
(1481-1504), in WestBstliche Abhandlungen, ed. 

F. Meier, Wiesbaden 1954, 288-303). Further 
information is available in H. A. von Burski, 
Kemal Re'is: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der 
tiirkischen Flotte, Bonn 1928; V. Corovic, Der 
Friedensvertrag zwischen dem Sultan Bayazid II 
und dem Kbnig Ladislaus II, in ZDMG., XC 
(= Neue Folge, XV: Leipzig 1936), 52-59; S. N. 
Fisher, Civil Strife in the Ottoman Empire 1481- 
1503, in The Journal of Modern History, xiii, 
Chicago 1941, 448-466, and also The Foreign 
Relations of Turkey 1481-1512 (Illinois Studies in 
the Social Sciences, vol. xxx, no. 1), Urbana, 

Encyclopaedia of Islam 



Illinois 1948; G. Vajda, Un Bulletin de Victoire de 
Bajazet II, in J A, ccxxxvi, Paris 1948, 87-102; 
F. Babinger, Vier Bauvorschldge Leonardo da 
Vinci's an Sultan Bajezid II (1502-1503), in 
Nachr. Akad. Wiss. Gbttingen, Phil.-Hist. Kl. 1952, 
1-20, and also Zwei diplomatische Zwischenspiele 
im deutsch-osmanischen Staatsverkehr unter Bajezid 
II (1497 und 1504), in WestOstlkhe Abhandlungen, 
ed. F. Meier, Wiesbaden 1954, 315-330; The New 
Cambridge Modem History, i (The Renaissance, 
1493-1520), Cambridge 1957, chapt. xiv, 395-410; 
O. Gorka, Nieznany Zywot Bajezida II . . . ( Une 
biographic inconnue de Bayezid II comme source 
historique pour V expedition vers la Mer Noire et 
pour Us invasions turques aux temps de Jean 
Albert), in KwartalnikHistoryczny, lii/3,Lw6w 1938, 
375-427; Tayyib Gokbilgin, Korvin Mathias (Md- 
tyds)m Bayezid II, e Mektuplart Tercumeleri ve 
1503(909) Osmanh-Macar Muahedesinin Tiirkce 
Metni, in Belleten, xxii, Ankara 1958, 359-391. Cf. 
also I A., s.v. Bayezid II (I. H. Uzuncarjih) and, 
in addition, the bibliographies listed in £/ 8 ., s.vv. 
Diem and SelIm I (until 1512). (V. J. Parry) 
BAYAZlD (or BazId as engraved on his seal, 
Tadhkirat al-Abrdr f. 88a) AN$ARl "PIr-i Raw- 
shan (or Rawshan)" b. c Abd Allah IJApI b. Shaykh 
Muhammad, the founder of a religious and national 
movement of the Afghans (called PIr-Tarik by the 
Mughal historians etc., after HadjdjI Mulla Muham- 
mad, commonly known as Mulla Zangi, a teacher of 
the Pit's chief opponent Akhund Darwiza, who was 
the first to dub him thus (Tadhkira f. 92). He claimed 
descent through Sh. Siradj al-DIn (his fifth ancestor) 
from (Abu) Ayyub al-Ansari, the famous Companion 
of the Prophet, (his 21st ancestor). His mother 
Aymana (varr. Bih-bln, BIban, Ma'dthir al-Umard', 
ii, 243), the second cousin of his father, was a daughter 
of al-Hadjdj Aba Bakr of Jallandhar, in which city 
Bayazid was born c. 931/1525, i.e., a year before 
Babur had founded his Empire in India. His father 
left for Kanlguram (Wazlristan), his home-town, 
before the child had completed his forty days. 
Alarmed by the establishment of the Mughal 
supremacy, the people of Bayazid fled (c. 936/1529) 
to Bihar and thence went with a caravan to Kanri- 
guram. c Abd Allah, who had another wife (and 
several children by her), now developed an aversion 
for Aymana and divorced her. Bayazid, then about 
seven, found his subsequent home life extremely 
unhappy and gradually he developed a life-long 
estrangement from his parents and step-brother. 
His early schooling was interrupted as he was called 
upon to attend to home affairs and trade, but he 
turned to his studies whenever possible, though 
always confining himself only to what related to 
the questions of divine worship. He applied himself 
diligently to acquiring a detailed knowledge of, and 
a punctilious performance of, devotional exercises 
and other religious duties. But he felt himself 
baulked in every direction, for his father would not 
let him perform the hadidi or go elsewhere for further 
studies, or allow him to become a disciple of a Pir. 
When he was nearing sixteen, his father took him 
along on one of his trade journeys. Later, Bayazid 
made several more. On these he must have met 
(as in Tadhkira, f. 82b) the Mulhid (Isma'UI) 
Sulayman, whose influence can be seen, among 
other thirgs, in the excessive emphasis on the 
doctrine of the Pir-i Kdtnil ("perfect spiritual 
director"), the frequent use of ta'wil, for example in 
dealing with the "five pillars of the faith" (arkdn-i 
khamsa), ghusl etc., in certain HurufI doctrines 



BAYAZlD ANSARl 



(see Ifdl, 216 ff., 91 ff., 257)- The Tadhkira refers 
alto to Bayazld's association with Yogis, from whom 
he learnt the doctrines of transmigration of souls and 
of divine incarnation {avatar). This is not expressly 
mentioned in the Ifdl-ndma, but if, as some Ansaris 
of Jalandhar believe, he is identical with 'Vadjld' 
who compiled Shloks (see Onkar NSth, Vadiid dfr dt 
shlok, Lahore n.d.) he shows considerable knowledge 
of popular Hindu lore, and some verses of the 
editor of the Ifdl, 502 f., may indeed have been 
inspired by the shloks directly or through the Khayr 
al-Baydn. 

Side by side with the above activities he discovered 
that he himself was PIr-i Kamil, seeing dreams, in 
one of which he met Khidr and drank from him the 
water of life [Vol, 54), the occasion being celebrated 
by his followers later by fasting on the day. He also 
heard voices from the unknown and received inspira- 
tion from God and passed, step by step, through the 
eight grades of spiritual elevation (see rawshaniyya). 
He engaged himself in dhikr-i kha/i (invoking the 
divine name mentally), and in due course, also "the 
Greatest name of God" (ism-i a'zam). When he 
entered upon his forty-first year he heard a voice 
saying that henceforth he should no more perform 
the legal ablutions, and instead of the prayers of 
the faithful, he should say those of the prophets 
(Ifdl, 94). He now regarded all others as polytheists 
or hypocrites, and observed quadragesimal fasts 
(HUa). 

The time had now come to preach to others. He 
was going with a caravan to India, but he returned 
home from Kandahar, had an underground cell 
constructed, in which he made his wife and a few 
others observe lillas, to begin with. Later, he received 
orders to preach openly. On the basis of dreams of 
his own and others, people began to call him "Mian 
Roshan". He met a great deal of local opposition, 
in which his father and his pupils took a prominent 
part. They challenged his right to interpret the 
scriptures etc. in spite of his poor knowledge of 
them, though they admired his exceptional intel- 
ligence and his trenchant logic in debates. Similarly 
they challenged his claim to Mahdlhood and divine 
inspiration, and condemned his calling Muslims 
ka/irs or hypocrites. But he met their challenge 
squarely, though on occasions he became slightly 
conciliatory. His disciples began to increase greatly, 
and he appointed some as khalifas to work farther 
afield. They also clashed, wherever they went, 
with the local PIrs, who aroused public opinion 
against the sect everywhere. 

His teaching: The central doctrine of Bayazid 
could be briefly stated thus (see $ird(, i): Gnosis 
of God ("the Truth") is an imperative duty (tard-i 
'ayn). This gnosis without which obedience (td c a), 
divine worship (Hbada), charities and good works, 
are not acceptable to God, cannot be obtained 
except through a Perfect Spiritual Director (pir-i 
kamil). He is one who is a man of law (shari'a), of 
the Way ((arika), of the Truth (hakika), of the 
gnosis of God (nufrifa), of Nearness (kurba), of 
Union (wasla), of Oneness with God (wahda), of 
Tranquillity (sukuna = sakina of $ird(, no). He is a 
Revealer of the truths of divine secrets, an Embodi- 
ment of takhallaku bi-akUdk Allah, i.e., his spirit 
acquires divine qualities (cf. ibid., 25). Seeking and 
obeying him is incumbent on all. Obeying him is 
obeying the Apostle of God, and therefore obeying 
God. Such a Perfect Director is Bayazid himself, 
who was told this both in dreams and when awake, 
and those who sincerely obey him would be led by 



him through the above stages to tawhU (cf. Sir&t, 
24 f.). 

Special stress was laid on the neophytes' repen- 
tance (tawba), retiring to cells, observing lillas once 
3 year, invoking the divine name in silence, meditat- 
ion, and similar ascetic practices. When they had 
reached the last stage in their "ascent", presumably 
they looked upon themselves as free from the 
obligations imposed by the shari c a (cf. Tadhkira, 88a). 

What Dabistdn, 25 1 (Nazar 2), gives as his doctrines 
are probably his war regulations relating to the 
period in which he was at war with the Mughals 
and other Afghan tribes hostile to him. 

His missionary work outside his home 
town. He began with a village a day's journey from 
Kanlguram, met violent opposition and fled back to 
his home town, where too there were strong reactions 
against him, amounting almost to his ejection from 
the community. But he adopted a conciliatory attitude 
and that saved the situation for a time. A ddH of his 
having prepared the ground among the Dawaris (or 
Dawris) of the Tochi Valley in northern Waziristan, 
he went there, and even performed some miracles. A 
clever agent of his then prepared the ground for him 
farther afield and in due course he appeared among 
the BaDgash, then worked his way up and won over 
the Orakzis, Tirahis and Afridis. Passing on to the 
Saraban land of Peshawar, he converted numerous 
tribesmen of the KhalU, Mohmand, Da'udzls, 
Gagyanis, Yusufzis, Tu'is and Safis. Complaints 
against him having reached Kabul he was hauled 
up by the young governor of the Province, Akbar's 
brother Mirza Muhammad Hakim (b. 961/1554 d. 
990/1583) and Bayazid had to face an inquisition 
conducted by Kadlkhan, the Kadi of Kabul. Bayazid 
gave clever answers and was allowed to return to 
Peshawar. He now resumed his work among the 
Mohmandzis and was so impressed with their 
sincerity and devotion to his cause, that he and 
his sons and a daughter married among them. 
A ddH then converted the Kasls of the Kandahar 
region, especially the Shinwaris and Mohmandzis 
and some Barech and Safis of Kandahar. 

After some years' work among them, the ddH 
appeared among the Sindls and Baloils and made 
Sayyidpur (near Haydarabad-Sind) the centre of 
his activities. The Pir and his agents (who were 
allowed to work only in his name and never in their 
own) had a remarkable initial success everywhere, 
in spite of the violent opposition aroused by the 
rival pirs, c ulamd>, etc., except in Tirah, where 
such rivals do not seem to have existed. At this 
stage, Bayazid sent his missionaries (from Kalla 
Dher in Hashtnagar, Makhzan, f. 154b) to the 
rulers, nobles and 'ulama* of the neighbouring 
countries inviting them to the acceptance of his 
claims. One of them was sent to the Emperor Akbar, 
another to Mirza Sulayman of Badakhshan. Some 
more were sent to India, Balkh and Bukhara. 
Sayyid 'All Tirmidhi, the murshid of the Akhund 
also got one (Tadhkira, f. 91b). 

His war with the Mughals: Some shrewd 
people of the time, seeing his growing power, foresaw 
that Bayazid was about to draw the sword and 
cause bloodshed (Ifal, 423, 426, 437). The immediate 
cause of his warlike exploits is thus narrated in If 61, 
471 ff.: a caravan returning from India, on its way 
to Kabul, halted near a village peopled by an ultra- 
fanatical group of his followers. Infuriated by the 
gross neglect, as they thought, by the caravan 
people of the affairs of the next world, the villagers 
looted and destroyed the property of the caravan, 



BAYAZTD ansArI 






which brought down upon their heads the wrath 
of the authorities in Kabul, and the villagers were 
slaughtered and their children carried into captivity. 
On a written protest from Bayazld, Ma'sum Khan, 
the Governor of Peshawar, was ordered to arrest 
him, but he escaped to a hill in the Yusufzl region 
and, being besieged there, successfully fought his 
way to Khaybar and TIrah. This first battle-ground 
was named by him Aghazpur. The war lasted during 
the remaining 27« years of his life, till his death in 
960/1572-73. The details of it are supplied not by 
the Ifdl-ndma, but by Mulla Darwiza, according to 
to whom B&yazid was finally defeated at Torragha 
by Muhsin Khan GhazI, who had led an expedition 
against him from Djalalabad. The Pir fled on foot 
to the hills, suffered pangs of exhaustion and thirst 
and ultimately died at Kala PanI but was buried in 
Hashtnager (Tadhkira, f. 93b). Some Gudjars were 
found desecrating the tomb at night, so Bayazld's 
son and successor Sh. 'Umar removed the coffin in 
which he was buried and kept it in front of him 
when on the march, until in the confusion of a 
battle (989/1581), it fell into the Indus. It is said to 
have been recovered later and buried in Bhattapur, 
[If til, 483 f., 493-525). This place appears to have 
been three days' journey from Kanlguram (Ifdl, 156). 
His literary and other cultural activ- 
ities. Bayazld wrote an autobiographical-cum-prop- 
aganda work, and many treatises, to explain the tenets 
of the sect he had founded. Out of these treatises only 
two are available. In these his method is to quote 
some Kur'anic verse or verses, then add relevant 
materials from the hadith (of the soundness or other- 
wise of which he shows himself to be no discriminating 
judge) and where possible, supplement them by 
the sayings of holy men. This material is often 
repeated from work to work. Among afradtth he 
includes what he calls dhddith-i kudsi, some of 
which had been addressed to himself (e.g., see Ifdl, 
87, 160). He also gives what voices from heaven 
said to him in Arabic or Persian (see, e.g., Ifdl, 88, 
113, 117, 125). His Arabic, from a literary point of 
view, is weak and ungrammatical, even allowing for 
the fact that the MSS. of his works which have 
reached us are late copies. His chief opponent and 
contemporary Mulla Darwiza (Tadhkira, f. 89b) 
found in the Khayr ai-Baydn Arabic words strung 
together "without a sense of proper syntactical 
relationship" (bild idrdk-i tarkib). These works were 
read and explained by him to the members of his 
family (Ifdl, 689) and his other disciples, and the 
Khayr al-Baydn and Maksud al-Mu'minin especially, 
acquired a semi-sacred character for them. He 
claimed that the former work had been revealed to 
him. Hotly pursued, on one occasion, at night, by 
the Yusufzls, his son 'Umar halted his troops and 
waited till the work, which had been forgotten at 
some place on the way, had been retrieved (Ifdl, 
498). The Maksud al-Mu'minin is said to have 
saved the life of another son of Bayazld (Djalal 
al-Din), for, when he was carrying it, it shielded 
him by receiving the sword-cuts and dagger- 
thrusts from his enemies. A darwish heard a voice 
from the unknown asking him to retire to his home 
and devote himself to the study of these two 
books (Ifdl, 390), and so on. Judging from what 
remains of his Afghani prose, it seems that he attempt- 
ed to write in rhymed prose (sad?) following 
Arabic and Persian models, even to the detriment 
of the idiom of Pushto. Because of the nature of the 
subjects dealt with (religion, mysticism, morality), 
he had to use freely the familiar Arabic and Persian 



terminology along with the words of the Yusufzl 
and Kandaharl dialects of Pushto (see Urdu Ency- 
clopaedia of Islam, art. Bayazld Ansaii). The follo- 
wing of his works are traceable: 

1) Khayr al-Baydn, in 40 chapters (baydns) (Ifdl, 
431). Some passages of it, according to the Tadhkira, 
were in Arabic and Persian, some in Afghani and 
Hindi (but cf. Dabistdn 251") though "all the 
sections were inharmonious and incongruous" (nd 
mawzun wa nd muwdfik). The Akhund even asserts 
that part of the work was contributed by Mulla 
Arzanl Khweshgl of Kasur, a khalifa of the Pir. On 
his death-bed, when asked by his disciples for his 
last injunctions, Bayazld directed their attention to 
the Khayr al-Baydn, in which, he said, he had 
recorded unstintingly whatever was revealed to him 
(Ifdl, 483). The work is said to have attempted an 
affirmation of pantheistic belief (wahdat-i wudjud) 
(Ma'dthir al-Umard', ii, 243). No copy of it is known 
to exist except the one (transcribed in 1061/1651, 
ff. 167) which was lent to Sir Denison Ross by some- 
one and is now said to be intraceable. Prof. Morgen- 
stierne (Oslo) published some extracts from it, with 
their English translation, in the Indian Antiquai y. 

2) Maksud al Mu'minin (Arabic). Only two 
copies are known, one with me (with interlinear 
Persian translation), transcribed in 1224/1809, and 
the other in the Asafiyya transcribed 2 years later 
(see Cat. I 390/86, Brockelmann, S II, 991). This 
handbook of the Rawshaniyya doctrine was composed 
by Bayazld at the request of his eldest son c Umar 
(who is occasionally addressed in it as "O! my dear 
son!") for the benefit of the faithful who were to 
read, remember, and act according to it. It has 
21 sections. The first thirteen forming more than 
half of the work, deal with such topics as Admonition, 
Reason, Faith, Fear, Hope, Spirit, Satan, Heart, 
Soul, This World and the Next, Trust in God, and 
Repentance; the last eight deal with the eight 
stages (see above) from shari'a to sakuna. 

3) Sirdf al-Tawhid (Arabic-Persian). This partly 
autobiographical treatise begins with a description 
of the stages of his spiritual development up to the 
time when he discovered the Pir-i Kdmil in himself, 
and ends in a risdla addressed specially to kings and 
amirs. It contains an admonition to princes and 
describes the various disciplinary stages for the 
ascent of the soul of man, possible only under the 
guidance of the Perfect Pir. He urges them to seek 
repentance at the hand of such a Pir ($ird(, 71 f., 
184 ff.). Bayazid tells those who had gone through 
spiritual exercises under his supervision or that of 
his disciples that they had won divine favour 
according to their capacity, for capacity and 
sincerity were indispensable for the 'ascent'. 

It is stated in the colophon of the work that it 
was composed in 978/1570-1 and that "whoso 
studies it and acts according to it will learn Him 
al-tawhid". A copy of the work was sent by the 
author through a special messenger to the Emperor 
Akbar, who was pleased to receive it (Ifdl, 468), 
ed. M. A. Shakur, Pashawar 1952. The text is based 
on an original slightly defective at the beginning. 

4) Fakhr ( ?, the MS. has y? or ^-) al-Tdlibin 
(Ifdl, 468 f.), a treatise sent by Bayazld to Mirza 
Sulayman of Badakhshan at the time he sent his 
works to the various princes. No copy is known to 

5) Ifdl-ndma (Persian), an autobiography of 
Bayazld re-edited and amplified by c Ali Muhammad 
"Mukhlis" b. Aba Bakr Kandahari, a "home-born" 



BAYAZID ANSARl — BAYBARS I 



(khdnazdd) of the sons of Bayazid and a khalifa ot 
the sect. 

There is one undated copy (ff. 526) in Aligarh 
(Subhan Allah Oriental Library No. 920-37)- From 
it the Pandjab University copy was made recently 
(745, 11. 20), and the references given in this art. 
relate to this copy. No other copy of the work is 
known to exist, but Count Noer (A. S. Beveridge's 
tr. ( ii, 148) refers to some "existing fragments" of it. 

Aba Bakr, father of C A1I Muhammad, had served 
Djalal al-DIn as a boy, and later, commanded troops 
under Ahad Dad, and still later came to India with 
the members of the family of Bayazid when they 
moved to India. 'All Muhammad served Bayazld's 
grandson Rashld Khan in the Deccan, and settled 
down in Rashidabad, a village in Shamsabad Ma'u 
(Ifdl, 714, Mahathir al-Umard*, ii, 250), near Agra 
(Gazet. of Jullundur District, 99). 

The text of the Ijldl-ndma of Bayazid, the editor 
tells us in his preface, had become corrupt in course 
of time and a continuation relating to the military 
exploits of his sons and grandsons had to be added. 
At the request of some friends he supplied this, 
drawing upon written and oral sources. The narrative, 
which is brought down to the accession of Awrangzlb 
(1069/1659, lidl, 729) is of a considerable literary 
merit, though it has lengthy digressions in prose 
and verse (often of his own composition) dealing 
with the doctrines of the sect and minor incidents 
relating to the faithful. The earlier part, giving a 
full and detailed account of the life of Bayazid. has 
much fewer dates, and some of them, as compared 
with those in the latter part, are open to doubt, 
but the narrative of the life of Bayazid lacks details 
of his war with the Mughals (fought in the last 
2Vt years of his life) and ends abruptly. But he gives 
a very full and up-to-date account of the descendants 
of the Pit, both male and female, and their genealo- 

The Ijdl-ndma (453 f.) claims that Bayazid made 
definite contributions towards the cultural rise of 
the Afghan people. He was the first, according to 
this work, to compose kasidas, ghazals, rubdHyydt, 
frifas, mathnawis etc. in Pushto, though before him 
people wrote only a verse or two. This, however, is 
an exaggerated statement, as kasidas etc., of a much 
earlier date are known to exist. But it may be true 
that following his example, Bayazld's sons and 
disciples composed several Pushto diwdns, full of 
lofty truths and fine ideas. Other Afghans, outside 
the sect, also followed these models, and an impetus 
was given to the more frequent use of Pushto as a 
literary medium. 

The PIr also made contributions towards the 
improvement of the music of the land. Hadjdji 
Muhammad, a khalifa of Mir Fadl Allah Wall (the 
Hurufi ? : d. 796/1393), added some strings to the 
rebeck (rabdb) and as a result of his instructions the 
Afghan musicians produced new tunes, generally 
dance-tunes, but the players could not play them 
with proper rhythm, so Bayazid improved their 
rhythm and under his guidance the musicians were 
able to compose surud-i suliik ("the mystic's song", 
a sort of devotional music) and other pleasing tunes, 
and the following six modes : 

n.d.s.a.r.i. (dhandsari ?); pandj parda; fahdr 
parda; si parda (five, four and three melodies); 
martial notes (for the battlefield); and makdm-i 
shahddat ("the mode of bearing witness or martyr- 
dom"). Even as a boy Bayazid had shown great 
sensitiveness to music and would dance in ecstatic 
delight when songs were sung (Ifdl, 23 f.). Several 



of his sons and grandsons proved to be expert 
musicians and one of them, Ahad Dad, employed 
musicians who took turns and played music day 
and night for his entertainment (tfdl, 581 f.; see 
also 672, 680 etc.). 

The Pir is also credited with the popularisation 
of the Afghan script. 

Decimated by internal and external wars, violently 
opposed by the '■ulama', and later mostly scattered 
in various parts of India, the followers of the sect 
almost disappeared. The tenets of the sect are said 
to be professed to-day only "by the immediate 
descendants of the founder in TIrah and Kohat and 
some of the Bangash and Orakzai Pathans" 
(Gazetteer of the Peshawar District 1897-98,60; cf. J. 
Leyden, Asiatic Researches, xi, 363). 

Bibliography: Apart from the standard 

Mughal historical works, particularly the Ma'dthir 

al-Umard', ii, 242 (Bibl. Ind.), the following are 

C A1I Muhamad b. Aba Bakr Kandahari, fldl- 
ndma-i Pir-i Dastgir (Pandjab University Library 
MS.; Bayazid Ansari, Maksud al-Mu'minln, my 
MS.; idem, Sirdt al-Tawhid, ed. Muhammad 
c Abd al-Shakur, Peshawar 1952; Akhund Darwlza, 
Makhzan al-Isldm, my MS., f. 8b., 151b., also 
the Cat. of Persian MSS. in the Library of the 
India Office, nos. 2632-8; idem, Tadhkirat al- 
Abrdr wa 'l-Ashrdr (Persian), Pandjab University 
MS., f. 82 ff., s.a. A.H. 1021 (see also Rieu's Cat., 
i, 28. Or. 222) ; J. Leyden, On the Roshenian Sect 
and its Founder, Bayazid Ansari (Asiatic Researches, 
xi, 363 ff.); Graf Noer, Kaiser Akbar, ii, 180 f. 
(English tr. by A. S. Beveridge, Calcutta 1890, ii, 
138); G. Morgenstierne, Notes on an old Pashto 
Manuscript containing the Khaif-ul-Baydn of 
Bayazid Ansari, in New Indian Antiquary. 
(Bombay), Vol. ii, No. 8 (Nov. 1939), 566 ff.; 
Ma'-drif (an Urdu Magazine publ. at A'zam- 
garh), col. ix, no. 6 (1927), 430; Sayyid £ Abd al- 
Pjabbar Shah Sithanawi, Hbratan li tSli 'l-Absdr 
(Urdu), 45 ff. (author's autograph). See also the 
art. Rawshaniyya. (Muhammed Shafi) 

BAYAZID al-BISTAmI [see Abu YazId al- 

BlSTAMi]. 

BAYBARS I, al-Mauk al-Zahir Rukn al-DIn 
al-SalhiI, fourth Mamluk sultan of the Batuid 
dynasty. He is said to have been bom in 620/1233 
and to have been one of a group of Kiptak Turk 
slaves purchased by the Ayyubid sultan Malik 
Salih. His first master had been Aydakin Bundukdar, 
whence his surname Bundukdart, which also explains 
in Marco Polo's work (ed. Hambis, II), "Bondocdaire, 
sultan of Babylonia". He appears first in history in 
636/1239, in prison with his master Malik Salih at 
Karak. Several months later he was fighting in Syria 
on behalf of the sultan of Egypt, serving there a 
rough apprenticeship in the military life, not to 
mention the intrigues of the last Ayyubid princes 
which offered a gloomy example for his contemplation. 
His first military accomplishment consisted in taking 
command of the Egyptian army on the battlefield at 
Mansura, which ended in the decisive victory of 
Faraskur and the capture of Louis IX king of 
France. It was then that upon his instigation that 
Turan-Shah was assassinated in 648/1250, the plot 
unfolding in the guise of resistance to the enemy. 

This murder, whose odious character is scarcely 
disputable, settled nothing. Weakness was general. 
Baybars undoubtedly bore the responsibility for it, 
and in it the reign of the Mamluk sultans had its 
beginning. The origins were bloody and when 



Sultan Kutuz assumed power the Mongol hordes 
had begun their invasion of Syrian territory. A 
bloody encounter took place at c Ayn Djalut [?.«.] in 
Palestine, Sultan Kutuz distinguishing himself there 
with enormous valour, as well as the Mongol general 
who was killed. The Egyptian success was decisive, 
owing to the tenacity of a sultan who against all 
odds had managed to field an army. Baybars had 
fought in the vanguard. 

We know little of the sequence of events which 
led to yet another tragic end; Kutuz was assassinated 
in his tent, this deed being accomplished by a group 
of officers of which Baybars was one. Clashing 
ambitions have been mentioned; at any rate it was 
Baybars who gained the throne (658/1260). 

There had already been two murders; but the 
glory of the sovereign will conceal from history the 
perfidy of the officer, We will examine his rule 
chronologically, for the evolution of events allows 
an evaluation of his activity, which can be confirmed 
by the written sources. His period cannot but 
recall that of Saladin: the achievement of a unity of 
command, and the victorious war against the Franks. 
These are two elements of the comparison which 
accure to the advantage of Baybars. He wiped out 
feudalism rather than created it: he had no family 
to provide for. Moreover, Saladin's offensive, of 
which the title to glory is the capture of Jerusalem, 
was a clap of thunder without consequence. In this 
respect too the advantage lies with Baybars, whose 
forced marches, rapid and unexpected, were not 
without method: every inch of conquered land was 
put immediately in a state of defence. 

Internally the reorganisation of the state manifests 
an exceptional harmony and equilibrium. Beyond 
his actions, which one can establish by deeds and 
dates, Baybars gives the impression of a man who 
dominates events with an imperturbable optimism. 

From the year 659/1261 the new sultan consoli- 
dated the key points of his future offensives. Every 
citadel which had been destroyed by the Mongols, 
from Hims to Hawran, were put in order and 
provided with victuals and ammunition. 

In his eyes these military precautions were in- 
sufficient. He insisted upon being informed rapidly 
and upon being able to despatch orders with the 
same speed. Baybars established a regular postal 
service: twice a week he received information from 
every part of the empire. Under normal circum- 
stances a despatch took four days to go from Cairo 
to Damascus. More urgent news was sent by pigeons, 
and delivered without delay. It would even happen 
that the sultan received information in a state of 
almost complete nakedness. Such a setting tended 
to increase the zeal of his functionaries. 

He reconstructed entirely the arsenals, and had 
warships and cargo vessels built. 

The sultan began by nibbling at the domains of 
the Ayyubid princes : he appointed an officer to take 
charge of the administration of the town of Shawbak, 
which was done without striking a blow. The sultan 
went to Aleppo, sounded the Franks in the region 
of Antioch, and finished the campaign at Damascus. 
In 661/1263, after a year spent in Cairo, the sultan 
threatened Saint Jean d'Acre, then turned against 
Karak, thus eliminating an Ayyubid principality, 
returned to Damascus, finally re-entering Egypt and 
inspecting the city of Alexandria. In 662/1264 
Baybars annexed the territory of Hims, whose 
Ayyubid prince had just died without heir. He 
began intensive military preparations and soon 
fielded a formidable army. 



iRS I II2S 

On the first of Rabl< II 663/21 January 1265, this 
enormous army, commanded by the sultan, left 
Cairo, for the first stage of the great offensive 
against the Franks, which would not terminate 
until 670/1271. Their strongholds were taken one 
after another. In 663/1265 it was the capture of the 
port of Caesarea which split the Frankish possessions 
in the south and isolated Jaffa; further north 
'Athlith and Hayfa were occupied. The towns were 
destroyed: in the event of a reverse they could not 
serve as supports for the enemy. Then the army 
turned south and took the port of Arsuf . In 664/1 266 
simultaneous attacks were made all along the front, 
but the principal effort was directed toward the town 
of Safad, to the northwest of Lake Tiberias: the 
place was taken after a heavy siege. In 666/1268 
Baybars turned towards the enclave of Jaffa which 
did not hold out for a day. One may read the account 
of that exploit, still engraved on the gate of the 
great mosque at Ramla in Palestine: "He lay siege 
to Jaffa at dawn and took it, with God's permission, 
at the third hour of the same day". A few weeks later 
a new line of defense was forced: the river Litani and 
the castle of Beaufort, opposite Tyre, became 
Muslim, Suddenly the Egyptian troops appeared at 
the northern point of the Latin kingdom, and 
Antioch capitulated. This conquest had a consider- 
able repercussion, perhaps greater than the capture 
of Jerusalem by Saladin. Since the beginning of the 
Crusades, Antioch had not once left the possession of 
the Franks. The neighbouring fortresses could resist 
no longer and Baybars took advantage in con- 
cluding peace with the king of Little Armenia, who 
was obliged to surrender a part of his domain to the 
sultan of Egypt. A final offensive, starting from 
Hims, cut the distant defences of Tripoli. The 
strongholds of Safitha, the castle of Crac and of 
c Akkar were taken in two months, in the course of 
669/1271. 

Meanwhile the sultan, habitually dividing his 
time between Cairo and Damascus, had made the 
pilgrimage in 667/1269. Negotiations led in 668/1270 
the lord «f the Isma c Ili fortresses to pay tribute to 
the sultan, who, preoccupied with the expedition of 
Saint Louis to Tunis, thought for a moment of going 
to the aid of the Maghribis. Reassured, the sultan 
set off again for the conquest of the Isma'ili for- 
tresses, then returned to Cairo. The year 670/1272 
was dedicated to a general inspection of Syria. The 
historians "agree in their accounts of how the sultan 
would arrive unexpectedly, changing direction en 
route to preclude any foreknowledge of his itinerary. 
In 671/1272-73, he left Damascus for Biredjik, over- 
whelming a Mongol detachment near there. Other 
divisions of the army were operating in Nubia, in 
the region of Barka and in Armenia. The Franks 
had at last got a respite. After a year of calm, Bay- 
bars was again in Armenia, during 674/1275, where 
he took Sis and Ayas. The year 674 is marked by an 
expedition to Nubia, led by the sultan's lieutenants. 
In 675/1276 Baybars was in Asia Minor where he 
took Caesarea (Kayseri) in Cappadocia, after having 
defeated the Saldjuk troops and their Mongol allies. 
Then he returned to die at Damascus in the early 
part of 676/1277, at the end of a substantially 
full life. 

The Crusaders never recovered. One can evaluate 
the territorial losses of the Frankish kingdom 
at the death of Baybars: the principality of An- 
tioch virtually existed no longer; in the south 
the frontier had been pushed back from Jaffa to 
Acre. Everything considered, the Crusaders possessed 



only a narrow strip of the coast, while the Mamluks 
held all of the crests. 

The seventeen years of Baybars 5 reign show a 
balance of thirty-eight campaigns in Syria. Of the 
nine battles with the Mongols, only the last was due 
to the initiative of the sultan, the others being 
considered counter-attacks. There were five signi- 
ficant engagements with Little Armenia. The 
Isma'UI sectaries, the Assassins, suffered three 
attacks. On the Franks, the most abused, the 
Egyptian troops inflicted twenty-one defeats. 

The military activity of the sultan was not the 
result only of the orders which he gave; he took 
personal command in fifteen battles, not fearing 
when it was necessary, to expose his own life. A few 
figures give an idea of Baybars 5 travels: he does not 
appear to have spent more than half the period of 
his reign in his capital at Cairo; he left it twenty-six 
times, and certainly covered more than forty 
thousand kilometres. 

One sees in the rule of Baybars a splendid example 
of energy, bringing to light an unexpected political 
recovery. Under the impetus of this exceptional 
leader, Egypt, who had just undergone an internal 
revolution and had been the target of powerful ene- 
mies — Crusaders, Mongols, Isma'IH — was suddenly to 
impose its rule upon the Orient. The confusion 
following the fall of the 'Abbasid caliphate in 
Baghdad, the hints of alliance between Crusaders and 
Mongols, the potential conspiracies of the dispos- 
sessed Ayyubid princes, and the personal ambitions 
of the high ranking Mamluk officers, are all elements 
of the tragic combination which makes Baybars 5 
success so extraordinary. 

It was a stroke of genius on his part to welcome 
a refugee of the 'Abbasid family, after the disastrous 
invasion of the Mongols in 656/1258, and to recognise 
him in Cairo as supreme pontiff. It was not merely a 
spiritual gesture, for the ruler had seen in it immediate 
and tangible consequences: suzerainty over the Holy 
Cities of the Hidjaz. Finally, the Egyptian state 
might from that time on style itself the "Islamic 
Kingdom". 

The exploits of this extraordinary warrior made 
him a legend in his own lifetime ; the epic of Baybars 
is well below his actual biography. His life is indeed 
a story of adventure: the death of the hero, drinking 
a cup of poison prepared by another, is but part 
of the perfect romance. 

Bibliography: The two chief primary sources 
for the life of Baybars are the biographies of Ibn 
'Abd al-Zahir and of Ibn Shaddad, neither of which 
is fully extant. A British Museum manuscript of 
a version of Ibn 'Abd al-Zahir, covering the period 
up to the beginning of 663/1265, was published, 
with an English translation, by Mrs. S. F. Sadeque, 
Baybars J of Egypt, Dacca 1956. A more complete 
ms. of the same version, preserved in the Fatih 
library, is being edited by Mr. A. A. Khowaitir 
(see further B. Lewis, in Speculum, xxvii, 1952, 
488; CI. Cahen in Arabica, v, 1958, 211-2; P. M. 
Holt in BSOAS, xxii, 1959, 143-5)- A unique and 
incomplete manuscript of Ibn Shaddad's biography 
of Baybars, covering the years 670-76/1272-78, was 
found in Edirne by S. Yaltkaya, who published an 
abridged Turkish translation of it (Baypars Tarihi, 
Istanbul 1941) without the Arabic original. 
Further information will be found in the general 
historical sources (Makrizi, Dhahabi, Ibn Taghri- 
birdl etc.). See also E. Quatremere, Sultans 
Mamlouks, 1 ff. ; M. F. Koprulu, Baybars, in I A ; 
M. Dj. Si-rur, al-Zahir Baybars, Cairo 1938, and 



the general histories of medieval Egypt by G. Wiet 
(Histoire de la Nation igyptienne, iv, Paris, n.d, 
367-82, 403-38) and S. Lane-Poole (A History of 
Egypt in the Middle Ages', London 1914, index). 
For inscriptions see RCEA, xi, nos. 4221, 4344; 
xii, nos. 4476 to 4478, 4485, 4501, 4528, 455*. 
4553. 4556, 4557, 4562, 45^5, 4586, 4588, 4589, 
4593, 4600, 4608, 461 1, 4612, 4623 to 4626, 4638, 
4660, 4750, to 4662, 4673, 4686, 4690, 4692, 4714, 
4723, 4724, 4726 to 4728, 4730, 4732 to 4735, 
3737 to 4740, 4746, 475° again, 4751, 4752- Further 
bibliography will be found in G. Wiet, Les Bio- 
graphies du Manhal Safi, no. 708. (G. Wiet) 
BAYBARS II, al-Malik al-Muzaffar Rukn 
al-Din MansurI PjashnikIr, Mamluk sultan of 
Egypt. Perhaps of Circassian origin, Baybars 
belonged to the Mamluks of Sultan Kalawun. 
Appointed major domo, ustdddr, during the first 
reign of Muhammad b. Kalawun (693-94/1293-94), 
he was promoted to commander of a thousand by 
Sultan Katbugha, and his power increased, at the 
same time as that of his rival, Salar. Both were 
equally ready to assume power upon the assassination 
of Sultan Ladjln in 698/1299. 

They put on the throne for the second time the 
young Muhammad b. Kalawun. The two men were 
not bound by any deep friendship but they were too 
afraid of one another to allow their differences to 
persist, and so resigned themselves to ruling jointly, 
at the expense of a monarch then aged fourteen. At 
every mention of an important measure taken 
during that period, the Arab historians do not 
neglect to attribute it to both amirs, for example, 
in the rigorous directives against the Christians and 
Jews in 700/1301. The duumvirs managed a vigorous 
resistance to the invasion of the Mongol Ghazan. 
They put down, with unheard of cruelty, an 
insurrection of the Arab tribes of Upper Egypt, who 
had elected two chiefs with the surnames Baybars 
and Salar. Ten years later Muhammad, weary of 
their tutelage, abdicated. 

Baybars, possessing more Mamluks than Salar, was 
able to succeed alone to the sultanate, in Shawwal 
708/April 1309, and it was then that his weakness 
became apparent. In fact, Muhammad was able to 
form an army from the fortress of Karak, to which 
he had retired, and in Ramadan of the following 
year/February 13 10, he began his third reign. 
Baybars had fled. Apprehended, he was brought 
to Cairo and strangled on 15 Dhu '1-Ka c da 709/16 
April 1310. 

Bibliography: Ibn Taghribirdi, Cairo, viii, 
232-82; Manhal Safi, no. 709; Hautecoeur et Wiet, 
Les Mosqules du Caire, 54-55; Wiet, Histoire de 
la nation igyptienne, iv, 468-77. (G. Wiet) 

SIrat BAYBARS, an extensive Arabic folk- 
tale purporting to be the life-story of the Mamluk 
sultan Baybars I (1260-77). Many of the people and 
the events in the sira are historical, but its overall 
character, as well as most of the descriptive detail, 
is fictitious. Its only historical value lies in the fact 
that it represents the type of intellectual nourish- 
ment accepted by large parts of the Muslim popu- 
lation in Cairo in the late Middle Ages and in the 
following centuries. Its real interest lies rather in 
the fields of sociology, folklore, and history of 
literature. 

The novel opens with a description of the end of 
Ayyubid times and the beginning of Mamluk rule, 
up to the accession of Baybars. Later sections 
treat the hero's warlike exploits, particularly those 



SIrat BAYBARS — BAYBARS al-MANSORI 



against the Christians (Byzantines and Crusaders) 
and the Persians (= Mongols). Towards the end, 
the novel grows more and more into a fantastic tale 
of adventure, sorcery and roguery. Traditional tales 
and motifs, also to be found in other Arabian 
contexts such as the Thousand and One Nights (as 
well as some which are known in the Iranian 
tradition), have been used. Baybars's cunning but 
basically faithful servant 'Uthman — half groom-cum- 
pickpocket, half saint — and (in the later parts of 
the novel) an Isma'ili master of disguise by name of 
Shlha also play large parts. Shlha is constantly on 
the move, reconnoitring, freeing Muslim prisoners, 
and harming or at least scaring his enemies with 
his craftiness and pranks. His opponent on the 
Christian side is the dangerous Guwan (= Juan?; 
the original name given is Girgls), a deadly enemy 
of Islam. Besides the Mamluks, there are also Syrian 
Isma'ilis {i.e., Assassins, even though they are never 
called such) who take part in the battles. The 
printed editions give an outline, at the end, of the 
history of Egypt from Mamluk times to the present 
day. This is a subsequent addition, which has 
nothing to do with the actual novel. 

Historical events are presented as seen from a 
bourgeois point of view. The novel has a special 
predilection for impoverished merchants or crafts- 
men. Pictures of life in the streets of Cairo are 
particularly attractive. Amongst the degenerate 
Mamluk soldiery, Baybars appears as the just ruler 
who protects his subjects and fights corruption. 
Crude jokes, puns, and situations of a certain 
primitively comic nature, appealed to the uncultured 
taste of the listeners (the sira was probably always 
meant to be recited, not read). A definite Islamic 
conception of the world underlies the whole. 
Christian and other opponents of Islam are — unless 
they are later converted — painted in the blackest 
colours. There is an underlying offensive religious 
fanaticism. As all non-Muslims are necessarily 
villains, they have no claim to decent treatment, 
still less to pity, and none whatever to respect. 
Things are occasionally very harsh among Muslims, 
too, but, on the other hand, honourableness receives 
due praise. Great stress is laid on abstaining from 
wine; adultery is decried; saints are frequently 
mentioned. Ahmad al-BadawI appears in the story 
of Baybars's youth. The most prominent saint in 
the later parts of the sira is SIdi c Abd Allah al- 
Maghrawi. He is the Muslims' helper in all plights, 
particularly in journeys across the sea (Wangelin, 
360-2). 

The literary form of the sira corresponds to that of 
similar Arabic popular tales. The prose tale is 
interrupted and enlivened by sections of rhymed 
prose and interspersed with poems. These (in part 
quotations, in part verses made up for the sira, in 
classical metres as well as strophic form), are not, 
however, evenly distributed. So far there has been 
no close study of these (cf. Wangelin, 307). The 
language is somewhat colloquial, particularly in the 
manuscript texts. 

The first literary mention of Sirat Baybars, 
though indirect, is a note by Ibn Iyas (Wangelin, 
307) at the beginning of the 16th century. According 
to U. J. Seetzen, E. W. Lane, and J. G. Wetzstein, 
public recitals of the Sirat Baybars were very 
popular in Cairo and Damascus in the 19th century. 
Taha Husayn mentions such recitals and the sale 
of printed editions (or part-editions?) of the sira 
amongst the Egyptian fellaheen in the story of his 
youth (A l-A yydm, Cairo 1929, 21 and 83). Some 



parts of the novel have been given in translation 
by E. W. Lane in The Manners and Customs of the 
Modern Egyptians, and in G. Weil's first edition of 
his translation of The Thousand and One Nights. 
W. Ahlwardt has given a detailed description of 
some of the Berlin manuscripts of the sira. Helmut 
Wangelin has produced the first monograph on the 
novel, giving an extensive table of contents based 
on the first printed edition of the year 1908-09. 
The manuscripts of the Sirat Baybars are com- 
paratively recent. Levi Delia Vida describes a 
version in the Biblioteca Vaticana which dates from 
the ioth/i6th century, and which, unlike the other 
texts, has only some 500 pages. Possibly this repre- 
sents an earlier stage in the development of the 
novel. The two texts quoted by Ahlwardt (vol. 8, 
143 f.) under the numbers 9163 and 9164, on the 
other hand, appear to be subsequently shortened 
versions. This is also borne out by the absence of 
interpolated songs. The history of the development 
of the sira would probably become clearer if the 
different manuscripts were to be classified and 
compared in detail. It is questionable, however, 
whether it would be worth the time involved. 
Bibliography: W. Ahlwardt, Verzeichnis der 
arabischen Handschriften, vol. 8 ( = Handschrif ten- 
verzeichnisse der Kgl. Bibliothek zu Berlin, 
vol. 20), Berlin 1896, 114-44 (Nos. 9155-64): Ch. 
Rieu, Supplement to the Catalogue of the Arabic 
Manuscripts in the British Museum, London 1894, 
745-9 (Nos. 1186-96); W. Pertsch, Die arab. Hss. 
der Hzgl. Bibl. zu Gotha, iv, Gotha 1883, 387-93 
(Nos. 2600-29) ; Mac Guckin de Slane, Bibliotheque 
Nationale. Catalogue des manuscrits arabes, Paris 
1883-95. 6371. (Nos. 3908-20); E. Blochet, Cat. 
des man. ar. des nouvelles acquisitions, Paris 1925, 
12 and 46 (Nos. 4746-54 and 4981-97); G. Levi 
Delia Vida, Elenco dei Manoscritti Arabi Islamici 
delta Biblioteca Vaticana (= Studi e Testi 67), 
The Vatican 1935, 240 (Codici Barberiniani 
Orientali, 15); Printed texts (50 parts in 10 
volumes), Cairo 1326-27/1908-09; 1341-44/1923-26. 
— E. W. Lane, Manners and Customs of the 
Modern Egyptians, 5th ed., London i860, 400-13 
(Chapter XXII); G. Weil, 1001 Nacht, arab. 
Erzdhlungen zum ersten Male aus dem Vrtext treu 
iibersetzt, iv, Pforzheim 1841, 743-9331 D. B. 
Macdonald, Baibars, The Romance of, in EI 1 ; 
Helmut Wangelin, Das arabische Voksbuch vom 
KSnig azzdhir Baibars, Stuttgart 1936 (= Bonner 
Orientalistische Studien, 17). (R. Paret) 

BAYBARS al-MANSORI. This Mamluk ge- 
neral and historian began his career as a 
slave of al-Malik al-Mansur Kala'un (thence his by- 
name "al-Mansuri"). In the retinue of r>ala'un 
Baybars participated in 663/1265 in the campaign 
of Sultan Baybars I against the Syrian Franks, in 
664/1266 in campaigns in Syria and Cilicia, in 666/ 
1268 in the siege of ADtioch and in 673/1275 in 
another campaign in Cilicia. Kala'un, who had 
become sultan of Egypt and Syria, appointed 
Baybars governor of the province of al-Karak in 
685/1286. His son and heir al-Malik al-Ashraf 
Khalil removed Baybars from this post in 690/1291, 
whereupon he returned to Egypt and took part in 
the siege of Acre, in the siege cf r>al c at al-Rum in 
Asia Miner in the following year and in two expedit- 
ions against the Mongols. When in Muharram 693/ 
December 1293 al-Malik al Nasir Muhammad was 
elected sultan, he appointed Baybars general 
(mukaddam alf) and gave him the high post of 
dawaddr (chief of the chancery). From that time 



BAYBARS al-MAN$URI — BAYDAK 



Baybars' career was linked to the fate of this prince, 
who was twice deposed and reinstalled. Baybars 
lost his post after al-Malik al-Mansur Ladjln had 
become sultan instead of al-Malik al-Nasir Muham- 
mad, but he was reinstated on al-Malik al-Nasir's 
return to the throne, in 698/1299. In the following 
years he fulfilled both military and administrative 
tasks, until he was deposed from his post of dawdddr 
in 704/1304-05. Meanwhile al-Malik al-Nasir Muham- 
mad had lost all influence on the government and 
had become a mere puppet in the hands of two 
powerful generals and at last he abdicated formally. 
Baybars al-Mansuri was an ardent partisan of this 
prince and made strenuous efforts to have him 
reinstalled. When this came about in 709/1310 
Baybars was entrusted with various administrative 
tasks and on 17 Djumada I 711/1 October 1311 he 
was appointed viceroy of Egypt (nd'ib al-saltana), 
second to the sultan only. But he held the post less 
than a year. In Rabi' II 712/August 1312 he was 
deposed and sent to the state prison in Alexandria, 
where he remained for five years. He died on 25 
Ramadan 725/4 September 1325, about eighty years 
old. 

Baybars was a pious Muslim, fond of theological 
studies, and besides his military and political 
activities he found time to write historical works, 
which he did with the help of a Christian secretary. 
His chief work was a general history of the Islam 
until the year 724/1324 called Zubdat al-Fikra fi 
Ta'rikh al-Hidjra. This voluminous work, which is 
divided into centuries, is based in its former parts 
on the Ktimil of Ibn al-Athir, whereas its last 
part is an important source for the history of the 
Bahri Mamluks, since the author tells the story of 
campaigns and political events in which he parti- 
cipated himself. The strong personal note of the 
Zubdat al-Fikra is even more conspicuous in the 
account which Baybars al-Mansuri gives of the 
political history of Egypt at the end of the 13th 
and at the beginning of the 14th centuries, where 
he does not conceal his strong bias for al Malik al- 
Nasir Muljammad. His work was much used by 
other historians, among whom al-'Aynl should be 
mentioned especially. It was abridged and continued 
by a later author, whose work is preserved in MS. 
Bodleiana I, 704. Baybars al-Mansuri himself wrote 
a shorter history of the Bahri Mamluks, which he 
called al-Tuhfa al-Mulukiyya fi 'l-Dawla al-Turkiyya. 
This work, partly written in rhymed prose, relates 
the history of the Mamluks up to 711/1311-12. 
Al-Sakhawi also mentions a History of the Caliphs 
as written by Baybars. It was called al-LatdHf fi 
akhbdr al-hhaldHf. 

Bibliography: Brockelmann II, 44, S II, 43; 
Rosenthal, History of Muslim historiography, 75, 
"7. 335, 418. (E. Ashtor) 

BAYBCRD (Bayburt), known to the Byzantines 
in the time of Justinian as |}ai|}ep8<{>v, is situated on 
the Coroh river, about 100 km. to the north-west of 
Erzurum. The Saldjuk Turks overran this region in 
the years 446-447/1054-1055. After the battle of 
Manzikert in 463/1071 Bayburd came under Turkish 
rule, now of the Saltukids at Erzurum and now of 
the Danishmends at Sivas, although the Byzantines, 
who still held Trebizond, did in fact recapture the 
town for a time in the reign of Alexios I Komnenos. 
During the 13th and 14th centuries Bayburd, under 
the political domination of the Saldjuk sultans of 
Rum and later of the Mongol Il-Khans of Persia, 
prospered from the active commerce which, in the 
hands of Christian (i.e., Venetian and Genoese) as 



well as Muslim merchants, flowed along the route 
leading from Trebizond to Erzurum and thence 
eastward to Tabriz. The Djalayirids and, after them, 
the Ak Koyunlu Turcomans had control of the town 
from about the mid-i4th to the close of the 15th 
centuries. Bayburd fell to the Ottomans in 920/1514 
during the course of their Caldiran campaign against 
the new Safawld state in Persia. Ottoman rule over 
Bayburd and its adjacent territories was consolidated 
in 940-942/1533-1536, when Sultan Sulayman 
organised on a firm basis the eyalet of Erzurum. The 
Russians occupied the town in 1829, much of the old 
fortress of Bayburd being ruined in the course of the 
fighting. Russian forces also defeated the Ottomans 
in the battle of Bayburd (July 1916) during an 
offensive directed against Erzindjan. Bayburd was 
in Ottoman times a ha&a' of the sand±ah of Erzurum 
in the eyalet of that name, but is now included in 
the present Turkish province of Gumiishane. Its 
population was estimated in 1935 at 10,339 in- 
habitants, the figure for the entire kadd* being given 
as 64,813 people. The region is noted for its produc- 
tion of cereals, wool, hides, etc. 

Bibliography: Hamd Allah Mustawfi, Nuzha 
96; Al-'Umarl, MasdUk al-Absdr, ed. Taeschner, 
Leipzig 1929, 20; Hadjdji Khalifa, Diihdnnumd. 
Istanbul 1 145/1732, 424; Ewliya Celebi, Seydhat- 
ndme, ii, Istanbul A.H. 1314, 344-346; Abdur- 
rahim Serif, Erzurum Tarihi, Istanbul 1936, 241; 
O.L. Barkan, Osmanh Devrinde Ahhoyunlu Hii- 
kiimdari Uzun Hasan Beye Ait Kanunlar, in 
Tarih Vesikalart, i, no. 2 (August 1941), 95; 
Hammer- Purgstall, ii, 420; J. Laurent, Byzance 
et les Turcs Seldjoucides, Paris 1914, 22; W. Heyd, 
Histoire du Commerce du Levant au Moyen-Age, 
ii, Leipzig 1923, 120 f. ; G. I. Bratianu, Recherches 
sur le Commerce ge'nois dans la Mer Noire au 
XIII' siecle, Paris 1929, 178 f.; E. Honigmann, 
Die Ostgrenze des byzantinischen Seiches von 
363 bis 1071, Brussels 1935, 54, 181; W.E.D. 
Allen and P. Muratoff, Caucasian Battlefields, 
Cambridge 1953, 565 (index); V. Cuinet, La 
Turquie d'Asie, i, Paris 1890, 221-224; Pauly- 
Wissowa, s.vv. Baiberdon and Gymnias; 'All 
Djawad, Ta'rikh ve Djoghrdfiya Lughati, Pt. i, 
Istanbul A.H. 1313, 152; I A, s.v. Bayburt (Besim 
Darkot and Osman Turan). As a general guide to 
the Western travel literature of more modern 
times relating to this area, cf. also the biblio- 
graphical indications listed in EP, s.vv. ArmIniya 
and Erzurum. (V. J. Parry) 

al-BAYDA 5 (el-Beiza 3 ), "the white town 
(castle)", a common Arabic place-name, designing 
localities scattered all over the Islamic territory. Ham- 
danl (Sifa) quotes four places with this name; Yakut 
has sixteen different al-Bayda's. Most important 
of these is the Persian town al-Bayda', situated 
in the province Fars, N. of Shiraz and W. of Istakhr. 
Its original name was Nasa. Being the chief town of 
the Kamfiruz district, it was as large as Istakhr in 
the 4/ioth century, surrounded by fertile pasture 
lands. Several scholars carry the name of this place 
(see AL-BAYDAwi). Also al-Halladj [q.v.] was born 
here. For the S. Arabian town al-Bayda 3 , the 
main place of Upper Bayhan, see art. bayhan. 
Bibliography: Istakhri, 126, 197; Ibn 
Hawkal, 197; Ibn Khurradadhbih. 46 f.; Mukad- 
dasi, 24, 432; Yakut, i, 791 f. (Mushtarik, 77); 
Le Strange, 280; H. von Wissmann and Hofner, 
Beitrdge zur histor. Geogr. des vorislamischen Siid- 
arabien, 14, 23, 58, 62, 66. (O. Lofgren) 

BAYDAK [see shatrandj]. 



L-BAYDAWl — BAYDU 



AL-BAYDAWI, C ABD ALLAH B. C UMAR B. Mu- 

hammad b. c Ali Abu'l-Khayr Nasir al-DIn. He 
belonged to the Shafi'I school, and attained the 
position of chief kadi in Shlraz. He had a reputation 
for wide learning, and wrote on a number of subjects 
including Kur'an exegesis, law, jurisprudence, scho- 
lastic theology, and grammar. His works are generally 
not original, but based on works by other authors. 
He is noted for the brevity of his treatment of his 
various subjects, but his work suffers on this account 
from a lack of completeness, and he has been blamed 
for inaccuracy. His most famous work is his com- 
mentary on the Kur'an, Anwar al-tanzil wa-asrdr 
al-ta'wil, which is largely a condensed and amended 
edition of al-Zamakhshari's Kashshaf. That work, 
which displays great learning, suffers from Mu'ta- 
zilite views which al-Baydawi has tried to amend, 
sometimes by refuting them and sometimes by 
omitting them. But on occasion he has retained 
them, possibly without fully realising their signifi- 
cance. In his introduction he does not claim to 
be producing an original work. He says that he 
had long wished to produce a book which would 
include the best of what he had learned from 
leading Companions, learned Followers, and upright 
men of early days who were of lesser rank. He 
also purposed to include allusions which were the 
result of his own and his predecessors' researches. 
It would contain some readings of 'the eight famous 
imams' (for al-Baydawi adds Ya'kub of al-Basra to 
the more normal number of seven readers of the 
Kur'an), and would also include readings peculiar 
to one or other of the recognised readers. The result 
is a work which has been very popular, and has 
accordingly been published in many editions. 
Numerous commentaries have been written on the 
whole work, or on parts of it. Of these Brockelmann 
lists 83, after which he mentions two works which 
draw attention to places where al-Baydawi has 
failed to remove al-Zamakhshari's heresies. Of the 
many editions of the work mention may be made of 
that by H. O. Fleischer (Leipzig 1846-8), 2 vols., 
Indices by W. Fell (Leipzig 1878); and that of 
Cairo, 1330 A.H., 4 parts in 2 vols., with the com- 
mentary of al-Khatib al-Kazarunl, prescribed for 
sixth year students in the Azhar. Other editions are 
mentioned in Brockelmann and Sarkis. Among al- 
Baydawl's other works which are extant in print or 
in MS are Minhddj al-wusul ild Him al-usul (juris- 
prudence) ; al-ghdya al-kuswd (manual of law) ; Lubb 
al-albdb fi Him al-iHrab (grammatical); Misbdh al- 
arwdh and Tawali'- al-anwdr min matali 1 al-anzdr 
(scholastic theology). He also wrote a work in 
Persian, Nizam al-tawdrikh (ed. with notes in 
Hindustani by Sayyid Mansur, Haydarabad 1930), 
dealing with the history of the world up to 674/1275. 
Al-SuyutI says that al-Baydawi died in 685/1286, 
quoting al-Safadi as his authority. He says that al- 
Subki mentioned 691/1292, but al-Subki does not 
give a date in his Tabakdt. Yafi'i gives 692/1293. 
Rieu (Suppl. to the Cat. of the Arab. MSS in the B.M., 
p. 68) quotes a statement that he died in 716/1316. 
Bibliography: Subkl, Tabakdt al-ShdfiHyya 
al-kubrd, Cairo 1324, v, 59; Suyuti, Bughyat al- 
wu'dt, Cairo 1320, 286; Yafi'i, Mir'dt al-dfandn, 
Haydarabad 1337-9, iv, 220; Brockelmann, I, 
530 ff., S I, 738 ii. ; Sarkis, Diet. Encyc. de WW, 
arabe, Cairo 1928-30, 616 ff. ; Margoliouth, Chresto- 
mathia Baidawiana, London 1894; Th. Noldeke, 
Geschichte des Qordns, 2nd edn., Leipzig 1909-1938, 
ii, 176, iii, 242. (J. Robson) 



al-BAYBHAK, Abu Bakr b. <AlI al-SinhadjI, 
author of Memoirs on the beginnings of Almohad 
history. His name was known only through extracts 
quoted by Ibn Khaldun in his K. al-'Ibar, by the 
anonymous author of al-ffulal al-Mawshiyya, and 
from various passages in which Ibn al-Kattan, 
author of the Nazm al-Djumdn, reproduces him. 
The discovery of the bundle of papers (no. 1919) in 
the library of the Escorial by E. Levi-Provencal, 
and their publication in the Documents inidits 
d'histoire almohade, brought al-Baydhak to light, 
as through a trap-door, from the obscurity in which 
he lay. We find in his work "the actual Memoirs 
of the experiences of one who frequently took an 
active part in the events he sets down and who 
immediately appears as one of the early Almohads. 
At the first glance it can be seen that this is no 
chronicle of the usual type or form. The new in- 
formation provided on each page and its character 
of authenticity nearly always enables us, in a 
remarkable manner, to complete our knowledge of 
the Almohads in North Africa, which has hitherto 
been exiguous. The thirty six pages of the manu- 
script have no lacunae in the text. Unfortunately, 
however, the beginning is missing and also no title 
is given. The information we possess on al-Baydhak 
is limited to what he himself tells us in his work, but 
this is too vague to serve as the basis for a biography. 
We find him in the following of the Mahdl, after the 
latter reached Tunis, and in that of c Abd al-Mu'min, 
close to their persons and acting as a servant. And 
it was as such that he recorded in his work merely 
what he actually saw and heard". An enthusiastic 
convert, he adds to the facts he relates all such 
incidents of a supernatural order as serve to confirm 
the divine mission of Ibn Tumart and the predestined 
choice of c Abd al-Mu'min. We do not know whether 
he came with his master from the East. However, 
the appellation baydhak, which passed from Persian 
into Arabic, is still in use among the Berbers of the 
South for the pawn in the game of chess. The one 
thing certain is that al-Baydhak's mother tongue 
was Berber and that he did not know Arabic very 
well. This is born out by the colloquialisms abounding 
in his Memoirs and the Berber phrases appearing 
in his narrative. Remaining in the background as a 
faithful and devoted servant without political 
ambitions, and having served the Mahdl, c Abd al- 
Mu'min and even Yusuf I, down to whose time the 
information he provides extends fragmentarily, he 
disappears from the Almohad scene as suddenly as 
he appeared, silently and without fame". 

Bibliography: E. Levi-Provencal, Documents 
inidits d'histoire almohade, ix-xi; G. Marcy, in 
Hespiris, 1932, 61 ff. (A. Huici Miranda) 

BAYDU, the fifth in succession of the Mongol 
Il-Khans of Persia and a grandson of Hiilegu, the 
founder of the dynasty. He reigned only for a few 
months since Gaykhatu, his predecessor, was 
strangled on Thursday 6 Djumada II/21 April 1295 
and he himself was put to death on Wednesday 
23 Dhu 'l-Ka'da/5 October of the same year. 
Insulted by Gaykhatu, this young and apparently 
unimportant prince had become involved in a 
conspiracy of the Mongol amirs against the II- 
Khan which resulted in the latter's deposition 
and execution, and the conspirators had then 
invited Baydu to take possession of the throne. 
- II Khan was at once opposed by his second 



n Ghaz 



1 [«.».], 



n of tl 



:I1-K 



BAYDU — BAYHAKI 



satisfaction for his uncle's death. An uneasy truce 
was concluded between the cousins; and when 
hostilities were later resumed the issue was decided 
without bloodshed in Ghazan's favour thanks to the 
address and diplomacy of his general Nawruz and 
in particular to Ghazan's having, at Nawruz's 
suggestion, adopted Islam and so won the support 
of the Muslims. Baydu was deserted by his adherents 
and met his end in Nakhiiwan (the present-day 
Nakhichevan in the Azerbaijan S.S.R.) whilst 
attempting to escape. During his brief reign he is 
said to have shown special favour to the Christians 
and so given offence to the Muslims, although 
according to Bar Hebraeus he was himself a convert 
to Islam. 

Bibliography: C. d'Ohsson, Histoire des 
Mongols depuis Tchinguiz-Khan jusqu'a Timour 
Bey ou Tamerlan (2nd. ed.), Vol. iv, The Hague 
and Amsterdam 1835; B. Spuler, Die Mongolen 
in Iran', Berlin 1955. 

(W. Barthold-Q. A. Boyle]) 
BAYHA$, formerly the name of a district to the 
west of Nishapur in Khurasan. In Tahirid times it 
contained 390 villages with a revenue assessment of 
some 236,000 dirhams. The chief towns were Sab- 
zawar and Khusrawdjird. It capitulated to a Muslim 
army under c Abd Allah b. 'Amir in 30/650-1. In 
548-6/1153-4 it was devastated by Yanaltegin. 
According to Hamd Allah Mustawfl its people were 
Ithna 'Ashari Shi'Is. Among its famous men were 
Nizam al-Mulk, the wazir of Alp Arslan and Malik- 
shah, Abu '1-Fadl Muhammad b. Husayn Bayhaki, 
the author of the Ta'rikh-i Bayhaki, and c Abd al- 
Razzak, the founder of the Sarbadar dynasty. 
Formerly marble quarries were worked there. 

Bibliography: Ibn Funduk, Ta'rikh-i Bayhak; 
Mukaddasi, 318, 326; Hamd Allah Mustawfl, 
Nuzha, 149-50; Muhammad Hasan Khan, Mir'dt 
al-Bulddn, i, 327; Dawlatshah, 277; Barbier de 
Meynard, Dictionnaire de la Perse, 130. 

(A. K. S. Lambton) 
al-BAYHA?!, AbO Bakr Ahmad b. al-Husayn 
b. c Ali b. Musa al-Khusrawdjirdi, traditionist and 
Shafi'i fakih. He studied Tradition with Abu 
'1-Hasan Muhammad b. al-Husayn al-'Alawiy al- 
Hakim Abu <Abd Allah Muhammad b. c Abd Allah 
and others. He travelled in many countries in pursuit 
of this subject and is credited with having had a 
hundred shaykhs. In theology he was an Ash'arite. 
He was of a frugal, pious, and scholarly nature. 
Towards the end of his life he went to Nishabur 
where he taught traditions and transmitted his 
books. Al-BayhakI was a voluminous writer, his 
writing being said to have reached 1000 fascicules. 
Although he was a traditionist of some note, he is 
reputed to have been unacquainted with the works 
of al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasa>i, and Ibn Madja; and it 
is suggested that he had not seen the Musnad of 
Ahmad b. Hanbal. He used al-Hakim's Mustadrak 
freely. Al-DhahabI said that his compass in Tradition 
was not great, but that he was an adept at dealing 
with it, being versed in the sub-divisions and the 
men who appear in isndds. Among his writings his 
K. al-sunan al-kubrd (publ. Haydarabad, 10 vols., 
1344-55) 'S perhaps his most notable work. It has 
been held in high esteem; for example, al-Subkl 
declared that there was nothing like it in adjustment, 
arrangement and excellence. In this work notes are 
frequently added about the value or otherwise of 
traditions and traditionists, and attention is often 
drawn to the fact that particular traditions are 
included in one or other of the recognised collections. 



The Haydarabad edn. has in each vol. a valuable index 
of men of the first three generations and traditions 
traced to them, with indication of the nature of the 
transmission. Another work which was valued is his 
Nusus al-Shdfi'i. He has been said to have been the 
first to collect al-Shafi c I's legal precepts, but al- 
Subkl denies this, saying he was the last, for this 
collection included more than earlier efforts, and 
therefore there was no need to repeat the work. 
Al-Djuwayni, Imam al-Haramayn, highly praised 
his writings in support of Shafi'i doctrine. Al-BayhakI 
was born in 384/994, died in 458/1066 in Nishabur, 
and was buried in Khusrawdjird. 

Bibliography: Dhahabi, Tadh. al-huffdz, iii, 
309 ff.; Subki, Tabakdt al-ShdfiHyya al-kubrd, iii, 
3 ff. ; Ibn Khaliikan, No. 27; al-Sam c ani, f. 101a; 
Yafi'i, Mir'' at al-diandn, iii, 81; Ibn al- c Imad, 
Shadhardt al-dhahab, iii, 304; Brockelmann, 1, 
446 f.; SI, 618 f.; Sarkis, Diet, encyc. de bibl. 
arabe, 620 f. (J. Robson) 

BAYHAKI, Abu 'l-Fadl Muhammad b. Husayn 
Katib (in Persian: DabIr), famous Persian historian 
of the 5th/nth century, born in 385/995 at the 
village of Harithabad in the district of Bayhak 
(today the district of Sabzawar in Khurasan). At 
an early age he went to study at Nishabur, then an 
important centre of learning. He soon entered the 
chancellery of the Ghaznawid rulers at Ghaznln. 
with the function of secretary, and in this city he 
spent most of his life. He was at first the assistant 
of the celebrated writer Abu Nasr Mushkan, the 
director of this chancellery, and was charged with 
drafting and making copies of the most important 
official documents dispatched by Mahmud the 
Ghaznawid (389-421/999-1030) and his son and 
successor Mas'ud (421-33/1030-41); during the 
latter's reign his first master died, in 431/1039, and 
was replaced by Abu Sahl ZuzanI, with whom he 
was not always on good terms. During the reign of 
c Abd al-Rashid (440-43/1049-51), he was appointed 
director of the chancellery, but was dismissed after a 
short time. At the king's order, a Turkish slave 
named Nuyan confiscated all his property, and he 
was imprisoned on the pretext that he had not 
settled his wife's dowry. He remained in judi- 
cial imprisonment until the usurper Tughril Birar 
occupied the throne in 443/1051 and imprisoned 
him in a fortress with other courtiers held in custody. 
After his release, he did not seek employment at 
court after the year 451/1059, and he died in the 
month of Safar 470/2 August-21 September 1077. 
Bayhaki is the author of a voluminous history of 
the Ghaznawid dynasty, written in an archaic and 
sometimes complicated style. He states that he 
commenced his history with the year 409/1018-19, 
but a large part of the work has long been lost, and 
the only traces of it are found in the borrowings of 
other Persian historians — the last of whom lived in 
the gth/i5th century. This work, which comprised 
30 volumes, has been variously entitled by different 
authors Qidmi* al-Tawdrikh, Didmi c /» Ta'rikh-i 
Sabuktagin, Ta'rikh-i Al-i Mahmud, Ta'rikh-i 
Ndsiri, and Ta'rikh-i Al-i Sabuktagin. It is almost 
certain, however, that the different volumes referring 
to each ruler would have borne different titles. Thus 
the whole collection of 30 volumes would have had 
a general title of Didmi c al-Tawdrikh or Ta'rikh-i 
Al-i Sabuktagin; the first part, relating to Sabuktagin, 
would have the title of Ta'rikh-i Ndsiri, the second 
part, relating to Mahmud, that of Ta'rikh-i Yamini 
or Makdmat-i Mahmudi, the third part, of which the 
most important portions have come down to us. 



BAYHAKI — al-BAYHAKI 



1131 



would have had the title of Ta'rikh-i Mas'udi, while 
the title of the final part or parts must remain a 
subject for conjecture. The part which has come 
down to us comprises volumes 5 to 10; volumes 
11 to 30, and the first four volumes, are lost. As 
regards the six volumes which we possess (5 to 10), 
which are usually known as Ta'rikh-i Bayhaki, and 
which ought rather to be called Ta'rikh-i Mas'udi, 
the title which I have given them in my edition, 
there are certain noticeable lacunae in the sequence 
of events, which indicates that a portion of these 
volumes has also been lost. Volumes 11 to 30 must 
have covered the end of the reign of Mas c ud and the 
reigns of his successors up to the beginning of the 
reign of Ibrahim in 451/1059, that is to say, the reigns 
of Mawdud, Mas'ud II, Abu '1-Hasan c Ali, c Abd 
al-Rashld and Farrukhzad, which extend over 
19 years in all from 432/1040 to 451/1059. The 
known MSS. of the part which has come down to us 
close with the events of the year 432/1040, and the 
last year of the reign of Mas'ud is missing. It can 
easily be seen that this part was written later, 
doubtless from notes made at the time, because the 
author five times gives us the date 451/1059 for the 
composition of certain passages. On one of the 
occasions on which he mentions this date, he states 
that he has been in the service of the Ghaznawids 
for twenty years, which proves that he entered their 
service in 431/1040 at the age of 46. Consequently 
451/1059 was the year in which he began to write up 
his notes, which covered a period ot 42 years from 
409/1018 to 451/1059. He states that events prior 
to 409/1018 had been related by his predecessor the 
historian Mahmud Warrak, whose work is lost. The 
end of chapter ten of the Ta'rikh-i Mas'udi which 
has survived includes a portion of a chronicle on 
Khwarizm written in Persian by the great savant 
Abu '1-Rayhan al-BIruni [q.v.] (362-440/973-1048) 
under the title of al-Musdma t a /i Akhbdr-i Khwarizm, 
which is incomplete and of which no other version 
exists. Bayhaki seems to have written other works, 
one of which bore the title of Makdmdt-i Abu Nasr-i 
Mushkdn a collection of reminiscences which had 
been related to him by his first master in the 
Ghaznawid chancellery. Some fragments of this 
work have been quoted by more modern authors. 
Another work, quoted by the author of the History 
of Bayhak, bore a title which can be read either as 
Rutbat al-Kuttdb or Zinat al-Kuttdb and seems to 
have been a manual of literary style as is indicated 
by its title. The fragments of the Ta'rikh-i Ndsiri 
which have come down to us were incorporated in 
the Diawdmi* al-Hikdydt wa Lawdmi c al-Riwdydt 
of Muhammad c Awfl (two recent incomplete Tehran 
editions), the Jabakdt-i Ndsiri of Minhadj al-Dln b. 
Siradj al-Din al-Djuzdjanl (editions: Calcutta and 
Kabul-Lahore), and the MadJ.ma c al-Ansdb of 
Muhammad b. C A1I Shabankarihl (MSS.). The sur- 
viving portion of the Ta'rikh-i Yamini is incorporated 
in this last-named work, and the surviving portion 
of the final parts of the Ta'rikh-i Mas c udi, which we 
possess, is quoted by 'Awfl. The passages from the 
Makdmdt-i Abu Nasr-i Mushkdn are quoted by 'Awfl 
and by Sayf al-Din 'Akili in his work on the lives of 
the wazirs entitled Athdr al-Wusard' (MSS.). The 
famous historian Hafiz Abru has also reproduced 
certain passages from the lost portions in his own 
monumental history. The author of the History of 
Bayhak states that the Dfamt' al-Tawdrikh com- 
prised more than 30 volumes; of these he had seen 
only a few in the library at Sarakhs, certain other 
volumes in "Mahd-i 'Irak" library and still others 



in the possession of various people. This proves that 
a large part of Bayhaki's chronicle had disappeared 
within a short time after its composition, since already 
in the 6th/i2th century this author did not have 
access to all the volumes. Only c Awfi (6th/i2th 
century) Minhadj al-Din (7th/i3th century) Shab- 
ankarikl (8th/i4th century), and Hafi* Abru (9U1/ 
15 th century) had at their disposal certain — perhaps 
fragmentary — portions of the work. The Makdmdt-i 
Abu Nasr-i Mushkdn was consulted by Akili in the 
9th/i5th century, but no one has mentioned bis 
work on the epistolary art except the author of the 
History of Bayhak. The MSS. of the Ta'rikh-i 
Mas'udi so far known nearly all come from India and 
indicate a common source. 

Bibliography: W. H. Morley (ed.), Ta'rikh-i 
Bayhaki, Bibliotheca Indica, Calcutta 186?; 
Ta'rikh-i Bayhaki (lith. ed.), Tehran 1305-7 A.H.; 
Ghani and Fayyad (ed.), Ta'rikh-i Bayhaki, 
Tehran 1324 solar/1945; Ta'rikh-i Mas'udi, with 
corrections, notes and commentary by Said 
Naficy, 3 vols., Tehran 1319 solar/1940, 1326/1947, 
and 1332/1953; Said Naficy, Athdr-i Gumshuda-yi 
Abu 'l-Fadl-i Bayhaki, Tehran 1315 solar/1936; 
Abu '1-Hasan C A1I b. Zayd Bayhaki, Td'rikh-i 
Bayhak, Tehran 1317 solar/1938; Rida-zada 
Shafak, in Armaghdn, nth year, no. 12, and 
12th year, nos. 1-2; 'Abbas Ikbal, in Armaghdn, 
13th year, no. 1; W. Barthold, article Baihaki 
in EI 1 ; see also the works quoted in the body of 
this article. (Said Naficv) 

al-BAYHASI, ZahIr al-DIn Abu 'l-Hasan c AlI 
b. Zayd b. Funduij, Persian author, born at Sabzawar, 
the administrative centre (kasaba) of the district of 
Bayhak (W. of Naysabur in Khurasan) in 493/1100. 
The date 499/1 106 in Yakut (Irshdd, v, 208), though 
cited from Bayhaki's autobiography (see below), 
has been shown to be wrong by M. Kazwlnl. Of his 
numerous works (more than 70 titles on an encyclo- 
paedic range of subjects listed in Yakut) the best 
known are a history in Persian of his native district, 
Ta'rikh-i Bayhak (to be distinguished from the 
Ta'rikh-i Bayhaki of Abu '1-Fadl al-Bayhaki [see 
preceding article]), and an Arabic supplement {ta- 
timma) to the biographical Siwdn al-hikma of Abu 
Sulay man al-Sidjistani. The Tatimmat S iwdn al-Hikma 
was translated into Persian probably about 730/1330. 
It has been edited together with the Persian version 
by M. Shafi' (Lahore 1935), and under the title 
Ta'rikh Hukamd' al-Isldm by M. Kurd 'All (Damas- 
cus 1946). The Ta'rikh-i Bayhak though scarcely 
very original (it is based, the author tells us, on an 
earlier history of Bayhak, as well as on a 12-volume 
History 0/ Naysabur by al-Hakim Muhammad b. 
'Abd Allah), is full of interest. The contents have 
been analysed by Rieu (Supplement to the Catalogue 
of Persian MSS. in the British Museum, 60 ff.), and 
there is an edition by A. Bahmanyar (Tehran 1317/ 
1938), with an important introduction by M. 
Kazwlnl. 

The family of Bayhaki, which had been distin- 
guished for several generations previous to his time, 
called themselves Hakimis from an ancestor, al- 
Hakim Funduk (Ta'rikh-i Bayhak, 102), and traced 
their descent back to a Companion of Muhammad, 
Dhu '1-Shah5datayn Khuzayma b. Thabit. Bayhaki 
also claimed relationship with Tabari, the historian 
(Ta'rikh-i Bayhak, 19). It appears from his auto- 
biography, given in his lest historical work Mashdrib 
al-Tadjdrib wa-Qhawdrib al-Qhard'ib (or Mashdrib al- 
Tadjdrib fi 'l-Tawdrikh) and taken over by Yakut, 
that he had his higher education at Naysabur and 



x-BAYHAKI — BAYHAN 



Marw, and that his career was mostly in Khurasan. 
For a short time (526/1132) he was kadi of Bayhak, 
probably owing to the influence of his father-in-law, 
Muhammad b. Mas'ud, a former governor of Rayy, 
then mushrif al-mamlaka, but he found his duties 
irksome and soon resigned. A short time later we find 
him studying algebra and astrology in Rayy (Irshad, 
v, 210). The autobiography comes down to 549/1154- 
55, when Bayhaki was in Naysabur. Nothing is there 
said of a visit which he paid with his father to 
£ Umar-i Khayyam in 507/1 1 13-14 (Tatimma Siwdn 
al-Hikma, 116), nor of an incident which took place 
in 543/1148. This was the arrival in Khurasan at the 
court of Sultan Sandjar of an envoy from the Christian 
King of Georgia, Demetrius, with certain questions, 
presumably on religious topics, written in Arabic 
and Syriac (tdzi u-surydni). These questions were 
answered at the instance of Sandjar by Bayhaki, 
as he tells us (Ta'rikh-i Bayhak, 163), in the same two 
languages. The Masharib al-Tadjdrib appears to have 
dealt with the history of Iran from about A.H. 410- 
560 (M. Kazwini), i.e., approximately A.D. 1020-1165 
or nearly 150 years, and was intended as a sequel to 
the Ta'rikh-i Yamini of c UtbI (Ta'rikh-i Bayhak, 
20). Yakut quotes the work elsewhere, e.g., Irshad, 
v, 124. It is quoted also by Ibn al-Athir (xi, 247-49, 
cf. 253) for the career of Sultan Shah of Kh w arizm, 
and by Djuwaynl (Ta'rikh-i Diahdn-eushdy. Vol. ii, 
1 = J. A. Boyle, The History of the World-Conqueror, 
277) explicitly for the origin of the Kh'arizm Shahs 
(where Djuwaynl says incorrectly that it was a 
sequel to the Tadjarib al-Umam of Miskawayh), but 
probably also elsewhere without specific acknow- 
ledgement (cf. Ta'rikh-i Djahdn-gushdy , ii, 22 ff. = 
Boyle, 293 ff. with the passage in Ibn al-Athir 
mentioned above). The Masharib al-Tadjdrib is 
referred to by Bayhaki himself (Tatimma, 168) for 
an account of the contemporary poet Rashld al-DIn 
Watwat, and is also cited by Ibn Abl Usaybi'a 
(Tabakdt al-A(ibbd', i, 72) for the date of Djalinus 
(Galen), and by some other authors, the latest of 
whom appears to have been Hamd Allah Mustawfl 
(8th/i 4 th century). Bayhaki himself died in 565/ 
1169-70 according to Yakut. 

Some portions of Bayhaki's poetical anthology 
Wishdh al-Dumya, a continuation of the Dumyat 
al-Kasr of Bakharzi and including specimens of his 
own poetry in Arabic, are known. See Brockelmann, 
and H. Ritter, 'Philologika XIII*, no. 173 (Oriens, 
Vol. 3, 1950, 77). There was also a supplement 
entitled Durrat al-Wishah (Irshad, v, 212). 

A work on judicial astrology by Bayhaki in Persian, 
Djawdmi 1 al-Ahkdm, is preserved in Cambridge Uni- 
versity Library (E. G. Browne, Handlist of Muham- 
madan Manuscripts, 255), and a compendium of this 
work at one time existed (ibid. 254). 

Bibliography: Yakut, Irshad, v, 208-18; 
Muhammad Kazwini, Mukaddama to Ta'rikh-i 
Bayhak, ed. A. Bahmanyar, Tehran 1317/1938; 
Storey, 353-54, 1105-06, 1295-96, 1350; Brockel- 
mann, I, 324 and S I, 557-58; Muhammad Shaft"', 
The author of the oldest biographical notice of 
c Umar Khayyam & the notice in question, in 
Islamic Culture, vol. vi (1932), 586-623. 

(D. M. Dunlop) 
al-BAYHAKI, IbrahIm b. Muhammad, Arab 
author, of whose life nothing is known beyond 
that he belonged to the circle of Ibn al-Mu c tazz 
and wrote the adab book Kitdb al-Mahasin wa 
'l-Masdwi (ed. by F. Schwally, Giesen 1902, reprinted 
Cairo 1906) during the reign of the Caliph al-Muktadir 
(295-320/908-932). (C. Brockelmann) 



BAYHAN (Behan), wadi and territory in 
South Arabia, situated between Wadi Harib [q.v.] in 
the west, and Wadi Markha (with the high plateau 
of the Nisiyyin) in the east (cf. art. <Awi.AKi). This 
long valley, stretching from the Kawr 'Awdhilla 
(cf. art. c awdhalI) ca. 100 km. (65 miles) northward, 
until its dry "delta" disappears in the desert Ramlat 
Sabatayn, was once the centre of the ancient state 
of Kataban [q.v.]. Thanks to the American expedition 
in 1950 the main part of Bayhan now is by far the 
best known of all South Arabian districts! 

In Katabanic inscriptions BYHN only means a 
tribe (Dhu Bayhan) or a temple. This fact does not 
seem to favour the etymology of Landberg (Arabica, 
v, 4) "common pasture land" (opp. himd). From 
Sabaean texts we know of another Bayhan, a place 
situated in the Diawf (Ryckmans, i, 324; Grohmann, 
i, 174; v. Wissmann a. Hofner 15, 77). According to 
the Sifa of HamdanI, Bayhan was irrigated from 
Radman and HasI, but got its drinking water frota 
Wadi Sudara. The inhabitants belonged for the most 
part to Banu Murad, whose leader of Al Makraman 
enjoyed a high reputation in the tribe of Madhidj. 
Yakut has Bayhan in his list of South Arabian 
districts (mikhldf). 

There are three Bayhani districts to be distin- 
guished: 

(1) Bayhan al-Dawla (Bayhan al-A'la) is the 
narrow, barren and sparely populated upper part 
of the valley, from its beginning unto Nati c on the 
frontier of Bayhan al-Kasab. Like the territory of 
the Banyar [q.v.] it formerly formed part of the 
Rassas sultanate, but now belongs to the state of 
Yaman. The climate is unhealthy, owing to the 
stagnant waters of the Ghayl. The capital al-BaydS* 
[q.v.] is in the S. 

(2) Bayhan al-Kasab, the fertile central part 
of the valley. (See the following art.) 

(3) Bayhan al-Asfal, the remaining, northern 
part of the wadi, is a sparely populated plain, 
gradually turning into the wide sand desert. Its four 
districts (Hinw, al-Shatt, Hakba, c Asaylan) were 
dominated by descendants of the Prophet — the two 
first-mentioned by sayyids, the last two by sharifs. 
Hence the denomination Bilad al-Sada/al-Ashraf for 
the whole country. The capital is Nukub, with a 
landing-ground for aircraft. Numerous Bedouins 
also live here, mostly belonging to Bal Harith; this 
tribe also controls the important salt-mines of 
Ayadim far out in the desert. 

In antiquity this whole area was more intensely 
cultivated, thanks to the aqueducts, and for centuries 
the kingdom of Kataban had its centre here, along 
the incense road, between Shabwa [q.v.] and Marib 
[q.v.]. Special interest is attached to the tell Hadjar 
Kuhlan a little S-W of 'Asaylan. As already Rhodo- 
kanakis had inferred from the inscriptions, this is the 
place of ancient Timna c /Tumna c [q.v.], the capital of 
Kataban (Pliny: Thomna). Thanks to the finds made 
here in 1950, esp. of Roman Arretine ware, its final 
destruction by fire can be fixed to ca. 10 A.D. The 
excavation of two palaces (YFSH and HDJH) has 
yielded a lot of inscriptions, a bronze statue of 
princess BRT and two fine bronze lions of Hellenistic 
type, with infant riders. At Hayd bin c Akil the 
cemetery of Timna c was found and partly investi- 
gated. Antique ruins also were found further to the 
south, at Husn al-Hadjar and Hadjar bin Humayd. 
Here, at the junction of Wadi Bayhan and Wadi 
Mablaka, a huge cross-section of the stratified 
mound was made, which allowed to establish 
a pottery sequence back to ca. 1000 B.C., when 



BAYHAN — BAYKARA 



the first houses were built here. In the 1200 
years down to the abandonment of the irrigation 
system the field level increased by about 8 m. (1 cm. 
every year and a half). A building of twelve courses 
marks the highest point in the excavations at 
Hadjar bin Humayd; this house probably was 
constructed in the first century B.C. 

Bibliography: al-Hamdani, Sifa, ed. Miiller, 
98 et passim, transl. Forcer, 158; Yakut, i, 782, 
iv, 434; c Umara (Kay, Yaman) 5 f., 141, 173; Ibn 
al-Mudjawir, Ta'rikh al-Mustabsir (my edn.) 67 f., 
199, 202, 249; A. Grohmann, Sudarabien als 
Wirtschaftsgebiet, passim; G. Ryckmans, Les noms 
Propres sud-simitiques, i, 286, 324, ii, 37; A. 
Sprenger, Die alte Geographic Arabiens, 188 f., 
253; H. v. Maltzan, Reise nach Sudarabien, 203, 
306, 310 ff.; C. Landberg, Arabica, v, 1-78; H. v. 
Wissmann and M. Hofner, Beitrage zur histor. 
Geographic des vorislam. Sudarabien (1952), 15, 
42-50, 77; W. Phillips, Qataban and Sheba (1955), 
31-130, 140-177, 209-218; D. Ingrams, Survey of 
social and economic conditions in the Aden 
Protectorate (1949), 34,72, 126 f., 172, 178; R. 
LeBaron Bowen and F. P. Albright, Archaeological 
Discoveries in South Arabia (1958), Part I (1-212), 
with maps. General map: v. Wissmann, South 
Arabia, Sheet 1 (1957), scale 1 : 500,000. 

(O. Lofgren) 
BAYHAN AL-fcA$AB forms the central part of 
the Wadi Bayhan (see the preceding art.), lying 
between Bayhan al-Dawla (S) and Bayhan al-Asfal 
(N). It includes also W. Khirr which starts in the 
south, to the west of W. Bayhan, until it meets the 
latter near the town of al-Kasab. Bayhan al-Kasab, 
together with Bayhan al-Asfal, now forms the In- 
dependent Territory of Bayhan in the Western Aden 
Protectorate. The Territory's boundaries in the 
S-W and N-W are a part of the "status quo line" 
of 1934 between Yaman and the Protectorate. The 
other boundaries are, in the E the Upper 'Awlaki 
mountains, in the N-E the Kurab tribes and the 
fringes of the Empty Quarter (al-Rub c al-Khali). 

Bayhan al-Kasab (6-8000 inhabitants) is rich in 
subterranean waters often found at the depth of a 
few yards; there are well over two hundred wells 
in operation and the irrigation system is adequate. 
Rainfall is not regular and sometimes there may be 
no rainfall for a number of years. The region is rich 
with palm and Hlb tree groves and other kinds of 
vegetation. The main products and crops are dates, 
nabk, figs, grapes, wheat, barley, millet, dukhn, 
sesame, indigo and cotton. There is good pasture 
land for sheep and goats and the region is famous 
for a breed of camels. The inhabitants form the tribe 
of al-Mus c abayn, who have, as is evident from the 
dual form of the name, two main branches: Al 
Ahmad and Al £ Arif. They are settled in a great 
number of villages. The main town is al-Kasab, 
also called Hisn c Abd Allah, which is the main 
trading centre of the area and an important seat of 
administration. There is a landing ground and a 
wireless station at al-Kasab. 

The Ashraf and Sayyids form no tribal group. 
They had always had the support of the Bal 
Harith of Bayhan al-Asfal and of one section of 
al-Mus'abayn, the Al Ahmad, when Sharif Ahmad b. 
Muhsin signed a treaty with the British in 1903. 
The subsequent development in the internal situ- 
ation of the area and the security requirements in 
face of the claims of Yaman to the territory and to 
the allegiance of the population led to the consoli- 
dation of the authority of the "Treaty Chief", with 



ii33 

the help of the Protectorate British authorities, 
over the whole territory and the tribes of W. Bayhan. 
In 1944 the Regent of the then minor Sharif of 
Bayhan entered into an agreement with the British by 
which he undertook to accept advice on the admini- 
stration of his country and the expenditure of his 
revenues. The Sharif's capital is al-Nukub, where 
there is a landing ground. Recently the Mus c abayn 
have been treated as semi-independent and were 
given a minor agreement for the protection of a 
landing ground. There is one shari'-a court and one 
Common Law ( c urf) court, and two elementary 
schools for boys, in Bayhan. 

Bibliography: C. Landberg, A rabica, v, 1-63; 
A. Hamilton, The Kingdom of Melchior, London 
1949, passim; D. Ingrams, A Survey of Social 
and Economic Conditions in the Aden Protectorate, 
1949, passim (with map) ; F. Balsan, A Travers 
I'Arabie Inconnue, 1954, passim; W. Phillips, 
Qataban and Sheba, 1955, passim. (M. A. Ghul) 
al-BAYHASIYYA [see Abu Bayhas]. 
BAYINDIR, one of the Oghuz (Turkmen) tribes. 
The Ak-Koyunlu, founders of the dynasty called by 
the same name, are a clan of this tribe, and some 
historians call the Ak-Koyunlu dynasty 'Bayindlr 
Khan Oghlanlari' or c Al-i Bayindiriyye', and the 
Ak-Koyunlu state 'Dewlet-i Bayindiriyye'. It is 
possible that the Bayindir took part in the Saldjuk 
conquest of Anatolia. There were many places in 
central and western Turkey called after them in the 
9th/i5th and ioth/i6th centuries. No doubt most of 
these belonged to the Bayindir who took part in 
the conquest of Anatolia. We find Bayindir among 
the Turkmens in Syria in the 8th/i4th century. The 
Ak-Koyunlu clan of this tribe was engaged in poli- 
tical activity in the Diyarbakr region in the same 
century. The most important Bayindir clan in the 
ioth/i6th century was in the Tarsus region, and was 
engaged in agriculture. There were other Bayindir 
clans in the Tripoli and Aleppo regions of Syria, 
and in the Yeni II, south of Sivas. The Bayindir of 
Aleppo were called by the Ottoman government to 
take part in the expedition against Austria in 1690. 
A Bayindir clan lived in the Astarabad region among 
the Goklen Turkmens. Members of the Ak-Koyunlu 
dynasty believed themselves to have descended from 
Bayindir, ancestor of the Bayindir tribe, and used 
its mark on their coins, monuments and edicts. 
Bayindir was also used in the past as a personal name 
in Turkey and Iran. 

Bibliography: Faruk Sumer, Bayindir, Pece- 
nek ve Yuregirler, in Dil ve Tarih-Cografya Fakul- 
tesi Dergisi, xi/2-4, 317-22. (Faruk SOmer) 

BAYKARA, a prince of the house of TImur, 
grandson of its founder. He was 12 years old at the 
death of his grandfather (Sha'ban 807/February 1405) 
so he must have been born about 795/1392-3- His 
father c Umar Shaykh had predeceased TImur. 
Baykara is celebrated by Dawlat-Shah (ed. Browne, 
374) for his beauty as a second Joseph and for his 
courage as a second Rustam; he was prince of Balkh 
for along period. In the year 817/1414 he was granted 
Luristan, Hamadan, Nihawand and Burudjird by 
Shah Rukh; in the following year he rebelled 
against his brother Iskandar and seized Shiraz but 
was afterwards overcome by Shah Rukh. Pardoned 
and allowed to go to Prince Kaydu at Kandahar 
and Garmsir, he stirred up a rebellion there too, 
and was seized by Kaydu in 819 (1416-7). Shah 
Rukh pardoned him again and sent him to India; 
nothing further is known of him. This account, 
which is based on Hafiz-i Abru, does not agree with 



"34 



BAYKARA — BAYRAKDAR 



what Dawlat-Shah tells us; according to the latter 
(loc. cit.) he went of his own accord from Makran 
to Shah Rukh, was sent by him to Samarkand and 
there put to death at the instigation of Ulugh-Beg; 
according to other accounts he was put to death at 
the court of Shah Rukh himself (in Harat). The year 
819 is given by other authorities also as the year of 
Baykara's death. According to Babur (ed. Beveridge, 
f. 163 b.) the name Baykara was also borne by a 
grandson of this prince, the elder brother of Sultan 
Husayn; this second Baykara was for many years 
Governor of Balkh. _ 

Bibliography: The history of the events 
of the first decades of the 9th/i5th century is 
well-known to us from the Ma(la c -i Sa'dayn of 
c Abd al-Razzak Samarkand! [q.v.], following 
Hafiz-i Abru; cf. the extracts (for the years 
807-820) in Quatremere, Notices et Extraits, 
Vol. xiv, part. 1. On the original text of Hafiz-i 
Abru preserved in a MS. in the Bodleian Library 
(Elliot 422), cf. W. Barthold in al-Muzaffariya 
(Sbornik statei ulenikov bar. Rozena, St. Peters- 
burg 1897), 25-26; L. Bouvat, V empire mongol 
(2nd phase), Paris 1927 [Histoire du Monde, by 
Cavaignac], 162-180. (W. Barthold) 

BAYLAKAN, an ancient town in Arran (Albania) 
S. of the Caucasus, said to have been founded by 
the Sasanid Kubad. Baylakan was the scene of 
incidents in the second Arab-Khazar war, and in 
112/730 the Muslim general Sa'id b. c Amr al-Harashl 
won an important victory there over the Khazars. 
Bibliography: D. M. Dunlop, History of the 
Jewish Khazars, Princeton 1954. 

(D. M. Dunlop) 
al-BAYLAMAN [see Mabjlis]. 
BAYLAN (Belen), a village situated in the 
Amanus mountains (Elma-Dagh) on the main line 
of communication from Iskenderun (Alexandretta) 
eastwards into northern Syria. The site seems to have 
had no great importance during the earlier centuries 
of Muslim rule, the chief town in this local area being 
then Baghras (U6rf(>a.l). The neighbouring pass of 
Baylan, i.e., the ancient Suptat IluXai or 'AfiaviSe? 
IluXai, was included in the c awdsim of northern 
Syria. It has received various names during the long 
period of Muslim domination, e.g., 'akabat al-nisd' 
(Baladhurl), madik Baghras, bdb-i Iskandarun (cf. 
I A, s.v. Belen), and Baghras beli (HadjdjI Khalifa). 
According to a salndme for the wildyet of Haleb 
(Aleppo) dated 1320/1902-1903, the Ottoman sultan 
Sulayman Kanunl built a mosque, a khan and 
baths at Baylan in 960/1552-1553. The same source 
also notes that the population of Baylan was in- 
creased in 1183/1769-1770 through the efforts of 
c Abd al-Rahman Pasha, then in charge of the 
sandjak of Adana. At the pass of Baylan in July 
1832 the Ottomans suffered defeat in battle against 
the Egyptian forces under the command of Ibrahim 
Pasha — an event which has been given as an ex- 
planation of the fact that the pass is sometimes 
called locally Top-Yolu or Top-Boghazl (cf. EI 1 , s.v. 
Beildn and IA, s.v. Belen). A number of derivations 
have been advanced in order to elucidate the name 
Baylan-Belen, e.g., that it comes from the Greek 
LTtiXai, from the Turkish bel or beyl (a depression 
in a mountain ridge), or from bayl, btt (a road 
high between two hills) used in the Arabic dual 
form (cf. £7°, s.v. Beilan and I A, s.v. Belen). Ewliya 
Celebl notes that belen meant in the language 
of the Turcomans a steep ascent. Baylan, which 
was, under Ottoman rule, the centre of a kadd' in 
the eydlet of Haleb, is now a nahiye dependent on 



the kaza of Iskenderun in the vilayet of Hatay. Its 
population amounted in 1940 to 1,153 inhabitants, 
the figure for the entire nahiye being 5,373 people. 
Cereals, fruit, silk and wine are among the more 
notable products of the region. 

Bibliography: Al-Baladhuri, Futuh, 164, 167; 
Yakut, iii, 692; Ibn al-Shihna, Al-Durr Al- 
Muntakhab, ed. Yusuf b. Ilyan Sarkls, Beirut 1909, 
221; Ch. Ledit, Al-A'ldk al-Khafira, un manuscrit 
d'Ibn Chadddd, in Al-Mashrik, xxxiu/2 (1935), 
203-204; HadjdjI Khalifa, Djihdnnumd, 597; 
Ewliya Celebl, Seydhat-ndme, iii, Istanbul A.H. 
1314, 48; R. Pococke, A Description of the East 
and some other Countries, ii, London 1745, Pt. 
1, 173 ff.; G. Le Strange, Palestine under the 
Moslems, London 1890, 37; M. Hartmann, Das 
Lima Haleb, in ZGErdk. Bert., xxix (1894), 7, 10, 
n, 26, 32-37, 87-88; CI. Cahen, La Syrie du Nord 
(J I'ipoque des Croisades, Paris 1940, 140 ft.; 
M. Canard, Histoire de la Dynastic des Ham- 
danides de Jaztra et de Syrie, i, Paris 1953, 229; 
Pauly-Wissowa, s.vv. Sijptat IliiXat and 'Afia- 
Vi8e? IliiXa! ; V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, ii, Paris 
1891,221-223; E. Honigmann, Historische Topo- 
graphic von Nord-Syrien im A Itertum, in ZDPV., 
vol. 47, Leipzig 1924, 59 (index); R. Dussaud, 
Topographic Historique de la Syrie Antique et 
Mediivaie, Paris 1927, 433-436, 441, 443-446; 
I.A., s.v. Belen (Besim Darkot). See also EI', s.vv. 
Baghras and Elma-Daoh. On the battle of 
the Baylan Pass (1832), cf. the bibliographies 
given in the articles on Ibrahim Pasha in EI* 
and IA. (V. J. Parry) 

BAYNCN, ancient South Arabian castle and 
town, one of the famous Yamanite strongholds 
(mahdfid) enumerated by Hamdanl (St/a, 203), who 
gives its description in the Iklii, book VIII (ed. 
Miiller, 41, 86 f.; Kirmill, 66 f.; Faris, 54 f.). In 
legend Baynun is said to have been built for Solomon 
by the dfinn, just as Ghumdan (GHNDN) and 
Salhln (SLHN), the castles of San'a 5 and Marib (see 
these articles). Baynun is located by Hamdanl in the 
territory of <Ans (b. Madhidj), facing the harra of 
Kawman (six hours' Journey NNW of mount Isbll). 
Its ruins are at the modern Hayawa, where Glaser 
found ten inscriptions. Baynun was famous for its two 
tunnels, cut through the rock. The Himyaritic king 
As'ad Tubba c (= Ablkarib As'ad, ca. 385-420 A.D.) 
resided here and in ?afar [q.v.] alternatively. Baynun 
was destroyed, along with Ghumdan and Salhln, by 
the Abyssinians under the command of Aryat, 
ca. 525 A.D. Bainoyn on the map of Ptolemy 
(84 30714 15') must be sought in Hadramawt 
(Wadl Daw'an) [q.v.}, but this may be an error fcr 

Bibliography : Hamdanl, v. supra ; Nashan, 
ed. •Azlmuddln, 10, 67; Ibn al-Mudjawir, 102 f.; 
ed. •Azlmuddin, 10, 67; Ibn al-Mudjawir, 102 f.; 
Yakut, i, 801; Sprenger, Die alte Geographic 
Arabiens, 163; H. von Wissmann and Hdfner, 
Beitrdge zur historischen Geographic des vorislam. 
Siidarabien, 40, 99; C. Conti Rossini, Storia 
d'Etiopia, 178. (O. Lofgren) 

BAYRAS [see c alam]. 

BAYRAKDAR, a Turco-Persian term, meaning 
'standard-bearer*, applied under the Ottoman 
regime to various officers of both the 'feudal' and 
the 'standing' army and to certain hereditary 
chieftains of Albania. In the feudal army the alay-beyi 
of each province had a bayrakddr as his subordinate, 
and in the standing army one of the officers of each 
bSliik of the cavalry and each o»*? of the Jan' 



BAYRAKDAR — Muhammad BAYRAM KHAN 



was its standard-bearer, called usually bayrakddr, 
but also, synonymously, 'alemddr ( c alam being the 
Arabic equivalent of the Turkish bayrak, 'flag*). The 
sultan's own standard-bearer was a high official of 
the palace service, one of the "Aghas of the Stirrup", 
but he was usually called, not bayrakddr, but Mir 
c Alem (for Amir al-'alem). Under most of the earlier 
Turkish Muslim regimes the ruler likewise confided 
the care of his personal standard to an officer of 
high rank, who was known either by this title, or 
by another of similar import such as Sandjakddr. 
Bibliography: IA, art Baynk (Kopriilii); 
Gibb & Bowen, Islamic Society and the West, i, 
part i, index. (H. Bowen) 

BAYRAKDAR MUSTAFA PASHA [see MU- 
STAFA PASHA BAYRAKDAR]. 

BAYRAM [see 'Fd]. 

BAYRAM 'ALl, place on the Trans-Caspian 
Railway, 46V m. (57 km.) to the east of Marw, with a 
Persian population, now in the Marw (Mary) district of 
the Turkmen SSR, situated close by the oasis of Old 
Marv which was created by the Murghab [q.v.] and 
existed until the 18th century. Its ruins cover an 
area of some 50 sq. km. In the 19th century the region 
became part of the emperor's personal domain, 
which existed until 1917. Today there is an agricul- 
tural research station and an agricultural technical 
school in Bayram 'All. There are vineyards and 
orchards, and both silk worms and karakul sheep 
are bred. 

Bliography: Brockhaus-Yefron, Enciklope- 

dileskiy Slovar 1 4 (IIA) (1891), 722; Bolshaya 

Sovetskaya Enciklopediya' IV (1950), 54. 

(B. Spuler) 

BAYRAM 'ALl KHAN, prince of Marw 1197- 
1200/1783-1786, a member of the ruling branch of 
the house of Kadjar which ruled there from the time 
of 'Abbas I [q.v.]. In his own day, he was renowned 
as a valiant warrior. During a war against Murad-BI 
(Shah Ma'sum) of Bukhara, he was ambushed and 
killed. His second son, Muhammad Karim, succeeded 
him in Marw; his eldest son, Muhammad Husayn, 
dedicated his life to learning in Mashhad, and was 
regarded as the "Plato of his day" [AMtun-i Wakt). 
Bibliography: Mir 'Abd al-Karim Bukhari, 

Histoire de I'Asie Centrale, ed. Schefer, i (text), 

Paris 1876, 70 = ii (trans.) 157 f.; V. 2ukovskiy, 

Razvalini Starago Merva (The Ruins of Old Marw), 

St. Petersburg 1894, 83 f. 

(W. Barthold-[B. Spuler]) 

Muhammad BAYRAM KHAN, KjjAN-i Khanan 
{Amir al-Umard'), affectionately and respectfully 
addressed by the emperor Akbar [q.v.] as Khan Baba 
or Baba-am [(My) Good Old Man!] during the latter's 
minority, was a Turkoman of the Baharlu tribe, a 
branch of the Kara Koyunlii, who played a leading 
rdle in Diyar Bakr after the death of Malik Shah 
Saldjukl [q.v.]. 'All Shukr Beg, one of the ancestors 
of Bayram Khan, whose sons served Abu Sa'id 
Mirza, and after his defeat by Uzun Hasan in 837/ 
1433-4. Mahmud Mirza, his son (Babur-nama, 
transl. A. S. Beveridge, i, 49), held large estates in 
Hamadhan, Dinawar and Kurdistan. The family to 
which Bayram Mian belonged had always been in 
the service of kings and princes; his grand-father 
Yar 'All Beg Balal, who had settled in Badakhshan, 
was a servant of Babur (Bdbur-ndma transl. A. S. 
Beveridge, i, 91, 189). His father, Sayf 'All Beg, was, 
according to Firishta (Bombay ed. 250), governor of 
Ghazna and on the death of Babur had entered the 
service of Humayun. 

Bayram Khan was born in Badakhshan (according 



"35 

to some at Ghazna, which is most probable) but lost 
his father at a very early age. He then migrated to 
Balkh where he received his education, which later 
events prove to have been sound and thorough. 
A widely-read man, well-groomed in Court manners, 
he joined, at the age of 16, the service of Humayun, 
who had been appointed governor of Badakhshan by 
his father in 936/1529. At that time Humayun 
happened to be in Kabul. He accompanied him to 
India and participated in the disastrous battles of 
Cawsa (946/1539) and Kannawadj (947/1540) which 
resulted in the complete rout of Humayun's troops. 
Finding the enemy in hot pursuit he took refuge 
with the zamindar of Sambhal which Humayun held 
as a fief. Shir Shah Sur's men discovered his hiding- 
place and informed the Afghan chief who asked him 
either to join his ranks or leave Sambhal. Bayram 
Khan refused to cross over and fled towards Gudjarat. 
A clever ruse played by his companion, Mir Abu 
'1-Kasim, who at that time was the commandant of 
Gwalior, saved him from disgrace and sure capture. 
Abu '1-Kasim, however, lost his life in the bargain. 
Bayram succeeded in reaching the Court of Sultan 
Mahmud of Gudjarat, who not only offered him pro- 
tection but also took him into his service. He, how- 
ever, bided his time and, on the pretext of going on a 
pilgrimage to Mecca, was allowed to proceed to 
Surat. Availing himself of this opportunity he turned 
towards Radjputana and crossing the desert of Sind, 
joined his master, Humayun, at the township of Djfln 
(950/1543), now in ruins, when the fugitive emperor 
was making desperate efforts to regain his lost 
throne. Bayram was with him when he went to 
Kandahar (950/1543) to seek help from his brother 
Mirza 'Askari, and witnessed the rude and churlish 
behaviour of Tardi Beg when this nobleman was asked 
to lend his horse to the dethroned emperor for the 
use of his wife, Hamida Banu Begam, mother of 
the infant Akbar, at the time of their flight from 
the inhospitable city. 

At the Court of Shah Tahmasp of Iran, whose help 
in men, money and material Humayun was forced 
to seek to regain his lost crown, Bayram demon- 
strated unflinching loyalty towards his ill-starred 
master by politely refusing to accept the service of 
the Shah, who was impressed by his genealogy and 
family connexions. During his Indian campaigns 
Bayram won many battles for Humayun, as com- 
mander-in-chief of the Imperial army (961/1554), 
crowning his series of successes with the crushing 
defeat inflicted on Sikandar Sur at Machiwara, near 
Sirhind, in 963/'555- Contrary to what had been the 
practice so far, Bayram Khan ordered that the 
women and children of the vanquished Afghans 
should neither be molested nor enslaved, as both the 
acts were un-Islamic. This victory decided the 
future of Humayun who was now reassured of the 
throne of Hindustan and owed his restoration, to a 
large extent to the loyalty and devotion of Bayram 
Khan, who was appointed in 962/1555, apparently 
as a token of appreciation of his meritorious services, 
as the official guardian (atdlik) to young Akbar, 
then 13 years of age, and given the official title of 
Khan Baba. Thereafter Bayram accompanied his 
ward to the Pandjab, of which Khan Akbar had been 
appointed the governor. When the news of Humayun's 
accidental death (1556) reached Pandjab, Bayram 
was at Kalanawr (Dist. Gurdaspur, India) engaged 
in mopping-up operations against the remnants of 
Sikandar Sur's defeated army. He again saved the 
situation, and without loss of time proclaimed 
Akbar as the emperor, arranging his coronation on 



o BAYRAM KHAN 



an improvised brick-throne, still extant at Kalanawr. 
Soon after wards Himu, originally a corn-chandler 
from Rewarl, near Alwar, who commanded the Stir 
troops, attacked Delhi, and Tardi Beg, the Mughal 
governor, fled from the city without offering even 
the feeblest resistance. Bayram, who was now all- 
powerful, ordered the execution of Tardi Beg, 
apparently as a lesson to others but most probably 
to avenge the insult which that officer had had the 
audacity to offer to Humayun in the hour of his 
distress when he was fleeing from Kandahar. 
Firishta justifies this murder, although on purely 
political grounds. In 964/1556, when Himu clashed 
with the Imperial forces at the battle-field of 
Panlpat, Bayram scored a clear victory and, with 
the tacit approval of the monarch, killed the wounded 
general. Bayram has been adversely criticised for 
this callousness towards a fallen foe, but it should 
not be forgotten that in despotic monarchies, 
decapitation was the order of the day, especially 
in the case of rebels, rivals to the throne or State 
enemies; an example is the execution by Awrangzib 
of Dara Shukoh, whose head was publicly exhibited 
in Agra. Further, it was idle to expect any mercy 
from Bayram towards a low-caste upstart who 
nurtured the ambition of wearing the crown, and 
who had had the audacity to oppose the Emperor 
in person. With the defeat of Himu and the break-up 
of the Afghan army, the crown of Hindustan fell 
into the lap of Akbar like a ripe apple. Bayram was 
now at the height of his power and practically ruled 
the empire in the name of his ward. Akbar, however, 
had begun to show signs of resentment towards the 
Protector, who interfered in his boyish pleasures and 
desired him to maintain a princely demeanour. His 
marriage in 965/1557 to Sallma Sultan Begum, a 
cousin of Akbar and the daughter of Humayiin's 
sister, Gulrukh formally introduced Bayram into 
the royal family, thus adding to his prestige and 
personal glory. This marriage was celebrated with 
great pomp and show at pjullundur (Djalandhar), on 
(q.v.), his way back from Mankot (now Ramkot, in 
Djammu), where earlier in the same year Bayram, 
in a joint command with Akbar, had compelled 
Sikandar Sur to surrender after a long siege. Prior 
to his marriage to Sallma, which was purely of a 
political character, he had been married to the 
daughter of Diamal Khan, a Mewat chieftain, who 
gave birth to MIrza c Abd al-Rahim Khan, Kkdn-i 
Khdndn [q.v.], only four years before his death. The 
Mewat territory, which was Tardi Egg's assign- 
ment, had already been conferred by Bayram on 
one of his confidential servants, Mulla Pir Muljammad 



Bayram committed a tactical mistake in ap- 
pointing Shaykh Gadal Kamboh of Delhi, a bigoted 
Shi% as sadr al-sudur in 966/1558-9. This caused 
great resentment among the people and the Turanl 
nobles, who were almost all of them Sunnls, and al- 
Bada*uni (Eng. trans, ii, 22-4) makes it the peg on 
which to hang his 'most bitter gibes and venomous 
puns'. This, coupled with his other indiscreet acts, 
such as the elevation to State offices of members of 
the Shi'i sect, the execution of Tardi Beg of the 
SunnI persuasion, the non-allocation of the privy 
purse to the Emperor, whose needs were fast multi- 
plying with his increasing years, the meagre 
allowances for the royal household, and his 
own arrogant behaviour and over-estimation of 
his services, brought about a change in Akbar's 
attitude towards the Protector and he began to 
look for an opportunity to throw off the trammels 



of tutelage. Maham Anaga, Akbar's wet-nurse, who, 
at the head of a small but powerful Palace clique, 
had been secretly striving to compass Bayram's ruin, 
played no mean a r61e in estranging the ward from 
the guardian. Bayram realising that the scales were 
weighted against him, decided to clinch the issue by 
force of arms, and, on the pretext of leaving for 
Mecca, came to Pjullundur with the intention of 
taking it, after lodging his family in the fort of 
Bhattinda. He was defeated in a pitched battle by 
the Emperor's forces and was made to return the 
insignia of office. Deprived both of his office and the 
title of Khdn-i Khdndn. now conferred on Mun'im 
Khan, Bayram saw no way out but humbly to 
submit, and was pardoned by Akbar. Dejected, 
disappointed, and fallen from grace, Bayram, in 
fulfilment of his earlier intention, set off for Mecca, 
but was treacherously murdered by a vengeful 
Afghan enemy, Mubarak Khan Luhani, whose father 
had been killed in the battle of Machiwara (963/ 
1555) Bayram was killed while encamped at Patan 
(Anhilwara), on 14 Diumada I 968/31 January 1561. 
His camp was plundered and his family, including 
the 4-year old MIrza c Abd al-Rahim Khan, reached 
Ahmadabad almost penniless. The commandant of 
Patan, Musa Khan PuladI, who had hospitably 
received Bayram Khan, did not even give the dead 
hero, formerly so wealthy, a decent burial. Some 
poor and God-fearing people buried the former 
Khan-i Khdndn. whose dead body, in accordance 
with his wishes, was transferred in 971/1563-4 to 
Mashhad from Delhi, where it had been brought 
from Patan for a temporary and modest burial. Now 
he lies buried in a high-domed tomb in the vicinity 
of the mausoleum of Imam Musa al-RidS. 

An accomplished scholar, a good poet in Turki 
and Persian, a connoisseur of art, a liberal but 
orthodox Shi'I, Bayram Khan was a truly great man 
who patrionised the 'ulamd 1 and men of letters, no 
less than poets, artists, musicians, singers and 
craftsmen. He has received a generous tribute from 
even a carping critic like al-Bada'unl for his qualities 
of head and heart. His dlwdn was published at 
Calcutta in 1910. 

Akbar, who like his father owed his throne to 
Bayram Khan, tried to atone for his ingratitude by 
bringing up MIrza c Abd al-Rahim Khan, his 
orphaned son (who later on became Khan-i Khdndn 
and is better known to history than his father) and 
by marrying Sallma Sultan Begum, his widow. If 
the execution of Tardi Beg is a stain on the good 
name of Bayram Khan, his undignified dismissal 
by Akbar is no less a blot on the escutcheon of the 
'Great Mogul'. 

Bibliography: Shaykh Farid Bhakkari, 
Dhakhirat al-Khawdnin (Pakistan Hist. Society 
MS., no. 1); Samsam al-Dawla Shah Nawaz Khan, 
Ma'dthir at-Umard', (Bib. Ind.), i, 371-84 (this 
notice is largely based on the one in the Dhakhirat 
al-Khawdnin); c Abd al-Bakl Nahawandl, Ma>a- 
fhir-i Rahimi (Bib. Ind.), index; Nur Allah 
Shustari, Madjdlis al-Mu'minin, Tehran 1299/ 
1882, 431-2 (gives an absolutely wrong genealogy 
of Bayram Khan): Muhsin al-Amin al-Husaynl 
al- c AmilI, A'ydn al-Shi l a, Damascus 1939, xiv, 232; 
c Abd al-Hayy Nadwl, Nuzhat al-Khawdtir, Hay- 
darabad 1374/1954, iv, 64-6;Camb. Hist, of Ind., iv, 
index; 'All Sher Kani', Makaldt al-Shu'ard* (ed. 
Husam al-DIn RashidI), Karachi 1957, 98-102 and 
index ; al-Bada'unl, Muntakhab al-Tawdrikh, ( transl. 
Lowe), ii, index and iii, 265 and index; Shams al- 
'Ulama 5 Muhammad Husayn Azad, Darbdr-i A hbari 



Muhammad BAYRAM KHAN — BAYROT 



"37 



(in Urdu), Lahore 1898 s.v.; V. A. Smith, Akbar 
the Great Mogul, Oxford 1919, index; Muhammad 
Kasim Hindu Shah "Firishta", Gulshan-i Ibrdhimi, 
Bombay 1831, 250; Abu '1-Fadl, AHn-i Akbari, 
vol. i (trans. Blochmann), Calcutta 1873, 315-7; 
Djawhar AftabacI, Tadhkirat al-Wdki'dt (Urdu 
transl. Mu'in al-Hakk), Karachi, 1956, index (a 
valuable source for Bayram Khan's activities 
during Humayun's times including his wanderings) ; 
Amln-i Ahmad Razi, Haft Iklim; Kudrat Allah 
Gopamawi, Natd'idi al-Afkdr, Bombay 1334 
(Fasli), 102-3; Azad Bilgrami, Khizana-i "Amira, 
Cawnpore 1900, 458-9; 'All Kawthar Candpuri, 
Muhammad Bayram Khan Turkoman, Agra 1931. 

(A.S. Bazmee Ansari) 
BAYRAMIYYA, a tarika deriving from the 
Khalwatiyya and founded at Ankara in the 8th-gth/ 
I4th-i5th centuries by HadjdjI Bayram-i Wall (Veli). 
In Sufi tradition, the Prophet enjoined on Abu 
Bakr the dhikr-i khcfi, and on c Ali the dhikr-i diali. 
The Bayramiyya's preference for the dhikr-i dhafi 
being shared by the Nakshbandiyya, it has been 
regarded as a blend of the Khalwatiyya and 
Nakshbandiyya, but in fact its relationship to the 
latter is slight, its practice of the dhikr-i khafi being 
a product of its Malaml origins. 

On the death of the founder, the Order split, one 
branch adopting the dhikr-i diali and following Ak 
Shams al-DIn; these became known as Bayramiyye-i 
Shamsiyya. The other branch, under 'Umar Dede 
of Bursa, abandoning dhikr, wird, their individual 
costume, and takyas (tekke), called themselves 
Malamiyye-i Bayramiyya. Later, a third branch, the 
Djalwatiyya, emerged under c Aziz Mahmud Huda 5 ! 
(d. 1038/1628-9). 

The chief doctrinal peculiarity of the Order, and 
another mark of its Malaml origin, is that the devotee 
was introduced to the concept of wahdat al-wudjud 
at the beginning of his spiritual career, and not at 
the end of it as in other Orders. He must first grasp 
that all acts are from God (tawhid-i af-dl or fand'i 
af-dl) ; next, that the acts are a manifestation of the 
attributes, all of which are God's attributes (tawhid-i 
or fand'i sifdt) ; finally, that the attributes are are a 
manifestation of essence, that existence is one, and 
that all things are manifestations of the a'-yan-i 
Hlmiyya which exist in God's knowledge (tawhid-i 
or fand'i dhdt). 

The headdress of the Order was a six-panelled 
tddi of white felt, said to symbolise the six directions 
{up, down, right, left, front, rear) and so to indicate 
that the wearer comprehended all existing things. 

From the first, the Order's connexions with its 
parent Malamatiyya were strong; more than one 
Bayraml shavkh was recognised by the Malamatiyya 
as the kufb of the time. 

At the dissolution of the (arikas in Turkey in 1925, 
the centres of the Order were Istanbul, Ankara, 
Izmld, and Kastamonu. 

Bibliography : See the long article Bayramiye 

in I A, by Abdulbaki Golplnarll, of which this 

article is a condensation. (G. L. Lewis) 

BAYRCT (currently written Beyrouth or Beirut), 

capital of the Lebanese Republic, situated 

33° 54' lat. N. and 35 28' Long. E., is spread at first 

on the north face of a promontory, of which it now 

occupies almost the entire surface. The etymology 

of the name, long disputed, is no doubt derived 

from the Hebrew be'erot, plural of be'er, (well), the 

only local means of water supply until the Roman 

period. As a human habitat the site is prehistoric, 

traces of the Acheulian and Levalloisian periods 

Encyclopaedia of Islam 



having been found there. It is as a port on the 
Phoenician coast that the agglomeration appears 
under the name Beruta in the tablets of Tell al- 
c Amama (14th century B.C.), at that time a modest 
settlement long since eclipsed by Byblos (Djubayl). 
During an obscure period of twelve centuries Beruta 
underwent the passage of armies coming up from 
Egypt or descending from Mesopotamia, among 
whom was Ramses II in the 13 th century and 
Asarhaddon, king of Assyria, in the 7th century. 

Towards 200 A.D., Antiochus III the Great gained 
a victory over Ptolemy V and annexed Bayrut to the 
Seleucid kingdom and Syria. The town, for a time 
called Laodicea of Canaan, was destroyed about 
140 B.C. by the Syrian usurper Tryphon. Despite 
this disaster the port saw a great rise owing to the 
commercial relations with Delos, the Italians and 
the Romans; Bayrut then found its vocation as a 
link between Orient and Occident. 

Taken by Marcus Agrippa in the name of the 
Emperor Augustus, the town was rebuilt, embellished 
by remarkable edifices and peopled by veteran 
Roman legionaries. In 14 B.C. it was raised to the 
rank of a Roman colony (Colonia Julia Augusta 
Felix Berytus). Very rapidly Berytus became a 
great administrative centre (Herod the Great and 
resident there), an important 
and exchange, and a well 
attended university city. Its school of law, from the 
3rd century A.D., enjoyed particular acclaim and 
by its brilliance rivalled Athens, Alexandria and 
Caesarea. The increase in population made it neces- 
sary to construct for its water supply an important 
aqueduct (Kandtir Zubayda) in the valley of the 
Magoras (Nahr Bayrut). 

By the end of the 4th century Berytus was one 
of the most important cities in Phoenicia and the 
seat of a bishopric. A violent earthquake, accom- 
panied by a tidal wave, destroyed Bayrut in July 551. 
Justinian had the ruins restored, but the city had 
lost its splendour, and it was a town without 
defences that the troops of Abu 'Ubayda took when 
they entered in 14/635 the most Roman of the cities 
of the Orient. 

Under Muslim domination a new era began for 
Bayrut. The Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya had colonists 
brought from Persia to repopulate the city and its 
surrounding area, sericulture prospered again, and 
commercial relations resumed at first with the 
interior (Damascus) and later with Egypt. In the 
first centuries of Islam Bayrut was considered a 
ribdf, and the holy imam of Syria, Al-Awza c I, 
installed himself there in 157/774- In 364/975 John 
Tzimisces conquered the city, but shortly after the 
Fatimids retook it from the Byzantines. The Arab 
geographers of the 4th and 5th/ioth and nth 
centuries all mention that the city was fortified, and 
subject to the diund of Damascus. 

The Crusades brought fresh troubles. In 492/1099 
the Crusaders coming from the north along the coast 
did no more than provision themselves at Bayrut; 
they returned there after the capture of Jerusalem. 
In 503/1 1 10 Baldwin I and Bertrand of St. Gilles 
blockaded the city by land and sea. An Egyptian fleet 
managed to get supplies to the besieged, but a rein- 
forcement of Pisan and Genoese ships enebled them 
to launch an assault and take the city on 21 Shawwal 
503/13 May mo. In 1112 nomination of the first 
Latin bishop took place, Baldwin of Boulogne, who 
relieved the patriarch of Jerusalem, since in the 
Greek ecclesiastical organisation of the nth century 
Bayrut had been subject to Antioch. The Hospital- 
72 



J 138 



BAYROT — BAYSAN 



lers built the church of St. John the Baptist, which 
became the mosque of Al- c UmarI. In Rabl c II 578/ 
August 1182, Salah al-DIn sought to separate the 
County of Tripoli from the Kingdom of Jerusalem 
by retaking Bayriit, but it was not until the second 
attempt in Djumada II 583/August 1187 that the 
city capitulated. In Dhu '1-Ka c da 593/September 
1 197, Amalric of Lusignan took the city, whose 
Ayyubid garrison had fled. The Ibelins restored the 
defences of Bayrut and renewed its brilliance 
throughout the Latin Orient. In 1231 Riccardo 
Filanghiari occupied the city, but not the castle, 
in behalf of the Emperor Frederick II. 

Shortly after the accession of the Mamluks at Cairo, 
the lords of Bayrut were reduced to treat with them 
in order to preserve their independence with respect 
to the other Franks. In 667/1269 Baybars gave a 
guarantee of peace. In 684/1285 Sultan Kala'fln 
granted a truce which allowed a resumption of 
commercial activity, and finally, on 23 Radjab 690/ 
23 July 1291, the Amir Sandjar Abu Shudja'i, 
coming from Damascus, occupied Bayrut in the 
name of Al-Malik Al-Ashraf Mialil. 

Under the Mamluks Bayrut was an important 
wildya in the province {djund) of Damascus, and its 
governor an amir (abalkhdna. During the entire 
Middle Ages, possession of Bayrut was a powerful 
trump card, for one could procure there two rare 
"strategic materials", wood, from the pine forest 
south of the city, and iron, from the mines nearby. 

In the 8th/i4th century, commerce was troubled, 
the port having become the scene of rivalries between 
Genoese and Catalans, and the Mamluk princes 
reinforced its defences, Tanghiz (744/'343) and 
Barkuk (784-791/1382-1389) each having a tower 
constructed. In the 9th/i5th century, Bayrut con- 
tinued to be the meeting-place of western merchants 
who came there seeking silks, while fruit and snow 
were exported to the court at Cairo. 

At the beginning of the ioth/i6th century, the 
Frankish merchants were subjected to the extortions 
of the semi-autonomous governors nominated by the 
Porte. Under Fakhr al-DIn (i595/i°34) the city saw 
a brilliant period, and relations were renewed with 
Venice. In exports silk surpassed citrus fruits, while 
rice and linen cloth was imported from Egypt. 

In the middle of the 18th century, Bayrut was the 
most heavily populated coastal city after Tarabulus, 
the nucleus of the population being the Maronites 
protected by the Druze amirs. Suffering the counter- 
attacks of the Russo-Turkish war, Bayrut was 
bombarded several times and finally occupied by the 
Russians in October 1773. until February 1774- 
From 1831 on, despite the competant administration 
of Bashir II the Great (1788-1850), the campaigns 
of Ibrahim Pasha, which terminated in the bombard- 
ment of Bayrut by a combined Austrian, English and 
Turkish fleet in 1840, ruined commerce. A new era 
began in i860. The massacre of the Christians in Syria 
led to a major exodus towards Bayrut, and the tiny 
city of 20,000 acquired a deep Christian imprint. 

Having begun about a century ago, the rise of 
Bayrut continues. The city has developed very 
rapidly and for several decades has surpassed the 
brilliance of its Roman period. After having been, 
during the French Mandate (1920-43), the residence 
of the High Commissioner of France for the States 
of the Levant, Bayrut became the capital of an 
independent state and the seat of Parliament and the 
Administration of the country. The extremely 
heterogeneous population, predominantly Arab, is 
more than 200,000 (1958), which is doubled during 



the week with the daily influx of villagers, workers 
and merchants from the surrounding areas. 

Three universities (American, French and Leba- 
nese), numerous academic establishments of every 
nationality, and a National Library make of Bayrut 
one of the most important intellectual centres of the 
Arab Middle East. The city is also a centre of commerce 
and exchange. A port continually expanded since 
1893 and linked by railway to Syria and Jordan 
permit important transactions (2,500,000 tons in 
1950), despite the competition of Haifa and, more 
recently, Lattakia, the port of Syria. The volume of 
transactions has led to the creation of a Stock 
Exchange, and the foundation of branches by all 
the large international banks. An aerodrome of 
international class (Khald6) permits contacts with 
the entire world. A centre of transit and distribu- 
tion, Beirut is by vocation a link between Orient 
and Occident. 

Bibliography: Idrist, ed. Jaubert, i, 355; 
Yam, i, 525; Salih b. Yahya, TaMhh Bayriit 
(1927); L. Cheikho, Bayrut, Ta'rMuha wa- 
Athdruhd (1925); Ibn al-Kaldnisi (Le Tourneau) 
93-95; C. Enlart, Les monuments des Croisis, vol. 
iii, 68-82; G. Le Strange, Palestine under the 
Moslems (1890), 408-10; Du Mesnil du Buisson, 
Les Anciennes defenses de Beyrouth, Syria ii, 
1921, 238-57, 317-27; P. Collinet, Hist, de l'£cole 
de Droit de Beyrouth (1925) chap. 1; R. Dussaud, 
Topographic Historique de la Syrie (1927) 58-60; 
R. Grousset, Histoire des Croisades (1934-36), i, 
253-56; ", 710-713; iii. 155-160; R. Mouterde et 
J. Lauffray, Beyrouth, Ville romaine, 1952 ; Birot 
et Dresch, La M iditerranie et le Moyen Orient, 
(i955), ii, 415. (N. Eussf.eff) 

BAYSAN, a little Palestinian township in the 
valley of the Jordan, situated 30 kms. (18 miles) 
south of Lake Tiberias and 98 ms. above sea-level 
on a terrace raised 170 ms. above the low-lying 
ground through which, some distance away, the 
Jordan winds its way. Avoiding thus the extreme 
tropical heat which reigns elsewhere in the Ghawr 
[q.v.], it has all the same a hot and humid climate 
which Arab geographers did not fail to criticise, 
at the same time deploring the poor quality of its 
water (they nevertheless point out the merits of 
c Ayn al-Fulus, a well which a wide-spread tradition 
regards as being among the four springs of Paradise) 4 
Irrigation formerly made possible the cultivation of 
rice which was the country's wealth at the time of 
al-Makdisi, whilst of the palm-groves, mentioned in' 
traditions, the geographer Yakut, in the 7th/i3th 
century, observed only two single palm trees. But 
Baysan, thanks above all to its remarkable com- 
mercial and strategic position on the main stream 
of the traffic joining Damascus and the interior of 
Syria to Galilee and thence to Egypt and the 
Mediterranean coast, has succeeded in preserving 
its urban nucleus up to the present day, despite 
innumerable historical vicissitudes. 

The settlement of this site, proved for the period 
before the 3rd millenium by the excavations of Tall 
al-Husn which have succeeded in reaching the 
chalcolithic level, goes back indeed to very far-off 
times. We know of the Egyptians' interest in the 
ancient Bethsan or Bethse'an, whose name they 
transcribed as Bts'ir and which they annexed for 
three centuries after the victory of Thutmoses III in 
the plains of Megiddo, leaving numerous traces of 
their occupation. Then this important village, equally 
coveted by Philistines, Israelites and Madianites, 
which at one time formed part of the kingdom of 



- BAYT 



"39 



Solomon but remained always hostile to Judaism, 
became in the Hellenistic and Roman periods one 
of the most important cities of the Decapolis under 
the name of Scythopolis. Hellenism flourished there 
and the success which Christianity attained later was 
confirmed by the construction of various churches 
and monasteries. Its bishop was Metropolitan of 
Palestina Secunda and the celebrated hagiographer, 
Cyril of Scythopolis, was born there. 

Exposed to the first Arab attacks, for as early 
as 13/634 the troops of Khalid b. al-Walid attacked 
and annihilated a Byzantine army not far away, the 
town which now resumed its original native name 
softened into Baysan, was definitely occupied in 
15/636 at the time of Shurahbil b. Hasana's conquest 
of the Jordan region and was certainly visited by 
Abu c Ubayda b. al-Djarrah whose tomb according 
to some authors is situated there. As administrative 
centre of one of the districts of the d±und of al- 
Urdunn, it seems to have prospered peacefully 
among its gardens until it was attacked by the 
Franks of the First Crusade who annexed it to the 
Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem after it had been taken 
by Tancred in 492/1099. They created the barony of 
Bessan but transferred the episcopal see to Nazareth. 
Its history continued to be a troubled one. Muslim 
attacks ended in its reconquest by Salah al-DIn in 
583/1 187 and later there was a new raid by the Franks 
Of the Fifth Crusade who plundered it in 614/1217. 
The invasion of the Mongols who were defeated not 
far away at c Ayn Djalut [q.v.] in 658/1260 was a 
heavy blow to it but later on in the time of the 
Mamluks it was to become the capital of a wildya 
in the second southern frontier district of the province 
of Damascus. At this time the caravanserai of Salar 
was built in its immediate neighbourhood on the 
route of the present-day railway. This was used by 
the mounted mail couriers whose itinerary was 
modified in this way by the initiative of the chief 
of the chancellery, Ibn Fadl Allah, in 741/1340. 
Bibliography: F. M. Abel, Giographic de la 
Palestine, Paris 1933-1938, especially ii, 280-81 
(s.v. Bethsan), with references to Rowe, Beth-Shan, 
Topography and History, 1930, and to various 
articles in the Revue Biblique, especially between 
the years 1922 and 1935 ; G. Le Strange, Palestine 
under the Moslems, London 1890, especially 410-411 ; 
A. S. Marmardji, Textes giographiques, Paris 195 1, 
37-38; Caetani, Annali, indices (ii, 1289 and vi, 
42); the same, Chronographia, 150-151, 179; 
Baladhurl, FutHh, 116; Tabari, index, especially i, 
2157-2158; Ibn al-Athlr, index, especially xi, 361; 
Hist. Or. Cr., indices; Harawl, K. al-Ziydrdt, ed. 
Sourdel-Thomine, Damascus 1953, 21 (transl. 
Damascus 1957, 54); Yakut, i, 788; Bakri, Das 
Oeographische WUrterbuch, ed. Wustenfeld, 188; 
Abu '1-Fida', Takwlm, 243; R. Grousset, Hist, 
des Croisades, 1934, 36, index, especially i, 179-81 
and ii, 201-04; M. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, La 
Syrie i I'tpoque des Mamelouks, Paris 1923, espe- 
cially 64 and 179; J. Sauvaget, La poste aux 
chevaux, Paris 1941, 73-75. 

(J. Sourdel-Thomine) 
BAYSONGHOR, Ghiyath al-DIn, son of 
Shah Rukh and grandson of Timur, was appointed 
by his father in 820/1417 to the office of chief judge 
at the court; in 823/1420 on the death of Kara- 
Yusuf , he took possession of Tabriz and was appointed 
governor of Astarabad in Safar 835/October 1431, 
but he never ascended the throne; the astrologers 
having predicted to him that he would not live 
more than forty years, he gave himself up to dissipat- 



ion and died at Harat on Saturday, 7 Djumada 1837/ 
19 December 1433, at the age of thirty-six. He was 
buried in the Mausoleum of Princess Gawhar-Shad. 
An artist and patron of the arts, he was a designer 
and an illuminator; in the library which he had 
founded, forty copyists, pupils of Mlr-'AH, inven- 
tor of the nastaHik script, were occupied copying 
manuscripts. His example had a considerable in- 
fluence on the development of the art of painting 
in Persia in the period of the Timurids. In 829/ 
1425-6 he caused a critical edition of the Shdh-ndma 
of Firdawsl to be undertaken and a preface to be 
written to this work, the longer of the two which 

Bibliography: CI. Huart, Calligraphes el 

miniaturistes, 97, 208, 324, 336; J. Mohl in 

Firdawsl, Livre des Rots (Shdh-ndma), Vol. i, xv, 

note 1; Mlrkh'and, Rawdat al-Safa, vi, 212, 213; 

Kh'Sndamlr, Habib al-Siyar, iii, Part 3, 116, 123, 

130. (Cl. Huart) 

BAYSONGHOR, second son of Sultan 

Mahmud of Samarkand, grandson of Sultan 

Abu Sa c Id [q.v.], born in the year 882/1477-8, killed 

on 10 Muharram 905/17 Aug. 1493. In the lifetime 

of his father he was prince of Bukhara; on the death 

of the latter in RaW II 900/30 Dec. 1494/27 Jan. 

1495, he was summoned to Samarkand. In 901/1495-6, 

he was deposed for a brief period by his brother 

Sultan C A1I and in 903, towards the end of Rabl c I 

November 1497, finally overthrown by his cousin 

Babur. BSysonghor then betook himself to Hisar 

where he was successful in defeating his brother 

Mas'ud and taking the country with the help of 

the Beg Khusraw Shah, who came over to his 

side; he was soon afterwards betrayed by this 

same Beg and put to death. Baysonghor is described 

by his rival Babur as a brave and just prince. He 

was also famous as a Persian poet under the name 

'Adill; his ghatals were so popular in Samarkand 

that they were to be found in almost every house 

(Bdbur-ndma, ed. Beveridge, f. 68 b.). 

(W. Barthold) 
BAYSONGHOR, the name of another prince, 
of the Ak-Koyunlu dynasty in Persia, son and 
successor of Sultan Y a e k ub ; he only reigned 
for a short period from 896-7/1490-2 and was over- 
thrown by his cousin Rustam. (W. Barthold) 

BAYT, the common Semitic root of the word for 
"dwelling", whether the "tent" of the nomads, or 
the "house" (stone, wood or brick) of sedentary 
peoples. It may sometimes designate a "sanctuary": 
thus in Arabic with the article al-Bayt is applied par 
excellence to the holy place at Mecca, also called 
al-Bayt al-hardm (sacred dwelling) or al-Bayt al- ( atik 
(ancient). Geographical names composed with Bayt 
are equally frequent, and the first element is often 
found reduced in Syro- Palestinian toponomy to the 
prefix B-, derived from the Aramaic (Syriac) Be, but 
also known from Canaanitic, to judge by several 
examples of it in Biblical Hebrew (Bl-shan, etc.). 

In Arabic, the definitions, always detailed, of the 
lexicologists limit the term to a dwelling of medium 
dimension, perhaps suitable for one family. And the 
sense of "family" is found precisely in all of the 
Semitic languages. As, by contrast, Bayt does not 
figure among the technical designations of tribal 
subdivisions, one might see there an argument in 
favour of a classical distinction between the family, 
however large, and these other various groupings, 
if unfortunately the same metonymical association 
were not to some extent encountered in all languages, 
too generally to be probative. (J. Leckrf) 



BAYT [see c arOd]. 

BAYT BJIBRlN, or sometimes PjibrIl: a large 
Palestinian village of the Shephela, situated at an 
altitude of 287 m. south-west of Jerusalem on the 
borders of the limestone mountains of Judaea and 
the coastal plain, in a region rich in quarries and 
ancient remains which attracted the interest of 
Arab authors. Called Begabri by Josephus who 
regarded it as a village of Idumaea, and Betogabri 
by Ptolemy and the Tabula Peutingeriana, it was a 
successor to the town of Maresha/Marisa, often 
referred to in the Old Testament and destroyed by 
the Parthians in 40 B.C., whose nearby position has 
been ascertained by excavations. It owed its other 
name of 'town of the cavemen' to the original 
population of the Hurrites who had occupied this 
region before being driven back under the pressure 
of Edom, and who bore a name synonymous with 
'troglodytes'. This name was translated into Greek 
through a play of words in Hebrew as 'town of the 
free men' or Eleutheropolis when Septimus Severus 
gave the jus italicum to this locality in 200 A.D. 
In the middle ages it resumed its original name 
which appears in the Talmudic writings under the 
form of Beth Gubrin, and was twisted by the 
Crusaders into Beth Gebrim, Bethgibelin or Gibelin; 
it seems that a play of words on the Arabic diibrinl 
dfabbdrin then allowed to identify the place with 
the legendary 'City of the Giants', according to a 
tradition which is referred to by al-HarawI and 
which describes the story of Musa related in Kur'an, 
v, 24/21-25/22 as having taken place there. 

Minting its own money and commanding a vast 

region, the city of Eleutheropolis enjoyed great 

prosperity in ancient times as is proved by the 

Romano-Byzantine mosaics which have been 

discovered there. Its importance diminished in 

Arab times although after its conquest by 'Amr b. 

al-'As during the Caliphate of Abu Bakr, it continued 

to be the capital of a district within the military 

djund of Palestine and a trading-post on the road 

between Jerusalem and Ghazza. However, bitter local 

fighting seems to have occurred in this region which 

was mainly populated, according to al-Ya'kubl, by 

the Pjudham {q.v.}, and "according to the account 

of a monk, Stephen of Mar Saba, Eleutheropolis was 

completely destroyed in 796 in the course of a war 

between Arab tribes" (Fr. Buhl), a statement which 

should certainly be accepted with some reservations. 

Indeed a little later al-Makdisi describes Bayt 

Djibrin as a commercial centre for the district of 

Darura [q.v.], and the military value of its situation 

caused the Crusaders, who had first destroyed it, 

to build a citadel there towards 11 34 which was 

put into the charge of the Knights Hospitallers, to 

safeguard the frontier of the kingdom of Jerusalem 

on the Egyptian side and to stop Muslim raids which 

came principally from the direction of 'Askalan 

[q.v.]. After having suffered some damage when 

Salah al-DIn retook it in 583/1187, it still remained 

a fortified town in the Mamliik period, depending 

directly from the nd'ib of the Ghazza district in the 

coastal frontier area of the province of Damascus. 

Bibliography: F. M. Abel, Giographie de la 

Palestine, Paris 1933-38, especially ii, 272 (s.v. 

Beth Gubrin) and 379 (s.v. MarUa); Stephanus, 

Acta Sanctorum Martyrum, Hi, 1679; G. Le 

Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, London 

1890, 412; A. S. Marmardji, Textes Giographiques, 

Paris 1951, 22-23; Caetani, Annali, indices (ii, 

1289 and vi 42); Baladhuri, FutQji, 138; Tabari, 

index; Ibn al-Athir, especially xi, 361; Hist. Or. 



Cr., indices; BGA, indices; Harawl, K. al-Ziydrdt, 
ed. Sourdel-Thomine, Damascus 1953, 32 (transl. 
Damascus 1957, 74-75) ; Yakut, i, 776; R. Grousset, 
Hist, des Croisades, Paris 1934-36, index, especially 
ii. 157-58; M. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, La Syrie 
d I'lpoque des Mamelouks, Paris 1923, 50. 

(J. Sourdel-Thomine) 
BAYT al-FAICIH, (i.e., "the Abode of the 
Jurist"), a town of c. 10,000 population located at 
14° 30' N., 43 16' E. in Tihamat al-Yaman. The 
town is also called Bayt al-Fakih al-Saghir, to 
distinguish it from Zaydiyya or Bayt al-Fakih al- 
Kabir to the north near Badjil, and Bayt al-Fakih 
Ibn 'Udjayl after the name of the jurist around 
whose tomb the town has grown. The town in 1944 
was the capital of the (tadd of Bayt al-Fakih, com- 
prising four ndhiyas ,in the liwa? of al-Hudayda. 
The four ndhiyas are: Nahiyat Lidjan, Nahiyat al- 
Husayniyya, Nahiyat Ban! Sa'id, and Nahiyat Bayt 
al-Fakih, each of which is governed by an c dmil, 
with the courtesy title of kadi if he is not a sayyid. 
The liwa' of al-Hudayda falls under a royal prince. 
Bayt al-Fakih may be connected with pre-Islamic 
history through the migration of the tribe of al-Azd 
from Marib after the breaking of the dam. Tradition 
alludes to the temporary settlement of the tribe near a 
wateringplace called Ghassan, perhaps between Wadl 
Rima' and Wadi Zabld. A portion of al-Azd later 
moved to the Syrian borders and established the 
state of Ghassan. In the 8th/i4th century, Ibn 
Battuta mentions the name of the village near the 
tomb of Ibn <Udjayl as Ghassana, but this name is 
unknown there today. The classical Arab geographers 
mention neither Ghassana nor Bayt al-Fakih. 

It seems likely that the present village of Bayt 
al-Fakih arose shortly after the death of the fafch, 
Abu '1-' Abbas Ahmad b. Musa b. 'All b. 'Umar b. 
'Udjayl, in 690/1291 due largely to pilgrimages made 
to his grave and the miraculous powers attributed 
to the invocation of his name. In the nth/i7th 
century the town increased its prosperity as a coffee- 
centre for the port of Mocha, and an East India 
Company factor, Revington, suggested the estab- 
lishment of a factory there in 1659. During the 
I2th/i8th century, the YamanI Imams took monthly 
revenues of £ 1500 from Mocha and Bayt al-Fakih 
combined, an amount which increased during the 
months of Indian shipping. Hamilton estimates 
annual coffee sales in Bayt al-Fakih at 22,000 tons. 
However, this same period saw the decline of the 
YamanI trade as a result of expanding cultivation 
of coffee in Ceylon and the Western Hemisphere, 
and Bayt al-Fakih resumed its provincial, scholarly 
life, amid the anarchical political conditions in 
Southern Arabia. 

The unsettled state of this area had been due 
largely to the fractious independence of the tribe 
of al-Zaranlk centered on Bayt al-Fakih. With a 
fighting strength estimated at 10,000 men, the 
tribe has steadfastly refused to accept govern- 
mental control for long and was strong enough in 
1914 to levy road tolls on Ottoman infantry. As 
recently as 1947 the tribe cut down to the last man 
a punitive force sent by the Imam. 

Bibliography: Hamdani; Ibn Battuta, Voya- 
ges d'Ibn Batoutah, ed. and transl. Defremery and 
Sanguinetti, Paris 1893; al-KhazradjI, History 
of the Result Dynasty of Yemen, ed. and transl. 
J. W. Redhouse, Leyden and London 1908; 
'Umara, Yaman, its early mediaeval history, ed, 
and transl. H. C. Kay, London 1892; Yakut; 
Admiralty, Western Arabia and the Red Sea, 



BAYT al-FAKIH — BAYT al-MAL 



Oxford 1946; G. W. Bury, Arabia Injelix, London 
1915; W. Foster, The English Factories in India, 
1655-1660, Oxford 1921; A. Hamilton, A New 
Account of the East Indies, Edinburgh 1727; 
W. B. Harris, A Journey Through the Yemen, 
Edinburgh and London 1893; G. Heyworth- 
Dunne, Al-Yemen, Cairo 1952. 

(R. L. Headley) 
BAYT AL-flIKMA, "House of Wisdom", a 
scientific institution founded in Baghdad by the 
caliph al-Ma'mOn, undoubtedly in imitation of the 
ancient academy of Djundaysabur. Its principal 
activity was the translation of philosophical and 
scientific works from the Greek originals which, 
according to tradition, a delegation sent by the 
caliph had brought from the country of Rum. Its 
directors were Sahl b. Harun [q.v.] and Salm, assisted 
by 9a'Id b. Harun. It included an important staff 
of translators, of whom the most famous were the 
Banu 'l-Munadjdjim, as well as copyists and binders. 
It appears in fact that the library so constituted, and 
often called Khizdnat al-hikma, had already existed 
in the time of al-Rashld and the Barmakids who had 
begun to have Greek works translated. Al-Ma'mun 
may only have given a new impetus to this movement, 
which was to exert a considerable influence of the 
development of Islamic thought and culture (see 

'ARABIYYA, B. Ill, l). 

To the same institution were attached astronomical 
observatories (marsad), one installed at Baghdad, 
the other at Damascus, where Muslim scholars 
devised in particular new tables (xidf [q.v .]), correcting 
the ancient ones furnished by Ptolemy. 

The Bayt al-hikma properly so called, does not 
appear to have survived the orthodox reaction of 
al-Mutawakkil, although there is subsequent mention 
in 'Irak, during the 3rd/gth century, of several 
scientific libraries, owing their existence to private 
initiative and the fact that the caliph al-Mu c tadid 
had sought to favour the work of various scholars 
whom he had installed in his palace. Only the 
Fatimids were later to found similar official acade- 
mies, of which the most important was the ddr 
al-hikma [q.v.] established by al-Hakim in 395/1005. 
Bibliography: Fihrist, 5, 10, 21, 120, 143, 
243, 274; Yakut, Irshdd, iv, 258-259, v, 66-68; 
Kifti, ed. Lippert, 29-30, 97-98; A. F. Rif5% 
c Asr al-Ma?mun, Cairo 1928, i, 375-76; O. Pin,to, 
Le biblioteche degli Arabi nell'eta degli Abbassidi. 
Florence 1928, 12-14; K. 'Awwad. Khazd'in kutub 
al-Hrdk cl- c dmma, in Sumer, ii, 2, 1946, 214-218. 

(D. Sourdel) 
BAYT LAHM, large Palestinian village and 
celebrated centre of pilgrimage situated in the 
limestone mountains of Judaea 800 m. above sea- 
level and approximately 10 kms. south of Jerusalem, 
corresponds to the ancient Bethlehem of biblical 
fame. Honoured and visited by Christians from the 
4th century on, it became equally venerated by 
Muslims as the birthplace of 'Isa b. Maryam [q.v.]. 
The Arab geographers who never failed to refer to 
this fact and who often expressed admiration for the 
Byzantine basilica which (founded by Constantine 
in 325 and restored under Justinian in 525) had 
been built there, commented equally on the mira- 
culous palm of Kur'an, xlx, 25, the tomb of 
David and Solomon which Christian tradition had 
already located in the Grotto of the Nativity, and 
the mihrab of 'Umar b. al-Khattab, traditionally 
the spot where the second Caliph had prayed at the 
time of his journey through Palestine after its 
conquest. This remarkable reputation from the 



religious point of view did not however help the 
village of Bayt Lahm, too close as it was to Jerusalem, 
to develop in importance, and the attention paid to 
it by the Franks of the First Crusade, who built 
a fortress there after they had annexed it in 492/ 
1099, and in mo got permission to set up a 
bishopric there, did no more than give it a brief 
spurt of life. Occupied by Salah al-DIn when he 
reconquered Palestine in 583/1187, then included in 
the temporary retrocession of the Treaty of Jaffa con- 
cluded between al-Malik al-Kamil and Frederick II, 
the place continued then and later to vegetate. 
However the intensification of the relations between 
its Christian population and the West permitted it 
finally to achieve its present position, that of a small 
town with a feeble Muslim minority (the Muslims 
never recovered from the repression of which they 
were the victims in 1834 after they had revolted 
against Ibrahim Pasha), where religious institutions 
and modern houses predominate, ranged in a semi- 
circle on the side of the hill round the platform 
surmounted by the famous basilica. This sanctuary 
of the Nativity whose archaeological interest has 
already been emphasised, has been the object of 
successive restorations which have left the primitive 
arrangement of its central part with its four-fold 
rows of columns untouched, but have transformed 
especially the decoration which gives valuable 
information about the evolution of the art of the 
mosaic in the high middle ages. 

Bibliography: F. M. Abel, Giographie de la 
Palestine, Pais 1933-38, especially II, 276 (s.v. 
Bethliem); G. Le Strange, Palestine under the 
Moslems, London 1890, 298-300; A. S. Marmardji, 
Textes Giographiques, Paris 1951, 24-26; Caetani, 
Annali, index (vi, 42); BGA, indices; Harawi, K. 
al-Ziydrdt, ed. Sourdel-Thomine, Damascus 1953, 
29 (transl. Damascus 1957, 69-70); Yakut, i, 779; 
Ibn al-Athir. especially xi, 361; R. Grousset, 
Hist, des Croisades, Paris 1934-36, index; Vincent 
and Abel, Le Sanctuaire de la Nativiti, Paris 1914; 
H. Stern, Les reprisentations des conciles dans 
Vtglise,de la Nativiti a Bethliem, in Byzantion, xi 
(1936), 101-52, and xiii (1938), 417-59, and 
Nouvelles recherches sur les reprisentations .... in 
Cahiers archiologiques, 3 (1948), 82-105. 

(J. Sourdel-Thomine) 
BAYT al-MASDIS [see al-Kuds]. 
BAYT al-MAL, in its concrete meaning "the 
House 0* wealth", but particularly, in an abstract 
sense, the "fiscus" or "treasury" of the Muslim 
State. 

I. The Legal Doctrine. 'Bilal and his com- 
panions asked 'Umar b. al-Khattab to distribute 
the booty acquired in Iraq and Syria. "Divide the 
lands among those who conquered them", they said, 
"just as the spoils of the army are divided". But 
'Umar refused their request . . . saying: "Allah has 
given a share in these lands to those who shall come 
after you".' (Kitdb al-Kharddi, 24. Le Livre de Vlmpot 
Foncier, 37). In this alleged decision of c Umar lies the 
germ of the notion of public as distinct from private 
ownership" and the idea of properties and monies 
designed to serve the interests of the community 
as a whole. Coupled with the institution of the 
diwdn [q.v.] in 20 A.H. it marks the starting point of 
the conception of the bayt al-mdl as the State 
Treasury or fiscus. Previously the term had simply 
designated the depositary where money and goods 
were temporarily lodged pending distribution to 
their individual owners. (See Tyan, Institutions 
du Droit Public Musulman, i, 216). 



BAYT A 



Organisation. All the various officials derive 
their powers by delegation from the Imam who is 
the head of the bayt al-mdl. In SunnI law a firm 
distinction is drawn between the public authority 
with which the Imam is invested in this respect, and 
the personal control of his privy purse. (See Tyan, 
op. cit., i, 391 f. and ii, 195. Also Mez, Renaissance, 
113-116 (Eng. tr., 120-122), for the position in 
practice.) This distinction does not apply to the same 
extent in the law of the Twelver ShI'a, where the 
ownership of certain properties which in SunnI law 
belong to the community as a whole is vested in the 
person of the divinely inspired Imam. (See Querry, 
Droit Musulman, i, 178, 337. Baillie, Imameea 
Code, 362). 

The actual collection and distribution of State 
revenues is the responsibility of the Sahib bayt al-mdl 
who controls the several officials in charge of the 
various categories of revenue listed below. Freedom, 
Islam, moral integrity ( l adila- [see c adl]) and 
competence are essential qualifications for such 
appointments, and in addition the quality of 
idjtikdd [?.«.] is required fo those offices which 
involve discretionary assessment or expenditure. 
Minor agents of collection or delivery may be slaves, 
or dhimmis when dealing only with their co-reli- 
gionists. The records and accounts of Treasury 
business are dealt with by a special administrative 
department under the control of the Kdtib al-dlwdn, 
for which office 'addla and professional competence 
are the only two essential qualifications. 

Within this skeleton framework the nature and 
scope of individual offices is a matter for the discret- 
ion of the Imam. "Neither for general nor for 
particular appointments does the SharPa define the 
terms" (Ibn Farhun, Tabsirat al-ffukkdm, ii, 141, 
158). 

Sources of Revenue. Not all State revenues are 
"assets of the Treasury" {hvkiik bayt al-mdl) as such. 
These latter may be defined as those monies or 
properties which belong to the Muslim community 
as a whole, the purpose to which they are devoted 
being dependent upon the discretion of the Imam or 

Thus the only portion of the ghanima [q.v.] which 
qualifies as one of the assets of the Treasury is that 
fraction of the fifth (al-khums) — which term may 
here be taken to include the levy on mined products 
and treasure trove — which is the share of Allah and 
the Prophet and which is to be spent in the interests 
of the community as a whol.\ The remainder of the 
fifth is earmarked for specified classes — the relatives 
of the Prophet, orphans, poor and travellers — and 
as such is removed from the discretion of the Imam. 
Similarly the proceeds of sadaka or zakdt [q.v.] are 
destined for particular classes of the community and 
though, like ghanima, these monies may be controlled 
by Treasury officials or lodged in the vaults of the 
Treasury pending the determination of the entitled 
recipients, ownership, from the moment of payment, 
vests in the entitled recipients and not in the bayt 
al-mdl. Even the Hanafi jurists, who allow the Imam 
to apportion out the sadaka at his discretion to one 
or more of the specified beneficiaries to the exclusion 
of the rest, draw a clear-cut distinction between mdl 
al-sadaka and mdl al-Muslimin. (See Kitdb al- 
Kharddi, 80, 149, 187). 

The primary source of the Treasury's income is, 
then, the revenues collectively termed /ay', i.e., the 
taxes of kharddi and d±izya [qq.v.]. The position of the 
tax <ushr [q.v.] is somewhat confused. Some jurists 
appear to regard it as fay* and others as sadaka, 



while in one view it is treated as sadaka if paid by 
Muslims and as fay' if paid by non-Muslims. Among 
the subsidiary sources of income are: 

(i) Property with no known owner — e.g., runaway 
slaves when apprehended, or property found in the 
possession of arrested brigands. The proceeds from 
the sale of such property if movable, or its ex- 
ploitation if immovable, belong to the bayt al-mdl. 

(ii) The property of apostates. While the great 
majority of jurists maintain that all the available 
property of apostates belongs to the bayt al-mdl, 
the Hanafi jurists are divided between denying the 
claim of the Treasury altogether and restricting it 
to such property as was acquired after apostacy. 

(iii) Estates of deceased persons. [See mIrath]. The 
Treasury is especially favoured in this respect in 
Malik! law, where it will always succeed, as resi3uary 
heir, in the absence of any entitled 'asaba and such 
Rur'anic heirs as would exhaust the estate by the 
sum of their alloted shares. With no heir of either 
category the Treasury is assured of at least two 
thirds of the estate, since bequests may not exceed in 
value one third of the nett estate. In the law of the 
other schools, however, the presence of any Kur'anic 
heir or blood-relative will exclude the Treasury, and 
in Hanafi law, failing such heirs, testamentary 
disposition may embrace the whole of the estate. 
Here then the Treasury only succeeds by a species 
of escheat. 

Expenditure. Claims upon public monies fall, 
according to Mawardi (al-Ahkdm al-Sul(dniyya, 
367 f.), into two main categories. 

(i) Claims in regard to which the liability of the 
Treasury is absolute. Such claims are either for 
services rendred to the State — e.g., the stipends of 
the armed forces, the salaries of State officials, the 
price of equipment purchased — or for expenditure 
which is a specific obligation upon the State — e.g., 
the duty to maintain its prisoners. The satisfaction 
of such claims is the first obligation upon the Treasury 
and payment may only be deferred when (as is the 
case with an ordinary debtor) the Treasury is 
insolvent. At the discretion of the Sahib bayt al-mdl 
loans may be raised to satisfy these claims. 

(ii) Claims in regard to which the Treasury's 
liability is dependent upon the existence of the 
necessary funds and the satisfaction of all claims in 
the previous category. Here the expenditure involved 
is for purposes of the public welfare and interest — 
e.g., the construction of roads, water supplies, the 
repair of damage to kharddi lands. 

When all outstanding obligations have been met 
the Hanafi jurists advise that any surplus should be 
preserved to insure against possible future need, 
while the Shafi'Is maintain that any surplus should 
be expended immediately in th*e public interest. 
Beyond these general principles the law does not go, 
content to leave the detailed determination of the 
public interest to the discretion of the Imam, with 
the one proviso that public funds are not to be 
devoted to purposes prohibited by the law — e.g., 
gambling, music etc. 

Procedure. The administrative work of the 
diwdn (analysed by Mawardi, op. cit., 370-375) 
raises three main legal issues. 

(i) Legal proof. While it is a fundamental principle 
of Shari'a law to deny any validity to written 
evidence, in Treasury practice official documents 
and records are per se a sufficient basis for action. 
Shafi'I law endorses this practice by drawing a 
distinction between "private rights" (al-hukuk al- 
khdssa) and "public rights" (al-hukak al-'dmma), 



BAYT al-MAL 



but the Hanafls declare that Treasury documents can 
only serve as a basis for action when their authen- 
ticity is established by oral testimony. Serailarly 
proof of payment of taxes is established in Treasury 
practice by the written receipt of the collector. 
Legal doctrine, however, requires the oral acknow- 
ledgement of his signature by the collector; and 
further, in Hanafi law, such an acknowledged written 
receipt must be substantiated by oral acknow- 
ledgement of actual receipt. Finally written author- 
isation for payment from the Treasury is in practice 
accepted as a sufficient basis for Treasury accounts, 
while the jurists ideally require in addition oral 
acknowledgement of actual receipt by the designated 

(ii) Procedure in disputes. The paramount question 
of the allotment to the contending parties of the 
respective rdles of plaintiff and defendant is governed 
by normalSAori'o principles. The plaintiff, upon whom 
falls the burden of legal proof (failing which effect is 
given to the defendant's oath of denial), is the party 
whose claim runs counter to the initial legal pre- 
sumption attaching to the case. Thus in disputes 
arising from the inspection of officials' accounts by 
the diwdn's officers (the presentation of accounts to 
the diwdn being obligatory upon officials concerned 
with the collection or distribution of fay'' revenues) 
the accountant of the diwdn fills the rdle of plaintiff 
if the dispute concerns the income of the Treasury 
and that of defendant if the dispute concerns 
expenditure. 

(iii) Jurisdiction. Disputes between private citizens 
and Treasury officials are justiciable by the Sahib 
ai-diwan, unless he is expressly denied this function 
in his terms of appointment. Such judicial competence 
belongs naturally to an office of which the principal 
duty is that of assuring the application of the rules 
and regulations of fiscal law. In the case of disputes 
between officials of the treasury and the officers of 
the diwdn, when the Sahib al-diwdn is, in effect, a 
party to the dispute, the principle that no one can 
be judge in his own case applies and jurisdiction 
belongs to the ordinary courts. 

Fundamentally concerned with the strict regulation 

of man's relationship with his Creator, the Shari'-a 

deals with the relationship between the individual 

and the State only in general terms, restricting itself 

to demanding the observance of a few relevant 

principles. This attitude is particularly evident in 

the field of criminal law, where, outside the hadd 

offences (in which the notion of man's obligations 

towards Allah predominates) the determination of 

offence and punishment is left to the discretion of 

the sovereign. So it is with fiscal law. Only those 

limited aspects of public finance which are deemed 

to constitute man's obligation towards Allah (e.g., 

takdt tax) are regulated in detail; and thus the law 

concerning the bayt al-mdl is essentially within the 

province of the administrative regulations (kdnun) 

of the political authority and not of the Shari'-a. 

Bibliography: The authoritative handbooks 

of Shari'a law according to the different schools. 

Abu Yusuf, Kitdb al-Kharddi. Cairo 1302/1884-5, 

translated and annotated by E. Fagnan under the 

title Le Livre de I'Impot Fancier, Paris 1921; 

Mawardi, al-Ahkdm al-Sul(dniyya, ed. M. Enger, 

1853; Ibn Taymiyya, Siydsa Shar'iyya (trans, by 

H. Laoust as Le TraiU du Droit Public d'Ibn Tai- 

miyya, Beirut 1948) ; N. P. Aghnides, Mohammedan 

Theories of Finance (1916); R. Levy, The Social 

Structure of Islam, Cambridge 1957; A. Mez, 

Renaissance (Eng. trans, by Khuda Bukhsh and 



Margoliouth) ; D. Santillana, Istituzioni di Diritto 

Musulmano, 2 vols. Rome 1926 and 1938; E. 

Tyan, Institutions du Droit Public Musulman, 

2 vols., Paris 1954 and 1957. 

(N. J. Coulson) 

II. History. The institution can be traced 
back to Muhammad in so far as there already 
existed in his time the embryonic notion of a 
Treasury of the Community, supplied by diverse 
forms of contributions; but its real origin is to 
be found in the contact between the new needs 
of the Community which had become the conqueror 
of an Empire and the pre-existing fiscal institutions 
of the conquered States. Tradition is certainly 
correct in attributing to the Caliph 'Uraar several 
essential preliminary steps, although the details are 
undoubtedly surrounded with much confusion. For 
c Umar the immediate problem was the organisation 
of the system of stipends (see 'ata'), the fiscal 
regime itself and the collection of taxes remaining 
almost exclusively in the hands of the native popu- 
lation. Afterwards the progressive development of a 
bureaucratic and centralised Muslim State had a 
particular effect on the elaboration of the scheme 
of taxation, the methods of financial administration 
and the organs of this administration. It is obviously 
impossible here to encompass the whole history of 
the institution, particularly after the time of the 
fragmentation of the Muslim world into individual 
States whose differences became more and more 
accentuated; moreover no history of this kind has 
as yet been written. We shall, therefore, confine 
ourselves to making certain observations of general 
validity and indicating certain desirable lines of 

The simple taxes of the early Muslim community 
could, in their broad concrete lines if not in their 
theoretical basis, be assimilated to the more com- 
plicated taxes of the States to which Islam fell heir 
and whose fiscal structure the Arabs, like the majority 
of conquering nations, respected — to such a degree, 
indeed, that throughout the length of Islamic 
history the former Byzantine territories (differing 
among themselves) and the former Sasanid territories 
(not to mention the West) remained quite distinct 
areas from the fiscal point of view. To this was added, 
at the outset, a further distinction, afterwards 
resolved, between the towns conquered by force of 
arms, which were directly subject to Muslim 
taxes and tax-collectors, the towns of 'ahd, which 
paid a fixed tribute and raised it independently in 
their own fashion, and, between these two extremes, 
the towns of sulk, where the taxes were Muslim 
taxes but were raised by the native administration. 
For two thirds of a century the fiscal records con- 
tinued to be written in the native languages, until 
£ Abd al-Malik, (685-705) ordered the translation of 
the fundamental documents into Arabic (the example 
of the Egyptian papyri proves that it was by a 
slower process that Arabic came to be exclusively 
used in the work of the subordinate administration). 

Both practice and theory fairly soon distinguished 
the following taxes and sources of revenue: 

The basic tax was the land tax, kharddi, originally 
levied upon all the lands of the non-Muslim natives. 
When a large part of the indigenous population 
became Muslims by conversion, it became necessary, 
in spite of certain misgivings, in order not to ruin 
the fiscus, to decide that the land was not affected 
by the change of faith on the part of its possessor 
and must always be subject to the kharddi. From 
the point of view of the Islamic theory, the kha- 



1 144 BAYT 

rddj constituted a permanent rent from the land 
for the benefit of the Muslim community, the 
supreme owner. This is the doctrine of fay', the 
immoveable properties acquired by conquest, a 
foundation in perpetuity for the benefit of successive 
generations of the community, in contrast to the 
moveable booty, ghanima, which was distributed 
immediately. From the point of view of the indigenous 
population, the kharadj merely continued the pre- 
Islamic land-tax. In addition to the kharadi non- 
Muslims are subject to a capitation tax, djizya, 
which does lapse upon conversion to Islam. The 
distinction between kharadi and djizya, though 
sharp in theory, is not always so in terminology and 
in practice, particularly because the Byzantine 
Empire, it seems, had practiced a combined land- 
capitation tax. 

The tax, or rather voluntary alms, peculiar to 
the Muslim was the zakdt or sadaka, levied upon both 
landed and moveable property. As regards landed 
property it was applied on the one hand to Arab 
properties (especially in Arabia) and on the other 
hand to the ikta* conceded from the State domains 
to Arab notables and, later, to the military leaders 
of every race. In its relation both to landed and 
moveable property the zakdt was closely allied to 
the tithe, 'ushr, which was known to the Near 
Eastern pre- Islamic societies, and often was so called. 

To these taxes were added for the fiscus the 
right to one fifth of the booty, the produce of mi 
treasure trove from the land or from the sea and the 
mawdrith hashriyya, succession to the inheritance of 
persons dying without legal heirs. 

In addition, the State lands, sawdfi, when they 
were not conceded as iktd c , whatever the method of 
their exploitation, brought in revenues similar i 
those of private properties. Further the State 
appropriated the proceeds from judicial fines. 

It was only the taxes listed above which v 
held to be legal by the theory. But in practice many 
others were discovered or invented. Some v 
supplementary increases upon the normal taxes for 
the defrayal of attendant expenses or any other 
reason (furu c , tawaW-, in contrast to the basic f 
asl), and others fell upon the most varied form 
economic activity (dardHb, rusum). These last v 
generally condemned by the jurists, who were often 
connected with commercial circles, under the n; 
of mukus, and certain pious rulers attempted to 
abolish them, though naturally this was without any 
lasting effect. The police often demanded the payment 
of a particular himdya. Finally the State was always 
punishing high officials who had enriched themselv( 
by confiscations (musadara) etc. ■ 

The peculiarities of the assessment and the 
collection of each tax will be studied under their 
respective titles and so nothing more need be sai 
on the subject here. 

In general terms the recovery of taxes can b 
effected either by direct administration (throug 
the agent or 'amti) or by fanning out, daman. Th 
system of tax-farming, which was as well known t 
antiquity as the direct levy, gained ground with th 
growing decadence of the 'Abbasid Caliphate, bu 
it was perhaps never practised to such an extent a 
has often been believed by those who have failed t 
distinguish properly the notions of daman, habdla and 
djahbadha, which, although there may be occasional 
confusions of terminology, are utterly different 
things. Kabila can only come into operation where 
there exists a group of tax-payers collectively 
responsible for the tax. By agreement between the 



group and the agent of the fiscus it may be decided, 
as was the case in the later Roman Empire, that the 
tax will be paid by one or several individual persons 
of standing, and it will be left to them to reimburse 
themselves afterwards with some small additional 
sum by way of compensation. The kabdla, therefore, 
does not modify in any way either the amount of 
the tax owed to the State or its direct recovery by 
the agents of the State from the basic group. The 
tax-farmer, ddmin, on the other hand, is an individual 
who, often for one or more provinces and for a 
number of years, pays annually to the State a 
contracted sum, less than the calculated revenue 
from the tax, and afterwards undertakes its recover y 
on his own account, which will, of course, reimburse 
him with profit. If the State is reduced to this 
method it is assured of a precise and immediate 
return from the pockets of rich individuals, but it 
loses a portion of the money paid by the tax-payer 
and, for the duration of the contract, the control of 
operations. As for the djahbadh, he may well be a 
ddmin, but he has at the same time the unique 
position of a sort of official money-changer cum 
surety; for he verifies and standardises by exchange 
the different types of currency, good and bad, paid 
by the tax-payers in return for a small percentage 
collected as a supplementary tax from the latter. 

Furthermore, outside the territories subject to 
the normal taxation, levied directly or by farming 
out, there were other areas in regard to which the 
State had renounced some part of its fundamental 
rights. In some areas — ighar — the State temporarily 
refrained from sending agents of collection, abandon- 
ing the revenue to an army commander so that 
he might cover therefrom the expenses of his army's 
maintenance. In ' other areas — mukdta'a (to be 
carefully distinguished from the ikld')— the State 
was content with a contracted tribute, without 
concerning itself with the theoretical scheme of 
taxation: equivalent to the primitive c ahd, this 
was applied in particular to the vassal rulers of 
regions which were not completely subdued. The 
ik(d c , in its original form of a concession of land from 
the State domains which was subject to the payment 
of the tithe, had not any particular fiscal character; 
but later there were assigned under this name to 
army officers as the equivalent of their salary the 
fiscal rights of the State in kharadi districts, initially 
subject to the payment, by the beneficiaries, of the 
tithe for the area concerned, then later with no 
attached condition other than that of professional 
military service (s«e CI. Cahen, U evolution de I'iqtd'-, 
in Annates ESC, 1953). These different methods of 
alienation of the revenues of the fiscus naturally 
diminished the returns, but they equally alleviated 
the expenditures in a manner which often involved 
hardly any break with the previous position, since 
in any case the proceeds of the taxes from a province 
were never sent to the fiscus until the provincial 
expenditure had first been satisfied on the spot. 
The danger to the State was only serious in pro- 
portion to the extent, which varied in the different 
regions and at different periods, to which these 
alienations resulted in a relaxing of the fiscal control 
itself and consequently also of the appreciation of 
the resources of the territory concerned. 

This appreciation was obtained with fairly 
reasonable accuracy not only through the lump 
evaluations of the budget but also from the daily 
sessions, following the ancient custom, devoted to 
the detailed assessment of lands and their fiscal 
value, as well as of persons subject to the djizya 



BAYT al-MAL 



and, in all probability, the zakdt, not to speak of the 
other taxes. The best example preserved concerns 
the Fayyum in the 7th/i3th century {Arabica, 1956), 
but what we know of the 'Iraki Sawad, of the province 
of Kumm in Iran, etc., and in a general way of the 
methods of the administration, allows no one to 
doubt that there are almost everywhere parallels 
in 'Abbasid times. The value of each fiscal unity 
was the object of an assessment, Hbra, which 
continued to serve as an authority so long as there 
had been no revision, although naturally, the 
administration itself had to admit annual variations. 
Diverse works, such as the Mafdtih aW-ulum and 
the Egyptian papyri, allow us to follow from another 
angle the precision of the daily accounts of the 
refunds of taxes and of the reliefs granted to tax- 
payers. Arrears (bakdyd) were meticulously noted 
and claimed in following years, although it was in 
practice often necessary, when arrears had accu- 
mulated, to settle them by compromise. Recovery 
of taxes necessitated a distinction between the two 
calendar years, for only the personal taxes or the 
payments ex contractu could be based on the legal 
lunar year, while the taxes on land and its produce 
were of necessity based on the solar year, Persian 
or Egyptian. 

These methods, which were the pride of the 
kuttdb and the liussdb, allowed the c Abbasid Caliphate, 
until the beginning of the 4th/ioth century, and 
certain regional rulers after that date, to establish 
veritable budgets, at any rate of receipts (the 
arbitrary activity of the rulers in the matter of 
expenditure not allowing equally comprehensive 
appreciations in that sphere). In particular four 
'Abbasid budgets have been preserved, undoubtedly 
based upon good archive sources, the relative 
agreement of which guarantees the accuracy, if not 
of all the details, at least of the main and broad 
essentials. They do not provide a complete statement 
of the total receipts of the Caliphate, for the djizya, 
the zakdt on moveable property and, a fortiori, the 
mukus only figure there exceptionally (their more 
variable character and the fact that they did not 
issue from the same services being obvious). Such 
as they are they show us a total of income exceeding 
400 million dirhams for the second half of the 2nd/ 
8th century, falling short of 300 million by the 
beginning of the following century, and at the 
beginning of the 4th/ioth century down to 14V2 
million dinars, which is approximately equivalent 
to 210 million dirhams. This shrinking of the receipts 
was due to the territorial losses of the Caliphate and 
not, except at moments of crisis, to diminishing 
fiscal values within each province. The increasing 
financial difficulties of the Caliphate were, therefore, 
not occasioned by any economic catastrophe, for 
which supposition there is absolutely no foundation, 
but by the relatively increasing burden of necessary 
expenditure, particularly military, which it was 
impossible to reduce in proportion to the decline in 
the provincial tax returns. Without attempting here 
to cover all the details of the military organisation 
of the Caliphate, we may try to show something of 
the financial burden which it constituted: a foot- 
soldier's usual pay being of the order of 1000 dirhams 
per annum, and that of a horseman double this 
amount, it can be estimated that the cost of the 
stipends alone for an army fifty thousand strong 
would be in the region of seventy five million 
dirhams. To this, of course, it is necessary to add the 
exceptional salaries of the commanders, the gratuities 
and the cost of equiping and maintaining the armies 



and the fortifications etc., and one writer maintains 
that in the middle of the 3rd/9th century the army 
was costing at one time some 200 million dirhams, 
which means to say that at that moment there 
would be a surplus only of approximately one half 
of that sum (not counting the taxes which did not 
figure in the budget) for all "civilian" expenditure. 
This latter expenditure is more difficult to assess, 
although we know the salaries of the principal 
officers of Government and Court under the c Ab- 
basids and the Fatimids, not to speak of later periods 
(see especially Hilal al-Sabi, Wuzard', and al- 
MakrizI, Khitdt, ii, 401). 

It is difficult to give a precise description of the 
various organs of the central fiscal administration 
which often, and in a varying manner, overlap and 
are confused with each other under ill-defined titles. 
The fiscal administration was the primary duty of 
the Diwdn in particular and in general, consequently, 
of the vizirate when this latter developed. But it was 
impossible for a single organ to deal at the same time 
with both the operations and the fundamental rules 
(asl) of assessment and collection and the daily 
accounts of income and expenditure. In spite of the 
difficulty of the texts it is apparently to this division 
of duties that the institution of the Diwdn al-zimdm 
corresponds, for this office, which was later known 
in the East as the istifd* (the director being the 
mustawfi) appears to be the service of accountancy. 
From the time of al-Mahdi it controlled the account- 
ancy services attached to each diwan as well as 
those of the provincial administrations. Expenditure 
was the province of a special diwan, the diwdn al- 
nafakdt, while expenditures relating to the army 
were the province of the diwdn al-djaysh. With the 
inauguration of the system of the fiscal iktd' this 
latter diwdn in fact came to possess duplicates of 
the survey registers for receipts. The Bayt al-Mdl 
properly so called was the service to which the 
income was delivered and from which the expendi- 
ture was drawn, the Treasury. An army of scribes, 
kuttdb, and accountants, ftussdb, worked in these 
offices, some under the control of others, applying 
the accountancy techniques which the didactic fiscal 
treatises of the Buyid period have revealed to us. For 
the representation of numbers they employed what 
is known as the diwdni script, which consisted of 
letters and particular signs devised from abbreviat- 
ions of the names of numbers, and which was to 
remain in use almost up to the present day in certain 
countries, to the exclusion of the "Arabic" numerals. 

Still further subdivisions existed in the services, 
in particular, as regards the receipt of the land 
taxes, between the service for the kharddj and that 
for the diyd 1 , that is to say landed properties subject 
solely to the tithe. On the other hand a regional 
division was gradually established, by virtue of 
which we can distinguish a Diwdn of Sawdd (pro- 
vince of Baghdad), one of the east and one of the 
west (Arab territories). Special services admi- 
nistered confiscated properties; these were sometimes 
returned, sometimes distributed. Again, dues paid 
in kind, presents and gifts received, the valuable 
products of the tirdz etc., were stored in the kkazd'in 
or makhdzin, and the general term of makhzan 
appears to have almost replaced, in the admini- 
stration of the later Caliphate, the term of Bayt al- 
Mdl, the change reflecting, undoubtedly, the pro- 
portionate increase of presentations in kind and the 
diminution of fiscal receipts in hard cash. 

The Muslim State, however, always recognised the 
distinction between the private Treasury of the 



1146 BAYT 

Caliph or the Prince, Bayt mdl al-khdssa, and the 
public Treasury, Bayt mdl al-muslimin or simply 
Bayt al-mdl. But the distinction was by no means 
a rigid one, for the private Treasury was supplied 
not only with the revenues from the sovereign's 
personal estate but also with different public 
revenues such as fines, confiscations and even 
capitation fees and land taxes from certain provinces 
of Irak and southern Iran, out of consideration for 
both the needs of the Court and also all the pious 
works which the Caliph and his successors had to 
undertake. In practice, whatever the personal 
position of the Caliphs, the privy purse had often to 
play the r61e of a simple reserve for the public 
Treasury, furnishing it with advances which might 
or might not be reimbursed (W. Fischel, Le Bayt 
Mdl al-Kkdssa. in Actes du ig' Congris des Orien- 
talistes, 1938, 538-41)- 

Each of the provinces had, on a small scale, an 
organisation parallel to that of the central govern- 
ment. They did not despatch to the latter the sum 
total of their fiscal revenue but only the residue after 
local expenses had been satisfied. Furthermore the 
provinces did not send on this residue as and when 
it was received, but in bulk, and when the needs of 
the State were particularly pressing the 'dmil would 
resort to sending promissory notes, guaranteeing the 
delivery of sums received, which the Diwdn could 
then use in negotiations with its creditors. The 
autonomy of the provincial fiscal administration is 
among the reasons which explain the ease with which 
independent regimes could establish themselves in 
the different areas without undue complication. 

The interests of State, subordinate rulers and tax 
payers caused a variation, at different times and in 
different places, of the proportion of payments in 
cash and payments in kind which made up the tax 
returns. Moreover the East paid in silver and the 
Mediterranean countries in gold. The result was that 
the early accountancy of the fiscal services had to 
operate in different categories. At the end of the 
3rd/gth century, however, an effort was made to 
establish a unified system of accountancy on the 
basis of the gold standard, with a legal tariff for the 
exchange of the dirham and a regulated price list 
for the different commodities; in this way the 
budget estimates could be more clearly established. 

The theory, basing itself upon the early machinery 
of taxation in the Muslim community, never 
accepted the principle that all fiscal revenue ought 
to be devoted without distinction to each and every 
expenditure incurred. In particular the theory held 
that the zakdt, inasmuch as it was a Muslim tax, 
ought to be used for pious works, for alms, the holy 
war, the ransom of Muslim slaves and aids to travel- 
lers etc., and ought, in principle, to be expended in 
the locality of its collection and not delivered to the 
fiscus. It is impossible to appreciate the extent to 
which such distinctions could be respected in 
practice; there was evidently no question of their 
being observed in times of crisis. The only sources 
of revenue which were assured of an employment in 
conformity with the precepts of the law were the 
private foundations wafts, habits. These, naturally, 
did not form part of the fiscal revenues, but they 
were firmly under the control of the State, usually 
through the intermediary of the kadi, in order to 
prevent abuses. 

It can scarcely be doubted that the fiscal regime 
was oppressive, even if no more so than that of the 
neighbouring non-Muslim States. Apart from the 
"neck-brand" of those subject to the djizya, brutal 



methods of collection, such as those described for 
the early c Abbasid period by (the pseudo- ?) Dionysius 
of Tell-Mahre (Arabica, 1954), were often employed 
despite the efforts of certain princes and wazirs. 
Egypt, as it did in Roman and Byzantine times, 
continues to present us with a picture of taxpayers 
fleeing their homes to escape the fiscus, and the 
Coptic revolts of the 2nd/8th and 3rd/gth centuries 
had in general no other than fiscal causes. The 
autonomy of the provinces, even if it did not 
alleviate the tax burden itself, did improve the 
situation in general, since the interest of the local 
rulers lay in being self-supporting and in at least 
expending on the spot revenues which had formerly 
gone to enrich the favourites of the Caliph. A few 
echoes of the conflicts between the democratic and 
aristocratic notions of taxation have come down 
to us (for example in Ibn al-Kalanisi, 343 and 352-3). 
The growing, albeit variable, spread of the regime 
of the fiscal iktd'- from the beginning of the 4th/ioth 
century considerably diminished the importance of 
the fiscal administrations, as it also did that of the 
direct resources of the State. It is out of the question 
here to trace the financial history of the different 
Muslim principalities which were the heirs of the 
Caliphate. It must suffice to say that until modern 
times the countries which have not been affected 
by the Mongol invasion have retained for the tax- 
payers almost the same regime of taxation, that 
the rights of the State have only ever been partially 
alienated and that in consequence certain methods 
of assessment and budgetary estimates have always 
there been possible. The countries incorporated, 
during the 7th/i3th century, into the Mongol 
Empire, not to speak of the subsequent series of 
changes of rule, experimented with forms of fiscal 
administration which combined with the old Muslim 
traditions new elements taken from the conquerers. 
Such elements were also introduced into Asia minor, 
where, in addition, there still persisted Byzantine 
traditions which had become interwoven with the 
local Saldjukid Muslim institutions; and these three 
elements apparently influenced, though in a way 
which has not yet been discovered, the original 
formation of the future Ottoman institutions. The 
figures quoted in such and such a source have often 
been adduced to demonstrate the decadence of the 
fiscal revenues and consequently of the economy; 
but these figures can only be interpreted on the 
basis of a consideration, in the first place of the 
proportion of taxes accruing directly to the State 
and that alienated to individuals, and in the second 
place of the value of currency and market prices; 
and it would be wise for the moment to refrain 
from any positive assertion. 

Bibliography: We can naturally do no more 
here than note certain sources of particular 
importance. For the origins references may be 
found in Caetani, Annali, iv, 368-417, to which 
may be added Abu 'Ubayd b. Sallam, K. al-Amwdl 
(see c ata j ); the majority are drawn from the 
works on kharddj composed in the first 'Abbasid 
century by Abu Yusuf and Yahya b. Adam (of 
which an annotated English translation by A. Ben 
Shemesh, Leiden 1958 has just appeared), and, 
later, from the K. al-Futiih of Baladhuri. The 
K. al-Kharddi (not wholly preserved) of Kudama 
(ed. A. Makki, a typewritten thesis, Sorbonne, 
Paris) and the scattered information in the 
Mafdtih al- c Ulum of Khwarizmi date from the 
4th/ioth century, and the Ahkam al-Sul(dniyya 
of MawardI from the 5th/nth century. The 



BAYT al-MAL 



budgets studied by A. V. Kremer in his Kultur- 
geschichte des Orients, i, ch. VII and Das Einnahme- 
budget . . . vom Jahre 306 (Denkschr. d. k. Akad. 
d. W. Wien, Ph.-Hist. Kl. xxxvi, 1888 (the oldest 
one, now also accessible in Ojahshiyari, K. ai- 
Wuzard', ed. Mzik, 179-182, or Cairo 1938, 281- 
88)) are drawn from various chronicles. To the 
Buyid period belong the didactic treatises on fiscal 
mathematics of al-Buzadjanl (a study is being pre- 
pared by Saleh el-Ali, Baghdad) and of the anony- 
mous author of the K. al-fldwi (analysed and 
commented upon by myself in AEIO, x, 1952). 
Much information can naturally be obtained from 
the Egyptian papyri, edited by A. Grohmann, see 
his commentaries in the articles in the Archiv Orien- 
talny, vvi, 1933-1934, and by C. Leyerer in ZDMG, 
1953. Among the historical chronicles and works 
the most valuable are evidently the Tadidrib al- 
l Vmam of Ibn Miskawayh with their supplement 
by Rudhrawarl, the K. al-Wuzard> of Hilal al- 
Sabi and the Ta'rikh-i Kumm of Hasan b. M. 
Kurami, much used in A. K. S. Lambton, Landlord 
and Peasant in Persia, Oxford 1953, especially 
chap. II. Certain official correspondence, such as 
that of the Buyid vizir Ibn c Abbad, ed. <Abd al- 
Wahhab c Azzam and Shukri Payf, 1947, may be 
consulted with advantage. For subsequent periods 
it will- suffice to note certain recent publications: 
for the Ayyubids, in addition to the classical 
Kawdnin al-Dawdwin of Ibn MammatI (ed. Atiya, 
1943), the short works of 'Uthman b. Ibr. al- 
Nabulusi (Description of Fayyum, see my analysis 
in Arabica 1956, and Lam* al-Kawdnin, edition 
prepared by myself); for the Mongols, the 
Resaldye falakiyyd of <Abd Allah b. Kiya al- 
Mazandarani ed. W. Hinz and studied by him in 
Der Islam, xxix, 1949; for the Yemen, R. B. 
Serjeant and myself will publish a valuable work 
of the gth/i5th century, the Mulakhkhas al-fitan 
(cf. Arabica, iv/1957, 23 f.). For Egypt in general 
and the Mamluks in particular the importance 
of Makrizi, Khitd(, and of Kalkashandl, Subh need 
not be emphasised. 

There does not exist any financial history of the 
Muslim world; there are, however, certain useful 
partial studies. See particularly, for the period of 
the origins, D. C. Dennett, Conversion and the 
Poll-Tax in early Islam, 1951 ; for the whole of the 
"classical" period, Fr. Lokkegaard, Islamic taxa- 
tion in the classic period, 195 1 (a great documen- 
tary and technical achievement, but not uniformly 
reliable) which refers to the works, important in 
their time but now superseded, of C. Becker, etc., 
and Chapter 8 (cf. 6) of Mez in Renaissance. 
Useful observations will be found in the Sorbonne 
thesis of D. Sourdel on Le vizirat 'abbdside, when 
this is published. Among other more specialised 
studies, apart from those which are cited in the 
text of the article, see W. Fischel, Origin of 
Banking in Medieval Islam, in JRAS, 1933, and 
H. Gottschalk, Die MddardHyyun. An exposition 
of the classical doctrine may be found, for 
example, in S. A. Siddiqi, Public Finance in 
Islam, Karachi 1948. (Cl. Cahen) 

In the Ottoman state the distinction was 
carefully maintained between the private treasury 
of the Sultan (Kkazine-i Enderun or It Khazine) 
and the public treasury or treasuries of the 
state i Kkazine-i Emiriyye, Khazine-i Dewlet, 
Khazlne-i 'Amire, etc. On the Ottoman treasury 
and finances see further daftardar, khazTne, 
maliyya). The term most commonly applied 



to the state treasury was Mirt (from emirl), 
which was also used in the more general sense of 
government property (cf. beylik). In Ottoman 
administrative documents the treasury is not 
normally called bayt al-mdl, though the expression 
does occur, usually in the forms bayt al-mdl-i 
Muslimin or bayt al-mdl-i 'dmma (as for example in 
some legal rulings of Abu '1-Su t ud quoted by Omer 
Lutfi Barkan in Tanzimat, Istanbul 1940, 333, 336, 
343 ; and in a few kdnunndmes published in Barkan, 
Kanunlar, 297, 300, 326. In all these the context is 
the rights of the bayt al-mdl over certain categories 
of land, called ard-i mlrl or ard-i memleket). In 
common Ottoman usage the term bayt al-mdl was 
normally restricted to a certain group of revenues 
belonging by law to the public treasury. These 
consisted of various categories of forfeited, escheated, 
and unclaimed property, and are enumerated and 
discussed in a number of documents. The most 
important were property belonging to missing and 
absent persons (mdl-i ghdHb and mdl-i mafkud); 
unclaimed or escheated inheritances (mukhallafdt, 
matrukdi); runaway slaves and stray cattle ('obd-i 
dbik, katkun, yava). The collection and care of these 
properties was the function of an official called the 
Emin bayt al-mdl or bayt al-mdldji. Most legal 
sources agree that unclaimed inheritances are to be 
held for a period of time, variously determined, as a 
trust, to give the heirs the opportunity to assert and 
establish their claim. Only after their failure to do so 
does the money or estate become the property of the 
treasury. There are frequent complaints that this 
rule was disregarded, and that property was seized 
too quickly and without proper verification {e.g., 
Lutfi Pasha, Asdfndme, ed. and tr. R. Tschudi, 
Berlin 1910, text 11, tr. 12; cf. Sari Mehmed Pasha, 
NasdHk al-Wuzard\ ed. and tr. W. L. Wright, 
Princeton 1935, 71). 

The Ottoman kdnunndmes contain elaborate 
instructions and safeguards concerning the claiming 
of these properties and the assigning of the proceeds. 
Properties claimed for the bayt al-mdl could be and 
frequently were assigned to 'dmils, to sandiak-beys, 
and even to sipdkis. As early as 883/1479, a ferman 
of Mehemmed II lays down a distinction between 
reversions worth less than 10,000 aspars, and 
those worth 10,000 and over. The former were to 
be paid to the c dmil, or tax-farmer of the area; 
the latter were reserved to the Imperial treasury 
{beylik) (Halil Inalcik, Fatih Sultan MekmedHn 
Fermanlan, Bell. no. 44, 1947, 699-700). A similar 
distinction is made in a late 15th century kdnunndme 
(Anhegger-Inalcik 70-1), and is common in kdnun- 
ndmes and registers from the 16th century onwards. 
The normal rule was that these properties, or the 
fees payable if they were successfully reclaimed by 
their owners, belonged to the treasury. In fact the 
share of the treasury was limited to items worth 
ro,ooo aspers or more, and to property left by the 
servants of the Sultan, a category including the 
sipdhi* and other persons in the Sultan's employ. 
In the earlier period it also included the Janissaries. 
The remainder was part of the kkdss of the sandiak- 
beys. There were some exceptions to this division. 
In the so-called 'free' limdrs (serbest timdr), the bayt 
al-mdl revenues were assigned to the /tmdf-holder, 
and not, as in ordinary timdrs, reserved to the 
Sultan's or the governor's khdss; in some wakf lands 
too, notably those in favour of the harameyn, they 
were included in the wakf revenues. From the 16th 
century the Janissaries had a special officer of their 
own, the Odfak bayt al-mdldjlsl, a kind of regimental 



treasurer one of whose duties was to collect and 
assess the mukhaUafdt of heirless Janissaries, 
c adfemi oghlans, etc. These or their equivalent were 
placed in the regimental chest (Ismail Hakki 
Uzuncarsih, Osmanh Devleti Uskildtmdan Kapukulu 
Ocaklan I, Ankara 1943, 311-320). Another interesting 
example of corporate privilege occurs in Jerusalem, 
where the Zdwiya of MaghribI mudjdwirs were 
collectively given the right of retaining the mukhal- 
lafdt of any one of their number who died without 
heirs. This right was granted by Saladin, and con- 
firmed by the Mamluk and Ottoman Sultans 
(Basvekalet Arsivi, tapu register no. 427 of 
932/1526; cf. A. S. Tritton, Materials on Muslim 
Education in the Middle Ages, London 1957, 123). 
A similar privilege appears to have been given to the 
monks on Mount Athos (P. Lemerle and P. Wittek, 
Recherches sur I'histoire et le statut des monasteres 
atkonites sous la domination turque, Archives du droit 
oriental, iii, 1948, 443, 542, 453, 465). 

Bibliography: Kdnunndme-i Sulfdni her 
Muceb-i l Orf-i '■Osmdni, ed. R. Anhegger and 
Halil Inalcik, Ankara 1956, 70-71 ; Kdnunndme-i 
Al-i 'Othmdn, TOEM supplement 1329, 21, 58, 
70-1; 'Othmdnlt Kdnunndmeleri, MTM, i, 75, 91, 
321, 343; Ahmed Refik, Onundju c Asr-i hidjride 
Istanbul haydtl, Istanbul 1333, 19, 210-1; Omer 
Lutfi Barkan, Kanunlar, index; c Abd al-Rahman 
Wefik, Tekdlif Kawa'idi i, Istanbul 1328, 66-8; 
D'Ohsson, Tableau de I'Empire Ottoman, vii, 134, 
240, 260, 318. Hammer, Des osmanischen Reichs 
Staatsverfassung und Staatsverwaltung, Vienna, 
1815, 1, 289, and index; L. Fekete, Die Siyaqat- 
Schrift, i, Budapest 1955, index. (B. Lewis) 
The Muslim West. As long as the Maghrib 
and al-Andalus were under the direct administration 
of the Umayyad 01 the 'Abbasid Caliphate they 
posed no particular problems of financial organisa- 
tion; the local bayt al-mdl was only a branch of 
the bayt al-mdl of Damascus or of Baghdad. 

It was only when some part of the Muslim west 
slipped from the control of the eastern Caliphate that 
separate administrations were organised there. 

Except for the chapters of Ibn Khaldun devoted 
to administration (Mukaddima, Cairo ed., 269), 
one cannot point to any theoretical treatise con- 
cerning the administration of the public finances or 
even any systematic treatment of the situation at 
any given period or place. There is no alternative 
but to try to give some idea of what happened from 
the slight and scattered indications in the chro- 
nicles and diverse documents available. 

I. Al-Andalus. The work of E. Levi-Provencal 
has shown that in Muslim Spain the term bayt al-mdl 
was nearly always taken in a limited sense. In effect 
this expression, which is often found in the form 
bayt mdl al-muslimin, designates the treasure 
composed by the revenues of pious foundations 
(awkdf) and clearly distinct from the public treasury 
properly speaking, which is commonly called 
khizdnat al-mdl and much more rarely bayt al-mdl. 
This treasure from pious foundations was quite 
naturally placed under the authority of the kadi who 
looked after its administration, and was kept in a 
religious building, at Cordova in the maksura of the 
Great Mosque (Ibn c Idhari, Bay an, iii, 98). The sums 
which constituted it originated for the most part 
from the revenues of pious foundations often 
assigned to strictly determined expenditure, but 
also from irregular deposits that could not be touched, 
in particular the goods of 'absentees' [ghdHb), that 
is Muslims who, for one reason or another, had I 



abandoned their possessions without designating a 
legal mandate for their administration. 

The kadi was assisted in the provinces by the 
inspectors of the pious foundations (ndzir al-awkdf) 
and was only qualified to authorise expenditure. 
These funds could only be employed for the ends 
indicated by the donors, or if the objects were only 
expressed in vague terms, for works of public utility 
and religion like help for paupers, the upkeep of 
mosques and the payment of their staff, the building 
of institutions of learning and the payment of 
teachers, etc. The kadi could authorise advances 
from the public Treasury for pious works like the 
organisation of a military campaign against the 
infidels or the restoration of a defence work on the 
frontier of the ddr al-isldm. 

This system still functioned at the beginning of the 
6th/i2th century during the Almoravid occupation, 
as is shown in Ibn 'Abdun's discourse on the hisba, 
edited and translated by E. Levi-Provencal (see 
bibliography). 

II. Maghrib. Nothing leads us to believe that 
the term bayt al-mdl was used in the Maghrib in 
such a restricted sense. It seems to have been used 
in its wider meaning of the public Treasury and it 
designates at the same time the administration of 
public finances. 

So far the financial organisation of the different 
states of the Muslim West has not been the object 
of a systematic study. It must be added that the 
information supplied by the Arabic chronicles is 
slight and very scrappy. We must be content with 
very general observations on the matter. 

The Aghlabids of al-Kayrawan do not appear to 
have been innovators in this respect and seem to 
have been content with the system they found when 
they came to power in 184/800. 

If the Fatimids did not change much in the 
administration and nomenclature of the taxes, they 
obtained, according to the indications of Ibn 
Hawkal (ed. De Goeje, 69) a remarkable return 
from the taxes, the annual total of which reached 
7 to 8 million dinars. The Zirids could only maintain 
the system so well organised by their predecessors. 

We know practically nothing about the financial 
organisation of the Almoravids, except that their 
first ruler, Yiisuf b. Tashufin felt obliged to content 
himself with "legal" taxes — an attitude which his 
successors did not keep up, and that they maintained 
in Spain the organisation that they found in force 

The only precise indication that we have 01: the 
subject of the Almohads is the establishment by 
£ Abd al-Mu'min in 555/1160 of a sort of cadaster 
intended to cover the whole Maghrib and to help in 
the assessment of a land tax (kharddj) (Rawd al- 
Kirtds, ed. Tornberg, 126; 174). 

R. Brunschvig's study on the Hafsids contains all 
the details possible— and they are comparatively 
few — on the financial organisation of the eastern 
Maghrib from the 7th/i3th to 9th/i5th centuries. 
The official who directed it bore the name of sdhib 
al-ashghdl, a term also used by Ibn Khaldun (loc 
cit.), then of munaffidh. It was characterised by the 
fact that, in a number of instances, it renounced 
Kur'anic "legality" but it was successful, for the 
Hafsid treasury was nearly always well filled. 

Nothing precise is known about the Banu £ Abd 
al-WSd. It is possible that the thesis being prepared 
by M. Mougin may clarify the subject. 

The rare and scattered indications on the finan- 
cial organisation of the Marinids can be found in the 



BAYT al-MAL — BAYTAR 



Masdlik of Ibn Fadl Allah-al 'Umari (tr. M. Gaude- 
froy-Demombynes, BGA, ii, Paris 1927) and in the 
Musnad of Ibn Marzuk (ed. and tr. E. Levi-Provencal, 
in Hesp., 1925). They all concern the reign of Abu 
'1-Hasan (the middle of the 14th century). 

A text of al-Ifranl (Nuzhat al-Hddi, ed., Houdas, 
38-40; tr. 70-75) provides interesting information on 
fiscal matters at the beginning of the Sa'did period 
and on the establishment of a new land tax called 
naHba. Finally, the work of E. Michaux-Bellaire 
gives quite a clear picture of the financial system 
under the 'Alawid dynasty at the end of the 19th 
and beginning of the 20th centuries. 

It may be hoped that the Turkish archives 
preserved in Tunis and Algiers contain the materials 
for a study of Turkish fiscal policy in the Maghrib, 
at least from the 18th century. 

Bibliography: E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. 
mus., iii, 13-134; idem, Seville mus. au XII' 
siicle, 1-3 ; M. Vonderheyden, La Berberie or. sous 
la dynastie des Benou 'l-Arlab, Paris 1927, 170-171 ; 
H. Terrasse, Hist, du Maroc, 2 vols., Casablanca, 
1949-1950, passim; R. Brunschvig, La Berbirie or. 
sous les Hafsides, ii, Paris 1947, 68-69; E. Michaux- 
Bellaire, Les impots marocains, in AM, i, 56-96; 
idem, V 'organisation des finances au Maroc, in 
AM, xi, 171-51; J. F. P. Hopkins, Medieval 
Muslim Government in Barbary, London 1958. 

(R. Le Tourneau) 
al-BAYT AL-MUSADDAS [see al-Kuds] 
BAYT RAS, a village in Transjordania, known by 
the Arab geographers, and situated about 3 km. 
N. of Irbid in the district of 'Adjliin [q.v.], on an 
eminence (589 m.) surrounded by ruins which mark 
the deserted site of the ancient Capitolias. This 
town of the Decapolis, the name of which corresponds 
to the Arabic name which outlived it and doubtless 
relates to its dominant position in a less hilly region, 
was noted by the early itineraries along along with 
Adhri'at (Der'a), Abila (Tall Abil) and Gadara (Umm 
Kaya), which were neigbouring places. Formerly a 
Nabatean possession, it had increased in importance 
during the Roman period, being declared autono- 
mous in 97-8, the first year of Trajan's reign, and 
had maintained its importance as a Byzantine 
bishopric of Palestina Secunda. Occupied by Shu- 
rahbll b. Hasana at the beginning of the period of 
Arab conquest and incorporated in the djund of 
Urdunn, it enjoyed during the Umayyad period a 
position which is attested by various notices in the 
poets and chroniclers. These sing the praises of its 
wine, "already praised by the pre-Islamic poets 
Nabigha Dhubyani and Hassan b. Thabit" (H. 
Lammens) and still known by Yakut in the 6th/i3th 
century, and mention it as the seat of the caliph 
Yazid II, who lived there with his favourite Hababa 
(the tradition which makes it the birthplace of the 
caliph Yazid I seems however more doubtful, and 
may be based on a confusion with the village of Bayt 
Ranis in the Ghuta of Damascus, as has already 
been pointed out by H. Lammens, Etudes sur le 
regne du caliphe omaiyade Mo'awiya ler, Beirut 
1908, 379 and n.). The fame of Bayt Ras, at a period 
when the Marwanid rulers preferred to reside in the 
region of al-Balka' [q.v.], which is rich in archaeolo- 
gical remains that can be attributed to them, was 
followed by a rapid decline, and the site was almost 
completely abandoned. It is a cause for regret, 
however, that the ruins which still exist, and which 
have been briefly described by travellers, have never 
formed the subject of serious study which might 



enable one to distinguish the traces of an Umayyad 
establishment in the midst of the earlier buildings. 
Bibliography: F.-M. Abel, Giographie de la 
Palestine, Paris 1933-38, ii, 294-5 (s.v. Capitol- 
ias); G. Schumacher, Northern c Ajlun, London 
1890, 154-168; G. Schumacher and C. Steuernagel, 
Der c Adschlun, Leipzig 1927, 478 ff.; G. Le 
Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, London 
1890, 32, 415 ; A.-S. Marmardji, Textes giographiques 
arabes sur la Palestine, Paris 1951, 4, 6, 23; 
Caetani, Annali, ii, 1126 (year 12 A.H.), iii, 396 
(year 15 A.H.); H. Lammens, Etudes sur la siecle 
des Omeyyades, Beirut 1930, 171, 213, 253; 
Nabigha Dhubyani. Diwan, ed. Derenbourg, xxvi, 
165-66; Baladhuri, Futuh, 116; Ibn Khurradadh- 
bih, 78; Bakri, Geographisches Wdrterbuch, i, 189; 
Yakut, i, 200, 776-777- 

(J. Sourdel-Thomine) 
BAYTAR is the most frequently used form of 
the word which denotes the veterinary surgeon. 
It is an arabicised form of bririaTp6s, and, as a 
matter of fact, the more exact form biyatr is to be 
found in ancient poetry, as well as baytar. The 
preservation of the original Greek form in Oriental 
languages is also proved by the 12th century 
Midrash Numeri rabbd, 9, where OTID^BX is ex- 
pressly written. However, the Greek hippiatric 
writings do not seem to have been known in Islam, 
if the quotation of Heraclides in al-BIrunl, al- 
Diamdhir /» Ma'-rifat al-Djawdhir, 101 does not 
mean Heraclides of Tarentum (ca. 75 B.C.), who wrote, 
amongst others, a hippiatric book, cf. M. J. Haschmi, 
Die Quellen des Steinbuches des Blrunl, Thesis, 
Bonn 1935, 44. A pseudo-Hippocratic work on the 
subject bearing the title De Curationibus infirmitatum 
aequorum, was translated by a Jew named Moses of 
Palermo for Charles I of Anjou (1266-1285), and 
printed in Bologna 1865, in P. Delprato, Trattati di 
mascalcia attribuiti ad Ippocrate tradotti dall'arabo in 
latino. 

The oldest Arabic work on bayfara is ascribed to 
Hunayn b. Ishak by Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, i, 200, 26; 
it is also the only work on the subject quoted by 
Tashkopriizade, Miftdh al-sa'-dda, i, 270, who calls 
it "sufficient" (kdfi). A writer contemporary with 
Hunayn is the first author on hippiatrics whose 
works are preserved, namely, Abu Yusuf Ya'kflb 
b. Akljl Hizam, stablemaster to al-Mu c tasim and 
al-Mu c tadid (second half of 3rd/9th century), cf. 
Brockelmann, S I, 432 f., where further bibliography 
is quoted. A great many manuscripts of books by 
several authors were listed by H. Ritter in an annex 
to his review on c Ali b. <Abd al- Rahman b. Hudhayl 
al-Andalusi, La parure des cavaliers, ed. L. Mercier, 
1922 (Der Islam, xviii, 1929, 1 19-126). The words 
bayfdr and bayfara are still in use in modern Spanish 
(albditar and albeitaria). A French article on the 
veterinary medicine of the Bedouins was translated 
into Arabic by Pere Anastase, al-Machriq, i, 1898, 
684, 942. 

Bibliography : (additional to books quoted in 
the text): TA, s.v.; al-A c maHydt, ed. Ahlwardt, 
3, 8; Farazdak, ed. Hell, 484*. 1; S. Fraenkel, 
Aram. FremdwOrter, 265; M. Steinschneider, 
Obers. a. d. Arab., i, 1904, no. 86; W. Cohn, 
Jiidische Vbersetzer am Hofe Karl I. von Anjou, 
Kdnigs von Sizilien, in Monatsschrift f. Gesch. u. 
Wiss. d. Judentums, 79, 1935, 246 ft.; G. Sarton, 
IHS, ii, 89, 793, 1091, 1093; iii, 284, 1216, 1238, 
1837 f. ; E. Leclainche, Hist, de la mid. vit., 1936; 
L. Moule, Hist, de la mid. vit., 2 (mid. vit. arabe), 
1896. (M. Plessner) 






BAYYANA — BAYYINA 



BAYYANA, Span. Baena, a small town in the 
province of Cordova, 59 kilometres from the 
capital. During the Muslim period it belonged to the 
district of Cabra; with al-Zahra 1 , Ecija, Lucena and 
Cordova, it formed the iklim of al-Kambaniya (la 
Campina). Situated on a hill in the Campina of 
Cordova and watered by the Marbella, a tributary 
of the Guadajoz, it was surrounded by gardens, 
vineyards and olive groves, as at present, and 
enjoyed great prosperity during the Umayyad period. 
The town possessed a solid fortress, situated on the 
slope facing the river, a cathedral mosque built by 
the order of c Abd al-Rahman II, markets and baths. 
Ibn Hafsun [q.v.] succeeded in conquering Bayyana 
during the period of the amir c Abd Allah but, with 
the fall of the caliphate and the ensuing disorder of 
the fitna, it lost much of its rural tranquillity. Its 
present location dates back to the Muslim period, 
as no Roman traces have been found there nor in 
various parts of its environs, as far as the neigh- 
bouring ridge of Antigua. Alfonso the Warlike 
on his famous expedition into Andalusia, passed by 
Baena without taking it, shortly before the battle 
of Arnisol (Safar 520/March 1126). When the town 
fell into the hands of Ferdinand III in 1240, it had 
a double enclosure, an internal wall which enclosed 
the alcazaba and the medina, and an external wall 
which encompassed the outskirts occupied by the 
civilian population. The muiejares who remained at 
Baena were transferred to Castile in 1571, but a 
royal decree authorised their establishment at 
Cordova until their final expulsion. The most 
important celebrity of the town was KJsim b. 
Asbagh b. Muhammad, b. Yusuf b. Nasih b. c Ata>, 
a traditionist and philologist who was born at. 
Baena in 247/862 and died at Cordova in 340/951. 
Bibliography: Idrlsi, Desc, 174, 205, of the 

text, 209, 252 of the trans.; Yakut, ii, 13; c Abd 

al-MunHm al-Himyari, al-Rawd al-Mi'fdr, ed. E. 

Levi-Provencal, 59 of the text, 64 of the trans. 
(A. Hwci Miranda) 

BAYYASA, Span. Baeza, a town in the province 
of Jaen, 48 kilometres from the capital. Its present 
population is about 17,000 and it is situated on a hill 
whose slopes descend to the valleys of the Guadal- 
quiver and the Guadajoz. Of Iberian foundation, it 
was called Biatra, according to Ptolemy. Pliny calls 
its inhabitants Vincienses, and the Goths made it 
the seat of the diocese biaiensis. Upon its fall to the 
Muslims it took the name Bayyasa. Its corn and 
barley were praised, according to al-ldrisl, who did 
not however mention its olive groves which today 
cover half its area. 

During the Umayyad caliphate Ibn Hafsun [q.v.] 
conquered it, but it was retaken by c Abd al-Rahman 
III in 217/910. In 412/1021 the town belonged, with 
Jaen and Calatrava, to the fief of Zuhayr fata' 
'dmiri. It was occupied by the Almoravids, whose 
last champion in al-Andalus, Ibn Ghaniya, sur- 
rendered it in 541/1146 to the emperor Alfonso VII; 
the latter kept it until he evacuated it in 552/1157 
at the same time as Ubeda, shortly before his death 
and after the loss of Almeria. For nearly a century it 
belonged to the Almohads, and in 609/1212 al-Nasir 
on his way to Las Navas de Tolosa, moved his camp 
from Jaen to Baeza. After the rout, the inhabitants 
of Baeza fled to Ubeda, and on 18 Safar 609/20 July 
1212, the victors entered the deserted city and burned 
it. When the Christians had retired, it was rebuilt 
and repopulated. In the following year, Alfonso VIII 
besieged it with difficulty during the winter of 
1213-14, and was forced to retire without success. 



A nephew of c Abd al-Mu'min, Abu c Abd Allah, 
who held the governorships of Bougie, the Balearics 
and Valencia, must have lived a long time at Baeza, 
for his ten sons had the surname al-BayyasI, and the 
eldest, c Abd Allah revolted at Baeza against the 
caliphs al-'Adil and al-Ma'mun. He allied himself with 
Ferdinand III and received a Castilian garrison in 
the alcazaba of Baeza. When he was killed by the 
Cordovans in 623/1226, the inhabitants of Baeza 
again abandoned their city, and it was finally 
occupied by Ferdinand III on 19 Dh u '1-Hidjdja 
624/30 November 1227. During the 14th and 15th 
centuries, Baeza, as a stronghold of great strategic 
importance, owing to its situation on the frontier 
between Castile and the kingdom of Granada, 
played a major r61e in the struggles of the Recon- 
quest between the Nasrids and the Marinids. 

Bibliography: Idrisi, Desc, 203 in text, 249 
in trans.; c Abd al-Mun c im al-Himyari, Al-Rawd 
al-Mi'tdr, 57 in text, 72 in trans. ; G. Cirot, Chro- 
nique latine des rois de Castille, 115; Fernando de 
C6zar, Noticias y documentos para la historia de 
Baeza, 1884; E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. Mus., 
index; A. Huici Miranda, Historia del imperio 
almohade, ii, 432-6. (A. Huici Miranda) 

BAYYINA (plural bayyindt), etymologically the 
feminine adjective "clear, evident", was already in 
use as a substantive with the meaning of "manifest 
proof" in numerous passages of the FCur'an — in 
xcviii, 1 for example, whence it is that the Sura 
itself is entitled al-Bayyina. In legal terminology 
the word denotes the proof per excellentiam — that 
established by oral testimony — , although from the 
classical era the term came to be applied not 
only to the fact of giving testimony at law but also 
to the witnesses themselves. There are other words 
to express other aspects or degrees of the notion of 
proof, notably hudjdja (plural h»4i<*4i) "argument, 
proof (in general or at law)", "a document consti- 
tuting proof", dalil "conclusive indication" and 
burhan "demonstration". 

In the legal field the Kur'an is concerned with 
proof in diverse matters, both civil and penal. It is 
at once noteworthy that it is fundamentally to 
oral testimony (shahdda [q.v.]) that the Kur'an 
prescribes recourse. It recommends that certain 
legal acts should be established by witnesses — divorce 
by repudiation (lxv, 2), testamentary dispositions 
(v, 106-108), accounts of guardianship (iv, 7) and 
the contracting of debts (ii, 282). And while, in this 
last case, the Rur'an strongly supports written 
evidence, this is closely tied up with the eye-wit- 
nesses who ought to corroborate, as soon as it is 
completed, the recognition of the debt dictated to 
the scribe by the debtor. Such are the modes of 
proof which the Kur'an, albeit in a summary 
fashion, regulates. It notes, in addition, the need 
for a double number of witnesses (four in place of 
the ordinary number of two) to establish legal 
proof of fornication (iv, 19, xxiv, 4, 13); and, to 
provide for the case where the husband cannot 
produce this difficult standard of proof of his wife's 
adultery, institutes the exceptional procedure of 
the mutual "oath of imprecation" (li'dn) between 
the spouses (xxiv, 6-9). This procedure, although it 
does not, properly speaking, establish proof, has, 
nevertheless, important legal effects. On the other 
hand the sacred book has nothing to say about the 
primitive institutions of physical ordeal and oaths 
of compurgation. 

Classical Islamic law consecnted the superiority 
of proof by testimony, requiring, for its validity. 



BAYVINA — BAVVOMIYYA 



the fulfilment of some fairly stringent 
conditions (see c adl and Shahada). And it was only 
in so far as written evidence could be construed as 
a Zeugenurkunde (cf. the testatio of Roman law) that 
it became generally and more widely accepted, 
though not without keen discussion, reservations 
and precautions, even in the case of notarial acts 
(see E. Tyan, Le notarial et le rtgime de la preuve par 
icrit dans la pratique du droit musulman, Annates 
tcole franfaise de droit de Beyrouth, 1945, no. 2). 
In the Kur'anic verses relating to testamentary 
dispositions (v, 106-108) the witnesses, in case of 
suspicion, or new substitute witnesses, were invited 
to take an oath by Allah; but traditional theory 
regards as abrogated the precept contained in this 
passage, which is the only one in the Kur'an where 
third-party witnesses are required to support their 
own evidence by an oath. Occasional and exceptional 
instances can be adduced, under Islam, of kadis 
subjecting suspect witnesses to the oath. The 
doctrine, however, established a clear-cut distinct- 
ion, as far as the "legal proofs" {hudxadj shar'iyya) 
which it enumerates and regulates are concerned, 
between proof by testimony and the oath. The 
celebrated maxim declares : "The burden of proof 
(by testimony) lies upon the one who makes the 
allegation and the oath belongs to him who denies 
{al-bayyina 'aid l-mudda'i wa-l-yamin 'aid man 
ankar)" with the variant "to him against whom the 
allegation is made {'aid l-mudda'd 'alayh)". It ought 
to be noted that in the process of the action "the 
one who makes the allegation" is not necessarily 
the original plaintiff (and hence the burden of proof 
may fluctuate), and further that, in the view of the 
scholars, evidence can only normally be given to 

In principle the bayyina itself has a self-sufficient 
authority : where the legal conditions of validity 
are satisfied it is, as a general rule, binding upon the 
judge. Several early attempts to support testimony 
with an oath taken by the plaintiff wholly failed, 
apart from cases where the defendant defaults or 
suffers from some incapacity, to influence the 
classical law (Schacht, Origins, 187-188; see Ibn 
Kudama, Mughni, ix, 277; for the contrary view 
of the Fatimids, kadi Nu'man, Iktisdr, Damascus 
1957, 163)- The HanafI school held strictly to the 
letter of the maxim mentioned above, and indeed 
certainly contributed to the spread of its influence, 
if not to its very formulation; for, contrary to the 
doctrine of the other madhdhib, HanafI law does 
not allow the plaintiff to take the oath in order to 
complete an imperfect bayyina (a single witness) 
in disputes concerning property, nor does it allow 
the oath declined by the defendant to be returned 
to the plaintiff. In the mutual taking of the oath 
(tahdluf) which the Hanafis, along with the other 
schools, uphold in certain cases where bayyina is 
lacking, each of the two parties stands in relation 
to other in the position of defendant. For other 
developments of the judicial oath see the article 
yamin. We will only observe here that the pre- 
Islamic oath of compurgation survives, in Islamic 
law, as a method of proof in a limited field of penal 
procedure (see kasdma). 

It is possible, especially in regard to property 
claims, that contradictory bayyindt may confront 
each other. The fikh texts concern themselves with 
this ta'drud al-bayyinat and endeavour to destroy 
the conflict by officially declaring one of the proofs 
superior on the basis of criteria which differ con- 
siderably among the different schools and may 



"51 

result in diametrically opposite solutions. Should the 
proofs concerned nevertheless still prove equal, the 
solutions, even within the schools themselves, vary 
between their reciprocal cancellation, resort to a 
supplementary and decisive form of evidence, and 
their being taken at face value — which then neces- 
sitates either division of the property or the drawing 
of lots. 

Superior though the bayyina might be as a mode 
of proof, it is difficult to regard it in all circumstances 
as "stronger" (akwd) than an acknowledgement 
(ikrdr [q.v.] or, less technically, i'tirdf). Indeed the 
contrary is expressly stated by the ?ahiri Ibn 
Hazm, Muhalld, ix, 426. The doctrine requires less 
in the way of personal capacity for an acknowledge- 
ment than for testimony, by reason of the basic 
presumption of truthfulness on the part of the 
person making the acknowledgement. But the 
authors usually — and quite sensibly — distinguish in 
this regard between the acknowledgement whose 
only effect is to bind the one who makes it ('aid 
nafsih) and the acknowledgement which affects the 
rights of third parties (/» hakk ghayrih), and their 
decisive force and their legal consequences differ 
considerably. 

In addition it would be relevant, on the subject 
of bayyina, to enquire into the position, in relation 
to it, of the expert evidence which may be required 
by the judge. Further, if one were to attempt a 
general theory of proof in Islamic law, it would be 
fitting to take account of the discussions relating 
to the judge's personal knowledge of the facts of a 
case, to underline the considerable importance and 
the abundance of legal presumptions, and to note 
the role and the importance of certain auxiliary 
indications or initial steps in proof recognised by the 
law. In this field of proof at law two Islamic tenden- 
cies may be observed. : the desire to establish, in a 
humane fashion, what is most probable by regulated 
means rather than to pursue the strict truth, the 
certain knowledge of which belongs only to God, 
— and a tendency towards rationalisation, which, 
though it does not prevail always and everywhere, 
is nevertheless latent in, for example, the position 
alloted to the oath of compurgation and the com- 
plete absence of ordeal in the form of physical trial 
(despite tenacious survivals of this in the customary 
practice of tribal societies up to the present day). 
Bibliography: The texts of fikh, the articles 
of the EI to which reference has been made above, 
and the modern studies to which reference will 
be made in Recueils de la Sociiti Jean Bodin, vol. 
La Preuve (to be published in i960) as well as 
in the article hudjdja [q.v.]. (R. Brunschvig) 
BAYYCMIYYA, an Egyptian tarika founded by 
C A1I b. Hidjazi b. Muhammad al-Bayyumi al- 
Shafi'I, born c. 1 108/1696 and died in Cairo in 
1183/1769. After joining the Ahmadiyya and 
Khalwatiyya (the latter through the Demirdashiyya) 
(arikas, BayyumI, by developing a dhikr characterised 
by particularly loud and emphatic utterance, 
established a virtually independent tarika of his own. 
Another feature of his tarika was its appeal to the 
poorest classes and specifically to highwaymen, many 
of whom, after a period of chastisement at Bayyumi's 
hands, swelled the ranks of the vast armed retinue 
that accompanied his rare appearances in the streets. 
But perhaps his influence was chiefly due to the 
extremes of excitement and passivity that he 
experienced during the dhikr. The 'utowa's attempt 
to ban his dhikr sessions (held every Tuesday at 
the Husaynl Mashhad) was thwarted by Shaykh 



1152 



BAYYUMIYYA — BAYZARA 



Shubrawl, Rector of the Azhar, whose determination 
on this occasion contrasts favourably with his 
behaviour on others (Djabarti, i, 195). Bayyumi's 
works include handbooks on the Demirdashiyya 
and Bayyumiyya and a commentary on Djill's 
Insdn al-Kamil. He seems to have been most at 
home in hadith, on which he lectured when Shubrawl 
invited him to the Taybarsiyya College at the Azhar. 
The mosque in which he is buried was built by 
Mustafa Pasha, a wall of Egypt (probably between 
1757-176°), when according to Djabarti he became 
grand vezir (probably sometime between 1763/1765). 
BayyumI did not leave any distinguished khali/a- 
but his dhikr was still popular during the mawlid 
in Lane's days. 

Bibliography: To Brockelmann, II 462, S I 
784, S II 146, 478 add: Risdlat al-Tanzih al- 
Mutlalf li man lahu al-Wudjud al-Kamil (MS in 
writer's possession); Sarkis 622; Djabarti, i, 339; 
Lane, Modern Egyptians, 249, 461. 

(W. A. S. Khalidi) 
BAYZARA, (Arabic), denotes "the art of the 
flying-hunt", and is not restricted to the desig- 
nation of "falconry". (Its Persian origin (from bdz: 
goshawk; see below) is more closely related to the 
notion of "ostring art"). Derived from bayzdr, 
"ostringer", an Arabicised form of the Persian 
bdzydrjbdzddr, it was preferred to its dual form 
bdzdara; the words bdziyya and biydza were scarcely 
used in the Muslim Occident. The use of rapacious 
predatories (kdsir, pi. kawdsir) as "beasts of prey" 
(djdrih, pi. djawdrih) was undoubtedly known to the 
Arabs before Islam, and Imru 3 al-Kays sketches, in 
his ayyam al-sayd, some descriptions of flying-sport. 
However, hawking only assumed importance with 
them after the great Muslim conquests which 
brought them into contact with the Persians and 
the Byzantines. It quickly won the favour of the 
new leaders who discovered in it the possibility of 
diversion and of satisfying peacefully their passion 
for riding. Caliphs and high Muslim dignitaries were 
zealous in elevating it, with venery, to the rank of 
an institution under the direction of a "master of 
chases" (amir al-sayd), and later (amir shikar). The 
Umayyad caliph Yazid b. Mu'awiya (680-83) was 
one of the first to show an unbridled enthusiasm 
for the flying-hunt. Historians, biographers and 
chroniclers in the Arabic language provide infor- 
mation, each according to his own period and 
country, on the current practice of hawking, and 
relate for the occasion lively anecdotes of the 
exploits of certain princes in this field, (see al- 
Tabari, Ibn al-Athlr, al-Suyutl, al-MakrizI-Quatre- 
mere, in J. Sauvaget, Introduct. a I'hist. de I'Orient 
Musulman). Much more valuable is the information 
concerning bayzara found in certain encyclopedic 
works, edited for the purpose of adab or philological 
learning, such as the K. al-Ifayawan of Al-Djabiz 
(Cairo 1947), the Al-Mukhassas of Ibn Sida 
(Alexandria 1904, vol. viii, and indices by M. Talbl, 
Tunis 1956), the K. Subh al-A<shd of Al-ICalkashandi 
(Cairo 1913, vol. ii), the K. Murudi al- Dhahab of 
al-Mas<udI. 

The Maghrib and Muslim Spain, as well as the 
Orient, had their enthusiasts for the hawking-sport. 
In Aghlabid Ifrikiya, the governor Muhammad II 
(864-75), called not without reason the "Cranesman" 
(Abu '1-Gharanik). exhausted the state exchequer 
with his wild expenses on the "flying-play" (la c b) 
(see Ibn c Idhart, Baydn, trans. Fagnan, Algiers 1901, 
147-48). Later the Hafsids, too, were smitten by 
hawking. Like a Sasanid prince, Al-Mustansir (1249- 



77) found his pleasure, with the hawk on his fist, in a 
vast "preserve" (masyad) near Bizerta (see Ibn Khal- 
dun, K. aW-lbar, trans. De Slaneet Casanova, ii, 338). 
In the 15th century his descendant 'Uthman (1435-88) 
spent several days a week in this entertainment (see 
R. Brunschvig, Deux recits de voyage inedits . . ., 
Paris 1936, 212). At the Umayyad court in Cordova, 
the Grand Falconer (Sdhib al-baydzira) enjoyed a high 
office, close to the ruler (see Ibn 'Idhari, op.'cit., in E. 
Levi- Provencal, X e s., Paris 1932, 55). The fashion 
of hawking, widespread in the countries of Islam 
during the Middle Ages, was the livelihood of a great 
number of people, and its practice was not limited 
to the privileged classes, as it was in Christendom. 
The rural population and the nomads continued to 
devote themselves to it and preserved the tradition, 
down to the beginning of the 20th century. From 
this fact it is easy to evaluate the r61e played by the 
sporting-bird in Muslim economic life, especially 
during the medieval period, by the commerce it 
provoked and the people required for its maintenance, 
(see A. Talas, La vie iconomique aux II im ' and III*"" 
slides de I'Higire, in Arabic in Madjallat al-Madjma' 
aW-Irdki, 1952, ii, 271-301; al-Djahiz( ? ), K. al- 
tabassur, bi 'l-Tidjdra, ed. H. H. Abdul-Wahab, 
Cairo 1935 34-35, trans. Ch. Pellat, in Arabica, 
i, 2, 1954, 160-61). 

Most often, in fact, the master of the hawk-keepers 
train was not a falconer in the strict sense of the 
term, and he only put on the glove (dastabdn; 
Maghrib: kuffdz) during the hunt. The care of the 
"hawk's room" (bayt al-fuyiir) was entrusted to 
hawkers' assistants [ghuldm, pi. ghilmdn) who had 
besides the task of keeping the aviary well provided 
with pigeons and other game-birds, for the nourish- 
ment and training of the hawks. The latter, a 
technical term of the bayzara, necessitated, according 
to the kind of sporting-bird, the competence of the 
ostringer (bdzydr pi. baydzira. On the preference of 
bdzydr to bayydz see Ibn Sa'Id al-'Akfani, Irshdd al- 
Mafrdsid, 92; the terms bayydz, bayyazi, biydz, 
bdziyy, bayzdrl in the general sense of hawker, are 
Spanish-MaghribI, and frequently give way to 
fayydr), or of the falconer (sakfrdr) ; both were often 
assisted by the kalldbazi, the master of the hawking- 
pack who sets his greyhounds (sulu^i, pi. sulu^iyya) 
on the gazelle or the hare, and the Goshawk, 
occasionally the Saker Falcon or even the eagle, 
flying "waiting on" (hdHm), distances the pack and 
binds to the quarry. 

The traditional classification in the Orient of 
predatories worthy of training (dardwa and dard'a), 
based on the black or yellow colour of the iris 
denoting remarkable visual powers, corresponds 
exactly to the modern ornithological system. In 
fact the "dark-eyed birds" are found only in the 
genus Falco, "falconidae", who alone have a black 
iris. These are "long-winged sweeping birds, "lured- 
birds, used to "highflying" (the flight of the heron: 
balshun, of the crane: kurki or ghirnib, of crows: 
ghirbdn, from time to time the eagle: 'ufrdb, the kite: 
hida > , and the wild water-fowl: fayr al-md?). The 
Arabist is often puzzled by the abundance of terms 
designating sporting-birds, a such abundance not 
being due to the multiplicity of types, but to the great 
variety of adjectives qualifying the innumerable 
shades of plumage worn by the bird according to 
its sex, its age and habitat. The Arabs saw several 
different types when it was only a question of 
individual birds of the same family, whether im- 
mature, young or adult, male or female. One can 
discover, however, among that accumulation of names 



the generic 



h the aid on the one hand of 
f the avifauna of each country, 
and on the other, of the descriptions provided by 
the great Muslim naturalists, such as al-KazwInl 
(1203-1283) in his K. 'AdjdHb al-Makhlukdt, al- 
Damirl (1341-1405) in his K. Jiaydt al-tfayawdn, 
and especially by the authors of cynegetic works 
(see below). 

Thus the sakkdr, falconer, was occupied in 
training only: a) the Ger-Falcon, Falco rusticolus, 
(sunkur, shunkur, shunkdr) which, unknown in the 
Arab countries, had to be imported at great expense 
from Siberia, and which often figured among the 
ceremonial gifts upon an exchange of ambassadors; 
b) the Saker Falcon, Falco cherrug, (sakr, sakr al- 
ghazdl, shark); c) the Peregrine Falcon, Falco pere- 
grinus, under its three oriental sub-species: peri- 
grinator, babylonicus and calidus (either shdkin or 
bahrl for the "Passage-Peregrine"); d) the Black- 
winged Kite, Elanus caeruleus (zurrak, sakr abyad, 
and Pers. kuhl) ; e) the Merlin, Falco columbarius 
aesalon (yu'yu'', djalam) ; f) the Hobby, Falco 
subbuteo (kawindj) ; g) the Kestrel, Falco tinnunculus 
C-dsiik); h) the Lesser Kestrel, Falco Naumanni 
{"■uwaysik) ; i) the Red-footed Falcon, Falco vesper- 
tinus (luzayk) (see A. Ma'luf, Mu'djam al-kayawdn, 
Cairo 1932, to be consulted with great care in view 
of the numerous errors in a scientific apparatus so 
often outdated). 

In the Muslim West highflight hawking knew only 
four falconidae: the Saker (nubli or lubli, derived 
from the name of the Andalusian town Niebla, which 
points to a loanword) ; the Barbary Lanner Falcon, 
or the "Alphanet" of the Christian falconers, Falco 
biarmicus (burnt) ; the Barbary Falcon, Falco pere- 
grinus pelegrinoides (turkll); and Eleanora's Falcon, 
Falco eleonorae (bahrl) (see Leo Africanus. II Viaggio, 
Venice 1837, 166; L. Mercier, La chasse et les sports 
chez les Arabes, Paris 1927, ch. V, La fauconnerie, 
Si-106, and bibl.; E. Daumas, Les chevaux du Sahara, 
Paris 1853, with the Reflexions de I'Emir Abdelkader, 
359-372). These four falcons are described in the 
Maghrib as "noble" (hurr). As for the "yellow-eyed 
birds", raised only by the bdzydr, ostringer, they are 
the class most used in the hawking-sport. They are 
all "short-winged soaring birds" or "fist-hawks" 
trained for "lowflying". This category is composed 
largely of the genus Accipiter or accipitridoe and 
includes in some parts of Persia and Turkey the 
smaller aquilidae. 

The bird which has enjoyed the greatest favour 
since remote antiquity and in every country of the 
Orient is undoubtedly the Goshawk, Accipiter 
gentilis, and its subspecies Accip. albidus (either bdz, 
or shdhbdz) which, because they do not belong to the 
avifauna of the Arabic countries, were imported by 
merchants from Greece, Turkestan, Persia and India; 
the Maghrib scarcely knew of them. It was believed 
that the Goshawk was born to the flying art. Its 
Persian name bdz, passed into Arabic before Islam, 
was applied apparently through ignorance to every 
sporting bird, and the term bayzara, ostring art for 
the experts, meant hawking in general. Conversely, 
it was "falcon" which prevailed over "goshawk" in 
Europe, and "falconry" covered the technique of 
the ostring art. In the arabisation of the name bdz, 
it was necessary to give it a triliteral root, of which 
the choice caused some trouble among philologists 
and lexicographers. Three alternatives were proposed : 
a) BZW-BZY, giving by derivation bdz'", al-bdzi, 
bdziyy; pi. buzat, bawdz'*lal-bawdzi, buz'dn; b) BWZ- 
BYZ giving bdz'", pi. abwdz, bizdn; c) B'Z giving 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



ba y z UH pi. ba'zdt, aVuz, bu'uz, bi'zdn, bu'uz, bu'z. 
After the Goshawk, it was the Sparrow-Hawk, 
Accipiter nisus (bdshak, '■uldm, tut) and its short- 
footed subspecies called "Shikra", Accip. badius 
brevipes (baydak), which was preferred owing to its 
docility and the vast area of its distribution ; its hen 
(sdf) is still used at Cape Bon in Tunisia for flying 
at the passage-quail in spring (see D. M. Mathis, La 
chasse aufaucon en Tunisie, in Bull. Societt Sc.Natur. 
deTunisie, ii, 3-4, Tunis 1949, 107-18 and illustrations; 
idem, in A. Boyer et M. Planiol, Traiti de Faucon- 
nerie et Autourserie, Paris 1948, 242-48; L. Lavauden, 
La chasse et la faune cynigilique en Tunisie, Tunis 
1920, 20-21; al-LatdHf, in Arabic, Tunis, May 1955, 
24-27 and illustrations). 

As for eagles, they never have had in fact the rank 
of sporting-birds (Htdk al-tayr); however, Persians 
and Turks trained with success the Crested Hawk 
Eagle, Spizaetus cirrhatus (tughrul), Bonelli's 
Eagle, Hieraetus fasciatus, and the Booted Eagle, 
Hieraetus pennatus (both called zummddj). The 
Harriers (murzdt) and Buzzards (sakdwd) were 
neglected owing to their untamable ferocity; the 
kite and the vulture (nasr) as well, because of their 
taste for carrion. The Persians carried the art of 
training as far as the Eagle Owl (buha) which served 
to attract the other predatories. All of the "yellow- 
eyed birds" were earmarked for the lowflying at the 
quail (sumdnd, salwd), the partridge (hadfal), the 
Chukar partridge (kabdj) and the See-See (tayhudj), 
the sandgrouse (katd), the Bustard (hubdrd), the 
Little Bustard (ra"dd), the Francolin (durrddj), the 
Ruddy Shieldrake (^ankud) and other game-birds of 
the steppe and desert. 

The techniques proper to bayzara were early in 
Islam the objects of numerous treatises which, for 
the most part, have not survived; Ibn al-Nadim 
mentions ten of them in his Fihrist. On the other 
hand a large number of the manuscripts in the public 
and private libraries in Europe and the Orient have 
yet to be studied (cf. Brockelmann, chapters on 
"Naturwissenschaft" and "Jagd"). Nevertheless 
these techniques are comparatively well known to 
us thanks to several works already edited. The oldest 
of these texts, treating falconry, might be the basis 
of the Latin- Roman versions not yet identified but 
attributed to the two authors Moamin and Ghatrif 
(see the excellent critical edition of these texts by 
H. Tjerneld, Stockholm-Paris 1945). Recently, the 
Syrian Kurd c Ali had the happy idea of publishing 
(Damascus 1953) a treatise Al-Bayzara devoted to 
the falconry of the Fatimid caliph Al-'Aziz bi-llah 
(975-96) ; the anonymous author offers us the 
profit of his own long experience and that of the 
specialists in hawking (lu«db) in a style stripped of 
extraneous erudition: poetical citations are arranged 
in a special chapter. This work is by far the most 
valuable of those we possess in Arabic on the training 
methods. At almost the same time As c ad Talas 
edited (Baghdad 1954) the oldest known Arabic 
text, K. al-Masdyid wa 'l-Matdrid, the work of the 
famous poet Al-Kushadjim (d. 961 or 971) (cf. 
Brockelmann, I, 85, and S I, 137; Talas, Madialla . . . 
op. cit., with an analysis of the work). This complete 
treatise on venery and falconry was one of the 
sources most exploited by later authors of cynegetic 
works; there emanates from it unfortunately too 
great a preoccupation with adab which relieves it 
of any practical significance. Very different and 
far more lively and useful are the "hawking-sport 
memories" of Usama Ibn Munkidh (d. 1188) in his 
K. al-IHibar (ed. P. Hitti, Princeton 1930, ch. iii, 

73 



192-229) composed during the period of the Crusades 
(see Derenbourg, Vie d'Ousdma . . ., and texts, 
Paris 1885 and 1893). The work of the Mamluk 
Muhammad al-Mangll, K. Uns al-MaW bi-Wahsh 
al-Fald', written in 1371 (cf. Brockelmann, II, 136 
and S II, 167) and published (Paris 1880) with a 
mediocre French translation by Florian Pharaon, 
has lost much of its value since the treaty of Al- 
Kushadjim has been available. Further, bayzara is 
treated in didactic poems such as the kasida in 213 
lines of the Maghribi al-FadjidjI (d. 15 14; Brockel- 
mann, II, 136), and the Djamhara ji 'l-bayzara 
(Ms. Escorial, n. 903) of a certain c Isa al-Azdi (10th 
century?) often cited by al-Mangli. These com- 
positions deserve publication, though they have 
already been exploited by L. Mercier {op. cit.) who 
has in addition used the manuscripts of Al-Fakihl 
(d. 1541) and Al-Ash'ari (1444) (MSS. Paris, B.N. 
nos. 2831 and 2834). Talas (Madjalla . . .) has 
restored to its original version the beautiful ardjuza 
on the flying-sport by Ibn Nubata (1287-1366) 
entitled FardHd dl-Suliik /i Masdyid al-Muluk. 

From all these texts it results that snaring and 
training methods were nearly the same for all 
species of sporting-birds. The young hawk was 
caught "eyas" or "yellow beak" (ghitrdf, ghitrif) or 
"branchiers"-"rockers", i.e., the nest-forsakers (ndhid) 
from her eyrie; when "redfalcon" (farkh) or "hag- 
gard" (wahshi) "native" (baladi) or "passage-hawk" 
(kdti' or radii'-), she was limed or snared by means 
of nets, of nooses and chiefly of "flying-decoys" 
{bdrak) (cf. the system of the hut in Ibn Munkidh, 
op. cit., 200-01; M. Planiol, op. cit. 154-56). When, 
captured, she was "reclaimed", i.e., made tame 
(ta'bir, tahdV); her eyelids were "sealed" {khayt) 
and she was "abated" (tadjwi', tankis) by fasting 
and then, progressively unsealed, she was induced 
to step, of her own accord, on the fist by offering her 
some "beakfuls" (talkim) and tempting her with 
flesh of live preys (talkif). When become tame and 
stepping on to the fist at call, she was tied to the 
"creance" (tiwdla), and it was now the beginning 
of her training to stoop at such and such game. 
Her carnivorous instinct was awakened and her 
keenness {fard'na) to bind to the quarry developed 
by releasing before her training-birds (kasira) 
selected from the species for which she was being 
trained to hunt. These exercises were patiently 
repeated, each time at a greater distance. When 
estimated "essured" (mustaw** li-l-irsdl), the pupil 
was fitted with "jesses" (al-sibdkdn') and "bells" 
(adjrds, khalkhdl) and then she was accustomed to 
wear on her head the "hood" {burka'-, kumma, 
Maghrib: kanbil) and to be "mailed in the sock" 
(kabd*), gaining some "manning" (uns) by long 
hours spent among the crowds of the streets and 
markets. Once familiarised with people, horses, dogs 
and domestic animals, she was taken to the hunting 
places where she was flown "for good" (sdda talk") 
at waterfowl and sparrows. She returned at the 
sound of a drum (tanbal) attached to the saddle of 
the falconer (see L. Mercier, op. cit., 98), and she was 
allowed to "take her pleasure" (ishbd') on one of her 
takes. In the Maghrib training was never carried 
to such a degree of refinement: always taken in 
adulthood, the bird was released in the autumn and 
underwent only a rudimentary training (cf. L. 
Mercier, op. cit., 96-104). Being set down to rest, the 
hawk was placed on the "block" (hamula, kuffdz) or 
on the "perch" ('drida, kandara), and was "weather- 
ed" (tashrik) in the sun, near her bathing-pool. 
During the period of moult (karnasa, takriz), she 



was kept apart, from any noise, and her "mutes" 
{dhark, ramdf) were carefully controlled. By this 
means her good health was assured. The treatises on 
bayzara devote long chapters to the diagnosis of 
diseases particular to sporting-birds and their cure, 
revealing most often a barbaric empiricism combined 
with hygienic superstitions. 

From the time of the Prophet the question has 
been posed, with regard to Kur'anic law, of the 
legality of eating a game-bird caught by means of a 
trained (hawk) predatory; it was a question of 
whether the bird ought to be slaughtered in accord- 
ance with the rites. Averroes, in his Biddyat al- 
Mudjtahid . . ., (cf. Averroes, Le livre de la chasse, 
extr. of the Biddya, text and trans; annotated by 
F. Vire, in Revue Tunisienne de Droit, nos 3-4, 
Tunis 1954, 228-59), gives a clear account of the 
different positions adopted by each of the four 
schools of law. This same question constitutes the 
introductory part of all of the works dealing with 
falconry and venery. 

The bayzara on the other hand did not fail to 
inspire poets and, from the time of the Umayyad 
period, it became with the coursing hunt one of the 
principal themes of popular poetry in radjaz. 
In fact the ardjuza, more supple and lively 
than the rigid classical kasida, soon became, with 
al-Shammakh (d. 22/643), al-'Adjdjadj (d. 89/708), his 
son Ru'ba (d. 145/762) and several others, the typical 
form of the cynegetic poem (tamdiyya). The latter, 
very much in fashion under the 'Abbasids, was 
adopted by the great masters of verse such as Abu 
Nuwas, Ibn al-MuHazz, Kushadjim and Al-Nashi, 
and afforded them, through research into rare terms 
(gharib), "the occasion of displaying their learning" 
(Ch. Pellat, Langue el Litterature Arabes, Paris 1952, 
108-09) (on the taradiyydt, see idem, Le milieu 
basrien, 160 ff. and notes. Taradiyydt are found in 
the diwdns of the poets; those of Abu Nuwas are for 
the most part cited by Al-Djahiz, tfayawdn). It is 
regrettable to note that this pedantic erudition led 
to the use, by those who took pleasure in it, of a 
language which has very little in common with that 
employed by the lovers of the flying sport. In Muslim 
Spain the poets, especially from the nth century on, 
exploited principally the theme of the hawking- 
sport, which could not escape their pronounced 
taste for nature. They were able to inject into it 
that romantic note unknown to Oriental versifiers 
(cf. H. Peres, Poisie Andalouse, Paris 1953, 346-9). 
Besides these creations in a learned language, there 
was a poetry of falconry prolonged and preserved, 
in their different dialects, by the great Arab nomads. 
It is interesting to note that the Touaregs have 
never known of the hawking art (cf. H. Lhote, La 
chasse chez les Touaregs, Paris 1951). The disdain 
displayed by the Arab anthologists for the "vulgar" 
tongue has deprived us of these Bedouin "songs" 
which were still recently honoured in the confines 
of the Sahara, revealing in their descriptions of the 
hawk, her flight and her quarries, a realism difficult 
to find in classical poetry (cf. M. Sidoun, Chants 
sur la chasse au faucon attHbuis a Si El-Hadj Aissa, 
Chirif de Laghouat, in R.A/r., nos. 270-71, 1908, 
272-94, text, trans, notes). 

The very large rdle played by the hawking-bird, 
as a theme of inspiration in Islamic works of art, 
is material for considerable study. In fact the 
artistic modes of expression : miniatures, decorative 
sculpture in stone, in stucco, wood and ivory, 
engraving on crystal, glass and copper, moulding in 
bronze, glass and precious metals, ceramics, tapestry 



BAYZARA — BAZAHR 



and embroidery, owe to the "hawk motif" a great 
deal of their inestimable accomplishments. Indeed, 
it is from this motif, in its innumerable interpre- 
tations, that Muslim art of East and West has drawn 
many of its characteristics (cf. A. U. Pope, A survey 
of Persian Art, Oxford 1939; G. Migeon, Art 
Musulman, Paris 1956; G. Marcais, V Art del'Islam, 
Paris 1946). We add in conclusion that this same 
motif was vastly exploited by Mamluk heraldry 
(cf. L. A. Mayer, Saracenic Heraldry, Oxford 1932; 
Artin Pacha, Cont. a Vitude du blason en Orient, 
London 1902). 

Bibliography: Beside references cited in the 
text: D. C. Phillott, The Bdz Ndma-yi Ndsiri, A 
Persian Treatise on falconry, London 1908; 
L. Mercier, La Parure des Cavaliers el I'lnsigne 
des Preux, Fr. trans, of k. Hulyat al-Fursdn . . . 
of Ibn Hudhayl al-Andalusi, Paris 1924, 6, 400 
and bibl.; Z. M. Hasan, Hunting as practised in 
Arab countries of the Middle Ages, Govern. Press, 
Cairo 1937; R.F.E., La chasse au faucon dans Us 
Hauts du Constantinois, in Rev. "TAM", 330, 
Algiers 1948; G. Dementieff, La Fauconnerie en 
Russia, Esquisse historique, in L'Oiseau and Rev. 
Francaise d'Ornithologie, xv, 1945, 9-39. 

(F. ViRt) 
BAZ [see BAYZARA]. 

BAZ BAHADUR, The last ruler of independent 
Malwa before the Mughal conquest in the time of 
Akbar, Baz Bahadur was the son of Shudja' Khan, 
a relative of Shir Shah Sur, whom the latter appointed 
governor of Malwa after its conquest by Shir Shah's 
forces in 949/1542. On the death of Shudja' Khan in 
962/1554, Baz Bahadur murdered his brother 
Dawlat Khan, governor of Udjdjayn (Ujjain) and 
had himself proclaimed as sultan in 963/1555. He 
then brought most of Malwa under his rule by 
forcing his youngest brother Mustafa Khan to give 
up Raisin and Bhilsa. In 968/1560-1, a Mughal army 
under Adham Khan advanced to conquer Malwa. 
Baz Bahadur was forced to relinquish his capital 
Mandu. The next year he succeeded in defeating PIr 
Muhammad, Adham Mian's successor, but towards 
the end of 969/1562 was obliged by Mughal re- 
inforcements to flee into the hills of Gondwana. 
Though from his refuge there Baz Bahadur made 
several guerilla attacks upon the Mughal forces, he 
grew tired of the struggle and in 978/1570 submitted 
to Akbar eventually to receive a mansab of 2001 
He died not long after and is probably buried < 

Baz Bahadur is celebrated in popular legend for 
his love for his mistress Rupmati for whom he i 
said to have composed love-songs and verses. H 
is also an eponymous figure in the development c 
a new passionate stylt of central Indian painting, 
in which the twin cultures of Malwa, Hindu and 
Muslim, were blended. 

Bibliography: Nizam al-DIn Ahmad, Taba- 
kdt-i Akbari, Bibliotheca Indica, text iii, Calcutta 
1935, 421-424; Abu '\-Fad\,.Akbar-Ndma, Biblio- 
theca Indica, text ii, Calcutta 1876-79, 89-90, 
134-137, 140, 142-143, 166-169, 211, 231, 358; 
AHn-i-A hbari, trans. H. Blochmann, i, Bibliotheca 
Indica, 1868, index, 630; Firishta, i, 537-: 
Ni'mat Allah al-Harawi, Makhzan-i Afghani, 
trans, as History of the Afghans by B. Dorn, i, 
London 1829, 177-179", Samsam al-Dawla Shah- 
Nawaz Khan, Mahathir al-Umard', Bibliotheca 
Indica, text i, Calcutta 1888, 387-391; L. White 
King, History and Coinage of Malwa, in Numis- 
matic Chronicle, fourth series iii, London 1903, 



396-398, fourth series iv, London 1904, 93, 97; 
H. Nelson Wright, The Coinage of the Sultans of 
Mdlwd, in Numismatic Chronicle, fifth series, xi, 
London 1931, fifth series xii, London 1932, 46 
and Plate IV; C. R. Singhal, On Certain Un- 
published Coins of the Sultans of Malwa, Journal 
of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, New Series 
iii, 1937, Numismatic Supplement, xlvii, Article 
no. 349, N. 137; Zafar Hasan, The Inscriptions of 
Dhdr and Mandu, in Epigraphia Indo-Moslemica, 
1909-10, 8-9; S. H. Hodivala, Studies in Indo- 
Muslim History, ii, Bombay, 1957, 225-227; The 
Lady of the Lotus (Rup Mati Queen of Mandu) by 
Ahmad-ul-Umri, trans, etc. L. M. Crump, London 
1926; E. Barnes, Dhar and Mandu, in Journal of 
the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 
xxi, 1902-1904, 370-372; G. Yazdani, Mandu The 
City of Joy, Oxford 1929, index: Baz Bahadur, 
125, Rupmati, 130; Central Indian Painting, with 
an introduction and notes by W. G. Archer, 
Faber Gallery of Oriental Art, London 1948, 4-5. 
See also plate 4, 10-11; Gahrwal Painting, with 
an introduction and notes by W. G. Archer, 
Faber Gallery of Oriental Art, London 1954, 
plate 4, 10-11. (P. Hardy) 

BAZA [see basta]. 

BAZAHR, Bezoar, a remedy against all kinds of 
poisons, highly esteemed and paid for throughout 
the Middle Ages up to the 18th century, and in the 
Orient even up to this very day. The genuine 
(Oriental) Bezoar-stone is obtained from the bezoar- 
goat (Capra aegagrus Gm.) and, according to the 
investigations of Friedrich Wohler, the famous 
chemist (1800-1882), and others, it is a gall-stone. 
The stone seems to have been unknown to ancient 
Arabs, for neither in the lexica nor in A. Siddiqi, 
Studien uber die persischen Fremdwbrter im klassischen 
Arabisch, 1919, is the word mentioned. The generally 
accepted etymology is Persian {pd(d)-zahr "against 
poison" (P. Horn, in Geiger-Kuhn, Grundr. d. ir. 
Phil., i/2, 1^9). The Arabic books of stones and 
drugs present various spellings and etymologies 
that do not always correspond with each other, 
nor are the etymologies themselves throughout 
correct (see later). 

For the first time in Islamic literature the Bazahr 
seems to appear in some of the Hermetic writings 
(none of them printed), and in the (partly edited) 
pseudo-Aristotelian writings inspired by the Oriental 
translations of the Alexander Romance. In the 
Lapidary ascribed to Aristotle (J. Ruska, Dos 
Steinbuch des Aristoteles, 1912, 104 f.) Bazahr is 
erroneously stated to be Greek, while the ex- 
planation is the usual al-ndfi li 'l-samm. The 
poisons coagulate the blood; this effect is pre- 
vented by the stone which frees the body of 
the poison by strongly sweating. Aristotle also 
registers the different colours of the Bazahr and the 
places where it is found, namely, China, India, the 
"East" and Khurasan. Also as amulet and sealing- 
stone the Bazahr is useful, as well as against the 
sting of poisonous insects (see below). 

Some MSS. of the pseudo-Aristotelic Sirr al-Asrdr 
(Secretum secretorum) offer a chapter on precious 
stones, namely, Oxon. Laud 210 and Paris 2418. 
The text of the former was translated in Opera 
hactenus inedita Rogeri Baconi (!), V: Secretum 
secretorum, ed. R. Steele, 1920, 253; the latter 
has only been noted by 'Abdurrahman Badawl, 
Fontes Graecae (sic) doctrinarum poMicarum Islami- 
carum, i, 1954, 167, n. 3. Steele also gives (174) the 
Latin text according to ed. Achillini, 1501, and 



points to the Hebrew text (ed. and transl. by M. 
Gaster, JRAS, 1907-8, para 130). The name of the 
stone is rendered al-ndfi al-durr or mumsik al-ruh 
(Hebrew 'dslr hd-ruah) (?). Its action is described 
similarly to that in the above-mentioned stone-book. 

The Ikhwdn al-Safd', ii, 81 Bombay = 104 Cairo 
explain the action of the stone in an elaborate 
theoretical way. It is worth noting that they use 
the name also as an appellative in the plural, along 
with sumumdt and tarydkdt. In the K. al-Sumum 
wa-Daf- maddrrhd by Djabir b. Hayyan, Badzahr is, 
according to A. Siggel, Das Buch der Gifte etc., 1958, 
213 mostly used in the sense of "antidote" in general; 
only on 186 Siggel translates "Bezoar". The stone 
is only called one of the major remedies. Djabir is 
one of the sources quotes by al-BIruni in his elaborate 
article, al-Djamdhir fi Ma'ri/at al-Djawdhir, 1355, 
200-202; cf. M. J. Haschmi, Die Quellen des Stein- 
bucks des Beruni, Thesis, Bonn 1935, 19, who does 
not realise that the numerous quotations from 
Djabir's K. al-Nukhab mean his K. al-Bahth, extant 
in MS. Istanbul Djarullah 1721. Al-BIrunl's account, 
deriving from various sources, although opening with 
the statement that the stone is a mineral, offers also 
descriptions which make its being an organic material 
possible. He also teaches methods of examining its 
genuineness, and concludes with anecdotes. 

The next author according to chronology is al- 
Ghafiki, for the time being accessible only in 
Barhebraeus' abridgment, ed. M. Meyerhof and 
G. P. Sobhy, 98, para 185 (English translation 
356-58 with elaborate commentary, where later 
sources are quoted in extenso). Al-Ghafikl's rendering 
of the name is mukdwim al-samm. For al-TIfashl, 
see also the long chapter on Bazahr in Clement- 
Mullet, J A, vi/11, 1868, 143-50. Later sources not 
quoted by Meyerhof-Sobhy : the Arabic text of 
Ibn al-Baytar, 1291, 1, 81 f.; the German version 
of al-Kazwini (J. Ruska, Das Steinbuch aus der 
Kosmograpkie des al-Kazwini, Kirchhain, 1896). Al- 
Tifashi and also al-Antaki, Tadhkirat uli 'l-albdb, i, 
60 call the stone pdk-zahr "cleaning from poison", cf. 
P. Anastase-Marie de St.-Elie's commentary on Ibn 
al-Akfani, Nukhab al- DhakhdHr , 1939, 75 «-, para 13. 

A story of a lad stung by a scorpion who was 
cured by a drink of incense sealed with a seal of 
Bazahr is preserved in Ahmad b. Yusuf ibn al- 
Daya's commentary on Ps.-Ptolemy's K. al- 
Thamara (Centiloquium), aphorism 9, and was 
reproduced in Ghdyat al-hakim (Picatrix), ed. Ritter, 
I933> 55 (in the forthcoming German translation 56). 

On the later history of the Bazahr, also in Europe, 
and its high esteem in contemporary Persia see 
C. Elgood, Medical History of Persia, 1951, 369-71 
who also describes modern methods of examining its 
genuineness. (J. Ruska-[M. Plessner]) 

BAZAR [see suk]. 

BAZARGAN [see tidjara]. 

BAZlGH b. MOSA, called al-Ha'ik, ShI'ite 
heretic. A disciple of Abu '1-Khattab [q.v.], he was, 
like his master, denounced by the Imam Dja'far 
al-Sadik as a heretic and was even, according to 
Nawbakhtl, disowned by Abu '1-Khattab himself. 
Kashshl reports a tradition that when Dja'far al- 
Sadik was told that Bazigh had been killed, he 
expressed satisfaction. This would place Bazlgh's 
death before that of Dja'far in 148/765. Like many 
of the early extremist ShI'ites, Bazigh was an 
artisan — a weaver of Kufa, and some amusement 
was expressed at the religious pretensions of one of 
such lowly status. His followers were known as 
Bazlghiyya. 



Bibliography: Al-Kashshi, Ma^rifat al-Ridj.il, 
Bombay 1317, 196-7; al-Nawbakhti, Firak al- 
Shi'a, (ed. H. Ritter), Istanbul 1931, 38, 40; al- 
Ash'ari, Makdldt al-Isldmiyyin, (ed. H. Ritter), 
Istanbul 1929, i, 12; al-Baghdadl, al-Fark bayn 
al-Firak, (Eng. tr. by A. S. Halkin, Tel-Aviv 1935) 
64-5; al-Makrizi, KhiM, " 352; al-Shahrastani, 
Milal, 137; al-Idji, Mawdkif, 346; J. FriedlandeT, 
The Heterodoxies of the ShiHtes, JAOS 1907 and 
1908, index; A. S. Tritton, Muslim Theology, 
London 1947, 27-8; W. W. Rajkowski, Early 
Shi'ism in Iraq, unpublished London University 
Ph. D. thesis. (B. Lewis) 

BAZINKIR (commonly bazinger, bazingir, ba- 
singer, besinger), slave-troops, equipped with fire- 
arms; a term current in the (Egyptian) Sudan 
during the late Khedivial and Mahdist periods. 

Etymology: The derivation is obscure. Sir 
Reginald Wingate's assertion (Mahdiism and the 
Egyptian Sudan, London 1891 ; 28, n. 1) that it was 
the name of a tribe may be rejected: it does not 
appear to come from any southern Sudanese 
language. Professor E. E. Evans-Pritchard's state- 
ment ("A history of the kingdom of Gbudwe", 
Zaire, Oct. 1956, no. 8; 488, n. 36) that it derives 
from a Nubian ( ?Dunkulawi) word, bezingra, lacks 
confirmation. Its origin should perhaps be sought 
in Turkish or Persian, possibly in connexion with 
biz and/or sunkur, "falcon", (cf. the use of farkha) 
or bdzigar, "juggler" (cf. djanbaz). 

Origin : The term first appears among the ivory 
and slavetraders of the Bahr al-Ghazal. Originally at 
least it was not current among those of the upper 
White Nile: it is not mentioned by Sir Samuel 
Baker, to whom C. G. Gordon explained its meaning 
in a letter dated 26 May 1878 (T. Douglas Murray 
and A. Silva White, Sir Samuel Baker: A memoir, 
London 1895, 242). G. Schweinfurth, apparently the 
first European to use the term, equates bdzinkir 
with furukh (Ar. = "chickens" ; farkha = khddim is 
still a Sudanese colloquialism) and with "narakik" 
( ? al-rakik). Other sources state that the furukh 
were the gun-boys of the bdzinkir (Wingate, op. cit., 
103-, n. 1 : G. Schweinfurth, F. Ratzel, R. W. Felkin 
and G. Hartlaub, Emin Pasha in Central Africa, 
Eng. trans., London 1888; 409, footnote). 

Historical rdle : Schweinfurth (The heart of 
Africa, London 1873; ii, 421) describes the bdzinkir 
of the Bahr al-Ghazal (c. 1870) as private slaves of 
the traders. They constituted nearly half their 
fighting forces and accompanied the Nubian troops 
C-asakir) on expeditions. They were excellent 
soldiers but, because of their propensity to desert, 
less reliable than the Nubians. Many Niam-niam 
(Azande) voluntarily became slaves in order to 
serve as bdzinkir. The greatest slave-army in the 
Bahr al-Ghazal was that of the merchant-prince, 
al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur. When it was broken up, 
after 1875, the employment of his bdzinkir was 
one of the problems confronting the governor- 
general, Gordon, who described them as "truly 
formidable" (G. Birkbeck Hill, Colonel Gordon in 
Central Africa, London 1881; 336). Many of the 
Nubian commanders entered the khedivial service 
with their bdzinkir, receiving the designation of 
sandiak beyi, then usually bestowed upon command- 
ants of irregulars (R. Gessi, Seven years in the 
Soudan, London 1892; 280). One such, al-NQr Bey 
Muhammad 'Ankara, was subsequently a Mahdist 
commander of some importance; (Richard Hill, 
A biographical dictionary of the Anglo-Egyptian 
Sudan, Oxford 195 1; 297: P. M. Holt, The Mahdist 



BAZINKIR — BEDJA 



"57 



state in the Sudan, Oxford 1958; 52, 56, 94, 196). 
After the defeat of Sulayman b. al-Zubayr Rahma 
(1879), a group of his bdzinftir, commanded by 
Rabih Fadl Allah (Rabih al-Zubayr), escaped west- 
wards, and Rabih made himself ruler of a territory 
in the Chad region, where he was defeated by the 
French and killed in 1900 (Richard Hill, op. cit., 
312-13: Max v. Oppenheim, Rabeh und das Tchad- 
seegebiet, Berlin 1902). Of the bdzinty who remained 
in the Egyptian Sudan many were probably in- 
corporated in the djihddiyya, the Mahdist profes- 
sional soldiery, or in the Sudanese battalions of the 
new Egyptian army. 'Arab! Dafa e Allah, the Mahdist 
governor of al-Radjdjaf (upper White Nile) raised 
new bdzinfrir, sending 600 as tribute to the Khalifa 
c Abd Allah in Shawwal 1312/March 1896 (Sudan 
Government Archives, Khartoum; Mahdia 1/32, 
18/1, 75/1; 1/32, 18, 76; i/34, i, io). 

Bibliography: Principal references in text. 
(P. M. Holt) 
BAZIRGAN, Bezirgan, Turkish forms of the 
Persian Bdzargdn, a merchant. In Ottoman Turkish 
usage the term Bdzirgdn was applied to Christian 
and more especially Jewish merchants. Some of 
these held official appointments in the Ottoman 
palace or armed forces; such were the Bazirgan- 
bashi, the chief purveyor of textiles to the Imperial 
household (D'Ohsson, Tableau genital, vii, Paris 
1824, 22; Gibb-Bowen, 1/1, 359), and the Odjdjjs 
Bdzirgdn!, the stewards, usually Greek or Jewish, 
who handled the pay and supplies of the corps 
of Janissaries. This office tended to become hered- 
itary in certain families (D'Ohsson, vii, 318; I. H. 
Uzuncarsih, Kapukulu Ocaklart, i, Ankara 1943, 
407 ft.). (B.Lewis) 

BAZtJKIYYtJN, (Pazuki), a tribe settled, accord- 
ing to M. A. Zaki (Ta'rikh, 370-71) either in Persia 
or in Turkey (having relations with the tribe of 
Suwayd). The tribe was divided in two parts: 
Khalid Beklu and Shaker Beklu, of which the 
former was more important. Its places of habitation 
were Khnis, Malazgird and to some extent Mush. 
The latter was subject to the amir of Bidlis. The 
founder of the Khalid Beklu was Husayn 'All Bek. 
His descendant, Khalid b. Shahsuwar Bek b. 
Husayn 'All Bek, a fellow warrior of Shah Isma c U, 
took part in a number of battles in which he 
won fame but lost an arm, whence his sobriquet 
One-armed Khalid (like Ahmad Khan of Baradust 
[q.v.]): Khalid DhuT-yad al-Wahida. As a reward 
for his valour, the Shah gave him Khnis, Malazgird 
and the ndhiya of Ukhan (Udjkan) at Mush. Later 
he declared his independence of the Shah and allied 
himself with Sultan Sellm Yawuz. This submission 
was, on the other hand, of short duration; he was 
finally arrested and executed, though his family 
continued for a long time to exercise power. During 
the time of his son amir Kilidj Bek, a part of the 
tribe emigrated to the Donboli [q.v.], though 
remaining subject to the Ottoman sultan. The 
existence of a tribe of this name is, on the other 
hand, mentioned by M. A. Zaki (Khuldsa) in the 
region of Tehran (15), in the south of Persia (465) 
and in the neighbourhood of Erivan (466). A Pazegui 
tribe is mentioned by Lerch (i, 96) at Tarow. 

Bibliography : Muhammad Amin Zaki, Ta'rikh 
al-Duwal wa 'l-Imdrdt al-Kurdiyya fi 'l-'-Ahd al- 
Isldmi, Cairo 1945 ; M. A. Zaki. Khuldsat Ta'rikh 
al-Kurd wa-Kurdistdn, Baghdad 1937. 

(B. Nikitine) 
BAZZAZISTAN [see kaysariyya]. 



BEC (Bedj), the Ottoman name for the town 
of Vienna. The Turks (as also the Serbs and Croats) 
took this word from the Hungarian, where it has the 
meaning of "suburb, outer city" (Hungarian: 
kiilvdros; hence it is explained as kiilwar by Ewliya 
Celebi, vii, 251), where the word probably goes back 
to the Kuman-Pecenek (perhaps also Avar.) bet 
(Gomb6cz-Melich, Magyar Etymologiai Szdtdr, Buda- 
pest 1914 s.v.). There is only scanty and superficial 
information on the town in Ottoman geographical 
literature and diplomatic reports (cf. Hammer- 
Purgstall's translation from Ebu Bekir b. Behram 
in the Archiv /. Geographie, Historie, Staats und 
Kriegskunst, 1822, 28 ff. ; also Hammer-Purgstall, 
viii, 215; Fr. Kraelitz, Bericht iiber den Zug des 
Grossbotschaflers Ibrahim Pascha nach Wien im 
Jahre 1719, in SBA Wien, 1907), although in the 
16th and 17th centuries, Vienna was the immediate 
goal of two large campaigns under sultan Suleyman 
the Magnificent and under the Grand Vizier Kara 
Mustafa Pasha (cf. Sturminger, Bibliographie und 
Ikonographie der beiden Tiirkenbelagerungen Wiens 
1529 und 1683, Vienna 1955 ; comments on this in 
WZKM 52 ; and R. Kreutel, Kara Mustafa vor Wien, 
Graz 1955) ; Ewliya Celebi is an interesting exception. 
He claims to have visited Vienna (cf. WZKM, 51, 
188 ff.) in 1665 in the entourage of the Ambassador 
Kara Mehmed Pasha. His extensive description of 
the town (Siydhat-ndme, vii, 247-329; translation: 
R. Kreutel, I m Reiche des Goldenen Apfels, Graz 1957) 
contains numerous absurdities, as well as many 
correct observations. In the first half of the 19th 
century (tanzimdt), the name Bee was replaced by 
Viyana (from Vienna) in Ottoman writing, and today 
this is the usual form. (R. F. Kreutel) 

BEDEL-I 'ASKERl [see badal]. 

BEDEL-I NAKDl [see badal]. 

BEDEL [see bIdil]. 

BEDJA (usual Ar. form, Budja), nomadic tribes, 
living between the Nile and Red Sea, from the Kina- 
Kusayr route to the angle formed by the 'Atbara 
and the hills of the Eritrean-Sudanese frontier. The 
principal modern tribes are the 'Ababda [q.v.], 
Bisharin '[q.v.], Ummarar, Hadanduwa and BanI 
c Amir. The 'Ababda now speak Arabic; the others 
(except the Tigre-speaking sections of B. c Amir) 
speak tu-Bedawiye, a Hamitic language. The Bedja 
subsist mainly on their herds of camels, cattle, sheep 
and goats. Since grazing is sparse, they move 
usually ifj very small groups. Bedja origins are 
obscure but Hamitic-speaking groups have inhabited 
the region from ancient times. The usual identifi- 
cation with the pre-Islamic Blemmyes was rejected 
by Becker (see bedja in EI 1 ). 

Relations with Muslim Egypt. c Abd Allah 
b. Sa'd encountered some Bedja on his return from 
Nubia (31/651-2) but regarded them as politically 
insignificant. The first Bedja-Arab treaty, made with 
'Ubayd Allah b. al-Habhab in the reign of Hisham, 
regulated Bedja trade with Egypt and safeguarded 
the Muslims from their depredations. The Arabs 
penetrated Bedja territory in search of emeralds 
(mined in<he desert of Kift) and gold, found in the 
Wadi al- c Allaki [q.v.]. The dominant northern 
Bedja tribe was the Hadarib, traditionally descended 
from pre-Islamic immigrants from Hadramawt. 
They were disunited but there are occasional in- 
dications of a supreme chief, living in a village 
named Hadjar. A more numerous servile class, the 
Zanafidj, acted as herdsmen. Muslim immigration 
resulted in a superficial islamisation of the Hadarib 
and Arab-Bedja intermarriage. Bedja raids on 



BEDJA — BEDOUINS 



Upper Egypt led to a Muslim expedition, which 
defeated the chief, KanOn, and imposed a treaty 
(216/831). The caliph was acknowledged as suzerain, 
mosques in Bedja territory were to be respected, 
Muslim merchants and pilgrims were to pass in 
safety, and collectors of zakdt from converts were to 
be allowed entry. Other provisions sought to prevent 
an alliance of the Bedja with Christian Nubia. 
Further raids and the withholding of tribute from 
the gold-mines ensued. A cavalry expedition, sent 
by sea, defeated the Bedja camel-men, whose chief 
went to Samarra in 241/855-6 to make his personal 
submission to al-Mutawakkil. Soon however the 
Bedja began to raid al-Fustat itself. After a parti- 
cularly severe attack, a force mustered by 'Abd al- 
Rahman al-'Umarl intercepted a raiding-party and 
killed its chief. Supported by the Rabi'a and Dju- 
hayna, al-'Umarl established control over the 
mining districts (c. 255/868-9) and, after his death, 
Rabi'a, who intermarried with the Hadarib, came 
to dominate the area. Al-Mas'udI describes the chief 
of Rabi'a in 332/943-4 as the owner of the mines; he 
commanded 3,000 Arabs and 30,000 Bedja camel- 
men. The ratio is probably more significant than 
the numbers. The rise of 'Aydhab [q.v.] in the mid- 
5th./nth. century increased the importance of the 
Hadarib, whose territory was crossed by the route 
from the Nile valley to the port. A chief, called by 
Ibn Ba(tuta al-Hadrabi, shared in the customs of 
'Aydhab. Information" about the southern Bedja is 
sparse. Al-Ya'kubl lists six Bedja "kingdoms". Al- 
Uswanl depicts the further Bedja as a fragmented, 
pagan society, in which each group had its own 
kdhin to give guidance on grazing and raids. 

Decline of the Hadarib and formation of 
the tribes. By the 8th/i4th century the gold-mines 
had been abandoned and 'Aydhab was in decline. 
These economic factors may explain the disappearance 
of the Hadarib, who appear to have migrated south- 
wards, perhaps becoming the Balaw ruling-caste 
which dominated the Bedja of the Suakin-Massawa 
hinterland. The spread of Arab tribes up the Nile 
and the establishment of the Muslim Fundi sultanate 
(c. 910/1504) resulted ultimately in the general, if 
superficial, islamisation of the Bedja. This is reflected 
in the adoption of Arab pedigrees. Some of these 
{e.g., the derivation of the Bisharln, Ummarar and 
'Ababda from Khalid b. al-Walid or al-Zubayr b. 
al- c Awwam) are obviously fictitious: others, such 
as the Hadanduwa claim to descent from an other- 
wise unknown Hijazi refugee from the Ottomans, 
may be a genuine memory of the tribe's development. 
The Fundj period saw the appearance and expansion 
of the modern tribes. Fundj suzerainty was recognised 
by the southernmost group, the B. c Amir, a congeries 
dominated by a caste of Sudanese-Arab descent, 
the Nabtab, which had superseded the Balaw about 
the end of the 16th. century. The 18th. century 
witnessed the westward expansion of the Ummarar 
and the drive of the Hadanduwa to the Kash and 
'Atbara. [See also 'abAbda and bisharIn]. Suakin 
had meanwhile become the principal port of the 
region and was connected with the Sudanese Nile by 
several routes across Bedja territory. From 1517 it 
was an Ottoman possession but by the early 19th. 
century the port was controlled by a Bedja group, 
the Hadarib, probably distinct from the medieval 
Hadarib but, like them, linked genealogically with 
Hadramawt. They were ruled by the five Artayka 

The Egyptian conquest to the present 
day. The Feyptian conquest of the Nilotic Sudan 



(1821-22) did not immediately affect the Bedja. 
Tribute-gathering raids into al-Taka (the KSsh region) 
failed permanently to subdue the Hadanduwa but 
an administrative post was founded at Kasala (1840), 
which became a trading centre and the head- 
quarters of the important Khatmivva (arlka. The 
Ummarar levied tolls on the Suakin-Berber trade- 
route and, like the Hadanduwa, were employed in 
transport. Although administrative control was 
imperfect, this was a time of pacification and 
economic progress. Artayka took the lead in deve- 
loping the agriculture of the Baraka, previously 
slightly cultivated by the B. c Amir. Attemts were 
made to grow cotton commercially in the Kash and 
Baraka deltas. The growing security and prosperity 
were shattered by the Mahdiyya. This aroused no 
response among the Bedja until the arrival of 
•Uthman b. Abi Bakr Dikna in 1883. He owed his 
success less to his partly Bedja ancestry than to the 
support given him by the local head of an indigenous 
(arika which had felt the rivalry of the government- 
backed Khatmiyya. 'Uthman Dikna cut the Suakin- 
Berber route, captured the government posts in 
Bedja territory and threatened Suakin itself. His 
followers, mainly Hadanduwa and Ummarar, 
fluctuated in their support, and the capture of his 
headquarters at Tukar in 1891 by an Anglo-Egyptian 
force marked the beginning of the Mahdist decline 
among the Bedja. Pacification and development 
were resumed under the Condominium (1899-1956). 
The tribal organization was reconstructed. Security 
was effectively established. Schools and hospitals 
were set up in the towns. Contacts between the 
Bedja and the outside world were increased by 
economic developments — the creation of Port 
Sudan, the construction of railways linking the coast 
and Kasala with the Nile valley, the commercial 
production of cotton in the Kash and Baraka deltas. 
The old way of life is however slow to change, and 
the full integration of the Bedja into the Sudanese 
polity remains a problem for the new Republic. 
Bibliography: Principal references only. The 
principal medieval source is al-MakrlzI, K. al- 
MawaHz, ed. G. Wiet, Cairo 1922, iii, 267-80, 
which incorporates the 10th century account of 
Ibn Sulaym al-Uswani and other material. Wiet's 
footnotes give valuable bibliographical references. 
Modern European sources to 1937 are listed in 
R. L. Hill, Bibliography of the Anglo-Egyptian 
Sudan, London 1939. To this should be added 
O. G. S. Crawford, The Fung Kingdom of Sennar, 
Gloucester 195 1; A. Paul, A History of the Beja 
Tribes, Cambridge 1954; and the following 
articles in Sudan Notes and Records : D. C. Cumming, 
A History of Kassala and the Province of Taka, 
xx/i, 1937, 1-46; xxiii/i, 1940, 1-54; xxiii/2, 225- 
271; W. T. Clark, Manners, Customs and Beliefs 
of the Northern Beja, xxi/i, 1938, 1-30; S. F. Nadel, 
Notes on Beni Amer Society, xxvi/i, 1945, 51-94; 
A. Paul, Notes on the Beni Amer, xxxi/2, 1950, 
223-245. The collection made by the late Sir 
Douglas Newbold, entitled History and Archaeology 
of the Beja Tribes of the Eastern Sudan, now in 
the Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, 
Oxford, contains tribal and other material. 
Copious documentation on the Bedja during the 
Mahdiyya exists in the Mahdist archives, held by 
the Ministry of the Interior, Khartoum. 

(P. M. Holt) 
BEDJWAN [see badjalan]. 
BEDOUINS [see badw]. 



- BEGLERBEGI 



BEG or BEY, a Turkish title, "lord", used in 
a number of different ways. The various dialect 
forms (bag, bdk, bek, bey, biy, bi, pig, etc.) all derive 
from the old Turkish bag as seen from the Orkhon 
inscriptions (8th Century) and the Chinese tran- 
scriptions concerning the Turks of Mongolia of the 
same period. The word has no Altaic origin (Mongol 
begi being a later loanword from Turkish; the series 
Turkish bark, Mfc/Mongol barka, bdki "strong, 
sound", etc., owes nothing to the old Turkish bag 
and should be dissociated from it; the same is true 
of the series: Turkish bdgu, bog "wise-man, sorcerer" 
Mongol bSge, bb' "Shaman"). Like many other titles, 
bag is a loan-word possibly deriving from the 
Iranian bag, vis. the title of the Sasanid kings 
("divine", from an older form baga "God", cf. 
Bag-dad). 

In the Orkhon inscriptions the compound term 
bdg-ldr refers to the "nobility", "the order of beys", 
as opposed to the bodun "people, masses". The 
word bag also appears in these texts to denote the 
second rank in the hierchy of high dignitaries. 
Finally, there is the evidence of a Bars Bag who 
becomes Mian and brother-in-law of the Turkish 
Grand Khan. These different usages show that the 
title bag (as later with beg or bey) does not imply a 
specific position or duty but is essentially honorific. 
Hence among many Turkish peoples it is joined to 
the name of the "eldest brother", agha (bag agha, 
or agha bag = old Ottoman aghabey "lord elder 
brother"). Some Turkish societies have reserved the 
title for personages of high rank ; others have given 
it an extended general meaning of "chief", "master", 
"husband" or "Mr.". It can only assume a precise 
connotation in a given social and administrative 
context, often as the second part of a compound 
(on begi "chief of ten", "corporal", Golden Horde; 
Ott. sandjak bey(i); etc.); or as a title when used 
with a proper name which it usually follows: Bars 
Bag, Mehmed Bey. The feminine title of Begum 
[q.v.] is simply a possessive form of the ist pers. 
sing, of beg (= bdg-im "my lord", thence "my lady"; 
cf. khdn-um, a similar possessive formation which 
has assumed a feminine connotation). 

(L. Bazin) 

ii. In Islamic times we find the word applied 
under the Karakhanids to at least one high 
official; and it was the title first borne by 
Tughrul and his brother Caghrl, the founders of the 
Saldjukid empire. Under the Saldjukid and other 
subsequent Turkish regimes, as Turkish terms began 
to be used officially side by side with the traditional 
Arabic and Persian, beg came to be employed as the 
equivalent of the Arabic amir, as in the titles begler- 
begi or beylerbeyi, equivalent to amir al-umard, and 
sandfak-beyi, equivalent to (a)mlr liwd. Under these 
regimes, again, whereas the great monarch would be 
entitled khdkdn, khan, or sul(dn, lesser sovereigns, 
such as those of the Anatolian states successor to the 
Saldjukid, the Karakoyunlu, and the Akkoyunlu, 
were entitled beg, as indeed was the great Timur 
himself. 

Under the Ilkhans beg was sometimes used for 
women, and under the Moguls of India the feminine 
form, begam, was common. Under the Safawids, 
since the ruler went by the title shah, beg lost ground 
for lesser personages to khan and even sultan. Under 
the Ottomans, on the other hand, it remained in 
wide use for tribal leaders, high civil and military 
functionaries, and the sons of the great, particularly 

Bibliography: El 1 , art. Beg by Barthold; 



I A, art. Beg by Kopriilu; Redhouse, Turkish- 
English Lexicon, s.v. (H. Bowen) 
BEGDILI, a tribe of the Boz-ok branch of the 
Oghuz (Turkmen) peoples. Anushtagln, ancestor of 
the Kh w arizmshah dynasty, is sometimes believed 
to be of this tribe, but this is probably not so. A large 
Begdili community was found among the Tiirkmens 
in Syria in the 8th/i4th century. At that time they 
were led by Tashkhun (Tashkun) Oghullarl. They 
were regarded as one of the most important Turkmen 
tribes in Syria in the 9th/i5th century. Another 
important branch of this tribe lived in the 14 villages 
of the Giilnar district of the Icel province in the same 
century; their leaders Were in possession of fiefs 
(dirlik). The Begdili of Syria were the largest of the 
Turkmen tribos in the Aleppo region in the ioth/i6th 
century; they had 40 clans during the first half of 
the same century. The Syrian Begdili also had 
important clans in the Yeni II and among the Boz 
Ulus in the Diyarbakr region. Another branch of 
these Begdili went to Iran together with the 
kizilbash Shamlu tribe. The finest grazing grounds 
between Diyarbakr and Aleppo were, in the n'W 
17th century, in their possession. They were, 
however, punished by Khusraw Pasha during his 
Baghdad expedition (1039/1630), for refusing to pay 
taxes and for allowing their cattle to destroy the 
crops of the local people. They are estimated to have 
had 12,000 tents during the second half of the same 
century. Like many other tribes, the Begdili were 
called to take part in the Austrian campaign in 1101/ 
1 690. A few years later the government made an 
attempt to settle the Begdili and other Turkmen 
tribes living near them, in the Rakka region. Cons- 
equently some Begdili settled in Rakka and the rest 
in the Aleppo and 'Ayntab region. As already men- 
tioned a branch of the Syrian Begdili went to Iran 
together with the Shamlu. Many important Safawi 
commanders and governors were of this tribe. A 
branch of Begdili is seen among the Goklen Hi in 
the Astarabad region. 

Bibliography: Faruk Siimer, Bozoklu Oguz 
Boylarma Dair, in Dil ve Tarih ve Cografya 
Fakiiltesi Dergisi, xi/i, Ankara 1953. 

(Faruk SCmer) 
BEGLERBEGI, beylerbeyi, Turkish title meaning 
'beg of the begs', 'commander of the commanders'. 
Like other titles it suffered progressive debasement: 
having originally designated 'commander-in-chief of 
the army' it came to mean 'provincial governor' and 
finally was no more than an honorary rank. In the 
first sense it was used by the Saldjuks of Rum as an 
alternative title for the malik al-umard' and by the 
Ilkhanids as the title of the chief of the four umard' 
al-ulus. In the empire of the Golden Horde the title 
was used for all the umard* al-ulus. In Mamluk 
Egypt it was perhaps used for the aldbak al- c asdkir. 
(For references to the sources see M. F. Kopruliizade, 
Bizans Miiesseselerinin Osmanh Miiesseselerine 
Te'siri, Istanbul 1931, 190-5 [Italian translation, 
Alcune osservazioni . . ., Pubblicazioni dell'Instituto 
per l'Oriente di Roma, 1944], and I. H. Uzuncarsih, 
Osmanh Devleti Teskildhna Medhal, Ist. 1941, index; 
cf. also D. Ayalon'in BSOAS XVI [1954], 59)- 

Among the Ottomans too the title seems to have 
meant originally 'commander-in-chief (in which 
sense it is used by Sa'd al-DIn, i, 69). It is said to 
have been first bestowed on Lala Shahin by Murad I 
when, after the capture of Edirne, he himself returned 
to Brusa (Giese's Anon. 22,, = Urudj 22,). Lala 
Shahin was succeeded by Timurtash, still apparently 
the sole beglerbegi, who was left to guard Anadolu 



BEGLERBEGI — BEGTEGINIDS 



when Bayezld I marched against Mirce (Neshri 
[Taeschner] i 86). When Musa, during the 'time of 
troubles', had seized the European territories he 
appointed a wezir, a Ifddi'-asker and 'a beglerbegi' 
(Giese's Anon. 4g 24 , but 'beglerbegi of Rumeli' in 
Urudj 39,3 and 'Ashlkpashazade [Giese] § 69). By 
the end of the reign of Mehemmed I at the latest 
there existed two beglerbegis, with territorial desig- 
nations, one 'of Rumeli' and one 'of Anadolu' (cf. 
<APz. § 81, 'beglerbegi of Anadolu' and § 83, 'beglerbegi 
of Rumeli'; such referencer for earlier periods in 
later historians may be anachronisms). This was 
clearly the case under Murad II, by which time the 
beglerbegis of Rumeli and Anadolu were the governors- 
general of the two provinces, their main responsibility 
being the supervision, through the sandjak-begis 
[q.v.], of the feudal sipdhis, whom in time of war they 
led into battle. As Ottoman territory expanded, 
new provinces were created, so that by the end of the 
ioth/i6th century the beglerbegis numbered nearly 
forty. The beglerbegi of Rumeli (who from 942/1536 
onwards was admitted to the diwdn, cf. Feridun 2 i 
595) always took precedence, the others, if of the 
same rank (see below), taking precedence according 
to the dates of the conquest of their provinces. It 
was not unknown for the Grand Vizier to hold also 
the office of beglerbegi of Rumeli. 

It is clear from a Kanun-name of Mehemmed II 
that already in his reign beglerbegi had come to be 
also an honorary rank (as it had perhaps been under 
the Saldjuks of Rum, cf. Kopriiluzade, op. cit., 192), 
holders of which took precedence immediately after 
wezirs. By the end of the nth/i7th century Rumeli 
beglerbegisi too had become an honorary rank, 
besides denoting the actual governor-general. 
Conversely, from the ioth/i6th century onwards, 
the office of beglerbegi of important provinces was 
often bestowed on holders of the rank of wezir, who 
had authority over beglerbegis of neighbouring 
provinces. The wezir was entitled to three tughs, the 
beglerbegi to two. Both wezirs and beglerbegis bore 
the title pasha, whence the sandjafr in which the 
beglerbegi resided was known as pasha sandjaghl. 

The beglerbegi was regarded as 'viceroy', saltanat 
wekili ; he had a miniature court and presided at his 
own diwdn. At first he had full powers to grant 
ttmdrs and zi'-dmets, his appointments being auto- 
matically ratified, but after 937/1530 he could grant 
with his own berdt only the smaller (tedhkiresiz) 

In the I2th/i8th century the terminology became 
further confused, for (1) the name wdli [q.v.] was 
increasingly given to the governor-general, and 
beglerbegi in this sense fell into desuetude (except for 
the beglerbegis of Rumeli and Anadolu, to judge from 
D'Ohsson, Tableau general, vii, 278) ; (2) the Persian 
mir-i mirdn, mirmirdn [q.v.], which had earlier been 
used indiscriminately (together with Ar. amir al- 
umard' [q.v.]) as a synonym for beglerbegi, was 
increasingly used to denote the honorary rank of 
beglerbegi, and bestowed as such even on governors 
of sandjaks. With the thorough re-organisation of 
provincial administration by the law of 1281/1864 
the term wdli became the official designation of the 
provincial governor (cf. A. Heidborn, Droit public 
et administratif de I'Empire Ottoman, Vienna-Leipzig, 
1908, 157 ff.). Thenceforth only the terms Rumeli 
beglerbegisi, mirmirdn and mir-i umerd survived, and 
they only as honorary titles. 

In the Safawid state the beglerbegis formed the 
second of four classes of provincial governors 
(Tadhkirat al-Muluk, tr. and comm. V. Minorsky, 



GMS New Series xvi, London 1943, 25, 43, 163). 
Bibliography: Hammer-Purgstall, Staats., 
passim; P. A. von Tischendorf, Das Lehnswesen 
in den Moslemischen Staaten, Leipzig 1872; 
J. Deny, Sommaire des Archives Turques du Caire, 
Cairo 1930, 41-52, and articles Pasha and Timdr 
in EP ; W. L. Wright, Ottoman Statecraft, Princeton 
1935, index; I. H. Uzuncarsih, Osmanh Devletinin 
Saray Teskildh, Ankara 1945, index; idem, 
Osmanh Devletinin Merkez ve Bahriye Teskildh, 
Ankara 1948, index; M. Z. Pakalin, Osmanh Tarih 
Deyimleri ve Terimleri Sozliigu, s.v. Beylerbeyi; 
H. A. R. Gibb and H. Bowen, Islamic Society and 
the West, i/i, Oxford 1950, esp. 137 ff. and sources 
there referred to. For the syntactical use of the 
word see Deny, Gr. §§ 1115-7. 

(V. L. Menage) 
BEGTEGINIDS, an important seigneurial family 
which, though it never completely freed itself from 
the overlordship of its powerful neighbours, possessed 
for a century extensive lands in Upper Mesopotamia, 
partly in the east around Irbil and partly in the west, 
for a shorter period, around Harran. The founder 
of the family, Zayn al-DIn C A1I Kiiciik b. Begtegin, 
was a Turcoman officer whose fortune was linked 
from the beginning with that of Zenki. Probably 
as a result of his participation in this prince's 
campaigns in Kurdish territory, we find him in 
possession of a number of districts stretching from 
the Great Zab to the lands of the Humaydi and 
Hakkarl Kurds, Takrit, and Shahrzur, with Irbil 
at their centre. In 539/1145, after the revolt of the 
Saldjukid Alp-Arslan at Mosul, Zenki further gave 
him military control over this town. Despite this 
ithful lieutenant of Zenki's 
Mosul, Sayf al-DIn and Kutb al- 
DIn, as well as of their vizier Djamal al-DIn al- 
Isfahanl, until the time of his disgrace; the last- 
named of these princes added to his territories 
Sindjar and Harran, the latter in compensation for 
Hims in Syria which one of his brothers had to give 
up to Niir al-DIn, the uncle of Kutb al-DIn and 
prince of Aleppo. However, at the end of his life 
Zayn al-DIn surrendered all his lands to Kutb al-DIn, 
securing in exchange his son's right of succession to 
Irbil alone. He died an old man in 563/1168, and left 
the reputation of being brave, upright, temperate, 
and a protector of the devout. 

His fame, however, was surpassed by that of his 
son Muzaffar al-DIn Gokburi. The latter, ejected 
first from Irbil by the governor of that town (and 
later of Mosul), Kai'maz, to the advantage of his 
younger brother Zayn al-DIn Yusuf. From Kutb 
al-DIn he received in compensation Harran, which 
his father had held. At the opportune moment he 
aligned himself with Saladin, who added Edessa and 
Samosata and married him to one of his sisters. From 
that time on he played a glorious part in most of Sala- 
din's campaigns, in particular the conquest of Pale- 
stine and Syria and the struggle against the Franks 
(third Crusade). Then in 586/1190, his brother 
Yusuf having died after he also had had to 
surrender to the confederate armies in front of Acre, 
Gokburi surrendered his Diyar Mudar territories to 
Saladin on behalf of his brother Taki al-DIn c Umar 
and obtained from him as de facto overlord of the 
Zenkids the succession to the entire province of Irbil. 
He held this for forty-four lunar years, until he was 
eighty-one years old, and judging from his revenues 
considered himself from the time of Saladin's death 
as the vassal of the Caliph alone. He played an 
astute part in the struggles which went on all this 



- BEKTASHIYYA 



time among the various rulers of Upper Mesopotamia, 
supporting first the Ayyubids against the Zenkids, 
and later the weakened Zenkids, to whom he married 
two daughters, against the sons of al-'Adil. Finally 
he set himself to opposing the ambitions of Badr 
al-DIn Lu'lu 5 , the lieutenant and successor of the 
Zenkids, who was an ally of the Ayyubid al-Ashraf. 
At the end of his life, having no son and fearing the 
intervention of his different neighbours, Gokburi 
bequeathed his principality to the Caliph, who 
brought it under effective occupation (630/1233). 

Apart from diplomatic and military matters 
Gokburi was concerned with various enterprises of 
social value, especially at Irbil, though their 
influence extended beyond the town itself. He 
instituted madrasas, khanakdhs, hospitals and alms- 
houses, and public services in aid of pilgrims, as well 
as contributing to the ransom of prisoners of the 
Franks, etc. He seems to have been the first prince 
to celebrate formally the Mawlid festival, perhaps 
as a reaction to the Shi'i nativity festivals or 
Christmas as kept by the Irbil Christians. He was 
a devout and a well-read man, much visited by 
scholars and writers from foreign lands. In governing 
he was assisted, particularly on such occasions, by 
his vizier, who was known by reason of his former 
activities as Mustawfi of Irbil, and compiled the 
history of the town. Ibn Khallikan and his family 
were among their most famous proteges. Around 
the town of Irbil, which had always remained 
Christian and somewhat aside from the current of 
Muslim history, there grew up a new lower town, 
and the whole became transformed into a Muslim 
centre of some standing. This advance, which was 
attended by a rather severe fiscal policy, was set 
at naught by the Mongol sack of 634/1237. 

Bibliography: Apart from the historians of 
Saladin, see especially Ibn al-Athir, Atabeks and 
Kamil (index) ; Sibt b. al-Djawzi, Mir'dt, 680-683 ; 
Ibn Wasil, Mufarridj, Bibl. Nat. Paris 1702, 
288v°- 2 89v°; Ibn al- c Amid, ed. CI. Cahen, in 
BEO 1958, year 630; Ibn Khallikan, ed. 638, 
trans. De Slane 535 ff. (cf. 552) ; Ibn al-Fuwati, 
ed. Must. Djawad, 44 ff.; Yakut, i, 186-187; the 
coin catalogues of the British Museum (Lane- 
Poole, iii) and Istanbul (Isma'Il Ghalib); H. 
Gottschalk, al-Malih al-Kdmil, 13-14; 'Abbas 
al- c Azzawi, Al Bektigin Kokburi aw imirat Irbil 
fi '■ahdihim, dans Madjalla . . . Revue de I'Academie 
arabe du Caire, XXI-XXII, 1956-195), see also 
the articles Irbil and Mawlid. (Cl. Cahen) 
BEGTIMUR [see shah-i arman]. 
BEGUM (Indo-Persian Begam, Turkish Bigim), 
feminine of Beg [q.v.]. During the Mughal period of 
Indian history its use, as an honorific, was confined 
to the royal princesses only. Djahanara Begam [q.v.] | 
the unmarried daughter of Shahdjahan [q.v.], bore 
the official title of Padshah Begam during the reign 
of her father. She retained it even after the dethrone- 
ment and subsequent incarceration of Shahdjahan. 
During Akbar's rule the Begams (queens and prin- 
cesses) received from 1028 to 1610 rupees per 
annum as privy purse. After the death of Djahingir, 
his widow Nur Djahan, received 200,000 rupees 
per annum allowed her by Shadjahan. Mumtaz 
Mahall, the consort of Shahdjahan, drew 1,000,000 
rupees annually from the Imperial Exchequer while 
Padshah Begam enjoyed an allowance of 600,000 
rupees per annum, half in cash and half in lands. 
Awrangzib gave the latter 1,200,000 rupees per 
annum. Before the establishment of Pakistan 
(1947), Indian Muslim ladies ot high and noble 



birth were designated as "begams". Now all 
married women in Pakistan, with the exception 
of those belonging to the poorer classes, are 
called "begams", the equivalent of khdnim Mrs., 
or Madame. In this sense the word is practically 
unknown to the Arabic and Persian speaking 
countries. Husbands, in public and private, not 
infrequently, address their wives as begam, scrupul- 
ously avoiding pronouncing their given names. 
Domestics and menials, as a rule, address their 
nustresses, in India and Pakistan, as begams. 
Conventionally, every newly-born girl bears this 
word as a suffix to her name, but the practice is 
now fast disappearing. 

Bibliography: Hobson-Jobson, s.v.; Asaf al- 

Lughat, s.v.; Sayyid Ahmad, Farhang-i Asafi"ya, 

s.v. ; c Abd al-Hamid Lahori, Bddshdh-ndma (Bib. 

Ind.), i 96 and index; AHn-i Akbari (Eng. 

transl.), i 615. (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

BEHARISTAN [see djami]. 

BEHESNI [see besni]. 

BEHISTUN [see bIsutun]. 

BEHNESA [see bahnasa]. 

BEHRAM [see bahram]. 

BEIRUT [see bayrut]. 

BEJA [see badja]. 

BEKRl MUSTAFA AGJ1A, the name of a 
drunkard, who lived in the reign of Sultan Murad IV 
(1623-1640), and is said to have led him into habits 
of drunkenness; the name bekri therefore in Turkish 
still commonly means a drunkard. In the popular 
literature and in the Karagoz plays the drunkard 
Bekri Mustafa Agha is a well-known figure, charac- 
terised by his sharp and ready wit and his Bohemian 
way of life. Ewliya even gives the title of a Taklid: 
Bekri Mustafa and the Blind Arab Beggar (Seyahat- 
ndme, i, 654). 

Bibliography : Jacob, Traditionen iiber Bekri 

Mustafa Aga, in Keleti Szemle, v (1904), 271; 

T. Menzel, Bekri Mustafa bei Mehmed Tevfik, 

ibid., vii (1906), 83; H. Ritter, Karagos, Wiesbaden 

1953, index. (F. Giese*) 

BEKTASH [see bektashiyya). 

BEKTASHIYYA, a Dervish order in 
Turkey. The patron of the order is Hadjdji Bektash 
Wall, whose biography as given in the order's 
traditional writings, (the first version of which 
goes back to about the beginning of the 9th/i5th 
century) is legendary, its purpose being manifestly 
to bring together the saint with famous religious 
personalities and to account for the later political 
importance of the Bektashiyya by insisting on the 
activity of its alleged founder. It is quite out of the 
question that Bektash was ever in relation with 
'Othman and Orkhan or that he ronsecrated the 
Janissary corps (established for the first time under 
Murad I), as is maintained by the Bektash! tradition 
and by some historical sources written under its 

We can however consider as certain the appearance 
in the 7th/i3th century, among the dervishes of 
Anatolia, of Hadjdji Bektash from Khurasan. He 
was probably a disciple of Baba Ishak [see baba'i], 
whose revolt had taken place in 638/1240. The 
aristocratic entourage of the rival Mawlawiyya order 
later laid emphasis on this. According to the 
researches of M. Fuad Kopriilu, the order originated 
from the circle of his disciples. However, in the 
Makdldt of Hadjdji Bektash, originally written in 
Arabic and translated into Turkish verse by Khatib- 
oghlu and afterwards rendered also into Turkish 
prose, the secret rites and doctrines characteristic 



BEKTASHIYYA 



of the Bsktashiyya are not particularly emphasised. 
At all events, the order, whose immediate prede- 
cessors appear to have been the Abdalan-i Rum, 
already existed in the 8th/i4th century; it was at 
the beginning of the ioth/i6th century that the 
grand master Ballm Sultan, the "second Pir", gave 
it its definite form. 

Turkish dervish institutions had received their 
characteristic features in western Turkestan from 
Ahmad Yasawi (d. 562/1166); they had acquired an 
ever increasing expansion in Anatolia, but at the same 
time they had adopted heretical tendencies. The 
Bektashiyya was able to conserve a good deal of 
pre-Islamic and heretical elements. In those regions 
where the order absorbed Muslim as well as Christian 
sects it came to include a large part of the population, 
as for instance in southern Anatolia and particularly 
in Albania, where there arose a kind of mixed 
religion, composed of Islamic and Christian elements. 
Also other communities with closely related related 
dogmas and rites, and especially the groups com- 
prised under the denomination of IClzIlbash, stood 
in certain relations to it. 

The attitude of the Bektashis towards Islam is 
marked both by the general features of popular 
mysticism, and by their far-reaching disregard for 
Muslim ritual and worship, even including the soldi. 
In their secret doctrines they are Shi'Is, acknow- 
ledging the twelve imams and, in particular, holding 
Dja'far al-Sadik in high esteem. The centre of their 
worship is C A1I; they unite 'All with Allah and 
Muhammad into a trinity. From 1 till 10 Muharram 
they celebrate the nights of mourning (mdtem 
gedfeleri) ; also the other 'Alid martyrs and especially 
the ma'sum-i pdk (those who perished in infancy) 
are highly venerated by them. In the 9th/ 15 th 
century the cabbalistic number speculations of the 
Hurufls spread among them, while the Didwiddn of 
Fadl Allah Hurufi in its Persian redaction, and the 
Turkish exposition of the doctrines of the sect written 
by Ferishte-oghlu under the title 'Ashkndma, have 
canonical authority with them. Furthermore they 
believe in the migration of souls. 

The Christian elements may already partly have 
belonged to the Anatolian predecessors of the 
Bektashis; other parts were perhaps taken over 
from Christian groups who joined them later. On 
the occasion of the reception of new members there 
is a distribution of wine, bread and cheese, which 
is probably a survival of the Holy Communion as 
practised by the Artotyrites. Moreover the Bektashis 
make a confession of sins before their spiritual 
chiefs, who grant them absolution. Women take 
part in their rites without veiling their faces. A 
narrower group vow themselves to celibacy, the 
celibates wearing earrings as a distinctive mark. 
It is not yet made clear whether celibacy existed 
already in early times among the Bektashis ; probably 
it was introduced for the first time by Ballm Sultan. 

The Bektashis not seldom settled in famous 
places of pilgrimage, explaining the sanctity of the 
latter in conformity with their own traditions, for 
instance in Seyyid Ghazl near Eskishehir and in 
several places in Albania. The miracles described in 
the legends of their saints have often conserved 
shamanistic features. 

The entire order was governed by the Celebi, 
who resided in the mother-monastery (pir-ewi) at 
Hadjdji Bektash, constructed over the saint's tomb 
(between Klrshehir and Kayseri). This office used 
to pass in the 18th and 19th centuries from father 
to son; it was not, however, always hereditary. 



The celibates have their own grand master or dede. 
The head of one single monastery (Ukke) is called 
baba ; the fully initiated member derwisk, the member 
who has only taken the first vow muhibb, the not 
yet initiated adherent 'dshik. The discipline is 
chiefly governed by the relation of the murshid to 
his disciples and novices. 

The Bektashis wear a white cap, consisting of 
four or twelve folds. The number four symbolises 
the "four gates": shari'a, farina, ma'rifa, hakika, 
and the four corresponding classes of people: l abid, 
zdhid, c drif, muftibb; the number twelve points to 
the number of the imams. Particularly characteristic 
are also the twelve-fluted taslim tashi, which is 
worn round the neck, and the teber (double-axe). 
Illustrations are to be found in the work of J. K. 
Birge (see bibliography). 

The big tekkes comprise the following parts 
mayddn evi, the monastery proper with the oratory 
ekmek evi, the bakehouse and the women's quarters : 
ash evi, the kitchens ; mihmdn evi ; the guest quarters; 

Among the many earlier settlements of the order, 
the following should be mentioned. In Rumelia: 
Dimetoka and Kalkandelen ; in Anatolia: 'Othmandjik 
north-west of Amasya and Elmali in Lycia; near 
Cairo first at Kasr al- c Ayn and soon afterwards 
also on the Mukattam slope (already as early as 
the 9th/i5th century); there are others in Baghdad 
and at Karbala 5 . 

The Bektashi form of the dervish religion deeply 
influenced the pious attitude of the Turkish people. 
Next to the mystical writings proper of the order 
there flourished also a rich and fervent lyric poetry 
of Bektashi poets. 

The order's political importance was due to its 
connexion with the Janissaries; the latter had been 
from the beginning, in the same way as all other 
early political institutions of the Ottomans, under 
the influence of religious corporations. In the 
second half of the 9th/i5th century at the latest the 
Bektashis acquired exclusive authority amongst 
them. The receptivity of the Janissaries to Bektashi 
beliefs may perhaps be explained by their Christian 
origin. Their connexion with this strictly organised 
order gave the Janissary corps the character of a 
closed corporation. The Bektashis also took part in 
several dervish rebellions against the Ottoman power, 
e.g., the revolt of Kalender-oghlu (933/1526-1527). 
The destruction of the Janissaries in 1241/1826 by 
Mahmud II affected also the order to which they 
were linked; many monasteries were destroyed at 
the time. Towards the middle of the 19th century 
began the renewal of the order and the rebuilding 
of the monasteries; the Bektashis experienced a 
revival which found expression in its literary activity 
at the end of the 19th century and even after 1908. 

In the autumn of 1925 the Bektashis, like all 
dervish orders in Turkey, were dissolved; it was, 
however, precisely the Bektashis who had opened 
the way for many measures inaugurated by the 
Turkish republic (relation to Islamic orthodoxy; 
position of women). To-day the Bektashis con- 
tinue their existence in the Balkan peninsula, 
particularly in Albania where their chief monastery 
is in Tirana; according to certain documents, there 
were still 30,000 Bektashis in Turkey in 1952 (cf. 
C.O.C., 1952, 206). 

Bibliography: Pioneer works in critical 

research are the studies of G. Jacob and Kopru- 

liizade Mehmed Fuad and his school. These 

writings and the remaining bibliography are 

mentioned in: J. K. Birge, The Bektashi Order 



BEKTASHIYYA — BELGRADE 






of Derwishes, London and Hartford (Conn.) 
1937. See Fr. Taeschner in OLZ xxxxii (1939), 
751-756. Further H. H. Schaeder in OLZ 31 (1928), 
1038-1057; H. Jansky in OLZ 29 (1926), 553-559; 
F. Babinger, Das Bektashikloster Demir Baba, 
in MSOS As. xxxiv (1931) ; Else Krohn, Vorisla- 
misches in einigen vorderasiatischen Sekten und 
Derwischorden, in Ethn. Studien i., 295-345; idem, 
Kleine Beitrdge zur Kenntnis islamischer Sekten 
und Orden auf der Balkanhalbinsel, in Mitteilungsb. 
der Ges. fur Vblkerkunde 1931 ; I A, s.v. Bektash (by 
M. F. Kopriilu) ; Abdulbaki Golpinarh, Vilayet- 
ndme, Istanbul 1958; E. E. Ramsaur, The 
Bektashi Dervishes and the Young Turks, in 
Moslem World, 1942, 7-14; OM, 1931, 1932, 1936; 
further references in J. D. Pearson, Index Islamicus, 
nos. 2581-2600. (R. Tschudi) 

BEI-EN [see baylan]. 

BELEYN. The name of a tribe-group of herdsmen 
and cultivators in the southern part of the Keren 
province of Eritrea. Known to themselves as Bogos, 
and numbering some 30,000 souls, they are organised 
in two main tribes, the Bayt Tarke and Bayt Tawke, 
strictly similar in culture and habit, though claiming 
distinct (mainly mythical) origins. A characteristic 
master-and-serf relationship has long been traditional 
among them, but tribal has now largely given place 
to direct govermental authority. The Beleyn generally 
followed Coptic Christianity until the Egyptian 
occupation of Keren area in 1277-1294/1860-1876), 
but have since adopted Islam. 

The Beleyn language, unknown elsewhere, is an 
unsemitised dialect of the Agau group of Kushitic 
(Hamitic) languages. This, and their social structure 
and folk-lore, indicate that their presence in Eritrea 
is due to the immigration of little-diluted Agau 
elements from northern Ethiopia in the 10th and 
nth (16th and 17th) centuries into territory pre- 
viously occupied by folk of lower culture and 

Bibliography : W. Miinzinger, Studi suW Africa 
Orientate, Rome 1887; C. Conti Rossini, Principi 
di diritto consuetudinario dell' Eritrea, Rome 1916; 
A. Pollera, Le popolazioni indigene dell' Eritrea, 
Bologna 1935; S. H. Longrigg, Short History of 
Eritrea, Oxford 1945; British Military Adminis- 
tration of Eritrea (per S. F. Nadel), Races and tribes 
of Eritrea, Asmara 1943. (S. H. Longrigg) 

BELGRADE (in modern Serbian : Beograd = 
White City), capital of the Federal People's Republic 
of Yugoslavia and of the People's Republic of Serbia, 
at the confluence of the Sava and the Danube. It 
comprises Beograd, the old town on the right bank 
of the Sava and the Danube, Novi Beograd ( = New 
Belgrade), a new settlement still under construction, 
on the left bank of the Sava, and Zemun, the old 
town on the Danube. A number of smaller places 
on both banks of the Sava and the Danube also 
belong to Belgrade. It has more than 500,000 
inhabitants. 

Since Belgrade became the capital of Yugoslavia 
in 1918, it has begun to spread to the far side of the 
Sava and the Danube. In former times it covered 
only the area along the right bank of the Sava and 
the right bank of the Danube below the confluence. 
It was here that the Celtic Scordici founded a 
settlement and named it Singidun, a name which 
the town retained in the days of Roman rule 
(Singidunum). During the Bulgar rule in the 
9th century, the town received its Slavonic name, 
which it retained, despite frequent changes of 
rulers (including Byzantine and, later, Hungarian 



ones). It was, however, frequently translated (Alba 
Bulgarica, Nandeor Alba, Nandeor Fej6rvar, Alba 
Graeca, Griechisch Weissenburg). In their day, 
the Turks referred to it as ^ f&i (Belgrad). 
In order to distinguish it from other towns in 
Albania, Hungary, and Transylvania which also 
bore the name of Belgrade, the Turks occasionally 
called it Belgrad Ongiiriiz (in the 9th/i5th century), 
Ashaghi Belgrad, Tuna Belgradi, Belgrad-i Semendire, 
or similar names. In some Turkish documents, and 
in contemporary geographical and historical works, 
Belgrade is sometimes designated by names applied 
in the Islamic world to border towns and strate- 
gically important fortresses. Thus the name dor 
al-djihad is found frequently, and this has led some 
of the earlier Serbian historians to state that this 
was the Turkish name for Belgrade. Prof. F. 
Bajraktarevid has proved that such a statement is 
unfounded. 

Up to the First World War, Belgrade was an 
important fortress on the road from Central Europe 
to the Near East. Thanks to its strategic importance, 
Belgrade has had a stormy past. After it had changed 
rulers frequently in the Middle Ages (Byzantines, 
Bulgars, Hungarians, and Serbs), Belgrade was 
ceded to the Hungarians after the death of the 
Serbian despot Stevan Lazarevid (1427). For nearly 
a century, it was the most important base for the 
defence of the southern borders of Hungary against 
Turkish raids. 

If we disregard some uncertain reports con- 
cerning a siege of Belgrade by Bayezld I, the Turks 
twice attacked Belgrade prior to 863/1459: in 
843-44/1440, when the town resisted a six months' 
siege, and under Mehemmed II the Conqueror, 
who in 860/1456, arrived with a great army, a fleet, 
and strong artillery. Encircled on the landward side, 
with the Turkish fleet blocking the Danube, and 
heavily bombarded, Belgrade none the less held out. 
Assistance reached the town, and under the leader- 
ship of Janos Hunyady, who took over the defence 
after the break-through, the garrison of Belgrade 
resisted successfully, despite the fact that the Turks 
had penetrated into the lower fortress. After a 
premature assault, -the Turks gave up the siege on 
July 23rd. This was the second occasion on which 
Belgrade won fame as "The outer wall of Christen- 
dom". In 845/1441-2, the Turks built a fortress 
opposite Belgrade, on the mountain Avala (Havala). 
This fortress played an important part in the Turkish 
raids on Belgrade after Serbia finally fell under 
Turkish rule (863/1459). The defensive power of 
Belgrade decreased during the first decades of the 
ioth/i6th century in the clashes with the Turks. 
Broken by financial and political crises, Hungary 
was not able to give regular pay to the garrison; 
still less could it improve its defences. 

During Sultan Sulayman's first campaign (927/ 
1 521), the Turkish army entered Belgrade on 
29 August 1 52 1, after a long siege. The Hungarian 
troops were sent home, the Serbian population was 
settled in Constantinople, and some of the Serbian 
crews of the warships in the Danube became sailors 
in Turkish service. At that time, the seat of the 
sandjak of Smederevo (Semendire) was moved 
to Belgrade, and Bali-bey (died 933/1527) the son 
of Yahya Pasha, was made governor. In order to 
make Belgrade secure, Bali Bey destroyed all 
settlements in the neighbouring areas of Syrmia, 
and he used the building materials of these destroyed 
Syrmian towns for Belgrade's new fortifications. 



which now became the most important fortifications 
against Hungary. After the battle near Mohacs 
(932/1526) the towns in eastern and central Syrmia 
came under the rule of the sandjak-beg in Belgrade. 
After Bali Bey's death, his brother Mehmed-Bey 
(who died in 955/1548 as Pasha of Buda) continued 
the policy of conquest. Until 944/1538, the conquered 
regions of Syrmia, Slavonia, and southern Hungary 
remained under the rule of the sandjak-beg in 
Belgrade. After that, the sandjak of Pozega was 
founded in Slavonia. After the conquest of Buda 
(948/1541), and the foundation of the eyalet of Buda, 
the sandjak of Smederevo, with its seat in Belgrade, 
fell to this eyalet. The representative (kd'im-makdm) 
of the Pasha of Buda resided in Belgrade, as this 
town had lost none of its great military importance 
as a marshalling-place for Turkish troops before 
their wars against the west, even after the conquest 
of Buda. Together with the Turkish armies, sultans 
and Grand Viziers passed through Belgrade and 
paused there for varying periods. There are many 
events in Turkish history connected with Belgrade. 
Diplomatic missions, too, which came down the 
Danube from the west on their way to the Turkish 
Sultan, stayed in Belgrade for a short time, for this 
is where the overland route began. 

Immediately after the conquest of Belgrade, the 
Turks began to consider further fortifications there. 
As during the Hungarian rule, these consisted of the 
lower and the upper fortress, which were now, 
however, well equipped with artillery. Each of these 
two fortresses had its own commander (dizddr). The 
Turks equipped Belgrade with a garrison and a fleet. 
The fleet on the Danube was particularly necessary 
because of the wars with Hungary, and in the first 
half of the ioth/i6th century, Serbian Martolos 
were stationed there (in 943/1536-7 there were 385 
Martolos in 40 oda with 39 odabashl, under the 
command of the voyvoda Vuk). In the second 
half of the 16th century, there was also a considerable 
garrison in Belgrade (in 1560 there were 223 
mustahfiz, 9 djebedji, 41 topdju with 5 bblukbashl, 
4 kumbaradji, 101 azab, 96 Martolos with one 
Agha and 8 odabashl; the Martolos, with the 
exceptior of the Agha and one boliik of the topdju, 
were Serbs). 

Whilst Belgrade, one the one hand, developed 
quickly as a fortress after coming under Turkish 
rule, the same could not be said for its econorric and 
commercial recovery. In 943/1536-7, there were in 
Belgrade 4 Muslim mahalles with 79 households 
around four mosques. Nearly half of the non- 
military Muslim population was registered as 
craftsmen. There were 68 Christian households in 
the 12 mahalles of the town. These inhabitants did 
not have to pay taxes, but their duty was to maintain 
the fortress. At that time there were 72 households 
of settled eflak (here used for semi-nomadic herdsmen, 
and not to be taken in the ethnical sense) in Belgrade, 
who guarded the imperial powder magazines, and 
there were 20 households of gypsies, whose duty it 
was to repair the ships in the harbour. In the thirties 
of the 16th century, a colony of Dubrovnik merchants 
from Smederevo settled in Belgrade. 

After the middle of the ioth/i6th century, Belgrade 
took on the character of an oriental town. The 
Muslim population was recruited in three ways; from 
the arrival of the whole administrative machinery 
and the military garrison, from the settling of 
merchants and craftsmen from other parts of Turkey, 
and from the islamisation of the local population. 
After Buda (948/1541) and Temesvar (959/1552) 



came under Turkish rule, Belgrade became very 
important as an entrepdt. By 967/1560, there were 
already 16 Muslim mahalles with more than sec- 
households, and more than 60 Christian households 
in Belgrade. Craftmanship developed considerably, 
and new, more delicate crafts appeared. Details 
from the Defter of 980/1572-3 bear witness to the 
rapid rise of Belgrade. At that date, there were over 
200 Christian households, and over 600 Muslim 
(in 21 mahalles), 133 gypsy, and 20 Jewish. 

The end of the ioth/i6th century, and the first 
half of the nth/i7th century in particular, were 
times of great prosperity for Belgrade. According 
to a statement made by a Papal visitor to the 
archbishop of Bar, Peter Masarechi, Belgrade had 
8,000 households with some 60,000 inhabitants (in 
1632). According to Ewliya Celebi, there were 38 
Muslim mahalles,, and n others (Serbs, Greeks, 
Gypsies, Armenians and Jews), and 98,000 per- 
manent residents in the year 1070/1660. The town 
had a large garrison and was the seat of the com- 
mander (kapudan) of the Danube fleet. There were 
large storehouses for food for military purposes, 
workshops for the repair of cannons and nearby a 
powder factory. According to Ewliya Celebi, Belgrade 
had 217 mihrdbs (Katib Celebi mentions only up to 
100 mosques there). The mosques of Sultan Sulayman 
in the fortress (according to Ewliya Celebi, its 
builder was Mi'mar Sinan), and the one in the 
lower town, which Mehmed Pasha, the son of 
Yahya Pasha, had built, are worthy of special 
mention. There were 160 palaces (saray) and 7 baths 
in Belgrade, and a great number of squares and 
market places with a beautiful bezistdn, 6 kdrvdn 
sardys and several khans. There was also a mint. 
During that time, the janissaries left their mark on 
the town and the guilds. Belgrade was the seat of a 
molld who had three naHbs, and it was also the seat 
of a mufti. There were 17 tekiyes, 8 medreses and 
9 institutes for the study of hadith (ddr al-hadtth), 
and there were also churches and cultural institutions 
of the Christian and Jewish minorities. The figures 
quoted by Ewliya Celebi are sometimes exaggerated, 
but the accounts of all travellers in the nth/i7th 
century describe Belgrade as a big town, particularly 
stressing its commercial importance. Foreign travel- 
lers noted especially the oriental character of the 
town. 

After one month's siege, the imperial army under 
the Elector Maximilian of Bavaria took Belgrade 
in 1099/1688. Belgrade suffered greatly on that 
occasion. It remained under Austrian rule for two 
years; the Turks then recovered it, and it remained 
under Turkish rule even after the Peace of Karlovci 
(Karlowitz-mo/1699). Under the command of 
Eugene of Savoy, the imperial army beat the 
Turkish army near Belgrade 8 Ramadan 1129/ 
16 August 1717. After the peace of Pozarevac 
(Passarowitz-1130/1718), Belgrade became the capital 
of northern Serbia under Austrian occupation. Once 
again, destroyed Belgrade began to flourish. The 
fortifications were renewed, and the present-day 
walls date from that time. 

The Sava and the Danube became boundary 
rivers by the Peace of Belgrade (1 152/1739). Belgrade 
was neglected and sank to a mere border garrison 
for janissaries. It became the seat of a Pasha with 
the title of Vezir. Northern Serbia began to be 
referred to as the Belgrade pashalik, although it 
was still called the Smederevo sandjak (Semendire 
sandjaghi) in official documents. From 1789 to 1791, 
Belgrade was once again under Austrian rule. By 



BELGRADE — BENARES 



1165 



18th century, i 






the end of 
inhabitants. 

After the Peace of Svishtov (1791). 
were driven from Belgrade, though Sultan Selim III 
had to agree to their return not long afterwards. 
The rule of terror which they introduced gave rise 
to the first Serbian revolt in 1804; the rebels sur- 
rounded Belgrade immediately, but only succeeded 
in taking it towards the end of 1806. Belgrade 
remained the capital until the collapse of the rebel 
Serbian state in 1813. After the outbreak of the 
second Serbian revolt (1815) and the Turkish 
compromise to which it led, which established dual 
rule in Serbia, Turkish authorities and garrison 
remained in Belgrade. As the vassal state of Serbia 
grew stronger, Belgrade, too, began to change more 
and more into a Serbian town. After a bloody 
clash there between Serbs and Turks, the Turkish 
garrison bombarded the town (1862).. This was 
followed by lengthy diplomatic negotiations. In 
1867, fortified towns were handed over to Serbia, 
and Belgrade then became the capital of Serbia. 

Only a few buildings of the earlier periods were 
preserved in Belgrade, and similarly there are but 
few monuments of the Turkish rule left. A few of 
them are in the older fortress (now a park). In the 
town itself there are only two, a mosque and a 
tiirbe. More obvious traces of Turkish rule can be 
found in the names of parts of the town and of 
places in the neighbourhood, such as Kalemegdan 
(kal c e meyddni), Karaburma, Tasmajdan (task 
ma'deni), Dorcol (dort yol), Rospicuprija( rospi 
kopru/sUI), Topcider (topdfu derejsij), Avala (havale) 

Muslims living in Belgrade at the present time 
are not the descendants of the earlier Muslim 
population of Turkish times. The last Muslim 
families of old Belgrade emigrated in 1867 (many 
of these settled in northern Bosnia) The Muslim 
population found in Belgrade to day came after 1918 
from Bosnia, Hercegovina, Macedonia and other 
Yugoslav regions where there are Muslims. 

Bibliography: Sulayman's campaign against 
Belgrade (1521) in Feridun-bey, Munsha. t*, i, 
507-514; F Tauer, Histoire de la Campagne du 
Sultan Suleyman centre Belgrade en 1521. Texte 

person avec une traduction abrdgde, Prague 

1924; G. Elezovic-G. Skrivanic, Kako su Turci 
posle viSe opsada zauzeli Beograd (The capture 
of Belgrade by the Turks after repeated attacks), 
Belgrade 1956; concerning Belgrade under Turkish 
rule in the ioth/i6th and nth/i7th centuries, 
Basvekalet arsivi in Istanbul, Tapu defterleri 
no. 978, 135, 187, 316, 517: for reports by foreign 
travellers, members of missions (A. Verancius, 
S. Gerlach and others) Papal visitors (P. Masar- 
echi and others) cf. J. Radoni<5, Rimska kurija i 
juinoslovenske zemlje, Belgrade 1950, Katib 
Celebi (Rumeli ve Bosna) and particularly Ewliya 
Celebi (V, 367-385); F. Bajraktarevi<5, Kako su 
Turci zvali Beograd? (Comment les Turcs ap- 
pelaient-ils Belgrade ?) Istoriki lasopis, III, 
Belgrade 1952; R. Veselinovid, Neka pitanja iz 
proSlosti Beograda XVI-XIX veka {Some questions 
concerning the history of Belgrade in the 16th to 
19th centuries), GodiSnjak Muzeja grada Beograda 
ii 1955; M. Ili<5-Agapova, Ilustrovana istorija 
Beograda, Belgrade 1933; Enciklopedija Jugo- 
slavije J, Zagreb 1955, article on Beograd, 444-471 
and Beogradski paSaluk, 472-474. 

(B. Djurdjev) 



BELlGH. Isma'Il of Bursa, Turkish poet and 
biographer. Little is known of his life. Like his 
father and grandfather he was an imam in a small 
Bursa mosque. He also served as a minor govern- 
ment official in various departments in that town, 
except for a short appointment in a Tokat court. 
He died in 1142/1729 in Bursa where he is buried. 
According to Safari's Tedhkire, Beligh composed a 
divan which has so far not come down to us. His 
known poetical works consist of a number of poems 
quoted in various contemporary medpnu'as and 
tedhkires and two mathnawis, i.e., Serguzesht-ndme, 
which relates his journey to Tokat and his adventures 
there, with vivid descriptions of his colleagues in 
court and the provincial town, and a Shehrengiz 
which is a description of the beauties of Bursa. 
Beligh's most important work is his well known book 
of biographies, Giildeste-i riydd-i Hr/dn we wefiydt-i 
ddnishwerdn-i nddireddn. The Guldeste consists of five 
parts and deals with the biographies of Ottoman 
sultans, princes, wazin and notables of Bursa such 
as poets, scholars, musicians, physicians, story- 
tellers, etc. (printed in Bursa 1302/1885). Beligh 
also wrote a supplement to Kaf-zade Fa'idi's 
Tedhkire, Zubdet al-ash'-dr, and called it Nukhbat 
al-Athar li dheyl Zubdet al-Ash c dr. It covers the 
period between 1620 to 1726 (autograph MS, tjni- 
versite 1182). Two works, both in verse, have not 
come down to us: Gul-i Sadberk, a commentary of 
100 hadiths, and Seb c a-i Seyydre, a collection of 
seven tawkids. 

Bibliography: Safal, Tedhkire, s.v.; Fatin, 

Tedhkire, 28; Gibb, Ottoman Poetry, iv, 117; 

Sadeddin Niizhet Ergun, Turk Sairleri, Istanbul 

1936, ii, 809-817; I A, s.v. (by F. A. Tansal). 



(Fah 



i iz) 



BELlGH. Mehmed EmIn of Yenishehir, Turkish 
poet. Little is known of his life. He belonged to 
the '■ulama' and served as kadi in various Balkan 
towns. He does not seem to have been appreciated 
by his contemporaries as most biographers do not 
mention his name. He died in 1174/1760 in Eski 
Zaghra after a hard life, according to his writings. 
His small diwdn was printed in Istanbul in 1258/ 
1842. His kasidas are of mediocre quality. Some of 
his ghazals show a certain power of description, but 
his most original work is his four poems in tardji'band 
form: Kefshgerndme, Ifammamndme, Berbemame, 
Khayydtndme, written in a fluent and unadorned 
style, which contain vivid descriptions of craftsmen 
and their trades. 

Bibliography: Ramiz, Tedhkire, s.v.; Fatin, 

Tedhkire, 28; Gibb, Ottoman Poetry, iv, 1 17-133; 

I A, s.v. (by F. A. Tansal); Sadeddin Niizhet 

Ergun, Turk Sairleri, Istanbul 1936, ii, 817-820. 
(FahIr Iz) 

BENARES (or Banaras), also known as KashI, 
derives its name from two tiny monsoon streams, 
Varuna and Assi, that flow through the northern and 
southern parts of the town. Situated on the left 
bank of the Ganges, this ancient city, said to have 
been founded by Kashya, son of Suhottra, about 
1200 B.C., is a centre of the Hindu faith and is 
also revered by the Buddhists. Pop. (1951) 341,811. 

Benares was captured by Mu'izz al-DIn Muhammad 
b. Sam in 590/1193, and many of the idols decorating 
its numerous temples were destroyed and the town 
reduced to ruins. In 757/1356 Firuz Shah Tughluk, 
while on his return journey from Bengal, gave 
battle to the ruler of Benares and formed him 
into submission. In 797/1394 the town and the 
pargana were bestowed by Muhammad b. Tughluk 



BENARES — BENDER 



on his minister Kh"adia Djahan. It was captured 
by Babur in 936/1529. During the reign of Akbar, 
Radja Djay Singh Sawa'I built many a temple 
and an observatory here, the latter is now in ruins. 
Shahdjahan appointed his eldest son, Dara Shukoh, 
as the governor of the town when he came into 
close contact with Brahmans and imbibed Hindu 
learning. Awrangzlb, enraged at Muslim students 
also being taught by Brahmans, ordered the 
closure of its madrasas. He also built a mosque 
on the site of an ancient Hindu temple which he 
destroyed on the plea that it was being used as 
a seat of conspiracy. The name of the city was 
also changed to Muhammadabad but it never 
gained popularity, although it appears on his coins 
struck here. Muhammad Shah "Rangila" (1132/1719- 
11 62/ 1 748) bestowed the pargana of Benares on 
Mansaram, a Radjput zaminddr, whose son Balwant 
Singh sided with the British during the Battle of 
Buxar, (1764) when he became independent of the 
Nawab of Awadh It was ceded to the British in 
1189/1775. In 1950 the estate was merged into the 
Indian Union forming part of the Banaras Division 
(Uttar Pradesh). 

Kablr, the Indian ju/»-poet, came of a weaver 
family of this place. 'AH Hazin, the Persian poet, 
lies buried here. It is also the birth-place of Agha 
Hashr, an Urdu dramatist. Benares is famous for 
its silks and brocade manufactured by Muslim 
weavers. The morning at Benares, like the evening 
at Lucknow, has become proverbial in Urdu 
literature. 

Bibliography : Bdbur-nima (Engl, trans. A. S. 
Beveridge) 502, 652-4,657; M. A. Sherring, The 
Sacred City of the Hindus, London 1868; E. B. 
Havell, Benares, Calcutta 1906; Imp. Gaz. of Ind. ; 
s.v. Benares; Benares Gazetteer, Allahabad 1909; 
Ghulam Husayn Khan, Ta'rikh Zaminddrdn 
Banaras (Bankipur MS) ; Khayr al-DIn Muhammad, 
Tuhfa-i Tdza, (Eng. tr.), Allahabad 1875 ; Storey i/2 
885,1327; Ma'dthir-i "Alamgiri (Bib. Ind.) index; 
Tabakdt-i Ndsiri (ed. <Abd al-Hayy Habibi), 
i, Quetta 1949, 471, 479, 489, 520, 528; A. D. 
Frederickson, Ad Orientam, London 1889, 84-90; 
Sarfaraz Khan Khattak, Shaikh Muhammad Alt 
Hazin, Lahore 1944, 135 ff. and passim; Ghula 
Husayn Afak, Tadhkira-i Hazin, Lucknow (n.d.) 
passim; Mazhar Husayn, Ta'rikh-i Banaras, 
Banaras 1916; Mu'in al-DIn Nadwl, Mudjmal al- 
Amkina, Haydarabad (Dn.) 1353, 12; History of 
the Freedom Movement, i, Karachi 1957, index; 
S. Muhammad Raft' Ridawi, Ta'rikh-i Banaras, 
Lahore 1315/1887; Shah Muhammad Yasin. 
Mandkib al- c Arifin (in Persian), still in MS., 
abridged Urdu trans, in Ma.'-drif (A'zamgahr) 
74/iv-v (October-November 1954) ; Narrative c 
the Insurrection at Benares, Roorkee 1855. 

(A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
BENAVENT, (in al-ldrisl b.n.b.n.t.), Beneventc 
never captured by the Muslims, even for a short 
period as were Bari and Taranto. However, in 
3rd/9th and 4th/ioth centuries the Muslims became 
involved in the history of the town and principality 
of Benevento, having frequently been both enemies 
and allies of its princes in their domestic struggles, 
as well as often plundering and threatening 
its territory. The period on which we are 
informed, thanks to the Latin sources, is the middle 
portion of the 3rd/9th century (the Arab sources are 
silent in this regard or give only very vague infor- 
mation). We know that in 228/843 a Saracen amir 
Apolaffar or Apoiaffar (Abu Dja'far), who had c 



from Taranto, became the ally of prince Siconulph 
against his rival Radelchis, but eventually quarreled 
with Siconulph and was killed defending Benevento. 
In 237/851 we find a certain Massar (Abu Ma'shar), 
with a troop of Saracens, allied to this same Radel- 
chis. Massar was later treacherously seized by 
Radelchis and executed together with his family. 
Some years after this Benevento was again threatened 
by Sawdan, the emir of Bari. It was only during 
the 4th/ioth century that the Muslim danger 
receded, to disappear in the 5th/nth century with 
the Norman conquest of Sicily. According to the 
testimony of al-Idrisi the town of Benevento is very 
old (azaliyya), and its population large. 

Bibliography: M. Amari, Storia dei Musul 
mani di Sicilia*, Catania 1933, i, 502-504, 509-511; 
Idrisi, ed. Amari and Schiaparelli (L'ltalia net 
libro del Re Ruggero, Rome 1883), 82. 

(F. Gabrieli) 
BENAVERT, a Muslim leader who inspired 
Arab resistanct to the Normans in eastern Sicily 
from 464/1072 until 479/1086. His name figures as 
Benavert or Benaveth in the account of the historian 
of the Normans, Malaterra. This person, of whom the 
Muslim sources make no mention, defeated the son 
of Count Roger in 467/1075 near Catania, captured 
this town in 474/1081, and in 478/1085 led expeditions 
from it into Calabria. In the following year he was 
besieged by Roger in Syracuse, and made a supreme 
effort to free this stronghold, which seems to have 
been the centre of his power. He was killed in the 
ensuing naval battle in the port, on 8 Safar 479/ 
25 May 1086. The real Arab name of this champion 
of Islam in Sicily was Ibn c Abbad. His memory has 
been handed down only by his enemies, who 
admired his courage. Almost certainly he was a 
forbear of the Muhammad b. 'Abbad who a century 
and a half later led the last great revolt of the 
Sicilian Muslims against Frederick II, by whom he 
was put to death. 

Bibliography: M. Amari, Storia dei Musul- 
mani di Sicilia', iii, 151-169. (F. Gabrieli) 

BENDER, a town in Bessarabia; the name 
appears on a coin of Mengli Gerey dated 905/1499- 
1500. It is found in the Tatar documents as Bender- 
Kerman (V. Zernov, Materiaux, 16). Bender, from 
Persian Bandar, was called earlier Tigina or Tighinea 
which may have a Kuman origin. That the town 
was first established by the Genoese is a legend 
(Chronique d'Vreche, ed. Giurescu). Its rise as a 
trading town with important customs revenue was 
due to its being on the "Tatar-route" on which an 
active trade was carried on between Lvov and the 
Crimea and Ak Kirman [q.v.] in the 14th century. 
The place seems to pass from under the rule of the 
Tatars to that of the Moldavian princes around 
1400. The Tatars tried to reconquer it (Ulugh 
Muhammad in 1428 and Iminek Mirza in 1476), and, 
finally Mengli Gerey in cooperation with the Otto- 
mans took it with Kavshan and Tombasar in 1484. 
When in 945/1538 Suleyman II invaded Moldavia and 
formed the new sandjah of Ak Kirman with the 
incorporation of the south Bessarabia he ordered the 
erection of a strong castle on the new border at 
Bender. A good desription of the castle was given 
by Ewliya Celebi (v, 116-120) in 1067/1656-57. It 
became the seat of a sandjak-begi toward 1570 and 
later it was attached to the newly formed eydlet of 
Ozii. The kadi of Bender had 40 ndhiye [q.v.] under 
his jurisdiction and the customs house, always 
active, was under an emin [q.v.]. Ewliya Celebi 
reported that its "varosh" lying on the west and 



the south of the castle consisted of 7 Muslim 
and 7 non-Muslim districts with 1700 houses 
and about 200 shops. Bender was, Ewliya adds, 
"the key of the empire" in the north, a strong- 
hold especially against the Cossacks of Dnieper. 

Bender was also famous as the refuge of Charles 
XII of Sweden between 3 August 1709 and 17 
February 1713 and of Potocki in 1768. The Russians 
captured it first on 27 September 1770, in 1789 and 
on 8 November 1806 keeping it only with the treaty 
of Bucharest, 28 May 1812. 

Bibliography: N. Jorga, Gesch. des rumani- 
schen volkes, Gotha 1905 ; G. I. Bratianu, Recherches 
sur Vicina et Cetatea Alba, Bucarest 1935; I. 
Nistor, Istoria Basarabiei, Cernauti 1923; Pecevi, 
i, 209-213; Dielal-zade Mustafa, Jabakat al- 
mamdlik . . ; A. Decei, Un "Fetih-ndme-i Kara- 
bogdan (1538) de Nasuh Matrakfl, in Fuat Kbprulu 
Armagam, Istanbul 1953; A. N. Kurat, XII. 
Karl'tn Tiirkiye'de haltst . ., Istanbu < 1943 ; 
A. Decei, arts. Bogdan, Bucak, in I A. 

(Halil Inalcik) 
BENDER [see bandar]. 
BENG [see bandj]. 
BENGAL [see bangala]. 
BENGALI. 

(i) Muslim Bengali Language. 
Bengali belongs to the Indo-European family of 
languages. It may have begun to evolve as a separate 
language with a distinct identity, out of Gaura 
Apabhramsa, about the 8th or gth century A.D. 
The greater part of the vocabulary of Bengali 
was derived or borrowed from Sanskrit. 

The Muslims conquered Bengal at the beginning 
on the 13th century, and ruled the country for 
nearly six hundred years. Under Muslim rule Persian 
was one of the languages of culture, provincial 



Because of this, large numbers of Persian words and, 
through Persian, Arabic and Turkish words, became 
part of the Bengali language. 

In 1836 English replaced Persian as the language 
of administration. From then onwards Persian no 
longer enjoyed the same status as before in the 
national life of Bengal and of northern India gene- 
rally. Before the handing over of power in 1947, 
which resulted in the partition of Bengal, words of 
Perso- Arabic origin constituted nearly 8% of the 
total vocabulary of Bengali, and a little more than 
15% of Muslim Bengali vocabulary. Hindustani 
began to be spoken in Calcutta from the latter half 
of the 18th to the middle of the 19th century, and a 
number of Hindustani words were received into 
Bengali vocabulary. At the beginning of the 19th 
century, there was in written Bengali something of 
a conflict between Sanskritised Bengali, that is, 
Bengali in which Sanskrit words preponderated, and 
Persian Bengali; examples of this can be found in 
the works of Mrityunjay Bidyalankar and Ram Ram 
Basu. During this period innumerable Muslim 
punthis, known as Musalmani Bangla, appeared. 
These were written in a mixture of Bangali, Hindu- 
stani and Awadhi. 

Words of Persian, Turkish or Arabic origin which 
have become part of Bengali can be classified under 
seven broad heads, namely: (1) Administration 
and warfare, e.g., phouj (soldiers) < fawuj., takht 
(throne) < takht, lar&i (war) < lardH, shahid (martyr) 
<shahid, diakham (wound) < zakhm, etc.; (2) 
Revenue and law-courts, e.g., djami (land) < 
xamin, khdd[nd (revenue) < khazdna, Ain (law) < 



■ BENGALI 1 1 67 

dHn, hakim (judge) < hdkim, kazi (judge) < kadi, 
phaisala (judgement) < fay sola, etc.; (3) Religion 
and ritual, e.g., Allah (God) < Allah, khodd (God) 

< khudd, ndmdz (prayer) < namdz, rodjd (fasting) < 
rawda, hadj (pilgrimage) < hadjdi, korbdni (sacrifice) 

< kurbdni, etc. ; (4) Education, e.g., dodt (inkpot) 

< dawdt, kalam (pen) < kalam, kdgadj (paper) 

< kdghadh, tdlbilim (student) < tdlib-i Him, etc.; (5) 
Races, religions, and professions, e.g., Ihudi (Jew) 

< Yahudi, Hidnu (Hindu race) < Hindu, Muslim 
(Muslim), Phiringi (English) < Farangi, dardji 
(tailor) < darzi, etc. ; (6) Culture and civilisation, 
e.g., rumdl (handkerchief) < rumdl, goldb (rose) 

< guldb, afar (perfume) < H(r, dynd (mirror) < 
dHna, korma (preserved meat) < kurma, koftd (meat 
ball) < kufta, hdlwd (a type of sweetmeat) < halwd, 
etc.; (7) Common things and notions in life, e.g., 
naram (soft) < narm, bdhbd (Well done!) < bah 
bah, shdbdsh (Bravo!) < shad bash, khabar (news) 

< khabar, etc. 

Persian contributed as many as 2,500 words to 
Bengali vocabulary in general, and nearly another 
2,000 words to the vocabulary of the Muslims 
inhabiting the south-eastern part of East Pakistan 
in particular. In addition, Persian suffixes like i, dan, 
ddni, ddr, khwur, bddi, giri, are used to form Bengali 
adjectives, abstract nouns etc., e.g., desh + i = deshi 
(country-made), phul -\- ddni = phulddni (flower- 
vase), dokdn + ddr = dokdnddr (shopkeeper), guli + 
khwur = gulikhor (drunkard) mamld -\- bddi-= mam- 
labddi (litigant), bdbu + giri = bdbigiri (interested 
in fashion), etc. Persian words like nar and mdda 
denote gender in Bengali, e.g., pdird (pigeon), 
narpdird (male pigeon), mddi pdird (female pigeon). 
Similarly mardd and mddi before a Bengali word of 
common gender denote the male and the female of 
the species respectively, e.g., mardd kukur (dog), 
mddi kukur (bitch). 

Arab merchants developed commercial relations 
with the people of the south-eastern coastal regions 
of Bengal long before the political conquest of the 
country by the Muslims. The Muslim conquest in 
later times strengthened the religious and cultural 
ties of the people of this area with the Islamic way 
of life, and resulted in an increase in the numbers of 
the Muslim population. It left its mark on the 
pronunciation of words in this part of Bengal; for 
example, in the districts of Noakhali, Cittagong and 
Sylhet the use of the Arabic voiceless velar fricative 
kh .4.) in place of the Bengali plosive k and kh of the 
same category, e.g., khapor < kdpor (cloth), khdi < 
khdi (I eat), etc., and the Arabic voiced alveolar 
fricative z ( \) in place of the Bengali voiced plosive- 
like affricate dj of the standard Bengali dialect, 
e.g., zdi < dfdi (I go), zdnd < djdnd (to know) etc. 

Since the handing over of power in 1947 there has 
been in East Pakistan a growing tendency to absorb 
words of Perso-Arabic origin in large numbers 
through Urdu, as a result of cultural and political 
contact with West Pakistan. 

Bibliography : Halhed, Bengali Grammar 1783,. 

intra (M. Abdul Hai) 

Formative Period (900-1200 A.D.). Bengali 
sprang up as a distinct branch of the Indo-Aryan 
language about three hundred years before Muslim rule 
in Bengal and flourished as a regional literature a 
century and a half after the Muslim conquest. But 
it did not exist either as a language or as a literature 
before Bengal came in contact with Islam and thfr 



Muslims. Archaeological excavations at Paharpur 
(Rajshahi) and at MainamatI (Tripura), which led 
to the discovery of a few 'Abbasid coins of the period 
from the 8th to the 13th centuries, and the history 
of Muslim saints like Bayazid BistamI (d. 874) at 
Nasirabad, Cittagong, Sultan Mahmud Mahisawar 
{1047) at Mahasthan, Bogra, Muhammad Sultan 
RumI (1053) at Madanpur Mymensingh, Baba Adam 
(11 19) at Vikrampur, Dacca, prove that there was 
constant maritime and missionary communication 
between the Muslim world and Bengal while the 
Bengali language was being formed. 

Turki Period (1201-1350 A.D.). The Turks con- 
quered Bengal in 1202 and took 150 years to establish 
their administration all over the country. This was 
the period of creation of an Islamic atmosphere through 
administrative, religious and social machinery. 
Sanskrit, the fountainhead of Hindu culture, fell 
into desuetude; Persian, the official and cultural 
language of the Muslims, came into prominence ; and 
Bengali, the language of the masses, developed 
Tapidly. Shek Subhodayd, a Sanskrit hagiology on 
Shaykh Djalal al-DIn Tabriz! (d. 1225), and Niran- 
janer Rushmd, a Bengali ballad by Ramai Pandit, 
contain sufficient materials indicative of the growing 
Islamic atmosphere in Bengal. 

Period of Independence (i 3 5i-i575 A.D.). 
Bengal became independent under Sultan Iliyas Shah 
{1342-1357) and preserved her independence for 225 
years. The Sultans of Pandua and Gaud identified 
themselves with the people and extended their pat- 
ronage liberally to Bengali literature irrespective of 
caste and creed. The Bhdgavata, Rdmdyana and Mahd- 
bhdrata were translated into Bengali under their 
direct patronage; the great poets Vidyapati and 
Candidas flourished; and Muslims, participating 
with their Hindu neighbours, opened up new 
avenues of literary themes primarily derived from 
Perso-Arabic culture. 

The first attempt at popularising Bengali among 
Muslim scholars was perhaps made by the saint-poet 
Nur Kutb-i c Alam (d. 1416) of Pandua, who intro- 
duced the 'Rikhta Style' in Bengali, in which half the 
hemistich was composed in pure Persian and the 
other half in unmixed Bengali. The saint was a class- 
mate of Ghiyath al-DIn A'zam Shah (1398-1410) and 
a life-long friend of the Sultan, under whose patronage 
Vidyapati of Mithila and Muhammad Saghlr of 
Bengal, the author of the first Bengali romance 
Yusuf-Zulaykhd, flourished. Other writers of roman- 
ces, like Bahrain Khan with his Layld-Madjnun, 
Sabirid Khan with his Hdnifd-Jiayrdpari, DonaghazI 
with his Sayf al-Mulk and Muhammad Kablr with 
his Madhumdlati (1583-1588), followed Saghlr in 

Muslim historical tales too were introduced in 
Bengali by a few poets. Zayn al-DIn wrote Rasul 
Vijay on the exploits of the Prophet, under the 
patronage of Yusuf Shah (1478-1481), who also 
helped Maladhar Basu to compose Shrikrishna Vijay. 
Sabirid Khan also wrote a Rasul Vijay, while 
Shaykh Fayd Allah (1545-1575) composed Ghdzi 
Vijay and Goraksha Vijay. 

The earliest Muslim poet introducing Islamic 
precepts in Bengali literature, was Afdal C A1I. His 
book of admonition, Nasihat-ndma, was written on 
the tenets of Islam. He was also a composer of songs, 
in one of which he mentions the name of Firuz 
Shah (1532-1533). 

Positive literary evidence on the fusion of Hindu 
and Muslim culture is found in Shaykh Fayd Allah's 
Satyaplr (1575). He described in it the beliefs and 



practices of a new cult aiming at a common platform 
of worship for Hindus and Muslims alike. Cand Kadi 
and Shaykh Kablr, two composers of songs on the 
common ideals of Sufis and Vaishnabs, flourished 
during the time of Husayn Shah (1493-1519) and his 
son Nusrat Shah (1519-1531). 

Mughal Period (1576-1757 A.D.). Bengal came 
under the Mughals in 1576, to whom the country 
was a 'hell full of the bounties of heaven'. They 
introduced their own culture with more stress on 
Persian and neglected the provincial literature. 
Notwithstanding this, Hindu literature developed 
on the themes of Candi, Manasa, Dharma. Annada 
and Ganga; Vaishnab literature reached its climax 
and Muslim Bengali literature, deeply influenced by 
Indo-Persian literature, flourished as never before. 

Among Muslim literary figures, two major poets 
deserve special mention, namely, Sayyid Sultan 
(1550-1648) and Alawal (1607-1680). The former was 
the saint-poet of Cittagong; Nabi Vamsha, his 
magnum opus, rivalled the Bengali Rdmdyana and 
Mahdbhdrata in all respects; the latter, who was a 
scholar poet of the Arakanese Court, adopted the 
theme of Padmdyati (1651), from Hindi. Both of 
them exerted a wide and abiding influence on 
successive generations of poets, who not only 
improved upon the old themes, but also discovered 

In the field of religion, the Nasihat-ndma of 
Shaykh Paran (1550-1615) and Kifdyat al-Musallin 
of Muttalib (1575-1660) are outstanding. Nasr Allah 
Khan (1560-1625), a prolific writer on religious 
subjects, wrote the SharV-qt-ndma. Musdr Sawdl and 
Hiddyat al-Isldm. The Baydndt of Nawazish Khan 
(1638), Hazdr MasdHl of c Abd al-Karim (1698), 
Nasihat-ndma and Shihdb al-Din-ndma of c Abd al- 
Haklm (1620- 1690), Sarsdler Niti of Kamar c Ali 
(1676) also deserve notice. 

In the realm of Muslim tales, the Nabi Vamsha, 
Rasul Vijay and Shab-i Mi'rddi of Sayyid Sultan; 
Qiang-ndma of Nasr Allah Khan (1560-1625), Amir 
ffamza (1684) of Ghulam Nabi and Anbiyd? Vdni 
(1758) of Hayat Mahmud narrate many legends 
about the Prophet and his uncle Hamza. Sayyid 
Sultan's Iblis-ndma, Muhammad Khan's Kiydmat- 
ndma, Shaykh Paran's Nur-ndma and Muhammad 
Shafi's Nur Kandtt were built up with the Muslim 
concepts of Satan, Doomsday and Cosmogony 
respectively. 

Romances introduced earlier were developed by 
c Abd al-Haklm in his Yusuf Zulaykhd and Ldlmati 
Sayf al-Mulk, Nawazish Khan in his Gul-i Bakdwali 
(1638), GharTb Allah in his Yusuf Zulaykhd and 
Muhammad Akbar in his Zeb al-Mulk (1673). When 
pure romances became monotonous, Sherbaz in his 
Fikr-ndma and Shaykh Sa c dl in his Gadd Mallika 
(1712) introduced moral instruction in romances. 

A good elegiac literature developed centring round 
the tragedy of Karbala. Muhammad Khan in his 
MaktHl Husayn (1645), c Abd al-Haklm in his 
Karbald, Hayat Mahmud in his Qiang-ndma (1723), 
and Muhammad Ya'kub in his Maktul Ifusayn (1694) 
contributed largely to the wide popularity of this 

British Period (i757-I947). The Hindus took 
advantage of Western education at least half a 
century before the Muslims, and revolutionised 
Bengali literature by the introduction of a new prose 
and a new poetry embodying Western ideas, thoughts 
and forms. Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820-1891), 
Bankim Chandra Chatterjl (1835-1894) and Madhu- 



Sudan Datta (1824-1873) played a great role in this 
literary regeneration. 

The Muslims entered the field half a century later. 
Mir Musharraf Husayn (1848-1931), Pandit Riyad 
al-Din Mashhadi (1850-1919) Shaykh c Abd al- 
Rahlm (1859-1931), Kaykobad (1858-1951), Muz- 
zammil Hakk (1860-1933) and Dr. Abu '1-Husayn 
(1860-1916) took to this new Bengali to lay the 
foundation of modem Muslim Bengali literature and 
a host of others came in their wake. Among them 
Isma'Il Husayn ShlrazI (1870-1931) was the most 
illustrious. 

Meanwhile, Rabindranath Tagore (1860-1941), the 
Nobel prize-winner, appeared on the literary scene of 
Bengal and raised her literature to a world stature. 
Nadhr al-Islam (b. 1899), the Rebel Poet of Muslim 
Bengal, ushered in a new school of realistic poetry 
full of life, light and vigour. He shared the sorrows 
and sufferings of his countrymen in particular and 
of oppressed humanity in general. He was the only 
singing bard to herald a new era of common men and 
awaken them to struggle for the independence of 
their motherland, a struggle which culminated later 
in the creation of Pakistan. In his wake, the poet 
Djasim al-DIn (b. 1902) came forward to sing the 
songs of rural Bengal, particularly of its east portion, 
now known as East Pakistan. 

Bibliography: Md. Enamul Haq, Muslim 
Bengali Literature, Karachi 1958; idem, Muslim 
Bdngld Sdhitya, Dacca 1958; Abdul Karim, 
Puthi Parichiti, Dacca 1958; Sukumar Sen, 
Isldmi Bdngld Sdhitya, Burdwan 1358 B.S.; idem, 
Bdngld Sdhityer Itihds, vols, i-iii (2nd ed.), Calcutta ; 
Md. Abdul Hai and Sayyid 'All Ahsan, Bdngld 
Sdhityer Itivritta, Dacca 1956; Dinesh Chandra Sen, 
Vanga Bhdshd-o-Sdhitya, 8th ed., Calcutta 1356 
B.S. ; Suniti Kumar Chatterji, Origin and Develop- 
ment of the Bengali Language, Calcutta 1926; Md. 
Shahidullah, Bdngld Sdhityer Kathd, Dacca 1953. 

(Md. Enamul Haq) 
BENGHAZI, the principal town of Cyrenaica, 
formerly the district of Barka [q.v.], situated on the 
western plain on a strip of shore partly cut off from 
■dry land by lagoons. Its position is not advantageous, 
as its harbour is exposed to winds from the north and 
west, while the neighbouring regions are arid and 
the fertile districts on the al-Mardj and Pjabal 
Akhdar plateaux are some way off. The town is 
built on the site of the former Euhesperides, a colony 
founded by the Greeks in the fifth century B.C. 
During the reign of the Egyptian Ptolemy III 
Euergetes the settlement became known by the 
name of his wife Berenike, and retained this name, 
as Bernik, in the Middle Ages. It was always a 
town of secondary importance, and declined in the 
Middle Ages, possibly vanishing completely. 

The modern town dates from the immigration at 
the end of the 15th century of Tripolitanians from 
Zliten and Mesrata who had commercial connexions 
with Derna, an Andalusian settlement established 
some time previously on the eastern seaboard of 
Cyrenaica. It takes its name from Sidi GhazI, a 
saint buried locally, but about whom little is known. 
The Tripolitanians were gradually reinforced by 
immigrants from the other Ottoman countries, 
notably Cretans, who came in numbers before and 
after the Greek conquest of their island (1897); 
other immigrants were Jews from Tripolitania, 
tribesfolk and oasis-dwellers from various districts 
of Cyrenaica, and a few Europeans. The population 
of the town was 5,000 at the beginning of the 19th 
century, and 15,000 towards 1900, including about 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



a thousand Italians, Maltese and Greeks and 2,500 
Jews. It had risen to 19,000 when the Italians 
landed at Benghazi in 1911. Formerly the centre 
of a Turkish wildyet, Benghazi then became the 
chief town of the eastern part of the colony of 
Libya, which was finally pacified only in 1931. It 
was connected by railway to Soluk in the south 
(35 miles) and al-Mardj in the east (68 miles), and 
became the terminus of the road skirting the Great 
Syrte, as well as of those which radiate out across 
the northern plateau, the heart of the country. 
A new harbour was built, protected by breakwater, 
and the town was provided with municipal services 
as in a European city. The old town had been built 
within a quadrilateral 700 metres long by 300 
metres wide, to a fairly regular plan. The great 
mosque, dating from the 16th century, was restored. 
A new, generously planned suburb was built to the 
south of old Benghazi, in the direction of the former 
suburb of El Berka which had sprung up around a 
Turkish barracks. In 1938 Benghazi had 66,800 
inhabitants, of whom 22,000 were Italians. Its 
harbour was the busiest in Cyrenaica, and several 
industries were based in the town: leather and 
footwear, furniture, building, and tunny-fish pro- 
cessing. Greeks and Italians fished in the Great 
Syrte, and this, together with the salt-pans on the 
coastline, increased opportunities for employment. 

Benghazi suffered much from the bombing of 
late 1942, and from the departure of the Italian 
population, who evacuated it and the whole of 
Cyrenaica on the arrival of the British 8th Army. 
It became the capital and seat of the sovereign of 
the Federal Union of Libya (1951), and the principal 
town of Cyrenaica, but lost its industries and 
much of its importance as a port. The value of its 
airfield is primarily strategic. Its population in 1954 
was about 63,000, all Muslims except for a very 
small number of Jews and Europeans. 

Bibliography: See barka and libya. 

(J. Despois) 

BENJAMIN [see binyamin]. 

BENNAK, also called benlak in the 9th/i5th 
century, an Ottoman *6rfi {'urfi) tax paid by 
married peasants (muzawwadj re'dyd) possessing a 
piece of land less than half a lift [q.v.] or no land, the 
former being called ekinlii benndk or simply benndk 
and the latter djabd benndk or djabd. The word 
benndk might possibly be derived from the Arabic 
verb banaka. 

Actually the benndk resmi made part of the lift 
resmi [q.v.] system and can be considered originally 
as consisting of two or three of the seven services 
{kulluk, khidmet) included in the lift resmi. The 
rate of benndk was 6 or 9 akla in Mehemmed II's 
kdnunndme [q.v.], but in some areas (Teke, 859/1455) 
it was only 5 akla. In later times it was usually 9 for 
djabd benndk and 12 for ekinlii benndk and when 
the lift resmi system was extended to eastern 
Anatolia in 1540 the rate there was 18 for ekinlii 
and 12 or 13 for djabd benndk. 

In principle benndk resmi was paid by the Muslim 
peasants directly to the ttmar-holders for whom 
they were recorded as raHyyet in the defter [q.v.]. 

In the defters the term benndk showed the peasants 
themselves paying benndk resmi. If a bachelor was 
married he was immediately subject to this tax. If 
later divorced he paid only the bachelor tax imudjer- 
red resmi). If married, the nomad re'-dyd without 
stock animals paid also benndk. Thus this tax was 
considered essentially as a poll-tax and called also 
raHyyet resmi. 

74 



BENNAK — BERAT 



Bibliography: O. L. Barkan, XV. ve XVI. 
astrlarda Osmanh imperatorlugunda zirat ekono- 
minin hukukl ve mali esaslart, Istanbul 1943. 

(Halil Inalcik) 
BERAR, formerly a province of British India 
consisting of the four districts of Amraoti, Akola, 
Buldana, and Yeotmal; area: 17,809 sq.m.; popu- 
lation: 3,604,866 of whom 335,169 were Muslims 
(1941 Census). Under British rule it was administered 
as part of the Central Provinces. It has recently been 
incorporated in the Bombay State. 

The territories of the Vakatakas, comtemporaries 
of the Guptas, roughly corresponded to modern 
Berar. It was first invaded by Muslims in 1294 but 
was not permanently occupied until 1318. It formed 
the northernmost province (faraf) of the BahmanI 
kingdom of the Dakhan but towards the end of the 
9th/i5th century became an independent sultanate 
under the 'Imad Shahls until annexed by the Nizam 
Shahls of Ahmadnagar in 1574. It was conquered by 
Akbar towards the end of his reign and remained a 
suba of the Mughal empire until 1724 when Asaf 
Djah Ni?am al-Mulk became independent in 
Haydarabad. Until the defeat of the Marathas by 
Arthur Wellesley at Assaye in 1803 it was frequently 
overrun by Maratha forces [see nagpur]. In 1804 the 
Berar territories ceded by the Bhonsla Raja of 
Nagpur were handed over to the Nizam. During the 
governor-generalship of Lord Hastings, Berar was 
for a time controlled by the banking firm of Palmer 
and Company (vide Preliminary Report on the 
Russell Correspondence relating to Hyderabad, C. 
Collin Davies, The Indian Archives, vol. viii, no. i, 
1954 ff.). In 1853 Berar was assigned to the East 
India Company and its revenues were partly employed 
in the payment of the Nizam's debts and partly in 
maintaining the Haydarabad Contingent. By a fresh 
agreement in 1902 Lord Curzon reaffirmed the 
rights of the Nizam over Berar but the province was 
leased in perpetuity to the Government of India at 
an annual rental of 25 lakhs of rupees. During the 
viceroyalty of Lord Reading a demand by the 
Nizam for the restoration of Berar met with no 
success. Later under Lords Willingdon and Linlith- 
gow a number of gestures were made to the Nizam, 
but Berar continued to be administered as part of 
the Central Provinces until 1956. 

Bibliography: Pecuniary Transactions of 
Messrs. William Palmer and Co. (Court of Pro- 
prietors E.I.C., London 1824); R. G. Burton, 
History of the Hyderabad Contingent, Calcutta 1905 ; 
Imperial Gazetteer of India, s. v. Berar, Oxford 1908 ; 
Parliamentary Papers, Berar: 1925, Cmd. 2439; 
1926, Cmd. 2621. (C. Collin Davies) 

BERAT, A word of Arabic origin (for the 
Arabic meaning see bara'a) which in Ottoman 
Turkish denotes a type of order issued by the 
Sultan. Several words of Turkish or other origin 
were used with the same meaning: the Turkish biti, 
yarligh, buyuruldu, the Arabic berdt, emr, J«ft«m, 
tewki 1 -, menshur, mithal, irdde, the Persian fermdn, 
nishan. Some of these words were used during the 
entire Ottoman epoch, others were used only during 
certain periods; some of them had only a general 
meaning, others had also a more special, limited 
meaning. In the same document several words could 
be used to designate the "sultan's order"; they 
could denote an order in the wider sense and also 

Biti meaning a sultan's order was not much used 
after 1500. Emr (amr), in use for 400 years, did not 
only mean a general order issued in the name of the 



sultan, but also a special order which decreed the 
issue of a berdt ; hence the expression in the preambles 
of the berdt: eli emirlii "he who has the order con- 
cerning the issue of the berdt in hand". Hukiim 
(Hukm) always occurs in the sense of general ordei-, 
but also meant a special type of order, the documents 
of which used to be separately dealt with by the 
administration and which, at present, are registered 
in the Turkish archives as a separate archival 
unity (ahkdm defterleri). The nishan meant all 
orders, without any restriction of subject, that were 
provided with the tughra (nishan), but (since the 
ioth/i6th century) especially those which were 
drawn up by the highest financial department of the 
empire, the defterkhdne, and were concerned with 
financial matters. Synonymous with the term 
nishan was tewki' (tawki*) which could be used, 
without further limitation, to designate any docu- 
ment which was provided with the tewki 1 . (Their 
identical meaning is proved by the derivatives of 
both words, the tewkiH and the nishandji, which are 
synonymous). An order of higher rank was meant 
by thu more rarely used menshur, the mithal and 
the itdde (in use only since the 19th century). The 
berdt had a more limited meaning, that of a "deed 
of grant", "a writ for the appointment to hold an 
office" ; the documents belonging to this group were 
also handled separately by the administration; the 
memory of this is preserved in the designation of 
some public records: rumlarln berdt defteri "the 
defter of the berats issued in matters concerning the 
Orthodox Greek Church", katolik berdt defteri etc. 
(Midhat Sertoglu, Muhteva bakimmdan Basvekdlet 
Arsivi, 29, 32). 

As all grants in the Ottoman empire derived from 
the sultan, the berdt was always issued in the sultan's 
name and its constant attribute was: sherif or 
humdyun ("imperial berdt"). 

In the Ottoman empire all appointments were 
made by "grants", those which were paid by a 
temporary tenure of estates as well as those paid 
in ready money; thus all appointments to the civil 
service, whether that of a high-ranking pasha or 
that of a low-ranking employee of a mosque, were 
effected by a berdt. The bishops of Syria also received 
their licences from the sultan in the form of a berdt. 
EI 1 , 678, s.v. Bard'a). Even the vassals of the 
empire, e.g., the princes of Transylvania, received 
their recognition in their principality in the form of 
a berdt, with the difference that in the diploma 
issued to them the expression in question was 
complemented the following way: bu berdt-i humd- 
yunu we c ahdndme-i sidk-meshh&nu verdim" I have 
issued the imperial berdt and the treaty full of 
faith". Thus under the name of berdt an exceedingly 
great number of orders were issued and these could be 
grouped according to their contents: wezirlik berdtl, 
timdr berdtl, mdlikdne berdtt, iltizdm berdtl, and, if 
issued for the benefit of a corporation, odjaklik 
berdtl etc. 

The word berdt became especially part of the many 
expressions used in connexion with the admini- 
stration of the iimar-estates, e.g., berdt-i 'dlishdn 
iliin tcdhkere verildi "the instruction (or warrant) 
called Udhkere given for issuing a high berdt" , berdt-i 
sherifim verilmek fermdnlm olmaghtn "since my 
imperial order has been given for issuing a high 
berdt", tedhkereyi berdt ettirmek "to exchange the 
writ called teihkere for a berdt", kdjdid-i berdt 
olunmak bablnda kh&tf-i humdyun sddir olmaghln 
"as the sultan's order has been issued for the renewal 
of the berdts" (such procedure was usually ordered 



BERAT — BERBER 



after the sultan's accession to the throne), eli 
berdtll "having a berat in hand" (corresponding to 
this expression is the above quoted eli emirlu), ehl-i 
berat "who has a berat", and in official documents 
there is often reference to issued berdts. The word 
berat, however, often does not occur in the deeds of 
grant and it has to be inferred from the contents 
of the document whether it is at the same time a 
berat or not. 

According to the dimension of the grant, the berat 
has simpler or more elaborate variants, but the 
berat is always written in diwdn style and the 
structural elements, as well as their order are 
usually the same. After the daSvet and tughra 
standing outside the text, the text may begin with 
two formulas: one is more ceremonial: nishdn-i 

Aerif-i c alishdn-i sultdni hukmii oldur ki "the 

high and noble sultan's emblem . . . whose order 
leads as follows", the other is more simple: sebeb-i 
tahrir-i huruf oldur ki "the cause of the writing of 
this document is as follows". In the ceremonial 
Variant the sovereign expresses in a phraseology 
appropriate to Persian style that owing to his power 
received from God, he considers it his duty to 
reward his zealous subjects, and therefore, starting 
with an exactly fixed day, hie charges a certain 
subject of his (mentioned by name) with a certain 
office or service or endows him with possessions 
herewith. If the office or service was connected with 
the enjoyment of certain estates (and most of the 
cases were such), then these were enumerated 
(dhikr u sharfi ve beydn olunur). This enumeration 
is externally the most prominent part of the text, in 
siydkat script, but written with the ordinary 
Arabic numerals, forming a separate section in the 
document. This is followed by the proper admonition 
to the inhabitants concerned, to recognise the person 
in question as su-bashl, sandjakbegi, etc. and as a 
conclusion the usual phrase of the sultan's orders: 
"let everybody acknowledge these and give credence 
to the imperial emblem, the tughra". In some cases 
the berdl has no date, in others it has, in a type of 
writing different from that of the document, written 
by another hand, by the so-called ta'rikhdii 
kalemi, the recording office called "dating depart- 
ment". At the bottom of the document, in the lower 
left-hand corner of the paper can be read the place 
of issue (bi-makdm or, when the Sultan was in the 
field, bi-yurt). 

A certain fee had to be paid for drawing up a 
berat (resm-i berdt). The official rate for this is, to 
the best of our knowledge, not known. According to 
numerous known instances, with grants of smaller 
value it varied between i and 3 per cent, (see 
Laszl6 Velics and Ern6 Kammerer, A magyarorszdgi 
torbk kincstdri defterek, Vols, i-ii, Budapest 1886 
and 1893). 

It can be stated from Persian deeds of grant, 
of which fewer are known (Makar Khubca, Per- 
sidskoe firiakl i ukazl Mvteya Gruzii, i, Tiflis 
1949; B. S. Puturidze, Gruzinopersidskie istorileskie 
dokumentl, Tiflis 1955; A. D. Papasiyak, Persidskie 
dokumentl Matekadaraka, i, Erivan 1956) that they 
consist of the same structural elements and for the 
most part of much the same phrases as the Turkish 
berdt, but the word berdt does not occur in them 
and, when used in Persian, has not the same 
meaning as in Turkish [see also bara'a]. 

Bibliography: For information about the 

berdt see : L. Fekete, Einfiihrung in die osmanisch- 

tiirkische Diplomatik der tiirkischen Botm&ssigkeit 



in Ungam, Budapest 1928, xlvi-xlvii, Ismail 
Hakki Uzuncarsih, Tugra ve pencder, Belleten 
no. 17/18, Ankara 1941; idem, Osmanh devletinin 
Saray Uskilatt, Ankara 1945, 284; I A, ii, 523- 
524; Midhat Sertoglu, Muhteva baktmtndan Bas- 
vekdlet Arsitii, Ankara 1955. Texts of berdts were 
published (on the basis of texts of inshd' books) 
by Ahmed Ferldun in MUnshe'dt al-Saldfin; 
Friedrich Kraelitz, TOEM vol. v, 246; with 
facsimile Franz Babinger: Le Monde Oriental 
XIV (1920), 115, L. Fekete, op. cit.; L. Kulisch, 
Mitteilungen der Ausland-Hochschule an der Uni- 
version Berlin, Jg. xli, Abt. ii, Westasiatische 
Studien, 125; Gibb and Bowen, vols. 1 and 2, 
1950-7, index. (L. Fekete) 

BERAtLI, i.e., holder of a berdt, a name given 
in the late 18th and early 19th centuries to certain 
non-Muslim subjects of the Ottoman Empire, who 
held berdts conferring upon them important commer- 
cial and fiscal privileges. These berdts were distributed 
by the European diplomatic missions, in abusive 
extension of their rights under the capitulations. 
Originally intended for locally recruited consul ir 
officers and agents, they were sold or granted to 
growing numbers of local merchants, who were thus 
able to acquire a privileged and protected status. 
The Ottoman authorities attempted to curb this 
traffic, and at the end of the century Selim III 
sought to compete with the European consuls by 
himself issuing berdts to local Christian and Jewish 
merchants. In return for a fee of 1500 piastres, these 
berdts conferred the right to trade with Europe, 
together with important legal, fiscal, and commercial 
privileges and exemptions. These grants, enabling 
Ottoman dhimmis to compete on more or less equal 
terms with foreign (musta'min) merchants, created 
a new privileged class, known as the Awrupa 
tudjdidrl. In this class the Greeks, thanks to their 
maritime skills and opportunities, were able to win a 
position of preeminence, which was reinforced by the 
advantages of the neutral Ottoman flag during part 
of the Napoleonic wars. Early in the 19th century 
the system was extended to Muslim merchants, who 
for a fee of 1200 piastres could obtain a berdt of 
membership of the analogous guild of the Khavrivve 
Tudjdidrl. The number who availed themselves of 
this offer was, however, very limited. Both terms and 
guilds fell into desuetude after the Tanzimdt. 

Bibliography: Djewdet, Ta'rikh, vi, 129-30; 
'Othman Nurl, MedieUe-i Umur-i Belediyye, i, 
Istanbul 1922, 675-689; M. Z. Pakahn, Osmanh 
Tarih Deyimleri ve Terimleri Sbzlugu, Istanbul 
1946 ff., i, 1 1 5-7 and 780-3; Gibb and Bowen 
I/i 310-1. (B. Lewis) 

BERBER (Barbar):(i) Tribal territory. The 
name originally signified the territory of the MIrafab 
(Mayrafab), an Arabic-speaking tribe claiming 
kinship with the Dja'liyin. It extended on both 
banks of the Nile from the Fifth Cataract (lat. 
18-23' N.) to the river 'Atbara. The Mirafab in- 
cluded both riverain cultivators and semi-nomads. 
The ruler (makk) was a vassal of the Fund] sultan of 
Sinnar. On the death of a makk, the sultan nominated 
his successor from the ruling family of Timsah. He 
also levied, at intervals of four or five years, a 
tribute of gold, horses and camels. Burckhardt (1814) 
describes the southernmost portion of MIrafabI 
territory as forming a small separate kingdom, 
known as Ra J s al-Wadl, under a member of the 
Timsah family. Berber was an important trading- 
centre. A route from Upper Egypt across the Nubian 
Desert here reached the Nile, and caravans going to 



Egypt from Sinnar and Shandl passed through 
Berber. The trade of Dongola found an outlet 
through Berber but by the early 19th century the 
Dongola-Berber route across the Bayuda Desert was 
dangerous and, little used. Trade with Suakin and 
al-Taka (the region around modern Kasala) was 
slight owing to the predatory Bedja and Bisharin 
tribes. The transit dues levied on Egyptian caravans 
provided most of the makk's revenues; the Mirafab 
paid him no taxes on land or produce, although they 
provided the tribute levied by Sinnar. Caravans 
coming from the south [i.e., Fundi territory) paid no 
dues, although they made presents to the makk. 
The trading-connections of Berber resulted in the 
settlement of Danakla, 'Ababda and other strangers. 
The 'Ababda served as guides and protectors of 
caravans crossing the Nubian Desert. The last makk, 
Nasr al-DIn, is reported to have sought the assistance 
of Muhammad 'All Pasha to regain his throne; 
certainly he welcomed the arrival of the Turco- 
Egyptian army on 5 March 1821. 

(2) Province. During the Turco-Egyptian period 
the MIrafabI territory formed part of the province 
of Berber, which extended from Hadjar al-'Asal (lat. 
16° 24' N.) nothwards to Abu Hamad on the right 
bank and Kurti on the left bank, and included the 
adjacent deserts and their nomads. The extension of 
Muhammad 'All's rule over the Bedja, resulting in 
the opening of a permanent trade-route with Suakin, 
increased the prosperity of the provincial capital. 
The last khedivial governor was the 'Abbadl notable, 
Husayn Pasha Khalifa, who was endeavouring to 
repress Mahdist activities when Gordon arrived as 
governor-general in February 1884. Gordon's 
attempts to establish friendly relations with the 
Mahdl and his indiscreet disclosure of the intended 
evacuation of the Sudan weakened resistance. In 
April 1884 the Mahdi commissioned Muhammad 
al-Khayr 'Abd Allah Khudjall to lead the djihdd in 
Berber, and in May the provincial capital was taken, 
leaving Gordon isolated in Khartoum. 

Mahdist Berber was administered by a military 
governor and had a provincial garrison and treasury. 
The decline of commerce irritated the inhabitants 
but a precarious trade continued with Upper Egypt 
and Suakin, the customs dues from which formed a 
source of provincial revenue. The last Mahdist 
governor, Muhammad al-Zaki 'Uthman, after 
appealing in vain for help against the Anglo-Egyptian 
advance, evacuated the provincial capital which was 
occupied by Anglo-Egyptian forces in September 
1897. Aft*-r the reconquest, Berber was reconstituted 
within narrower boundaries than the pre-Mahdist 
province and was subsequently combined with 
Dongola and Haifa to form the present Northern 
Province. 

(3) Town. Berber as the name of a town was 
apparently unknown before the Turco-Egyptian 
period. Bruce (1772) speaks of "Gooz" (i.e., Kuz al- 
Fundj) as the capital of Berber. This place was much 
decayed at the time of Burckhardt's visit (1814), 
when the capital was a more northerly village called 
by him "Ankheyre". This may be an error for al- 
Mikhayrif, ("El Mekheyr" in Cailliaud), a name used 
for the provincial capital under the Turco-Egyptians. 
Al-Mikhayrif was abandoned after the Mahdist 
conquest and the modem town of Berber lies further 
north, on the site of the Mahdist camp. Since the 
Reconquest Berber has declined in importance. The 
provincial head-quarters was transferred in 1905 to 
al-Damir, while the modern railway-town of 'Atbara 
has superseded it as a centi 



Bibliography: J. L. Burckhardt, Travels in 
Nubia, London 1819, 207-258; N. Shoucair 
(Shukayr), Ta'rikh al-Suddn, Cairo 1903, i, 87-90; 
O. G. S. Crawford, The Fung Kingdom of Sennar, 
Gloucester 1951, 53-56, 267-270 (with source- 
references). A valuable unpublished report by 
Husayn Pasha Khalifa on the fall of Berber is 
in the Sudanese archives in Khartoum, Cairint 
1/8, 36. (P. M. Holt) 

BERBERA, the port and former capital of the 
British Somaliland Protectorate, lying in io°26' 
North lat. and 45°02' long. The Periplus, Ptolemy, 
and Cosmas give the name (}ap(}apix7) ^7toipo<; or 
f}ap(3apia to the coast of the Land of Frankincense. 
The town itself may be MaXdco 4p7t6piov. The older 
Arab geographers write of the land of Berbera, the 
Gulf of 'Aden being Bahr Berbera or al-Khalidi al- 
Berberi. The inhabitants are known as (3ap(3apoi, 
Berbera, or Berabir. They are Somali [q.v.] and the 
people whom Yakut (iv, 602) describes as barbarous 
negroes, amongst whom Islam had penetrated, 
living between the Zandj and the Habash. Ibn Sa'Id 
(died 1286) who seems to be first to mention the 
town of Berbera, describes them as Muslims, and Ibn 
Battuta records that they are Shafi'I which they are 
today. The name Somali first occurs in an Ethiopic 
hymn in the reign of the Negus Yeshak (1414-29) 
and frequently in the Futuh al-Habasha (1540-50). 
Berbera's original site is Bandar 'Abbas now a 
burial ground to the East of the present town. 
Amongst its tombs are those of three sayyids said to 
have been concerned with the foundation of Bandar 
'Abbas as other Arabian proselytisers founded 
Zayla' and Makdishu. Traditionally the town was 
contemporary with 'Amud and Aw Barre further to 
the West. It formed part of the Muslim state of Adal 
(sometimes based on Zayla', [q.v.J) which, founded 
in the 9/ioth centuries, reached its zenith in the 
14th century and rapidly declined after Imam 
Ahmad Ibrahim al-Ghazi (i5o6-43)'s 16th century 
conquest of Abyssinia. While the Abyssinian armies 
were recovering their losses with Portugese aid, 
Berbera was sacked in 1518 by Saldanha. In the 
17th century, with Zayla', it became a dependency 
of the sharifs of Mukha. The first British-Somali 
treaty was signed in 1827, two years after the Mary 
Ann had been plundered off Berbera. With 'Ali 
Sharmarke (Somali Habar Yunis), governor of 
Zayla', Britain signed a treaty in 1840 to secure 
harbouring rights for vessels of the East India 
Company. He was British Agent at Berbera when 
Burton was attacked in 1855. Travellers in the 
19th century describe Berbera as a poverty-stricken 
collection of huts with a population, in the hot 
months, of as little as 8,000. From October to March, 
however, during the north-east Monsoon, the port 
was open to vessels from Arabia, the Persian Gulf, 
and India, bringing imports of dates, cloth, rice, and 
metals etc., and exporting slaves, livestock, ghee 
and skins, and the town sometimes contained as 
many as 40,000 persons. 

Berbera was occupied in 1875 by the Egyptians 
who withdrew nine years later during the Mahdist 
rebellion in the Sudan when Britain acquired Zayla' 
and Berbera. Treaties were signed with the Gada- 
bfirsi (1884) and the Habar Awal (1884 and 1886) 
clans. In 1901 Shaykh Muhammad 'Abdille Hassan 
[q.v .] (the 'Mad Mullah') of the Salihiyya (arika began 
his djihdd against the colonial powers. The admi- 
nistration of the interior was abandoned in 1908, 
and gradually resumed about 1912. 



In Burton's time Berbera was dominated by the 
Habar Awal c Ayyal Ahmad who were still in 1912 
receiving a subsidy of 10,000 Rs. annually. With a 
population today rarely less than 30,000 most of 
whom are Habar Awal c Ise Muse, the town is the 
headquarters of Berbera District. It is the centre 
for the Protectorate of the Kadiriyya (arifta with a 
makdm for Sayyid c Abd Al-Kadir al-Pjflani, and of 
the Somali Youth League nationalist party. A local 
Government Council was started in 1953, and the 
harbour is being developed. 

Bibliography: Mas'Odl, Murudi, (ed. Paris), 

i, 231-33; Yakut, i, 100, ii, 966 ff., iv, 602; Al- 

Dimashki (ed. Mehren), 162; Abu '1-Fida' (ed. 

Reinaud), i58ff.; Ibn Battuta (ed. Defremery), 

ii, 180; Shihab al-Din, Futiih al-Habasha (ed. and 

trans. R. Basset, 1897); R. Burton, First Footsteps 

in East Africa, London 1856, 407-440; G. Ferrand, 

Les Comalis, Paris 1903, 109-112; R. E. Drake- 

Brockman, British Somaliland, London 1912, 

31-39; A. T. Curie, in Antiquity (Sept. 1937), 

315-327; J. S. Trimingham, Islam in Ethiopia, 

Oxford 1952, passim. (I. Lewis) 

BERBERI, name given to the eastern Hazara 

inhabiting the mountainous region of central 

Afghanistan between Kabul and Harat; in Iran, the 

region of Mashhad, Balfl&stan (near Quetta), and 

in the S.S.R. of Turkmenistan, the oasis of Kushka 

(district of Maki) [see hazara]. (Ed.) 

BERBERS, the name by which are commonly 
designated the populations, who, from the Egyptian 
frontier (Slwa [q.v.]) to the shores of the Atlantic 
Ocean and the great bend of the Niger, speak — or 
used to speak before their arabicisation — dialects 
(or rather local forms) of a single language, Berber. 
This term is probably an abusive or contemptuous 
epithet, used in Greek (Barbaroi) and in Latin 
(Barbari) as well as in Arabic (Barbar, singular 
Barbari, pi. Bardbir, Barabira), and does not con- 
stitute a national name, as some people (cf. P. H. 
Antichan, La Tunisie, 1884, 3) maintain (cf. the 
toponymies Berber in Nubia and Berbera in Somali- 
land; see G. S. Colin, Appellations donntes par les 
Arabes aux peuples hitiroglosses, in GLECS, vii, 93-6). 
The term amazighjamahagh (and var.), pi. imazighpnj 
imuhagh (and var.) may be considered as designating 
the Berbers in general, though they themselves, 
lacking as they do all sense of community, usually 
employ their tribal names when referring to them- 
selves or have otherwise more or less willingly 
accepted foreign designations (Kabyles, Chaouia, 
etc.). The term amazigh has the meaning of "free 
man" (see however T. Samelli, Sull'origine del nome 
Imdzigen, in Memorial Andri Basset, Paris 1957, 
131-138) and is still employed over a fairly extensive 
area. The feminine tamazight (tamazikht)jtamahakk 
(and var.) is used there to designate the Berber 
language. 

The only general work on the Berbers is the small 
but excellent popular account by G. H. Bousquet, 
Les Berberes, Paris 1957. 

I. History. 

a) origins. 

b) before Islam. 

c) after Islam. 

II. Distribution at present. 

III. Religion. 

IV. Customs; social and political organisation. 
V. Language. 

VI. Literature and Art. 



I. — History 
a) Origins 



The language is at present the only criterion 
which will serve to distinguish the Berbers, who, 
from the anthropological point of view, reveal 
morphological characteristics which are too varied, 
indeed too irreconcilably opposed, to permit us to 
speak of a homogeneous Berber race, whilst, from 
the political point of view, they have always been 
too divided to constitute a truly distinct nation. In 
spite of the relative abundance of prehistoric remains 
discovered in the immense territory conveniently 
called "Barbary", in spite of the epigraphic 
documents and the works of Greek, Latin and Arab 
authors, a whole portion of the history of this 
obviously composite people is still unknown to us. 
It would be useless to deny that the origin of the 
Berber language — the unity of which, moreover, is 
a relative matter (see section V below) — remains a 
mystery for us and that to locate, therefore, the 
cradle of the men who speak it remains an impossible 
task. However, on this absorbing subject, biblio- 
graphy is by no means lacking, and, many hypo- 
theses, sometimes presented as certainties, have been 
put forward concerning the origins of the Berbers. 
Classical authors consider them abound variously as 
autochtonous, oriental or Aegean. The Arabs usually 
consider them as orientals, Canaanites or Himyarites, 
and this latter hypothesis has recently been sup- 
ported by cogent arguments (Helfritz). The 
Canaanite origin has been revived by some modern 
authors (Antichan, Daumas, Slouschz), whilst for 
others the Berbers are autochtonous (Carette), with 
an admixture of Asian blood, especially Phoenician 
(Fournel, Mercier); some people, usually amateurs, 
even go so far as to reconstruct the ancient population 
of Barbary in all its elements (Rinn, Les origines 
berberes, Algiers 1889; Col. de Lartigue, Mono- 
graphic de I'Aures, Constantine 1904) and to 
establish bold relationships with the Celts, Basques 
and Caucasian peoples (Comm. Cauvet, Les Origines 
caucasiennes des Touareg, in Bull. Soc. Gtog. Alger. 
1925; i<Jem, La Formation celtique de la nation 
targuie, ibid., 1926), or even with the indigenous 
populations on the other side of the Atlantic (idem, 
Les Berberes en Amerique, Algiers 1930). Anthropology 
is at a loss and the problem is not simplified by the 
existence of fair Berbers. The best qualified scholars 
are reserved in their opinion and generally consider 
that vartous elements coming from the south, the 
east and perhaps the north were added to a basic 
population rather similar to that which occupied 
the northern shores of the Mediterranean, but that 
this occurred at too remote a period for us to be 
able to date the various migrations. In any event, 
all these are no more than hypotheses ; only linguistic 
data may perhaps enable us to solve the mystery 
of Berber origins, which, in the middle of the 20th 
century, remains complete. 

Bibliography: Main works to be consulted: 
Olivier, Recherches sur I'origine des Berberes, in 
Bull. .Acad. d'Hippone, 1868; Tissot, Geographic 
compdrte de la Province Romaine, 1888, i, 402; 
Carette, Origines et migrations des principales 
tribus de I'Algerie, 24 ff. ; S. Gsell, Histoire ancienne 
de VAfrique du Nord, i, 275 ff.; Beguinot, Chi sono 
i Berberi'i in OM, 1921; M. Boule, Les hommes 
fossiles, Paris 1921, 376 ff.; R. Peyronnet, Le 
problime nord-africain* , Paris 1924, 104 ff. ; A. 
Bernard, L'Algirie, Paris 1929, 81 ff.; S. Gsell, 
G. Marcais and G. Yver, Histoire de I'Algerie, 



1174 BEF 

Paris 1929, 6 ff. ; A. C. Haddon, Les Races 
humaines, Paris 1930, 66 ff.; V. Piquet, Les 
civilisations de VAfrique du NorcP, Paris 1931, 
3 ff. ; E. Leblanc, Le ProbUme des Berberes, 1931 ; 
H. Helfritz, Le Pays sans ombre, Paris 1936, 53 ff.; 
Essad Bey, Allah est grand!, Paris 1937, 262; 
E. F. Gautier, VAfrique blanche, Paris [1939], 
170; Gen. Bremond, Berberes el Arabes. La Berberie 
est un pays europien, Paris 1942 (to be used with 
reserve); H. Lhote, Les Touaregs du Hoggar, 
Paris 1944, 76 ff.; Ch. A. Julien, Histoire de 
VAfrique du Nord', i, Paris 195 1; L. Balout, 
Prihistoire de VAfrique du Nord. Essai de chrono- 
logic, Paris 1955; R. Vaufrey, Prihistoire de 
VAfrique, i, Le Maghreb, Paris [1955]- 

(Ch. Pellat) 



b) I 



Isl 



All that can be said for certain is that the Berbers 
had been established in Northern Africa from a 
remote period. The classical historians and geo- 
graphers refer to them under different names, which 
have not persisted as they were certainly not used 
by the peoples concerned: Nasamonians and Psylli 
occupying Cyrenaica and Tripolitania; Garamantians 
leading a nomadic existence in the Sahara; Mach- 
lyans, Maxyans populating the Tunisian Sahel; 
Numidians living in the eastern Maghrib; Getulians 
defending the desert borders and the high plateaux; 
and lastly Moors, spread over the central Maghrib 
and the furthest Maghrib. The establishment of 
foreign colonies, Phoenician, Carthaginian, and 
Greek, only had a limited influence on all these 
populations, except perhaps in the immediate 
vicinity of Carthage. They were divided into 
numerous rival tribes, which were, however, capable 
of uniting briefly against the foreigners, though 
never to the point of forming powerful and lasting 
states. At the time of the Punic wars, however, 
whilst anarchy persisted in the East, the beginnings 
of political organisation (creation of the kingdoms 
of the Massylae, the Masaesylae and of Mauritania) 
can be observed in the centre and the west. The 
genius of Masinissa, bolstered by the support of 
Rome, permitted this prince to unite the whole of 
Numidia under his rule and to create, in a few 
years, a kingdom comprising all the Berber popu- 
lations from the Moulouya to the Syrtes. But this 
kingdom had but an ephemeral existence; it 
disappeared in 46 B.C. and Eastern Numidia 
became a Roman province. A few years later the 
kingdom of Numidia was reconstituted and became 
a simple Roman protectorate. Still shorter was the 
life of the kingdom of Mauritania, created by 
Augustus in 17 A.D. in favour of Juba II, and 
transformed into a Roman province as from the 

Rome's dominion in Africa lasted until the jth 
century of the Christian era. In this period of time, 
the Berbers, whilst assimilated in the Province of 
Africa and in Numidia, were hardly changed in the 
mountainous areas, on the high plateaux, on the 
confines of the Sahara and in Mauritania. For the 
most part the Romans were content to impose on 
them the obligation of paying tribute and providing 
auxiliary troops, leaving the administration of the 
tribes to the local chieftains (principes, praefecti, 
reguli). The Berber spirit of independence was by 
no means extinguished; it showed itself at times in 
risings, led by more or less romanised natives, such 
as Tacfarinas (17-29 A.D.), and at times in attacks 
by the desert, peoples or by the barely civilised 



tribes of the interior. Such were the attacks led by y 
the Nasamonians and the Garamantians during the a 
reigns of Augustus and Domitian; the insurrections r 
of the Moors during the reigns of Hadrian, Antoninus 
and Commodus; of the Getulians during the period 
of military anarchy; the rising of the Quinquegent- 
ians (Kabyles of the Diurdjura) at the end of the 
3rd century. As Roman authority progressively 
declined, there was an increasingly energetic reaction 
on the part of the Berbers, who affirmed their 
particularism by the adoption of heterodox doctrines, 
as for example Donatism, so that the religious 
quarrels which desolated Africa in the 4th century 
are, from many points of view, racial wars. The 
rising of the "Circumcelliones" appears to have been 
a kind of Berber Jacquerie. Revolts, such as those 
of Firmus (372-75) and Gildon (398) provide further 
testimony of the effervescence of the native popu- 
lations. But, as previously, the Berbers were unable 
to ally themselves against the common enemy and 
to take his place. Their hostility to the Romans 
merely made the Vandal conquest easier. Like the 
Romans, these Germanic invaders were obliged to 
take the Berbers into account. Though Gaiseric 
succeeded in restraining them by enrolling them in 
his armies, his successors had to maintain a constant 
struggle against them. Mauritania, Kabylia, the 
Aures and Tripolitania retained their independence. 
The Byzantines who, after defeating the Vandals, 
remained the masters of North Africa for a century 
(531-642), were no more fortunate. Indigenous 
chieftains such as Antalas in Byzacene and Yabdas 
in the Aures, offered such resistance to Solomon, 
the governor sent by Justinian, that he had great 
difficulty in surmounting it. After the death of this 
general, killed in an expedition organised against 
the Levatians (Luwata [q.v.']) of Tripolitania, the 
situation in Byzantine Africa became very critical. 
John Troglita was only able to stop the invasion 
of the Luwata with the assistance of the Berbers 
of the Aures. But Byzantine authority was not 
recognised by all the indigenous populations. 
Outside Byzacene, the former Province of Africa 
(Tunisia) and the northern part of the province of 
Constantine, the coastal towns and some strongholds 
in the interior, the Berbers were everywhere inde- 
pendent. At that time they formed three groups: 
1 — in the East, the Luwata (Hawwara, Awrigha, 
Nafzawa, Awraba) extending over Tripolitania, 
Cyrenaica, the Diarld, the Aures; 2 — in the West, 
the Sanhadja scattered throughout the central 
Maghrib and the furthest Maghrib (Kutama in 
Little Kabylia, Zwawa in Great Kabylia, Zanata 
on the Algerian littoral between Kabylia and Chelif, 
Ifren from Chelif to Moulouya, Ghumara in the Rif, 
Masmuda on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, Gezula 
(Djazflla [b.v.]) in the High Atlas, Lemta in Southern 
Morocco, Sanhadja "with the litham" leading a 
nomadic existence in the western Sahara); 3 — the 
Zanata spaced out along the borders of the plateaux, 
from Tripolitania to the Djabal c Amur, and ex- 
tending progressively towards the central Maghrib 
and the furthest Maghrib. (G. Yver*) 

Bibliography: The basic work is that of 
S. Gsell, Histoire ancienne de VAfrique du Nord, 
Paris 1913-28; see also the historical works quoted 
in the bibliography of the articles Algeria, Morocco, 
Tunisia, as well as the bibliography of the preceding 
section, and Dureau de la Malle, VAlgerie, Paris 
1852; Diehl, VAfrique byzantine, Paris 1896; 
S. Gsell, Textes relatifs a VAfrique du Nord: 
Herodote, Alger-Paris 1916; P. Monceaux, Histoire 



litUraire de VAfrique chrttienne depuis Vorigine 
jusqu'd I'invasion arabe, Paris 1900-23; Berthelot, 
L'Afrique saharienne et soudanaise. Ce qu'en ont 
connu les Anciens, Paris 1927; E. Albertini, 
L'Afrique romaine, 1937, '1955; J. Carcopino, 
L' Aptitude des Berberes A la civilisation, VIII 
Convegno "Volta", Rome 1938; R. Roget, Le 
Maroc chez les auteurs anciens, Paris n.d. ; E. F. 
Gautier, Gensiric, roi des Vandales, Paris 1935; 
Ch. A. Julien, Histoire de VAfrique du Nord 1 , 
1; C. Courtois, Les Vandales et VAfrique, Paris 
[i955] (very important). 

c) After Islam 
The arrival of the Arabs scarcely changed the 
previous situation. Their first expeditions were, in 
reality, no more than raiding expeditions and left 
no traces other than the havoc wrought by the 
Muslim bands. It is true that the founding of al- 
Kayrawan (50/670) provided the Arabs with a 
permanent base of operations, but the expeditions 
of 'Ukba b. Nafi c [q.v.] across the Maghrib were more 
like raids than an actual conquest. The towns still 
occupied by the Byzantines remained inaccessible 
to the Muslim leader, as did the 
where he would have been unable 
inhabitants. In fact so little were they under 
control that one of their leaders, Kusayla [q.v.], 
having surprised and killed c Ukba at Tahudha, 
expelled the Arabs from Ifrikiya and formed a 
Berber kingdom comprising the Aures, the Southern 
part of the present-day Department of Constantine 
and most of Tunisia (68-71/687-90). However 
Kusayla was unable to hold his position for long and, 
in spite of the resistance of the Berbers of the Aures, 
symbolised by the legendary personage of the 
"Kahina" [q.v.], the Muslims finally emerged 
victorious at the end of the ist/7th century. The 
conversion of the Berbers to Islam, initiated by 
c Ukba without great success, took place at the 
beginning of the following century. This was 
accomplished less by conviction than by interest, 
for the Arab generals had the idea that the natives 
would enrol in their armies in hopes of booty and 
thus be won over to their religion. The Berbers 
formed the nucleus of the armies which, under the 
command of Arab or even Berber leaders like Tarik 
[q.v.], in a few years completed the subjugation of 
the Maghrib and, in less than half a century, brought 
about the conquest of Spain. 

Harmonious relations, however, did not long 
prevail between Arabs and Berbers. The latter 
complained of having been poorly rewarded for 
their services and, in spite of the fact that they were 
Muslims, of being treated more like inferiors than 
equals. And so, having first broken away from 
orthodox Islam and embraced Kharidii doctrines 
(see below, section III), they rose against the Arabs. 
The movement began in the West (122/740), at the 
instigation of a man of the Matghara, Maysara [q.v.], 
and subsequently, in spite of his death at the hands 
of his own followers, prevailed throughout the whole 
Maghrib and even spread into Spain. The Arabs 
suffered disastrous defeats, like that of Kulthum b. 
c Iyad [q.v.] in 123/741; they were expelled from al- 
Kayrawan, which was sacked by the Warfadjdjuma, 
followers of the Sufrite doctrines (139/756); then the 
Nawwara (Ibadls), led by Abu '1-Khattab [q.v.], 
defeated the Warfadjdjuma and formed an Ibadi 
state extending over Tripolitania, Tunisia and the 
eastern part •{ Algeria. For a while the authority 
of the 'Abba .d Caliph was abolished in Africa. But 



ERS 1175 

the Berbers, continuously divided amongst them- 
selves, were incapable of profiting from their success. 
The destruction of Abu '1-Khattab's army by troops 
from Syria restored Ifrikiya to the Arabs (144/761). 
Forty years of sanguinary struggles and innumerable 
engagements (300 according to Ibn Khaldun) 
enabled them to re-establish their control over the 
eastern Maghrib. The rest of the country eluded 
them. A number of states, governed by chieftains 
of Arab origin, but inhabited by Berbers, for the 
most part heretics, not recognising the authority of 
the 'Abbasid Caliph, came into being in various 
places. Such were the kingdom of Tahart (144-296/ 
761-908) founded by the Imim Ibn Rustam with 
the survivors of the Ibadites from the East who had 
taken refuge in the central Maghrib [see rustamids]; 
that of Sidjilmassa [q.v.] where the Banu Midrar 
reigned (155-366/771-977); that of Tlemcen [q.v.] 
founded by Abu Kurra, chief of the Banu Ifren; 
that of Nakur [q.v.] in the Rif; the state of the 
Barghawata [q.v.] on the Atlantic coast; finally, at 
the beginning of the 3rd/9th century, the kingdom 
of Fas, founded by Idris I, a descendant of c Alt b. 
Abi Talib, with the help of Berber tribes (Miknasa, 
Sadrata, Zwagha). Only the semi-independent 
dynasty of the Aghlabids (184-296/800-909) recognised 
the sovereignty of the 'Abbasids; they found among 
the Berbers soldiers for the conquest of Sicily, but 
had to suppress many revolts by the indigenous 
populations of Tripolitania, southern Tunisia, the 
Zab and the Hodna. 

Berber opposition to the Arabs remained, in fact, 
as inveterate as ever; it was even sufficiently 
strong to ensure the triumph of Shi'I doctrines in 
the Maghrib, in spite of the fact that they were 
radically opposed to the KharidjI doctrines embraced 
by the Berbers in the preceeding century. The 
Kutama provided the ddH Abu c Abd Allah al- 
Shi c I [q.v.] with the soldiers who fought the Aghlabids 
and founded the Fatimid power for the benefit of 
the mahdi c Ubayd Allah (297/910). The Fatimids, it 
is true, did not succeed in imposing their rule on 
the whole of the Berbers. Though they succeeded in 
suppressing the Imamate of Tahart, they were 
unable to prevent the Idrisids from maintaining 
themselves in the furthest Maghrib; they did not 
obtain the submission of the Maghrawa and the 
Zanata who, out of hatred for the Fatimids, had 
placed themselves under the patronage of the 
Umayyads of Spain ; finally, they had to combat the 
revolt of the Kharidjis led by Abu Yazld [q.v.] "the 
man with the donkey" (332-36/943-47), a revolt 
which endangered their power and which they only 
succeeded in suppressing with the help of the 
Sanhadja of the central Maghrib. In addition, at an 
early date, the Fatimids turned their attention 
towards the East and, once the Caliph al-Mu c izz had 
established himself in Egypt (362/973), they lost 
interest in the Maghrib. North Africa was once 
again disputed between the various Berber tribes, 
none of which was sufficiently strong to dominate 
the others. In the East, the Sanhadja, taking the 
place of the Kutama, upheld the authority of the 
Zirids [q.v.], governors of Ifrikiya and Tripolitania 
(362-563/973-1167); in the West, following the 
disappearance of the Idrisids, power passed into 
the hands of the Zanata, at first nothing more than 
local governors on behalf of the Umayyads of Spain, 
but later independent princes at Fas until the advent 
of the Almoravids (455/1063). A,t the beginning of the 
5th/nth century, the Zirid state disintegrated; in 
the centre of the Maghrib there was founded the 



H76 BER 

Hammadid kingdom [q.v.], the rulers of which 
recognised the authority of the Caliph of Baghdad 
and took as their capital firstly the Kal'a and then 
Bougie (Bidjaya; 405-547/1014-1152). The anarchy 
resulting from the internecine Berber struggles was 
further complicated, in the middle of the century, 
by the invasion of the Hilall tribes, which had as 
an immediate result the devastation of Ifrikiya and 
part of the Maghrib, and which entailed, as a long- 
term consequence, a profound modification of the 
ethnography of North Africa. 

However, just as the disorder seemed to reach 
its climax, two Berber dynasties, that of the Al- 
moravids [see al-murabitun] and that of the 
Almohads [see al-muwahhidun], both proclaiming 
reforming religious doctrines, succeeded in establish- 
ing their temporary supremacy in North Africa. 
The triumph of the Almoravids was that of the 
Lamtuna, who until then had led a nomadic 
existence between southern Morocco and the banks 
of the Senegal and the Niger. Converted to Islam 
in the 3rd/9th century, they had for a long time 
been only nominal Muslims. They had been instructed 
in orthodox doctrine and practices by c Abd Allah 
b. Yasin (d. 451/1059) and resolved to carry the 
faith to the Blacks of the Sudan and to the ignorant 
populations of southern Morocco. Their conquests 
speedily passed beyond these limits. Abu Bakr b. 
'Ulnar founded Marrakush (462/1070) and Yusuf 
b. Tashfin (Tashufin) within a few years subdued 
the whole of Morocco and the central Maghrib as far 
as the borders of the Hammadid kingdom, halted the 
progress of the Christians of the Iberian Peninsula 
by the victory of Zallaka [q.v.] (479/1086), dethroned 
the Andalusian amirs, and became the sole master 
of the whole of Muslim Spain. The decline of the 
Almoravids was as rapid as their success. Exhausted 
by their own victories and by contact with a higher 
civilisation, the Berbers of the Sahara rapidly 
disappeared. To replace them, the Almoravid 
Caliphs were obliged to have recourse to the use of 
Christian mercenaries, whilst they themselves, un- 
mindful of Islamic orthodoxy, scandalised strict 
Muslims by their conduct. Won over to the unitarian 
doctrine (muwahhid) by the preaching of Ibn 
Tumart [q.v.], the Masmflda of the Atlas rose 
against them. Under the command of a man of 
genius, a Berber of the Kumi/ya, c Abd al-Mu'min 
[q.v.], they overcame the Almoravids without great 
difficulty (541/1147). The Empire founded by the 
Almohads was still more extensive than that of 
their predecessors. Though it is true that c Abd al- 
Mu'min did not succeed in subduing the whole of 
Spain, on the other hand he destroyed the Hammadid 
kingdom of Bougie and the Zirid kingdom of 
Ifrikiya, expelled the Christians from the ports 
which they had occupied, and made himself master 
of all the country between Syrte and the Atlantic. 
Thus a great Berber Empire extended over the whole 
of North Africa; however it was not long before it 
began to crumble. The Almohad Caliphs were not 
more successful than the Almoravids in remaining 
faithful to orthodoxy; one of them, al-Ma'mun [q.v.], 
even went so far as publicly to curse the memory 
of Ibn Tumart, and dealt rigorously with the faithful. 
The rivalries of the various Berber splinter groups 
was an additional factor which contributed to the 
disintegration of the empire created by c Abd al- 
Mu'min. The quarrels of the Masmuda and the 
Kumiyya led to constant bloodshed at the Moroccan 
court; the tribes of the central Maghrib supported 
the enterprises of the Banu Ghaniya [q.v.], or 



attempted to make themselves independent. A 
century after the death of <Abd al-Mu'min, the las 
of his line, Abu Dabbus, reduced to the r61e o 
bandit-chief, met his end in obscurity (668/1269) 
The Maghrib was already divided among new 
powers, the Marlnids [q.v .] installed at Fas, the c Abc 
al-Wadids [q.v.] at Tlemcen (Tilimsan), the Hafsids 
[q.v.] at Tunis. Not one of these new dynasties was 
capable of imposing its supremacy on the others, 01 
even of making its own subjects respect it. In 
Morocco, the tribes of the mountain regions were in 
a state of constant revolt against the Marlnids; in 
the central Maghrib, the Banu Wamannu of the 
Ouarsenis, the Zwawa of the Djurdjura, the Kabyles 
of the province of Constantine, and the populations 
of the Zab and Djarid, remained outside the authority 
of the sovereigns of Constantine, Bougie and Tunis; 
the same was true of the oases of the Jebel Nafusa 
and the Aures. The inability of the Berbers to 
organise themselves in a large State is conclusively 
demonstrated. It therefore becomes impossible to 
follow their history except by making a historical 
of the roles of the various tribes. The 
'ould be immensely complicated 
by the changes brought about as the result of the 
Hilall invasion. In the plains and on the plateaux, 
the Berber populations intermingled with the Arabs ; 
gradually they abandoned their language and 
customs and even lost their ancient name, replacing 
it by that of some personage from whom they traced 
their origin: they became arabicised. Other groups 
escaped this transformation because of the inacces- 
sibility of their habitat, as for example those of 
the Aures, Kabylia, the Rif and the Atlas; their 
ranks were swollen by refugees from many sources 
who sought asylum among them; finally some were 
driven back into the Sahara, so that from the 
8th/i4th century "the Berbers form a cordon on 
the frontier of the country of the Blacks similar to 
that formed by the Arabs on the confines of the two 
Maghribs and of Ifrikiya" (Ibn Khaldun, al-'-Ibar, 
trans, de Slane, ii, 104). This disintegration was 
accompanied by a recession of Muslim civilisation. 
It would not be an exaggeration to say that a 
number of Berber groups reverted in a way to 
a state of semi-savagery, only retaining a few very 
rudimentary notions of Islam. In the 9th-ioth/ 
I5th-i6th centuries, their re-islamisation was the 
work of marabouts, presenting themselves for the 
most part as natives of southern Morocco, of the 
legendary Sakiyat al-Hamra, which popular imagin- 
ation pictures as a nursery of missionaries and 
saints. Such was the influence of these pious men 
that whole tribes today consider themselves as their 
descendants. Only a few rare groups avoided their 
influence. (G. Yyer*) 

Bibliography: The primary source is Ibn 
Khaldun, K. al-Hbar, Bulak 1284, 7 vol. (French 
trans, de Slane, Hisloire des Berbires, Algiers 
1852-56, 4 vol.); to this should be added the other 
Arab historians of North Africa cited in the 
bibliographies of the articles Algeria, Morocco, 
Tunisia, as well as: H. Fournel, Les Berbires, 
Paris 1875; E. Masqueray, Chronique d'Abou 
Zakaria, Algiers 1878; R. Basset, Les Sanctuaires 
du Djebel Nefousa, Paris 1899; S. A. Boulifa, Le 
Djurdjura a trovers Vhistoire, Algiers 1925; E. F. 
Gautier, Les Siicles obscurs, Paris 1927; F. de la 
Chapelle, in Hesp., 1930; E. LeviJJrovencal (ed.), 
Fragments historiques sur les Berbires au moyen 
dge, Rabat 1934; T. Lewicki, in REI, 1934; 
P. Amilhat, in REI, 1937; R. Montagne, Les 



[177 



Berberes et le Mahhzen dans le Sud du Maroc, 
Paris 1930; idem, in Hesp., 1941; W. Marcais, 
Comment VAfrique du Nord a iti arabisie, i, in 
AIEO Alger, 1938, ii, ibid., 1956; G. Marcais, in 
RAfr., 1941; E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. Mus., 
index; Ch. A. Julien, Histoire de VAfrique du 
Nord 3 , ii; H. Terrasse, Histoire du Maroc, Paris 
1951; Col. Justinard, Le Tazeroualt, Paris [1954]; 
G. Marcais, La Berblrie musulmane et VOrient au 
moyen dge, Paris 1946; idem, La Berbirie du VII' 
au XVI' siecle, in Mil. d'hist. et d'archiol., Algiers 
1957, 17-22. 

II. — Distribution at present 
At the present day, the Berbers, although without 
doubt constituting the basis of the population of 
North Africa, no longer form a homogeneous mass 
and one can at most take into account those of 
them who have retained the use of the Berber 
language; they would appear to amount to over 
5,000,000 individuals. Many of them are in fact 
bilingual — even trilingual — but still more numerous 
are those who have lost — often deliberately — all 
memory of their origins as well as their customs and 
language, frequently providing themselves ex- 
pressly with an Arab genealogy; in contrast, a few 
elements here and there lay claim to a Berber 
origin, though they have ceased to speak the language 
of their ancestors. Generally speaking, Berber has in 
fact always receded before the advance of Arabic, 
and recent events or those of the present day have 
tended to accentuate the narrowing of the area in 
which the old language is used; the disappearance 
of various Berber speaking pockets, especially in 
eastern Barbary, is a contemporary phenomenon, 
and it seems likely that the political situation in 
North Africa will continue in the immediate future 
to favour the extension of the domain of Arabic. 
However, several considerable groups have 
persisted in the mountain massifs and in the desert, 
that is to say in those regions only superficially 
penetrated by the Arabs. They are linked together 
by pockets more or less close to one another, which 
remain as evidence of the older ethnic and linguistic 
pattern. In general terms, it may be said that the 
density of Berber groups increases from east to 
west. They are scattered over a vast area which 
extends from the Egyptian frontier (with Siwa and 
Djarabub) to the Atlantic Ocean, from the cliff of 
Hombori, south of the Niger, to the Mediterranean. 
Libya. — Various groups subsist in the mountains 
of the country of Barka, in the Djabal Ghuryan. 
Ifren, Nafusa; they are also to be found in the oases 
of Awdjila, Sokna, Timissa and, on the coast, at 
Zwara; some of the elements of the population of 
Awdjila and of Urfella, in the neighbourhood of 
Tripoli, say they are Berbers although they speak 
Arabic (about 23% of the population in all). 

Tunisia. — Six villages in the island of Djerba: 
Adjim, Guellala, Sedouikech, Elmai, Mahboubin and 
Sedghiane, to which must be added seven on the 
mainland: Tmagourt, Sened, Zraoua, Taoudjout, 
Tamezret, Chnini and Douiret, which are still partly 
Berber-speaking; these Berbers, many of whom spend 
a long time in the towns of the North, especially in 
Tunis, where they occupy positions of trust, are 
much attached to their dialect, which moreover 
serves them as a secret language (1% Berber- 
speaking in all). 

Algeria. — Kabylia in the north and the Aures 
in the south-east have been the two poles of Berber 
:; these regions are now only separated by 



a fairly narrow Arabic-speaking zone, up to S6tif. 
In the Algerian and Oranian Tell country, the groups 
only reach some importance in the mountain region 
of Blida and the Chelif (Ouarsenis, Djendel, BenI 
Menacer, Chenoua); finally, several groups appear 
along the Algero-Moroccan frontier (BenI Snous, 
near Tlemcen) (about 30% Berber speaking in all). 
Morocco. — The geographical configuration of 
Morocco has been especially favourable to the 
survival of the Berber populations; though a number 
of tribes have relinquished the use of Berber, it 
nevertheless remains the language of the great 
groups of the Zanata, Masmuda and SanhSdja in the 
Rif, the Middle, High and Anti-Atlas, as well as in 
the Sous. R. Montagne, Vie Sociale, 17, has estimated 
that the Arabs constitute from 10 to 15% of the 
population in Morocco, Arabicised Berbers from 
40 to 45%, the remaining 40 to 45% being Berbers 
who cannot disclaim their origin. 

Sahara. — In the Algerian and Moroccan Sahara, 
the oases of Oued Righ, Ouargla, Ngousa, the seven 
towns of the Mzab, the "ksours" of the Gourara, the 
Touat, the Tidikelt, of Figuig, of the Tafilalt, of the 
Dades; then in a very extensive zone in the shape 
of a triangle, between Ghadames in the North, 
Tombouctou in the south-west and Zinder in the 
south-east, including Ghat, Djanet and the Ahaggar, 
we have the various groups of Touareg [q.v.]. 

Berber is also spoken in Mauritania (Zenaga) by 
about 25,000 inhabitants (especially the Trarza); 
the Wada pocket uses Azer, a Sonink6 dialect mixed 
with Berber. 

Diaspora. — Outside those zones roughly indicated 
above, attention must be drawn to the influx of the 
Berbers into the large towns of Morocco (Casablanca) 
and Algeria (Algiers), where, "detribalised" and 
lacking the control of their natural social group (see 
below section IV), they tend to form an impoverished 
proletariat, ready for anything. Outside Barbary, 
there are to be found in the Lebanon descendants 
of the Kutama who arrived with the Fatimids 
and, in Damascus, Algerian Berbers who emi- 
grated at the beginning of the conquest, or who 
rejoined the amir c Abd al-Kadir [q.v.] or his 
descendants. Some elements remained in various 
European countries after the second world war, 
and a few are even reported in America, but above 
all Metropolitan France has the largest number of 
Berbers ; the majority of them are Kabyles, who have 
temporarily — or in some cases permanently- 
abandoned the barren soil of their homeland, seeking 
to find more fruitful means of livelihood abroad; 
these displaced persons also form a proletariat which 
finds it difficult to adapt itself to the conditions of 
life in the Metropolis. 

Bibliography: E. Doutte and E. F. Gautier, 
Enquete sur la dispersion de la langue berbere en 
Algirie, Algiers 1910; A. Bernard and P. Moussard, 
Arabophones et berbe'rophones au Maroc, in Ann. 
de Giog. 1924; R. Montagne, La vie sociale et la 
vie politique des Berberes, Paris 1931, g ff. ; A. 
Basset, Les Ksours berbirophones du Gourara, in 
27/* Congres Soc. sav. de I'Af. du N.; idem, 
Parlers touaregs du Soudan et du Niger, in Bull. 
Et. hist, et ic. de I'AOF, 1935; idem, La langue 
berbere dans les Territoires du Sud, in RAfr., 1941, 
62 ff . ; idem, La langue berbere au Sahara, in 
Cahiers Ch. de Foucauld, 1948; idem, Initiation a 
la Tunisie, Paris 1950, 220-6; E. Laoust, in 
Initiation au Maroc, Paris 1945, 191-219; 
Ripertoire alphabitique des confidirations de 
tribus . . . de la zone francaise de V empire chirifien, 



1 178 BER 

Casablanca 1939; L. Justinard, Les Chleuh de la 
banlieue de Paris, in REI, 1928; L. Massignon, 
Cartes de repartition des Kabyles dans la rtgion 
parisienne, ibid., 1930; idem, Annuaire du Monde 
musulman 1 , Paris 1955, index; see also biblio- 
graphy to section V below. 

(G. Yver-[Ch. Pellat]) 

III. — Religion 

In ancient times, the religion of the Berbers 
appears to have been divided into a multitude of 
local cults, corresponding to the tribal divisions. 
The objects of this cult, concerning which we only 
possess scanty and incomplete information, were 
doubtless natural objects: grottos, rocks, springs, 
rivers and mountains, to which must be added the 
celestial bodies, at least the sun, moon and some 
of the stars. The veneration accorded them still 
persists in some of the legends, beliefs, rites and 
religious ceremonies. In spite of their conversion to 
Islam and their deep feeling of belonging to the 
Islamic community, the Berbers have in fact 
retained a host of pagan practices, some of which 
have more or less been adapted to Islam, whilst 
others remain in direct opposition to Islamic precepts ; 
these survivals are particularly apparent in agricul- 
tural rites and festivals (practices for obtaining rain, 
harvest rites, lighting bonfires, 'ansra [q.v.]), the 
concept of baraka [?.».], the cult of saints etc. 

It cannot be denied that from Punic times, 
various foreign divinities were not only borrowed, 
but were in fact assimilated to the national divinities 
(see H. Basset, Influences puniques chez les Berberes, 
in RA/r., 1921). Judaism also obtained numerous 
proselytes, and even if it did not play the role which 
some claim for it, it was disseminated over the whole 
of North Africa; in fact, with the exception of the 
descendants of Jews expelled from Spain in the 
9th/i5th century, the majority of indigenous Jews 
are descended from proselytes pre-dating the 
appearance of Islam (see Slouschz, Hebraeo- 
Phlniciens et Judio-Berberes, Paris 1909; M. A. 
Simon, Le Judaisme berbere dans VAfrique ancienne, 
in Rev. Hist, et Philos. Fac. thiol, protestante de 
Strasbourg, 1946; L. Voinot, Pelerinages iudlo- 
musulmans du Maroc, Paris 1948; P. Flamand, 
Population israilite du Sud marocain, in Hesp., 1950, 
363 ff.; idem, Un Mellah en pays berbere: Demnate, 
Paris 1952; idem, Les Communauiis israilites du 
Sud marocain, thesis, Sorbonne 1957). 

Judaism paved the way for Christianity which 
prospered in spite of the bitter struggle which it 
had to conduct against paganism and the internal 
quarrels which soon beset it; it will be sufficient to 
note that it afforded the Berbers an opportunity of 
grouping together against Roman rule and that they 
enthusiastically embraced heresies (Arianism, Dona- 
tism, etc.) opposed to the doctrine of the Church of 
Rome (see P. S. Mesnage, Etude sur I'influence du 
Christianisme sur les Berberes, Paris 1902; idem, 
Le Christianisme en Afrique, Algiers 1915; E. 
Albertini, L' Afrique romaine, 55 ff. ; Dom Leclercq, 
L' Afrique chretienne, Paris 1904; Monceaux, Histoire 
litteraire de VAfrique chretienne, Paris 1900-23). 

The same thing happened at the time of the 
Muslim conquest: it was only the name of their 
adversaries which had changed. We do not know 
in detail the history of the conversion of the Berbers 
to Islam, but tradition has it that they seceded 
twelve times and Islam only finally triumphed in 
the 6th/i2th century; it was at this date that the 
last indigenous Christians disappeared, whilst Jewish 



down to our own day. At 
the beginning of the conquest, the converted 
Berbers professed the orthodox doctrine,, the only 
one known to them ; but their spirit of independence 
soon showed itself by their adoption of KharidjI 
doctrines which put forward the most equalitarian 
ideas (see Ibapiyya, Khawaridj and the works of 
T. Lewicki, especially Etudes ibddites nord-africaines, 
Warsaw 1955, and La repartition giographique des 
groupements ibddites dans VAfrique du Nord au 
moyen dge, in Rocznik Orientalistyczny, 1957; see also 
Chikh Bekri, Le Kharijisme berbere, in AIEO, Alger, 
1957, 55-io8). The clearest indication that religious 
doctrine little concerned them fundamentally is given 
by the tact that one party espoused the cause of the 
Shi'is, not only that of the Idrisids of Fas, but even of 
those who had come under the influence of the Persian 
outlook and saw in the imam an incarnation of the 
Divinity. Thus it came about that alongside the 
Kharidjis (Sufris and Ibadis) there were the Fatimids, 
and that the Kutama provided the main support for 
mahdi 'Ubayd Allah. This tendency to turn to 
extremes was again in evidence when a puritan 
reaction brought about the triumph of Sunni 
doctrines with the Lamtuna (Almoravids) of the 
Sahara, recently converted in the 5th/ioth century; 
it was further emphasised with the Masmuda of the 
Atlas who founded the Almohad Empire and 
destroyed the remaining dissidents, Christians or 
Shi'is, with the exception of a few KharidjI commu- 
nities who were protected by mountains, the desert 
or the sea; it again made its appearance with the 
formation of the small Marabout states which arose 
in Morocco from the 5th/nth century onwards (see 
R. Montagne, Vie sociale, 22 ff.). 

Among reactions against official Islam, two 
further attempts must be cited which aimed at 
creating a new religion in Morocco: in the Rif, in 
the 4th/ioth century, the attempt of Ha-Mim al- 
Muftari [q.v.] and, on the Atlantic coast, that of 
Salih b. Tarlf [q.v.]. 

After having provided a Father of the Church, 
Saint Augustine, born at Thagaste (Souk-Ahras), 
the Berbers under Islam only produced theologians 
who were adept in disputation, but no great intellects. 
Wherever Sunni Islam triumphed, it was Malikism 
which was adopted, and it continues to prevail in 
Barbary, though some KharidjI communities (Ibadi) 
survive in the Djabal Nafusa, at Djerba, in southern 
Tunisia and in the Mzab. 

Bibliography: On the old religion of the 
Berbers and its survivals, there is copious biblio- 
graphy and only the main works can be indicated : 
R. Basset, Recherches sur la religion des Berberes, 
Paris 1910 (extract from the RHR); L. Brunot, 
CulUs naturistes a Sefrou, in Arch. Berb., 1918/2; 
H. Basset, Le culte des grottes au Maroc, Algiers 
1920; A. Bel, Quelques rites pour la pluie, in 
XIV Congres Orient., Algiers 1905 ; idem, in Mil. 
Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Cairo 1935; L. Joleaud, 
Gravures rupestres et rites de Veau, in /. Soc. 
Africanistes, 1933-4; Probst-Biraben, Les Rites 
d'obtention de la pluie, ibid., 1932-3; Moulieras, 
Le Maroc inconnu, Paris 1895-9; F. Nicolas, Les 
Industries de protection chez les Twareg de I'Azawagk 
in Hesp., 1938; Rahmani, Le mois de mai chez les 
Kabyles, Algiers 1935-9; idem, Notes eth., Con- 
stantine 1933; Montet, Destaing, Le Culte des 
saints en Af. du N., Paris; E. Destaing, Fe"tes et 
coutumes saisonnieres chez les Beni-Snous, in RAfr., 
1906; E. Laoust, Mots et choses berberes, Paris 1920; 
idem, Noms et cirimonies des feux de joie, in Hesp., 



1921; E. Doutt£, Magie et religion dans I'Afr. 
du N., Algiers 1909; idem, En Tribu, Paris 1914; 
Dr. Foley, Maurs et midecine des Touareg de 
VAhaggir, Algiers 1930; G. Marcy, Origine et 
signification des tatouages des tribus berberes, in 
RHR, 1930; E. Westeimarck, Midsummer 
customs In Morocco, in Folk-lore, 1905; idem, 
Marriage ceremonies in Morocco, London 1914 
(French trans. F. Arin, Paris 1921); idem, Cere- 
monies and beliefs connected with agriculture, 
Helsiugfors 1913; idem, The Moorish conception of 
Holiness (Baraka), ibid., 1916; idem, Ritual and 
belief in Morocco, London 1926 (partial trans. 
R. Godet, Survivances paiennes dans la civilisation 
mahomitane, Paris 1935); J. Servier, Jeux rituels 
et rites agraires des Berberes d'Algirie, Sorbonne 
thesis 1955 (unpublished). — On Islam in Barbary: 
H. Doutte, V Islam algirien, Algiers 1900; A. Bel, 
La Religion musulmane en Berbirie, i (only pu- 
blished), Paris 1938; G. H. Bousquet, L'Islam 
maghribin, Algiers 1942. See also J. D. Pearson, 
Index Islamicus, 1906-1955, Cambridge 1958, nos. 
12517-840 and 12841-13568 passim. 

(R. Basset-Ch. Pellat) 



Observers have all been struck by the character 
and usages of the Berbers, which differ in many 
respects from those of the Arabs, particularly as 
regards women, who, in general, enjoy a greater 
degree of freedom (see for example the "courts of 
love" among the Touareg (ahal), H. Lhote, Touaregs 
du Hoggar, 288 ff.) and to a certain extent, greater 
respect (on women, see M. Gaudry, La femme ckaouia 
de I'Aures, Paris 1929; A. M. Goichon, La vie 
feminine au Mzab, Paris 1927-31 ; L. Bousquet- 
Lefevre, La femme kabyle, Paris 1939; on matriarchy: 
G. Marcy, Les vestiges de la parenti maternelle en 
droit coutumier berbere, in RAfr., 1941/3-4). As a 
rapid synthesis is made impossible by the great 
diversity which appears from one group to another, 
we shall limit ourselves to giving references to the 
large number of monographs and works of ethno- 
graphy which have been devoted to North Africa. 

The Berbers (except in the Mzab) are basically a 
rural population, leading a nomadic or sedentary 
existence. The nomads live in tents, of which the 
different types have been frequently described (see 
H. Lhote, Touaregs du Hoggar, 221 ff. ; E. Laoust, 
L'Habitation chez les transhumants du Maroc central, 
in Hesp., 1930 ff.) ; the sedentary population live in 
houses (see E. Laoust, op. cit. ; A. Adam, La Maison 
et le village dans quelques tribus de I' Anti-Atlas, in 
Hesp., 1950, 289 ff.) or even in majestic kasbas 
(kasaba) which in some respects recall the style of 
South Arabia (see H. Terrasse, Kasbas berberes de 
I' Atlas et des oasis. Les Grandes architectures du Sud 
marocain, Paris 1938; A. Paris, Documents d'arcki- 
tecture berbire, Paris 1925; K.A.C. Creswell, A 
Bibliog. of Muslim Arch, in North Africa, Paris 
1954, passim). 

One of the peculiarities of Muslim Barbary is the 
retention of customary law, which continues to be 
applied, either officially or unofficially [see 'add], 
both in Algeria and Morocco (for Tunisia, see G. H. 
Bousquet, Note sur la survivance du droit coutumier 
berbere en Tunisie, in Hesp., 1952/1-2, 248-9). This 
custom ('ada, 'urf, izref, ittifdkdt) is essentially oral, 
but of recent years some tribes have felt the need to 
record in writing in Arabic and even in French, 
though rarely in Berber (see below section VI) some 



kdnuns, simple lists of offences, with the scale of 
appropriate fines (imprisonment is unknown). 
Justice, based on custom, is dispensed, in civil and 
criminal matters, either by a kind of (individual) 
arbitrator, or by judicial djamd'as which set them- 
selves up as clandestine tribunals (for example in 
the Allies subject to French law) or which in 
contrast have had a legal existence (as in Morocco 
since the famous dahir (zahir) of May 16th 1930, 
called the "Berber dahir", which gave rise to 
numerous protests because it established customary 
tribunals). Needless to say, this law is not uniform 
and varies quite considerably from group to group; 
as a result of its lay origin and oral transmission it 
is subject to modification (see Hacoun-Campredon, 
Etude sur Involution des coutumes kabyles, Algiers 

The social organisation of the Berbers also differs 
in many respects from that of the Arabs; it is based 
on the ties of blood, real or fictitious. The smallest 
social unit is the "hearth", a number of hearths 
among the sedentary people forming a village, and 
among the nomads a "douar" (asun, tigtmmi, etc.); 
several villages or "douars" form a division which 
is a state in miniature; the tribe groups several 
divisions together, but has less political personality; 
the tribal confederation only represents a temporary 
association required by especially grave circum- 
stances, most frequently war. 

The idea of relationship within the group has as 
its corollary the respect for a kind of collective 
morality, a constant solidarity between its members, 
who in particular perform a collective corvee, 
(tiwizi), ensure the safety of strangers to whom one 
of them has accorded his protection, own collective 
granaries (see agadir), etc. 

The fact is, however, that their political organi- 
sation paradoxically" reveals two diametrically 
opposed, but not incompatible, systems, which 
seems a further proof of the diversity of the ethnic 
elements combined under the name Berber: on the 
one hand, an aristocratic type, having a warrior 
nobility, a religious caste, a class of tributaries and 
finally the serfs; this is the regime prevailing among 
the Touareg, who are governed by an aminokal [q.v.], 
each tribe being placed under the authority of an 
amghar [q.v.]; on the other hand, in the rest of 
Barbary, we find a democratic type, with an elected 
assembly (djamd'a, inflas, ayt arbHn) in which all 
power resides (legislative, judicial and executive); 
each assembly of a lower group delegates members 
to higher assemblies, but generally speaking, it is 
the diama l a of the division which has most political 
weight. This democratic system usually results in 
a de facto oligarchy and does not impede the develop- 
ment of personal power, at least in those regions 
where the internal leagues (leff [q.v.]) group indepen- 
dent divisions together (and not just villages or parts 
of villages, as in Kabylia, the soffs [q.v.] ; R. Montagne 
(Vie sociale, 91 ff.) has pertinently analysed the 
stages in the development of this power of the 
temporal leaders, who have been called the "Lords 
of the Atlas". 

Bibliography For ethnography.in addition 
to the works already quoted in the preceeding 
section, see: Duveyrier, Les Touaregs du Nord, 
Paris 1864; Comm. Bissuel, Les Touareg de I'Ouest, 
Algiers 1888; Benhazera, Six mois chez les Touaregs 
du Ahaggar, Algiers 1908; A. Richer, Les Touareg 
du Niger, Paris 1924; H. Lhote, Les Touaregs du 
Hoggar, Paris 1944 (with a very copious bibl.); 
C. Devaux, Les Kebailes du Djerdjera, Marseilles- 



Paris 1859; Masqueray, De Aurasio monte, Paris 
1886; R. Basset, Nedromah et les Traras, Paris 
1901; L. Voinot, Le TidikeU, Oran 1909; Abes, 
Les Izayan d'Oulmes, in Arch. Berb., i/4, 1916; 
idem, Les Ait Ndhir, ibid., ii/2, 1917; S. Biarnay, 
Notes d'ethn. et de ling, nord-africaines, Paris 1924; 
G. Marcy, Les Ait Warain, in Hesp., 1929; R. 
Maunier, Melanges de sociol. nord-africaine, Paris 
I 93°; J- Bourrilly, Eliments d'ethnographie maro- 
caine, Paris 1932. — On customary law biblio- 
graphy by H. Bruno, in Rev. Algerienne, 1920, i, 
94 ff . ; critical bibliography by G. H. Bousquet, 
in Hesp., 1952, 508 ff.; to which should be added: 
G. H. Bousquet, Le Droit coutumier des Ait 
Haddidou . . ., in AIEO Alger, 1956, 113-230; the 
two fundamental studies are, for Kabylia, Hano- 
teau and Letourneux, La Kabylie et les coutumes 
kabyles 3 , Paris 1893, 3 vols., and for Morocco, 
G. Marcy, Le Droit coutumier Zemmour, Algiers- 
Paris 1949 (see also 'Ada). — On social and political 
organisation, in addition to the monographs 
quoted in the preceding sections: Masqueray, 
Formation des citis . . ., Paris 1886; M. Mercier, 
La Civilisation urbaine au Mzab, Algiers 1923; 
R. Montagne, Villages et kasbas berberes, Paris 
1930; idem, Les Berberes et le Makhzen dans le 
Sud du Maroc, Paris 1930; idem, La Vie sociale 
et la vie politique des Berberes, Paris 193 1; F. 
Nicolas, Notes sur la sociiti et Vital des Touareg du 
Dinnik, in Bull. IFAN, 1939, 579 ff.; V. Monteil, 
Note sur Ifni et les Ait Ba-'-amrdn, Paris 1948; 
idem, Note sur les Tekna, Paris 1948; J. Berque, 
Les Seksawa, Recherches sur les structures sociales 
du Haut Atlas occidental, Paris 1954; Ph- Marcais, 
in Mimorial A. Basset, 69-82. (Ch. Pellat) 

V. — Language 
One cannot but envy the assurance with which 
Rene Basset, fifty years ago, painted a picture of 
the Berber language in this Encyclopaedia. By an 
inevitable process, research has produced questions 
in greater number than answers ; some illusions have 
vanished. However, the balance-sheet of this half 
century is not negative: a mass of materials has been 
collected, their classification and analysis has been 
undertaken and sometimes fairly extensively deve- 
loped; an attempt at a synthesis has even been 
made by Andre Basset, but he is cautious and is at 
pains to avoid taking hypothesis for established fact. 



A. The histori 



al pre 



1. — History of the language: Berber is 
almost exclusively a spoken language, and its history, 
even in the recent period, is almost unknown owing 
to the lack of written documents. It is only in the 
19th century that the texts collected orally from 
Berbers by Europeans start to become numerous. 
Indigenous documents are rare and of limited scope. 
Southern Morocco has produced manuscripts in 
Arabic script (cf. section VI) of which we only 
possess partial and out-of-date editions; moreover, 
the language of these works of religious edification, 
in spite of its undeniable interest, seems somewhat 
artificial. The Berber words and expressions cited 
by Arab authors have not received a systematic 
treatment. The best known and also the oldest are 
the phrases of the 12th century published by E. Levi- 
Provencal in his Documents inidits d'histoire almohade, 
Paris 1928 (cf. G. Marcy, in Hesp., 1932, 61-77) and 
which appear to confirm the relative stability of the 
language. The Arabic texts have also preserved a 
number of Berber ethnic names, anthroponymics 



and toponymies which still remain to be studied. 

The remains of Guanche, which was spoken in the 
Canary Islands up to the 17th century, are generally 
considered a Berber language. However after a very 
detailed investigation, J.-D. W61fel only relates a 
part of the Guanche forms to Berber. 

Further back than the Almohad period, the 
linguist finds no Berber documents properly so- 
called. The early centuries after the Arab conquest 
are even more "obscure" for him than for the 
historian. Antiquity confronts us with a number of 
very difficult problems. It has bequeathed us a 
documentation as mysterious as it is abundant on 
African dialects: 

a) Over a thousand Libyan inscriptions have been 
published (cf. section VI). The alphabet used is 
known with fair accuracy, at least for the bilinguals, 
but the proposed interpretations show serious 
divergencies and are not convincing: Libyan has 
not been deciphered. 

b) In the east and particularly in Tripolitania, a 
series of inscriptions in Latin characters has been 
discovered, whose meaning is unknown. One or two 
words are Latin, others can be explained by Punic, 
but the remainder has not been identified. 

c) A host of African words, mostly proper names, 
are to be found scattered throughout the Punic, 
Greek and especially Latin inscriptions, as well as in 
the classical authors. Some of these words have been 
identified as Punic; the majority have only given 
rise to nebulous explanations. 

Thus, little has been made of these old materials. 
Why is this the case ? Very few research workers 
venture into this field and if they do so, it is generally 
in the course of other investigations or in the service 
of a different discipline. Moreover, the unity of the 
documents, scattered both in space and time, is 
problematical. The inscriptions of Tripolitania are 
of an early period. The Libyan ones come from 
Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco and cover several 
centuries: the only one which is dated goes back to 
139 B.C.; some appear to be contemporary with the 
Roman Empire; the majority cannot be dated at 
all. The onomastic material is even more dispersed : 
provided by texts ranging from Herodotus to the 
latest antiquity, it concerns the whole territory 
comprised between Egypt and the Atlantic. Such 
diverse evidence inevitably represents several stages 
of linguistic development, or even several languages. 
Its interpretation assumes that preliminary work 
has been done in listing and subjecting them to a 
critical examination; however, a general onomastic 
index is still awaited. In spite of the extraordinary 
diversity of this ancient material, the modern 
Berber dialects are frequently thought of as providing 
a miraculous key capable of unlocking all doors. 
Extensive use is made of the glossaries, but only in 
order to adduce isolated comparisons or erect a 
superstructure of conjectures, whereas a system of 
well established correspondences alone could afford 
proof. A direct connexion is postulated between 
Libyan and Berber, considered as two stages of the 
same language. This assumption is based on history, 
which discovers Berber populations in Africa from 
ancient times and concludes that the Berber language 
was already spoken there: but was it the only 
language? Is it really Berber that is concealed in 
the Libyan inscriptions? The parallels which are 
certain are rare; the similarity of the Libyan and 
Touareg scripts (cf. section VI) does not demonstrate 
that the languages are related; the difficulties 
encountered call for criticism. A. Basset has drawn 



BERBERS 



attention to the fact that the argument taken from 
history is negative. A. Picard is still more sceptical. 
This example of caution, little imitated as yet, is 
thus provided by Berber specialists. A comparative 
linguist and ethnologist like J. D. Wolfel, whilst 
grouping Libyan and Berber together, also hesitates 
to consider them as a single language. J. G. FeVrier 
asks whether Libyan cannot be considered "as a 
kind of pre-Berber", but allows himself no reply. 
Such rational doubt is preferable to the illusion of 
knowledge; it neither entails relinquishing research 
nor the denial of any connexion between Libyan and 
Berber; it merely invites us not to forget that what 
constitutes a certainty for the historian only 
provides the linguist with a working hypothesis. 

2. — Cognate or neighbouring languages: 
The comparison of Berber with other languages has 
still only produced rather slender results. Certain 
unduly fanciful attempts are no longer worth 
mentioning. The connexions proposed with Basque 
and Hausa have remained fragmentary. The opinion 
advanced by O. Rossler, according to which Berber 
is a Semitic language close to Akkadian, evokes an 
interest mixed with caution. The Hamito-Semitic 
theory, which places Berber in a group including 
Ancient Egyptian, the Cushitic languages of Abys- 
sinia and the Semitic languages, appears to be the 
most fruitful. For Marcel Cohen, the name Hamito- 
Semitic by no means implies the existence of a 
"Hamitic" branch as opposed to the Semitic. The 
position occupied by each of the members within the 
family is still inadequately known. As early as 1844, 
Berber was considered by T. N. Newmann to be a 
"Hebreo- African" language. Certain similarities, 
both in the respective r61es played by consonants and 
vowels as well as in the nature and function of various 
morphological elements, justify the continued 
prosecution of research. Borrowings from other 
languages and reciprocal influences must be assessed, 
analogies specified and extended to vocabulary: 
I'Essai comparatif sur le vocabulaire et la phonetique 
du chamito-semitique published in 1947 by Marcel 
Cohen gives the impression that the connecting links 
between Berber and the other languages under 
consideration are rather strained. 

In addition to these attempts at defining relation- 
ships, we must refer to the whole field of studies 
which may be termed "Mediterranean", as they 
concern the civilisation which flourished on the 
shores of the Mediterranean prior to the arrival of 
the Indo-Europeans. Here vocabulary takes pre- 
cedence over morphology: the aim is to determine a 
cultural community rather than jto establish a 
linguistic affinity. The toponymies of ancient 
Africa and Berber, cited as a testimony of this 
remote period, are often invoked alongside Iberian, 
Basque etc. Thus it is that they are accorded a more 
or less important place in works devoted to the 
"Mediterranean substratum" (C. Battisti, V. Bertoldi 
etc.), to the non-Indo-European elements in Latin 
(G. Nencioni), to Sardinian (B. Terracini, M. L. 
Wagner), to the regions of the Alps and Pyrenees 
(J. Hubschmid) and more generally to the "Euro- 
African" civilisation (J. D. Wolfel). 

In spite of the inevitable groping, the excesses 
and mistakes, research into these ticklish problems 
can no longer be ignored. 

An even more urgent problem for North African 
dialectology is to determine precisely in what 
respects Berber amd Maghrib! Arabic have affected 
one another. It is a question of substratum or 
adstratum as the case may be. There is no lack of 



documents, but we have scarcely passed the stage of 
noting the most obvious features. The Berber 
dictionaries summarily indicate certain borrowings 
from Arabic. Some works by Arabists (L. Brunot, 
G. S. Colin, Ch. Pellat, Ph. and W. Marcais) give a 
place to Berber matters. 

We do not know what Berber owes to the languages 
of Tropical Africa: this may well be a great lacuna. 

B) Dialects and Language 
On the geographical distribution of dialects, cf. 
section II. 

It is the study of present-day dialects which has 
produced the most positive results during recent 
decades, especially through the efforts of A. Basset. 
However, there still remain a few illusions to be 
shed. None of the classifications proposed for the 
dialects is really satisfying. Attempts have been made 
to discover in them the traditional division of the 
population into Masmuda, Sanhadja and Zanata 
(cf. I) : this is to appeal to a confused story. It would 
be preferable to start from the linguistic data: but 
what factors are relevant? A distinction is some- 
times made between "occlusive" dialects and 
"spirant" dialects, yet the Chleuh dialects, which 
moreover form a distinct group (cf. below), are not in 
agreement on the production of certain sounds : are 
they therefore, to be split up into several groups ? 
As A. Picard reminds us, phonetics is only one 
aspect of living language. A classification based on 
phonological systems would be more interesting, 
though equally arbitrary. Linguistic geography 
demonstrates that every phenomenon occupies an 
area of its own; A. Basset proved this so convin- 
cingly in respect of Berber, that he relinquished the 
idea of dialect in this field altogether: the language 
disintegrates directly into four to five thousand 
local idioms. Nevertheless it would be difficult to 
avoid taking into account a kind of linguistic 
harmony which, in such geographically close-knit 
regions as the Chleuh country, Kabylia, Aures etc., 
superimposes itself on the division into local idioms, 
without effacing it; mutual comprehension is 
immediate within every such zone and Berber 
speakers have a feeling for these groupings (cf. 
A. Roux, in Hesp., 1954, 269). Even in these privi- 
leged cases, no common language exists. It is true 
that the wandering poets of the Middle Atlas of 
Morocco, referred to by A. Roux (cf. section VI), 
use a kind of intermediate dialect for their compo- 
sitions ; furthermore, an investigation should be made 
of the Berber spoken in the large towns where the 
emigrants collect together. But up till now, political, 
economic and cultural conditions have militated 
against a unification which those concerned do not 
seem to need: when necessary, they use another 
language, frequently Arabic, to communicate with 
one another. Any comprehensive description of 
Berber dialects, therefore, comes up against local 
factors which persistently impose limits on its 
applicability. Nevertheless, it is justified by the 
unity of the language, which remains clear in spite 
of the diversity. 

1. — Phonetics and Phonology. Though the 
sounds of the numerous dialects have already been 
ascertained and more or less adequately described 
in the monographs, we still possess no complete 
table of their correspondences. Moreover, as yet no 
dialect has been subjected to a phonological analysis. 
Comparison, however, enables us to establish the 
main features of a system of phonemes which 
appears to be the basis on which the various local 



sibilants 
palatal sibilants 



The tendency for short occlusives to become spirant 
in numerous dialects (Rif, Middle Atlas of Morocco, 
Kabylia, etc.) has already been mentioned. This may 
lead locally to the introduction of new phonemes and 
to modification of the phonological system. Almost 
everywhere this system has been complicated and 
distorted by large-scale borrowing from Arabic, to 
which the presence particularly of the pharyngals 
ft and e and the laryngal h in the majority of dialects 
appears to be due. 

A remarkable fact is the presence in Berber of 
emphatic consonants. Apart from d and z there are 
attested: [s], [r], [1] and even [s], [i], but they cannot 
be accorded phonological status a priori. Emphasis 
does not always belong exclusively to the phoneme 
concerned. On [t], cf. below. 

y and w are sometimes pronounced as consonants 
[y], [wj, and sometimes as vowels [i], [u], according 
to their position ; quality varies with syllable pattern, 
which is not everywhere the same. Furthermore, 
besides these occurrences of phonetic [i] and [u], 
morphology suggests the need to recognise separate 
vowels » and u: which is not devoid of difficulties. 

Each of the three vowels a, i, u comprises a range 
of gradations conditioned by the articulation of the 
neighbouring consonants and devoid of phonological 
value. As regards [a], it is in principle a purely 
phonetic element, the occurrence of which is subject 
to the laws, as yet not very well known, which 
govern the syllabication and structure of words. 
Very unstable in central and southern Morocco, it 
perhaps presents a greater consistency in Kabylia; 
in spite of certain indications by Foucauld which 
must be verified and above all, interpreted, it is by 
no means certain that [a] has phonemic status in 
Touareg. 

An important rdle is played by the quantitative 
value of consonants. Every consonant or semi-vowel 
may be "short" or "long", thus creating a type of 
opposition widely exploited by the vocabulary and 
to a still greater extent by the morphology: Chleuh 
»fa "tongue"; ills "he has soiled"; ifka-t "he has 
given it (masc.)": ifka-tt "he has given it (fern.)". 
The long consonant seems to be less characterised 
by its duration than by the tenseness of its articu- 
lation; lengthening sometimes results in transition 
from spirant to occlusive and from voiced to voice- 
less: thus it comes about that the most frequent 
realisation of ff > s [1<J]f an d tnat °' 44 [tt] ; vm » may 
be represented by [gg»] (on one occasion even [kk]) 
or [bb»], and yy by [gg]. 

Not all vowels always have the same duration; 
their length, however, is not pertinent, except 
perhaps in Touareg. 

Accentuation of a word, where the accent is one of 
intensity, is not recognised as fulfilling a distinctive 
function. 

2. — Forms and their functions. 

a. — The Berber word. Words are made up of 



a theme and inflexions. The theme is produced by 
the combination of a root with a schema. The root 
is bound to a minimum concept beyond any kind of 
grammatical categorisation. It is always consonantal, 
containing one or four, most frequently two or three 
consonants, being characterised by their number 
and order. The term schema, borrowed from the 
Arabists (J. Cantineau), indicates the structure of 
the theme; the schema gives the word part of its 
grammatical identity: thus, to a degree which varies 
with cases, it may indicate the nominal or verbal 
nature of the word, the number of the noun, the form 
of the verb, etc. The schema itself is defined by the 
presence or absence of formative 
short or long quantity of formative 
radicals, by the presence or absence, the place and 
quality of the vowels. The inflexions complete the 
grammatical description of the word; as prefixes 
and/or suffixes, they appear fundamentally to be 
consonants; in certain cases, it is convenient to 
recognise a zero inflexion. Examples: Touareg 
tskras "she ties" = theme -skras- (root KRS, schema 
I 2 a 3) ■+- inflexion <-; taksrrist "knot" = theme 
-aksrris- (root KRS, schema a i 22 i 3) -f- inflexion 
t-t. The system on the whole closely resembles that 
of Arabic, though it is more difficult in Berber to 
isolate the roots and establish the precise value of 
the schemas. 

Berber distinguishes two genders, masculine and 
feminine, and two numbers, singular and plural. 

b. — The verb. The forms (simple and 
derived, Verbs appear either in a simple form or a 
derived form. The simple form is constructed in prin- 
ciple with or without an object and is at times trans- 
lated by our active voice and at other times by our 
passive. Derivation is achieved mainly by means of 
prefixes. There are three primary derived forms, 
which sometimes combine among themselves. They 
have frequently been referred to as the causative, 
passive and reciprocal forms, according to their 
most apparent significance; these designations do 
not correspond closely enough to the facts and 
have nowadays been replaced by those of sibilant- 
form, dental-form and nasal-form according to the 
articulation of the prefix. Examples: Touareg 
3ybsr "to strike with the foot"; ssybar "to cause to 
strike" ; tsybvr "to be struck" ; naybsr "to strike one 
another". In fact, not all verbs possess the complete 
series of simple and derived forms. A derivation by 
the suffix -t is well attested in Touareg and has left 
traces elsewhere. 

The themes. For each of the forms, simple or 
derived, there are three themes or groups of themes: 
1) an aorist theme: ex. Chleuh -fa- "to put on 
clothes", -izwiyy "to become red"; 2) an intensive 
aorist theme: -Issa-, -ttizwiy-, which is sometimes 
accompanied by a negative intensive aorist theme; 
3) a preterite theme: -fat/a-, -Z3gg"ay-, to which is 
connected a negative preterite theme: -fa»-, -z)gg"ay-. 
These themes may contrast with one another by alter- 
nation of vowels or of consonantal length, or by 
prefixing -«- (in the intensive aorist only), or again 
by a combination of two or rarely three of these 
processes. In principle the two aorists form a group 
opposed to the preterite, as -iiwiy I -ttizwiy- to 
-zsgg"ay-. It frequently happens, however, that the 
themes of the aorist and the preterite coincide. 
When several verbs adopt precisely the same 
procedure to differentiate their themes, they are 
said to belong to the same type: this affords a 
means of formal classification which is justified by 
the existence of a relationship, often masked but 



sure, between the verbal type thus defined and that 
of the derived forms, as well as between the verbal 
type and the schemas of the nouns of action and of 
the agent. The verbal type itself appears to be more 
or less bound to the structure of the root. 

A careful -examination of all the themes obliges 
us to distinguish a large number of types of verbs. 
In practice, account is taken above all of the anti- 
thesis of the aorist and preterite themes, which 
enables us to recognise the main groups, particularly 
the "zero vowel" type (A. Basset) in which the 
affirmative aorist and preterite are formally identical 
(Chleuh -mgar- : -mgzr- "to harvest"), the type with 
a non-alternating "full vowel" (-mun- : -mun- "to 
accompany"), the pre-radical alternating vowel 
type (-amz- : -umz- "to take"), the intra-radical 
(-rar- : -rur- "to give back"), the post-radical (-Is- : 
-Isi/a- "put on clothes"), different types of complex 
alternations (-izwiy- : -Z9gg"ay- "to become red"). 

The table of verbal themes lacks symmetry, as 
there is no intensive preterite given. The latter 
exists in Touareg, and A. Picard, basing himself on 
certain Kabyle and Moroccan data, has recently 
raised the important question of the Pan-Berber 
character of the intensive preterite (Memorial A. 

The inflexions. — A first though incomplete 
series of suffixed personal inflexions is associated with 
the aorist and intensive aorist themes to produce the 
ordinary and intensive imperatives. The inflexion is 
zero in the 2nd person singular, which is the form 
of the non-intensive imperative used by grammarians 
to indicate a verb ("the verb mg»r, the verb mun" , 
etc.). 

The impersonal inflexions y-n (on occasion zero- 
nin in the plural) are added in well defined syntac- 
tical conditions (cf. below) to any one of the themes 
to form what is called the "participle". Survivals 
of an older stage (in the negative preterite) or 
disturbances (in the aorist) are to be observed locally. 

In addition to these preceding cases, a third 
series of inflexions, prefixed and/or suffixed, is found 
with all the themes, indicating person, number and, 
in the 3rd person sing, and the 2nd and 3rd persons 
pi., gender. However, a conjugation without 
prefixes is attested in Kabyle (with identical in- 
flexion for all persons of the plural) and in Touareg 
for the so-called verbs "of quality", verbs of becoming 
rather than verbs of state. It is probably the vestige 
of an ancient opposition between the inflexions of 
the aorist and those of the preterite. 

more difficult to determine the meaning of the forms 
and themes than to classify them formally. Brief in- 
dications have been given above for the simple and 
derived forms. It remains for us to describe briefly 
how the choice is made between the different themes 
of a given form. One fact is certain : the time concept 
is foreign to the verbal system, and Berber, like the 
Semitic languages, gives priority to aspect. But it 
has several mechanisms which are peculiar to it; 
we must not be deceived by terminology, borrowed 
from other linguistic fields. There is a fundamental 
antithesis, indicated already for the morphology, 
between the respective functions of the aorists and 
the preterite. Thus it is that certain particles (a(d), 
i(d), ara, etc.) may be followed by either of the two 
aorists but not by the preterite: Kabyle ad-yaf ("he 
will find" : ad-yrttaf "he will find [incessantly]" (but 
ad + preterite yufa is impossible). When these 
particles are not present, the elements of the system 
are grouped somewhat differently: most frequently 



the intensive aorist and the preterite alone remain 
in opposition: addysn "(these populations) dwell" 
(process envisaged as a series or sometimes as a 
development): izdysn "(the members of such and 
such a family) dwell, have taken up their domicile" 
(process envisaged from beginning to end, as a whole). 
With the exception of certain optative formulas, the 
non-intensive aorist, therefore, only appears in 
certain syntactical conditions where it may assume 
the meaning of any other verbal theme whatsoever: in 
this sense one may, with A. Basset, consider it as the 
"unmarked" term of the aorist : preterite opposition ; 
this use of the aorist is very frequent in the Moroccan 
dialects, but is less current elsewhere. 

Whatever the theme, the verb assumes the form 
of the "participle" when it occurs in a relative clause 
in which the subject and the antecedent are identical: 
Kabyle win yti&ym "he (who) dwells". 

The satellites of the verb. —The particles of 
the aorist have been mentioned above. There are other 
particles (ar, da, lla, etc.) which may accompany the 
intensive aorist or the preterite; the list of them and 
the conditions in which they are used vary conside- 
rably according to the dialect, some dispensing with 
them altogether. The basic negative particle is ur 
{ul, ud, u) ; it always precedes the verbal form which, 
in different dialects (Kabylia, Aures, etc.), may then 
be followed by a second element {ara, /(a), etc.); ur 
is encountered with all the verbal themes, but 
negative constructions are not everywhere identical. 

The verb is frequently accompanied by a particle 
"of approach" d and sometimes by a particle "of 
withdrawal" »(»), which indicate the direction of 
the action. Finally the personal pronouns, direct or 
indirect objects of the verb (cf. below), are closely 
welded to it. In the case of simultaneous use, these 
pronouns and the particles of approach and with- 
drawal follow one another in a fixed order: indirect 
object (I), direct object (D), particle (L). After a 
number of words (particles of the aorist, the intensive 
aorist, negation, etc.) or in a relative clause, the 
elements IDL precede the verb; elsewhere they 
follow it; hence those chains which fluctuate on both 
sides of the verb: Chleuh ad-asUn-d-awiy "that I 
may bring them to him": iwiy-as-Un-d "I have 
brought them to him". 

c. — The noun. All nouns cannot be reduced to 
a single morphological type. Some have been bor- 
rowed from Arabic (or from other languages) and 
have not been berberised; they have retained the 
Arabic article and are characterised by the initial 
consonant group IC- or CC « IC- by assimilation): 
rtkas "glass", issuq "market"; this group is consi- 
derable in all dialects except Touareg. 

The majority of Berber or berberised nouns in 
principle have an initial a-, i- or u- if they are 
masculine, ta-, ti- or tu- if they are feminine; this 
initial has been related to the demonstrative elements, 
which is not unlikely; locally in a number of schemas 
it loses its vowel. The prefixed t- characterises the 
feminine; many nouns also have a suffix -t in the 
feminine singular: Chleuh ayyul "ass": tayyult 
"she-ass"; tigimmi "house". The vowel of the 
initial syllable participates in both oppositions of 
number and state (cf. below). The plural is indicated, 
furthermore, either by a vowel a preceding or follow- 
ing the last radical consonant, with or without further 
vowel alternances: ayyul: iyyal; agadir "fortified 
granary" igudar, or by a basic suffix -n : argaz 
"man" : irgazm, or by a combination of both pro- 
cesses : itri "star" : itran. The concept of state, in 
spite of the ambiguity of the terminology, is 



BERBERS 



characteristic of Berber: in certain syntactical 
conditions, when the noun is closely associated 
with the word preceding it, the initial vowel 
lapses, the noun passing from the "free" state 
to the state of "annexation" : taserdunt, tsdda "the 
mule, she has gone" : tsdda tssrdunt "the she-mule 
has gone". In numerous dialects (Morocco, Kabylia, 
Aures, etc.) the annexed state of the masculine 
noun also displays a prefixed w-, and hence the 
contrast : argaz : wsrgaz > Chleuh urgaz "man". 
Finally, contrary to the description given, some 
nouns retain their initial vowel in the annexed state ; 
this "constancy" of the initial vowel may be ex- 
plained (diachronically) by the disappearance of an 
old radical or be related (synchronically) to the 
structure of the schema. The opposition of state 
appears to be unknown to the Eastern dialects. 

A third somewhat heteroclite group is formed by 
nouns beginning with a short consonant other than 
the feminine prefix t- or the Arabic article ; some of 
them are perhaps historically connected with the 
previous category or with other strata of vocabulary. 
The series of "nouns of relationship" must be 
mentioned, remarkable both for their form and 
construction. 

Adjectives generally show the same morphological 
characteristics as nouns. 

d. — The personal pronouns. — Several 
series of personal pronouns are distinguished ac- 
cording to form and use. The "isolated" pronouns 
enjoy more or less independent status in the text 
and may even constitute a complete utterance. 
The affixed pronouns of the verbs, of which they are 
the direct or indirect objects, have already been 
mentioned. Most prepositions take special personal 
pronouns, which also appear after the nouns of 
relationship : yiwi-s "the son of him, his son" ; after 
a common noun, the pronoun is generally preceded 
by an element »(n)- which appears to be analogous 
to the preposition n- "of": Chleuh tigsmmi nn-s 
"his house" (but Kabyle ahham-is, same meaning) ; 
Berber has no possessive adjectives or pronouns. 
For every person, certain appropriate morphological 
elements are common to several or all of these 

e. — The demonstrative elements. — The 
demonstrative elements have a vowel base : a/u and t, 
which is found acting as a pronoun or acting as a 
determinative ("adjective"). As a pronoun, this base 
appears particularly as the second member of the 
construction called '.'emphatic anticipation" : Kabyle 
d-kadl a-t-yayman "it is thou who hast dyed it" 
(Basset-Picard), "it is thou the having dyed it". As 
a determinative, it follows a noun or a demonstrative 
pronoun: Chleuh argaz-a "this man", ay-a "this". 
This base frequently combines with other elements, 
especially with w- or (-, producing oppositions 
animate/inanimate and masculine/feminine : wajta : a 
"he/she : it", as well as with the particles of approach 
and withdrawal : Chleuh argaz-ad "this man here" / 
argaz-ann "that man there". The details of the 
system vary from dialect to dialect. 

f. — The Berber sentence. — The Berber 
sentence in the highest degree reflects all the 
characteristics of a spoken language. It constantly 
resorts to expressive procedures and in particular 
to "anticipation" (A. Basset), which may detach and 
place any element of the sentence at the beginning, 
ready to be reiterated as required by a personal 
pronoun. Of very frequent occurrence is "emphatic 
anticipation", of which an example has been given 
above (e). Subordination is relatively little developed 



and parataxis dominates, though it is not always 
possible to determine exactly the limits between the 
two types of construction. 

Relative clauses have no formal indication other 
than — on occasion — the inflexions of the participle 
or the place of the satellites of the verb (cf. b); 
there is no relative pronoun; however, a tendency 
can be observed in many dialects to determine the 
antecedent by means of a demonstrative element, 
the use of which in such cases becomes more or less 
a matter of grammatical usage. 

Nominal and verbal clauses are known to Berber. 
The former are frequently hinged on a particle d 
which may perhaps have some connection with the 
particle of approach: Kabyle nskk d-afzllah "I am a 
peasant" (Basset-Picard). In verbal clauses the verb 
is normally placed at the beginning and is followed 
by its subject, except in the case of anticipation. 
3. — The vocabulary. Vocabulary is perhaps 
the aspect of Berber which has roused the most 
lively curiosity, but produced the least exact studies. 
We have no statistical evaluation of the vocabulary. 
The dictionary of Foucauld for Ahaggar Touareg 
and that of Father Dallet for Kabyle, which may 
be taken as being very nearly exhaustive, contain 
respectively 1,400 and 3,500 verbs in the simple 
form. The vocabulary possesses a stock common to 
all dialects but, as A. Basset has stressed, the living 
form of each word should be separately studied. 
Another striking point, moreover, is the numerical 
importance of loan words, except in Touareg. We 
have seen that words furnished by Arabic have 
opened a breach in phonology and even in morpho- 
logy. Berber, however, has shown proof of extra- 
ordinary powers of assimilation. 

Vocabulary is, above all, concrete. Its richness and 
precision are remarkable wherever a vital activity 
is concerned (camel breeding among the Touaregs, 
irrigation in the Great Atlas, etc.). The language of 
intellectual and religious life is less well equipped 
and borrows extensively from Arabic. Some examples, 
however, reveal literary resources which wait only 
to be exploited. 

Bibliography: The fundamental work is that 
of A. Basset, La Langue berbire, in Handbook of 
African Languages, Oxford 1952, 72; we shall 
limit ourselves here to referring to the methodical 
bibliography on pages 57 to 72, completed by 
A. Basset, Les itudes linguistiques berberes depuis 
le Congris de Paris (J04S-7954), in Proceedings of 
the 23rd Intern. Congress of Orientalists, Cambridge 
1954, 377-8, (for texts, the following should be 
added: A. Roux, La vie berbire par les textes, 
Paris 1955; Ch. Pellat, Textes berberes dans le 
parler des Ait Seghrouchen de la Moulouya, Paris 
1955; A. Picard, Textes berbires dans le parler 
des Irjen (Kabylie-Algerie), 2 vols, Algiers 
1958) and to indicating a small number of 
generally more recent works. On the publications 
by A. Basset himself, cf. the bibliography given in 
Orbis, 1956, 575-579- The Mimorial Andri Basset 
(1895-1956), Paris 1957, 159, groups together 
fifteen articles concerning various aspects of 
Berber studies.— On Guanche: J. D. Wolfel, Le 
problime des rapports du guanche et du berbire, in 
Hesp. 1953. — On Libyan, cf. above, vi, and: 
J. G. Fevrier, Que savons-nous du libyquel in 
RAfr., 1956, 263-273. — On the inscriptions of 
Tripolitania: The Inscriptions of Roman Tripo- 
litania, ed. by J. M. Reynolds and J. B. Ward 
Perkins, Rome and London 1952, vii 286; J. G. 
Fevrier, La prononciation punique des noms 



propres latins en -us et en -ius, in J A, 1953, 465- 
471. — On the relationship of Berber: M. Cohen, 
Essai comparatif sur le vocabulaire et la phonitique 
du chamito-simitique, Paris 1947, xi and 248; 
Comptes rendus du Groupe linguistique d'ltudes 
chamito-semitiques, Paris, from 1931; O. Rossler, 
Der semitische Charakter der libyschen Sprache, in 
ZA, n.s. 16, 121-150. — On the "Mediterranean" 
problem: J. D. Wolfel, Eurafrikanische Wort- 
schichten als K ulturschichten, Salamanca 1955, 189 
(Acta Salmanticensia). — On the Berber dialects, 
one should refer to the works on linguistic geo- 
graphy by A. Basset and to the chapters written 
respectively by E. Laoust, A. Basset, A. Picard in 
Initiation au Maroc, new ed. Paris 1945, 191-219, 
Initiation d la Tunisie, Paris 1950, 220-226, 
Initiation a VAlgirie, Paris 1957, 197-214- — For a 
comprehensive grammatical description, cf. A. 
Basset and A. Picard, Eliments de grammaire 
berbere (Kabylie-Irjen), Algiers 1948, 328. — On 
the phonetic problems: L. Galand, La phonitique 
en dialectologie berbere, in Orbis, ii, 1953, 225-236; 
T. F. Mitchell, Long Consonants in Phonology and 
Phonetics, in Studies in linguistic A nalysis, Oxford 
1957, 182-205. — On the verb: A. Basset, La langue 
berbere, Morphologie, le verbe, Itude de thimes, Paris 
1929, iii 268. — On the initial vowel in nouns: A. 
Basset, Sur la voyelle initiate en berbire, in RAfr., 
1945, 82-88 ; T. F. Mitchell, Particle-Noun Com- 
plexes in a Berber Dialect (Zuara), in BSOAS, 1953, 
375-390; W. Vycichl, Der Umlaut im Berberischen 
des Djebel Nefusa in Tripolitanien, in AIUON, n.s., 
1954, 145-152. — For repressivity: A. Picard, 
Etude de linguistique sur le parler berbire des Irjen 
(Kabyle), Algiers 1959. — For vocabulary; Father 
de Foucauld, Dictionnaire touareg-francais {Dialecte 
de I'Ahaggar), 4 vols., Paris 1951-52, xiii + 2028; 
Father J.-M. Dallet, Le verbe kabyle (Lexique 
partiel du parler des At-Mangellat), i, Simple forms 
<only published), Fort-National 1953, xxviii, 491. 
(L. Galand) 



VI. - 






As far back as one can go in the past, Barbary, 
"the land of conquest", has never possessed any 
other language of civilisation than that of its foreign 
conquerors; thus, Berber writers have successively 
utilised, perhaps not Punic but at least Latin 
<Apuleius, Saint Augustine), Greek (?), Arabic (Ibn 
Khaldun and many Moroccan writers) and now, 
above all, French. Yet there nevertheless exists a 
"Berber literature", written and oral, which though 
not appearing in the inscriptions, does so in works 
of piety inspired by Arabic, in texts and stories set 
•down at the request of European investigators, in 
the kdnuns (all of which taken together do not 
amount to much), and finally in folklore and poetry. 

The Libyan inscriptions [cf. section V], in spite of 
the ardour with which their study has been ap- 
proached, have not as yet delivered up the secret of 
their decipherment and Berber, as known to us, does 
not afford a satisfactory means of reading them. 
However, the Libyan alphabet, which the bilingual 
inscriptions have enabled us to establish, is relatively 
close to the only ancient system still in current use 
among the Berbers, the tifinagh (sing, tafinekk < 
punical); this alphabet is used by tbe Touareg for 
engraving a few short inscriptions on rocks, bracelets 
or other objects, as well as for brief exchanges of 
love letters. This is an alphabetic script, writing 
only consonants in the body of words, but also 
vowels finally; no distinction is made between long 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



SRS 1185 

and short sounds; individual words are not separated 
and one can write horizontally, vertically, from 
right to left or from left to right (or in boustrophedon), 
from top to bottom or from bottom to top. In 
practice, all texts are very short and the long ones 
appearing in A. Hanoteau, Essai de grammaire de 
la langue tamachek' , Paris i860, were only written 
in tifinagh at the request of the investigator. 

The following is a simplified table, according to 
Ch. de Foucauld, of the most usual forms of tifinagh 
(for further details and comparisons with the Libyan 
alphabet, see particularly A. Basset, Ecritures 
libyque et touaregue, in Notices sur les caractires 
Grangers, by Ch. Fossey, Paris 1948). 



4 


3 


(J*)u* 


t 


B 


h 


ft 


1 

* 


cJ 


1 


II 


J 


r 


a 


; 


s 


O 


U" 


z 


XX 


) 


? 


4* 




sh(s) 


«332 


LT 


1 


» XXI* 


c 


y 


1&2 2 


US 


k 




J 


g 


Xx>X ¥ 


J 


w 


•l« *P 


) 


gh( Y ) 


• 


i 


fch(h) 




t 



I 



Religious literature inspired by Arabic may be said 
to be represented by a few dozen works, very few of 
which have been published. These texts, transcribed 
in Arabic script with additional diacritical points, 
are intended for teaching the precepts of Islam and 
for the edification of the faithful ; thus we possess an 
adaptation of the Mukhtasar of Khalil, al-Hawd, 
edited and translated by Luciani (Algiers 1897), and 

75 



its complement, the Bahr al-Dumu 1 , partially 
published by de Slane in his appendix to the 
Histoire des Berbhes, iv, 552-62 (a complete ed.-trans. 
of this last text by B. H. Strieker is in the press). 
The "Kur'ans" of Ha-MIm and of Salih b. Tarif 
are, in a sense, related to these works, but they are, 
entirely lost, the same being true of the Berber text 
of three treatises composed in Tashslhit by Ibn 
Tumart. Of KharidjI literature, which was probably 
abundant, there remains the treatise of Ibn Ghanim 
entitled al-Mudawwana (cf. Motylinski, Le Manuscrit 
arabo-berbere de Zouagha, in Actes du XIV Congres 
des Orient, Algiers 1909, ii, 64-78). A proportion of 
these religious works (particularly the Hawd and 
some others existing in manuscript form, cf. A. Roux, 
in Actes du XXI' Congres des Orient., Paris 1949, 
316-7) are in verse so as to be more easily memorised, 
but unfortunately they include a high proportion 
of Arabic words. To this type of literature 
belong religious poems, such as that of Sabi, which 
relates a young man's descent into Hell in search of 
his parents (R. Basset, Le poeme de Cabi, Paris 1879, 
P. Galand-Pernet, in Memorial A. Basset, Paris 1957, 
39-49), those of SidI Hammu (H. Stumme, Dicht- 
kunst undGedichteder Schluh, Leipzig 1895 ; Johnston, 
Fadma Tagurramt, in Actes du XIV Congres des 
Orient., ii, 100-1; idem, The Songs of Sidi Hammou, 
London 1907; L. Justinard, Potsies en dial, du 
Sous marocain d'apres un ms. arabico-berbere, in J A , 
1928), the legend of Joseph in verse (Loubignac, 
Dial, des Zaian, Paris 1924-5, 359 sqq.), a story of 
the ascent of the Prophet and a version of the 
Burda of al-Busiri [q.v.]. To these may be added the 
translations of the Old and New Testaments made 
by Catholic and Protestant missionaries. 

Secular works are rare; apart from Arabo-Berber 
glossaries and books of popular medicine which have 
practical interest, such writings as we possess were 
composed under the guidance of European scholars, 
as for example the The Narrative of Sidi Ibrahim on 
West Africa in Tashalhit (F. W. Newman, in JRAS, 
1848, 215-60; trans. R. Basset, Paris 1882), or the de- 
scription of the Djabal Nafusa by al-Shammakhi, in 
NafusI (ed. trans. Motylinski, Algiers 1885); to these 
may be added the collection of stories entitled Kitab 
al-Shilha (MS of the B.N. in Paris), which to a large 
extent appears to be borrowed from the Bakhtiydr- 
ndma [q.v.] and the Hundred Nights (R. Basset, in 
Revue des traditions popul., 1891 ; extracts published 
by de Slane, de Rochemonteix, R. Basset); to this 
category belong the ethnographical narratives and 
texts composed at the request of investigators who 
subsequently included them in their dialect studies 
or made independent collections of them, such as 
the Textes touareg en prose by Ch. de Foucauld, 
Algiers 1922. In this connexion it will not be 
without interest to note that the Fichier de docu- 
mentation berbere, directed at Fort-National (Kabylia) 
by the Rev. Father Dallet, has been publishing since 
1947 texts and even small plays composed in Berber, 
in addition to linguistic and ethnological documents. 

As for the customary gamins in use among certain 
Berber populations, very few of them have been 
published in the original language (see above 
section iv); the following may be mentioned: Ben 
Sedira, Cours de langue Kabyle, 295-355 ; Boulifa, 
Le Kanoun d'A d'ni, in Recueil de mimoires . . . 
XIV Congris Orient., Algiers 1905, 152-78. 

Folk-lore is abundant, not to say rich. Marvellous 
and humorous tales, fables, stories of animals, 
historical and religious legends are transmitted from 
generation to generation by the women, who are 



collect 1 



of an evening. It is this folk lore 
have been able most easily to 
re their accounts which do not 
ies or riddles, without counting 
t-lore texts presented also as 
linguistic documents. 

Finally, secular poetry, in spite of its appearance 
of primitive simplicity, is probably the most original 
literary production. The songs improvised collectively 
during the ritual dances {ahidus), lullabies, funeral 
laments, and ritual chants contain a large share of 
tradition, but real professional poets also exist 
among the Berbers, whose inspiration, generally 
speaking, is restricted to themes of love and war. 
In Morocco, the imdyazan (see A. Roux, Un chant 
d'amdyaz, I'aede berbere du groupe linguistique beraber, 
in Mim. H. Basset, Paris 1928, ii, 237-42) travel 
about the country and, like the troubadours, celebrate 
important events, sing the praises of likely patrons 
and discharge their arrows at those who disappoint 
them. Some poets, such as the Kabyle Mohand u 
Mohand and the Touareg poetess Dassin, have 
achieved a certain fame, local it is true and ephemeral, 

in countries where the ruwat do not exist. 

Berber art also is of no great account; the rock 
engravings and paintings are indeed far from lacking 
in quality, but one may well ask whether the artists 
who executed them are really the ancestors of the 
present day Berbers. In spite of the great architec- 
tural achievements to which we have referred (above, 
section iv), there is no real Berber art comparable to 
Arab and Hispano-Moorish art. The fact is that the 
Berber is a countryman, indeed a nomad, only 
seeking to possess articles of current use, which are 
easily transportable; his art, therefore, is limited to 
ornamenting articles of everyday life and does not 
transcend a craftsmanship seeking to provide the 
comforts of life rather than to delight the eye. Its 
products, sought at times by a clientele enamoured 
with exoticism and simplicity, and supported in 
North Africa by the efforts of the authorities to 
maintain and improve traditions and techniques, 
are restricted to carpets, hangings, mats, silks, 
embroideries, chinaware, earthenware, cabinet-work, 
work in gold, brass wares and damascene work; 
ornamentation is characterised by the almost 
exclusive use of the straight line (triangles, stripes, 
lozenges, checker-work). To this may be added very 
realistic statuettes in wood, which are at variance 
with the Islamic ban on the representation of the 

Bibliography: Fundamental work: H. Basset, 
Essai sur la littirature des Berbhes, Algiers 1920, 
summarised by A. Basset, Literature berbere, in Hist, 
des Lift., Paris 1955, i, 886-90.— Inscriptions: 
Abbe Chabot, Recueil des inscriptions libyques, 
Paris 1940; M. Reygasse, Contrib. a Vitude des 
gravures rupestres et inscrip. tifinar' du Sahara 
central, Algiers 1932; Th. Monod, L'Adrar Ahnet, 
Paris 1932, 135-9; idem, Gravures, peintures et 
inscriptions rupestres\ Paris -1938; G. Marcy, Les 
Inscriptions libyques bilingues de VAf. du N., 
Paris 1936; idem, Introd. a un dichiffrement 
nUthodique des inscriptions "tifinagh" du Sahara 
central, in Hesp., 1937/1-2; idem, Etude des doc. 
tpigraphiques recueiUis par M. Reygasse, in RAfr., 
1937: A. Tovar, Papeletas de epigrafia Ubica, in 
Bol. del Semin. de Est. de Arte y Arquelogia Valla- 
dolid 1944-4 and 1944-5. — Folk-lore: in addition 
to the monographs on dialects, texts will be 
found in: R. Basset, Loqman berbire, Paris 



1890; Moulieras, Ltgendes et contes merveilleux 
de la Grande KabyUe, Paris 1893-98; idem, Les 
Fourberies de Si Djeh'a, Oran 1891; Leblanc 
de Prebois, Essai de contes kabyles, Batna 
1897; H. Stumme, El) Stucke im Schilha- 
Dialekt von Tazerwalt, in ZDGM, 1894; idem, 
Mdrchen der Schluft von Tazerwalt, Leipzig 1895; 
idem, Mdrchen der Berbern von Tamazratt, Leipzig 
1900; E. Destaing, Textes berbires en parler des 
Chleuhs du Sous, Paris 1940; E. Laoust, Contes 
berbires du Maroc, Paris 1949; J. M. Dallet, Trois 
contes berbires, in IBLA, 1944; — trans, only: 
Riviere, Recueil de contes populaires de la Kabylie 
du Jurjura, Paris 1882; R. Basset, Contes popu- 
lates berbires, Paris 1887; idem, Nouveaux contes 
berbires, Paris 1897; E. Dermenghem, Contes 
kabyles, Algiers 1945. — Songs and poetry: 
Motylinski, Chanson berbire de Djerba, in Bull. 
Corr. Afr., 1885; A. Hanoteau, Poisies populaires 
de la Kabylie du Jurjura, Paris 1867; R. Basset, 
V Insurrection algirienne de 1871 dans les chansons 
kabyles, Louvain 1892; Luciani, Chansons kabyles 
de Smail Azikkiou, Algiers 1899; Ch. de Foucauld, 
Potsies touarigues, Paris 1925-30; E. Laoust, 
Chants berbires contre I'occupation francaise, in 
Mimorial R. Basset, Paris 1928; F. Nicolas, 
Poimes touareg, in ETI, 1941-2; J. Servier, Chants 
des femmes de I'Auris, Sorbonne thesis, 1955 
(unpublished); trans, only: L. Justinard, Poimes 
chleuhs, in RMM 1925/2; L. Paul-Margueritte, 
Chants berbires du Maroc, 1935. — Art : in addition 
to the general works on Muslim an in North 
Africa, see: G. de Gironcourt, L'Art chez les 
Touareg, in Rev. d'Eth. et de Sociol., Jan.-Feb. 1914 ; 
P. Ricard, Tissages berbires des Ait Aissi, in Hesp., 
1925; V. Piquet, Le peuple marocain, chap, xviii; 
G. Chantreaux, Les Tissages sur metier de haute 
lisse a Ait-Hichem et dans le Haut Sebaou, in RAfr., 
1 941-2; eadem, Les Tissages dicoris chez les Beni- 
Mgild, in Hesp., 1945; H. Balfet, La Poterie des 
Ait Smail du Djurdjura, in RAfr., 1955, 289-340; 
G. Marcais, L'Art des Berbires, Algiers 1956. 

(R. Basset-[Ch. Pellat]) 
BERGAMA, the ancient Pergamon in Mysia (on 
which cf. the data and references given in Pauly- 
Wissowa). Armenians who had fled before the 
Muslim raids into Asia Minor settled in Byzantine 
Pergamon during the course of the 7th century. The 
Byzantine emperor Philippikos (711-713) was of 
Armenian descent and came from Pergamon. Muslim 
forces under Maslama b. 'Abd al-Malik sacked the 
town in 716, but it was rebuilt and refortified after 
the Arabs had abandoned their attempt to take 
Constantinople in 717-718. Pergamon was included, 
from the reign of Leo III (717-741), in the theme of 
Thrakesion and, from the reign of Leo VI (886-912), 
in the theme of Samos. The town suffered during the 
Turkish raids into western Asia Minor after the battle 
of Manzikert (1071). It continued, however, to be a 
prosperous and well fortified centre under the 
Byzantine emperors of the house of Komnenos and 
their immediate successors. Pergamon, having been 
hitherto a suffragan bishopric dependent on Ephesos, 
was raised to the status of a metropolitan see in 
the reign of Isaac Angelos (1185-1195). After the fall 
of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, 
the town was included in the Greek state of Nicata. 
Later, when the Turks overran western Asia Minor 
in the years around 1300, Bergama came under the 
control of the Begs of Karasl. The Ottomans, during 
the reign of their Beg Orkhan, annexed the emirate 
of Karast. Bergama became thereafter a kadd* of 



the sandjak of Khudawendigar in the eydlet of 
Anadolu and later a kadd 1 of the sandjak of Izmir 
in the wildyet of Aydtn. The region of Bergama is 
fertile and noted for its production of cereals, fruit, 
vegetables, tobacco and cotton. Greek forces occupied 
Bergama in the years 1919-1923. As a result of the 
subsequent exchange of population arranged between 
the governments at Athens and Ankara, Bergama 
lost its Greek inhabitants and received in their place 
Turkish elements brought over from Greece. The 
population of Bergama was estimated, in 1950, to 
be approximately 16,500 people. 

Bibliography: Ibn BaHuta, edd. Defremtry 
and Sanguinetti, Paris 1853-1859, ii, 315; HadjdjI 
Khalifa, Diihdnnumd. Istanbul 1 145/1732, 659; 
V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, iii, Paris 1894, 
471 ff. ; H. Gelzer, Pergamon unter Byzantinern 
und Osmanen, (An/tang zu Abh. Pr. Ak. W.), 
Berlin 1903; A. Philippson, Reisen und For- 
schungen im westlichen Kleinasien, Heft i (= Er- 
ganzungsheft no. 167 zu Petermann's Mitteilungen), 
Gotha 1910, 87 ff.; J. H. Mordtmann, Ober das 
tiirkische Fiirstengeschlecht der Karast in Mysien 
(SBPr. Ak. W.), Berlin 191 1; M. van Berch. m. 
Die muslimischen Inschriften von Pergamon 
(Anhang zu Abh. Pr. Ak. W., 1911), Berlin 1912; 
I. H. Uzuncarsili, Anadolu Beylikleri, Istanbul 
1937, 33 ff- ; Osman Bayath, Bergama tarihinde 
Asklepion, 4th ed., Istanbul 1954; 'All Djawad, 
Ta'rikh ve Dioghrdfiya Lughatl, Istanbul A.H. 
1313-1314, 164; Pauly-Wissowa, xix/i (1937), cols. 
1235-1263; I A, s.v. Bergama (Besim Darkot). 
For a recent account of the Islamic monuments of 
Bergama, with plan and photographs, see Osman 
Bayath, Bergama Tarihinde Turk-lsldm eserleri, 
Istanbul 1956. (V. J. Parry) 

BERKE, a Mongol prince and ruler of the Golden 
Horde, grandson of Cmgiz-Khan and third son of 
Djoci. Little is known of his early career. He took 
no part in the wars in Russia and Eastern Europe 
in the years 634-639/1237-1242 but was more fre- 
quently in Mongolia than Batu, whom he represented 
at the enthronement of Giiyuk (644/1246) and that 
of Mongke (649/1251). His yurt of appanage was 
originally situated, according to Rubruck, in the 
direction of Darband but by 653/1255 had on Batu's 
orders been removed to the east of the Volga in order 
to cut off Berke from contact with his fellow Muslims. 
His conversion to Islam is mentioned by Rubruck, 
who says that he did not allow pork to be eaten in 
his ordu. The date of his conversion is unknown. 
Djuzdjani's statement that he was brought up from 
infancy as a Muslim seems hardly credible. On the 
other hand he seems to have already become a 
Muslim at the time of Mongke's accession to the 
Khanate, when, as Djuwaynl tells us, the animals 
provided for the festivities were slaughtered, for his 
benefit, in accordance with the Muslim ritual. 

Batu died according to Djuwaynl while his son 
Sartak -was on his way to the Court of the Great 
Khan. Sartak continued his journey and was 
appointed his father's successor by Mongke but 
himself died shortly afterwards. He was succeeded 
by the young prince Ulaghii, his son or brother, 
Borakcm, Batu's widow being appointed regent. 
According to the Russian annals the camp of 
"Ulavdii" was visited by Russian princes as late as 
1257. It was not until the death of the young Khan, 
probably in the same year, that the succession 
passed to Berke. 

Like Batu, Berke, during the early years of his 
reign, seems to have exercised certain sovereign 



- BESERMYANS 



rights in Ma wara' al-Nahr. According to Diuzdiani 
he visited Bukhara and showed great honour to the 
learned men of the town; he is also said to have 
ordered the Christians of Samarkand to be punished 
and their churches destroyed because of their 
behaviour towards their Muslim fellow townsmen. 
When the news of Mongke's death arrived (1259), 
the khutba was read in Berke's name not only in 
Ma wara 1 al-Nahr but also in Khurasan. 

During the next four years (1260-1264) two 
brothers of the dead Great Khan, Kubilay and 
Arlgh Boke, were engaged in a struggle for the 
throne. As the coins struck in Bulghar show, the 
unsuccessful claimant Arlgh Boke was recognised by 
Berke as the rightful heir. Prince Alughu, a grandson 
of Caghatay, appeared in Central Asia about the same 
time, first as a representative of Arlgh Boke and 
afterwards in open revolt against him ; he succeeded in 
bringing under his sway not only the whole of his 
grandfather's appanage but also Khwarizm, which 
had always belonged to the kingdom of Djo£i and 
his successors; the governors and officials appointed 
by Berke were driven out of the towns. The massacre 
mentioned by Wassaf (Bombay ed., 51) of a division 
of Berke's army, 5,000 strong, in Bukhara must have 
been carried out, not, as Wassaf himself says, by 
Kubilay, nor, as d'Ohsson supposes, by Hulegu, but 
by Alughu. The war between Berke and Alughu was 
continued until the latter's death; in the last years 
of his life, after the final defeat of Arigh Boke, 
Alughu's troops occupied and destroyed the town of 
Otrar. Berke, whose forces were engaged in the 
South and West, could do nothing against his 
enemies in the East, but he did not abandon his 
claims; Prince Kaydu, a grandson of Ogedey, who 
had fought under Arlgh Boke, continued the war 
against Alughu after Arlgh Boke's defeat and was 
supported by Berke. 

The campaigns in the West against the Lithu- 
anians and King Daniel of Galicia were of no great 
importance and were conducted by the frontier 
commanders without the personal intervention of 
Berke. King Daniel fled to Poland and Hungary and 
his son and brother were forced to dismantle the 
fortifications of all their main cities. 

The war between Berke and his cousin Hulegii, 
the conqueror of Persia, was more important and 
less successful. The causes of the war are variously 
given. Berke is pictured by some authorities as the 
defender of Islam and is said to have bitterly 
reproached Hulegu for his devastation of so many 
Muslim countries and particularly for the execution 
of the Caliph Musta'sim. Hewever those authorities 
who say that Djoii's heirs felt their rights endangered 
by the foundation of a new Mongol kingdom in 
Persia are probably nearer the truth. Some of the 
territories incorporated in the new kingdom, such 
as Arran and Adharbaydjan, had already been 
trodden by "the hoof of Tartar horse" in the reign 
of Cingiz-Khan and were therefore, according to the 
Conqueror's directions, part of the appanage of 
Djo£i. The evidence on the war itself is contra- 
dictory. Hulegu seems at first to have been victorious, 
advancing across the Terek (late in 1262), and then 
to have been defeated by Berke's forces (Berke not 
being present in person), losing a great part of his 
army in the retreat; many were drowned in the 
Terek when the ice gave way under their horses' 

Even before the outbreak of these hostilities the 
Egyptian Sultan Baybars [q.v.] had decided to enter 
into communication with Berke and form an alliance 



against their common enemy Hulegu. A message to 
this effect had been sent from Cairo to Berke as 
early as 1261 ; on the 16th November 1262 an embassy 
was dispatched for the same purpose, and in the 
following year Berke's ambassadors were received 
by Baybars. The detention of Mongol and Egyptian 
envoys in Constantinople led to hostilities between 
the Golden Horde and Byzantium. Berke dispatched 
an army under Prince Nokay into Thrace, where 
they joined forces with the Bulgarians; and the 
Saldjuk Sultan <Izz al-DIn Kay-Ka 5 us, who had been 
driven out of Asia Minor and placed in custody in 
the fortress of Ainos on the Aegean was set free and 
brought to the Crimea. 

In 1265, the year of Hiilegii's death, the Klpcak 
and Persian Mongols were again at war. The two 
armies, under Berke and Abaka, for a long time 
faced each other across the Kur; in search of a 
crossing Berke proceeded upstream to Tiflis, where 
he died (1266); and his forces then withdrew. 

Berke left no family, so that the throne passed to 
Batu's grandson Mongke-Temur. During the last 
years of his reign he was no longer, as Batu had been, 
second to the Great Khan in the Mongol Empire, but 
the ruler of an independent state, although this 
evolution was not completed till the reign of his 
successor, who was the first of the Klpcak Khans to 
strike coin in his own name. It is difficult to estimate 
how much Berke did as a Muslim to further the 
practice of Islam among his subjects. The Egyptian 
accounts speak of schools in which the youth was 
instructed in the Kur'an ; not only the Khan himself 
but each of his wives and Emirs also had an imam 
and a mv'adhdhin attached to their establishments; 
yet we learn from the same sources that all sorts of 
heathen customs were observed at the court of the 
Khan with the same strictness as in Mongolia. Not 
only Berke himself but several of his brothers are 
said to have adopted Islam; and yet half a century 
was to elapse after his death before Islam became 
definitely predominant in his kingdom. 

Berke was the founder of New Saray (so called 
to distinguish it from the Saray founded by Batu), 
which was situated on the eastern bank of the Upper 
Akhtuba near the present-day Leninsk, about 30 
miles east of Stalingrad. 

Bibliography: As in the article on Batu. 
(W. Barthold-[J. A. Boyle]) 

BESERMYANS (or Glazov Tatars), a small 
ethnic unit skin to the Udmurts (Votyaks) living 
in North Russia. Differing views are held on the 
subject of their origin, some considering them as 
Finns who have come under Turkish influence, 
others as descendants of the old Kama Bulghars, 
profoundly influenced by the Udmurt language and 
culture. 

The Soviet census of 1926 listed 10,035 Besermy- 
ans, 9,195 of whom were from the districts of 
Balezino and Yukamenskoe in the autonomous 
Udmurt SSR and 834. from the neighbourhood of 
the village of Slobodskoe at the confluence of the 
rivers Vyatka and Ceptza in the Kirov region. The 
Besermyans are bilingual, speaking Russian (in the 
Udmurt ASSR) and Kazan Tatar (in the Kirov 
region) as well as Udmurt much influenced by 
Tatar. The were converted officially to Christianity 
in the 17th century, and until the October revolution 
were considered fully Orthodox, but in fact they 
remained Muslims at heart, retaining many 
customs which are traditionally Islamic. Notably, 
they would call in the Tatar molla after the Orthodox 
priest when a death occurred. 



BESERMYANS — BESKESEK-ABAZA 



1 189 



After the proclamation of freedom of worship in 
1905 the greater part of the Besermyans returned 
openly to Islam. 

Bibliography: Smirnov, Otlet o 8 Arkheolo- 
gileskom siezde, in Journal du Ministire de I' In- 
struction Publique, St. Petersburg 1890, 269, 
1-47; V. Belitzer, Problema proizkhojdeniya 
Besermyan, in Trudy Instituta Etnografii, Moscow 
1917, 1; Negovitzin, Besermyane, in Bolshaya 
Sovetskaya Entziklopediya, v, 1930, 721-722. 

(A. Bennigsen) 
BESHIKE (Besike Korfezi, Besika) is a bay 
on the western coast of Asia Minor opposite the 
island of Tenedos (Bozdja Ada). It lies about 23 
kilometres to the south of Kum Kal'e, between the 
two capes of Kum Burnu and Beshik Burnu and, 
although open to the sea, affords good protection to 
shipping. Inland from the coast is situated the 
classical Troas and evidence of ancient remains has 
been found in the immediate neighbourhood of 
Beshike itself. The British and French fleets sailed 
to Beshike in June 1853 during the course of the 
crisis which led to the outbreak of the Crimean War. 
Great Britain also sent her fleet to Beshike in 1876 
and 1878. 

Bibliography: V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, 
iii, Paris 1894, 766; c Ali Djawad, Ta'rikh ve 
Dxoghrdfiya Lughati, Istanbul A.H. 1313-1314, 
172; Pauly-Wissowa, vii A/i (1939), s.v. Troas 
(cols. 546, 557, 568, 576). (V. J. Parry) 

BESHIKTASH [see 



[see s 



CA]. 



BESHPARMAK ("five fingers"), a Turkish 
name given sometimes to mountain ranges in Asia 
Minor and elsewhere. The best known example is 
the Beshparmak-dagh in south-west Asia Minor, on 
the lower reaches of the Biiyuk-Menderes— a 
mountain chain rising at its loftiest elevation to a 
height of 1367 metres. This particular range was 
known in ancient times as 6 AaT(io?. The region 
became, during the Middle Ages, an active centre 
of Christian religious life, which flourished until the 
Turks overran western Asia Minor in the I3th-i4th 



Bibliography : Th. Wiegand, Der Latmos 
[Konigliche Museen zu Berlin. Milet: Ergebnisse 
der Ausgrabungen und Untersuchungen seit dem 
Jahre 1899, ed. Th. Wiegand, Bd. iii/i), Berlin 
191 3; A. Philippson, Reisen und Forschungen im 
westlichen Kleinasien, Heft 5 (= Ergdnzungsheft 
no. 183 zu Petermanris Mitteilungen) , Gotha 1915, 
8 ff . ; F. Krischen, Die Befestigungen von Herakleia 
am Latmos (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Milet: 
Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen und Untersuchungen 
seit dem Jahre 1899, ed. Th. Wiegand, Bd. iii/2), 
Berlin and Leipzig 1922; Pauly-Wissowa, xii/i 
(1924), cols. 964-966, s.v. Latmos. 

(V. J. Parry) 
BESIKA BAY [see beshike]. 
BESKESEK-ABAZA (or Beshkesek Abaza), 
the Russian name for a Muslim people belong to 
the Abasgo-Circassian (Adlghe) section of the Ibero- 
Caucasian family. Ethnically they are close to the 
Kabardians. From the time of the High Middle 
Ages the Abaza people have been divided into two 
groups speaking different dialects: the northern 
or Tapanta group of six tribes, and the southern or 
Shkarawa group, also of six. In the 1926 census 
13,825 Abaza were counted, but Lavrov thinks 
that the real figure must be considerably larger, 
perhaps about 20,000 at the present time. The 
majority of the Abaza (10,993 °"t of 13,825 in 



1926) live in the Circassian Autonomous region, the 
high valleys of the Great and Little Zelen6uk, the 
Kuban and the Kama. Here there are thirteen 
villages, and there are two other Abaza villages near 
Kislovodsk in the Stavropol' Krai, as well as a few 
groups of Abaza in the Circassian and Nogai villages 
in the Adlghe Autonomous Region. 

The Abaza are descended from the multi- 
lingual tribes which at the beginning of our era 
dwelt on the shores of the Black Sea, north-west of 
present-day Abkhazia, and which fused together in 
the course of the centuries to form the Abkhaz 

In the 14th and 15th centuries most of the Abaza 
left their original home in the coastal region (between 
Tuapse and Bzlb), crossed the Caucasus, and 
dislodging the Kabardians settled in the area they 
now inhabit. From that time onward they had to 
contend with the hostility of the Circassians, and 
their history is one of slow but continuous decline. 
At the end of the 16th century the Abaza tribes 
which had formerly dominated the region accepted 
perforce the rule of the Kabardian and Beslenei 
princes. At this time too (in the reign of Sultan 
Murad III) the Turks extended their protectorate 
over eastern Caucasia but by the treaty of Belgrade 
relinquished Kabardia, which was recognised as 
an independent territory. The Turkish frontier then 
ran along the Kuban, and the Tapanta who were 
leading a nomadic existence on both banks of this 
river became independent, no longer owing any 
clearly defined allegiance. After the treaty of 
Kiicuk-Kaynardja (1774) the Russians occupied 
Kabardia, and in 1802 the greater part of the 
territory of the Abaza was combined with that of 
the Nogai in a special pristavstvo administered 
directly by the Russian authorities. During the 
Caucasian wars the Abaza were divided in their 
allegiance, the Tapanta allying themselves with the 
Russians while the Shkarawa supported the Miiridist 
cause. After the Russian conquest, which took place 
between 1858 and 1864, the majority of the 
Shkarawa (the Tam, Kizilbek, Bag, Cegrei and 
Mistlbai* tribes) emigrated to Turkey ; 30,000 are 
officially stated to have left, but this estimate seems 
too low. After the Caucasian wars only 9,921 Abaza 
remained in the region (E. Felitsin, Cislovie dannie 
o gorskom i profem musulmanskom naselenii Kuban- 
skoi oblasti, in Sbornik Svedenii Kavkaze, Tiflis 
1885, ix» 87-94). 

The conversion to Islam of the Abaza (who had 
formerly been animists or Christians) began after 
their migration towards the northern Caucasus, 
when they came into contact with the Crimean 
Tatars and the Nogai. They took over the c dddt and 
chronological system of these peoples (a twelve-year 
animal cycle), together with Sunni Islam of the 
Hanafi school. This conversion was slow, almost 
all the tribes south of the Kuban 1 being still animist 
or Christian at the end of the 17th century (Huseyn 
Hezarfenn, cited by V. D. Smirnov, Krimskoie 
Khdnstvo pod verkhovenstvom Ottomanskoi Portl do 
nalala XVIII veka, St. Petersburg 1887, 347). 
Ewliya Celebi affirms that the Biberdraa, one of 
the most important Maza tribes, are not Muslims. 
Almost all the Tapanta had accepted Islam by 
the end of the 18th century, but the Shkawara 
were still Christians when they were visited by 
P. S. Pallas, Islam being restricted to the nobility 
{Bemerkungen auf einer Reise an die Sudlichen 
Statthalterschaften des Russischen Reichs in den 
Jahren 1793 «»<* 1794, Leipzig 1799, 365)- A t the 






BESKESEK-ABAZA - 



same period J. Reineggs (Allgemeine historisch- 
iopographische Beschreibung des Kaukasus, Gotha- 
St. Petersburg 1796, 373) states that the Tam, 
Cegrei, and Barakai tribes of the Shkawara group 
were "enemies of Islam". In 1807, J. Klaproth 
(Reise in den Kaukasus und nach Georgien, i, Halle- 
Berlin 1812, 459) found that the Tam were islamised 
but "ate pork", and this is confirmed by the anony- 
mous author of the article Gorskie plemena livushUe 
za Kuban'yu in Kavkaz no. 94, 1850, who describes 
the Tam as "very lukewarm Muslims", the Cegrei as 
"setting small store by Islamic ritual, apart from 
certain of the nobility", the Bag (a tribe of the 
same group) as "without precise beliefs" and the 
Barakai as partially converted to Islam. Thus it 
seems that the final conversion of the Shkawara 
dates only from the middle of the 19th century, 
effected by the missionary zeal of Muhammad Amln, 
the Na'ib of Shamil [q.v.\ in Circassian territory. 

Until the beginning of the 20th century Abaza 
society retained its very complex feudal structure, 
which was similar to that of the Circassians. At the 
bottom of the social scale were the slaves, unavt 
(anawt among the Circassians). Then came the 
serfs, lig (grig'va among the Shkarawa), and the 
freed serfs, azat-lig, who remained under the obli- 
gation to perform certain tasks but could none the 
less change their master and themselves own unavl 
and lig. Above these was the most numerous class, 
that of the free peasants, akavl (or tt'fakashaw). 
Next were the nobles, divided into "small nobles", 
amlsta, who made up the princes retinues, and the 
"great nobles", amistadl {tawad among the Shkarawa) 
who could have retainers of their own. At the top of 
the scale were the "princes" who were heads of clans, 
akha, and vassals of the Beskenei and Kabardian 
princes. They took their place not among the 
Circassian princely class (pshs) but in the lower 
class of tlekotesh. The children of the akha and women 
of a lower class made up a special class, tuma. 

Until the October revolution and even during the 
first years of the Soviet regime the Abaza still 
retained certain patriarchal and feudal customs 
(clan divisions, vendettas, kalym, atalik, etc.). 

The Abaza language belongs to the Abkhazo- 
Adtghe division of the Ibero-Caucasian languages. It 
is so close to Abkhaz that it is sometimes taken as 
simply a dialect of this tongue, but it shows numerous 
Kabardian features. There are two dialects: Ashkara 
in the south, with two sub-dialects, that of the Apsua 
Aul and that of Staro and Novo-Kuvinskoe, and in 
the north Tapanta, comprising likewise the two sub- 
dialects of Kubina-El'burgan and Psiz-Krasno- 
Vostocnoe. Abaza was an unwritten language until 
the October revolution. In 1932 a modified Roman 
alphabet was devised for it and a page in the language 
added to Cerkes K y apshl, the Cerkes Adlghe daily. 
In 1939 the Roman alphabet was replaced by 
Cyrillic, and in this new script the first works by 
Abaza writers have appeared, from 1940 onwards 
(collections of poems by Tsekov and Tkhaitsakhov, 
the short stories and novelettes of Zirov and 
Tabulov, etc.). 

Bibliography : L. I. Lavrov, Abazinl (Isto- 
rilesko-Etnogratileski OSerk) in Kavkazskii Eino- 
grafiieskii Sbornik, U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences, 
Moscow 1955, 5-48, (the best historical and 
ethnographical study) ; see the same writer in 
Sovetskaia Etnografiia no. 4, 1946 {Obezl russkikh 
letopisei); Shora Bekmurzin Nogmov, Istoriia 



Adlkheiskogo naroda sostavlennaia po predaniyam 
Kabardintsev, Tiflis 1861. On the Abaza during 
the Soviet period see the works on the Circassian 
Autonomous Region, especially the anonymous 
20 let Cerkesskoi Avtonomoi oblasti, Stavropol' 
1948; the relevant articles in the Cerkesk periodica 
Krasnaia Cerkessiia (nos. 237, 245, 249 for 1940) 
On the Abaza language see K. Lomatidzel 
Tapantskii Dialekt Abkhazskogo yazlka, Tbiliss. 
1944; and particularly G. P. Serducenko, "Aba, 
zinskie dialektl", Moscow 1939; Abazinskaia 
Literatura (vol. i of the Scientific Memoirs of the 
Pedagogical Institute of Rostov-on-Don 1939)1; 
and Abazinskaia Fonetika (vol. v of the same 
collection), Rostov-on-Don, 1949. 

(A. Bennigsen and H. Carrere d'Encausse) 
BESLENEY [see cerkes]. 

BESNI (Behesni in the Middle Ages), from the 
Syriac Bet Hesna, a crossroads settlement at a 
height of more than 2,900 feet on the important 
junction of the Malatya-Aleppo and (Cilicia)- 
Mar c ash-Diyar Bakr roads. Besni was the hinge 
between the series of strongholds north of the great 
bow of the Euphrates on the one hand, which 
protected the upper valleys of the right bank 
tributaries of this river from incursion from the 
plateaux and high ranges of the eastern Taurus, and 
on the other those towards the south, which dominated 
the small basins north of c Aynt5b. Further it was 
in the immediate vicinity of a pass which led down 
towards the north-west to the gorge of the Ak-Su, 
the site of the old strong-hold of Hadath the Red. 
Despite these advantages and the ancient etymology 
of its name, Besni is not mentioned in texts until 
after the destruction of Hadath, whose place it then 
took (4th/ioth century). Formerly it had been 
overshadowed by Kaysun, its southern neighbour, 
which was then more important and was itself 
linked predominantly with Mar'ash. Besni probably 
owed its rise to an influx of Armenians after the 
Byzantine conquest. At the end of the 5th/nth 
century it was part of the principalities of Philaret 
and Kogh-Vasil, and during the period of the Cru- 
sades was one of the most frequently mentioned 
places in the Franco-Armenian province of Edessa. 
It was fought for by the Zengid or AyyQbid princes 
of Aleppo and the Saldjukids of Rum, who in the 
7th/i3th century incorporated it into their border 
province of Mar'ash. The Mongols ceded it to the 
Armenian kingdom of Cilicia, but it was almost at 
once annexed by the Mamluk state, with whose 
fortunes it was linked until the end of the 8th/i 4 th 
century. It then came within the sphere of operations 
of the Dhu '1-ghadir Turcomans, was pillaged by 
Timur, passed again at the end of the 15th century 
into Mamluk control, and in 922/1516 was occupied 
by the Ottomans together with Syria. From that 
time on it has had no more than local importance. 
The town, in which a fortress largely rebuilt by 
Ka'itbay is still standing, had a population of 
10,500 in 1955. 

Bibliography: Besni is mentioned by all the 
chroniclers of the period of the Crusades, in 
particular by Matthew of Edessa, Michael the 
Syrian, and Kamal al-DIn b. al- c AdIm. The last- 
mentioned gives a note on it in the geographical 
section of his Bughya (Aya Sofya 3036, i, 333), 
and likewise c Izz al-DIn b. Shaddad in his AHak 
(= Ibn al-Shihna, ed. Cheiko, 171). Of the Mamluk 
chroniclers see especially Ibn Kathir, Ibn Hadjar, 
Makrlzi, al-'Ayni, Ibn Taghribardi, Ibn Iyas. On 
the modern period, particularly Ainsworth, Travels, 



- BEYSHEH1R 



i, 265 and Cuinet, ii, 376; Mukrimin Halil, Mara} 
Emirleri in TTEM, years xiv-xv; CI. Cahen, La 
Syrie du Nord, 120-12 1; additional references in 
Besim Darkot, Besni, in I A, s.v. (Cl. Caheh) 
BESSARABIA [see buCak]. 
BETELGEUZE [see nu^um]. 
BETHLEHEM [see bayt lahm]. 
BEY [see beg]. 
BEYATLl, YAHYA KEMAL [see yahya 

KEMAL BEYATLl]. 

BEYLIK, (Beglik), a term formed by joining the 
adjectival and relative suffix lik to bey (beg, beg) 
which was an old Turkish title [see beg]. The word 

beylik to imara. The term beylik thus denotes both 
the title and post (or function) of a Bey, and the 
territory (domain) under the rule of a Bey. Later, by 



from 1 67 1 onwards. Our information is too scanty 

In Tripolitania, Tunisia and Algeria the regime 
denoted by the word beylik is substantially the same, 
except that in Tunisia offices of government tended 
very soon to become hereditary. This was not the 






te, gove 



and, at the same time, a political and administrative 
entity sometimes possessing a certain autonomy. 
When the Ottoman Empire was established, 
£ Othman Bey, the founder of the dynasty, was 
referred to as Bey by the sovereign of the Saldjukid 
Empire; in the same way, the territories which he 
had taken from the Byzantine Empire were granted 
to him as a beylik, imara. At the beginning of the 
8th/i4th century, the other Turkish principalities in 
Asia Minor (of the TawdHf Muluku) were also gen- 
erally referred to as Beylik. Later, as the Ottoman 
Empire increased in size, the country was divided 
into Sandiak-beyliks — the most important and funda- 
mental military and administrative unit, and these 
in turn were grouped, regionally, under the authority 
of the beylerbeys. From the gth/i5th century, those 
Balkan countries which acknowledged the political 
and military suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire 
but enjoyed complete internal autonomy, were 
referred to as Beyliks: e.g., Beylik of the Danube, 
Beylik of Eflak, Beylik of Bogdan, Beylik of Erdel. 
Later still, countries which had obtained some 
privileges from the Ottoman Empire and had 
succeeded in achieving a measure of autonomy, were 
also considered as Beyliks: e.g., Beylik of Sisam 
(Samos), Beylik of Bulgharistan (Bulgaria). This 
term in turn extended its meaning still further, and 
began to be used as an adjective to denote places and 
things belonging to the Government; e.g., Beylik 
arddi (tniri arddi), "the lands (domain) of the 
Beylik", Beylik kishla, "the winter quarters of the 
Beylik", Beylik leshme "the fountain of the Beylik" 
Beylik dkhlr, "the stable of the Beylik" , Beylik gemi 
"the ship of the Beylik", etc. There are also some 

"A Beylik of one day is a Beylik" (Bir giititin beylighi 
beylikdir). The name of an official in the central 
organisation of the Empire was derived from this 
term: Beylikdj[i (Beglikdji), who was the president of 
one department of the Diw&n-i Humdyun [q.v.]. 
(M. Tayyib Gokbilgin) 
ii. — In North Africa, the term is used in the 
former Ottoman possessions in the Maghrib, but 
not in Morocco or in the Sahara, where Turkish 
administrative influence was never felt. Like the 
word makhzen in Morocco it refers to govern- 
ment and administrative authority at every stage. 
It may date from the beginning of the Ottoman 
occupation and the rule of the beylerbeys, or 
possibly from a later period. In this latter case it 
no doubt commemorates the influence of the local 
Algerian beys, of Constantine, the Titeri and the 
west, at least as much as that of the chief Bey in 
Algiers; he, moreover, was replaced by a Dey 



The forms of government were everywhere 
Ottoman, and remained unmodified or almost so, 
while in the majority of cases the words used to 
denote them were also part of the Ottoman voca- 
bulary. But these institutions did not strike deep 
roots in the countries of North Africa, and had no 
acceptance below the provincial level. The central 
government was in effect entirely Turkish, and the 
same held for the provincial government in so far 
as each province was under the authority of a 
Turkish governor or integrated within the Turkish 
regime, and all important towns, i.e., garrison towns, 
were administered by an official appointed by the 
central or provincial government. The authority 
of the beylik went no further; small ungarrisoned 
towns, villages and tribes were administered by 
their own officials, who were recognised by the 
central or provincial government and served as 
intermediary agents and points of contact between 
the beylik and the people. 

The beylik as the central authority inspired a 
variety of feelings in the people: fear and suspicion, 
productive of a general ill-will, but also unbounded 
confidence in times of disaster and personal trouble. 
The beylik at such times, if it so desired, could 
deputise for Providence. 

Bibliography: There is no work dealing 
specifically with this subject, but information on 
various aspects of the institutions of the beylik 
can be found in several works. The following are 
cited by way of example: 

R. P. Dan, Histoire de Barbarie et de ses cor- 
saires, Paris 1637; Venture de Paradis, Alger au 
XVIII' Steele, published by Fagnan, Algiers 1898; 
H. de Grammont, Histoire d' Alger sous la dominat- 
ion turque, Paris 1887; Ch. A. Julien, Histoire de 
I'Afrique du Nord 1 , ii, (revised and brought up 
to date by R. Le Tourneau) Paris 1952. 

(R. Le Tourneau) 
BEYOGHLU [see Istanbul]. 
BEYSHEHIR (Beyshehri), now the centre of a 
kadd } in the province of Konya, lies on the south- 
eastern shore of a lake (go/) bearing the same name. 
This lake was known to the Ancients as Karalis 
(a village called Kirili is still found close to the 
north-eastern shore). The town of Karalleia in 
Pamphylia was situated near the lake in ancient 
times. Beyshehir itself is believed to have been 
founded in the time of the Saldjuk sultan of Rum 
c Ala> al-DIn I (616-634/1219-1237). When the Turks 
overran western Asia Minor in the years around 
1300, Beyshehir came into the possession of the 
Begs of Hamid, who had at various times to defend it 
against the neighbouring Begs of Karaman. The 
Ottoman sultan Murad I purchased Beyshehir and 
certain other towns from Kemal al-Din Husayn, the 
Beg of Hamid, in 783/1381. After the battle of 
Ankara (804/1402) Beyshehir fell under the control 
of Karaman. The Ottomans regained the town in 
the reign of Sultan Mehemmed I (816-824/1413-1421), 
but their possession of Beyshehir did not become 
definitive until 847/1443- The present Beyshehir is 
a small town which had, in 1935, 2620 inhabitants. 
Bibliography: Hadidji Khalifa, Qiihannumd, 
Istanbul 1145/1732, 615; W. M. Ramsay, A 



II 9 2 



BEYSHEHIR — BHARATPOR 



Historical Geography of Asia Minor (Roy. Geogr. 
Soc: Supplementary Papers, vol. iv), London 1890, 
390; F. Sarre, Reise in Kleinasien, Berlin 1896, 
118 ff.; Hammer-Purgstall, i, 185; I. H. Uzun- 
carsili, Anadolu Beylikleri, Istanbul 1937, 15 ff.; 
S. S. Ocer and M. M. Roman, Konya Hi kSy ve 
yer adlan uzerinde bir deneme (Konya halkevi 
tarih, muze komitesi Yaymlan: Seri I, no. 3), 
Konya 1945, ii (note 24); V. Cuinet, La Turquie 
d'Asie, i, Paris 1890, 823 ff.; Sami, Kdmus al- 
AHdm, ii, Istanbul A.H. 1306, 1334; C A1I Djawad, 
Ta'rikh ve Dioghrdfiya Lughatl, Istanbul A. H. 
1313-1314, 187; W. Tomaschek, Zur Historischen 
Topographie von Kleinasien im Mittelalter (SBAk. 
Wien PhU.-Hist. CI., Bd. cxxiv), Vienna 1891, 101 ; 
Pauly-Wissowa, x/2 (1919), s. w. Karal(l)is, Ka- 
ralleia, cols. 1926-1927; IA, s.v. Beysehir (Besim 
Darkot). Cf. also Y. Akyurt, Beysehri Kitabeleri 
ve Esrefoglu Camii ve Tiirbesi, in Turk Tarih, 
Arkeologya ve Etnografya Dergisi, Sayi iv, Istan- 
bul 1940, 91-129. (V. J. Parry) 
BEZETA [see dido]. 
BEZISTAN [see ijaysariyya]. 
BEZOAR [see bazahr]. 
BEZM-I C ALEM [see walide sultan]. 
BHAKKAR, a fortr-ss situated on a lime- 
stone rock in the middle of the river Indus (27° 43' N 
and 68° 56' E), which is identified with the Sogdi of 
Alexander. The island is connected with Rohri and 
Sukkur by a cantilever bridge. With the decline 
of Aror, the ancient Hindu capital of Sind, about 
the middle of 2nd/8th century, when the river Indus 
changed its course, Bhakkar soon attained the 
highest strategic importance. The island must have 
been fortified and garrisoned at a very early date as 
a certain Abu Turab, an Arab, who died in 171/787 
is reported to have reduced it. At the time of the 
conquest of Sind by Muhammad b. Kasim al- 
Thakafi in 92/710-71 1 the place was known as 
Bahrur. (Abu T-Fadl erroneously identifies it with 
the ancient Arab citadel of al-Mansura). The name 
Bhakkar appears for the first time when c Abd al- 
Razzak, wazlr of Mahmud of Ghazna conquered it 
in 417/1026. NSsir al-DIn Kubadja the governor of 
Uch was besieged in this fort in 614/1227 by the 
armies of Shams al-DIn lletmish and while trying 
to escape in a boat was drowned in the Indus. In 
697/1297 it was invaded by the Mongols who were 
repulsed by the troops of the governor, Nusrat 
Khan, appointed by 'Ala 3 al-DIn Muhammad Khaldii 
[694/ 1 294-7 1 6/1 3 1 6]. The fort figures frequently during 
the Sind campaigns of Muh. b. Tughluk and his 
nephew Firuz Tughluk as well as in the later history 
of Sind. It changed hands several times, being con- 
sidered the key to the conquest of lower Sind. 

During his flight through the desert of Sind, 
Humayun [q.v.] encamped here. Shah Beg Arghun, 
a ruler of Thatta, appointed Mir Mahmud Kokal- 
tash its governor; he held it for fifty years, 
having been confirmed in 982/1574 in his appointment 
by Akbar. The fort was strengthened by the local 
sayyids, against the impending attack of Dharidja 
tribesmen in 975/1567. Soon afterwards it was 
visited by Shah Beg himself; he drove out the 
sayyids and parcelled out the ground into building- 
sites for his chiefs, who plundered bricks from the 
ruined town of Aror and some Turkish and Samma 
buildings in the vicinity of Bhakkar, for constructing 
their own houses. The fort was the scene of a fierce 
battle in 962/1554 between Mahmud Kokaltash and 
Mirza c Isa Khan Tarkhan, ruler of Thatta. It was 
captured by Nur Muhammad Kalhora in 1 149/1736, 



Rustam Khan of Khayrpur. It came into British 
possession in 1839 with the conquest of Sind by 
Charles Napier. 

Near the fort flourished the town of Bhakkar, 
now known as Purana (old) Sukkur. In Akbar's time 
it had luxuriant orchards; in the nth/i7th century 
it was famous for its sword-blades. The town was 
peopled mainly by sayyids and was a great seat of 
learning, especially in the ioth/i6th century. 
Amongst its prominent l ulami? and scholars were: 
Mir Ma'sum NamI [q.v.] author of the Ta>rikh-i 
Ma'siimi, a history of Sind (Poonai938); Shaykh 
Farld, who compiled the Dhakhirat al-Khawdnin. an 
excellent biographical dictionary still in MS., and 
Kadi Zahir al-DIn, grammarian, legist and philo- 

Bibliography: Gaz. of Sind B III 53-60; Imp. 
Gaz. of Ind. IX 47; Henry Cousens, Antiquities of 
Sind, Calcutta 1929, 142-9; J. Abbot, Sind, 
Oxford 1924, 56-61; Tabakdt-i Ndsiri, ed. c Abd 
al-Hayyi Hablbl, Quetta 1949, i, index; Sayf b. 
Muh. al-Harawi, Tarikh-ndma-i Hardt, Calcutta 
1944, 250-2, 255, 259; Djawbar AitabaCI, Tadh- 
kirat al-Wdki'dt, Urdu trans. Mu c ln al-Hakk, 
Karachi 1955, 56-59 and index; Gulbadan Begum, 
Humdyun-naiaa., London 1902, index; Mir 
Muhammad Ma'sum Bhakkarl, Tdrikh-i Sind, ed. 
U. M. Daudpota, Poona, 1938 index; Jour, of the 
Sind Hist. Society, iv/3; Goldsmid, The Syeds 
of Roree and Bukkur, Bombay Govt. Selections, 
1855; Muhibb Allah, Amsdr-i Sind (Ms. iv Persian) 
s.v. Bhakkar; Nicolao Manucci, Storia do Mogor, 
trans. W. Irvine, London 1907-8, i, 119-28; 
Ibn Battuta, ed'.- Defremery and Sanguinetti, Paris 
1858, iii, 115; T. H. Sorley, Shah 'Abdul Latif of 
Bhit, Oxford 1940, 77-80 and index; Alexander 
Burnes, Travel into Bokhara, London 1835, 256; G. 
E. Westmacott in JRAS IX/ii (1840) 1187 ft. ; Abu 
'1-Fadl, AHn-i Akbari, trans. Gladwin ii, 112; 
Fredunbeg Kalichbeg, History of Sind, Karachi 
1900-1, ii, 87; G. H. Raverty, Mihran of Sind, 
(JASB) 1892, 494 n., 495 n.; Indian Antiquary, 
xxxiv, 144; Jour. Bombay Br. RAS (1843) i, 204; 
J. N. Sarkar, History of Aurangzeb, 1, 119-20; 
James Todd, The Antiquities and Annals of Ra- 
jast'han, London/New York 1914, 250; Mudimal 
al-Amkina, Haydarabad 1353, 13; c Abd al-Hamld 
Khan, The Towns of Pakistan, Karachi 1950, 56-7; 
Catndma (Sindhi ed.) Karachi, 1955, 287, 289, 420, 
497; Oriental College Magazine, Lahore 1937, 74-6; 
Djuwayni, ii, 146; Storey 1/2, 948-9. 

(A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
BHARATPOR, formerly a princely State in 
India, now forming a part of Radjast'han, lying 
between 26° 43' and 27 50' N. and 76° 53' and 
77° 46' E. with an area of 1,982 sq. miles. The chief 
city is Bharatpur, situated in 27° 13' N. and 77° 30' 
E., 34 miles from Agra, with a population of 37,32! 
in 1 95 1. Paharsar, 14 miles from Bharatpur, was 
first conquered in the 5th/nth century by the 
troops of Mahmud of Ghazna, under the Sayyid 
brothers, Djalal al-DIn and c Ala> al-DIn, who 
claimed descent from Imam Dja c far al-Sadik, in 
about 3 hours, as the local tradition goes, whence 
the place derives its name pahar (3 hrs.) sar (con- 
quered). At the close of the 6th/i2th century it 
passed into the hands of Mu'izz al-DIn b. Sam also 
known as Shihab al-DIn Muhammad Ghuri, and 
remained under the rule of different dynasties till it 
was conquered by Babur, who had sent an ulti- 



BHARATPUR — BHATTINDA 



"93 



matum, in verse, to the Mir of Bayana, 34 miles from 
Bharatpur, beginning bd Turk satizah makun ay 
Mir-i Bayana. It remained thereafter under the 
Mughals. An attempt by Bridj, the founder of the 
State of Bharatpur, at independence towards the 
close of the reign of Awrangzlb was thwarted by the 
Imperial army killing Bridj in action. During the 
reign of Farrukhsiyar (1125-31/1713-18) Curaman 
Djat ravaged the area and closed the roads to 
Delhi and Agra. In 1132/1718 a strong expeditionary 
force under Sawa'i Djay Singh, the chief of Djavpur. 
was sent to punish him but the Sayyid king-makers 
who were opposed to Muhammad Shah, king of 
Delhi, made peace with the Djats directly. In 
1135/1722 Badan Singh, the successor of Curaman, 
was proclaimed full RSdja of Bharatpur on the 
condition of paying tribute to the Emperor. In 
1167/1753 his son, Suradj Mai, gained so much strength 
as to attack the Imperial capital and indulge in pillage 
and plunder. Shah c Abd al- c Az!z al-DihlawI [q.v.] 
has, in several of his letters, lamented the atrocities 
committed by the Djats on the residents of Delhi. 
The present city and the mud-fort of Bharatpur 
are said to have been founded about 1146/1733. The 
British, under Lord Lake, made an unsuccessful 
attack on this fort in 1220/1805 ; it was, however, 
captured by Lord Combermere in 1242/1826. 

Bibliography: S. C A1I Rida J , Ta'rikh-i 
Bayana (MS.); Muhammad Zahlr al-Hasan, 
Ta'rikh-i Sdddt-i Bharatpur, Karachi 1950; 
C. K. M. Walter, Gazetteer of Bhurtpore State, 
Agra 1868; Imp. Gaz. of India, vol. viii, Oxford 
1908, 73-87; J. N. Creighton, Narrative of the 
Seige and Capture of Bhurtpore, London 1830; 
Storey i/i 688-90, i/ii 1326; J. N. Sarkar, Fall 
of the Mughal Empire', Calcutta 1949, i, 171-3'/ 
ii (1950), 310-51; J. Tod, Annals and Antiquities 
of Rajast'han, London 1914, index ; History of the 
Freedom Movement, vol. i, Karachi 1957, index. 

(A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
BHAROC. A district in Gudjarat [q.v.] in the 
present Bombay State, India, of about 1450 sq.m. and 
with a population of some 300,000; the Islamic popu- 
lation was about 20% of the total prior to-partition in 
1947, but much of this has since moved to Sind in 
Pakistan. The principal class of Muslims was Bohra 
[see Bohoras], Bharoc is also the name of the principal 
town of that district, Lat. 21° 42' N., Long. 73° 2'E. It 
is first known as a town within the Mawrya dominions, 
and later (c. 150 A.D.) to have been in the hands of 
Parthian Sahas; from the Middle Indian form 
bharugaccha- of the Sanskrit bhrguksetra- it was 
known to the Greeks as papufa^a, a seaport from 
which the Red Sea commerce was carried on 
(Ptolemy, Geog. VII, i, 63; VIII, xxvi, 12), and as 
the head of an important trade-route into India 
(Periplus, §§ 47-8). Held by Radjputs and Gurdjaras, 
probably as tributaries of the Calukyas, it suffered 
Arab invasions in 15/636, 99/717, and 154/770- It 
was held by Rastrakutas in the 3rd/gth and 4th/ioth 
centuries until reconquered by the Calukyas; from 
them it was taken in 698/1298 by Ulugh Khan, 
brother of the Sultan 'Ala 3 al-DIn KhaldjI, by whom 
Hindu and Djayn temples were destroyed (Briggs, 
Ferishta, i, 327)- It was under a succession of Muslim 
governors representing the Delhi sultans until 
798/1396, when Muhammad Zafar Khan (governor 
from 793/1391) assumed his independence. From 
then it continued subject to the Ahmad Shahi kings 
[q.v.] until annexed by Akbar in 980/1572. In 1149/ 
1736 c Abd Allah Beg received from Nizam al-Mulk 
(independent in the Deccan from 1135/1722, who 



previously as governor of Gudjarat had made. 
Bharoc part of his private estate) the title of Nik 
c Alam Khan, and was the founder of the line of 
Nawwabs of Bharoi. In 1186/1772 Bharoc was 
captured by the British — whence its Anglo-Indian 
name of Broach. 

Buildings. — The old fortifications were rebuilt 
by Bahadur Shah (932-43/1526-37). In 1071/1660 they 
were partially razed by Awrangzlb, but rebuilt on 
his orders in 1097/1685 as a protection against the 
Mahrattas. They are now in a very dilapidated con- 
dition. The Djami c Masdjid, c. 701/1302, is of great 
significance in the development of Islamic archi- 
tecture in Gudjarat: the earliest buildings at Pataii 
were mere adaptations of existing Hindu and Djayn 
structures, whereas here an original and conven- 
tionally planned mosque is composed of former 
temple materials, the enclosure walls, of temple 
stones specially recut, being thus the earliest exam- 
ples of independent Islamic masonry in Gudjarat. 
The liwdn is an open colonnade, the three compart- 
ments of which are three temple mandapas re- 
erected intact, except for the removal of the Hindu 
animal figures, with 48 elaborately carved pillars; 
the three mihrdbs are intact temple niches with 
pointed arches added under the lintels. The liwdn 
roof, with three large and 10 small domes, houses 
elaborate coffered ceilings removed from temples ; the 
designs of these, though Hindu, were conventional in 
character, and were perpetuated in later Gudjarat 
Islamic buildings. It appears that the whole produc- 
tion was the work of local Hindu artisans working 
under the direction of Muslim overseers. 

Bibliography : For the history see article 
Gudjarat; Bombay Gazetteer, ii, 1877, 337-569. 
For a full description of the Djanii c Masdjid, 
J. Burgess, On the Muhammadan architecture of 
Bharoch ...in Gujarat, ASWI VI (= A SI, NIS 
XXIII), London 1896. (J. Burton-Page) 

BHATTI, the Pandjab form of the Radjput 
word Bhati, the name of a widely distributed 
Radjput tribe associated with the area stretching 
from Jaisalmer to the western tract of the Pandjab 
between Fathabad and Bhatnair. Large numbers of 
those settled in the Pandjab accepted Islam. Accord- 
ing to one of their traditions the Jadons of Jaisalmer 
were driven from Zabulistan to the Pandjab and 
Radjputana, the branch settling in Radjputana 
being named Bhati. The references in the CaC-nama 
to the Bhatti king of Ramal in the Thar desert 
confirm the legends preserved in Tod's Annals 

and antiquities of RajasChan a , Madras 1873. 

They are also mentioned in 'Aflfs Ta'rikh-i Firiiz 
Shahi (Bib. Indica, 36-39). The widespread nature 
of their settlements is recorded in the AHn where 
Abu '1-Fadl reserves the form Bhatti for those 
settled in Sirhind, Multan and Pandjab. 

Bibliography: MS. Eur. D. 164, India 
Office Library, History of the Rdthors and Bhattis 
of Rdjputana. (C. Collin Davies) 

BHATTINDA, head-quarters of the Govindgarh 
tahsil of the former Patiala State, now merged with 
the Pandjab State of the Indian Union, situated in 
30 13' N. and 75 E. Population (1951) was 34,991- 
An ancient town, seat of the Bhatiya or Bhatti 
Radjputs, it commanded the strategic routes from 
Multan to Radjasthan and the Gangetic valley, in- 
cluding such historic places as Panipat and farther 
on Indrapat (Delhi), for invaders from the north- 
west of the Indian sub-continent. In ancient times it 
stood on an affluent of the Ghaggar rivulet which 
still flows past Ambala [q.v.] and the surrounding 



BHATTINDA - 



country was practically uninhabited. Known as 
Vikramgarh in the pre-Is'amic period, it figures in 
early Inda-Muslim chronicles like the Tabakdt-i 
Ndsiri and the Tddj al-Ma'dthir of Hasan Ni?aml 
(Pandjab Univ. Lib. MS.) as Tabarhinda (xAj^^j), 
a corrupt form of the correct name B(h)attrinda 
(UiAj jij) due apparently to the transposition of the 
dots of the letters bd and td. Murtada al-Zabldi is 
nearer the truth when he says that (s-XijXji) al- 
Bitranda (Tdd± al- c Arus, ix, 212) is "a city in India". 
Bhattrinda is composed of the words Bhatti and 
rinda (a jungle, a haunt), meaning a place which 
"abounded" in Bhattls, as Sihrind, is of sih (a 
porcupine) and rind (a jungle), again corrupted by 
Muslim historians of non-Indian origin into Sirhind. 
This place-name is generally found written as 
0\JJ->m in all earlier Persian chronicles and hagiolo- 
gical works (e.g., Bdbur-ndma, Eng. translation by 
A. S. Beveridge, i, 383). In the Tabakdt-i Ndsiri 
(ed. c Abd al-Hayy HabibI, Quetta 1949, i, 537) 
Bhattinda is wrongly called Sirhind because no hills 
exist in the vicinity of this town. The existence 
of a dense jungle, thirty miles from Bhattinda, in the 
direction of Sirhind, is, however, proved by a state- 
ment in the Malfuzdt-i Timuri (Elliot and Dowson, 
iii, 427). This jungle served as the favourite leopard 
hunting-ground for Akbar (A'in-i Akbari, Eng. 
transl. Blochmann, i, 286). As to the predominance 
of Bhattls in and around Bhattinda, there is more 
than ample evidence (Imp. Gazetteer of India, n. ed. 
viii, 91). Cunningham's etymology of the name 
Bhattinda (see Bibl.) based on mere conjecture is 
erroneous and wide of the mark. 

It was conquered by Mahmud of Ghazna in 395/ 
1045 when the Radja of Bhattinda (Bahatiya), 
Bidjay Ray, unable to resist the besiegers, fled from 
the fort, and committed suicide. There has been 
some controversy as to the identification of Bahatiya 
(Bhatiya) mentioned by al- c UtbI (TaMkh-i Yamini, 
Lahore 1300/1882, 209 ff.). Muhammad Nazim 
positively asserts (The Life and Times of Sultan 
Mahmud of Ghazna. Cambridge 1931, 197-203) that 
it was Bhattinda and no other town. But a little- 
known place, called Hatiya, still exists in the 
neighbourhood of Rawalpindi, which also answers 
the description, given by al-'Utbi, to some extent. 
Unless, however, more conclusive evidence is forth- 
coming Muhammad Nazim's view must prevail. 
al-'Utbl (p. 209) gives vivid a description of the 
lofty city-wall and the fortifications of Bhattinda as 
they existed in the time of Mahmud. The victory of 
Sultan Mahmud also incidentally marks the intro- 
duction of Islam in Bhattiana and the Samana- 
Ambala-Hisar region of India. 

It was conquered by Mu'izz al-DIn Muhammad 
b. Sam, also known as Shihab al-DIn Muhammad 
Ghuri, in 587/1191. After the withdrawal of Muham- 
mad Ghuri to (ghazna, his commandant at Bhattinda, 
Malik Diva al-Din Tulaki, was attacked by Ray 
Pithora (Prithviradja), who laid a siege to the fort and 
continued it for 13 months. Ultimately the Muslim 
commandant made peace with the enemy and 
surrendered the fort. It was captured by Nasir al- 
Din Kabaca after the death of Kutb al-Din Aybak in 
607/1210. Thereafter, it remained in the possession 
of the Slave kings. In 637/1239 Malik Ikhtiyar al-Din 
Altuniya, the commandant of Bhattinda, rose in 
revolt, killed Yakut the Abyssinian and took 
Raddiya Sultana [q.v.] a prisoner, who was lodged 
in the fort where he married her. They were. 



however, killed by the Hindus while on their way to 
Delhi from Bhattinda. The fort was captured by 
Nasir al-DIn Mabmud in 651/1253 and Malik Shir 
Khan was appointed its commandant. 

Very little is heard of the town thereafter. It must 
have decayed and lost its importance, although its 
fort has, throughout, been famous both for strength 
and impregnability. Strangely enough it finds no 
mention in the Memoirs of Babur. Akbar, as already 
stated, used to hunt leopards in the pargana of 
Bhattinda. His guardian Bayram Khan [q.v.], after 
his disgrace, lodged his family in this fort before 
proceeding to Djullundur [q.v.] where, in a decisive 
action with the Imperial troops, he suffered an ignomi- 
nious defeat. It then completely fades out of history 
and only reappears in 1 168/1754 when it was con- 
quered by Ala Singh, the Patiala chieftain, whose 
descendants held it till the merger of their territory 
with the Indian Union in 1956. The modern fort is 
118 ft. high, with 36 bastions. It dominates the town, a 
thriving centre of trade and commerce, and is visible 
for several miles around. In the time of Sultan 
Mahmud, it had a deep and wide moat, which that 
great conqueror ordered to be filled up with stones 
and trees before storming the fort. The ditch still 
exists partly filled up with the refuse and debris of 
the town, which is dumped here. The fort is now 
mouldering rapidly and serious cracks have also 
appeared in the arches of the main gate. Its two 
massive minarets collapsed in 1958. 

Baba Hadjdji Ratan [see ratan], said to have 

been born in the pre-Islamic era and to have 

later visited the Prophet, was a native of this place. 

Bibliography : al- c Utbi, Ta'rikh-i Yamini 

(Kitdb al-Yamini), Lahore 1300/1882, 209 ff. and 

Eng. transl. by J. Reynolds, London 1858, 322-6; 

Tabakdt-i Ndsiri (ed. c Abd al-Hayy HabibI) 

2 vols., i, Quetta 1949, ii, Lahore 1954, index; 

Firishta, Gulshan-i Ibrdhimi, Lucknow 1874, 24; 

Gardizi, Zayn al-Akhbdr (ed. Muh. Nazim), 

Cambridge 1929, 67; H. G. Raverty, Eng. transl. 

Tabakdt-i Ndsiri, London 1881, i, 79-8o, 462, 533, 

645, ii, 794; P. W. Powlett, Gazetteer of Bikdner 

State (1874), 122 ff.); Sudjan Ray, Khuldsat al- 

Tawdrikh (ed. Zafar Hasan) Delhi 1918, index; 

Nizam al-Din Ahmad, Tabakdt-i Akbari (Eng. 

transl.), Calcutta 1927, i, 5 f f . ; al-Bada'uni, 

Muntakhab al-Tawdrikh, (Eng. transl.) Calcutta 

1898, i, index; Imp. Gazetteer of India, Oxford 

1908, viii, 89-90; Muhammad Nazim, The Life and 

Times of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna, Cambridge 

1931, 196-203 and index; A. Cunningham, 

Archaeological Survey of India (Annual Reports), 

xxiii, 2-8 ; Journal of the Punjab Historical Society, 

ii, 109, iii, 35 ; Cambridge History of India, iii, 14; 

Akbar-ndma (Bib. Ind. English transl.), ii, 166; 

AHn-i Akbari (Eng. transl. by Jarrett), Calcutta 

1891, ii, 295, 360-i; Elliot and Dowson, ii, 438-40; 

Article ratan in EI 1 Supp. ; Lisan al-Mizan, Hay- 

darabad 1330, ii, 450. (A. S. Bazmef. Ansari) 

BHITA'l, Shah c Abd al-Latif (1689-1752), a 

Sindhi poet belonging to a priestly family of 

Matiari Sayyids. He lived for a large part of his 

life at Bhit ("sandhill"), a small hamlet near Hala in 

the district of Haydarabad in Sind. He is the national 

poet of Sind. His poetry is Sufi in nature, as the 

poet, though not a man of great learning or education, 

was deeply impressed by the mystical thought of 

Djalal al-Din Rumi, whose influence is evident in 

many of his poems. These poems were gathered 

together after his death by his followers and made 

into a collection which is called the Risalo. They are 



BHITA'I — bhopAl 



1 195 



written in a pure form of eighteenth century Sindhi 
and are remarkable for the manner in which philo- 
sophic and religious use is made of the folk tales of 
the Sind countryside. The poems deal with the 
longings of unrequited love and the need for trust 
in the power, wisdom and compassion of Allah. 
Their deeply mystical character has endeared them 
to the simple rural folk of Sind. It is noteworthy 
that their appeal has been as much to the Hindus 
of Sind as to the Muslims. The reason is perhaps 
due to the fact that the bulk of the indigenous 
Sindhi population is Hindu in origin, as many of the 
personal names testify, and the poet himself was 
deeply interested in the mystical contemplation of 
fakirs, sanyasis and yogis, which in turn found an 
echo in the Sikh religion followed by most of the 
caste Hindus living in Sind till the partition of 
India in 1947 resulted in their precipitate flight 
therefrom. The poems of the Risalo which are lyrical 
in type are sung to well-known Indian music and 
many of them, such as the Sur Asa and the Sur 
Bilawal, proclaim a sublime form of devotion. The 
folk stories on the other hand make direct appeal to 
the childlike simplicity common to unsophisticated 
people. The love tales of Sasui and Punhun, of 
Suhini and Mehar, and of Lilan and Chanesar are 
sung at the cradles of Sindhi children today. A vast 
literature in Sindhi on the poet and his message has 
been evoked by the poet's achievement and the 
rawda of Shah c Abd al-Latif is the scene of regular 
pilgrimages of devotees who listen today to the 
recitation and singing of his verses. There have been 
learned studies of Shah c Abd al-Latif's life and work 
by three Sindhi scholars of distinction, namely the 
late Shams al-'Ulama' Mirza Kalich Beg, the late 
Professor H. M. Gurbuxani and the late Shams 
al- c Ulama J U. M. Daudpota, whose works may be 
consulted by those interested. (H. T. Sorley) 

BHOPAL, formerly a princely State in India, 
lying between 22° 29' and 23° 54' N. and 76 28' and 
78° 51' E. with an area of 6,878 sq. miles, with a 
population of 838,474 in 195 1. It was the second most 
important Muslim State, next to Haydarabad [q.v]. 

Bhopal was founded by a military adventurer, 
Dost Muhammad Khan, a native of Tirah (in the 
tribal area of present-day Pakistan) who belonged 
to the Mirza 3 ! Khel tribe of the Afrldi Pathans. In 
1 1 20/1708 he went to Delhi, at the age of 34, in 
search of employment, and succeeded in obtaining 
from Bahadur Shah I [q.v.], emperor of Delhi, the 
lease of Berasia pargana, partly in recognition of 
his military services and partly through his own 
efforts. A man of exceptional courage and out- 
standing military skill, he soon extended his sway 
over a large area and founded the town of Bhopal 
with its citadel, which he named Fathgarh. Taking 
advantage of the enfeeblement of the central Mughal 
authority, he broke loose and assumed the title of 
Nawwab. He died in 1 153/1740 and was succeeded 
by his minor son Muhammad Khan, who was soon 
afterwards ousted by Yar Muhammad Khan, a 
natural son of Dost Muhammad Khan. The latter 
died in 1168/1754 without ever being formally 
installed Nawwab and was succeeded by Fayd 
Muhammad Khan, a pious man and almost a 
recluse, whose weakness as a ruler, combined with the 
political chicanery of his Hindu minister, resulted 
in half of the Bhopal territory being lost to the 
Peshwa, Badji Rao I. On his death in 1 192/1777 
he was succeeded by his brother, Hayat Muhammad 
Khan who, strangely enough, adopted four Hindu 
boys as his (fids, two of whom, Fulad Khan and 



Chote Khan, later became ministers. Rivalry between 
Wazir Muhammad Khan, a cousin of the ruler and 
Murid Muhammad Khan, his minister, was respnsible 
for surrendering the fort of Fathgarh to Amir Khan 
Pindarl (the founder of the former Tonk [q.v.] 
State (who was then in the service of the Sindhla of 
Gwalior. Wazir Muhammad Khan had to leave 
Bhopal but on Sindhia's repairing to Gwalior, where 
disturbances had broken out, he returned with a 
sizable force and expelled the Marathas, under Amir 
Khan, from the fort and after sometime also drove 
out the Pindaris. In 1223/1807 Hayat Muhammad 
died and Wazir Muhammad, who had proved his 
capability as a ruler, succeeded him to the principality, 
setting aside the claim of Ghawth Muhammad Khan, 
son of the deceased ruler. In 1229/1813 the combined 
forces of Nagpur and Gwalior marched on Bhopal, 
which resisted the invaders heroically for eight long 
months and the unsuccessful siege had to be lifted. 

On the death of Wazir Muhammad Khan in 1232/ 
18 16, his son and the son-in-law of Ghawth Muham- 
mad Khan, Nadhr Muhammad, succeeded him. He 
entered into a treaty with the British, the obliga- 
tions of which he faithfully observed. This treaty 
guaranteed to him and his descendants the terri- 
tories of Bhopal, while the British were assured the 
services of native troops for exterminating the 
Pindaris, who were then over-running Central India 
and were no more than organised bandits. Nadhr 
Muhammad was married to Kudsiyya Begam, a 
daughter of Ghawth Muhammad, who assumed the 
reins of power after the death of her husband in 
1236/1820, as regent on behalf of her minor daughter, 
Sikandar Begam, whose formal accession took place 
25 years later in 1261/1845. From this lady begins 
the long and illustrious chain of the Begams of 
Bhopal, which ended up with the voluntary abdi- 
cation of Sultan Djahan Begam in 1 345/1926, in 
favour of her son, Hamid Allah Khan (the last 
feudatory ruler of Bhopal) and her subsequent death 
in 1 348/1930. 

Sikandar Begam, owing to the delaying tactics 
of her mother, who wanted to retain power in 
her own hands, was married very late in 1251/1835 
to Djahangir Muhammad Khan, a nephew of Nadhr 
Muhammad Khan. Kudsiyya Begam, still reluctant 
to part with power, instigated a civil war in which 
Nadhr Muhammad was defeated by the combined 
troops of the Dowager-Begam and his own wife. In 
1253/1837 the authorities of the East India Company 
interfered and restored the administration of the 
State to Djahangir Muhammad Khan. Kudsiyya 
Begam, baulked of her wishes, had to retire on 
pension. She lived long thereafter but was scrupu- 
lously kept out of the picture by her successors, 
Sikandar Begam and her daughter Shahdjahan 
Begam, whose husband Siddik Hasan Khan, for 
personal and public reasons, did not allow the old 
Begam even to attend social functions held by the 
ruling family. She died in 1299/1881 and held a 
djagir of Rs. 498,682 since her retirement from 
political life until her death. The rule of Sikandar 
Begam is remarkable for a number of military 
reforms which forged the irregular Bhopal troops 
into a fine well-knit force. The State remained loyal 
to the suzerain British power during the upheaval 
of 1857 in spite of the refractory conduct of a few 
of the nobles. She also introduced agricultural, 
economic, administrative and legal reforms. Although 
the head of a Muslim State, she was bold enough 
to do away with the pardah and appear in public 
attired in military accoutrements. At the same time 



she was of a religious bent of mind and performed 
the Hadjdj in 1280/1863-4. After a rule of 23 years, 
she died in 1285/1868 and was succeeded by her 
minor daughter Shahdjahan Begam, under the 
regency of Fawdjdar Muhammad Khan, an uncle 
of Sikandar Begam. In 1263/1847 he had to resign, 
chiefly because of the machinations of Kudsiyya 
Begam, and Sikandar Begam was appointed regent. 
In 1272/1855 Shahdjahan Begam married BakhshI 
BakI Muhammad Khan, who did not belong to the 
ruling house. He, therefore, as subsequently all the 
husbands of the Begams of Bhopal, enjoyed only 
the status of a Nawwab-Consort and had nothing 
effective to do with the administration of the 
State, the entire power having been delegated to 
Sikandar Begam, a woman jealous of her status 
and dignity. She strongly objected to the recognition 
of her minor daughter as ruler and could only be 
appeased by Shahdjahan Begam's voluntarily 
giving up all claim to rule during the life-time of 
her mother; an act of filial attachment rather than 
of expediency or political sagacity. 

In 1 285/1868, her husband having died a year 
earlier, Shahdjahan Begam was formally installed 
as the ruler. Three years later she remarried, 
taking a mawlawi of Kannawdj, Sayyid Siddlk 
Hasan [?.«.], once a petty official of the State, as 
her husband. Through the efforts of the Begam 
the honorary title of Nawwab and other insignia 
of office were conferred on Siddlk Hasan Khan 
as the consort of the ruler. She had discarded 
the pardah after the death of her first husband 
but again retired on her marriage with the 
mawlawi, whose learning and ability always over- 
awed her. Her second marriage met with a mixed 
reception, the entire ruling family strongly disap- 
proving it. The heir-apparent Sultan Djahan Begam, 
was full of bitterness and her memoirs depict 
Siddlk Hasan Khan as an unscrupulous upstart, a 
tyrant who robbed her and her mother of all 
happiness, threatening the latter with divorce, a 
great stigma for a lady of high birth, if she went 
against his wishes. She also holds him responsible 
for the estrangement between her and her mother 
and the grand old lady Kudsiyya Begam. His dis- 
grace in 1303/1885, due to his objectionable writings, 
came as a shock to the Begam but she had to 
bow before the decision of the British Govern- 
ment. Siddlk Hasan Khan died in 1 308/1890, to 
the great relief of Sultan Djahan Begam and 
others, but the relations between the ruler and the 
heir-apparent showed no improvement. The real 
cause, it appears, of the estrangement between 
mother and daughter was the latter's husband, 
Ahmad c Ali Khan Sultan Duiha, with whom the 
ruler, for unknown reasons, was never entirely 
happy, although it was she who had selected him 
as her son-in-law out of some twelve suitors. 

In 1319/1901 Shahdjahan Begam died of cancer and, 
in accordance with the sanad issued in 1279/1862 by 
Lord Canning, Governor-General and Viceroy of 
India, was succeeded by Sultan Djahan Begam, 
her only child by her first husband. She had no 
issue from Siddlk Hasan Khan. Sultan Djahan, 
during 25 years of rule, personally directed the 
administration of the State and carried out a number 
of reforms. She paid two visits to England, first in 
1329/1911 to take part in the coronation ceremonies 
of King George V (1911-1936), and then in 1344/1925 
to get the succession of her youngest and surviving 
son, al-Hadjdj Hamid Allah Khan, recognised by the 
British Government. Her two other sons, Muhammad 



Nasr Allah Khan (b. 1293/1876) and Hafiz c Ubayd 
Allah Khan (b. 1294/1877) both died, in quick 
succession, in 1343/1924. It was suspected that they 
had been poisoned, but the political sagacity of 
Sultan Djahan averted a crisis. The late Agha Khan 
also played an important part in securing the 
rulership of BhOpal for Hamid Allah Khan, who 
thus superseded the sons of his two dead brothers. 
Born in 1312/1894 Hamid Allah Khan was educated 
at 'Aligarh and took an active part in politics insofar 
as the native princes were concerned. On two 
occasions (1931-2, 1944-7) he was elected Chancellor 
of the Chamber of Princes and in that capacity 
rendered yeoman service to the cause of his brother- 
princes. In 1366/1946 he played a memorable r61e 
in Indian politics, acting as an intermediary between 
the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League, 
led by Muhammad C A1I Djinnah [q.v.], when he was 
able to secure a carte blanche from the Congress in 
favour of the Muslim League. This was, however, 
later repudiated by M. K. Gandhi, the undisputed 
leader of the Congress. 

On the lapse of British paramountcy in 1947, 
when India and Pakistan became two independent 
States, Bhopal was first treated as a centrally- 
administered area but in 1949 was merged with the 
Indian Union. It had an elected legislature and 
a ministry with a Chief Commissioner as the con- 
stitutional head of the administration. The ex- 
Nawwab, now no more than an ordinary citizen, 
has since been pensioned off and is entitled to a 
privy purse of 1,100,000 rupees a year of which 
100,000 rupees was allocated to the heir-apparent, 
Gawhar-i Tadj 'Abida Sultan who has since migrated 
to Pakistan and settled permanently there. 

Bibliography: Nawwab Shahdjahan Begam 
"Shirin", Taii al-Ikbdl TaMkh Riydsat-i Bhopal, 
Cawnpore 1289-90/1873 (also Urdu version, 
Cawnpore 1873; Eng. trans, by H. C. Barstow, 
Calcutta 1876); Nawwab Sultan Djahan Begam, 
Haydt-i Shdhdjahdni (English trans, by B. Ghosal), 
Bombay 1926; idem, An Account of My Life 
(Eng: trans, by C. H. Payne), London 1910-12; 
M. 'All Hasan Khan, Ma'dthir-i Siddiki, i-iv, 
Lucknow 1924; Sir John Malcolm, A Memoir of 
Central India, London 1823; G. B. Malleson, An 
Historical Sketch of the Native States of India, 
London 1875; L. Rousselet, L'Inde des Rajahs, 
Paris 1887, (Eng. trans.) India and its Native 
Rulers, London 1881 ; C. U. Aitchison, A Collection 
of Treaties, Engagements and Sanads relating to 
India, iv, Calcutta 1909 ; Imp. Gazetteer of India, viii, 
Oxford 1908, 128-142; A pilgrimage to Mecca by 

the Nawwab Sikandar Begam of Bhopal 

(Eng. trans, by Mrs. Willoughby-Osborne), 
London 1870; Waw Alif Sahiba (Bilkls Begam), 
Begamdt-i Bhopal, Lahore 1912; A Memorandum 
on the Indian States (an official publication of the 
late Government of India), Calcutta 1940, s.v.; 
Muhammad Amln Zubayri, Ta'rikh-i Begamdt-i 
Bhopal, Bhopal 1919 ( ?) ; Muhammad Sa'id Ahmad 
in Makhzan (Urdu monthly) Lahore, January 1908; 
Storey, i/i 734, i/2 1329; V. P Menon, The Story of 
the Integration of the Indian States, Calcutta 1956, 
304-6 and index; Statesman's Y ear-Book 1957, 
index; H. W. Bellew, The Races of Afghanistan, 
Calcutta 1880, 79; William Hagg, A History of 
Bhophdl; Djugal Kishor, Jasdnah-i Rangin-i 
Bhopal (MS). (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

BHOPAL (City), Capital of the Indian province 
of Madhya Pradesh, situated in 23° 16' N. and 
77° 25' E. on a sandstone ridge and on the edge of two 



BHOPAL — BIBLIOGRAPHY 



1 197 



beautiful lakes, the Pukhtah-Pul Talao and the Bara 
TalaO, famed throughout India for natural charm and 
picturesque surroundings, was founded by Dost 
Muhammad Khan, an Orakzal Afridi in 1141/1728 
when he built the Fathgarh fort, named after 
his Indian wife, Fath Biol, and connected it by 
a wall to the old dilapidated fort, ascribed by 
tradition to the legendary Radja Bhodj, after whom 
a quarter of the city is still called Bhodjpura. The 
population in 1951 was 120,333. The city is divided 
into two parts, the Shahr-i Khdss, enclosed by a 
wall built by Dost Muhammad, and the modern 
quarters and suburbs, Djahanglrabad and Ahmad- 
abad, added by the succeeding rulers to perpetuate 
the memory of Djahanglr Muhammad IC 
husband of Sikandar Begam, and of Ahmad c Ali 
Khan, husband of Sultan Djahan Begam, rulers of 
Bhopal. The city was made the capital of the State 
by Nawwab Fayd Muhammad Khan (1168/1754-1191/ 
1777) whose predecessors' seat of Government 
Islamnagar (23 22' N. and 77° 25' E.). 

In 1227/1812-3 the town, outside the wall, was 
devastated by the combined forces of Nagpur and 
Gwalior, which had attacked Bhopal. Nadhr 
Muhammad Khan (1233/1816 — 1234/1818), during 
his short rule began to restore the town, w" 
process was continued for decades thereafter. Many 
civic amenities, like roads and street-lighting, were 
introduced by Sikandar Begam followed by Shah- 
djahan and Sultan Djahan Begams; the former 
particularly added some grand buildings of which the 
Tadj Mahall palace and the Tadj al-Masadjid deserve 
mention. 

The two lakes, on whose banks a string of palaces 
has been raised by almost all the rulers, are con- 
nected by an aqueduct and provide drinking water 
to the citizens. Above them rises the city, tier on 
tier of irregular houses, with spacious gardens here 
and there, dominated by the congregational mosque 
of Kudsiyya Begam, built of purple-red sandstone, 
with high minarets, from which the nah^dra [q.v.] 
was beaten during Ramadan both at the sahr and 

Bibliography: See article Bhopal and Imp. 

Gazetteer of India, Oxford 1908, viii 142-5. 

(A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

Bl c A [see KanIsa]. 

BlBAN, the gates; passes across a chain of the 
Tellian Atlas Mountains — parallel to the Djurdjura, 
south of the depression of the Wadi Sahel. The French 
have retained the Turkish name for these passes, 
Damir Kapu, Iron Gates. The road and railway 
track from Algiers to Constantine both pass through 
the Great Gate, al-Bdb al-Kabir, hollowed out by 
the Wadi Chebba. The Little Gate, al-Bdb al-Saghir, 
3.5 km. to the east, is crossed by the Wadi Buktun. 
It is the narrower of the two. These "gates", which 
were not included in the network of Roman roads 
and the Arab routes, were used from the sixteenth 
century onwards by Turkish troops travelling 
between Algiers and Constantine; but these troops 
were forced to pay the rough local inhabitants to 
let them pass through the area unmolested. On 
October 28th, 1839, a French column of 8000 men, 
commanded by Marshal Valee, Governor-general of 
Algeria, and accompanied by the Duke of Orleans, 
crossed the Pass of the [Little Gate without hin- 
drance, for the mountain tribesmen of the locality 
had obtained the customary tribute through the 
good offices of Mokrani, bash-agha of Medjdjana, 
won over to the French cause. 

This expedition, known as that of the Iron Gates, 



was acclaimed as a brilliant feat of arms, but it led to 
the final rupture between the French and c Abd 
al-Kadir who regarded it as a violation of the Treaty 

Geographers have extended the name Blban to 
the whole of the anticlinal chain of mountains which 
cuts across the Iron Gates and which stretches at a 
height of 1000 to over 1400 metres from Aumale to 
the Guergour (Lafayette), separating the depression of 
the Wadi Sahel and the tributary valleys of the lower 
Bou Sellam from the structurally complex mountains 
of the Ouennougha, the Mzita and the Metnen and 
of the basin of the Bordj bou Arreridj. These moun- 
tains with their limestone, marie and schistose clay 
soil are not very fertile. The Biban chain is partly 
wooded with Aleppo pines. Populated by Arab 
tribes in the west, Kabyle Berbers in the centre, 
it forms, in the east, the southern boundary of the 
Kabyle Berber dialect area (see c Abd al-Kadir, 
Algeria, Atlas, Kabylia). 

(G. Yver-[J. Despois]) 
BlBl, a word of East Turkish origin, with the 
meaning of "little old mother", "grandmother", 
"woman of high rank", "lady". It is noted, with 
the sense of "woman of consequence", "lady", in 
the Ottoman-Turkish dictionary Lughat-i Deshishi, 
composed in 988/1580-1581. Blbi also means, in 
Anatolian Turkish, "paternal aunt". Taken over 
into Persian at an early date, with the sense of 
"woman of the house", "lady", the word can be 
found in a verse of Anwari (12th cent. A.D.) cited 
in the Farhang-i Ndsiri. It was used in Khurasan 
during the 13th century as a title for women of 
distinction, as in the case of the mother of the author 
who wrote the history of the Saldjuks in Asia Minor, 
al-Husayn b. Muhammad b. 'All al-Dja'fari al- 
Rughadi, better known under the name Ibn BibI 
[q.v.] al-Munadjdjima (son of the distinguished 
lady, the woman astrologer). One of the two wives 
of Shaykh Safi (cf. SafI al-DIn) was called Bibi 
Fatima. The mausoleum, situated near Tehran, of 
the daughter of the last Sasanid, Yazdigird III, is 
known under the name Blbi Shahrbanu. 

Bibliography: Shaykh Sulayman Bukhari, 
Lughat-i Djaghatdy ve Tiirkt-i 'Othmdni, Istanbul 
1298, 88; Tamklariyle Tarama Sozliigii, iii, 
Ankara 1954, x and 90; Tarama Dergisi, Istanbul 
1934, ii, 909; Burhdn-i Kdfi', s.v. ; H. W. Duda, 
Die Seltschukengeschichte des Ibn Bibi, Copenhagen 
1959, 2; Browne, i, 130 and iv, 42; al-Ya'kiibi, 
ii, 293. (H.W. Duda) 

BIBLE [see Tawrat, Zabur, IndjIl]. 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. In the present article the 
word is used in the sense of a systematically arranged 
list of books, compiled for the benefit of those who 
need to know what has been written on a particular 
subject. 

The outstanding achievement in Islamic biblio- 
graphy to appear before the adoption of printing 
in Islamic territories is the Fihrist. Its author, Ibn 
al-Nadlm [q.v.], a bookseller (warrdfr) in Baghdad, 
compiled the work in 377/987-8 in the form of a biblio- 
graphical history of literature, arranged in ten books, 
the first six being concerned with the "Islamic 
writings" (Kur'an, grammar, history and belles- 
lettres, poetry, scholastic philosophy, and law), the 
remaining four with philosophy and science, legends 
and fables, sects and creeds, and alchemy. In each 
book there is to be found an account of the rise and 
development of the study of the subject dealt with, 
a list of all available writings on it and bibliogra- 
phical details of their authors, from the earliest times. 



1198 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



The other great monument of Islamic bibliography 
is the Kashf al-Zunun '■anAsami al-Kutub wa 'l-Funun, 
a work for which the Ottoman polyhistor, HadjdjI 
Khalifa, spent some twenty years collecting materials. 
The first volume was completed in 1064/1653-4, some 
650 years after the Fihrist. After an introduction 
relating at great length the nature, value, divisions 
and history of the various sciences, the author lists 
in one alphabetical sequence the titles of all the 
works written in Arabic, Persian and Turkish which 
he had personally seen or of which he knew the title. 
For each work he gives details of author, date of 
compilation, particulars of its division into sections 
and chapters, and the various commentaries, glosses, 
refutations and criticisms that the work has 
attracted to itself; he gives incipits of all works seen 
by him in order to facilitate the identification of 
unknown works. Several supplements to the work 
were compiled by his successors, the latest by 
Bagdatli Isma'H Pasha (d. 1920) containing some 
18,000 titles. 

Little needs to be said about the remaining 
bibliographical works which have survived. Ibn 
Khavr al-Ishbill (A.H. 502-572, [?.».]), who spent 
the greater part of his life as a peripatetic student 
in Andalusia, compiled a Fihrist (ed. Codera and 
Ribera, BAH IX, X, Saragossa 1894) in which he 
enumerates the titles of some 1400 books in Arabic 
of both Spanish and Oriental origin which he had 
read or heard, with chains of transmission going 
back to their original authors. Lists of works of 
individual writers exist, such as those for RazI 
(compiled by al-Biruni, ed. by P. Kraus, Paris 
1936), Galen translations (by Husayn b. Ishak, ed. 
Bergstrasser, Leipzig 1925, and 1932) and Suyuti's 
autobibliography (Brockelmann II 145; S II 179)- 
The Shi'is have been assiduous in the compilation 
of bibliographies of writings of their own adherents ; 
the earliest, by Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Tusi 
(d. A.H. 460), has been edited by Sprenger, 'Abd 
al-Hakk, and Ghulam Kadir for the Bibliotheca 
Indica. In the preface to this edition three similar 
works on bibliography are described. More recently, 
I'djaz Husayn's (A.H. 1240-1286) Kashf al-Hudjub 
wa 'I- A star l an Asmd' al-Kutub wa 'l-Asfar contains 
notices of 3414 Shi'I books arranged alphabetically, 
and the al-Dhari'a ild Tasdnif al-Shi'-a of Agha 
Buzurg al-Tihranl (1936-, in progress) has already 
run to ten volumes. 

The publications of Western scholars and students 
of Islam were recorded for the first time by Schnurrer, 
the second edition of whose Bibliotheca Arabica 
published in 1811 lists in an arrangement by subject 
the printed works on the subject from the earliest 
times until the year 1810 with a chronological index. 
Zenker's Bibliotheca Orientalis (Leipzig 1840; 2nd ed., 
ib., 1846, 1861) which purported to give the titles 
of all Arabic, Persian and Turkish books from the 
invention of printing, is disappointing. Chauvin con- 
tinued the work of Schnurrer in a much more expert 1 
fashion, providing incidentally an author index to 
the Bibliotheca Arabica. Of his Bibliographie des 
ouvrages arabes on relatifs aux Arabes publics dans 
I'Europe chritienne de 1810 d 1885 twelve volumes 
in all were published during the years 1892-1922; 
the materials for the remaining part of this work 
are still preserved in manuscript in the library of 
the University of Liege. It was his intention to 
bridge the gap between Schnurrer and the Orienta- 
lische Bibliographie which began publication in 1887 
and provided a most adequate record of all publi- 
cations in the Islamic field, as well as in all 



other branches of Oriental studies, until 191 1. 

Had Chauvin's work been published in its entirety 
there would now be in existence a substantially 
complete record of all Western publications on 
Islamic subjects from the beginnings down to 191 1 
readily to hand in the three bibliographies, Schnurrer, 
Chauvin, Orientalische Bibliographie. The ever- 
increasing volume of work done on Islamic studies 
and consequent publication since that date made it 
even more difficult to comprehend the total of 
publications over a period within the confines of a 
single work. For publications since 191 1, therefore, 
the scholar must make recourse to a large number 
of bibliographies of all kinds which cannot here 
be listed in detail. (Pfannmuller in his Hand- 
buch der Islamliteraiur (Berlin and Leipzig 1923) 
provided a useful introduction and guide to the 
literature of the subject, but had no intention of 
compiling a complete Islam bibliography). The 
principal periodicals in the field have striven to 
cope with the problem: it is only necessary to 
mention the 'Kritische Bibliographic' published in 
Der Islam at intervals from 1913 to 1933 and 
'Abstracta Islamica' which, since 1937, has been a 
regular feature of the Revue des itudes islamiques. 
In Index Islamicus (Cambridge 1958), Pearson has 
attempted to list the periodical and Festschrift 
articles of the fifty years from 1906 to 1955. 

The Ibn al-Nadim— HadjdjI Khalifa tradition of 
bibliographical literary histories has been carried on 
in our own times in the monumental works of 
Brockelmann and Storey on Arabic and Persian 
literature respectively. Each of these writers gives, 
in addition to biographical data, a list as complete as 
it is possible to make of surviving manuscripts, 
cumulating the printed catalogues of collections in 
all libraries, as well as notes on the principal editions, 
translations and works of history or criticism of 
the individual writers. Brockelmann handles his 
material on a chronological basis, Storey arranges his 
by subject; both are quite indispensable for all 
students of these literatures, as well as to all who 
have occasion to catalogue Arabic and Persian 
books and manuscripts. A similar work with more 
limited scope was compiled by Babinger, Geschichts- 
schreiber der Osmanen (Leipzig 1927). Christian and 
Jewish literature in Arabic form the subject of 
separate treatments by G. Graf, Gesch. d. christ- 
lichen arab. Lit., 5 vols., Vatican City 1944-53, 
and M. Steinschneider, Arab. Lit. der Juden, 
Frankfurt 1902. 

In recent years Islamic countries themselves have 
been making great contributions to their biblio- 
graphy. In 1918 Yusuf Ilyan Sarkis published his 
Mu'djam at-Matou'-dt al- c Arabiyya wu H-Mu l arraba 
containing the titles of all Arabic printed books from 
the beginnings of printing to the year 1919 inclusive, 
arranged in alphabetical sequence according to the 
most commonly used form of the author's name, 
whether this be ism, lakab, kunya or nisba. The 
work is provided with an index of the titles of works. 
Egypt has issued a number of volumes of what is 
to all intents and purposes a national bibliography 
in Al-sidjill al-thakafi. A Persian national biblio- 
graphy by Dr. Iradj Afshar has appeared in the 
Farhang-i Irdn-zamln since 1954 and the first volume 
of a catalogue of Persian printed books by Khanbaba 
Mushar was published in 1337 solar/1956. The 
'Othm&nll mu'ellifleri of Bursall Mehmed Tahir is 
a bio-bibliographical dictionary of Ottoman writers 
in the style of the tedhkeres and is of great value to 
all students of Turkish culture, even though it is 



BIBLIOGRAPHY — BlDAR 



not marked by accuracy of bibliographical detail 
and, as Babinger puts it, finding a name in the 
index is often a matter of luck or demanding of 
great patience. Turk bibliyografyast has recorded all 
publications in Turkey since 1928 and the National 
Library has announced plans for the publication of a 
catalogue of Turkish printed books from the date 
of the adoption of printing in that country in the 
18th century. Tiirkiye makaltler bibliyografyast, an 
index to articles in Turkish periodicals, has been 
issued regularly since 1952. 

Bibliography: The Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim 
was edited by Fliigel and published after his 
death by J. Roediger and A. Mueller (2 vols., 
Leipzig 1871-2, reprinted Cairo, 1348). A new 
edition by J. Fuck is in preparation. Its contents 
were analysed in detail by Fliigel in ZDMG xiii, 
559-650 and set out in tabular form in Browne, 
i» 383-7. See also references in Pearson, Index 
Islamicus, nos. 23281-7, 733 (except 23285). For 
Hadjdji Khalifa, see Babinger, CO., 195-203. The 
Kashf al-Zunun was edited by Fliigel (Oriental 
Translation Fund, 7 vols., Leipzig 1835-58; also 
Bulak 1858, Istanbul 1310-n, and 1941-3)- The 
Kesf el-Zunun Zeyli of Bagdath Ismail Pasha was 
published in Istanbul 1945-7. On astronomy: 
Nallino, 'Urn al-Falak, 74- and Italian version, 
Storia dell, astronomia presso gli Arabi in Raccolta 
dei scritti, v, 144-150. On Shi'I bibliography see 
Browne, iv, chap. 8, esp. 355-8. 

G. Gabrieli, Manuale di bibliografia musulmana 
(Rome 1916) is the only work of its kind and is 
invaluable for its lists of general bibliographical 
works. (Regrettably only the first part was ever 
published). For the works of Schnurrer and 
Zenker see the preface to Chauvin, Bibliographie 
des ouvrages arabes, esp. xx-xxx; for the unpublish- 
ed portions of Chauvin's Bibliographie see J. 
Gobeaux-Thoret, Notes from the Liege Library on 
Victor Chauvin and on Ibn Butldn in Unity and 
variety in Muslim civilisation (ed. Grunebaum, 
1955), 363-4; the index to Schnurrer occupies 
xli-cxvii; Brockelmann, Oeschichte der arabischen 
Literatur was originally published at Weimar and 
Berlin, 2 vols., 1898-1902; Supplementbande I-III, 
Leiden 1937-1942; 2. den Supplementbanden an- 
gepasste Aufl., 2 vols. Leiden 194.3, 1949. Storey, 
Persian literature, London 1927-, in progress. 

(J. D. Pearson) 

BID C A, innovation, a belief or practice for which 

there is no precedent in the time of the Prophet. It 

is the opposite of sunna and is a synonym of 

muhdath or hadath. While some Muslims felt that 

allowance obviously had to be made for changing 
circumstances. Thus a distinction came to be made 
between a bid'a which was 'good' (hasana) or 
praiseworthy (mahmuda), and one which was 'bad' 
{sayyi'a) or blameworthy (madhmuma). Al-Shafil 
laid down the principle that any innovation which 
runs contrary to the Kur'Sn, the sunna, idfrnd', or 
athar (a tradition traced only to a Companion or a 
Follower) is an erring innovation, whereas any good 
thing introduced which does not run counter to any 
of these sources is praiseworthy. On this basis 
innovations have been classified according to the 
five categories [ahkdm) of Muslim law. Under duties 
incumbent on the community (lard kifdya) are 
included such bid'as as the study of grammar, 
rhetoric, etc. on which an understanding of the Kur'an 
and the sunna is based, investigation of the reliability 
of men whose authority is quoted for traditions 



1 199 

(al-diarh wa 'l-ta'dtt [q.v.]), distinguishing sound and 
weak traditions, codifying law, and the refutation 
of heretical sects. Prohibited (muharrama) innovat- 
ions include the doctrines of those who oppose the 
followers of the sunna and the accepted beliefs of 
the community. Among those which are recom- 
mended (manduba) is the establishment of such 
institutions as hospices and schools. Innovations 
which are disapproved (makruha) include the 
decoration of mosques and the ornamentation of 
copies of the Kur'an. Among those which are per- 
mitted (mubdha), i.e. towards which the law is 
indifferent, is the free use of pleasant foods, drinks 
and clothing. 

Bid'a is to be distinguished from heresy. When it 
includes matters which have been introduced in 
disagreement with what has come down from the 
Prophet, it is said that this is not due to any purpose 
of rebelling against him, but has arisen through some 
kind of confusion. Innovators are called A hi al- 
bida' and AM al-ahwd'. The implication is that the 
innovator {mubtadi') is one who introduces something 
on an arbitrary principle without having any basis 
in the recognised foundations of Islam. The objection 
to bid'a has led some Muslims in more recent times 
to denounce the use of tobacco and coffee, and even 
of modern scientific inventions; but among the 
Wahhabis, the strictest body within modern Islam, 
scientific inventions are freely used. Indeed, the 
economy of the present state «f Sa'ikll Arabia is 
mainly dependent on oil whose production could 
not be accomplished without modern inventions. 

Bid'a may be treated on the level of kiyds [q.v.]. 
Just as what is ki yds in one generation may be 
included in what a later generation considers idimd', 
so may it be with bid'a. The distinction between 
'good' and 'bad' innovations was therefore a neces- 
sary principle. Only people of an ultra-conservative 
nature who live in an unreal world of their own 
ideas could insist that the practice of the Prophet 
and his Companions in al-Madina may alone be 
followed, and that no allowance may be made for 
the development of knowledge and differing cir- 
cumstances. But a number of traditions condemning 
innovations are found in the collections of Hadith 
as statements of the Prophet. 

Bibliography: al-Tahanawi, A dictionary of 
the technical terms used in the sciences of the Musul- 
mans, ed. Sprenger, etc., 2 vols,, Calcutta 1854-1862, 
pp. 133 f. ; Abu Bakr al-Turtushl, Kitdb al-Hawddith 
waH Bida', ed. M. Talbi, Tunis 1959; Wensinck, 
Handbook, art. innovations; I. Goldziher, Mu- 
hammedanische Studien, vol. ii, Halle 1890, pp. 
22 ff.; D. B. Macdonald, Muslim Theology, bid'a. 
and mubtadi' in index ; B. Lewis, Some observations 
on the significance of heresy in the nistory of Islam, 
in Studia Islamica, I (1953), pp. 52 ff. 

(J. Robson) 
BlDAR, a district in south-central India (the 
'Deccan', [q.v.]), and the headquarters town of 
that district, lat. 17° 55' N., long. 77° 32' E-> popu- 
lation over 15,000, 82 miles north-west of Hayd- 
arabad from which it is easily accessible by road 
and rail. 

The identification of BIdar with the ancient 
Vidarbha ( Briggs's Ferishta, ii, 4 1 1 ) is now discounted, 
cf. G. Yazdani, Bidar: its history and monuments, 
Oxford 1947, 3. Bidar was included in the Calukya 
kingdom of Kalyari, 4th-6th/ioth-i2th centuries, but 
was in the hands of the Kakatiyas of Warangal when 
conquered by Ulugh Khan (later Muhammad b. 
Tughlak, [q.v.]) in 722/1322 (details of siege and men- 



tion of fortifications, Diva 3 al-DIn BaranI, Ta'rikh-i 
Firuz Shdhi. Bibl. Ind., 449), from whose governor 
it was taken after a fierce battle in 748/1347 by a 
Amir-i Sadah (Commander of a Sadi or subdivision 
of approximately 100 villages; Barani, 495; Rihla, 
Cairo ed., ii, 75), Zafar Khan. The latter, on his 
acceptance as first king of the BahmanI dynasty [q.v.] 
as 'Ala 3 al-DIn Hasan Bahman Shah, divided his 
dominion into four provinces, of which BIdar was one. 
The town was important strategically (Bahmani 
dynasty, monuments, [q.v.]), and as a fortress held the 
seventh BahmanI king Shams al-DIn (799/1397) in 
internment; Muhammad II (780-99/1378-97) estab- 
lished orphanage schools in Bidar and elsewhere, cf. 
Briggs's Ferishta, ii, 349-50. An assault by the eighth 
king, Firuz Shah, against his brother Ahmad in 
825/1422 was repulsed at BIdar, leading to Ahmad's 
succession, shortly after which he transferred his 
capital to Bidar from Gulbarga (Sayyid C A1I Tabataba, 
Burhdn-i Mahathir, Haydarabad edn., 49-50), rebuilt 
the fortifications and renamed it Muhammadabad ; 
the natural position of BIdar on a healthy plateau 
with abundant water, and its central position in 
the kingdom, offered advantages not possessed 
by Ahsanabad-Gulbarga. Bidar was attacked in 
866/1462 by Sultan Mahmud KhaldjI of Malwa, 
who destroyed some of its buildings, but was 
repulsed with the aid of Sultan Mahmud Shah 
of Gudjarat. Bidar's heyday under the Bahmanls 
was during the able ministry of Mahmud Gawan 
[q.v.], c. 866-886/1462-81; but after his murder the 
BahmanI power declined, to the advantage of the 
minister Kasim Barld (founder of the Barldl dynasty, 
[q.v.]) and his family. The Bahmanls remained as 
puppet kings under the Barldl ministers until at 
least 952/1545; Amir Barld was de facto ruler until 
949/1542, and his son C A1I Barld adopted the royal 
title, presumably after the death of the last BahmanI 
king, Kallm Allah (for coins in whose name, dated 
952 [= 1545 A.D.], see Proc. VII All-India Oriental 
Conf., 740). BIdar fell to Ibrahim c Adil Shah of 
Bidjapur in 1028/1619, was annexed to the Mughal 
empire by Awrangzlb in 1066/1656, and passed to 
Nizam al-Mulk Asaf Djah in 1137/1724. 

Monuments. Buildings particularly associated 
with the BahmanI and Barldl dynasties are described 
under those headings; those of the post-Barldl 
period are unimportant and are not described. Page 
references in the following account are to Yazdani, 
op. cit. 

The city and fort are both fully walled, and 
in their present area date from the time of Ahmad 
Shah Wall Bahmani, who incorporated the. old 
Hindu fort in the west of the present area into his 
buildings of 832-5/1429-32; Persian and Turkish 
engineers and architects are known to have been 
employed. The ground on the north and east of the 
perimeter falls sharply away; on the other sides the 
walls are within a triple moat hewn out of the 
laterite outcrop by local Hindu masons (p. 29). Much 
of the defences was destroyed in Mahmud Khaldji's 
invasion (vide above) and restored by Nizam Shah; 
but their character was changed in the time of 
Muhammad Shah BahmanI, c. 875/1470, after the 
introduction of gunpowder. Minor improvements 
were made by Mahmud Shah (inscriptions, EIM 
1925-6, 17-8), and more extensive ones, including the 
mounting of large guns, by 'All Band Shah, 949-87/ 
1542-79. The description of the defences in the reign 
of Shahdjahan by Muhammad Salih Kambo (Mmai-i 
Sdlih, Bibl. Ind. iii, 249-50) indicates that little 
subsequent changes were made. In the perimeter of 



4 km. there are 37 bastions, mostly massive, many 
with gun emplacements, and 7 gates as well as the 
three successive gates between town and fort. The 
first gateway serves as a barbican for the second, the 
SHarzaDarwaz a— so called from the figures of two 
tigers carved on the facade, a common feature of 
DakhnI forts (32). The third gate, Gun bad Dar- 
waza, is massive, with battered walls, hemispherical 
dome and corner guldastas recalling the contemporary 
Delhi architecture, but with an outer arch of wide 
span stilted above the haunch, the shape of much 
Persian-inspired architecture in the Deccan and 
characteristic of the BahmanI buildings in particular 
(34). The town walls are said to be the work ot 
C A1I Barid (Muhammad Sultan, AHna-i Bidar, 17-18) 
in 962-5/1555-8, but doubtless superseded BahmanI 
work. Again there are 37 bastions, adapted for long- 
range guns, and five gateways (83-90). 

Within the fort are the Solah Khamba ('sixteen 
pillar', so called from a period of its decay when 
16 pillars were screened off in the liwdn) Masdjid, 
the earliest Muslim building at BIdar and the 
original Djami' Masdjid, having been established 
before the transfer of the capital (inscription giving 
date 827 [= 1423-4 A.D.], EIM 1931-2, 26-7); the 
style is heavy and monotonous, particularly in the 
9 1 -metre facade, and the inner circular piers are 
over-massive; the central dome rests on a hexade- 
cagonal collar pierced with traceried windows, to 
form a clerestory (54-6); the Takht Ma hall, the 
modern name for what was probably Ahmad Shah 
Wali Bahmam's palace described in the Burhdn-i 
Mahathir, 70-1, and referred to as Ddr al-Imdra by 
Firishta, i, 627. The arches have the typical Bahmani 
stilt at the apex, and the fine encaustic tile-work, 
probably imported from Kashan, includes the 
emblem of the tiger and rising sun (66-77); the 
BahmanI Diwan-I c Amm, with fine tile- work in 
floral, geometric and calligraphic (Kufic) designs, 
generally Persian with some chinoiserie (62-6); the 
Gagan = [Skt. 'sky'], Tarkash and Rangin 
M a h a 1 1 s, all begun in BahmanI times and rebuilt by 
the Barld Shahls: typical Barldl chain-and-pendant 
motif in Tarkash Mahall, C A1I Barld's rebuilding of 
Rangin Mahall with inlay mother-of-pearl work and 
woodcarving in Hindu as well as Muslim patterns, 
with some cusping of wooden arches, the best of 
Barldl work but on too small a scale to be fully 
effective (60-2, 57-9, 44-9 respectively); a group of 
underground rooms, Hazar Kotthfl, with an 
emergency escape passage leading outside the walls 
(77-8); the Shahi Hammam, late BahmanI or 
early Baridl, with a fine vaulted ceiling, 51-2; and 
minor buildings. 

Within the town walls are the C a w b a r a, a massive 
tower at a cross-roads probably built by Ahmad 
Shah as an observation post (90); the great Madras a 
of Mahmud Gawan, built 877/1472, whose Persian 
prototype was the madrasa of Khareird in Khurasan 
(cf. E. Diez, Churasanische Baudenhmtiler, i, 72-6); 
its remaining mindr (the other, with the south-east 
corner, destroyed by a gunpowder explosion in 1107/ 
1696), 40 m. high, in three stages. Much of the former 
tile-work has perished from the mindrs and facades, 
but the proportions, the silhouette, and the interplay 
of light and shade due to the rows of deeply recessed 
arches on all faces are very pleasing to the eye. The 
most imposing monument of the BahmanI period, 
it has no parallel elsewhere in India (91-100); the 
Takht-i KirmanI, a gateway containing a room in 
which is a couch associated with the saint Khalil 
Allah, with fine cut-plaster medallions, etc., of 



BlDAR — BlDIL 



late Bahmanl design, and a trefoil parapet which, 
originating in the Bahmanl period, is found in Baridi 
buildings also (100-2); the Djami 1 Masdjid of the 
town, plain but elegant, with a high lantern-vaulted 
liwan under its double dome, late Bahmanl work 
restored in the Baridi period (chain-and-pendant 
motif in spandrels of facade), 103-4; the Bafi 
Khankah of Mahbub Subhani, whose mosque 
parapet shows the overlapping arches of the Bahmani 
period, in. Outside the town walls are (besides the 
tomb buildings of the Bahmahis and Barid Shahis, 
[q.v.]) the fine Cawkhandl of Hadrat Khalil Allah, 
similar in style to jthe tomb of 'Ala 3 al-DIn Bahmani 
and one of the best Bahmani buildings (141-6); the 
tombs of the Abyssinian nobles in the Habshl Kot, 
180; the Kali ('black') Masdjid, probably early 
Baridi, whose mifirdb, projecting out from the 
liwan, forms a high square chimney-like base for a 
dome supported on each side by an open arch, 
resembling an aerial Baridi tomb (196-7); and 
numerous other buildings. 

Mention must be made of the local BIdri ware, 
a class of damascened metalwork in which engraved 
and inlaid silver designs are made on an alloy 
(mainly zinc with some copper, lead and occasionally 
tin) base, which is afterwards blackened and highly 
polished; the blackening is carried out by rubbing 
a locally-obtained earth, containing alkali nitrates, 
mixed with ammonium chloride, on the fresh surface 
of the alloy. 

Bibliography: Yazdani, op. cit., supersedes 
all previous work on the monuments: full refe- 
rences, extensive plates, drawings, plans, inscrip- 
tions, etc. See also J. Burgess, Antiquities in Bldar 
and Aurangabad Districts, ASWI iii (= NIS -in), 
1878 ; ASI Annual Report, 1928-9, 5-11 ; Hyderabad 
Arch. Dept. Reports, passim; Sir J. Marshall, The 
monuments of Muslim India, Chap, xxiii in 
Cambridge History of India, 1928; Percy Brown, 
Indian Architecture (Islamic period), Chap. xiii. 
For Bldar as a fortified city, full description with 
measured drawings of fortifications in S. Toy, 
The strongholds of India, London 1957. For the 
history of Bldar see Gazetteer of the Bidar district; 
Sherwani, Mahmud Gawan, the Great Bahmani 
Wazir, and The Bahmanis of the Deccan, an 
Objective study. 

For BIdri ware, full references in T. R. Gairola, 
Bidri Ware, in Ancient India, XII, 1956, 116-8, 
which supersedes all previous technical work. 
(H. K. Sherwani and J. Burton-Page) 
BlDIL, MIrza c Abd al-Kadir b. c Abd al- Khali* 
Arlas (or Barlas), of Bukharan origin, was bom at 
^Azimabad (Patna) in 1054/1644, where his family had 
settled. He losthis father in 1059/1649 and was brought 
up by his uncle MIrza Kalandar (d. 1076/1665) and 
maternal uncle MIrza Zarlf (d. 1075/1664), who was 
well-versed in kadllh literature and fifth. In 1070/ 
1659 he visited a number of places in Bengal along 
with MIrza Kalandar. In 1071/1660 he went to 
Cuttack (Orissa) where he stayed for three years. 
It was here in Orissa that MIrza Zarif, who also had 
strong mystic leanings introduced him to Shah 
KSsim Huwallahl with whom he soon after con- 
tracted his bay'-a. In 1076/1665 he went to Delhi, 
where he met Shah Kabull, a madidhub, to whom he 
devotes a lengthy chapter in Cahdr 'Unsur. For two 
years thereafter he wandered about the woods of 
Bindraban and the streets of Muttra, A'zamabad 
and Agra in search of Shah Kabull, who had disap- 
peared suddenly. While at Agra, BIdil experienced 
hardship and starvation. In 1079/1668 he married, 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



and entered the service of Prince Muhammad 
A'zam b. Awrangzlb, whom he served for a number 
of years. The Prince once requested him to compose 
a kasida in his praise; BIdil refused to do so, and 
resigned his position. Kh w ushgo's statement (as repro- 
duced in Fayd-i Kuds, 80) that BIdil remained in 
the service of the Prince for twenty years is not 
supported by other writers. Soon after his resignation 
he again took to wandering; this time visiting 
several places in the Pandjab including Lahore and 
Hasan Abdal. His wanderings, however, ended in 
1096/1685 when he finally settled at Delhi. He was 
offered a high post by Asaf Djah I, the Nizam of 
Haydarabad, who was one of his pupils in poetry; 
although grateful for the offer, BIdil refused to 
accept it. He died in 1133/1721 and was buried in 
the courtyard of his house in Old Delhi. The 
exact location of his grave in the ruined city has 
been a matter of great controversy. The present 
grave, with an inscribed head-stone, is spurious. 
Essentially a mystic poet, said to have composed 
over ninety thousand verses, BIdil is very popular 
in Afghanistan and parts of Chinese Turkistan. In 
poetry he has been compared with Sa c di and 
Ruml, in prose with al-Ansari al-Harawi and al- 
Ghazall (qq.v.). 

He is the author of: (i) Cahdr '■Unsur, written in 
1116/1704, a mainly biographical work interspersed 
with supernatural anecdotes (Cawnpore 1292/1875) ; 
(ii) Nikdt, a philosophical treatise dealing with 
certain abstruse problems like wahy, ilhdm, nubuwwa 
etc., profusely interspersed with ghazals, hata'-at and 
rubdHyydt, (Cawnpore 1292/1875); (iii) Muhif-i 
A c zam, a mathnawi on the lines of Zuhurl's Sdkindma, 
published as a part of Kulliydt-i Bidil (Bombay 
1299/1881); (iv) '■Irfan, another mathnawi, written 
in 1124/1712 and comprising 11,000 verses, deals 
with metaphysical problems as the author understood 
them (Bombay 1299/1881); (v) Tur-i Ma^rifat, 
another mathnawi comprising 6,000 verses, still 
unpublished (MS. Punjab Univ. Lib.), deals with 
natural phenomena; (vi) Tilism-i Hayrat, also a 
mathnawi of the same length as T&r-i Ma'rifat 
(Bombay 1299/1881); (vii) Diwan; no complete 
edition has been published so far; an incomplete 
edition, however, up to radifddl only was published 
at Kabul (1334/1915), and another edition at Cawn- 
pore (Nawalkishore : 1292/1875); (viii) Ruka c dt, a fine 
specimen of Persian letter-writing, containing 
useful information about the numerous pupils of 
the poet and some of his benefactors (Cawnpore 
1292/1875); select works of BIdil have also been 
published at Tashkent, as he is very popular in the 
republics of Tadjikistan and Uzbekistan in the 
U.S.S.R. 

Bibliography: Khalil Allah Khan "Khalili", 
Fayd-i Kuds, Kabul 1334 (Shamsi)/i956, (this 
work contains extracts on Bidil from all the 
known published and unpublished sources); 
£ Ibad Allah Akhtar, Bedil, Lahore 1952, . (exten- 
sively reviews all the works by Bidil except his 
diwan); c Abd al-Ghani, Tadhkira-i Bedil (in 
Oriental College Mag: Lahore, August 1956); 
£ Abd al-Ghafur "Nassakh", Sukhan-i Shu'ard', 
Lucknow 1291/1874, 75; c Abd al-Hayy, Nadwi, 
Nuzhat al-Khawatir, Haydarabad (Dn.) 1376/1957, 
vi, 157; Kudrat Allah "Kasim", Madimu'a-i 
Naghz, Lahore 1933, i 115-17; Ma'drif (A'zam- 
garh) 33/i 1934, May and July 1942, 58/ii 1946; 
Siddik Hasan Khan, Sham c -i Andjuman, Bhopal 
1292/1876, 82-4; Mir Husayn Dost Sambhall, 
Tadhkira-i Husayni, Lucknow 1292/1876, 74-7; 
76 



BIDIL — BIDJAPOR 



•AH Shir KaniS Makdldt al-Shu'ard', Karachi 
1957, index; Azad Bilgraml, Khizdna-i 'Amira', 
Cawnpare 1900, 152-66; Sher Khan LodI, Mir'dt 
ol-Khavdl. Bombay 1906, 459; Kudrat Allah Gopa- 
raawi, NatdHdj al-Afkdr, Bombay, 1334 (FaslJ) 
1 12-18; Lachmi Narayan Shaflk, Gul-i Ra l na? 
(Asafiyya MS) ; Garcin de Tessy, Histoire de la lilte- 
rature Hindouie et Hindoustanie*, Paris 1870, 312; 
Bankipsre, iii, 194.203; Rosen, Persian MSS. 
(St. Petersburg) p. 167; Oriental College Mag., 
Lahore (articles by Yasln Khan Niyazi), Aug.- 
Nov. 1932, Feb. 1933; Muhammad Yusuf Munshl, 
TdMkh-i Mukim Khdni (Uzbek Academy of 
Sciences ed.), Tashkent 1956; Husayn Kuli Khan, 
Nishtar-i 'Ishk (Punjab Univ. Lib. MS); The 
Turkistan Aboriginal Paper 1S91, No. 10 (Furkat's 
autobiography) ; Aslri Odamiyat, Samples of 
Tadjik Literature, Stalinabad, 1940; GafurGulyam, 
/ come font the East, Tashkent 1943; I- E- 
Bertels, Bedil Hakida Mylohazalar, Almanac 
Za/ar, Tashkent 1945; H. S. Ayani, Murza Ab- 
dulkodir Bedil, Stalinabad 1954; Ahmed Donish, 
Bedil's Witticisms; idem. The Rarest Accident; 
Rieu, ii, 706-7; Ethe 1 , I. O. Cat. Nos. 1676-86; 
W. Pertsch, p. 80; lA, sv. Bidil (by Ahmed 
Ates). (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

BlOjAN, Ahmed, son of Salah al-Din 'al-Katib' 
(and hence known as YAziryi-oGHLU Ahmed) and 
younger brother of the famous Yazidjl-oghlu 
Mehmed, Turkish mystic writer and 'popular edu- 
cator" who flourished in the middle of the gth/isth 
century. The brothers, after studying under HadjdjI 
Bayram [q.v.] of Ankara, lived a retired life together 
at Gelibolu, Ahmed practising such austerities and 
becoming so emaciated that he was called — and 
calls himself in his books— 'Bi-djan', i.e., 'The 
Lifeless'. To judge from the date of the Muntahd (see 
below), Ahmed must have lived until after 870/1465-6. 
He was buried beside his brother at Gelibolu, where 
their tiirbe was a popular resort of pilgrims (cf. 
Ewliya, v, 320 and iii, 401, where E. also records a 
tradition that Ahmed lived for some time at Sofia). 
His works are: (1) Anwar aW-Ashikin (H. Kh. 
[Flugel] no. 141 1), a Turkish prose translation of his 
brother's Arabic Maghdrib al-Zamdn (H. Kh. 
no. 12462), completed in Muh. 855/Feb. 1451: this 
book, a standard mystical work (contents described 
by Hammer in S. B. Ak. Wien, Phil.-Hist. Kl., iii, 
129 ff.), has enjoyed great popularity, 12 printed 
editions being recorded in Fehmi Karatay's 1st. Vn. 
Kiit. Tiirkte Basmalar, 1956; (2) Durr-i Maknun 
(H. Kh. no. 4873), a cosmographical work written to 
display God's power and also based on the Maghdrib 
al-Zamdn; (3) 'Adjd'ib al-Makhlukdt (H. Kh. no. 
8070), an abridgement of Kazwini's work (cf. Rieu, 
CTM, 106) made in 857/1453 (edition: Kazan, 1888). 
Numerous MSS of these three works exist. (4) 
Muntahd, a 'Summa' of faith and practice, with 
interpretations of Koranic texts, stories of the 
prophets, sayings of holy men, etc. (MS in 1st. Un. 
Lib. [Khalis EL], TY 3324), composed at Gelibolu in 
870/1465-6 (f. 2v). All his books are written in a 
simple didactic style and a tone of humble and 
sincere piety. 

The still popular A hmadiyya, sometimes attributed 
to Ahmed Bidjan, is in fact the work of Ahmed 
Miirshidl (for whom see <OM, I, 33). 

Bibliography: Latin, 54; Sa c d al-DIn, ii, 460; 
'All, Kiinh, v, 237; SkakdHk (Medjdi), 128; Ham- 
mer- Purgstall, i, 497, 601; idem, GOD, I, 127 ft.; 
Rieu, CTM, 17b, 105b, 106a and references there 
given; Gibb, Ottoman Poetry, i, 38911.; c OM, I, 



16 and i94-6;£/', arts. BIdjan (unsigned, =Ahmed 
Bican in lA) and Yazidji-Oghlu (Fr. Babinger); 
Fr. Taeschner, Die geog. Lit. der Osmanen, in 
ZDMG 73 (1923). 36 ff.; E. Rossi, Elenco dei 
Manoscritti Turchi delta Bibl. Vaticana, 1953, and 
references to other catalogues there given. 

(V. L. Menage) 
BIBiZANAGAR [see vidjayanagara]. 
BIDJApCR, town and head-quarters 0/ the 
district of the same name in Bombay State (India), 
situated in 16 49' N. and 75° 43' E., 350 miles south 
of Bombay. Population in 1951 was 65,734. It was 
the seat of the Yadava kings for over a century from 
586/1190 to 694/1294 when it was conquered by 
<Ala J al-DIn Khaldji for his uncle Djalal al-Din 
Khaldji [q.v.], king of Delhi. In S90/1485-6 Yusuf, an 
alleged son of the Ottoman Sultan, Murad II who, on 
the accession of his brother Mehemmed II to the 
throne, was said to have escaped certain death 
through a stratagem of his mother, founded the 
Muslim kingdom of BIdjapur and built the citadel. 
This story seems to be unknown to the Ottoman 
historians (cf. Khalil Edhem.. Diiwel-i Isldmiyye, 
495); the Ottoman historian Munadjdjim Bashl, 
who includes an account of the 'Adilshahids in his 
Djanri 1 al-Duwal, describes Yusuf as of Turcoman 
origin. For a discussion of this question see further 
Ismail Hikmet Ertaylan, Adilsdhller, Istanbul 1953, 
3 ff). He also captured Goa and included it in his 
dominions. He assumed the title of c Adil Shah 
which became the royal surname and the dynasty 
came to be known as the 'Adil Shahs of BIdjapur. 
He was succeeded by three incapable or profligate 
rulers. In 965/1557 'All 'Adil Shah came to the 
throne; he built the city wall of BIdjapur, the Djami' 
Masdjid, aqueducts and other public utility works. 
In 973/1565 the combined troops of BIdjapur, 
Ahmadnagar and Golconda defeated the Vidjaya- 
nagar forces at the battle of Talikota. 'All 'Adil 
Shah died in 987/1579 and was succeeded by his 
minor nephew Ibrahim <Adil Shah, under the regency 
of the famous Cand BIbi. He died in 1036/1626 after 
an independent rule of 47 years and was succeeded 
by Muhammad 'Adil Shah, during whose reign, 
SIvadji, the Mahratta leader rose to power. His 
father Shahdji Bhonsle was a petty officer of the 
BIdjapur Sultan. Having been bred and brought 
up on BIdjapur 'salt', Sivadji repaid the debt of 
gratitude by attacking BIdjapur territory and 
between 1056/1646-1058/1648 he seized many forts 
of importance. In 1067/1656-7 Awrangzib, while 
still a prince, attacked and beseiged BIdjapur 
but on hearing of the serious illness of Shahdiahan 
had to lift the seige and leave for Agra. Thirty years 
later (1097/1686) Awrangzib succeeded in subduing 
BIdjapur during the reign of Sikandar 'Adil Shah 
(1083/1672-1097/1686), the last of the <Adil Shahs. 
Sikandar c Adil Shah was imprisoned and allowed a 
pension by Awrangzib. He died in nn/1699-1700. 
In 1100/1688 BIdjapur was visited by a virulent type 
of bubonic plague which claimed 150,000 persons, 
including Awrangabadl Mahall, a queen of Awrangzib 
while Ghazi al-DIn Firuz Djang, a high noble, lost 
an eye. Towards the close of his reign Awrangzib 
appointed his youngest son, Kam Bakhsh, to the 
government of BIdjapur. On Awrangzlb's death Kam 
Bakhsh proclaimed himself Emperor at BIdjapur, 
assuming the title of Dm-Pandh. In 1137/1724 
BIdjapur was included in the dominions of the 
Nizam of Haydarabad. It was, however, transferred 
to the Marat'has in 11 74/1 760 for a sum of 6,000,000 
rupees. On the overthrow of the Peshwa in 1234/1818 



the British occupied Bldjapur and assigned it to the 
Radja of Satara in whose possession it remained till 
1266/1848 when, on the lapse of the State, it formed 
part of British Indian territory. In 1281/1864 
Bldjapur was made a separate district and in many 
of the old palaces were housed Government offices 
which were, however, later shifted elsewhere. 

The 'Adil Shahs were great patrons of art and 
literature. Malik Kumml, the poet and ?uhuri, 
the celebrated author of the two Persian classics, 
Sih Nathr and Mini Bazar, adorned for a con- 
siderable time the Court of Ibrahim 'Adil Shah, 
himself a poet, who composed in DakhanI Urdu. 
Bldjapur, apart from the plague epidemic of 
1 100/1688 also suffered from two terrible famines. 
The first occurred in 1130/1718 and continued for 
six long years decimating the population of the city. 
It is still remembered as the Skull Famine, the 
ground being covered with the skulls of the unburied 
dead. The second occurred in 1234/1818-19 reducing 
the once flourishing city to a mere township, of a few 
thousand souls, which has since then remained a city 
of desolate palaces and historical ruins. Other 
periods of severe drought were those of 1 240/1824-5, 
1248/1832-3, 1270/1853-4, 1280/1863-4 and 1283/ 
1866-7. 

Bibliography: Bashlr al-DIn Ahmad, Wdki- 
'df-» Mandakat-i Bididpur (in Urdu), 3 vols. 
Haydarabad 1914 (in the preface the author gives 
a detailed bibliography comprising Urdu, Persian 
and English works, both published and in MS); 
idem, Ta'rikh-i Bidjdnagar, 1911 ; Ghulam Murtada 
alias Sahib Hadrat, Basdtin al-Sald(in, Hayd- 
arabad n.d. ; Muhammad Ibrahim, Rawdat al- 
Awliyd'-i Bididpur (ed. Sayyid Rawshan 'Ali), 
Haydarabad 1314/1896; Storey, i/i 742-6, 1/2 
1060 (66), 1 331; A History of the Freedom Move- 
ment, vol. i Karachi 1957, index ; Imp. Gazetteer of 
India, Oxford 1908, viii 175-88; Henry Cousens, 
Guide to Bijapur, Bombay 1905 ; Muhammad SakI 
Musta'id Khan, Ma'dthir-i 'Alamgiri (Bibliotheca 
Indica) index ; Kh»afi Khan, Muntakhab al-Lubdb 
(Bibliotheca Indica) ii, 780 ff. ; Jadu Nath Sarkar, 
A History of Awrangzib, 5 vols., index; H. K. 
Sherwani, The Battle of Tdlikdtd in the Journal 
of the Pakistan Historical Society, Karachi, v/3 
(July, 1957); Ma'drif (A'zamgarh), iii/74 and v/74. 

(A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
Monuments.— The 'Adil Shahis developed the 
building art above all others, and their architecture 
is the most satisfactory of all the Deccan styles, both 
structurally and aesthetically; hence their capital, 
Bldjapur shows a more profuse display of excellent 
and significant buildings than any other city in India 
except Delhi alone. The Bldjapur style is coherent 
within itself, and there is a gradual progression 
between its two main phases. Most worthy of note 
are the doming system with its striking treatment 
of pendentives; profuse employment of minarets 
and guldastas as ornamental features, especially in 
the earlier phase; elaborate cornices; reliance on 
mortar of great strength and durability. The materials 
employed are either rubble-and-plaster or masonry; 
the stone used in masonry work is local, a very 
brittle trap. There is evidence to show that architects 
were imported from North India, and that use was 
freely made of local Hindu craftsmanship. 

Pre-' Adil Shahl works are few: the rough minors, 
(Ar. manor) with wooden galleries, in the walling of 
the Makka Masdjid; Karim al-Din's mosque, inscr. 
720/1320, from pillars of old Hindu temples, trabeate, 
with elevated central portion as clerestory, recalling 



the mosques of Gudjarat [?.».]; the BahmanI wdzir 
Khwadja Djahan's mosque, c. 890/1485, similar but 
without clerestory. 

No 'Adil Shahl building can be certainly assigned 
to the reign of Yusuf. The earliest dated structure, 
referred to as Yusuf's Djami' Masdjid, strikingly 
foreshadows the style to come with single hemi- 
spherical dome on tall circular drum with the base 
surrounded by a ring of vertical foliations so that 
the whole dome resembles a bud surrounded by 
petals, and facade arches struck from two centres, 
the curves stopping some way from the crown and 
continued to the apex by tangents to the curve; 
inscr. 918/1512-3 records erection by Kh'adja Sanbal 
in the reign of Sultan Mahmud Shah, son of Muham- 
mad Shah BahmanI, indicating that BahmanI suze- 
rainty was still acknowledged some time after the 
'Adil Shahl defection. Of Ibrahim's reign are also the 
massive Dakhni 'Idgah (within the present city walls) 
and several small mosques, on one of which (Ikhlas 
Khan's) the arch spandrels are filled with medallions 
supported by a bracket-shaped device, later a very 
common ornament. Only one mosque of this period 
(Ibrahlmpur, 932/1526) is domed. 

The long reign of 'All I saw much building activity: 
the city walls, uneven in quality since each noble 
was responsible for a section, completed 973/1565, 
with five main gates flanked by bastions and 
machicolated, approached by drawbridges across a 
moat, beyond which is a revetted counterscarp and 
covert way (many bastions modified to take heavy 
guns; inscriptions of Muhammad and 'All II); the 
Gagan ("sky") Maljall, an assembly hall with much 
work in carved wood; a mosque in memory of 
sayyid 'All Shahld Pir, small (10.8 m. square) but 
superbly decorated with cut-plaster, with a steep 
wagon-vaulted roof parallel to the facade, a tall 
narrow chimney-like vault over the mihrdb which 
has a door leading outside; the Shahpur suburbs; 
outside Bldjapur, the forts of Shahdrug (966/1558), 
Dharwar (975/1567), Shahanur and Bankapur (981/ 
1573); 'All's own severely plain tomb; and his 
Pjami' Masdjid, generally ascribed to 985/1576, a 
fine large (137.2 by 82.3 m.) building, not fully 
completed (only buttresses where tall mindrs were 
to be added, no kanguras over facade), sparingly 
ornamented (only the central arch of seven in the 
liwdn facade is cusped and decorated with medallion- 
and-bracket spandrels), with the great hemispherical 
dome, standing on a square triforium, capped by 
the crescent, a symbol used by the 'Adil Shahis alone 
among the Dakhni dynasties. The cornice is an 
improvement on earlier works hy showing deeper 
brackets over each pier instead of a row of uniform 
size. The vaulting system of the dome depends on 
cross- arching: two intersecting squares of arches 
run across the hall between the piers under the 
dome, meeting to form an octagonal space over 
which the dome rests ; the pendentives thus overhang 
the hall and counteract any side-thrust of the dome. 
The exterior walls are relieved by a ground-floor 
course of blind arches over which is a loggia of open 

In Ibrahim II's reign fine sculptured stonework 
replaces the earlier rubble-and-plaster. The palace 
complex dates from about 990/1582 (Sat Manzil, 
'Granary', Cini Mahall) ; the first building in elaborate 
sculptured stone is Malika Djahan's mosque (994/ 
1586-7), which introduces a new shape by the dome 
forming three quarters of a sphere above its band 
of foliation. The Bukhari mosque and three others 
on the Shahpur suburb are very similar, and fine 



stonework occurs also in perhaps the greatest work 
of the 'Adil Shahis, the mausoleum of Ibrahim II 
and his family known as the Ibrahim Rawda: 
within a garden enclosure 137-2 m. square stand a 
tomb and mosque on a common plinth; the tomb 
(shown by inscriptions to have been intended for 
the queen Tadj Sultana only) has uneven spacing 
of the columns and other features, and the cenotaph 
chamber is covered with geometric and calligraphic 
designs, reputedly the entire text of the Kur'an. 
The mosque columns are regular. The whole com- 
position is in perfect balance and was minutely 
planned before building. An inscription gives 
the date of completion, by abdiad, as 1036/1626. 
Palaces of this reign include the Anand Mahall, 
built for entertainments [Basdtin al-Sald(in), and 
the Athar Mahall (1000/1591) with fine painted wood 
decoration including some fresco figure-paintings 
thought to be the work of Italian artists. The Anda 
("egg") Masdjid, 1017/1608, has the mosque (presu- 
mably for the use of women) on the upper storey, 
with a sardH below; the masoruy is polished and 
finely jointed, and above is a ribbed dome. In 1008/ 
1599 Ibrahim proposed moving his seat of govern- 
ment some 5 km. west of Bidjapur where the water 
supply was better; but the new town, Nawraspur, 
was sacked in 1034/1624, before its completion, by 
Malik c Anbar, and little remains. Other work 
includes the mosque known as the Naw Gunbadh. 
the only Bidjapur building with multiple doming; 
the fine but incomplete mausoleum of the brother 
pirs Hamid and Latif Allah Kadiri (ob. 1011/1602, 
1021/1612); and, the supreme example of the later 
work of this reign, the Mihtar-i Mahall, really a 
gateway to the inner courtyard of a mosque in the 
city, with a narrow facade based on a vertical 
double square, richly covered with stone diaper 
patterns and with a balcony supported by long 
struts of carved stone, their decoration resembling, 
and really more appropriate to, woodwork patterns; 
fine panelled ceilings within; superb cornices and 
elaborate mindrs outside, all richly carved. 

Works of Muhammad's reign are of uncertain 
chronology owing to lack of inscriptions and 
historical records. Mustafa Khan's mosque is plain 
with a facade in which the central arch is much wider 
than the flanking ones, following the pattern of 
many of the older palaces; his Saral (insc. 1050/ 
1640-1); a Mahall at 'Aynapur; tombs of the wazir 
Nawaz Khan (ob. 1058/1647) and of several pirs 
showing a decadence in style with a second 
storey and dome too attenuated for the size of the 
buildings; Afdal Khan's mausoleum and mosque, 
where the second storey is of insufficient height — the 
mosque being the only two-storeyed one in Bidjapur, 
the upper liwdn being the duplicate of the lower 
except for the absence of a minbar, hence presumably 
for Afdal Khan's zandna, 63 members of which have 
their reputed graves 1 km. to the south: insc. in 
mausoleum 1064/1653; and the major building work, 
one of the supreme structural triumphs of Muslim 
building anywhere, Muhammad's own mausoleum, 
the Gol Gunbadh. The tomb building, standing within 
a mausoleum complex, is formally simple: a hemi- 
spherical dome, of 43.9 m. external diameter, is 
supported on an almost cubical mass 47.4 m. square 
(external), with a staged octagonal turret at each 
angle. The floor area covered, about 1693 sq. m., 
is the largest in the world covered by a single dome. 
External decoration is simple, confined to the great 
cornice 3.5 m. wide supported by four courses of 
brackets, the openings on the pagoda-like corner 



BIDJAPOR — BIDJAYA 



turrets, and the merlons and mindrs of the skyline. 
The dome is supported internally by arches in 
intersecting squares as in the Djami' Masdjid; 
inscription over the S. door gives the date of 
Muhammad's death by abdiad as 1067/1656 at which 
time work on the building presumably stopped, the 
plastering being incomplete. Unfinished also is the 
tomb of his queen Djahan Begam at 'Aynapur: 
foundations, piers and octagon turrets to the 
identical scale of the Gol Gunbadh, but the dome 
was intended to be carried across a central chamber. 
Of 'All II's reign the pavilion called PanI Mahall 
on the citadel wall, and the Makka Masdjid, both 
with fine masonry and exquisite surface carving; 
the tomb-complex of Yakut Dabull, unusual by 
having the mosque larger than the tomb; and 'All's 
own unfinished mausoleum, with arches struck 
from four centres instead of the usual Bidjapur arch. 
Later buildings are insignificant, except for Awrang- 
zlb's eastern gate to the Djami' Masdjid; the tomb 
of the last monarch, the minor Sikandar, closes the 
'Adil Shahi effort with a simple grave in the open air. 
Bibliography: Of original authorities, see 
especially Ta'rikh-i Firishta and Mirza Ibrahim's 
Basdtin al-Saldtin; J. Fergusson and P. D. Hart, 
Architectural illustrations of the principal Maho- 
medan buildings at Beejapore, 1859; Fergusson and 
Meadows Taylor, The architecture at Beejapoor, 
1866; both these superseded by H. Cousens, 
Bijdpur and its architectural remains (= A SI, NIS 
xxxvii), Bombay 1916; also Fergusson, The great 
dome of Sultan Mohammed, in Trans. RIB A, 1st 
ser. Vol. V, 1854-5. For inscriptions, M. Nazim, 
Bijapur inscriptions ( = MASI 49), Dehli 1936. 
General stylistic appraisal in Percy Brown, Indian 
Architecture (Islamic period), Bombay n.d., but 
measurements given inexact; fortifications de- 
scribed by Sidney Toy, The strongholds of India, 
London 1957 (historical information unreliable). 
Some good detailed drawings in C. Batley, The 
design development of Indian architecture, London 
1954. (J. Burton-Page) 

BIDJAYA (Bougie), maritime Algerian town 
situated about 175 km. east of Algiers. Built 
on the lowest slopes of the Djabal Guraya, the 
city overlooks a spacious and remarkably sheltered 
bay. Doubtless Roman and Carthaginian shipping 
anchored off Saldae, the old town. At the beginning 
of the Christian era, it formed part of the domain 
of Juba, king of Cherchel. The emperor Augustus 
founded a colony there and settled it with veterans. 
An inscription dating from the second century 
extols Saldae as "civitas splendidissima". Never- 
theless, it played no significant part until the 
Muslim era. In the 5th/nth century, al-Bakri refers 
to it as a very ancient city, a pleasant winter 
resort, populated with Andalusians. From this 
period, the Spanish Muslims were strongly repre- 
sented side by side with the Berber element, the 
Bidjaya tribe, to which the town owes its name. 
The event which made Bougie historically famous 
took place in 460/1067. The facts are briefly as follows. 
The mid-5 th/ nth century witnessed the rupture 
between the Zirids of al-Kayrawan and the Fa{imid 
Caliph of Cairo, and the reprisals which followed: 
the Hilalian invasion, the arrival of nomad Arabs 
sent from Egypt to take possession of the rebel 
kingdom. These reprisals were terrible. The nomads 
pillaged the countryside of Ifrlkiya. The sacked 
inland towns were partly evacuated. The kingdom 
of the Hammadids first took advantage of this 
free-for-all. The end of the eleventh century was the 



golden era of their Kal'a. At the same time the 
Arabs were not slow to spread westward and offered 
a serious menace to the Kal'a of the Banu Hammad. 
These decided to look about for a less exposed 
capital. Just as the Zirids had left al-Kayrawan and 
betaken themselves to the maritime town of 
Mahdiyya, the masters of the Kal'a withdrew to the 
coast. In T067, the Hammadid al-Nasir occupied 
the land of the Bidjaya and set up his capital at 
Bougie which he wished to call al-Nasiriyya. Though 
he continued to spend part of his time at the 
Kal'a, he gave priority to the expansion of his new 
capital, put himself out to attract settlers and built 
there the splendid Castle of the Pearl (Kasr al-Lu' /«'). 
The son of al-Nasir, al-Mansur (483-498/1090-1104) 
left the Kal'a (which, however, he had embellished 
with new buildings) in his turn. He abandoned the 
Kal'a permanently and installed himself in Bougie 
with his troops and his court. Here he built the great 
mosque, planted gardens and erected the palaces 
of Amimun and the Sta (Ka?r-al-Kawkdb) and 
supplied the city with water, carried by aqueduct from 
the Djabal Tudja. The town is reputed to have been 
divided into twenty-one quarters and to have con- 
tained seventy-two mosques. Doubtless this is some- 
thing of a exaggeration but it is certain that the 
first half of the 6th/i2th century was the golden age 
of Bougie. The second capital of the Hammadids 
had inherited from the first. It had welcomed trie 
intellectual Mite, the wealthy bourgeoisie, the sages 
and artists of the fallen Kal'a. Life in Bougie was 
easy and free from austerity. The luxurious costume 
worn by the citizens, from the studied elegance of 
their turbans to their shoes, tied on with gilded 
ribbons, shocked Ibn Tumart, the future founder 
of the Almohad sect, who, about n 18, spent some 
time in Bougie and made an attempt to reform the 
manners and customs of the town. Like this visit 
of Ibn Tumart, that of the great Andalusian mystic 
Sidi Bu Madyan and his teaching during that stay 
is sufficient to indicate the importance of Bougie as 
a centre of religious studies. 

Through the seaport of Bougie, commercial and 
cultural relations were established with countries 
overseas, so that it became the centre from which the 
civilisation and art of eastern Barbary radiated 
outwards to Christian Europe, especially Sicily and 
Italy. • ■" 

For al-ldrisl, geographer to King Roger II, 
Bougie was "the chief city, the eye of the Hammadid 
state". There is every reason to believe that the 
royal residences of Palermo were inspired by the 
Palaces of Bougie, which were so enthusiastically 
described by the Sicilian poet, Ibn Hamdis. There 
is also the letter, most cordial in tone, written by 
Pope Gregory VII to al-Nasir, "King of Mauretania 
and the Province of Setif" (Mas Latrie, Traitis de 



't de 



-23). 



Very little remains in Bougie of its past as a 
capital city. We can, however, identify with some 
certainty the sites of the palaces built by the Ham- 
madids. The castle of Amimun must have stood 
not far from the tomb of Sidi Tuati; Fort Barral has 
supplanted the Palace of the Star. The Castle of the 
Pearl stood on the site of the Bridja barracks. Some 
reservoirs, and part of the city walls (the eastern 
face, where the wall, four metres thick, is flanked 
by lopsided towers) can be attributed to the twelfth 
century rulers, as can the gate known as the Saracen 
Gate, that great arch through which ships could 
enter the inner harbour. 

The city of the Hammadids must have been 



AY A 1205 

appreciably more spread out than the modern town, 
especially in the hilly section where the Plateau of 
the Ruins is situated. The names of seven or eight 
gates have come down to us. Some of these can be 
located: Bab Amslwan to the east, on the road 
leading to the Valley of Monkeys, Bab al-Bunud, 
on the site of the Fouka Gate, Bab al-Lawz, in the 
same position, but lower down than the Bab al- 
Bunud. Outside the town, on both banks of the 
Soummam, stretched the famous gardens, planted 
in the twelfth century and restored in the thirteenth, 
the BadI', on the west bank, the Rafi' on the east. 

In 546/1152, Bougie was captured by 'Abd al- 
Mu'min and the last of the Hammadids set sail for 
Sicily. The ancient royal city became the chief town 
ot an Almohad province subordinate to Marrakesh. 
Its downfall must have been painfully felt by its 
citizens. It is believed that the Almohads failed to 
win their affection, and one is tempted to attribute 
to this unpopularity of the new masters the choice 
of Bougie by the Banu Ghaniya, who landed there 
in the middle of the twelfth century in an attempt 
to restore the empire of the Almoravids. 

Bougie was for the Banu Ghaniya merely an 
operational base. The Almohads were not slow to 
reconquer it and it remained under their rule there- 
after until the collapse of the Mu'minid dynasty. 
From that time, Bougie and the region surrounding 
it became part of the kingdom of the Hafsids of 
Tunis. The remote position of this province seems 
to explain its r61e in Barbary from the thirteenth to 
the fifteenth centuries. This governorship, far from 
the capital, would have been bestowed by tradition 
on the heir to the throne, and, in spite of the distance, 
the army of Bougie on more than one occasion 
marched to Tunis to press the claims of a Crown 
Prince anxious to succeed to the throne without 
further delay. By virtue of its position as a frontier 
province, Bougie was coveted by the 'Abd al-Wadid 
sultans of Tlemcen, who attempted several times, 
though without success, to conquer it. 

At the same time, Bougie remained an opulent 
mercantile town, into which Venetians, Pisans, 
Genoese, Marseillais and Catalans imported mer- 
chandise made in Europe and from which they 
exported local products, especially candied peel, 
wax, alum, lead and raisins. Meanwhile to the profits 
of trading were added the sometimes richer prizes of 
privateering. According to a famous work by Ibn 
Khaldun \Hist. des Berberes, i, 619, trans., iii, 117), 
piracy from the year 761/1360 was carried out 
according to a well-tried method and with remarkable 

The attack on the town and its capture by Pedro 
of Navarre in 916/1510 were entirely in the nature 
of reprisals. Bougie, now a Spanish town, remained 
so until 962/1555. During these forty-five years, its 
new masters went through hard times, encamped 
on the seaboard of the 'land of the infidels' without 
normal contact with the hinterland, threatened by 
the Berber mountain tribes and at the same time 
dreading the Barbary Corsairs who were blockading 
the coast. After a heroic stand, Don Luis de Peralta 
had to surrender the area, which had become ter- 
ribly impoverished. 

Bougie, subjected to the mistrustful authority of 
the Algerian Turks who kept in their own hands the 
practice and profits of privateering, was unable to 
recover from this decline. The region retained some 
little importance by virtue of the karasta, the 
exploitation of timber for ship-building, which 
the masters of the Regency had supervised by 



B1DJAYA — BIDLlS 



a local religious chieftain of the Amokran family. 
But the town profited little from this activity. "In 
Bougie", wrote the traveller Peysonnel, "everything 
is falling into ruins, for the Turks keep nothing in 
repair" .In 1833, when the French troops, commanded 
by General Trezel, entered the town, it was nothing 
more than a rather sorry city of barely two thousand 
inhabitants guarded by a hundred and fifty janis- 

Bibliography: Ibn Hawkal, ed. De Goeje, in 
BGA, ii, 51, trans. Slane, in JA, 1832, i, 182; 
Bakri, Description of North Africa, Algiers 191 1, 
22, trans. Slane, 1913, 166; Ibn al-Athir, x, 31, 
xi, 103, trans. Fagnan, 476, 572; Ibn Khaldun. 
Histoire des Berbires, i, 226-231, trans., ii, 51-58; 
Idrlsl, al-Maghrib, 90-91, trans. 105; ZarkashI, 
Ta'rikh al-Dawlatayn, Tunis 1286, trans. Fagnan, 
passim; Leo Africanus, ed. Schefer, i, 262, ed. 
Epaulard, ii, 360; Ghubrini, 'Unwdn al-dirdya, ed. 
Ben Cheneb, Algiers 1910; Mas Latrie, Traitis de 
paix et de commerce, passem; de Beylie, Kalaa de 
Beni Hammad, Paris 1909, 94; Brunschvig, La 
Berbtrie orientate sous les Hafsides, 2 vols., Paris 
1940-47, i, 377 et passim; Feraud, Hist, des villes 
de la province de Constantine, in the Recueil de la 
Socitti archiol. de Constantine 1869, xiii; G. 
Marcais, Les poteries et faiences de Bougie, Con- 
stantine 1918; idem, Les Arabes en Berbdrie, 
passim. (G. Marcais) 

BIDJNAWR (Bijnor), a town and district in 
the Rohilkhand division of the Indian State of Uttar 
Pradesh. The district has an area of 1,867 square 
miles with ? population of 984,196, of which 36% 
are Muslims. The town has a population of 30,646 
(1951 Census). Little is known of the district's early 
history. In 1399 it was ravaged by TImur. Under 
Akbar it formed part of the sarkar of Sambhal in 
the sOba of Dihli. During the decline of Mughal 
power it was overrun by Rohillas under 'All Muham- 
mad. It contains the town of Nadjlbabad founded 
about 1750 by Nadjib al-Dawla who became wdzir 
of Dihli and whose son was the Rohilla leader 
Zabita Khan. After the defeat of the Rohillas in 
1774 Bidjnawr was incorporated in Awadh. It was 
ceded to the British in 1801. During the 1857 
insurrections Mahmud Khan, a grandson of Zabita 
Khan, was one of the most formidable opponents 
of the British. 

Bibliography: H. R. Nevill, Bijnor Gazetteer, 
Allahabad 1908. (C. Collin Davies) 

BIDLlS (Bitlis), chief city of the wildyet of the 
same name, in eastern Anatolia. It stands on the 
river Bitlis, 25 km. south-west of the westernmost 
point of lake Van (38° 20' N., 42 5' E.), at a height 
above sea-level variously estimated between 1,400 
and 1,585 metres. Known to the Armenians as 
Bagesh (Pagish) and to the Arabs as Badlis, it is 
referred to as Bidlis in old Turkish works. The city 
is in a relatively wide part of the deep and narrow 
valley cut in the eastern Taurus by the river Bitlis 
before it descends to the upper Djazlra. The narrow 
and straggling streets, with their stone-built, 
earthen-roofed houses, are ranged one above the 
other from the valley floor, covered with poplars 
and fruit-trees, to the bare slopes of the hills. The 
quarters of the city are separated one from another 
by the main valley and its intersections, crossed by 
stone bridges. Although the picturesque aspect of 
the city has always been admired by travellers, its 
location gives it a harsh climate: summer days are 
excessively hot, winter is rigorous and long, with 
heavy snowfalls. Rainfall is also heavy (about 



1 metre annually), particularly in spring, whereas 
drought is common in summer. 

The valley in which Bitlis stands affords the only 
route across the Taurus from the Van basin to the 
plateau of Diyarbakr and the plains of the Djazlra. 
By this road, from time immemorial, caravans have 
made their way from the south to Erzurum and 
thence to the Black Sea; this was the route taken 
by Xenophon and his Ten Thousand. Throughout 
history the rulers of Bitlis levied toll on passim? 
travellers and took care to maintain control of the 
plain of Mush, which supplied the food they could 
not find in their own barren mountains. 

When and by whom the city was founded is not 
known. An ancient legend tells that it was Alexandei 
the Great who entrusted to one of his commanders, 
a man called Lis, the task of building here an im- 
pregnable citadel. When the building was finished, 
Lis refused Alexander admission. Alexander besieged 
the citadel but failed to force an entrance. Lis then 
explained to him how he had carried out his orders 
to the letter. He was pardoned, and the city com- 
memorates his name. The city played an important 
part in Armenian history, and is frequently mentioned 
in the old Armenian sources (Gelzer, Geogr. Cypr., 
Leipzig 1890, 168), which are however silent about 
the date of its conquest by the Muslims, recording 
only that the region of Daron (Mush) was taken by 
them in 641. Streck [EI 1 , s.v. Bidlis) mentions 
Arabic inscriptions on the walls of the citadel, but 
according to Lynch these were destroyed without 
ever being copied. Muslim historians relate that 
<Iyad b. Ghanm, 'Umar's commander in the 
Djazlra. after securing the surrender of Arzan went 
on to Bitlis and thence to Akhlat (Ahlat). The 
Patriarch of Ahlat accepted peace terms, and on 
'Iyad's return the Patriarch of Bitlis agreed to pay 
tribute on the same scale as Ahlat (al-Baladhuri, 
Futuh, Cairo 1901, 184; al-Wakidi, K. al-futuh, 
Cairo 1302, ii, 152-154). It was not long however 
before the region reverted to Byzantine rule. 
Mu'awiya subjugated it again, but after his death 
it was once more lost to the Muslims till the reign of 
c Abd al-Malik, whose brother Muhammad attached 
it to the province of al-DjazIra. In the 'Abbasid 
period it fell under the successive Shaykhid, 
Hamdanid and Marwanid dynasties of Diyarbakr. 
In the time of the two last-named dynasties, when 
Byzantium recovered the Euphrates basin, the 
Armenian King of Vasporakan (Basfiirdjan, the 
Van basin) threw off Muslim sovereignty and gave his 
allegiance to Constantinople, whereupon Bitlis, like 
Ahlat, became a frontier-city. The Muslim onslaught 
brought some branches of the tribes of Bakr b. 
Wa'il and Taghlib to the region, and under Marwanid 
rule various Kurdish tribes spread over these parts, 
notably the Humaydl, to which the Marwanids 
belonged, Nasir-i Khusraw, who visited the region 
in 1046, the year before the great Turkish invasion, 
states (Safar-ndma, Berlin 1841, 8 foil.) that Arabic, 
Persian and Armenian were spoken at Ahlat, and 
we may suppose that the same situation obtained at 
Bitlis. Fakhr al-Dawla Muhammad b. Djuhayr, 
whom the Saldjuks appointed to govern Diyarbakr 
in 1084, destroyed Marwanid rule and distributed 
their lands and fortresses to Turks. Bitlis was given 
to Muhammad b. Dllmac or DImlac, whose descen- 
dants continued to rule it until 588/1192, when it 
was seized by the amir of Ahlat. In 1207 both cities 
fell to the Ayyflbids, who settled large numbers of 
Kurds in the region. Though Ahlat was devastated 
by Djalal al-DIn Kh'arizmshah in 1229, the cities 



BlDLIS — BIDLlSl 



of Van and Bitlis began a period of prosperity, 
Bitlis in particular becoming an important centre 
of learning until the Mongol invasion. After the fall 
of the nkhanids, the Ruzhekl tribe of Kurds estab- 
lished a dynasty at Bitlis, which managed to maintain 
itself, despite many vicissitudes, till the mid-igth 
century, having acknowledged in its time the suze- 
rainty of Tlmurids, Kara Koyunlus, Ak Koyunlus, 
Safawids and Ottomans. Sharaf Khan, a 16th- 
century member of this house (whose Sharaf-ndma, 
completed in 1596, is a principal source for Kurdish 
history) claimed descent from the Ayyubids, while 
his grandson 'Abdal ( c Abd Allah) Khan told Ewliya 
Celebi that he was descended from the 'Abbasids. 
Ewliya's visit was in 1655. His observations include 
the following. The bddj exacted from caravans 
passing through the city went to the Khan. The 
kharddj of the plain of Mush had been bestowed by 
Murad IV on the Khan for life; out of it he paid the 
warden and garrison of the citadel. On the other 
hand, the djizya paid by the Jacobite and Arab 
ra'-dya of the city was reserved to the kol (admini- 
strative division) of Van, and was collected by an 
agha who came from Van at the beginning of every 
year. Some 70 tribes were subject to the Khan. 
Within the citadel there were 300 houses, but half 
the area was covered by the ruler's palace. In the 
17 city-quarters were 5,000 houses. In the environs 
were thousands of orchards, all containing summer- 
houses. Of the mosques, with a total of no mihrdbs, 
the most important was the Sharafiyya, built by 
Sharaf Khan. Tavernier, whose visit was at the same 
period, writes that the Bey of Bitlis recognised 
neither Shah nor Padishah, and could put into the 
field a force of 20-25,000 cavalry. At that time the 
population was largely Kurdish and Armenian. The 
Qiihdnnumd states that the latter were in the 
majority. According to the Jesuits who visited the 
city in 1683, the nominal vassalage of the Bey to 
the Ottomans was preserved only in that he sent 
them tribute on his accession (Fleurian, Estat 
present de I'Arminie, Paris 1694). The power of the 
Kurdish princes was not broken by the Turks till 
1847, though the city remained a Kurdish political 
and religious (Nakshbandi) centre during the 
turbulences of the 19th century. 

On the establishment of full Ottoman sovereignty, 
Bitlis formed a kada'' belonging to the sandjafr of 
Mush, within the great wildyet of Erzurum, but 
after the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78 it was made 
into a wildyet to emphasise the dependence of the 
region on the central government. The area of the 
wildyet, which was divided into 4 sandjaks — Bitlis, 
Siirt, Mush and Gene — was almost 30,000 square 
kins., with an estimated population of 400,000. 
According to Cuinet, the central sandjak, with an 
area of 5,500 square kms., had a population of some 
108,000 : 70,000 Muslims, 33,000 Armenians, 4,000 
Syrian Jacobites and 1,000 Yazldis. The sdlndme for 
the year 1310/1892-93 shows the population of this 
sandjak as 77,000 : 46,000 Muslims, the remainder 
Armenian. Lynch, who quotes this total, says it 
ought to be increased by 13 per cent to compensate 
for deficiencies in the registration. For the population 
of the city itself in the 19th century no reliable 
figures exist. Lynch estimated it at 30,000 at the 
time of his visit (1898) : 10,000 Armenians, 200 
Syrians, the rest Kurds. A Russian source of the 
beginning of the 20th century gives the number of 
houses in the city as 5,100 : 550 belonging to Turks, 
3,000 to Kurds, 1,500 to Armenians. 

The staple industry of Bitlis in the 19th century 



was weaving, with its ancillary craft of dyeing. 
Other exports of the city and the surrounding 
country included gall-nuts, gum tragacanth, madder, 
tobacco, honey and livestock. 

Till the troubles of the end of the 19th century, 
Turks, Kurds, Armenians and Jacobites had lived 
side by side in Bitlis. The Jesuits who founded a 
mission there in 1683 had been well received by 
the Bey. In the 18th century an Italian priest, 
Maurizio Garzoni, lived and worked among the 
Kurds for 18 years. An American Protestant mission 
was founded in 1858. The insurrection of the Arme- 
nians, the measures taken to suppress it, and the 
Russian occupation during the First World War all 
contributed to a grave reduction in the population 
and to the disappearance of industry. The popu- 
lation of the city in 1927 was 9,050, in 1950 11,152. 
Early in the Republican period each of the 4 
sandjaks comprising Bitlis wildyet became a separate 
wildyet. In 1929 Bitlis was attached as a kadd'' to 
the wildyet of Mush, nearly 70 per cent of the 
population of which were Kurds according to the 
1935 census. Bitlis was restored to wildyet status in 
1936, and is now divided into 5 kadi's: Bitlis, 
Tatvan, Ahlat, Mutki and Hizan, with an area of 
5,482 square kms, and a population (1950) of 88,422. 
Bibliography : H. F. B. Lynch, Armenia, 
Travels and Studies 1898, London 1901, ii, 145-59; 
Ewliya Celebi, Seydhatndme (ed. Ahmed Djewdet), 
iv, 85 f. ; Tavernier, Les six voyages, Paris 1676, 
i. 3. 303; Hadjdji Khalifa, Qiihdnnumd, (ed. 
Ibrahim Mutafarrika), 413; V. Cuinet, La Turquie 
d'Asie, Paris 1892, ii, 521 f.; Sdlndme-i wildyet-i 
Bitlis, 1 310 (first issue); Genel nufus saytmt, 
20. X. 1935, Vol. xliv, Mus vildyeti. See also the two 
articles s.v. Bitlis in lA, by Besim Darkot and 
Miikrimin Halil Yinanc, of which the present 
article is a shortened conflation. 

(G. L. Lewis) 
BIDLlSi, IdrIs, Mewlana Hakim al-Din Idris b. 
Mewlana Husam al-DIn 'All al-BidlisI, historian of 
the Ottomans, was probably of Kurdish origin. He 
became nishdndji at the Ak Koyunlu court, and in 
the name of Ya%ub Beg wrote a letter of con- 
gratulation to Bayezld II in 890/1485 which was 
much admired (Hammer-Purgstall, ii, 290). In 
consequence of the growing power of Shah Isma'U 
he fled to Turkey in 907/1501-2, where he was 
welcomed by Bayezld and commissioned to write 
the history of the Ottoman House in Persian. His 
work was criticised as being over-lenient to the 
Persians, and he failed to receive the payments he 
had been promised. He asked for permission to go 
on the Pilgrimage, but this was granted only after 
the death of the Grand Vizier Khadim C A1I Pasha 
(who seems to have been his chief enemy) in Rabi c 
II 917/July 1511. From Mecca he wrote to the 
Ottoman court a letter in which he threatened that 
if his wrongs were not righted he would expose in 
the dibddje and khatime of his history (which were 
not yet written) the ingratitude shown to him. 
Sellm I invited him back to Istanbul shortly after 
his accession and the completed history was presented 
to him. Idris accompanied Sellm on the Caldiran 
campaign of 920/1514, and afterwards rendered 
invaluable service to the Ottomans by winning over 
the SunnI Kurdish princes to their side; the fermdn 
quoted by Sa'd al-DIn (ii, 322) shows that he was 
given a free hand in organising the Kurdish terri- 
tories. He also accompanied Sellm to Egypt, where 
he is said to have protested against the misdeeds 
of the Ottoman officials (Hammer-Purgstall, ii, 518). 



He died in Istanbul, soon after Selim, in Dhu 
'1-Hidjdja g26/Nov.-Dec. 1520, and was buried at 
Eyyub beside the mosque founded by his wife, 
Zeyneb Khatun. 

His great history, the Hasht Bihisht (HadjdjI 
Khalifa, ed. Fliigel, no. 2131, and cf. nos. 2152 and 
14406), the 'Eight Paradises', i.e. the reigns of the 
eight sultans from 'Othman to BSyezid II, is written 
in the most elaborate style of Persian inshd?, 
avowedly on the models of the histories of Djuwaynl, 
Wassaf, Mu c in al-DIn Yazdl and Sharaf al-Din YazdI. 
Though it was highly esteemed both by Sa'd al-DIn, 
who frequently refers to it (cf. especially i 159), and 
by Hammer-Purgstall (cf. i XXXIV), it is still 
unpublished. It was begun in 908/1502-3 and 
finished in thirty months; the last political event 
described in detail is the relief of Midilli in 907, but 
the latest date recorded is 912. The long Khdtime, 
entirely in verse, which was written in Mecca (cf. 
Rieu, CPM 219a), describes the civil war at the end 
of Bayezid's reign; it concludes with a Shikdyet-ndme, 
in which Idris relates his misfortunes. 

A continuation (dhayl) to Idris's history, covering 
the reign of Selim I, was written by his son Abu 
'1-Fadl (on whom see Babinger, 95 ff.). A Turkish 
translation of the Hasht Bihisht was made by a 
certain c Abd al-Bakl Sa c di in 1146/1733-4 at the 
command of Mahroud I ; it is not altogether reliable 
(cf. M. Siikrii in Isl. XIX [1931] 138). The history 
of Kemal Pashazade [q.v.], sometimes referred to as 
a 'translation' of the Hasht Bihisht, was written as a 
nazire to it, but is an entirely independant work. 

Idrls also wrote a Selim-ndme in prose and verse, 
which was left unfinished at his death and edited 
later by Abu '1-Fadl (a quite distinct work from 
Abu '1-Fadl's dhayl, cf. F. Tauer in ArO IV [1932] 
103). He was a poet and a calligrapher (cf. Mustaklm- 
zade, Tuhfat-i Khattdtin, 1st. 1928, no), and wrote 
a number of treatises on various subjects including: 

(1) al-Ibd' '■an mawdkiH 'l-wabd 1 (H.Kh. no. 5930 
[? and 6218], Brockelmann II 302 and cf. S II 325); 

(2) two Persian translations of the 'Forty Hadiths' 
(H.Kh. no. 7507, and cf. A. Karahan, Islam-Turk 
Edebiyatinda Kirk Hadis, Istanbul 1954, n 1-3); 

(3) a sharh to the Fusiis al-hikam (H.Kh. no. 9073) ; 

(4) a sharh to Shabistarf's Gulshan-i Rdz (H. Kh. 
no. 10839); (5) a sharh, entitled Hakk al-Mubin, to 
Shabistarf's Hakk al-Yakin; (6) a sharh to the 
Khamriyye of Ibn al-Farid (Br. S I 464); (7) Risdla 
fi 'l-Nafs (Br. S II 325); (8) a hdshiye to Baydawi's 
Tafsir (cf. Rieu, CPM 216b) ; (9) a Persian translation 
of Damiri's Haydt al-Hayawdn (cf. Hammer- 
Purgstall, ii, 518 and 'Othmanli Muellifleri iii 7, where 
an autograph MS is recorded). Bursall Mehmed 
Tahir also records five other works, which he had 
presumably seen. 

Bibliography: Babinger, 45 ff. and the 
references there given, especially Rieu, CPM, 
216-9; Hammer-Purgstall, ii, 432 ff., for Idris's 
activities in Kurdistan (mainly following Abu 
'1-Fadl's dhayl); Sheref-ndme, ed. Veliaminof- 
Zernof 342 ff. = Charmoy's translation ii/i 208 ff. 
(where however the Hasht Bihisht, perhaps through 
confusion with the Selim-ndme, is described as a 
poem of 80,000 verses: this error was reproduced 
by C. Huart in the article Bidlisi in EI 1 = Idris 
Bitlisi in lA); M. Sukrii, Das Heit BihiSt des Idris 
Bitlisi, in Isl. XIX (1931) I3I-I57 (survey of the 
MSS in Istanbul, including autographs dated 919, 
and analysis of contents to the death of Orkhan) ; 
Storey, ii/2 412-6 (the latest and fullest survey of 
the MSS). A passage from e Abd al-Baki's trans- 



lation is quoted by F. Babinger in Isl. XI (1921) 
42 ff., and several passages of the Persian text are 
quoted by F. Giese in Die Verschiedenen Text- 
rezensionen des c AHqpaSdde, Abh. Pr. Ak. W. 1936, 
Phil.-Hist. Kl. no. 4. Some passages from the 
Selim-ndme are given in translation by H. Mass6 
in Silim I" en Syrie, d'apres le Silim-name, in 
Mdlanges Syriens offerts d M. Rend Dussaud, 
Paris 1939, ii, 779-782. In the archives of the 
Topkapi Sarayi are preserved Idris's letter asking 
for permission to go on the Pilgrimage (E 3156) 
and the letter he sent from Mecca (E 5675, repro- 
duced, with Turkish synopsis, by F. R. Unat in 
Bell. VII [1943], 198). A letter sent by Idris to 
Suleyman I and Idris's seal are reproduced in 
I. H. Uzuncarsdi, Osmanh Tarihi ii, Ankara 1949, 
PI. xxi. (V. L. Menage) 

BIDLlSl, Sharaf al-DIn Khan, commonly 
known as Sharaf Khan, Persian historian of 
Kurdish extraction, the elder brother of the Amir of 
Bidlis, Shams al-DIn Khan, born at Karah-rud near 
Kumm on 20 Dhu '1-Ka'da 949/20 February 1543, 
during the exile of his father. His family was taken 
under the protection of Shah Tahmasp the Safawid 
(930-984/1524-1576), and he was brought up at the 
court of that ruler with the latter's children, and re- 
ceived his education there. At the age of twelve, he 
was raised to the rank of amir of the Kurds, and held 
this position for three years. In Djumada II 975/ 
January 1568 he took part in a campaign in Gilan 
against the last prince of the KiyaT dynasty, Khan 
Ahmad Khan (943-1020/1536-1611), who on several 
occasions rebelled against the Safawids. This 
campaign having ended with the capture of the 
prince, he returned to court, and Shah Isma'il II, on 
his accession to the {hrone in 984/1576, conferred upon 
him the governorship of the province of Nakhciwan 
and Shirwan, with the title of amir al-umara? of 
the Kurds. At the time of the invasions of these 
regions by the Turks under Murad III in 986/1578, 
he joined the army of the victorious Khusraw Pasha 
and in this way was placed on the throne of his 
ancestors at Bidlis. In 1005/1596-7, he abdicated in 
favour of his son Shams al-DIn Khan, and commenced 
the task of writing a history of the Kurds in Persian, 
under the title of Sharaf-ndma, a work in 15 chapters, 
the first of which are devoted to the Kurdish tribes 
and princes and the last (part 2) to the Persian and 
Turkish rulers of his time. This work was translated 
into Turkish first by Muhammad Bey b. Ahmad Bey 
Mirza in 1078/1667-8, and later by Sham'I in 1095/ 
1684 (autograph MS. in the Bodleian). The Persian 
text was published by Veliaminof-Zernof (Scheref- 
Nameh, or history of the Kurds, by Scheref, prince 
of Bidlis, published, . . . translated and annotated 
. . ., 2 vols., St. Petersburg 1860-2), and a reprint 
of the first part appeared in Cairo in 193 1. F. B. 
Charmoy has translated it into French (Cheref- 
Ndmeh or history of the Kurdish nation, by Cheref- 
ou'ddine . . . translated with a commentary . . ., 
2 vols. (4 books), St. Petersburg 1868-75). 

Bibliography: Wolkow, Notice sur I'ouvrage 
persan intituU Scheref Nami, in J A, viii (1826), 
291-8; Veliaminof-Zernof, Scheref -Nameh, i, 3 ff.; 
H. A. Barb, Geschichtliche Skizze, iv, SBAk. Wien, 
= Geschichte der Kurdischen Fiirstenherrschaft, 
96 ff. ; idem, Vber die unter dem Namen "Tarich 
el Akrad" bekannte Kurden-Chronik von Scheref, 
SBAk. Wien, phil.-hist. Classe, vol. x, Vienna 
1853, 258-76; idem, Geschichtliche Skizze der 33 ver- 
schiedenen Kurdischen FiirstengesMechter, SBAk. 
Wien, vol xxii, Vienna 1857, 328; idem, Geschichte 



BIDLISI — BIHAR 



fiinf Kurden-Dynastien, SBah. Wien, vol. xxviii, 
Vienna 1858, 3-54; idem, Geschichte von Weitern 
Kurden-Dynastien, SBAk. Wien, vol. xxx/i, Vienna 
1859; idem, Geschichte der Kurdischen Fiirstenherr- 
schaft in Bidlis. Aus dem Scherefname, 4 vols., 
SBAk. Wien, vol. xxxii, Vienna 1859, 145-250; 
Morley, A descriptive catalogue of the historical ma- 
nuscripts in the Asiatic and Persian languages 
preserved in the Library of the Royal Asiatic 
Society . . ., London 1854, 146-50; C. Rieu, Cat. 
of the Persian MSS. in [the British Museum, 
vol. 1, London 1879, 208-9; Storey, i, 366-9; 
Said Naficy, Tdrikhca-yi Mukhtasar-i Adabiyyat-i 
Iran, in Sdl-ndma-yi Pars, 1328 solar/1949, 36. 



(Sai: 



Naf 



v) 



BIDPAY [see kalila 
BlGHA (the Greek Il^yai), a town in north- 
western Asia Minor and now the centre of a kadd* in 
the province of Can5k-Kal c e, is situated on the 
Kodja fay, i.e., the ancient Granicus, about 15 miles 
from the Sea of Marmara. At the mouth of the Kodja 
Cay stands Kara Bigha (the npioOTo; of classical 
times), which is the port ("iskele") of Bigha. Bigha, 
under Ottoman rule, was at different times a 
sandiak of the eydlet-i Bahr-i Sefid (the province of 
the Kapudan Pasha or High Admiral of the Ottoman 
fleet), a sandiak of the wildyet of Khudawendigar 
(Brusa), and still later a kadd' in the Mutesarriflik 
of Bigha (the administrative centre of which was, 
however, not Bigha itself, but Kal c e-i Sultaniyye, 
i.e., CanSk-Kal'e). The town had in 1945 about 8150 
inhabitants. 

Bibliography: Hadjdji Khalifa. Diihdnnumd, 
Istanbul 1 145/1732, 667; Ewliya Celebi, Seydhat- 
ndme, v, Istanbul A.H. 1315, 299-300; P. A. von 
Tischendorf, Das Lehnswesen in den moslemischen 
Staaten, Leipzig 1872, 71 ; W. Tomaschek, Zur 
historischen Topographie von Kleinasien im Mittel- 
alter (SBAk. Wien, Phil.-Hist. CI., Bd. 124), Wien 
1891, 14 and 94; F. Taeschner, Das anatolische 
Wegenetz nach osmanischen Quellen, (Turkische 
Bibliothek, Bd. 23), Leipzig 1926, i, 158, and ii, 
70; 0. L. Barkan, Kanunlar, 19-21 (Biga Livdsi 
Kanunu: 922/1517); V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, 
iii, Paris 1894, 753 ff.; Pauly-Wissowa, vii/2 (1912), 
s.v. Granikos, cols. 1814-1815; Sami, Kdmus al- 
AHdm, ii, Istanbul A.H. 1306, 1441 ; C A1I Diawad. 
Ta'rikh ve Djoghrdfiya Lughatl, Istanbul A.H. 
1313-1314, 224-225; lA, s.v. Biga (Besim Darkot). 

(V. J. Parry) 
BlGHA [ses misaha], 

BIH'AFRlD B. FARWARDlN, an Iranian relig- 
ious agitator who, in the later period of Umayyad rule 
— about 129/747 — set himself up as a new prophet at 
Khawaf in the district of Nishapur. He gathered 
about him a large following and was put to death 
with his disciples on the orders of Abu Muslim in 
131/749. Before this he is believed to have lived in 
China for seven years and on his return, to have 
revealed himself to certain people as resurrected and 
descended from heaven. Legend also has it that he 
pretended to be dead and remained for a year in the 
tomb which he had had built for himself. Enunciating 
his doctrine in a Persian scripture and claiming that 
he was in essence a Zoroastrian, he nevertheless 
adopted certain practices and prohibitions which 
seem to be inspired by Islam. Among these were the 
prohibition of wine, animals not ritually bled, and con- 
sanguinary marriages, the abolition of the zamzama 
[q.v.], the prescription of seven daily prayers to be 
offered up facing the sun, and obligatory alms- 
giving. 



Doubtless, he intended by this compromise to 
give a new lease of life to his old religion. But Abu 
Muslim, incited to turn against him by the Mobadhs 
who did not approve of this reform and realising 
moreover the danger which this movement repre- 
sented for the new converts, forced Bih'afrid 
to rally to Islam and to support the 'Abbasid cause. 
As, in spite of this, the reformer continued his 
preaching, he was later executed. Adherents of his 
doctrine, awaiting the return to earth of their 
master, were still to be found in the 4th/ioth century. 
Bibliography: Fihrist, 344; Khwarizmi, Ma- 
fdtih aW-Vlum, ed. van Vloten, 38 ; Baghdad!, Fark, 
347; Shahrastani, 187; Biriini, Chronologie, ed. 
Sachau, 210; Tha c alibi, K. al-Ghurar, ap. M. Th. 
Houtsma, WZKM, iii, 1889, 30-37; G. H. Sadighi, 
Les mouvements religieux iraniens, Paris 1938, 
in-131; S. Moscati, Rend. Lin. 1949, 474ft.; 
B. Spuler, Iran in friihislamischer Zeit, Wiesbaden 
1952, 196. (D. Sourdel) 

BIHAR, a province of India lying between 
23 48' and 27 31' N. and 83° 20' and 88° 32' E., 
bounded by Uttar Pradesh on the west, Nepal on 
the north, Bengal and East Pakistan on the east 
and Orissa on the south; area, with Chota Nagpur, 
67,164 sq.m., population 38,784,000. The dialects 
of the predominantly Hindu population, Bihjpuri, 
Maithili and Magahi, are referred to as Bihari, and 
are more akin to Bengali than to Hindi ; the latter is, 
however, the official language of administration and 
education. The region is now of major economic 
importance on account of its coalfields and heavy 
iron industries. 

Bihar — which takes its name from the now 
unimportant town of Bihar, surrounded by Buddhist 
monasteries (Skt. vihdra) — was in the British period 
from 1765 within the Lieutenant-Governorship of 
Bengal, later joined administratively with the now 
independent Orissa [q.v.]. This lack of independence 
reflects the position of the region — whose boundaries 
have only been formally defined in recent years — • 
from the earliest days of Islamic supremacy in 
India, and its history is one of individual governors 
and towns rather than of dynasties and regions. 
Monghyr (Mungir), for example, was taken during 
Ikhtiyar al-DIn Muhammad b. Bakhtiyar Khaldii's 
raids on Bihar in 589/1193 and held by him undei 
the Delhi sultan Kutb al-DIn Aybak; it was annexed 
to Delhi by Muhammad b. Tughluk in 730/1330, 
belonged to Djawnpur (Jaunpur) from 799/1397, 
reverted to Delhi when overrun by Sikandar Lodi in 
893/1488, and was later held by the kings of Bengal 
before becoming subject to the Mughals. Parts of 
Bihar did form a separate administrative unit in the 
7th/i3th centuries (Shams al-Din Iletmish esta- 
blished a governor in Bihar in 622/1225); under 
Akbar in 990/1582 it formed a suba of eight sarkdrs, 
subordinate to the suba of Bengal. The capital 
remained at the town of Bihar until transferred to 
Patna by Sher Shah Siiri in the gth/i5th century. 
The importance of the region was as a buffer between 
Awadh and Bengal until the Mughal period, when 
the emphasis was as a line of communication 
between them, as many fine bridges of the Mughal 
viceroys testify. 

2. Monuments: There is no particular 'Bihari' 
style of Indo-Islamic architecture. The finest group 
of buildings is at Sahsaram, including the justly 
famous mausoleum of Sher Shah (inscription of 
952/1545) standing 50 m. high in a large artificial 
lake ; its architect, Aliwal Khan, had been a master- 
builder under the Delhi Lodls, but his ti 



BIHAR — BIHKUBADH 



the octagonal mausoleum transcends any of the 
LodI conceptions. Sher Shah obtained the fort of 
Rohtasgafh from its Hindu Radia in 946/1 5 39. and 
to him is attributed the Djami' Masdjid; the recon- 
structed fortifications, the palaces, Habash Mian's 
tomb and mosque, etc., date from the viceregency 
(988-1008/1580-1600) of Radia Man Singh under 
Akbar; to Man Singh is attributed the mosque at 
Hadaf, near Radjmahal: the long barrel-vault 
traversing the central bay of the liwdn of this early 
Mughal structure recalls the style of Djwanpur [q.v.]. 
Monghyr has been mentioned above: the fort is 
reputed to have been built by early Bengal kings, but 
the style appears Mughal; Radia Todar Mall is 
known to have repaired the fortifications in 988/1580. 
The two forts of Palamaw, built by local Cero 
Radjas in the nth/i7th century, were taken by the 
Mughal governor Da'tid Mian Kurayshl, who erected 
a mosque (1070/1660) and other structures; the 
Naya Kil'a boasts the splendid Nagpuri Darwaza 
ji the Djahangirl style. The tomb of Makhdum 
ShahDawlat (Chotf Dargah) at Maner erected 
by the governor Ibrahim Khan in 1017-26/1608-16 
is of some merit. For other buildings see M. H. 
Kuraishi, cited below. 

Bibliography : There are no primary sources 
specifically dealing with Bihar; for the various 
historical incidents involving Bihar see Cambridge 
History of India, Vols iii (1928) and iv (1937) 
(full bibliographies); also Imperial Gazetteer of 
India, Vol. viii, Oxford 1908, and, for local 
histories, relevant volumes of the Bihar and 
Orissa District Gazetteers, Patna c. 1930; some are 
revised versions of the former Bengal District 
Gazetteer. 

For the monuments of Sher Shah Suri, see 

A. Cunningham, ASI Report, xi, 1880; Percy 

Brown, Indian Architecture (Islamic Period), 

Bombay n.d., Chap, xvi ; H. Goetz, The mausoleum 

of Sher Shah at Sasaram, in Ars Islamica, v, i, 97; 

for other monuments also, ASI Annual Report 

1922-3, 34-41, and (most important, with full 

descriptions and histories of monuments) Maulvl 

Muhammad Hamid Kuraishi, List of Ancient 

Monuments . . . in Bihar and Orissa, A SI, NIS 

Vol. li, Calcutta 1931, 54-66, 139-141, 146-191, 

197-202, 207-219. (J. Burton-Page) 

BIHAR-I DANISH [see 'inayat allah ijanbO]. 

ai.-BIHArI, Muhibb Allah b. 'Abd al-ShakOr 

al-'UthmanI al-$iddiicI al-HanafI was born at 

Kara, a village near Muhibb 'AHpQr in the province of 

Bihar (India). He belonged to the Malik community, 

of exotic origin, still unidentified. He received his 

early education from Kutb al-DIn al-Ansari al- 

Sihalwl and read some books with Kutb al-Din al- 

Husaynl al-Shamsabadl. After completing his 

studies he went to the Deccan where Awrangzlb 

was at the time engaged in military operations 

against the local rulers. The emperor, impressed 

by his erudition, especially his high proficiency in 

jurisprudence, appointed him kadi of Lucknow. 

After some years he was posted to Haydarabad on 

the defeat of Abu '1-Hasan Tana Shah, the ruler of 

Golconda, in 1097/1686-7 at the hands of Awrangzlb. 

He was later appointed tutor to Prince Rafi' al- 

Kadr, a son of Shah 'Alam b. Awrangzlb. He went 

to Kabul in 1 109/1697 along with his ward when 

Shah 'Alam was appointed governor of that 

province. On his accession to the throne in 1118/ 

1706-7 Shah 'Alam Bahadur Shah I appointed him 

the chief justice of the realm and conferred on him 



the title of "Fadil Khan". He died soon after in 
"19/1707. 

He is the author of : (i) Sullam al-'iftum, a famous 
text on logic; (ii) Musallam al-Thubut, a standard 
work on usul al-fikh; (iii) Djawhar al-Fard, a disser- 
tation on the indivisible atom. All these three books 
are prescribed as courses of study in Indo-Pakistan 
religious institutions and have been the subject of 
commentaries, glosses and super-glosses, (iv) Risdla 
fi H-mughdlafdt al-'-dmmat al-wurud; and (v) Risdla 
fi ithbdt anna madhhab al-Hanafiyya ab'-ad l an 
al-rd'y min madhhab al-ShdfiHyya. 

Bibliography: Azad Bilgrami, Ma'dthir al- 
Kirdm, Haydarabad (Dn.) 1910, 211; idem. 
Subhat al-Mardidn fi dthdr Hindustan, Bombay 
1303/1886, 76; Siddlk Hasan KannawdjI, Abdjad 
al-'Ulum, Bhopal 1296/1878, 905; Rahman 'All, 
Tadhkira-i 'Ulamd'i Hind 1 , Lucknow 1312/1894, 
175 ; Brockelmann, GAL II, 420, S II 622-4; JASB 
(1913), 195 ff.; Muhammad Husayn Azad, Tadhki- 
ra-i 'Ulamd'-i Hind, Lahore 1914, 42; Zubaid 
Ahmad, Contribution of India to Arabic Literature, 
Jullundur 1946, 56-9, 126-130; c Abd al-Hayy 
Nadwl, Nuzhat al-Khawdfir, Haydarabad (Dn.) 
1 376/1957, vi, 250-2; Fakir Muhammad Lahori, 
Hadd'ik al-Hanafiyya', Lucknow, 1324/1906, 431; 
Fadl-i Imam Khayrabadi, Tarddjim al-Fudala' 
(Eng. trans. Bazmee Ansari), Karachi 1956, 48-53. 

(A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
BIHARISTAN [see qtAmI]. 
BIHISHT [see djanna]. 

BIHISHTl, takhallus of an Ottoman poet and 
historian, whose personal name was Ahmed. He was 
born in about 871/1466-7, the son of a certain 
Suleyman Bey. At the age of 13 he entered the 
service of Bayezid as a page, but was banished from 
court for some offence and is reported to have fled 
to Harat. He was pardoned but not received back 
into favour. He was writing his History in the last 
year of Bayezld's reign (917/1511-2) and probably 
died in that year. 

Bihishtl is said to have written the first Khamsa 
[q.v.] in Ottoman Turkish; of his methnewis sur- 
vive: Leyld we MedinUn, Makhzen al-Esrdr, 
Mihr it MusUeri, iskender-ndme and Heft Peyker. 
His History, written in a somewhat turgid style, 
probably consisted originally of eight 'books', one 
for each of the sultans from 'Othman to Bayezid II. 
Add. 7869 in the British Museum and Revan KoskU 
1270, two portions of the same MS, cover the years 
791-908; Add. 24,995 in the British Museum, a later 
compilation mainly based on Bihishtl's history, 
probably contains material from the first thiee 
'books', which are not known in the full version. 
The history, which follows closely the Hasht BiltisU 
of Idris Bidllsl [q.v.], is neither so early nor so 
important as was once believed. 

Bibliography: Babinger, 43, and sources 
noted there, especially Rieu, CTM, 44 and 47; 
S. Niizhet Ergun, Turk Sairleri, s.v.; R. liter, 
Bihisti ve Leylt vii Mecnun'u, unpublished thesis, 
no. 386 in the Turkiyat Enstitusii library (a study 
of Turkish MS 5591 in the library of Istanbul 
University); a MS. at Ushaw College, Durham, 
contains the five poems named above. 

(V. L. Menage) 
BIHKUBADH, in 'Abbasid times the name 
(adopted, with the organisation, from the Sasanid 
Persians) of three districts (Astdn, Arabic Kurd) of 
the province of 'Irak, all situated on the eastern 
branch (modern Hilla branch) of the Euphrates. The 
name means "the Goodness (or good lands?) of 



BIHKUBADH - 



Kubadh", aSasanid king who reigned in the 5th cen- 
tury A.D. The districts bordered, to the south, on 
that of Kufa, and on the Great Swamp of the Lower 
Euphrates. The three districts, sometimes referred 
to jointly as the Bihkubadhat, were those of Upper, 
Middle, and Lower Bihkubadh. The Upper district 
contained six sub-districts {tassudj), those of the 
village and ruins of Babil (Babylon), Khutamiya. 
Upper and Lower al-Talludja, c Ayn al-Tamr, and 
another. Middle Bihkubadh contained four sub- 
divisions, those of the Badat Canal, of Sura and 
BarblsamS, of Barusama, and of Nahr al-Malik. 
Lower Bihkubadh. had five subdivisions, including 
those of Furat Badahla and Nistar. 

Bibliography: BGA, passim, particularly iii, 

133; vi. 7,236; Yakut, i, 77o; Mardsid al-Itfild', 

Lexic. geogr. (ed. Juynboll), i. 57, 183 ; iv. 98, 411 ff. ; 

BalSdhuri, Futuh, 271, 464; M. Streck, Baby- 

lonien nach den arab. Geographen, i. (1900), 16, 20; 

J. Marquart, ErdnSahr = Abh. G. W. Gdtt., New 

Series, Vol. iii, no. 2 (1901), 142, 163 ff.; Le 

Strange, 70, 81. (M. Streck-[S. H. Lokgrigg]) 

BIHROZ (Amir), son of Amir Rustam and, like 

him, chief of the Donboli. A loyal ally of the 

Safawids, he took part in the war between Shah 

Tahmasp and Sultan Sulayman al-Kanunl in 945/ 

1538. He died in 985/1577, at the age of 90, after 

having been in power for 50 years. His lakab was 

Sulayman Khalifa. (B. Nikitike) 

BIHROZ KHAN, son of Shah Bandar Mian, 
amir of the Donboli. He was known under the name 
of Sulayman Khan al-Thanl. At the time of Sultan 
Murad's attack on Adharbaydjan, he distinguished 
himself in the army of Shah Safl. He died in 1041/ 
1631-2. 

Bibliography : M. E. Zaki, Mashdhir al-Kurd 

wa-Kurdistdn, 144; Ta'rikh al-Duwal wa 'l-Imdrat 

al-Kurdiyya, 386, 387. (B. Nikitike) 

BIHZAD, Kamal al-DIk, Ustad, the most 

famous Persian miniature-painter. The main 

sources for his life are: 1. Kh'andamir, Ifabib al- 

Siyar, Bombay 1857, iii, 350 (T. W. Arnold, Painting 

in Islam, Oxford 1928, 140) and two documents from 

his Ndma-i Ndmi (Bibl. Nat., MS. Suppl. Pers. 1842), 

a preface to an album of calligraphy and miniatures 

compiled by Bihzad and the document appointing 

him head of the royal Kitab-Khana (Muhammad 

Kazwlnl-L. Bouvat, Deux documents inidits relatifs 

d Behzad, in RMM, xxvi, 1914, 146-161); 2. Bdbur- 

ndma, ed. Beveridge, London 1921, 272, 291, 329; 

3. Mirza Muljammad Haydar Dughlat, Ta>rikh-i 
Rashldi (T. W. Arnold, in BSOS, v, 1930, 672-673); 

4. Dust Muhammad b. Sulayman of Harat, Account 
of past and present printers of the year 95J 
{1544) in the Bahram Mirza Album, Top-kapu Serai 
Libr., Istanbul (Binyon-Wilkinson-Gray, Persian 
Miniature Painting, Oxford 1933, 186); 5. Mustafa 
c AlI, Mendkib-i Hiinerwerdn (995/1587), Istanbul 
1926, 37, 63-65, 67; 6, Kadi Ahmad b. MIr-MunshI, 
Gulistdn-i Hunar (1 01 5/1 606), (Calligraphers and 

painters tr. by V. Minorsky, Washington, 1959, 

159, 179-80, 183); 7. Iskandar Munshl, Ta'rikh-i 
c Alam-drd-yi 'Abbdsi (T. W. Arnold, Painting in 
Islam, 141). 

On the basis of the existing work of Bihzad, one 
can assume that he was born during the decade 
1450-60. Mirza Muhammad Haydar Dughlat, Dust 
Muhammad, and Kadi Ahmad describe him as a 
pupil of Amir Ruh Allah, known as MIrak Nakkash 
of Harat, the librarian of Sultan Husayn Baykara, 
who brought up the young orphan; the Turkish art 
historian c Ali states, however, that his teacher was 



Bihzad continued {Tuzuk-i DJahdngiri, trs. Roger 
and Beveridge, ii, 116). He became recognised very 
quickly, and received great artistic opportunities 
through his first patron Mir C A1I Shir Nawal and, 
from some time before 893/1488 on, through the 
Timurid Husayn Baykara, at whose court in Ha) at 
gathered the intellectual ilite of the time with 
Nawa^, Djaml and Kh'andamir at their head. 
Bihzad remained in Harat after the dynasty was 
overthrown by Muhammad Khan Shavbani (1507). 
Babur says that this prince had the presumption 
to correct Bihzad's miniatures. He moved, however, 
to Tabriz, the Safawid capital, with the tetter's 
conqueror, Shah Isma'il. The favour which he 
enjoyed with the latter is evident from the story 
told by c Ali of Isma'il's anxiety about Bihzad 
during the campaign against Sultan Selim I, in 15 14. 
The distinction in which he was held became even 
more evident from the fact that on 27th Djumada I 
928/1522 he was appointed head of the royal 
library and placed in charge of all the librarians, 
calligraphers, painters, gilders, marginal draughts- 
men, gold mixers, gold beaters and lapis-lazuli 
washers. This document disproves the statement of 
Kadi Ahmad that Bihzad remained in Harat until 
the beginning of the reign of Shah Tahmasp (930/ 
1524). Under Shah Tahmasp, Bihzad also received 
numerous marks of honour and was engaged along 
with Sultan Muhammad and Aka MIrak in the 
royal library. In the LafdHf-ndma of Fakhri Sultan 
Muhammad (c. 927/1520; Brit. Mus. Add. 7,669, 
fol. 98) is a story which illustrates the aged Bihzad's 
manner of working: he took a Turkish assistant, 
Darwlsh Muhammad Nakkash of Khurasan, a 
colour-preparer, as his pupil and finally entrusted 
him with his own works. As other pupils are men- 
tioned by Haydar Mirza: the portrait painter Kasim 
C A1I, Maksud and Mulla Yusuf; by c AlI: Shaykhzada 
of Khurasan and Aka MIrak; by Kadi Ahmad: 
Dust-i Dlwana and the father of the painter Muzaffar 
'All; he also called Bihzad a contemporary of Yari 
Mudhahhib of Harat which is borne out by the fact 
that they jointly worked on the Bustdn of 893 H. 
in Cairo (see below). Kadi Ahmad places Darwlsh 
and Kasim C A1I into a slightly earlier period than 
Bihzad, which would make the master-student 
relationship doubtful. Finally Iskandar Munshi 
states that Muzaffar C A1I was one of his pupils. 
According to a chronogram given by Dust Muham- 
mad, Bihzad died in 942/1536-1537 and was buried 
in Tabriz beside the poet Shaykh Kamal of Khudjand: 
according to another tradition, he died earlier, in 
1533-1534- Still another tradition preserved by Kadi 
Ahmad has it that he died in Harat and that he 
was buried in the neighbourhood of Kuh-i Mukhtar 
within an enclosure full of paintings and ornaments. 
In the Yildiz Library in Istanbul is an alleged 
portrait miniature which shows the aged Bihzad as 
an unassuming, apparently shy man in Safawid 
costume (A. Sakisian, La miniature persane, Paris- 
Brussels 1929, fig. 130). 

The older sources yield little information for our 
knowledge of Bihzad as an artist, however much 
they praise him as the greatest of his age. Kh w an- 
damir's extravagant language seems to emphasise 
his great refinement, minute perfection and power 
of lifelike representation. Haydar Mirza compares 
him with his teacher MIrak, whose art is riper although 
not so finished; also with Shah Muzaffar who seems 
to have been held in almost equal esteem, whom 



Bihzad surpassed, however, in control of the brush, 
in drawing and in figure composition, without 
attaining his delicacy. Kadi Ahmad stresses his 
sense of proportion and he mentions the excellence 
of his bird images and that he was fluent in his 
charcoal drawings. Babur praises his art as very 
delicate, especially emphasising the fact that he 
drew bearded figures admirably, while his beardless 
figures were not so good, and adds that he exaggerated 
the length of the double chin. Babur"s successors on 
the Mughal throne were also among his admirers, 
eagerly endeavoured to get his works for their 
libraries and frequently mention the prices they 
paid (c. 3-5,000 rupees). His works had, however, 
already previously been collected, as some of his 
paintings formed part of an album of the Safawid 
prince Sultan Ibrahim Mirza (d. 984/1517. Diahangir 
is one Of the first to mention the tradition, also 
recorded elsewhere, that Bihzad was specially 
distinguished for his drawing of battle-scenes. As a 
result of the general esteem in which he was held 
Bihzad's name finally became proverbial. According 
to Kh w andamir he should be put alongside of Mini, 
the other traditional creator of incomparable 
masterpieces, while in typically Persian hyperbole, 
Kadi Ahmad exaggerates this further by stating 
that Man! would have imitated him had he known 
of him. 'All, however, hints that Bihzad's success 
was to some extent due to the influence of his 
patrons. This presupposes intrigues and jealousies 
which may account for the fact that Bihzad is not 
properly listed in the account of Persian painters 
and calligraphers given by the Safawid Prince Sam 
Mirza in his Tuhfa-yi Sdmi (M. Mahfuz-ul Haq, 
Persian Painters, illuminators and calligraphers, etc. 
in the 16th century, A.D., in Journal & Proceedings, 
Asiatic Society of Bengal, New Series, vol. 38, 1932, 
239-42). 

Modern research has been mainly concerned with 
identifying Bihzad's original works. It has been to 
some extent successful, especially since the London 
Exhibition of Persian Art in 1931 at which a large 
number of pictures ascribed to Bihzad were brought 
together. It is, however, not yet possible to isolate 
him completely from others in his artistic develop- 
ment and characteristic qualities, as a sufficiently 
large number of works have not yet been definitely 
attributed to his predecessors and contemporaries. 
The problem is greatly complicated by the fact that 
as a result of Bihzad's fame his signature has been 
wrongly added to miniatures for centuries, be it 
for financial profit or to provide a collector with a 
page by the celebrated painter; or his works have 
been copied, including the signatures, either in Mo 
or in parts, or they have been finished or restored 
after his death. 

The basis for our actual knowledge of Bihzad's 
work is provided by the paintings in the Bustdn MS. 
finished in Radjab 893/June 1488 in Harat, in the 
Egyptian National Library, Cairo. It was written 
for Sultan Husayn Baykara by Sultan c Ali al-Katib, 
illuminated by Yari, and it has one double frontispiece 
miniature (with a now defaced signature) and four 
single-page paintings, dated 893 and 894. Two of 
the latter have Bihzad's name in the architectural 
decoration, so that they could not possibly be a later 
addition, and 2 other signatures are so inconspicu- 
ously placed and modest in tone that they too seem 
to be genuine. As all paintings are in the same style 
and of the same quality, they have been accepted 
nearly universally as authentic works of the master. 
They prove to be the fulfilment of the Tfmurid style 



which is shown to perfection. These paintings are 
most skilfully and harmoniously composed, also in 
relation to the inserted text units. Within the picto- 
rial space which is treated according to the concepts 
of the period the none- too-large figures are well 
distributed in their proper numbers. The rich 
pigments are of a wide range and applied with a 
highly developed colour sense. They reveal that, on 
the whole, Bihzad seems to have preferred cool 
colours, such as blues and greens, particularly in 
interior scenes, but they are always balanced by 
complementary warm colours, especially a bright 
orange. All the units of the design fit into a deco- 
ratively conceived all-over picture which is perfectly 
executed. The branches of trees in bloom, the richly 
decorated tile patterns, and the designs on the 
carpets reveal in particular the artist's decorative 
sense and the delicacy of his work. Its realism 
distinguishes it, however, from the paintings of the 
previous period. This is apparent in the iconography 
which is no longer purely of courtly nature and 
primarily devoted to the manly deeds and loves of 
kings; it brings in addition and on the same level 
everyday events {e.g., the odd behaviour of a drunken 
prince, the wudu' at a mosque, mares nursing foals 
in a stud farm, etc.) and shows also a concern for 
the activities of persons of lower social standing 
(a bawwdb chastising an intruder, servants bringing 
food, peasants at work, etc.). Furthermore the figures 
are no longer mere types, puppets with mask-like 
faces, but are individualised and often shown full 
of spontaneous movement or with a sense for the 
dramatic. Even when they are shown in repose, 
their attitude is natural. 

Since none of the other works connected with 
Bihzad have a safe signature, though some of them 
carry attributions dating from the first half of the 
16th century, only their stylistic aspect — the 
perfectly executed combination of the decorative 
and the realistic — can serve as guide to other true 
Bihzadian paintings. Some additional help is 
provided by the custom of the period to work with 
stencils, so that individual figures known from a 
well established Bihzad painting can be traced in 
other, more uncertain works, although such a 
procedure could also have been done by a student. 
Unfortunately, our present ignorance of Bihzad's 
paintings prior to 1485 and after 1500 leaves us in 
doubt about the master's activities in his youth 
and old age. In view of so many uncertainties, it 
is natural that scholars have disagreed about certain 
attributions, but even if not all of the following 
works are by the master himself, they are at least 
from his school. 

1. Mir C A1I Shir Nawal, Khamsa, dated 890/1485 
and written for Badi c al-Zaman son of Sultan 
Husayn Baykara. 4 vols, in Bodleian Library 
(MSS. Elliot 287, 408, 317, 339) and 1 vol. in John 
Rylands Library, Manchester (Turk. MS. 3). At 
least 1 miniature (Elliot 287, fol. 7r°: "Muhammad 
and his Companions" very close to Bihzad while 
another, Elliot 339, 95V : "Mystics in Landscape", 
shows strong influence of his style. 

2. Amir Khusraw Dihlawi, Khamsa, written in 
890/1485 by Muhammad b. Azhar. Four miniatures 
close to Bihzad (F. R. Martin, Les miniatures de 
Behzad dans un manuscrit persan date" 1485, Munich, 
1912, pis. 9, 16, 18 and 21). 

3. Gulistdn written by Sultan c Ali Katib, Muhar- 
ram 891/Jan. i486. M. de Rothschild Collection, 
Paris. One miniature ("Sa'di and the youth of 
Kashghar") most likely by Bihzad. The paintings 



of these 3 MSS. of 1485-86, if they are indeed by 
Bihzad, whould represent the work of his youth, 
which has not yet quite reached the quality of the 
Cairo Bustan MS. 

4. Double miniature "Sultan Husayn Biykara 
with his Harim and Retinue in a Garden", ca. 
1490-1495. Tehran, Gulistan Palace Library. Very 
close to Bihzad's style, goes at least in part back 

5. Nizami, Khamsa, text dated 846/1442, British 
Museum, Add. 25,900. 19 miniatures of later date, 
one dated 898/1493 which is the approximate date 
for 4 miniatures in Bihzadian style. Three paintings 
have small attributions probably genuine (fols. i2iv°, 
i6ir°, 23iv°), a fourth, unsigned on fol. ii4r°, 
("Madjnun before the Ka c ba") of such high quality 
that it could also be by Bihzad. 

6. Nizami, Khamsa, written for Amir c Ali Farsi 
Barlas, one painting dated 900/1494-95. British 
Museum Or. 6810. 16 miniatures attributed to 
Bihzad by Djahanglr and most likely either by him 
(fols. 37V, 135V , igor , 2i4r°, 225V, 233V ) or by 
his students (fols. 27v°, 72v°, 93r°, io6v, 128V , 
I37r°, 144V , I54V°, I57r°, i75r°). 

7. Sharaf al-DIn c Ali Yazdi, Zafar-nama, probably 
written for Sultan Husayn Baykara; according to 
a later colophon finished in 872/1467 by Shir C A1I, 
but six double-page paintings date from 1490s. 
Johns Hopkins University Library, Baltimore 
(R. Garrett Coll.). 8 (sic) miniatures attributed 
by Djahanglr to the early period of Bihzad. All 
paintings most likely by Bihzad, though in parts, 
possibly in collaboration with students; several 
show later retouches, probably Mughal. 

8. Circular miniature "Pir and Youth in Land- 
scape" in an Anthology dated 930/1524 written for 
Wazlr Kh w adja Malik Ahmad. Washington, Freer 
Gallery of Art, no. 44, 48. The painting which may 
be earlier than the MS. closely paraphrases a minia- 
ture in no. 2. According to the introduction, the 
owner, a high official of the Safawid court, regarded 
it as a genuine work at a time when Bihzad was alive 
and connected with the royal library. It seems 
therefore to be a work of the master's old age which 
would explain its weaker and repetitive character; 
alternatively, it may be a copy by a student, 
supervised by Bihzad and therefore regarded as 

9. Single painting "Two Fighting Camels with 
Attendants", Tehran, Gulistan Palace Library. 
According to its inscription this is a work by Bihzad 
when he was 70 years old. In 1017/1608 Djahanglr 
took it to be an authentic picture. A mid-i5th 
century version of the same theme shows that this 
is much weaker than its prototype (R. Ettinghausen, 
Some paintings in four Istanbul albums, in Ars 
Orientalis i, 1954, 102, figs. 3 and 63). Nos. 8 and 9 
would therefore have to be regarded as possible 
works of Bihzad's declining years. 

Works mentioned in literature but not now known 
are: a Khamsa of Nizami written by Mawlana 
Mahmud NIshapurl for Shah Tahmasp, a Timur- 
ndma written by Sultan 'All MashhadI, and the 
paintings iu the album of miniatures for which 
Kh w andamlr wrote the preface and in the one 
owned by Sultan Ibrahim Mlrza. 

Bihzad's influence is first seen in his pupils, of 
whom some, like Kasim 'All and Aka MIrak, almost 
attained their master's level. In spite of the fact that 
another change in style took place very soon under 
the Safawids, there was in the first three decades of 
the ioth/i6th century a transitional style which shows 



many features of Bihzad's work; a characteristic 
example is an c Ali Shir Nawal MS. of 1526 (Bibl. 
Nat., Suppl. turc, 316). Harat painters carried 
Bihzad's style to Bukhara where it became esta- 
blished at the Shaybanid court. A MS. of 'Assar's 
Mihr-u Mushtari, copied in Bukhara in 929/1523 is 
a good example of how much more faithful the 
Bihzadian style was preserved there than in Tabriz 
(Freer Gallery of Art, nos. 32,5-32.8). Here the tra- 
dition of Bihzad and the Harat school survived till 
beyond the middle of the 16th century. By the 
migration of artists from centres still under Bihzad's 
influence, the Harat style and Bihzadian tradition 
were brought also to India. 

Independently of the general development of 
style we find Bihzad's miniatures and motives more 
or less faithfully copied down to the 17th century. 
"Dara's Meeting with the Horseherd" in the Cairo 
Bustdn is found in Bustdn MSS. of 1535 (Paris, 
Cartier collection) and 1556 (Bibl. Nat., Suppl. 
pers. 1 187), and others. The "Fighting Camels" 
recur in many Indian and Persian miniatures, on a 
Persian carpet with animal designs of the 17th 
century (Berlin, formerly Schloss-Museum) and on 
a green glazed faience bottle of about 1600 (London, 
Victoria and Albert Museum), while as late as 1028/ 
1619 and 1035/1626 Rida-i 'AbbasI reproduces 
designs thought to be by Bihzad (Paris, Vignier 
collection and Gulistan Palace Library). 

Bibliography: (in addition to references in 
the article) : CI. Huart, Les calligraphes et les 
miniaturistes de I'orient musulman, 1908, 222, 
239> 330 ff.; F. R. Martin, The miniature painting 
and painters of Persia, India and Turkey, 191 2, 
40 ff., fig. 39, pi. 67-93; do., Les miniatures de 
Bihzad dans un Ms. person, dati de 1485, 1912; do. 

and T. W. Arnold, The Nizami-Ms in the 

British Museum Or. 6810, 1926; G. Marteau- 
H. Vever, Miniatures persanes, 1913, fig. 219; 
E. Blochet, Les peintures des manuscrits orientaux 
de la Bibliotheque Nationale, 1914-1920, 175, 187 f., 
277-288, pi. 34-39; do., Les enluminures des 
manuscrits orientaux — turcs, arabes, persans — de la 
Bibliotheque Nationale, 1926, 89 f., 96 100, pi. xlii, 
xlviii; do., in Bulletin de la Sociiti Francaise de 
reproductions de manuscrits a peintures, x, 1926, 
8-9 and xii, 1928, 68, 85 f. (index for all passages 
in Blochet's works); E. Kuhnel, Miniaturmalerei 
im islamischen Orient, 1923, 27-29, 57, pi. 48-54; 
do., H.story of miniature painting and drawing, in 
A Survey of Persian Art, ed. A. U. Pope, London- 
New York, 1939, iii, 1858-1872, v, pi. 885-891; 
idem, Bihzad, in Mimoires, III' Congres Internal. 
d'Art et Archiologie Iraniens, 1935, Moscow- 
Leningrad 1939, 114-118, pi. LIII; T. W. Arnold, 
Painting in Islam, 1928, 33, 34 ff., 49 f., 71, 77, 
129, 150 f.; idem, Bihzad and his paintings in 
the Zafar-Ndmah Ms., 1930; A. Sakisian, La 
miniature persane, 1929, 47-50, 62-80, 85-87, 
103-105, pi. 2, 37, 46-56, 65-67, 74-75; idem, 
La miniature d I'exposition d'art person de 
Burlington House, in Syria, xii, 1931, 169-171; 
A. K. Coomaraswamy, Les miniatures orientates 
de la collection Goloubew au Museum of Fine Arts 
de Boston, 1929, no. 26-34, 71 ; M. S. Dimand, 
A Handbook of Mohammedan decorative Arts, 1930, 
32-36, fig. n; idem, A guide to an exhibition of 
Islamic Miniature painting and book illumination 
in the Metrop. Mus. of Arts, 1933, 29-34, nos. 18-20, 
31; B. Gray, Persian Painting, 1930, 57-66, pi. 7; 
idem, Persian Painting from miniatures of the 
XIII-XVI centuries, New York-Toronto 1940, 






BIHZAD — BILAL b. DJARTR al-MOHAMMADT 



12, pi. 8; J. V. S. Wilkinson, Fresh light on the 
Herat painters, in Burlington Magazine, Feb. 1931, 
62-67; V. Minorsky, Two unknown Persian manu- 
scripts, in Apollo, Feb. 1931; I. Stchoukine, Les 
miniatures persanes au Louvre, 1932, 41 f. and 
pi. ix; idem, Un Gulistan de Sa'di illustri par 
les artistes timurides, Revue des Arts Asiatiques, 
x, 1936, 92-96, pi. xxxiv-xxxv ; idem, Les 
peintures de la Khamseh de Nizami du British 
Museum, Or. 6810, in Syria, xxvii, 1950, 301- 
313; idem, Les peintures des manuscrits timurides, 
Paris 1954, 21-25, 68-86, 95, 101-104, 110-111, 
120-141; pi. lxxii-lxxxvjii (the most exhaustive 
and best critical account, which also deals with 
the main earlier publications); L. Binyon, J. 
V. S. Wilkinson and B. Gray, Persian Miniature 
Painting, 1933, chap, iv and v, pi. lxii-lxxiv, 
lxxviii-lxxxi, lxxxvi f, lxxxix ; G. Wiet, L 'ex- 
position persane de 1931, 1933, 74-78, pi. E, 
34-36; E. Kiihnel and H. Gcetz, Indische Buch- 
malerei, aus dem Jahdngir Album der Staatsbibl. 
zu Berlin, 1924, 44, pi. 3, 31, 33; E. de Lorey, 
Behzdd. Le Gulistan Rothschild, in Ars Islamica, 
iv, I 937> 122-143; idem, Behzad, in Gazette des 
Beaux-Arts, xx, 1938, 25-44; E. Schroeder, The 
Persian Exhibition and the Bihzad problem, in 
Bull. Fogg Museum of Art, vii, 1937, 3-14; 
R. Ettinghausen, "Six thousand years of Persian 
art". The exhibition of Iranian Art, New York 1940, 
in Ars Islamica, vii, 1940, in, fig. 6; B. W. 
Robinson, A descriptive catalogue of the. .Persian 
paint.ngs in the Bodleian Library, Oxford 1958, 
65-67; R. H. Pinder- Wilson, Persian painting 
of the fifteenth century, London 1958, 5, 24, 
pis. 7-9. (R. Ettinghausen) 

al-BI$A c , plural of al-Bak'a, the proper name 
of the elongated plain commonly called the Bekaa, 
which, at a mean altitude of 1,000 metres, lies 
between the mountains of Lebanon and Anti- 
Lebanon. The ancients had clearly defined it by 
the term Coele Syria (Hollow Syria) of which the 
application was subsequently extended. It is a 
depression of tectonic origin filled in by sediment, 
and is an extension of the Jordan rift along the 
north-south axis which forms one of the basic 
features of the structure of the Near East. Two 
rivers, the Lltani and the Orontes, which have 
their sources on either side of the Ba'labakk water- 
shed, drain it rather inadequately before cutting 
their way, the one through the rugged highlands of 
the south, the other through gorges opening on to 
the basalt plateau of Hims. Its continental climate 
makes it a semi-arid steppe land, which nevertheless 
is studded with oases and depressions, for long 
marshy, which justify al-Kalkashandl in mentioning 
the lake of al-Bika c in his day. 

The complementary works of drainage and 
irrigation, among which those of Tankiz, viceroy 
of Syria at the beginning of the Mamluk epoch, have 
remained famous, contributed to its development. 
But today it remains still scantily populated 
(38 inhabitants per sq. km.) and is traditionally 
devoted to the production of cereals, which is 
maintained by a system of communal ownership or 
of big estates. The majority of its population is 
Muslim, with Shi'Is predominating in the north, and 
lives in large villages situated for preference on the 
foothills, where caves have long attracted those 
inclined to the monastic life. Among the localities 
in this high valley, in ancient times a region of 
sedentary population and a much-used trade route 
which then became from the time of the Arab 



conquest one of the richest districts in the province 
of Damascus, one may mention, besides many sites 
renowned for their ancient ruins and cave carvings, 
the Umayyad residence of c Ayn al-Djarr [f.v.j, the 
straggling village of Karak Nuh, which was the 
Mamluk capital, and the little prosperous villages 
of today such as Zahla. The most important centre 
has always been Ba'labakk [q.v.] although in 
Mamluk times the authority of this citadel, which 
had for a long time commanded the whole of the 
country, had been considerably curtailed, and the 
neighbouring countryside, divided into two districts, 
had been entrusted to an independent governor. 
From that time, alongside the niydba of Ba'labakk 
there were two wildyas, the Bika c al-Ba'labakkl 
and the Bika c al- c AzizI. 

The last name is to be connected according to 
Arab historians with that of a son of Salah al-Din, 
al-'Aziz [q.v.], and according to certain modern 
scholars with that of the ancient local divinity 
Azizos. Perhaps one can also see traces of ancient 
cults in the numerous popular dedications to which 
toponymy and monuments bear witness, and which 
evoke above all either the story of Noah and the 
memories of the flood, or the figure of Ilyas, a 
hermit par excellence and despiser of the cult 

Bibliography: P. Birot and J. Dresch, La 
Miditerranie et le Moyen-Orient, ii, Paris 1956, 
index s.v. Bekaa; R. Dussaud, Topographic 
historique de la Syrie, Paris 1923, index s.v. Beqa c ; 
G. Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, 
London 1890, 69, 422; M. Gaudefroy-Demom- 
bynes, La Syrie d I'ipoque des Mamelouks, Paris 
1923, 20, 73, 181; Yakut, i, 699; Harawl, K. al- 
ziydrat, ed. Sourdel-Thomine, 9-10. 

(J. Sourdel-Thomine) 
BIKBAfiHl [see binbash!]. 

SHAD-! XHALAXHA, the three towns, a term 
employed in Ottoman legal and administrative 
usage for Eyyub, Galata, and Oskudar, ♦'.«., the 
three separate urban areas attached to Istanbul. 
Each had its own kadi, independent of the kadi of 
Istanbul, though of lower rank. Every Wednesday 
the kadis of the 'three towns' joined the kadi of 
Istanbul in attending the Grand Vezir. This judicial 
autonomy of the three towns goes back to early 
Ottoman times, probably even to the conquest. The 
three towns also enjoyed some autonomy in police 
matters, being subject not to the police jurisdiction 
of the Agha of the Janissaries, like Istanbul proper, 
but of other military officers. 

Bibliography: 'Othman Nurl (= Osman 

Ergin), MedieUe-i Umur-i Belediyye, i, Istanbul 

1330 A.H., 299-300 and 1367; Gibb and Bowen 

1/1 66 n, in n, 287, 323; 1/2, 88. See further 

Istanbul. (B. Lewis) 

BILAL b. ABl BURDA [see abu burda]. 

BILAL b. DJARlR al MUHAMMADl, Abu 

'l-NadA, Zuray'id [q.v.] vizier and governor of c Adan. 

He was appointed -governor of the city by the 

Zuray'id prince Saba' b. Abi '1-Su c ud at the time 

of his war against his cousin and co-ruler of c Adan, 

the Mas'udid <A11 b. Abi '1-Gharat, 531-32/1136-38. 

With the death of Saba' in 533/"38-39 his son 

and successor, al-A c azz, intensely jealous of Bilal, 

intended to have him put to death, but died himself 

in 534/1139-40 before this could be achieved. At his 

sudden demise Bilal had a younger son of Saba', 

Muhammad, brought from Ta'izz, where he had 

gone into concealment from the hatred of his 

brother, placed him on the throne over the young 



PLATE XXXIII 




ment at the Court of Husayn Baykara". Left part of double frontispiece by Bihzad 
ipt of Sa'dl's Bustan, written in 893/1488. Cairo, Egyptian National Library. 

(Courtesy, Egyptian National Library) 



PLATE XXXIV 




and the Horseherd". Miniature by Bihzad in a 
written in 893/1488. 
Cairo, Egyptian National Library. 



ipt of Sa'dl's Bustan, 



(Courtesy, Egyptian National Library) 




Figure C: "Mosque 




Figure D: "Battle Scene". Miniature t 
Nizami's Khamsa, painted at the end 



Museum, Add. ; 



f the XVth 
(Copyright 



PLATE XXXVI 




Figure E: "Iskandar and the Seven Sages". Miniature probably by Bihzad in a manuscript of Nizaml's 
Khamsa, of 900/1494-95. British Museum, Or. 6810, fol. 2i4r°. 

(Copyright British Museum) 



BILAL b. DJARIR al-MUHAMMADI — BILAWHAR WA-YUDASAF 



sons of al-A c azz, and married him to his daughter. 
As a reward for his loyalty Bilal was appointed vizier 
of the now unified city, a post which he retained 
until his death in 546-47/1151-53. Following the 
accession of Muhammad b. Saba' Bilal was accorded 
the honorific titles of al-Shaykh al-Sa'id al-Muwaffaft 
al-Sadid by the Fatimid caliph al-Hafiz. He is 
reported to have amassed a considerable fortune 
while in office, all of which reverted to the ruler 
upon his death. Two sons of Bilal followed him 
in the office of vizier until the fall of the dynasty 
with the Ayyubid conquest of South Arabia 
(569/1173). 

Bibliography: H. C. Kay, Yaman, its early 
mediaeval history, London 1892, index; Abu 
Makhrama, Ta'rikh Thaghr 'Adan in: 0. Lofgren, 
Afabische Texte zur Kenntnis der Stadt Aden, 
Uppsala 1936-50, ii, 32 and passim; al-Dianadi. 
al-Suluk (MS Paris, Arabe 2127 Add. 767, fols. 
i85b-i86a); al-Khazradji, al-Kifdya (MS Brit. 
Mus., Or. 6941, fols. 56a-58b); al-Khazradji, 
Tirdz (MS Brit. Mus., Or. 2425, f. 214a); Ibn 
al-Mudjawir, Ta^rikh al-Mustabsir, in O. Lofgren, 
Descriptio Arabial Meridionalis, Leiden 1951-54, 
123-26. (C. L. Geddes) 

BILAL b. RABAH, sometimes described as Ibn 
Hamama, after his mother, was a companion of 
the Prophet and is best known as his Mu'adhdhin. 
Of Ethiopian (African?) stock, he was born in 
slavery in Mecca among the clan of Jumah, or in 
the Sarat. His master is sometimes given as Umayya 
b. Khalaf [q.v.] but also as an unnamed man or 
woman of the same clan. He was an early convert — 
some sources credit him with having been the second 
adult after Abu Bakr to accept Islam. Owing to his 
status he suffered heavy punishment and torture, 
especially, it is stated, at the hands of Umayya b. 
Khalaf, but he bore it with fortitude and would not 
recant. Finally, he was rescued and manumitted by 
Abu Bakr who bought him, or exchanged for an 
able-bodied slave of his own who had not accepted 
Islam. Henceforth, although a freedman of Abu 
Bakr, Bilal seems to have been in constant attend- 
ance on the Prophet. 

He emigrated to Medina, where at first he suffered 
from fever along with Abu Bakr and a number of 
Meccan Muslims. The Prophet established a tie of 
brotherhood between him and Abu Ruwayha of 
Khath'am, whom Bilal later named as his represen- 
tative for receiving his pension when he himself 
decided to campaign in Syria. As a result of this tie 
of brotherhood, 'Umar attached the list of African 
pensioners to that of the tribe of Khath'am, and Ibn 
Ishak records that that was the case in Syria in his 

Bilal became "official" mu'adhdhin when the call 
to prayer was first instituted in the first year of 
the Hidjra. He accompanied the Prophet on all 
military expeditions. At Badr he caused the deaths 
of Umayya b. Khalaf and his son, both of whom 
had already surrendered, but their captor was 
completely powerless to defend them against the 
determined attack led by Bilal. 

Although best known as his mu'adhdhin, Bilal was 
also the Prophet's "mace-bearer" [see 'Anaza], his 
steward (Khdzin), his personal servant, and on 
occasions, his "adjutant". The climax of his career 
as a mu'adhdhin came when Mecca fell to the Muslims 
and Bilal called the faithful to prayer for the first 
time from the roof of the KaTja. 

After the death of the Prophet, Bilal agreed to 
act as mu'adhdhin to Abu Bakr but refused a similar 



request from 'Umar, and joined the campaigns in 
Syria, where he spent the rest of his life. Some 
sources say that he refused to act in that capacity 
after the Prophet's death and called publicly to 
prayer on only two occasions afterwards — when 
'Umar visited al-Djabiya, and when Bilal himself 
paid a return visit to Medina and was requested to 
call the adhdn by al-Hasan and al-Husayn. Both 



Bilal seemed to have attained high prestige during 
his lifetime. An Arab tribe accepted his brother as 
a suitor in spite of his bad character, and (according 
to Tabari, i, 2527) when c Umar sent a representative 
to Syria to investigate the source of certain donations 
made by Khalid b. al-Walid, Bilal lent support to 
both the diffident commander Abu c Ubayda and the 
Caliph's representative, by himself removing Khalid's 
turban and demanding an answer. When a satisfactory 
explanation was given, Bilal restored Khalid's turban 
with full respect and honour. 

He is described as being tall and thin with a stoop, 
of dark complexion, with a thin face and thick hair 
strongly tinged with grey. The date of his death is 
given variously as 17, 18, 20, or 21 (638, 639, 641, or 
642) and his place of burial is stated as Aleppo or, 
more probably, Damascus or Darayya. 

Bibliography: Ibn Hisham, index; Ibn Sa'd, 

hi, 1,165 ff.; Tabari, index; Baladhuri, ii, 455; 

Ibn al-Athlr, al-Kdmil, index; Yakubl, 11,27,43, 

51, 62, 158, 168; Mas'udi, Murudj, i,.i46-7, iv, 

137, 155; Ibn Hadjar, i, 336 f.; Usd al-Ghdba, i, 

206; Nawawi, 176-8. (W. 'Arafat) 

BILAWHAR WA-YCdASAF, heroes of the 

Kitdb Bilawhar wa-Yuddsaf (Budhdsaf), an Arabic 

work deriving ultimately from the traditional 

biography of Gautama Buddha, and subsequently 

providing the prototype for the Christian legend of 

Barlaam and Josaphat. 

Contents of story. To the long childless king 
Janaysaf^a pagan ruler of Sulabat (i.e., Kapilavastu) 
in India, a son is born by miraculous means. The 
king names him Yudasaf (better: Budhasaf = 
Bodhisattva). An astrologer predicts that the 
prince's greatness will not be of this world; the king 
therefore confines the child in a city set apart, to 
keep him from knowledge of human misery. Growing 
up, Yudasaf frets at his confinement and insists on 
being allowed out. Riding forth, he sees two infirm 
men and later, a decrepit old man, and learns of 
human frailty and death. The holy hermit Bilawhar 
of Sarandib (Ceylon) then appears in disguise and 
preaches to Yudasaf in parables, convincing him of 
the vanity of human existence and the superiority 
of the ascetic way. Bilawhar spurns renown and 
riches, indulgence in food and drink, sexual pleasure 
and all fleshly delights; a vague theism coupled with 
belief in immortality is preached, but no specifically 
Islamic dogma advanced. 

King Janaysar is hostile to Bilawhar and opposes 
Yudasaf's conversion. In spite of the efforts of the 
astrologer Rakis and the pagan ascetic al-Bahwan, 
Janaysar is overcome in a mock debate on the faith 
and is himself won over. Yudasaf renounces his 
royal estate and embarks on missionary journeys: 
after various adventures, he reaches Kashmir (i.e., 
Kusinara), where he entrusts the future of his 
religion to his disciple Ababid (i.e., Ananda) and 

The accompanying table shows the occurrence of 
the principal parables and fables in the three sur- 
viving Arabic versions and in the Georgian and 
Greek Christian recensions stemming therefrom. 



BILAWHAR WA-YODASAF 



TABLE I 












g 




« 




Fable 


1 


11 

II 


If 


1 


il 


Drum of Death 












Four Caskets 


3 


2 


2 


2 


2 


The Sower 




3 


3 


3 


3 


Elephant and the Man 












in Chasm 


5 




5 






Three Friends 


6 




6 


5 


5 


King for One Year 


7 


6 


7 


6 


6 


Dogs and Carrion 




7 


8 




7 


Physician and Patient 




8 




8 




The Sun of Wisdom 


8 


9 


9 




9 


King, Wazlr and Happy 










Poor Couple 


9 










Rich Youth and 












Beggar's Daughter 












Fowler and 












Nightingale 


4 


12 


12 


12 


n 


Tame Gazelle 




13 


13 






Costume of Enemies 












Amorous Wife 




15 








Demon Women 


13 


16 


16 


— 


— 



Sources. The K itdb Bilawhar wa-Yuddsaf is not a 
■direct translation from any Indian Buddhist work, 
but a syncretic compilation built round episodes in 
the legendary life of Buddha; it embodies parables 
of extraneous provenance, including the New 
Testament parable of the Sower. The narrative 
framework contains sections reminiscent of such 
works as the Buddha-carita, the Mahdvastu, the 
Lalita-iistara and the Jdtaka Tales. Note that in 
the authentic tradition, the Buddha had no teacher, 
however, the ascetic preacher Bilawhar figures in 
embryo in the Fourth Omen, where the Buddha- 
elect encounters in Kapilavastu one who had become 
a wanderer "for the sake of winning self-control, 
calm, and utter release". 

Early clues to the story's transmission to the 
West are provided by Central Asian Buddhist- 
Soghdian texts, where Bodhisattva is shortened into 
the form Pwtysfi, i.e., Bodisaf, and by the Manichaean 
fragments recovered from Turfan in Chinese 
Turkestan. Le Coq published (SBPr. Ak. W., 1909, 
1202-18) a Manichaean Turkish fragment containing 
the encounter of the Bodisaf prince with the decrepit 
old man; the same scholar published (Turkische 
Manichaica aus Chotscho, I, 5-7, in Abh. Pr. Ak. W., 
191 1, Anhang) and Radlov and Oldenburg (Izv. Imp. 
Akad. Nauk, 6th sen, VI, 1912, 751-3, 779-82) 
elucidated another, containing the story of a drunken 
prince who mistakes a corpse for a maiden, later 
incorporated in the Ibn Babuya version. Of particular 
importance is the discovery, communicated in 1957 
by W. B. Henning to the 24th International Congress 
of Orientalists, Munich, of a fragment in the Berlin 
Turfan collection comprising portions of 27 couplets 
of an early Persian metrical rendering, in which the 
heroes' names occur in the forms Bylwhr and Bwdysf. 
This fragment, containing part of Bilawhar's 
exhortation to Bodisaf and of the dialogue con- 
cerning Bilawhar's age, is part of a manuscript 
written not later than the first half of the 10th 
century A.D. The occurrence of the Iranian name- 
form Bwdysf, as opposed to the Arabic Budhasaf with 
-a- in the second syllable, shows that this version 
belongs to the earliest line of transmission; it has 
been tentatively attributed to Rudak! [q.v.] or his 



school. These indications, pointing to a Central 
Asian environment and a Middle- Iranian language 
medium for the early development of the Bilawhar 
and Yudasaf romance, are supported by Yudasaf's 
inclusion, together with Mani, Bardaysan, Mazdak 
and others, in a list of false prophets condemned 
in 'Abd al-Kahir b. Tahir al-Baghdadi's treatise 
Al-fark bayn al-firak (ed. Muhammad Badr, Cairo 
1328, 333; pt. II, trans. A. S. Halkin, -Tel-Aviv, 
1935, 200-1). Authorities such as al-BIruni (Chronology 
of Ancient Nations, trans. Sachau, 186-9) connect 
Budhasaf with the Sabaeans, who were supposed to 
identify him with both Enoch and Hermes Trisme- 
gistus; Budhasaf was also represented as having in- 
vented the Iranian alphabet. 

Versions of the work. Among the books trans- 
lated in early 'Abbasid times from Pehlevi into Arabic 
by Ibn al-Mukaffa c [q.v.) and his school, the Fihrist 
lists (305) the Kitdb al-Budd, the Kitdb Bilawhar wa- 
Yuddsaf {Budhasaf) and the Kitdb Budhasaf mufrad. 
The last-named book survives as a chapter of the 
Nihdyat al-Irab fi Akhbdr al-Furs wa 'l-'-Arab 
(Browne in JRAS, 1900, 216-7; Rosen in Zap. 
Vost. Otd. Imp. Russk. Arkh. ObsMestva, 1901-2, 
77-118). The first two are amalgamated in the 
Kitdb Bilawhar wa- Budhasaf published at Bombay 
in 1306/1888-9 (Russian trans, by Rosen, edit, by 
Kradkovskiy: Povest 3 Varlaame pustinnike i 
Iosafe tsareviCe indiyskom, Moscow, 1947). This 
Bombay edition is the fullest version extant: 
episodes introduced from the Kitdb al-Budd having 
been distinguished from the remainder, the original 
Bilawhar and Budhasaf (Yudasaf) story may be 
largely reconstituted, reference being made to the 
Halle abstract (edit, by Hommel in Verh. des VII. 
Int. Orient.-Cong., Semit. Sect., Vienna 1888, 115-65; 
trans. Rehatsek, JRAS, 1890, 119-55), the adaptation 
incorporated in the Shi'I Kitdb ikmdl al-din waHtmdm 
al-ni c ma by Ibn Babuya [?.«.], the longer Georgian 
Christianised version discovered in Jerusalem 
(Greek Patriarchal Library, Ms. Georgian 140: edit. 
Abuladze, Balavarianis k c art c uli redakHsiebi, Tiflis, 
1957), as well as to the early 13th century Hebrew 
paraphrase by Abraham b. Hasday or Chisdai (see 
Steinschneider, Die hebr. Vbersetzungen des Mittel- 
alters, 863-7). The longish fragment of the Kitdb 
Bilawhar wa-Yuddsaf in the Taymuriyya collection, 
AkUdk section (Brockelmann, I, 158) has been 
identified by Stern as belonging to the same 
redaction as the Halle abstract; it supplies some of 
the text missing in the defective unique Ms. of this 
recension (notes supplied by S. M. Stern). The 
metrical version stated in the Fihrist (119) to have 
been composed by Aban al-Lahiki [q.v.] has perished. 

Note that in the Mss., the name of Yudasaf is 
written in many different ways; the original 
Budhasaf or Buddsaf has been corrupted by addition 
of a diacritical point into Yildhdsaf (whence Yuzdsaf) 
or Yudasaf, and thence Georgian Iodasap 1 , from 
which comes Greek Ioasaph, then Latin Josaphat. 

Diffusion of the story. With its companion 
works, the KalUa wa-Dimna and the lomance of 
Sindbad, the book of Bilawhar and Yudasaf was 
widely diffused in early Arabic literature. Note for 
instance the allusion in the RasdHl Ikhwdn al-Safd' 
(Cairo ed., iv, 120, 223) to Bilawhar's fable of the 
King, the just Wazir and the Happy Poor Couple, 
in connexion with belief in immortality. 

The Western Barlaam and Ioasaph (Josaphat) 
legend derives from the Kitdb Bilawhar wa-Yuddsaf 
via the longer Georgian (Jerusalem) redaction, 
wherein the heroes' names appear as Balahvar and 



BILAWHAR WA-YODASAF - 



n of the Book of Bilawhar and Yudasaf 



Arabic II: Arabic III: 

metrical adaptation by 

version by Aban Ibn Babuya 
al-Lahiki (lost) I 



Persian II: 
translation of 
Ibn Babuya 



metrical rendering, 
school of RudakI 
(Berlin fragment) 

1 1 

c IV: Arabic V: 

abstract Bombay 

edition, with 
interpolations 
from Kitdb 
al-Budd 



Arabic I : 

Kitdb Bilawhar 

wa-Budhasaf (lost) 

J 

I. 



~1 



Georgian I: Hebrew: 

Jerusalem Book of the 

version, Life of king's son and 

the Blessed the ascetic by 

Iodasap* Ibn Hasday 



Iodasap'; the Georgian was adapted and rendered 
into Greek by St. Euthymius the Athonite and his 
school about A.D. iooo. The mediaeval attribution 
of the Greek Barlaam to St. John Damascene, 
revived by F. Dolger (Der griechische Barlaam-Roman, 
ein Werk des H. Johannes von Damaskos, Ettal 
1953). fails to take account of the textual evidence 
and is to be discounted. 

Also to be rejected is the Ahmad! doctrine which 
identifies with Jesus Christ the holy Yuz Asaf 
whose shrine is venerated at Srinagar in Kashmir. 
Many of the legends concerning the Yuz Asaf of the 
Ahmadis are simply extracts borrowed from the 
Kitdb Bilawhar wa-Yuddsaf, with "Kashmir" sub- 
stituted for "Kusinara", the traditional place "where 
the Buddha died. 

Bibliography: In addition to works cited in 
the text, see: P. Alfaric, Les icritures manichiennes, 
2 vols., Paris 1918-19; idem, La vie chritienne du 
Bouddha, in J A, 1917, 269-88; H. W. Bailey, The 
word "But" in Iranian, in BSOS, vi/2, 1931, 
279-83; W. Bang, Manichdische Erzahler, in Le 
Musion, 1931, 1-36; Brockelmann, I, 158 & S I, 
164, 238-9, 322; Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, Baraldm 
and Yewdslf, 2 vols., Cambridge 1923; Chauvin, 
Bibliographic, iii, 83-112; G. Graf, Gesch. der 
Christ, arab. Lit., i, 546-8; A. E. Krimskiy, Aban 
al-Lahiki (in Russian), Moscow 1913; E. Kuhn, 
Barlaam und Joasaph, in Abh. Bayr. Ak., Philos.- 
philol. Klasse, xx, 1894; D. M. Lang, in BSOAS, 
xvii/2, 1955, 306-25 and xx, 1957, 389-407; 
idem, The Wisdom of Balahvar: A Christian 
Legend of the Buddha, London, New York 1957; 
N. Ya. Marr, in Zap. Vost. Otd. Imp. Russk. 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



Georgian II: 


Greek: 


The Wisdom 


Barlaam and 


of Balahvar 


loasaph 


(abridgement) 


| 




Latin, Christian 




Arabic, Armenian, 




Old Slavonic, 




and other 




Christian versions. 



Arkh. Obshlestva, 1889, 223-60 and 1897-8, 49-78; 
S. von Oldenburg, Persidskiy izvod povesti 
Varlaame i loasafe, in Zap. Vost. Otd. Imp. Russk. 
Arkh. Obshlestva, 1890, 229-65; P. Peeters, in 
Analecta Bollandiana, 1931, 276-312. 

(D. M. Lang) 
BILBAS, a confederation consisting, according 
to C. J. Edmonds (220-222), of five tribes: Mangur, 
Mamish (I have rather heard it pronounced Mamash), 
Piran, Sinn and Ramk. The Mangur of the mountains 
are an important tribe who live in Persia on both 
sides of the Lawen (the upper reaches of the Little 
Zab in Persia). The Mangur of the plain live in 
Irak where they consist of two branches: Mangur 
Zudi and Mangur-a-Ruta (the naked Mangur). The 
Mangur of the plain recognise the authority of the 
chief family of the mountain Mangur, whose head 
appoints each year one or two persons (not of his 
own family) to govern the sections in the plain. The 
Mamash are another important tribe who live in 
Persia east of the Lawen and to the north of the 
Mangur. They have also a section in 'Irak, the 
Mamash-a-Reshka (the black Mamash). The Piran 
have also one mountain branch in Persia to the north 
of the Mangur, west of the Lawen, and another in 
'Irak. The Sinn and the Ramk who had formerly 
distinguished themselves in the cavalry of Nadir 
Shah (ibid., 145), were afterwards expelled from 
Shahrizur (ibid., 142-143) by Salim Baban (1743- 
1757) and, fallen from their ancient glory, now 
occupy five poor villages in Bitwen near the Zab. The 
Ramk are subdivided into Kecel-u-Klhaw Spiy 
(bald and white hats) and Fake Waysi. Sometimes 
classed among the Bilbas are the Udjak who live in 

77 



BILBAS — BILGRAM 



Irak above the Mangur Zudi, in 8 villages on the 
frontier. Minorsky counts the Odjak Ka Khidri 
among the Bilbas but does not include the Sinn and 
the Ramk. See M. A. ZakI (Khuldsa, 391, 407, 447), 
on the subdivisions of the Bilbas tribes. In Wagner 
(ii, 116, 228) who had formerly (1852) visited the 
Bilbas, but who refers chiefly to Niebuhr (1766), 
Rich (1836-7) and Ker Porter (1822), some fuller 
information is to be found. He points out that when 
there is discussion on the affairs of the tribe, all 
its members enjoy equal rights of vote and veto. 
The blood-money if a man is killed, is 22 oxen. 
Adultery is punished by death. The girls are 
never allowed to marry men of another tribe, 
but the effects of inbreeding are diminished by 
the regular practice of abduction. C. J. Edmonds 

Bilbas girls but emphasises the real risk of abduction 
(225). The Bilbas chiefs bear the name of mazln 
(great), spelt muzzin by Wagner. The succession 
passes to the son or brother of the chief recognised 
as the bravest. 

Bibliography: Rawlinson, Notes on a 

Journey , in JRQS; Wagner, Reise nach 

Persien u. dem Lande der Kurden, Leipzig 1852 ; 

P. Lerch, Forschungen iiber die Kurden, und 

iranischen Nordchaldder, St. Petersburgh 1857-58, 

i, 94-95; M. A. Zaki, Khuldsat Ta'rikh al-Kurd 

wa-Kurdistdn, Bagdad 1937; C. J. Edmonds, 

Kurds, Turks, Arabs, Oxford 1957; B. Nikitine, 

Les Kurdes, Paris 1956, Index. (B. Nikitine) 

BILBAYS, a town in Egypt which, because of 

its site, was of considerable importance in the middle 

ages. Its name comes from the Coptic Phelbes and 

Arab authors, doubtful of its pronunciation, called 

it Bulbays or Bilbis as well. 

Situated on the natural invasion route, it was 
always the town's fate to be besieged by the armies 
which came to conquer Egypt. First, in the year 
19/640, it was by the Arabs who were halted here 
for a month; at the time of the Crusades it was by 
Amalric in the course of fights between the Ayyubid 
princes. Its fortifications therefore used to be kept 
in good repair. In the same way Bilbays was the 
first stop on the route of troops leaving the capital 
for Palestine, and armies often camped there; al- 
Dimashki called it the 'gate of Syria'. It was, in 
fact, in the course of a formidable mobilisation 
against the Byzantines that the Fatimid Caliph, 
al-'Aziz, fell ill and died there, and his son, al- 
Hakim, was invested with the Caliphate in the same 
place. 

Bilbays used to be on the route of the mail couriers 
and to have a centre for carrier pigeons. Up to 
modern times it was the capital of the Sharkiyya 
province, but was supplanted in the 19th century 
by Zakazik. 

In the year 109/727 the financial administrator of 

Egypt installed part of the tribe of Kays in the 

region of Bilbays. These, about 3,000 in number, 

helped commercial traffic as camel-drivers and 

formed a troop which could be mobilised. The choice 

had fallan on Bilbays because the town was sparsely 

populated; the existing inhabitants were not harmed, 

and the tax receipts were not likely to decrease. 

Bibliography: Ibn <Abd al-Hakam, 59; 

Kindi, 8, 76-77, 94, 104, 180; Ibn Hawkal, i, 144; 

Mukaddasi, 214; Ibn Muyassar, 48, 52 (in J A, 

1921, 11, 104); Kalkashandi, iv, 27, xiv, 392, 

396; Gaudefroy-Demombynes, La Syrie, 255-256; 

Bjorkman, Gesch. der Staatskanzlei, 100; MakrizI, 

ed. Wiet, hi, 188, 224-226, iv, 33, n. 1, 85; 



'Umara of the Yemen, ii, French section, 133: 

Pricis d'Hisloire d'tgypUs, ii, 83, 109, 130, 137 

196; Histoire de la Nation E.gyptienne, iv, 4, 57, 

I 7i, 195. 291, 359; and the very full bibliography 

in Maspero and Wiet, Matiriaux pour servir a la 

Giographie de 1'E.gypte, 45-47. (G. Wiet) 

BILEfijIK (the B-r)X6xo>(xa of Byzantine times) 

is a small town in north-western Asia Minor on the 

Kara Su, an affluent of the Sakarya. It is thought 

that the site of the ancient Agrilion (Agrillum, in 

the Peutinger Tables) lies not far from Biledjik. The 

Ottomans seized Biledjik from the Byzantines in 

the reign of 'Othman Beg. Biledjik, under Ottoman 

rule, was included in the eydlet of Anadolu, but later 

became the administrative centre of the sandjak of 

Ertoghrul in the wildyet of Khudavendigar (Brusa). 

It is now the centre of the present province ot 

Biledjik (Bilecik). The town, long noted for the 

weaving of silk, suffered much during the < vents 

which followed the Great War of 1914-1918. It was 

occupied by Greek forces in 1921 and was not 

recovered finally by the Turks until the autumn of 

the next year. The population of Biledjik amounted, 

in 1950, to a little less than 4900 inhabitants. 

Bibliography: Hadjdji Khalifa, Diihdnnumd, 

Istanbul 1 145/1732, 643; Pachymeres, Bonn 1835, 

ii, 413; Hammer-Purgstall, GOR., i, Pest 1827, 

45, 58 ff.; C. von der Goltz, Anatolische Ausjliige, 

Berlin 1896, 145 ft.; C. Huart, Konia, Paris 1897, 

22 ff.; W. Ramsay, The Historical Geography of 

Asia Minor, London 1890, 190 and 207; F. 

Taeschner, Das anatolische Wegenetz nach osma- 

manischen Quellen {Tiirkische Bibliothek, Bd. 23), 

Leipzig 1926, i, 98, 100, 104, 123 and ii, 57; V. 

Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, iv, Paris 1895, 168 ff. ; 

SamI, Kdmits al-AHdm, ii, Istanbul A.H. 1306, 

1444; 'All Djawad, Ta'rikh ve Djoghrdfiya 

Lughati, Istanbul A.H. 1313-1314, 227; Pauly 

Wissowa, i/i (1893), s.v. Agrilion, col. 894; J A, 

s.v. Bilecik (Besim Darkot). (V. J. Parry) 

BILGRAM, a very ancient town in the district of 

Hardoi (India), situated in 27 10' N. and 8o° 2' E., 

with a population (1951) of 9,565. It has produced 

a remarkable number of great men. Abu '1-Fadl 

speaks of the inhabitants as being for the most 

part intelligent and connoisseurs of music. 

In early times it was peopled by coppersmiths (as 
recent discoveries have established), who were 
turned out by invading Radjputs from nearby 
Kannawdj. During the Mughal rule also Bilgram 
was a pargana in the sarkdr of Kannawdj (AHn-i 
Akbari, tr. Blochmann, i, 434). 

The town was conquered by Kadi Muhammad 
Yusuf al- c Uthmani al-Madani al-Kazaruni in 409/ 
1018 for Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna during his 
Indian campaigns. During the anarchy that followed 
the enfeeblement of Ghaznawid rule in India, it 
appears that the local Hindus drove out the Muslim 
ruler of Bilgram and reoccupied the town. However, 
during the reign of Sultan Shams al-DIn Iletmish 
[q.v.], Sayyid Muhammad Sughra, a lineal descendant 
of Sayyid Abu '1-Farah of Wasit, attacked Bilgram in 
614/1217 at the head of a strong contingent of 
Imperial troops, and defeated Radja Sri, after whom 
the town had come to be known as Srinagar, and 
the Muslims reoccupied the town. 

In 948/1541 a fierce engagement took place here 
between the forces of Humayun and Shir Shah Stir, 
resulting in the complete rout of the former. In 
1002/1593 Akbar issued a farman prohibiting the 
public sale of wine and other intoxicants there. 
The Sayyids of Bilgram, who outpaced their 



BILGRAM — BILKlS 






rivals, the 'UthmanI and Farshawri shaykh?, in 
almost all walks of life, attained fame in history 
as writers, scholars, poets and administrators. 
Prominent among ■ them were: c Abd al- Wahid 
BilgramI, author of Sab Sandbil, c Abd al-Dialil 
BilgramI [see bilgramI] ; his son Muhammad, whose 
takhallus was "Sha'ir"; Ghulam C A1I Azad [q.v.]; 
Amir Haydar, a grandson of Azad Bilgrami and 
author of Sawdnih-i Akbari; Sayyid c Ali BilgramI 
and his elder brother 'Imad al-Mulk Sayyid 
Husayn BilgramI, who was the first Indian Muslim 
to be nominated (1907) a member of the Council 
of the Secretary of State for India. Sayyid Murtada 
al-Zabldl, author of the Tddj al-'Arus, was also a 
native of Bilgram. Awrangzlb is reported to have 
likened the Sayyids of Bilgram to the wood used 
in the Masdjid al-Haram, which could neither 
be sold nor used as fuel. 

Although the shaykh-, of Bilgram did not produce 
many men of distinction (except Ruh al-Amln 
Khan al-'Uthmani, governor of 22 mahdlls in the 
province of the Pandjab and for some time deputy 
governor of Awadh under Burhan al-Mulk [q.v.], and 
Murtada Husayn alias Allah Yar Than!, author of 
Hadikat al-Akdlim), the office of kadi of Bilgram 
invariably remained with them. It was mainly to 
vindicate this claim that Ghulam Husayn Farshawri 
and others of his tribe wrote their respective works 
(see Bibl.). 

Bibliography: Ghulam 'All "Azad", Ma'dthir 
al-Kirdm /» Ta'rikh-i Bilgram, i Agra 1328/1910, 
ii {Sarw-i Azdd) Lahore 1331/1913; Ghulam 
Husayn "Thamln" Farihawrl, Shard'if-i 'Uthmdni 
(MS Asafiyya 202); Ahmad Allah Bilgrami, 
Musadidjaldt /» Ta'rihh al-Kuddt (MS); WasI al- 
Hasan, Rawdat al-Kirdm Shadiara-i Sdddt-i 
Bilgram, Gorakhpur 1920; Muhammad Mahmud 
Hamd, Tankih al-Kaldm ii Ta'rikh al-Bilgrdm, 
Aligarh 1930; Sayyid Djunayd Sughrawl BilgramI, 
Diunavdivva (on the genealogy of the sayyids of 
Bilgram and Barha) ; Sayyid Muhammad "Sha'ir". 
Tabsirat al-Ndzirin (MS); Sayyid Muhammad b. 
Ghulam Nabi, Nazm al-La'dli fi Nasab al-'Ald' 
al-Din al- c Ali (MS); Sher 'All Afsos, Ard'ish-i 
Mah/il, Calcutta 1808; Sharif Ahmad 'UthmanI, 
Takmila-i Shara'if-i 'Uthmdni (MS); Imp. Gaz. of 
Ind., VIII 234-5; Azad BilgramI, Shadiara-i 
Tayyiba (MS Asafiyya, ii no. 114) ; Storey 1/2, 1183. 

(A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
BILGRAMI, (i) 'Abd al-Dialil b. Sayyid Ahmad 
al-HusaynI al-WasijI was born on 13 Shawwal 1071/ 
10 Nov. 1660 at Bilgram. He received his education 
first at his home-town from Sa'd Allah Bilgrami and 
later at Agra from Fada'il Khan, one of the se 
taries of Awrangzlb. When Shah Husayn Khan was 
appointed diwdn of the sarhdr of Lucknow he 
accompanied him there and remained with him f 
5 years. It was here that he attended the lectures 
of Ghulam Nakshband Lakhnawl (d. 1126/1714). He 
attained a high degree of proficiency in van' 
branches of learning especially Arabic philology 
and literature. 

He visited Deccan twice, first in 1 104/1692 and 
later in mi/1699 when he was appointed bakhshi 
and wakd'i l -nigdr of Gudjarat (Shah Dawla). He held 
this job till his removal in 1 1 16/1704. The same year he 
was, however, reinstated but transferred to Bhakkar 
[q.v.] with headquarters at Siwistan (modern Sehwan). 
In 1126/1714 he was dismissed, having made a curious 
entry in the official journal. 1 1 related to the raining of 
sugar-globules in the pargana cf pjatol. He returned 
to Delhi where he attached himself to Sayyid Husayn 



'All Khan Barha. He died at Delhi in 1 138/1725 but 
his dead body was carried to Bilgram for burial. 
He was the maternal grandfather of Azad BilgramI 
[q.v.] who devotes lengthy chapters to him in his 
various works. A poet, primarily in Arabic and Per- 
sian, he also composed verses in Turkish and Hindi. 
Bibliography : Ghulam C A1I "Azad", Ma'dthir 
al-Kirdm, Agra 1910, 257-77; idem, Sarw-i Azdd, 
Lahore 1913, 253-86; idem, Subhat al-Mardjdn, 
Bombay 1 303/1886, 79-85; idem, Khizdna-i 
l Amira, Cawnpore 1871, 284-6; Rahman 'All, 
Tadhkira-i 'Ulamd'-i Hind 2 , Cawnpore 1914, 
108-9; Siddtk Hasan Khan, Sham l -i Andjuman, 
Bhopal 1292-3/1876, 313; Bindraban Das 
Kh'ushgu, Sa/ina-i, Kh w *tshg» (Bankipur MS); 
'All Ibrahim Khan "Khalll", Khuldsat al-Kaldm, 
(Bank. MS); Makbul Ahmad SamdanI, ffaydt-i 
Qialil (in Urdu), Allahabad 1929; Sayyid Muham- 
mad "Sha'ir", Tabsirat al-Ndzirin (MS); 'All 
Sher Kani e , Makdldt al-Shu c ard' (ed. Husam al- 
Dln Rashidi), Karachi 1957; 406-414; 'Abd al- 
Hayy Nadwi, Nuzhat al-Khawdtir. Haydarabad 
1376/1957, vi 139-40; Fakir Muhammad Lahori, 
IfaddHh al-Banafiyya?, Lucknow 1906, 437. 

(A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
(ii) Sayyid 'AlI b. Sayyid Zayn al-DIn Husayn 
wasbornini268/i85i atPatna. In 1 291/1874 he gradu- 
ated from Patna College with distinction in Sanskrit. 
In 1292/1875 he successfully competed for the Native 
(later Indian) Civil Service standing first in the 
whole of Bihar. Soon after he joined the London 
University for higher studies in geology, cartography, 
mineralogy and biology. On completion of his 
education he extensively toured the Continent. A 
polyglot, Sayyid 'All was well-versed in Latin, 
German, French, Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Bengali, 
Marathi, Telugu, Gudjaratl, English and his mother- 
tongue Urdu. For a number of years he was examiner 
in Sanskrit in the Madras University. In 1311/1893 
he was awarded the title of Shams al-'-Ulamd' by 
the Government of India. In 1320/1902 he joined 
Cambridge University as Reader in Marathi. The 
same year he was commissioned to prepare a 
hand-list of the Arabic and Persian MSS, known as 
the Delhi collection, in the India Office Library. For 
several years he held various high offices in the former 
Haydarabad State. In 1909 Calcutta University 
conferred on him the degree of LL.D. honoris causa. 
His fame chiefly rests on his Urdu translations of 
French and English works, notably: (i) Tamaddun-i 
'Arab, a translation of Gustave Le Bon's work 
La civilisation des arabes (Agra, 1316/1898); (ii) 
Tamaddun-i Hind (Agra 1913), a translation of 
another work of Le Bon: La civilisation de I'Inde. 
He is also the author of Risdla dar tahkih kitdb 
Kalila wa-Dimna in which he critically examines 
the sources, editions, characteristics etc. of the 
original Sanskrit work. It was through his efforts 
that the Haydarabad codex of the Bdbur-ndma was 
published. He died suddenly at Hardol in 1329/ 

Bibliography: 'Abd al-Hakk, Cand ham-'asr 
(in Urdu), Karachi 1953, 71-103; Ghulam Pandjtan 
Shamshad, Haydarabad ke barl log, Haydarabad 
(Dn.) 1957; Adib (Allahabad), June 1911, 271-77; 
Hamid Hasan Kadirl, Ddstdn Tdrikh-i Urdu', 
Agra 1957, 594-609. (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

BILKlS is the name by which the Queen of Sheba 
is known in Arabic literature. The story of the 
Queen's visit to King Solomon (based on I Kings X, 
1-10, 13) has undergone extensive Arabian, Ethio- 
pian, and Jewish elaborations and has become the 



BILKlS — BILLAWR 



subject of one of the most wide-spread and fertile | 
cycles of legends in the Orient. I 

The name Bilkls does not appear in the Kur'an 
but is current with Muslim commentators. Sura 
XXVII, 15-45 reflects some of the principal elements 
of the Sheba legend and describes the sun-worship 
of the Queen, how a hoopoe (hudhud) carries a 
letter to her from Solomon, the Queen's consultation 
with her nobles, and the despatch of presents to 
Solomon. When these are not well received by the 
King, the Queen of Sheba comes herself and, by a 
ruse (mistaking the polished floor for a pool of 
water), is made to uncover her legs. Eventually, she 
surrenders (together with Solomon) to Allah, i.e. 
she becomes a Muslim. 

Muslim commentators (Tabarl, Zamakhshari. 
Baydawl) supplement the story at various points: 
the Queen's name is given as Bilkls; the demons at 
Solomon's Court, afraid that the King may marry 
Bilkls, spread the rumour that the Queen has hairy 
legs and the foot of an ass. Hence Solomon's ruse of 
constructing a glass floor which the Queen mistakes 
for water thus causing her to lift her skirts. Solomon 
then commands his demons to prepare a special 
depilatory to remove the disfiguring hair. According 
to some he then married the Queen, while other 
traditions assert that he gave her in marriage to 
one of the TubbaH of the tribe of Hamdan. 

In Jewish sources the combined narrative of 
Kur'an and Muslim commentators can first be 
traced in the 8th ( ?) century Targum Sheni to Esther 
where we find a most elaborate version of this story. 
This is further embellished in thenth(?) century 
Alphabet of Ben Sira which avers that Nebuchad- 
nezzar was the fruit of the union between Solomon 
and the Queen of Sheba. The fullest and most 
significant version of the legend appears in the 
Kebra Nagast ('Glory of the Kings'), the Ethiopian 
national saga. Here Menelik I is the child of Solomon 
and Makeda (the Ethiopic name of Bilkls) from 
whom the Ethiopian dynasty claims descent to the 
present day. While the Abyssinian story offers much 
greater detail, it omits any mention of the Queen's 
hairy legs or any other element that might reflect 
on her unfavourably. 

Although the Kur'an and its commentators have 
preserved the earliest literary reflection of the 
complete Bilkls legend, there is little doubt that the 
narrative is derived from a Jewish Midrash. This 
judgement is based not only on intrinsic probability 
and our knowledge of the general influence of the 
Midrashic genre on early Islam, but is also supported 
by: (a) the curiously abrupt version of the story in 
the Kur'an which clearly presupposes prior develop- 
ment; (b) Talmudic insistence (Baba Batra 15b) that 
it was not a woman but a kingdom of Sheba (based 
on varying interpretations of Hebrew mlkt) that 
came to Jerusalem (obviously intended to discredit 
existing stories about the relations between Solomon 
and the Queen); (c) the Ethiopic loanword sarh in 
Sura xxvii, 44 (cf. Noldeke, NB, 51); (d) the 
probable derivation of Bilkls from 7taXXaxt? or the 
Hebraised pilegesh 'concubine'. 

In Persian art Bilkls may often be seen standing 

in water before Solomon. The same scene is depicted 

on a window in King's College Chapel, Cambridge. 

Bibliography: G. Rosch, Die Konigin von 

Saba als Konigin Bilqis (Jahrb. f. Prot. Theol., 

1880, 524-72); M. Grunbaum, Neue Beitrage zur 

sem. Sagenkunde (1893, 211-21); E. Littmann, 

The legend of the Queen of Sheba in the tradition of 

Axum (190-,) ; E. A. W. Budge, The Queen of Sheba 



and her only son Menyelek (1932); L. Ginzberg 

Legends of the Jews (vols. IV and VI) ; The Queer 

of Sheba (The Times, 28 June 1954); E. Ullendorff 

Candace (Acts VIII, 27) and the Queen of Shebc 

(New Testament Studies, 1955, 53-6); idem 

Hebraic- Jewish elements in Abyssinian (monophy- 

site) Christianity (JSS, 1956, 216-56); D. A 

Hubbard, The literary sources of the Kebra Nagast, 

278-308 (St. Andrews University Ph. D. thesis, 

1956). (E. Ullendorff) 

BILLAWR, Ballur— whether from the Greek 

(3if)puXXo<; is a disputed point, cf. Dozy, Supplement, 

i, no — rock-crystal. According to the Petrology 

of Aristotle the stone is a kind of glass but harder 

and more compact. It is the finest, purest and 

most translucent of natural glasses, and also occurs 

among the colours of the ydkut ; by the dust-coloured 

rock-crystal is meant the smoky topaz. It may also be 

artificially coloured; it concentrates the sun's rays so 

that a black rag or piece of cotton or wool may be set 

on fire by it ; valuable vessels for kings are made of 

rock-crystal. A commoner kind which is harder and 

looks like salt — i.e. quartz — gives out spark, when 

struck by stef 1 and is used for striking fire by kings' 

servants. No account of its crystalline formation, 

which Pliny gives, is given by the Arab writers, nor is 

the general distribution of quartz known. Al-TIfashI 

says that at 13 days' journey from Kashghar are two 

mountains the interiors of which consist entirely of 

beautiful rock-crystal; it is worked at night, as the 

reflection of the sun's rays renders work by day 

impossible. Al-AkfanI (in al-Machriq, 1908) gives the 

fullest account of the places in which it is found; 

according to him it comes from East Africa (Zandj), 

Badakhshan, Armenia, Ceylon, the land of the Franks 

and Maghrib al-Aksa. 

According to al-BIruni (d. 430/1038), rock crystal 
of very high quality from the Zandj Islands, near 
East Africa, and from the Dibadjat Islands, west of 
India, was brought to al-Basra, where it was worked 
into vessels and other objects. The organisation of the 
manufacture is described in some detail. Such defects 
as might have been found even in this rock crystal, 
said to be superior to that mined in Kashmir, were 
concealed by ornaments and inscriptions. 

Nasir-i Khusraw, who visited Egypt twice 
between the years 439/1047 and 441/1050, praises 
the objects of rock crystal that were sold in the 
bazaars of Old Cairo (Misr). The raw material had 
up to that time been brought from the Maghrib, but 
he was told that Red Sea rock crystal had recently 
been received which was even more beautiful and 
transparent than that brought from the Maghrib. 
Judging from al-Ghuzflll and al-Makrizi, who drew 
on earlier sources, the manufacture of rock crystal 
objects in Egypt must have reached its highest level 
during the earlier part of the Fatimid period. The 
dispersal of al-Mustansir's treasures in the years 
453/1061-461/1069 must have been a severe blow to 
that industry as it brought innumerable objects on 
the market, some of which are described. These 
objects were either madjrud, plain or faceted, or 
manttush, ornamented, and it is obvious from what 
we have heard from al-BIruni that the latter were 
then held in higher esteem than the former. 

Apart from pieces of Safawid, Mughal or other 
post-mediaeval origin, something like 165 objects of 
rock crystal are known to exist which are indis- 
putably of Islamic origin. In the majority of cases 
they have been preserved in the treasures of European 
churches, where most of them have served as reli- 
quaries. In such cases the mounting may offer a 



BILLAWR — BILMA 



terminus ante quern for the dating of the rock crystal 
object, the earliest of such termini falling within 
the years 973 and 982 A.D. Not a single one out 
of these 165 odd specimens — which include many 
chess pieces and other minor objects — bears a date, 
but two of them have inscriptions containing the 
name of a ruler, in both cases a Fatimid Caliph: 
a ewer in the Treasure of St. Mark's in Venice made 
for al-'Aziz (365/975-386/996), and a crescent-shaped 
object in Nuremburg, perhaps the head-gear of a 
harness, made for his grandson al-£ahir (411/1021- 
427/1036). A ewer in Florence must have been 
made for al-Husayn b. Djawhar between 390/1000 
and 401/1011, during the reign of al-IJakim. 

All these works in rock crystal are often spoken of 
as "Fatimid", but quite a number of them must be 
of pre-FStimid origin, and some of them may have 
been made at al-Basra. 

The entire number of specimens referred to belong 
to the category described as mankitsh; on the other 
hand we hardly possess any example of madjrud 
work, unless we accept as such some of the faceted 
ewers that some scholars regard as Fatimid, while 
others think they were made in Europe (Burgundy, 
Bohemia, Sicily, or Spain). 

Bibliography: Clement-Mullet, Essai sut 
la min. arabe in the Journ. As, Series 6, xi, 230; 
TIfashi, Azhdr al-Afkdr (transl. by Raineri Biscia), 
2, ed., 118; Kazwinl (ed. Wustenfeld), i, "212; 
idem, (transl. by Ruska), 9; al-Machriq, xi, 762; 
K. A. C. Creswell, A Bibliography of Glass and 
Rock Crystal in Islam, in Bull. of the Faculty of 
Arts, Fouad I University, 1952, iff.; R. Schmidt, 
Die Hedwigsgldser und die verwandUn fatimidischen 
Glas- und Kristallarbeiten, in Schlesiens Vorzeit in 
Bild und Schrift, 1912, 53 ff.; C. J. Lamm, Mittel- 
alterliche Gldser und Steinschnittarbeiten aus dem 
Nahen Osten, I-II, Berlin, 1929-30; P. Kahle, 
Die Schatzc der Fatimiden, in ZDMG, 1935, 329 ff.; 
idem, Bergkristall, Glas und Glasfliisse nach dem 
Steinbuch von el-Beruni, ibid., 1936, 322 ft.; 
K. Erdmann, Islamische Bergkristallarbeiten, in 
Jahrb. der Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, 1940, 
127 ff.; idem, "Fatimid" Rock Crystals, in Oriental 
Art 1 95 1, 3ff.; idem, The 'Sacred Blood' of Weisse- 
nau in The Burlington Magazine, 1953, 299 ff., 
idem, Die fatimidischen Bergkristallkannen, in For- 
schungen zur Kunstgeschichte und christlichen e Ar- 
chdologie, 1953, 189 ff; D. S. Rice, A Datable 
Islathic Rock Crystal, in Oriental Art, 1956, 3 ff. 

(J. Ruska-[C. j. Lamm]) 
BILLITON, corrupted form of Belitung, island 
in Indonesia at about 108° eastern Long, and 3 
southern Lat., a little larger than 1800 square miles. 
It owes its fame to its tin-mines, and it is probably 
for this reason that it is mentioned in Indonesian 
documents of about 900 A.D. A part of the indigenous 
population — less than 100,000 souls — was converted 
to Islam in the 19th century. 

Bibliography : A. W. Nieuwenhuis, in EI 1 , s.v. 
(C. C. Berg) 
BIIXCR KftSHK. "The Crystal Palace" ; this is 
the title of a Turkish folk tale which gave its name 
to the oldest Turkish collection of such tales. 
Variations of this one can be found in Naki Tezel, 
Istanbul masallart (publications of the Eminonii 
Halkevi, no. x), Istanbul 1938, 202 ff.; W. Radloff, 
Proben der Volksliteratur der turkischen Stdmme, 
St. Petersburg 1885 ff., viii (texts collected by 
I. Kunos, 1899), part III, no. 19; Ignacz Kunos, 
Materialien zur Kenntnis des rumelischen Tiirkisch, 
part I, Volksmarchen aus Adakale, Leipzig and 



New York 1907, 255-261, no. 50; 8 MSS of the tale 
of Billur Koshk, or, more specifically, of its variant 
Incili Cadtr, can be found in the Folklore Archives 
of the Dil ve Tarih-Cografya Fakiiltesi in Ankara. 

This collection usually contains 13 tales, including 
the title story Billur Koshk (in the edition by 
I. Kunos, cf. Turkische Volksmarchen, V, note 2, 
there is a further tale, Khirsiz He Yemenidji) and the 
farce Hirsiz He Yankesici, ("The thief and the pick- 
pocket"). All of these have an oral tradition, and 
have only recently been somewhat modernised and 
brought out in book form. They have, however, lost 
nothing of their popular flavour in spite of their 
literary style. Numerous editions of this collection 
of folk tales have circulated in Turkey during the 
past hundred years, and since the writing reform in 
1928, there have also been some in Latin script. 

Editions: Billur Koshk Hikdyesi, ed. Emniyet 
Ktitiibkhanesi, Istanbul 1339; Billur Kbsk Hikdyesi, 
Istanbul 1928; Selami Miinir Yurdatap, Resimli 
Billur Kdsk Hikdyesi, Istanbul 1940. 

Translations: T. Menzel, Turkische Marchen I: 
Billur Koschk. 14 Turkish tales, translated into 
German for the first time, from the two Istanbul 
editions of the collection. (Beitrage zur Marchenkunde 
des Morgenlandes, edited by G. Jacob and T. Menzel, 



, Han 



1923. 



(apart from works already 
mentioned): I. Kunos, Oszman-Tdrdk Nipkoltisi 
Gyujtemlny, Budapest 1887/89; G. Jacob, Die 
turkische Volkslitteratur, Berlin 1901 ; I. Kunos, 
Turkische Volksmarchen aus Stambul, Leiden 1905 ; 
Bolte-Polivka, Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- und 
Hausmarchen der Briider Grimm, Leipzig 1913/32, 
ii, 229-273; P. N. Boratav, Billur K6sk, in IA, ii 
(1944), 613; W. Eberhard and P. N. Boratav, 
Typen tiirkischer Volksmarchen, Wiesbaden 1953. 

(H. W. Duda) 
BILMA, (Ar.) (in Tedaga: Togei or Tzigei), 
chief centre of the Kawar, a group of oases situated 
mid-way between Fezzan and Chad, on the main 
route from the Mediterranean to the Sudan. The 
palm groves extend for 90 kilometres from north to 
south, from Anay to Bilma. At no point are they 
more than 2 kilometres wide. Bilma is situated at 
the foot of a cliff which faces west; its base is 
formed by the marine layers of L T pper Cretaceous, 
and its summit by the sandstone of the Conti- 
nental germinal. 

Although conquered by the Arabs in the ist/ith 
century (expedition of 'Ukba b. Nafi c reported by 
Ibn c Abd al-Hakam), the Kawar was still partly 
pagan at the beginning of the 19th century. 
The population, numbering about 1500, consists 
of a settled negro race, the Kanuri, and the Guezebida, 
hybrids from Kanuri and Teda. These settlers have 
always been subject to the nomads who inhabit the 
neighbouring regions, first to the Touareg of the Air, 
then to the Teda. They cultivate palm-trees whose 
dates are sent to the Tibesti and to the Hausa 
countries; but their chief means of livelihood lies 
in the exploitation of the salt-works situated at 
2 kilometres to the north-west of Bilma, at Kalala. 
These salt works are made up of about a thousand 
pits spread over some 15 hectares. The salt is mainly 
extracted in the hot season, from April to November, 
because of evaporation. 

The pits are dug down to the underground water 
level (2 m.), the water is left to evaporate, a crust 
is formed which is broken with palm sticks, and the 
salt is deposited at the bottom. There are two main 
types of salt: beza, in the form of crystals which is 



BILMA — BlMARISTAN 



not treated in any way and is used for human con- 
sumption, and the kantu, moulded into loaves in 
hollowed out palm-trunks and used chiefly for the 
feeding of animals. The salt-works belonged first to 
the Koyom, a Kanuri tribe, who were driven back to 
the south-east of Kawar, between Kouka and Goure ; 
then, from the sixteenth century, to a Touareg 
tribe, the Kel Gress. Since the arrival of the French, 
they have belonged to the people of Bilma. The 
apply for authority to dig to the village chief who 
is master of the land, and exploit the works them- 
selves, without paying royalties to anyone. All 
commercial activity is carred on during the azalay 
[q.v.] in the autumn and spring, when the Touareg 
caravans bring in the millet, butter, dried meat, 
fabrics and kola nuts which are bartered for the salt. 
These great caravans comprising several thousand 
camels, with growing security have been replaced 
by smaller individual caravans, which are tending 
to get smaller still, following the infiltration into 
Nigeria of sea-water salt and European salt, but 
the family bartering system remains unchanged; 
only the rate of exchange varies from year to 

Bibliography: Barth, Reisen, iv, ch. 6; 

Rohlfs, Quer dutch Africa, i; Nachtigal, Sahara 

und Sudan, i; Monteil, De St Louis a Tripoli par 

le Tchad, ch. xiii; Gabel, Notes sur Bilma et Us 

oasis environnantes, in Revue Colonial, 1907, 361- 

386; Cne. Grandin, Notes sur I'industrie et le 

commerce du sel au Kawar, et en A gram, in Bui. 

IFAN, xiii/2, 1951, 488-533; J. Chapelle, Nomades 

noirs du Sahara. (R. Capot-Rey) 

BILMEDJE. the name given as a rule to popular 

riddles among the Ottoman Turks. Northern and 

eastern Turks use instead various words from the 

root tap- ('to find'), such as tablshmak, tapmadja, 

tapklsh, tabishkak, tabushturmak. 

The true riddles of the people can generally be 
distinguished from artificial riddles such as the 
lughaz or mu'ammd by their obviously simple form, 
their puns or double meanings, and their appearance 
of unreason or illogicality. This last characteristic of 
riddles, their irrationality, is manifested in this way: 
when speaking of various objects and happenings, 
certain traditional expressions are employed which 
have only a vague connexion with the ordinary 
natural way of looking at things, and which must 
be known before the meaning can be grasped. That 
is to say, it is not generally possible to find the 
solution to a riddle by using one's logical judgement. 
To solve a riddle, one must first comprehend the 
sense of the peculiar terminology, which has some- 
thing of the quality of a hieroglyph. None of these 
features is peculiar to popular Turkish riddles. The 
riddles of any given people differ from those of any 
other only in details, usually of form. The specially 
Turkish character of the bilmedie is primarily bound 
up vith geographical location and Turkish popular 
life. Broadly speaking, the Islamic stamp is secondary 
and unimportant. 

At the present time, riddles chiefly constitute the 
branch of Turkish popular literature that is peculiar 
to children. Nevertheless, we have evidence sug- 
gesting that once upon a time they were regarded 
very seriously and formed a part of popular philo- 
sophy: we find stories in which riddling contests 
occur, with one man quoting a hemistich and his 
opponent capping it with another, sometimes with 
serious consequences for the defeated party. So too 
the existence of riddles relating to cosmology and 
sex shows clearly that these were not originally 



invented for children. With the change in their 
social r61e, riddles underwent considerable modi- 
fication and took on new meanings. Indeed the 
solution of riddles is usually a shifting and fluid 
element in them. 

Riddles are mostly in the form of a short propo- 
sition: consider for example this riddle, known to 
have existed as early as the 14th century and still 
widespread today: yet altlnda yagUl kayish ('oily 
sliding underground') = 'snake'. Most of the popular 
riddles consist of two parts which are assonant or 
half-rhyming because of the syntactical balance 
between them: Allah yapar yaplslnl — bltak afar 
kaplslnl ('God builds its structure, the knife opens 
its door') = 'water-melon'. Riddles of this pattern 
are often extended into regular quatrains (mint), a 
chacteristic form of Turkish popular verse. Parono- 
masia and onomatopoeia abound. 

A comparative examination of material so far 
collected shows that the various groups into which 
riddles may be classified are all variants of certain 
primitive types. In fact, because of the alterations 
incidental to the process of being passed orally 
from one person to another, and because they are 
consciously adjusted to suit new solutions, riddles 
are subject to constant change. This entails a well- 
nigh infinite increase in the number of variants. 
Nevertheless there are some riddles whicli have 
changed neither their form nor their solution for 



As early as Mahmud Kashghari's Diwdn Lughdt 
al-Turk (nth century) we find riddles, under the 
names tabuzghu neng, tabuzghuk and tabzugh. But 
the oldest known examples of Turkish popular 
riddles are found in the Codex Cumanicus and have 
formed the subject of numerous publications (G. 
Kuun, Codex Cumanicus, Budapest 1880, 143-157, 
236 foil.; W. Radloff, Das Turkische Sprachmaterial 
des C. C. (Mlm. de V Acad, de St. Petersburg, 1887, 
xxxv, 2 foil., no. 6) ; W. Bang, Vber die Rdtsel des 
C. C. [SBPr. Ak. W., 1912, xxi, 334-353); J- Nemeth, 
Die Rdtsel des C. C. (ZDMG, 1913, lxvii, 577-608); 
S. E. Malov, K istorii i kritike C. C. (Izv. Akad. 
Nauk SSSR, literary section, 1930, 348-375); J. 
Nemeth, Zu den Rdtseln des C: C. (KCA, ii, 
366 foil.). 

There are also a good many collections of riddles 
recorded by contemporary scholars, but these are 
far from having exhausted the rich store existing 
among the Turkish peoples. 

Bibliography: A. N. Samoylovich, Zagadki 
zakaspiyskikh Turkmenov (Zivaya Stariua, 1909), 
28-32. He has published a bibliography of studies 
of riddles of the Turkish peoples till 1932. This 
(RO, iv, 4'f.; till 1926) has been completed by 
Malov. For bibliography of Ottoman riddles see 
Kowalski's article Turkische Volksrdtsel aus 
Nordbulgarien {Festschrift fur G. Jacob), 130 ff. 
(till 1932). Important collections of Turkish 
riddles: I. Kunos, Oszmantorbk nipkblUsi gyujte- 
miny, Budapest 1889, ii, 141-177; T. Kowalski, 
Zagadki ludowe tureckie, Krakow 1919; Sa c <l al-Din 
Niizhet and Ahmed Ferld, Konya wildyeti khal- 
kiydt we harthiyati, Konya 1926, 225-233; 
Hammami-zade Ihsan, Bilmeceler (articles on 
Turkish folklore), iii, Istanbul 1930; T. Kowalski, 
Turkische Volksrdtsel aus Kleinasien, (ArO 1932, 
iv, 295-324). (T. Kowalski*) 

BlMARISTAN, often contracted to mdristdn, 
from Persian bimdr 'sick' + the suffix -istdn denoting 
place, a hospital. In modern usage btmdristdn is 
applied especially to a lunatic asylum. 



i. Early period and Muslim East. 

According to the Arabs themselves (cf. Makrizi, 
Kki(at, ii, 405), the first hospital was founded either 
by Manakyus, a mythical king of Egypt, or by 
Hippocrates, the latter of whom is said to have 
made for the sick in a garden near his house a 
xenodokeion, literally 'lodging for strangers'. The 
authority for this statement is given by Ibn AM 
Usaybi'a ( c Uyun, ed. Miiller, i, 26-27) as Book 3 
of Galen's Ft akhldk al-nafs {Peri Ethon), a work 
which has not survived in Greek. Since hospitals 
were not a feature of life in classical antiquity, the 
question of origin is not solved by these indications. 
Al-Walid I (Caliph 86-96/705-715) is credited with 
having been the first to build a mdristdn in Islam, 
placing in it doctors and assigning them stipends 
(Makrizi, loc. cit.), but although this is stated in 
similar terms ('hospitals for the sick') by so early a 
writer as Ibn al-Fakih circa 289/902 (106-107), the 
fact is open to doubt. According to al-Tabari (ii, 
1196), al-Walid restrained the lepers from going out 
among the people and assigned them stipends, — 
a bare statement somewhat amplified in another 
passage (ii, 1271), where al-Tabari mentions that 
al-Walid 'gave donations to the lepers, telling them 
not to beg from the people and assigned to every 
cripple a servant and to every blind person a guide'. 
Ibn al-Athir (sub anno 88/707) has a short notice to 
the same effect, and al-Dhahabi adds that the 
servants and guides were slaves (Ta'rikh al-Isldm, 
iv, 67). It would seem that we have to do here with 
measures of segregation, somewhat as in Muslim 
Spain later, where a whole quarter at IJurtuba 
(Cordova) was known as Rabad al-Marda, 'Suburb 
of the Sick' (cf. E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. mus., 
Hi, 381-382, 434)- 

The establishment of the first real hospital in 
Islam depended on the continuing influence of the 
medical school and hospital at Djundaysabur 
(Djundishapur) in Khuzistan. Founded under the 
Sasanids, this institution maintained its Syro- 
Persian and Indian, ultimately Greek, traditions, 
into the Arab period and from the time of the 
transference of the capital to al- c Irak exercised a 
profound effect on the development of Arabic 
medicine. As far as hospitals are concerned, contact 
with Djundaysabur bore fruit in the reign of Harun 
al-Rashid (170/786-193/809), who charged Djibram 
b. Bakhtlshu c , a Christian doctor of that school, 
with the creation of a bimdristdn in Baghdad. At the 
same time a skilled dispenser in the bimdristdn at 
Djundaysabur was sent to Baghdad. This man's son, 
Yuhanna (Yahya) b. Masawayh, afterwards became 
head of the new bimdristdn (Ibn al-Kiftl, Ta'rikh 
al-Jjukamd'-, ed. Lippert, 383-384; Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, 
i, 174-175). The original Baghdad hospital was 
situated in the S.W. suburb on the Karkhaya Canal. 
It was here that, following the catholic traditions 
of Djundaysabur, the Indian Manka at the request 
of Yahya b. Khalid al-Barmaki translated the 
Sanskrit medical work Suiruta-samhitd into Persian 
{Fihrist, 303) and al-Razi (Rhazes) lectured, 
according to some. 

How long the bimdristdn of Hariin continued to 
function alone is not clear. From the beginning of 
the 4th/ioth century or somewhat earlier we hear 
of a spate of new foundations in Baghdad: the 
bimdristdn founded by Badr al-Mu c tadidI, the 
ghuldm, 'page', of al-Mu'tadid (279/892-289/902) in 
the Mukharrim quarter on the E. bank of the 
Tigris (Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, i, 221, cf. 214) ; 



STAN 1223 

in the Harbiyya quarter, N. of the City of al-Mansur, 
endowed in 302/914 by the 'good wazir' C A1I b. l Isa, 
who gave the direction of it together with 'the rest 
of the hospitals in Baghdad, Makka and al-Madina' 
to the learned Abu 'Uthman Sa c Id b. Ya'kub al- 
Dimishkl, otherwise known as a translator (Ibn Abi 
Usaybi'a, i, 234) ; the BlmaristSn al-Sayyida on the 
E. bank, opened in al-Muharram, 306/June, 918 by 
Sinan b. Thabit, who appears to have succeeded Abu 
c Uthm5n al-Dimishki as general intendant of 
hospitals in Baghdad and elsewhere (Ibn Abi 
Usaybi'a, i, 221-222); the Bimaristau al-Muktadirl 
at the Bab al-Sham, built about the same time (Ibn 
Abi Usaybi'a, i, 222) ; and the bimdristdn of Ibn al- 
Furat in Darb al-Mufaddal, over which Thabit b. 
Sinan is said to have been given the charge in 313/925 
(Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, i, 224). These hospitals derived 
their revenues from endowments (wafif) made by 
powerful and wealthy individuals. The funds were 
in the hands of trustees, who were not always very 
attentive to their responsibilities (Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, 
i, 221). An idea of the size of the hospitals may be 
gained from their monthly expenditure: at Me 
Muktadiri 200 dinars a month; at the Bimaristan al- 
Sayyida, 600 dinar-, a month (ibid.). Some comfort 
for the patients was secured by the provision of 
blankets and charcoal in cold weather (Ibn Abi 
Usaybi'a, i, 222). Efforts in this direction sometimes 
went much farther (see below). 

We know less about hospitals in the provinces, 
but some certainly existed before the 4th/ioth 
century. The bimdristdn of al-Rayy, over which al- 
Razi presided before coming to Baghdad, where he 
died as head of a hospital about 320/932 (Ibn al- 
Kifti, 272), was a large institution (cf. Ibn al- 
Kifti, 273; Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, i, 310-311) and had 
probably been in existence for some time. A lunatic 
asylum at Dayr Hizkil between Wasit and Baghdad 
was visited by al-Mubarrad in the Caliphate of 
al-Mutawakkil, i.e., between 232/847 and 247/861 
(Mas'udi, Murudj, vii, 197 ff.). 

In the time of Sinan b. Thabit, who died in 331/942 
(Fihrist, 302), on instructions from 'All b. 'Isa 
already mentioned the prisons were daily visited by 
doctors, medicines and potions were provided for 
sick prisoners, and female visitors were also admitted, 
evidently in the capacity of nurses (Ibn AM Usaybi'a, 
i, 221). At the same period medical practitioners 
and a travelling dispensary (khizdna li 'l-adwiya 
wa 'l-ashriba) were sent round the villages of the 
Sawad (i.e., lower 'Irak). From correspondence 
between Sinan and the wazir concerning this mobile 
medical unit it appears that at this time non-Muslims 
as well as Muslims were treated at the bimdristdns 
(Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, ibid.). 

At least some of the Baghdad hospitals which 
have been listed were probably still in existence when 
the great 'AdudI bimdristdn was founded at the bend 
of the Tigris in W. Baghdad by the Buwayhid 
'Adud al-Dawla Al-Razi is repeatedly mentioned in 
connexion with this hospital, which from the time 
of its opening in 372/982, shortly before the death of 
'Adud al-Dawla (Dhahabl, Duwal al-Isldm, i, 167), 
was the most celebrated of the hospitals of Baghdad. 
It is said that al-Razi chose the site by causing a 
piece of meat to be suspended in every part of the 
city, and discovering where there was least putre- 
faction, and also that 'Adud al-Dawla selected him 
from more than a hundred doctors as first chief (the 
word is sa'ijr, from Syriac) of the new foundation 
(Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, i, 309-310). But al-Razi had died 
50 years earlier. The explanation of the anachronism, 



BlMARISTAN 



already noted by Ibn Abl Usaybi'a (ibid.), may be 
the similarity in the script of the BImaristan al- 
'Adudl and that founded in al-RazI's lifetime by 
al-Mu'tadidl (see above). 

When first founded, the 'Adudi hospital had 
twenty-four doctors (Ibn al-Kifti 235-236). Several 
classes of specialists are mentioned: 'physiologists' 
(tabdHHyyun), oculists (kahhdlun), surgeons (diard>- 
ihiyyun) and bonesetters (mud[abbirun) (Ibn Abi 
Usaybi'a, i, 310). The salary of Djibrall b. 'Ubayd 
Allah, whose turn of duty at the bimdristdn was two 
days and two nights per week, is given as 300 
dirhams, i.e., monthly (Ibn al-Kifti, 148). Lectures 
were given at the 'Adudi hospital (Ibn Abl Usaybi'a, 
i, 239, 244), and we know some of the works which 
were read in this way, e.g., the Akrdbddhin (Anti- 
dotarium) of Sabur b. Sahl of Djundaysabur (Fihrist, 
297, cf. Brockelmann, I, 232), eventually superseded 
by another work of the same title by Ibn al-Tilmldh. 
a later dean (sd'-ur, see above) of the 'Adudi hospital 
(Ibn Abl Usaybi'a, i, 161, 259). When Ibn Djubayr 
visited Baghdad in 580/1184 the place was like a 
great castle, with a water-supply from the Tigris, 
and all the appurtenances of royal palaces (Rihla, 
ed. De Goeje, 225-226). 

Another of the great hospitals of mediaeval Islam 
was founded in Damascus by Nur al-DIn b. Zangi 
(541/1146-569/1175). The Nuri hospital is said to have 
been built from the ransom of an unnamed king of 
the Franks (MakrizI, Khi\a\, "> 408). Ibn Djubayr 
(Rihla, 283) describes how the staff kept lists of the 
patients' names and the amounts of medicines and 
food which each required. A typical day in the life 
of a leading doctor at the Nuri hospital included 
going the rounds of the sick and writing down 
prescriptions of medicine and treatment, visiting 
private patients, then returning to the hospital in 
the evening to lecture for three hours on medical 
subjects (Ibn Abl Usaybi'a, ii, 155). There was also 
a Nuri hospital at Halab (Aleppo) (Raghib al- 
Tabbakh, Ta'rikh Halab, ii, 77). 

In Egypt no bimdristdn existed till Ahmad b. 
Tulun constructed one in 259/872-261/874 (MakrizI, 
Kkitat. ii, 405). Here the rule was that no soldier 
or slave should be admitted for treatment. The 
institution was richly endowed, with facilities for 
men and women. The Nasiri hospital was founded 
by Salah al-DIn, but the great creation of al-Mansiir 
Kala'un, completed in 11 months in 683/1284, was 
the most splendid of its kind in Egypt, and perhaps 
the most elaborate which had yet been seen in Islam. 
The endowment is said to have amounted to nearly 
one million dirhams in a year (MakrizI, Kkitat. ii, 406). 
Men and women were admitted. None was turned 
away, nor was the period of treatment limited. 
Formerly a Fatimid palace with accomodation for 
8,000 persons, the Mansurl hospital possessed wards 
where fevers, ophthalmia, surgical cases, dysentery, 
etc., were separately treated, a pharmacy, a dispen- 
sary, store-rooms, attendants of both sexes, a large 
administrative staff, lecture arrangements, a chapel, 
a library, in fact all that the best experience of the 
time could suggest for the healing of the sick. The 
account of these matters given by al-Makrizi (Khitat. 
ii, 406-408) is an impressive tribute to the hospital 
science of mediaeval Islam. 

Books were written about hospitals, e.g., the 
Kitdb fi sifdt al-bimdristdn of al-RazI (Ibn Abl 
U?aybi c a, i, 310), the Bimdristdni par excellence (cf. 
Ibn al-Kifti, 272 = Ibn Djuldjul, ed. Fu'Sd Sayyid, 
77), which, like the Kitdb al-bimdristdndt of Zahid 
al-'Ulama 5 al-Farikl, head of a flourishing hospital 



in Mesopotamia in the 5th/nth century (Ibn Abl 
Usaybi'a, i, 253), is now lost. Somewhat different are 
the Makdla Aminiyya fi 'l-adwiya al-bimdristdniyya 
of Ibn al-Tilmidh and the Dastur al-bimdristdni of 
Ibn Abi '1-Bayyan, both works on pharmacopoeia 
mentioned by Paul Sbath (Al-Fihrist, Cairo 1938, i, 
10, 75), who gave an edition of the latter (Bulletin 
de I'Institut d'Egypte, xv, 1932-1933, 13-78). 

Bibliography: L. Leclerc, Histoire de la 
Midecine arabe, Paris 1876, 557-572; E. G. 
Browne, Arabian Medicine, Cambridge 1921, 
45-46, 56, 101-102; Amin A. Khayr Allah, Outline 
of Arabic Contributions to Medicine and the Allied 
Sciences, Beirut 1946, 59-73 (contains a few 
mistakes); C Elgood, A Mediccl History of 
Persia and the Eastern Caliphate, Cambridge 1951, 
index (gives also information on the W. of Islam) ; 
G. Le Strange, Baghdad during the Abbasid 
Caliphate, Oxford 1900; reimpression 1924, 62, 
103-105; E: W. Lane, Cairo Fifty Years Ago, 
London 1896, 92-94 (reduced condition of the 
Mansurl hospital last century); M. W. Hilton- 
Simpson, Arab Medicine and Surgery, Oxford 1922, 
13 (village hospital in modern Algeria); Ahmad 
'Isa Bey, Histoire des bimaristans (hdpitaux) a 
I'ipoque islamique, Cairo 1928; idem, Ta'rikh al- 
Bimdristdndt fi 'l-Islam, Damascus 1939; J. 
Sauvaget, Alep, text, 126 n. 1, and album, pi. lxi. 
(D. M. Dunlop) 

ii. Muslim West. 

The first large hospital in North Africa for which 
there is any evidence was founded at Marrakush by 
the Almohad sultan Ya'kub al-Mansiir (580-95/ 
1184-99) about a hundred years before the establish- 
ment of the famous hospital at Cairo. The sultan 
was a great builder and, after attracting to his 
court the most celebrated Spanish doctors of his 
time: Ibn Tufayl, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Zuhr al-Hafld 
and his son, he built in his capital, for sick foreigners 
both rich and poor, a magnificent hospital of which 
there is a description by 'Abd al-Wahid al-Marra- 
kushl (cf. al-Mu l djib, ed. Mohammed El-Fassi, 1938, 
176-177). The same sultan also founded, in various 
parts of the empire, hospitals for the insane, for 
lepers and for the blind (cf. al-Kirtds, ed. Fas 1305, 
154; trans. Beaumier, 306). 

The great Marlnid Sultans [q.v.], Abu Yusuf 
Ya'kub, Abu '1-Hasan and Abu 'Inan, kept up these 
establishments and added many others (cf. al- 
Kirtds, ed. Fas, 1305, 214; al-Dhakhira al-Saniyya, 
ed. Ben Cheneb, 100; Ibn Marzuk, al-Musnad, ed. 
Levi- Provencal, in Hesperis v (1925), 36; Ibn 
Battuta, Rihla, ed. Defremery and Sanguinetti, iv, 
347). At a later date, the ruling sultans appropriated 
the revenues intended for these hospitals, which 
consequently fell into decline or disappeared. 

At the beginning of the ioth/i6th century, Leo 
Africanus described the hospital at Fez as being in 
total decline and used primarily as a prison for 
dangerous lunatics. This is still its function, and it 
is also used as a prison for women (cf. Leo Africanus, 
Description de V Afrique, trans. Schefer, ii, 78, trans. 
Epaulard i, 188; Le Tourneau, Fes, 255-257). 

The famous Almohad hospital at Marrakush 
seems to have disappeared without leaving any 
traces, and the hospital founded there by the Sa'did 
sultan 'Abd Allah al-Ghalib bi-llah (965-81/1557-74) 
became a prison for women (cf. al-Nasiri, Kitdb al- 
Istiksd', trans, v, 63). 

In 1247/1831-32, the 'Alawid sultan Mawlay 'Abd 
al-Rahman built at Sale a hospital attached to the 



sanctuary of SayyidI Ibn c Ashir. This hospital, 
which is still in use, dispensed with doctors; instead, 
the sick relied for their cure upon the baraka of the 
saint. The memory of old hospitals which have 
disappeared or fallen into disuse is preserved in some 
towns of Morocco, for example in Rabat and El- 
Ksar (cf. L. Brunot, Textes arabes de Rabat, ii: 
Glossary, 753), and also in Tangiers. 

Lepers (plural djadhmd, or, euphemistically, 
mardd) were usually placed in a special quarter, 
called al-hdra, outside the towns. At Fez, they were 
originally settled outside Bab al-Khawkha, on the 
Tlemcen road. During the first half of the thirteenth 
century they were removed to caves outside Bab 
al-Shari c a. Then, in 658/1260, they were installed in 
other caves outside Bab al-GIsa. At the beginning 
of the ioth/i6th century they lived in a town near 
the Suk al-Khamis (cf. al-Kirtds, ed. Rabat 1936, i, 
53-54; Leo Africanus, Description de I'Afrique, trans. 
Epaulard, i, 229). At Marrakush, the hdra was 
originally outside Bab Aghmat, until, at the end of 
the ioth/i6th century, the Sa'did sultan al-Mansur 
removed it to outside Bab Dukkala. 

At Tunis, the Hafsid Sultan, Abu Faris, founded 
the first hospital "for poor, foreign or infirm 
Muslims", completed in 823/1420 (cf. al-Zarkashi, 
Ta'rikh al-Dawlatayn, ed. Tunis 1289, 102). At 
Granada, the Nasrid sultan Muljammad V, built a 
splendid hospital "for sick and poor Muslims", 
completed in 768/1367. The foundation inscription 
reads that "never, since the beginning of Islamic 
influence in these parts, has such an establishment 
been founded". Perhaps this is an exaggeration, for 
there were others, and in Granada itself. And, from 
the 7th/i3th century onwards, the Valencia Voca- 
bulista translates hospitale by dialectal and, therefore, 
living terms: marastdn and malastdn (cf. Ibn al- 
Khatib, al-Ihdta, ed. Cairo 1319, ii, 29; Levi- 
Provencal, Inscriptions arabes d'Espagne, 164; 
L. Seco de Lucena, Piano de Granada arabe, 53). 

A distinction must be made between "hospitals" 
intended for the sick and "hospices" or "night 
lodgings" (manzil) intended for travellers. In the 
Muslim West, such hospices were established outside 
the gates of the big towns by most of the sovereigns 
who founded hospitals. They received the name 
zdwiya [q.v.] (cf. G. S. Colin, La zaouya merinite 
d'Anemli, a Taza, in Hespiris, 1953, ii, 1). Al- 
KhafadjI appears to have repeated an earlier error 
in stating that the first bimdristdn was set up by 
Hippocrates who gave it the name ikhshinudukiyun 
(^evoSoxeiov), "hostelry for foreigners" (cf. Shifd* 
al-Qhalil, ed. Cairo 1282, 56) [cf. above i]. 

The Moroccan author of the Mu'djib (cf. supra), 
writing in Baghdad in 621/1224, is the only Western 
author to use the correct etymological form: 
bimdristdn. All the others use a form, mdristdn, 
which has lost the Persian preposition. Very soon, 
the word appears with the first d shortened. In the 
Spanish dialects, the r was followed by the vowel a 
(Vocabulista: marastdn and malastan; P. de Alcala: 
marasten), and this vocalisation is attested for Egypt 
in the nth/i7th century by Al-Khafadji (cf. Shifd' 
ed. Cairo 1282, 206). In present-day Cairo the word 
is pronounced murustdn. 

In the modern dialects of the Maghrib, some 
velarisation has taken place in the word: morsfdn, 
the reason for the sound-change being perhaps 
affective. In Tetuan it is pronounced merstrdn, and 
everywhere the meaning of the word is "prison for 
dangerous lunatics" (cf. W. Marcais, Textes arabes de 
7 anger, 465). (G. S. Colin) 



iii. Turkey. 

The first Saldjukid Ddr al-Shifd' (Hospital) and 
Madrasa were established in Kayseri in 602/1206. 
This was followed by the building of other hospitals in 
Sivas, Divriii, Cankiri, Kastamonu, Konya, Tokat, 
Erzurum, Erzincan, Mardin and Amasya. The Ana- 
tolian hospitals were named then, as now, Bimd- 
ristdn, Mdristdn, Timdrhdne, Ddr al-Shifd' or Ddr 
al- c Afiya. They were general hospitals in that they 
accepted all kinds of patients, and their staffs in- 
cluded surgeons, physicians, pharmacists and oculists. 
They were supported by independent funds, and 
were organised according to the size, importance 
and specific needs of the locality. 

The first Ottoman Bimdristdn in Anatolia was the 
Ddr al-Shifd* of Ylldlrlm in Bursa. When Bursa was 
conquered by the Ottomans in 726/1306, it had no 
hospital. The first Ottoman sultans (Sultan Orkhan, 
Murad I, Ylldlrim Bayazid) enlarged the city and 
built some institutions, among which was the Ddr 
al-Shifd* of YUdtrtm, opened in 802/1399. This 
institution, which was a section of Yildirim '■Imdreti 
(a special centre including hospital, bath, rest house 
for travellers etc.) was repaired many times before 
it was abandoned in the middle of the 19th century 
in favour of the Ahmed Wefik Pasha hospital. It is 

The leprosery which was built at Edirne in the 
time of Murad II (824-855/1421-51) operated for 
approximately two centuries. Before this leprosery, 
the Turks had built others in Sivas, Kastamonu 
and Kayseri in Anatolia. 

The Ddr al-Shifd* of Fatih which was opened in 
875/1470, was built by Mehemmed II, the Conqueror 
(855-886/1451-81), and was a part of his Kulliye. 
Although it is now in ruins as a result of many large 
fires, the hospital buildings served until the last 
century. The Wakfiyye shows that there was a 
large medical student body in addition to the 
medical staff. This was the traditional method of 
training medical students in Islamic hospitals. 

In the same century Bayazid II (886-918/1481- 
15 12) established another Hmdret at Edirne, on the 
banks of the Tundja river. A part of this institution 
was a hospital which was named after him. The 
buildings were begun in 891/1486 and completed 
in eight years, but the Wakfiyye was not established 
until 898/1493. Although the institution is now in 
ruins, its large staff served the public well until the 
beginning of this century. According to Ewliya 
Celebi, it had a staff of ten musicians who played 
for the patients from time to time. There are many 
mistakes in the plans of the institution, which were 
prepared very hurriedly by C. Gurlitt ; cf . C. Gurlitt, 
Die Baukunst Konstantinopels, Berlin 1872, 2 vols. 

During the 16th century three great hospitals were 
established in Istanbul and one in Manisa. The 
Bimdrkhdne of Khasseki was built in 946/1539 in 
Istanbul for Khurrem Sultan, wife of Sultan Siiley- 
man the Magnificent; and the Ddr al-Shifd' of 
Siileyman and his Madrasa of Medicine were built 
in 963/1555 in Istanbul in the Sultan's name. 
The Ddr al-Shifd* of Hafize Sultan was built in 
946/1539 in Manisa in honour of the Sultan's 
mother. The Bimdrkhdne of Khasseki, though it was 
partially ruined by earthquakes and fires, is restored 
and is now used as a health centre. The Bimdrhdne 
of Manisa served until the end of the first world war 
and is now deserted. 

The fourth hospital, the Bimdrkhdne of Toptasi, 
was built in 991/1583 in Istanbul for Nurbanu 



BlMARISTAN — BINA* 



Sultan, mother of Murad III (982 1003/1574-95)- 
This institution served as a hospital until 1927 when 
it became a tobacco warehouse. 

In the 17th century, Ahmed I (1012-26/1603-17) 
had a large hospital erected behind the old Byzantine 
Hippodrome near his famous mosque. The hospital 
was opened in 1025/1616 and has only recently been 
demolished to make room for a new school. 

There was a recession in the establishment of 
Ottoman health and social aid institutions during the 
18th century; but in the 19th century military 
service, styles of clothing, education etc. were 
modernised in the Ottoman Empire. In 1253/1837 
the Ghuraba hospital was established in Istanbul at 
Edirnekapi in the Madrasa of Mihrimah Sultan. 
While this hospital was being modernised by Bezm-i 
'Alem Walide Sultan, mother of Sultan <Abd al- 
Madjld, new modern military hospitals and a modern 
medical school were established. These institutions 
were to meet the medical needs of the new army. 
A new school of medicine and surgery established 
in Istanbul in 1243/1827, by Sultan Mahmud II 
(1223-1255/1808-39), began its teaching in Italian but 
switched to French with the coming of some good 
medical teachers from Austria in 1839. This medical 
school was enlarged by sultans c Abd al-Madjid, <Abd 
al- c Aziz and c Abd al-Hamld II, and eventually 
included a rabies institute, a bacteriological in- 
stitute and an inoculation centre. A number of 
physicians having knowledge of European languages 
and modern medical methods graduated from this 
school. They went to Anatolia and founded modern 
hospitals there. Immunisations against rabies and 
smallpox were started here nearly at the same 
time as they were begun in Europe. The Ottoman 
Government was one of those which helped to 
establish the Pasteur Institute. 

Shishli children's hospital, which is one of the 
largest hospitals in Istanbul, was established by 
Sultan c Abd al-Hamid II, in 1316/1898. 

These hospitals were the most important of the 
Ottoman Empire and although there are many 
others to be found throughout Turkey, space does 
not permit their inclusion. In five centuries the 
Turks established nearly seventy hospitals in Istanbul 
alone. (Bedi N. Sehsuvaro6lu) 

BINA>, building, the art of the builder 
or mason. Building techniques depend partly on 
the materials used. In the Islamic countries we find 
very widely differing materials employed, from 
rammed earth to ashlar, with unbaked and baked 
brick, rubble and rough-hewn stone as intermediary 
stages. The choice of one of these materials depends 
of course on the resources of a given country, or the 
lack of them, but as well as this on local traditions or 
traditions brought in by foreign builders, which may 
for a time supplant local ones. Thus Syria, where the 
art of stone-cutting had long been known, reproduces 
in stone the complicated forms of the mufiarnas 
( = stalactites) which were borrowed from Persia and 
probably derive from brick architecture. And on the 
other hand Egypt, whose quarries had yielded such 
fine free-stone, uses brick at the time of the T ulunids, 
they are taking their models and no doubt their chief 
architects from 'Irak, where brick was the normal 
material. Apart from such considerations Muslim 
builders seem comparatively indifferent as to 
choice of material, except in some countries such as 
Syria which cling to their preference for fine work. 
Of the three great Hispano-Moorish towers of the 
6th/i2th century, which — no doubt wrongly — are 
attributed to the same architect, the Giralda at 



Seville is built of brick, the Hassan tower at Rabat 
of ashlar and the minaret of the Kutubiyya at 
Marrakech of rubble. This indifference on the part 
of the builder as to material and the carelessness of 
craftsmen in its use are seen more clearly in palaces 
than in religious buildings, especially in the West from 
the 7th/i3th century. There are several reasons for 
this: speed of construction, the need being to satisfy 
a master's whim the shortest delay; the use of 
unskilled slave labour capable of nothing more 
complicated than ramming concrete between two 
boards; and finally the general use of facings 
(coverings of plain or sculpted plaster, inlaid-work 
of enamelled clay or earthenware titles) which 
completely conceal the body of the walls. 

It is remarkable that the technique of cobwork 
(fabya) should have been described in detail by Ibn 
Khaldun in his Mufiaddima, and leads us to assume 
that he thought it a characteristically Muslim 
practice. Earth with which chalk and crushed baked 
earth or broken stones are often mixed is rammed 
between two boards kept parallel by beams. The 
wall is plastered over, often in such a way as to 
simulate joints of heavy bond-work beneath. When 
this plaster falls, the regularly spaced holes left by 
the beams become visible. In the Muslim West 
cobwork became general in the 5th/nth and 6th/ 
12th centuries, especially in military building. In 
the Maghrib it seems to have been an importation 
from Andalusia, where it had long been known. 

Unbaked brick (fawb), which sometimes serves 
as a facing for cobwork, is made of earth and 
cut straw rammed together in a wooden former. 
It is still in common use in Sahara towns, 
and was employed very early in arid regions, 
especially in Mesopotamia and Arabia. The walls of 
the Prophet's dwelling in Medina were probably 
built of this material, as are those of the 'Abbasid 
mosques of Samarra. We find it employed at about 
the same time in Ifrikiya. The excavations at 
'Abbasiyya, the seat of the Aghlabids of al-^Cayrawan, 
have brought to light carefully moulded specimens of 
tawb 42 cm. long by half that measurement in width, 
and a quarter in thickness, which suggests that the 
cubit used by the builders was 42 cm. 

Baked brick (ddiurr), used so commonly in the 
Iranian world and by the Romans also, notably in 
the public baths, is to be found in all the Islamic 
countries, but was always par excellence the building 
material of Persia. It is of varying dimensions, and 
is sometimes cut on an angle or partly rounded off. 
It is used alone or with rubble in parts of a building 
where accuracy of line is important (pillars, pedestals, 
stairways, arches, vaults, etc.). It functions as 
horizontal tying material alternating with courses 
of rubble, or vertical tying, to maintain regularity of 
construction, especially at corners (A). Brick is as a 
rule covered over with plaster, but it may remain 
visible and add an element of colour, either the pink 
of baked earth or that of some enamel applied to its 
edge. 

Rubble or rough-hewn stone was used in Sasanid 
building and is still used in Muslim Mesopotamia, as 
in the stronghold of Ukhaydir (mid 2nd/8th century). 
In the 5th/nth century it seems to have been the 
material most familiar to the Berber builders of 
North Africa. It is used above all for the ramparts of 
towns before the introduction of cobwork (cob 
walls will often have a foundation of rubble), and 
also in waterworks. The cementing mortar and 
protecting plaster are of chalk, sand, crushed frag- 
ments of tile, and wood charcoal. An analysis of their 



composition reveals a pattern of evolution which has 
been studied by M. Solignac (Recherckes sur les 
installations hydrauliques de Kairouan . ... in AIEO 
Algiers, 19523), and allows us to date the works. 

The use of ashlar continues a Roman and Byzantine 
tradition. Its homeland is in Syria, where ashlar has 
remained a common building material until our time. 
It was temporarily replaced by brick in Egypt, but 
came into use again in the Fatimid period (4th-6th/ 
ioth-i2th century) especially in the fortifications 
of the Armenian Badr al-Djamall. In Ifrikiya it is 
used for the religious and military buildings of the 
3rd/gth century and from the 7th/i3th century was 
popular again with the Tunisian architects. In Spain 
it is the regular material in the Umayyad foundat- 
ions; local tradition was there reinforced by Syrian 
influence. The Maghrib takes it over in the 6th/i2th 
century in the Almohad buildings. 

As in the Byzantine period, walls built of rubble- 
work are frequently faced with ashlar. The bond- 
work, not as massive as the Roman, shows combi- 
nations of tiles and headers, whose chronology 
Velazquez Bosco has contrived to establish, for 
Cordova (Velazquez Bosco, Medina Azzahra y 
Alamiriya, Madrid 1912) (B, B', B"). Almohad 
bond-work is of alternate thick and thin courses, 
which from Morocco pass into Tunisia. 

To these materials we should add wood: longi- 
tudinal beams are sometimes sunk in walls; at al- 
Kayrawan heavy planks form architraves above the 
capitals; small beams form ceilings and sometimes 
lintels, a practice not without risk to the solidity of 
the building concerned. 

Walls, the composition of which we have just 
indicated, are often flanked by buttresses. Projecting 
semi-cylindrical abutments of the old Mesopotamian 
type were added to the stone outer walls of the 
Syrian Umayyad strongholds, and the brick ones of 
the mosques at Samarra. The great mosque at 
Tunis (3rd/gth century) has at its four corners 
rounded buttresses of apparently the same origin, 
and they are found again in a building of the Kal c a 
of the Banu Hammad (5th-6th/iith-i2th century). 
The great mosque at al-Kayrawan was given massive 
rectangular buttresses, partly later than the original 
construction. The mosque at Cordova has similar 
buttresses at regular intervals around its periphery. 

Among the supporting members found principally 
in the halls of mosques, columns deserve first mention. 
In early centuries in such regions as Syria, Egypt, 
Ifrikiya and Spain they were taken from nearby 
pagan or Christian buildings. When these quarries 
of shafts and capitals were exhausted Muslim 
sculptors made their own. Columns are generally 
cylindrical and not entatic. In the ioth/i6th century 
and after they were imported from Italy to North 

The re-employment of columns of limited size in a 
hypostyle hall intended to produce an impressive 
effect led to these supporting members being pro- 
longed upwards. It was doubtless from Egypt ('Amr 
mosque) that the builders of al-Kayrawan borrowed 
the technique of superimposing, as in the classical 
entablature, the support (= architrave), the impost 
(= frieze) and the cornice, with wooden ties bedded 
in the impost (C). The architects of the mosque of 
Cordova were perhaps inspired by the Roman 
aqueducts to superpose two rows of arches linking 
the masses of masonry raised above the columns (D). 

The Almohad mosque of Hassan at Rabat (6th/ 
12th century) shows a rare example of columns 
formed of superinposed tambours. 



The pillar, a masonry support of square, rectangul- 
ar, cruciform, or divided plan or flanked by false 
columns, is in general use in Persian architecture. 
From the 6th/i2th century it replaces columns in 
prayer-halls in the Maghrib. Tunisian mosques 
retain columns. The situation is found in the inner 
courtyards of houses. 

Apart from the straight lintel formed by a single 
stone or oblique arch-stones surmounted by a 
relieving arch (Egypt, Syria), arches assume very 
varied forms (semi-circular, horseshoe, Persian arch 
with rectilinear divisions, etc.). These forms are not 
dictated by constructional requirements, but serve 
as ornamentation according to the architect's 
caprice. The arch-stones they contain are often 
purely decorative in function. 

To cover prayer-halls Syria, the Spain of the 
Umayyad period, and, no doubt in imitation of the 
latter, the Maghrib regions, had recourse to timber- 
work protected by tiled saddle-back roofs. Square 
buildings had pavilion-shaped roofs, i.e., with four 
slopes. Egypt and Ifrikiya retained terraces, which 
were preferred also by the Turkish masters of Algiers 
in the towns along the Algerian coast. The scarcity 
of timbers of the necessary dimensions led architects 
to bring closer together the walls carrying them, 
and to give narrow, long proportions to enclosures 
with ceilings (naves, rooms, etc.). The use of waggon- 
vaults or small domes placed together answers the 

The problem of vault and dome was solved in 
different ways within the Sasanid and Byzantine 
traditions, but Iranian genius was to add note- 
worthy variations. 

The question alluded to above of suitable timbers 
or rather of their scarcity is the determining factor 
in building the vault, whether semi-cylindrical or 
elliptical. Setting up a stone arch or vault demands 
the use of a wooden former on which the arch- 
stones are successively placed. The use of bricks, 
their lightness and the fact that they can be mortared 
together, allows another method which dispenses 
with the former: the construction of the "edge vault". 
This is frequent in Sasanid architecture and finds its 
most logical use in the specifically Iranian type, the 
iwdn (the iwdn so constantly used in Muslim Persia 
is a three-walled room open on the fourth side, like 
a large niche with a flat back surface). The builder 
cements a first row of bricks on the rear wall, tracing 
out the curve of the vault; a second row is then 
cemented to the first, a third to the second, so that 
row by row the vault advances across the space to 
be covered (G). 

Apart from the waggon-vault Muslim architecture 
uses the groined vault so familiar to Roman and 
Byzantine builders (two semi-cylinders intersecting 
at right angles [E]), and more rarely the cloister-arch 
vault (in which the four walls curve in above the 
space to be covered) (F) which occasionally serves 
as the end and culmination of the waggon-vault. 

As for the dome, the fine examples constructed 
in the Byzantine era were the prototypes of the 
Turkish domes, but this feature also was the subject 
of variations which Muslim art owes to Persia. 

As is known, there are two main types of solution to 
the problem of how to place a semi-circular or eight- 
sided vault on a square base: the pendentive (H), 
the customary practice in the Byzantine world 
(cf. St. Sophia at Istanbul), and the more specifically 
Iranian squinch (I). This squinch, a quarter sphere 
the head-arc of which projects over the corner of the 
square cupporting it, sometimes assumes with its 



radiating flutings and indented edge the grace of a 
marine shell (J). In the Grand Mosque at Damascus 
and that at Cordova it takes the form of a small 
niehe. North-African and Sicilian architecture knew 
the squinch as a half groined vault (a groined vault 
cut diagonally) (K). Finally Persia contrived the 
super-position of several ranks of cell-like niches, the 
probable origin of the nmharnas (= stalactites) (L). 

Above this zone where square and circle are 
brought into union there frequently rises a circular 
zone pierced with windows to allow the entry of 
light, and surmounted by the dome proper. 

Persian architects, profiting from the advantages 
offered by brick, showed great ingenuity in erecting 
widely differing domes. Such is the ribbed dome, of 
light arches crossing above the space to be covered, 
and supporting counter-arches which fill the inter- 
mediary gaps. This type of dome, which was known 
from the time of the Sasanids (A. Godard, Voutes 
iraniennes, in Athdr-e Iran, 1949), passed from 
Persia to Spain (3rd/gth century), then from Cordova 
and Toledo became known in the 6th/i2th century 
in the Maghrib and about the same time throughout 
south-west France. (G. Marcais) 

BINBASHI, 'head of a thousand', a Turkish 
military rank. The word appears at an early date 
among the Western Turks, and is already used in 
connexion with the military reorganisation said to 
have been made by Orkhan in 729/1328-9 (e.g., Sa'd 
al-DIn, TddJ al-Tawdrikh, i, 40 — 'onbashis, yiizbashts, 
and biiibashls were appointed to them . . .'). In the 
form minbashi the term also occurs among the 
Eastern Turks, and is used, for example, of a rank 
in the Safawid forces in Persia (V. Minorsky, Tadh- 
kirat al-Muluk, London 1943, 36, 74, 155). The title 
miii-begi, with a similar meaning, also appears in 
the memoirs of Babur. The term binbashi does not 
seem to have been much used in the regular Ottoman 
forces of the classical period. It reappears, however, 
in the 18th century, and is used to designate the 
officers of the newly raised miri 'askeris, a treasury- 
paid force of infantry and cavalry. In the campaign 
of 1769 there were already ninety seven regiments of 
miri 'askeris, each commanded by a binbashi. The 
binbashi received 2000 piastres of pay for the cam- 
paign, plus a tenth of the pay of his men. (D'Ohsson, 
Tableau gMral de I'Empire Othoman, vii, Paris 1824, 
381-2; cf. ResmlEfendi, Khuldsatal-IHibdr, Istanbul 
1286, 12 ff.). From the end of the 18th century, 
(Djewdet, Ta'rikh, vi, 367), binbashi became a regular 
rank in the new, European-style armies, given to 
battalion-commanders. After the accession of <Abd 
al- c AzIz, the pay of a binbashi was fixed at 1,500 
piastres a month, or 4,140 francs a year (Ubicini, 
Lettres sur la Turquie, no. 19). In Egypt the title bin- 
bashi, along with other Turkish military terms and 
commands, was used in the army of Muhammad c Ali 
Pasha, and remained current under subsequent 
regimes. In the Arab countries it is sometimes pro- 
nounced bikbashi, presumably through a distortion 
of the Turkish saghir nun (ft = 3). (B. Lewis) 

BINGOL, name of a town in ancient Turkish 
Armenia, previously called Capakcur, capital of a 
vilayet partly filled by the mountain range of Bingol 
Dagh. It is situated on the Goniik Su, a tributary 
of the Aracani-Arsanas-Murad Su, and on the road 
joining Elazig with Mush via Palu. (M. Canard) 

BINGOL DAGJi, name of a mountain massif, 
a raised but not volcanic plateau, which stretches 
south of Erzurum across the vilayets of Erzurum, 
Mush and Bingol (Capakcur). Its highest peak in the 



[NYAMIN 1229 

east is Demir or Timur Kale or Kal'a (Fortress of 
Iron), over whose height there is some disagreement 
among different writers : 3690 ms. according to H. and 
R. Kiepert, Formae orbis antiqui, pi. V, 1910, Abos 
Mons, cf. above, 655; 3650 ms. according to the 
Erzurum sheet of the Harta Genel Direktorlugii, 
1936; 3250 ms. according to the road-map of the 
Karayollari Genel Mudurlugu, 1951; 3700 ms. 
according to Banse; 2977 ms. according to Blanchard. 
It dominates the high plain of Varto (formerly 
Gumgiim). The western peak, Bingol or Toprak Kale 
(Fortress of Earth) is almost as high. The northern 
part of the mountain is cut of by two circular 
depressions separated by a sharp ridge. 

Bingol Dagh is a true water-shed. It contains 
numerous little lakes from which it gets its name of 
mountain (dagh) of a thousand (bin) lakes (gbl). 
The Araxes (Aras, al-Rass) in the north, the Tuzla 
Su, a tributary of the northern Euphrates, and the 
Bingol Su in the west, the Goniik Su in the south- 
west, the Carbughar Su in the south, and the Khinis 
Su, the four last tributaries of the Murad Su, in the 
east and north-east, all rise here. Armenian legend 
makes it the site of the earthly paradise. In classical 
geography it is called Abos Mons. The Armenian 
name is Srmanc c (Greek Sep(jL(4vT0u). Arab geo- 
graphers and historians de not refer to it, although 
there is some mention in the wars between the 
Hamdanids and the Byzantines in the 4th/ioth 
century of the place Hafdjidj (Arm. Havcic') 
situated to the south of Kallkala-Erzurum and in 
the Bingol Dagh at the source of the Araxes. Taver- 
nier is the first among European travellers to give 
the name of Bingol Dagh. The Klzll-Bash [q.v.] lived 
in this region. 

Bibliography: K. Ritter, Erdkunde, X, 79, 
81, 385-6; M. Wagner, Reise nach dem Ararat, 
Stuttgart 1858, 272; Strecker, Zur Geogr. von 
Hocharmenien, in Zeitschr. d. Ges. fur Erdkunde, 
Berlin 1869, iv; G. Radde, in Petermann's Geogr. 
Mitteilungen, 1877, 411-422; E. Naumann, Vom 
goldenen Horn zu den Quellen des Euphrat, Munich 
1893, 321-332; Petermann's Mitteilungen, 1907, 
145 f. (review of J. Oswald, A Treatise on the 
Geology of Armenia); H. F. B. Lynch, Armenia, 
Travels end Studies, London 1901, ii, 363-377; 
Hiibschmann, Die altarmenischen Ortsnamen, in 
Indogerm. Forschungen, xvi, 1904, 370, 427; 
Banse, Die Tiirkei, Berlin-Hamburg, 1919, 207, 
212-215, 219; Vidal de la Blache and Gallois, 
Giographie Universelle, volume viii: L'Asie Occi- 
dentale, by R. Blanchard, 118; Markwart, Siid- 
armenien und die Tigrisquellen, 492-493; Honig- 
mann, Die Ostgrenze des Byz. Reiches, 1935, 79-80, 
194-195, 197 and map iv; M. Canard, Hist, de la 
dynastie des H'amddnides.i, 246, 745; I A, fasc. 18, 
627-628. For the ancient period see Pauly-Wissowa, 
Realenzyklopedie, i, 108, vi, 1 197-8. 

(M. Canard) 
BINYAMlN, the Benjamin of the Bible. In its 
narration of the history of Joseph (Yusuf, [q.v.]), the 
Kur'an gives a place to the latter's uterine brother 
(xii, 8, 59-79), without ever mentioning him by name. 
Tradition embellishes without any great variation 
the biblical story concerning him (it is aware notably 
that his birth cost his mother her life) and receives 
also Aggadic additions (summarised notably in the 
Encyclopaedia Judaica, iv, 112-14), such as the 
etymological connexion of the names of his sons 
with the lost elder brother. In Muslim mysticism, 
the pair Yusuf-Binyamin symbolises the primordial 
relationship between God and the sinner. 



BINYAMIN — BPR 



Bibliography: Tabari, i, 360, 393, 397-404; 
idem, Tafsir, xii, 87, xiii, 6 ff . ; Tha'labl, 'Ara'is 
al-Madidlis, 82, 85; R. Blachere, Le Coran, 473 ff.; 
A. Geiger, Was hat Mohammed . . ., 148 f. ; 
I. Schapiro, Die haggadischen Elemente im erzah- 
Itnden Teil des Korans, 57-65. 80-81; D. Sidersky, 
Les origines des Ugendes musulmanes . . ., 87; 
H. Ritter, Das Meet der Seele, 255. 

(A. J. Wensinck-[G. Vajda]) 
BI'R (in modern, also some ancient, dialects pron. 
bir; plur. War, ab'ur, dbdr) is the most comprehensive 
Arabic word for the well; very often it appears as 
the genus proximum of its numerous synonyms (like 
kalib, rakiyya etc.), and the number of its various 
epithets is considerable. 

The word is of common Semitic origin (Accad. 
beru, Hebr. b'tr, Aram, herd) and, as in the other 
Semitic languages, of feminine gender (for excep- 
tions in modern Ar. dialects see Fleischer, Kl. 
Schriften, i, 265; Braunlich, Well 321*). In general, 
however, bi'r embraces a much wider conception 
than what is understood by our 'well'; it could 
mean also a cistern or water-reservoir (cf. Hebr. 
bor), and even any hole or cavity dug in the 
ground, whether containing water or not. So, e.g., 
Ibn Hisham 97,7 a cavity for collecting gifts for the 
Ka'ba in pre-islamic times is called bi'r; in Aghani 1 , 
iv, 94, 4 and c Arib, Tabari contin. (ed. De Goeje) 
5, 6 it designates a large pit for burying corpses; 
A. von Kremer, Beitr. zur arab. Lexikogr., I (1883), 
192 mentions it in the meaning of a hole in which 
meat is roasted. Here only the particular meaning 
of "well" is taken into consideration. 



Since Arabia is not blessed with large perennial 
rivers nor with large permanent lakes, its inhabitants, 
especially the Bedouins, are dependent on the 
subterranean water-stores of the Peninsula. These, 
according to the geological conditions, are to be 
found already a few feet below the upper sandy 
stratum or else in great depths up to 70 m. and more. 
To get access to them, the diggers have to hollow 
out the ground in the shape of a funnel or, mostly, 
of a cylindrical shaft (kasaba, diirab) the sides of 
which usually are strengthened by a casing of loam 
or field-stones called tayy (cf. Bukhari i 284, 17 = ii 
442, 5, where Hell is described as matwiyyatun ka- 
tayyi l-bi'ri). The water collects at the bottom of 
the cavity, and also trickles down from the walls 
of the shaft. To the top of the well (fam or ra's al- 
bi'r) the water is lifted by means of rather voluminous 
leather buckets (gharb, dalw) which are said to be 
made mostly from two — apparently young — camels' 
hides (in this case the bucket may be called ibn 
adimayn). The ropes used for drawing up the bucket 
(arshiya, sing, risha?, or ashfdn, sing, shatan) origi- 
nally consisted only of thin leather thongs twisted 
together which, however, easily decayed in the water 
(cf. Labid (ed. Khalidi), , 39 v . 4 S chol.). Therefore 
pieces of more durable stuff, mostly of palm fibre 
(khulb), were attached at least to the lower parts of 
the rope. To facilitate the tiring work of drawing up 
the mighty buckets, usually a more or less primitive 
draught, apparatus ( c alak) is erected over the fam 
al-bi'r. This apparatus which, like buckets and 
ropes, has to be carried along with the caravans 
(otherwise it would be stolen), mainly consists of 
either a simple crossbeam (na'-dma) or, in a more 
developed form, of a wooden axis (mihwar) inserted 
into a hollowed roller {mahdla, bahra, also hdma) 
■over which the rope glides in a groove (mahazz, 



kabb). The whole rests on two supports of loam and 
stone or of wood (karnan, zurnuhdn; di'dmatdn, 
l amuddn) or else on one single forked pole (hama, 
plur. kiydm, cf. Akhtal (ed. Salhanl), 17, 3; Yakut 
iv 21, 12). Then the bucket is drawn up by hand; 
this hard work may be done also by animals, mostly 
camels (sawanin, sing, sdniya), accompanied by a 
driver (sd'ik) and moving from and to the well in 
wearing course (cf. Arabum Proverbia ed. Freytag, I, 
624, nr. 64: sayru s-sawdni safarun Id yankafi'). For 
the cattle the water is poured into drinking troughs 
or cisterns next to the well (hiddn etc., sing, hawd) 
the fallen-in remains of which are often described in 
poetry (see Noldeke on Zuhayr Mu'all. 5). — Water- 
wheels set in motion by means of a crank and more 
complicated hydraulic machines were not known in 
ancient times ; the use of "double buckets" ascending 
and descending at the same time (to which in Hatndsa 
(ed. Freytag), 439 v. 5 the two stirrups of a rider 
seem to be compared) was not indigenous and must 
have been very rare. 

Numerous quotations of the well and its several 
designations or epithets, of its appurtenances, the 
various sounds produced by the roller, the rope, the 
bucket etc. (see Braunlich, Well, Index, 519-26) 
illustrate the vital importance of bi'r and its 
belongings for life throughout Arabia. Still more 
instructive are the frequent similes, proverbial and 
metaphorical sayings referring to the parts and 
functions of the well. So, for example, the lance-i are 
often compared with tightly stretched well-ropes 
( cf. Noldeke to 'Antara, Mu'all. 66 and Delectus 
45, 6; 70, 2); a rider shooting forth is described as 
resembling labourers suddenly flying forward when 
the rope which they are drawing breaks {Diwdn 
Hudhayl (ed. Kosegarten), 93, 36) ; the dead body is 
let down to the grave like the bucket to the well 
(Abu Dhu'avb. 24, n f.; Ifamdsa, 439 v. 4; Hutay'a, 
35. 3) ; kalihat mahdwiruhu "his well-axles wobble" 
means "his affair became unsettled" (Lane, 667a); 
finally, a man keeping his word and incessantly 
striving towards his goal is praised in a marthiya as 
"one who, whenever he spoke a word, (like a well- 
digger) caused water to gush forth from the earth" 
(Hamdsa 386 v. 2). 

Bibliography: E. Braunlich, The Well in 
Ancient Arabia, in Islamica, i, 1924-25, 41-76, 
288-343, 454-528 (an exhaustive study, based on 
all the available lexicographical and literary 
references, to which the present article is greatly 
indebted) ; E. Wiedemann, Beitrage zurGeschichte der 
Naturwissenschaften, x, Erlangen 1906, 315, 335- 
337 (details from medieval times); H. Guthe, 
Kurzes Bibelwdrterbuch, 1903, 286, s.v. Jakobs- 
brunnen and J. J. Hess, in Der Islam 4, 1913, 
317 f- (informative figures; see also the books 
of European travellers like Doughty, Euting, 
Musil etc.). — A Kitdb al-Bi'r, composed by the 
famous philologist Ibn al-A c rabi (died 231/844), 
but apparently not mentioned by the Arab 
bibliographers, is reported to be preserved in 
Cairo (see Brockelmann, S. I, 180). 

(J. Kraemer) 

The eastern Arab lands, with few rivers or none 
at all, place great reliance on springs and wells. The 
location and nature of watering places (mawrid or 
simply mi.', pi. miydh; with various colloquial 
forms such as mi in southern Arabia) go far towards 
determining whether life is settled or nomadic. The 
flowing water of springs fayn, pi. l uyun) is usually 



abundant enough to sustain communities in oases 
of groves and fields. Water from wells {bi'r, colloq. 
bir, with the pi. abydr prevailing in Arabia; or kalib, 
pi. kulbdn), which must be lifted out, may supple- 
ment the supply from springs, while in other instances 
it suffices to support large towns (until recently al- 
Riyad, the capital of Saudi Arabia, drew almost all 
its water from wells). In still other instances, water 
comes from wells scattered throughout desert tracts. 
Even when desert wells endure much longer than 
ephemeral sources such as moisture-laden sands 
or catchments for rain in the rocks, there is rarely 
enough water for irrigation, and the wells are 
frequented by nomads and other travellers rather 
than permanent settlers. 

In the oases private ownership of wells tends to 
be the rule; a landowner or husbandman nurtures 
his crops with water belonging to the one or the 
other. Large wells, however, may be communally or 
jointly owned; Philby, for example, estimates the 
ownership of the remarkable well of al-Haddadj in 
Tayma' as divided into about thirty shares, with 
each share holding about three pulleys for drawiug 
by camels. 

In the desert the nomad's first concern is the 
presence of water, next its accessibility, and then 
its potability. Doughty has described the skilled 
well-sinkers of the towns. The Bedouins are perforce 
both water-finders and well-sinkers, gifted with 
amazing shrewdness in ferreting out sources where 
the uninitiate would never suspect them. The site 
may be eutirely new (such a well is often called a 
bad c , pi. budu', or bad?, pi. baddH c ), or it may be an 
old well buried (mundafina) or dead (mayyita). The 
water may be close to the surface or deep in the 
earth. The Bedouins occasionally dig to depths of a 
hundred metres or more, the depth being measured 
in terms of the Arabian fathom {bd c , the spread of 
a man's outstretched arms, or kdma, his height, i.e., 
about five feet six inches; a well of many fathoms is 
called tawila, pi. iiwdl, rather than c amika). Mecha- 
nical drills now reach greater depths in even the 
most arid regions, such as al-Rub c al-Khall (such 
wells are called kalama, coll. kalam). Much-used 
wells or those with sides likely to cave in are 
strengthened with casings of stone or other materials 
(a cased well is called a mafwiyya, and one cased with 
stone a marsusa). The proportion of minerals in the 
aquifer determines whether the water is sweet 
(halw) or salty (mdlih). Although the Bedouins 
tolerate a much higher mineral content than an 
outlander does, even they can not drink from 
certain desert wells (khawr, pi. khirdn). In such 
cases their constant companion the camel swallows 
the brine and produces milk with the salt filtered out. 

Wholly private ownership of desert wells is 
uncommon. If a man's name is associated with a 
well, such as Bi'r Had! in al-Rub c al-Khali (named 
after the late Hadi b. Sultan of Al Murra), the 
eponym is usually the digger or redigger, who may 
as a consequence hold a title of sorts to the well. 
Wells falling within the dira of a tribe may be con- 
sidered its property, but the water is still free to 
nomads from other tribes not at war with the 
possessors. Water in the wilderness is too precious 
to be made an article of commerce. 

In summer, when the desert pastures offer no 
vegetation to slake the thirst of the herds, the 
nomads camp for weeks or months at their favourite 
wells, sometimes with hundreds of tents pitched 
together. As places of assembly in hot weather and 
to a less degree in winter, wells have often been the 



scene of surprise attacks and battles in tribal 

warfare. 

Bibliography: C. Doughty, Arabia Deserta, 
New York n.d. ; H. Philby, The Land of Midian, 
London 1957. Most travellers' accounts in Arabic 
and the Western languages contain material on 
wells. E. Braunlich, The Well in Ancient Arabia, 
Leipzig 1925, gives references to modern as well- 
as ancient data. (G. Rentz) 

iii. The machrib. 

Bi'r is the common name given to various types 
of well, usually but not invariably to lined wells. 
(rarely faced with stoue but more often with dry 
stones or, in certain regions of the Sahara, with palm 
stems, for which reason they are sometimes cut on 
a square plan). It can designate also an unlined well, 
the type which is most common in the Sahara, where 
the earth is merely loosened and hollowed out into a 
basin at the bottom of which the water-level appears 
(Fezzan). But other terms besides bi'r are used. 
lfasi (pi. hasydn) is often the only term used in this 
sense in the Sahara for wells which are mostly 
unlined and without lips, whilst elsewhere it means 
a simple hole dug in the bed of a wddi (Tunisian and 
Tripolitanian steppes). The word c ogla ( c ukla) usually 
a temporary pool stretching along the bed of a wddi 
in the Sahara, and in this meaning synonymous with 
ghadir, in the Tunisian steppes can also mean a well 
several metres deep without facing or lips, dug at the 
bottom of a hollow where the underground water- 
level is near the surface ; the same are sometimes to 
be found in the Sahara (Tindouf) where oglas exist 
in the beds of the wddis. 

In fact the wells of the Maghrib and the Sahara 
at least west of Egypt, can be grouped into 3 principal 
types: (1) wells meant for the use of men and for 
watering animals. Lined or not, sometimes adjoined 
by a watering trough, they have no superstructure 
or at the most 3 branches meant to carry a pulley 
of wood or iron. The water is drawn by hand in a 
water-skin or a leather bucket hung on the end of a 
rope. (2) Wells which have some sort of elevating 
mechanism and are used for irrigating gardens and 
palm groves; these are varied enough. (3) Artesian 
wells, situated within very narrow geographical 
limits, especially in the past, and used essentially 
for irrigation; since they are gushing they need no 
superstructure. 

Among the wells with an elevating mechanism, 
the most common are those which use animal 
traction and a puley; they are sometimes called 
sdnya. The water is drawn in a dalw (bucket) holding 
15 to 35 litres, made of ox or goat hide, which has 
a flexible pipe at the bottom; this, which is folded 
back during the drawing of the water, is straightened 
when it comes to emptying the dalw into the little 
basin which feeds the sdgyas (sdkiya = runnel). The 
uprights which carry the axis of the pulley are some- 
times made of stone or clay but more often of wood 
or palm stems. The pulling is done by an ox or a 
donkey and sometimes by a camel (Tunisia), but only 
very occasionally by a mule (Tunisian Sahel); the 
animal is guided and helped in its journeys up and 
down an inclined path by a man or child who at the 
same time works the string which folds back or 
straightens the pipe which empties the dalw. The wells 
and their superstructures may be held in common by 
several owners, but each one draws water with his 
own dalw (with its ropes and strings) and by means of 
his own animal. These wells worked by animal 
traction can be found anywhere from India to the 



Atlantic and art encountered especially in eastern 
Tunisia from Bizerta to pjerba, on the coast of 
Tripoli, in the Hawz of Marrakesh, in the north-west 
Sahara (Tafilalet, mzab), in the Touareg country, 
in the oases of southern Cyrenaica, in part of the 
southern Sahara, especially Lower Mauretania, and 
on the borders of western Sudan. 

Wells with a balancing-beam, like the Egyptian 
shaduf, have various names: khottdra (pi. khetdtir) 
in the Fezzan and the Souf, gharghaz in the regions 
of Ziban and Gourara. The balancing-beam, made 
of a thin pole pivoting on a little wall or on a wooden 
cross-bar resting on two uprights, has a counter- 
weight at its base, and at its other end some sort of 
receptacle for drawing the water (hekma in the Fezzan, 
genino at Gourara), which only holds between 5 and 
10 litres of water. It works more quickly than a 
dalw but it is not usually capable of irrigating more 
than a few hundred square metres, for it is used 
where the underground water-level is not very deep 
(a few metres) and has a small yield. It is primarily 
the poor man's well; one man can dig it, set it up and 
work it, and it needs neither an aninal nor an expen- 
sive dalw. Well-known not only in Europe but as far 
afield as China, this type of well is very rare in the 
Maghrib and on the coast of Libya. It is found in 
the Sahara the Lower Dra (Morocco) and in the 
region of Saoura at Tindouf, and in southern 
Mauretania, in the regions of Touat and Gourara, at 
Ouargla El Golea and at Ghadames, both in the 
north and the south of the Fezzan, in the oases of 
Cyrenaica at Koufra, in the regions of Air, Tibesti 
and Borku. 

The noria or Persian well, chain-pump (nd t ura and 
sometimes sdnya) is an apparatus with buckets fixed 
onto a revolving chain, worked by an animal-driven 
wheel drawn by a horse, mule or camel. The tradi- 
tional type is made of wood (most commonly olive- 
wood) with earthenware buckets fixed by means of 
ropes. It is being more and more replaced by a cast- 
iron apparatus with metal chain and buckets worked 
by an oil or electric motor, at least on the coastal 
plains of Morocco, Algeria and northern Tunisia, 
where it is sometimes used by European market- 
gardeners of Mediterranean origin who were accu- 
stomed to using it in their native country. It has to 
compete there with various types of pumps. In the 
Sahara it is only to be found in northern areas 
such as Tafilalet, Oued Righ and Tripolitania. In 
Morocco, large hoisting wheels with well-base rims, 
worked by river-power, are also called norias. They 
are only used in the neighbourhood of Fez. 

As for artesian wells, they were only to be found 
at one time in the region of Oued Righ (282 of them 
were active in 1856), and in small numbers in the 
eastern parts of the Shati (Fezzan) where they are 
called 'ayiin (sing, '■ayn) ; they were dug by specialists 
and were very fragile. They have increased in 
number, but are nowadays drilled and harnessed 
according to modern techniques, throughout the 
Lower Sahara from El Golea and Ouargla to Ziban, 
and from the Hodna to the Djerid and Nefzawa; 
some have been drilled in Tripolitania and in the 

Bibliography: G. S. Colin, La noria maro- 
caine, in Hespiris, 1932; R. Capot-Rey, Le 
Sahara (1953); J. Despois, La Tunisie orientate 1 , 
1955; the same, Le Fezzan (1946) and Le Hodna 
(1953); E. Laoust, Mots et choses berberes, 1920; 
Ch. Monchicourt, La steppe Tunisienne, in Bull, 
de la Dir. de I'Agr., Tunis 1906; II Sahara Italiano, 
Fezzan e oasi di Gat, 1937, E. Scarin, Le oasi del 



Fezzan, 1934 and Le oasi cyrenaiche del 29° 
parallelo, 1937; J. Lethielleux, Le Fezzan, ses 
jar dins, ses palmiers, in IBLA, Tunis 1948; 
J. Bisson, Le Gourara, 1957; H. Isnard, La culture 
des primeurs sur le littoral cdgirois, 1935. 

(J. Despois) 
BI'R MA'CNA, a well on the Mecca-Medina road, 
between the territories of c Amir b. Sa'sa'a and 
Sulaym, where a group of Muslims was killed in 
Safar 4/625. The traditional account is that the chief 
of 'Amir, Abu Bara 3 (or Abu '1-Bara>), invited 
Muhammad to send a missionary group to his tribe, 
promising his personal protection for them. So a 
group of "Kur'an-readers" (kurrd') was sent from 
Medina. When they reached Bi'r Ma'una, they were 
massacred by clans of Sulaym, led by 'Amir b. 
al-Tufayl, who had failed to induce his own tribe of 
'Amir to violate their protection for the Muslims. 
The Prophet grieved over the slain, and cursed 
the Sulamls daily until Kur'an, iii, 169/163 was 
revealed. 

This account has been interpreted to give a 
military failure the aura of religious martyrdom. 
The sources number the kurrd' variously as 70, 40 and 
29, but WakidI names only 16. A large number 
cannot yet have existed, and was unnecessary for a 
religious mission. It was, indeed, an actual campaign, 
described as a raid (sariyya, ghazwa) in the sources; 
one specifically says its leader was sent "as a spy 
among the Nadjd folk". Muhammad had apparently 
been invited to intervene in an internal dispute of 
Sulaym, but the incident is also mixed up with the 
quarrel within 'Amir between Abu Bara, and 'Amir 
b. al-Tufayl. The latter cannot have led the attack, 
and may merely have encouraged the Sulamls from 
the background, since Muhammad did not curse him, 
unhesitatingly paid him the wergilds for two 
'Amirites slain, on the way home, by the sole 
survivor of Bi'r Ma'una, and did not seek wergilds 
from him for the slain Muslims. 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 435-6, iv, 580; Ibn 
Hisham, 648-51; Ibn Ishak (tr. Guillaume, Oxford 
1955), xliv; WakidI (Wellhausen), 153-6; Ibn Sa'd, 
II, i, 36-9; Tabari, i, 1441-8; Ya'kubl, ii, 75-6; 
Lyall, Diwdn of '■Amir b. at-Tufail, London 1914, 
84-9; W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at 
Medina, Oxford 1956, 31-3, 97; Noldeke-Schwally, 
Geschichte des Qorans, i, 246-8. 

(C. E. Bosworth) 
BI'R MAYMtN, a well in the environs of 
Mecca. Although the well was famous in early 
Islamic times, the name no longer occurs in the 
Meccan area. Available sources fail to show whether 
Bi'r Maymun has been abandoned or is still in use 
under another name. The location of the ancient 
well is also uncertain. Much of the evidence places it 
between the Great Mosque and Mina, somewhat 
closer to the latter. The account given by al-Tabari, 
iii, 456, of the death of the Caliph al-Mansur at Bi'r 
Maymun in 158/775 indicates that the well lay 
inside the Sacred Zone (al-Haram) and suggests that 
it was on the main road for pilgrims from Iraq 
(another version has the death of al-Mansur take 
place at the hill of al-Hadjun, not at Bi'r Maymun — 
see Wustenfeld, Gesch. der Stadt Mekka, Leipzig 1861, 
160). Other evidence situates BPr Maymun farther 
north of Mecca near Marr al-Zahran (now called 
Wadi Fatima). According to al-Hamdani, i, 128, 
Bi'r Maymun was one of the two oldest wells in the 
world; according to al-Bakri, Mu'-djam, Cairo 
1945-51, iv, 1285, it was much older than Zamzam. 
If it was of any such antiquity, it must have been 



BPR MAYMON — BlREDJIK 



1233 



dug originally by somtone earlier than Maymun the 
brother of al-'Ala' b. al-Hadraml, one of several 
Maymuns named as the digger. The history of Mecca 
by al-Kutubl, tl-I'-ldm, Mecca n.d., 282, states that 
Bi'r Maymun was connected to the main water 
system for Mecca, first constructed by Queen 
Zubayda. Bi 3 r Maymun has been identified by some 
commentators as the water mentioned in the final 
verse of Sura lxvii of the Kur'an. 

Bibliography : al-Harawi, al-Ziydrdt, Damas- 
cus 1953, 89; al-Fasi, Shifd 3 al-Ghardm. Cairo 1956, 
i, 343; al-Siba c I, Ta'rikh Makka, Cairo 1372, 96. 

(G. Rentz) 
BlR al-SAB c , the Arabic name of Beer- 
sheba, in southern Palestine. At this place were 
the springs which Abraham is said to have dug with 
his own hands; many legends are current about 
them. The place was uninhabited from the 8th/ 
14th century, but was rebuilt by the Turks in 1319/ 
1901 as an administrative centre for the south. This 
step was no doubt influenced by the dispute with 
Britain over the Egyptian-Palestinian frontier and 
by the need for closer surveillance of the southern 
tribes. In October 1917 a decisive battle was fought 
in the neighbourhood of Beersheba between the 
British and Turkish armies. Under the British 
mandate the Beersheba sub-district contained about 
half the area of Palestine, with a nomadic population 
estimated at 75,000-100,000. The population of the 
town was put in 1940 at 3,000, many of them semi- 
nomads. 

Bibliography: Yakut, v, 14, 1. 5; 'All al- 
Harawi, Oxford MS., f. 46; Le Strange, Palestine 
■under the Moslems, London 1890, 402 ff. ; Robinson, 
Biblical Researches, i, 240; Guerin, Judie, ii, 276-84; 
Th. Noldeke, Sieben Brennen, in ARW, vii, 1904, 
340-44; A. Legendre, art. Bersabie, in Diet, de la 
Bible, i/2, col. 1629-34, and suppl., i, 963-68; Aref 
el-Aref, Bedouin Love Law and Legend, Jerusalem 
1944; idem, Ta'rlkh Bir al-Sab* wa fiabdHlihd, 
Jerusalem 1934. (E. Honigmann*) 

al-BIRA, the name of several places, 
generally in districts where Aramaic was once 
spoken, for al-BIra is a translation of the Aramaic 
birtha = "fortress", "citadel". The best known 
is al-BIra on the east bank of the Euphrates in 
North-west Mesopotamia, the modem Biredjik [q.v.] : 
on other places, bearing the name Bira, cf. Yakut, 
Mu'dfam (ed. Wustenfeld), i, 787; Noldeke in the 
Nachr. der Getting. Ges. der Wiss., 1876, 11-12 and 
in De Goeje, BGA, iv, (gloss.), 441; Le Strange, 
Palestine under the Moslems (1890), 423. 

(M. Streck) 
BlRnjAND. District and town in the IXth 
ttstdn of Persia. The town is situated at 59° 13' E. 
(Greenwich) and 32° 52' N. It is on the northern 
side of an arid valley and is built on two low hills 
between which is a torrent-bed. The altitude is 
1490 metres. 

The early Arab geographers made no reference to 
BIrdjand, and Yakut (i, 783) is apparently the first 
to mention it (ca. 623/1226). He described it as 
one of the finest towns of Kuhistan, which was then 
part of the great province of Khurasan. Hamd 
Allah Mustawfi, writing ca. 740-1/1340, stated 
{Nuzha, 143) that BIrdjand was a provincial town, 
round which much saffron and some corn were 
grown; in the villages around grapes and other fruit 
were produced. Like the town of Ka'in [q.v.], which 
lies 90 km. to the north, BIrdjand was for some 
time under the control of the Assassins. It was the 
birthplace of the poet Nizarl, who, as his name 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



indicates, was an Isma'ili; he died about 719-20/1320. 
BIrdjand was for long eclipsed by Ka'in, but in 
the 19th century it took the place of the latter as 
the chief town in Kuhistan. It is now administrative 
centre of the districts (shahristdnhd) of BIrdjand and 
Ka'in, under a farmdnddr or governor. In 1946 the 
population was 23,488, but is now lower, due to the 
migration of some of the inhabitants to Mashhad 
and elsewhere. The town has a piped water supply, 
the water being obtained partly from frandts from 
the Kilh-i Bakran to the south, and partly from a 
deep well in the town itself. 

As in former times, the country round produces 
much saffron, and nuts of all kinds are also grown. 
The district has long been famous for the quality 
of its carpets and rugs, most of which are made in 
the village of Darakhsh, 80 km. to the north-east: 
it is also renowned for its baraks (garments 
made of camel's hair). BIrdjand enjoys some pros- 
perity due to its being on the main road between 
Mashhad and Zahidan; it is also connected by road 
with Kirman. 

Bibliography: In the article, and in addition: 

Major E. Smith, The Perso-Afghan Mission, 1871- 

72, in Eastern Persia, an Account of the Persian 

Boundary Commission 1870-71-72, London 1876, 

vol. i, 334-7; E. Reclus, Nouv. giogr. univ. (1894), 

ix, 227-9; Le Strange, 362; P. M. Sykes, Ten 

Thousand Miles in Persia, London 1902, 399; 

Razmara and Nawtash, Farhang-i Djughrdfiyd-yi 

Iran, ix, 71. (L. Lockhart) 

BIREDJIK, a town in Mesopotamia, on the 

left bank of the Euphrates. The name Biredjik 

(amongst the local population, Beledjik; also, 

according to Sachau, Baradjik in the HalabI (Aleppo) 

dialect) means "little Bira", i.e., "small fortress" 

(Arabic bira, with the Turkish diminutive suffix). 

The Arabic name "al-BIra" ([q.v.]; BIreh in the later 

Syriac writers) derives from the Aramaic "Birtha" 

= "fortress". Biredjik, known to the Romans as 

"Birtha", is to be identified (according to Cumont) 

with a certain Makedonopolis mentioned in some 

of the Byzantine sources. The town is called 

"Bile" in the Latin chronicles relating to the 

Crusades. 

At Biredjik one of the main routes from northern 
Syria into Mesopotamia crosses the Euphrates. The 
river here flows out of the mountains into the 
Syrian-Mesopotamian plain. It is here, too, that 
the Euphrates first becomes navigable, after leaving 
behind the cataracts formed where it breaks through 
the Taurus range. An isolated cone of calcareous 
rock, which rises sheer out of the river at Biredjik, has 
been fortified from remote times as a protection for 
this important passage of the Euphrates. A bridge 
of boats existed here in Seleucid times, running 
from Zeugma on the right bank of the river 
to Apamea (= Birtha) on the left bank (the 
Seleucid name Apamea was perhaps never in 
current use and disappeared in favour of the 
Aramaic "Birtha". Apamea, at 
Zeugma, came in due course, owi 
of the fortress, to be far moi 
Zeugma, which faded out of e 
evidence (cf. Khalll al-Zahiri) tha 
to be found at the river passage of Biredjik in the 
second half of the 15th century. 

The older geographical works in Arabic make no 
mention of al-BIra. This name first appears in such 
treatises about the middle of the 13th century, e.g., 
in al-Dimishkl and Abu '1-Fida'. References to al-BIra 
in historical literature make their appearance, it 
78 



i suburb of 
g to its possession 
s important than 
istence). There is 



BlREDJIK — BIRGE 



would seem, at the time of the Crusades. The Latin 
Counts of Edessa held the town from 492/1098-99 
until 545/1150, when the Christians, unable to 
maintain it after the loss of Edessa to the Muslims 
in 539/1144, surrendered it to the Byzantines, who 
soon lost it, however, to the Urtukid lord of Maridln. 
During the Mongol invasions of the 13th century 
al-Bira, with its almost impregnable fortress, was a 
notable stronghold in the Muslim defences. The 
Mamluks of Syria and Egypt, in the reign of Sultan 
Ka'it Bay, had to defend al-Bira against the Ak- 
Koyunlu Turcomans under Uzun Hasan. K5 5 it 
Bay inspected the fortresses along the Euphrates 
in 882/1477-78 and later strengthened and repaired 
the defences of al-Bira in 887/1482. The fortifications 
of al-Bira contain six Arabic inscriptions, the oldest 
dating from the time of the Mamluk sultan Baraka 
Khan (676-678/1277-1279) and the most recent from 
the years 887-888/1482-1483 in the reign of Sultan 
Ka'it Bay. As a result of the campaigns of Sultan 
Sellm I in 920-923/1514-1517, al-Bira came under 
Ottoman rule and was included in the sandjak of 
Urfa which formed part of the eydlet of Haleb 
(Aleppo). The Ottomans maintained at Biredjik a 
small naval arsenal to meet the needs of their river 
flotilla on the Euphrates. Not far from Biredjik, the 
Egyptian forces under Ibrahim Pasha won a decisive 
battle against the Ottomans at Nisib on 11 Rabi' 11 
1255/24 June 1839. Biredjik, where the ruins of the 

the territories of the present Turkish Republic. The 
town had, in 1945, a population of approximately 
10,800 inhabitants. 

Bibliography : Al-Dimishki, 206, 214; Gregorii 
Abulfaragii Histor. Oriental. (Mukhtasar al- 
Duwal), ed. E. Pococke, Oxford 1663, 255,3"; 
Abu 'l-Fid5 J , Takwim, 269; Mardsid al-Ittild c , ed. 
A. W. T. Juynboll, Lugduni Batavorum 1850- 
1864, i, 189; Khalil al-Zahiri, Zubdat Kash/ al- 
Mamdlik (R. Hartmann: Tiibinger Dissert., 1907), 
65, 84; Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Mamluken- 
sultane in den Jahren 690-741, ed. K. V. Zetter- 
stien, Leiden 1919, 312 (index); Ibn Iyas, Badd?? 
al-Zuhiir, edd. P. Kahle and M. Mustafa, iii, 
Istanbul 1936, 77 ff., and passim; Ewliya Celebl, 
Seydhat-ndme, iii, Istanbul A.H. 1314, 145 ff.; 
Relation d'un Voyage du Sultan Qditbay en 
Palestine et en Syrie, trans. R. L. Devonshire, in 
BIFAO, xx, Cairo 1922, 1-40; L. Rauwolff, 
Aigentliche Beschreibung der Raisz .... inn die 
Morgenldnder, Laugingen 1583, 138; J. B. 
Tavernier, Les Six Voyages .... en Turquie, en 
Perse, et aux Indes, Paris 1676, i, 163-164-; H. 
Maundrell, An Account 0/ the Author's Journey 
from Aleppo to the River Euphrates, in A Journey 
from Aleppo to Jerusalem, Oxford 1714, 3-5; 
R. Pococke, A Description 0/ the East, ii, London 
1745, Pt. I, 161 ff.; J. Otter, Voyige en Turquie 
et en Perse, Paris 1748, i, 108-109; C. Niebuhr, 
Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien, ii, Copenhagen 
1778, 412 ff.; J. S. Buckingham, Travels in 
Mesopotamia, i, London 1827, 45 ff. ; C. Sandreczki, 
Reise nach Mosul und Urmia, Stuttgart 1857, ii, 
411 ff.; H. Petermann, Reisen im Orient, Leipzig 
1861, ii, 17 ff.; J. Oppert, Expedition scienti/ique 
en Misopotamie, i, Paris 1863, 44 ff. ; C. E. Sachau, 
Reise in Syrien und Mesopotamien, Leipzig 1883, 
178 ff.; H. von Moltke, Brie/e iiber Zustande und 
Begebenheiten in der Tiirkei aus den Jahren 1835 
bis 1839, Berlin 1877, 224-226, 342-344, 366 ff.; 
Fr. Spiegel, Eranische Altertumskunde, i, Leipzig 
1871, 165 ff.; G. Le Strange, Palestine under the 



Moslems, London 1890, 423; V. Chapot, La 
Frontiere de VEuphrate, Paris 1907, 272 ft.; 
F. Cumont, £tudes Syriennes, Paris 1917, 120 ff., 
144 ff. ; M. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, La Syrie a 
Vipoque des Mamelouks, Paris 1923, 102, 218; 
F. Taeschner, Das anatolische Wegenetz nach 
osmanischen Quellen (Tiirkische Bibliothek, Bd. 23), 
Leipzig 1926, i, 150; R. Dussaud, Topographie 
Historique de la Syrie Antique et Midiivale, Paris 
1927, 584 (index) ; CI. Cahen, La Syrie du Nord a 
Vipoque des Croisades, Paris 1940, 122; A History 
0/ the Crusades, ed. K. M. Setton, i (M. W. Baldwin, 
The First Hundred Years: Philadelphia 1955), 661 
(index); I. H. Uzuncarsili, Osmanh Devletinin 
Merkez ve Bahriye Teskilah (Turk Tarih Kurumu 
Yaymlartndan, VIII. Seri, no. 16), Ankara 1948, 
404-405; M. van Berchem, Arabische Inschriften, 
in Beitrdge zur Assyriologie und semitischen 
Sprachwissenscha/t, vii/Heft I, Leipzig 1909, 101- 
107; V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, ii, Paris 1891, 
114, 132, 248, 265-269; SamI, Kdmus al-AHdm, 
ii, Istanbul A.H. 1306, 1436; c Ali Djawad, 
Ta'rikh ve Djoghrdflya Lughdti, Istanbul A.H. 
1313-1314, 223-224; EI 1 and I A, s.v. Ibrahim 
Pasha (for bibliographical indications relating to 
the battle of Nisib in 1255/1839); M. Streck, in 
EI\ s.v. Biredjik. (M. Streck-[V. J. ParryJ) 
BIRGE (Birgi, sometimes also Bergi or Birki), 

valley of the Kiiciik Menderes, is the centre of a 
ndhiye belonging to the kadd? of Odemish in the 
province of Izmir (Smyrna). Here stood the ancient 
A16? 'Iep6v in Lydia. The town was known in Byzan- 
tine times as XpiaxounoXi? and also as IIupYiov. It 
was raised to the status of a metropolitan see between 
1 193 and 1 199, being thus freed from the ecclesiastical 
control of Ephesos, but it became once more a suf- 
fragan bishopric of Ephesos in 1387. The Catalans 
under Roger de Flor drove the Turks from the town 
in 1304 and at the same time plundered it. Birge 
passed thereafter into the hands of the Turkish 
Begs of Aydin. Monuments dating from the period 
of their rule— notably the Ulu Djami'— are still to 
be seen in the town. Birge came under the control 
of the Ottomans in 793/1391 and remained in their 
possession thereafter, save for a brief interval 
during which princes of the house of Aydin, restored 
to power by Timur Beg, held the land once more 
(1402-1425). The town suffered considerable damage 
in the years 1920-1922 during the course of the war 
which was then being waged between the Greeks 
and the Turks in western Asia Minor. Birge had, in 
1945, about 2150 inhabitants. 

Bibliography: Al-'Umari, Masdlik al-Absdr, 
ed. F. Taeschner, i, Leipzig 1929, 45 ff. ; Ibn 
Battuta, Tuhlat al-Nuzzdr, ed. Defrimery and 
Sanguinetti, Paris 1853-1859, ii. 295 ft.; Ewliya 
Celebl, Seydhatndme, ix, Istanbul 1935, 173 ff-J 
Pachymeres, Bonn 1835, ii, 436; Dukas, Bonn 
•834, 83; W. Tomaschek, Zur historischen Topo- 
graphie von Kleinasien im MittelalUr {SBAk. Wien, 
Phil.-Hist. CI., Bd. CXXIV), Vienna 1891, i, 34 and 
91 ; A. Wachter, Der Verjall des Oriechentums in 
Kleinasien im XIV. Jahrhundert, Leipzig 1903, 
41, 42-44; J. Kfil and A. von Premerstein, 
Bericht iiber eine dritte Reise in Lydien (Akad. d. 
Wiss. in Wien, Denkschri/ten, Phil.-Hist. Kl., 
Bd. 57/i), Vienna 1914, 62 ff. ; F. Taeschner, Das 
anatolische Wegenetz nach osmanischen Quellen 
(Tiirkische Bibliothek, Bd. 23), Leipzig 1936. i, 176 
and ii, 39; R. M. Riefstahl, Turkish Architecture 
in Southwestern Anatolia, Cambridge (Mass.) 1931, 



- BIRS 



"35 



i, 24-32 and ii, 102-106 (Inscriptions, ed. P. 

Wittek) ; P. Lemerle, L'£mirat d'A ydin, Byzance 

et I'Occident: Recherches sur "La Geste d'Umur 

Pacha" (Bibliothlque Byzantine; Etudes, n° 2), Paris 

1957, 21 ff. and 258 (index); M. Fu'ad K6pru- 

liizade, Aydln Oghullari Ta'rikhine 'Aid, in 

TUrkiyat Medjmu'asi, ii, Istanbul 1928, 422; 

I. H. Uzuncarsili, Kitabeler (Anadolu Turk 

Tarihi V esikalanndan Ikinci Kitap), Istanbul 

1929, 105 ff. ; Himmet Akin, Aydln Ogullart 

hakkinda bir Arastvrma (Ankara Oniversitesi Dil 

ve Tarih-Cografya Fakiiltesi Yaytnlart no. 60), 

Istanbul 1946, 104 ft.; V. Cuinet, La Turquie 

d'Asie, iii, Paris 1894, 5i6ff.; Saml, Kdm&s al- 

AHdm, ii, Istanbul A.H. 1306, 1285; c Ali Djawad, 

Ta'rikh ve Qioghrdfiya Lughati, Istanbul A.H. 

1313-1314, 169; Pauly-Wissowa, ii/i (1899), s.v. 

Christopolis, col. 2452 and iii/i 1905, s.v. Dios 

Hieron, cols. 1083-1084; IA, s.v. Birgi (Besim 

Darkot). (V. J. Parry) 

BIRGEWl (Birgiwi, Birgili), Meijmed b. PIr 

'Ali, a Turkish scholar whose fame still lives among 

the common people. Born at Ballkesir in 928/1522 

(or 926/1520 if Katib Celebi is correct in saying that 

he died at the age of 55), he began his education at 

home, but soon distinguished himself among his 

coevals and went to Istanbul, where he attached 

himself first to Akhl-zade Mehmed Efendi and then 

to the kadi-i 'askar 'Abd al-Rahman Efendi. Having 

completed his education he taught in the medreses 

of Istanbul, and during this time was initiated into 

the Bayramiyya by Shaykh <Abd al-Rahman 

Karamanl. Through the influence of his master 

<Abd al-Rahman Efendi he obtained the post of 

kassam to the army at Edirne, but soon afterwards 

desired to withdraw both from this office and from 

teaching. His shaykh however would not consent 

to his totally abandoning teaching and preaching, 

and when his fellow-townsman 'Ata' Allah Efendi, 

the tutor of Selim II, offered him the position of 

muderris in the medrese he had built at Birgi, he 

accepted. His career of teaching, writing and 

preaching at Birgi, (whence his appellation of 

Birgewi) came to an end in 981/1573, when he 

died of the plague. 

Like Ibn Taymiyya, he set himself firmly against 
all innovation in order to protect the sacred law, 
and no considerations of rank would cause him to 
connive at any non-observance of the faith. Towards 
the end of his life he even made the journey from 
Birgi to Istanbul to advise the grand vizier Mehmed 
Pasha about the rectification of some irregularities 
which he had observed. Birgewi, an utter fanatic in 
religious matters, would not abide the slightest 
deviation from the shari'a. The risdlas which he 
devoted to the theme that it was hardm to teach the 
Kur'an for money, or to accept payment for any 
act of worship, brought him into a controversy with 
the scholars of the day which gave rise to much 
gossip. One of the most famous kadis of the time, 
Bilal-zade, emerged as his chief opponent and wrote 
risdlas in which he endeavoured to refute his opinions. 
The Shaykh al-Islam Abu '1-Su'ud Efendi also took 
a hand in the dispute and, seeing that the awkdf 
would suffer loss if Birgewi's views prevailed (in 
particular, his view of the illegality of making a 
wakf of coined money or other movable property), 
pronounced a fatwd against him. Thereupon Bilal- 
zade went to far as to claim that Birgewi had been 
acting hypocritically. 

Of Birgewi's works, the one which keeps his fame 
alive to this day is his Turkish manual of the rudi- 



ments of theology, entitled Wasiyyet-ndme, which 
still fills the needs of the common people in questions 
of religion. Commentaries on it were written by Kadl- 
zade Ahmed Efendi and Shaykh 'AH Efendi of Konya, 
the latter being in turn the subject of a commentary 
by the mufti of Osmanpazarl, Isma'il Niyazl. Often 
printed, the Wasiyyet-ndme was also translated into 
northern Turkish by Toktamlsh-oghlu (ed. Kazan 1802 
and 1806: see Zenker, Bibliotheca orientalis, i, 1463 f., 
ii, 1192 f.; JA, 1843, ii, 32, 55, 1859, i, 524; Dieterici, 
Chrestomathie Ottomane, 38 f. ; for translations see 
especially the French version by Garcin de Tassy, 
L'lslamisme d'apres le Coran . . . (1874)). Two 
grammatical works of his, the Izhdr and the 'Awdmil 
were used in medreses for many years and con- 
siderably facilitated the study of Arabic, by the 
period. His al-Tarika al-Muhammadiyya, containing 
his sermons and homilies, in Arabic, was highly 
esteemed by the learned. c Ali al-Kari wrote a long 
kasida in which he made clear Birgewi's position 
among the scholars of Islam. Commentaries were 
written on al-Tarika al-Muhammadiyya by Khadimli 
Mehmed Efendi and c Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi. 
Emln Efendi adopted it as his guide to conduct, 
and was consequently dubbed 'TarikatcT ; after him 
there even came into being a (orikat of the same name. 
Bibliography: <Ata»i, Hadlkat al-haka'ik 
1268), i, 179; 'AH b. Bali, al-'Ikd al-manzum (in the 
margins of Ibn Khallikan, Cairo 1310, ii, 430); 
Katib Celebi, Mizdn al-hakk = G. L. Lewis, The 
Balance of Truth, London 1957, chap. 20; Sidjill-i 
<-Othmdni; 'Othmanli mu'elUfleri, i, 255; Shems 
el-DIn Saml, Kdmus al-aHdm; Brockelmann, II, 
440 f.; A. G. Ellis, Catalogue of the Arabic Books 
in the Brit. Mus., i, 408; C. Rieu, Suppl. to the 
Cat. of the Arabic MSS in the Brit. Mus., nos. 979 
and 980, 619; idem, Cat. of the Turkish MSS in 
the Brit. Mus., 6" f. (Kasim KufrevJ) 

BIRR (Kur'anic term), "pious goodness" (R. 
Blachere's translation; see Kur'an, ii, 189). In the 
analysis of the spiritual states (ahwal) and the 
attitude of the soul towards God, it must at the same 
time be compared with and distinguished from 
takwd [q.v]. (L. Gardet) 

BIRS, also called Birs Nimrud, in the older 
literature Burs, a ruined site 9 miles S.W. of the 
town of Hilla on the Euphrates, about 12 miles 
S.S.W. of Babylon on the eastern shore of the 
Lake of Hindiyya. 

The place is the ancient Borsippa, the sister 
town of Babylon. Its immense ruins, the largest 
that have survived from the Babylonian period, 
were thought by the Arabs to be the palace of 
Nimrud b. Kan'an (jar* Nimrud, Yakut, i, 136) 
or of Bukhtnassar (Yakut, i, 165). Even in modern 
times they were thought to be the ruins of the 
Tower of Babel and this erroneous view used to 
crop up even after H. Rawlinson had proved 
from inscriptions that they were the ruins of the 
tower of the Temple of Nebo of Borsippa. Whether 
there was still a town on the ancient site in the 
early Islamic period is not quite clear. Baladhurl 
only speaks of the '■Adiamat Burs (Assyr. agamtni), 
the land around the marshy lakes of Burs which 
were taken possession of by 'All. Upper and Lower 
Burs appear in Kudama and are called al-Sibayn 
and al-Wulfuf by Ibn Khurradadhbih m th e lists 
of taxes, as districts (tassAdj) of the circle (astdn) 
of central Bihkubadh. 

Even in ancient times the district of Babylonia 
and in particular Borsippa was famous for its 
textile industry (e.g., Strabo, xvii, 1, 7). This in- 



dustry survived into the Arab period. The gar- 
ments made in the district of Burs were, accord- 
ing to Mas'udl [Murudi, vi, 59) called Bursiyya or 
also Khutarniyya, after the district between Burs, 
Babil and Hilla (following G. Hoffmann's emen- 
dation). In Yakut, iv, 773, Narsiyya should there- 
fore be emended to Bursiyya. 

Bibliography: Ibn Khurradadhbih. ii; Ba- 
ladhuri, index; Kudama (ed. de Goeje), 238; 
Mas'udI, Murudi, vi, 59; Bakri, 149; Yakut, i, 
136, 565, iv, 773", M. Streck, Babylonien nach den 
arabischen Geographen, 16; A. Berliner, Beitrdge 
zur Geographic und Ethnographic Babyloniens im 
Talmud und Midrasch, 26; G. Hoffmann, Syrische 
Akten Persischer Mdrtyrer, 26, note 206; H. 
Rawlinson, On the Birs Nimrud or the Great Temple 
ofBorsippa, in JRAS xvii (i860); H. V. Hilprecht, 
Explorations in Bible Lands, 182 ff. 

(E. Herzfeld) 
BlRCN, in Persian 'outside', the name given to 
the outer departments and services of the Ottoman 
Imperial Household, in contrast to the inner depart- 
ments known as the Enderun [q.v.]. The Birun was 
thus the meeting-point of the court and the state, and 
besides palace functionaries included a number of high 
officers and dignitaries concerned with the adminis- 
trative, military, and religious affairs of the Empire. 
Bibliography: D'Ohsson, Tableau ginirai de 
I'Empire Othoman, vii, Paris 1824, 1-33; Ismail 
Hakki Uzuncarsili, Osmanh Devletinin Saray 
Teskildh, Ankara 1945, 358 ff. ; Gibb and Bowen, 
1/1, 72, 82 ff., 346 ff., see further saray. 

(B. Lewis) 
AL-BlRCNl (BerunI) Abu 'l-Rayhan Muhammad 
b. Ahmad, also sometimes called by the nisba al- 
Khwarizmi by certain Arabic authors {e.g., Yakut) 
and also, at the risk of a confusion of names, by 
some modern Orientalists (see al-KhwarizmI), was 
one of the greatest scholars of mediaeval Islam, and 
certainly the most original and profound. He was 
equally well versed in the mathematical, astronomic, 
physical and natural sciences and also distinguished 
himself as a geographer and historian, chronologist 
and linguist and as an impartial observer of customs 
and creeds. He is known as al-Ustddh, "the Master". 
He was born of an Iranian family in 362/973 
(according to al-Ghadanfar, on 3 Dhu'l-Hididia/ 
4 September — see E. Sachau, Chronology, xiv- 
xvi), in the suburb (birun) of Kath, capital of 
Khwarizm (the region of the Amu-Darya delta, now 
the autonomous republic of Karakalpakistan on the 
southern shores of the Aral Sea). He spent the 
first twenty-five years of his life in his homeland, 
where he received his scientific training from masters 
such as Abu Nasr Mansur b. 'All b. 'Irak Djllanl, the 
mathematician. Here he published a few early works 
and entered into correspondence with Ibn SIna, the 
young prodigy of Bukhara, his junior by seven years. 
It would appear that he went in person to see the 
Samanid sultan Mansur II b. Nuh (387-389/997-999), 
whom he praised as his first benefactor. Next, he 
went for a long stay to pjurdjan, south-east of the 
Caspian Sea, apparently in 388/998 when the Ziyarid 
sultan Abu '1-Hasan Kabus b. Washmgir Shams al- 
Ma'all returned from exile; from there he was able 
to go as far as Rayy (near Tehran). It was at the 
Court of Pjurdjan that he wrote his first great work, 
on the subject of calendars and eras, and important 
mathematical, astronomical, meteorological and 
other problems. This was dedicated to Kabus, 
probably about 390/1000, without prejudice to 
much later emendations and alterations; the K. al- 



L-BIRONI 

Athdr al-Bdkiya 'an al-Kurun al-Khdliya (Chronologie 
orientalischer Volker, published by Edward Sachau, 
Leipzig 1878, reprinted by helioplan, Leipzig 1923 ; 
English translation entitled TheChronology of Ancient 
Nations, London 1879). Brought up in the Iranian 
dialect of Khwarizm, al-BIruni spoke Persian, but 
deliberately chose to use the Arabic language in his 
scientific writings, though some later works may have 
been written in Persian or in Arabic and Persian 
simultaneously. Having returned to his own country 
before 399/1008, and having been received by Prince 
Abu '1-Hasan 'AH b. Ma'mun, he was able to give his 
services for seven years to the brother of this prince, 
the Khwarizmshah Abu 'l- c Abbas Ma'mun b. Ma J mun, 
and was entrusted, because of his "golden and silver 
tongue", with delicate political missions. 

After the assassination in 407/1016-17 of the 
Khwarizmshah by his rebellious troops and the 
conquest of the country by the powerful Ghaznawid 
sultan Mahmud b. Subuktakln, many prisoners were 
led away to Ghazna in Sidjistan (Afghanistan) in the 
spring of 408/1017, including learned and wise men 
among whom were al-BIruni, Abu Nasr already 
mentioned, and the physician Abu '1-Khayr al- 
Husayn b. Baba al-Khammar al-Baghdadi. Ibn SIna 
must have left Djurdjaniyya for Pjurdjan of his own 
free will in 398/1008 together with the Christian 
physician, Abu Sahl c Isa b. Yahya al-MasIhl al- 
Djurdjanl. This physician had collaborated closely 
with al-BIruni, even to the point of writing a series 
of works in his name, as did also Abu Nasr (see 
below). Al-BIruni, henceforth retained at the Court 
of Ghazna, possibly as official astrologer, accom- 
panied Sultan Mahmud on seveal of his military 
expeditions to north-west India. Here he taught the 
Greek sciences and received in exchange, with his 
initiation into Sanskrit and various dialects, the in- 
calculable sum of knowledge which he put into hi • 
Description of India, completed in 421/1030 short y 
after the death of Mahmud: the K. Ta'rikh al-Hind 
(Al-Beruni's India, ed. E. Sachau, London 1887; 
English translation, 2 vols., London 1888, 2 1910). 
The previous year, al-BIruni had written an abstract 
of geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and astrology: 
the K. al-Tafhim H-AwdHl Sind'at al-TandJim, 
English translation facing the text by R. Ramsay 
Wright, London 1934. 

It was to Sultan Mas'ud b. Mahmud (421-432/ 
1030-41) that the Master dedicated this third 
principal work in 421/1030, reserving the right to 
add the finishing touches later: the K. al-KanUn al- 
Mas'iidi fi 'l-Hay'a wa 'l-Nudjum (Canon Masudicus, 
Haydarabad (Dn) 1954-56, 3 vols.). According to 
Yakut, MaSud offered the author an elephant-load 
of silver pieces for this work, but al-BIruni refused 
the gift. In spite of this, he was provided with the 
means of carrying out his scientific and literary work 
to the end of his life. The treatise on mineralogy 
which he wrote during the reign of Sultan Mawdud b. 
Mas'fld ,(432-441/1041-49) has come down to us; it 
is the K. al-Diamdhir fi Ma l rifat al-Diawdhir. ed. 
F. Krenkow, Haydarabad, (Dn) 1936. In a last 
important work, still unpublished, the K. alSaydala 
fi 'l-Jibb on medicinal drugs, (see H. Beveridge, An 
Unknown Work of Albiruni, in JRAS 1902, 333-5 ; M. 
Meyerhof, Das Vorwort zur Drogenkunde its BerunI 
(ed. and trans.), Berlin 1932) the Master declared 
himself to be over 80 (lunar) years old. The date of 
his death, usually fixed in 440/1048, according to 
al-Ghadanfar, must therefore be put back a little. Al- 
Birunl must have died after 442/ 1050, probably at 
Ghazna. 



The total number of his works is considerable. In 
his Risala fi Fihrist kutub Muhammad b. Zahariyya 
al-Razi, ed. P. Kraus, Paris 1936) he includes (in 427) 
the Fihrist of his own writings, of which 103 are 
completed, 10 unfinished (among which are the 
Chronology and the Canon Mas'udicus), 12 have 
been written in his name by Abu Nasr, 12 by Abu 
Sahl and 1 by Abu 'AH al-Hasan b. 'All al-Djill; 
making a total of 138. 

Taking into account works written after the 
Fihrist, and also certain omissions in this list, the 
total number of works is 180, differing widely from 
one another in length, from brief treatises on 
specialised matters to major works embracing vast 
fields of knowledge. Apart from the edited texts 
referred to above, 4 mathematical and astronomical 
treatises have been published in Haydarabad (1948) 
in a single volume entitled RasdHl al-Biruni: i.K.fi 
Ifrdd al-Makdl fi amr al-czldl ; 2. Ft Rdshikdt al-Hind 
(cf. E. Wiedemann, Vber die Lehre von den Proporti- 
onen nach al-Biruni, in SBPMS Erlg., Beitrdge, 48, 
1-6, 1916); 3. Tamhid al-Mustakarr li-Tahkik ma l nd 
al-mamarr; 4. Makdla fi Istikhrddj al-awtar fi 
'1-DdHra bi-Khawdss al-Khatt al-Munhani fi-hd 
(translation and commentary by H. Suter in Biblio- 
theca Mathematica, iii, folio XI, 11-78, Leipzig 1910- 
n). A volume entitled Rasd'il Abi Nasr ild 'l-Biruni 
was published separately in Haydarabad in 1948. 
This includes 15 mathematical and astronomical 
treatises by Abu Nasr among which are most of these 
written in the name of al-BIruni. Manuscripts, some 
partially edited, others unedited, of about twenty 
other works of al-BIruni have come down to us, among 
which are: the K. Tahdid Nihdydt al- Amdkin li- 
Tashih Masdfdt al-Masdkin (geographical extracts 
in Biruni's Picture of the World by A. Zaki Velidi 
Togan in Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of 
India, no. 53, New Delhi, 1941; the MS. Fatih 
3386 completed at Ghazna in 416 is possibly in his 
own hand) ; the K. fi Isti'-db al-Wudiuh al-Mumkina 
fi San'at al-As(urldb (cf. E. Wiedemann and J. 
Franks, Allgemeine Betrachtungen von al-Biruni in 
seinem Werk iiber die Astrolaben, in SBPMS Erlg., 
Beitrage, 52-3, 97-121, 1920-21); the Makdla fi 
'l-Nisab allati bayna 'l-filizzdt wa 'l-djawdhir fi 
'l-kadim (cf. E. Wiedemann, Vber Bestimmung der 
spezifischen Gewichte, in SBPMS Erl., Beitrage, 
38, 163-166, 1906); the Tardjamat K. BatanM.aH fi 
•l-Khalds min al-Irtibdk (cf. H. Ritter, La traduction 
du Livre de Patanjali par Biruni, communication 
in Persian in the Livre du Mille'naire d'Avicenne, 
ii, 134-148, Tehran 1955). 

Bibliography: Since lack of space makes it 
impracticable to provide an exhaustive list of the 
work done on al-BIruni, of which there is a fair 
volume, though very inadequate for such an 
important figure, I refer the reader to my study: 
L'Oeuvre d'al-Beruni: Essai Bibliographique, in 
MIDEO, ii, 161-256 and iii, 391-396, 1956; taking 
up the work of H. Suter and E. Wiedemann, Vber 
al-Biruni und seine Schriften, in SBPMS Erlangen, 
Beitrage, 52-53, 55-96, 1920-21, we have listed 
180 works of the Master, provided a bibliographical 
index as complete as possible for each one, with 
tabular summaries. The main studies of the life and 
works as a whole of al-BIruni are listed below, 
as well as a few studies of special subjecs. 

A. Bibliographies and Studies of the Works as a 
Whole: Biruni, Risala fi Fihrist, op. cit. ed. P. 
Kraus; the Arabic text and the autobiographical 
section are also to be found in E. Sachau's in- 
troduction to the Chronology (Arabic text) ; German 



JNI 1237 

trans. in H. Suter and E. Wiedemann, op. cit., 71-79; 
biographical development in the other sections of 
this work, and also in E. Sachau's introductions 
to the Chronology (Arabic text and English 
translation) and in India (Arabic text and English 
translation); Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, c Vyun al-Anbd', ii, 
20-21 (cf. E. Wiedemann, Biographie von al- 
Biruni, in SBPMS Erlg., Beitrage, 44, 117-8, 1912); 
Yakut, Irshdd al-Arib, ed. Margoliouth, vi, 308-14 
(German trans, by E. Wiedemann and J. Hell, 
Vber al-Biruni, in MOMN, xi, 314-21, 1912); 
Zahir al-Din al-Bayhakl in his Ta'rikh Hukamd' 
al-Isldm, MS. Berlin, 10052 (cf. E. Wiedemann, 
Einige Biographien nach al-Baihaki, in SBPMS 
Erlg., Beitrdge, 42, 66, 1910); 'All b. Zayd al- 
Bayhakl, Tatimmat Siwdn al-Hikma, ed. Muh. 
Shafi', Lahore 1935, 62-4; Suyuti, Bughyat al- 
Wu'd, Cairo 1326, 20; Brockelmann, I, 475, S I, 
870-1; Suter 98-100; G. Sarton, Introduction to the 
History of Science, Baltimore 1927, I, 707-9; 
L. Leclerc, Histoire de la midecine arabe, i, 480-2, 
Paris 1876; Carra de Vaux, Penseurs de V Islam, 
«, 75-87, 215-7; Syed Hasan Barani, Al-Biruni: 
His Life and Works (in Urdu), 'Aligarh 1927; 
idem, Ibn Sina and al-Beruni. A Study in 
Similarities and Contrasts, in Avicenna Comme- 
moration Volume, Calcutta 1956, 3-14; H. Ritter, 
Werke al-Biruni's, in Orientalia, Istanbul 1933, 
i, 74-78; A. Zeki Velidi Togan, Neue geogra- 
phische und ethnographische Nachrichten, and 
in Geographische Zeitschrift 1934, 363 ff. ; R. 
Ramsay Wright, Preface to the Book of In- 
struction (K. al-Tafhim), op. cit,: Zia ud-Din and 
F. Krenkow, in Islamic Culture, vi, Jul.-Oct. 1932 ; 
M. Meyerhof, £tudes de Pharmacologic arabe, in 
BIE 1940, 22, 133-52; Wiistenfeld, in Liiddes 
Zeitschr., i, 36, in Die Arab. Arzte no. 129 and in 
Die Geschichtsschreiber der Araber no. 195; F. 
Taeschner, in ZDMG, 77, 31 ff-J M. Krause, 
Albiriini ein iranischer Forscher, in Isl., 26, 1-15; 
M. Ya. al-Hashimi, Nazariyyat al-iktisdd Hnda 
al-B., in MMIA, 15, 456-65; Academy of Sciences 
of the U.S.S.R., history and philosophy section, 
Biruni? Moscow- Leningrad, 1950; Iran Society, 
Al-Biruni. Commemoration volume. A.H. 362-A.H. 
1362, Calcutta 1951. 

B. Detailed Studies: E. Wiedemann (besides the 
works already quoted) Astronomische Instrumente. 
Vber trigonometrische Grossen. Geoddtische Mes- 
sungen^n SBPMS Erlg., Beitrdge, 41, 26-78, 1909; 
idem, Ein Instrument, das die Bewegung von 
Sonne und Mond darstellt nach al-Biruni, in Isl. iv, 
5-13, 1913; idem, Vber die verschiedenen, bei der 
Mondfinsternis auftretenden Farben nach al-Biruni, 
in Eders Jahrbuch fiir Photographic, 1914; idem, 
Vber Erscheinungen bei der Ddmmerung und bei 
Sonnenfinsternissen nach arabischen Quellen, in 
Archiv fiir Geschichte der Medizin, xv, 43 52, 1923; 
idem, Meteorolog. Zeitschr., 199-203, 1922; idem, 
Vber Gesetzmdssigkeiten bei Pflanzen nach al- 
Biruni, in Biolog. Zentralblatt, xl, 413-16, 1920; 
idem, Geographisches von al-Biruni, in SBPMS 
Erlg., 44* 1-26, 1912; E. Wiedemann and J. Hell, 
Geographisches aus dem Mas'udischen Kanon von 
al-Biruni, ibid., 119-25; E. Wiedemann, Vber den 
Wert von Edelsteinen bei den Muslimen, in Isl., ii, 
345-58, 1911; idem, Vber die Verbreitung der 
Bestimmungen des spezifischen Gewichtes nach 
Biruni in SBPMS Erlg., Beitrdge, 45, 31-4, 1913 
(cf. Mizdn); H. Suter, Vber die Projektion der 
Sternbilder und der Lander von al-Biruni Tasfifr 
al-Suwar wa-tabfih al-kuwdr, in Abhandlungen zur 



1*38 al-BIrONI - 

Gesch. der Naturw. u. Meditin, iv, 79-93, 1922; 
idem, Der Verfasser des Buches "Orunde der 
Tafeln" des Chuwdrezmi (n&mlich al-Biruni), in Bibl. 
Math., ser. 3, iv, 127-9, 1903; C. Schoy, Aus der 
Mathematischen Geographic der Araber (nach dem 
Kdnun al-Mas 'Odi) etc. in /si's, v, 1922, 51-7; 
idem, Die Bestimmung der Geographischen Breite 
der Stadt Ghazna dutch al-Biruni. in Annalen der 
Hydrographie, 1925, 41-8; idem, Die trigono- 
metrischen Lehren des persischen Astronomen Abu 
'l-Raihdn Muh. Ibn Ahmad al-Biruni, Hanover 
1927; Reinaud, in Geographic d'Aboulfeda (trans.) 
i, 1948, xcv ff. ; idem, in Mimoires de V Academic 
des Inscriptions, xviii, 2, 29; Mehren, in Annaler for 
nordisk Oldkundigheid, no. 15, 1857, 23; Elliot- 
Dowson, History of India, ii, 1 ; M. Schreiner, Les 
Juifs chez Albiruni, in RE J, xii, 258; M. Fiorini, 
Le projezioni cartographiche di Albiruni, in 
Bolletino delta societd geographica italiana, ser. Ill, 
vol. iv, 287-94; E. Sachau, Indo-arabische Studien 
sur Aussprache und Geschichte des Indischen, in 
der I. Halite des XI. Jahrh., Abh. d.Berl. Ah., 1888. 

(D. J. Boilot) 
BIRZAL, BanO, a Berber tribe of the Zenata 
group mentioned as living in the Lower Zab (south 
of Mslla) at the beginning of the 4th/ioth century. 
These Berbers, in conflict with the Fatimid Caliph, 
c Ubayd Allah, who built the fortress of Mslla as a 
look-out against them, supported the Kharidjite 
agitator, Abu Yazid [q.v.], and offered him refuge 
when he was pursued by the Fatimid Caliph, al- 
Mansflr. Although the latter pardoned them, they 
nevertheless took part in the rebellion of the governor 
of the Zab, Dja'far Ibn al-Andalusi [q.v.] in 360/971. 
Fatimid repression forced them to flee; they found 
refuge in Spain where they formed a corps of Berber 
troops at the service of the Umayyad monarchs. 
Their chiefs supported the party of Ibn Abi c Amir 
at the death of the Caliph al-Hakam II; one ' 
them was rewarded for this by being made governor 
of Carmona. During the period of anarchy in Anda- 
lusia at the beginning of the 5th/nth century, the 
Birzal formed a little independent state at Carmona 
which tried to resist the ambitions of the 'Abbadids 
of Seville. They were finally obliged to submit to 
the king of Seville in 459/1067 and disappeared, at 
any rate as a group, just as they had formerly 
disappeared from the Maghrib. 

Bibliography: Ya'kubl, Bulddn, 215; Ibn 
Hawkal, 86, 106; Ibn Hazm, Kitdb al-Ansdb, ed. 
Levi-Provencal, Cairo 1948, 463; Bakri, Descr. de 
I'Afr. Sept., ed. de Slane, Algiers 1911, 59; IdrisI, 
al-Maghrib, 99; Kitdb al-Istibsdr, ed. Kremer, 
Vienna 1852, 60; MarrakushI, Mu'djib, transl. 
Fagnan, Algiers 1893, 63, 83; Ibn 'Idhari, I, 190, 
191 (transl. Fagnan, 272, 273); Ibn al-Athir, 
transl. Fagnan, 345; Kitdb mafdkhir al-Barl 
ed. Levi-Provencal, Rabat 1934, 44; Ibn Khaldun, 
Berberes, transl. de Slane, iii, 186, 203, 210, 291- 
293; Dozy, Hist, des Mus. d'Esp. 1 , ii, 202, 206 
207, iii, 231; E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Esp. Mus., 
index. (R. Le Tourneau) 

al-BIRZALI, <Alam al-DIn al-Kasim b. Muham- 
mad b, Yusuf, also called Ibn al-Birzall, Syrian 
historian and kadith scholar. He was born in 
Damascus in Djumada I or II, 665/February- April, 
1267. A case could be made for the earlier date, 
sometimes mentioned, of 663/1265, but al-Birzall 
himself evidently maintained that he was born in 665. 
His ancestors belonged to the Birzal [q.v.] Berbers. 
His great-grandfather, Zaki al-DIn Muhammad b. 
Yusuf (b. ca. 577/1181-82, d. in Hama in 636/1239), 



had settled in Syria at the beginning of the 7th/i3th 
century. Zaki al-DIn's additional nisba, al-IshbUI, 
shows that he himself, or one of his ancestors, had 
once lived in Seville. A work of his is preserved in 
Damascus (cf. G. Makdisi, in BSOAS, xviii/1956, 22); 
copies of two volumes of Ibn 'AsSkir's History of 
Damascus written by him are preserved in Bankipore 
{Cat., xii, 144 ff., nos. 800-801; cf. also v, 2, 223, 
no. 481). Al-Birzali's grandfather, who succeeded his 
father in the position of imam at the Fallus Mosque 
(Flus [ ?], according to the vocalisation indicated by 
J. Sauvaget, Les monuments historiques de Damas, 
Beirut 1932, 60; cf. al-Nu'aymi, Daris, i, 86, ii, 361), 
died a young man of twenty-three years in 643/ 
1245-46, leaving al-Birzall's father, Baha' al-Din, 
to be brought up by his maternal grandfather. 
Baha 1 al-DIn, an official of the judiciary and 
accomplished scholar, died 699/1300 in his sixtieth 
year (cf. Ibn Kadi Shuhba, IHdm, anno 699). 

As a member of a family of scholars, al-Birzall, 
together with his sister Zaynab, received his instruc- 
tion from his father and other famous scholars. Ibn 
Taymiyya, for instance, lectured in his home 
(Bankipore, Cat., v, 2, 180). He started out very 
young, but precocious as he was, he retained his love 
for scholarship all his life. He went through the full 
curriculum of religious studies, travelled in pursuit 
of his studies to other Syrian cities and to Egypt, 
served for a while as an official witness, but spent 
most of his life as professor of hadith in Damascus 
colleges, his principal position being that at the 
Nuriyya [ididzas from his courses there in Bankipore, 
Cat., v, 2, 50 f., 198 f.). He undertook the pilgrimage 
several times and died at Khulays in the holy 
territory on 4 Dh u '1-Hidjdja 739/13 June, 1339. 
His children, among them Muhammad and Fatima, 
both gifted scholars, had died before him. Among his 
many students and colleagues were the most prom- 
inent scholars of the time, among them al-Dhahabi. 
There is unanimous agreement among his biographers 
that he was an unusually attractive person, good- 
looking, modest, generous with his books and his 
knowledge, blessed with a good handwriting, 
extremely industrious as a scholar, and enjoying 
the confidence of all scholarly factions, even those 
that were mutually hostile. 

No list of his writings is available, and none of the 
preserved works has been published so far. His 
great History, ending with the year 736/1335-36, 
was often quoted. It was abridged and continued 
by later scholars. Its actual title appears to have 
been al-Muktafa (cf. al-Sakhawi, in F. Rosenthal, 
A History of Muslim Historiography, 414, but al- 
Nu'ayml, Daris, i, 578, refers to a work entitled 
al-Muntakd [= al-Muhtafdl] as if it were different 
from the History often quoted by him). The Muk- 
tafd is preserved in MS. Topkapisaray, Ahmet III, 
2951 (cf. al-Munadjdjima, in Revue de I'Institut des 
Manuscrits arabes, 1956, 101 f.). His voluminous 
Mu^djam, which was highly praised and often 
cited as a reference work for contemporary 
scholarly history, is not preserved. A small Mu'-djam 
of his early teachers is preserved in Damascus (cf. 
Y. al- c Ishsh, Fihrist makh(u(dt Ddr al-Kutub al- 
Zahiriyya, al-Ta'rikh, Damascus 1366/1947, 228 f.). 
A Mu'diam al-Bulddn wa 'l-Kurd is cited by Ibn 
Tuliin, Luma'dt (Damascus 1348), 35 and 43. A 
small historical work on those who participated in 
the battle of Badr is ascribed to al-Birzall on the 
strength of the handwriting of a manuscript in 
Damascus, said to be similar to other autographs of 
al-Birzall in the ZShiriyya Library (cf. al- c Ishsh, 



H.-BIRZALI — BISHARlN 



op. cit., 46). Among his works on hadith an Arba'un 

Bulddniyya is mentioned. Two selectiors of c awdll 

al-hadith collected from his teachers and a Thuld- 

thiyydt min Musnad Ahmad b. Hanbal are preserved 

in Bankipore (Cat., V, 2, 194 «•, no. 462, 2, 3, and 6). 

A fikh work, on al-Shurut. is extant in Cairo. Other 

works can be confidently expected to turn up in the 

future. However, al-Birzall published less than 

wrote, and the preservation of his works, therefore, 

remained a matter of chance. Al-Nu'ayml (Ddt 

i, 113) considered it worth mention that he cai 

across the last volume of the History in 894/1489. 

Bibliography: For the family history, cf., i 

particular, the biography of Zaki al-DIn i 

Dhahabi, NubaW, Ms. ar. Yale University, L 571, 

vol. 2 (Cat. Nemoy, n77), fols. 33ob-33ib. 

following biographies deserve mention: Ibn Fadl 

Allah al- c UmarI, Masdlik, Ms. ar. Yale University, 

L 341 (Nemoy, 1185), fols. I79b-i82b; Husaynl 

Dimashki, Dhayl 7"a6a*<B al-Huffdz, Damascus 

1347, 18-21; Kutubl, Fawdt, Cairo 1951, ii, 262-64; 

Subkl, Tabakat al-ShdfiHyya, vi, 246 f.; Ibn 

Kathlr, Biddya, xiv, 185 f.; Ibn Hadjar, Durar, 

iii, 237-39; Nu'ayml, Ddris, Damascus 1367-1370/ 

1948-1951, Ibn Kadi Shuhba, lHdm, MS. Oxford, 

Marsh 143, anno 739; i, 112 f. Some of the 

unpublished works of Dhahabi, who wrote a 

biography of al-Birzall in monograph form (cf. 

Rosenthal, op. cit., 523), and the Wdfi of Safadi 

may also contain valuable information. Cf., 

further, Brockelmann, II, 45, S II, 34 f. ; G. Vajda, 

Les certificats de lecture, Paris 1957, 35 and 56; id., 

JA 1957, 143-46. (F. Rosenthal) 

BIS AT [see *alI1. 

BISBARAY b. Harigarbhdas Kayath, also 
called Karkarni, Indian author who wrote in Persian ; 
the correct pronunciation of his name in Sanskrit 
is Vishwarai (Rajah of the world), son of Harigarh- 
das (slave of God), of the well known family of 
Kayastha, which was particularly noted for its 
Persian culture. His surname Karkarni signifies "he 
who has ears as big as hands". He translated into 
Persian, in 1061-2/1651-2, during the reign of Shah- 
Djahan, the Sanskrit tale Vikramalaritram, making 
use of the work of his predecessors. (The Sanskrit 
original also bore the title Vikrama-Caritram, that 
is to say, the life of Vikram, the Radja Vikram Aditti 
in whose reign commenced the Bikrami era, which 
has now reached the year 2015). This translation is 
also known by the name Singhdsan Battisi (Sanskrit 
Sing-kdsan-battisi, 32 tales of the lion throne), and 
has been translated into French by Lescallier (Le 
TrSne enchanU, New York 1817). For the various 
editions of this Sanskrit tale, and the Persian trans- 
lations, see the works mentioned below. 

Bibliography: Eth6, in Grundriss der Irani- 
schen Philologie, ii, 353; Rieu, Cat. Pers. MSS. 
Brit. Museum, ii, 7631.; Pertsch, Cat. Berlin, 
1034 f. (Said Naficy) 

BlSHA, an oasis in western Arabia stretching 
about 25 miles along the banks of the wddi of the same 
name immediately north of 20* N. Lat. The head- 
waters of the wddi are east of Abha in the highlands 
of 'Aslr, and the channel extends c. 400 miles north 
to its junction with WadI Ranya, whence the 
combined channels turn inland to WadI Tathllth and 
WadI al-Dawasir (see al-Dawasir]. The tributaries 
Hardjab and Tardj, coming from the east and west 
respectively, empty into WadI Blsha south of the 
oasis of Blsha, and WadI Tabala [seeTABALA] joins 
WadI Blsha in the heart of the oasis. The early poets 
mention Blsha frequently, but on occasion confuse 



Bern 1875). 

The oasis of Bisha is noted for its dates, which 
are transported as far as Djayzan, and the nearby 
Bedouins raise a famous breed of white camels 
known as awarik (i.e., eaters of ardk leaves). Blsha, 
at the junction of routes from al-Ta'if and al-Riyad 
to Abha, Nadjran, and all of south-western Arabia, 
has been an important stop on incense, pilgrimage, 
and invasion routes. Nimran and al-Rawshan 
(Yakut's Rushan?) are the principal towns of the 
oasis, the former with the most important market 
of the region and the latter the site of Kal'at Blsha, 
where the Saudi Arabian Amir of the district is 
established. Al-Rawshan is divided into Rawshan Al 
Mahdl and Rawshan Ban! Salul. Among other towns 
and villages are al-Dahw, c Atf al-Djabara, al- 
Rukayta, al-NakI c , al-Shaklka, and al-Diunavna. 

Yakut lists the tribes of Blsha as Khath c am, Hilal, 
Suwa'a b. 'Amir b. Sa'sa'a, Salul, <Ukayl, al-Pibab. 
and Banu Hashim of Kuraysh. At present]elements 
of Shahran and Aklub (both of which stem from 
Khath c am), BanI Salul, and Kahtan ^redomint .e. 
Bibliography: In addition to HamdanI and 

Yakut, Fu'Sd Hamza, FiBildd 'Asir, Cairo 1951; 

Mulj. Ibn Bulayhid, Sahih al-Akhbdr, Cairo 1370-3; 

c Umar Rida KahhSla, Diushrdfiyyat Shibh 

Diazirat al-'Arab, Damascus 1364; Admiralty, 

A Handbook of Arabia, London 1916-17; H. 

Philby, Arabian Highlands, Ithaca, New York 

1952; M. Tamisier, Voyage en Arabic, Paris 1840. 
(W. E. Mulligan) 

BlgHAR' (Pers.), a term not often used, and 
then mainly in a pejorative sense; it is a compound 
of the Persian privative prefix M ("without") and 
the Arabic shar', the canon law of Islam. It denotes 
in particular those Sufis who declare that the law 
of Islam does not exist for persons illuminated by 
mysticism (antinomians). This somewhat colloquial 
term seems primarily to denote the adepts of the 
Sufi sect of the Malamatiyya, who were given to 
keeping secret their acts of worship, and hence to 
neglecting the official ritual. The term occurs very 
occasionally in the technical terminology of Sufism. 
(Said Naficy) 

BISHARlN, A nomadic Bedja [q.v.] tribe, now 
occupying two areas: (a) the c Atbay, or western 
slopes of the Red Sea Hills, between approximately 
23 and 19° N; (b) the banks of the c Atbara and 
adjoining lands between about 17° and 16 N. 
The tribe is divided into two main clans: (a) Umm 
c Ali, in the north-eastern 'Atbay; (b) Umm NadjI, 
in the south-western 'Atbay and on the 'Atbara. 
Tribal genealogies indicate a connection with the 
Arab Awlad Kahil (Kawahla), who, in the 14th 
century, lived near 'Aydhab. The original Bisharln 
homeland was in this region, around Djabal Alba. In 
the 15th century they apparently expanded into the 
'Atbay, displacing the Balaw, who may represent 
the Hadarib of medieval Arab writers. Their further 
expansion into the richer c Atbara lands was carried 
out by force of arms under Hamad c Imran, probably 
c. 1760-70. After Muhammad 'All Pasha's conquests 
in the Sudan, the 'Atbara Bisharln fell under Egypt- 
ian control, while those of the 'Atbay remained 
virtually independent. The expansion of the 
Ummarar into the Aryab district, in the early 19th 
century contributed further to the separation of the 
two groups. Neither group played an important 
part in the Mahdiyya, although 'Uthman Dikna 
had some control over the 'Atbara Bisharln. The 



separate treatment of the two groups continued 
under the Condominium until in 1928 a single chief 
(ndzir) was appointed over the whole tribe. The 
recent history of the Bisharin has been uneventful. 
Bibliography : G. E. R. Sandars, The Bisharin, 
in Sudan Notes and Records, xvi/2, 1933, 1 19-149, 
Khartoum. See also under bedja. (P. M. Holt) 
BISHBALIK, Beshbalik, the Soghdian (?) 
Pandjikath (both meaning 'Town of Five'), a town 
in eastern Turkestan frequently mentioned between 
the 2nd/8th and 7th/i3th centuries (concerning the 
name cf. Minorsky in Hudud al-'Alam, 271 f. and 
271 6 ). It was rediscovered in 1908 by Russian 
explorers, with the aid of information found in 
Chinese sources. Its position is 47 km. to the west 
of Kushang (Chinese Ku-c c 6ng) which was founded 
in the 18th century, and 10 km. north of Tsi-mu-sa, 
near the village of Hu-pao-tse. Its ruins (known as 
P c o-c c 6ng-tse) have a circumference of 10 km. 
(B. Dolbezev in the Izv. Russk. Komiteta dlya 
izuieniya Sredney i Vostocnoy Azii IX, April 1909, 
65 f. ; Ed. Chavannes, Documents, 1 1 ; Zap. A k. 
Nauk XXIII, 1915, 77-i2i; Sir Aurel Stein, Inner- 
most Asia, 1928, 554-59). 

From the 2nd century A.D. onwards, Bishbalik 
was mentioned in Chinese sources as the residence 
of local princes. From 658 onwards, it was the centre 
of a Chinese administrative area (with a Chinese or 
Turkish governor). This was due to its position as 
capital of a 'Five-Town-Area', and as one of the 
Chinese 'Four Garrisons'. The town is also mentioned 
in the Orkhon inscriptions (II, E 28; Kiili-Cur- 
Inscription; cf. Wilhelm Thomson in the ZDMG 
1924, 153; A. N. Bernstamm, Social' no-ekonomiieskiy 
stroy orkhono-yeniseyskikh Tyurok VI -VIII vekov 
(The social and economic structure of the Orkhon 
and Yenisey Turks from the 6th to the 8th century), 
Moscow and Leningrad 1946, index. The Chinese 
names Kinman, and in particular, Pei-t c ing (northern 
court) for Bishbalik, appear from this time onwards. 
According to the T c ang-schu (Chavannes, Doc, 
96-99) the Scha-t'o ('people of the Sandy Desert'; 
cf. below) lived near Bishbalik between 712 and 818. 
After long disputes (cf. Chavannes, Doc. 113 f. ; 
Kashghari, Diwdn, i, 103, 317, (ed. Brockelmann 
242); Marwazi, 73; Hudud al-'Alam, 227, 272) the 
town fell into the hands of the Tibetans in 791 
(Chavannes, Doc, 305), and later it became the 
residence of the Turkish Basmil princes, whose 
inheritance was taken over (with the title of Iduk 
Kut, 'Holy Majesty') by the Uigurs in 860. According 
to a report by a Chinese mission in the year 982 
(for list of translations cf. Wittfogel, 104), the 
town possessed more than 50 Buddhist temples, a 
Buddhist monastery, Manichaean shrines and one 
(artificial ?) lake. Some inhabitants, making use of 
the artificial irrigation, made their living by growing 
vegetables, others bred horses and did metalwork. 
The only early Islamic mention of the town (in 
Hudud al-'Alam, 17 a, trans. 94) dates from the same 
year. It is mentioned as being the residence of the 
ruler of the Toghuzghuz [q.v.]. Concerning this, and 
a comparison between the Toghuzghuz and the 
Scha-t'o, cf. V. Minorsky in Ifudiid al-'-Alam, 
266/72, 481. The mention of it made by Idrisi, i, 
491, 502, is presumably based on a different report, 
namely that of Tamim b. Bahr al-Mutawwi c i (cf. 
bibliography). 

As the northern residence of the ruler (Iduk Kut, 
Idi Kut, or Idu'ut) of the western Uigur part of the 
state, Bishbalik came under the Kara Khitay [q.v.] 
(there is mention of a Chinese work on this by Wang- 



Kuo-wei in Wittfogel 615, bottom left). In 1209, the 
Uignr ruler handed the town over to the Mongols of 
his own free will, and took part in their campaigns. 
Bishbalik came in close contact with the Islamic 
world within the Mongol Empire, and Islam gradu- 
ally penetrated into the town in the 7th/i3th 
century, despite the resistance offered by the Uigurs, 
who realised that they would thereby lose their 
spiritual leadership of the Mongol Empire. After the 
Mongol governor of Central Asia, Mas'ud b. Mahmud 
Yalavac ('Ambassador'), had taken up his office in 
Bishbalik in 1252/53, the Iduk Kut is said to have 
issued a secret order in September 1258, for the 
murder of all Muslims in the town. By order of the 
Grand Khan Mongke, he was taken and executed, 
but his dynasty remained (Djuwayni, ii, 34 f., 88 ; 
Hi, 60 f.; Rashid al-Din (ed. Blochet), ii, 304 f.; Hamd 
Allah Mustawfi Kazwini, Ta'rikh-i Guzida, 577; B. 
Spuler, Die Mongolen in Iran', Berlin 1955, 239). 
After 1260, the town appears to have enjoyed a 
period of independence between the empire of the 
Grand Khan and the taghatay state. It repulsed an 
attack from the west in 1275. At that time, Bish- 
balik was the starting point of the postal route from 
China to Central Asia (Bretschneider, Not. 208). 
The region of Bishbalik then apparently belonged 
to the state of Caghatay. Nothing is known about 
the subsequent fate of the town itself. It apparently 
vanished at the same time as the dynasty of the 
Iduk Kut, in the 14th century. Thereafter, the 
Chinese used the name Pei-t'ing only as a regional 
designation for an area which (according to Muham- 
mad Haydar Dughlat, Ta'rikh Rashidi, trans. 
E. Denison Ross, London 1895, 365) was known as 
Moghulistan in the 16th century, and in which 
Islam was now firmly established. There is no 
further mention of Bishbalik itself. 

Bibliography: Chinese reports in K. A. 
Wittfogel and Feng Chia-Sheng: Hist, of the 
Chinese Society Liao, Philadelphia 1949, 95, 104, 
107, 636, 655; E. Bretschneider, Mediaeval 
Researches . . ., 2 vols., London 1910, i, 65 f., ii, 
27-33, and a map; idem, Notices of the Mediaeval 
Geography, in JRAS, North China Branch, N.R. X 
(1876) 75-307. Marwazi, China, the Turks and India, 
ed. V. Minorsky London 1942, Index; Hudud al- 
'-Alam, index s.vv. Panjikath and Pei-t'ing. 
Barthold, Turkestan, index; idem, Orta Asya Turk 
Ta'rikhi hakklnda dersler, Istanbul 1927 (German 
version, 12 Vorlesungen uber die Geschichte der 
Turken Mittelasiens, Berlin 1935 ; French version, 
Histoire des Turcs d'Asie centrale, Paris 1945); V. 
Minorsky, Tamim ibn Bahrs Journey, in BSOAS 
xii/2, 1948 275-305; idem, in BSOAS xv/2, 1955, 
263. maps: in O. Pritsak, Karachanidische Studien, 
Thesis Gottingen 1948 (typescript); A. Herrmann, 
Atlas of China, Cam- bridge Mass. 1935, 34-39. 

(B. Spuler) 
al-BISHR. scene of a battle in eastern Syria 
in 73/692-3 between the Arab tribes of Sulaym and 
Taghlib. Khalid b. al-Walid campaigned here in 
12/633 (Tabari, i, 2068, 2072-3). Yakut describes it 
as a range of hills stretching from c Urd near Palmyra 
to the Euphrates, corresponding to the modern 
Djebel el-Bishri. The battle is also sometimes called 
after al-Rahub, a local water-course. 

The "Day of al-Bishr" was the climax of several 
clashes between the two tribes. This strife lay to 
some extent outside the Kays-Kalb tribal feud of 
the period; both tribes were accounted North 
Arabian, and its immediate cause was Sulaym's 
encroachment on Taghlib's pastures in al-Diazira. 



L-BISHR — BISHR B. GHIYATH al-MARISI 



An uneasy peace was broken through the Christian 
TaghlibI poet al-Akhtal's satires at the Damascus 
court, provoking the SulamI chief al-Djahhaf b. 
Hukaym. The latter secured a forged diploma 
authorising him to collect the sadakdt of Taghlib and 
Bakr, and on this pretext left with iooo Sulamis. 
Taghlib were surprised in their encampments at al- 
Bishr, and a savage slaughter followed. Because 
of his filthy cloak, al-Akhtal was taken for a slave 
and released, but his son was killed. The ripping-open 
of women was a reprisal for similar behaviour 
previously by Taghlib. 

Al-Djahhaf was forced to flee to Byzantine 
territory to escape the Caliph c Abd al-Malik's wrath, 
but returned and made his peace after arranging for 
a wergild of 100,000 dirhams to be paid to Taghlib 
in reparation. 

Bibliography : al-Akhtal, Diwdn, ed. Salhani, 
1905, 10 ff., 286; NakdHd, i, 401-2, 507-9, 899-900; 
Ibn Kutavba. Shi'r. 303; Aghdni 1 , ix, 57-61; Ibn 
al-Athir, iv, 261-3; Yakut, i, 631-2, ii, 768-9; R. 
Dussaud, Topographie historique de la Syrie, Paris 
1927, 252, 258, 314; Lammens, Le chantre des 
Omiades, Paris 1895, 140-3 (= JA, 1894); Well- 
hausen, Das arabische Reich, 129-30 (Eng. trans., 
207-8); Caetani, Chronografia Islamica, iv, 861. 
(C. E. Bosworth) 
BISHR b. ABl KHAZIM (not Hazim, see <Abd 
al-Kadir, Khizdnat al-adab 1 , ii, 262) the most con- 
siderable pre-Islamic poet of the Banu Asad b. 
Khuzayma in the second half of the sixth century. 
al-Farazdak, Diwdn (ed. Sawl) 721, mentions him 
amongst his predecessors. Abu 'Amr b. al- c Ala 5 
counts him among the classics (fuhiil). His poems 
were collected by al-Asma c I and Ibn al-Sikkit 
(Fihrist 158, 6). Abu 'Ubayda wrote a commentary 
on his Diwdn which was utilised by c Abd al-Kadir 
I.e. ii, 262, 4. The Mufaddaliyyat, Nrs. 96-99 ed. 
Lyall, contain four poems of Bishr; the last of them 
(erroneously coupled with Nr. 100) is also found ii 
the Diamharat ashlar aW-Arab 104, whilst Ibi 
Shadjarl in his Hamdsa, Cairo 1306, 65-83, gives ; 
selection of six poems. The numerous verses, quoted 
in dictionaries, commentaries and books of A ' ' 
have not been collected so far. 

Of Bishr's life little is known besides what we learn 
from his poems, whilst the reports about him 
often inconsistent and unreliable. From his vivid 
description of the victory of his tribe at al-Nisar i 
Muf. Nr. 96, Vrs. 9-22 it seems certain that he took 
part in this battle, which is dated by Lyall al 
575 A.D. References to other deeds of the Banu Asad 
do not yield any date. There looms large in his poems 
the figure of Aws b. Haritha b. La'm, chief of the 
Tayyi 5 , the neighbours of the Banu Asad. c Abd al- 
Kadir I.e. iv, 317, 1 quoting the commentary (of 
Abu 'Ubayda) states that a raid of the Tayyi 3 on 
some confederates (hulafa?) of the Banu Asad caused 
Bishr to compose a poem against Aws b. Haritha in 
which he threatened to satirise him if he did not come 
to terms (see also Mufaddaliyyat i, 293, 10 and 
Lane 1126). Such satires are extant in Mukhtdrdt 66 f. 
and 68 f. The origin of this feud is told quite diffe- 
rently by Mubarrad, Kdmil, i, 132 f. (and further 
embellished by Ibn al-Athir, Kdmil, i, 169 f.); 
according to this report, which makes Bishr 
contemporary of al-Hutay'a (d.c. 30/650), the quarrel 
started at the court of al-Nu c man b. al-Mundhir 
(r. 580-602). Aws b. Haritha raided the Banu Asad, 
got hold of Bishr but spared his life. Bishr then made 
amends for his five satires by composing five odes i 
praise of his benefactor. Whatever the truth may be 



there are indeed among Bishr's poems some eulogies 
on Aws b. Haritha (Mukhtdrdt 75; Ibn al-Shadjari, 
Ijamdsa 103) and fragments of a similar ode (cf. 'Abd 
al-Kadir I.e. i, 455; ii, 263; iv, in and Mubarrad, 
Kdmil, 133) which however is also ascribed to 
Pjundab b. Kharidja al-Tal. If his apology 
is authentic (Murtada, Amdli, ii, 114) then these 
eulogies are later than the satires. Another 
satire (Kali, Amdli 1 ii, 233; Mufaddaliyyat i, 340, 
584, 760; Freytag, Prov. Arabum i, 251) is directed 
against c Utba b. Malik b. Dja'far b. Kilab. The'son 
of this c Utba was c Urwa al-Rahhal who was slain by 
al-Barrad about 590 A.D. Abu 'Amr b. a- c Ala J (in 
Aghdni 1 xix, 75 f.) says that after this murder which 
led to the second war of the Fidjdr al Barrad asked 
Bishr to warn Harb b. Umayya and other leaders ot 
the Kuraysh against the revenge of the Kays 'Aylan. 
The Banu Asad were in league with the Kuraysh 
(see IbnSa'd I/i, 81, 9). Finally there is an elegy on 
himself (Mukhtdrdt 81-3) which he is said to have 
spoken when he was mortally wounded during a 
raid against the A bnd' of the Banu Sa'sa'a (see c Abd 
al-Kadir I.e. ii, 262; Mufaddaliyyat i, 31, 6; Marzu- 
bani, Mu'djam al-Shu'-ard'' 222). Legendary is the 
account how Bishr, c Abid b. al-Abras (died c. 550-60) 
and al-Nabigha al-Dhubyanl were regaled by Hatim. 
al-Tal (Ibn Kutayba, Shi'r 124; Aghdni 1 xvi, 98). 
Untenable also is Abu 'Ubayda's assumption, that 
the "King" 'Amr b. Umm lyas, whom Bishr addres- 
sed in at least two poems, was a grandson of Hudjr 
Akil al-Murar (Aghdni 1 xv, 87; see also <Abd al- 
Kadir I.e. ii, 182). Occasionally verses of a later poet 
of his tribe were attributed to him (Nakd'id 241; 
245 Bevan). 

Bibliography: In addition to the works 
mentioned in the article: Ibn Kutayba, Thi'r 
145-7; Khizdnat al-Adab 1 , ii, 262-4; MarzubanI, 
Muwashshah, 59; Ch. Lyall, Mufaddaliydt, ii, 268 f. ; 
A. Hartigan, in MFOB, i, 284-302. 

(J. W. FCck) 
BIg£[R b. al-BARA', Medinese Companion, 
of the Khazradjite clan of Bani Salima. Both he and 
his father al-Bara 5 b. MaSrur [?.f.] accepted Islam 
early and were among the seventy odd Medinese who 
were present at the second c Akaba meeting with the 
Prophet. Later, Bishr fought at Badr, Uhud, the 
siege of Medina, (Battle of the Ditch), and at 
Khaybar in 7/628. There he ate from a poisoned 
sheep which a Jewess offered to the Prophet in an 
attempt to venge her lost relatives. The Prophet 
tasted the poison and spat out the meat, but Bishr 
swallowed it and died, according to some sources 
immediately, according to others after suffering for 

Bishr was a famous bowman, and an enthusiastic 
Muslim who is quoted as arguing with the Jews of 
Medina. The Prophet described him as the sayyid of 
his clan, the Bani Salima. al-Shirazi (al-Muhadhdhab, 
Cairo, ii, 176-7) quotes the case of Bishr as a precedent 
for making that method of poisoning a capital 

■Bibliography: Ibn Hisham, 309, 378, 499, 
764-5; Ibn Sa'd, iii/2, 111-12; Tabari, i, 1583-4, 
iii, 2538; Ibn al-Athir, al-Kdmil, ii, 170; Ya'kubl, 
Ta'rikh, ii, 57; Usd al-Ghdba, i, 183; Nawawl, 
173-4; Caetani, Annali, index. (W. c Arafat) 
BISHR B. GHIYATH b. AbI KarIma Abu c Abd 
al-Rahan AL-MARlSl, a prominent theolo- 
gian belonging to the Murdji'a [q.v,~\. His father, a 
fuller and dyer in Kufa, is said to have been a Jew, 
and Bishr, on his conversion to Islam, to have 
become a mawld of Zayd b. al-Khattab. He lived 



t»4* 



>. GHIYATH al-MARISI — BISHR B. MARWAN 



in the western quarter of Baghdad, in the Darb 
ai- Maris (or al-Marisi), from which he took his 
nisba. He died in Baghdad in 218/833. 

Bishr was an assiduous disciple of Abu Yusuf in 
jikh, and although he held some opinions of his own, 
he is counted among the followers of the Hanafi 
school; he also heard traditions from Hammad b. 
Salama, Sufyan b. 'Uyayna, and others. In theology 
he shared the general position of the Murdji'a, and 
the Muslim haeresiographers regard his followers, 
sometimes called al-Marlsiyya, as forming one of the 
branches of this movement. He defined faith (imdn) 
as the ratification (tasdik) of the Islamic creed with 
the heart and the tongue, and everything that is not 
tasdik is not imdn; conversely, it follows that 
prostrating oneself to the sun is not in itself unbelief 
but an indication of unbelief. On the other hand, 
he considered all acts of disobedience to Allah as 
grave sins (kabdHr), but his followers (and pre- 
sumably he, too) regarded it as logically impossible, 
in the light of Kur'an xcix, 7 f., that Muslim 
sinners should be kept in hell for all eternity. 
Bishr held that the Kur'an was created, a doctrine 
first explicitly propounded by Djahm b. Safwan 
[q.v.], so that he was later vituperatively called a 
Djahml. It is also one of the basic tenets of the 
Mu'tazila [q.v.], so that the Muslim haeresiographers 
could, at the same time, include him among these 
last. A distinction which he made between two 
kinds of Allah's "will", led him to adopt, on the 
question of predestination, a position intermediate 
between the two extremes of the Djabriyya and the 
Kadariyya (qq.vv.), similar to that which was to 
become orthodox doctrine, and opposed to that of 
the Mu'tazila. His main disciple, al-Nadjdjar [q.v.], 
whose doctrine was said to approach closely to that 
of his master, was in fact attacked by his MuHazill 
contemporaries. 

Bishr is said to have been persecuted for his 
opinions; in particular it is said that he had to keep 
in hiding for 20 years during the reign of the 
'Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid. This is probably 
a legend, because that pillar of orthodoxy, al-Shafi'i, 
is reported to have lived with Bishr and his 
mother, a pious Muslim woman, in her house during 
his stay in Baghdad, well in the middle of the alleged 
period of hiding. But it is true that the traditionists 
(ahl al-hadith, [q.v.]), and in particular Ahmad b. 
Hanbal and his followers, opposed Bishr with 
implacable hatred, so that he later came to be 
regarded by the orthodox, notwithstanding his 
ascetic life, as one of the arch-heretics of Islam, and 
scurrilous features were added to his biography. 
Bibliography: al-Nawbakhti, Firdk al-Shi c a, 
ed. Ritter, index (with bibliography) ; 'Uthman b. 
Sa'id al-Darimi (d. 282), Radd al-Imdm al- 
Ddrimi . . . '■aid Bishr al-Marisi, Cairo 1358; al- 
Khayyat, K. al-Intisdr, ed. Nyberg, 1925 (French 
transl. Nader, 1957), index; al-Ash c ari, Mdkdldt 
al-lsldmiyyin, ed. Ritter, index (with biblio- 
graphy) ; al-Baghdadi, al-Fark bayn al-Firak, 
192 f. (transl. A. S. Halkin, Moslem Schisms 
and Sects, 1935, 5f.); al-Khatlb al-Baghdadi, 
Ta>rikh Baghdad, vii, 56 ff.; al-Isfaranni, al- 
Tabsir fi 'l-Din, 61 ; al-Shahrastani, 107 (transl. 
Harbrucker, Religionsspartheien und Philosophen- 
Schulen, 162, 407); al-Sam'anl, 523 v° f.; Ibn 
Khallikan, yv.; c Abd al-Kadir, al-Djawdhir al- 
Mud?a,i, 164 ff.; Ibn Ibn Hadjar al-SAskalani, 
Lisdn al-Mizdn, ii, 29 ff. ; c Abd Allah Mustafa al- 
Maraghl, al-Fath al-Mubin fi Tabakdt al-Usuliyyin, 
i, 143 ff.; Brockelmann, I, 206, ic; S I, 340; 



Ritter, in Isl., 16, 1927, 252 f.; A. N. Nader, 

Le sysleme philosophique des mu'lazila, 106; 

Laoust, La profession de foi d'Ibn Baffa, 167, 

n. 3 (with bibliography). 

(Carra de Vaux-[A. N. Nader and J. Schacht]) 

BISHR B. MARWAN b. al-Hakam, Abu 
Marwan, an Umayyad prince, son of the Caliph, 
Marwan [q.v.] and of Kutayya bint Bishr (of the 
Banfi Dja'far b. Kilab, thus a Kaysite). He took 
part in the battle of Mardj Rahit (65/684) and there 
killed a Kilab chief. After his father's accession to 
the Caliphate he followed him at the time of his 
expedition to Egypt, for the sources tell us that 
when in 65/684 Marwan had regained this province 
for the Umayyads, taking it from Ibn al-Zubayr 
[q.v.] who had seized it in Sha'ban 64/March- 
April 684, and had put his son, c Abd al-'AzIz [q.v.] 
in charge of the Prayer and the collection of kharddj, 
he left Bishr there to keep him company and to 
help him to forget his separation from his family. 
Some time later the relation between the two 
brothers changed and Bishr returned, probably to 
Syria. The chroniclers bring up his name again in 
connexion with the events of 71/690-91 (al-Tabari, 
li, 816), the year in which the Caliph, <Abd al- 
Malik appointed him governor of Kufa. It was only 
in 72, probably after the end of the campaign against 
Mus'ab b. al-Zubayr [q.v.] in which Bishr had taken 
part (al-Baladhuri, Ansdb, v, 335, 338), that he took 
up his residence there (al-Tabari, ii, 822), and had 
as counsellor not only his uncle, Rawh b. Zinba c [q.v.], 
but also Musa b. Nusayr whom <Abd al-Malik had 
asked of c Abd al-'Aziz with this in mind (according 
to the Kitdb Ahddith al-Imdma wa 'l-Siydsa, in the 
appendix to P. De Gayangos, The History of Moh. 
Dynasties in Spain, London 1840-43, L-LII). In 
73/692-3, the Caliph gave him in addition to the 
governorship of Kufa, that of Basra, which he had 
taken away after only a few months from Khalid b. 
c Abd Allah b. Khalid b. Asid because of his un- 
successful conduct of the war against the Kharidjites ; 
at the end of the same year or in 74, Bishr transferred 
himself to this city, leaving c Amr b. Hurayth al- 
Makhzumi as his lieutenant at Kufa. As governor of 
Kufa, Bishr sent contingents to reinforce the troops 
in operation against the Kharidjites on c Abd al- 
Malik's behalf; but although he had been appointed 
commander-in-chief (amir), he received an order 
directly from c Abd al-Malik to give the command 
of the army fighting this sect to al-Muhallab [q.v.]. 
This he did very much against his will when he 
reached Basra because he had intended to appoint 
'Umar b. 'Ubayd Allah b. Ma'mar. Shocked by the 
Caliph's not having left the initiative to him in this 
matter (al-Tabari, ii, 855 sq., etc.), he advised the 
commander of the Kufa troops to oppose the military 
action of al-Muhallab, an action which provoked the 
indignation of the latter (al-Tabari, ii, 856). 

On his arrival at Basra, Bishr was suffering 
already from some hidden disease (al-Baladhuri, v, 
171, 179. etc.) or from an infection (Ibn Kathir, 
ix, 7) and he died very soon afterwards at a few 
years over forty, according to Ibn 'Asakir, in 74/693-4 
(according to al-Wakidl apud al-Tabari, ii, 852, in 
73; in 75 according to al-Dhahabl, Ta'rikh, ms. Bodl. 
ii, fol. 95r and Yafi'i, Mir'dt al-Qiandn, ms. Paris 
1589, fol. 55r.) He was buried at Basra but a few 
days later it was already impossible to distinguish his 
grave from that of a negro who had died on the same 
day, which shows how little interest was taken in 
tombs at that time. On the news of his death, there 
were some defections in the army of al-Muhallab. 



BISHR B. MARWAN — BISHR B 



Bishr was a very agreeable young man, a governor 
who could be approached without difficulty (see 
the verses of Aymam b. Khurayn in Aghdni, xxi, 12), 
remarkably inclined to be merciful; nevertheless he 
executed the emissaries of Ibn al-Zubayr who, even 
after the death of Mus'ab, continued his intrigues 
in the city of Basra. The only criticisms levelled 
against his government concerned some innovations 
in ritual (al-Baladhuri, v, 170, etc.), and his failure 
to distribute food among the people, his custom 
being to reserve this for his guard and the members 
of his court (al-Baladhuri, v, 180). 

Like many other Umayyads, Bishr used to drink 
wine, get drunk and lead a merry life with his 
companions (al-Mas'fldi, Murudi, v, 254-58 tells us 
of the trick played by one of his friends to rid him 
of the somewhat too constraining presence of his 
uncle, Rawh; the latter's removal is nevertheless 
explained in a different way by Ibn Kutayba, 'Uyun, 
ed. Brockelmann, 207 f.). He liked to listen to 
music and to write poetry, and poets enjoyed his 
sympathy and generosity (see a long panegyric and 
an elegy in the Diwdn of Farazdak, ed. Boucher, 
Paris 1870, 173-75, 129, transl. 521-25. 361; ed. 
Hell, Munich 1900, index; poems in his honour in 
al-Akhtal, Diwdn, ed. SalhanI, 38, 58, 68, 120). 
Other poets too lived in his entourage or addressed 
verses to him: Djarir, Kuthayyir c Azza, Nusayb, 
Suraka b. Mirdas al-Bariki, al-A'sha of the Banu 
Shayban, Ayman b. Khuraym al-Asadi, al-Mutawakkil 
al-Laythi, Ibn Kays al-Rukayyat, Ibn al-Zabir, al- 
Hakamb.'Abdal, al-'Ukayshir al-Asadi, al-'Adjdjadj, 
Ka c b al-Ashkari, al-Ra'I. Zufar b. al-Harith, who 
supported Mus'ab, on the other hand, wrote in- 
vectives against him. 

Bibliography: the longest biographies are 
those of Baladhurl, Ansdb, ed. Goitein, v, 166-180 
(see also v, 140, 164); Sibt Ibn al-Djawzi, Mir'dt 
al-Zamdn, ms. Bodl. Marsh 289, fol. i67v-i68r, 
ms. Paris 6131, fol. 223v-224r; Ibn Kathir, al- 
Biddya wa-'l-Nihdya, Cairo 1351/1932 . , ., ix, 7. 
Apart from the references quoted in the article, 
see Ibn Sa'd, Jabakat, v, 24, 115; Tabari, ii, 825 f., 
828, 853 f., 855 f., 857, 873; Kindl, The Governors 
and Judges of Egypt, ed. Guest, 47; Ibn 'Asakir, 
Ta'rikh Dimashk, in section 73; Ibn al-Athlr, iv, 
270, 280, 283, 295, 297; Ibn Kutayba, Shi'r, 345; 
Mubarrad, Kdmil, ed. Wright, 662, 663, 664, 666 
(= Ibn Abi '1-Hadid, Sharh Nahdi al-Baldgha, i, 
395); Mas'udi, Murudi, v, 208; Aghdni, index; 
Yakut, ii, 647, 738 and index ; Ahlwardt, Samm- 
lungen alter arab. Dichter, Berlin 1902-3, ii, XXV, 
no. X VII ; Ch. Pellat, Le milieu basrien, Paris 1953, 
156, 247, 270, 278; V. Rizzitano, e Abd al- c Aziz b. 
Marwdn, governalore umayyade d'Egitto. in Aca- 
demia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rendiconli delta Classe 
di scienze morale, storiche e filologiche, Ser. Ill, vol. 
Ill, vol. II, fasc. 5-6, 1947, 321-47. 

(L. Veccia Vaglieri) 
BISHR b. AL-MU'TAMIR (Abu Sahl al-HilalI), 
born in Baghdad, from where he went to Basra 
where he met Bishr b. Sa'id and Abu 'Uthman al- 
Za'faranl, both companions of Wasil b. 'Ata' 
(founder of the Mu'tazilite school) who initiated 
him in the principles of the school. Another of his 
masters was Mu'ammar b. 'Abbad al-Sulami. After 
his return to Baghdad, Bishr was able to win a large 
number of converts to the iHizdl. Harun al-Rashid, 
who was hostile to the Mu'tazilite doctrine, threw 
him into prison. Bishr thereupon composed some 
forty thousand lines of remarkably eloquent verse 
on "justice" (al-'adl), "monotheism" (al-tawhid) and 



"menace" (al-wa c id), three fundamental principles 
of the- -Mu'tazilite school. These verses' found their 
way outside the prison precincts; they were recited 
at meetings everywhere. Al-Rashid, realising that 
Bishr's verses had more power over the masses than 
his teaching before his imprisonment, freed him. 
Bishr dedicated a veritable dithyramb to reason. He 
was at once a great poet and a great rhetorician. His 
advice to authors and especially to poets is quoted 
in a celebrated page of al-Djahiz (al-Baydn, i, 104): 
"The poet must feel that secret influence of the 
heavens and choose elegant and beautiful terms 
which are simple and clear of expression". 

Only a few fragments of his writings on the 
Mu'tazilite principles have come down to us. He 
stressed especially the problem of "moral respon- 
sibility" and was the first to speak of "engendered 
acts" (al-tawallud) with a view to clarifying the 
nature of this responsibility and of explaining at 
the same time the problem of sensation. The 
"engendered act" (tawallud) is an act prompted by 
a cause which is itself the effect of another cause. 
Thus, in the act of opening a door with a key, there is 
first a voluntary act, then the movement of the hand 
which turns the key, and lastly that of the key which 
turns the tongue of the lock. This last movement is 
an engendered act for it does not emanate directly 
from a voluntary decision. Thus, he says, we are 
responsible for acts initiated by ourselves either 
directly or "engendered" by our direct (voluntary) 
acts in measure as we are aware of all their con- 
sequences. Bishr also explains sensation as an 
"engendered act" through the impression which is 
first made on the senses; the sense then naturally 
translates this impression into sensation. Reason, 
he says, once it has reached maturity, can compreh- 
end the great moral problems: distinguish good from 
evil, even before any revelation. And thus, merit or 
the lack of it depends "upon ourselves alone, for we 
have freedom of choice and action. And he adds, 
"there is greater merit in the man who does good by 
his own means than in him who is helped by divine 
grace". He remarked also, that voluntary decision 
need not necessarily be followed by implementation, 
even in default of impediment. We are responsible 
in so far as we perceive the moral value of our 
actions ; in the case of ignorance there is no respon- 
sibility. Repentance is valueless, he says, unless it 
goes with a decision not to repeat the forbidden act 

As to our knowledge of the external world, it 
may be partial and relative, but this need not cast 
doubt on the value of reason. He allows that move- 
ment lies between the two moments of rest through 
which the mobile agent passes; and, he says, cause 
must always precede its effect. He defends the 
principle of universal determinism; the only except- 
ion he allows is that of man's freedom of motion. 
Finally, he considers the soul as ineluctably united 
to the body in man. 

Disciples of Bishr were the Mu'tazilite masters: 

Abu Musa al-Murdar, Thumama and Ahmad b. Abi 

Du 5 5d. He probably died between 210-226 H/825-840. 

Bibliography: Al-Ash'ari, Makdldt, Istambul 

1929, 328, 329, 354, 373, 389, 39i, 40i; al- 

Baghdadi, al-Fark, Cairo 1328/1910, 93, m, 115, 

144, 151; Ibn Hazm, al-Fisal, Cairo 1347/1928, 

iv, 149; al-ldjl: al-Mawdkif, 416; al-Isfaralni, 

al-Tabsir, Cairo 1940, 40, 45; al-Djahiz, al-Baydn, 

Cairo 1926, i, 104; al-Khayyat, K. al-Intisdr, 

Cairo 1926, passim (and the same work translated 

into French by A. Nader, Beirut 1957); al- 



1244 



L-MU'TAMIR — BISHR al-HAF1 



Malawi, K. al-Tanbih, 30; al-l£urtubl (Abu <Amr), 
K. Didmi c Bayan aW-Ilm wa FadUhi, Cairo 1346/ 
1928, 62; al-Shahrastanl, aX-Milal (in the margin 
of Ibn Hazm), Cairo 1347/1910, i, 50, 61; Ibn al- 
Murtada, al-Munya wa 'l-Atnal, Haydarabad 
1316/1899): chapters on the Mu'tazila; Ahmad 
Amln: Duha al-Isldm, Cairo 1938, iii; A. Nader, 
Le Systbme Philosophique des Mu'tazila, Beirut 
1956), 38 et passim. (Albert N. Nader) 

BISHR b. al-WALID B. c Abd al-Malik, 
Umayyad prince, one of the numerous sons of the 
Caliph al-Walid and brother of the Caliphs Yazid 
III and Ibrahim. His learning earned him the title of 
scholar ('aW*») of the Banu Marwan. He led many 
military expeditions (certainly in 92/710-n: al- 
Ya'kflbi, ii, 350, and in 96/714-15 against the 
Byzantines: al-Tabari, ii, 1269 etc.). He was nomi- 
nated amir of the pilgrimage by his father in 95/714. 
His name does not appear in the sources until the 
conspiracy against his cousin al-Walid II in 126/743- 
44. Despite the prohibition of his brother al-'Abbas, 
the famous general, he joined the opposition to the 
Caliph which supported Yazid b. al-Walid (the future 
Yazid III). He was not, however, the only member 
of the family to do so, since Yazid was supported by 
thirteen brothers. 

He was governor of I£innasrin when Marwan b. 
Muhammad, the governor of Armenia and Mesopo- 
tamia, took the field against Yazid's successor 
Ibrahim in 127/744-45. Marwan, having succeeded 
in winning over the garrison of the town, largely 
composed of Kaysites, persuaded their leader to 
hand over to him Bishr and his brother Masrur, and 
threw them both into prison. The date of Bishr's 
death is not known, but as Marwan in the course of 
his march after the battle of c Ayn al-Djarr took over 
the caliphate, it is presumed that the two captives 
never recovered their liberty and died in prison. 
Bibliography: Tabari, ii, 1269 3 , "', 1270, 
1787, 1876 f. ; Ibn al-Djawzi, Muntazam, MS. Aya 
Sofia 3094, f° 146 v°, MS. Gotha 1553, f° 52 v°; Ibn 
'Asakir, Ta'rikh Dimashli, in djuz' 73', Sibt Ibn 
al-Djawzi, K. Mir'dt al-zamdn, MS. Paris 6131, 
f° 44 v°; Ibn al-Athir, v, 214, 243; Ibn Shakir al- 
Kutubl, c Uyun al-Tawdrikh, MS. Paris 1587, 
f° 35 r°; Fragmenta historicorum arab., ed. De 
Goeje, 13, 149; Ibn Kutayba, Ma'-drif, 183 (ed. 
Cairo 1300 A.H., 123); Mas'udi, Murudi, v, 361, 
ix, 60; Aghani, vi, 137; F. Gabrieli, al-Walid ibn 
Yazid, il Calif/o e il poeta, in RSO, xv, 1934. 

(L. Veccia Vaglieri) 
BISHR al-HAfI, full name: Abu Nasr Bishr 
b. al-HarIth b. c Abd al-Rahman b. 'Ata 5 b. 
Hilal b. Mahan b. 'Abd Allah (originally Ba'bur) 
al-Hafi. He was a Sufi, born in Bakird or in 
Mabarsam, a village near Marw (al-Shahidjan) in 
150/767 (or 152/769), and died in Baghdad (some 
sources say that he died in Marw, but this seems 
unlikely) in 226/840 or 227/841-42. Little is known 
about his early age. He is said to have belonged to 
some young men's association, or a gang of robbers, 
whilst still in Marw. He has also been described as a 
great friend of wine. Another tradition has it that 
he earned his living by making spindles. We do not 
know how this fits in, or to which period of his life 
it belongs. It is a known fact, however, that like his 
maternal- uncle 'All b. Kh ashram (165/781-258/872) 
he was a traditionist. With the exception of 'Abd 
Allah b. al-Mubarak (who came from Marw but 
travelled a great deal), his teachers lived in the 
Arabic-speaking regions; so Bishr is certain to have 
continued his hadith studies after he left his home, 



and it may be these very studies that induced him to 
go away. He had already made a name for himself 
when he reached Baghdad from 'Abbadan for the 
first time, for a Baghdad traditionist was anxious to 
meet him. Bishr is also said to have studied under 
Malik b. Anas (who died in 179/795) and to have 
gone with him on a pilgrimage to Mecca. For chrono- 
logical reasons Abu Hanifa cannot possibly have 
been one of his teachers, as Hudjwiri and 'Attar 

It is also not clear how and when he became a 
Sufi. There is no mention anywhere of a novitiate, 
and two completely different events are mentioned 
as the reasons for his conversion. According to one 
version a certain Ishak al-Maghazili (who is, unfor- 
tunately, otherwise unknown to us) wrote a letter to 
him in which he asked him how he meant to earn his 
living if he lost his sight and his hearing and was no 
longer able to make spindles. According to the other 
version he picked up a piece of paper in the street 
(one report of this even says that he was drunk at 
the time) with the name of God on it ; he perfumed 
it and kept it reverently, with' the result that 
either Bishr himself, or someone else, had a dream 
promising the exaltation of Bishr's name. In each 
case, the result mentioned is Bishr's conversion to 
a pious way of life. Quite apart from these con- 
tradictions, we do not know what form this piety 
took — e.g., whether it included hadith — and we have 
no proof that these events actually were the be- 
ginning of his life as a Sufi. From Bishr's sayings 
which have survived we merely see that at some 
point, at the latest in Baghdad, he did turn away 
from traditionist studies, he buried his hadith writings 
and concentrated on Sufi devotions. Traditionist 
studies, he says, do not equip one for death, they 
are merely a means to gain wordly pleasure, and 
they impair piety. He asked his former colleagues 
to impose a "poor-rate" on the hadith, that is to say, 
to follow truly 272% of the pious verses which they 
had learnt and which they declaimed with such 
professorial self-complacency. He refrained from 
teaching hadiths for the very reason that he so 
greatly wished to teach them, and promised to 
return to them as soon as he had overcome his 
longing to teach them: "Beware of the haddathand, 
for in the haddathand there is embedded a particular 
sweetness". He admitted the science of hadith only 
in so far as it was pursued "for the sake of God", 
and quoted hadiths only in conversation, where this 
would fit into the general framework of a training 
for a pious way of life. Still, as we do not know 
whether his earlier traditionism might not have been 
practised with this same idea in mind all along, we 
ought perhaps not to speak of an actual breach 
with his past. 

Bishr's Sufi piety is based upon the acceptance 
of the laws of Islam and the Sunni Caliphs, but he is 
also said to have held the family of the Prophet in 
loving veneration. He was greatly respected not only 
by Ahmad b. Hanbal, but also by Ma'mun (Mu'ta- 
zila, Shi'a). The statement that he took Faith to 
mean a positive confession, a belief in its truth and 
man's acting according to it, as Hudjwiri puts it, 
is, when formulated in this way, hardly true, 
although it is justifiable with regard to his practice. 
The decisive factor for Bishr was the deed itself. As 
an absolute minimum in this respect, he demanded 
that man should at least not sin, and to accomplish 
this he advised contemplation of God's greatness — 
before which he himself trembled, despite his own 
ascetic life, up to the very point of death. Before 



BISHR al-HAFI 



1245 



the choice between God or the world, he made his 
choice unreservedly in favour of God, and he despised 
all Jorms of worldly ambition and selfishness. He 
preached poverty, which was to be borne with 
patience and charity, and it is said of him that when 
one day he met a man suffering from cold, and 
could not help him in any other way, he unclothed 
himself to show his sympathy and to give an 
example; he died in a borrowed shirt because he 
had given his own away to a poor man. He spoke 
against the avaricious, the very sight of whom 
"hardens the heart" ; and he advised a man about 
to start off on a pilgrimage to Mecca, to give his 
money instead to an orphan or to a poor man, for the 
joy caused thereby was worth a hundred times more 
than a pilgrimage. By saying this he hardly meant 
that the one pilgrimage to Mecca, which the law 
prescribes, could be replaced by some social act, as 
some other Sufis have taught, but must have referred 
to some additional pilgrimage. Tawiis b. Kaysan 
already (who died in 105/724) is said to have 
refrained from going on a pilgrimage because he 
chose to stay with a sick friend instead (flilyat al- 
Awliyd', 4, 10; cf. Meier, Zwei islamische Lehr- 
erzahlungen bei Tolstoj? in Asiatische Studien, 1958). 
And Bishr called pilgrimages the holy war of women, 
but, unlike for instance Dja'far al-Sadik (al-Kadi al- 
Nu'man: Da'dHm al-Isl&m, i, 346-47), he put the 
giving of alms above both pilgrimage and the holy 
war — because alms could be given in secret, without 
other people getting to know of it. The very wish to 
have one's good deeds known by other people is, for 
Bishr, an example of worldly mindedness, and in 
this he sees an element capable of destroying even 
the good deeds of man. He condemned the wish to 
be well thought of by one's fellow men to the extent 
of advising one against mixing with them at 
all — even if only to give testimony and lead the 
prayers. Here his teachings come close to the 
Malamatiyya: "Do not give anything merely in 
order to avoid the censure of others!"; "Hide 
your good deeds as well as your evil ones". He 
confesses that he himself still attaches a certain 
importance to the effect he makes on others, and 
to his appearance as a pious man, but he wages an 
unrelenting war against all this "pretentiousness" 
(tasatmu c ) — in himself as well as in others. He only 
recognises those who wear patched cloaks (murak- 
ka'dt) as sharers of his views, when one of them has 
>f his resolution to live up to this symbol 



f dedic; 



) God's 



! by a 



e fur- 



therance of religion. He himself refrained, o 
occasion, from accepting dates in the dark ; 
back of a shop, in order not to be different in 
from what he was generally considered to b 
abstemiousness (wara c ) went beyond 
from dubious things by putting a limit to the 
unrestrained enjoyment of what was permitted: 
"what is permitted", he says, "does not tolerate 
immoderation (isrdf)". Of everything he ate a 
little less than his conscience would have permitted, 
thereby creating the 'Tabu-zone' which had already 
been recommended in the Jewish Pirhi A both, and 
which was also observed by numerous other Islamic 
ascetics. Destitute, he often lived on bread alone, 
and sometimes he was starving. Where the question 
of faith in God's providence (tawakkul) arose, he 
distinguished three types of the poor: (1) those who 
neither beg nor accept anything, yet receive every- 
thing they ask for of God; (2) those who do not beg 
but accept what they are given; (3) those who hold 
out for as long as they can, but do then beg (SulamI: 



Tabakdl, 47 ; c Mtar: Tadhkira.i, no), describing those 
who belong to the middle group as people trusting 
in the providence of God, however, another place 
(Tadhkira, i, no, 24-25). In he characterises this con- 
fidence as being the resolution not to accept anything 
from any man; whilst in a third place tawakkul 
appears to be compatible with manual work provided 
the deed be done under the will of God (fftiya, 8, 351) 
— but the explanation of that oracular definition 
id(irdb bild sukun wa sukdn bild idfirdb does not seem 
to me to be beyond all doubt. Admittedly, Bishr is 
said to have begged only from Sari al-Sakay, 
knowing that this man would rejoice in the loss of 
any worldly possessions; but some stories suggest 
that he lived largely on the earnings of his sister 
Mukhkha, who looked after him and lived by 
spinning. (Bishr had three sisters who are all said 
to have lived in Baghdad). The question of begging 
links up with the one concerning "giving and 
taking', which played a great part in Siifism, especially 
later on (cf. Meier, Die Vita des Scheich Abu Ishdq 
al-Kdzaruni, in Bibliotheca Islamica, 14, 1948, 
Introduction 57-61). In spite of taking a great 
interest in the lot of the poor, Bishr did not — unlike 
Kazaruni for example — function as their spokesman 
and mediator, but rather withdrew into himself. He 
refrains from admonishing princes, he does not even 
drink of the water for which a prince has dug the 
channel. As a consolation when the cost of living is 
high he advises contemplating death. He knows that 
there is no way of satisfying mankind, and regards 
his own time (on a well-known pattern) as particularly 
far removed from the ideal of contentment: "Even 
though a cap should fall from heaven on to some- 
body's head, that man would not want it" ; nor, like 
Muhasibi, does he have much to say in his days in 
favour of the readers of the IJur'an: "Rather a 
noble robber than a base-minded reader of the 
Rur'an". He finds true piety restricted to the very 
few: "In these days, there are more dead within than 
without the walls". A Sufi is one who stands before 
his God with a pure (sdfi) heart, and perfect is only 
he whom even his enemies no longer fear; but in 
Bishr's own days not even friends, he says, could 
trust each other. The opposition which a pious man 
has to overcome lies in his inclinations (shahawdt) : 
only those who have erected an iron wall against 
these inclinations, says Bishr, can feel the sweetness 
of the service of God. He advises silence to those who 
derive pleasure from speaking, speech to those who 
enjoy being silent. He declines teaching hadiths, 
because he does not wish to give in to a desire to do 
so; he eats no aubergines in order to fight his craving 
for them, and no fruit in order not to satisfy the 
fruit's own longing. He does not, however, advocate 
the repression of sexual desire, and does not even 
object to a harem of 4 women — though he himself 
remained unmarried. 

In spite of the fact that Bishr puts the deed before 
knowledge, he is considered both knowledgeable and 
intelligent. This does not refer to his theological 
knowledge, but also to his ability to experience and 
expound religious feelings and to his pious way of 
life: "A wise man is not one who merely knows good 
and evil, but he who both does the former and 
refrains from doing the latter" ; "First to know, then 
to act, then really to know". Ahmad b. Hanbal is 
said to have claimed for himself greater theological 
knowledge, but to have referred to Bishr for know- 
ledge concerning the reality of things, the higher 
facts (hakdHk). Without question, though only a 
few dicta and some verses in the style of the zuhdiyydt 



have survived, Bishr played his part through his 
word in expanding the teaching of the mystical 
shaping of man in Islam. Some sayings of his, however, 
belong to an earlier tradition which he simply passes 
on — one of his frequently quoted Sufi teach»rs is 
Fudayl b. 'Iyad. The men who leamt from him are 
recognisable from the isndds of his dicta. 

With regard to the origin of Bishr's cognomen "the 
barefooted" (hdfx), Ibn Khallikan tells the following 
story: Bishr once asked a cobbler for a new strap for 
one of his sandals, but the cobbler called this a 
nuisance, whereupon Bishr threw down both his 
sandals and henceforth walked barefoot. Much 
speaks in favour of this report, even if the explanation 
is not clear in every detail. Did Bishr fly into a rage 
at the cobbler's answer, and then, being a pious man, 
did he draw the consequences? Or did he, blaming 
only himself, soberly come to the decision never to 
inconvenience a cobbler again? Later referring to 
Sura LXXI, 19 "And God made the earth your 
carpet", he said that one did not step onto a king's 
carpet wearing shoes. As a further reminder he also 
says that at the "time when the pact was made" 
they too were barefoot. This probably refers to the 
pact of obedience which human beings are said to 
have made with God before their appearance on 
God's earth (Sura VII, 172: a-lastu bi-rabbikum). 
Such justifications belong to the symbolic associations 
which Sufis later attached to the various parts and 
colours of their clothes (cf. Meier, Ein Knigge fiir 
Sufi's, in RSO 32, 1957, 485-524). The statement made 
by Hudjwlri and repeated by 'Attar that Bishr went 
barefoot because he was so deeply moved^in con- 
templation of God, is hard to understand — and, 
together with the explanations given by Hudjwlri 
and 'Attar, mere theory. Bishr is said to have called 
himself "the barefooted" and to have been called 
to account for this by a girl who said "All you have 
to do is to buy a pair of sandals for two ddnik, but 
then you would no longer have your beautiful name". 
Al-Hafi is also the name of the dervish in Lessing's 
Nathan der Weise. Although Reiske's Abilfedae 
Annates Moslemici, i, Leipzig 1754, where our 
Sufi appears on page 193, vulgo Beschr ol Haft [seu 
nudipes] dictus, had already appeared by the time 
Lessing's play was written, it can hardly be regarded 
as its source. Lessing is more likely to have sought 
Reiske's advice personally, or to have derived the 
narre from d'Herbelot (cf. Baschar al-Hafi and Ha/i). 
Bibliography : The Kitdb al-Luma< fi 'l-Tasaw- 
wuf, by Abu Nasr <Abdalldh . . . al-Sarrdj . . ., 
ed. R. A. Nicholson, Gibb Mem. Ser . 22, 1914; 
Abu Bakr Muhammad al-Kalabadhi, Al-Ta'arruf, 
ed. A. J. Arberry, Cairo 1933; Abu 'Abd al- 
Rahman al-Sulaml, Jabakdt al-Sufiyya, ed. 
Shariba, Cairo 1953 (with further bibliography); 
Abu Nu'aym al-Isbahanl, Hilyat al-Awliyd', 
Cairo 1938, vol. 8, 336-360; Risdlat al-Kushayri. 
The Kashf al-Mahjub . . . by 'All . . . al-Hujwiri, 
translated by R. A. Nicholson, in Gibb Mem. 
Ser. 17, New Edition 1936; Ansari Harawl, 
Tabakdt al-Sufiyya, MS. Yusuf Kethuda 5886, 
Konya, 18a; al-Khatlb al-Baghdadi, Ta'rikh 
Baghdad, Cairo 1931, vol. 7, 67-80; Ibn al-Djawzi, 
Sifat al-Safwa, Haydarabad 1355, 2, 183-90; 
Farld al-DIn 'Attar, Tadhkirat al-Awliya>, ed. 
R. A. Nicholson, London-Leiden 1905, i, 106-114; 
Ibn Khallikan, Wafaydt al-A'ydn, Bulak 1299, i, 
112-113; Yafi'I, Mir'dt al-Qiindn, Haydarabad 
1137, ii, 92-94; 'Abd al- Rahman Diami. Na/ahdt 
al-Uns, Calcutta 1858, 53-54; 'Abd al-Wahhab 
al-Sha'ranl, Al-Tabakdt al-Kubrd, Cairo 1355, i, 



62-63; 'Abd al-Hayy b. al-'Imad, Shadhardt al- 
Dhahab, Cairo 1 350, ii, 60-62. Also other collections 
of biographies and Sufi texts. (F. Meier) 

BISKRA, town and oasis of the Ziban in the 
south-east of Algeria and on the northern fringe of 
the Sahara. It is situated at an altitude of between 
100-120 metres, on the alluvial cone and the west 
bank of the Oued Biskra, at the mouth of a wide 
depression which extends from the Awras massif to 
the western Saharan peaks of the Atlas Mountains. 
This has always been a route much used by nomads 
and conquering shepherds. Its blue sky, seldom 
streaked with clouds, its mild winter climate (mean 
temperature for January n.2 = 52 F.) make of it a 
winter resort (it has numerous hotels) ; but its summer 
climate is torrid (33.3° = 92 F. in July) and favourable 
to the ripening of dates. Rains are fairly rare (156 mm. 
= 6.14 ins. per year) and, above all, irregular. The 
palm grove which covers an area of 1300 hectares, 
numbers more than 150,000 palm trees and thousands 
of fruit trees; it is irrigated by the waters of canalised 
springs. In the cold season, the surplus water makes 
it possible to irrigate vast fields of wheat and barley 
at the southern end of the oasis, where the harvest 
begins in April. The European town, which has 
grown into the administrative, commercial and 
tourist centre, is laid out on a grid plan ; it was built 
upstream from the palm-grove, near a fort. The 
Muslim cultivators are dispersed in villages, in 
houses of crude brick. These are mainly to the 
south, surrounding the ruins of an ancient Turkish 
fortress. These villages are: Msid, Bab al-Dorb, Ras 
al-Guerria, Sidi Barkat, Medjeniche, and Gueddacha ; 
on the perimeter, a little apart, are Beni Mora, al 
Kora, Filiach and Aliya. Biskra, which is the chief 
centre of the Ziban group of oases, is a township of 
52,500 inhabitants in all, among which are a few 
hundred Europeans. It is served by the railway 
which runs between Touggourt and Constantine, 
and by the pipeline, which, since 1958, has carried 
the petrol of Hassi-Messoud to the port of Philippe- 
ville, and will soon extend to Bougie. 

Biskra is built on the site of the old city of Vesccra, 
one of the Roman limes posts which doubtless was 
not occupied by the Byzantines. Its name dates 
back to the 3rd/nth century when it was conquered 
by the Aghlabids of al-Kayrawan with the whole 
of the province of Zab (pi. Ziban) whose capital at 
that time was Tubna, i n eastern Hodna. Under the 
Hammadids, Biskra was autonomous, with a council 
of shaykhs on which two families fought for pre- 
eminence: the Banu Rumman and the Banu Sindi. Al- 
Bakri (Slane's translation 2nd ed., 111-12) speaks of its 
beauty and prosperity at that time and also describes 
its ramparts, the richness of its oasis and the Berber 
shepherds, Maghrawa and Sadrata, who led a 
nomadic existence round about. In the 6th/i2th 
century Biskra succeeded Tubna, in the Almohad 
era, and finally supplanted Tahuda, known in anti- 
quity as Tabudeos; according to al-ldrlsl, it was 
always well fortified. The Zab had just been occupied 
by the Atbedj (Hilalian) Arabs coining from the 
east. A settled family of the Latlf tribe (from the 
Atbedj confederation), the Banu Muznl, sought to 
take over authority from the Banu Rumman who 
had old ties with the country. They succeeded in the 
7th/ 1 3th century with the support of the Hafsids of 
Tunis. Biskra became the principal town of the whole 
south-western region of the Hafsid states but was, in 
effect, the capital of a prosperous and virtually in- 
dependent principality, to which caravans came to 
barter the products of the Sahara for those of the Tell. 



BISKRA — BISTAM b. KAYS 



1247 



In the 8th/i4th century, the Banu Muzni com- 
mitted more than one act of disloyalty to the 
Hafsids for the benefit of the rulers of Bougie, 
f lemcen or Fez. Then, in 804/1402, the king Abu Faris 
re-established the authority of Tunis over Biskra; 
he led away the last of the Banu Muzni as his captive 
and replaced him, as elsewhere, by a Kd'id of his 
own entourage. 

With the decline of the Hafsids at the end of the 
9th/i5th century, Biskra and the Zab became the 
fief of the nomad Arabs, the Dawawida. The town 
was still "decently populated" but the people were 
poor, wrote Leo Africanus in the middle of the 
ioth/i6th century (trans. Spaniard, 440). This was 
the point at which the Turks, following the two 
expeditions of Hasan Agha in 949/1542 and Salah 
Rals in 959/1552 took over to establish a garrison 
and construct a fort. In practice, power was in the 
hands of the chiefs of the Bu 'Ukkaz family, who 
were given the title of Shaykh aW-Arab. In the 
eighteenth century, the Bey Salah of Constantine, 
finding them too powerful, set up a rival family, 
that of Ben Ganah. Biskra suffered from this rivalry 
and from the abuses of the Turks: its inhabitants 
gradually abandoned the town to put a greater 
distance between themselves and the ftasba and 
dispersed to small villages spanning the oasis. 

After the French landing at Algiers (1830), the 
rivalry continued. Farhat b. Sa'id, representative 
of the Bu 'Ukkaz family, finally appealed to c Abd 
al Kadir, but the Ben Ganah family joined up with 
France in 1838, following the capture of Constantine. 
Biskra was occupied by the Duke of Aumale in 1844, 
in the following year a permanent garrison was 
established and a fort built on the site of the old 
kasba. The Ben Ganah retained their position as 
the most influential family and held most of the key 
appointments in the region. They have recently 
become reconciled with the Bu 'Ukkaz family (1938) 
whose allies they now are. Biskra has become a 
prosperous centre, chief town of a district, then of 
an annexe of the military territory of Touggart, 
centre of a mixed commune and of a commune with 
full powers. It has just become the chief town of the 
sous-prefecture in the new Department of Batna 
(1956). It is the economic capital of the Ziban. 
(J. Despois) 

BISMILLAH [see basmala]. 

BISTAM (also Bast-am, rarer Bostam). A town 
of ca. 4,000 inhabitants (1950) in Khurasan, in the 
district (shahristdn) of Shahrud, and county (bakhsh) 
of Kal'a-i naw. It is located 6 km. N. of Shahrud at 
55 E. Long. (Greenw.) and 36 30' N Lat, on a spur 
of the Elburz mountains. 

The pre-Islamic history of the town is unknown. 
According to one tradition the town was founded by 
Bistam, governor of Khurasan during the rule of his 
nephew Khusraw II Parwiz, ca. 590 A.D. Yakut 
attributes the town to Shapur II (cf. Schwarz, 821). 
During the Arab conquest Suwayd b. Mukarrin 
occupied the town before his invasion of Diurdian. 
but the date is uncertain (Tabari, refs. in Schwarz). 

During the 'Abbasid caliphate Bistam was the 
second town of Kumis province after the capital 
Damghan. Little is known of the town except as the 
burial place of the Sufi Abu Yazid al-Bistami [q.v.]. 
After the Mongol invasion the town declined and 
later it was replaced by Shahrud in importance. On 
the sanctuary of Bayazid see Houtum-Schindler in 
JRAS, 1909, 161. 

At present in addition to the tomb and sanctuary 
of Bayazid, there are remains of a citadel from the 



6/ 1 2th century, and of an Imamzada Muhammad. 
The mosque probably dates from the 18th century 
but a minaret and adjacent tomb are much older. 
On these monuments see E. Herzfeld in Der Islam 
n (1921), 168-9. 

Bibliography: Le Strange, 365; Schwarz,. 
Iran im MitteUtlter, vi, Leipzig 1926, 820-2;. 
Farhang Djughrdfiyd-yi Iran, ed. Razmara, iii, 
Tehran 1951, 47. (R. N. Frye) 

BISTAM b . KAYS b. Mas'Od b. Kays, Abu 
'l-Sahba' or Abu ZIu (according to Ibn al-Kalbl, 
Diamhara 203, nicknamed "al-Mutakammir") — pre- 
Islamic hero, poet and sayyid of the Banu Shayban. 
His family was considered one of the three most noble 
and aristocratic Bedouin families {ai-Aghdni, xvii, 
105). His father is known [al-Muhabbar, 253) as one 
of the "dhawu '1-Akal" (enjoying grants of the 
foreign rulers) and was granted by the Sasanid kings- 
as a fee Ubulla and the adjacent border territories- 
(Taff Safawan) against the obligation to prevent 
marauding raids of his tribesmen. Failing to fulfil his. 
obligation in face of the opposition in his own tribe, 
and being suspected of plotting with Arab chiefs, 
against Persian rule, he was imprisoned and died in 
a Persian gaol {ai-Aghdni. xx, 140). 

It is a significant fact, that Bistam did not avenge- 
the death of his father. On the contrary, Persian 
diplomacy succeeded, despite the Arab victory at 
Dh u Kar, in assuring the collaboration of Bistam, 
and a fairly trustworthy tradition (al-Nakd'id, 580)- 
shows that the Shayban! troops were equipped by 
the Persian 'dmil at c Ayn Tamr. Born in the last 
quarter of the 6th century A.D. (T. Noldeke, in 
Der Islam, xiv, 125) Bistam became a leader of his- 
tribe at the age of twenty (Ibn al-Kalbi, op. cit.) and 
succeeded in uniting his tribe: he is known as one- 
of the "djarrarun" (al-Muhabbar, 250). Abandoning 
the idea of fighting the Persians he directed all his- 
activities against his neighbours of the Banu Tamlm. 
His first raid against the Banu Yarbu', a branch of 
the Banu Tamim, was — according to al-Baladhuri — 
at al-A'shash {Ansdb, x, 998 b). The Shayban! 
troops were defeated, Bistam himself captured 
and released without ransom. Hi? second raid was- 
probably at Kushawa {Ansdb, x, 1003b). Here 
it is clearly mentioned that Bistam commanded 
the attacking troops, but the raid itself was in- 
significant and ended with seizing of camels of a 
clan of the Banu Salit. To the same early period- 
belongs apparently the encounter with al-Akra c b. 
Habis at Salman, in which al-Akra c fa .«.] was cap- 
tured. A more serious enterprise was the raid of 
Ghabit a)-Madara (known as the Yawm Batn 
Faldj). A tribal federation of the Tha'alib was 
attacked and overcome by the troops of Bistam, 
but when the attackers proceeded against the Banu 
Malik b. Hanzala they met resistance and were 
put to flight with the aid of warriors of Banu 
Yarbu'. Bistam, captured by 'Utayba b. al-Harith, 
had to pay a very high ransom and was com- 
pelled to promise not to attack the clan of 
'Utayba any more {Ansdb, 998a, 988a, 995b, 996a). 
Breaking his promise he attacked after a short time a 
the camp of 'Utayba's son at Dhu Kar (Ansab 995b, 
998a) and succeeded in seizing the camels (the raid 
is also known as Yawm Fayhan). Not content with 
this victory, he prepared an attack on the Banu 
Tamim in order to capture c Utayba; but he was 
defeated in this battle at al-Samd (or Dhu Tuluh) 
and barely escaped with his life {Ansdb, 998a). 
A further battle at al-Ufaka (known as the battle 
of al-Ghabitayn or al- c Uzala), prepared and aided 



I2 4 8 



BISTAM b. KAYS — BITIK BITIKCl 



by the Persian l dmil at c Ayn Tamr, ended with the 
defeat of the attackers and with the escape of 
Bistam (Ansab, 1004 b). Bistam fought his last 
battle at Naka al-Hasan. He was killed by a half- 
witted Dabbi, 'Asim b. Khalifa, who is said to 
have boasted of his deed at the court of c Uthman. 
The date of his death may be fixed at circa 615 A.D. 
Very little is known about the posterity of Bistam. 
His grand-daughter Hadra', the daughter of his son 
Zik was about to marry al-Farazdak, but died 
before the appointed date. 

Bistam is said to have been a Christian. He 
was the sayyid of his tribe; when the news of 
his death reached his tribe they pulled down their 
tents as an expression of their sorrow. Many elegies 
were composed on his death, and his person was 
glorified as the ideal of Bedouin courage and bravery. 
But in the times of al-Djahiz, in the urban mixed 
society of the towns of 'Iralf, his glory faded away, 
and the common people preferred to listen to the 
story of c Antara (al-Baydn, i, 34) which came 
closer to their social equalitarian tendencies (cf. 
EI, s.v. "-Antara, R. Blachere). 

Bibliography: Sources quoted in E. Braun- 
lich, Bistam b. Kays, Leipzig 1923 and by Th. N61- 
deke, in his review of Braunlich's book in Isl. 
xiv, 123; Ibn al-Kalbi: Qiamharat al-Nasab, MS 
Brit. Mus. No. Add. 23297 (reported by M. b. 
Hablb), 203; al-Baladhurl, Ansab, MS., x, 988a, 
995b, 998a, 1003b, 1004b; al-Djahiz, al-Baydn 
(ed. Sandubi) index; M. b. Rabib, al-Muhabbar 
(ed. Lichtenstadter) index; al-Suwaydl, Sabd'Hf, 
Baghdad 1280, 103, 112, 113; al-Amidi, al- 
MuHalif, 64, 141; al-Marzubani; Mu'diam al- 
ShuWd' (ed. Krenkow) 300, 324, 405 ; Ibn Hazm, 
Diamhara (ed. Levi-Provencal), 306; Djawad 
<Ali Ta'rikh, Baghdad 1955, 362-3, 37o; R. 
Blachere, A propos de trois poites arabes d'ipoque 
archaique in Arabica, iv, 231-249; W. Caskel, 
Aijdm al- l Arab, in Islamica, iii, 1-000; Muhammad 
b. Ziyad al-A c rabi, Asmd' al-Khayl (ed. Levi 
della Vida), 60, 89; Abu'1-Baka 5 Hibat Allah, 
al-Mandkib (B.M. MS. 23296), 36a, 38b, 42a, 
44a, nib; al-Djahiz, al-Hayawdn (ed. C A. S. 
Harun), i, 330, ii, 104. (M. J. Kister) 

AL-BISTA.MI, <ABD al-RA^MAN b. Muham- 
mad b. c AlI b. Ahmad al-Hanafi al-HurufI was 
bom in Antioch and appears to have witnessed the 
sack of Aleppo, by Timur, in 803/1400. He studied in 
Cairo and went to Bursa, then the Ottoman capital 
and imperial residence. There he gained the favour 
of Sultan Murad II, a patron of learning, to whom 
several of his works are dedicated ; there he died in 
S58/I454- 

He was a mystic, belonging, as his name indicates, 
to the Hurufi [q.v.] order of dervishes, who attributed 
a mystical signifcance to the letters of the alphabet 
and to combinations of these (cf. his Kashf Asrdr 
al-Huruf and his Shams al-Afdk fi Him al-ffuruf, 
written in 826/1423). Among works of this type is 
also his Miftdh al-Qiafr al-Didmi c . He wrote a 
number of Sufi works, perhaps the best-known 
being Mandhidj al-Tawassul fi Mabdhidi al-Tarassul, 
and also wrote on history and geography, the most 
important work being the encyclopaedia entitled 
al-FawdHh al-Miskiyya fi 'l-Fawdtih al-Makkiyya. 
Bibliography: Brockelmann, II, 300; HadjdjI 
Khalifa (ed. Fliigel), iv, 468; JRAS 1899, 907. 

(M. Smith) 
Al-BISTAmI, ABC YAZlD [see abu yazid]. 
Al-BISTAmI, <ALA al-DIN [see musannifak]. 
BlSTl [see sikka]. 



BlSUTCN, (Bihistun of the Arabic geographers, 
BIstun in present local parlance), a mountain ca. 
30 km. E. of Kirmanshah on the main road from 
Baghdad to Hamadan. 

The name is found in Greek sources (Diodorus 
2.13 and Isidore of Charax) to Payiaxavov Spo?, 
and in early Islamic authors (as al-Khwarizmi and 
Hamza al-Isfahani) where we find the archaic form 
Baghistan, Old Persian* bdgastdna "place of the 
gods", (or one divinity in particular). Later Islamic 
authors have the form Bihistun (Bahistfln) which 
in modern times became BIsutun (Bistun). The 
site is mentioned many times in Arabic literature 
since it lay on the main road from 'Irak to 
Khurasan. 

High above the road is the famous bas-relief of 
Darius the Great with cuneiform inscriptions in 
three languages, Old Persian, Accadian, and Elamite. 
Beside the road below was the relief of the Parthian 
king Gotarzes, unfortunately now almost obliterated 
by a modern New Persian inscription. 

Bisutun was regarded as a world wonder by the 
Muslims. In the books of those authors who follow 
Abu Zayd al-Balkhi appears a short description of 
the sculptures which is fanciful since the BIsutun 
sculptures are confused with those of nearby Tak-i 
Bustan (considered Khusraw II Parwiz with his 
horse, a work of Kattus b. Sinimmar). Ibn Hawkal 
gives the curious explanation of the Darius relief 
with his captives as a teacher and pupils. Most 
Islamic authors thought the sculptures depicted 
Shirin and Khusraw II. 

The trilingual inscription of Darius provided the 

key to the decipherment of all cuneiform inscriptions. 

Bibliography: Le Strange, 187: al-Khwarizmi 

(ed. Vloten), 11 1; the Arab geographers are 

summarised in Schwarz, Iran im Mittelalter, iv, 

Leipzig 1921, 487 f. For the O.P. inscriptions, cf. 

R. G. Kent, Old Persian, New Haven, Conn. 1953, 

108. For photographs see F. Sarre & E. Herzfeld, 

Iranische Felsreliefs, 189-198, plates 33-5. 

(E. Herzfeld-[R. N. Frye]) 

BITIK, BITIKCl, Turkish words derived from 
the verb biti- "to write". A deverbal-noun bitig 
"written document book" is found in the Orkhon 
inscriptions and in the Turkish texts of Turfan. 
Bitikii, is a nomen agentis in -ii signifying "scribe, 
secretary". It is first found in Qutadyu bilig under 
the form bitigli. The forms with a final surd 
(bitik, bitik(i) are well attested in middle Turkish 
notably in Cagatay and Coman. The verb biU- 
and its derivatives have almost disappeared from 
modern dialects. Khakas has preserved piiik, book, 
writing, document" as well as piiikii "cultured, 
literate" and in Tuvin we have for example bilik 
"official document". 

The etymology of biti is unknown. The much 
quoted derivation from the Chinese sft pi (> *p}et) 
« writing brush* must be treated with caution. 
Comparison with Indo-European forms, such as 
Khotanese pi&ika "written, document", Sanskrit 
pitaka "collection of canonical books", 'or Greek 
7utt<xxiov "letter", is tempting but unsubstantiated 
by the phonetic history of these words. 

In written Mongol the verb "to write" is bid-, 
a form which corresponds with the Turkish biti-. 
The deverbal noun bilig "written document, writing, 
letter, missive" occurs from the time of the Secret 
History of the Mongols and a nomen agentis biUgeci 
"scribe, secretary, copyist" is found in the Mongol 
administrative documents of the Il-khans. Mean- 



BITIK BITIKCl — BITRlK 



while in Mongol-administered Persia the Turkish 
form bitikli seems to have been preferred to the 
Mongol form. One may see in this an indication of 
Uighur preponderance in the administration of the 
Mongol Empire. The two words of literary Mongol 
are clearly observable in modern dialects. For 
example: modern Khalkha bilig and bileli, Buryat 
bisag and bfltie, Kalmuk, bilig and HUH, Ordos 
bilik and bileli. 

The most ancient Tunguz form is Ju-chen *bitge(i) 
"book". Mandju bithe "written document, as the 
book, document, letter" must be a loan-word as the 
derivation cannot be explained by the facts of 
Mandju. On the other hand bithesi "scribe, secretary" 
is a regular Mandju nomen agentis. In Evenki bill 
"to write" and biliga "written document" are 
borrowed from the Mongol, while the Oroch bitihO, 
Oltcha bitho "written document, letter", is directly 
connected with Mandju forms. 

It is reasonable to conclude that the Turkish words 
implanted in Mongol by Uighur scribes, followed 
the Mongol conquests, which enabled them to 
become technical administrative terms. — These 
found ready use in the highly developed states of 
the Ju-chen and the Mandjus. See further berat. 
(D. Sinor) 

BITLlS [see bidlIs]. 

BITOLJA [see manastir]. 

BITRAWSH. in Spanish Pedroche, a little 
place in the administrative district of Pozoblanco, 
60 kms. north of Cordoba, on the Cordoba-Toledo 
road, and the same distance from Dar al-Bakar 
now El Vacar). According to Idrisi, it was a heavily 
populated fortified town with high walls; situated 
in the region of Fajis al-Ballut of which Ghafik 
{now Belalcazar) was the capital, it was the seat of 
a provincial judge. Its inhabitants like those of 
Ghafik had won renown for their bravery in repulsing 
the attacks of the Christians. Its mountains and 
plains were, and to a great extent still are, covered 
■with a variety of oak trees distinguished by the 
quality of their acorns, which the inhabitants 
cultivated with great care, and which in years of 
famine served them as food, for as al-Razi affirms, 
they were the best in all Spain. Abu Hafs c Umar 
al-Balluti, who came originally from Pedroches, 
occupied Crete with the survivors of the 'Battle 
of the Suburb' [al-rabad) and there founded a 
■dynasty which lasted until 350/961. The Berbers 
settled in the district of Los Pedroches took part, 
under an Andalusian mystic called Abu C A1I al- 
Sarradj, in a rising against the amir c Abd Allah 
which ended in the rout and death of their chief in 
front of the walls of Zamora (288/901). Of its 
history during the Almoravid and Almohad periods, 
we only know that at the beginning of the year 
550/1155, the governor of Cordova, Abu Zayd 
<Abd al-Rahman b. Igit, made a sortie with Al- 
mohad troops against the forth of Pedroche and 
those of the Fahs al-Baliut region of which Al- 
fonso VII had just taken possession in the course 
of a rapid invasion which had also anabled him 
to take Andujar. Ibn Igit routed the Count, the 
lord of Pedroche, whom Alfonso VII had left there 
as governor, and, in the course of his assault on 
the fort, took him prisonner and sent him to 
Marrakush. 

Bibliography: Idrisi, 175. 213 (text), 211, 263 

(transl.); Ibn c Abd al-Mun c im, al-Ratt>4 al-mi^dr, 

45 (text), 57 (transl.); Razi, 51; Ibn Khaldun, 

l Ibar, iv, 211; E. Levi-Provencal, Hist. Mus. Esp., 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



1249 

i. 385; al-Baydn al-Mughrib, 3rd. part, MS. 

Tamgrut; Anales toledanos primeros, A. Huici, 

348. (A. Huici Miranda) 

BITRI&. Arabicised form of Latin Patricius. 

The patriciatus dignitas was instituted by the 

Emperor Constantine (A.D. 306-337), an honorary 

dignity, not connected with any office, and conferred 

for exceptional services to the State. 

I. — It is certain that no Arabs in the service of 
Rome were endowed with the patriciate before the 
Ghassanids [q.v.] and no Ghassanid before al-Harith 
b. Djabala, who was honoured with the dignity ca. 
540 A.D., as was also his son and successor al- 
Mundhir ca. 570 A.D. The assumption of this high 
Roman honour by the two Ghassanid dynasts is 
the most telling indication of their place and 
importance in the Roman hierarchy. Al-Harith and 
al-Mundhir are the only figures in the history of the 
Arabs before Islam whose patriciate can be esta- 
blished with certainty; there is no positive evidence 
in the sources that the Romans conferred it again 
on a Ghassanid after al-Mundhir. 

II. — As the Muslim conquests in the seventh 
century changed the status and role of the Arabs in 
their relation to the Romans from subjects and 
"allies" to conquerors, the patriciate, which in the 
pre-Islamic period had been greatly coveted by 
Arab princes as a symbol of their Roman connexions, 
naturally ceased to be assumed by them. Instead, 
it survived as a term in their literature. Almost 
a hapax legomenon in pre-Islamic poetry, bitrifr 
acquired three broken plurals and found its way 
into the literature of the Muslim period. It was 
woven into the texture of Arabic poetry by al- 
Mutanabbl and Abu Firas and was frequently 
mentioned by the historians and the geographers. 
Indeed, in the military annals of Arab-Byzantine 
relations it became the regular term for a Byzantine 
commander. Although other terms occur, like 
(j^jXO^ CTTpaTT)y6(;, v_&XwO domesticus, and 
(j~J^O dux, paradoxically enough it was bifrik, 
a non-military term, which received the widest 

III.— The frequent occurence of bifrik in Arabic 
authors was, however, attended by confusions and 
inaccuracies. The patriciate was conceived as though 
it were (a) an office (b) hereditary (c) applicable to 
the Persians, and (d) interchangeable with bafrak 
(patriarch). The truth, of course, is that the patri- 
ciate was a dignity, non-hereditary, peculiarly 
Byzantine, and non-ecclesiastical. But it is important 
to draw a distinction between the reckless use of the 
term in literary works of the type of al-Tanukhi's 
Faradj and the careful use of it in the serious works 
of the historians and the geographers. These have 
preserved information of some interest and relevance 
to the Byzantinist for the history of this dignity 
with particular reference to the term rp(0TO7ta- 

IV. — Bifrifr was recognised by the Arabic lexico- 
graphers as a foreign term and was considered by 
some as a homophone and homograph of a supposedly 
indigenous Arabic word, which, inter alia, means 
"a proud and self-conceited man". 

Bibliography: B. Kttbler, Patres, patricii, in 
Pauly-Wissowa, vol. 18, pt. 4, cols. 2231-32; 
Th. Noldeke, Die Ghassanischen Fiirsten aus dent 
Hause Gafna's, Abh. Pr. Ak. W., Berlin 1887, 
13-14; note 3 on 13 is inaccurate. For the occur- 
rence of bitrik in Arab authors, see A. A. Vasiliev, 

79 



BITRlK — BODRUM 



Byzance et les Arabes, Brussels 1935, 1950), vols, 
i, ii, passim, and M. Canard, Les aventures d'un 
prisonnier arabe et d'un patrice byzantin a Vipoque 
des guerres bulgaro-byzantines, Dumbarton Oaks 
Papers, (Harvard University Press, 1956) vols, 
ix-x, particularly, 62, n. 13; 66; 68, n. 28. Lane, 
Arabic-English Lexicon, Ne 



217-8. 



(Irfa 



m) 



L-BITRUDjl, NOr al-din Abu Ishak, called 
Alpetragius by mediaeval European authors, a 
Spanish-Arab astronomer, the disciple and friend 
of Ibn Tufayl (about 600/1200). His astronomical 
theory, the origins of which must be sought in the 
return to Aristotelianism initiated by Ibn Badjdja 
and other Arab philosophers of Spain like Ibn 
Tufayl and the astronomer Djabir b. Aflah, involved 
the reintroduction of the idea of impetus roughly 
formulated by Simplicius (6th century A.D.), the 
abandonment of epicycles and excentrics, and the 
view that the celestial spheres revolve around 
different axes, thus producing a spiral movement 
(haraka lawlabiyya). The work in which he sets 
forth his principles, entitled Kitdb fi 'l-Hay'a, was 
translated by Michael Scot; Carmody published in 
1952, at Berkeley, a critical edition of this translation 
compared with the Arabic text. In 657/1259, Moshe 
ibn Tibbon translated the work from Arabic into 
Hebrew, and in 934/1528, Kalonimos ben David 
made a Latin translation, based on the Hebrew 
version, which was printed at Venice in 1531, 
at the same time as the Treatise on the sphere of 
Sacrobosco. 

Bibliography: see the works quoted by F. J. 
Carmody, al-Bitruji, De Motibus Coelorum, Ber- 
keley 1952; Sarton, Introduction to the History 
of Science, ii, 399 and index. (J. Vernet) 

BIYABANAK, an area in the central desert 
of Iran (Dasht-i Kawlr), with some twelve oases. 
The area is included within E. Long. (Greenw.) 
54 15' and 55 15' and N. Lat. 33 5' and 34 10', 
roughly 70 miles by 90 miles. The date palm and 
underground springs of water, some hot but all 
salty, have enabled the oases to flourish isolated 
from the rest of Iran. The word is probably a dimi- 
nutive meaning "little desert", but the name does 
not appear before the 16th century (Tavernier). 

We find no references to the area in pre-Islamic 
times, though local tradition claims that it was a 
place of banishment under the Sasanids, and the 
existence of site names such as Atashkada (6 km. 
south of the oasis of Mihrdjan), attest pre-Islamic 
occupation. 

A history of Yazd (see below) claims that the 
Arabs in pursuit of Yazdadjird passed through the 
central desert area and obtained the submission of 
the local inhabitants. This, however, may apply only 
to Tabbas since local tradition (oasis of Farrukhi) 
claims that the Biyabanak was only converted to 
Islam in the 3/9th century in the time of the Imam 
c Ali al-Rida, and conversion was accomplished only by 
warfare. Ibn Hawkal says there are three villages at 
five stages from Naln on the desert road to Khurasan, 
Biyadak, Djarmak, and Arabah, each within eyesight 
of the other. The palm trees are especially note- 
worthy here. Nasir-i Khusraw mentions the village 
of Karmah, 43 farsakhs from Naln, and says that 
the area was infested formerly with Kufidjan 
(Kufs), but in his time (5th/nth century). Amir 
Gilaki of Tabbas had rid the region of them. Later 
the area suffered from Baluci raids until the 1920s. 
Apparently Arab tribesmen from Khuzistan raided 



this area as well, for European travellers in the last 
century report Arabs living here and local tradition 
tells of a tribe called the Il-i Basirl which terrorised 
the area under the Kadjars. 

At present there are perhaps 10,000 people 
living in the oases, the nine principal oases being 
Djandak, Farrukhi, Djarmak, Urdlb, Iradj, Mihrdjan, 
Bayazah, Cupanan, and the administrative centre 
Khur. Dialects are spoken in all of the oases save 
Djandak where Persian is spoken. The date palm 
provides the principal livelihood for the people of 
the oases. 

Bibliography: J. B. Tavernier, Voyages, 
Paris 1724, ii, 449; C. M. MacGregor, Narrative 
of a Journey through Khorassan, London 1879, 
i, 91 ; W. Tomaschek, Zur historischen Topographic 
von Persien II, SBAk. Wien, 108 (1885), 616-622; 
c Abd al-Husayn Ayati, Ataskkada-i Yazd, Yazd 
1939, 67; A. Gabriel, Die Erforschung Persiens, 
Vienna 1952, s.v. Bijabanak; Ibn Hawkal ii, 405; 
Frye, Biyabanak, the Oases of Central Iran, in 
Central Asian Journal, iv (1960); Hablb Yaghma'i, 
Shark Hdl-i Yaghmd, Tehran 1925, 8-12; Razmara, 
Farhang-i Djughrdfiyd-yi Iran, Tehran 1954, x, 
under the various oases. (R. N. Frye) 

BlZABAN [see dilsizI. 
BIZERTA [see banzart]. 
BLIDA [see bulayda]. 
BOABDIL [see nasrids]. 
BOBASTRO [see barbashturu]. 
BODRUM, a small town situated on the west 
coast of Asia Minor, opposite the island of Istankoy 
(Kos). It stands near the site of the ancient Halicar- 
nassus in Caria. When the Turks overran western 
Asia Minor in the years around 1300, this region 
came under the rule of the Begs of Menteshe [q.v.]. 
The Ottomans seized the emirate of Menteshe in 
792/1390, lost it after their defeat in battle against 
Timur Lang at Ankara in 804/1402 and did not 
recover full and direct possession of Menteshe until 
829/1425-1426. This second and definitive annexation 
of the emirate was not, however, destined to include 
the old Halicarnassus, for the Knights of St John at 
Rhodes, under their Grand Master Philibert de 
Naillac (1396-1421), had meanwhile occupied the 
site of the ancient town, and had built close at 
hand a fortress which received the name of "Castel- 
lum Sancti Petri" (Gr. IIeTp6viov). It has been 
suggested that the name Bodrum derives either 
from the vault-like arcades amongst the ruins of 
Halicarnassus (cf. the Turkish bodrum: a sub- 
terranean vault, a cellar) or from the Latin name 
for the new fortress ("Sanctum Petrum"). 

The Venetian admiral Pietro Mocenigo, during the 
course of his sea campaigns in the eastern Mediter- 
ranean (1471-1474). ravaged the Ottoman-held 
hinterland of Bodrum. In 885/1480, the Ottomans, 
returning to Istanbul from their unsuccessful siege 
of Rhodes in that year, attempted, but without 
avail, to take the Castle of St Peter. Bodrum came 
under Ottoman rule only in 929/1522, when the 
Knights of St John, after a long and desperate 
resistance, surrendered Rhodes, together with its 
dependent possessions, to Sultan Sulayman Kanuni. 
Ewliya Celebl mentions that a naval engagement 
occurred in the harbour of Bodrum during the Otto- 
man-Venetian war of 1055-1080/1645-1669. Bodrum 
suffered bombardment from the Russian squadron 
operating in the eastern Mediterranean in the 
course of the Ottoman-Russian war of 1182-1188/ 
1768-1774. It was again bombarded during the 



BODRUM — BOGHAZ-ICI 



Great War of 1914-1918, the fortress on this latter 
occasion receiving considerable damage, which was, 
however, repaired when Italian forces occupied the 
town in 1919-1920. Bodrum, under Ottoman rule, 
belonged to the sandiak of Menteshe in the eydlet of 
Anadolu. It had later the status of a hada?, when 
this sandiak was subordinated, in 1864, to the 
newly formed wildyet of Aydln (Smyrna). The town 
is now included in the present Turkish province of 
Mugla and had in 1950 a population of about 4,800 
inhabitants. 

Bibliography: PIri Rels, Kitdb-i Bahriye 
[Turk Tarihi Arastirma Kurumu Yaytnlartndan 
no. 2), Istanbul 1935, 220, 223, 225, 227, 229; 
PecevI, Ta'rikh, Istanbul A.H. 1283, i, 76; Ewliya 
Celebi, Seydhat-ndme, ix, Istanbul 1935, 211 ff.; 
Dukas, Bonn 1834, 115 ff.; C. Cippico, De Petri 
Mocenici imperatoris gestis Libri Tres, Basileae 
1544, 17 ff.; V. Coronelli and A. Parisotti, VIsola 
di Rodi, Venice 1688, 370 ff. ; Hammer-Purgstall, 
vii, 438 ; C. T. Newton, A History of Discoveries at 
Halicarnassus, Cnidus and Branchidae, London 
1862-1863, i. 72 ft-, passim and ii, 645-666 
(= Appendix I: R. P. Pullan, Description of the 
Castle of St Peter at Budrum); W. Tomaschek, 
Zur historischen Topographie von Kleinasien im 
Mittelalter (SBAk. Wien, Phil.-Hist. CI., Bd. 
cxxiv), Vienna 1891, 39; J. Delaville Le Roulx, 
Les Hospitaliers a Rhodes .... (1310-1421), Paris 
1913, 288 ff.; G. Gerola, II Castello di S. Pietro in 
Anatolia ed i suoi stemmi dei Cavalieri di Rodi, in 
Rivista del Collegio Araldico, Anno xiii, Rome 
1915, i-n, 67-78, 216-227; A. Maiuri, I Castelli dei 
Cavalieri di Rodi a Cos e a Budrum (Alicarnasso) , 
in Annuario delta R. Scuola Archeologica di Atene, 
iv-v (1921-1922), Bergamo 1924, 290-343; F. 
Taeschner, Das anatolische Wegenetz nach osma- 
nischen Quellen (Turkische Bibliothek, Bd. 23), 
Leipzig 1926, ii, 40 and 61 ; II Castello dei Cavalieri 
di Rodi a Budrum, in Clara Rhodos (Istituto 
Storico-Archeologico di Rodi), i, Bergamo 1928, 
178- 181; P. Wittek, Das Furstentum Mentesche 
(Istanbuler Mitteilungen, Heft 2), Istanbul 1934, 
98, 108, 167, 170, 172; Hafiz Kadri, in TOEM, 
no. 26 (A.H. 1330), 127-128; A. Galanti Bodrumlu, 
Bodrum Tarihi, Istanbul 1945; idem, Bodrum 
Tarihine Ek, Ankara 1946; SamI, Kdmus al-AHdm, 
ii, Istanbul A.H. 1306, 1369-1370; 'AH Diawad. 
Ta'rikh ve Djoghrdfiya Lughatl, Istanbul A.H. 
1313-1314, 204 ft.; V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, 
iii, Paris 1894, 662-665; Pauly-Wissowa, Vll/ii 
(1912), s.v. Halikarnassos, cols. 2253-2264. 

(V. J. Parry) 

BOfiHA al-KABIR [see bugha al-kabTr]. 

BOfiHA al SHARABl [see bughA al-sharab!]. 

BO&HAZ [see BOGgAz-ifi]. 

BOfiHAZ-iCi (Bogazici) ("interior of the 

strait") is the expression used in Turkish to denote 

the Bosphorus, and especially the shores, waters, 

bays and promontories which constitute its middle 

section. The name Bosphorus (Gr. B6o-7topo<;, Lat. 

Bosporus, Bosphorus) derives from a word of 

Thracian origin (cf. Pauly-Wissowa). This narrow 

channel, the Thracian Bosphorus (so-called in order 

to distinguish it from the Cimmerian Bosphorus, 

i.e., the strait of Kertch between the Sea of Azov 

and the Black Sea) unites the Sea of Marmara (the 

ancient Propontis, Marmara Denizi in Turkish) and 

the Black Sea (the Pontus Euxinus of classical times, 

the Kara Deniz of th? Turks). The Byzantines often 

referred to it simply as to 2>rev6v, "the strait", 

while, to the Latins at the time of the Crusades, it 



was known as the "brachium S. Georgii" (cf. 
Tomaschek). It is mentioned under a number of 
different names in the Turkish sources, e.g., Khalldj-i 
bahr-i siyah, Khalldj-i Kustantlniyye, Kustantiniyye 
boghazl, Istanbul boghazl, etc. The word boghta 
means "throat" or "gullet" in Turkish, but has in 
geographical names the sense of "defile", "strait" 
(cf., e.g., Kiilek Boghazl, the Cilician Gates, or 
Canak-kal'e Boghazl, the Dardanelles). 

The Bosphorus has a mean length of about 30 km. 
and a width which varies from approximately 700 
to about 3550 metres. A strong current (3-5 km. per 
hour) flows down the centre of the channel from the 
Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, but a counter- 
current runs in the opposite direction below the 
surface and along the shores. The more notable 
localities which border the strait can be enumerated 
as follows (the names are given in the modern 
Turkish form) : on the European side, in order from 
south to north, are to be found Tophane (the Byzan- 
tine Argyropolis), Besiktas (Byz. Diplokionion), 
Ortakoy (Byz. Hagios Phokas), Amavut-Koyu (Byz. 
Anaplous), Bebek (Byz. Challai), Rumeli-Hisan 
(Byz. Phoneus), Istinye (Byz. Sosthenion), Yeni- 
Koy (Byz. Neapolis), Tarabya (Byz. Therapeia), 
Buyiik-Dere (Byz. Kalos Agros) and Rumeli- 
Kavagi ; on the Asiatic shore, in sequence from north 
to south, are located Anadolu-Kavagi (Byz. Hieron), 
Beykoz, Pasa-Bahcesi, Cubuklu (Byz. Irenaeon), 
Kanhca, Anadolu-Hisan, Kandilli (Byz. Brochthoi), 
Cengel-Koyu, Beylerbeyi, Kuzguncuk (Byz. Chry- 
sokeramos) and Uskudar (Scutari: Byz. Skoutarion, 
an imperial palace in Chrysopolis). The Bosphorus 
proper ended, according to the view held in ancient 
times, at the present Rumeli- Kavagi and Anadolu- 
Kavagi, the waters beyond this line, towards the 
north, being considered as a part of the Black Sea. 

The Byzantines fortified the northern end of the 
Bosphorus in the region of Rumeli- Kavagi and 
Anadolu-Kavagi, where the strait narrows to a 
width of about 1000 metres. Traces of a Byzantine 
fortress can still be discerned to the north of Rumeli- 
Kavagi. There is in fact a tradition that the Ottoman 
Sultan Mehemmed II demolished this ancient fort 
("Eski KalV), the material thus acquired being 
used in the construction of Rumeli-Hisan in 856/ 
1452 (cf- Gabriel, 77 and 81). A Byzantine fortress 
also existed at Anadolu-Kavagi. It was known to the 
Ottomans as Yoros (Yeros) Kal'esi (cf. Byz. Hieron) 
or Djeneviz Kal'esi. This latter name arose from the 
fact that the Genoese, in 1350, had taken over from 
the Byzantines control of the defences in the 
northern zone of the Bosphorus. 

It was only with the rise and growth of the 
Ottoman empire in the I4th-i5th centuries that the 
lands bordering on the Bosphorus came under 
Muslim rule. The Ottoman Sultan Bayazld I (791- 
805/1389-1403) built on the Asiatic shore of the 
strait a strong fortress called Anadolu-Hisarl (also 
known as Giizeldje Hisar), to which Sultan Mehem- 
med II made various additions and improvements 
in 856/1452- On the European shore, opposite 
Anadolu- Hisart and at the site which the Byzantines 
called Phoneus (4>ovcu£, also 4>ov£ot<; and 4>cov£a<;), 
Mehemmed II constructed, in this same year, the 
fortress of Rumeli-Hisarl (of ten called Boghaz-Kesen, 
i.e., "which cuts the throat" or "which cuts the 
strait"). The Sultan furnished both these fortresses 
with artillery capable of firing across the Bosphorus, 
here compressed to its narrowest width (about 700 
metres). After the fall of Constantinople in 857/1453 



BOGHAZ-ICI — BOGHDAN 



the Black Sea became in effect an Ottoman lake. 
Mehemmed II brought to an end the former Genoese 
imperium over the Black Sea in 865/1461 and 880/ 
1475. Moreover, in this latter year, the Khan of the 
Krim Tatars was reduced to the status of an Ottoman 
vassal. Rumeli-Hisan and Anadolu-Hisari, together 
with what remained of the old Byzantine defences 
at the northern end of the Bosphorus, now lost their 
earlier importance. 

After a long interval of calm, danger threatened 
from the north, when Cossack sea-raiders plundered 
Sinope on the south shore of the Black Sea in 1023/ 
1614 and ten years later, in 1033/1624, carried fire 
and sword into the Bosphorus itself, ravaging San- 
Yer, Biiyiik-Dere, Tarabya and Yeni-K6y on the 
European shore of the strait. To ward off this menace, 
the Ottomans, in the reign of Sultan Murad IV 
(1032-1049/1623-1640), built two new fortresses, one 
in the region of Rumeli-Kavagi, the other near 
Anadolu-Kavagi. These forts (not to be confused 
with the former Byzantine defences in this section 
of the Bosphorus) are described in Ewliya Celebl 
(i, 461) as the kal<-e-i kilid al-bahr, "the forts 
which are the lock of the sea" (bahr-i siyah, the 
Kara Deniz or Black Sea). No trace of them now 
remains, both having been demolished in the course 
of the 19th century (Gabriel, 82). 

During their unsuccessful war against Russia in 
1182-1188/1768-1774 the Ottomans began to reor- 
ganise the defences of the Bosphorus. New fortifi- 
cations arose, in 1187/1773-1774, at Kilyos (Kal'e-i 
Baghdaddjlk) on the European, and at Irva (Kal'e-i 
Revandjlk) on the Asiatic shore of the Black Sea, 
just outside the strait itself, and also at Fener-i 
Rumeli and Fener-i Anadolu on the northern exit 
from the strait. Additional forts soon made their 
appearance at Garipce and Biiyiik-Liman on the 
European, and at Poyraz-Limani on the Asiatic side 
of the Bosphorus above Rumeli-Kavagi and 
Anadolu-Kavagi. This defence system received the 
name of "Kila'-i Seb'a" (the seven fortresses). A 
sustained effort was made during the reign of 
Sultan Selim III (1203-1222/1789-1807) to extend 
and perfect the new defences of the Bosphorus. At 
the same time the older fortifications situated 
within the Bosphorus proper, southward from 
Rumeli-Kavagi and Anadolu-Kavagi in the direc- 
tion of the Marmara Sea, underwent a process of 
repair and modernisation. These years witnessed, 
however, the emergence, in its modern form, of the 
Eastern Question. The control and defence of the 
Straits, i.e., of the Dardanelles as well as of the 
Bosphorus, was now to become a matter of prime 
concern, not to the Ottomans alone, but also to the 
Great Powers of Europe, who, during the igth-20th 
centuries, imposed on the Straits a much debated 
and often altered, system of international control. 
Bibliography: Ewliya Celebl, Seydhat-ndme, 
i, Istanbul A.H. 1314, 453 ff-; HadjdjI Khalifa, 
Oiihdnnumd, 664; P. Gyllius, De Bosporo Thracio 
Libri Tres, Lyon 1561; Baron de Tott, Mimoires 
sur les Turcs et les Tartares, Maestricht 1785, 
Pt. iii, 122 ff.; J. B. Lechevalier, Voyage de la 
Propontide et du Pont-Euxin, Paris 1800; Ch. 
Pertusier, Promenades PMoresques dans Constan- 
tinople et sur les rives du Bosphore, Paris 18 15 and 
1817; J. von Hammer-Purgstall, Constantinopolis 
und der Bosporos, Pesth 1822; Comte Andreossy, 
Constantinople et le Bosphore de Thrace, Paris 1828 ; 
J. Ebersholt, Constantinople Byzantine et les 
Voyageurs du Levant, Paris 1918; W. Tomaschek, 
Zur historischen Topographie von Kleinasien im 



Mittelalter {SBAk. Wien, Phil.-Hist. CI., Bd. 
cxxiv), Vienna 1891, 2-3; R. Janin, Constantinople 
Byzantine: Developpement Urbain et Repertoire 
Topographique (Institut Francais d' Etudes Byzan- 
tines: Archives de I'Orient Chretien, no. 4), Paris 
1950, 426-445; idem, d'liglise Byzantine sur les 
rives du Bosphore (C6te Asiatique), in Revve des 
£tudes Byzantines, xii, Paris 1954, 69-99; S. 
Toy, The Castles of the Bosporus, Oxford 1930; 
A. Gabriel, Chdteaux Turcs du Bosphore (Mimoires 
de Vlnstitut Francais d" Archiologie de Stamboul, 
no. 6), Paris 1943; E. Chaput, Voyages d'Hudes 
glologiques . ... en Turquie, Paris 1936, 151 ff., 
237 ff., 287 ft.; A. Merz, Hydrographische Unter- 
suchungen in Bosporus und Dardanellen( VerOffent- 
lichungen des Instituts fiir Meereskunde, Neue 
Folge, Reihe A, Heft 18), bearb. L. Moller, 
Berlin 1928; P. Ullyot and Orhan Ilgaz, The 
Hydrography of the Bosphorus: An Introduction, 
in The Geographical Review, xxxvi, no. I (1946), 
44 ff-; Pauly-Wissowa, iii/i (1897), s.v. Bosporos, 
cols. 741-757; I A, s.v. Bogazici (Besim Darkot 
and M. Tayyib Gokbilgin). Cf., on the inter- 
national status of the Bosphorus in the 18 th- 
20th centuries, A. Sorel, La Question d'Orient 
au XVIII' siicle, Paris 1889; S. Goriainov, 
Le Bosphore et les Dardanelles, Paris 1910; E. 
Driault, La Question d'Orient depuis ses origines 
jusqu'a la paix de Sevres, Paris 1921 and La 
Question d'Orient 1918-1937, Paris 1938; P. P. 
Graves, The Question of the Straits, London 1930; 
Cemal Tukin, Osmanli Imparatorluiu devinde 
Bo§azlar Meselesi, Istanbul 1947; Constantinople 
et les Dttroits, documents secrets . ., Moscow 1932 ; 
E. Briiel, International Straits: A Treatise on 
International Law, vol. ii, Pt. iv (The Turkish 
Straits), Copenhagen and London 1947; The 
Problem of the Turkish Straits, U. S. Govt. Printing 
Office, Washington 1947. (V. J. Parry) 

BOQHAZ KESEN [see rumeli hisar]. 
BOGHDAN, originally Boghdan-ili or Boghdan- 
wilayeti ('the land of Boghdan'), Turkish name of 
Moldavia, so called after Boghdan who in 760/1359 
founded a principality between the Eastern flanks 
of the Carpathians and the Dniester (Turla). The 
name Boghdan-ili appears in the hiikm of Mehemmed 
II dated 859/1455 (Kraelitz, Osm. Urk. Table I). 
The name Kara-Boghdan is found in the letter of 
Iminek dated 881/1476 (Belleten, no. 3-4, 644) and 
in the Ottoman chroniclers generally. 

The principality suffered its first raid {akin) by 
the Ottomans in 823/1420 (unsuccessful siege of Ak- 
Kirman). In 831/1428 the Khan of the Golden 
Horde, Ulugh Muhammad, proposed to Murad II 
that they should act in concert to destroy the 
Vlach infidels dwelling between them (cf. Kurat, 
Yarhk ve Bitikler,S). HadjdjI Gerey [q.v.] made an 
alliance against Boghdan-ili with Meljemmed II, and 
an Ottoman fleet attacked Ak-Kirman in 858/1454. 
As a result the voyvode Petru Aron accepted Ottoman 
suzerainty, agreeing to pay an annual tribute of 
2000 ducats (autumn 859/1455) (Fr. Babinger, 
Beitrdge zur Friihgesch. der Turk, in Rumelien, 21), 
and the sultan granted the merchants of Boghdan 
freedom to trade in the Ottoman dominions 
(Kraelitz, ibid.). 

Stephen the Great (1457-1504) renewed the 
vassalage to the king of Poland, repulsed an attack 
by the Crimeans in 873/1469, entered into diplomatic 
relations with Uzun Hasan [q.v.], and defeated the 
Ottoman beylerbeyi of Rumeli on 2 Ramadan 879/ 



BOGHDAN — BOGRA 



"S3 



10 Jan. 1475. Finally Mehemmed II invaded Boghdan 
and burned its capital Suceava (Rabi c I, 881/July 
1476). In 889/1484, as a result of the joint action 
of Bayazid II and his vassal the Crimean Khan' 
Ak-Kirman and Kili were occupied by the Ottomans, 
and Kawshan and Tombasar by the Khan. In 897/ 
1492 Stephen, by sending tribute and his son to the 
Porte, acknowledged Ottoman suzerainty. 

Under the Ottomans Ak-Kirman and Kili became 
more actively engaged in the commerce of the 
Levant (this can now be seen from the records of 
the Ottoman customs houses of this period at the 
Basvekalet Arsivi Istanbul, Maliye no. 6). With 
its exports of cereals, meat, butter and wax 
the trade of BoghdaD became, under a monopoly 
system, more and more dependent on the Istanbul 

Ottoman-Boghdan relations rested on the Islamic 
principle of the ddr al- c ahd [q.v.], as expressed in the 
l ahd-ndmes granted by the Ottoman sultans and the 
berdts issued to the voyvodes (cf. the berdt of 
Alexandra VI Iliash in Feridiin, Miinshe'dt, ii, 398). 
The bonds attaching the voyvode to the Porte were 
made still stronger when he received his appointment 
directly from the sultan, the first voyvode so appointed 
being Petru IV Raresh (933/1527)- The voyvode's 
whole authority emanated from the sultan. The 
sultan, in his berdt, enjoined upon all the boyars, 
priests and people that they should recognise the 
voyvode as their ruler (beg); if they failed to do so 
their land would be regarded as ddr al-harb. The 
voyvode's symbols of authority were the standard, the 
robe of honour (khil'at), and the red bork (felt cap). 
An dghd accompanied the voyvode to his capital, 
seated him on his throne, and had the proclamation 
read to the people. As late as the ioth/i7th century 
it was felt to be important that the voyvode 
should be a descendant of a former voyvode (cf. 
Feridfln, ii, 398, 446). Nevertheless the wishes of 
the local boyars were taken into consideration. The 
Ottomans, assisted by the Crimean Tatars, had no 
great difficulty in removing pretenders supported 
by Poland or the Cossacks and voyvodes who refused 
to recognise the sultan's order of deposition. After 
the treachery of Dimitri Kantemir in 1123/1711 the 
voyvodes were selected exclusively from a few 
families of Phanariot Greeks (the Mavrokordati, 
Kallimachi, Hypsilanti). In this Phanariot period 
(1123-1236/1711-1821) the voyvodes were reduced 
to being merely Ottoman officials. They were fre- 
quently changed, but after 1217/1802, as a result of 
Russian pressure, they were appointed for periods 
of seven years. 

The tribute which the Moldavians paid as ahl al- 
c ahd was regarded as kharddi mafrtu 1 , farmed by the 
voyvode, who, acting as '■dmil (tax-farmer), was 
expected to raise the maximum amount of tribute 
that the country could support. In 859/1455 the 
tribute was fixed at 2000 ducats; it was increased 
under Stephen the Great to 4000, under Petru IV 
Raresh to 10,000, and in 1028/1619 under Gashpar 
to 40,000 ducats. In the i2/i8th century it was 65,000 
ghurush [q.v.]. Boghdan also paid tribute (7000 ducats 
annually )to the Crimean Khan. The gifts (plshkesh) 
which the voyvode made to the Sultan, the wasfors and 
other influential people became an established usage, 
and nearly equalled in amount; the sum paid as 
kharddi. 

The c ahd-ndme granted to the voyvode also 
prescribed that he should be 'the friend of the 
sultan's friends and the enemy of his enemies', and 
should supply military aid when called upon, the 



voyvode serving in person when the sultan himself 
took the field (Na'Ima, vi, 322). But the berdts 
emphasised that Ottoman officials were not to 
interfere in any way in the internal affairs of the 
principality. The voyvode had a representative 
(kapu-ketkhuddsf or kahyd) in Istanbul to attend 
to matters arising between the voyvode and the 
Porte. 

The people of Boghdan were regarded as kharddi- 
giizdr raHyyet of the Sultan, who was obliged to 
defend them against their enemies and to depose 
voyvodes who oppressed them. The boyars never 
formed a hereditary nobility. In the gth/i5th 
century they were no more than a class of wealthy 
peasants. The Porte was able to strengthen its 
control of the country by playing off the boyars 
against the voyvode and vice versa. In the i2/i7th 
century the boyars became great landowners and 
the peasants were reduced to serfdom; but the 
Phanariot voyvodes tried to break the power of the 
boyars, and in n 53/1740 Constantine Mavrokordato 
abolished serfdom and freed the peasants from then- 
control. From then on the boyars looked for support 
more and more to the Christian powers, especially 
Russia. By the Regulamentul Organic which was 
drawn up in 1247/1831 during the Russian occupation, 
the council of boyars was given the right to elect the 

In the course of time the Ottoman state had 
absorbed various parts of the principality into the 
ddr al-Isldm. Suleyman I's campaign of 945/1538 
represents a turning point in many respects: the 
voyvode was brought into closer dependence on the 
Porte, and the district of Budjak [q.v.] was annexed 
to ensure the security of the port of Ak-Kirman. 
In 1030/1621 c Othman II rescued Khotin from the 
Poles to give to Boghdan, but annexed to the 
Ottoman dominions the area north of Ismail. In 
order to recover Budjak, Dimitri Kantemir in 1123/ 
1711 secretly recognised the protection of the Czar. 
After the treaty of the Pruth, the Porte placed 
Khotin and the surrounding district as far as the 
Pruth under an Ottoman Pasha. In 1189/1775 
Austria seized the north-western part of the country 
(Bukovina), and in 1227/1812 Russia annexed 
Bessarabia. After the Treaty of Kucuk Kaynardja 
(1188/1774) Russia posed as the protectress of 
Moldavia, and eventually after the Treaty of Ak- 
Kirman (5 Rabi c I 1242/7 Oct. 1826) Ottoman 
suzerainty over the principality became nominal and 
Russia was recognised as the Protecting Power. 
In 1 276/1859 the twin principalities of Wallachia and 
Moldavia (M amlakatayn) were united, though the 
Sultan did not recognise the union until two years 
later (28 Djumada I 1278/2 Dec. 1861). 

Bibliography: N. lorga, Hist, des Roumains, 
10 vol., Bucharest 1936-39; J. Nistor, Die aus- 
wartigen Handelsbeziehungen der Moldau im XIV 
und XVI Jahrh., Gotha 1912 ; G. Urechi, Chronique 
de Moldavie, Roumanian text with French trans- 
lation by E. Picot, Paris 1884-86; Feridun, 
Miinshe'dt, ii, 33-40, 43, 398, 446; Nouvelles itudes 
d'histoire, ed. l'academie de la R. P. R., Bucharest 
1955; Ewliya Celebi, Seydfiatndme, vol. v, 
Istanbul 1315 A.H., 106-218; IA, article Bogdan 
(by Aurel Decei). (Halil Inalcik) 

BOGRA, town and head-quarters of the district 
of the same name in East Pakistan, situated in 
24 51' N. and 89° 23' E. on the west bank of the 
Karatoya. Population, (1951) was 12,80,581 for the 
district and 25,303 for the town. The town is pre- 



"54 



BOGRA — BOHORAS 



dominantly Muslim; even before the partition of 
the sub-continent in 1947 it had the largest number 
of Muslims in the whole of Bengal. They are mostly 
converts from the Koi or Radjbansls of the northern 
areas although there are some Pathans and Sayyids 
also. The district and the town are both liable to 
cyclones and floods, sometimes of a terrible nature. 
In 1281/1864 many houses and trees were levelled 
to the ground by the cyclone which swept over the 
district. In 1 304/1886 the town was inundated 
when 18" o' rain fell within a short span of 
i'/t hours. Earthquakes of great intensity have 
also frequently occurred. The severe earthquakes 
of 1885, 1888 and 1897 did considerable damage 
to both life and property. Many of the brick 
buildings in the town were destroyed in the earth- 
quake of 1897. 

The district seems to have been converted en 
masse to Islam in the 7th/i3th century as most of 
the villages still bear Hindu names but have no 
Hindu inhabitants. In 1005/1596 when the district 
was re-conquered by Radja Man Singh, the Mughal 
viceroy, he built a mud fort at Shirpur and named 
it Sallmnagar after Djahangir. A fort was also built 
at Mahast'han, now desolate. Shirpur, to the south 
of Bogra, was founded by Shir Khan, the Afghan 
ruler of Bengal (c. 666-70/1268-72). These two 
places abound in archaeological remains while in the 
town itself the "Bogra Palace", the seat of the 
Cawdharl family, is the only place of some 
antiquity and interest. 

Bibliography: Statistical Account q) Bengal, 
Calcutta 1876, vol. viii; S. S. Day, Final Report 
on the Survey and Settlement of Jaypur Estates, 
Calcutta 1899; Imperial Gazetteer of India, Oxford 
1908, viii 256-263; History of Bengal (Muslim 
Period) ed. Jadunath Sarkar, vol. ii, Dacca 1948, 
202-3, 2", 235; J. N. Gupta, Bogra, Allahabad 
1910. (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

BOHORAS (Bohras, Buhrah), a Muslim com- 
munity in Western India (mainly of Hindu descent, 
with some admixture of Yemenite Arab blood), for 
the most part Shl'is of the Isma'Ili sect, and belonging 
to that branch of the Shi'a which upholds the claims 
of al-Musta c li (487-495/1094-1101) to succeed his 
father al-Mustansir in the Fatimid Caliphate of 
Egypt. (For the histor> of the Fatimids, see the 
articles Fatimids and Isma'IlIs). Musta'H opposed 
his brother Nizar, whose adherents (the so-called 
Assassins) are represented in India by the Khodias 
[q.v.]. The name bohord denotes a "trader, merchant" 
(from the Gudjaratl vohorvu, "to trade") and records 
the occupation of the earliest converts to Islam. 
This is clearly mentioned in an Arabic work, al- 
7'ardjama al-Zahira . . . (see below, and cf. Asaf 
A. A. Fyzee, Ismaili Law of Wills, Oxford 1953, 
3, footnote 2). The appellation however is not 
confined to Muslims, and in the Census Report 
of 1901, 6,652 Hindus and 25 Diavns returned 
themselves as Bohoras. The exact figures are a 
matter of some doubt, as Hindu Bohoras, Sunni 
Bohoras (of Gudjarat and particularly, of Rander) 
and Djayn Bohoras are occasionally confused with 
Isma'ili Bohoras. The number of Muslim Bohoras 
was given in 1901 as 146,255, of whom 118,307 
resided in the Bombay Presidency. Under the 
" ! following figures are given: 



92,081 108,150 



In the Census Reports of 1941 and 1951, the distri- 
bution of the communities is not given, with the 
result that it is now impossible to give accurately 
the figures for India. An approximate figure allowing 
for the natural increase in population would be 
150,000 in India, and 200,000 for the world, in- 
cluding the trading communities of Ceylon and 
East Africa. 

The Bohoras fall broadly in two main groups, the 
larger of which, belonging to the mercantile class, is 
Shi'I; the other, composed mainly of peasants and 
cultivators, is Sunni. Some of the Sunni Bohoras of 
Rander (Gudjarat) traded in Burma and made 
large fortunes. Certain families of Isma'UI Bohoras 
claim to be descended from refugees from Arabia and 
Egypt. It is difficult to substantiate this claim; but 
intermarriage, particularly with Yemenite Arabs of 
the Musta'lian branch, has taken place in a number 
of well-known cases. Recently among the Sulaymanls, 
intermarriage has taken place with Sunnls, Ithna 
'Asharl Shi'is, Hindus and even with Europeans; 
but the large majority of the Bohoras do not marry 
outside their communities. 

The majority of Bohoras are undoubtedly of 
Hindu origin, their ancestors having been converted 
by Isma'ili missionaries. The first of these is com- 
monly stated to have been sent from Yemen by the 
Imam of the Musta'lian sect and to have been called 
c Abd Allah. It is related that he landed in Cambay 
(Western India) in 400/1067 and actively engaged 
in propaganda. This story is given in varying forms, 
one of which is preserved in an Arabic booklet 
entitled al-Tardiama al-Zahira li-Firkat Borhat al- 
Bdhira. A copy exists in the library of the 
Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 
It has been translated into English by K. M. 
Jhaveri, A Legendary History of the Bohoras. 
Journal Bombay Branch Royal Asiatic Society, 1933, 
New Series, Vol. 9, 37-52. The text has been edited 
by H. M. Fakhr (Talib), i n the Journal Bombay 
Branch Royal Asiatic Society, 1940, N.S., Vol. 16, 
88. Other accounts give Muhammad c Ali, whose 
tomb is still revered in Cambay, as the name 
of the first Musta'lian missionary in India (died, 
532/1137). The Calukya dynasty of Anahilavada 
was then ruling over Gudjarat and the Isma'Ili 
missionaries seem to have been allowed by the 
Hindu government to carry on their propaganda 
without interruption and with considerable success. 
In 1297 the Hindu Kingdom came to an end and for 
a century Gudjarat remained more or less in 
subjection to Dihll. However, under the inde- 
pendent Kings of Gudjarat (1396-1572), who fa- 
voured the spread of the Sunni doctrine, the 
Bohoras were on several occasions exposed to severe 
persecution. 

Up to 946/1539, the head of the sect resided in the 
Yemen, and the Bohoras made pilgrimages to him, 
paid tithes and referred their disputes for decision and 
settlement. In 946, however, Yusuf b. Sulayman 
migrated from the Yemen to India and settled in 
Sidhpur (Bombay State). About fifty years later, 
a schism occurred after the death of the ddH Da'ud b. 
'Adjab Shah in 996/1588. The Bohoras of Gudjarat, 
in fact the large majority of the community, chose 
one Da'ud b. Kutb Shah as his successor, and sent 
the tidings of his appointment (Ar. nass) to their 
co-religionists in the Yemen ; but the latter, including 
a small proportion of the community in India, 
supported the claims of a certain Sulayman, who 
claimed to be the rightful s 



BOHORAS — BOLU 



1255 



formal mandate from Da'ud b. 'Adjab Shah. This 
document is still in the possession of the Sulaymanl 
da'-wal (the communal administration is called 
daSvat; the t is pronounced by the community), 
but its authenticity has never been subjected 
to a scientific, critical or legal examination. 
Sulayman died in Ahmadabad, where his tomb and 
that of his rival, Da'ud b. Kutb Shah are still 
reverenced by their respective followers. Those who 
recognise the claims of Sulayman are called Sulay- 
manls and their dd'i is in the Yemen. His chief agent 
in India is called the mansub, and the seat of the 
Sulaymanl daSeat is in Baroda, where there is a good 
library of Isma'ffi MSS. Another difference is that 
the Da'udis use a form of Gudjaratl language which 
is full of Arabic words and phrases, write in the 
Arabic script for all official purposes and deliver 
their sermons in this language, whereas the Sulay- 
manls use Urdu for the same purposes. 

The head of the Da'udI Bohoras resides generally 
in Bombay, but his headquarters are in Surat and 
are known as the Deorhi. In both places there 
are good collections of Isma'ill MSS. There is at 
Surat an Arabic madrasa known as the dars-i sayfi, 
named after the present dd% Sayyidna Tahir Sayf 
al-DIn. The ddH al-mupak, to give him his official 
designation, is commonly known as the MuUddji 
Sdhib or Sayyidna Sdhib, and is greatly revered 1 
his followers. In his presence a large number of 
the sectarians perform a form of obeisance, the 
takbil al-ard, which has apparently come down 
from Fatimid times and differs but little from 
the traditional sadjda. 

As regards marriage and death ceremonies, and 
ritual prayers, the Bohora community is in general 
well-served by local officiants, called c dmils, who 
are appointed by the Mulladji Sahib and are the 
servants of the da^wat. They perform duties similar 
to those of the kddis of the Sunnls, but in addition 
refer disputes to the Mulladji Sahib and hav 
much greater hold over their "parishioners" 
feature of the Bohora community both in India 
and elsewhere is that they form themselves into 
guilds, have little to do with others, and do not 
intermarry even with other Muslims, much less with 
adherents of other religions, and take little part i 
public affairs. In general, they restrict themselves 
to trade; but in some parts of India, Ceylon and 
East Africa, and particularly amongst the Sulay- 
manls, certain families have entered public life and 
taken to Government service. 

Two insignificant secessions from the Da'udis may 
be mentioned: (i) The 'Aliyya Bohoras, who in 1624 
supported the claims of 'AIL the grandson of Shaykh 
Adam, the head Mulla, in opposition to Shaykh 
Tayyib, whom Shaykh Adam had nominated as his 
successor, and (ii) the Nagoshias, who broke away 
from the 'Aliyya sect about the year 1789; their 
name indicates that they consider the eating of flesh 
as sinful. The Dja'fari Bohoras are mainly descended 
from the Da'udi Bohoras who became Sunnis 
the reign of Muzaffar Shah (810-813/1407-1411) and 
succeeding Kings of Gudjarat, but they have received 
accession to their numbers from Hindu conv 
They derive their name from a saint named 
Sayyid Ahmad Dja'far Shlrazi (15th Century), 
whose descendants they reverence as their spiritual 

The Bohoras keep their religious books se< 
but recently some of their works on law (such as 
Da'd'im al- Islam), history (such as Sirat Sayyidind 
al-Mu'ayyad) and philosophy (such as Rdhat al-'Akl 



and al-Risdla al-Qxdmi e a) have been printed. 
Further details will be found in the bibliography by 
W. Ivanow, Guide to Ismaili Literature, London 1933, 
of which a second edition is contemplated. For their 
religion and doctrines see Zahid 'All, Hamdre 
Ismd'-Ui Madhhab awr uski Hakikat (Urdu), Hayd- 
arabad, Deccan, i954/i373- In this work a full 
exposition of the hakdHk (the Ismaili term for their 
secret philosophical doctrines) has been given by a 
learned Bohora. Recently A. A. A. Fyzee has given 
his collection of Musta'lian Isma'ili MSS. numbering 
160 to the Library of Bombay University. 

Bibliography: General works: Nur Allah 
b. Sharif al-Shushtarl, Madjdlis al-Mu'minin 
(Madjlis-i Duwwum, ad fin.); All 'Muhammad 
Khan. Mir'dti Ahmadi, Bombay 1307, ii, 87; 
A. K. Forbes, Rds Mdld, or Hindoo Annals of 
the Province of Goozerat, i, 343-344 (London 1856); 
Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. ix, 
Bombay 1899, Part ii, 24 ff.; D. Menant, Les 
Bohoras du Guzarate, in RMM, x, 465 ff.). See 
also the articles Fatimids, Isma'Iliyya and Kadi 
Nu'man); Zahid All's work, cited above; Sh. 
T. Lokhandwalla, The Bohoras, a Muslim Com- 
munity of Gujarat, in St. I si. 1955, 117-135; 
'Abbas H. al-Hamdani, The Ismd'Ui Da'iea in 
Northern India, Cairo 1956. 

History of the daHoat : No exhaustive history 
of the Bohoras has been- written so far on 
scientific lines. See however an Arabic work still 
unpublished, Muntaza 1 al-Akhbdr (2 vols., see 
W. Ivanow, Guide, no. 335), on which is based 
the Gudjaratl work lithographed in the Arabic 
script, Mawsim Bahdr ft Akhbdr 'pl-Du'dt al- 
Akhydr, 3 vols., by (Miyan Sahib) Muhammad 
'All b. Djlwabhal, Bombay, n.d. 

The literature of the da'wat is still mostly 
unpublished, but has been described by W. Ivanow, 
op. cit. (with addenda by Paul Kraus in R£l, 
1932, 483-90). For further bibliographical material 
see A. A. A. Fyzee, Materials for an Ismaili Biblio- 
graphy, 1920-1934, Journal of Bombay Branch of 
the Royal Asiatic Society, 1935, 59-65, and ibid., 
1940, 99-101. Several important texts have 
recently been edited and published by Dr. Muham- 
mad Kamil Husayn (Cairo). 

Law: al-Kadl al-Nu'man, Da'd'tm al-Isldm, 

vol. i, ed. A. A. A. Fyzee, Cairo 1951. The second 

volume is in the press. (A. A. A. Fyzee) 

BOHTAN [see kurds] 

BOLOR DAGH [see pamir] 

BOLU (Boli, near anc. Bithynium, later Claudio- 

polis) 40 15' N 31 30' E. The capital of a forested 

NW Anatolian wilayet, elevation 710 m., area 

11,140 sq. km., lying between the Sakarya river bend 

and the Black Sea. In 1955 the population was 

11,884 (town) and 318,612 (province). Bolu lies in 

a plain on the Bolu Suyu and is subject to severe' 

earthquakes, notably that of May 26, 1957. It is on 

the highway 263 km. from Istanbul and 208 from 

Ankara. It boasts 32 mosques, a bath dated 791/ 

1388-9, a women's teachers college, forestry school, 

other fine primary and secondary schools, a hospital, 

and new "briquette" and lumber factories. Bolu 

is the home of Koroghlu, 'Ashik Derdli and good 

cooks. Lake Abant lies 37 km. SW. Atatiirk visited 

Bolu from i7-i9/vii/'34 and Inonii from 5-7/viii/'39. 

Its kadi's are Akchakodja, Bolu, Diizdje, Gerede, 

Goyniik, Kibrisdjik, Mengen (where lignite has been 

exploited since 1956) Mudurnu, Seben and YighUdja. 

Bolu fell to the Ottomans circa 726/1325, to the 



1256 



Isfendiyaroghullari from 805-27/1402-23, was retaken, 
governed by Prince Suleyman (914-15/1509) and 
served as base of the abortive Khildtet ordusu in April 
1920/1338 (Tarih, iv, 67, 304; Nutuk, 11). Bolu was 
a sandjak of the eydlet of Anadolu till 1103/ 
1692, a muhassllllk till 1226/1811, an independent 
sandjak till 1231/1864, attached to Ifastamonu till 
1327/1909, then a large, independant tiwa' until 
it became a wildyet in 1341/1923. 

Bibliography: R. Aker, Bolu Gezisi, Istanbul 
1949; G. Arnakis, 8. 7tpcoTOt 06o|zavoi, Athens 
1947, 147 ff., 200; Barkan, ... Kanunlar, 28 ff.; 
Bolu Liwasi Sdl-ndmesi, Bolu 1925; Cuinet, 
Turquie d'Asie, iv, 446-61, 506-39; Z. Danisman, 
Camlar ve Gdller Olkesi Bolu, Istanbul 1935; 
Dokiiman, Ayhk Mecmua, No. 2, "Bolu", 1-60; 
Iller Bankasi, Bolu Imar Plant, Ankara 1958, 
1 : 2,000; T. Z. Isitman, Bolu Cografyast, Istan- 
bul 1938; M. Z. Konrapa, Bolu' nun Osmanlt 
Tiirkiye'sine Girisi, in Tedrisat Mecmuasi, No. 10 
(April, 1952) 30-33. also Nos. 8 & 9, 34-6; A. D. 
Mordtmann, sen., Anatolien . . ., Hanover 1925, 
267-75 ; L. V. de St.-Martin, Description . . . de 
I'Asie Mineure, 2 v., Paris 1852, i, 304, 362, 395-6, 
418, 431"-, «, 461-5, 687, 712-19; K. Sapmaz, 
Bolu . . . ormanlik . . . aile ztraat . . ., Ankara 1956; 
S. Saribay, Istikldl Savastnda Mudurnu-Bolu- 
Diizce, Ay dm 1943; F. Taeschner, . . . Anatolisches 
Wegenetz ... 2 v., Leipzig 1924-6, i, 61, 190, 
193-9, tables 24-6, ii, 23, 42-3, 53, 56, 63; Turk 
Ansiklopedisi, vii, 247-50; Turkiye BibKyografyast, 
Istanbul 1928-, passim; Turkiye Kilavuzu, An- 
kara 1946, i, 645-94 (illus. & 1 : 1,000,000 map) ; 
Turkiye Yilltgi 1947, Istanbul 1947, 121, 129, 138 
140, 289; 1948 ed., 68, 86-7; Vatan Memleket 
Ildveleri, i, Istanbul 1953, no. 14, "Bolu", 1-12; 
and IA, s.v. (B. Darkot) for further references. 

(H. A. Reed) 
B6lI)K (from the verb bdlmek), meaning a part, 
a section, or a category, was used in Eastern Turkish 
and in Persian to designate a province or a region. 
In Anatolian Turkish, from the time of the Tanzimdt 
[q.v.] onwards, it designated units of infantry or 
cavalry under the command of a yiizbashl (captain). 
In the old Ottoman military organisation, the term 
bdliik was used in the kapl-kulu [q.v.] odjaks [q.v.], 
as well as in provincial troops and the military 
retinues of senior officials. The size of the bdliik 
varied. In Janissary odjaks, for example, which 
numbered 1,000 men, there were 10 bdliiks of 100 
men each. The commander of the bdliik was known 
as yayabashi (chief infantryman). The Gelibolu 
(Galipoli) odjak of '■adjami-oghlans [q.v.], which 
numbered at first 400 men, consisted of 8 bdliiks of 
50 men each. These bdliiks were commanded by an 
officer known as lorbadjl. Janissary odjaks were 
later enlarged to include 101 bdliiks, known also as 
djemd'at and orta. Each bdliik had a different name 
and function. Thus bdlii ks 1-3 were known as djemd'at-i 
shuturbdn (djemd'-at of camel drivers), the 28th bdliik 
was the bdliik of imdm-i hadret dghd, bdliiks 60-63 were 
known as solak-ortasl (the orta of Solak guards). 
The Segbdns (Keepers of the Sultan's Hounds), who 
constituted an independent odjak until 1451, were 
assigned on that date by Sultan Mehemmed II to the 
odjak of Janissaries as the 65th orta. They retained, 
however, an autonomous organisation consisting of 
34 bdliiks. Each bdliik had a different size, name and 
functions. As a result of the mutiny organised by the 
agha (commander) of the Janissaries under Bayezid 
II or Sellm I, an agha was appointed by the Palace 



BOLU — BOLWADIN 

and put in charge of a separate organisation con- 
sisting of 61 tbdliiks of the agha*, in the hope that 
he would maintain a balance of forces in the odjak. 
It was these that were usually meant when the term 
bdliik was used. Otherwise if a bdliik in the odjaks of 
armourers, artillerymen, artillery drivers etc. was 
meant, its name and the name of the odjak were 
usually given. There were 6 bdliiks in the mounted 
odjak of kapl-kulus. Their members were known as 
"the people of the bdliikt or «the people of the six 
bdliiks". Excluding the sipahis and sildhddrs, they 
were known as bdliikdt-i erba'-a (four bdliiks). The 
seven Ottoman odjaks in Egypt were called bdliikdt-i 
seb'a (seven bdliiks). The officers of these various 
bdliiks enjoyed different rates of pay and were 
subject to different rules of promotion. As in the 
case of odjaks, the importance of bdliiks in the eyes 
of the Government varied from time to time. For 
detailed information on odjaks and bdliiks see 
Ismail Hakki Uzuncarsili, Osmanlt Devleti Teskild- 
ttndan Kapt Kulu Ocaklart, i, 1943, and Gibb and 
Bowen, i, index. (t. H. Uzuncarsili) 

BOLUK-BASHI, the title given to the headmen 
of various groups of functionaries in the admini- 
strative organisation of the Ottoman State. In the old 
Ottoman military organisation the commanders of 
the bdliiks [q.v.] in the odjak [q.v.] of the Janissaries 
were generally known as yayabashi or ser-piydde 
(chief infantryman), while the commanders of the 
bdliiks in the odjak of the '■adjamt oghlans [q.v.] were 
called lorbadjl. It was only the commanders of the 
"bdliiks of the agha" (see boluk) who were called 
Bdliik-bashl, the most senior being known as Bash- 
bdliik-bashl. The Bdliik-bashis were mounted and had 
an iron mace and a shield tied to their saddles. When 
the Sultan left the palace to go to a mosque, the 
Bdliik-bashi was present wearing ornate clothes and 
holding in his hand a reed instead of a spear. Under 
Suleyman the Magnificent there were 58 bdliik- 
bashis of "bdliiks of the agha"; their daily pay was 
9 aspers. Their numbers and pay were later increased. 
The Bash-bdliik-bashl was appointed on promotion 
junior agha of the odjak known as that of batar- 
aghalarl (dghds of trains or caravans). Bdliik-bashis 
of the bdliiks of the agha, when invested with a 
timdr, were numbered among the wardens of for- 
tresses and received a life grant of 8,000 to 15,000 
(aspers). Apart from the odjak of the Janissaries, 
the mounted kapl-kulus [q.v.] had their bdliik-bashis 
commanding separate bdliiks, as had the segbdns 
(keepers of the Sultan's hounds), levends (irregulars) 
and tiifenglis (fusiliers). For more details see 
Ismail Hakki Uzuncarsili, Osmanlt Devleti Teskild- 
ttndan Kapt Kulu Ocaklart, i, 1943, and Gibb 
and Bowen, i, index. (t. H. Uzuncarsili) 

BOLWADIN (BoLVADiN, sometimes Karamuk, 
anc. Polybotum) 38° 44' N, 31 03' E. A municipality 
and kadd' in the wildyet of Afyun Kara Hisar [q.v.], 
with its own and Ishakli ndhiye (its former ndhiye 
of Cay, with 20 villages, became a kadd' on April 1, 
1958/1377), consisting of 26 villages. The population 
in 1375/1955 was 12,604 (town), 61,280 (district); ele- 
vation 900 m., area 2,420 sq. km. Bolvadin lies 45 km. 
E of Afyun, 8 N of Cay railway station, N of the Sazh 
and Eber lakes and a fertile plain watered by the 
Akar Cay, on the old Baghdad road and the modern 
Eskishehir-Konya highway. Bolvadin was under the 
Ashraf-oghullan [q.v.] circa 702-26/1302-25, taken by 
Murad I, regained by the Germiyan-oghullari after 
805/1402, retaken by Murad II in 832/1428-9, rebuilt, 
partly by Sinan (mosque, bath and fountain of 
Rustem Pasha, cf . Uzuncarsili, . . . Kitabeler, ii) , 



BOLAWADIN — BQRKOU 



under Siileyman I, and fell briefly to the rebel Uzun 
Khalil in 1014/1605. It was a key military HQ before 
the great nationalist counter-offensive against the 
Greeks in August 1922. 

Bibliography: Cumhuriyetin 15 yih ifinde 
Afyon, Istanbul 1938; I. H. Danismend, ... 
Kronoloji, passim.; Hammer, Staatsv., i, 275, ii, 
255-6; F. Kiper, Afyon Karahisar. ValiUk notlar- 
imdan birkaf hatira, Istanbul 1945; Murray's 
Handbook for Travellers in Asia Minor ... ed., 
Sir Charles Wilson, London 1895-1905, 132; ed. 
1840, 302; ed. 1877, 366; I. Okday, Afyon Kara- 
hisart gazeteleri, Filibe 1937; Sal-name's for 
Khudawendig&r wildyeti, years 1296 A.H.; 1301, 
377; 1302, 1315-16; 1321-23; L. V. de St.-Martin, 
Description . . . de I'Asie Mineure, Paris 1852, ii, 
559, 611; W. Shepherd, Hist. Atlas, passim; 
M. Y. Siislii, Esrefogullart Tarihi — Beysehir 
Ktlavuzu, Konya 1934; F. Taeschner, . . . Anato- 
lisches Wegenetz . . ., i, 102, 126, tables 7-8, 197 ff.; 
idem ed., M. Neschri, Gihannumd, i, 249, ii, 171; 
Turk Ansiklopedisi, vii, 250; Turkiye Bibliyo- 
grafyast, 1928-, passim; Turkiye Ktlavuzu, Ankara 
1946, i, 37, 57-6o, map, 1 : 1,000,000 facing 
70; Turkiye Ytlhgt 1947, Istanbul 1947, 138; 
1948 ed., 82; I. H. Uzuncarsili, Afyon Karahisar, 
Sandtkh, Bolvadin . . . >deki Kitabeler, Istanbul 
1929; idem, Osmanlt Tarihi, Ankara 1947-, i, 
12-13, 169; ii, 94; I A s.v. (B. Darkot) for 
further references. (H. A. Reed) 

BOMBAY CITY, capital of Bombay State, one 
of the chief sea ports of India and an emporium 
of trade and manufacturing industries. Its area is 
in sq. miles, and the population of the city in the 
census of 1951 was 2,839,270. Of these, 281,975 had 
Urdu as their mother tongue, 6,527 Persian, 6,376 
Pashto, 2,536 Arabic, figures which indicate the 
number of Muslims in the city. The figures include 
representatives of different races that have embraced 
Islam: Arabs. Persians, Turks, Afghans and others. 
Among the important classes of traders, Memons, 
Bohoras & Khodias [qq.v.'] constitute an appreciable 
number. Their enterprise in trade & commerce is 
well-known and they are prominent in trade relations 
with East Africa, the Persian Gulf, Malaya, Singa- 
pore and other places. 

The history of the city is interesting, the present 
emporia having grown out of seven detached islands 
with mud swamps in between. There were Muslim 
rulers before the advent of the Portuguese, and a 
prominent relic is the tomb of Shaykh C A1! Paru, 
built about 835/1431-2 and repaired in 1674 A.D.. 
An annual fair is held here and it attracts a large 
number of visitors. There is a Djami 1 Masdjid also 
dating from 1902. 

Bibliography: Census Reports; Handbook of 
Statistics of Reorganised Bombay State, 1956; 
Census Reports for 1872, 1881 and 1901; Sir 
J. M. Campbell, Materials towards a Statistical 
Account of the Town and Island of Bombay, Bombay 
1894; S. M. Edwardes, The Rise of Bombay, 
Bombay 1902; J. M. Maclean, Guide to Bombay. 

(A. A. A. Fyzee) 
BOMBAY STATE, one of the States of the 
Indian Union, covering the territories of Cute, 
Saurashtra, Gudjarat, Maharashtra, Marathwada 
and Vidarbh. The present limits of the State territory 
were decided upon in consequence of the reorgani- 
sation of the States of the Indian Union that took 
place in 1956. The composition of the State differs i 
from that of the other States of the Union inasmuch I 



as it comprises areas having two different languages, 
namely Marathi & Gudjarati. The total area of the 
State is 190,872 sq. miles and the total population 
is 48,264,622. The figures of population are based 
on the census of 1951. The whole of this State was 
at one time under Muslim rule, and even now, in 
many of the important centres, population statistics 
reveal the existence of a substantial proportion of 
Muslims. The Muslims constitute the second most 
important religions group in the State, though then- 
numbers have gone down in recent years due to the 
emigration of some Muslims from the State to 
Pakistan after partition. In 195 1, at the last census, 
5-33% of the population of the State had Urdu as 
their mother tongue. The major centres of Muslim 
population apart from the city of Bombay are the 
districts of Ahmadabad, East Khandesh and Sorath. 
The majority of the Muslims are Sunnls. 

Bibliography: Census Reports; Handbook of 

Statistics of Reorganised Bombay State, 1956; 

Census Reports for 1872, 1881, 1891 and 1901; 

Sir J. M. Campbell, Bombay District Gazetteers, 

Bombay 1877-1901 ; Imperial Gazetteer of India. 

Provincial Series, Bombay Presidency, Calcutta 

1909. (A. A. A. Fyzee) 

BdNE [see al- c annaba] 

BONNEVAL [see ahmed pasha bonneval] 

BORK [see libas] 

BORKLUDJE, MUSTAFA [see badr al-din 

B. KADI SAMAWNA], 

BORKOU, the name by which the inhabitants 
designate the chain of palm groves along the southern 
edge of the lowland region between the massifs of 
Tibesti and Ennedi which extends via the Bahr al- 
Ghazal to Lake Chad. To this traditional Borkou 
the French have added on the one hand the pastoral 
areas of Bodele-Djourab-Koro-Toro, and the north 
of Mortcha, whose economy is complementary to 
that of the oases and on the other hand the S.E. of 
Tibesti with the Emi Koussi (11,200 ft), considered 
to be the bastion of Borkou. The district forms a 
trapeze of which the great base in the south measures 
about 500 km. along the 16th parallel between the 
meridians of 15° and 21° E, and of which the summit 
coincides with the Libyan frontier between the 
meridians of 19 and 20° 20'. Its area is 230,000 sq.km. 

Save for Tibesti the relief is gentle. From the foot 
of the Emi Koussi a sandstone plateau slopes down 
from 2,300 to 650 ft towards the S. and SW., where 
it merges into the vast sandy depression of the 
Djourab and Bodele. At the 18th parallel a chain 
of basins strung along a line from the NW. to the 
SE., from N'Galakka to Largeau cuts the plateau 
into two. To the north of this depression the surface 
is intersected by the wddis which, radiating from 
the summit of the Emi Koussi, branch out and 
carve the plateau onto strips of broken ground 
encroached on by 'barkhanes' or crescent-shaped 
dunes. In the south the plateau remains unbroken 
and slopes gently. Three series of basins, from the 
SW. to the NE., eat into or border this slope. 
Beginning with the south, these are the depression 
of Bodel6 and that of Djourab where long ridges 
encroached on by the 'barkhanes' alternate with wide 
shallow basins; then the central depression, a chain 
of palm trees cut across by 'barkhanes' and 'nebkas' 
(little triangular dunes) ; and lastly the sunken zone 
of Ounianga and its lakes which lead up by Gouro 
towards the eastern flank of the Emi Koussi. 

The climate is that of the desert with contrasts 
of temperature between the hottest months of April 



1258 BORKOU 

to September and the coldest months whose coolness 
is increased by the NE. winds then blowing con- 
tinually and frequently heavy with sand. The 
index of aridity compares with that of Tanezrouft, 
but the country differs from the central Sahara in 
that it does not have long series of dry years; the 
rains, even if the fall is slight, come each year at 
least from May to September. This regularity is not 
in itself enough to explain the existence of profuse 
vegetation which round the springs takes on an 
almost tropical aspect. Water in fact is abundant: 
salt lakes at the foot of the Emi Koussi, pure or 
natronated springs of the central depression, layers 
of water saturating the sands of the valleys or 
appearing on the surface on the southern basins, 
the lakes of Ounianga. These waters apparently have 
their origin in the spates of the wddis of the Emi 
Koussi, which soak between the volcanic outcrops 
and percolate through the sandstone to reappear 
in the depressions. 

The character of the steppe changes from north 
to south. The 'had' which preponderates in the north 
and which supports a few species of grassy plants 
gives way about the 17th parallel to the 'cram-cram' 
(cenchrus biflorus). Then Sahilian species appear, 
forerunners of the savannah; the domain of the 
ariels and ostriches begins. Islets of woodland in 
the northern valleys and especially in the central 
depression — doum palms and particularly handsome 






Lt one ti 



d denser woodlands. 

Oases and pasture have attracted the populations 
of the neighbouring mountains since the 10th 
century. The nomad tribes of eastern and central 
Tibesti (the two branches of the Tubu people: Teda 
and Daza) occupied the oases of Gouro then the 
central oases (Woun), pushing back the Donza who 
seem to have been the aboriginal inhabitants, 
towards the palm groves to the south of the Emi 
Koussi, their present habitat. The nomads belonging 
to the lowest caste clans have become sedentary, 
sometimes partially, being enabled by the 'had' and 
supplies of natronated water close by to keep their 
camels. The others have drifted to the southern 
steppes which are richer in pasture. Some tribes 
have reached as far as the Chad lowlands where 
they have changed from camel to cattle rearing. 

Other populations, coming down from Ennedi 
and Wadai, have mixed with the Tubu. The Anak- 
kaza, who constitute the most important group in 
Borkou, were formed in this way, whereas the 
Gaeda seem to be descended from the Tundjur of 
Kanem. Borkou has thus been a melting-pot in 
which, however, Tubu influence has predominated. 
The Daza language is spoken by most of these 
populations, their customs are those of the Tubu, 
and the Tubu physical type — non-negroid black — is 
the commonest. One can understand that the Arabs 
should have lumped the whole of the Borkouans 
together under the single name of Kura'Sn. According 
to official statistics the Borkouans now number 

The nomads live by stock rearing supplemented 
by the resources of the oases, whether they 
still enjoy over these suzerain rights acquired in 
the past, or whether the gardens are cultivated for 
them by the sedentary Kamadjas, whose origin, 
though certainly servile, is ill-known. The Kamadjas, 
who had become share-croppers of the nomads, 
have gradually freed themselves from their tribute- 
obligation with the support of the French adminis- 
tration. The palm groves contain at present about 



1,000,000 productive trees of which 90 per cent are 
in the central depression-. They- produce- 30,000 
quintals of dates per annum. The irrigation channels 
in the gardens are fed by balance-arm wells and 
produce on the average 120 tons of wheat and 200 
tons of millet per annum; vegetables (onions, 
tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and pimentos) are also 
grown. Salt-pans from which salt is obtained by 
evaporation are numerous in the northern valleys, 
and their product, joined with that of Ennedi, 
represented (in 1950) half the Saharan production. 
The nomads of the southern steppe bring meat, 
butter, and tanned skins to the oases to exchange 
Sedentary and nomadic popu- 
their tools and arms from the 
;. These smiths, known in the 
Azzas, deprived of local supplies 
>w exhausted, use as their raw 
or raw iron plates bought in 



for their products 
lations alike obtai 
despised smith cas 
the Tubu domain a; 
of ore which are r 
material scrap iroi 

These exchanges suffice for local needs. 1 ,200 miles 
from the Mediterranean coast by the economically 
unimportant Kufra track, detached from the trade 
routes joining the Sudan with the Mediterranean 
(which avoid Tibesti and its brigands), detached 
from the tracks leading to the Nile lands passing to 
the south of Wadai, Borkou has always lived turned 
in on it self. For this reason archaic modes of life have 
survived in these oases until the present day and 
paganism had-, not retreated before Islam, in the 
19th century. This isolation has of late years been 
twice violently broken. For half a century after 
1842 the country was ravaged by the waves of the 
Awlad Sulayman who swept down from the Fezzan 
in flight from the Turks. Then, about 1900, the 
Sanusiyya, falling back from Kanem and Manga, 
settled themselves firmly at the two ends of the 
central depression, at N'Galakka and at Woun 
(alias Faya, later Largeau). They made their 
zdwiyas, especially that at Gouro, agricultural 
centres as well as intellectual and religious centres 
from which Islam was propagated. But they indulged 
in raids which, by forcing the nomads to choose 
between the palm groves occupied by the Sanusiyya 
and the pasture lands to the south controlled by 
France since her occupation of Wadai and Bahr al- 
Ghazal, disorganized and so ruined economic life. 
The Sanusiyya had the backing of the Turks, who 
placed garrisons in the country in 1911, but the 
Italo-Turkish conflict brought about the with- 
drawal of these garrisons in 1912, and in 1913 
France occupied the whole of Borkou. 

Bibliography: Nachtigal, Sahara et Soudan 
(tr. Gourdault), 1881 ; Carbou, La region du Tchad 
et du Ouddai, 1912; Ferrandi, Le Centre Africain 
franfais, 1930; medecin Capitaine Pujo, le Borkou 
et ses habitants, vie et moeurs, in Revue Militaire 
de I'A.E.F., xvi, 1939; R. Capot-Rey, Le Sahara, 
1953 ; idem, Introduction a une giographie humaine 
du Borkou, in Travaux de I'lnstitut de Recherches 
Sahariennes, xvi, 1957, 41-71. (M. Ch. LeCoeur) 
BORNEO, the corrupted form of Brunai (which 
is a town in British North Borneo at about Lat. 
5° N. and Long. 115° E.) applied to the largest of the 
greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia, probably as 
early as the 14th century, and in any case by the 
Portuguese since the 16th century. The greater part 
of the island is now called Kalimantan and consti- 
tutes a province of the Indonesian Republic. From 
the view-point of Muslim studies the importance of 
the island is small, as practically the whole population 
of the interior of Borneo is pagan. Islam and Christi* 



BORNEO — BORNO 



anity penetrated in the coast areas whence they have 
been slowly spreading into the interior; since 1942 
political conditions favour the propaganda of Islam 
rather than the spreading of Christian denominations- 
The character of the local Islam is not different 
from what we find elsewhere in Indonesia [q.v.]. 
The only important centre of Muslim activity is 
Pontianak [q.v.] on the West Coast. (C. C. Berg) 

BORN©, or Barnu, the name — of doubtful 
etymology the root of which reappears in Beriberi 
(= Baribari) as their neighbours call the Kanuri — 
given to a region in the hinterland of West Africa 
and used: 

(a) loosely, of an area never precisely defined 
in geographical terms, were there was established 
one of the major states of that part of the Western 
Sudan, — see para. 6 below, — and 

(b) of a province; — area, according to 1931 
census, 45,900 square miles — lying between latitudes 
10° and 13. 5 N. and longitudes 10° and 14° E., in 
Northern Nigeria, containing that part of (a) west 
of the Anglo-German and south of the Anglo- 
French original international boundaries, plus an 
adjacent narrow strip on the eastern frontier of the 
former German Kameruus mandated to Great 
Britain after the war of 1914-18; including the 
Shaykhdoms of Bornu and Dikwa, together with 
some other administrative units. 

2. Geography. Bornu consists in the main of a 
vast sandy plain, drained by two rivers, — the Yobe 
running from west to east in the north and the 
Yedseram from south to north in the south, — into 
the marshy shores of Lake Chad which lies in its 
north-eastern corner. The only 



1 the e 






t of tl 



Province. In earlier times the Shari River which also 
flows from south to north into Lake Chad was 
regarded as the eastern border of Bornu, dividing it 
from Bagirmi [q.v.] country. The early medieval 
geographers and historians were cognisant of the 
region under this name, which appears on the Catalan 
atlas of Charles V (1375 A.D.), and is mentioned 
by al-<Umari (d. 1348 A.D.), Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406 
A.D.), al-Makrizi (d. 1442 A.D.) and others. It was 
visited and described (Book VII )by Leo Africanus 



(d. , 



1552). 



and Trade. The main modern 
motor road (Kano-Maidugari-Fort Lamy) runs from 
west to east across the region, with feeders from north 
and south, as did the former caravan route (Kano- 
Kukawa-Bilma). There is a permanent aerodrome 
at Maidugari and emergency landing grounds 
elsewhere. Of old slaves and ivory were the main 
exports, now groundnuts, hides, gum, cotton and 
numerous minor items have replaced these. Imports 
consist of manufactured articles, especially cotton 
goods. There is a considerable internal trade in dried 
fish from the Lake Chad area, salt and kola nuts. 

4. Economy. The region is not industrialised and 
contains no cities. It is self contained so far as the 
necessities of life are concerned, and its population 
is mainly agricultural. In the 1952 census, of 790,361 
males, 376,561 are shown as engaged in agriculture 
and fishing. Its capital wealth consists in numerous 
herds of cattle, sheep and goats, together with the 
fisheries of Lake Chad. 

5. Ethnography, (a) The population of the 
region described in para. 1 (b) above comprises the 
Kanuri, Fulani, Hausa [qq.v.], Shuwa Arabs and 
some other tribes. At the census of 1952, the salient 
figures for the Bornu Province of Nigeria were — 
Kanuri 752,683; Fulani 168,944; Hausa 84,729; 



Shuwa Arab 98,909; Bura 89,826. Total — including 
other less numerous mostly pagan tribes situated 
mainly in the hilly south and south east of the 
Province, — 1,595,708. The comparable total in the 



I93i 



8,360. 



(b) Languages. Kanuri [q.v.] is the major 
language of the region, but of importance also are 
the colloquial Arabic spoken by the Shuwa Arabs, 
and Fuffulde spoken by the Fulani [q.v.]. Hausa is 
little spoken except by the trading elements in the 
towns. The pagan tribes have their own tongues. 
English is also used by those who have been educated 
in the more advanced schools. 

6. History. The early history of Bornu is linked 
with that of the Kanem Empire. In 666 A.D., 
c Ukba b. Nafi' penetrated the east central Saharan 
desert as far as Tibesti in the Tebu country to the 
north of Lake Chad, the inhabitants of which, 
according to legend, were the So, a giant race origi- 
nating from the Fezzan. According to tradition the 
first king of Kanem in this area was one Sayf, 
claiming descent from Sayf b. Phi Yazan of the 
Bani Himyar. This tradition may be post-Islamic and 
fabricated. The ruling class of old in this area was 
called the Maghumi, a word the root of which 
appears in the Kanuri words Mai (ruler) and Maghira, 
the title of the Bornu Queen Mother, an office which 
carried and still carries considerable power. There is 
strong traditional and some written evidence that 
this ruling class was 'white-skinned', and a reasonable 
supposition is that it was originally matrilinear and 
probably of origins connected with the Tawarik, 
(plur. from sing. Tarki, vulg. Tuareg). The Saifawa 
were a nomadic people who absorbed or conquered 
the Tebu peoples to their north, and founded the 
Empire of Kanem, with capital at Njimi. Their 
rulers are said to have given 'the Sultan of the 
Beriberi' permission t© settle, and tradition speaks 
of an invasion by Muslim Beriberi from Yaman via 
Fezzan and Kuwar in 800 A.D. The Empire of 
Kanem had received Islam by the nth century if 
not earlier, and by the 13th century was powerful 
enough for its influence to reach as far as Egypt in 
the north east and Dikwa in the south. Ibn Khaldun 
speaks of the 'King of Kanem and the Master of 
Bornu', the last word apparently describing the 
southern part of the Kanem empire from Lake Chad 
to Dikwa. But, circa 1389 A.D., the Sayf dynasty 
was driven out of Kanem by a kindred tribe, and the 
consequent tribal movements resulted in the advance 
of the Kanuri nation to the west of Lake Chad, and 
finally to their founding, circa 1470 A.D., on the 
River Yo, of Birni N'gazargamu as the capital of 
Bornu and of the Kanuri nation. It remained their 
capital for three centuries, though, circa 1507 A.D., 
Njimi itself was recaptured by the Kanuri, and old 
Kanem became a province of the new Bornu Empire. 
In the 1 6th century and under a succession of able 
'Mai's or rulers (Muhammad 1526-45, Dunama 
1546-63, 'Abdallah — in whose reign Fulani settlers 
in Bornu are first mentioned — 1564-70) the Bornu 
Empire expanded greatly, and this process was no 
doubt helped by the conquest, in 1592 A.D., by 
Morocco of Bornu's rival in the western Sahara, the 
empire of Songhay. Of these rulers the greatest was 
probably Mai Idris Atuma, (ob. 1602), who success- 
fully campaigned as far afield as Kano, and also 
subdued the tribes of Air [q.v.] and the Tebu. Mai 
Idris made the pilgrimage to Mecca and was buried 
in Alo Lake near Maidugari. This peak was followed 
by two centuries of quiescence (Mai Ali, 1645-84 A.D., 
made the pilgrimage thrice), during part of which 



at least the Bornu Empire seems to have been on the 
defensive, for 'All was beseiged unsuccessfully in his 
own capital by the Tawarik and the Kwararafa. 
Contributing causes may have been a series of 
severe famines, — one is recorded of seven years' 
duration, — and the general dislocation which followed 
the Moorish conquest of Songhay. The Fulani dxhdd 
further to the west at the beginning of the 19th 
century soon had repercussions affecting Bornu, the 
suzerainty of which over the Hausa states lying 
between Bornu and Sokoto was challenged. In 1808 
the Fulani in Bornu assembled at Gujba, defeated 
Mai Ahmad b. c Ali and sacked his capital at 
N'gazargamu. (One of the successful Fulani leaders 
in this campaign later founded the town and amirate 
of Katagum with the title of Sarkin Bornu). Mai 
Ahmad fled to Kanem where he invoked the aid of 
a leading chief there, Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi, 
a man who had travelled extensively in the Muslim 
world and had a wide reputation for learning and 
piety. He reinstated Mai Ahmad and expelled the 
Fulani, who, however, on Mai Ahmad's death soon 
after, returned to defeat his successor, Dunama b. 
Ahmad. The last named in turn sought the aid of al 
Kanemi, and at this point the modern history of 
Bornu may be said to begin. Al-Kanemi, victorious 
again over the Fulani and Baghirmi, restored the old 
Sayf ruling house as titular kings and established 
himself at Kukawa, where he was visited by Denham 
in 1822, as the power behind the throne. His further 
attempts, circa 1826, to re-establish the empire of 
Bornu over the Hausa states were less successful, 
and, after being defeated, he died in 1835, and was 
succeeded by his eldest son 'Umar who made peace 
with the Fulani. During the absence of 'Umar on 
these negotiations, the Sayf royal house called in 
the ruler of Wadai to help them expel the house of 
al-Kanemi. This plot failed. The then Mai, Ibrahim, 
was executed in 1846, and the last of the Sayf 
dynasty, his son 'All, was killed in battle. 'Umar now 
became de jure as well as de facto ruler of Bornu, 
adopting the title Shehu ( = Shaykh) instead of Mai, 
thus inaugurating the Kanembu dynasty. He rebuilt 
Kukawa which had been destroyed by the men of 
Wadai, and was visited here by Dr. Barth in 1851 
and 1855. War with Wadai was almost continuous, 
seriously weakening the strength of Bornu, and the 
outlying western territory of Zinder became virtually 
independent. In 1893, Rabeh [q.v.] entered Bornu 
from Wadai with a well armed and trained force of 
some two thousand men, which was altogether too 
strong for any forces with their antiquated weapons 
which could take the field against him. He defeated 
a general of the then Shehu, Hashim, at Amja, next 
Hashim himself near Ngala. He then took and 
plundered Kukawa, after which he returned to 
Dikwa where he made his headquarters, and built 
the fort which can still be seen. A cousin, Muhammad 
al-Amin nicknamed Kiari, of Shehu Hashim caused 
the latter, now a fugitive, to be secretly murdered and 
himself advanced against Rabeh from Geidam. The 
two forces met at Gashegar and Kiari's troops had 
some initial success, even taking Rabeh's camp, but 
were finally put to flight by Rabeh's army. Kiari 
himself was taken and executed. This ended the 
resistance to Rabeh in Bornu. Rabeh established a 
military regime at Dikwa and sent out columns on 
predatory raids. His rule was entirely destructive 
and caused incalculable loss and dislocation over a 
wide area. In 1900, Rabeh was defeated and killed 
by French troops under Commandant Lamy. 
Rabeh's son, Fadl Allah, fled westwards before the 



French, was pursued and finally, on 3 Aug. 1901, 
killed by them under command of Captain Dangeville 
in an engagement at Gujba in Nigeria, (150 miles on 
the British side of the Anglo-French boundary which, 
though approved on paper, had not yet been delimited 
by boundary commissions on the ground, thus 
causing considerable confusion in the then so un- 
settled state of the country). The French authorities 
offered restoration to Sanda, a son of the late Shehu, 
but he was unable to meet their conditions, and 
finally the Kanemi dynasty was restored by the 
British authorities with Shehu Bukar Garbai, his 
brother. Shehu Bukar set up first at Mongonu, then 
moved to Kukawa and finally, in 1907, to Yerwa 
near Maidugari which has remained the capital of 
Bornu to the present time. Dikwa became part of 
the German Kameruns, which, after the German 
defeat in the 1914-18 war, were mandated to Great 
Britain and France by the League of Nations, 
Dikwa falling into the former's area. Details on 
the history of Bornu in the present century will be 
found in the reports of the Government of Nigeria. 



The Shehu-s of Bornu and Dikwa 

Shehu Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi 
(died at Kukawa 1835) 


1 1 

Shehu 'Umar Shehu 'Abd al-Rahman 
1835-80 (rebelled against Shehu 
I 'Umar and was executed 
1 at Kukawa in 1854) 


1 

Shehu 

Bukar 1880-4 

1 


She 
Ibra 
188 


1 
hu Shehu 
him Hashim 
4-5 1885-93 


1 

Muhammad 
al-Amin (Kiari) 

(executed by 
Rabeh in 1893) 

Shehu 'Umar 
(Sanda Kiarimi) 
Shehu of Dikwa 
1917-37 of Bornu 
1937- 


1 

Shehu 

'Umar of 





Shehu 'Umar Shehu Bukar Shehu Mustafa 
(Sanda Kura) Garbai Shehu of Dikwa 

1901 & 1922-1937 1902-22 1937- 

7. Religion. Islam is the religion of the Kanuri, 
Fulani, Shuwa Arabs and Hausa, and their madhhab 
Malikl. Of the Tarikas, the Kadiriyya [q.v.] and 
the Tidjaniyya [q.v.] are the best supported, though 
representatives of others will also be found, including 
the Sanusiyya [q.v.] and the Shadhiliyya [q.v.]. The 
Church of the Brethren (American Protestant) 
Mission operates among the Bura tribe in the south 
of the Province. It seems certain that, in modern 
conditions, the animism of the pagan tribes will 
gradually disappear. 

8. Miscellaneous. Notable European explorers 
who visited Bornu were Denham, Oudney and 
Clapperton (1823), Barth, who made long stays at 
Kukawa between 185 1 and 1855 and collected much 
information about the history and circumstances 
of the region, Vogel (1854-6), Beurmann (i860), 
Rohlfs (1866), Nachtigal (1870-2), Matheucci and 
Massari (1880-1), Monteil (1892). 



BORNU — BOSNA 



Bibliography: S. J. Hogben, The Muham- 
madan Emirates of Nigeria, Oxford 1930; E. W. 
Bovill, Caravans of the Old Sahara, Oxford 1933; 
(Reference sources listed in the bibliographies of 
these two books are not given again here). H. R. 
Palmer, The Bornu Sahara and Sudan, London 
1936; C. E. J. Whitting, Infaku'l Maisuri, London 
195 1 ; Nigerian Government publications since 
1900. (C. E. J. Whitting) 

BOSNA (Bosnia and Herzegovina). 
1. General outline. 

Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a total area of 
51,129 km. 8 , lies within the latitudes 42° 26' and 
45 15' North and longitudes 15° 44' and 19° 41' East; 
it thus occupies the western — largely mountainous — 
region of Yugoslavia, rich in mineral resources, 
water-power, and forests. It is divided into two 
geographical and historical entities — Bosnia and 
Herzegovina. The name of Bosnia refers to the larger 
northern part of the country, while Herzegovina 
comprises the southern districts with the basin of 
the river Neretva. The name "Bosnia" is derived 
from the river Bosna (of uncertain meaning but 
doubtless of Illyrian origin) which flows through the 
central part of the country. It was round the source 
and the upper basin of the river that traces have 
been found of a district called Bosna (first mentioned 
by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who thought it be- 
longed to Serbia), inhabited by early settlers, members 
of Slav tribes. After many changes of fortune brought 
about by a succession of foreign and native rulers, 
the region became an integral part of a new State 
bearing its name, which — under the reign of King 
Tvrtko I (1353-1391) — comprised not only the 
present territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, except 
for a small district in the north-west, but also a large 
part of the Adriatic coast with the neighbouring 
districts in the south and south-east. Under 
Turkish rule, Bosnia was one of the sandiaks of the 
Ottoman Empire, and from 988/1580 an eydlet 
which comprised a larger area than that of the 
present Bosnia and Herzegovina, not only before 
but even after the loss of territory suffered in 
the second decade of the I2th/end of the 17th 
century. The name of Herzegovina dates from the 
middle of the 15 th century when the magnate 
Stjepan Vukfiid Kosaca rebelled against the then king 
of Bosnia and had himself proclaimed "Herzeg (Duke) 
of St. Sava". The region later came to be called 
"Hercegovina" (the land of the Herzeg) and in 
Turkish : Hersek Hi or Hersek sandiagi. The present 
territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina roughly 
corresponds to the area that constituted the province 
of Bosnia and Herzegovina under Austrian rule 
(1878-1918) and which was part of the Kingdom of 
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (from 1918). The 
boundaries and the extent of the region remained 
unchanged during the later administration of the 
new Kingdom (under the so-called Vidovdan Con- 
stitution). After the suppression of parliamentary 
rule in Yugoslavia (1929), an authoritarian King- 
dom of Yugoslavia emerged, made up of nine 
large administrative units called "banovinas". This 
division altered the boundaries of the country, for 
the two banovinas with their seats within Bosnia 
and Herzegovina (those of Sarajevo and Banjaluka) 
now comprised parts of the neighbouring area, with 
the result that part of Bosnia and Herzegovina 
territory came to belong to the banovina the seat 
of which was in Split, while part of Herzegovina 
was included into the banovina whose seat was in 



Montenegro; In present-day Yugoslavia a separate 
people's republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been 
formed within its traditional historic boundaries. 

The social and political organisation of Bosnia and 
Herzegovina as one of the republics of Yugoslavia, 
is based on the written Constitution of the Federal 
People's Republic of Yugoslavia, passed 13th January 
1946, the Constitution of the P.R. of Bosnia and 
Herzegovina dated 31st December 1946, the Con- 
stitutional Law of 13th January 1953 concerning 
the foundations of the social and political organisa- 
tion of the F.P.R. of Yugoslavia and the federal 
organs of government, and the Constitutional Law of 
29th January 1953 concerning the social and political 
organisation of the P.R. of Bosnia and Herzegovina 
and the republican organs of government. 

The P.R. of Bosnia and Herzegovina has, as does 
each of the Yugoslav republics, its own People's 
Assembly with its Executive Council and Secre- 
tariats in Sarajevo, the capital city of the Republic. 
The Country is divided into 12 districts and 134 
communes (1958). 

The population of Bosnia and Herzegovina shown 
by the census taken in 1953 was 2,847,790. Serbo- 
Croat is the language spoken by the people (except 
for small numbers of Slovenian and Macedonian 
settlers and national minorities) who are, however, 
divided — as regards nationality — into Serbs (largely 
of the Orthodox Church, the rest being Muslims), 
Croats (largely Roman-Catholics, the rest being 
Muslims) and those that abstained from declaring 
their nationality (very largely Muslims). 

According to the preliminary results of the census 
of 1953 there were in Bosnia and Herzegovina: 
10.3 per cent of no denomination, 35.1 per cent 
Orthodox, 21.4 per cent Roman-Catholics, 32.3 per 
cent Muslims, and 0.9 of other denominations. 

The official and final results, now in print, of the 
census taken in 1953 are as follows: 
Serbs 1,264,372 — 44.3% (including 35,228 






Others 



as) 



• 3% 



The common language and close ethnical affinity 
of the population notwithstanding, the people 
are split into three groups owing to historical 
influences but mainly to different religious beliefs 
which were responsible for the formation of 
national differences between Serbs and Croats. The 
islamisation of Bosnia and Herzegovina — the 
centuries-old borderland of the Ottoman Empire, 
situated at the very confines of East and West 
with their respective influences — came to introduce 
yet a third denominational element. Under Austro- 
Hungarian rule, the population of Bosnia and 
Herzegovina was officially classified according to 
denominations — except for a small number of 
settlers whose nationality was duly recorded — 
although the greater part of the people was becoming 
nationally conscious, i.e., the Orthodox population 
professed to be Serbs, and the Roman-Catholics 
Croats. Up to the World War II, Belgrade and 
Zagreb had each claimed national kinship with the 
Moslems of Bosnia, hence it came that a certain part 
of the Muslim population — mostly urban intelligentsia 
had declared themselves Serbs and Croats respecti- 
vely. 



However, the great majority of the Muslims in 
Bosnia and Herzegovina remained unimpressed and 
abstained from declaring themselves Serbs or Croats. 
Personal opinion and feelings on the question of 
nationality have been fully respected in modern 
Yugoslavia; consequently, the Serbo-Croat speaking 
Muslims are free to choose whether to declare 
themselves Serbs or Croats, or make no declaration 
of their nationality. Among other reasons, the fact 
that there are in Bosnia and Herzegovina large 
numbers of nationally undecided Serbo-Croat 
speaking Muslims was decisive for Bosnia and 
Herzegovina being made a separate people's republic 
of modern Yugoslavia. 

The four centuries of Turkish rule (867/1463- 
1295/1878) have resulted not only in the islamisation 
of a large part of the population but have also left 
their mark on the whole country. In Bosnia and 
Herzegovina Serbo-Croat is the language alike of 
Muslims and of the rest of the population. Con- 
sequently, elements of oriental culture have taken 
firm root in the pattern and way of life not only of 
the Muslims but of the entire population of Bosnia 
and Herzegovina. 

The centuries of Turkish rule delayed the growth 
of middle-class society in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 
However, the economic policy pursued in Bosnia 
and Herzegovina under Austro-Hungarian rule 
proved unable to develop and exploit all the 
productive possibilities of the country's resources, 
with the result that Bosnia and Herzegovina 
remained a backward country in many ways. In 
pre-war Yugoslavia, owing to various unfavourable 
circumstances and to the economic policy of the 
Government, the inherited backwardness did not 
show any great improvement. It was only after 
the World War II and the carrying out of revolu- 
tionary measures by the new regime of Yugoslavia 
that the natural resources of Bosnia and Herzegovina 
came to be exploited to the full due to the growing 
industrialisation of the country. Since 1945. a great 
number of industrial plants and establishments have 
been set up, small and large hydro-electric and 
thermo-electric power stations have been built and 
the mining industry modernised and extended. In 
the period from 1947 to 1954 the investments 
made in the industries and mining of Bosnia and 
Herzegovina totalled 236,494 million dinars or 61.3 
per cent of all investments. The investment policy 
had to be adjusted and slightly changed after this 
period of most intensive industrialisation. The 
investments made in 1957 totalled 75,667 millions, 
of which 33,846 was spent on industry and mining. 
The consequences of rapid industrialisation are also 
reflected in the official returns concerning the ratio 
of agricultural population in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 
which was as follows: 

1895 1910 1931 1948 1953 
Engaged in agriculture, 

forestry & fishing 88.4 86.6 85.4 76.7 63.5 
Engaged otherwise 11.6 13.4 16.5 23.3 36.5 

The rate of growth in the other branches of the 
national economy was less rapid, especially as 
regards the use of agricultural land and cattle and 
sheep raising, but recent trends in agricultural policy 
have resulted in greater emphasis being laid on 
tillage and other types of farming. In 1957 there were 
in Bosnia and Herzegovina 2,613,000 hectares of 
agricultural land, 64.7% of which were cultivable, 
the rest being pastures and hill grazings (35%) and 
marshland and reed-beds (0.1%). 



Concerning communications, Bosnia and Herze- 
govina is still suffering from the consequences of 
adverse former conditions, especially as regards the 
railway network. In 1957 the country had 2,111 km. 
of railways, 1,339 km. of which were of standard 
gauge as against 772 km. of narrow gauge. 

The total value of national production in Bosnia 
and Herzegovina during 1956 was 215,639 million 
dinars, the chief sources and amounts (in millions) 
contributed by each being as follows: 



Industry & Mining 


108,446 


Agriculture 


46,828 


Building 


",I54 


Transport 


19,877 


Forestry 


10,041 


Handicrafts 


5,653 


Trade & Catering 


13,640 



Similar to the inherited underdeveloped state of 
the country's economy is the inherited cultural 
backwardness of the people, particularly in rural 
areas. The Austro-Hungarian government set up 
state-controlled primary schools without abolishing 
denominational schools. Compulsory primary edu- 
cation was introduced in 191 1, yet in 1912/13 there 
were in Bosnia and Herzegovina only 374 state- 
controlled primary schools. The small number of 
schools, state-controlled and denominational together, 
could only cope with 18.55% of the children of 
school age. The Government of the Kingdom of 
Yugoslavia would only recognise the State primary 
schools, yet hardly one third of the children of school 
age were able to attend. The number of primary 
schools in 1938-39 was only 1,092, hence the large- 
scale illiteracy at the time. After World War II, 
despite the great efforts made to increase the number 
of schools and reduce illiteracy of adults, the official 
returns of 1953 showed that there were 225,000 
illiterate males and 615,000 illiterate females in 
Bosnia and Herzegovina out of a total of 2,116,000 
persons over the age of 10. 

In 1945 and over the following years special 
efforts were made to raise the standard of literacy 
and education in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thus in 
1957 there were altogether 2,406 primary schools 
(including the continuation and eight-year schools), 
37 "gymnasiums" (secondary classical or grammar 
schools), 159 professional training schools and 27 
others. For adults there were 26 two-year elementary 
schools, 10 secondary schools, 12 technical schools for 
workers, 19 schools for skilled workmen and 1 1 others. 
Some time after the war a university with seven facul- 
ties was founded in Sarajevo, as well as an academy of 
music and a number of science institutes. In addition 
to these, there are now three Teachers Training 
Colleges in Bosnia and Herzegovina, several higher 
(professional) training colleges, six theatres, sixty 
science libraries, three hundred and twenty-five 
public libraries, eighteen museums and a radio 
broadcasting station. 

Bibliography: Statistitki godUSnjak FNRJ za 
1958, Belgrade 1958; Rezultati popisa stanpvntiltva 
'953, Book I — Vitalna i etniika obeleija (in print) 
(The Federal Statistical Office of FPRY makes 
available surveys in English and French) — 
Informativni podaci srezovima i opitinama 
(issued by Statistical Office of Bosnia and Herze- 
govina), Sarajeva 1958; EncihUrpedija Jugo- 
slavije, ii, (S. V. Bosna i Hercegovina) Zagreb, 
1956. 



(a) During the rise of Turkish power 
The establishment of Islam in Bosnia and Herze- 
govina is associated with the setting up and 
strengthening of Turkish rule. The first Turkish 
invasion occurred in the year 788/1386 during the 
reign of the first Bosnian kingTvrtko I (1353-91, king 
from 1377) when he was at the summit of his power. 
The next invasion took place in 790/1388 when the 
Turkish army was defeated by the Vojvoda Vlatko 
Vukovid. In the following year, a Bosnian army led 
by Vlatko Vukovic took part in the battle of 
Kossovo in support of the Serbian Duke Lazar. In 
the course of fighting Sultan Murad was mortally 
wounded and died when the battle had ended, yet 
Prince Bayazid succeeded in carrying the day and 
taking Duke Lazar prisoner. After the battle of 
Kossovo the Duke's successors had to acknowledge 
Turkish suzerainty. The vassal Serbs considerably 
weakened the position of Bosnia. King Tvrtko's 
successor was allowed to rule over the lands that 
actually belonged to him, while the greater part of 
Bosnia was in the power of independent magnates 
each exercising full control over their respective 
districts. The conquest of Skopje (in Turkish 
Uskup) by the Turks in 794/1392 brought about the 
formation of a Turkish March bordering on Serbia 
and Bosnia. Skopje became the seat of the first 
Sandiak-beyi Pasha Yigit, who was succeeded by his 
son Ishak. From 818/1415 frequent Turkish incur- 
sions took place : as a result, Turkish influence made 
itself increasingly felt in the internal affairs of the 
country and in the ever growing dissensions among 
Bosnian barons and pretenders to the throne. 
Soon after the accession of Tvrtko II (1420-43), who 
had to acknowledge Turkish suzerainty, Bosnian 
kings were subjected to tribute by the Turks (from 
832/1428-29) who had temporarily occupied and 
garrisoned a number of towns on several occasions. 
It was not until the middle of the 9th/i5th century 
that the Turks became firmly established in the 
town of Hodidjed and the surrounding country — 
in the present district of Sarajevo — where a frontier 
March was formed and administered by the Governor 
'Isa Bey of Skopje, the son of Ishak Bey, under the 
direct control of a Turkish dignitary with the title 
of voyvoda. The area was under dual control, for the 
Bosnian lords of the surrounding districts were 
vassals of the Turks. This administrative area is 
recorded in a Turkish cadastral register of the year 
859/1455, but no mention is made there of a settle- 
ment called Saray OvasI though a district of the 
same name is recorded. However, the origins of 
Sarajevo date back before the final downfall of the 
Kingdom of Bosnia, for the townlet of Saray 
Ovast is recorded in 866/1362. At that time the 
Bosnian throne was occupied by Stjepan Tomas 
(1443-1461), who relied on the support of the West 
but failed to obtain release from the obligation to 
pay tribute to the Turks. On that occasion, the Pope 
demanded not only the conversion of the king to 
Catholicism but the suppression of "heresy" as well, 
a religion which, despite constant persecution, had 
taken firm root and become the established church. 
However reluctantly, the King finally ordered the 
persecution of the heretics who took refuge in the 
districts held by Turks and in the region of later 
Herzegovina. The Turks continued to exploit not 
only the religious antagonism in the kingdom but 
social differences as well. The attempt made to 



unite the Kingdom of Bosnia and the Despotate 
of Serbia by means of an arranged marriage between 
the King's son Stjepan Tomasevic and a Serbian 
Princess, brought about the fall of the Despotate 
and its capital city of Smederevo (1459). Stjepan 
Tomasevic (1461-1463), the last of Bosnian kings, 
came to depend upon the West for support to a much 
larger extent than his father ever did. 

In 867/1463 when the King refused to pay tribute, 
the Turkish armies, led by the Sultan himself, 
invaded and rapidly conquered Bosnia. Soon after 
the withdrawal of Turkish troops, the Hungarian 
King Matthias Corvinus marched into Bosnia and 
occupied the town of Jajce with adjacent districts. 
During the following year Hungarian forces con- 
quered Srebrenik, when two "banats" were set up — 
the seat of one in Jajce and of the other in Srebrenik — 
which formed a Hungarian March reinforced by the 
belt to the South of the Sava. During the 9th/i5th 
century several incursions were launched from here, 
culminating in a three-day occupation of Sarajevo. 
King Matthias made one of his barons titular King 
of Bosnia. The Turks had earlier given the conquered 
districts of the kingdom to a cousin of the former 
dynasty and had founded a titular kingdom which 
had lasted only up to 881/1476. 

The first Sandiak-beyi of Bosnia was Mehmed-bey 
Minnet-oghlu. The sandiak of Herzegovina was 
founded in 874/1470 (the rest of Herzegovina was 
conquered by the Turks at the end of 886/beginning 
of 1482) ; another sandjak was later set up, the seat 
of which was in Zvornik. The Banat of Srebrenik 
fell to the Turks in 918/1512, who also captured 
Jajce and Banjaluka after the battle of Mohacs 
(in 1527 or 1528). From Bosnia the Turks penetrated 
into Lika and occupied the greater part of Dalmatia 
with the castle of Klis. The Bosnian sandiak-beyi 
took part in the conquest of Slavonia. 

The seat of the sandiak of Bosna was in Sarajevo 
(until the middle of the ioth/i6th century) where 
many imposing buildings were erected by the 
sandiak-beyi GhazI Khusrew-bey, who came there as 
sandiak-beyi in 926/1520 and died in 948/1541- By 
that time the town of Sarajevo had become a large 
and important place. However, the seat of the 
sand[ak was moved to Banjaluka (towards the 
middle of the ioth/i6th century), the lay-out and 
building of which as a Muslim city was com- 
pleted by Ferhad Sokolovic (Sokollu), a Governor 
of Bosnia who became the first Bosnian pasha 
(beyler-beyi). In the year 988/ 1580 the eydlet of 
Bosnia was formed, with Banjaluka as its seat, 
which comprised seven sandiaks (Bosnia, Herzegovina, 
Klis, Krka, Pakrac, Zvornik and Poiega). In 
addition to the present area of Bosnia and 
Herzegovina, the eydlet included parts of Slavonia, 
Lika and Dalmatia, as well as the frontier districts 
of Serbia. At the beginning of the nth/ the end 
of the 1 6th century the eydlet was composed of eight 
sandiaks, and at the end of the first decade of the 
nth/the beginning of the 17th century the sandiak 
of Poiega was incorporated into the newly formed 
eydlet of Kanizsa. 

The Turkish conquest brought about great 
changes in the social pattern of Bosnia and Her- 
zegovina. At the time when Bosnia came under 
Turkish control, the foundations of the structure 
and organisation of the Ottoman Empire had been 
completed. 

Having conquered the country, the Turks pro- 
ceeded to introduce their own social structure, a 
strictly centralised government, and their military 



and feudal systems. This resulted in great changes 
in economic and social relations. Mining, next to 
agriculture the most important branch of former 
Bosnian economic activities, was taken over by the 
new rulers, and all the mines became the property 
of the sultan. The days of high and powerful 
ieudal lords, masters in their own districts, were gone. 
In agrarian relations, the timdr system was introduced 
controlled by a central authority. The sandiaks were 
administered by governors directly controlled by the 
sultans, whose incomes were the largest next to 
those of emperors. Governors used to be replaced all 
too frequently. On the other hand, the pressure on 
the peasant eased and sheep-raising began to improve. 
In the countryside generally, patriarchal ways of 
life and a measure of autonomy became apparent. 
At the same time, great religious and ethnical 
changes occurred involving the whole population. 
There was a large-scale islamisation. An improve- 
ment in animal husbandry in certain mountainous 
■districts, particularly in those of Herzegovina, 
became evident, sheep-breeders were resettled in 
fertile agricultural districts which had been laid 
waste by wars and the like. Settling down on fertile 
lands, thousands of sheep-raisers turned to tillage, 
thus providing fresh manpower for the improvement 
of devastated areas. In view of the great importance 
attached to their work as colonisers, the settlers 
were allowed to retain their former privileges as 
sheep-raisers; however, with the growth of the 
feudal system and more settled conditions the settlers 
very largely became common re'-dyd. Because most 
of these settlers were Orthodox Serbs, many districts 
which had been devoid of Serbs now became peopled 

On the other hand, islamisation helped the reigning 
religion to win adherents and partisans among all 
classes: peasants, feudal lords and townspeople. The 
islamisation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has not been 
the subject of comprehensive studies so far, so it 
still presents a problem awaiting solution. Before the 
World War I the generally accepted opinion was 
that the followers of the heretic Church, the so-called 
Bogumils had passed over to Islam in a body, 
allegedly because of a similarity of views on moral 
law, and owing to the earlier persecutions on the 
part of the Church of Rome. This opinion is still 
shared by many scholars today (A. Solovjev and 
others). By passing over to Islam en masse, Bosnian 
nobles had been allowed to retain their estates, and 
the traditional pattern of land-tenure in Bosnia and 
Herzegovina had thus remained unchanged until the 
I3th/i9th century. The timdr system was only 
introduced as a superstructure. One of the chief 
supporters of this theory, before the World War I, 
was C. Truhelka. According to Truhelka and others, 
Bosnia had from the very beginning enjoyed a 
separate status in the Ottoman Empire. 

During the interval between the two world wars 
some Yugoslav historians (V. Cubrilovic, V. Skaric) 
sought to prove the groundlessness of these views. 
They were of the opinion that (a) the islamisation 
had been carried out gradually, (b) the Bosnian 
nobles had not retained their estates after the con- 
quest because of the setting-up of the timdr system, 
and (c) the system of land-tenure, such as prevailed 
during the 18th century and was continued in the 
following century, had developed only gradually 
within the framework of the old agrarian system. 

Attention has been drawn by modern Yugoslav 
historians to Turkish sources of the first order, 
particularly to cadastral registers, which are likely 



to throw light on the history of the Yugoslav peoples 
during the period in question; however, the results 
of the investigations have not all been made public 

Before 867/1463, while the Turks held part of 
Bosnia under their control, there were no sipdhi 
timdrs in the outlying districts of the borderland 
governed by c Isa Bey, the only timdrs being those 
owned by men of the garrison of the fort at Hodidjed. 
Moreover, in the interior of the borderland, within 
the estates of c Is5 Bey, there were a number of 
sipdhis, mostly Muslims with a few Christians. After 
the conquest, it was mainly from here and Macedonia, 
then from Serbia and other regions that the bulk of 
sipdhis were drawn. Among the sipdhis that were 
sent to Bosnia there were many of Slav origin. 
After liquidating the leading representatives of the 
old Bosnian nobility during and after the conquest, 
the Turks at first left a few members of noble 
families and a good number of the old minor feudal 
landowners in possession of their estates. The con- 
querors also gave lands to headmen of sheep-raisers. 
This accounts for the presence at the time of many 
Christian sipdhis, particularly in Herzegovina. 

The coming over of Bosnian feudatories to the side 
of Turks began rather early, at a time when they 
had to rely on influential Turks in the settling of 
disputes. Thus the land of the ducal family of 
Pavlovic was recorded in the cadastral register of 
859/1455 as land paying tribute in a lump sum 
{mukdfa'a) (see Basvekalet arsivi, Maliye deft. 544). 
Herzeg Stjepan's line of policy was for long one of 
complete reliance on the Turks. His sons had some 
time to rely on the Turks as well. His youngest son 
went over to the Turks, embraced Islam and as 
Hersekzade Ahmed Pasha held the office of Grand 
Vizier five times during the reigns of Bayazid II 
and Sellm I. A considerable number of natives of 
Bosnia and Herzegovina belonging to Muslim feudal 
families, as well as boys collected from the re'-dyd by 
devshirme and educated at the Court, were to hold 
the offices of Viziers or Grand Viziers. Mehmed 
Pasha Sokolovic (Sokollu), one of the foremost 
Ottoman statesmen, Grand Vizier 972/1564-987/1579, 
was descended from a distinguished Serbian family 
in Bosnia, whose Christian relatives were Patriarchs 
of Serbia after the restoration of the Patriarchate 
of Pec (1557). The bonds of blood and kinship 
between men of Bosnian descent who held high 
offices and their kinsmen helped greatly to raise 
the fortunes of certain Bosnian families. 

Although the ranks of sipdhis were partly filled 
with foreign newcomers, the majority were of 
native descent, raised from among the old Bosnian 
feudalists or the new sipdhis created during Turkish 
rule. In the earliest cadastral registers of the sandiak 
of Bosnia, the names of islamised sipdhis and their 
Christian relatives are recorded. Likewise, the 
members of their whole families are found grouped 
around the names of outstanding dignitaries (see 
Basvekalet arsivi, Tapu deft. 18 and 24). During the 
period there were in Bosnia, adjacent to Sultans' and 
Sandjak-beys' estates, a number of liftliks held by 
feudal landlords and others; some of the sipdhis 
likewise owned liftliks in addition to timdrs, but 
most of the latter contained no liftliks as a rule. 
The liftliks were hereditary possessions and remained 
as such even should the sipdhi have lost possession 
of the tlmar. On the whole it would seem that a 
number of earlier feudatories, converted to Islam, had 
kept their inherited land in the form of liftliks. The 
latter, however, were few in number and consisted of 



small estates, thus the theory can hardly be upheld, 
as C. Truhelka would have it, that the Bosnian 
nobles had remained in possession of their estates 
at the time of the conquest and had succeeded in 
holding them till the i3th/ioth century. As a matter 
of fact, the number of tiftliks continued to increase, 
however slightly, until the beginning of the loth/ 
the end of the 15th century when, during the reign 
of Sultan Suleyman the Lawgiver, the tiftliks of this 
kind were finally abolished. Such tiftliks, however, 
were to serve as a basis and pattern for the future 
development of new agrarian relations out of the old. 

Muslim descendants of Christian sipdhis and 
members of islamised families who had mended 
their fortunes under Turkish rule were to be 
found later as sipdhis and zaHms, as dizddrs of 
fortresses and higher functionaries. The importance 
attached to Bosnia as a frontier land favoured the 
rise to influence and power of the native Muslims. 
True, after the break-through of the Turkish armies 
and the invasion of areas under Hungarian rule, a 
great many sipdhis were ordered to settle in newly 
conquered regions, yet this was not followed by the 
same consequences as in Serbia where the process 
of islamisation virtually stopped with the Turkish 
invasion of Hungary. In Bosnia and Herzegovina 
islamisation had resulted in the creation of a 
broad basis of Muslims recruited not only from the 
townspeople but also from the peasantry. 

The creation of conditions necessary for the devel- 
opment of town communities in Bosnia — particularly 
those of mining centres — had begun during the 
period preceding the Turkish conquest. After the 
•establishment of Turkish rule, Bosnian towns began 
to develop and grow. Turkish craftsmanship, 
particularly the handicraft characteristic of the 
Near East, was far advanced as compared with the 
craftsmanship of the earlier Bosnian period. Con- 
sequently, handicrafts and trade guilds of an 
oriental type developed greatly over the first 
two centuries of Turkish reign in Bosnia and 
Herzegovina. Great progress was made in trades 
related to the manufacture of leather, in gold- 
smiths' work, and in crafts connected with the 
production of military equipment and of goods 
required by townspeople. On the other hand, 
the Ottoman mining industry was less developed 
than in Bosnia or Serbia where Saxon settlers 
had introduced their mining technique and rules. 
Owing to the introduction, by the Turkish 
authorities, of bureaucratic administrative measures 
in mining areas which became merged with the 
Imperial domains (khdss), the mining industry 
suffered a setback in the first century of the Turkish 
rule, with a consequent falling off in production and, 
more particularly, in the output of precious metals; 
the production of iron, however, showed a slight 
increase. For these reasons, the growth of towns in 
Bosnia and Herzegovina during the period of 
Turkish rule was associated — apart from military 
considerations, which were the most important 
factor in the siting and building of towns — not 
with the development of the mining industry but 
rather with the advancement of crafts and the 
related trade. The towns built by the Turks were 
all situated on sites ensuring good communications. 
Over the second half of the io/i5th century, 
the islamisation of the old Bosnian mining market- 
towns proceeded but slowly and was less conducive 
to their future development than in the case of new 
towns built by the Turks on the sites of former 
market-towns. A good instance are the towns of 
^Encyclopaedia of Islam 



Sarajevo and Banjaluka, among others, which, as the 
seats of Turkish authorities and military garrisons, 
expanded and developed into crafts centres and 
trading settlements. Besides the Muslims civil 
servants and soldiers, the populations of similar 
towns continued to grow because of the migration 
of Muslims from various places who brought in 
Oriental customs and ways of life. At the beginning 
however, it was the merchants of Dubrovnik who 
were the only traders on a large scale. 

The building of the most important towns in 
Bosnia and Herzegovina was due to the initiative 
of individual governors. It was in and around these 
towns that governors had their estates, mills, houses, 
hammdms and shops, which they would bequeath 
and leave, during their lifetime, as religious and 
charitable endowments (wakf). Thus a great number 
of mosques, tekiyes and religious schools were built, 
with libraries adjoining mosques or schools. Dervish 
orders introduced mystic rites and ceremonies likely 
to please the urban population. Briefly, the towns of 
Bosnia became the strongholds of Turkish power and 
the mainstays of Muslim culture. The towns also 
had an influence on the countryside and attracted 
great numbers of peasants and people from rural 
areas. Most of the migrants were peasants converted 
to Islam, and the non-Muslims soon became converts 
as well. Christians and Jews living in towns were few 
in number. 

The earliest Turkish cadastral registers of the 
sandjaks of Bosnia and Herzegovina provide docu- 
mentary evidence bearing out the contention that the 
islamisation en masse had its origin in towns and the 
surrounding country districts. At the beginning of 
the period, as shown in the records, converted 
peasants in the sandjak of Bosnia were to be found 
only around the town of Sarajevo. In 894/1489 there 
were in the sandjak over 25,000 Christian houses, 
1,300 odd Christian widows' houses, and over 4,000 
unmarried Christian men, as compared with approx- 
imately 4,500 Muslim houses and over 2,300 single 
Muslims (cf. Basvekalet arsivi, Tapu deft. no. 24). 
The earliest cadastral register of the sandjak of 
Herzegovina for the year 882/1477 (Tapu deft. no. 5) 
clearly shows — and so do the other cadastral registers 
— that the islamisation was not instantaneous; nor 
is there any evidence to prove the assumption that 
the conquerors had been joined by masses of partisans 
that belonged to the heretic Church of Bosnia. Only 
in some mountain villages of Herzegovina, as shown 
by the registers, were to be found the "devoted 
believers of the Church of Bosnia" (krstjani); also, 
some believers of the Church of Bosnia were recorded 
to have lived in a deserted village in the sandjak of 
Bosnia, this being the only instance. It would seem 
that twenty years' persecution of Bosnian heretics 
during the reigns of King Stjepan Tomas and King 
Stjepan Tomasevic had broken up the heretic Church 
of Bosnia; the change-over to Orthodoxy of Herzeg 
Stjepan Vukcic must also have had its share in 
weakening the position of the Bosnian Church in 
Herzegovina. The Turkish government recognised 
the Serbian Orthodox Church. Under the Sultan's 
berdt [q.v.], the Orthodox Church enjoyed consid- 
derable rights and privileges. The Catholic Church 
was also granted certain privileges by Mehemmed II 
the Conqueror. It is evident from data in the 
cadastral registers that the "devoted believers of 
the Church of Bosnia" had retired into remote 
secluded districts of Herzegovina. There is no recorded 
evidence of any islamisation of those parts of the 
country or the people at the time. The inference 



could therefore be drawn that the Bosnian heretics 
in most areas had already been brought into the 
fold (Orthodox or Catholic), which would exclude 
the possibility of a general conversion to Islam of 
the followers of the Church of Bosnia. 

However, the probability is that the earlier 
persecutions on the part of the Catholic Church, 
combined with the pressure brought to bear by the 
Orthodox Church, which had the right to collect 
church-dues, had created conditions favouring the 
conversion to Islam of the former followers of the 
Bosnian Church. At all events, the development of 
towns as centres of Islam, and their influence on 
the surrounding countryside resulted in a steady 
spread of Islam among the peasantry of certain 
areas as early as the 9th/i5th century. Thus a 
foundation was laid for a major islamisation of the 
peasantry. The islamised peasants were given the 
distinctive name of potur. Their religion was a mixture 
of Islamic and other elements, christianised pagan, 
Christian and heretical-Christian. It was on these 
grounds that the Muslim feudatories and religious in- 
telligentsia were inclined not to regard the Muslim 
peasantry as their equals. 

During the reign of Siileyman KanunI measures 
were taken to check the growing power of the 
feudal class, which had been completely islamised 
by then. Bosnian sipdhis were made to move to 
newly conquered areas, the vacant titndrs being 
made over to sipdhis from other districts. Ciftliks 
were transformed and made part of re'dyd lands. 
It was at this time — and to a greater extent later 
on — that by graft and bribes a number of courtiers 
began to acquire estates in Bosnia. However, at the 
same time concessions had to be made in view of 
the needs of defence, particularly those of the 
borderland, and the existence of many devasted 
areas. Over the second half of the io/i6th century 
the number of (iftliks in possession of feudal lords 
and army officers continued to grow, particularly 
in frontier districts. The post of kapudan (captain), 
formerly concerned with service on rivers in ihe 
borderland, came to be that of an officer in 
command of forts and defensive works of a district. 
The native feudal class could always rely on the 
kapudan' s office for effectual support. The setting 
up of the eydlet of Bosnia added greatly to the 
ever increasing importance of the native nobility. 

The second half of the ioth/i6th century proved 
to be a period of rapid growth and development of 
certain Bosnian towns. There followed a steady rise 
in the volume of trade with Italian towns by enter- 
prising home traders and Dubrovnik merchants. 
Being in the majority, the Muslim inhabitants of 
towns enjoyed certain privileges and lived in special 
quarters apart from the Christian population. Owing 
to the influx of newcomers certain guilds closed 
their doors, hence a migration of Muslim population 
to places and towns beyond the Sava. 

In the second half of the ioth/i6th century, the 
signs of a crisis in the Ottoman general administrative 
structure became increasingly apparent in the 
country's finances. One of its effects was a consi- 
derable weakening of Turkish military power. This 
crisis became evident in Bosnia as well. The last 
military ventures and offensive operations made 
under the leadership of Hasan Pasha Predojevid, 
the beyler-beyi of Bosnia, ended in the capture of 
Biha<!. In the following year (1002/1593), a Bosnian 
army led by Hasan Pasha suffered a heavy defeat 
at Sisak, which brought about the war between the 
Habsburgs and Turkey. 



The administrative structure and extent of the 
eydlet of Bosnia, which took definite shape at the 
beginning of the nth/i7th century, remained 
unchanged until about the end of the century. At 
this time, the governor of the eydlet bore the title of 
Vizier, and the seat of governement was transferred 
from Banjaluka to Sarajevo in 1049/1639. 

The crisis in the economic and financial affairs of 
the Ottoman Empire and the cracks in the Osmanli 
structure were also reflected in the conditions that 
prevailed in Bosnia where disorders were frequent 
and corruption rife. Owing to financial difficulties 
and the rising costs of maintaining control over wide 
areas of the conquered territory, the central govern- 
ment had to extend the system of lease of all public 
and imperial revenue and to raise the taxes and 
introduce new ones. The system of lease was extended 
to include the renting of local rates, and even the 
incomes from timdrs and ze'dmets acquired by 
courtiers, officials attached to central offices, and by 
many other prominent men living in the capital. 
The widespread centralised bureaucratic system, 
designed to control and check oppression, became 
a source of corruption, practised by local authorities 
as well. From the second half of the ioth/i6th 
century on, the financial burdens and exploitation 
of the re'dyd (peasantry) increased, the pressure 
being put on the sheep-raisers of the autonomous 
districts likewise. The long war (1593-1606) was a 
constant drain on Turkish resources and manpower, 
with Bosnia bearing the brunt in her exposed 
position. Owing to the war there was much unrest and 
many risings of the Serb people in Herzegovina both 
during and after the war. Over the first two decades 
of the nth/i7th century, former rebels from Anatolia 
were sent to Bosnia as governors and would turn 
rebels in Bosnia as well; they could always rely for 
support on a large number of malcontents among the 
native sipdhi class who were embittered because 
courtiers and those near to central authorities would 
be given timdrs and ze'dmets as a present, thus 
enabling individuals and local bureaucrats to 
acquire estates as large as several timdrs put together. 
Turkish governors, whose term of office was rather 
short, were anxious to amass riches and exploited 
the country for their own profit, as did the officials 
of the central government sent to investigate 
malpractices and causes of unrest. 

Despite such conditions the native feudal class 
continued to prosper and grow in strength. The 
process of transformation of peasant lands into 
(iftliks owned by military commanders, sipdhis and 
wealthier citizens was gaining ground as was 
alienation of free bashtinas (inherited possessions) of 
knez-es (village headmen) and other categories of 
land. Peasant tenants (liftti, kmet) of such (iftliks 
were required to deliver one third of a fourth (at a 
later period a fifth, or a ninth in some instances) 
of corps to their owners {(iftlik sdhibi) besides being 
forced to work on (iftliks belonging exclusively to 
the (iftlik owner. Such tenants were bound to pay 
( ushr, sdldriye and other duties of the timdr system 
to their sipdhis (sdhib-i ard) should the (iftlik happen 
to be part of a timdr or a ze l dmet, which was usually 
the case. The system of government by kapudans 
was extended and came to be applied in the inland 
areas of the country, for the central government 
could not afford the means required for the upkeep 
of as large an army of mercenaries as was needed. 



In the circumstances, kapudans tended to grow 
overbold and defy orders issued by Pashas. 

Yielding to the demands of Bosnian sipdhis 
supported by the Pasha, Sultan Ahmed (1603-1717) 
issued a firman establishing titndrs with rights of 
family succession (odjakltk), the successors being 
sons or brothers of the deceased, or else kinsmen 
living with the family (odjak). 

Changes in land tenure and economic policy 
mainly affected the Christian peasantry; the land 
of Muslim peasants was seldom interfered with. 
Increased taxation and growing exploitation deepen- 
ed the existing divisions between the two classes of 
peasantry, hence the frequent flights of Christian 
peasants over the border and increasing numbers of 
outlaws (haydut in Turkish), who as highwaymen 
became a menace to safety on the roads. 

The trends of development in agriculture and other 
branches of national economy, apparent in the 
earlier period, became more pronounced during the 
second half of the ioth/i6th century and during the 
nth/i7th century. Mining industry continued to 
decline and was at its lowest at the end of the century. 
The towns grew and developed during the second 
half of the 16th and the first half of the 17th 
centuries as a result of the expanding trade and 
commerce. The opening of the port at Split (1592), 
a rival to the port of Dubrovnik, proved an event 
of great importance to Bosnian trade. The town 
guilds came under the exclusive control of the 
janissaries, and this led to the further transformation 
of guilds into closed organisations. Town notables 
(a'-ydn, q.v.) and powerful aghas made their appear- 
ance in growing numbers. However, part of the inhab- 
itants of towns were Christians, some of whom were 
craftsmen and tradesmen. Following the increasing 
migration of country people into towns the tax on 
abandoned land was very increased. Over the second 
half of the ioth/i6th and the first half of the nth/ 
17th centuries, some of the towns grew both in 
extent and importance, particularly the town of 
Sarajevo. The amassed money-capital, however, 
served to advance the practices of usury. Besides 
the prosperous Muslim class, there were in towns 
certain Christian families of rich traders and 
merchants — Christian usurers. The urban social 
pattern showed a marked tendency towards a 
sharper division between the wealthier, politically 
influential class and the lower class of the urban 
poor. In the nth/i7th century there occurred 
several serious outbreaks of disorder and rioting 
among the poor of Sarajevo, largely Muslim. 

While in the first half of the nth/i7th century the 
Thirty Years War in Europe prevented any major 
military undertaking against the Turk, in the 
second half of the century two long wars caused 
much suffering and lowered the standard of living 
conditions and the economy of the eydlel of Bosnia. 
The war against Venice (1644-1669) and the shorter 
war against the Habsb'urgs (1663- 1664) were waged 
in areas belonging to the eydlet of Bosnia, where 
frequent incursions took place. The consequent 
flights of Christian population across the frontier 
resulted in the enlistment of many of the fugitives, 
called uskoci, in the military service of Venice. In 
Herzegovina also there was unrest and rising of the 
people. After the wars there followed a 14-year 
period of welcome peace, which on the whole 
resulted in consolidation of Turkish power. The 
attack on -Vienna started the-new. war with the Holy 
Alliance which was to last a long time (1683-1699). 
For once the Bosnian territory south of the Sava 



IA 1267 

escaped being the main scene of the operations, but 
a Bosnian army had to take part in the war and 
defend the frontiers. Austrian troops temporarily 
occupied some districts south of the Sava (in 1688), 
and nine years later Prince. Eugene, after the battle 
of Senta, advanced as far as Sarajevo, burning it 
down in 1 109/1697. The Christian population, 
particularly the Roman Catholics, migrated and 
retreated with the invading armies. The long wars 
left an epidemic of plague in their trail. 

Under the terms of the peace-treaty of Karlovci 
(n 10/1699) the eydlet of Bosnia retained, with 
minor changes, the present frontiers of Bosnia and 
Herzegovina on the north and west. However, on 
these frontiers new fortifications began to be built 
and the old ones repaired; more "kapudanships" 
were established. The eydlet now consisted of five 
sandjaks (Bosnia, Herzegovina, Klis, Zvornik and 
Biha6), the last being abolished soon after. It was 
at this time that the residence of the Bosnian vizier 
was transferred from Sarajevo to Travnik. 

Muslim refugees from the ceded areas of Hungary, 
Slavonia, Croatia and Dalmatia came to settle in 
Bosnia on lands abandoned or sparsely populated, 
which they were allowed to hold as Hftliks. The new 
settlers were embittered against the Christian 
Powers and the insurgents, which added to the 
division and differences between Muslims and 
Christians. A number of settlers came to stay in 
towns, for the most part tradesmen, craftsmen and 
soldiers. 

The exposed position of the eydlet of Bosnia 
called for great efforts on the part of the Muslim 
population. Under the peace-treaty of Poiarevac 
(1130/1718) Austria was given a belt of territory south 
of the Sava, and some areas around the western 
frontier were also lost to Austria and Venice. Despite 
the ravages wrought by the plague coupled with a 
succession of bad harvests and heavy loss of life 
suffered by Bosnian sipdhis, a Bosnian army led 
by Hekim-oghlu 'All Pasha gained a decisive victory 
over the Austrians at Banjaluka in 1 150/1737. The 
treaty of Belgrade (1152/1739) deprived Austria of 
all the territories held under the treaty of Poiarevac, 
except for the castle of Furjan. 

Bosnian feudal nobility and Muslims in general 
had by now lost confidence in the power of the 
Empire. The arrival of janissaries from the abandoned 
regions strengthened the privileged position of certain 
towns, particularly that of Sarajevo, which were 
now granted virtual autonomy, the greatest power 
being yielded by municipal a'ydn and military 
commanders ("bashas") with kapudans. These 
dignitaries came to be the main representatives of 
political power. In the time of <Ali Pasha a Council 
of a'ydn was set up, composed of municipal a'-ydn, 
kapudans and men of note from different parts of the 
eydlet. The Council was meant to exercise control 
over the vizier himself and was given powers to 
determine certain vizier's incomes. 

Sprung from this privileged class, the new native 
Muslim nobility was founded on the subjection of 
peasantry and depended on further extension of 
villainage. Beys and aghas as land and ii/tlik lords 
took over or seized new lijtliks, causing peasants 
from stock-rearing districts to settle on deserted 
land, and generally acting independently of the 
central authority, kapudans usurped the powers 
and functions of officers of state, renting the state's 
revenue, taking over (i/ttiks, and acquiring property 
by every means. Certain families of kapudans 
recorded in the first decades of the I2th/i8th century 



had reached a high position in society by the end 
of the century. 

In order to acquire riches and indemnify them- 
selves for taxes paid and bribes offered to obtain the 
appointment to the office, viziers of Bosnia would 
raise the rate of taxation and impose new rates, 
taxes and other dues. Indeed, immediate delivery 
of certain goods was often demanded as advance 
payment for taxes 6-9 months before they were to 
fall due. This provoked a series of revolts and risings 
of poor citizens and Muslim peasantry over a period 
of ten years about the middle of the I2th/i8th 
century. 

Such circumstances had an adverse effect on trade 
in town and country alike. The prevailing conditions 
acted as a serious set-back to economic growth of 
the country. 

In the war between Austria and Turkey (1788- 
1791) the responsibility for the defence of the 
frontier districts rested with the Bosnian forces. 
Apart from capturing certain frontier castles (1788- 
1790) the Austrian armies had but few successes. 
Under the terms of the peace-treaty of Svishtov 
(1791) Turkey surrendered a little part of her 
territory, and Austria evacuated the captured 
frontier castles. 

At the beginning of the I3th/end of 18th century 
Sultan Selim III introduced a series of reforms and 
measures largely designed to curb the power of 
janissaries. The policy of the proposed reforms ran 
counter to the established foundations and prevailing 
influence of Muslim nobility and the privileged 
position of Muslim population of towns in the 
Bosnian eydlet. 



The new Turkish reforms could not but be met 
with indignation by Bosnian Muslims, interfering as 
they did with the established military structure and 
being directed against the janissaries and the sipdhi 
army. In several campaigns against the insurgents in 
Serbia, Bosnian beys, aghas and the urban population 
took part in large numbers; however, the Bosnian 
army suffered a heavy defeat at MiSar (1806). A 
short time after, several risings of Serb peasantry 
occurred in Bosnia but were soon put down. Far 
greater efforts were needed for the final suppression 
of the rebellion of the Drobnjaks in Herzegovina. 
Bosnian Muslims also took part in the suppression 
of the rising in Serbia in 181 3. 

The transit trade improved during the period 
of Napoleonic continental blockade. Bosnian roads 
were chiefly used at the time for the transport 
of cotton, undertaken by Serbian and Jewish 
traders, many of whom grew rich in consequence. 
Muslim tradesmen in towns were dependent for 
their prosperity on the preservation of privileges and 
special rights. Sarajevo, the most important town, 
had acquired a large measure of independence in 
regard to viziers; there were frequent cases of 
serious differences and quarrels between the citizens 
and the vizier, which at times led to armed resistance. 
With the appointment and arrival of Djalal al-DIn 
Pasha in 1820 law and order was restored at a great 
sacrifice of life. The abolition of the order of Janis- 
saries was the cause of another rising of the people, 
particularly in Sarajevo, which was suppressed by 
<Abd al- Rahman Pasha. The general dissatisfaction 
and resistance to the reforms continued none the 
less. In 1246/1831, when attempts were made to 
carry the reforms into effect and reorganise the army, 



a rebellion broke out headed by Bosnian Muslim 
nobles under the leadership of Husayn-kapudan 
GradaScevitS. The insurgents demanded complete 
autonomy for Bosnia and Herzegovina and the right 
to elect their own vizier ; Bosnia had to pay a yeady 
tribute to the Sultan. The demands, if met, would 
have safeguarded the privileges of the nobility and 
the existing military structure. However, at the very 
start of the conflict the frapudans of Herzegovina, 
led by C A1I Agha RizvanbegoviiS, separated them- 
selves from the movement. Despite the victory of 
Husayn-kapudan over the imperial troops and of 
the understanding reached with the Grand Vizier, 
the initial great successes soon came to nothing 
because of personal ambitions of the leader (elected 
to the viziership in the early part of Djumada I 
1247/8-17 October 1831) and the rivalry between 
Bosnian leaders. The insurrection was put down 
(1832) and Herzegovina proclaimed a pashallk to be 
governed by c Ali Pasha Rizvanbegovid (1833). 

After the suppression of the insurrection the 
hereditary kapudanllks were abolished (1835) and 
replaced by miisellimliks. Many former kapudans, 
a'ydn, and sipdhis as well (after the abolition of 
their order) were appointed miisellims and given 
posts of commanders. The iron hand in a velvet 
glove was the means used by the Ottoman Porte in 
dealing with Bosnian nobles and stubborn malcon- 
tents. Nevertheless, the conflicts still continued, 
particularly between the citizens of Sarajevo and 
the viziers. The resistance was finally broken by 
c Umar Pasha Latas, a former Austrian petty- 
officer, born in Lika (Croatia). Sent to Bosnia 
(1850-1852) with special powers at the head of 
considerable forces, c Umar Pasha succeeded in 
breaking the great political influence of Bosnian 
nobility and carrying the reforms into effect. He 
had 'All Pasha put to death, and abolished the 
pashallk of Herzegovina. Bosnia was divided into 
six kdHmakdmllks and Herzegovina into three 
kdHmakdliks. The town of Sarajevo became the 
official residence of the vizier. 

Further reforms were made in the administration 
of the eydlet of Bosnia during the tenure of office 
of the Vizier Topal c Othman Pasha (1861-1869). 
The country was divided into seven sandiaks. The 
wildyet Council was set up in 1866 — an advisory 
body of representatives, on denominational basis. 
A start was made with modernisation of living 
conditions, health service and communications 
(the first railway — Banjaluka-Novi — was opened in 
1872). In the sixties of the century the wildyet 
printing-office was set up and a number of schools 
opened. 

The reforms and measures taken favoured the 
development of certain branches of national economy. 
Commerce and trade improved, but the guilds were 
endangered owing to the development of the market. 
Many urban Serb families rose to prosperity and, as 
a result, the influence of Serbian citizens began to 
make itself felt in rural districts. 

Yet the reforms were not far-reaching enough to 
deal with the essence of agrarian structure and its 
problems. With the abolition of the order of sipdhis 
the 'ushr (tithe) was made a tax of the state, and 
to indemnify the sipdhis for loss of income a pension 
scheme was introduced in lieu of the rents. However, 
to recoup themselves for their losses, the sipdhis 
proceeded to convert into tiftliks the remaining 
peasant free-holdings. By the middle of the 13th/ 
19th century the process had been completed; thus 
feudal land-tenure and tenantry came to be 



associated with Christian peasants, for the Muslim 
peasantry had remained in possession of their 
Ciftliks. The burden of heavy taxation was meant 
to be borne largely by the peasant. Moreover, the 
amount of rates and other dues exacted from 
the kmets (tenants) was not fixed but collected 
arbitrarily. Such conditions were a cause of general 
discontent among the peasantry, and provoked 
frequent rebellions. 

Tahir Pasha, Vizier of Bosnia, undertook (in 
1848) to settle the agrarian question. Under his new 
scheme Ciftlik owners were to collect a third part of 
the annual crop, and forced labour was to be 
abolished except in Herzegovina, where the kmeis 
were allowed to hand over less than a third of the 
crop. Certain obligations of the Ciftlik owner in the 
district of Sarajevo, e.g., to provide his kmet with 
seeds, oxen and dwellings, were to apply to all 
Bosnian districts. However, Ciftlik owners proceeded 
to collect the third of the crop everywhere, insisted 
on forced labour and failed to perform their own 
obligations. This caused much discontent among 
the peasants; nor were the Ciftlik owners satisfied. 
Several unsuccessful attempts had to be made 
before the question was finally settled — after the 
passing of the Agrarian Act (during the Ramadan 
of 1274) — by decree proclaimed in the month of 
Safar 1276/September 1859, enacting the customary 
practices in regard to kmets. No provision was made, 
however, for a uniform system of taxation and other 
dues applicable to the whole of Bosnia and Herze- 
govina. The regulations of the decree in regard to 
this system of land-tenure remained in force until 
1918. 

The unsatisfactory conditions gave rise to a series 
of peasant risings about the middle of the 19th 
century. The great rising of 1875 when masses of 
Christian peasants, kmets of aghas and beys, joined 
hands, was given a political colouring by the parti- 
cipation of the Serbian town population, particularly 
following the entry of Serbia and Montenegro into 
war against Turkey. True, the rising in Herzegovina 
was a mass movement, while in Bosnia it was only 
the frontier districts that were involved. The rising 
called forth the intervention of the Great Powers. 
The Treaty of San Stefano stipulated that Turkey 
should grant autonomy to Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Under the terms of the Congress of Berlin, 
Bosnia and Herzegovina was mandated to Austria- 
Hungary. The Austro-Hungarian troops sent to 
occupy the country met with unexpected re- 
sistance from Bosnian Muslims. The rebels were 
led by men of the lower classes — since prominent 
Bosnians were unwilling to take sides after the 
withdrawal of Turkish authorities and the army — 
who incited the people to rise against the invader 
and set up a government of the people in Sarajevo. 
The occupation began on July 29th and was com- 
pleted on October 20th, 1878. Drastic measures were 
taken to break down the strong resistance offered 
at some places, particularly around and in the 

Bibliography: Historical studies relating to 
the period of Turkish rule in Bosnia and Herze- 
govina are far from being complete though much 
progress has been made of late. Most of the 
relevant historical material dealing with the 
period has not yet been published. The collecting 
and editing of the material is in charge of the 
Oriental Institute of Sarajevo. For the early part of 
the period of particular importance are the Turkish 
cadastral registers (with kanun-ndmas), kept in 



IA 1269 

the Basvekalet arsivi in Istanbul, wakf-ndmas 
(reported on by F. Spaho, H. Kresevljakovic, 
G. Elezovi6, H. Sabanovic, and others), and 
documents stored in the archives of Dubrovnik 
(reported on by C. Truhelka, F. Kraelitz, V. 
Skarid, G. Elezovic, H- Sabanovic, J. Radonic, 
and others); also important are the kadi sidjills 
of the 17th century with fragmentary records 
from the 16th century, and public records material 
(Oriental Institute, Khusrtw-bey Library, etc.). 
Some public records of the wildyet of Bosnia 
(from the middle of the 19th century) are kept 
in the Oriental Institute of Sarajevo. Valuable 
information concerning the later part of the period 
is to be found in the unpublished chronicle entitled 
Ta'rikh-i Diydr-i Bosna, written by Salih Sidki Ef . 
Hadiihusejnovic, known by the name of Muwekkit, 
at the second half of the 19th century, the 
autograph of which is kept in the Oriental 
Institute of Sarajevo. 

The more important collections of sources are 
the following: C. Truhelka, Tursko-slovjenski 
spomenici dubrovaCke arhive, Glasnik Zem. muzeja 
Bosnia and Herzegovina 1911; H. Sabanovi6, 
Najstarije vakufname u Bosni, Prilozi za orijentalnu 
filologiju, ii (1951), iii-iv (1952); Monumenta 
Turcica kistoriam Slavorum Mer. illustrantia, 
I, Kanuni i kanun-name, Vol. 1 (edited by Oriental 
Inst, of Sarajevo), Sarajevo 1957; J- Matasovi6, 
FojniCka regesta, Spomenik Srpske Akademije 
Nauka, lxlii (1930); inscriptions in oriental 
languages discovered in Bosnia have been published 
by M. Mujezinovi6, in Prilozi za orijentalnu 
filologiju, ii 1951O, iii-iv (1952-53). and others. 
Among the more important travel-books con- 
taining valuable information and data are those by 
Kuripesi6 (1530) and Ewliya Celebi from the 
middle of the 17th century. The sources concerning 
the beginning of the Rising in 1875 have been 
published by H. Hadzlbegi6, Turski dokumenti 
poCetku ustanka u Hercegovini i Bosni 1875, 
Prilozi za orijentalnu filologiju, i (i95°)- 

General histories of Bosnia: S. Basagic, 
Kratka uputa u prollost Bosne i Hercegovine, 
Sarajevo 1900; M. Prelog, Povijest Bosne u doba 
osmanlijske vlade, i-ii, Sarajevo 1912, 1913- Both 
are out of date. V. Corovi6, Historija Bosne i, 
Belgrade 1940 (published first book only, to 1482) ; 
Istorija naroda Jugoslavije i, Belgrade 1953. 
514-576 (to 1482 also). An outline of the history 
of Bosnia and Herzegovina under Turkish rule 
is to be found in Istorija naroda Jugoslavije, 
Book ii (in print); the 15th, 16th and 17th 
centuries are by N. Filipovi6, the 18th century by 
H. Kresevljakovic, and the history of culture by 
H. Sabanovic. Unpublished Turkish historical 
material has been used, particularly cadastral 
registers, and references given concerning sources 
and bibliography. 

Monographs and treatises: H. Sabanovic, 
Pitanje turske vlasti u Bosni do pohoda Mehmeda II 
1463 god., GodiSnjak 1st. druitva Bosne i Hercegovine 
vii (1956) ; H. Sabanovic, Bosanski paSaluk do kraja 
XVII vijeka — postanak i upravna podjela (disser- 
tation in print) ; H. Kresevljakovic, Kapetanije u 
Bosni i Hercegovini, Sarajevo 1954; M. Handiii, 
Pogled na sudstvo u Bosni i Hercegovini za vrijeme 
turske vlasti, Sarajevo 1940; C. Truhelka, HistoriCka 
podloga agrarnog pitanja u Bosni, Glasnik Zem. 
muzeja xvii (1915); V. Cubrilovic, Poreklo musli- 
manskog plemstva u Bosni, Jug. ist. casopis I 
(1935); M. Handzic, Islatnizacija Bosne i Herce 



govine i porijeklo bosanskohercegovaCkih muslimana, 
Sarajevo 1940; A. Solovjev, Ntstanah bogumilstva 
i islamizacija Bosne; Godiinjak 1st. druitva Bosne 
i Hercegovine i, 1949; N. Filipovi<5, Pogled na 
osmanski feudalizam (s posebnim obiirom na agrarne 
odnose), Godiinjak 1st. druitva Bosne i Herce- 
govine, iv, 1952; B. Djurdjev, vojnucima sa 
osvrtom na razvoj turskog feudalisma i na pitanje 
bosanskog agaluka, Glasnik Zem. muzeja ii, 1947; 
N. Filipovic, Odlakiuk timari u Bosni i Hercego- 
vini, in Prilozi za Orijentalnu filologiju, v (1954-5) ; 
H. Kresevljakovi<5, Gradska privreda i esnafi u 
Bosni i Hercegovini, Godiinjak 1st. druitva Bosne 
i Hercegovine (1949); V. Skaric\ Staro rudarsko 
provo i tehnika u Srbiji i Bosni, Belgrade 1939; 
V. Skaric, Sarajevo i njegova okolina od najstarijih 
vremena do austro-ugarske okupacije, Sarajevo 
1937; A. HancUUc, Bosanski namjesnik Hekim- 
oglu Ali-paia, Prilozi za orijentalnu filologiju 
V (1954-55); F. Spaho, Pobuna u tuzlanskom 
srezu polovicom osamnaestog vijeka, Glasnik Zem. 
muzeja lxv (1933); A. Bejtic, Bosanski namjesnik 
Mehmedpaia Kukavica i njegove zaduibine u Bosni 
(1752-175°, i757-i76o), Prilozi za orijentalnu filo- 
logiju vi-vii (1956-57); V. Skaric, /* proilosti 
Bosne i Hercegovine XIX vijeka, Godiinjak 1st. 
druitva Bosne i Hercegovine I (1949); L. Ranke, 
Die letzten Unruken in Bosnien 1820-1832, Hist.- 
politische Zeitschrift u (1935) ; V. Popovic, Agrarno 
pitanje u Bosni i Hercegovini i turski neredi 
za vreme re/orme Abdul-Mtdlida (1839-1861), 
Belgrade 1949; J. Koetschet, Erinnerungen aus 
dem Leben des Serdar Ekrem Omer Pascka, Sarajevo 
1885 ; J. Koetschet, Osman Pascha der letzte grosse 
Wesir Bosniens und seine Nackfolger, Sarajevo 
1909; V. Cubrilovid, Bosanski ustanak 1815-1878, 
Belgrade 1930. 

3. Islamic culture in Bosnia and Herze- 
govina 

The islamisation of part of the population of 
Bosnia and Herzegovina, one outcome of the 
Turkish conquest, was to lay its impress on the 
country's pattern of life an4 culture. The style of 
living, both public and private, of the Muslims in 
Bosnia and Herzegovina during the period of 
Turkish rule was very much the same — particularly 
in towns — as in the other provinces of the Ottoman 
Empire. The mainstays of Islamic culture in Bosnia 
and Herzegovina were town settlements, for the 
manifest features of the culture were predominantly 
urban in scope and character. The way of living of 
Muslim peasantry had some definite particularities 
of its own. Owing to europeanisation however the 
elements of oriental culture — particularly in Christi- 
ans — tended to disappear in the post-Turkish period, 
and did so to an ever-increasing extent after the 
country became a constituent part of Yugoslavia. 
Nevertheless, the characteristic elements of oriental 
culture have not disappeared even to-day, and what 
is more, not even among Christian population, to 
say nothing of the Muslims. Many features of oriental 
ways of life are still very much in evidence, such 
as the style of living, furniture, cooking, drinking 
habits and certain old customs. Oriental practices are 
still in frequent use in the goldsmith's craft, carpet 
weaving and many other branches of applied arts. 
The most lasting traces of the influence of Islamic 
culture are to be found in the field of architecture 
and town-planning. Some principles of oriental town- 
planning have found ready application because of 
prevalence of terraced sites. Many Bosnian towns still 



show the former typical lay-out withi a division into 
two quarters, viz., the Carsku (shopping or commercial 
centre) and the Mahallas (the residential quarters). 
In town-planning and building genlerally over the 
period of Turkish rule three stages! can be distin- 
guished: (a) the initial period until abbut the end of 
the 16th century, (b) the second untillthe end of the 
17th century, and (c) the third until the end of the 
Turkish rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the 
initial period of development of Muslim town 
settlements it was the Governor-Generals and high 
Turkish dignitaries who erected places of worship 
and public buildings, the representative examples of 
monumental architecture. From this period date the 
finest monuments of the Islamic style of architecture 
in Bosnia and Herzegovina, e.g., the Aladia mosque 

(1550) at Foca, the Ghazi Khusrew-bey mosque (1530) 
and the C A1I Pasha mosque (1561) in Sarajevo, the 
Ferhad Pasha mosque (1579) in Banjaluka, the 
Ghazi Khusrew-bey Medresa (1537) called "Sel- 
dfukija" and later " Kursumlija" with Ghazi Khusrew- 
bey's hammdm (before 1557) and the Brusa bezistan 

(1551) in Sarajevo, and many others. With the 
growth and rapid development of guilds in the 
second period, it was largely the traders and mer- 
chants who were responsible for the erection of 
public buildings. The examples dating from this 
period are less monumental in appearance except 
for a few edifices erected by Governor-Generals or 
some high Turkish dignitaries, as for example the 
Hadii-Sinan's Tekiye (1640) in Sarajevo. The 
architecture of the third period shows signs of 
decadence and, towards the latter part, of the 
penetration of European ideas as well as imitation of 
styles prevalent in the towns of Turkey. There are 
also signs of direct influences. The period nevertheless 
has produced many interesting examples of technical 
ingenuity. The development of the town of Travnik, 
as the official residence of the Vizier, is typical of the 
period. The Siileymaniyya mosque (the present 
building — dating from 1816) has been constructed 
over a bezistan. A number of ancient mosques were 
restored during this period. In the construction of 
monumental public buildings the Islamic architects 
displayed the fundamental features of the Ottoman 
artistry, though not all of the latter's forms and 
characteristics found expression in Bosnia and 
Herzegovina. Smaller mosques and public buildings, 
as well as dwelling-houses were built by native 
master builders, hence certain individual features 
of this style of architecture. In the post-Turkish 
period the examples of Islamic architecture show 
unmistakable signs of decadence. The Austro- 
Hungarian Governments attempted to develop the 
characteristics of Islamic architectural art by 
copying the Moorish style. The buildings in this 
style contrasted with both the earlier examples of 
Islamic architecture in Bosnia and Herzegovina and 
those of the latter period of the Austrian rule, 
besides being in disharmony with Bosnian inland 
scenery and unsuited to climatic conditions. Build- 
ings in this style proved a failure. The most repre- 
sentative example of this style is the Sarajevo Town 
Hall. The Bosnian and Herzegovian style of archi- 
tecture, as applied to dwelling-houses, held its own 
a while longer before it finally disappeared. 

A very large number of words and idioms of 
Turkish, Arabic and Persian origin are in everyday 
use in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to a greater 
extent than in other areas where Serbo-Croat is 
spoken. The early literary style also made full use 
of such borrowings. With the development and 



under the influence of standard Serbo-Croat, since 
1878, and more so since 1918, words and phrases of 
Turkish origin have been falling out of use in every- 
day speech. During the period of Turkish rule a 
cursive Cyrillic alphabet was in use in private 
correspondence among Bosnian and Herzegovinian 
Muslims, particularly among native Muslim nobles. 
Arabic characters were used in the writing of Serbo- 
Croat literary texts done by Bosnian and Herze- 
govinian Muslims. The same characters were used 
in certain Serbo-Croat religious texts written during 
the period of Austrian rule and that of pre-war 
Yugoslavia. Some religious books printed in these 
characters are still available. The orthography was 
rather arbitrary at first but gradually became 
standardised. Since 1930 however, the characters 
have hardly ever been used even in religious texts. 

No comprehensive study has so far been made of 
the literary production, in Serbo-Croat or oriental 
languages, of Bosnian or Herzegovinian Muslims. 

In their devotion to folk-songs and popular poetry 
the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina differed 
little from their Christian compatriots. The earlier 
epic compositions of Bosnian and Herzegovinian 
guslars have all the basic characteristics of tradi- 
tional Serbo-Croat epic poems. The difference 
merely lies in a different religious and political 
attitude,- a more frequent use of Turkish idioms, 
and a tendency away from heroic poems towards 
ballads. Hasanaginica, a popular Bosnian poem, is 
well known in the world of literature. Popular epic 
poems of the earlier type are preserved in the south 
of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A later type of popular 
Muslim epic poetry developed among the people of 
a western frontier district called Krajina. Such 
poems were recited with a tamburica (mandolin) 
accompaniment, and differed in several respects 
from the popular poems of the guslars. Popular 
lyrics of Bosnian and Herzegovinian Muslims, when 
compared with those of their compatriots, likewise 
show — and to a higher degree — a number of 
characteristic features of their own. The most 
familiar and popular among these are the love 
poems called "sevdalinkas". Apart from oriental 
influences of language, motifs, and music apparent 
in their composition, the sevdalinkas are essentially 
typical poems of Bosnian and Herzegovinian 
Muslims, liked and enjoyed throughout Yugoslavia. 

Judging by the results of studies published so far, 
those Bosnian and Herzegovian Muslim poets who 
wrote in oriental languages did so mainly in 
Turkish, to a lesser extent in Persian, and in a few 
instances in Arabic. Among Turkish writers, there 
were several of Bosnian origin, some of whom were 
noted poets, as for example Derwlsh Pasha, son of 
Bayazid Agha (killed in 1012/1603), born in Mostar 
(Herzegovina), and the well-known stylist Mehmed 
Nergisi (died 1044/1634), born in Sarajevo. Not only 
were they born in Bosnia and Herzegovina but also 
held office for rather a long time, the former as Pasha 
of Bosnia and the latter as Miiderris and Kadi. Like- 
wise of Bosnian origin was Ahmed SudI (died 1005/ 
1596-7), the well-known commentator on the Persian 
classics. One of the most copious writers of poetry in 
the Persian language, who also wrote in Turkish, was 
thesheykh Fewzi of Mostar (died about 1 160/1747). 
Ahmed Wahdetl (died 1007/1598-9) of Dobrun near 
Visegrad, as well as some other poets of Bosnian 
origin, deviated from Muslim orthodoxy. Hasan 
Ka'imi of Sarajevo (died 1103/1691-2) and Oskiifl 
Bosnevi, also called Havayl (died about 1061/1650-1), 
born in Tuzla Donja, as well as a number of other 



Bosnian and Herzegovinian poets, wrote both in 
Turkish and Serbo-Croat. The latter compiled a 
Serbo-Croat dictionary written in Turkish verse. 
In the 13th and I4th/igth and 20th centuries up to 
the present time there were a number of poets who 
wrote religious poems in the spirit of old traditions. 
Of this poetry worthy of note are the poems in 
praise of the birth of Muhammad (mewlud), the 
compositions of the early period being mere versions 
imitative of the Turkish texts, latterly followed by 
some original writings. 

The early prose of the Muslim writers of Bosnia 
and Herzegovinia mostly in Arabic, is largely con- 
cerned with Islamic theological subjects, shari'a 
laws, State administration, and history. Many of 
the writers, natives of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 
lived and worked in Istanbul and other parts of 
the Ottoman Empire, as for example c Abd Allah 
Bosnevi — died in 1054/1644 — a writer of mystic- 
philosophical tracts and commentator on the Fusus 
al-ljikam by 'Ibn al-Arabi. Noted as a writer on law 
and politics was Hasan KafI, born in Prusac 
(Akhisar), whose literary merit gained him a lile- 
long kddilik in his native place, where he died in 
1025/1616. In addition to his other writings, KafI 
was the author of the well-known work Nifdm al- 
l Alam. As many as forty authors might be mentioned 
who were active in the field of religious and 
law studied during the Bosnia and ' Herzegovina 
literary period. A number of well-known Ottoman 
historians were descended from Bosnian Muslim 
families (e.g., Ibrahim Petewi) ; however, the historio- 
graphy in the Turkish language in Bosnia and 
Herzegovina is of a later growth. A noted Bosnian 
historiographer of the I2th/i8th century, who write 
in Turkish, was the kadi 'Umar of Novi, the 
author of Gkazawdt-i Hekim-oghlu 'Ali-pasha, a work 
dealing with historical events in Bosnia from the 
beginning of Muharram 1 149/1736 to the end of 
Djumada I of 1152/1739. The first printing of the 
work was done by Ibrahim Muteferrika (1154/1741); 
it was later reprinted and translated into English 
and German. During the transitional period between 
the end of the I2th/i8th and the beginning of the 
I3th/i9th centuries, a few prominent chroniclers 
(Mustafa Basheski, $alih Sidkl) are on record, who 
wrote accounts of contemporary events. Among the 
historians dealing with the latter period of Turkish 
rule and the events following the Austrian occupation 
of the country are the following: Salih Sidkl Ef. Hadi- 
ihusejnovii (died 1305/1888), Mubammad-Enweri 
Kadic (1271/1855-1349/1931), a collector of historical 
material which he transcribed himself (28 books — 
a copy of the manuscript is housed in the GhazI 
Khusrew-bev Library, Sarajevo). The transition from 
the old historiography to be noted in the work of 
the shaykh Sejf al-Din Ef. Kemura (died 1335/1917). 
Likewise, certain characteristics of the earlier 
islamic studies and some conceptions of the earlier 
historiography are also manifest in the works of 
Dr. Safvet-bey Basagid (1870-1934), the first modern 
historian of the Turkish period and the first oriental 
scholar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who was a poet 

However, since 1878, and particularly since 1918, 
the literary activities of Bosnian Muslims — apart 
from the romantic school of thought which still clings 
to earlier beliefs (with Dr. S. Basagic as the out- 
standing representative) — have tended more and 
more to become merged into Serbian and Croat 
literatures. A. F. Diabic (died 1918), mufti of 
Mostar and fighter for religious autonomy, attained 



1272 BO 

prominence in Turkey as professor of Arabic 
language and literature. He also brought out a 
collection of choice poems of Muhammad's contem- 
poraries. 

The nurseries of Islamic education and culture in 
Bosnia and Herzegovina, as in every Turkish 
provinces, were the mektebs and medreses and 
religious institutions (mosques, tekiyes, and the like). 
As a rule adjacent to mosques, the mektebs provided 
primary education mainly consisting of instruction 
in the reading of the Kur'an, writing and basic 
religious principles. Medreses, the secondary and 
higher schools, were also set up on the Turkish 
model. The earliest medrese on record in Sarajevo 
dates from the first quarter of the ioth/beginning 
of the 16th century. By the wakfndme of 943/1537 
the Ghazi Kh usre w-be v-Medrese with its own Library 
was founded by Ghazi Khusrew-bey, the sandjak-beyi 
of Bosnia. The building was completed in the foll- 
owing year and is still standing opposite the entrance 
gate to the harem of the Khusrew-bey Mosque. The 
Medresa Library has since been made into an 
independent public institution of Ghazi Khusrew- 
bey's wakf, which has helped to extend its scope. 
The present inventory comprises the original stock 
of volumes, in oriental languages as well as a large 
number of additional copies, manuscripts and 
Turkish documents acquired from wakfs, medreses 
and private libraries. The number of medreses went 
on increasing, yet the most famous among them was 
the Ghazi Khusrew-bey Medrese, which is now used 
as a secondary school for the study of theological 
subjects. Various dervish orders were engaged in 
mystic teachings and studies of the Persian language. 
The first dervish tekiye appears to have been 
erected before the final downfall of Bosnia. In- 
teresting structural details shows the khanakdh built 
by the Ghazi Khusrew-bey. The expenses of unkeep, 
religious teaching and education were defrayed by 
the wakf. 

The main development of publicly provided 
education and educational building dates from the 
viziership of Topal 'Othman Pasha with the setting- 
up of the first rushdiyye and the mekteb-i hukuk (admi- 
nistrative law-school), followed by the opening of 
the public reading-club and the Printing Office. 
Under the provisions of the Education Act (1286/ 
1869) the responsibility for educational services and 
maintainance of schools lay with the government; 
private schools or those of denominational character 
were not interfered with but were subject to State 
control. The provisions of the Act were not wholly 
carried out in Bosnia and Herzegovina, though 
sibydn mektebi and rushdiyyes were established, as 
well as some technical and training schools. According 
to official returns there were towards the end of the 
Turkish rule 917 mektebs, 43 medreses and 28 
rushdiyyes. In addition to the above there was in 
Sarajevo a military school of the lower grade, a 
training college for mekteb teachers, and a trade 

Without interfering with denominational schools 
the Austro-Hungarian authorities began by intro- 
ducing their own system of State education. Religious 
instruction in State schools was obligatory. Mektebs 
as well as medreses continued as religious schools. 
Under the statutory regulations of 1909 attendance 
of Muslim children at mekteb schools was compulsory, 
and no Muslim child could enter a secondary school 
without previously attending a mekteb. Certain 
s taken to reform the mekteb schools 
ises were not implemented. 



In 1909 there were about 1,000 old mekteb (sibydn 
mektebi) as well as ninety-two schools of the reformed 
type (mekteb-i ibtiddH). The rushdiyyes were counted 
among the elementary schools for Muslim children 
and were retained as such — with their programmes 
reformed — only in county boroughs and the district 
townlet of Br£ko. The medreses served as training 
schools for humbler religious functionaries, and in 
1887 a college was established for the students of 
the shari'a law and future shari'a court judges. The 
wakf Board founded in 1892 a mekteb-teacheis' 
training college. Muslim pupils of the State grammar 
school of Sarajevo had the choice of being taught 
Classical Greek or Arabic. 

During the successive Yugoslav governments after 
the World War I only the State primary schools were 
given recognition, though the small number of such 
schools could not cope with all the children of 
school age. Religious instruction was provided for 
all children attending the primary schools. The 
mektebs became preparatory or non-educational 
institutions for the teaching of Kur'an reading. 
Religious instruction was also given in all secondary 
schools. A State shari'-a secondary school was opened 
at Sarajevo in 1918. The sha'i'a judges' training 
college continued in existence until 1937 when the 
High School of shari'-a and Islamic theology — of 
faculty grade — was established. The wakf Board 
bore the cost of running the mekteb teachers' 
training college and the medreses — now secondary 
schools for the study of, mainly, theological subjects. 
Preliminary reforms concerning the medresas were 
introduced in 1933, and a definite programme was 
adopted in 1939 whereby they were to be of the 
comprehensive type, similar in character to secondary 
schools of the lower grade. The Ghazi Khusrew-bey 
Medrese was an exception in that it provided senior 
secondary courses. A number of Bosnian and 
Herzegovinan Muslims are known to have graduated 
from various eastern universities. The role of 
granting scholarships to Muslim pupils and students, 
as well as bearing the cost of upkeep and running of 
boarding schools and providing other educational 
facilities, which had been confined to the wakf, was 
gradually taken over — in the field of secular 
education, at any rate — by 1 various Muslim societies, 
such as "Gajret", "Uzdanica", and others. 

In the new Yugoslavia religious bodies and 
societies are separated from the State, but the latter 
may render assistance to religious communities. 
Religious instruction may be given only in the 
immediate vicinity of places of worship (under the 
provisions of the Religious Communities Act of 
1953); however, the religious communities are free 
to open schools for the training of religious functio- 
naries and staff. The mektebs, attendance at which 
was considered compulsory for Muslims by the 
Islamic religious community, were in existence until 
1952, when they were abolished in the whole of 
Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

During the Austro-Hungarian administration and 
in pre-war Yugoslavia, the study of Islamic branches 
of knowledge concerned with religion and oriental 
languages was closely associated with the activities 
of the above mentioned schools and colleges. At the 
same time, the Zemaljski Muzej of Sarajevo was 
engaged in collecting oriental manuscripts and 
records from Turkish archives. Among the staff of 
the museum there were a number of workers who 
studied oriental literary and historical records. It 
was here that conditions were created for the 
development of modern scientific studies and work 



in this field (C. Truhelka, V. Skaric, F. Spaho, 
R. Muderizovic, and others). 

Over the past years after the World War II 
increasing attention has been devoted in Bosnia 
and Herzegovina to oriental studies concerned with 
Islamic peoples. Thus the grammar school of Sarajevo 
provides courses of oriental as well as western- 
classical type. In the University of Sarajevo (founded 
in 1949) there is a chair in oriental philology (Turkish, 
Arabic and Persian languages and literature), and 
the chair in history also offers Turkish courses, 
besides giving special attention to studies bearing 
on the history of Yugoslav peoples during the period 
of Turkish rule. The Sarajevo Oriental Institute, 
founded in 1950, has a valuable collection of oriental 
manuscripts- and Turkish historical material taken 
over from the Zemaljski Muzej of Sarajevo. Besides 
publishing its year-book, the Oriental Institute has 
been engaged in editing a systematized collection 
of Turkish records and sources bearing on the history 
of Yugoslav peoples (Monumenta turcica historiam 
Slavorum Meridionalium illustrantia) . Thus a wide 
field of studies — concerned with Turkish, Arabic and 
Persian languages, the history of Yugoslav peoples 
during the period Turkish rule, and many other 
Islamic branches of knowledge — once within the 
scope of religious institutions and bodies, is now 
under secular control. 

Bibliography: A. Hangi, Die Moslims in 
Bosnien-Hercegovma — ihre Lebensweise, Sitten and 
Gebrauche, Sarajevo 1907: A. Bejtic, Spomenici 
osmanlijske arhitekture u Bosni i Hercegovini, 
Prilozi za orijentalnu filologiju, iii-iv, Sarajevo 
1952-53; A. Skaljic, Turcizmi u narodnom govoru 
i narodnoj hnjiievnosti Bosne i Hercegovine, i-ii, 
Sarajevo 1957; K. Horman, Narodne pjesme 
muslimanauBosni i Hercegovini, i-ii, Sarajevo 1933 ; 
Hrvatske narodne pjesme — skupila Matica Hrvatska, 
knj. iii-iv: Junalke pjesme (muhamedovske), 
Zagreb 1933; A. Nametak, Narodne junaike 
muslimanske pjesme, Sarajevo 1933; H. Dizdar, 
Sevdalinke-Izbor iz bosansko-hercegovaike narodne 
lirike, Sarajevo 1944; M. Murko, Die Volksepik 
der bosnischen Mohammedaner, in Zeitschr. d. 
Vereins f. Volkskunde ix (1909); M. Murko, 
Tragom srpsko-hrvatske narodne epike-Putovanja 
u godinama 1930-1932, knj. I-II (published by 
Jugoslavenska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti), 
Zagreb 195 1; A. Schmaus, Studije krajinskoj 
epici (published by Jugosl. akad. znanosti i 
umjetnosti), Zagreb 1953; Kemura-Corovic, Serbo- 
kroatische Dichtungen bosnischer Moslims aus dem 
XVII., XVIII. und XIX. Jh., Sarajevo 1912; 
D. M. Korkut, Makbul-i aryf (Potur Sahidija) 
Uskiifi Bosnevije, Glasnik Hrv. zem. muzeja liv, 

Sarajevo 1943; Muhammad b. Muhammad 

al-Khandji al-Bosnawi, Al-Djawhar al-Asnd ft 
Taradjim 'Ulamd' wa-shu'ard' Bosna, Cairo 1349 
a.h. ; M. Handzic, Knjiievni rad bosansko- 
hercegovaikih muslitnana, Sarajevo 1934; M. 
Malic, Bulbulistan du Shaikh Fewzi de Mostar, 
poete herzegovinien de langue persane, Paris 1935 ; 
M. Braun, Die Anfange der Europaisierung in der 
Literatur der moslemischen Slaven in Bosnien und 
Herzegowina, Leipzig 1934; F. BajraktarevM, 
na&im mevludima, Belgrade 1937; O. Sokolovic, 
Pregled Stampanih djela na srpskohrvatskom jeziku 
muslitnana Bosne i Hercegovine od 1878-1948 god., 
Sarajevo 1957 (Glasnik Vrhovnog starjesinstva za 
1955-57 g-); Dj. Pejanovic, Srednje i strulne Skole 
u Bosni i Hercegovini, Sarajevo 1953. 



Islai 



religio 



Herzegovina since 1878. 

The Sultan's sovereign rights over Bosnia and 
Herzegovina were recognised until 1908, when the 
province was annexed by Austria-Hungary. Never- 
theless, the position of Bosnia and Herzegovina 
within the Dual Monarchy remained undefined, 
largely because of the dualist constitution of Austria- 
Hungary. 

Bosnia and Herzegovina were under a dual control 
exercised by the Austro-Hungarian Ministry of 
Finance, both before and after the annexation. Each 
of the two powers had definite rights regarding 
administrative policy, the building of railways and 
matters concerned with the country's trade and 
finances. 

The Austro-Hungarian system of government in 
Bosnia and Herzegovina was bureaucratic and 
police-ridden throughout the period. A military 
commander was responsible for the government, the 
number of departments being four, and later six. 
A Governor's "civil adlatus", was appointed 
in 1882, who was in effective control of the 
Civil Service. For administrative purposes the 
country was divided into six okrugs (departments) — 
Banjaluka, Bihac, Mostar, Sarajevo, Travnik, and 
Tuzla — and these in turn into srez-es (districts) and 
ispestavas (the smallest administrative units). Only in 
1906 — the administration of justice was separated 
from the government of the country. Following the 
annexation, a Constitution with a "Sabor" (As- 
sembly) was granted in 1910. The Sabor consisted of 
seventy-two deputies and twenty appointed [ex 
officio) members, the latter being partly religious 
representatives (among Muslims: the re'is al- 
'■ulama'), the Director of wakf Administration, 
and three muftis), and partly high officials. The 
deputies were elected to three "curiae" according 
to their ranks, the first of which was of two classes, 
the Muslim owners of large estates belonging to 
the first. The curiae were organised by electoral 
districts on a denominational basis. The consti- 
tution restricted within narrow limits the powers 
of the assembly in respect of the Government, 
at the same time imposing many restrictions on the 
authority of the latter in respect of the Austro- 
Hungarian Ministry of Finance. 

In 1912 the Governor was given additional powers 
concerning the Civil Service. The Assembly was 
adjourned and did not sit during the World War I. 

Despite the fact that the Austro-Hungarian 
government introduced a modern system of admi- 
nistration, developed trade (and mining and timber 
industries in particular), built roads, railways, and 
established schools and a number of scientific 
institutions, the framework of society remained in 
many respects unchanged. True, the Austro-Hun- 
garian authorities were by this means able to win 
over to their side the greater part of the Muslim 
nobility, yet the unsolved agrarian question led 
to the stagnation of agriculture and told heavily 
upon the peasantry and in particular upon the 
kmets (mostly Orthodox Christians). Nor was the 
solution of the agrarian problem brought any 
nearer by the passing of the Facultative Redemption 
of Land Act, 1911, whereby only minor changes were 
effected in the existing relations. 

From 1882 to 1903 the leading r61e in the direction 
of Austro-Hungarian policy in Bosnia and Herze- 
govina was played by B. Kallay, the minister of 
finances of the Dual Monarchy, otherwise a well- 



«74 BC 

known historian. In order to keep Bosnia and 
Herzegovina as a corpus separatum within the Dual 
Monarchy and to check the spread of Serbian and 
-Croatian nationalism, Kallay attempted to create a 
"Bosnian nation" and a "Bosnian language". This 
policy, however, failed to attract a sufficient 
number of partisans among the native population, 
for the Serbs and Croats had become nationally 
conscious, and the nationally "undeclared" majority 
of the Muslims looked on Turkey as their mother 
country. Moreover, many Muslim families had 
settled in Turkey and Muslim leaders had always 
stressed the sovereign rights of the Ottoman Sultan 
over Bosnia and Herzegovina. Only a small part of 
the Muslim intellectuals and landowners adopted the 
cause of "Bosnian nationalism". 

The Serbian political movement directed its main 
efforts towards achieving autonomy in Church 
matters and freedom to conduct Serbian community 
schools. The idea found supporters among the great 
mass of the Serbian population and the new-born 
intelligentsia, but it was the Serb gazdas (moneyed 
men) who thrust themselves forward as leaders. 
There was general discontent among the latter 
because their usurious trade practices were obstructed 
by the predominance of Austro-Hungarian moneyed 
interests and trade capital. The efforts of the move- 
ment proved successful, and autonomy was granted 
in matters of religion and denominational instruction 

Muslim opinion became increasingly suspicious of 
certain measures taken by the Austro-Hungarian 
authorities. In order to gain control over Muslim 
religious institutions, the Government, in 1882, 
created the office of re'is al-'ulemd', the supreme 
religious head of Bosno-Herzegovinian Muslims, as 
well as the highest religious authoritative body 
{ulema medllis) presided over by the re'is al-'-ulemd 
with four members. This organisation went so 
far as to control the rights of the Wakf Board. 
Dissatisfied and alarmed, the Muslims presented a 
petition to the Emperor (in 1886) asking to be 
granted autonomy in matters concerning the admi- 
nistration of the wakfs. A resolute struggle for the 
achievement of autonomy, religious and educational, 
for all Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina began in 
1899 under the leadership of A. F. Dlabic, the mufti 
of Mostar. The struggle became linked with the 
Orthodox (Serb) movement. D2abi<5 insisted on 
demanding maximum concessions but was outvoted. 
In 1900 a draft statute for the Islamic religious 
community was presented to the Minister Kallay, 
wherein a special emphasis was paid on the Sultan's 
sovereignty over Bosnia and Herzegovina, a principle 
which the Austro-Hungarian authorities were un- 
willing to accept. When Dlabid, the mufti of Mostar, 
left for Istanbul to consult the Sultan, he was 
forbidden to re-enter Bosnia and Herzegovina. From 
1906 onward the movement took a more organised 
and definite shape. An Executive Committee of the 
Muslim people's organisation was elected, presided 
over by 'AH Bey Firdus. While championing the in- 
terests of the propertied classes, the organisation at 
the same time entered into negotiations with the 
Government for the granting of religious autonomy. 
The negotiations hung fire, for the Austro-Hungarian 
authorities refused to lend an ear to the slightest hint 
about the Sultan's sovereign rights over Bosnia and 
Herzegovina. Following the annexation, the nego- 
tiations were brought to a satisfactory conclusion 
with the Emperor's sanction of the SI 



Gov< 



:eligic 



Affa 



Vakf-Mearif. Under the statute the 
supreme administrative authority as regards wakfs 
and endowments of schools and colleges was vested in 
a Vakf-Mearif Assembly (Sabor) consisting of eight 
nominated (ex officio) members (the re'is al-'ulemd 1 , 
six muftis and the Director of the Vakf Board) and 
twenty-four members elected by district board 
committees. The president of the Sabor was 
the re'is al-'ulemd' ex officio. The Vakf-Mearif 
Committee was both the administrative and the 
executive organ of the Sabor. Other minor bodies of 
the Vakf-Mearif Board were the district committees, 
elected by district assemblies, and, among the latter, 
the dlemat assemblies and dlemat medllis. The highest 
religious authority was exercised by the Ulema 
Medllis, consisting of four members, with the 
re'is al-'-ulema' at its head. The Re'is and members 
of the Ulema Medllis were elected by a separate 
electoral body consisting of six muftis and 24 elected 
members. Three (elected) candidates for the post 
of re'is were submitted by electoral body to the 
Emperor, one of whom was appointed re'is by 
decree. The re'is entered upon his duties only 
after obtaining the authorisation (menshura) for the 
performance of religious duties from the skeykh 
al-Isldm of Istanbul. The relevant petition had to be 
conveyed to Istanbul through the Austro-Hungarian 
Embassy. A vacancy in the Ulema Medllis was 
filled by appointment, on the part of the joint 
Ministry of Finance, of one of two elected candidates. 
Each okrug (department) had its mufti, who was 
selected by the Government from among candidates 
submitted by the Ulema Medllis. The salaries of 
higher religious functionaries and civil servants came 
from the provincial budget. The statute also settled 
the question of Muslim denominational schools, as 
well as the rights of religious functionaries in 
respect of shari'a judges. 

With the incorporation of Bosnia and Herzegovina 
into Yugoslavia the question of the Islamic religious 
community was in the forefront again. Moreover, 
there were Muslims in Yugoslavia outside of Bosnia 
and Herzegovina. However, the statute of 1909 
remained in force in Bosnia and Herzegovina until 
1930. There was a separate Muslim religious orga- 
nisation covering Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro. 
The putting into effect of the agrarian reform hit 
some Muslim property owners much harder than 
it did the u>aft/s in Bosnia and Herzegovina, for most 
of the latters' property consisted rather of town 
sites than land in the countryside. Nevertheless, the 
decentralization of the wakf administration in Bosnia 
and Herzegovina, as well as disordered financial 
management and malpractices caused serious 
damage to wakf property. 

Following the abolition of the parliamentary 
regime in Yugoslavia a law was passed in 1930 
concerning the Islamic religious community and its 
Constitution in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Thus 
the former autonomous Muslim religious communi- 
ties were united under one head — the re'is al- 
'-ulemd' — and one supreme authoritative body 
composed of the re'is and the two presidents of the 
Ulema Medllis. The official residence of the re'is 
al-'-ulema' and the seat of the Board of the Islamic 
religious community were transferred to Belgrade; 
however, there existed, in addition, two Ulema- 
Medllis and two Vakf-Mearif Councils with their 
administrative committees, whose central offices 
were in Sarajevo and Skopje. Lower in authority 
were the muftis, the district Vakf-Mearif board with 



BOSNA — BOSRA 



a skari'a judge at its head, and the dlemat-medllis 
presided over by the Dlemat Imam. The mam 
features of the Act and Constitution are to be seen 
in the fact that the majority of posts were held by 
appointment, and also, that the office of re'is al- 
'ulemd' took precedence of the Ulema-Medllis. The 
re'is was, in fact, the head and symbol of a unified 
Islamic religious community in the State, while the 
administration was dual (Sarajevo and Skopje). 
Special enactments regulated the election of candi- 
dates for the post of re'is, of Ulema-Medllis 
members and of muftis. The electoral body was 
expected to choose three candidates for the office 
of re'is, one of whom was then appointed by royal 
decree on the recommendation of the minister of 
justice and that of the prime minister. Also 
nominated by royal decree were the members of 
the Ulema-Medllis and the muftis, on the recom- 
mendation of the minister of justice. 

With the passing of a new law and Constitution 
in 1936 changes were brought about which, however, 
did not interfere with the unity expressed by the 
function of the re'is or with the dualism of the other 
governing bodies. The chief organs of the Islamic 
religious community were now the following: the 
Dlemat- Medllis, the District Vakf Commission, the 
Ulema-Medllis in Sarajevo and Skopje, the Vakf- 
Mearif Assembly (Sabor) in Sarajevo and Skopje, with 
the assembly committees, vakf boards, and the re'is 
al-'-ulema? with a select or full Council. The official 
residence of the re'is was in Sarajevo. The function 
of mufti was dispensed with. The main feature of the 
regulations was the selectivity of governing bodies 
and functionaries. For the election of members to 
the Ulema-Medllis each Assembly selected an 
electoral body of ten members, who in turn formed 
one electoral body for the election of three re'is 
candidates. As before, one of the candidates (usually 
the one with the majority of votes) was appointed 
re'is by royal decree on the recommendation of the 
minister of justice. It was through this organization 
that the Yugoslav Muslim Organization, the party led 
by M. Spaho, secured its position in the religious 
community. 

In the new Yugoslavia, the position and privileges 
of the Islamic religious community have been safe- 
guarded by provisions made in the Constitution and 
regulated by the 1953 Law concerning the legal 
position of the different religious communities. 
Religious organisations are separated from the 
State, the holding of religious beliefs being regarded 
as a private matter. Religious communities may 
conduct schools for the training of religious function- 
aries and staff. The State may also lend its aid to 
religious communities. 

The Islamic religious community in Yugoslavia 
is governed by the provisions of the Constitution of 
the Islamic religious community in the Federal 
People's Republic of Yugoslavia, made and passed 
by the Supreme wakf Assembly in 1947. Some of 
the regulations have since been changed and others 
added. The Constitution has effected the unity of 
the religious organisation of Muslims in Yugoslavia 
not only through the function of the re'is al-'ulemd', 
but also through the establishment of the Supreme 
wakf Assembly, allowing at the same time for the 
federal structure of the State in that separate 
Ulema-Medllis and wakf assemblies have been set 
up in the four republics where Muslims form a 
considerable part of the population. The supreme 
authority is vested in the re'is and four members 
from the four wakf assemblies. The re'is al-^ulema' 



Bibliography: V. Skaric, O. Nun Hadfic and 
N. Stojanovic, Bosna i Hercegovina pod austro- 
ugarskom upravom, Srpski narod u XIX veku, 
Belgrade 1938; A. I. Balagija, Uloga vakufa u 
verskom i svetovnom prosvedivanju naiih muslimana, 
Belgrade 1933; M. Begovic, Legislation relative 
a V organisation des affaires riligieuses its musul- 
mans en Yougoslavie, Annuaire de V Association 
yougosl. de droit int., Belgrade-Paris 1934; The 
Statute of 1909 concerning autonomous government 
of Islamic religious and Vakf-Mearif affairs in 
Bosnia and Herzegovina; Law of January 31th 
1930 concerning the Islamic Religious Community 
in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia; Constitution of the 
Islamic Religious Community in the Kingdom of 
Yugoslavia (July 9th 1930) ; Law of March 25th 1936 
concerning the Islamic Religious Community in the 
Kingdom of Yugoslavia ; Constitution of the Islamic 
religious Community in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, 
October 24 1936; Law of May 27th 1953 concerning 
the legal position of Religious Communities ; Consti- 
tution of the Islamic Religious Community in the 
FPR of Yugoslavia {Glasnik Vrhovnog islamskog 
starjeSinstva u FNRJ, br. 1-3, 1957) Enciklopedija 
Jugoslavije iv (Begovid, Islam u Jugoslaviji) in 
print. (Branislav Djurdjev) 

BOSNA-SARAY [see Sarajevo] 
BOSPHORUS [see BOGHAZ-ici] 
BOSRA (Bostra), a town of southern Syria in the 
fertile plain of the Nukra, in the province of rjawrin 
(Hauranitidis of the Notitia dignitatum), the Idumea 
of the Bible. Situated in 32° 30' N., 36° 28' E., and 
called today Bosra Eski Shim (to distinguish it from 
Bosra al-Harlri on the southern edge of the Ladja', 
12V1 nules from Ezra/, Bosra is 19 miles north of the 
present frontier of Jordan on the road joining Dar'a 
on the west to Salkhad on the east. It is close to two 
intermittent streams, the Wadi Zaydi and the WadI 
Butm, tributaries of the Yarmuk. The name Bosra 
is attested in the sense of 'citadel' (De Vogue, Inscr. 
Palm., 25). The town, fortified since its foundation, 
seems to have been a strongpoint towards the north 
of the 'Arab', i.e. Nabataean, kings. Damascius 
(Vita Isid., § 199), writing in the 6th century, 
describes it as an ancient fortified town provided 
with ramparts by the Arab kings. The book of 
Maccabees (I, v, 26) makes it dependent on the great 
fortified region of Perea and calls it Bossora. The 
extensive Nabataean cemeteries which surround it 
are evidence that it belonged to the kingdom of 
Nabatene. Two inscriptions from the neighbouring 
town of Salkhad (Salcha of the Romans) bear, for 
the eighth decade of the first century, the name of 
king Malkhu (Malchus of Damascius) (Littmann, 
Semitic Inscr., in Syria, iv, A, nos. 23 & 28). The 
use of Nabataean was kept after the Roman con- 
quest (ibid., 12, 102, 103, 106). Certain Nabataean 
inscriptions include a Greek text. 

When Bosra had been introduced into the Roman 
empire, after the annexation of the old Nabataean 
kingdom, by Cornelius Palma in 105-6 A.D. (Pauly- 
Wissowa, s.v. Bostra, ii, 359, n f.) it was reorganised 
on the initiative of Trajan. Writers on Roman 
history differ as to the date of its foundation. 
B. Ritter (Erdkunde, xv, 969) sees it as a town of 
Roman foundation. Damascius assigns to Alexander 
Severus the honour of incorporating it as a town. 
The latter did indeed confer on Bostra the title of 
Colonia Bostra concurrently with that of Nova 



1276 BC 

Trajana Alexandria (222-35 A.D.). Malalas takes 
its foundation back to Augustus. 

It is certain that the town of Bostra was enlarged 
at the time of its incorporation into the Roman 
Empire, as a study of its plan shows. Though it 
remained a stronghold in the 4th century — the 
most important in the province of Arabia, with 
Gerasa and Philadelphia 'murorum firmitate fir- 
missimas' (Ammianus Marcellinus, xiv, 8 18 ) — the 
withdrawal towards the south of the true line of 
defence made of it no longer simply a garrison town, 
station of the Third Cyrenaican Legion (Notitia 
Dignitatum, Ptolemy, v, 17, 7), but an important 
centre, soon to become Christian, and seat of the 
government of the province of Arabia under the 
name of Nea Trajane Bostra. The Era of Bostra 
(105 A.D.) testifies to its importance. Thanks to 
the trade routes which attached it to Philadelphia 
and the Persian Gulf and those which gave it access 
to the Mediterranean across Palestine, it was also 
an important centre of commerce dependent on 
Damascus, to the north, to which it was joined by 
two roads. It had extensive markets, of which the 
ruins subsist; it had its own coinage: that struck 
by the emperor Philip 'the Arab', who was a native 
of Bostra, gives to it the title of Metropolis as well 
as that of Colonia (Butler, Syria, A iv, Bosra, 
cap. II, xvi, nos. 42, 43). Philip the Arab stationed 
a squadron of cataphractaries there. 

At the time of the first form of the Manichean 
controversy Titus, bishop of Bostra (about 360), 
took up (Part, graeca xviii, 1069-1264) a doctrinal 
position and engaged in activity which placed him 
in the front rank of the ecclesiastical writers of his 
time by his knowledge, his philosophical training, 
and his secular activity. Before him Beryllus (222-33), 
under the influence of Origen, had testified against 
the heresy by returning to orthodoxy. Byzantine 
Bostra played the part of a frontier market where 
Arab caravans and pastoralists alike came to buy 
provisions under the watch of the troops stationed 

As an administrative centre Bostra included a 
large population of functionaries and civic officials. 
It was the centre of a bishopric subordinate to the 
patriarchate of Antioch. An edict of Anastasius 
(Butler, op. cit., no. 561) secured the stability of 
offices there by ridding them of corruption and 
devoting to them revenues derived from the annona 
and the grain trade, as also from the 'twelfth'. 
Romano-Byzantine inscriptions are testimony of 
the administrative importance of the town. It was 
the residence of the governor of the Provincia 
Arabia, who besides the titles of hlglmAn and dux 
(Gr. Sou!;) bore the military title of scholasticos (488). 
As a municipium the town had its praeses (prohtdros) 
and a college of four synarchontes to which was 
joined a council (bouleutai). For the time when 
Christianity had not yet triumphed dedicatory 
inscriptions are to be found to the official Gods of 
the Empire and to those of Hawran with their 
original or Hellenised names (D. Sourdel, Cultes du 
Hauran, Paris 1952). Later, during the Christian 
epoch, numerous inscriptions mention the recon- 
struction or restoration of churches dedicated to the 
Virgin and Sergius or anonymous patron saints, 
and also of two monasteries of which at least one, 
dedicated to Saint Cyricus, was for girls. To judge 
by funeral inscriptions the population had kept its 
old Semitic basis, sometimes partially Romanised, 
with infusions of new blood from Italy, Asia Minor, 
Corinth, and even (thanks to the transfer of a 



garrison) from Pannonia. By virtue of its arch- 
bishopric Bostra for a long time kept a basilica, of 
which substantial remnants remain, and a bishop's 
palace of which nothing much is left. The convent 
possibly dedicated to Saint Sergius stood not far 
from there. It had a big church of which the walls 
and the apse are still standing. It is there that 
folklore places the sojourn of the monk Bahlra 
[q.v.], he who, as is well known, was one of the 
christian witnesses to the Prophet's mission. (His 
name, which is still unexplained, may conceal that 
of Pakhuru attested by a Nabataean inscription 
from Salkhad [Littmann, Nabat. 24, — and likewise, 
Bartholomew of Edessa, P.O., 104, 1429].) The Muslim 
epic legend later made of the taking of this town, 'the 
first Byzantine centre conquered by the Arabs', a 
sign of the divine mission of Islam (Pseudo-Wakidi, 
Kitdb Futuh al-Sham, Cairo 1954, 16-7). 

The Arab conquest and then the establishment 
of the Umayyad power brought about its decline, 
in spite of the advantages accruing from its position 
on the pilgrim route, by depriving it of its status of 
provincial capital and permanent major frontier 
garrison. It preserved a certain prestige because of 
two legends, that of Bahlra and that of the 'kneeling' 
of the camel bearing the 'Syrian' copy of the Kur'an 
(Noldeke-Schwally, Gesch. des Qorans, ii, 112 ff.). 
This seems to have made of it the site of a pious 
folklore which is attested by the accounts of pil- 
grimages (e.g., al-Harawi, ed. J. Sourdel-Thomine, 
17) and the names of its mosques: al- c Umari 
(Sauvaget, in Syria, xxii, 41), Fatima, Khidr, al- 
Mabrak, and the popular tales attaching to them. 
Numerous inscriptions bear witness to their resto- 
ration from the time when the Saldjuk princes of 
Damascus exercised suzerainty over Bosra and 
devoted themselves to strengthening it against the 
Fatimids whose possession (in theory) it still was. 
The spoliation of the town by Abu Ghanim's 
Carmathians had made this needful. The 'Umari 
mosque, anterior to 128/745 (date of a restoration 
by 'Uthman b. al-Hakam, Ar. inscr. Littmann, 
no. 30), was renovated in 508/1114, then rebuilt in 
6 18/122 1 under the Ayyubids with the supervision 
of an Egyptian architect. In 526/1132 the mosque 
of Khidr was restored by the amir Gumushtekin. 
The 'very old' Mabrak mosque had a Hanafl madrasa 
built beside it in 530/1136 (Sauvaget, in Syria, 
xxiv, 231). 

The Ayyubid governors made the town richer by 
another Hanafl madrasa in 630/1233 (Littmann, 
op. cit., no. 38). The college mosque known as the 
'Dabbagha' dates from 655/1257. The Mabrak 
mosque was — and still is — surrounded by a celebrated 
cemetery which formed a pair with the 'Martyr's 
cemetery' to the south of the town. Inscriptions 



the 






this 



time of other n 

The period of these constructions was that when 
the town regained under the Ayyubids a major 
importance due to its military r61e, whether in face 
of the Crusaders or in the course of the conflicts 
between Saladin's successors. The great witness of 
this military function is the citadel of Bosra. Under 
the governors representing the Atabeks of Damascus, 
the old Roman theatre on an esplanade to the south 
of the town outside the ramparts had been adapted 
for defence by a wall and three flanking towers. 
Between 481/1089 and 649/1251 the princes who 
successively held Bosra under their sway 'enlarged 
this citadel which ended by becoming one -of the 
chief military monuments of the Muslim world. In 



BOSRA — bOstAndji 



1277 



1956 it still remained the most complete authentic 
document on the successive techniques of fortifi- 
cation from the Fatimid period to the Mamluk. 
After the Mongol invasion of 659/1261, which left 
the fortress badly damaged, Baybars sent a mission 
from Egypt which restored, made even bigger, and 
strengthened this monument (A. Abel, La citadelle 
eyyubite de Bosra Eski Cham, in Annates archiolo- 
giques de Syrie, vi (1956), 95-138, XI pi.). This 
restoration, by using up a huge quantity of material, 
no doubt completed the destruction of the old 
Roman hippodrome which once stood to the south 
of the theatre. The extensive ruination and depopu- 
lation consequent on the brief Mongol invasion seem 
to have plunged the town once more into obscurity. 
The restoration of the citadel 'outside the walls' 
only partially concerned it (al-Makrizi, Hist, des 
Sultans Mamelukes, tr. Quatremere, i, 141). However, 
the town enjoyed a certain importance in the 15 th 
century, for it furnished the Mamluk administration 
in Syria with several notable personages bearing the 
family name of al-Busrawi. It remained the place 
through which pilgrims passed on the old Roman 
road from Damascus to Philadelphia- c Amman. Its 
Birkat al-Hadjdj still bears their graffiti. 

The development of Egyptian trade by the Red 
Sea and the fact that the Holy Cities, becoming 
more and more impoverished, lived principally on 
Egyptian aid, deprived it, however, of the character 
of trading centre which it had had originally. The 
Ottoman invasion and conquest turned it into a 
minor provincial centre, the exile of obscure func- 
tionaries who did not always possess the means to 
defend the town. 

The administrative centre of Hawran was 
transferred to Mzeyrib and Merkez in the 10th/ 
16th century. 

In the nth/i7th century the c Anazeh Bedouins, 
with their flocks, pushed to the edge of Hawran. 
The threat of their pillaging expeditions hung over 
the whole region on dwellers and travellers alike. 
The pilgrims then adopted the western route by 
Sanamayn and Mzeyrib which has remained till 
today the 'darb al-hadidi' and alongside which the 
Hejaz Railway was built at the beginning of the 
present century. 

Today the agricultural centre of Bosra earns its 
living by the cultivation of the fine wheat fields of 
the Nukra when the rain is sufficient. It enjoys 
also an excellent water supply which allows the 
maintenance, in confinement, of a fair number of 
livestock. It has kept its fine vines and still produces 
a small quantity of very good wine. 

The town is of enormous archeological interest. 
Since the beginning of the 19th century travellers 
have been struck by the sight of its Roman ruins 
and have paused with interest before its gradually 
crumbling ramparts and its citadel. The Princeton 
Expedition (1904-5, 1909) published a great number 
of inscriptions in Greek and Latin (Littmann, David 
Magie Jr., and Duane Reed Stuart), Nabataean 
(Littmann), and Arabic (Littmann). The efforts of 
the members of the Institut Francais de Damas 
and of the Institut Francais d'Archeologie de 
Beyrouth have contributed in Syria, in the publi- 
cations of the Institut de Damas, and more recently 
in the Annates Archiologiques de Syrie, to the 
increase in our knowledge of the town. Restorations, 
due principally to the work of J. Sauvaget, have 
been successfully carried out to the 'Umari mosque. 
The Syrian Service of Antiquities has made 



The exact study of ancient and medieval hydro- 
logical techniques, of the nature of the monuments 
and their chronological assignment, and, above all, 
of the successive levels of construction, still remains 
to be carried out within the framework of a master 
plan. 

Bibliography : On the history of journeys to 
Bosra and of the ancient descriptions: Brunnow, 
Provincia Arabia, I, 481-507, iii, 367-368. — For 
archeological investigations in general : Publications 
of the Princeton University Archeological Expedi- 
tions to Syria in 1904-5 and 1909 (Div. II, Howard 
Crosby Butler, Ancient Architecture in Syria; Div: 

III, Greek and Latin Inscriptions in Syria, 
Section A, Southern Syria, part 4, 'Bosra' ; Div. 

IV, Enno Littmann, Semitic Inscriptions, Section 
A, Nabataean Inscriptions, Section D, Arabic 
Inscriptions); Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. 'Bostra' (Ben- 
zinger) ; Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Geographie 
ecclisiastique, s.v. 'Bostra'; J. Sauvaget, Les In- 
scriptions arabes de la Mosquie de Bosra, in Syria, 
xxii, 53-65 (from 102 to 618); F. Lassus, Sanctu- 
aires chritiens de Syrie (Publ. de l'lnst. Francais 
d'Archeologie de Beyrouth), Paris 1947; H. Seyrig, 
Sur les Ires de quelques villes de Syrie, in Syria, 
xxvii, 42 ; idem, Inscriptions de Bostra, xxii, 44-8 ; 
idem, Postes romains sur la route de Midine, 
xxiv, 221-3; J- Sauvaget, Quelques monuments 
musulmans de Syrie, in Syria, xxiv, 231. — Biblio- 
graphy by Buhl in EI 1 , s.v. Bosra. — Besides the 
interesting descriptions (which should be com- 
pared) in the old Baedeker and the Guide Bleu, 
a convenient manual is provided by Sliman c Abd 
Allah al-Muqdad, Bosra, published in Arabic and 
French, Damascus n.d. (A. Abel) 
BOSTANDjf (BustandjI, from Persian bustdn 

"garden"), the name applied in the old Ottoman State 
organisation to people employed in the flower and 
vegetable gardens, as well as in the boathouses and 
rowing-boats of the Sultans' palaces. As long as the 
law of devshirme (forcible recruiting, [q.v.]) remained 
in force, these were recruited in accordance with its 
provisions. The bostdndiis formed two independent 
odjaks [q.v.], of which one was in Istanbul and the 
other in Edirne (Adrianople), commanded by the 
bostdndji-bashi. Only the strongest and most vigorous 
of those forcibly recruited were accepted in the two 
odiaks of the bostdndiis, either directly or from the 
odiak of the ^adjami-oghldns [q.v.]. There were nine 
grades in the odiak of the bostdndiis. New recruits 
wore round their waists a belt made of the fringe 
of State cloth (beylik), while bostdndiis of the highest 
rank wore a green belt known as mukaddem. After 
a specified length of service the bostdndiis were 
promoted to the odiak of the Janissaries. Each man 
received on promotion the sum of 1,000 akles for 
his equipment. At the end of the 17th and in the 
18th century there were cases of bostdndiis assigned 
to the mounted odiak of kapi-hulus [q.v.]. Bostdndiis 
were employed both inside and outside the palace. 
Others worked directly in flower and vegetable 
gardens, in boathouses or in connexion with them. 
There were also bostdndiis in Sultans' estates, as, for 
example, in Amasya, Manisa, Bursa and Izmit. 
Apart from the services mentioned above, the 
bostdndiis of Istanbul, were entrusted with duties 
such as guarding the palace, transporting material 
for the construction of palaces and mosques for the 
Sultans; working in boats used for the transport of 
timber from the environs of Izmit (v. Ifdnunname-i 
Al-i 'Othmdn, ed. c Arif Bey, TOEM, appendix 2, 25). 
Two different classes are shown in the paybooks of 



B0STANDJ1 — BOSTANDJI-BASHI 



the bostdndits, the ghilmdn-i bdghle-i khdssa (boys 
of private gardens) and ghilmdn-i bostdniydn (garden 
boys). In a paybook dated 984/1576 those employed 
in the Sultan's private gardens are shown as 20 
bdliiks [q.v.], and those working in the vegetable 
gardens as 25 Hemd'ats [q.v.]. At that time there 
were 645 working in the private gardens and 971 
in the vegetable gardens. Paybooks for 1 174/1760 
and 1192/1778, show 20 biliiks in the private gardens 
and 64 dientd'ais in the flower and vegetable gardens 
outside. Bostdndits were also concerned with keeping 
order in the places where the gardens in which they 
were employed were situated. There was a diemd'at 
in each district, commanded by an officer known as 
usta (master). The ustas performed functions analo- 
gous to those of police commanders of the districts. 
These ustas were appointed from among the four 
baltadils [q.v.] of the odiak of the bostdndits. Terms 
such as "the usta of Kadi-Koyii or the usta of 
Bebek", seen in some documents refer to the ustas 
of the gardens in these districts. The retinue of 
each usta consisted of 20 to 30 bostdndits, in accor- 
dance with the importance of the district. The 
bostdndits of the boathouses and the rowing-boats 
were specially chosen for these jobs, and pulled the 
oars of the 24-oar private boat of the Sultan, under 
the command of the hamladii-bashi (chief oarsman), 
when the Sultan wanted to travel by sea or to have 
a sea trip. Thevenot says that 'adiami-oghldns sat 
by the right oars, and Turkish youths by the left 
oars, but this is not certain. 

A record of the revenue of the flower and vegetable 
gardens run by the bostdndits was presented every 
year in November to the Sultan through the 
bostdndil-bashl, and the money paid into the privy 
purse. Of this money, one purse (500 piastres) was 
bestowed on the bostdndits and one purse given to 
the wakf of the Da'ud Pasha mosque. In this way, 
when the revenue was presented, property tenable 
•on a life tenure was bestowed on the twelve most 
senior bostdndits who were then promoted to the 
mounted odiek of the kapi-kulus or to the rank of 
muteferrika [q.v.]. 

When the occasion arose, bostdndits were sent on 
•expeditions, e.g., in 1152/1739, 3,000 of them were 
dispatched by ship to Bender to fight against the 
Russians (v. Subhl, Ta'rikh, 127). 

The numbers of the bostdndits varied from time 
to time. At the beginning of the 16th century these 
numbered 3,396, at the middle of the century 
2,947 and at the end 1,998. At the beginning of the 
18th century there were 2,400 bostdndits. 

The independent odiak of bostdndits at Edirne 
had its own organisation. It numbered considerably 
fewer people than the Istanbul odiak: 445 at the 
beginning of the 17th century, 751 at the end of 
the century, 751 at the beginning of the 18 th 
-century. There were 10 bdluks of bostdndits working 
in the Sultan's private gardens at Edirne, apart 
from whom there were bostdndits employed in three 
other gardens. Bostdndits wore a hat known as 
barata. Those recruited originally among the 
devshirme conscripts were celibate. Later marriage 
was allowed. Apart from their commanded, the 
bostdndil-bashls, bostdndjis had officers known as 
kedkhudd of bostdndjis, khdsseki-agha, hamladjl, 
kara-kulak, bash-tebdil and oda-bashl. Four senior 
members of the odiak were known as baltadils. At 
times the bostdndjis took part in mutinies and lost, 
in consequence, the confidence of the Sultans. -For 
this reason, Ahmed III was obliged to make changes 
among them. Among the murderers of Selim III 



there was a bostdndit known as Deli (mad) Mustafa. 
Bostdndits were also opposed to the military reorga- 
nisation measures, known as the ni$dm-i diedid and 
segbdn-i diedid. When the odjak of the Janissaries 
was abolished and the organisation of the new 
Ottoman army, l asdkir-i mansure (victorious army), 
was extended, these took over the task of keeping 
order in the districts previously entrusted to the 
bostdndits-, the latter officials' functions being now 
restricted to gardening and acting as night watchmen. 
As from Muharram 1242 (August 1826), bostdndits 
were incorporated in the new organisation. According 
to the new law, 1,500 persons chosen among the 
bostdndits, commanded by a major, binbashi) were 
entrusted with the task of guarding the palace and 
its environs (Orta-K6y and Dolmabahce). These 
formed the nucleus of the corps of guards, known 
in Ottoman times as khdssa c askeri. A ministry, 
known as the Ministry of bostdniydn-i khdssa 
(bostdndits of the Sultan) was formed to look after 
them. The odiak of bostdndits at Edirne was at the 
same time abolished. 

Bibliography: Eyyflbi Efendi, Kdnun-ndme 
(in a private library); Na'ima, Ta'rikh, iv, 386; 
Rashid, Ta'rikh, iii, 85, 89; Subhl, Ta'rikh, 127; 
Lutfl, Ta'rikh, i, 200; a document referring to the 
reign of Mustafa II (Basvekalet Arsivi, Emlri's 
classification, no. 14954); reports by Hasib 
Efendi, Minister of the Sultan's bostdndits, and 
the bostdndil-bashl, 'Othman Khayri Agha, con- 
cerning the organisation of the odiak of bostdndits 
(Basvekalet Arsivi) ; law concerning the odiak of 
bostdndits (Basvekalet Arsivi, cupboard no. 3, 
case no. 92); Artisans' Register (Ehl-i San'at 
De/texi) (Basvekalet Arsivi, Kamil's classification) ; 
Chalcondyle, Hist. Ginirale des Turcs (Paris 1662, 
section on organisation); Rycaut, Hist, of the 
present state of the Ottoman Empire; Le voyage de 
M. d'Aramon (ed. Schefer, Paris 1887) 39; A. 
Ollivier, Voyage dans VEmpire Ottoman (1801, i, 
fasc. 4); Enderuni c Ata>, Ta'rikh I; Ghilmdn-i 
'■adiemiydnma'-dsh idimdlleri (summaries of pay- 
books of l adiami-oghldns) (Basvekalet Arsivi) ; 
M. Thevenot, Relation d'un voyage fait au Levant 
(1663), 114, etc.; Gibb-Bowen, i/i, index. 

(I. H. Uzuncarsili) 
BOSTANDji-BASHI, the senior officer of the 
odiak [q.v.] of the bostdndits [q.v.]. His retinue con- 
sisted of bostdndjis of several classes. His residence 
was at Yall-Kosku on Seraglio Point in Istanbul. 
As the person responsible for the maintenance of 
order on the shores of the Golden Horn, the Sea ot 
Marmora and the Bosphorus, he used to patrol the 
shores in a boat with a retinue of 30 men, as well as 
inspecting the countryside and forests round Istanbul. 
When the Sultan travelled by rowing-boat, the 
Bostdndil-bashl was entitled to hold the rudder 
{lidnunndme-i Al-i 'Othmdn, TOEM, Appendix 2, 24). 
He had consequently the opportunity of speaking 
to the Sultan in private and of passing on to him 
such information, true or false, as he chose. Im- 
portant State officials, including the Grand Vizier, 
had, therefore, an interest in conciliating the 
BostdndiPbashl. Whenever the Suttan -went out of 
the Palace, the Bostdndil-bashl was allowed to hold 
his arm or his stirrup. 

The Bostdndil-bashl was invariably promoted from 
the odiak of bostdndits, which would not allow an 
outsider^ not even a member of the odiak in Edirne, 
to get the post. In 1072/1661, during the Vizierate 
of Fadil Ahmed Pasha, Mehmed IV did not on one 



bostAndji-bashi — bostAnzAde 



occasion find enough animals to hunt during a 
journey from Edirne to Istanbul. Incensed, he 
dismissed the Bostdndil-baskl Sha'ban Agha, re- 
placing him by Bodur Slnan Agha, the Bostdndil- 
baskl of Edirne. Veteran bostdndits objected, 
however, on the grounds that it was not customary 
to appoint a commander from another odiak 
(Silahdar, Ta'rlkh, i, 223). 

Bostdndit-bashls used to entertain the Sultan every 
spring at a banquet at Kaghltkhane (the Sweet 
Waters of Europe) in Istanbul (Wasif, Ta'rikk, i, 13). 
When Bostdndit-baskls were appointed to an outside 
post they were usually given the rank of Kapidji- 
baskl or Sandiak-beyi. Those favoured by the Sultan 
were appointed to the rank of Beyler-beyi. Later, 
when the rules of organisation became more lax, 
there were cases of Bostdndjl-bashls becoming 
Grand Viziers. Such were the Pashas Dervish, 
Hasan, Topal Redjeb, Khalll, Moldovandji c Ali, 
Hafiz, Isma'il and <Abd Allah. 

Bostdndit-bashls, apart from commanding bos- 
tdndits proper, were also in charge of the odiaks of 
Topkapi, Yah-Kosku, Sepetciler, Soguk-Cesme, 
Bagcilar, Islemeciler, Bamyacilar, Kushane, Gulhane, 
Incili, Dolap-Degirmen, Balikhane, Mezbele-Kesan 
etc. According to Enderuni 'Ata, this responsibility 
was passed on to the Bostdndil-baskl by busy palace 
officials, such as the silahdar (Chief Armourer), the 
Cukkaddr (Master of the Wardrobe), the kapl- 
dghdsl (Chief White Eunuch) or the kedkkudd 
(intendant) of the kapUjis (Imperial Warders). The 
Bostdndil-baskl also commanded a group of kkdssekis 
(members of the Sultan's bodyguard). Among the 
odjaks commanded by the Bostdndil-baskl, that of 
Balikhane (fish market) had an evil reputation. 
Ministers and Grand Viziers sentenced to be exiled 
or executed were taken there. The fate of the Grand 
Viziers detained in this odiak was indicated by the 
colour of the sherbet offered to them by the Bos- 
tdndii-baski. A white sherbet meant exile, while a 
red sherbet meant death. 

When the Bostdndil-baskl was dismissed or trans- 
ferred, he was usually replaced by the kedkhuda 
(intendant) of the bostdndits or the agha (com- 
mander) of the khdssekis. There were, however, 
exceptions to this rule. It was customary for newly 
appointed Bostdndjl-bashts to be invested with their 
robe of honour (khil'at) in the presence of the Grand 
Vizier ( c Izzi, Ta'rikk, no). There is a register in 
existence of the coastal residences of the Bostdndil- 
bashi in Istanbul. 

The Bostdndil-baskl of Edirne was responsible for 
the maintenance of law and order in Edirne and its 
environs. Edirne, as the second capital of the State, 
was not subject to the Wall of Rumell, the govern- 
ment of the city being directly in the hands of the 
Bostdndil-baskl. The Bostdndit-baskls enjoyed great 
revenues and were in a position to commit great 
abuses. New recruits were, for example, sometimes 
farmed out against payment. 

Bibliography: Silahdar, Ta'rikk, i, 223 &r ii, 

347; Wasif, Ta'rikk, i, 13; Rashid, Ta'rikk, iii, 

89, 144; v, 90; Rashid and Celebi-zade, Ta'rikk, 

61, 371; c Izzi, Ta'rikk, 246, 287; for other works 

see bostdndil, bibliography. 

(1. H. Uzuncarsili) 

BOSTANZADE, the name of a family of Ottoman 
'ulemd' who achieved some prominence in the 16th 
and early 17th centuries. The founder of the family 
was (1) Mustafa Efendi, born in Tire, in the province 
of Aydln, 



(1) Mustafa b. Mehmed 
(2) Mehmed (3) Mustafa 

(4) Mustafa (5) Yahya 

in 904/1498-9, and known as Bostan (or Bustan) ; his 
father was a merchant called Mehmed (thus in the 
text of 'Atal and on the tombstone preserved in the 
Tiirk-Islam Eserleri Miizesi in Istanbul ; the heading 
Mustafa b. 'All in 'Atal is no doubt an error due to 
confusion with his namesake Mustafa, known as 
Kucuk Bostan; 'Atal 132. cf. Huseyin Gazi Yurday- 
din in Bell, xix, 1955, 189, n. 136). After studying 
under various teachers in his native town and in 
Istanbul, he held a succession of teaching and judicial 
appointments, and in 954/1547 became Kadi'asktr of 
Anatolia and shortly after of Rumelia. His appoint- 
ment was terminated in 958/1551, in connexion with 
an unfavourable ruling given by him in a case in 
which the Grand Vezir Riistem Pasha was interested. 
Though exonerated by subsequent enquiries, he was 
not reinstated, and died on 25th Ramadan 977/3 
March 1570 (thus the tombstone; c Ata1 says 27th 
Ramadan 977 ; 'Otkmdnlt Muellifleri puts his death 
in 968). He was the author of several works of Kur'an 
commentary and theology, some of which have sur- 
vived in manuscript in Istanbul libraries. Recently it 
has been suggested that he was the author of the 
Suleymdnndme previously attributed to FerdI (Yur- 
daydin, Bell, xix, 1955, 137 ff.). 

Bibliography: c Ata>i, Dhayl al-SkakHHk, 

129 ff. ; Yurdaydin, loc cit. 189 ff. ; 'Othmdnlt 

Muellifleri, i, 253 ; Sidiill-i l Otkmdni, iv, 346. 

(2) Bostanzade Mehmed Efendi, the son of the 
preceding, was born in 942/1535-6 and graduated, 
i.e., obtained his muldzemet [q.v.], at the early age 
of 31. After holding various teaching appointments, 
in 981/1573 he abandoned the teaching in favour of 
the judicial branch of the Hlmiyye profession, and 
became Kadi of Damascus. His subsequent promo- 
tions were rapid ; after serving as Kadi in Bursa and 
Edirne, he became Kadi of Istanbul in 984/1576, 
Kadl'asker of Anatolia in 985/1577, and of Rumelia 
in 988/1580. The following year he was retired and 
in 991/1583 sent as Kadi to Egypt, where he stayed 
for three years. In 995/1587 he was reappointed 
Kadl'asker and in 997/1589 became Shaykh al- 
Islam. In 1000/1592 he was retired (on the circum- 
stances see Na'ima anno 1000), but returned to 
active duties as Kadi'asker of Rumelia and, in 
1001-1593, for the second time became Shaykh al- 
Islam. He remained in office until his death in 
1006/1598. In addition to poems in Arabic, Persian, 
and Turkish, he prepared a translation of the Ikyd al- 
'Ulum and a commentary on the Multakd. Hadjdji 
Khalifa mentions a fetwd in verse declaring coffee 
licit (Mizdn al-hakk. ch. VI; tr. G. L. Lewis, 60, 62). 
Bibliography: 'Ata'i, 410; Rif'at, Dawhat al- 

MashdHkh 33; Hlmiyye Sdlndmesi 410; 'OthmAnll 

MueUifleri. i, 256; Si&ill-i 'Othmdnli, iv, 133; 

Hammer-Purgstall, index. 

Other .eminent members of the family of the 
Shaykh al-Islam Mehmed Efendi were his younger 
brother (3) Mustafa Efendi (946/1539-40 — 1014/ 
1605-6), who rose to the posts of Kadi'asker of 
Anatolia and Rumelia ('Atal, 506-7; S<0, iv, 381); 
his sons (4) Mustafa (980/1572-3 — 1010/1601), who 
taught at the Sahn-i Thamaa [4.V.] and -then became 
Kadi of Oskiidar ( c Ata1 449). and (5) Yahya (d. 1049/ 
1639) who became Kadi of Istanbul and then 



BOSTANZADE — BSHARRA 



Kadi'asker of Rumelia. Yahya Efendi was the 
author of an ethical work called Mir'dt al-Akhldk, 
dedicated to Sultan Ahmed I, and a work on the 
miracles of the Prophet, called Gul-i Sadberg (<Oth- 
manll Muellifleri, i, 257 ; Sidiill-i c Othmdni, iv, 636 ; 
Hammer-Purgstall, index. (B. Lewis) 

BOTANY [see nabat] 
BOTLIKH [see and!] 
BOUGIE [see bidjaya] 

BOZANTI (Pozanti) lies on the Cakit (Jay 
(called Pozanti Suyu in its higher reaches), about 
13 km. to the N.N.E. of the celebrated pass through 
the Taurus mountains which is known as the 
Cilician Gates (Pylae Ciliciae: the Darb al-Salama 
of Ibn Khurradadhbih, and now, in Turkish, Kiilek 
Bogazi). It is the Podandos (IIoSav86<;, IIo8ev86<;, 
LToSuavSo?, noSavS£u;, "PeyenoU^i;) of the 
Romans and the Byzantines, the al-Badhandun, 
<Badandun, Budandun) of the Arab geographers. 
The mediaeval Western sources present the name 
in a number of different forms, e.g., Podando, 
Poduando, Opodanda, Botentron, Bothentrot, etc. 
After the rise of Islam, and with the repeated 
incursions of the Muslims through the Pylae Ciliciae 
into Asia Minor, Bozanti became, for the Byzantines, 
a military strong-point of great importance. It was 
included in the KXeicoupa of KajnraSoxia ■?) (nxpa, 
but seems to have been raised later to the rank of an 
autonomous KXeicoupa. It was at Bozanti that 
the 'Abbasid Caliph al-Ma'mun died in 218/833, 
while on campaign against the Byzantines. Bozanti, 
with the decline of the Byzantine empire and the 
advance of the Turks westwards into Asia Minor, 
began to lose some of its former importance. It 
came, in the course of time, under the rule of the 
Saldjuk sultans of Rum and, still later, of the 
Ottomans. The Ottoman conquest of the Mamluk 
sultanate in Syria and Egypt (922-923/1516-1517) 
meant that the Taurus mountains ceased to denote 
a frontier of major political significance. Bozanti 
now lost what remained to it of its earlier r61e as a 
border town guarding the northern exit of the 
Cilician Gates. Ewliya Celebl gives a brief description 
of a post-station (menzil-gdh) called "Sultan Khani". 
which seems to be in fact Bozanti, but he makes 
no mention of this latter name. Bozanti, in the 
mid-ioth century, possessed a khan, a post-station 
and a customs-house. It was then a small village of 
unimposing appearance, belonging to the kadd' of 
Tarsus in the sandfak, and wildyet, of Adana. 
Bozanti, under the Turkish Republic, is included 
n the present province of Adana 

Bibliography: Ibn Khurradadhbih, ioo, 102, 
no; al-Mas c udi, Murudi, vii, 1 and 96; Yakut, i, 
530 ff.; al-Tabarl, iii, 1 1 34 «• ; HadjdjI .Khalif a, 
Djihdnnumd, 601 ; Ewliya Celebi, Seydhat-ndme, 
iii, Istanbul A.H. 1314, 39; Constantinus Por- 
phyrogenitus, De Thematibus, Bonn 1840, 19; 
Th. Kotschy, Reise in den cilicischen Taurus, 
Gotha 1858, 334; V. Langlois, Voyage dans la 
Cilicie et dans les Montagues du Taurus, Paris 1861, 
377 ff. ; F. X. Schaffer, Cilicie (Petermanns 
Mitteilungen: Erganzungsheft no. 141), Gotha 
1903, 80; Weil, Chalifen, ii, 293; W. M. Ramsay, 
The Historical Geography of Asia Minor, London 
1890, 348 ff. ; W. Tomaschek, Zur historischen 
Topographic von Kleinasien im MitUlaUer {SBAk. 
Wien, Phil.-Hist. CI., Bd. exxiv), Vienna 1891, 84; 
E. W. Brooks, The Arabs in Asia Minor (641-750) 
from Arabic Sources, in The Journal of Hellenic 
Studies, xviii, London 1898, 193; Le Strange, 
133 ft.; K. Miller, Itineraria Romano. , Stuttgart 



1916 664; J. Laurent, V Armlnie entre Byzance a 
Vlslam depuis la conqulte arabe jusqu'en 886, 
Paris 1919, 242; F. Taeschner, Das anatolische 
Wegenetz nach osmanischen Quellen {Tiirkische 
Bibliothek, Bd. 23), Leipzig 1926, i, 136 ft.; 
J. Karst and C. F. Lehmann-Haupt, Buzanta, in 
Klio (Beitrdge zur alten Geschichte), Bd. 26 (= Neue 
Folge, Bd. 8), Leipzig 1933, 363-367 ; E. Honigmann, 
Die Ostgrenze des byzantinischen Reiches von 363 
bis loyi, Brussels 1935, 253 (index s.v. IIo8av86<;) ; 
M. Canard, Histoire de la Dynastie des Wamdanides 
de Jazira et de Syrie, i, Paris 1953, 282-285, 730; 
V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, ii, Paris 1891, 49; 
Pauly-Wissowa, XXI/i (1951), s.v. Podandos, cols. 
1136-1139; IA, s.v. Pozanti. (V.J. Parry) 
BOZEJA-ADA, the Turkish name for Tenedos, 
an island inhabited mainly by Greeks and command- 
ing the approaches to the Straits. By the Treaty of 
Turin (1381) Venice and Genoa agreed to demilitarise 
Bozdja-Ada. The Venetians removed the population 
to Crete and it was still uninhabited in Clavijo's 
tiire. Mehemmed II built a castle on Bozdja-Ada; 
Ewliya calls it metin. Ships sheltered at Bozdja-Ada 
while awaiting favourable weather for entering the 
Straits and it is often mentioned in accounts of 
naval campaigns. The Venetians captured it in 
Ramadan 1066/July 1656 and held it for just over 
a year. The Greeks seized it in 1912. The London 
settlement of 1913 provided, at Germany's insistence, 
that Bozdja-Ada should be returned to Turkey but 
owing to the outbreak of war Greece retained control. 
By the Treaty of Sevres Bozdja-Ada and Imroz 
(Imbros) were ceded to Greece (art. 84) but demili 
tarised (art. 178). By the Treaty of Lausanne they 
were returned to Turkey but given "a special 
administrative organisation composed of local 
elements", the police were to be recruited locally 
and the islands were excluded from any Greco- 
Turkish arrangements for exchange of populations. 
Bibliography : There are many incidental 
references to Bozdja-Ada in the chronicles and 
brief descriptions by Clavijo, Buondelmonti, 
Tafur, Evliya Celebi, Spon, Covel, Grelot and 
Tournefort. (C. F. Beckingham) 

BOZOK [see yozgat] 
BRAHOY [see balOcistan] 
BRAVA [see barawa] 
BROACH [see bharuc] 
BRUSA [see bursa] 
BRYSON [see tadbIr al-manzil] 
BSHARRA or Becharre, one of the oldest 
villages in northern Lebanon, 1400 metres above 
sea-level. It is situated at the bottom of an amphi- 
theatre at the entrance to the Kadisha gorge, a 
hollow ravine of many caves and hermitages, where 
traces of very ancient monastic settlements are to 
be found. The Arab geographers refer to the district 
under the name of Djubbat Bsharriyya or Bsharra. 
At the time of the Crusades it was one of the fiefs of 
the County of Tripoli, under the name of Buissera. 
A stronghold of the Maronite mountain, it depended 
under the Mamluk domination from the niydba of 
farabulus; the mukaddam appointed by the sultan 
of Cairo seems always to have been a Maronite 
Christian; the only exception was the mukaddam, 
c Abd al-Mun c im Ayyiib II, who at the end of the 
15 th century, at a time when very lively Monophysite 
propaganda was being carried on around Tarabulus, 
was converted to Monophysism, though not without 
this provoking a revolt among his subordinates. 
Bsharra controls the road from Ba'labakk which 
crosses the Pass of 'Aynata and leads to Tarabulus. 



BSHARRA — BO SA'ID 



This is the 'Road of the Cedars' which the Sultan 
Kaytbay used at the time of his journey of inspection 
(gth/i5th century), and by which during the 18th 
and early 19th centuries, armed bands from the 
Bik'a, supported and helped by the Ottoman 
authorities, were passing on their way to harry the 
Maronites. These last had also to defend themselves 
against the Turkish governors of Tarabulus. 

The little town to-day has 4,000 Maronite inhabi- 
tants whose houses are scattered over a hillock where 
vines and mulberries are cultivated in terraces. A 
little above Bsharra, there is a clump of trees, a 
remnant of the famous cedars of Lebanon, which 
since 1843 has been placed under the care of the 
Maronite Patriarch. 

Bibliography: I. Dia'dja', Bsharra Madinat 
al-Mukaddamin, in al-Machriq, 1932, 464, 538, 
685, 779; G. Le Strange, Palestine under the 
Moslems, 352; H. Lammens, La Syrie, ii, 38; 
R. Dussaud, Topographic Historique de la Syrie, 
32, 397; Adel Ismail, Histoire du Liban du 
XVIII' siecle a nos jours, 55, 133- 

(N. ElISSEEFF) 

BTEDDlN (a dialectal contraction of Bayt al- 
Din derived from the Syriac Beth-DIna), a place with 
800 inhabitants, situated 800 ms. above sea-level 
and 45 kms. from Bayriit; the terraces surrounding 
it grow chiefly vines and olives. Bteddln constitutes 
with Dayr al-Kamar, a Maronite administrative 
enclave in the Druze region of Shuf. It owes its 
fortune to the fact that the amir Bashir II Shihab 
[q.v.] (1788-1840) chose it as his residence in 1807 
and brought the water of the Safa there by means of 
a viaduct between 1812 and 1815. Hence a certain 
number of administrative buildings were constructed 
in the village as well as the palace, a remarkable 
oriental blend of styles, the work of an Italian 
architect and Syrian labourers. Built on a rocky 
escarpment dominating a deep ravine, this palace 
was from 1814 on a resort of poets (Nicholas the 
Turk), and Lamartine, who visited it in 1832, has left 
us a long description of it. 

At the end of the Egyptian occupation in 1840, 
the palace fell into ruins and a serious fire damaged 
these in 1912; it was partly restored in 1940. In 1948 
the ashes of the amir Bashir the Great were trans- 
ferred there from Istanbul. To-day Bteddin is the 
summer residence of the President of the Republic 
ot Lebanon. 

Bibliography: A. Frayha, Asmd' al-Mudun 

wa 'l-Kura al-Lubndniyya, 1956, 20; Lamartine, 

Voyage en Orient, ed. Hachette, 1903, i, 191 ff.; 

Dussaud, Topographic Historique de la Syrie, -507; 

M. Chebli, Une histoire du Liban au temps des 

imirs, index. (N. Elisseeef) 

BC [see kunya] 

BC IJMARA, a Moroccan agitator who got himself 
recognised as sultan in north-east Morocco from 1902 
to 1909. His real name was Djilali b. Idrls al-Zarhfinl 
al-Yusufl, and he was born about 1865 in the mount- 
ains of Zarhun. He had been a member of the corps 
of engineering students which Mawlay al-Hasan had 
tried to establish, and then he became a minor civil 
servant. He was accused of dishonesty and imprisoned, 
and then became an exile in Algeria. He returned 
thence in the summer of 1902, and thanks to frauds 
and alleged miracles managed to pass himself off as 
a Sharif and even as Maljammad b. al-Hasan, the 
elder brother of Mawlay *Abd al- c AzIz [q.v.], who was 
then living in seclusion at Meknes. Many sections of 
the tribe of GhiySta in the Taza region recognised 
him as sultan, and were soon followed by other 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



tribes in the neighbourhood. He was installed at 
Taza, which he made the capital, in the autumn of 
1902. He was generally known as BO Hmara (Abu 
Himara) because it was his custom to ride a she-ass, 
or as al-Rugl, from the name of a pretender of the 
Ruwaga tribe who had been in revolt in 1862 and 
had been quickly captured. He incited a revolt 
against the sultan on account of his relations with 
Europeans. 

c Abd al- c Aziz sent two expeditions against him 
which were beaten successively in the last weeks of 
1902, when Fez was threatened. But the Sharifian 
troops ended by beating him near Fez on January 
29th 1903, and reoccupied Taza for a time on 7 July. 
Bu Hmara, wounded and humiliated, reorganised 
his forces and retook Taza in November. From there 
he made contact with two other agitators: Raysull, 
who was active in the Tangier area, and the Algerian 
Bu c Amama, who was fighting against the French 
in the south of the department of Oran. With the 
latter he besieged Oudjda for many months from 
the end of 1904 to June 1905 without result. Beaten, 
he sought refuge near Melilla in the Kasbat Salwan 
and got into touch with the Spaniards, showing them 
the possibility of mining concessions in the region, 
which brought him discredit in the eyes of the 
neighbouring tribes. He however succeeded in reoc- 
cupying Taza in June 1908, and, taking advantage of 
the troubles at the time of the accession of Mawlay 
c Abd al-Hafiz to power, he threatened Fez yet again. 
The new sultan launched several expeditions 
against him, one of which succeeded in capturing 
him about 100 kms. north of Fez, on 22 August 1909. 
Shut in a cage prepared for this event, he was led 
into Fez and exposed to the scorn of the inhabitants, 
but after some days the sultan, weary of his bravado 
and fearing a European intervention in his favour, 
had him shot on 15 September 1909. His body was 
half burnt. 

Bibliography : The principal source is: 
Dr. Louis Amaud, Au temps des Mehallas, Casa- 
blanca 1952, 153-214 and 269-285; then: E. Aubin, 
Le Maroc d'aujourd'hui, Paris 1904, 108-131 and 
402-19; G. Saint-Rene Taillandier, Les origines du 
Maroc francais, Paris 1930, 104 and 140; Dr F. 
Weisgerber, Au seuil du Maroc moderne, Rabat 
1947. 131-3 and 195-8; W. Harris, Morocco that 
was, London 1921 ; finally the novel by M. 
Le Glay, La mort du Rogui, Paris 1926', which 
is based on a solid knowledge of the facts. 

(R. Le Tourneau) 
BC SA'lD, the reigning dynasty of 'Umaa and 
Zanzibar, ot Azdi origin. The founder, Ah.mad b. 
Sa'id, became Wall of Suhar under the Ya'rubi 
Imam of c Uman, Sayf b. Sultan II. He defended 
Suhar successfully against Nadir Shah's general, 
Muhammad Taki Khan Shirazi, who came to terms. 
Within a few years, by force, diplomacy and trea- 
chery, Ahmad made himself master of c Uman. The 
Shah was preoccupied with a Turkish war and did 
nothing to retrieve his position. The date of Ahmad's 
formal assumption of the title of Imam is uncertain ; 
it cannot be 1154/1741 as usually stated, and there 
is some evidence for 1163/1749. He naturally 
favoured Turks against Persians and helped the 
former to defend Basra in 1 189/1775. He fostered 
commerce and helped to suppress Indian pirates. 
His son Sa c id succeeded him in 1 198/1783 but was 
unpopular and withdrew to al-Rastak, leaving 
power to his son Hamid, but retaining the title of 
Imam. No subsequent member of the dynasty used 
this title; later rulers were called Sayyid, though 



generally known as Sultan to foreigners. Sa'id was 
still living in 1226/1811 but died during the next ten 
years, Hamid (d. 1206/1792) was succeeded by his 
uncle, Sultan, who captured Cahbar, Hormuz, 
Kishm, Bandar 'Abbas and Bahrayn. Persia agreed 
to lease Cahbar and Bandar 'Abbas to the Bu Sa'id, 
who already held Gwadar. In 1213/1798 he concluded 
a treaty permitting the British to build and fortify a 
factory at Bandar 'Abbas and promising not to allow 
the French or Dutch to establish factories in his 
realm so long as they were at war with Britain. In 
his last years he was in constant danger from WahhabI 
attacks. He was killed in a sea fight near Lingah 
(1219/1804). The ensuing struggle for power was won 
by Badr b. Sayf with WahhabI support but he was 
murdered by Sa'id b. Sultan who ruled jointly with 
his brother Salim until the latter's death (1236/1821) 

Sa'id was the greatest of his dynasty but in Arabia 
his position was often insecure, either because of 
family dissension or WahhabI attacks. The former 
resulted in the temporary independence of Suhar 
[q.v.] under the family of Kays b. Ahmad, while the 
Wahhabis were sometimes bought off and sometimes 
restrained by the fear of British intervention. Sa'id 
was a firm ally of the British and assisted their 
expeditions against the Kawasim in the Persian 
Gulf. Under strong British pressure he restricted 
the slave trade (1238/1822) and the export of slaves 
from Africa was forbidden from 1 263/1847. Sa'Id's 
greatest achievement was the extension of his 
African dominions into a commercial empire sup- 
ported by sea power. The conquests of the Ya'rubi 
Imams in Africa had mostly been lost during the 
Persian invasion of 'Uman. Sa'id at his accession 
controlled only Zanzibar, part of Pemba, perhaps 
Mafia and Lamu, and Kilwa, which had been lost 
and regained. He gradually asserted his authority 
over the Arab and Swahili colonies from Makdishu 
(Mogadishu) to Cape Delgado; the most serious 
opposition was at Mombasa [q.v.]. The Hamitic and 



Bantu tribus hardly recognised his authority on the 
mainland. Even on the principal islands Sa'id 
merely received tribute from the chiefs of the 
Wahadimu (the Mwenyi Mkuu), the Wapemba (the 
Diwani) and the Watumbatu (the Sheha). In the 
middle years of the century the coast from Vanga to 
Pangani was, except for Tanga, held jointly by 
Sa'id and the King of Usambara, who sent repre- 
sentatives whom Sa'id confirmed in office. Sa'Id's 
attempt to obtain Nossi Be was foiled by the French. 
In 1270/1854 he ceded the Kuria Muria Islands to 
Britain. 

On Sa'Id's death (1273/1856) his son Thuwaynl re- 
mained in control at Maskat and his other son Madjid 
at Zanzibar. By the decision of Lord Canning, to whom 
the dispute was referred, Madjid kept Zanzibar and 
paid annual compensation, specifically stated not to 
be tribute, to Thuwaynl. Madjid's successor was 
Barghash who had tried to seize power on Sa'Id's 
death and again a few years later. The influence of 
of the British representative, Sir John Kirk, became 
paramount and in 1 290/1873 the slave trade was 



prohibited. German penetration in E. A 


frica resulted 




anco-German 


Commission to delimit Bu Sa'idi terr 


tory. By its 


decision Barghash was recognised as rule 


r of Zanzibar, 


Pemba, islets within 12 miles of then 


n, the Lamu 


archipelago, the coast from Tungi to 


Kipini to a 



Makdishu and Warshayjih. Lamu was later ceded to 
the British East Africa Co. and the Somali ports to 
Italy. In 1307/1890, in accordance with another 
Anglo-German agreement, Bu Sa'idi possessions north 
of the Umba River were purchased by Germany, and 
almost all the rest became a British protectorate. 
The mainland territories were then leased. In 1309/ 
1892 the administration was reorganised and a 
British First Minister (Gen. Lloyd Mathews) was 
appointed. Khalid b. Barghash attempted to seize 
power in 1310/1893 and in 1313/1896; his second 
revolt led to the bombardment of the palace by a 



GENEALOGICAL TABLE OF THE AL BU SA'ID DYNASTY 





1. Ahmad b. Sa'id b. 


Muhammad b. S 

1 


'id 


Imam, ? 1163/1749 




1 

. Sa'id, Imam, 


198/1783 
00/1786 


1 
Kays 

1 
'Azzan 

1 
Kays 


1 
Sayf 

1 
Badr 


4. Sultan 


1206/1792 
I 


3. Hamid, ? 12 


5- Salim, 1 220/1806 
(d. 1236/1821) 

1 - 


1 

6. Sa'id, 

220/1806 

1 




1 

iii. 'Azzan, 1285/1868 


1 




lb 




1 

Khalid 


1 

i. Thuwaynl. iv. T 

1273/1856 1287/ 

1 


1870 


1 

A. Madjid 
1273/1856 

888 

1/1913 

932 




1 

D. 'All 
1307/1890 


1 

B. Barghash 

1287/1870 

1 


1 1 1 

ii. Salim Kharub E. Hamid 
1282/1866 I 1310/1893 

H. Khalifa 1329/1911 
(regnant) 

v. Faysal 

vi. Taymu 

1 

vii. Sa'id, 

(reg 


305/1 
350/ 


'I 

Muhammad 

1 

F. Hamad, 1314/1896 

G. 'AH, 1320/1902 

(abdicated 1329/1911, 

d. 1337/1918) 


1 

C. Khalifa, 
1305/1888 



BO SA'lD — BUDD 



British warship. In 1314/1897 the legal status of 
slavery was abolished. The British minister was 
Regent during the minority of 'AH b. Hamud (1320/ 
1902-1323/1905)- In 1331/1913 responsibility for 
Zanzibar was transferred from the Foreign to the 
Colonial Office. 

Thuwayni, who had kept 'Uman under the 
Canning award, was assassinated. His son Salim 
was suspected of complicity and expelled after a 
short reign by 'Azzan b. Kays, who was himself 
killed in a civil war. In 1288/1871 Turk! agreed to 
partition 'Uman with 'Azzan's brother Ibrahim. 
The latter retained Suhar, but lost it to Turk! two 
years later. During these disorders the Persians 
resumed the lease of Bandar 'Abbas (1285/1868) and 
recaptured Cahbar (1288/1872). In 1290/1873 the 
slave trade was prohibited under British pressure. 
About 1319/1901 a dissident movement began in the 
interior under 'Isa b. Salih. In 1331/1913 Salim al- 
Kharusi was elected Imam and in 1333/1915 Maskat 
was attacked by the rebels and saved only by an 
Indian detachment. Salim was murdered in 1338-9/ 
1920; his successor, Muhammad b. 'Abd Allah, made 
an agreement with Sayyid Taymur by which the 
tribes of the interior enjoy autonomy. Modern 
'Uman includes Zufar and is bounded by the terri- 
tories of the Sultan of Kishm, the Shaykh of Ra's 
al-Khayma and the desert. An enclave on the coast 
around Fudjayra constitutes a separate Trucial state. 
Bibliography: The chief Arabic authority for 
the period to the death of Sayyid Sa'id is the 
chronicle of Ibn Razik, translated by G. 1\ Badger 
as History of the Imams and Seyyids of 'Oman, 
Hakluvt Society, 1871. The Arabic text has not 
been published and is now Camb. Univ. Add. MS. 
2892. Ibn Razik is, however, careless about dates, 
some of which can be corrected from an anonymous 
MS, B.M.; Add. 23,393. On the dates of Imam 
Ahmad, C. F. Beckingham in JRAS, 1941. 'Abd 
Allah b. Humayd al-Saliml, Tuhfat al-A'ydn bi 
sirat ahl "-Uman, Cairo 1350; R. Coupland, East 
Africa and its Invaders, and The Exploitation of 
East Africa; L. W. Hollingsworth, Zanzibar 
under the Foreign Office; W. H. lngrams, Chrono- 
logy and Genealogies of Zanzibar Rulers, Zanzibar, 
1926; B. Thomas, Arab Rule under the Al Bu Sa'id 
Dynasty of Oman, in Proceedings of the British 
Academy, vol. xxiv; R. Said-Ruete, Said bin Sultan 
(1791-1856), ruler of Oman and Zanzibar, London 
1929 ; idem, Dates and references of the history of the 

AlBii SaHd dynasty , London) ?) 193 1; idem, 

in Isl. 20 (1932), 237-246; C. U. Aitchison, A 
Collection of Treaties, Engagements and Sanads, vol. 
xii pt 3, vol. xiii pt 4. See also the bibliographies 
to the articles bahr faris and Zanzibar. 

(C. F. Beckingham) 
BU'AIH, the site of a battle about 617 A.D. 
between most sections of the two Medinan tribes 
of Aws and Khazradj. It lay in the south-eastern 
quarter of the Medinan oasis in the territory of the 
Banu Kurayza. The battle was the climax of a 
series of internal conflicts. The Aws, whose position 
had deteriorated, were joined by the two chief 
Jewish tribes, Kurayza and al-Nadlr, and by nomads 
of Muzayna; their leader was Hudayr b. Simak. 
The opposing leader <Amr b. al-Nu'man of Bayada 
was supported by most of the Khazradj, and by some 
nomadic Djuhayna and Ashdja', but 'Abd Allah b. 
Ubayy [q.v.] and another Khazradj leader refused to 
join him. The Awsite clan of Haritha also remained 
neutral. In the fighting, the Aws were at first forced 
back, but eventually routed their opponents. 



Although the leaders of both sides were killed, the 
war ended with an uneasy truce rather than a definite 
settlement. 

Bibliography: Ibn Hisham, 385-7, 551-2; 
Ibn Sa'd, iii, ii, 98-9 ; Yakut, i, 670-1 ; Wellhausen, 
Medina vor dem Islam, in Skizzen, iv, 27-36, 52-64, 
giving the extracts from Ibn al-Athlr, the Aghdni 
and the Hamdsa; Wustenfeld, Die GeschichU 
Medinas (= al-Samhudi), Abh. Gatt. Gesell. Wiss. 
vol. 9, i860, 50-3; W. Montgomery Watt, 
Muhammad at Medina, Oxford 1956, 156-8. See 
also ayyam al-'arab). (C. E. Bosworth) 

BUCHAREST [see bukresh] 
BUDAPEST [see budIn] 

BUDAYL b. WARSA', chief of the Banu 
Khuza'a, a tribe living near Mecca, who served 
Muhammad as spies, kept him informed of the 
enterprises of the Kuraysh, and, after the agreement 
at Hudaybiya (6/628), were his allies. Budayl 
appears for the first time in the camp at Huday- 
biya, to tell Muhammad that the Meccans are 
armed to resist him. On his return he carried the 
Prophet's proposals to Mecca, where he had a £ir. 
The Banu Khuza'a took refuge there during their war 
with the Banu Bakr, when the Kuraysh took the 
side of the latter, their clients, against the former. 
This was a breach of the treaty of Hudaybiya, by 
which the Banu Khuza'a had been recognised as 
allies of Muhammad, and thus gave the latter an 
opportunity to attack Mecca. Budayl hurried to 
Medina to make an arrangement with Muhammad 
and on the way met Abu Sufyan [q.v.] who was on 
the way to Medina on a similar errand. Apparently 
they both came to an arrangement with Muhammad 
in Medina regarding the terms of a peaceful surrender 
of Mecca, for which they offered their services. 
Muhammad advanced against Mecca at the head of 
10,000 men with the declared purpose of avenging 
the Banu Khuza'a. On the day before his arrival 
at Marr al-Zuhran (middle of Ramadan 8/beginning 
of June 630) Budayl went out with Abu Sufyan 
to reconnoitre. If the two had not been secretly in 
agreement, the Umayyad would not have been 
able to persuade the chief of the Khuza'a, who 
was the cause of the campaign, to go with him at 
such a critical moment. After they entered the 
Prophet's tent, they are both said to have paid 
him homage and adopted Islam. The conversion of 
Budayl cannot have taken place earlier, because 
he is mentioned among the "Muslims of the conquest 
(fath)" of Mecca. It was granted him that his house 
in Mecca should be recognised as a place of asylum 
for the belligerents. After the capitulation of Mecca, 
Budayl accompanied Muhammad with his adherents 
to Hunayn. He was not present at the siege of 
Ta'if because he had to guard the booty taken at 
Hunayn, in the camp of Dji'rana. He is not mentioned 
again and must have died before the Prophet, i.e., 
between the years 9 and 11 (630 and 632). 

Bibliography: Tabari, i, 1335, 1621-1628, 

1634; Ibn Sa'd, ii, Part 1, 70 it, 98; AghanI, vi, 

97; Baladhurl, Futuh, 35 ff.; Ibn Hisham, 807; 

IbnHadjar, Isdba, no. 614; Ibn al-Athlr, Usd al- 

Qhaba, i, 170; Caetani, Annali, ii, Part i, year 8, 

nos. 21, 39, 40, 43, 46, 61, 67. (H. Lammens) 

BUDD (pi. bidada; Pers. but) is used in Arabic in 

three different senses; it denotes either a temple, a. 

pagoda, or Buddha, or an idol (not necessarily 

the Buddha). The principal instance of the use of 

the word in the sense of pagoda occurs in a passage 

in the Merveilles de I'Inde (ed. trans. M. Devic, 5 ; 

Memorial J. Sauvaget, i, 192); this sense appears 



BUDD — BUDlN 






, although £ 



5 the primary 



Budd denotes the Buddha in authors such as 
al-Djahiz (Tarbi'-, ed. Pellat, 76), al-Mas'udl, al- 
BIruni, al-Shahrastani ; al-Mas'udl, speaking of the 
temple called "the house of gold" at Multan (fanbih, 
201; cf. al-BIruni, India, trad. Sachau, i, 368, ii, 18; 
Reinaud, in J A, 1844-5), says that the appearance 
of the first Buddha among the Indians dates back 
12,000 times 33,000 years. Al-BIruni, though 
possessing such a good knowledge of Brahmanism, 
knew little about Buddhism; the reverse is true of 
al-Shahrastani (ed. Cureton, 416; ed. in the margin 
of Ibn Hazm, iii, 240), who defines the Buddha: 
a person of this world, who is not born, does not 
marry, does not eat or drink, and does not grow old 
or die; the first Buddha, who appeared 5,000 years 
before the hidjra, was called Shakmln (= Cakya 
Muni) ; al-Shahrastani also knowns of, under the 
name of Budis'iyya ( ?), the Bodhisattvas, who are 
inferior to the Buddhas; they are men who seek the 
path of truth and attain their elevated rank by the 
practice of ten virtues and the avoidance of ten sins. 
The heresiographer, who adds that Buddhists 
believe in the eternity of the world and in the retri- 
bution of one's acts in another life, states that 
Buddhas appear in various forms in the palaces of 
the kings of India, and compares them with al- 
Khadir [q.v.] as envisaged by Muslims. Although 
Muslims possessed only rudimentary ideas about 
Buddhism, it is noteworthy that they adapted to 
their own religious history, by dint of making Adam 
come down in Ceylon, the Buddhist tradition which 
relates "Adam's peak" [see sarandIb] to the person 
of the Buddha (see Akhbdr al-Sin wa'l-Hind, ed. 
trans. Sauvaget, 36). 

Finally, the word budd is often used in the sense 
of idol. We should probably read budd Kuwayr 
"idol of Kuvera" in al-Djahiz (TarW; 40), and Ibn 
Durayd (apud LA) renders budd by sanam. The 
author of the Akhbdr al-Sin wa'l-Hind, 24, calls 
budd an idol worshipped in India to which courtesans 
were sacrificed. The idol of Somnath was well 
known among the Muslims (see Sa'dl, Bustan, ed. 
Platts, 238 ft.; Eng. trans. R. Levy, London 1918, 
67 ff.; Fr. trans. Barbier de Meynard, 334); al- 
Dimashki, Cosmographie, ed. Mehren, i7°-r> de- 
scribes it accurately and gives the name of budd to 
the principal object of worship, which consisted of two 
stones representing the male and female organs of 
generation. — On the legendary founder of the religion 
of the Sabaeans, Budhasaf/Yudasaf = Bodhisattva, 

Bibliography: in the article. 

(B. Carra de Vaux*) 
BUDHAN, Shaykh, of Djawnpur, a holy man 
belonging to the order known as Shattariyya [q.v.\ 
(Akhbdr al-Akhyar 193; Adhkdr-i Abrdr 284 ft). 
He was descended from Shaykh c Abd Allah 
Shattarl (d. 890/1485, in Mandfl), who himself 
was the seventh descendant of Shaykh Shihab al-DIn 
c Umar b. Muhammad al-Suhrawardl and came to 
India from Persia towards the end of the 9th/i5th 
century (for him see Akhbdr al-Akhyar, 171; 
Adhkdr-i Abrdr, 161, 286; Ma l dridi al-Wildya, f. 538; 
Mufti Ghulam Sarwar, Kkaxinat al-Affiya', Lahore 
1283, 947; 'Abd al-Hayy, Nuxkatal-Khawd(ir,l}ay- 
darabad-Deccan 1951, iii 95 <•)• Shaykh c Abd Allah 
was the first to introduce the ShattSrl maskrab in 
India. SJjaykh. Budhan received his literary education 
from, and was initiated into the Shattari order by, 
Shaykh HafU Djawnpuri, a vicegerent (khalifa) of the 



above Shaykh 'Abd Allah and in his turn practised 
the teachings of the order, handed them down to 
others, and led seekers of Truth to the Shattari path. 
Shaykh Rizk Allah Mushtakl, the paternal uncle of 
the famous Shaykh c Abd al-Hakk of Delhi, was 
instructed in the method of 'the remembrance of God' 
(dhikr) by him. Shaykh Budhan, who flourished 
under Sultan Sikandar LodhI (regn. 894-923/1489- 
1517) is described by Khweshgj as "a saintly and 
blessed person" (mardi buzurg wa mutabarrak). He 
died in Panipat and was buried there. His khalifa, 
Shaykh Wall (d. 956/1549), carried on his work in 
the town of Badoli and left several khalifas. 

Bibliography: 'Abd al-Hakk, Akhbdr al- 
Akhyar, Delhi 1309/1891-2, 194 (= 'All Akbar 
Ardistanl, Madjma'- al-Awliyd', Pandjab Uni- 
versity MS. f. 400b); Adhkdr-i Abrdr (Urdu 
version of Mandawl, Gulzdr-i Abrdr), Agra 1326, 
287, 208; 'Ubayd Allah Khweshgi, Ma'-dridj, aU 
Wildyd, Pandjab University MS., fol. 548 f.; 
Medieval India Quarterly, 'Allgarh, October 1950 
(Vol. I, no. 2), 58. (Mohammad Shafi) 

BUEHASAF [see bilawhar wa yudasaf] 
BUDlN (Budun, Bedln, Bedun, Budim, from the 
Slav Budin), the Latin and Hungarian Buda, the 
kernel of that part of the present Budapest which is 
situated on the right bank of the Danube, was 
conquered three times by the Turks in the second 
quarter of the 16th century (1526, 1529 and 1541). 
It was declared an Ottoman possession on 29 August 
1541, and made the centre of that part of Hungarian 
territory which was converted into an Ottoman 
province (Budin wildyeti). 

The Hapsburgs, who were the Central European 
power most concerned with the expansion of the 
Turks, and who laid claim to the Hungarian 
throne, made in 1542 an unsuccessful attempt to 
recapture Budin. No further attack was launched 
for the next fifty years. It was only at the turn of the 
16th and 17th centuries, at the time when the 
Ottoman Empire was at war with the Hapsburg 
Empire (Nemce), that the coalition armies led by the 
House of Hapsburg again repeatedly laid siege to 
Budin (1598, 1602, 1603). These attacks were, how- 
ever, repelled by the defenders of the fortress (the 
most violent attack, that of 1602, was driven back 
under the leadership of Kadlzade C AU and Lala 
Meljmed). Following this, the Turks enjoyed undis- 
turbed possession of Budin for a fairly long period 
and the fortress had to face hostile armies only after 
Kara Mustafa's defeat under the walls of Vienna in 
1683. While the siege of 1684 failed against the 
resistance of the defenders (Siyawush Pasha and 
Sheytan Ibrahim Pasha), the next siege brought 
victory to the attacking armies. c Abd al- Rahman 
Pasha, the defender of the castle, was killed in 
action, and Budin, termed at the time the "place of 
the GhazLs" and the "strong wall of Islam", passed 
into the hands of the Holy Alliance on 2 September 
1686. 

The fortress of Budin was built on the castle hill 
running along the Danube from north to south. 
The foundations of the fortress were laid in the 13th 
century by B61a IV; it was developed by subsequent 
Hungarian Kings, and converted, especially by 
Sigismund of Luxemburg and Mathias Corvinus, 
into a central royal residence in renaissance style, 
rich in artistic buildings. 

The fortress was protected by high ramparts erected 
on the upper slopes of the steep castle-hill. During 
the Turkish occupation the southern part of the 
castle-hill, with the medieval royal palace and its 



dependencies inside the walls, formed the closed 
inner fortress (it %ape); it was here that the gun- 
foundries ((opkhdne) and magazines were placed. The 
rest of the castle-hill was called the middle fortress 
(orta (ti?dr) and served to some extent as the 
residence of the civilian inhabitants as well. The 
town (varoS), situated at the foot of the castle-hill, 
next to the Danube, formed the outer fortress (dfaA 
ftifdr) which was surrounded by a simpler town 
wall and fortified with bastions at the gates. To 
protect Budln from sudden attacks, guard-houses 
had been erected at some distance, around the 
northern thermal springs (Barutkhane or Bunar 
Hisar, Weli Bey meterisi), further in the neighbour- 
hood of the present Csatarka (Cardak) and on the 
Gellert-Hill (Gurz Ilyas tepesi). 

Although Budln was always considered by the 
Ottomans an important fortress of the Empire, and 
a former royal city of great repute, they cared little 
for the development of the castle and the town. 
Some of the more active Turkish provincial govern- 
ors, especially in the 17th century, fortified or 
reconstructed some points here or there on the 
castle-hill; a record of these activities was preserved 
for a considerable length of time in topographical 
denominations (Well Bey kulesi, Murad Pasha ijulesi, 
Siyavush Pasha kulesi, Karakash Pasha kulesi, 
Kasim Pasha kulesi, Mahmud Pasha kulesi etc.). 
The governors, however, were able to do but 
little towards the fortification of Buda, because 
their building activities lacked co-ordination and 
guidance from a central authority and because they 
were not permitted by the Turkish Governments to 
remain long at the same place. Not less than 75 per- 
sons, several of them repeatedly, enjoyed the rank 
of Pasha of Budln during the 145 years of occu- 
pation, so that the average length of their office was 
scarcely a year and a half. Thus there was never a 
general modernisation of the castle, and its system 
of fortification remained on the same basis at the 
1 of the Turkish rule as it had been 
s before under the Hungarian Kings. Both 
material supplies and • general equipment were at 
all times antiquated and deficient. (Pieces of ord- 
nance a hundred years old were found in the 
artillery stations at the recapture of the fortress). 

The Turkish regime did not leave behind it any 
architectural works of artistic value, and this 
applies not only to structures of a military character 
but to other kinds of buildings as well. The medieval 
Royal Castle and the buildings of the town, taken 
by the Turks in 1541 intact, exceeded the modest 
needs of the conquerors and were thus easily able 
to meet the requirements of a provincial head- 
quarters. Slight alterations were needed to make 
the churches suitable for Muslim religious services 
(the Church of Our Lady under the name of 
Sultan Suleyman Djami'i or Buyuk djami', the 
Church of the Royal Castle under that of Saray 
djami'i or Enderun djami'i, the Church of Saint 
George under that of Orta djami', the Church 
of Mary Magdalen under that of Fethiyye djami'i 
etc.); other public buildings could be used as bar- 
racks, while the empty office buildings and the 
derelict private houses provided homes for the 
officials. 

Still, even the little building activity that was 
manifested in the transformation or refurnishing of 
various buildings (e.g., minarets added to the 
churches), the Muslim-style bathing establishments 
added to the thermal springs (erected, at the very 
beginning of the Turkish period by Weli Bey and 



Sokollu Mustafa) as well as the new constructions 
necessitated by conflagrations, earthquakes, etc. 
succeeded in giving the town, in the course of one 
century and a half, a new exterior sufficient to make 
it appear a new-style Muslim city in the eyes of 
any visitor coming down the Danube from the west. 
As regards appearance and general atmosphere, 
Budln was indeed a Turkish and Muslim city. 

Being at a great distance from the Turkish capital, 
a centre in the borderlands, it was usual for the 
Governments to appoint persons of distinction to be 
the heads of the province of Budln, persons "who 
were prominent among their contemporaries". 
Important special tasks were entrusted to the 
Pashas of Budln, the guardians of that western 
borderland of the Empire, which was at the same 
time the most important frontier zone. At the 
beginning of the period of occupation, when the 
Ottoman dynasty enjoyed preponderance over the 
Hapsburg dynasty, their task was to maintain this 
preponderance, whereas after the Peace of Zsitvato- 
rok (1606) by which the Hapsburg rulers— called up 
to then Kings of Vienna (Bei klrall) — had become 
exempt from the obligation to pay a yearly tribute, 
and when Turkish preponderance disappeared, the 
Pashas of Budln were given the task of concealing 
the weakening of the Empire. To this end the Pashas 
utilised and inspired controversies among local 
elements and supported the movements of the dis- 
contented Hungarians against the Hapsburgs. The 
dealings of the Turks with the Vienna Court of the 
Hapsburgs and the Court of the Princes of Transyl- 
vania resulted in a number of inter-state agreements, 
the ground for which had been prepared by the 
Pashas of Budin (Peace of Zsitvatorok in 1606, the 
agreements of Vienna in 1616 and Komarom in 
1618, the peace treaties of Gyarmat in 1625 and 
Szony in 1627 and 1642). 

The population of the town underwent a radical 
'change under Turkish rule; it is to be noted that 
Budin was not a populous city before the Turkish 
occupation, the number of inhabitants being 
probably below 5,000. A part of them had already 
left Budin during the civil wars, while a still greater 
part, viz. the employees of the Royal Household, the 
soldiers and officials as well as the persons in the 
employment of the Church, emigrated after the 
Turks had taken Budin. The oldest known list of 
Turkish tax-assessments enumerates among the 
inhabitants of Budin 238 Christian (gebr), Hungarian, 
75 Jewish and 60 gipsy (bipfi) heads of families. As 
the military personnel of the Turkish garrison (about 
2,000 men at the beginning), the employees of the 
Turkish offices, and the Muslim religious functionaries 
outnumbered the original or native population at 
the ratio of 5 to 1, the change in the population 
was far-reaching from the very first days of the 
occupation onwards. Budin had thus become a 
Turkish military town, the population of which was 
nevertheless far from being Turkish in origin; most 
of the people in Budin with Muslim names were but 
newly converted Slavs from the Balkans. (This is 
clearly evident in the case of the gipsies, the majority 
of whom bore the theophoric name N. b. 'Abd Allah). 
Turks of pure extraction formed a minority in the 
population of Budin, as did the Hungarians, Jews, 
Albanians, Greeks etc. and they remained in the 
minority throughout the period of occupation. 

The spiritual life of the town was not remarkable. 
The magistrates and public offices were occupied 
by the "men of the pen" (ehl-i futlem): viz. the 
officials of the administrative authorities, the 



1286 



BUDIN — BUDJAK 



Pasha's divan, the local financial administration, the 
school-masters and the employees of the mosques. 
We know of religious works (mostly copies only) 
written in Budln, and we are also aware of certain 
exponents of religious life at the very beginning 
of the epoch. Both the names and locations of several 
dervish establishments are known; the names and 
memory of a number of bdbds, together with the 
mystery clinging to their persons, lived for a long 
time, the memory of one of them, that of Giil-Baba 
[q.v.], having survived the age of the Turkish occu- 
pation by many centuries. We even possess some 
sparse data concerning secular intellectual life. We 
know that folk-singers and minstrels recited epic 
poems to the frequenters of coffee-houses and of 
londiakSshks, in which poems the history of past 
centuries and the daily fights of the neighbouring 
borderland were commemorated; it is further 
known that Budln's beauty was glorified in 
meditative songs by local poets (Wudjudi and 
perhaps others as well). In the towns and the border 
provinces traditional Turkish folk songs were sung 
and new ones probably composed. Of works in 
prose we know the rather sketchy biography of 
Sokollu Mustafa, the ablest Ottoman governor of 
Budln (1566-1578): it was most probably compiled 
in Budln in Sokollu Mustafa's lifetime. There is only 
one among Budin's literary figures who achieved 
universal repute: Ibrahim Pecewi [q.v.], the historian. 
He was employed by the local defierkhdne for some 
time, lived for many years in Budln, and, after 
having left it, returned there on many occasions 
because of his family connexions. 

The spiritual life of the Christians (oriental and 
western) and of the Jews was, as far as can be judged 
from the sporadic records, rather primitive. 

The Turkish occupation meant a radical change 
in the town's economic life as well. The markets 
had to satisfy the new needs of the new inhabitants 
of the town, the soldiers of the army of occupation, 
who brought with them some tradesmen of their 
own. The craftsmen dealing in household articles and 
clothing imported not only patterns and fashions but 
also a quantity of various materials, such as cloth 
from Bosnia, Djanbolu, Salonica, frieze carpets, 
finished leather-goods, household articles, vessels, 
arms etc. These articles were certainly more numer- 
ous on the local market than the scarlets, velvets, 
muslins and fabrics imported from the West. 

Industrial development adapted itself to the new 
requirements. While the artisans from the Balkans 
(tailors, shoemakers, barbers, tinsmiths, gunsmiths), 
manufactured clothes, boots, vessels and arms that 
suited Balkan and Turkish taste, the market of 
Budln could offer similar articles (Hungarian 
apparel, Hungarian boots) manufactured in the 
Hungarian style for the Hungarian inhabitants of 
the countryside. However, only one or two of the 
new industries succeeded in taking root, e.g. the 
production of simple broadcloth (shayak) as made 
by the Jewish women in Budln, and further the 
dressing of skins. The Turks had methods of skin- 
dressing that were different from, and superior to, 
the methods employed by the tanners who worked in 
Hungary before their arrival; the new type of 
leather industry was then adopted not only in the 
towns inhabited by the Turks but also in the 
country, as is evidenced by the topographical term 
"taban" (the Turkish debbdghkhdne) still preserved 
in many Hungarian townlets. 

During the sieges of 1684 and 1686, Budin fell 
completely Into ruin, its medieval buildings, 



together with those built in the Turkish era, were 
destroyed, and its Turkish and Muslim inhabitants 
were either captured or emigrated at the termination 
of the hostilities. The Buda of later times and the 
Budapest of our time have hardly anything to 
show in the way of records and remnants from the 
Turkish era. 



Bibliographical references 

There are scattered data concerning the external 
history of the town in the writings of the Turkish 
and Hungarian authors of the epoch (Djelalzade 
about the occupation in 1541, Pecewi and the 
Hungarian Miklos Istvanffy on the fights around 
1600, Rashid and, more extensively, Silahdar, espe- 
cially as regards the siege in 1684). All this has 
been adequately summed up by M. Cavid Baysun 
(IA, ii, Istanbul 1942, 748-60). A great amount 
of topographical data will be found in the works 
of Ewliya Celebi and Silahdar, as well as in 
the military maps made during the years of the 
reconquest. The bes' Hungarian works are A magyar 
nemzet napjai a mohicsi vtsz utdn (The Days of the 
Hungarian Nation after the Catastrophe of Mohacs), 
by Pal Jaszay, Pest 1846; Buda is Pest visszavivdsa 
1686-fcw (The Retaking of Buda and Pest in 1686) 
by Arpad Karolyi, Budapest 1886, second edition 
in 1936; bibliographical material for the lives of the 
Pashas of Buda in Antal Gevay's Versuch eines 
chronologischen Verzeichnisses der Tiirkischen Statt- 
halter von Ofen (in J. Chmel's Der bsterreichische 
Geschichtsforscher, Vienna 1841, ii, 56-90). All these 
contributions were summed up by Lajos Fekete 
who, in his work: Budapest a tdrbKkorban (Bada- 
pest during the Period of the Turks) — published 
in Budapest in 1944 as the third volume of Budapest 
tbrttnete (The History of Budapest) — also utilised 
Turkish archive material containing many additional 
data about the composition of the population and 
its material and spiritual life (G. Flugel, Die Ara- 
bischen, Persischen und Tiirkischen Handschriften 
der kk. Bibl. in Wien, vol. ii, 441 ff.: Turkische 
Rechnungsbiicher). Aron Szilady and Sandor Szilagyi, 
Okmdnytdr a hddoltsdg torttnetthez Magyarorszdgon, 
Pest 1863, Tdrbkmagyarkori aUamokmdnytdr i-vii, 
Pest 1872; Imre Karacson, TbrOkmagyar okleviltdr, 
Budapest 1914; Sandor Takats et al., A budai basdk 
magyar nyelvu levelezese, Budapest 1915. See further 
Fr. Salamon, Ungarn im Zeitalter der Tiirkenherrschaft, 
Leipzig 1887; W. Bjdrkman, Ofen zur Tiirkenzeit, 
Hamburg 1920; Fr. Babingerrfa/., Literaturdenkmdler 
aus Ungams Tiirkenzeit, Berlin and Leipzig 1927; G. 
Jacob, Aus Vngarns Tiirkenzeit, Frankfurt 1917; A. 
Le Faivre, Les Magyars pendant la domination otto- 
mane en Hongrie, Paris 1902; T. Gokbilgin, Kara 
Oveys Pasa'nm Budin Beylerbeyligi (1578-1580), in 
Tarih Dergisi, ii (1952), 17-34; 18, Macaristan'daki 
Turk Hakimiyeti Devrine ait bazt Notlar, Tiirkiyal 
Mecmuast, vii-viii (1940-42), 200-211; L. Fekete, 
Osmanlt Tiirkleri ve Macarlar 1366-1699, in Belleten, 
xiii (1949), 663-744. (L. Fekete) 

BUDJAK. southern Bessarabia (the name 
Bessarabia formerly denoting only Budjak). In 
Turkish budidk (budighak in the Turkish of the 
Kumans who had settled here earlier) means 'corner'. 

This area, from 638/1241 on, had formed part of 
the empire of the Golden Horde [see batu'ids]. 
When it was in decline, the area was occupied 
temporarily by the voyvode of Wallachia (ca. 
746/1345), and later by the voyvode of Boghdan 
[q.v.] around 802/1400. As a result of the joint 
action of the Ottoman and the Crimean Tatars 



l-BUGHTORI 



1287 



first Ak-Kirman and Kili in 889/1484, and then the 
whole of Budjak in 945/1538, came under direct 
Ottoman rule (see boghdan). Budjak formed the 
Ottoman sandiak of Ak-Kirman [q.v.], the boundary 
running from Solkuia on the Botna through Gradishte 
to Kili (Chilia); the Crimean Khan who had co- 
operated with Suleyman I during the 945/1538 cam- 
paign settled the Noghay tribes in Budjai: (the Man- 
surs, the Oraks, the Kasays, the Mamays, the 
Or-Mehmeds, the Tatmuz, the Yedicek, the Djara- 
boyluk) (cf. Al-Sab* al-sayyar, 106), thus reinforcing 
the earlier Tatar inhabitants. In 1067/1657 Ewliya 
Celebi reported (v, 106) that these Tatars formed 200 
villages and were very wealthy; the villages towards 
Bender contained some Tatars or were composed 
entirely of Wallachs; the villages of Ismail were 
wholly Tatar. Toward 978/1570 Bender and Ak- 
Kirman were centres of sandjaks under the beglerbegi 
of Ozu [q.v.], whose seat was at Ak-Kirman or Silistre. 
The Tatars of Budjak were under the administration 
of a Yali-aghdsi appointed by the Crimean Khan, and 
later under the second heir to the Khanate (the 
Nur al-Din), who resided at Khan-klshlasl, south 
of Bender. 

In the struggles against the Kazaks (Cossacks) and 
Poland in 1620s, the beg of the Noghays, Kantimur 
distinguished himself, and the Ottomans sup- 
ported him against the Crimean Khan and made 
him beglerbegi of Ozii, in an endeavour to wrest 
control of the Noghay Tatars from the Khan. In 
1111/1699-1113/1701 the Noghays of Budjak (6000 
families) threw off their obedience to the Khan and 
asked to be made .Ottoman subjects; on this 
occasion the Porte did not encourage them, and 
Dewlet Gerey (Giray) forcibly transferred 700 to 
800 families to the Crimea (Al-Sab 1 al-sayyar, 
262-66). 

In 1 184/ 1 770 Budjak was temporarily invaded by 
the Russians, and thereafter Orthodox Christian 
Gagauz Turks and Bulgars began to immigrate from 
Dobrudja [q.v.] into Budjak. By the Treaty of 
Bucharest (28 May 1812) the Porte ceded Budjak to 
Russia, and the majority of the Tatars emigrated 
to the Dobrudja, Bulgaria and Anatolia. 

Bibliography: N. Jorga, Hist, des Roumains, 
10 vols., Bucharest 1936-39; idem, Studii istorice 
auspra Chiliei si Cetatii-Albe, Bucharest 1899; 
S. Mehmed Rida, Al-Sab"- al-sayyar fi akhb&r 
muluk al-Tdtdr, ed. KSzim Bik, Kazan 1832; lA, 
Bucak (by Aurel Decei). (Halil Inalcik) 

BUDJNORD (BoajNURD). 1. Town in Khurasan 
situated at the northern foot of Mt. Aladagh, 57° 17' 
E. Long. (Greenw.) 37° 29' N. Lat., alt. 698 m. 

We find no information about the town before the 
time of the Safawids, when the Shadlu tribe of Kurds 
was settled in this area by Shah 'Abbas I. It is 
uncertain whether Budjnurd was called Buzandjird 
before this time, but the ruins of an old citadel (arg) 
and other structures indicate that the town is old. 
2. District of which Budjnurd is the capital. The 
population of the shahristdn has been estimated 
ca. 150,000 (1950), composed of Turkomans, Kurds 
and Persians. 

Bibliography: P. Sykes, Ten Thousand Miles 
in Persia, London 1902, 21 ; Razmara, ed., 
Farhang-i Diugkrdfiyd-yi Iran, ix, Tehran 1951, 
49; Mas'ud Kayhan, Diughrdfiyd-yi Mufafsal-i 
Iran, ii, Tehran 1933, 187. (R. N. Frve) 

BUDOB [see supplement]. 
BUDUKH |see shah dagh]. 
BUGHA Ax-KABlR (the elder), a Turkish 
military leader who played a political rdle during 



a troubled period under the 'Abbasid caliphate. 
Under al-Mu'tasim and his successors, he distin- 
guished himself in several expeditions against 
rebellious tribes in the region of Medina in 230/ 
844-45, in Armenia in 237/851-52, and against the 
Byzantines in 244/857. Absent at the time of the 
assassination of al-Mutawakkil in 247/861, he 
returned subsequently to Samarra and, making 
common cause with the other Turkish officers, 
compelled the succession of al-Musta c In in 248/862. 
He died in the same year. 

His son, Musa b. Bugha, came also to occupy an 
important place in the political scene at Samarra, 
and to direct for a time the barid service. 

Bibliography: Tabari, index; Ya'kubl, index; 

Bulddn, 262; Baladhuri, Futiih, 211; Mas c udl, 

Murudi, vii, index; Tanukhl, Nishwdr, viii, 45-48; 

Ibn al-Athir, index. (D. Sourdel) 

BUGHA AL-SBARAbI (the cup-bearer), also 

called AL-SACHiR (the younger) a Turkish military 

leader who bore the title mawld amir al-mu'minin, 

and who is not to be confused with his contemporary 

of the same name, Bugha al-Kablr. After having 

fought, under al-Mutawakkil, against the rebels of 

Adharbaydjan, he led the plot against this caliph, 

whom he suspected of wishing to reduce the 

influence of the Turkish officers, and had him 

assassinated. With his ally Wasif, he subsequently 

held power under al-Muntasir and al-Musta c In. 

Al-Mu c tazz, however, ascending the throne in 252/ 

866, sought to rid himself of this ancient enemy, 

the murderer of his father, and after relieving 

him of his functions and privileges, succeeded in 

254/868 in having him imprisoned and put to death. 

Bibliography: Tabari, index; Ya'kubl, index; 

Bulddn, 262; Baladhuri, Futiih, 330; Mas'udi, 

Murudi, v "> index; Ibn al-Athir, index; A. Amin, 

Zuhr al-isldm, i, 11,20-22; D. Sourdel, Le vizirat 

'■abbdside, i, Damascus 1959, index. 

(D. Sourdel) 
BUfiHRA KHAN [see ijarakhanids]. 
al-BUGHTCrI, MaijrIn b. Muhammad, Ibadite 
historian and biographer born in the village of 
Bughtura (also: Buktura) in the western region of 
the Djabal Nafusa [q.v.]. According to the Kitab 
al-Siyar of Abu 'l- c Abbas Ahmad b. AW c Uthman 
al-Shammakhl [q.v.], an important historical and 
biographical Ibadite work of the ioth/i6th century, 
al-Bughturi was a pupil of two scholars of Ibadite 
history and biography, namely Abu Yahya Tawfik 
b. YahyS al-Djanawunl and Abu Muhammad c Abd 
Allah b. Muhammad b. 'Abd Allah b. Maskud (also 
called al-Madjuli). While studying with the first of 
these masters, in the village of Idjnawun (also 
Djanawun, today Djennawen in the Djadu region), 
al-Bughturi wrote during the month of Rabi' II 
599/December 1202-January 1203 his principal work 
on the biographies of celebrated Ibadites born in the 
Djabal Nafusa. This work, known by the names of 
Kitab siyar maskdyikh Nafusa, Siyar Nafusa, or 
perhaps more often al-Siyar, is lost today; it con- 
stitutes one of the principal sources of the Kitab 
al-siyar of al-Shammakhl, who has given us sub- 
stantial extracts from it, especially in the middle 
part of his work (143-344). The copy of the work 
which al-Shammakhi had at his disposal, was prob- 
ably made in the first years of the 8th/i4th 
century by Yahya b. Abi 'l- c Izz al-Shammakhl of 
Tighermin, a famous Ibadite copyist and scholar 
of the Djabal Nafusa. 

Bibliography: Abu 'l- c Abbas Ahmad al- 
Shammakhi, Kitab al-Siyar, Cairo 1301/1883, 



L-BUGHTURl — BUHLUL 



passim (especially 212, 542-3, 548 and appendix, 
578); T. Lewicki, Une chronique ibddite, in REI, 
1934, cahier I, 74-5 and passim; idem, Etudes 
ibddites nord-africaines, Part I: Tasmiya Suyuh 
Gabal Nafusa wa-qurdhum, Warsaw 1955, 15, 28, 
69, and passim. (T. Lewicki) 

BUGI [see Celebes]. 

BUHAYRA (Ar.), lake, is probably the dirain- 
munitive, not of bahr "sea", as one would expect, 
but of bahra, which is applied to a depression in 
which water can collect. Thus, in North Africa, 
bhfra, pi. bhdyr denotes a low-lying plain, in 
eastern Algeria, northern Tunisia and part of southern 
Morocco; its most common meaning, however, is 
that of "vegetable garden, field for market gardening" 
or "field for the cultivation of cucurbitaceous plants 
(melons in particular)" (see W. Marcais, Textes 
arabes de Tanger, Paris 1911, 227). (Ed.) 

The word buhayra (lake) underlies a toponym 
which is often encountered in Spain and Por- 
tugal in the forms Albufera (Valencia, Alicante, 
Majorca), Albuferas (Almeria), Albuera (Caceres 
and Badajoz), Albojaira (Almeria), and Albufeira, 
a coastal town in Algarve, Portugal; a diminutive 
of the diminutive appears also in Albufereta 
(Alicante). The most important of these lakes is 
that at Valencia [see balansiya], about 9 kms. 
from the town, the last remnant which is left 
(about 35 sq. kms.) of the inland sea which used 
to cover the deep valleys of the Turia and the Jucar 
in prehistoric times. It was one of the biggest lakes 
in Spain, but of late years its area has been dimi- 
nished in order to provide more rice fields on the 
north-western and southern shores. Nowadays its 
diameter is only 6 kms. 

Ibn Mardanlsh [q.v.] drowned his sister's two 
sons there when he saw himself abandoned by his 
people, just before the loss of his throne and his 
death. When Valencia was divided, James I (the 
Conqueror d. 1276) reserved the estate of Albufera 
for himself. At the beginning of the 19th century 
the crown relinquished this fine property to Godoy, 
and Napoleon offered it to Marshal Suchet before it 
became a national patrimony once more. 

The word buhayra meant an irrigated garden in 
Almohad times. The battle in which the Almohads 
were routed by the Almoravids in 524/1130 is 
known by the name of the Battle of the buhayra of 
Marrakush; the buhayra of Seville, subsequently 
called Huerto del Rey, was improved by Yusuf I, 
son of c Abd al-Mu'min. (A. Huici Miranda) 

BUHAYRA (Behera), name of the western 
province of the Egyptian delta. This was first 
a pagarchy (kura) of small extent, limited to the 
north-eastern portion of the outskirts of Alexandria; 
the name may be an allusion to the lake of Abukir, 
called also buhayrat al-Iskandariyya, and Yakut was 
well aware that this last name applied to a series 
of neighbouring cantons of the town. 

At the time of the division into provinces in 
Fatimid times, Buhayra was an extensive region, 
situated west of the Rosetta branch, and reaching 
from the point of the delta right to Alexandria but 
excluding it. The great port was rarely associated 
administratively with this province, of which the 
capital was and remained Damanhur. 

The region of Tarr&na, and further north the wadl 
Natriin, possessed natron deposits, which were 
worked in the Middle Ages. 

c Umari and Kalkashandi give precise information 
on the Arab (in the strict sense) population of 
Buhayra. 



During Mamluk times risings of Arab tribes 
and Bedouin of the Western Desert are frequently 
recorded. These rebellions began towards the end of 
the gth/i5th century; there were terrible punish- 
ments: summary executions, the enslavement of 
women and children, and confiscation of flocks. 
In the Ottoman period the troubles quite often 
provoked punitive expeditions, and the province was 
far from being quiet during the French occupation, 
as one sees from the massacre of the small French 
garrison of Damanhur. After the departure of the 
French great importance was accorded to the 
Bedouin of the district, in whose favour an im- 
perial firman was promulgated, confirming their 
ov/nership of their territories. But their turbulence, 
of which the Mamluk bey Muhammad Alfl momen- 
tarily took advantage, could scarcely be over- 
come. Muhammad AIM made no attempt to con- 
ciliate the Arabs of the province in his struggle 
against Muhammad 'All. 

Bibliography: Maspero and Wiet, Matiriaux 
pour servir a la geographic de I'Egypte, 34-5, 175-7, 
180, 183, 185, 187-91; 'Umari, Ta'rif, 76; Kalka- 
shandi, Subh, vii, 160-1; Ibn Taghribirdi, Nudjum, 
ed. Popper, vi, 728-9, vii, 9, 570, 654, 708, 7", 
7i5, 727, 734, 773 ; Hawddith, 57, 190, 209-11, 213, 
500; Zahiri, 35-6, 130; tr. Venture de Paradis, 55, 
214; Ibn Iyas, Bulak ed., i, 142, 249, 268, 308; 
Mustafa ed. 12, 13, 20, 28, 90, 117, 125, 139, 141, 
153; Kahle-Mustafa ed., iii, 11, 21, 25, 48, 71, 227, 
265, 268, 287, 388-9, 391. 405-6, 410; tr. Wiet, ii, 
13, 25, 55, 83, 260, 305, 308, 330, 440-1, 443, 457, 
459; Kahle-Mustafa ed., iv, 256-8; Wiet, Journal 
d'un bourgeois du Caire, 239-41 ; Cjuatremere, 
Mimoires sur I'Egypte, ii, 191-3, 197-200, 211; 
Djabarti, i, 24, 95, 334, 349, ii, 93, 119, 159, 219, 
iii, 57-8, in, 205-6, 229, 237, 321, iv, 8, n, 18, 
3i, 33, 37, 81-2, 133, 242; French tr., i, 57, 221, 
iii, 52, 88, iv, 150, 218, v, 24, 143. vi, 116-7, vii, 
78-80, 133, 154, 359-6o, viii, 15, 19, 24, 38, 67-8, 
7i, 73, 79-8o, 177, 179-80, 300, ix, 167; Histoire 
de la nation franfaise, v, 436; Georges Douin, 
Mohamed Aly, pacha du Caire, 14; Sakha wl. 
Daw', ii, 317, no. 1013, iii, no. 228; Poliak, Rtvoltes 
populaires, in REI, 1934, 257, 259, 261-2; History 
of the Patriarchs, Patrplogia orientalis, x, 524-5 
[638-9]; Ibn al-Furat, ix, 384; Combe, Alexandrie 
musulmane, extr. from Bulletin de la Sociiti 
royale de Geographic d'Egypte, 43 ; Dopp, Le Caire, 
in the same Bulletin, xxiv, 144. (G. Wiet) 

al-BUBAYRA al-MAYYITA (or al-muntina) 
[see baijr lut]. 

BUHLCL al-Madjnun al-KOfI, the name of 
a lunatic of al-Kufa. We first meet him in 
the Baydn of al-Djahiz (ed. Harun, ii, 230-1), 
who depicts him as a simpleton exposed to the 
rough jokes of passers-by, and definitely as a 
ShI'i (yatashayya'). It is possible that he met 
Harun al-Rashld at al-Kufa in 188/804, as Ibn al- 
Djawzi reports {al-Adhkiyd>, ed. 1277, 180 ff.; 
see JRAS, 1907, 35), and perhaps he even addressed 
some remonstrances to him (al-Sha'ranl, Taba^dt, 
58) ; but it is certain that legend, as far back as 
the 4th/ioth century and maybe even before, 
seized on his name to make of it a kind of prototype 
of the "wise fools" (al-'utsald* al-madidnin) and to 
attribute to him a number of anecdotes, some pious 
and edifying stories, in addition to some didactic 
verse (see Chauvin, Bibl. ar., vii, 126 ff.; MSS. 
Berlin, passim; Bibl. nat. de Paris, 623, n° 3653) 
It is likewise claimed that he produced some tradit- 
ions (al-Dhahabl; Ibn Taghribardi) but it is probable 



BUHLOL — al-BUHTURI 



1289 



that he has been confused with various characters 
similarly possessing the name of Buhlul, and among 
whom are to be found genuine traditionists (see 
particularly Ibn Hadjar, Lisdn al-Mudn, s.v.). One 
of them, who lived in Ifrikiya and who died in 
183/799, was named Buhlul b. Rashid, which 
perhaps explains the persistent tradition (see Ibn 
Taghribardi, i, 518; ZDMG, xliii, 115) which 
identifies Buhlul with al-Sabtl, legendary son of 
Harun al-Rashid (see Chauvin, Bibl. ar., vi, 193, 
and bibl. quoted). 

Buhlul's tomb in Baghdad has been described by 
Niebuhr (Reisebesck., ii, 301 ff.; Le Strange, Baghdad, 
350), and an inscription dating from 501/1 100-8 
designates him as the sultan of the madjdhubs and 
as an "obscure, dim soul" (nafs mufammasa). People 
called him Buhluldana, "the wise fool", and they 
made of him the kinsman and the buffoon of al- 
Rashld, and they told stories in the coffee houses 
about his wit and subtlety. The culmination of the 
development of the legend of Buhlul was reached 
when he became the hero of erotic tales as in al- 
Rawd al-<-A(ir (ed. 1315, 9) of al-Nafzawi (8th/i4th 
century), who makes him a contemporary of al- 
Ma>mun (see also Meissner, Neurab. Geschichten, v 
and 73-83)- 

The word buhlul is given in Arabic dictionaries 
with the meaning of "merry, jolly" (dahhdk), "a 
generous and distinguished man", and it is still 
this sense which Redhouse (Turkish and English 
Lexicon, 416a) and Dozy offer (following Bocthor), 
although the latter does not fail to call attention 
to the meanings of "booby", "idiot", etc. which are 
already encountered in Ibn Battuta (ii, 89) and Ibn 
Khaldun (Mukaddima, ed. Quatremere, i, 201 ff.). 
Currently, and particularly in North Africa, it has 
the general meaning of "simpleton", "ninny", etc., 
and H. Wehr, Wbrterbuch, gives "wag, clown, 
buffoon". Owing to the fact that bahdliljbahluldt 
still sometimes denotes an intense hilarity (see 
Doutte, Marabouts), D. B. Macdonald [El 1 , s.v.) 
infers that the present use of the word rests also 



s literal 






1 the 



of a 



historical Buhlul. It is of course possible that there 
may be some confusion with hubdlijbuhdli, which 
have the same meaning, but it is probable that the 
modern meaning proceeds from the proper name. 
Bibliography: Add to the references given in 
the text, Brockelmann, S /, 350. (Ed.) 

al-BUHTURI, Abu c Ubada al-walid b. 
'Ubayd (Allah), Arab poet and anthologist of 
3rd/gth century (206-284/821-897), born at Manbidj 
(some state his birthplace to be the neighbouring 
village of Hurdufna), into a family belonging to the 
Buhtur, a branch of the Tayyi 3 ; not only did he 
never completely sever connexions with his native 
town, where the fortune amassed during his long 
career as court poet allowed him to acquire property, 
but he took advantage of his tribal origin to make 
useful connexions for himself. 

After having dedicated his first poetic efforts 
(223-6/837-40) to the praise of his tribe, he sought 
a patron, and found him in the person of the Tal 
general Abu Sa'id Yusuf b. Muhammad, known as 
al-Thaghri [q.v.], at whose house he met for the 
first time the poet Abu Tammam, who also claimed 
to be a Tal. Abu Tammam, attracted by his 
youthful talent, apparently recommended him at 
first as a panegyrist to the notables of Ma'arrat 
al-Nu c man, who made him an allowance of 4,000 
dirhams, but nothing remains of his output during 
this period. In any case al-Buhturi was not slow in 



joining Abu Tammam in the retinue of his patron 
Malik b. Tawk, governor of Mesopotamia, and then 
in following him to Baghdad, where, by attending 
the courses of the most celebrated scholars (notably 
Ibn al-A c rabI) and by striving to acquire the 
manners of the capital, he prepared himself to extol 
important personages in the hope of getting close 
to the caliph. 

However, he had scarcely any success with Ibn 
al-Zayyat, and instead allied himself to a family of 
his own tribe, the Banu Humayd, some members of 
which were established in Baghdad, and he dedicated 
several odes to their chief, Abu Nahshal; then he 
left 'Irak at the same time as Abu Tammam, in 
230/844, to return to al-Thaghri, then at Mosul. 

Contrary to all expectation he does not seem to 
have grieved at the death of Abu Tammam (231/845), 
from whom nevertheless he had received his first 
encouragement, and part of his poetic training; 
this was the first instance of the ingratitude and 
opportunism of which he gave ample proof later. 

No sooner had al-Mutawakkil succeeded than he 
returned to Baghdad, and thanks to the good 
offices of Ibn al-Munadjdjim won the favour of 
al-Fath b. Khakan, who introduced him to al- 
Mutawakkil, probably in 234/848. Thus it was that 
a brilliant career as court poet began for al-Buhturi. 

In spite of a passing coldness in their relationship 
caused by inevitable jealousies, he enjoyed the 
constant patronage of al-Fath, to whom he dedicated 
his liamdsa and a number of panegyrics; he also 
praised numerous great figures of the empire, but 
it was for the caliph that he kept the greater part 
of his poetic ouput; he lived on familiar terms with 
him, enjoying his confidence, supporting government 
policy even when this clashed with his personal 
views which had a Shi'i bias, and proclaiming the 
virtues and rights of the 'Abbasids. The verse of this 
period contains many allusions to political happen- 
ings — the rebellion at Damascus (236/850), the 
revolt in Armenia (237/851), the rising at Hims 
(240/854), the caliph's visit to Damascus (244/858), 
the building of al-Mutawakkiliyya (245-6/859-60), etc. 

Whereas heretofore the erotic prelude to his 
kasidas had been dedicated to a conventional Hind, 
there now appeared in his verse a woman of flesh 
and blood, 'Aiwa bint Zurayka, who lived at Aleppo 
and had a country house in the district, at Bityas; 
without doubt he used to see her during his journeys 
in Syria, for his stay in 'Irak was never uninter- 
rupted, and it is possible that he had a great passion 
for her, although he mocked her in a somewhat 
indecent poem. 

After having been concerned, as al-Mas'fldi 
reports of him, in the assassination of al-Mutawakkil 
and al-Fath (247/861), he thought it prudent to 
retire to Manbidj, but he reappeared soon afterwards 
with a panegyric of al-Muntasir, and afterwards 
addressed his praises to the wazir Ahmad b. al- 
Khasib, against whom, incidentally, he did not 
hesitate to incite al-Musta c In some time later. He 
tasted fame once more under al-Mu c tazz, to whom 
he dedicated numerous poems, in which are echoes of 
the unrest which was watering the provinces of the 
empire with blood, but which by no means prevented 
him from welcoming al-Muhtadl as if nothing had 
happened, and from becoming temporarily a poet 
of piety to humour the new caliph. His fame declined 
under al-Mu c tamid, whose fiscal policy caused him 
some anxiety over his fortune, and his last poem 
dedicated to a caliph is in praise of al-Mu c tadid 
(279/892). He then left 'Irak and became court 



L-BUHTURl — BOl< 



poet once again with Khumarawayh b. Tuliin, and 
finally then returned to his birthplace where he died, 
after a long illness, in 284/897. 

At the beginning of his career, al-Buhturi wrote, 
almost exclusively, vainglorious poetry or poems 
about his desert wanderings (a notable example is the 
famous poem of the jackal, ii, no), but as soon as 
he became court poet the panegyric became the main 
form of his work. In this style he respected, except 
perhaps at the end of his life, the tripartite form 
of the kasida, painting a conventional portrait of 
his various patrons; however, the panegyric is 
successfully heightened by splendid descriptions (in 
particular of the palace) where, thanks to a fine 
sense of poetic imagery and picturesque detail, al- 
Buhturi stands unchallenged; it was only later that 
he devoted an entire poem to describing a palace, 
the I wan of Chosroes (see c Abd al-Kadir al-Maghribi, 
in MMIA, 1956, 77-88, 241-52, 427-36, 577-85). 
Though the ideas he expounded were generally 
without originality, his style, characterised by a 
simple vocabulary and musical and sonorous verse, 
is his great virtue, and puts him above the other 
court poets with whom at first he had to compete. 
He excelled equally in elegy but scarcely succeeded 
with invective, with him a mere corollary of pane- 
gyric, and most often addressed to a former prospec- 
tive patron who had not fulfilled his hopes; and as a 
matter of fact, according to one story, on his deathbed 
he advised his son to destroy all his satires. 
Occasional poems are few in his diwdn; likewise, 
love themes are only found in the prologues to the 
frasidas, and it was as a mere concession to fashion 
that he sang the praises of a few ephebes. 

Western critics, who, after all, have taken little 
interest in al-Buhturi, class him among the neo- 
classic poets, and this label suits him perfectly. For 
their part, Eastern critics consider him, with Abu 
Tammam and al-Mutanabbl, as one of the most 
important poets of the c Abbasid era ; the comparison 
between him and his master Abu Tammam is a 
favourite subject for discussion, after having been 
a point of controversy even while al-Buhturi was 

to the best work of Abu Tammam, while he thought 
his own most mediocre poems to be better than the 
worst of Abu Tammam. This theme is treated in 
detail in two works which tend respectively to favour 
Abu Tammam and al-Buhturi: the Akhbdr Abi 
Tammam of al-Suli, Cairo 1356/1937, and al- 
Muwdzana bayna Abi Tammam wa 'l-Buhturi of al- 
Amidi (Cairo 1363/1944). 

Al-Buhturi had this in common with most of his 
fellows, that he begged ceaselessly and rejected no 
means of getting money ; this greed for gain destroyed 
his moral fibre and led him to dissimulate in order 
to follow slavishly the fluctuations of the religious 
policy of the caliph who was his patron. 

His success as court poet earned him bitter 
enemies among his competitors (though he seems 
always to have been on good terms with the Shi'i 
poet Di'bil [q.v.]); naturally it also brought him 
into contact with all the eminent figures of the 
empire, wazirs, generals, governors, courtiers, 
secretaries, and scholars. His contacts also allowed 
him to be conversant with many political facts, of 
which one hears echoes in the diwdn; this last, in- 
dependently of its literary value, presents an 
undeniable documentary interest (cf. M. Canard, 
Les allusions a la guerre byzantine ches les poites 
Abu Tammam el Buhturi, in A. A. Vassiliev, 
Byzance el les Arabes, i, Brussels 1935, 397-403). 



Indeed it forms a useful supplement to the 
chronicles of the time to which it often adds 
details, whether in giving the full names of per- 
sonalities, or in describing monuments, or in men- 
tioning occurrences which historians appear to have 
overlooked. 

The Diwdn was published at Constantinople in 
1882, then at Beirut and Cairo in 191 1, but these 
editions are rather faulty and incomplete, so that a 
new publication taking into account the various 
MSS. (notably that in the Bibliotheque Nationale in 
Paris) would be most welcome. A commentary 
compiled by Abu 'l-'Ala' al-Ma c arri, 'Abath al-Walid, 
was published at Damascus in 1355/1936. — Of the 
Ifamdsa only one MS. (University of Leiden) has 
been discovered, which is evidence of the lack of 
success of this anthology, in which the verses are 
grouped according to their themes and not according 
to their genres, as in that of Abu Tammam; there 
have been three editions: Leiden 1909, Beirut 1910, 
Cairo 1929. — A third work attributed to al-Buhturi, 
Ma'dni al-Shi'-r (or al-shu'ard*), is lost. 

Bibliography: Aghdni, xviii, 167-75; Ibn 
al-Mu c tazz, Tabaftdt al-Shu'ard', London 1939, 
186-7; Mas'udi, Murudj, index; Ibn Khallikan, 
tr. de Slane, iii, 657-66; Yakut, Mu'didmal-Udabd', 
xix, 248-58; Abu 'l-'Ala' al-Ma'arri, Risdlat al- 
Ghu/rdn. passim; Margoliouth, The Letters of 
Abu 'l-'Ald, Oxford 1898, passim; Husri, Zahr 
al-Addb, index ; Fihrist, Cairo edn., 235 ; Ibn 
Rashik, 'Umda, passim; ZDMG, 1893, 418-39, 
715-17; G. Kan'an, al-Buhturi, Hamat n.d.; 
Taha Husayn, Min IJadith al-Shi'-r wa H-Nathr, 
Cairo n.d. (? 1932), 113-33; M. Sabri, Abu < Ubdda 
al-Buhturi, Cairo 1946; C A. Rustum, Tayf al-Walid 
aw haydt al-Buhturi, Cairo 1947; Sayyid al- c Akl, 
'Abltariyyat al-Buhturi, Beirut 1953; Brockelmann, 
S I, 125; an excellent monograph, UnpoHe arabedu 
III' siecle de Vhigire {IX' s. de J.-.C), Buhturi, was 
presented as a doctorate thesis at the Sorbonne in 
1953 by S. Achtar (unpublished). (Ch. Pellat) 
B0$, the generic name for any instrument of the 
horn or trumpet family. Wind instruments played by 
means of a cup-shaped mouthpiece may be divided 
into two classes, viz.: 1. the horn or conical tube 
type; and 2. the trumpet or cylindrical tube type. 
1. The horn type. Whether the sur and ndlfur 
mentioned in the Kur'an (vi, 73; lxxiv, 8; lxxviii, 18) 
were horns, as Ahmad b. Hanbal (d. 241/855) and 
al-Djawhari (d. ca. 396/1005) say respectively, the 
early Persians and Arabs certainly knew of a conical 
tube instrument of the animal horn type. An example 
may be found in Greek art of the 14th century B.C. 
in which an Asiatic warrior is displayed sounding 
such as instrument, whilst a Greek warrior is sounding 
a straight trumpet (Gerhard, Apulische Vasen, 
pi. ii). The Arabs appear to have known the crescent- 
shaped horn as the karn (Seybold, Glossarium 
Latino-Arabicum, 519), cognate words being found 
in the Akkadian ttarnu and the Hebrew Iferen. This in- 
strument is still used by the perambulating darwlshes 
in Persia. According to Turkish tradition the darwish 
borusu (burisi) (dervish horn) was invented by Manu- 
cihr the legendary Persian king (Ewliya Celebi, i/ii, 
238). For a design of the instrument see Advielle, 9, 
and Lavignac, 3075, by whom it is wrongly called 
a nafir. Actual specimens may be found in museums, 
e.g., the Crosby Brown Collection, New York, 
no. 2454. There is a large Hispano-Moorish horn of 
ivory of the 4th-6th/ioth-i2th century in the 
Victoria and Albert Museum, London (no. 2953/ 
1862). Much larger instruments were also in use. Ibn 



Battuta (d. 779/1377) describes such 
of the Sudan made from an elephant's tusk (Voyages, 
iv, 41 1), hence the term oliphant horn. An Andalusian 
Arab, Al-Shakundl (d. 629/1231), speaks of a monster 
horn (karn) known as the abu kurun ("father of 
homs") as related by Al-Makkari (Analectes, ii, 144), 
which would be comparable to the monster horn 
(buk al-kabir), the height of a man, referred to by 
Muhammad al-Saghir (Tadhkirat al-Nisydn, 45). 

A horn made out of a shell was known to the 
Arabs of the Peninsula in the 2nd/8th century. Al- 
Layth b. al-Muzaffar says that it was used by millers, 
and that it was a spiral conch resembling the minhdf, 
apparently something like the shankh of India 
(Day, Music and Musical Instruments of Southern 
India, 151). It was probably the instrument which 
the Arabs called the butt. It was not a warlike 
instrument in the early days of Islam, as the Arabs 
did not use horns in battle at that time (Ibn 
Khaldun, Mukaddima, xvii, 44). A poet quoted by 
Al-Asma c i (d. 828) says that the butt was used by 
the Christians for that purpose, and, according to 
Al-Pjawhari, the Arabs borrowed that usage from 
them. In fact the word butt appears to have been 
derived from the Greek (Joxavir) or the Latin buccina 
(Dozy, Suppl.), although in the Tadi al-'-Ariis the 
Persian word buri is considered to be the etymological 
original, an "obviously improbable" derivation (Lane, 
Lexicon). In the 4th/ioth century the Ikhwan al- 
Safa J refer to the butt to illustrate their discussion on 
acoustics (Bombay ed., i, 89). From that time the 
buk began to play an important part in martial and 
processional music in all Islamic lands (see Tabl- 
Khana). In the A If Layla waLayla (ed. Macnaghten, 
i, 80, ii, 382, 403) it is in constant use for those 
purposes, whilst the nafir or trumpet is only mention- 
ed once (ii, 656). Yet it should be understood that 
the term butt was used for all instruments with a 
conical tube, whether crescent-shaped or straight, 
irrespective of the material of its facture, — shell, 
horn, or metal. Incidentally, the metal horn 
(Turkish pirindj, boru) is claimed to have been 
introduced by the Saldjuks of the 5th/nth century 
(Ewliya Celebi, i/ii, 238). In view of the use of metal 
instruments by both Persia and Byzantium much 
earlier, that statement cannot be accepted. The 
buk is mentioned in Persian as early as Firdawsl 
(d. 411/1020) and one supposes that the instrument 
was little different from the straight horns depicted 
on the Tak-i Bustan sculptures (590-628 A.D.), and 
is still the type to be found there (Advielle, 9: 
Lavignac, 3075). In Moorish Spain the bukdt of Al- 
Hakam II (d. 369/979) were mounted with gold. It 
was this monarch who, having devised the boring 
of the tube with finger holes and the insertion of a 
beating reed at the blowing end instead of a cup- 
shaped mouthpiece, introduced an instrument of the 
saxophone type (see Mizmar). The Spanish albogue 
is its lineal descendant. 

The Turkish and Persian equivalent of the 
buk was the boru (buri) (Hadjdji Khalifa, i, 400; 
Meninski, s.v. butt; Ewliya Celebi, i/ii, 238 ; Toderini, 
i, 238). The word is to be found in modern Egyptian 
and Syrian Arabic (Amery, English-Arabic Voca- 
bulary, s.v. bugle; Ronzevalle, MFOB, vi, 29). It has 
become the Balkan bore and boriye (cf. the Sanskrit 
bhariyd and the Ghanaian buro). The burghu or 
burghu, a Caghatay word, was a huge horn introduced 
into the Islamic armies during the Mughal and 
Tatar regime. Ibn Ghavbi (d. 1435) says that it was 
longer than the nafir. The name survives in the 
buruga of India (Day, 153; Lavignac, 358) where it 



is another name for the karna. Another instrument 
of the same group mentioned by Arabic authors is 
the shabbur. Al-Djawharl says that it is a non- 
Arabic word, which Ibn al-Athlr Madjd al-DIn 
(d. 1 3 10) has rightly surmised was borrowed from 
the Hebrew shophar. Firdawsl includes the shaypur 
among the ancient martial instruments of the 
Persians. The existence of the Arabic word shafur, as 
mentioned by A. X. Idelsohn (Jewish Music, 495, 
and J. Reider (JQR, Jan. 1934), must be accepted 
with reserve. F6tis mentions a modern Arabian 
trumpet under the name shabbur (Hist, gen., ii, 157), 
but see Mahillon (i, 182; and the Saturday Review, 
June 1882, 696). 

2. The trumpet type. The chief instrument 
of the cylindrical tube class was the nafir, although 
the name is frequently given to the straight instru- 
ment of the horn type (see Host, Nachrichten von 
Marokos og Fes, pi. xxxi). The name nafir in this 
connexion occurs first in the 5th/nth century under 
the Saldjuks, although the type may have been 
known earlier. Kurt Sachs (Reallexikon der Musik- 
instrumenle, s.v.) erroneously derives the word 
from nafakha ('to blow"). Originally the term 
nafir meant 'a call to war", and so a trumpet used 
by such was called a buk al-nafir, i.e., 'a military 
horn or trumpet'. Ibn al-Tiktaka, in al-Fakhri (30) 
speaks of a large buk similar to the buk al-nafir, 
from which we may reasonably deduce that the 
ordinary buk was smaller or shorter than the nafir. 
The bright incisive tone of the nafir, which was due 
to its cylindrical tube, was better for signalling 
purposes than the hoarse sound of the buk with its 
conical bore. The difference between them may well 
be illustrated by the verbs used to describe their 
sounding. We read for instance that the buk player 
'blew' (nafakha) his horn, whilst the nafir player 
'cried out' (sdha) with his trumpet. For the 
respective numbers of the nafir and buk used in the 
Islamic army bands, see Tabl-Khana. In the time 
of Ibn Ghaybl the length of the nafir was 168 cm. 



! g<"). 



The karna, according to Ibn Ghaybl, was a trumpet 
folded in the centre of its tube into a 'S' shaped 
figure. Some of them were of enormous length. The 
Persian dictionaries give the form as karrandy, and 
it is thus vocalised in the Shdh-ndma of Firdawsl. 
It is generally acknowledged (Buhle, 28; Schlesinger, 
xxvii, 326, 353; Galpin, 200) that the cylindrical bore 
instruments were borrowed from the East. Perhaps 
those buccins Turcs and cors sarrasinois which the 
Crusading chroniclers record included the nafir and 
karna. Richard Coeur de Lion, in the Third Crusade 
(1189-92), was well equipped with tubae, litui, corni 
and buccinae, but at Messina in Sicily, we read of a 
trumpa which was different from the tuba. Could this 
have been the nafir of the Hohenstaufen Saracen 
troops on the Island? Yet if the Occident was 
indebted to the Orient for the cylindrical nafir, the 
compliment was returned, since we know that 
Morocco, under Sultan al-Mansur (1576-1602) had 
a (runbata (= Spanish trompeta) which was made of 
brass and was as long as the nafir (Tadhkirat al- 
Nisydn, 117; the translator writes negir). Turkey 
also knew of the European trumpet (turumpata 
borusu) as well as the English trumpet (ingilix 
borusu), the latter being the modern wreathed 
instrument (Ewliya Celebi, i/ii, 238). Both Niebuhr 
and Villoteau give designs and descriptions of the 
I7th-i9th century instruments. 

Bibliography: c Abd al-Kadir b. Ghaybl, 

Bodleian MS. (Marsh, no. 282, fol. 80) ; Abu '1-Fadl, 



BOK — BUKAYR b, MAHAN 



AHn-i Akbari, ed. Blochmann, Calcutta 1873-4; 
Advielle, La musique chez Us Persons, Paris 1885 ; 
Alf layla wa layla, ed. Macnaghten, Calcutta 
1839-42; Amery, English-Arabic Vocabulary, Cairo 
1905, s.v. 'Bugle'; Arnold, The Legacy of Islam, 
Oxford 1931; Ars Asiatica, xiii, Paris 1929, 
pi. i; Bonanni, Gabinetto armonico, Rome 1722; 
P. Brown, Indian Painting under the Mughals, 
Oxford 1924; Buhle, Die musikalischen Instru- 
mente in den Miniaturen des fruhen MittelaUers, 
Leipzig 1903; Catalogue of the Crosby Brown 
Collection of Musical Instruments, New York 
1904-5 ; Chardin, Voyages . . . en Perse, Amsterdam 
1735 ; Day, The Music and Musical Instruments of 
Southern India . . ., London 1891; Ewliya Celebl, 
Travels of Evelya Efendi, London 1846; Farmer, 
Studies in Oriental Musical Instruments, 2nd 
Series, London 1939; Minstrelsy of The Arabian 
Nights, London 1945; Fetis, Histoire girUrale de 
la musique, Paris 1869-76; Galpin, Old English 
Instruments of Music, London 1910; HadjdjI 
Khalifa, Kashf al-Zunun, ed. Fliigel, Leipzig 1835; 
Host, Nachrichten von Marokos og Fes, Copenhagen 
1779; Ibn Battuta, Voyages ... trad, par C. 
Defrimery, Paris 1853-8; Ibn Khaldun, Notices et 
extraits, Paris 1858; RasdHl Ikhwdn al-Safa', 
Bombay 1887-9; Kaempfer, Amoenitatum exoti- 
carum . . ., Lemgo 1712; Lavignac, Encyclopidie 
de la musique, v, Paris 1922 ; Mahillon, Catalogue . . . 
du Musie Instrumental du Conservatoire Royal de 
Musique de Bruxelles, i, Ghent 1893; idem, La 
Trompette, son histoire . . ., Bruxelles 1907; Al- 
Makkari, Analectes . . ., Leiden 1855-61; Martin, 
Miniature Painting and Painters of Persia, India, 
and Turkey, London 1912; Pedro de Alcala, 
Arte . . . la lengua araviga, Granada 1505; Niebuhr, 
Voyage en Arabic, Amsterdam 1776-80; Survey 
of Persian Art; Ribera, La Musica de las Cdntigas, 
Madrid 1922; Sachs, Real-Lexikon der Musik- 
instrumente, Berlin 191 3; Schiaparelli, Vocabulista 
in Arabico, Firenze 1871; Schlesinger, article 
Trumpet in Encyclopaedia Britannica, New York 
1910-n; Seybold, Glossarium Latino-Arabicum, 
Berlin 1900; Toderini, Letteratura Turchesca, 
Venice 1787; Villoteau, La Description de I'Egypte, 
itat moderne, Paris 1809-26. (H. G. Farmer) 
BUKA, one of the leaders of the group of the 
Oghuz of Khurasan which, after the capture and 
death of its leader Arslan b. Saldjuk (427/1036?), 
was expelled from the province by Ghaznawid troops 
on account of its depredations, and continued its 
pillaging across central and western Iran as far as 
the borders of Armenia and Upper Mesopotamia, 
where it was annihilated by the Bedouin and Kurds 
in 435/1044. See EI 1 , s.v., the article saldjuijids, 
and CI. Cahen, Le Maliknameh et Vhistoire des 
origines seldjukides, in Oriens, 1949, 57. 

(Cl. Cahen) 
BUKA, a place, no longer extant, in northern 
Syria, whose name is very probably a word of Syriac 
origin meaning "mosquito", from which fact H. 
Lammens has inferred that the region was a marshy 
one. It figures in the Arabic texts of the first cen- 
turies of Islam. Nothing is known of its more ancient 
history, but it is mentioned in the narratives of the 
conquest by Abu c Ubayda of the provinces of Antioch 
and Kinnasrln, and appears to have had a certain 
importance in Umayyad times. Then it was near 
the territory of the Djaradjima, placed by al- 
Baladhuri in the Djabal al-Lukkam (Amanus) 
between Bayas and Buka. It was one of the places 
chosen for the establishment under Mu'awiya or 



al-Walid of the Zutt [q.v.] from Sind, who arrived 
there from 'Irak and installed themselves with 
their buffaloes. Later its defences were streng- 
thened by the caliph Hisham, who built a fortress 
there. The Byzantines besieged it in 338/949-50, 
during a raid on Syria by Leo Phocas, and it then 
belonged to the territory of the 'Awasim [q.v.], but 
the mentions made of it in the 6th/i2th century 
by Ibn Shaddad and Yakut seem to r< fleet an 
earlier state of things. Although it is not known in 
what circumstances it fell into ruins or was aban- 
doned, by the time of the Crusades it had lost its 
previous importance, and H. Lammens (EI 1 ) could 
establish only by conjecture, based on literary 
data, the site which it presumably occupied in 
the c Amk [q.v.] depression, not far from the lake 
of Antioch. 

Bibliography: Baladhuri. Futuh, 149, 159, 
162, 167, 168; BGA, indices; Ibn Shaddad, apud 
Ch. Ledit, Machriq, xxxiii (1934), 179 «.; Yakut, 
i, 762 ; G. Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, 
London 1890, 424; M. Canard, Histoire de la 
dynastie des H'amdanides, i, Algiers 1951, 227, 
229, 762. (J. Sourdel-Thomine) 

BUK C A or Ba^'a, denotes according to lexico- 
graphers a region which is distinguishable from its 
surroundings, more particularly a depression between 
mountains, and bak c a was applied especially to a 
place where water remains stagnant. The word 
appears frequently as a toponym, as well as its 
diminutive bukay'a. (J. Sourdel-Thomine) 

BUKALA, a term employed in Algerian 
Arabic (cf. pauxaAl?) to denote a two-handled 
pottery vase used by women in the course of the 
divinatory practices to which it gave its name. The 
operation consisted, basically, of the woman who 
officiated improvising, after an invocation, a short 
poem which was also called bukdla and from which 
portents were drawn. These practices, which seem 
to have enjoyed a certain vogue during the period 
when piracy was at its height (women wanted to 
have news of their men who were at sea), developed 
into a parlour game. They were recently the subject 
of an excellent study by S. Bencheneb, in AIEO, 
Algiers 1956, 19-m (with numerous texts in 

BUKALAMUN [see abu kalamun]. 

BUKAREST [see Bukresh]. 

al-BUKAY'A in particular denotes a little plain 
situated north of the Bika c [seeBuK e A] and south- 
east of the Djebel Ansariy^, at an average altitude 
of 250 m. It is characterised by an abundance of 
springs which there give birth to the Nahr al-Kabir. 
It was known in the time of the Crusades by the 
name Boquee and was dominated by the Hisn al- 
Akrad [4.D.] whose ruins still overlook it today (see 
M. van Berchem and E. Fatio, Voyage en Syrie, 
Cairo 1914-5, 42; R- Dussaud, Topographic historique 
de la Syrie, Paris 1923, 92 ; J. Weulersse, Le pays des 
Alcouites, Tours 1940, index s.v. Bouqaia). 

The name Bukay'a is found likewise in Trans- 
jordania, where it denotes a small inland plain to 
the north of the plateau of al-Balka 3 in the neigh- 
bourhood of Suwaylih (see F. M. Abel, Geographic 
de la Palestine, i, Paris 1933, 91). 

(J. Sourdel-Thomine) 

BUKAYR b. MAHAN, Abu Hashim, propa- 
gandist of the 'Abbasids at the end of the 
Umayyad caliphate, was a native of Sidjistan and 
had at first been secretary of the governor of Sind ' 
al-Piunavd b. c Abd al-Rahman. In 102/720-1 he^was 
converted to the anti-Umayyad cause by Maysara 



BUKAYR B. MAHAN — BUKHARA 



1293 



al-'Abdi and Muhammad b. Khunays, and he put 
at the disposition of their party the fortune which 
he had amassed in business in Sind. After the death 
of Maysara he was entrusted with the direction of 
the movement in 105/723-4 and he was unusually 
active in gaining supporters among the population 
of Khurasan. In 107/725-6 he also sent many emis- 
saries to this region, who with one exception, 
c Ammar al- c Abadi, were at once taken and put to 
death by the governor Asad b. c Abd Allah. Later, 
in 118/736, he appointed 'Ammar b. Yazid as chief 
over other agents who had been first imprisoned and 
then succeeded in freeing themselves. 'Ammar 
established himself at Marw, took the name of 
Khidash. and met with some success, but having 
adopted the doctrines of the Khurramls [q.v.] was 
in his turn imprisoned, tortured, and put to death 
by the governor Asad. This situation disturbed the 
imam Muhammad, who was not content with the 
explanation offered in 120/738 by the delegate of the 
Khurasanis, Sulayman b. Kathir [q.v.], and despatched 
Bukayr himself to repudiate publicly the doctrines 
of Khidash. Bukayr was badly received the first 
time but the second time succeeded in convincing 
the 'Abbasid partisans. Afterwards, in 12 4/74 1-2, 
having returned to 'Irak and being held respon- 
sible for political meetings which took place in a 
house at Kufa, he was imprisoned. There he won 
over to his cause c Isa b. Ma'kil, from whom, accord- 
ing to an unreliable tradition, he bought a slave, 
the future Abu Muslim [q.v.]. Set at liberty, he went 
to Khurasan in 126/743-4 to announce the death of 
the imam Muhammad to the partisans of the c Ab- 
basids, and to make them swear allegiance to his 
son Ibrahim. He returned to 'Irak with the money 
he had collected in Iran. He died soon afterwards, 
in 127/744-5, after nominating as his successor Abu 
Salama Hafs b. Sulayman [q.v.], a choice which 
Ibrahim later accepted. 

Bibliography: Tabarl, Ya'kubl, Dinawarl, 
index; L. Caetani, Chronographia islamica, 1280, 
1317, 1348, 1484, 1509, 1558, 1592. 1622; J. Well- 
hausen, Das arabische Reich, Berlin 1902, 316-20; 
G. van Vloten, De opkomst der Abbasiden in 
Chorasan, Leiden 1890, passim. (D. Sourdel) 
BUKAYR B. WISHAH. Governor of Khura- 
san at the beginning of the caliphate of c Abd al- 
Malik b. Marwan. A former lieutenant of c Abd Allah 
b. Khazim [q.v.], this Tamlml of the tribe of the 
Banu Sa'd made himself noticed during the troubled 
time which was marked by the insurrections of the 
Tamlm, both when he commanded the troops of Mu- 
hammad b. c Abd Allah b. Khazim at Harat and when 
he was the delegate of the governor in Marw after the 
recapture of the town from the rebels. In 72/691-2 
the triumph of the Umayyad caliph 'Abd al-Malik, 
who had firmly established his power in 'Irak and 
Arabia, gave him the opportunity to be nominated 
in his turn titular governor at Marw, and to sub- 
stitute by force his authority for that of Ibn Khazim, 
who had refused to pass over to the Umayyads 
and was soon to be killed while fleeing towards 
Tirmidh. But as troubles continued in the region, 
where the Tamlm were engaged in a veritable civil 
war, Bukayr was deposed, and, nominated in com- 
pensation governor of Tukharistan, was obliged to 
cede his place, without doubt in 74/693-4, to the 
Kurayshite Umayya b. c Abd Allah b. KhaHd. sent 
by the caliph and perhaps, according to some 
sources, earmarked for this post since 72/691-2. In 
s of which the details vary according 
s, the evicted amir afterwards profited 



by the absence of the new governor, who was away 

in 77/696-7 fighting against Bukhara, to arouse for 

his own ends the inhabitants of Marw, and to compel 

Umayya to return as quickly as possible to lay siege 

to the rebellious city. The capitulation which followed 

was made with honourable conditions for Bukayr, 

but he continued to intrigue and in the same year 

was treacherously assassinated by one of his enemies. 

Bibliography: Tabari, index; Baladhuri, 

Futuh, 415-7; Ya'kubl, ii, 324; Bulddn, 299; 

1. Wellhausen, Das arabische Reich, Berlin 1902, 

260-3; Caetani, Chronographia, 849, 859, 877, 

915, 921. (J. Sourdel-Thomine) 

BUKHARA, a city in a large oasis in present day 

Uzbekistan on the lower course of the Zarafshan 

River, the city is 722 ft. (222.4 m.) above sea level 

and is located at 64° 38' E. long. (Greenw.) and 

39 43' N. Lat. 

We have few references to the city in pre-Islamic 
times. In the time of Alexander the Great there was 
another town in Sogdiana besides Marakanda 
(Samarkand) on the lower course of the river but it 
probably did not correspond to the modern city of 
Bukhara. The oasis was inhabited from early times 
and towns certainly existed there. 

The earliest literary occurrence of the name is in 
Chinese sources of the 7th century A.D., but the 
native name of the city, pwy'r, found on coins, 
indicates on palaeographic grounds that the name 
may have been used several centuries earlier. The 
derivation of this word from Sanskrit vilidra "mo- 
nastery" is not improbable in spite of linguistic 
difficulties, since there was a vihdra near Numidj- 
kath, a town apparently the predecessor of Bukhara, 
and which merged into the latter (cf. Frye, Notes 
in HJAS, below). 

The native dynasty was called Bukhar Khudat 
(or Bukhara Khudah) by the Islamic sources; on 
the coins we have pwy'r y^P, Sogdian for "Bukhara 
king", indicating that the local language was at 
least a dialect of Sogdian. Although the names of 
several of the pre-Islamic rulers occur on inscriptions 
and in later sources (cf. Frye, ibid.) it is only after 
the Arabic conquests that the history of the city 
can be reconstructed. 

The accounts of the first Arab raids across the 
Oxus River are partly legendary and require critical 
examination. The first Arab army is said to have 
appeared before Bukhara in 54/674 under 'Ubayd 
Allah b. Ziyad. The ruler of Bukhara at that time was 
the widow of the late ruler BIdun, or Bandun. (In 
Tabarl, ii, 169, in place of her Kabadj Khatun is 
mentioned as the wife of the reigning king of the 
Turks. Perhaps this name is to be read Kayikh or 
Kayigh, as the Turkish tribal name?). According to 
Narshakhl (ed. Schefer, 7, trans. Frye, 9) she ruled 
for 15 years as regent for her infant son Tughshada 
(Tabari, ii, 1693, has Tuk Siyada; cf. discussion by 
O. I. Smirnova, K imtnii sogdiyskogo ikhshida 
Tukaspadaka, in Trudl Akad. Nauk Tadzhikskoy 
SSR, Stalinabad 1953, 209). This same Bukhar 
Khudat appears again in al-Tabarl as a youth in 
91/710 when Kutayba b. Muslim, after overthrowing 
his enemies, installed him as prince of Bukhara. The 
rule of Islam in Bukhara was first placed on a firm 
footing by Kutayba. In Ramadan i2i/Aug.-Sept. 
739> Tughshada was murdered in the camp of the 
governor of Khurasan, Nasr b. Sayyar. During his 
long reign several rebellions against the Arab 
suzerainty took place and the Turks invaded the 
country several times. In 1 10/728-9 the town of 
Bukhara itself was lost to the Arabs and they had 



to besiege it but regained it the next year (al- 
Tabari, ii, 1514, 1529)- 

The son and successor of Tughshada, called 
"Kutayba" in honour of the conqueror, behaved at 
first like a good Muslim. When in the year 133/750, 
the Arab Shank b. Shaykh raised a revolt in Bukhara 
against the new dynasty of the 'Abbasids, the 
rebellion was put down by Ziyad b. Salih, lieutenant 
of Abu Muslim, with the help of the Bukhar Khudat. 
Nevertheless the latter was a short time later 
accused of apostasy from Islam and put to death by 
order of Abu Muslim. His brother and successor 
Bunyat (although another brother Skan, reading 
uncertain, may have ruled a few years between) met 
the same fate during the reign of the caliph al-Mahdi 
(probably in 166/782), for the Caliph had him put to 
death as a follower of the heretic al-Mukanna c . 
After this period the Bukhar Khudats appear to 
have been of little importance in the government 
of the country but they an influential position 
because of their great estates. In the early years of 
the reign of the Samanid Isma'il, mention is made 
of the Bukhar Khudat who was deprived of his 
lands but allowed the same income (20,000 dirhams) 
from the state treasury, as he had previously derived 
from his estates. It is not known how long the govern- 
ment fulfilled this obligation. 

Besides the native prince there was of course in 
Bukhara, at least from the time of Kutayba b. 
Muslim, an Arab amir or l dmil who was subordinate 
to the amir of Khurasan whose headquarters were 
in Marw. On account of its geographical situation 
Bukhara was much more closely connected with 
Marw than with Samarkand. The Bukhar Khudat 
had even a palace of his own in Marw (al-Tabari, ii, 
1888, 14; 1987, 7; 1992. 16). In the 3rd/9th century, 
when the amirs of Khurasan transferred their seat 
to Nishapur, the administration of Bukhara remained 
separate from that of the other parts of Transoxania. 
Till 260/874 Bukhara did not belong to Samanid 
territory but was under a separate governor immed- 
iately responsible to the Tahirids. After the fall of 
the Tahirids (259/873) Ya'kOb b. Layth was recog- 
nised only for a brief period in Bukhara as amir of 
Khurasan. The clergy and populace applied to the 
Samanid Nasr b. Ahmad who was ruling in Samar- 
kand and he appointed his younger brother Isma'il 
governor of Bukhara. Bukhara was henceforth 
ruled by the Samanids until their fall. Isma'il 
continued to live in Bukhara after the death of his 
brother Nasr in 279/892 when the whole of MS wara 
5 l-nahr (Transoxania) passed under his sway, and 
also after his victory over 'Amr b. Layth in 287/900 
when he was confirmed by the Caliph in the 
rank of amir of Khurasan. The city thus became 
the seat of a great kingdom although it never 
equalled Samarkand in size or wealth during this 
period. It was in Bukhara that the New Persian 
literary renaissance bloomed. 

The Bukhara of the Samanid period is described 
in detail by the Arab geographers and we also owe 
much to Narshakhi and later editors of his work. 
A comparison of these accounts with the descriptions 
of the modern town (particularly detailed is N. 
Khanikov, Opisanie Bukharskago Khanstva, St. 
Petersburg 1843, 79 ff.) shows clearly that in 
Bukhara unlike Marw, Samarkand, and other cities, 
only an expansion of the area of the town and not 
a shifting from one place to another, nay be traced. 
Even after destruction Bukhara has always been 
rebuilt on the same site and on the same plan 
as in the 3rd/9th century. 



As in most Iranian towns, the Arab geographers 
distinguish three main divisions of Bukhara, the 
citadel (NP kuhandiz, from the 7th/i3th century 
known as the arg), the town proper (Arabic madina, 
Pers. shahristdn), and the suburbs (Arabic rabad) 
lying between the original town and the wall built 
in Muslim times. The citadel from the earliest times 
has been on the same site as at the present day, 
east of the square still known as the "RIgistan". 
The area of the citadel is about one mile in circum- 
ference with an area of ca. 23 acres. The palace of 
the Bukhar Khudat was here, and, as Istakhri shows 
(306), it was used by the early Samanids. According 
to Mukaddasi (280), the later Samanids only had their 
treasuries and prisons there. Besides the palace 
there was in the citadel the oldest Friday mosque, 
erected by Kutayba, supposedly on the site of a 
pagan temple. Later this mosque was used as a 
revenue office (diwdn al-kharddj). The citadel was 
several times destroyed in the 6/i2th and 7/i3th 
centuries, but was always rebuilt. 

Unlike most other towns, the citadel of Bukhara 
was not within the shahristdn but outside. Between 
them, to the east of the citadel, was an open space 
where the later Friday mosque stood till the 6th/ 12 th 
century. One may determine what part of the modern 
town corresponds to the shahristdn for, according to 
Istakhri (307), there was no running water on the 
surface of either the citadel or the shahristdn 
because of their height. According to the plan given 
by Khanikov, this high-lying portion of the town 
is about twice as large as the citadel. It had a wall 
around it with seven gates, the names of which are 
given by Narshakhi and the Arab geographers. 

According to Narshakhi (text, 29, trans., 30) at 
the time of the Arab conquest the whole town 
consisted of the shahristdn alone, although there 
were scattered settlements outside which were later 
incorporated into the city. Narshakhi gives us a 
fairly detailed account of the topographical details 
of the shahristdn. A new Friday Mosque was built 
by Arslan Khan Muh. b. Sulayman in 515/1121 in 
the shahristdn, probably in the southern part of it 
where the Madrasa Mir 'Arab, built in the ioth/i6th 
century and the great minaret still stand. 

It was not till 235/849-50, according to Narshakhi, 
that the shahristdn was linked with the suburbs to 
form one town and surrounded by a wall. In the 
4th/ioth century another wall had been built 
enclosing a greater area; it had eleven gates, the 
names of which are given by Narshakhi and the 
Arab geographers. 

Besides the palace in the citadel there was one in 
the RIgistan from pre-Islamic times. The Samanid 
Nasr II (301-33 1/914-943) built a palace there with 
accomodations for the ten state diwdns, the names 
of which are given by Narshakhi (text, 24, trans., 26). 
During the reign of Mansur b. Null (35o-36s/96i-76> 
this palace is said to have been destroyed by fire, 
but Mukaddasi tells us that the Dar al-Mulk was. 
still standing on the Rigistan and he praises it 
highly. During the Samanid period there appears 
to have been another royal palace on the Pju-i 
Muliyan Canal to the north of the citadel. 

In the reign of Mansur b. Nuh a new musalld was 
built as the Rigistan could not contain the multitude 
of believers. The new area of prayer was built in 
360/971 at one-half farsakh (ca. 2 miles) from the 
citadel on the road to the village of Samatln. 

In the 4th/ioth century the town was over- 
crowded and insanitary, with bad water and the like 
Mukaddasi and some of the poets (al-Tha'alibl, 



Yatima, iv, 8) describe the town in the most 
scathing fashion. 

Narshakhi and the Arab geographers give in- 
formation on the villages and country around the 
city. Istakhri (30) gives the names of the canals 
which led from the Zarafshan to water the fields. 
According to Narshakhi some of these canals were 
built in pre-Islamic times and many of the names 
have survived to the present. Traces also survive 
of the long walls which were built to protest the 
city and surrounding villages from the incursions 
of the Turks. According to Narshakhi (text, 29, 
trans., 33) these walls were begun in 166/782 and 
completed in 215/830. The town itself was not in 
the centre but in the western half of the area enclosed 
within the walls. After the time of Isma'U b. Ahmad 
the walls were no longer kept in repair. At a later 
period the ruins of these walls were given the name 
Kanparak, and as Kamplr Duwal ("wall of the old 
woman") traces survive to the present on the borders 
of the steppes between the cultivated areas of 
Bukhara and Karmina. 

On the fall of the Samanids (389/999) the town lost 
much of its earlier political importance and was 
governed by governors of the Ilek Khans or 
Karakhanids. In the second half of the 5th/nth 
century Shams al-Mulk Nasr b. Ibrahim built a 
palace for himself to the south of the city and 
prepared a hunting ground ; it was called Shamsabad, 
but fell into ruins after the death of his successor 
Khidr Khan. A musalld was made of the hunting 
ground in 513/1119. 

Even during the period of decline Bukhara 
retained its reputation as a centre of Islamic learning. 
In the 6th/i2th century a prominent family of 
scholars known as theAl-i Burhan [see burhan] 
succeeded in founding a kind of hierarchy in Bukhara 
and making the area independent for a time. After 
the battle of Katwan (5 Safar 536/9 Sept. 1141) the 
Kara Khitiy ruled Bukhara through the fadr 
(pi. sudur) or head of this family. The fadrs main- 
tained good relations with the pagan overlords and 
in 1207 took refuge with them when they were driven 
out of Bukhara by a popular (Shi'I ?) rising ('Awfi, 
Lubdb, ii, 385). In the same year the city passed 
under the rule of Muh. b. Takash Khwarizm Shah. 
He renovated the citadel and erected other buildings. 

According to Ibn al-Athir (xii, 239) Bukhara sub- 
mitted to the army of Cingiz Khan on 4 Dhu 
'1-Higjdja 616/10 Feb. 1220. The citadel was not 
taken until 12 days later. The town was sacked and 
burned with the exception of the Friday Mosque and 
a few paiaces. Bukhara soon recovered and is 
mentioned as a populous town and a seat of 
learning under Cingiz Khan's successor. 

In 636/1238 a peasant revolt occurred under the 
leadership of one Mahmud TarabI who posed as a 
religious leader. After initial successes, mainly 
against the aristocracy, the revolt was suppressed by 
the Mongols (cf. Djuwayni, i, 86, trans. J. A. Boyle, 
109). Little is known of early Mongol rule in Bukhara; 
mullas and sayyids, like the clergy of other religions, 
were exempted from all taxation. A Christian 
Mongol princess even built a madrasa called the 
Khaniyya in Bukhara at her own expense (cf. 
Djuwayni, iii, 9, trans. Boyle, ii, 552). 

On 7 Radjab 671/28 Jan. 1273 Bukhara was taken 
by the army of Abaka, Mongol Il-Khan of Persia, 
and the city was destroyed and depopulated. It 
was rebuilt and again ravaged in Radjab 716/19 
Sept.-18-Oct. 1316 by the Mongols of Persia and their 
ally the Caghatay prince Yasawur. Bukhara seems 



otherwise to have been of no importance in the 
political life of Transoxania under the rule of the 
house of Caghatay or later under the TTmurids. The 
Kitdb-i Mullazadi of Mu'In al-Fukara 1 , written in 
the gth/isth ceniury, gives information about the 
town in this period (cf. Frye in Avicenna Comme- 
moration Volume, Iran Society, Calcutta 1955). Baha 
al-DIn Nakshband (d. 791/1389) and his order 
of dervishes [see naijshbandiyya] flourished in 
Bukhara. Ulugh Beg (d. 853/1449) built a madrasa 
in Bukhara in the centre of town. 

Towards the end of the year 905/summer 1500 
Bukhara was taken by the Uzbeks under ShibanI 
Khan and remained with them till the Russian 
Revolution except for two brief periods, after 916/ 
1510 when Shibani was killed, and in 1153/1740. The 
dominions of the Uzbeks were regarded as the 
property of the whole ruling family and divided into 
a number of small principalities. Samarkand was 
usually the capital of the Khan (usually the oldest 
member of the ruling house), but the prince who was 
elected Khan retained his hereditary principality and 
frequently resided there. Two princes of the house 
of Shlban, c Ubayd Allah b. Mahmud (ruled 918-946/ 
1512-1539), and £ Abd Allah b. Iskandar iruled 
964-1006/1557-1598) had their capital in Bukhara. 
Through them Bukhara became again a centre of 
political and intellectual life. The princes of the next 
dynasty, the Djanids or Ashtarkhanids, also ruled 
from Bukhara while Samarkand lost its importance. 

The materials for the history of Bukhara during 
the Uzbek period are mostly in manuscripts, such 
as the Ta>rikh-i Mir Sayyid Sharif Rakim from 
1113/1701, theBadaV al-WakdV of Wasifl, and the 
Bohr al-Asrdr fi Mandliib al-Akhyar of Amir Wall 
(on these works see Storey, 381 ff.). A. A. Semenov 
has translated into Russian two important works 
on Uzbek history of special value for Bukhara, the 
Ubaydalla-name of Mir Mukhammed Amin Bukhari, 
Tashkent 1957, and Mukimkhanova istoriya of 
Mukhammed Yusuf MunshI, Taskent 1957. 

From the ioth/i6th century there was trade inter- 
course between Russia and the Uzbek principalities. 
In the 17th and 18th centuries all merchants and 
emigrants from Central Asia whose settlements were 
to be found as far as Tobolsk were known to the 
Russians as "Bukhartsi". The same name was also 
extended to the inhabitants of Chinese Turkistan 
which was called "Little Bukharia". 

The reign of Khan <Abd al-Aziz (1055-91/1645-80) 
was regarded by native historians as the last great 
period of their history. After him various princes 
made themselves independent and the Khan in 
Bukhara ruled only a small portion of his former 
kingdom, and even there the authority was rather 
in the hands of an Atalik ruling in his name. 

In 1153/1740 Nadir Shah conquered Bukhara but 
after his death it regained its independence but 
under a new dynasty, for the Atalik Muh. Rahlm of 
the tribe of Manklt had himself proclaimed Khan. His 
career has been recorded by Muh. Wafa KarminagI 
under the title Tuhfat al-Khdni. His successor 
Daniyar Beg was content with the title of Atalik and 
allowed a scion of the house of Cingiz Khan to bear 
the sovereign title. His son Murad or Mir Ma'sum, 
however, claimed the royal title for himself in 
1 199/1785 and called himself amir. 

Under his successor Haydar (1215-1242/1800-26) 
the observance of religious ordinances was much 
more harshly enforced than under his predecessors. 
He was the last ruler of Bukhara to strike coins in 
his own name till the last amir. His successor Nasr 



BUKHARA — al-BUKHARI, MUHAMMAD b. ISMA'lL 



Allah (1242-1277/1827 i860) succeeded in streng- 
thening the power of the throne against the nobles 
and in extending his domains. The native chroniclers 
agree with European travellers in describing Nasr 
Allah as a bloodthirsty tyrant. Instead of tribal 
levies a standing army was created. 

In 1258/1842 the capital of the rival Khanate of 
Khokand was taken but the conquest could not be 
held. When Nasr Allah's successor Muzaffar al-Din 
(1860-1885) ascended the throne the Russians had 
already secured a firm footing in Transoxania. After 
being repeatedly defeated the Amir had to submit 
to Russia and give up all claims to the valley of the 
Sir Darya which had been conquered by the Russians. 
He had to cede a part of his kingdom, with the towns 
of Djizak, Ura-tiibe, Samarkand, and Katta Kurghan 
(1868) to the Russians. In 1873, however, BukMran 
territory was increased in the west at the expense of 
the Khanate of Khiwa. In the reign of <Abd al-Aljad 
(1885-1910) the boundary between Bukhara and 
Afghanistan was defined, England and Russia 
agreeing that the river Pandj should be the boundary. 

The relationship between Bukhara and Russia 
was also defined during the same reign. Beginning 
1887 a railway was built through the amir's domains 
but the station for Bukhara, ten miles away, is now 
a town called Kagan. In 1910 Mir c Alim succeeded 
his father after having been educated at St. Peters- 
burg. He ruled until the Revolution drove him to 
Afghanistan where he lived in Kabul till the end of 
World War II. Since the Revolution Bukhara has 
become part of the Uzbek SSR with its capital in 
Tashkent. It has become a large cotton producing 
area vying with Farghana and other parts of Central 
Asia in cotton production. 

The archeological and topographical investigation 
of Bukhara has made great progress from the 1930s, 
and the work of Shishkin, Puga&enkova, Sukhareva, 
and others, has greatly added to our knowledge. The 
existing architectural monuments of Bukhara which 
are of importance are: 1) the "so-called" mausoleum 
of Isma'il Samani from the 4th/ioth century; 2) the 
minaret-i kalan, 148 ft. (45.3 m.) high (6th/i2th 
century); 3) Mosque of Magaki Attar (the last con- 
struction of which dates from 1547); 4) Mosque of 
the Namazgah (musalld), dating from 1119 A.D.; 

5) Mausoleum of Sayf al-Din Bukharzi (d. 1261); 

6) Mausoleum at the site of Cashma Ayyub (end 
of 14th century); 7) Madrasa of Ulugh Beg, restored 
in 1585; 8) Masdjid-i kalan, 16th century with the 
older minaret nearby; 9) Madrasa Mir 'Arab, (of 
1535)?; 10) Masdjid Khwadja Zayn al-Din, many 
times restored. Other monuments exist in great 
numbers outside the town, mostly in ruins. 

Bibliography: References to Bukhara down to 
the Mongol Invasion, with extensive bibliography, 
can be found in R. N. Frye, The History of Bukhara, 
Cambridge, Mass. 1954 (a translation of Narshakhl's 
work). A bibliography of Russian works on 
Bukhara can be found in O. A. Sukhareva, 
K istorii gorodov bukharskogo khanstva, Tashkent 
1958. On the early coinage see Frye, Notes on the 
Early Coinage of Transoxiana, New York 1949, 
with additional notes in the American Numismatic 
Soc. Notes 4 and 7. On the name and pre-Islamic 
history see Frye, Notes on the History of Trans- 
oxiana, in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 
19 (1956), 106 ff. 

For Uzbek history see Storey, 371-82. For a 
guide to the architectural monuments see G. 
Pugaoenkova and L. Rempel', Bukhara, Moscow 
1949, 67 pp. & 39 plates. For a map of the present 



city and tourist guide see Yu. S. Ashurov, Bukhara, 
kratkiy Spravochnik, Tashkent 1956. 

(W. Barthold-[R. N. Frye]) 
al-BUKHARI, MUHAMMAD B. C ABD AL- 
BAKl Abu 'l-Ma c alI c Ala 5 al-DIn al-MakkI, 
Arabic writer who in 991/1583 composed a treatise 
on the eminence of the Abyssinians (after al-Suyuti 
and others), entitled al-Tirdz al-Mankush fi Mahdsin 
al-Hubush and existing in numerous manuscripts. 
The work has been translated by M. Weisweiler, 

tes Prachtgewand . . ., Hanover 1924 ; extracts 
from the text in Bibliothecae Bodleianae cod. mss. or. 
ii, 1363. An extract, by Nur al-Din al-Halabl 
(d. 1044/1635; see al-halabI, nur al-din) was 
printed in Cairo, 1307. 

Bibliography: Fliigel, in ZDMG, v, 81, xvi, 

16-709; Brockelmann, ii, 504, S ii, 519. 

(C. Brockelmann) 

.-BUKHARl, MUHAMMAD b. [SMA'lL b. 
IbrahIm b. al-Mughira b. Bardizbah Abu c Abd 
Allah al-Dju'fI, a famous traditionist, b. 194/810, d. 
256/870. He has the nisba Dju'fl because his great- 
grandfather al-Mughira was a mawld of Yaman al- 
Pju'fl, governor of Bukhara, at whose hands he 
accepted Islam. Al-Bukhari began to learn traditions 
by heart at the age of ten, and seems to have been a 
very precocious boy, for he is credited with having 
been able at an early age to correct his teachers. He 
had a remarkable memory, and companions of his 
are said to have corrected traditions they had 
written down from what he recited by heart. At the 
age of sixteen he made the Pilgrimage to Mecca with 
his mother and his brother, and when they returned he 
remained for a time in the Hidjaz. He travelled widely 
in search of traditions, visiting the main centres from 
JKhurasan to Egypt, and claimed to have heard 
traditions from over 1000 shaykhs. In later life he 
suffered opposition in Naysabur from Muhammad b. 
Yahya al-Dhuhli who was jealous of the large 
numbers who went to hear him. Because al-Bukhari 
held that although the Kur'an is uncreated this does 
not apply to the recitation of it, he was accused of 
heterodoxy and had to leave Naysabur for Bukhara. 
There the governor, Khalid b. Aljmad al-Phuhll, 
asked him to bring his books to him, but he refused, 
saying it was an indignity to convey learning to 
people's houses, so if the governor wished to learn 
he should come to his mosque or his house. The 
governor asked him to hold sessions specially for 
his children, but al-Bukhari refused to give them 
preferential treatment. He was therefore expelled 
and went to Khartank, a village about two parasangs 
from Samarkand, where he stayed with relatives. 
It is said that, being oppressed by the hostility he 
had experienced, he was heard one night praying 
that God might take him, and died within a month. 
His most famous work is the Sahib which took him 
sixteen years to compile. It is said that he selected 
his traditions from a mass of 600,000, and that he 
did not insert a tradition in the book without first 
washing and praying two rak'as. This famous 
collection of traditions is arranged in 97 books 
with 3450 bdbs (chapters). There are 7397 traditions 
with full isndds, but if repetitions are omitted the 
total is 2762. This work, which claims to contain only 
traditions of the highest authority {sahih), is of the 
musannaf (classified) type which arranges the mate- 
rial according to the subject-matter. As certain 
traditions contain material on more than one subject 
it is not surprising that they should appear in more 
than one bdb. The work in the main is arranged 
according to the various matters of fikh [q.v.], but it 



i.-BUKHARl, MUHAMMAD B. ISMA'lL — BUKHT NAS(S)AR 



1297 



also contains other material, such as on the beginning 
of Creation, on paradise and hell, on different pro- 
phets and, in greater detail, on Muhammad, on 
Kur'an commentary, etc. Although al-Subkl in- 
cludes al-Bukhari among the Shafi c I fakihs this is 
not accurate, for he did not hold consistently the 
doctrine of any particular school. The titles of the 
bdbs are meant to indicate the subject-matter and 
teaching of the traditions they contain, but al- 
Bukhari has sometimes been criticised because the 
contents of the traditions do not always seem to be 
relevant to the title. Some dads have a title but no 
traditions, which may mean that al-Bukhari drew 
up the scheme of his book and left blanks when 
he had no sound traditions to illustrate a particular 
subject, hoping that he might yet find some relevant 
material of sufficient authority. There have been 
many commentaries on the whole or part of the 
Saftlh, notable among which are those of al-'Aynl, 
ibn Hadjar al- c Askalani and al-Kast.aUani. While 
the $ahih was considered in al-Bukhari's time as 
just one among others, it was soon recognised as 
outstanding, and by the 4th century it came to be 
placed along with Muslim's $ahih at the head of 
collections of SunnI tradition. In time, although 
criticisms have been made on matters of detail, it was 
accepted by most Sunnls as the most important 
book after the Kur'an; but in the West there was a 
tendency to prefer Muslim's §ahih. Al-Bukhari 
wrote his Ta'rikh, which gives biographies of the 
men whose names appear in isndds, when a young 
man, saying he wrote it on moonlight nights at the 
Prophet's tomb. Other smaller works are detailed 
by Brockelmann. In his lifetime al-Bukhari was 
recognised as an outstanding traditionist, noted for 
his minute knowledge of detail and his perspicacity 
in detecting defects in traditions. 

Bibliography : Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, TaMkh 
Baghdad, ii, 4-34; al-Subkl, Tabakdt al-ShdfiSyya 
al-Kubrd, ii, 2-19; Ibn Khallikan, 541 ; al-Dhahabi. 
Tadhkirat al-Jfuffdz, ii, 122-124; Ibn Hadjar, 
Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, ix, 47-55; Ibn al-'Imad, 
Shadhardt, ii, 134-136; Ahmad Amln, Duhd al- 
Islam (Cairo, 1371/1952), ii, 110-119; F. Wiisten- 
feld, Die Geschichtsschreiber der Araber, No. 62; 
L. Krehl, Vber den Sahih des Buchdrt, in ZDMG iv 
(1850), 1 ff. ; I. Goldziher, Muhammedanische 
Studien, ii, 234-245; J. Fuck, Beitr&ge zur Ober- 
lieferungsgeschichte von Buhdri's Traditionssamm- 
lung, in ZDMG, 92 (1938)^ 60-87; M. F. Sezgin, 
Buhdrt'nin kaynaklari hakkmda arastirmalar 
(Recherches concernant les sources de Buhari), 
Ankara Universitesi Ilahiyat Fakiiltesi Yayin- 
larindan xiii, 1956; Brockelmann, I, 163-166, 
S I, 260-265. (J- Robson) 

BUKHARLIk (or Bukhariots of Siberia). A small 
ethnic group, Muslim (SunnI of the Hanafi school), 
made up of the descendants of merchants and 
caravaneers originating from Turkestan and esta- 
blished in western Siberia since the 16th century, 
when the commercial relations between the Emirate 
of Bukhara and Siberia were flourishing. 

The Bukharllk live in contact with the Tatars of 
Siberia [q.v.] to whose Islamisation they have con- 
tributed, and with whom they are gradually mingling. 
They live principally near Tobol'sk, Tiimen and 
Tara, and an isolated group of Bukharllk are found 
close to Tomsk. 

In 1926, the Soviet census numbered 12,012 of 
them. The Bukharllk speak the local Tatar dialects, 
but with the difference that they preserve in their 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



own speech a large number of Persian terms. They 
employ the Tatar of Kazan as their literary language. 
(A. Bennicsen) 

BUKHL (Ar.; also vocalised bakhl, bakhal, 
bukhul) and bakhil (pi. bukhald : '; less often bdkhil, pi. 
bukhkhdl) mean respectively 'avarice' and 'avaricious, 
miserly'. Just as in the ancient poems the virtue of 
generosity is constantly sung, so avarice furnishes 
a theme for satire which is widely exploited by the 
poets, though it seems that this fault, at least in its 
most sordid forms, was scarcely widespread among 
the ancient Arabs. It is however a fact that it is 
castigated in a number of Kur'anic verses aimed at 
combating avarice in the full sense (xvii, 102/100; 
lvii, 24) or simple hoarding (ix, 35, civ, 1 ff.), or at 
the encouragement of generosity in general (ix, 77/76; 
iix, 9) and almsgiving in particular (iii, 40/38, 175/ 
180; iv, 127/128; lxiv, 16 f.); moreover, numerous 
hadiths against avarice are attributed to the Prophet 
(especially ayy" dd Hn odina* min al-bukhll). These 
condemnations and exhortations, however, seem to 
result less from an absolute moral principle than from 
the necessity in which the newly-founded Islamic 
community found itself of receiving spontaneous 
gifts and then of collecting regularly the contribu- 
tions of its members (see sadaka, zakat, and cf. 
bdb al-zakdt in the fcadftA-collections). 

After the conquests the Arabs were brought by 
the entry into Islam of new racial elements into 
contact with peoples of a somewhat different 
temperament, and when, brought before the bar, 
they had to put up a defence, shrewder minds did 
not fail to single out the generosity of the Arabs in 
order to contrast it with the avarice of the non- 
Arabs. It is doubtless not by mere chance that, 
under the 'Abbasids, it is the Khurasanis who 
supply the anthologies with anecdotes about misers. 
The relationship: generosity = Arabs/ avarice = non- 
Arabs takes practical shape in the polemics of which 
al-Djahiz gives several specimens in his remarkable 
Kitdb al-bukhald', the first and probably the only 
attempt in Arabic literature to analyse a character 
and portray him through anecdotes, though with 
political undertones. This psychological analysis 
which had its origin in al-Djahiz, was ignored by later 
writers who, in their aoad-books and then in the 
popular encyclopedias, confined themselves to repro- 
ducing the Kur 3 5nic verses, fradiths, anecdotes, and 
poems about misers (see for example Ibn £ Abd Rabbih, 
<-M, passim; al-Abshihi, Mustafraf, i, 233), not 
omitting, however, to mention that history knows 
but four [sic] Arab misers: al-Hutay J a, Humayd al- 
Arkat, Abu '1-Aswad al-Du'all, and Khahd b. 
Safwan. (Ch. Pellat) 

BUKHT-NAS(S)AR. the Nebuchadnezzar oi the 
Bible. The Kur'an does not mention him. He is a 
very complex figure in Muslim tradition and here 
we can record only the outstanding points. It retains 
in the first place the main Biblical features, using to 
an unusual degree the texts of the prophets Jeremiah 
and even Isaiah, and establishing a connexion 
between Bukht-Nasar and Sennacherib, whom it 
makes the great-grandfather of the former. It also 
confuses him sometimes with later rulers such as 
Cyrus and Ahasuerus. To these Biblical extracts, 
often much corrupted and simplified, are added 
features borrowed from the Jewish Haggada (for 
example, Bukht-Nasar was one of the universal 
monarchs, cf. Babylonian Talmud, Megilla 11a; he 
was tormented to death by a mosquito which got 
into his skull, this being a transfer of the rabbinical 
legend about Titus, the destroyer of the Second 






BUKHT-NAS(S)AR — BUKRESH 



Temple) and some elements of a folklore 
(an obscure Babylonian man of the people, for a 
long time hopelessly ill, he believed that he heard his 
future glory proclaimed and achieved it by his 
intelligence and a remarkable concurrence of cir- 
cumstances). In the second place he is found forming 
part of the epic cycle of the ancient kings of Persia 
(the deformation of the name of which Bukht-Nasar 
is the result seems to indicate some imaginary Iranian 
etymology) ; he is then reduced to the rank of satrap 
(marzbdn) of Bishtasb or of his father (Luhrasb), 
or even of Bahram, the son of the first named. 
In the third place he is said to have led an expedition 
against the Arabs (to which Kur'an xxxi, n ff. 
would refer). There is perhaps here a memory of 
Nabonidus's settlement at Tayma' (cf. above, art. 
al-'arab) combined with that of Arab infiltrations 
into the region of the Euphrates. Al-Mas'udland al- 
Blrunl know an era of Bukht-Nasar (cf. the article 
of Carra de Vaux in EI 1 ). Al-Biruni sought also to 
disentangle the chronological difficulties raised by 
the confused traditions of which he had knowledge. 
Bibliography: Ibn Kutayba, Ma'drif, 23-4; 
Tabarl, i, 643 ff.; Mas'Qdl, Murudj and Tanbik, 
index; Pseudo-Balkhl, al-Bad' wa'l-ta'rikh, ii, 
140-54, iii, 46-8, 93-5; Tha'labi, c Ard 7 is al- 
madjdlis, 192-205; Birflnl, Athdr, 25, 27, 301 
(Chronology, 28, 31, 297); P. Tannery, Recherches 
sur I'histoire de Vastronomie ancienne, Paris 1893, 
158, 162. (G. Vajda) 

BIIKHTISHC. the name borne by several 
physicians of a celebrated Christian family 
originally established at Djundaysabur. It was from 
there that Djurdjls b. Djibril b. Bukhtishu', who 
was director of the hospital of this town and well 
known for his scientific writings, was called to 
Baghdad in 148/765 to attend the caliph al-Mansur, 
ill with a stomach complaint. By successful treatment 
he won the confidence of the sovereign, who asked 
him to remain in the capital, but he wished to 
revisit his native land in 152/769. 

Bukhtishu' b. Djurdjis, to whom his father had 
left the direction of the hospital at Djundaysabur at 
the time of his departure for Baghdad, was called 
in his turn to the capital when the future al-Hadl 
was gravely ill, but the hostility of al-Khavzuran. 
who favoured the physician Abu Kuraysh, prevented 
him from establishing himself there. Nevertheless, 
in 171/787, Harun al-Rashid, suffering violent pain, 
had him brought back to Baghdad and appointed 
him physician-in-chicf, a post which he held until 
his death in i85.'8or. 

Afterwards Djibril b. Bukhtishu', whom his 
father had recommended to Dja'far the Barmakid 
i" 175/791, succeeded in 190/805 in winning the 
confidence 



of < 



-. of 1 



■ tell i 



disgrace during the last illness of Ha 
because he did his duty as a doctor with too much 
frankness. He was condemned to death by the caliph 
because of the accusations of a bishop, but was 
<aved by al-Fadl b. al-Rabi', who stayed the exe- 
cution of the sentence, and he then became al-Amln's 
physician. At the time of al-Ma'mfln's triumph he 
was imprisoned, not to be set at liberty until 202/817, 
when al-Hasan b. Sahl had need of his services. Three 
vears later he was again in disgrace, and was replaced 
by his son-in-law Mikhail, but was recalled in 212/ 
827 because Mikhail was unable to cure an illness 
of the caliph. He was reinstated, and his goods, 
confiscated after his fall, were restored, but he had 
not long to enjoy the prince's favour for he died the 



same year, and was buried at al-Madaln in the 
monastery of Sergius. 

His son Bukhtishu', who took his place, accom- 
panied al-Ma'mun on his expeditions into Asia 
Minor, then, under the caliphate of al-Wathik, was 
exiled to Djundaysabur. Recalled during the caliph's 
last illness, he arrived in the capital too late, but 
remained there highly esteemed for twelve years, 
under al-Mutawakkil, until his exile to Bahrayn. He 
died in 256/870. 

Bukhtishu' had a son, 'Ubayd Allah, who was a 
finance official of the caliph al-Muktadir, and 
whose fortune was confiscated after his death. His 
widow married a physician, and his son Djibril 
followed in the footsteps of his fathers, but received 
his training only in Baghdad, where he had betaken 
himself penniless after his mother's death. Having 
treated an envoy from Kirman successfully, he was 
called to Shiraz by the Buwayhid 'Adud al-Dawla, 
but returned to Baghdad, which thereafter he only 
left for short periods of consultation, declining even 
the offer of the Fatimid al-'Aziz who wished to 
establish him in Cairo. He was, however, retained 
at Mayyafarikln by the Marwanid Mumahhid al- 
Dawla Abu Mansur who had summoned him there, 
and he died on 8 Ramadan 396/8 June 1006. 

Abu Sa'Id 'Ubayd Allah b. Djibril, a friend of Ibn 
Butlan [a.v.], lived at Mayyafarikln and died in the 
second half of the sth/nth century, leaving some 
known works, in particular a dictionary of medico- 
philosophical terms and a treatise on love. 

Another member of the family, Bukhtishu' b. 
Yahya, was physician to the caliph al-Radl and 
was held responsible for the death of prince Harun 
in 3*4/936. 

Bibliography: Fihrist, 266; Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, 
ed. Miiller, 123-48; KiftI, ed. Lippert, 100-4, 
132-51, 158-60; Djahshiyari, K. al-Wuzard', Cairo 
1938, 225-6; Taniikhl, al-Faradj, Cairo 1938, 11, 
1 13-4; Suli, Akhbdr al-Rddi, tr. Canard, i, Algiers 
1946, 70 n. 1, 1 30 ; Leclerc, Histoire de la midecine 
arabe, i, Paris 1876, 370-4; E. G. Browne, Arabian 
Medicine, Cambridge 1921, 23, 57; Brockelmann, 
I, 636, S I, 414, 885-6. (D. Sourdel) 

BC&tR [see ABRltfR]. 
BUKOVINA [see khotin]. 
BU&RAT [see supplement]. 
Bt)KRE£H (Bucharest) a town in Wallachia 
on the Dambovifa river about fifty km. north of the 
Danube. It is mentioned for the first time in 769/1368 
by the name of Cetatea Dambovi{ei, a name used 
side by side with Bucharest until the 15th century, 
when it became the seat of the Wallachian princes. 
Vlad the Impaler issued documents from there in 
863/1459 and 865/1461 and Radu the Handsome, 
the prince installed by Mehemmed II in 866/1462, 
established himself in that town, protected by a 
Turkish garrison from Giurgiu. For mere than 
two centuries the history of Bucharest was linked 
to the relations of the Roumanian princes with 
the Porte. Those princes who rebelled against Otto- 
man suzerainty preferred Targoviste, less exposed 
to Turkish raids. At the end of the 16th century, 
Bucharest witnessed the massacre of Michael the 
Brave's creditors and Sinan Pasha's occupation. 
Sorely tried by the revolts against the Turks, as well 
as by epidemics and fires, the city had a turbulent 
history, With the Treaty of Berlin (1877) the 
last vestiges of Ottoman suzerainty disappeared. 
The peace conference convened at Bucharest in 1913 
relieved Turkey of the greater partof her European 
possessions. 



Information on the population during the earliest 
periods is lacking. The sources mention tile 
presence of Greek, Armenian and native merchants. 
Towards 1050/1640 Bucharest had 12,000 houses; 
fifteen years later only 6,000 are mentioned, and 
Ewliya Celebi speaks of 12,000 houses and 1,000 
shops. During the 17th century the population of 
Balkan origin increased, and became quite significant 
in the 18th. Popular revolts broke out. inspired by 
members of corporations discontented with the 
competition of foreign traders protected by the 

the town had 50,000 inhabitants. The number varied 
between 20,000 and 60,000 for the end of the 18th 



j members of both sections of al-Bukum participated 
! in the later Sa'udi campaigns in the West. 

In 1959 the chief of the Mahamid was Husayn b. 
Muhvi, while Muhammad b. Ghannam was chief of 
Al Wazi'. 

llibliography: H. St. J. Philby, Arabian 
Highlands, Ithaca 1952; J. L. Burckhardt, Notes 
on the Bedouins and Wahdbys, London 1831; 



19th. 






n 50,00 



•ek. The 
i books 



r Chri 






the Ottoman Em] 

vided for the monasteries of Athos, C 
Trebizond and the Holy Laud. The 
Russian occupations introduced the first occidental 
influences and a knowledge of French, which, in the 
first half of the 19th century, supplanted Greek. 
Under the impact of ideas engendered by the French 
Revolution, the town became the centre of the 
struggle for the political unity of Roumania which 
led to the union of Moldavia and Wallachia (1859). 
Bibliography: F. C. Belfour, The Travels of 
.\facarios, ii, London 1836, 375; I- Bogdan, 



tingatoa 



nilor 



Bucharest 1895, 39; Ta'rikh-i I'eieul, ii, Istan- 
bul, 1283, 159-162; Ewliya Celebi, Scyahtitndme, 
vii, Istanbul 1928, 476-480; G. I. Ionescu Gion, 
Isloria Bncurestiului, Bucharest 1899, 818; N. 
Iorga, Istoria Bucurestilor, Bucharest 1930, 397: 
P. P. Panaitescu, Documented Jarii Romanesti, i, 
Bucharest 1938, 240, 244-248, 253-255, 260-261. 

(X. Beldiceanu) 
BU&CM, al- (sing. Bakmi), a tribe in Western 
Arabia, traditionally held to be descended from al- 
Azd. Although considered a Hidjazi tribe, the 
Bukum range over the region east of al-TS'if and in 
the vicinity of the lava fields of Harrat Hadn and 
Harrat al-Bukum, where the boundaries between the 
Hidjaz and Xadjd are not clearly defined. The tribe 
is estimated to have close to 10,000 people, of whom 
less than half are nomads. For at least several 
centuries a majority of the Bukum have been 
engaged in oasis cultivation in the district of Wadi 
Turaba (also Taraba), with the town of Turaba 
(N. 21 14', E. 41 37') being their main centre of 
population. The BukQm are subdivided into two 
sections: al-Mahamid and Al WSzi'. 

During the early period of WahhabI expansion, 
the Bukum were partisans of the Sharif Ghalib in his 
wars against Nadjd. From 1228/1813' the Bukum 
defended their territory against the troops of 
Muhammad 'Ali, the Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt, 
during which campaign a woman named Ghaliva 
notably distinguished herself. The Bukum finally 
surrendered and Turaba was occupied in 1230/1815. 
In the early years of the present century the loyalty 
of the Buljum was divided between 'Abd al-'AzIz 
Ibn Sa'ud and the Sharif Husayn, the Maliamld 
having declared for the Sharif, while Al Wazi' fought 
for Ibn Sa'ud. The Mahamid surrendered to Ibn 
Sa'ud after his victory at Turaba in 1337/1919, and 



M. v. Oppenheim 


W. Caskel, Die Beduinen, iii, 


Wiesbaden 1952; 


Uraar Rida Kahhala, Mu'djam 




al-Kadima waV-Haditha, Da- 


mascus 1949; Ah 


lad b. Zayni Dahlan, Khuldsat 




1887; Husayn b. Ghannam, 


Kaudal al-Afkdr 


wa '1-AfMm, Bombay n.d. 




(F. S. Vidal) 


BOLAS, a small 


town quite close to the Cairo 


Mamluk and Ot 


oman times, and its port on 


e Nile for traffic 


vith Lower Egypt. It was built 


1 the sand which 


the Nile left when its bed 



Muhammad 



anal, dug in 725/1325 by the sultan 
Kala'un, who encouraged people of 
affluence to build their villas (manzara) at Bulak, 
to which were added later mosques, hammams, etc. 
The customs transferred there from Cairo. About 
1800 Bulak had some 24,000 inhabitants, 24 mosques 
(including that of Abu T- C A15, a place of pilgrimage 
and maiclid), 'okelles', depdts for agricultural 
products, shipyards, etc. Muhammad 'All built 
workshops and foundries there, designed to modernise 
Egyptian life. 

Bulak is well known for its printing works, the 
first established in Egypt after the short-lived ones 
of Bonaparte's expedition. A small Egyptian team, 
trained at Milan, returned in 182 1 with presses. In 
1822 the Bulak Printing Press was able to work at 
full capacity, under the direction of Nicolas al- 
Masabkl, of I^ebanese origin (d. 1830). Owned by 
the state, modernised several times, it was trans- 
ferred to private ownership in 1862 (to 'Abd al- 
Raljman Rushdl Pasha, then in 1865 to a son of 
the Khedive lsma'Il). The state took it over again in 
1880, and it was further developed after 1894 under 
English directorship, then under Egyptian once more. 
It was founded for army needs (manuals, etc), and 
for the administration (official journal, al-YVak:d'i l 
al-Misriyyu) and was an important factor in the 
modern Renaissance. It printed on its own account 
or on that of individuals translations and numerous 
classical works in Arabic, Turkish, and Persian, and 
some books in European languages. The rapid 
growth of the private presses which made Cairo 
the centre of the Arabic book trade eventually 
deprived it of the virtual monopoly which it enjoyed. 
At the present time Bulak is no longer anything 
more than a quarter of modern Cairo. 

Bibliography: Makrlzl, ghitaf, Cairo 1324, 
iii, 212-15, 235; Description de I'tgypte, xviii 
(part 2), Paris 1829, 474-76; J- W. McPherson, 
The Moulids of Egypt, Cairo n.d. (after 1940) Abu 
T-Futuh Ridwan, Tarikh mafba'at Buldtt, Cairo 
1953, where full references will be found. 

(J. Jomier) 
BULANDSHAHR (Baran), an ancient town in 
India situated in 28° 15' N. and 77° 52' E- on the 
main road from Agra and 'Aligarh to Meerut. 
Population (1951) was 34,496. Its old name was 
Baran (by which it is even now sometimes called 
but only iu the nisba Barani) given to it by its 
legendary founder, one Ahlbaran. Its antiquity is 



BUL.ANDSHAHR - 



established by the discovery of inscribed copper- 
plates of the 5th century A.D. and coins of much 
older dates. It came to be called Bulandshahr 
("hightown") from its elevated position near the 
bank of the Kali Naddi, which flows past the town. 
This name is clearly Muslim and appears to have 
been given to the town sometime during the Mughal 
period, although Sudjan Ray's Khuldsat al-Tawdrikh 
(compiled as late as 1107/1695-6) still mentions it 
as Baran. It was conquered by Mahmud of Ghazna 
in 409/1018 when the Hindu Radja, Har Datt, 
offered submission and accepted Islam with 10,000 
of his followers. The town was restored to Har Datt 
whose descendants forsook Islam and Candra Sen, 
the last of the line, was killed while defending the 
town in 590/1193 against Kutb al-Din Aybak, a 
general of the Ghuri Sultan Muhammad b. Sam, 
who bestowed it as an iktd' on Iletmish [q.v.], his 
son-in-law and successor. Djaypil, a kinsman of 
Candra Sen, accepted Islam and was rewarded, for 
betraying the garrison to the invaders, with the 
headmanship of the town. His descendants still 
flourish in Bulandshahr. During the reign of Muham- 
mad b. Tughluk [q.v.] it was the centre of a peasants' 
rebellion; this was ruthlessly suppressed by the 
king who laid waste the country all around and 
perpetrated horrible atrocities on the residents of 
Baran. In 802/1399 the rebel amir Ikbal Khan 
(Fadl Allah Balkhi) took refuge here when he rose 
against Sultan Nasir al-Din Mahmud (644/1246- 
665/1266). In 810/1407 the town was occupied by 
Sultan Ibrahim Shah Shark! of Djawnpur (805/1402- 
840/1436) but he had to vacate it hastily on learning_ 
that Muzaffar Shah I of Gudjarat was about to 
attack Djawnpur. 

Thereafter nothing is heard of the town as it 
continued to enjoy a period of peace and tranquillity 
during Mughal rule. Awrangzib's proselytising zeal 
won a large number of converts, mostly among the 
Radjputs, in and around Bulandshahr. During the 
I2th/i8th century when the entire country was 
disturbed the Marathas overran and captured 
Bulandshahr and administered it from Koil ( C A1I- 
garh). With the fall of the fort of 'Aligarh, Buland- 
shahr came into the possession of the British in 
1218/1803. During the upheaval (Mutiny) of 1857 
the town was badly disturbed and Walidad Khan 
of Malagarh drove out the British garrison and 
assumed the reins of government. He and his con- 
federates, the Gudjdjars and Muslim Radjputs, 
proved irreconcilable enemies of the British and 
surrendered the town only after a five months' 
resistance. 

This town is familiar to students of Indo-Pakistan 
history as the birth-place of Diya' al-Din BaranI 
[q.v.], the scholar-historian of the gth/i4th century. 
There are some very old mosques and tombs in- 
cluding a dargdh that of Kh w adia Lai Barani, which 
was built in 590/1193 to commemorate the Muslim 
victory. A small town at the commencement of the 
British rule, it is now a thriving centre of trade and 



Bibliography: Tabekdt-i Ndsiri (ed. c Abd al- 
Hayy Habibi), vol. i, Quetta 1949, 519; Sudjan Ray 
Bhandari, Khuldsat al-Tawdrikfr (ed. ?afar Hasan), 
Delhi 1918, index; Makbul Ahmad SamdanI, 
Haydt-i Djalil Bilgrdmi, Allahabad 1929, i, 119 n.; 
Mahdi Husayn, The Rise and FaU of Muhammad 
bin Tughluq, London 1939, 153-4 and index; 
F. S. Growse, Bulandshahr, Benares 1884; 
Bulandshahr District Gazetteer (ed. H. R. Nevill), 
Allahabad 1903; T. Stoker, Settlement Report 



(1891); Imperial Gazetteer of India, Oxford 1908, 
vol. ix 57-9; BaranI, Ta'rikh-i Firuz Shdhi', 
Aligarh 1958, index; al- c Utbi, Kitdb al-Yamini, 
Lahore 1 300/1882, 307. 

(A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 
BULAY, the Arabic transcription of Poley, the 
old name of a stronghold in the south of Spain 
the site of which (as has been shown by Dozy, Rech?, 
i, 307, on the strength of information supplied by a 
charter of 1258) is the modern Aguilar de la 
Frontera, a small town in the province of Cordova, 
12 miles N. W. of Cabra and of Lucena. The town, 
which played a considerable part in the rising of 
the famous c Umar b. Hafsun [q.v.] against the 
Umayyad amirs of Cordova, is again mentioned in the 
6th/i2th century by the geographer al-Idrisi. The 
ruins of a fortress which dates from the Muslim 
period can still be seen there. 

Bibliography: al-Idrisi, ed. and trans, by 
Dozy and De Goeje, text, 205, transl., 253; Ibn 
Hayyan, Muktabis, Bodleian MS., passim; R. 
Dozy, Hist. Mus. Esp.', ii, 62 ff.; E. Levi- 
Provencal, Hist. Esp. Mus., i, 338, 372-6. 

(E. Levi-Provencal) 
BULAYDA (Blida), a town in Algeria 51 kms. 
S.-W. of Algiers, at the southern end of the plain of 
the Mitidja. There was no ancient settlement on the 
site. It has been identified with the town Mitidja 
known in the Middle Ages, which was ruined at the 
time of the campaigns of the Band Ghaniya (be- 
ginning in the 7th/i3th century). According to 
tradition the place which in 942/1535 was called 
Bulayda (little town) was founded by a religious 
personage known as SIdi Ahmad al-Kabir. He, after 
many wanderings, came to stay in the valley of the 
WadI al-Rumman, nowadays the Oued el-Kebir. 
He was joined by his disciples, then by Andalusians 
coming from Tipasa fleeing from the attacks of the 
Kabyles of the Chenoua. Sidi Ahmad al-Kabir 
obtained from the Ulad Sultan who occupied the 
region the land necessary to build homes for the 
new arrivals. The beylerbey of Algiers, Khavr al-Din, 
made of this settlement a veritable city, by providing 
it with a mosque, hammam, and public bakery. 
Bulayda prospered quickly thanks to the Andalu- 
sians, who planted orange orchards around it and 
applied there methods of irrigation of their own 
country. 

Under Turkish domination Bulayda formed part 
of the ddr al-sulfdn, that is to say the region admi- 
nistered directly by the bey of Algiers, who was 
represented there by a hakim of Turkish origin. A 
detachment of janissaries had a garrison there. The 
population, composed of the descendants of the 
Andalusians, Moors, Jews, and Mozabites, was 
renowned for its urbanity and love of pleasure. A 
saying attributed to Sidi Aljmad b. Yusuf praises 
it and calls it Urida (little rose). The town offered 
a pleasant sojourn to the 61ite of Algiers, who 
possessed country houses there. Officials of the 
Regency who were interned there found their exile 
easy to hear. It suffered many earthquakes, of 
which the most severe almost entirely destroyed it 
in 1827. It was shaken again by a tremor in 1865. 
After the occupation of Algiers by the French, 
Blida remained for some time independent under the 
administration of its hakims. It was effectively 
occupied in 1839. 

Bibliography: Trumelet, BHda, a vols., 
Algiers 1887; J. Desparmet, Ethnographic tradi- 
tionnelde de la Mitidja, in RAfr., 1918-28. 

(G. Yver-[G. Ma.rca.is]) 



BULBUL, the nightingale. To the nightingale 
belongs a large place in Oriental literature, particu- 
larly Persian and Turkish literature. The characte- 
ristics of the bird are its beautiful voice and its 
tuneful and harmonious song. In the season of 
roses it laments the whole night long; the hours 
before dawn are enlivened by its singing. It is in 
love with the rose. This love is its most out- 
standing characteristic. Its other characteristics 
are grouped around this. 

In Persian literature the nightingale is treated 
according to the poets' inclination. In some it sings 
of figurative love which has no aim, in others of 
figurative love which is a stage on the path to real 
love. To understand its meaning in Sufi writing, we 
must look at the Mantifi al-Jayr, written in the 
year 583/1187-8 by one of the important Sufi writers 
of Persian literature, Farid al-Din •Attar (died 
627/1230). In this work the nightingale's main 
characteristic is that it is drunk and ready to lose 
its material substance because of the perfection of 
its lOve for the rose (see Garcin de Tassy, Le 
langage des oiseaux). 

The Persian poet Khwadiu KirmanI (679-752/ 
1280-1351), in a work entitled Rawdat al-Anwdr, 
represents the bird of the meadow (murgh-i daman) 
as a bird tried by passion and desire, that sings at 
night and drives away sleep; then he likens the 
nightingale and the rose to the fabulous lovers 
Wamik and c Adhr5. In a kifa of Sa c dl of Shlraz 
(died 690 or 691/1291-1292), who speaks of the 
nightingale fairly often especially in his ghazals, 
the poet treats the moth as the real lover. Hazin-i 
Lahidji (died 1 180/1766) makes clear the contrast 
of the nightingale and the moth, saying, "The 
nightingale complains because it has only just 
learnt of love. We have never heard a sound from 
the moth". Mawlana Ruml-i BarizI has a work 
too {tadhkira of Shah Muhammad Kazwini) which 
contains disputes between nightingale and rose, 
candle and moth. The Persian poet Zaman-i Yazdi 
also confronts the nightingale and the moth. 

HSfiz (died 791/1389) raises the nightingale some- 
what towards real love in this verse: "Settling on 
the cypress branch last night the nightingale chanted 
the lesson of spiritual stations with the Pahlawl 
warcry". One of the poets of the circle of Mahmud 
of Ghazna, Farrukhl-i Slstanl (died 470/1077), also 
imagines the nightingale on a cypress branch: 
"Nightingales are khdfibs reciting khu(bas upon 
trees". "Now the nightingale recites the Tawrdt 
upon the cypress. 

In one of his kasidas Manucihri (died after 423/ 
1041) gives its song a religious significance, saying 
"On the rose branch the nightingale performs the 
saldt". In Anwari (died after 580/1184) a characte- 
ristic of the nightingale is its eloquence; "The 
nightingale catching the scent of spring has grown 
eloquent, the rose entering the garden has grown 

The Persian Sufi poet Muhammad Shirin Maghrib! 
(died 809/1046) likens the soul to the nightingale, 
fallen into the cage of flesh. Here the cage of flesh 
is the spirit, that has fallen from the world of 
unity into the world of elements. Another Sufi 
poet, Kamal Khudjandl (died 803/1400), brings 
out another characteristic of the nightingale in the 
verse: "Kamal recites no ghazals unless he has 
fallen in love with a face of roses. The nightingale 
does not sing when it is not drunk". Sa c di too in one 
of his ghazals puts spring and the nightingale side 
by side: "The trees are in bud, the nightingales are 



!UL 1301 

drunk, the world has grown young, the lovers are 
lost in joy and merrymaking". He views the night- 
ingale essentially as the harbinger of spring. The 
giver of bad news is the owl. Hilali-i Caghatay 
(died 939/1532) also makes this contrast in the 
verse: "The nightingale nests in the garden, the 
owl in the ruins, everyone makes his home according 
to his desires". It is appropriate in this connexion 
to mention the proverb: "Of the nightingale's 
seven chicks only one becomes a nightingale" 
(Dihkhuda, AmtJidl wa ffikam). 

The nightingale has provided an opportunity for 
more delicate and refined conceits among poets 
writing in the 'Indian style'. In this literature with 
its generally Sufi colouring, the nightingale occupies 
a position between figurative and real love. The 
seventeenth century poet Shawkat Bukhari sings 
thus of the nightingale in one of his ghazals: "How 
long will the beloved fail to recognise the lovers 
that are its prisoners? As the nightingale sorrows 
and sheds its tears its nest comes to resemble a 
basket of roses. The rose branch is a seat that gives 
rest to the nightingale's aching head". 

The idea that the nightingale is hunted and 
caged because of its beautiful voice has passed 
into literature; thus in a verse of Begdili (1134-1195/ 
1722-1781): "Because of its lament it is captured 
and deprived of its freedom". 

The bird is encountered in the oldest Turkish 
literary texts. In various Turkish dialects the 
nightingale is called as follows: in the Kutadgu 
Bilig, sanval, slnval, sanduval. In other dialects 
sadugal (gee, Kaz.), sandigal (Tel.), sandval (Rab.), 
sandulat (S.S.). In his Dictionary, Shavkh Sulayman 
Bukhari Caghatay mentions this as a bird like the 
nightingale and explains that it is the canary. 
The verse in Kutadgu Bilig (1069/1070) "The nigh- 
tingale sings in the flower garden in thousands 
of voices (hazdr destan) as though reciting the 
Iffazamir night and day" (v. 78) recalls the 
Pahlawl warcry and the Tawrdt just as we found 
in Persian literature. 

Entering the Islamic period, Turkish literature in 
time lost the sanduval and used in its place the 
words 'andalib, hazdr (only in classical literature), 
and billbul (in both classical and folk literature). In 
folk literature the nightingale is the lover of the 
rose, it is a stranger, in spring time it sings at night 
and before the dawn (Karadja Oghlan). In both folk 
and classical literature the nightingale in the cage 
is like the soul in the body. The characteristics of 
the nightingale in Turkish Diwan literature may be 
seen in the mathnawi "The rose and the nightingale" 
composed by Fadll for Sultan Suleyman's son 
Mustafa (960/1553). According to this work the 
nightingale "is a heart-sore and agitated dervish, love 
is its nature. Its voice is lovely, its ways are pure 
and charming. It is a witty fellow, a drinker. Love 
iff the place of its frequenting. Love has set a polish 
on the mirror of its heart. Its dress is a dervish's 
cloak of felt (namad) so that the mirror inside the 
felt may not grow rusty". After numerous ad- 
ventures the nightingale and the rose are united. 
In this work Fadll uses the nightingale to express 
a purely Sufi idea. In this allegorical treatment 
the nightingale is the heart, the rose the spirit. 

When we come to Diwan literature of the seven- 
teenth century, the nightingale is a lover consumed 
by the fire of love. This is embodied in the poetic 
concept that the rose resembles fire in its colour, 
and kindles the nightingale and burns it to ashes. 
The nightingale is the colour of ash. There is a pun 






BULBUL - 



between giil, rose, and kill, ash. The elimination of 
the material existence of the lover (tossing up his 
ashes) is an idea that comes from Sufism. Con- 
sequently the likening of the nightingale to ashes 
has become so firmly established that the word 
khfikiitar, ash, has come to mean nightingale. 

The ghazals with the redif "bulbul" by Na'ill 
(died 1634) and NeshatI (died 1674) are both major 
works of the literature of that period, tending 
towards the Indian style. The last verse of Na'ill's 
ghatal reveals to us the Sufi" connexion of the 
nightingale and the rose. 

In the iath/i8th century Nedlm (died 1143/1730) 
mentions this bird in a number of his poems. In a 
ghatal with the same redif he writes: "Do not 
suppose that the nightingale's nest is filled with 
bloody tears. That nest is a pot of red ink made 
ready to write down the secrets of longing. Do not 
fancy that the cup-bearer of spring poured dew 
upon the rose; he filled the nightingales' cup with 
rakt". 

After the Tanzimat, in the poets of the Andjuman-i 
Siu'ard' who imitated older literature, the night- 
ingale shows no new development. Like Maghribl 
among Persian poets, one of these, Hersekli t Arif 
Hikmat (1839-1903), in a poem entitled Hasb-i 
Hal, treats the nightingale from an entirely SOfl 
point of view. Redjalzade's poem with the redif 
"biilbiil" bears the somewhat shallow marks of his 
melancholy temperament and slender poetic gift. In 
these there is nothing new. But *Abd al-Hakk 
Hamid [q.v.] in the nazire he wrote to Hersekli's 
Hasb-i Hal, and in the poem Walking through Hyde 
Park, produces new ideas appropriate to his age with 
regard to the nightingale: "In the morning it recites 
the adhdn. Its nest in the darkness is a sublime 
symbol for patriotism. Its songs have become the 
model for \ove-kasidas. The form of its expression 
is as new as modern literature (tedjeddud edsbiyyati). 
It is God's poet. Its kasidas are read from the page 
of nature" (Nazlre-i Hasb-i Hal). 

(Ali Nihat Tarlan) 

BULDUR [see burdur]. 

BULGARIA, a country in the Balkans. It 
drew its name from the Bulgars, a people of Turkic 
origin, who first invaded the Dobrudja [q.v.] under 
Asparukh or Isperikh in 679 A.D. and founded an 
independent state in the Byzantine province of 
Moesia. Adopting Orthodox Christianity from 
Byzantium (86j) and identifying themselves with 
the native Slavs who had previously settled Bul- 
garia, the Bulgars built up a strong empire in the 
Balkans which extended from the Danube to the 
Adriatic Sea under Czar Symeon (893-927). 

The first Islamic accounts of Bulgaria belonged to 
this period through the reports of Muslim al-Djarml 
(about 231/845), Harun b. Yahya (349/960) and 
Ibrahim b. Ya'kub (349/960). Harun reported (in 
Ibn Rusta, ed. De Goeje, 127) that the Christianised 
Slavs, al-Sakdliba al-Mutanassira, had adopted 
Christianity after Sus, the ruler of the Bulgars. 
Incorporated into the Byzantine empire between 
1018 and 1 186 Bulgaria was organised in two 
themes, the theme of Bulgaria with its centre at 
Skoplje (Oskub) and that of Paristrion or Paradun- 
avon with its centre at Silistria. 

The invasion and settlement of the Cumans in 
the lower Danube prepared the way for the creation 
of the so-called second Bulgarian empire under the 
Assenids (1 185-1279). 

In 1262 Michael VIII, the Byzantine emperor, 
took Anchialus and Mesembria from the Bulgarians 



and settled in the Dobrudja the Anatolian Turks 
who had taken refuge in Byzantium with c Izz al-DIn 
Kaykawus II [q.v.]. Most of them returned to 
Anatolia in 707/1307 and those who remained were 
thought to be the ancestors of the Gagauzes [q.v.]. 
(P. Wittek, Yazijioghlu <AU on the Christian Turks 
of the Dobruja, in BSOAS, xiv/3). 

Terter I (1279-1300) recognised Noghay's [q.v.] 
overlordship (1285) and gave his daughter in mar- 
riage to his son Caka, who later took refuge in 
Trnovo and seized his father-in-law's throne (1300), 
but soon was killed by Terter II (1300-1322). 

In the contemporary Arabic sources (Baybars, 
Zubdat al-Fihra, in I. H. Izmirli, Alttnordu . . ., 1st. 
1941, 221; Abu '1-Fida', 295) Bulgaria is shown as 
the land of the Olak, and the Bulgarians are con- 
sidered as the same people as the Olak. We know 
that Kalojan had called himself imperator totius 
Bulgarie et Vlachie (G. Ostrogorsky, Hist, of the 
Byzantine State, 358). It appears that the Christian- 
ised Cumans in Bulgaria, must have been shown 
under the general term of Vlach. 

The Shishmanids (1323-1395) came to the Bul- 
garian throne with Shishman, a Cuman magnate 
in Vidin. 

The Anatolian ghazi Turks came in contact with 
the Bulgarians when Aydlnoghlu Umur [q.v.] allied 
himself with Cantacuzenus. First in 742/1341 Umur 
aided him agaist Ivan Alexander, the Bulgarian 
Czar, and, then, on 5 Rabi c I 746/July 7, 1345 
destroyed MomCilo, the Bulgarian adventurer who 
had been dominating the Rhodope region (P. 
Lemerle, L'Emirat d'Aydin, Paris 1957). The 
Ottomans replacing Umur in his alliance with 
Cantacuzenus appeared to come into contact with 
the Bulgarians first in 75 3/ 135 2 when these 
came to support his rival John V. After the 
conquest of Edirne [q.v.] in 762/1361 Lala Shahin 
seemed to be active in the direction of Zaghra 
(Berrhoea) and Filibe [q.v.] (different dates in the 
chronicles: 763/1362, 765/1364, 766/1365), but the 
Byzantine-Bulgarian clash in 765/1364 is thought 
to be connected with an Ottoman-Bulgarian 
agreement. In 766/1365 Czar Ivan Alexander 
divided his realm between his two sons: Stratsimir 
got the Vidin region and Shishman the Czardom of 
Trnovo. Dobrotii in the Dobrudja and Varna were 
actually independent [see dobrudja]. The same 
year Hungary seized Vidin, threatened Trnovo, and 
Amadeo of Savoy not only occupied Ottoman Galli- 
poli but also Mesembria, Sozopolis and Anchialus 
for Byzantium in 767/1366. With Ottoman auxiliary 
forces Shishman tried to recover Vidin (769/1368), 
and gave his sister Thamar in marriage to Murad 
I. According to the Ottoman chronicles (see Sa c d al- 
DIn, i, 84-87) the Ottomans reached the main Balkan 
passes by taking Klzllaghai-yenidjesi, Yanboll (Iam- 
bol), Karin-ovasI (Karnobat), Aydos (Aitos), Sozeboll 
(Sozopolis) under TImurtash in about 770/1368, lhti- 
raan and Samakov under Lala Shahin in 772/1370 
and 773/I37L Filibe on the one side and the Yanboll- 
Karln-ovasI region on the other were then the main 
«Wfs [q.v.] where the aklndik, Yiiruks [q.v.] and 
Tatars were settled in large numbers. Nish was 
taken by the Ottomans only in 787/1385 (Neshrl, 
Taeschner ed. i, 58). Sofia was still in Shishman's 
hands in 780/1378 (C. Jireiek, Gesch. der Bulgaren, 
Prague 1876, 339). It seemed to surrender between 
this date and 787/1385. In 789/1387 when Murad I 
found that his vassals Shishman in Bulgaria and 
Ivanko in Dobrudja were not on his side against the 
Serbians he hastily sent an army under 'All Pasha to 



secure his rear. Our information on this expedition 
comes from Neshri and Ruhl who both used here a 
detailed and well informed source, and there is no 
need to change its chronology (cf. F. Babinger, Bei- 
trdge zur Friihgesch. der Turkenherrschaft in Rumelien, 
Munich 1944, 29-35). In the winter of 790-1/1388-9 
'All Pasha took Provadia (Pravadi), Vencan, Madera 
and Shumnl (Shumen) and passed the winter in the 
latter. In the spring of 791/1389 he sent Yakhshl 
Beg against 'the son of Dobrudja' in Varna, then 
went to meet the Sultan in Yanboll. Shishman came 
there, too, and made his submission to Murad I. But 
on his return he did not surrender Silistre (Silistria) 
to the Ottomans as he promised. Upon this 'All 
appeared before Tlrnova (Trnovo), Shishman's 
capital; 'The infidels brought him the keys of the 
city* which meant submission. Accepting the 
submission of several other towns on his way 
'All came and laid siege to Nikeboll (Nikopol, 
Nicopolis) where Shishman had taken refuge. He 
asked pardon which was granted. 'All was to join 
Murad's army. 

After the battle of Kossovo Bayazld was de- 
tained in Anatolia while Mircea, supported by 
Sigismond, took Silistria and the Dobrudja and made 
a succesful raid on the aklndils of Karin-ovasI, in 
793/I39I- Only in 795/1393 was Bayazid able to 
come and take Trnovo by force (6 Ramadan/17 July) 
and he also subjugated the Dobrudja and Silistre. But 
still Shishman was left in his stronghold, Nikeboll, 
as a vassal. He then appealed to Sigismond; this 
caused Bayazld's [q.v.] invasion of Transylvania and 
the battle of Argesh against Mircea (26 Radjab 797/17 
May, 1395). We find in a newly discovered document 
(Topkapi Sarayi Archives, Istanbul, no. 6374) the 
following 'Crossing Arkhish river Ylldlrtm Khan came 
before the fortress of Nikeboll the ruler of which was a 
lord named Shishman. He was paying tribute to the 
Sultan in the same way as the Voyvode of Wall- 
achia. The Sultan asked him to send ships, which 
he furnished. As soon as the Sultan was on the 
other side he fetched Shishman, beheaded him, 
and seized Nikeboll and transformed it into an 
Ottoman sundial}.' The Slavic sources (see J. Bogdan, 
Archiv f. slav. Philo., xiii, 496) dated Shishman's 
death as 12 Sha'ban 797/3 June 1395 which fits 
in with this Ottoman evidence. 

The battle of Nikeboll (24 Dhu '1-Hidjdja 
798/28 September 1396) sealed the fate of Bul- 
garia. After his victory Bayazld invaded Strat- 
simir's Vidin too. He settled in Vidin, Silistre and 
Nikeboll the powerful Odj-begis against Hungary 
and Wallachia. In 847/1443, when a Hungarian army 
advanced into Bulgaria, the Bulgarian re'dyd and 
voynuks in the region of Sofia and Radomir joined 
the invaders, who appointed a 'Vladika' in Sofia for 
them. They were soon repressed by the Ottomans 
(see Inalcik, Fatih Devri, Ankara 1954, 20). 

During this period, and especially after 805/1402, 
Bulgaria became strongly ottomanised. In Eastern 
Bulgaria the Muslim population was definitely in 
the majority as the surveys of 1520s show (see 
0. L. Barkan, tktisat Fakiiltesi Mecmuast, vol. xi, 
map). In 859/1455 in Filibe there were 600 Muslim 
households as against 50 non-Muslim. Bulgaria was 
divided into the sandfaks of Cirmen, Sofya, Silistre, 
Nikeboll and Vidin in the eydlet of Rumeli [q.v.]. In 
the n/i7th century the sandjaks of Nikeboll and 
Silistre were included in the eydlet of Ozii which was 
created against the Cossacks. Its capital was Ozii 
and Silistre. The sandjak of Silistre included Pravadi, 
Yanboll, Harsova, Varna, Akhyoll (Anchialus), 



lRIA 1303 

Aydos, Karin-ovasI and Rusl-kasrt (Rhousokastron) 
in 924/1518. Bulgaria was put under typical Ottoman 
administration with the timdr [q.v.] system (see the 
laws and regulations in 0. L. Barkan, Kanunlar, 
Istanbul 1943, 255-289). Most of the members of the 
pre-Ottoman military class were integrated in the 
Ottoman military organisation (see my Fatih Devri, 
136-184), pronijars as Hmdr-holders, woiniks as 
Ottoman voynuks [q.v.]. As to the bulk of the 
Bulgarian population, they were given the status 
of dhimmi re l dyd [q.v.]. But among them many 
groups enjoyed financially a special status as 
derbenddji (guardians at the mountain passes) or 
suppliers of rice, meat etc. for the palace or the 
army [see 'awdrid], and the Dewskirme [q.v.] was 
also extensively applied in Bulgaria. 

As Istanbul and the army was dependent for a 
great proportion of their food supply on Bulgaria 
the government put restrictions on the export of the 
Bulgarian meat and rice. In 973/1565 the appointed 
sheep owners in western Bulgaria were ordered to 
provide 174,290 sheep for the army (A. Refik, Turk 
Idaresinde Bulgaristan, Istanbul 1933, document 
no. 3). The rice production in the upper Mariisa 
(MeriC) valley brought to the state as mukdfa'a 
[q.v.] a yearly revenue of about one million akia 
(20 thousand gold ducats) in about 888/1483 (T. 
Gokbilgin, Edirne ve Pasa Livast, Istanbul 1952, 131). 
Timber from Shumnl, Hezargrad, Tlrnova (Trnovo) 
and iron from Samakov were supplied for the con- 
struction of the warships at Akhyoll in 979/1571 
(A. Refik, doc. 19, 22). An industry of cloth and felt 
developed in Filibe, Shumnl and Islimye (Sliven) 
in this period which was exported in other parts of 
the empire (A. Refik, doc. 18). Bulgaria experienced 
neither an enemy invasion nor an insurrection from 
1450 to 1595. The Bulgarian towns, especially 
Filibe, Sofya and Silistre, developed as miltary and 
commercial centres on the main routes in Rumeli 
[q.v.]. In these cities new Muslim districts sprang 
up around DJami's, Hmdrets, bedestdns and bazaars 
with rich u/ak/s (see Ewliya Celebi's detailed descrip- 
tion in 1061/1651, vol. Ill, 301-421, and H. J. Kissling, 
Beilr&ge zur Kenntnis Thrakiens im 17. Jahr., Wies- 
baden 1956). According to the Ottoman census in 
1520 (see 0. L. Barkan, JESHO, vol. I, Part 1, 1957, 
32) the sandiaks of Silistre. Cirmen, Nikeboll, Vidin 
and Sofya had about 125 thousand households 
altogether excluding the population in the places 
belonging to Pasha in Bulgaria. 

From the end of the 16th century onwards the rate 
of several taxes was raised and the complaints of the 
Bulgarian re'dyd from the exactions of the local 
officials and soldiers began (A. Refik, doc. 37, 38, 
41, 42, 46, 47). In 1014/1605 the re'dyd of the 
Sofya region complained that the agents of the 
Patriarch were trying to raise the rate of dues 
from 6 akia to 12 for the reldyd and from 60 to 400 
for the local priests (A. Refik, doc. 38). The first 
important uprising in Bulgaria took place at Veliko- 
Tmovo in 1003/1595 when Michael, Wallachian 
Prince, made successful raids in Bulgaria. Sinan 
Pasha [q.v.] put down the insurrection and thousands 
of Bulgarians took refuge in Wallachia. Also from 
this time on the Bulgarian kayduds or eshkiyd' 
begin to be mentioned more frequently in the 
Ottoman sources (A. Refik, doc. 52, 54, 75). Now 
almost with every enemy invasion the re l dyd were 
joining them and when they withdrew large groups 
of re'dyd followed them in spite of the assur- 
ances on the part of the Ottoman government (for 
example in 1 100/1688 the re'dya of the region of 



1304 



BULGARIA — BULGHAR 



Vidin, Kutlofdja, Pirot and Berkofdja (A. Refik doc. 
59) in 1 150/1737 the re'-dyd of the region of Izinbol 
(Znepolje) (A. Refik, doc. 81, 82); in 1208/1793 those 
of the region of Ismail and Stanimaka). In 1 245/1829, 
seventy or eighty thousand Bulgarians followed the 
Russian army to settle in Bessarabia; in 1861 ten 
thousand of them left their home for the Crimea. 

In the second half of the 18th century the a'ydn 
were particularly powerful in Bulgaria. As multazims 
[q.v.] and hereditary possessors of the large state 
lands, liftliks [q.v.], they became real masters of the 
country since the government had to rely on them 
to collect the taxes of the re'-dyd and most powerful 
of them such as Trestenik-oghlu Isma'Il, Bayrakdar 
Mustafa [q.v.] in Rusdjuk, Hadjdji c Umar in Hezargrad 
even maintained private armies to which the Sultan 
had to have recourse at critical moments (A. Refik, 
doc. 90). The Rhodopes and the Balkan mountains 
sheltered an increasing number of bandits called 
Kirdjali in this period. Profiting from this anarchy 
a soldier of fortune, Pazwand-oghlu or Pasban-oghlu 
'Othman [q.v.] rebelled, and then, as the Pasha of 
Vidin, ruled over Western Bulgaria between 1212/ 
1797-1221/1807 (Djewdet, Td'rikh, vii, 237, 240, 250, 
viii, 146-48). Under Mahmud II [q.v.] the a'-ydns 
were eliminated and the central authority was 
established in Bulgaria. In the period of the Tanzimat 
in 1263/1846 Bulgaria was reorganised as the eydlets 
of Silistre, Vidin, Nish with the provincial councils 
in which the Bulgarian representatives were admitted. 
But the administrative reforms did not prevent 
unrest among the Bulgarians. An insurrection in 
the Nish region in 1257/1841 and a more violent one 
in the Vidin region in 1 266/1850 broke out partly 
because of the provocation of the revolutionists in 
Serbia and Wallachia, and partly because of the 
abuses of the liftlik system maintained there by the 
Muslim aghas or gospodars (see my Tanzimat ve 
Bulgar Meselesi, Ankara 1943). 

Many observers in the middle of the 19th century 
(N. V. Michoff, La population de la Turquie et de la 
Bulgarie, 3 vols. Sofia 1915-1929) came to the 
conclusion that one third of the population of 
Bulgaria was Muslim. Out of this about 400 or 
500,000 were the Pomak [Pomatzi), the native 
Bulgarians who had adopted Islam in the 16th 
and 17th centuries in the central and western 
Rhodopes. Muslims were in the majority in the 
cities of Filibe Vidin, Shumnl, Rusdjuk, Razgrad, 
Varna, Plevne, Osman-bazar, Eski-djum'a, Yeni- 
zaghra and in the minority in those of Gabrovo, 
Nish, Sofya, TIrnova, Karnobat ( Karin-ovas!) by 
1293/1876. After the Crimean war the Ottoman 
government had settled in Bulgaria 70 or 90,000 
Cerkes and about 100,000 Tatars (in A. H. Midhat, 
Midhat Pasha, Cairo 1322/1904, 35: 350,000 immi- 
grants). Tension between these and the native 
Bulgarians was exploited by the Bulgarian revo- 
lutionists who had finally organised a Central 
Committee of Revolution in Bucharest in 1286/1869. 
In 1281/1864 the new administrative reform was 
for the first time applied in Bulgaria. The sandjaks 
of Rusdjuk, Varan, Vidin, Tulci (Tulca), TIrnova 
(Trnovo) formed the wildyet of Tuna and those of 
Sofya and Nish that of Sofya. Midhat Pasha [q.v.], 
first governor of the wildyet of Tuna, made it the 
most progressive province of the empire (A. H. 
Midhat, 24-56). Although the tax revenue of the 
wildyet increased fifty per cent under his admini- 
stration, the peasantry had to pay more and do 
forced labour for the construction of the new routes. 
In 1287/1870 the struggle for an independent 



Bulgarian church resulted in the establishment of the 
Exarchate which was regarded as a national victory. 
In the same period the increased activities of the 
Bulgarian revolutionists, komitadjls, supported ac- 
tively by the Russians, resulted in the great insur- 
rection of 1293/1876 (April-May). Bulgaria became 
the main field of operations of the Ottoman-Russian 
war of 1 293/1877. It caused an exodus of the Muslim 
population to the south. With the Treaty of San- 
Stefano Russia attempted to create under her 
protection a great Bulgaria from the Danube to the 
Aegean Sea. But the great powers replaced it by 
the Treaty of Berlin which created a principality of 
Bulgaria, BulghdrisUin Emdreti, under the Sultan's 
suzerainty, and the autonomous Province of Eastern 
Rumelia (Rumeli-i Sharki Wildyeti). It united with 
the Principality as a result of a revolution in Filibe 
in 7 Dhu '1-Hidjdja 1302/18 September 1885 (A. F. 
Tiirkgeldi, Mesail-i Muhimme-i Siyasiyye, Ankara 
'957. 193-246). At the time of the revolution of 
1326/1908 in Istanbul Prince Ferdinand declared 
the independence of Bulgaria and assumed the title 
of Czar (7 Ramadan 1326/3 October 1908). 

Bibliography: N. V. Michoff, Bibliographie 
sur I'histoire de la Turquie et de la Bulgarie, 4 vols. 
Sofia 1914-34; C. Jirecek, GeschichU der Bulgiren, 
Prague 1876; idem, Das Fiirstenthum Bulgarien, 
Prague- Vienna-Leipzig 1891; idem, Die Heer- 
strasse von Belgraa nuch Constantinopel und die 
Balkanpdsse, Prague 1877; V. Zlatarski, Geschichte 
der Bulgaren, Leipzig 1918; P. Nikov, Turskoto 
zavaldevane na Bulgarija i sadbata. na poslednite 
SiSmanovci, Izvestija na Istor. Druzestvo, 7/8 
(1928), 41-112; A. Hajek, Bulgarien unter der 
Turkenherrschaft, Stuttgart 1925; idem, Die 
Bulgaren im Spiegel der Reiseliteratur des 16. bis 
19. Jahrhunderts, Bulgaria 1942, 47-99; S. Runci- 
man, A History of the First Bulgarian Empire, 
London 1930; R. L. Wolff, The 'Second Bulgarian 
Empire', its Origin and History to 1 204, in Speculum 
24 (1949), 167-206; Ahmed Refik, Turk Idaresinde 
Bulgaristan, Istanbul 1933; idem, 'Othmanli Impe- 
ratorlugunda Fener Patrikkhdnesi ve Bulgar Kili- 
sesi, in TTEM, no. 8 (1341); idem, 1284 Bulgar 
Ihtilali, in TTEM, no. 9 (1341); N. Staneff, Ge- 
schichte der Bulgaren, Leipzig 1917; I. Sakazov, 
Bulgarische Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Berlin-Leipzig 
1929; G. D. Galabov, Sources Osmano-Turques 
pour VHistoire Bulgare, Annuaire de I'Uni. de 
Sofia, vols. 34-2, 35-6, 39 (1938-1943); F- Ph. 
Kanitz, Donau-Bulgurien und der Balkan, 3 vols., 
Leipzig 1875-1879; H. Wilhelmy, Hochbulgarien, 
Kiel 1935-1936; N. Jorga, Geschichte des osmani- 
schen Reiches, 5 vols., Gotha 1908-1913; H. 
Inalcik, Tanzimat ve Bulgar Meselesi, Ankara 
1943; Z. V. Togan, article Balkan, in lA. 

(H. InalcIk) 
BULGHAR. in Islamic literature the name of a 
Turkic people by whom two states, one on the 
Volga, the other on the Danube, were founded in 
the early middle ages. 

Early history: The original Bulghars seem 
to have arrived in the south Russian steppes 
with one of the Hunnic waves. They are mentioned 
for the first time by Joannes Antioch. (Miiller, 
Fragm. Hist. Graec. iv, 619) in the year 481 A.D., 
when they helped the Emperor Zeno in his fight 
against the Goths. The centre of the Bulghar country 
was then the steppes in the vicinity of the Kuban 
river and the Maeotis (Azov Sea), but some of their 
hordes dwelled also in the region of lower Danube 
and in the Caucasus. In the Byzantine chronicles 



their original country, Kuban, is known as Great 
Bulgaria (Theophanes, Nicephorus). After the death 
of Khan Kuvrat in 642 A.D. the unity of these 
Bulghars was brought to an end, probably under 
the pressure of the growing power of the new 
Khazar kingdom. One section of the Bulghars 
remained in their ancient settlements on the Kuban 
and in the Maeotis till the 10th century. At this time 
this country was called by Constantine Porphyr. (De 
adm. imp., 12, 42) "Black Bulgaria" and the 
Russian chronicles give them also the name of 
"Black Bulgars". This section of the Bulghars did 
not play any great part in history and was probably 
absorbed by the successive waves of Magyars, Peche- 
negs and Kumans. t By far the greatest group of 
Bulghars, under idian Isperukh, left their home 
country in 678 for the Balkans and the Danube, 
where they founded a state among the South 
Slavonic tribes. In a comparatively short time the 
numerically weak group of Turkic Bulghars was 
assimilated and absorbed by the more numerous 
Slavs. In Islamic sources this state and its inhab- 
itants are known as Burdjan. 

The third and smallest group had retreated along 
the Volga to the north (this fact is now confirmed by 
archaeological data) and settled down by the con- 
fluence of the rivers Kama and Volga. There they 
subjugated the Finnish aboriginal population and 
founded a new state. This group are the Bulghar of 
Arabic, Bulkar of Persian sources, and this name 
is applied also to the country and to the capital of 

Sources: Our outstanding authority on the 
Bulghar is Ibn Fadlan, who in 309-10/921-922 took 
part in an embassy sent by the Caliph al-Muktadir 
billah to the Bulghar king. A little earlier is the 
source preserved in Ibn Rusta, ffudud al- c Alam, 
GardizI, al-Bakrl and Marwazi. Some decades 
younger than Ibn Fadlan are the accounts of al- 
Istakhri, al-Mas'udi and al-Mukaddasi, and from the 
second half of the 4th/ioth century we have the 
report of Ibn Hawkal. Beside these main sources 
we find some few remarks in other Arabic and/or 
Persian works, such as those of al-Biruni, BayhakI, Ibn 
al-Nadim etc. In the 6th/i2th century Bulghar was 
visited by Abu Hamid al-AndalusI and two centuries 
later by Ibn Battuta; but the report of the latter 
is not free from the suspicion of invention. The 
historians of the Mongol epoch, such as Ibn al-Athlr, 
Abu '1-Fida 3 , Rashid al-DIn, Pjuwayni and others, 
inform us about the end of Bulghar state. European 
sources are represented only by the Russian chroni- 
cles, which are valuable for the time before the Mongol 
invasion and after. As our sources come chiefly 
from the 4th/ioth century, the following picture of 
the internal state of affairs in Bulghar is drawn 
from these and applies to later times only indirectly. 

Territory and population : The centre of the 
Bulghar kingdom was formed by the triangle between 
the Volga and the Kama and the country south of 
the confluence of both these rivers. As to the 
frontiers of the Bulghar territory, our sources leave 
us entirely in the dark, and chapter 51 in the Ifudud 
aW-Alam (erroneously captioned Burtas) is totally 
useless in determining its neighbours. Nevertheles- 
we can gather some indications about these neigh- 
bours and their relation to the Bulghar kingdom. 
To the north lived various Finno-Ugrian tribes, as 
WIsu (in Russian sources V'es, today Veps) and 
Yura (Russ. Yugra) ; both of them at different times 
were under Bulghar domination, at least nominally. 
In the east, the Basdjirt (Bashkirs) were subject 



iAR 1305 

tot he Bulghars, and to the south-east some Pecheneg 
and Ghuzz tribes led their nomadic life quite inde- 
pendently of the Bulghars. Between the Bulghars 
and the Khazars, in the forests, dwelled the more 
primitive Burtas/Burdas, probably ancestors of the 
Mordva; they were subject to the Khazars and the 
object of frequent raids by the Bulghars and in 
later times also incorporated in the state of the 
latter. According to al-Istakhri it was 15 days' 
journey from the land of the Khazars to the land of 
the Burtas and thence another 15 days' to the 
limits of this people, probably to the north-west. 
To the west lived various Slavonic (Russian) tribes, 
but the limits of their eastern colonisation are 
uncertain. That some of these were in the 10th 
century subject to the Bulghars is evident from the 
fact that the Bulghar ruler is frequently called by 
Ibn Fadlan malik al-Sakdliba (king of the Slavs). 

The Bulghars were divided into many hordes and 
groups, known under different names to Islamic 
authors. Barsula, Ishkil (or Askil) and Bulkar are 
the three main groups named in Ibn Rusta and his 
epigons and Ibn Fadlan mentions, apart from 
Askil, the tribe of Suwar and a group or a large clan, 
called al-Barandjar, who were already Muslims and 
had a wooden mosque. In the forests dwelled the 
subjugated Finnish tribes and in the towns (at a 
later period) a mixed population formed by merchants 
and craftsmen from Russia, Khazaria, Central Asia 
and even from Baghdad. 

Political institutions: The Bulghar ruler bore 
the title yiltuwar (in Ibn Fadlan b.ltwdr), a Turkic 
title known also in the form alteber from the Orkhon 
inscriptions. This title indicates the status of a lesser 
prince, vassal of a khdkdn, in this instance of the 
Khazar khdkdn, and shows also that the Bulghar 
country originally formed only part of a greater 
empire and that their ruler was not entirely inde- 
pendent. The Bulghars paid to the Khazars a sable- 
fur from each house as a tax, and their dependent 
status was manifested also by the fact that a son 
of the Bulghar king lived at the court of the Khazar 
khdkdn as a hostage. These feudal relations were 
probably loosened by the Bulghar alliance with the 
caliph in Baghdad, but it seems that only the fall 
of the Khazar empire in 965 allowed them to become 
an absolutely independent state. The changed 

the Caliphate is expressed also in the change of the 
old title yiltuwar to the new one amir as a symbol of 
the cessation of the former allegiance to the Khazar 
khdkdn. 

The state of Bulghar did not form a political 
unity, since the tribal leaders (Ibn Fadlan calls them 
muluk) did enjoy a large independence and freedom; 
this is apparent from Ibn Fadlan's report of the 
refusal of the malik of the tribe Askil to obey an order 
of the king. Although the Russian chronicles mention 
continuously only one Bulghar state, we read sub 
anno 1183 of a war waged by one Bulghar prince, 
allied with the Komans, against the Great Town 
of Bolgary and in the Mongol epoch that another 
'state, that of Zhukotin (Djuke-Tau), was founded. 

In Ibn Fadlan's time the relation of the ruler to his 
people was still quite patriarchal. He used to ride 
through the capital (a town of tents) alone, unac- 
companied by a bodyguard or escort; at the sight 
of their ruler his subjects rose from their seats and 
bared their heads. The ruling class was formed, 
besides the family of king and the tribal leaders, of 
500 important families. 

Economy and trade: Until the first half of 



1306 BUL 

the ioth century the Bulghars led a nomadic life, 
like other Turkic peoples in the Russian steppe, 
and cattle-breeding was their chief occupation and 
the foundation of their economy. This is clearly 
shown in the earlier sources, for according to Ibn 
Kusta the taxes were paid in horses. Ibn Fadlan 
already found the society in a state of change from 
nomadism to settled life. Many customs of the 
former way of life were then still surviving, i.e., no 
permanent capital served as the seat of the ruler, 
who wandered from one place to another and lived 
in a large tent. Al-Istakhri mentions that the 
inhabitants spent the winter in wooden houses and 
the summer in tents. In the latter part of this same 
century Bulghar was already a flourishing agri- 
cultural and trading centre. 

The chief products were millet, wheat and barley 
(Ibn Rusta, Ibn Fadlan) and these formed also the 
main food together with horse-meat. From the 
produce of their fields the people paid no sort of 
taxes to the king. According to archaeological finds 
agricultural technique was on a fairly high level of 
development, which permitted also the export of 
crops; in 1024 the Russians of Suzdal', where there 
a famine, brought wheat from Bulghar and thus 



aved tl 



r live 



Although agriculture predominated, cattle-breed- 
ing still played an important rdle in the economy. 
It formed the basis for various branches of manu- 
facture, mainly tanning, and also for export. At a 
later period Bulghar leather (the modern Russian 
leather yuff) and the Bulghar shoes (Pers. muza-i 
bulghdri) were particularly well-known, especially 
in the East. Archaeology has brought to light 
many other industrial products such as copper-ware, 
ceramics, jewels and implements of a comparatively 
high degree. 

The main source of the country's wealth was, 
however, international trade. The river Volga is one 
of the most ancient trade-routes in the world and 
the favourable site of the town of Bulghar at the 
cross-roads of east-west and north-south trade was 
fully exploited. The Bulghars themselves traded 
mainly in the north and in a lesser degree also in 
Central Asia, but the importance of Bulghar was due 
in the first place to its function as a meeting-place of 
foreign merchants, Russians, Khazars, and Muslims. 
The king levied a duty of 10% on all water- 
borne merchandise : for instance the Russian 
merchants paid from every ten slaves one slave as 
tax. The chief caravan-route led to Central Asia 
(Khwarizm) and to Kiev. From northern countries 
the Bulghars imported furs of martens, sables, 
beavers, foxes and squirrels, and exchange with 
these northern peoples, such as the WIsu and Yura, 
was made by dumb barter (see Ibn Fadlan, BIrunI, 
Marwazi, Abu Hamid, Ibn Battuta). The Russians, 
too, brought furs and as another chief item slaves, 
who were re-exported to Central Asia by the caravan- 
route or to the Caspian provinces by the Volga. Al- 
MukaddasI, 325, gives a long list of Bulghar exports: 
furs of many different kinds, horse and goat skins, 
shoes, kalansuwas, arrows, swords, armour, sheep, 
cattle, falcons, isinglass, fish-teeth, birch wood, 
walnuts, wax, honey and Slavonic slaves. Many of 
these items are mentioned also by other sources and 
as Ibn Rusta, al-Istakhri, Abu Hamid etc. 

From Islamic countries the chief imports were 
textiles, arms, luxury goods and ceramics. 

The unit of currency was, as in other parts of 
Eastern Europe till the 12th century, the fur 
(especially that of foxes, martens and squirrels). 



There was also silver money current which had been 
imported from Muslim countries, this money being 
used to buy the goods of the Russians and Slavs. From 
the beginning of the 4th/ioth century there were 
struck in Bulghar imitations of Samanid dirhams 
with the name of the original mint and original 
date, but with the name of the Bulghar amir 
MikS 5 !! b. Dja'far (probably the son and successor 
of Dja'far b. <Abd Allah, the ruler in Ibn Fadlan's 
time). From 337/948-49 we have the first dirham 
from a Bulghar mint (Suwar), struck in the name of 
Talib b. Ahmad, and further coins till the year 357/ 
968. Other coins bear the names of Mu'min b. 
Ahmad (366/976-77), struck in Suwar and Bulghar, 
and of Mu'min b. al-Hasan (between 366/976-77 and 
370/980), struck in the same mints (see Vasmer, 
Wiener Num. Ztschr. 57, 1924, 63 f.). Besides the 
names of the rulers there also appear on the coins 
the names of 'Abbasid caliphs. 

At the time of his visit Ibn Fadlan did not notice 
any towns or villages, as the Bulghars led a nomadic 
life. It seems that the building of the fortress, 
which was one of the principal tasks of the Baghdad! 
embassy, laid the foundation of the future town of 
Bulghar. The non-existence of towns in Bulghar 
prior to the embassy is confirmed on the one hand by 
the silence of the Ibn Rusta group of sources about 
these, and on the other hand by the use of the name 
Bulghar: this name signifies to Ibn Rusta and Ibn 
Fadlan always the country or the people, never the 
town. Al-Istakhri is the first author who mentions 
the existence of the towns Bulghar and Suwar, with 
wooden buildings and mosques and 10,000 inhabi- 
tants. This account is then repeated by all subsequent 
authors with some small additions (Ifudud al-'Alam: 
20,000 inhabitants; Gardizi: 500,000 families). The 
Russian chronicles know a number of Bulghar towns, 
but owing to their lack of details it is impos- 
sible to ascertain their locations. The most important 
of these towns was Velikiy gorod Bolgary (the Great 
town of Bolgary), which is mentioned many times 
in the chronicles. 

During the past half-century the Russians have 
undertaken numerous archaeological excavations on 
the sites of the ancient towns in Bulghar territory. 
The ruins near the village of Bulgarskoie, a distance 
of 6 km. from the Volga, show a high culture in the 
13th and 14th centuries. All the buildings such as 
palaces, mosques, baths as well as the walls were of 
stone; the town had a circumference of about 
6 miles and was surrounded by suburbs to the 
north and west. It must have had a population of 
some 50,000 souls at this time. The more recent 
discoveries in Bilyar and Suwar are richer than 
those in Bulgarskoie and it seems that Bulghar 
{i.e., the ruins at Bulgarskoie) was the capital only 
in the ioth and nth centuries and then in later 
times its role was transferred to Bilyar in the central 
part of the country, on the river Cheremshan. 
Which of these two was the "Great town of Bolgary" 
of the Russian chronicles is difficult to tell. 

Religion: According to our oldest sources (Ibn 
Rusta, ca. 300/912, but with an older account) 
Islam was well established amidst the Bulghars and 
there were some wooden mosques on their territory. 
This is fully confirmed by Ibn Fadlan, who during 
his visit found many Muslims, mosques, and a 
khatib and mu'adhdhin. The early Arabic sources 
are silent about the beginning of islamisation in 
Bulghar and only the 12th century traveller Abu 
Hamid relates a legendary account, connected with 
a popular etymology of the name Bulghar; this 



1 egend, however, is not known to the later Tatar 
traditions. One of the purposes of the BaghdadI 
embassies and especially that of Ibn Fadlan, was the 
strengthening of Islam, the introduction of Islamic 
law, the building of a mosque and a minbar and the 
islamisation of the whole country. It seems that 
this task was successfully accomplished. It was 
from Central Asia that Islam first reached Bulghar; 
the manner in which the adhdn was performed 
clearly followed the madhhab of Abu Hanlfa, then 
ruling amongst the Central Asian Turks. Because 
Ibn Fadlan followed the Shafi'I madhhab, a dispu- 
tation arose between him and the Bulghar mu'adh- 
dhin, backed by the king. The Bulghars remained 
true to their Hanafi madhhab throughout the whole 
of their history. In towns there were mosques and 
Friday mosques, and the liudud al-'Alam con- 
firms that the inhabitants of Bulghar and Suwar 
were zealous fighters for the faith. According to 
Mas'Odi {Murudi, ii, 16) a son of the Bulghar king 
had made the pilgrimage to Mecca during the 
reign of al-Muktadir; another proof of the religious 
zeal of their rulers was the presentation to the 
mosques of Sabzawar and Khusrawdjird, of a gift 
in 415/1024 by the Bulghar amir Abu Ishak b. 
Ibrahim b. Muhammad b. B.l.t.war (see Ta'rikh-i 
Bayhak, ed. Tehran, 63). It seems that the Bulghars 
exercised a decisive influence on the conversion 
of nomadic Turkic tribes, such as Pechenegs and 
Kumans, to Islam, and they also nursed hopes of 
spreading the Muslim faith in Russia, in the 10th 
century still pagan. In the year 986 an embassy 
was sent to Kiev in order to convert prince Vladimir 
to Islam and some time later this same ruler, 
searching for a suitable religion for himself and his 
people, invited Bulghar Muslims to explain to him 
the principles of their faith and to take part in a 
religious disputation between the representatives 
of the chief religions. 

This northernmost Islamic country posed some 
ritual problems, owing to the short days and long 
nights during the winter and vice versa during the 
summer. To perform the daily five prayers in a 
short day was not an easy task and it was impossible 
to hold to the prescribed times; similar problems 
arose in Ramadan. This peculiarity of high latitudes, 
unknown in other Islamic lands, soon attracted the 
attention of Muslim writers and led to lengthy 
discussions as to what should be the right solution 
of these problems. As late as i860 the Kazan 
historian Mardjani wrote a treatise concerning this 
problem (see Togan, Ibn Fadlan, 170, where there 
are further references). 

Language and literature: Th? language of 
the Bulghars, like that of the Khazars, has left very 
few remnants, mainly in toponymy and onomastics, 
and, beginning with the 12th century, also a fair 
number of epitaphs. The linguistic affinity of their 
language remained a problem a long time. Al- 
Istakhri, 225, tells us that the language of the 
Bulghars resembled the speech of the Khazars, but 
both are unlike the languages of Burtas and Rus. 
(An analysis of Kashgharl's account of the Bulghar 
language together with a discussion of the whole 
problem is to be found in Pritsak, in ZDMG 109, 1959, 
92-116). It is however, now established that the 
Bulghar language belongs to the so-called "Bolgarian" 
group of the Western (or West-Hunnic) branch of 
Turkic languages, the other groups being Ghuzz, Kip- 
6ak and Karluk. The "Bolgarian" group consists, apart 
from the Khazarian, of the following languages: 
1) Proto-Bulgarian — the language of the Proto- Bul- 



HAR 1307 

garian inscriptions and of the so-called "List of 
Princes" of the Bulgars of the Danube, found in an 
ancient Russian chronicle (see O. Pritsak, Die bul- 
garische F»rs/«ni»s/«, Wiesbaden 1955); 2) Kuban-Bul- 
garian; remnants of this language are found in loan- 
words in Hungarian, and 3) Volga-Bulgarian, 
the language of the epitaphs, written in Arabic 
script, found on the territory of Bulghar. The degree 
of affinity between this language and that of the 
modern Cuvash has not yet been satisfactorily inves- 
tigated and explained. As the Cuvash have been very 
little affected by the highly developed Muslim culture 
of the Bulghars, it is improbable that they are 
descendants from these; a greater right to claim 
such descent belongs to the modern Kazan Tatars. 

With the sole exception of the above mentioned 
tomb-inscriptions, dating from the 12th until the 14th 
centuries, we do not possess any remnants of literary 
activity of the Bulghars. Ibn al-Nadlm mentions in 
his Fihrist that the Bulghars, prior to their islamisa- 
tion, used the script of the Chinese and of the 
Manichaeans, but no sample of this writing has come 
down to us. Abu Hamid reports a Ta'rikh Bulghar, 
a work of Kadi Ya'kub b. Nu'man al-Bulghari from 
the beginning of 12th century; in the year 989/1581 
Sharaf al-DIn Husam al-DIn al-Bulghari composed 
in the Tatar language a Risdla-i Tawdrikh-i Bulgha- 
riyya, which contains nothing but fabulous stories 
about the propagation of Islam and the lives of 
saints; it was printed in Kazan in the year 1902. 

History: The scarcity of our sources does not 
permit us to follow the course of Bulghar history 
closely. The Bulghars came into the light of written 
history only at the time of Ibn Fadlan's visit; 
at this period their ruler was yiltawar Almush 
b. Shilki, who subsequently changed his title and 
name into amir Dja'far b. <Abd Allah. The coins 
supply the name of his son and successor Mlkall b. 
Pja'far and also the names of another three rulers: 
Talib b. Ahmad, Mu'min b. Ahmad and Mu'min b. 
al-Hasan (for the dates see above, section on 
economy). The Bulghars remained till the fall of 
the Khazar khakanate a vassal state of the latter. In 
the year 964 the country in the Volga basin was 
devastated by the Kievan prince Svyatoslav; an 
echo of this is found in Ibn Hawkal's story of the 
conquest of Bulghar, Burtas and Khazar in the year 
358/968-69. This is, however, not the date of the 
Russian expedition but that of the year in which 
Ibn Hawkal received the information of these 
events. This invasion had no lasting effects on the 
prosperity of Bulghar; similarly the second Russian 
campaign, led by Vladimir, the son of Svyatoslav, 
in the year 985 did little damage. On the contrary, 
the Bulghar gained by the downfall of Khazar 
khakanate; as the Russian armies after their victory 
retreated, the place of the mighty Khazars was 
occupied by the Pecheneg nomads, representing 
no real danger to the Bulghars. For a short period 
the relations between the Russians and Bulghar 
improved, as is shown by the trade treaty concluded 
in the year 1006 on equal terms. Yet both these 
states were in the same way interested in the fur 
trade in the north and this led to continuous fighting 
since the second half of the nth century; Bulghar 
history is from this time a history of their wars with 
the Russians. 

In 1088 the Russian town of Murom was captured 
by the Bulghars, but remained in their hands only 
for a short time. After this event they were on the 
defensive and on many occasions — in the years 1120, 
I 1164, 1172, 1183, 1220 — the town of Bulghar was 



1308 



besieged by the Russians. Only t 
Bulghar offensive are mentioned: in 1107 they 
unsuccessfully attacked the town of Suzdal' and in 
1218 they sacked the town of Ust'yug> situated far 
in the north. The further fighting with the Russians 
was interrupted for nearly two centuries by the 
Mongol invasion. 

Abu Hamid, who visited the town of Bulghar and 
the Volga basin in the first half of the 12th century, 
says nothing about political history except the 
statement, that in the town of Saksln on the lower 
Volga there lived a Bulghar amir and stood a 
Bulghar mosque. 

When the Mongols were returning to the east 
after the victory over the Russians on the river 
Kalka (1224) they were ambushed by the Bulghars 
and suffered heavy losses (Ibn al-Athir, xii, 254). 
This was avenged in a most sanguinary fashion; in 
1229 the Bulghar vanguard on the river Yayik 
(Ural) was put to flight, and, in 1236 according to 
Muslim sources, in 1237 according to Russian 
chronicles, the Mongols attacked the Bulghar state 
and destroyed the capital with all its inhabitants. 
From then on the country of Bulghar formed 
part of the kingdom of the "Golden Horde", the 
Mongol empire in the Eastern Europe [see batu'ids]. 
The capital Bulghar appears to have risen to a 
flourishing condition in a relatively short time again ; 
the archaeological finds show a high culture dating 
just from this period, and the majority of the 
epitaphs is dated in the Mongol epoch. The subse- 
quent history of the country and the capital is very 
little known and we are not even told when and why 
the town was abandoned by its inhabitants. It was 
not affected by Timur's campaign of the year 1395, 
but Bulghar was soon afterwards, in 1399, destroyed 
by the Russians. The town probably suffered more 
from the rise of Kazan (called also Noviy Bulgar, 
New Bulghar), which was founded just before this 
time by Batu-Khan, than from these wars. The 
selection of this town as capital of an independent 
Tatar state, founded by Ulugh Muhammad (died 
1446), sealed the fate of the town of Bulghar. Its 
importance as the greatest market on the central 
Volga passed first to Kazan and then to the Russian 
town of Nizniy-Novgorod (today Gorkiy). 

The word Bulghar still remained in use in literature, 
though only as the name of a country, and as late 
as the 19th century the Tatars called themselves 
Bulghars. 

Bibliography: Muslim sources: Ibn Rusta; 
Ibn Fadlan; al-Mas'udi, Murudi; al-Istakhrl; Ibn 
Hawkal; al-Mukaddasi ; Hudud al-'Alam; al- 
Birunl; Gardizi; al-Bakri; Abu Hamid al-Anda- 
lusi, Tuhfa (ed. Ferrand); idem, Mu'rib (ed. 
Dubler); Yakut; al-KazwInl; Abu '1-Fida 5 ; al- 
Dimashki. For the Mongol period: Ibn al- 
Athir; Abu '1-Fida'; Rashld al-DIn; Djuwaynl; 
Ibn BattOta etc. (see the bibliography in Spuler, 
Die Goldene Horde, Leipzig 1943). Russian 
chronicles in Polnoe sobraniye russkikh Vetopisey, 
Moscow 1846-1925. Modern studies: Z. V. 
Togan, Ibn Fadlan' s Reisebericht, Leipzig 1939; 
Grekov, Volzhskiye Bolgary, Istorileskiye zapishi 
14, 1945, 1 ff. ; A. P. Smirnov, Volzhskiye Bolgary, 
Moscow 1951; Yakubovskiy, K istoricheskoy topo- 
grafii Itila i Bulgara, Soviet. Arkheologiya 10, 
1948, 255; A. P. Smirnov, Trudy Kuybishevskoy 
Arkheolog. Ekspediciyi, Moscow 1954; Istoriya 
Tatarskoy ASSR, vol. 1, Kazan 1956; Kovalevskiy, 
Kniga Achmeda ibn Fadlana . . ., Kharkov 1956; 



M. Canard, Ibn Fadldn chez les Bulgares ae la 

Volga, in AIEO Alger 1958, 41-146. 

(I. Hrbek) 

BULGHAR-DAGH [see toros]. 

BULGHAR-MA'DEN [see toros]. 

al-BULSInI, family of Egyptian scholars 
of Palestinian origin, whose ancestor Salih settled 
at Bulkina in al-Gharbiyya. 

(1) c Umar b. Raslan b. NasIr b. Salih, Sirabj 
al-DIk Abu Hafs al-KinanI, born 12 SJia'ban 
724/4 August 1324, died 10 Dhu '1-Ka'da 805/1 June 
1403. He studied at Cairo under the most famous 
scholars of the day, including Ibn 'Akll [?.».], whose 
daughter he married, and served as nd'ib during 
Ibn 'Akll's brief tenure as Grand Kadi in 759/1358. 
Appointed Mufti in the Dar al- c Adl in 765/1363, he 
became the most celebrated jurist of his age (cf. Ibn 
Khaldun, Mukaddima, ch. 6, § 7 [Quatremere iii, 8]), 
but except for a short term as Shafi'ite Grand Kadi 
at Damascus in 769/1367-8 (made notable by rivalry 
with his teacher Tadj al-DIn al-Subki) he was never 
promoted Grand Kadi, but only to the lesser 
(though lucrative) office of Kadi T- c Askar, in 
addition to a number of teaching posts. In later life, 
however, he was honoured with the title of Shaykh 
al-Islam, ranked along with or above the Grand 
Kadis, and regarded by some as the "Mudjaddid of 
the eighth century". With his stupendous knowledge 
he was seldom able to finish any literary work, and 
besides a treatise on Mahdsin al-Istilah left only an 
uncompleted work, al-Tadrib, on Shafi'ite fikh. He 
was the founder of the family's madrasa in Harat 
Baha' al-DIn Karakush. 

Bibliography: Sakhawl, Daw' Ldrni'-, v, 
85-90, 182; Ibn Taghribardi, Nudium (Popper) 
v (= Cairo xii), index; vi, 156; Manhal Sdft, 
index by Wiet, no. 1723 (with family table and 
additional bibliography); Ibn Hadjar, Durar 
Kdmina, ii, 267, 427; SuyutI, Husn al-Muhddara, i, 
148 (135); Brockelmann II 93, S II no; Ibn 
Hadjar, Inbd' al-Qhumr (BM. MS. Add. 7321), 
143a, b. 

(2) Muhammad b. c Umar, Badr al-DIn, 757/1356- 
791/1389, eldest son of (1), succeeded him as 
Kadi 'l- c Askar and Mufti Dar al- c Adl in 779/1377- 

Bibliography: Ibn Hadjar, Durar Kdmina, 
iv, 105; Wiet no. 2288. His son, Taki al-DIn 
Muhammad: Daw', x, 171; Wiet no. 2350; and 
grandson, Wall al-DIn Ahmad, kadi of Damascus: 
Nudium, vii, 545; Daw', ii, 188; SuyutI, Nazm al- 
"■Ikydn (Hitti), 90. 

(3) 1 Abd al-Rahman b <Umar, Pjalal al-DIn, 
763/1362-824/1421, succeeded his brother Muhammad 
as Kadi 'l-'Askar in 791/1389. He lived in luxurious 
style, had a retinue of 300 mamluks, and in 804/1401 
obtained the office of Shafi'ite Grand Kadi, which 
he held with intervals until his death. 

Bibliography: Sakhawl, Daw', iv, 106-114; 
Ibn Taghribardi, Nudium vi, 548-9 and index; 
Wiet no. 1381; Kalkashandl, Subh, ix, 180; for 
his extant works on Kur'an and fikh, Brockelmann 
II, 112; S II, 139. His sons: Tadj al-DIn Muham- 
mad, Kadi 'l- c Askar, Nudium, vii, 361; Daw', 
vii, 294-5; SuyutI, Nazm al-Hkyan, 151; Wiet 
no. 2180; and Zayn al-Din Kasim, ndzir al- 
diawdli, Daw', v, 181-2; vii, 295; Wiet no. 1807; 
Ibn Hadjar, Inbd' al-Ghumr, BM. Or. 5311, 105a, 
Add. 23,330, 106a, 6, Add. 7321, 258a, b. 

(4) Sahh b. 'Umar, c Alam al-DIk Abu^-Baisa', 
791/1389-868/1464, youngest son of (1), eight times 
Shafi'ite Grand Kadi of Cairo from 825/1422 until 
his death, professor in various madrasas, and ndzir 



al-BULKINI - 

of the Baybarsiyya khdnkdh. He was the teacher 
of al-Sakhawi and of al-Suyuti in fifth. In addition 
to editing his father's fatwas and Muhimmdt, com- 
pleting his Tadrib, and writing his biography, he 
composed a tafsir and other works on tradition 

Bibliography: Sakhawi, Daw'', iii, 312-4; iv, 

40 (biography of his brother Diya 3 al-DIn c Abd 

al-Khalik); Ibn Taghribardi, Nudjutn, vii, 792-3 

and index; Wiet no. 1197; Suyuti, Husn al- 

Muhddara, i, 205 (189); Nazm al-'Ikydn, 119; 

Brockelmann, II 96; S II, 114-5. 

(5) Muhammad b. (TApj al-DIn) Muhammad b. 

'Abd al-Rahman, Badr al-DIn Abu'l-Sa'adat, 

819/1417 or 821/1419-890/1485, grandson of (3), 

served as nd'ib for his uncle Salih, was appointed 

on his father's death in 855/1451 to succeed him as 

Kadi 'l-'Askar, obtained for 7000 dinars the office 

of Shafi'ite Grand Kadi in 871/1466, but held it for 

only four months, and greatly discredited the 

family by his extravagances. 

Bibliography: Sakhawi, Daw', ix, 95-100: 
Ibn Taghribardi, Nudj[um, vii, 742; Ibn Iyas 
(Kahle), iii, 211. His brothers: c Ala> al-DIn 'All, 
Ca» J , v, 310 Shihab al-DIn Ahmad, Daw', ii, 
119; their sons, Daw', iv, 28; vi, 102; vii, 70. 
Collateral branches descended from Abu Bakr 
b. Raslan and Muhammad b. Muzaffar b. Naslr, 
cousins of (1), held office as kadis of al-Mahalla, 
Alexandria, etc.; see table in Wiet no. 1723 (to be 
supplemented as above), and Sakhawi, Daw', i, 
253; iv, 228, 232; vi, 296; viii, 62. 

(H. A. R Gibb) 
BULUGGIN b. MUHAMMAD [see hammadids]. 
BULUGGlN (in Arabic: Bulukkln) b. ZlRl b. 
Manad, first ZIrid of Ifrlkiya (4th/ioth century). 
As a reward for distinction in the service of the 
Fatimids as amir of the Sanhadja against the Zanata 
he was nominated governor of Ifrlkiya by al-Mu'izz 
li-Din Allah. As he was almost always on campaigns 
in the central Maghrib, he entrusted the admini- 
stration of al-Kayrawan and eastern Ifrlkiya to a 
vice-amir whose power continuously increased. The 
principal events of his life are as follows: Bulukkln 
founded Algiers, Miliana, and Medea (349/960), 
fought against Abu Khazar (358/968-9), and beat 
the Zanata (360/971). His father ZIri was killed by 
Dja'far b. 'All b. Hamdun al-AndalusI, the rebellious 
governor of Msila and the Zab (Ramadan 360/June- 
July 971). The new amir of the Sanhadja ejected the 
Zanata from the central Maghrib (end of 360/ 
autumn 971) and obtained Msila and the Zab. On 
20 Dhu '1-Hidjdja 361/2 Oct. 972 he was invested, 
under the name of Abu '1-Futuh Yusuf, with the 
Fatimid west except for Sicily and Tripoli. He 
campaigned in the Maghrib (362-3/973-4), appointed 
c Abd Allah b. Muhammad al-Katib governor of 
Ifrlkiya, fought the Kutama (364-5/974-5). and 
gained Tripoli, Surt, and Adjdabiya (367/977-8). 
During his last campaign (368-73/979-84) he took 
Fez, Sidjilmassa, and Basra, beat the Barghawata, 
and died on the return journey on 21 Dh u '1- 
Hidjdja 373/25 May 984. He was succeeded by his 
son al-Mansur. 

Bibliography: Ibn c Idharl (ed. Levi- Provencal 
& Colin), i, 228-32, 239, 296, ii, 243, 293 (Dozy's 
ed. i, 237-40, 248, 305, ii, 259, 316), iii, 263; idem, 
tr. Fagnan, i & ii, index; Ibn al-Athlr, Cairo 1353, 
vii, 35, 45-8, 78, 120-1 (tr. Fagnan, index); 
Nuwayri, ed. G. Remiro, ii, 101, 107-16; Ibn 
Khaldfln, Hbar, vi, 154-7 [Hist, des Berberes, iv, 
index); Ibn Khallikan, Cairo 1310, i, 93; Mafdkhir 



IT 1309 

al-barbar, 6, 8, 13, 16-8; Ibn Abi Dinar, Mu'nis, 

62-4, 71-5; Ibn Taghrlbirdl, iv, 72; Ibn al- c Imad, 

Shadhardt, iii, 53-4, 80-1; Makrizi, Itti'dz, Cairo 

1948, 142-5, 180, 186, 196, 198, 294; Ibn al- 

Khatlb, A c mdl, in Centenario M. Amari, ii, 451-3; 

Fournel, Berberes, ii, 205-6, 349, 352, 355-63; 

H. R. Idris, La Berblrie orientate sous les Zirides 

(in preparation). (H. R. Idris) 

BULCGH [see baligh]. 

BULUWADiN [see bolwadin]. 

BCNA [see al- c annaba]. 

al-BUNDArI, al-Fath b. c AlI b. Muhammad 
al-IsfahanI, Kiwam al-Din, a historian who 
wrote in Arabic and is primarily known for his 
revision of the History of the Saldjukids written 
by his compatriot c Imad al-DIn al-Isfahanl. Relieving 
it of certain stylistic embellishments, he dedicated 
it in 623/1226 to the Ayyubid al-Mu c azzam (ed. 
M. Th. Houtsma in Recueil de Textes relatifs a 
I'histoire des Seldjoucides, ii). He says that he had 
previously similarly treated the History of Saladin, 
al-Barh al-Shdmi, by the same author. He had 
also written a continuation to the (biographical) 
History of Baghdad by Khatlb Baghdad! ( auto- 
graph MS. dated 639/1241-42, Paris Bibl. Nat. 
Arab. 6152). Finally he is the author of an Arabic 
translation of Firdawsl's Shdh-ndma which he also 
dedicated to al-Mu c azzam in 624/1227 (ed. 'Abd 
al-Wahhab al-A c zam, Cairo 1350). We know nothing 
more of his life, which he seems to have spent 
divided between Syria and 'Irak. The date of his 
death is unknown. 

Bibliography: Houtsma, op. cit., preface; 

Brockelmann, I, 321, and S I, 554 (where the 

author is incorrect in distinguishing a Ta'rikh 

Baghdad from the Dhayl to that of Khatlb, cf. 

ibid. 563), (M. Th. Houtsma-[Cl. Cahen]) 

BUNDUtf [see barOd]. 

BUNDU5DAR [see baybars]. 

BUNDUtfl [see sikka]. 

BUNDUtflYYA [see barOd]. 

al-BUNI [see Supplement]. 

al-BUNT, Spanish Alpuente, a small municipio 
in the north-west of the province of Valencia, on 
the eastern slopes of the mountains forming the 
valley of the Guadalaviar-Turia ; it belongs to the 
partido judicial of Chelva, 87 kilometres from the 
chief town. Situated at the junction of two mountains, 
Monte del Castillo and loma de San Cristobal, its 
castle stands on a crag sheer on all sides, which could 
only be reached by the steep and narrow ascent of 
an artificial covered way defended by a tower of 
dressed stone. In the ruins one can see traces of 
Roman and Arab masonry. It was reached by a 
drawbridge, some 40 metres long, which has perhaps 
given its name to the place. 

It has no history before the time when, at the 
beginning of the fitna which put an end to the 
Umayyad caliphate, the Band Kasim, Kutama 
Berbers, bound by a long-standing alliance with the 
Arab tribe of Fihr, became independent in their 
small, steep territory, which formed part of the 
kura of Santiberia. 

Of the four petty kings who ruled it, the first was 
c Abd Allah b. Kasim al-Fihrl, an 'Amirid mawla, 
who took the title of hddiib and ruled as an independ- 
ent sovereign. After the caliph al-Murtada was 
routed before Granada and killed at Cadiz, his 
brother Abu Bakr Hisham sought refuge in Alpuente 
and, having been proclaimed by the Cordovans as 
caliph at the end of Rabi c II 418/June 1027, lived 
peacefully in this obscure place for over two and a 



half years, welcomed and well-treated by the 'Amirid 
mawld, who was a supporter of the Marwanid dynasty 
notwithstanding the harm which the last caliphs 
had done to his predecessors. When he at last decided 
to make his official entry into Cordova it was with 
a retinue as small and countryfied as the place 
from which he came; he was quickly deposed and it 
was thus that the Umayyad caliphate came to 

'Abd Allah b. Kasim, who ruled with the title of 
Nizam al-Dawla and died in 421/1031, was succeeded 
by his son Muhammad b. 'Abd Allah Yumn al- 
Dawla, who died suddenly in 440/1048, leaving a 
son six years old. The son was dethroned after a 
few months by his paternal uncle 'Abd Allah b. 
Muhammad, who married the queen mother and 
lived on good terms with the neighbouring reyes de 
taifas until his death in 485/1092. 

Alpuente next passed into the hands of the 
Almoravids and then into those of the Almohads. 
When the Almohads were expelled from Andalusia, 
the sayyid who was governor of Valencia, Abu 
Sa'Id Zayd, grandson of 'Abd al-Mu'min, allied 
himself with James I the Conqueror and offered 
Alpuente to him; afterwards, when he sought 
refuge at his couri and turned Christian, he submitted 
Alpuente to the jurisdiction of the bishop of Segorbe, 
Don Guillen. 

There is another Al-Bunt, a farm near Granada, 
where in 428/1037 Badis, the successor of Habbus, 
and his brother Buluggln treacherously killed the 
'Amirid fata Zuhayr, lord of Almerla. 

Bibliography: Ibn 'Idhari, Al-Baydn al- 
Mughrib, iii, 127, 145-6, 215; Ibn Hazm, Diam- 
harat al-ansdb, 446; Ibn al-Khatib, A'-mdl al-aHam, 
239-40; L6vi-Provencal, Hist, de I'Espagne musul- 
mane, ii, 338; P. Madoz, Diccionario geogrdfico, 
ii, 197-8. (A. Huici Miranda) 

BOR [see ba'l]. 

al-BURAR, the beast on which Muhammad is 
said to have ridden, when he made his miraculous 
"night-journey". According to Sura xxii, 1, the 
"night-journey" led the Prophet from the sacred 
place of worship, i.e., Mecca, to the "remote place of 
worship". This latter place has been identified by 
B. Schrieke and J. Horovitz with a point in the 
heavens, and by A. Guillaume, recently, with a 
locality near Dji'rana on the border of the sacred 
precinct of Mecca. The addition of the phrase "the 
environs of which we have blessed" makes it 
probable, however, that the passage refers to a 
place in the Holy Land, namely Jerusalem (cf. 
Sura xxi, 71, 81; Sura vii, 137; Sura xxxiv, 
18: allati bdraknd fihd). Be this as it may, the 
"remote place of worship" has always been under- 
stood, in the indigenous tradition, as a reference to 
Jerusalem. It was accepted, moreover, that Muham- 
mad made the journey from Mecca to Jerusalem and 
back, not merely in a dream, but — accompanied by 
Gabriel — in the living flesh and within the space of 
a single night. The miraculous speed of such a feat 
was held to be explicable on the ground that 
Muhammad rode a beast of exceptional fleetness. 
It was in this connexion that the legend of al-Burak 



In one of the numerous hadiths that Tabari, ii 
his Kur'an commentary, gives on the "nigh 
journey", Muhammad's mount is described simply a: 
a horse (xv, 6 f.). Most hadiths of the earlier times cal 
it, however, al-Burak and define it as "a beast (in sizi 
intermediate) between a mule and an ass", some 
times with the further detail that it is white. It is alsi 



declared to be long (Muslim, Imdn, 259), with along 
back and long ears (Ibn Sa'd, i, I, 143), with shaking 
ears (Tabari, Tafsir, xv, 10), saddled and bridled 
{ibid., 12). The radjaz-poct 'Adjdjadj (d. 97/715) 
speaks, in connexion with Abraham, of the "bridled 
Burak" (ed. Ahlwardt, xxxv, 49-52: if genuine, the 
oldest datable evidence). The earlier Prophets have 
themselves made use of this beast (Tabari, Tafsir, 
xv, 10; Ibn Hisham, 263). Its speed is said, as a rule, 
to be such that "with one stride it moved as far as its 
gaze reached". In Ibn Hisham, 264, in Ibn Sa'd, i, 
I, 143 and in Tabari, Tafsir, xv, 3 it is also described 

it drives forward its legs". These words are intended 
to mean, of course, only that al-Burak could move 
its legs extremely quickly, and not that it was 
capable of flying. Genuine wings are first ascribed 
to it only in later texts. It is generally depicted in 
miniatures as a winged creature (see below). Gram- 
matically al-Burak is construed both as masculine 

It is reported in some hadiths that al-Burak at 
first resisted the attempt of the Prophet to mount 
him and was therefore brought to obedience by 
Gabriel. Muhammad, after the arrival in Jerusalem, 
is said to have dismounted and tied tbe beast to a 
rock {sakhra Tabari, Tafsir, xv, 7), or "to the ring, 
to which the Prophets were wont to tic it" (Muslim, 
Iman, 259; Tabari, Tafsir, xv, 10; Ibn Sa'd, i, I, 
143 (■)■ Al-Burak, in certain hadiths transmitted 
by Bukhari and Muslim, serves as the steed for 
Muhammad's actual "journey to heaven". The 
legends of the "night-journey" (isnP) and of the 
"journey to heaven" {mi'-rddj) became combined 
at an early date. Al-Burak was also included 
in this confusion of legends and thus developed 
gradually into a flying steed. The ascent into 
heaven (mi'rddj), in the original form of the 
legend, occurred however by means of a ladder. 

The etymology of the name Burak is not yet fully 
elucidated. E. Blochet believed it to come from the 
Middle Persian bdrag, "steed". J. Horovitz has 
rightly questioned this interpretation and has 
declared himself in favour of a derivation from the 
Arabic root baraka, "to lighten, to flash". According 
to this view, Burak could be explained as a (rare) 
diminutive form. "The miraculous beast would thus 
have received its name "the little lightning-flash" 
on account of its fleetness or of its brilliant colour". 
Yet even this explanation is not wholly convincing. 
The possibility must also be envisaged that the name 
Burak goes back to a pre-Islamic tradition now 
unknown to us. In general, much that is reported 
about the steed of the miraculous "night-journey" 
will derive from pre-Islamic tradition. It is, however, 
difficult to uncover the various links in all their 
detail. 

The later development in the conception of the- 
Burak is to be discerned rather in figurative repre- 
sentations than in literary documents. This statement 
is also valid in relation to the fact that eventually 
al-Burak received a human face. Horovitz has 
pointed to a hadith of Ibn 'Abbas, transmitted by 
Tha'labi (d. 1035), as the earliest literary evidence 
declaring that al-Burak had "a cheek like that of 
a man". Balkhi, in his description of the ruins of 
Persepolis (beginning of the 6th/i2th century),' des- 
ignates the monster in the gateway of Xerxes, 
"whose face resembles a human face", as Burak. 
The earliest picture yet known of al-Burak dates 
from the year A.D. 1314 (in a MS. of the 
Dfami' al-Tawdrikh' of Rashid al-DIn). None the 



al-BURAK — BURAK KHAN 



less, it is clear that the real development occurred 
within the sphere of the visual arts. The decisive 
stimuli arose out of those forms of representation 
which — from the figures guarding the gates of 
Assyrian palaces onwards — remained alive in the 
shape of centaurs, griffins or sphinxes and have 
again and again reappeared as artistic forms. The 
winged creatures, which in the course of time 
became petrified into a formal element no longer 
understood, obtained at last a new meaning in 
connexion with the legend of the mi'rddi of the 
Prophet. In illustrations to Persian poetry, and 
especially to the works of Nizami, al-Burak with his 
rider and with Gabriel as guide came to be a much 
cherished subject. The splendidly composed picture 
of the "journey to heaven" in the Nizaini MS. Or. 
2265 of the British Museum constitutes the highest 
point of artistic achievement in this evolution. 

Bibliography: Ibn Hisham, 263-265; Ibn 

Sa c d, i, I, 14311-; Bukharl, Bad' al-Khalk, 6; 

Bukhari, Mandhib al-Ansdr, 42; Muslim, I man, 

259, 264; Nasal, Saldt, i; Ahmad b. Hanbal, iii, 

148 and iv, 207, 208; Tabari, Tafsir, Cairo 1321, 

xv > 3 -I 3 ; Nawawl, Commentary on Muslim, Cairo 

1283, i, 234 ff.; Ibn al-Balkhi, Fdrs-ndma, ed. 

G. de Strange and R. A. Nicholson London 

1921 (Gib. Mem. Ser., N.S., i), 126, trans. G. 

le Strange, in JRAS 1912, 26 f.; Damirl, Haydt 

al-Hayawdn al-Kubrd, Bfllak 1284, i, 146 ft.; M. 

Wolff, Muhammedanische Eschatologie, Leipzig 

1872, 101 f. (Arabic text: 57); E. Blochet, in RHR 

40, 1899, 203-36; B. Schrieke, in EI 1 , s.v. isrd'; A. 

A. Be van, Mohammed's Ascension to Heaven (Bei- 

hefte zur ZATW 27, Giessen 1914, 49-61); J. Horo- 

vitz, Muliammeds Himmelfahrt, in Isl. 9, 1919, 159 

-183; M. Asia Palacios, La escatologia musulmana 

en la Divina Comedia-, Madrid-Granada 1943; E. 

Cerulli, II "Libro delta Scala", The Vatican 1949 

( = Studi e Testi 150); A. Guillaume, Where was 

al-Masyid al-Aqsa?, in Al-Andalus 18, 1953, 323- 

336; R. Paret, Die "feme Gebetsstdtte" in Sure 17, 

1, in Isl. 34, 1959, 150-2; W. Arnold, Painting 

in Islam, Oxford 1928, 117-122; R. Ettinghausen, 

in ' Ars Oricntalis, ii (1957), 558-50; idem, 

Persian ascension miniatures of the fourteenth 

century (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, XII 

Convegno "Volta" promosso della Classe di 

Scienze Morali, Storiche e Filologiche, Rome 1957, 

360-383). (R. Paret) 

BURAK (or, more correctly, Barak) HADJIS, 

the first of the Kutlugh Khans of Kirman. By origin 

a Kara-Khitayan he was, according to Diuwayni. 

brought to Sultan Muhammad Khwarazm-Shah 

after the defeat of the Kara-Khitay on the Talas in 

1 2 10 and taken into his service, in which he rose to the 

rank of hddjib or chamberlain. According to Nasawl 

he had held this same office at the court of the 

Gur-Khan or ruler of the Kara-Khitay. Being sent 

on an embassy to Sultan Muhammad he was forcibly 

detained by thf lattei until the final collapse of the 

Kara-Khitay and was only then admitted into his 

service. When the sultan had met his death in flight 

before the Mongol armies and his son Djalal al-DIn 

Khwarazm-Shah \q.v.] had taken refuge in India, 

another son Ghiyath al-Din PIr-Shah succeeded in 

establishing himself in Persian 'Irak (winter of 

1221-2). Here he was joined by Burak, whom he 

appointed governor of Isfahan. On account of a 

quarrel with Ghiyath al-DIn's vizier, Burak obtained 

permission to leave for India in order to enter the 

service of Sultan Djalal al-Din. Attacked en route 

by the governor of Kirman he not only defeated 



his assailant but made himself master of his territory, 
and he then renounced the idea of proceeding to 
India (1222-3). This is Djuwayni's version; Nasawl 
represents Burak as being appointed governor of 
Kirman from the outset. When Sultan Djalal al-Din 
appeared in Kirman in 1224 he confirmed Burak's 
appointment, though not without some misgivings. 
In 1226, whilst campaigning in the Caucasus, he 
received information that Burak had risen in revolt. 
In his haste to deal with the rebel he travelled, 
according to Djuwayni, from Tiflis to the borders of 
Kirman in the space of 17 days. He then turned 
back, either because of Burak's conciliatory attitude 
or because of the strong defensive measures he had 
adopted. In 1228 Ghiyath al-Din, having quarrelled 
with his brother, came as a fugitive to Kirman. His 
mother was forced to marry Burak against her will 
and was then accused, together with hi r son, of 
complicity in a plot against his life. Thiy were both 
put to death though Djuwayni and Nasawl disagree 
as to the details. According to the former Ghiyath 
al-Din was executed first; according to the latter 
he was kept a prisoner for a time after his mother's 
death and there was even a rumour that he had 
escaped to Isfahan. Djuwayni relates that Burak 
now approached the Caliph announcing his conversion 
to Islam and asking to be recognised as an indepen- 
dent sultan. The Caliph granted his request and gave 
him the title of kutlugh sultan ("Fortunate Suit™"). 
In 630/1232-3 the Mongol commanders operating in 
the SIstan area called on Burak to submit to the 
Great Khan. He excused himself from proceeding to 
Mongolia in person but sent his son Rukn al-Din 
instead. Rukn al-DIn was still en route when he 
received the news of his father's death, which 
occurred in the late summer or early autumn of 1235. 
Bibliography: Djuwayni, The History of the 

World-Conqueror, transl. J. A. Boyle, 2 vols., 

Manchester 1958; Nasawl, Histoire du Sultan 

Djelal ad-Din Mankobirti, ed. and transl. O. 

Houdas, 2 vols., Paris 189 1-5; B. Spuler, Die 

Mongolen in Iran 1 , Berlin 1955. 

(W. Barthold-[J. A. Boyle]) 

BURAK (or rather Barak) KHAN, a ruler of the 
Caghatay Khanate. A grandson of Mo'etiiken, who 
fell before Bamiyan, his father, Yesun-To'a, had 
been banished to China for his part in the con- 
spiracy against the Great Khan Mongke. Burak 
himself began his career at the court of Mongke's 
successor, Kubilay Khan (1260-94). When in March 
1266 Mubarak-Shah, the son of Kara-Hulegu, was 
elected to the Caghatay Khanate, Kubilay dispatched 
Burak to Ma wara' al-Nahr with a yarligh or rescript 
appointing him co-regent with his cousin. Burak at 
first concealed the yarligh and then, having gained 
the support of the military, attacked Mubarak- 
Shah, whom he defeated and captured at Khudiand 
in September 1266. 

Although he owed his throne to Kubilay, Burak 
was soon involved in hostilities with the Great Khan. 
He expelled the latter's governor of Chinese Turke- 
stan and defeated the army which Kubilay sent to 
restore him. In his war against Kubilay's great 
adversary, Kaydu, the head of the House of Ogedei, 
who had now possessed himself of Semirecye, 
Burak was less successful. He gained an initial 
victory but Kaydu obtained help from the Golden 
Horde; Burak was defeated on the Sir-Darya and 
withdrew into Ma wara' al-Nahr, where he prepared 
to offer desperate resistance. However a reconcilia- 
tion was effected between the two princes and at a 
kurlltay held on the Talas in the spring of 1269 there 



BURAK KHAN — BURAYDA 



was organised, under the suzerainty of Kaydu, a 
kingdom completely independent of the Great Khan. 
Kaydu and Burak hailed each other as anda ("blood 
brother") and an agreement was reached that the 
princes should live in the mountains and on the 
steppes, keep their herds of horses out of the culti- 
vated areas and not exact from the population 
anything beyond their legal dues. Two thirds of 
Ma wara' al-Nahr were left to Burak but the govern- 
ment of the cultivated areas was placed in the hands 
of Mas c tid Beg, a governor appointed by Kaydu. 
At the time of this kuriltay Burak had expressed 
his intention of invading the territories of Abaka, 
the Il-Khan of Persia, and had been encouraged by 
Kaydu, who hoped to see the back of a dangerous 
rival. Mas'iid Beg was sent to Persia, ostensibly to 
collect the revenues due to Burak and Kaydu, but 
in reality to spy out the land. Soon after his return 
Burak crossed the Oxus and occupied parts of 
Khurasan and Afghanistan. However he received 
little support from the troops sent by Kaydu and 
was soon ,'eft m the lurch. On i Dhu 'l-Hidjdja 
668/22 July 1270 Abaka inflicted a crushing 
defeat on his opponent, who withdrew across the 
Oxus with o;<ly 5,000 men. 

Accounts differ as to how Burak passed the last 
year of his life. According to Wassaf, he spent the 
winter in Bukhara, where he adopted Islam and 
assumed the title of Sultan Ghiyath al-DIn. In the 
following year he undertook a campaign in Sistan, 
but his plans were frustrated by the defection of 
several princes and he was obliged to throw himself 
upon the mercy of Kaydu, who caused him to be 
poisoned. According to Rashld al-DIn's more 
circumstantial account the defection of the princes 
took place immediately after Burak's retreat across 
the Oxus. He appealed for help to Kaydu, who 
advanced very slowly at the head of a large army, 
his intention being not to assist Burak, but to 
profit by the situation. Having in the meanwhile 
suppressed the revolt Burak begged his anda to 
turn back, but Kaydu continued to advance. His 
troops finally encircled Burak's camp and when they 
entered it the next morning they found that he had 
died during the night, of fright, as it was said. His 
death took place according to Djamal KarshI at the 
beginning of 670, i.e., on or after the 9th August 1271. 
He was buried, by Kaydu's command, on a high 
mountain after the Mongol and not the Muslim 
fashion. 

Bibliography: Ta'rikh-i-Wassdf.ed. Hammer, 

134 ff., (trans. 128 ff.); Rashld al-Din, Qidmi' al- 

Tawdrikh, ed. Blochet, ii, 168 ff. and 177 ff. ; 

d'Ohsson, Histoire des Mongols, iii, 427 ff . ; 

Grousset, L' Empire des Steppes, Paris 1939; 

B. Spuler, Die Mongolen in Iran 1 , Berlin 1955; 

W. Barthold, Four Studies on the History of 

Central Asia, transl. V. and T. Minorsky, i, Leiden 

1956. (W. Barthold-[J. A. Boyle]) 

BCRAN, wife of the caliph al-Ma'mun and 

daughter of the Persian secretary al-Hasan b. Sahl 

[?.».]. According to some her real name was Khadldja 

and Buran simply an appellation. Born in Safar 

192/December 807, she was married from the age 

of ten to the caliph whom her father had faithfully 

served during the first part of his reign. The wedding 

celebrations, the splendours of which are described 

with relish by many authors, did not take place 

until Ramadan 210/December 825-January 826, on 

al-Hasan's estate at Fam al-Silh, near Wasit, at a 

time when the former secretary had retired from 

public life, but when the caliph was still desirous 



of showing his attachment to the family. It was on 
this occasion that Buran, according to tradition, 
interceded for Ibrahim b. al-Mahdl [q.v.]. Buran died 
in Rabi c I 271/September 884, aged nearly eighty. 
She lived in the former palace of Dja'far the Bar- 
makid, later known as the Kasr al-Hasanl, which her 
father had given to her and which after her death 
reverted to the caliphs. 

Bibliography: Ya'kubi, Tabarl, index; Ibn 

Tayfur, Kitdb Baghdad, Cairo ed., 102, 113-8; 

Ibn Khallikan. no. 119 and Cairo 1948, i, 258-61; 

Tha'alibI, LatdHf al-ma c drif, ed. de Jong, 73-4; 

G. Le Strange, Baghdad during the Abbasid 

Caliphate, Oxford 1900, 243-6. (D. Sourdel) 

BURAYDA, the present capital of al-Kasim 
district of Saudi Arabia, is located at 26° 20' N, 
43 58' E, on the left bank of WadI al-Rumah just 
west of where it flows into the sand of Nafud al-Sirr. 
The city lies on a ridge of Nafud Burayda, 25 km. 
north of its traditional rival, the city of c Unayza on 
the opposite bank of "the WadI", as it is usually 
called in al-Kasim. In the alluvial flats scattered 
among the dunes of Nafud Burayda there are gardens 
and villages called collectively al-Khubub (sing. 
khabb). These fertile plots were formed by the WadI 
flood, from which they continue to derive their 
copious water supply. 

The altitude of Burayda is 610 m. at the airstrip. 
North and west of the city there is excellent grazing 
and an ample supply of fine salt which once made 
the city a famous market for horses, camels, and 
even cattle. The livestock, the agricultural produce 
and water from al-Khubub, and the central position 
of the city on the Basra — Medina route were all 
factors in developing Burayda into one of the great 
trading centres of Arabia. The mixed population, 
comprising settled elements of Harb, c Anaza, 
Mutayr, c Utayba, and Bani Tamim, traded through- 
out the Arab world. Men from Burayda belonging to 
the corporation of 'Ukayl became known from Cairo 
to Bombay as livestock dealers and caravan men. 

The origin of the city is not clear. Yakut mentions 
Burayda as a watering place of Banu Pablna of the 
tribe of 'Abs, and the modern Arab geographers, al- 
KhandjI and Ibn Bulayhid, accept this toponym as 
the source of the present city's name. Without 
further evidence, this identification appears still 
unestablished. The date of the city's founding is 
confirmed by no sound evidence, although local 
tradition and Western travellers agree roughly that 
the ioth/i6th century is a reasonable possibility. 
Caskel places the founding of Burayda in 950/1543-4, 
without citing his source. In any event, the city is 
first mentioned as a political power by the chief 
historian of modern central Arabia, Ibn Bishr, who 
gives a brief note on a battle between Burayda and 
'Unayza in 1107/1695-6. 

The local history of Burayda is to a large extent 
the story of four families and their participation in 
the politics of central Arabia, either independently or 
as provincial governors. The first was Al al-Duraybl 
(or perhaps al-Buraydi, v. Ibn La'biin, 22), from al- 
'Anakir of Bani Tamim, whose ancestor, Rashid al- 
Duraybl, Corancez credits with the founding of 
Burayda. Little is known of this family other than 
the fact it carried on an internecine struggle with 
its cousins, Al c Ulayyan of al-'Anakir. The perennial 
feud with 'Unayza caused Al al-Duraybl to ask for 
military assistance from Al Sa<ud in 1182/1768-9. 
This step soon brought Burayda into the Sa c udl 
orbit, placed Al 'Ulayyan in power, and made al- 



BURAYDA - 



Kaslm the cockpit of the long struggle between Al 
Rashld of Djabal Shammar and Al Sa'ud. 

Al 'Ulayyan ruled Burayda from 1189/1775-6 to 
1280/1863-4 as governors of Al Sa'ud and, at times, 
under the Turko-Egyptian invaders from al-Hidjaz. 
Their unreliability brought about the appointment 
of Djalwi b. Turk! Al Sa'ud as governor of al- Kaslm 
from 1265/1848-9 to 1270/1853-4 and the establish- 
ment of the family of Muhanna of Al Aba al-Khavl 
of c Anaza as governors of Burayda from 1280/1863-4 
to 1 326/1908-9. 

Neither Al 'Ulayyan nor Al Aba al-Khayl were 
able to place service to Al Sa'ud above their ambitions 
for local supremacy. During the long war between 
Al Sa c ud and Al Rashid they served both masters 
with equal duplicity. 

When Al Sa'ud finally regained al-Kasim in 1326/ 
1908-9, the redoubtable c Abd Allah b. Djalwi Al 
Sa'ud, son of the former governor, was installed in 
Burayda as governor of al-Kasim in order to eliminate 
permanently the local intrigues in this strategic area. 
c Abd Allah was succeeded by his cousin, c Abd al- 
<Aziz b. Musa'ad Al Sa'ud, the present Governor of 
Ha>il, and later by <Abd Allah b. c Abd al- c Aziz b. 
Musa'ad, now Governor of the Northern Frontiers. 
The anarchicai years preceding the consolidation 
of the kingdom by King c Abd al- c Aziz Al Sa c ud 
discouraged the commerce of Burayda, and his 
subsequent conquests of al-Hasa and al-Hidjaz gave 
central Arabia unrestricted access to ports on both 
coasts, cutting into the entrepreneurial trade of al- 
Kasim. Since 1 374/1954-5 the destruction of the city's 
most famous landmarks, the great city walls and 
citadel of Al Muhanna, and the construction of 
modern government buildings, schools, and hospitals 
have altered the formerly grim face of Burayda. 
Only the broad market square of al-Ujarada and the 
winding, narrow streets of shops west of it recall 
the great trading centre of the past. The population 
remains fairly stable at an estimated 25-30,000, of 
whom perhaps half are residents of the hamlets of 
al-Khubub. 

Bibliography: Yakut; HJthman b. Bishr, 

'Unwdn al-madid, Mecca 1349; Muh. b. Bulayhid, 

Sahih al-akhbdr, Cairo 1951-3; Ibn La'bun, 

Ta'rikh, Mecca 1357; Muh. Amln al-Khandii. 

Mundjam al- c umrdn, Cairo 1907; Philby, Arabia 

of the Wahhabis, London 1928; M. v. Oppenheim, 

E. Braunlich, and W. Caskel, Die Beduinen, 

Leipzig and Wiesbaden 1939-52. (R. Headley) 

BURAYDA B. al-HU§AYB, a Companion 

of the Prophet, was chief of the tribe of Aslam 

b. Afsa who, together with about eighty families who 

were with him, accepted Islam when the Prophet 

halted at their settlement of al-Ghamlm on his way 

from Mecca to Medina. (According to Ibn Hadjar, 

however, he accepted Islam after the battle of Badr). 

Burayda did not join the Prophet in Medina until 

after the battle of Uhud, but then he resided there 

and took part in all the Prophet's campaigns. In the 

year 9/630 he was sent to collect taxes from Aslam 

and Ghifar. and then again to call on them to join 

the campaign to Tabfik. After the Prophet's death, 

Burayda continued to reside in Medina until the 

foundation of Basra, where he moved and built 

himself a house. Later he campaigned in Khurasan 

and settled in Marw where he died in the reign of 

Yazld b. Mu'awiya, 60-63/680-3. Some sources 

(Baladhurl and Ibn al-Athir) state that he moved to 

Khurasan in the year 51/671. with al-Rabi 1 b. Ziyad, 

as one of fifty thousand who moved from Basra 

and Kflfa together with their households on the 

Encyclopaedia of Islam 



orders of Ziyad b. Abihi. According to Ibn Hadjar 
he died in 63/683. 

Bibliography: Ibn Sa'd, iv/i, 178-9; Tabari, 

i, 13. 1579; i". 2348-9, 2371, 2539; Ibn al-Athir, 

al-Kdmil, iii, 408; Baladhuri, Futuh, 410; Ibn 

Hadjar, i, 296-7; Usd al-Ghaba, i, 175, Nawawi, 

173; Caetani, Annali, index. 

(K. V. Zettersteen-[W. 'Arafat]) 

al-BURAYMI, an oasis in eastern Arabia, 
the principal town of which bears the same name 
and lies in Lat. 24° 14' N, Long. 53° 46' E. The 
town of Hamasa lies west of al-Buraymi town and 
on the edge of the same grove of date palms. The 
only other centre in the oasis which might be con- 
sidered a town, by virtue of its market, is al- c Ayn, 
the south-easternmost of all the settlements. The 
oasis covers an area of roughly 6 km. by 9 km. and 
includes also the villages of Sa'ra, Hill, al-Kattara, 
al-KIml (pronounced locally al-DzImi), and al- 
Mu'tarad. Cultivation has been revived at al- 
Djahili (pronounced locally al-Yahili), and members 
of Al Bu FalaJj, the ruling family of Abu Zaby [see 
abu zabI], have an estate at al-Muwayki c i. The 
oasis depends on water brought by underground 
aqueducts (faladj., see al-afladj) from the mountains 
of al-Hadjar not far to the east and from the im- 
posing rocky ridge of Djabal Hafit, rising in isolation 
above the plain immediately to the south. 

Al-Buraymi is near the western end of the pass 
of Wadi al-Djizy, which leads to Suhir on the coast 
of al-Batina; it also lies on the principal route from 
Dubayy through al-Zahira [q.v.] to Dank, 'Ibri, and 
Nazwa, the capital of Inner Oman and long the 
seat of the Imam of the Ibadis. The inhabitants of 
the oasis, numbering about 10,000, belong in the 
main to the tribe of Nu'aym (the two major divisions 
of which are Al Bu Khurayban and Al Bu Shamis), 
some of whose members are nomadic or semi- 
nomadic, or to the tribe of al-Zawahir, a settled 
folk not found in any number outside the oasis. 
Other elements in the oasis belong to Ban! Kitab, 
Ban! K5 c b, Al Bu Hamir, Al Bu Falasa, and Al Bu 
Falah. 

The network of aqueducts running under the 
settlements has resulted in an interdependence of . 
the villages, some of which are. in a position to 
control the vital water supplies of others. Dates, 
alfalfa, vegetables, and fruit — including mangoes 
and sweet and sour oranges — are exported from 
the oasis, the principal port of which is Dubayy 
[?.».]. The town markets do a good business in live- 
stock and are redistribution centres for the tribes 
and communities of the interior. 

Al-Buraymi has been identified as the place early 
Arab geographers and lexicographers call Tu'am 
[LA gives the variant Tu'am, and other variants are 
listed in Lane), described as a centre for the purchase 
of pearls (whence tu'dmiyya as a synonym for 
i«'/«'a and durra). The accuracy of this identification 
seems open to question, with the possibility existing 
of confusion with some place actually on the Persian 
Gulf. Authors from eastern Arabia also give al- 
Djaww and al-Djawf [q.v.] as old names for the oasis. 

Very little is known of the history of the oasis 
before the nineteenth century. According to local 
historians it was occupied by the army which the 
Caliph al-Mu c tadid sent overland from al-Bahrayn 
in 280/893. 

Between 1353/1934 and the outbreak of World 
War II, discussions took place between Saudi 
Arabia and the United Kingdom, acting on behalf 
of the Ruler of Abu Zaby, regarding the southern 

83 



1314 al-BURAYMI 

and eastern bounderies of Saudi Arabia, but Buraymi 
was not then specifically at a point at issue. In 
1371/1952, a Saudi Arabian official (amir) arrived 
in the oasis and established himself in Hamasa to 
assert Saudi sovereignty against that of Abu Zaby 
and Muscat. In 1373/1954 the United Kingdom 
and Saudi Arabia agreed to refer to arbitration 
the dispute arising out of this action and out of 
conflicting claims to over 70,000 sq. km. of terri- 
tory to the south-west of al-Burayml. Thanks to 
the arbitration, the geography, modern history, 
and demography of al-Buraymi have been recorded 
in great detail, both sides having submitted to 
the arbitral tribunal elaborate memorials in which 
these matters are treated. Saudi Arabia contended 
that the whole oasis is an integral part of its 
Kingdom. The British maintained that exclusive 
sovereignty in the oasis should be vested in 
the Ruler of Abu Zaby and the Sultan of Muscat. 
The British held that the traditional loyalty of 
Nu'aym (predominant in al-Burayml town, Hamasa, 
and Sa'ra) is to Muscat, and that of al-Zawahir 
(predominant in most of the other settlements) is to 
Abu Zaby. 

Following British charges of Saudi bribery and 
other misconduct, the British member of the tribunal 
resigned, whereby the arbitration lapsed in Mu- 
harram 1375/September 1955 without the tribunal 
having had an opportunity to pass an opinion on 
the charges or the merits of the case itself. In Rabi c 
I/October 1955 troops of the Trucial Oman Levies 
under the command of British officers occupied the 
oasis, which was partitioned between Abu Zaby and 
Muscat. The Sultan of Muscat appointed a wall in 
al-Burayml town, and the Ruler of Abu Zaby 
designated one of his brothers as his representative 
in the oasis. Sakr b. Sultan, the paramount shaykh 
of Nu'aym, and other shaykhs with adherents went 
into exile in al-Dammam, the capital of the Eastern 
Province of Saudi Arabia. 

Bibliography: For Tu'am see, in addition to 
the lexicographers, Yakut and Bakri, Mu'djam 
ma Ista'dxam, Cairo 1945-51. 

c Abd Allah al-Salimi, Tuhfat al-A'ydn, Cairo 
1332-47; Ibn Bishr, "-Unwdn al-Madjd and Ibn 
'Isa, 'Ikd al-Durar, Cairo 1373; Ibn Ghannam. 
Rawdat al-A/kdr, Bombay 1337; Ibn Ruzayk, 
Fatfi al-Mubin, (Ms. Add. 2892, Cambridge), transl. 
G. Badger, Imdms and Seyyids, London 1871. 
Revue Egyptienne de Droit International, 2 vols. 
1955; Admiralty, A Handbook 0/ Arabia, London 
1916-17; idem, Iraq and the Persian Gull, London 
1944; D. Harrison, Footsteps in the Sand, London 
1959; H. Hazard, Eastern Arabia, New Haven 
1956; idem, Saudi Arabia 1956; India, Selections 
from the Records of the Bombay Government, n.s., 
xxiv, Bombay 1856; Iraq Petroleum Co., Handbook, 
London 1948; J. Kelly in International Affairs, 
London 1956; H. Klein, ed., KaSf al-gumma, 
Hamburg 1938; J. Lorimer, Gazetteer of the 
Persian Gulf, 'Oman, and Central Arabia, Calcutta 
1908-15; S. Miles, The Countries and Tribes of the 
Persian Gulf, London 1919; J. Morris, Sultan in 
Oman, London 1957; H. Philby, Sa'udi Arabia, 
London 1955; E. Ross, Annals of Oman, Calcutta 
1874; Saudi Arabia, Memorial of the Government 
of Saudi Arabia [al-Burayml Arbitration], 1955; 
B. Thomas, Alarms and Excursions in Arabia, 
Indianapolis 1931; United Kingdom, Arbitration 
concerning Buraimi and the Common Frontier 
between Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, 1955. 

(G. Rentz and W. E. Mulligan) 



BURDA, 1. A piece of woollen cloth used since 
pre-Islamic times, which was worn as a cloak by 
day and used as a blanket by night. That of the 
Prophet has become famous. As a reward for Ka'b 
b. Zuhayr's [q.v.] poem, he made him a present 
of the burda he was wearing. It was bought from 
the son of the poet by Mu'awiya and was preserved 
in the treasury of the 'Abbasid Caliphs until the 
occupation of Baghdad by the Mongols. Hiilegu 
caused it to be burned but it was afterwards claimed 
that the real burda of the Prophet was saved and 
is still preserved in Constantinople. 

Bibliography: Dozy, Dictionnaire des noms 
de vetements chez les Arabes, Amsterdam 1845, 
59-64; R. Basset, La Banat So c dd, Algiers 1910, 
90-91 and the authors quoted. On the sacred relics 
in Istanbul, see Tahsin Oz, Hirka-i Saadet Dairesi 
ve Emanet-i Mukaddese, Istanbul 1953. 
2. The name of a celebrated poem by al-Busiri 
[q.v.]. According to the legend he composed it 
when he was cured of a paralytic stroke which had 
seized him by the Prophet's throwing his mantle 
over his shoulders as he had done on a previous 
occasion for Ka'b b. Zuhayr. The fame of this 
miraculous cure spread and the poem, which was 
entitled al-kawdkib al-durriyya fl madh khayr al- 
barriyya, came to bear the name Burda. Its verses 
are supposed to have supernatural powers. They 
are still employed at the present day as charms 
and recited at burials. No other Arabic poem has 
attained such renown. Over ninety commentaries 
have been written on it in Arabic, Persian, Turkish 
and Berber; the takhmls, the tathlith and the 
tashtir that have been made from it are innu- 
merable. The poem begins with the usual nasib, 
in the style of ancient Arabic poetry; the author 
then proceeds to regret his youth and confess his 
faults. His career is contrasted with that of the 
Prophet, whose miracles, related according to 
tradition, fill the following verses. The poem con- 
cludes with a supplication to Muhammad and 
several verses in his honour. There is no trace of 
Sufism. in it Among the chief commentaries may be 
mentioned the first in point of date, that of Abu 
Shama <Abd al-Rahman b. Isma'il al-Dimishki 
(596-665/1 199-1266) copies of which are preserved 
in Paris (Bibl. Nat., no. 1620) and Munich (no. 547); 
that of Ibn Marzuk of Tlemcen (died 842/1499-1500) 
described by Dozy as "stupendus et horrendus"; 
that of Khalid al-Azhari (died in 905/1499-1500) 
which has been several times printed, occasionally 
with that of Ibrahim al-Badjurl (died 24 Dhu 
M-Ka c da 1276/13 June i860); that of Ibn Ashur 
(Cairo 1296). The text was published for the first 
time at Leiden by Uri in 1761 under the title, 
Carmen Mysticum Borda Dictum, with a Latin 
translation. Since then it has often been reprinted, 
particularly in the East, and there is hardly a 
Madimu'- of edifying texts which does not contain it. 
In the West, von Rosenzweig's edition may be men- 
tioned : Funkelnde Wandelsterne zum Lobe des Besten 
der Geschopfe (Vienna 1824), with a German translation 
and notes. The best edition is that of Rolfs, published 
after his death by Behrnauer, Die Burda, ein 
Lobgedicht auf Muhammad (Vienna i860), with 
translations into Persian, Turkish and German; it 
does not however contain the series of apocryphal 
verses given by von Rosenzweig. The Burda has 
been translated into various languages; without 
enumerating all the translations, we may mention, 
in addition to those mentioned above, that of de 
Sacy (at the end of the Exposition de la Foi musul- 



BURDA - 



mane by PIr All Birgevi, translated by Garcin de 
Tassy, Paris 1822) and that of R. Basset, with a 
commentary (Paris 1894); that of Redhouse, The 
Burda (in W. A. Clouston, Arabian Poetry for 
English Readers, 322-341, Glasgow 1881) ; G. Gabrieli's 
Italian translation, al-Burdatayn (Florence 1901), 
30-85, with notes. 

Bibliography: R. Basset, Les Manuscrits Ara- 
bes des Bibliotheques des Zaouias d' c Ain Madhi et 
Temacin . . ., Algiers 1886, 46-54; I. Goldziher, in 
Revue de I'Histoire des Religions, Vol. xxxi, 304 ff.; 
Brockelmann, I, 264-266. (R. Basset) 

BUR&I (pi. buritdj, abradj, and abridja), square 
or round tower, whether adjacent to a rampart 
or isolated and serving as a bastion or dungeon. 

Special meanings: each of the twelve signs of the 
zodiac, considered as solar 'mansions' ; more or less 
fortified country house standing alone amidst 
gardens (Eastern Maghrib); tower used as a light- 
house (burdj al-mandr); tower used as a dovecote, 
especially for carrier pigeons (burdj alhamam; 
see J. Sauvaget, La poste aux chevaux dans (em- 
pire des Mamlouks, Paris 1941, no. 157); masonry 
pier of a bridge; mode (in music); slice, quarter 
of certain fruits having natural divisions (melons, 
oranges) ; row of grains in a head of corn. 

In the diminutive feminine al-Buraydja was the 
name given by the Moroccans to the fortress of 
Mazagan (see al-djadIda) during its occupation by 
the Portuguese. 

The word certainly seems to be connected with 
the Greek 7rupY0<; and the Latin burgus (whence 
Germanic burg) and has also passed into Hebrew 
and Aramaic (see Fraenkel, Aram. Fremdworter im 
Arab., 235). But the borrowing must be very old, 
for it is to be found already in Sabaean inscriptions 
(see De Landberg, Glossaire Dattnois, i, 148). 

(G. S. Colin) 

burQjI 



The different forms of towers which the word 
burdj signifies in its usual sense (especially in in- 
scriptions) have always formed the principal elements 
in the fortifications which were erected in Islamic 
territories from the years following the Conquest and 
which were to remain of real importance until 
changes gradually arose in military ideas as a result 
of the development of heavy and field artillery. The 
importance of the protective role played, in the 
middle ages proper, by these lofty and massive 
edifices in defending town and citadel ramparts, in 
serving as defensive strongholds (donjons), or on 
occasion standing as isolated defensive works 
(watch-towers, signal towers), should not distract 
attention from the fact that towers less strictly 
military in their functions had long existed in the 
same regions, the buttress-towers which have 
sometimes happened to be confused with simple 
architectural devices. To this category — disregarding 
the minarets of mosques, which have a separate 
evolution of their own — belong the first specimens 
of Muslim towers preserved in the Middle East in 
the ruins of the Umayyad residences, which have 
a rectangular plan and have their exterior walls 
appointed with semicircular salients [see Archi- 
tecture]. 

These castle-towers, and the towers of fortified 
enclosures (bay), most frequently of modest 
dimensions, are disposed symmetrically so as to 
lend rhythm to the blind facades and to give height 



to the entrances, and are usually solid at the base, 
or else equipped at ground-floor level with strongholds 
to which access was not easy (entrances being 
blocked by partition walls or even opening into 
residential rooms), and are at times used as 
latrines; they differed greatly in effect from the 
defensive towers of the Roman and Byzantine camps, 
which were, on the other hand, conceived with 
chambers on all storeys and were easily accessible 
to the troops of the garrison who could, in the last 
resort, entrench themselves therein. They must rather 
be considered as the adaptation of those round 
buttress-towers which had been known in the Middle 
East for centuries, an adaptation that the fortress 
towers of Sasanid Iran, less perfect in their arrange- 
ments than the castra of the limes, had always em- 
ployed. Without being absolutely devoid of any mili- 
tary efficacy, since their upper platforms did allow of 
fire being brought on their assailants, or at least of a 
watch being kept on the approaches to a castle, and 
again without differing very much from the towers 
of the Umayyad forts erected at a similar period on 
the Byzantine frontier, they became indispensable 
accessories of princely buildings, secular as well as 
religious, whose appearance they enriched. 

The essentials of this style, typical of the great 
Umayyad residences, were however soon to become 
more flexible. Indeed, the custom of strengthening 
walls in this way, of a particularly happy effect when 
it was a matter of avoiding the monotony of large 
surfaces in regular coursed brick, was not to dis- 
appear completely, for one finds it recurring in an 
'Abbasid building of a function as unmartial as the 
great mosque of al-Mutawakkil at Samarra, the 
perimeter wall of which is punctuated by forty-four 
semi-cylindrical brick towers; but especially it persists 
in the partially fortified residences, the tradition of 
which was to be continued later by ribdts and 
caravanserais, and of which an excellent example is 
provided, at the end of the 2nd/8th century, by the 
'Iraki palace of Ukhaydir, with numerous half-round 
towers (angle towers 5.10 m., intermediate towers 
3.15 m. in diameter) each with a small firing chamber 
on the top to which access is given by a covered 
gallery itself equipped with loopholes, and a device 
providing for downward fire throughout the length 
of the gallery which almost amounts to continuous 
machicolation, (see Creswell, A Short Account 0/ Early 
Muslim Architecture, in Bibliography). 

We thus meet again classical flanking towers which 
in their turn had been retained in mediaeval Arab 
fortification, having played a part in the Byzantine 
defences, where their defensive equipment assured, 
whatever their size and shape (square, polygonal, 
circular), an increased protection of the sectors of 
the curtain walls included between their salients. 
Not only did the new conquerors retain this princi- 
ple without improvements, most often they were 
content to keep up or to restore by makeshift means 
the remarkable circumvallatiou walls of the towns 
they had occupied, in the Syrian sites of Aleppo and 
Damascus as well as later in Asia Minor (Kayseri) 
or in Upper Mesopotamia (Amid). There are, 
however, as many cases where it remains difficult, in 
spite of frequently copious epigraphical evidence, to 
establish a firm difference between previously 
existing work and later repairs of the Muslim era, 
which reflect the hazards of the much confused 
historical events. However, clear differences are 
evident between one region and another, and the 
provinces which had been longest under Byzantine 
occupation were to be also those where the tradition 



of the older military architecture was to establish 
itselt most distinctly, only rarely allowing the Saldjuk 
and Artukid creations to display originality in this 
field. Their towers, which are distinguishable only 
by a few details of structure and ornament, are 
similar to the preceding types with their super- 
imposed vaulted casemates, with variations that 
are essentially related to the configuration of the 
terrain and to the particular problems to which 
the latter gives rise. 

More interesting are the remains of the Fatimid 
era preserved in the Syro-Egyptian lands. Certainly 
there is often a straightforward accumulation of 
re-utilised materials, later integrated within more 
complex systems which render their study difficult. 




One can, however, make out in the Roman theatre 
at Bosra, which has been transformed into a citadel, 
a primary phase of construction (inscriptions of 
481/1089 and 542/1 147-8) in which towers mounted 
on high terraces support a rampart with two ranks of 
loopholes and a chemin de ronde. Also entirely Muslim 
are the towers, in an excellent state of preservation, 
which are adjuncts to the gates of Cairo : Bab al- 
Nasr, Bab al-Futuh, Bab Zuwayla. These were 
erected by Badr al-Djamall in 480-5/1087-92, and are 
connected with the new enceinte built at the same 
time. These works, of moderate dimensions (height 
8 m. approx.), some rectangular, others round, but 
all solid up to two storeys of their height, combine 
defensive possibilities in their two upper stages 
(super-imposing a platform adapted for firing on a 
square chamber covered by a cupola and furnished 
with loopholes) and solidity of basements (stone 



evenly coursed, rows of columns laid across to guard 
against the collapse of the walls in case of sapping), 
all set off by a restrained use of ornament. Here we 
see a straightforward employment, without quest 
for the novel, of formulas which were to continue in 
vigorous use until the revolution introduced in the 
military architecture of the Middle East by the im- 
provements of the Ayyubid period. 

At this time the experience acquired by the 
builders during a permanent state of war with the 
Frankish kingdoms of Palestine, where the Western 
master-engineers had introduced their own traditions, 
together with the sudden rise of the Ayyubid 
principalities, led to the erection of imposing forti- 
fications which reflected the recent advances in 
ballistic technique. In the considerable works under- 
taken at the beginning of the 7th/i3th century by 
al-Malik al-'Adil (specially the citadels of Cairo, 
Bosra, Damascus and Mount Tabor) and al-Malik 
al-Zahir (at the citadel of Aleppo and in the more 
important fortresses in north Syria) towers are seen 
to attain gigantic proportions; to strengthen their 
defensive sectors, but at the same time to make room 
for large airy quarters capable of housing permanently 
a large number of troops who would be assured of 
communication with the galleries of the enceinte, 
and with the magazines of the interior, by sub- 
terranean passages or covered stairs; and eventually 
to compensate, by the thickness of their walls and 
the quality of their construction (by then construc- 
tions in fine ashlar were normal), for the weakening 
which the multiplication of fortified chambers and 
gangways could have caused. This is shown for 
example by the two towers of the citadel of Damascus 
(dating from 606/1209-10) shown here in section. 
The first (Fig. 1), an asymmetrical salient of great 
size (rectangular plan of 27 m. by 13 m., walls 3.40 m. 
thick, projecting 8 m. from the curtain wall, 
attaining a height of about 25 m.), composed of 
three vaulted rooms, easily accessible and defended 
by five loopholes pierced in tunnel-vaulted recesses; 
its balcony, rising 18 m. above the level of the 
courtyard, is surrounded by a chemin de ronde 
equipped with loopholes (five in number, as in the 
lower rooms), leading to four machicolated brattices 
and bearing a crenellated parapet with 15 arrow- 
slits in the merlons, an arrangement completed by 
roughwallings in wood, thus showing the importance 
attached to the upper works in the general plan 
of the construction. The second tower (Fig. 2), 
which well deserves the name of donjon, is distin- 
guished from the former only by its approximately 
square form (21 m. by 23 m.) and by the presence 
of a large central pillar, sufficiently massive for a 
small cell to have been contrived within it at 
its top storey. To these enormous rectangular 
bastions, where one occasionally notices, as in the 
donjon of Bosra (612/1215-6), the existence of recep- 
tion chambers, must be added the less powerful 
salient towers, which could command the chemin 
de ronde without obstruction, and the isolated post- 
towers whose role is essentially one of surveillance. 

After this the Mamluk period, where no innovations 
in the means of attack and defence are at first 
apparent, was content to continue this splendid hey- 
day of military architecture in Syria. The towers 
underwent the effects of a slow transformation which 
substituted small smooth blocks for the powerful 
courses and the rugged embossments of Ayyubid 
masonry, and which delighted in showing off, by 
sheer virtuosity, a variety of constructional tech- 
niques, while enriching the whole with delicate relief 



ornaments and equally extraneous polychromatic 
devices. Mention must, however, be made of a work 
so remarkable as the Tower of Lions (burdi al-Sibd') 
at Tripoli, a coastal fortification of large dimensions 
(28.50 m. by 20.50 m.) and of an imposing appearance 
due to the equilibrium of its proportions and a sure 



:DJ 1317 

which saw also the erection by the sultan Kayt-bayfof 
an impressive fortification over the entrance of the 
citadel of Aleppo in place of the towers of al-Malik 
al-Zahir. About this time there appeared the em- 
brasures for pieces of ordnance, and terrepleins 
to bear heavy cannon, which marked the vain 




. Ayyflbid donjon at the citadel of Damascus (from J. Sauvaget) 



feeling for ornament, agreeing perfectly with a 
complex interior composition which corresponds, in 
its two great upper rooms (Fig. 3), to variations im- 
posed by the requirements of the defence (numerous 
firing ports, arrangements assuring the safety of the 
doors on the ground and other storeys) and the inclu- 
sion of living quarters (the cistern, mosque, and 
windows lighting the upper part). The style may be 
recognised as that of the end of the gth/isth century, 



attempt to adapt the tower to those very conditions 
of warfare which were to bring about its rapid 
disappearance. 

, "Meanwhile, however, a somewhat weak syn- 
thesis, though more westernised in certain con- 
structional details, had been conceived by Otto- 
man military architecture, which had been able 
to erect, in order to command the passage of the 
Bosphorus and maintain the investment of Con- 




Fig. 3. Longitudinal s< 



t Tripoli (from J. Sauvaget) 



I3i8 BUF 

stantinople, the last specimens of fortresses where 
the utilisation of cannon was reconciled with 
adherence to the principles of mediaeval fortification. 
The towers of the two castles of Anadolu Hi?irl 
(begun 793/1390-1) and Rumeli His4ri (dated by its 
inscription of 836/1433), to which may be added those 
of the castle of Yedi gule (erected shortly after this 
by Mehemmed II Fatih within the enceinte of his 
new capital of Istanbul), are characterised by the 
perfection of their system of defence (Fig. 4), real- 
ized at Rumeli HisJri on a colossal scale (diameters 



xxiii (1934), 89-167; H. Stem, Notes sur Vatchi- 
tecture des chdUaux omeyyades, in Art Islamica, 
xi-xii (194 ), 73-97; M. van Berchem and E. 
Fatio, Voyage en Syrie, 3 vols, Cairo 1914-15, index 
s.v. tour; A. Abel, La citadelU eyyubite de Bosra 
Eski Cham, in Ann. Arch, de Syrie, vi (1936), 95- 
138; J. Sauvaget, La citadelU de Damas in Syria 
(i93°)» 59-90 and 316-41; idem, Notes sur des de- 
fenses de la Marine de Tripoli, in BuU. du Muste de 
Beyrouth, ii (1938), 1-23; A. Gabriel, Chiteaux turcs 
duBosphore, Paris 1943. (J. Sourdel-Thomine) 




JEH 



Fig. 4. Reconstructed section of an Ottoman tower of Rumeli Hisari (from A. Gabriel) 



of three donjons ranging from 23.80 m. to 26.70 m., 
thickness of walls varying from 5 m. to 7 m.), and by 
certain features (hollow cylindrical interiors divided 
into many storeys by joists, circular chemin de ronde 
surrounding, at the upper level, a covered drum 
with conical roof) which show the imitation of the 
flanking towers of the Genoan enceinte of Pera. 
Bibliography : K. A. C. Cresswell, Fortification 
in Islam before A.D. 1230, in Proceedings of the 
British Academy, 1932, 89-123 ; idem, Early Muslim 
Architecture, 2 vols., Oxford 1932-40, condensed 
with revisions in A short account of Early Muslim 
Architecture, Penguin Books, 1958; idem, Muslim 
Architecture of Egypt, i, Oxford 1952, ii [1171- 
1336], Oxford 1939; idem, Archaeological Re- 
searches at the citadel of Cairo, in BIFAO, 



II. Military architecture in the 
Muslim West 
1. The background. — The Muslim West found, 
in Barbary and in Spain, a tradition of fortification 
going back to the Late Roman Empire, and in 
Tunisia to the Byzantine reoccupation by Justinian. 
Roman fortifications of the Late Empire were 
numerous. Though simple in their lines, they had 
no regular plan as had the Roman camps except for 
the rather small castella situated on the plains; more 
often than not they were adapted to the shape of 
the area to be protected and to the configuration of 
the terrain. The buildings, when not composed of 
re-utilised materials, were constructed of a solid 
core between two rubble facings, sometimes levelled 
to course by brick snecks. The curtain walls were 



is much as ten metres high, with crenel- 
lated parapets; their thickness was considerable, 
averaging three metres. Towers, set at intervals a 
bowshot apart — say 20 m. — abut the curtain walls; 
generally they were semicircular, 5-6 m. in diameter, 
less usually square or oblong, and most usually built 
on the outer side of the ramparts. The angle towers 
were often large bastions, solid at the base, con- 
taining at least one defensive chamber, and higher 
by one storey than the curtain. 

The gates gave access to the interior of the en- 
ceinte by a direct passage with an open section 
between two covered rooms, which made it possible 
to overwhelm any opponent who might have forced 
his way into the building; these were flanked by 
towers with several tiers of defence. The solid mass 
of the gateway itself gave on to the interior of the 
ramparts. Town gates sometimes returned to the 
monumental arrangements of those of the Roman 
empire, opening by a double or triple passage. 

No fortifications are known which could have been 
erected in the mediterranean provinces of Spain after 
the reconquest by Justinian; but the Byzantine 
fortresses of Africa are well known to us. The plans 
of the plains fortresses or castella are very regular in 
form. Only the square tower is used, exterior to the 
curtain and projecting markedly; it is always solid 
at the base. The construction is of stone with no 
additional brickwork. When older materials are 
not re-utilised, coursed rubble preponderates, 
strengthened by freestone lacing-courses. The 
curtain, less thick than in the 3rd/gth and 4th/ioth 
centuries, bears a chimin dt ronde with crenellated 
parapet which gives access to the towers' defensive 
chambers. The gate is no more than a simple passage, 
with straight corridor. In all this we see only the 
survival, and frequently the impoverishment, of the 
methods of the Late Empire. 

2. Ifrlkiyan fortification from the 3rd/gth 
to the 6th/i2th century, and its continu- 
ations.— The Aghlabid fortresses.— Aghlabid 
fortification is known from vast complexes, the 
enceintes of Susa and Sfax, which go back to the 
3rd/oth century in the main lines of their construc- 
tion: e.g., the ramparts of unprepared or roughly 
prepared rubble, with lacing-courses at the corners, 
and with freestone toothing. The curtain is flanked 
with oblong towers — canted with a batter in excep- 
tional cases — one storey higher than itself. In Susa the 
chemin dt ronde is in places carried on a deep arcading. 
Some small ribdfs are very similar to Byzantine forts. 
Mixed with these local traditions are some Western 
influences, especially in the Susa ribdf and the 
primitive ribdf at Monastir. Their rectangular 
enclosures are flanked, at the corners and at the 
middle of each side, by bastions which are nearly all 
semicircular. Within there are some buildings 
against the four walls, leaving the large courtyard 
free. The influence of the Umayyad castles of Syria, 
themselves derived from the Roman castella, is 
noticeable here. The pyramidal form of some towers, 
imitated from the lower stages of minarets of the 
same period, reveals Egyptian influence. 

Rammed earth (pist) would have been used in some 
rapidly erected fortifications. In the ramparts of al- 
Kayrawan and in the government towns of al- 
'Abbasiyya and al-Rakkada it is probable that bricks 
of mud or baked earth replaced stone. The old 
traditions of the desert countries paved the way for 
other eastern influences coming from Mesopotamia 
and Persia. 

All this Aghlabid fortification is a happy and 



DJ 1319 

lively synthesis of a still dominant local tradition 
and of importations from the East. 

Fortification under the Fatimid and the 
Sanhadja dynasties. — Various ramparts in Ashlr 
and the Ifal'a of the Band Hammad, built of rubble, 
continue, care in with less construction, the fortifica- 
tion technique of the preceding age. In mountainous 
country flanking towers are rarer. The palace of ZIrl 
at Ashlr is contained within a rectangular enceinte 
flanked at regular intervals by oblong towers, with 
an interior courtyard. Some innovations, however, 
were brought in at the creations of the Fatimids 
themselves. The outer wall of al-Mahdiyya is built of 
rubble, flanked with powerful towers, at least one 
of which is decorated with high niches, which were 
later to decorate the walls of the manor at the 
Kal'a of the Banfl Hammad, for the new plastic 
art applied to walls with great success in civil 
architecture was often transferred to fortresses. The 
only town gate which has been preserved is sur- 
mounted by a powerful high structure; its exterior 
face is framed by two battered towers, and the 
archway of the gate gives on to a long vaulted 
corridor braced with tie-beams, formerly cut off by 
iron-barbed folding-doors. Gateways in the Roman 
and Byzantine tradition were nevei 



It seems that there was in Fatimid construction 
the germ of a new military architecture; but, except 
in their new towns situated at some distance from 
the old centres of civilization, the Sanhadja dynasties 
rarely built great fortified works, and the Hilall 
invasion was to stop the architectural development 
of Ifrlkiya for a long period. 

Thus under the Fatimid and Sanhadja dynasties, 
the new eastern influences, which seem to have been 
more noticeable in the Caliphs' own regions, were 
not able to supplant, the local traditions and the 
formulas derived from the Aghlabids. 

3. The fortification of Muslim Spain and 
its expansion in Africa. 

i) The 3fd\gth century.— Muslim fortification in 
Spain is understood here as not beginning until the 
middle of the 3rd/gth century, with the Conventual 
of Merida, built by the Amir c Abd al-Rahman II. This 
castle, which guards the approach to the bridge over 
the Guadiana, forms an almost regular oblong. The 
curtain-walls are flanked with oblong towers which do 
not project far beyond them and are very closely 
spaced. Without doubt the architect was inspired 
by the counterfort towers which punctuate the walls 
of the great mosque of Cordova. At the entrance one 
finds the arch of horseshoe shape (the intradosial 
curve being greater than a semi-circle) which is as 
dear to Umayyad as to Visigothic art. Pilasters 
support the springing of the entrance arch and 
protect the hinges of the door-leaves. The construc- 
tion is in freestone, which is employed by preference 
in Visigothic architecture and to which the initial 
phase of Umayyad art remains faithful. Here, 
however, it is a question of the reutilisation of stone 
from previous work, and the arrangement of it as 
headers and stretchers, dear to the Cordovan 
architects, is never regular. 

ii) The tfh/ioth century. — Under the Cordova 
caliphate, military architecture was rapidly devel- 
oping, as indeed was all monumental art. There are 
many variations in the plans employed: in moun- 
tainous country the enceintes are adapted to the 
irregularities of the terrain, whereas in the plains 
they tend to a geometric regularity which is fully 
realised in works of the more modest dimensions. 



The towers, oblong or very rarely polygonal, project 
more noticeably than those at Merida and are more 
widely spaced out. The enceinte is never doubled and 
has no keep, and no buildings are erected in the 

The gateway gives on to a straight passage of 
little depth. In the larger enceintes it opens between 
two towers, and in the smaller castles is protected 
by a bastion. The curtain is of varying height, 
from 7 to 10 metres, and bears a chemin de ronde 
with its exterior parapet capped, as on the towers 
themselves, with pyramidal merlons. This form of 
merlon, different from those which were employed 
in the Middle East and Ifrikiya, seems to be derived 
from the crenellated chemin de ronde of the Byzantine 
Empire, the capping of which was pyramidal in form. 

The stone header and stretcher courses, regularly 
arranged, which are at their best in the great 
monuments of this dynasty, are employed in the 
finest fortresses. But usually a more economical 
material is preferred, a concrete of gravelly soil and 
lime, consolidated in formwork; this had very 
ancient Iberian origins and doubtless never ceased 
to be employed in the construction of provincial and 
popular buildings. In certain fortifications in moun- 
tainous sites rubble appears. Frequently also dressed 
stones, in varying proportions, are used together 
with the concrete cast in forms. 

All the Umayyad fortresses succeed, in their 
simplicity, by the precision of their proportions — 
often very different from one fortress to another — 
and by the happy balance of their masses. The very 
spirit which is exhibited in military architecture is 
that which inspired the whole art of the caliphate, 
a twofold solicitude for originality without exclusive- 
ness and for faultless harmony. 

iii) The Sth/nth to 7thji3th centuries in Spain.— The 
5th/nth century, under the muliik al-fawdHf, sees the 
emergence of the palace-fortresses which, in a 
complex of moderate dimensions, array a whole 
range of rooms against the ramparts. This type of 
isolated palace perhaps existed also in the preceding 
period. When one sees a Mudejar castle, like that 
of Santa Maria del Puerto, following the lines of the 
Susa ribdf (itself inspired by the Syrian Umayyad 
forts), one is tempted to believe that the fortress 
in question has had a Muslim ancestry within Spain 
itself, doubtless deriving from the founder of the 
dynasty who had tried to re-create in Andalusia 
something of his lost motherland. The castle of al- 
Rusafa, which preserves the name of a palace of his 
ancestors, did manage to recapture the plan of the 
great rural residences of the Caliphs of Damascus. 

Outside the Castillejo of Murcia stands a fortress 
of regular oblong plan with towers closely spaced; 
but living quarters fill the entire space between 
the ramparts and the patio, the voids of the towers 
are used to break up the largest rooms medially, 
and the courtyard is replaced by a garden of sunken 
parterres with crossing paths. 

On the other hand, the enclosures of towns or of 
large fortresses no longer tend to a geometrical 
regularity as in the days of the caliphate; the trace 
of the curtain walls is adapted to the lie of the land. 
Sometimes they are still flanked by narrow, closely- 
spaced towers, but more frequently the bastions are 
of greater size, and, while defending a more or less 
regular interval, they strengthen the irregularities 
in the trace or the weaker part of the ramparts. 
Occasionally there is a double enclosure with inner 
and outer wall, and the more vulnerable points may 
be strengthened by barbicans. The kasaba, forming 



an acropolis above the town and containing the 
royal residence, has always its own single or double 
enceinte. 

The bastion with superposed vaulted rooms makes 
its appearance at this time. These powerful works 
are arranged round the enceinte itself, and not as 
donjons or keeps. Muslim Andalusia brings in a new 
form at the same period, the albarrana tower, which 
projects in front of the curtain to which it is connected 
by a wall, through which usually runs an arcade. The 
vaulted bastions and the albarrana, which give 
excellent flanking protection, may be combined. 

The gate, which opens sometimes between two 
towers, sometimes under the wing of a sharply 
projecting bastion, has always an angled passage; 
at the entrance and exit are two arches with springing 
on pilasters, which enclose the housing of the door- 
leaves. The portcullis is not found. 

Freestone becomes increasingly rare, except in the 
gateways, and is sometimes combined in lacing 
courses with ashlar or concrete. This latter material 
almost always preponderates. 

Thus, perhaps as a matter of necessity — for 
Christian pressure had become more and more 
formidable and had extended its conquests — the 
fortification of Muslim Spain made great progress 
in the 5th/nth and 6th/i2th centuries. 

iv) The sth/nth to 7th/i3th centuries in Africa. — 
The same type of Spanish fortification tended to 
spread, from the beginning of the 6th/i2th century, 
in the African empire of the Almoravids and the 
Almohads, the rulers of Muslim Spain. The first 
Almoravid fortresses are of rubble, and still remain 
within the Maghrib! traditions in their coursework 
and in other details; but in fortification, as in 
mosques and palaces, Andalusian influences quickly 
asserted their superior sway. This is the great period 
of concrete enceintes with strongly projecting oblong 
towers, arranged at more or less regular intervals. 
In Africa the lines of this fortification tended to be 
simplified, as large vaulted bastions and albarrana 
towers do not appear. However, some innovations 
occur in the fortified gateway, where the opening 
is always framed by two towers, usually strongly 
projecting, and the gate itself constitutes a massive 
bastion which extends to the rear of the curtain and 
contains a passage with two or three bends, with 
an undefended gallery. The arch of the gateway, 
its jambs, and their framing, show a rich decora- 
tive treatment of carved stone. The great Almohad 
gateways of Rabat and Marrakesh are among 
the finest — certainly the richest — of fortified gate- 
ways of Islam. 

4. Fortification in the Muslim West from 
the 8th/i 4 th to the end of the 9 th/i 5 th 
century. — In spite of the fundamental unity of 
the architectural styles then current in Muslim 
Spain and the Maghrib, the evolution of fortification 
was different in the Peninsula and in Africa. Spanish 
Islam was then confined to the small kingdom of 
Granada, a vassal of Castile but often in revolt 
against its suzerain, which depended on the shelter 
of a fortified frontier. A good number of the castles 
of this frontier imitated some of the Christian 
fortresses which confronted them. Built of stone, 
with a double enceinte and a donjon, they appeared 
as strangers, almost, in the Muslim fortification of 
the West. But soon Christian influences, far from 
revitalising the traditions of Muslim Andalusia, 
became degraded into bastard types. They are not 
found in the capital itself, nor in the works of rather 
later date. 



We have here the forms created in the 5th/nth 
and 6th/i2th centuries reproduced without much 
modification. The gateways with their sinuous 
passages are powerful works. At the Alhambra in 
the 8th/i4th century, and at the castle of Gibralfaro 
at Malaga, large bastions, widely spaced, replace 
the smaller and closer towers of the common 
enceintes. Where the introduction of cannon gave 
no time for modifying the fortification, rudimentary 
cannon platforms were installed at the feet of the 
earlier works. 

In North Africa, in the kingdoms of Fez and 
Tlemcen, Almohad traditions were maintained 
almost unchanged. Curtains and towers were made 
of concrete. The gateways, always imposing and 
with sinuous passages, were rather more often 
constructed of brick than stone. Ifrikiya, while 
admitting some Almohad influence, remained faith- 
ful to stone and to her traditional forms of detail. 

Thus, in this long period, fortresses, as well as 
palaces and sanctuaries, scarcely went beyond a 
mere repetition of the forms of the past. 

5. Fortification in modern times in the 
Muslim West.— The development of artillery 
brought about a profound transformation of ideas 
of fortification in all European countries; but North 
Africa created no new forms, being content to 
imitate more or less faithfully the models which 
Europe provided. Again, she admitted these im- 
portations only when it was necessary to defend 
herself against a European nation, as in the coastal 
regions. Everywhere else, however, the older 
mediaeval fortification continued to prevoid; the 
governments which divided Barbary had only to 
keep order among, or to bring to subservience, 
tribes who were without cannon. 

In Morocco, the fine fortifications which the 
Portuguese erected in the ioth/i6th century at 
different parts of the coast were imitated only 
accidentally at the Sa'did frasaba of Agadir. All 
other coastal forts were the work of Europeans, 
often renegades, in the service of the sultans. In the 
18th century the fine complex at Mogador, planned 
by a Frenchman, was the work of an English 
renegade and Italian architects. These European- 
inspired types of fortification were imitated in the 
19th century by local master-builders. 

In Algeria and Tunisia the Ottomans introduced 
a modernised type of fortification more or less 
inspired by European models, and fairly close to the 
works which were being erected here and there 
on the Moroccan coast. The gun bastions and the 
enceintes, often defended by ditch and counterscarp, 
were still high ; low-built fortifications in the Vauban 
style were unknown in North Africa. 

Thus the Muslim West, in its fortresses as 
in all its military organisation, showed its archaism. 
The few borrowings it made from Europe were 
overlaid on mediaeval traditions, but did not 
modify them. 

6. The fortified Berber works.— North 
Africa, Morocco in particular, had fortified buildings 
also in several mountainous regions and in the oases 
bordering the Sahara. Some stone villages and 
trading stations, of a plan almost always irregular, 
had no enceinte as such except the constructions 
whose joint exterior wall formed the rampart; but 
almost everywhere this old architecture made way 
for buildings in pise and mud-brick brought from 
the oases. Some villages, especially in the hills, are 
irregular in form and are made of an assembly of 
houses presenting a continuous front. But the archi- 



tecture of the oases has its own very characteristic 
design and decoration. On the plains the fortified 
villages (hiusur) are of very regular plan; they are 
surrounded by an enceinte pierced with gates which 
are often of great size and protected by the means 
of angle bastions. The influence of Hispano-Moorish 
fortification is here very apparent. 

The isolated residential castle, the Moroccan 
tighremt, has a more distant origin. It has the form 
of a castellum with four angle-towers, less commonly 
with two. If the plans are in the Roman tradition, 
the plastic art is of a more ancient stock : the pyra- 
midal towers, often with an entasis, derive without 
doubt from Pharaonic Egypt. The minarets of the 
early centuries of Islam in Barbary were also often 
truncated pyramidal towers. In the gates and on the 
wall cappings of some frusur one finds in many 
cases in the Moroccan oases a rich ornament in 
mud-brick, derived from Hispano-Moorish geo- 
metrical elements. The older Berber buildings have 
taken in, at different times, forms of the Muslim 
middle ages which had been adopted by official 
works of fortification in the country. 

Hence Barbary, Morocco in particular, is an 
astounding museum of fortifications inspired by 
very ancient traditions. 

Bibliography: G. Marcais, L' architecture 
musulmane a" Occident, Paris 1954; H. Terrasse, 
L'art hispano-mauresque des origines au XIII* 
siecle, Paris 1932; idem, Les forteresses de L'Es- 
pagne musulmane, in Boletin de la Real Academia 
de la Historia, cxxxiv (1954), 474-83; H. Basset and 
H. Terrasse, Sanctuaires et forteresses almohades, 
Paris 1932 ; numerous articles by L. Torres Balbas, 
mainly in the journal al-A ndalus (Cr6nica ar- 
queol6gica). (H. Terrasse) 



III. The 



in Islai 
in India 



:cture 



1. General. — The word burd£ in Urdu, whence 
it has spread into other languages of India, means 
always 'tower' or 'bastion', including those 
towers on the walls of fortified palaces whose 
function is decorative and residential rather than 
functional in any military sense, those bastions 
which, taking the form of a protuberance in the 
trace, may in fact include several tower-like 
buttresses, and also those massive bastions within 
the enceinte, built after the introduction of cannon, 
as mountings for heavy pieces of ordnance. 

The following accounts relate to the use of towers 
only; the history of Islamic fortification in India is 
treated in a separate article (see hisar). Minarets 
(Urdu minar) have a different development and are 
not considered here. 

2. The Dihli Sultanate from the 6th/i2th 
to the ioth/i6th century. — The earliest 
Muslim invaders had found a land already well 
provided with fortified works, of which Hindu 
India had a long tradition which remained active 
later wherever Islam had not spread; their earliest 
static military enterprise was the occupation and 
modification of existing works. In Dihli, for example, 
it was the old fort of Prthvlradj Cawhan, Kil'a 
Ray Pithora, which was garrisoned first by Muslim 
troops, and within the citadel of which (Lalkot) 
the earliest Indian mosque, named Kuwwat al- 
Islam, was erected in 587/1191 by Kutb al-Din 
Aybak. The curtain here is flanked by closely spaced 
towers, defended by a broad ditch, with gates set 

angles of powerful bastions formed 



by a bulge in the trace with several small counterfort 
towers. Most of the standing fortification is probably 
of the period of 'Ala' al-DIn KhaldjI, c. 704/1304 
(Beglar, ASI Report IV, 1874), probably following 
the trace of the Hindu work; the towers are for the 
most part counterforts of shallow projection. The 
walls of 'Ala' al-DIn's newer capital Sirl were built 
at about the same time to the north-east of the old 
capital (Campbell, Notes on the history and topo- 
graphy of the ancient cities of Delhi, in JASB, xxxv, 
I [1866] argues that Sirl was the name given to the 
«Kutb citadel', i.e., LSlkol, and that the site now 
generally accepted as Siri was built by Bahlol L6dl 
in the ioth/i6th century; this is convincingly refuted 
by Cunningham, ASI Report I, 1871); some stretches 
of walling remain, with semicircular battered 
bastions spaced about a bow-shot apart, capped like 
the walls with merlons, and with 




Fig. — Section of angle Dasnon ai Tughlukabad 
A — Battlements; B — Mural gallery; C — Exterior 
gallery (access from mural gallery in curtain); 



chetnin de ronde supported on an arched gallery. 
The principles employed are similar in the new 
capital, Tughlukabad, built in 720-3/1321-3 by 
Ghiyath al-DIn Tughluk, and its appendage 'Adil- 
abad built by Muhammad b. Tughluk inc. 725/1325: 
the walls of both, of rubble core faced with rough 
quartzite ashlar, are punctuated with strongly 
projecting semicircular bastions, and these and the 
walls, both of which are strongly battered, have 
three tiers of defence consisting of external gallery, 
main mural gallery, and battlements, the latter with 
two ranks of loopholes. The rock outcrop below the 
wall trace is scarped, over which is a bolster plinth 



faced with masonry to the base of the wall proper, 
forming both a continuous buttress and a protection 
against sapping (see Fig.). The bastions are most 
closely spaced around the citadel. Gates open 
between two bastions, and are often defended by 
barbicans. 'Adilabad is defended further by a 
bailey and outer wall. Within many of the towers 
are the remains of grain silos. The tomb of Ghiyath 
al-DIn forms a strong fortified outwork to the south 
of Tughlukabad, with similar bastions except for 
the absence of an outer gallery. 

Besides 'Adilabad, Muhammad b. Tughluk formed 
yet another 'city of Dihll' with the building of 
Djahanpanah (725/13*5), the walls of which en- 
closed the ground between tfil'a Ray Pithora and Sirl ; 
these have semicircular counterfort bastions similar 
to those of 'Adilabad, though without the external 
gallery, and are at one point interrupted by a 
dam and sluice, called Sat Pal ah, obviously to 
retain water within the walls for the use of the 
defenders. 

This reign saw the Dihll diaspora and the transfer 
of the capital to Devagiri, renamed Dawlatabad 
[?.».]. The three lines of defences between the pass 
and the acropolis consist of walls with regularly 
spaced battering round bastions, projecting less 
than in the contemporary northern work, and 
without exterior galleries. Bastions round the gates 
are larger and of greater projection, some being of 
the form of a half ellipse; a succession of rounded 
bastions forms a hornwork with two courts where 
the city is entered over the lower moat. The many 
modifications made during the BahmanI period 
are referred to below. 



FIruz Shah Tughluk wi 
yet another 'Dihll', his a 
(755-71/1354-70), which w 
and of which no traces re 



responsible for building 
7 capital of FIruzabad 
s later sacked by TImur 
ain beyond his citadel or 



kotld, much ruined. Walls and towers here have a 
strong batter; the towers are semicircular, and it 
is probable that they were crowned with open 
kiosks {Ihatris). Traces of low barbicans outside the 
gates have angle towers of smaller dimensions, presu- 
mably for the use of sentries. The contemporary com- 
plex housing the K a d a m - i Sh a r I f , which, protected 
by its sanctity, escaped the TImurid sack, is protected 
by a strong bastioned curtain which shows the 
principles of Flriiz's fortification better than the 
ruined kotld: walls and towers have lost the bolster 
plinth, and defence against sapping is effected by 
small box-machicolations. Many buildings of this 
period, especially tombs and dargdhs, are contained 
within fortified enclosures. At this time the burdi is 
developed as an ornamental feature: mosque en- 
closures and 'idgdh walls regularly show angle and 
end bastions, capped by circular or square Ihatris 
or by low domes, always with the typical FIruzid 
batter, which is imitated in those purely decorative 
buttresses, where the slope is carried up into a 
guldasta finial, which flank the gates of FIruzid 
mosques in Dihll (Begampuri, Khifkl, Sandjar, 
Kalan masdjids: see Dihli, Monuments), of which 
echoes occur in the LodI buildings at Dihll, and in 
Djawnpur [q.v.] and elsewhere. FIruz Shah Tughluk 
is known to have restored many of the buildings of 
his predecessors, and, though he speaks of having 
restored the towers of the tomb built by Iletmish — 
i.e„ the tomb of Abu '1-Fath Mahmud Nasir al-DIn 
at Malikpur — it is probable, from the style, that the 
corner towers are, at least in their upper stages, 
Flrflz's work. 



It seems that the later Tughluks and the 'Sayyids' 
created no new fortified works, except that it is 
recorded that Mubarak Shah in 824/1421 replaced 
the walls of Lahawr, destroyed by Timur, by a mud 
fort. His own tomb (836/1433), however, lies in the 
fortified complex of the small town of Mubara- 
kabad, yet another 'city of DihlT, where the towers 
are small but otherwise differ little from preceding 
patterns. Sikandar Lodl is said to have built a fort 
at Agra in 908/1502; but there had already been a 
fortress here, and the present fort is the work of 
Akbar, and it is thus difficult to assess how much 
of the trace is due to Sikandar. 

3. The Deccan forts from the 8th/i4th to 
the nth/i7th centuries. — Here again there 
were many fortified Hindu works which the Muslims 
found and later occupied, and to some extent 
modified even in their earlier years. Their first 
original production seems to have been atGulbarga 
[q.v.], where the thick (16 m.) walls are doubled, with 
towers on the inner curtain. All towers are very 
solidly built, of semicircular form; many have 
barbettes added later for the use of artillery, and 
this modification is to be attributed to the 'Adil Shahis 
of BIdjapur, since an inscription on the Kala pahaf 
Burdi claims that in 1066/1655 'Muhammad . . . 
rebuilt every burdj, wall and gate' (Haig, EIM, 
1907-8). Within the enceinte, on high ground, 
stands a large isolated masonry bastion, the mounting 
for a large piece of ordnance. In BIdar [q.v.], already 
a BahmanI outpost, whither the capital was trans- 
ferred by Ahmad Shah al-Wall, there had been a 
double line of Kakatiya fortifications in 722/1322 
(Diya al-DIn BarnI, Ta'rikJt-i FirHi Shdhi, Bibl. Ind., 
449) when it first fell into Muslim hands; in the 
rebuilding of 832-5/1429-32 Persian and Turkish 
engineers are known to have been employed, as in 
a further rebuilding in the time of Muhammad 
Shah III (867-87/1463-82) by his wtuir Mahmud 
Gawan, after the introduction of gunpowder in the 
Deccan. The older round bastion is largely super- 
seded by the polygonal variety, although some 
round and square towers remain; large trapstone 
blocks with fine joints in the older work give way 
to smaller rubble set in deeper beds of mortar in 
the repairs and restorations. The towers are solid 
at the base, defended by chambers at the same level 
as the curtain battlements and by their own battle- 
ments one stage higher; like the curtain, they are 
further defended by heavy box machicolations. At 
the angles of the irregular trace, and also standing 
free within the enceinte, are large and massive 
bastions, some of imported trapstone and others 
of the local red laterite, built as mountings for 
heavy pieces of ordnance; these may be, as in the 
KalyanlTurdj, defended by two or more succes- 
sive machicolated curtains, and may provide room 
for the accommodation of a large number of troops. 
The walls of BIdar town are of the Barid Shahl 
period (built 962-5/1555-8); the 37 bastions include 
the massive Mund a Burdj of two defended stages, 
approached by steps built on the back wall of the 
bastion itself, which mounted a long-range gun. 
The disposition of the bastions is here, as in the case 
of the fort curtain, variable: they are closest at those 
points in the curtain most vulnerable to attack. 
The Cawbara in BIdar town, presumed to be part 
of Ahmad Shah's defences, is a tall conical watch- 
tower, 23 m. high, commanding a view of the entire 
plateau and lowlands, with a massive circular 
plinth with guard-rooms and an internal stairway. 
There was much activity in the construction of 



military works in the Deccan in the heyday of the 
BahmanI dynasty [q.v.]: Dawlatabad, BIdjapur, 
vilgafh, Elicpur, Narnila, Parenda, Naldrug, 
Panhala, Warangal, Golkonda, Mudgal, Raycur, etc. 
At D a w 1 a t a b a d the old defences were strengthened 
and heightened, in smaller stone or brick, and one 
striking example of this is the building up of a 
bastion in the second court of the entrance hornwork 
by filling in the old embrasures, which were the same 
height as those of the curtain, adding a high upper 
storey while maintaining the batter of the walls, and 
building a projecting arcaded oriel supported on 
corbels of re-utilized Hindu work as a further watch 
chamber. There are thus two upper defensive 
chambers, pierced with embrasures for small cannon, 
over the solid base. At Parenda — like most Deccan 
forts, attributed by local tradition to Mahmfld 
Gawan but in fact probably earlier — the towers on 
the fausse-braye and curtain are defended by heavy 
bartizans. At Kandahar (Yazdani, Hyd. Arch. 
Dept. Report, 1331-3 F./1921-4 A.D., 3) are circular 
bastions on the fausse-braye but rectangular bastions 
on the curtain, with inscriptions of 998/1588 giving 
Turkish names as the responsible engineers. At 
K a 1 y a n I polygonal and round towers on the curtain 
have the merlons replaced by box machicolations 
on corbels, while a conspicuous bastion within the 
barbican has a mural chamber defended by bartizans, 
with a barbette on the battlements, which have 
two tiers of loopholes. The old Kakatiya fort of 
Golkonda [q.v.] ceded to the Bahmanls in 766/1364, 
has three successive curtain walls which show a 
variety of towers: square, cylindrical, conical, 
polygonal — the mantlet before the citadel gate has 
a burdi in the form of a half-tetradecagon — and 
scalene, and, on a later enclosure, a 'ninelobed' 
bastion of strong projection, each of whose 'lobes* 
is a quarter-circle on the exterior face. This last 
feature is found also at Naldrug. At BIdjapur 
[q.v.] the city walls, of the time of C AU l Adil §hah I 
(completed 973/1565), which are of uneven quality 
since each noble was responsible for one section, 
have some 96 bastions, mostly semicircular, with 
embrasures protected by stone hoods. Many are 
later modified to take heavy guns (inscriptions of 
Muhammad and 'All II), one, the FarangI orTabut 
Burdj built to accommodate several large djindiah. 
On high ground, well within the walls, is the OprI or 
Haydar Burdj, a massive cavalier oval in plan and 
some 24 m. high, built (insc. 992/1583) to mount a 
large (over 9 m. long, 15 cm. bore) piece of ordnance. 
The Sherza Burdj, one of the largest, is built out 
from the curtain, to which it is connected by a 
broad passage forming a 'head and neck*. 

Later fortifications in the Deccan, constructed or 
rebuilt during the Maratha supremacy, generally 
follow the patterns of the Muslim period. 

4. North India from the ioth/i6th to the 
I2th/i8th century. — Babur's conquest in 932/ 
1526 brought no new style of building in its early 
days, although his interest in the Hindu fortress of 
Gwaliyar communicated itself to his successors who 
developed the palace-fort par excellence. His son 
Humayun began yet another city of Dihll, called 
DI n p a n a h, but this was razed by the Afghan usurper 
Sher Shah, who commenced building his own capital 
of which now little but the citadel remains, 
constructed on a site identified with the ancient 
Indraprastha and known as the Old Fort (Purana 
Kil'a, Kil'a-i kuhni). The walls and widely 
spaced bastions of the trapezoidal trace are of roughly 



BURDJ — BURDJIYYA 



coursed rubble, while the gates, each flanked by 
two strongly projecting bastions, are of fine poly- 
chrome ashlar. The towers are semicircular, solid 
to a height of 5 m., with several tiers of superposed 
rooms and galleries, with small box machicolations; 
one gate has an internal machicoulis, a rare feature 
in India. Humayun's re-occupation of the Purana 
Kil c a added nothing, and Mughal building of forts 
starts with Akbar. Sikandar Lodi's fort at Agra had 
fallen into ruin, and was razed and rebuilding 
started in 972/1564. There are semicircular bastions 
on the inner and outer curtains, the same height 
as the walls; the inner ring is much higher than the 
outer, reaching 30 m. Outer and inner bastions are 
concentric, and both have crenellated battlements 
defended by two or more ranks of loopholes, some 
protected by stone hoods for downward firing. The 
inner Dihll gate on the west is defended by two 
magnificent half-octagonal bastions, with a blind 
arcade at ground-floor level finely decorated with 
marble and polychrome ashlar, a wide arch in each 
face on the first floor with an exterior balcony, and 
a defended chamber above with two ranks of loop- 
holes. The battlements above have some merlons 
equipped with stone hoods, and others are pierced. 
Each of these towers is topped by a Chatri. The work 
throughout the walling is in red sandstone ashlar 
over a rubble core. Akbar's new city (979' 1 57i) of 
Fatehpur (Fath-pur) Sikri is undistinguished 
in its fortification: the outer single curtain is incom- 
plete, and its half-round bastions are simply bulges 
in the trace. The citadel was enclosed rather than 
fortified, though boasts one large bastion, the S a n g i n 
Burdj, semi-octagonal with an internal hall, for a 
guard which was probably ceremonial rather than 
defensive. The new city was soon abandoned, and 
Akbar moved back to Agra, which was later occupied 
by his son Djahangir. From his time presumably 
dates the Muthamman Burdj (later called Saman 
['jasmine'] Burdj), a half-octagon projecting on the 
river side of the fort surmounting a semicircular 
buttress; it is of two storeys with open arcades on 
each face, with fine pietra dura decoration. Some of 
this work is probably of the time of Shahdjahan, 
whose principal buildings were, however, at D i hi I 
[q.v.] and Lahawr (Lahore) [q.v.]. The New Fort at 
Dihll (Lai Kil c a ) was commenced in 1048/1638 and 
completed within ten years. The nearly rectangular 
trace has semicircular bastions at regular intervals, 
defended by one tier of loopholes at about half their 
height and by two rows in the battlements; the 
merlons are decorated by cusping. Each tower is 
surmounted by a Chatri. Similar towers on the 
barbicans are of the time of Awrangzib. The north 
and south bastions on the river front are larger, 
two storeys in height above the level of the court- 
yard, crowned by Ckatris Shah Burdj, Asad 
Burdj); between them is a larger half -octagon, the 
Muthamman Burdj, originally known also as 
Burdj- i TilS on account of a gilded copper dome ; 
the five sides which overlook the river are filled with 
marble screens. La whr fort, built by Akbar at about 
the same time as Agra fort (Abu '1-Fadl, A'in-i Ak- 
bari, Blochmann's trans., i, 538) has a similar Shah 
Burdj, also called Muthamman Burdj insc. 
showing completion 1041/1631-2, of great size (45 m. 
diameter). Manucci in his Storia do Mogor says of 
these works: 'At each place [Dihll, Agra, Lahawr] 
there is a great bastion named the Xaaburg [Shah 
Burdj] . . . they are domed and have architectural 
adornments of curious enamel work, with many 
precious stones. Here the King holds many audiences 



for selected persons, and from it [sic] he views the 
elephant fights. . . .' (Irvine's trans., ii, 463). Cer- 
tainly also the Muthamman Burdj in Dihll was 
used for the emperor's daily darshan (ceremonial 
showing himself to the people). 

These Mughal burdjs had no pretence of being 
fortified works, and thus what started as a grim 
military work was transformed into a vehicle for 
Mughal art. The walls of Shahdjahan's Dihll were 
bastioned, certainly; but these were so rebuilt in 
the British period that it is not possible to recapture 
the Mughal arrangements. 

Bibliography: S. Toy, The strongholds of 
India, London 1957, describes some Muslim 
fortifications as sites, little information on towers ; 
historical details unreliable, no history of forti- 
fication. Reviewed and expanded by J. Burton- 
Page, The study of fortification in India and 
Pakistan, in BSOAS, xxiii/2, i960. For the 
buildings of the Dihll Sultanate: A. Cunningham, 
ASI Report, i, 1871; J. D. Beglar, ASI Report, 
iv, 1874; H. Waddington, 'Adildbdd: a part of the 
'fourth' Delhi, in Ancient India, i, 1946; J. A. Page, 
A memoir on Kotla Firoz Shah, Delhi, in MAS I 52, 
Delhi 1937; also bibliography under the articles 
DihlI, Monuments and DihlI Sultanate: Art. 
For the Deccan forts see bibliography under the 
articles Bahmani Dynasty: Monuments; BlnjA- 
pur: Monuments; Dawlatabad; Golkonda ; 
also, for Kandahar, G. Yazdani in Hyd. Arch. Dept. 
Report, 1331-3F./1921-4 A.D., 3, andEJAf, 1919-20, 
20. For the Mughal forts, A. C. L. Carlleyle, ASI 
Report, iv, 1874 [Agra]; E. B. Ha veil, Agra and 
the Taj, London 1912; E. W. Smith, The Moghul 
Architecture of Fathpur-Sikri, ASI, NIS, xviii, 
1894-8; J. Ph. Vogel, Tile-mosaics in the Lahore 
fort, ASI, NIS, xli, 1920; G. Sanderson, Guide to 
the buildings and gardens, Delhi Fort, Delhi 1914. 

(J. Burton-Page) 
BURDJ [see nuqjum]. 

BURDJIYYA. The Burdjiyya regiment was 
second in importance only to the Bahriyya [q.v.] 
regiment throughout the history of the Mamlflk 
sultanate. It was created by Sultan al-Mansiir 
Kala'un, who selected for this purpose 3,700 of his 
own Mamluks and quartered them in towers (abrddj, 
sing, burdj) of the Cairo citadel. Hence its name. 
The sources mention the creation of this unit only 
when they sum up Kala'On's career at the end of 
his rule, without specifying any date. It was 
composed of Mamluks belonging to Caucasian 
peoples (al-Diarkas wa 'l-As = Circassians and 
AbkhSzis). Al-Makrizi (Kh'W, ", 214, »• 22-26) 
mentions Armenians (Arman) instead of the As. 
The Khita'iyya and Kipcakls mentioned by him in 
the same passage as performing duties pertaining 
to the Khassakiyya [q.v.] do not seem to have 
belonged to the Burdjiyya. 

During the reign of Sultan Kala'un (678-89/ 
1279-90) and that of his son al-Ashraf Khalll (689-93/ 
1290-93), the participation of the Burdjiyya in the 
affairs of the \state was not very conspicuous. 
Immediately after Khalfl's murder, however, they 
are mentioned as the main body supporting amir 
Sandjar al-Shudja'i, while the main supporters of 
his rival, amir Kitbugha, were the WSfidiyya [q.v.] 
Tatars and the Shahrazuri Kurds. Kitbugha 
defeated Sandjar, ascended the throne after having 
deposed the boy-king al-Nasir Muhammad b. 
Kala'un (694/1294) and retaliated against the 
Burdjiyya by expelling part of them from the citadel 
and quartering them in different parts of the 



BURDJIYYA — BURGAS 



1325 



capital: Maydan al-Luk, al-Kabsh and Dar al- 
Wizara. 

This was the first blow inflicted upon the regiment. 
Kitbugha, however, was soon deposed and replaced 
by Ladjln (696/1296) and the Burdjiyya recovered 
their former position. They became extremely 
powerful after having murdered Sultan Ladjln 
(698/1298) under the leadership of their commander 
Kurdji Mukaddam al-Burdjiyya. During the second 
reign of al-Nasir Muhammad b. IJala'un (698-708/ 
1298-1308) the leaders of the regiment gradually 
became de facto rulers of the Mamluk sultanate. In 
the struggle between the amirs Baybars al-Djash- 
nakir and Sallar over the Mamluk throne, the. 
Burdjiyya naturally were on the side of the first, 
who was one of their number, whereas the second 
was supported by the Salihiyya (the remnants of 
the Bahriyya regiment created by al-Salih Nadjm 
al-DIn Ayyub) and by the Zahiriyya (the Mamluks 
of al-Zahir Baybars). Baybars defeated Sallar 
without difficulty and succeeded al-Nasir Muhammad 
as sultan (708/1308). 

Under al-Muzaffar Baybars, the Burdjiyya 

reached the peak of their power, but their success 

was short-lived, for al-Nasir Muhammad soon 

ascended the throne for the third time (709-741/ 

1 309- 1 340) and dislodged the Burdjiyya from their 

powerful position. As al-Nasir subsequently ruled 

for more than thirty years without interruption, 

the Burdjiyya gradually degenerated, and after his 

reign they are hardly mentioned by the sources. 

Orientalists usually call the first and second 

periods of Mamluk rule "the Bahrl and Burdji 

periods". This terminology is hardly ever used by 

the Mamluk sources, which call the early part of 

that rule, as well as the whole Mamluk rule, Dawlat 

al-Turk, and its latter part Dawlat al-Djarkas. 

Bibliography: (a) Sources: Al-Mufaddal 

b. Abi al-Fada'il, al-Nahdi al-Sadid (in Patrologia 

Orientalis), xiv, 583, 585, 585, xx, 170; Zettersteen, 

(ed.), Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Mamlukensultane, 

Leiden 1919, 30, 32, 50, 129; Al-Dhahabi, Duwal 

al-Isldm, Haydarabad 1337 A.H., vol. ii, 157; 

Ibn al-Furat, Ta'rikh al-Duwal wa 'l-Muluk, (ed. 

Zureik), Beirut 1936-42, vol. viii, 181, 183, 191, 

192; Ibn Khaldun, Kitdb al-Hbar, Cairo 1284 

A.H., vol. v, 461-2; Ibn Hadjar al- c Askalani, 

al-Durar al-Kamina, Haydarabad, 1348-50 A.H., 

vol. i, 502-7; Ibn Taghribirdi, al-Nud[um al- 

Zdhira, ed. Cairo 1938-44, vol. vii, 330, viii, 45, 



, 49, i 



176, 181, 234, 235, 



; Al-Manhad al-Sdfi, vol. 
f. 33a; Al-Makrlzl, Kitdb al-Suluk, (ed. Ziada), 
Cairo 1934-42, i, 736, 798, 802, 808-10, 867, ii, 25, 



37, 43, 45, 46, 52, 52-3, 58, 59, 69, 70, \ 



, 73, 



156, 377, 378, 426, 524; Mi(M, vol. ii, 134, 

(b) Works. G. Weil, Geschichte des Abbaside 

chalifats in Egypten, vol. i, Stuttgart i860, 170; 

S. Lane-Poole, A History of Egypt in the Middle 

Ages, London 1936, 282; G. Wiet, L'Egypte 

musulmane in Pricis de I'Histoire d'Egypte, vol. ii, 

Cairo 1932; idem, L'Egypte Arabe, in Histoire de 

la Nation Egyptienne, iv, Paris 1937; W. Popper, 

Egypt and Syria under the Circassian Sultans, ii, 

Berkeley 1957, 11; C AU Ibrahim Hasan, Ta'rikh 

al-Mamdlih al-Bahriyya, Cairo 1944, index, s.v. 

aUmamdlik al-burdjiyya. (D. Ayalon) 

BURDUR, a town in S.W. Asia Minor, distant 

about 4 km. from the south-eastern shore of the lake 

which bears the same name, i.e., the Burdur Golii. 

The view that the old Limobrama (interpreted as 

? Limnobria: "the lake town") was situated at or 



near the modern Burdur is of doubtful value (cf. 
Ramsay; Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. Limobrama; and 
Honigmann). The present name of the town, Burdur 
("Buldur" in the speech of the local Turkish inha- 
bitants and in the accounts of various travellers 
who have visited this region; also "Purdur' 
(IIoupSoup) amongst the Orthodox Christians who 
lived here formerly), points towards an identification 
with the Polydorion (IIoXuSupiov) of mediaeval 
times. As to the lake of Burdur, it is the old 'Aaxavfca 
Xi(jtv7j in Pisidia. Burdur, in the course of the long 
conflict between the Byzantines and the Turks in 
Asia Minor during the uth-i2th centuries, passed 
into the hands of the Saldjuk sultans of Rum. The 
town came thereafter under the rule of the Begs of 
Hamid early in the 14th century and, still later, of 
the Ottoman sultans in the 15th century. The 
population of Burdur included in former times a 
considerable number of Orthodox Christians, who 
spoke Turkish as their language (Cuinet noted that 
the town contained 4,000 Greeks and also approxi- 
mately 1,000 Armenians). Burdur, under Ottoman 
rule, was at first a kadd' of the sandjak of Hamid in 
the eydlet of Anadolu and, subsequently, a sandiak 
in the wildyet of Konya. It is now the administrative 
centre of the present Turkish province of Burdur. 
The town had, in 1955, a population of almost 
20,000 inhabitants. 

Bibliography: Ibn Battuta, Tuhfat al-Nuzzdr. 
edd. C. Defremery and B. R. Sanguinetti, Paris 
1853-1859, ii, 265-266; P. Lucas, Voyage .... dans 
la Turquie, Rouen 1719, i, 243 ff. ; W. M. Leake, 
Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor, London 1824, 
137-138, 145-146; F. V. J. Arundell, A Visit to 
the Seven Churches of Asia with an Excursion into 
Pisidia, London 1828, 147 ff. ; idem, Discoveries 
in Asia Minor, ii, London 1834, 96 ff.; W. J. 
Hamilton, Researches in Asia Minor, Pontus and 
Armenia, i, London 1842, 492 ff. ; F. Sarre, Reise 
in Kleinasien, Berlin 1896, 167, 169; W. M. 
Ramsay, The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, 
Oxford 1895, 298-299 and 324 ff.; Le Synekdimos 
d'Hidrokles et V opuscule giographique de Georges de 
Chypre (Corpus Bruxellense Historiae Byzantinae: 
Forma Imperii Byzantini, fasc. i), ed. E. Honig- 
mann, Brussels 1939, 30 (s.v. SijfiO? '0(Jp<X[ji6a) ; 
E. Rossi, Tre iscrizioni turche in caratteri greci di 
Burdur in Anatolia, in Rend. Lin., ser. 8, vol. 8, 
Rome 1953, 69-75; I. H. Uzuncarsili, Anadolu 
Beylikleri ve Akkoyunlu, Karakoyunlu Devletleri 
(Turk Tarih Kurumu Yaytnlanndan, viii. Seri, 
no. 2), Ankara 1937, 17 and 92; V. Cuinet, La 
Turquie d'Asie, i, Paris 1890, 842 ff. ; Saml, 
Kdtnus al-AHdm, ii, Istanbul A.H. 1306, 1375', 
C A1I Djawad, Ta'rikh ve D±oghrdfiya Lughdtl, 
Istanbul A.H. 1313-1314, 206-207; Pauly-Wissowa, 
ii/2 (1896), s.v. 'Aaxavia XtfxvTj, col. 1610 and 
xiii/i (1926), s.v. Limobrama, col. 710; IA, s.v. 
Burdur (Besim Darkot). (V. J. Parry) 

BURGAS (burgaz, near Zossopolis, ancient 
Appolonia) 42° 30' N., 27 28' E., after Varna 
Bulgaria's major port and fifth largest town. 
Burgas is the centre of a district, a resort with a 
recently modernised harbour, textile, fishing and 
salt industries situated on Burgas gulf with a 
population of 43,684 in 1 376/1956 (district 72,795)- 
The name derives from Greek Pyrgos. Murad I 
took Burgas district circa 778-9/1367-8 (B. de la 
Brocquiere, 168-70 cited in Jorga, GOR, i, 207; I. 
H. Uzuncarsih, OsmarUt Tarihi, i, 61, 69; I. H. 
Danismend, . . . Kronoloji, i, 47-8). Burgas played 
a minor role in Ottoman history, serving as a 



naval base for Balkan campaigns and as a ship- 
building centre notably after the battle of Lepanto, 
979/1571 (Uzuncarsili, op. cit., ii, 230, iii 1 , 21). An 
Ottoman reform commission studying modern fortifi- 
cations visited its castle in 1 198/1784 (ibid., iv 1 , 483) 
and it was a Russian staging point in their advance 
on Edirne in 124 5/ 1829. The exiled Polish poet Adam 
Mickiewicz resided there briefly in 1272/1855. Burgas 
played little part in the late 19th century Bulgarian 
independence movement culminating in 1326/1908 
and 1332/1913. 

Burgaz is also the name of one of the Prince's 
islands (ancient Antigone) off Istanbul (G. Schlum- 
berger, trs. N. Yiingiil, Istanbul Adalari, Istanbul 
1937; Cuinet, iv, 684-7; E. Mamboury, The Tourists' 
Istanbul, Istanbul 1953) and of 10 villages in western 
Turkey (Tilrkiye'de Meshun Yerlert Ktlavuzu, i-ii, 
Ankara 1946-7, ii, 181), and appears in Arababurgaz, 
Catalburgaz and Luleburgaz, none of which is des- 
cribed here. 

Bibliography : Bulgaria: territorial-admini- 
strative organization . . . [Washington] 1956 ; 
Bulgarska entsihlopediia, Sofia 1936, i, 170; L. A. 
D. Dellin, ed., Bulgaria, New York 1957, 52-3 
and passim; A. Girard, Les minoritis nationales, 
ethniques et reliqieuses en Bulgarie, Paris 1932; 
Great Britain, War Office, Bulgaria, [London 
1945?]; Bol'shaya sovtetskaya entsihlopediia 2nd 
rev. ed., 1951, iv, 295; R. Rochlin, Die Wirlscha/t 
Bulgariens seit 1945, Berlin rg57; A. Stokolnikov, 
Travels Through Bulgaria (in Russian), Moscow 
1955, 112-217; E. B. Valev, Bolgarika; ekonomiko- 
geograficheskaia kharakteristika, [Sofia] 1957, 46-9, 
passim, with good maps. (H. A. Reed) 

BU RGH USH. Sp. Burgos, capital of the province 
of the same name, in a valley on the banks of the 
Arlanzdn. It has 80,000 inhabitants and is one of the 
most interesting towns of Spain because of the 
monuments there, which show the importance of the 
place in the Middle Ages, when it was known as 
Caput Castellae. It was repeopled in 268/882 by Count 
Diego Rodriguez and attacked in 308/920 by c Abd 
al-Rahman III, who destroyed it once more in 
322/934, after having besieged Ramiro II at Osma. 
As far back as 328/939-40 the famous Fernan 
Gonzalez was already count of Burgos and declared 
himself independent of Le6n. His borders stretched 
to Castile, the Asturias de Santillana, Cerezo, 
Lantardn, and Alava. At the close of the reign of 
c Abd al-Rahman III Burgos, like Le6n and Pam- 
plona, paid him tribute. In the middle of the 6th/ 
12th century Burgos was, according to Idrlsl, a 
large town with many markets and a lively trade, 
a flourishing city. The river divided it into two 
parts, each being bounded by ramparts; in one half 
the majority of the population was Jewish. Among 
its monuments is the celebrated Hospital del Rey, 
contemporary with that liberally endowed by the 
Almohad caliph Ya'kub al-Mansur at Marrakesh. 
Bibliography: Idrisi, in Saavedra, Geografia 
de Espana, text 67, tr. 81; E. Levi-Provencal, 
'■e I'Espagne musulmane, ii, 41, 53; Gomez 



Morei 



;, 14. 



(A. Huici Miranda) 
BURGHOTHIYYA take their name from 
Muhammad b. c Isa the secretary, who was called 
Burghuth (Ar. ~ flea). They hived off from the Nadj- 
djariyya [q.v.], holding with them that God has a 
nature (mdhiyya), that His attributes only tell what 
He is not (generous says that He is not stingy) and 
He always knew what would happen. Peculiar to 
the BurghOthiyya is the doctrine that God always 



that according to them His speech is action (lahu 
kaldm jaiHi) whence it was concluded that the 
Ku'ran was not the word of God. He must not 
be called "doer" or "creator" for both these 
words can be used of man in a bad sense; 
"you create a lie" {Sura 29, 16/17). Secon- 
dary acts {muwalladdt) are the work of God 
through the nature of things. God is empty space 
and (at the same time) a body in which the 
(created) things occur (Ibn Abi Hadid, i, 295). 
Man is a combination of accidents, capacity (istifd'a) 
occurs together with part of the act and, if a 
limb moves, the limbs at rest have some share in 
causing the movement just as the moving one has 
some share in keeping the others at rest. He who 
"acquires" an act cannot be called the doer of it. If 
Burghuth is the Muhammad b. 'IsS of Makdldl 552, 
he is important for the development of theology, for 
he taught that God cannot compel a man to any 
particular act, to become a believer or an unbeliever. 
This does not conflict with his being called a djabri 
for al-Ash'arl, too, was so called. 

Bibliography : -al-Ash'arl, M akdldt al-Isldmiy- 
yin, Istanbul-Leipzig 1929; al-Baghdadi, al-Fark 
bayn al-Firak, Cairo 1910; al-Khayyat, Kitdb al- 
Intisdr, Cairo 1925; al-Murtada, al-Munya tea 
'l-Amal, Leipzig 1316/1898-9 (all these have 
indices); al-Shahrastani, al-Milal wa 'l-Nihal, 
London 1923 (reprint), 63, 103; Ibn Hazm, 
Kitdb al-Fisal, Cairo 1320/1902-3, 3, 22; al- 
Murtada, Ghdydt al-A/kdr tea Nihdydt al-Anzdr 
(B.M. Or. 3937) 36r, 56V, 158V, ig7r; W. Mont- 
gomery Watt, Free Will and Predestination in 
Early Islam, London 1948. (A. S. Tritton) 
BURGOS [see burghush]. 

AL-BURHAN, "decisive proof", "clear demon- 
stration". The term is Kur'anic and signifies a 
"brilliant manifestation", a "shining light" come 
from God (iv, 174), a "manifest proof" (xii, 24), which 
may take the form of that supreme argument of 
authority which is the miracle (xxviii, 32). In 
correlation, burhdn is also the decisive proof which 
the infidels are called upon — in vain — to furnish as 
justification of their false beliefs (ii, in; xxi, 24; 
xxiii, 117; xxvii, 64; xxviii, 75)- 

The first connotation of burhdn is not properly 
right discursive reasoning; it is rather the manifest 
evidence of an irrefutable proof. But consequently, 
it designates also the mode of argumentation, and 
the argument itself which leads to that certitude. 
Thus it can take on several meanings according to 
the rules admitted in apodeictic demonstration 

1. In the initial development of fifth, burhdn 
refers to the quality of certitude which is proper, 
especially in al-Shafi c i, Ibn Hanbal and Dawud, to 
reasoning (istidldl) "in two terms", from greater 
to lesser or from lesser to greater, in order to prove 
the radical distinction between or the identity of 
two comparable "things" and to conclude: "certain- 
ly", "it is so" (inna, rather than anna). That is the 
burhdn inni. It is based upon an argument of author- 
ity, which can be either a scriptural text or the 
eye-witnessing of an obvious fact. 

The form of argumentation (cf. Massignon, 
Passion d'al-Ifalldj, 578): reducing to the absurd 
{ibfdl), exposing a defective comparison (mutdlaba), 
indicating an internal contradiction (mu'drada), 
establishing the obvious univocality of a term 
(tahkik). The certitude thus obtained is considered 



more reliable than that obtained by rational in- 
vestigation of motive or cause (HUa). 

2. The investigation of the HUa was, on the 
contrary, one of the characteristics of the Hanafi 
school, where the juridical argument took the form 
of a syllogism. In the logic of the faldsifa, use of the 
'ilia became recourse to a universal mean term. 
Kiyds [q.v.], reasoning by analogy from the "sources 
of the law", was transformed into an Aristotelian 
syllogism, and burhdn caine to designate syllogistic 
demonstration. Aristotle's Posterior Analytics were 
translated as Kitdb al-Burhdn, in the Fihrist of Ibn 
al-Nadim, by al-Farabi and by the Ikhwdn al-Sa/d 1 
etc. Ibn Sina concluded his treatise on logic (Nadjdt, 
60 ff.) with a discussion of burhdn. The adjective 
burhdni is applied frequently to apodeictic demon- 
stration, to the syllogism "composed of propositions 
which are certain" (yakiniyydt). 

The typical form of burhdn (al-burhdn al-mu(lak) 
is a syllogism in which the obviousness of the 
premisses is either immediate or mediate. This 
reasoning may be of two modes: 1) burhdn al- 
lima, where an extra-mental causal nexus is 
grasped, by the mean term, between the premisses 
and the conclusion; b) burhdn al-inna, where, 
starting from a fact, the obviousness of the con- 
clusion arises, without causal reference, from the 
nexus between the premisses and the mean term. 
The latter mode, says Ibn Sina, "gives the reason for 
the judgement, not the reason for the being" 
(Ishdrdt, 84). Mile Goichon suggests another reading : 
in instead of inna; thus it would mean "a conditional 
argumentation". However it is indeed the burhdn 
inni of the early jurists which is evoked here, and 
the "victorious presence of the fact" (Massignon). 
But transposed into a logic of Aristotelian terms, 
the "decisive proof" of the reasoning in two 
terms becomes an inductive syllogism which states, 
as opposed to a syllogism of causal inference which 
explains. One may compare this analysis (although 
there is no complete identity) with the Aristotelian 
distinction between the knowledge of the reason 
and the knowledge of the fact (Posterior Analytics, 
78a, 22-27). Ibn Sina and after him al-Djurdjanl 
(Ta c rifdt), emphasise that in every burhdn the 
mean term of the syllogism is the HUa which 
s the major to the minor premiss. If this 
has an explanatory value and a 
'e scope in the actual nature of things, we have 
to do with the burhdn al-lima; if on the other hand 
it is only an affirmation of the mind which states a 
fact, without making explicit the raison d'etre of 
the major premiss nor the inclusion in it of the minor, 
we are then dealing with a burhdn inni. If we keep 
the reading in, the passage could be interpreted: 
if such a fact exist, it follows that. 

The later l Ilm al-kaldm, which undertook to refute 
the falsa/a but which was thoroughly influenced by 
it, lost sight of the testimonial evidence which the 
fact, as an argument of irrefutable authority, 
brought to the burhdn inni of the ancients. It took 
it to be the simple affirmation of existence of the 
quia, whilst the burhdn al-liina alone remained 
explanatory of propter quid. In his commentary of 
al-Idji, al-Djurdjanl wrote: "The reasoning (istidldl) 
which moves from effect to cause is called burhdn 
inni; that which proceeds from cause to effect, is 
causal inference (taHU) and burhdn limi". 

Whether it refers to the extra-mental cause or 
not, whether it proceeds by lima or by inna, burhdn 
thus becomes a syllogistic demonstration: to the 
extent to which Aristotelian logic, adopted by the 



later Him al-kaldm as well as by the falsafa, circum- 
scribes in this sense the rules of human reasoning. 
But going back beyond the Kitdb al-Burhdn 
(Posterior Analytics), and primarily with reference 
to Ku'ranic texts, it still retains its original sense of 
"overwhelming proof", whatever way leads to 
certitude, discursive reasoning by a universal mean 
term, or testimonial proof by the argument from 
authority. 

Bibliography: Fihrist (Cairo) 345 ff.; Farabi, 

lhsd> al-'Ulum, Madrid 1932, ch. 2; RasdHl 

Ikhwdn al-Safd', Cairo 1347/1928, i, 202-03; 

several texts of Ibn Sina, in particular, Nadjdt, 

Cairo, 1357/1938, 60-85, especially 56-57, Ishdrdt, 

ed. Ferget, Leiden 1892, 84-5; numerous texts of 

Him al-kaldm, DjardjanI, TaHi/dt, ed. Fliigel, 

Leipzig 1845, 45, Shark al-Mawdkif, 1325, ii, 3-4; 

Massignon, Passion d'al-Halldj, Paris 1922, 578-9; 

I. Madkour, L'Organon d'Aristote dins le monde 

arabe, ed. Vrin, Paris 1934, esp. 223; A. M. 

Goichon, Lexique de la langue philosophique d'lbn 

Sind, Paris 1938, 21-23; ibid, French translation 

of the Ishdrdt ("Livre des Directives et Remar- 

ques"), Beirut- Paris 1951, 231-34 ; Gardet-Anawati, 

Introduction d la theologie musulmane, Paris 1948, 

esp. 371 ; J. Jomier, Note sur un petit manuel de 

logiquc aristotelico-thomiste en arabe, in IFAO, 

Cairo 1949, 59. (L. Gardet) 

BURHAN, takhallus of Muhammad Husayn b. 

Khalaf al-Tabrizi, compiler of the Persian dictionary 

Burhdn-i Kd(i c , completed in 1062/1651-2 at Hayd- 

arabad and dedicated to Sultan c Abd al-Allah Kutb 

Shah, ruler of Golconda. A new revised, annotated 

and illustrated edition of the Burhdn-: Kd(i c was 

published in Tehran in 4 vols., 1330-5 S./1951-6 

(ed. Muhammad Mu'in). A Turkish translation was 

presented to Sultan Selim III by the historian 

<Asim [q.v.]. (Ed.) 

BURHAN. The ruling family in Bukhara in 
the 5th/nth and early 6th/i2th centuries, known 
by the title sadr al-suiur [q.v.]. 

BURHAN c IMAD SHAH [see 'imad shah,. 
BURHAN SHAH I [see nizamshah]. 
BURHAN SHAH II [see nizamshah]. 
BURHAN al-DIN, kadi ahmad, a poet from 
eastern Asia Minor (revealing in his work char- 
acteristics of the Adhari dialect) and a man of 
learning, also a stormy petrel, who was, in succession, 
kddi, wazir, atabeg and sulfdn. He was born on 3 
Ramadan 745/8 January 1345 in I<aysariya (now 
Kayseri), his father being Shams al-DIn Muhammad, 
a kddi of the third generation, descended in the male 
line from the Oghuz tribe of Salur, which dwelt 
originally in Khwarazm. Burhan al-DIn received a 
thorough education in the customary branches of 
learning, first from his father, and thereafter in 
Egypt, Damascus and Aleppo, and returned in 766/ 
1364-1365 to the town of his birth, where the ruling 
prince Ghiyath al-DIn Eretna found such satisfaction 
in the young man of 21 years that he raised him to 
the office of kddi (in the place of Shams al-DIn 
Muhammad, who had died one year before) and even 
bestowed on him his daughter in marriage. Burhan 
al-Din, none the less, took part secretly in the revolt 
of the Begs during which his father-in-law was slain 
(767/1365-1366). He had, under the succeeding but 
incompetent princes of the House of Eretna an 
active r61e as wazir and atabeg, until, in 783/1381- 
1382, he proclaimed himself Sultan of the lands 
subject to the House of Eretna (cf. lA, fasc. 32, 309), 
with his residence in Si was and with the usual 
prerogatives of sovereignty (the minting of coinage 



1328 



BURHAN al-DIN — BURHAN al-DIN GHARlB 



and the mention of his name in the Friday Prayer 
or khufba). 

The eighteen years of his rule as Sultan are filled 
with ceaseless conflict against rebellious Begs at 
home and with wars against such powerful neigh- 
bours as the Karamanids and the Ottomans. Always 
incredibly venturesome and courageous, he gave 
battle to a superior Egyptian force and was defeated 
(789/1387); he soon turned, however, to the same 
Mamluks of Egypt for aid against the Ak-Koyunlu, 
who were pressing forward from the East, and then 
fought in alliance with the Ak-Koyunlu against the 
rebellious Begs of Amasiya and Erzindjan. The 
decisive moment came after he had ordered the 
execution of Shaykh Mu'ayyad, the rebellious 
governor of Kaysariyya — an act which brought 
down on himself the anger of the Ak-Koyunlu Kara- 
Yiiliik 'Othman Beg. Burhan al-DIn died in a hostile 
encounter with the Ak-Koyunlu chieftain at Kara- 
Bel (according to Sa'd al-DIn, however, it was in the 
mountains of Kharput, to which Burhan al-DIn had 
fled before the Ottoman Sultan Bayazld I). Some 
accounts written with a different motivation (Ibn 
'Arabshah, Schildberger) state that Burhan al-DIn 
fell into the hands of Kara-Yiiluk and was executed 
in Dh u '1-Ka'da 800/July-August 1398. Other dates 
are also found in the sources. The inscription 
on the still extant tomb of Burhan al-DIn at Slwas 
bears no date. At Slwas, too, lie buried both the son 
of Burhan al-DIn, Muhammad Celebi (died 793/1391) 
and also his daughter Hablba Saldjuk-Khatun (died 
850/1446-1447), so-called because the grandmother 
of her father was, on the male side the grand- 
daughter of the Saldjuk Sultan of Rum Kay-Ka'us II 
(van Berchem, CIA, iii, 50). 

It is astonishing that Burhan al-DIn, in the 
course of a life passed in the ceaseless unrest 
of politics and war, still found enough time and 
inner repose to be able to have an active r61e as 
a man of learning and a poet. His juridical works 
(written in Arabic) are the Tardfih al-tawdih (com- 
posed in Sha'ban 799/May 1397) and the Iksir al- 
sa c dddt fi asrdr al-Hbdddt, a work that is held in 
esteem even now amongst the '■ulama?. Of far greater 
importance is the Diwdn of Burhan al-DIn, containing 
over 1500 ghazals (without the normal arrangement 
in alphabetical sequence and without mzkhlas), 20 
rubdHs, 119 tuyughs (these latter in East-Turkish 
dialect) and some isolated distichs. The prosody 
is quantitative and reveals in a number of places 
metrical deficiencies which would have been im- 
possible in later times. Quantitative half-lines are to 
be found in the tuyughs side by side with half-lines 
reckoned in syllables. Burhan al-DIn is a poet of 
profane love; mystical notes are sounded more rarely 
in his work. He conforms in the ghazah, both thema- 
tically and rhetorically, to the traditions of Persian 
lyrical poetry. Although he is a true poet, he 
remained, as such, unknown to the Tadhkiras (only 
in some of the historians are there brief references 
to him, in which it is said that he also wrote poetry 
in Arabic and Persian (cf. Gibb, i, 208)) and he had 
no influence on the poetical practice either of 
Adharbavdian or of the Ottomans. 

Bibliography: To the life of Burhan al-DIn 
as a whole is devoted Bazm u Razm (commonly 
known as Mandkib-i Kddi Burhan al-Din and 
completed in 800/1398), a work written by his 
companion c AzIz b. Ardashlr AstarabadI (Persian 
text ed. Istanbul 1928), with an introduction in 
Turkish by Kopriiliizade M. Fu'ad, see Storey 
ii/2, 410 f.; H. H. Giesecke, Das Werk des Aziz 



ibn Ardesir Asterabadi, Leipzig 1940, and (accord- 
ing to Babinger, OOW, 5) probably identical with 
the Ta'rikh al-Kddi Burhan al-Din al-Siwdsi, in 
4 volumes, of c Abd al- c AzIz BaghdadI (HadjdjI 
Khalifa, no. 2273) ; Ahmed Tewhld, Kddi Burhan 
al-Din Ahmed, in TOEM, v (1330/1911-1912), 
106-109, 178-182, 234-241, 296-307, 347-357 and 
vi (1331/1912-1913), 405-409, 468-478; Dr. S. 
Rymkiewiczowa, Twdrczosc Burhanaddina (na 
tie epoki i jego dzialalnoici) , "Burhan al-DIn's 
creative power (in the light of his epoch and 
influence") Warsaw, doctoral thesis 1949 (un- 
published); Khalll Edhem, Diiwel-i Isldmiyye, 
Istanbul 1928, 384-388; Gibb, Ottoman Poetry, i, 
204-224 (based on al-Durar al-kdmina fi a'-ydn 
al-mi'a al-thdmina of Ibn Hadjar al- c AskalanI. 
Text ed. Haydarabad 1348-1350/1929-1932) and 
vi (texts), 16-20; Kopriiliizade Mehmed Fu'ad and 
Shihab al-Din Suleyman, Yeni '■Othmdnli TaMkh-i 
Edebiyydti, i, Istanbul 1332/1913-1914, 169-173 
(with specimens of the text); '■Othmdnli Mii'elli- 
fleri, i, 396; Mirza Bala, Kadi Burhaneddin, in 
lA, fasc. 55 (1952), 46-48 (excellent) ; A. Krymskiy, 
Istoria Turciyi i yeya literaturl, i, Moscow 1916, 
270-9; there is also much material in idem, 
Istoriya Turetfinl ta yiyi pli'menstva, ii/2, Kiev 
1927; A. Bombaci, Storia della Letteratura Turca, 
Milan 1956, 293 f.; H. Mezioglu, Kadi Burhaned- 
din, in Arayis, no. 9, 1957, 4-5 (a popular article 
reproducing, in a much shortened form, the 
beginning and end of the London MS., together 
with specimens of the text, in Latin characters). 
References to Burhan al-DIn can be found here 
and there in the historical sources: cf. the articles 
of Ahmed Tewhld and Mirza Bala cited above. 
See also P. Melioranskij, Otrlvki iz divana Achmeda 
Burhan ed-Dina Sivasskogo. Vostolnlye Zametki, 
SPb. 1895, 131-152 (text and translation of 20 
rubdHs and 12 tuyughs); Kddi Burhan al-Din 
ghazel ve rubdHydtlndan bir k'smi ve tuyughlarl, 
Istanbul 1922, with a preface by Djenab Shihab 
al-DIn Bey (inadequate: cf. Mehmed Fu'ad 
Koprulii, in Turkiyat Mecmuasi, ii, 220 and 
Babinger, GOW, 4); Kadi Burhanettin divam, i, 
Istanbul 1944 (facsimile of the unique MS., Brit. 
Mus. Or. 4126, of the year 796/1393-1394: a 
splendid manuscript, probably prepared for the 
prince-poet himself and revealing on the margin 
corrections presumably from his own hand); 
Muharrem Ergin, Kadi Burhaneddin Divam 
iizerinde bir gramer denemesi, in Turk Dili ve 
EdebiyaH Dergisi, iv/3, Istanbul 1951, 287-327; 
A. Nihad Tarlan, Kadi Burhaneddin' de tasavvuf, 
in ibid; viii/1958, 8-15. (J. Rypka) 

BURHAN al-DIN GHARlB, i.e., Shaykh Mu- 
hammad b. Nasir al-DIn Mahmud, sister's son of 
Shaykh Djamal al-DIn Ahmad Nu'mani Hansawi (for 
him see A khyar 67) and one of the earliest and most 
devoted disciples, and a khalifa of the shaykh al- 
Isldm Ni?am al-Din of Delhi (d. 725/1325). He was 
born in HansI (East Pandjab) in 654/1256 and died 
in Deoglr (Dawlatabad) on n Safar 738/8 Sept. 1337 
(Nuzha after Rawdat al-Awliya?), according to 
others (e.g., Khazina) in 741/1340-1, and was buried 
at Rawda (Khuldabad). After spending his early 
years in HansI, he went to Delhi and studied fikh, 
usul, and 'arabiyya [qq.v.], from the savants of his 
time. He then attached himself to the Shaykh al- 
Isldm, and attended on him as long as the Shaykh 
was alive (cf. Nuzha 143, Siyar 279/15, Mir Hasan, 
FawdHd al-Fuwdd, Lucknow 1908, 15, 33 (708 A.H.) 



l-DIN GHARlB — BURHAN al-DIN KUTB-I <ALAM 



1329 



44 (709 A.H.), 84 (712 A.H.); Ulughkhanl, Zafar al- 
Wdlih, Leiden 1929, iii, 857 f.). He left Delhi for 
Deoglr, in his old age, when Muhammad b. Tughluk 
(725-52/1325-51) forced the higher society and 
Shaykhs etc. of Delhi, about 727/1327 {Mubarak 
Shdhi, 98) to more to his new capital Deoglr 
(Bada'unl, i, 226; M. Saki, Ma'dthir-i '■Alamgiri, Bib. 
Ind. ; 237; for the opposite view, that the Shaykh 
al-Isldm sent him and others to (Burhanpfir and) 
Deoglr see Firishta, Safina, Manduwi, Adhkdr-i 
Abrdr (tr. of Oulzdr-i Abrdr), Agra 1326, 90, 
Ma'dridi, Khazina 322; contemporary authorities 
are silent as to the reason why he went to Deoglr). 
There he spent the rest of his life doing almost 
pioneer work in the dissemination of Islam and 
the spreading of the culture of Islam in the Deccan 
(Safina), and trained a batch of distinguished adepts 
(Khazina 333) to follow up his work. One of these 
(Ruku al-DIn) collected his obiter dicta in the 
NafdHs al-Anfds (nine of these quoted in the 
Ma'dridi I.e.), while Rukn al-Din's two brothers 
and HamJd Kalandar also collected them (Nuzha, 
Akhydr 86»). 

He had a magnetic personality, and enjoyed great 
popularity in the circle of his Master — he was a dear 
friend of the poets Amir Khusraw, Mir Hasan, and 
Mas'ud Bak (who eulogises him in his works, aspe- 
cially in his Yusuf Zulaykhd), also of Shaykh Nasir 
al-DIn Ciragh-i Dihli (d. 757/1357), Kirmanl etc. 
(Siyar al-Awliya?), 278 f.). He is described as an 
embodiment of longing and love, a man of asceticism, 
piety and ecstasy who charmed people by his heart- 
alluring discourses, an extremist in the matter of 
samd'-, who had a peculiar style of his own in the 
ecstatic derwish-dances, his fellow-dancers being 
called "Burhanls" after him. Burhanpur (on the 
Tapti, in Khandes) commemorates his name, for he 
had given his blessings to an ancestor of its founder, 
Nasir Khan Faruki (regn. 801-41/1399-1437), when he 
rested here on his way to Deoglr and foretold the 
rise of the Farukls and their founding of the city 
(Manduwi, Khali, 214). They endowed his Rawda 
with land-grants, still available when Manduwi 
wrote (1020/1611-12). According to the same autho- 
rity, who visited it in 1001/1592-3, a large fair was 
held at the place, which has graves of several 
important disciples of the Shaykh al-Isldm, on the 
anniversary of Shaykh Burhan al-DIn's death. Dara 
Shukoh also visited it, and Awrangzlb and two 
Ni?am al-Mulks were buried near it (Khdfi, ii, 549 = 
572; Ma'dthir al-Umard', ii, 834). 

Bibliography : Apart from the works menti- 
oned above the following are important: Muham- 
mad-i Mubarak Kirmani, Siyar-al-Awliyd', Delhi 
1302, 278 (= <Abd al-Hakk, Akhbdr al-Akhydr, 
Delhi 1309, 93 = C A1I Ardastanl, Mahfil al-Asfiyd>, 
Adhar Coll. MS. Pandjab University f. 796) ; Abu 
'1-Fadl, AHn-i Akbari, ed. Blochmann, Calcutta, ii, 
216, tr. Jarrett iii, 365, ii, 223 n. 3; Amln-i Ahmad 
RazI, Haft Iklim, Shayranl MS. Pandjab University, 
f. 137b (s.v. Dehll); Firishta, Bombay 1832, ii, 750; 
Dara Shuk6h, Safinat al-Awliyd', Lucknow 1872, 
101 ; 'Ubayd Allah .Khweshgl, Ma'dridi al-Wildya, 
Adhar Collection MS., Pandjab University f. 123b- 
125b; Sabzawarl, Sawdnih (see Storey; not 
available to me); Ghulam c Ali Azad, Rawdat al- 
Awliyd' (available to me only in Nuzha I.e.); 
Mufti Ghulam Sarwar, Khazinat al-Asfiya^, 
Lahore 1284, 332; c Abd al-Hayy Lucknawl, 
Nuzhat al-Khawdfir (II) 143; Beale, Oriental 
biographical diet., Calcutta 1881, 75; Storey, 1025, 
1027. (Mohammad Shafi) 

EncycIopMie de PJslam 



BURHAN al-DIN fcUTB-I <ALAM, i.e. Abu 
Muhammad c Abd Allah b. Nasir al-DIn Mahmud 
(or Muhammad) b. Djalal al-DIn Ma™dum-i 
Djahaniyan, usually known as Kutb-i l Alam, a 
famous SuhrawardI saint and the founder of the 
Bukhariyya Sayyids of Gudjarat (W. India). He 
was also known as Thani-i Makhdum-i Djahaniyan 
(Ma'aridf). Born at Uchcha (now in Bahawalpur) on 
14 Radjab 790/19 July 1388, he died at Batwa 
(Ardastanl, Mahfil al-Asfiyd, f. 329b; cf. Ulugh- 
khdni, i, 140'), or Batwa (Ma'dridi) a village 6 
miles south of Ahmadabad, on 8 Dhu 'l-Hidjdja 
857/10 December 1453 (Matla'- yawm al-tarwiya = 
857 is the chronogram recorded in Akhbdr al-Akhydr, 
but one later writer, Khweshgl, gives the date as 856), 
Conflicting accounts are given as to why and when 
he came to Gudjarat, (cf. e.g., A'in, Ma'dridi and 
Ma'dthir al-Umard'). The following version occurs in 
the Mir'dt-i Ahmadi: Being left an orphan at the age 
of ten, he was brought up by his father's uncle Shah 
Radju Kattdl (d. 827/1424, Khazina 733), who directed 
him to go to Gudjarat for missionary work. He reached 
Patan in 802/1399-1400 and was well received by 
Sultan Muzaffar Shah I, a disciple of his grand- 
father. He studied the usual sciences with Mawlana 
'Allshlr GudjaratI, and became eminent in learning. 
When Ahmadabad was founded (813/1411) he settled 
first in the (Old) Asaual, and finally at Batwa, for 
the rest of his life. For the Shaykhs from whom he 
received khirkas, see Nuzha, iii, 97. A notable one 
among these was Shaykh Ahmad-i K'hattu (d. 849/ 
1446). Kutb-i c Alam, his successors and their 
disciples, particularly his son Shah c Alam did 
remarkable work for the spiritual uplift of the people 
of Gudjarat, who had great faith in them and among 
whom they enjoyed high repute (cf. Tuzuk-i 
Djahdngiri, Allgarh 1864, 208 f., English translation 
by Rogers-Be veridge, i, 421 f.). They exercised great 
influence over the Ahmad Shahiyya, Kings of Gudjarat 
(cf. Mir'dt-i Sikandari, 185"), and later several 
Mughal Emperors, from Djahanglr onwards, showered 
benefits on the Shaykhs. and some of the Emperors 
personally visited the shrines at Ahmadabad. 
Shahdjahan made one of the Shaykhs mansabddr and 
sadr-i kull, and Awrangzlb made his son sadr al- 
sudur (Kdni<- ii. 31; M. Saki, Mahathir 'Alamgirl. 
B.I.S., 166, 347). When Kutb-i c Alam died, the 
nobles of the Ahmad ghahl Court erected a magni- 
ficent mausoleum on his tomb, which is now in a 
ruined condition (see J. Burgess, Muhammadan 
Architecture of Ahmadabad, London 1900, i, 60 f.; 
for that of Shah <Alam see ibid., ii, 15 ff. Plates). c Ali 
Muhammad Khan testifies to the tomb being fre- 
quently visited in his time (1176/1762). For a 
specimen of the language Ku(b-i c Alam spoke, see 
Mir'dt-i Sikandari 254 (cf. Mir. Ahmadi: Khatima 
28, Ulughkkdni i, 236), where a detailed account 
of an oft-mentioned miracle of his is given. 

Bibliography : Apart from the works quoted 
above, the following are important: Abu '1-Fadl, 
AHn-i Akbari, Bibl. Ind. series, II/221, Eng. tr. 
Jarrett III/372; Iskandar b. Muhammad, Mir y dt-i 
Sikandari, Bombay 1308, 52 ff., 46 (cf. 126, 285), 
142, 254, 323 f. and passim; Muhammad Ghawthl 
Manduwi, Oulzdr-i Abrdr, (available to me only 
in the Urdu version entitled Adhkdr-i Abrdr, 
Agra 1326, 1477; Ulughkhanl, £afar al-WMh, ed. 
E. D. Ross, London 1910-28, index s.vv. Burhan 
al-Din and Batwa; c Abd al-Hakk Diblawi, Akhbdr 
al-Akhydr, Delhi 1309, 157; Firishta, Bombay 
1832, ii 379, 390, 424; Dara Shukoh. Safinat al- 
Awliyd*, Lucknow 1876, 117; 'Ubayd Allah 

84 



BURHAN al-DIN KUTB-I <ALAM — BURHANPOR 



Khweshgl, Ma'dridj ' al-Wildya, Adhar MS. Pandjab 
University Library, f. 508; Khaii Khan, Mun- 
takhab al-Tawdrikh, i 548; Shahnawaz Khan, 
Mahathir al-Umard\ iii, 447 f. (read Sultan Muham- 
mad instead of Sultan Mahmud. The Khan follows 
the AHn-i Akbari. With the vague statement on 
448/13, cf. Shustari, Madi&lis al-Mu'minin, 
Tehran 1299, 64); 'AH Muhammad Khan, Mir'dt-i 
Ahmadi: Khdiima. Calcutta 1930, 26-34, 37-6r 
(life, descendants, successors, endowments, etc. = 
Engl. tr. Supplement 27-35, 39-60 = 'Ali Shir 
Kani c , Tuhfat al-Kiram, Delhi 1304, i, 16 ff, cf. II, 
30); Mufti Ghulam Sarwar, Khazinat al-As/iyd', 
Lahore 1284, 737; c Abd al-Hayy Lucknawi, 
Nuzhat al-Khawdtir, Haydarabad 1371, iii, 96; 
idem, Ydd-i Ayydm (in Urdu), 'Aligarh 1337, 5*- 



(Mo t 



FI) 



BURHAN al-DIN al-MARGJJInAnI [see 

AL-MARGHiNANl]. 

BURHAN al-MULK, Mir Muhammad AmIn b. 
Sayyid Muhammad NasIr al-Musawi, was a native 
of NishapQr who founded the Awadh dynasty of 
Nawwab-Wazirs (1136/1724-1167/1754)- The exact 
date of his arrival in India is not known, but this 
much is certain, that he was in the service of Sar- 
buland Khan, commandant of Kara-Manikpur, in 
1123/1711. On the accession of Farrukh-siyar to the 
throne of Delhi (1124/1713-1131/1719), he managed 
to obtain the post of a nd'ib-karori (a revenue 
official), through the good offices of Muhammad 
Dja'far, a mansabddr. In 1132/1719 he was appointed 
commandant of Hindawn-Bayana when he reduced 
to submission the turbulent Radjput and Djat 
zaminddrs of the area. For the r61e that he played 
in the conspiracy to murder the amir al-umard' 
Husayn 'Ali Khan Barha, one of the Sayyid king- 
makers, he was awarded in n 33/1720 the title of 
Sa'adat Khan Bahadur with the personal rank of 
5,000 and the command of 3,000 horse. The same 
year he was appointed governor of Akbarabad 
(Agra) with a rapid promotion in rank, and only 
after a month (Muharram 1133/November 1720) the 
title of Bahadur Djang and the insignia of mdhi 
mardtib, were conferred on him. In 1 135/1722 
he was appointed governor of Awadh when he 
ruthlessly suppressed the shaykhzddas of Lucknow. 
He also ordered a fresh revenue settlement of the 
province, thereby increasing the imperial income 
from land, and the emperor Muhammad Shah 
rewarded him for his services with the title of 
Burhan al-Mulk. 

After bringing the whole of Awadh, then in a state 
of turmoil, under his control, he punished the 
refractory feudal lords of Banaras and Djawnpur. 
In 1148/1735 he was given charge of the district of 
Korah-Djahanabad, whose landlord, Bhagwant Ray, 
had been responsible for some trouble; he was ulti- 
mately killed in an encounter with the troops of the 
Nawwab. The same year Burhan al-Mulk, flushed 
with repeated successes, waited on Muhammad Shah 
at Delhi in the hope of securing increased royal 
patronage. In 1149/1737 he attacked the MarathSs, 
who had seized a part of the Doab, defeated and 
expelled them with heavy losses. The Marathas in 
order to avenge this defeat soon afterwards attacked 
Delhi. 

In 1151/1739, when Nadir Shah Afshar invaded 
India, Burhan al-Mulk marched out from Awadh 
with a strong contingent of 30,000 troops. Although 
his baggage was looted by the enemy before it 
reached the imperial camp at Karnal, Burhan al-Mulk 
decided to lose no time and to give battle to the 



invaders. In the thick of the action he was, however, 
recognised by a fellow-townsman from NIshapur and 

away into the enemy's camp. On Nadir Shah's 
victory, Burhan al-Mulk, from ulterior motives, 
prompted the invader to increase the amount of 
indemnity (5 million rupees) which had been agreed 
upon between Nizam al-Mulk Asaf Djah, the emissary 
of Muhammad Shah, and the Persian invader, on the 
ground that the stipulated sum could be easily paid 
off by a single amir of the Mughal court. Burhan 
al-Mulk himself had to pay 33 million rupees in hard 
cash as his own share to the invader. He, however, 
suddenly died on 10 Dh u 'I-Hidjdja, 1151/19 March, 
1739, soon after his return to Delhi. His almost 
sudden death has given rise to many speculations. 
He is reported to have committed suicide, unable 
to bear the insults which Nadir Shah heaped upon 
him for his failure to arrange the full amount of 
indemnity (200 million rupees) which he had 
foolishly promised the invader. Other authorities, 
including the Mahathir al-Umard' (i, 466) maintain 
that he died of an old neglected wound which had 
erupted again. The latter statement, however, 
appears to be an attempt to mitigate his respon- 
sibility for actions which brought untold misery 
and grief to the citizens of Delhi. 

Burhan al-Mulk, an otherwise good man, was 
ambitious to the extreme degree and his passion 
for self-aggrandisement did not spare even a person 
like Husayn 'AH Khan, whose favourite and client 
he had been both as a Sayyid and a ShI'i. A disused 
canal in a part of the city of Delhi is still known 
after him as Nahr Sa'adat Khan. It appears to be an 
extension of the Fayd Nahr, the main source of the 
water-supply system of Delhi during the later 
Mughal period. 

Bibliography: Samsam al-Dawla Shah Nawaz 
Khan, Mahathir al-Umard> (Bibliotheca Indica), 
i, 463-66; Ghulam 'AH Khan Nakawi, 'Irndd al- 
Sa'ddal, Lucknow 1864; Muhammad Fayd 
Bakhsh, Farah Bakhsh (Eng. Transl. by W. Hoey), 
Allahabad 1888-9; S. Kamal al-Din Haydar, 
Ta^rikh-i Awadh, 2 vols (Urdu transl.) Lucknow 
1879; Durga Parshad "Mihr" Sandili, Bustdn-i 
Awadh, Lucknow 1892; Mawlawi Ibn-i Hasan, 
Burhdn-i Awadh (Ms. Subhan Allah Coll. Muslim 
University, Aligarh); Nadjm al-Ghanl Rampurl, 
Ta'rikh-i Awadh (in Urdu), 5 vols., Lucknow 1918; 
Ghulam Husayn Khan Tabatabal, Siyar al- 
Muta'akhkhirin, vol. ii, Lucknow 1314/1897; A. L. 
Srivastava, The First Two Nawabs 0/ Oudh, 
Lucknow 1933 (this work contains a very com- 
prehensive and critical bibliography) ; Cambridge 
Hist, of India, iv, index ; A History of the Freedom 
Movement, vol. i, Karachi 1957, 210-13; Storey, 
i/ii-3. 703-13- See also the articles nadir shah and 
awadh, and William Irvine, Later Mughals, ii, 55-7, 
287 fi., 343-7, 352 ff- (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

BURHANPOR, town in Madhya Pradesh (India) 
situated in 21° 18' N. and 76 14' E., along the north 
bank of the Tapti, with bathing-steps (ghats) on the 
river-side and a solid masonry wall, pierced by a 
number of massive gates and wickets, on all the 
other sides. This wall was constructed by Nizam 
al-Mulk Asaf Djah 1 \q.v.~\ in 1141/1728, during his 
governorship of Burhanpur. The population in 1951 
was 70,066. While the walled town occupies an 
area of 2'/ 2 sq. miles, numerous remains outside 
show that the suburbs, which now comprise c Adil- 



t have 



This town, which was of great st 



ic importanc 



BURHANTOR — BORI-BARS 



during the medieval period, was founded by Nasir 
Khan al-Faruki, founder of the Farufci dynasty of 
KhandSsh (renamed Dandesh by Akbar after his 
son Mirza Daniyal, but the name never caught the 
popular fancy) in or about 801/1 398-9 and named 
after the Deccan saint Burhan al-DIn Gharib [q.v.]. 
Another town on the other side of the Tapti was 
also founded at the same time and c?lled Zaynabad, 
after Shaykh Zayn al-Din Da'ud al-Shirazi, one of 
the khulafd' of Burhan al-Din Gharib. 

In 969/1561 Burhanpur was sacked by Pir 
Muhammad Shirwani, a servant of Bayram Khan 
[q.v.], who massacred the inhabitants and carried 
off immense booty. It continued to be the capital 
of the Faruki dynasty till its overthrow by Akbar 
in 1010/1601 when the kingdom was annexed to the 
Mughal empire, although the town itself had been 
occupied by the imperial forces under the command 
of Abu '1-Fadl 'Allami [q.v.], in 1008/1599. c Abd 
al-Rahim, khdn-i khdndn [q.v.] was appointed 
governor and stayed in Burhanpur for a very long 
period. It was here in Burhanpur that his eldest 
son, Mirza Iridj (entitled Shahnawaz Khan), died; 
his father built a tomb over his grave. Sir Thomas 
Roe, the English ambassador, had waited on Parwiz, 
Pjahangir's eldest son, in this very town in 1023/1614. 
In 1025/1616 Shahdjahan, then prince Khurram, 
made it his general headquarters during his Deccan 
campaigns. Prince Parwiz died here in 1036/1626 and 
Awrangzib accused his father Shahdjahan, after the 
latter's deposition, of having poisoned him. In 
1040-2/1630-2 it again formed the base of Shah- 
djahan's military operations against the Deccan 
states when a great famine, resulting in an extremely 
heavy death-roll, devastated the town. In 1041/1631 
the empress Mumtaz Mah.aU, consort of Shahdjahan, 
died here and was temporarily interred in Zaynabad, 
before the removal of her dead body to Agra for a 
permanent burial. In 1046/1636 Awrangzib, then a 
youth of 18 years of age, was appointed governor of 
the Deccan, including KhSndesh, and he made 
Burhanpur his headquarters. It was during his 
viceroyalty of the Deccan that Awrangzib came to 
know Shaykh Nizam Burhanpur!, who remained in 
his employment for nearly forty years and was sub- 
sequently appointed chairman of the board of 
'ulamd' and jurists responsible for the compilation 
of al-Fatawd al-'Alamgiriyya [q.v.]. It was again in 
1092/1681 that Awrangzib encamped at Burhanpur 
before investing Bidjapur [q.v.]. Soon after the 
emperor left the town in 1096/1685, it was sacked 
by the Marathas. There followed a series of battles 
in its neighbourhood, and peace could only be 
restored to the harried town in 1132/1719 when the 
demand of the Marathas for levying the tawth (one 
fourth of the revenue) was formally conceded. In 
1 133/1720 when Nizam al-Mulk Asaf Djah I was 
appointed to the government of the Deccan, he also 
made it his headquarters. After his return from Delhi 
in 1137/1724 till his death in 1161/1748 Burhanpur 
continued to remain an important outpost of the new 
principality which Asaf Djah founded, and also served 
occasionally as his headquarters. After the death of 
Asaf Djah I it was occupied by the Marathas, who 
were only dispossessed by Lord Wellesley in 1218/ 
1803. It then changed hands several times and 
became finally a British possession in 1277/1860. In 
1266/1849 it was the scene of a terrible Hindu- 
Muslim riot which claimed many lives. In 1 265/1849 
a great fire completely gutted Sindhlpura, a quarter 
of the town peopled mainly by the descendants of 
early migrants from various towns in Sind. Next 



year a large number of houses in Dawudpura 
were gutted, while the third fire of 1 314/1897 
destroyed a part of Lohar Mandi, including the 
mosque in the Cawk. In 1321/1903 bubonic plague 
took a very heavy toll of life. 

Burhanpur contains a large number of tombs 
and shrines of saints and mystics, many of them, 
from Sind and Gudjarat, find mention in the 
Guhdr-i Abrdr, whose author, Muhammad Ghawthi, 
visited Burhanpur frequently. Among other buildings 
of note are the tombs of Mubarak Shah al-Faruki 
and Radje c Ali Khan entitled 'Adil Shah al-Faruki, 
the Djami c Masdjid, built by the latter in 997/1588, 
and the old fort, along the bank of the Tapti, now 
in a state of utter disrepair. A caravanserai built by 
the khdn-i khdndn c Abd al-Rahlin is still extant. 

Djahangir's system of water-supply for the 
town, completed in the nth/i7th century by the 
Khdn-i Khdndn. compares favourably with any 
modern waterworks system. Dunn,, the Mughal 
period Burhanpur housed a number of Imperial 
factories which produced quality and expensive 
cloth for the royal household. The workers in these 
kdrkhdnas were mostly skilled weavers from Thatta 
(Sind), who had migrated to Burhanpur during the 
governorship of the khdn-i khdndn. 

Bibliography: Mawlawl Khalil al-Rahman, 
Ta'rikh-i Burhanpur, Delhi 1317/1899; AHn-i 
Akbari (Eng. transl. Blochmann and Jarrett) iii 
223 and index; Muhammad Kasim "Firishta", 
Gulshan-i Ibrdhiml, Bombay 1831; Sudjan Ray 
Bhandari, Khuldsat al-Tdwdrikh (ed. Zafar Hasan) 
Delhi 1337/1918 index; c Abd al-Hamid Lahori, 
Bddshdh-ndma (Bib. Ind.) index; Muhammad 
SakI Musta c idd Khan, Ma'dthir-i 'Alamgiri (Bib. 
Ind.) index; Samsam al-Dawla Shahnawaz Khan. 
Mahathir al-Umard> (Bib. Ind.) index; Peter 
Mundy, Travels in Asia (ed. Richard Temple) 
Hakluyt Society, ii 1914, iii 1919; Travernier, 
Travels (ed. V. Ball) London 1889; Bhim Sen, 
Nuskha-i Dilgushd (MS); Yusuf Husayn Khan, 
Nifdm al-Mulk Asaf Didh, Mangalore 1936 index; 
Sayyid Muhammad MutJ' Allah Rashid Burhan- 
purl, Burhanpur ki Sindhl Awliyd* (in Urdu), 
Karachi 1957; Imperial Gazetteer of India, Oxford 
1908, ix 104-6; Sa'id Ahmad Marahrawi in 
Makhzan (Urdu monthly) Lahore, Aug. 1908; 
Isma'il Faralil, Kashf al-Uakd'ik (MS); c Abd al- 
Hayy al-Busaynl, Rawd'ih al-Anfds (MS. in 
Persian, being the Malfuzdt of Burhan al-DIn 
Raz-i Uahi of Burhanpur); <Abd al-Bakl Niha- 
wandi, Ma'dthir-i Rahimi (Bib. Ind.), index; 
Muhammad SSlih Kanboh, '■Amal-i Sdlih (Bib. 
Ind.), index; Ma'drif (Urdu monthly), A'zamgarh 
67/v, 72/ii; Cambridge History of India, iv 575-6; 
Kh w afi Khan, Muntakhab al-Lubdb, (Bibliotheca 
Indica), index; The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to 
India (ed. William Forster), London 1926, index; 
Nizam al-DIn Ahmad, Jabakdt-i Akbari (English, 
transl.), index. (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

BCRl b. AYYCB [see ayyubids]. 
BCRl TADJ al-MULCK [see burids]. 
BORl-BARS b. Alp Arslan, the Saldjuk, was 
sent by Barkiyaruk against Arslan Arghun, another 
son of Alp Arslan, who was trying to make himself 
independent in Khurasan. In the struggle between 
the two brothers, Burl-Bars was at first successful, 
but in the second encounter, in 488/1095, his troops 
were scattered and he himself was taken prisoner 
and strangled by bis brother's orders. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Athlr, %, 179; Houtsma, 
Recueil, ii, 257- (Ed.) 



BCRl TAKlN [see karaiojAnids[. 

BCRIDS, a dynasty of Turkish origin 
which reigned in Damascus from 497/1104 to 549/ 
1 154. Its founder was the atabeg [q.v.] of Shams al- 
Muluk Dukak, sbn of the Saldjukid sultan Tutush 
(see saldjOijids). This atabeg, named Tughtakln 
and called Zahir al-DIn, was the confidant of sultan 
Tutush, and was entrusted with the direction of 
affairs in Damascus as early as 488/1095 by Dukak, 
whose mentor he had been. After the death of 
Dukak (12 Ramadan 497/18 June 1104), Tughtakln 
continued to exercise power in the name of the 
deceased prince's young son, Tutush, who in turn 
died shortly after his father. From that moment, 
Tughtakln became the master of Damascus. His 
dynasty was founded, and it endured until the 
capture of Damascus by Amir Nur al-DIn Zanki on 
10 Safar 549/25 April 1154- Tughtakln ruled until 
his death, 8 Safar 522/1 1 February 1128. He was 
replaced by his son Tad] al-Muluk Burl, who died 
as a result of an attempt made against his life on 
21 Radjab 526/6 June, 1132. Just before he expired 
he named as his successor his son Abu '1-Fadl 
Isma £ Il, called Shams al-Muluk, who was himself 
assassinated by his slaves on 14 Rabl c II 529/30 
January 1135, by order of his own mother. His 
brother, Shihab al-Din Mahmud, followed him, and 
was murdered by three of his servants on 23 Shawwal 
533/23 June 1139. His brother Djamalal- Din Mu- 
hammad, governor of Ba'lbak, was summoned to 
replace him, and died as the result of an illness 
8 Sha'ban 534/29 March 1140. The military chiefs 
then raised to power the son of Djamal al-DIn, 
<Abd al-Dawla Abu Said Abak, called Mudjlr al- 
DIn, who left the responsibilities of administration 
to his atabeg, Mu c In al-DIn Unur, until the death of 
the latter on 23 Rabl c II 544/30 August 1149. He 
then took the direction of affairs into his own hands, 
but was very soon obliged to accept the domination 
of the Zangid Nur al-Din, by whom he was driven 
from Damascus in 11 54. 

During the fifty years that the dynasty lasted, the 
Burid rulers received their investiture from the 
caliph and from the sultan of Baghdad, who, in 
exchange for considerable gifts, did not interfere 
in the internal affairs of the principality. 

Throughout this period, the Burid princes were 
confronted by situations which often were very 
difficult. When Tughtakln assumed authority, the 
territory of Damascus was in immediate prox- 
imity to the Frankish states of Antioch, Tripoli, 
and Jerusalem. The Franks of Jerusalem menaced 
the regions from which Damascus clearly acquired 
its food provisions; that is, Hawran and the plains 
of Upper Jordan and of Yarmuk. In order to avoid 
risking the entire loss of these indispensable terri- 
tories, and to safeguard the communications of 
Damascus with Egypt and Arabia, the Burid 
princes were induced to negotiate with the Franks 
on several occasions, and even to conclude with 
them genuine treaties of alliance. They made them 
all the more easily since the treaties were not always 
looked upon with very much apprehension by their 
Muslim neighbours. Tughtakln did try to co-operate 
with the Egyptian garrisons, who still held some 
coastal positions, Tyre for example, but with little 
success or effect. On the other hand, the masters of 
Baghdad were prejudiced by the tortuous politics 
of the Damascus rulers, so much so that the latter 
were repeatedly obliged to appear before the sultan 
and the caliph to justify their actions. Finally, from 
524/1130, when the Zangid amirs, c Imad al-DIn and 



his son Nur al-DIn became masters of Aleppo, they 
grew progressively more threatening toward Damas- 
cus. With the exception of Shams al-Muluk, who was 
preparing to deliver the city to £ Imad al-DIn when 
he was assassinated, the Burid princes were therefore 
not displeased to find support in the Franks against 
the covetousness of the princes of Aleppo. However, 
the unprofitable attack by the Franks on Damascus 
during the second Crusade (July 1148) ended this 
policy and hastened the taking of Damascus by Nur 
al-DIn. 

The internal situation of the city was no less 
troubled during the Burid epoch. The lower orders 
of the town, organised into a sometimes very 
turbulent militia (ahddth), frequently participated 
in the political life of the city under the direction 
of those enterprising persons known by the term 
raHs. Over against the militia and actively opposing 
it, at least on one occasion, was a rural class. Led 
into action by the Isma'Ilis [q.v.] or Bdfiniyya, this 
group also played an important rdle, particularly in 
522/1128, with the complicity of some highly placed 
persons. It was not the first time that the Isma c ills 
used Damascus as the arena of their activities; 
several political murders had been perpetrated there 
by them, notably that of Amir Mawdud the ruler 
of Mawsil, on 18 Rabl £ II 507/2 October, 11 13. 
Amir Tadj al-Muluk Burl was also their victim in 
1132. 

Until the end, or until just a little before the end, 
the Burid princes could count on the support of 
their Turkish troops whose loyalty was unfailing, 
and on the neutrality, growing steadily less bene- 
volent, of the bourgeoisie. The latter were not 
opposed to the dynasty so long as it maintained 
order and assured, as best it could, the security of 
commercial transactions. But as the situation 
deteriorated after the death of Tadj al-Muluk Burl, 
the middle classes of Damascus showed themselves 
to be increasingly impressed by the prestige of Nur 
al-DIn, and facilitated his entrance into Damascus. 
Thus, as long as the Burid dynasty was repre- 
sented by men of ability such as Tughtakln 
and his son, it had no difficulty in retaining its 
power in Damascus; but the last twenty years, 
apart from the administration of Mu c In al-DIn Unur, 
were characterised by sometimes bloody rivalries 
and by growing economic difficulties. Also the 
population of Damascus, principally the bourgeoisie, 
who had never whole-heartedly supported the 
Bflrids, no longer saw any reason for linking its 
destiny with that of the dynasty. The last prince, 
Mudjlr al-Din, left the city amid indifference, if 
not hostility. 

Bibliography: Recueil des Historiens des 
Croisades, Hist. Oct., t. i, iii, iv, and v; Hist. Or., 
i (extracts from Kdmil fi 'l-Ta'rikh of Ibn al- 
Athlr) and ii (Histoite des Atabecs de Mossoul, 
by the same author); Ibn al-KalanisI, Dhayl 
Ta'rtkh Dimaskk, ed. Amedroz, under the title: 
History of Damascus, 363-555 A.H., Leiden 
1908, part, trans, H. A. R. Gibb, The Damascus 
Chronicle of the Crusades, London 1932, and R. 
Le Tourneau, Damas de 1075 a 1154, Damascus 
1952; CI. Cahen, La Syrie du Nord d I'ipoque 
des Croisades et la principautf franque d'Antioche, 
Paris 1940; R. Grousset, Histoire des Croisades 
et du royaume franc de Jerusalem, Paris 1934, i 
and ii; S. Runciman, A History of the Crusades, 
Cambridge 1951, i and ii; A History of theCrusades, 
i, Pennsylvania 1955. (R. Le Tourneau) 



al-BOrINI - 

al-BURInI, al-Hasan b. Muhammad al-Di- 
mashkI al-SaffOrI Badr al-DIn, an Arab 
historian and poet, born in the middle of 
Rimadan 963/July 1556, at Saffuriya in Galilea, 
came >,vhen 10 years old with his father to Da- 
mascus, where he received his education at the 
Madrasa al-Salihiyya. After the completion of his 
studies, which he had to interrupt in 974/1567 
by a four years' stay in Jerusalem on account of 
famine, he lectured in various madrasas. In the 
year 1020/1611 he acted as Kadi to the Syrian 
pilgrim caravan. He died on the 13th Djumada I 
1024/nth June 1615. His chief work is the col- 
lection of biographies entitled Tarddjim al-A c ydn 
min Abnd* al-Zamdn, containing accounts of 205 
individuals which he had collected at long intervals 
and completed in 1023/1614; it was edited by Fadl 
Allah b. Muhibb Allah in 1078/1667 and published 
with a supplement (cf. Ahlwardt, Verzeichnis der 

arab. Hdss Berlin, no. 9889; Flugel, Die arab., 

pers. ttnd ttirk. Hdss. . . . Wien, no. 1190; Fihrist al- 
Kutubkhdne al-Khidiwiye, v. 33) ; his Diwdn is pre- 
served in Istanbul (Kopriilu, no. 1287). There are 
some of his poems in Berlin (Mardthi on the Sufi 
Muhammad b. Abi '1-Barakat al-Kadiri, s. Ahlwardt, 
op. cit. no. 7858, 3), Gotha (poetic epistle to As c adb. 
Mu'In al-Din al-Tibrizi al-Dimashkl, with the latter's 
reply, cf. Pertsch, Die arab. Hdss. der heriogl. Bibl., 
no. 44, 23) and London {Catalogus Codd. Or. Mtts. 
Brit., ii, no. 630, 2). Lastly he also wrote a commen- 
tary on the Diwdn of 'Umar b. al-Farid, lith. Cairo 
1279; he completed the commentary on the TdHyya 
al-Sughrd in 1002/1593, cf. Derenbourg, Les Mss. 
Or. de I'Escurial no. 420, 4. 

Bibliography: al-Nu'manl, al-Rawi al- c A(ir 

(cod. Wetzstein), ii, 289; Ahlwardt, op. cit., no. 

9886), fol. H2 V ; MuhibbI, Kh»lasat al-Athar, ii, 

51; ai-KhafadjI, Rayhdnat al-Alibbd', Cairo 1294, 

17-22; Wustenfeld, Die Geschichtsschreiber der 

Araber, no. 551; Muljammad Kurd C A1I, in 

MMIA, iii, 193-202; Brockelmann, II, 374, 

S II, 401. (C. Brockelmann) 

BURMA. Islam made its first major inpact in 

the early 15 th century through the King of Arakan, 

Narameihkla. This monarch returned from exile in 

Bengal in 1430, accompanied by Muslim followers. 

He set up his capital at Mrohaung, where the 

Sandikhan mosque was erected. Subsequent Arak- 

anese kings, although Buddhists, used Muslim 

designations, and even issued medallions bearing 

the kaUma. Muslim influence was intensified when 

Prince Shudja', brother of 'Alamgir, fled to Arakan 

in 1660. Shudja* was murdered by King Sanda- 

thudamma and his treasure sequestrated, but his 

followers were retained at court as Archers of the 

Guard, in which rdle they frequently intervened as 

kingmakers. Descendants of these Mughal courtiers 

remain distinctive to this day. Before the 19th 

century, Muslim presence in Burma proper was 

confined to small numbers of Gudjarati traders and 

certain gunners and other foreign technicians 

conscripted into the service of the Kings of Ava. 

The British annexation of Arakan in 1826 led to an 

influx of Muslims from Cittagong into coastal 

towns, particularly Akyab. The annexation of 

Lower Burma (1852) was followed by large-scale 

Indian immigration from the 1880's onwards. The 

1931 Census (the last to be completed in detail) 

gives a Muslim population of 584,839, out of a total 

of 14,667,146. Of the Muslims, 396,504 were of 

Indian origin; 1,474 were Chinese (Panthay); and 

186,861 were indigenous, mainly Arakanese. Muslim 



1333 

Arakanese were among the early officials and police 
officers under the British; they took advantage of 
higher education and many were prominent in 
government service, banking, and business. Cit- 
tagonian Muslims supplied almost all the crews of 
the coastal and river-steamers. Isma'ills (Khodias) 
and Gudjaratls dominated the retail trade. The 
1930's were a decade of depression and some 
resentment was vented upon Muslims, conspicuous 
in the economy. Violent riots occurred in 1930 and 
'38; the latter lasted from July to December, and 
were fiercest in Rangoon and Mandalay; some 200 
Muslims were killed. Following the Japanese in- 
vasion (1942) many Indians fled; numbers returned 
after the war, but they are less than before. The 
total Muslim population in 1958 is probably slightly 
higher than in 1931, perhaps 600,000 (the Census 
of 1953-4 is quite incomplete). About half are from 
India and Pakistan. A political organisation, the 
Burma Muslim Congress, was formed in 1945 and 
is affiliated to the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom 
League, the government coalition party. Two 
Muslims have been Cabinet Ministers during the 
greater period since independence: M. A. Rashld 
(b. 1912) a leading trade unionist and business man, 
and U Khin Maung Lat ( c Abd al-Latif, b. 1913) 
a lawyer. The leaders of independent . Burma, 
notably U Nu, lay great stress upon their Buddhist 
heritage; Muslims are accepted as equal citizens, 
but a number of irritants to good relations have 
existed. The Mudjahid revolt in northern Arakan led 
by Kasim, a fisherman, aimed at union of this area 
with Pakistan. The Mudjahids terrorised the 
Buthidaung-Maungdaw area from 1948 to '54, but 
with the imprisonment of Kasim in a Pakistan gaol 
their activities were greatly reduced. In September 
1954, a national political crisis was created by 
widespread monastic protests against Islamic 
teaching in state schools, but in general relations are 
Harmonious. In Arakan, where Buddhists and 
Muslims are intermingled, many Muslim customs 
are followed by the Buddhists, even beef-eating. 
But in Lower Burma beef-eating and animal 
sacrifice at the 'Id are actively discouraged. The 
Burma Muslim Dissolution of Marriages Act, passed 
in March 1953, gave Muslim women equal rights to 
those of Buddhists: equal opportunity to divorce 
their husbands, and the right to retain their marriage 
portion on dissolution of the union. The act evoked 
Muslim protests outside Burma, but was accepted 
by the Burma Muslim Congress. Married Burmese 
Muslim women do not take the veil or observe 
purdah. In 1955, U Nu as Prime Minister initiated 
a project to translate the Kur'an into Burmese. 
Bibliography: Census of India, 1931, xi 
(Burma), Rangoon 1933; H. Tinker, The Union 
of Burma, London 1957. (H. Tinker) 

BURSA, also called Burusa by the Ottomans 
afier the ancient city of Prusa (7tpouaa) on the 
northern foothills of Mysian Olympus, became the 
main capital of the Ottoman state between 
726-805/1326-1402. 

It was mentioned by Pachymeres along with 
Nicaea and Philadelphia as one of the three principal 
cities still in the hands of the Byzantines when the 
Turkish borderers invaded the whole of western 
Anatolia about 699/1300. 

According to c Ashik Pashazade (ed. Fr. Giese, 
22-23) the Ottomans were able to lay siege to Bursa 
for the first time when they invaded the Bursa plain 
after their victory over the Byzantine Tekfur [q.v.] 
of Bursa who, in alliance with the other Tekfurs had 



1334 BU 

attempted to stop the Ottomans at the pass of Dinboz, 
about 717/1308. This first siege failed. After 
blockading it for many years (cf. 'Ashik Pashazade, 
28-29; Ibn Battuta, Paris 1877, ii, 3 '7! Pachy- 
meres quoted by A. Wachter, Der Verfall des Griechen- 
tums in KleinaMn, Leipzig 1903, 55), the starved 
city had to surrender to the Ottomans (2 Djumada I 
726/6 April 1326), and to pay a heavy tribute 
(Pachyraerts, loc. cit.; in Neshrl, ed. Taeschner, i, 
39, 30,000 flori). The Byzantine commander was 
allowed to leave Bursa for Istanbul but his chief 
adviser, Saroz ( ?) who was responsible for the 
surrender, remained with the Ottomans ('Ashik 
Pashazade, 29 ; Neshrl, i, 39). The Greek metropolitan 
of Bursa continued to excercise his duty there under 
the Ottomans but his revenues diminished con- 
siderably (A. Wachter, loc. cit.). The Greeks were 
apparently removed from the castle to a district below 
it where we still find them in the Kadi records of the 
15th century. The castle itself was settled by the Otto- 
mans and the court 1036/1432 B. de La Broquiere 
(136) reported that the castle contained 1000 houses. 
Another description of it, in 1050/1640, is found in 
Ewliya' Celebi (Vol. ii, 9). Orkhan [q.v.] had his 
palace (Beg-sarayl) within its walls near the 
Byzantine church which had been converted into 
a mosque (Ibn Battuta, ii ; 322). This locality 
overlooking the plain is called today Tophane. An 
inscription of 738/1337-38 found near it shows that he 
had also a mosque built there (A. Tewhld, Bursa'da 
en eski kitdbe, in TOEM, v, 318-320.) Orkhan made 
Bursa his capital and had his first silver coin, the 
afsia, struck there in 727/1327 (Belleten, x, 207). In 
740/1339-40 below the castle on the plain he built a 
mosque, an Hmdret, a bath and a caravanserai (Beg- 
khanl). This group of public buildings became the 
centre of Ottoman Bursa and the place is still the 
most lively commercial centre in Bursa. New 
districts such as c Ala' al-Dln-beg, Coban-beg, Kodja 
Na'ib, came into existence in this period, and towards 
734/ I 333 Ibn Battuta {ibid.) described Bursa as 
'a large and great city with attractive bazaars and 
large streets'. During the subsequent reigns new 
religious and commercial centres with generous 
endowments were established by the Sultans and 
high officials in other parts of the locality. These 
became nuclei of the new districts of Bursa such as 
Ytldtrtm, Emir-sultan, Sultan-Mehmed (today Yeshil) 
etc. A particularly great development of the city 
took place during the reign of Bayazid I [q.v.]. Ulu- 
Djami c , the Great Mosque, was erected in 802/1399. 
J. Schiltberger, a contemporary eye-witness, says: 
"The city contains two hundred thousand (?) 
houses and eight hospitals (Hmdret) where poor 
people are received whether they be Christians, 
infidels or Jews" (ed. Telfer, 40). After Timur's 
victory over Bayazid I in 804/1402 a contingent 
of his army plundered and burned down Bursa. 
From that time on Adrianople (see Edirne) 
replaced Bursa as the principal capital {ddr al- 
salfana) of the Ottoman state, though during the 
civil war (806-816/1403-1413), each party tried hard 
to gain control of Bursa as well as Adrianople. 
During the prosperous reign of Murad II [q.v.] who 
was enthroned in Bursa, the city made a quick 
recovery and greatly expanded. The new districts 
named after and endowed by Sultan Murad, Fadl 
Allah Pasha, HadjdjI 'Iwad Pasha, Hasan Pasha, 
Umur Beg, Djebe-'AII Beg, Shihab al-DIn Pasha and 
Revkhan were formed. In 836/1432 B. de La Broquiere 
observed: "Cesie ville de Bourse est bien bonne 
ville et bien marchande, et est la meilleure ville que 



le Turc aye". Before Mehemmed II [q.v.] made 
Istanbul his capital, Bursa had risen as a rival of it, 
but then many of the citizens of Bursa were ordered 
to migrate to the new capital. Bursa, however, 
benefited economically from the great expansion of 
the empire under this Sultan. Moreover he continued 
to use it as headquarters of his campaigns in the east. 
During the civil war after his death (886/1481) the 
people of Bursa took sides with Diem [q.v.] who 
maintained himself there as sultan for 18 days. He 
had coins struck there in his name and planned to 
rule at least over Anatolia with Bursa as his capital. 
The town continued to be considered one of the 
three capitals of the empire and the palace of Bursa 
was maintained and occasionally used by the Sultans 
as late as in the nth/i7th century (Pecewi, ii, 313; 
Ewliya' Celebi, ii, 10). 

An idea can be obtained about the population 
growth of the city from the figures included in the 
Ottoman registers of the 'awdrid [q.v.] units of 
families. Thus for example there were 5000 c awarid 
families under Mehemmed II, 6456 in 892/1487, and, 
6351 in 936/1530. In the middle of the ioth/i6th 
century P. Belon {Les observations, 451) made the 
remark that "Encores de present Bource est aussi 
riche et aussi peuplee que Constantinople et osons 
dire d'avantage qu'elle est plus riche que Con- 
stantinople. La richesse de Bource provient de la 

In 985/1577 for security reasons strong gates with 
guardians were erected between the districts by a 
special order of the Sultan. The Albanians immi- 
grating from Rumeli to the city had by then become 
a real threat (documents in H. T. Dagfioglu, 16. 
astrda Bursa, Bursa 1943). Then from 1003/1595 on 
the Djalall [q.v.] bands threatened the city and in 
1 017/1608 Kalenderoghlu [q.v.] came to plunder it 
(Na'ima, ii, Istanbul 1283, 27). 

Bursa was the chief city of the sandiaft called 
Khudawendigar or Beg in the eydlet of Anadolu 
[q.v.]. In 1248/1832 Bursa became the capital city 
of the newly formed eydlet of Khudawendigar, which 
included the mutasarrifllks of Bursa, Karahisar, 
Kiitahya, Biledjik, Erdek, and Biga, and when in 
1281/1864 a wildyet of Khudawendigar was formed 
with the liwds of Karesi, Kodja-ell, Karahisar, 
Kiitahya, Bursa became the seat of the wdli. It had 
in 1310/1892 a population of 76,000 of which 5,158 
were Greeks, 7,541 Armenians, 2,548 Jews and the 
rest Muslims. There were 165 mosques, 57 schools, 
27 madrasas, 7 Hmdrets, 7 churches, 3 synagogues, 
49 caravanserais, 36 factories ( Khudawendigar 
Wildyeti Sdlndmesi for the year 1310/1892). 

It can be said that Bursa had a greater economic 
than political significance in Ottoman history. It 
soon became an international market as it was, 
under the Ottomans, one of the closest of the 
Muslim centres to the Christian world. In fact 
Iranian silk caravans increasingly came to the 
Bursa market, partially abandoning earlier ones 
such as Trebizond and Aleppo. Already around 
802/1400 it was, as can be understood from 
Schiltberger (34), one of the international centres 
of the silk trade and industry. The main silk route 
to Bursa passed through Tabriz, Erzurum and Tokat. 
Other important trade routes also converged in this 
city then. The ancient diagonal route Aleppo- 
Konya-Kiitahya seems to regain its importance 
during this period. In 836/1432 B. de La Broquiere 
(55-59) joined a Mecca caravan in Damascus which 
followed this route, and the spices it brought were 
sold to the Genoese merchants of Pera in Bursa. 



The Damascus-Aleppo-Bursa route on the one hand 
and the sea route of Antalya-Alexandria on the 
other grew in importance during the 9th/i5th century 
because of the active trade in spices, sugar, dyes, 
soap and perfumes coming from Egypt and Syria to 
Bursa. Moreover, merchants from India used these 
routes to come to trade in Bursa. Thus for example 
about 885/1480 the agents of Mahmud Gawan [q.v.] 
were importing Indian goods to Bursa. This trade 
must have been important enough for the Floren- 
tines about 874/1470 to hope to obtain their spices 
in the Bursa market. But it must be added that 
because of higher prices in Bursa the spice trade 
there never developed to such a degree as to make 
it a competitor of the Egyptian markets. About 
892/1487 the customs duties on dyes and pepper 
brought to Bursa amounted to 100 thousand aA<5»s 
(about 2,500 Venetian ducats) yearly (Basvekalet 
Arsivi, Istanbul, tapu def. no. 23, mukd\a l dt of 
Bursa). But Bursa remained the most important 
emporium of Eastern goods for Istanbul, the Balkans 
and even for Eastern Europe until the nth/i7th 
century. 

The silk trade and industry in Bursa was 
the basis of its prosperity. Caravans from Tabriz 
brought to Bursa the precious silk of Gilan, Astarabad 
and Sari, and this was the subject of a very active 
trade there as the records of the kadis of Bursa 
(preserved today in the Bursa Museum) and the 
Medici documents published by G. R. B. Richards 
(Florentine Merchants in the Age of the Medici, 
Cambridge, Mass. 1932) attest. The Genoese, Vene- 
tians and Florentines, who usually had their agents 
in Bursa, were in keen competition to buy as much 
silk as they could, and the usual practice in this 
trade was to exchange the silk for the woollen cloth 
which they imported. In 906/1501 Maringhi, an 
agent in Bursa for the Medici, estimated that one 
load (fardello) of silk made 70 to 80 ducats of profit. 
In the year of 884/1479 the total value of the silk 
imported there from Iran amounted to about 150 
thousand Venetian ducats. Most of this silk was 
consumed by the local silk industry. In 907/1502 
an official inspection showed that more than one 
thousand looms were active in this industry in Bursa 
(Bursa Ihtisab Kanunu, ed. 0. L. Barkan, Tarih Vesi- 
kalari Dergisi, vii, 30). It was in private hands and 
had created there a prosperous Muslim bourgeoisie. 
The upptr and middle class people constituted about 
70 per cent of the population of Bursa in the second 
half of the 15th century (see Iktisat Fakiiltesi 
Mecmuast, Istanbul, xv, no. 1-4, 55-57). Workers 
in the silk industry were mostly slaves and after a 
time many of them were freed and became in turn 
entrepreneurs themselves. The ihtisab [q.v.] regu- 
lations mentioned above describe in detail various 
groups engaged in this business and the processes 
by which different kinds of silks were manufactured. 
The precious brocades (kemhd) and gold velvets 
(mudhahhab kadife) of Bursa were exported and 
much sought after in Europe, Egypt and Iran, but 
the main consumer was the Ottoman court (see 
T. C*z, Turk Kumaslan, Istanbul 1946; R. Anhegger- 
H. Inalcik, Kanunndme-i Sul(dni ber muceb-i 't)r/-i 
'Osmdni, Ankara 1956, 36). Light silks called vale 
and tdfta (taffeta) were produced in Bursa and 
exported in great quantities for wider use. 

The considerable commercial activity of Bursa is 
further attested by many caravanserais (khans) built 
in the 9th/i5th century such as Ipek-khant under 
Mehemmed I, Mahmud Pasha-khan! under Mehem- 
med II, and the larger khans called Koza-khant and 



SA 1335 

Pirinc-khant under Biyezld II. Bursa became- also 
an entrepdt for the cotton textiles of western 
Anatolia, which were exported especially to Rumeli 
and to Eastern Europe. The yearly tax revenues on 
the imported goods in Bursa amounted to about 
140 thousand ducats in 892/1487 (Basvekalet Arsivi, 
tapu def. no. 23). The principal mint (see parbhAne) 
of copper and silver coins was located in Bursa, 
and this monopoly brought in a yearly revenue 
of 6,000 ducats at the same date. 

Between 1007/1599 and 1037/1628 'Abbas the 
Great attempted to divert Persian silk from the 
Ottoman market (see Belleten, no. 60, 665), and this 
induced the Ottomans to encourage silk production 
in Bursa and its environs. In the I2th/i8th century 
the production of good quality silk in Europe (Italy, 
France) and the competition of Izmir [q.v.'] as a 
market of Eastern goods affected Bursa's former 
prosperity (P. Masson, Hist, du commerce Francais 
dans le Levant, Paris 1911, ii, 492). It, however, 
continued to produce Bursa silk cloth for internal 
consumption. In the I3th/igth century this local 
market too was invaded by cheap cotton and silk 
products from Europe. In 1262/1846 D. Sandison, the 
British Consul in Bursa, wrote that "Bursa silk and 
cotton stuffs were always falling in disuse" (Public 
Record Office, F.O. 78,701). British, German and 
Swiss imitations of the Bursa silks and cottons were 
in great demand in Bursa itself. But, in 1253/1837, 
Bursa was saved from becoming a mere producer 
of raw silk for Western countries by the introduction 
of steam power in the local industry. Filatures were 
35 in number twenty five years later and the pro- 
duction of raw silk reached one thousand tons by 
1332-1914. This development was greatly affected at 
the time of war of independence (1337-1341/1919- 
1922). But under the protectionist policy of the 
Turkish Republic a partial recovery was achieved 
in silk production (140 tons of raw silk in 1958). 
On the other hand Bursa textile industry made 
tremendous progress because artificial silk now 
provided the raw material (6,000 power looms in 
1958). Moreover the establishment of a large 
woollen factory in 1938 emphasised the indus- 
trial character of the city. Its population al- 
most doubled from 77,000 in 1940 to 131,000 in 
1955- 

Bibliography: Inscriptions: A. Tewhld, 
Bursa' da En Eski Kitdbe, in TOEM, v, 318; idem, 
Bursa' da Umur Beg Didmi 1 Kitdbesi, in TOEM, hi, 
865; idem, Ilk AM Pddishahlmlzin Bursa' da Kdi'n 
Tiirbeleri, in TOEM, iii, 977, 1047; M. 'Arif, 
Bursa'da Veled-i Ydnidj DidmiH, in TOEM, iii, 
967; H. B. Kunter, Kitdbelerimiz, Vaktflar 
Dergisi, ii (1938), 437-447; M. ?iya, Bursa'daki 
turbelerimizde gayr-i mektub Kitabeler, in TOEM, 
x-xiii, 129; Fr. Taeschner, Beitrage zur fruhosma- 
nischer Epigrafik und Archaeologie, in Der Islam, 
xviii, 60; xx, 109; xxii, 69; R. Mantran, Les in- 
scriptions arabes deBrousse, inB. Et. Or., xiv (1952), 
87-114; Monuments : H. Wilde, Brussa, eine Ent- 
wicklungsstdtte tiirkischer Architektur in Kleinasien 
unter den ersten Osmanen, Berlin 1909 ; A. Gabriel, 
Une capitate turque, Brousse, Parisjj>59 ; S: Cetintas, 
Turk Mimari Anitlart, Osmanh Devri, Bursa'da ilk 
Eserler, Istanbul 1946; K. Baykal, Bursa ve 
Anttlan, Bursa 1950; Kamil Kepccioglu, Bursa 
Hanlart, Bursa 1935; idem, Bursa Hamamlan, 
Bursa 1938; Documents: H. Inalcik, Bursa 
Sertye Sicillerinde Fatih Sultan Mehmed'in Ferman- 
lart, in Belleten 44 (1947), 693-708; idem, 15. astr 
Tiirkiye Iktisadi ve Ictimai Tarihi Kaynaklan, 



1336 



BURSA — BURSUK 



Iktisat Fakuliesi Mecmuast, Istanbul, xv, no. 1-4 
(1953-54). 51-57; H. Turhan Daghoglu, 16. 
as\rda Bursa, Bursa 1943; a number of documents 
selected from the official records of the kadis' of 
Bursa were published in Uludag, Bursa Halkevi 
Dergisi; 0. L. Barkan, Kanunndme-i Ihtisab-i 
Bursa {1502), Tarih Vesikalart Dergisi, ii, 7, 
15-40; A. Erzi, Bursa' da Ishakt Dervislerine 
mahsus Zaviyenin Vakfiyyesi, in Vaktflar Dergisi, 
ii (1942), 423-428; Biographies: Baldirzade 
Mehmed, Kiidb Rawdat al-awliyd', MS. Bursa 
Orhan camii Kutuphanesi no. 4; Isma'il Beligh, 
Guldeste-i Riydd-i 'Irfdn, ed. Esref, Bursa 1302; 
Esrefzade Seyh Ahmed Ziyaeddin, Wafaydt al- 
( urafd, MS. Orhan c. Kutuphanesi, Bursa, no. 58; 
Seyh Abdiillatif, Rawdat al-Muflihun, Orhan 
c. Kutuphanesi, idem, Bursa; Khuldsai al-watavdt. 
Siileymaniye Kiit, Esad efendi kitaplari; Baklrdj! 
Rashid Mehmed Efendi, Zubdat al-wakdyi'- der 
belde-i djelile-i Bursa, Fatih Millet Kutuphanesi, 
Istanbul; Bursal! Mehmed Tahir, 'Othmdnll Miiel- 
lifleri, i-iii, Istanbul 1333-1342; Travels : Ibn 
Battuta, Voyages, ed., and trans. C. Defremery 
and B. R. Sanguinetti, Paris 1853-8, 4 vols.; 
J. Schiltberger, Bondage and Travels, trans, from 
K. F. Neumann's German edition and ed. by 
J. B. Telfer, Hakluyt Society, London 1879, 40; 
B. de La Broquiere, Le Voyage d'Outremer, ed. 
Ch. Schefer, Paris 1892, 132-137; Ewliya' Celebi, 
Seyahdtndme, vol. 2, Istanbul 1314, 7-55! Katib 
Celebi, Djihdn-numd, Istanbul 1145, 657-8; 
P, Belon, Les Observations de plusieurs singularitis 
et choses mlmorables trouvles en Grece . . ., Paris 
1588, 450-1; I. P. de Tournefort, Relation d'un 
voyage du Levant, ii, Lyons 1717, 469; J. von 
Hammer, Umblick auf einer Reise von Konstan- 
tinopel nach Brussa, Pest 1818; A. Grisebach, 
Reise durch Rumelien und nach Brussa im Jahre 
1839, 2 vols. GSttingen 1841; A. D. Mordtmann, 
Anatolien, Skizzen und Reisebriefe aus Kleinasien, 
1850-1859, Hanover 1920; G. Perrot, Souvenir 
d'un voyage en Asie Mineure, Paris 1864; P. de 
Tchihatcheff, Asie Mineure, i, Paris 1866; E. 
Haeckel, Brussa und der asiatische Olymp, Berlin 
1875; V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, giographie 
administrative, vol. 4, Paris 1894; R. Hardtmann, 
Im neuen Anatolie, Leipzig 1928; J. Lewis Farley, 
The Resources of Turkey, London 1862 (A report 
of D. Sandison, British Consul in Bursa, is 
published in it; similar reports are preserved in 
Public Record Office, F. O. 195 : 113, 299, 393, 
598, 680, 721, 774); The sdlndmes (annuals) of 
Bursa were published regularly beginning with 
the year 1287/1870-1335/1917- Studies: Hasan 
Tai'b, Khdfira ydkhud Mir'dt-i Bursa, Bursa 1323 ; 
M. Sham' al-DIn, Yddigdr-i Shemsi, Bursa 1332; 
A. M. Turgut Koyunluoglu, Iznih ve Bursa Tarihi, 
Bursa 1937; K. Baykal, Bursa Yangmlart, Bursa 
1948; Neset Koseoglu, Tarihte Bursa Mahalleri, 
Bursa 1946; J. S61ch, Historisch-geographische 
Studie iiber bithynische Siedlungen-Nikomedia, 
Nikaa, Prusa, Byzantin.-neugriech. Jahrbucher, 
i, 1920; A. Wachter, Der Verfall des Griechen- 
tums in Kleinasien, Leipzig 1903; .the news- 
papers which appeared in Bursa under the 
Ottoman administration were Khuddwendigdr 
(official), Bursa, Giin-doghdu, Fawd'id. 

(H. Inalcik) 

BURSUK (Eastern Turkish = "badger"), one 

of the chief officers of the Great Saldjuks, 

whose descendants also played a notable r61e at 

the beginning of the 6th/i2th century. Bursuk, 



although youthful, entered history as one of the 
principal amirs in the service of Tughril-Beg, who 
after restoring control in Baghdad following the 
tragedies of the years 450-51/1058-59, made Bursuk 
his first shihna (military commander) in Baghdad. 
However, under the pacified Saldjukid organisation, 
the essential power belonged to the '■amid, the civil 
administrator, and it is not certain that there had 
been a shihna with any permanence in Baghdad for 
a dozen years. In any case, Bursuk did not remain 
in the position since we find him in 455/1063 as 
hddjib of the sultan whom he accompanied (Sibt Ibn 
al-Djawzi, Mir'dt al-Zaman, Bibl. Nat., Paris, Arab. 
1506, 87v.); then, in 456/1064, he was charged by the 
new sultan, Alp Arslan, to go and extract from a 
vassal arrears of tribute (ibid., 99V, ioov). Then, 
without our being able to explain the reason, silence 
enshrouds him for 15 years. We discover him again 
only around 471/1078, under Malikshah, sent to 
Anatolia against the Saldjukid rebel sons of Kutlu- 
mush, one of whom, Mansur, he killed but without 
being able to crush the other, Sulayman (Bar 
Hebraeus, Chronography, trans. Budge, 227). In 
479/1086, together with Buzan, he led the advanced 
guard of Malikshah's army, which on the death of 
Sulayman occupied Aleppo; and probably from 
there was dispatched to Asia Minor to combat the 
heir of Sulayman at Nicaea who, despite the efforts 
of the sultan, was supported by Alexius Comnenus, 
the Byzantine Emperor (Anna Comnena, Alexiad, 
Bonn ed., 302-11). It was probably on this occasion 
that he obtained from Constantinople the tribute of 
300,000 dinars about which Bundari speaks (ed. 
Houtsma, 70). A little later Bursuk organised the 
celebrations in Baghdad honouring the marriage of 
the caliph to a daughter of Malikshah. Following 
the death of the sultan, in the quarrels among the 
latter's heirs he took the part of Barkyaruk, particu- 
larly in the resistance to Tutush, and followed his 
prince to Isfahan, there falling victim to the Assassins. 
His sons avenged him by participating two years later 
(490/1091) in the execution of the Shi'i mustawfi of 
Barkyaruk, Madjd al-Mulk al-Balasani, whom they 
suspected of having been the instigator of the 
murder of Bursuk and of others as well. 

The sons of Bursuk — Zeftghi, Akburi, Ilbeki, and 
Bursuk — appear, generally speaking, as a close-knit 
family group, which remained attached to Barkyaruk 
as long as he lived, but which was more normally 
established on their iktd' of the province of 
Ahwaz, which, with Tustar, foremost town of 
the province, ware acknowledged to be hereditary, 
either legally or by fact of possession. Bursuk 
assisted Barkyaruk in recapturing Rayy from his 
brother Muhammad. Probably it was for this 
reason, when in 498/1105 Muhammad succeeded 
Barkyaruk who had died, that we find Zenghi 
incarcerated by the new sultan. But the family 
found a way to reconcile itself with Muhammad by 
refusing to follow the rebel Mangubars and by 
betraying him to the sultan. Zenghi, who would 
have been put to death, was set free, and although 
the sultan demanded from the Banu Bursuk the 
return of their iktd', in exchange he conceded to them 
DInawar. Furthermore, even this exchange appears 
to have been provisional; for we find the Banu 
Bursuk subsequently once more in possession of 
Tustar. Meanwhile, Bursuk (the son of Bursuk) was 
made by Muhammad governor of the province of 
Hamadhan, one of the capitals of the Empire (Ibn 
al-Kalanisi, ed. Amedroz, 174). 



BURSUK — BURTAS 



Firmly installed in power, Sultan Muhammad 
sought to organise war against the Franks in Syria. 
Bursuk b. Bursuk was one of the principal participants 
of the expedition of 505/im, which miscarried 
because of quarrels among the chiefs and the jealou- 
sies of the Syrian princes toward the "Easterners"; 
morepver, he was ill almost the whole time. But 
he received command of the expedition of 509/1 11 5. 
Again the circumstances were difficult, Ilghazi, the 
principal chief of the Diyar Bakr Turkomans, 
Tughtakin of Damascus, and Lu'lu 5 , regent of 
Aleppo, having made an alliance with the Franks 
against him. With such bases as Hims, where the 
prince was his friend, and Hama, which he con- 
quered, Bursuk attempted to dislodge the coalition 
army. He succeeded only on making contact, with- 
drawing, returning, and finally being overrun at 
Danith, to the east of the Orontes, by Roger, Prince 
of Antioch. He was preparing to take his revenge 
when he died, as did his brother Zenghi, in 510/1116. 
This death and that of Sultan Muhammad two 
years later, meant the end of political intervention 
by the Sultanate against the Franks. 

It is only on the occasion of the dissensions among 
the Saldjukids that the last heirs of Bursuk are 
heard of again, re-established in Khuzistan. Akburi 
and some of the sons of Zenghi and Ilbeki figured 
in the army employed by Sultan Mahmud against 
his uncle Sandjar, and Bursuk b. Bursuk participated 
in the complicated quarrels of Lower 'Irak. At the 
death of Mahmud, the brothers Tughril and Bursuk 
were found in the party of Tughril, who protected 
Sandjar; then, when he (Tughril) died, they joined 
the party of Da'ud, who had the support of the 
Caliph. Nevertheless, they were able in time to 
reconcile themselves with the conqueror Mas'ud 
(529-31/1134-1136). We cannot say whether it was 
one of these two whose death, under the name of 
Hamza b. Bursuk, is mentioned by Ibn Abi Tayyi 
(cited by Ibn al-Furat, NS. Vienna II, n5r°), as 
lord of Tustar in 533/1139. In any case, it appears 
this is the last mention of a member of the family 
whose heirs are no longer encountered among the 
vassals of the subsequent masters of Khuzistan. 

It was as an officer of the first Bursuk that Afc- 
Sunkur al-Bursuki [q.v.] began his career. 

Bibliography: In addition to the references 
given in the article: Ibn al-Athlr, Kdmil, x, xi, 
Index; c Imad al-DIn al-Isfahani in Bundari's 
version (Houtsma, Recueil, ii, index); Rawandi, 
Rdhat al-Sudiir, ed. Muh. Ikbal, index. For the 
Syrian campaigns, the sources are elaborated in 
CI. Cahen, La Syrie du Nord etc., 251-3, 271-4; 
cf. also Grousset, Histoire des Croisades, i, 463 ff., 
and 495 ff- (Cl. Cahen) 

al-BURSUKI [see ak sunijur]. 
al-BURT, pi. al-Burtat, a Spanish-Arabism 
derived from the Latin portus, the meaning of which 
the Arab authors explain as the equivalent of Arabic 
bdb, pi. abwdb. The triangular shape which the Arabs 
gave to the Iberian peninsula is well known. Follow- 
ing Ptolemy, they fixed its points at Tarifa in the 
south, at Cape Finisterre in the west, and in the east 
in the Narbonne area according to some, or the 
valley of the Llobregat according to others, or at 
Port-Vendres (Portus Veneris/Haykal al-Zuhara) 
according to a third group. The disagreement over 
the fixing of the third point arises from two causes, 
to which nobody has given the attention they 
deserve. In the first place, the Arab geographers of 
the Middle Ages had no clear idea of the Pyrenees, 
nor did they give a definite name to them; in the 



'337 

second place, they show the north-east frontier in 
ways which differ markedly according to the ideas 
of the times in which they lived and the political 
situation of the region. 

Some, the earliest, such as al-RazI and after him 
Ibn Hayyan and al-Yasa c , follow the Visigothic 
tradition and take the limits of the peninsula, as in 
Wamba's time, to the Narbonne area. Others, 
coming later, such as al-Bakri, who knew of the 
Frankish conquest of the Spanish marches, and had 
travelled through the country several times by land 
and sea, on hearing the Catalans of Barcelona and 
of the Pyrenean countries called Franks and taken 
for such, place the north-east limit on the line of 
the Llobregat; on this frontier al-Bakri mentions 
al-Burt (the Gate) in the Catalan coastal range; 
and in order to leave no room for doubt that the 
frontier between al-Andalus and the continent 
(al-ard al-kabira) stands on that river whose 
Latin name (Rubricatus) he knew, he states that 
the gates {abwdb) of the Djabal al-Burt face 
the islands of Majorca and Minorca. This 
testimony is confirmed by Ibn Sa'id, and al- 
Makkari accepts it as the most accurate since it 
is corroborated by many travellers. Ibn al-Abbar 
mentions more than once the famous battle during 
which the Almoravid amir Ibn 'A'isha died and 
calls it waki l at al-Burt (Christian sources refer to 
it as the battle of El Congost de Martorell) and Ibn 
Khaldun mentions the embassy which the Frankish 
count of Barcelona who was living on the other 
side of al-Burt sent to c Abd al-Rahman III. Al- 
Idrisi, on his part, who was writing in the second 
half of the 6th/i2th century, and witnessed the in- 
dependence of the Catalan-Aragonese kingdom, takes 
care not to call the Catalans Franks and puts the 
frontier of Spain at Port Vendres; in enumerating 
the 26 provinces or iklims of Andalusia he puts 
Tortosa, Tarragona, and Barcelona in the ifrlim of 
al-Burtat, further south than the Pyrenees, appearing 
to show that this Djabal al-Burt or al-Burtat was 
the centre of the iklim. 

Bibliography: Idrisi, text 176, tr. 211; 
Makkari, Analectes, i, 252-3 (quotations from 
Razi, Bakri, and Ibn Sa'id, i, 82-3) ; Ibn al-Abbar, 
Takmila, in BAH iv, 55, 309; Ibn Khaldun, c Ibar, 
iv, 142; Chronicle of Ripoll and Chronicle of 
Tortosa in Villanueva, Viaje literario, v, 247. 
(A. Huici Miranda) 
BURTAS, or Burdas (in al-Bakri Furdas), pagan 
tribe of the Volga basin. For an account of the 
Burtas and their neighbours the Khazars and the 
Bulghars, to the north and south, see Bulghar. Al- 
Mas'fidi (Muritdi, ii, 14 & Tanbih, 62) lists Burtas 
also as a river flowing into the Itil (Volga) ; Mar- 
quart identifies this stream with Samara (Streifziige, 
336). The sources do not mention any adherents to 
Islam among the Burtas, which contrasts with then- 
accounts of the Khazars and Bulghars. Yakut's 
report on the Burtas (i, 567) is based on a misunder- 
standing, as he applied Istakhri's remarks on the 
Bulghars (225) to the Burtas. The sources in which 
they are mentioned, Ibn Rusta (140 ff.), al-Bakri 
(Kunik & Rosen, Izviestiya al-Bekrt, etc., i, 44) and 
Gardizi, (Barthold, Ottet poyezdkie v Srednyuyu 
Aziyu, 96 ff.) content themselves with saying on the 
subject of the Burtas religion that they adhere to 
the same beliefs as the Ghuzz (Turks) and that some 
of them burn while others bury their dead. They 
allowed themselves to be outdistanced by their 
neighbours more in contact with civilisation. They 
lacked government authority, the direction of affairs 



1338 



BURTAS — BURTUKAL 



being entrusted to the elders of each tribe. The only 
commercial dealings of any importance between the 
Muslim World and the Burtas was the traffic in 
furs— the /tra 5 mentioned by Yakut (loc. tit.). 

The majority of authorities (V. V. Holmsted, 
A. P. Smirnov, P. D. Stepanov) identify the Burtas 
with the Finnish Mordve-Moksha (the "Moksel" of 
Rubruquis), clans which at the beginning of the 
Middle Ages inhabited the area between the upper 
basins of the rivers Khoper and Medveditza and the 
right branch of the Volga, extending so far north- 
wards until the Finns were the immediate neigh- 
bours of the Slavs. Others (A. I. Popov, A. E. 
Alikhova) locate their place of origin in the northern 
Caucasian steppes and argue that the Burtas 
emigrated northwards only at the time of the Golden 
Horde; others again (Sboev, Rittich) place them 
among the ancestors of the Cuwash. Tokarev believes 
that the Burtas were a Finnish tribe more or less 
Turkicised, and which finally was assimilated partly 
by the Mordve-Moksha and partly by the Cuwash. 
Russian chronicles from the 13th century onwards 
mention the Burtas as vassals of the Golden Horde. 
After the downfall of Kazan, their land was conquered 
and colonised by the Russians in the 16th century. 
At the beginning of the 18th one reads of insur- 
rections among them but from that time the name 
Burtas ceases to figure in Russian documents. 

The present Mordve (Mordva in Russian) are 
divided into two distinct groups: the Moksha and 
the Erzia, numbering about 1,450,000 souls (Soviet 
census 1939), living in an autonomous Soviet 
Socialist Republic (Autonomous SSR of the Mordve, 
capital Saransk). A large number of the Mordve, 
however, live outside their republic, notably in 
Tataristan, Bashkiria and Siberia. 

The Mordves were subject to strong Russian 
cultural influences, and from the 17th century 
adopted the Orthodox faith. One must, however, 
mention the existence of another Mordve-Moksha 
group living in the Tatar region (in the district of 
Kamsko-Ustinsk of the autonomous SSJ? of 
Tatarstan)— the Karatai. These from the 17th 
century have been subjected to Tatar influence and 
were completely 'Tatarised'. The Karatai have lost 
the use of their Finnish language and speak the 
Tatar of Kazan. Considered officially as Christian 
Orthodox, they are in fact crypto-Muslims. 

Bibliography: D. A. Chwolson, Izvestija o 
Khazarakh, Burtasakh, Bolgarakh Madyarakh, 
Slavyanakh i Rusakh Abu AH Ahmed ben Omar 
Ibn Dasta, St. Petersburg 1869; V. V. Barthold, 
Arabskie Izvestiya o rusakh, in Sovetskoe Vosto- 
kovedenie, I.; A. Kunik and V. Rosen, Izvestiya 
Al-Bekri i drugikh avtorov Rusi i slavanakh, 
St. Petersburg 1878; A. Y. Garwaki, Skazaniya 
musul' maskikh pisatelej o slavjanokh i russikh, St. 
Petersburg 1870; V. V. Holmsted, Burtas, in 
Kratkie Soobshleniya Instituta Izuleniya Mate- 
rial'noi Kul'turi, 1946, fasc. 13, 17-25; I. N. 
Smirnov, Morva, in Izvestiya Obshlestva Arkheo- 
logii, Istorii i Etnografii pri Kazanskom Un-te, x, 
xi, xii, Kazan 1892-1894; A. I. Popov, Burtast i 
Mordva, in Ulenie Zapiski Leningradskogo Un-ta, 
1948, no. 105, Oriental series, fasc. 2, part. 1, 
199-210; A. E. Alikhova, K voprosu burtasakh, 
in Sovetskaya Etnografiya, 1949, no. 1, 48-57; 
A. P. Smirnov, K voprosu burtasakh in Kratkie 
Soobshleniya Instituta Izuleniya Materyal'noi 
Kul'turi, 195 1, fasc. 40, 45-50; Tokarev, Etno- 
grafiya Narsdov SSSR, Moscow 1958, 150. 

(W. Barthold-[Ch. QuelquejayI) 



BURTU$AL, the name given by the Arabs to 
an ancient town (Cale or Calem, Portus Cale, 
modern Oporto) at the mouth of the Douro, and 
later to the kingdom of Portugal. Before the 
establishment of an independent Portugal in the 
1 2th century, the history of the region belongs 
to that of Spain (see al-andalus). At the Arab 
conquest the whole of the territory of modern 
Portugal must have passed rapidly into Muslim 
hands, though details are lacking. We hear only of 
resistance in the south (see badja) and of the 
occupation of Evora, Santarem and Coimbra by 
c Abd al-'AzIz b. Musi b. Nusayr (governor of al- 
Andalus, 95/714-97/716). According to a notice in a 
late author, but cited on the good authority of 
Muhammad b. Musa al-Razi (3rd/9th century), 
Santarem and Coimbra had before this been 
exempted from a general division of the conquered 
land among the soldiers of Musa b. Nusayr, ap- 
parently under a treaty (cf. E. Levi-Provencal, 
Hist. Esp. Mus., iii, 201-202, and see below). 

Political confusion in al-Andalus and especially, 
from about 750 onwards, the withdrawal owing to 
famine of large numbers of the new inhabitants of 
the NW. (mostly Berbers) provided conditions for 
the beginning of the Reconquista. Alfonso I of 
Asturias (739-757) or, according to Ibn Hayyan 
(Makkari, Nafh, I, 213), his son Fruela I (757-768) 
made himself master of the north of modern Portu- 
gal, including the towns of Oporto and Braga north 
of the Douro and Viseu south of the same river. 
Another son of Alfonso, Aurelio (reigned 768-774), 
is given by Ibn al-Khatib (A'-mal al-AHdm, 373) 
as conqueror of 'ard Burtukdl' . Alfonso II (791-842) 
is said to have taken Lisbon in 182/798 and to have 
sent a message to Aix-la-Chapelle announcing the 
news to Charlemagne. But these successes, if authen- 
tic, were transitory. It was not till the time of 
Alfonso III that the line of the Douro was more or 
less effectively held by the Christians, after the 
definitive capture of Oporto in 868. 

Kulumriyya (Coimbra) fell in 264/878 but was 
retaken in 375/985 by al-Mansiir, whose extra- 
ordinary march from Cordova to Shant Ya'kub 
(Santiago de Compostella) was directed via Coria 
and Viseu. Al-Ushbuna (Lisbon), which still be- 
longed to the expiring Caliphate in 400/1009 tempore 
al-Mahdi (Humaydi, 18), was later, in the time of 
the Muluk al-Tawd'if, a dependency of the Aftasids 
of Badajoz, who disputed control of the W. of al- 
Andalus with the 'Abbadids of Seville, and after the 
final loss of Coimbra in 456/1064 (Ibn 'Idharl, iii, 239) 
remained with Shantarin (Santarem) as a Muslim 
enclave N. of the Tagus, till both were captured by 
Alfonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal, in 
541/1147. Alfonso Henriques is usually said to 
have taken the royal title after a victory over the 
Muslims at Ourique near Beja (July, 1139). Before 
his death (1185) the Portuguese were in possession 
of most of the south. The fluctuating fortunes of war 
earlier are illustrated by the case of Lamego, S. of 
the Douro, which appears to have been captured by 
Alfonso III in 904. It was afterwards lost, but was 
retaken by Ferdinand I in 1038, when its king or 
governor was permitted to remain as vassal of the 
Christian. Some time before 1102 it passed again under 
Muslim control, being finally conceded to the Conde 
Don Henrique in that year (F. Fernandez y Gonzalez, 
Mudejares de Costilla, 29). For the deep-rooted 
Arabism of the region we may compare an account 
in the 12th century writer al-Mawa c ayni (Pons 
Boigues, Historiadores, no. 189) of certain Arabic- 



BURTUKAL — BURUKLUS 



1339 



speaking Christians encountered by al-Mu'tadid of 
Seville on an expedition into Portugal circa 1020 at 
Hisnay al-Ikhwan, now represented by Alafoens or 
Alafoes (< Alajoen), N. of Viseu, who claimed to 
hold their land by treaty from Musa b. Nusayr (cf. 
above) and, though doubtless Mozarabs, alleged 
their descent from Djabala b. al-Ayham, a Christian 
Arab of Syria contemporary with Muhammad 
(Fernandez y Gonzalez, ibid., cf. Dozy, Loci de 
Abbadidis, ii, 7). 

Under the Caliphate several kura* (i.e., provincial 
districts with chief town, governor and garrison, 
see art. al-andalus, 2, iii) belonged in whole or in 
part to the territory of modern Portugal. 1. In the 
extreme S, corresponding to the present-day 
province of Algarve, was the kura of Ukshunuba 
(Ocsonoba), so called from the ancient town of that 
name, inland from modern Faro. The town declined 
in importance after the Arab invasion and gave way 
to Shilb (Silves) as provincial capital, but was still 
in existence in the 5th/nth century (Ibn 'IJharl, 
iii, 215). Silves, situated more to the W. near the 
estuary of two small rivers, is first mentioned as a 
port at the time of the descent of the Norsemen in 
229/844 (see al-bahr al-muhit), and grew to be a 
flourishing city, especially perhaps after the fall of 
the Caliphate under the 'Abbadids of Seville. Other 
towns or large villages in the province were, ac- 
cording to Ibn Sa'id (al-Mughrib fi fluid 'l-Maghrib, 
DhakhdHr al-'Arab, x, Cairo 1953-1955, 1, 380 ff.), 
Shannabus or Shannarus (? = Shannabrus for 
Sao Bras), Ramada, Shantamariyya (Santa Maria 
de Algarve, now Faro), al-'Ulya (LouleO and 
Kastalla (Cacela). Al-Idrisi (circa 1154) in his 
description of Silves mentions that the inhabitants 
of its villages, as well as the townspeople, spoke 
pure Arabic. 2. Immediately N. of Ukshunuba, 
i.e., corresponding to modern Baixo Alentejo, 
was the kura of Badja (Beja), with principal 
town of the same name (see badja). This province, 
according to Ibn Sa'id, included Martula (Mertola), 
which is placed by Ibn al-Khatib (A'mdl, 287) in the 
kura of Shadhuna (Sidonia). 3. Further N. lay the 
kura of al-Ushbuna or Lisbon (Makkari, Nafh, i, 96), 
which included Shantarin (Santarem), Shantara 
(Cintra) and al-Kibdhak or al-Kabdhak (cf. al- 
Kabdhak = Alcaudete between Cordova and Gra- 
nada). Other kuras in Portugal are not named. 
Yabura (Evora) N. of Beja is included by Ibn 
Sa'id in the kingdom of Badajoz, and perhaps in 
Caliphal times formed part of a kura of Marida or 
Merida (cf. Makkari, Nafh, i, 103). While it still 
belonged to Islam before 264/878 Kulumriyya 
(Coimbra) may have been the centre of a kura (cf. 
E. Levi-Provencal, Esp. Mus., iii, 51). 

Like other outlying parts of al-Andalus, Muslim 
Portugal affords plenty of examples of particularism 
throughout its history. Partially successful attempts 
to assert independence of Cordova were made in the 
3rd/gth century by 'Abd al-Rahman b. Marwan, 
often called Ibn al-Djilliki ('son of the Galician') 
and his descendants, operating widely from Badajoz, 
and by the Banu Bakr at Santa Maria de Algarve 
in the same century. Much later a militant religious 
movement in the W. headed by Ibn Kasi, who 
revolted at Mertola in 539/1144, contributed to the 
downfall of the Almoravids. Ibn Kasi became 
master of Silves, and he and his contemporary Ibn 
Wazir were perhaps the only Muslims to coin money 
on Portuguese soil. 

The last period of the struggle in Portugal between 
Christians and Muslims was marked by a great 



though unsuccessful effort of the Almohad Abu 
Ya'kub Yusuf in 580/1184. The Almohad fleet, it 
seems, failed before Lisbon, and the main land 
assault on Santarem had to be abandoned. In a 
Portuguese attack on the sdka or rearguard of the 
Almohads Abu Ya'kub received a wound from 
which he died near Evora on the march back to 
Seville. 

The set-back in Portugal was contrary to general 
expectation, for at this time Almohad power and 
prestige stood high. In 1189, the year in which it 
first fell into Portuguese hands, Silves was described 
by an anonymous Crusader ('Anonymous of Turin 5 ) 
as much stronger than Christian Lisbon and ten 
times as rich. After the victory of the Christians at 
al-'Ikab (Las Navas de Tolosa) in 609/1212, in 
which Portuguese forces took part, the issue of the 
prolonged struggle came within sight. Silves fell 
finally in 1249 and the Muslims lost Algarve, their 
last holding in the territory of modern Portugal. 
At a battle fought near Tarifa on the Rio Salado in 
741/1340 the Portuguese under their king, Alfonso 
IV of Portugal, joined forces with the Castilians to 
oppose the African troops of the Marinid ruler of 
Fas, Abu '1-Hasan 'AH and the contingents of 
Yusuf I, Sultan of Granada. Ibn al-Khatib describes 
how the Andalusians almost broke the ranks of the 
Portuguese at the first charge, but their valour was 
in vain and the day was lost (A'mdl al-AHam, 389). 
Henceforward there was no hope of restoring 
Muslim rule in the West of al-Andalus. 

The principal towns of Muslim Portugal produced 
a respectable number of literary men, whose names 
are given in the Arabic biographical works. Among 
the best known are the historian Ibn Bassam, Abu 
'1-Walid al-Badji (see al-badjI), Ibn 'Ammar, the 
poet and friend of al-Mu'tamid b. 'Abbad, and 
Ibn Kasi, already mentioned, author of the Kkal' 
al-Na c layn fi 'l-Tasawwuf and other works. 

Some itineraries in 10th century Portugal are 
given by al-Istakhri (BGA, I, 46) and Ibn Hawkal 
(ed. Kramers, i, 116-117). 

Bibliography: F. Codera, Los Benimerudn en 
Mirida y Badajoz = Noticias que referentes al 
Algarbe de Alandalus en todo el siglo III de la 
higira y principios del IV, sea desde el 200 al 
317 (Sis a 929 de J.C.), encontramos en los autores 
drabes, in Estudios criticos de Historia drabe 
espaiiola, secunda serie, (Coleccidn de Estudios 
drabes, ix, Madrid 1917, 1-74; the same, Decadencia 
y Desaparicidn de los Almoravides en EspaHa, 
(Coleccidn de Estudios drabes, iii), Saragossa 1899, 
29-52; D. Lopes, Os Arabes nas Obras de Alexandre 
Herculano, Notas marginaes de lingua e historia 
portuguesa, Academia das Ciencias de Lisboa, 
Boletim da Segunda Classe, iii-iv, Lisbon 1910- 
191 1 ; the same, A Batalha de Ourique e comentdrio 
leve a una fblimica, in Biblos, iii, nos. n-12, 
Coimbra, ig27 ! ;j,„Jos6 D. Garcia Domingues, 
Histiria Luso-Arabe, Episidios e figuras meridi- 
onais, Lisbon 1945 ; Ambrosio Huici, Los Almohades 
en Portugal, in Annais da Academia Portuguesa da 
Historic, Series ii, Vol. 7, 19 ft.; R. Dozy, L'expidi- 
tion du Calif e almohade Abou-Yacoub contre le 
Portugal, in Recherches ed. 3, ii, 443-480; E. Levi- 
Provencal,// ist. Esp. mus., i-iii, indices. 

(D. M. Dunlop) 
AL-BURCfiJ [see nudjumj. 
BURUDJIRD [see barOdjird]. 
BURUgLUS, i.e., Proclus (A.D. 410-485), 
head of the pagan philosophical school at Athens 
(the 'Platonic Academy'), outstandihg scnolastic 



1340 



BURUKLUS — BURULLUS 



systematiser of Neopla tonic thought* and one of the 
chief links between ancient and medieval philosophy. 
Although it would be premature to attempt a 
monograph about the influence he exercised upon 
medieval Arabic thought, the information at 
present at our diaposal is not so scanty that its 
complete neglect in R. Beutler's comprehensive 
article on Proclus (Pauly-Wissowa-Kroll 45, 1957, 
col. 186 ff.) appears justified. Better information is 
available in E. Zeller, Philosophic der Griechen III 
2*, 839 n. 1 and E. R. Dodds, Proclus the Elements of 
Theology, Oxford 1933, xxviii f. 

A list of those works by Buruklus which in some 
way became known to Arabic scholars is to be found 
in Ibn al-Nadim, Fihrist, 252 Fliigel (= 333 Egypt, 
ed.) ; it was reproduced, with a few omissions, by 
Ibn al-Kiffi, Ta'rikh al-lfukamd>, 89, (ed. Lippert). 



Some works by Buruklus appear in Arabic under 
very inappropriate false names. 

a. The work referred to by the bibliographers as 
Kitdb al-Thdludiiyd and ascribed by Hadjdji Khalifa, 
v, 66 (Fliigel) to Proclus and (!) Alexander appears 
to have been the systematic manual of Neoplatonic 
metaphysics known as Elements of Theology (Stoi- 
XeiwCTii; ©eoXofixr)). The Arabic text of proposi- 
tions 15-17 (16-20 Dodds) has been published by 
A. Badawi, Aristu Hnda l-'Arab, Cairo 1947, 291 
f. from a nth century Damascus MS., where 
it is wrongly attributed to Alexander of Aphro- 
disias. The truth was discovered independently 
by B. Lewin (Orientalia Suecana 1955, 101 ff.) 
and S. Pines (Oriens 8, 1955, 195 ff.). The translator 
was Abu Uthman Sa'id b. Ya'kub al-Dimashki, a 
minor member of the school of Hunayn. 

b. A work K. al-lddh fi 'l-Khayr al-Mahd, based 
on 31 propositions of the Elements of Theology, is 
known in the West since the days of Gerard of 
Cremona (second half of s. xii) as Aristotle's Liber 
de causis. A critical edition of the Arabic text 
(which ought to be based on the Latin and Hebrew 
versions as well and be minutely compared with 
the Greek) is being prepared by G. C. Anawati (cf. 
Milanges Massignon, Damascus 1956, 73 ff.). For 
the time being we have to be content with O. 
Bardenhewer's edition (Freiburg-Breisgau 1882, 
reprinted recently) and A. Badawi's text (Islamica 
J 9> J 955> i ff-)- A resume of the Arabic text (ascribed 
to Aristotle), composed about A.D. 1200, was 
discovered by P. Kraus (Bulletin de I'Institut 
d'Egypte 23, 1940/1, 277) and published by A. 
Badawi (op. cit., 248 ff.). The question whether the 
work as we have it was originally translated from 
an older re-arrangement of extracts from Proclus 
or compiled by an early Arabic philosopher cannot 
be decided at present. 



a. Proclus himself is mainly familiar to Arabic 
thinkers as proclaiming the eternity of the world. 
His 18 propositions about this tenet ('Emxeip"OH<XT<x 
Ttepl allSioTTQTOi; x6o"(/.ov), which are lost in the 
Greek original, were as well known to the Arabs as 
John Philoponus' reputation (De aeternitate mundi 
contra Proclum)—ol which the Greek MSS. lack the 
beginning. The first nine propositions are now 
published in Ishak b. Hunayn's Arabic version by 
A. Badawi (op. cit., 35 ff.) ; eight of them were 
known from John Philoponus' quotations but the 
first is preserved in Arabic only (cf. C. G. Anawati, 
Milanges A. Dies, Paris 1956, 21 f.). Muhammad 



Ibn Zakariya al-RazI in his book "On doubts which 
arise against Proclus" (K. al-Shukuk allati 'aid 
Buruklus) referred to this work (cf. S. Pines, Beiirage 
zur islamischen Atomenlehre, Berlin 1936, 93, n. 1) — 
he may have made use of John Philoponus — and 
so does, for instance, Al-ShahrastanI (K. al-Milal 
tea 'l-Nihal, 338 ff. Cureton), who rightly points to 
Ibn Sina's use of Proclus' arguments; Al-Ghazzall 
was familiar with them as well (cf. S. van den Bergh, 
Averroes' Tahdfut al-Tahdfut, London 1954, i, xvii; 
ii, 1). 

b. Additional proof for the popularity of Proclus 
among Arabic philosophers is provided by the 
chance discovery of fragments of some other 
writings. There are eight IIpopM)(/.aTa <puaixdt 
evidently part of a larger treatise which may well 
be genuine, published by A. Badawi (op. cit., 43 ff., 
cf. B. Lewin, Orientalia Suecana 6, 1958) and a 
small fragment about the concept of dcfaOdx from 
the Lesser STOtxeiioau;, mentioned by the Arabic 
bibliographers (Badawi, op. cit., 257). F. Rosenthal 
made known, in English translation, a passage from 
his work On the immortality of the Soul according to 
Plato, and a small section of the lost part of his 
huge commentary on the Timaeus is available in 
German [see article Aflatun]. The Arabs knew 
of his commentaries on the myth of the Gorgias 
and on Plato's Phaedo but neither Syriac nor Arabic 
remains of them have hitherto been traced. A 
commentary on the pseudo-pythagorean Golden 
Verses is a misattribution, due to the misreading of 
B. for the less known Neoplatonist Hierokles (which 
can be easily explained). (R. Walzer) 

BURULLUS (Borollos), the name given to a 
district and to a lake to the north of the Delta 
of Egypt. The lake stretches between the mouths 
of the Rosetta and Damietta branches of the Nile, 
and is separated from the Mediterranean only by 
a narrow band of dunes. 

The Arabic name is the transcription of the Greek 
Paralos, transmitted through Coptic, and this word, 
which signifies "the maritime littoral", is applied 
quite naturally to this region. It may he noted that 
Yakut and Ibn Battuta were acquainted with the 
vocalisation Barallus, which has not survived. 

It was the administrative centre of a pagarchy 
(hura) before the division of the country into larger 
districts. Burullus was then made part of nastard- 
wiyya, and in the 8th/i4th century the province 
took the name of its chief town, Ashmun Tannah ; 
now the region of Burullus belongs to the province 
of Gharbivva. 

In the Middle Ages the lake was called Buhayrat 
Nastarawa, after the name of a locality which no 
longer exists today. To Ibn Hawkal, it was the lake 
of Bushmur, another designation for this swampy 
country. 

Fishing in this lake was farmed out, a practice 
which represented an ancient fiscal organisation, 
predating the Muslim era. It can hardly be supposed 
that the various governments deprived themselves 
of such a productive source of revenue, and when 
the sources speak of the creation of this system, in 
the 3rd/gth century, they are probably referring to 
an aggravation of fiscal pressure. In the same way 
references to the suppression of the tax probably 
denote an alleviation. 

The tombs of the Twelve Companions of the 
Prophet described by al-HarawI very likely recall 
some episodes of the Arab conquest, although 
according to the traditions, the chief of Burullus 
made terms with the conquerors. There may, how- 



ever, have been battles following the landing of the 
Byzantines in 53/673. 

The inhabitants of Burullus had the reputation 
of being expert trackers. 

Bibliography: Ibn c Abd al-Hakam, 85, 124; 

Ya c kubi, 338; trans. Wiet, 195; Ibn Hawkal, 

2nd ed., 138-139; Harawi, 47; trans. Sourdel- 

Thomine, no; Yakut, i, 593; Ibn Battuta, i, 58; 

trans. Gibb, i, 35; Ibn Dukmak, v, 113; Mustafraf, 

i, 1 01; trans. Rat, ii, 176; MakrizI, ed. Wiet, i, 

114; ii, 92, 96; 97; iii, 142-143; iv, 39, 81; Zahiri, 

108; trans. Venture de Paradis, 180; Maspero and 

Wiet, Matiriaux pour servir a la giographie de 

I'Egypte, 36, 41, 43, 211; Omar Toussoun, La 

giographie de I'Egypte, dans Mimoires de la 

sociltl royale de giographie de I'Egypte, viii, 18, 

52, 68, 223; c Abd al-Latif, 708; Nuwayri, Nihdyat 

al-Arab, viii, 263; x, 323. (G. Wiet) 

al-BURXULI, Abu 'l-Kasim b. Ahmad b. 

Muhammad, of the tribe of the Banfl Birzala, a 

Maliki author. Born in al-Kayrawan, he studied 

under Ibn c Arafa for thirty or forty years and under 

other great masters, and became himself a teacher 

of Islamic law in Tunis and an imam at the Zaytiina 

mosque. In 806/1403, he passed on the pilgrimage 

through Cairo, where he issued several idjdzas. He 

died in Tunis in 841/1438 (according to others, in 

842 or 843 or 843), at the age, it is sa*d, of 103 years. 

He is famous on account of his collection of fatwds 

and nawdzil entitled Djdmi' MasdHl al-Aftkdm 

mimmd nazal min al-Kaddyd bil-Muftin waH-l.lukkdm, 

in two volumes, numerous manuscripts of which are 

known; it is one of the main sources of the 

Mi'ydr of al-Wansharishi (d. 914/1508); two extracts 

were made from it in the 9th and in the 12th 

century. The innumerable responsa which al-Bur- 

zull mentions there together with the names of 

their authors, famous jurists who can easily be 

situated in space and in time, make his work the 

most important source for the history of society 

in Ifrlkiya under the Zirids of al-Rayrawan and 

al-Mahdiyya (ioth-i2th cent.) and the Hafsids 

I3th-i4th cent.). 

Bibliography: Zarkashl, Ta'rikh al-Dawlatayn, 

Tunis 1289/1872, 61, 109, 122; tr. E. Fagnan, 

Constantine 1895, 112, 202: 226; Ahmad Baba 

al-Tunbukti, Nayl al-Ibtihddj, Cairo 1329/1911, 

225-6; al-Sakhawi, al-Daw' al-Ldmi', Cairo 1355/ 

1936, xi, no. 429; M. Ben Cheneb, Idjdza, no. 261; 

Ibn Maryam, al-Bustdn, Algiers 1908, 150-2; tr. 

F. Provenzali, Algiers 1910, 164-7, index 588; 

Brockelmann, II, 319, S II, 347; R. Brunschvig, 

La Berberie Orientate sous les Ifafsides, Paris 

1940-7, ii, index 456; H. R. Idris, La Berblrie 

Orientate sous les Zirides, (to appear), passim. 

(H. R. Idris) 

BCSHAHR (Bushir), district and town in the 

Vllth Ustdn (Fars) of Persia. The position of the 

town is Lat. 28° 59' N, long. 50 52' E. (Greenwich). 

Bushahr stands on a low outcrop of sandstone at the 

northern end of a long and narrow peninsula. So 

low is the isthmus connecting this peninsula with the 

mainland that it is sometimes flooded at high tide, 

and a raised causeway had to be built across it in 

order to maintain communication between Bushahr 

and the hinterland at such times. At the southern 

end of the peninsula, 7 1 /, miles south of Bushahr, are 

the ruins of the ancient town of RIshahr, where 

burial urns and cuneiform inscriptions dating back 

to the Babylonian era have been found. RIshahr 

may perhaps be identified with the "Greek town" 



('Itovaxa) of Isidore of Charax. It was founded anew 
by the Sasanid king Ardashlr and was given the 
name of Riv-Ardashlr, of which RIshahr is a con- 
traction. In the ioth/i6th and nth/i7th centuries 
the Portuguese had a settlement and fort there. 

The derivation of the name Bushahr is uncertain. 
As "Abu Shahr" ("Father of the Town") does not 
make good sense, the suggestion has been made, 
on the analogy of RIshahr, that the original name 
was Bukht-Ardashlr ('Ardashlr has delivered'), but 
this etymology, though possible, is doubtful. British 
seamen in the 18th century corrupted the name to 
'Bushire' and 'Busheer*. 

The earliest reference to Bushahr is apparently in 
Yakut (i, 503). The place remained no more than a 
village until 1734, when Nadir Shah [q.v.] made it 
the base of his navy in the Persian Gulf and gave it 
the name of Bandar Nadiriyya (see the Gombroon 
Diary of the English East India Company, 5th/i6th 
July 1734, in vol. iv of the Persia and the Persian 
Gulf Records, India Office Library, and L. Lockhart, 
Nadir Shah, London 1938, 92-3). Subsequently, an 
unsuccessful attempt was made to build a large 
warship at Bushahr, using timber that had been 
brought overland from the forests of Mazandaran 
at a vast expenditure of labour. Sir W. Ouseley saw 
the remains of this vessel when he landed at Bushahr 
in 18 1 1 (see his Travels in Various Countries of the 
East, more particularly Persia, London 1819, Vol. i, 
188). Although this shipbuilding experiment failed, 
Bushahr prospered in consequence of the attention 
that Nadir Shah gave to it. Moreover, it subsequently 
benefited commercially when the English and Dutch 
East India Companies transferred their factories 
there from Bandar 'Abbas [q.v.]. Another factor of 
great importance in the development of Bushahr in 
those times was the fact that Shlraz, with which it 
was connected by a caravan route, became the 
capital of Persia in the reign of Karim Khan Zand 
[q.v.]. The consequence was that Bushahr took the 
place of Bandar 'Abbas as the chief port of the 
country, a position which it was destined to hold 
for over a century and a half. Abraham Parsons, 
who visited Bushahr in 1775, stated that, when 
approached from the sea, the houses were sighted 
before the land itself came into view. So shallow 
was the sea there that large vessels had to anchor 
some 3 miles off shore. He estimated the population 
in normal times at nearly 20,000, but when he was 
there two-thirds of the inhabitants were absent at 
the siege of Basra [q.v.]. See his Travels in Asia and 
Africa, London 1808, 187-8. 

In the 19th century Bushahr easily maintained its 
supreme position as a port. During the brief Anglo- 
Persian war, British forces occupied the town in 
December 1856, and held it until the conclusion of 
peace in the following March. The British connexion 
with Bushahr, at first only commercial, but later 
also political (for it became the headquarters of the 
Political Resident in the Persian Gulf), increased in 
importance as time went on. Other nations too 
participated in the trade of the' town. Particulars 
of this trade and also of the movement of vessels 
in the latter part of the 19th century are to be found 
in the Administration Reports of the British Resident 
from 1876 onwards; these reports were published in 
Calcutta in Selections from the Records of the Govern- 
ment of India, Foreign Department (the tables 
covering the years 1893 to 1897 in Freiherr M. von 
Oppenheim's Vom Mittelmeer turn persischen Golf, 
Berlin 1900, ii, 310-17, are based on these publica- 
tions). 



For the first quarter of the 20th century Bushahr 

the Trans-Iranian Railway in 1938 and the develop- 
ment of Bandar Shapur and Khurramshahr, it lost 
its position as the principal port of the country. 
Unlike Bushahr, both Bandar Shapur and Khur- 
ramshahr have wharves and jetties where large 
vessels can berth, and they are, moreover, connected 
with Tehran and other places in the interior by rail. 
In 1946 the population of Bushahr was 15,000. It 
is understood that the Persian Plan Organisation 
intends to improve the port and other facilities of 
the town, but it seems unlikely that, even if this 
project is fully carried out, Bushahr will ever regain 
its former predominant position as a port. 

Bibliography: C. Niebuhr, Voyage en Arable 

et en d'autres Pays circonvoisins, Amsterdam 1780, 

ii, 75-76'. James Morier, A Second Journey through 

Persia, London 1818, 38-45 ; J. B. Fraser, Narrative 

of a Journey into Khorasdn, London 1825, 54-58; 

J. R. Wellsted, Travels to the City of the Caliphs, 

London 1840, i, 130-136; W. A. Shepherd, From 

Bombay to Bushire, and Bussora, London 1857, 

123-154; H. Petermann, Reisen im Orient, 

Leipzig 1861 ; F. Spiegel, Erdnische Altertumskunde, 

Leipzig 1871, i, 90; C. Ritter, Erdkunde, vi, 712, 

viii, 779-789; J. de Morgan, Mission scientifique 

en Perse, itude glographique, Paris 1895, ii, 300-302 ; 

W. Tomaschek, in SBAk. Wien, Vol. cxxi, dissert. 

viii (1890), 61-63; G. N. Curzon, Persia and the 

Persian Question, London 1892, ii, 230-236; 

E. Sachau, Am Euphrat und Tigris, Leipzig 1900, 

12-14; A. T. Wilson, The Persian Gulf, Oxford 

1928, 41, 50, 73. 176, 178, 183-185, 204, 257, 270, 

275, 283; Razmara and Nawtash, Farhang-i 

Djughrdfiyd-yi Iran, vii, 40; Rdhnamd-yi Iran 

(published by the Geographical Section of the 

Persian General Staff, Tehran 1951), 60 (with 

town plan on 61). (L. Lockhart) 

BUSIJAK, Fakhr al-Din Ahmad b. Halladj 

Abu Ishak {kunya contracted into the takhallus 

Bushak). Born in Shiraz, he lived principally in 

Isfahan at the court of Iskandar b. 'Umar Shavkh. 

grandson of TImur and governor of Fars and Isfahan, 

where he died (827 or 830/1424 or 1427). That is 

almost all we know concerning him (apart from an 

anecdote reported by Dawlatshah). According to 

Hidayat (Riydd), he maintained relations with the 

mystic poet Shah Ni'mat Allah [q.v.]. From the 

name Halladj, a noun of occupation, it can be 

assumed that he was a cotton-carder. In dictionaries 

of the Persian language (farhang) he appears as an 

authority on culinary matters; hence the nickname 

Bushdk-i a(Hma or simply AfSma (prepared dishes) 

given him. A good edition of his works (diwdn) was 

prepared and published at Istanbul in 1303/1885-86 

by the learned Mirza Hablb IsfahanI, who added a 

glossary of technical terms with Turkish and Arabic 

equivalents (H. Ferte has translated some fifty). 

This diwan contains Kanz al-ishtihd* ("Treasury of 

Appetite") with a preface (trans, by Ferte and by 

Browne) which shows that the various poetic genres 

had already been made famous by his precursors 

and that all he had to say had been said before; he 

merely transferred the inspirations of a number of 

great poets (for their names vide Browne) on to a 

culinary and gastronomical plane. He deals, therefore, 

in parodies. This applies not only to the "Treasure" 

but also to the second part of the work — the third 

being composed of two short works in prose mingled 

with verse, of the same inspiration, and having a 

conclusion followed by an amusing glossary of 



BCSHANDJ 

culinary terms (some of these have bee 
Ferte). If one considers 'Ubayd-i Zakani a 
of satire, one can, while admitting th 
of several earlier parodies, regard Bushak as the 
creator of this genre to which he devoted all his 
literary activity. He may have lacked the distinction 
and "moderation" evinced in the French poet Ber- 
choux's Gastronomic (Paris 1800), but he nevertheless 
excelled in the minor genre he had chosen, revealing 
humour and originality. A practised stylist, he 
handled with ease all poetic forms, both in the clas- 
sical language and in the dialect of Fars. Finally he 
rescued from oblivion a series of technical terms, as 
did his imitator Mahmud Karl, who wrote his 
"diwdn of Dress" (diwdn-i albisa) on a plan analogous 
to that of Bushak's diwdn. 

Bibliography: H. Ferte, Shafi'-a Asar, poite 
satirique, et Recueil de poesies gastronomiques 
d'Abou Ishaq Halladj Chirazi, in J A, 1886 (a 
selection of poems well translated); P. Horn, in 
Beilage zur Allg. Zeitung in Miinchen, 26 and 27 
January 1899; Dawlatshah, 366-371; Lutf 'All 
Adhur, Atishkada (ed. Bombay 1277), sub nom.; 
Rida Kuli Khan, Madjma' al-Fusahd', ii, 10; also, 
Riydd al-'Arifin, Tehran 1305, 44-45; Browne, 
iii, 344-351; idem, Some notes on the poetry of the 
Persian Dialects, in JRAS, 1895, art. xxiv, 787-8 
and 820-823. (P. Horn-[H. Mass£]) 

BUSHANDJ, also known as Fushandj, in 
Middle Persian probably Pushang, ancient Ira- 
nian town to the south of the river Hariiud, and 
10 parasangs (= one day's journey) W-S-W. 
of Harat (Yakut, i, 758) which lies north of the 
river. The town already existed in pre-Islamic times, 
and, according to legend, was founded either (con- 
sidering its name) by the hero Pashang (the son, 
though in the epos the father, of Afrasiyab), or else 
by the Siisanid ruler Shapur I (242-271) (J. Marquart, 
Erdnshahr, 49). In the year 588, the town is mention- 
ed as the seat of a Nestorian bishop (ibid., 64; it 
is, however, not referred to by Jean Dauvillier, 
Les provinces Chaldiennes "de V Extirieur" , in 
"Melanges Cavallera", Toulouse 1948, 279-282). 
Wilh. Tomaschek, (Zur historischen Topographic 
von Persien, i, Vienna 1883, 78), connects it with 
the niaaYY"" of Theophrastus. 

Round the year 650 AD, the town came into the 
hands of the Muslims, and it remained for 200 
years on the frontier between the Arabs and the 
not fully conquered east-Iranian mountain regions. 
Here it found support, when in 41/661-2 and again 
in 160/776-7, it revolted against the Arabs. From 
92/791 until 94/793, the place was in the hands of 
the Kharidjites, and it entered into a quieter period 
only when the islamisation of the area was largely 
completed under the rule of the Tahirids [q.v.], 
whose founder was a native of the place. Later, 
Bushandj was connected with Slstan, and came 
under Ghaznawid rule in 392/1002 (cf. B. Spuler, 
Iran in fruh-islamischer Zeit, Leipzig 1952, 19, 25, 
51. 53. 7i f., nr, 301, with reference to sources). 
At that time, the size of Bushandj was roughly 
half that of Harat, and throughout the Middle 
Ages it was known as a strong fortress with three 
gates. Economically, the town was important as the 
junction of the roads from Harat to Nishapur 
and Harat to Kuhistan (Istakhrl, 267, last line, 268, 
line 8; Ibn Rusta, 172, line 17 t; Ifududal-'Alam, 
64, 104, 327; Hamd Allah Mustawfi, Nuzha, 152 f., 
177, 220 = trans., 151, 171. 212). In addition, 
Bushandj had timber and furniture industries, kept 
going by supplies from the nearby woods (Mukad- 



BOSHANDJ — BUSR 



dasl, 307 f. (based on Istakhri); Spuler, op. cit., 408; 
Le Strange, 431) 

After the Mongol conquest, under the vassal- 
dynasty of the Kurts (or Karts [q.v.], 1245-1389), 
Bflshandj had a comparatively quiet period until 
it was conquered and ruthlessly destroyed by Timur 
in the middle of Dhu 'l-Hidjdja 782/March 1381. It 
was rebuilt soon afterwards. It is also repeatedly 
mentioned in the 15th century (by Hafiz-i Abru, 
[q.v.]), and a ribdf supposedly founded by Abraham 
(Isfizari, Rawdat .../»... Herat, printed in J A , 
v, 16 [July-Dec. i860], 493 f.) was shown nearby in 
897/1491-2. Later on, the place vanished from 
history; it was presumably destroyed during the 
Ozbek and Turkmen raids. According to W. To- 
maschek (Topographie, i, 78), the modern Ghurivan 
is situated on its site. ( W. Barthold-[B. Spuler]) 

al-BUSHARRAT, "pastures" (sierras de yerba 
y de pastos), is the origin of the Spanish name 
Alpujarras; the Arabic toponym really applies to 
all the mountainous region which forms the extension 
of the Sierra Nevada southwards to the Mediter- 
ranean, from Motril to Adra and Almeria; but more 
particularly designated by this name are the many 
fertile valleys which intersect this country (Padul 
- Beznar - Lanjaron - Orgiva - Cadiar and Ugijar - 
Alcolea - Laujar - Canjayar - Ragol - Gador). In the 
Middle Ages the Alpujarras were of greater extent 
because the capital was Jaen, and in addition to 
many fortresses it had more than 600 silk-producing 
villages. Ibn Hafsun [q.v.], who succeeded in seizing 
Jaen, must have mastered this region or at any rate 
found partisans and allies there, for in 300/913 c Abd 
al-Rahman III captured his emissaries at Fifiana, 
crossed the Sierra Nevada, and besieged Juviles 
where, after a short siege, he captured and beheaded 
the Christian garrison which Ibn Hafsun had placed 
there. The belligerent inhabitants of the many 
villages in these valleys which intersect each other 
in all directions, the Alpujarrefios, had in fact in 
Arab times rebellious tendencies, and after 1492 
revolts continued to mark their history, in particular 
the great rebellion of 1568-70 which was directed by 
Ibn Umayya and 'Abd Allah b. 'Abbo, and which 
was suppressed with the shedding of much Morisco 
blood by the Marquis of Mondejar and Don John of 
Austria [see moriscos]. 

(C. F. Seybold-[A. Huici Miranda]) 

BOSBlR [see bOshahr]. 

BUSIR or ABUSlR, the name of several places 
in Egypt, which is not unnatural since it refers to 
places in which the god Osiris was the object of 
special veneration. 

The name Abuslr is found in the large suburban 
area west of Alexandria, a memory of the site of 
Taposiris Magna. 

Busir, on the west bank of the Damietta branch 
of the Nile, in the province of al-Gharbiyya. In the 
middle ages this small town was connected to a 
neighbouring settlement, Bana, so that one spoke 
of Busir-Bana. Famous in antiquity, Busir was an 
episcopal seat and the administrative centre of the 
pagarchy (kura). 

Busir al-Sidr, in the province of al-Djiza where 
there are still pyramids. The description of it by 
c Abd al-Latlf is a document of the first order, as are 
also the discoveries which he mentions in the 
cemetery of the town. 

Busir, called Buslr-Kuridis in the Middle Ages, 
and, from the nth/i7th century at least, Busir al- 
Malak, is located at the entrance to the Fayyum, 
within the western strip of Middle Egypt. Owing 



to the great number of places called Busir, Arab 
authors have found it difficult to situate exactly 
where the Umayyad caliph Marwan died. It is more 
than likely — and is in addition supported by a local 
tradition — that Marwan spent his last days at 
Busir al-Malak. The information is already given 
by Kudama. About this town developed a small, 
ephemeral province, Busiriyya, which lay between 
those of Atflh and Bahnasa. 

Opposed to this documentation, another school of 
writers places the final defeat of the Umayyad in 
a locality also called Busir, opposite Ashmunayn, 
on the other bank of the Nile, about 180 kilometres 
south of Busir al-Malak. The region claimed to be 
the place of origin of Pharaoh's "magicians" and, 
according to al-ldrisl, the inhabitants of his time 
had a certain reputation as sorcerers. This particular 

Finally, there is a Busir-Dafadnu in the province 

Bibliography: Ya'kubi, Buldan, 331; trans. 
Wiet, 185; Kudama, 247; IdrisI, Descr. de 
I'Afrique, 45, 145, 155; 'Abd al-Latif, 171, 202-206; 
Ibn Mammati, 114, 117, 118; Yakut, i, 760; 
Mas'udi, Tanbih, 328, 331; Avertissement, 423, 
427; Abu '1-Fida 5 , Takwim, trad., i, a, 148; Ibn 
Dukmak, iv, 131, v, 115; Vattier, L'Egypte de 
Murtadi, new ed. Wiet, Introduction, 100-101; 
MakrizI, ed. Wiet, iii, 194, iv, 7, 139, v, 96-97 
(where the question of the death of Marwan is 
examined); Ibn Dji'an, 64, 73, 139, 151, 159; 
c Ali Pasha, viii, 25, x, 6-1 1 ; Ameiineau, Giographie, 
7-1 1 ; Salmon, Repertoire, in BIFAO, i, 65 ; Breccia, 
Alcxandrea ad Aegyptum, 123-130; J. Maspero 
and G. Wiet, Materiaux pour servir a la glographie 
de VEgyple, 53-56. (G. Wiet) 

al-BU$IRI [see Supplement]. 
BUSR b. Abi Artat or b. Artat (there is less 
authority for the latter form), an Arab general 
of the Kuraysh clan of the Banu 'Amir, was born 
in Mecca in the last decade before the Hidjra. Only 
traditions which have been influenced by ShI'i 
prejudices deny him the title of Sahabi. He went 
with the relief column into Syria under Khalid b. 
al-Walid, distinguished himself there by his bravery 
and afterwards took part in the conquest of Africa. 
His bravery earned him a du'd' and rewards from 
'Umar. During the civil war he vigorously declared 
himself on the side of Mu'awiya for whom he won 
over the influential Kind! chief, Shurahbil b. al-Simt. 
At Siffin we find him in the Syrian camp. He after- 
wards helped 'Amr b. al-'As to reconquer Egypt for 
Mu'awiya. Busr is perhaps the most striking figure 
among the lieutenants of this Caliph. He was a 
typical Bedouin of the old school, utterly imper- 
vious to pity, if ShI'i tradition has not exag- 
gerated the details of the portrait of this fiery 
opponent of 'All. Sent into Arabia against the 
the tatter's partisans, Busr waged a war of exter- 
mination against them. He destroyed the dwellings 
of the enemies of 'Uthman in the sacred towns of 
the Hidjaz and displayed a loyalty to the Uinay- 
yads which was only surpassed later by Muslim 
b. 'Ukba and Hadjdjadj. In the Yemen he put to 
death the two young sons of 'Ubayd Allah b. 
'Abbas. During the brief campaign, which was 
terminated by the abdication of Hasan, son of 
'All, he commanded the vanguard. As a reward, 
he received the governorship of Basra where he 
established a dictatorial regime. He spent little 
time in the 'Irak but returned thither to seize the 
children of Ziyad b. Abihi and by this drastic 



1344 BUSR - 

measure subdued the last armed partisan of C A1I. 
We later find him leading several naval expeditions 
against the Byzantine Empire. 

After the year 50/670, this agent of Mu'awiya's 
ambition, general and admiral by turns, disappears 
from the field of politics. He is said however to have 
lived at court till the death of the sovereign. Ac- 
cording to the Shi'is, he went mad because he 
brought down 'All's curse upon himself. He reappears 
in the reign of Walid I, when he is said to have 
again taken part in an expedition to Africa. Other 
authorities make him die at Medina in the reign of 
c Abd al-Malik. He seems to have lived to a great age 
and fallen into his dotage. 

Bibliography: H. Lammens, Etudes sur le 
rigne de Mo'dwia I, 42-48 ; 284 ; Baladhuri, Futith, 
226-228; 456; Ibn Hadjar, Isdba, i, 300; Ibn al- 
Athlr, Usd al-Gkdba, i, 179-180; ii, 392; Mas'udi, 
Murudi, v, 474-475; A ghani, iv, 131-132; x, 45-47; 
Tabari, i, 2109, 3242, 3400, 3450-3452; ii, 11-14, 
22; Tirmidhl, Sahih, i, 274 (BGlak); Tashif al- 
Muhaddithin, (Ms. Bibl. Khediv. Cairo); Ibn Abi 
'1-Hadid, Sharh Nahdj. al-Baldgha, i, 116 ff. 

(H. Lammens) 
BUSRA [see bosra]. 

BUST, a ruined city in Sidjistan, among 
whose imposing remains are the two principal 
groups of Kal c a-i Bist and Lashkar-i Bazar. It lies 
in the south of Afghanistan on the now deserted 
banks of the Hilmand, near its confluence with the 
Arghandab, on the stretch of the route through 
Girishk between Harat and Kandahar. Its present 
isolation, to which recent American efforts to 
rehabilitate the region will no doubt put an end, 
stands in contrast to the ancient prosperity of the 
area, celebrated in the middle ages for its great 
fertility, well irrigated orchards between two water- 
courses, and for its r61e as stage on the principal 
route between Khurasan or Fars on one hand and 
Sind on the other, that is, between Baghdad and 
India, at the very place where a pontoon-bridge 
crossed the river just as it became navigable in the 
direction of Zarandj. The Arab geographers of 
the first centuries, criticising Bust because of the 
frequent epidemics there, pointed at the same time 
to the commercial and intellectual activity of the 
city, and to the produce of its surrounding area, 
planted in fruit trees, vineyards and palms. 

Such prosperity dates very likely from an early 
period. Precise knowledge is lacking however for 
the first stages of the development of Bust, whose 
existence was attested in the time of the Parthians, 
though we are ignorant of its exact r61e in the 
province of Sistan, quarrelled over by the Sasanid 
sivereigns and the rulers of the Chionite-Hephtalite 
kingdom of Zabulistan. 

A'so rather confused is the history of Bust from 
the n-oment when c Abd al-Rahman b. Samura 
[q.v.] annexed it to the territory of Islam, perhaps in 
29/649-50 during the caliphate of 'Uthman, but more 
likely in 42/661-62 at the beginning of the Umayyad 
period. The first Arab expeditions were doubtless 
no more than raids of little permanent consequence, 
resulting in the payment of a tribute by the region 
but not in its occupation. In the second half of the 
ist/7th century. Bust "became it seems, the advanced 
post of Muslim domination against the indigenous 
and independent princes of the frontier countries of 
the east, who bore the name or title of ZunbU". 
(R. Hartmann). And the early sources mention 
several armed encounters in the neighbourhood, the 
Umayyads and first 'Abbasids having sent Arab 



governors there to suppress local rebellions in Sidji- 
stan, or troubles instigated by the Kharidjites 
(troubles emphasised in the Ta'rikh-i Sistan), and 
to fight or to negotiate with the ruler of Kabulistan. 
In particular we know the events of the revolt of 
Ibn al-Ash'ath [q.v.] which took place at Bust and, 
somewhat later, its suppression by Ma'n b. Za'ida 
al-Shaybani before he was assassinated there in 
156/773. Although Ya'kubi speaks of the place then 
held by Bust, the principal city of a province which 
rivalled in wealth Khurasan, and though one can 
imagine the strategic role then played by its fortress, 
we nevertheless lack detail of the administrative 
organisation of a city which, in especially troubled 
political circumstances, seems, like other localities 
in eastern Iran and central Asia, to have enjoyed 
relative autonomy. 

Subsequently, the Saffarid Ya'kub b. al-Layth, 
after having taken Kabul in 257/871, extended his 
domination as far as Bust, cited several times in the 
Ta'rikh-i Sistan in connexion with his campaigns 
against his eastern neighbours and visits he made 
to the region. In their turn the Samanids tried to 
establish a foothold in the area, and confused 
quarrels, accompanied by military expeditions, 
opposed the people of Bust to the envoys from the 
court in Khurasan as well as those sent by the 
caliphs at Baghdad. But it was during the period 
of the Ghaznawids that Bust, taken by Subuktakln 
in 366/976 and thus separated from the province of 
Zarandj, enjoyed for nearly a century its most 
brilliant development. It served as a subsidiary 
residence for the rulers of Ghazna, who had there a 
permanent camp (al-'Askar) mentioned by al- 
Mukaddasi, and al-Bayhaki describes the brilliant 
j life led there, between ambassadorial receptions, 
hunting, and pleasure parties on the Hilmand, by a 
ruler such as Mas'ud I during his visit in 428/1036. 
It was there too, that the troops of the Ghaznawid 
'Abd al-Rashld successfully opposed in 441/1049-50 
the advance of the Saldjuks, who had already been 
defeated several times trying to take the region. The 
sack of Ghazna, however, in 544/1149 by the Ghurid 
c Ala' al-Din, followed shortly after by the conquest 
of Bust, its pillage and the burning of its royal 
castles, marked for the latter city the beginning of a 
decline, echoed in the text of the contemporary 
geographer Yakut. 

The destruction of Bust was at that time far 
from complete. The old palaces of the Ghaznawids 
were soon restored and inhabited by the governors 
of the region on behalf of the Ghurids. later of the 
Khwarizm-Shahs. Despite the various struggles in 
which the city was the stake, its continued existence 
is attested above all by funeral steles of beautiful 
execution, dating from the end of the 6th/i2th 
century or the first half of the 7th/i3th century and 
bearing the titles of important personages, undoubt- 
edly the holders of a power at once religious and 
temporal established on a basis exclusively local. The 
destruction resulting from the Mongol invasion, how- 
ever, about 618/1221, and from the passage of Timor's 
hordes at the end of the 8th/i4th century, brought 
about the final abandonment of the site, whose culti- 
vated lands became steppe. Only the citadel, which 
played a role during the wars of the Great Mughals 
against Persia, and underwent at that time architec- 
tural modifications which are still visible, was main- 
tained until Nadir Shah had it dismantled in 1738. 

The facts relative to the history of Bust have been 
illuminated especially since D. Schlumberger's 
discovery, and the careful study by the French 



BUST — BOSTAN 



Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan, of an 
architectural group until then unexplored and 
scarcely mentioned by earlier investigators. North 
of a field of ruins, about 7 kilometres long and in 
places 2 kilometres wide, whose southern end alone 
had previously attracted attention, with its remains 
of the city wall proper, its citadel and the high 
silhouette of the "Arch of Bust", the royal residence 
itself has been identified, the ancient aW-Askar of 
the Arab authors and the lashkargdh of the Persian 
writers. Its three monumental palaces, formerly sur- 
rounded by gardens still indicated by the high walls, 
— they constituted, together with a mild climate, the 
charm of this subsidiary capital of the Ghaznawids — 
rise from within the enclosure of the "royal city", 
and the southern castle in particular has been almost 
completely cleared in the course of several excava- 
tions. Fronted by a spacious esplanade, on to which 
opens a large mosque, and approached by an avenue 
a half-kilometre long bordered by shops behind a 
colonnade, it displays about a central court with 
four iwdns, rooms grouped in bayts, among which 
are several larger and luxuriously appointed cham- 
bers. Not only have the characteristic details of its 
plan been revealed. Beneath the heaps of earth 
caused by the fall of the higher parts — the con- 
struction is made largely of rough brick — and 
despite two successive fires the traces of which are 
still evident on the building, it was possible to 
discover important elements of its exterior and 
especially its interior ornamentation, based on bare 
brick, of facings sculptured in earth or plaster and 
of mural paintings of which one is a fresco of human 
beings. Such archaeological documentation evokes 
comparisons among which not the least interesting 
are those which place this unique specimen of civil 
architecture in mediaeval Iran in the line of the 
earlier constructions of the 'Abbasid caliphs at 
Baghdad and Samarra. Thus the irrefutable testimony 
borne by the ruins of Lashkar-i Bazar concerning 
the grandeur of Bust and its royal suburb between 
the 5th/nth and the 7th/i3th centuries, contains 
an eminently suggestive lesson for the historian of 
Muslim art in one of its remote provinces. 

Bibliography: Istakhri, 245; Makdisi, 304-05; 
Ya'kubi, Bulddn, 281, 285; (see alsoBG^, indices) 
Yakut, 1,612; tfudud al- c Alam, index ; Le Strange, 
344; J- Marquart, ErdnSahr, Berlin 1901, index; 
Baladhuri. Futuh, 394, 396, 397, 399, 401 ; c UtbI, 
K. al-Yamlni, ed. Lahore, 17-19, 151-52 (cf. trans. 
J. Reynolds, London 1858, 26 ff., 271 S.) ; Jabakat-i 
Ndsiri, trans. Raverty, Calcutta 1873-81, 21, 74. 
99, in, 132 n. 9, 194, 287, 317, 318 n. 6, 355, 362. 
412,422; Bayhaki, TaMKh-i Mas'udi, Tehran ed. 

1947, 166, 604, 612 ff.. 622-23; Ta'rikh-i Sistdn, 
ed. Bahar, Tehran 1946, passim; Pauly-Wissowa, 
s.v. Bist; Caetani, Chronographia, 461, 483; 
R. Ghirshman, Les Chionites-Hephtalites, Cairo 

1948, 113-14; W. Barthold, Turkestan, index; 
B. Spuler, Iran in friih-islamischer Zeit, Wiesbaden 
1952, index; M. Nazim, The life and Times of 
Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna, Cambridge 1931, 
index; H. W. Bellew, From the Indus to the 
Tigris, London 1874, 172; O. Von Niedermayer, 
Afganistan, Leipzig 1924, 67-68; Survey of Persian 
Art, i, 988; D. Schlumberger, Le palais ghaznivide 
de Lashkari Bazar, in Syria, xxix, 1952, 251-70; 
J. Sourdel-Thomine, Stiles arabes de Bust, in Ara- 
bica, iii, 1956,285-306; D. Schlumberger, Lashkari 
Bazar, une rtsidence royale ghaznivide, in Mim. 
Dilig. Arch. fr. en Afghanistan, t. xvii, to appear. 

(J. Sourdel-Thomine) 
Encyclopaedia of Islam 



1345 

BCSTAN, also used in the contracted form 
Bustan, a Persian word formed from bu "smell, 
perfume", and the suffix of place estdn, usually used 
in the sense of "kitchen-garden" and sometimes in 
the sense of "orchard" ; it is used in Turkish in the 
sense of "kitchen-garden", and in Arabic in the sense 
of/'garden" in general (pi. basatin) ; in the Algerian 
dialect it denotes "cypress" (Beaussier), and at 
Beirut a "plantation of mulberry- trees" (Cuche); 
it forms part of several Middle Eastern geographical 
names. — It is the title of a didactic poem by the 
eminent Persian poet Sa'dl [q.v.], written at Shiraz 
in 655/1257, in ten chapters. The work is a classic, and 
has been read in primary schools in every country 
where Persian has been cultivated, especially in 
Iran, India, Central Asia and Ottoman Turkey. 
Indian authors have written several commentaries 
on this work in Persian, and there exist further com- 
mentaries in Turkish, notably those of Sham c I and 
Sudi (both at the end of the 16th century). It was 
translated into Turkish by the scholar Taf tazani [q.v.] 
in 755/1354 (Gibb, Ottoman Poetry, i, 202), and into 
various other Oriental languages, such as Bengali, 
Sindi, and Pandjabl. The principal translations into 
European languages are those of Forbes Falconer 
into English (Selections, London 1838), of Graf into 
German verse (Sa'di's Lustgarten, Jena 1856), of 
Baron Schlechta-Wssehrd into German (Vienna 
1852), of Barbier de Meynard into French (Paris 
1880), and of Constantin Caikin into Russian verse 
(Moscow 1935). The oldest MSS. give this work 
the title of SaHi-nama. (Said Naficy) 

I. — Gardens in Islam 

The part played by gardens in the past and 
present life of the Muslim peoples appears to 
stem from the conception of Paradise, the ideal 
garden, as portrayed in the Kur'an, which paints 
so detailed a picture of the state (of blessed- 
ness) reserved exclusively for Believers that it might 
have served as a model for the creators of gardens 
in both East and West. There are to be found lawns 
interspersed with winding streams, trees bowed 
down with fruit, seats on which it is possible to 
recline in comfort, pavilions occupied by virgins 
waiting to welcome the elect. It will be noted that 
there are no flowers, but instead a wealth of fruit 
trees. Also worthy of note are the open summer- 
houses and in particular the streams of running 
water, cooling the air. The layout clearly has much 
in common with that of the oasis, a haven of freshness 
and fertility, the more delightful because it is found 
in the midst of those desert regions in which Islam 
principally spread. 

It is to Iran, the home of most of our (European) 
fruits, the land par excellence of irrigated plantations 
and cultivated shrubberies, that the Muslim world 
would appear to owe its initiation into the art of 
landscape gardening. The fact that Arabic terms 
such as bustan or firdaws derive from the Persian 
gives substantial support to this conjecture. 

Persian horticulture flourished long before the 
birth of Islam and was associated with princely 
life. Even as early as Xenophon, we find references 
to the beautiful layout of the park planned at 
Sardis by Cyrus the Younger (407 B.C.). The palaces 
of the Sasanid kings, such as the £asr-i Shlrin of 
Chosroes II, looked out on extensive vistas of water 
and greenery. There are, moreover, bas-reliefs to 
remind us of the vast wooded enclosures stocked with 
game where the sovereign could give himself up to the 
pleasures of the chase. Gardens in an architectural 

85 



1346 



framework, such as esplanades and courtyards 
planted with trees, on the one hand, and on the 
other properties outside the towns, as spacious 
as parks, and embellished here and there by a 
solitary pavilion, — these two styles of garden 
were adopted by the Muslim world and spread, with 
more or less continuity, across the nations and 
the centuries. 

The first style influenced the architects of the 
'Abbasid era, who built Samarra. The Djawsak al- 
Khakanl of the Caliph al-Mu c tasim (218-227/833-842), 
was made up of an edifice at the front comprising 
three twins and a suite of apartments, behind which 
was a vast esplanade walled with ramparts. "Parallel 
to these encircling walls were canals which were 
doubtless bordered by beds of flowers. Marble pools, 
fountains and other decorative features completed the 
scene". H. Viollet, who describes this layout, relates 
it to the "French style" garden with its ample 
spaces, straight lines and architectural aspect. These 
common features are perhaps not purely fortuitous, 
rather they may point to a distant common ancestry. 
These "French-style" gardens, of which Versailles is 
the most notable example, were inspired by the 
Italian garden which in turn derived from the 
Graeco-Roman garden, such as is found at Pompeii 
or Hadrian's villa. These last certainly seem to 
have been much influenced by the gardens of 
the East. 

Nevertheless, it was in Persia, the country of its 
birth, that this style of garden was to be preserved. 
The Safawid miniatures in particular bear witness 
to its permanence. The Prince sits enthroned in a 
summer-house looking out on to a paved walk 
broken up by canals and lakes and separated by 
wooden fences from stretches of ground planted 
with flowers and trees. No less evocative are the 
Persian carpets known as "au jardin". The area 
is divided into rectangles by intersecting canals. 
Fish swim in the canals and the rectangles are filled 
with flowers and shrubs (see, for instance, W. Bode, 
Antique Rugs from the Near East, New York, 
1929, fig. 58). This same style of garden is also to 
be found at the opposite end of the Islamic world. 

The private houses of the 'Abbasid era doubtless 
had their interior gardens. It is well-known that 
the art of the Tulunids w hich dominated Egypt in 
the 3th/9th century was closely linked to that 
of Samarra. In the houses of Fustat, which can be 
assigned to this period, the rooms opened on to a 
central court in which brick-lined hollows were dug. 
Some of these were filled with water, others with 
soil for growing plants. The townsman, moreover, 
showed a remarkable taste for gardens. The Persian 
traveller Nasir-i Khusraw draws attention to those 
which adorned the terraces. An irrigating machine 
on the top of a seven-storey house and operated 
by oxen was used for watering orange, banana 
and other fruit trees as well as many kinds of 
flowers and fragrant plants. 

At this time Ifrikiya was held in the name of the 
'Abbasids by the Aghlabid amirs, who disseminated 
the fashions of Baghdad throughout the lands of 
the Berbers. They had first one and then a second 
residence on the outskirts of al-iiayrawan. The 
second, Rakkada, was seven kilometres distant 
from the town. The grounds, which according to 
al-Bakri, were surrounded by a wall more than 
10 kilometres long, must have been mainly laid out 
as gardens, irrigated by cisterns of which remnants 
are still in existence. The largest of these hydraulic 
works is a huge quadrangular reservoir with solid 



walls reinforced on both sides with buttresses, in 
whose waters a raised pavilion was reflected. 

The tradition of these country seats must have 
persisted in Ifrikiya in spite of hardships which in 
the 5th/nth century ruined the country. We come 
upon gardens again in the 8th/i4th century under 
the Hafsids of Tunis. The vast domain of Abu 
Fihr, created by al-Mustansir (647-75/1249-77) in 
the neighbourhood of his capital (near the present 
village of Ariana) included various features which 
foreshadowed the Maghrib! taste for the agddl. Ibn 
Khaldun describes it with a wealth of detail which, 
is unusual for him. 

"One found there", he tells us, "a forest of trees, 
some of which were trained on to trellises, while the 
rest were left to grow in complete freedom. The 
branches of the lemon and orange trees mingled with 
those of the Cyprus, while, below, the myrtle and 
jasmine smiled upon the water-lily. In the midst of 
these groves, a large garden encircled a lake so vast 
that it might be taken for an ocean. Water was 
brought there by the ancient aqueduct [which in 
former times supplied Carthage and which the Hafsid 
al-Mustansir had had repaired]. Following this 
conduit, the waters gush through a huge outlet into a 
square reservoir [serving as a decantation basin] and, 
thence, through a fairly short canal, to the great 
pool which they fill in swirling torrents. At each 
end of the pool stands a pavilion, one large, one 
small, whose roofs rest on columns of white marble 
and whose walls are faced with marble inlay". 

This same period witnessed in Morocco the 
creation by the Marinid sultans of vast cultivated 
enclosures such as that attached to the Palace of 
Fez al-Djadld, called Amina al-Mariniyya, in which 
terraces and raised pavilions dominated the plan- 
tations and the surrounding countryside. Abandoned 
after the fall of the Marinids, this park was restored 
between 1240 and 1250/1824-34 by the 'Alawid 
sultan Mulay 'Abd al-Rahman. This same sultan 
created the agddl of Marrakush, which the modern 
historian al-Nasiri describes for us. It was an 
immense park or rather a group of gardens planted 
with one or two species of fruit trees or perfumed 
flowers, either indigenous or imported, cultivated 
for sale. In the midst of the plantations there 
were lakes with pleasure boats. The streams which 
filled these lakes provided water for the gardens and 
even turned the wheels of water-mills. Pavilions 
stood in this central section. 

We can still see enclosures of this kind in the 
agddls of the imperial cities of Morocco such as 
Marrakush or Meknes. Away from the dense urban 
centres, the agddl is adjacent to the official quarter, 
a rural annex to the urban palaces. It is profit- 
making land, enriching the coffers of the sovereign. 
It also provides a place of recreation and repose for 
his harem. This type of plantation may have some 
links with the oriental tradition of royal parks. 
Nevertheless, the name by which it is known and its 
general resemblance to the great domain of a Berber 
chieftain inclines one to look to the West for the 
models which inspired its creation. 

This is not the case with the riydf, the interior 
garden of the palaces and rich dwellings of the 
Muslim cities of the west. It is almost certainly to 
Iran that we should look to find the origins of this 
style of garden whose layout is preserved for us in 
the Persian carpet: straight pathways, intersecting 
at right angles and separating square patches of green 
on which fruit trees and decorative plants abound. 
Sometimes canals with flowing water cross the 



pathways, sometimes their intersections are marked 
by ornamental fountains. A summer-house at one 
end of the garden dominates the vista, unless the 
garden is bordered on two or four sides by galleries, 
in which case the doors of the apartments give on to 
this open space. The riydd seems, in fact, to be an 
extension and elaboration of the patio. It is designed 
in harmony with the architecture of the house and 
completes its lay out. 

If the MaghribI house with its interior courtyard 
is inspired by the Graeco-Roman peristyle house, 
the riydd which fills this courtyard seems to be a 
legacy from Persia, like so many other elements in 
the Muslim civilisations of both East and West. 
We do not know at what period the West first 
adopted this style, though we find traces of it as 
early as the first half of the 6th/i2th century. 

Excavations carried out at Marrakush beneath the 
ruins of the first mosque of the Kutubiyya have 
yielded the plan of a small riydd which can be 
dated as belonging to the period of the Almoravid 
'Ali b. YQsuf (500-537/1106-1142). Here a rectan- 
gular patio is divided by two intersecting paths. 
The remnants of Castillejo have been uncovered 
near Murcia. This appears to have been built by 
Ibn Mardanish (541-566/1147-1171). Hs rooms en- 
close a riyad intersected by pathways, with two 
pavilions at the narrower ends. This type of riyad 
appears to be classical in Andalusia. In the 8th/i4th 
century, the Granadan poet Ibn Luyun enumerates 
its features. He recommends the laying out of a 
garden which offers "in its centre trellises shading 
walks which should encompass the flower-beds like 
margins". A summer house, wide-open, surrounded 
by rambler roses and myrtles, affords a place of 
rest which commands the whole domain at a single 
glance. The Nasrid sultans of Granada incorporated 
this domestic theme into the sumptuous architecture 
of their palaces. In the Alhambra of Muhammad V 
(763-93/1562-91), the famous Patio of the Lions is 
nothing more than a riyad. Pathways intersecting 
to form a cross separate four plots which must have 
been intended to be planted. Two pavilions raised on 
columns jut out at the two narrow ends of the 
rectangle. In addition to this interior garden, the 
guests at the Alhambra had the Generalife (Djandn 
al- c arif) at their disposal. Here again, we find 
shrubberies, canals fed by fountains and galleries 
enclosing the open space. 

It is very probably via Andalusia that this style 
of town garden, originating in Persia, spread 
throughout the three countries of North Africa. 
In Morocco, the Alhambra inspired the Sa'did 
Ahmad al-Mansur, who adopted its design on a 
grandiose scale in the palace of the Bad!' of Marra- 
kush (986-1012/1578-1603). A court measuring 135 
metres by no metres, surrounded by apartments 
and pavilions, looked out on shrubberies alternating 
with vast lakes. Up to our own day, Moroccan towns 
like Marrakush and Fez have seen the creation of 
enchanting riydds. In Tunisia, the Andalusians, 
driven out of Spain, spread the fashion in the towns 
in which they had taken refuge. As for Algeria, the 
gardens of the beautiful country houses which are 
scattered about the outskirts of Algiers were among 
the luxuries enjoyed by the Corsairs and were tended 
by a vast number of their captives who laboured in 
them all the year round. 

Bibliography: H. Viollet, Description du 
palais d'al-Moutassim & Samurra — Extrait des 
mimoires prisentis . . . a I'Acadtmie des Inscrip- 
tions, xii, Part It, 1909; Aly Bahgat & Gabriel, 



I'Afrique septentrionale, no. 27, trans, by Slane, 62; 
Solignac, Recherches sur les installations hydrauli- 
ques de Kairouan et de la steppe tunisienne du 
VII' au XI' siecle, Algiers 1953; Ibn Khaldun, 
Hist, des Berbires, trans by de Slane, ii, 339-340; 
Nasiri, Kitdb al-Istiksd', trans. Fumey [Archives 
marocaints) x, 1907, 117; Brunschvig, Deux 
ricits de voyages inidits en Afrique du Nord au 
XV s., Adorne, 196-199; Haedo, Topographia e 
historia . . . de Argel, Valladolid 1612, chap CL; 
G. Marcais, Architecture musultnane d' Occident, 
27-28, 310, 404-405; idem, Milanges, i, Les 
jardins de V Islam; J. Gallotti, I.e jardin et la 
maison arabe du Maroc, 2 vol., 1926. 

(G. Marcais) 

II. — Mughal Gardens 

The Mughal emperors of India, Akbar [q.v.], 
Djahanglr [q.v.] and Shahdjahan [q.v.] were all 
great lovers of nature, a quality which they in- 
herited from their progenitor, Babur [q.v.] who 
after the conquest of Hindustan, lamented the 
absence of well- planned gardens in his new 
dominions. Bagh-i Waf a was the first garden which 
he laid out near Kabul in 914/1508, followed by 
larger and more magnificent ones in Agra [q.v.], 
his Indian capital. 

His grandson Akbar, after constructing the fort 
of Had Parbai (Kashmir) in 1 006/1597 laid out the 
Nasim Bagh flanking the Dal lake. This garden is now 
in ruins, with the exception of stately candr trees 
planted by Shahdjahan (1037/1627-1069/1658). But 
the most charming of the Kashmir gardens is the 
Nishat Bagh laid out by Asaf Khan (c. 1035/1625), 
a brother of Nurdjahan [q.v.], the queen of Djahanglr. 
In natural beauty and architectural skill this garden 
is considered matchless. It was built in 12 terraces, 
representing the 12 signs of the Zodiac. Its water- 
supply was temporarily stopped by Shahdjahan. who 
considered it too splendid for a subject, but was soon 
restored. The most-famed Shall mar was founded in 
1029/1619 by Djahanglr. The etymology of the word 
Shdlimdr or Shdldmdr is dubious; it was in vogue 
even in pre-Mughal days, being the name of a Dal 
cascade in the times of Djahanglr (Tutuk-i Djahdn- 
,?»rJ, trans. Rogers, ii, 151). Nadir Shah's historian, 
Mirza Mahdl, spells it Shu'la Mdh, while the 
Sikh chieftain, Randjit Singh (1214/1799-1255/1839), 
changed it into Shahld, declaring that the word 
Shdlimdr had ominous implications (see S. M. Latif, 
History of the Punjab, Lahore 1892, 360). 

Apart from the Srlnagar (Kashmir) Shalimar, 
there is an equally famous one of the same name at 
Lahore; a third one, at Delhi, is no longer extant. 
The Kashmir Shalimar is remarkable for a pavilion, 
built by Shahdjahan, with exquisitely carved pillars 
of black marble. This pavilion, which is surrounded 
by a series of cascades, contained four large stone 
doors in the days of Bemier (1672-1826). 

The Lahore Shalimar was founded, in three 
terraces, by 'All Mardan Khan, an Iranian nobleman 
who, after surrendering the town of Kandahar, of 
which he was the Governor, to the investing Mughal 
armies, had come down to Lahore in 1048/1638. 
He was warmly received by Shahdjahan, who- 
appointed him Governor of Kashmir and, in 1049/ 
1638, of the Pandjab also. Being a celebrated 
canal engineer, he was, immediately on his arrival, 
entrusted by the Emperor with the digging of a 
canal from the Rawi which would supply water 



1348 BOSTAN - 

to the gardens. He was, however, transferred 
to Kabul before the canal reached Lahore. On 
completion, a year later, it cost the Imperial 
exchequer a sum of 100,000 rupees. The garden 
with all the buildings, walks etc. was completed 
in 1052/1642-3, when it was visited by the Emperor. 
The name of the first terrace was changed to Farah 
Bakhsh by the emperor, Shahdjahan; the second 
and the third terraces, added later, were named Fayd 
Bakhsh. The Farah Bakhsh measures 330 yds. sq. 
and in the days of Bernier had 8 buildings, four in 
the middle of the side walls and four at the four 
corners. This garden suffered much damage during 
the Sikh rule, most of its marble having been looted 
and taken to Amritsar [q.v.]. The canal of C A1I 
Mardan Khan, which had silted up, was reopened by 
Randjlt Singh in 1806. The present entrance is a 
later construction built by W. L. McGregor, Deputy 
Commissioner of Lahore, in 1849. 

The other Mughal gardens of the Indo-Pakistan 
sub-continent include Pindjawr, near Ambala 
[q.v.]; Gulabi, Sada Hara and Dilkusha in 
Lahore; Rawshan Ara>, Talkatora and Mahtab 
in Delhi; Nagin, Weri Nag, Acchlbal, Hab- 
bak, and Pari Mahall, in Kashmir. 

The Mughal gardens follow a definite plan, a 
salient feature being the construction of a central 
channel and shallow tanks in the centre surrounded 
by soft green turf, a lofty boundary-wall, ianar 
trees, artificial pools and numerous fountains. The 
Mughal garden is generally arranged in squares 
or geometric patterns, usually in the form of terraces 
placed in such a way as to make the distribution and 
flow of water easy. F.ach terrace has four divisions 
to conform to the traditional plan of the Cahdr bdgh 
or four-fold garden. Taken as a whole, the garden 
looks like a combination of rectangles and straight 
lines; no curved paths or even circular parterres are 

Great care was taken in the selection of the 
sites, and the foot of a wooded hill, or a charming 
cliff, served as the background. The Kashmir 
ghalimar is the best specimen of Mughal horti- 
culture. 

Bibliography: Abu '1-Fadl, AHn-i Akbari, 
trans. Jarret ii, 361; <Abd al-Hamid Lahorl, 
Bddshdh-ndma (Bib. Ind.) i, 2, 24-26, 47, ii, 223; 
Muhammad S&lih Kanboh, <Amal-i Sdlih (Bib. 
Ind.) 131-32, 234-7, 373-76; C. M. Villiers-Stuart, 
Gardens of the Great Moghuls, London 191 3; 
Saciidananda Sinha, Kashmir the Play-ground of 
Asia, 3rd ed. Allahabad 1947, 228-307; W. 
Moorcroft, Travels in the Himalayan Provinces, 
London 1841,'i, 91-3, 108, ii, 116, 250-1; V. Jacque- 
mont, Letters' from India: Describing a Journey in 
India, Tibet and Kashmir, London 1834; G. T. 
Vigne, Travel in Kashmir, Ladak, Iskardu, London 
1842; J. Knight, Diary of a Pedestrian, London 
1863, 93-5; Kirpa Ram, Ta>rikh Gulzdr-i Kashmir, 
Lahore 1870, 208 ff. ; Francis Younghusband, 
Kashmir, London 1917, 123. 3°3; Thornton, 
Lahore, Lahore 1876 (s.v. Shalamar); S. Muham- 
mad Latlf, Lahore etc., Lahore 1892, 140-144, 
246-25ob; idem, History of the Panjab, La- 
hore 1891, 360, 364; Memoirs of Djahdngir, trans. 
Rogers, ii-151; Mubammad Shafi', in Islamic 
Culture, i/i (1927), 58 ff. ; Humayun (Urdu monthly), 
Lahore, Jan. 1922, 57; Cambridge History of India, 
Cambridge, 1937, iv 548-9; A. S. Bazmee Ansari, 
in Dawn, Karachi (Aug. 14, 1952); Bernier, 
Travels in the Mogol Empire, London 1891, 283, 
399-400; S. M. Jaflar, Some Cultural Aspects of 



- BUTNAN 

Muslim Rule in India, Peshawar 1950, 117-28; 
Journal of the Royal Society of Arts (London), 
Jan. 1936, 237-8; JASB, 1935, 332; Kdniin-i 
Humdyuni (ed. Beni Prashad), Calcutta 1950, 
61 ff. (A. S. Bazmee Ansari) 

al-BUSTAnI. [see Supplement]. 
al-BUSTI, Abu 5 l-Fath <AlI b. Muhammad, 
Arabic poet of the 4th/ioth century. He was of 
Persian origin and a native of Bust [q.v.l where he 
studied hadith, filfh and adab. He was a pupil of the 
traditionist lbn Hibban, who was living at Bust 
from 340/951 till his death 354/965. Another tradi- 
tionist, al-Khattabi (d. 388/1007), was Busti's friend. 
In law he followed the Shafi'I school. As a young man 
he became secretary {kdtib) to Baytuz, the lord of 
Bust. When in 367/977 Bust was taken by Subuk- 
tigin, al-Bustl went over to the victor. Owing to 
some intrigue he was compelled to retire to a village 
in the Rukhkhadj district, but after a few months 
was called back by Subuktigin and remained in 
office together with al-'Utbi till the reign of Mahmud. 
In this capacity he composed his much admired 
state letters announcing the spectacular victories 
of Mahmud. Later on he fell again into disgrace and 
was banished to the "land of the Turks" i.e., Trans- 
oxauia. He died in 400/1010 or 401/1011 (or even 
as late as Shawwal 403/Febr.-March 1016) in 
Bukhara. According to al-Manlni, Sharh al-Yamini 
(1286/1869-70) vol. i, 73, 2 he died hi Uzgend where 
his tomb was shown. 

His varied writings both as a poet and letter- 
writer show all the traits of rhetorical artifi- 
ciality typical of the poetry and ornate prose of the 
4th/ioth century. He was much praised for his skill 
in applying the tadpiis (paronomasia) and especially 
the tadjnis mutashdbih i.e. the use of homonyms for 
the sake of puns. This technique he developed 
gradually after having heard in his youth a quibble 
from the poet Shu'ba b. 'Abd al-Malik al-Busti 
(Yatimat al-Dahr, iv, 233 f.). He was on friendly 
terms with Tha'alibi, who composed his Ahsan ma 
samiHu on his instigation and gives of Busti's art an 
appreciative selection in his Yatimat al-Dahr. His 
Diwdn was published at Beirut in 1294/1877-8. 
Especially famous is his didactic poem al-Nuniyya 
or <Unwdn al-Hikam. 

Busti wrote also some poems in his mother- tongue, 
Persian, but they Were never collected (see H. Ethe, 
in Morgenldndische Forschungen, Festschrift H. L. 
Fleischer, 1875, 55-7). He is sometimes confounded 
with his namesake Abu 'l-Fath al-Busti (recte al- 
Bayni) an Egyptian poet of the 5th/nth century 
(see lbn Rashik, al- c Umda i, 200, 18 and lbn Sa'Id, 
Mughrib 103 Tallquist). 

Bibliography: c Utbi, al-Yamini (margin of 
the Commentary of al-Manlni, Cairo 1286 A.H). i, 
67-72; Tha'alibi, Yatimat al-Dahr, Damascus 1304 
A.H., iv, 204-231; iii, 225; iv,73; 160 f.; 232; 236; 
281 ; Bayhaki, Tatimmat Siwdn al-Hikma, i, 34 ff.; 
Yakut i, 612; lbn al-Athir ix, 155; lbn Khallikan 
(1299 A.H.) ii, 53; Subkl, Jaba^dt al-ShdfiHyya, iv, 
4-6; Damiri s.v. al-tha'-bdn; Dawlatshah, Tadltkira, 
26 f . ; Tashkdpriizade, Miftdh al-Sa'dda, i, 299 f . 
Brockelmann I, 291 S I, 445. (J. W. Fuck). 
BUT [see budd]. 
BUTAYN [see nudium]. 

BUTNAN, the name of a wddi located thirty 
kilometres east of Aleppo. At this place springs feed 
a large stream, Nahr al-Dhahab. which flows south 
and empties into the salt lake of Djabbul. These 
natural conditions have permitted the development 



BUTNAN - 

of essentially agricultural villages (fruit trees and 
cotton), of which the most important are the market- 
towns of Bab and Buza c a. A convenient stage about 
a day's march from the valley of Kuwayk, it was 
always a halting-place on the routes from Edessa and 
Rakka, and the revenues drawn from the saltbed of 
Pjabbfll formed consistently an appreciable support 
for the finances of the governors or rulers of northern 
Syria. 

Popular etymology relates Butnan to the root 
b(n and gives it the meaning of "low-lying ground". 
In fact the name preserves the memory, beyond a 
Byzantine Batnai and a Roman Batnae, of the 
principality of Patin. 

Conquered by Habib b. Maslama, Butnan fell very 
soon under the influence of the new centre, Aleppo, 
and henceforth played only an episodic r61e. In 
70/689-90, the caliph c Abd al-Malik wintered in the 
valley, during a struggle against Mus c ab b. al- 
Zubayr. The Carmathians made a disastrous 
appearance there in 901/289. Under Sayf al-Dawla's 
rule, it was devastated by Nicephoros Phocas in 
966/365. In the time of the Mirdasids the valley was 
the scene of confused struggles, and fell under the 
authority of Tutush in 1080/472. The Crusades and 
the Frankish occupation of Edessa and Antioch 
opened a period of insecurity which began in 1098/ 
491-92 with an Armenian raid, doubtless in con- 
nexion with the siege of Antioch. A prompt response 
by the Saldjuks of Aleppo ended in the exter- 
mination of the large Isma'ili community at Bab. 
Burned by Joscelin of Tell Bashir in 11 25/5 18, 
Buza c a as well as Bab was taken by the Emperor 
John II Comntnos in 1138/532. The arrival of Nur 
al-DIn in Aleppo brought back security. The 
Butnan of this period is known owing to the 
descriptions, as numerous as they are stereotyped, 
of the Arab geographers (cited by Le Strange and 
Dussaud). 

With the Mamluks, Butnan disappeared from the 
political scene. The region was administered by two 
Mamluk djundis, appointed by the ndHb of Aleppo, 
one for the towns of Bab and Buza'a, the other for 
the neighbourhood of Djabbul. The Turks made it 
a kadd', where a kdHmmakdm subordinate to the 
Pasha of Aleppo kept an eye on the salt-mines of 
Djabbul (400-500,000 pounds annual revenue for the 
exchequer in the middle of the 19th century). He 
resided at Bab, which had 6,000 inhabitants at 
this period. 

Bibliography: General: R. Dussaud, Topo- 
graphic historique de la Syrie antique et medicvale, 
Paris 1927, 4, 240, 450, 470 ff., 491. 5i9, 522; 
G. Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, 
London 1890, 39, 62, 406, 426, 460; J. Sauvaget, 
Alep, Paris 1941, 12, 13, 18, 20, 253, 261, note, 
464, 716, 750. 

Antiquity : Pauly-Wissowa, iii, 125, 140, Supp. 
i, 244, 245; E. Honigmann, Evtques et ivichis 
monophysites d'Asie antirieure au VI' siecle, 
Louvain 1951, 31; F. Sarre & E. Herzfeld, 
Archaologische Reise im Euphrat- und Tigris 
Gebiei, Berlin 191 1, i, 1 14-19; Tchalenko, Villages 
antiques de la Syrie du Nord, Beirut 1957. 

Middle Ages: Abu '1-Fida', Takwim, 267; 
Caetani, Annali, iii, note 279 ff.; CI. Cahen, La 
Syrie du Nord a I'tpoque des Croisades, Paris 1940, 
213; M. Canard, Histoire de la dynastie des H'am- 
ddnides de Jazira et de Syrie, Algiers 1951, i, 825; 
idem, Saif ad Daula, Algiers 1934, 41, 120, 196, 
268; Defremery, Nouvelles recherches sur les 
lsma&iens ou Bathiniens de Syrie, Paris 1855, 53; 



Dimashkl, Cosmographie, ed. Mehren, St. Peters- 
burg 1866, 205 ; E. Honigmann, Die Ostgrenze des 
Byzantinischen Retches (Vasiliev, Byzance et les 
Arabes, iii), Brussels 1935, 131-32; Ibn al-'Adlm, 
Zubdat al-Ifalab fi td>r\kh ffalab, ed. Dahan, 
Damascus 1951-4, i, 48, 88, 102, 151, ii, 61-4, 90, 
124, 175-77, 194-97. 206, 209, 214, 237, 264-69, 
323; Ibn Djubayr, Rihla, ed. Wright, Leiden 1852, 
251-52; Ibn Shihna. al-Durr al-muntakhab fi 
ta'rikh mamlakat IJalab, ed. Sarkis, Beirut 1909, 
47-48, 97, 156-57, 172-75; Kazwlnl, Kitab 'AdjdHb 
al-makhlukdt, ed. Wiistenfeld, Gottingen 1848, 178 ; 
Mardsid al-it(ild c , ed. Juynboll, Leiden 1850-1864, 
1, 159. 239, iv, 345; Yakut, i, 603, 664, ii, 39, 
200, 308. 

Mamluks and Turks: V. Cuinet, La Turquie 
d'Asie, Paris 1890-95, ii, 217 ff.; M. Gaudefroy- 
Demombynes, La Syrie a I'tpoque des Mamluks, 
Paris 1923, 84, 92, 192; H. Guys, Statistique du 
Pachalik d'Alep, Marseilles 1853, 21, 26, 50-51, 132. 

(F. Hours) 
al-BUTR, the name given to one of the two 
groups of tribes who constitute the Berbers [q.v.], 
the other being called al-Baranis [q.v.]. 

The chief groups of whom al-Butr was composed 
were the Lawata, the Nafusa, the Nafzawa, the Band 
Fatin and the Miknasa. Their earliest habitat is the 
region of steppe and plateau which extends from the 
Nile to southern Tunisia; they were thus originally 
Libyan Berbers. But, very early, several of these 
peoples (Miknasa, Banu Fatin, and a part of Lawata) 
moved towards the west — to Algeria (the areas round 
Awras, Tiaret and Tlemcen) and Morocco (the 
Moulouya basin, the Saharan country between 
Sidjilmasa, FIgIg and Twat, and the Sebou basin), 
and from the western Maghrib many elements 
penetrated into Spain. An attempt has been made 
to present the Butr as the Berber nomads and camel- 
drivers par excellence. This was perhaps their 
I" primitive way of life, which is no doubt why Arab 
historians have attached to this group peoples of 
definitely nomad habits, such as the Hawwara and 
the Zanata. The Nafusa, the Nafzawa and a part of 
the Lawata appear nevertheless to have become 
stabilised rather early in the mountains of Libya, 
perhaps at the time of the Arab conquest. As for 
those who moved into Algeria and Morocco, they 
were soon settled and even established a number 

The greater part of the tribal names of which this 
group is composed are still current, but the collective 
name itself has disappeared. It is the plural of the 
Arabic (!) adjective al-abtar, the alleged surname of 
Madghls, whom these peoples recognised as their 
common ancestor. The word means "he whose tail 
is docked, mutilated, he who has no descendants". 
The last sense is hardly suited to an eponymous 
.ancestor; the first two are bizarre. However, the 
eponymous ancestor of the other group, Burnus, 
bears a name coincident with the Arabic word (an 
early borrowing from the Greek birros) designating 
the garment which we call burnous. Thus, the 
Baranis might be "the (wearers of) burnous, or long 
garments" and, in contrast, the Butr would be 
"those clad in short garments". In fact, in the 
Arabic dialect of north-west Morocco, there is an 
adjective germ (a quadriliteral expansion of the root 
krt) meaning "he who has his tail cut short", and is 
applied in particular to the very short jelldbas 
of the mountaineers (cf. W. Marcais, Textes de 
Tanger, 439). 

For other ethnic appellations derived from 



!35o 

pecularities of dress, note that of the Sanhadja 
Berbers [q.v.], who are called mulaththimun "those 
who wear a veil over the mouth" ; and that which 
has been suggested for the.Masmuda [q.v.] Berbers, 
who are called Shuluh (cf. Melanges Gaudefroy- 
Demombynis, Cairo 1939, 305). 

Bibliography: Ibn Khaldun, Histoire des 

Berberes*, i, 170, 226; E. F. Gautier, Les siicles 

obscurs du Maghreb, Paris 1927, 204-211. 

(G. S. Colin) 

BUWAYHIDS or BCYIDS, the most important 
of the dynasties which, first in the Iranian plateau 
then in 'Irak, side by side with the Samanids of 
Khurasan and of Mawara* al-Nahr, marked the 
"Iranian intermezzo" (Minorsky) between the Arab 
domination of early Islam and the Turkish conquest 
of the 5th/nth century. Its name derives from 
Buwayh or Buyeh, the father of three brothers who 
founded it, 'All, al-Hasan, and the youngest, Ahmad. 
Condottieri of humble birth, they belonged to the 
population of the Daylamites [q.v.] who, newly won 
over to (Shi'i) Islam, were at that time enlisting in 
large numbers in all the armies of the Muslim East, 
including those of the Caliphate. 

To some extent, it was the Daylamites who, with 
the advent of the Buwayhids, assumed power and 
imposed on the regime something of their own 
character. While the Daylamites remaining in 
Daylam formed small principalities, sometimes 
extending as far as Adharbaydjan, the others, in 
Iran and 'Irak, developed in consequence into a 
political factor of growing importance. The Buway- 
hids, who, to begin with, had followed one of their 
compatriots, Makan b. Kaki, who had entered the 
service of the Samanids, and then their Gilani ally 
Mardawldj [q.v.] in his struggle against their common 
enemy, the Zaydl state of Tabaristan (sometimes 
extending as far as Rayy), continued to follow the 
Gilani Mardawldj when he carved out for himself 
in central Iran a vast autonomous principality. Soon, 
however, they began to adopt a somewhat intractable 
attitude towards him. Having become for a time 
master of Isfahan, then, more permanently, of Fars, 
'All, to protect himself against Mardawldj, and 
in spite of being a Shi'I, got his authority in the 
government of the province recognised by the 
Caliph, as the 'Abbasid armies would have been 
incapable of reconquering it. He still had pos- 
session of it when in 332/943 Mardawldj was 
assassinated. After confused struggles (see the 
articles 'imad al-dawla, mu'izz al-dawla and 
rukn al-dawla) against the lieutenants of allies 
of the Samanids or of the various clans who shared 
among themselves an influence with the Caliphate, 
'All, the eldest, kept the province of Fars, while his 
brother al-Hasan occupied almost the whole of 
Djibal and the youngest, Ahmad, entrenched him- 
self on the one hand in Kirman and on the other in 
Khuzistan. These important strongholds, and more 
especially this last acquisition, drew the Buwayhids 
into the interplay of factions for power in 'Irak and 
the other territories of the Caliphate under the 
successive amir al-umard?. Only a very close study 
can determine whether, in the general post of 
intrigues and betrayals, the Buwayhids were allied 
to any one specific faction. However that may be, 
in 334/945. Ahmad entered Baghdad. The regime 
which he set up there lasted until 447/1055. The 
new era was at once inaugurated by a change of 
name: Ahmad, 'AH and al-Hasan respectively had 
bestowed on them simultaneously by the Caliph the 
honorific titles (teftaAs) of Mu'izz al-Dawla, 'Imad 



L-BUTR — BUWAYHIDS or BOYlDS 



al-Dawla and Rukn al-Dawla, by which they were 
henceforth known to history. Before long, 'Imad 
al-Dawla died without an heir, leaving Fars to 
'Adud al-Dawla, son of Rukn al-Dawla. When the 
latter died (366/977), after Mu'izz al-Dawla, 'Adud 
al-Dawla, finding himself head of the family, 
dispossessed his nephew, 'Izz al-Dawla Bakhtiyar, 
of 'Irak, and only allowed his brother, Mu'ayyid 
al-Dawla, to remain master of the rest of Buwayhid 
Iran, by virtue of his incontrovertible loyalty. 'Adud 
al-Dawla, who was the most distinguished personality 
of the dynasty, achieved the fullest unity that the 
family was to enjoy. 

Outside 'Irak, the new principalities merely 
joined the number of those which, for a century, had 
been carving up the 'Abbasid Empire. The Buwayhid 
principality of 'Irak in a sense did little more than 
implant in this last 'Abbasid redoubt the form of 
government which had triumphed elsewhere. But 
there was, in this instance, a factor of greater 
importance, in that Baghdad was the very centre 
of the Caliphate. It is true that its seizure by the 
Buwayhids did little more than set the seal on the 
developments which had, in effect, placed the 
Caliphate under the domination of the army chiefs, 
promoted amir al-umara'. But this time there was 
the added fact that the Buwayhids were professing 
Shi'is, so much so that it might have been asked 
whether they were not about to suppress a Caliphate 
whose legitimacy had no special meaning for them. 
Nothing of the sort happened. Doubtless Mu'izz 
al-Dawla was aware that the Shi'is were in the 
minority, and that, had he destroyed the Caliphate 
in Baghdad, the institution would have reappeared 
elsewhere. It was better therefore to keep it under 
his thumb, both to legalise his authority over the 
Sunnis in his states and to strengthen his diplomatic 
relations with the world outside by the weight of 
the respected moral authority which the Sunni 
princes still enjoyed by right. In fact, deriving their 
official authority from the Caliphate, the Buwayhids 
behaved as though they believed genuinely in the 
legitimacy of the 'Abbasid Caliphate. 

The question of the relations between Buwayhids 
and Caliphate is moreover bound up with that of 
their religious adherence. It has sometimes been said 
that the Buwayhids were Zaydis because Daylam 
had been the scene of the activity of the emissaries 
of these same Zaydis who had set up political 
hegemonies in Tabaristan and, on the very borders 
of Daylam itself, by those of their rival al-'Utrush, 
around the year 900. All the same, there were also 
Isma'ilis (Misk., ii, 32-35) in Daylam and, in the 
entourage of al-'Utrush or his descendants, Twelvers 
(£/', s.v. al-'Utrush), and Mardawldj, affected 
perhaps by Isma'Ili propaganda, had at any rate 
joined the Sunni Samanids in fighting the Zaydis of 
Tabaristan. At this time, Twelver theology proper 
was only just beginning to be elaborated, and there 
is consequently nothing remarkable in the persistence, 
in later Buwayhid society, of Zaydi doctrinal in- 
fluences or, linked to these, Mu'tazili influences. But, 
for the Buwayhid conquerors, politics took prece- 
dence over religion. The notion, for a time enter- 
tained, it is said, by Mu'izz al-Dawla, of conferring 
the Caliphate on a certain Zaydi 'Alid in his entourage 
was set aside, never to be taken up again, precisely 
because it would have been necessary to obey such 
a Caliph. The distinction between the various 
branches of Shi'ism was probably not yet clearly 
defined outside the Zaydi states (leaving Isma'Ilism 
aside), and the Twelver tendency, certainly in 



BUWAYHIDS 



'Imad al-Dawla Y 



al-Dawla] * 



334 [Mu'izz al-DawIaJ 



36? 'Adud al-Dawla 



Rukn al-Dawla 



'Adud al-Dawla -< >- ['Adud al-Dawla] 

'Adud al-Dawla 



I 1 

IjfahAn and hamadijAn Rayy 

Mu'ayyad al-Dawla *— | Faldjr 

al-Dawla « 



la <-. Fakhi 

al-Da- 



372 §am?am al-Dawla 4_ .—^ SJjaraf al-Dawla 



n 



S^araf al-Dawla 
Bah a 1 al-Dawla 



F 



1 



p- Samsam al-Dawla 



— ► Samsam al-Dawla 1 *— 



I ► Baha' a 



SJjams al-Dawla 



i' al-Dawla « V Baha> al-Dawla 

Sultan al-Dawla * ► Sultan al-Dawta Kawam al-Dawla 

Musharrif al-Dawla -< >• Musharrif al-Dawla 

— ► Abu Kalidjar 



416 Djalal al-Dawla 



1. 




Abu K31Idjar 4 

al- Malik al-Rahlm •< ► al-Malik al-Rahim Fulad-Sutun 

Capture of Baghdad by Toghrul-Beg and imprisonment of al-Malik al-Rahlm, 
[Captured by Fadiuyeh] 



'Irak and Fars were united from 367 to 373, 376 to 379, 3S8 to 415, and 435 to 447, 

'Irak and Kirman were united from 334 to 356, and 380 to 388. Kirman was united with Fars from 338 to 367 (to 37a 

with 'Iralj), 380 to 403, 419 to 440; it stood alone from 4.03 to 446 and from 440 to 448. 
'Irak stood alone from 334-367. 379 to 380, 416 to 435. Firs stood alone from 322 to 338 and from 372 to 380. 
A union between 'Irak, Fars and Kirman was achieved from 367 to 372, 388 to 403, 435 to 440. 
The Pjibal always stood alone, except during the early days of the dynasty. 

'Uman, except for a short time under Samsam al-Daw!a, when it was united with 'Irak, was united with Fars. 
Basra and Ahwaz, after 'Adud al-Dawla, were often separated from 'Irafc or constituted an autonomous government at 

the heart of the 'Iraki kingdom ; they were often incorporated in the kingdom of Fars. 
Complete genealogical tables are to be found in Zambaur 2 1 2-16 and Q. 



1352 



BUWAYHIDS or BOYIDS 



Mesopotamia and probably in central Iran, was the 
majority form of Shi'ism. In fact, about the time 
when the Buwayhids were seizing power (and was 
this purely fortuitous?) the doctrine was spreading 
among adherents of this movement that after the 
period in which the imams were present in person, 
followed by that in which they were represented by 
a wakil, the time of the "great occultation" was 
coming, when nothing more would be known of 
them. Thus, if the 'Abbasid Caliph was not, strictly 
speaking, legitimate, at least, if he tolerated Shi'ism, 
there was nothing discreditable in putting up with 
him. It is certain that the Buwayhids welcomed 
somewhat indiscriminately Shl'Is or Mu'tazilis of 
different shades of opinion, but politically they were 
Twelvers. 

At no time did the Buwayhids plan the persecution 
of the Sunnis by the Shi'is — both sects were 
represented in their army; rather they intended to 
set up a sort of 'Abbasid-Shi'i condominium, which 
freed the Shl'Is from the obligation of a certain 
tahiyya and provided them, as well as the Sunnis, 
with an official organisation. Basically, they were 
reviving, from the Shi'i angle, what had been the 
dream of many 'Abbasids from the time of al- 
Ma'mun. Thus, they believed, they acquired a 
strong following, without at the same time alienating 
the rest of the population. Without the smallest 
doubt, Twelver Shi'ism owes to the Buwayhid regime 
not only this organisation, but even a part of its 
doctrinal structure. The importance of the rich 
Shl'Is and the Sharlfs towards the end of the 
'Abbasid era is well-known. It was upon them that 
— leaving aside the army — the Buwayhid regime 
depended in its social relations with the local 
population. The regime organised the 'Alids — or as 
they are more usually called, the Talibids— into an 
autonomous body to counterbalance the 'Abbasids, 
whereas formerly this family unit was merely 
integrated into, though, of course, dominated by, 
the 'Abbasids. On the doctrinal level, the presence 
of Imams in the 3rd/o,th century and the fact that the 
Twelvers had for a long time been, in a somewhat 
negative fashion, those among the Shl'Is who had 
not joined in active rebellion, had obstructed the 
work of the traditionists and theoreticians. The 
Buwayhids now made up for lost time. WhileNil- 
Kullnl, the first of the great theologians whom the 
Twelvers recognised as specifically their own, died 
at the dawn of the Buwayhid regime in Iran, the 
second and more important, Ibn Babawayh (Babuya) 
was encouraged in his work by the Buwayhids in the 
third quarter of the century. He was followed by 
others among whom — also important in Iranian 
Shi'ism — were Arabs from the old 'Alid citadel of 
Kumm. In Baghdad, the brother sharifs al-Radl and 
al-Murtada were, throughout the whole of the first 
quarter of the nth century, the real masters of the 
town, acting as intermediaries between the Buway- 
hids, the Caliphs and the population, at the same 
time as the Shi'i scholars and traditionists. It is said 
that at this moment when the four schools remaining 
to the Sunnis were beginning to be defined by them 
as exclusively orthodox, they would have wished 
that their form of Shi'ism might be recognised in 
the heart of the umma as a sort of fifth authorised 
school. More readily apparent from the outset of the 
regime is the organisation or recognition of forms 
which are still those of Shi'ism to this day. Influ- 
enced perhaps by Daylamite practices, Mu'izz al- 
Dawla openly created or consecrated the lamen- 
tations of the 'ashura'. He also created the festival 



of Ghadlr Khumm. The 'Alid mashhads, genuine or 
conjectural, were embellished, and 'Adud al-Dawla 
was the first to be buried there after 'All. Shi'i 
schools were created, such as the Dar al-'ilm of the 
vizier Sabur, endowed with wafrfs, a replica (393/993) 
of the Fatimid "University", and considerably 
earlier than the SunnI Nizamiyya of the Saldjukids; 
and in the mosques, the Shi'I cult, including the 
public call to prayer, was in dangerous competition 
with the SunnI cult. 

Naturally, it was out of the question that the recog- 
nised Caliph should govern effectively. In the same 
way as the lakab of Nasir al-Dawla, the first of its 
kind conferred on the Hamdanid, the Buwayhid 
lahabs show that, while it was the Caliph who 
legalised their power, they alone were its custodians. 
Al-Mustakfl, the Caliph who welcomed them, had 
joined forces with many others before them. He was 
replaced by his personal enemy al-Muti', who 
nineteen years later himself had to yield the throne 
to al-Tal' for having backed the wrong side in the 
struggle between the heirs of Mu'izz al-Dawla. 
Al-Ta'i' in his turn abandoned the throne to al- 
Kadir. Nevertheless, the life-span of the Caliphs 
in the time of the Buwayhids— three and a half 
reigns in a century — was appreciably longer than 
that of their predecessors — precisely because they 
no longer ruled in anything but name. As to the 
lakabs, they became more numerous as they declined 
in value. As each prince in the family, then little 
by little princes of other dynasties, claimed them too, 
it was necessary first to double and then treble 
those of the head of the Buwayhids. Thus 'Adud 
al-Dawla was also called Tadj al-Milla etc. The last 
Buwayhid went so far as to claim that he had 
conferred upon himself a title ending in din, faith, — a 
procedure and implication (a condemnation of 
Sunnism) which obviously the Caliph could not 
accept. In the same way, the supreme prince marked 
his superiority over his u.mara' relatives by pro- 
claiming himself from 'Adud al-Dawla onwards, 
malik, and even, in Iran though not in 'Irak, 
shahanshah, the old Sasanid title. The last of the 
Buwayhids committed the sacrilege of styling 
himself al-Malik al-Rahlm, a title properly reserved 
for Allah alone. The exalted position of the Buway- 
hids was shown also in the mention of their name, 
after that of the Caliph, in the khutba, except in 
the Caliph's quarter, and on coins, as well as in the 
privilege of having the (abls beaten in front of the 
princely residences at the three principal, and 






rayer. 



To turn to the exercise of power, the essential 
point is that there was no longer any instrument of 
government in Baghdad which depended even in 
law upon the Caliph — though for a time under 
Nasir al-Dawla this had been the case. Everything, 
especially the wazirate, was now an institution 
directly attached to the amirate, though this transfer 
did not in itself mark any change in the distribution 
of functions. Topographically, everything in Baghdad 
was now at the Dar al-Mamlaka [see below]. During 
the period in which the power of the regime conferred 
on the wazirate, as on the principality, a certain 
stability, there were Buwayhid wazlrs who were by no 
way inferior to the greatest wazlrs of the Caliphate, 
and who stayed even longer in office. Such was al- 
Muhallabi under Mu'izz al-Dawla, Ibn al-'Amid 
under Rukn al-Dawla, the Sahib Ibn al-'Abbad 
under Mu'ayyid al-Dawla and Fakhr Dawla. All 
three of these were very cultured men and at the 
same time great administrators. Nevertheless, some 



BUWAYHIDS or BUYIDS 



of the Buwayhids, principally c Adud al-Dawla, the 
greatest of them all, preferred to keep the co-ordi- 
nation of the instruments of government in their 
own hands and, in practice, divided the functions 
of the wazirs, with or without the title, among two 
or three high dignitaries. Their inadequate knowledge 
of Arabic had made it impossible for the Buwayhids 
of the first generation to do more themselves than 
reap the benefits of the work done by their more 
effective wazirs. Under the last of the Buwayhids, 
the wazirate was more unstable although wazirs 
were frequently drawn from a single family. Of 
course, the Caliphate still kept a secretariat and a 
Chancellery, but these were exclusively occupied 
with the administration of matters pertaining 
strictly to the Caliphate or with international 
correspondence on behalf of the amirs. 

The functions of the Caliphate comprised the 
administration of its goods and the organisation of 
the palace, the representative duties which devolved 
upon the Caliph, the control of the good works and 
religio-legal life of the Sunnis and a certain moral 
share in the administration of Baghdid. The income of 
the Caliph, apart from family and private means, was 
no longer what he set aside for him self out of State 
revenue, for it was no longer the Caliph who author- 
ised wages and salaries. On the contrary, as was al- 
ready the case in the time of Nasir al-Dawla, an 
allowance was granted to him by the amir out of the 
public funds which, in former times, had been admin- 
istered by himself. The total was smaller than before 
though still worthy of his station — two or three 
hundred thousand dinars under the early Buwayhids 
— to which must be added the numerous gifts made 
to him by the entire Muslim world and by the foreign 
ambassadors, as well as what he received from the 
Buwayhids themselves at festivals and investitures. 
Against these however, must be set the forced con- 
tributions extorted by the Buwayhids in times of 
crisis. As to his religio-legal powers, they consisted in 
the nomination and control of the personnel of the 
mosques and the holders of the office of kadi for 
the Sunnis, in particular in Baghdad where the 
Caliph al-Kadir compensated for his powerlessness 
to oppose the Buwayhid government by a drive to 
enforce the letter of Sunni orthodoxy, especially 
among the Mu c tazills and the Isma c Ilis. 

The transfer of government from the Caliphate 
to the amlrate did not ipso facto alter the character 
of the government. In practice, the Buwayhid 
regime established the absolute supremacy of the 
army in the government. However, since the general 
functions of public administration still had to be 
carried out, this supremacy meant also that, in a 
sense, the military authority now extended its 
competence to fields which previously had been 
outside its province. The innovation which probably 
had the most serious consequences was the trans- 
formation of the ifttd c regime. For a long time, 
faithful supporters and, increasingly, the military 
chiefs, had been rewarded by the Caliphate with the 
grant in quasi-owuership of lands appropriated 
from the state domain. In fact, for the last hundred 
years or so, this source having been inadequate, 
high-ranking officers were sometimes granted the 
right to the taxes of a fiscal district, with no further 
obligation than to pay the standard Muslim tithe 
to the public Treasury. The Buwayhid regime, 
following in the footsteps of the Hamdanids, extended 
and ruthlessly intensified this practice. Many districts 
were systematically distributed as iftfaH of this 
new type, now without even tithe obligations to 



1353 

the Treasury. Miskawayh, or, before him, Thabit 
b. Sinan, have described perfectly some of the 
consequences of this system. From the point of 
view of the central administration it meant the loss 
of control of fiscal transactions in part of the country 
and, in the long run, even of factual knowledge of 
the nature and extent of the tax levied. In so far 
as the fiscal value of each district remained roughly 
calculable, it tended no longer to be within the 
province of the diwan of Taxes, but that of 
the Army. The diwan of Taxes, deprived of part of 
its functions, correspondingly reduced its staff and 
the number of its departments. Nevertheless, the 
Buwayhid ifi(d c was not a fief, but an assignment of 
salary; the beneficiary would exchange it, at his 
own or the government's wish, if the revenue of the 
district were no longer equal to the balance due to 
him, or for any other expedient cause. He had no 
permanent ties with the district and therefore no 
interest in its development. At best, the means thus 
placed at his disposal enabled him to build up more 
stable properties. Nevertheless, they were not yet 
either t££a c -holders of the provincial governments — 
these functions, when they exercised them, were 
paid in the normal way — nor bound to maintain their 
troops out of their ilttd'. Each soldier received his pay 
direct from the Treasury in whatever form it might 
be given to him. One should not exaggerate: a 
variable proportion of the pay was still paid in 
kind, a part of the land was still administered in 
the traditional manner by the traditional authority, 
of which some fiscal handbooks for this period have 
been preserved for us. 

With these reservations, socially and economically, 
a new and more powerful aristocracy, that of the 
military leaders, was gaining ascendancy over the 
middle-class and slowly declining aristocracy of the 
great merchants, civilian landlords and high-ranking 
officials who had been at the height of their power in 
the c Abbasid era. But, under the great Buwayhids, 
the princes exercised a rlean-cut authority over 
these leaders and made it their business to see that 
the new aristocracy respected their strict control in 
such matters as the police, public order (fiimdya) and 
even taxation. There was, of course, no question of 
relaxing the tax on all subjects which was the basis 
of the upkeep of the army, whether this applied to 
pay or ifrtd'; and, for the taxpayer, a change of 
tax-collector and beneficiary did not mean any 
corresponding change in the fiscal system. The 
great Buwayhid wazirs, after the period of conquest 
during which their masters behaved as common 
thieves and looters, applied themselves to establishing 
a sound administration, which was made possible by 
the restoration of public order; side by side with 
new taxes, we hear of the remission of others, and the 
currency of the early Buwayhids was sound. 
Nevertheless, it may also be observed that the 
successors of 'Adud al-Dawla provoked riots in 
Baghdad by their attempts to tax the cloth manu- 
facturers who were responsible for the livelihood 
of thousands of artisans in the capital. State revenue, 
under the great Buwayhids, slightly exceeded that 
of the Caliphate over an equivalent area. In agri- 
culture, disturbances dating back to before the 
Buwayhid conquest had resulted in damage to the 
irrigation works. Repairing the damage and building 
new canals, etc., were among the burdens which 
fell upon the Buwayhid administration. The roads 
and bridges used for commercial traffic were also 
restored, and the capitals, Baghdad, Shiraz and 
Isfahan benefited from the presence of the princes, 



1354 



BUWAYHIDS or BOYIDS 



who built themselves sumptuous palaces. In east 
Baghdad the whole group of these buidings formed 
the Dar al-Mamlaka, as opposed to the Dar al Khilafa, 
and the buildings erected at the gates of Shlraz by 
'Adud al-Dawla at Kard Fanakhusraw enchanted 
al-MukaddasI. The close union of 'Irak and Fars 
resulted in some attempts to introduce 'Iraki 
customs into Fars, although no administrative 
unification was ever achieved. This union, from 
which local industries may have derived some profit, 
was in contrast with the periods which preceded 
and followed it, when the ties between 'Irak and 
Iran were directed, across the central plateau, 
towards Khurasan. 

Culturally, the early Buwayhids were rough 
fellows without education, but their successors were 
moulded by the cultured indigenous aristocracy of 
Iran. In contrast with the remote Iran of the 
Samanids, the Buwayhid sphere of influence in 
Iran — not to mention, a fortiori, in 'Irak — had the 
appearance of a strongly arabicised area. We have 
already observed that the early Buwayhids, with 
Ibn al-'Amld and Ibn 'Abbad as their wazirs, thus 
commanded the services of two of the most illustrious 
Arabic scholars of their day. Furthermore, a galaxy 
of Arabic poets were present at their courts. It was 
under the Buwayhids that Abu '1-Faradj al-Isfahani's 
"Book of Songs" and al-Nadlm's Fihrist, two 
treasuries of Arabic literature, were compiled. If 
Abu Ishak al-Sabi had grounds for complaint 
against 'Adud al-Dawla, his grandson, the historian 
Hilal al-Sabi. lived comfortably in the Baghdad of 
the later Buwayhids, who also protected the philo- 
sopher-historian, Miskawayh. Generally speaking, 
sages were well-received by the Buwayhids, especially 
those whose special knowledge could be put to 
practical use. Such — leaving aside the religious 
sciences — were the geographer, Istakhrl, the mathe- 
matician, Abu '1-Wafa 5 al-Buzdjani, al-NasawI, 
who disseminated the "Indian numerals", the astrol- 
ogers, for whom Sharaf al-Dawla built an observatory 
in Baghdad, the physicians (such as al-Madjusi), who 
had cause for self-congratulation especially on the 
foundation by 'Adud al-Dawla of a remarkable 
hospital in the ancient palace of Khuld at Baghdad, 
and another at Shlraz [see bImaristan]. The libraries 
of Shlraz, Rayy, Isfahan, organised by successive 
Buwayhids, excited universal admiration. It is 
common knowledge that Avicenna found sanctuary 
and high preferment (as a wazir?) under ghams al- 
Dawla. The great patron-wazirs were scarcely less 
munificent as long as they did not see in their 
proteges possible rivals for glory (Abu Hayyin 
al-Tawhldi as against Ibn 'Abbad). Ibn al-Bawwab, 
a high Buwayhid dignitary, was one of the inventors 
of naskhi calligraphy. 

But, while the Buwayhids and their ministers 
patronised literature and science of a traditionally 
Arabic character, they also showed a genuine in- 
terest in neo-Persian literature. If the first Daylamite 
generation were not sufficiently polished to have 
any such pretentions, those who followed were in 
the widest sense more fully Iranian than Daylamite. 
It was not for nothing that, as Mardawidj had 
dreamed, they revived the title of Shahanshah and 
caused to be drawn up for themselves a Sasanid 
genealogy which, however, was universally recognised 
by their contemporaries as being historically unsound. 
Though their role in literature cannot be compared 
with that of the Samanids, they nevertheless had 
their Persian poets, and Firdawsi found a welcome 
at the court of Baha' al-Dawla. The indubitable 



decline of Zoroastrianism, still flourishing in the 
Firs province at the dawn of the Buwayhid regime, 
is probably in part linked with the fact that hence- 
forth it was possible to form a separate block within 
Islam itself, under a "national" dynasty. 

The place of the Buwayhid era in the history of 
Persian art would perhaps seem equally great if 
more thoroughly reliable testimony were available. 
Their buildings have already been mentioned in 
another connexion in which their places of worship 
perhaps count for less than their palaces, fortresses, 
hospitals, etc. Recent finds of textiles have now 
made it possible to study in actual examples this 
apparently traditional branch of Iranian crafts- 
manship. A good recent study on the art of the 
Buwayhid period is that of E. Kiihnel [see Biblio- 
graphy], to which the reader is referred. 

More generally, it is certain that, among the 
Buwayhids as elsewhere, the establishment of 
regional principalities, by setting up many new 
courts and cultural centres outside what until then 
was the more or less unique cultural centre of Bagh- 
dad, enriched and disseminated the life of the 
spirit and, by bringing it into contact with the 
varying requirements of different peoples, conferred 
upon it a new vitality. 

The foreign policy of the Buwayhids seemed 
scarcely to have been affected by doctrinal consi- 
derations. In Iran, their great opponents in the 
4th/ioth century, were the Samanids with their 
Ziyarid (descendants of Mardawidj) and Saffarid 
(of Sistan) vassals. Very naturally, they supported 
the Khurasanl rebels, especially the Simdjurids, 
against the Samanids, and took advantage of the 
ascendancy of the Ghaznawids at the beginning of 
the century and of the final ruin of the Samanids at 
the end. In the north-west, their policy was to 
establish or maintain a vague protectorate over the 
small Daylamite dynasties, so as to have them on 
their side in the fight against the Ziyarids on the 
one hand and the Kurds on the other. The struggle 
against the Kurds falls partly under the heading of 
"foreign policy", on the Adharbaydjan side, and 
partly of internal security — in other words mere 
public order — on the Djibal side (the tfasanwayhid 
Kurds). The same is true of the hostilities, carried 
out for the most part in the time of 'Adud al-Dawla, 
against the Kufs and the Baluc of Kirman and 
Makran. Finally, the occupation of the 'Uman, or 
more precisely of the vital strategic coastal areas of 
the region, at times by the Buwayhids of Fars, at 
others by those of 'Irak, was clearly related to 
considerations of economic security. In Mesopotamia, 
following the liquidation of the Baridis of Basra, the 
main efforts of the two first generations of Buwayhids 
consisted above all in the neutralisation and then the 
liquidation of the Hamdanids who, though Shi'is like 
themselves, were Arabs, and had been only recently 
their rivals in Baghdad. Naturally, a small semi- 
permanent war was essential for the maintenance 
of order on the borders of Arabia, and, in 'Irak 
itself, in the Batiha as also in the Persian Gulf 
against the Carmathians of Bahrayn. 

The appearance of the Fatimids in 968 in Egypt, 
then in Syria, confronted the Buwayhids of the 
second generation and their descendants with a 
problem unknown to the first. The claim of the new 
dynasty to be 'Alid could not fail to excite interest 
among all Shi'is. Nor could this dynasty, with its 
"imperialist" ambitions, fail to try and further its 
own expansion by claims of this kind. It would, 
however, have been necessary for all Shi'is to accept 



BUWAYHIDS or BOYIDS 



1355 



the heterodox doctrines of the Isma'ills which were 
the official doctrines of the Fatimid State, and, 
further, it was difficult to avoid clashes between two 
powers bent on dominating the territories between 
Egypt and 'Irak. The Buwayhids occasionally 
joined forces with the Carmathians, when they 
quarrelled with the Fatimids, and also, of course, 
with the Arab tribes fighting the Fatimids on one 
front and the Hamdanids or their heirs fighting 
them on another. It is difficult to assess just how 
far the anti- Fatimid manifesto of the Caliph al-Kadir 
(402/101 1) was an exact reflection of Buwayhid 
policy or whether it was also instigated by the 
desire to counteract Isma'ili infiltration. At any 
rate, there is nothing to support a view that it was 
done against the wishes of the Buwayhids, and it 
is remarkable that it was signed jointly by the 
SunnI and Twelver sages. It was not until the end 
of the dynasty that a Buwayhid, Abu Kalidjar, lent 
a complacent ear to the explanations of al-Mu'ayyad 
al-Shirazl, the Isma'ili missionary, though, officially 
at least, nothing came of it {Sira of al-Shirazl; al- 
Balkhi, 118; Abu Shudja', 232). And the fact that 
after the fall of the dynasty in Baghdad their 
Turkish general, al-Basasiri [q.v.], thoroughly 
intransigent while they were in power, declared his 
allegiance, against the Saldjukid conqueror, to the 
Fatimid Caliphate, which alone was capable of 
coming to his aid, cannot be regarded as charac- 
teristic of Buwayhid policy in general. 

However stable the Buwayhid dynasty may have 
appeared from the outset, however brilliant some of 
its achievements, it was not without its weaknesses. 
Some of these were common to other regimes, 
others were peculiar to itself, others again came not 
from within but from without. In this last category 
was the maritime trading crisis which had an 
appreciable effect upon the end of the Buwayhid era. 
It is certain that towards the year 1000 A.D. trade 
with the West from the Indian Ocean ceased to flow 
mainly through the Persian Gulf, being diverted to 
the Red Sea (see B. Lewis, The Fatimids and the Route 
to India, in Revue de la Fac. de Sc. Econ. d' Istanbul, 
IQ 53)- The persistent troubles of Lower 'Irak and the 
presence in Bahrayn of the Carmathians, whom 
the Buwayhids were never able to control, must 
certainly have had something to do with this, as 
had also the complete segregation of Syria from 
Mesopotamia brought about by the Fatimid and 
Byzantine conquests. Probably an even more 
significant influence, however, was the economic 
imperialism of the Fatimids and the favourable 



which : 



acted 1 



1 of 1 



merchant ships of Italy. When a natural catastrophe 
(in about the year 1000) ruined SIraf, which up to 
that time had been the great Persian port of the 
Gulf, the town was not rebuilt, and the mastery of 
the Gulf belonged henceforth to the Lord of the 
Island of Kish, who seems to have been more or 
less a Corsair chieftain. Although we cannot accurately 
assess the consequences of these facts, it is scarcely 
likely that they were not serious both for the 
merchant classes of society, who were doubtless 
henceforth less well able to resist the growing power 
of the military aristocracy, and for the internal 
economics of the Buwayhid regime and conse- 
quently its general stability. Even before the year 
1000, the Buwayhids were unable to avoid the 
devaluation of their silver coinage, and doubtless it 
was for this reason that in the nth century, gold 
was used more and more, though one wonders how 
it came there. The Buwayhids were increasingly 



o have recourse t< 



forced, in order to raise tax 
tax-farming, selling offices, etc. 

A more domestic and congenital weakness in the 
Buwayhid, regime as in most of the near-eastern 
r6gim.es of this period, lay in that very army which 
had brought about the ruin of the Caliphate. The 
Buwayhid army, in spite of the pay being sup- 
plemented by »£(«', was no more easily satisfied than 
its forerunner, the army of the Caliph. Like its 
predecessor, it knew itself to be the cornerstone of 
the system, and took advantage of its position. It 
was not, however, united. The original Daylamite 
nucleus was not adequate for long and, even before 
the conquest of Baghdad, the Buwayhids, like 
Mardawidj, had added to it the corps of Turkish 
slaves indispensable to every Muslim army in the 
East. These, on the one hand, could be used against 
the Daylamites in the event of a breach of discipline 
(and vice versa), and on the other hand, and even 
more important, they were mainly horsemen, while 
the Daylamites, who came from the mountains and 
forests, were infantrymen. Occasionally, Kurds, Kufs, 
etc., were also recruited. To the rivalry between 
this diversity of ethnic groups, must be added the 
fact that, at the beginning at least, the Turks 
taken over by the Buwayhids from the Caliphate 
were Sunnis. Finally, for reasons which are still 
unexplained, the recruitment of Daylamite troops 
dried up progressively. The last descendants of the 
princes who owed their power to them were sur- 
rounded almost entirely by Turkish soldiers. 

The third cause of weakness, rather more peculiar 
to the Buwayhid dynasty, was the splitting-up of 
power. From the beginning, it has been noted, there 
was not one but three Buwayhid principalities. The 
circumstances of the conquest may have had some- 
thing to do with this, but another factor must 
surely have been a patrimonial or familial conception 
of power. When strength and chance combined to 
permit 'Adud al-Dawla to establish an almost 
complete unity to his own advantage, he did no more 
than his predecessors to perpetuate this unity, which 
was disrupted at his death. This splitting-up of power, 
which distinguishes the Buwayhid dynasty from all 
the other Muslim dynasties before the Karakhanid 
and Saldjukid Turkish dynasties, inevitably brought 
about internal strife, once the three founder- 
brothers were dead. It goes without saying that the 
army and all the trouble-makers benefited, so much 
so that this flaw in the dynastic organisation in its 
turn aggravated the vices born of the military regime 
and the other internal weaknesses of the system. 
The disturbances among the urban population, a 
harsh warning to the early Buwayhids, started up 
again; a revolt of Istakhr caused the destruction 
of the old metropolis, and Baghdad was at times in 
the power of the 'ayydrun [q.v.]. If the late isndds 
of the futuwwa are to be believed, Abu Kalidjar was 
one of them. The policy of religious equilibrium 
followed by the Buwayhids in practice did no more 
than foster in this same town and elsewhere the 
struggle between Shi'Is and Sunnis, and the Hanbali 
extremists went so far as to burn the mashhad of 
Husayn and the tombs of the Buwayhids. The later 
Buwayhids, especially in 'Irak, were virtually 
powerless to command obedience from anyone. 

This powerlessness to some extent benefited the 
Caliphate. The Caliph, who sometimes arbitrated in 
dynastic disputes, regained some measure of in- 
fluence, at least in the affairs of 'Irak. Finally the 
Caliph al-Ka'im was able to have once more in his 
service after the lapse of a century a warfr in the 



1356 



BUWAYHIDS o 



person of the intransigent SunnI Ibn al-Muslima. 
Hope of a partial recovery of the Caliphate as an 
institution now became something more than a 
Utopian dream, witness the treatise al-Ahkdm 
al-Sulfdniyya of the great kadi al-Mawardi, closely 
associated with the policies of the Caliph. It was 
even possible, in SunnI circles, to look forward 
to the removal of the heretical protector. True, the 
weakness of the Buwayhids was not sufficient 
to restore to the Caliphate the material power 
needed for the reconstitution of an autonomous 
government; but it was possible to hope at least 
that an orthodox and more respectful guardian 
might be found. 

There was no lack of candidates to succeed the 
Buwayhids, some having only local ambitions, 
others aspiring to the unification of the Muslim East 
to their own advantage. Barely twenty years after 
the fall of the Hamdanids, faced by the Marwanid 
Kurds of Diyar Bakr, it became necessary to recognise 
the power of the 'Ukaylid Arabs in Djazlra. Twenty 
years after the fall of the Hasanwayhid Kurds of 
Djibal, the ascendancy of the c Annazid Kurds had 
to be recognised in the same region ; not to mention 
the various Bedouin tribes who held the c Irak-Arab 
or £ Irak-Syrian borderlands, and the frontiers of the 
almost independent principality of the marshes of 
the Batiha at the gates of Baghdad. 

In Iran, a family related to the Buwayhids and 
for this reason called Kakwayhids or Kakoyids (from 
Kakoyeh; in Daylamite: maternal uncle), had taken 
over first Isfahan and then Hamadhan. But the 
gravest danger came from the east. Here, the 
Ghaznawids had become a power to be reckoned 
with, and Mahmud of Ghazna now openly aspired to 
liberate the Caliphate. Meanwhile, he took advantage 
of the quarrels and imprudences of the Buwayhids 
to send his son Mas'ud to occupy Rayy. His forces 
massacred the Shl'Is and burnt the treasures of their 
library as well as those of the Mu'tazills (420/1027). 
The death of Mahmud, followed by the defeat of 
Mas c ud by the Saldjukids, gave a brief respite to the 
rest of the Buwayhids. But the triumph of the 
Saldjukids enabled them to take up on their own 
account and with greater efficiency the plans for a 
SunnI empire. They had supporters in the entourage 
of the Caliphate. Buwayhid acceptance of Saldjukid 
suzerainty was of no avail. In 1055, Tughril-Beg 
entered Baghdad without striking a blow, and 
imprisoned al-Malik al-Rahlm. Fars, in spite of 
fortifications set up at Shlraz, also fell, being attacked 
from the north and from Kirman. The Buwayhid 
dynasty was at an end. 

Bibliography: Sources : We are fortunate in 
possessing three collections of correspondence and 
official documents: that of Abu Ishak al-Sabi, secre- 
tary to the Caliphs al-MutI< and al-Ta 3 i c , important 
for the study of diplomatic history (some extracts 
edited by Shaklb Arslan, 1898, the greater part 
unpublished) ; that of the wazlr Sahib Ibn 'Abbad 
(the papers relating to the reign of Mu'ayyid al- 
Dawla only have been preserved, ed. c Abd al- 
Wahhab c Azz5m and Shawkl Dayf, Cairo 1947), 
of considerable interest for the study of home 
administration; finally that of 'Abd al- c AzIz b. 
Yiisuf, a high official under 'Adud al-Dawla 
(summary by CI. Cahen in Studi Orientallistici in 
onore . . . G. Levi della Vida) : all three from the 
third quarter of the 4th/ioth century. See also 
Kalkashandi, Sub)}, xiil, 129 & 139. 

Nevertheless, the principal sources are the 
chronicles. The fundamental chronicle is that of 



Jhabit b. Sinan, continued by Hilal al-Sabl until 
447 A.H. All that has been preserved pertaining to 
the Buwayhid period is an extract relating to the 
period from the end of 389 to the beginning of 393, 
but whose general substance seems to have been 
carried over into the later chroniclers who made 
use of it, first the Tadjdrib al- Umam of Miskawayh 
and his successor Abu Shudja' al-Rudhrawari, the 
single manuscript of which links up with the 
fragment of w Hilal al-Sabl (the whole ed. trans. 
Margoliouth" The Eclipse of the Abbasid Caliphate, 
7 vols, i920-2i)^but also, completing and often cor- 
recting the Tadjdrib, the Takmila of Muh. b. 'Abd 
al-Malik al-Hamadhanl (preserved only up to 367) 
(ed. Kan'an in Machriq, 1955-58), the Kdmil of 
Ibn al-Athlr, the Mir'dt al-Zamdn of Sibt Ibn 
al-Djawz! (unpublished for this period, more com- 
plete than the Muntazam of his ancestor Ibn al- 
Djawzl from which it also derives): these last 
three sources only cover the years after 393 A.H. 
An apologia for the early Buwayhids in the form 
of a chronicle was composed (in order to obtain 
his release from prison) by Abu Ishak al-Sabl, 
under the title of al-Kitdb al-Tddji (for 'Adud al- 
Dawla Tadj al-Milla), the beginning of which, 
recently rediscovered in the Yemen, is in the 
possession of Dr. Minovi (it was not accessible to 
me); the work seems to have been known by 
later historiographers. Among the remaining mass 
of Arabic historiographical literature, the following 
deserve special mention: Mas'udi, Murudj, ix, 
1-34 (origins); Yahya of Antioch; Ibn Zafir, al- 
Duwal al-Munkati c a (relations with the Fatimids, 
unpublished but used by Wiistenfeld, Geschichte 
der Fatimiden-Chalifen); Ibn Khallikan (lives of 
Mu'izz, Rukn and 'Imad al-Dawla) ; Ibn Tiktaka 5 
(late, but Shi'I traditions); al-°Utb! (relations 
with the Ghaznawids); and the unduly neglected 
Nestorian History of Marl b. SulaymSn, ed. 
Gismondi, Rome 1903). 

Persian historiography comes into the picture 
with the anonymous Mudjmal al-Tawdrikh (ed. 
Bahmanyar, 1940), linked as regards Buwayhid 
history to al-Hamadhanl, and with the chronicles 
of the border states, the Ghaznawids (Gardlzi, 
Bayhaki), Ziyarids and other southern Caspian 
dynasties (Ibn Isfandiyar). Moreover, several 
important local histories have come .down to us 
in Persian. Examples of these are the Ta'rikh-i 
Kumm of Hasan b. Muh. Kumml, ed. Djalal al-Din 
TihranI, 1934, and the anonymous Ta'rikh-i 
Sistdn, ed. Bahar, 1937. 

to be found in al-Tanukhi's Nishwdr (41, 151, 
157, 169 and also in the Damascus 1930 volume, 
150), and in the autobiography, Sira, by the 
Fatimid missionary al-Mu 3 ayyad al-Shirazi. ed. 
Kamil Husayn, Cairo 1949 (relating to propaganda 
in the time of Abu Kalldjar). The diwdns and 
anthologies of such poets as al-Tha'alibi (Yatima), 
al-BakharzI (Dumya), al-Tawhidl (especially K . al- 
Imtd 1 ) are also useful; there is also some original 
information in the Irskdd of Yakut, ii, 273 f., iii, 
180 f., v, 347 f., vi, 250 f., etc. 

To the three great classics of geography, Istakhri. 
Ibn Hawkal and al-MukaddasI — all three con- 
temporaries of the Buwayhids (the first-mentioned 
was their subject) — may be added Nasir-i Khus- 
raw's Safar-ndma and some information contained 
in Yakut's K. al-Bulddn. (especially iii, 149, art. 
Samlran), and, in Ibn Balkhl's Fdrsndma (ed. 
Nicholson; historical passage, 117-119). 



BUWAYHIDS OR BCYIDS — BUZA'A 



Among juridico-institutional works, al-Mawardi, 
al-Ahkdm al-Sultdniyya, on which see supra, and, 
recently discovered at al-Azhar, the Rusiim Ddr 
al-Khildfa by Hilal al-Sabi or his son Muh., on the 
etiquette of the Caliphate and the rules of the 
chancellery up to the Buwayhid period (which was 
made accessible to me by the courtesy of Prof. 
Duri, Baghdad). The financial history of the era 
can be studied through the treatises on fiscal 
mathematics by Abu '1-Wafa 3 al-Buzdjanl (un- 
published) and the anonymous K. al-Hdwi 
(analysed by CI. Cahen in AIEO, Algiers 1952). 
See also Nizam al-Mulk's Siydsat-ndma (ed. 
Schefer), especially 183. For religious history, see 
the theological works cited above, especially 
those of Ibn Babawayh. 

Epigraphical material is to be found in RCEA 
(v, 1831-32, 1877, 1956; vi, 2079, 2177; vii, 2577), 
to be supplemented by G. Wiet, Soieries Persanes 
(cited below). For numismatic material, incom- 
pletely published, see, in addition to the Catalogue 
of the British Museum by Lane Poole, G. C. Miles, 
A Numismatic History of Rayy, 1938. 

Modern Studies. No detailed comprehensive 
study of the Buwayhids exists and, apart from the 
suggestive sketch of V. Minorsky, La domination 
des Daylamites, Paris 1932, reader^ should consult 
those sections of B. Spuler's Iran in friih-islami- 
scher Zeit, 1952, and of A. Mez's Die Renaissance 
des Islams, devoted to the Buwayhids. More 
specialised aspects are dealt with in Mohsen Azizi, 
La domination arabe et V ipanouissement du 
sentiment national en Iran, 1938; Survey of 
Persian Art, Vols, ii & iii, G. Wiet, Soieries 
Persanes, 1948, 99-178 (much more general than 
the title suggests); A. Duri, Ta'rikh al- c Irdk al- 
Iktisddi fi 'l-Karn al-Rdbi" al-Hidjri, Baghdad 
1948; C. Elgood, A Medical History of Persia, 
1951; Donaldson, The ShiHte Religion, 1933; 
R. Strothmann, Die Zwolfer-SchV-a, 1925 (sum- 
marised in EI\ art. shi'a); H. Laoust's in- 
troduction to La Profession de Foi d'Ibn Batta, 
1958; CI. Caheu, L' evolution de l'iktd c , in Annates 
ESC, 1953; and E. Tyan, Institutions de droit 
public musulman, ii, 1957, Chap. 1 (but cf. Arabica, 
1958, 70 ff.). 

From his unpublished London University thesis 
entitled The Buwayhid dynasty of Baghdad from 
the accession of '■Izz al-dawla to the end, Maf. Kablr 
has abstracted several articles, in particular 
Cultural Development under the Buwayhids of 
Baghdad, in Journal of the Asiatic Society of 



Pakist 



1956. 



Special studies to be noted are H. Bowen, The 
last Buwayhids, in JRAS, 1929; N. Abbott, Two 
Buyid coins (with detailed historical commentary), 
in AJSL, lvi, 1939; CI. Cahen, Notes pour Vhistoire 
de la himaya, in Melanges Massignon, i ; Amedroz, 
Three years of Buwayhid rule, in JRAS, 1901; 
idem, Der Vizier Ibn al-'-Amid, in Der Islam, iii; 
M. H. Al-Yasln, al-Sdhib Ibn '■Abbdd, Baghdad 
1376/1957 (solely from the cultural point of view); 
E. Kuhnel, Die Kunst Persiens unter den Buyiden, 
in ZDMG, 1956; Kurkis 'Awwad, al-Ddr al- 
Mu'-izzi fi Baghdad, in Sumer, x, 1950-2. On 
foreign relations, Muh. Nazim, The life and times 
of Mahmud of Ghazna. 1931; M. Canard, Les 
Hamdanides, i, 195 1; A. Kasrawi, Shahriydrdn-i 
gumndm, Tehran 1335/1928 (on Adharbaydjan 
in the 4th/ioth-5th/uth centuries). 

(Cl. Cahen) 



BUXAR, a town on the south bank of the 
Ganges in the Shahabad district of the Patna 
division of the Indian State of Bihar. Population: 
18,087. (1951 Census). It seems to have been a 
place of great sanctity in ancient times and was 
originally called Vedagarbha 'the womb of the 
Vedas'. Local tradition derives the name of the town 
from a tank originally called aghsar, or effacer of 
sins, which was later changed to baghsar, the tiger 
tank. It was at Buxar, on 23 October 1764, that the 
forces of Mir Kasim, ex-nawab of Bengal, and 
Shudja c al-Dawla, nawab-wazir of Awadh, were 
defeated by Major Hector Munro. This victory 
completed the work of Plassey. Henceforward the 
English were the unchallenged rulers of Bengal. It 
also placed Awadh at the disposal of the English 
Company. 

Bibliography: C. E. A. W. Oldham, The 

Battle of Buxar, in JBORS, Vol. xii, 1-38; A. L. 

Srivastava, Shuja-ud-Daulah, Calcutta 1939, 

Vol. i, Ch. viii. (C. Collin Da vies) 

BCYIDS [see buwayhids]. 

BUYURULDU (^AJ^aj), also Buyrultu, Bu- 
yurdu, etc., order of an Ottoman grand vizier, 
vizier, beglerbegi, defterddr, or other high official to 
a subordinate. The term is derived from the word 
buyuruldl, 'it has been ordered', in which the order 
usually ends and which gradually developed into a 
conventional sign. Buyuruldus are of two main 
types: a) decisions written in the margin (der kendr) 
of an incoming petition or report, often ordering that 
a fermdn (or berdt, etc.) be issued to a certain effect 
(cf. Kdnunndme-i Al-i '■Uthman, TOEM, Suppl., 
1330, 16); b) orders issued independently (re'sen, 
bey ad iizerine). The form of many of the latter was 
modelled on the Sultans' fermdn [q.v.]. Many 
Buyuruldus had a seal and (or) a tughra-hke sub- 
stitute of a signature, the so-called penle [q.v.], 
affixed. Sometimes the word sahh, 'it is correct', 
was added for authentication. Buyuruldus deal 
with various administrative matters, especially 
appointments, grants of fiefs, economic regulations, 
safe passage, etc. Originals are preserved in many 
archives in Turkey and elsewhere. The Basvekdlet 
Arsivi [q.v.] at Istanbul also possesses numerous 
volumes of Buyuruldu copies. Other texts are found 
in inshd works (e.g., library of Turk Tarih Kurumu, 
Ankara, MS no. 70; Bibl. Nat., Paris, suppl. turc, 
MS no. 90) and in the records (sidfill) of Shari'a 

Bibliography: I. H. Uzuncarsili's articles in 
Belleten, iv (1940), 497 ff-, v (1941), 101-57, 289- 
318 (with photos.) and his 0. D. Merkez ve Bahriye 
Teskildti, Ankara 1948, index; L. Fekete, Ein- 
fiihrung in die osman.-turk. Diplomatik, Budapest 
1926, liv-lv; J. Deny, Sommaire des archives 
turques du Caire, le Caire 1930, 147-8; U. Heyd, 
Ottoman Documents on Palestine 1552-1615, Oxford 
1959, index. See further diplomatic. 

(U. Heyd) 
BUZA'A (or Biza'a), a locality in northern 
Syria about forty kilometres east of Aleppo in the 
rich valley of the Nahr al-Dhahab or Wadi Butnan 
[q.v.], which has lost its former prosperity in favour 
of its western suburb Bab al-Buza c a, today the 
small town of al-Bab. The freshness of its gardens 
and its commercial activity attracted the attention 
of Ibn Djubayr who stopped there in 580/1184, on 
the caravan route from Manbidj to Aleppo. Half 
town and half village according to that writer, and 
dominated by a citadel from which its strength was 
derived, it managed to withstand after the establish- 



1358 



BUZA'A — BUZURGM1HK 



merit oi the Crusaders in Syria numerous attacks 
resulting either in the plunder of its territory, or 
even, in 532/1138, its seizure by the Franks, followed 
in the same year by Zankl's reoccupation. An 
inscription there mentions in 567/1171 the name of 
Isma'il, the son of Nur al-Din, before the town fell 
in 571/1175 to Salah al-DIn, and passed after that 
into the hands of the Mongols in 657/1258. It is also 
known that in 570/1174-75 there was a massacre of 
the Isma'ills there who seem to have dominated the 
country formerly, and that in the vicinity the 
mashhad of 'Akil b. Abi Talib was venerated. 

It was during the period of the Mamluks that the 
village of al-Bab, whose name was not separated 
from that of Buza'a in the medieval texts, appears 
to have clearly taken the lead. The importance of 
this place, which was the principal town of the 
24th district of the province of Aleppo, and which 
Yakut formerly described as an exportation point of 
cotton stuffs, is attested by the construction at that 
time of its great mosque (connected with the erection 
of the minarets of Buza'a and Tadhif, dated by 
inscriptions of 756/1355 and 755/i354), and by the 
number of administrative measures which were 
engraved on the gates of this building between 
775/1374 and 858/1454- 

Several epigraphical fragments are preserved as 
well in the neighbouring village of Tadhif. 

Bibliography: R. Dussaud, Topographie 
historique de la Syrie, Paris 1927, esp. 475; M. van 
Berchem, Arabische Inschri/ten, in M. F. von 
Oppenheim, Beitrage zur Assyriologie, vii, Leipzig 
1909. 55-57 (nos. 63-72); J. and D. Sourdel, in 
Annates archiologiques de Syrie, 1953. 96-102; 
M. Canard, Histoire de la dynastie des Hamdanides, 
i, Algiers 1951,219,223-24; CI. Cahen, La Syrie du 
Nord, Paris 1940, index (s.v. Bab-Bouza c a) ; 
M. Gaudefroy-Demombyhes, La Syrie a I'epoque 
des Mamelouks, Paris 1923, 92, 219; G. Le Strange, 
Palestine under the Moslems, London 1890, 406, 
426, 540; Ibn Djubayr, Rihla, ed. De Goeje, 
249-50; Yakut, i, 437, 603, 811; Ibn Shaddad, 
Description d'Alep, ed. Sourdel, 57; Abu 'l-Fida J , 
Takwim, 267; Dimashkl, ed. Mehren, 114, 205. 

(J. Sourdel-Thomine) 
BCZ-ABEH, governor of Fars under the 
Saldjuks. Buz-Abeh was one of the amirs of Mengu- 
bars, the governor of Fars, for whom he administered 
the province of Khuzistan. He was also in the army 
of his superior when the latter, accompanied by 
other amirs, moved against the Saldjuk sultan 
Mas'ud and was made prisoner at the battle of 
Kurshanba (other sources call the scene of the 
encounter Pandj Angusht), later being put to death, 
in 532/1137-38. Since, after their victory, the sultan's 
troops began to plunder the enemy camp, Buz-Abeh 
attacked and dispersed them. Several prominent 
amirs of the sultan's retinue were captured, and the 
sultan himself escaped only with great difficulty, in 
the company of the atabeg Kara Sonkor. Enraged 
at the death of his superior, Buz-Abeh had all of the 
prisoners executed, among whom was the son of 
Kara Sonkor. In order to avenge his son, the atabeg 
undertook in the following year an expedition 
against Fars, where he installed the Saldjuk prince 
Saldjukshah. But scarcely had Kara Sonkor retired 
with his troops when Buz-Abeh, who had in the 
interim withdrawn to the fortress of Safiddiz (Kal'at 
al-baydd'), reappeared and conquered the defenceless 
Saldjukshah (534/1139-40). Sultan Mas'ud was 
forced then to abandon to him the province of Fars. 
Buz-Abeh found an opportunity to confirm his 



by allying himself with two other 
amirs, 'Abbas, ruler of Rayy, and c Abd al-Rahman 
Tughanyarak. The sultan tolerated for some time 
the tutelage of these men, but succeeded in freeing 
himself by having assassinated the two latter amirs. 
Buz-Abeh marched against the sultan, but was 
captured and killed at the battle of Mardj Karatakln, 
a day's march from Hamadhan, in 542/1147. Buz- 
Abeh appears to have left a good administrative 
record at Shiraz. Conforming with the tendency of 
all of the generals educated in the Saldjuk tradition, 
he had erected a madrasa, richly endowed and at 
first Hanafi, though it became later Shafi'I. 

Bibliography: Ibn al-Athir, Kamil, xi, index; 

c Imad al-DIn al-Isfahanl, in Bundarl, ed. Houts- 

ma (Recueil, ii) index; Zahir al-DIn NIshapuri, 

Saldfukndma, ed. Gelaleh Khawar; Ahmad Zarkub, 

Shiraznama, ed. Bahman Kariml, Tehran 1938, 

45-46. (Cl. Cahen) 

al-BCZA&IAnI [see abu' l-wafa']. 

BUZAKHA, a well in Nadjd in the territory of 

Asad or their neighbours Tayyi' (cf. Mufaddaliyat, 

361, n. 3). The forces of the Banu Asad, who, led 

by the false prophet Tulayha, had relapsed from 

Islam on Muhammad's death, were defeated at 

Buzakha in 1 1/632 by Abu Bakr's general Khalid 

b. al-Walld. Khalid's army was reinforced for the 

battle by 1000 men of Tayyp, detached from 

Tulayha's side; Tulayha had the help of c Uyayna 

b. Hisn and 700 men from Fazara of Ghatafan, old 

allies of Asad's. After fierce fighting, 'Uyayna saw 

that Tulayha's alleged prophetic powers were in 

practice proving useless against the Muslims, and 

fled the field. Tulayha had to flee to Syria; Asad 

submitted to Khalid; and neighbouring tribes like 

'Amir, who had been awaiting the outcome, now 

rallied to Islam. 

Bibliography: Yakut, i, 601-2; Ibn Sa c d, III, 
», 36-7; Tabari, i, 1879, 1886-91; Ibn al-Athir, ii, 
259-64; al-Baladhurl, 95-97; Wellhausen, Skizzen, 
vi, 9-12; Caetani, Annali, ii, 604 ft.; Muir, 
Caliphate', Edinburgh 1915, 19-23. 

(C. E. Bosworth) 
BUZURG b. SHAHRIYAR, a Persian ships'- 
captain (ndkhudd) of Ram-Hurmuz of the first half 
of the 4th/ioth century and author of the Kitdb 
'Aajd'ib al-Hind (Marvels of India). This is a col- 
lection in Arabic of 134 stories and anecdotes 
gathered by the author from ships'-captains, pilots, 
traders and other seafaring men who used to sail 
the Indian Ocean and liked to spin a yam about 
their adventures in East Africa, the Indian Archi- 
pelago and China. Incidentally they also give some 
information about these countries and the customs 
of their inhabitants. Sometimes the year of the event 
referred to is given, the latest being 342/953. The 
language of the book shows some Middle-Arabic 
traits (see 'arabiyya, above, 570b). 

Bibliography: The Arabic text, extant only 

in the Istanbul MS. Aya Sofya 3306, was edited 

by P. A. van der Lith together with a French 

translation by M. Devic, Leiden 1883-6. A new 

translation in French by J. Sauvaget is given in 

his Memorial, i, Damascus 1954, 188-300; Russian 

translation by R. I. Ehrlich, Moscow 1959. See 

also Brockelmann S I, 409. (J. W. FOck) 

BUZURGMIHR, Iranian personal name (arabi- 

cised form Buzurdjmihr) which according to a 

tradition transmitted by Iranian and Arab writers, 

was given to a man endowed with every ability and 

virtue who was the minister of Khusraw I Anusha- 



BUZURGM1HR - 

rawan (6th century A.D.) . The earliest authorities who 
were acquainted with the Pahlawl Khvadhdvndmd eh 
("Book of Sovereigns"), written towards the end of 
the Sasanid period (7th century), the source of the 
oldest accounts of pre-Islamic Iranian history 
penned by Arab writers (al-Tabari, Ibn Kutayba), 
have no reference to Buzurgmihr. It is only in later 
works that he becomes the hero of anecdotes deriving 
from popular tradition (in Tha'Slabl's "History of 
the Persian Kings", a section of the Ghurar al-Siyar 
— vide EI 1 , iv, 770 col. a, and, more freely than one 
would expect, in Firdawsi's "Book of Kings", the 
Shdh-ndma), and sometimes the originator of 
numerous wise precepts, survivals from the collec- 
tions (andarz) of the Sasanid period, preserved in 
some minor post-Sasanid Pahlawl works (notably 
the Pandndmdgh-e V uzur ghmihr-e Bohhtaghdn, "the 
Book of precepts of Buzurgmihr son of Bokhtagh"). 
These precepts were translated into Arabic and 
Persian by several authors: al-Mas'Odl, Firdawsi (in 
whose poem Buzurgmihr presents the king with a 
book of wisdom, the fruit of their conversations, 
which in reality derived from the Pandndmdgh) , 
Nizam al-Mulk, and others. There are three anecdotes 
concerning Buzurgmihr which are significant because 
of their elements of popular origin: I — the King of 
Persia dreams that, as he is drinking, a pig puts his 
snout in the cup. No one can interpret this until the 
young Buzurgmihr informs the king that one of his 
wives is bestowing her favours on another and that, 
in order to be certain, the women must be summoned 
to appear naked: among them is discovered a youth 
disguised as a woman (in addition to the popular 
theme of the oneiromancy practised by an adolescent, 
one recalls a similar review of women in a tale 
from ancient Egypt). II — Buzurgmihr discovers the 
seciet of the game of chess, sent as a challenge by 
the King of India to the King of Persia; he then 
invents the game of tric-trac, the secret of which the 
latter and his counsellors do not succeed in discover- 
ing (the source of this is a small Pahlawl work of a 
popular type, the "Story of the Game of Chess", 
Mddhighdn-e (atrang). Ill — Buzurghmihr, in disgrace 
and in prison, is recalled when the Byzantine 
Emperor refuses to pay tribute to the Persian 
sovereign unless he guesses the contents of a sealed 
coffer which he has sent him; the king summons 
Buzurgmihr, who resolves the enigma and is rein- 
stated in royal favour (to the preceding theme is 
joined that of the sage liberated and recompensed 
for his wisdom: Noldeke recognised the similarity of 
this episode with another in the history of the sage 
Ahikar). These anecdotes put Buzurgmihr in direct 
contact with popular tradition, but is he a historical 
or a legendary figure? A. Christensen, in a note- 
worthy article, has rightly noted that, apart from the 
references to Buzurgmihr, there are others relating 
to the sentence of death passed by Hormizd, the son 
and successor of Anusharawan, on three of the 
latter's counsellors, one of whom bore the name of 
Burzroihr (in Tha'alibi), Burzmihr, then Simah 
Burzen — a hypocoristic of Burzmihr (in Firdawsi). 
In the name of Burzoe, the famous physician, the 
supposed author of the Pahlawl adaptation of 
Kaltia wa Dimna who was a contemporary of 
Anusharawan, Justi {Iran Namenbuch, 74) and 
Christensen see the same root burz ("high") and a 



KH 1359 

hypocoristic ending (as in Burzen): as names with 
the root burz-, peculiar to the Sasanid period, are 
very rare, Burzmihr ("[protected by] the High 
Mithra") is semantically related to Buzurgmihr 
("[protected by] the Great Mithra"); further it is 
enough to write both words in the Arabic script in 
order to see how easily they can be confused. Finally, 
certain passages in the preface to the Kalila, tradi- 
tionally attributed to Burzoe and known through the 
Arabic translation of Ibn al-Mukaffa c , give bio- 
graphical details which the authors also attribute 
to Buzurgmihr or divide them between both per- 
sonalities. To sum up, Inn in the rfign of Anushar- 
awan was influenced by Indian civilisation, thanks 
to certain intellectuals, of whom Burzoe was one, 
and who was made famous by his Pahlawi adaptation 
of the Pancatantra; the introduction of chess in 
Iran was attributed to him, a number of precepts and 
maxims, and later certain characteristics of sagacity 
and divination which already existed in popular 
tradition; then a false reading of his name as tran- 
scribed in Arabic led to the creation of a double 
personality. 

Bibliography: A. Christensen, La Ugende du 
sage Buzurjmihr, in Acta Orientalia, 1930, iii/i, 
81-128 (a basic and detailed study, with an 
analysis of and extracts from the sources) ; idem, 
Iran sous les Sassanides (particularly 57-8, and 
index, s.vv. Vuzurgmihr, Burzoe) ; on the gafar- 
ndma, vide the text in Ch. Schefer, Chrest. persane, 
i, 17 and Christensen's trans, in La Ugende..., 
121; Grundriss der Iran. Philologie, ii, 346-7. 

(H. Mass£) 
BUZURG-UMMlD, Kiya, second ddH (1124- 
1138) at Alamut [q.v.] of the Nizari Isma'ilis. He was 
evidently related by marriage to the ruling families 
of Mazandaran. From 495-518/1102-1124 he was 
Isma'Ili governor of Lummasar, a stronghold in the 
Rudbar of Alamut. He with three other chiefs had 
captured it for Hasan-i Sabbah when its holders had 
broken their agreement with the Isma'llis and had 
planned to call in the Saldjuk amir, Nushtagin 
Shirgir. Using local forced labour, he rebuilt it, 
equipping it with water and fine gardens. There he 
successfully resisted the last and gravest attack on 
the Isma'ilis by Muhammad Tapar's troops under 
Shirgir in 5"/i"7. In 518/1124 Hasan-i Sabbah. on 
his deathbed appointed him his successor as head 
ddH of the sect, with three associates. Under his rule 
the Isma'ill state retained its independence against 
renewed attacks [see alamOt (II) The Dynasty] 
several new strongholds were established, including 
Maymundiz in 520/1126. In 526/1131 he defeated and 
killed a Zaydi imam, Abu Hashim, who had arisen 
in Daylaman and had followers as far as Khurasan. 
Buzurg-ummid died in 532/1138, leaving the 
position of ddH to his son Muhammad. He was 
buried next to Hasan-i Sabbah, where his tomb was 
piously visited. His descendants formed the leading 
family in Alamut. 

Bibliography: Rashld al-DIn, Qiami 1 al- 
Tawdrikh, section on Nizaris; Djuwaynl, iii, 
208 ff.; and further in M. G. S. Hodgson, The 
Order of Assassins, The Hague 1955, index. 

(M. G. S. Hodgson) 
BYZANTINES [see rumJ. 
B2EDUKH [see cerkes].